Out of This World

by Maggie Morton

  Now it was Iris’s turn to take a step back in shock. This was far too much of a coincidence. This man had known her grandmother? “Selehn? Do you mean Sallie? My grandma?”

  But the innkeeper, who was still a little dazed from his fainting spell, continued without answering Iris’s question. “And her daughter, Ria, had fallen in love with my son, Harthane, a while before they moved here. They had a daughter, Iris, and then…then everything went wrong when Tressa hunted Selehn down, after she’d lost the war and been sent into hiding. Brenne and Selehn and even Ria did most of the planning for winning the war, but I was able to contribute my own magical skills. I’d always had a pretty good hand when it came to magic, and I taught Selehn everything I knew. And then some! Boy, was she a quick learner. Surpassed me in under half a sun-cycle, I should say. If only…if only I hadn’t…well, ladies, how about I feed you two a meal and tell you the whole tale?”

  “You still didn’t answer my question, and I’d really like to know if we’re talking about the same person.” Iris was never this rude, but she felt if any situation allowed for rudeness, this one truly did. After all, this man might be her grandfather! “By the way,” she said, bending down and extending her hand, “my name’s Iris. Nice to meet you.”

  “Oh, dear, Iris! It couldn’t be! But you do look more than a little like her, like Ria. The eyes, and the nose, yes, and the hair a fair bit, too. Well, I will bring out my best alcohol, in that case. And may I…I mean, if you are her…may I be allowed to hug my granddaughter?”

  “Yes,” Iris said, feeling all choked up. “Yes, you definitely may.”

  “Wonderful, my dear. Oh, this is wonderful.” The elderly man slowly rose from his chair, reached out his arms, and enveloped Iris in a gentle hug. He held her for a long time, but Iris didn’t care. She certainly wouldn’t complain about meeting her paternal grandfather for the first time, nor would she complain about him hugging her.

  “Now then, what do you ladies like to eat? And where did you wind up, when I screwed up so horribly and sent you away from this land?”

  “You sent me away? Is that how I left this land and wound up on Earth?”

  “Earth, ah, so that’s where you landed. Is it different from here? Is the magic as strong there?” He gestured toward a door to the left of the fireplace. “Kitchen’s this way. I always prefer to eat in there with my close friends when they visit. I could make my secret stew, if you’d like. Or roast scuene. I have a good one hanging in my larder. Could use some herbs and the last touch of my magic meat sauce I have left. Yes, I think this occasion calls for it. By the way, my name’s Kahar. I was named after my father’s father.”

  He went through the door he’d gestured toward, and they followed him through it. Iris was still trying to wrap her head around things. She’d just met her grandfather for the first time. And he’d known her grandmother, Sallie, and her partner, Brenne. And his son was her father, whom, just like her mother, she’d barely met in her childhood. Did he possibly have photos of them? Wait, did photos even exist in this world?

  She was far too full of questions, but she decided she’d hold them back while her grandfather cooked dinner and told them the rest of whatever story he wanted to tell them.

  In the kitchen, he pushed through two waist-height swinging doors on the far wall and came out carrying a small pig-like creature, which apparently had been skinned, and a bowl with some fresh green leaves in a bundle, along with something that looked like an orange, and a small blue bottle with a cork in it. He placed the bowl on a marble-topped island and then plopped the pig creature onto a block of wood. Then he pointed to some stools on the far side of the island.

  “Go ahead and sit down. The scuene will take at least ten minutes for the magic sauce to kick in, and I’ll still have to rub it with the herbs and maconifruit. Besides, I want to explain what you must be wondering about—how you ended up separated from your mother and father, sent from this world and into a completely different realm. I hate to have to tell you this, but it was all my fault, all just a slight slip of my tongue and the magic then went completely wrong.”

  “I’m sure it was an accident,” Iris said, smiling at him as gently and kindly as she could. Poor guy, still feeling guilty about a mistake he’d made her entire lifetime ago. Still, if she had done something like that, even if twenty years of her adult life had passed since her mistake, she’d probably still be beating herself up as well. Especially if it had to do with family.

  “Whether it was an accident or not—which it was, of course—it still keeps me up nights. I haven’t slept well since I sent my entire remaining family away. And all just to get rid of Tressa. Here, I’ll get started preparing the meal and tell you while I cook. I promise you, I know my way around meat. You won’t be disappointed.”

  As he prepared the scuene and began to cook some root vegetables in a large skillet, he turned back to them from time to time, and the whole time he was cooking, he explained what had happened that caused Iris, her parents, her grandmother, and Brenne to be sent from Oria.

  Apparently, her grandmother had plotted out most of her moves from this very inn during the war, using Kahar’s teachings to travel via portal to wherever her powers were needed most. The people and creatures of the land had stood by her with immense loyalty, many of them dying in order for the war to be won, and those who died were always proud to give their lives to the cause, to protect their families and friends back at home.

  But then things had taken a turn for the worse: word came that Queen Tressa had discovered where Selehn and her family were hiding out, and so Brenne, Selehn, and Kahar had hatched a quick and desperate plan. They hadn’t told anyone else because the magic they planned to use to attempt to stop Tressa was closer to the dark side of things and would take great power to use, so much that the person using this particular spell ran the risk of not surviving the casting of it.

  Because of the inherent risk in using this spell, Kahar had hatched his own plan. When Tressa had appeared outside the inn, and when she’d broken through its protective magics, Kahar had cast the spell himself, before Selehn had the chance to. But instead of sending only Tressa to another world, Kahar’s family was split up and magicked away as well. Iris had been in Brenne’s arms, and so she was sent to Earth with Brenne and Selehn, who had been touching her partner. Kahar had no idea where Iris’s parents had gone. Nor did he know where Tressa had ended up, although he knew enough to realize that she’d at least gone to a different place than his and Iris’s family.

  “But oh! To have been separated from my son, my daughter-in-law, my grandchild. And Brenne, and Selehn, whom I had grown so close to as well. And for you to be separated from your parents. I just can’t forgive myself, I just can’t.”

  “You must, Kahar—I want you to!” Iris got up from her stool and went over to Kahar, placing her hands on his upper arms. She squeezed them, looking up into his teary eyes as she said, “I forgive you, if that helps.”

  “It does, Granddaughter, it really does. How is Selehn, though? And Brenne? And how the heck did you wind up back here?”

  “I think something drew me back here, something important, but I haven’t yet discovered what it was. And Selehn, Sallie, she’s here, too. Brenne died when I was still very young, and Sallie disappeared when I was young, too. I think that somehow she got magically pulled back into this world, although I still don’t know why, or how. It turned out that Brenne couldn’t survive in a world without magic, though, and maybe that was what brought Sallie back here, too. It seems the people from here need magic to live.”

  Iris leaned up against the counter next to the stove as Kahar stirred the vegetables in the pan. They were browning nicely, and she could smell the herbed, citrusy scent of the scuene’s dressing, as well as the richness of its meat. She had no doubt that dinner would be as delicious as Kahar had promised. But she still had questions before she could let herself eat, including one especially important one. So she took in a breath.
“I have to know something.”

  “Of course, dear, of course. Ask me anything.”

  “Do you know what Tressa is planning? Why she’s back? And do you think that I’m right in guessing that it involves me somehow?”

  “I couldn’t say what she’s planning, not at all, but I wish I could tell you you’re wrong, say that it won’t require you in some way or another. My advice to you is…well, to be honest, I don’t know how it could be possible, but Anandra must know better than me. Because I was pretty sure I had the last of the power required to send people from this world to other ones. Are you positive this will be possible, young lady?”

  “Uh, not entirely positive, but it’s her best bet.” Now that was new! Iris had thought up until those words that Anandra could get her home, without a doubt.

  “My best bet?” She turned to Anandra, feeling slightly wary of her for the first time in a while.

  “I’m almost positive my tutor can help you. He’s done it before. He told me when I was his student. Yes, he’s done it, at the very least once.” Anandra took a swallow of her drink and smiled at Iris, who couldn’t help but smile back. No way Anandra was misleading her. No way.

  “And I promise we’ll find another path if he can’t do it. You have my word.”

  And you have my heart. The thought came out of nowhere. Iris looked at Anandra then, to try to see what her face was saying right then, but she was gazing out the kitchen’s window now, and Iris couldn’t see her face at all.

  “I’m hoping he can do it, then.” Kahar nodded twice at Iris, bringing her attention back to him and away from whatever her crazy little heart might be thinking. “I hope so. Because your world is where you’ll be safe, and you should just let us magic folk take care of ourselves. I want you away from Tressa’s grasp, far away from it, because it seems that whatever she has planned, it involves you in some way.”

  “Maybe.” Iris went back over to where Anandra sat.

  Iris glanced at her, and she now had a noticeable stiffness to her body and face, a stiffness that also was in her voice when she said, “I agree with Kahar. You need to be kept safe. I insist upon it.” She turned to Iris and cupped her cheek. “We just can’t have anything bad happen to you. I will make it my duty to keep you safe from here on out. It’s a shame that the only way to get you home lies at the castle. I wish I knew what might await us there, but there’s only one way to find out.”

  “Yeah, only one way.” Iris wasn’t really listening to Anandra’s words right then, though; she was listening to her feelings instead, feelings that were pulling her between the thought of staying with Anandra forever and her interest in self-preservation. She knew she belonged on Earth, or at least she thought she knew. Maybe she’d have a better idea about all this in the morning, after a good night’s sleep and, first, a good meal (and hopefully some better-than-good sex afterward).

  Iris had been right: the meal was delicious, and her grandfather’s finest alcohol, which was very similar to an excellent merlot, was more than deserving of being called his finest. Her grandfather told her all about her parents as they ate, and she barely noticed how quiet Anandra was throughout the meal, her attention completely on Kahar as she heard about the parents she couldn’t remember.

  “It is so wonderful that you are able to speak to Selehn, to Sallie, as you call her, once more. I hope you will have a chance for a reunion, but in case you have a reunion with another, much less likeable member of our world, let me give you something to help you.” Kahar left the kitchen and came back holding a small, squat white object that turned out to be a thick candle. “I don’t know what it will do, believe it or not, just that it was my grandfather’s prized magical possession, and it is supposed to stop evil in its very tracks—and then some. But the problem is that its other necessary part, its magical lighting match, was lost many sun-cycles ago, so I don’t know how much use the candle will be without it.”

  Kahar glanced around the room as if looking for something, and then his eyes settled on a spot near the stove. “Here, perhaps these will do the trick.” He picked up a small box of matches from the counter next to the stove and handed them to Iris.

  “Thank you, Kahar. Thank you very much.”

  “Yes, Kahar, many thanks.” Anandra inclined her head to him in a slight bow, and he bowed back at her. “But now we must turn in for the night, because we still have some traveling left tomorrow, and based on the monsters’ and Tressa’s return, I want to have as much energy as possible come morning for whatever may come to pass.”

  “That sounds very smart, Anandra. Let me lead you to your quarters, then. I will of course be giving you my finest room, and I hope it’s obvious that you will not be charged.” His cheeks dimpled up as he grinned.

  Kahar led them up some stairs to the left of the main room’s fireplace, through a wooden door and into a large flowery bedroom. A king-sized bed sat in its middle, with a love seat, a round blue coffee table, and two chairs to the bed’s left. Upon looking up, Iris was impressed to see a candle-filled chandelier, which filled the room with a soft golden glow. “Sleep well, you two, and don’t hesitate to wake me if you need anything. You are family, after all. Oh, and Iris?”

  “Yes, Kahar?”

  “Was I correct in assuming you wouldn’t need separate rooms?”

  Iris’s face grew hot, and she averted his eyes. “Um, yeah.”

  “You’ll hear no judgments from me, not a single one. I’m just glad you’ve found someone.”

  Me, too, Iris thought as Kahar left. But she’d found someone who, sadly, would not be in her life for much longer. Iris decided to make the best of her last night with Anandra, a night that seemed like it might have come too soon. Hopefully, the candles wouldn’t be the only thing lighting up the room tonight. Hopefully, some sun-bright fireworks would explode when she and Anandra began kissing.

  Which was now the case, only moments after they’d been left alone, Anandra’s lips soft on hers. Her tongue felt even softer as it licked at Iris’s bottom lip and then slid into her mouth. It was more than welcome to do so, and Anandra’s hands were welcome wherever they wished to roam, too. Iris wanted Anandra to do what she did best: she wanted her to take control of her body, of her mouth, her cunt, her breasts…and her mind.

  “Undress for me. I want to watch you reveal your skin to my eyes. And do it slowly.” Anandra walked over to the large, comforter-covered bed, never taking her eyes off her as Iris began to strip off her clothes as ordered, as slowly and sensually as she could manage. Iris had grown far more secure in her ability to arouse while she’d been in this world, and so Anandra’s lascivious smirk didn’t surprise her as it once would have. She loved that Anandra was playful when it came to sex, she loved the way she gazed at her as she undressed, like she was the most delicious, delightful thing Anandra had ever seen, and she loved the way Anandra threw her onto the bed, now, roughly, like she owned her, like she wanted her more than words could say.

  Iris knew by now that words weren’t necessary, anyway. She could make it clear to Anandra that she wanted her, too, and would let her own her, if only for this night. She was proud of herself for keeping quiet when Anandra sank her teeth into her upper chest, but she was unable to keep still. She was even less able to do so as Anandra’s fingers found her clit, hard and ready to give her an orgasm at a moment’s notice, after some pressure and, it seemed, some pain.

  “Don’t come yet,” Anandra growled as she stopped biting Iris, because apparently she could tell how easy it would be now, after all these times together, to push her into a full, powerful climax.

  Easy indeed, because Iris almost came from the pressure as Anandra dragged her finger across her clit’s surface one last time. It would have taken only a little bit more of her touch, only seconds more, and then Iris could have come.

  But apparently they were sticking to the usual rule, the one where Anandra got to come first. Now it was Iris’s turn to watch her strip out of her clothes, eac
h piece falling to the dark wooden floor as Anandra put on a show for her, her movements rough where Iris’s had been gentle, and powerful where Iris’s had been submissive.

  “Flip over,” Anandra said, once she was completely nude. “Lie on your stomach.”

  “Of course, yes.” Iris rolled over, uncertain as to what would happen next.

  “And now I want you to see if you can bring a strap-on into the room again, straight onto my body. One with a nice big…dildo, was it? And if it could in some way pleasure me while I thrust it into you, that would be most appreciated.”

  Iris shut her eyes. She remembered a type of dildo she’d seen online once. It was held inside the person who was doing the fucking by their cunt’s strength, a large bulb held tight by their aroused, clenching pussy, and she also remembered that it had a built-in vibrator. Maybe she could bring that one into this—

  She heard a loud, sudden gasp behind her and what sounded like some quiet but aroused cursing. “This will do nicely,” Anandra said. Her voice was full of satisfaction, as apparently she was pleased with what Iris had come up with.

  Very pleased, because with a small growl of joy, Anandra leapt onto the bed at Iris’s left side, making the bed shake a bit. Then she caused Iris to get much wetter, much more aroused, as she slowly raked her nails across Iris’s ass. She shivered at the pain from Anandra’s fingernails and shivered once again as Anandra lay on top of her, kissing her back as she squeezed her sides in tight, grasping pulses. “I hope you’re ready, I hope you’re nice and fucking wet. Are you, Iris?”

  “Yes, yes, I am. Please, go ahead.”

  “I will, I will. Patience, my dear.” Anandra moved her body slightly, and then Iris felt the pressure of the rigid, thick dildo begin to slide inside her, felt herself tighten around it, and then felt Anandra drive its length home. All the way in, so fast, so deep, and it felt far, far better than Iris could have predicted. Those beginning sensations of pleasure almost doubled in size when the dildo began to vibrate, causing both of them to gasp and then moan, Anandra’s sound longer and louder than Iris’s, since her clit was clearly experiencing the vibration, and Iris’s wasn’t.