The Truth about Heroes: Menage a Trois

By Krista Gossett

Continuing the Heroes Trilogy, the aftermath of war does not always mean rest for heroes. Their journey now takes them to an island the Gods once favored and is now a dangerous island of dreams. As they chase after Viper to stop him from waking the Gods and causing the destruction of their world, they also confront the darkest parts of themselves.

This book completes the Heroes Trilogy, but is part of the Heroes, World, Universe Chronicles, containing nine books. Each trilogy is built to standalone or be read in order. This is adult epic fantasy and contains strong themes of sex, violence, and morality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Krista Gossett
• Release date: Jul 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463881873

Krista Gossett

Krista Gossett is a professional graphic artist/illustrator as well as an author. Her first love was comic book art and video gaming which helped her develop an interest in creating her own worlds. Krista has two degrees in graphic design and would love to teach someday. Artists never retire. She also raises her two awesome nephews and hopes to always be a role model that encourages them to follow their own dreams as well.

Book preview

To friends, new, old and yet to be,

thank you for sharing this experience with me.

To my mother and grandmother

Who passed away before I found the courage to publish.

As for winter, go fuck yourself. You didn’t help at all.

(And for the record, my mom would have

loved that part in particular.)

Don’t fill shoes, fill shelves.

Chapter 1: Ignorance is Blisters

Something about the strange floating island that poked out from the white clouds was causing unease in Melchior. That would be aside from the fact it was a floating island. He saw Rienna on the unicorn in front of him, Dinsch on another, and he gripped the mane of the one he rode and turned to look for the others, but they were nowhere to be seen.

The unicorns had even insisted that Finn ride one, although, like most Folk, he found it distasteful to ride another creature especially since he had wings of his own. To him it was like riding a man piggyback for no good reason. However, they made it clear that Elcarim would not reveal itself to Finn and he would need to ride one or be left behind. In the end he had acquiesced, but not gracefully. It was something about the topic that turned Folk childishly pouty and sulky.

Still, it had bothered Melchior that he could not see anyone else, no matter how long he peered behind him and he turned back suddenly, relieved he could still see Rienna and Dinsch. He yelled ahead, but the wind swallowed his shouts and panic started to hit him as even Rienna and Dinsch were fading from his view.

Calm yourself, Melchior. They cannot hear and you must prepare to land, came the voice of his mount into his head.

What the hell? I’m not a female, Melchior abruptly pointed out. Rienna had been clear that, for some odd reason, only females could hear the voices of unicorns. It hadn’t bothered him in the least, but hearing them now was a wound to his manhood.

The unicorn laughed at his outburst.

We near Elcarim and in this place, the rules are bent and broken. You can hear me as we near it and I have little time to tell you, but unicorns cannot land here. We will fade back into Calderon soon and you will be on your own, the unicorn told him. Getting you to Myceum expended our magic greatly.

Now you tell me, Melchior grumbled. Where are the others?

You think a place the old gods created would not separate you? Worry not, though; our kind has some foresight and you will meet with your friends again.

Melchior knew all about the foresight of magical creatures and he rolled his eyes, trusting those words not one bit. Although if it weren’t true, he might be mad enough to track down some flying horses and get a taste of unicorn meat. He hoped they would be as delicious as they were annoying, but they were probably tough and tasteless, just to spite his taste buds.

Elcarim came into view and Melchior at least hoped the damned unicorn would at least have the grace to drop him off over the land. It would be incredibly pointless otherwise. Despite the fact that the image of it in his head almost put him over the edge with hilarity, the reality would not be funny in the least. On that note, he hoped Nuriel would bail him out if he needed it. He started to think that he wished he hadn’t used Nuriel for so many mundane tasks that he might chose to not show up. Nuriel had threatened worse but, true to his name, the salamander/fire elemental often blew a lot of hot air.

Luckily for Melchior, the unicorn flew closer towards the land and literally disappeared the minute its hooves touched Elcarim soil, depositing Melchior unceremoniously on his ass. He stood up and looked around, noticing he was completely alone. Nothing for it, standing there wouldn’t change that.

Shit, he muttered, but he did not hesitate and ran off to search for his friends.

Even with his own wings, the sudden disappearance of the unicorn Finn was riding gave him no time to use them and avoid the graceless inevitability of landing ass first on Elcarim. Finn was also alone but his ride, sharing the distaste for the company of his rider, had not been so courteous as to share that the ride was to end abruptly with its disappearance. The unicorn told him nothing in fact and once Finn got over his displeasure, he realized with some panic that he had lost track of Verity. He had lost track of all of them, for that matter, but Verity was the first to come to mind. Finn did not know if the Mother could reach him here; he had already noticed that the bottom of this giant floating continent ended in thousands of feet of air and an ocean. He knew her roots were far reaching but this would be stretching it. She was more akin to an elemental than one of the gods after all.

Figuring he had nothing to lose by trying, he drew one of the white wooden arrows from his quiver and shot it into the nearest tree. He watched with trepidation as the tree lost its rich red-brown hue and dulled into a sickly grey before bleaching into a bone white. All the while it began twisting about like a slow mass of tentacles and he noticed the shape was becoming feminine and a face formed at the last, the eyes opening were the same odd purplish-orange as the leaves of Yggdrassl, the Mother and Tree of Life. When the dryad spoke, its mouth moved and it had the Mother’s voice coming directly from it rather than hearing it in his head.

My child, the Mother addressed him fondly.

I was not sure you could reach me here, Finn admitted with relief, hoping his honesty did not offend her.

However, the Mother smiled kindly and drew Finn into her embrace comfortingly.

I would not have known it possible either; I have never been to Elcarim before, the Mother admitted, looking around shrewdly, sizing the place up and then relaxing to look at Finn. Your friends are not with you, so this must be why you called for me.

Finn nodded, still not quite sure what to ask of her.

Elcarim. I have never heard of this place, Finn added, his eyes unceasing in the search to catch a glimpse of Verity.

The old gods intended this place to be hidden. You never would have found it without the unicorns’ assistance. The old gods did not bother to hide this place from them since they were never meant to leave Calderon, she told him now.

Finn was not content with the explanation. Are you saying that Viper isn’t human? Finn asked quickly.

The Mother shook her head slowly, the branches from her head rustling its leaves lightly.

He may be more machine than human, but he also finds ways to defy magic. It is his arrogance that makes him move you and your friends as pawns to his cause, but he could easily wake the old gods on his own if you did not play into his game, the Mother admitted sadly.

This shocked Finn. Would the world end no matter what they did? Did anything they fight for matter?

So no matter what we do, the old gods will wake soon? Finn asked, trying not to despair. He couldn’t internalize the thought and it came out as purely as it had crossed his mind.

I’m afraid so, but every moment you keep him thinking you will play the game is a chance for hope that the world will not end. It is a small chance, but still it exists. As long as he does not tire of you, he will stall to keep the game going, the Mother told him plainly.

I need to find Verity, Finn admitted in an inelegant rush. If the world was doomed, he could not bear wasting moments without her by his side.

The Mother nodded her understanding.

Grip one of your arrows tightly and it will become a staff. It will glow when you are facing in the right direction to find her. She is a part of me so it will only work to find her, not your friends, I’m sorry to say. She is far from here but she is looking for you too…

Before Yggdrassl could finish, Finn was already following her instructions and made to start off, but the Mother caught his wrist and made him listen.

Do not be hasty now, my child. This place may be sleeping but it is not free of dangers still. It may deceive you with illusions and maybe even illusions that you have found her. Do not believe in anything you see until you touch it with the staff or this place may be your final resting place. Do not forget.

This did not comfort Finn in the least.

Please go to Verity and let her know, Mother, Finn begged.

Before he had even finished, the dryad she had turned into was rapidly becoming the tree it was before and he hoped that meant she was doing what he asked. He let himself think that as he found that it glowed as he pointed the staff southward and ran off to find her.

Dinsch had unhappily been deposited on his ass but Rienna had taken the warning to heart and summoned her bubble of protection just before the unicorn had disappeared and floated lightly to her feet. Dinsch stood and rubbed at his sore ass, shaking his little rabbit tail out as well. The cloth covering his eye fell away and he didn’t bother to catch it as it fell. Rienna gasped at the wound and hurried over to him, pulling him into a sitting position so she wouldn’t have to tiptoe and crane her neck to get a better look.

The wound was nasty but it didn’t mar his handsome face. The skin around the wicked cut was starting to shrivel and would leave a horrid scar if untreated, but Rienna intended to fix that as best as she could. He had been right that the cut had not gotten his eye, but his eye was still hard to see amongst the swelling and pus of the wound. She smiled at Dinsch and touched the wounded cheek gingerly, bending closer to place a chaste kiss on his lips. The unwounded eye shot open with surprise as her lips parted and her healing magic glowed around them.

The pus-encrusted wound began to flake away and the skin knitted slowly. The swelling began to subside and the bruising faded from a nasty purple to blue to green to yellow then the healthy tan of his normal tone. He began to test the healing wound, opening and shutting the eye, and once he realized he could see properly again, his excitement made him grab her about the waist and pull her closer and he thoughtlessly deepened the kiss to something far from chaste.

This time, Rienna’s eyes shot open and the magic faded as she pushed at Dinsch’s shoulders. It took a few hard shoves for him to get the hint and he broke off the kiss, looking both stunned and apologetic.

Sorry, Rienna, I got carried away. Something in that magic made me really… carefree, Dinsch admitted shyly, toeing the ground like a kid in trouble. Rienna was not angry; something about Dinsch had instinctively told her long ago he really didn’t have ulterior motives towards her. She shook her head to brush it off and gestured for him to lean down so she could look at the wound. Once she could see that the pinkish scar was well healed and his eye was fine, she smiled proudly and began looking around, frowning as she inspected the strange beautiful place they ended up in.

We’ve been separated from the others though, Rienna unhappily noticed. Dinsch nodded, seeming to be relieved that Rienna wasn’t actually mad at him after all. He wouldn’t have pointed it out to her, but she was noticeably more like a woman since she had let men get under her skin, to put it nicely. It wasn’t unheard of for women to say a thing and mean another, not intentionally but to avoid talking about things that bugged them before they were ready, if at all. He really didn’t have the right to call anyone out on half-truths though, considering how he glossed over the truth about Kahtya. He also didn’t let anyone know how it still hurt him that he had to kill her. He had never really had the time to confide in his best friend Krose about it either. Time was not something they ever seemed to have a lot of. Just thinking about things made him suddenly think of something else.

I guess you’re worried about Ashe, right? Dinsch blurted out.

Rienna seemed surprised that he asked and silently interpreted it to mean he felt like he had invaded her territory with that kiss. She smirked.

As if I could think of him after a kiss like that, Rienna teased, not sure why she felt the need to do so. Dinsch’s shock made her laugh and she shook her head and her mood sobered again.

I do miss him, but my unicorn friend warned me that we should be wary of this place. It looks sleepy, but the illusions here can be deadly. She told me we could dispel them by… Rienna felt a little silly saying it. By telling them they aren’t real. She shook her head. Doesn’t that sound terribly simplistic and childish to you?

Dinsch blinked intentionally a few times as he thought about it. Like telling the monsters under the bed they aren’t there, Dinsch gave as an example, slowly enough that she could hear the disbelief.

Rienna laughed but nodded.

Couldn’t have said it better myself... But please stay close to me, Dinsch; apparently, this place has some very convincing illusions.

Dinsch, like most of his animal ancestors, did not disguise his unease at that, twitching and fidgeting with visible anxiety. Illusions were powerful tools of fear and he did not take Rienna’s warning lightly.

Krose’s introduction to Elcarim had been among the more unfortunate but his head had made contact with a rock and it had been lights out. When he woke, evening was creeping in and his head was pulsing with waves of dizziness and nausea and he had weakly gained his feet, only to be rewarded with the urge to vomit into a nearby bush. He looked around unhappily and noticed he was alone in a strange place, not quite sure how he got here, wherever here was. He sat against the tree as the evening pushed closer to night and as much as he hated to admit it, it seemed that his only option was to summon Lumina, the elemental that had killed his friend to give him his magical gifts.

He had scarcely even thought of Lumina before the being appeared before him in a flash of light that brought back his nausea, which resulted in greeting the elemental with another sickening round of heaving. The bright golden woman in front of him did not look at all the same as the one he loathed in his head. He thought maybe it was two women but realized it was just his sight doubling from the onslaught of pain. This one had long wavy hair, more slight of figure and a kind face.

You don’t look like Lumina, Krose accused, his voice wavering, drunk with nausea.

But the elemental laughed sweetly, seeming to expect the accusation, tossing her wavy hair girlishly.

We told you before that the Lumina are many, Lumina scolded him lightly, even waving her finger at him. She stepped forward, placing her hand on his head and glowed brighter. Her hand seemed to draw the pain and sickness away as he gained his feet, but she started to fade.

I hate you all, he admitted unhappily, but she ignored it.

This place is illusion, Krose, and forcing me away. No time… Be careful! Lumina was trying to warn him as she faded away. So much for getting any answers and he had no idea what the hell any of that meant. He hated how damned cryptic elementals could be. He was certainly no closer to understanding anything. His head was a muddled mess and the last thing he really remembered was watching Chevalle, that cold general bitch, dying in Myceum. More correctly, having her head splattered with a bullet.

He looked around and started walking in a random direction. He debated sitting there and waiting for a while to see if his friends might find him but the place gave him the creeps. The air here was thick and he could feel the pressure, which told him wherever here was, it was obviously high altitude. The clouds above were huge and close, an odd sight to see when you are used to them being so far above. As night came, he did not see a moon at first, but when he did, it was as stunningly gigantic as the clouds. After some time, he could see a light in the trees and swore he could see people dancing there. The closer he got, the more he was sure he could see women dancing in the nude and his curiosity got the best of him and his steps quickened. When he got close enough, he was thoroughly aroused by all the beautiful raven-haired women giggling and running about a huge campfire bouncing around unabashedly. He watched their breasts bounce and their hips sway in that way only a woman could pull off. When they saw him, they did not startle but invited him to join them. He was reluctant, if only because he felt the voyeur and there was no hiding the erection he had invited with enjoying the scene.

He stood stunned as they stripped him bare (but for that stubborn ring that didn’t budge) and their hands stroked him, top to toe, hard and soft and thorough. He was drunk on ecstasy as the women rode him one after another, feeding him juicy meats and fruits while he recovered from each climax, another ready to go once his erection came back. He was sure this place was some kind of warrior’s heaven and he didn’t even notice when one of the women had bound his hands. He started to panic as he realized his feet were being bound as well and they were raising the pole he was bound to. He noticed there were two great poles on either side of the fire that looked like it could balance the pole he was on to be roasted as if on a spit. It did not take long to see that they had intended to do just that and he struggled frantically to free himself.

The women were no longer beautiful but became grotesque creatures with morbidly distended guts and covered in bubbling blisters and oozing scabs, laughing and licking their cracked lips, anticipating the taste of his cooked flesh. Their hands and feet were twisted like the claws of a great bird and their lumbering gaits were unnatural and lurching in direct contrast to the fluid sensuality from before. He looked at his own body and could feel the heat of the fire and saw the blisters forming on his body. He started to scream in terror and closed his eyes. Lumina’s words came to mind in his panic and he screamed them, wanting to figure out what she had meant.

This has to be an illusion! This can’t be real! he shouted repeatedly and he could feel himself falling off of the spit as hysteria brought him close to screaming. He could not bring himself to open his eyes and he knelt on the ground, sobbing like a scared child until he could. When he opened his eyes, there was no fire but the remains of a huge beast that had been torn into maggoty, putrid chunks laid there. More of the fetid hunks of meat adorned the stump where there had been the food the women had fed him. His stomach roiled and he made himself puke. Great gobs of rotten black meat and dying maggots came up and he sobbed with disgust, making himself puke until it was little more than clear bile that dribbled out and hung from his lip stubbornly. He tried to catch his breath as he crawled away from the morbidity here, heading towards where his armor had been discarded. He was heaving and sobbing, trembling in wretched disgust.

Krose heard a shriek and he curled into a fetal position in his terror, shrinking away from the touch of a hand in his horror, but his vision cleared as he heard Verity’s voice trying to comfort him.

No, no, you’re not really here, you’re an illusion, Krose babbled out and Verity was terrified for him, noticing his groin and mouth were smeared dark with the rancid blood of the gore all around them.

But she did not disappear and she kept trying to calm him.

No, no, sweet Krose, it’s me, Verity. I would never hurt you, please, let’s get away from this awful place and get you cleaned up, Verity said calmingly.

Verity hid the gruesome scene from Krose with Mirage and led him away from the nightmarish area, back the way she had come where there had been a still, clear, shallow pond. They had not even bothered to grab his armor; like all of their magical things, it would come back to them later anyway.

Once there, she led him into the water, her being fully clothed and gently washed the blood away until he was clean. He sat there quivering and rambling unintelligibly and she continued to stroke his head and calm him with soft platitudes. He started to tell her about it but she shushed him and told him it was over, that they would be careful from now on. From what she had seen and gathered, she already knew she needed no more details to be spooked or sympathetic to his fear. In fact, her empathy was overactive and his terror was becoming contagious.

Once he was calm and asleep under a blanket, she noticed a strange glow and saw that it was Finn carrying a white wooden staff. She had anticipated this before but finding Krose had made her forget all about the Mother telling her earlier. Her heart soared and she ran towards him. Once she caught up, she leapt into his arms and started to lay kisses all over his face in her happiness. She wept and grabbed his hand.

Finn, I found Krose and he was so scared; this place is a lot more dangerous than it looks, so we need to be careful! The Mother had told me to expect you because of the staff you carry, but she couldn’t stay long… Verity said in a rush, then gasped as his hand clamped down on her wrist so hard that she cried out in pain. When she spun about, she saw that his face was becoming grotesque and black and falling off in great chunks.

She screamed but could not break away, tugging so frantically that she seemed to be okay if it tore her arms off when one of Krose’s daggers planted itself in the thing’s chest. The dagger caused the wretched being to release her and melt into a sick black puddle as she clumsily scurried in a crab-walk to get away from it. This time, it was Krose comforting her as his dagger reappeared in its sheath and they held each other for comfort now.

I was trying to tell you, Verity, but we have to stay close now. This place is full of illusions that repel intruders and we have to be strong and careful to get through this without going mad. Lumina had been forced to leave me too soon before she could tell me, but I figured it out. Thank the gods I figured it out, Krose told her, his eyes still haunted by his own experience. Although, he berated himself for being so careless as to go along with the illusion to begin with. The sickening feeling was returning. Did that count as both necrophilia and bestiality? He really hoped not.

Does that mean we can’t sleep without fearing this place? Verity asked unhappily, and they flinched with fear at another glow appearing close by. Krose’s Lumina had reappeared, flickering like a sputtering candle, but he drew his dagger distrustfully, an involuntary whimper escaping Verity’s trembling lips.

I won’t fall for another illusion! Begone! Krose shouted, but Lumina rolled her eyes now.

Be at peace, my child, though I know it does no good to say it. The illusions might be able to chase me off, but they are not limitless and the energy it takes to frighten you means it will not be back to haunt either of you for a long while. If not for the place sleeping, you would be driven mad by the endless onslaught of illusion. You must make haste to find Viper and beat the next illusion. I will make you both rest now and I will guard you while I induce the sleep; we are not entirely cruel creatures. It does me no good to see either of you dead since this time is so crucial. You will be on your own after this and the illusions may not come back for a while but do not think this place is entirely safe still; be on your guard anyway. Your enemy has plans of his own, Lumina warned.

Verity and Krose were too wired and frightened to think of rest, but Lumina’s magic lulled them both into peaceful sleep as