Swarming Sovereignty
Chapter 173: Fae

Faelyn awoke feeling unbelievably refreshed, if a bit hungry. Before even inspecting his new body, his first course of action was to turn on his recording and set it to film from his point of view, so as to capture his live reaction. For that same reason, he had been warding himself against the mental changes as best he could – he wasn’t an expert, but he was better than the average person, and the fact that the Goddess of Hearth was implementing safeguards no doubt helped.

“Hey, everyone.” He said. His voice came out higher and airier, but at the same time it felt familiar, like it was his, and he found himself rather liking it. “Conversion finished. I haven’t looked at myself yet and I’m trying to fight the mental changes for as long as possible, just to help chronicle them for you. So far…nothing seems immediately different, other than the fact that this voice feels like my own, despite it clearly being different than my old one.”

He sat up, eyes immediately locking on to a paper near his legs. “Vision seems a bit sharper.” He noted, picking up the paper with a slender hand. He quickly read the paper out loud, then put it down and pushed himself to his feet.

“I feel…fantastic.” He said. “This is even more mobile than my body is on Lim, it’s…going to be hard to go back to it. Before I get to looking at myself, though, let’s take a look at the mental changes. Thinking about the Queen…”

Faelyn trailed off. It was hard to deny that he felt a surge of respect for the woman, a desire to obey and uphold her rule. “Yeah, there’s that respect and adoration she mentioned. Honestly? Not that bad. As long as the gods are keeping her honest and just, then I don’t have a problem with it. We’re just swapping out one ruler for another, and at least this one is actively trying to help people. I’m going to stop resisting on that front and just let it take me.”

He tentatively lowered his mental defenses, and the conditioning pushed against him like an unstoppable tide, eroding all of his other barriers even more than it already was. “Uh, new plan, we’re going to speedrun this. I’m not going to hold out too much longer. Conversion…yep, I see no problems with it whatsoever, as I was told. Intellectually, I know it’s wrong, but I can’t bring myself to believe that.

“It’s kind of hard to check in on discriminatory views since I like to think that I don’t hold those, but I definitely wholeheartedly want the swarm to win now. Again, we expected this, so I guess just take my words with a grain of salt while I’m like this; the view won’t be as unbiased as I usually like to be. Just draw your own conclusions from what you watch and what I say when I’m in my original body.

“And, speaking of, the grand reveal, so to speak.” Faelyn said, turning to look at the mirror the Queen had said would be there. He stopped in shock as she caught sight of herself; she was…gorgeous, a word she’d never thought would apply to her. “Wow.” She breathed, twisting around to view herself better. “I look great. And…now that I’m faced with it, I’m realizing that I don’t hold a negative view of beastkin from an aesthetic point of view like I did before. That’s a good sign for the discriminatory changes.”

She paused for a moment, drinking in her appearance hungrily. She appeared to have been converted with a griffin of some sort; she had the wings of an eagle, the tail of a lion, and her nails had hardened and lengthened into sharp claws. Her hair had dramatically lengthened, the thick locks going straight down to her bottom, appearing almost like a cape. It had turned the white of an eagle’s feathers, contrasting with the tight-fitting scout’s gear that had appeared on her.

She noted with some interest that she was barefoot, but in an odd way it almost felt like she was wearing shoes. It was hard to describe; she could feel the floor beneath her just as well as if she was barefoot, but her feet felt insulated from it, like they would if she was wearing thick boots. The nails on her feet had also developed into sharp claws, so perhaps it was so she could use those without worrying about ruining her shoes?

“I’m also definitely thinking of myself as a woman now.” Faelyn continued. “I feel quite proud of these breasts, and, if offered the choice, you’d have to give me a lot of benefits to make me consider going back to being a man. That’s going to make logging off tough, but I’ll need to from time to time, if only to keep that body alive and take a more objective look at things.

“I get the feeling that I’m going to be spending most of my time like this from now on, though. It’s almost intoxicating; I feel way stronger than I did in either of the other bodies I had, and I can’t wait to take this one for a test drive. I believe there was a dungeon down at the base of this tree, I’ll probably stream down there shortly after I get this video made. And…you know what, Faelyn’s a bit too masculine a name for my tastes. While I’m like this, call me Fae; it’ll help separate the personas, and it’s a much cuter name.”

With that Fae began to walk over to the door, but paused. “You know what, let’s take a look at my status before I go, shall we? Just to know what we’re working with.”

Fae whistled appreciatively. “Wow.” She said. “That’s one heck of a power boost. Let me examine that Race…”

“Yup, love it.” Fae said. “If you thought my hill surfing before was fun, it’s going to be way better now.” She finished her walk over to the door and gave it a polite knock. Only a few moments later, it opened to reveal the Queen, and Fae fell to a knee in respect. “My Queen, thank you for this, it’s more than I deserve.”

“Nonsense.” The Queen replied. “If you’re going to be the face of the swarm for a while, then it stands to reason that you should have the abilities to match. You can pick any house on the residential floor that doesn’t have a label to take for yourself.” She handed Fae a small token, then continued. “Place this on the label while thinking of your name and it’ll mark it, soundproof the house, and block Rose’s vision from it unless she really focuses on it, so you can talk entirely freely to your chat within.”

“Thank you, my Queen. Is there anything else I should know before I begin to explore?”

“A few. If you want to interview us again for your stream, then just know that, for the next while, Rose, Amelia, and myself will be off helping end this war, and we won’t be around except in the evenings. Also, feel free to interview people on the work floor if they’re not in the middle of something and they agree to it. If they get uncomfortable, then stop, and try not to take up too much of their time.

“Finally, Ophelia and Nailah each have one of their bodies waiting outside. They’ll lead you to their houses before letting you loose to pick one for yourself, and I highly recommend going with one of them the first time you leave the capital. We’re in a very dangerous area, and while you are quite strong, they’ll help make sure you’re capable of dealing with the stuff around here. Any questions?”

“Only one.” Fae replied. “What do you mean one of their bodies?”

“Oh, they each have multiple.” The Queen replied. “Ophelia has three, and Nailah can have anywhere from three to nine. They have a bunch of Skills that help them split their attention, so at this point they can control each body as well as a normal person controls their own. All sensory information is shared in real time no matter the distance, so you don’t need to worry about having discussed something with one body and another not knowing or anything. It’s quite remarkable, really; ask them about it and their stories, I’m sure people would be interested to hear from them, they’re pretty unique.”

“Understood.” Fae said. “I think I’m ready now.”

The Queen gave her a nod. “Did you opt to choose a new name?”

“I’m going with Fae.” Fae replied.

“That’s a wonderful name, Fae.” The Queen said, stepping to the side. “The portal out is in the living room, just down the hall to your left.” She said. “Enjoy yourself out there.”

Fae gave her a nod and hurried off to the living room, where the portal was indeed waiting. She stepped through and found herself back on the residential floor, where two wolfkin women were waiting. “Are you Nailah and Ophelia?” Fae asked.

“That’s us.” One of them confirmed. “I’m Ophelia, and this is Nailah.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Fae said. “The Queen said you had some pretty interesting stories, I hope you don’t mind if I interview you later. And, uh, stream it, too. How much have you been told about what I do?”

“Enough.” Nailah replied. “Follow us, we can talk while we walk.”

“I’m recording now, just so you know.” Fae said.

“Yeah, Lia told us.” Nailah said. “Don’t worry, we don’t mind. We’ve got nothing to hide.”

“I have so many questions, but I should save those for the interview proper.” Fae said. “In the meantime, is there anything you think I should know while I’m getting settled?”

“If you’re looking for romance, this isn’t the place.” Ophelia said. “Izumi tried and, unfortunately for her, most people here are either taken or too young for that sort of thing.”

“I’m not interested in that, not until after things have settled more.” Fae replied. “At the very least, not until I know which body I’ll be staying in permanently, and preferably not until I can be confident about the outcome of the war.”

“Well, barring something extreme happening over there, I fail to see a situation in which we lose.” Nailah said. “We just have too many advantages.”

“That’s reassuring.” Fae said. “Or…I guess I might not see it as reassuring when I’m not like this, but…it’s good to know.”

“Let me know how that works out for you, by the way.” Ophelia said. “I have no doubt that the Goddess of Hearth can protect you, but the cognitive dissonance between your two mental states is going to be brutal.”

“We’ll see.” Fae replied. “I wasn’t exactly the most anti-swarm person to begin with. Or, wasn’t once I realized that things weren’t as cut and dry as they were made out to be. Change isn’t always a bad thing, and there are legitimate trade-offs to this change.”

“I’ll believe that once you say it after having gone back at least once.” Nailah replied, smiling faintly.

They chatted a bit more about inconsequential topics until they reached the street where Nailah and Ophelia’s houses were. Nailah and Ophelia showed Fae which houses were theirs then left. Fae jogged down the streets until she found an empty house. She used the token the Queen had given her to claim the house for herself, then stepped inside, made her way to the bedroom, and logged out.

Faelyn blinked, leaning back in his chair. He felt…slow, weak, and tired. It wasn’t that his real body was any worse than it had been, just that his other body was so much better than his main body that he felt noticeably worse by comparison.

That aside, he wasn’t sure what to make of being converted. So far, the experience was fairly positive. After all, he had received a phenomenal body, and the mental changes had been relatively harmless. But he had only been like that for maybe thirty minutes, only seen the surface level of the changes.

He needed to spend more time as part of the swarm to really get a feel for it. And he didn’t want to do that until he could stream it, and he didn’t want to stream until he had this video out. So, he reached down and grabbed an energy drink out of the minifridge he kept near his computer, then began to edit.

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