Marla agreed to spit us out on the north-western border of her forest, where we would be closest to the Lake of Balurk. It was still a long enough hike that I considered disconnecting and picking things up the next morning, but Claire was adamant that we needed to push on.

She spent the first hour of the journey with her neck craned ninety degrees, looking at the stars.

“Never been outside at night before?”

“Shut up. Of course I have. I’m just not used to seeing stars like this.”

I looked up. “Like what?”

“That massive one is literally flashing four different colours and it has arms.”

I found the culprit. It was like a multicolour, fifty-thousand-degree strobe light. “Okay, I’ll give you that. It is pretty weird. Do you think it’s waving to someone?”

“I think it’s just flexing the disco ball in its belly. And that one, look! It’s a triangle. Why is it a triangle?”

“I have no answer for that question. Buy yourself a Yurt and search the forums for a B&B astronomer.”

Her shoulders slumped a little. “Nah. That wouldn’t work.”

We went back to walking in silence. I checked the map every so often to make sure we were going to the lake.

“Do you think Marla’s Mom will be as spooky as she was? Her face wouldn’t have been that weird if not for the six eyes, but her body…It was like she was trying to become a ghost.”

“I think if there’s someone in this nation that Marla will listen to and take orders from, she’s gotta be absolutely fearsome. You got your garlic?”

My hand dove into my pocket and I felt the several cloves of garlic that Marla had distributed to us. We had to have them on our person at all times when we reached the Lake, and when we were especially close, we were to take a couple out and bruise them in our palms.

It was a tactic to let the scent out. Just in case Marla’s Mom had a blocked nose or something and needed a little help identifying that she shouldn’t enjoy eating us.

There was a lot of emphasis on the word ‘shouldn’t’ when Marla was giving us the details. I didn’t like how uncertain she’d looked, either.

If her Mom can do that eye-thing, but worse, I’ll just abandon the whole quest.

“My garlic is safe and sound. And I’m not sharing if you lose yours.”

“I’d never. You know me.”

“Do I?”

She turned to me and raised an eyebrow. “You know enough. I even told you my timezone.”

“Ahhh yes. Your timezone. That thing you happen to have in common with probably hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of other people. Such a great identifying factor.”

She rolled her eyes. “I meeaaan that I broke the rules for you. It’s basic gaming stuff, right? Never tell anyone your real name or where you live.”

“Wait, Claire isn’t your real name?”

“Of course it is. The system doesn’t give you a choice. I’m talking about games outside of B&B for that one.”

I gave her a suspicious look as we ducked under a particularly low tree canopy. I had no idea how horses and carts made it through.

“Hmm. I think differently about it for games like B&B. Since it’s full immersion, you know what I look like, you know how I speak and act, you can kind of tell if I’m intelligent or not. I don’t want to know your opinion on that last one, but the point stands.”

She chuckled. “I think the fact that you still have your starter shield and javelin, as well as barely any armour says enough. But regardless of all that, maybe you’re just playing the long game, you know? Almost everyone in the world plays B&B — there’s bound to be a few creeps faking it until they make it.”

“What do you mean by ‘make it’?”

Even through the dim moonlight, I saw her blush. Her cheeks approached the colour of her hair.

“I dunno. Shut up. I’m trying to read my map here.”

I decided to check mine, too. It was lucky she shut me up, because we had walked well into the Lake of Balurk area without knowing it. The lake was only a couple hundred meters away, but its absolute stillness made it difficult to see. Only the few reflecting pinpoints of starlight gave it away.

“OH crap,” Claire started. “Bruise, bruise, bruise. Oh god I smell it already. And my hands are sticky.” She wiped her garlic-y hands on her armour while I mashed up a clove in my palms.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

We walked closer.

“See any demon ladies in pink? Maybe all the Stakes have their own little hidey-hole like Marla in the Hollow Forest. This one’s could be the Lake itself.”

We scanned the unobstructed nightscape. I could see all the way around the shore of the lake, but there was nothing more interesting than a few ripples where fish were sucking things off the surface of the lake.

“I think we’re gonna have to come back in the morning. Even über powerful demi-humans have to sleep, right?”

Claire didn’t share my scepticism. “I think the ‘über powerful’ part infers some kind of awareness when someone trespasses on their la—”

The lake erupted. A gargantuan creature burst from its depth, blotting out the sky and throwing a tidal wave over us. All I saw was a massive grey underbelly bearing down on me before Claire yanked my arm backwards.

“BACK BACK BACK! Ollie!”

She must’ve activated a [Dash], because I was zipped through the air to about ten metres away. My shoulder felt like it popped out of its socket.

The monster crashed down on the shore, laying still. The water level of the lake was a few meters lower at least, like a five-hundred-pound bodybuilder getting out of a kiddy-play-pool.

“What the hell is that, and should I stab it?”

“Wait, Ollie. Just give it a sec. I think—”

The monster’s jaws opened, revealing a cavernous mouth and a tongue that was multiple times thicker than my body. The tongue stretched out like a red carpet, and standing there on a runway was a three-eyed woman in a pink dress.

“Good evening,” she said.

Her earrings held two giant rubies, each like a blood-red eyeball. Bracelets lined her forearms, each bangle covered in other jewels. Her decorated top-half completely juxtaposed her body from the thighs down, where her skin was encrusted with barnacles and algae. Her feet were basically big mops of seaweed.

“Hello there,” I squeaked. “Lovely night for a swim.”

Claire nodded profusely, agreeing that it was indeed a spot of good weather.

“I smell garlic on you. Which of my brethren told you about that? I assume you have some purpose for annoying me with it.”

She’s still at least twenty meters away. I can’t even smell the garlic anymore.

“We’ve been speaking to your daughter, Marla,” chirped Claire. “She thought that what we have to tell you was quite important, so she gave us the garlic.”

Marla’s Mom placed one hand on her hip and tilted her head, sighing in exasperation. “That girl of mine. It’s okay, I’m more than had my fill recently. I won’t eat you unless you strip down and hop in the lake — I prefer my meat fresh and clean.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Claire wouldn’t do that even if it would cause the king to immediately denounce himself as monarch and double our reward for making it happen.

She glared at me.

“One thing Marla didn’t tell us was your name. May I ask…”

“Tabitha. Pretty name for a pretty lady, don’t you think?”

I looked down at her mouldy legs, then decided to set my focus on her form-fitting pink dress. “Absolutely.”

“And what is it you wish to tell me? Make it snappy — I’m getting cold out here. In fact, come hop into Benjamin’s mouth.”

She waved us over. I was scared to defy her orders, and it didn’t seem like Benjamin was hungry either, so I obeyed.

It was very warm. Whale breath smells like someone is burping in your face twenty times a second.

Tabitha sat cross-legged on his tongue. We positioned ourselves opposite her and sat, ignoring the instant wetness.

“Where were we?” she asked.

“We’re supposed to tell you the thing we need to tell you.”

“Ah yes, spill the beans.”

It wasn’t the most noble phrase I would’ve picked, but I spilled. “It might sound stupid at first, but we want to make Lord Piliton the King of Asteroth. We may have told Marla that she would be allowed to leave the Hollow Forest if that were to happen.”

Tabitha raised her eyebrows. “That…would be a sight to see. So I assume she told you about the deal?”

“Not the specific details. Just that one exists.”

“Peculiar. Very peculiar.”

Claire frowned. “I thought you would be more interested in liberating your daughter. She doesn’t seem to be taking her exile too well.”

Tabitha made a chuff noise.

Benjamin burped. An actual one. It reeked.

“Are you insinuating that I don’t love my daughter?”

A sudden chill swept through me. I wasn’t sure if it was Tabitha’s doing, or just my blood freezing from realising how much Claire had messed up by saying that.

“No. I’m not saying that. But I know that I offered her a blueberry muffin to eat, and her eyes looked like she would burn the world for me. I know that a mother will love their child no matter what, so I just wondered. I guess I need to know what the contract was.”

Tabitha glared. I wanted to either high-five Claire for being so brave, or push her into the lake for being so stupid. It depended on what happened in the next few minutes.

“The contract was good for the king, because it kept a scourge from his lands. And I know you will despise me for saying this, but it was also good for me. As you may have noticed with that big, perceptive brain of yours, my daughter isn’t the most stable. I fear she was given too much power, and now…even though myself and a few of the others are stronger than her, it does not mean we can control her.”

This felt more like family therapy than it did a revolution. I missed just running around fighting monsters. It was simpler.

Dale didn’t seem to think so. Maybe I should cherish quests like this.

“Wait, so let me get this straight. The contract is between you and the king, and it says that you will contain Marla in the Hollow Forest to stop her damaging the country and its people. What do you get in return?”

The lady wagged her finger. “The contract is between four of the Stakes and the king. We needed a majority. And in return, the king gave us access to The Ancients.”

That rang a bell.

“He gave you access? Why did you need permission? Aren’t you and the other six Stakes the most powerful people in the kingdom?”

Tabitha sighed and raked her nails along Benjamin’s tongue. The whale seemed to enjoy it, which made me extremely uncomfortable.

“We are, but we are also supposed to be servants to the kingdom. It’s who we’ve always been, but things just got a bit convoluted in the past few hundred years. And regarding access; there are some magics that are old enough that even we can’t break in. Hence The Ancients.”

I tried to unpack that. They’d basically given up Marla’s freedom in exchange for being able to check out a couple dusty old statues in a temple somewhere.

“Have you had any luck with The Ancients?” Claire asked. “Or is Marla sitting in that forest for nothing?” She was getting snarky at this point. I wanted to remind her that, although Marla was a mistreated victim, she was also a mass murderer who ate young lovers in the midst of their picnics.

“As of yet, we have not. But we are sure to progress eventually.”

I debated between opening my mouth or keeping it very, very shut. I felt like I had inside important information, but revealing it to someone akin to a demon goddess felt like a poor use of my knowledge.

In the end, I decided that any progress was good progress.

“Have you tried…respecting them?”