He whimpered into his pillow as Galehaut finally withdrew, his spend painting Lancelot's thighs.
"Oh, to have the gift of artists to capture the image of you properly used and sated," Galehaut said, smearing the mess he'd made further, reaching back to tease his fingers over Lancelot's well-used hole.
Lancelot whimpered again."Cease, knave, I'll need a few hours respite before I can take you again."
Galehaut chuckled, entirely too pleased with himself, and climbed from the bed.He removed the soiled blanket, gently shifting Lancelot about to get it from under him, then slipped away to put it where the laundry women could take it away later.
When he returned to the bed, it was with a warm cloth to clean Lancelot thoroughly, and the salve to ease the hardest-used parts of him.A soft kiss was pressed to his temple, and Galehaut slipped away again.The next time he returned, it was with a new blanket and a tray of food to eat there in bed.
Once he had Lancelot settled against an absurd number of pillows and well-covered in blankets, like he was not made to swim in waters colder than ice, Galehaut insisted on feeding him.
"Everyone is going to think I'm the spoiled rotten brat favorite of Arthur who keeps you as a pet," Lancelot protested, but that didn't stop him from accepting an offered bite of roasted goose, though he took more pleasure in sucking the broth from those large fingers.
Galehaut's eyes were filled with banked heat and endless adoration."Who is here to see how I enjoy being the one to spoil you?My greatest pleasure is serving you, be it with my strength, my actions, or my cock."
"I do not deserve you, but I will let no one tear you from me," Lancelot said, eschewing an offered piece of cheese in favor of kissing Galehaut until they both needed desperately to breathe.
Lancelot woke to darkness and a star strewn sky full of more colors than could easily be counted.He rubbed at his eyes, still heavy with the sleep he never seemed to get enough of.The muffled whirring of the car's solar engine faded, and he yawned before asking, "Where are we?"The doors opened and he climbed out—then just stared uncomprehending at the enormous, looming building before him.
It was unmarkable, practically a black cube in the middle of nowhere, like an instance dungeon had been left lying around in the real world somehow.It was roughly the size of a two-story house, the kind that lined the edges of the inside of the domed cities, where rich but notrichpeople lived."Merlin, what the fuck?"
"Is this…" Dred stared incredulously."Is this a bug box?"
Lancelot made a silent "oh" in reply as he finally realized what he was staring at.In the 2070s a horrifying plague had swept the world, violently contagious and immune or hostile against all the known tricks of the trade at the time.Even the precious domed cities had not been safe.People had built safe houses in the wild, fled to them, used the technology of the time to hide there.Instead of spheres, they'd built much simpler, cheaper and easier cubes with camouflage tech.Many had gone completely off grid with them, rampantly paranoid of even their feudal overlords.Which they should have been all along, but that was neither here nor there.
Officially they were Quarantine Houses or Quarantine Retreats.But everyone had started calling then bugout boxes, and then of course just bug boxes.
"Merlin, where the hell did you get a bug box?"
"You're joking right?Are you forgetting my family is obscenely wealthy in this life?My grandparents built this and maintained it.They lost a lot of friends to the Redfern plague.Remained paranoid the rest of their lives.Once we… woke up, I guess…I immediately started getting to work preparing it for us.Can't do anything about the fact we have to be able to get into the game, which puts us on the grid, but I have obfuscated thehellout of this thing.Bare minimum, it would take them ninety days to crack our location.If things go well for them, which they won't."
"The others should be here soon.Dred, get—"
"I'll get him," Lancelot cut in, and went to the trunk of the car to retrieve Scrob's body.Thanks to something Merlin had done, it hadn't stiffened up yet, and the manner of death meant there was little to no blood, but it was still grizzly work carrying a corpse a couple of hours old into the house.
He followed Merlin down to a basement, where he laid Scrob's body gently down on a long, wide table inside a giant ass fridge-freezer thing filled to bursting with food.In life, Scrob had been painfully thin, with pasty white skin and bright, carroty curls that had rarely seen a comb, more freckles than could be counted, and the third and fourth fingers of his left hand missing.
Arms slid around his waist, Merlin's head resting on his shoulder."I know you've set your mind, but this wasn't your fault.Not a single fucking one of us anticipated Amphelise would show up by way of possessing somebody like a goddamn spook.At worst, I thought they'd all get kicked out of the game.When we faced Ethelfleda as a dragon, she didn't kill anyone, they just 'died' in game and got sent back to start.I know, I monitored."
"I painted a target on his back," Lancelot said harshly."I am who I am, and everywhere I go I affect the people around me, whether I want to or not.Being Arthur's right hand comes with consequences, and those consequences are always at risk of causing collateral damage.I knew that.But I decided to be a spoiled brat and show off anyway.He was just a fucking kid."
"Twenty-two," Merlin said with a sigh."Real name Kay Redd.Worked as a server in a high-end restaurant.Pulled extra money with his hacking, though despite his skills, he stuck to small time, easy, relatively safe stuff.Which was the smart call.He should have been great, but instead he was left to suffer and rot like countless others."
Lancelot sighed softly.The vast majority of people got food from carts and trucks or simply ate in their homes.Restaurants were rare, and the ones that had actual people working in them rarer still.No wonder Scrob—Kay—had been so angry, dealing with that level of entitlement every single fucking day for what amounted to a pittance.Lancelot's eyes stung."Family?"
"None.Had a sister, but she was killed a few years ago.Friends were entirely online, and not close.Like you, he used the money from his sister's wrongful death to improve his life, including the gaming rig we pulled him out of."
Lonely.Mistreated, likely outright abused, at work.Then along came Lancelot.
His hands curled into fists, and he abandoned the walk-in fridge before he punched something and broke his hand.
He'd already killed Amphelise; Arthur had killed Ethelfleda.They had only Kinborough and Maleagant himself left to get rid of.That wouldn't save poor Kay, but it was something.And when this was all over, he would give Kay the burial he deserved."So what now?"
"I need to set up the equipment, and then we're going to scrape his mind for the remnants of Amphelise left behind."
"Sounds like sci-fi bullshit."
"In case you hadn't noticed, fish boy,we'resci-fi bullshit," Merlin said with a smile, and then hugged him again."It wasn't your fault, asshole.You'll make the rest of them pay.Come on."
