Nathan didn’t want to keep this going for too long, so he sped up. Nurevia practically screamed in ecstasy. He pressed her so deeply into the bed that she nearly became one with it.
He reached his climax and let out a grunt. Thick ropes of his seed filled her, and the slapping of their flesh turned wet and sticky within seconds.
When he slid out of her with a wet pop, white gobs dripped onto the bed. Nurevia moaned incoherently, ass still sticking up.
“Isn’t this what you wanted?” he asked her as he got off the bed.
“This is way better,” Nurevia gasped out. A long pause. “Call me a bitch, please?”
“No. You’re not useful to me that way. I’m not playing your stupid game,” he said coldly.
She shuddered. “Yeah, like that. Fuck. It’s different, but I love it.”
Shaking his head, Nathan got up and opened the door. Fei and Ciana fell inside the room. Both of their faces were cherry red, and he knew what they had been doing from the smell. Neither Seraph nor Narime were outside.
“Um, Nathan, this is—”
“I’m taking a shower,” he said. “Tell Seraph that Tharban is trying to interfere with the Federation. He wants the dark elves to pull out of the Houkeem Desert.”
After those words, he stepped into the bathroom. Nurevia watched him with glazed eyes, her fingers scooping up his seed from her own body and the bed. He ignored her.
Once inside, he closed the door and ran a hot shower. Blazing hot. Some people liked bitingly cold showers to cool down or forget something. He liked hot.
The searing hot water couldn’t burn his skin. As a Bastion, he wasn’t entirely human anymore. But it remained hot enough to pummel him and make him feel it.
The things he had wanted to do with Nurevia… He hated those feelings.
Bastions were shaped by their Champions. A lot of his behaviors had been shaped by those he had spent the most time with. But he needed to remain in control these days. That meant making the right decision, not the one that resonated emotionally. Hurting Nurevia because she was an enemy would bring relief, but it was unnecessary.
He had made some very judicious decisions when he had first come to this world. Namely, when he had overwritten Sen and Sunstorm with their personalities from his world. He still didn’t know if he made the right choice.
But he made his own decisions now. He didn’t let others goad him into them.
After a long time, he turned off the water and stepped out.
Ciana stood there, holding a fluffy black towel. New clothes for him sat in the corner, neatly folded. She was fully clothed, but her eyes immediately shot to his crotch. Then she pouted and looked away.
“It gets smaller when I’m not having sex,” he said drily.
She jumped, her tail nearly doing a 360 degree spin. “That’s not…” She shrunk in on herself.
“It’s fine to talk about sexual things. You’ve seen what Fei and the others are like. But it’s your choice, Ciana. Who and what you do. Don’t let Fei pressure you into anything. I won’t, either,” he said.
He stepped forward to take the towel, but Ciana refused to let him do so.
“I’ll dry you off,” she said.
“You’re my Champion, not my servant,” he protested.
She glared at him. For a moment, the look on her face took him back to his past.
In his original world, Ciana had always been the one to sneak freshly pressed uniforms into his bathroom while he showered. Anytime she had the night or morning with him, she had always joined him in a bath.
“Fine,” he said. “But don’t make it a habit.”
“Didn’t you just say I can make my choices?” she said cheekily.
She stepped forward and dried him off. As expected from a young, horny woman, she got a little handsy at times. He didn’t bring it up. After all, he definitely appreciated the attention. He hadn’t been this close to Ciana so far. Her shyness had always kept her away from him.
“Nathan, I’m sorry,” she said suddenly, while drying off his back.
He paused, trying to work out why.
She continued before he could, “I haven’t been much help. This is… all so much.”
“No, it’s my fault. This is a bit much when you’re new. I shouldn’t have brought you—”
“No!” she squeaked, then froze. “You realized I didn’t want to be left alone. I’m so glad to be your Champion, Nathan, even though I haven’t done anything to deserve it. I just… I just don’t know how to help you. I never knew how to help Leopold.” She sniffed.
He turned around and ruffled her hair. “You help me by being with me, Ciana. Remember that. Focus on that. I accepted you as my Champion.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” he said.
She finished drying him off, and they joined the others.
But Nathan worried about her, probably as much as she worried about him. For now, he had a bigger problem to deal with.
“Seraph, we need to find a way to deal with Tharban’s nonsense,” Nathan said. “I’ll start with Astra, but we need to find a way to influence the council.”
Chapter 20
Astra had asked him to come at night. Nurevia’s meddling was dangerous, but Nathan knew how slowly the Council of Aurelia moved. Whatever chaos she had set in motion would take weeks or even months to play out.
Not even the end of the world had forced their hand. He could afford to wait.
“You say that, but didn’t they react quickly to the cascade?” Narime asked, after Nathan explained the reason for his patience.
“That’s because their authority was threatened.” He frowned. “I also suspect something else was happening. It felt planned.”
They sat in the common room. The storm had passed, but the weather remained overcast. The lighting was dull and dreary.
Nurevia had cleaned up and sulked on a sofa. Her gaze was planted firmly on Nathan’s crotch. He wondered if she was sulking over being detained or because he wasn’t railing her into the bed. Hard to say.
“Torneus is the one on trial, but you suspect he was setup,” Seraph said slowly. “By Falmir.”
The lazing dark elf raised an eyebrow at Nathan. “Oh? That’s quite the assumption. Did you come up with that yourself, little Nathan?”
“You’re still calling him little after what he did to you?” Narime remarked.
“He’s little, even if his cock isn’t.” Nurevia smirked.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Falmir’s activities aren’t as subtle as they think they are.”
“Uh huh. What’s your proof?” The dark elf stared at him, a triumphant expression on her face.
“You already know about what happened beneath Gharrick Pass when the Messenger attacked,” Nathan said. “If Torneus isn’t responsible for the cascade—and it’s reasonable to assume he isn’t, given his armies weren’t prepared for it—then it had to be someone with connections to the Council. That leaves us with kings and emperors.”
Nurevia clicked her tongue. “Maybe his armies weren’t ready because he wanted plausible deniability.”
“Sure. And maybe a duogem Champion from Falmir tried to kill Anna when she arrived in Aleich because Torneus hid a wireless hidden up his ass,” Nathan said.
The dark elf’s face paled, and she licked her lips. “How do you know that?”
“Because I do. Her Bastion is one Gareth Pike,” he said.
Nurevia’s eyes widened.
Nathan’s eyes narrowed in response. “Why do you know that name?”
“Uhhhhh…” she looked to one side. “Look, I already told you what I can. I’m not your Champion.” She paused and looked at him side on. “I could be…”
“Not now.” Nathan shook his head. “The risk of transferring you to my control so far away from a binding stone is immense. I can do it, but I’m not about to risk turning you into a mindless husk in the middle of the Spires. That’s a great way to get pancaked by
Astra.”
“Right,” Nurevia said. “Goddess, and here I thought your balls were the size of mountains. I guess you do have a limit.”
“More to the point, the Council isn’t about to act rashly,” he said. “Nurevia can’t even leave this floor. Her influence is limited.”
“She has more than us,” Narime growled.
“That’s why I’ll talk to Astra tonight.” He stood up. “First, I need to acquire some alcohol. I doubt the guards will stop me if I go to their shops. Especially if one of you is with me.”
Narime joined him, and they entered one of the elevators. It worked using a ratcheted lever to control your destination floor. Nathan pushed it up, remembering the floor from memory. The fox whistled, her tails rubbing his back.
“Your memory remains excellent,” she purred.
“Gareth showed me this floor,” he said. “He always knew his way around the seedier side of the world. Most of the shops won’t sell to us, but there’s a black market luxury vendor who will trade in currency from other nations for the right price.”
“Gareth… You knew him?” Narime asked.
“He was my mentor of sorts. An older Bastion with extensive knowledge of the theory of magic. A lot of what I know is because of him.” Nathan sighed. “It feels fraudulent to pass off so much of what he learned and taught me as my own.”
“He was your friend, wasn’t he?”
“I would call him my best friend.” Nathan’s jaw tightened at the memory of how that friendship had ended. Of the tragedy that had been the fall of Trafaumh, and what had awaited him when he returned to Falmir.
Narime dropped the topic, and they rode the elevator in silence.
When they reached their destination, Nathan stared in surprise at the dozen armed guards waiting for them. Heavily armored soldiers raised their weapons the moment the door opened. The dark elves quivered in fear and remained stationary.
Nathan stepped forward, raising a hand to calm them.
“Return to your floor, human!” one of the dark elves shouted. “You have no place here.”
“I just need to—”
“Ambassador Sureev will summon you when the Council has time for you. Leave!” The soldier’s weapon rattled against his armor as he yelled.
Narime scowled and stepped forward. Every soldier stepped backward. Nathan spotted one in the back gesture to someone in the distance. Not good.
“Narime,” he said. “No.”
“But—”
Nathan pulled her back into the elevator without another word. The dark elves didn’t lower their weapons, even as the cage door closed in front of them. Nathan pulled the lever and ascended to Astra’s floor.
Same story there. He didn’t bother trying to step out. The guards didn’t yell at him, but they appeared to be just as terrified.
Nathan tried a few other stories. He couldn’t try the highest stories without a special key that unlocked the full motion of the level.
“Can’t you break into it?” Narime suggested.
“It’s not a mechanical lock. It needs a specific magical signature encoded into the key. I can’t crack that,” he explained.
“You cracked the binding stones.”
“No, I knew those in advance. I know the encryption codes to binding stones for the Empire, the Federation, Trafaumh, and Falmir,” Nathan explained. “I never learned the Spires or Arcadia because… Well, they never had binding stones to claim.”
They returned to their floor. Once there, Nathan searched for the dark elf servants and found that they had left. The stairs remained unlocked, but they were next to the elevators. Nathan didn’t want to go up dozens of flights of stairs just to encounter the same guards.
After questioning the human and beastkin servants and discovering nothing, Nathan returned to the common room.
“I take it that’s not normal,” Seraph said.
“Of course it’s fucking not,” Nurevia snapped, now sitting up straight. “What happened to those balls you rubbed over my face earlier? Did they shrink because you emptied them into me?”
“Use your head for five seconds, instead of your…” Nathan paused, unsure of how to finish the insult. He usually said this to men.
“Pussy,” Narime said flatly. “She’s thinking with her pussy, because apparently her brain melted at the sight of your cock.”
“Enough,” he snapped.
“She’s a bitch. I’m allowed to call her out on it,” Narime said.
“It’s not as fun when you call me that, compared to Nathan,” Nurevia replied.
“Then shut up.” The fox’s eyes glowed.
“Enough!” Nathan roared.
The women stopped their catfight. Nathan sighed.
“Look, whatever is happening, we need to be careful,” Nathan said. “It’s easy to get excited.”
“You can say that again. Your ambassador is missing, right? That smells fishy,” Nurevia said.
“Exactly my point. I was invited to the Spires, allowed to bring as many Champions as I liked, given no schedule, and now I’m antagonized by guards whenever I try to go somewhere.” Nathan raised an eyebrow. “The natural response is to assume that this is a trap, or that a coup has happened. Especially now that I know you’re up to something for Tharban.”
“So we beat some guards up, talk to Sureev, and find out the truth,” Fei chirped, shooting to her feet with a very generous bounce of her chest.
“Ah, yes. The ‘cause a huge international incident’ plan. I’m sure that will help the alliance between the Empire and the Spires,” Seraph said drily.
The others froze, then looked at her.
Narime scowled. “I hate to admit it, but she’s right. Nathan already realized it. This is why the guards are antagonizing us. If we attack them, then we look like criminals. We’re guests here. If visiting Champions assault weak guards, Tharban’s allies will have the political ammunition to cut off support for the Houkeem Desert.”
“Huh. So that was their plan. I’d wondered why they kept delaying,” Nurevia said. “I didn’t think your guy was in on it, though.”
“He might not be, but he’s only an ambassador. Opposing any of the political factions could destroy his career,” Nathan said. “With that said, we still need to be sure of that. He’s connected to everyone that could be involved in this due to his position.”
Narime and Seraph stared at him.
“What?” he said defensively.
“You realize this is why both Alice and Anna want to marry you, right?” Narime said flatly. “You keep denying your calling, but you’re very good at this. You’re not a naive little Bastion anymore.”
“Anymore?” Nurevia said. “He’s been a Bastion for less than two years.”
“So, what do we do?” Ciana asked, her horse ears pricked up.
All eyes turned to Nathan.
He shrugged. “We wait.”
Night fell. Nathan successfully badgered the servants to scavenge up as much alcohol as they could. It was cheap stuff—the dark elves called it vodka, and nobody else drank the awful stuff. Nathan remembered awful nights full of terrible dreams after Gareth or Vala forced him to stay up late drinking the garbage with them.
This stuff was especially bad. Nathan felt he could strip the paint off walls with it. Despite his concerns with using magic, he meddled with a few of the bottles, using what little life magic he knew. He still couldn’t make something good, but he somehow managed to make the vodka less awful.
Presumably, his life magic had made it blander. And bland vodka was better than garbage vodka.
Speaking of life magic, Nathan noticed that the black door was missing in the Spires. He had taken it for granted that Kadria was following him everywhere lately. She had followed him to Aleich and to Tartus. For whatever reason, she avoided the Spires.
Although he did suspect he could forcibly open a door to her if he tried. The connection to her and the world of the Twins was mental. There must be a
way to create it on his end, right?
With night came a missed appointment. Nathan drank lightly, especially given the strength of this awful shit. Ciana and Fei had passed out already, underestimating the alcohol. Narime curled up next to Nathan’s feet like a cat, half-awake in her drunken stupor, and he stroked her ears while she purred.
On the far side of the common room, Nurevia and Seraph debated over some nonsense regarding clothing. Nathan tuned them out pretty early, although he heard some odd statements about whether underwear was necessary on a battlefield.
Footsteps approached down the hall and Nathan looked over. A grumpy Astra glared at him, her cape missing. She pointed a finger at him.
“You forgot,” she accused him.
“Did you miss the guards outside the elevator?” he asked.
Astra tilted her head. After a moment, her anger evaporated, and she took a seat on a nearby sofa. She poured a generous helping of vodka, added some ice, and drank a slurp straight.
He forgot she did that. Most people squeezed in a fruit to flavor the vodka, given how awful it tended to be.
“What?” she asked, tilting her head. She looked between their glasses, which were both straight vodka with ice. “Same as yours.”
“I mean, it is. But nobody else is drinking it straight. Even Nurevia flavored it,” he said.
“Weak.”
He shook his head, but smiled anyway. Narime purred from the movement of his legs, and he tickled her ears.
“Guards,” Astra said, changing the subject. “There were too many. For you?”
“Yes. They wouldn’t let me leave this floor. I think it’s a trap. If I force my way through, they’ll use it against the Empire,” Nathan explained.
“Ignore them,” she said.
“Then they’ll stab me.”
Astra tilted her head. “Defend yourself.”
He stared at her. She had the decency to blush in embarrassment.
“Ah,” the trigem Champion uttered. She downed her vodka and poured more.
Her alcohol capacity was ridiculous. Nathan knew from experience. He suspected it had something to do with her eternal life, but she could chug a bottle of spirits and not even seem tipsy. She might have done that in front of Nathan once.
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