CHAPTER 231: GROWING CONNECTIONS

"Just how intimate are these soul bonds?" asked Heidy.

He repeated his description of the primary effects of soul bonds, then said, "I can make them as intimate or impersonal as I want. In your case, I would do what I did with Phineas Dermot. Besides the default effects, I would add the ability for us to communicate mentally, but you would retain full autonomy."

"And if we die, our souls would remain connected, and you could manifest us here in your soul space."

"Yes. But I suspect it will be many years before I can build up the strength needed to permanently host many people in my soul space."

Cindy said, "Better than just ceasing to exist."

Heidy nodded, then asked, "Can you soul bond us to each other?"

It wasn’t something he’d ever thought of before, so he summoned Jeeves and asked, "Is there a way for me to create a soul bond between two people? Either during or after I’ve soul bonded each of them?"

"Yes, sir. If you send a soul bond request targeting two people instead of one, then you would be able to potentially create a link between the two of them while your bond with them formed."

He dismissed Jeeves and turned to Heidy and Cindy. "And there’s your answer. It’s possible. I’ve never done that before, so there is no guarantee that it would turn out like you want. I should also warn you that it’s permanent."

"So, what’s the likely effect if you were minimally successful?" asked Heidy.

"I’d start with establishing the empathic ability, then move on to the telepathic ability. So, the minimum successful result is that you can vaguely sense each other’s emotions."

Both women smiled as they nodded to each other.

"I should warn you that it’s possible things could go too far the other way and you two could end up more deeply connected to each other than you wanted."

"How deeply connected?" asked Heidy.

"Merged. One person, two bodies. Likely with the dominant personality as the only remaining personality."

He didn’t think Genesis Heart cared if the two ladies merged with each other and would only interfere if they tried to merge with him.

"How likely is that?" asked Heidy, sounding concerned.

He turned to Cindy and asked, "How close to Heidy do you want to be?"

"I want to be able to sense her emotions, and I like the idea of being able to communicate telepathically, as long as I can turn it on and off."

Then he turned to Heidy and asked, "How close to Cindy do you want to be?"

"The same. Emotions yes, telepathy only if we can turn it on and off."

"Then, I think the worst case is highly unlikely. It would only happen if both of you wanted to crawl inside each other on a soul-deep level. And realistically, unless your souls and minds are in serious disagreement, the most likely outcome will be something between nothing and your stated ideal."

Heidy and Cindy looked at each other for a few moments and seemed to reach some kind of unspoken agreement.

Heidy turned back to Jack and asked, "What kind of compensation package can we expect?"

"The company will be privately held, so there won’t be any stock options or other nonsense like that. Instead, I was thinking of offering you a million a year each, plus zero point five percent gross revenue."

"Not net profit?" asked Heidy.

"If we rolled all the profit into infrastructure, there would be no net profit, and I don’t want you fighting me on costs just so you can pad your pockets. Besides with even a billion in gross revenue, that would net you an additional fifty million each."

The two women looked at each other again. After a long moment, they nodded, then turned back to Jack and said in unison, "We agree."

Then Heidy asked, "So how do we do this?"

"I’ve found that physical contact makes it much easier to guide the soul bonding process; the more intimate, the better. However-"

Seeing the growing thunderclouds in Heidy’s eyes, he held up a hand to forestall whatever she was about to say.

"However, in this case, I recommend a group hug with my hands on the backs of your necks and our foreheads together. Though even holding hands would be better than nothing at all."

They looked at each other again before turning and nodding to him.

"That’s acceptable," said Heidy.

He removed all the obedience modifications he had made to them, then asked, "Do you still wish to proceed?"

Then nodded.

He stood and made two little pedestals for the women to stand on so that their heads would be at the same height as his.

He spaced them so that the two women would be standing hip to hip, but would have to lean over slightly to hug him. It was symbolic of his intent to establish a mental, not intimate, connection to them.

They stood on the pedestals, understanding their purpose without needing to ask him.

He approached, and the three of them put their arms around each other, him with his hands on the back of their necks, and put their foreheads together.

He waited just long enough for them to relax slightly, but before it could get weird, then sent them a joint soul bond offer.

[Soul Bond Accepted: Heidy Oakland and Cindy Larkin]

There was a small pause before they accepted his offer, about as long as Phineas had taken to decide.

As soon as they accepted he could sense their souls and understood what they wanted and didn’t want.

He reached out and pushed their souls together, focusing on wanting them to sense each other’s emotions and on wanting them to have a gated mental connection. He also focused on forming the same gated mental connection between himself and each of them with the added desire of being able to sense deceit from them even if they had their mental gate closed.

As the soul bond formed, he found he had to exert a little more pressure on Heidy’s soul to make sure what he wanted happened, and had to push on Cindy’s soul to make sure it didn’t move closer to him.

Heidy had zero sexual interest in him, but Cindy was apparently bi-sexual and was drawn to his strength.

When their soul bonds solidified, he was pleased, believing he’d achieved what he wanted. And he suspected that their connection to each other was also what he wanted.

He stepped back and watched to see how the two women would react.

Heidy turned to look at Cindy, then at Jack, then back at Cindy. "Really?" she asked, sounding a touch annoyed.