Frank looked to the towering widows that stood at the far wall of the bedroom. Heather had designed the palace bedroom to catch the light throughout the day and placed four cathedral-like windows with stained glass peaks on the wall. They were magically enchanted to be transparent from the inside but opaque outside so nobody could look in. The effort was silly, considering their palace floated well above the city, limiting visitors to those who were invited or could fly.

The room was laid out with a grand bed that would sleep a dozen people set in the center of the wall to face the windows. Side rooms contained a dozen wardrobes and several dressing tables so the girls could contain their ever-growing collection of clothes.

The floor was a lavish rug given to them by Gwen featuring unicorn designs in gold and green. The walls were now hung with paintings of every girl and landscapes of their kingdom. Magical lights hung from the ceiling that could be commanded to dim or brighten, and green plants hung in every corner. It was a place of comfort, safety, and love, meant to contain his very odd family.

Frank looked to his right, where a gentle woman with gently curving black horns lay in his arm. She was nestled to his side as she gently slept in a dream made specially to make her happy. Heather had been traumatized by her recent efforts to learn more about herself and by Jaina's comments that she had caused catastrophic harm in the past. Heather was so frightened and broken that Frank had to hold her all night long and well into the next morning before she would talk. When she did, she expressed her fear that she was a danger to her family. She was terrified that she would trample them in some mad outburst and cause them pain.

Of course, they weren't alone, and Heather was surrounded by love. Quinny was tucked into her back with an arm thrown over her side, protecting her from anything that would cause her harm. Beyond Quinny was Umtha, curled into a ball in Breanne's arms. Umtha had vehemently insisted that Heather was an angel and had never shown anything but kindness to anyone. Of all the people in that bed, Umtha had done the most to soothe Heather's heart. Umtha was the only one with memories of Heather's most recent incarnation and her description of that woman as a saint.

In his left arm was the silky black-furred cat woman, Blackbast. She had come out of Heather's dream in a state of shock and unable to articulate her feelings. It was rare to see Blackbast flustered, but she was, and Frank had to hold her too. He did his best to keep them warm, safe, and surrounded by love until they finally agreed to sleep.

He met with Roric and asked him to have Gisley weave a peaceful dream around Quinny to relive the fun day at the tea party. He hoped Heather playing with her sisters would bring some grounding and sanity back to his girls. Now they were all asleep in their dream as he lay in a bed surrounded by women who loved him.

How had Frank the ghoul ended up with a harem of beautiful women? He had come to this world to escape women altogether and chosen a class so hideous it would drive them away. Yet, somehow they saw through that and fell in love with the man behind the mask. Of course, the magic figurine helped, but Heather, Quinny, and even Breanne had been showing signs of affection long before that. Somehow, they were all slowly becoming his, and now they called themselves his harem.

Over the last few weeks, he had married two of them and made love to all of them many times. He knew the taste of their lips, the softness of their breasts, the delights of their bodies. They looked into his eyes and smiled as they surrendered to his touch and masculine affections. Each approached love a little differently, but they all sought his affection and gladly shared theirs. He still couldn't believe these women were his, and every one of them called him master.

His eyes went to the ornate collar wrapped around Heather's neck, marking her as a slave girl. She loved to wear it and only took it off when playing as Princess Hannah. Unfortunately, it was a role she played less and less as she struggled to forge a new identity.

Slowly, they were embracing the racier lifestyle of being sex slaves and wanted to spend most of their time in Rajeen's inn. They loved to mingle among the slave girls and be seen on his arm, letting the world know they were his. He always thought it was a silly game, but he could see how much it meant to them. It was something they enjoyed doing, and he was starting to like it. In fact, he even called Quinny his slave girl the other day, and she bounced with happiness. Heather enjoyed calling him master and flirting shamelessly as she played with her tail. Even Breanne flashed his little smiles and wore her slave silks whenever they went out together.

None of them were the least bit embarrassed to be seen as his slave girls. On the contrary, they carried the title with honor and gladly played the role, no matter who was watching. Now they hugged, kissed, and frolicked barefoot where others could see, all while acknowledging him as their master.

Blackbast was the only sane one in the group, yet she was the cause of it. It was her collars that started this strange transformation and turned them into his harem. She was always ready to purr seductively and play her games but could be blunt and honest when he needed answers. She encouraged him to let the girls play, and to play along, calling them his slaves and giving them little tasks. She was the one who suggested the lunches with Roric so the girls could lounge on the cushions with the other slaves. It was all meant to set a mood, create a scene, and fills the girl's heads with silly things. Now he looked over his harem and had to admit the truth. He loved being their master and wanted nothing more than to love his girls, but Heather needed more.

Frank wasn't sure what to do with her or how he could help. All Heather wanted was to know who she really was. She had a chaotic mind that flitted from one topic to another, never sticking with an idea long enough to finish it. Yet, she never gave up on things, either. She found solutions to problems in very creative ways that a traditional player wouldn't think of. She also loved to solve a mystery, and there was no bigger mystery than herself.

Heather was obsessed with recovering her past and understanding how she got to where she was. It was making it impossible for her to enjoy being who she was now, yet she had found a way out.

The slave collar allowed her to escape herself by being something so very different from who she was. In a wild moment of daring, she kissed Jaina and started something he never believed would happen. Heather forgot her past and pain for a little while, lost to the fun of being a sex slave. She found the whole experience so enticing and exciting that she didn't even care about her past. All she wanted was to feel that sensation again, but she had one vital requirement. She needed Frank to be the one who made her feel it. He needed to take charge and be her master like Roric was to Jaina.

Blackbast explained it to him later, and he fully understood. What made the fantasy so enticing was that it was Frank commanding her to do it. Without him, she was just a girl kissing another girl, but by kissing Jaina for his entertainment, she became his slave girl. By making the tension sexual, she became his sex slave, and by doing it where others could see it, she became a new person.

Frank found it difficult to explain how much he loved Heather in any method that would do it justice. Heather was his heart, and she needed him to take possession of it, but what did that mean? Blackbast kept encouraging him to consider how Roric managed Jaina and suggested he give it some consideration. She suggested he let the girls from both harems have relations, then consider joining his harem to Rajeens.

Heather had already made love to Jaina and Chandice, while he had made love to Gisley and Jaina in his dreams. Quinny and Blackbast had made to all of them for real, leaving only Umtha and Breanne, but how long would that last? Breanne and Evalynn were already kissing when they thought nobody was looking, and Umtha saw relationships like this as normal.

For the sake of Heather, he was seriously considering joining them in Rajeen's harem. Then all the girls would be one big group, free to share their love and play how they wanted. He would be given access to the harem and allowed to play with any of the girls within, including Rajeen herself. That thought made his skin prickle with goosebumps and sent his heart beating faster. There were well over fifty girls in that harem, and all of them were beautiful. However, Rajeen was the undisputed queen of sexual tension, and some of the looks she gave him caused his hands to shake.

It was a fantasy that seemed impossible, especially considering that less than a year ago, he was all alone in his tiny graveyard pretending to be a ghoul. He wondered how Heather would react to him sleeping with other women, but then would she care? She was sleeping with Jaina and had recently discovered how much she loved using seductions. She had used them to turn a hostile situation favorable and brought an entire rogues guild to its knees in adoration. Of course, she boosted her effects with essence, but the thrill of having them eating out of her hands changed her. She wanted to be free to play with her powers just as Jaina did and enjoy those moments more. She wanted Frank to set the rules and put her skills to use, encouraging her to fight with seductions and charms.

He was ready to give them all the fantasy they sought except for one little problem, Roric. Unfortunately, there was one other man allowed in the harem, and he, too, had access to all the girls. If Heather and the others joined the harem, they would have to be open to serving his needs as well. His girls would be available to Frank, and he had to admit he had a soft spot for Gisley. But his girls would have two men in their lives from now on, and that made him pause.

“What are you thinking about?” Heather asked as she ran a hand up his chest.

“You, me, our lives together,” he replied, tightening his arm around her. “ And how much I love you.”

“I love you too,” Heather whispered, rubbing her cheek on his chest. “Thank you for holding me all night.”

“You’re welcome,” he replied. “How was your dream?”

“Quinny added marshmallows to everything, and we had a marshmallow fight,” Heather replied with a smile. “I think Breanne won. She can hurl those things with pinpoint accuracy, and poor Umtha had no idea what was going on. I think she got one stuck in her ear.”

He was glad to hear her talking so normally and recounting her fun dream, but he knew it wouldn’t last. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as her hand brushed his shoulders.

“Do you ever think let’s just stay in bed and be like this forever?” she asked.

“Not until I met you,” Frank replied. “Now I think about it every time I look into your eyes.”

“Oh, you are sweet,” Heather cooed. “Are you still mad at me?”

“About seducing a rogues guild and promising to ask me if you could have sex with them?” he asked as she blushed. “No, I am not mad. I realized that you should probably go ahead and do it.”

“Wait, what?” Heather gasped.

“I was playing with you,” he said, running his hand along her arm. “But you did a good job, and I can see you enjoy being the Lilim.”

“It's so much fun to be a sexy devil,” Heather replied, kissing his jaw. “Don't you appreciate my skills?”

“I love your skills,” Frank replied. “And I love you being a part of my harem.”

“Oh, have you finally excepted that we are your slave girls?” she asked with a pleased smile.

“You are my slave girls,” he insisted. “I just need to figure out what to do with you.”

“Oh, you know the usual things: sex, loving, and more sex, I guess,” Heather said as she tried to work it out. “Actually, what do we do?”

“That’s a very good question,” Frank agreed. “So much of this is how we choose to play, and you want me to play as your master, but I don’t know how to challenge you to make it interesting.”

“Why not just copy Roric?” Quinny asked as she stretched.

“That is a terrible idea,” Breanne retorted.

“Are you all awake?” Frank asked as he looked around to see Blackbast staring at him.

“I woke up when you two started talking,” Quinny admitted. “The dream was over anyway, so I guess we all started to wake up.”

“I still do not understand why you were hitting me with those mushmoolow stones,” Umtha said as she rolled over.

“Marshmallow,” Quinny corrected. “And Breanne defended you from us.”

“Breanne is a master of the deadly art of marshmallow fighting,” Blackbast said with a wary eye on the elven woman. “I suspect she has a story to tell us about a wild youth.”

“I have my secrets,” Breanne admitted as she rolled into Umtha and put an arm around the goblin woman. “And I wasn’t going to let you pick on my green beauty, but what is this talk about challenging us?”

Frank felt on the spot, but then there was no better time to discuss this. He did his best to calmly explain how much he loved them and that they were his harem. He wanted to be their master and enjoyed them being his slave girls, but he didn't know what to do with them. He had never really dreamed about this sort of thing because he never believed it could happen. He didn’t even play the adult MMOs that Roric and Jaina played to give him ideas. He was worried that he wouldn’t be able to keep them occupied or interested.

“Are we talking about this because of me?” Heather sighed.

“Of course we are,” Blackbast replied. “After the breakdown you had, none of us has been able to do anything but worry about you.”

“And you find playing this role an effective distraction,” Breanne added. “You never look happier than we when we play at being slave girls.”

“Look, I was frightened, disappointed, and upset,” Heather said. “I just needed time to think through what happened and sort it out.”

“How can you possibly sort out being told you once had the power of a god, and you used it to destroy a world?” Breanne asked.

“The way I solve all my problems these days,” Heather replied. “I ignore it.”

“That isn’t a healthy way to solve problems,” Breanne insisted.

“No, but I have to face some hard facts,” Heather said. “I have a lot of unanswered questions and problems all circulating around a past I can’t remember. All I can do is look for the answers and deal with them when they come. But the fact is, much of it is beyond my ability to solve. There is no point tearing myself up worrying about a problem I can’t do anything about. I have to trust that those problems can wait until new information surfaces or a solution presents itself. To keep wasting time and effort on them will only make me and everyone around me miserable.”

“That is a very mature way of looking at it,” Blackbast admonished. “I am proud of you.”

“I am, too,” Breanne agreed. “You have grown.”

“We’ve all grown,” Quinny cut in. “We finally found what we really wanted in each other, and we were brave enough to admit it. Now look at us, all in bed together and able to talk about anything. This is the perfect life.”

“It is a wonderful life,” Blackbast agreed as she ran a hand along Frank’s chest.

“So, you are alright then?” Breanne asked as they looked at Heather.

“I still need to do a lot of thinking,” Heather replied. “But this really helps. Being in bed with my family makes me feel safe. I do my best thinking when I know I can close my eyes, and nothing is going to try to eat me.” She smiled as Quinny’s hand went over the curve of her rear and gave her a playful squeeze.

“So, we should get back to what you two were talking about then,” Quinny said. “About challenging us.”

“Maybe we should talk about what happened,” Breanne argued. “Now that we have recovered from the ordeal, it might be time to talk about what we learned.”

“What did we learn?” Umtha asked. “That she dreams about a dead world inhabited by a monster of darkness?”

“A world I probably destroyed,” Heather grumbled.

“You didn’t destroy a world,” Frank interjected as he hugged her more tightly. “How can we trust this voice in Jaina’s head? Is it any different than the one in your crown? We know Blackbast was using a detect lie, but we also know those can be cheated. As much as the woman in the crown seems to be doing exactly what she said, we can never forget that dragon warned you she betrayed you once before. She could be playing along, waiting for the best time to use you in some greater plan. The same could be happening with Jaina, or maybe the two are working together.”

“Yeah, and could anyone really destroy a world?” Quinny asked.

“This is a valid point, but we can’t simply rule out that she didn't have something to do with the destruction of that world,” Blackbast argued. “We have good reason to believe she broke the sun here. So why couldn’t that fabulous brain figure out how to destroy a world?”

“Because she wouldn't,” Umtha interjected. “I knew her before she was this incarnation, and she was caring, nurturing, and wonderful. She cared about people, especially monster players, and fought against their mistreatment just like she does now. She was always serious but still found time to love those closest to her.”

“And Umtha also has a good point,” Breanne agreed. “She is the only one here who knew Heather before. She is a witness to the fact that Heather isn’t the type to run wild and cause so much harm.”

“And Heather didn’t go insane in that life,” Frank argued as he fixed his gaze on Umtha. “She planned her destruction by leading the paladins into that dark dimension. She sacrificed herself to save others, not trampled them.”

“Yes, she sacrificed herself so others could get away,” Umtha agreed.

“Wow, you guys are making me feel better,” Heather laughed as she stroked his chest.

“All I am trying to say is that Heather has the intellect to wield power like that,” Blackbast said. “I am sure if we learn that she did destroy a world, we will also learn she was tricked or forced into it. I do not think she would have done it out of spite.”

“Nah, Heather's too good to do something that means,” Quinny agreed. “That Voice in Jaina’s head is wrong, lying, or leaving out important details.”

“Speaking of Jaina, she took your running off very hard,” Breanne said. “You might want to talk to her.”

“I wasn’t in the right mindset to talk to her just then,” Heather said.

“No, you were not. None of us were,” Blackbast agreed. “We had just run for our lives from a titanic monster that somehow took over the dream by rendering Gisley unconscious. We have every right to be terrified, but even then, you held it together long enough to find a solution and get us out.” Blackbast then reached over Frank to run a hand along Heather’s cheek. “And I owe you an apology. I was in shock when we got back. I did not mean to scold you about not knowing what astral projection was. I took my stress out on you. It wasn’t fair of me to criticize you for not reading your books.”

“We were all on edge,” Breanne agreed. “At least Heather had the good sense to walk away before she said something hurtful to Jaina.”

“Look,” Heather sighed. “I was never angry at any of you. I was upset that I might be a danger to you all. I love you, but I couldn’t live with myself If I lost control and harmed you.”

“You won’t,” Umtha insisted as she reached over Quinny to jostle Heather’s side. “I know you, and you can’t hurt the ones you love.”

“You say that, but I nearly got you all killed in that dream,” Heather reminded them. “I know you would have respawned, but what if you don't in that place? Or maybe you do, but in the dream itself, leaving you trapped. I don't know what I would do. I would do anything to protect you from my past, but I can't remember it, so I can't plan ahead.”

“It's like you said earlier,” Quinny urged. “You can't do anything about it, so it's not worth beating yourself up. Let's enjoy what we have and not worry about our past. Honestly, your past hasn't caused you near as much trouble as being a necromancer has.”

“She's right,” Frank agreed. “Being Hathlisora hasn't been a problem at all. It's a necromancer that's the issue.”

“You know what? You’re right,” Heather agreed. “Hathlisora sounds like a very interesting person who had a bad outcome. But the necromancer thing is what’s making my life difficult. That's why I always have to hide and pretend I am something else.”

“Getting back to the dream,” Breanne interjected. “Did that wall of home messages mean anything to anyone?”

“Could it be as straightforward as pointing the way home from New Eden?” Heather asked.

“You mean a way out?” Blackbast replied. “I could not say. Maybe it was just a way out of that place.”

“It was a way home, back to our real world,” Frank said.

“How can you be so sure?” Breanne asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied as he tried not to think too deeply about it. He had seen the wall and all the messages, but one message stood out. It was carved too high on the rock to have been done by a normal-sized person and cut into the stone too deeply to have been a quick tool. Whoever made that mark was not only very tall but could cut into the rock with ease. He could easily do it in his ghoul form, which raised all sorts of questions. He didn’t share any of this with the others. He was here to help Heather, and his problems would wait until later.

“If it was a way home, then the answer is in the pyramid,” Heather said.

“A pyramid guarded by the largest monster I have ever seen,” Breanne quipped.

“Who was that voice that screamed out to warn us?” Quinny asked.

“The same voice I hear in the crown,” Heather replied. “Somehow, she knows what is going on in that world.”

“Could that be Abbadon, then?” Breanne asked.

“Abbadon would have elemental spirits,” Umtha replied. “I would have been able to feel them, but that place was empty.”

“You are sure it will have these spirits?” Blackbast pressed. “It is a prison hell. Maybe you are wrong about it.”

“I can't imagine it not having them,” Umtha replied. “But maybe I am wrong. I don’t really know anything about the place other than Heather once opened a door to it.”

“I think one of the questions to ask has to be, why do I dream of this place when I am unconscious?” Heather stated. “What is so important about that place that I keep returning to it?”

“Well, the previous you were searching for a way out,” Umtha reminded. “Maybe you found it and had to face that monster. It would explain the messages.”

“Maybe the world was destroyed in your battle with it?” Quinny suggested.

Frank listened to their ideas as they guessed at meanings. He wanted to share his thought's on the matter but held them back instead. He needed more time to consider his feelings, and there was something he wanted to look at first. He let them go on with their debate until Heather finally called it off.

“You know what? I need a drink, and I need to talk to Jaina,” Heather said. “Why don't we go to the inn and see if we can solve both problems? I want to ask her about this voice she hears anyway. Maybe it can tell us something that sheds a little light on things.”

“Oh, I want to talk about being challenged as slave girls,” Quinny pouted.

“And I thought Breanne very skillfully diverted that conversation,” Heather said as she glared at Quinny.

“I have tried, but she is fixated on having Frank test our resolve to be his slave girls,” Breanne sighed.

“I tell you what,” Frank said as he sat up. “I will set up another lunch with Roric and his girls so you can lay at my feet.”

“That’s not very challenging,” Quinny argued.

“You want challenging?” Frank said as he met her gaze. “I have the perfect challenge for all of you.”

“Oh, I don't like this,” Heather said as she leaned away from him. “He has that 'you are going to regret playing this game' look in his eyes.”

“I have an idea,” Frank said as he smiled. “And you are all going to play.”