Chapter 644: A mighty gift
Lilith woke Mason several times in the night. She was sweeter every time, less desperate, blue eyes usually open as she slowed down and watched him. Though the sentient tray construct had come in once to remind its master about some court obligation. And the timing had been…bad.
He’d had her bent over, impaled and sex-brained, incapable of answering. He told it she was a little busy, and hoped the undead elves didn’t come storming in for violence. OK maybe a part of him hoped they did…
“Your mates won’t mind?” she said after round three or four, twisting her fingers in her dark hair, naked beside him. He shook his head, and she stroked his arm. “What about your Patron?”
He snorted. “You mean your father? If he’s mad it’s your fault. He’d approve me sticking my dick in a blender.”
Lilith frowned, her almost unearthly beauty somehow wrong with the expression. He supposed comparing sex with her to getting his manhood chopped into bits wasn’t the most flattering thing to say.
“What’s a blender?” she asked, before he could fix it.
He laughed and rolled back onto her, kissing her thick lips and starting another round. That a woman like this would spread her legs for him, eagerly and on command, would have exploded the mind of Mason-of-the-past.
Before they were finished, he’d asked her to re-summon that purple dress, and put on all her jewelry, including her crown. Maybe it was his ever-present urge to dominate, or some hidden fetish of fucking powerful women. But ripping apart the fabric and taking her from behind, with his hand on her royal head…
He came like a stud horse, and filled Lilith so full she was literally overflowing.
“I don’t want the night to end,” she said later, laying across his chest, her dress still on but torn to shreds. He kissed her hair, not sure what to say.
“If the world isn’t destroyed, we can probably make it a regular thing.”
She sat up to stare at him like he’d said something ridiculous.
“Do you mean it? I mean…even if the doom comes, it’s only the prime. You could escape to the fey. Would you come every winter solstice?”
He chuckled and rubbed her back, but felt himself getting more serious.
“If the prime is destroyed, I’m going with it, Lilith. But yes, if I live, every solstice. You can have me all night.”
She threw off the covers, trying to pull him out of bed by the hand like the apocalypse was nigh. She’d turned so serious so quickly, but she was also so sex-ruffled and cum stained he couldn’t help but laugh.
“It isn’t now,” he said as he chuckled. “We have a little more time.”
“I prefer securing centuries to a few more hours of pleasure. Come.”
He sighed and stood, opting not to make an orgasm joke at her choice of words. His eyes went to her exposed skin and ripped up dress, but he forced them ahead. It was probably dungeon reward time. The reason he was here and all that. Or so he reminded himself.
Lilith led him to the corner of her room, holding up a hand to create some kind of swirling blue portal.
“The frozen pool,” she explained. “One of the first Godpaths. Kept open here by my mother since the ancient days.” She looked nervous when she met his eyes. “I shouldn’t have been so selfish. I might have weakened you. It’s a test of the soul. Maybe you should rest a little longer before you…”
“I’m fine.” He stepped closer and stared into the blue void, not seeing anything. “What does it do, exactly?”
“It shows the way you die.”
He snorted, then stared into the equally blue orbs of his newest lover’s eyes. Whatever she was, she wasn’t joking.
“A man only dies once. And I don’t believe in any kind of ‘fate’ that determines it.”
“Then you are wise. But as a druid you know the Godpaths show…possibility. Some possibilities are more likely than others. That is what the frozen pool will show you.”
“Then I don’t need to see it. I know the most likely way. I’ve already told you I’ll go if the primal plane falls.”
“There is power in precise knowledge,” Lilith pressed. “This is no druid dream. You will see the manner of its coming. Perhaps…it will help you avoid it. And to enter the mirror is a kind of power all its own. Few are ever granted the privilege.”
If that didn’t scream ‘new title’ in world-building speak Mason didn’t know what did. He took a deep breath and considered the possibility he was being tricked—that this was all some elaborate set up to get him to go in.
But he discounted it. A woman like Lilith might be able to trick a man, but not after what he’d done to her. A body could only lie so much. She’d wanted him completely, without the kind of reservation you’d have if tricking someone to their end. Even now she was rubbing up against him as if concerned what might happen.
“Alright,” he said, and she held his hand all the way to the portal.
She went back to touching him and looking awkwardly at the swirling magic.
“Clear your mind. It isn’t so different than the fey itself. It might be overwhelming, but you need only find a single thread and pull.”
“I just…walk in?”
She nodded, and he took a breath. ‘Clearing his mind’ wasn’t really a thing he did without being buried in a woman. But he didn’t overthink when a thing needed to be done. With one final step, he put a hand straight into the portal.
The blue coated his skin and moved up his body like a new, liquid layer. He wasn’t sure if it coated his eyes or if it pulled him in, but the blue transformed into open world in his vision.
Suddenly he was looking up, a few clouds rolling through a bright afternoon sky, that then flickered until it turned red.
Mason was on his back. He was bare-chested, lying on some kind of stone slab on the same hill he’d seen in his druid dream. The one overlooking the great forest and the green sea plains. He was alone, just as before, but this time the forest wasn’t burning. There was no demon army or war.
There was only one other creature—a huge, humanoid demon like a smaller version of the thing Mason had seen before. It had a horned head, ape-like arms, a corpse-like chest. It looked down at him with pure savage glee, and held a knife in one hand.
He wasn’t tied up or hurt. His body was strong and ready. He could reach up and grab it. Or summon his claws and cut off that arm, or take its head. Why didn’t he?
No matter how he tried, he couldn’t make himself move. It was like he looked down on a fictional version of himself on a movie set, just an observer of a story he couldn’t change. The flickering red and blue sky above seemed to find some equilibrium. The colors splashed to a glowing purple, maybe some kind of portal opening near the sun.
“Just hurry the fuck up, you drama queen,” the other him growled at the demon. “And tell your master to enjoy his banishment.”
The demon didn’t like that. Not one bit. In fact it looked like it wanted to peel his skin off before it killed him, but was just as restrained as him. It stared at the sky. They waited together as the ‘portal’ drifted towards the sun like an eclipse. Mason knew when it arrived, he was going to die.
He tried to move, to do anything, but still couldn’t. This wasn’t a defeat. It was an execution. And he’d agreed to it.
How? Why? He knew he’d never do this, not for any reason. How could this be his most likely way to go? All he could think was that they’d lost the war. Could he have been betrayed? Tricked? He loved his women, his brother, and many others he’d met in the post-apocalypse…but to lie down and die because of them? He couldn’t imagine it.
As the red portal reached the sun, the demon raised its knife. Mason looked back down the hill, just as before, and saw Blake with his greenskin army. Their eyes met, and his brother shook his head, turning away.
The knife plunged, and struck. It felt like Jeong’s weapon getting stabbed through his heart. He doubled over and stared at the version of him that hadn’t moved, hating himself as much as the demons. The pain was so excruciating it took all his now inhuman strength and will not to cry out.
“You fucking…” he doubled over, wanting to tear out his own throat. “You God damn coward. Why?”
He blinked and re-appeared in the ‘real’ world, back with Lilith, the vision over justl like that. He stepped away from the blue, swirling portal in her chambers. He was confused, processing, but mostly just pissed off.
His chest still hurt and he put a hand over his heart, feeling it thump like he’d run a marathon. He hadn’t felt real fear in awhile. He didn’t like it. But it wasn’t fear of death. It was fear of doing whatever led to that miserable end.
[Title received: Gazed into the Frozen Pool. You have seen your own death in the Whispering Wood. A good death is its own reward. But also +1 to all statistics.]
“Did you see it?” he said quietly as he looked at Lilith.
Apparently she’d never left his side. She shook her head and wrapped her arms around his chest, putting her head on his shoulder.
“You passed the test. The portal has destroyed others. Whatever it showed you, use that knowledge well. There is no destiny in life or death. Only possibilities.”
He nodded, taking her hand, very ready to go home. She seemed to sense or predict it, pulling slowly away.
“I have your gift,” she said, smiling sadly. “My craftsmen took the thorns from the Frozen Rose while we…slept. I used some of the magic you so generously gifted me.”
She smiled and held out a hand. What looked like a leather belt covered in spikes appeared above it.
“It would kill any mortal who tried to use it. But last night you proved you are no ordinary man, didn’t you?”
“Several times.” He matched her smile, but all the sexual tension was gone. He held out his hand as the belt floated to his grip.
[Blood Rose Belt. Innate. Not for the faint of heart or soul. Drains blood and essence to produce as much mana as desired. And sometimes a little more. Do you wish to bind this item now?]
He stared at the text, letting his mind percolate with the possibilities. He could generate mana? As much as he wanted? Just by hurting himself? With Transformation, that might even be a good thing…
He smiled as he accepted the prompt, moving to put the belt on before it practically flew at his waist. The spikes apparently weren’t on the outside. It jabbed into him, rose thorns piercing flesh in a perfect ring as they clamped down around his stomach, just above his hips.
Lilith came forward, nostrils flared. She wiped a trickle of blood from one of the wounds, sucking her finger and stroking his cheek with the other.
“Does it please you?”
“Oh I am very pleased,” he assured, wrapping his arms around her waist. The terrible feeling of the Frozen Pool was definitely helped by the gift, and by Lilith’s body pressed against him. But he sighed. It was time to go.
Lilith kissed him almost chastely on the lips, then stepped away.
“Go with my blessing, champion. And the blessing of Queen Mav. Remember your promise.”
“I wouldn’t forget. Maybe we can make it more like…once a season. If there’s time.”
Lilith smiled with most of her teeth, those canines entirely gone. Her pale skin had a healthy glow, her dark hair a more lustrous shine. He decided if he didn’t leave now he may end up staying a few more hours. Or maybe a night…
“If there’s time,” she agreed. Then she held up a hand, and another portal swirled to life. “Go.” There was a sadness now obvious in her eyes and tone, and she looked on the edge of tears. “Go before I change my mind.”
He sensed a deep pain in the half-god princess, but he suspected it ran too deep for him to do anything about. At least not today. With a final smile, he turned his eyes away and stepped through the portal.