A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

"Eh?" Naeku muttered when she looked at the approaching, mind-controlled Aaron with surprise.

Erik, however, ignored him for now, and focused on his family. "Hello, my loves," he greeted his wives with a soft smile before kissing them one by one. "I'm glad you're all alright."

In response, Emma smiled softly, Emily snorted proudly, and Astrid grinned victoriously. "Of course, we are!" Astrid exclaimed while beating her chest in a huff. "Anyone who underestimates your wives will be in for a grim awakening!"

Naeku suddenly raised an eyebrow and turned her attention from Aaron back to Erik and his family. Apparently, this was the first time she realized their exact relationship, and also that this entire group existed of women.

Meanwhile, Erik chuckled in agreement to Astrid words while he turned to a still somewhat bloody Alice and crouched down to her height. "And you, too, little Alice," he smiled at her. "I hope you enjoyed yourself."

"It was great, Father," Alice grinned viciously. She was still in her wereverine form, and busy cleaning her claws from blood, something she didn't do before because of the remaining tension. "It felt good to finally kill some hunters!"

"That's my girl," Erik chuckled proudly while rustling the fur on her head. Alice grinned happily and leaned into his touch.

Naeku was a little surprised at Alice's behaviour, but not too much. It wasn't the first time she'd seen a child like this. Even before the awakening it wasn't uncommon for shapeshifter children to be more inclined to fighting, while viewing death as a natural part of life.

Finally, Erik turned to his servants and nodded at them with a grin. "And of course I'm happy you are alive as well. Did you enjoy the new weapons?"

Nora grinned widely and nodded as she shouldered her large axe, "I need to practice more, Master, but the weapon itself is great!"

She quickly received agreement from Anne, who swung her one-handed sword softly back and forth. "Yeah," she nodded while marvelling at her sword. "We could never create something like this back in Frostvik. Thank you, Master."

Seraphina, too, nodded, although she had her sword strapped to her back already. She remained quiet, however. Their last real interaction was when he'd given her the sword, but it was clear Seraphina was still having some issue with adjusting to her new situation.

Yet, Erik understood. Her pride was hurt, and she needed some time to work through it, which he was fine with giving her. For now, anyway. Eventually, he'd need to start growing closer to her so he could convince her to join him on a more permanent basis, in whatever capacity that would be.

So, he turned back to Naeku and spread his arm towards the women next to him. "Naeku, let me introduce you to my wives, my adopted daughter, and my family's servants."

A quick round of introductions followed after which Naeku smirked slightly at him. "You really are a scoundrel, huh? I suppose I should be careful, lest you entrap me, too."

Before Erik could answer, Emily grinned suggestively, "Are you sure it's not already too late?"

"Pretty sure," Naeku chuckled slightly, but then her face fell again as she became serious. "Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you all, but can you tell me what's going on with this guy?" she asked, while pointing at the dead-eyed Aaron.
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She still had some questions and confusion about their family situation, especially with some of Erik's supposed wives calling him Master, but she decided to table that discussion until they were at least underway to their next destination.

Wherever that was.

"Oh, that's just the handywork of my little shadow," Erik grinned proudly as he turned to Emily. "Which reminds me, this is your first time enslaving a third ranker, isn't it? How do you feel?"

Emily's face showed a little bit of strain, but mostly she seemed fine as she shook her head with a comforting grin, "I'm fine, Master. Your preparations were crucial, and I certainly can't enslave a second one, or keep this one for long, but I'm fine for now."

"Good," a relieved Erik nodded. Meanwhile, Naeku frowned a little with concern and looked at Emily with caution, "Enslavement…?" Clearly, the idea of forced enslavement did not sit well with her, despite Aaron's obvious evil nature.

"That's right," Emily grinned mischievously at her obvious objections. "But if you'd like to conscientiously object, you can just not participate in the questioning. I'm sure his knowledge would barely save any of your people's lives."

"I—" Naeku started, but then closed her transformed mouth again, and fell silent with a difficult expression. Her gaze flickered between Aaron, Erik, and Emily, while the rest quietly awaited the end of her inner turmoil. Mostly, it was her conscience waging war against her duty to her people.

But in the end, not entirely unexpectedly, it was duty that won out. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Ugh, dammit. I guess war really does make monsters of us all…"

"That's the spirit!" Emily grinned tauntingly. "Join the dark side!"

Erik and the others laughed softly, while Naeku was quite obviously not amused. Yet, in the end, they all turned to Aaron to find out his secrets.

* * *

About half an hour later, a transformed Nora took off from the battlefield with a dark orb in her claws. Once again, everyone had taken shelter in the dimension, while leaving one of Erik's servants to carry them around.

Behind her in the dust lay the corpse of a man missing his head. After they'd extracted all he knew, Erik had recreated his actions from earlier, by using his hammer to punt Aaron's head like a golf ball.

Of course, before that, he had Emily give the man his mind back, so that he would actually know what was coming. After that, his head was quick to launch into the forest with a wide arc, landing somewhere unknown and likely to become a nutritious meal for some beast.

Unfortunately, they couldn't keep him around, despite the obvious advantage to having a powerful enslaved third ranker with them. It was simply impossible for Emily to keep him enslaved for that long.

Thus, Erik and family moved on to their next destination: Runa.