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[Edited] Chapter 4 - A Mouthful of Ashes
🕑 Added 2023-10-27 05:21:07 +0000 UTCCheck the attachments for the original w/ editorial notes.
This one took all freaking day. Also, I used to massively overuse prepositions in my writing style. I can already see a lot of those getting calls for restructuring once the second pass rolls around.
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The battle done and the Power of the Gem exhausted, the pair of them collapsed as if marionettes with their strings cut. Concern quickly swelling in my chest, I ran forward.
“Are you alright?” I called out, coming first to Arx as she was nearest.
Now that I could see her up close, it was apparent that their private—I assumed, having seen none else around—war with the Gob-kin had raged both long and hard. Arx’s snow-white hair was caked in mud, blood, and ashes, and she was clutching at her side, head down and staring fixedly at the ground beneath her. Even so, she managed to nod weakly. “Yes… Yes, I’ll be fine, Dearest. Just… very tired, and… and hurting,” she waved her hand vaguely down the length of her body, “somewhere around here.”
I chuckled despite myself before sparing a glance for the slowly dying Gobborn. “There’s a little Life to drain there yet. If you can manage to stab it once…”
Blearily, she smiled up at me. “If you insist.”
“That great bloated wank ain’t the only one what could use a good stabbing,” Jax called out as I began helping Arx up. Crawling unsteadily to her own feet, she groaned, “Hah… Maeve’s blessed fanny, but I be starved.”
“Starved?” I repeated, incredulous, before casting my spell on Arx’s arrow. “But we… or that is… well, I fed you pretty thoroughly before we left the Dungeon. Did you burn through it all in the fight?”
She grimaced. “Must have done.”
“Is that what this is?” Arx asked from where she was leaning against me. “I feel like there’s this… crawling sensation in my gut. But it’s too low. Like… below my stomach? And I feel… I don’t know. Spikey all over? If I didn’t know better, I’d say I was hung over.”
Jax smiled at her out of the corner of her mouth. “Aye, that be the right of it. Now as the Master be here, ye’ll be wanting to draw at his emotions so bad it hurts. Course, he ain’t feeling too strong about nothing just yet. A little worry is all. For the rest, aye, ye’ll figure it out soon enough.” Then, jerking her head at the sprawled form of the Gobborn, she added, “Best cast yer arrow. That one ain’t long for it.”
Arx nodded distractedly and turned to bark out a short and crisp little tone, sending the arrow thudding into the creature’s distended belly. My spell quickly drained what little Life remained to the beast, and its final breath rattled out of its lungs, engulfing Arx in the embrace of my Renewal.
Shivering and teeth chattering from the pleasure of her many cuts and abrasions knitting together, she leaned heavily against me, her head listing back onto my shoulder. I stared down at her parted lips, tantalizingly close and glistening, but I did just manage to pull my gaze away… only to be snared by her own. There was a look in her eyes of such longing that it hit me as if from a physical blow and, almost helpless to do otherwise, I encircled her waist with my arm, pulling her to me.
Slowly, our lips drew near. I could feel her breath delightfully quivering in anticipation and, wanting to draw out the moment, I inched forward, bit by bit. Tantalizing. Never quite there, yet ever closer and closer, her hitching breath rising higher all the while. Finally, she could stand it no longer, and she surged forward, hot and ready. Her kiss seemed to almost speak to me. Of passion. Of need. Of life itself. And I was the font from which she intended to draw it from.
For a few seconds, anyway.
Abruptly, her eyes snapped open, and she pulled away in bewilderment.
“Aww, no!” Jax moaned plaintively from the side, pausing her own hand’s journey down her front. “Why’d ye stop for? Ye was just getting him going!”
“I… I don’t know,” she said softly with a shake of her head. “It’s… something’s wrong. There’s this… weird smell on him?”
Uh oh…
“What do ye mean weird?” Jax asked as she marched forward.
“Uhm…” I began uncertainly, grimacing.
I had no idea how I was going to handle this conversation. I mean, how do you even begin to tell someone that you were kind of, sort of, but probably definitely raped by a goddess and subsequently mind-wiped? And then, for some stupid-ass reason, you decided it would be a great idea to try to make Her feel better about it, leading Her to send you on a quest to better yourself so that She could do it again, but without the mind-wipe part? And also, you were kind of into it? Maybe?
Actually, I was not even sure what my feelings were on the matter. How was I supposed to feel?
But before I could really delve into it, Jax was sniffing at my face. It did not take her long to put the pieces together. Her eyes flashing dangerously, she growled, “Who was she?”
“She?” Arx repeated before taking another whiff of me.
Finally parsing out the scent, her lips peeled back over her sharp teeth, and her own growl rippled from her throat. I had seen similar behavior from Jax, so this was not entirely unexpected. However, she had always displayed such a devil-may-care free-spiritedness prior to her transformation. For her to react this way was massively out of character.
Arx staggered away as though from a blow to her gut, shaking her head as she wrestled with new instincts and conflicting impulses. However, eventually, one of them won out. And it seemed to be murder.
Eyes wild and claws splayed, she cried, “What ‘she?’ How is that possible? I’ll… I’ll… ‘Snails, I want to… Argh!”
“A fair question,” Jax murmured softly, yet no less pissed off. It was simply more controlled, a focused mental tally mark for a cold revenge in some as yet undetermined future. “How is that possible, Master? We ain’t seen naught but Gobs and Gobbies since popping from that hole. How’d some wench even find ye? Ne’er mind coaxing ye to her bed.”
“Her bed?!” Arx shouted before I could get a word in. She was practically shaking by that point and looked for all the world like she was well on her way to hyperventilating. “How can you know that?”
Jax just quirked an eyebrow at her. “Were a guess. But ye can feel the truth of it well enough, can ye nay?”
Arx took one look at my resigned face and screamed.
Once I had managed to get the two of them calmed down enough to have a reasonable conversation—relatively speaking, of course—I began by asking, “Does the name Ahnbe mean anything to either of you?”
“Ahnbe?!”Arx repeated with a look of surprise. I had needed to capture her in my arms and begin massaging her horns to get her to finally stop raving.
It really was a curious thing about lilim. They seemed to have an instinctual ‘in group’ versus ‘out group’ mentality about things. Those who were ‘in’—those bound or otherwise soon to be—were okay and had open access to me. Or at least, that was what Jax had said. I was not sure whether that would hold, long term, but since Arx’s binding, I had detected no hints of jealousy between the two. Meanwhile, those who were ‘out’ were a threat and, if they showed any interest in me whatsoever, were to be eliminated at all costs. That or permanently bound, never to escape again.
Both eventualities were to be avoided, as far as I was concerned. The last thing I needed was more lilim. I had my hands full with just the two of them. Of course, preventing jealous murder rampages went without saying.
Worse, what I had to say about the matter was of no consequence. It was just a given that I would be helplessly seduced periodically, and it was their sacred duty to come around behind me and ‘clean up the mess.’ I belonged to them, and anyone else had best watch their backs.
The fact that they were completely right, at least in this instance, was not lost on me.
“That be her name then?” Jax asked disinterestedly. She was affecting a seemingly casual lounge against the cooling corpse of the Gobborn, however from the way her claws were slowly cutting furrows into its skin, she was anything but. Shaking her head, she asked, “Nay, why? Should it?”
“I don’t see how it could be,” Arx cut in. “It isn’t widely known, but that name appears a few times on the Uncarved Carvings. The Steles and the like. No one knows for certain, as they aren’t well understood or even close to translated, so any notion as to whom or what it might be referring to is pure speculation at best. That doesn’t seem to stop anyone, though,” she added thoughtfully. Looking back up at me, she asked, “How did you hear it?”
“Oh… uh.” I hesitated, not having realized I would be contributing to academia here. “Well, I seem to have… stumbled onto that bit of information. Ahnbe happens to be the name of the Shepherdess.”
Arx furrowed her brow and lightly touched my chest. “I don’t… I mean, that’s incredible! But… what does that have to do with what we’re talking about?”
I made a face. “Well… let’s just say that She really does not like to be called that.”
They both just stared at me. Waiting. And waited longer. As the silence stretched, my eyes shifted between them expectantly, the implication, I had thought, obvious.
“And?” Jax said finally.
“And?” I repeated. Why were they not getting this? “I learned that first hand.” I raised my eyebrows significantly, again leaving the implication hanging.
Slowly, Jax’s eyes widened, and she sat up straight.
Arx, however, was still shaking her head in confusion, “I don’t see what hands have to do with anything. What are you…?”
“Master,” Jax interrupted. Shifting forward, she began crawling toward us on hands and knees. “Be ye saying what I think ye be saying?”
“I… think so.” I nodded. “Yes.”
Jax sucked in a breath, her eyes wide as saucers.
Arx looked back and forth between us, “But what are you saying? This woman who—” She paused, a bit of a snarl creeping across her features despite my continued ministrations. “Is that how she enticed you? She told you all about the Shepherdess? Why? And how would she have known? Why should—?”
“No! Would you…” I stopped, clenching my fists in frustration. “I am trying to tell you that I met the Shepherdess of the Creatures of the Dark. Her name is Ahnbe. And… we…” I bobbed my head to one side.
Arx said nothing for a moment, but her expression was telling. The pieces were there, but she could not quite bring herself to fit them together. “You what?” she whispered.
“Hochmagandy,” Jax whispered. “Master knocked boots with a flaming Goddess!”
“No!” Arx shouted, her head swiveling around to stare at me. “How? That’s impossible! She doesn’t have a following. She doesn’t speak to anyone! No one has ever seen Her! No one has ever even met Her!”
“I have,” I corrected her quietly.
“And more besides,” Jax added, starting to grin a bit. I could not be sure, but I felt like there was a speculative gleam to her eye when she said it. Which was odd. But better than the cold fury that had been there.
“But… why?” Arx persisted plaintively. “You’re not some… storied hero! Or… or… a great leader, or really anything! You’re just Donum! You’re our Donum! She has no right! She… She can’t…!” She stopped, her eyes beginning to shine with unshed tears.
“Master be Master.” Jax frowned disapprovingly. “Why be ye surprised that even such as She would want a piece?”
“Uh…” I quirked an eyebrow at her. I mean, that was flattering, but… “I think you may be over-estimating things a little.”
“Right? Right!” Arx agreed hotly. I was not sure how happy I was to hear her concede that point, though. “He may be a perfect man, but he’s only perfect to us! There’s no reason for him to be attracting that kind of attention!”
Again true. But… Damn. She didn’t have to say that out loud.
Jax tilted her head back, thinking it over briefly before glancing at me. “How did ye attract Her attention, anyway? Arx be right about one thing. I ain’t never heard of such as Her talking or otherwise to mortal folk.”
I sighed. “There I can’t help you. All She said was that I had ‘seduced’ Her somehow by making some offering. But I can’t think of when that would have been, or how I would have done it. I even said as much, but she was insistent that it was me. Said she recognized my scent or something.”
Arx frowned slightly, and taking a moment to wipe at her eyes, she sniffed me again. “Mmm… it is sort of… distinctive, I guess.” Smiling faintly, she began to gently chew at her bottom lip.
Jax rolled her eyes in amusement but refrained from comment. “So? What happened, then?”
“Well, I mean… I tried to talk Her out of it, you know?” I began, but the both of them instantly sucked in a horrified breath. I grimaced. “Yeah, that didn’t go over so well. But I tried for your sakes.”
Arx cupped her hand to her mouth, her eyes wide. “For us?!” she breathed. “You risked divine retribution for us?”
“Well… yeah?” I returned, a little confused. “Of course, I did. You’re my bound lilim. Honestly, I don’t know where the two of you get this idea that I’m some incorrigible skirt-chaser.”
The instant the words left my mouth, I realized I might have been clutching at straws… just a tad. But I quickly dismissed the thought. If anything, it was the other way around.
Jax surged forward and, taking my face in hand, she looked me over searchingly. “Be ye whole, though? She did nay bring harm to ye? No curses or the like?”
“What? No, no, I’m fine. She didn’t hurt me,” I said before amending, “Or well… Not on purpose, anyway.” Both sets of eyes went hard at that, so I hurriedly added, “Don’t worry about it. It was accidental, and She healed me as soon as She realized.”
“How do a Goddess hurt ye by accident, Master?” Jax asked, quietly seething.
A chill ran down my back at the memory. Taking a slow, shaky breath, I answered simply, “Sheer anger.”
Exchanging a worried glance with her new sister, Arx asked, “She was that mad that you tried to turn Her down?”
“What? No!” I sighed. Taking a moment to assemble my thoughts, I explained, “After She…smelled me, she got really pissed off—and I mean like… it was world-ending, apocalyptic anger—but it was because she got a whiff of you, Jax.”
“Me?” Jax squawked. “What did I ever do to the like of Her? Nothing yet, I’d wager, besides defending me own self against Her ravenous brood.”
I tilted my head to the side consideringly. “Apparently, She felt that you had transgressed her honor somehow by uh… well, in Her words, ‘becoming my concubine.’”
A self-satisfied little smile crept over her face at that. “Master… ye ain’t taking the piss, are ye? The Shepherdess were jealous of the likes of me?”
“Hey, now,” Arx cut in. “What about me? I’m your… uh hmm… I don’t know if I like ‘concubine.’ But we’re bound just the same as you two.”
I shook my head. “For some reason, she couldn’t seem to smell you. Only Jax. I don’t know why. Anyway, her being a lilim infuriated Her… at least until She forced her name out of me. That calmed Her down. Claimed I was lying. Something about being on a first name basis with the whole species.”
“But that still doesn’t make any sense,” Arx insisted. “I’m also a lilim. Why only be angry with Jax?”
My First abruptly clicked her teeth inches from Arx’s nose. “He told ye, already, if ye’d pay attention. She scented him. Any fool could tell as yer own ain’t on him.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Arx growled, bristling. “My scent should be all over him! After all we’ve done?”
That was true. And technically, Ahnbe had gotten upset even before learning of the lilim issue. So then why had She not been able to smell Arx?
Jax rolled her eyes again, this time out of mounting frustration. “Be ye lilim or nay? Use yer head! Do ye think yer scent be the same as it were?”
“That shouldn’t matter,” Arx argued doggedly. “Even after I was reborn, I touched him plenty of times. We even kissed!”
Jax sighed. “Ye ain’t hearing me, so I’ll spell it out. There be only one scent as marks him yer own.” So saying, she bit her lip and gently dragged a finger up and between her legs, presenting the glistening result before her. “And this be that.”
Arx blinked a few times at the display before curiously giving Jax’s finger a whiff. Instantly, her eyes fluttered closed, and shivering, her arms seemed to unconsciously curl up, crushing her small breasts together. And without a moment’s further hesitation, she sucked the proffered digit into her mouth, moaning as she began to clean every trace of Jax’s fluid away.
Jax stared with something approaching shock before understanding came to her, and her lips parted, her tongue lazily toying with one of her fangs. Airily, she breathed, “Aye, that’s the way. Ye taste him in me, don’t ye now?”
I cleared my throat and averted my eyes. I was already starting to feel the blood flowing downward, and if I allowed myself to get distracted by their antics, we would never get through this conversation. Fortunately, Jax was too engrossed at the moment to have noticed.
“Uhm… it’s not necessarily that, Jax,” I offered. “As my First, you’re supposed to have a skill that affects those under my influence. It should make them feel drawn to you.”
Jax nodded distractedly. “As I said, she tastes ye in me.” Then, quirking a speculative eyebrow, she murmured, “I wonder…”
Dipping her other hand downward, she drew another sample from between her legs and sucked it into her own mouth. “Oh, yes~” she moaned, staring at the appendage once she had pulled it free. “I can see the appeal.”
Hearing this, Arx finally came loose of her new snack, and grabbing Jax’s other hand, she began to vigorously clean it, as well.
“Here now, pup.” Jax smirked, chuckling throatily. “That were mine!”
So saying, she flicked her wrist back, popping it out of Arx’s mouth. The gray-skinned lilim chased after it, almost like a baby bird begging its mother for food. Jax teasingly waved the digit this way and that, toying with her until finally bringing it between her teeth. Arx went for it unthinkingly, and Jax caught her lips with her own. Latched together, they began to passionately explore one another, for all the world as if they were dying of thirst.
And then Jax’s eyes snapped to me.
What can I say? There is only so much a man can endure.
“Can ye feel it?” Jax whispered after a moment, turning her head so as to speak with their mouths pressed together, side-to-side. “Ye made yer Master swell for ye… He wants ye, me sister.”
“H-he does?” Arx whimpered back, her foggy eyes clearing just long enough to drift down to my waiting manhood, and widened. Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, she muttered, “’Snails and tits… I’m so wet, I feel like I might faint.”
“Get used to that.” Jax smiled before glancing back over at me, not at all making eye-contact. “Speaking of ‘wet things’,” she began lightly, “how were this… Ahnbe? Being as She be a Goddess proper.”
“Couldn’t say.” I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment to try and wrench my brain back to the topic. There had been a lot I still needed to tell them, but the scene had blanked my mind. “She wiped my memory of it, afterward. The whole thing… I don’t know. Something about Her attributes, she said. It broke me. I don’t even know what She looks like.”
Almost in unison, the pair of them slowly tore their eyes from the object of their desire to look up at me. Their gaze was very hard and very cold, their passions temporarily forgotten. If they had been uncertain of their feelings on this, they were not now. They would have their revenge, whether it took a hundred years or a thousand. Still, this was a Goddess we were discussing, and they knew that very clearly. Such things could not be discussed openly. Who knew when or where such a being might be paying attention.
Instead, Arx asked, “Then how can you be sure that… the deed was done?”
“Well…” I spread my hands. “Unless She lied about it…?”
Arx moistened her lips, and glancing downward again, her eyes softened. Addressed her sister, she mumbled, “Do you think… that She would leave behind the scent of Her mark? Like we do?”
“Maybe,” Jax murmured, her own murderous impulses shelved for now. “Makes ye wonder, though, don’t it? What such would smell of? Or… or taste of?” A slight tremble passed through her, her desire beginning to overwhelm her skill-granted control, and she swallowed.
“Yes.” Arx panted openly. “Especially… coating that.”
I shook my head, a helpless smile crossing my face. What was my life becoming? To be stared at by a pair of feminine creatures like this? With pure, unadulterated ardor? It was the stuff of dreams. No man could contemplate such a scenario with any level of seriousness, especially given the topic we had been discussing. They could barely even get through it without their imaginations spinning out of control.
Then again, they had not been there. They could not understand the level of terror and helplessness I had experienced. And really, I did not want to tell them. It would only serve to infuriate them again, and it was not as if they could do anything about it.
The weird part, though, was that… I did not feel particularly violated by Ahnbe’s actions. Maybe the fact that I could not remember the actual deed could account for it, but there was more to it.
Ahnbe was… old. And ridiculously powerful. And impatient. And a lot of things. She had wanted me for whatever reason, and She… I don’t know. Perhaps because of all the things She was, She simply could not… express that in any way that would be even remotely appropriate. It probably never even occurred to Her that I might be unwilling. However, once She realized She had hurt me, She was genuinely remorseful.
All in all, I had to admit that I was not nearly as upset about the situation as I probably should have been. I had gained more than I had lost, after all, and I was inclined to forgive Her, if for no other reason than that She could have turned me into a paint smear with a flick of Her finger. If anything, most of my trauma had to do with her struggles not to do precisely that just by existing in my general vicinity.
Heaving a sigh, I glanced up again. My lilim were still staring, I realized, and steadily inching toward my rod, almost drooling with anticipation. Man, they really are hungry. So, feeling a little playful and somewhat done with the conversation, I gave my member a casual flick. My lilim gasped delightedly as they watched it sway from side to side.
“Well, go on then,” I said when they made no further move. “Do you want it or not?”
A long few breaths came and went as they continued to stare fixedly. Finally, Arx bumped the red-head with her shoulder. “Go on. You’re the First. Go first!”
“Aye, but…” Jax worked her jaw, struggling to hold herself back, “this be a Goddess we be talking about here. What if Her taste breaks me mind like what it did to him?”
“I suppose I could go wash up first,” I offered. Actually, that might not be such a bad idea. We had just gone through a pretty major combat, and I was covered in soot. “If we could find a stream or something…”
The both of them instantly pointed off to my right and behind them, apparently clearly hearing something that was quite inaudible to me.
Nodding, I stood. “Right then.”
And I set off, my erection still very much present and evidently going no where. The pair followed behind, stumbling and tripping over themselves as they struggled to keep pace with the object of their fixation.
“Wait! Wait, Master!” Jax called out, slightly panicked. “I ain’t made up me mind yet!”
“Nah, I’m all dirty,” I said dismissively, continuing to walk. “You don’t want a mouthful of ashes.”
“Aye, but…” She hesitated. “Maybe just a whiff?”
I cast my eyes skyward. “Fine. Just a quick one.”
Coming to a sudden stop, I turned to her, my member trailing slightly behind my momentum. Jax’s eyes never left it for a moment, as if she were a cat watching a mouse.
Beckoning her forward impatiently, I said, “Come on then. I haven’t had anything but a water fountain to wash with in weeks.”
Nodding quickly, she rushed forward and knelt, spreading her palms over my hips to steady herself. Hesitating for another few breaths, she cautiously extended her nose forward, bringing it to my tip and gave it the faintest of little sniffs. Immediately, her mouth dropped open, and her eyes almost crossed.
“Nyaah~ Oh, Master…”
Seeing her tongue begin to extend, I pulled away, and ignoring her mournful cry, I nodded smartly. “Right. That’s enough of that. Bath first.” Turning, I promptly started walking again.
“Wait! What about me?” Arx called, almost tripping over Jax.
I stopped once again. “I suppose that would be fair, but… I think I’ve got a better idea.”
Pulling my Pouch from around my neck, I tossed it to Jax. “First off, why don’t you go around and collect up the Gems from all those green bastards you two killed? I think I got most of the ones in the woods back there, but you would know better than me. When you’re done, catch us up. In the meantime,” I paused to shift my gaze to Arx, “All this talk of marks and such has got me to thinking. It’s high time I ‘marked’ you.”
Arx’s eyes widened slightly at my pronouncement. Biting her fist, her legs began to quake, and she sank to her knees, the merest suggestion of what was to come triggering her climax.
I grinned. Fuck, that’s hot.
Flicking my gaze back over to Jax, I jerked my head over to the corpse of the Gobborn. “Chop chop. The faster you’re done, the faster you can join us.”
Eyes shining in anticipation, she nodded once. “Yes, Master!” And then she was away, literally sprinting in her haste.
Chuckling to myself, I turned once more and headed in the direction of this fabled body of water.
Oh, this is going to be good.
“Watcher’s puckered asshole, that’s cold!” I yelped, sampling one of Jax’s old standbys as I waded into the water. The river—if you could call it that—was about half a dozen paces across and only slightly above my knees in depth. However, it ran clear as crystal and was so frigid that I was half surprised blocks of ice were not floating along it.
Steeling myself, I quickly submerged, scrubbing with the haste of a man… well, there really is no adage to describe the hurried frenzy of a man trying to take an ice bath. It is sort of unique that way. Within seconds, I considered myself clean enough and like a gibbon with a tiger after it, I skipped back to shore, hooting from the cold.
“It’s not that bad,” Arx said. She was kneeling in the water close to the shore and leisurely working the mess that had entangled her hair loose, although she seemed to be having a little trouble. “Ack! Damned horns…”
“How can you possibly say that?” I replied, jumping up and down with my hands up underneath my arms. “It’s freezing!”
Standing up again and flicking her hair back, she shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s a lilim thing? I always used to be pretty sensitive to cold, but this feels fine.” So saying, she waded further into the moving water and casually sat down, unhurriedly washing the remains of the battle from her body. As she did, she kept casting furtive glances up at me, or more specifically, my now quite wilted manhood.
Cold will do that to a fellow.
“What happened to all of that bold talk a moment ago?” she teased. “Didn’t you want to add my mark to your little collection? How does that even work anyway?”
She was asking me? It was not like my nose was sensitive enough to pick out the scent of every woman I had ever slept with. I had not even been aware they had a unique scent before today. As far as I knew, it was just something Jax had made up on the spot.
“You do realize that I’m not actually trying to collect anything,” I replied defensively. “It just sort of happened, you know?” I cringed internally at that. Most women… or I suppose I should say, most human women would not at all have been satisfied with something like that.
However, Arx was simply looking at me with curiosity. “What is that? Guilt, maybe? Or is it shame?”
I sighed. “I’m… not really sure. I feel like I should be ashamed, though.”
“Why?” she asked, apparently genuinely mystified. “It’s not like you could have done anything differently, right? I still don’t understand how you could have attracted Her attention, but it’s never wise to provoke Their anger. I’m thankful you didn’t refuse Her.”
I made a face. That was true enough. Still, I knew for a fact that she was pissed as all hell about this. Just not at me. “Well… what if it had been… someone nota Goddess? What if… somehow, I got separated from you two, and I fell in with… I don’t know. Some girl. And then one thing led to another. How would you be feeling then?”
I knew what Jax would have said—the girl would be bound or left bleeding—but Arx was still quite new to this. Seeing as how we were alone with one another, I figured now would be a good time to explore her feelings.
Glancing over at her, I found that she had gone still and was staring at me contemplatively. “I suppose,” she said after a moment, “that would depend on what you are asking. If I understand you, you seem to be worried that you might have betrayed us somehow. But… I don’t think that I am capable of feeling that way anymore. No matter what you might do. It’s… like you represent some sort of… absolute to me. In my mind, you know? You are mine. And I am yours. Does that help?”
We stared at one another from across the water for a few moments, me trying to grasp what she had just said and her waiting patiently. “You trust me that much?” I asked finally. “There’s nothing I could do to shake that confidence?”
“I don’t think so,” she mused, tilting her head to the side. “Unless, you were to—” Pausing, she looked at me sharply before letting out a snort of dismissal. “But you wouldn’t do that.”
“What?” I insisted. In the face of that kind of assurance, it had to be pretty bad.
Closing her eyes, she turned away. “I don’t want to say. It makes me feel sick just thinking about it.”
“Arx, I need to know these sorts of things if—” I began, but she interrupted, speaking in a rush, as if saying it as quickly as she could might make it easier.
“I’m sorry. It’s just the idea that you might… intentionally…” she paused, beginning to look a little green, “hurt yourself. But you wouldn’t, so there’s no point in talking about it.”
I nodded, offering her a little half-smile. “Well, I suppose that, at least, is normal enough.”
There had been a time when she would not have given a rat’s fart about something like that, but she had been a very different person then. Bigger, stronger… uncaring. About pretty much everything. A drunkard through and through. That had all changed, of course. Had been changing from the moment we had been tossed into that Mouth together.
And now that she was my lilim? I did not yet know what to make of this absolute trust she seemed to be talking about. If I took her at her word, there was no deed I could contemplate which might overstep the bounds of our relationship. But whether that meant that I literally could not contemplate such a deed or that she would simply forgive any and all transgressions as naturally as breathing was anyone’s guess. Nor could I say which I preferred.
“I don’t like seeing you two getting hurt either.”
She returned my smile, magnified by my small sentiment. “What hurt is there that you cannot mend?”
“Hopefully, we’ll never find out,” I replied, half in jest.
We lapsed into silence for a while after that, lost in the various pathways of our own minds. I did not know what she was thinking about, but for myself, I was just glad to have a moment of peace. No more Dungeon to worry about. No traps to puzzle over. No huge monsters to conquer. It was just me, by a river, and my lilim. For the first time in a long while, I was just glad to be alive.
Glancing back up at Arx, I marveled once again at the sudden and drastic change binding her had wrought. She was taking it pretty well, all in all. Of course, it helped that she had undertaken it of her own accord and after only having known me for a handful of days. I had barely even had a conversation with her prior to the evening she dug me out of that grave.
Actually, that reminded me of something. “Hey, weren’t you supposed to have some kind of quest? Back when you dug me up, you said you had been offered a reward for keeping me alive, right?”
“I have already been rewarded beyond my wildest dreams…” she chuckled, “but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to check.”
I waited while she spoke to the Lady of Power, still shivering. Casting my eyes to the sky, I noted the position of the sun. We only had about an hour or two before dusk, and judging from the leaves that were falling from the trees, autumn was in full swing. Tonight was probably going to be a cold one, and here we were, the three of us without a scrap of clothing to our names. Save for a couple of miscellaneous items we had found in the Dungeon, of course.
I had my boots that dampened sound, and Jax was still wearing those mysterious leather gauntlets she had found. I did have a spell which helped get a feel for what magic items did, but the information it had provided about them was vague to say the least. So even with its help, we had yet to figure out what her gauntlets were capable of.
Regardless, we really needed to get a fire going if I expected to keep anything but my toes warm.
“Uhm… Dearest?” Arx called my attention, once more. “She says that in order to claim my reward, you need to place your hands upon the object of my greatest regret?”
I sighed. Damn it all…
“Seriously? More riddles?”
She simply spread her hands. “That’s the Lady for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay. So… what would that be, then?”
“Mmm…” She fidgeted. “She says that since I’m bound to you now, it’s technically a reward for you, as well. So, I’m not allowed to say.”
I groaned loudly. “Well… can you give me a hint? Am I allowed to guess?”
“No.” She shook her head. “And… she says that if you guess wrong, then I won’t be getting anything.”
“What!?” I shouted. “That’s… bullshit!”
She winced. “Be careful, Dearest. She is listening.”
Pursing my lips, I huffed discontentedly. True, I had never actually carried out a conversation with this particular Goddess, but if she was anything like Ahnbe…
Okay, fine… let’s think about this. Obviously, it had to be some sort of physical object, but the only things she had were her knife and arrow. For myself, I had my boots and Coin Pouch—and the few items I had stowed in it. Of those, the arrow was the only thing that even approached having been something of a sore spot, but she was getting used to it. Honestly, the thing was pretty useful, so it hardly qualified for her ‘greatest regret.’
All that was left were the two of us. And from our talk earlier, I rather doubted it would be anything about me.
Something about herself then?
Well… she had mentioned one thing. But I really did not want to consider it. It just seemed so… shallow? And she was markedly different than she had been at the time, so I did not know if that would still apply.
Ugh… nothing ventured, I guess.
Pulling a face and cheeks burning, I murmured, “Um… Arx, come here for a second, would you?”
However, she shook her head, struggling not to smile. “No. You come here.”
“Arx,” I grumbled, “I am just starting to warm up over here.”
“So?” she replied coyly. “Not willing to go through a little discomfort to claim your… Or I mean… my prize?”
Uh huh… I’m on the right track, alright. Honestly, I half suspected that most of this was just Arx messing with me… which I was oddly okay with. It meant there was a little glimmer of her old self still floating around in there.
So, thrusting my chest out cartoonishly, I marched back into the shockingly cold water.
Giggling at my antics, she stood, water dripping from her every curve, and placed her hands on her hips without a shred of modesty. “Okay then. Here I am. What exactly would you like to do to me, my Dearest?”
Harrumphing in a display of mock annoyance, I announced, “I just want to say before I do this, that this is your regret. Not mine.”
“Mmm…” She smirked. “Well, then? I’m waiting.”
Shifting my shoulders slightly, nervous for what I was about to do, I raised my hands, pausing for a moment to crack my knuckles. Please, don’t be wrong about this. I would never live this down, otherwise.
“Okay then…” I breathed, “here goes.”
And I gently cupped her breasts.
For all that I had tried to steel myself, I was not prepared for the result. Arx gasped at my touch, and then quivering slightly, she moaned. Deep and long.
I felt it then. A sensation that I would never forget. Ever so slowly, her breasts began to swell in my hands.
I could hardly believe it. To be sure, I had wielded small magicks of my own on many occasions, but this? This was a miracle. To a guy anyway. Never mind just touching boob-flesh, having that bit of softness push and spread my fingers apart was a thing of such ridiculous joy that I was almost embarrassed at my own reaction to it.
Sadly, they stopped before too long, leaving her at… perhaps a single cup-size larger than she had been, if I were to guess. Still, it was quite noticeable.
With a sigh of relief, Arx finally looked down at herself and smiled contentedly. Then she clapped her hands over mine, capturing them where they were and, with a fearsome yet playful growl, she proclaimed, “You fucking liar.”
She was on me then, and as I struggled not to go under the rushing water, I had to admit, she was right. I may not have liked it, but however hard I tried to deny my own feelings, I really had regretted that slight deficiency in her genetics.
Thank the Lady for magic!
