Niles

  Niles felt like a jerk. He had really intended to keep his cool and go with the flow, but he’d just had to push it and all but deliver an ultimatum that Birgit pick him or the prince. Did he even want that? What if she had offered him a marriage contract right there? It was probably a good thing she hadn’t. He didn’t want her to give up her chance to be a royal consort. To him, being one of nine consorts didn’t seem that great, but evidently, here, that was a really big deal. It was probably best that they’d just agreed to another short-term contract. And now that he knew Birgit really wasn’t interested in a relationship with him, he could start looking around.

  Vedika would probably be his first pick after Birgit. She was fun to be with, really attractive, and super interested in his magic. But was that all she was interested in? And was she off the table because she would eventually get pushed into some political marriage? Maybe he should widen his search. There was Hilaria. She was fun and had seemed at least a little interested. Also, she was from a poor barony like Birgit and seemed to enjoy crystal hunting more than Birgit or Uma. Maybe they could move to her home barony and hunt crystals to help the local economy. That would be good. But could he get over her appearance? She wasn’t ugly, but gnolls were about the least human-looking of the races he’d run into. Well, maybe Naga were less human. Half of them certainly was, anyway. It was fun to flirt with Susi, but he really could not see actually getting intimate with her. He didn’t know how that was even possible. Hilaria, at least, had a basically human body, a quite shapely one, in fact. It was just all that fur that would be weird. Of course, he still didn’t know for sure how furry rakshasas were. He knew Vedika’s face and shoulders weren’t furry, but her arms from the elbow down were.

  Maybe he should consider Sinja. Both Birgit and Vedika had warned him not to trust elves, but was that just because their kingdoms were rivals? Maybe the solar elf would have better luck finding him a way home if she didn’t end up torturing him for information or turning him into a lab experiment. That was certainly the path of greatest risk, but possibly greatest reward. How much did he really want to go home?

  This would be so much easier if he didn’t have to get married to gain the status of at least something close to a citizen here. But what if the relationship didn’t work out? This world would be really cool if he were free to live here as a real person in his own right. If he could just be a freelance crystal hunter, he could live an exciting life and get rich in the process. Maybe he could find someone who’d be willing to give him a long-term contract for a percentage of his profits and let him live his life however he wanted. There would have to be people willing to do that, wouldn’t there?

  He had several options he could look into, but why did he feel so bad about what had happened with Birgit? And why did the thought of moving on without her trouble him? Had he really developed feelings for her? It was probably just Stockholm Syndrome. He’d been all but tied to her ever since she essentially kidnapped him and made him completely dependent on her. Whatever the reasons, he still needed her, for now, anyway. So, he had better head back and sign that temporary contract before she changed her mind and decided to cut him loose right away.

  Returning to the suite, Niles found Susi in the living room, but not Birgit. “Where’s your sister?”

  “She’s in her room, preparing the contract,” Susi answered, slithering up to him. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Nile said, walking past Susi to flop onto the couch. “I guess getting confirmation I’m trapped here hit me harder than I thought. I’m good now. This world’s not that bad, better than my old one in some ways. I just have some things to figure out, that’s all.”

  “Are you sure you are alright?” Susi asked, slithering up behind Niles and beginning to rub his shoulders. “You know, my sister thinks very highly of you. She sees you as much more than just a familiar, and I know she would feel terrible if something came between you.”

  Niles moved his shoulders and neck as Susi rubbed them. “I think highly of her, too. I’m sorry I walked out, but I needed to clear my head. It’s not her fault. I…”

  “Oh, Niles, you're back,” Birgit said, stepping out of her room and giving Niles a big smile. “I prepared the contract we discussed, but there is one more option I want to talk about before we sign it.”

  “I’ll just go take another bath,” Susi said, letting go of Niles’ shoulders and heading for the bathroom. “Feel free to come join me if you need to clear your head again, Niles.”

  Ignoring her sister, Birgit walked over and sat down next to Niles, offering him her hand. Niles accepted it and felt her pulling on his magic. She was smiling but seemed tense at first, though as the magic began to flow, she relaxed slightly.

  “Look, I’m sorry I walked out,” Niles said. “I just…”

  “You do not have to explain yourself,” Birgit cut in. “I realize I just told you that you would most likely never see your home again. I am sure if that happened to me, I would be a complete mess. You are handling this amazingly well, all things considered. You must be feeling very lost and alone right now, but I want to assure you I have no plans to abandon you. I think of you as much more than just my familiar.”

  Niles gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Thanks, I appreciate that, and I think of you as more than just my mage. I’m sorry if you felt like I was pressuring you. What else did you want to discuss?”

  Birgit took his hand with her other hand as well, turning to face him completely. “Well, I can certainly understand that you are worried about your future. So, I want to offer you a long-term contract…”

  “You don’t have to do this,” Niles cut in. “I really didn’t want to pressure you into a marriage contract…”

  “No, no,” Birgit interrupted, gently patting Niles’ hand and smiling. “I realize you are not interested in that. I am just proposing a long-term familiar contract. We can put in whatever clauses you want to give you as much freedom as you desire. That way you will have security, and we could still be together as much or as little as you wanted.”

  Niles was taken aback. Once again, he had not realized that was an option, though it made perfect sense. Obviously, other familiars probably had that kind of thing, and at first, Birgit had been all about setting longer durations for their contracts. He’d just been so fixated on marriage contracts since he’d heard of them, he hadn’t considered other options. He briefly wondered if he should tell her he wasn’t completely opposed to the idea of a marriage contract with her, but he couldn’t think of a way to phrase it that wouldn’t either sound insulting or needy.

  “So, you would be alright with setting up a contract that lets me explore the world on my own and hunt crystals?” Niles asked.

  “If that is what you want, though, we would have to arrange to meet at least occasionally, just for appearances, and I would certainly miss having you around. I consider you a very dear friend.”

  “I consider you a friend, too, but what happens if you become a royal consort, or what if I decide to get married?”

  “You and Prince Advick seem to get along very well, so I am certain that should I become his consort he would be happy to have you around as much as you want, and given your special talents you would be an extremely valuable asset for the kingdom. My duties, responsibilities, and authority as a consort will be determined by my effectiveness, and I am certain with you at my side I would be much more effective. Together, I think we could do great things for this kingdom. And I always feel so much safer when you are near. When the time comes, I would dearly love for you to protect any children I might have, and maybe even help increase their magic potential as they grow. So, I am certain the prince would see the value of having you around as much as you want.”

  “As far as you getting married, well, if you wanted to take lovers, that would be no problem. There is ample precedence for that from people taking other-planar entities, such as nymphs, as familiars. An actual marriage would be a little more complicated, though I am sure we could find a way to make that work. If you were to marry Susi, for example…”

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  There was a sudden crash from the bathroom.

  “Do you think she’s listening?” Niles whispered.

  Birgit pursed her lips and whispered back. “No doubt.” But then she continued at her normal volume. “As I was saying, if you were to marry Susi, we could just keep it a secret marriage, and that would be no problem. That would even work out splendidly. We could raise our children together. But you would not have to marry her, of course. You could choose whomever you want. Is there anyone you have in mind?”

  “What… oh, no, no,” Niles stammered. “This is all so much to process. But you’d be okay with me just hooking up with Azrielle or someone?”

  Birgit’s hand tightened its grip on Niles for a moment, and her smile faltered. “If ‘hooking up’ means becoming lovers, I would certainly not recommend Azrielle, but if that is what you wanted, I would be ‘okay’ with it. For now, I suggest we just extend our current contract until after the field study, as we discussed. That will give you time to consider what terms you want in a long-term contract.”

  Niles agreed, his mind still spinning with the new possibilities. Birgit produced the contract she’d prepared, and once again they placed their palms on the paper and stated their terms. As before, the magic began fading as soon as Niles put his hand on the page, so he wasn’t sure if it really did anything or not. He certainly didn’t feel any different, but he never had before, either.

  “Should I sleep on the cot?” Niles asked once the contract signing was done. “I mean, since you’re kind of planning on getting together with the prince and all.”

  “Nothing is set in stone with the prince yet, and a good friend told me recently that sometimes propriety must be sacrificed for necessity,” Birgit answered. “And right now, getting stronger is a necessity. All our lives may depend on me becoming as strong as I can before the field study. And I trust you not to do anything improper.”

  It still felt weird to Niles, crawling into bed with Birgit that evening, especially when she seemed inclined to cuddle. There was no way this could be healthy, and Niles could think of so many ways this could end up going wrong.

  The following day, they set off for their first crystal hunt with the entire team. The expedition got off to a rocky start as Azrielle tried all manner of things to get to fly next to Niles, from begging to fly on Vedika’s mount with him, to offering to carry him herself. In the end, she ended up flying with Jabari since, though she could fly, she could not match the endurance of the flying mounts.

  After flying well into the afternoon, Niles spotted a good location to hunt. There was a bright, golden glow that indicated the presence of a potent time crystal, as well as at least a half-dozen fairly strong glows from other crystals near it. The time-tainted eagle that guarded the crystal was a beast to fight. It dodged their spells and damaged Advick’s earth elemental familiar badly enough that it retreated to its home plane, before Sinja’s void elemental trapped it in a web long enough for Niles and Azrielle to finish it with their weapons. It was a bit of a rough start to their hunt, showing that the team needed to better coordinate their efforts, but time-tainted creatures were about the hardest type to deal with. At least the time crystal was large, vibrant, and clear, meaning it would sell for a lot and that this area probably had not been harvested for quite some time.

  They gathered up the other crystals Niles had spotted from the air and two more before stopping to set up camp. Gathering the other crystals had gone progressively better, and by the last one, they had a good system set up for dealing with the crystal’s guardians. The elves had brought their own tent, but it didn’t take much longer to set up two tents with the extra hands this weekend. It would have gone faster, but Azrielle continued to hover around Niles, making it hard for him to get anything done. She’d been good when they’d been on the hunt, but evidently she felt she didn’t have to be alert anymore and could focus all her attention on Niles now that they were in camp. Still, they had the tents set up before the wards were all in place.

  “Oh, Niles,” Azrielle cooed as they sat down for the simple meal they’d prepared over the campfire. “Have you decided what you want to use your favor for? If you have not, I have some suggestions.”

  Niles wasn’t sure what to do about Azrielle. He could understand her desire to absorb his magic, but for some reason, even though she knew all she had to do was touch him, she really seemed to want to get intimate about how she touched him. Did she think she would absorb more magic that way, or was she actually attracted to him? Maybe the feeling of absorbing his magic was just so pleasurable that it was triggering some kind of mating instinct.

  Niles couldn’t deny being tempted. She was very attractive, though her angelic appearance, coupled with her aggressively forward behavior, was really messing with his head. He basically had a green light from Birgit to fool around with her, if he wanted to, though. He’d even asked about her specifically, and Birgit had said she’d be okay with it. But Niles knew better than to just take that at face value. Besides, Niles had never been a fan of casual hookups. They just led to trouble down the line, and there was no way he wanted to start a long-term relationship with Azrielle.

  “I think I’ll hang onto the favor for a while and save it up for something really important,” Niles finally answered, trying to be polite but firm.

  “Which tent are you going to sleep in?” Azrielle asked, not giving up.

  “Niles and I will be sharing a tent with the prince and princess,” Birgit answered before Niles could.

  “Oh, that is a good idea,” Azrielle commended. “My mage told me it is important to protect the prince and princess. I should sleep there, too, so that I can help.”

  “You have your own mage to protect,” Vedika pointed out, joining the conversation. “We will be fine.”

  “Maybe Niles and I should go scout the area around the camp to make sure it is safe,” Azrielle suggested, trying a new tack.

  “The wards are already up,” Birgit said. “It is too late for that.”

  Azrielle switched tacks again. “Then Niles and I could take the first watch together.”

  Vedika countered this attempt. “We have already decided on the watches. There will be four watches, one mage, and their guardian familiar on each one, with one mage getting a full night’s sleep.”

  There really was no need for anyone to get a full night’s sleep on such a brief trip, but they’d decided that over the two-week field study, it would be important for everyone to get one full night’s rest every fifth day.

  Azrielle finally gave up, and they finished the meal analyzing their performance today and talking about plans for tomorrow. They’d drawn stones, which was this world’s version of drawing straws, to see who would get the full night’s sleep and Birgit had picked the lucky stone, so Niles settled in for a good night’s sleep with Birgit and Vedika at his sides. As before, Vedika was close enough to touch, but not close enough to cuddle like Birgit. It didn’t take Niles long to fall asleep, but in the middle of the night, he felt Vedika get up for her watch. Not fully waking up, he quickly dozed back off.

  It seemed like only a minute later, though, when Niles felt Vedika climb back into her bedroll. But she didn’t just resume her position at Niles side. Her hand reached up onto his bare chest and began gently caressing him. While Niles was still trying to process what was happening, he felt her slide slowly up onto him, her chest pressing against his as she straddled one of his legs. Soft kisses began working their way from his chest up to his neck.

  Was this a dream? It felt very real. If this was real, what should he do? He did like Vedika, but he could feel Birgit there right next to him, and he couldn’t remember the watch order at the moment, so it was possible Vedika’s brother was in the tent with them, too. This was not a good time for this.

  “Vedika, I don’t think we should do this here,” Niles whispered as quietly as he could.

  “Good, you should not do this with Vedika, only with me,” a familiar voice whispered back.

  “Azrielle? What are you doing?” Niles hissed.

  “Showing you how much I appreciate you sharing your magic with me,” Azrielle purred in his ear as she began rubbing herself against him.

  Niles could feel her pulling at his light magic now, and he cut off the flow. “Get off me now, or I will never let you get another drop.”

  “Noooo!” Azrielle wailed.

  “Huh, what’s wrong?” Birgit said groggily, and Niles felt her shift next to him as if she were reaching out to put an arm over him. Of course, she did not find what she had expected. “What is… who…”

  Suddenly, the tent lit up as Birgit uncovered the enchanted light she kept by her at night. Azrielle sat up quickly, ending up straddling Niles’ waist, and flared out her silver and gold wings. Dressed only in the thinnest of shifts, the seraph was revealed in all her glory.

  “What are you doing here?” Birgit demanded.

  “Vedika is on watch, so I decided to take her place,” Azrielle answered innocently, letting her wings relax.

  “That is not her place,” Birgit countered hotly.

  Azrielle gave her a sly smile. “Good, then I can have it.”

  “What is… What are you doing here?” Vedika’s voice came from the tent opening.

  “She is leaving if she ever wants any chance of getting any of my magic ever again,” Niles answered, letting the embarrassment he was feeling add some heat to his words. “This is not okay, Azrielle. Do not do this again, ever. Do not even touch me again without permission. Go now.”

  The mischievous grin on Azrielle’s face disappeared, replaced by a look of utter despair. Tears began filling her eyes, making Niles regret being so harsh. But he didn’t let his expression soften. This had gone too far, and he needed to stop it right here. Azrielle quickly climbed off him and scrambled out of the tent, sobbing.