962 - What Does the Kumiho Say?
“I don’t want them. Send them back where they came from.”
Those words were on the tip of Lex’s tongue. After so many unavoidable detours and interminable delays in getting home, being drawn into fight after fight and plots within plots, the last thing he wanted now was another burden to distract him from returning to Equestria. No matter that his third wife’s clan was incredibly small – besides her, there were only twenty-eight other foxes present – as far as Lex was concerned they were simply another extension to an exile that had already gone on too long.
And yet he couldn’t bring himself to say that to Mei Li.
Part of that was due to simply practicality. So long as Mihr and the angels were blocking the way home, it didn’t matter what else happened. His return to Equestria would be delayed whether Mei Li brought her clan here or not.
More than that, Lex’s foresight made it clear that if he turned the Pimao Jingzhi away now, Mei Li would be devastated. He could sense, in the future where he rejected her clan, she would not only be deeply humiliated, but also heartbroken, and while Lex couldn’t fully understand the former reaction, the reason for the latter was easy – thanks to his looking into her future thoughts – to discern.
This was her family.
Even if she’d been able to, Lex knew that Mei Li would never part ways with him. She’d told him as much, when she’d helped him overcome the effect of Gwynharwyf’s aura, insisting that he had no reason to feel guilty over bonding with her. She was nothing but grateful to belong to him, and felt neither ashamed nor violated by what had happened.
But that didn’t change the fact that she still had people that she cherished and missed dearly. As a winter wolf, Solvei had been forced to bid her family goodbye after helping to save them, knowing that they had no desire to follow Lex back to Equestria; and as an adlet, she’d need to do the same thing again soon. Nenet had no family who’d cared about her, and his attempts to bring back Adagio had all failed, leaving him with no idea how to resurrect his sphinx’s mother. And Nisha...
He'd need to ask her about her own family later, presuming that they meant anything to her now that she was well and truly mad.
But Mei Li had a family in the way that Nenet didn’t, and bringing them here demonstrated that she wasn’t willing to leave them behind the way Solvei had been.
Even if Lex hadn’t been feeling particularly solicitous toward his wives after what had happened in Mare Occultum, he wouldn’t have been able to turn her down.
Being thrown a thousand years forward in time, and now barred from going home, he knew what it was like to lose people you loved.
“First, please allow me to introduce my father’s elder sister, Pimao Biyu Hai Yuyan,” continued Mei Li, reciting a name which Lex knew translated to “fur more valuable than the loveliest jade.”
The kumiho in question – the same one that Mei Li had been berating when he’d arrived – slowly stepped forward. Like his fox-bride, she was in her bipedal form, with only her tails and a pair of fox ears rising above her hair to indicate that she wasn’t entirely human. Clad in what looked like several robes layered on top of each other, she was older than Mei Li, looking like a mature lady that hadn’t reached the end of her prime, akin to River Bank in terms of her age.
Six tails swaying behind her, Yuyan looked Lex over for a long moment before giving him a low bow. “I am pleased to make the acquaintance of my niece’s husband,” she said in accented Ponish. “On behalf of the Pimao Jingzhi, I offer you our thanks for rescuing her. Further, we are all honored that a xianxia such as yourself would show interest in a small clan like ours, who are not worthy of-”
“Mother, there is no need to kowtow to a devil such as this!”
The shout – made in Tianyu – caused Mei Li to stiffen, her face expressionless even as Lex registered anger coming from her.
She wasn’t the only one to react negatively, as Yuyan grimaced. “Pipe down, Nayao!” she snapped, switching back to her native tongue. “Let your elders handle this!”
“I refuse!”
The girl who strode forward then was one whose appearance contrasted sharply with the vixen she’d called her mother. While she had the same black hair, the newcomer – Nayao – had pulled hers back into a long ponytail. Instead of full-length robes, she wore a lavender outfit that hugged her figure tightly, small pockets sewn across it. And she only had five tails where her mother had six.
But what struck Lex the most about her was the complete lack of fear that she exhibited as she marched forward.
Being a titan, his presence wasn’t something that mortals could fully comprehend with their mundane senses. With an existence that easily contravened the rules of the universe, and could bend its functions to his will, lesser beings lacked the capacity to fully decode what they were perceiving when they beheld him. The best they could do was to translate the additional data through their mundane senses, causing them to perceive him in a manner that could only be called outsized; his voice resonated in their bones, and his gaze had a weight to it that was almost physical, with the air around him seeming to be pressurized and every motion he made seeming to shake the world itself.
Gods, titans, and beings of similar stature were immune to that, of course; Burly Brawl, despite his being little more than a lesser titan, hadn’t flinched at the sight of him. Nor did his wives, since they were quite literally an extension of himself. But everyone else – save only for Long Road, who had a minor blessing from the Sun Queen that steeled his resolve – was unnerved by him, regardless of how self-possessed they otherwise were.
Lex hadn’t missed how all of the foxes gathered around Mei Li and Yuyan had gasped and backed away when he’d made his appearance, their faces turning pale even as their eyes had gone wide. Yuyan herself hadn’t been immune, even if she’d managed to keep her composure, struggling to control her breathing during her speech, unable to meet his gaze directly.
Nayao, however, didn’t so much as flinch as she stared him right in the eye. “We have no need to apologize for refusing to be made into prostitutes for a monster!”
Her expression not changing despite the mortification Lex could sense coming from her, Mei Li gave him another deep bow. “My husband, please forgive my cousin’s outburst. She has only recently acquired her fifth tail, and it has made her arrogant.”
Nayao flushed at that, turning on Mei Li as her face reddened. “How dare you speak of me in such fashion?! I earned my tails, rather than trading my virtue for them as you did!”
“Nayao!” hissed Yuyan, even as the assembled fox-people began to murmur amongst themselves at that.
But her daughter would not be put off, continuing to verbally lash out at Mei Li. “You claim to speak for our clan now that you have nine tails, but you have none of the adornments that their magic should have granted you! No heavenly raiment, no robe of five colors, no lotus blossoms in your hair!”
Sneering, Nayao put one hand on her hip and pointed at Mei Li’s backside. “Did that demon you married simply skin six field foxes and glue their tails to your rear-”
SMACK!!!
The sound of Mei Li’s palm making contact with Nayao’s cheek echoed through the air, silencing the chattering that had been going on, the five-tailed vixen stumbling backward from the blow, her expression shocked.
Mei Li’s, by contrast, seemed to be carved from stone. “Insult my husband’s wedding gift to me a second time, and I will banish you from the clan.”
“That will not be necessary,” interjected Yuyan, going to stand by her daughter. Turning her so that they were both facing Lex, she pushed Nayao to her knees, kneeling down beside her as she did so.
“I beg that you forgive my daughter’s rudeness,” she murmured, pressing her forehead to the ground, one hand on the back of Nayao’s neck making her copy the gesture. “Our clan has suffered several reversals of fortune lately, and as my eldest child she has been burdened with helping me weather them, leaving her exhausted from overwork.”
Although Lex had been willing to let the family drama play out, mostly for Mei Li’s sake, since this was clearly very important to her, his foresight let him see that Nayao was about to recover from what had just happened and throw another tantrum. If she did, Lex had little doubt that Mei Li would follow through on her threat – across their link, he could sense that her mental state was one of grim resolve – fracturing her family. Given that his third wife hadn’t been able to bring herself to so much as use her feng shui on her cousin, Lex didn’t need to guess how painful she'd find that.
Which meant it was time for him to step in.
Fortunately, his course of action was clear.
Nayao’s bravery in front of him wasn’t because she had some sort of hidden power of her own, nor was she borrowing aristeia the way Adagio had, nor even had a divine blessing like Long Road.
Instead, it was because of the earring she was wearing, which was a magic item designed to suppress the wearer’s ability to feel fear.
As far as magic items went, it was little more than a trinket, one that Lex had encountered back when he’d first come to Everglow. Cheaply priced – at least compared to other magic items – it gave whoever an artificial sense of courage by suppressing their fear reaction, making it popular among neophyte adventurers, novice soldiers, and anyone else who worked in a dangerous profession.
However, Lex also knew that veterans of those careers tended to disdain magic items like that, saying that they muted caution and caused unwarranted confidence in those who wore them, encouraging recklessness that was potentially fatal to the young and inexperienced.
If Nayao was any indication, that belief was entirely correct.
But it was also easily dealt with, as Lex silently cast a suppression spell on her earring.
Immediately, Nayao drew in a ragged gasp, her entire body starting to tremble as her tails suddenly turned bushy, their every hair standing on end.
“I-I...” she gasped, sweat beginning to bead on her brow. “I apologize for how I acted...”
Mei Li was silent for a long moment, but when Nayao didn’t say anything else, she let out a slow breath. “My husband, I must also apologize. These tails that you gave me elevated me to being the matriarch of the Pimao Jingzhi, and so I was overjoyed to be able to offer you my clan as my dowry. But after this shameful display by our third-ranking member, I would understand completely if you found them unworthy of you.”
Lex waited for just a moment, then glanced at the redheaded devil who had said nothing the entire time. “Carnelia.”
The brachina, holding one of the staves that he’d recovered from Vystalaran – which told Lex all he needed to know about the role she’d played in this – stepped forward immediately. “Yes, Your Highness?”
“I want you to fortify this village’s defenses, preferably with minimal inconvenience to its inhabitants. Coordinate with Yotimo, Yura, and Long Road, and don’t hesitate to put any of those magic items to good use. Tell Agapay, Yamini, and Dima to assist you as well.”
“Understood.” She nodded once, then turned and marched toward the extradimensional mansion to go fetch the other three.
And Carnelia?
She didn’t pause, correctly surmising that his switching to telepathy meant that he wanted what he told her next to be private. Yes, lover?
Well done.
For a moment her gait wobbled, then she straightened up and kept walking. Of course.
Satisfied that she’d carry out his orders to the best of her ability, Lex turned his attention back to Mei Li, sensing her nervousness growing.
Standing upright, Lex held one claw out toward her.
Without hesitating, she walked over to him, placing one of her small hands within his grasp, not shaking in the slightest as he drew her closer. Despite how chaste the embrace was, it still caused a renewed round of murmurs to break out among the Pimao Jingzhi, as though he’d done something scandalous.
He paid them no mind, focused completely on Mei Li. “I’m pleased to accept a gift of such inestimable value,” he murmured, knowing it was what she wanted to hear. “Thank you, my wife.”
Relief, happiness, and gratitude all came over her then, clearly transmitted to him across their link despite how demure her smile was. “My husband honors me.”
“Always. Now, let’s bring your clan inside.”
Turning, he led her back toward the extradimensional mansion.
“We have much to discuss.”
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Lex is certainly making good use of his futuresight and he's getting better at charming his wives as time goes on. Still, I'm quite interested in these reversal of fortune Mei Li's clan had suffered and if they'll require Lex's intervention or not. Then again, he has his own problems to deal with, the most immediate of which would be ensuring the safety of the people under his protection.
Oh, and having a good long talk with his wives so his futuresight will be useful in avoiding stepping on verbal landmines which is honestly a silly use for such an ability.
Ah, so now we know the actual cause of Leroy Jenkins syndrome, or at least one of them. Makes sense.
Good thing Lex has that foresight, otherwise if that one had rolled a Crit fail on magical item supression, she wouldve dropped dead on the spot from shock?
11942471 In point of fact, while Lex can kill with fear (we saw him do just that, back in Chapter 867), he has to make a dedicated effort to do so; simply perceiving him isn't fatal to mortals (even if it is highly intimidating). The worrisome thing is if he loses control to the point of invoking killing fear without meaning to do so; hopefully that won't happen.
11942384 In point of fact, there's a bit of presumption on my part in this chapter about how "immunity to fear" items work, but that's largely because the d20 System doesn't model (NPC) character behavior to the point of charting personal impulses; fear is only utilized as a deliberate attack vector. Given that, the idea that anti-fear items (which are ridiculously cheap, since remove fear is a 1st-level spell; in fact, the magic item design rules in The Practical Enchanter tell us that not only should that item be even cheaper (1,400 gp instead of 2,000), but it can be made as a wondrous item, allowing it to be used with virtually any body slot, rather than having to be (yet another) ring) can modify personal behavior by encouraging recklessness didn't seem too far-fetched.
11942332 Lex can't understand the unspoken nuances of interpersonal communication, but between being able to view multiple possible futures (albeit only for the next few seconds) as well as read minds (though he needs justification to do that), he can effectively fake it very well. The result is that he can be personable, even charming, if he bothers to make the effort. At this point, it's mostly a question of him wanting to bother...and given his current mood, he apparently wants to now.
That's good for his relationships with his wives, but does leave open the question of what's going on with the Pimao Jingzhi; while it's too soon to say exactly what's going on with their clan, they seem to be having some troubles. Presuming there are no further disruptions to Mei Li's proposal to place them under Lex's authority (which he seems to be willing to go along with, now that he knows how much she wants that to happen), then those problems might very well become his problems.