Chapter 135: Chapter 135

I was out at the orc village, talking to a craftsman named Grog and going over some diagrams I had. He worked from memory, not from plans, and he wasn’t actually literate, so I had to go over everything. But he was super smart when it came to what he did, and by the time we were done I had confidence that he would, in fact, be able to build four large arbalests to my specification.

I’d grown to trust Aurea, but she wasn’t the only dragon in the world. We’d taken her down with arrows, but an arbalest firing heavy steel bolts should be even more effective if we had to deal with another one. Dragons aside, it made sense to spare a little attention to improving Abbyland’s defense, and by Amaranth’s standards arbalests were advanced technology. The ones I had in mind were heavy enough that they’d be slow to move, and require two people to operate, and were therefore better for defense than for offense. I didn’t want to become a conqueror, I just wanted to protect my people and what we were building together.

I got a message on the radio from Jill. “Abby! Bapho’s scouts say there’s an invading army coming from the East!”

“No information yet.”

I turned to Grog. “You got this? We’ve got an emergency, apparently.”

“Of course, your majesty.”

“Abby. Just Abby.” Then I stopped to think. Bapho’s scouts were on the east road today that led from Blowhaven to the orc village, and so they were spotting an army coming from where I already was? It didn’t make a lot of sense. Certainly a few people could get to that road without going through either the village, or the beastkin woods, or Xyla’s forest, but there were enough orcs and what not even in the inbetween spaces I had trouble imagining anything as large as an army.

I got back on the radio. “I’ll come, but tell Gren to figure out what’s going on, please?” I bicycled to Zargaza’s place, intending to ask her for help rounding up a few orc warriors. My guard, consisting of one human and one demon as it did most days, hated the bike, because it meant that I was always getting out of their sight and they had to catch up, but I couldn’t very well provide everyone with one and I certainly wasn’t going to slow myself down. Today I had Garron, a fresh-faced blond boy of maybe nineteen, and Delilah, a succubi. Between me and Delilah, Garron was having trouble knowing where he could safely look, anyway. I could protect them better than they could protect me.

“Darling!” Zargaza said. “Did you come to help our baby grow?”

“That’s not how it works,” I said.

“Regardless, it’s fun, isn’t it?” She started taking off her clothes.

“That’s not why I’m here.”

“But darling!” She wrapped her arms around me, her now bare breasts pressing up against me. I won’t deny that she was distracting.

“We’ve got –” I started.

The radio crackled again. “Beautiful babe?”

“Yeah. What’s going on, Gren?”

“False alarm. No army. Just General Varsho and a couple of aides, and the General’s two wives.”

“Five people. But very scary paladin type people. I think our devious demon was trying to start an incident.”

I could hear Bapho’s voice protesting. I couldn’t make out the words, but I nonetheless got the sense he was making a full denial. Also, I wouldn’t put it past him.

Zargaza, meanwhile, had gone to her knees and was lifting up the hem of my dress.

“Okay, got it. I told Varsho he could come by sometime, and I’ll come back soon.”

“Good,” Gren said. “I was afraid you’d get all tangled up with Zargaza, or something.”

She hung up, and at that moment Garron came bursting in.

Zargaza looked at him. “I don’t mind an audience,” she said. “Come watch the subjugation of the orc chief by our mighty queen!”

“I’m not, er, subjugating or conjugating today.” I nudged her away, gently.

Delilah, a step behind Garron, put a hand up to caress the boy’s cheek. “Maybe we should make it an orgy, hmm?” she said, as she pressed her chest up against his back. He was wearing chainmail, so the effect of Delilah’s boobs was probably muted. On the other hand, he was nineteen.

Zargaza frowned, and moved forward again. I sighed, grabbed her hair, and yanked her away. “Some other time,” I said. “Duty calls.”

“God, it turns me on when you’re like that,” she said.

“I know.” I took my one chance for escape, and stalked out.

I rode at an easy pace back to Blowhaven, stopping now and then to let Garron and Delilah keep up. I still didn’t need their protection, nor did I think I had anything to protect them from, but I was a little concerned that Garron needed protection from Delilah. The whole thing made me remember a brief torrid affair I had with an older woman while I was in college. Yeah, when it ended I was hurt for a bit, and I might have even told myself I’d been taken advantage of. But I’d learned a lot. One of the things I’d learned is that while sex was pretty much always fun, it was better with love. Another was that sex and love were not the same thing. And unlike many girls my own age, she knew what she liked and wasn’t shy about showing me how to do it well. Some of those things other women liked, too.

On the whole, it had been a positive experience.

I walked into my house to the sound of a lively conversation. Some of the voices I recognized, some I didn’t.

Jill and Gren were sitting on one couch. Kathy and Talos had pulled up chairs from the kitchen. On the other couch sat Varsho with two very nice-looking human women, a blonde and a brunette, one on each side. They were both modestly dressed, with long dresses with high collars, in contrast to Gren’s furs and Jill’s tight dress with the low scoop neckline.

He stood. “Queen Abby,” he said, gravely.

“General Varsho.” I tried to match his tone. “I’m delighted to have you visit.”

“This is Liliel, my first wife,” he said, indicating the brunette, who stood and curtsied as she was introduced. “And this is Glorificent, my second wife.” The blonde also stood, and curtsied.

“Pleased to meet you both,” I said, bowing slightly. “We’re honored to have you.”

The two women sat down, but Varsho remained standing. “You’ve caused quite a bit of trouble, you know.”

“Well, the people of L’shan are divided between those who accept the new revelations, and those who don’t. So far there’s been little violence, but the rhetoric is getting quite heated. There are those who accept your printed version of the scriptures, and those who do not.”

I should have anticipated something like that. On the other hand, I wasn’t going to reprint those books with the homophobic passages intact, either. “I’m sorry,” I said. “It wasn’t my intention to cause, uh, discord.” Well, maybe a little.

“We’re not sorry,” Liliel said. “Are we, Glory?” She bent over toward the other woman.

“Nope.” Glory kissed her sister-wife.

Varsho turned and watched them. Without addressing me directly, he said, “I fear it will all boil over soon. The reformed side – that’s what we call ourselves – ordained a male homosexual priest the other day, and that has intensified the schism.”

I nodded, not sure of what to say.

“It wasn’t the wrong thing to do, but perhaps it escalated things. I don’t know. To not do it would have also been wrong. The individual in question was so clearly qualified. Even though the idea of two men together like that, um, well, I’d rather not think of it.”

“I think it’s kinda hot,” Jill said.

“Absolutely,” Kathy said. Talos shot her a surprised look.

“Yep,” Gren agreed. “Definitely. What do you think, Liliel and Glorificent.”

“Oh,” said Liliel. “I mean. I.”

“Exactly,” Glorificent echoed.

“Yeah, we’re not into that,” Varsho said quickly. “But Liliel and Glory have, um –”

The two women kissed deeply.

“You, um, don’t object, do you?” Varsho asked me. “I can tell them to stop.”

“We are a pro-sex house,” I said. “Pro-affection, too.”

He sat back down, and the two women had to part for a moment to let him sit between them. I went to sit down on the couch with Jill and Gren, and they made room for me in the middle as well. “You came with a couple of aides, I hear. Where are they?”

“Oh, they are with Captain Hornung.”

I nodded. “Makes sense. Do you need more books of L’shan?”

Varsho nodded. “It would either help, or further inflame things. It’s so hard to tell. But on the whole, yes, I would like that. But I came to ask a different favor, which perhaps makes the question moot.” Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✶𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✶𝓷𝓮𝓽

“Before any violence happens, I was thinking it might be best if the two groups simply separated for a time. Which begs the question, of course, as to where would they go?”

I nodded. “That’s a good question, of course. My country back home was actually founded in large part by religious refugees, who were fleeing their native countries to avoid violence.”

“Ah. The more tolerant, fleeing the intolerant?” Varsho asked.

I shrugged. “Not particularly. As often as not, the less tolerant, fleeing what they thought of as a loosening of standards. There was plenty of space, and they formed their own little communities, but found they had something in common, anyway. I really don’t know how they all managed to get along, but they did, somehow.”

“Ah. So you understand what I’m asking for.”

I blinked, and started to say I didn’t, but then I got it. “Are you asking if you all can come here?” I asked.

“How many of you are there?”

“A few thousand. Call it three. I don’t know who would be willing to come here, and who not.”

Three thousand was a lot of people. It wouldn’t quite double the population of Abbyland, but they’d be a major bloc. “We’d expect everyone to work hard. We have a limited supply of lumber still, and agreements not to overlog the nearby forests.”

“We wouldn’t be looking for a handout.”

“We’d have to figure out where, exactly…” My voice trailed off, as I tried to take in the possibilities, and the downsides.

“Northeast of here,” Jill said. “They’d be the group closest to Blowhaven, but there’s that flat plain that would be easy to build on.”

“Are you sure your people would be okay with my rule?” Abby said. “I mean, I don’t want to be this way, but that’s kind of essential. I’m responsible for making sure my people aren’t overwhelmed by your people. And we have our own cultural values.”

“Like the goblins,” Jill said, rolling her eyes. “What you mean is that you have your own values, Abby, and you’re trying to spread them as well as you can to everyone else.”

Ugh. Was that what I was doing? Cultural colonialism?

“Hey,” Kathy said. “Given a choice between that and rampant misogyny? Don’t feel bad, Abby. You’ve respected what could be respected. The trolls are allowed to be trolls, the orcs are allowed to be orcs, and the goblins, well… they’re a harder case.”

I breathed a little easier. It was all a delicate balancing act, and mostly I just hoped Blowhaven would serve as an example of how things could be. I didn’t want Varsho and his people upsetting that. “It can’t be more than three thousand,” I said. God, what did I have now, an immigration policy? Refugees turned away at the border? “At least not at first,” I amended.

“We have about five hundred who want to leave now,” Varsho said. “But them leaving might tip the balance, and then more would follow.”

I nodded. “They can come,” I said.

Varsho breathed a sigh of obvious relief. “Good. We’ll work out the details over the next few days. Meanwhile, could you help with a more personal problem?”

“Well, now that Liliel and Glory have learned that they can enjoy each other’s bodies, which is quite nice, and thank you, by the way.”

Yeah, I’d made him totally into that. It wasn’t my best moment, maybe? But it had saved lives. I managed a smile. “Yes?”

“Well, I’m trying to tell them they really should wait so that I can at least watch, but they insist they should be able to make love to each other even when I’m not around.”