Chapter 68: Chapter 64: Amelia’s Love

Lia dismissed Ophelia, and was soon left in a room with just herself, Rose, and Amelia.

“So,” Amelia said with barely restrained excitement, “you wanted to talk about us?”

“Well, Rose and I have done some talking, and we’ve decided how we want to proceed.” Lia said slowly. “We’re not opposed to adding you to the relationship, but you’re going to have to meet a few conditions first.”

“I can meet any condition you want.” Amelia said proudly. “Tell me what they are.”

Lia shared a glance with Rose. “While you have made the swarm okay with relationships with more than the normal two people, I’m not interested in polygamy. If this is going to be a relationship with three or more people, it needs to be polyamorous.”

Amelia frowned. “What’s the difference?” She asked.

“In polygamy, it’s one person in a relationship with everyone else.” Lia explained. “Think a king and his concubines. In polyamory, everyone is in a relationship with everyone else, meaning you would need to love Rose enough to want to date her, Rose would need to love you enough to date you, I would need to love you both enough to want to date you both…you get the picture.”

Amelia blinked. “That’s not too bad.” She said. “I can fix that now.” She immediately began to cast a spell, an enormous magic circle appearing beneath her.

“No changing Rose’s mind!” Lia said quickly. “It has to be natural!”

Amelia paused briefly. “Don’t worry, I’m not. I’m just changing my own mind. You’ll still be my number one, but she’ll be juuust below.”

“That’s still not natural!” Lia protested. “It’s not the same!”

The magic circle faded as Amelia frowned. “Why not?”

“Because it’s not real!” Lia said. “It’ll get washed away the moment you get hit with a dispel effect!”

“No, it won’t.” Amelia chuckled. “Even without my Hero power, I can make permanent transformations. And it’s not a mind-altering effect per-se, I’m literally transforming my brain to achieve the same result.”

Lia wasn’t quite sure how to properly articulate what she was getting at, but that, at least, was an easy rebuttal. “That’s not safe! What if you mess up?!”

“I won’t.” Amelia said calmly. “This isn’t my first time doing this; why do you think I’m so in love with you?”

Lia went silent at that bomb. Amelia’s love was…because she had changed her own brain? Why? Did this mean everything was fake? That she really could have been anyone else, and Amelia picked her at random?

“Stop right there.” Amelia said. “I can figure out what you’re thinking. No, it had to be you. When I was younger and first met you, you were the first person to make me feel. And the feeling grew for a while, and then…it started to go away, and that scared me. So, I took matters into my own hands, and made that feeling strong and permanent. It was the best decision I ever made, and if doing it again means getting to be with you, then I’m more than willing to go through with it.”

“B-but,” Lia stammered, “you don’t actually care about her, you just need her to to get what you want.”

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“And?” Amelia said, tilting her head to the side. “People want to feel different things or change their behavior all the time. Some people want to feel less angry, some people want to be more generous, some people even want to want something, this is no different. I want to love Rose, and that’s that.

“They say to fake it ‘till you make it, and that acting a way for a long time will change you to be that way, so I’m really just cutting out the middleman. Besides, I’m not changing anyone else, it’s my brain, so it’s my choice, and I’m not hearing any arguments.”

She apparently meant that literally, as a zone of silence expanded outwards, catching Lia and Rose in its effect, followed shortly by a barrier that prevented them from getting closer to Amelia. Amelia turned her focus away from the two, then resumed carefully constructing her spell, the giant magic circle reappearing under her.

Desperately, Lia began working up a counterspell, but even with Amelia’s powers being bound, she was far more capable magically than Lia was, and the spell didn’t work. It wasn’t just that Amelia was able to put more power into her spells, it was that her spells were better constructed; Amelia had a lifetime of tinkering with the very foundation of how the system worked, while Lia really only had system-guided help in using magic for a few months.

Amelia, don’t! Lia cried out telepathically. I don’t want this! As Queen, I command you to stop!

Amelia smiled an infuriating smile, the one she always had when she was pulling something over a person, and Lia pounded against the barrier. Amelia…Amelia wasn’t really aware of what she was doing, it was just twisted and warped values coming –

Rose’s hand fell onto Lia’s shoulder, snapping her out of her daze. Lia looked up at Rose, who just shook her head, a sad smile on her face. D…bot…e…ad…oi

Lia frowned. The mental communication was coming through garbled and unclear, and she was only able to pick out bits and pieces of what Rose was saying. You sound weird. Lia said. I think the silence zone messes with telepathy, too.

Rose frowned as Lia’s communication came in, a clear sign that Lia had sounded just as garbled as Rose had. Lia began casting her eyes about the room, looking for a sheet of paper, and then the air changed, sound returning to the room.

Lia immediately rushed over to Amelia, who was patting herself down as if to shake off dust. “Amelia, are you okay?!” Lia asked, carefully looking her up and down. “That was really reckless! Why wouldn’t you just listen to what we had to say?!”

“I’m feeling better than ever.” Amelia said dreamily. “I’d forgotten how good it feels to gain someone else you love. And it wasn’t reckless, it was perfectly safe, I’ve done it way too many times for it to be reckless.”

“Still, why?!” Lia wailed. “It could have just happened naturally!”

Amelia shook her head. “No. You and me aren’t the same, Lia. I don’t have the luxury of being able to fall in love, if I want to feel something like that, I need to make myself feel it.”

“But…I thought they got rid of the Urge.” Lia said. “You should be better now, able to actually feel!”

“I haven’t felt like my feelings have changed.” Amelia said. “All that’s changed is that I don’t feel compelled to not hurt people.”

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