Kingdom Come: Chapter 9

The gravity of the Volod’s words hung over us as we walked back to my rooms.

“So, what d’ya think?” Suri asked, as I unlocked the door. “About becoming landed gentry together?”

“The heart says yes. The brain says ‘woah dude, what the hell are you thinking?’” I shook my head and held the door for her. Suri strode in, while I hung my pack and weapon by the door. “Mind you, I figured we were going to be offered something like this. The Unto Death quest mentions ‘Build Points’. I’m guessing we invest those into a castle or land, or something.”

“What’s got your knickers in a twist?”

“This boy doesn’t wear knickers. Commando all the way.”

“Stop being a shit and answer the bloody question.” She sat on the edge of the bed as I kicked my boots off and unequipped my armor.

I turned to face her. Suri really was gorgeous, the kind of beauty that only existed in fantasy. I sometimes found myself wondering what she’d looked like IRL. Had she been Chinese, one of the settlers who’d colonized Australia after the First Total War? Or had she looked like how she did now? She could even have been one of those Pacific Alliance supersoldiers, the Nephilim. I’d fought only one of those during my time as a conscript. It had been the most terrifying ten seconds of my life.

“Come on, then. Spit it out.” She crossed her legs. The dress slid over her dark skin in interesting ways, and I felt my pulse jump.

“Well… We’ve only known each other for a couple of weeks,” I said haltingly. “And we’re looking at taking on a lot of responsibility together. I’m not afraid of commitment, but...”

“Yeah you are,” she replied.

Welp, she called it. I winced. “Okay, yes. I’m afraid. I mean, even just the responsibility of owning a house, let alone a whole castle… Do you know how few people my age even rent their own apartments now? I couch surfed my whole life.”

She shrugged. “I’m afraid, too. But there’s a difference between you and me when it comes to taking on a landed title. If I die, even once, I end up back in Al-Asad. What if those Architects are back? Trapped in a prison, with nothing to do except torture the other inmates? If I respawn in that fuckin’ place, I’ll go nuts within a week.”

“Then you should stay here,” I said. “The game system doesn’t know that you can’t set a respawn point, and we’ve been given a quest where we can expect to die at least once. Probably more than once. I’ll go and you can join us when we retake the castle.”

Suri dropped her head with a sigh. “I can’t. For one thing, I’m not chickenshit enough to skip a quest just because of the danger. For another, the quest could switch up and exclude me from the reward if I don’t go, and then nothing changes. Andrik promised me a title and land in return for catching Kanzo. Once we threw in with Ignas, nothin’ ever came of it.”

Yikes. Now I felt guilty. I’d talked Suri into switching sides on The Slayer of Taltos questline, and this was the first time she’d bought it up. “I’m sure he can give you a place. Have you asked him? Ignas, that is.”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Nothin’ he can do. I tried buying a house with the gold we got after the coronation. The guy fuckin’ vanished.”

“As in, he wouldn’t stick around to make the sale?”

She shook her head. “No, as in, he literally vanished. He was sitting across the table from me, and then ‘poof’. Vanished. My last chance at getting a new respawn point is this quest, or one just like it. One where I’m kind of grandfathered in by another… uhh… ‘player’.”

“Yeah. If I take the title, I can name you Voivodzina or Castellana.” Frowning, I joined her and sat down. I offered an arm, motioning as if I would embrace her. “I just need some time to process it, okay?”

“Sure. I’m sorry… I wasn’t trying to pressure you.” She gave me a wan smile and leaned in until her head rested against my shoulder. “Or, I dunno. Maybe I was. I’m pretty desperate.”

“It’s okay. I’m already committed to this shit for other reasons. It’s just nerve-wracking to think about how much work we’ll have to do.”

Suri nodded, and for a short time, we were comfortably silent. When she spoke next, she sounded almost shy. “You know, you’re the only man who’s ever done that.”

I cocked my head. “Done what?” 

“You never touch me without asking first,” she replied.

I shrugged. “You haven’t told me much about what went down at Al-Asad, but it seems like a lot of people just thought they could lay hands on you whenever they wanted.”

“Yeah.” She closed her eyes again. “They did. I wasn’t complaining or anything... actually...”

She trailed off, and then chuckled to herself.

“What?” I asked.

“It makes me feel safe.” She rolled her head to look up at me. “I’ve never felt safe with a man before.”

Unsure of how to reply, I pressed my lips to her forehead - a gentle, chaste kiss. She shuddered, some of the tension leaving her body. 

“Well, you know... I care about you.” I held her close, gazing at the fire. Someone had been in here and had relit it, and the flamelight danced over everything in brilliant, almost hallucinogenic color. “I’m pretty sure I love you.”

“Pretty sure?” She teased, reaching up to toy with the collar of my shirt. “No, don’t answer that... I’m just playing around. I know it’s too soon to say.”

“We’ll know by the time we wrap up Myszno.” I yawned. Then, I noticed that my HUD was warning me: The Fatigue penalty was back. I’d only slept off the Exhaustion debuff. “I don’t know about you, but I’m beat. How about we hit the hay? You know, before Karalti gets back and starts screaming at the window?”

“How about you unequip your clothes and let me rub your back until you fall asleep?” A wicked light danced in Suri’s eyes. 

“Just my back?” I stuck my lip out. “What about Front-Hector?”

Suri laughed, a sound like warm honey. “Depends. Is it an order or a request?” 

“That depends entirely on what turns you on more.”

***

We spent a pleasant night together, though we were too tired to actually fool around much. True to her word, Suri massaged my back until I passed out into a deep velvet sleep. I was as relaxed as I’d ever been… and maybe that was why tonight, of all nights, I dreamed of the War. 

It was the Crescent Front, 20XX. My first tour. My Regiment, the 79th, loaded out into the dark jungle under the cover of tank and mortar fire. I was dwarfed to either side by mechanized heavy cavalry. The heat of the Indonesian jungle clung to my skin like clammy fingers, pulling at my limbs as I ran. The weight of the pack on my back and the rifle in my hands dragged me down with every squishy, muddy step. At any moment, it felt like I’d trip and be trampled into the muck of the battlefield… the marsh where I expected to die.

The ground rolled and shuddered under the impact of Pacific Alliance artillery. Glowing Praxis shields kept most of them from hitting us as we stumbled out of choppers and carriers and zig-zagged toward the rainforest. I couldn’t see or hear much of anything over the rotors, the explosions, the smoke. My helmet was supposed to help me target hostiles in the dark, but the HUD was on the fritz, screwed up by the Praxis shields and the waves of EMP blasts trying to take them out. Our side, their side… I didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. There was nothing except the terrible heat, the explosions, the pain in my head, and the awful, gnawing fear, like a worm eating through my guts.

Then I saw my first live enemy: A Taipan Heavy, Australian powered armor. It was slogging through the mud and smoke toward us, its camouflage on the fritz. The guy inside had to be as scared as I was. It leveled its barrels at the scattering assault force, just before an RPG took it out. The explosion lit up the marsh, revealing the others running in from behind it. They all had glowing HP rings behind their heads, like in a game… and that’s when I realized I was dreaming.

The surge of adrenaline woke me up – gasping, sweating, clutching the furs that lined my bed. My bones were still shaking with mortar fire as my bedroom came back into focus. Quest alerts and other notifications flashed in the corners of my eyes. My pulse pounded in my ears, my stomach gnawed at me, and my jaws ached. And the roar hadn’t gone away.

[Good morning, Hector Park!]

[You have 1 unread quest update]

[You have one unread message from Rin Lu]

[Warning! You are Severely Dehydrated! -15% to all Stats and Skills!]

[You are hungry! HP will no longer regenerate!]

[Are you experiencing emotional or psychological stress? Help is available. Would you like to chat to an assistant?]

[World Alert: Black Moon Festival (Vlachia)]

“Urrgh. Fuck your assistant.” I dizzily swatted the holographic notifications away, flailed my way out of my bed, and tumbled onto the cold floor. 

“Hector!” Karalti’s telepathic voice lanced through my hangover like a needle through my left eye. “Are you okay!?”

I rolled over, squinting at the windows to see a large blob of darkness staring back at me through the thick glass.

“I’m okay, I’m okay. Bad dream, nothing to it.” I stumbled up, groaning, and nearly put my hand down on Suri’s face. “Fuck. What time is it? How’d you go?”

“I caught one! I caught a goat!” Karalti bobbed her head. Now that she was Level 8, it was larger than the window. She had to line up one eye to look inside. “But it wasn’t big enough, and because we have to go to the king’s thing today... I was thinking I’d-”

“You want to poach off his herd one more time.” 

“Yeah!” There was a ‘whomph’ of wind as she flicked her wings. “Wanna come?”

My stomach rumbled and cramped. I was stupid thirsty, and couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a proper meal or something to drink other than slivovitz. I checked the clock: it was 5:30am, well before we were due at the Parade Ground. “Sure. I need something to eat, too. Mind if we stop by the Grand Hall first?”

“Okay!” Karalti lifted her head, and the room shuddered a little as she hopped up onto the balcony wall.

Suri had her own alarm set, so I left her to sleep. A frigid blast of cold mountain air hit me as I pushed the doors out onto the balcony, where Karalti paced the parapet like a tightrope walker. Our suite had a south-western view toward the distant ocean cliffs, where the moon hung on the horizon like a black void obscuring the stars. The solar corona was still visible, a thin blue-white line flickering around the outside of it. I was about to equip Karalti’s gear when something caught my eye. At first, I thought it was a trick of the light. Then I squinted and zoomed in my vision.

“What’s the matter?” Karalti stopped a short distance away, head reared. She sniffed and snorted, pointing her muzzle in the same direction as my head.

“That.” I pointed at the dark, glimmering blob hanging in front of the moon. It was bright, but not bright enough to be a star, and it wasn’t moving across the sky. It was just hanging out and pulsating in front of Erruku like a tiny mirage. Or a satellite.

Karalti cocked her head from side to side. “Uh... huh? I don’t know what that is.”

“When the Dark Star rises, journey to the village of Myszno,” I muttered. “Could that be what Matir meant?”

“Maybe.” Karalti’s nictating membranes flickered over her eyes. She shook herself out and snorted.

“Huh.” I shrugged. “Ready to go, Tidbit?”

“Okay.”

I equipped the gear - now I was over Dragon Riding 10, I didn’t have to equip Karalti’s saddle and saddlebags manually - and gave her the hand signal to extend her wing. She did, still balanced on the wall, but as I began to climb, she turned her head on her neck and sniffed me. And then she growled.

“What?” I paused, hand reaching up to grasp the side of the saddle.

“YOU!” She flattened her crest, rearing her neck like a cobra. Her eyes narrowed to bright, dangerous slits. “You smell like HER! Like her BITS!”

I exhaled heavily into the frosty air. “Karalti. We’ve talked about this.” 

“YOU talked about this.” Her jaws parted, bearing top and bottom rows of razor sharp, back-curved teeth. As the rumbling grew to a hiss, I admit I began to feel a little nervous. Karalti wasn’t my little Tidbit anymore. The last time she’d had a jealous fit over Suri, she’d been a bit bigger than a car. Now, she was longer than a bus.

“No. We - as in, you and I - have talked about this at least ten times. I’m human. You’re a dragon. Suri and I are the same species. You’re also basically my kid, which makes this super weird.” Exasperated, I reached up again, only to slide down as the dragon irritably flicked me off her wing. 

“Did she touch you?” Karalti pivoted on the narrow wall and snaked her head toward me as I backed up. Her breath smelled strongly of sharp, caustic chemicals, and it was hot enough to bring a sheen of sweat to my face. “Did she... ride you?”

“Karalti.” I regarded her flatly. “I am not playing this game again.”

I sensed her willpower falter in the face of my resolve, but before I could follow up on it, the door to the balcony swung open and Suri peered out. And she was wearing one of my shirts.

“You two-legs whore!” Karalti swung her head and spat a gout of white fire onto the flagstones at Suri’s feet, forcing her to leap back to avoid being burned and blocking the door at the same time. 

I put my hands up, but the dragon didn’t even seem to see me. She bellowed a furious, gurgling roar, then sprung from the balcony like a swallow. The dragon was obscenely agile for a creature her size. As I ducked and stumbled away from the ferocious, cutting wind, she snatched me by the pack and Spear and dragged me off into the air. The balcony lurched away with terrifying speed as she strove for altitude. It was already a sheer eight-hundred foot drop to the ground. Now we were at nine hundred, a thousand... and then she dived. 

Fortunately for me, my bag had stomach and chest straps, like a hiking pack. That was all that prevented me from partaking in my first parachute-free skydiving experience. “Karalti! This is fucking ridiculous!”

“No! No two-legs, no-wing whores!” Karalti ranted telepathically, roaring petulantly on every other wingbeat. She rolled to one side, skimming the mountain so close that she almost bounced me off the rocks. “What does SHE do that I can’t!? I carry you everywhere on your stupid quests! I wear a stupid saddle, but what does she do to deserve sleeping inside!? She can’t even fly!”

“She’s not fifty fucking feet long!” I snarled back. “And if you weren’t, then of course I’d sleep with you!”

She swooped back into the open sky and did an Alieron Roll. My guts lifted with the brief zero-g before I crashed back down into the straps of my pack and nearly slithered out of them.

[Warning! Backpack durability is at 45%!]

“Say Suri is a stupid rider stealing bitch!” Karalti let out a piercing cry of challenge.

I gripped the straps of my pack to anchor myself in the harness and set my jaw. “No. Fuck you.”

“Say it!” The dragon barrel-rolled this time.

“No. And you’re going to put me the fuck down.”

“Say it! Say it say say it!”

Karalti’s immature force of will slammed into my own, but I wasn’t budging. I pushed right back. “No. We’re headed to a warzone. There are people counting on us to lead them. It’s time you started acting like a queen instead of a spoiled princess.”

“You don’t know how I feel! Or why!”

“Maybe not, but I know I raised you better than this.” I ground my teeth as she pulled a near-vertical dive. It was like a rollercoaster, but without the fun. “And I know your mother would be so fucking disappointed right now.”

The dragon cried out, the same desolate barking sound she’d made at her brothers. She was breathing hard as she leveled her flight path, slowing to a fast glide. As the threat of imminent death receded, I felt waves of empathic input crash against my nerves. Karalti was still hungry. Her joints ached with growing pains. She was humiliated that a full day and night of hunting wild game had only resulted in one measly goat. She was horny, but confused by what it meant... she was grief-stricken for her clutchmates, and the mother she’d never known. All of it was feeding a maelstrom of childish temper that had nothing to do with me or Suri.

“You don’t know what she thinks! What are you? A mind reader?” she spat. 

“I know she’s endured shit that would break either one of us,” I snapped back. “And she did it with grace, and backbone, and composure. Not by tantruming.”

I felt a shudder ripple through Karalti’s body. I also felt the straps keeping me alive start to give way.

“Karalti, you know I love you more than anything on this earth, and that’s why I’m telling you to harden the fuck up.” My legs swung as we passed into view of the parade ground. A fleet of airships were there already, illuminated by spotlights on the ground.

“You don’t tell me what to do!”

“Yes, I do. This is a zero-negotiation scenario.”

“I’ll... I’ll drop you!”

“Go right the fuck ahead. I’ll respawn, board one of those ships, and then chew your ass out from here all the way to Myszno.”

Karalti bellowed in frustration, but she was getting tired and her will began to bend under mine. We broke out over the thick walls ringing the parade ground, and she pulled her wings into a shallow dive. 

We were still early, but ranks of soldiers were streaming in through the gates, and even the disciplined men stopped to stare as we streaked past. My stomach sank when I saw Ignas waiting at the front. His Majesty was mounted on his fine black hookwing and dressed in full battle regalia, ready to send off the ships. 

Naturally, that was when the Item Durability reached zero, and the straps of my pack finally gave way.