by Sarah Hawke
“Definitely. Anyway, the main takeaway is that she got a lot of the people here out of tough spots. And despite all the rumors in town, I don’t see any evidence that she’s running a secret slave trade or anything like that. I wouldn’t be surprised if almost every salacious rumor we heard topside was pure bullshit.”
“Probably,” I said. “So does that mean you trust her now?”
“Of course not. I just don’t think we have any better options right now. At least we’re probably safe down here.” Valuri grunted and finished her glass. “But make no mistake: sooner or later Silhouette is going to ask us to do something for her, and I have a feeling we’re not going to like it.”
“That seems like a pretty safe bet, given the circumstances.” I sighed softly. “Well, for the moment we might as well get some sleep and relax while we can. I’m still pretty tired.”
“You can sleep all you like,” Valuri said, swinging her legs off the table. She kicked off her boots, scuttled up behind Kaseya, and gently cupped her hands over the amazon’s breasts. “Red and I still need to have some fun.”
Kaseya grinned and leaned back over her shoulder. The two women shared a long kiss, and I couldn’t resist the urge to toggle on my ring so I could feel everything. Kaseya’s lust struck me so hard I actually had to brace myself to stay upright—I knew she had come around with Valuri, but I hadn’t realized just how much…
I was rock hard long before Kaseya had stripped off Valuri’s armor and clothes, and I started actively stroking myself when they jumped back in the pool together. They kissed and ground against each other for what felt like an hour before Val suddenly sunk down to her knees and brought her lips to the amazon’s tits.
I was genuinely still tired, and my wound absolutely needed more time to heal. But I doubted there was a single man in the entire multiverse who could fall asleep with two beautiful women making love right in front of him. And if there was…well, I wanted to meet him so I could punch him in the face and ask what the fuck was wrong with him.
I closed my eyes and imagined my cock penetrating one tight, wet cunt after another. I imagined grabbing a hold of Kaseya’s red hair and relentlessly fucking her throat; I imagined sliding my cock between Valuri’s tits until I erupted all over her sweet smiling face.
But when my eyes popped back open they weren’t greeted by two beautiful, naked women kissing each other in a pool—they weren’t greeting by much of anything at all besides an impenetrable white wall of sleet.
“What the hell?”
I almost panicked when I glanced down and saw that I was apparently standing straight up inside an enormous snow drift. I jerked away, wondering if Silhouette’s dark elf servant had slipped something into the wine, before I realized the snow wasn’t actually cold. My breath caught in my throat, and my brain refused to put two and two together for at least a solid minute.
I was dreaming. Or, more specifically, I was inside an Aetheric dreamscape.
Like most sorcerers, I had unwittingly been sucked into plenty of dreamscapes as a child. The Aether would sometimes intrude upon our consciousness, often when we were sleeping but sometimes when we were wide awake. Usually there was a trigger, like physical contact with a powerful enchanted relic, but sometimes the visions just happened —and this, apparently, was one of those times.
I forced myself to swallow and relax. Priests from every religion in the world coveted these kinds of experiences as windows in the minds of their god, but every sorcerer I had ever known treated dreamscapes like a plague—they were often brief, usually nonsensical, and almost always terrifying.
But I already knew that this one would be different. When my breathing finally returned to normal, I tried to shuffle forward through the wall of sleet. Dark, humanoid shapes began to appear at the corners of my vision, and I eventually realized I was looking at the outline of two people having a conversation in front of a log cabin. One was tall, broad, and distinctly masculine; the other was almost as tall but distinctively feminine. They appeared to be speaking, but the wind in my ears drowned out all sound besides the storm.
“Hello?” I called out.
I continued forward and wiped the snow from my eyes. I still couldn’t make out many details, but I could see that the two figures were arguing about something. After another few moments the woman backhanded the man across the face. He flipped over and crumpled onto the ground before her, at which point she drew a long, slender sword from her waist.
I started jogging forward in an effort to pierce the veil, but the sleet refused to relent. I couldn’t even tell if I was making any progress; their silhouettes never seemed to get larger no matter how far I moved. The woman brought her sword to the man’s throat, but just when I thought she was going to decapitate him she kicked him onto her back instead.
It was only then, for seemingly no reason at all, that I finally emerged from within the sleet. A small village materialized around me: twenty, perhaps thirty ramshackle huts all nestled snugly around a frozen lake at the heart of a narrow valley. I didn’t recognize the location, but the blonde, statuesque female figure had become annoyingly familiar over these past few weeks.
“Ayrael.”
Her name soundlessly escaped my lips as she loomed over her victim, a sinewy old man covered in thick furs. She glared at him contemptuously for several seconds before she abruptly sheathed her sword, turned on a heel, and stormed off through the snow. The man watched her go, a thin line of blood trickling from his chin.
Time was all but impossible to discern in the dreamscape, and I had no idea whether I was witnessing the past, present, or future. All I knew for certain was that this was a hell of a lot more vivid and specific than any other vision I’d ever had. Whether that was good or bad I couldn’t say.
The sleet began to swirl around me again, and a dense fog followed it on the wind. An instant before everything vanished into a blinding white cloud, the old man turned and looked directly at me.
“The sister,” he said, his voice perfectly clear despite the storm. “You must bring her to me.”
My throat went dry. “What?”
“Bring the sister to me,” the man repeated. “Or die along with the rest of our people.”
The dreamscape shattered. I inhaled sharply, and when my eyes snapped open I realized I was back in the real world again. I was slumped on the cushion next to the pool with both girls looming over me.
“Jorem?” Kaseya asked, her face creased with concern. “Jorem, are you all right?”
“More or less,” I rasped, wincing at the sudden pounding on the back of my skull. I must have fallen over and hit my head. “What the hell happened?”
“You were standing next to the pool with your eyes closed and your cock in your hand,” Valuri said. “I had just started feasting on Red here when you collapsed.”
“When you fell over, I couldn’t sense anything from you,” Kaseya asked, her hand squeezing mine. “I thought you were dead.”
“That’s…weird,” I muttered. After what had just happened I was a bit wary about reaching out to the Aether, but the pain in my head was getting worse. I tentatively channeled a healing spell to numb the soreness.
“What happened?” Valuri asked. “Do you even know?”
“I had a vision,” I told them.
“A vision? You mean like prophecy?”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I’m still trying to figure out what it all meant.”
Kaseya touched my cheek. “When we first met, you told me you lacked the gift of foresight.”
“I do, generally speaking,” I said. “I’ve never had much success with divination magic, and I’ve definitely never been sucked into a dreamscape while standing upright before.”
“You used to have those strange hallucinations while you were sleeping,” Valuri said. “Remember that time you freaked out and accidentally swatted me in the nose?”
“I do now,” I murmured, wincing as the memory washed back over me. Maybe t
hat was why she didn’t like to cuddle anymore. “Most sorcerers have visions now and then, but they aren’t usually so…vivid.”
Valuri shrugged. “Well, what did you see?”
I swallowed heavily and took a deep breath. “I was somewhere in the mountains—don’t ask me which ones. It was cold and snowing, and there was a small fishing village on a lake inside a valley. A man and a woman were arguing, but I couldn’t make out their voices.”
“Did you recognize them?” Kaseya asked.
“Not the man,” I said. “But the woman was your sister.”
The color drained from her face. “Ayrael? You are certain?”
“She’s pretty easy to recognize at this point,” I muttered. “She beat up the old man and then stormed off. Just before the vision ended, he looked right at me and said that I need to ‘bring the sister to him,’ otherwise all our people are doomed.”
“Charming,” Valuri said. “You’re sure you don’t know him?”
“Pretty sure,” I told her. “But I get the feeling he’s the one who pulled me into the dreamscape.”
“Is that even possible?”
“I have no idea,” I admitted. “It’s possible to send message through the Aether, obviously. Maybe this was just a more aggressive version?”
Valuri frowned and leaned back on her haunches. “If that’s true, he must also be a sorcerer. That would explain why Ayrael would be attacking him, but why wouldn’t she just kill him?”
I threw up my hands. “I have no fucking clue. But he seemed to know who I was, and he was definitely asking me to bring Kaseya to him.”
“I do not understand,” the amazon whispered. “I do not know any other sorcerers on the mainland, and he was obviously not one of the moshalim .”
“Not unless there are snowy mountains on Nol Krovos,” I said. “For all I know this was a vision of the future and hasn’t actually happened yet. I don’t see how it could be the present—Ayrael was just outside Highwind yesterday, and she couldn’t have possibly made it up into the mountains already.”
A flicker of recognition crossed Kaseya’s face. “When Hestiah and I were sent to find her, we were told that she had been sighted near the Frozen Tear just north of Highwind. That would have been about two months ago.”
“So maybe this was a vision from the past,” I reasoned. “Still, the mountains in the north stretch for hundreds of miles. I have no idea where this village could be.”
“If this sorcerer was trying to communicate with you, you’d think he would leave better instructions,” Valuri grumbled. “Do you think you could reach out to him again?”
“I don’t know,” I said, sighing. “Maybe? This is way beyond anything I’ve ever attempted.”
A long silence settled over us as we tried to process what had just happened. None of us seemed to get anywhere.
“Silhouette is basically an information broker,” Valuri said after a moment. “She’s also a powerful sorceress. If anyone might know something about this, it’s her.”
“Maybe our little alliance will pay off even faster than we hoped.” I snorted softly and leaned back on the cushion. “I have to say, that was…unsettling. And not just because I cracked my skull.”
“Well, you also managed to completely kill the mood,” Valuri grumbled. “I hope you’re happy.”
I snorted. “I’m sure the two of you can find another excuse to have some fun.”
I turned to Kaseya, but her eyes were oddly distant. I couldn’t blame her. Having a vision about her sister was bad enough, but the fact the old man had very clearly wanted me to involve Kaseya somehow…well, it was all very confusing.
“All right, well, maybe we should actually get some real sleep for when Silhouette gets back,” Valuri suggested. “I’m sure the servants will have prepared a room for us. Maybe we’ll even get one of these houses to ourselves.”
“You’re probably right,” I said.
“I will get dressed and locate the dark elf handmaiden,” Kaseya said. She didn’t even wait for a reply before she scrambled over to her discarded clothes and armor. She was dressed and ready in record time.
“She seems especially shaken,” Valuri commented. “You think she knows something she’s not telling us?”
“Possibly,” I admitted.
“Can’t you use that fancy ring of yours and find out?”
“Maybe, but I’d rather not.”
Valuri grunted. “You’re no fun. She has to feel what you feel all the time, right?”
“It’s…complicated,” I managed. “She’s probably just upset about the fact her sister was involved. I would be, in her position.”
“True enough,” Valuri said, shifting her eyes towards the exit from the cubby. “Seriously though, your timing was horrendous. I was about to feed like crazy from that sweet cunt of hers.”
I sighed. “And you think I’m pathetic.”
“You’re really going to deny it?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so.” She smiled and leaned down to give me a kiss. “I am still hungry, though. It’s bad—I can already feel my arms shaking.” She glanced back over her shoulder, and her hand gently cupped my testicles. “Red will probably be gone a few minutes at least. Think you can whip me up a quick batch to tide me over before she gets back?”
I grinned. My cock stiffened at roughly the same rate my headache faded. “I’m always willing to try.”
3
Kaseya took a bit longer than we expected to fetch one of Silhouette’s servants, which gave me plenty of time to conjure up a fresh load for Valuri. She was still lying on her back in a feeding trance, thick globs of my seed dribbling from her lips and chin, when the dark elf servant entered the cubby. The woman’s silver-white eyebrows arched in surprise.
“She’ll be fine,” I said, fastening my belt. “Though maybe I should just carry her…”
I hoisted her into my arms and followed the servant up the winding staircase in the back of the chamber. Apparently Silhouette wasn’t going to bother putting us up in a house on the “streets” outside—she was just going to give us a nice room inside her personal palace.
The upper levels continued to remind me of the drow caves back home. The high ceilings, the smoothly-sculpted purple stone, the wide arches over every doorway—they were all eerily familiar. The furniture and decorations were just as exotic; the art styles on display were clearly not human, and the silk fabrics on the beds and cushions were almost certainly spun from the enormous (and terrifying) spiders native to the Underworld.
“Well, this definitely isn’t creepy at all,” Valuri muttered after I set her down. Her eyes were still glowing, and she still hadn’t bothered to wipe the globs of semen from her face. “She does realize these people enslaved her, right?”
Kaseya frowned at her. “What do you mean?”
“If you were taken captive by orcs for a few years, would you return home and redecorate your house with skulls and spikes everywhere? I’d think you would want to do everything in your power to forget the whole experience.”
“It is strange,” I admitted, running my hand along the bedsheets. They were ridiculously soft. “But we can’t really complain. A room this nice would cost a fortune topside.”
“Mm,” Valuri murmured. Feeding must have revived her suspicious streak.
“The amount of dormant magical energy in this place is astonishing,” Kaseya commented as she studied the rest of the room. “Do you think any of this was crafted by hand?”
“I doubt it,” I said, flopping down on the bed. It was every bit as comfortable as it looked. “I don’t know much about the drow, but from everything I’ve read they don’t have any of the same taboos against magic as folks on the surface. Who knows, maybe they have artificers whose sole purpose is to carve furniture all day.”
She nodded idly as she dragged her fingertips across the paintings. I could see the strain on her face, and I was tempted to ask her to describe exactly w
hat she was feeling. But she still didn’t have any interest in discussing her nascent sorcerous abilities, so I let the matter rest.
Bring the sister to me, or die along with the rest of our people.
“Well, I’m going to get some sleep,” I said as images from the dreamscape washed back over me. I’m a little drained for some reason.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Kaseya muttered. She gently scooped some of seed from Valuri’s chin into her mouth, then smiled when the Huntress began suckling at her fingers.
“You two have some fun,” I said, turning away before I became enraptured by their antics again. Maybe if I closed my eyes I could reconnect with the vision and get some more answers…
I didn’t. No matter how hard I stretched out through the Aether, the dreamscape refused to suck me back in. It was probably a blessing in some ways. I fell asleep instead, and when I awoke several hours later the wound in my side already felt much better. I treated it with another healing spell, plucked some fresh fruit from the nightstand, and passed out again not long afterwards.
The girls were awake and chatting softly when I finally got up for good, and we didn’t have to wait long before the servants brought us a full meal. A few hours later, our hostess finally returned.
“I apologize for my extended absence,” Silhouette said as she glided into our room. She was wearing a snug, floor-length silver robe that was so thin it almost looked more like a dress. “I hope my people have treated you well.”
“They’ve been very helpful,” I replied with a smile. “How are things topside?”
“About as well as can be expected. The Silver Fist is investigating the ambushed caravan, and I made sure to let the appropriate people know what really happened. I admit, I’m genuinely curious how the Council will react when they learn about a Senosi attack this close to the city.”
“What about Telanya and the Archmage?” Valuri asked. “Have they put out a bounty on us yet?”
Silhouette shook her head. “My people will ensure that they know what really happened as well. I doubt they’ll be inviting you over for dinner again, but I don’t think they’ll be overly worried about tracking you down, either. The loss of their shipment is a far bigger problem—especially if the Council learns about their secret vatari smuggling operation.”