As we entered the last door I thought to myself about emotions, a little while ago I had been feeling tired and a little down. After some food, a nap, and some exercise, I now felt much better. I was ready to go forward and meet Raiks sister and see what she would do. Raiks sister, that one I had not seen coming. Still nothing really surprised me anymore I would roll with whatever came up.
I suspected that I would be faced with the memories of my parents dying. It would make sense to me as a sort of hit him in the nuts move. I could deal with that, and honestly, I did not know what else could really affect me. Reona, not really, I had sex with her, not a long term relationship. I felt annoyed that she had done some weird sex magic but still it had been an amazing morning with her. She could give Ama a run for her money, and that took some skill.
I was concerned about Twink; the little AI had developed a real personality. It was funny how all the NPC in the game had become very important to me. I had attempted to form a relationship with Archon and Kai but Archon turned into an asshole in one smooth move and Kai had turned into the frost queen once she saw Reona. The people I liked and feel close to are bits of code, I wonder what the says about me. I had grown up in a state run orphanage maybe that explained it.
Refocusing on the task at hand I saw we had entered the room, it had a large desk, bookshelves, and a daybed. Leaning on the desk at the front was a cute little gal with small horns rising from her forehead and a small tail coming out from under the short skirt she was wearing. She also had on a white business shirt with no bra and the same large perky breasts that most of the females Ingame were blessed with. As I looked at her, she looked at us and then shouted “Raik” and ran over and grabbed him in a hug.
Seeing the two of them together it was apparent that they were related. The facial expressions and the way they talked with their hands, it tied them together. We gave them a few minutes to talk and then Raik led her over to me. “Tor, this is my sister and she is the last challenge. I have explained everything but she feels bound to continue.”
“Hello Tor,” her voice was throaty and deep, “my name is Tarzana and I just want to talk to you if that is alright. Why don’t you have a seat on the day bed, feel free to relax and lay down if it is more comfortable.”
Suddenly Ama’s voice broke through and I heard her say, “Hey Tor, your eyes can go higher than her chest, right.” Giving my head a shake I lifted my eyes and looked at Taiqana, “Sorry I was a little distracted by your errr attributes, let's proceed.” Then turning to look at Ama I spoke once again. Sorry, I honestly do not normally act like some kind of lecherous jerk who stares at a woman's breast. I am not sure what just happened.”
Ama looked at me and then suddenly smiled, “I think I know what is going on” she said. “Now that we are soul tied some of my Succubae nature has transferred on to you, I have been feeling it for a while but it did not register to now. You are emitting a raw sexuality that is impacting any woman you come into contact with, and it is affecting you because you were not aware of it to now.”
Looking over at Taiqana, Ama asked, “What do you feel when Tor is staring at you, looking at your breasts? Were you feeling uncomfortable, or was it more of an I wish he would take my top off and kiss me all over my body feeling? Did it make you feel hot and bothered or just bothered?
Taiqana looked at Ama and me, then smiled and said “Oh without a doubt, if you others were not here I would have been jumping on Tor. Look at him, he looks like a half demon himself and I would bet that smooth tongue of his can be used for more than talking.” Looking at us with a bit of a smile Taiqana then spoke, “Tor why don’t you lay down on the daybed and lets get started, I am really interested in you and what affects how you feel.”
I nodded and went to lay down on the daybed, it was solidly built with a buttoned brown leather and one end had a slight angle to it. It was something Freud would have used in his practice. As I swung my legs up and made myself comfortable I mentioned that this setup reminded me of Sigmund Freud. With the desk and the daybed and bookshelves. It was similar to a picture I had seen of his office and to top it all off we had just been talking about sex.
Taiqana listened and then with a smile told me, “You have an amazing perspective and are correct, this whole thing was set up to be a copy of Herr Doctor's office. He was one of the best demon analysts out there, and while no one really believes his theory anymore, a whole generation of men believed that they were messed up because they were in love with their mothers but could not consummate the love. It was so deliciously tragic, but the past is the past. I don’t suppose you have strong feelings of affection for you mother do you?”
“Not like that,” I replied. “I lost my parents when I was seven and was placed in an orphanage by the time I had turned eight. My memories have grown a little dim over the years, so I can truthfully tell you that their deaths while tragic are not something that overwhelms me and causes me to weep late at night. If you want to know what makes me tick, what grinds me down and causes me to feel sadness I will tell you.”
Taiqana listened intently and licked her lips as she looked at me. I noticed her eyes were starting to gaze downward and were focusing about 4 inches below my beltline. I have always wanted to say this to an attractive woman and could not resist at this point. “Hey, eyes up top lady” and then I began to laugh. She looked at me like I was a little crazy but then began to grin also.
“Sorry, it has been a long long time alone in here and Ama is right, you are practically throwing out a come here and jump on me vibe. I do not think many mortal women are going to be able to resist you. Somehow you are going to have to be able to contain this raw sexuality or a lot of angry guys well be looking for you feeling jealous that their women all are looking at you.”
Licking here lips Taiqana then said, “let's refocus then, from the beginning, your parents tragic demise has not overcome you on an emotional level. But there is something that really has caused you to feel saddened. Please tell me what that is and how you feel about it. What do you do to not be overwhelmed, to not let the downward spiral of emotional discontinuity be brought forth?”
“Taiqana” I spoke up interrupting her monolog, “What the hell are you talking about? Just because someone has gone through hard times does not make them weak or overcome with emotion. It is like the saying what does not kill you makes you stronger. I know that you are here to try to bring about some sort of emotional upheaval in an attempt to derail people from progressing past this trial and finishing. But honestly do you think that everyone is going to be so overcome that they will quit or even suicide?”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“You wanted to know what makes me sad, let me tell you and then we can be done alright? As you probably know I came to the Roundland from the Topland. However, I am actually from another realm and was brought here as a reward, a vacation of sorts. Are you following me?” Seeing her nod I continued, “Now the realm I am from is different from both Roundland and Topland, and here wherever the hell here is.”
“It is a place of unmitigated greed, where the rich are few but they hold almost all the wealth. Where most of the people struggle to survive, following blindly the suggestions that they have to buy items that they don’t need. The people are inundated with commands to buy things that they cannot afford and to get into debt for years for items that are worthless. Are you still following me? I asked.”
Seeing not just Taiqana nod but all of the party I continued. “Let me give you an example of how this fucked up system works. Many people in my realm are large, very large.” Ama spoke up at this point and asked, “What do you mean large?” I looked at everyone in the room and thought about everyone that I had seen while Ingame. We all were perfect specimens, with the bodies of Olympic athletes.
“Gluzzie, what happened to the people who did not make it past your trial of Gluttony?” I asked. Gluzzie perked up and began to speak, “They would stay and eat, and eat and eat. Eventually, they began to change, and their bodies morphed into this large mass of flesh. At some point, they quit moving and then they ceased to exist. Then they disappeared, to a respawn point I would guess.”
Looking around I stated, “In my realm we do not have respawn points, once you cease to exist you are gone. So when you have large people as Gluzzie described you have real problems. The health of the individual begins to drop and eventually they die. Most people do not want to die but seem incapable of changing anything to make sure they stay healthy.”
“To deal with this problem, there are many schemes that people buy into and spend a lot of money on to somehow try to maintain a healthy weight and body. I heard one just before I came here, and it still makes me sad to think about it. I stopped at this point for a minute as I recalled the commercial I had heard on the trip to Sleepy Hollow camp.”
“For a fee, people are being offered an easy way to lose the kilos in my realm. They sign up with a company called CoolDown. This company declares that it can help people lose the weight by putting them in a cold room and chilling them down till they start to shiver uncontrollably. They stay in the room freezing until it is determined that it would be dangerous to the health of the client to continue.
CoolDown does not want anyone to die of hypothermia or get frostbite so they monitor everyone and bring them out and warm them up when needed and then once warm they send them back into the freezer. As I remembered the commercial the stupidity of it and the fact that it was the fastest growing diet company in the world was a little overwhelming.
Taiqana spoke up, “So people pay to have other people freeze them in an attempt to lose weight and be healthy. Are they insane, why would anyone do this? It makes no sense on any level, how is being frozen supposed to help a person to lose weight?”
I thought for a moment and then replied, “people need a unit of energy called a calorie to survive. If a person has too many calories they will gain weight, and the reverse is also true. To lose the weight the person must use up any extra calories, and the only way to do this is to make your muscles move. Most people maintain a balance of caloric intake followed by exercise which will deplete any extra calories.”
Fuck, why am I giving a diet lesson here to a group of demons, somehow this challenge was proving a little harder than I had assumed it would be. One of Amas sister spoke up at this point and asked, “is that why my thighs are starting to get fat? Looking at her I nodded, too much of Gluzzies cooking and not enough exercise I would guess.
Getting back to the topic I said, “When a person starts to shiver it is an involuntary muscle movement that spreads to most of the major muscles in an individual's body, so you have people sitting around freezing their asses off while being told they are getting a full body workout. It is crazy but so many people are so desperate for a change they will try anything.
And that insanity is what makes me sad, that is what brings me down, seeing this sort of shit every day in my realm.”
I looked around at the room seeing my friends look puzzled and shaking their heads. “ Why don’t they just exercise,” Raik asked. “I mean, it seems so simple, if you eat to much just work it off.” I nodded in agreement and spoke, “I am not sure why Raik, but people in my realm have a sense of entitlement that makes no sense. I think it is because from birth they are told they deserve this or that. It is all bullshit but it is what it is.”
Taiqana nodded and looking at me spoke, “I have nothing that can top that sort of insanity that you appear to have lived through. I am actually sorry that people go through that. Here is the chest with the reward. Also having spoken with Raik, I am sure you know what I am going to ask you, can I come with you?”
I looked at her and smiled, “you sure can, but as I have explained to everyone I am going to be doing some difficult quests and will need unquestionable obedience. If you can give me that you are welcome to join us. My first task is something I think you should all know about,” I said. “It is a rescue mission, I have to save a group of lost children. I will first have to prepare a place for them and then bring them to safety.”
Once I had mentioned children all the women became very serious and once I stopped speaking Ama asked me in a tone I had never heard before, “what happened to the children and who did this?”
“They were sacrificed,” I said “and now they wonder as lost souls in the Kradula, and I have promised to save them.”