Chapter 1: Alcoholics Anonymous

“To alcohol! The cause of ... and solution to ... all of life’s problems.” ― Matt Groening.

York, Great Britain. January 1078

Two years. It had been two years since Marion felt her husband’s arms around her, his muscles under his skin, his breath on her neck, or his manhood plunging deep into her depths. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she had known where he was, but nobody had seen him in the year since his disappearance at the end of the last battle. All her vast intelligence network could tell her was he wasn’t in Europe. He wasn’t dead either since his body hadn’t been found among his dead guards.

Gabriella had been just as sad as Marion, but she had the added stress of watching her wife suffer a tremendous loss and losing many of her oldest friends when Luke’s guard unit had been wiped out. Due to Luke’s importance, Gabriella assigned his guard detail to the guards who were closest to her. It made it worse when she learned they had been killed after the end of the last battle while fighting off a cowardly attack on a medical unit. Luke and his guards were the closest support, and their selfless charge saved the medical unit and most patients.

Six months after the battle, Luke was posthumously awarded the Cross of Honor and Valor, while Major Leofflæd was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. The rest of the guards were awarded Silver Stars. Even though Luke was Marion’s husband, there wasn’t a soldier who didn’t believe he deserved the honor. The story of Luke’s final charge had swept through the army and had already passed into legend.

Gabriella’s arms shook Marion from her depression and brought her mind back to the work before her. There was endless paperwork, and everything had to be done. Reluctantly, Marion refocused her attention on her work. In the two years since she had last seen Luke, Marion had grown to where she didn’t make missteps. If she misstepped, it was slight and easy to correct; nobody dared to underestimate Great Britain’s Golden Queen.

One of the things that made Marion’s life more manageable was that nobody was attacking her despite most of Europe being embroiled in conflict. The European powers finally understood that attacking the British was a losing proposition. British trade flourished in most European ports despite many of those ports belonging to opposing powers. Any kingdom threatening British trade or citizens got a strongly worded letter from Marion detailing what would happen should they persist, which was usually enough to get them to back down.

Like Marion, Alice had been thinking of Luke as well. But unlike Marion, she was in their chambers, curled up in bed. Alice had been infected by an annoying mild flu that left her weak. Also, it wasn’t her lover who jarred her thoughts but her youngest twins. Susan and Samantha were at it again; they fought like cats and dogs over everything. However, before Alice could lever herself upright to discipline her children, Mackenzie’s iron voice solved the problem.

Just short of her twelfth birthday, Mackenzie MacDougall was a force of nature not to be trifled with. Everyone who met her knew that once she began filling out, she would be the woman to break a million hearts as her blue eyes could peer into any soul, and her golden hair would bribe the most honest of humans.

Anytime she wasn’t in school or training with the guards, Mackenzie helped care for her brothers and sisters. With 17 brothers and sisters living with her, Mackenzie was never bored. Being as tall as most adults, Mackenzie was accomplished in martial arts and could hold her own against a few of the newer Household Guards.

Still, Mackenzie was just as sad as her mother. Before Luke went to war, Mackenzie had been the quintessential daddy’s girl and, in many ways, still was. While she was not interested in following in her mother’s footsteps, everyone around her agreed that Mackenzie would make a great queen. Mackenzie was well-read and absorbed knowledge like a sponge; depending on the subject, she could take on professors and emerge victorious.

After dinner that evening, Marion found Mackenzie sitting on the balcony facing west, staring into the distance. She smiled, seeing Salem’s black form lying in Mackenzie’s lap. Since Luke left, Salem had adopted Rebecca as his primary pet human but still spent time on everyone’s lap. Salem seemed to know which of his pets needed his presence, hence his sleeping on Mackenzie’s lap.

“If looking to where he came from could bring your father back, I would have done it long ago,” said Marion softly. Mackenzie jumped, not hearing her mom walk up behind her.

“I never expected it to. Looking toward where he came from makes me feel closer to him.”

“Who knows? Maybe one day, you and I will travel to where he lived.”

“You think so, Mum?”

“With our technology improving as rapidly as it is. I think it will be possible one day.” Mackenzie sighed.

“I would love that, Mum. Is there any news as to where he went?”

“I’m sorry, Mac, but we still haven’t heard.” While Luke tended to call Mackenzie Pumpkin or Kenzie, Marion called her Mac.

“He has to be in the Seljuk Empire. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“But where, Mac? The Seljuk Empire is one of the largest land empires currently in existence.”

“If I were the Seljuk Sultan, I would keep Daddy as close as possible. Daddy has too much knowledge to waste.” Mackenzie stated this with all the apparent wisdom of a twelve-year-old girl.

“I wish it were that easy, Mac. Their capital is Isfahan, which is far inland. That alone makes it harder to get to. Then you must add that we don’t look much like the natives. My spies can easily move around neighboring countries because they are almost indistinguishable from the native population. Then, even if we can set up a spy ring in the Seljuk Empire, the distance between them and us is a serious problem. It takes months for news to travel from there to here, and I don’t see that changing in the immediate future.” A tear ran down Marion’s cheek with her next thought. “It is also possible your father was transported to another universe, and we have no hope of ever seeing him again.”

Mackenzie looked at her mother through the tears in her own eyes.

“Is that what you think?”

“No, but it is another possibility that must be entertained. It has happened once, so it can happen again.”

Mackenzie sobbed, and Marion wrapped her arms around her oldest daughter. As much as it pained Marion, she believed Luke had been transported between universes again and lied to help protect her daughter. At times, over the past year, Marion had wished she had never met Luke. Luke had given her power, a loving family, and someone who believed in her, but if she had never met him, she wouldn’t have suffered like she had over the past year. Marion’s mind drifted to that suffering.

The last year had been particularly hard for Marion, and the lines on her face showed the stress. The only experience she could compare it to was right after they had captured York, and she thought Luke had died. At least then, Marion had a body to confirm what happened.

Marion was numb for a week after she received news of Luke’s disappearance. Instead of the warm woman everyone knew and loved, it seemed Marion was a robot. She got up, ran 10km with her troops, went to the office, went to her chambers, ate, showered, went to sleep, suffered nightmares, and repeated.

Even that condition was preferable to what came next when Marion dived into a bottle and refused to come out. Instead of running and working, Marion woke up and began drinking. Breakfast was ale, while wine was for lunch and whiskey was for dinner. Every night, she passed out in an alcohol-induced slumber, only to repeat the next day.

At least being drunk, Marion had escaped the endless tormenting nightmares. What drove her to the bottle was when she began suffering visions of death and destruction during the day. The visions were always similar: everything in her life ended in death and destruction. The worst vision was of Mackenzie being raped by a faceless enemy while Marion was tied to the tree, which had been used to hang Gabriella and forced to watch. As her oldest and being named after Luke’s sister, Marion had a special place in her heart for Mackenzie. She remembered Luke’s tears when she told him what she wanted to name their first daughter.

When Marion began drinking, everyone supported her. She was dealing with powerful demons that nobody else faced. After all, she had sent Luke to Egypt, and he had been her soulmate. When talking, they often finished each other’s sentences and knew what the other was thinking with only a glance.

As Marion’s drinking became worse, the people around her realized she had a severe problem. While most people didn’t see much wrong, her family knew better. Alice knew of the dangers of alcoholism. Not only had it been highlighted in some of Luke’s texts, but she had also seen the real-life examples too frequently.

While Marion tried to drink York dry, Gabriella kept things running smoothly, but she had her limits. Marion finally reached Gabriella’s limits around Christmas when she didn’t bother celebrating with the family; she spent the entire day holding a bottle.

The day after Christmas, Gabriella ordered her guards to arrest Marion and confine her to a single-room apartment. All alcohol was banned from the room, and under no circumstances were the guards allowed to let Marion leave or bring her anything Gabriella or Alice hadn’t approved.

It took Marion two days to realize what had happened, and she was furious. First, she demanded that her guards let her out, but according to their orders from Gabriella, they didn’t. Then she ordered them to bring her wine, which they didn’t.