Rick stared at the woman sitting imperiously above him.

  Despite only wearing a simple pair of nightclothes, she practically exuded the aura of a fierce queen. Rick suppressed a shudder at the sight.

  “Yeah, no… We’re done with this. No more questions for you” He stated simply before looking towards his other partner in the festivities. “Tyr, care to help me make our girl comfortable?”

  The muscular elf flashed a feral grin in response.

  Before Sade could protest, the two of them tackled the mage to the bed until she was practically cocooned between her lovers, completely unable to escape.

  “Wh-why?” She finally gasped out.

  “You had a dangerous look in your eye. I didn’t like it. I would rather we talk about something less serious for the time being.” While Rick wasn’t exactly lying about his reasons for suddenly deciding her part of their Q&A session was over, he didn’t divulge the entire truth.

  As she explained what had happened to her family all those years ago, how they were hunted down like dogs, Rick saw something in his lover's gaze, something dark. Her eyes conveyed the kind of hardness that he didn’t expect to see on anyone, let alone the young woman he met in the middle of the forest. It was a look reserved for the type of person who didn’t care who they hurt on their road to revenge. It was the sort of darkness that spoke of trampling over mountains of corpses to achieve their goals. It was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen.

  Rick would do all he could to ensure that was not her path. He would refuse to let that happen to her.

  “Sorry for the brief interruption. Lilie, I believe it was your turn to ask me a question.” He said while doing his damndest to keep his tone light and jovial.

  “Right, uh- you said there wasn’t magic in your world?” Lilie asked after the spotlight turned to her.

  “None that I know of. It took us several thousand years, but we eventually learned how to create items that would help us perform amazing feats just by utilizing the natural laws of the world.”

  Daniela perked up at the mention of items. “What kind of things did your people make?”

  “Oh, lots of things. Horseless carriages to transport people and things long distances, portable devices to talk to people wherever you are, and we even have machines to print hundreds of copies of books for everyone to read.”

  “And no magic?” The dwarf asked in a disbelieving tone.

  Rick laughed. “Nope! I could go over some of the basics of how it all works, but that’s not what I was going to school for.”

  “Could ya make some of those things here?” Tyr asked from her position behind Sade’s head.

  He considered the question for a few moments. “A few things, yes. But for the vast majority of devices my world had, I wouldn’t even know how to make the tools to make the tools needed for manufacturing the technology.” Rick paused to give Sade a bit more love before adding. “And the last thing I want is to be the indirect cause of the dreadnought effect.”

  “The… what now?” Sade inquired, determined to still have her turn despite being effectively caged on the bed.

  “What I mean is introducing a leap in technology that is an order of magnitude better than what came before. These things always cause history to drastically change from what came before, especially when the items in question are weapons of war.”

  Lilie looked intrigued. “Care to give us a couple examples?”

  Rick groaned, only partially in annoyance. He should have figured they would want to probe him for details. “Most of the examples I know of are weapons, since studying wars is kinda a thing young boys like to do.” He explained sheepishly.

  “That’s fine.” She shot back.

  “Fine, fine. You win.” He grumbled. “A big one is a device that replaced bows. It had quite a few disadvantages at first when compared to firing regular arrows or even crossbow bolts, but it had one key advantage that the competition could not. It made armor virtually useless.”

  “You’re joking!” Daniela spat.

  “I may be embellishing a bit, that’s true, but for the most part, I’m completely serious.” Rick countered. “It took a while before the weapon became more accurate or could be manufactured en masse, but within a couple hundred years they became the primary weapon of war for the entire world. They even replaced swords, spears, and almost all other forms of melee combat. Only relatively recently has armor finally started to catch up and be used by soldiers again.”

  “And it’s possible fer ya ta make these weapons?”

  Rick looked over to see Tyr frozen in place. Her tan skin was several shades paler than usual. His heart sank when he saw her with the most terrified expression he had ever seen. The sight unsettled him greatly. Tyr was always this indomitable force of nature. Seeing her actually scared of the possibility of weapons from his world leaking into theirs seemed almost wrong, unnatural.

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  “Thankfully, no. I can not.” He lied. While he was no expert, he did know the basics of how a firearm worked, as well as the rough composition of gunpowder. But he had absolutely no desire to ever see that knowledge see the light of day if he could help it. Plus, there was one more wildcard to consider too.

  “The good news is that magic changes everything.” He said.

  “How so?” Sade asked.

  “As I said before, my old world doesn’t have magic. No spells, enchantments, wards, none of it. It’s entirely possible a skilled mage could completely invalidate the more advanced weaponry I’m used to. While the magic I’ve encountered since coming here isn’t omnipotent, someone with half the skill you all possess would be quite dangerous to the people of my world.”

  Tyr visibly deflated with relief at his words. All the built up tension from his earlier explanations rushed out of her in one great sigh as she slumped over onto her side. Unfortunately, her sheer size meant that there were at least two people directly in her path of destruction.

  “Gah! Tyr! Can’t…. Breathe.” Rick groaned. Sade also made a strangled cry, but her position between the two of them prevented any proper words from escaping.

  “Oh! Sorry, sorry! Didn’t meat ta crush ya there.” The oversized elf apologized to the two of them. “Ya just scared me fer a wee bit there.”

  He and Sade coughed a bit to clear their airways before they gave reassuring pats to their large lover. “It happens. How about we agree for the next few questions to be a bit more lighthearted?” He proposed while looking over to the next person in line.

  Lilie simply shrugged. “Works for me. Could you tell us a bit about what it was like growing up? You never talk about your family.”

  Rick sighed. Even if he wasn’t from another world entirely, the subject of his family was still a sore spot for him. Still, it was what he had asked for, even if the subject wasn’t exactly ‘lighthearted’ for him. He was going to bite the bullet eventually.

  “Well, my parents grew up in separate countries. Opposite sides of the world in fact. Mom met Dad while she was studying abroad, they fell in love, and then she immigrated and they got married before having me and my little sister.”

  “And that’s just something your countries allow?” Daniela asked.

  Rick gave a wry chuckle. “It’s a sensitive subject actually. But it's allowed as long as the proper fees are paid and certain promises are kept. The hardest part for them was simply adjusting to the different cultures and ways of thinking. Plus there was the fact that during my grandfather’s time, the two countries were at war.”

  “And she was still allowed ta live there?” Tyr inquired with a raised brow.

  “Humans don’t live nearly as long as elves do Tyr.” Rick chuckled. “I’ll skip a lot of the history, but many of my country's greatest allies were those who they previously fought against.”

  “Sounds like my kinda people.” She remarked with a grin.

  “Maybe. But I think you would enjoy the Australians more.” RIck shot back. “They live on a giant island filled with some of the deadliest creatures imaginable and are always down for a scrap before dusting themselves off and going out for drinks together.”

  Stars glowed in the elf’s eyes at Rick’s description. “They sound amazing! Who knew there were a bunch o’ mayflies who lived like elves?”

  “Would… would you wish to go back?”

  Rick looked over to the woman he loved. Sade’s posture was slightly hunched, as if she was making herself as small as possible. Her question was so quiet that he barely heard the words. It took him only a heartbeat to realize that she was probably scared of his answer.

  He sat up and kissed her softly on the lips. His arms wrapped around and brought her into a loving embrace. “Maybe one day.” He whispered into her ear. “But not unless I could bring you with me.”

  He locked eyes with Tyr, who nodded in silent agreement. Rick was glad the two of them understood each other so well. It was like they shared the same single horny braincell. As one, they once more wrapped the dusky skinned mage in a cocoon of warmth.

  “To circle back to Lilie’s question.” Rick said after a moment. “While my childhood was fairly normal, I was unhappy. I grew up small, struggled to make friends, and was constantly compared to my younger sister by others.” He could feel those bottled emotions threaten to come spilling out with each word. His throat was already starting to feel tight, and his eyes began to moisten. Rick didn’t care anymore, he needed to finally let it all out into the open. That was the entire point of this odd game in the first place.

  “Every day was just the same old drudgery. Wake up, go to school, go to sleep. Rinse and repeat every fucking day for years! Mom and Dad loved me, I always knew that, but there was always a strange distance between us that I never saw with their treatment of my sister. Dad was always training me in anything he could think of, always pushing me to be better. But always there was this wall he put up to prevent me from getting too close. I just never saw the point to it all. When I finally became an adult, I took the first opportunity to escape I could find.”

  Tears were streaming freely down the sides of his face. He took a moment to catch his breath and give Sade another passionate kiss. “But then somehow, I ended up here, with you.” He said softly.

  “We survived our time in the wilds together, you taught me magic and how to thrive in this strange world. Then we met Tyr, then Lilie, and now Daniela. We made a home together, a family! I don’t know how I got here or why. But even if the gods themselves offered me a chance to return, I would flatout refuse.”

  Sade’s eyes were wide at his declaration. The words of his impromptu speech flowed out of his mouth like a waterfall, Rick was partially surprised to realize that he meant every word. Until that point, he had never tried to crystalize his feelings on the subject. The more he thought about it, the more the idea of simply living out his new life with his new family appealed to him.

  “My home is here, with all of you. And I wouldn’t exchange that for anything.” Rick wiped his eyes to clear them before staring lovingly up to his fellow intimancer. “If it’s alright with you, my dear, I would like to ask you one last question.”

  Sade’s eyes took a few moments to focus on him. “I will allow it, just this one time though.” She joked softly.

  Rick sucked in a great breath to steady himself. Despite all the things he had learned over the past several months, he was still a stranger in a strange land. He didn’t know the full ritual involved for what he was about to propose next, but he had no doubts that the handful of women in the room would be more than happy to help him perform it properly.

  “Sade of Kanho village.” He began. “Will you marry me?”