Chapter 45
Platinum Viewing
Three weeks had passed since their return from the capital.
Carol sat in her lounging room, one hand resting on her considerably rounded belly. Six months pregnant now, and Caelan was making his presence known with frequent kicks and movements.
She'd been reviewing estate accounts earlier, but her eyes had grown tired. Numbers were still her comfort zone, but pregnancy was making her tire more easily these days.
A translucent blue screen materialized in front of her, making her jump slightly.
SUBSCRIPTION RENEWAL NOTICE
Your 7-day free trial of Watch Your Husband? has expired!
Would you like to continue your subscription?
Premium Package: $300 Gold Crowns/month
● Live feed of spouse location and activities
● Theater-sized screen (12-foot display)
● Premium 3D glasses
● Complimentary concession stand
● Comfortable viewing lounge
NEW! PLATINUM PACKAGE: $400 Gold Crowns/month
Includes all Premium features PLUS:
● MULTIPLE CHANNEL ACCESS
● Switch between different viewing feeds:
? Spouse Tracking (original feature)
? Wasteland Expedition Channel (LIVE coverage!)
? Nature Documentaries
? Food Channel
? Earth TV Dramas (shows from all 7 Earth continents!)
? Entertainment & More
SUBSCRIBE NOW?
Carol stared at the notification.
Multiple channels. She could watch the expedition. And Earth TV shows.
"An extra hundred gold per month..." Carol said slowly.
Then she grinned. "SOLD."
She selected the Platinum Package without hesitation.
SUBSCRIPTION ACTIVATED! Welcome to Platinum Viewing!
The massive 12-foot screen materialized on the wall. The concession stand appeared in the corner, fully stocked. Three pairs of 3D glasses appeared on the table beside her—one regular size, two sprite-sized.
And now, a small control panel hovered near her hand with channel options.
"Oh, this is amazing," Carol breathed.
Lumi materialized beside her in a shimmer of golden light. "What's amazing?"
"I upgraded the subscription," Carol said, gesturing to the screen. "Now I can watch multiple channels. Including the Wasteland Expedition."
Missy appeared on her other side with a flash of red-purple energy. "Wait, we can watch the main plot happening in real-time?"
"Apparently," Carol said.
"And Earth TV dramas?" Lumi asked, peering at the control panel.
"All seven continents worth," Carol confirmed.
"I want to watch the expedition," Missy said immediately. "See how the chosen ones are doing."
"That was my thought too," Carol said. She was already moving to the concession stand, gathering popcorn, nachos, and a large soda. "Let's see how the heroic quest is actually going."
Lumi and Missy collected their own snacks—popcorn and candy for both of them, plus tiny sodas.
All three settled onto the comfortable lounging furniture, 3D glasses on, snacks ready.
Carol picked up the control panel and scrolled through the channel options. There it was: Wasteland Expedition - LIVE.
She selected it.
The screen flickered to life.
The Wasteland was even more horrific than Carol had imagined.
The landscape stretched out in twisted corruption—trees bent at unnatural angles, their bark black and oozing. The ground was cracked and dry, with patches of sickly green miasma rising from fissures. The sky above was dark gray, choked with ash and corruption.
And in the middle of this nightmare landscape, the expedition forces were fighting for their lives.
The view was spectacular—clearly magical in nature, providing multiple angles like some kind of omniscient camera system. Carol could see the entire battlefield, then zoom in on specific sections.
There were hundreds of fighters. Knights in armor, adventurers with various weapons, mages casting spells from the rear lines. And at the front, leading the charge, was Percival.
He looked nothing like the pristine, golden hero from the ball.
Percival was covered in mud, blood, and sweat.
His once-shining armor was dented and stained.
His golden hair was plastered to his head.
His face was set in grim determination as he fought against a massive corrupted bear—easily fifteen feet tall, its fur matted with dark ichor, its eyes glowing with Blight-madness.
"Oh wow," Missy said, munching popcorn. "He looks terrible."
"They all look terrible," Lumi observed.
It was true. The entire expedition force looked exhausted and desperate.
Carol watched as Percival dodged the bear's massive claws, his movements slower than they should be. He was tired. They were all tired.
A group of knights to the left were fighting corrupted wolves—creatures that had once been normal animals, now twisted into something monstrous. One knight went down, screaming, and his companions had to drag him back while others filled the gap.
Mages in the rear were casting spell after spell, their faces pale with magical exhaustion. Fireballs, lightning bolts, barriers of force—all of it barely keeping the Blightspawn at bay.
And in the center of the formation, surrounded by paladins and holy knights, was Lady Rosalie Lennox.
She looked like she was about to collapse.
Rosalie's hands glowed with holy light as she cast purification spell after purification spell. Each one cleared a small area of corruption, pushing back the miasma, healing the land inch by painful inch.
But it was clearly taking everything she had.
Her face was deathly pale. Sweat poured down her temples. Her hands trembled with exhaustion. But she kept casting, kept pushing, because the entire expedition was counting on her.
"She's going to pass out," Lumi said worriedly.
"She looks half-dead already," Missy added.
Carol took a sip of her soda. "This is why I chose the Lazy Lady path."
On screen, a massive corrupted dragon—not as large as the ones Caspian had fought, but still formidable—swooped down from the ash-choked sky.
The expedition forces scattered. Mages threw up barriers. Knights braced for impact.
Percival shouted orders—his voice clear through the surround sound system—rallying the troops, and charged at the dragon with a group of elite fighters.
The battle was brutal.
The dragon's tail whipped around, sending five knights flying. Its claws raked across a barrier, shattering it and forcing the mages to stumble back. Its breath weapon—a stream of corrupted black fire—burned across the battlefield.
Percival managed to get close enough to drive his holy sword into the dragon's leg. The creature shrieked—the sound echoing through the surround system, making Carol wince—and thrashed violently.
"Ouch," Carol said, watching a knight get flung twenty feet into a twisted tree. "That's going to leave a mark."
"I think his arm is broken," Missy observed clinically.
"Definitely broken," Lumi confirmed.
Rosalie was being protected by a wall of paladins, but Carol could see her swaying on her feet. She cast another purification spell, and this time her knees buckled. Two paladins caught her before she fell.
"They need to let her rest," Lumi said.
"They can't," Carol said, gesturing to the screen with a nacho. "The miasma is too thick. If she stops purifying, it'll close in and corrupt the fighters. She has to keep going."
"That seems inefficient," Missy said.
"That's heroic quests for you," Carol replied. "Lots of suffering and dramatic struggle. Very photogenic, but not actually fun."
The dragon was finally brought down by a combined effort of holy magic and massed attacks. It crashed to the corrupted earth with a thunderous impact that Carol could almost feel through the screen.
But there were more Blightspawn coming.
Always more.
Corrupted wolves. Twisted bears. Malformed creatures that might have once been deer or boars but were now unrecognizable nightmares. Smaller corrupted dragons circling overhead.
The expedition forces rallied and fought on.
Percival was bleeding from a cut above his eye. Rosalie was being held upright by two paladins while she cast. Knights were rotating to the back lines to rest and have their wounds treated, then returning to fight.
It was organized. Professional. Effective.
And absolutely exhausting to watch.
"How long have they been fighting?" Lumi asked.
Carol checked the information panel that appeared when she focused on it. "This is day twenty-one of the expedition. They've been fighting almost nonstop."
"Twenty-one days?" Missy's eyes widened. "Of this?"
"Of this," Carol confirmed. "And according to the summary, they're only about halfway to the core of the Wasteland where the main corruption source is."
All three of them sat in silence for a moment, watching the brutal battle continue.
Then Carol took another handful of popcorn. "See, this is why I married the guy who guards the border. He fights the monsters before they can get organized into massive corrupted armies. Much more efficient."
"And you get to stay home in comfort," Missy added.
"Exactly."
They watched for another twenty minutes. The expedition forces were slowly, painfully, pushing forward. Rosalie's purification magic was working—the land behind them was visibly less corrupted, the miasma thinner.
But it was clearly taking everything they had.
"They're going to make it," Lumi said softly. "They're suffering, but they're going to succeed."
"They're the chosen ones," Carol said. "It's literally their destiny. Of course they're going to make it." She shifted on the couch, her back starting to ache from sitting. "But I'm very glad I'm not there with them."
A movement caught her eye—not on the screen, but in the room.
Carol looked over at the warming nest where Snowball's egg rested.
The egg was moving.
"Oh!" Carol set down her popcorn and carefully stood, moving to the nest.
Lumi and Missy flew over immediately.
The frost-white egg was rocking gently, small cracks appearing across its surface.
"It's hatching!" Lumi exclaimed.
Carol knelt beside the nest—awkwardly, given her pregnant belly—and watched with delight as the cracks widened.
A tiny snout pushed through. Then a small head, no bigger than Carol's palm, emerged.
The baby Frost Serpent was absolutely precious.
Snowball was tiny—maybe eight inches long at most—with scales that shimmered frost-white and ice-blue in the light. Its eyes were bright silver, and when it opened its mouth in a tiny hiss, Carol could see the smallest hint of frost magic forming.
"Hello, Snowball," Carol cooed. "Welcome to the world, little one."
The baby serpent's head turned toward her voice, its silver eyes focusing on her face.
Then it slithered out of the egg completely and immediately curled up in Carol's cupped hands, seeking warmth.
"Oh, you're so cold," Carol said, feeling the chill from its scales. "That's okay. We'll keep you warm."
She carefully carried Snowball back to the couch and settled in, the baby serpent coiled in her lap. It seemed content there, soaking up her body heat.
Shadow, who had been sleeping in the corner, lifted his massive head and padded over to investigate. The shadow wolf—now easily the size of a small pony—sniffed at the baby serpent carefully.
Snowball hissed at him—a tiny, squeaky sound.
Shadow's tail wagged.
Mochi jumped down from his perch and approached as well, his Dreamweaver whiskers twitching with curiosity. He sniffed at Snowball, then decided the baby serpent was acceptable and curled up beside Carol.
Sunny, the young griffin, hopped over from where he'd been napping and chirped excitedly at the new arrival. He was getting bigger—about the size of a large cat now—but still had much of his downy baby plumage.
"Everyone, meet Snowball," Carol announced. "Snowball, meet your family."
The baby Frost Serpent looked around at all the creatures surrounding it, then apparently decided it was safe and nuzzled closer to Carol's warmth.
On the screen, the expedition forces were still fighting.
Carol glanced at the battle, then at the tiny serpent in her lap, then at her collection of pets gathering around her.
"You know what?" she said. "I think it's nap time."
"You just watched people fighting for their lives and your response is to nap?" Missy asked.
"I'm six months pregnant and I just watched twenty-one days of brutal combat condensed into forty minutes," Carol said. "I'm tired. And napping is one of my primary skills. I need to keep it leveled up."
She picked up the control panel and switched off the screen.
The view of the Wasteland battlefield disappeared, replaced by the peaceful quiet of her lounging room.
Carol settled back into the comfortable couch, Snowball still curled in her lap. Shadow moved closer and laid his massive head near her feet. Mochi draped himself across the back of the couch. Sunny nestled against her side, his wings folded.
"Are you joining us?" Carol asked the sprites.
"Obviously," Missy said, settling onto a nearby cushion.
"Napping is important," Lumi agreed, finding her own spot.
Carol closed her eyes, one hand on her belly where Caelan was doing his usual gymnastics, the other gently petting Snowball's frost-cold scales.
Somewhere in the Wasteland, Percival and Rosalie were fighting corruption and saving the kingdom.
Here in Frostholme, Carol was napping with her pets in perfect comfort.
She knew which situation she preferred.
Within minutes, she was asleep, surrounded by her strange little family.
The room was peaceful. Quiet. Warm despite the baby Frost Serpent's chill.
Perfect.