by Eric Vall
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Chapter 1
Empty plates littered the table, though the aroma of meat and fruit still lingered in the air. Music floated around the courtyard, and it was a slightly up tempo beat at my request. The grassy area in front of the band was filled with people of the Colaruma, and they danced to the music and drank gremling wine.
The women of my harem danced together, and my gaze traveled over their lithe bodies. Alyona, my fiancée, twisted around in her long white robes, and her black-and-white hair flowed behind her as a smile stretched across her beautiful face. She draped a hand across Ravi’s pale shoulders, and the phoenix returned Alyona’s smile as she shimmied closer to my princess. Her smoky orange hair fell in loose waves down her back, and her blue eyes were bright with joy. Then Ravi grabbed Laika’s hand and pulled her into their dancing circle.
My wolf-warrior, Laika, had shied away from all the dancing, but now she joined in with slow movements and darting eyes. She was used to battles, not dances, but her gray eyes followed their movements as she gave in and moved with the other women. Her bushy gray tail swished around behind her, and her gaze caught Aaliyah’s as the other hunter grinned back at her.
Aaliyah gracefully spun in a circle, and her crimson robes flared out from her hips with the movement. The lioness Demi-Human’s amber eyes shone in the light of the magical orbs that floated around the courtyard, and she grinned wide enough to reveal her long canines.
Next to Aaliyah, the dryad sisters gyrated their hips to the rhythm, and their curvy, jade green bodies glistened with sweat. Polina wrapped her arms around Trina’s hips while Marina rubbed her ass on Polina’s, and my cock twitched at the memory of taking all three of them at once.
One day, I’d have all of my women at once. I imagined the seven women who traveled with me on the campaign and Valerra, my crimson dragon who rested back home in Hatra, all in my bed in the Lunar Palace. The image was enough to make my cock swell, and I readjusted myself to hide my arousal behind the table.
I would celebrate with at least one of my women tonight.
For now, I enjoyed my view over the people of Colaruma, who danced and chatted with each other as though nothing was wrong in the world.
Even Morris, the platypus Demi-Human I’d healed before, was moving around the dance floor like he’d never missed a beat. He looked over at me as I sat above the crowd and waved. His long, flat bill was wide open, and I imagined it was the closest he could come to a big smile.
“Lord Evan?” a timid voice whispered from behind me.
I swiveled around to see Fiona, the young Fox Demi-Human who had been working as a servant for the former Head Magistrate. She wore clothes that actually looked clean, and her reddish hair flowed freely down her shoulders. Her freckled face seemed brighter, too, but tears welled up in her blue eyes.
“Fiona,” I said softly as I reached down to take her hand. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she hiccupped as she held back tears. “Nothing at all. I tried the kudu, and I ate fruit, and I’ve had enough food that my belly is full. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t still hungry. I’m so happy you did this for us.”
“I’m happy to help,” I murmured as I slid down off the raised chair and stood next to her. “No one deserves to be treated the way you were.”
“Thank you!” Fiona wailed as her tears broke loose. Then the tiny fox wrapped her arms around my waist and sobbed against my chest.
Alyona rushed over from the dance floor and appeared next to us as I patted the girl’s head to console her.
“Fiona?” The princess spoke in a low voice as she put her hand on the Demi-Human’s back. “I’d like to show you something, if you’re okay with it.”
“Of course,” Fiona sniffled as she pulled her head away and curtsied to Alyona. “Anything for the Divine Maiden.”
“This is not for me,” Alyona replied with a smile. “Remember how I said I could tell you were pure?”
“Yeah.” Fiona nodded and looked down at her feet. “But I don’t know how.”
“Some souls are blessed with purity,” the princess explained as she guided Fiona away from the tables. “Yours is one of them. I could see it the moment we spoke. Now, pure souls must cultivate, so that their purity and magic can grow and flourish. Have you heard of cultivation?”
“I think so,” the fox whispered and wiped another tear away from her cheek.
“Then I’ll teach you how,” Alyona said with a smile. “Normally, you’ll want to be somewhere quiet and alone, but you’ll have to find your own place for that. Let’s sit down.”
Alyona and Fiona sat next to each other near the wall of the courtyard.
“Now what?” the fox asked with curious eyes.
“Close your eyes and focus on the ground beneath you, each blade of grass, each pebble in the soil,” Alyona murmured.
Fiona nodded and closed her eyes.
“Take a moment to recognize your inner self,” the princess continued, and I had to look around so I wasn’t hypnotized by her soft voice as well. “Inside, you’ll find your spiritual sea. Once you see it, you can dive in to explore it, but you must be strong enough to find your own way out.”
“How do I get out?” Fiona whispered.
“You must understand how to bring your inner self to the surface,” Alyona murmured. “No more hiding. Allow your beautiful purity to shine for everyone to see.”
Fiona nodded and went silent. Her eyes flickered behind her closed lids, and I remembered the feeling of being underwater in my spiritual sea. The darkness of the water had fought with the light of the land above, and I had to bring myself to the surface without even knowing who I was in there.
Now, it was a breeze. I could go in and out of my spiritual sea without a problem, and it had helped me strengthen my magic and my link with the Sword of Hatra.
Suddenly, the fox Demi-Human gasped as though she’d broken free of the water and came up for air. As I stared at her, it seemed she’d done just that. Her blue eyes were even brighter, and even I could feel the purity that Alyona had described. It practically radiated from the fox’s small frame in waves, and I knew Fiona would be just fine once we left Colaruma.
“I-I feel… I feel like a whole new person,” Fiona breathed.
“Then you’ve done well,” Alyona praised her. “You’ve allowed your purity to reach the surface with you.”
“Now what?” the fox asked as she cocked her head to the side.
“Now, you make sure you cultivate regularly,” the princess replied. “Your power and purity will build and grow as you do so.”
“Thank you, princess!” Fiona gushed. “I don’t know how to repay you!”
“You mustn’t worry about that.” Alyona waved a dismissive hand. “I only wish for you to remember our kindness. There may come a time when those around you doubt the leaders of Rahma, and we will need the words of our friends to remind them how much we truly care. Can you do that?”
“Of course, milady!” the fox replied with a broad smile. “I’ll tell everyone!”
“We are grateful to have good-hearted people like you on our side,” I added.
Fiona blushed and sprinted over to a group of other fox Demi-Humans, and an older woman stood straight up and looked at us.
Alyona and I waved at her, and I could tell she had questions about her daughter’s new glow. She didn’t say anything, though, and the little family tu
rned away from us as they left the courtyard.
We turned back to look at the crowd on the dance floor, and I chuckled to myself as I saw Lord Nikolaus, or Nike as I called him. My brother-in-arms stood awkwardly as Gabriela, one of the Sentinel warriors who had shown an interest in him, twirled around in front of him with a broad smile. The dwarf woman’s head was shaved on either side of her long, light blonde braid, and her sapphire eyes gleamed as she danced back and forth.
“Not working tonight, Gabriela?” I asked as we approached the two.
“I am not,” she confirmed without missing a step. “Angel and I are not on shifts tonight, but he was not interested in the party.”
I looked around at the festivities and felt a surge of pride. The party was because of all our hard work during the past couple of weeks. We’d closed one of the portals to the underworld. The Green Glass Sect mage Xavier had opened it in order to gain favor with the demons, but we’d shut that shit down, and I got to electrocute his ass along with a few of his comrades. We’d figured out a corruption issue within the city’s council, too, and I’d executed the perpetrator in front of the whole city.
Whitaker, the lizard Demi-Human who used to be the Head Magistrate, had been classifying citizens based on their bloodline and then taking rations from those he considered less pure so he could give them to his friends. It turned out not only were his bloodline tests fake, but he wasn’t even of a pure bloodline himself. When I confronted him in front of everyone, his main concern was staying out of trouble. He didn’t care at all about making things right. So, I cut off his head and reassigned the leadership role to Mateo, the dwarf who had welcomed us into the city and was a real voice for the people.
So far, everyone seemed happier with Mateo as the Head Magistrate. The Sentinels who guarded the portals said he was trained as a nobleman, and his leadership skills were already improving the city. Hell, we’d even saved the Sentinels’ little guard bats--
“Oh, shit!” I cursed.
“What is it, my love?” Alyona asked as a worried frown creased her face.
“I forgot about the bats!” I slapped my hand to my forehead. “To the bat cave!”
I’d always wanted to say that.
We jogged out of the courtyard and up the main road to the underground city’s entrance, and Alyona, Nike, and Gabriela followed me up the winding path to the tunnel where we’d defended ourselves against the Sentinels’ roost of bats. The bats typically would give the Sentinels a heads up of anyone trying to enter the city, but thanks to Xavier, they’d been cursed by the mark of Gamma and had attacked us. We didn’t want to kill them, though, so I’d had to resort to petrification.
“Over there,” I said as I pointed to the tunnel wall where I’d carved out a cubbyhole for the petrified bats.
We walked over to the wall, and I pulled the stones back with a wave of my hand. The rocks fell to the floor, and we peered into the opening in the wall.
Dozens of bats laid in the cave, and their stiff bodies didn’t look like they’d moved an inch since we’d put them in there.
I wondered if my petrification power worked indefinitely, or if there was some kind of time limit. Guess I’d have to experiment and find out later.
For now, I reached in and pulled one of the bats out to examine it. The mark of Gamma that was on its belly had disappeared, and I wondered if killing the mage who had cursed them was the cure.
“Okay, the mark is gone,” I advised my group. “I’m going to heal them all now.”
“Are you sure it will work?” Gabriela asked as she stared into the cave with a frown. “They look dead.”
“They’re only petrified,” Alyona explained. “Once Lord Evan heals them, the bats should go right back to normal.”
“I see,” the dwarf muttered without conviction.
“Just watch.” I smirked as I cracked my knuckles dramatically.
I blew a wave of the glittery healing magic into the cave, and it looked like a little disco room as the sparkles floated around and landed on the bats. One by one, the furry brown beasts began to stir, and they squeaked and chirped as they awoke.
“It worked,” Gabriela breathed as the bats fluttered out of the cave. “You saved them.”
“We wouldn’t have left them to die,” Alyona said. “We just needed to make sure the mark of Gamma had been removed before they were free.”
“Yeah, we were able to petrify them, but we don’t know what any other people would have done,” I pointed out. “Either the citizens could have been hurt, or they could have hurt the bats.”
“Good point,” Gabriela agreed. “Thank you.”
“It is our pleasure,” the princess replied.
“We should get some rest, my lord,” Nike interjected. “We can make it to Kana by tomorrow evening if we leave early.”
“Sounds good,” I agreed. “Let’s round up the others and head back to the tavern.”
As we exited the tunnel, I noticed the magical orbs around the city had dimmed, which meant it was now late in the day. We walked back toward the courtyard, and I laughed when I saw the dryads had pulled Mateo onto the dance floor. They circled around him and cheered as the dwarf hopped back and forth, much to the enjoyment of the rest of the crowd.
Once the song and dance had ended, we applauded their drunken performance as the crowd dispersed.
“Enjoying the party?” I winked at Mateo.
“I am.” The dwarf grinned, and his blue eyes twinkled with amusement as he tucked a loose brown hair behind his ear. “I’ve never felt so relaxed.”
“Did you see us, too, Lord Evan?” Marina asked as she twirled a green hair around her finger.
“We love dancing,” Polina giggled and hiccupped.
“Yes, we do!” Trina agreed as she took another swig of her wine.
“I couldn’t keep my eyes off you,” I growled and glanced around as my women began to gather around us. “All of you. Let’s get back to the tavern. We have an early start tomorrow.”
The dryads, Ravi, and Aaliyah giggled and looped their arms together as they staggered out of the courtyard, and Laika watched them walk away before she turned to face us.
“How early would you like to leave, my lord?” the wolf Demi-Human asked over a yawn.
“We should leave within an hour of sunrise,” Nike advised as I looked to him for a response.
“That works for me,” I agreed. “We’ll eat breakfast and then head on out.”
“Okay, I’ll see you bright and early,” Laika replied with a smile. “Goodnight.”
Then the wolf spun on her heels and headed toward the tavern after the other women.
“I think bed sounds like a marvelous idea,” Mateo decided. “I’ll come to the tavern in the morning to see you all off.”
“We’re going to bed as well,” I chuckled. “We’ll see you then.”
We walked toward the courtyard entrance and parted ways. Mateo made his way toward his neighborhood while we continued on to the tavern. The bar was quiet as we walked inside, but it seemed everyone had been at the celebration.
“Goodnight.” Nike gave us a short wave and then jogged upstairs to his room.
I took Alyona’s hand and pulled her with me to our chambers.
“So, are you ready for the next step of our adventure?” I asked and waggled my eyebrows at her.
“Kana?” she giggled. “You won’t like it there.”
“Why not?” I wondered as I pushed open the door to our room.
“It’s the home of the lizard Demi-Humans,” she replied and stifled another laugh.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” I grumbled.
Hopefully, they weren’t big fans of the last lizard Demi-Human I’d seen, since that was the guy I’d beheaded in front of the entire city.
“Don’t worry, my love,” Alyona soothed me. “They’ll probably like you anyway. Dragons and the other reptiles have often worked well together.”
“Well, that’s a relie
f,” I chuckled. “I know another great pair that works well together.”
“Oh?” Alyona raised an eyebrow.
“You and me.” I winked and scooped up the princess to toss her onto the bed.
Then we celebrated by ourselves for a while longer before we both fell asleep.
I woke up as the light orbs outside signaled sunrise, and I stretched my naked body out on the bed. I looked over to see Alyona’s bare ass and back facing me, and my blood rushed south at the amazing view.
Then I heard voices in the hallway, and I realized we were the last ones awake. So, I sighed and rubbed my hand along my fiancée’s shoulder and down her arm.
“Princess,” I murmured. “It seems we’re the last to go down for breakfast.”
“Oh, no,” she mumbled, still half-asleep. “We should go to join them.”
“I know,” I groaned as she rolled over to expose her cream-colored breasts. “We better go before I change my mind.”
Alyona giggled and crawled over me to get to her trunk. Then she wrapped a white robe around her curvy body and stepped into her slippers.
I sighed again as I slid off the bed, and then I pulled my trousers on and slipped a tunic over my head. As I sat on the edge of the bed to pull on my boots, Alyona stuffed the rest of her clothes into her trunk and dropped it into her spatial storage.
As soon as I pulled open the door to leave the room, the aroma of Aggie’s spectacular breakfast wafted into my nose. I inhaled deeply, and I could just make out the scent of kudu meat, another meat that smelled like chicken, eggs, and the sweet honey bread from Tilly’s bakery.
We walked downstairs, and everyone from our party was seated at the large table in the tavern. Mateo and Tilly stood next to the table, and Aggie towered over them as she set down a steaming tray full of food.
Aggie, the pig Demi-Human who owned the tavern, looked over the giant spread of food on the table and grinned. She was a fantastic cook, and she was proud to use her family recipes every time she made us a meal.
“Aggie, this smells amazing!” Alyona gushed as we sat down at the table.
“Thank you, milady,” the pig replied, and her grin stretched further across her pink face.