The Labors Of Jasper, Episode 19 free porn video

20Jas0019, The Labors of Jasper Episode 19; 6179 words Jas moved slowly. She quietly placed the medium-service arrow she'd had at ready back into her quiver. She pulled out a dragon-killer. While she watched the dinosaur, it hooted. Others with similar plumage rose up. Some of them were chewing. A little one hopped down from what Jas initially thought was a knob of rock. She now realized it was a carcass. A dead thing. A giant, before it became food. Eight of them, not good. Plus a baby. The baby was cute, brindled grey and brown. It hopped on top of one of the dinos and looked towards the group of humans. Ten more dinosaurs rose up from the carcass. These were also colored brindle. The baby girl, a toddler named Nakki, shifted in its sling at Jas's breast. "Pretty bird," she said in Tsurgi. "Shhh," Jas spoke quietly. "Big bird. Hush." The baby nodded. She returned to Jas's breast while looking around, wide-eyed. Jas followed Melissa, who was following Bad Tom. Bad Tom was edging away from the meadow, to the left. Downhill and downwind. Badoesa followed Jas. Jas noted that the red cap had also changed to a dragon-killer arrow at the ready. As Badoesa moved away, most of the dinos returned to eating. Melissa was walking painfully again, clumping around with a halting gait, making more noise than the rest of them combined. The red caps were getting more and more impatient with Melissa. Jas saw it in their body language. The child at Jas's breast said, "Stone foot. Noisy fucky suck girl." Melissa glanced back, annoyed. She adjusted the drapes she wore over her shoulders. Her glyphs flared blue. Jas's glyphs had glowed green when they flared. Stevie and Sheena's glyphs had glowed red. Jas wondered what the different colors signaled. Then it occurred to her to to see if Melissa had a store of mana. Of course she did. She was swimming in it. Red mana. Jas performed a healing spell, of sorts. She armored Melissa's feet and blunted the pain. The nanites were already hard at work, healing her. Melissa made less noise as she walked after that. The red caps visibly relaxed. Jas did the same for her own feet. She checked the red caps. They were also footsore and swimming in mana. She spelled Badoesa first. Badoesa startled. She squinted at Jas, then shrugged. Bad Tom simply nodded. Jas felt a twinge in her pussy as she performed the spells. She didn't have glyphs anymore, but her body was trained. Muscle memory. Leftover influence of demons. Something. They found truly huge footprints down by the stream. A mix. Some looked a bit like elephant footprints. Most of them looked like bird sign. Jas shot an animal that looked like a giant squirrel. It had teeth like a rodent, and a bushy ringtail. It weighed about five kilos. Badoesa smiled. She collected the carcass and washed Jas's arrow before returning it. They clambered upslope and off the trails. Badoesa made fire on a cliff overlooking the stream. Jas watched the process. No magic involved. Jas marveled at how small red cap cookfires were. Badoesa cooked roots and ringtail meat. She blanched greens roasted mushrooms and other fungus. They ate. The meat tasted of pine nuts, or perhaps was seasoned with it. The greens definitely tasted piney. The fungus? Bleh. Jas ate it anyway. Badoesa made tea. She passed around a single cup. Big Tom drank first. Badoesa extinguished the fire and kicked the ashes and kitchen waste over the cliff. They moved on. There was a narrow game trail along the cliff. Tracks from small animals. Bad Tom followed the trail. At times they had to crawl because the scrub was too thick to step through, around, or over. Edge ecology. Late that afternoon a large feathered beast ambushed Bad Tom. He turned just in time to stab it with his spear. It knocked him off his feet. He fell off the ledge. Badoesa fired and missed. Jas fumbled with her bow, attempting to crank it up to full power. It was already at full power. She fired and hit. She fired again. And again. It was just like combat drills at an SCA tourney. The dinosaur fell three meters away. Jas stood for a moment, shaking. Then she retched. It landed on the baby. Badoesa pat Jas on the shoulder. She stood with an arrow nocked, looking upslope. She glanced both ways along the game trail. She nodded to Melissa. "Is he dead?" Melissa looked over the edge. She shook her head. Badoesa relaxed her bow. She glanced down at Bad Tom. "A little bit dead." She glanced at the beast. "You ruined the pelt, fucky sucky girl." Then she smiled. Jas stared at Badoesa for a moment, disbelieving. Ruined the pelt? They lost two dragon-killer arrows that day and ruined another. The one that Badoesa fired, they never did find. One of the arrows broke inside the beast. They broke the tip off another while trying to remove it. One came free. So did the spear. Jas used her hat to clean vomit from the baby. Nakki struggled to get down and out of her baby sling. She reached for Badoesa. Badoesa shook her head and pointed to the two babies she carried. Still asleep. They hadn't woken during all the excitement. Nakki reached for Melissa. "Why do I get the pukey baby?" Melissa asked as she took Nakki. Rescuing Bad Tom took the rest of their daylight and part of the night. Their work got interrupted anytime one of the large raptors walked by in the stream bed below. They eventually felled a tree. Bad Tom climbed up. Badoesa retrieved an egg from inside the dinosaur. She cooked it there, skinned the carcass and rubbed it with the animal's brain. She collected some meat and kicked the animal off the cliff. They made a cold camp upslope from the ambush site. They listened to hoots and crunching sounds all night. Jas spent part of the night mixing and matching pylon parts. In the end she had nine working pylons, if you included the nearly spent one. She left the inert pylon pieces behind when they broke camp. Breakfast was roasted dinosaur tongue and a bit of chewy breast meat that Badoesa had saved. She served it with greens she had gathered as they walked, and roots. Jas tried again in the morning. A red pylon, a green one, and an improved gray. Red lights, all across, when set for Earth Prime. She tried Oz. Red, flickering to yellow, on the improved gray pylon. "Which do you prefer?" she asked Bad Tom and Badoesa. "Dinosaurs or lions?" She explained about the possibilities of opening a rip to Oz. They both said, "Lions." "The bears are huge. Much bigger than any bear I've seen on my world." Badoesa asked, "Is there food in Oz?" "I was able to survive for a month." "Then we should grow very fat." Badoesa smiled. She patted her belly. They trudged carefully upslope to the ridge trail. Jas left three pylons assembled, but off. She turned them cycled them on and off, checking for rip sites frequently. On the ridge trail, the pylons went green for a moment, then yellow. Earth Prime was still solidly red. Jas consulted her secretary. *Where are we?* *15 km from one of your hot spots.* *Which way?* Harvest showed Jas an overlay map on her Viz1. She highlighted a possible route. Jas pointed. "Over that ridge line there. Across another stream. Four leagues. Sometime tomorrow at this rate." Bad Tom said, "We can be there by lunch." He patted his belly. "If we don't get eaten." They followed a trail into the valley again. There was a herd of ... something in the valley. They looked like a cross between a giraffe and a brontosaurus. They had feathers and spikes. There were large mammals, too, that looked like rodents. Beavers, maybe. Huge. They were harassed by feathered predators the size of wolves. They killed two of them with arrows. The others ran off. Badoesa collected more pelts. She made another travois to carry them. She put the children on the travois. A large feathered reptile soared overhead. It gave them a look and moved on. Bad Tom shuddered after the pterosaur, or whatever it was, passed. He said, "Lions." He nodded again. "Lions more better." The view on top of the next ridge showed Jas her target. Under one of those beaver lakes. She checked her pylons. Green lights, all across, for Oz. Red for Earth Prime. "Say goodbye to Parkland, folks. We're going to Oz." Jas announced. "Lions, tigers, and bears." Badoesa stopped her. She gathered food from the plants around her. Then she nodded. "Go." Jas opened a rip. They stepped through and walked into winter. Jas checked her overlay. "That way. Possible jump site to Earth Prime." It was cold. And snowy. Winter storm, at the moment. Jas and Melissa found a snowbank and dug in. They stripped evergreens of low branches. They made a shelter large enough for four adults and three children. Badoesa made a roaring campfire fifty meters away, in the lea of fallen tree. She cooked all of the meat. She cooked most of the other food she carried. She passed around tea. Then they retired to the snow shelter. Badoesa sang the tribe's origin song to the children. Jas had heard it before. There were many lessons. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't break a vow. Never trust a royal. Nakki played with her doll, beating it and giving it spankings for bad behavior. The boys cuddled around Jas for warmth, and fed whenever they were bored. They did not want to go outside to pee. Nobody did. Badoesa eventually relented and let everyone pee in the snow by the door. Melissa grilled Jas. "Why did you sell a princess into slavery? Since when did you turn evil?" Jas was aware that everyone was listening now. "It was her idea." "Excuse me?" "The royals bodyswap. You know that, right?" "Bodyswap." "Like our avatars in the game. Except that it's usually final for the poor sod whose body gets taken by an overmind. From what I gather, some royals have twenty or thirty copies of themselves alive and aware at any given moment." "That's horrid." "They pay a blood price, the same as if they'd murdered the body they take. Anyway, the Princess got this brilliant idea. She'd take a body that was being minded by a red cap named Good Tom." Bad Tom nodded. "My brother." "She'd change it physically and genetically to match her ID. Then she'd seed it with just enough of her personality to pass and send it up as a shell to be enslaved. Collect the bounty. Free the hostage. That's you. It didn't work out. Good Tom pulled her in there with him and overwhelmed her mind." Jas ate some snow. "Then he tried to kill me. She. By this time, he was female. I ignored it the first three times he tried to kill me, but he pissed me off. I got tired of constantly watching for an ambush. He found us on a tiny island in the Caribbean. The Princess is still alive in there, trapped by Good Tom. I can't get her out and she has other copies so I'm not inclined to heroics. I transferred my demons to him. Her. You know the rest." "You had demons?" Melissa asked. "You had glyphs? You can get rid of them?" "I did. You can. It's my understanding that the demons will leave on their own when I turn you in for your bounty." "Bounty." "I am a bounty hunter." Jas smiled. "Kidding. Kinda sorta. I have a Plan B if they don't leave when I finish this quest. The collar is also a demon, by the way. Don't break it. Stevie found out that's a really bad idea." "Steve and Sheena?" "Are okay. The Princess rescued them. She said you were impossible to rescue, but here we are." Jas considered. "Not much of a rescue, at the moment." "I'm not a brothel slave." "Dinosaurs, bears. Not kidding about the bears. Saw one the last time I was here. The Hive. I can handle one or two hive monsters, maybe. A whole horde?" Jas shook her head. Melissa turned to Badoesa. "Why did you sell your brother?" "Husband," Badoesa said. "He deserves it. Bested by one of his own slaves. Not once. Many times. They'll release him after her service. Thirty years or three hundred. We'll pick him up then. Her. I wanted to buy her parole, but I saw her bounty." She huffed. "We'll have to wait. If the royal doesn't eat Good Tom's mind, we'll welcome her back to our tribe." Badoesa smiled. "She'll make a good fucky sucky girl." "Jasper," Melissa glanced around. "Are you working both sides of the war?" Jas laughed. "No. I don't think the greens are any better than the reds, but they're fighting for survival. That hive invasion was intended for green lands. And then Earth Prime. I lost ... good people on this quest. I'm overmatched. Out of ideas. I'm out. I intend to stay out. Unless it comes home to Earth Prime again." Melissa absorbed that. Jas ate more snow. "Steve got girled. Sheena's a cam girl. Stevie works in a brothel." "How did you get girled?" "Dunno. I woke up in this body. I got a cool sword." He showed it to Melissa. "So far, I've only used it to chop trees and dig latrine holes. It's magical. So is the scabbard." She examined it. "The princess gave it to you?" "No, but that's another story." "The fucky sucky girl in the tribe song." Melissa glanced from Badoesa to Jas. "That's you?" Jas cringed. She nodded. "Apparently I suck at everything." "Not everything," Badoesa said. She mimicked giving a blowjob. Melissa said, "The girls had origin songs. I made up my own. I don't know my ancestry beyond great-grandmother, so it's very short." That night, it got very dark. Badoesa woke Jas sometime in the night. "Time for my watch?" Jas asked. She pulled drapes and a tablecloth around her. Badoesa said, "Bad Tom is horny." "Yeah, so?" "I have enough babies. You can't get pregnant." Jas sighed. And that is how she ended up screwing Bad Tom for an hour while Melissa and Badoesa gave pointers. At least the children were asleep at the time. The snow let up in the early morning. It was c-cold outside. Badoesa made snow shoes that looked like short skis. She made moccasin boots for Melissa. They walked to Jas's spot. Nothing. Red on all three pylons. Jas plotted a path to the next possible site. Four day's walk, in good weather. If the geography matched her maps. So far, though, it was a close match. On the way, they found a lake, cut a hole in the ice and fished. "Plenty food tonight," Badoesa said. She found food in the snow, somehow. Jas shot a rabbit, or maybe a hare. She didn't know the difference. Wearing half-cured pelts didn't seem repulsive in this weather. They dug another snow shelter. Melissa sang her origin song to the children. They were not impressed. Badoesa sang again. Jas plucked on her bow. She showed Badoesa how to make music with it. Jas played Comin' Around the Mountain, the Theme from Deliverance, Raise the Dead, and No Pain. The girls fell asleep, listening to Jas pluck her bow or saw on it with an arrow. Bad Tom looked at Badoesa and Melissa, asleep, and the children, also asleep. He grinned. Jas gave him a blowie while he watched for trouble through the door of the snow shelter. In the morning, Badoesa cooked and Melissa cleaned baby bottoms. Jas strummed the first few notes of Theme from Deliverance. She heard an echo. She played it again. Heard the echo again. "Guys?" Jas stood. When she heard the next section of song played, Jas nocked an arrow. "We have company." Jas stuck arrrows in the snow around her feet. She cocked her bow and heard Badoesa cock hers. Banjo music. Someone ripped into the main part of the song. Jas looked downslope to see where the music was coming from. Bad Tom readied his spear. He looked in every direction. He checked the sky and the trees also. A person approached, strumming a banjo. She stopped, just outside of arrow range. What should be arrow range. Jas smiled. She traded out arrows, choosing a dragon-killer. She could hit that person from here. Probably. If they didn't have magic. She checked for glamour. None. The woman spoke in English. "May I approach? I smell roasted fish." It was a fox woman. Bushy tail, ears. She looked like a cosplay girl, boobs, short skirt, moccasin boots. In this cold? They shared a meal with this woman. She was chatty, but didn't say much, beyond the niceties. "This is good." "What did you season this with?" "Those are well-behaved children." "Supposed to be a real howler tonight. You want to be someplace warm and dry." At the end of the meal, the fox girl helped clean up. They'd learned her name by then, Marikit. She said, "I have a companion. He's about two leagues that way. Palisades, hall, stables for your horses, if you had them." West. Jas's next map spot was north. There was a hot spot west, also. Bit of a walk, though. Jas checked again for glamour. Red mana, lots of it. But no glamour. Marikit stared at Jas. "I understand your caution," she said. "Please ask before you look a third time." Marikit led them across the snow to a wooden stockade. She walked on top of the snow, never once breaking the crust and falling through. She did leave foot prints, though. Fox prints. Jas saw the chimney smoke before she saw the palisades. It was a small stockade. There were no footprints in the snow outside; none inside either. The gate was latched with a loop of rope. Jas looked around for sentinels. None. She checked for magic sigils, wards, glyphs. Nothing. "Hold up." She stopped them from entering. "Something is wrong." Marikit turned. "Nothing is wrong." "There are no guards. No wards. Is this place real?" Jas checked for glamour. "The walls keep the wolves and the lions out. The only people on this planet at the moment are the ones you see." Jas shook her head. She backed away from the gate. "Please tell your companion to meet us outside." Marikit laughed. "Tell him yourself." Marikit opened the door to the great hall inside the stockade. A dragon looked at them through a dragon-sized door. A red dragon. A big one. Jas chuckled nervously. "Nice kitty." She backed away. Her fingers brushed the tip of an arrow in her quiver. She resisted an urge to pull that arrow out and nock it. The dragon made a warbling sound. The fox girl played her banjo in answer. Marikit turned. "Boo-chow says it's warm inside. There are beds for people and a bath. But if you wish to stay outside with the snow and the wolves, you may." "When was the last time he ate?" Marikit laughed. She played her banjo. The dragon answered with a series of notes. Jas checked to see if this was recording on her Audio2. It was. Marikit said, "He ate a week ago. It will be another month before he eats again. Unless you nock that arrow. Inside, please. I prepared a feast." Jas relaxed her bow. She wondered if Marikit understood what feast meant to red caps. They went in. Indeed there was a bath, a dragon-sized bath with warm water, soap, and an enormous scrub brush. People-sized stairs went to a loft. Presumably there were beds up there. Jas saw a long table, steaming serving trays with polished silver covers. She smelled food. She resisted an urge to check for glamour. "Boo-Chow." Jas bowed low. "Thank you for the hospitality." The dragon sounded two notes. Marikit translated. "It is nothing." She closed the doors to the great hall. Jas noted, with some relief, that there was no bar or other obvious lock on the doors. Bad Tom sat at the table. He said, "Grace," and lifted a cover from one of the trays. Badoesa smacked him. Bad Tom put the cover down and grinned. "Bird," he said. "Big one." Marikit said, "Dinosaur, actually. We chased you across three worlds." She listened to the dragon warble. "Names, please, for the song." Bad Tom stood. He said, "Bad Tom," and bowed. "Badoesa, of the Long Arm tribe. These are Nakki, Avigu, and Avile." "Melissa, most recently known as Cush." Jas tried not to grin. Cush? She said, "When adventuring, I am called Reflet." She curtsied. "What do your friends call you?" "Whatever they like, as long as they don't call me late to supper." She shrugged. "Jas, short for Jasbinder." Jas watched Melissa for a reaction. None. "Occupations?" "Scout." "War chief. These are babies." "Hostage." "Bounty hunter?" "What brings you to this new land?" Jas spoke, "We didn't like the other worlds. One didn't have enough food. One had too much. We're on our way to Earth 33, if you must know. Do you know where the thin spots are?" "Don't you mean Earth Prime?" "Depends on your frame of reference." Marikit played her banjo for a while. There was back and forth conversation between the fox girl and the dragon. Marikit announced, "Eat, wash, rest. Our host would like to speak with each of you, concerning the hostage." Jas bristled. "Is there a claim on her?" "Just the one you established. Why is there a bounty on her head?" "Oh. I accepted help and gifts. In return, I was given quests." "What quests?" "One of them was to return this woman to her home, free of all demons and other riders." "She still has riders." "Working on that." "Take your betrothed home, Jasbinder." A woman walked down the steps from upstairs. Melissa. Two Melissas? Jas glanced at the Melissa that had traveled with them. That Melissa said, "I'd like to wash up and eat. It's been a long trip." "One of you is an imposter. Or they duplicated you. I suppose it's possible. They could have Xeroxed you." Jas checked for glamour. None. Or her glamour checker was foxed. Soldiers in estate livery filed down the stairs. They carried objects. Jas backed away from the table and the dragon. Badoesa grabbed her children. "Relax," Marikit said. "All is well. We opened a rip." The soldiers were armed, but none of them had weapons at the ready. They laid a box in front of Jas. Marikit said, "Please explain the use of that." "It stores mana. It was destroyed by EMP. I suppose I should be grateful it didn't catch fire or explode." "This?" She handed Jas her specs. "Celeb glasses. These are high-end celeb glasses. Their primary function is to conceal the wearer's identifying features." "Glamour?" "Optics. Retina, iris pattern, veins in your eyes. It obscures those from anyone looking." "Why?" "We have trouble with identity thieves on my world." "And those are identifying characteristics. Thank you." "My specs had other functions. They act as a telephone, pasocon, secretary. When I'm in range of an aerostat." "EMP?" Jas nodded. "These arrows interest me. They look organic. Hive technology." "Not Hive. Human tech. A Tonbridge maker. An example of convergent evolution, I believe. Although we have had contact with the Hive, so, dunno. Maybe we reverse engineered it. Who is the real Melissa? Are they both real?" The other Melissa had no glyphs, and no slave collar. Marikit said, "This is your Melissa. The one you traveled with is a spy. Show me one of your pylons. Explain the use." "I'm pulling parts from my pack. Don't shoot. Okay?" Jas put the rucksack on the table. She pulled three parts out and snapped them together. "This is a pirate device. It accumulates red mana. It also detects thin spots for rips and sprays mana to open a rip on command. If I assemble it in this fashion, it pirates green mana." Jas disassembled the pylon and reassembled it. "I'm told it flags its area of influence as belonging to one realm or another. There's a third way to assemble these. It uses mana that is neither green nor red." "Gray mana." "Possibly. I don't have a lot of contact with gray magicians. Some of this I reverse engineered. Some followed from code I developed while trying to understand how magic worked. The physics is actually quite simple." "The princess says you are forbidden from using green mana." "She is forbidden. I did not sass the Queen." "Who are you?" "I am Reflet, also called Jasbinder, a freed slave formerly known as Fucky Sucky Girl. I'm told that names have power. Please pardon. I'm reluctant to volunteer further information." "Jasper Leu Rostami?" "Someone's done her homework." The other Melissa looked up. She smiled for a moment, then wept silently. Marikit said, "Let's eat. Do you mind sharing a table with soldiers?" Jas checked with Badoesa and Bad Tom. They shrugged. The Melissas sat on either side of Jas. The new Melissa barely spoke. She picked at the food like a woman watching her weight. The other Melissa jibber-jabbered during the entire meal. She sounded just like the Melissa Jas knew and loved. "Right, stop," Jas said to the old Melissa. "We've established that you are not the real Melissa." "I have her memories." "Are you coming home with me also?" That Melissa smiled. "Sadly, no. I am intrigued, though. How would you remove the glyphs and the collar?" "I know a good lexi." "Sorry, but that term is not ... a lawyer?" "Right. Contract law. Loopholes." "I would love to hear about the loopholes." "Sorry but I don't know you. I have your word that this is the real Melissa?" Both Melissas nodded. "She has no riders, no wraiths, no demons?" "She has memories and training. A condition you call PTSD. She had cancer, other troubles, for instance a virus that causes sudden infant death. We cured it." Jas and the new Melissa exchanged glances. She smiled for a moment. At that moment, demonic glyphs and a collar appeared on Jas. The imposter Melissa said, "When I kill certain demons why do they manifest on your body?" Jas turned to that Melissa. "You're the Red Chancellor." She nodded. Jas tried reaching for her sword. She couldn't even twitch. A woman clumped down the steps. Her ankles were hobbled, wrists bound together. Princess Yara, or Good Tom. From the way she glowered, it was Good Tom. The fake Melissa said, "Take your husband home, Badoesa. I opened a rip by the bath. Don't delay." Badoesa and Bad Tom gathered children. They picked up weapons and kit. They walked to Yara-Good Tom. Bad Tom grabbed Yara-Good Tom by the wrist shackles and said, "Follow." Jas stepped over the bench. "That's my train," she said. She pulled the Melissa. They started to follow. "Not you." The fake Melissa touched Jas. Jas found that all ability to move away from the table left her. "Well done," Melissa-Chancellor said. "You fooled all my experts. Is that an actual copy of Princess Yara?" "Yes." Jas watched the red caps step through the portal. It closed behind them. She hoped they actually went home and didn't get dropped onto a Hive planet. Or worse. "Ah, well, I have you." The chancellor dipped into Jas's mind, frowned for a moment. "She's not here." "Right." "She's in here someplace." "Silent as a tomb if she is." "No matter." the chancellor found other things to play with in Jas's mind. "What kind of champion sacrifices a real princess to save a common whore like your ex-girlfriend?" Jas remained silent. She watched as the chancellor called up her identity and started changing values. "If it's any consolation, there is no justice for the rich and privileged. You can redeem yourself by becoming the whipping boy." The Red Chancellor smiled. It looked out of place on Melissa's face. She patted Jas's belly. "You'll whelp this one. We'll induce another estrus and you'll welp a true royal heir. You'll gain your freedom eventually, if you don't get wiped. Oh, you cheated." The Red Chancellor called up the history of previous ID changes. "You adapted to the life taking magical shortcuts. Can't have that." The Chancellor played with the settings on Jas's ID. She ran them up, she ran them down. "Can't break you properly if you're already broken." Jas felt uncomfortable but turned on sexually. Her nipples ached. Her pussy heated. The chancellor stepped out of Jas's mind. "Cush, dear, please train our newest girl." She slapped Jas on the arse. Jas yipped with surprise. "I expect greatness," the chancellor said. "Don't disappoint." Melissa nodded. "Oh, before we start your welcome home party, explain to me how my realm got infested with Hive." Jas hesitated. "Talk boy, or I'll wear you like I'm wearing your ex-girlfriend. I'll split you on the dragon's hemipenes." "The demons were programmed to infest Earth Prime and the Green realms." "Yes, yes. You changed the programming?" "I studied it but demon code is still beyond me." Almost true. "Who changed it. Why?" "The Lady of the Lake." "Who?" "She gave me a sword. I'm supposed to kill you with it." Jas nodded towards the sword. "Who are you, King Arthur?" Jas giggled. Giggled? "Strip. We're taking all your toys. Those pylons changed the war. It was supposed to be an easy war. Now we may lose a world. The queen is livid." Jas stood and dropped pelts and evil-smelling drapes from her shoulders. "The queen?" "This was her dirty little war, to knock reactionary traditionalists off of their seats of power. Instead, you cemented them in place. Eradi realms are now accepting Tsurgi refugees. Bah. What does this do?" "It's my mother's coin. Three years of sobriety." "Yes, yes, but what does it do?" "It puts my demons on time-out." "Not anymore. Thank you." Melissa tucked the coin in her cleavage. "Hand me the sword, hilt first." Jas put her hand on the sword. She was aware of the tension in the room. They were all watching this transaction. Jas heard the snap of a piece breaking off from her pylon. She glanced at the table. She watched as the pylon curled around and snapped together as an egg. Jas smiled for a moment. Then she stabbed the Red Chancellor in the heart. The sword went completely through the woman's body, severing her spine. That Melissa looked surprised, then shocked. Then she fell to the floor. Blood sprayed all over Jas and the other Melissa. Two crossbow bolts and a bullet flew past Jas. The soldier across from Jas readied a shotgun. "Give up," he said. "You can't kill us all." "Watch me." Jas picked up the egg-shaped pylon and turned it on. She tossed it behind her. Into the dragon's mouth. The dragon paused in mid-bite. It had been ready to eat Jas, or maybe Melissa. He hacked. He coughed. A whiff of sulfur and rotted meat enveloped Jas. Jas picked up her rucksack. The other Melissa picked up Jas's bloody coin. Jas found another egg-shaped pylon in her rucksack. She activated it and threw it towards the steps leading up. "Have a nice party. Prior engagement. Bye." Jas stepped towards the door. She met a soldier. She ran him through with her sword. The dragon exploded behind her. Hive monsters came out from the rip that opened inside the dragon. Then a larger rip opened and many hive monsters flooded into the hall. A rip opened by the staircase. A larger rip opened inside it. Jas activated an improved gray pylon. She twisted it randomly until she found green. She opened a rip and stepped into another snow storm. Melissa came through with her. Jas pulled her pylon and closed the rip behind her. "Are you the real Melissa?" Melissa wrapped arms around herself. "I think so." "How can you not know?" "They imposed so many personalities on me." Jas removed her hat. She wiped blood from her blade. She put the hat on Melissa's head. Demons appeared around Jas. "How did that happen?" Jas asked. She put her sword back in its sheath. "Talk later. Move now," Squick said. He handed Jas a bow. Her bow. Squelch handed Jas two quivers of arrows. He handed a shotgun to Melissa. Jas cold-proofed everyone, as best she could. They all would have to eat ravenously later, but they could travel. For now. "What world are we on?" Icky asked as they trudged through snow. "Fuck if I know," Jas said. "I dialed at random." "Idiot! Twenty percent of the worlds are Hive worlds." "Add one more to the list," Jas said. Oz. She'd given Oz to the Hive. It made her sick to think about that. "Thanks for the save back there. Aren't you guys supposed to be working for the opposition?" "The prince didn't renew our contract. Plus, he didn't pay us for the old contract." "I wonder why. You destroyed his world." Icky grinned. Then she frowned. "I'm never taking another contract like that again." "Is he dead?" "Two copies are dead. The dragon was also the chancellor." She kissed Jas on the forehead. "It's been fun. I have to go home now. Unless you want to draw up a contract." Jas considered it. Icky shook her head. "Penalties for late payment are severe." "We'll live," Jas said. "Not in this weather," Squick said. He took Jas's hand and kissed it. He tried to do the same for Melissa but she wouldn't let him touch her. Squelch saluted in two ways. Then the three demons disappeared from the snow. Jas examined the snow around her. Footprints to here, then nothing. The demons hadn't opened a rip, not one she could see, at any rate. Jas said, "I wonder how they shift." Melissa said, "Huh?" "It's not magic. It's just advanced engineering. If I could figure out how they did it...." "You seriously want to study demon magic?" "When you put it that way, no." Jas opened her rucksack. She pulled the half-expended pylon from her kit. She checked the setting that got them here. She recorded it to Mem2. What were the jumps that got her here? Jas drew in the snow with an arrow. She listed coordinates. "What are you doing?" "Eleven dimensional math." "Jas, there are wolves." Jas looked up. "Oh." She started to put the pylon away. Then she twisted it instead. The demons had jumped from here. Perhaps this was a thin spot. To hell. Jas found green. She opened a rip. They stepped into cold desert. A scattering of snow. Thorny plants that moved? Large bugs and small. They all took an interest. Jas looked around. No immediate danger. She pulled her pylon into this world just in time. Five percent power. Jas assembled another pylon. Melissa blasted something with a shotgun. "Jas!" Return to origin, return to origin. She didn't have time to do the math. She rotated the display, found another green. Melissa fired again. Jas opened a rip. Just as she did this, the display changed from green to yellow. "Now!" she said to Melissa. They stepped through the rip. Jas reached through for her pylon. A large claw pinned her wrist to the ground. Melissa fired through the rip. The bug recoiled. Jas retrieved her pylon and closed the rip. More desert. Spiny plants. Cactus. Acacia. No mobile plants or big bugs. A little warmer here, but still winter. She rubbed her wrist. The skin was still intact. She probably wasn't infected. Probably. She checked her inventory. Two expended pylons. How many did she have left? Jas pulled off her rucksack and counted pylons. Six. She preassembled them. Improved gray. On impulse, she disassembled the expended ones and reassembled them. One green, one red. She held up a red pylon. "If we get to another bug world, we're dropping these. Let them chase me through that brane." "Shouldn't we be moving?" "Taking the advice of demons, now." "Um. They seemed like friendly demons?" Jas chuckled. "Pick a direction, love." "I'm not your love. We broke up." "I started a war for you. I killed a dragon. What do you need, woman?" Jas walked over. She yanked a sprig of sagebrush and handed it to Melissa. "Flowers?" Melissa chuckled. She accepted the sprig of sagebrush. "I'm not into girls." Jas barked with laughter. "Me, neither. Dammit."