The next morning I asked Gren to ask Gruush to organize crews to build a road, and then Boom, Splat and I got to work. As much as I wanted to do big picture things, the important thing was to duplicate everything that might break and be irreplaceable. At some point we’d be able to make real progress, but until then it was important to make sure we didn’t lose things we had no way of getting back, from computers, batteries, and radios down to screws and bolts of particular sizes. Splat did the electronic stuff, and Boom did the mechanical things. Everything was duly cataloged by Lesseth and Kathy, and sorted. I was kept busy by looking at various objects and taking them apart so their parts could be duplicated, making the gnomes more efficient by not making them duplicate parts we could probably make if we had to. For instance, the spinning motor of a line trimmer needed to be duplicated, but the long handle could probably be replaced with a hollowed out wooden one if we had to. The handle was a lot of bulk, and that would slow them down.

There seemed to be a stream of goblin women who wanted to hang around Splat, and I ended up asking my demon and human guards to keep them out during work hours. After, he could party all he wanted.

I worked right through lunch, but a few hours later Gren poked her nose in. “Abby. Zargaza and some orcs are here to see you.”

I shrugged. “I’m kinda busy.” I was pretty focused, but my stomach rumbled to remind me about skipping lunch.

“Abby,” Gren said. “I know you’re happiest when you’re fixing things, but come see Zargaza.”

“Yes’m,” I said, meaning it a bit sarcastically, but Gren didn’t bat an eye.

I walked outside. “So, what’s up?” I probably sounded a bit in a hurry.

“I just want you to know that from this point forward, we are all your devoted servants,” Zargaza said, and the four orcs with her, one female and three males I kinda recognized, nodded. “You have not only conquered us, you have healed our people. Thank you!”

I smiled. “You’re very welcome.”

“I took the liberty of sending messengers to other orc tribes I know, letting them know that you are the savior of legend.”

“Uh, savior?”

“Yes. The one foretold who would bring back the phalluses of our men. I imagine every tribe will send a few of its people to you in tribute. I let them know you prefer women with large breasts, strong backs, and powerful hips.”

Women like her, in other words. I glanced at Gren. She was leaning up against the house, smirking. “I told you that you’d want to talk to her,” she said.

“Of course, you don’t *have* to impregnate all of them,” Zargaza went on. “Some will have skills as dancers, for your entertainment. And you can use them to entertain guests, of course. Or for things like your road building project. They would be happy to work all day for you, naked in the hot sun, bodies glistening…”

“Zargaza, didn’t I tell you that I do not do slaves? Haven’t I gone over this?”

“The messengers are passing along the information that you prefer the term employees.”

“Can you recall your messengers?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because they are too far gone already. I made sure only to tell you until they are well on their way. Was that disobedient of me?” She grinned at me. “You never told me not to send messengers to request tribute from other tribes. I don’t think it ever came up.”

I frowned at her. “I think you knew better.”

“Are you going to punish me?” she asked. Yeah, she was definitely bratting. “I am chief of the orcs, but I am still just your loyal servant, and your breeding slut.”

“We are all your servants,” one of the orcs said. “We owe our dicks to you.”

Funny. I owed my tits to Enash, and see where that got him.

“Fine, I’ll punish you, Zargaza.”

She smiled. “Should I bend over here?” she asked. “Skirt on or off?”

“On. And no, you can go help build the road for the day. Gruush needs everyone he can get.”

The smile faded. “That wasn’t what I had in mind.”

“I’m aware.”

Gren was still smirking, but at Zargaza, now.

“Abby. My Queen,” Zargaza said. “I did what I did for your own good, you know.”

“I know you think that.” I sighed. “I’m not angry. But I do need that road built.”

She hesitated, and then nodded. “Of course, Abby. As you wish. I hope that once I bear your child you will be at least interested in impregnating me again?”

“Zargaza, I’d fuck you right here and now but you’d take it as a reward, not as punishment.”

“Ah. And if you rewarded me, you’d have to admit that you like the idea of having dozens of beautiful nubile orcs at your command. I shall happily clear brush and lay pacing stones for you so that you don’t have to face your own desires, darling.” She pivoted and walked away with an exaggerated sway to her hips.

Gren snickered.

“What?” I asked.

Gren grinned. “Tell me honestly that you hate the idea of lots of lovely verdant vixens?”

“Verdant?”

“It means green. And lush.”

“Right. I suppose it does.” I paused, and then slowly shook my head. “I hate the idea of it all going to my head. I’m just someone who repairs houses.”

“Maybe you were, once, although I doubt you were ever just anything. Don’t worry, Val will let you know if you get too far out of hand.”

I smiled a little at that. “She will, won’t she?”

Gren nodded. “And I’ll let you know when you’re getting too uptight. More orcs means more workers. You didn’t force them; you earned their loyalty by taking risks with your own self to get rid of Enash. You’re the queen for a reason. And now I’m going to tell you something else you need to know.”

“What’s that?”

“You need to eat some lunch. Let Jill or Kathy work with the gnomes for a bit.”

I bolted down lunch, and as soon as I was done I got up to go back to the gnomes.

“Stop, Abby,” Gren said. “It can’t all happen in one day. What are you going to do, work from dusk to dawn every day, until you’ve recreated Rockville or whatever it was called?”

I shook my head. “It can never happen. We’d never get there. And I don’t want to get there. What we have here is greener, and the air is cleaner.”

“And you didn’t have quite so many lovely ladies wanting to please you,” Gren said. “Including this one. Right now. Take your pants off.”

“What?”

“All work and no fun makes Abby a dull queen.” She undid a strap, and then tossed her top to the floor.

She might not have stunning beauty, but I stared long enough for her to take my hand and lead me to the bedroom. Her breasts were fuller, her stomach more rounded. Life had changed a lot, in all sorts of ways. And whatever else I wanted in the world, I knew I wanted her.

And if I was to be really honest, her and her and her and …, but I could still focus on one at a time.

I made up with Zargaza the next day, with a nice public fucking.

A few days later, I gave Boom a big task. I wanted her to duplicate an antique manual Singer sewing machine that Jill had bought. It was made of metal, and built to last. Splat was off working with Kathy and Jill making computer parts, but eventually I’d have him work on the other sewing machine Jill had brought, a more modern one that was programmable. The advantage of the Singer is that it didn’t have any circuit chips in it or anything, and didn’t even require electricity.

“This is heavy,” Boom said.

“Yes, I know.”

“It’ll take pretty much all my mana, and I won’t be able to do much until the afternoon.”

“It’s important.” Combined with the loom we’d made the day before, I had hopes for a  fabric industry. Without the sweatshops, of course. It would give Abbyland another export – maybe we could even make bras for the elves – and provide our own people with more clothing options as well. I appreciated the minimalist approach many troll and orc women took to their clothes, but making clothes out of leather and furs was also relatively labor intensive.

She grinned at me. “In that case, maybe we can do a little recharging?”

“Hmm,” I said. I was going to take advantage of the time she spent resting up to go tour the various building projects, including the road, and see if they could be made more efficient. “I’ve got things to do, Boom.” I’d “recharged” her the previous two days. Just to keep production going, of course.

She pouted. She looked awfully cute like that.

“Not gonna work,” I said.

She made a face. “What’s this do, anyway?” She pointed at the sewing machine.

I explained.

“Oh, cool!” She grinned. She genuinely loved seeing how things worked. She turned and laid two hands on it, and focused.

I moved back. She didn’t need me to watch her the whole time, after all, and I could get on with my day. Still, I cast a glance back as I slipped out the door.

Through observation, you have now gained the Duplicate Simple Object spell!

Whoa. It was all I could do to stop from saying something out loud, but I didn’t want to distract Boom. Instead, I slipped into the next room, and checked my status.

Duplicate Simple Object: By spending an amount of mana commensurate with the mass of the object, with extra mana for rare materials, the caster may duplicate any object they touch providing it is sufficiently simple.

Alright. That was straightforward. I started taking things out of my bag, and trying things. A screw took not even a whole point of mana, and it fit perfectly. A bigger bolt just cost more mana, but still not a problem. A hammer, I could do that. The katana, yeah, that was still a simple object.

A compound bow was not. I’d reached my limit. I wasn’t at Boom’s level, let alone Splat’s. The difference, however, was that I could already tell my mana pool dwarfed theirs. I could make all the simple replacement parts I wanted. I could outfit everyone with solid, twenty-first century tools.

I cancelled my plans and made saws and wood axes to speed up the process of building a road through the forest. I must have made a hundred of them when Boom came out, looking tired. “I did it,” she said, and then stopped and looked at all the axes all around me. “Uh, Abby? What are you doing with those?”

I looked up. “They are for chopping down trees,” I said.

“Oh. They aren’t weapons?”

I shrugged. “No.” I paused. “I mean, I suppose they could be, but that’s not what they are for.”

“I thought maybe you had them for your zombie army.”

I shook my head.

“Why do you have so many?”

“Because,” I said. “I can now do this.” I demonstrated, making another axe and putting it on the pile.

Her eyes went wide. “And you made all those?”

I nodded.

Her face fell. “I guess you don’t need me anymore, then, do you?”

“I can only make simple things,” I started, and realized that telling her I still needed her to make things like sewing machines was probably not the very best approach. So I pivoted. “I can’t make a beautiful charming pink-haired gnome girl who is a joy to work with and makes the cutest noises when she cums.”

“Oh!” She squeaked. “But I thought you didn’t want to –”

“I’ve got a lot of other things I have to do,” I agreed. “But now, I’m running low on mana myself. So if you don’t mind waiting until I ship these off to the workers, then I think we should have some fun together to celebrate.”

“Well,” she said, her cheeks turning nearly as pink as her hair, “I wouldn’t object.”