[PI] A Demon From Earth (Ch 43)
Author's note: Kinda short this time, but the ending happened where it did, so I didn't try to drag it out.
In Dallas, this fine Sunday morning. Not only did they give me a truck, they gave me a trainee, too. I hate it. Oh well.
Also, I'm straight up pimping [Memetic Apotheosis](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/k0nef4/memetic_apotheosis/) because that story needs more attention than it's getting. Go give /u/Aetharan some love. I promise it's worth your time.
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---
Days passed. I alternated between testing mixes of flammables, writing software, making spears, and advising on the trebuchet project. Evenings were spent with Sisme. It was kicking my ass on the sleep front, but I actually felt way more energetic than I had in quite some time. Like, a decade plus.
The elven soldiers from the other cities had started trickling in. Three groups had arrived so far, which meant there were another four still on the way. I expected to head out in about four more days, so I hoped they got here in time for at least a little integration practice. I was trying to recreate the old Swiss pike square formations, but the elves didn't have a lot of experience with marching in formation. Hell, neither did I, but at least I knew about the concept.
The conversation I had with Anneke went better than I had expected, honestly. I think the fact that I admitted that I was looking forward to seeing her once I was done with all of this probably had a lot to do with that. I don't know what the future holds there, but I think I'd like to find out.
---
Finally my little software project was finished. I'd gotten the OCR software to recognize elvish characters, and all of Friday's notes had been digitized and sequenced.
Sisme and I were in her chambers (which, it should be noted, the cleaning staff had done an *excellent* job of scrubbing all of the blood out of) sitting on her bed, leaning up against the headboard. My laptop was on my legs, and Sisme was under my arm. A few candles burned, but for the most part it was dark.
She looked mildly confused by the machine, and gasped when I struck a key and the screen went black, shortly followed by sounds and subtitles across the bottom in her language.
*The world is changed…* *I feel it in the water…* *I feel it in the earth…* *I smell it in the air…*
---
I was hoping she just hadn't yet realized he was the *bad* guy, when she saw the scene where Sauron was towering over everyone and smacking them around with his mace, and she poked me, pointed at him, and booped my nose. Well, since she was still snuggled up next to me, that was the theory I was going with, anyway. Or she was *really* into the whole "bad boy" thing. Given that she was the queen because I'd shot her half brother in the head in the room we were currently cuddling in, I guess that was an option, too.
---
She didn't like the Nazgul at *all*, but clapped her hands and cheered when Arwen hit them with the river.
I chuckled again that even though there weren't English subtitles for that scene, there *were* Elvish ones. Because Friday had gone ahead and transliterated Arwen's words in Tolkien Elvish into Ringworld Elvish.
---
We, uh, didn't make it past the scene on the bridge in Rivendell before she pushed the laptop off to the side. I barely had time to hit the space bar and pause the movie before she'd climbed onto my lap, straddled my legs, put both her hands behind my head, and started kissing me.
Her tongue tasted of wildflowers and sunlight as I brushed her golden hair back behind her ears, and then ran my hands down her back to her hips.
Well, we could always watch the rest of it later.
---
I was walking back to my room from Sisme's chambers when Friday caught up to me in the hallway.
"Your dalliance with the queen is a perversion."
I sighed and kept walking. "So what?"
She followed behind me. "You must cease this!"
"Whatever happened to Sisme's word being law? Or does that only count when you approve of what she says?"
She ran around in front of me and stopped in my path. "You can't even say her *name* right!"
I walked around her and said in passing, "Sismeellisnima'arenii. I'm fucking the girl so hard every night that it's a wonder she can walk straight in the mornings. Of **course** I learned how to say her name."
Ok, that was probably an excessively vulgar thing to say about the lady but Friday was starting to really piss me off.
"You haven't bothered to learn anyone else's!" she shouted at my back again.
"I sure haven't! But it's not because I *can't.* It's because I don't care."
"You are not worthy of the queen's favor!"
I paused and looked at her.
"I think there's a case of mistaken identity here. You seem to have me confused with someone who **gives** a fuck about your opinion on the subject. Also, apparently the queen in question feels differently. So go tell *her* that. I'm not going to force myself on her, so all you have to do is convince her to tell me to stop and I will. Oh wait, I'm thinking that's what you tried to say at breakfast the other day. How did that work out for you?"
I waved my hand dismissively and continued down the corridor.
A stream of what I suspected was more elven cursing came from behind me, but I just kept going.
"Damn you, stop and talk with me!"
I paused and turned to face her. "Are you wanting to talk *with* me, or just talk *at* me and make demands?"
She looked **really** angry, actually.
"What are you going to do if you father a child on her? Stay here for the rest of your short life? Leave us, and force her to take care of your bastard alone?"
"Nah. I'll probably sue the doctor who performed my vasectomy, though."
"I… I don't know what that means!"
So I explained it to her. In graphic detail. Being an EMT carries some advantages when it comes to talking about medical stuff. Maybe it makes me a bad person, but I derived a certain amount of schadenfreude at the way she turned green.
"Why would you *do* that?"
"We have more than enough people back home. I've never really wanted children, except for a very short period with one specific person, and the person who that applied to is gone. I make a pretty good uncle. I think I'd make a crappy father. So I made sure it wouldn't happen."
"So… you can't possibly affect the monarchy?"
"You mean other than in the very *direct* manner I already have? I don't think so. Though, hell, apparently magic exists, so who the fuck knows what's possible any more. But barring that kind of crazy shit, I would expect not. My being a giant alien from another planet doesn't seem to bother *her*; It shouldn't bother *you*. So if that's all you're freaking out about, why not just let her be happy for right now? For that matter, why not let *me* be happy for right now?"
I could feel my face twisting into an ugly sneer.