SILVERYMOON

Chapter 18

Kate was walking home from another class to be a Rogue. She needed to be a Rogue first before she could learn to be a Slayer which was her goal. Being a Rogue wasn't really what she wanted to be or do with her life here. She was looking at this like being a lawyer. First, she needed to take pre-law classes before passing the Bar. She was still in the pre-law stage.

She didn't eat food, so she had no real reason to go to the Market and shop for it. Alexis and she still had their 40,000 gold to spend. They had told Rick about their encounter with a Red Dragon using the Crystal Ball and he had agreed they absolutely had to get rid of it.

Kate had sold the damn thing with the comforter still wrapped around it. She didn't even want the blasted coverlet back. They would go buy a new one.

Now Kate had no intention of buying a dress worth 40,000 gold, but she did have plans for that money. What Alexis did with her 40,000 was her business.

"Corimin!" Kate spotted him at the top of the stairs, just standing there. So she climbed up to join him. "Is no one home?" She knew Rick had a class, but Alexis should be here. Alexis was even going to get Mops and get back to sewing so they could open their enterprise again.

"I...I haven't knocked yet." Corimin was nervous. Even more so now that Kate was here. She was a Vampire; she was going to bite him.

"Don't worry, Alexis will be happy to see you," Kate assured him. "Or is it me that worries you? I'm not going to bite you, Corimin. I would never do that to you. Come on in, and find Alexis. I'm going upstairs to get clean. I got tossed around at class today a lot."

Corimin went inside right behind her. "You got tossed?" He thought Vampires were physically superior to most people.

"It's not all about strength, Corimin. Where we came from, we call it Judo. Even you could throw a 300-pound man with ease, with the right skill. My teacher has great skills, as my bruised body can attest." Kate chuckled a little and let him go downstairs while she went up.

Corimin wasn't out of the woods just yet. He still had to talk to Alexis. He was taking the stairs very slowly, one step at a time.

He hadn't even made it to the bottom yet or spotted Alexis or Mops. "MEOW!" Suddenly he saw a flash of flame, and now he had a burning cat in his arms trying to lick his face with its fiery tongue. Corimin felt it, but it wasn't wet like it was supposed to be.

"COR!" Thanks to Patches ratting him out, Alexis rushed toward him, and now he had Patches trying to kiss him. And Alexis actually was kissing him.

"You came!" Alexis's heart was soaring. She loved him, and he was here.

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Corimin was sitting there and saw Mops still sewing, but she was smiling wide at him. Without a doubt, Alexis had told her something. In all likelihood, not that she was a Demon, but probably that they had had some trouble.

Alexis hadn't given up on him, though he had come perilously close to giving up on her.

"Has Alexis given you a raise yet?" Corimin questioned Mops.

Alexis was the one who answered his question. "She gets paid three coppers per day now."

"I'm rich," Mops told him proudly. She hadn't spent her coppers on anything yet. She had enough to fill her jar, which meant she had enough for a few gold coins, REAL GOLD COINS! She was nine years old, and she had gold coins. Well, she could have gold coins if she exchanged them.

Corimin leaned in closer to Mops and whispered, "Do you think Alexis likes me?"

Mops smiled wider since she knew Alexis loved him. Alexis talked about him all the time. "No," Mops told him and did her very best not to break out laughing.

"NO!?" Corimin was hurt. Alexis had told him several times that she loved him. Then suddenly, Mops could no longer contain herself and exploded with laughter.

"So, I shouldn't kiss her?" Corimin knew she was teasing him now, so he teased her back and watched her shaking her head while laughing. "What if I want to kiss her?"

"Then you better hurry up and kiss me before I hit you for teasing me," Alexis advised him. She reached for his head, turned him to face her, and kissed him soundly while listening to Mops continue laughing.

"Am I still your girlfriend?" He had asked her to be his girlfriend before. That was his idea, though she loved it.

"Just so long as your father and Kate approve." He didn't need a Demon or a Vampire being mad at him. One might steal his soul while the other would bite him and turn him into an Undead. To him, that was how this worked.

"Will you stop! They both like you. So are you here to help, or are you here to kiss me? Because you can do that again anytime. Mops can keep on grinning at us." Alexis and Mops had a lot of sewing to do. And Alexis needed to go shopping for more cloth and thread soon.

Corimin looked at Mops, and sure enough, she was grinning at them both. "I came over to ask you out on a date. I still need to figure out just what, though. It's getting colder outside."

"I accept. Whatever it is, it'll be great." Maybe she could even talk him into making love to her. She missed him.

"I also came over to tell you that Mom and Dad want to move. All that gold I came home with has them thinking about moving. But, they don't know to where." Corimin only knew what they wanted to do, not where to move to yet.

"I'll get Kate to play and sing to make your new place perfect. Almost free of charge," Alexis told him straight-faced.

"Almost?" Didn't he rate free of charge? Then he saw her grinning at him. "OH! I believe I can manage that." That got him another kiss.

"Good! In that case, you can stay for dinner." Followed by making love after dinner in her room. "First, how is your sewing?"

"Terrible. How much do I get paid?" Corimin teased her.

Alexis eyed him for a moment knowing full well what he was doing. "So, you're telling me I should pay you, my boyfriend, for helping me sew. I think there's something seriously wrong with that idea." Then Alexis countered with her offer. "How about a kiss instead?"

Corimin raised an eyebrow and cocked his head. "Does that include healing my injured fingers when I fill them with needles?"

"I'll think about it." Alexis smiled at him. She had her boyfriend back, and all was right with her world again.

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"We haven't seen you in days. Is everything good again?" Kate queried, looking at Corimin over dinner.

"Yes, mostly. It's not easy making changes to everything you know or thought you knew," Corimin said while he ate dinner with everyone save for Kate, who wasn't even trying to fake eating dinner or drinking this time.

"Tell me about it." Kate looked at Rick, who she used to be positive was a Playboy only interested in getting in her pants. Being here was changing him even more. Here, there was no Gina with Black Pawn trying to get him to do things. No more photo shoots, no more book signings where he signed many women's chests. This Rick she liked a lot more.

"Why are you looking at me?" Rick asked, only to hear his daughter chuckle softly.

"So you really don't eat or drink anything?" Corimin questioned her.

"Nope, not since I was converted years ago. I've asked some discreet questions about Undead. You might be right about your Undead, but not right about me. For one, I'm not dead. I have a pulse and a heartbeat. Here." Kate held out her wrist to him. "Place two fingers here and feel." Kate watched him do just that and knew he could feel her heartbeat.

"I don't go around biting people. Garlic means nothing to me. I can't say the same about Holy Water since I've never encountered it. I survive in sunlight just fine, thank you, as I know you've seen. What you call Vampire and what I call Vampire are two different things. About the only common thing is, yes, I need blood, but I get all I need.

"I don't need the same dirt to sleep on that I was born on or in. And I don't sleep in a coffin. Would a stake in my heart kill me? Probably, but not because it's made of wood.

"There are a few positives. I'm stronger than most people. I heal wounds quickly, and my skin is baby smooth," Kate told him.

Rick smiled. "I can attest to that." He had inspected her skin from head to toe. Often.

"Babe?" Kate's eyebrow shot up as she questioned whether he really needed to say that.

"I know wolves like me. Bats like me, and I can turn myself into a swarm of bats. And, no, that isn't a magical item. That's all me. Flying as a swarm of bats isn't as easy as it sounds. I don't actually see where I'm going or what's out there. It's all done by sonar. I send out waves of sound that bounce back. I have to interpret what I'm getting back. It's all shades of gray and silver. I don't see colors. A little practice and I can tell you what color it is most times, but not always.

"I also can't talk while as a swarm of bats. That never really bothered me till we ended up here, and no, we have no idea how that happened. One second we were home, and the next, we were here. But not here in Silverymoon. It took us weeks to get here," Kate added.

"That was after we escaped the Drow and something called the Underdark, a place I never want to be again." Alexis shuddered. "If this City has trouble with the Drow, they can count me out."

"You escaped the Drow?" Corimin didn't know that. That was impressive. It also helped him think of them as not being Evil.

"It's different down there," Rick said. "There's also a whole lot of Drow, entire cities full of them. At least as big as Silverymoon." Corimin saw Alexis nod.

"They're in the midst of a civil war down there. One side follows an individual named Lolth, while the other follows someone else whose name we don't know, but they use a lot of Undead. It's also not as dark down there as you might think. Just no sunlight." Alexis took a deep breath. "That's enough gloom." She wanted to talk about something else. "How is your training?"

"Pretty good. I've only got a few more months, and I'll finish. I'll be an official Sorcerer, able to cast my own spells and start growing in power. I'm also supposed to ask if you're still willing to help my parents find a new home and fix it using that instrument." They had insisted that he ask them.

"Of course. Tell us when and where, and we'll all be there. As for the Lyre of Building, be aware that I'm not all that great at playing and singing." But Kate was still willing to help.

"Don't listen to her, she's good! Thirty minutes will do wonders to the place. Did you see our new fireplace downstairs? That was all Kate," Alexis told him proudly.

He had noticed but hadn't said anything. "I'll tell my parents and let you know. They haven't decided where to move to yet." Corimin changed the subject. "They would like to attend the wedding, too."

"We have a place arranged. It's costly, but we agreed on a place and time," Rick told him. And since Rick had his attention, "You know that building on the island out in the river? Well, it turns out that that place is an inn. It's just as expensive as that inn we found in Neverwinter.

"We don't plan to stay the night there. But we have agreed on a price to rent a section of it for the ceremony. Now we're trying to figure out who to invite to attend. Besides your parents," Rick added hurriedly.

"The Moonsilver Inn. I've heard of it but never been there. They say it's very nice. The rumor is that a dinner there can cost you 20 gold," Corimin said.

"Food is an extra cost. We won't know that till we send out invitations and hopefully get an RSVP," Rick told him, and yes, he was well aware that the food was expensive.

"RSVP?" Once again, these people talked about things he knew nothing about and didn't understand.

"Répondez s'il vous plaît. It's French. It means, please respond yes or no," Kate explained. "French is a language. I speak Russian, but not French."

"There are a lot of languages here. You only need to find someone to teach you what you want to learn. Draconic is Dragon, Celestial, Undercommon is Drow or others, Orc, Hobgoblin. Almost more than you can count," Corimin said.

"Then you could teach me Celestial?" Alexis asked him since she thought maybe she would like to learn.

"If you like." Corimin was willing to teach her.

Alexis didn't say anything for almost a minute. Then she smiled. "Thanks! I think I would like that." Alexis thought it might come in handy. "For the record, no, I don't know Abyssal." She wasn't that kind of a Demon.

"Speaking of new places, we need to find some land to purchase outside of Silverymoon. I talked Rick into agreeing to buy some and building a baseball field," Kate told him and saw the blank look on his face. "It's a sport or a game that you can play. We still need bats, gloves, bases, and stands for people to sit in and watch the game. Set up concession stands, places to buy food and drink. We need to start printing brochures about it eventually, as well. Plus the rules to the game," she added.

"The only real challenge is finding people willing to learn to play. Maybe one day, get teams coming from a different city. Create our own World Series. Have a trophy made. But that might be a long way off." Kate had no illusion that this was going to be an immediate success.

"Then uniforms and… Maybe this isn't such a good idea." When did she have time to deal with all of this?

"Don't give up now. We'll help you," Alexis promised. "Maybe we can create a Mascot. What should we call ourselves? ...The Silverymoon Moonbeams." Alexis shook her head. "Silverymoon Gems? …Silverymoon North something."

"Land first, Alexis, then we can decide how the stadium should look. And we need a grounds crew. How do we get an announcer without electricity, let alone lights for night games?" Kate was back to thinking this was all just too much.

"We have to get through winter first," Alexis pointed out.

"We'll find a way. You just worry about how to be a Manager. Be the female Joe Torre," Rick told her. "Make your dad proud of you."

Hearing that, Kate reached across to squeeze his hand. She missed her dad so much. God only knew what he was thinking with her being gone. Had he become a drunk again? She wasn't going to be there to help him this time.

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Rick and Kate left the kids downstairs and went to their bedroom. When Rick came into the room after using the bathroom to wash up a little and pee, he found a naked Kate on their bed and watched as she lifted her legs and spread them wide.

"Eat me, babe. You need my Cum, and I want those orgasms I know you can give me." Kate would let her mind shut down and let her body go through orgasm after orgasm till maybe she passed out. It had happened once already. Having an Incubus for a lover had its rewards.

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While Rick was making love to Kate, Alexis took Corimin to her room. She soon had him naked and was down on her knees, giving him a blow job till he climaxed in her mouth. While a blow job was enjoyable, Alexis needed Cum to live. She needed Cor's Cum inside her. Soon she was lowering herself onto him till he was deep inside her.

It was a hot night in the Castle house.

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Kate answered the door. "Mitala! This is unexpected. How can we help you?"

"Is everyone home?" Mitala needed to talk to all of them.

"Rick is out shopping for what fresh food he can find in the middle of winter, and Alexis has gone to collect Mops so they can do some sewing. Our business is still mostly closed since we have nothing to sell right now.

"Alexis should be home soon, and Rick… Well, Rick could be minutes to an hour or longer. It depends on if he gets distracted by something. But come in out of the cold." Kate let him enter and closed the door to keep the cold air out.

"We have received a request, and we thought of you. But I can wait, if you don't mind," Mitala said.

"Can I get you something? Some wine, perhaps? We're almost out of Fey Wine and Dwarven Beer. They were hot sellers." They had sold glasses of both in their store when it was open.

"Simple wine will be fine. Thank you." He'd had some of that Fey Wine and had even brought his wife back so she could sample a glass. He didn't know where they got it, but he and his wife liked it very much.

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Mitala finally had everyone save for Corimin. Mops was downstairs with Patches working all alone for now. "We've received a request. You are aware of the Dwarves in Mithral Hall?" They should since they'd been there.

"An amazing place, and yes," Kate responded.

"There's a Dwarven Forge over in the Mountains of the High Ice." Mitala took out the map he was going to leave if they accepted. "The mountain range in question is located here." He indicated a place on the map that was far to the east.

"A Dwarven Forge worker from Mithral Hall will be traveling with you this time. You'll go to Mithral Hall and collect him. Then you'll travel from there back to Silverymoon, and then to the City of Sundabar. It is a safe city in which you can stay. From there, you will travel through this mountain pass to a ruined settlement called Ascore.

"Once there, you are free to decide how to reach the mountain itself. This spot here is another ruined settlement called Hlaungadath. Ascore was located on the edge of the Desert Anaroch.

"Now, there are no roads or trails in this desert. There will be no water holes, and wildlife will be minimal. The Bedine nomads are simplistic in nature and survive by raiding and guiding caravans through the hidden passes, making their home on the surface of the wastes, and traveling from oasis to oasis that only they know.

"You may or may not encounter them. Mostly the Bedine nomads are along the Black Road, a trade route further to the south. Anything could be in the desert. Scorching hot during the day even in winter, to freezing with the possibility of snow at night," Mitala advised them.

"Lovely." Alexis thought the opposite, naturally.

"The Mithral Hall has lost contact with a Dwarven settlement hidden in these hills. That settlement is a stronghold of Khundrukar and is home to a Dwarf named Durgeddin. He is a renowned maker of magical Dwarven blades and armor. Mithral, Adamantine, or any other metal like the one you encountered recently.

"They want to find out why and what has happened to him. If someone captured Durgeddin, recover him alive. If the stronghold was destroyed, you need to try and find him. Alive preferably. If it is under siege, the Dwarves from Mithral Hall will deal with it.

"We, and even members from Sundabar, may help them. As for payment, the Dwarves of Mithral Hall are offering any weapon of your choice, made from any metal of your choice. A masterwork, of course, and will be +3 of your choice. Or armor if you prefer.

"Dwarves are masters at making weapons and armor. Only the Elves rival them in quality. The Dwarf that will be traveling with you is called Ghared. It is said that he is familiar with the stronghold and knows his way around. We do not have a map of the stronghold that I can give you," Mitala told them.

Alexis made a face as she looked at her dad and Kate. If the Dwarf came with them, he would learn that they were Demons and that Kate was a Vampire. It was inevitable. It was also trouble.

They retreated upstairs so they could talk it over. "A Dwarven Stronghold!" Rick was more than willing to go if only to see the place.

"That Dwarf comes, and he's going to find out about us," Alexis insisted. "All of us. He'll rat us out, and then what?" But she did have one idea. "He sounds male. What if I can charm him like I used to charm the guys to get the Cum I needed? Make him forget what he saw."

"I'd forgotten you could do that." Kate thought it might work. "What's a +3 weapon? Eighteen thousand gold unless we want to keep the weapons. Or broker our own deal after we get there. He said any metal."

Rick tried to estimate just their travel time. "It's three days to Mithral Hall, another three days back. It'll take maybe a week to reach this place. Another week back, plus however long we're there."

"With half of that in a scorching hot desert. Bake during the day and freeze at night. And it's still winter here." Kate came up with her own problem for them to solve. "You two are going to need Cum, and I'm going to need to bite someone."

"Corimin will probably want to come. Maybe." They were good again, but Alexis didn't want to speak for him. "So who or what can destroy a Dwarven Stronghold, and even more to the point, are they still there?"

"We might be gone a month. We need to let our Masters know about this," Rick reminded them.

"Do we counter their offer with one of our own?" Kate asked. "We'll need horses again, or it will take much longer than a month."

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In the end, they kind of took the deal. Alexis left to tell Corimin. Mitala couldn't speak for changing the offer, they would have to talk to the Dwarves about that. Yes, the City would supply horses for four and one feed bag just like last time. If there was an Army camp there, just come back, and a decision would be made as what to do.

As always, anything they found was theirs so long as Ghared didn't object that they were taking something belonging to the Dwarves.

No, Mitala didn't know what the Dwarves did there. He was guessing more Mithral, but it could be something else. Also, yes, the desert could have a Dragon in it. It was called a Brown Dragon or more commonly referred to as a Sand Dragon. And yes, it was an Evil Dragon.

"So when do we get to meet a GOOD Dragon?" Alexis moaned. "They do exist, right?"