Love Games: A Lesbian Romance

by Mia Archer

  I blinked and thought about it. “Y’know I don’t think something like that has ever come up before. No one’s ever taken over two factions. You’re the first.”

  “Huh. Guess that makes me a literal Thief Queen then,” she said. She turned out to address the crowd below. “Looks like the Thieves Faction and the Royal Faction are going to be under the same management for now too! I’ll be needing deputies to help me run things though. How about George for the royals and Jessica for the thieves?”

  Huh. Deputizing people. I’d never thought of that, though it would’ve taken a lot of the work off my hands. And I knew George was more than capable. Already down below he was putting a knuckle to his head in a salute and saying something I couldn’t quite make out, but was probably something along the lines of “glad to be of service, mum.”

  I was glad that someone else would be on the business end of his mumming. The other girl, Jessica I presume, gave another guy in the crowd a high five. Pretty sure that was her husband.

  “So you’ve defeated the queen and won her heart. You’re the unquestioned queen of Alternate Realms. What are you going to do next?”

  A funny look crossed Anna’s face and the enormity of what I’d just said hit me. We’d only been flirting with each other, doing a hell of a lot more than flirting for that matter, for a couple of days and I was mentioning her stealing my heart? I wondered if I’d just ruined everything by getting a little too eager with revealing my feelings.

  Anna didn’t get a chance to respond, though. No, movement over her shoulder caught my attention. We should be the only two people up here. I peered around Anna and blinked. Danielle was right there tapping at her own tablet with a decidedly devious look on her face. A look that I didn’t like one little bit. Her eyes were on Anna who was still oblivious that there was anyone behind her. More particularly Danielle’s eyes were on the crown.

  I suppose it made sense. Why wouldn’t she want to be the one in charge. She and Trevor had always been more about the trappings of power than about actually playing the game. It stood to reason that she’d try to seize power once I was out of the picture. I suppose I should be glad she waited until I was out of the picture rather than trying to take me out in one of the many opportunities she had. Or maybe she thought she was doing me a favor.

  Either way her loyalty made what I was about to do that much more difficult. I tapped at my pad furiously. Anna looked down and frowned, then looked positively furious when she saw what I was doing. No time to explain, though. My minimap popped up and I could see Danielle moving in closer. An angry red dot waiting to unleash a melee attack that would probably kill Anna.

  I sent off a fireball. I figured it was best to go with the tried and true mainstays of my arsenal. It streaked out past Anna who was just pulling up her own phone in time to see the fireball go past to hit the red dot that was Danielle behind her.

  Danielle’s screen turned red. The fireball exploded and the sound piped out from her tablet’s speakers as the death notification sounded.

  Anna looked at Danielle, then back to me.

  “You just took out your friend!” she said.

  “Yeah…”

  “You took out your friend rather than letting them hit me? Seriously? She could’ve made you queen again!”

  I blushed. Anna had a point, but I was in a state of mind where “Well yeah. I didn’t want her taking you out, after all.”

  Once more I was pulled against Anna and into a very passionate kiss that I was more than happy to enjoy. Our tongues dueled and I wondered if things were about to get so hot and heavy that we might need to retire back to that room with the cot in the back of the castle. Fortunately, or unfortunately from my point of view, Anna regained some control and pulled back.

  “I think I’m falling for you,” she said.

  I grinned and felt a heat running through me that had everything to do with her word and less to do with that incredible kiss, though I was still feeling the aftershocks of that as well. “A good thing, too, considering you stole my heart my thief queen.”

  I let out a yelp as I was pulled against her again. Pulled into another kiss.

  A girl could get used to this!

  I wanted this to be the perfect moment. It seemed like it should be the perfect capper to our whirlwind romance. We both got the girl. Anna was the unquestioned queen of Alternate Realms. I didn’t have to worry about being royalty anymore. Everything was wrapped up in a neat little bow.

  Almost. There was the problem of the angry screaming. It was like a wall of sound that assaulted us up on the fake spray painted foam castle parapets. Once more I felt Anna pulling away from the kiss and I wanted to scream in frustration. Why couldn’t we just get down to the real fun, damn it? Wasn’t that what was supposed to happen now? We ride off into the sunset, or down to a hidden room in the back of the castle with a cot just big enough for two people.

  The only problem? It seemed the other faction leaders had different ideas. They were an angry mass out beyond the execution field I’d set up, but it was an angry mass that seemed to be organizing. Coalescing. Moving on the castle.

  “Shit,” I said. “I think the faction leaders might be in the mood to test the new queen.”

  “Well then,” Anna said as the factions burst into a run. “Thieves and Royals to the castle! Defend the queen!”

  I could hardly believe it. It was something I’d wanted for so many years. The factions finally working up enough balls to attack the castle. It figures they’d finally do it when they felt like they were in a better position to move in. Not that it was much of a better position considering the Royal Faction was still at full strength and we had the thieves to back us up. Not to mention that a glance at the mini map and the truly massive amount of angry red dots out there that would occasionally turn to skulls indicated some of the factions were taking the confusion as an opportunity to settle some grudges with each other.

  “Welp. Looks like you’re finally going to get the war you always wanted,” Danielle said, coming up next to me. “Think one of you could resurrect me so I can help you win this one?”

  “How do I know you won’t try to kill me again?” Anna asked, suspicion coming to her voice. Not that I could blame her for being suspicious considering what Danielle just pulled.

  Danielle shrugged as she surveyed the angry mass of factions threatening to take down the castle. Already on the minimap I could see arrows falling towards us. I tossed up a shield spell that deflected them with no problem. Out in front of the castle the guards were doing a good job of holding their own as the doors closed and more thieves and guards took positions on the walls and started firing into the crowd, but I was worried. This many people attacking the castle at once could spell trouble.

  “Erin killed my character to keep you alive,” she said. “The way I figure it if she’s loyal to you then I’m loyal to you.”

  Anna smiled and hit a button to resurrect Danielle. I don’t know if I would’ve been as trusting, but Danielle got down on her knees and kissed Anna’s hand before sprinting down the wall. She turned and grinned at me before disappearing into one of the towers. She looked about how I felt. This was exhilarating. This had to be the most fun I’d had in the game in a good long while!

  I turned to Anna. “Looks like the tide of battle could go either way at this point.”

  “I’m not sure about that,” she said. “Looks like those bitches from the Mages’ Tower finally decided to join us.”

  I blinked as I looked down at the mini map and saw a row of fireballs and ice spells lancing through the air towards us. They were impressive, but all of them were much lower level than anything Anna or I could put out. They tended to keep a tight rein on how quickly magic users leveled to ensure the higher ups in that faction weren’t outclassed by newbies. Still, it was enough to tear up the front line of guards defending the castle gates. It was also enough to take out the faction fighters down there, but there were more to take their pl
ace.

  I looked off in the distance to where a group in robes were walking onto the battlefield. Other factions stepped out of their way. My eyes narrowed. Oh how I hated those assholes.

  I turned to Anna and grinned. “It would seem we’re needed if we’re going to hold the castle.”

  “Oh you have no idea how much I’ve looked forward to something like this,” she said.

  “Me too,” I said.

  I pulled up my tablet, Anna her phone, and got to work firing out spells. Fireballs landed in the middle of the crowd down below and great swathes of phones and tablets turned red as we annihilated a big chunk of the crowd with a couple of hits. Meanwhile we seemed to be thinking alike as we sent anti-magic spells flying out towards the mages entering the scene. Mages who looked around in confusion as they were suddenly cut off from their precious spells by a spell that was so high level that most of them probably didn’t even know it existed because of the tight hold they kept on every magic user in the game.

  Every magic user but me and Anna.

  I grinned. Keeping the crown for someone else wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I imagined an all out faction war, but now that I was in the middle of it I was having a hell of a lot of fun defending the realm with my woman by my side!

  Life didn’t get much better than this.

  19: The New Consort

  I reclined back on my throne and regarded the broad-shouldered bearded man kneeling before me. He looked up and licked his lips. Odd seeing a burly guy like this looking nervous because of me of all people.

  “I did well, my queen?” he asked.

  I paused for a moment. Partly because I was still having trouble getting used to the idea of people referring to me as the queen, but mostly because a little pause was a bit of advice from Erin. Make them think I was irritated even when I couldn’t be happier with the way Ulfric and the men from the Fighter Faction had performed during the attack. Ulfric wasn’t his real name, of course, but after the way he skillfully rallied one of the biggest, and most dangerous, factions to my banner I figured he deserved to be called by his chosen name rather than his given name.

  “You’ve done very well Ulfric,” I said. “Have you rounded up the rest of the mages?”

  “It’s as you commanded, highness,” he said.

  “Very well. Your new queen is pleased with you this day. Go and attend to your business, and meet me tonight so that we can celebrate our great victory.”

  Ulfric stood and saluted with a fist to his chest. Everyone around here seemed to have their own preferred way of saluting based on whatever their favorite science fiction or fantasy happened to be growing up. The only salute I hadn’t seen so far was the Nazi salute, thank goodness.

  “You did pretty good there,” Erin said, coming around from behind the “throne” where she’d been listening in. I stood and stretched and my back popped in a couple of places. ARealms spared no expense in building a throne that looked impressive right until you sat in the thing and realized it had been hastily spray painted. I was still feeling a little buzzed from the fumes. The thing definitely wasn’t worried about ergonomics beyond a pillow tossed on the seat.

  “I figure it’s a good idea to keep the head of one of the more prominent factions happy,” I said.

  “Yeah, but you’ll have to be careful with him. The mages always acted as a counterbalance to the fighters. Now that you’ve taken their leadership captive that balance is gone.”

  I sighed. I’d only been queen for the better part of half a day, with half of that half a day taken up with the business of defending my new kingdom from a bunch of faction leaders who smelled blood in the water and decided my regicide was as good an opportunity as any for them to try and take over the whole shebang.

  To say it had been a busy first day on the job would be the understatement of the century, but someone had to do it considering I’d deposed the former queen and the only other person who’d gotten close enough to take the title from me had been offed by the aforementioned former queen.

  Quite the conundrum.

  “So who’s up next?” I asked.

  Erin smiled down at me in a way that I didn’t like. That was the way she looked at me earlier when she was planning something that was guaranteed to make me question whether or not I was going to come out on top in our friendly competition. Only that was behind us now, leaving me to both wonder and dread what she had in store for me that deserved that look.

  “I’m not going to like this, am I?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry your pretty little head too much,” Erin said, the grin getting even wider. “It’s just the faction leader of the Mage Tower. She’s always such a peach to deal with under normal circumstances. I’m sure she’ll be an absolute joy now that you’ve imprisoned her whole faction and threatened to forcibly depose her.”

  I sighed. “You really did save the best for last, didn’t you?”

  “You could always refuse to see her. Sure it would probably spark another battle tomorrow when they all come back ready to fight, but it might be worth it to avoid the headache today.”

  “Oh yeah? And what could we do instead of listening to her gripe about how we weren’t playing fair?” I asked.

  I didn’t give her a chance to answer. We both knew what the answer was. I pulled her into my arms and down onto the chair. Right on top of me straddling me on that uncomfortable wooden behemoth. Not that I noticed the discomfort while I was busy running my hands all over her body and I’m pretty sure the guards in the room watching us canoodling were doing their best to ignore the very public display of affection.

  I pulled away and Erin gave me a playful slap on the shoulder. “That is fun, but you’re not going to get anything done today if we keep that up.”

  I sighed. “You’re right. Much as I hate to admit it.” I looked over Erin’s shoulder to George who was politely looking away. Good man.

  “Go ahead and send in the next faction leader George,” I said.

  Erin tried to get off me, but I held her firmly in place. She tensed.

  “You’re going to let her in here when we’re like this?”

  “Why not? It’s just going to irritate her, right?”

  “Well yeah. She’s not the type who likes it when people aren’t taking the game too seriously.”

  “And that’s something we’re going to have work on changing. Way too many people are taking this game way too seriously and forgetting to have fun!”

  Erin leaned down and kissed me. A quick peck on the lips. “Whatever you say. You’re the queen now, after all.”

  “You’re damn right I am, and don’t you forget it! Go ahead and let her in George.”

  He sketched his own personal salute, a knuckle to his temple, and swung open the doors letting in the leader of the Mage Tower. At least she was the current leader of the Mage Tower faction. Whether or not that continued being a thing would depend largely on how she acted here, though from the way she was scowling at me and Erin things didn’t look promising.

  “You want to watch out for the classic tells with this one,” Erin whispered.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “If she starts rubbing at her ear that means she’s planning something. Usually an assassination attempt, though I’m having a hard time believing she’ll actually try anything like that in here when she’s the only one in the audience.”

  “Right,” I muttered as she got close enough to overhear our conversation. “Nice safety tip. Thanks.” I then turned to the faction leader, I still hadn’t even gotten her name, and fixed her with what I hoped was my most ingratiating smile. From the way she scowled at me it didn’t seem like it was doing the job.

  “How dare you attack my faction and take my people captive!” she stormed.

  “I seem to recall you were the one who attacked me first,” I said. “By the way, nice to meet you too. I’m queen Anna. I sort of run things around here now.”

  “For now,” she sa
id. “We’ll see what happens tomorrow when everyone is reconstituted and we can take stock of where we want the leadership to go. It’s not like we were under great direction to begin with.”

  “Is that a challenge Sarah?” Erin said.

  “I can’t see that it’s much of a challenge considering it looks like someone has already challenged you and won the day,” the girl, Sarah, responded. She turned back to me. “I came here with hopes you might give the Mage Tower the respect that it deserves, but I see now that isn’t to be.”

  And she started rubbing at her earlobe. I had such a difficult time believing she was actually doing it that it took me a moment to even react. Then it took Erin elbowing me in the side to kick my butt into gear. I figured I had a few moments to act before this Sarah girl tried bringing down a world of hurt.

  Better to bring down that world of hurt on her first.

  “Don’t worry Sarah,” I said. “I plan on showing the Mage Tower the same amount of respect I always have.”

  That got her attention and pulled her finger away from her ear. “What are you…”

  I tapped a couple of spells on my phone and this Sarah girl was cut off from her magical spells and her character was rooted in place. She could leave the room physically, but her character would remain in this spot on the map until I decided to release the spell or someone came along and freed her. Or until someone killed me, but with just me, Erin, George, and another guard I couldn’t name in the room that didn’t seem likely.

  “Erin, would you please take care of her?”

  Erin grinned. “With pleasure!”

  She pulled out her own tablet. Tapped a couple of keys and a lightning spell flew out and hit this Sarah girl. On the mini map her icon went from red to a skull icon to indicate she’d been taken out. Meanwhile in the room in front of us her tablet let out a sizzling electric noise followed by the death ditty. She stared at us in astonishment.