Chapter 416 – Healing Grandma

"How?" I ask. "That doesn't make sense. How could they not know their Mother? I can feel my Mommy right now. My third body can tell Mommy even amongst all the eggs!"

"How strong was that feeling when she had no affinity?" the maid asks. "Not as strong. Of course, you could still feel her when she was nearby, and she could feel her grandkids."

"You know a lot about my Mother," I say.

"Of course," the maid says. "How could I not know a lot about the first royal child to be born outside of this realm in thousands of years? We know that she suddenly got a class after visiting a Goddess. Not that the false Queens knew all those details. They weren't worth anything. I had to tarnish the Queen's mana and then do a ritual with our Goddess to let them bypass the blood connection."

"I'm not going to get hurt?" the royal dragon asks.

"No, absolutely not," I say. "I wish to heal you, and I do need someone to sit on the throne. Or are you the Queen instead of me now?"

"You are the Queen," the maid says. "We can work out any arrangement you wish for after this. The old Queen is strong; she'll make it through this. I promise. Our Goddess was prepared to help her through this. I've wondered if she talked to the Goddess of the Future about the plan. I was certain I would lose my head when they crowned Phollo. I was a silly young girl back then, helping the Queen betray the woman I was supposed to serve. But I'm glad I did it."

"Yes," I say. "I'm getting ahead of myself. I just never thought I would meet anyone on my father's side, and now I'm about to heal her, and she was the Queen. She's even been treated worse than I was. I'm sorry. I need to heal you." Then I move to join my grandmother in bed. I've got so much to do to heal her. How am I going to fix her mana? Did the ritual hurt her soul? That had to be part of what kept her safe.

I just have to get her feeling better. But I wish I could take away her pain!

"I see why you wished I were here," Nanoka says. "Elo, I'm sorry to see you in this state. Let Alzi help you. She'll handle you with care. Here, try this, Alzi." She hands me a little vial of a blue liquid.

Is she trying to finish the job?!

"I want to leave this room first," Elo says. "I can't stand it. I don't trust you. I-"

"There is a room I'm thinking about," Nanoka says. "If it is fine with you, Elo."

"Anywhere but here," Elo says.

In the usual fashion, I'm suddenly standing in a new room. One much grander than the upscaled maid's room. There's still plenty of the sharp black rock jutting out everywhere, and a small pile of gold coins sits in the corner like some sort of chair. It has to be a chair. I don't believe it could be anything else. More gold lines the bed, but the mattress looks like a normal one. I hope it is; Elo is lying in it, so she'd better be comfortable.

The next question is how Nanoka knew about this room but not Love's temple.

"I know what question you're about to ask," Nanoka says. "Sometimes you need to get a bit intimate when making deals, and the dance floors just don't work for that. So, yes, I know where a number of royal bedrooms are in the castles, but I don't know much about their cities."

"What does this liquid do?" I ask. We can learn about her exploits another time.

"Just puts her to sleep," Nanoka says. "I'm not about to hurt her after you said you wish to help her. It'll let you heal her without all the pain."

"Oh, that's much better," I say. "How did you know I thought you were trying to kill her?"

"You paused for a moment, so there must have been something going on in your brain. I'm not about to kill all the old Queens just so that I'm the only one in your harem or anything. Now, heal your grandmother. I would like some familiar company."

I crawl onto the bed and offer Elo the vial, but her arms are too weak to take it from me. Her mouth opens a bit, so I pour it in and wait a few seconds. It doesn't take long for her eyes to close and her breathing to steady out. I can't do anything for her weak limbs, making her the second woman who now has that problem, but she'll look like new.

Maybe Dragon has a ritual to help them.

But now I have the other familiar feeling to deal with. I wonder if he's the one who truly kept the assholes from finding out about their Mother. That has to be the other thing this maid wants to show me. So I'll take my time with grandma. I can check if she wants some lunch or wants to meet some of her great-grandchildren.

I don't need to deal with that man after what he did to Mommy. Some of the men I've met have been nice. He at least didn't have to go that far. He must have been part of them hurting Grandma as well.

Why have the dragons done so much to hurt me? I wasn't even here, and yet they've done so many things to me. Zarzi is nice, at least.

"She's looking a lot better," Nanoka says. "She's a beautiful woman. It's sad to see her so disfigured."

"Nothing to say about her sister?" I ask, moving around to get more comfortable next to the old royal dragon.

"She did the right thing," Nanoka says. "Both of them did. Elo kept her sister in line instead of letting her lover run wild. It's a bit in your blood to love family, it seems. This is the natural outcome for the pair. Her sister would've died a few years ago, naturally, at this point, and I'm not going to say anything bad about a woman being willing to die for someone she loves. It wasn't just the Queen who was in the bed when I was last here. Those two probably thought they were a good role model for how Phrogni should've handled her love. Instead, Phrogni thought she should let her lover be free. We'll need to be more direct with our lessons. You have too many kids to hope they naturally learn to love one another."

"Maybe I'll get more bodies," I sigh. "Is that too stupid to hope for?"

"Haha, yes," Geta says. "The number of women who have been given extra bodies can be counted on an arm that has lost its hand. Don't count on too many more bodies unless the Goddess of Power has a soft spot for you."

"I think I can get her on my side," I say. "I'm pretty good at getting Goddesses to like me if they aren't just pure evil. Anyway, I have another idea. Could there be a ritual for fixing their muscles? Elo's and Zarzi's muscles."

"You can ask for anything," Geta says. "Just don't expect Death to do anything for you."

"Don't go around giving out that advice," Nanoka says. "Most people shouldn't be going around asking the Goddesses for random things. Death or otherwise."

"I gave it to Alzi, not you. But, yes, others should be careful about asking for things. But we do have a number of Champions that can ask their Goddess for strange things, like you."

"Were you waiting for a chance to say that? I'm not about to start asking her for strange things. Alzi can do that with the Goddesses that like her, but I'm not going to get away with that kind of thing with my patron."

"Why won't your goddess let you ask for silly things?" I ask.

"Because she made me a Champion for a different reason," Nanoka says. "I don't have much I can offer the Goddess, and she doesn't like giving things out. Best case, she just tricks me into thinking she's going to help."

"She wants something from me," I say.

"Yes, she wants you to love me," Nanoka says. "I was hoping to do that in a more private place than with a passed-out, abused Queen and a Valkyrie of Death standing here, but here we are. What more she wants beyond that, I don't know. Probably just you not hating all of her people."

Well, that's another question to ask some Goddesses. I wonder if I can visit three Goddesses at once with my three bodies. One to ask for more bodies from power, another to deal with Dragon, and my question about fixing some muscles, and the last to ask Fertility to figure out what Kitsune wants from me. I've already promised her plenty of kids for her help. What else does she want?

Is she going to try to have others become a Goddess with me? That has to be it!

"You figured something out," Nanoka says.

"Probably not," I say. "I doubt I'm right about things. There's no need to worry about it."

"You're smarter than you think," Geta says. "But Elo is looking a lot better."

"Yes," I say. "I don't know what she did to mess with her face so much. That took way more healing than it should've."

"You also have to worry about her soul and mana," Geta says. "That is probably what took all your mana. But you can't fix it with mana. Not anytime soon, at least."

"Another thing to ask a Goddess about. Unless you have a way?" I ask. "Because I do have a terrible idea of how to do that, and you know I only have one solution to my problems." I give her a kiss and, well, this looks a lot like a certain nearly-dead Kitsune I know. Maybe I should get the official way of treating her ailments.

"I don't know how to fix her," Geta says. "You'll have to ask someone else. Maybe with your Skills, a kid or two will fix the issue?"

I doubt Tanatsu would enjoy me getting her lover pregnant after ignoring her for so long, which is a little unfortunate. I would love to help that pair start expanding their family. I need to get to that dryad as well, and then Annoris. Why does my list never shrink? I've got more and more to do, despite solving some of my problems.

"I guess I should wait," I say. "I'm sure she wants a break from all of that. Maid, who is the other one you want me to see?"

"Who said it was a person?" the maid asks. "It is, but that confirms that there isn't another royal male running around. Are you ready to see him?"

"No," I say. "But Elo could use some sleep right now. Better to get this over with and move on."

"He won't want to move on," the maid says. "He did his best to protect you."

"How much did he honestly do?" I ask.

"They could've killed you anytime they wanted to while you were in your village, my Queen. He had to go through a lot of torture from asking them to spare you. Sometimes, I wonder why they let you grow up. I'm guessing Phrogni killed most of the spies that were sent to kill or kidnap you due to his pleas. Though it also could've been the Goddess of Sex protecting you. I think we both know the Goddess of Fertility didn't do much to protect you during that time."

"Would Sex have had the power?"

"If she cheated a bit, yes, my Queen."

"The only ones willing to cheat want to destroy me."

"If she did it, it helped you, my Queen."

"She couldn't have done it that easily," Geta says. "Phrogni was probably the one who saved you and not Sex. A lot of Goddesses were looking at you and wouldn't let Sex misbehave. Why do you think so many like getting near you?"

"Well, Phrogni's dead, and I don't care to ask Sex about anything. I'll check on him and leave it as a mystery. I guess I can be a bit nicer to him."