Wallace

Valentine took her leave, promising to gather the supplies we'd need for tomorrow's journey. She took with her the toolbox I'd fetched from the truck, along with everything I'd had in my pockets.

The same brokers who purchased scavenged items would be interested in what I had on me, at least according to her, so she offered to get what price she could for my belongings. I'd been inclined to say no, and indeed, likely would have if things had been different. But for some damn reason, I'd agreed to bail on this sweet deal with Temerity to go running off into the wilderness with Valentine, so I didn't think it was much more of a risk to trust her with my 'finances' as well.

Besides, while the tools might be useful for thumping people, Valentine had promised to pick me up a proper weapon instead. Fitness tracker, wallet, and keys, unless I was going to try to throw them at someone they were even less useful, so if some collector wanted them for the novelty, then I was happy to take their money.

With Valentine gone, I quickly found myself dozing once again. I didn't quite get to sleep, and instead floated along in a haze as the hours slipped by. It felt to me as if I were only closing my eyes for a moment at a time, but each time I opened them again I'd find that the sun was a lot closer to the horizon than it had been a moment ago.

It was when I opened my eyes once again to find the whole room lit with the orangish glow of sunset that I finally forced myself back upright. I knew that if I closed my eyes again I'd sleep right through till morning, and if I really was going to go through with this madness then it would be best not to skip any meals.

I did end up missing dinner, but I caught the kitchen staff just as they were preparing dinner for themselves and they were more than happy to whip something up for me as well.

I ate out in the dining room, not because I didn't want the company, but because I thought it best not to invade their space. After the day's hustle and bustle, they finally had time for themselves, and if they wanted to bitch and moan about nobles, then that was their business. And yeah, it was also because I didn't want the company.

The meal was some variety of fish, steamed vegetables, and mashed potatoes. It was a meal that I was more than happy with, but one that mortified the governess. She seemed ready to whip the cook, insisting that they could prepare a ham steak and roast vegetables, and that in the meantime they could offer me tea or wine. I told them that what they were eating was more than satisfactory, and was quite firm with the governess when she tried to insist. I'd already considered the facts and decided what I was going to do, and her trying to convince me otherwise was irritating.

I still wasn't quite sure where I stood in the grand scheme of things. Was I a commoner? Probably. I could trace my ancestry back to Clan MacAskill in Scotland, but the same was likely true for at least millions of others. Go back enough generations and pretty much anyone was related to everyone else. I could claim Julius Caesar or Ghengis Khan as an ancestor, but it mattered as little as all those books in Temerity's library.

I made sure not to leave a mess for the servants and took my dishes back to the kitchen myself. The servants were taken aback, I suppose they thought of me as nobility even if I didn't, and insisted that they would have been happy to take care of tidying. They were a bit of a bother, but whatever, they were just a little touchy about their jobs, so I didn't let it get to me.

I found my way back to the room I'd been given, and took stock.

In short, I looked like hell. I found myself looking at the idiot in the mirror, wondering, not for the first time, what the hell he was thinking. It's not that I looked beat up, I'd made sure to make myself presentable before I went down for dinner, but bone-deep fatigue was not something I could get rid of by splashing some cold water on my face.

I was beginning to dread what tomorrow would bring, but in truth, I knew that there was no way I wasn't going through with it.

I felt lost when dealing with most people, not unlike joining a game halfway through which I didn't know the rules to. Breaking the rules was bad enough, but asking what they were was even worse. Now there were some people I could understand, people who would help me learn the rules, and it was with those sorts of people that I formed truly lasting friendships. But even so, after a couple of decades stumbling around the game board I only mostly had things figured out. If you didn't pay too close attention, it certainly seemed as if I knew all the rules, but there were still gaps in my understanding of the game's constantly evolving meta.

But there was one part of the game I understood, not just as good as anyone else, but better than anyone else. It didn't matter if it was someone who needed first aid, a homeless guy asking for some change, or a noblewoman looking to do a runner. If someone needed help, you just helped. The bystander effect messes with a lot of people, they're worried about seeming weird, or they figure that someone else will take care of it. But that was only because they hadn't figured out the rules.

Not only did Valentine need help, but she'd specifically asked for it, and I knew what the rules were when someone asked for help. It didn't matter that I felt like I'd been run over by a truck, I was going to help. Even if, you know, I actually had been.

I heard the latch click open, and I stepped out of the bathroom to see Temerity slip in from the hall. The sun had set while I'd been at dinner, and with The Father not in the sky tonight, she was lit only by the room's scattered oil lamps. She'd let her hair hang loose, and in the firelight, her pale blue hair looked like spun steel. She closed the door behind her, and I saw that in one hand she held a small unlabelled tin, like something that shoe polish might come in.

"Wallace," she said by way of greeting, "I'm sorry that I haven't come to see you sooner, Vivian and her sister were keeping me quite busy."

"That's okay," I replied, "I'm not a particularly energetic guest at the moment anyhow."

"One of my servants mentioned that," she nodded, "they said you were favouring your side, are you quite alright? Did your arrival here leave you a little worse for wear?"

I furrowed my brows, but realized that for all she knew, I'd merely been checking out the wreck when they'd happened along. She had no idea that I'd actually been hit by the thing.

"You remember that dump- the big metal carriage," I clarified, guessing she wouldn't know what a dump truck was, "It ran into me just as the green mist came in to sweep me away. Driver probably didn't even see me. All this is just a mess of bruises," I explained, gesturing at my side.

She stepped in close and gingerly lifted the front of my shirt, "Gods," she breathed, the pain clear to see in her eyes, "I'm sorry Wallace, I had no idea, this just looks awful. Why didn't you say anything?"

I shrugged, "I've got a place to sleep and plenty to eat, didn't think there was much you could do beyond providing that. I've mostly just got to sleep a lot until my everything stops hurting."

"Magic isn't all lightning and thunder," she urged me, "There's an alchemist in the city who keeps me supplied with this," she explained, gesturing with the tin, "it's what I use, and it will tend to anything short of a broken bone. I was hoping you might help me take care of some hard to reach places, but it looks like you need seeing too first. I just hope you wouldn't mind returning the favour once I'm done," Temerity added, in an entirely innocent tone.

"Uh, sure," I replied artfully.

She pressed me back towards the bed and guided me down to sit next to her. Stiff as I was, it was with some difficulty that she helped me struggle out of my shirt, and I chuckled, realizing that this wasn't the most awkward experience I'd had undressing with a woman.

It didn't go unnoticed by Temerity, and she looked up at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Just ticklish," I lied.

She gave me a pursed-lip smile, and I could tell she was squirrelling that thought away for later.

She opened the little tin, and I caught a whiff of honey. It looked like something you might get at Whole Foods, advertised as 'fair trade, all organic moisturizer', and felt cool to the touch as she began massaging it into my skin

I let out a long sigh as the ointment began to do its work, not just numbing the pain, but leaving me feeling as if I'd never been hurt in the first place.

Temerity looked up, meeting my eyes with a smile, "It's going to be alright," she soothed, before returning to her task.

A part of me still hadn't decided if all this was truly real. It's not that I thought I was dreaming, or in a coma. Instead, it felt more like a game, like some sort of VR MMO I'd paid to join. I think it was that little voice in the back of my mind, whispering that it might not be real, that was keeping me from despairing of my current situation. Because if this was all real and I was in a world where indoor plumbing was a luxury and only the lives of the privileged classes were anything but nasty, brutish, and short, then things kinda sucked. No matter what anime might have taught me about lives in other worlds.

On the other hand, if this were a game, then it was a different story. I would have paid any price for this experience if it had been offered as some full-dive VR experience. The introduction already had me hooked. I'd been introduced to the game's species and concepts, they'd shown off several features and the incredible degree of immersion. Magic had even been teased as a possibility, and I'd gotten a couple of potential quest hooks. And now, to top it all off, here pressed up against me, was a gorgeous woman who seemed as happy to be here as I was. Best game ever.

Temerity wasn't in any rush to finish applying the ointment. Whether it needed to be applied slowly for the magic to work properly, or if she was just enjoying the process was hard to say, but I certainly wasn't about to rush her.

"Are you quite certain that your world has no magic?" Temerity murmured, fingers still at work, "I can scarcely imagine how anyone could achieve all this," she mused, giving my bicep a squeeze, "without it."

"No, no magic," I assured her, "this is all just what my genes look like."

"Genes?" she asked.

"Blood?" I guessed, "Traits that some families have and others don't?"

"Ah," she breathed, the exhalation tickling my skin, "And your blood is particularly pure to have so many of these traits?"

"Not exactly?" I replied, a little uncomfortable with the word pure, "But, you're on the right track, you don't tend to see so many rare traits in one place, and some of it does run in my family."

"Is there a whole clan of men and women like you back on your world?"

"I wish," I laughed, "Maybe then I wouldn't seem like such a freak. Nah, there's only one other giant MacAskill, and he's been dead over a hundred and fifty years. The extra thumbs, well that's my mother's side of the family. I got lucky there actually, a lot of the time the extra digit comes out wrong and ends up needing to be removed. Mine came out pretty much perfect."

"Are all humans quite so tough as yourself?" she asked, as if there was nothing remarkable about the fact she was undoing my belt, "Or is that another of these 'genes'".

"Um-" I began.

"I'm just trying to get a look at your leg," she assured me in a low murmur, "Then you can do me."

"Oh, okay, that's, um. Fine, that's fine."

"Genes?" she prompted as my belt was tossed aside.

"Right," I continued, still very distracted, "No, that's just me. This Simon guy, if that's what you're worried about, he's probably not any tougher than you are. Again, I just got lucky.

"Mmm-hmm," she mused, and I thought I saw a little sparkle in her eye.

"Uh, pardon me?"

"Oh, nothing," she said dismissively, "You were saying?"

"Well, there's a condition that affects some humans, brittle bone disease. It does what it sounds like, and it's genetic. Well, for me, things went the other way. Really a lot the other way."

"You're harder than most men?" she asked, and though her face was turned towards the deep black band of bruising across my thigh, I could make out the smirk she was trying to hide.

"My bones," I clarified, though I doubted she needed the clarification, "My bones are harder, harder than most human bones."

"A lot harder?" she asked innocently.

"Yeah, a lot harder," I sighed.

Honestly, at this point, I was beginning to enjoy the game. I knew I was supposed to be leaving tomorrow, but maybe Temerity here was one of those few people who I'd find it easy to get along with.

"So how stiff are you, exactly?" she asked, "Your bones, of course."

"Stronger than steel, and heavier than lead," I told her, "Not exactly the combination I'd pick, but we don't always get what we want. Thankfully I inherited my father's myostatin deficiency, so I've got extra-dense muscles to go along with the extra-dense bones. Otherwise I'm not sure I'd even be able to lift my arms."

"You know, Wallace, I've been over nearly every inch of you, and I've yet to find anything I'd call deficient. But I suppose I've a few places left to see."

I laughed, "It's a deficiency, but a helpful one," I explained, "Or it is, as long as you've got enough food. It's complicated, but myostatin is what keeps muscle growth from getting out of hand, at least in humans. No idea how it works for elves. So on top of ending up with more muscle, what I do have is also stronger than normal."

"Why have such a thing as myostatin then? I certainly wouldn't complain if there were more humans like yourself running around."

"Survival of the fittest," I replied simply, "Being big and strong is one thing, but if you starve to death before you can take advantage of it, then it doesn't much matter. I pretty much don't store fat-"

"Mmm-hmmm," she agreed.

"And that's never been a problem for me since I've never worried about where my next meal is coming from. But for most of history, the average human hasn't been that lucky, and storing extra calories as fat is a better plan for the future than using it all on muscle."

"High maintenance, are we?" Temerity teased.

"I suppose I can be difficult to satisfy," I replied thoughtfully.

Though that was more a reflection of my often obsessive behaviour, rather than... what Temerity was clearly thinking about.

"That so?" she smirked, "Are you at least satisfied with this?"

She thumped me in the side with one closed fist, and I was pretty startled to find that it didn't hurt. Well, okay, it hurt a little. Temerity wasn't being gentle and she was no lightweight, but it didn't feel anything like when Valentine had taken it upon herself to wake me in the least gentle way possible.

"Huh," I frowned, "I wasn't expecting that stuff to work anywhere near that quickly."

"Thankfully it does," Temerity shrugged, "Gods know I go through enough of it."

She stood up on the bed and undid the front of her trousers. She let them hang open, a bit of white silk caught the firelight, and she started on the fasteners on the front of her tunic.

"You find yourself getting hurt a lot?" I asked idly.

"One can only spend so much time being waited upon hand and foot before it gets boring," she replied simply, "Thankfully, this world provides ample excitement."

Temerity raised her arms above her head and rolled her hips, and her trousers slipped to the sheets. She rolled her shoulders, and her tunic followed, revealing her bare chest. Finally, she ran her fingers through her hair and pulled free the tie, letting it fall freely to her shoulders.

There was a whole lot of bare blue skin and just a little white silk. She had a strong frame, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, wide hips, a slight bust, and a hell of a lot of chiselled muscle. Not the muscle of a bodybuilder, carefully sculpted with aesthetics in mind, but the functional muscle of an MMA fighter.

I couldn't help but wince as my gaze fell to her legs. Shapely as they were, the bruises made it hard to properly appreciate the spectacle.

"Geeze Temerity, I thought you were wearing armour?"

"Armour isn't invulnerability," she replied, irritation creeping into her voice, "and when you're astride a horse, the hapless soldier strikes at whatever they can reach."

She sank down to the bed with her legs stretched out before her, and propped herself up on her elbows.

"I don't know what human women are like, but I'm not some fragile orchid. But if it's still bothering you then why don't you make yourself useful," she suggested, scooping up the tin to toss it at me.

It thumped lightly against my chest and fell into my lap, and I glanced down at it before fixing her with a thoughtful gaze.

She wiggled her toes, an impatient tone in her voice, "Don't worry, I'm not ticklish."

"I'm guessing the sprites weren't the only people you went up against today?"

I began at her ankle and started working my way up her calf with the ointment. It felt as if it were made of stone, and for a brief moment, I had an image in my head of Temerity wearing a red and blue costume with silver bracers.

"Not today, no," she sighed, "But I spent the last two days out with my entourage, and we came across more than our share of excitement."

"Surveying, scavenging?" I asked.

"Ranging," she insisted, "Scavenging is not worth my time, and surveying is such a bother."

"Is that why you have Valentine over, then?" I guessed, moving now to her other calf, "She surveys places, and you check them out?"

"Bless her, but Valentine is not a Surveyor," Temerity began testily, the tone with which she said surveyor giving it the air of a title or rank.

"She does a little playacting as one, wearing all the time that strange garment she found- claims she found," Temerity corrected, "More likely she purchased it off a broker or the like. I expect the most she's ever done is follow along with the surveyors while she's carried in her palanquin. Forget doing any exploring, fey simply aren't built for it."

"What do you mean?" I asked slowly.

"The fey can't work or fight if their lives depend on it," Temerity explained, "Their skeleton is made of jelly, they bruise like overripe fruit, and faint long before you or I would even break a sweat. If you see one blushing dark purple, it means they're about to keel over. The sprites would have long since freed themselves if not for the scent that fey give off."

"What exactly do you mean by jelly?" I asked, suddenly a whole lot less sure about what the hell I was doing.

She brought a finger to the tip of her nose, "It's made out of the same stuff as your nose or your ears. You saw that fey commander this morning, just staying atop his horse was likely the limit of his endurance. Vivian is pleasant enough, and I suppose that Valentine is endearing in her own way, but in any just world, the sprites would be ruling themselves."

Goosebumps raised on Temerity's skin as I rubbed the ointment into the backs of her knees, and I felt a shiver run down her spine.

"Not a fan of slavery?" I mused.

If I'd guessed right about the technology, then elven society was about contemporary with the late Renaissance or early enlightenment. It might make sense that more egalitarian views were becoming popular among elven nobility. On earth it took another hundred or so years, depending on the country, to stamp out slavery, but if Temerity was top dog in the city then maybe she'd have the pull to force a change.

I'd made it up to mid-thigh with the ointment and was just starting to think that maybe Temerity was the one to side with after all, when she spoke.

"Slaves, serfs, I don't much care, the difference is academic," Temerity said with a sigh, "That's not the problem, the problem is that the fey have managed to sneak their way into a position that they don't deserve. Their whole society is backwards. In any just world, it would be the fey who are the slaves. Though I don't know what they'd be any good for."

I leaned back and put the lid back on the tin, finished with my task, and suddenly a whole lot less excited at the prospect of more.

"You disapprove?" she observed.

"Slavery's been illegal in my country since before my country was a country. And it was a haven for escaped slaves while it was still legal elsewhere. So yeah, I disapprove."

"Fine," she said, waving a hand dismissively, "But keeping slaves isn't the point."

"What is?"

"Putting things right," she insisted, with the fervour of a true believer, "The fey still rule Pelignos, at least for now. But everything I've heard about Simon says that he sees the fey as the same cancer upon the sprites as I do, and he's doing everything in his power to change that."

Temerity pushed herself up to her knees and grasped my shoulders.

"But we're behind. With an endless supply of prey, the Goblins are flourishing. The Gnomes are as much of an enigma as ever, but seem to conjure wonders at will from their city-warren. And Simon is bringing the backwards sprite society into the modern age. All this while the Baroness tries to sneak people who don't belong, people who she'd made dependant on her, into positions of power. We are regressing while the other cities encroach more and more every day."

"Alright," I nodded thoughtfully, "Where do I fit within your elven utopia."

She waved her hand again, "It doesn't matter that you're not an elf. The point is, I've seen what Simon can do, and he was starting with almost nothing. When they first arrived, the fey thought crossbows were impressive and were astounded that we knew how to forge steel. They are hundreds of years behind us."

"Probably more like a thousand," I muttered, "Maybe two thousand."

"Exactly, we were the greatest city on this whole world when we first arrived. We need to regain that, lest Simon, or the Goblins, or the Gnomes, wash over us like a tide. You are exactly the man to help me do that."

I'd known, pretty much the moment Temerity had stepped into my room, that there was going to be some seduction involved. But I'll admit, this is not the form I'd been expecting it to take. I was all for a genderswapped version of the knight sleeping with the princess he'd rescued. It was still kinda weird that I was the princess in this situation, but I could roll with it. What I found it a lot harder to roll with was the whole 'let's take over the world together' thing.

"Wallace," she urged, squeezing my shoulders, "Look at you, are you really going to let someone else take charge? Don't you find the very idea frustrating? Are you truly going to tell me that you don't think you're the best person to lead? Just imagine how much better life would be for everyone in the city, if finally, the right people were at the top."

I did find it frustrating. It was frustrating that people simply wouldn't be rational about things. I was frustrated when my food was too cold by the time it was served, when people laughed or spoke too loudly, when someone walked or drove too slowly, when music was played too loud, when-

I cut off that train of thought. That was the worst part of me. Sometimes I was right, sometimes people were irrational, often due to fear and ignorance. But the rest of it? What was I really gonna do, have someone flogged if my food was too cold or if I didn't like their laugh? If I went along with Temerity, I really could do that, and damn was it tempting, but it was no way to live. I'd spent every moment of my life up to this point trying to be better. Would I ever be normal? Nah, probably not, but the goal was to be better, not to be normal.

So was I about to call it here? To throw away all my progress because I suddenly had an easy way out? No. Hell no.

"I'll think about it," I replied evenly.

"You'll think about it?" she laughed incredulously.

"I'll think about it," I repeated, "Who knows, maybe I'll get a better offer."

She narrowed her eyes, "A better offer? You let me know when I'm done if you still think you'll get a better offer."

She pulled herself into my lap and squirmed out of what little she was still wearing. Her teeth found my neck, and she pulled off the last of my clothes. Temerity let out a muffled growl, clenched her fists in my hair, and took me into her with a gasp. She struggled a little and couldn't quite get all the way down, but once she'd taken it as far as she'd dared, set to it with abandon. Temerity was far from gentle, but that was fine by me. Someone my size didn't get to be rough, even for fun, but Temerity seemed up for it, so...

I wrapped my hands around her waist, my fingertips and thumbs very nearly meeting in the middle, and slowly pressed her down the rest of the way. She tried to squirm free of my grasp, and I was ready to let go if she told me to stop, but Temerity wasn't one to quit.

She shuddered and thumped her fist against my chest, "Happy now?" she panted.

"Eh, not yet," I teased, trying to keep my voice level despite the exertion.

"Fine," she growled, though I could see a bit of a grin around those clenched teeth.

Temerity wasn't any gentler this time around, and with each stroke she slammed her hips against mine. She leaned hard against me, trying to push me onto my back, to no avail. But as she pushed me closer to the edge, I decided to let her have her way.

I lay back and let out a contented sigh, and Temerity planted both hands on my chest, her hair all a mess and a fiery glimmer in her eyes.

She was breathing hard and sweat had started to bead on her skin, but she didn't let up. She didn't slow, even as she took me right to the edge and shoved me over.

I tried to push her off once I realized she wasn't stopping any time soon, but there was no strength left in my limbs, and she laughed as she caught each of my wrists and pinned them to the sheets. It brought her face close to mine, and she whispered in my ear.

"Happy now?"

Temerity slowed her pace a little over the next couple minutes, and half-closed her eyes as she pushed herself back upright. She ran her hands through her hair, and I felt her shiver. Temerity's face, arms, and chest all flushed a darker shade of blue, and she let out a long contented sigh. She kept working her hips, trying to draw it out a little longer, before finally lifting herself off of me to sprawl out next to me on the bed.

"Or," she murmured, almost too quiet to hear, "You could go find a better offer."