Midas Journal 28

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Entry: May 27

The night after I wrote that last entry, Brie came to my place. I told her about what happened Monday, and she looked excited when I started talking about the dragon. At the end she said, “So you know a dragon now? That's so cool.”
“You, uh, like dragons?” I said. “I could probably introduce you if you want.”
“Heehee, maybe.” She reached up and ran her fingers across my ears. “It's just—there are stories of stories of people talking to dragons, but it's all so distant, like they're just legend and may not even be real—or, not real anymore. To be able to just hang out with one anytime you want is something else.” About at this point, I noticed my hair was getting a little long.
“Oh..uh, are you..?” I said, tugging at it.
“Mm-hm!” She pecked me on the lips and then I felt her tail brush against mine for a moment, which drew a shiver across my body and a gentle tingling all over. “I told my power to change you a little bit every time I touch your fur,” she added with a wink. My fur softened and my body hair disappeared, and I shrank a little bit.

“Always trying something new, huh?” I said, pulling her into a hug and rubbing her ears back in return.

“Rrf! Well,” She pulled back just enough to look me in the eyes. “Can't let it get boring, right?” Her tail brushed against mine, and my hair grew while I shrank a little more. “I mean, isn't your power just fun? It's exciting, watching someone change, right?”
“I uh...it certainly sticks in my memory,” I said, and heard that my voice had changed a little bit.

Brie pulled me into a longer, deeper kiss, rubbing my ears again. I heard my voice pushing up higher and higher until she finally let go, and I was already girl-size, my clothes threatening to fall off of me.

“Come on, Kael. You don't have to worry about me getting jealous. I can appreciate the kind of beauty your power produces too, you know.” Her tail ran across mine again, and I yipped softly, shivering and feeling a slight tug between my legs. “It's exciting, seeing the look on their face when they realize they're changing, and then after a while they start to enjoy it..! Right?”
“I—yeah,” I admitted, feeling the blush already on my face brighten. “It's..I-I try not to think of it that way, but...I'm always eager to see what's coming next.”
“Heehee, think of it that way aaalll you want, dear,” she said, starting to rub my ears again and curling her tail around mine. I barked softly, feeling the change accelerate; she leaned in a little closer again. “I know I do.”

With that, she started nuzzling me and I nuzzled back, feeling my body soften and my sex gently change. I let out a soft “Aah~!” as my chest pushed its way out into hers and my clothes shrank to fit me, and she replied with a pleased yip, pushing me over onto my back with my head on the armrest again. We ended up petting each other for about the next hour before finally getting hungry and going out to eat, and since Lue had called an “all girls” pack meeting the next day we agreed to just stay Kaela and Brie for the moment.

I went to that meeting right after school with no idea what to expect. Lue had just said she had a “nice surprise” for everyone along with wanting to discuss “pack policy”, whatever that meant. Brie arrived about the same time I did, and I went up to knock on the door.

Instead of Lue or one of her parents, a stranger opened the door, a short werewolf girl with really long red hair. “Uh, hi, welcome. Come on in,” she said awkwardly, and the reason was obvious: She had on some kind of fetish maid outfit! She waved, and added, “Alpha's...in the back.”

I looked at Brie, whose expression suggested she was just as confused as I was, and then went in, around the...maid girl, to confront her about this as quickly as possible. “LUE!”

She appeared right away. “Oh hi there!” she said cheerfully, ignoring me crossing my arms and glaring at her. “I see you've met our new omega? Roan, this is Kaela and Brie; you two, Roan.”
“Uh..h-hi,” she repeated, turning toward us.

“What did you do,” I demanded, feeling my ears fold back against my head. I was pretty sure Roan sounded like a guy's name on top of everything else.
“Hmn? Roan wanted to join the pack, so I gave her the usual test,” she said innocently.
“I'm talking about that,” I said, waving at the state of dress she was in.
“I've been trying to learn magic lately, starting with clothes-morphing spells,” she said. “You like it? I think it's super cute!”

I was going to respond to that, probably in some way that involved a lot more shouting, but I heard Roan giggle at this point, and looked over at her to see her blush had just brightened from that...compliment? And she had her hand up to her mouth, trying to stifle more laughter. Then I looked back at Lue. “Okay, seriously, what is going on here.”

She responded by actually laughing, out loud. “Haa~hahah!” She kept it up long enough to make it awkward, Roan joining her in it about halfway through. Brie and I shared another confused glance while she finally picked herself up from being doubled over in laughter. “Ooh, oh La Lune; I need a minute. C'mon, this way,” she waved, and started toward the living room.

“Sorry Kaela, it's just—you make the funniest faces when you're all righteously indignant, and then confused.” She turned around and fell back onto a couch. “I mean—I knew you'd overreact, but didn't expect it to go quite that way.” Roan followed us inside, and sat next to her, looking a little like she didn't know what to do with her legs.

“So can we have that explanation now, or after another half hour of you laughing?” said Brie.

“Okay okay. So—like I said, Roan wanted to join the pack so I gave her the usual test.”
“Um, I'm actually a guy,” Roan added, trying to be helpful.
“Yep! Well, not right now, but you know what she means.”
“Yeeeah...so, how..?”
Lue just grinned. “Remember when I said there are ways? Not cheap ways, sure, but magic's got all kinds of wonders if ya know where to look.”

“And you...” I looked back and forth between them again.
“She knows a spell to turn someone's clothes into a maid outfit,” said Roan. “Um..m-my usual stuff didn't exactly fit me like this, and..”
“Let me guess, you didn't tell her it would make a maid outfit,” Brie finished.

“Yep! But putting it back on with an audience was totally Roan's idea,” she said.

“N-no it wasn't!” Roan protested. “It was your idea, but you were just joking until I agreed to do it.”
“Right, right. Anyway, we bought her a few other outfits after that, and this is really one of those,” said Lue. “So I'll turn it back after Chris gets here. Unless you want it to stay that way~..”
“Um...n-no, I think I'll be full enough on embarrassment as it is,” she said, looking away.

I sighed, and sat down on a chair; Lue was, after all, just being Lue. “So...omega, huh.” Brie looked at me for a few seconds before coming up and falling over on top of me. “Hey!”
“What, you don't like it?” she asked, pulling her arms around me and climbing up enough to put her cheek against mine.

“Fiine,” I agreed, returning the hug and feeling a blush run across my face. Lue seemed calm and happy as ever about this, but Roan looked surprised and possibly embarrassed for me. “So..omega?” I repeated.

“Yeah. Lue said, um, th-the most recent member to join is..?”
“Since that's what we basically decided last full moon,” said Lue. “But Chris seemed happy with the idea of being omega—at least in our pack—the last we spoke, so we're meeting partially to discuss ranking again.”

“Mnnh.” Brie leaned over past my head to turn and face the couch behind me. “Aand, the other parts?”
“Well, I just wanted to hang out with everyone again, since we had so much fun last time,” said Lue with a faux-innocent smile. “And maayybe show Roan my true form while we're at it.”

“Whoa, what? 'True form'?” Roan sat up; this was news to her.
“She means her werewolf form,” I said, deadpan. “It..is pretty different from how she looks as a human.”

“Boo, you're no fun,” said Lue, and then turned back toward Roan. “Actually, I'm a little curious what your wolfy form is like, after the potion's effects. Maybe you'll be willing to show me yours if I show you mine~?”
“Uh..m-maybe,” she said, looking away again. I guess some kind of potion was involved in turning him into a girl. And, now that I think of it, it must also include some way to go back, since she wasn't complaining about being stuck or anything like that...

At this point all of us could hear Chris walking toward the front door. Lue looked at Roan expectantly, and she stood up after hesitating for a second. “Yeah, I'll get it..”

The doorbell rang about as she reached the door, and she opened it. “Hey, uh..”
Chris gasped loudly. “Ooh, that is so cute! Where did you find that outfit?”
“Um..i-it's a...”
“Oh wait, I'm sorry. I didn't really introduce myself.” We heard the door shutting. “I'm Chris. Are you a neeew member of the pack?” I could practically hear her leaning forward during the word 'new'.
“Y-yeah. Roan.”

“Nice to meet you! Lue's in the living room right?”
“Uh-huh.”

After that, she ran inside, Roan walking up behind her. “Welcome back,” said Lue. “I'm glad at least someone appreciates my work.”

“Oh, did you make it?” she asked, tilting her head. “I didn't know you could sew..”

“It's a clothes-morphing spell,” I said.

“They have those?!” And then in the same breath, at Lue: “Can I try?”

“Well, you're awfully eager,” she said teasingly.
“Heheh...” She blushed and nervously tapped her fingers together. “It just looks so cute..”

“Well...we should probably discuss our main business first,” Lue said, patting the seat next to her that Roan hadn't been in a minute ago. After Chris bounced over to take a seat, Roan fidgeted in confusion for a second before Lue waved her over, and she hesitated a second longer before coming to sit down again.

“So. The last time we discussed ranking, we more or less agreed that it should be based on seniority. This makes Roan here the new omega,” said Lue, patting the red-haired girl's head (which visibly flustered her even worse). “As far as I'm concerned, rank isn't and never should be very important in this pack. Well—except for me being the boss and Kaela or me approving any prospective new members, anyway. So...I would like to ask everyone's opinion on coming up with a new policy.”

“No objections here,” said Brie. “But I don't want to be an omega, even if it is just a title.”

“Um, I-I don't really want to be omega either,” said Roan quickly. “If I'm..being honest. I mean, I will if I need to, but...”

“Noted, noted,” Lue said. “This leaves only two options, but there is the small problem that before anyone else was in the pack I declared Kaela to be beta.”

“Well, I don't mind being omega,” said Chris. “I'm just glad to be a—um...to be in the pack at all!” I'm pretty sure she was going to say 'glad to be a werewolf'.

“Okay then. Until we make some other decision, Chris can be omega and we won't worry about specific rankings beyond the three already established. Aaand..” Lue spoke a spell, poking Roan gently in the shoulder. The maid headband disappeared from her head, the stockings shrank into normal socks, and her dress split apart at the waist, shrinking into a t-shirt and jean-shorts. She breathed a small sigh of relief, I imagine from not being in such a short skirt anymore. Then Lue faced Chris and cast a different spell, waving her hand and morphing her clothes into a similar maid-outfit. “..There. What do you think?”

“Oooooh~! I love it! Howdoesitlook?”

“Adorable~.” Lue rubbed the top of her head some. “You know, we could declare an unofficial tradition that the maid outfit belongs to the omega if you want. Sound like fun?”
“Sure!”

“Well, that's all the 'official' business I had tonight. But we could take some time to hang out, hmn?” Lue said, looking around the room again with an eager grin. “I'd hate to only get to see all my girls once a month, after all~.”

“Some of us aren't 'yours',” I reminded her with a touch of annoyance.
“Or, always 'girls' either,” Roan joined in.

“Exactly!” She hopped up. “So let's have some fun with it!”

It never specifically occurred to me before, but it's pretty obvious that Lue's parents are actually pretty rich. Maybe at least one of them has a really high-paying job, or maybe her “old self” left them a lot of money; maybe both? I say this because she clearly had no experience with video games before that night she invited me to join the pack, but now she revealed a brand-new system with five or six different multiplayer games loaded on it. In other words, she got them to buy all that for her in the span of about two weeks. Besides that, she'd been practicing. I get the impression that having an “alpha mentality” comes with some kind of instinctive competitive streak, and losing to me so much back then bugged her more than I thought at the time. Well, at least this is a safer outlet than physically fighting people (not that I think she'd lose there, either).

Back on the subject of Lue's rich family, though, she also ordered a bunch of pizzas in without batting an eye when it got close to suppertime. And then after demanding everyone put the controllers down when it got there, she revealed an extensive collection of anime hiding in one of the cabinets in her living room. I've never personally been big into that stuff, but I feel like learning this about her kind of explains a lot. From her descriptions while asking us which one to watch, it seems like it covers the whole spectrum from high-octane action to comedy to romance...including some stuff I don't think she had any business seeing before turning eighteen, but I won't go into that too much. One other thing: She was her usual confident self in every way when she first opened the cabinet door, but I could swear I saw the tiniest hint of embarrassment or nervousness in her face and ears right then. Maybe her “old self” would've never been interested in that stuff at all and felt it was a little weird, but I feel more like the “new self” always kept it a secret; either one could explain why this didn't ever come up before. Brie and Roan, who already knew her before we met, seemed surprised by it, at least.

It didn't take long for everyone to vote on one of the ones she labeled “comedy”, and we kept watching even after all of the pizza was gone—which I was a little shocked was even possible for five people in one night to do. Chris and Lue tied for the most slices and, again, I wonder if it turned into a competition for her at some point. I mean, every time she saw Chris keep getting up to get more she would yell “Hey, bring me one too!” But maybe I'm overthinking it and she really was just that hungry; I mean, she didn't exactly seem to get sick from eating it all.

At the end of one episode, Lue stood up suddenly and overdramatically declared, “I can wait no longer!”
“Um, what are you talking about?” said Brie.
“I've only been getting more curious since you brought it up,” she said, turning to face Roan, “I have to see what you look like as a werewolf.”
“I brought it up?” she said. “Didn't you..?”
“Please?” she continued, as if Roan hadn't even responded.

“Well—fine, I guess. I dunno why it's a big deal.” She stood up too, stretching slightly and getting ready to change forms.
“Hey! Wait a second. You should probably at least get rid of your bra first, silly.” she said.

“Uh—what.” Roan stopped in her tracks, entirely confused by this suggestion.

“In case your bust size changes,” Brie said bluntly, “like it does for almost all of us. Well, I think Chris is about the same..?”
“Yep!”
“Wa-wait, that really happens? I-I thought that was just something perverts told each other,” she said.

“Just because it is doesn't keep it from being true,” said Lue. “And a practical concern. Now, you don't want to mess up your brand new clothes or get all squeezed into them, do you?” She leaned forward like she was going to stick her hands under Roan's shirt and unhook it herself.
“I-I can do it myself!” she protested, taking several steps back before turning around to go to the hallway and continue on to Lue's bedroom. “Lemme have some privacy for a minute!”

Once she had closed a door slightly violently behind her, Lue muttered, “Spoilsport.”

“Awh, she'll get used to it eventually,” Brie said quietly. “This is just another sign she likes you, y'know.”

“W-what? I don't care if she likes me,” our alpha said. After a second she realized she'd said it like that, and tried to amend it: “I mean. Past being friends and pack-mates of course.”

“Are you sure about that?” I said, not passing up an opportunity to tease her for once. She just growled quietly, looking away and visibly trying in vain to not blush a little bit.

It took a few minutes for Roan to come back. I could pick up the movement of clothes, and occasional frustrated growls. Eventually she returned, already in werewolf form—and wearing nothing but a pair of boyshorts, which had probably been her underwear all along. The first thing I noticed about her werewolf form was how tall it was—still nowhere near Lue's incredible stature, but taller than mine or Brie's, for sure. Her fur is mostly a slightly darker red than her hair, with a brighter shade than it along her underside. There was some very visible muscle to her in werewolf form; it gave me the impression her strength was probably second only to Lue's too. And...her bust was indeed noticeably bigger in that form.

“You came back!” Lue said happily, standing up again to greet her.

“Hmph.” She was holding her arms awkwardly over her huge chest, as if still trying to cover them up; her blush was visible even through the red fur, which I wouldn't have even thought was possible. “A-all my clothes are too tight to even put on,” she said. “Why are girl clothes so tiny?!”
“What happened to your boy clothes?” said Brie.

“I left them at home!”

“Awh, I was hoping I'd actually get to see you change,” said Lue, coming around next to her and more or less ignoring the complaints. “Maybe next time. I bet you're just as tall as you would be as a boy, right?”
“Y-yeah,” she said. “This almost feels normal, except for everything.”

Lue put a hand on one of the arms still crossed over her chest and gently pushed it down to her side. “C'mon, we're all girls here. There's no need to be embarrassed. Everyone else has already seen each other fuzzy anyway.” She pulled the other arm down too; it seemed like she was having an easy enough time that Roan had to be letting her do it. “And we have a no-shirt policy on full moons, you know.”

“S-s-s-seriously!?” At this point, Roan was looking at the rest of us in astonishment.

“Yeeah,” said Brie, in a tone that made it clear it wasn't a big deal. “Look, werewolf fur is thick enough to cover up, and clothes really like to get caught on it even if they are loose enough to fit. Do you seriously put a shirt on during the full moon as guy? Or anything besides underwear?”

“Well, n-no. But, but I don't have..!”

“Hey!” I said finally, getting a little tired of this. “Look Roan, nobody really wants to make you feel uncomfortable the whole night, Right Lue?”

“You're right,” she said, even apologetically lowering her ears a little bit.

“I can get something that'll fit over you, okay?” I know a spell for conjuring things out of my closet and drawers at home; by this point there are tons of clothes for both sexes there, including shirts that would definitely have fit her.

“...No, it's, it's okay,” she said after seriously thinking about it for a minute. “Brie's right too...I'm just overreacting. Thanks, though.”

“Offer stays open if you change your mind,” I said.

“Thank you.”

“Well, I promised to show you my werewolf form,” said Lue, starting to grin again. “Maybe that'll make it all worth it,” she added with a small wink, which made Roan blush all the way through her fur again. Lue nodded to her, and began to change right away. Of course she'd managed to slip her bra off and onto the floor sometime between when Roan had left and returned, and no sooner did she start to have fur on her body than she tossed off her shirt and got rid of her skirt, too. Roan had about the same reaction the rest of us had the first time, her eyes going wide and her ears up while she slowly tilted her head upward, watching our alpha rise up to and beyond her height and grow into the huge, equally beautiful and strong form hiding away inside her small human one.

“Heheh. What do you think?” she said, crossing her arms under her generous chest.
“Y-your voice, changed too...?” Roan squeaked quietly.
“That is pretty unusual, I guess. Maybe you get why I think of this as my real self, though?” Lue said, putting a forepaw on Roan's head to ruffle her hair a little bit.
“Um...y-yeah..”

“Come with me, now...” She led a dumbfounded Roan back around to the couch they'd been on before and sat next to her, pulling her into a hug before long.

It didn't take long after that for the rest of us to change to werewolf form, too. I'll admit I was a little too concentrated on Brie from about then until we fell asleep on one of Lue's beds to tell much, but I'm pretty convinced she managed to pet Chris and Roan at the same time in some way that kept both of them happy. At any rate I don't remember hearing any complaints.

And we did fall asleep, a little past midnight. The full moon is special, not just changing werewolves into that form but giving a kind of restless energy to it; without that, cuddling in werewolf form is just as prone to falling asleep as it is in human form. I say that to say that this was, honestly, the first time I slept through a whole night with Brie in my arms. Even if we were both girls at the time, it feels like kind of a big step in a way, but we just sort of slipped into doing it without even trying.

It won't be the last. I'll make sure of that.

Today was still a school day, so Lue somehow managed to wake up very early in the morning, cook a big breakfast, and then get everyone up in time to shower, eat, and leave to get there on time. For everything that's weird or questionable about her, I have to admit she's got other ways of being almost impossibly reliable and helpful.

At lunch, I saw Adena in kind of a daze again; I was able to gather that she had gone on another date with Rhia before she blushed and insistently changed the subject, apparently forcing herself to focus on something other than that. She teased me about having Brie's scent being all over me—which it was since she'd hugged me for a minute or two before we went our separate ways that morning—and then we started talking normally again a little after that. Still, the whole conversation convinced me that I needed to get some answers about all of this.

I still had questions about those wars and “disasters”, too, so I started sending off texts to ask Giri if she could meet with me and if she could get Ren to come along. I think she could somehow tell I had serious questions I wanted answered; her responses were more serious than usual, and she suggested we meet at his place for better privacy than the restaurant we'd gone to before. With some help from the map on my phone, I made it to the address a little later this afternoon, and knocked on the door.

After a minute, a tall, thin guy with white hair and fox-ears opened it up. “Hi, uh..Kaela,” he said, pointing at me slightly the way someone does when they finally remember a half-forgotten name. “Giri said you wanted to talk in private?”

“I guess you're...Ren?” I said. I noticed that my power was informing me he had no desire to be changed by it; in fact I could feel an especially strong one to not be, which was a new one for me. He nodded, and waved me inside, so I went, following him into the kitchen to sit down across the table. “Giri's not here yet, but it sounded like you wanted specifically to ask me something too?”

“Yeah. It's just—I'm concerned about Adena. Do you, know what happened?” I asked.

“I just know she sent me a text that the jig was up,” he shrugged. “Why, is she sulking or something? Every kitsune has to learn to deal with the fallout from a big deception like that.”
“Well, no...um. Actually she's very happy to be found out. Like way too happy,” I said. “She said—well, for one thing Rhia was apparently okay with the lies, and still wanted to go out with, her, sort of? That's a whole separate can of complicated worms. But then she started talking about how it was nice to...what was it, something about having someone to obey?” I frowned, my ears lowering a little. “It's just, really weird. I dunno how to describe it.”

“Oooh,” Ren said, sounding like he understood. “So that's it.” He nodded, apparently to himself.

“What's it?” I pressed after giving him what felt like long enough to have already started explaining.
“Aah, look Kaela. I dunno if a werewolf can understand this too well. Kitsune like games, and games tend to have winners. When someone 'plays along' and 'wins' and seems like they genuinely enjoyed the game, it's about the nicest gesture one of us can imagine. And...some Kitsune like to have someone who figured them out and won the game that way as a 'master'. It's really just another, different kind of game, and it's way more consensual than it sounds. A good 'master' is someone who will mostly order their Kitsune to do things she wanted to do anyway, but was never brave enough to do herself. And there's not really any kind of binding force in place; if a Kitsune doesn't like an order she can just ignore it, and if she gets tired of a 'master' for any reason then she can just leave.” He shrugged. “I've even heard stories of people who tried to take advantage of that kind of relationship getting punished pretty severely by their 'pet' for it. So I don't think you have anything to worry about, especially if she seems happy.”

“Oooh..kay,” I said, processing all of that. “So, is that what's..?” I started.
“No! Nooo-nonono,” he said, anticipating the question and shaking his head furiously. “Giri and I are serious adults and absolute equals in every way, not playing a game like that at all. I am not that kind of Kitsune, you see. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but—I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I just, know of it being a thing sometimes. So hopefully that clears that up for you.”

The doorbell rang at this point, and he nodded over to me before standing up to go get it. After that, Giri came in with him, practically hanging off of him with her arms. Ren was frowning and blushing, but I could tell from his ears that he liked the attention, even when he pried her off to sit down and she responded by just half-lying on his lap.

“Please use a chair,” he said, pointing to an empty one to my left.
“Ohh, alright,” Giri said, getting up and finally sitting down for real. “It's good to see you again, Kaela~. You look like you've been having fun.”
“Uh..?” I didn't know what she meant by that.
“If you've been around your girlfriend or whatever lately, she can tell,” Ren explained. “Succubus, remember,”

“Uh, r-right.” I could feel some heat in my cheeks while I hoped she couldn't tell too much of what exactly had happened.

“Anyway, you wanted to know something?” she said.

“Yeah. Uh, so, Frelye mentioned some kind of disaster several centuries ago..and Thera said that your um..an, cestor?” (I paused, unsure if that was the right term; Giri just nodded for me to continue) “Died of wounds from some kind of war half a century ago. I, wanted to know if you knew anything more about those things..or any other major magical wars that most of the world doesn't know about.”
“Let's see..I'm sure I can at least answer some of your questions,” she said. “A dragon or a real historian would be your best bet, of course. But why the sudden interest in ancient history, hmn?”
“Well..you know, the power I have is kind of insane,” I said. “It...occurred to me that it could start some kind of disaster or war like that, if I'm not careful. I thought...knowing what's happened before might help me prevent those kinds of mistakes.”
Giri nodded. “Always the considerate one. That's why the girls flock to you, you know,” she added with a wink. “Well, let me see...”

“The trouble a half-century ago was this: For reasons we're still not entirely sure of, the veil suddenly tore wide open for a fairly big group of humans. They...were not ready for that. They saw many kinds of people, such as demons, werewolves, and so on, as monsters to be slain—exterminated, more like. Worse than that, somehow they gained access to some powerful celestial magic, and some other stuff like fire magic and dangerous artifact weapons they considered 'righteous' in nature. Then they more or less declared war on the entire magical world.” She leaned forward a little bit and looked down, running a finger around on the table. “They caught the people who normally keep order in this kind of situation totally off-guard, and made tons of trouble for a couple of decades. We could've done more to help what was going on in the 'normal human' side of the world then if it hadn't been for all that. I mean—peace-keeping magic users in general, of course.”

Giri turned her head up toward me again. “What you should learn from that, Kaela, is that we keep the veil around for a reason. Only the right people, at the right time, should be brought out of it, and only the right amount; that decision must be made on an individual basis, and the veil itself is designed to do just that. The benefits magic could have for those still fully enveiled have to be weighed against the risk that they won't accept it, and in the end more harm will be done than good.”
“I see...” I nodded. This was something I hadn't really thought about before.

“As for the other one,” she said with more of a grin, “if you've played a major RPG in your life then you know how this one goes: A demon lord consolidates power, collects all the biggest and best demonic focus gems he can find and then starts trying to use all that power to spread the demon realm up into the regular one and crush the opposition so he can take over everything...”

“So a group of heroes go to his castle to wreck everything and stop him?” I guessed.
“Right! And that was hardly the first time something like that happened, but this one is notable in that once he was dead the magic world as a whole decided they were tired of cleaning up messes like this every other century, so it was time to attempt some preventative measures instead of just waiting around for history to repeat itself.

“First they smashed the big foci he'd collected, then went on a big search and seizure to get rid of as many of them as they could find, and established a sort of informal ruling that it was illegal to have them—sort of like how vampires and werewolves and so on don't go around biting humans anymore. Before you go worrying, though, something as small as mine is gonna get a blind eye turned to it until and unless I do something really bad, and then me having that would just be an excuse to punish me worse. It won't happen at all because I'm a good little demon. Right?” She gently elbowed Ren, who looked bored; I guess he already knew about all of this, or just isn't interested in history in the first place.

“Yeah, yeah. Honestly, that was kind of a knee-jerk reaction to the specifics of the problem, but they also did the much more important work of forming a kind of loose alliance between powerful rulers and so on to keep an eye on things and nip any further disaster like that in the bud,” he said. “You might be surprised at the nature of many of its founding members. Even more chaotically oriented beings like a lot of nine-tailed Kitsune prefer a certain level of peace and stability to play around in, and will do what they can to prevent or swiftly end an outright, world-scale war.”

Giri nodded. “Their legacy continues in the peace-keepers I mentioned a minute ago who were instrumental in ending the more recent crisis. Giriah was involved with them, and I hope to make a similar career myself someday.”

After that, I ended up spending the rest of the day with them. Well, I felt like kind of a third wheel and offered to leave a few times, but Ren insisted I stick around and eventually said something about Giri “behaving herself” better with an audience. As couples go, they're a little strange, but it seems like it works for them. I guess I'm not really one to talk, anyway.

What Giri said about the veil is important to keep in mind. It suggests to me that magic could help out a lot of people, and that magic-users know that, but they're afraid of what could happen if it just all comes gets revealed at once. And I have to agree with that fear, honestly. If I want to deal with the Problem (it gets a capital “p”, I've decided), then I have to be really careful about how exactly people still completely “under the veil” get pulled out of it.

Who do I know that were out of the magical world before...things happened? There's me, Adena, Chris...Tina, I think, and Rio of course. I'd like to talk things through with as many people who've gone from “no magic” to “all magic” as I can, and try to figure out what would make it easiest for more people to go that way. Thinking about what Giri said, maybe there isn't anything I can do and the veil itself is actually pulling people over as fast as it safely can. I just wouldn't feel right leaving it completely alone.

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This, of course, started being written around the time I finished with "The New Omega". Just look how long it took me to finish! A writer's block around the point where Chris walks in was the main culprit.

P.S. I know, I've been neglecting the Writing Status thing up on the upper right. It's up to date now..for now.