Archemi Online Chronicles Boxset

by James Osiris Baldwin

  The surge of adrenaline woke me up – gasping, sweating, clutching the furs that lined my bed. My bones were still shaking with the memory of mortar fire as my bedroom came back into focus. Quest alerts and other notifications flashed in the corners of my eyes. My pulse pounded in my ears, my stomach gnawed, my jaws ached, and the roar hadn’t gone away.

  [Good morning, Hector Park!]

  [You have 1 unread quest update]

  [You have one unread message from Rin Lu]

  [Warning! You are Severely Dehydrated! -15% to all Stats and Skills!]

  [You are hungry! HP will no longer regenerate!]

  [Are you experiencing emotional or psychological stress? Help is available. Would you like to chat to an assistant?]

  [World Alert: The Black Moon Festival has ended! (Vlachia)]

  “Urrgh. Fuck off.” I dizzily swatted the holographic notifications away, flailed my way out of my bed, and tumbled onto the cold floor. Grimacing, grinding the heels of my palms against my eyes, I felt my fingernails set into the skin of my forehead even as my dragon's vision - and her urges - intruded into my mind.

  Karalti was on the other side of Vulkan Keep, staring at the side of the volcano. She positioned herself against the sun, hovering like a kestrel in the fierce mountain winds as her bleating prey shuffle along the cliff face. Her need overwhelmed the echoes of the nightmare.

  When I opened my own eyes, they fell on Suri sprawled out on our bed. She lay on her side, the covers half off, the rest framing the smooth curves of her lower body. She was naked from the waist up. Delirious, I drank in the sight of her, from the coppery swell of her hips to the dark curves of her breasts, then froze as her face turned away from me. Her tousle of blazing red curls fell aside to expose her neck, pulse beating slowly. My heart began to pound faster, and the dryness in my mouth vanished. I took one step toward her, then another… ducking down, becoming quieter, as the deadly black noise in Karalti’s mind built to an oceanic roar in mine.

  Half a mile away, the dragon dove out of the sky and slammed into the ram, driving him against the cliff wall with her talons. He screamed.

  I threw myself back away from the bed and staggered to the bathroom, clutching my head as Karalti’s excitement built. When I reached the sink, I frantically yanked on the pull chain. Icy spring water gushed from a pipe into the basin. I scooped it up and splashed it over my face and chest and in my mouth, gulping until my tongue turned numb.

  Every time I blinked, I got a snapshot of Karalti’s hunt. My dragon shuddered in pleasure as she worked her sharp teeth deeper into the stringy flesh of her prey. There was the gritty sensation of bone snapping as she tore a bite from the struggling animal's neck, hot and trembling with need that twisted behind my eyes and surged like lightning through my jaws, fingers, and cock. It took my breath away. Gasping, I gripped the edge of the sink, clinging onto it for dear life.

  In the mirror, I saw Suri stir on the bed. She sat up, and I found myself staring at her half-naked reflection. Not in the gentle way that a man was supposed to contemplate the beauty of his lover… but like a cat watching the mouse he’s chased into the bathtub. Like a predator.

  “Hector?” She called out, brows furrowed. “Are you okay in there?”

  My throat worked, but no words escaped. Suri’s puzzled expression morphed into a frown, and she pushed aside the covers to stand. I tensed warily - not because I didn’t trust her, but because I didn’t trust myself. Karalti’s bloodlust was ebbing as her hunger was satiated, but my pulse was still beating a tattoo against the inside of my skull. Hunger was inseparable from lust. And I couldn’t do that to Suri. I wouldn’t do that to Suri.

  Suri pulled a loose shirt on - my shirt - and wandered into the bathroom. She’d worn soft cotton pants to bed, but I was acutely aware of the way her breasts pushed against my back as she looped her arms around my waist and leaned against me. She didn’t say anything, didn’t push me to talk. Suri had nightmares of her own.

  “Bad dream,” I muttered, after a while.

  “The War again?”

  “Yeah. It must have wound up Karalti. She was hungry… hunting.” My voice was slurred with the effort of controlling myself. The press of Suri’s body against mine was giving Hector Jr all kinds of opinions. Well, opinion. Singular. He knew what he wanted. Big brain Hector, on the other hand, he knew better. “She caught something, but she felt frustrated. I dunno. Maybe she’s in heat already.”

  “Already? I thought she wasn’t mature until Level 10?”

  “I would literally be the last person to know. I’ve been winging it with her ever since she hatched.” I swallowed, trying to relieve the dryness in my mouth, and gazed at our combined reflections. Only in video games could people eat the kind of shit we ate and still be fifteen percent body fat or less.

  “Was the nightmare about Myszno?”

  I shook my head at first, but then, hesitating, I nodded once, and shrugged. “Sort of? Kind of. I don’t know. I never used to have dreams about the War, when I was alive. Never had any PTSD or anything.”

  “That you knew of. Maybe something got shaken loose.”

  I grimaced. “Maybe. You’re probably right. This whole thing with the war in Myszno is just stirring up old shit. There was a time where I would have eaten a gun barrel instead of going back to the front.”

  She bent forward, brushing my ears with her lips and meeting my gaze in the mirror. “We don’t have to go, you know.”

  My god, her mouth is beautiful. I had to digest her actual words for thirty seconds or so before I could form any kind of reply. “Uhh… what?”

  “To Myszno.” Suri’s golden eyes were fierce as an eagle’s. “We installed Ignas on the throne. He’s achieved his life goal because of us. We don’t owe him shit. And if you’re having nightmares about going back to war…”

  “No.” My brows furrowed. I shook my head, rubbing my face with a hand. “No… that’s not how this works. We have a quest to do.”

  “Rin told me that quests can be changed or dismissed. They’re not set in stone. If you don’t want to do it, you can change the quest.”

  “Maybe. But that’s not the point.”

  “You told me you never wanted to be a soldier. You hated it.”

  “Well… yeah.”

  Suri shrugged. “You’re the one who told me Archemi is a game. If that’s right, then we don’t have to go back to a warzone on Vlachia’s behalf. We could go north… we could even go to Daun, to Tungaant. I’d love to visit your home country with you.”

  I still gripped the edge of the sink with frozen fingers. On the back of my right hand, the coal-black Mark of Matir blazed like a judgmental eye. I knew why I’d dreamed of the Crescent Front. “No. Baldr is threatening Vlachia, and we need to deal with the shit going down in Myszno. This campaign will give us the resources to face him, and to keep you and Karalti safe.”

  Suri gave me a reassuring pat on the waist, but then a slow, naughty smile spread over her lips. She looped her arms around and laid them on my stomach as she slowly rubbed up along my back. “I’m sober now. Maybe I could try and take your mind off it?”

  Ding. Suddenly, Hector Jnr was back to attention and ready to serve. Just great.

  There was something dark looking out at the world from behind my eyes. Something lustful, something… evil. That part of me wanted to turn around and clamp my jaws on the side of Suri’s throat.

  “Not now.” I swallowed and closed my eyes. “Sorry.”

  “Hector!” Karalti’s telepathic voice lanced through my brain like a needle through my left eye. “Are you okay!?”

  I winced, clutching my face, and Suri took an uncertain step back. There was a rolling boom that reverberated through the floor, and the bedroom went dark. I turned to look back into our suite, and saw a large black blob peering through the thick glass window.

  “I’m okay, I’m okay. Bad dream, nothing to it.” I gave Suri a reassuring kiss on the cheek and stumbled past her on the wa
y to the door. “How’d you go?”

  “I caught one! I caught a goat!” Karalti bobbed her head. Now that she was Level 8, it was the same size as the window. She had to line up one eye to look inside. “But it wasn’t big enough, and because we have to go to the king’s thing today... I was thinking I’d-”

  “You want to poach off his herd one more time.”

  “Yeah!” There was a ‘whoomph’ of wind as she flicked her wings. “Wanna come?”

  My stomach rumbled and cramped. I was stupid thirsty and couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a proper meal. I checked the clock: it was 5:30am, well before we were due at the Parade Ground. “Sure. I need something to eat, too. Mind if we stop by the Grand Hall first?”

  “Okay!” Karalti lifted her head, and the room shuddered a little as she hopped up onto the balcony wall.

  “We’re going to get breakfast before we go to the Parade Ground,” I said aloud to Suri. “Wanna come.”

  Her dark complexion turned a little greenish. “No thanks. I’m not real big on flying.”

  “Myszno is going to be a hell of a trip, then.”

  “The ship’s okay. I can sit in the cabin.” She equipped her clothes in layers: leggings and a bustier, then padding, then her armor. “There’s just too much open space out there for me. I’ll meet you at the Hall, okay?”

  “Sure.” I equipped my own gear and stole a kiss from her just before she left. I ran a quick check of my items, ate some almonds I found lurking in my Inventory, and went out to face my dragon.

  A frigid blast of cold mountain air hit me as I pushed the doors out onto the balcony, where Karalti paced the parapet like a tightrope walker. Our suite had a south-western view toward the distant ocean cliffs, where the moon hung on the horizon like a black void obscuring the stars. The solar corona was still visible, a thin blue-white line flickering around the outside. I knew Suri had good reasons to be afraid of wide open spaces, but it was sad I couldn’t share the view with her. “Ready to go, Tidbit?”

  “Yeah!”

  I equipped the gear - now I was over Dragon Riding 10, I didn’t have to put Karalti’s saddle and saddlebags on the hard way - and gave her the hand signal to extend her wing. She did, still balanced on the wall, but as I began to climb, she turned her head on her neck and sniffed me. And then she growled.

  “What?” I paused, hand reaching up to grasp the side of the saddle.

  “YOU!” She flattened her crest, rearing her neck like a cobra. Her eyes narrowed to bright, dangerous slits. “You smell like HER! Like her BITS!”

  I exhaled heavily into the frosty air. “Karalti. We’ve talked about this.”

  “YOU talked about this.” Her jaws parted, bearing top and bottom rows of razor sharp, back-curved teeth. As the rumbling grew to a hiss, I admit I began to feel a little nervous. Karalti wasn’t my little Tidbit anymore. The last time she’d had a jealous fit over Suri, she’d been a bit bigger than a car. Now, she was longer than a bus.

  “No. We - as in, you and I - have talked about this at least ten times. I’m a human. You’re a dragon. Suri and I are the same species. You’re also basically my kid, which makes this super weird.” Exasperated, I reached up again, only to slide down as the dragon irritably flicked me back with her wing.

  “Did she touch you?” Karalti pivoted on the narrow wall and snaked her head toward me as I backed up. Her breath smelled strongly of sharp, caustic chemicals, and it was hot enough to bring a sheen of sweat to my face. “Did she... RIDE you?”

  “Karalti.” I regarded her flatly. “I am not playing this game.”

  Karalti bellowed a furious, gurgling roar, then sprung from the balcony like a swallow. She was obscenely agile for a creature her size. As I ducked and stumbled away from the ferocious, cutting wind, she snatched me by the pack and Spear and dragged me off into the air. The balcony lurched away with terrifying speed as she strove for altitude. It was already a sheer eight-hundred foot drop to the ground. Now we were at nine hundred, a thousand... and then she dove.

  Fortunately for me, my backpack had stomach and chest straps like a hiking pack. That was all that stood between me and my first parachute-free skydiving experience. “Karalti! Come on! This is fucking ridiculous!”

  “No! No two-legs, no-wing whores!” Karalti ranted, roaring on every other wingbeat. She rolled to one side, skimming the mountain so close that she almost bounced me off the rocks. “I carry you everywhere on your stupid quests! I wear a stupid saddle, but what does she do to deserve sleeping in the bed with you!?”

  “She’s not the size of a semi-trailer!” I snarled back. “And if you weren’t, then of course you could sleep in the bed!”

  “I sleep in caves! Cold caves!” She swooped back into the open sky and did an Aileron Roll. My guts lifted with the brief zero-g before I crashed back down into the straps of my pack and nearly slithered out of them.

  [Warning! Backpack durability is at 45%!]

  “Say Suri is a stupid rider stealing bitch!” Karalti let out a piercing cry of challenge.

  I gripped the straps of my pack to anchor myself in the harness and set my jaw. “No.”

  “Say it!” The dragon barrel-rolled this time.

  “No. And you’re going to put me the fuck down.”

  “Say it! Say it say it say it!”

  Karalti’s immature force of will slammed into my own, but I wasn’t budging. I pushed right back. “No. We’re headed to a warzone. There are people counting on us to lead them. It’s time you started acting like a queen instead of a spoiled princess.”

  “You don’t know how I feel! Or why!”

  “Maybe not, but I know I raised you better than this.” I ground my teeth as she pulled a near-vertical dive. It was like a rollercoaster, but without the fun. “And I know your mother would be so fucking disappointed right now.”

  The dragon cried out, the same desolate barking sound she’d made at her brothers. She was breathing hard as she leveled her flight path, slowing to a fast glide. As the threat of imminent death receded, I felt waves of empathic input crash against my nerves. Karalti was still hungry. Her joints ached with growing pains. She was humiliated that a full day and night of hunting wild game had only resulted in one measly goat. She was horny but confused by what it meant... she was grief-stricken for her clutchmates, and the mother she’d never known. All of it was feeding a maelstrom of raw emotion that had nothing to do with me or Suri.

  “You don’t know what my mother thinks!” she spat.

  “I know she’s endured shit that would break either one of us,” I snapped back. “And she did it with grace, and backbone, and composure. Not by tantruming.”

  I felt a shudder all the way through Karalti’s body. I also felt the straps keeping me alive start to give way.

  “Karalti, you know I love you more than anything on this earth, and that’s why I’m telling you to harden the fuck up.” My legs swung as we passed into view of the parade ground. A fleet of airships were there already, illuminated by spotlights on the ground.

  “You can’t tell me what to do!”

  “Until you’re old enough, yes, I do. This is a no-negotiation scenario.”

  “I’ll... I’ll drop you!”

  “Go right the fuck ahead. I’ll respawn, board one of those ships, and then chew your ass out from here all the way to Myszno.”

  Karalti bellowed in frustration, but she was getting tired, her will slowly bending under mine. We broke out over the thick walls ringing the parade ground, and she pulled her wings into a shallow dive.

  We were still early, but ranks of soldiers were streaming in through the gates, and even the disciplined men stopped to stare as we streaked past. My stomach sank when I saw Ignas waiting at the front. His Majesty was mounted on his fine black hookwing and dressed in full battle regalia, ready to send off the ships.

  Naturally, that was when the Item Durability hit zero, and the straps of my pack finally gave way.

  Chapter 10


  Leap of Faith kicked in as soon as I began to fall, giving me three seconds of time dilation to line up a landing. I hit the ground like a parkour master: knees soft, hands down, then a high-speed roll over the shoulder. I tumbled a few more times than I expected, but carried it through to an awkward superhero crouch not too far from Ignas. His hookwing fluffed its feathers and hissed.

  “Well now. That was quite the entrance.” The Volod had switched out his usual rogue’s getup for fine ornamental plate, a long scarlet cloak, and an officer’s saber. His helmet had a backswept crest of feathers. “Is Her Holiness still worked up after the appearance of the other dragons?”

  “Uhh... sure.” I dusted myself off, and side-eyed Karalti as she winged around the plaza, bellowing and flaming innocent flagpoles. “Let’s say that.”

  “You are not the first to arrive. Rin is already here.” Ignas gestured toward the largest of the airships. I glanced around until I spotted the Mercurions, plural. Rin and Ebisa were embracing out of the lights, sheltered by the mounting tower and gangplank. Ebisa had her mask raised. I saw the King’s Blade tenderly tuck a lock of Rin’s hair behind one of her winglets, saying something to her that made her nod, then giggle. The laughter only lasted for a moment. Rin buried her face against Ebisa’s chest, and the taller Mercurion pulled her into a protective hug.

  “They’ve gotten close.” I turned away, not wanting to intrude on them any more than I already had.

  “They have. Mercurions love like any other creature - only with the awareness that the time they have together is so much shorter than it is for us humans.” Ignas smiled, a little sadly. “Though now I’m well past my prime, I assume the same applies for me.”

  I fell in beside him. “Are you serious? Dude, you’re a catch. You’ll find the right lady at the right time, I’m sure of it.”