Tethis stood behind a set of cargo crates, trying to work up her courage. She had the basics down in her head. Just walk up to Liam and tell him that she was interested in him.
Interested? Tethis' brain muttered in a snarky, snide tone that she had never had the courage to use. Your cabin is next to his. For the past two days, the only things you've heard Liam say were the word 'fuck' and 'oh god' and 'Jesus.' But no, it wasn't anything he said that made you interested, was it? It was all Meg, wasn't it? Pervert.
Tethis blushed a dark green, and rubbed her hands together to distract herself. Then she tensed; she'd heard the sounds of footsteps. Another person was walking towards where Liam sat on the other side of the crate. Over the faint rasp of Liam's whetstone sliding against the blade of his sword, Tethis could hear... Liv.
Great.
“Master,” she purred. “I could polish your sword.”
“Sure,” he said, his voice as bland as Tethis had ever heard it. “Here. Take this sword and polish it.”
Liv paused. Tethis felt glee starting to grow within her, hardening in her belly like a nut. She did a little dance as Liv tried to rally.
“W-Well, uh, sir, I will be sure to polish your long, hard sword extra good,” she said, trying to capture that playful purr again.
“Good,” Liam said.
Tethis paused in her dancing, looking out and over the side of the river. She wanted to look back to Faiyum Falls, where she could direct her prayers to Sobek. She was sure that the crocodile-headed god hadn't heard or cared that she wanted this chance – but she figured that just in case he had had something to do with it, she should at the very least send him the thanks. It was better to be safe than sorry.
It was strange things that saved lives and changed history.
If Tethis hadn't chosen today to approach Liam.
If Liv hadn't picked that moment to try and unnerve her master.
If the river hadn't bent that specific way.
If Tethis hadn't been a goblin – born, really, to dwell in the deep jungles. Her eyes didn't see color as well as other races in Purgatory, certainly not compared to the panchromatic elves. But what her eyes were made to do, they did well. They spotted movement and they put movement together into a cohesive picture and that picture caused Tethis to draw in her breath and shriek at the top of her lungs.
“Basilisk!”
Then the immense, feathered and scaled form of the basilisk emerged from the shadows of the jungle and surged into the river with an almighty splash. Tethis flung herself flat and so did most of the crew – Liv tackled a shocked Liam to the ground. The basilisk swept its crested head backwards and forward and the intense, not-quite-white glow of its gaze swept along the wooden hull. Several planks that were older than the others snapped like tree branches and splinters filled the air with a hazy whine. Several people screamed and at least one crewman who had been either fractionally too slow, or simply stood too quickly, was caught frozen on the deck, his face a mask of horror, his body a pale white like marble.
“Ware! Ware!” Vulkis bellowed as the first grappling hook thunked into the wood on the left side of the boat. Tethis scrambled up to her feet – now that the basilisk had used its gaze, it wouldn't be able to muster the same energy again for almost a full minute and a half.
Not that Liam seemed to know that.
He scrambled to his feet, his hand over his eyes, his sword in his other hand.
“What are you doing?” Liv shouted at him, grabbing his wrist and yanking it aside.
“When I say duck, duck,” she shouted. “And kill that stupid fucking thing!”
Liam looked over to the left, and saw that the basilisk was surging towards the side of the boat now. Its clawed forearms grabbed onto wood and it lunged its head forward, snapping at one of the crew who was approaching with an ax in hand. The crewman jerked backwards, then shouted at the lizard in Aesir. Tethis was fairly sure he had told it to go fuck its mother.
The basilisk spat venom in his face. The man hit the deck, writhing in agony.
Tethis knew that she had to help him – but the basilisk was there, and the grappling hooks were suddenly swarming with sleek, scaled forms – forms that had hands and grasping fingers and knives and nets and spears. She froze.
Then Liam was there, standing over the fallen crewman, longsword in his hands.
“Come on, motherfucker!” he shouted. “Let's get Chamber Of Secrets your ass!”
Tethis shook her head. She stood up and ran forward.
Liam, meanwhile, was feeling that curious mixture of sensations that every single battle in Purgatory brought out in him. There was the adrenaline rush of excitement that made things seem to slow, then stretch, then warp like taffy. Then there was the real and present fear of imminent death.
Then there was the fact he was fighting a gigantic iguana-chicken monster that looked as if it had crawled right out of the third edition Monster Manual.
That was fucking sweet.
The basilisk hissed and opened its mouth. Liam flung himself to the side and the same toxin that had killed the assassin in Faiyum Falls splattered onto the deck behind him. He scrambled up and lunged forward, his sword tip splitting the monster's snout. It jerked its head backwards and screeched in pain. Then he saw something flare around its neck. Half concealed by feathers was a crude leather collar that had been looped there - similar in design, if not in size, to Liv’s slave collar. He didn't envy whoever had put that on.
The basilisk shook its head and then snapped hesitantly at him. It was easy enough to step backwards. Then something flew past his neck so fast he felt it on his neck hair and a figure thumped to the ground behind him and to the left. Liam glanced away from the basilisk and saw that someone had thrown a javelin so hard that it had almost ripped a lizardman in half. The lizardman who was behind-
Liam spun around and saw that two more lizardmen were look at the corpse of their fellow. Other lizardfolk were being fought by the crew – axes and shields clattered while spears and knives flashed and nets flew. The hesitation of the two lizardmen proved their doom. One got a javelin in the forehead – the bronze-tipped weapon smashed through bone as if it was nothing more than plywood and sent the lizardman flipping head over tail. The other was pierced through the heart with such force that he smashed into one of the cargo crates and was pinned there.
Meg swept down from the sky, using her powerful legs and her wings to send herself darting to the deck. She landed beside the two lizardmen and flashed a grin at Liam.
“That's three,” she said, casually.
“Have I mentioned I love and am terrified of you?” Liam asked.
Meg winked at him, then swept into the air as Liam hit the deck to avoid the massive head of the basilisk biting them at the same time. He felt the scales underneath the creature's jaw rasp at his back, and then he was rolling away. He looked around, thinking furiously. The collar meant-
Aha!
Standing atop the cabin at the back of the longship was a robed, hideous looking lizardman. His hood was thrown back, revealing that his head was covered with grotesque growths that stretched and distended his skull, making him look as if he had been in a tragic woodchipper accident as a child. But what was worse was that he was screeching and waving his hands in the air, creating crackling runes of light that reminded Liam of the same type of magic that Tethis used.
She had said that her type of magic was almost unique.
But questions were for later – the basilisk was shaking its head from side to side. Its eyes were closed, but through the thick eyelids, Liam could see a glow gathering. The thing was readying another gaze attack.
Liam grabbed the javelin that had smashed into the forehead of the lizardman, yanking it free. He tossed it overhanded at the lizardman sorcerer. The sorcerer didn't see it coming but that didn't really matter. It hit the side of the cabin wall, doing little more than make a loud noise that startled the sorcerer. He screeched hideously at Liam and then started making gestures again.
Suddenly his runes were surrounded by other runes. These were more solid and sturdy and Liam looked down to see that Tethis was holding up her hands. The man she had been working with looked as if someone had laid a glowing green crystal over his face, concealing the effects of the acid. He didn't know if that was saving his life, but he was willing to guess.
Sorcerer locked down.
Boarders matched with the lizardmen.
It was time to make every single swordfighting instructor he had ever had slap their faces and call him an idiot.
Liam stood up, stepped back, then charged towards the railing. His feet pounded and he let the strange energy of the situation fill him. He kicked off the side of the ship, making a neat arc, his sword in his hands. The tip smashed into the front of the basilisk's head and – to his delight – caught and plunged in. The monster screeched and Liam pushed harder, driving Delen deeper in. Blood spurted around the monster's forehead, but Liam found that the shape of the basilisk's skull had a subtle flaw.
If someone had impaled its head with a sword, that someone could wedge their feet in the monster's eyeballs and hook on that way.
The basilisk jerked its head from side to side, screeching and howling as Liam sawed his sword forward and backwards, twisting it around. Finally, the rest of the basilisk realized that it was fucking dead and it slumped down, shattering the railing it landed on. It started to slip off the side of the boat. Liam rolled backwards, yanking his sword free at the last moment. His back hit the wooden deck and he laid there, panting softly.
“That,” he said, “Should not have worked.”
Tethis filled his vision, beaming at him. “That was amazing, Liam!”
She leaned forward, kissing him. Upside down. Liam blinked, his eyes wide. He had ogled the short gobliness more than once, but that didn't mean that he had expected this. Her tongue darted into his mouth, questing, seeking, and after a few moments, he started to kiss her back, his fingers caressing the back of her head. She drew back, panting and started to babble.
“So, I was going to ask you if you wanted to, well, you know, I mean, get to know me – like, in a sense, that is, I wanted... uh, but then the basilisk, and you, wow, the sword, also, I think I devised a cure by improvisation, but that man's face is melted, that's awful, and I was thinking we almost died, so, I should, I mean, kissing you is-”
Liam, by this point, had started to sit up. Tethis was sitting back on her thighs, still speaking a mile a minute.
“-and I don't even think that lizard tribes are supposed be this... far...” She trailed off as Liam put his finger on her lips.
“Let's talk about this later,” Liam said.
“Right,” she whispered, her eyes going cross-eyed as Liam realized he was very close to smearing her face with the basilisk blood that had splashed his hand. He drew his palm back.
“Everyone else okay?” Liam called out.
Vulkis – who had gotten slashed across the arm and was having it bound up by a furious looking Thu'chan – laughed.
“Of course!” he said. “We're all either alive – and thus heroes – or dead - and thus in Valhalla!”
Liam looked at Tethis.
Tethis looked at Liam.
“Aesir,” they said in unison.
* * *
“So, let me get this straight,” Meg said. “Right now, you two could be fucking like rabbits while I watch.” She pointed at Tethis and Liam. “But instead, we're going to be...” She made a face. “...embalming a mutant lizardman?”
“Not embalming,” Liam said, rubbing his hands together and trying to quiet his queasy stomach. “We're performing what is called, in my land, an autopsy.”
“You're looking at yourself?” Meg asked, sounding baffled.
“No, Liam explained it to me,” Tethis said, sounding excited. “The idea is fascinating. Essentially, all bodies have things inside them. Innards. They do things. This is well known – but the exact function of many of them are a mystery to us. Not to Liam's people on Earth!”
“Oh goodie,” Meg said, her voice filled with faux excitement. Then she blinked. “Wait, if you know what things do – you know what to do when they go, well, bad, right?”
Liam nodded.
Meg looked thoughtful. “Oh, that actually does sound quite useful.”
“I still say it is ill luck,” a voice called in from the side of their little huddle.
There were no medical bays aboard the ship; while Vulkis might have been quite proud of his craft, it wasn't the USS Enterprise by a long shot. That meant that this entire conversation and dissection was taking place in a somewhat tidied up corner of the ship's main deck. The rest of the deck was awash in the surviving crew – they had only lost four people, once Tethis' healing magic was used – doing their best to repair the ship. Their best was well enough. Less than two hours after the battle and Liam could hardly believe there had been a fight, save for the statue that had been tucked carefully in the corner.
The crewman who had spoken was a tall, burly looking Hellene. “Cutting open a body! You may be exposed to who knows what illness or filth or dark spirits.”
“We're just going to cut open his brain,” Liam said. “I'm working on a theory.”
The crewman snorted and walked away.
“Hate to agree with an uneducated Neo-Cretan, but why are you interested in his mucus?” Meg asked.
“The brain is where all the thinking goes on,” Tethis said, brightly. “Which is a complete shock to me. I thought it was for cooling blood."
“Wait, if all the thinking goes on inside of the brain,” Meg said, tapping her temple. “Why does getting excited make my heart go faster?” She frowned. “You'd think my brain should start to pulse, then, not my heart.”
“It's complicated,” Liam said, holding up the bronze dagger that he had scrounged off the ship. He held it up, then slowly brought it down. He cut at one of the large protuberances that stuck out of the side of the lizardman's head. He winced at the faint dribble of blood, then worked the knife, and then the scales came away and he wiped away the blood with a thumb and grinned slowly. It was a delightful sensation; the same tingle that came from successfully completing a puzzle in a point and click adventuring game.
“I was right,” he said.
“Okay, what was your theory?” Meg asked, her voice soft. “Because that's a crystal. And if your theory was my theory, than I think we just have even more questions on hand.”
It wasn't just a crystal. It was a huge nodule of hardened crystalline material that looked as if it had fused with the lizardman's skull and grown outwards like a tumor. It had the same inner glowing light as the strange creature that Liam had run into on his first arrival in Purgatory. It was the same crystal that Tethis used as her foci – the same crystal that Tethis had said that Coptic embalmers found inside of valkyrie bodies.
The same crystals used by the Ancients to craft their teleportation devices and light sources and who knows what else.
In the end, it took some chiseling for Liam to work the crystal free from the lizardman's head. Less than a minutes work. It took two hours to convince Vulkis to turn the ship around.
The Aesir looked at Liam as if he had taken leave of his senses.
“We got out of that trap, yes, but we didn't kill every single lizardman in the tribe,” he said. “They broke and ran when the basilisk died, but that just means if we come back, we- No! I won't do it.”
“Listen,” Liam said. “That lizardman was using this to cast magic. I bet the lizardman you killed on the way here? The one you said called down lightning? I bet he had crystal nodules too. We need the band around that basilisk's neck to start figuring out what they're doing with them. What if every lizardman tribe has their own basilisk to attack ships? Or cities?”
Vulkis remained stubborn, but they wore him down, pointing out that basilisk, being native from Earth, had no predators. Liam painted a picture of every river flowing with basilisks that went after ships with the single minded determination of pirate kings. Tethis pointed out that a siege force of a dozen could overcome an Aesir settlement in a few minutes. Meg just cracked her knuckles.
Liv, though, watched silently. But Liam wasn’t sure if it was Vulkis she watched or him.
Finally, Vulkis lifted up his hands and sighed. “Fine! We'll go back.”
The crew grumbled.
They were silenced by Vulkis giving them extra gold – doled out from the purse that Sobek had given Liam.
The crew continued grumbling – but much softer – as they worked their oars into the water. Liam remained at the railing, watching the river creep by as sluggishly as if he had been walking. Tethis stood beside him, rubbing her hands together. She shook her head.
“It took me years of studying Ancient artifacts to learn how to cast,” she said, quietly. “These lizardmen are doing it naturally. I don't know how to feel about it. It feels like they stole my magic. Is that weird?”
“Well, see, I'm starting to wonder if it is magic,” Liam said, frowning.
“What?” Tethis asked, her brow furrowing. Her ears tweaked up.
“In my world, we know that the universe is, oh, thirteen billion years old.” Liam looked at her. “Billion. That's a thousand million. We measure our history in decades and centuries. Millennium, if we're lucky. Now, if we measure our history like that, and we can make iPhones and cars and all those other amazing things that I've told you about, then what could someone make if they measured their history in millions? Would their iPhones and cars and stuff look like, well, this?” He held up the chunk of crystal, waggling it at her.
Tethis looked somber. “I live in a world where gods walk the lands like titans. I've heard tales of the Eye of Ra, smiting entire cities.” She gestured around her. “I've seen paintings of the great desert of glass. And you?” She pointed a finger at Liam. “You are giving me the, ah, what was that phrase?” She shivered. “The screamy-weamies.”
Liam smiled, then reached down and ruffled her hair. He paused. “I hope you don't mind me doing that.”
Tethis – her cheeks a dark green – smiled at him. “I like it.”
“Oh, just do it already!” Meg hissed, her eyes peeking from over a crate. Liam jumped almost a foot in the air. He put his hand over his heart, panting.
“How long were you there?” He asked.
“Long enough,” Meg hissed, slowly ducking back below the crate, her eyes being the last thing to vanish in the night. As they glowed an electric blue, it was hard to miss them. Liam shook his head, then looked down at Tethis again.
“All the pressure almost makes it seem unappealing, huh?”
“Oh, come onnnnnnn!” Meg groaned.
Tethis smiled – then pointed out at the river. “There! There!”
Liam leaned over the railing as Tethis summoned up a light cantrip. It flared out and showed the floating corpse of the basilisk.
Liam grinned. “Jackpot.”
* * *
“S-So, uh, this is the collar off the basilisk,” Tethis said, setting the large loop of cracked, sun beaten leather onto the table. “Let's- eeep!”
Liam had knelt behind her, his hands reaching up. He cupped her breasts, gently, through her clothes, squeezing and fondling them. They were smaller than Megara's, but considering the differences between the two women's sizes, they felt larger and a great deal softer. Tethis squirmed, her head tossing to the side as she bit her lip hard to keep from making a noise. For a moment, there was nothing but the rustling sound of fabric in the cramped quarters as Liam's fingers found the hard points of Tethis' nipples through her shirt. They were just as sensitive as Liam had hoped; playing with them turned the quiet of the cabin into a beautiful sympathy of gasps as Tethis arched her back.
Her ear-tip pressed to his lips and Liam decided to take advantage. He closed his eyes and circled the tip of the gobliness' ear with his tongue, teasing her with the warmth and the wetness. This was too much: Tethis broke her silence and actually moaned, her knees quivering underneath her shift.
“Liam.” She freighted the word with enough eager wantonness to make Liam hard for a week. His cock tented his kilt and he reached down to undo the straps and ties that kept the Coptic-style garment on his body. As he tugged at his straps, Tethis continued: “The collar? This is, so-”
“Sudden?” Liam murmured as his kilt slipped off. “I’ve learned, Tethis. In Purgatory, take your chances when you get them. The collar can wait. We can’t.”
“Liam,” Tethis whispered as his hands took hold of her shift.
There were advantages to living in a Bronze Age world ruled by magic, barbarism and ancient pagan gods.
One of those advantages was that the clothes were really easy to take off.
Not that Liam hurried the process of taking hold of Tethis' shift as she turned to face him, the basilisk collar forgotten for the moment. Her eyes locked on his and shone with an eagerness that was only interrupted by the sheet of white that momentarily covered her face as Liam pulled her shift up and over her head. It got caught on her arms for a moment and Liam grinned, an idea sparking in his mind. He pulled the fabric backwards rather than upwards, catching the hem against Tethis' nose and covering her eyes.
She opened her mouth to speak, but then Liam was kissing her. Gently, his tongue probed her mouth and felt the warmth of her own as she pressed back against him. But Liam took advantage of her semi-trapped arms and her covered eyes. He drew back as she pushed forward, leaving her mouth open and seeking. Quietly, Tethis made a sound more animal than language: Mrr?
Where did my kissing go?
Liam leaned forward and kissed the tips of her emerald green breasts, finding her nipples as dark as he had imagined them to be. He sucked on one, hard enough to draw out another word from the scribe.
“Oh Liam!”
He tried adding just a hint of tooth. Not a bite, just enough pressure to tease her and catch her nipple, then tug it outwards. Her breast was pliant enough to stretch slightly, and the hint of pain seemed to do something for Tethis as she moaned loudly again, her hips bucking. Looking down, Liam saw that her sex was completely hairless, just as he remembered from the first time he had seen her bend over without realizing her shift was riding up.
Liam wasn’t sure if her bald sex was natural because she was a gobliness or cultural because she was Coptic - it was their fashion to shave themselves bald and wear wigs, after all. He was sure that he was a total pig, though, because he loved hairless pussy.
I'm going to feminist hell, he thought as he cooed quietly. “I love your pretty pussy, Tethis.”
“Liam!” she squeaked, actually trying to get her head out from under the shift. “I- that's, uh, a bit-”
“Naughty?” Liam asked.
“I just, um, never thought I'd be, uh, complimented. On. You know.” Tethis' cheeks were dark green now.
“That's funny, cause the first time I met you, you flashed it to me,” Liam said. “Bending forward in this little thing.” He held up his shift.
Tethis' eyes widened. “And- I- oh!”
“Though, I was curious back then, if being hairless was part of being a gobliness or a Coptic,” Liam added.
“It's hygienic!” She sounded defensive.
Liam dropped his hand, his finger crooking as he gently started to rub the folds of her sex. It was green in the same way that her nipples were, the color darkening at the very edges to a near black. That accentuated the slickness of her, making her pussy-lips glisten as if they had been oiled. The slick noises made her embarrassed and she turned her head to the side. Megara, by this point, would have been basically fucking his fingers.
Liam had to admit, the shyness was adorable.
“You, uh, ah-” Tethis shook her head, clearly trying to speak without interruption. “You're good at that.”
“I haven't even started,” Liam said, casually. A faint part of his mind wondered at what he was doing – a tiny part that hadn't fully rejected some of the more sex negative teachings of Christianity. It was a part left over from a childhood summer school, before high school and college explorations had introduced him to the concepts of other thinkers than St. Augustine. But that part of his mind did have something that the rest of him listened too: What if Megara gets jealous?
He countered: What if she's watching right now?
Tethis grabbed onto his wrist with one hand, her fingers squeezing him tightly, her other hand working her fingers through the small hammock in the side of the room, the strands of the ropes tangling around her knuckles like the world's crudest bit of Japanese rope bondage. But it kept her on her feet as she ducked her head forward and moaned, her sex spreading to Liam's fingers. His thumb slid to her clit, circling it gently as he finger-fucked her.
The slick schlick noise that filled the cabin was almost as erotic as the way Tethis' pendulous breasts swayed in delicious counterpoint with her rocking hips.
Almost.
“You like that?” Liam purred.
“Yes,” Tethis gasped, barely audible.
“You like your cute little goblin pussy getting finger-fucked?” Liam enjoyed the way she squirmed and looked guilty, as if she wasn't sure if she should be enjoying that as much as she was.
“Gods, yes,” she breathed.
Liam paused in his thrusting, thumb resting on her clit. “Want more?”
Tethis nodded, her hair bobbing around her head, her ears twitching upwards. Her hips didn't get the memo that things had stopped moving and continued to rise and fall, as if she was trying to fuck herself against Liam's hand. Liam felt very wicked as he leaned forward and whispered in Tethis' ear.
“Say please, my little magelet,” he murmured.
Tamora Pierce would be pissed, he thought.
“Please-” Tethis gasped as Liam added a second finger to her tightness. He noticed, though, that she wasn't so tight that he couldn't picture his cock fitting inside of her. Tethis threw her head back and moaned so loudly that Liam was pretty sure a good chunk of the crew heard her. Hell, he'd have been shocked if the lizardmen hadn't heard her, hiding in whatever hole they had fled too. His hand felt slick with her juices as her hips bucked and rocked and she fell, her whole weight pressing against him. Her lips found his neck, kissing, sucking. Then she kissed across his muscular chest, tracing the lines of his muscles, desperately. She whispered.
“Fuck me.”
“Louder,” Liam groaned, his hands going to her hips, smearing her juices along her sweat-streaked green flesh.
“Fuck me!” she whined.
“Beg,” Liam grunted as he picked her up and pinned her against the wall, her face pressed between his nipples, his cock slotted between her green things, his cock pulsing with eagerness. Her sex was furnace hot against him – and so wet. He was pretty sure that he'd fit, with that much lubrication.
“Please, gods, fuck me,” she whispered. “I've watched you and Meg, and I want it so much!”
Liam darted his hips back and hesitated, looking down. Compacted against the wall, with her belly pushed upwards, her breasts touching her thighs, her feet pressed to his chest, Tethis looked deliciously compact. Her hair was bedraggled and her eyes were wild – all signs of the demure mage gone. In her place was an eager woman who wanted Liam as badly as he had ever seen Megara want it.
“Come on,” she groaned.
Liam pressed his cock to her sex – hesitated – then slipped the head of his cock into her. Her pussy spread before him and Liam marveled at how tight she was. Tethis' head rolled back against the wall, her eyes closing as her dark hair sheeted over her breasts for a moment, before being pushed away by her hands so that she could cup and squeeze her own tits. She found her nipples and, with the directness of her own desire, started to pull on them harder than Liam would have dared.
The playing was almost unneeded – Liam was so turned on that he had almost cum twice, just getting halfway into her tight green sex. He closed his eyes and started thinking about whatever he could to get his mind off blowing his load inside of Tethis: Baseball, THAC0, the President, anything.
It worked.
He managed to hilt himself inside of Tethis, making her croon quietly. “So... full...”
Liam opened one eye, grinning at her in admiration. “You think?”
“Mhhh!”
Liam slid his cock backwards, the shaft gleaming with her juices, then rocked forward, the wet slap of his balls against her jiggly, soft ass music to his ears. He started to thrust with a deliberate slowness, knowing that if he did her faster and harder, then this wouldn't last nearly long enough.
Liam had been regularly fucking a literal angel with the stamina of Wonder Woman so you might have thought this would have dimmed the fires of his lust for other girls. But he'd wanted Tethis since the moment he laid eyes on her. And besides, he was a college freshman.
Liam's hips met Tethis' again and again and she rocked backwards and forward, her breasts jiggling as she looked into his eyes. “I love it,” she gasped. “Your cock feels so good – so big.”
“I'd hope so.” Liam spoke around gritted teeth, still trying to control himself as he fucked her. His hand slipped to her ankle, lifting and spreading one of her legs. Fortunately, Tethis was flexible as hell. “So,” he grinned at her, “Figured anything out about the collar?”
Tethis giggled, but her laughter quickly turned into a moan, her head thrashing to the side as her sex tightened around his cock like a fist.
Liam closed his eyes, pausing in his thrusting, riding out the delightful, fluttering contractions that moved along his cock, squeezing the tip, working the shaft. It was intense and nearly indescribable and he was fairly sure that stabbing the basilisk had been easier than not letting his balls clench and spurt cum into her right then and there.
“I, ah, think,” Tethis gasped, her eyes half closed' “'S a kind of, mm, control. Crystal. Magic. Uh. Not god magic.” She shook her head. “Lizardmen don't have gods.”
“They'd have liked Dawkins,” Liam said, starting to slowly pick up the pace again. Now, his fucking could hardly be described as slow. Lazy would have been better. Casual. To an outside observer, one might even have thought that Liam was a stud who barely cared that he was screwing a girl. But in truth, Liam was fairly sure that if he went one iota faster, he'd cum and cum hard. As it was, it was a near thing.
Tethis giggled. “Y-You can go faster, you know,” she murmured.
“If I do, I-”
“You can cum in me.”
The words were spoken with a matter-of-factness that seemed at utter odds to her earlier shyness. They were as good as an order.
Liam picked up the pace, taking advantage of that feeling of eagerness that mounted as a man got closer and closer to an orgasm. Thought faded. Emotion faded. The world faded, and everything focused on the pleasure as his cock slammed into Tethis roughly, his hips bumping against her as her moans became nothing more than the background music to the gathering storm. Liam managed one more stroke before instincts drove him deep as he could go, so deep that his balls rested against her ass, that her thighs were mashed against his chest, that she was bent almost in half against the wall.
And then he came.
And came.
And came. Thick streams of cum spurted into the gobliness, filling her to the brim, then beyond – it splashed from her sex, dripping down his balls, and pattering to the floor. The wood gleamed with darkened circles, spreading outwards as Tethis gasped and panted and laughed quietly. It was the eager, happy laugh of someone who had gotten something they had wanted and found it better than their dreams might have projected.
“That was, ah, satisfactory,” she said, quietly, her voice wry and playful.
Liam leaned forward and bit her neck gently, eliciting a squeak.
“So,” Megara said, from the doorway. “How's the research going?”
Tethis lifted one arm and gave her a thumbs up.
***
The ship cleared the Faiyum river after another two days of travel, emerging from the shadows of the jungle to the broad expanse of the Platonic Sea. Named by the Hellenes after one of their ancient philosophers, it was a meeting point of cultures and peoples as a central trade nexus between the Tuatha, the Aesir, the Coptics and the Hellenes themselves. Trade ships plied the waves with oars and sails, carrying trade goods that could make a fortune in distant lands and bring them home to their eager owners.
On Earth, such trade was once thought to be the best insurance against warfare.
However, as Earth learned and Purgatory knew, such wealth meant it was, more often than not, stained red with blood. But unlike on Earth, such blood was rarely shed without warning. The reason why was clear after a mere fifteen seconds to Liam – though it would have been instantly, had he not spent time frozen in ball-shriveling panic, looking at an immense wall of water that was rushing towards the ship, every part of his brain screamed one thing: Tsunami!
Memories of walls of water smashing through cities, of tens of thousands of people killed or drowned in a few terrifying moments, the footage captured by hundreds of cheap cellphone cameras, all of it rushed through him as part of his brain was already doing some simple calculations, figuring how to save as many people as possible with Megara's strength.
Then he realized the wall of water was standing perfectly still.
Then he realized, above the wall, was a coastline that he could look at head on.
Then he remembered: Purgatory was a sphere.
It was easy to forget in the thick jungles surrounding the city he had spent the last few weeks – but the horizon here bent upwards, not down. With the panic relaxing away, he shook his head ruefully, then looked at Vulkis, who had paused nearby to look at him. Vulkis was looking both respectful and, if Liam read the bearded Aesir properly, downright jealous.
“Yes?” Liam asked.
“Oh,” Vulkis said, “Just wondering why Freya put her blessing on you, lad.”
Liam blinked. “Freya, she's the-”
Vulkis cut him off with a laugh, stepping over to the railing of the ship, looking outwards at the Platonic Sea. “Right, right, you worship that strange pain-cult. One of Freya's many domains is that of the love between men and women.” He grinned, his teeth flashing beneath his beard. “And you are blessed by that, no doubt about it. I saw that little scribe of yours earlier; she walked as if she had been riding a horse, not a man.”
“Hey!” Liam waggled his finger at Vulkis. “She's half my size.”
Vulkis snorted.
“And I'm hung,” Liam added.
Vulkis laughed, then slapped the railing. “Still! I'm not going to begrudge your good fortune. Sides, while we were getting the ship ready for sailing, there were these Coptic twins.” He kissed his palm. “You could bounce a coin off their rumps.”
“Ahem.”
The two of them turned to look at Thu'Chan. The tall, eagle-headed second officer was grumpy as when they had sailed into the port. Liam wasn't quite sure what to make of Thu'Chan. He knew that some people who pledged themselves to a god sometimes became more like them. For instance, the priestess of Bastet he had bedded who had looked like a walking, talking, humanoid house-cat.
Delightfully humanoid, he thought, picturing her breasts in his mind.
Thu'Chan, though, always seemed to be faintly dismissive of Liam despite everything, and Liam couldn't quite figure out why.
“There are no signs of any pirates on the way to Olimurias,” he said. “But that doesn't mean we can rest easily. If any of them have priests of Set or Loki or Athena-”
“Then we have Liam here!” Vulkis said cheerily, his hand slapping Liam's back. “And his magical blade. What did you call it? A plus one?” He laughed.
Liam grinned. “That was just a joke. It's not actually magic.”
“It's close enough,” Vulkis said, shaking his head. “What matters is it works and we're making good time. Don't worry, Thu.”
“Oh, no, I'm not worried,” Thu said. “Why would I be worried just because we got mysteriously attacked within a half a day's distance of a populated Coptic city by lizardmen barbarians. Lizardmen barbarians who controlled a basilisk with magic that shows the sign of no gods. Why would I worry!?” He spread his hands wide. “Everything is milk and honey as far as I can tell!”
Liam rubbed his chin. “If I didn't know you better, Thu'Chan, I'd say you were being sarcastic.”
Thu glared daggers at him, then turned and stalked off.
Liam bit his lip. “Did...” He turned to face Vulkis. “Did I say something wrong?”
“Oh, Thu, Thu, uh, Thu...” Vulkis tapped his chin. He looked as if he was trying to find a way to say something. Liam gave him that time, his arms crossed across his chest. As he waited, Liv walked forward – her face intent, showing no sign of the playful sluttiness that she used to torment him so. For that, Liam was grateful. He wondereed what she needed him for but before he could ask, Vulkis threw up his hands.
“Ah, by Hel's tits,” he said. “Thu lays men and we know how you Christians dealt with men who laid men.”
“I-” Liam opened his mouth, then closed it. “I don't actually know if your historians are accurate or if that is propaganda. But Christianity's relationship with queer, uh, that is, with people who don't... that...” he trailed off. “See, in my world, there has been a great deal of, uh, philosophical writing about-”
Vulkis looked annoyed.
“You don't need fancy words for something this simple!” he said, gruffly.
“Except it's not just simple,” Liam said, holding up his hands. “There are people who love the same gender. But there are also people who switch between – or who love people and think of their gender and sex afterwards. Then there are hormones and transgendered people and- it's complicated. But, fine, I can see you are reaching for your ax, Vulkis, very funny.” He smirked.
Vulkis laughed, taking his hand off his throwing ax.
“Fine. Simple. I am fine with people who love the same sex,” Liam said. “And if I'm very, very drunk, Thu'Chan might convince me to at least try making out with him.”
Vulkis slapped Liam's back again, then hurried off to bawl orders at some of the crew who had been slacking off. Liam turned to face Liv, who was still looking serious.
“Sir,” she said. “I wanted to apologize.”
Liam blinked. Sir? Not master? That was a subtle, but vital, difference. Sir sounded…
Respectful but not subservient.
Liv rubbed her shoulder with one hand, then stepped over to the railing. She looked out at the ocean, but she didn't seem to actually be searching for anything in particular. Her eyes unfocused and she continued speaking.
“I want to apologize for- I was-” She shook her head. “My pride. I was thinking of my pride first, and not the needs and realities of a warrior. Do you know what pride gets warriors? Killed.” She looked at him. “My pride said that you didn't defeat me. You tricked me. You cheated in our fight – and I would make your life miserable until I could find a way past the magic of the collar.” Her fingers rubbed it as she spoke. “And slit your throat in your sleep.”
“Uh-”
“But,” Liv said, ignoring Liam looking nonplussed. “You didn't trick me. You didn't cheat. You were clever and a brave warrior. And when you fought the basilisk, I realized that even if I had known about how you'd pummel me... I think you still might have won. Maybe.”
She sighed.
“And so, I want to apologize for what I have done. And I want to learn how you fight – I want to learn how to use a sword like you.” She ducked her head forward. “My father is the God of War. But the Hellenes don't fight war like your people. War's chaos. War's vicious and brutal and crude. My father is like that – and I've tried my whole life to be both elf and him.”
She grinned, slowly, lifting her head up to look Liam in the eyes.
“And I think with your style, I can. There's something very Aries in beating someone to death with the blunt part of a sword. And something very elven in the... fine craftsmanship of your long blade.”
Her voice had just a hint of a purr there.
Liam blinked a few times.
“You just told me you were planning to kill me,” he said. “And now you want me to teach you Historical European Martial Arts?”
“Well, yes,” Liv said, sounding affronted, her eyes narrowing. “I don't want to kill you anymore. You really did earn my service, even if I'd prefer to not be a slave.” Her fingers touched her collar. Liam opened his mouth – about to speak – but then stopped himself. He paused and thought to himself.
This isn't a video game, he thought. It's not a book. If I just do the first thing that comes to mind, it might not work out. Liv is an immortal elf – who knows how good she is at long term planning and lying, daughter of Aries or no.
But his soul spoke to him then.
And Liam knew, even if he died, this was the right thing to do.
He would rather be dead than continue this farce.
He reached up, touching his fingers to the slave collar. “Livanna, daughter of Aries, warrior of Sparta, I free you from your slavery.”
The slave collar didn't do anything. Liv blinked at him.
“Liam,” she said. “You need the touchkey that locked the collar to unlock it. You can't just unlock it by saying so. I mean, how stupid would that be!?” She punched his chest gently, laughing. “Any family member of a slave could just hold a dagger to your throat and force you to free them! Idiot! Moron!” She laughed as she punched him again. Liam held up his hands, trying to ward off her punches, laughing as well.
Well, he thought. Sometimes, it is just the thought that counts.
***
Olimurias took Liam's breath away. From a distance, it had seemed more like a mountain than a city but as the day slid onwards with the unwavering brightness of Purgatory, the city grew larger and larger, until Liam really began to understand the difference in scale between it and Faiyum Falls. The city was constructed on a series of tiers that had been carved into the side of a mountainous island. Buildings rose from the tiers, looking to be carved from the same pale white rock that the island had been made of, while greenery had been planted in broad, sweeping planters that made the city seem to be half forest. The port was large and expansive, carved into a natural harbor, with ships of every creed nestled into it. Dominating the two sides of the entrance of the harbor were two immense chalices carved of solid gold that glowed with flames that reached towards the sky.
“Well,” Liam said, quietly. “That's-”
The sun shut off. Liam wondered if he would ever get used to the sudden plunge into night. However, Olimurias seemed designed to cope with that kind of change, as the lights that flared on across it appeared to keep the whole thing as brightly lit as New York at night. He shook his head slowly as Vulkis called out orders to the crew.
The ship nestled into the harbor, and ropes were cast down, tying it into place. Vulkis shook Liam's hand, smiling broadly as he did so. “I'll be in town for some days – I want to get all that gold you offered to take you back, eh?”
“Thanks, Vulkis,” Liam said as he stepped away – moving onto the gangplank as Liv, Meg and Tethis followed him. Liv carried some of the luggage, but didn't move with the mincing step that she had used before. Nor did she take advantage of the ship's rocking to bump her breasts against Liam's arm. Part of him missed that – but a bigger part of him was too busy looking around himself at the city.
“So, where is the library?” he asked.
Tethis adjusted the clay tablet that she had pulled from her backpack. “This map states that the library is at the highest tier in the center of the city. Brigid dwells above it.”
Liam smiled. “Well, come on then.”
The group started into the crowd. Meg walked beside Liam, her hip bumping against his, her left wing cupping against his back. He smiled at her, whispering quietly in the tiny space of quiet that her wing produced for them: “You sure you okay with me, you know, fucking Tethis?”
“To be fair, you fucked Tethis. Once.” Meg tapped his nose. “Secondly, no. In what universe would I want my man to get less practice. And you've asked me that before and you will ask me again when you're balls deep in, say, her.” She nodded to a woman standing before a merchant stall, dressed in three leather straps, leaving vast expanses of red skin exposed, her head marked with two curving horns, her rump having a long, thin tail sprouting from above it. Liam almost walked into another man as he gaped at the woman but before he could see more, they were whisked deeper into the crowd by Meg's unstoppable momentum.
“What was she?”
“Who knows?” Meg asked. “I've never seen any like her in New Athens.”
“A Lillin,” Tethis said, hurrying to match their stride. “They're another transplant from Earth, not a native Purgatory species.”
“So, humans, Lilin-” Liam stopped short, looking down at the short scribe. “Lilin as in Lilith?”
“I don't know what that's a reference too,” Tethis said, panting quietly. “But, uh-” She was jostled by another merchant. “But can we slow down?”
“Sorry,” Meg said, blushing as she slowed her stride.
They came to one of the exits that lead away from the docks, a large ramp that smoothly ascended into the next tier of the city. There, Liam saw the guards of this place. Elves in bronze armor with heavy chest pieces and thick leather for the legs and arms for protection. The leather could turn a blade, and the chest pieces looked thick enough to make them tough nuts to crack. But what he was really impressed by were the bows. They didn't look to be quite on the level of English longbows, but they were still fairly large. The guards stood at perfect attention, and had the kind of unwavering look that he had started to recognize on elves. Despite not seeming to move their eyes Liam was fairly sure that they were watching everyone who started up the ramp, and everyone who went down it.
“Creepy,” he said.
“I'd rather have them than the guards back in Faiyum,” Tethis said, sniffing. “They were useless – we had to get ourselves rescued by a sea captain.”
“In the guard's defense, we were ambushed in an alleyway,” Liam said.
Tethis sniffed again.
They worked their way through the tiers of the city, the crowds growing more and less intense as they walked past homes and apartments. A great deal of the city seemed to be given over to the making of paper, something that made him stop and watch. The paper-making buildings had large open windows, and whatever process they were using produced a fairly intense stink. But what was coming out were large sheets of pale gray paper. It looked slightly more bumpy and uneven than the smooth paper he was used too on Earth.
But it was still paper. Not papyrus.
“What is that?” Meg asked.
Liam grinned. “It's paper,” he said, quietly. “I think Brigid – or her scholars – have learned how to make it. That's fantastic.” He started to do some mental calculations. They had come here expecting to pay through the nose to transcribe the documentation within the iPod onto papyrus or, worse, parchment. But paper had the advantage of being far easier to produce. No matter what method that they were using, it had to be cheap if so many buildings were dominated by-
Liam's brain suddenly screamed at him that something was wrong. It took him a second to realise why – instincts born of a life spent on the back of a bike causing him to pat his hips. But he didn't have pockets. He had his fanny pack. The pouch was open. His eyes widened.
The iPod was gone.