[Punish, Research]
I concentrate on the void, I need a not too good character male, but not too bad character
“Hello, Hello does anyone want to play a paladin character but not lawful Hello”
“Hello my name's Ronan and I’m a Paladin of the Trickster God Loki.”
“I’m sorry Ronan, I’m Rose but I’m not looking for an evil Paladin. I wanted a Neutral Good.”
“I’m not evil, Rose, I’m a true Neutral, Neutral alignment. I like to play tricks on people, that's why I signed up with Loki. Loki himself is classed as Chaotic Neutral. But I find Lawful and Chaotic too extreme. I like to hit that sweet spot in the middle but of course I favor good over evil. But depending where you stand in history, good can look pretty bad.”
“I agree Ronan, lawful good can be very bad indeed, one might even say evil. Just because some rule told him to, he left a person to die.”
“Look at Robin Hood, the church, the rich lords and ladies. They look at Robin as evil incarnate. It’s obvious that he’s evil because he steals. But to the poor, he’s goodness personified. So if we can agree that Robin is a good guy because his story was passed down word of mouth, a legend. How many other ‘evil men or women’ are just as heroic as Robin but we haven’t heard their true story. Whoever controls the media controls the narrative. The poor very rarely get a say, or write a book that gets published.”
“I guess we agree on more than I would have thought. I think I might be looking at this from the wrong perspective. I was thinking if you aren’t on the side of good, you have to be on the side of evil, but there is a middle ground. To do ‘good’ you might sometimes need to do an ‘evil’ deed, like Robin. Who I always had in the good category before, but he did do some evil things.”
“Rose. You could give me a chance to prove myself. Do you have anyone that needs saving?”
“As a matter of fact I do have someone stranded on a mountain top about to be eaten by wolves. You are right, you deserve a chance.”
***
Staring into the void Maria, Maria, Princess, Princess
“What do you want? After what you’ve put me through, it’s been quite a hard time.”
“I’m sorry Maria. I’m Rose the author. I wanted to apologize, I usually speak to the main characters at least once before putting them into a story and now you’ve been in two. This probably won’t help but it’s the only excuse I have so I’ll give it to you. You weren’t meant to be a main character. Especially in the first story, you were just meant to be an object for the quest.
I wanted to say something about law versus chaos. It was wrong of me to have objectified you. I saw that in the second story you went from an object into a real person and I liked the way you handled the dragon. I also want to warn you because I posted the story on the internet and now people have the idea that you and I are into a weird fetish. No judgment to those that are.
See the problem is I needed a reason for the dragon to want a virgin princess, I didn’t want him to eat or have sex with you, I thought you could kiss the dragon eggs but that was too sexual, so I thought of watering the flowers, maybe a virgin princess has a hormone in her urine that would somehow influence the growth of an egg. But people seem to have gotten the wrong idea, due to my unclear poor writing style.
Anyways if you start getting a lot of strange offers or emails just avoid them OK?”
“So apology not accepted, Rose. You didn’t even apologize for the cognomen did you. What are my family and friends going to think of ‘the slutty princess’. I’ll never get a nice boyfriend now, thanks to you.”
“To be fair the nickname is all on the dragon, that wasn’t my fault, but I did put you in that situation so again I apologize. I’ll bet there are lots of boys who are very nice that will be intrigued by the story of how you were tricked by ‘her’ and if you ever want to tell your side, I’m here for you. Besides what’s with the double standard women have to be pure while men can be gross, unfair I say unfair. Anyway if you want to get your revenge on Vesta’s Paladin, I’d love to do a third story. I have to say I thought you had wonderful chemistry with Ronan and I’d love to see you two get revenge sex together.”
“You really think we had good chemistry together?”
“I do, I didn’t want him in the story originally, I mean a paladin of Loki, I thought he was an Evil alignment, but he proved that he wasn’t evil when he went into the dragon’s den just to look for you. You might not have gotten away. I would imagine that dragon might well have eaten you if he hadn’t distracted him. But I understand, I used you twice and never even asked for your consent. I have another character, Scarlet. She started out as an exotic dancer, but if I do a lot of description effects maybe the reader won’t notice that I replaced you. Scarlett loves a bad boy so I’m sure she’ll accept. She’s not as smart and sassy as you are but if need be she’ll do in a pinch.”
“Now wait, I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it.”
“Really, that would be terrific. Does that mean you've forgiven me a little bit?”
“Yes, Rose I suppose I have.”
“Well thank you and I’ll try and earn this trust in the third story. Would you like to come over and have a cup of tea and talk a little more?”
“Can you pull me into the real world?”
“Yes Maria, I’m a Bibliomancer.”
“Yeah, I’d love to get tea with you.”
So I pulled her from the void into the back room of Enigmatic Parchments.
“Wow this is really something.”
“I know it really needs to be tidied up, I just can’t ever seem to find the time. Come on, I'll introduce you to my boss and coworker and then we’ll go for tea.”
“Sparky this is Princess Maria, I’m taking her for tea so we can talk before her third story.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you princess, Rose, bring back donuts and don’t take all day, understand?”
“Yes Sparky, and Maria this is my senior apprentice Opal, Opal would you like a sweet bun honey?”
“Yes please, it’s nice to meet you Maria.”
***
“Hi Ruby, this is Maria, a friend of mine.”
“Hi Maria, Welcome to Madd Maggie’s Magical Bakery and Tea House, it’s wonderful to meet you, what would you like?”
“Just a black tea please.”
“Rose, what are you going to have?”
“Sparky and Opal’s usual and I’ll have a sweet bun and Jasmine tea please.”
Ruby went to get our order.
“My girlfriend Lu works here somedays, she’s a bard. But it looks like she might be performing at the tavern today.”
“This is a beautiful town, Rose.”
“After we finish the stories maybe you could come over and stay for a long weekend or vacation. We live in a tower that has tons of empty rooms. Ruby and her sister Opal live there with us.”
“I have to ask, why is an eleven year old girl the senior apprentice?”
“Sparky tricked me, I’d been his apprentice for a couple of months but nothing formal had been signed. So we had a signing ceremony when Opal became his apprentice as well. So I wanted to let her go first with the signing, then I signed. Then Sparky declared I was the junior apprentice because I became his apprentice after Opal. That’s just Sparky’s way, he teases me constantly. I think it is how he shows that he cares.”
“What did you enjoy about growing up as a princess and did you ever have another occupation in mind?”
“I always wanted to be a princess but if I’d known that I’d wind up as a virgin sacrifice, I probably would have thought about an alternate profession.”
“I can understand that. Do you have any brothers and sisters?”
“I have a few brothers left, father keeps encouraging them to fight so he picks the strongest to succeed himself and I have two sisters, one older married to an old guy for an alliance and the younger one is also married to an old man for an alliance.”
“Gah, being a princess is no bed of roses is it?”
“The first ten years are wonderful, after that it seems the choice is to be used for an alliance or a sacrifice to a dragon. My younger sister is still at the castle and doesn’t have to present herself to the groom until the night before her eighteenth birthday. Sometimes the grooms die between wedding day and wedding night. But that just means that father finds you another old man to marry. It’s no use wishing one dead, there is always another just waiting in the wings.”
“Gods, you may be the lucky one, the dragon seems like the better choice,a few hours and it’s over even if he eats you. At least I’d find that preferable to being married to an old man. Well I have to get back to the bookstore with Sparky and Opal’s meal. I hope to contact Cormac and try and convince him to do the sequel, then I’ll contact you and Ronan. I’m really looking forward to working with you again.”
“Thanks Rose it was nice to meet you in ‘real life’, I hope you meant it when you said I could come back for vacation.”
“Sure, I did. You have a magic ring to prove it don’t you?”
“That’s right I forgot, you didn’t lie to me once since we started talking.”
“Nope, I won’t lie to you, and the last thing I’ll say is if you get tired of being a princess you can always come here to live and work, you’d just need to see what you're suited to. Bye Maria, see you later.”
“Bye Rose.”
***
Into the void I stare Cormac, Cormac it’s Rose Look I’m sorry
“Hi Rose, I thought we’d agreed that I wasn’t fit for fiction.”
“I just had lunch with the princess. I thought you’d like to know.”
“So she’s alright then.”
“Yes she is very much so and she needs your help, she doesn’t hold any grudges against you. She understands what it means to have to follow rules, princesses have tons of rules and etiquette that must be observed. So there is no animosity there but if you could just make a cameo appearance it would really help her complete this arc of her story. Don’t you think you owe her that much Cormac?”
“Well I do..”
“Come on Cormac, how many times in your life has a princess asked for you in particular. How many times did your grandfather get asked by a princess to do something for her? I’d be willing to bet zero times Cormac. You’d be one upping him with royalty. Just a cameo. What do you say? For the princess.”
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“Okay but just a cameo, I want to apologize for leaving her on that mountain.”
“She understands, you were just following the rules. But you’ll have a chance to apologize. Not to worry. All right I’ll contact you later today for your cameo, thank you Cormac it means the world to me as well.
***
The Vestal Virgins
Princess Maria and Ronan the paladin of the Trickster God Loki made better time down the mountain then Maria had expected. The gate guards gave them directions to a respectable inn. Maria wondered if they’d run into Cormac, Vesta’s paladin who’d left her stranded on the mountain and hunted by wolves. She hoped not. She read once that revenge is a dish best served cold. Her desire for vengeance still burned hot and she wanted a subtle plan to enact such revenge.
The inn looked nice enough. Ronan handed his horse over to the stable boy.
“Princess before we go in, I just want to say that inns like these can sometimes be dangerous to single women. I think we should get one room with two beds. That way we’ll both feel more secure.”
“You somehow believe that I’ll feel more secure falling asleep, with the man who hasn’t taken his eyes off the tear in my rags the entire way down the mountain.”
“I wanted to make sure you were safe and not falling off the horse.”
“Lie”
“Why did the dragon give you that damn ring?”
“I earned it, he terrified me, slut shamed me, then pushed me out of his lair to be eaten by wolves. Listen I appreciate your help with the dragon but just because my sobriquet is the ‘slutty princess’ it doesn’t mean I’m going to hop in your bed. I’ve never been with a man in my life. So after I have my revenge on Vesta’s temple I might consent to a date but until then I am sleeping alone in my own bed. It’d be nice to have you along for the trip but I understand if you just want to leave me here to make it to the temple on my own.”
“I’m not going to abandon you here, I like you and it’s a long way to Vesta’s temple. So let's say yesterday when I saved you from those wolves and helped you both up and down the mountain, that was our first date. The time we spend together between now and your revenge, we’ll call that a second date. Then when I ask you out on a date it’ll be our third date, but only if you agree to go.”
“Truth, see sometimes the ring does work in your favor. I like you as well, otherwise I’d be headed to that temple on my own.”
***
They got an early start the next morning, they were headed back to her kingdom. But her plan was to skirt around the kingdom, she didn’t want to be stopped and be dragged back to the castle to be married off to an old man to obtain yet another alliance for her father, like most of her sisters. It’d take an extra half day but it was worth it.
“Ronan, I need to know, do you actually plan to help me take revenge, or just get me there?”
“I’ll be helping, anything to speed up the process. Move us closer to that third date.”
“Truth. I need to know what kind of Paladin Powers you have?”
“I have three illusion spells, a spell of hearing, a spell of black fog, that spell makes me a foot taller and conjures a black obsidian spear, supposedly vampiric in nature and voice throwing.”
“What’s vampiric in nature mean?”
“I’ve never had to use it, so I’m saying supposedly. If I was hurt, and I fought against another creature with the spear and scored a hit against the other creature. That creature would suffer a certain amount of damage and I would heal a certain amount. But I’m not much bigger than you so I wouldn’t be doing massive damage. I’m basically an illusionist, illusion and speed and wits are my go to along with lots of running away. If your plan involves me fighting ten temple guards or something like that you have to sleep with me the night before we attack because I will die.”
“Truth. I don’t plan on having you fight.”
“Well that’s a relief because that’s probably Cormac’s go to plan with infidels like us.”
They made it pretty deep into the woods in their detour around her kingdom. Just before dark they set up camp. The princess looked for wood, Ronan prepped the meal, he prepared his own meals all the time. The princess had never cooked a meal in her entire life. She dragged a huge branch back to the campsite. Ronan explained they just needed kindling, small sticks, they didn’t have an axe.
So out she went again and got a pretty good supply, about half of it usable, the other half too wet to burn. Ronan started the fire with the dry and placed a pile of the wet kindling next to the fire to dry. He also took the time to explain that we need dry kindling when gathering. After a rough supper that tasted far better than it should because it was eaten outside. Maria set up the blankets, one on each side of the fire. After supper she got under her blanket and prepared to sleep.
“You know that we’d be warmer and more comfortable if the blankets were put together, we’d be sharing our body heat.”
“Yes, but I’m afraid your ardor would be too warm for me.”
She woke up cold and sore and wished she hadn’t dismissed what he’d said. Every word he’d said was true, it was the unspoken words that worried her. If she was honest with herself maybe it wasn’t just a worry that he couldn’t control himself, maybe she was really getting attached to him herself. So she stayed there cold and sore and waited for dawn. Dawn finally dawned and Maria started packing, Ronan was soon up and they shared a cold breakfast as they walked.
The game trail they were on petered out, Ronan grabbed her by the hand guiding her through the thick brush surrounding. When the forest thinned and walking got easier, he didn’t let go of her hand and she didn’t complain.
That night when they stopped to camp, they took the same jobs as the day before, this time Maria only brought back dry usable kindling. Ronan prepared another acceptable meal over the open flames. That’s high praise for anything cooked in that manner. While eating they heard a few wolf packs, not dangerously close but not quite faint enough for comfort.
“I promise to tamp down my ardor but I’d be happier if you slept by the fire and let me sleep on the other side of you. You have the ring, you know I speak the truth.”
She laid out the blankets like he asked and got under the covers. The next morning after a good night's sleep she found that she’d wrapped herself around him as if she was a python and he a mouse. She thanked Fortuna that she’d woken first and got back to her side of the blankets.
That day they spent their lunch break with Ronan instructing Maria on how to use a simple club to best advantage against a wolf. She'd still be dead facing a pack alone but at least she would get in a few good shots before they took her down. But she wasn’t alone and Ronan would spend a half hour after supper in the fire light, doing spear routines to ensure that Maria never had to use the club.
The same routines went on for the next few days, they were making good time and in just a day or two more they’d be in Penham the city where Vesta’s Temple was located. She started putting sticks and rocks under the blankets in between herself and Ronan. Thinking that rolling over one of them during the night would wake her up or at least keep her on her side of the blankets.
Every morning she found herself snuggled around him, every morning she thanked Fortuna, that she’d gotten back to her side before he woke. But this night the wolves attacked. Ronan was up like a shot, moving her roughly off of him.
“Princess get up and get your club, they’re almost on us.”
She sprang to her feet, grabbing her club. Her back to the fire, Ronan in front of her spear in hand. Ronan could see through the illusion that was smoke, but she couldn’t tell where the wolves were, but she could hear them, snarling and growling.
“Maria use some of that spare kindling, just stick the end of the kindling in and we’ll use that as torches, wolves hate and are afraid of fire.”
The smoke illusion eventually faded and she could see the wolves now as well as hear them. She had her club in one hand and a burning stick in the other. Still the wolves never came near her. The wolves kept trying to lunge or rush at Ronan but each time those jaws would snap but they bit nothing but empty air. After what seemed like an eternity Maria noticed the sky starting to lighten.
Just then the largest of the wolves took a run at Ronan, he’d slashed at a few of the other wolves scoring hits but this time he lunged at the wolf as it lunged at him. Burying the spear deep in its chest. Just as quickly as it happened he withdrew the spear and hopped back ready to defend Maria again.
With their leader dead or dying and sky brightening the rest of the pack ran off to lick their wounds. They both were exhausted. Maria didn’t know how long Ronan had held them at bay. It seemed like forever. They sat down on their blankets for a few minutes.
“We’ll rest for thirty minutes Maria, then we’ll push on, hard and keep going. Breakfast and lunch and dinner too, we’ll eat as we walk. I want to get you to Penham today.”
So that’s exactly what they did, eating jerky as they walked sharing the canteen. After an hour the fear from the attack had drained from her system. But her arms still felt strangely weak, after the jolt of adrenaline. He hadn’t pushed her at all on their trip but he pushed her today.
The only time he was pressing her forward was when she needed to relieve herself. Previously when she felt the need she’d walk a fair way into the woods to assure herself of privacy. Today any large tree would do. She didn’t want to be alone in the woods. She would have died on this trip if he hadn’t been with her. This was at least the second time he’d saved her life. How many other nights would the wolves have attacked if he hadn’t been with her.
She was both relieved and saddened when she saw the town relieved that they wouldn’t have to fight for their lives in the middle of the night and saddened that she wouldn’t wake in the morning entwined with him. She’d also begun to suspect that he was faking being asleep in the morning to prevent any embarrassment on her part.
They found an inn that looked decent enough and when he asked for two rooms, she told the landlord instead, one room with two beds. They had a nice meal, stew and fresh bread with ale and wine in the common room then returned to their room. Both fell exhausted into their beds. When she woke in the middle of the night she really wanted to go climb into his bed and wrap herself with him. She fell asleep again eventually.
The next day she went to Vesta’s rich temple. It was obvious that the citizens supported the temple lavishly. Women could only enter the outer ring of the temple, the inner circle was expressly for Vesta’s virgins and the head priest pontifex maximus.
Maria went daily to note who did what on what day of the week. She also noted the looks that sometimes passed between pontifex maximus and some of the virgins. She didn’t think that they were looks of religious rapture more like sexual ravishment.
The virgins never left the inner circle and those in the outer ring could never enter the inner. But the pontifex maximus came and went as he pleased. So she started watching him exclusively. He had his own residence, a grand palace looking home, he'd go to the temple, and on some days he’d go to the virgins convent. They’d been here about a week, when she saw Cormac for the first time. That’s when the plan came to her.
She explained it in detail to Ronan.
“Are you sure that revenge is worth the risk?”
“Yes, I’m sure it’s worth it but can you throw the smoke that far?”
“Yes, I can but I’m scared.”
“Then let’s do it now and get it over with.”
With the inner circle covered with black smoke Maria crawled from the outer circling using the same path that pontifex maximus used daily and was quickly at the altar she drew out the three wet rags and stuffed them into the holes. Then she crawled back out.
Next she found Cormac.
“Cormac, remember me?”
“Yes princess, I am very glad to see you alive.”
“Me too. I have a question: what is the penalty for violating one of Vesta’s virgins and who carries out the sentence?”
“The sentence is death, I have the honor of defending their virtue.”
“pontifex maximus has been violating your trust for years, and I’ll prove it to you. Please tell him that I’m ready to take the vow, right now.”
“Maria you’ll be killed, Vesta will strike you with a pillar of fire from heaven.”
“She won’t I promise.”
Cormac went for pontifex maximus, while she waited by the temple. A few minutes later he came out of his house to accept my vows. We walked to the altar.
“I know that you have been having sex with the virgins and I’m going to prove it.”
“Strip”
“Not until you deny it, not until you say you haven’t had sex with any or all of Vesta’s virgins.”
“Of course I deny it, I’ve never had sex I’m a virgin and Vesta is going to burn you in a pillar of fire when you take the vow for your blasphemy.”
pontifex maximus screamed “forget the vow, Vesta burn this blasphemer.”
“What’s the matter, pontifex maximus did your goddess desert you for your sins. Non Virgins confess before your paladin strikes you down. He takes his vows very seriously.”
“The non virgins confessed that the pontifex maximus had been forcing all the virgins into regular orgies at the convent.”
Maria climbed down from the altar and made her way to Cormac.
“You don’t have to kill him, call the guard and explain the whole scam to them. Vesta hasn’t been killing girls. There are gas jets in the altar. I plugged them up with wet rags. There must be a pressure plate somewhere close to where he stands that controls the gas. Now please give me back my ring, I have a date to go on. Thank you Cormac.”
“Maria, thank you, you’ve changed my life.”
“Strangely enough you’ve changed mine for the better, too.”
That night in the inn common room while Maria and Ronan were having dinner.
“How did you know about the gas jets?”
“I learned it from you when you taught me about adding wood to a fire, the virgins kept adding these really big pieces that wouldn’t normally catch and I could smell cow manure. The court magician at my castle does the same trick. Now I have a question for you. Do you really like me a lot.”
“Yes.”
“True. Would you ever consider having sex with a person who has never had sex with a man before.”
“As long as she isn’t a virgin.”
“True. Well should we go up stairs and get this date going, I’m kinda curious what it’s like.”
“I think you like it.”
“True.”
And she did.
End of part 3
