The very same second that I vanished from the mermaid's view I reappeared in the air above my home. I floated above it, studying it from the outside and chuckling.
"Today promises to be... quite the day." I muttered, gently, as I willed myself downward. Within the next hour or so the first of the women who sought my hand in marriage would be arriving. That itself was both headache-inducing and also quite exciting.
Off in the distance, I could already hear figures approaching my home. They weren't any of the people who sought to ally with me, romantically and politically though. They were soldiers and laborers who were coming to finish building up the homes and buildings that would soon surround my property.
The Verdadians were quite organized. I gazed off in the direction of the sounds they were making and saw those of them who were going to be coming today arriving in two separate groups: one group consisted of soldiers who were guards and another group consisted of lesser laborers and soldiers who were also laborers and overseers.
I studied them for a moment before heading inside and making my way downstairs. It didn't take me long to reach the first floor of my home and find a guard stationed in front of the door leading in and out of the building. I approached him and began to speak.
"Good morning! I just want you to know to expect a... bevy of noblewomen and girls to come today. At least some of them are going to say that they just wish to meet me, but in truth all of them will have an ulterior motive; they want to convince me to marry them. Some of them will be more subtle than others about this." I told the lightly armored and armed figure.
As I finished speaking the man considered my words before chuckling and beginning to nod. I gave him an exasperated look and I sensed his estimation of me change a little, as he recognized me as more human and understandable than he initially thought.
"Well it's certainly faster than I would have thought, but I can hardly fault them. They see an opportunity here to join their family to the single most important, eligible bachelor in the colony... No, that's understating your importance. You are possibly the most important, eligible bachelor in the empire." The guard stated, speaking surprisingly freely. I nodded, frankly, at his assessment.
"Hey, that's what they think too!" I remarked, before chuckling. I had learned about the history of the empire and though there were other figures like me in the empire's myths, none of them had been successfully summoned in the modern era. Or if they had been their successful summoning was kept a secret. I fully intended to inform the entire empire of my reemergence, but for now, I had things I needed to do first.
"When the women and girls begin to arrive do me a favor and divide them up by age for me would you? I'm not going to... reject the youngest ones out of hand, but I'm not going to entertain the notion of marrying someone younger than say... their early twenties." I told the guard, who looked a bit surprised at my remark but quickly regained his composure and nodded at me.
I looked at him for a moment and then sighed again. His reaction confirmed a suspicion of mine. This culture, like many medieval and even a few modern cultures in the world of my birth, was used to older men marrying teenagers. I suspected this was almost expected for men of a certain social class, but I didn't care about their traditions. At least not this one.
"We each have our own preferences. One of mine is that I won't marry someone so much younger than me. I don't mind learning about the others, teaching them, and possibly even helping to arrange marriages for them down the line, but I won't marry a teenager." I stated bluntly. The guard appraised me for a moment and I was pleasantly surprised to quietly feel his impression of me improve.
"Yes sir. Would you like to test their literacy as well?" He asked, taking initiative and surprising me but I was calm and didn't allow my surprise to register on my face. I paused for a second and considered his words, before nodding at him.
"Yes, yes I would. For the women in their late teens and early twenties do me a favor and also test their mathematics skills. Nothing too advanced, but if they can do simple arithmetic, simple equations and such, that would be incredible." I replied, smiling as I wondered about both the state of education in the empire in general and for women specifically. I hoped that I'd be pleasantly surprised, but I was prepared for disappointment as well.
The guard and I would make casual conversation for another few minutes before I began to hear a noise in the distance, one that was too far away for the guard to hear but easily within range of my truly immense senses. The sounds of a horse gently galloping towards my home. The horse was still a minute or two away, but it was trotting towards the house at a healthy pace and I figured I might as well be here to greet the first of the noblewoman pursuing me.
Almost exactly two minutes after I first heard the horse I could hear it arrive in front of my house. The guard in front of me heard it too, and he looked at me for confirmation that he ought to go and open the door for the young woman who had come. I nodded at him and smiled dryly. The guard nodded back and opened the door for me to go out.
I stepped out into the front yard of my property and gazed at the woman. She was busy dismounting from her horse which gave me a chance to look at her and size her up before she could look at me or even noticed that I was able to see her.
The young woman wore a dress that vaguely reminded me of something I had once seen at a quinceanera but toned down a good deal. It was an elegant dress that covered her entire body but lacked the typical "train" of such a dress. It was light blue, and as she dismounted from the horse and set foot on the ground I watched the dress begin to shine while noticing that it managed to not get dirty.
"Is that... magic?" I wondered, internally, before opting to assume it was. The young woman herself looked to be in her early twenties, and shortly after dismounting her horse, she placed a single, gentle hand on the animal, soothing it with a touch.
She had the tan complexion of someone from my hometown in coastal Puerto Rico, and the long black hair common to the people of the Verdad Empire. Of all of the hair colors I had seen black was the most common, though I had seen a handful of other colors as well.
She was a slender woman who was surprisingly tall, coming in at the same height as the guard who had opened the door for me. As she stepped out from her horse's shadow she kept her gaze locked on the majestic beast and she retrieved a bag from the horse's side that looked inelegant but also seemed to radiate a gentle light in almost the same way as her dress did.
It was only when she took her first steps towards the house that she turned and she and I made eye contact for the first time.
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Juana de Salsedo turned away from her pet horse, Sebastian, to begin to head to the front door of the strange home that had appeared on the edge of the so-called "civilized lands" of the colony just yesterday. It was at that moment that she first laid eyes on the strange, quasi-divine entity that Juniper, both the head magician and head government official of Sol, had summoned yesterday.
Marcos Mondragon was an incredibly tall man. Juana quickly estimated that he must have been close to 3 meters in height. At the moment he was dressed in an outfit similar to the one he had worn the day before, which only fit because it was enchanted and Marcos himself didn't know enough about magic to know that, but Juana hadn't seen him yesterday.
She had been busy tending to the animals of her father and her father's campesinos and had only heard later on that someone had actually been summoned by the magician's arcane ritual. She had spent the better part of last night and the earliest hours of this morning preparing for the moment she met Marcos face to face.
Marcos was an intimidatingly handsome man. He cut an impressive figure with both his height and his extremely well-defined muscles. His height clearly pegged him as something other than human, something altogether more impressive than any human could be, but even if not that for that Juana would have known he wasn't human for another reason upon studying his face.
Marcos's eyes were pure white orbs. They lacked any discernable iris or pupils, and instead, all one could see if they looked into them were white scleras. His eyes were also considerably larger than a human's eyes would have been since they were proportionate to the rest of him.
Marcos smiled at her and walked over to the front door leading into his home. He opened the door and motioned for her to come in. She was flustered for a moment, not having expected the man himself to be both so alien in appearance, due to his height and eyes, and also so handsome.
The alien entity was a vision of masculine attractiveness. He had the rugged attractiveness of a practiced warrior and the obvious casual strength of a spirit capable of solidifying into a physical form, such as an earth elemental. And now that he was close to her, physically, she felt the effects of his attractiveness in other, more subtle ways.
As he gazed at her, Juana gazed back and felt the heat Marcos casually radiated. She was close to him, not even three meters away from the man and somehow she could feel a wave of heat gently emanating from him. It was an odd, exhilarating effect to feel so close to one's self. Juana eventually regained her composure and stepped forward, stepping into the man's front yard.
Marcos turned his gaze back to his guard and motioned for the man to go and grab the horse. The guard's eyes widened for a moment, for reasons unclear to Juana, and then a second later the man went past the two of them and brought the horse inside. Marcos turned his gaze back to Juana and began to speak.
"Good morning Juana." The strange quasi-divine entity said to her, causing her eyes to open wide in both surprise and curiosity.
"Good morning... Marcos." She replied back, wanting to ask a number of questions, but opting to stay quiet for a moment. Marcos, clearly sensing her inner struggle, smiled at her and began to lead her towards his home. As he did, he spoke gently.
"I know that you have many questions. I can feel them. Hear them even. It's okay to ask questions." The man uttered, even as he opened the door allowing the two of them entry into his home. Juana silently considered his words, as she stepped into his home.
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Juana's mind was an open book. I could easily hear her thoughts and felt her emotions as the young woman was the sort to wear her heart on her sleeve.
The young woman had a dozen questions, including one asking whether or not I could read her mind. Judging from both the mermaid I met earlier and her I had to wonder if this phenomenon was somehow something that this world's inhabitants had seen before, or if I was just unlucky and somehow had just met two extremely intuitive people.
That said, even if she learned I could read her mind it wasn't enough to actually stop me or prevent me from doing so. I gazed at her and heard her heart begin to beat a bit faster.
"Juana... Would you like to tell me why you have come today?" I asked, teasingly. I knew that my appearance was quite alien to her, and also very attractive. I sensed her physiological reaction to me the instant she saw me and knew that it was deeply distracting to her. Juana smiled, slightly, and turned to face me.
"Sir Mondragon... I am the daughter of Pablo de Salsedo, and am his only child. I have been told that you may not remember the ancient past and so to be considerate of that while I explain why I have come today. My father, a renowned, retired general, would like to join our families." Juana revealed, opting to be honest about her intentions.
"My family values honesty and transparency. I have come here to... Well, I have come here to become your bride." She confessed, not bothering to opt for subtlety. I studied her for a moment before deciding to reward her honesty with honesty of my own.
"Earlier you mentally wondered if I could read minds. I can. I could also hear you, your family, and several other families, preparing for this moment. I respect the honesty with which you declared your intentions and so I figured that I ought to show you honesty in return." I revealed, matching her own honesty with my own and then some.
Juana's face paled at my words, but not at the first revelation. Instead of the first revelation being the one that haunted her, it was the second one that did it. She hissed when she learned that others were even now sending their daughters towards me. Although she hissed in annoyance at learning that others were also already on the move, when she next looked at me there was a measure of respect in her gaze that hadn't been there before.
"I am, and my family will be, annoyed to learn that other noble families are also on the move almost as quickly as we were. But nonetheless thank you for telling me and for informing me as to one of your abilities. Sir Mondragon, I am going to make a request that many would consider impolite for a woman to make, but I feel that it is one worth making anyway." Juana told me, speaking respectfully. I led her inside and into the same room where Juniper and I had been yesterday. When we sat down she continued her statement.
"Sir Mondragon, what are your plans? Making such a direct request would normally be seen as impolite, but I have shown myself to be both honest and someone who respects honesty. If possible I would like to learn of your goals and learn how I can help you achieve them." Juana stated, staring at me with a surprising intensity.
I allowed her to gaze at me without making any overtly supernatural moves for a moment before I began to consciously radiate light. I had earlier how to control my "photogenesis" power earlier today, and had turned it off since it was a clear demonstration of how obviously supernatural I was and I preferred not to walk around displaying that any more than I did just by walking around and being as tall as I was.
Juana gasped when she saw me begin to radiate light, and had she not been sitting down she would have backed away from me. The light I was radiating was gentle but it was a strange and startling power to display. As Juana stared at my light show I chuckled inwardly and displayed another power: my ability to speak directly into the minds of humans and other humanoids.
"Juana, the legends about me are only partially correct. Some aspects of myself were forgotten over the centuries. Such as my true nature as a sun spirit. The legends around myself and the others like me understate our powers and abilities." I began, smiling as I "spoke" to her. Unsurprisingly this ability alarmed her far more than my other power did.
This power was one of many I possessed that was well and truly supernatural. It was fully beyond the capabilities of any human from the world of my birth. It allowed me to step into the one place that others felt secure, their minds, and make myself heard there as easily as I could be heard audibly. I gazed into Juana's eyes as I continued speaking to her.
"My immediate plans and priorities revolve around saving and stabilizing Sol. Beyond that... I do not know. That said, my highest priority, indeed my only priority, is to protect Sol. If you can aid me with that, I will gratefully accept your assistance." I told her, as she slowly recovered from the shock of feeling my words inside of her mind. The next words I would tell Juana I would speak.
"It is not a coincidence that I was summoned to this place specifically Juana. In my world, the word 'Sol' is my people's word for 'The Sun'. I am not solely a demigod-like-entity. I am a sun spirit, and my powers come, in part, from a connection to the sun." I explained, speaking gently, even as I used telekinesis to open the bag she had brought with her and pulling out one of the small gifts she had brought me as part of something like a dowry.
The object that came out of the small bag was a pot that was bigger than the bag itself. Upon seeing this I audibly laughed for a moment and began to smile at it while gazing at the thing. I could sense the tiny, magically enchanted seed inside of the pot and as I did I recalled one of my stranger superpowers.
As a being of health and heroism, I had the ability to speak to, understand, and command, different parts of nature, or rather different types of life. One particular aspect of this was that I could command animals and plants. I turned to look at Juana and began to speak.
"This is a strange, but very welcome gift. Thank you for bringing it to me." I told her, before turning my gaze back to the potted seed and speaking again.
"Hello, little one. I am a sun soul, a spirit of the sun. One of the odder abilities that I possess as a consequence of that is that I can command nature. If you can... I would like you to grow. I would like you to grow big, strong, and fast." I asked, smiling as I spoke more kindly to the plant than I had perhaps anyone since I had first arrived.
I stated this partial lie because I didn't feel like explaining to Juana that all life was interconnected. There was a very real possibility that I would someday, but not right now.
The seed began to vibrate, disturbing some of the soil it was planted in. It vibrated for a few moments before the seed began to grow and spread its roots throughout the soil. A split second later I watched as the sunflower I had been given began to grow rapidly, budding out of the dirt and then even growing a sunflower bud over the course of the next minute.
A few seconds after the bud began to grow the flowers began to open for pollination. It was a delight to watch, and as it happened Juana stared at it, transfixed by yet another manifestation of my powers. She was quite beautiful, and with this particular display of my powers I felt her feelings for me turn into full, true admiration and awe as opposed to stunned respect.
When the flower finished beginning to bloom, she gazed at it and tears began to well up in her eyes. She looked up at me and I could see the awe she felt towards me in her gaze.
"Sunflowers happen to be my favorite plants." I told her, speaking honestly. I hadn't actually known that it was a sunflower seed, I had just wanted to demonstrate another of my obviously supernatural powers to her. That said I wasn't about to complain. This worked out well for me.