She was raising the stakes. “A princess is no man’s mistress.”
“None but a prince’s.”
“I must break you of this foolish romantic notion. You can not win me through sex. Save it for the man you marry.”
“What if I am trying to marry you?”
“As I said, my geis prevents me from doing you harm. Using you for such a lesser purpose would harm your reputation and prospects.”
“How, if I should want it?”
“It would devalue you. Kings prefer virgins.”
“Kings prefer competent sexual partners. Teach me competence. Consider it part of my training.”
“You do tempt me,” he said. He was understating the case. He tried to turn her off. “Since this is beyond my assigned role, I must ask your father.”
“The hell!” she exploded. “I will not be teased.”
She had scored. Teasing was a kind of harm. He had misstepped. “I apologize.”
“Verbal is not enough.”
Pedro sighed. “I will not abuse my position.”
She sat up. “I am tired and I want to sleep. I don’t have time for an extended dialogue. I will leave you innocent of abuse. All you have to do is not resist.” She stood and crossed to his mat.
She had put him on the defensive, giving her the initiative. Pedro lay still.
Fotina squatted beside him. She took his hand and brought it to her breast. It snapped close; she had reversed the gloss. She moved the hand, causing it to stroke her.
His penis stiffened. He could have prevented it, but she had asked him not to resist, and he was obliged to play it her way.
She slid his hand from her breast down to her bottom. That too, was dangerously evocative. Then she got down and lay on him. She took him into her. “Now you may react,” she murmured, and kissed him. It was an extremely potent kiss.
He should have resisted, but desire overwhelmed him. He thrust deeply into her and put them both into the orgasm. They hugged and kissed in the throes of the passion. She had had her will of him, and made him her lover. He doubted any other woman could have done it.
Still, the mystery remained. Why did her father think he would choose to marry her? There had to be some reason beyond the delight of her body. Beyond the advantage of their union. Beyond love.
On the following days he taught her many things, and she was an apt student. In the nights they made love, and she was increasingly apt there too, becoming steadily more desirable. But this was not reason to marry her.
Then he taught her more basics of defense against magic. There was no magician in a class with Pedro or her father, but there were many in the intermediate range. She needed to guard against pyro that might burn her flesh, or illusion that might cause her to step into a pit masked by seeming turf.
“Show me,” she said. They were riding horseback in the countryside.
“A good magician could cause mischief simply by making a fire to spook your horse,” he said. “But there are simple spells to dampen fire or diminish its effect. You must learn at least one.” He glanced at a nearby dry bush, and it burst into flame. Then he took her hand as they rode and shared the feeling as he formed the dampening spell in his mind. The fire guttered and went out.
“Lovely!” she exclaimed. “Let me see if I can do it myself.” She glanced at another bush. It burst into flame.
Pedro froze. He had not ignited it.
Fotina focused, and the bush was stifled. “I did it! I put it out!”
“You also ignited it,” he said, amazed.
She was startled. “I thought you did that.”
“Try it again.”
She looked at another bush. It flamed. “I did!” she exclaimed. “I picked up the pyro from your mind the same time I picked up the dousing,” she said, piecing it together.
Telepathy. “You can do active magic!” he said.
“Well, with your instruction, sure. I never knew how before.”
“It’s not just a matter of how. You have to have the potential. Most magicians can’t do more than a limited amount, regardless of the instruction they receive. But you picked it up right away.”
“That’s good?”
“That’s why your father thought I would marry you! You’re another magician, or soon will be.”
“That makes the difference?” she asked, unwilling to believe it.
“Yes, it does. My kingdom and powers allied with yours will make us supreme in the world.”
“Yes!”
“He knew! He knew you had the potential. It must run in your family. He wanted me to bring it out. He knew I would marry you then, and provide a solid basis for kingdom expansion.” He shook his head. “It’s a political liaison. What a pity we were already in love.”
“Oh, Pedro!” she said, gratified. “Will you marry me?”
• • •
“Oh, Fotina, I can’t,” he said.
Fotina thought she had misheard. The script called for them to discover love and marry. “What?”
“I was trying to find a way to tell you. I can’t marry you. In the game or out of it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I just can’t. It would not be fair to you.”
“Not fair?” she repeated numbly.
“Fotina, I want to, I desperately want to. I love you, in and out of the game. But I just can’t do it.”
“We agreed! We’ll marry in the game, and out of it.” They were deviating from the script, but she couldn’t help it. This was such a crushing blow.
“That was before I found out.”
“Found out what?”
“That I can’t.”
“What is this?” she demanded. “Are you afraid I’ll win the game, and you don’t want to run second? I’ll concede it to you!” Forget the script!
“No, no, don’t do that. You deserve to win.”
“Then what is it? In there something bad about me? I was good enough for sex but not for the long term? Now the game is ending and you want to dump me? Was it all a ruse to keep me playing when I would have quit?” She knew her voice was becoming hysterical, but it was an accurate reflection of her mood. How could he do this to her? She had thought he loved her. “What? Tell me. What?”
“I’m going blind.”
“You’re going where? Without me?” Then it caught up to her, like a slap across the face. “Blind?”
“I learned just before this round. It’s genetic. My vision is going and in maybe three years, I’ll be blind. They can’t fix it.”
“How does that relate?”
“I can’t stick you with a blind albatross. You deserve so much better. You have your whole life ahead of you.”
She stared at him. “You want to break up because you’ll be blind?”
“Yes. It’s the only way. You’ll be much better off without me.”
“You idiot!” she flared.
Now he was set back. “What?”
“You think I would dump you right when you need me most? How could you ever believe that? What do you think of me, that you can even imagine such a thing? I love you!”
“But you don’t have to—”
She closed the distance between them and almost tackled him on his horse. “We’ll handle it together!” she said. She kissed him fiercely. “But now we have to marry.”
“Fotina—”
“Oh, shut up!” She clung to him as she pushed him, and they fell off their horses together. She got on top of him and kissed him madly, repeatedly. She tore at his clothing.
In moments, she had made a tattered wreckage of both their outfits, kissing him all the while. She caught his hardened member and stuffed it into her vagina. She bounced on him, taking it all in, as she continued kissing.
The orgasm took them. Only when it had run its course did she release his mouth. “What do you say now?”
He made a gesture of surrender with his hands. “I love you.”
“Correct answer.??
? She let him up. “We will marry.”
“We will marry,” he agreed. “I don’t think I deserve it, but you are making me happy despite my vision.”
The round had effectively expired. Fotina saw the little indicator in a section of the sky: 100 M. They had cracked the nine figure barrier, and had an audience of one hundred million viewers. There was nothing like a good hot romance.
Two figures appeared, riding horses along the path ahead: Ero and Roma, the Game proprietor and Executive Manager. “The final round has concluded,” Ero said as they dismounted. “Pedro has won the game and the prize.”
“She’s not a prize, she’s a person,” Pedro said, dignified despite his dishabille.
“The prize money,” Roma clarified.
Fotina had for the moment forgotten about the game. “How was it decided?”
“Had the two of you agreed to marry before Fotina’s talent with magic was revealed,” Roma said, “she would have been the winner, having successfully fascinated the more desirable man. Had there been no agreement to marry by the end of the sequence, it would have been a draw. However, the agreement came after her magic was revealed, making Fotina the more desirable person, so Pedro was the winner.”
“But she proposed to me!” Pedro protested. “She insisted! How could that cost her the victory?”
“We set up the rules in advance, so as not to allow any subjective judgment to affect the outcome,” Roma said. “Victory was within your grasp when Fotina asked you to marry her. You threw it away by declining. Then she gave it back to you by insisting and getting your agreement. The viewers were on edge, knowing the stakes. It was a satisfactory climax.”
“Oh, yes,” Fotina said, laughing and blushing. “And the game conclusion was all right too.”
Pedro’s mirth exploded. Even the staid game proprietors smiled.
“We deviated from the script,” Pedro said. “We were talking about our IRL relationship.”
“We know,” Roma said. “The viewers knew also. That actually enhanced it. The two of you were no longer acting parts; you were debating reality. Real romance, not confined to the game. The ratings soared. Our feedback monitors went wild when you finally agreed.”
“Viewership broke the record,” Ero agreed.
“What next?” Fotina asked, feeling slightly dizzy.
“The inter-Round break,” Roma said. “Next week’s episode will feature your wedding.”
“Oh, yes,” Fotina said, remembering. “We agreed.”
“There will be things to accomplish in the interim,” Ero said. “Marriage license, blood tests, travel reservations.”
“Travel?” Pedro asked.
“To bring the two of you physically to the studio, so that you will be able to go on your IRL honeymoon immediately after the wedding,” Roma said.
Oh, of course. She hadn’t even considered the honeymoon. The prize should make it affordable, but she didn’t want to waste any money that might be needed for Pedro’s situation.
“Where do you wish to go on that honeymoon?” Roma asked.
Pedro and Fotina spoke almost together: “Honeymoon Isle.”
“If we can afford it,” Fotina added.
“We have another deal to offer,” Ero said.
Fotina exchanged a glance with Pedro. This could be interesting. The last deal had gotten them a week of sheer private bliss on Honeymoon Isle. “Deal?” she asked.
“We will cover all expenses at Honeymoon Isle for two weeks,” Roma said, “if you allow it to be broadcast.”
“Without ellipses,” Ero said. “That would be a ratings bonanza.”
Pedro shrugged, leaving the decision to Fotina.
She assessed it. “We would have no more privacy than we did in the game. Only now, it would be our real bodies showing the action, not the avatars.”
The two game proprietors nodded, looking almost hungry for the ratings that would bring.
“And the whole world would know us by sight,” she continued. “From faces to genitals.”
The two nodded again, now somewhat nervously. They knew she could veto it and ruin everything.
What the hell. It was not as if they had any remaining secrets from the viewers. “Done,” she said.
Ero, Roma, and Pedro looked relieved.
The game setting dissolved.
• • •
The following days were a blur of arrangements. Fotina wished she could simply be with Pedro, but of course, marriage was a serious family and legal business and everything had to be properly attended to. She knew Pedro was going through a similar hassle where he lived. By the week’s end they would be together. That made it all worthwhile.
Yet, even in this hurried interim, there were compensations. Her father had his job back, thanks to the game, and her family was on an even keel. That was one deal that had benefited all of them.
Somehow, it all got done. Then she and her mother and her brother traveled together to the game studio, while Pedro traveled with his parents. She was in touch with Pedro via cell phone. Fotina had to explain carefully to her mother the exact manner an avatar operated, because she would be at the wedding in avatar form. Mom would explain it to Dad when he flew in after work, though he had watched many games and surely already understood. Fotina also had to make sure that her mother understood that this was not an ordinary wedding in another sense. She had not been watching the episodes, and had not seen any of the sex. She was not thrilled to realize that everything about the wedding would be broadcast, including avatar sex, in addition to real sex on the honeymoon.
“We have to play the game the way it is played,” Fotina said firmly. “It got Dad’s job back. It introduced me to Pedro, the man I love. It got a lot of money for us to start our marriage with. It got us a free honeymoon. That money comes from the big viewership we are bringing them. We have to perform.” Fotina recognized that she and Pedro had become instant celebrities, and celebrities had to perform or rapidly lose their status.
Her mother sighed. “I know, dear. It’s just that it wasn’t like this in my day.”
Fotina smiled. “Nor in mine. I had to adapt a lot, in a hurry. But it’s worth it.”
Then they were at the studio. It was time for the final show. Rather, the next to final show: the wedding. Afterwards, they would be on camera for the honeymoon, IRL, with a monstrous viewership. Yet such was Fotina’s joy of the occasion that she really didn’t mind that audience. In fact she hoped it would break more records, justifying the game proprietors’ faith in them. She had come from being a rather private person to being a public person, as if some genie had uncorked her bottle and enabled her to fly.
She got into the harness and donned the sensors. It was time for her wedding.
She found herself in a quiet church setting. The pews were empty; it was evidently before the ceremony. And there before her stood—.
“Reverend!” she exclaimed gladly, recognizing the avatar made in the image of the minister of her local church. The Game personnel were still arranging surprises, to further enhance their ratings. There might be others.
“They asked me,” he said. “I had to come, though this is not my normal venue.” He looked around. “We have time for one rehearsal. This is the time to work out any problems.”
“Yes,” she said faintly.
“Here, I believe, is your maid of honor.” He glanced at the winged Faerie woman. Pedro had fought her in the Maiden Heaven round, and Fotina had gotten to know and like the spunky woman in the later party.
“Yes. The other F girl. A single letter isn’t much, but it seemed appropriate.” Flora Faerie nodded, glad to be participating.
“I took the liberty of selecting two of your bridesmaids, as you had forgotten. An experienced game participant will guide them.” Two girls appeared.
“I don’t want strangers,” Fotina protested. Then she recognized the girls. “My little sisters!” She ran to hug them both.
Pedro entered. Beside him w
as Kemo the Nubian, lost in Round Four. The two had come to know and respect each other in the game. Then, an older couple arrived: Pedro’s parents. Fotina had met them briefly before entering the scene; now they were avatars, looking younger and healthier.
They went through the rehearsal, getting it straight. All too soon, it somehow seemed, they were in the wedding proper. All the pews were abruptly filled with attentive parishioners.
“This way,” Flora murmured, guiding Fotina quickly out of the main chamber. Distracted, she obeyed, while last moment things got organized. She was glad for the help, as she was in danger of being overwhelmed.
Fotina left the church to stand at the entrance with her bouquet. She had a grand entrance to make.
There was her father, in avatar mode. They had brought him into it too!
The music of the wedding march started. He extended his arm, and she took it. They walked into the church.
Only as they passed through the doorway, the building disappeared. Instead, they faced a large cave, complete with stalactites and stalagmites. The parishioners, consisting of all the original cast of players, were seated between the stone columns, as was Fotina’s mother, dabbing her wet cheeks. Flora, the Maid of Honor, was standing to the left of the chancel area, and beyond her were Nola, the green-haired Elf, and Fotina’s two sisters, evidently being guided in the protocol and positioning of bridesmaids. To the right was the Best Man, Kemo. The girls were plainly thrilled. All were elegant in their dressy outfits. The game proprietors were having their fun, making a literal show of it.
They came to the chancel, where Pedro, Kemo, and Flora waited. Fotina handed her bouquet to Flora, then joined Pedro and stood before the Pastor. The cave faded, becoming a section of a floating iceberg. The parishioners sat on pews of ice. Pedro, Fotina, and everyone else wore heavy furs, their breaths fogging. The air was not actually freezing, but it certainly seemed so.
“Dearly beloved,” the Pastor said, beginning the ceremony. The scene shifted to Heaven, in the form of the colored clouds of dawn, with the brightly radiating rays of the sun emanating from just below the horizon. Pedro was back in his suit, Fotina in her wedding gown. The parishioners sat on opalescent pews formed of pink mist, dressed in heavenly robes, complete with bright little halos floating over their heads. There was an appreciative chuckle as they discovered this. A match made in Heaven!