A Roll of the Die - 1. Inception
Copyright© 2026 by Michael Loucks
Chapter 13: Day 13
Karla greeted Milos with a quick kiss when he arrived in the wee hours of the next morning.
"You need to bathe!" she declared, taking his hand. "Come to the pond; it's warm enough despite it being early morning."
"I need to fetch clean clothes first," Milos protested.
Karla nodded, and Milos hurried upstairs. He returned a few minutes later with a fresh tunic and undergarments. The two of them headed for the pond, where Milos stripped off his clothes.
"I need to bathe as well," Karla declared impishly as she quickly shed her clothes.
"And you will again if that smile implies what I believe it does!"
"It does! And with all but our final mission completed, and the Razor Claws routed, we can re-take our pledge."
Milos took Karla in his arms and held her tightly against his sweaty body.
"Karla of Langford, I pledge myself to you, and to you alone."
"Milos of Langford, I pledge myself to you, and to you alone."
🎲🎲🎲
"I sincerely hope your wife permits you the usual freedom," Zoë said dreamily when she and Matthias awoke. "I could not have hoped for a more pleasurable night."
"I have not discussed the matter with Lilia," Matthias replied. "Do not assume it to be true unless you hear it from her or from me after our honeymoon."
"I would never presume!" Zoë declared. "Unfortunately, now I need to rise and prepare breakfast."
Zoë kissed Matthias lovingly and rose from the bed. Matthias watched as she pulled on her gown and left the room, then got out of bed and washed, wondering whether it would be possible to build a shower of some sort, even if it were simply gravity-fed and had to be filled with buckets of warm water. He dressed and left his room to head to the dining room, where hot tea was waiting for him.
"Your big day!" Karla declared when she and Milos entered the dining room a few minutes later.
"It is," Matthias agreed. "Milos, I'm glad you made it back in time!"
"It was more than three hours past mid-night, but I could not miss this day!"
"Do you have any objection to Lilia and me living here after our honeymoon?"
"No, I do not! In fact, nothing would please me more."
"Right," Karla smirked.
"Yes, that!" Milos chuckled. "But nothing else."
"Then I'll inform my father-in-law," Matthias declared. "Are you two pledged again?"
"Yes!" Karla declared happily. "As of very early this morning."
"As are we," Lisette exclaimed as she and Tristan entered the dining room.
"And that leaves two rooms for children," Zoë interjected, carrying in a platter with ham, cheese, and bread, and a large bowl of porridge.
"Don't look at me!" Karla declared.
"I meant Matthias and Lilia!" Zoë said with a soft laugh.
"If it is more than ten moons from now," Lisette said with a smirk, "it won't be from lack of trying!"
They all laughed, and Zoë fetched bread, then, at Matthias' bidding, joined them at the table.
Miri returned mid-morning, just after Matthias had dressed for his wedding — leather armor, oiled and gleaming; tunic crisply starched; leggings clean and with no loose threads; rapier honed and polished.
"Very handsome," she observed.
"Thank you, Lady Miri."
Miri laughed, "Even when I am Queen, it will be just 'Miri' to you, Count Matthias!"
"Count?"
"I saw the Royal Proclamation this morning. Your new bride will be Countess Lilia."
"Then it's even more fitting to make Langford Manor my new home."
"Matthias?" Lisette said, coming up to him with a medium-sized box. "Your wedding gift. I felt it better to give it to you privately."
"Potions?"
"Enough for your entire honeymoon!" she exclaimed impishly.
"And he will put them to good use!" Miri tittered.
"And your honeymoon?" Matthias asked with a smirk.
"Only after sufficient days have passed for a maiden to offer such a thing! I will truly be a maiden, at least physically!"
"How?" Lisette asked in disbelief. "You and Matthias..."
"A shapeshifting spell. I can't imagine a simpler case of transmogrification."
Matthias nearly laughed at the word, recalling Calvin and Hobbes and the 'Transmogrifier', which fit, as it allowed the person to become whoever or whatever they wanted to be.
"All it has to do," Miri continued, "is create a thin membrane guarding my furrow. With such a minor change, it will have a duration of at least eight hours, so I can cast it long before Robert and I enter the bedchamber."
"Thus, not relying on deception; well, you know what I mean."
"I do," Miri confirmed.
"Ready to go?" Milos asked, coming up to them.
"I am," Matthias declared firmly.
"Then let's be off to the Keep to attend your wedding ceremony!"
🎲🎲🎲
The wedding ceremony was far simpler in Nystria than in what Matthias now thought of as his Original Plane, or OP. In Nystria, it was simply a verbal agreement to marry, a shared goblet of wine, then the wrists were bound with a white rope.
"Count Matthias and Countess Lilia!" the Bailiff intoned.
That caused the assembled throng to erupt in cheering and applause, with Matthias' friends cheering loudest. Matthias smiled broadly, and Lilia, clad in a formal wedding gown with a veil and a long train, positively beamed.
"Do you think we could skip the meal and dancing?" Lilia asked quietly, never breaking her smile.
"Not without offending your father, not to mention the entire city besides! In six hours, we'll be able to do what you obviously wish to do for the next half-moon, stopping only to eat and perhaps sleep a bit."
"Do you promise, Lord Husband?"
"I promise!"
🎲🎲🎲
Lisette laughed softly at seeing Lilia speak to Matthias, then whispered to Miri.
"She wants to be ploughed right now!"
Miri laughed softly in response, "I know the feeling!"
"As do I!" Lisette agreed. "He is very different from Nystrian men."
"He is. I am in no way offended."
"You knew?"
"I know everything about him and how he thinks," Miri said. "He can plough for fun, but even in that, his heart's desire is for the girl he is with to experience both the pinnacle of pleasure and the fulfillment of spirit."
"Are you sad?" Lisette asked.
"In a way, but this is truly what was meant to be, and Matthias and Miri are more complete persons than Matthew or Miriam were, or might ever be."
"Complete persons?"
"Truly in tune with themselves — heart, mind, body, and spirit united."
"That was not true in your plane?"
"Teenagers are often treated as if they were children, rather than adults, sometimes even after they complete their eighteenth year. In many places within our realm, one cannot drink ale or mead until they have completed their twenty-first year, and in some other realms, it is illegal for anyone to consume ale or mead. In addition, in many places, the age at which someone may legally plough is set at the completion of their eighteenth year, with severe penalties even for consensual activity without government permission."
"That is very strange!" Lisette observed. "Here we have autonomy upon completing our fifteenth year, and except for infants who nurse, ale is the standard drink. Everyone drinks wine when they have it, though it is mixed with water for the younger children."
"The laws of our coun ... realm, and many others in our plane, control even what plants may be used, and some medicinal plants are forbidden, with harsh penalties for using them."
"I would not want to live there!" Lisette declared.
"Nor did I, which is why I insisted on remaining here. I'm more at home here than I ever was in my realm in the other plane."
"Who trained you in the use of magic? Your mother?"
"There is no magic on our plane," Miri replied.
"Truly? Then how?"
"As strange as it sounds, magic was only in my imagination."
"What was your profession?" Lisette asked.
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