Chapter 56

Anzerath

Beatrice Ironborn was the current Guildmaster of the Delver's Guild, a rank roughly equivalent to a Duke, but often treated as slightly higher, as Guildmasters tended to be far more active and personally capable than mere Dukes were.

Cecilia Ironborn was a renowned scholar, whose name was on nearly a hundred research papers, and more than a few full-on books. She'd been the main editor of the most recent editions of the Delver's Guild's standard training textbooks.

Diana Ironborn was a landed aristocrat in her own right, these days, developing a barren stretch of land in the interior, along a minor river, into rich, productive farmland to feed the Guild's ever-growing hunger for magic recharge potions to power its Dungeon Gates.

And Anzerath Ironborn, the runt of the litter, awakened just five years ago, was best known for what she hadn't accomplished.

Gianna Ironborn had reached Level 15 while delving with her grown, adult daughters, and to reward this special accomplishment, Gianna Ironborn, whose first two Familiar slots had contained a bunnygirl and a cowgirl for as long as she'd had them, had been rewarded with one last Familiar, a legendary Familiar: a dragongirl.

As a dragongirl, Anzerath cut a very striking figure, with blue scales polished to a dull sheen growing thick at her clawed hands and taloned feet, continuing to the elbow or knee, and then thinning out to an exterior ridge as they tracked towards the shoulder and hip. From her back sprouted a pair of big, leathery wings, with deep blue bones and a paler blue for the membrane. And from the top of her head sprouted a pair of blue horns, swept back along the general contour of her skull. Between all the conspicuously draconic parts, however, Anzerath was a quite lovely-looking omega, with a nice flare to her hips, a generous swell to her breasts, and a face that could enamor any red-blooded young alpha in a heartbeat, all on a frame that barely cleared five feet tall if you didn't count the horns.

Unfortunately for all involved, Anzerath awakened as the equivalent of an eighteen year old, and Gianna Ironborn was a seventy eight year old beta at the time.

So, Anzerath would not be giving Gianna children like her other two Familiars had, as    Anzerath was old enough to be Gianna's granddaughter. Instead, Anzerath joined the family as a younger sister to three women in their forties and fifties, who she was expected to somehow live up to.

The path was pretty straightforward, though: Anzerath was a dragongirl, a breed of monstergirl that had zero indigenous populations in the world. If Anzerath wanted to create a lasting legacy of her own, all she had to do was use her own genetics to breed more dragongirls, and create a stable breeding population of them in Dorn, so that Dorn's delvers could be issued dragongirl familiars to create more Sorcerers with an innate ability to fly.

There was a slight problem with this plan:

Anzerath was, uncommon for a dungeon-spawned monstergirl, an omega rather than a beta. She couldn't simply pop a Rancher Class Unlock, buy a flock of bunnygirls, plow them, and wait for one of them to make more dragongirls. She'd have to bear that pregnancy herself, for a full month each time, with only a one in thirty two chance of succeeding at making a kobold- because of course, breeding legendary monstergirls simply had to be an ordeal, didn't it?

So. Anzerath wouldn't do it. Not now, anyway. She would live as long as an elf, she had plenty of time to do something interesting, which might even be that. Right now, she was more interested in putting her Level 14 intellect to work on studying everything and anything that caught her attention.

Cecilia, at least, was understanding of her plight. Maybe Beatrix would be, too, but she was busy running the Guild, and along those same lines, Diana lived out in the middle of nowhere, so Anzerath didn't exactly see her all that often, either.

So, when Cecilia called Anzerath up and said she wanted to talk about something... well, Anzerath didn't have anything better to do.

"What's up?" Anzerath asked, quirking an eyebrow as she sat on the couch opposite from Cecilia.

"I've got a new friend I'd like you to meet, sometime," Cecilia said. "First, though, I want to ask how you're doing."

"Eh," Anzerath said, shrugging. "Doing alright. Made some contributions to the framework that lets people post pictures and text in someone else's book. Small tweaks that fix a few edge cases, but... well, all the low-hanging fruit are gone."

"Fair enough," Cecilia said.

"How about you?" Anzerath asked.

"Well, I started getting laid again, recently," Cecilia said. "That's actually the friend I'd like you to meet, although it's not because I'm fucking her. It's because I think she can help solve the problem of breeding more dragongirls."

"So you want me to meet her so I can be fucking her too?" Anzerath asked.

"No, no, you getting knocked up is logistically impractical for making more dragongirls," Cecilia said, shaking her head.

"Such a way with words you have."

"And you talk like me too sometimes, bitch," Cecilia said affectionately. "Also, you've mentioned before that you don't want to get knocked up, and I do pay attention to what you tell me."

"Fair enough," Anzerath said. "Well, what's she got? Some theoretical loot exploit that requires me to delve a specialty Level 6 Dungeon Gate with a pair of two Level 3s I'm artificially preventing from leveling up, and I have to do that three hundred times to have a reasonable chance of spawning a new dragongirl?"

"Nope," Cecilia said. "Internal alchemy that'll let you grow a cock."

Anzerath blinked.

"...Huh," Anzerath said quietly. "That's... huh. Well. Alright then. I'm guessing that, once I've got a cock of my own, she's going to have me knock up her flock of bunnygirls until we eventually have more dragongirls?"

"Might be, might not be," Cecilia said. "She's a damn good Alchemist, so maybe there's something else she's planning. But, well, plowing a bunch of bunnygirls would work, eventually."

"Yeah, true, but... Iunno," Anzerath said. "Honestly, I don't think I do want a dick. The idea of sowing my seed in a bunch of bunnygirls... It just doesn't do anything for me. I mean, I could probably tolerate it, but... it'd be because I've got my eyes on the prize, not because I've got bunny fever."

"Where did I go wrong?" Cecilia pondered aloud.

"Fuck you," Anzerath said without any heat, rolling her eyes. "So... Roxy, huh?"

"When do you wanna meet her?"

"When is she available?"

"...Classy," Anzerath said, walking into Roxy's workshop at the Purpleheart Collective. At Roxy's feet, wearing a collar and a skintight outfit that was somehow lewder than actual nudity, was a smug-looking foxgirl beta exemplar, who was currently receiving headpats from Master.

"Hey, this was my idea," the foxgirl protested. "If you're gonna accuse Roxy of being a domineering pervert, you have to do it over something that's actually her fault."

Roxy sighed. She was a tall, dark-haired, big-titted alpha, who dressed in the traditional blue wizard's robe. "Hi, I'm Roxy, and this is Lisa, my absolute brat of a Familiar, who's decided that she is my pet in the specific sense that I'm not allowed to get mad at her when she's annoying on purpose. You must be Anzerath, and it's a pleasure to meet you. Cecilia has told me... honestly, nothing about you beyond the fact you're a dragongirl omega they found in a dungeon, so pardon me if I don't seem too familiar with you."

Anzerath snorted. She loved Cecilia, and the feeling was mutual, but good god she had a one-track mind sometimes.

"She told me you're an Alchemist who can make potions that make people grow dicks," Anzerath said.

"That's... part of the truth, yes," Roxy said. "I take it she also told you that I'd like your help in making more dragongirls?"

"She did, yeah," Anzerath said. "She said you'd probably have some complex, alchemical thing that could somehow do it without me doing any breeding, but... well, I'm guessing you just want me to knock up a herd of bunnygirls for you."

"She's actually right about the alchemy stuff," Roxy said. "I mean, I do have a herd of bunnygirls you can knock up if you want, but it's strictly optional."

"Huh," Anzerath said. She supposed Cecilia did know what she was talking about with this Roxy character. "Well... can you tell me what that method is?"

"Not unless you sign an enchanted NDA," Roxy said. "I am... not prepared for the kind of attention I'd get if it came out that I'd found a way to do what I can do."

"Well, I'd be getting a lot of attention if it came out there was a breeding population of dragongirls now," Anzerath said. "What makes you think you'd be the center of attention there?"

Roxy glanced down, for barely a moment, and Anzerath followed her gaze to Lisa, an... unusually sexy foxgirl... who was notably bratty.

"Ah," Anzerath said quietly. "That's... hrm. Okay, I'm seriously considering it, now, but... I need some time to think it over, okay? I'll probably have to come back some other day."

"Take your time," Roxy said, nodding. "And take care of yourself."

Gianna Ironborn hummed quietly as she considered Anzerath's story.

"So, what should I do?" Anzerath asked.

Gianna nodded slowly.

"Does your sister know what it is?" Gianna asked.

"I... think so?" Anzerath hazarded.

"And... your sister trusts this woman?"

"Yeah, but... Cecilia's pretty trusting, isn't she?"

"You mean she's a slut," Gianna drawled. "Which, bless my girl's heart, she is, proud and true. But sex is sex, and research is research, and Cici doesn't think any idiot can be trusted to know how to research. If she believes in this Roxy woman's work, then you can sign your name on it and take it to the bank."

"I... suppose so," Anzerath said, sighing.

"And, being completely honest with you..." Gianna said, before pulling out a white marble and pressing it into Anzerath's hand. "...I think you should get Roxy to take you as her familiar, and stop being mine."

"Gianna, I can't-"

"It doesn't have to be Roxy, but it should be someone, and soon," Gianna said firmly. "I'm eighty three years old, Anzerath. I might still be stronger than most delvers around your age, but... every morning I wake up is a surprise. A pleasant surprise, and I hope I keep having them, but... My sweet little girl, your heart has never known not having this kind of bond. I've seen Familiars outlive their masters, and it always destroys them. Find someone. Find someone who'll live longer than a few more months, and who you wouldn't hate spending that time with. If that's Roxy, then that's Roxy. If it isn't, then it isn't. Just... find someone to help you through it, when my time is up."

"...I will. Thank you."

"Besides," Gianna said, grinning. "Your sister's taste is more refined than you think. Especially if Roxy can already handle one legendary monstergirl. What's another one?"

Anzerath very carefully did not say that she thought Roxy was kinda hot, and instead simply got up and left the room.