Chapter 44

After finishing with the elemental abilities I looked over my physical and mental abilities. Unlike before I felt I understood a bit more of what the abilities did to me. More importantly I realized that my initial hopes that placing more wisps into my mental ability would give me telepathy and telekinesis was naive. That alone wouldn't gain me those abilities. Instead they were a prerequisite. With all I had learned since I initially gained the abilities, which I admitted still wasn't much, I understood it s little better now. I could use my wisps to form abilities like telepathy and telekinesis, but only after I had strengthened my mental ability first. Regeneration was like that, if I didn't already have a couple wisps in my physical ability I wouldn't have been able to unlock the ability. I was also sure that the only reason I was even able to get regeneration was because it fell under physical instead of healing.

With my new understanding on how the abilities worked, I had a few more abilities I wanted to try gaining, but just like earlier, I decided to wait. I had a lot of questions I wanted Caly to answer before I started to spend these wisps.

Spatial storage was as simple as I had thought the first time I gained it. With each additional wisp the space I could use to store things increased. Having gained a new perspective from mana sight I had an idea on how else I could use the ability, but I would have to wait until later to try it out.

That only left the bond and tame abilities. Tame wasn't a complicated ability, it made it easier to gain a beast's trust, and then their loyalty. Loyalty was what I wanted more than anything. I could gain that using the bond ability, but I felt it would be better to gain it without needing to resort to that.

Bond was a complicated ability. I had gone over the ability fairly well before, so nothing new stood out to me. While it was possible to create slavery bonds like the girls had feared when I first mentioned it, the price was far to much for me to consider it a viable option, not that I would consider doiing that. Instead I felt the use of the ability was more about balance. Like a business deal. Which is exactly what my bonds with my elementals was when I thought about it. When I thought of it in that manner it made more sense to me. Even with the possibility of a slave bond. It was said that everyone had a price.

Even more interesting the links between my other abilities and bond, were there to allow bonds with a larger variety of beings, or as a way of adding more options to offer when creating a bond. I could offer use of one or more of my abilities to others for a price, though it would limit or block my own use of the ability.

What I had also noticed was the fact that I wasn't spending an eighth of my incoming mana to pay each of my elementals. Not anymore. With the opening of more gates the ambient mana had increased, so my mana regeneration had also increased. As the elementals had been satisfied with the amount of energy they received from the deal, I had no reason to change the deal. I was tempted though. If I could spend a higher amount of my regeneration rate to pay off the monthly bill a bit faster it wouldn't hurt, but it also wasn't something I had to rush into.

Once I had finished reviewing my contracts I didn't have anything else to do, and I was really surprised that the girls hadn't woken me yet. Thankfully I felt someone shaking my leg before I could start to worry.

I shifted my consciousness out of my mana core and looked around the car. Enya, Sil, and the cat were all sitting in my lap with tense looks on their faces as they regarded the three girls in the car.

"That bad?" I asked worriedly.

"No, though we did get a bit heated for a couple moments." Karen replied.

Looking at each of the girls It was easy to see where the problem was. Karen and Caly both gave me smiles and seemed relaxed. Megan looked pissed.

"Anything I should know?" I asked hesitantly.

Karen considered that for a few moments. "No, not really." she replied after a few moments.

I looked at her trying to wonder if she was just trying to tease me, but she seemed serious.

Megan sighed. "It's fine Daryl, I just have some things to work through." she admitted. "And until I do…" Megan paused as she frowned and stopped talking.

"Until she does, she can't sleep with us, and no more kisses." Karen finished.

Megan nodded.

I looked from Megan to Karen, then to Caly. I was more than a little curious about those issues she needed to work through but I knew better than to ask. If Megan wanted me to know, she would tell me. "I see, what about hugs and cuddles?" I asked.

"No." Caly replied.

"I don't agree." I told them.

"Daryl." Karen said with an exasperated sigh.

"Karen, I can understand limiting sex, sleeping together, and kisses. Those are intimate and I am willing to follow your decision on that." I told her seriously. "Hugs and cuddles are still at the level of friends, and with everything that is going on we need to support our friends as much as they need."

Karen pursed her lips as she considered that.

"You cuddle with friends?" Caly asked with a frown before looking at Karen.

"Close friends only, but still friends." I replied. Karen had once fallen into that category so she should understand.

"So Micheal?" Caly asked me curiously eliciting a laugh from the other girls.

"No." I replied firmly. "Only close female friends."

"Don't be mad, I just want to understand, how isn't that intimate? Would you be fine with me cuddling with Micheal or another guy if we were close friends?" Caly asked.

I was silent for a moment as I considered it for a moment.

"No Caly. Everyone that Daryl would even consider cuddling is in the car. Megan is an exception to the rule not the standard." Karen explained. "Cuddles with Megan are fine Daryl, but nothing more. Don't go blaming me when she decides to pair up with someone else." Karen grumbled.

That surprised me a bit but I just shrugged. "That is her choice." I said looking at Megan who seemed to have relaxed a bit. "I was never trying to build a harem. The fact that we are even having this discussion still seems surreal."

"Fine, I can accept that." Caly agreed. "But if she does decide to run off with someone else, there is no coming back." she added, giving me a stern look. "It will be her choice, but once it is made she has to live with it."

I met Caly's gaze for a moment then nodded.

She gave me a smile in return. I looked back to Megan who briefly met my gaze, her expression pensive. "What?" I asked her.

"Isn't that a bit harsh?" Megan complained.

"No." I replied honestly. "Our relationship has never been normal Megan. We've danced around this for the year as I thinned down, and your cousin is my best friend. It was always going to be an all in or not at all between us. You knew that before you agreed to whatever plan Karen presented to you."

Megan frowned as she thought that over.

I looked back at Karen. I hadn't missed the fact that she had taken up the lead position amongst the three of them, and I wasn't so dense to not know what it meant.

Karen gave me a smile, a wink, then mouthed 'tonight'. I was a bit skeptical but hopeful. While she had seemed very serious since she came back, we hadn't been able to seal the deal yet. It was something I had been looking forward to, not only for the pleasure I would get out of it, but also the reassurance that I would gain that she really was as serious about us as she was acting.

"How much longer till we get there?" I asked.

"Not much longer." Megan replied. "The traffic getting out of town was worse than I would have liked, but we made it out." Megan replied.

"What about the supplies?" I asked.

"We should be good for a week, but I got the feeling that Micheal was inviting a lot of other people to join us." Karen told me.

I frowned but there was nothing I could do about that. The place was his dad's after all, I just hoped he didn't call any of the troublemakers.

"We should get you two awakened after we get there." I told them.

"Didn't we just talk about that?" Karen asked me seriously.

"We don't have to sleep together to awaken you." I retorted.

"Doesn't it help?" Karen asked looking at Caly.

"Who told you that?" Caly asked with a smirk as she looked at me.

"Delilah." I replied.

Caly frowned then shook her head. "No, it doesn't. There was a debate about how the person who instigated the awakening and how they did it, would affect the one awakened. After a lot of research and debate, we realized it didn't matter. No matter how pure or how much energy was provided, it didn't change the initial potential of the one being awakened.

I considered that for a moment while I stared down at the shadows around my feet. Delilah didn't decide to add anything to the discussion. "So we awaken the both of you once we get there." I said looking from Karen to Megan.

Megan pouted a bit but nodded.

Karen hesitated too, but eventually nodded. "Would have been more fun to wait, but I know we need to learn how to protect ourselves."

"I agree." I replied, giving her a grin.

"You should be feeling relieved." Karen told me.

"Why?" I asked.

"Now that we know it doesn't matter who or how we are awakened, you won't have to sleep with Courtney." she said with a smirk.

"That was never going to happen." I retorted while Megan started to laugh.