As I ended the meeting, I gave Rummy my “please stay after the meeting” look. He raised his eyebrow and nodded.
“I’ll catch up with you later, wifey. We’ll do our daily questions then.” Emma gave me a smug look before nodding and departing with Skera. Soon, it was just the two of us in the office. A nervous tension
I fidgeted my hands before speaking. “Thanks for staying, Rummy. I have a question for you.”
“OK. Shoot.” He nonchalantly answered. The way he casually assented sure didn’t help my nervousness. But fortunately, I had prepared an important question as a preamble.
“These… memories you were given. Did they contai
“Ugh…it was disgusting.” Emma sniffled. “I felt so… soiled, and helpless…” Tears continued to leak out of her eyes as she cried into my chest on our bed. Sigh, I really shouldn’t have asked about her distaste for BJs. I mean, I could’ve guessed why she didn’t like it, but me and my curiosity just couldn’t leave well enough alone. And now my wife was crying while confronting her tragic past in the Galahad household. Stupid Rummy! Stupid! “Wifey, you’re so brave for sharing your past with me.” I kissed her salty cheek. “You didn’t have to go through this pain for me… I’m really sorry for bringing it up.” I said apologetically. “No, it had to be done. These people are all dead and they no longer have any power over me.” I nodded silently. As sorry as I was for triggering her past trauma like that, I was glad we got to have this conversation. After our talk, I felt even closer to her. Maybe true intimacy wasn’t all about baring your bodies and putting the P in the V, or claiming her
Authors’ notes: This was an excerpt from the journal of Imperial Prince Avalon of House Artorius. ‘Why me?’ I sadly thought to myself as I walked toward the darkness within my mind. This pitch darkness could only mean one thing- I’ve been summoned to meet with the Imperial Pantheon in the Hall of the Round Table. I should feel honored- after all, not just anybody gets a summoning from the Pantheon. But it is likely that they have a quest for me- a quest that’ll probably send me far far away from Caliburn and waste months of my life on some seemingly-pointless errand. For a prince in the middle of jostling for position in the Succession, being absent for that long is disastrous. There are over 42 legitimate Imperial Princes, and I am confident that at least half of them are more competent than a hunting dog. Why choose me, Honored Ancestors? Why? After waiting in the darkness for a while, a light suddenly shone on me and the 15 members of the Pantheon. I knelt down and placed my ri
A/N: Hi people! Hope your summer is going well! After a month-long break, I've build up enough chapters to get back into the rodeo that is Book 2. The new release schedule will be every Monday morning. So July 4th would be the first Lastly, this chapter is a fun discussion amongst Rummy's children. There is some light/minor spoiler in there. So if you're a spoiler purist, just think of this chapter as an announcement chapter and skip it. But if you're not, enjoy! =D *** “Well, I’d learned more about my parents than I ever wanted to know.” I sigh as I put down the giant book on an ornate table. Most of my siblings are still in the family reading room, despite the fact that it was way past midnight. The miracle of electrical light- a miracle that I took for granted all my life- keeps the room well-lit. Gods, what a marvelous city Dad has built for us. My younger siblings have already all retired to bed. So fortunately, my job as the smut censor has ended for now. Only Aubrey, Braxt
“PUSH!” I urgently yelled. “PUSH!” “I… I can’t!” Nairi replied with a strained voice. “You’re almost there!” “Ughhh!” Nairi grunted and groaned until she managed to push a heavy metallic box all the way up a hill. “You’re… so… mean… Forge-master…” Nairi complained as she gasped for air. I shrugged my shoulders as I looked towards Pridwen’s direction. “Sure, I could’ve helped you out with my >, but you needed the workout. Without decent strength, you can’t be a good forge-smith. And you sure as hell can’t be a good soldier with that wiry frame.” “Between the… drop-hammer… and the MG-42s… I don’t need… to be strong….” She argued back between pants. I sighed a bit. “Nairi, it’s fine to appreciate how technology has improved your life. But it’s not good to rely on it like a crutch. We live in a death jungle- it’s never a smart idea to rely on any one thing out here…” “This bloody weapon… better be… worth it…” She panted some more as she began to get her wind back
“PUSH!” I urgently yelled. “PUSH!” “I… I can’t!” Sapphy replied with a strained voice. “Not without Master here…” “Just push! He’s almost here!” “Ughhh!” Sapphy grunted and groaned until she managed to give birth to a baby girl. The room was a mess, and there were stains of fluid… and non-fluid matters… all over the sheets. After I saw the baby girl take her first breath in this world, I began to cast > on the newly minted mother. Sapphy looked gutted and exhausted, but other than that, she seemed fine to me. On top of that, the baby girl gave me a healthy cry. I sighed in relief knowing that the birth went well. Considering my entire experience as a midwife consisted of 2 live births and a couple of books I stole from the Galahad library, I thought I did pretty well. Despite my uncertainties, there was never any question whether or not I would help. After all, Sapphy was there to guide me to safe births when I had Aubrey and Braxton. My pride as a woman and a mother would b
“Next slide please, Nairi.” Nairi dutifully replaced one poster of a figure with another. While I regretted importing Powerpoint into this world, nothing undersold my point about the impending iron crisis better than a giant poster of a figure that had a downtrending line and an uptrending line. “As you can see in this slide, the iron demand is expected to skyrocket with the addition of the M2 mortar in our arsenal. And the town production of iron is expected to gently decline due to the gradual depletion of the black sands on the banks of the Acheron.” “In other words, we’re heading for an iron shortage.” Tali grimly noted. The rest of the room, which consisted of clerks in training and militia team leaders, began to understand the problem at hand. “Correct, my Lady. We could lower the production targets for the Garand or the MG-42, but that seemed foolish considering we only have 3 dozen Garands and 10 MG-42s. And reducing the output for farming equipment is out of the question
“My Lady? My Lady?” Skera said with a concerned look on her sunkissed freckled face. Wait, was it my imagination, or has Skera gotten pretty lately? Her hair was no longer wild and unkempt. It looked like some minimum effort was taken to look presentable. Good for her!“Oh, right. Sorry, Skera. What did you say?” Gods, I had trouble focusing on anything after that morning meeting. The way Rummy tenderly cared for his daughter stirred some very deep emotions within me. I felt a powerful torrent of envy towards that adorable child for having such a loving father, and an equally potent torrent of lust towards the man who could make me the mother of a blessed child. As long as these torrents of sinful thoughts raged in my mind, I doubted I could do anything productive today. “Forge-master Rummy asked me to inform you that his caravan to the city will depart tomorrow at noon. So you should be ready to depart by then.” Skera intoned. “Right, excellent. Than… thank you for letting me know.
“OK Nairi, that should be the list of ongoing projects I have. Is there any particular one you’d like to work on in my absence?” I gave her the illusion of free choice- this was actually a test. I’d be a crappy teacher if I didn’t occasionally torment gift my students with the opportunity to prove themselves, right?After tilting her cute head sideways as she read the list, she absent-mindedly replied. “Either finish the drop-hammer forge project or get started on the steel boat project…”“Why?” I asked with a smirk. It was then Nairi knew this was no casual conversation. She started to really think in earnest. Nairi stammered a bit. “Because we… we can immediately increase our food yield by hunting the mana-beasts in the river.” She then collected herself. “But at the end of the day, improving the quality of our steel output would be the most important.”“Correct. In fact, the quality of the steel we’re outputting would be insufficient against those aquatic mana-beasts. Sending peop