Author Note

This is a sequel to my first Predator Gothic story, so you need to have read PG 1 to understand what is happening now. This one is a little better planned out than the first story and shows the SI in more of a leadership role.

Predator Gothic 2 - Clan Leader

Part 1

Clan Pyramid. The Realm of Gothics.

Back on Earth, pyramids such as the one I stood in now, are typically associated with ancient human civilizations such as the Egyptians, Cambodians and Aztecs, and in some parts of the multiverse, they were built by those cultures under the direction and instruction of Yautja who had visited Earth early in its human history. They'd taught early humans how to build such structures, but that knowledge had come at a price, sometimes a great one if the xenomorph hunts went wrong. Thankfully the hunt that had involved me facing off against the serpents had gone well.

For the Yautja clans, pyramids, such as this one that I'd had built for Clan Gothic, had many uses by their civilization, including simple habitation, which is what my clan mostly used this structure for, they were well known as breeding sites for Xenomorphs and for their corresponding use as hunting grounds for Yautja initiation rituals. Wisely the ruling council of Gothics did not allow any living xenomorph of any form into their realm.

Along with their significance in hunting Xenomorphs, many pyramids were constructed to honour particularly worthy Yautja who had died, either in battle or of natural causes, and often held tombs containing the bodies of those individuals. As a result, many pyramids were considered religiously or spiritually significant by the Yautja. Many structures found on Yautja Prime are known to be pyramid-like designs. I'd seen this for myself, and a lot of them served as both habitable and command centres for the clans, as did this place.

While even my clan knew very little about the structures found on Yautja Prime, pyramids used by the Yautja for hunting rituals are fairly well-documented, and I'd even written an essay on the subject that had been published with the university that could be found within the main dome of the Citadel of Gothics. I'd written a lot about the Predators, and one day I would put all my knowledge together, and write a proper book about them.

In my essay, there was a mention that these structures are typically constructed of stone and include elaborate decorations in the form of statues and carvings that celebrate both the Yautja themselves and their reverence for the Xenomorphs, or "Serpents", which they consider to be the ultimate prey. On Earth, pyramids constructed under the auspices of the Yautja also contained engravings of an ancient text on the interior surfaces that if understood would reveal the purpose of the structure and shed light on the Yautja's history with humanity.

Despite the seemingly rudimentary stone construction, many pyramids conceal advanced technologies designed to facilitate the Hunts undertaken there. This combination of ancient techniques with highly advanced technology is typical of the Yautja and reflected in much of the other developments. Among the more advanced technology found within pyramids are the machinery used to contain the Xenomorph Queens imprisoned at their core, advanced holograms depicting ancient ceremonies, or the mechanisms that allowed the entire interior of the structure to rearrange itself periodically, constantly shifting the landscape of the Hunt.

The most important areas of a pyramid are the chamber used to imprison a Xenomorph Queen, from whose Eggs lesser castes of Xenomorphs are bred to hunt, the sacrificial chamber, where this breeding takes place, and a room holding the sarcophagus that contains the Yautja's Plasmacasters, their prize for surviving the Hunt. The rest of the structure consists of numerous chambers and passageways in which the Hunt would take place, many of these spaces specifically designed to suit the Xenomorph's abilities, with tight, enclosed passages that encourage close-range ambushes and a lack of lighting.

Some pyramids were created not as dedicated locations for ritualistic Hunts, but to honour significant events or individuals in Yautja history. For example, the pyramid on a world that Wayland-Yuntai called BG-386 was built in honour of the great Predator Lord, the first-ever Yautja to successfully hunt the Xenomorphs. In reverence of him and his achievements, the first-ever Xenomorph Queen to be captured by the Yautja was eventually entombed alongside his body within the temple.

As for this Pyramid, it was brand new, that alone made it odd in terms of pyramids, and it had been constructed at great expense, so much so that the clan was now broke. As the Leader of Clan Gothic, a group of Yautja style hunters, it was up to me to keep the clan from going bankrupt. Not that we'd end up debtor's prison or anything like that, but if we had no currency it would hard to maintain this place, and my clan did need its own base of operations, a place in the wilderness, some distance away from true civilization. Sadly for me, all of this had come at a high price.

I no longer even had a personal servant to keep my quarters in order and to warm my bed at night, so I would have to take care of myself for a while, something I was fine with doing. I'd not always been a clan leader, once I'd be nothing more than an unblooded warrior, the lowest rank of all hunters, but through hard work, some luck, and planning I'd risen up the ranks to become a Clan Leader who commanded a Yaujta mothership and lead warriors on hunts that brought all involved glory and wealth. I felt certain that I would be able to rebuild the clan's fortunes.

The expense while excessive was worth it since the pyramid was far from the Citadel of Gothics, and this world contained plenty of wildlife that we could hunt for food and to practise our skills. The clan owned all the land around our base and while we would need to pay for some maintenance work our biggest expense beyond that would be paying for the servants. Attractive females who were willing to do all the boring work while wearing little the way of clothing cost more than you might think to keep around.

Before I had to deal with any of that I had to get dressed. Unlike a human dwelling, my chambers didn't contain things like wardrobes or sets of draws out in the open, instead, all of those things were hidden away. By feeling around on the wall and finding the right spot different kinds of storage spaces could be accessed. So really I had a nice big closet, but it was just kept out of sight and made larger than it should be via some cool bit of magic.

The only thing I had out in the open was a table and a set of chairs for people to sit at for when I wanted to with people in private, something I had done when arranging payments for the finishing touches to this base, and they could be stored away elsewhere if I ever decided that they had become needless clutter.

My bed could also be placed inside the wall so as to maximise the amount of free space, and I knew that by touching parts of the wall I could access my private bathroom or slide away part of the wall to expose my very expensive entertainment system and a couch to sit on. The Yautja didn't care for such things, but humans like me sometimes needed to sit back and relax, to escape reality for a time.

Since I wouldn't be hunting today I didn't wear my armour. Instead, I put on some soft leather boots, a pair of black trousers, and a black t-shirt that I would wear under a dragonhide jacket, I also put on a magical amulet and a couple of enchanted rings that were stored in a compartment that was also built into the smooth dark stone of the wall. I'd sold off most of my magical objects, or traded them to someone for materials that I could exchange back here at the Citadel for currency, but I'd kept a few trinkets that enhanced my fighting skills.

As the leader of my clan, I was supposed to wear a cloak and carry a special sword that was a symbol of my rank. Some Yautja clans had centuries-old weapons that passed down from clan leader to clan leader, but such formalities could wait until the next group hunt or formal meetings. I just wanted to deal with a few matters before breakfast, and then start planning how to make some money.

Money wasn't the only issue I had to worry about as while none of us had needed to depart with our most dear trophies we'd lost a lot in terms of weapons. Still, it had been worth every credit we'd spent to get this place up and running, I knew that as I slid my hand along part of the largest bare looking wall and the wall moved to show large windows that let in a lot of natural light while allowing me to check out the view.

As the dawn pushed away the night the sun began to show me the lands that could be seen from this high up. I had the largest chambers near the top of the pyramid so I could see quite a lot.

"Everything the light touches is my kingdom," I said to myself.

Well, okay it belonged to the clan which had grown in size in recent months, and we lived much like Yautja so everything was owned by the clan. Similar to Humans, Predators live and function in communal groups, with some portions (usually males) operating off-world and some portions (usually females and pups) operating on Yautja Prime. My clan didn't allow children among its ranks, and Citadel had a separate place for mothers with children, but we had more female hunters than males.

After I'd closed the window I opened up my personal armoury, which was in a different part of my chambers and most of the compartments over here were empty as I'd moved most of my trophies to the lower level of the pyramid so that they could be displayed to anyone who took a tour. I had other trophy cases on my scoutship and the mothership that were full, and the apartment I kept within the Citadel of Gothic also had some cases.

Now that I had the vault I'd had installed down the lowest level of my clan's headquarters I'd consider opening up a museum or something within the Citadel so as to clear up some room for more trophies. My clan had been very successful in claiming the spoils of the hunt, perhaps too successful given that they took up so much room. It would take some time to fill the trophy chambers inside the pyramid as they had been magically expanded and the same could be done on the mothership and my scoutship, and I had been meaning to get that done for a while, it just hadn't seemed important until recently.

As for my personal armoury, it was rather bare compared to past times, my suit of armour rested on a stand, and this latest set had been made by one of the science type Gothics over at the Citadel. The bodysuit worn under the actual armour was the same as what the Kull Warriors in Stargate wore and it had come to replace the mesh material worn by many hunters in other clans when we were on the hunt.

Since that offered a lot of protection on its own, the metal parts of my armour set didn't need to cover everything. The armour of a Predator varies from clan to clan, and even within the clan from individual to individual. The addition of trophies as decoration also made each suit of armour more unique. My set was made up of advanced materials a dull silver colour that had been forged into a full chest plate, and wrapped around the plate was a sort of bandolier made partly from a chain of metal and partly from the tail of the xenomorph I'd killed during the hunt that had made me a Blooded Warrior of the Shadow Blade Clan, the clan I'd belonged to before coming to lead my own.

Like most suits of armour, this set had two pauldrons, the smaller of which was made from some of the melted down metal that was once worn as a suit by a Space Jockey aka an Engineer, that I'd somehow killed, a good strong pair of boots, thick trousers, gauntlets, and most notably of all the bio-helmet.

This version of the bio-helmet suited a human face better and had some amazing features. With just a focused thought I could change my type of vision, activate or switch off my cloaking device, signal my ship to come to pick me up or open a comm channel to any of my hunters who might be nearby. It might even have features as I didn't know about because the creator of this helmet had a habit of going overboard when building things.

For ease of use, my favourite weapons were carefully stored along with this suit of armour. I had a plasma pistol, a hand-held version of the plasma-casters used by the Yautja, a Power Szabla (which was Polish sabre that been transformed into a power sword as broken parts were replaced) a netgun, a ritual dagger meant to help with the claiming of trophies, and a combi-stick.

My Netgun was a small, handheld device, about the size of a pistol. It fired a bundled net that rapidly expands as it leaves the weapon's barrel. The net itself travels at great speed and is capable of hurling a target across the room upon contact, ideally pinning them to a nearby surface. Once pinned, the prey is then an easy target for the Predator; one common tactic used by hunters is to pin their target with their Netgun before using their combi-stick to kill them.

The metallic net itself also acts as a weapon, once attached to a surface or wrapped around a target it will automatically tighten, carving into the flesh of anything caught inside, causing grievous if non-fatal wounds. The net is essentially impossible to cut unless you're using some very high-quality tools. They are not impervious to Xenomorph blood unlike some other Yautja weapons, and so aren't that effective at trapping the creatures, although they may still be used to temporarily restrain Xenomorphs during

As for the spear-like weapon, a Yautja, or someone who has been trained as a hunter, whill received a combi-stick when they have finished their training, and have shown themselves ready to begin their first Hunt. The spear's advantage is that it is very sharp, well balanced and made from an extremely strong alloy, while also offering greatly increased range in hand-to-hand combat over common Wristblades.

I also had a Wristblade on one of my gauntlets and that gauntlet also had a grappling hook attached to it in case I needed to get up somewhere high quickly as I lacked the claws of a Yautja. I'd once owned a special pair of gloves that could allow me to climb as if I had claws, but somewhere along the way I'd gone and lost them.

Aside from all of that I also owned a bow and a quiver full of arrows. They couldn't be seen as they were sealed away in a currently closed compartment that was connected to the currently open one. The bow and the arrows had been made for me by a Yautja craftsman. The metal tips of the arrows had been forged using a metallic compound that contained elements not found on most versions of the periodic tables. Lucky for me the science of the Citadel was advanced so I could easily get replacement arrowheads.

While my weapons and armour were all impressive I didn't touch them, instead, I bent down and opened a draw near the floor, the draw contained weapons meant for when I wasn't on the hunt, the pistol and shotgun were home defence weapons as was the sheathed combat dagger that I took out of the storage space and attached to my belt. It wouldn't do for the clan leader to be defenceless, but I also didn't want to look as if I had any reason to be scared for my life. A Clan Leader must always look secure in his position.

On my way down to the Great Hall, which was the meeting place and dining area for the clan, I passed by the private rooms of other hunters. My clan had members I didn't know much about, as they were apprentices that had taken on by more experienced hunters, but I'd known the higher ranking hunters such as Trost the Pureblood Sith, Rayne the Dhampir, Sarah Conner and Alice Abernathy for many years, or at least it seemed like years.

We even had a version of Xander Harris as part of the clan, but he preferred to stay at the strip club he'd opened up in on the second level of the Citadel's main dome. The place didn't make us profit directly, but it was a good place to get information from and that alone made it worth paying the rent for the place.

Below the chambers were the rooms for the servants, those who worked in the kitchens, kept the place clean, and served the hunters more directly. We also had holodecks here for entertainment and training, even if the serving girls needed some fun, and the hunters needed to practice. But I ignored those and kept heading down as the Great Hall was on the ground level.

(Line Break)

Clan Pyramid. The Realm of Gothics.

As the Great Hall was both a meeting place and a room for the main meals to be served in it was important that my position within the clan was obvious to any person who entered this space. This was why I had the biggest and fanciest seat at the head table, a chair that had been carved from some rare wood rather than replicated, and that the other high ranking hunters sat at the head table with me.

At this table sat Trost the Pureblood Sith who ensured that we had enough crew for the ship, at least when we could afford them. He used to a pirate and he kept with him two females from his own universe who almost never spoke to anyone other than their master. He also had something useful contacts within the criminal underground of his home universe that had come in useful in times past.

Sitting next to him was the clan's trophy-mistress, the human/Dark Elder hybrid who was responsible for cleaning the trophies and displaying them within the pyramid and Mothership when appropriate. Normally a person or object from the Warhammer 40k verse would never be allowed within the Realm of Gothics, but she'd been created elsewhere and like some others, she'd ended up as part of a Yautja clan before joining mine.

A version of Sarah Conner, the one who looked like Emilia Clarke, who'd I met what seemed like years ago, was the Ship-Mistress just as I was the Ship-Master or captain of our clan's largest vessel. Her job involved making sure that the Jag'd'dja atoll (my clan's Yaujta Mothership) remained ready to fly during the group hunts. Every Blooded Hunter maintained their own Scout Craft, and it was Sarah they went to so arrange repairs and supplies. She had a rather odd sense of style, she most often wore the mesh bodysuits with little underneath and jacket that was decorated with bits of broken Terminators.

I'd given the rank of Home-Mistress to Alice Abernathy, who like me had joined a Yautja Clan, we'd meet during mating season on a Yautja station, a long time ago, and as Sarah was in charge of keeping the ships in working order Alice would make sure this base remained in one piece. We might have paid for all of this, but it would need to be maintained and repaired if ever damaged, and she would sort that out and she looked after the servants. She tended to wear an odd mix of riot gear and Yautja armour that for some reason just looked good on her.

One of our newer members, who had come here for an early breakfast and didn't have a seat at the high table, was a version of the famous bounty hunter Samus Aran, she'd worked with a bounty hunter version of myself, and they'd chased pirates in many dimensions until he disappeared somewhere out there and lacking anywhere else to go Samus had joined our group, but she was more interested in using the clan's resources to go after crooks than in true hunting. I allowed her to remain because she always gave a portion of any rewards to the clan.

The rest of the hunters sat at tables close to the head one but angled differently, somewhat like the great hall at Hogwarts only with any flying candles and the ceiling was a just a normal ceiling. The closer to head table a person sat the more important they were considered to be within the power structure of the clan, but this wasn't a formal arrangement, rather more of an unspoken thing.

While it wasn't that well lit in here you could see the plinths space along the walls, and resting on the top of each of them was a helmet taken from a foe during a hunt. Using these trophies to decorate our base of operations had cleared up space elsewhere. We had display cases in other rooms that were filled with teeth, claws, horns and trinkets taken from other hunts that hunters had donated.

"We need to discuss our money situation," I said to other leaders of the clan "I've been going on over the Citadel's latest economic reports and the values for a lot of the metals they trade in have gone way down".

Since they had replicators here most metals had no value aside from materials such as Latinum, Naquadah, mithril, adamantium, Thundrilium, Veridium, Duranium and Tritanium, Xenothium, Nth Metal, Vibranium, and others such as orichalcum and galvorn.

"This is to be expected with so many versions of me travelling the multiverse" I was now saying "they've all been flooding a rather small market and naturally prices for everything have gone down".

Everyone who lived here in this realm, either full or part-time and that was few thousand people, had a special datapad that kept them linked to the Citadel's data network, as such we could all look at economic reports and other news whenever we wished.

"On the plus side were not in debt since we sold off so much to pay off our loan," I said next.

I'd taken out a big loan to pay for this base, and upgrades to our ships, but we'd been able to avoid getting into debt by selling off a lot of tech and treasures both in this universe and others.

"The main problem with finances here is the Citadel was created to be almost totally self-sufficient" I went on to say "It doesn't need much and aside from rent not many people need to spend much here".

There was a lot of bartering going on between groups and the Citadel had stores, but they didn't do much business. Odd as it might seem that was okay because the rent was cheap and many Gothics didn't need to pay for expensive servants as they had harems who would go and work in any businesses set up.

"Now I did invest in some business interests" I informed everyone "but they aren't exactly making anyone wealthy because the operating costs are so high".

The problem was that the Citadel allowed for indentured servitude, and while this made it possible for us to have servants, they worked under the protection of a contract that offered high rates of pay in exchange for them providing services that you normally couldn't get from employees. Because there was a decent demand for attractive servants who didn't mind dressing and acting like slaves, as such they could demand good rates of pay and that was our main expense now the pyramid was done.

"So if anyone can find us a cheap source of labour please let me know," I said.

We could do with a long term arrangement with some serving girl types who didn't want paying so well. But they'd have to be somewhat desperate.

At least any repair work we required doing wouldn't cost much because the Citadel could create replacement parts easily enough with the replicators or the nano-forges, and most of the routine maintenance could be handled by the assistants of the more sciency type Gothics who wouldn't demand much in the way of payment for such little work.

"What we need to do is find a market and dominate it," stated Trost "and get the Council of Gothics to give us a monopoly. Maybe we should buy some more slaves and train them as servants, get them under contract and sell those contracts to others so the servant can work for their own freedom".

As long as the Council saw that their rules about no real slavery and exploitation were followed they wouldn't see a need to interfere with our affairs, and as long as we didn't bring back anything too dangerous they didn't care at all what we got up to when we were away from this dimension. The ruling Gothics only got involved with other Gothics upon request or if there was some threat to the stability of parts of the multiverse, and you had to be really destructive to earn their wrath.

"Even if we could find some people desperate enough to become servants, which won't be that hard given how badly some slaves are treated," I said, mostly thinking out loud "We'll need someone to educate them and a school. That will cost us and make the servents more expensive".

Trost already had a counter for my words, and this let me know that he'd been thinking about this for some time. Hopefully, this meant there would not be much further discussion on this topic. We were warriors, not business types. We didn't want to sit in meeting rooms so that we could debate about profit margins and expenses. Perhaps it would wise of me to hire an accountant who could handle these sort of matters without much in the way of input from me. A good leader knew both his strengths and weaknesses, he and found ways to compensate for the later, a decent minion could help me with this.

"The more well trained they are the more people will be willing to pay for them" the Sith Pureblood explained, "since they'll be former slaves they will already know most of what a servant to a Gothic needs to know, and they'll be motivated to work hard because it will mean their freedom. Some might even want to stay because they won't really be expected to do much when compared to their old lives".

That was true, with replicators and high tech appliances preparing meals even for large groups of people didn't take much effort. Nor did cleaning rooms and washing clothes, in fact, they might not have enough to do, so they would need ways to amuse themselves when not working, that was why we had holodecks and entertain systems in all the quarters. I did want the serving girls to be happy here.

Desperate slaves would be willing to work for less since they had much more to gain than people from more fortune circumstances who'd come to the Citadel for whatever reason.

"Why not train consorts as well" offered our clan's trophy-mistress "There are pleasure slaves who will happily work for a man who is contracted not to beat them too harshly, and they can be sold for high prices to those Gothics who have never built harems or married".

To be precise their contracts would be sold and since those contracts had to be agreed upon by the person going into servitude they often did clearly say what could and couldn't be done to the servant.

"I'll have Alex spread the word around about the idea" offered Sarah, who knew the bartender Xander from way back "he'll know if there's a demand for well training servants who won't want paying much".

We had more to discuss on this matter.

"I can take another large loan to cover the expenses" I reasoned "but we'll need some way of paying it back, at least a little at a time".

The bank at the Citadel didn't have high-interest rates nor did it only give out Secured loans as its purpose, aside from having a place for accounts, was to loan out money so that people here at the Citadel could start businesses. People in this dimension understood that money existed to be used as a tool and that it wasn't something to be hoarded just for the sake of having it. Even the vaults in the lowest level of this pyramid existed to store wealth for use by the clan not simply for us to have it. Not that having fortunes stored away here wouldn't be nice.

"You know we do have someone who wants to meet with you" Alice Abernathy mentioned, "If I'm right about him, he might be able to help with your project".

This seemed a little convenient, and it wasn't really Alice's place to make appointments for me, but I didn't complain as I was not an administrator and I didn't desire political power. The only reason why I'd gone to all the trouble of setting up a power base outside of the Citadel was so that my clan could operate with a degree of freedom, and because it was nice to somewhere to call home that belonged to us.

I'd been clever when handing over the more day to day affairs to the experienced hunters in the clan as it meant that outside of important issues I didn't need to do that much. Any hunter who took an apprentice only needed to run it by me as a formality, and the veteran hunters had their own scout ships so they could come and go as they pleased, customs was handled by the Citadel.

As such, I only needed to get involved with matters that affect the whole clan, such as our current money situation, and the group hunts we went on, during those times I commanded the Mothership and took a leadership role, but there were no group hunts to take part in unless I decided there would be. I had tried to put together group hunts and then to charge a fee to Gothics who wanted to hunt with us. Sadly that hadn't caught on. Most Gothic's saw the kind of hunting I got up to as barbaric, and I once upon a time I would have agreed with them.

"Clan Leader this is Keeper Droth" Alice introduced once the guest had been let in "He is here on behalf of the Dalish Clans who move through what is now our land".

I'd heard that there were elves out beyond the Citadel, they'd been transplanted here from worlds that they weren't thriving in, and they avoided the Citadel as much as they could due to an understandable disliking of humans, so I was surprised to find one here.

"Why do you need to move through here?" I asked, "There's a lot of wilderness out there, and there's no stopping you from going around the pyramid if you want to".

The Keeper, who was an elderly elf male in a green robe, moved close to where I was sitting.

"Lord Gothic" he began by saying "When our clans agreed to come to this world we were assured that we would be able to move around as we wish".

I didn't see what the fuss was about.

"Move all you want," I said, to the elf who carried a big staff "No one here will stop you or harm you as long as you don't get in the way".

We were free to hunt animals on our land, but so were they, and the Council had made it very clear that we were not allowed to hunt people while in this universe. Not that we would hunt the Dalish as they weren't valid targets in a hunt.

"Keeper, is there something on the land you need?" I asked.

I might be getting older now, but my mind was still sharp, the Dalish wouldn't care much if we were here if they could simply avoid us, and they could do that, so they must be coming here for a good reason.

"There are bowtruckles in forests," said the elf.

It took a few moments for me to figure out what he meant. None magical humans such as myself couldn't see bowtruckles, at least as far as I knew, but the rules could be different here.

"You want wand wood?" I asked since I knew what kind of trees that bowtruckles called home.

There were also minerals around here that could be dug up, however as we had no one to trade them with there was no point digging the stuff up and it wasn't going anywhere so we might as well keep it in the ground.

"Yes, Lord Gothic" answered the Keeper "We do not harm the trees, taking only nature provides, but we do need the wood to make our bows".

As long as they were making sure it stayed a renewable resource I didn't mind. Technically I owned it all, but I no use for magic outside of enchanted items, and there wouldn't be enough demand and the Citadel for the wood to make it worth us harvesting.

"You can hunt and forage on our lands" I allowed "My hunters will do their best not to bother you".

The Keeper seemed pleased.

"May the clans also visit to trade?" asked the Keeper "We wish to avoid the Citadel and we do have crafts that some of your people might find worthy of trading for, our needs are few, so we will not pester you".

This would Alice's business not mine, as long as they didn't become a threat and I didn't think a clan of nomadic elve could threaten a massive stone fortress that was home to some very well-armed people. Not unless they were lugging around some big cannons.

"We might as well let them," said Miss Abernathy "We do pay our servants and they don't get to the Citadel very often, and we do have some trade goods".

Salaries were part of the contracts we had with the servers, and it was subtracted from the amount they had to earn to satisfy their contract, so it wouldn't make a difference if they were allowed to buy from the elves.

"Arrange that with Alice," I said to the Keeper "Anything else?".

As it turned out there was.

"When we were settled in this world the Gothic who brought us here realised that our numbers were not great to rebuild our civilization" the Keeper let me know "so he took some of our blood to make new elves".

My guess would be cloning with some extensive genetic engineering in order to create a healthy gene pool. But I got the sense that something had gone wrong.

"Let me guess the Gothic who made more elves ended up making too few males and lots of females," I said.

Some of the science type Gothics could get distracted by females and go too far in their work.

"Far too many" the elf mage stated, "so we have decided that each of our hunters will have as many wives as he can support, but still we have too many females and no way to pay for more males to be made from our blood, so it has been decided that some of our females will serve you humans, in exchange for pay".

I didn't think he meant only the humans as in the ones here, he meant in this whole world.

"We could do with some new servants," I said, "we need cheaper ones so if your females are willing to work for less than the staff we have now we can take them on once our current contracts come to an end".

Since some of the servers heard that I did wonder how much of a pay cut they'd take when it became time to draw up new contracts.

"Alice will contact you when its time to make a deal," I told the Keeper.

The redheaded women went off with the elf man, and I spoke with the others as I stood up.

"Once I've arranged a loan I'll go hunting in the forest for a least a few hours," I told them all "any other business can wait until after dusk".

They must have things to do and we could discuss our money situation later. A good hunt would help clear my mind and help me plan out some ways to secure our future.