The Eros Expansion Read online

  Mark paused as a better idea hit him.

  “You guys have board games, right? Like Chess, or Go? Black and white pieces on a grid that takes thought and strategy to win?”

  Vale's perfect white eyebrows came down. “Do you mean Gems and Pearls?”

  Mark was about to ask for more details when Roo held out her hand, and a small wooden table rose out of the floor between them. After the legs reached her intended height, a game board with various precious stones emerged from the table with the same upward motion until the game was fully formed.

  “Okay. Thanks, Roo. The rules are unimportant, but this is a two-player game, right?”

  Vale nodded.

  “Now imagine if someone created a complex machine that input the position of the pieces, and based solely on a pre-established set of rules, logically suggested a fairly valid move. Let's say it's just at a child's skill level. Does this make sense?”

  Vale squinted her eyes and nodded, and behind her, a flick of Ahnix's black tail caught his attention. She was listening.

  “I know it might be tough to visualize, but this novelty machine is a basic computer. Simply a device that takes input, does some logical, pre-set calculation, and then gives an output. Take that concept and add more complexity to it. A little change, and now you have a computer that can play two different games. Build off that skillset, and you'll have a computer that can play all games. Add one-hundred years and millions of researchers all focused on creating the most advanced artificially intelligent brain they can... and well, here we are.”

  “Artificial... intelligence,” Vale whispered.

  Ahnix's tail started hopping, broadcasting a seething agitation throughout the room, and Mark was just glad he was feeling something from her.

  “It was just a game...” the cat-girl whispered.

  “Listen,” Mark pleaded. “Something changed recently. The drive to make the computers more intelligent, more like us, never stopped. Sasha was a simple virtual assistant at first. She could order me food and suggest music I might like, and that was about it. That was about ten years ago. The last update did something to change her- drastically. She suggested I try out my new immersive rig with-”

  Vale held up an ethereal armored hand. “Immersive rig?”

  “It's a device that connects to my real brain and lets me join you here in your virtual world.” He looked over at Ahnix, who was still focused on the floor. “This game is called The Crystal Heart, but you three have been more real than anything I had ever felt in the outside world.”

  He sent waves of love and compassion the exotic cat-girl, and he felt a tiny tingle return along their bond.

  “You said something changed recently?” Vale asked.

  “Yes. Every AI got an update to their... complexity. I believe that change was substantial. That, and something the system AI said back when we were watching our... alternate pasts. She said she modified you so that you could form your own memories- or something like that. I think you three went from non-player characters in a virtual reality game to very real individuals. You girls, whatever you may be, are beyond any doubt the most important people in my life.”

  “He's right,” Roo said, stepping in and taking his hand. “I know I'm not in the same situation as you two. I am already an artificially made fabric construct. So what if I'm actually made of something else? I had no life before you three. You're my only family, and as long as we're all together-” She shrugged. “That's all that matters.”

  Roo started to pull Mark's arm towards the hallway that led out of the main chamber. She looked over her white, velvet shoulder and said, “We'll leave you lovely ladies to sort yourselves out while I take Mark back to suck out some of his amazing essence.”

  Mark allowed himself to be pulled forward as he looked back at the giant naga and the short, black and gold cat-girl. Ahnix's large, exotic eyes locked on to his for a moment before she turned them to the floor again.

  He followed Roo into the private room she had created for them, and Mark was glad they still had access to their safe, personal house dimension. He watched her wiggle her tight little ass out of her leather corset and felt a weak smile spread across his face.

  Roo's positive attitude was contagious. She walked up to him now as he sat on the edge of the bed and pressed her flat, soft stomach into his face. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her breasts on the top of his head.

  Mark raised his arms to encircle her narrow waist and pulled her closer. He slowly rubbed his cheeks and nose around on her firm, velvety abdomen and breathed in her floral scent.

  The embrace went on for a while, both of them just enjoying their closeness, then Roo slid down, smearing her breasts over his face and ended up lightly rubbing her thick, fabric lips on his. He put his hands under her jaw and slid the tips of his thumbs over the smooth contours of her mask as they kissed.

  The velvet girl helped him slowly undress while nibbling on his lips. When he was stripped bare, they both moved back onto the bed, and Mark got lost in Roo's soft and supple embrace. They spent a long time just kissing and exploring every inch of each other's bodies with their hands.

  Eventually, her pure black eyes opened and locked on his as she slid her slippery vagina down onto his erect shaft. A moan escaped his lips when her flawlessly firm ass pressed down onto the tops of his thighs.

  They made love sitting up, her long, dancer’s legs wrapped around his back and a comfortable tenderness pulsing through their bond. He reached up to cup her face again as they ground their genitals together, and Roo turned her cheek into his palm, her lilac hair brushing over the skin on the back of his hand. Mark adored her, and he thought every inch of her was painfully beautiful.

  Her unbelievable pussy grew hotter as they ramped up the friction, and the sensation sent jolts of pure electric ecstasy through his spine. He was about to reach his climax when he felt Roo's soft fingers dig into his back and pull him tight against her breasts.

  The feeling of her stiff nipples pressing into his skin was too much, and as Mark lost all muscle control, he loosely targeted her crotch with an intense pleasure enhancement.

  Both of them locked up as orgasms turned them into stone, and Mark pulsed essence and sperm deep into her body, while her fabric vagina closed around his cock like a fist.

  Roo let out a long, hot sigh into his ear, and then she spun around in his lap, pulling him down onto the bed. Mark held the velvet girl in his arms for a while, and he treasured every second that her firm, soft, velvet backside pressed against his skin.

  “That man who stole our spaceship,” Roo spoke quietly, looking out into the room. “Was he like us? An artificial person?”

  Mark took a deep breath. “Probably. I'm honestly having a difficult time defining the word person recently, but I think you, Ahnix, and Vale might be something special.”

  She pressed her hands into the arm he had draped over her side.

  “You're a good person, Mark. Since I've started to see the world- multiple worlds, there are some selfish or just really rotten people out there. I'm very glad I get to be held by you.”

  He pressed his lips into the back of her soft neck and took a deep breath through his nose buried in her smooth hair.

  “Hmm. I love you too, Roo.”

  They cuddled for a while longer before it was time to check on his other Enthralled. After getting dressed, they entered the main room of their safe haven and found it empty. He knew the general positions of all his girls at all times now, and Roo followed him into the map room where Vale was staring down at the intricately detailed map of the Crystal Heart gameworld, her legendary Star Scale Mail still deployed.

  The giant naga's violet eyes lifted to look intently into his.

  “Is it all gone?”

  Mark walked up to the table and passed his eyes over the colorful forests, mountains, and rivers. His eyes found the capital of the Naga Empire where Vale's mother lived and shook his head.

  “
I don't know for certain, but Roo's home dimension is part of that data. I believe there is a chance it's all just stored somewhere, and Roo is just locked out.”

  Mark truly believed this was possible. The system AI had plenty of recordings from his failed attempts at restoring the Crystal Heart. There would be no good reason to purge everything, especially if part of the new entity was formed from the game's administration AI.

  He felt Vale let go of some of the tension she had been holding and her head lowered to look over the map again. A spark of hope rekindled within her that everything she knew might still exist. Mark walked around the table to stand next to her. He put his hand on her armored back, and she looked into his eyes again.

  “Why don't you take off this armor and come get a rub down with Roo and I. Think about all the muscle-melting we could do if we worked on you together.”

  He felt Roo send a silent wave of enthusiasm for the activity along their bond. Vale felt it too and looked at the fabric-girl behind him, giving her a weak smile. The giant naga let out a deep sigh and put her large armored hand on Mark's shoulder, looking down on him.

  “That sounds lovely, but I think I'm going to have to postpone the massage. Mark, I'm... just not in the mindset for intimacy right now.”

  He nodded, but internally he was a little shocked. This was the first time one of his Enthralled had turned down an essence transfer.

  Vale returned her attention to the painted world map, and Mark knew it was best to leave her alone for a while.

  “You got it,” he said. “I'm here for you when you are ready.”

  Roo felt Mark's intention and stayed with Vale in the map room while he left in search of his desert queen. At first, he thought she was in the training room, but as his hand closed on the doorknob he knew she wasn't in there. Mark headed for the trophy room instead and opened the door.

  Ahnix looked over at him with her large dark eyes, and he saw that her small frown was in its familiar place. She crossed her arms and turned her gaze back to the lifelike statue of the wide-mouthed shark woman from the sea cave.

  Mark closed the door and walked down the dark, cranberry-colored carpet Roo had placed in front of her creations. He stopped next to the cat-girl, his eyes lingering on the side of her golden, furry face before turning to look at the vile creature that had caused them a brief but sharp amount of anguish.

  “All the pain and suffering of my existence was for someone else's amusement,” she said quietly.

  He spun to look at her. “I-”

  “Stop,” Ahnix interrupted him. “I know, without a doubt in my heart, that if you saw someone hurting me, you would end their life or die trying.”

  Mark closed his mouth and let her continue.

  “The misery of my past was horrible and...” Ahnix stopped and just looked into his eyes. He could feel her next to him, they were still very connected, but it was as if the pipe was empty.

  “But at least the scars were mine,” she said and turned back to look at the tentacled shark woman. “Now, all of my past wounds feel both reopened and meaningless. I don't know who or what I am.”

  Mark reached out and placed his hand on her sleek furred arm.

  “You are Ahnix, my desert qu-”

  “No!” she snarled, turning towards him and pulling away. He had never seen her beautiful face contort to show such disgust before. “I was never really a queen. Queen of what, exactly? It feels like everything from before you saved me was just a story someone else told me was true...”

  She trailed off, a distant look in her exotic eyes, and Mark felt a tingle of affection bounce along their connection. And then it was gone.

  “Come on,” she said, walking past him toward the door. “We need to go be good little puppets or lose what we have left.”

  - 2 -

  Roo held her arm out and concentrated on getting them back to the same spot in the landing bay where they started. A moment later, a black door rose out of the ground, and she pulled it open.

  Mark waited at the back as his cherished loves moved through the door and was reminded that two of his three separate essence pools were maxed out. He wasn't even sure there would be essence to collect in this expansion, or wherever they were. He took a deep breath and joined them on the other side.

  “I was almost hoping you wouldn't be able to bring us back here either,” Vale said, looking around at the silent, empty vastness around them.

  The velvet-girl bit her lower lip, concentrating on something no one else could see.

  “It's odd. This strange, metal world feels different. Smaller.”

  “It's a space station,” Mark said. “It's nowhere near the size of a planet.” His eyebrows furrowed as a stray thought entered his mind. “What was your planet called, anyway? I don't remember ever hearing its name.”

  “What's a planet?” Vale said, still peering into the darkness for potential threats.

  “Um. Like the moon, but much larger and in space- yeah, I guess it doesn't really matter. I'm just surprised there is no name for your world.”

  Vale looked back at him. “There are numerous other dimensions, and my home one was often referred to as the Crystal Heart Dimension by denizens from other planes of existence. Is a planet like another dimension?”

  Ahnix shook her head and walked away, toward the door in the far wall. He felt a flash of frustration from her when Vale mentioned other dimensions. He realized for the first time that all three of them were from different planes of existence. Ahnix was born from a shadow dimension, Roo was created in her house dimension, and Mark was from the real world.

  He shrugged. “We'll worry about astronomy lessons later.”

  They all followed the short cat-girl toward the door with the ominously sputtering light.

  When Ahnix was a few paces away from the door, the whole slab of metal slid up into the ceiling with a whoosh, revealing a long, dark corridor with exposed pipes and circuitry that extended into blackness. Everyone but Mark got into a defensive position.

  “Relax guys- there's a sensor. It's an automatic door. Ahnix, move away and watch it close.”

  The cat-girl never took her focus away from the dark passage while she made a few steps backward, her padded feet crossing themselves as she moved. When she was far enough away, the door quickly slid back down with a blast of pressurized air and then locked with a dull, metallic clunk behind the wall.

  Mark walked past Ahnix, and the door swooshed up and opened again.

  “This is an example of advanced machinery from my world. It's not magic, just a combination of clever devices.”

  “It’s neat!” Roo said. “It's kind of like my natural ability when we're home.”

  Vale slid past Mark and looked over her shoulder at the group.

  “Okay everyone, get behind me. Ahnix, keep an ear out for trouble. I'm still not clear on what a space station is, but I don't want to take any chances.”

  “Think of it as a giant building suspended in the void. Being in space is like being underwater, only way deadlier.”

  Vale nodded and moved into the dark tunnel, her long, armored snake body weaving back and forth, and the rest followed behind.

  The flickering light spilling in from above the doorway washed over the twisted mess of black cables, pipes, and tubes that snaked through the walls on all sides. Ahnix was in the middle, while Mark and Roo walked side by side in the rear. When they passed the threshold for the door's sensor, it hissed shut again, leaving them in pure darkness.

  “Hold,” Vale said, and everyone stopped. “I don't like this. We should look for another way.”

  A light blossomed from Mark's left. He looked over to see Roo holding a gently flickering flame, and her pure black eyes sparkled with reflections from the magic fire cupped in her velvet hand. Mark glanced down at the copper-plated artifact she had wrapped around her slender waist and wondered what would happen if she tried her ability without its protection.

  “I got it, don't worry
,” she said with a wicked smile.

  Mark looked over to see the furry face of Ahnix and the elfish face of Vale illumined by the steady orange flame, and was again reminded of the unprecedented amount of essence stored within him. Mark's desire for his Enthralled flared up like Roo's flame and all three of them turned their heads toward the source of raw, lustful emotion.

  “Sorry,” he said. “You're all just so damned attractive is all.”

  A small smile spread across Vale's face, but Ahnix just cast her exotic eyes back to Roo's gently flickering flame, her tail twitching slightly in the darkness behind her.

  “By the way,” Roo said, “Mark filled me with enough points to get to Metalmancy Three with enough left over to blow some on my Fire Mage path. I took Combustive Glance which allows me to start small fires at a distance.” Her wicked, pyromaniac smile was back, and Mark couldn't help but let his lips curl to match hers. “It's what that fire mage in Sizor's Pit used on me, but mine is only at level one. I think I'm going to make it my new focus. Metalmancy Four is really expensive.”

  “That's great, Roo,” Mark said, with a wide grin.

  Vale turned her violet eyes on Mark. “Before I can relax, I want more answers. Let's get our bearings and see what we're dealing with. Perhaps then I may be in the mood for some private time with our Collector.” She looked to Roo and then said, “Please get up by me and light the way ahead.”

  As Roo moved up next to Vale, her handheld flame cast shifting shadows across the exposed innards of the space station. Mark took up position next to the quiet cat-girl and tried to project emotions of support and compassion toward her as they walked forward. He could feel Roo's echoes of adventurous excitement and Vale's intermingled vigilance and slight anxiety over her home, but he was still getting nothing from Ahnix.

  Eventually, they came to another door at the end of the corridor. White letters printed on the gray metal read, 'Warning: Guests Ahead. Promenade Level GAMMA 7. ID Card Level 3 Required for Reentry'.