Chapter 37: Isekai Life & Climax Wait

Our meal was fairly solemn after that. We sent Bekker to get the usual, stew with fresh bread and butter, which he supplemented with an unasked-for plate of cheese, olives and pickles. The extra food was welcome- I’ve always had an extra stomach for olives, a trait I shared with previous!Theodore- and everyone was able to eat their fill.

When we were getting up to head off to bed, Bekker lingered, and as I was about to leave, tugged my sleeve.

“Your grace, may I trouble you a moment?”

“Of course,” I said as I turned to regard him.

He offered me a bow. “Thank you, your grace. By your leave, I’d like to attend Lady Calliope and Lady Enna tomorrow. I know my way around a shortsword, your grace, and they could use an extra pair of eyes.”

I regarded Bekker carefully. He mentioned adventuring with Lord Gauthi, could he have actual class levels? Still ... I shook my head. “No, Bekker. If everything goes poorly tomorrow, you have the most important job of all.”

“As you wish, your grace,” he said, accepting immediately, but with a hint of disappointment in his eyes, “What would you ask of me?”

I nodded towards the door. “If everything goes completely haywire, you must have Katriana raised, if possible, and see that Ashryn’s remains are returned to her order in case they’re willing to raise her on their own volition. Following that, prioritize Voss, Calliope and Enna before me. I’ve always been sickly and weak, and there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to raise successfully, so don’t rush to help me. I can wait while the party gets back on it’s feet.”

Bekker looked down for a moment, then met my eyes again. “I understand. Of course, your grace, you can count on me.”

I clapped him on the shoulder, and lead the way out.

I bid him goodnight on the second floor landing, and he headed up to the room he shared with Voss and Enna on the third. He might have been on the old side, but the stairs certainly didn’t slow him down. He must have been pretty hale before the old age penalties started piling up. He had to be, what, -3 strength, -1 dex, -2 con for being sixty-one?

Either way, I headed back to the room I shared with my fiancees ... seems like an odd thing to say, but there it was. Calliope was setting up a blanket and pillow on the couch while explaining her decision to Katriana.

“No, it’s fine, I was intimate with him earlier today,” she said, not noticing my entrance, “You and Ashryn can get all cuddly. I was so sweaty with all the body heat between him and Ashryn I woke up soaked.”

“Sleeping arrangements, is it?” I asked, closing the door quietly behind me.

“Calliope and Katriana are actually fighting over who doesn’t want to sleep with you,” Ashryn said with a giggle, “Clearly you should be spending more of your time with me.”

“I just wanted to make sure our wizards get the best sleep possible,” replied Katriana with an annoyed tone, “But, if she wants to wake up with a back ache, fine by me.”

Even though she was clearly joking, I still went to Ashryn and took her gently by the hand. “I’m sorry they sold your painting today.”

Ashryn giggled again. “Oh, don’t worry about it! I told them to take it. Can you imagine carting a huge painting like that through all our adventures? No, I think it’s much better that we have the coin. You can buy me all kinds of pretty paintings when you have a castle to put them in.”

My hand froze, just as it was drawing out her gift. I guess it could wait, and Calliope could enjoy being the only one with a gift a little while longer.

“I guess there’s no point in playing around, then?” Ashryn asked, tentatively.

“Not tonight,” I said, secretly hating myself a little for it. But, my cock was aching already after the little bit I did with Calliope earlier, so maybe a break to prevent chafing was in order. “When this is all over, we’ll have another night of fun all together, if you want.”

Ashryn nodded and smiled. And with that, we got ready for bed and hit the sack without much further ado.

It was a peaceful night all things considered, not that any of us got a lot of sleep. There were so many unknown factors, so many things we didn’t know about the day ahead. Katriana, Ashryn and I tossed and turned a lot, and I doubt Calliope got a super restful sleep on the couch.

It was almost a relief when dawn came. Bekker knocked on our door, and woke us. Calliope spent some time studying her spellbook by lantern light- turns out she had cast Detect Magic yesterday morning to confirm that none of things Voss and Enna had sold were magical- and soon Enna arrived with a meal of dried fruit and jerky for the two of them. It was the first time I’ve seen Enna in her armour, a suit of simple studded leathers. She carried no shield, but had the crowbill and her shortsword on her belt. I hoped her THAC0 was decent enough to make up for the dual-wielding penalties...

I shook Enna’s hand and gave Calliope a kiss on the cheek (which made her blush) before they left. “Good luck, you two,” I said, “Be safe, and if you have to choose between life and success, I’d rather you be alive.”

“No kiss for me?” Enna mocked gently, “And tis’ nice of you to put our lives before the hundreds of people we would save, but I’m gonna aim for alive and victorious if it’s all the same to you.”

Calliope squeezed my hand. “You be careful, too,” she said, before heading out.

“Ah, wait one moment,” I said as I unlocked the big chest and fished around for the bag of potions. I handed the lavender one to Calliope, and the mint green one to Katriana. “I don’t know exactly what these do, except they both have to do with healing. Keep them in case of an emergency.”

Calliope nodded, bit her lip, then threw her arms around me one last time before she and Enna went out the door.

Then it was just the four of us. I had three people to help bolt on platemail for (Ashryn complained that her old armour was prettier, which I couldn’t help but agree with). But once that was done and everyone had selected their weaponry, we were ready. Voss had plate, shield, spear and longsword, Ashryn had plate, shield and mace, Katriana had plate, shield, longsword and shortbow, with the magical arrows hanging in a quiver on her belt where her mace would customarily sit.

I had my darts, twenty-one of them, secreted about my person, and my spells. Ashryn had her spells, also, mostly healing with a dash of the good old Protection from Evil.

Soon enough, we marched out to meet with Mariska, Ricard and Gogol downstairs.

We sat with them, breaking our fast on oatmeal and bread. It was odd, sitting down to eat with people (or, at least, a person) you’d be fighting later that day. Ricard seemed in good cheer, Mariska had her usual humouring look on her face, and Gogol greeted us only with a grunt. I evaluated their arms and armour carefully- Gogol had a number of axes on him, both of the battle and the throwing variety, while Ricard had a longsword and shield. Both wore field plate, one step better than our merely platemail, but Mariska wore only her holy regalia and headdress. Maybe she had some elven chainmail underneath, but otherwise she was not all that protected.