13

This was the first time I'd seen him sleep deeply since we got here. I doubt he got any sleep at all when he was in the lord's house. If anyone was going to notice that he wasn't the elf he claimed to be it was a high elf. Honestly I didn't think he needed to worry about it too much. High elves were arrogant.

They'd trust what they could see, and believe that no one would be stupid enough to deceive them. It was exactly that arrogance that made this plan so ingenious. I loved it. I planned to take advantage as much as I possibly could. We were only a month in a half into our plan.

We'd need to step up our plans soon. It was time to start taking slaves when we raided. My ability to remove collars, and the spread of the rumors was going to give the slaves enough hope to abandon what they'd known most of their lives. Those that hadn't been born into slavery had only known this life for twenty years. Some would be hesitant to leave this life.

I wouldn't be able to save everyone, but I could get most of them. That was all I wanted. Some would go from one version of imprisonment to another. Those that abused their own, and those that chose to work against their own. I'd rather just leave them behind, but sorting them out would be difficult.

I'd take some of them with me accidentally whether I wanted to or not. The enslavement collars might work more as a deterrent for criminals if there was a way I could design them that didn't take away peoples freedom entirely. I guess it was just better if I discarded that enchantment technology entirely. A prison that didn't need cells or bars would be good if the prisoners didn't try to escape or kill each other. They could self regulate for the most part, and earn their own way.

Taking jobs to pay for their own food. I could think about this more later when I actually had time to put this whole plan into action. I went ahead, and took a short nap by the door when I noticed that Sekka was stirring well into the next day. He'd slept in. He'd probably curse himself for sleeping in later.

Sleeping in occasionally wasn't a problem, and anyone who thought is was could eat shit. My thoughts had gone off in a random direction again. It was time to think about what we were going to do for the day. Sekka was awake. Sekka rolled out of bed slowly as his mind slowly realized that he'd slept in.

"Why didn't you wake me?" he leapt to his feet as soon as his mind caught up with him.

"I didn't see the need," I stood, and cracked my back slowly.

That was one of the negatives of sleeping upright. I found it kind of funny that those kinds of things could still effect me. Granted a stiff back was a rare problem for me, and it only lasted twenty minutes or so each time it happened. I guess every living creature had to deal with these kinds of things once in a while no matter how sturdy they were. It felt good as each individual link in my spine seemed to crack one by one as I stretched.

That was a feeling I'd never get tired of.

"What's the plan for today?" I smirked at the irritated half elf before me.

I'd taken some time to connect with Ethan, and the others through him. Ethan wanted me to come back soon. I was getting somewhat tired of his clingy attitude, but at the same time I didn't blame him. He felt an echo of every ounce of pain I felt. Knowing him he was probably so attuned to the piece of soul I'd placed within him that he more then likely felt my pain as his own most of the time.

I was beginning to think he was a glutton for punishment. His core was small, and newly formed, but it possessed nearly the same strength he had before as an ability user. His physical strength was exactly half of my own. Three quarters my own whenever he took his dragon kin form. Add on the fact he could borrow my own power freely whenever I allowed.

The difference between then, and when he borrowed my power now was it drained my stamina whenever he borrowed from me. This the reason he needed some kind of permission to borrow from me now. I guess you needed some kind of trade off when your borrowing the full force of a dragon instead of just part of their abilities like before. If you had the stamina, and enough bonded you could bring the strength of an army down on an enemy. I preferred before when it didn't take away from my strength at all.

Granted it was a good way to push my stamina up. I was already tired of Savannah's paranoia that she'd be the next one to become a dragon kin. Maybe that was why Sekka's fear, and paranoia annoyed me so much. I understood her fear. She didn't want to have her life completely tied to mine like Ethan's was.

My death was Ethan's death. To her my death would just equal a great deal of pain, and the risk of insanity, but only a moderate chance of death. Not a guarantee. I did approve of one relationship that had blossomed within my three bonded. Savannah, and Ethan were both developing feelings for each other.

Although I doubted that the two of them had realized it yet. Humans were so damn oblivious when it came to those kinds of things. If they were a bit more forward like Aurora then they'd know already without any of this mushy confusion. They could pair up or deny each other freely without the awkwardness that surrounded the simple thing called a confession. I almost smacked myself in the head when I realized what I was thinking about.