Love Games: A Lesbian Romance

by Mia Archer

  “We ready?”

  The Royals around me nodded.

  “Right. To the castle!”

  I looped my arm in Anna’s as we headed out. She still had that mildly unsettling smile on her face, but I chalked it up to overconfidence. Besides, she had a pretty good reason for smiling even if she didn’t know it yet. I had some ideas for some fun role-playing once we got to the privacy of the central castle!

  15: Royal Captive

  I felt like I should be walking with my hands out in front of me or something like that. I’d all but been clapped in irons even if it was in a virtual reality sense rather than a reality sense. When I hit Erin with that anti-magic spell yesterday I figured she must not’ve had the thing in her arsenal. Otherwise she would’ve used it, right? I know I used everything at my disposal as soon as I could.

  But no. She’d been pulling her punches yesterday. That must’ve been one hell of a surprise when she got hit too.

  “So how far is it to this central keep whatsit anyways?” I asked. “Feels like we’ve been walking forever.”

  “There’s a reason they gave me a caravan yesterday. This play area is relatively small, but that just means someone could walk from one end to the other in half a day if they were going at a brisk pace,” Erin said.

  “Hard to walk at a brisk pace through woods in a dress,” I muttered. Whoever advertised that dress as being an all terrain affair deserved to be shoved in the thing and dropped in the middle of the Sahara desert. Now that I was seeing some actual mileage in the thing it was riding up in places I didn’t even know existed until this damned monstrosity found ways to really get up in there.

  And believe me, picking a dress like this out of certain crevices was embarrassing enough without having an audience of players around us to witness my every move. An audience of players staring at my every move.

  “Why are all your people staring at us anyways?” I asked.

  “That’s easy. They all expect you to break free and kill them at any moment. Does wonders for the alert level with the troops,” Erin said.

  I looked again. This time with fresh eyes. Tried to see this situation from their point of view. They were escorting a new player who’d taken out a good number of them and captured their queen for the first time ever. I walked a little taller after that. Glared at a couple of them until they looked away.

  Yeah, I was a regular nightmare walking! Except I was a declawed nightmare without access to any of my spells. Almost. I suppose I still had my sword, but that was a surefire way to get myself killed so I resisted.

  Besides, I figured it’d be a good idea to keep a few surprises up my sleeve.

  “So how much longer…”

  I stopped. Literally stopped. And stared with my jaw hanging open. At least until Erin helpfully reached out and closed it for me. I stuck my tongue out at her to let her know what I thought of that.

  But damn.

  “They built a real castle out here in the middle of nowhere,” I said.

  “Yup. ARealms makes so much money off their game that they can splurge on nice things for their banner event,” Erin said.

  The castle looked huge. I knew objectively it couldn’t be as big as a real castle, but there were walls and parapets and the whole damn thing.

  “Also makes for great advertising when they’re pimping the game,” Erin said. She pointed to the doors. I squinted and laughed. There was a very anachronistic camera crew standing out front looking bored, though some of them were pointing at our party and picking up their equipment.

  Not that a modern camera crew was any more anachronistic than the phones, tablets, and alternate reality glasses most of the people in our party wore.

  “So what, this whole thing gets packaged in an advertising video or something?” I asked.

  “Pretty much. Now let’s go. I’m sure the ARealms PR guys are waiting for the woman of the hour to get to the castle.”

  I rolled my eyes and gave her a playful jab in the side with my elbow. “Pretty high opinion of yourself there.”

  “Actually I was talking about you. Stranger comes out of nowhere and captures the queen on her first day at the Gathering? That’s the sort of thing that’s marketing gold for these guys. Like it or not you’re famous in this game no matter what happens from here on out.”

  Huh. I guess I never thought of it that way. I’d been so preoccupied with everything going on in game and this delightful romance that seemed to be budding between me and Erin that I hadn’t stopped to think about how ridiculous this must seem to someone watching from the outside. I was going to have to start thinking that way if I was going to survive though. I looked over to Colin who seemed happy enough despite being taken captive, though the way he was chatting and laughing with Erin’s lady friend probably had a lot to do with his positive attitude.

  Yeah, we were playing a whole different game now. A game I’d started when I took over a faction and started playing politics instead of relying on good old fashioned attacks.

  “This is going to be ridiculous and over the top. Just roll with it,” Erin muttered as we got closer to the castle. A guy in a ridiculous medieval getup stepped out to greet us, but not before preening in front of the cameras for a moment. I was reminded of Mike aka Melvar from yesterday. Actually, where the heck was he? That guy had to be lurking out there somewhere.

  “She comes!” the guy intoned in a voice that was probably supposed to sound deep and serious, but he couldn’t quite pull it off. “The queen of Alternate Realms! Mistress of all she surveys! Keeper of the peace! Welcome, majesty, to your humble home for the duration of the Gathering!”

  He stepped forward carrying something gold and shiny in his hands. A crown, though it was more a circlet with a big insignia on the front. An insignia that looked a lot like the badge of office I’d stolen from Mike aka Melvar, only it looked like this one was made out of solid gold. Plus it had a different insignia, a crown as opposed to the bow and arrow on the badge I kept. The badge that definitely wasn’t made out of solid gold!

  Surely ARealms wouldn’t fork over that kind of dough for what amounted to a glorified prop. Would they? They’d put together this castle in the name of verisimilitude, after all, and a gold crown had to be a fraction of that cost. Though now that I was closer I could see where some of the stone on the walls was actually foam or plaster or something along those lines painted to look like real stone.

  “That thing real?” I asked.

  “Yup. I told you they went a little crazy for this stuff,” Erin said with a blush. It was obvious she didn’t care for the trappings of office even if she played along.

  I was very interested in that crown. Did it work the same way the other badges did, or was the queen somehow different? I could probably take her out even without magic, but I’d have about a hundred people painting a target on my back in an instant and that could get pretty messy really quick if it turns out I was wrong on inheriting her powers.

  I really wished I’d paid more attention whenever Colin started droning on about the faction system instead of zoning out. That information would be nice right about now, but I couldn’t very well talk to him about it in front of everyone without arousing suspicion and probably getting my character killed for my trouble.

  Damn it.

  Next up was a guy dressed in the typical ARealms guard uniform. He stopped in front of Erin and saluted.

  “Loyalty to the crown!”

  “Right, right,” Erin said, sketching a sloppy salute of her own back at him. “Good to see you George. How are the kids?”

  “Doing well mum,” he said.

  “You don’t need to call me mum, George,” Erin said with a long suffering sigh that told me this wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation. “You’re ten years older than me. We’re in the states!”

  “I could go back to calling you ma’am, mum,” George said.

  Erin sighed again as we brushed past him. “Huge anglophile. Can’t ge
t him to drop all that nonsense.”

  Finally we reached a group that was as interesting for how different they looked in their colorful costumes as anything else. A girl with pointed ears who was quite pretty. A man with a huge beard and broad shoulders wearing something that looked close to ancient Roman armor. Several more who all looked annoyed to be here.

  “The leaders of the other factions,” Erin whispered as we approached.

  A girl with a pinched face that wasn’t helped by the way her lips were puckered into a sneer stepped forward and sketched something that was barely a bow.

  “Loyalty to the crown,” she said, though she didn’t look to happy about saying it. The others in their small crowd did the same. “Though it would have been nice if the crown could have been here on schedule yesterday…”

  “Right,” the big guy with the broad shoulders said. “And believe you me we’re going to have words about you capturing the leader of a faction!”

  “The leader of a faction who attacked me first,” Erin said. “Now if you’ll excuse me I have business to attend to in the castle.”

  And she brushed past them as though they weren’t even there. Which earned her a few annoyed glances. Some of them nodded to me as though to an equal, which had me bristling just a bit. I’d done so much more than any of them ever had as leaders of their factions, but I returned the nods nonetheless. Now didn’t seem like a good time to be making enemies.

  “Loyalty to the crown,” the guards at the entrance muttered, sketching quick salutes as we passed.

  More and more interesting. Erin greeted everyone with that impersonal salute. It appeared that most of the guards were people who’d joined the Royal Faction and not her friends who had a personal loyalty to her. I thought back to the incident in the forest yesterday with Mike aka Melvar. Could it really be that easy?

  I glanced down at my phone. My spells were still grayed out. Erin wasn’t taking any chances. Not that I could blame her. I looked over my shoulder and blinked Colin was gone, as were her friends and most of the people from the Thieves’ Faction. I figured they would’ve been brought into the castle as well for safekeeping.

  “Where are my friends?” I asked.

  “Oh they’re outside. Nothing to worry about for the moment,” Erin said. She pushed open a door that looked like something straight out of a dark ages castle, though as I got closer I could see it was a normal door like what could be found at any hardware store, only with a giant sticker across the whole thing to make it look more authentic.

  I stepped into a small room that was lit by a single torch. Like an actual torch, though the “fire” was just a glowing orange light with fluttering orange cloth caught in its glow. Apparently the ARealms people took their castle seriously.

  Erin closed the door behind her and smiled. I shivered. I’d seen that look last night and this morning when I offered to take a quick shower with her. That was a look that promised things. So when I opened my mouth to say something the breathless quality wasn’t exactly an act.

  “So I’m at my lady queen’s mercy. What ever are you going to do with me now?”

  I had a pretty good idea of exactly what she had in mind, but I still had to play the game. Besides, that was most of the fun! Erin smiled and advanced on me, and I stepped back like the good captive I was supposed to be.

  Let the games begin.

  16: Royal Concubine

  “My dear Anna. I’ve got a few good ideas of what I’d like to do with you now that I have you in my power.”

  Anna swallowed and kept backing away from me. Right against the back wall. It’s not like there was much room for maneuvering in this place to begin with. She looked to the wall then back to me with a grin.

  Oh yes, she was enjoying this as much as I was. And why not? It was my experience that the geekier you were the kinkier you could get, and a little naughty role-playing was right up that alley.

  “Were you maybe reconsidering that offer to make me your second in command?” Anna asked. “Because after seeing these digs I might reconsider if you asked nicely.”

  I got in close to her. Pressed my body against hers. God I loved the feel of her body. Soft and hard in all the right places. And the way her breasts felt mashed against my own? Very nice. I moved my thigh up so it was pressing between her legs and she gasped. Just what I was going for. I pressed my hands against the wall on either side of her head to keep her from escaping.

  “I’ve got a far more interesting role for you. I think royal concubine would suit you far better than second in command. Especially now that I have you completely at my mercy. What do you think of that my dear thief queen?”

  Anna closed her eyes and took in a sharp breath that told me exactly what she thought of that idea. She opened her eyes. Locked with mine. God there was pure sex there and I wanted to take her, but I held back. Part of the fun of the moment was the anticipation. I subtly pressed my thigh in between her legs and was rewarded with another gasp. This had to be done just right or the whole moment would be ruined.

  “What exactly would be involved in being the royal concubine?”

  I leaned forward until my lips were almost, but not quite, brushing against hers. “I think you know exactly what I want from you Anna.”

  To be honest I’d been intrigued by the whole concubine thing since the first time I read Dune as a little girl and had to look the word up. Of course the genders were all wrong for me, something I knew even back in middle school when the idea was still moderately terrifying, and I never thought I’d have an opportunity to bring that particular protofantasy to life since it’s not like I was going to become royalty or anything.

  Only now here I was, sort of royalty. From a certain point of view.

  And I had to admit that being the queen and playing up this whole being in charge thing was a hell of a lot of fun! I think on top of being challenged for the first time in-game and finding a girl who I could really see myself with I also might’ve discovered a delightful new distraction in the bedroom. All sorts of wonderful things were happening for me at this year’s Gathering!

  One thing’s for sure, it was a good thing none of those documentary cameras followed us in here. The sort of video we were about to make definitely wasn’t the sort of thing ARealms could post on their homepage!

  I was moving in for one hell of a thorough kiss when a knock at the door interrupted me. I squeezed my eyes shut and bit back a few choice curses that came to mind. Maybe if I waited they’d get tired and go away or something. The last thing I wanted right now was a distraction, damn it.

  The knock came again. Double damn it.

  “You going to get that?” Anna asked.

  I squeezed my eyes shut. Count to ten. The knocking came again. I let out a frustrated growl that could probably be heard on the other side of the castle walls. They were pretty flimsy, for all they tried to make the thing look impressive. I looked over my shoulder to the door and tried to keep the frustrated growl out of my voice.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Everything’s ready for you, mum,” a voice said from the other side. George. Of course it was George. Not that I could stay mad at the guy. He was just doing his job, after all.

  “Be right there!” I said.

  I turned to Anna. Leaned in and gave her a thorough kiss. I was in a hurry and I was going to take what I could before I took care of some business. She responded in kind, her hands snaking all over my body and exploring some very naughty places that I was more than happy to have her exploring!

  I pulled away and we were both breathing pretty heavily.

  “You sure you can’t just skip whatever this is?” Anna asked.

  I shook my head. “Not a chance. This is a special surprise just for you.”

  “Just for me? What do you have going on out there?”

  “Only the proof of who’s the better player, of course!”

  Now it was Anna’s turn to shake her head. “In that case this is your
last chance.”

  “My last chance?”

  She ran a finger down my arm and I shivered. God how I loved it when she touched me like that!

  “Your last chance to surrender, of course. I won’t be so lenient on you if you keep this farce going.”

  I rolled my eyes. There was overconfidence and then there was what she was pulling here. I wasn’t sure what to call it. Then again if I was her, coming into this and having the sort of success she’d enjoyed in just the space of a day, I might be feeling a little overconfident as well. But I’d been playing the game a lot longer than she had, and I knew a thing or two about staying on top even if things had been pretty boring lately.

  So why did I still have a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me it might be a good idea to take her up on her offer? I shook my head to chase that thought away. Mama had business to attend to.

  I threw open the door. Sure enough George was out there with a serious look on his face that was no doubt drawn from videos of guards outside the palace on the other side of the pond.

  “Sorry mum. Were you in the middle of something?”

  “Sort of, but it’s no matter,” I said. “Everything’s in order and ready to go?”

  “Yes mum,” he said. “Everyone’s set up for the execution and we’ve got the permadeath weapons ready to go.”

  “What was that?” Anna said.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Just George telling me all about the surprise!”

  “It sounded like he said execution,” Anna said, coming up next to me. “Did you say execution, George?”

  “I have to be going,” he said, and turned to walk down the hall leaving me alone with Anna.

  “What’s going on here?” Anna asked. “Why did he say execution? Are you planning on offing me after all? Because that’s a pretty lame way of proving you’re the better player.”

  “I promise I have no plans to off you, Anna,” I said. What I did have planned was a way to make sure I had her all to myself while eliminating any help she might hope for during the rest of the Gathering. Something told me she wouldn’t be able to stay mad at me for long either. She definitely seemed like a “might makes right” kind of girl.