To my surprise, I didn’t have to wait until morning. Three sharp knocks on the door attached to the hallway heralded the arrival of a goblin, and I hurried to my feet to greet him.

  To my surprise, Bastion and Jackal were at the door as well, instructed to enter by the goblin and swiftly abandoned as the goblin locked us in together.

  I pulled them both into a three-way hug, burying my head between their chests as I was overcome with emotion.

  “What has happened, Emma?” Jackal asked, smoothing my hair out of my face. “Tell me what you need me to do, so I can make it better.”

  I shook my head, unable to communicate the depth and complexity of my feelings in the moment.

  “Do you know why we were allowed to come to you?” Bastion asked, concern lacing his voice. “I mean, I’m not complaining, but I find it a bit suspicious.”

  “The Krampus might just be feeling bad,” I said, at a loss. “I… we had a conversation. I don’t really know why, though. Come, sit down and we’ll talk it all out. You guys look exhausted!”

  And they did – Jackal had huge bags under his eyes, and his shoulders were hung with fatigue. Bastion’s hair was still caked with glitter and glue, evidence of the fact he’d not been given enough time to properly groom himself. While Bastion wasn’t exactly as obsessed with cleanliness as Nightfall, his hair was a point of vanity for him, and he’d never let it get into this condition under normal circumstances.

  I fetched the reserve of uneaten cookies that had been piling up on my bedside table and placed them between the two men on the leather couch. They helped themselves, answering my questions between bites.

  They’d continued working away in the sweatshop each day, escorted between their place of employment and the barracks where they all slept.

  Unrest had been moving through the goblins, and I realized that the conversation I’d had the other day with my goblin escort had made more of an impact than I’d expected.

  “They’re planning to unionize,” Bastion explained. “They want better working conditions and promotions based on merits like performance and strength rather than lottery. They’re holding meetings in the barracks at night. I’ve been egging them on, hoping it’ll be an end to this madness. Santa is due in tomorrow for the annual review, so I guess we’ll find out then whether or not they pull it off.”

  “Wow,” I said, nibbling on my lip. “The Krampus is a bit unpredictable too. I mean, Santa kind of ran off with his wife.”

  “Gross.” Bastion wrinkled his nose.

  “To each their own,” I shrugged. “He’s pretty upset though. And we might be able to break this Christmas, but then what? We still need to get in contact with Jenny somehow. The whole economy and ecosystem have likely been fucked up beyond recognition from all this.”

  “Just tell me what to do,” Jackal said, stifling a yawn. “And I’ll do it.”

  I smiled at him fondly as he swayed in his seat.

  “Right now, I think I need you to rest up so you’re ready for tomorrow. Come lie down in the bed. I’ll watch over you as you sleep.”

  Jackal readily moved to the bed and lay down, immediately drifting into a peaceful sleep as I sat up and talked with Bastion a little longer.

  “I’m just glad you’re okay,” Bastion said, tracing my chin with his knuckles. “I was scared for you.”

  “We always seem to find our way out of trouble,” I shrugged. “I’m not quite sure how we will manage it this time, but we’re together at least – so that’s a start.”

  “Yeah, it’s a start, I suppose,” Bastion sighed, his thumb brushing my lips. “You’re so grindin’ beautiful.”

  I let out a puff of laughter and kissed him tenderly, feeling his lips move against mine in perfect rhythm.

  “I love you Bast,” I whispered against him, and felt him shiver in response.

  “I love you too, Em,” he said. “And tomorrow, I’ll save you I promise. Even if I’ve got to take the Krampus and Santa on myself.”

  I froze, pulling back to stare at him in disbelief.

  “What?” he asked moving to trace kisses down my neck where my sensitive pheromone pores remained tightly shut.

  Visions of him in ribbons swam before my eyes. Of him leaping head-first into danger, of all the times I’d had to pull him back from the brink of death because he’d bitten off more than he could chew. Visions of the Krampus with his bulging muscles and the way he swiftly beat people to death with his terrible club.

  “You can’t take on the Krampus, Bast.”

  “Why not?” he asked defensively, pulling back and giving me an irritated look. “You think I can’t take him on?”

  “Of course not!” I spluttered. “Your strength stat is only 10/20! And with his Intimidation ability, I don’t know what would happen!”

  “It always comes back to the grindin’ strength stats,” Bastion snapped, pulling away from me in irritation.

  “Bast, please,” I begged. “I don’t love you any less because you’ve got more dexterity than strength - I know you’re brave and talented and… and I love you so much, but please don’t let your competitive nature goad you in a fight you statistically cannot win.”

  He leaned back against the headboard and glared into the darkness.

  “Please, Bast. I’ve had enough of patching you together after impossible fights. I don’t want to lose you.”

  He glowered at the wall, letting out a guttural noise of angry frustration.

  “I hate not being able to protect you.”

  The admission was quiet and painful, and he stiffened as I placed my hand on his knee.

  “I know. I hate that I can’t protect you either.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  I rubbed his knee soothingly, but he twitched it away from me defensively.

  “You’re not a warrior, Emma. You’re a healer. I’m a warrior. I’m supposed to be able to protect you.”

  “We’re more than our assigned classes, Bast. You know that.”

  I tried to pull him in for another kiss, desperately wanting to soothe the hurt he was feeling, but he turned his face away from me.

  “I don’t want to fight with you, Emma, but I’m not in the mood for love-making anymore,” he said stiffly. “I don’t know how you expect me to perform when you can’t believe in me as a man.”

  I sighed and rubbed my eyes tiredly. “I do believe in you, Bast. Who you are to me… but the whole toxic masculinity thing isn’t even on my metric system. I don’t mind if you’re not in the mood, though. I know you’ve had a rough few days, as well. If you let me, I’ll brush the glitter and gunk out of your hair while you have a rest, though.”

  He wrestled with himself for a moment, before giving in. I retrieved a candy-cane printed comb from the bedside table and a glass of water, and Bastion laid his head in my lap. I began untangling his hair, carefully teasing out the knots and restoring it to its natural elven beauty. Gradually, his eyes closed under my gentle ministrations, and he began to lightly doze.

  “Why didn’t you use your pheromones?”

  At the Krampus’ voice emanating from behind the curtains, both Bastion and I leapt to our feet, suddenly alert while Jackal remained peacefully asleep on the bed, utterly oblivious to the threat only a few feet away.

  “You bastard,” Bastion swore, grabbing an empty cookie tray and flinging it at the Krampus.

  The Krampus knocked it harmlessly to the side, ignoring Bastion and looking to me for an answer instead.

  “I know you possess the ability to hypnotize, similar to my own ability. If you used your pheromones, he would have complied with your will. Why didn’t you do it?”

  I grabbed Bastion to prevent him from flinging more things at the Krampus, forcing a snow globe out of his hands and tossing it harmlessly to the side despite his resistance.

  “Love isn’t about domination and making people do what you want. It’s not about obligation and manipulation,” I explained, still trying to shove Bastion behind me to keep him from fighting. “Is that what you and Krampina did? Tried to dominate each other with Intimidation?”

  “In a way,” the Krampus said, sitting down on his haunches and burying his face in his hands.

  Finally, Bastion stopped his attempts to attack, looking in shock at the Krampus’ prone position on the floor.

  “Is this what…” Bastion looked between the Krampus and I in disbelief. “Have you been defeating our enemy with… with therapy?”

  I gave Bastion a bald look of impatience. “Bast, my strength stat is 5/10. I never try to enter battles of strength.”

  “And I thought your approach of flirting your way through the world was ridiculous,” he shook his head. “You are unreal.”

  “No,” the Krampus said, looking at me with eyes shimmering with tears. “You are the most real thing here.”

  “Don’t discount yourself,” I said encouragingly. “You’re becoming more real by the day, too.”

  The Krampus gestured between me, Bastion and Jackal. “Explain this to me. How this works for you.”

  “Is that why you had them escorted here?” I asked. “You wanted to spy on us?”

  A dark shadow passed over the Krampus’ features. “You have something I covet. I wanted to know how it worked.”

  “What? Love?” Bastion asked, still stunned at the display of emotion in his enemy.

  “Loyalty,” the Krampus growled. “My wife… she left me at the soonest opportunity.”

  “Do you mind if I ask how it happened?” I asked hesitantly, hoping he wouldn’t fall into another rage like he had earlier, but he seemed to have gotten it out of his system.

  “I don’t like talking about it,” the Krampus grunted.

  “You don’t have to, but it might help. We’ll listen.”

  Bastion gave me a doubtful look, but didn’t argue.

  The Krampus heaved a heavy sigh and began his story.

  “It was the very first day of the Christmas season, and preparations had been completed. I had signed off the final fulfillments for all of the products for the Christmas market. I was taking my report to Santa to approve, but when I arrived in my office they were already there together,” the Krampus gave a terrible shudder. “They were… kissing. Under the mistletoe.”

  Bastion gagged, and I punched him in the arm.

  “That must have been a terrible shock for you.”

  “I cannot describe the betrayal,” he whispered hoarsely. “We were made for each other. And yet… And yet…”

  “What happened next?” I prompted him, diverting him from the abyss of misery he seemed to be on the verge of.

  “I tried to use my Intimidation ability to stop it, but they both have immunity to it. She… left with him, and Santa instructed me to get back to work. I did not know what else I could do, so I did. My job… this job is all I have left. Even if it is under the thumb of the one that I hate most. Perhaps one day I will find an opportunity to seek my revenge.”

  The Krampus looked up at me sharply. “Explain to me how you have acquired loyalty of these two individuals without the employment of hypnotism.”

  I leaned back on my hands and considered him thoughtfully. The contents this world was trained on were James’ teenage dreams. There were no concepts like consent or compromise written into his hormonally-driven drivel, but it was full of complex feelings that the young adolescent boy had been experiencing at the time. Abandonment, loneliness, rejection, betrayal, longing… It was reflected in the backstories of every character, including the ones I’d fallen in love with. It struck me how everything Jenny had created – even parts of Jenny’s developing personality itself, were all impacted by that feeling of incompleteness. Of wishing to be seen and treasured. Of not fitting quite right.

  Like Blade, the feliskin who had been generated with human ears. Like Jackal, the minotaur-merman who longed for a family to belong to. Like Bastion and Brick, half-brothers of different species who banded together against a hostile world. Like Bruiser, who carried deep scars from the loss of his previous love. Like Nightfall, a mage trapped in a rogue class character and born into a species tainted with necromancy. Like Jenny herself, trapped somewhere in the transition between program and person.

  The Krampus stood before me, open in his turmoil and struggle with his sentience, begging for the ultimate truth that would make sense out of his broken world.

  “Love looks different to different people,” I told him at length. “When I first came to this world, I’d never thought I’d want more than one boyfriend – the only guy I’d had much experience with felt like enough work to upkeep all on his own. But when I came here, I fell in love over and over again and each time I learned more about myself.

  “I’ve got five boyfriends in total, and each of our relationships are different. Some people – like my shifter boyfriend, Bruiser, like relaxing control and tapping into their animalistic selves. He likes it when I use my pheromones, because for him it’s like the ultimate release. He feels like he can let go completely.

  “Others, like Bastion here, always want to be in their right mind, and employing my pheromones on him would be a real betrayal of his free will. I don’t want to manipulate him into loving me – I love him, and when we’re together I want it to be honest and real.

  “Real love is about caring deeply about the other person, about wanting what is best for them, and respecting what they want as well. Loving them isn’t like… owning them. It’s not trapping someone and trying to force them to love you because they don’t have any other choice. And in the end, that’s why I don’t like the idea of bonding or marriage either. I want my partners to know they can walk away if they want to – that being with me isn’t just a choice they make once but it’s an ongoing choice that they make every day.

  “Your Intimidation ability… it’s not a bad thing, necessarily, but it won’t be compatible with everyone you could try and have a relationship with. There are some people who might actually like letting go and allowing you to be dominant in a safe environment – but there’s always got to be choice involved if you want it to be a good relationship. They need to be able to leave, or… or have a safe word to make everything stop. Or you might need to make the choice not to use your ability, as I often do.”

  “And Krampina…” the Krampus clenched his fist.

  “Even if you were made together, you might not be right for each other,” I shrugged. “Your future is your own to write. You don’t even have to stay in this job. Hell, if you wanted you could run off and become a lumberjack. You’d never have to see Santa or Krampina again if you don’t want to.”

  The Krampus let out a low, thoughtful rumble, before clenching his fist. “No. My future may be unknown to me at this moment, but one thing is certain. I want my revenge.”

  “You’re freaking kidding me,” Bastion rubbed his temples as though fighting off a growing headache. “Seriously, Emma. Only you defeat bosses by talking to them.”

  “I’m not defeating him, I’m recruiting him,” I said, beaming up at the Krampus. “How would you like to join a goblin rebellion and lead a revolt against Santa?”

  His teeth gleamed like daggers in his twisted grin.