Chapter Two
I remember wondering if I'd tripped and hit my head on the way home, because the woman I saw before me couldn't possibly be real, but there she was, Aleksandra, Primordial Hydromancer, looking just like she had on the very card I'd won less than an hour ago. I quickly stepped into my little dorm room and pulled the door shut behind me before I turned to look at her once more, pinching my arm, to make sure I wasn't dreaming.
"You can't possibly be real," I muttered to myself, but my eyes kept drinking her in. Golden tan skin but hair all sorts of shades from copper to wheat. The bikini barely covered a third of each of her plump, proud breasts, but her stomach was toned and lithe, like that of a dancer, the impression of her ribcage just hinted at. There was a golden wristcuff on her right arm with designs that matched the heavy golden seashell earrings that dangled from each of her ears. Her arms and legs were ruthlessly long, perhaps seeming longer than they actually were because of her pose as well as her lack of other clothing. She looked like she was about my age, maybe a couple of years older than me, but not by much.
"You are younger than I expected," she said with a slightly wry smile, her hand lightly stroking her own hip. "Although, truth be told, I have never seen a dimensional warlord before. Perhaps they are all as young and spry as you are."
"I don't understand what's happening here," I said as she rose to her feet and walked over to me, standing a good half a foot taller than me without any shoes on. I imagined that in high heels, she would tower over me powerfully.
"You are a dimensional warlord," she said, placing a soft hand on my chest through my t-shirt. "My captor and suitor. I am Lady Aleksandra Bitmakatov, Primordial Hydromancer and warrior extraordinaire. You have won me in a battle, and I am, for now, your humble servant." Her fingertips moved to lower the zipper on my leather jacket, unzipping it and slowly pushing it off my shoulders. "I have great value and should not be taken lightly, and I intend to prove that to you, my new Master, so you will realize the weight of your winnings. And treat me accordingly with respect and care."
It's probably worth mentioning at this point that I was still a virgin at that point in my life. Jenny, my ex-girlfriend from high school, well, she and I had fooled around a bunch, but we'd never gone all the way. And I think I knew from the way Aleksandra was touching me that those days were about to be over.
"Y-you don't have anything to prove to me," I stuttered out to her, even as I felt her hands reaching my waist. "You d-d-d-don't--"
"Shhh," Aleks said, placing one of her fingertips on top of my lips. "I do and I must and I wish to and so I will." She dropped down to her knees in front of me and unbuttoned my jeans, looking up at me with a smile so confident, I suddenly felt some of my own fear melt away. "I am a survivor, warlord, and I do what I must to continue that path, and to earn your favor."
I'd done stuff like this with Jenny, before we broke up, but the energies were entirely different. Jenny was nervous and shy and fumbling, while Aleks took my cock out with an almost hungry glee, licking her lips at the sight of it, curling her tan fingers around it to stroke it slowly, the look on her face one of delight. And never once did her eyes leave my face, as if wanted to make her enjoyment of the act unmistakable to me.
When she moved to wrap her lips around my shaft, I had to bite my bottom lip to keep myself from going off too soon, the sensations were so powerful. Her tongue swirled across the circumsized head of my cock and across the slit of the tip, which made me groan as my hands got lost inside of her mane of hair that smelled like fresh grapes.
Her face pushed down along my shaft, and she took me deep inside of her mouth while her firm hands played with my balls, rolling them in her tender touch, as she started to bob her face up and down along my length. I tried doing everything I could to keep myself from popping off too quickly, but there was no way my will was going to overwhelm hers in that moment and she beamed as I finally started to cum. She drank down my essence and swallowed it with pride, slurping up any loose droplets she could find, even taking a moment to pull her head back to open her mouth wide and show me my seed sloshing around inside her before she swallowed it with a coy, little giggle.
"Sorry I didn't last longer," I said with a dazed laugh. "That wasn't quite my first time with that, but I don't have a whole lot of experience."
The look on her face wasn't one of disappointment, but one of actual excitement and glee. "Oh, warlord, this is a wonderful delight. Am I to be your first?"
"I mean, you don't have to be if you don't want to be," I told her but the look on her eyes made it clear that nothing could've been further from the truth.
She reached behind her and untied the bikini top before pulling it away, revealing the most perfect pair of breasts I'd ever laid eyes on in person, no tan lines, no signs of sag, just two marvelous spheres, not too large and definitely not too small, with dark pink coral nipples capping them, stiff as oceanic rock.
"Perhaps you should lay down, warlord, and let me introduce you to these pleasures," she said as she rose to her feet and pulled my shirt up and over my head, tossing it aside. "I have brought boys into being men before, and it will bring me great joy to do the same for you, but it would be best for you if you could simply lay there any enjoy the sensations and not worry about, well, doing anything..."
As I moved to kick off my shoes, then slide off my pants, boxers and socks, I saw her remove her panties and unveil a decently sized blonde bush, but it fit her, not like some 1970s out of control crotch afro, but a glorious ratio of matching womanly hair. She moved to lay me down on my back on the dorm room bed as she crawled over me, a kind look upon her face as she leaned down and kissed me tenderly, her lips pressing against mine in the most glorious way, her body warmer against mine than I'd expected her to be.
She pressed her body down atop mine, and I could feel her thick, stiff nipples dragging through the thatch of dark brown hair covering my chest, her hips slowly dragging her slit back and forth against my cock without sliding it inside of her, taking joy in the moment of our bodies pressed together and not yet interlocked.
"It will be fine if this feels like it goes by too quickly, warlord," she said in between kisses. "We have all the time in the world to practice again and again and again. Your first time is simply the initial entry into a long litany of.... Pleasure." The last word was said as she slowly pushed her body down onto my cock, and we both let out rather heavy moans, as I felt my world change fundamentally.
I did what I could, but her position and her experience meant she was controlling the ride, the tempo of her making and not mine, as she pressed her hips back and forth atop of mine, sliding up only to drop her body back down, her tender weight bucking into me.
I would love to tell you some epic tale about how I overcame adversity and lasted twenty or thirty minutes and that I rocked her world in a way she'd never before experienced, but let's be honest - this was my first time, and I'm proud to have just lasted the three or four minutes that I did. I did everything I could to hold as much as I could, but, y'know, you remember what your first time was like - fumbling and awkward and yet still loads of fun. And you didn't even have a supernatural water witch as your partner. At least, I don't think you did.
When I glanced up at her, I laughed, "I was going to apologize again, but I think if I did that, you'd hit me. That... that was life-changing. I will make sure I get you off before the night is through, I promise you."
She then did the most humane and kindest thing ever - she giggled at me. "That's kind of you, warlord, but we will get to my pleasure in due time. And making sure you are happy is a joyous enough task for me," she said, her fingertips brushing over my sweaty chest. "Might... might I ask a chance to see your world, however? I was summoned here, to your sanctum, and awaited your arrival, broaching neither door nor window, so I did not anger you."
"You didn't have to stay in here," I laughed, "but going outside like that might've been a rough ask, especially with all the snow on the ground."
"Sn-ow?" she said, the word clearly unfamiliar to her mouth. "I do not understand."
"Okay then, let's go out and take a look. But I'm dressing you up a bit so that you don't seem conspicuous." Instead of putting her back in the bikini, I slid her into a pair of my boxer shorts, then a pair of sweatpants before tossing a big comfy UNO t-shirt on followed by my Nine Inch Nails hoodie from when I saw them come through Omaha on tour last year for 'The Downward Spiral' tour. I also helped her put her hair up into a ponytail, just in case we came across anyone while we were out and about, so she looked a bit more like a normal college student. Shoes were a little tricker, but I had a pair of snow boots that fit her okay after I put, like, three socks a piece on each of her feet for additional padding. It would have to do.
Once she was bundled up properly, we opened the door of my dorm room out into the hallway and I led her out, locking the door behind us. We headed down the hall and out of the building and as soon as we did, I heard her gasp.
"This land of yours," she said quietly. "I do not understand how it can be so warm indoors and so cold out."
"Central heating and air is a wonderful thing," I told her. "But yeah, I told you, I doubt my land has much in the way to impress you compared to where you came from."
1995 was a weird year for Nebraska. We had a blizzard come in the day before Halloween and it absolutely flipped everyone's expectations of how things were supposed to go, because when the storm came in, everyone was taken aback. It wasn't just a little snow - it was a monster that flooded the streets up to people's necks. Like, four feet of snow over the course of a week. Trees and power lines downed.
They postponed Halloween, for fuck's sake.
The mayor of Omaha got on television and told kids Halloween was being postponed a few days, and kids reluctantly agreed, mostly because none of them wanted to freeze to death, which seemed like an actual possibility if anyone went outdoors.
Three weeks later, the snow hadn't melted and Omaha was a winter wonderland, although a bunch of it had gotten dirty in during the time. The area around the building had piles of dirty snow up to the windows, and in some cases, higher. To me, it had lost a lot of the allure, but to Aleksandra's eyes, it was something completely new and unforgettable.
"What... what is this?"
"It's snow," I told her with a smile as I watched her rush over towards it, seeing her scoop some up in her fingertips with a sort of awe and respect I'd never seen in person before.
"It's... water... but... solid," she said, gasping as it glittered in the evening light. She tossed a handful of it up into the air and watched it disperse. It started to fall in tiny particles and scattered... and then it didn't.
The snow started pulling back together again and turned into a bird, flapping sparkling white wings, then shifted again into a running jaguar or puma or panther, I've never really been able to tell the difference. From there it turned into a dragon, flying high then dive bombing down onto the street, breathing flames made of jets of snow onto the sidewalk.
A few moments later, the bundle of snow exploded, and Aleksandra began giggling as she turned to another wall of snow and began animating it in waves of soldiers marching. The various shadowplays happened and then they disappeared as quickly as they'd arrived.
I looked over at her and I grinned. "Seems like someone's found a new toy."
"I'm a hydromancer, warlord," she said to me, snow swirling around her legs like a sandstorm made of solidified water. "The form it takes matters not, only what I can do with it."
"Well, better get used to that. Other than all the snow, the only other large body of water around here is the Missouri River," I laughed. "Well, and Carter Lake, I guess, if you count that, but nobody really does."
"I'd never imagined this world of yours would be so different than mine, warlord, but it seems like an interesting world," she told me. "One I could grow to be fond of. But we should go back to your room. I feel my time fading for the moment."
"You never said how you got here," I told her. "Or how I keep you here."
"I'll be back again sooner than you think, warlord. Because in the end, a decision will need to be made. I have faith that I'll be the best candidate, of course, but we will see."
So with that, we headed back into my dorm, headed into my room, stripped down, climbed into bed and fell asleep together. Sure enough, sometime while I was asleep, she disappeared. The door was still locked from the inside, the windows were closed and there was absolutely no way she could've just left.
In the morning, I did the only possible thing that made sense - I looked through my Gambits of Avalon deck.
With two minor exceptions, the deck was exactly as I'd left it from after my game with Bobby the day before. The first was the card I'd won from the old man, Nimue's Focus, and if I didn't have such an attention for detail, I might have missed the changes, they were so slight and hard to notice. When I told you about seeing it before, it had a special foiling on it, with six foil stars circling the hand holding the axe jutting from the water. The foiling was still there, but only five of the six stars were filled in now, and one of them was just a foil outline, the impression of the star there, but hollow.
It didn't surprise me when I dug deeper into the deck and found that Lady Aleksandra, Primordial Hydromancer now had a singular foil star on it in the art. She looked just like I had seen her the night before, dressed in her golden bikini, cresting on the wave. The foil star was on the card itself, and I took it out of the Dragon Shield sleeve to make sure of it, and sure enough, the foiling was on the card itself, even though it hadn't been yesterday when I'd won it from Bobby.
It was Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, and while I knew I should probably be heading back to my folks place for the holidays, I decided I had some other things to do first, so after I had breakfast, I went over to Dragon's Lair Comics & Cards, because I figured I needed to talk to an expert about Gambits of Avalon, and I would find that over at Dragon's Lair. Now, Bob, the store's owner, wasn't the biggest TCG guy, but Gary, one of his employees, absolutely was, and thank God that Gary was in when I got to the store.
Dragon's Lair, back in the day, almost felt like a hole-in-the-wall, with a very long, narrow store, next to an antiques shop, with mostly comics up front, but they had a long glass case where they kept their collectible cards, although it was a pretty narrow selection, just of the good stuff, things they could make money on buying and reselling, although they did sell packs by the boatload. In fact, I saw they had an open box with about three or four packs of Deliriums left in it, although maybe there was more in the back, past the boardgames, the Warhammer 40k figures, the model paints and the Street Fighter arcade cabinet.
"Hey Gary," I said to him as I entered the store. "I got a couple of GoA questions for you, if you've got a few minutes."
Gary shrugged and smiled at me, gesturing around to the basically empty store. "Comics come out on Wednesdays, but nobody puts much onto shelves Thanksgiving week, so I can give you a bit of time. What's up?" He was super tall, lanky guy with a pencil mustache and scruffy hair that looked like it had never been combed.
"First, how's Deliriums selling?"
"Very well," Gary laughed, "because those four packs are all I have left until my next shipment comes in first week of December. You want more, you might be able to pick some up at Toys'R'Us or something, but I think they're sold out too. Like I said, it's selling really well. But that's not what you came to ask me about, is it?"
"No, I've got two questions, and if you don't have the answers, it's okay to tell me."
"If I don't have the answers, then it's probably because nobody knows them," he said. "C'mon, hit me with it. I love a challenge."
"First, have you heard about a card called 'Nimue's Focus?' I was playing against some guy yesterday and he said it was technically part of Deliriums, but that you had to get it some unusual way."
"Ah yes, the mysterious 251st card out of the 250 in Deliriums," Gary said with a big grin. "It was part of a contest that Wyvern Magazine held in advance of Deliriums coming out, in partnership with Renegade Sorcerers, the company that makes Gambits of Avalon. There was a series of six riddles you had to answer and send into the magazine. And of all the correct letters they got, they said they were going to select two hundred and fifty winners, and mail them each a copy of this playable, tournament legal card called 'Nimue's Focus.' Because of that, I imagine they're going to be pretty valuable, especially since they said they were going to be trying some new stylings on it."
"Like foiling?" I asked.
"Yeah, exactly like that. Supposedly the next GoA set, The Shattering, which is out in March, it's going to have foil cards in it for the first time in GoA history. So they were using 'Nimue's Focus' to sort of test the process out, and to let the public get some sneak peeks at it. They said they're also going to give another fifty copies of the card away at their first national tournament in January, but I got my winning entry from the magazine two weeks ago."
"Can I see it?"
"Sure," he said, opening the back of the counter, reaching into it before pulling out a hard-shell case, setting it down in front of me.
The card in the case was almost identical to the one I had, but there were some key differences. First and foremost, the six stars weren't there. Secondly, the watery surface the hand was reaching out from was the only foil part of the card.
"And they're all like this?" I asked him.
"Nobody's sure," Gary said, taking the hard-shell back from me. "Renegade Sorcerers said they were going to be experimenting around with the foiling, so it's entirely possible each of the three hundred copies of this card are something different. It would be hard to do, but since it's such a small, limited print run of a product, I wouldn't be too surprised if it was something like that. It's too cool of a concept to do otherwise."
"How much you think they're going to be worth?"
Gary whistled a bit. "Hard to say. I don't really want to sell mine, so I listed it at $251, in honor of the card's number in the set, but nobody in their right mind's going to pay that for a single card. I mostly just wanted to show it off in the case for a week or two before I take it back and keep it in one of my decks. It doesn't seem like that strong a card, thank God, because if it was strong enough to make tournament decks? Well, I think the game would've been pretty fucked if that happened."
"Yeah, I don't have $251 lying around to buy a second one, sorry to say, but I won my copy of it from a guy over at the university in an ante game," I told him.
Gary frowned and nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, I'm gonna miss that aspect of the game when it's gone, but I guess it had to happen, so the government doesn't consider it gambling," he grumbled. "I'd heard some schools were forbidding students from playing the game at lunch because the administration thought it was like poker or three card monte or something."
"Poker and three card monte are very different things, Gary," I told him.
"Tell that to the kid who can't buy his lunch because someone took his lunch money from him with a card game."
"Yeah, 'spose so," I said, glancing over the mostly empty store. "Well, lemme buy your last packs of Deliriums before some kid comes in here and confuses them with Garbage Pail Kids or whatever."
"You know I'd never sell them to anyone like that," he said, taking the last four from the box, setting them down on the counter in front of me. "Let's see, $2.25 a pack, four packs, plus eight percent sales tax equals... nine bucks and seventy-two cents."
I reached into my pocket, took out my Velcro wallet, opened it up and put two fives down on the counter as Gary tossed the four packs into a cellophane bag. "You can keep the change."
"Cool," Gary laughed, rolling his eyes at me. "Free can of pop."
"You going to be doing any Ante's End events here, Gary?"
"Yep. Every Saturday for the rest of the year, we'll be running Saturday Slams - that's open GoA games from two until seven, at least in the small amount of space we have. There's really only room for like eight players back there. But we've been seeing more and more people regularly turning out for events, so if you wanna come in and play some, I'm sure you'll be able to get a game in no problem, although maybe don't hit the newer kids with the higher power decks if you can help it, yeah? We want more people playing and the kids tend to give up if they get roflstomped their first time out."
"Relax, Gary, I've got decks specifically to play against those kinds of new players," I said. "If I'm having trouble getting matches on campus, maybe I'll come in for a Saturday Slam. What level of players you typically get for those?"
"Varies," he said with a shrug. "Deliriums brought in a lot of new players, so a bunch of people who are just getting started, but we've got our fair share of heavy hitters as well, so I'm sure we can find someone for you to have some fun playing against."
"Cool," I told him. "Maybe I'll see you on Saturday then."
"Oh, before you go, you said you got a copy of Nimue's Focus, right?"
"Won one, yeah."
"Did you catch the hidden joke in the card?"
I tilted my head to one side. "I don't think so. What is it?"
"The artist's name," Gary laughed. "Anya Marla Fog. She's not a real person."
"She isn't?"
"It's an anagram, for Morgana La Fay. Crazy, right? I guess the artist didn't want her real name on the card, so they just took the name of one of the characters from Avalon, scrambled it up and put it down as the art credit. There's a few cards like that, but nobody ever catches it."
"That's crazy, Gary," I said to him. "Anyway, I'll be back on Saturday to get some games in. I'm gonna head home and see what's in these packs, maybe if I can buff up my decks some."
"Profit, fame and good fortune to you, friend," Gary said with a slight bow, but I was already half-way out the door. Had Morgana La Fay created the Nimue's Focus card I'd won? And if so, what did that mean?
Sooner or later, I was going to find out.