A Jaded Life

Chapter 1316

When Jess guided me into one of the larger buildings, I was a little uncertain about what to expect. Sure, she had told me that a few people had asked about the magical therapy, if one could call it that, I had given her, but that didn’t give me a good idea about how many there would be. Or how many would be willing to let anyone mess with their heads after the experience they had in the Blessed City. I certainly wouldn’t be willing to allow anyone to mess with my mind if I ever were to be abused that way. Hel, I wouldn’t let anyone mess with my mind, not unless I trusted them deeply. Maybe I’d trust one of my family, but even that was a little doubtful, until I actually had to make that choice.

Upon entering the building, I couldn’t help but stop for a moment, trying to make sense. Jess had claimed a few people had approached her, making me think it was a group of less than five, maybe just two or three, but looking at the group before me, that was obviously not the case. Instead of two or three people, there were easily fifty, maybe even more, people in attendance. It was hard to say, given the room's size and the way people had crammed in.

“A few people, huh?” I looked at Jess, an eyebrow raised in irritation.

“Well, it started with a few,” she prevaricated, looking very much like a child who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar and was now trying to blame the cat. “But I didn’t think so many people would show up,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Silence, please,” I told the room, using a bit of Wind Magic to improve the projection of my voice, allowing me to be heard by everyone without having to raise my voice. This many people made some noise, even if the majority had been trying to be quiet. Now, with my voice filling the room, silence fell.

“Jess here has informed me that you are interested in some mental support,” I used the most polite phrasing I could come up with to describe the procedure, trying to avoid words that could be taken the wrong way.

“I will warn you ahead of time, this isn’t something I have any real experience with; the procedure is largely experimental. Still, I believe it helped Jess,” I paused for a moment before making a snap decision. “Maybe you wish to say a few words regarding the experience, Jess?” I suggested, gently pushing her in front of the crowd. To make sure people would be able to hear her, I applied the same bit of magic to her that had allowed me to make my voice heard.

Then, I stepped back and let Jess talk to the group, while I listened and observed. It was quite curious to hear Jess talk about the treatment she had received from me, though I was grateful that she didn’t go into any details regarding the bed situation. While I didn’t mind her crawling into bed with Luna and me, at least as long as it stayed strictly platonic, I had no doubt that some people would read things into that behaviour and get annoying. That was, sadly, just how people are, and no amount of destruction would ever change that. As long as people existed, they would be noisy and interested in intimate details they had no business prying into.

While Jess was talking, I took a moment to observe the group before us. It was a rather large one, so I started counting, assuming they were roughly standing in rows and lines. That gave me twelve people in the front row, though they had formed something of a semi-circle, so maybe going with ten was better, and they were standing six or seven lines deep. Again, it wasn’t as neat and tidy as I would have preferred, but this gave me an estimate of sixty to eighty-four people, which made this rather complicated. I’d have to figure something out for them. With this many people, the methods I was using to treat Jess just weren’t practical. To say nothing of the fact that my bed wouldn’t be big enough.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Eventually, Jess got through her story without sharing anything I would consider important or intimate, just giving an honest evaluation of her progress. It was rather interesting to listen to her, especially since I knew more details and could notice what she omitted, but, in the end of the day, it was her privacy. And I had already decided that I’d treat anything I’d read in a willing mind as private information, not to be shared with anyone but the person from whose mind I had pulled the knowledge. A little like medical privacy, just even more important, as I doubted anyone would allow me into their mind if I was willing to share what I found there.

“Now, I’m sure you noticed there’s quite the number of you,” I took over speaking again, trying to lighten the atmosphere with a slight smile on my face. “Due to that, I’ll have to figure out a good way to treat each of you. There are only so many hours in the day, and this isn’t something I’d be willing to try after I’m already exhausted from building houses all day. Just, no,” I shook my head, noticing multiple nods of agreement at that. They might have no idea what using magic to treat their issues entailed, but they were smart enough to realise that any spellwork on mind and memories should only be undertaken with full focus and an abundance of caution.

“Jess, can you help me take a survey? That way, I can start with those who have the most urgent and greatest need,” I suggested, conjuring a sheet of slate and a stylus for her.

“Jess and I will each go to one side of the room. I’ll set up sound baffles, so nothing said to either of us is audible to the rest of the room to assure your privacy. Similarly, I’ll give you my word, my solemn oath, that I won’t share what I learn within your minds without your explicit consent. Your memories are private,” I added, feeling a faint trace of magic leave my body as I made that promise. I wasn’t sure if the oath would be magically enforced in some way, but I wasn’t willing to take any chances anyway.

With that said, I started to weave two barriers of Air around the corners of the room. Then Jess and I each took our position, and one by one, people approached. They gave me a superficial idea of their issues, and I began taking notes for later. The vast majority were centred around the same memories, those of torture and their own ambivalence or support of the treatment their fellow humans had been subjected to.

As they were talking, I took the hand of the person approaching me, using my Blood Magic to gauge their physical health, just in case there were issues. It would be rather embarrassing if one of them suffered a heart attack or something, just because the Mind Magic I used to help them process their trauma caused some odd side-effect.

Luckily, their hearts were all about as intact as one would expect, but there was another serious issue. Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe it wasn’t, but every single woman was pregnant. To make matters even more interesting, almost all of them were at the same stage of their pregnancy, giving me a fair idea of their conception date.

After a bit of mental math, I couldn’t help but flush a little and start to wonder if I should feel even worse than I already did. The window of conception for most of the women in the room was right around the longest night, the only exceptions being those who were further along.

In other words, the party started by reducing their inhibitions had somehow managed to get them all pregnant. Statistically, that was just about impossible, unless their collective cycles had somehow all synced up to the point that they were all fertile at the same time, which felt somewhat dubious. Not impossible, but unlikely.

But there was another possible explanation, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to think about it too deeply. Namely, that this, too, might be my fault in an even more direct way than the drugs I had spread across the Blessed City. There might be an interaction between my divine domain of the Mother and their party, or maybe the party had been blessed in some way due to my actions, even if that had never been my intention.

Regardless of the actual cause, this was about as big a mess as anyone could imagine, and I would have to start talking to people.

Including Jess.

This could get incredibly ugly. And, in about nine months, it would get incredibly loud, too.