The Arbiter
Copyright© 2025 by James Girvan
Chapter 41
Grace was a fun time girl, and she really liked riding like a cowgirl while squeezing her cunt on a dick; but I left her bed with time enough for her to clean it up before Jimmy would return. I didn’t want to force an early confrontation with him yet but if she wanted a fight between the two of us then it was her choice to leave evidence or not.
I slept the sleep of the dead until an actual goddamned rooster from the ranch woke me with the sunrise. Even at this distance I can’t believe that anyone here could sleep through it.
Robbie and I repeated our morning meeting and walk. “I can almost feel it, it’s like a tie between us. The longer I fucked her (or she fucked me) the stronger it got.” I explained, trying to see if he could detect it. I’d bet anything that her tie to Jimmy was enormous, and maybe through him she had a tie to the other girls.
“I’ve got nothing that I can sense when it comes to her ‘connection’ thing but I will tell you that she fooled me, like nice mouthwash covering rotten teeth. It took some time but we can sense it now, she’s not a good person.” He whispered. “Neither Sarah or I have had much contact with her though, so maybe her connection with us is weak?”
I’d let my little head lead me around there, and time would tell what it cost me. “Any other revelations? Anne? Tina?” I asked, wanting to know just how much shit we were in here.
“Nothing earth shattering; both Anne and Patty are bisexual drug users and both are pregnant. Jimmy and that quiet guy aren’t half-brothers like they think, Jimmy’s actually the uncle of the other guy.”
I looked surprised, I guess. “Never heard of groups of people in the same family being granted weapons.”
“Man, you gotta read more,” Robbie sighed “ ... there are so many different versions of ’who gets a weapon’. Twins and triplets getting identical or matched ones, a dozen cousins all becoming Mages. I even read that in some areas the assigned weapon matches a persons previous skills, while in others it’s entirely the opposite; football players being healers and nurses getting swords.” He looked a little depressed at the thoughts. “My area was one where people got weapons based on previous skills. I’m a Rogue with a secret extra weapon that’s basically designed to stab people in the back, then I find a single skill and what does it allow me to do? Now I’m a fuckin’ invisible assassin,” he sighed again heavily, and it wasn’t just for effect. “ ... what does that say about me again?”
I knew repeating yesterday’s platitudes wouldn’t get me very far with him, so went a different route. “You help anyone in those runs back in D.C. where you tagged along without them knowing?” I asked, dragging him toward my point of view.
“Yeah, more than a few. You know that they sent new recruits in without any knowledge of what they were getting into? Naive kids from the Army, Navy or AirForce as well as their analysts, stock keepers, janitors ... they just bundled anyone with a weapon who was on the government’s payroll into groups and marched them in. ‘Obey orders or face a court martial’ that’s what it came down to. I couldn’t go with all the groups that were short a guy or two, I’m subject to the restrictions like everyone else, but every time (except once) the team I shadowed came back in one piece.” He hung his head at this memory, reliving something awful no doubt.
“And did you stab any one of them in the back? You’re in control, you decide what crosses you will bear and what actions you take.” I said with finality, hoping to end this particular train of thought.
“I actually did,” he paused, not looking at me. “ ... ya’know, stab someone in the back once.”
I checked my inventory for his weapons.
“Ya know how they say that inside the portals is like Vegas, what happens in there stays in there? Well, I caught a ride with four other divers. Pink portal, a mountain with things like a big lynx. Ever run one of those?” he asked, momentarily retreating from the story. I hadn’t and told him so. “Well, they’re solitary things, right up to the point when you attack the big one at the top of the hill, then any that are left in the area immediately rush up the hill and’ll try and take you from behind.”
I nodded, filing that information away for future use but not sure where he was going with this.
“The four of ‘em was doing ok actually; they must have had some warning and split up into teams of two to hunt down the single cats before they went for the big one at the top. A totally normal way of doing it, from what I read later online. I followed the mixed pair, she had a bow and he had a staff. They worked well together, he took point and she shot at any that she could see from a distance and together they had killed four already and he only had to help out with one kitty that got too close to them after she only winged it,” His eyes took on a faraway look. “ ... it was after that one, she’d turned to look at something. I guess she heard a sound; it might have been me since the hill had a lot of loose rocks. The guy, he just raised his staff and...” Robbie paused here, I wasn’t sure if he’d cry or not. For my part I just stayed silent, slowly walking out towards the look-over to the farm.
“ ... well, he sort of paused like he was judging the best way to do it then he clubbed her good; right above her ear. She dropped like a stone and that’s when he pulled out a big pair of those scissors like you see in medical shows and started stripping her fatigues ... it didn’t take him long.”
I turned to him with a frown, not for him but for the story. Weapons got up to all sorts of shenanigans and mischief inside the portals, it was kinda like the Wild West. The scissors were a surprise, but then again knives were blocked from the portals so he’d have needed something else.
“ ... so she’s on the ground moaning and throwing up, coughing and shit and he just rips off the front piece of his pants! Honestly it was fucking designed for it, I saw it later! Anyways I’m about fifty meters away and mostly behind a tree since she’d been flinging arrows at anything that moved just a few seconds ago and by the time I get there he’s already raping her.” Robbie had a sick look on his face, like he was experiencing it himself. He swallowed hard. “I can’t say it happened without thought, ‘cause I thought over just how I’d do it. I slow-walked over there while she’s trying to push him off and roll over. He headbutts her and you gotta remember he’s got a helmet on so she just gets her nose crushed, stops fighting and lays still.”
I could imagine the scene quite easily. Big burly guy realizes he’s got a girl in a place where nobody can find her or prove anything. Big guy is all hopped-up on adrenaline and feeling invincible then decides to just take whatever the hell he wants.
“I chose my dagger, I even made sure I picked the left side of ‘em since I was coming in from behind. I didn’t wait, just turned it sideways-on and put it straight through his heart from the back. Turns out it’s just barely long enough to poke out the other side if you do it hard enough. Girl got kinda covered in blood,” he paused a bit here. Honestly I couldn’t tell if he was bullshitting me or not at this point. I wouldn’t put it past most guys and I really didn’t know Robbie that well. “ ... well I drag him off’a her, and he’s still mostly at full mast eh?” He chuckled then carried on. “I look down at her and, well ... it’d been a long time...”
“You climbed aboard then, sailor?” I asked with a grin. This was sounding like all sorts of bullshit locker room stories I’d heard before.
“Fuck no!” He exclaimed, sounding genuinely offended. Either he was a good actor or really appalled by the idea of raping someone. “ ... but, um ... a part of me wanted to.”
He said that last part almost as a whisper; as though this was some sort of confession and I was the priest. I glanced to the side at him and he couldn’t have displayed a more remorseful face if he’d tried. While the thought of being ‘father confessor’ made me roll my eyes but I had to get one thing clear. “So, you feel bad about actually killing the guy or just thinking about raping the chick?” My look must have said it all. “Do you even recall that I just a few days ago you killed a fuckin’ Goat-man who was doing the same thing; then you took his place and then actually did fuck the shit outta Sarah right then and there.”
Robbie actually blushed. “That was ... different.”
“It sure as fuck was! Holy Shitballs that was one of the most ‘different’ fucking things I’ve ever seen!” I exclaimed with a laugh. “Look, I got a good piece of advice from an older guy who was like a brother to me in many ways. You, me, and most other guys have a fucking caveman in the back of our head. This guy wants to drag every woman back to his cave by her hair. He wants to fight and dominate almost every man he sees, and push all the others out of his way. This fella ain’t fit for public display, and he sure ain’t politically correct. But he ain’t you. this was something I had to learn; that guy will tell you to do all sorts of shit, but you can listen and think ‘hey, thanks for the idea but ... no.”
“And what’s the point of that story?” Robbie sighed dramatically, like he was just putting up with me here.
“What it means is that after I learned that, I never had to feel embarrassed about my brain thinking ‘woah, look at those titties’ or ‘I could take that guy easy, bust him up in front of his girl and take her.’ Those thoughts were only mine when I acted on them! Don’t get all cut-up over what that Neanderthal back there says, if you listen to him that’s on you but if he’s just mindlessly screaming obscenities back there don’t worry about it.” I finished my little sermon. I’d delivered one like this before, to all sorts of pre-teens and a few a bit older but never to a twenty-something like him. My Dad’s second and third wives were all fucking monsters, always running down guys for doing guy things and telling us that what men thought was disgustingly and disrespectful; I grew up for a while thinking I was a bad person for the thoughts that popped into my head. Turns out I was just learning to be a modern guy who happened to have a meathead caveman knocking around in the back of his brain; just like every other guy out there (or most of us anyway).
Robbie shrugged and I doubted I’d helped much but I did have one last tidbit. “One thing though; what that that guy does have is the ability to observe and intuition. Your caveman ever starts screaming ‘Danger! Danger!’ in some seemingly normal situation, you listen to him and get the fuck out of there.” I sighed, recalling the three times I’d stupidly ignored him. “He’s got millions of years of experience (or thousands, depending on what you believe) and he picks up on stuff that your big modern brain misses.” I’d had people ask me how I knew that guy was going to take a swing at me outta nowhere, or how I knew to avoid so-and-so who turned out to be really into young boys and I didn’t know what to say. The guy in the back of my head just said ‘Watch that fucker!’ or ‘Don’t go alone with that fucker!’ and I just listened. Those times I thought I knew better ... well it was better off not thinking about that.
There was a long quiet time, the two of us just staring out over the grain towards the farm, or ranch, or whatever the hell it was. “You didn’t ask.” Robbie said finally, breaking the quiet. “You didn’t ask about the girls, the pregnant ones.”
It took me a moment to figure out what he was on about. “Oh, the preggo girls? One I never touched (yet) and the other I only touched the other day. My swimmers are healthy nowadays but it’d take longer than a day with one of them for that to be my problem.” I laughed with all the confidence I could.
“Yeah, well they both smell like Jimmy so you’re wasting your time there.” He replied, like the idea of it was somehow offensive to him.
“Doesn’t bother me, I’ve slept with chicks with swollen bellies before and not minded it one bit actually.” I was thinking back to my time at Xavier’s.
“My own mate? sure; but someone else’s?” Robbie made a face and spat. I guess he wasn’t down with that then. Wonder what he’d think of me porkin’ his ol’ lady when Sarah was all big and round. Best not to push it right now.
“Felt like it always does, just better cause it was new!” I said with a grin and a twitch of my eyebrows. Some comment floated to the top of my mind, I’d seen it somewhere recently. ‘It ain’t your pussy, it’s just your turn.’ Fair enough, I’d taken plenty of turns, and rarely had I regretted it when it was time to move on.
We made our way back to camp for breakfast and a full day of ‘training’ which meant about forty minutes of dull, uninspired weapon swinging while being cheered on by Grace. She hadn’t a clue what she was doing but nobody on the group called her on it. Most of the rest of them took off afterwards to do their own chores or smoke up (or both) but some stuck around.
Tina had Bryan (Flail) by the hand and held him back as he went to walk off. He looked surprised when she dug her heels in and held firm. I suppose she could have been dragged quite easily, but Bryan stopped and waited. I could imagine him rolling his eyes in frustration but any guy who wasn’t willing to put up with a bit of waiting in order to get a chance at some pussy was a fool. Not that I would’ve waited too long; mind you. There’s a difference between putting in a bit of effort, and being whipped.
“Like yesterday, we’ll start with stretching and then some light warmups. With you here the formations will look a bit different Bryan, thanks for coming out with us and mixing it up a bit.” It was always easy to acknowledge someone with mere words, and it paid off usually.
“Uh, you’re welcome?” Came his eloquent reply. This was a long-term stoner, you could see it in the vaguely glazed eyes and sense it in the slow verbal response.