And An Offer

By the way the rest of the table reacted—most of them jerking back in shock—Kevin could tell that the hostess had manifested directly from the shadows of the room. Most of the time when she joined the party, it was by usurping the place of one of the serving girls. It was a little creepy when it happened, the way she just subsumed their presence into her own, but less intrusive than when she just appeared out of nowhere.

The expressions around the table were mixed. While Stheno’s worshipful glee was no surprise, neither was Hwa’s obvious ire nor Penny’s immediate suspicion. Hazel and Blue’s faces showed curiosity in different measures, and while Elsie schooled her expression quickly the brief flash of panic she displayed at the sudden intrusion revealed that the new persona she’d attempted to craft for herself was perhaps not as seamless as it appeared. Tess again leaned forward as though to protect her little sister, while Abby looked more curious than anything else as the younger selkie’s interactions with Lily hadn’t yet made a strong impression.

Kevin did his best to recover quickly, but there was something even more unnerving about the hostess to him now than when he’d first arrived. Before, he’d had only his five senses to guide him.

When he’d first seen her, Lily had appeared as a supernaturally beautiful woman—all mouth-watering curves and flawless pale skin, decorated with a set of tiny bat wings appropriate for a succubus.

Now, as he took in the presence behind him through the new sense provided by House Rule, she seemed to be something else entirely. Kevin was left with the unsettling impression that what his eyes perceived was merely the brightly glowing lure of an altogether different entity which lurked unseen in the depths below reality.

He swallowed. “What do you want, Lilith?”

If the hostility in his voice put the hostess off at all, it didn’t show. “Why, to encourage you all!” Lily’s tone was bright—not quite the bombastic delivery of the game show announcer she first displayed, but something more akin to a kindergarten teacher who discovered her class had exceeded her expectations and somehow avoided wrecking the classroom while she stepped out. “You were doing so well, I wanted to make sure that you knew that I was behind what you were trying to do.”

Kevin turned in his seat. The voice he’d heard had seemed to come from right behind him but when he turned the hostess was several feet back. She’d donned a fine gray silk robe for the occasion, and while it was held shut at the waist by a gold-threaded rope belt, the front dipped to expose a deep ‘v’ of cleavage. His eyes flicked involuntarily down, drawn into the expanse of flawless skin, before he managed to control himself and **** his eyes to meet hers. “Yes, but what’s the point? What are you hoping to accomplish here? You have us at your mercy, and yes—I know that you might not have much more choice about being here than we do. I read that much in some of the other season transcripts and summaries you made available. So—I’m here. I’m trying to play the game as best I can.” He gestured over his shoulder, a broad sweeping motion meant to encompass the entire table. “We all are. You don’t have to badger or torment anyone into playing along.”

Lily seemed no more perturbed by the Master’s questions than before. The smile that graced her lips was cool, but not sharp—an ice cream scoop left in the freezer rather than the sharpened point of a ice pick. “The point, my dear Dungeon Master, is to let you know that if you all truly intend to go down this route—to turn this from an adventuring party into a harem—I am quite prepared to work with you rather than against you. My producer believed that you would be more amenable to a route which more closely resembled the adventuring parties you spent so many years guiding. If, instead, you would like to shape and mold this bevy of beautiful women into a true harem—or a family, even—I will not stand in your way. In fact, I’d like to help.”

“How?” The question came not from Kevin, but from Penny. The siren’s eyes had narrowed dangerously as she regarded the hostess, nor was she the only one with suspicion writ large across her face. Tess had yet to drop her defensive posture towards her younger sister, and while Hwa might only have agreed to work with the group the night before, she was willing to present a unified front with them now. The kumiho’s red eyes blazed as she stared unblinking at Lily as though daring her to present an inadequate answer.

Lilith’s wings flexed. It was a slow motion, deliberate and magnificent in its grace as they spread out to either side behind her. “If you choose, we can dispense with the facade of the weekly ‘quest’. Replace it instead with a more classical Harem Hotel tradition—a date night with the Master. The trappings of the world will remain—like it or not, Kevin Burgmeyer, this is a fantasy of your own making—but if you desire to focus on the relationships you build with your harem,” the word practically dripped emphasis, but the hostess didn’t draw the sentence out, “you can.”

Her gaze swept across the table as she explained, “The people of Adventuria will remain. You may continue to involve yourselves in their lives, or not, as you choose. Fulfill quests, receive rewards, purchase items and upgrade abilities, or lounge about in a tavern getting drunk—it’s not as though there haven’t been more than a few who would rather put the ‘party’ in ‘adventuring party.’”

“And the dungeon?” This time it was Elsie who spoke. The brownie’s face gave away her **** to confront the hostess, but she **** the words past her lips anyway.

“The dungeon is a constant. You will remain here until you can surpass the tenth floor, but the—” Lily’s head canted to one side, ever so slightly as though she were searching for the right word, “—flavor of the place may change to fit the new mood.”

“Let’s do it.” The first affirmative vote was cast by Hazel. The nymph’s expression remained calm, even as the rest of the party turned to look at her. She shrugged, and the vines which covered her like living lingerie fluttered with the motion as they shifted and exposed new swathes of tanned skin. “It’ll be less stress on everyone. Right now, we’re all struggling to keep up with everything that’s happening in the world. We could be getting to know each other better instead.”

“No!” Blue’s dissent came in a forceful outburst as she reached out and snagged Kevin’s sleeve. The harpy’s yellow eyes were wide as she looked towards Kevin and explained, “This is—I want to keep adventuring!”

“Loathe as I am to agree with the bird-brain, I would rather not be beholden to… date.” Hwa’s voice dripped with barely concealed contempt for the word.

Before Kevin could respond to anything, Lily’s voice cut in smoothly. “Feel free to discuss the matter among yourselves, but—” She paused and waited until the entire table had once more turned to look at her, “—the decision, in the end, is Kevin’s alone. He is free to make it however he chooses, but it is his word which will determine the future of the season.”

“What do you mean, we don’t get a say?” The outburst was Penny’s, but there was a general murmur of support from the rest of the table which echoed her words.

When Lily didn’t immediately answer the question, Kevin instead asked, “How long do I have to choose?”

“Oh, let’s say… noon today.” Before Penny could interject again, Lily’s wings snapped outwards once with a shockingly loud sound like thunder, before folding in neatly behind her once more. “That should give you plenty of time to discuss the matter together. Put your case before the Party Leader, bribe him, make whatever promises you wish.”

Lilith smiled, and her violet eyes focused solely on Kevin once more. “I will find you wherever you are, Dungeon Master, and will hear your answer at noon.”

And then she was gone.

It took a while for order to be restored in her wake. Almost immediately, several members of the party tried to share their thoughts, only for the clash of competing words prevent anyone’s argument from being understood.

The shouting only died down when Kevin rose, and walked away from the table.

“Where are you going?” Elsie’s voice was barely audible—and more anxious than usual, as the conflicting needs of the party bombarded her through Useful Little Tool—but Kevin turned around to answer her anyway.

“I’m going to see if the staff here can get me a room to use.” He paused, then raised his voice slightly as he added to the rest of the group, “Then anyone who wants to have their opinion known can come in one at a time. I’m happy to talk to everyone, but a shouting match isn’t doing us any good.” Checking his character sheet quickly, he added, “It’s around eight. Anyone who wants to talk to me, I’ll give you thirty minutes to make whatever case you want, without anyone else interrupting or gainsaying you.”

Kevin was pretty certain that the room the serving girl guided him to in The Long Rest hadn’t been there the day before. The door which opened to it was at the end of the same hallway which led to the party’s rooms, and what he remembered from the day before was that the hall had ended in a smooth plaster wall.

The room itself didn’t exactly look out of place, though it was noticeably nicer than the rest of the fantasy tavern. The front of The Long Rest was all mismatched tables and warm lighting—the perfect atmosphere for adventurers to kick back and get raucous after a successful quest. This room featured thick carpets, padded armchairs, and a handful of glittering chandeliers suspended on thin chains set into the ceiling. The single round table in the center already held a crystal pitcher of water so cold condensation ran down the sides, with a handful of goblets arrayed around it for easy use.

Kevin hadn’t had time to finish pouring himself a glass when the door opened and closed with a bang behind him. He spun, only half surprised to see Blue standing there, the harpy’s golden eyes gleaming in the reflected light of the dozens of candles which lit the room.

Despite himself, he smiled. There was a good natured mischievousness to the harpy that evoked memories of childhood exploration and adventure—the same experiences which had led him to obsess over tabletop games and roleplaying in the first place. “I’m pretty sure you made your point pretty clear already, but I’m happy to let you make your case again.” He turned and walked around the table, pulled out a chair, and seated himself. The padded seat was springy and surprisingly comfortable, the solid wood of the chair letting out only a quiet creaked as he settled his weight in it. “You want to stick with something more like the adventures we’ve done, right?”

Blue nodded as she began to walk around the table towards him. “Yup!”

Kevin shot the harpy a quizzical look. “Alright, so… you’ve got some points about it that you want me to consider?”

The harpy grinned. “Nope. But—” The look that she gave him was suddenly predatory and intense—a hawk spotting the motion of a mouse on the ground far below. “—you said you’d give us half an hour, right?”

She stopped a few paces away, then leaned forward as she began to peel off the athletic shorts that were the bottom of her current Outfit.

Kevin swallowed. “Ah. I mean—”

“You aren’t going to go back on your word, are you?” Blue’s tone was teasing, even as she slid her shorts down around her feet and daintily stepped out of them. The harpy had foregone underwear—something which Kevin realized made sense in hindsight, with her demands from earlier in the morning—which left her bottomless as she stepped forward, spun, and hopped up to seat herself bare-assed in his lap.

“I—” Whatever response Kevin might have intended to give was drowned out as Blue spun her head and pushed herself back against him. The harpy put on a surprising display of athletic flexibility as she brought her lips up until she was able to capture the DM’s mouth in a kiss, and she wasted no time in snaking her tongue out to taste him.

She broke off a moment later, sliding back down and grinding herself against the sudden bulge in Kevin’s lap as she all but purred, “Good, I’d hate to think my friend was going to break another promise to me…”

Hazel said nothing when Blue brushed past her as she slipped out of the door.

Kevin hadn’t wound up granting the harpy a full thirty minutes of time, but she’d seemed satisfied enough with what she’d managed to wring out of him in the twenty minutes or so she’d spent first bouncing on his lap—then splayed out across the smooth wood of the table.

He’d even had the presence of mind to move the pitcher of water first. He was downing his second gobletful of still miraculously cold liquid when the nymph joined him, and while she didn’t comment on the tousled state of his hair—nor the faint sheen of sweet which covered him—it was impossible that she didn’t notice them both.

Kevin set down the cup, then rose and walked to the small counter at the side of the room to grab another. “Please, sit.” She did so, the nymph relaxing into the chair with no sign of discomfort despite the way her organic attire clashed with the slightly stuffy decoration of the private dining room.

Kevin’s motions as he filled the glass and set it down in front of Hazel felt simultaneously familiar and discordant. His mind was filled with memories of his days spent at the nymph’s co-op, an entire summer’s worth of evenings where he labored alongside the nymph, chatted with her, got to know the other members of her commune—half of whom had been teenagers like himself, the other half made up of a mix of itinerant workers and ‘permanent’ residents who called the co-op their home.

Hazel worked hard to build an environment with structure. The nymph had been big on manners, civility, and ritual, and one of Kevin’s assigned duties had been to fill the large plastic tumblers of water on the dinner table each evening.

“Thank you, dear.” Hazel offered a warm smile, then raised the glass to her lips to take a polite sip.

“You were the first one to speak up in favor of Lilith’s change. Still in favor, or—?”

He trailed off, and Hazel let out a soft, warm laugh. “I’m still in favor, but you know me—clear communication—”

“—is the foundation of a healthy relationship,” Kevin finished.

Hazel offered a warm smile. On someone else, it might have been patronizing, but from the nymph, there was no hint of subterfuge or subtlety about it—she simply presented herself as she was, and let the world revolve around her. “Exactly. So, yes—I think it’s a good idea. You said it yourself—it’s obvious that Lily intends for all of us to become members of your harem, whatever she might have said the first day.”

“Lilith.”

Kevin’s correction was muttered off-hand, and while it clearly wasn’t intended to interrupt, Hazel stopped anyway. The nymph’s eyebrow raised slightly, and while it was mild, her tone was firm as she chided, “You should know how I feel about calling someone other than what they decide. If she introduces herself as Lily, she’s Lily.”

Kevin held up his hands in surrender. “I—I’m not sure this is as straightforward, but I’ll cede the point. You’re welcome to call her whatever you like.”

Hazel continued smoothly, “I don’t think this particular group of women are the ones I would’ve picked for you, but if they’re going to be bound to you for life, you have a responsibility to get to know them as well as you can. Build relationships—communicate. Actually learn about the women behind the costumes and the feathers.”

“They?” It was Kevin’s turn to quirk an eyebrow at Hazel. When she tilted her head rather than responding verbally, he clarified, “You said ‘if they are going to be bound to me’. Does that mean you don’t think you’re going to be?”

The nymph’s eyes half closed as she laughed. “Not what I meant at all. I don’t mind being where I am. I might be more ambitious than most of my sisters, but it’s not in the nature of nymphs to rail against fate. Life brings what it brings, and it’s not for us to fight the seasons.” Hazel hadn’t openly proclaimed herself as a nature spirit when Kevin had gone to live with her, but in hindsight it didn’t come as a surprise. There was something about the woman that had always seemed more at one with nature than anyone else he’d ever met—as though she were more deeply embedded in the world than the humans who were merely visitors.

Kevin narrowed his gaze as he studied the nymphs face. “I—something tells me that you aren’t quite as blasé as you’re saying, but I won’t push the point. I think I get what you mean, though, and I agree—we’re here, the only thing we can do is make the best of things. That’s the part I’m not sure about, though. I’ve read some transcripts from other seasons of Harem Hotel. In some ways, we’ve got it rough—Lily isn’t exactly the nicest host around, and the ways she’s transforming us run deeper than it seems—but in other ways we’ve got it pretty easy. She’s been relatively hands off, so far—only showing up when we have questions, and letting the quests that we’re assigned do most of the heavy lifting. It’s possible that won’t change, but it’s also possible that it will.”

Hazel took another drink of water as she considered his words, then shrugged. “Maybe. If you think that’s a big danger, I’ll trust your judgment. It’s not like we know what either path holds for certain, and I won’t be angry no matter which one you choose. I know that you’re trying your best to be the best person that you can be.” She paused, briefly, then added, “I still stand by my words, though. You’re going to be in a relationship with all of us, and if you keep going down the path you’re on now, there isn’t going to be much to it but sex.” There was a pause, and Kevin caught a slight twinkle in Hazel’s eye as she finished, “Not that there’s anything wrong with relationships built on sex, it just doesn’t seem like that’s all that you want.”

Kevin let out a sign, and leaned back in his chair. “No. It’s not. If all I wanted was sex, I’m pretty sure Lily would’ve been happy to make sure all of you bent over backwards—literally—to make sure I got it.” He shook his head. “Even if that was all I wanted, I’m not willing to let you all be destroyed to get it. I also meant what I said this morning—even if we keep going the way we’re going, I’m going to have to take the time to get to know all of you better than I do.”

Hazel offered him another smile. The nymph raised her goblet to her lips and sipped at it once more, then set it down and rose. She reached both arms above her head as she stretched, and Kevin waited patiently—and tried not to ogle too openly—as the leafs of her outfit failed to preserve much of the extremely busty woman’s modesty. “I’m not sure if any of the girls are going to come talk to you separately, but I’m pretty sure they’re all fine either way.” She grimaced slightly, then added, “I’m not sure if Lily pulled them here from some other world, but they aren’t like the elves I’ve known. As far as they can tell, Adventuria is their home, not Earth. Winter and Autumn want to adventure a little more than date, while Summer and Jennifer lean the other way, but it’s not a strong preference for any of them.”

Kevin nodded. “I’m not sure where they came from either. Some of the people Lily has working here seem to have kept more of their memories than others. In the first couple days, I tried engaging with a few of them, but even the ones who knew what I was talking about—who knew that they were part of a show—weren’t willing to do much to admit it. It’s possible your disciples were pulled here from another world, but it’s just as likely that they used to be regular women from Earth and she’s just made sure they forget.”

For the first time since arriving, a frown twisted Hazel’s lips. She bounced on her heels a little as the stretch ended, and from the distant way her eyes looked past him, Kevin could tell that the disappointment and ire she held wasn’t directed at him. She shook it off a moment later and refocused on the Dungeon Master. “Either way, you’ll need to take care of them. That will be easier the better you know them. If it turns out they can’t remember who they used to be before they were brought here, that just means you’ll have to help me make sure they grow into the people they want to be now.”

She turned, and began to head towards the door. Before she reached it, Kevin called out, “Hazel?”

She stopped, and turned to look back at him. “Yes, sweetheart?”

The nickname tugged at a memory in the back of Kevin’s mind—Hazel had used the term for most of the people she’d cared for, teens or not, but somehow managed to make it feel special every time she used it. “Thank you. For—being you. It’s nice knowing that you’re here, just to help keep me grounded.”

Hazel’s smile brightened like the sun at dawn. “Of course, sweetheart. I’ll get on—I’m sure some of the others still want to talk to you, and you should take a little time to yourself to think things through when you’re done.”

“If I can,” Kevin promised, and the nymph nodded before she slipped out through the door.