Chapter 27:
"What's wrong," Olesia asked? "Not looking forward to this," Billy admitted. The witch they were going to visit was already hostile after months of attacks on her home, and she was almost certainly harboring very dangerous secrets. She had no reason to be friendly to them and many reasons to be violent. And Billy wanted to see his kids. With a smile, the young elemental declared, "things are going to go well. The King of Ooo is the wisest man in the world, and he'll have his strong, intelligent, capable son at his side." The big man flushed to his hair. She was like Rags that way–always seeing the best in him.
Finn rushed by, bodyguard in-tow. It was time to go. "I'll look after Hamest," Olesia promised. "Be safe." He almost wanted to kiss her. "See you when I get back," he said, as he turned to go. The plump girl watched as he went up that ramp, taking her heart with him. There was something there. She could see it in his eyes. "I love you," she told the air, as the heavy ramp cycled shut.
Hamest was clearly in a blue funke when Olesia returned to Billy's apartments after seeing him off. The young elemental strolled into the little kitchen and spent a while rummaging around for something to eat, coming up with some char from the stove. Strolling into their salon, she found the Lizard Princess sitting in Billy's chair, staring into space. Drawing her chair up, Olesia told her, "starving yourself isn't going to help, Hamest. You need to eat. C'mon... I'll make you something." She'd been getting better at cooking up humanoid food.
Of course, that was part and parcel of the problem between the pair. Olesia had taken to cooking Billy's dinner herself, something Hamest had no skill at all with. The cougar stared at her young rival with an expression somewhere between fear and hate. Though Billy had hardly seemed to notice the subtle change that had come over the little bitch since they'd returned to the Candy Kingdom, Hamest had seen it immediately.
"You... you're trying to steal him from me," she snapped! "I'm trying to fit in as a useful member of the court, Hamest," Olesia replied. It had taken her quite a while to see that, but this was a place that needed productive adults. Woman-babies need not apply. "W-what did you call me," Hamest babbled?! "Was talking about myself, actually," Olesia replied. "I'm trying to fit in, Hamest. You've nothing to fear from me. I'm not here to take your place or take anything from you."
The Lizard-Princess jabbed her in the shoulder with a very-sharp talon, saying, "then explain that!" "That wasn't very nice," Olesia replied, as she rubbed at her injured arm. "If you're not trying to steal my boyfriend, why... why are you taking those pills," Hamest demanded? "It's really not your business," Olesia replied. "My body, my choice. But I'll indulge you." Popping a piece of char into her mouth, the plump girl said, "I'm a danger, Hamest. I'm an elemental living in a world of flesh-creatures. Like the maids. Like you. And, yes, like William." Reaching out, she poked the older woman just as Hamest had poked her. That single touch could very easily have burned Hamest to a crisp.
"I could accidentally burn the palace to the ground just by sitting on the couch," Olesia observed. "I'm taking precautions to protect those around me. It's what a responsible person does. I didn't do it in your palace because the need to keep that rogue army at bay took precedence, but rest assured I was keenly aware of the dangers to your people as well." Hamest glanced away, feeling all of two inches tall.
Resting her chin on the heel of her hand, Olesia said, "am I in love with William? Oh, yes, of course I am. Would I hurt you or anyone else to crowd the line? No. William's home is happy. How happy would it be if I brought in a pile of drama? I'd be wrecking the very happiness I wanted to have a piece of." This conversation was going somewhere unexpected, and the Lizard-Princess wasn't sure she wanted to continue. At the same time, she'd had no avenues and no friends to talk to about her worries. "I don't know what they're going to say when they come back," she said.
"They're going to say, 'straighten up'," Olesia replied with a shrug. "They're going to tell you just the same thing the Warrior Princess told me. Put in work. Be useful. If you're useful, you'll be allowed to stay. If you're just a hanger-on behaving like a stupid child, you'll be run off. William... William doesn't much like airheads..." He was much like his father that way. Maybe it was the ugly business of the Lich War. He'd grown up fast during that affair. All of the Mertens-kids had grown up fast. They'd had no choice but to become adults with very adult world-views. Meanwhile women like this one had remained stagnant, thinking in terms of their pleasures and desires rather than the common good.
"W-what did you give her," Hamest murmured? The elemental's face snapped up, her expression warning. "You gave that girl something," Hamest insisted. "I heard you talking about it." With a heavy sigh, Olesia replied, "the Fire-Drop. It was... my grandmother's favorite piece of jewelry. Grandma gave it to me before she went cold, and Masia's always been jealous of that." Hamest shot to her feet, clawing at her own hair. That was horrible! She'd accused this woman of being a dirty cheat, when she'd done something so noble! "People are more important than a fucking piece of stone, Hamest," Olesia muttered, though she was clearly hurt by having to give up the jewel. "People hurt when they give up family keepsakes," Hamest retorted, as she hugged the younger woman.
Hundreds of miles to the east, Marysia Okonski awoke from a horrid dream of dozens of men pouring icy water on her naked body. Marysia sat up slowly, wincing from the aches and pains and moaning softly. "You're alive," Lina announced in her customary sardonic voice. The battered teen stared at her with a bleak expression. Wearing an asbestos glove, Lina reached into the fireplace and half-dragged the young girl out. Leading her over to a stone table, the tall woman sat her down. It was only when her ass touched the icy bench that she realized she was still naked.
"I've already seen it," Lina gruffly remarked, as Masia tried to cover up her charms. "This isn't a game," she said, as she shoved a plate of rich, sulfurous coal in front of the young girl. "Eat," said the cyborg. "Then you're going back to bed." "Th-they're dry," Masia whined! Lina rolled her eyes. These two couldn't be from the same family!
It was the middle of the following day when the airship carrying the King of Ooo came wafting down out of the sky in the Truth Kingdom's western lands. Sakura the Truth Field Princess stood watching from the shelter of her western palace's portico. She had mixed emotions about this. She was angry at Finn. She knew that her anger made no sense at all, but she felt the anger all the same. Finn had come here to try and resolve a deadly threat both to her kingdom and the world, but she could only feel the sting of rejection. She felt rejected. He wouldn't sleep with her to give her a child, but he'd done it with Sheila.
The King and his entourage arrived at the palace not long after the airship landed and, per the Princess's instructions, were immediately guided to quarters, though both the King and his son insisted on having space alone to conduct a little business. Sakura Sasaki knew she should leave well enough alone. She'd sworn she would leave things where they lay. At the same time, she'd been incensed when Sheila came trolling around, showing off that disgusting swollen belly of hers and crowing about how good Finn had been in bed.
The little woman stayed in her own space for much of the afternoon and well into the evening, fuming and fighting with herself. Why was she still doing this? Finn had never expressed anything like a desire for her. Honestly, he'd behaved like she was off-putting. Of course, if she were honest with herself, he'd behaved like Sheila was off-putting too. Fortunately, for her fragile psyche, her powers to compel truth failed to work on their owner.
Dinner came and went with only the vaguest of reports of what the King of Ooo was up to. She'd imagined in her heart of hearts that he would feel guilty. She'd thought that he would at least come to find her to talk. She'd planned every sort of contingency–from seduction to cajoling to outright confrontation. None of those plans had a hope of working if their target just avoided the whole business altogether, though. In the end, instead of having a chance to meet him on her own terms where she'd have the advantages, the Truth Field Princess was forced to go down and deal with Finn the King on his terms instead.
"Hey," Finn greeted the Truth Field Princess, as she stood there at the door. "Finn," Sakura replied. She was in a snit. He could see it in her eyes. It was a lot like he'd figured this was going to go. He'd known the minute he woke up hungover from a mega-dose of narcotic honey with his back and ass sore from lamprey-person venom that Sheila would be simply unable to keep her fucking mouth shut. She'd tell Sakura, because some girls couldn't help being cunty, even to people they called 'friend'. He'd reckoned without the whole 'sabotaged condom' thing, but that just made it all the more imperative not to go off the script with Sakura.
As the big man continued to work, she stared at him. Yup. She was in a snit. She was doing that shit Emeraude used to do when she was pissed off about something. He was supposed to walk into the trap–ask 'what's wrong'. Because, yeah, that shit was a trap. Oddly, Simone had never pulled that crap on him, and he was forever grateful for it. Simone was happy to tell you that she was A) pissed as hell at you, and B) what she thought you'd done to land in hock. Eventually, between them, they'd broken E of the habit of playing games.
Sakura had apparently not gotten the memo.
Finn found himself chuckling. Bonnie used to use that phrase, but he hadn't understood it until the nanobugs. "Something funny," Sakura demanded? "Yeah," Finn replied. "Something funny about a middle-aged woman standing there giving me the stare like we're high-school kids and I forgot that she likes honey in her tea." The little woman flushed like he'd slapped her. She had, indeed, giving him a ration of shit for that very thing decades ago. On his side, Finn had learned long ago in those idiotic duels with Emeraude that the key to dealing with the games was to go on offense. Don't play the game by The Rules.
"I thought you'd said you weren't interested in sexual encounters," she rumbled. "You said a King didn't have affairs..." "I still think a King should guard himself against affairs," replied a distracted Finn. He was going over next-year's budget now. The money... was insane. He'd never had his hands on so much fucking money in his life. It beggared even the money that Bonnie had controlled. It made the money he'd lost in Wildberry Kingdom seem like pocket-change.
And it just wasn't enough.
It wasn't enough money to do all the things he felt he needed to do, much less the things he wanted to do. There was the burned land in the east that needed fixing. There was the constant problems with starvation and homelessness in the Grey Forest. He had to figure out what to do with the people of Wildberry Kingdom. Their homeland was gone. He had to get the peanuts squared away before they became an even bigger problem. He wanted an end to the rebellions. That didn't get into the chronic stupid afflicting his subjects.
Bonnie's peeps were doing ok. Bonnie had schools for them to go to, and some peeps had even started schools of their own. Some of the other kingdoms had schools, but a lot of the kingdoms had little or nothing for schools and even lacked teachers to teach the basics. The Grey Forest was like that. Wood-nymphs grew up like weeds because they had no better prospects. That had to get fixed too, but he just couldn't fucking find the money for it.
Sakura's eyes flicked left and then right. She was having trouble making this about him. "You slept with Sheila," she muttered. Yeah, her best frenemy. Sheila and Sakura, like Alexia and Aysun, had been friends and rivals for as far back as Finn could remember. There was a weight of jealousy there. Sakura had that petite frame, and Sheila was built like a fucking walking heart-attack. Even in her forties, Sheila was built like a fucking heart-attack. There was still very little sag to those mega-knockers, and she still had that ass, though little Susie had put some pounds on her middle.
"Sheila drugged me," Finn retorted. "You let her keep the child," Sakura rumbled. As if he had much of a choice there. What was he supposed to do? Just take a child from its momma? "What about me," she demanded? "She... she has an heir! What am I supposed to do?" Finn glared at her. What the fuck was he supposed to do about that? Play matchmaker? Snap his fingers. She had that situation in the palm of her hands. She could go out and find a dude to get her pregnant if that's what she wanted. Finn himself? He was King of Ooo, and a King had to be more responsible.
Strangely, Blargetha's words to him were still sticking in his mind like a burr under his shirt. He loved women. He always had, and he always would. He had a deep need to make them happy. She was right. He was vulnerable to manipulation, and a crying woman could easily wind him up and twist him to do what she wanted him to do. He'd been tempted to do something horrific to please Toast. He'd been putting the whole thing together until Beeps talked him out of it. Evil as she was, Blargetha was right. That had to change.
The King of Ooo's blue eyes came up and locked with Sakura's pea-green eyes, conveying just how he was feeling. This wasn't his problem, and he wasn't going to be moved to rush to do something for her. Chest rising and falling, she stood there a long time, her expression bleak. Then, without another word, she turned and walked away, leaving him there in the little room he'd borrowed.
Billy was just finishing up a little work of his own in the garden when he heard the soft sound of a girl crying. He was starting to see just how shit was the job of King, and he only had a small taste of it. Rising from his place, the big man stepped out of the little grotto where he'd been working, his face scanning this way and that. Where? Scooping his gear into his small bag, the big man tracked the sound of tears, finally crossing into a hidden space the he hadn't even realized was there. He was a little surprised to find Princess Sakura there, bawling her eyes out.
Kneeling there before her, the big man took her hand, saying, "you ok? What's wrong?" The Truth Field Princess looked up at him, wiping at her eyes as she did so. She looked thoroughly miserable, and his heart went out to her. He could only imagine what she was going through as Princess of a realm that was under constant threat from bandits and worse. Sitting down beside her, he took her hand, saying, "hey... what can I do to help?"
Morning found Finn hard at it already, working on all the minutiae of an empire. Billy could hear him down in the garden, talking on the phone to somebody. He could hardly imagine just how hard it was to keep up the pace the older man kept. Hours before others were up, Finn was up and working. He barely stopped to get some food in his gut before getting into business with the cabinet. Then, when he was done with getting a little food down for lunch, it was on to audiences with the endless stream of people who wanted something out of him. After that, he spent his time on the kids–Billy's younger siblings. After that, he spent the remainder of his day on Billy's stepmothers. He literally had no time for himself.
Bill feared that. He wasn't sure he was ready to have his life literally consumed by taking care of other people. Last night was odd on a number of levels. He'd gotten himself into another princess-entanglement. He'd chalked it up to doing his duty. Bonnie and Betty kept on talking about stability, and he saw that there was some truth there. An heir that was part of their family might be an heir less prone to flights of fancy like Nieve and Yolanda. At the same time, he'd put himself in a bit of a situation with Sakura. What if she wanted to place demands on him too?
She was gone, of course. She'd done the unthinkable for a Royal, even though she'd clearly done it before. I guess she has an edge, Billy thought, as he swung his legs out of the bed. She could just ask you if you were going to kiss and tell, and you would have to tell her the truth. With a grimace as he sifted through her words, the big man realized that she'd maybe, kinda-sorta done just that last night. She'd asked him if he would acknowledge their child, and he'd told her just what she wanted to hear. Only if she wanted that. Shaking his head, the young prince got up and headed for the bathroom to wash.
By the time Billy arrived in the garden, Finn was all done with the business of Empire, and it was time to head out. Sakura herself was nowhere to be seen, but her Captain of the Guard was present alongside the team that Nadia the Grid-Face Princess had sent them. The plan was every kind of risky. They were all but invading Shiyan village, even after Finn had essentially handed it to Katsumi. The witch could easily react very badly to that, and Billy gave them a fifty-fifty chance of ducking a fight, which was about fifty-percent too low for his liking.
The conference went fairly quickly. They had to get rolling if they were going to get to Shiyan and get everything in place so they could head out to Talia's place in the wastes. With the plan in place, the King and his son gathered their gear and headed out to a small fleet of trucks for the long drive. Sitting in the back of one of the trucks, Finn sat carving away at a piece of wood–an activity that Billy hadn't seen the big man working at in many years. Honestly, he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen it. The what he was working on took Billy's breath away. It was a toy. It was a toy for a small child. So much for taking time for himself, he thought.
Rolling through the mountains, Billy found his mind going further and further off onto that tangent. What if that was him? What was he going to do about it? What could he do about it? Kids had to get taken care of. If you married a pack of women, you had to take care of their needs. And if you took the job of King of the World, you better fucking do a good job at it. It was a jarring realization though. People were already looking at him as Finn's heir, and it was one more reason not to want that fucking job.
As the sun was heading down in the sky, they came down the last mountain pass before Shiyan. Leaving much of the team of soldiers behind, the King and his son got down from their truck and started the long walk down to the village. Moving down the road, they saw signs that the village was working on the things that villagers everywhere did during the long winter months to prepare for spring planting. It was a peaceful place, and Billy hoped that never changed for the locals.
The pair strolled up to the small house their quarry lived in to find the woman herself out front doing her laundry in a pair of blue shorts and a pale-yellow, backless top over her mouth-watering knockers. Billy couldn't help looking her over as they approached. That top was seriously sexy, with just a couple of spaghetti-straps up top and around the back, holding it in place against the mass of those heavy boobies. He could have watched her for hours, but they were here for business.
"Hey," Finn greeted her. The tall girl spun about, making those big knobs joggle in a way that left Billy's mouth dry. The chill of the air and the water that had splashed on her while she was working had the front of her top wet and her thick nips standing proud. Billy had to tear his eyes away from them. Looking at her like a piece of meat wasn't going to help them win her over. In wary tones, she asked, "what're you doing here?" "Need to talk," Finn said. "We'll wait out here until you're a little more presentable." Her face went hot. Billy was continually amazed at how smooth his dad was with things like that. The tit-man himself could look a girl, who was built like that, in the eye as if they were just talking about the weather.
"Alright," she muttered, as she turned to go inside. Round butt wig-wagging, the nine-tailed fox went into the little cottage, leaving Billy and his dad standing outside waiting. "At least she didn't hurl spells at us," Billy murmured. Finn nodded. The big man's eyes were wandering around, almost as if he were searching for something. This whole business had been a bit of a mystery for Billy, but it had been very critical for Finn. He'd come out of the isolation lab and immediately started making calls to set this trip up. It said something about just how important the business was that a long-range airship had been diverted to come pick them up.
Katsumi came to the door in a dress, motioning for the pair to come in. Billy took the lead. He was a wizard. He could contend with this woman if it came down to that. The last thing he wanted was for his dad to be forced to use the Quicksilver Curse. The witch motioned for the pair to sit down at her small table. "I'm pleased to see you're well," Finn offered, as he took a seat. "I'm not going to kill you," Katsumi rumbled, when Billy remained standing. "If I was going to attack you, I'd have already done it." "I'm good," Billy replied. "Suit yourself," she said, as she sat down. Her house. She was going to sit.
"Why did you come," she asked? "We're going to the former city of Yakutsk," Finn said. With a shrug, she said, "and?" "We are going to Yakutsk," Finn clarified. That lovely face curled into a frown. Slowly and softly, she said, "what makes you think I would go anywhere with you?" It was the tone of someone very dangerous marking out boundaries for people she respected. "Because I'm King of the World, Your Highness," said Finn, "but also because I'm asking you to attend a very important meeting with the one other person who has the knowledge I seek... and because you're curious..."
The pale woman's face went red and then even paler than before. She clearly didn't like that this strange man could read her so well. "Every Royal guards something," Finn murmured. "Bits and pieces of the ancient world that are still dangerous even after being buried for centuries." "Oh," growled the kitsune, "and what do you guard?" "I guard the guardians," Finn retorted, quick as that. Her face went red hot at the unhappy memory. He'd kept one of her wayward villagers from murdering her. "I'm the man who keeps hell in the ground," Finn murmured, "but I don't know all the plots where it might spring up again. I need your help..."
In dismissive tones, she said, "well, Your Majesty, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place. I can't help you. I can't leave this village. The trip through the mountains to Fengdu is about as far as I can go. I'm compelled..." "...by your pact," Finn agreed. He'd been studying up on her kind. The King drew a device out of his pocket that looked suspiciously like the ancient satellite phone that sat under her panties gathering dust. Tapping a few keys, the big man brought the phone–for clearly that was what it was–to his ear and said, "execute..."
Moments later, she heard the long-forgotten roar of jet engines overhead. Her face showed she was curious and maybe a little frightened. Her mouth stayed stubbornly shut. She wasn't going to bite. She wasn't going to ask. Billy found himself silently urging her to speak. Rising, the King motioned for her to accompany him outside. Taking a breath, the tall woman finally did. Outside, there were Grid-Face people who'd just dropped in from the airship hovering above, and they were carrying what was clearly electronics.
She'd heard rumors of technology in the outside world. Clearly some of the things the villagers traded for had been made with bits and pieces of lost tech from long ago times. She'd hardly imagined that something like this existed. "You've been isolated a while," Finn said. "Not everything was lost, and we're finding new things every day." "Some of those things were better left buried," she murmured. "Yes," he agreed. Moving on, he said, "these men are going to erect a barrier around the village. Nobody will be able to attack this place while you're gone." Her jaw dropped. "I need your help, Your Highness," said the King. "It's help only you and Talia can give me. Please."
Finn makes the Nine-Tailed-Fox and offer she can't refuse. Olesia and Hamest have a heart-to-heart, and Billy scores some princess. What could go wrong with that?