"Very good." Gaia smiled with Calypsa's mouth, the nymph's perfect teeth flashing with the 'crones' toothless gums. "So now you know it is me you must pay. I saved your mate. Life always comes with a cost."

"What do you want," Mason asked, feeling more miserable by the second.

Gaia-Calypsa shook her head.

"Look at you. So...grey. Is your young existence so terrible already? I can't imagine what you'll be like in a thousand years."

"I'd be happier if you ‘gods’ stopped treating me like a chew toy."

Gaia smiled, but it wasn't very friendly.

"You have forsaken me, ranger. Though I can’t say I’m surprised. Cerebus is most persuasive…with men like you."

"I didn't..." Mason sighed. For some reason with ‘the crone’, or apparently Gaia, he always felt honesty was the wisest choice. "With your favor I felt...I was losing myself."

"That's because most of your 'self' is an illusion, young buck. I was trying to teach you, but nevermind. I have always liked strong males."

Calypsa's image flickered again with the tanned, dark-haired beauty, eyes shimmering with power.

"You haven’t displeased me. Far from it. But today I am here to discuss a different choice."

"I'm busy," Mason said, already losing his patience. "Just tell me what you want."

Gaia laughed. "Ah, the arrogance. It’s almost refreshing. I want what I always want. The most valuable thing you have."

Mason stared, fighting the urge to close his hands into fists. So it was to be fairy tale awful after all.

"I won’t give you anyone I love."

"They aren’t yours to give." Gaia stepped towards him, one foot in front of the other as she flickered between Calypsa and the other young woman. "I am not some monster who demands flesh, ranger. I want what you know is most precious to you. You already told me as much. I want your time."

Mason was surprised, and maybe a little less concerned. But not much.

"I don’t have time to give."

"There you’re mistaken." Gaia smiled. "There are consequences to giving it, but that is different than having none. You are immortal now. You have so much time to give."

"When the people I love are safe," Mason said, noticing Thea coming towards him, too. "When the game is over, or not so…desperate. I can give you time, but not now. I’ll give you more, even, if you wait."

Gaia laughed again. Her image was flickering more quickly now, as was the grove itself, Mason realized. He blinked and felt drunk, his eyes unable to focus.

“Life does not wait until you find it convenient. Life is urgent. Unstoppable. You will pay what you owe."

"No." Mason growled, trying to clear his eyes. "I’ll fight you."

"Mmm." Gaia almost purred. "Such talk is for Cerebus. You cannot fight me, Mason. You can love me. You can hate me. But you cannot fight. Sleep." The word washed over Mason like a warm bath. "Sleep and join my daughters in the fey, and pay the life-price."

"No."

Mason's powers and titles flickered before his eyes. Player killer first, the text scrambling and going red. Apex Predator appeared again and again, stamped all over Mason's vision as it raced through a dozen affinities. Then it actually tried to remove something from Gaia and blurred out entirely.

"My, my, you have grown strong," Gaia said, somehow standing directly in front of him now.

Tendrils formed around him, smoky but solid, sliding over his skin like snakes.

"Don’t you see, young buck?" Gaia whispered in his ear. "I don’t wish to stop you. I wish to help you. To make you strong. So strong not even I can corrupt or consume you. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, son of Adam. To make life strong enough."

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"For what?" Mason breathed, trying to stay conscious, to stay upright. Gaia's voice dripped down his spine.

"To deserve me."

Mason shuddered and lost the battle against his eyelids. He felt the world turn as he fell, but instead of the ground he splashed into warm water and floated, floated, far away.

* * *

"Wake, druid," whispered a voice in his ear.

Mason stretched and yawned, feeling safe, at peace. He heard feminine voices laughing not far away, a gentle breeze, the endless sounds of life in a forest.

Then he remembered Gaia and the grove and opened his eyes, sitting up to find Thea sitting beside him in a green dress. The world came in and out of view, light and shadow intertwined.

"We're in the fey," he said, surprisingly calm, considering.

"Yes." Thea smiled. "Though we call them the godpaths. Do you know why?" Mason shook his head, still looking out at the strange surroundings. "There are many worlds, druid, not only yours. The godpaths connect them all."

"I could travel to other worlds from here?" he said, his voice slightly strange and deep as it always was in the ‘wyrd’.

"In theory." Thea lifted something like a dandelion and blew away the seeds. "If you knew how. And if the journey would not rend you limb from limb."

Mason sighed, trying to keep his eyes off Thea's cleavage, her long, bare legs wrapped over his knee.

"Why am I here?"

The nymph shrugged. "Because my mistress commands it." When he stared at her long enough she grinned. "To learn. To be at peace. To pay what you owe."

"How do I do that? And are we talking days? Weeks? What?"

Thea smiled and laughed, and Mason tried not to stare at her open mouth.

"How much is the life of your lover worth?"

Mason already disliked this game.

"She may have lived without your help. She’s strong."

"Perhaps," Thea agreed. "Gaia will weigh all. Will it be so terrible, druid? To spend time here with us?"

"No. But I have things to do, Thea. And who is 'us'?"

Thea smiled again and trailed her fingers over Mason's hand.

"I will take you to holy...Eve, soon enough. She will help teach you."

Mason held back the sigh as Thea leaned in and kissed his temple, his brow.

"I’ll be in here." He gestured to his head. "I'll be afraid for them. I'll be distracted. I won't learn anything."

"Afraid for them?" Thea pulled back and frowned. "They're in no danger. And they won't miss you, druid."

"Of course they will, and are," he said, annoyed. "What do you think this world is for us humans? It's filled with death and danger. We don't all live hidden in a great tree."

Thea shook her head. "Gaia has not demanded their time. Here in the ‘fey’, in Gaia's grove, we are removed from your world and all its...trappings. You will pay what you owe, and return to them just as they are. No 'time' will have passed for them. If that is what concerns you."

Mason blinked, understanding but not quite accepting what he'd heard.

"You mean…no time will pass on earth? I'll go back just when I left? Even if I’m here for...what, weeks?"

Thea nodded and smiled, her hands moving up his arms before she shrugged.

"If you must stay longer, you might lose an hour. Perhaps two. They can go without you a little while, surely?"

Mason started to accept what she was saying was true, though his never-ending paranoia flared. He didn’t see what the hell he could currently do about it anyway, so he put a hand on either side of Thea's hips, and set her on his lap.

He kissed her thick lips as he groped her ass, slowly pulling up the dress. She laughed as a strap slipped from her shoulder.

"There is the young druid I remember. Oh I have missed your touch. And your seed."

Mason had his pants down in moments, then Thea's dress up around her waist. She wasn't wearing any underwear, of course. He pulled down both straps, bunching the leafy fabric at her stomach as he took turns with both nipples, gripping her soft breasts as he sucked and went hard as a rock.

She kissed him passionately as she raised herself up and slid down his shaft, making little moans and stopping as she took him inch by inch.

"I must savor it," she whispered. "It's been so long."

"Don't worry," Mason said, moving her down until he was touching her warmth and wetness. "We'll make up for lost time."

She moaned and pressed against him, sliding down his shaft as she started to ride with expert movement in her hips. Mason blocked out every invasive thought and just lost himself in Thea's softness, her lips on his neck and face, her sex consuming him from tip to base.

When he finally opened his eyes he saw half a dozen women watching from the trees, and jerked slightly in surprise. Thea turned enough to look, though didn't stop riding.

"Don't mind them," she said, voice getting slightly pinched as she licked her lips. "All the daughters of Gaia might want you. But first you are mine."

Mason had no idea what to say to that. He just let the beautiful, Greek looking nymph enjoy herself, her speed getting faster and faster as she moaned. Her large, soft breasts bounced and slid against him, her long brown hair all over his neck and face. Finally she tightened around his shaft, shaking and wrapping her arms around him as she held her breath.

He didn't bother holding back. He lay back and pumped into her as she spread her legs wider and moaned. Her soaked pussy kept squeezing, so hot and tight and amazing Mason didn't need long to feel the pressure build. He slapped and gripped her ass with both hands as he came, giving her exactly what she wanted in deep, steady thrusts as he sprayed.

Thea shook and screamed with every release, and Mason couldn't help but grin. He expected whatever effect the 'improved' Blessing of Gaia had on human women was even more pronounced with the nymphs. When he was finished he closed his eyes and relaxed, no intention of moving anywhere.

He couldn't help but grin as he felt Thea's hands and lips all over him.

"Oh, druid," she whispered. "What life we will make together. Already I feel it deep in my womb. It's so...I can't..."

Finally she collapsed, Mason's cock still buried inside her, pretty much instantly ready for another round. But he was happy to relax and stare up at the shifting canopy, hearing the other nymphs coming closer to look. And who knew what else.

OK, he decided. Maybe a few week vacation before 'phase 3' really started wouldn't be so bad.

Apparently he needed to bargain with nymphs more often.