"Relax," said the figure. "I'm not here to hurt you."

The voice sounded absolutely calm and confident.

"Who are you?"

"I'm a man with a small gift for you. You did well."

Her head spun at his words.

"How did I get into this game? I don't remember anything about it. Where am I?"

"Sorry," he said. "I don't have any answers for you. For me, where you come from is a mystery too. But it's not important."

"Excuse me? Where am I in the real world, right now? That's the only thing I want to know."

"I don't have much time," he said. "And I don't want to waste it on this nonsense. Listen. You took the crown. Good for you. But you're not going to keep it, at least not if they have their way. You're a pack mule and you will be discarded when you've done your job."

"If who has their way?"

She sensed a motion in the darkness that might have been him shaking his head.

"No point in you knowing. It can only cause trouble. But suffice it to say more than a few people want it now. Personally, I have a vestigial sense of justice. It doesn't seem right not to give you a heads-up."

Something glowed sickly green in the darkness, and moved over towards her. He was offering it to her. The light didn't go beyond the object though, and his face was still shrouded.

"What is it?" she said.

"A gift. Better than you deserve probably, but take it. You can only use it once, so be really sure you need it."

As soon as her fingers grasped it, she felt him standing up.

"Wait," she said. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"Things are moving along the way they should. I won't say don't worry, because you should be worried. You need to grow in strength, and numbers too, if you're going to have any hope of surviving."

"Are they going to try to kill me?"

"If necessary. They don't really care. You're just a means to an end."

She touched her tiara.

"I'm the Night Queen," she said. "What does that mean?"

"You don't need me for that, you'll figure it out. The question is, can you continue to be the Night Queen?"

"Who am I if I give it up?"

She heard a soft snort.

"Nobody. Like I said, you don't matter. I'm only here because they were willing to just throw you in the deep end without a word. But don't get any ideas. I'm not going to have your back. You're on your own now. Sorry."

"Whoever they are, they sound like a bunch of dicks."

He laughed briefly.

"I won't disagree," he said.

"Listen, can I just..."

"Now sleep," he said.

She was sleepy. Incredibly so. There was no fighting it.

He's the one doing it.

But the thought was distant, and it was hard to even want to fight it. She was so terribly tired.

The morning came with sunlight streaming in through the huge gap in the roof. She spent a few moments staring up at the scattered clouds pondering the stranger's words until she realized she was hungry. Breakfast needed to be found. Maybe the cat's local knowledge would come in handy there as well.

But Rebus was still nowhere to be seen.

Nor was her visitor, of course. The leaves and dirt in the corner were disturbed though, testifying to the fact that someone had actually been there. The strange greenish talisman in her hand was evidence of that as well.

The appraise popped up right away in brilliant white text.

Spear of the Sun; Level 60 (Unlimited); Concealment (60)

8000 damage/second for 15 seconds; single use

Blood Submission to activate it; "Solanus" commands it

Impressive. My own personal personal megaspell.

It was obviously not for bandit-whacking. This was around 50,000 damage on something she needed to kill. She slipped it in her pocket, worrying at the thought of how bad things would need to be for her to use it.

What was it he'd called her?

Pack mule? A means to an end?

They could all just go to hell, her mysterious visitor included.

She stood up and did her best to brush away the dirt and leaves. The plentiful blood smears and stains all over her would have to wait on a creek, or better yet on new clothes. Her hair felt like a straggly mess, but combs were a distant future dream at this point so she went outside with a shrug. The world was just going to have to deal with her the way she was.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

At least her arm felt a lot better.

Small mercies. We don't heal at a real-world rate.

Outside there was a rough square of raised dirt that looked like the long-forgotten remains of a garden. A few thin bushes at one end had a scattering of pale bluish berries.

She appraised them, feeling like a pro.

Blue Berries; Edible

HP +1

Blue berries. Well, I guess that makes sense.

She scarfed down all she could find, and ended up slightly less hungry than before.

When she looked up again something green and scaly was running at her at high speed. It had bright white teeth, opened wide. She could hear it's raspy breath as it pumped across the ground towards her.

"Shit," she yelped and held up both arms at the thing.

"Wait!" said a voice she knew.

It was Rebus. His tail was fluffed up like a brush, and he was staring at her intently.

The thing was nearly on top of her.

"Are you sure?" she barked.

"It's okay, really," the cat said as the thing stopped running and fell at her feet. Bowing. It was actually on the ground bowing and scraping.

She stared at it in disgust. It was vaguely human shaped, but had scaly green skin and huge, fleshy pointed ears. Its back was covered in a network of scar tissue - it look like it had been whipped mercilessly.

"Goblin," Rebus said. "I found him creeping around nearby. Probably attracted by your aura."

"You found him?"

"I've got a good feeling about this. I told him to come here."

"You can talk to them?"

"I can get by in Dark Tongue."

"What am I supposed to do with it?" she said.

"Save us, mistress," the thing jabbered face down in the dirt. "We will serve you and honor you. We will do whatever you order. Just save us, please."

The voice was vaguely human too, but had a shrieking edge that rubbed her the wrong way.

She stared at the cat.

"What is it talking about?"

Rebus gave her a smug feline look.

"It's all about your aura. Seriously, this is a good sign. Why don't you ask him?"

She resisted the urge to kick the thing and told it to stand up instead.

Standing wasn't any kind of improvement. It was about two-thirds her height, and still just as ugly as when it had been running at her. Its mouth was too wide, and its eyes were large and yellow. It had a sour, lizard-like odor.

"Tell me your name," she ordered.

"Garmak, mistress," it said, and looked like it wanted to get down on its hands and knees again.

"Why were you skulking around like that?"

The creature flinched, like it expected to be hit.

"We felt it in the night," Garmak said. "Like the stories say. The sky lit up red, and we felt your greatness. Mistress, we have been so scared!"

It dropped down to its knees in front of her.

"There are five of us," it said. "When the Demon King was killed, everything was chaos. We ran. We don't know the way home. We have been lost for so long now."

"Five of you? Where are the others?"

"They wait. I am the most useless, so they sent me to see if it was a trap. But it was not a trap! The Night Queen has returned to us!"

It finally stared up at her with something like rapture on its face.

"Our lives for you, mistress! We are less than filth, but we will live for you and die for you!"

She frowned at it.

"Okay, fine. Shut up for a minute Garmak. I need to talk to Rebus."

Garmak dropped into a deep bow in front of her and stayed silent.

Something about how obsequious the creature was bothered her.

Even if you're a disgusting little monster, you should take some kind of elementary pride in yourself.

She didn't like the thing one bit.

Looking around, she spotted a stump. It was the closest thing to a chair anywhere nearby. She sat on it and gestured at Rebus.

"Come talk to me," she said. "Who is the Demon King? What is he talking about? I need an info dump. Just keep it simple for now."

The cat sauntered up to her calmly. Ashely got the feeling he was showing off to Garmak by how casual he was being.

"I only found this one, but from the sounds of it the others probably aren't far off. They're remnants of the Demon King's army. Deserters technically, but I don't know if you can desert an army that's been completely destroyed."

"Back up a bit."

The cat sat down and took a breath that was a lot like a sigh.

"The Demon King, also known as the Lord of the Dead and the leader of the great army of the Damned. There was a huge battle about half a year ago, a few days from here. King Harald and his army, and the Army of the Highfield States, and the Company of Heroes all met the Demon King on the plains of Marra. Colossal destruction by the sound of things. They say King Harald and the Demon King ended up in single combat and slew one another. Total chaos. The entire thing ended up as a victory for the Alliance at first. Routed the army of the Damned and scattered them all across the land. But everyone has been too busy to mop them up. Result being, what you see in front of you."

"A victory at first?"

"Well King Harald was dead, and his succession was poorly settled to start with. A couple of the Highfield States figured they could settle it themselves by quickly killing off Prince Andrew and Prince Stephen right then and there. Chance to carve up the kingdom between themselves, you know. Seeing as how the Damned had conveniently already killed off a goodly portion of Harald's army for them. Or something like that. There's a few different versions."

"Got it, big armies smash into each other, dead kings all over the place, and then it's a free-for-all. Thus the raiders we ran into yesterday?"

"Harald's army came off the worse for it. From what I've overheard its civil war now in the Kingdom, with the Highfield States backing whoever comes over to their side."

"So where do I come in with the Goblins?"

"Well that's the important part here, isn't it?"

She pointed at her head.

"Crown of the Night Queen. Aura of Doom. Attracts the Goblins, who want to serve me, right?"

"So it appears."

"I'm their promised leader?"

"It does sound that way."

She nodded.

"Garmak," she said sharply. "Get over here. Don't cringe, just come here and stand still."

"Yes ma'am," the Goblin squeaked and stood at attention in front of her and Rebus.

"Tell me about the Night Queen," she said. "Tell me what she means to you."

His eyes went big and he stammered a few times before he could speak.

"The Night Queen protects us all. We serve her and love her, and she keeps us safe. We do everything for her glory. She makes a home for us. Not just Goblin. All of us, everyone the glabrach" - he spat the word - "all the humans and their heroes hate and kill."

A momentary snarl flashed across his face.

"When the Demon King fell, that was the sign. Arbrachit say, Night Queen will come now, save us all and lead us home. And here you are. You are so beautiful!"

He couldn't stop himself, and collapsed on the ground in front of her in a prostrate, groveling bow.