Ghost and the Writer

Negotiations

August kissed her eyelids, and the illusion was undone, that was the first time in three weeks Mandy looked at herself. She was surprised by what she saw. And it wasn't her eyes she was most surprised by.

Yes, her pupils were missing, and her eyes now looked like windows into a dark and stormy world, but the more surprising part was how little, yet a lot she had changed. She looked like an idealized version of herself - like an artist had come by and drawn her portrait, making just teeny tiny tweaks that added up into making someone average into someone immaculate.

She had thought she was like an ugly duck among August and his familiars, but-- well, not true. So that was the difference between humans and gods - teeny tiny tweaks that made a world of difference: flawless skin and perfect symmetry, a bit redder lips, and longer eyelashes.

August kissed Veri's eyelids as well: there was no need to hide her eye color anymore. Only Albus chose to remain 'a secret.'

Among the gifts August got, there were some things meant for Mandy - one of them a dress made out of widow silk and dark aether, a perfect black dress. It changed its shape based on her feelings and since she wanted to look like... a tyrant queen, it took on a sleek, long shape.

The rest of August's familiars and August himself had to dress normally.

They would be heading out to do negotiations, and Marcus, Purple, and Tiamat felt that there would be no hiding what August was anyhow, so why not crash the venue by going in without hiding their presences. If someone passes out, that would make for an excellent dramatic effect. And showing they could conceal it all afterward would be a way to show off as well. But there shouldn't be too many of those - Rebecca, the one organizing the talks, was aware of what they were and would likely set things up in a way where leaking presences wouldn't cause too much damage.

August's familiar count had grown by three - Neo, Mirose, and Jan. They had captured August, and each told why he needed them, with examples and action plans, displaying amazing salesmanship and understanding of August's interests.

Neo said he would be more than happy to handle negotiations with any organizations in Urea and showed that he had made contacts and had gotten both the interest list and blackmailing material against half the visitors who had dropped by in either of the parties. Mirose had done the same on the other half just to give an example of her skill and said she would be happy to handle diplomacy tasks with other dimensions. Jan's presentation was short; he told how to get internet without August's domain breaking the set-up, gave a run-down of how to optimize the technology Marcus had written down for August, and said he would handle the stuff of that sort.

Mandy felt it would be hard to do with them looking 12, but turned out seeing side people didn't judge by appearances quite as much as normies did. Being dryad's familiars would give the three all the needed authority to go out and do stuff.

As the three formed contracts, they lost the animal traits, gained a perfected appearance and regained the authority and potential for ability they could use before in 'the future', although, according to them, the shape of it had changed and Albus started working with the three right away to adjust their proclivity to use aether. For Jan, it had taken just a few hours: as soon as he re-learned to perceive aether flow, he fixed the rest himself, and then Jan helped Neo, and Albus only had to focus on Mirose.

Long story short: The house in Tiamat's domain got internet, and the kids did regain their ability.

They were kids, but if they lifted the passive presence concealment, then their presence easily reached that of half her own as a titan. While the skill count they had did not even near her own, each of them had at least two legendary class skills, while all Mandy's skills were epic rank.