CHAPTER 544: GOOD FOR PEACE

Mason sat at the (newly brought) table in his room in the goblin city, eating a plate of mystery meat. The servant said breakfast would be served shortly, but he couldn’t wait. He tried not to think about what the meat was from. It tasted like wild pig—could you keep pigs under a mountain? Maybe apocalypse pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten it no matter what it was.

Demi and Becky were showering. Together. Which showed how far they’d come in the last several hours of physical intimacy. He could hear them giggling about something, and if he hadn’t had the food he knew he couldn’t have stopped himself from going over to join them.

Despite the Haley concern of the last hour, his whole night with them had been…incredible.

First off, the sex had been mind blowing. And it turned out, after their rocky start, Demi and Becky really got along. In some ways they were complete opposites—Becky came from a giant family and hadn’t spent a moment alone. Demi escaped from the few people she’d had.

But they were both practical, ‘rural’ girls at heart. They both came from land they loved, with down-to-earth attitudes about life. Demi was serious. Becky…wasn’t. And that was maybe exactly what Demi needed.

Confident and kind, Becky oozed with that smooth, sociable charm a lot of Southerners had. It made Demi comfortable and let her open up. Mason expected Demi would be a good influence on the cowgirl, too (and in his house in general…)—another calming presence like Haley.

He smiled as the girls laughed. He was maybe getting closer to a life where he thought about his girls getting along instead of ‘what do I have to kill next’. Or so he hoped.

First Jeong. Then the ‘doom’. Not easy things, maybe. But tangible enemies he could and had to defeat. And then…

And then what? He couldn’t know. Would ‘the game’ be over? Would their synthetic overlord ever truly leave them alone, or would it just start some new phase? Would it bring back the ‘old earth’, or was that all gone forever?

His gut said yes—that it was gone and never coming back. But he had to believe he could end the worst of the violence. Or at least earn a period of peace.

The last ‘doom’ had been stopped for centuries, at least by the game’s narrative. Plenty of time to…he sat there and chewed, no idea how to end the thought. He was ‘immortal’, or so the game said. But (with the exception of Demi) his friends and family weren’t. He honestly just couldn’t push his mind out past that kind of problem.

The water stopped and the girls grabbed towels and came out grinning. Becky stuck her tongue out at him like he’d missed some joke at his expense. Both went carefully to their washed and mostly dry clothes near the ‘lava stove’.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Becky said, changing behind the thing where Mason couldn’t see her. “We’re hungry and we ain’t eatin’…whatever that is. We want a proper breakfast.”

Mason fought down the urge to say some variation of ‘I’ll give you something to eat’. He chewed his meat-plate. And he behaved himself.

Long hair was oiled and brushed. Skin was lotioned. Home-made bracelets and possibly make-up was discussed and whispered over until carefully chosen and applied. Then Demi and Becky came out looking like apocalypse princesses.

Mason stared as they stood side by side in presentation. Becky had her usual (half destroyed, but now stitched and patched) jeans, boots, and a flannel shirt. She’d left her hat and wore her hair in a pony-tail, which suited her just as well as everything else. What make-up she’d applied Mason had no idea, but she looked ready to distract a lot of men on some job site somewhere.

Demi was…half nymph, half sexy hiker. She’d borrowed Becky’s back-up jeans and boots, both of which fit amazingly well. But her upper half was a combination of home-made and maybe summoned clothes that still looked like she was wrapped in leaves. She had the same pony-tail, and with Becky’s sun-tanned skin, the darker hair and green eyes, the girls looked like half-sisters.

“Well yer a goblin king or whatever, ain’t ya?” Becky shrugged and looked down at herself. “We figured we oughta look respectable. You know, as your…” She paused and blushed. “As your…whatever.”

Mason grinned and stood, deciding she was probably right. He summoned more of the ‘armor’ from his vestments as he walked, especially the cuirass and leggings that looked sort of like black leather. Both girls stared until he came up and gave them each a kiss on the cheek.

The urge to tease Becky and make her find a different word for ‘whatever’ was pretty strong. But he fought it down.

“You look great,” he said instead. There was also another urge to kiss more than cheek, and start ripping off clothes But he fought that down as well. They had a raid to finish, then he needed to Wyrdwalk back home and make sure Haley (and everyone else) was OK before they started on Jeong. “Let’s go see what counts for a goblin feast.”

**

The players gathered outside Mason’s room before heading down to the goblin king’s hall. A half dozen, tired looking, attractive female goblins were fussing around half of them, eventually chased off just as Mason arrived. The player reactions were a sight to behold.

“Couldn’t help meself,” Seamus said, with no shame whatsoever. “I was hornier than a toad. And those hips. That fat little arse. She rode me like a Connemara pony, lads. I didn’t sleep a wink.”

A few men grinned, a few others cleared their throats or found very interesting tiles or shoelaces to inspect. Demi and Becky might have been remembering the lack of privacy because they looked embarrassed, too. Some of the men still had red marks visible on necks or limbs. John literally had a bandage on one of his ears.

“What happens in a dungeon stays in the dungeon,” Carl said, instantly pink. “That’s a good rule of thumb. We should make it a house rule.”

“Aye,” said John with a cough, to a general chorus of grunts and agreement. Mason fought the grin with every fibre of his being.

“Like Vegas,” he agreed. “But if anyone gets any kind of…itching or pissing problem, you better tell the group. Shall we?”

He put out his arms for Becky and Demi, fighting through their awkwardness until they took it. Walking helped. By the time they got downstairs they were all busy staring at the transformed hall of the king.

It was like there’d never been any demons at all. The whole place smelled like soap. Everything looked clean and washed and polished. Fifty tables draped in cloth were set up and covered with plates and baskets and dishes.

A goblin at the bottom of the stairs blew a horn, and the few hundred milling goblins in fine clothes all started clapping. Mason held up a hand and smiled, then looked back at his people with a shrug. They went down and all got directed to specific tables, with Mason and his girls to sit with the king.

He wanted his senior people, too, and managed to convince them to let him bring Carl, Phuong, and Alex. When they were finally seated the food came in wave after wave in the hands of efficient, well-dressed servants.

“You enjoyed night, yes?” The much cleaner, calmer looking goblin king grinned as he met Mason’s eyes.

“Yes. Thank you. And for the feast. But it’s too much. My soldiers will be too full to fight.”

The king grinned and waved a hand like it was nothing. Before anyone ate, some goblins in robes stood and offered a prayer that sounded no different than any human version. They thanked their creator and ancestors, they thanked Mason and his players, and finally their king.

When it was over they looked at Mason like his people might want to say some prayer of his own. He looked back and forth, finally glancing at Alex with a desperate shrug for help.

“Blessed is He who brings forth bread from the earth,” the Belarusian said with a loud, clear, accented voice. “And fruit from the vine.”

Silence followed as the goblins waited. It was absolutely unclear to Mason if this prayer was meant to praise their goblin hosts, as a sarcastic shot at roboGod, or something else entirely. With their stoic, unreadable support, you really just had no idea.

“Amen”, Seamus called. Mason mumbled it, followed by most of the other players. The goblins seemed satisfied, and got to eating.

The king eventually introduced his two small children saved by the players. Though they were apparently just two of about twenty, ‘not including bastards and dead kin’s brats’. He talked about his city and the mountain and how long goblins had lived there. He wanted to know how Mason was a goblin lord, and where he was from.

“The continent across the sea,” he said, not sure how much the creature knew about the world. “We’ve…dealt with goblins before. Mostly as enemies.”

“Mmm.” The goblin king nodded as if unsurprised, nor particularly worried or interested. When he noticed Mason’s surprise, he grinned. “Most of my enemies are goblins, too.”

Mason smiled, liking the creature. Despite eating for the last hour he went ahead and kept on eating, winking when Demi saw him and shook her head in disbelief. The food was weird, but decent.

They had all kinds of strange, fungi salads, but they usually included a tasty sauce. There was more mystery meat, but they’d cooked it well. And they had bread. Real, oven-baked, fresh bread that was sort of like sour dough. Becky moaned once or twice as she ate it.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever heard you make that particular sound,” Mason said quietly. The cowgirl grinned as her eyes rolled back.

“Not now. I’m in heaven.”

The goblin eventually pressed Mason for what he wanted. Why had they come to the mountain? What were they looking for?

“We’re demon killers,” Mason explained. “And…I have human enemies nearby. Free passage through your mountain portal would be a great advantage.”

He was glad he said it, because the goblin finally seemed to relax.

“Free passage, freely given. Good to have humans. Make good babies with goblins, it is known. Strong and cunning. Should make some royal babies, too, yes? Good for houses. Good for peace.”

The king smiled, and Mason did his best to match it. But when he summoned the courage to glance at Becky, he found her eyes narrowed, head shaking. He cleared his throat and ate his fungus salad.

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