The dragon's harem

Merlin didn’t even need to read the report; she just absorbed the knowledge in those scrolls directly into her mind through magic, and what she learned was interesting to say the least. Creations are instinctively attracted to their creator and bound by a will to serve and be of use.

Both Ombre and Neige, knowing that Merlin is their creator, couldn’t get her out of their minds for longer than a minute, and every thought that crosses their minds eventually has her in the mix. The way they walk, talk, think, and carry their orders all reflected what they think would please Merlin the best.

The early results were promising, but not what Merlin wanted to understand for now. What she was really looking for was the effect of being a creator on relationships, emotions, and attitude. She wanted to understand and find out if they, Arad’s wives, really love him, or are just attracted to his soul as their creator.

But surprisingly, those were the least interesting of what she had just learned. Even though she was Ombre and Neige’s creator, her own will and soul didn’t affect their free will in any shape or form. Even if she ordered them to kiss her feet when they appeared, deep down, the two were still disgusted by it. But something else changed, and it was the reality of their own beliefs.

The fact that the two didn’t like it and that they were just forced to do it with a smile on their faces because Merlin ordered them to didn’t change. But the thing that changed was that the action itself was now accepted as the norm.

For example, people die when they are old. Do mortals love death? No, they absolutely hate it. But they still accept it as a part of nature and would even defend its existence as an irreplaceable fact of life itself. Everyone seeks immortality, but not a single soul believes that immortality is all sunshine and rainbows. The creator had created a beginning and end to all things, and the mortals he created accept that fact.

It was the same here with Merlin’s little test. If she herself believes that kissing her feet is a normal way of greeting her and showing respect, then both Ombre and Neige would just accept that while hating it as much as they did before.

So the effect changes common sense instead of what individual people believe. This means that if Arad was really the world’s creator, then his will affects the very fabric of reality itself, the entire universe from one end to the other. This effect also should grow stronger the deeper the creator’s hold is on what he created.

In Merlin’s case, her hold is absolute. She can erase the entire world she created alongside Ombre and Neige in a single thought. But Arad now has almost no hold over the universe, and so the effect of his authority should be subtle and weak.

Merlin also tested whether Arad’s influence could seep into her own labyrinth and those she created, and the answer seemed to be yes, even if in an indirect way. Arad’s will can affect her, and she would then affect her own creations as per Arad’s will.

So while Merlin expected to end up either weary of Arad or even hating him after this test, she ended up loving him even more. She didn’t just end up with a wonderful, powerful, rich, and ambitious husband who easily made her magical research far easier and more accessible; Arad was a unique existence with the potential to not just rewrite reality but to even overthrow Yog.

He is the Alpha and Omega, above everyone and everything. While not needing anyone or anything, he was the beginning and will be the end. To Merlin, he was to her what she was to Ombre and Neige, so by fully understanding her power over them, she could only droll at the possibilities that Arad offers as the one above the universe itself.

With him by her side, she just got admin privileges over all of existence, and for a wizard, that was a dream come true. So while she had a nasty face on, Ombre and Neige stared at her with terrified faces, waiting for her verdict on their reports. While she got them to be her test subjects, she explained nothing, as that would’ve changed the results, making them even more confused.

But as she was giggling to herself, almost getting high on this newfound power, she remembered something that made her laugh out loud. In the past, Arad had been asked if he was an Alpha, referring to him being an Alpha predator as a dragon. At the time, Arad had argued that he was better called a Sigma instead, making a joke about the social meaning of the word that Mom taught him.

Thinking about that statement now, Merlin could see a new meaning to it. Sigma is also a symbol for summation, so did Mom mean that he was everything? AO, Arad Orion, Alpha and Omega, but also the Sigma. He is the beginning, the end, and everything in between...

”Does Mom know about his true nature, and if so, does Violet herself know? No, is Mom even a simple fragment of Violet’s consciousness, or is it something greater?” As she stopped laughing, she looked at the empty black sky above the bath and smiled. ”Just when I started thinking that I was crashing against the wall of reality, Arad comes in and opens a whole new horizon of magic for me to play with.”

”Are you okay?” Ombre asked, and Merlin flicked her finger, releasing both of them from the hold of her magic. ”Yeah, the experiment is done for now. I didn’t get all the information I needed, but what I got would keep me busy for days.”

Both Ombre and Neige blinked, feeling their minds get washed clean of Merlin’s interference, and Neige immediately gagged. ”Ah! You made me kiss your feet in front of all the maids!?” Ombre, on the other hand, didn’t mind at all. ”It was what she wanted, and as her servants, we must obey.”

Merlin waved her hand. ”Come on, you two aren’t that against it. Besides, I’ve got some very important information from that, and we’ll carry out more tests later.” She leaned forward. ”Basically, I’m testing to see how much influence my own will as your creator has on your free will.”

”Our free will?” Ombre looked at her hands and could feel her shadow pulsing. ”Are you saying we’re not really free, just like your shadow, mimicking your own will?”

”Wait, what? I knew you had us controlled, but I did believe we had some agency and freedom.” Neige gasped, looked at Merlin, and then sighed with a sad face.

Merlin shook her head. ”The primary results say you are free; you have your own will. What my influence does is affect what is considered normal by your own reality. For example, I can’t make either of you love kissing my feet, but I can make it the norm in the reality I created. Now, take that to all other subjects from morals to the laws of nature, and you’ll understand the extent of a creator’s influence.”

She then approached them. ”But that isn’t what I’m looking into... what I want to know is how someone like you two, a created being, exploits a relationship with their creator to gain power. Can you two, over time and using regular tactics, make me believe in something that would cause my will to change your own reality however you want?”

Ombre was the smartest of the two, so she understood immediately. ”We’ve been working for you for a while now... so let’s say I loved cooking a strange food that many consider disgusting, and I cooked it for you every day even though you didn’t like it at first. Then after a while, you liked it. Would that make liking it normal?”

”That what I want to know... so, are you two willing to keep helping me with the tests?”