THE VROL TRILOGY

by SK Benton

"Hey sweetie, don't worry about it. The Vrol don't even belong here, so we all have to do what we can, right?"

  "Absolutely, sir. Will this… will this hurt? I'm a bit afraid."

  "Oh no, not at all. You won't even feel it - maybe a slight tugging sensation in your shoulder. Here, sit down and it will be just a second."

  Max wanted the woman to remain calm, as it really had ended up being a completely simple procedure. He pulled her shirt back over her shoulder blade and then recited his cantus, "Demoveoincantatio venator," before patting her on the back to send her on her way, but before she departed she turned around and looked at Max with a quizzical expression.

  "Mr. Max, I'm sorry for being nosey, but is there a different thing to say between humans and lycans, or men and women? I have good hearing, and you said something different with Marko…"

  "Oh no, it's all the same. No worries. You're healed. You'll be at the party tonight?"

  "Oh yes! Of course," the woman responded enthusiastically.

  "Great! Well, can you tell the girls out front that I'm ready for the next person?"

  Rebecca smiled and skipped out, only to be replaced by another person, and then another, and another.

  Max worked for hours extracting trackers, and would have become quite tired had it not been for Adam bringing him snacks and coffee every couple of hours. The fake mage really did know how to turn on the charm when necessary - especially when it came to his own survival, and living out in the ruins alone would mean certain death. He needed the clan, and they all knew it. Max was certain that things would be all right, now that he had basically arranged the power signatures of his friends and had whipped the human into submission.

  Once Max had helped everyone out he took a nap for two hours, later returning to the bar to see a celebration in full swing. Lennie's band was playing, and to Max's surprise Jelly was singing. She had a low, growly alto voice that fit the band's music perfectly. Max went and took a seat at Dons' couch, not even having to wait for a beer to be served. Once everyone noticed he had arrived the crowd went wild, cheering and trying to approach the private area. Dons simply raised his palm up and people backed off - such was the respect everyone had for him.

  "Oy, mate, I reckon you're gonna have to make a speech or somethin', ya know?" said the one-eyed leader of Feral Kids.

  "Yeah, I believe so," responded Max, who then stood up and prepared to address the crowd. Everyone stopped in their places and looked up to Dons' private area as the band finished its song. Max simply waved to the crowd, which elicited a massive response of cheers.

  "Everyone, I'm glad you're here. Now you all can go out and kill those alien bastards. Are you with me?"

  The crowd went nuts and started jumping up and down, celebrating in the power that they never had their entire lives. They finally able to fight back against the demons that had as easily picked them off in the open areas as one changed their underwear - and it was all thanks to Max Gunnarsson. The lycan/mage scanned the entire group and sniffed them out, but couldn't detect Marko. Then he moved over to the bar as the myriad of locals patted him on the back for giving them their freedom at such a small price. However, many were more concerned with purchasing half-price shots for Max, not even bothering to ask what he preferred. He saw glasses with various liquors on the bar in front of him - whisky, vodka, rum and mostly tequila. Of course Max preferred Scotch whisky, but also enjoyed tequila - especially añejo (the most refined of the blue agave mezcals).

  After quite a few shots Max found he needed to sober up, which was something that mages could easily do by commanding salubots to purge the alcohol from the bloodstream. This made it easier for Max to take even more shots and celebrate with the locals - and their newfound freedom. He watched Jessica and Pandy dance to Lennie's music as Adam moved alone in the corner. To his surprise he even saw Cassandra and Minnie dancing together, both nekos apparently having resolved their differences. Max shot out from the bar and tried to dance like the two odd cat girls, yelling at them over the music.

  "Hey girls! Um, cat… women! Whatever! Hey! Looks like you two are getting along now! That's really great!" Max yelled at the top of his lungs.

  The two nekos looked at him and then started to laugh, obviously knowing something that he did not. The song stopped and Jelly announced that they would be back after a short break, giving Max the opportunity to speak with the girls, and perhaps a few others.

  "So, no more ripping eyeballs out, right?"

  "We ish okies now Max Gunniesman," responded Cassandra.

  "But what was it - why did you two fight in the first place?"

  "We sishters. We lovesh but hatesh," answered Minnie.

  "Sisters, eh? Wow. Hey, next time you two get into a fight, please don't try to kill each other, ok?"

  The two nekos simply looked at Max and then started giggling, which Max found perversely odd. Making it worse, the neko sisters started to make out, which completely revolted him.

  Kitty sister sex… ew, he thought to himself as he quickly moved back to where Dons, Jessica and Pandy were seated.

  "Man, that's so wrong," said Max as he sat down next to Pandy.

  "Well, nekos are incestuous, and have always been," responded Jessica, with Pandy nodding her head in agreement.

  "But, how do they replicate? Where do they come from?" asked the lycan mage.

  "No one really knows, mate. It's said that they just showed up one day. They don't age much, and been around for as long as I can remember," added Dons.

  Max went to take another drink from his beer when he noticed Lennie and Jelly up on the stage, motioning for him to go up to their position. He casually waved them off - he really didn't want to make another speech, but they were insistent. Sighing, he got up and made his way to the stage as a number of people whistled and cheered him on. Once there, Lennie gently moved him into a forward facing position and took to the microphone.

  "Maxie, my boy. Jelly and I just wanna thank you for everything you have done for us - and we want to make an announcement. It seems that my lovely gal here is expecting, and if it's a boy we're gonna name him Max…" said the vampire drummer, to thunderous applause.

  "And if it's a girl? Maxine?" shouted out an unseen bar patron.

  "Yeah, that sounds good too!" exclaimed Jelly.

  "Aw, guys, you don't have to do that, really. I mean, I'm sure there are many, better names out there. Besides, my real first name is Maximilianus. It sounds so… old."

  Max started laughing, and was immediately followed by everyone else in the bar.

  "Well mate, it really is better than the name we were gonna give him before we decided to honor him with yours," said Lennie.

  "Oh yeah? What name's that?" asked Max.

  "Ryder. Seems Jelly always had a fondness for the name."

  Max stood dumbfounded. He wondered if it was possible, but really he felt it couldn't have been. He was in a timeline where humans never travelled the stars, so he blurted out a question, off-microphone.

  "Um, Lennie, do you have a last name? You know, a second name?"

  "Oh sure, mate! It's Johnson. Why do you ask?"

  Max felt a streak a pain rip through his heart, but he took a breath and simply smiled to his friend, patting him on the back.

  "Max Johnson would sound really great, Lennie. Really great. Thanks, I'm honored."

  "Oh, the honor is ours, Max!" replied Jelly.

  Max jumped down from the stage and went back to Dons' private section, taking a seat in a chair next to Jessica. She generally didn't say a whole lot compared to Pandy, who was a talker, but she was super-intuitive, and saw something in Max's face. Moving into a chair on his other side, she decided to interrogate him.

  "Max, what's wrong? Something's bothering you. I can see it."

  "Jess, you know, I just assumed, but… well, maybe that's my problem. I always assume. Like, I assumed no one had a last name, and I just found out Lennie has one. But, I never asked - how old are you?"


  Jessica got a look on her face that resembled a combination of alarm and being insulted before she composed herself and answered.

  "Wow. That's pretty… odd. You know, you should never ask a woman her age, but you really wanna know? Fine. I'm seventy-three. Why?"

  "Oh sharga… you heal. I had no idea. The salubots keep you young. I thought you were in your twenties. Is it the same for vampires?"

  "Sure, I think so. No, yes, that's right. Why? What's wrong, Max?"

  "How long have you known Lennie for?"

  "Oh, maybe 20 years, more or less. What's wrong, Max?"

  "How old is Dons?"

  "Max! What does it matter? What's wrong?"

  "Please, just answer me…"

  "He's twenty-six. He's human. They age more quickly than lycans and vamps."

  "Oh wow. This is weird. Lennie has a doppelganger on my world."

  "What's a doppel-whatever?"

  "A duplicate. You know, remember how I explained that I was going to the year 2819, but in South America? To Peru?"

  "Yeah, sure. But you ended up here."

  "Well, even if I got to Peru, my ship wouldn't be there. I pretty much figured that all along. I knew I was in a different timeline. But this is just… creepy. Look, you can't say anything, okay? It makes no difference to me about Lennie and Jelly. They're really great kids. No, kids, what the hell am I saying? They're probably older than my mom!"

  "Well Max, how old are you?"

  "I'm twenty-eight, but if I get home I'll pretty much be immortal."

  "Well, that sounds good, I guess. Forever is a long time, ya know?"

  "True, true. Anyway, in my universe, mankind travelled to the planet where I was born. I explained that to you guys, but I kinda glossed over the whole fact that it probably didn't happen here - in this world. The Vrol murdered the Earth of my timeline, but here they didn't. There is magic here, and lycans and vampires, and even nekos, but not on my world - not on Earth and not on Azul."

  "But, but you said that you trained as a lycan and as a mage in the Ronnie Dormitory or something," exclaimed the confused woman.

  "Rhönen Dominion, sweetie. In the 43rd century. We're in the 29th century right now. Gods changed the world and brought back magic, as well as enhanced bloodlines. Well, they will in the future. That is now - of the past. Oh God, I'm confusing you. Sorry."

  "No, it's okay. I think I get it now. So, Lennie has a copy on your world and you freaked out. Big deal! Why would you freak out? That's so cool! You could go back and tell him stories about himself, ha ha ha."

  Max looked at the first friend he made upon arriving in Los Angeles as she giggled, and watched sadly as her face turned to a mask of horror when he told her why he was freaked out.

  "No Jess. You see, the Lennie Johnson in my world is Councilman Len Johnson, of the Azul Security Council, and I am going back so I can, among other things, assassinate him."

  "Oh wow, that's heavy. You carry a burden, Max. I don't envy you," she said solemnly.

  "Well, that's not all, really. Things here are different too. In my timeline, Len Johnson had a son named Ryder, who was a military officer, close to my age. So probably due to the fact that Lennie here has such a long life, he and Jelly waited to have a kid, where Councilman Len Johnson, with a shorter lifespan, had his son earlier. It's also kinda weird, because in the Dominion vampires don't live that long, and they smell a lot worse. Maybe they are rotting too fast for the salubots to take hold…"

  "Okay, and that means what?" asked Jessica.

  "Nothing really, except that Lennie told me they were going to name their kid Ryder until they decided to name him after me. It's just creepy, that's all. I know they're different people. Hell, they were born on different planets. I don't even know Councilman Johnson's wife's name anyway. Maybe she's not Jelly's doppelganger."

  "Even if they were the same people, the wives, and the sons were the same, what difference would it make? What was wrong with Lennie's… the other Lennie's son?"

  "Wellllll, he opened an airlock in a spaceship, murdering dozens of pilots and techs, and then went to Earth, tried to kill us, followed us to the 43rd century, turned into a full-fledged vampire, kidnapped and then tortured my wife who later killed him in hand-to-hand combat. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up."

  "Um, Max, we won't say anything about this to Lennie then. Agreed?"

  Max looked at Jessica, who was in-between laughter and crying, the situation was so off-kilter.

  "So, she killed him, huh?" Jessica then asked, wearing a deadpan expression.

  "Yeah, remember the other night how I told you guys about my wife pummeling a vampire's head until it was liquefied?"

  "Oh… yup. Definitely not going to talk about this one with Lennie. Hey! Wanna beer? It's on me."

  "Sure! That sounds great, even though you could probably go up to someone and tell them to buy me a beer and it wouldn't cost you a tooth."

  "True, true. Hey! Now I have a question…"

  "Yeah, what?"

  "This morning, you told us to let Marko through even though he was being a total dickhead. Did you… you know, fix him?"

  Max looked at Jessica for a moment and rolled his eyes, trying to suppress his grin.

  "Well, let's put it this way. Marko now has a very magnetic personality. It's all part of an individual education program I came up with. Similar to what I did with Adam, but on a more extreme level for Marko."

  Jessica started laughing as she made her way to the bar to get Max his beer.

  Chapter 18 - Skills

  Daily life in Krynos' castle was more complex than someone from a more advanced society would assume. The number of people needed to ensure proper functionality was enormous. For example, if you looked at food served in the dining hall - the vegetables (mostly potatoes) not only had to be cleaned and prepared, but there were buyers who would travel to the normal villages to select the freshest produce. The meats were trapped or killed by a team of jägers (hunters), and even they had their own infrastructure with apprentices, butchers and servants. They would bring the meat to the castle, cure it and then provide it to the cooks who prepared the meals. The most visible people were the floor staff who served diners, but they were only a small part of the nutrition operation.

  There were dozens of housekeepers. They not only cleaned rooms, but also hallways, windowsills, patios and any other surface area. There was a laundry department within the housekeeping department. While magic generally handled sanitary issues, such as toilets, it was not readily available for basic cleaning tasks, and it was made this way on purpose. When the Prīmulī reinstated the magical energies that once flowed on Earth, they were careful to keep the people from overly relying on them, so potentially dangerous things, such as human waste, were taken care of, while most everything else required hands and physical effort, including laundry. Even castle lighting was provided by candles and lamps, which of course, had to be provided by castle candle makers and lamp artisans.

  There was an accounting office, where staffers monitored the influx of gold from the king's varying sources, as he owned much of the lands and had a number of operations, such as quadrinium mining, smelting, farming and livestock domestication.

  There were blacksmiths, and those who tended to the castle's horses. There was even a contingency assigned to the dungeons. There were weapons masters and their apprentices, carpenters (who were kept quite busy, especially after castle celebrations, as lycans had a tendency to break things) and of course the castle guard, as well as the warriors.

  Krynos was a king like no other. He fully believed in a free and open market, and while he owned much land, he was known to assist normals in acquiring their own properties so that they could work toward their dreams. He didn't rule with an iron fist. Rather, he reigned with strength and adequate amounts of compassion. Well, except for vampires - he had absolutely no tolerance for them, as he viewed them (and rightly so) as sentient parasites. His kind, the lycans, was created to
manage the vampires, and to cull whenever necessary. They were to be mortal enemies, immortally. Never in recorded history (that is, history since the Prīmulī Restoration) had there ever been an instance of a vampire doing anything noble, or of one befriending a normal or a lycan. They were truly the epitome of evil, but were necessary, much like viruses that could cause deadly illnesses were also a sadly necessary part of nature.

  Draagh handed Michael his ancient staff as he looked out at the open field in front of the castle. Michael was actually showing a bit of excitement, not having been able to use any form of magic for at least twenty-five years. As he slammed the staff down with a bit of panache, they were instantly taken to the lady servant's locker room. The two immortals stood frozen with stupid grins as they watched numerous castle girls walk around, completely naked. That is, until they were seen. Once detected, they were repeatedly pummeled with bars of soap and containers of various sorts, the women screaming in anger and embarrassed surprise. Michael again slammed his father's staff into the ground, causing the two to pop into the middle of a live weapons demonstration conducted by none other than Jennie. Almost getting hit in the head by launched bolas, they popped back out to the open field from where they started, laughing as they did so.

  Bagatelle walked out into the open area, unaware of the duo's recent adventures, and asked how they were doing, as they seemed to be having a great time.

  "My friends! How go the studies?"

  "Hi, G. As my friends in Woodstock would say, Groovy man! Hahahahahaha."

  Bagatelle inconspicuously spied the pair for weed, but smelled none, unable to figure out why they were laughing so hard.

  "So, from what I have been told, Max was slipping around the castle with Draagh's staff before he mastered the skills to do it on his own. Do you have to relearn magic?" asked Bagatelle.

  "Oh no, G, I never forgot it. I simply wasn't able to command it for so many years. We are doing this to basically condition my father's staff, doing the same things Max did at one time. The big difference is that I am going to attempt a 4D slip tomorrow, and not six months from now, like what Max apparently did."