POV: Runa
The air sled travels at Thirty-Two miles per hour. . If Drake-san couldn’t do that math without her help, then she’d simply make him dependent on her all the faster. Calling him Kai-san now and then would be a low risk way to test her boundaries, and she needed them tested.
Forty five years ago the last hero was a student that brought textbooks from Earth. Runa had been a candidate to be the Wizard for the hero team, she had stepped aside to allow her master that honor. Runa stayed home and read impossible science printed on paper of stunning quality. Color pictures!
She only had a few months with that treasure until her master returned and realized the scope of the knowledge those books contained. During that time, Runa’s scientific and mathematical knowledge advanced three hundred years past everyone else and she was the first to apply it to magical theory.
Runa was not a megalomaniac; she really did objectively know what was best for Tenka-
Her choker clenched for ten seconds.
It wasn’t her fault if helping everyone meant they all should do what Runa-
Her choker clenched for fifteen seconds.
Augh! She wanted to help! Runa wanted to help. Yes.
She breathed slowly and safely.
Baggage was one that needed help. More people in the castle knew about her nickname than knew the hero had shot the summoning ritualists. Baggage assumed that was because she was incompetent, not entirely incorrect. A better way to express it would be to say she was weak.
The Facilitator’s role did not require strength as people thought of it. Baggage had studied five major Earth cultures and their languages, some secondary ones as well. All just to meet the hero and spend up to two months, not two weeks, having adventures that the hero should be able to overcome. Most of the woman’s studies would be unused, except perhaps to train the next generation of Facilitator candidates.
There weren’t that many of those either. It was a very specialized career, only profitable if the hero decided to ask the girl to go back to Earth with him and a bag of gold. Now that was risky. The hero would make it back, assuming he lived, but a passenger? Less likely unless one of them was a talented spellcaster. Not a problem for herself, if Drake chose her.
A larger issue was the poor selections available to inherit Baggage’s job. Talented girls wanted careers with more promise these days. An easy solution: Leave Tenka.
Diaspora had happened at least twice. Runa thought the number was closer to nine. It could be hard to tell with pillaging demons around. However, Runa had faith in her crumbling civilization and the desperation of her fellow Tenkans. She was betting they would run for it.
Entire populations vanished, braving the void and landing who knows where. Maybe getting stuck outside universes, caught between galaxies, arriving in a poisoned world, landing in an ocean, or beating the odds and arriving safely only to discover the new world was plagued by demons too. Runa thought all of those were very thrilling and exotic ways to die. A real story for the grandchildren, metaphorically speaking.
Runa decided long ago that escaping to another world would be only as a last resort and ideally in the presence of suitably attractive people she could bring or kidnap with her.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The other easily solved problem required a hairbrush, which she had. Baggage was staring out the window, a classic pose, made all the better that she wasn’t even trying to appear forlorn; she was very good at it though. Beautiful and ripe.
Runa moved slowly, so as not to frighten the impressionable Facilitator.
“Hey there,” Runa said softly. “Let me help.”
“No one can help me,” Baggage said miserably.
“Well, I can comb your hair.” Runa began to do so, slowly, carefully.
“How is that supposed to help?”
“You’ll have untangled hair.”
Baggage sighed in defeat, she was good at that, too.
Runa knew this would take a long time, that was fine. The biological effects of hair combing were very close to a more personal interaction. Do it a few times and the target would behave quite differently around you, not as a lover, but close.
The process to get to ‘trusted special friend’ could be given a little boost. Subtle, or not subtle, hypnosis tricks helped. Baggage was isolated and lonely enough to allow a meglom- no, ‘bold and daring’ wizard to brush her hair. Runa waited until Baggage was relaxed, perhaps sleepy.
“Don’t worry. I’m here and I'm on your side. You can always come to me for aid. I can be your secret lighthouse, your compass. Just look to me. I promise to be there for you as a guide.”
That might have been going too far, but they were low on time and she needed Baggage under her control. The lighthouse conceit worked well. A single beacon in the darkness, no others visible. Runa wouldn’t command! No! Never. Just guide.
And the first thing she had to do was guide Baggage to Drake. If that man conquered Sayaka first or (worse) Runa herself, Baggage would ‘step aside for the happy couple’. That would be completely unacceptable.
Baggage had to be first, before Drake’s protective instincts rose, and while Baggage’s self-esteem was low, but not gone. If those two developed actual feelings, Runa would have to come up with another plan. Feelings were likely, both of them looked like the idealistic-monogamous type. Love was fine, but only after the relationship polygon had been formed on Runa’s terms.
Once Baggage got to work and seduced Drake, then Sayaka could be positioned to fall into his arms. That would be easy. Step one: “Hey Sayaka, do you really want Drake listening to Baggage?” Step two: “Hey, Drake-san, have another drink!” Then Kai Drake has stoic guilt over drunk sex. Sayaka finally unwinds. Baggage’s feelings get hurt. Woe and sorrow! Sentimental music plays while Baggage cries in Runa’s arms. “I- I- I trusted him with my heart, Runa!” Don’t worry little Baggage, your dearest Runa will bring you back together.
Boom! Before Baggage comes to terms with Sayaka’s betrayal, her gentle guide in life, Runa, would claim third place. Another betrayal? Of course not! What is this, amateur hour?
Runa would spin it as a doorway to a loving team, which Baggage should believe due to all the hair brushing. “B- B- Baggage, I thought you cared for me too! Why, oh, why must you spurn me so?!” Sob. Cry. Sob. Cry.
Baggage would give in because she was a pushover. Drake wouldn’t like it, Runa thought she could persuade him though. He was worried about betrayal. Smart of him, Runa was a friend to betraying, but that was a long-term contingency plan.
Short-term she’d play to his sense of victimhood and misogyny, “Dude, those chicks are going to turn on you, it’s only a matter of time. I, on the other hand, am a simple sociopath. I control them, you control me, then keep me safe from everyone else. And Drake-san, you hate everyone else, you’d fight them anyway. We got a deal?”
He’d deal. And she’d never control him, Baggage would.
Sayaka wouldn’t care. After centuries of loneliness she would feel loved or even just ‘loved’. Runa doubted Sayaka would know the difference. All elven marriages were based on politics, eugenics, or both. That girl’s idea of romance was a shared appointment book. Once Runa got under her armor, it’d be over. “Sayaka-sama, I want you to be happy. Can’t we hold hands for a few decades?”
And look at this! Baggage was falling asleep. Runa gently moved her… roughly moved her, damn, this chick could sleep… so her head was on Runa’s lap.
The beauty of it all is that not one of them had stopped to ask, “Hey, Runa, you’re a one-in-a-century prodigy; how about you shed a little light on why we’re pulling guys from Earth?”
Heh. She should lie and tell them she vacationed there, just to mess with their heads.
Interesting idea though.
Runa leaned back, stroked Baggage’s hair, and for fun theorized on how to return from a planet critically low on magic.
Just to help people, of course.
