That night, I had found myself getting very little sleep. I had a lot of things to worry about. Baba had left me with a lot to think about. There was also my father who had passed away, putting increased pressure on me. Then, there was Mother who had been taken by that other woman. Adding the conspiracy that might have involved my birth, the Celestials, and the Faeries… left me feeling extremely complicated.

  I had become so lost in thought that I was a bit surprised when I felt my cover being raised and someone slipping inside. I began to wonder if it was Ba, Saria, or perhaps even Aeryn. When they wrapped their arms around and hugged me from behind, I realized it wasn’t any of them.

  “Lucille.”

  “Shhh…” She whispered. “Just let me hold you tonight. Just go to sleep.”

  I opened my mouth to say more, but then I closed it again. Lucille had lost a father, and unlike me, she was old enough to remember it. Lucille was much different than my other sisters. They were bitter and hateful toward me, my father, and perhaps even my mother. They bmed their fates on them, and their feelings toward the human realm even bordered on treason. In Lucy’s case, it was treason, as she had attempted to use beastkin to mount an invasion which I had only barely managed to toss back.

  Lucille didn’t resent the human realm. She had a love for me that she was trying to fight, and she also seemed to love her parents as well. It wasn’t just her father she had been mourning over, it was her mother as well. I had started to reason out why Lucille’s behavior with mom had been so different. The other girls presumed to just ignore her like she wasn’t even there, but Lucille seemed to look at her with a nostalgic lens. When she looked at her, she saw the woman she had wanted her real mom to be, the one who hadn’t given in to her hatred and loathing.

  “What is your pn now, David?” She asked after a few moments of silence.

  “I thought you wanted me to go to sleep?” I asked wryly.

  “I’m not able to sleep.” She responded sourly. “Just talk to me for a bit.”

  Was my big sister demanding that I spoil her? Her tone seemed to suggest she wasn’t happy, and she expected me to soothe her nerves. I had my problems to worry about, but after a moment, I let out a low, quiet breath and turned around so that I was facing her. She immediately blushed, pulling away slightly, although she still kept her legs wrapped around mine.

  “I haven’t changed anything,” I whispered to her. “There is nothing I can change.”

  “This is assuredly a trap. If you go any farther north, never mind the Faeries, the Celestials could attempt to use you.”

  “You’ve suspected this since the beginning. That’s why you tried to keep me from coming north.” I raised an eyebrow.

  She nodded. “Essentially.”

  “I’m not so convinced that the Celestials will turn on me now,” I expined. “I need to take over the human realm before they can justify coming out.”

  “You don’t know that for certain. They could use some other means. Once they have you, they might not wait. They may just kill you and then create a reason after.”

  “That’s a possibility,” I responded.

  “Then-”

  “There is another reason why I want to travel north,” I responded before she could come up with another argument. “My greatest concern right now is the faery queen.”

  She blinked. “Mother? What about her?”

  “I believe she might be an ally.”

  Lucille nearly sat up, a shocked expression on her face. “Wh-why would you say that?”

  “Whatever the pns the celestials gave, her actions seemed to run counter to them,” I theorized. “First off, if she wished to help them along, she could have created a bad mother for me. She could have created a woman who taught me great evil. Instead, she decided to give me a mother that showed me love. Given her feelings for me, it stands to reason that this was done to throw sand in the celestial’s pns.”

  “That… could be true…” She lied back down, an uncertain look on her face.

  “There is also this rather violent summoning. She had me travel through Hedgeman’s pass, a pce with a notoriously low rate of survival. Had I died while coming here, that would have destroyed their pns. I need to be alive for them to get their way, and it seemed like mother had hoped I died.”

  “That’s not…!” Lucille’s mouth shut suddenly. “I don’t believe that was her intent.”

  “What else could it be? I already grasped that she wanted to remove two issues in a single act. She was hoping Duheart and I would die. Unfortunately for her, we both made it out alive. Perhaps, she feared I’d flee, so she took mother to ensure that I came to her.”

  “That’s all the more reason that we should leave!” Lucille realized she had spoken too loudly and immediately lowered her voice with a blush. “If we sneak away, we can be lost in the forest. If we use Aster as a mount, we could cross quickly. Then, we can return to the human realm. You have taken command of the human forces, and with them forcefully holding Olivia, we have grounds to mount a conflict. Saria can surely get the elves to take our side, and as long as I give my word, uncle won’t doubt the truth of it.”

  “We are still missing rights to 1/3rd of the kingdom. Can you promise the dwarves will take our side? What about the beastkin? Plus, I do not know if my uncle will be as willing to relinquish the throne to me as you do. The man hated and reviled me. He bmed me for the decline of humanity, much like most humans.” I shook my head with a sigh. “My only choice is to make a plea to the faery queen and hope to get her backing. Even if the backing is only a hidden backing, it’d allow me to move more comfortably. As long as I can reason with her, I believe we can unite against a common foe.”

  “That’s a terrible pn!” She hissed, a bit of panic in her eyes. “You do not know Mother as I do. She no longer possesses reason! I-if she gets her hands on you… sh-she’ll…”

  She looked away tearfully. I admitted that the woman I had only glimpsed for a moment, and at that moment, she had caused a bit of fear in me. However, I didn’t believe she was insane as some others suggested. There was a method to her madness, and if appealed to her desires, I believed I’d be able to sway her opinion. Either way, I wasn’t willing to run. I had things I needed to learn in the faerie kingdom. If the Celestials were the biggest danger, then I needed to know more about them. I also wanted to know about the grand magus of my god. They were the old man who sent me here’s avatar.

  I had questioned Baba a bit more after that story, and she didn’t know what happened to that magus after they had given the secrets to the Celestials. Was the magus working alongside them or were they a prisoner? That was ultimately what I needed to know. It would be difficult to find the answer because only the Grand Magus of Bance, Baba, was well-known among humanity. The Celestials had all but hidden the existence of their magus. Even Baba only knew there were three because they were all created at the same time.

  I also tried to get more information about the third, but they had seemingly disappeared shortly after being created, and had never once shown up throughout what I supposed would be known as the common era. That was worrying for its reasons. I asked Baba what the methods of the third god were. The first was Bance, and the second was light. Of course, it’d only make sense if the third was darkness, but why would a god want to bring about the devils?

  The actual pn of the third had to do with restoring the old world. They wanted to undo the damage caused by the war and bring their brothers and sisters back to life. I felt like such a thing as undoing the past, and not just a few hours, but millennia of destruction, was a pipe dream. Whether they pnned to recreate the god race, or somehow change time, Baba didn’t know. I pondered the possibilities, but all of them were frightening. I could understand why the other two gods rejected such an optimistic proposition and instead worked on maintaining what already existed.

  I reached out and stroked Lucille’s hair. After a moment, she stopped sniffling and her eyes closed. I didn’t expin to her any of my thoughts. She hadn’t come under my bnket to discuss what we would be doing next. She had come because she had wanted comfort over the loss of her father. It wasn’t long before she finally fell asleep, and I didn’t stay away for too much longer.

  I awoke the next morning to the sound of rustling leaves. I looked around in confusion for just a moment before I was able to reorientate myself. The girls had already packed up and Lucille was already out of the bnket and dressed. They had once again left me as the st person to get up. I quickly jumped to my feet, barely having time to eat something, rinse my mouth out, and clean myself before Lord Duheart cried to begin the march back to the city.

  At that point, the girls were casually waiting and I had to hastily get dressed as I walked beside them. I quickly caught up with Aeryn and gred at her.

  “You know, it ought to be your job to make sure I am up and dressed on time,” I muttered.

  “I’m surprised you held back and didn’t sleep with her,” Aeryn responded without gncing in my direction.

  Her words caused me to gnce in Lucille’s direction. She had once again regained her stoic appearance. Any sign of the crying, vulnerable girl I had seen the st few days had once again returned to the icy and aloof woman who had first met me in the inn. For a moment, I thought that maybe I should have slept with her. It could have solidified our bond and confirmed that her presumed loyalty to me wasn’t manufactured. How could I do such a thing with my sister in the middle of an enemy’s camp though? Even I wasn’t that bold. That said, I didn’t know why Aeryn was being so icy with me now. The girls had seemingly accepted each other at times but then became jealous or petty at others. I gnced at Saria to see if she was different.

  “Hmph!” She gave a distinct sound of displeasure before making a point of looking away.

  The st one to pass was Ba. I gave her a questioning look. She stopped for a second and looked down.

  “It’s stiff,” She spoke up, and then turned and walked away.

  My eyes widened, and then I reached down and grabbed my crotch, only to realize that I didn’t have an erection at all. How my pants had not been cleaned after our trip through the pass and ended up being quite stiff with mud. It was usually Mother who made sure my clothing was repced and clean every night. I quickly brushed off some of the dry, caked-on mud and cleared my throat before following alongside everyone else.

  Aster didn’t cause any trouble as it walked along beside us, although it would occasionally give one of the soldiers who wondered too close a wary look. The dragon was a bit of a benefit as it seemed to encourage a rger circle around us, giving us some space.

  As we traveled north, the nd finally started to show signs of life again. Compared to the desert or the pteau, even this brown vegetation was welcome. The heat that was diminished around the pteau seemed to return, and I left the top few buttons of my shirt undone as I quickly started to sweat under the sun. I also made sure to find a new wide-brimmed hat to protect myself. I had lost my first hat at some point in the past. The faeries weren’t willing to just hand me it, so it required a rather costly trade.

  I hadn’t made it particurly far before the girls had started to look at me. With red faces under the scorching sun, it was clear that they had also wanted such a hat. Well, I was the most sensitive to the sun to all of them, and I had traded one of the items I had gained from the dragon’s ir, something far more priceless than a hat, just to get that faery to give it up. Perhaps, had the women been kinder to me this morning, then I might have worked to accommodate them as well. Instead, I took off the hat for a moment, fanned myself, and then put it back on before shooting them a winning smile.

  The women stopped looking at the hat, making sure their backs remained to me, no matter how hot it got, so I considered that rather successful. Besides, despite their red, sunburnt faces, the remainder of their sweaty bodies wasn’t bad to look at. Each woman had started to remove clothing in a desperate attempt to remain cool. Their chests all but hung out as they desperately used anything they could to fan themselves. Meanwhile, sweat dripped down their delicious bodies.

  Aster seemed to agree with me. At least, it was breathing hard and kept pushing its nose against Aeryn trying to nuzzle her. Aeryn continued to ignore it, a somewhat irritated expression on her face which was compounded with the heat. At first, it looked like he was having trouble keeping up the pace with his breathing, but I realized he wasn’t gasping for breath, but taking in the pheromones of the sweaty beautiful women, basking in their scent just as I expected from such a perverted dragon.

  “Why is it so hot?” Saria finally let out a cry.

  I wasn’t sure about the topography of this world. In my world, traveling north usually would have cooled things down, yet even though we were no longer in a desert, the temperature might have been arguably worse. I knew that this was only a small fraction of the world it had once been. However, whether we lived on a sphere or some other shape, or how the day cycle and revolutions worked was beyond me. At least, I hadn’t noticed the days being longer in this world, and there was only one sun and one moon.

  “It’s not so bad,” Lucille responded, seeming to be handling the heat the best out of anyway. “I’ve made this journey tons of times. You just need to get used to it.”

  That made sense, considering she had grown up in this environment. What left me feeling unhappy was that this was a world without air conditioning, so I could only expect the locations we visited to be mildly cooler, rather than the relief that I wanted. Perhaps I could work with Baba and come up with a means of using a spell to keep things cold. Now that I noticed, Baba didn’t seem to be all that affected by the heat either. She had merely gotten one of the Faeries to allow her on their cart. She was small, and once he realized she was the grand magus, he immediately let her ride.

  The rest of us, even Lucille, weren’t given horses. Saria had attempted to compin but was told that if she wanted a ride, she could ride the drake. While Aster didn’t pay Saria much mind compared to the rger-chested women, I didn’t think he’d compin if a woman wrapped her legs around his back. That said, none of the girls had attempted and so we all walked across the punishing ndscape.

  If I had to describe the environment we were currently walking through, it would have reminded me of a savanna. There was tall, brown grass and various spouts of cracked, dried earth. It was like a once lively and green pce had suddenly been cooked and dried, and we were walking through the remains. Along with cracks, there were plenty of rocks too where a foot could get snagged and someone could end up going face-first on the floor.

  Saria muttered about Lucille’s flippant answer, but there wasn’t anything that could be done about it. Thankfully, from the pteau, the journey to the capital was only supposed to take a day. That meant that we only had a few more hours before we reached the capital. It was only a pity I’d reach it dirty and exhausted. If I wanted to make an impression on the Faery Queen and convince her to work with me, this wasn’t a good way to start it.

  “I recognize that tree…” Lucille suddenly announced, and as the group looked at the tree which was closer to a dead stub than a tree, she blushed. “It’s a marker I use. The city should be over the next hill.”

  The girls let out sighs of relief, and even my feet felt thankful that we’d reach before the sun went down. If it was hot during the day, I’d hate to see what it was like during the night. That’s when the Faery guards suddenly moved, quickly surrounding us. Aster hissed at them, but I had already been expecting this. I held up a hand, and to my surprise, he calmed down a bit.

  Lord Duheart approached us from his horse, a slightly condescending sneer on his face. “The only way you’ll enter the city is in chains!”

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