“Why are you so tense?” Heather asked as she rubbed Frank's shoulders. He sat on a bench in his human form, looking into the park, trying to make sense of how quickly things changed. Hours ago, they had gone swimming, and he found himself in a situation he was not prepared for. Still, Heather was proud of him for warming up to the occasion and eventually joining them in the water. He even took his ghoul form so he could throw them into the air to splash into the water, playing like they were all one group. The moment was over, and Frank had time to think about what had happened. His reaction was one of both acceptance and shock as he kept prying Heather to make sure she was alright with what was going on.
“I wasn't ready to see all of you naked,” Frank sighed. “I was worried you were going to push me to do more.”
“Would that have been so bad?” Heather asked and sat beside him. “Frank, let’s face facts. We all belong to you, even Umtha.”
“Is that why you let her kiss me?” Frank asked.
“You’re the one who rubbed her back,” Heather pointed out.
“I wanted to rub your back, but you two were laying in the sun together, and it felt wrong to do just one of you,” he insisted.
“Frank, please calm down,” Heather urged. “Honestly, I am the one who should be upset, and I'm not. After that battle with Grumosh, I realized Blackbast was right. You have been dating us all from the beginning, and we girls had silently agreed you were our boyfriend. Nobody said it out loud because they were afraid of upsetting me, but now I'm saying it. Quinny, Breanne, and Umtha are your girlfriends, and you are free to treat them as such. In fact, I want you to. Kiss them, hug them, maybe do a little more.”
“I just don’t want to lose you,” Frank said as their eyes met. “You mean everything to me.”
“Alright, tell me the truth,” Heather said as she leaned into him. “Could you lose any of us? You wouldn't let Breanne or Quinny go, and Umtha is already your wife. But if one of them had to go tomorrow, who would it be?”
His shoulders sank as she got her answer, and knew that Frank would never abandon one of them. He loved them all and wanted to keep them close but didn’t have any idea what he was doing.
“Frank,” Heather said and rubbed his arm. “I love you and want you to tell them that you love them. I think it's time we got over this nonsense, especially me. Starting tomorrow, we should begin doing everything together and start behaving like the family we should be.”
“What about Blackbast?” Frank asked as he looked up.
“Hmm,” Heather said as she considered her answer. She had told him about the promise she made to Blackbast to start dating, but they hadn't really discussed it. Maybe it was time to start including her in some of their effort to date. However, Frank had never expressed how he felt about it. Was he ready to date a woman with Blackbast's complications?
“Why don’t I ask Gisley to carry a message back to her,” Heather offered. “We can ask Blackbast to meet us tomorrow and go on our first date with her.”
“If that’s what you want,” Frank replied.
“No, Frank,” Heather said and crawled into his arms. “I want to know what you want. Do you want to date Blackbast and face the possibility of her becoming our wife?”
She waited for his answer as he looked around to puzzle it out. She admired how much thought he was putting into these decisions but right now, he needed to take charge. She wanted him to say he wanted this, so she could let go a little and focus on building the bridges.
“Frank,” Heather interrupted and took his hand. “Just clear your head and look at it in a detached way. As a man, if you could have four women who loved you simultaneously, would you? Don't think about any one of them specifically; just answer the question.”
“Yes,” Frank sighed as Heather smiled and rubbed his hand.
“Well, then stop worrying about it,” she replied. “Because you already have it. We four have seen how much you love us, and we have agreed to share. I promise I won’t get upset if you acknowledge you love them.”
“Alright,” he finally said and put his arm around her. “I do love them, and I want this to happen.”
“Good,” Heather said and tapped his chin. “Now, let’s go find Gisley and Chandice again.”
“So we can send the message to Blackbast?” he asked.
“Well, that and I think it's time we gave them the magic doors,” Heather said. “I know they are anxious to get them.”
He agreed they should deliver the doors and returned to the tavern where Gisley was busily wiping down a table. She was delighted to see them again and went to fetch Chandice when Heather asked if she could speak to them both. Once Chandice arrived, Heather explained how they wanted to relay a message to Blackbast to join them in the tavern for lunch.
“Oh, I will come back tomorrow to cook something nice,” Chandice offered as she shook out her hair.
“That’s very kind of you,” Frank said as Gisley bounced.
“Are you going to marry her too?” Gisley asked.
“Let’s not rush things,” Heather urged with a smile. “She comes with a little extra baggage that we both need to overcome.”
“The whole temple prostitute thing,” Chandice said with a nod. “It really isn't your style. But, honestly, she would be a better fit for Roric.”
“And Idris would be a better fit for Heather,” Gisley said.
“Who is Idris?” Heather asked as she looked at Frank. He shook his head to indicate he had no idea, so they turned back to the girls.
“Idris is a woman we met a couple of days before we ran across you,” Chandice answered. “She is a priestess of a death god or something and plays some kind of white-skinned race with the whole goth thing going on.”
“She didn't have any hair when we met her,” Gisley added. “But we helped her get a cosmetics change, and now she has lovely long hair.”
“A priestess of a death god?” Heather asked. “What good is that?”
Chandice and Gisley smiled before they explained that Idris was the priest version of a necromancer. She could summon undead and had a lot of spells to boost their powers. Idris had told them that she picked her class so she could pair up with a necromancer and form a powerful team.”
“Oh,” Heather said as she considered the idea. “I would like to meet her. Is she in your forest?”
“Not exactly,” Chandice said as Gisley frowned at her. “Don’t look at me like that,” Chandice countered. “I had no idea we were going to get a free ride to the far south.”
“We should have waited,” Gisley insisted. “Now poor Idris has to cross the entire world to get to us.”
“Why would she be doing that?” Frank asked as the two women looked ready to argue.
“It was a test,” Chandice explained. “We spent a night with her and left in the morning. She was given a choice to follow us and join our family, or she could go to Rajeen and join her harem.”
“She chose us and followed us north,” Gisley said. “But she didn’t reach us before we used your door to come here.”
“Wait, why didn’t you just take her with you?” Heather asked.
Gisley blushed and twisted as Chandice reached over to take the fairy's hand. Chandice explained that Idris hadn't fully embraced the idea of being a slave, so they played a game with her. She was locked in chastity and left behind on purpose as a fun tease. They assumed she would catch up in a matter of days and even used Gisley's dream powers to talk with her and ensure she wasn't upset about it.
“She was happy to play,” Gisley assured them. “And we really thought she would choose Rajeen, but she wanted us and started chasing us into the north.”
“Why didn’t she catch up to us when we camped at the meeting place?” Frank asked.
“That's because she wasn't a hundred percent sure where we were. I don't want to tell you too much, but we left her a way to locate us. However, it turned out to be hard to use in the wilds,” Chandice explained.
“She got lost,” Gisley added. “And by the time she located us, we were hours gone.”
“The poor thing,” Heather gasped. “And she’s still in a chastity belt?”
“She has been for over three weeks now,” Chandice said. “And if we make her walk her way here, she will be for another six months or more.”
“But we’re not going to make her walk,” Gisley insisted. “Roric has been working with Rajeen to locate her and help get her here.”
“Well, maybe that ties in with what I wanted to talk to you about next,” Heather said as she smiled at Frank.
“What was that?” Chandice asked.
“We want to give you the magic doors,” Frank said. “So you can link your home to Rajeen and spend your time with her.”
“Eeeeeeeeeeee!” Gisley squealed so loudly that Chandice covered her ears.
“Tone it down,” Chandice barked as Gisley danced again.
“Sorry, I just got excited,” Gisley said and straightened her dress. “Roric and Rajeen are so good together, and we love to be with her and the harem.”
“Jaina is going to be happy,” Chandice agreed. “She even brought the doors up the other day.”
“Well, let's figure out how to make them,” Heather said and lifted her hands, summoning the kingdom heart. She brought up the interface and went to the specialty items section to begin scrolling through options.
“You can buy floating islands?” Chandice asked as they all crowded in to look at the screen.
“And magical bridges,” Gisley pointed.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“I like the big clock thing,” Frank said as Heather rushed by it.
“If we want a clock tower, I am sure the goblins could build us a mechanical one,” Heather insisted and dug deeper. She gave up scrolling through thousands of choices and looked for search criteria. She finally typed in the word doors and was given a selection of over a hundred magical portals.
“One-way doors, reversible doors, moving doors,” Heather read off as she scrolled through the list. “I swear this would be easy with a computer and a search engine.”
“The visitors added so much stuff it kinda became clumsy,” Frank said.
“I hear they add more every few months,” Chandice added. “So the list of options is always growing.”
“It’s like expansions to the sims,” Heather groaned.
“You played that?” Frank asked.
“Yes, I played it,” Heather replied. “It was a lot of fun.”
“How could it be fun? It’s not even a game,” Frank insisted.
“Hey, I played it too,” Gisley pouted.
“But you don’t do anything you couldn’t just go and do yourself,” Frank said. “Why would you watch a sim watch TV when you could just watch it yourself?”
“Don’t you dare start picking on one of the few games I did play,” Heather scolded. “It was a lot of fun to live a life that was free of the usual complications.”
“Like this life,” Gisley said. “This world is almost perfect in a way.”
“I suppose it is,” Heather replied as Frank reached in to point at an option. She swatted his hand away and selected the sub-group for magical portals, and instantly the doors were there.
“There are all sorts of these as well,” Heather said as she scrolled through the list.
“It looks like the bigger the opening, the more expensive it is,” Frank said.
“And the big ones like gates have range costs,” Heather said. “Just like my mother said they would.”
Heather found the simple pair of doors and selected the item, only to find she could customize the look and function. She could even set a command word or usage restrictions that barred certain people from using them.
“It’s all so complex,” Heather said as she tapped through options.
“This is why the city is taking so long to build,” Frank said and suggested she use a default doorway.
“If I may make a suggestion,” Chandice said and pointed to an option to make the doorway an arch with a red silk curtain. “That will fit the theme of Rajeen's temple nicely.”
“Alright,” Heather said and set the style only to be greeted by methods of deploying the doors.
“Sheesh, this is so full of choices,” she groaned and selected the same option she had. This would produce two tiny doors smaller than a book. The doors would grow to full size when placed against a wall and told to open. Once both doors were placed, they would be able to see through them as if looking into the next room, and a single step would carry them a thousand miles.
“And submit,” Heather said as she tapped the button.
A green light formed on a nearby table and quickly shaped into a miniature pair of stone archways with a red curtain. Heather picked them up and looked at them carefully before handing them to Chandice.
“Thank you so much!” Gisley cried and threw her arms around Heather. “You have no idea how much this means to us!”
“I can imagine,” Heather replied as she hugged the fairy woman back. She enjoyed the warm embrace that made her wish she could hug Breanne, Quinny, or even Umtha. She enjoyed the moment for a bit, then had a devious idea to share some of the love. “You know Frank really likes hugs.”
Gisley laughed and pounced on him, hugging him tightly as he blushed. Heather smiled and closed the kingdom heart before turning to Chandice, who put the doors in a pouch.
“If you need help getting the door to Rajeen, my mother will arrange a portal,” Heather said.
“I am sure Rajeen can arrange one to here,” Chandice replied. “But thank you for offering. Also, I meant to ask how your research into the necrofidiax was going?”
“Slow,” Heather groaned. “I have dozens of books on magic, but I have no idea which one will provide an answer. So I am reading them cover to cover in a vain hope to stumble on some clue as to how they were made.”
“I wouldn't mind helping you read a few,” Chandice offered. “After all, our two classes are all about summoning dark things.”
“Thank you,” Heather said as she was truly touched by the offer. It would be nice to have a partner who shared a common interest in the kind of magic she used. This reminded her of Idris and made her wonder what a priest of death could do compared to a necromancer.
“If we get these doors in place, then Idris can use them to get to us,” Chandice said. “Let's hope Rajeen finds her soon.”
“Well, we have to run,” Heather said. “Frank and I have a lot to do in the city yet.” She turned to see Frank was still locked in the hug, but he was trying by hugging Gisley back. “Come on, casanova,” Heather urged and broke him free. “You have plenty of girls to play with.”
They went into the streets and debated what to do next. Heather had one thing on her mind, and that was Frank setting up a proper adventure. She decided they should go back to the graveyard to plan one out. To get home, they went into the park, finding the small section that was technically part of Quinny's magical forest.
“So, how does this work?” Heather asked as they approached the trees.
“It’s like a teleport,” Frank said and took her hand. “Quinny can do it anywhere in her forest, but the rest of us have to use special points. She set one up here, so if you walk between two trees, you come out in the middle of the forest.”
“Which two trees?” Heather asked as she stared at dozens of them, creating a dark maze.
“It's the two in the back with entangled branches that form a sort of arch,” Frank said and led the way. As they walked, Frank pointed out that they could give Evalynn a small section assuming she would have the same power eventually. Heather thought that was a nice idea as it created a rapid way to reach one another if they needed it. Frank then suggested they use their doors to link their planned rooms in the city to Umtha’s fortress.
“You have been thinking about this a lot,” Heather said as they reached the two trees. Frank led the way, walking between them to step into a small clearing on the other side. She looked around to see the forest was completely different, yet if she looked back through the two trees she could still see the forest at the city.
“It looks strange, doesn't it?” Frank asked as Heather tried to reconcile the image on one side of the trunk with another. “The elves have massive magical forests full of hidden passages like this. I was told once that you can't find their capital city without navigating what they call the greenways.”
“You know, I love this world,” Heather said and squeezed his hand. “And I love being here with you.”
“I told you it was fun,” Frank reminded as they thought back to their early days together.
“Yes, you did. You also told me all about your planned adventure,” Heather agreed. “Now let's put a quest giver in Finneous's town and use it to start sending players to the graveyard. I want to see you have as much fun as Quinny and Breanne are.”
They traveled through the forest but avoided the main road, instead following the water's edge of the swamp. This took them through the goblin village that had migrated to be more out over the water. The goblins acknowledged the two as their king and queen, even offering them gifts of food. Heather thanked but hurried on, determined to set Frank's adventures in motion.
Heather also had another thought in mind and shared it with Frank s they traveled. While battling through Lydia's castle, she saw a painting in one of the rooms. It was Finneous, and it identified him as the master of the hunt. She had been meaning to ask Finneous about it ever since they returned, but things were always too busy.
Frank was reminded of the story about the goblin the previous hunt master helped escape Lydia's domain. Heather told him it was Umtha, and somehow, the two were connected.
“You never asked Umtha about it?” he asked.
“I did, and she confirmed it was him, but we never went into any detail,” Heather said. “You remember how she said she was reset and had to make her way south on her own? Well, it was during that trip that it happened.”
“I wonder why he helped her?” Frank asked.
“Let's ask him and find out,” Heather suggested as they followed the water's edge. They were still in the trees an hour later and saw a few players killing bats. Heather realized Quinny had spread her forest further along the road and was probably more than halfway to the town. The forest finally ended at a relatively flat area with the mountains in the distance. They finally walked to the road and passed even more players headed the other way, with none of them recognizing who they were.
“You know, it might be the distance they have to travel,” Heather said as she considered how far they had walked. “Your graveyard is several hour's walk away.”
“I wonder if we could make a travel point of some kind,” Frank said as he considered the point.
They spotted the distant buildings twenty minutes later and soon approached the outer town. Heather suggested that Frank put his NPC in the little square here, not inside the larger keep. So Frank went to the largest building in the small town, which had a small bell tower. This appeared to be a town hall of sorts and would make a good spot to attract players.
“Ahh, there's my daughter,” a grating voice said as Heather turned about to see the man they were looking for coming out of a nearby building. He was dressed in fine clothes with a coat and ruffled collar. His familiar hat was gone, but his dark hair was slicked back and well-groomed.
“Please don’t call me your daughter,” Heather groaned as Finneous approached.
“How fortunate that you arrived. I needed to speak to you about something,” he said and came to stand before them.
“Hold that thought,” Heather insisted before taking Frank’s hand. “We came to place an NPC to help steer people to Frank’s graveyard, and then you need to answer a question.”
“Place your NPC wherever you want,” Finneous urged. “I set you and the others with editing permissions a long time ago.”
“Thanks,” Frank replied and lifted his hand to call his kingdom heart. He opened the interface and chose a default human man making him older and slightly bald. He named the man Eckard and dressed him in a wizard robe with a thick book under one arm. The quest was simple, go to the graveyard and bring back seven bone powders, plus any rare undead items.
“What’s a rare undead item?” Heather asked.
“Sometimes you can get them to drop things like glowing finger bones or a small gem called an essence of undeath.”
“Really?” Heather asked. “And what are these things used for?”
“Quest props,” Finneous answered. “Nearly all creatures have some odd rare trinket they drop.”
“Why is this the first I am hearing about it?” Heather asked.
“I told you about it a long time ago,” Frank said as he finished the dialog. He set the man as a sage and added moderate undead lore to his list of studies. This would allow him to dialog with players about basic undead and even suggest strategies for defeating them. Coin and experience would be the main reward, but the man would give players a bottle of holy water for rare trinkets.
“Why holy water?” Heather asked as she looked over his shoulder.
“It burns undead and shadow creatures,” Frank explained. “It seems like the kind of thing a sage who studies the undead might carry.”
“Do you want him arming players with that?” Heather questioned. Frank explained that unless they had a fire hose of the stuff, it would do little damage to him. He then programmed the man to offer players three paths to the graveyard, explaining the dangers of each.
“Make sure you tell them the eastern path is likely to get them molested,” Heather suggested.
Frank laughed at her suggestion and submitted his final settings causing the man to appear before them. He immediately introduced himself and asked if they were here to help his studies into the undead.
“He seems to be working,” Heather said and turned on Finneous. “And now to something more serious.”
“Serious?” Finneous asked. “You know already?”
“About, Umtha?” Heather questioned. “Yes, I know you helped her pass through Lydia’s land and escape the people hunting for her.”
“Oh, that,” Finneous said as his characteristic smile returned. “What of it?”
“Don’t act like it isn’t important,” Heather pressed. “I saw a painting of you in Lydia’s castle. You were the old master of the hunt, and you abandoned them to flee with Umtha. I want to know why.”
“How funny you come to talk to me about this now,” Finneous said as he stood tall and brushed his coat.
Heather didn't see the humor in it as the man continued to smile. She asked what he was getting at, and he suggested they follow him. He led them back to the building he had just come out of and took them into a side room. They went down a flight of stairs as Finneous began to explain himself.
“I have told you before that I had secrets of my own to keep,” he said as stairs ended at a dimly lit stone hall. “The truth is I made some terrible enemies and was put in a less-than-ideal situation. Lydia and her companions were good friends of mine, and for a while, we ran a kingdom like the one you are building.”
“She still has a kingdom,” Heather reminded. “We saw it ourselves.”
“A shadow of what it once was,” Finneous said. “When the necromancers went on their rampage Lydia sided with them for obvious reasons. A vampire wasn't likely going to join the side full of elitest paladins on a self-righteous crusade. She played an instrumental part in helping the necromancers move and hide forces around the north. Of course, she pretended to be on the side of those lunatics, claiming she was playing a noble lady.”
“So she was pretending to be an ally of the paladins while secretly working for the necromancers,” Frank surmised as they turned a corner to discover another stairwell down.
“It was a dangerous game, but she had kept her secret so long that nobody suspected her,” Finneous said. “All of us could pass as other classes, and we staged a few shows of allegiance, punishing monster players we caught in our territory.”
“That sounds cruel,” Heather accused.
“They agreed to help,” Finneous insisted, stopping at a stout wooden door. “The truth is when the necromancers fell, Lydia was found out. There had been suspicions about her, and the holy order of light sent their best spy to watch her. I have no idea who this spy was, but he learned the truth and reported it to Kevin. Her kingdom was burned to the ground, and they were reset, except for me. I was in the north showing the goblin safe pass south.”
“So you were helping the goblins too?” Heather asked as they stood outside the door.
“A lot of us were,” Finneous said. “I returned to find the kingdom gone and the land divided between its neighbors. I made some polite inquiries and discovered where they had been sent. I found them and learned the truth of their downfall, or so I thought.”
“You thought?” Heather pressed.
“Lydia had brokered a deal with the paladins to rebuild a tiny kingdom where she would be capped at level thirty. As part of that deal, she had agreed to lure monster players to her castle, where they would be killed or held until the paladins could claim them. They were particularly interested in goblin players, several in fact, and she wanted me to turn on them. I played along, of course, pretending to be a part of the team as I dug into what was really going on. I don't know why but Kevin was afraid of the goblins or, more to the point, afraid of what they were doing. He was determined to recover some key goblins to prevent them from completing a mission.”
“This sounds familiar,” Frank said. “Umtha's side of this story talks about them going out of their way to hunt her.”
“Indeed,” Finneous agreed. “She showed up in the forest one day, fleeing for her life. She was maybe level three at the time and no match for what was pursuing her. It was my job to hunt the forest looking for intruders to capture or lure them to the castle.”
“Hence the master of the hunt title,” Heather said.
“Yes,” Finneous said. “When I came across Umtha, she pleaded with me to help her. She said she had to get to the south, or the plan would fail. She never told me what it was, but I didn't care. I had done enough digging and learned a terrible secret about Lydia's arrangement. The paladins regularly visited her kingdom to reset them all to make sure they never became a threat. Lydia had kept this a secret since I was still high level, hoping I would be overwhelmed when the paladins arrived.”
“She was going to sell you to the paladins,” Frank said in disgust.
“In a manner of speaking,” Finneous said. “She cared about me but knew they would persecute her and the others if she didn't turn me in. This spy, whoever it was, had reported me to them, and they knew I was missing when the original kingdom was burned. She had been told that when I showed up again, she was to string me along until they came for me. They knew I was helping the goblins, making me a high-priority target.
She was trapped and felt she had no choice but to do what she was told. I decided to take Umtha and run, flee south and ensure she got where she was going. On our way, I killed several paladins and turned my wolf packs against their forces. They knew Umtha had come into the forest, so they held Lydia responsible for her escape. She and the others were severely punished and have been more or less used as training for new paladins ever since.”
“I hate these paladins,” Heather grumbled as they stood outside the door. “So you came all this way to help Umtha?”
“I came this way to save my hide,” Finneous said. “They know I was helping goblins escape. Umtha wasn't the first I helped sneak across the forest. They put a bounty on my head, and they want me alive. I don't know if you are aware of what happens to people they bring back alive but suffice it to say you never see them again. This is likely the fate that would have befallen Lydia if she had tried to warn me.”
“They kill them like the necromancers did?” Heather asked. “They die and never respawn?”
“Nobody knows, and I have no intention of finding out,” Finneous replied. “Best to keep a low profile and play the role of the village elder.”
“Alright, so why are we standing outside this door?” Heather asked.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Finneous said and pushed the door open to reveal the three people seated at a table inside.
“Hello again,” Lydia said as she smiled. “I am so glad to see you.”