Jill snickered.

“We’re happy to let you watch, darling,” Liliel said. “But you’re away so much!”

I tried to keep a straight face. “I can’t help you there, General,” I said. “Except to say that means wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, you can think about them and know that maybe they are, in fact, entwined. It could be a good thing. But sometimes it’s not about you.”

“But thinking about that, I’d …” he started.

“It turns out,” Talos said. “That L’shan doesn’t seem to mind us masturbating, either, despite what the priests say.”

Kathy patted him on the knee. “As long as you don’t leave nothing in the tank for me, dear.” Then she looked at Jill. “Or Jill, for that matter.”

Jill grinned at Kathy.

Well, that was going well. I was happy for them.

Varsho frowned at me.

“Pervy Paladin,” Gren said.

Varsho turned his frown to Gren. “There’s nothing perverted about two women making love to each other,” he said.

I smiled.

“I wasn’t talking about them,” Gren said. “I was talking about you enjoying watching so much. And in any case, pervy wasn’t an insult. You’ll fit right in here. Besides, the next step is obvious.”

“It is?” I asked.

“Obviously an orgy is ordered,” Gren explained. “He can watch all he likes. Val will be back any moment, and Kendala should be here soon. Lesseth will be up for it, too. Lysandra will do anything you tell her to do. Lots of beautiful babes boinking. We could even invite Zargaza, and Maggie, and Shizuka, and – girls only, you know, and of course our favorite futa.”

“And Talos and General Varsho, of course.” Jill said.

“Talos?” Gren said.

“Yep,” Jill said, and winked over at him. “Don’t say I never did anything for you.”

“I don’t want to be involved a free-for-all,” Kathy said quickly.

“Well, you don’t have to come,” Gren said. “I know I will!”

“It won’t be a free-for-all,” I said. “I mean, if we do it. Consent applies. Ask first. No touching unless someone says it’s okay.”

“We aren’t going to touch any of you,” Varsho said. “But watching couldn’t harm anyone, right?” He looked to his wives, who shrugged.

“As long as we just watch,” Liliel said. “And don’t violate our marriage vows.”

Glory nodded, and addressed me. “Gren said you have an enormous cock? I’ve only seen the one.”

Kathy said to Talos. “You can just watch, too. Or stick to me and Jill, at least.”

Valeria came in and saved me from having to answer Glory’s question. “Hi everyone. What’s going on?”

“Orgy!” Gren said.

“Oh. Okay. Do I get tied up?”

“Definitely, like a damsel in distress,” Gren promised.

I leaned back. I didn’t object, and it was nice to let the others sort the details out.

“Oooh,” Valeria said. “Should we invite Aurea?”

“Do we dare not invite Aurea?” Gren said. “Besides, she might bring her magic toy. Kendala said it was fantastic.”

“Let’s get the vibrators out, too,” Jill said. “We can do a toy comparison. Glory and Liliel can be the judges, since everything will be new to them. That won’t involve any actual touching.”

By the time it all actually happened, we had over twenty people. I thought Varsho’s eyes might bug out at all the naked, intertwined female flesh. I’d given him a fetish, but at least no one could say we left him frustrated.

Aurea was surprised electricity was as good as magic when it came to sex toys, and Maggie did her best to help dragon-goblin relations.

Varsho left three days and two mostly female orgies later. He told us the first refugees would probably arrive in a month or so, and I got the feeling that if he wasn’t part of the first wave, he’d be back to stay eventually.

A map arrived from Avonia, showing where a tribe of gnomes lived, if tribe was the right word.

“Nation of Gnomes,” Gren said. “It’s good, the G is silent.”

“Right.” Anyway, they were northeast of Avonia, which put them northwest of the Dragon-Goblin Forest. I guessed that even using e-bikes, it would take over a week to get there.

By coincidence the next day one of the lawn mowers broke, and I didn’t have a part to fix it. Of course, the other one had the same part, but moving it wouldn’t solve anything. I needed to duplicate the part, and for that I needed a gnome artificer. Even something as simple as a perfectly-fitting screw requires a huge amount of infrastructure – precise machines that could make precise parts for machines that could make precise parts, and so on.

I announced to my little polycule that we needed to recruit a gnomish artificer before more things broke. Once things were broken, duplicating them wouldn’t help. “Who is going with me?”

“Why are you going?” Valeria asked. “Why not just send us?”

“So she can mind control a gnome, obviously,” Lysandra said. “Duh.”

“I’m not going to mind control anyone.” Okay, we really needed what they could do. But no. I wasn’t. Tempting, but no. I was pretty sure.

“Then there’s no reason for her to come along,” Valeria said. “I mean, we’ll miss her, and all. But she’s needed here. No one else can do the things she does.”

“No one else has the parts to do the things she does for us,” Gren said. “Not all the parts, anyway.” She made a thrusting motion with her hips.

“Getting all the parts is exactly why we have to do this in the first place,” Valeria replied, ignoring Gren. “So, Abby stays. I think Lysandra should go, she’s got the most experience with things like diplomacy I’d guess, and they aren’t going to mess with an Elvish princess. Who else?”

I frowned. She was, I knew, at least a little bit right. Queen and adventurer weren’t very compatible. And even if they were, there was the fact that I was needed for the construction projects and just keeping all the devices we had running. I could be spared for a few days, but if I was gone for weeks that would be more of a problem. I’d put the second lawn mower out of commission too, for now, because we’d need the parts from it to duplicate. If both of them broke the same way, it might be centuries before anyone saw an electric lawn mower again.

I thought I could design a good push mower, though. I’d have to get a blacksmith to make the blades, but the mechanics were simple enough.

“Abby?” Val prompted.

“Sorry, was thinking about how to make something. You should go, Val.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. You’re levelheaded, and your healing skill might be needed by the gnomes. Definitely a benefit for a diplomatic mission. And how do you feel about Betsy, Lysandra?”

“She’s fun,” Lysandra, said. “And it’d be nice to have her muscle along, too.”

“And,” Valeria said. “She’s hot, and she’s good with rope.”

“She’s hot?” Lysandra said, surprised.

“I like boobs, you like boobs, she’s got four,” Valeria said.

“But I like two,” Lysandra said.

“That’s not what you said the other night.”

“That was two each on two different people!”

Valeria shrugged.

“If you think Betsy is hot, Valeria,” I interjected, “you should probably tell her so. I get the feeling her body image isn’t the best. But she’s definitely good people. Let’s see if Gavabar can spare Rargar. I’d like to make sure they understand that all sorts of people are welcome here. And we need an orc. Lysandra, who do you want?”

“Inka?”

“She’ll be missed here, but yes. Good choice. She’s super smart.”

“And we’ll have great food,” Valeria said. “Even if we have to brush some of the spices off.”

“So, the mission is to bring back an artificer, right?” Lysandra said.

“Well, one artificer is good, but more are better. I’ll back whatever offer you decide to make. We’ve got gold, the ability to build a nice house for them, whatever. I don’t know what they want, and by all means try to get them as cheaply as possible, but you understand what we’re trying to accomplish here and how much we need them.”

“Got it,” Lysandra said. “We’ll kidnap one, if we have to.”

“Um, no we won’t. Inka will have a good idea of what we have that’s valuable, and how much of it we can spare, so lean on her for that. But listen to Valeria if it comes down to ethics.”

Lysandra frowned. “I like my system better.”

I nodded. “That’s why I gave you an explicit instruction, Lysandra.”

Lysandra nodded. “Very well, Abby. You know I must obey. I will listen to Valeria when it comes to ethics. Do we want a goblin, too? Maggie?”

“Maggie is way too unpredictable.”

Gren said, “There’s one of the women she’s been inviting to orgies that’s a bit more level-headed, named Grenadine. Cute girl, and she’s been shacking up with Rargar anyway. No accounting for taste, but I imagine if you’re taking Rargar it wouldn’t be hard to convince her to represent goblinkind.”

“Perfect,” I said.

An hour later I had plans for lawn mower blades, and was bicycling to the orc village. I was looking forward to giving Zargaza a little overdue loving, too. Making things, and making love – those things still made me happier than being a Queen. Doing what we could mechanically with machines we could create ourselves would decrease the dependence of Abbyland on electricity, and let any gnomes we managed to get to help us concentrate on duplicating the things no orc blacksmith could make.

After a couple of hours with Zargaza, I had to bike back to Blowhaven. I had a date with Aurea, and she wanted to make sure it happened while there was still light out. I biked fast, because I really wanted to wash in between. Within the polycule – my wives, Jill, Lysandra, and Kendala – no one minded much if they could smell someone else on me, but Aurea wasn’t really part of the group. Also, I was kind of sweaty.

Kendala insisted on helping me bathe. I had a rough life.

Then, it was showtime. Aurea flew down, stripped off her clothes, and waited for the crowd to settle down. I walked out in just a towel, and as usual, stunned the audience when I let it drop.

We started by standing, and kissing, but that didn’t last long, and pretty soon we were rolling around in the grass, filling each other with mana. She ended up on top, but I didn’t mind that a bit. It just meant she had to do more of the work, and that I got to play with her boobs. Even having my own pair hadn’t reduced how much I enjoyed groping someone else’s.

She roared when she came. The crowd loved it.

They also loved it when I came, probably partially because she narrated it. “Yes! Fill me up with your potent love juice!”

Personally, I had a hard time not giggling, but the audience ate it up.

As we lay panting, she asked me, “Would you like to pretend we’re in love, Abby?”

I blinked. “Um, huh?”

“I haven’t felt this way in a century, but of course it’s ridiculous to think I’m in love with you. I’m a dragon, and you’re a futanari demon necromancer or whatever. I don’t even know how long your kind lasts, really. But we could pretend we’re in love, I think. I mean, maybe you don’t even have to pretend.”

“Hmm. I’m not part of your hoard.”

“See, if you loved me, you’d want to be part of my hoard.” She flexed her inner muscles, squeezing my softening cock. Well, it had been softening, anyway.

“I don’t think so. I’m not the part of a hoard type. I love Valeria and Xyla and Gren and … well, lists aren’t necessary, but I love them and I’m not part of their hoards.”

“Ah. But you don’t love me.”

“I didn’t say that, one way or the other,” I told her. I liked her. Love? Where was the line? Did anyone ever know?

“Well,” she said. “Then I’ll have to be part of yours, I guess. Not sure anyone else interests me right now, anyway, and if I’m going to pretend to be in love with you, it makes sense, right?” Another squeeze.

“I can’t follow dragon logic at the best of times, and if you keep distracting me like that …”

“Then we’ll have to go again. Pretend you love me back, Abby.” She grabbed me, and rolled over, pulling me on top of her. “Claim me! Make me yours!”

“Um—is that more pretending?”

“It’s good, isn’t it? I’ll do it again, with more volume.” True to her word, she shouted, “Claim me! Make me yours!”

The crowd applauded, and I wondered what I got myself into. I grabbed her wrists, and pinned them to the ground while I fucked her.

“Oh, are we pretending I can’t break out of this?” she asked.

“If you’re into it.”

She grinned. “I think our admirers are.” She raised her voice again. “Yes! Take me! Fuck me hard and fast!”

I was happy to oblige.