Chapter 54: 053 Checkup: Sex and Politics

"Revolutions. A few important ones, but not all of them were for the better." Diana, the more historically inclined between the two, recalled what she had learned. "Is it my turn?"

"It is."

Diana obliged and raised the back of her robe up. Diana too felt the Arboreal Maiden's hands to be cold. There was silence for some time, the Arboreal Maiden focusing intently on the analysis of Diana's body.

"It was inevitable I suppose, one of the muscles in your back is twisted. Please lay face down on the ground. Donovan, I will need you to hold her legs down."

"Hold her legs down?"

"Hold my legs down?"

"Yes, I would prefer not to be kicked in the face if you spasm. I can handle your upper body arching upwards, but the twisting of the hips and flailing of the legs might complicate things."

"Will it hurt?"

"Not at all. On the contrary, it is going to tickle."

Once again deciding to place her trust in the Arboreal Maiden's abilities, she laid face down on the ground, the Great Csillacra's heart. It felt weird on her face, but it was breathable enough. If she had to pin it down with words, it was like putting her face in a foam pillow with a grassy wet covering, except there was no water.

The Arboreal Maiden knelt down to her right and placed her hands on a spot just below her ribcage on the same size. At the same time, she felt pressure at the place where ankle transitioned into calf. Donovan didn't have the largest hands, but they were more than big enough to wrap all the way around her legs at that point. It made her feel vulnerable in more ways than one, and she buried her face into the strange surface.

"The malformity isn't that significant, really only a few strands of muscle fiber, but it could cause pain in the future. With that said, let's begin."

Donovan, actually in a position to see the Maiden at work, noticed a glow originating from her hands with his new sense. Beneath this dull blur was what appeared to be a set of solid lines. Gently, she inserted these into Diana's back. They didn't pierce the skin, that is to say they didn't draw blood, but they certainly sunk into her body. In a rapid and unpredictable fashion, the Maiden flicked her wrists.

Donovan wasn't stupid, he could see that each move of the wrist, fidget of the finger, and twist of the arm shifted those little needles in a purposeful way. He just couldn't figure out the correlation between the movement and the response.

"Hugieaaah!!!"

Diana let out what would qualify as a cry for help. Just as the Arboreal Maiden had predicted, she was thrashing about. Donovan could tell from the arcing of Diana's back that being kicked in the head was definitely a possibility in the Maiden's position. In fact, it seemed like the only reason that work could continue was the fact that Diana couldn't get her lower back off of the ground.

Speaking of her lower back, Donovan could very clearly see some slightly wriggling underneath the skin where the Maiden was working. It looked fairly wormlike, but he could tell this was likely the muscle being untangled. From how it appeared, Don would have guessed that this would have been experience that qualified as painful to the point of tears.

Indeed, Diana was crying, but it wasn't out of pain. Currently, she was experiencing a deep tissue massage on the level of literal muscular rearrangement. It was a physical sensation the body wasn't truly equipped to handle, but for some reason it failed to evoke a painful response. Had it been any less intense, she might have been forced into laughter, but at the current levels she was experiencing an overload.

"Almost done." The Maiden's movements were slowing down. From what Don could see, she was making a stroking motion. It was as if she was combing her hair. Actually, upon closer inspection, Don determined that she was combing. The little needles were ordered parallel to each other and followed her movements down Diana's back.

With every stroke Diana tensed and shook, but the subdermal writhing was fading. Eventually it subsided entirely. Once she was content with her work, the Maiden made a similar set of motions to when she started. Pulling the robes back down, she offered her help in bringing Diana to her feet.

"That patch might be sensitive for some time, but you won't suffer from it in the future. Would you like a summary similar to what I gave Donovan?"

"...please." Her voice was weak. There could be little doubt that Diana was exhausted from the events of the day. From the long walk, to her body being rebuilt, to the intense physical distress she had just gone through, she had run out of energy to give an enthusiastic reply.

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"Same as Donovan, tissue was reformed to make it viable for interaction with split. However, it would appear you had few, if any, issues with your genetics. The only one that could have possibly had a noticeable effect would be the natural growth of bone spurs later in life. Painful, but not exactly impactful."

"Thank you for that."

"Don't thank me. Other than that, most of the focus was on you reproductive organs. A few massive adjustments were made to how your body responds. For one, hormonal imbalance during your... Ovulation? Period? Whatever the scientific equivalent may be, has been fixed. You shouldn't suffer from pains, mood swings, or other such side effects, though I regret to inform you that you will still bleed.

This was done in consideration of the fact that your body will now naturally produce eggs at a rate that will keep your ovaries at a sufficient stock. Stress, injury, malnutrition, and other such conditions may interfere with this process, but as long as it does not persist for a period of five years or longer there should not be an issue."

"Is this a consideration given for our lengthened lives?" Don wanted to know. He wasn't exactly familiar with the female body, but he recalled that most women ran out of eggs at around forty to fifty years of age.

"More than that. All of the eggs she had before this operation would have yielded children incapable of using split, fated to a short life of suffering. Similarly, measures were implemented to eliminate the risks involved with incest. The genes in her ovum will be randomized to an extent, maintaining what you would call 'Terran' characteristics, including the ones added here. Your testes were also manipulated in this way to a certain extent.

Admittedly, part of the reason for this was to make you sexually compatible with the rest of humanity."

"Sexually compatible? Why did you need to do that?" Diana was a little uncomfortable with the subject of intercourse, but her curiosity got the better of her.

"Aside from the fact that everyone else is compatible with each other, it opens up a great many political options for you. Chief among them is the potential for a political marriage." The Maiden held up a hand to stop them before they could interject. "I understand the two of you would prefer a monogamous relationship, but I don't think that will be possible if you are to progress down the path I think you will. I won't go so far as to say you, Diana, will be forced into such an arrangement. However Donovan is likely to become a powerful chip in diplomatic dealings.

There are a great many situations I can think of that would precipitate the proposal of a political marriage, so I cannot give them all, but I can provide a few examples. This should first be prefaced with the fact that I believe Donovan will achieve a great many accolades in the realm of war, and your technological prowess will further the difference in military might between you and the rest.

With that said, I feel you should know that you will come into armed conflict with an external independent nation should you yourself decide to maintain a status of an independent nation, the current culture of war practically guarantees that an upstart will be attacked in order to expand influence and borders. In this scenario, there are two scenarios that immediately come to mind.

The first is in the case that you conquer a planet. Most systems are inhabited almost exclusively by the species that first lived on it. In the case the nation you seized it from was independent, then it is likely that the inhabitants will have a royal family or other such lineage that they view as the true rulers. In order to legitimize your rule over them and accrue any level of support, it may be needed for Donovan to marry a princess or even the queen.

The second case is that an independent nation wishes to either enter an alliance with you, or at the very least do not wish to be attacked. It is extraordinarily common for the rulers of such nations to marry off their children in order to seal such a deal. Seeing as Donovan will likely be considered a prime candidate for marriage anyways given his ability, martial might unfortunately being valued higher than other traits, you might even be given a great many things in order to secure one of his children."

"So he might end up becoming a breeding stud?" Diana was incredulous at the proposition. She understood that Donovan might end up having to accept other wives besides herself in order to build a base of support, as much as she didn't like it. She didn't like the idea of political concubinage, but she was perfectly willing forfeit her ideals if it gave them a better chance of survival. But that wasn't what was proposed, at least not all of what was proposed. The latter half of what the Arboreal Maiden described was more akin to relegating Donovan to becoming a man-whore.

Diana absolutely would not condone such a thing, and she had a feeling that Donovan was feeling revulsion at such a thing as well.

"Only if you let it. Once again I am only saying this is a possibility, and that you are more than welcome to refuse such actions, but I warn that avoiding political marriages entirely may prove to make your lives more difficult than is strictly necessary. Another use of the political marriage I have seen in the past was to secure talent. Admittedly, this is rather rare, but if you find a woman with a great deal of talent or an ability that you feel you absolutely need to have, having her enter into a marriage with Donovan is not a bad idea. Such an arrangement could even be a marriage in name only.

For your own sakes, I would try to avoid thinking of marriages in the way you have been up to this point. The denizens of this realm don't really hold the ideal of a 'holy matrimony' as they have yet to be exposed to the idea. Sure, it might be common for a household to only have one man and one woman, but among the upper echelons of society having many 'wives' is far more likely."

Donovan, still stunned by the prospect of being a tool, didn't even register this word of advice.

Diana on the other hand. "So he might be ridiculed for not having more than one wife. That's . . . rough." Diana lacked the energy to rip her hair out in frustration. "I suppose that's something I'll have to be in charge of won't it? We can't have some skank coming in a ruining all of our plans now can we? Donovan?"

She looked over to her partner, who was currently staring off into the distance.

"Donovan?" While the rest of him looked similar to the way it had before, if she didn't know it was him Diana would have mistaken him for someone different.

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