As Cade knelt and broke down the slave collar he didn't absorb the energy instead he gave it to Asdith.
As the energy from Asdith's destroyed slave collar was absorbed into his body Cade watched the energy seep into the mage neurons of the lizard man's brain.
"What type of mage are you Asdith?" Cade asked with a smile that grew as the lizard man's expression changed from gratitude to shocked disbelief.
"I am no mage my lo... Cade." Asdith replied his shocked expression growing as Cade's smile fell into contemplation.
As his advisor dismissed a furious Duke Jance and his retinue Cade thought on the new mage in their family.
If he could change nonmages into mages should he? Was it his right to upset another's life with what could be a curse?
Following his wives into the kitchen he collected his kisses from his assembled wives, and a healed Nat and Eve.
A simple "good morning" went out to his aunts and an apron-clad Xandia as everyone sat down for a nice family breakfast.
The conversation at the table about their plans for today and their guest this morning created a humming background sound as he ate.
He was pulled from his existential crisis by Promena as she looked at him from her seat next to him with a worried expression on her face.
"You must decide as they come my love. Some deserve the power you offer and others do not. I have equipped you as best I could and you are more than capable enough to make those decisions. Now eat your breakfast, my love we have homes to build today." As his goddess kissed him after her soft speech Cade felt better about that particular problem.
His wife was correct, he could and would raise those who deserved it and reject those who didn't.
As he finished his food and joined in on the conversation Cade readied himself for another day of building homes for those that needed them. His abilities would improve people's lives that way and he could leave creating mages for later.
Backdoor deals
As Cade broke down the last of the buildings on this current block of housing he asked his walking companion a question that had been nagging him for a long while.
"Why are there no mage healers my love?" He asked Promena as she stood with him, her slim arm looped in his.
"I didn't see the need, my husband" she replied as she looked into his grey eyes with her blue ones.
That still threw him off, she had wanted to join him on his task for today, and after he had pointed out the issue of her being outed as the goddess of change at worst or continually assaulted by beggars and her faithful she had given herself a little makeover.
As his mind reeled a bit at the dichotomy from her real form that Cade had already begun to miss he looked at her face that was similar to her real one but had a few differences that would allow her to wave off anyone saying she was really her.
The long black hair that had replaced her silver locks was the biggest affront in Cade's mind. He missed the river of silver that usually cascade down her back, even after only a few hours after her makeover.
"If that wasn't a non-answer I don't know what is," Cade said with a small laugh as he completed the next building.
A companionable silence grew around them as Cade let his wife give him her real answer in her own time.
"Why do you want to know my Cade?" Promena asked with a conspiratorial smile.
"No all-knowing goddess powers this time sexy?" Cade asked with a smile as Mina and Beth filled their roles and escorted a small family of jaguar people out of their dilapidated home.
His work area now clear Cade let his power run on a tight leash as he waited for Promena's answer.
As the row of buildings came dissipated into pure energy Cade absorbed the power slowly, drawing out the next step still waiting on his goddess's answer.
"I like surprises sometimes my love. You will know the frustrations of being all-knowing and always aware of what has, is, and will happen soon enough. I am indulging myself at the moment so please tell me, why?"
After Promena's soft request Cade finished absorbing the flow of energy before he began to build the townhomes that would take their place.
"It seems odd to me that you have created every other type of mage that I could think of but that one type has escaped my knowledge. Kaz may have been a suicidal dick but his lessons from pumpkin... Sorry, Rista we're very thorough, and they never spoke of a healing mage or a nature mage in their lessons. I just wanted the answer from the source."
As Cade fulfilled his wife's request the last of the houses on this block were completed.
"The answer to that is simple and not at the same time. If I were to allow mage healers to exist the chance for one such as you to come into existence would grow in probability and I think this world would fall quickly to someone who would be nigh unkillable with an eighth of your power. The other side of the coin would allow the nobility and any other less savory individuals to extend their lives indefinitely if they had a slave that could heal at their beck and call. I would like to give you a tour of the worst of the rulers of this world sometime and you can see for yourself how good a fixed lifespan can be for the less fortunate."
Promena finished her explanation as they arrived at their next group of buildings.
As Mina and Beth joined them, their task unnecessary as the row of run-down homes were vacant.
A small empty shop next to the neglected homes caught his eye and Cade left that one alone as he obliterated the evidence of this cities poor treatment of its less fortunate citizens.
"I want to make hospitals," Cade said to his wives as the old buildings came down to be replaced by newer more modern homes.
These new buildings would stick out yes, their white paint and amenities would make him a small fortune but that wasn't his goal.
The many families he had seen had been on their last legs and if his help in giving them a home that wasn't rat-infested or falling down on top of them could help he would.
Even the small amount of rent he was asking for wasn't for him, the proceeds would go to the council of citizens elected by his tenants in this part of the city.
They would keep his dream for Opect going, the divide between the rich and the poor would always exist.
Some people had the drive to make more of themselves and that was ok with Cade but no one would ever have to live in this kind of squalor again not if he could help it.
"No healers means babies die that could have been great men or women, their accomplishments extinguished when they leave this world too soon. Grandparents whose knowledge could have helped their children and grandchildren make more of themselves if only they had lived a few more years. Parents whose untimely deaths leave their children alone in the world, adrift to be captured by others of a less wholesome persuasion, perverting their gifts for their own means and stifling progress for everyone in the process."
Tearing down the small shop Cade built instead an empty clinic, he hoped would be filled with the sick and injured waiting for their chance to be healed and given another chance to make a difference in this world.
As he completed the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) like healing bed in the back room of his clinic he turned to his wives expecting a talk about rose-tinted glasses.
As he stood in shock at the teary eyes that looked at him with near reverence he felt a presence fall over him as Promena stiffened.
"One second, please," she said before her eyes grew distant.
Cade was just about to go to her as Promena's eyes grew animated once more.
"That was a close one, now stop being so wonderful until you get stronger my love." She said as Cade, Mina, and Beth stared at her with questioning looks on their faces.
"No questions and I won't have to tell any lies, ok?" Promena said with false cheer.
That false cheer fell slowly as some limit was reached for Promena and her chin quivered before her eyes began to water.
As tears began to flow down her face Cade wrapped her in his ar
ms as she began to sob.
"You won't be taken from me, I won't let it happen. I've got you now and you are MINE!"
She said as she returned Cade's embrace with her own prodigious strength.
Cade thought he heard his metal bones creaking under his distraught wife's slender arms.
"I'm not going anywhere love, I've become a little attached to you. Kinda want you to have my babies too."
As Cade wheezed out his reply his other wives came to his rescue.
Encircling their goddess in a supportive hug Mina and Beth both went silent before Promena nodded and lowered her frantic hugs power from metal bending to only bone-crushing.
"Girl talk?" Cade asked his Dresk. A nod followed by a lingering kiss from Mina was her only reply.
As Promena captured his lips for a kiss that had him ready to practice making their babies Beth interrupted their make-out session with an attention-grabbing "ahem".
Turning to his dwarven wife with a smile his thoughts on her feeling left out of their little love triangle leaving him as Beth's gaze shifted from Cade to three large figures waiting in the shadows for them near their next street of run-down homes.
Cade grumbled to himself as his mood switched from amorous to protective as the three men walked towards him and his wives.
The three figures came into view Cade waited patiently, ready to deal with the street thugs if necessary.
"Calm yourself mage, we represent a group concerned with your activities that would like to speak to you."
The leader and speaker of the group was a large minotaur who looked down on Cade from his near ten feet of height.
"And why should I grant your group my time? I have already dealt with one audience with a rude individual with an overblown opinion of himself today. I hope you and your group have thought this through, my patience for fools today is at an all-time low."
As Cade finished his warning to the large man his irritation grew as he watched the minotaur's bovine features shift from prideful certainty of his position to rage as he absorbed what Cade had said.
"Choose your next words wisely or your bottom half will match the top." Cade cautioned the bovine slaver.
That fact had cemented his hate for the leader of the small group, the minotaur being Graft's second in command.
The short skim of the raging man's mind had delivered little else, his mental shield a less impressive twin to his bosses.
Cade was wavering on the decision of if he should dig deeper into the bull man's mind as he got the civil request he had wanted from the beginning.
"If we could have a moment of your time Mage Cade we believe our offer would benefit both our parties."
The minotaur whose name was Yan delivered his request in a respectful tone that Cade almost beloved if he couldn't feel the simmering rage coming off the man in waves.
Deciding to let the internal raging fire of the man lie, he would get his due along with the rest of the slavers in the city, Cade turned to his wives as they stood behind him.
"Go my husband I can fill in for you while you hear their offer," Promena said as she got the go-ahead from Mina and Beth as they nodded their assent.
"Any advice my love?" Cade asked his goddess.
"Bring Laurith, the threat of her displeasure will keep those who you will be negotiating with alive," Promena replied before a snort burst through her nose as she held back laughter.
What was his wife found so funny Cade sent a mental message to his dragon mate for her to come to him.
An afterthought as he received her lusty reply of "yes master" led Cade to try and contact Qetch, his uncle would be their first defender if someone attacked their home.
Cadee felt an intense sense of struggle seeped out of Qetch's mental shield as he tried to reach the naga.
Worried for his safety Cade created a spy eye on the ceiling of Qetch's room.
Cade dismissed the eye almost immediately as he caught a glimpse of Sharee's blissed-out face as she rode his uncle into his mattress while his aunts made out next to their husband and new wife.
Cade's whole head blushed purple as he laughed a little manically as the sight of Sharee's "O" face and his uncle's grimacing one was burned into his memory.
"Guess she likes fur and scales, can't say I blame her," Cade said to himself as he switched to Xandia for his next mental call.
"What can I do for you my son" Xandia answered with a sultry tone that blew his relief at her use of the familial word away.
"I need you to let Qetch know he is in charge of defending the house, I am going to be borrowing Laurith for a while. And give him my congratulations on his new mate if you would."
Cade gave his giggling Sabine a mental kiss and tweaked a pink nipple as he returned to his body after Xandia gave him her assurance that she would deliver the message.
A whoosh of air signaled Laurith's arrival and Cade felt a special kind of petty as a smile grew on his face as the three messengers cowered.
As a horse-sized Laurith landed next to him Cade was almost bowled over by her affectionate snout bump.
"I missed you too my pet, now if you are big and scary enough to keep these kind gentlemen's group from making me kill them I will give you a special gift."
An image of Laurith's human form's belly swollen with his child weakened his knees for a second as he fought to keep from agreeing immediately.
"That is going to happen regardless my pet now stop tempting me or I will punish you," Cade said as he gestured for a confused Yan to lead them to the meeting.
Laurith's growl spooked the three men as they reached the door of a large wooden warehouse that sagged against the city wall.
Cade chuckled as the idiot with a crossbow that had been aimed at him scrambled back from the edge of the roof.
His slight disappointment as no crash of the foolish man falling through the roof was set aside as the doors to the building opened.
Cade chuckled at the small group of grown men behind the door as Laurith leaped towards his back.
As the horse-sized dragon shrunk to her cat-sized self and landed lightly on Cade's shoulder he congratulated his mate on her quick thinking.
"A very special gift my pet" Cade said as he walked into the building, Laurith preening on his shoulder.
A group of six individuals sat at a long wooden table on a rickety wooden platform situated at the back of the massive warehouse.
A small wooden chair sat in front of them that Cade assumed was his time out spot.
Shrugging and giving Laurith a few scratches at the base of her small horns as an apology for almost unseating her Cade took the offered chair with a smile.
Gasps and a few clatters of chairs followed his dragon mate's actions as she leaped off of his shoulder and grew to fifty feet.
As she laid her large head next to Cade he smiled as he took in the frantic group that had summoned him here.
As he took in the group from left to right he remembered his Beth's descriptions of the leaders of the underbelly of this city.
The leader of the thieves guild a lizard man by the name of Trant was poised behind the table with a short sword in either hand.
Next to the slowly recovering thief he Cade was surprised to see the leader of the healers guild a jaguar woman named Grace.
Her knowing smile gave him pause, the woman had been mentioned in passing as they had planned their renovation of the slums.
Hoping her presence could be put to use he continued his inspection.
Finding the leader of the workers guild present at the table was no surprise.
The human man named Zag, Cade had been expecting to meet him sometime soon as he took over the jobs of his guild members.
The next famous face Cade saw as he moved his gaze was the leader of the smugglers guild in this city, a mermaid by the name of Brek.
The olive green completion and overly large eyes of the tall slim woman was his only clue as to her race.
No gills or f
ins gave away his ancestry as Cade looked at the tall woman's stricken face.
The next representative was by far the most striking and intimidating of the bunch.
The merchants guild leader in Opect was a troll by the name of Solec.
The massive man was dressed in a red and purple kaftan that was well-tailored.
The small black eyes that were set in the massive man's skull gave Cade the impression that the troll held much more intelligence than his past life's impressions of the stories told about the giant man's race.
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