Kingdom Come

by James Osiris Baldwin

A pang of guilt squashed down the remainder of my ardor. I was the one who’d talked Suri into switching sides on The Slayer of Taltos questline. “I’m sure Ignas could give you a place. Have you asked him?”

  “Yeah.” She eased down a little. “Nothin’ he can do. He tried to give me a quest, but I couldn’t accept it. I can’t accept any quests unless you or Rin do.”

  “You can’t?” Now that I thought about it… I never had seen Suri accept a quest. “Damn. Why didn’t you say something?”

  She shrugged uncomfortably. “Only way I level up is through combat and group quests. I tried buying a house with the gold we got after the coronation. The guy fuckin’ vanished.”

  “As in, he wouldn’t stick around to make the sale?”

  She shook her head. “No, as in, he literally vanished. He was sitting across the table from me, and then ‘poof’. Vanished. My last chance at getting a new respawn point is this quest. One where I’m grandfathered in by another… uhh… ‘player’.”

  “It’ll be okay. If we take the title, Karalti and I can name you Voivodzina or Castellana.” Frowning, I stroked her hair. The strands of copper and scarlet and orange looked thick and wiry, but hers was actually very soft. “That should fix that problem.”

  “Okay.” She swallowed nervously. “I hope I’m not pressuring you.”

  “It’s alright. I’ll let Ignas know I’ll go ahead with the land and title thing tomorrow morning.”

  “You’re wound up about it, though.”

  “Yeah. I mean, even just the responsibility of owning a house, let alone a whole castle… Do you know how few people my age even rent their own apartments now? I can’t imagine what it’s like to have that much responsibility. How the hell do you clean the place?”

  “You get other people to do it. Butlers and shit.” She lifted her eyes to look up at me. “I want to make sure we pay ours well. None of this slavery shit.”

  “For sure.” I nodded, and for a short time, we curled up together in comfortable silence.

  When she spoke next, she sounded almost shy. “You know, you’re the only man who’s ever done that.”

  I cocked my head. “Done what?”

  “You never touch me without asking first,” she replied.

  I shrugged. “You haven’t told me much about what went down at Al-Asad, but it seems like a lot of people just thought they could lay hands on you whenever they wanted.”

  “Yeah.” She closed her eyes again. “They did. I wasn’t complaining or anything... actually...”

  She trailed off, and then chuckled to herself.

  “What?” I asked.

  She licked her lips. They were puffy and full, dark even without lipstick. “It makes me feel safe.”

  “Good. Because, well, you know... I care about you.” I held her close, gazing at the fire. Someone had come in earlier and had relit it, and the flamelight danced over everything in brilliant, almost hallucinogenic color. “I’m pretty sure I love you.”

  “Pretty sure?” She rolled up to lean on my chest. Her hair brushed the side of my neck. “No, don’t answer that. I’m just playing around. I know it’s too soon to say.”

  “We’ll know by the time we wrap up Myszno.” I yawned. Then, I noticed that my HUD was warning me: The Fatigue penalty was back. I’d only slept off the Exhaustion debuff. “I don’t know about you, but I’m beat. How about we hit the hay? You know, before Karalti gets back and starts screaming at the window?”

  “How about you unequip your clothes and let me rub your back until you fall asleep?” A wicked light danced in Suri’s eyes.

  “Just my back?” I stuck my lip out. “What about Front-Hector?”

  Suri laughed, rich and sultry. “Front-Hector gets a turn, too. Maybe not the way we were thinking, but I can figure something out.”

  She was still a little shaky as she climbed over me and began to kiss her way down. I grunted, shifting up against the heat of her lips and tongue, then gasped as my cock pressed up between her breasts, rubbing along her sternum.

  “Does that work?” she asked.

  My breath caught when I looked down at her. “Yes. Yes, it does.”

  She laughed her beautiful warm honey laugh and pressed her breasts together around the shaft, then bowed her head to cover the rest with a hot, eager mouth. With my fingers tangled in her hair, I might even have pushed her down a bit. Gently.

  ***

  It was late when we passed out into a deep velvet sleep, with me sprawled out on my back and Suri curled into the crook of my arm. I was as relaxed as I’d ever been… and maybe that was why tonight, of all nights, I dreamed of the Total War.

  It was the Crescent Front. My first tour. My Regiment loaded out into the rain, with tank and mortar fire for cover. The heat of the Indonesian jungle drug at my skin like clammy fingers, pulling at my limbs as I ran. The weight of the pack on my back and the rifle in my hands dragged me down with every squishy, muddy step. At any moment, it felt like I’d trip and be trampled into the muck of the battlefield… the marsh where I expected to die.

  The ground rolled and shuddered under the impact of Pacific Alliance artillery. Glowing Praxis shields kept most of them from hitting us as we stumbled out of choppers and carriers and zig-zagged toward the rainforest. I couldn’t see or hear anything over the rotors, the explosions, the smoke. My helmet was supposed to help me target hostiles in the dark, but the HUD was on the fritz, screwed up by the EMP shields while the shells rained down like fireworks. Our side, their side… I didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. There was nothing except the terrible heat, the explosions, the pain in my head, and the awful, gnawing fear, like a worm eating through my guts.

  Then, through the yellow smoke, I saw my first live enemy. A Taipan Heavy, Australian powered armor slogging through the mud and smoke toward us. It flickered like a bad TV, its camouflage on the fritz. The guy inside had to be as scared as I was. It leveled its barrels at the scattering assault force, just before an RPG took it out. The explosion lit up the marsh, revealing the others running in from behind it. They all had glowing HP rings behind their heads, like in a game… and that’s when I realized I was dreaming.

  The surge of adrenaline woke me up – gasping, sweating, clutching the furs that lined my bed. My bones were still shaking with the memory of mortar fire as my bedroom came back into focus. Quest alerts and other notifications flashed in the corners of my eyes. My pulse pounded in my ears, my stomach gnawed, my jaws ached, and the roar hadn’t gone away.

  [Good morning, Hector Park!]

  [You have 1 unread quest update]

  [You have one unread message from Rin Lu]

  [Warning! You are Severely Dehydrated! -15% to all Stats and Skills!]

  [You are hungry! HP will no longer regenerate!]

  [Are you experiencing emotional or psychological stress? Help is available. Would you like to chat to an assistant?]

  [World Alert: The Black Moon Festival has ended! (Vlachia)]

  “Urrgh. Fuck off.” I dizzily swatted the holographic notifications away, flailed my way out of my bed, and tumbled onto the cold floor. Grimacing, grinding the heels of my palms against my eyes, I felt my fingernails set into the skin of my forehead even as my dragon's vision - and her urges - intruded into my mind.

  Karalti was on the other side of Vulkan Keep, staring at the side of the volcano. She positioned herself against the sun, hovering like a kestrel in the fierce mountain winds as her bleating prey shuffle along the cliff face. Her need overwhelmed the echoes of the nightmare.

  When I opened my own eyes, they fell on Suri sprawled out on our bed. She lay on her side, the covers half off, the rest framing the smooth curves of her lower body. She was naked from the waist up. Delirious, I drank in the sight of her, from the coppery swell of her hips to the dark curves of her breasts, then froze as her face turned away from me. Her tousle of blazing red curls fell aside to expose her neck, pulse beating slowly. My heart began to pound faster, and the dryness in my
mouth vanished. I took one step toward her, then another… ducking down, becoming quieter, as the deadly black noise in Karalti’s mind built to an oceanic roar in mine.

  Half a mile away, the dragon dove out of the sky and slammed into the ram, driving him against the cliff wall with her talons. He screamed.

  I threw myself back away from the bed and staggered to the bathroom, clutching my head as Karalti’s excitement built. When I reached the sink, I frantically yanked on the pull chain. Icy spring water gushed from a pipe into the basin. I scooped it up and splashed it over my face and chest and in my mouth, gulping until my tongue turned numb.

  Every time I blinked, I got a snapshot of Karalti’s hunt. My dragon shuddered in pleasure as she worked her sharp teeth deeper into the stringy flesh of her prey. There was the gritty sensation of bone snapping as she tore a bite from the struggling animal's neck, hot and trembling with need that twisted behind my eyes and surged like lightning through my jaws, fingers, and cock. It took my breath away. Gasping, I gripped the edge of the sink, clinging onto it for dear life.

  In the mirror, I saw Suri stir on the bed. She sat up, and I found myself staring at her half-naked reflection. Not in the gentle way that a man was supposed to contemplate the beauty of his lover… but like a cat watching the mouse he’s chased into the bathtub. Like a predator.

  “Hector?” She called out, brows furrowed. “Are you okay in there?”

  My throat worked, but no words escaped. Suri’s puzzled expression morphed into a frown, and she pushed aside the covers to stand. I tensed warily - not because I didn’t trust her, but because I didn’t trust myself. Karalti’s bloodlust was ebbing as her hunger was satiated, but my pulse was still beating a tattoo against the inside of my skull. Hunger was inseparable from lust. And I couldn’t do that to Suri. I wouldn’t do that to Suri.

  Suri pulled a loose shirt on - my shirt - and wandered into the bathroom. She’d worn soft cotton pants to bed, but I was acutely aware of the way her breasts pushed against my back as she looped her arms around my waist and leaned against me. She didn’t say anything, didn’t push me to talk. Suri had nightmares of her own.

  “Bad dream,” I muttered, after a while.

  “The War again?”

  “Yeah. It must have wound up Karalti. She was hungry… hunting.” My voice was slurred with the effort of controlling myself. The press of Suri’s body against mine was giving Hector Jr all kinds of opinions. Well, opinion. Singular. He knew what he wanted. Big brain Hector, on the other hand, he knew better. “She caught something, but she felt frustrated. I dunno. Maybe she’s in heat already.”

  “Already? I thought she wasn’t mature until Level 10?”

  “I would literally be the last person to know. I’ve been winging it with her ever since she hatched.” I swallowed, trying to relieve the dryness in my mouth, and gazed at our combined reflections. Only in video games could people eat the kind of shit we ate and still be fifteen percent body fat or less.

  “Was the nightmare about Myszno?”

  I shook my head at first, but then, hesitating, I nodded once, and shrugged. “Sort of? Kind of. I don’t know. I never used to have dreams about the War, when I was alive. Never had any PTSD or anything.”

  “That you knew of. Maybe something got shaken loose.”

  I grimaced. “Maybe. You’re probably right. This whole thing with the war in Myszno is just stirring up old shit. There was a time where I would have eaten a gun barrel instead of going back to the front.”

  She bent forward, brushing my ears with her lips and meeting my gaze in the mirror. “We don’t have to go, you know.”

  My god, her mouth is beautiful. I had to digest her actual words for thirty seconds or so before I could form any kind of reply. “Uhh… what?”

  “To Myszno.” Suri’s golden eyes were fierce as an eagle’s. “We installed Ignas on the throne. He’s achieved his life goal because of us. We don’t owe him shit. And if you’re having nightmares about going back to war…”

  “No.” My brows furrowed. I shook my head, rubbing my face with a hand. “No… that’s not how this works. We have a quest to do.”

  “Rin told me that quests can be changed or dismissed. They’re not set in stone. If you don’t want to do it, you can change the quest.”

  “Maybe. But that’s not the point.”

  “You told me you never wanted to be a soldier. You hated it.”

  “Well… yeah.”

  Suri shrugged. “You’re the one who told me Archemi is a game. If that’s right, then we don’t have to go back to a warzone on Vlachia’s behalf. We could go north… we could even go to Daun, to Tungaant. I’d love to visit your home country with you.”

  I still gripped the edge of the sink with frozen fingers. On the back of my right hand, the coal-black Mark of Matir blazed like a judgmental eye. I knew why I’d dreamed of the Crescent Front. “No. Baldr is threatening Vlachia, and we need to deal with the shit going down in Myszno. This campaign will give us the resources to face him, and to keep you and Karalti safe.”

  Suri gave me a reassuring pat on the waist, but then a slow, naughty smile spread over her lips. She looped her arms around and laid them on my stomach as she slowly rubbed up along my back. “I’m sober now. Maybe I could try and take your mind off it?”

  Ding. Suddenly, Hector Jnr was back to attention and ready to serve. Just great.

  There was something dark looking out at the world from behind my eyes. Something lustful, something… evil. That part of me wanted to turn around and clamp my jaws on the side of Suri’s throat.

  “Not now.” I swallowed and closed my eyes. “Sorry.”

  “Hector!” Karalti’s telepathic voice lanced through my brain like a needle through my left eye. “Are you okay!?”

  I winced, clutching my face, and Suri took an uncertain step back. There was a rolling boom that reverberated through the floor, and the bedroom went dark. I turned to look back into our suite, and saw a large black blob peering through the thick glass window.

  “I’m okay, I’m okay. Bad dream, nothing to it.” I gave Suri a reassuring kiss on the cheek and stumbled past her on the way to the door. “How’d you go?”

  “I caught one! I caught a goat!” Karalti bobbed her head. Now that she was Level 8, it was the same size as the window. She had to line up one eye to look inside. “But it wasn’t big enough, and because we have to go to the king’s thing today... I was thinking I’d-”

  “You want to poach off his herd one more time.”

  “Yeah!” There was a ‘whoomph’ of wind as she flicked her wings. “Wanna come?”

  My stomach rumbled and cramped. I was stupid thirsty and couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a proper meal. I checked the clock: it was 5:30am, well before we were due at the Parade Ground. “Sure. I need something to eat, too. Mind if we stop by the Grand Hall first?”

  “Okay!” Karalti lifted her head, and the room shuddered a little as she hopped up onto the balcony wall.

  “We’re going to get breakfast before we go to the Parade Ground,” I said aloud to Suri. “Wanna come.”

  Her dark complexion turned a little greenish. “No thanks. I’m not real big on flying.”

  “Myszno is going to be a hell of a trip, then.”

  “The ship’s okay. I can sit in the cabin.” She equipped her clothes in layers: leggings and a bustier, then padding, then her armor. “There’s just too much open space out there for me. I’ll meet you at the Hall, okay?”

  “Sure.” I equipped my own gear and stole a kiss from her just before she left. I ran a quick check of my items, ate some almonds I found lurking in my Inventory, and went out to face my dragon.

  A frigid blast of cold mountain air hit me as I pushed the doors out onto the balcony, where Karalti paced the parapet like a tightrope walker. Our suite had a south-western view toward the distant ocean cliffs, where the moon hung on the horizon like a black void obscuring the stars. The solar corona was still
visible, a thin blue-white line flickering around the outside. I knew Suri had good reasons to be afraid of wide open spaces, but it was sad I couldn’t share the view with her. “Ready to go, Tidbit?”

  “Yeah!”

  I equipped the gear - now I was over Dragon Riding 10, I didn’t have to put Karalti’s saddle and saddlebags on the hard way - and gave her the hand signal to extend her wing. She did, still balanced on the wall, but as I began to climb, she turned her head on her neck and sniffed me. And then she growled.

  “What?” I paused, hand reaching up to grasp the side of the saddle.

  “YOU!” She flattened her crest, rearing her neck like a cobra. Her eyes narrowed to bright, dangerous slits. “You smell like HER! Like her BITS!”

  I exhaled heavily into the frosty air. “Karalti. We’ve talked about this.”

  “YOU talked about this.” Her jaws parted, bearing top and bottom rows of razor sharp, back-curved teeth. As the rumbling grew to a hiss, I admit I began to feel a little nervous. Karalti wasn’t my little Tidbit anymore. The last time she’d had a jealous fit over Suri, she’d been a bit bigger than a car. Now, she was longer than a bus.

  “No. We - as in, you and I - have talked about this at least ten times. I’m a human. You’re a dragon. Suri and I are the same species. You’re also basically my kid, which makes this super weird.” Exasperated, I reached up again, only to slide down as the dragon irritably flicked me back with her wing.

  “Did she touch you?” Karalti pivoted on the narrow wall and snaked her head toward me as I backed up. Her breath smelled strongly of sharp, caustic chemicals, and it was hot enough to bring a sheen of sweat to my face. “Did she... RIDE you?”

  “Karalti.” I regarded her flatly. “I am not playing this game.”

  Karalti bellowed a furious, gurgling roar, then sprung from the balcony like a swallow. She was obscenely agile for a creature her size. As I ducked and stumbled away from the ferocious, cutting wind, she snatched me by the pack and Spear and dragged me off into the air. The balcony lurched away with terrifying speed as she strove for altitude. It was already a sheer eight-hundred foot drop to the ground. Now we were at nine hundred, a thousand... and then she dove.