Mark watched as Eliot built a party place south of the castles, near the lake, with bars and lighting and a stage for a band. There was room for a thousand people over three floors and even more outdoor spaces. Knife throwing walls, long tables, grassy spaces. People had been wanting such a place for a while, and as Eliot built it, people were already moving in, setting up the bar and fixing up the plumbing and everything else. Someone had to actually run the place, and Eliot wasn’t sure who was going to do that, but for now it was just a community gathering space.
A lot of people were congratulating Mark on killing Shroomer.
“Gods that must have been scary!” said a girl Mark’s age, who had introduced herself but Mark forgot her name. She pressed her breasts toward him, but she didn’t seem to appreciate that Mark didn’t appreciate her body. But she got the message. “Well congrats! Just wanted to say that, and so… yeah!”
The other girl, who Mark remembered was called Deanna, which was almost his mother’s name, said, “Congrats again! We’re glad to finally see a party place happening, too! Can you, uh, tell Eliot that?” Without waiting for any sort of confirmation, or small talk, and looking both embarrassed and nervous at the same time, Deanna took her friend’s hand and hurried away— She called back, “Nice to meet you, Mark! And Eliot! We’ll be back for the party later!
“Later!” Mark said, as he waved goodbye.
The girls whispered harshly at each other before they were fully out of sight, and Mark grinned a little bit at that. The first one was aiming for Mark, which was just something he had to deal with, but Deanna had the hots for Eliot, and that was nice for him.
Mark turned back toward Eliot. It was just the two of them right now. Isoko and Sally were in the apartment, or somewhere else, doing something. Eliot was putting the finishing touches on the railing on the third floor balcony, overlooking the lake, and the place was looking good. Solid stone flooring, white and marble overlay most places, with nice furniture and plenty of standing space with tables and a nice music system back there. It would transmit the sound from the stage down below. The place actually had two stages; the main one in the west and the second one in the east.
Eliot finished with the railing, and then he stepped back and smiled, saying, “It looks good, yeah?”
“Heck yeah it does!” Mark thumbed back toward the stairwell heading down. The girls were gone, but Eliot had probably seen them. Mark said, “Those girls wanted to meet you.”
Eliot’s face broke into a bright smile. And then he rolled his shoulders, standing as tall as he could, and said, “That could be fun.”
Mark grinned a little. He didn’t get it, but he was glad for Eliot. Mark was excited for the party, though, and for what killing Shroomer meant for the future, but he knew Eliot didn’t want to get into situations like that anymore, so, since it was just the two of them, Mark asked, “I know you don’t want to go up against kaiju, or anything like Shroomer ever again, but—”
“That’s untrue. I was just freaking out because of the casual damage, Mark,” Eliot said, waving a hand at the ground. “I can fight the big fights as support. I never want to be that close again.”
Mark pulled back whatever concerns or objections he might have had, and simply smiled. “I’m glad.” And then he smiled wider, and grabbed Eliot’s shoulders and gave him a quick hug, and then let go, saying, “I’m glad.”
Eliot chuckled as he pushed Mark away. “You’re gonna help me pick up chicks, right?”
“Bah!” Mark laughed. “You’re joking. Aren’t you a noble with bloodlines and shit to worry about?”
“Yeah I am. But I’m finally away from home and we’re making lives here, so I’m gonna start looking for fun times.”
“… Oh. Uh. Fun, then? You’re, uh, serious.”
Eliot laughed. “I am.”
Mark thumbed back toward the staircase. “Those girls were here for you— Well. I think they want your money. I definitely felt some greed coming off of them. But that’s, like, omnipresent here in the settlement.”
“Greed is fine, as long as it’s not dangerous greed. I’m just having fun here.” Eliot added, “And I don’t need your actual help, but if you do sense anything weird then I want you to tell me. Probably afterward. Use your judgment!”
“Oh sure. I can do that.”
Eliot grinned. And then he pointed down to the ground, to the west, and then east, asking, “Pool there? Or over there? Got any suggestions for the pool?”
Mark instantly said, “The dancing stage is down there! And you already have a pool on the north side. And we got a giant lake. Can we swim in the lake?” Mark asked, “Can we get a beach?”
Eliot laughed. “No way in hell! I want big, easy areas for girls in bikinis to lounge around in the sun and maybe get a little wet, so like, a big wading pool. Not some battle maniac’s idea of swimming with fishes in an open body of water.”
“There aren’t any monsters in the lake!” Mark said, “And you can make a big beach, you know. Lots of distance to the actual water. Lots of soft sand for women to walk around in bikinis. Like… I never got the appeal, but all the guys on the rugby team in high school loved going to the beach each summer, when the city cleared it for baseline times. We could have a beach here all the time if we wanted!”
“… Well… Maybe not all the time, because the lake does have… hmm. There are issues, but you make a compelling point.”
Mark stood triumphant. “I knew you’d see it my way.”
“Why do you want a beach if you don’t care about girls?”
Mark was a little embarrassed as he said, “Well… The beach was only open for a month or two every year, but… I never got to go as much as I wanted.” He looked out to the lake. “But this is our home, right? So I want everything I could ever want, right here, and that includes a beach.”
“… Ah,” Eliot said, nodding. “Good reason.”
Mark started counting on his fingers and naming things, “Also a movie theater, a mall, a battlezone like they have in the Hero Quarter of any major city, an auction house with all of the really fun magical stuff that you only ever see in the big cities, a beer garden, bookstores, and we gotta have a real hospital— Oh! And a secondary education place, because I want to take more worldly classes out of Citadel of Freyala. I think they have classes at Mage Society but I’m never going there for obvious reasons, and…”
As Mark listed places, Eliot’s eyes went a little wide, and he grinned, and then he started talking about big plans for big things. The settlement was going to be a major city, and Eliot had plans. The gate dock was just one major thing he was planning on making, but he wanted high fashion and art shows and so much more.
The party that night was an absolutely wonderful mess.
The band didn’t play what people liked and someone heckling their singing, and then it was karaoke for an hour, but the beer flowed and that was good, up until Second in Command, Kandon Valen, had to ‘get tough about battle readiness’, so it was watered down wine for the rest of the night. Or at least it would have been, but the paladins went behind Kandon’s back and got everyone some of the good stuff from their own stores. When the paladins got found out, High Paladin Azocar Sanchez, of Hearthswell, who happened to be Eliot’s teacher who Mark never really saw, came out and spoke about alcohol-restricting magics.
It was some sort of Hearthswellian Secret and not much was said about it, but after some additions to the walls of the place, if you got drunk at The Spot, which is what people were calling the new ‘location for everything fun!’ then you’d find the alcohol evaporating from you when you left the property. Azocar even installed an emergency detox switch that was installed next to the bar, like a big red button that he labeled ‘NO FUN!’, and which he then demonstrated.
Everyone bemoaned as the atmosphere turned lesser, and the party might have died right there, but Kandon was only partially serious about battle readiness.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Kandon ‘bought’ a round of beer for everyone after that, which was nice of him, since he instituted the new price of alcohol at 100 points a cup. It was priced that way to make it a luxury here in this ‘warzone’, but he had an unlimited supply of points. There were lots of ways to have fun outside of beer, though.
Someone got the bright idea to set up a volleyball net on the beach Eliot and a few other guys had made, and now they were playing volleyball, and Mark wanted in. So did a lot of other people, especially when Eliot started handing out free bathing suits. Bikinis for the girls, and usually something more modest for the men, but a few guys ended up in banana hammocks, because that’s what they wanted.
Under the auroras and bright lights, Mark got to play volleyball with some guys on the beach that he did not really know. Mark had met Gerard and Havo during Basic work at the loading docks, and now he played volleyball with them, and somehow Eliot made a whole beach full of game areas, and someone started an impromptu tournament, because everyone was cooped up and there wasn’t enough to do outside of killing monsters. Killing monsters and working was fine! But a person needed to unwind now and then, and that’s what they did.
Soon, Mark and his impromptu team of Gerard and Havo were facing off against Sally and two of her girl friends she had met this last week. Not girl-girl friends, but definite friends, and maybe Rache was headed toward girlfriend territory, according to what Mark was sensing from them, but neither Sally nor Rache were willing to close any sort of distance at all, which was what it was.
Sally and her friends were wearing bikinis, of course, thanks to Eliot. They showed off for the crowd and then they trounced Mark, Havo, and Gerard. Sally was taller than anyone there, so yeah, height worked out well for her.
The sun set and lights went on, and the night wore on, with lights and music and dancing at the Spot.
And then there was a giant cake covered in fake, sugar mushrooms, with ‘congrats on the big kill!’ on top of the cake. It was for Mark and his team, and it was delicious.
Aurora was there, holding a glass of wine and standing to the side, grinning in a quiet moment, while Mark was listening to Isoko talk about costume design and the battle arena Mark had told Eliot about. Aurora lifted her glass while Mark glanced her way, and Mark smiled back, and then Aurora went back to talking with her brother, under the flow of music.
The band had had a bunch of kinks to work out earlier in the evening, but then they had added some girl to their roster who could actually sing, and they had asked for Mark to help them with coordination, and so Mark helped them with a Union, and they turned out pretty awesome. They hadn’t named their band yet, but they all knew the music just fine.
It was kinda magical to be there, to be alive and dancing to the music, to feel the beating of his heart and the hearts of all those around him.
Mark found himself lost to the music, and it was good.
- -
Tartu glared at ‘The Spot’ from the tram station.
Kardi, Shawn, and Lenny stood with him. All of them were silent, and all of them wanted to go to the party.
The tram pulled into the gate behind Tartu and then opened up, disgorging yet another crowd that was eager for a big party. They didn’t care why the party was happening, only that it was, and that everything was free.
Some of the girls wore their best dresses and had their hair in styles, while some of the guys wore jackets and slacks. Others wore jeans and teeshirts, or they still had on some of their armor—
Tartu stared, dumbfounded, at a pair of people he thought he had known.
William Hallingill, and his twin sister Wilma, both heroes in the HVP, stepped out of the tram, laughing with friends, both of them wearing those green and gold webweaves. Their hero outfits, but different. They had stopped wearing white and blue, and Tartu had hated that, but he hadn’t been able to ask them why they had changed. They were avoiding him.
They wouldn’t avoid him this time.
Tartu stepped into their path. The crowd noticed Tartu first, and some of them parted around him, but William and Willma did not. Their faces fell, and then rallied. Reluctance gave way to resignation.
William sighed, “Hello, Tartu. What’s—”
“He’s a hidden demon,” Tartu said, avoiding whatever nonsense William was going to say.
The crowd went around them, but a few lingered, watching.
Let them watch.
Tartu continued, “Even now, he uses his Union to create a party that has no right existing. He smooths over social expectations. He makes things happen that should not happen. He does it all for his own favor, and for the future ingress of Addavein into our lives. You have seen the videos of him killing Shroomer, yes? He uses claws and wings. That is proof enough—”
“Oh stuff it,” Wilma said, having had enough. “He’s a villain, playing into the role, and neither I nor my brother want to be involved in the politics of the Aluatha Empire anymore. This is between you and him, and right now you’re losing support, so figure it out, Tartu.” And then she grabbed her brother’s wrist and walked both of them around Tartu.
William waved a little, saying, “See you around Tartu? No hard feelings!”
And then they were down and away, and Tartu didn’t want to stick around, either.
Tartu got onto the empty tram. Kardi instantly followed.
Shawn and Lenny both looked to The Spot with a desire—
“We’ll make our own Spot,” Tartu told them.
Shawn instantly straightened up and walked onto the tram, saying, “Fuck yeah we will!”
Lenny followed, saying, “I want a beach. I miss the beach.”
As the tram door closed, Tartu said, “We’ll make a beach that’s a lot safer than the one they got there. That’s fucking river water. Connected to the Shine.” He muttered, disbelieving, “Idiots.”
Shawn was disbelieving too, as he asked, “But the Shine is downstream and there are filters and… and everything?”
“Still dangerous,” Kardi said, backing Tartu up.
- -
A fin protruded from the surface of the lake. It belonged to a monster that had come from either upstream or downstream; who knew. The after-incident report noted holes on both the intake and outflow gates, but for now, the fish was there and it was coming in, looking to nibble on a guy's legs he left dangling in the darkened waters.
A detection system activated, tearing Eliot away from the absolute vision in front of him, but as he looked up from the very large breasts of a very pretty girl named Maragan, he saw Mark throw a black spear into the water and stab the fish. The fish was two meters long and it thrashed and flickered with gloom, trying to get away, but Mark hauled it above the waters, and he cheered. Several other people cried out that Mark was too fast, and that they wanted to catch the fish, including the guy who had been dangling his legs in the water. Two Harvesters, one of which was Havo on Mark’s volleyball team, told Mark about how it was really good eating, but Mark apparently already knew this.
Mark was the one who had gotten it, but only because he was the fastest.
Eliot didn’t know shit about fish, but enough people thought it was good to eat that Eliot didn’t care to step in at all. From what he was seeing elsewhere in his senses, other people were coming to the same conclusion.
Eliot was pretty sure that Aurora and Kandon were talking to each other in the corner over there, about how none of this was acceptable, but that they’d talk about fixing it all later. Not right now, though.
Maragan looked over at Mark in the distance, though she spoke to Eliot, “The beach isn’t safe?”
Eliot turned back to the big girl, laying it on thick, “Nowhere is safe, but we can be safe together.”
Maragan blushed a little… And then she paused. “But no. Seriously.”
Eliot smirked and said, “I’ll shut down the beach when we’re done for the night. I’m sure I’ll get an incident report about what happened, and then make some fixes here and there.”
Maragan brightened. “You’re so accomplished, Eliot.”
They were both laying it on thick, and neither of them minded.