Framework of the Frontier, Sain Artwell [read me a book .TXT] 📗

And for that, she needed him: His blessings.

Rulu’s gaze returned to the slumbering man. Through him she could unlock power beyond her greediest dreams, crush the leviathan after her and challenge Ytulhu and become the Great Dreamer of the All Depths, the Empress of R’lyeh Dynasty, and the Mistress of Leviathans to whom bow even the eldritch abominations of Utterdepths. The fantasy caused Rulu to feel a phantasm of satisfaction and relief.

If only it could be true.

Grant me this dream, William Adams, give me a chance to reclaim my life beneath the depths and I shall serve to fulfill the yearnings which haunt you.

In the sliver she had glimpsed of his soul, Rulu had seen a man fumbling forward, lost and alone. She was certain that they could come to a mutually beneficial arrangement, one where in exchange for his blessings she would devote herself as his temporary concubine.

15

“Absolutely not,” William said.

Rulu’s face furrowed in shock and arms flew up in a tantrum. “You cannot refuse me. You cannot!” She muttered something in her native language, pulling at her hair. “Unthinkable. How dare you deny an offer from a royal aboleth? I saw into your soul, William, I know you desire me. Why deny it?”

“Yeeah… About that…” William rubbed his neck as he minced his thoughts, giving a sidelong glance to Ember who was waiting by the wagon. He looked down at the furious Rulu, furious and naked in all her sexy slender glory. “Look—”

“I am looking!”

“Rulu, few things. Yes, you’re attractive. We fucked yesterday so that you could use your magic and I don’t regret it. But, right now, I’m hoping to build things with Ember and I don’t want to risk things with her. Plus, I’m not a big fan of you paying with sex for access to my magic.”

“How does your arrangement with her hinder accepting my offer?” She was genuinely baffled, like the idea of monogamous relations did not click.

“Right…” William dragged a hand over his face and through his hair.

He realized he had not discussed things at all with Ember in regards to what she was expecting beyond… well, a natural progression, which he had assumed would be them being a couple. Just a couple. One plus one. But, Ember had mentioned something about humans, dragons, and harems, hadn’t she? So did that mean it was on the table? Or was giving in to this a one way ticket to a life of being a sleazy fuckboy?

William cursed. Life on Earth had not prepared him for a sudden burst in popularity.

He shook his head, trying to compose some logic from his thoughts. “Thing is, even if Ember was fine with the idea. You’re not the only one who glimpsed at the other’s soul during the blessing.”

“You… You peered into my thoughts?” Rulu’s gills flared up the same deep crimson as her cheeks. Even when angry-flustered, she had an adorable pout.

William’s lips cracked into a grin.

“Noooo.” Rulu groaned, covering her face with fists as if she was about to implode from him seeing all her innermost secrets. The horrified look on her face made him feel a guilty twinge of compassion. Poor girl was troubled by an almost stoic pride, the likes of which William had not encountered in a girl since a certain overachiever in his junior year in college.

However, she soon recovered her fierce demeanor. “But so what? What does it change if you did peer into me?”

William released a sigh. “Hold up. I’m saying that if you want to, you can come with us to Nastall. I can spare a blessing a day on most days for you, if it helps you train your magic, and you’d be safer there in case that leviathan does show up. No cost.”

If she had been baffled before she was now dumbstruck.

When she didn’t speak, William continued, “Even if I didn’t feel personally responsible for making sure a girl who helped me keep myself from becoming human tartar to some monster, I’d still be obliged to help.” He tapped the bronze star.

Was he being corny? Yeah, sure. Was he making big promises he might regret? Well… Most likely. But fuck it. Like hell was he going to be the schmuck who turned away a desperate girl in trouble.

“So, what do you say?” he asked.

For a split second her lips cracked in the kind of a smile that topples nations, and struck somewhere gut deep in William. It retracted beneath her carefully forged face of composure. “A most gracious offer. I shall accept it, so long as you’re able to provide suitable accommodations.”

“Uh… Right, well, we have a pond there. It’s smaller, but deeper, than this one.”

“It will suffice. A moment please, I will fetch my possessions.” Rulu dove into the lake.

She ended up following them in the canal rather than riding the wagon. Apparently some of her things didn’t take well to being exposed to air. That, or she didn’t want to sit near the gore burrito which was Rajza’s remains wrapped in a tent tarp. No wonder, ‘cos that was nasty as fuck.

Soon after they departed the Palace Falls, Ember tilted her head into William’s view. A look of concern weighed her brows.

“Something troubling you, Will?” she asked.

He blinked. “Oh? It’s probably my resting face.”

“No. Your resting face is like this.” Ember closed her eyes for a step and put on a slightly derpy smile. “I know, I have studied it.”

A brief chuckle escaped William’s lips, before they fell into a fading grin.

Ember continued before he could reply, “Is it related to you pleasuring Rulu?”

“No… Yes, maybe? It’s a bit of everything.” William drew a heavy breath, looking at the blood soaked tarp behind him. “A man died because of me. Sure, he wasn’t a great guy, likely a thief and a