*** Queen Yumanea ***

"Alzi is back?" I ask.

"Yes, dear," Nesh says.

"I need..."

"Stop!" Nesh says, pushing me back down into my chair. "You have to stop."

"No, the Queendom is a mess right now. I can't just sit here and wait for it all to collapse. I have..."

"You have three wives left! I'm barely keeping it together. Lotus... She's a mess, but she's stuck in a cell, doing what she can to smile when you come around. Rosemary cares more about her work than her family, so she's doing just fine. You just lost your husband to another family. You have to stop running and face it. Just for a bit. You have to think or you're going to run yourself into the ground."

"Maybe I want to," I say. "Maybe that's what is best. I failed everyone. I had Alzi put a damn kid in me! I had a champion's fucking kid and let her get raped and abused for years! Why shouldn't I just work myself to an early grave? I basically tricked her into helping Elora get her shit together enough to take over. With that, I can hobble this Queendom to the next Queen and leave the world. Alzi won't care about me being around. She'll be happy I'm gone."

Nesh rubs her head and lets me sit here. I'm sure Alzi has an actual reason to be back in this world with her main body. She shouldn't have time for me. I have to work into her schedule.

"What about Irlo? Think Alzi will be happy another set of her kids won't have a Mother or Father? She was willing to save Esiyae just so her kids would have both parents. You did worse to Alzi, but you changed when Esiyae couldn't. You raised Irlo well so far. But no, Alzi will miss you. Sure, she won't care about having you as a wife. But she will miss you helping her raise Irlo and your newest child. You showed you can be a good Mother, and you will be one, even if you messed up on the ones before Irlo. We messed up on the ones before. But we have shown that Irlo will have good parents. We'll do that. I promise. Don't break yourself. Not when Irlo still lights up when she sees you. She'll miss you."

"Will she? Will Irlo really care about me?" I ask.

"Yes," Nesh says. "Yes, dear. Sit and wait. We can take today off. Just rest with me till Queen Alzi is ready to hear the proposal. We hurt Alzi and need to work to atone for that. But we can be hurt as well, and we are. We loved them. Sure, it was different for both of us, but we did love them, and they're gone. The war is over. Now is when we cry for them."

"Ok," I say. I've lost wives before. Several wives before. But so many, all at once. "I miss them."

"I do too," Nesh says, joining me on the chair. "I do too."

*** Alzi, main body ***

"Should I stay behind, my Mistress?" Sarania asks.

"If you want to," I say. "Could be nice. I do have to learn how to control myself when you two are around. But if you're tired, get some rest."

"I'll watch over Eterna, my Mistress," Sarania says. "How fast did she fall asleep?"

"Almost immediately," Fyserreia says. "Alzi put it in, and she orgasmed and fell over."

"I'll have to figure out what is going on with her," I say. "She really can't handle my bed. Now, we need to get cleaned up and dressed, then get to Nanoka and my Goddesses. We probably won't be able to do much today. I have to handle something else before I can fix everything with Tanatsu, but I can show I'm working for her still. She did risk herself for this."

"You're too kind, my Mistress," Sarania says. "You're a Queen. She's lucky you're going to do anything ever for her. Please don't spend all day there, and Fyserreia, pay attention to our Mistress. Make sure she's fine. She's dealt with a lot of blood today, and you have to keep her from pushing herself too far. For dinner, we need both bodies at the dinner table. Alzi promised Radelai that she could see both bodies. Then we have to be ready for Syro at night and to leave tomorrow. Ioelena has warned her parents that Queen Alzi will be visiting tomorrow to talk to the pixies and fairies."

"Kou? Is that you?" I ask. "Now I'm just going to walk out naked!"

"No, you are not! My Queen," Kou says. Was she pretending to be Sarania? No, I have two succubuses here. When did Sarania get that organized? "I agree with what Sarania has said, but I can handle getting you to places correctly. Fyserreia just needs to tell the right information to my silly sister, and then we can come back for lunch! Queen Yumanea has things she needs to talk to you about. We need to handle the Mistress. She's still living. Then Elora. I think you have one more marriage on the way, My Queen."

"Of course," I sigh. "I should fuck Love during that wedding. Would be funny."

"You would be the only one to know, my Queen," Kou says.

"No, the Priestesses would know. It would be funny forcing them to stand there knowing I just impregnated their Goddess after so many complaints. It would be funny. Probably shouldn't do it, but it would be funny."

"Yes, standing across from a Queen, fucking a Goddess, and then marrying the Queen would be funny. But you do not need to plan getting women outside the marriage or house pregnant! You have enough women here to handle, my Mistress," Sarania says. "Now, stand up. Shyla is feeding her baby, so you have to deal with Kou dressing you."

"Ok," I say. I do have Fertility that needs another kid, and then Space soonish. I can just tease Love about it. She doesn't really deserve a child from me after that divorce shit she pulled on me, even if the divorce was useless in the end.

Sarania cleans me off, and Kou wraps me in a robe and puts out some sandals for me.

Nanoka pops in, holding Luck and Destruction in her arms. "Ok, warning, do NOT tell Tanatsu I'm pregnant till she's done complaining about you taking forever to see her again. We don't need her thinking she can add her mana to her complaints. She may not fully understand we have two goddesses coming along, and I don't want anything bad to happen. She can get animated when upset. I'll punish her for anything crazy she says. She doesn't have much respect for queens. But ready to go?"

"I can hold the babies," I say. These two really are growing fast. They look older than Fluvis's twelve now. They still demand milk, and I'm too weak to say no. I'm expecting their first words any day now. Hopeful it isn't some ancient curse they accidentally mutter.

Once my babies are in my arms, we appear in Tanatsu's scary lab. She doesn't really react to us showing up. I think she's filling the strange box with mana, so we shouldn't have to worry about a fight.

"What the fuck do you want?" Tanatsu asks. "Coming to watch the ant?"

"Sorry for my long absence, but it was worth it," I say. "I got some help from the Goddess of Dragons for healing the mana and soul issues. Then Fyserreia here has practice with the gates. We won't be able to do anything today, but soon we should have her up and walking outside of the box. If we could see her, so Fyserreia can make sure what she wants to do would work?"

"Soon?" Tanatsu asks.

"Dear, remember to be nice. Alzi is risking a lot to help you, and she is going to help you. I know that. If she says soon, then it will be soon. Alzi knows what it is like to have her dreams dangled in front of her. I know it hurt for us to not come by for a while, but I warned you a lot was going on. This takes focus to work on. Alzi is just making sure your wife will make it through this. I promise she will. She's even bringing Goddess to check in on everything."

Tanatsu's eyes go wide when she finally takes in the two golden-haired kids in my arms. I guess my new wings, tail, and horns had her attention before. Silly girl. Should I bring Elora's kid around and have three goddesses?

"We could just do it," Fyserreia says. "I've got more healing with Alzi than I ever had before when doing these. You've got the dryad in the corner and the elf. More than enough to get her up and going. I'm sure the mana and soul issues won't be hard to fix. Get her out of the box at least."

"But, but, but you promised," the Dryad says. "I let her fill me with those things. I. You promised."

"I did kind of promise I wouldn't kill her," I say. "We just have the ant to work with. She's my extra practice for healing the mana and soul issues. Is one enough? I could just sacrifice Talindra or go and grab my Aunt."

"One is fine," Fyrserreia says. "Just surprised that after a war with Nature you're going to save one of her people."

"A bit strange," I say. "But she hasn't directly hurt me. I'm just going to use her for a test. Is it going to take a long time to do the switch? I do want my shadow around to watch."

"You're kind of needy, my Mistress," Fyrserreia says. "The long part is cutting to the gates and healing the woman after it gets put together. Are you good at that part?"

"From the top," I say. "I was thinking I would need to come from the back for it to work."

"Kou, take the kids," Fyserreia says. "Nanoka, if you could please? We just flip the idiot over, and they'll fall. I'll show you how to get them to fall. Tanatsu, you need to be prepared to control the extra mana. And Goddesses, if you could cover us from the less refined Goddesses. I need to see the one we're improving."

"You got healed and really perked up," I say, handing the clapping babies over to Kou.

"I'm pregnant. I don't think I've ever been better fed, my Mistress," Fyrserreia says. "I'll probably crash at dinner, but I'm fine till then. We need to see the patient."

"You promise she'll make it?" Tanatsu says. "You promise?"

"Yes," Luck says.

"Your first words are 'yes.' Oh, my little girl is growing up! I heard her first words! I love you, my little baby. Let's do this. Tanatsu, you have to trust the Goddess! You're not ignoring my baby's first word."

I shower my little girl in kisses and ignore Tanatsu and whatever stupid look she has on her face right now. I hope the ant being passed out in the corner isn't going to cause any issues. He must be just fried from being away from me for so long. It'll make it easier to cut.

"So what do we do?" I ask. "I can cut to the ant's gates easy enough. I haven't tested it on her before, but I can do it. I've practiced enough with cutting people."

"That's more than I had before," Fyserreia says. "Good, you finally got your brain working. Now, shall we start? She's weak, so start with the ant. I'll hold it over her."

"Ok."

I'll need to keep Fyserreia on a tight leash. She seems a bit too happy to be breaking the rules, even if I'm happy as well.