“That would be cool.” Fei grinned.
“Terrifying, actually,” Seraph said, shuddering. “Sorcerers can do that. Narime said that we resist magic, not that we’re immune. A sorcerer with a large enough cairn or a binding stone to empower his spells can punch through our natural resistances and turn you inside out. I’ve seen it.”
Fei’s grin dropped. “Less cool.”
“Or ascended magic,” Narime said. “As I witnessed, what I can do is only the tip of the iceberg.”
The three of them turned to stare at Nathan, who ran his fingers over the binding stone. He paused and looked back at them.
“What?” he asked.
“If I hadn’t given up, what would you have done next?” Narime asked.
“Do you want to know?” Nathan asked.
“You cast one ascended spell. I want to see more.”
“I doubt you wanted to see the one I had planned,” he muttered. He said aloud, “I wasn’t sure how you were countering spells, and ascended magic is expensive. I planned to end things with my next spell.”
“Stop teasing. Out with it,” Narime urged. The tips of her tails jiggled in the air excitedly.
“A mental attack,” Nathan admitted. “It would punch through your barrier and I was certain that you couldn’t counter it. At the same time, it wouldn’t permanently harm you.”
No response. He grimaced and looked at the three women in front of him.
Fei looked confused. No surprises there.
But both Seraph and Narime stared at him, eyes wide. They glanced at each other, before looking down.
“Wouldn’t that be a bit much?” Seraph asked.
“I took a few while fighting the Messenger and came out fine,” Nathan said.
Seraph raised an eyebrow. Then she nodded. “Right. That sort of mental attack. My apologies. I thought you meant something more… debilitating.”
“It was pretty debilitating. I nearly jumped off a wall,” Nathan said.
“I’m pretty sure I could throw you off a wall and you’d shake it off like a bad cold,” Seraph said.
“You fought a Messenger who used mental attacks? Isn’t that what you planned for?” Narime asked.
“Pretty much,” Seraph said. She placed her hands on her hips and gave Nathan a sidelong look. “Although she never got close to the fortress. Turned me into five people for a moment and fused Leopold with his breastplate, but otherwise went down easily. One half got filled with holes by Nurevia’s crossbow, the other got cut in half.”
“A well-planned defense then,” Narime said.
Seraph stared at Nathan. Her looks were becoming unsettling now. Especially because she hadn’t approached him or said anything.
“Question,” Nathan said. “Do you know why Theus doesn’t care about this binding stone?”
“Torneus gave him a new one,” Narime said. “And I doubt he’s been trained to work with binding stones other than the one he’s in front of.”
“Why give him more than one, then?” Nathan muttered. He shook his head. “Did Torneus run out of options?”
“He had options, but would he trust them? Raising a new Bastion means new Champions, and he can’t trust the beastkin right now,” Narime explained. “Terrius explained it to me earlier. The regents initially planned to use the beastkin as a defense force if the Federation attacked. But you’ve sabotaged that attempt.”
“Good,” Nathan said. “That saves a lot of beastkin from a miserable fate.”
“They could have been effective Champions,” Narime said. “The regents don’t trust them at all.”
“For now, sure. But planning for Bastions and Champions takes place over years and even decades.” Nathan looked at her. “You’ve been a Champion for centuries. Didn’t anything about that plan bother you?”
Narime blinked. Her tails curled around her body as she held a hand to her chin. Within a few moments, she shrugged.
“The beastkin would be fodder, but is that any different to normal? It’s not like the Federation cared,” Narime said.
“I’m talking about Champions.” He sighed and leaned against the binding stone. “It takes months to acclimate a Champion to enhancements. Lots of little steps to ensure that their minds don’t resist a Champion. It’s not as dangerous as a gemming ceremony, but things go wrong. And, of course, would the Federation really send out Champions without gems?”
Nathan sneered, and continued, “The Federation’s plan wasn’t to pick up a bunch of beastkin they had tucked away for an emergency. They would grab fit beastkin from manors and villages, ram gems into them. Who knows how many would die as a result? Most that survived would become braindead puppets. Slaves to their Bastions.”
“That’s illegal,” Narime said. “It’s heresy.”
“It’s not, actually,” Nathan said. “The Empire, Falmir, and Trafaumh have laws against it because the Empire does, but those aren’t connected to the goddess. Not directly. Arcadia has them, but they only apply to elven and fae Champions. The Spires apply them to everybody and have made their displeasure known when Bastions have escaped consequences for destroying the minds of Champions.”
“They have?” Seraph asked.
“Why do you think somebody like Nurevia would be wandering around the Empire, ripe to be captured by somebody like my father?” Nathan said. “She’s an assassin, like Sunstorm. The difference is that she does so openly, so that other nations don’t ignore the Spires.”
Nathan’s grim view of the Federation didn’t come from a bitter view of Torneus, for once. It came from the knowledge of how his timeline turned out.
Almost every nation suspended the laws that prevented Bastions from enhancing or gemming untrained Champions. That resulted in a lot of awful behavior by awful Bastions who never went within a thousand miles of the front line. To some extent, it was necessary to ensure there were enough Champions and Bastions to fight the demons. But it destroyed the minds and futures of many people.
The Spires had fought bitterly against these changes. They despised the idea of Bastions controlling Champions to such a degree. The dark elves had gained their freedom through rebellion, but a Champion whose mind had been destroyed through a gemming ceremony could do no such thing.
Even after the Spires were overrun by demons, the dark elves continued to fight back. Nathan had often found himself on both sides. His hands were slick with the blood of criminal Bastions and mindless Champions, but also with the blood of assassins trying to kill Bastions necessary to defend cities.
That was a future Nathan wanted to avoid at all costs. The news that the Federation’s plan to employ such a strategy had failed was music to his ears.
The conversation moved on to more pleasant topics. Nathan took the opportunity to claim the binding stone. It took longer than it did in Fort Taubrum, as this one was actively claimed by Theus.
Not that Theus had placed any real protections on the binding stone. Nathan was amazed at the lack of wards and protections in place. For Nathan, the binding stone was the most vulnerable part of his fortress. If somebody reached it, they could do terrible things to him. In some of his old fortresses, he made it unreachable, as he didn’t even need to access it.
Once finished, he let out a sigh.
“Done?” Narime asked. “I’m amazed how easily you did that. If I hadn’t seen you do something a thousand times more impressive earlier, I’d pick my jaw up off the floor.”
“Thank you,” Nathan said sarcastically. “Now it’s your turn.”
“I’m being claimed, am I?” A smile danced on Narime’s lips.
She sashayed over to him, her tails bouncing from side to side with each movement.
Fei glared at Narime. As the catgirl opened her mouth, she was pulled away by Seraph.
“Come find us once you’re done,” Seraph said. She winked at Nathan.
Narime didn’t turn around.
Her arms slipped around his shoulders and she pressed her chest aga
inst his. Then she frowned.
“That didn’t work the way I expected,” she said, staring at Nathan’s armor. Her arms worked around his breastplate, searching for the clasps. “I know how to do this.”
Her ears tickled his chin as she leaned into him. He took the chance to slide his arms along her body, enjoying the way his fingers sank into her plump ass. Her tails shot upright when he gripped her butt, before wrapping themselves around him.
“Aggressive, aren’t we,” she whispered.
“Found those clasps, yet?” he asked.
“Hush,” she said. Her fingers pressed into his back as she searched.
“While we’re alone, I wanted to ask about how you countered gem abilities,” Nathan asked.
Narime groaned. “Really? Is this really the time?”
“We’ve got a minute or two before I turn you into a mewling mess.” Nathan chuckled when she shot him a glare. “So, how does it work? It seemed pretty inconsistent to me.”
“I can counter any form of magic that I understand the theory of,” Narime explained. “I know the natural elements inside and out, so those are easy to counter. But ascended magic is far harder. And gem abilities come down to whether they use the same principles as any spells I use.”
That was it? “So, if you recognize a gem ability, you can cancel it?” Nathan asked.
“More or less. Your cat’s gem ability has similarities to foxfire,” she said.
Nathan kept that in mind.
A few moments later, his breastplate clanged on the floor. Then Narime pressed her breasts against him, and he felt her flesh press against his with only a few thin layers of cloth separating them.
“Much better,” she purred. Her ears twitched and she grinned up at him. She pulled him down into a kiss.
As her tongue tousled with his and she purred down his throat, his hands wandered. Soon, he found what he wanted.
Narime screamed down his mouth, her eyes shooting open. She pulled away, only to let out a breathless moan, her eyes lidding shut.
“F-f-f-f-fuck,” she moaned.
Nathan’s hands ran through her voluminous fox tails. They shuddered at his touch, curling like living balls of fluff. The tips danced with each movement he made. The luxurious silver fur held an amazing softness that nothing in Doumahr rivaled.
With years of practice, he ran both of his hands through the most sensitive parts of the tails. From base to tip, his fingers traced a path of maximum pleasure for Narime. Over and over again, as he hand brushed her fluffy tails.
Narime shivered and shuddered against him. Her nipples pressed against him, and she sometimes bit his shoulder to stifle her voice. Squeaks and moans slipped out every few seconds, and she stared at him with longing in her watery blue eyes.
Eventually, he slowed the pace of his stroking. But he never stopped. He’d waited over a year to do this. There was no chance he was going to stop fluffing Narime’s tails this quickly.
The decreased intensity allowed Narime to gather herself. Her hands opened his pants, and his erection popped out. Without looking at it, she stroked it with practiced hands.
Moments later, she looked down at it with wide eyes. “Oh goddess. What is that?”
“I’m pretty sure you know what it is,” Nathan said.
She looked at him. “Did you use ascended magic to make your dick bigger?”
A long pause. “Maybe.”
Narime grinned from ear to ear. Then a moan escaped her lips, ruining her image. “It’s still silly,” she said between moans as he fluffed her tails extra hard. “Not so fast. Oh!” Her legs buckled and she collapsed on the ground.
Joining her down below, Nathan undressed her. Her black panties stuck to her crotch and thighs as he peeled them off, and the smell of arousal permeated the room after he removed them.
Narime slipped into his lap, pressing his rock hard prick against her belly.
Normally, Nathan would have taken the lead here. But the huge tails of a fox limited the number of viable positions. They tended to get in the way, or flap around during sex and hit him.
Doggy style was a position that technically worked, except for the fact that Narime’s tails repeatedly beat him in the face when she got excited. Anything that required Narime to be on her back was out, because laying on her tails was uncomfortable for more than a minute or two. She exclusively slept on her belly and side for this reason.
So, Nathan let Narime crouch over his crotch and position herself. She knew her body better than anyone—except her tails, over which Nathan claimed perfect knowledge. If she chose the position, then Nathan would happily go along with it.
Narime slipped him inside herself. Her lips pursed as she slid closer and closer to his root, his fingers firmly pressed into her ass. Juices poured down his length and dripped from his balls.
Eventually, she hilted him inside of herself. Her tits jiggled as she bucked lightly against his base. When she began to move, he bounced her up and down at the same rhythm. Her moans increased in intensity. Soon she clutched his back as he bounced her up and down on his lap as fast as he could. Her tails flailed around wildly.
He felt her climax and clamp down on him. She bit his shoulder again as juices sprayed across his crotch and dripped onto the ground. His movements didn’t slow, even as her pitch rose.
Moments later, he flooded her. She hissed and pressed herself against him. Her breasts crushed against his chest.
He raised her off him. White dripped out of her, mixing with her plentiful juices. She moaned.
His hands wandered to one of her tails as she lay beside him, leaking all over the floor. Her eyes flitted to him, then to his crotch. Then she closed her mouth over his length and slurped up the mess they’d made. Her fox ears lay flat against her head as she positioned herself over him again.
“Two rounds for a duogem Champion,” Narime gasped out. “Then you’re mine.”
“You’re mine,” Nathan said back. He pulled her onto him.
He’d missed this so much. Narime was his again. And without Kadria’s help.
Maybe it wasn’t love yet, but he and Narime had fallen in love in his timeline. It would happen again.
For the time being, he enjoyed the gasps and moans of the fox in his lap. He might have gone for more than two rounds.
Chapter 34
Nathan intended to spend as little time in Castle Forselburg as possible. His plan hinged on sweeping south-east and taking Tartus before the regents got cold feet.
But there was a binding stone here, and that meant Nathan needed to spend at least a few days ensuring it was secure. For all he knew, Theus was waiting with an army over the hills with a plan to attack the moment Nathan left.
Okay, he wasn’t. Nathan had scouts and knew that much.
But Theus could move quickly and there were Federation forces nearby. And Castle Forselburg was too close to the borders of both the Spires and Arcadia for Nathan to feel comfortable leaving it unprotected.
Unlike Fort Taubrum, the binding stone here had been active for decades. There were no massive reserves to draw upon. All modifications needed to be done using the normal flow of power. That meant any major changes to the defenses were out of the question. For now.
At the very least, Nathan focused on sweeping the fortress for any nasty surprises left behind, fixing the defensive holes he had exploited, and repairing the damage he had made.
While Nathan was investigating the upper floors of the keep, he found one such nasty surprise.
An awfully familiar black door.
Looking around, Nathan confirmed that nobody else was around.
The door sat at the end of a hallway. He had sent some knights up here to sweep the floor and they had reported nothing. Which was to be expected, given nobody could see this door anyway.
Briefly, Nathan confirmed that he couldn’t sense this door with the binding stone.
All he sensed was a stone wall. The door was identical to the one in his off
ice back in Gharrick Pass.
With a grim face, Nathan opened the door and stepped through the white void that appeared. A moment later, everything turned black. He found himself inside Kadria’s mental world once again.
A lot had changed since the last time he had set foot here. He regretted not visiting her before marching north, as it meant he didn’t have a recent comparison. Had the changes occurred very recently? Or had they happened because of the situation with the Twins?
Speaking of the Twins, the door to their mental world was missing. In its place was a void.
The rest of the room appeared significantly larger than before. Before, it had been a somewhat cramped bedroom combined with a kitchenette, with a small bathroom to the side.
Now, there was practically enough space to dance in the kitchen. The bedroom was its own space, with the kitchen and dining space separated with a line along the ground. Nathan wondered if that line indicated a change in flooring. As he wore shoes, he had no idea what the flooring was now. It had been wooden floorboards before. Was it carpet now?
The furnishings were largely unchanged. A massive bed, bookshelves, dining tables and chairs, plenty of cushions, kitchen appliances, and countertops. The main new addition was a long table with a single chair. Kadria sat at this table and was tapping her fingers on a strange metal device with a glowing screen.
The device reminded him of the control panels from the future of his timeline. They had been an experimental technology that used magic and crystals to process information and display them using holograms. But this device seemed entirely solid, and several orders of magnitude smaller than anything Nathan had seen.
What worried Nathan the most about the changes to the room was the sheer amount of color.
Because everything had color now, except the walls and floor. When he had first entered, he had thought he entered the wrong room, or that Kadria had somehow entered reality. Then the endless void made it clear he was in the right place.
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