Chapter 12: Sharing

Most of the day we walked in silence. Each of us still had to digest what had happened at the pond. I didn't consider myself squeamish but that had been beyond the pale, even for me. I could only imagine how much worse it must have been for the girls. But the further we got the more our mood improved.

At this point I suppose the question arises why we were traveling on foot instead of taking a couple of horses with us. There were three reasons.

First of all, there was a certain catharsis in traveling on foot, especially if you were traveling with people you cared about. Riding mounts to your destination didn't let you appreciate the scenery and traveling by coach, while slow enough to drink in the scenery, still kept one confined to the roads. But traveling by foot made it possible to truly get to know your surroundings and walking for long stretches gave one time to think.

The second reason was that a Chosen One's journey to slay a Dark Lord was, in many ways, seen as a pilgrimage. If the situation wasn't incredibly dire the Chosen One was encouraged to travel at least part of the way on foot and right wrongs in each village they passed. Some Chosen Ones, like the one I'd met way back when, scoffed at such ideals and ignored cries for help as they rushed towards their destination, but what had happened in Lycia was part of what Chosen Ones were meant to do: Travel across the lands and slay monsters on the way to fulfill their destiny.

And the third reason was simple practicality. If you traveled on horseback you needed to find places where you could let the horses rest, you had to take feed for the horses with you and, most importantly, the horses would make campsites more visible. And there was nothing quite like being turned away from an inn after a long day of travel because they didn't have any stables to leave your horses in. On top of that, the Homeward miracle allowed us to travel the way back instantly and thus the horses were really only required for one half of the journey. So traveling on foot had simply been the most practical solution.

If the Dark Lord's castle had been closer to one of the major cities or one of the larger hub towns in between those we could have hitched a ride on one of the traveling caravans, but that was not the case. However, the same remoteness that made getting to the Dark Lord's castle so difficult also meant that he had a hard time actually posing a threat for the people of the land. The closest villages had to worry about raiding parties but the larger cities didn't really care. In my career I'd found that a lot of Dark Lords were like this. They were very local problems that the broader population was content to ignore until the Dark Lord got strong enough to endanger them, at which point it was suddenly an issue worth caring about. Either that or people just ignored such dangers altogether, thinking that the gods were going to fix things before they could become truly dangerous. It was that kind of thinking that had gotten my home town razed to the ground.

I could feel my hands balling into fists without even making a conscious effort but then Alisha's soft hand wrapped around one of my fists and I relaxed my hands under her touch.

“Still thinking of what happened today?”, she asked quietly.

“No, just thinking about the Dark Lord we're after”, I told her and she seemed grateful for the change of topic.

“So”, Selene asked, “how long have you been doing this? Fighting Dark Lords I mean.”

I shrugged. “I killed my first Dark Lord nine years ago. But I've only started doing it as a full-time job for about six, once I hit the age of majority at nineteen.”

“So what are they like?”, she asked.

“Well, there are all kinds”, I said. “The most annoying kind is the one I fought when I met Alisha, who can only be killed by a Chosen One. They're not that tough but they're quite literally immortal until a Chosen One deals the killing blow. Other than that, there's ones that specialize in magic, ones that are physically powerful and then there's the beast master type who has some crazy monsters ready to jump you and the trap master type that has booby-trapped their throne room.”

“So they have classes like adventurers?”, she asked.

“Yeah, pretty much. And the worst part is that, just like Chosen Ones, Dark Lords are showered with gifts from their gods”, I said. “Including miracles.”

“What I want to know”, Alisha said, “is where those castles come from. I am convinced there was no castle in the place where we fought our Dark Lord before.”

“That's a huge mystery”, I said. “I think they're some sort of inverted dungeon. Where instead of being a hole in the ground that leads into some fantastical space that couldn't possibly be under the earth, a Dark Lord's castle takes this fantastical space and simply dumps it out into the real world.”

“But... like a dungeon?”, she asked.

“Why not?”, I asked back. “Sometimes Dark Lords reside within dungeons instead of having a castle of their own. Those are the worst. They're not just evil magically enhanced bastards, they're also pumped full of the extra mana coming from the dungeon.”

“Oh, like how monsters are more powerful if they're in a dungeon?”, she asked.

“Just like that”, I said.

“Hold on, hold on”, Selene said. “Care to slow down for the bumpkin? I know that dungeons are full of monsters and that they're dangerous, but that's all I know.”

“Sorry”, I said, then got to explaining: “Dungeons look like cave entrances from the outside, but once you step inside you're in a small pocket dimension. Like, you walk into a cave and after a short trek you walk out into a lush jungle or something. They're chock full of mana and the mana does weird things to the environment. It makes the monsters more dangerous, it causes plants to grow that don't exist in the outside world and over time it imbues items with random enchantments. I've also heard that dungeons super-charge magic cast inside them but I don't have an ounce of magical talent so I can't confirm that. Spells do seem to pack a bigger punch inside there, though. Anyway, the older a dungeon gets, the larger it grows and the more dangerous it becomes. And the older they are, the more they influence the outside world.”

“Hold on”, Selene said. “What do you mean, the older they are? It almost sounds as though there are dungeons of varying ages.”

“There are”, I said. “They just appear randomly. At least we think it's random. If it isn't, it doesn't happen according to any pattern we have managed to identify up until now. Some have existed for centuries, but new ones appear to this very day. A new dungeon is just a hole in the ground that doesn't exert any influence on its surroundings but the older they get the more they warp the outside world. To take the jungle dungeon example further, eventually you'd see the same weird plants that grow in the dungeon appear in the area around the dungeon. Rumor has it that the Crystal Crown is the manifestation of an impossibly old dungeon hidden underneath the capital.” Not that the royal family would ever confirm or deny it, though.

“And what about the monsters inside? Can they get out?”, she asked.

“No”, I said. “If a dungeon gets old enough to influence the outside world the mana streaming out of it might power up the monsters in the area, but the monsters inside the dungeon are stuck there. The only exception is if an adventurer drags a monster out of the dungeon. Whatever keeps them inside there can't stop an adventurer from taking them out.”

“Well that's a relief. So, have you done a lot of dungeon diving?”, she asked.

“Some, and only if there's a Dark Lord inside one. Dungeons are scary places with danger around every corner and I would advise anyone to only enter them if absolutely necessary. Especially the two of you”, I said, looking between the two women.

“What's that supposed to mean?”, Alisha asked. She sounded indignant.

I phrased my reply carefully: “Both of you have abilities with limited uses per day. Out here that's fine. We've yet to run into a situation where we needed more miracles than the two of you could provide”, though I shuddered to think what would have happened if Selene had used up her lightning miracle while fighting the toad prince, “but in a dungeon you will run out of them fast because there's so much more fighting in there. If we can help it at all I would not like to enter a dungeon until your goddess lets you cast Heal on your own authority. It's not a slight against either of you, it's just a fact that dungeons are the worst place for adventurers with limited uses on their abilities. I'd be having the same problem, though to a lesser extent. A lot of my magic items only work once a day.”

“Yeah, alright, I see your point”, she said, calming down.

“Trust me”, I told her, though I meant both of them, “I would never belittle your skills and if it came across like that I apologize.”

She smiled and replied in a much gentler tone of voice. “I'm sorry, I overreacted.”

We walked for a while before I turned to Selene and asked: “Just checking, the Dark Lord we're after does have a castle, right?”

“Yes. I've seen it on the way. We won't need to do any dungeon diving”, she said.

“Small mercies”, I said.

**

Just as it was getting dark outside, we came across a travel lodge and I almost jumped for joy.

“I've always wondered”, Selene began, “what's the difference between an inn and a travel lodge? They both provide food and lodging, right?”

“Right”, I said. “The difference is that travel lodges are built outside of villages, specifically for travelers who don't want to camp outside. Sometimes there's some attraction to visit close-by and sometimes they're just halfway points between smaller villages. And quite frankly, after the last few nights I'm quite looking forward to some nice uninterrupted sleep.”

“That, I can agree with”, Selene said.

We stepped into the lodge and, as expected, the owners almost fell over each other to kiss Selene's feet. She convinced them to give us a single two-bed room, telling them it would not be fair for us to inconvenience them by giving us more rooms. Heh. Also, as it turned out, there was in fact an attraction at this travel lodge, namely that they had a natural hot spring right in the back that we were welcome to relax and bathe in before dinner, an offer we of course took them up on.

The hot spring arrangement was one I hadn't been used to, but it was no less practical for that. One was invited to clean up next to a set of wooden stools and a large basin of water before settling down in the actual hot spring, which had a rim of rough, natural stones that had been worn smooth with time. There was also no gender separation, which would have worried me if I'd been in different company, but with the two women I was so fond of it wasn't exactly an issue. Especially since we had been given small towels to cover our lower bodies.

“Wow”, Selene said when I settled down in the spring after washing myself off. “You're more built than I expected.”

I shrugged. “I wear loose clothes I can move in easily.”

Alisha asked: “Where are all the scars from?” She traced a finger over a ragged scar on my right shoulder.

“Here and there”, I said. “Most of them I barely remember getting.”

Selene pointed at one that ran lengthwise along my right arm. “What about that? Wasn't that where Alisha healed you this morning?”

“Yeah”, I said. “Healing magic doesn't stop scarring. Not even healing miracles. The only thing that prevents scarring altogether is time magic because it rolls your body back to before it got hurt.” Though to be fair, the scar was significantly smaller than it would have been if I'd let the wound heal naturally.

“Any scars with interesting stories, then?”, Selene asked.

I pointed to one on my abs and said: “That one was a pretty close call. It was my second Dark Lord. He tried to stab me with this huge sword and I kicked myself off him, which only just saved me from getting disemboweled.”

Truth be told, it wasn't that exciting a story. I'd chosen this scar to talk about because it gave me a way to draw attention to my abs, a feature I was decently proud of. Selene certainly drank in the view. Alisha was less focused on my abs and let her eyes roam instead. She looked at me with a kind of proprietary pride, the knowledge that all of this was hers whenever she wanted.

In fact, the scrutiny of the two gorgeous women was more arousing than I'd expected and I tried to deflect attention by asking: “So, this might be a bit of a personal question, but... Alisha, do you shave or is this normal for elves?”

I was referring to the fact that her entire body was hairless. The only hair on her was on her head. Her womanhood was smooth and clean, sure, but there was not a hair anywhere on her body and after so many days on the road there should have been some stubble here or there.

She seemed to blush under the scrutiny and admitted: “It's like that for us elves. Does it look weird?”

I shook my head and Selene said: “Honestly I'm jealous.”

I took that comment as an invitation to let my eyes roam over her body. She had the slightest bit of fluff on her forearms and it actually looked pretty cute. She noticed my stare and blushed scarlet but moved her hand out of the way to show us the golden curls between her legs.

“I do shave it usually, but I haven't exactly had time for it lately... I'll shave before... you know... ”

“Keep the fluff on top”, I told her. “It's cute.”

She blushed even harder and swallowed, but nodded. Then she tried to divert attention as well and asked Alisha, who was smirking at our discussion: “If he gets to ask personal questions, so do I. I've always wondered about your ears. Do you learn to move them or is it instinct?”

Alisha's long ears twitched and she blushed a little. “It's just instinct. We can control it a bit, but mostly our ears do what they want. If you want to know why my kind hates card games, it's not that we have some sort of ethical problem with them, it's that our ears make our reactions too obvious.”

We all had a good chuckle about that one.

Then Selene asked another personal question: “Are your ears... sensitive?”

Alisha shot a look in my direction and seemed reluctant to answer. Finally she admitted: “Yes. Very.”

She had probably expected me to make a grab for her ears and find out just how sensitive they were, but I was patient. I would wait until she'd forgotten about this conversation.

Selene, meanwhile, did not show the same kind of restraint and made a grab for Alisha's ears, rubbing and kneading them between her fingers and in response Alisha made all sorts of squeaking and purring sounds, her toes curling up under the surface of the water.

“Felix”, she giggled, “Felix, help me, don't just smirk at us, help!”

I sighed, leaned forward and grabbed for her arms to pull her into me, out of Selene's grasp. I wrapped my arms around her and she hugged me back and mumbled into my shoulder:

“My hero.”

Then I smirked at Selene and said: “Now!”

And then Selene leaned forward and renewed her assault on Alisha's ears while I kept the elf from getting loose.

**

It took a lot of groveling from Selene and me before Alisha stopped glaring at us. No matter how angry she pretended to be I couldn't feel any remorse for it though. We'd all been in a bit of a bad place after the events of the morning and what we'd done in the hot spring had been exactly the kind of break we'd needed, even if it had been at her expense.

Dinner was a really quite excellent casserole that felt like they'd emptied out the entire pantry to make it and that included beans, pork chops and duck legs as well as roasted tomatoes, onions and garlic. Upon asking I was informed that the recipe was from the city of Calice, the westernmost city of the kingdom, located right next to the endless sea, and was called cassoulet. The barmaid also suggested that I never try to make it on my own as a literal day of work went into the dish.

For the first few minutes we were busy stuffing our faces, but finally Alisha pointed her fork at us and asked: “Since you were so liberal with personal questions earlier, allow me to ask one as well. What is up with your last names?”

I cocked my head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Some of you humans have last names that are obviously names of job titles. You're called Tailor because your parents make clothes, right?”, she asked.

“Right”, I said.

She turned to Selene. “What about you?”

“Ah, my last name is Herder.” Selene Herder, huh.

“Because your parents own livestock, right?”, Alisha asked.

“Right”, Selene said.

“But there are also humans whose last names clearly have nothing to do with their occupation. What's up with that?”, Alisha asked.

It dawned on me what she was referring to, so I explained: “Ah, that's what you mean. It's a matter of class. Peasants like us have names relating to their occupation while the nobles have last names that are more poetic or refer to the lands they own. That's also why Athena keeps calling me Tailor. It's an insult.”

“Insult?”, Alisha asked.

“She's telling me that I have no business working with Chosen Ones and that I'm meant to be nothing more than a tailor”, I explained and Selene frowned.

“Then what's the difference between you and me? I'm just a herder.”

I shook my head. “You were chosen. In the eyes of the gods you are allowed to be more than the station you were assigned at birth. Even once you fulfill your quest you are free to return to being a herder or to pick another occupation.”

“Hold on”, Alisha said. “You're born into an occupation?”

Now it was my turn to frown. “Of course. Your parents teach you what they know and you keep working in the family business. That's why we have these last names. Isn't it the same for you?”

She shook her head hard, her long ears flopping back and forth. “No, all our children are taught all kinds of things and get to find out what they're best at and that is what they do to help the community. Our last names are more... poetic, as you said.”

“What is your last name anyway?”, I asked.

Selene stared at us. “Wait, are you saying you don't even know her last name?”

Well, when she put it like that I felt bad about it.

But Alisha smiled warmly. “It's alright. I didn't share that bit of information. My name is Alisha Silvermoon.”

I frowned. “You say that as though it's supposed to mean something to us.” She startled a bit. “Don't tell me you're royalty and we've absconded with you.”

She fidgeted. “I'm not... royalty. But I won't lie to you and say my family is irrelevant, either.”

“And the other part?”, I asked.

“I told you”, she said. “My father will understand if I explain it to him, but I don't want to deal with that quite yet. And part of that involves not using my last name.”

“But just so we're clear. Nobody is going to want me dead for being around you?”, I asked.

She raised an eyebrow in challenge. “If they did, would you run for the hills?”

“You mean would I leave you if you came with strings attached?”, I asked. “No.”

Her expression transformed into a radiant smile. “Good, because I'm planning on sticking around you for a good long while yet. And to answer your question, no, the worst my father might do is demand children at some point in the not too distant future.”

“I can live with that, I think”, I told her.

“You've barely even lain with each other and you're already thinking about children?”, Selene asked.

Alisha got a sly look on her face and told me: “You know, Selene's right. We've really only done it once so far.”

I smiled, realizing where she was going with this, and countered: “Then I guess it's high time we added another time to the count.”