Mage And Wolf
Chapter 156

Chapter 156: Chapter 156

By morning I still can’t properly move. I can wiggle my fingers and toes and flail my limbs a bit, but no fine control of any sort is possible.

Karl can obviously feel my frustration through the Mate Bond and laughs before kissing my forehead. "Is it wrong that you look cute like this? All cuddly instead of constantly on the go?"

Karl sits up in bed, stretching to return blood flow to the arm I was sleeping on before Patting my head and smiling.

"We should get you ready to face the day. You might not be able to answer questions yet, but Song’s artifact says that the tribulation is like being reborn. Your body underwent a fundamental change, so you’ll need to eat a lot and get used to the changes."

Karl starts brushing and braiding my hair, so I focus on circulating healing energy through my body, trying to get mobile again as quickly as possible. The energy feels different today. More raw and primal. It reminds me a bit of the Lycan King, but without the overwhelming sense of authority and dominance.

The Lycan King is an original Lycan, an immortal created by the Moon Goddess herself, and legend says that divinity passes down through his blood, making his offspring far more powerful than other Lycans and cementing their place as Royalty. The Tribulation seems to have done something similar, embedded a hint of divinity into my every cell, like an inherited bloodline, not an individual gift like the Death God’s blessing. I should ask Elder Song about that later, when I can speak.

"What are you thinking about? I can sense your amusement, switching to confusion, to deep thought." Karl asks as he finishes with my hair.

[The Lycan King and the Royals. He was remade into a Lycan by the Moon Goddesses Divine Power]

"One Princess bib and it goes straight to your head." Karl laughs tickling my sides. "Arms up, let’s get you changed."

His hands sliding up my side feel too good to even point out that I can dress myself with the Priestess garb. Instead I just close my eyes and savor the moment, letting him help me into a dress of some sort.

Karl picks me up to go to breakfast and I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. He’s dressed me in a baby blue princess dress with matching ribbons braided into my hair.

[Very funny, smartass]

"You look lovely Young Miss." Elder Ming greets us as I’m placed back in Karl’s lap for breakfast. Elder Song has gone all out with the mystic cooking this morning, and at a much higher standard than I can manage. He must still be celebrating his return to full health.

I smile and nod at Elder Ming, the best greeting I can manage at the moment and flip my hands into my lap to stop them dangling.

The topic of the morning is Elder Song’s return to power. Tribulation Lightning isn’t exactly subtle, and every cultivator within a thousand kilometers knows someone near here ascended to divinity. The question is what to do about it. Embrace the status? Pretend we know nothing?

"A Sect with a Divine Level Elder can pretty much make their own rules here." Elder Ming says, "So the first response matters and we would be lucky to get all day to think about it."

I open my mouth automatically as the spoon approaches. Oh, oatmeal! Very nice.

[Tell them it’s a good time to push for Grey Sect status before the next tournament season] I send to Karl who gives me an inquiring look, but repeats my thoughts for everyone to hear.

"Oh, that’s good. If we’re officially neutral we can do the whole circuit and get our students experience. Song will have to suffer a bit of publicity though." Elder Po agrees, nodding his head.

"A little flex my might, a good deed or two and push the propaganda?" Elder Song thinks out loud. "Yeah, we can do that. We just need a peace offering. I know where a lost artifact from the Sacred Thunder Sect is hidden, returning it to them before the first tournament of the season should get them on our side. We just need to push the neutral but misunderstood position between now and then."

Elder Song fills the air with a hint of divine energy to emphasize his point and the strangest thing happens, my body starts absorbing it like a sponge. Everyone is startled, but Song releases more Divine energy for a few seconds until it hangs in the air, no longer being sucked up.

"Oh, that’s so much better. I can move properly now." I say, testing my limbs for function.

"Looks like most of the delay in your recovery time was energy exhaustion. You didn’t absorb enough Divine Energy to finish the process." Elder Song says, taking out his notebook.

I ponder that for a moment, opening my mouth for Karl to feed me another bite of oatmeal. "Yes, that seems right. I just couldn’t get enough energy from food to heal up quickly. It was working, but slowly. Once I got the influx of Energy I was back at top form in seconds."

Karl feeds me another bite of oatmeal and a sip of juice. What’s so funny about my Analysis that Elder Ming is laughing at me?

I give Elder Song a recounting of my observations as we finish breakfast, and then it’s time for business. Dozens of Elders from other Sects have come to see who reached divinity, and we’re the welcoming crew.

There’s a bunch of familiar faces here. Most notably Nanny Vitale of High River Sect and Elder Han of the Divine Fist Sect. I hop down from Karl’s arms and go to welcome the guests at the front gate. Elder Ming is still laughing for some reason.

"Esteemed Guests, welcome to the Shadowed Blade Sect, I am known as Young Miss, a disciple here. I am sure you’re all eager for answers, but please follow me to the hall, and refreshments will be ready soon.

Those that recognize me all have huge smiles on their faces as they follow us to the meeting hall. Once they’re situated I have Karl Summon finger sandwiches and a huge bowl of Elven Wine spritzer. It’s when I push the cart back out that it dawns on me. I’m in a fluffy, lacy, baby blue princess dress with ribbons in my hair, and Karl carried me to the gate.

No wonder Ming couldn’t stop laughing.

I take the opportunity to go socialize while we wait for Elder Song to greet the ones he personally knows and for Sect Master Sun to arrive to push our Neutral Sect position.

"Nanny Vitale, how is your recovery coming?" I ask the Elder from High River Sect and smile at the disciples accompanying her.

"As well as can be hoped. Another ten or fifteen years and I should be perfect. My power level has mostly recovered, and the extra channels opened are amazing, but my foundation is still unstable after the attack." She answers happily and Elder Han comes over to say hello.

"What is that wine? It’s got a kick to it." he greets us, glass in each hand.

"Elven Wine. Go easy on it if you love yourself, the hangover is no joke." I tease him. "Hang around a while, I’ll make a feast worthy of Immortal Elders later."

There’s no way I’d escape it anyhow, might as well use it to advertise the Sect’s hospitality.

The Elders and Sect Master Sun are coming in, so I signal Karl to follow me to the kitchen and retreat to make dinner. I haven’t really exerted myself since I reached Core Formation, and with the Dragons to fetch ingredients I can now multitask well enough to do three dishes at once. I do three with mystic cooking and Karl simply summons all the rest. No need for more fancy dishes, the main course should be enough.

I send Karl out first to give everyone the five minutes warning on food and I put the finishing touches on the desserts. There’s a veritable mountain of cream puffs in the middle of the cart, we should be prepared.

"Pardon Me, coming though." I tell the disciple in front of the kitchen door, who takes one look at me, screams and runs to the far corner of the room.

"Is he alright? Gynophobia?" Karl asks the Elder who was behind him.

"Oh, no. Personal issue. The Young Miss chased him around the ring threatening to castrate him at last year’s open tournament." the Elder explains.

Oh, it was that guy. I don’t feel bad anymore.

"You make a habit of this don’t you? Just feeding folks and making friends everywhere you go." Karl teases me.

"But look how happy they are." They’ve just begun tasting the mystic cooking dishes and sighs of contentment fill the hall.

"At heart you’ll always be the world’s most powerful kitchen omega, won’t you?" he laughs, patting my head and then pulling me into a hug.