Chapter 31: Cutscene
We continued walking. We had reached my room when the world started to spin. My nausea returned, and I clamped both hands over my mouth. I closed my eyes to try and stop the room spinning.
“Ren! Is this from the kidnapping?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s another vision. I’m getting used-”
And then darkness.
“I see you. Do you see me? You must, yes?”
An image came into focus of a pale middle-aged woman with her brown hair tied back in a french braid.
“Yes, I see you,” I answered.
She was standing in a cavern, lit by torches and candlelight. Further up behind her, I saw worked stone blocks. She was in the deepest part of the Octavian Catacombs.
“And so here we are, two seers on opposite sides of a conflict. But only one of us is willingly on their side.”
“You aren’t doing this by choice?”
“My name is Brianna MacMurchadha. I’m from the Island of Tech-Duinn. I am a war slave. The precognitive gift is rare in Hyperborea. Object read and sixth sense are far more common. And so Hyperboreans scout locations. They target seers and clairvoyants for capture and enslavement.”
“How are we doing this?” I asked.
“We aren’t. I am sending a message into the future. You, with your gift, are interacting with it.”
“I didn’t know seers could do that.”
“It is very hard to do. And we don’t have time for me to teach you. I need your help though. Help me escape, and I will do my best to teach you.”
“You want to escape?”
“I said I was a war slave.”
“Fair point.”
“I am in the lowest levels of the catacombs. Find me. Guide me out. And I will help you.”
“I’ll try. I’m not a sneak thief or a warrior. But I’ll try.”
“I thank you. Be aware, you will experience the vision I piggybacked in on now.”
And then my vision shifted. I was looking at another room of the castle, somebody’s bedroom from the look of it.
A window exploded inwards in a shower of glass, driven inward by an enormous black fur covered fist. I noticed movement from the bed in the background and focused on the bed. Lynn sat upright in her bed. She had dressed in a similar revealing nightgown to the one I wore to bed. Two massive fur covered arms reached through the windows. They scoured the remaining glass from the frame. I flinched as I watched. The arms retracted.
And then silence. Nothing. Lynn stared at the shattered window, motionless.
And then crown Prince Wulfric slid feet first through the window in his dress uniform. His feet touched down and glass crunched on the floor as he landed. He looked around and caught sight of Lynn. Lynn pulled her bedsheet up to cover her chest.
Wulfric turned to face Lynn and stepped forward. He dropped his body forward into a perfect bow.
“My Lady Carolynn, I missed you at the countess’ party. I wasn’t invited after all. And so, I felt that I should grace you with my presence, lest you start to miss me.”
I wanted to spit at him. I knew those words. Well, most of them. In the original game dialogue, he didn’t mention Fiona’s party. Because in the original game, the rival and the countess were not courting. I had changed the script and the story was adapting as best it could. I still wanted to smack that grin off of his smug face. But I had tried that.
“I am honored by your royal highness.” Lynn said, and she let the bedsheet fall, revealing her sheer nightgown.
That didn’t happen in this cut scene in the game. Lynn was ad-libbing.
“You are beautiful. I am pleased to say that your beauty is worthy of my attention.”
What a piece of work, I thought. Trying to seduce a woman in her own bedchamber, and he couldn’t help but compliment himself.
“I thank your royal highness.” Lynn answered. She slid off her bed with a practiced motion. Her nightgown dropped off her left shoulder as she did, exposing her naked shoulder.
“So formal and polite, even now,” Wulfric said, “Please, you need not be so formal. Call me Prince Wulfric.”
“I am honored, Prince Wulfric.” She said as she took a single deliberate step forward. The step disrupted the balance of her nightgown, and it drifted to her feet. She stood before him, naked from head to toe. Lynn was gorgeous, but the vision was excruciating to watch. My best friend was trying to seduce a monster.
Mercifully, the vision began to fade, and I began to hear Amy’s frantic voice.
“Ren, Ren! Are you alright? Can you hear me?”
I coughed, “I can hear you, dear heart.”
I pulled myself up from the floor to a kneeling position.
“Praise the gods,” She whispered.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, “You’ve been with me for lots of visions.”
“You were shaking. And whispering, ‘no, no,no,’ over and over again. I’ve never seen you respond to a vision like that before.”
“Lynn!” I gasped.
“Lynn?” Amy asked. She frowned as she looked at me.
“Somebody is going to break into her room! Tell the guards!”
Amy’s face went from annoyance to fear. She nodded and dashed from the room. And I knelt on the floor, waiting. It took an hour before I heard anything. Eventually I heard a knock on my door, and Amy’s voice.
“Lady Ren, are you decent? I have your cousin here to speak with you.”
“I haven’t moved, Amy, come on in.”
“What? Oh no, Lady Ren!”
Amy pushed the door open and scrambled to my side.
“Lady Ren, could you not get to the bed or a chair?”
I sighed, “I might have been able to, but I was too worried. And I didn’t think of it.”
Lynn stepped inside my room, “You were so worried about me that you didn’t think to stand up?”
Amy sighed, “Lady Carolynn, your cousin worries about you constantly. You are always in her thoughts.”
Lynn looked at Amy and then at me, “That sounds like my Ren. Amy, let’s get her onto the bed. That position can’t be good for her legs.”
“I agree, Lady Carolynn.”
Together they helped me up and onto the bed.
“I understand that you had a vision about me,” Lynn said, “So how much did you see?”
I looked at her face, trying to gauge what I should say.
“I saw the window burst in. And the fur covered arms.”
Lynn nodded, “Prince Wulfric paid me a visit. Amy brought the guards to interrupt us minutes later.”
“You mean, ‘broke into my room,’ don’t you?” I said.
“Yes, that was how he paid me a visit. But this is good. It was clear that he was trying to be romantic.”
“You mean threatening.” I said.
“I’m not worried. This is progress. He’s interested. I can get him to propose to me. I can keep things on track. And you don’t have to feel guilty, your slap did no permanent damage to that.”
I didn’t like any part of this. I didn’t like the fact that Lynn had to experience that break in. I didn’t like the fact that this meant Lynn only had one more cut scene she had to earn before Wulfric would propose to her. And I didn’t like the fact that I had to support Lynn’s quest to woo Wulfric. I wanted to keep a friendly relationship with Lynn. So, I needed to support her self-destructive plan. And I didn’t like any part of this.
But I smiled and nodded, and then I said, “I’m grateful for that.”
Lynn left and once the door closed, I fell on my back. I lay on the bed, facing the ceiling, and I began to cry. Amy sat on the bed beside me and looked down at me. She touched a hand to my cheek and wiped a tear away. She didn’t say anything. She sat with me.
Words bubbled up inside of me.
“I’m sorry Amy. I’m sorry. Why can’t I help anyone? Why can’t I help anyone I love?”
“You seem to be doing fine with Lynn,” Amy said.
I jolted.
“I’m sorry, that was catty of me.”
“But I’m not!” I said, still crying. “I’m enabling her martyr complex. I may be helping her get herself killed. I should refuse to help her. If I loved her, I would put my foot down. Wouldn’t I? Why am I such a coward?”
“I know what she means to you. She never let go, never gave up on you. And not helping her feels like letting go of her hand, doesn’t it?”
I nodded.
“Ren, you are doing the best that you can. I understand that.”
“You do? I thought you didn’t like my relationship with Lynn.”
“No, I'm scared. I feel crowded out of your life by your loyalty to Lynn. But I understand that loyalty and I respect it. It leaves me feeling conflicted. How can I object to something when I approve of it? But I do. And that leaves me feeling unfair. Am I a clingy jealous girlfriend?”
“It doesn’t feel unfair to me. I see what you mean, and it shames me. That’s why I changed the subject when we were talking about it earlier. I don’t know how to be less than I am for Lynn. But I’m actually helping her hurt herself by doing that. What am I to do? I’m hurting everyone I love.”
“I don’t have an answer for that, Dear.” Amy lay down next to me on the bed, “But I am pleased that you are thinking about it. That will do for now.”
“How?” I asked.
“You are grappling with it. You are trying to find a way to honor me as well. I don’t want you to give up on your best friend. And I understand that changing your priorities after so long is going to be difficult. Now, let’s stop talking for a little while.”
She swung her leg over my body and straddled me. The motion took my breath away and aroused me. Amy hooked my ankles with her feet and spread my legs in a single deft movement. My back stiffened at the feeling of exposure and vulnerability. Amy began tracing her fingers down my cheek and down my neck. Her fingers slid over my collarbone and down to my breasts. Amy stopped and played with my breasts, her hands exploring and teasing me. I shivered and moaned in glorious frustration. When her finger began to move downward again, I was ready to explode from anticipation. She steadied herself then with her left hand. Her right hand dipped past my hips and under my dress. And then she brought her hand, and her fingers, between my legs. I turned my head and covered my face with a pillow as I screamed at the feeling of it.
Wanting to return the favor, I used both of my hands to trace up Amy’s legs towards her skirt. She gasped. Her hand stopped moving. My fingers penetrated the crinoline and found their way between her legs. Amy began breathing in gasps as I worked. I moved one hand up to massage Amy’s breast through her top. That seemed to be enough to put Amy over the edge, because she cried out.
“Ahh, Fiona, Oh Gods!” Amy cried. Then, realizing what she had said, she froze.
“Fiona, is it?” I grinned.
“Ren, oh gods, I am so sorry. I promise I was thinking about you.”
“But not only me, apparently.” I giggled.
Amy turned so red, I thought she would explode.
“Amy, were you fantasizing about a threesome?”
“Maybe,” Amy said, looking at the far wall. “Why? What do you see in your visions about a threesome in our future?”
“My visions!” I said, as the memory rushed back to me. “The Seer, Oh no. We have to save her!”
“Who?” Amy asked.
Read more in "Daughters of the Digital Empire," Available soon!
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