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Getting to the lake had been as easy as a morning jog. But Isoko was kinda worried about Mark, and in the usual sort of way. Mark was directly inside the edge of a shit storm of global proportions, and he was getting maneuvered against and with by tens of different forces, Isoko had no fucking clue exactly who, or how many people were in play, or their allegiances or goals. At least the guy was doing okay on the battlefield.

Right now, Mark had all of 450 grams of adamantium to his name, according to what he had told Isoko this morning, and he was flying around just fine, while a horde of vine monsters tangled after him. With black veins pulsing from below his armor plates, into the air, and into the plants covering the ground like they were tangled mats, Mark flowed across the battlefield, under the bright sun. The vines writhed at him, trying to reach for him, to grab and constrict, to hold tight and never let go.

Isoko watched as a particularly large specimen, looking like a hovercar-sized mound of writhing snakes, whipped at Mark as he passed by, and Mark clipped off the longest, most thorn-covered vines that came for him. The monster didn't like that. It rumbled and writhed, and then it fell into the tangled chase with all the other hollow gourds. Isoko and Barba's trip through the vine field was completely different from Mark's.

Isoko walked calmly over barely-moving green vines while wearing a giant backpack that was half-filled with head-sized gourds. They had only been at this gathering job for 20 minutes. According to Barba, the vines would normally try to eat both of them, since they were here among them, but Mark was doing a very good job of drawing attention. Monster plants loved a good Union-user, after all. Barba walked a little ahead of Isoko, softly stepping across the vines, making sure not to step on the largest of vines.

Those were the main vines that connected the mobile plant to its main root systems underground. Stepping on those would draw their attention no matter how well Mark gripped their focus. Isoko watched as Barba stuck her stick into the side of a mound, lifted it up, and discovered a hollow, instead of a hollow gourd. With a tsk, Barba pulled her stick back and the vines writhed back into a mound shape.

Barba looked across the field, then she looked at Mark, then she turned left, away from Mark, her vector pointed toward a mound that they hadn't gotten to yet. Or maybe they had. It was hard to tell, with how much these things moved around. Barba walked toward the next mound, avoiding the thick vines on the ground as she spoke conversationally, "So I didn't know how to tell him, but… I hope he kicks Tartu's ass."

Isoko had been politely waiting for Barba or Julie Sacredcut to show who they were, and while Julie had showed herself a little, Barba was just getting started.

Isoko was pretty sure the Sacredcuts were dragon cultists and that there was some political reasoning behind Tartu's attack, and that Tartu and Grand Mage Solari might be anti-cultists, but there were at least ten other things she didn't know about what was happening, from Aurora's tax on HVP winnings, to whatever was going on with the Grand Mage's unwillingness to speak to Mark… But Isoko knew that if she was quiet and receptive, then the answers would come to her.

Isoko had been a rather violent person back at Citadel Freyala, back when she was trying to come to terms with her Platinum Body. That internal anger had caused her to taunt Mark, looking for a real fight, to test her capabilities and to see how shitty Platinum Body was… But Isoko was mostly over her issues with Platinum Body. She had a PL at 75 across the board, and that was incredibly useful… But not too useful in navigating these political mires.

Back when Grandma was younger, even the young 'Wandering Sage' would have ripped up buildings and shook Tartu across the sky if he had attacked her like that. Nowadays Grandma just sent rain onto an enemy's life if they ticked her off too much. A lot of rain didn't do much at first, but after a few days the floods started, and then the landslides came, and if she was feeling particularly vicious, lightning would fall just where she wanted it to fall, too.

Grandma had never killed anyone —that Isoko knew about— but she had certainly caused billions of goldleaf in property damage. Platinum Princess needed to play the game smarter than Wandering Sage, though. Gods knew that Mark wasn't playing the game much at all. Isoko didn't blame him for that; not yet, anyway. She liked that he was such a good guy. Too good to cut Tartu's feet off, for sure. Isoko said, "Got any ideas about how to incapacitate Tartu for 2 days?" Barba snorted.

"I heard about that from Julie…" She approached the mound of vines, stuck her stick into the mound, lifted it up, and uncovered a large gourd, bright red under the writhing green vines. The vines flinched at being exposed, but that was all they did. Barba was happy.

"Ah ha! That's a good one." Barba flexed her empty hand and blue sparkles covered her skin. With a practice reach, and after checking her footing, she moved in and grabbed for the gourd. Blue sparkles soaked into the red fruit, illuminating the gourd and the dark under the vines. The gourd popped off and rolled into her hand, like a magnet slapping against metal. The vines did not react at all, which was only possible because of Barba's Harvester spellwork.

After checking her surroundings once again, Barba pulled back and extracted the rod holding up the mound. The mound of vines fell back to the ground and went flat, while Barba stepped back and Isoko turned a little, exposing her backpack. Barba put the gourd with the rest, saying, "I don't know about incapacitating anyone for 2 days. It's just… beyond the Program, isn't it? That sort of thing was too vicious."" Shavallian costs way too much or we'd just use that. But, if you have a contact, we might do that.

Can any of your contacts brew it?" Barba shook her head.

"Nope. That's alchemy. We're artificers." She asked, "Is Aurora not doing anything? She basically stole Mark's weaponry. All of us thought she'd give it back, but… She told everyone that she wasn't giving it back at all." She looked at Mark.

"But he got more adamantium?" Isoko decided to go ahead and spread the preferred rumor that Mark had talked about a few times already.

"More just appears sometimes. You know Mark was summoned because of that talzarki magic, right? We think it works the other way, too." Barba's eyes were wide.

"… Oh."" Don't ask me why dragons are how they are, or for what purposes. Who really knows these things, ya know?" Barba was quiet. Then she said, "Some people know a lot about dragons, they just don't like to advertise it because dragons are the enemy." … Was she a cultist? Isoko had never met one of those… and known about it, anyway. Barba said nothing for several more gourd grabs, and Isoko didn't pressure her at all. Soon, Isoko's backpack was quite full.

Mark was still racing away from plants and he seemed to be having fun with that, which was great for him but still made Isoko feel some kinda way. Isoko tried not to be too jealous. She was happier to have her family. Deals with archmages and demons were bad news, and Mark had learned that in the hardest of ways— Barba spoke suddenly, "The Valens were the biggest dragon cultists around for the longest time."" They were the mortal family of Gedahowla the Bright, right?

The Dragon God Emperor of Aluatha, back before her coven killed her in the Reveal." Barba frowned a little.

"That's… The Aluathas are the Imperial Family. The Valens are a branch…" Softer, Barba said, "There are other branch families out there that know a lot about dragons." Isoko came right out and asked, "The Sacredcuts?" Barba stilled. Then she said, "I think we have enough gourds." She turned toward Mark, still flying out there in the distance, still getting chased by vine plants that tumbled all over each other to get closer to him. Barba watched for a moment, and then she turned and faced Isoko, her vector focused.

Barba asked, "Are you or Sally trying to be his wife?" … What? Isoko choked on nothing at all, her laughter colliding with her disbelief. Then she laughed once, and said, "I tried! He's cute, yeah?" Barba's face turned a little red. She did not answer the question. - - - - It felt great to 'fly' again, even if Mark was only a few meters off of the ground and he had been actively evading vine gourds for the last hour. Killing the gourds was out of the question. They were a farmed monster.

And so, Mark flew in a circle around the lake while beating his heart in a Union of sustenance and deprivation, and breathing resilience and weakness. He spread the sustenance around, pulling from the world and giving to the gourds, and they gave chase. Monster plants loved to eat healers that got too close. Healers were a great source of nourishment, after all, what with that regenerating flesh and such, and some people, like Mark, could heal and sustain the plants directly.

It was the first time Mark had ever purposefully healed monster plants. This was a nice experience. Every single gourd in the nearest 200 meters was focused on Mark, exclusively, their tendrils slapping toward him, their vectors pointed his way in a tumult of desire to consume. If he slowed down at all, these things would slap their thorn-covered tendrils on him and drag him down to bleed him dry, trying to take for themselves what they didn't realize they couldn't have.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. They were just plants, though, so Mark forgave them for not understanding that they shouldn't kill the golden goose… And yet, from the stories Mark had heard, maybe they wouldn't try to kill him. Maybe they would just trap him?

Hard to know without finding out directly, and Mark didn't want to— Up ahead, in the direction he was going, the tide of vines shifted and began to bunch up, preparing to leap at him as he came their way. Mark had discovered that the bigger monsters could clear a good 7-meter hop, and reach further with their vines, but Mark saw the trap for what it was. Mark angled to the right and dragged the attention of the entire herd of vines with him. It was like he was a magnet in a suspension of iron filings.

The jumper vine realized that Mark wasn't coming its way anymore. The vines of the big one uncoiled, its prepared jumping power bleeding away as it realized it was not in a position to grab Mark anymore. There were four truly big ones out here, and only one of them had been prepared to leap at Mark. The other three were still in the piles of vines out there, waiting for their chances along with their smaller brethren.

The jumper vine grumbled, hissing and rumbling at the same time as it went back to a flowing slither.... rrrRRRRrrrrshshshsh... It was a weird sound. Mark smiled. And then he caught sight of the only two vectors in the area not focused on him. Isoko and Barba were on the edges of Mark's herding, poking at the slower hollow gourd vines. The big basket on Isoko's back was pretty full. They probably had a hundred gourds in there.

They had harvested a few vines twice, too, since Mark's Union had allowed them to produce extra fruit, and quickly. Over the last hour, Mark had made the vines fruit, the fruited vines walked away to be harvested (or really just to not disturb their cargo of seeds), and then after being harvested, and without fruit, they gave chase to Mark all over again. They had gone through at least one cycle of gourd growth in this way... Mark wondered when enough was enough. Maybe soon?

Not five minutes later, while Mark was on the other side of the lake, Isoko's vector slammed into Mark, connecting to him with her Union and dragging his attention her way. That was the signal! It was a full harvest. Time to go! By the time Mark flew around to Isoko and Barba's side of the lake, they were mostly out of the vines. Mark did another lap around the lake to allow them more time to fully escape, and when he came back their way they were far from the herd.

Mark disconnected from the herd and then he flew away, too. Disconnecting from the vines caused a spectacle, as Barba had already said it would. The vines freaked out. Which way to go? Where was the prey! Vines slashed everywhere! Neighbor struck neighbor! Vines tangled in vines, and gradually, they released. Mark could practically sense their thoughts, if a plant could ever really have a thought besides stimulus-response… But these were monster plants and they were capable of some higher order thinking, so yeah.

Maybe they were actually, truly wondering where the prey had gone. Mark smiled a little as he raced away from the hollow gourd lake. Soon, he was far away from the beasts. Isoko and Barba were already a kilometer away from the nest, waiting for him, Isoko all platinum and Barba looking incredibly pleased. Mark sat down next to them, smiling.

"That's enough, then?" Barba bowed toward Mark, speaking toward the ground, "It was a pleasure to work with you, sir."

"… Uh. It was a pleasure to, uh, work with you— why are you bowing?" Barba straightened up and paused. She looked like she was considering a lie. But then she turned and started running back toward the city. … So that was strange? Mark stood with Isoko, both of them not moving at all. Mark asked her, "Something happened?"" It took a while to get from her, but the Sacredcuts are a branch family of the Aluathas, the Imperial Family. There's a lot of branch families of the Imperial Family.

Practically every noble family can trace themselves to the Imperial Family in some way, but some are much closer to the trunk than others." The Valens are the major branch family of the Imperial Family, for they were the mortal family of Gedahowla the Bright, which was the leader of the coven of Witch Dragons that oversaw all of the Aluatha Empire, until the coven imploded and killed Gedahowla in the Reveal."

Every single noble family are either dragon cultists or former cultists, and some of them are trying to be a whole lot more 'former' than 'current'. Some nobles are still die-hard cultists, but they're not allowed to show that in public due to Imperial decree. Because of that, there's a not-so-hidden divide among the nobles of the settlement, and Aurora is walking that divide with how she treats you."

Aurora is the most powerful dragon hunter of the current age, and everyone is wondering if she's trying to resurrect the Imperial Dragon Coven, or keep it dead, because she could make it happen one way or the other, and maybe even by simply by stepping back from her duties, which she is already doing by being the general of the settlement… And that's all I was able to get. Some of that might be wrong." Also: Barba thinks you're cute." Mark breathed out, taking all of that in. He knew… some of that.

In a sideways sort of way. Not directly… He ignored the part about Barba finding him attractive, and asked, "Was she… bowing to me because of… of Addavein?"" I don't know. It sort of came up organically when we talked about your adamantium, and she wondered where you got more. I told her that Addavein teleports adamantium to you sometimes in a semblance of that summoning magic he used on you that one time. She got real quiet and then she opened up." Isoko shrugged.

"She's probably a cultist." That would make her the first cultist that Mark had ever met… and known about it, anyway. And yet, Mark hadn't really met her as a cultist, had he. Isoko had gotten all of that out of her. She had even dropped the lie about Addavein teleporting adamantium to him that they had all agreed to say, which was great. If that rumor spread then Mark could be adamantium blooded in plain sight. Mark said, "You're pretty good at getting people to open up." Isoko snorted.

"Not the worst thing I've been called." Mark paused.

"… What?" Isoko paused, too… and then her face heated. She was full platinum right now, carrying a heavy load, but Mark could tell she was embarrassed.

"… You didn't call me manipulative, did you."

"… Correct. I did not— Do other people usually call you that?"

"… Uh." Isoko changed the subject, "So Barba wants to be a part of your New Imperial Harem, when you get one of those." Mark rolled his eyes, and then he moved on, too.

"Need help carrying those gourds?" Isoko rolled her shoulders a little, the hundred-ish gourds in her big backpack moving around a little. Platinum flashes tensed the whole thing solid against her body, but the gourds themselves were loose and slightly blue from Barba's Harvesting Skill. Isoko said, "I can handle this." She started walking, and it was a lot faster than a normal walk. In moments she was ten meters away from Mark and calling back, "This is good training, slowpoke!" Isoko speed-walked.

Mark had to use his caltrops to catch up to Isoko now and again, but he made sure to run with his actual legs, too. Five minutes later they had caught up to Barba. The Hunter's vector was bouncing all over the place, which was concerning, but not really. She was just worried and… yeah. Mark ignored that. Mark and Isoko joined her into their shared Union, and whatever weirdness had been happening was washed away in a simple, good run.

Practically no monsters assaulted them in the open grasses between the lake and the south gate of the settlement, which was kinda strange. No monsters had assaulted them on the way out, either.