Chronos, Chapter 21 (Patreon)

Chapter 21 – Contemplation

The normal schedule for tonight had gone out the window the moment I returned home. I was in a mood to celebrate my success, after all, and I had three lovely women at home who were only all too eager to offer their bodies to help with my celebration. So, I had some food delivered, so that I could spend all night ravishing my maids.

And ravish them I did. But, after they were all worn out, and fell asleep, I got up, and went to my study, so I could think. I didn’t bother stopping time, as there was no real need for it, right now. I just needed to sort out my thoughts, and plan the next step.

The deaths of Speedfreak and Bronze made for a better outcome than I had hoped for. Because of that, the Protectors were going to be on the back burner, temporarily, and I already had hooks in two of the Liberty Belles. I could afford to take it slow, focusing on fully corrupting Skye and Hannah, and growing my cult amongst the mundanes, at least until the Protectors were back at full strength.

I also had to make plans for Yasmeen’s departure in a few months. The contract would be up, and she’d be free to go, if she wished. However, I was definitely considering getting her to be my secretary. That would require her to be initiated, most likely, but I didn’t doubt I could convince her to take that step, if I decided I wanted her for that role.

But that also meant it was time to start looking for a new recruit for my household. Possibly more than one. The normal ‘rotation’ would be a little off-kilter if there were only two girls around, after all.

I’d found the girls through a site dedicated to helping young people from foreign countries come to the US for educational purposes, setting myself up as a ‘financial aid’ supplier, with limited spots available, for those students hoping to study at LCU, or other universities near the city. That setup had worked perfectly before, and I had no doubts that it would work again. After all, there were always young, beautiful women in foreign countries who would be willing to do almost anything to get a full ride through college, and there always would be, as long as colleges in the US were forced to be profitable, instead of being public institutions.

I focused on foreign girls, rather than Americans, for the simple reason that they were more vulnerable, and desperate, as a rule. They were in a foreign land, and perhaps didn’t speak the language terribly well, all while being far from home, and everyone they ever knew. And here I would be, giving them a place to live, taking care of their debt and more besides, and I spoke their language. Plus, I was just a ‘harmless cripple’, yes?

Meanwhile, someone from the local city would have too many people who would know if they started changing, and their coming to be my live-in maid would be noticed. People would ask questions, which I’d rather avoid. And if they didn’t get answers to those questions, they could cause problems if they weren’t silenced, somehow. Too much of that, and the feds would definitely notice me, more than they had. So, foreigners it was.

Yasmeen had a business degree, and Raquel had her computer science degree. Yu-Ni, however, had only just started studying for her degree in chemistry. Ideally, I would like to find new ‘recruits’ who were looking to major in things that would teach skills that would be useful to me. A pre-law major, perhaps, or maybe a doctor? A thaumaturgy major would also be useful, as an assistant.

On second thought, Yasmeen’s talents were wasted on her being a mere secretary. I’d seen her grades, and knew how intelligent she was. I could find secretaries easily enough. I could go to the University tomorrow, and talk with some of my friends there. I’m sure that they would know some promising young students who were set to graduate, with a load of debt and no prospects. Yes, they wouldn’t be too hard to persuade.

I wouldn’t use Yasmeen as a secretary, no. She’d be my business manager. Being effectively immortal, I had built up quite a portfolio over the years. After all, it didn’t count as changing the past if I went and bought 1% of Apple or IBM before they got big, and there were some businesses that I owned outright. Oh, they were all owned by shell companies that were happy to let things run as they had been, since I stayed out of the way, unless something needed to be done.

However, that also meant that my holdings were a mess. I hadn’t had a business manager for some time, and I knew there was a lot of work that would need to be done, if I didn’t want things to come back and bite me. Yasmeen would be perfect for that role, once I initiated her, and bound her to me in a more permanent fashion.

That still, however, left me with the need to replace her, when she had moved from being Head Maid to Business Manager. Raquel would be the new Head Maid, of course, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t need a new maid. So, with that in mind, I went back to the website I always used, and put in the ‘scholarship offer’.

While I was at it, I went ahead and sent an email to my friend, Max. He was one of the tenured professors in the Thaumaturgy department at the University. He was also a hundred-and-fifty-year-old werewolf, though only a few staff members knew that.

We’d first met in the spring of 1941, in England. Well, he first met me, then. I first met him in 1968, when we were both students at Stormshadow University, one of the premier magical academies in the US. But he remembered me from those days in England, twenty years before.

He had joined the war, drafted. Part of some secret unit of supers that worked to try and stop the German supers. They’d been redeployed to England, in preparation for the Normandy landings a couple months later. He was on Omaha Beach, but that would be a bit later.

Me? I was playing tourist in time, since I technically wasn’t born yet, and wouldn’t be for another forty years. But there was nothing against me going back and witnessing the past, so long as I didn’t change anything. The Vigilants were watching me, of course, making absolutely sure I didn’t go and change anything. The Geas I was under reassured them, a little, but that didn’t mean they got lax in their vigil. After all, if someone was suicidal enough to alter time, potentially wiping out their very existence for some greater good, then what was a bit of pain in the process? No, they kept me under constant watch.

At any rate, Max and I met at the Forbidden Chambers, a pub run by the supernatural types. Invisible to mundanes, and warded against their entry, hence the name. A place where wolves could be wolves, vampires could get a drink, and a mage could do a bit of spellwork without worrying about causing a panic. Supers were known, after all, but it wouldn’t be until after the War that their numbers spiked up, worldwide.

It was the night of the full moon, so Max had been on liberty, and went to the pub to get his shift out of the way in a safe space, without rampaging across the English countryside. I was just enjoying a pint while on my vacation, when he, still in his wolfman form, sat down next to me. He ordered the Full Moon Special, a nifty concoction one of the Brit alchemists whipped up. Kept him sane and safe to be around during the full moon, so long as he drank one every few hours.

Max, he immediately knew I wasn’t from around there. I was an American, obviously, from my accent, and the bad knee, cane, and lack of uniform all said I wasn’t a soldier. He figured me for a mage, but knew I was a time traveler when I offered him a smoke. Pack had a manufacturing date on it, and a wolf’s eyes were easily able to pick that much out.

We chatted some, and eventually he asked a bit of a favor. The whole damn army knew that there was going to be an invasion of the mainland. Didn’t know where or when it would happen, but they all knew it was coming. And, not being an idiot, he was looking for some assurances for his unit. They were all wolves, vamps, and a couple other supernaturals, but none of them were mages.

I’d nodded, and said I could help him out with something. Wouldn’t win the war, and wouldn’t change history, or anything like that. But it would help keep him, and his unit, alive, at least through the worst part.

In the end, I made enough single-use talismans to protect his unit during the immediate chaos of the invasion. Once activated, the talisman would burn a tattoo into their flesh that would convey an immunity to bullets and drowning. They could activate the talisman on the boat, and receive the protection from it for thirty hours, before it ceased. That would last them through the landing, and most of the fighting. The tattoo would remain, but it would be just a normal tattoo after the magic was spent.

I chuckled, as I thought back on those memories. I couldn’t really take credit for the inspiration on the talisman, or the way it functioned, but, in a way, I could. After all, I first got the idea from listening to Max tell me about how I’d helped his squad.

Since then, we’d worked together more than once, and counted each other friends. He had actually been inspired to study magic because of our first meeting, and meeting him had inspired me to go on a tour of history. More importantly, he was one of the few people who knew I was a Time Mage, and kept that secret. We kept in touch, and traded favors, but he was more focused on being Alpha of the local werewolf pack, and teaching, which he'd discovered a passion for.

I knew he’d probably figured out that I was Chronos. How many Time Mages could there be living in the same area, after all? I also knew that he wouldn’t turn me in or act against me, unless I went against his pack, first, and most wolves didn’t like the idea of being superheroes. Their instincts rebelled against the idea of just catching your prey and… turning them over to people who weren’t pack, and hadn’t helped in the hunt.

Even as supervillains, werewolves didn’t really fit in. Their wolf didn’t want to plot, or scheme. The wolf wanted to hunt. And if they started letting the wolf hunt humans, then the wolf would want to kill, and eat. Those wolves usually got put down before too long. Otherwise, they would be a threat to the pack, and that was not allowed.

No, the wolves were content to live and let live, just so long as you didn’t intrude on their territory, or become a danger to the pack. And they wouldn’t come to rescue the humans, unless the threat was also a danger to the pack. Too much bad blood there, going back too long.

That was true all over, of course, but in America, it was definitely worse than abroad. A wolf could live to be five hundred, if he managed to die of old age, though most only lived to about three centuries. Which meant that there were still wolves alive who remembered the Government signing treaties with them, like they did the other natives, and how those treaties were ignored the second they were inconvenient. And they definitely remembered the Culling Times.

“Master? What are you doing?”

I looked up from my daydreams of the past to see Yasmeen standing there, naked as I was, rubbing her eyes sleepily. “Sorry, my pet. Couldn’t sleep. But come in. There are things I’d like to discuss with you.”