by Atlas Kane
A few hands went up, no doubt with questions regarding some nuance or another. Cade had plenty himself, but Pablo had no patience for it. “That was rhetorical. It was my idea that the town’s government be based upon an old and, if truth be told, successful model of government in Tanrial before Vormer polluted it. We can discuss the details at length another time. We have much ground to cover first. Now, please raise your hand if you have a candidate to elect!”
Without hesitation, a dozen hands rose. Pablo called on Minda first who seemed to be wiggling the most. She stood and said in a clear voice, “I support Cade, the Chimera Lord.”
Pablo nodded, then responded louder still, “Caderick has been nominated. No further nominations are necessary. Anyone else?”
A few hands fell but one or two more were raised in their place. More names were called. Satemi and Ketzal among them as well as Minda. Others Cade hadn’t met yet, until a total of nine names were mentioned. When Pablo asked if any others should be heard, Ronden held up his hand and called out his own name with pride. The demon shook his head and reminded the huge man he had to be nominated by another.
After that, the votes came in. Only a single vote could be cast by any villager present, and though some might have considered bending that rule, Pablo made all aware his memory was “unfortunately precise.”
At the end, Cade had received a total of twelve votes. The woman below his position was called Cha. She was a variation of beastkin Cade hadn’t encountered before, her features reminiscent of a wolf. She received eight votes, and by the sour look on her face, she was disappointed. Satemi had six, Ketzal five, two men who couldn’t be any different physically—one tall and lanky, the other squat and fat—were given three votes apiece. Their names were Havasham and Mole. Mole bowed gratefully to the crowd, but Havasham looked wary, and concerningly, exchanged more than a casual glance with Cha.
“It is done!” Pablo announced, and called up the recently elected officials. “Now, according to custom, another vote will be cast in one year’s time unless the general assembly,” Pablo paused and gestured to the crowd, “all of you, demand one. Now cheer for your government and pray they rule wisely. They will need all the help they can get.”
The demon didn’t mean to come off so depressingly, but he’d had that effect. Taking a small risk to cheer up those who’d just elected him, Cade stepped forward and called in a loud voice, “With such a fine gathering of people, what can’t we face? Now, I believe Satemi has a bit of wine for everyone, and Gemma and her hunters have brought enough meat to choke even Ronden here. Let’s feast!”
Applause and laughter went round, but Cade got the impression that the pinched smile Cha gave him was anything but sincere.
The feast that followed was epic. Meat was roasted in three of the five ovens, and a primitive bread had been drummed up by a man who’d chosen the Occupation of Baker. It was sweet and fluffy, the carbtastic treat more missed than Cade had realized. “I could eat a loaf of this by myself,” he moaned to Gemma who was marveling once more at his appetite.
“I am sure you could deprive everyone with your belly, Cade. But I am pleased that you will not do such a thing.”
She smiled at him affectionately and leaned in to kiss his cheek. Minda and Satemi sat nearby, laughing at a comment only the two of them had heard. Satemi’s wine was appreciated by all, but when she heard someone in the village could brew ale, she nearly cracked the poor bastard’s spine when she hugged him.
A few of the villagers noticed Cade’s unique arrangement with four of the women present, and he was sure some didn’t care for it at all. Yet others reacted differently. A woman with vibrant blue skin that had a metallic sheen when it reflected the fire of a nearby oven caught his attention. She smiled, and quite brazenly slipped a hand under her shirt to touch the skin beneath one of her breasts. Cade nearly choked on his food and looked around as if he’d done something wrong. Ketzal saw his reaction, and winked at the girl. Then crossing to the blue-skinned temptress, whispered a little something in her ear. It caused the woman’s eyes to fall to the ground though her smile widened. She nodded then said some farewell to Ketzal.
When the demoness returned, Cade couldn’t resist. “What did you tell her?”
“I said that tonight you were completely off limits but that our little group might be… more welcoming in the future.”
Again, the woman caught Cade’s eye, and he felt his stomach flip upside down. He knew he was lucky enough as it was, and sleeping with half the town wasn’t a good way to make friends. Yet, could he help himself from wondering?
Pablo landed atop an oven, relishing in the heat it produced, then morphed into the furry toad creature once more. The music began in earnest and the villagers, though awkward at first, began to warm up to one another. Cade was certain that the wine had much to do with the cozy atmosphere and the friendly exchanges, but it didn’t seem to matter.
After being coaxed to dance for a sight longer than he wanted, the girls at last let him rest. He indulged in a few servings of fruit and another mouthful of wine. He didn’t want to drink too much though, for by the eyes Ketzal was giving him, he felt certain he would have his hands full.
Then he noticed someone else watching him. Cha’s piercing gaze made him pause, and when she continued to glower at him, he decided it was time to meet his apparent rival. Walking over to her he found an empty log beside the woman and sat down. “Congratulations on becoming one of the Council of Five. I don’t believe we’ve met.”
She looked at Cade’s outstretched hand, but chose instead to bow slightly. Perhaps it is a custom her people do not indulge in. Well, what else could go wrong?
“I should be the Archon. You seem intent on sleeping with many of the village’s women, so I doubt you’ll hold your position long.” The woman smiled at him, the gesture stiff and carved of stone. “Just try not to ruin anything before I take over. Wisdom is obviously not your favored Attribute, but perhaps it should be. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll retire for the evening.”
Cha’s challenge was so blunt and aggressive, Cade laughed despite his better judgement. His response served to unsettle the woman, however, and when she left, she at least was not so composed.
“Can’t win them all over, Cade,” Sholl said beside him. He turned and saw the lizard man smiling wryly at him.
“Certainly not on the first night at least. And how are you, Sholl? I see you’ve made a friend.”
He bobbed his head a few times, then sighed. “You were right. I think I have found more than a friend, a situation I find odd but comforting. That brings me to another point. Several of your women have spoken to me. I have been asked to perform a favor.”
“Yeah? What’s that,” Cade asked, curious to know who’d been scheming.
“I agreed to stand guard outside of your shelter. Your company is required. And, considering their absence, I believe you should say a few farewells and leave the party now.”
Glancing around, Cade couldn’t see any of the women he’d bonded with. A giddiness filled his stomach, and he stood to do as Sholl suggested. Making them wait was about as foolish a thing to do as sticking his arm in one of the town’s new stoves. “Thank you for your service, Sholl. I will see you in the morning then?”
The lizard man smiled back, and Cade made a handful of excuses and left to find his shelter.
When he entered the shelter he’d slept in so many times, he found it more appealing than ever. Furs were spread to cover the entire floor, and two lamps filled it with golden light. Most inviting were the four women lounging within, all of whom were waiting for him.
Waiting was a generous description. Minda had one of her hands already busy at work between her legs, and Ketzal had disrobed entirely.
They looked up to him, each of their faces touched with desire.
“At last, the Archon joins us,” Minda teased.
“I wouldn’t miss this for anything,” he replied, his voice catc
hing in his throat.
Standing there like a fool, Cade felt himself unable to come up with anything more profound. He didn’t have to.
Satemi and Minda stood and undressed him. They removed his armor first, setting his equipment beside their own. Then they pulled his shirt over his head, each giving him a gentle kiss after. Finally, he felt his trousers being tugged down. He stepped free of them and allowed himself to join the others amid the furs.
Each of the women kissed him, then began to kiss one another. Their mouths tasted of wine, and he saw his own burning desire returned in their gazes.
As they’d grown accustomed to doing lately, his girls touched the scarred outline of the handprint Gemma had so painfully granted him. He would have been lying had he claimed not to be irked in some ways. After all, what man wants to be branded by his woman? Yet the way their eyes lit up with arousal when they touched the symbolic scar… who knows, maybe it’s worth it after all, he thought, shrugging away the distraction and returning his attention to where it was called.
There was no halting moment where worry slowed the moment. None of them felt left out or uncomfortable. They’d fought and bled together, had freed a city and claimed a township as their own. This was just one of their rewards.
Gemma reclined, her skin rippling as the orange pattern came alive with arousal. Ketzal lay on the ground before her and supped on the woman’s offered sex. Cade was hard with unbridled passion, his own attentions moving between Minda and Satemi, the first two loves he’d experienced in Antinium. Satemi took him in her mouth even as Minda stood, presenting herself for his pleasure.
Cade kissed the soft fur around her groin, taking small bites of her mound when it excited him. Then, as she ran her fingers through his hair, he lifted one of her knees up on his shoulder, tilting her sex up toward him. He tasted her at length, letting his tongue and lips give her the pleasure she so desired.
Such an arrangement of bodies did not make for stagnation. Soon, he felt Satemi pull him free for a kiss, her mouth relishing Minda’s taste. She urged Minda to the furs where she took up where Cade had stopped. Satemi lifted her ass high, kissing Minda softly, but touching herself with a free hand, inviting him with all but words.
Moving toward the woman, Cade rubbed himself against Satemi’s excitement. She took his manhood in her hand and indulged in the length of him. Cade massaged her hips and her behind, marveling in the visual delight of Gemma’s flashing eyes.
Ketzal’s hand was busy between the tigress’ legs, and she kissed her until Gemma’s core began to tighten and contract rhythmically.
As Gemma ascended the slow and torturous delight of her first orgasm, Cade pulled back and pressed himself forward, feeling the strength of Satemi’s desire. He found a rhythm of his own, allowing himself to moan as he ground into Satemi from behind.
Minda shuddered before him, her eyes locked on his as she received pleasure from the woman he pleased.
They were a knot of sensation, and like a single entity, the lovers shifted once more, without command or suggestion. Cade lay down, his length gleaming in the candle light, and each of the women tasted him and the nectar he and Satemi produced. Then at last, Ketzal climbed above him, her full breasts hanging above him like ripened fruit. The demoness moved, and he felt her sex begin the undulation that had driven him wild before.
Cade looked to one side and saw Minda and Gemma kissing passionately, their hands frantic between each other’s legs. Satemi sat up and touched herself, watching the slow progression of Cade and Ketzal’s delight.
Then the inevitable accumulation of sensation began. Cade groaned, feeling his manhood stiffen within Ketzal’s sweet pussy. The demoness moaned above him, pulling in the life force he gave off during arousal. Cade reached out, gripping Satemi’s free hand, and Gemma’s on the other side. Staring up into Ketzal’s beautiful eyes, he gave himself to her.
Like a blasting torrent, like the waterfall still crashing above town, like a fierce wind, Cade came. He spilled out within her, his body twitching in painful ecstasy.
For a moment, the tent slowed in its quest for pleasure. Cade felt the women looking at him. Fondness and lust were in their eyes, and their love suffused him entirely.
Ketzal grinned, leaning forward and kissing him gently on the tip of his nose. Then she opened her mouth and breathed life force back into him, filling his lungs and body with strength. At once, he felt himself stiffen anew, passion rekindled entirely.
Sitting up, Cade kissed Gemma as he found a place between her legs. It is going to be a long night, he thought. And if I die in the line of duty, I know I’ll be the happiest of men.
Epilogue: From Darkest Night
A gaping chasm yawned in the middle of Tanrial. Once known by many names, the golden city, New Eden, the waypoint of Last World, the light upon the hill, Tanrial was now a heap of blasted metal. At its center, beyond the toppled towers and the cracked domes, only a sheer and mottled scar was left where once a shimmering portal stood.
The fruits in its hanging garden had been harvested and taken away by the Kotani. Those were safe now, in the hands of guardians who would not neglect a single seed. Yet the vines were shriveled, the fountains dry, the boiling baths cool and empty.
Not a soul walked the streets, and the few rodents who’d made their way in from the grassy fields, the first bold adventurers to take advantage of the fallen dome, had been changed by the warped mana. The beasts were twisted as if caught in the unhallowed throes of an ether storm. The rats and mice ransacked the remaining food stores, and now fought for dominance in a city of the dead.
The once-powerful shrine to Aten was in crumbles. His power fled from this world, and those he’d fought to overthrow now bound his eternal soul in a dimension far away from Antinium.
At the very heart of the final battle, Vormer’s gilded breastplate remained. Its metal was pocked and tarnished black. The mana crackling in the air was too potent for even Tanrial steel to survive.
The villagers of Camp Casmeer knew nothing of the once-fair city, knew only that a terrible haze hovered above. Its golden domes and towers no longer reflected the westward sun, so those who ventured far enough in the jungle to observe its tattered visage tried always to look away, to find some other more beautiful thing to see.
Weeks had passed, and new life was taking foot in the township deep in the jungle. The ancients of Antinium watched and approved of their efforts. What else could one do other than strive to live another day, each new progression adding to the last.
Yet unknown to the last line of travelers, a battle was waging atop the portal’s blasted dais. Three of the most powerful beings, the kings of the shattered city, fought for dominance.
Their minds had grown keen and twisted along with their bodies. One thought of itself as Kred, a field mouse grown to ninety pounds, its fur torn and bleeding where its still-growing musculature strove to expand. Kred faced Migna, a gray-skinned rat whose claws were so overgrown it could no longer use the nimble hands of its birth. Migna was the largest of the contenders, and had Kred pressed to the ground, its terrible claws rending the mouse down its middle.
Kred screeched in pain. What injustice? it thought. I am the prophet sent to see the coming of the dark itself. Why else was I given so many dreams if not to fulfill my destiny?
Migna relished the outpouring of mana-infused blood. It glowed with the suffusion of magic, turning the crimson of lifeblood to living purple. Yet behind the rat, silent and waiting, Lota the finch swept in, her talons slicing through Migna’s neck. The rat, too, felt cheated. I was to be the one to cleanse the last of the intruders to prepare the way for the coming darkness. It was my destiny. Why else was I given such drive, such purpose, so many foul dreams?
As Migna fell atop Kred, Lota landed beside them and plucked out the mouse’s eye. Eyes taste the best, they do. I might always have done this. I might always have set down here, my terrible wings trembling from the labor of flight, and taken the eye. Bu
t I did so because this is what I saw in my dreams.
And as the finch swallowed the eye, her mana-scarred body twitching in anticipation, a tearing began just as she’d known it would.
I am here for the moment. I am the one who was chosen for this task! she thought in ecstasy.
A rift in time and space tore through the haze of Tanrial. In the same fabric where the portal once lived, a new space was opening. A blackness darker than any nightmare, deeper than death or despair came into being. It did not belong in this place. Yet Lota’s mind flitted about like a bright star in an empty sky. I am here. I am here, and I did not forsake my duty! she thought, peering closer into the darkness.
Then in a flash, the bird was gone, snatched from where it had perched so patiently. A tentacle or a tongue, she’d thought as her body was taken from Antinium and pulled through. Her mind evaporated the instant she passed over the threshold, and Lota the finch was no more. Yet her body, the vast miracle of connections and reactions remained a tangible thing. More valuable than the precious material stolen was the trove of timeless ether, the source of power for life throughout the cosmos. The source of power, also, for things not quite living.
Those borrowed resources unraveled and reformed into something between flesh and blood and the divine itself.
Migna’s and Kred’s bodies had stilled, their hearts given up on the frenzied chore that defined them. Yet their minds still recorded the first creature who came from beyond. Though their souls were dissipating, the mana that held them there so much longer than nature had intended, filling the air with a gossamer mist, they marveled at what they saw.
A black and inky limb stepped through, tipped by seven clawed digits. What followed after proved too much for the feeble watchers to understand. They saw only the first of the darkness that was to come.
~The End~