The dragon's harem

“Discharges of divine magic.” Tina approached her, “They can be quite painful. Get her a bit mad, and she’ll jolt you with it like a divine smite.”

Valeria approached Serin and looked at her, “So? She is a sorceress and has already awakened her power?”

Arad nodded, “That’s true. Her power now is simple charge and discharge of divine magic. The charge allows her to heal herself. The discharge is a simple jolt, akin to a divine smite, but weaker.”

Arad lifted Serin and gave her to Valeria, “Here, try holding her for a bit.”

Valeria looked at Serin with a smile, “You cute little thing, come to Aunt Valeria. I’m sure Arad gave you many toys to play with.”

Valeria tried to carry her for a while, but Serin wasn’t having any of that. She frowned, her eyebrows twisted, and she was about to start crying. Valeria was a stranger, and she didn’t like strangers, not one bit.

“Put her down. She is about to start crying.” Tina approached, but Valeria looked at Serin with a smile, “Come on, are you scared of me? I don’t bite.”

Sadly, Valeria didn’t immediately put Serin down, and thus, she started crying. Her tiny hands flailed, and one of them slapped Valeria. Serin’s hand was too small and weak to cause any damage, but what came flashing from her bone wasn’t so gentle. A bright divine spark bolted forward and exploded in a burst, jolting Valeria’s head as if she had been punched by an adult.

As Valeria’s head rocked, Serin managed to free herself and fell to the ground. Luckily, Arad was fast enough to catch her with ease. Valeria wasn’t so lucky as a red mark remained imprinted on her face, taking the shape of Serin’s tiny palm.

“AW! That hurts!” Valeria grabbed her cheek, groaned, and then looked at Serin with an angry face. Serin, on the other hand, glanced at her and burst laughing. She now felt safe in Arad’s arms.

“You did it on purpose!” Valeria sighed, and Arad nodded, “What else did you expect? It’s not like those divine smites are random. If she wants to hit you, she’ll hit you. It’s just hard to make a child understand when to hit someone and when not to.”

“At least it isn’t powerful enough to hurt me.” She rubbed her cheek and sat on the couch, “It’ll take me a while to get along with her, but I’ll manage.” She looked at Tina, “Where are her toys?”

Arad waved his hand and summoned a pile of toys on the table, “Those are most of them. The rest…” He also looked at Tina.

“The bag over there.” She went and brought it.

Valeria started trying to get closer to Serin while Alex and Charlotte back in Alina were stunned, unable to believe how far Arad teleported them.

The two emerged standing beside Arad right inside the castle’s courtyard, and they looked around, both shocked and terrified.

The first thing Alex sensed was the countless massive shadows moving all around them, vampires hiding within the darkness of the shadows cast by the great walls, slipping through like snakes, undetected by anyone.

Charlotte noticed that, and she even managed to notice the burning life force permeating through the ground. It didn’t take her a second to notice that they were standing on the back of a massive living being.

“A Genius Loci! I’ve never seen one in my life!” She gasped and looked at Arad, “How did you get it to allow you to settle here?”

“Just asked her. Her name is Loci. As simple as it may seem, she picked it up herself.” Arad waved his hand, and a tall, armored woman appeared. She stood in the shadows, hiding from the sun.

“You’re Gerika, am I right?” Arad approached her, “The leader of the seventh division, worshippers of Eris, if I’m not mistaken.”

She knelt down, “You’re not mistaken, my Blood Lord. I’m elated that you remember someone like me among the thousands of other vampires.”

Arad pointed back at Alex, “He is an archer- and, as you can see, a half-angel with great mastery over divine magic. Take him to the front lines to help push the demons’ threat and put an end to the war swiftly. Make sure he learns how to deal with demons well. He’ll be joining the dimension guards later.”

Alex looked at Arad for a long moment and then scratched his chin, “They won’t suck me dry, would they?”

It was Gerika, the paladin vampire, who gave him a furious look. “What are you implying, flesh bag? We’re vampires sworn to the service of our lords. We only drink the blood they gift to us.” She smiled, showing her long opal fangs, “Unless our lords give the order, no one will lay a hand on you.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. And make sure to learn well from them. Demons are powerful and tricky to fight, so don’t slack out.” Arad waved his hand as Alex left with Gerika to embark on his first mission.

“What about me?” Charlotte turned toward Arad, and he smiled, “You’ll train the soldiers as I said before.” He pointed toward the upper keep where a large man stood, watching down over the soldiers training in the barracks inside the castle. That was Alcott, who now had so many jobs that he almost didn’t have time to sleep.

The two flew to the keep and landed beside Alcott, “Father, how are you doing?”

Alcott looked at Arad with a large smile, “Arad! You’re back. Did you get rid of that snake north?”

“Yes, the caravans can start moving again.” Arad smiled, and Charlotte gave him a confused look. “What snake and what caravan?” What she still didn’t figure out was that this was Arad’s incarnation that he left in Alina, and he had things he was doing here as well.

Arad then pointed at her, “This is Charlotte, a skilled archer.”

Alcott’s face brightened up, “Really? I’ve got so many archers here that need training. Like, a lot! Who will man the walls, the watch towers? We don’t even have an archer battalion. Baltos gotta pay us triple if he wants us to get the army back on its feet.” He looked at Charlotte and smiled, “I’ll give you half the soldiers, and I’ll take the rest. Make sure they are able to shoot relatively well within a month.”

Arad teleported away, letting Alcott deal with Charlotte, and went to meet Isdis. He still needed to manage their payment, after all.

Like always, Isdis was still stuck inside the office with Roberta and several maids, slaving away at the endless piles of papers. “How is it going?”

“The wedding preparations are a mess. At this rate, we’d better just announce the queens instead of throwing a party for each of them.” Isdis sighed, dark spots clouding her eyes.

“Is it that bad?”

“Dragons, humans, elves, demons, everyone sees the world in a different light. While humans might want to see you walk in a parade with the queens, the demons want to see you beat each other to death. Don’t get me started about the dragons or elves.” She looked at Roberta.

“Gamond and Claug want a traditional wedding, which means beating them down in a one-on-one fight. They also want to beat each other to determine who is the boss. And not just them, all the dragons want that, even Eris had joined.” Roberta violently rubbed her face. “And did you know that the high elves and dark elves were going to war with each other? While Jasmine and Cerilla are fine with each other, their people aren’t. The high elves want Jasmine dead, and the dark elves want Cerilla dead.”

“What?” Arad gasped, but Isdis wasn’t done, “And- A pink greatwyrm drakaina showed up claiming that you are her husband. Gamond gave her a few painful slaps and knocked her out, but the situation is slowly crumbling apart.”

“I was over the mountains for five hours!” Arad held his face between his hands.