Vision Voyage (The Weatherblight Saga Book 2)

by Edmund Hughes

  “Does this have to do with how much you love peeping?” asked Ari.

  He knew the question would get him into hot water, but he couldn’t resist. Kerys’ face turned a shade of red that bordered on maroon, and she punched him in the shoulder.

  “Aristial Stoneblood!” she said.

  “I’m just teasing you, Kerys,” he said, and shrugged. “It is a little weird, but I think you might be onto something. If it helps your state of mind for you to stay close to us, and if Eva’s okay with it, I don’t see a problem.”

  He felt an odd, fluttering sense of excitement spread downward through his chest, then over his crotch. Kerys, who held onto her virginity as though it were a part of her identity, watching him as he was intimate with Eva. Would she just watch? Would she touch herself? Would she eventually give in to the temptation and start touching him and Eva, too?

  Kerys cleared her throat. “We should probably head into the tent, then.”

  “Yeah,” said Ari.

  He slipped inside first, setting the greatsword down across the sleeping pad as Kerys squeezed in behind him. The sword flashed with light, and Eva appeared in its place, looking just as dazed and exhausted as she had earlier in the day. Her silver-blue hair was a mess, and Ari slid strands of it out of her face as he cupped her cheek. He tried kissing her, but she barely responded.

  “Eva,” he whispered. “Can you focus on the moment? We need to strengthen our bond so you can regain your energy.”

  She let out a small, tired moan.

  “It’s… okay,” she whispered. “Go ahead, Lord…” Her eyes flittered, and for an instant, it seemed as though she was unsure of where she was. “Lord… Stoneblood. Take me.”

  Despite how hot of a suggestion it was, the reality was less than enthralling. Eva was basically asleep. Ari started to take her top off and frowned as her smallish breasts came into view.

  She’d given her consent, and it was something she needed to regain her strength. It wasn’t about whether taking her while she was mostly unaware was morally justified. Ari suddenly found it extremely hard to maintain his arousal, and he let out a frustrated sigh as he pulled her skirt and panties loose, leaving her completely naked and still completely limp.

  “What’s wrong?” whispered Kerys.

  “I don’t know how to even start with her like this,” said Ari. “It’s always been so much more passionate. It’s never just been a physical act between us.”

  He glanced over at Kerys in the dark and only realized then the effect his words might have had on her. He’d told her something different once, but it had never really been the case. Eva had been a lover, intense and passionate, from the very beginning.

  “Here,” said Kerys. She took his tunic by the hem and pulled it off and then began undoing his belt.

  She helped Ari out of his clothes and then hugged him from behind. Ari tensed with surprise as he felt her soft hand closing over his cock.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Helping you get started,” she whispered. Her hand stroked him off with soft movements, though Ari’s eyes were still on Eva’s naked, sleeping body.

  “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” asked Ari. “You’re basically giving me a hand job to get me ready to dirty another woman.”

  “Do you…” Kerys’ voice was a hot whisper against his ear. “Do you want me to use my mouth instead, then?”

  That was all it took. The image of Kerys on her knees, blushing as she licked and sucked, brought him to full mast in record time. He turned around in her arms and gave her a deep, passionate kiss, and then lowered himself down over Eva.

  She wasn’t as aroused as he was, which should have been obvious, but still caught him a little off guard. Ari let the head of his cock slide against her soft folds, trying to find an easy way in. It reminded him of trying to return to some of the tight caves he and the other boys used to climb through as children. Lots of wriggling, angling, and slow pushing.

  Eventually, he managed to get the tip in, which left his hands free to explore Eva’s body. He leaned forward and tried kissing her again. She responded a little, and after a second kiss, her eyes opened halfway.

  “Mmm…” she moaned. “Milord. What a nice way to wake up.”

  “You still seem like you’re sleeping,” whispered Ari. “Want me to wake you up properly?”

  He felt his cock slide a little more easily within her as she started to catch up with him.

  “I want you…” whispered Eva. “I want all of you.”

  Ari kissed her deeply and pressed his cock as far as it would go. He started thrusting, still moving slowly for her sake. Something brushed against his left arm, and he remembered something that he’d almost forgotten. Kerys was still in the tent with them.

  She was naked now, too, and her hand was moving between her legs. She looked away when Ari glanced at her, though given the close proximity they were confined to, it didn’t change anything.

  Kerys Weaver, the sweetest girl in Golias Hollow and a virgin under Dormiar’s gaze. Ari thrust into Eva a little harder, feeling a flush of heat at the lewdness of the situation. He reached his hand over and grasped one of Kerys’ plump, well-formed breasts. She let out a small, half-stifled squeal, but she didn’t stop him.

  Eva didn’t seem aware of Kerys, at least not to the extent that Ari was. She took his arm by the elbow and pulled it back to her, and it wasn’t much of a sacrifice for him to give her his full attention. She wrapped her legs around him, and Ari let his pace build, thrusting into her hard enough to make a rhythm from their bodies.

  “Oh,” moaned Eva. “Oh… Aristial!”

  Her breathing grew shallow and quick. Ari could hear Kerys’ breathing too, and if anything, it was even more intense and labored than Eva’s.

  He kissed Eva’s neck and then her lips, feeling his own release building. He wanted to touch Kerys in the same way, but he knew that the point of what he was doing was centered on Eva. It was a bizarre balance of previously compartmentalized pleasure and feelings, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to close the metaphorical door that the act had opened.

  “Eva!” shouted Ari.

  He let out a groan as he pushed forward into her one last time, feeling her shudder beneath him as her orgasm arrived an instant after his. He held Eva tight against him with one arm, sneaking his free hand out to lace fingers with Kerys.

  He felt guilty for some reason, even though the experience had been wonderful. He resolved to find a way to sell both women on the idea of doing it again, once circumstances were a little less dire.

  CHAPTER 40

  The first thing Ari did the next morning was consult the Ring of Insight. Its answer to his vague question about what the party should do next was about what he’d been expecting. There was no clear way forward, but he should take a closer look around the island, especially in the area where they’d found the ancient, destroyed building.

  The previous night had rejuvenated Eva, and she’d carefully listened to Ari and Kerys reviewing what they’d found so far and the situation they were in. She’d absorbed the information with her usual stoic expression and then nodded once.

  “We have several challenges in front of us, then,” said Eva. “Conserving our food and water will likely be foremost amongst them.”

  Ari saw her looking down at the small piece of dried meat Kerys had cut each of them for breakfast and knew what she was thinking. If she stayed in her sword form, she’d be able to go for longer periods of time without having to eat. Of course, the tradeoff would be not having her around to explore and investigate the island more thoroughly.

  “We won’t have to worry about running out of supplies if we don’t plan on staying for very long,” said Ari. “Which I don’t. We’ll set off in the boat as soon as it makes sense to.”

  “To go where, though?” asked Kerys. “It’s just water as far as the eye can see in every direction.”

  “We head west,” said Ari. “
I saw one of the maps the Fairweather Fleet used while we were aboard the galleon. Cliffhaven was on the northern edge of the continent, and we’d been heading north along the eastern coast. Regardless of where we are currently, heading west should bring us to the mainland.”

  “There’s also the question of what we’ll do once we reach that point,” said Eva. “It’s not as though we’ll have an easy time traveling on foot across the distance we’ll need to cover, given the danger of storms and the Weatherblight.”

  “We’ll figure something out,” said Ari with a shrug. He wished that he had a better answer for her, but it was a part of their current situation that was simply out of their control.

  After washing down his meager breakfast with a few sips of their dwindling water reserves, Ari led Kerys and Eva back into the jungle. It wasn’t a long walk to where they’d found the clearing and the destroyed Saidican outpost the previous day. He ran his hands over the side of the collapsed foundation, carefully inspecting the surrounding area.

  “There’s nothing here,” said Kerys.

  “I feel obliged to agree,” said Eva. “Whatever may have lain within the structure has long since succumbed to the elements.”

  Ari blinked, suddenly having the realization that the Ring of Insight had been pointing him toward, earlier. He started walking around the space within the old foundation while kicking and scraping away the dirt with his shoe.

  “Here!” he said, as his foot finally came into contact with an old, rusted hatch hidden by centuries of soil buildup. He dropped down to his knees and started digging it free with his hands, Kerys and Eva joining him as they saw what he was doing.

  “Of course,” said Eva. “A building on an island like this would have benefited from having an underground extension. Storms still posed a threat, even before the Weatherblight.”

  Ari found the hatch’s handles and pulled for all he was worth. It was rusted tightly shut at the edges, and it took using Eva in sword form to slice some of the offending irritant away in order to finally get it open.

  A ladder led down into the space below. The sun had risen high enough to illuminate the small section of the chamber nearest to the hatch, but Ari still felt like he was descending into the unknown as he made his way down.

  “Be careful,” whispered Kerys.

  “It’s been centuries since this was last opened, Kerys,” said Ari. “There’s nothing to…”

  He trailed off as he reached the ladder’s last rung. The chamber was near pitch-black, but the two dark blue spheres hovering around the far corners hummed with their own inner, ambient light.

  Ari still had Azurelight across his back, and he immediately pulled the sword loose from the scabbard and did everything he could to keep his breath even. He hadn’t encountered any dangerous mesmers since the final fight with the purple mesmer in Deepwater Spire. He hadn’t expected his reaction to seeing one to be so intense.

  It was the fact that he now had a full understanding of what they could do to him. The mesmers that lurked in the dark and underground weren’t innocent, oblivious spirits like the ones on the surface. They were wraiths, as dangerous as any of the Weatherblight. Deadly to him, now that he’d already diminished his soul essence to the barest thread capable of sustaining him.

  “Lord Stoneblood?” said Eva, through the bond. “I could always fight them in your stead, in my incarnate form.”

  “No,” said Ari. “No need.”

  He brought Azurelight up into a defensive stance and approached the closest of the two, drawing near enough for it to coalesce into bodily form. The mesmer took the shape of a Saidican man in expensive clothing with no armor and an ornate longsword sheathed at his side.

  Ari rushed forward, striking before the mesmer had so much as a chance to draw its weapon. The sword cut through the ghost with neat, efficient ease, and Ari was left feeling a little ridiculous for his earlier reaction.

  He finished off the second mesmer, which also took the form of a similarly unprepared nobleman, this one with a crossbow strapped across his back. He felt the essence he’d absorbed from them both tingling through the tips of his fingers, and felt as though it was a shame that he’d have few options for what to use it on, outside of letting it refresh Eva.

  His foot bumped into something as he started back toward the ladder. Ari sheathed the greatsword, bending over to get a better look at the object in the dark. He let his fingers trace across it and then started laughing in maniacal cackles as he realized what it was.

  “Milord?” asked Eva. “Are you, er, feeling alright?”

  “Better than alright,” said Ari. “Eva, have you ever ridden a rune sled before?”

  CHAPTER 41

  Lifting the rune sled out of the underground chamber was a task that took the combined strength of all three of them, along with the better part of an hour. Ari and Eva lifted from the bottom, sliding it up against the ladder, while Kerys did her best to shift the curved front end at an angle that would allow it to pass easily through the opening.

  “Why in the world would they store it underground, given how heavy it is?” muttered Kerys.

  “I couldn’t care less,” said Ari. “I wish I could travel backwards several hundred years and buy whoever decided to leave it where we could find it a pitcher of root ale.”

  “The process of bringing it up and down vertically would have been much easier with the ward enchantments activated,” said Eva.

  She let out a small grunt as the edge of the sled almost slipped from her hands. Ari bent his knees and pushed harder, and a few minutes later, they had the sled completely through the opening.

  Ari’s excitement tapered off slightly as he got a look at the magical transportation device in the light of the sun. It had seen better days, or rather, better centuries. Though the sled was still in one solid piece, a little wider across than a normal chair and long enough to lie down on, it was heavily weathered by the sands of time. The metal was completely encrusted in rust and dirt, and he could only barely make out trace lines of the enchantment wards on its underside.

  “I’ll admit, this is an interesting find,” said Eva. “But I’m not entirely sure that it’s relevant to our current needs.”

  “It will be,” said Ari. “If I can scrape some of the rust off and refill the wards with essence, we’ll have the perfect means of transport for once we reach the mainland.”

  “Ari, look at this thing.” Kerys crossed her arms and poked the rusty rune sled with her foot. “I was hopeful too, at first, but there’s no way you’ll be able to get it working in the time we have. It’s not as though our food and water will last forever.”

  “I know that,” said Ari. “Trust me, Kerys. I can get it working. When has trusting me ever led you wrong?”

  “Is that a rhetorical question, or would you actually like me to answer it?” said Kerys.

  Ari scowled at her and started climbing down the ladder, back into the underground chamber. Eva joined him, and after she’d shifted into her sword form, he did a slow lap around the darkened space, looking for anything else of interest that he might have missed.

  Near where the rune sled had been resting, Ari found a simple bracelet of silver chain that immediately caught his attention. It was dirty but otherwise completely untarnished, which was an obvious sign of an item that still held a working enchantment.

  “I’m going to see what this thing does,” said Ari. “This might get interesting.”

  “Aristial…” said Eva in a wary voice. “Perhaps it would be wise to do this near the water, in case the enchantment has an explosive or flaming element?”

  Ari was too impatient for that, though he knew she had a point. He pushed his will out toward the enchantment and felt a strange, unexpected sensation.

  It was similar to when he used an enchanting altar to store essence, except on a much more direct scale. He could feel the essence he’d absorbed from the dark blue mesmers being pulled out of him, but as he used his will to pro
d the enchantment in the bracelet more thoroughly, he realized that the essence was still there, neatly stored within it. If he wanted to, he could pull it back out, along with the remnants of the essence that had been sitting dormant in the bracelet since it had been originally left in the chamber.

  “It’s a storage device,” he said. “An Essence Bracelet, I guess it could be called.”

  He adjusted the clasp to tighten it onto his wrist, realizing how useful such an item could be to him. He could hold regular essence within his own body if he wanted, but it tended to leak away over time, and there were limits to how much he could handle at once. That was in addition to the jittery, electrified sensation it usually left him with.

  With the Essence Bracelet, he could ensure that he always had essence on hand in case of an emergency, be it needing to activate a ward or giving Eva an extra burst of energy in times when their bond was weakened. It was, in Ari’s opinion, almost as lucky of a find as the rune sled had been.

  A flash came from the corner of the room, followed by another as both of the dark blue mesmers reformed. Ari twirled his sword, moving to finish them both off within seconds of their appearance. Each of them gave him slightly less essence this time around, which he’d expected, given the diminishing essence returns supplied by mesmers when defeated multiple times in quick succession.

  “Assuming that the wards can be sufficiently restored, how much essence will you need to activate the rune sled?” asked Eva.

  Ari shook his head and then shrugged. “I have no idea. I get the feeling I’m going to be farming these mesmers for at least the next few hours.”

  It took close to ten minutes for the mesmers to respawn and mere seconds for Ari to defeat them. The slow process of accumulating enough essence to get the rune sled working morphed into an extended training session, with Eva giving him tips on his basic sword strikes through their bond.

  He climbed up the ladder and started working on the enchantment wards after a few hours of mesmer slaying. Restoring the rune sled took more work than just priming the enchantments. Ari made a trip down to the beach to find a porous rock to use to slowly grind the rust off each of the circular wards.