Jorgen glanced down at my nakedness, and a flush crept up his neck.
“Sir, I can hold them off for now,” the hunter said.
“Alright,” I chuckled.
I got dressed in my armor as quickly as I could, and my heart thudded against my rib cage as I strapped on my breastplate. I was curious about what the lizjaga actually looked like because it was hard to piece together an image from what the stories said alone, and I knew my eyes would not deceive me.
Then I rushed out of the tent with my panabas in hand, even though I wasn’t expecting the steel to have an impact on the creatures since the rest of the monsters we’d faced were impervious to the metal.
I was met with total chaos as the strange creatures rushed through the streets of the village, and I slid to a halt as I stared around at the carnage. Villagers with their intestines ripped out littered the roads. The lizjaga snarled as they fought over the remains, and their jaguar jaws chomped on guts like they were a delicacy. The monsters had six lizard-like legs they used to scurry
across the sand at a rapid pace, but the nastiest part of their bodies were the barbed-tipped scorpion-like tails that curled from their spines. Their flesh was scaly and moist looking, and the torchlight reflected off their orange and black-speckled bodies as they flitted about the village.
There were lizjaga on the roofs of the dwellings and scurrying about the street, and everywhere I looked, my soldiers were ushering villagers to safety, but many had already died.
“Sir?” Jorgen’s voice cut through my thoughts, and I turned to see the hunter standing at my elbow.
“Yeah… I think I’m just going to reset,” I said, and I shook my head. “Fuck this shit.”
“Re… set?” Jorgen tilted his head to the side in confusion.
“Never mind,” I chuckled before I reset to my save point with a wave of my willpower.
Chime.
I was still drunk from the evening’s revelry, but instead of falling asleep, I pushed myself to my feet uneasily. The lizjaga were going to attack before dawn, and we had a lot of work to do to prepare for them. I was going to find a way to nullify the creepy assholes who
ate the villagers like candy, and then I could sleep off the last of my hangover.
“Girls,” I said as I shook Eva with one arm and Zenda with the other. “I’m really sorry, but you have to wake up now.”
“Whaa…?” Eva groaned and squeezed her pillow tighter.
“The lizjaga are going to attack the village tonight,” I explained in an urgent tone, and I shook them again to emphasize my words.
“No time for rest, we need to sober up right away.”
Well, mainly I needed to sober up, since Caelia and Eva hadn’t drunk any alcohol on account of their pregnancies, and Zenda had only sipped at one cup all night.
“Oh, no!” Caelia was the first to sit upright. “Tonight?”
“Before dawn,” I confirmed. “They’ll kill everyone if we don’t do something to stop them.”
“Are they as bad as the Vex?” Zenda asked as she rubbed the sleep away from her eyes.
“Bash, I don’t want to…” Eva whimpered and shook her head in rebellion. The pregnant woman was awfully fond of her sleep, but I knew she’d come around in a few moments.
“We have to, my love,” I said in the most soothing voice I could muster after the carnage I’d seen the lizjaga were capable of.
“People will die.”
“Okay…” Eva groaned again, but then she pushed herself off the pillows with a sigh. “What do we have to do?”
“To be completely honest,” I said, even though I knew in my final run through it wasn’t really going to matter what I said right now,
“I don’t know how to kill the lizjaga yet. There’s been a secret to each monster, so I want to trap one of them and experiment on how to kill it.”
“You… Don’t… Know?” Caelia’s confusion hit me in the heart.
“How can we help?” Zenda frowned.
“Get the villagers to barricade their houses,” I said. “Make sure all the late-night stragglers get to safety. Then help me build traps to capture the lizjaga.”
“We’ve got this,” Eva said in a surprisingly brave voice. “We will do whatever we can, Bash.”
“There’s no one else I’d rather figure it out with than you ladies,” I said.
We stumbled our way through getting dressed and doused our heads in cool water I created with a spell, and then we were ready to jump into action. We only had a few hours left until the lizjaga would attack, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible before then, so we had a lot of work ahead of us.
After most of the villagers were safely behind their doors with boarded-up windows, my men and I began to dig pit traps and place snares throughout the town, and a few of the villagers used their earth magic to help us erect walls that would funnel the lizjaga to strategic points.
Jorgen and Corvis positioned men at these key points of entry to the village, and the soldiers had instructions to herd the lizjaga into the traps rather than engage them directly. There was no point in letting men die pointlessly before I learned the secrets to killing them, after all.
The Kanuakians were eager to try their flame swords against the beasts, and the three fire mages dispersed themselves to separate entrances to the village. Every angle was guarded, and everyone was in fighting spirits.
There were only a few more hours ‘til dawn when I heard the first snarls, but I stood tensed and at the ready as I stared into the
shadows around the buildings. I was on the southern edge of town where Nameless was prone to hanging out with a hopeful look on his face, so I had a feeling that was where the lizjaga would come from.
“Steady,” I said to the soldiers around me, and I held out my arm to emphasize my words. “Wait until they come within the light of the torches.”
We didn’t have to wait very long.
The lizjaga crawled out of the shadows like dream creatures emerging from a nightmare, and a shiver ran down my spine at the sight of them. Their orange and black scales twinkled in the torchlight, and their six legs scurried like spiders across the sand.
“Hold,” I whispered as I felt my men stiffen.
We guarded a pit trap lined with spikes intended to catch the beasts in a prone shape, but there was always a chance the monster would die upon impact. The village earth mages had built the wooden spikes with magic, and I hoped that made them even stronger than natural timber. Their houses were made of the same material, and most of the furniture were made of woven vines like wicker. We’d had the mages use those same vine structures to mask the traps on the ground, and to create the snares and tripwires.
The lizjaga crept forward and tilted its head from side to side as it sniffed the air, but then it looked directly at us and lunged forward. We all leapt backward to avoid the jab of its long, segmented scorpion tail, but it suddenly tumbled into the pit trap and was impaled on the spikes inside.
The beast screeched as it squirmed, and blood sprayed out like a punctured water balloon, but it didn’t die. It kept twisting and writhing against the wooden spikes, but fortunately, it was held firmly in place.
All around the village, similar screeches echoed through the streets, and I was proud of my people for following my commands so perfectly. I didn’t hear any human cries of pain, but just as I had that thought, a yell of agony pierced the night air.
“Aaarrgh!”
I was immediately running toward the sound.
One of Jorgen’s men had fallen into a pit trap with the lizjaga, and the abomination was using its failing strength to eat the soldier alive.
“Son of a bitch,” I hissed. “And this was shaping up to be a good run through, too.”
Chime.
I warned the women again, and we all worked together to spread the instructions to every single person in the village. I told Jorgen to put the soldier who’d been dumb enough to get close to the trap in a different position, and I hoped that change would be enough to impact the outcome.
We all held our positions until the lizjaga crawled out of the shadows once more, and I waited with bated breath for the first creature to lunge forward. My heart thudded against my chest so loudly I swore the monster could hear it, but then it turned its head and made eye contact with me as if it could hear my very thoughts.
Nameless suddenly swooped out of the air and attacked the beast, and the little dragon just barely managed to evade the monster’s snapping jaws. The lizjaga scurried forward after the dragon, but then it fell over the edge of the trap and tumbled inside with a loud screech. The little dragon flapped his wings hard, and he floated above the trap just out of reach of the creature’s jaws and barbed tail.
“Thanks, dude,” I said to my pet dragon like it was a normal everyday thing.
Nameless squawked like he understood me before he returned to the sky overhead, and I certainly felt better knowing I had a dragon on my side.
Once I was sure there were no more lizjaga coming from that direction, and that the one I’d captured was secure, I went to check on the other stations surrounding the village.
On the southwest side of town, a herd of lizjaga were approaching, but one had already fallen into the pit. A net of vines crafted by the village mages kept the mixed-up creature from crawling back out, but there was no way we would be able to capture the entire group of them. I needed to have the advantage, but I didn’t want to sacrifice any lives in the process, so I sent the soldiers away and took over.
The God of Time would face a herd of terrifying monsters, but he would do it alone.
I stood between the small herd of the lizjaga and the village, and I gripped my panabas in one hand while I prepared a fire spell with the other. My fireball was one of my most powerful spells, but I had a repertoire of more I could try if it failed.
The lizjaga lunged for me in unison, and I sliced at one with my panabas as I shot a fireball into the jaguar-like face of another, but neither attack seemed to do any damage or slow down their approach.
I scrambled backward to gain some ground, and I summoned my vine companions to help slow down my opponents. The vines sprouted from the sand in tiny clumps to twirl around the lizjaga’s legs, and the beasts were held in place by the green tendrils. I knew they’d grown stronger over the last several months since I’d first learned the spell from a shaman who lived in the Southern Wild Lands, but I’d spent a lot of time bonding with the vines, so they wanted to please me.
I chopped off the head of one of the lizjaga in one fell swoop of my blade, but a new head quickly grew in its place. The Naga were also capable of such a feat, and I wondered if it had something to do with their reptile-like genetics.
“Well, that didn’t work,” I said in a thoughtful voice as I considered what attack to use next.
I went through the gauntlet of weapons and spells, and I certainly had fun in the process. I stabbed through the lizjaga’s guts with rods of pure rock with my earth magic, bathed them in flames,
but neither of those worked. Finally, I tried to douse the bastards with water bullets, and the shrieks the lizjaga released as the liquid touched their flesh sent a thrill of excitement through me.
“Water!” I shouted. “They’re weak to water!”
The news was quickly spread throughout the village, and my warriors all took the information to heart. They gathered all the water in town together and began to drench the lizjaga one by one. The lizard-jaguar-scorpion monstrosities writhed in pain beneath the liquid onslaught, and their flesh sizzled like they’d been splashed with acid. The stench of death permeated the air as the monsters took their final breaths, but the sun was rising when we killed the last one. We used the last barrel of water and poured it over the trapped lizjaga stuck in a pit, and the creature practically melted beneath the flow.
“Alright, everyone, that was some good work,” I announced as the soldiers and warriors began to gather around me with expectant expressions. “We learned a lot about how to kill the lizjaga, but we used all the water in the village in the process.”
“We can gather more,” a villager said. “But at least we are alive to do so.”
“Nah, I’m still going to reset and do it all myself.” I grinned.
“Thanks for all your help, though.”
Chime.
This time, I didn’t wake up the women, but I did instruct Jorgen and Corvis to get everyone off the streets. I wanted the village empty before the lizjaga arrived, and I sent Nameless off to find them and track their movements as they approached the village. Then I stood in the center of the village and waited for the monsters to come at me.
The God of Death by Water was on duty.
I yawned against my will as I waited for the abominations to show up from the southeastern edge of town, and luckily the streets were all well-lit so I could see the monsters as soon as they emerged from the shadows. There were more than twenty of the beasts altogether coming this way, but I knew how to kill them now, so I had the advantage.
Then I spotted the first one, and I immediately shot out a water bullet from the palm of my hand. The projectile tore into the beast’s flesh, and its skin sizzled as it burned through its orange and black scales.
“Take that, motherfucker,” I spat, but then three more emerged from the darkness.
They prowled forward cautiously, and their tails shivered as they sniffed at their injured comrade, but then they turned angry-looking eyes in my direction.
“Oh, shit,” I said, and I shot out three more water bullets into their faces.
This only served to anger them further, and they lunged at me with snarls of rage. Their six legs carried them surprisingly fast, and I had to scramble backward to gain ground, but I shot out water bullets with each step I took. A couple projectiles went wide and landed harmlessly in the sand, but then I had an idea.
What if I tried to blend the movements required to summon a flame sword with the word of power for the water bullets?
I waved my arms and grunted to summon my vines, and the tendrils held my opponents in place as I attempted my idea. The sword sputtered as it formed, and the second I tried to grip the hilt firmly, it fell apart, but with my enemies held prone by my vines, I had time to play around with it.
I tried a couple of times before the water sword manifested itself in my fist, but the second it had stabilized in my grip, I swung it at the head of the closest lizjaga. The head split from the creature’s spine, but this time, the wound sizzled with the water reaction, and a new head did not form.
“Whoop!” I shouted and pumped my free fist in the air victoriously, but then I set about killing the rest of the lizjaga.
More and more of the mixed-up creatures scurried out of the shadows at me, but I wasn’t worried about their numbers anymore. I knew how to kill them, and I was going to make sure every last one of them died by my hand.
I stood in a pile of their sizzling bodies by the time the sun rose on the eastern horizon.
The God of Death was a man of his word.
Eva yawned and stretched as she emerged from our tent, but then she did a double-take when she saw all the death surrounding me. Zenda and Caelia stumbled into her as they also emerged from our temporary dwelling, and all three women stared at me in shock as they processed the sight before them.
“What the hell happened last night?” Eva asked.
“Yes, do tell,” Zenda urged.
“I think the scene speaks for itself.” Caelia laughed. “Bash protected us from monsters. What else would you expect of him?”
“I’m about sick of monsters altogether,” I said with a rueful smirk. “I’m ready to find this sorcerer and be done with this nonsense. I mean, look at these monstrosities. They’re like a science experiment gone wrong.”
“They look like something from a nightmare,” Zenda agreed as she peered closely at the remains by my feet. “Mixed-up animals created by pure imagination.”
“Except they’re more than that,” Eva pointed out. “They were originally legends told to children. Myths. Stories.”
“So, what does that mean?” Caelia shook her head.
“The sorcerer is getting inspiration from folklore,” I said. “And using it to terrorize the people of the Kotar Desert. Villagers getting kidnapped and killed.”
“They’re coming after you, Bash.” Zenda frowned. “Each time, it seems like they’re hunting you. The sorcerer must know you’re onto him.”
“This isn’t the last monster we’ll have to deal with,” Caelia guessed. “He won’t stop until one of you is dead.”
“Perhaps.” I scratched my chin as I crossed the distance between us. “But it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to die, so it is up to him to fulfill that role. I’ll find this sorcerer, and I’ll figure out how he’s summoning these legendary monsters from folklore.”
“If anyone can do it…” Eva said.
“Bash can,” Zenda and Caelia finished in unison.
Them speaking in sync always reminded me of the threesomes we’d enjoyed together, and my body reacted to my thoughts despite the carnage laying a few feet away. My women had a powerful influence on me, and there was no denying my attraction to them.
“You’re all cute as fuck,” I said, and I pulled off my helmet before I gave them all a kiss on their foreheads. “How did you sleep, by the way?”
“I had nightmares,” Zenda confessed with a blush. “That our map would never get finished.”
“I tossed and turned,” Caelia admitted.
“I slept like a rock.” Eva laughed. “Of course, sleeping soundly is one of my many talents.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to cuddle you,” I said.
“You were obviously very busy,” Zenda pointed out and gestured around us.
“We understand,” Caelia added as she wrapped her arm around mine and rose up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to my cheek.
“Thank you for protecting us.”
“Always.” I grinned.
The villagers helped me pile the rest of the lizjaga bodies up on the edge of town, but I decided to hold onto the corpse in the best condition. It had a single bullet hole reaching its heart, but other than that, its flesh was unharmed. It was just as dead and as motionless as the others, but I couldn’t help glancing at the open-eyed staring creature’s body as I carried it away.
“What are you doing, Bash?” Eva asked.
“I’m taking the body back to Bastianville so the enchanter can figure out what magical properties it has,” I explained. “Maybe we can enchant armor with their impervious scales, or add speed to something. Who knows what magic lays inside this dead body?”
“We live in an incredible world,” Eva agreed. “And you’re the master of it.”
I resisted the urge to tell my wife I may not be the only master of this medieval fantasy world, but there was no easy way to explain I was summoned into this world, and that there was a chance I wasn’t the only person that had happened to.
Who had summoned the God of the Plague?
Could this mysterious sorcerer be tied to this new player?
Could they be one and the same?
I needed answers, but I would have to find them first.
Nameless would take us to the source of the Vex since he wanted to eat the octo-bat-monkeys so badly, but there was no guarantee the sorcerer would be there.
I didn’t have any other leads, though, so Vex hunting it was.
“Tell Sorena hello from Auntie Caels,” Caelia requested as she overheard our conversation.
“Yes, and give her kisses from Aunt Zen-Zen,” Zenda added.
“I’ll send all your love to the baby,” I promised. “Right after I drop the big scary monster off at the enchanter’s shop.”
“Hurry back,” Eva urged.
I smirked as I performed the movements required to activate the fast travel spell, and then I grabbed a hold of the lizjaga I’d chosen before I blipped back to Bastianville.
Fortunately, I arrived in front of Mahini in the middle of the street, and the monster’s blood wasn’t going to drip on my new carpets in the castle. Nor would Sorena accidentally spot the dead creature in her daddy’s arms.
“What’s this?” Mahini asked with a stoic expression. “New toy?”
“Lizjaga,” I said, and the desert goddess’ eyes widened in shock. “I take it you’ve heard of them.”
“I didn’t know they were real!” Mahini gasped and took a step backward. “You really killed it?”
“I killed like twenty of them,” I said. “I’m hoping Abrin can shed some light on their magical properties.”
“Their tail has venom you could harvest and use to poison arrow tips,” Mahini suggested immediately.
“Good idea,” I chuckled. Leave it to my warrior woman wife to suggest something so perfectly violent. “I’ll come visit for a bit before
I head back to the desert, but I really need to get this thing dropped off. I’m tired of smelling it.”
“Better to let Abrin’s shop stink of it for the next six months?”
Mahini cocked one hip to the side as she planted a hand on it.
“Maybe,” I laughed.
Then I made my way to the enchanter’s shop, but I noticed more than one townsperson gawking at me as I made my way through the town since I was carrying a grotesque mash-up monster, after all. I hefted the dead lizjaga into a more comfortable position in my grasp, and I avoided the eyes of the townspeople as I made my way to Abrin’s shop.
The enchanter’s shop was redolent in rich aromas, and I paused just inside the threshold to give my eyes time to adjust.
There were shelves covering every wall, and each shelf was lined with jars full of mysterious substances. There was no telling what all lay within the murky liquids contained within, so I merely scanned them over with a curious eye before I got Abrin’s attention. I’d learned every inch of his shop when we’d first met, but he’d changed a lot of things since then.
“Hey, old man,” I teased.
Abrin Shelton, Bastianville’s own enchanter, had a long gray beard hanging almost to his waist, but the top of his head was bald.
Then a circle of hair went from ear to ear, and the long silver strands hung to his shoulders. His nose was pointy, and his overall appearance had me envisioning gnomes. The robe draped across his frame exhibited his lean form, but his blue eyes were bright and full of life as he turned to smile at me.
“Great One!” Abrin gushed and hurried to cross the distance between us before he shook my hand vigorously. “What brings you back to town?”
“I brought goodies,” I said.
Then his gaze dropped to the corpse of the lizjaga I’d set on the floor at my feet, and his eyes widened in surprise. I smirked as I lifted the beast up, and Abrin moved to clear items off a nearby workbench. We worked together to lift the creature’s stiff form onto the table, and I dusted my hands off when we were done.
“What is it?” The enchanter adjusted his spectacles.
“It’s called a lizjaga,” I explained. “They are legends of the Kotar Desert, nightmare creatures meant to frighten children back to their beds, but as you can see, they’re far from mere legends.”
“I see,” Abrin mused as he analyzed the creature’s body. “What a fascinating specimen.”
“They’re kind of neat when they’re not trying to kill you,” I agreed. “So, what do you think about using pieces for enchantments? There has to be some kind of magical properties to these things.”
“Hmm…” Abrin scratched his beard, but he didn’t take his eyes off the Lizjaga. “I’d have to do some research. I’ve never encountered anything like this before, so the idea is intriguing, but I can’t make any guarantees until I can perform some experiments first.”
“I knew I came to the right person,” I said with a broad smile.
“Take all the time you need, but let me know if you come up with anything good.”
“I will keep you apprised of my experiments, of course,” Abrin agreed easily. “Thank you for this opportunity.”
“No problem,” I chuckled. “I thought of you right away.”
“It is always a pleasure to see the Great One of Legend,” Abrin replied with a dip of his head. “It is an honor to have your presence in my shop.”
“Thanks,” I said, and I waved goodbye before I headed back out to the streets of Bastianville.
I had lizjaga blood and guts smeared down my leg from carrying it through town, so I headed to my castle to change into clean clothes before I held Sorena.
But I was eager to see my baby daughter, and my pace was rapid.
The castle foyer was quiet when I entered, and I hung my cloak on the peg before I ventured further into my home in search of my family. I wasn’t sure if Mahini had come back home yet or not, but she hadn’t said what she was doing in town when I’d seen her, either, so there was a chance I’d only have to make the one stop before returning to the Kotar Desert. I found Elissa and Sorena in the sitting room, and the baby nursed at her mother’s breast with loud suckling noises.
“There’s my two beautiful girls,” I said as I leaned down to kiss the top of my wife and daughter’s foreheads.
Then I took a seat by her feet, and I lifted my wife’s toes up to be rubbed between my fingers. Elissa’s groan of delight was the only
encouragement I needed to keep going, and we sat in silence for a little while.
“How does the desert quest fare?” My wife arched an eyebrow as she moved Sorena into a more comfortable position. The baby fussed for a moment, but then she settled back in to nurse happily.
“Everything okay?”
“Everything is fine,” I assured the beautiful red-haired mother.
“I missed you, though, and I wish I could split myself into two people so I could stay here with you while also saving the people of the desert from themselves.”
“We miss you, too,” Elissa said, and tears sprang to her eyes.
She quickly swept them away and flashed me a brilliant smile, but her emotions moved me to my core. “But we understand the importance of your mission. How are Zenda, Caelia, and Eva doing?
I miss them, too.”
“Everyone is doing great,” I said. “We have more of the map completed, and we’re closing in on the sorcerer, but we still don’t know precisely where his lair is. I’ll find out soon and end his campaign of terror, but in the meantime, I’ve been busy keeping everyone safe from random monsters.”
“That has to be scary,” Elissa said. “Are you crushing lots of skulls in my honor?”
“I’ll save that honor for you once you’re up to adventuring again.” I laughed. “No one could ever do what my Skullcrusher does.”
“Good.” Elissa waggled her chin in a pleased manner. “I like being special.”
“You’re so cute,” I teased the fiery woman. “You’re more special than words can say.”
I continued to rub her feet and exchanged sweet nothings until Sorena was done nursing, but then Elissa handed the baby to me to burp her, so I held her against my shoulder as I patted her firmly, but gently, on the back. A loud belch ripped out of her right in my ear, and Elissa and I both cracked up laughing at the sound.
“I bet she feels better now,” I said, and I brought my daughter back down into a comfortable position so we could gaze into each other’s eyes.
Sorena’s sprout of red hair was already showing signs of curls, and her large gemstone eyes peered up at me with recognition and love in her gaze. It was an incredible sensation to hold her and feel
the love growing between us. It was like my bond with Nameless, but on a whole other level.
“She’s perfect,” I murmured to Elissa as we each gazed and cooed at our daughter. “I don’t believe you could have made a better baby.”
“You’re just saying that because she’s your first baby,” Elissa teased. “Watch Mahini’s baby have eyes that can slice a man open from the inside-out.”
“That would be genetic, wouldn’t it?” I laughed.
Then Celeste entered with a tea service for us, and the young woman smiled serenely as she set up the cups and saucers. She’d had a hard life growing up, but I was beyond glad to see she’d risen beyond that to have happiness glowing from her face. There was no one else I’d rather have as a personal staff for my wife and daughter, but soon we’d have more servants and staff members than I could keep track of. It would be up to my women to run the day-to-day operations of the castle, and I got to be the dad who blipped in every once in a while.
“How is Miss Celeste?” I asked in a jovial tone. “Faring well, I hope?”
“Oh, I’m doing wonderful, Sir Sebastian,” Celeste said, and she dropped into a curtsy the instant I spoke to her. “It is an honor to serve you and your family.”
“But outside of work,” I pressed. “You have everything you need?”
Celeste was an orphan, and I knew she didn’t have any other family helping to take care of her, so I’d made it my mission to make sure she wanted for nothing. Giving her a job was the least I could do, and I wanted to know if there were more possible ways to enrich the young woman’s life.
“Yes, sir,” Celeste said, but she rose from her curtsy to stand with her hands tucked behind her back. There was an air of nervousness about her, but that would go away with more time spent around me and my family. “I have a warm home, plenty of food, and lots of friends. With this job, I can take care of myself, and I’ve even started putting some gold back into my savings.”
“What about the other servants?” I asked. “Are they satisfied with their jobs, their homes, and their lives in general? Happy staff means a well-run household, after all.”
“Everyone often says this is the best job they’ve ever had,”
Celeste informed me with an enthusiastic smile. “Bastianville is a wonderful place to live, and the people here are all so nice and welcoming to us new people.”
“You’re family now,” I chuckled. “You’ll have to get used to the Bastianville folk being extra friendly. It’s just how they are here.”
“I’m starting to,” Celeste promised.
We drank our tea and munched on the cookies that were served with it, and Sorena fell into a peaceful slumber on my lap.
Celeste returned shortly after to take the baby to the nursery, and then Elissa and I strolled through the castle hand in hand as we discussed the future of our home. We decided we needed more portraits and paintings on the bare walls, and I promised to keep my eyes open for such things in the markets and bazaars. I wasn’t entirely certain I wanted a bunch of desert art in my home in Bastianville, but I certainly wanted at least one piece of art to commemorate my quests in the Kotar Desert.
Mahini returned home sweaty and breathless, but her stomach had grown considerably since the last time I’d seen her, so I made a point to rub it affectionately. The desert goddess leaned into my
touch as a soft smile lifted the corners of her thin lips, but then a worried look crossed her face.
“What is it?” I frowned.
“What if you’re not here when the baby comes?” Mahini bit her bottom lip. “I have no way to get word to you in the desert…”
“I’ll return every day if I have to,” I said. “I’m not missing the birth of my child, but you still have a month or so before you’re due, right?”
“It’s getting closer,” Mahini said. “I’m starting to train with my pain tolerance.”
“Are you sure that’s safe to do with the baby growing still?” I flicked a worried glance at her large belly.
“I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize the baby’s health, Bash,”
Mahini assured me in a calm voice. “Now, get back to your mission so you can come home for good!”
The desert goddess shoved me toward the foyer with firm hands, but I managed to grab a kiss from Elissa before I left the room. Mahini wrapped my cloak around my shoulders for me, and she pressed a firm kiss against my lips before she shoved me in the direction of the door.
“Every day,” I repeated to remind her of my promise. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Yes, Bash,” Mahini giggled. “Hurry home!”
I blipped back to the Kotar Desert by performing the motions that activated the Amulets of Zyne around my neck, and the next thing I knew, I was on the other side of the world.
Blip.
I arrived at the desert in the middle of a chaotic scene. Several men were pushing each other in the chest as they argued in heavily-accented dialects, and they looked like they were seconds away from killing each other.
“What the fuck?” I said as I materialized in their midst.
“Oh, thank Bash, you’re back,” Jorgen sighed in a grateful tone.
“What’s up?” I pressed as I jerked my chin toward the fighting tribesmen. Judging from the differences in the way they were dressed and the dialects coming out of their mouths, they were from different tribes.
“That’s the thing, Bash.” Jorgen shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“Alright,” I chuckled, and I pressed my way through the crowd to separate the fighting men as I shouted. “Enough!”
Silence fell as all eyes landed on me.
“God of Time has returned to the desert,” one man said in a heavy accent, but at least he was speaking the common tongue I’d created. “Now he will decide.”
“Decide what?” I asked.
“Which tribe gets what land,” the man said. “The tribes are at war.”
Shit.
I go away for half a day, and all chaos breaks out.
Now, I had an intertribal war on my hands.