by Tamryn Tamer
Mages and Power
“Is it all there?” Jericho asked as Raven tallied the gold.
“It’s all here,” Raven answered and threw the last sack into the crate. “Forty million gold. Think that’s a fair price?”
“Ten million per familiar,” Jericho shrugged. “I think it’s a fair going rate. Release the familiars.”
Sable removed the black magic bars trapping Owl’s familiars. They rushed toward Owl as the small regimen of players serving as an escort made room. Jericho pointed to the sky and sent up a fireball. Within moments Lapis swooped down and grabbed the enormous crate full of gold and carried it toward the city with Ariel and Theia escorting her.
“I have to admit I wasn’t expecting you to find a way to protect the city,” Owl said emotionlessly. “This is exactly why I told Plague not to underestimate you.”
“Where is Plague anyway?” Jericho smiled. “Planning an ambush somewhere?”
“Finding more allies,” Owl answered. “Drumming up fear that you’re attempting to take over the continent. With your recent city expansions underway and defensive fortifications going up I can’t imagine it’ll be a hard sell.”
“You brought this on yourselves,” Jericho said. “All you had to do was leave me alone and I would have sat around all day practicing magic and playing with my familiars.”
“We both know that’s a lie,” Owl said. “We’re mages. We always want more.”
“You may be right,” Jericho smirked. “But at the same time, I can’t help but think I’d be happy with a few small keeps scattered around the world and being able to spend time with my familiars.”
“That’d probably satisfy you for a while,” Owl nodded. “Just like I was happy in Endgame for a bit. But you’d find some new piece of interesting information or hear about some horrible warlord and you wouldn’t be able to help yourself. Anything to give yourself an excuse.”
“You seem awfully sure of that,” Jericho laughed. As much of a traitorous asshole Owl was, he wasn’t entirely wrong. Maybe Jericho was looking for an excuse to create an empire all along and he simply gave it to him. “You even have me believing it.”
“I sometimes wonder if I shouldn’t have saved you in Rend,” Owl said coldly. “What would have happened if you and Terra would have died in the street. If you’d never met Raven. If you never finished that delivery. Would you have had enough gold to purchase Dayrose? Would Raven have answered your call to save Dayrose? Would we be here today?”
“Would you be number one instead?” Jericho grinned impishly. “Is that what you’re thinking? If it’s any consolation you wouldn’t. You haven’t even figured out how Sapphire beat you to number two yet.”
“You gave her information,” Owl failed to hide his frustration. “She found something you wanted and exchanged it for number two. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”
“I can see how it looks that way,” Jericho chuckled. “But the truth is Sapphire made a choice. It was one stupid little choice that on the surface meant nothing but earned her the number two spot. According to Talia, she said that instead of doing the smart thing for once, she was going to do what she wanted. Then she died.”
“So, everybody should make the stupid choice?” Owl asked sarcastically.
“No,” Jericho smiled. “But Talia said Sapphire’s decision inspired her to leave her hints about where she was going in hopes that she’d pass along the message to me. So, Sapphire earned the information by doing what she wanted.”
“Okay,” Owl stared at Jericho. “I suppose I should just run around doing whatever I want then?”
“I think yeah,” Jericho smiled. “Magic is about having the freedom to do whatever you want. We’re rewarded for selfishness. How else do you explain me being number one?”
“It’s a nice theory but I’m already doing what I want,” Owl said coldly. “I don’t see familiars dropping out of the sky.”
“You’re not doing what you want,” Jericho said. “You’re doing what you think is necessary. You didn’t want to betray your friends. You didn’t want to destroy multiple cities. You didn’t want to attack me. Nothing you’ve done is about doing what you want. It’s about ego.”
“And what about you?” Owl asked politely. “You haven’t been desperate to hang onto your status as number one? I don’t see you writing magic guides for the world to see. You even had Tiamat gathering information for you while selectively sharing what you learned. Do you really think you’re qualified to criticize my ego?”
“You’re forgetting that at one point I did give every bit of my knowledge away,” Jericho said. “I could have let the entire village perish while hoarding my information. But I traded it all to save a village.”
“You traded it to save your manor and familiars,” Owl said. “It was about maintaining your status.”
“You’re so cynical,” Jericho laughed. “I thought you knew me better than that Owl. I’m simple. I just want everybody to have fun and the choices I make reflect that.”
“If that’s the case, give me the same information you gave Sapphire,” Owl said. “That’d increase my fun.”
“No it wouldn’t,” Jericho said confidently. “You’d hate that. You want to do it yourself. The only thing worse than losing is somebody letting you win. I could never do that to you. We’re friends after all.”
“Friends?” Owl shook his head. “You’re joking.”
“Can’t befriend a schemer and whine about getting stabbed in the back,” Jericho shrugged. “As pissed as I am at you right now, we’re friends. That’s also why I’m not going to go easy on you. You want to be number one, give it your best shot.”
“Well,” Owl smiled. “That’s good to know. I look forward to the competition.”
Jericho and Owl shook hands and walked away from each other. Since they agreed to a twenty-four-hour ceasefire for the prisoner exchange there was no rush. Owl was quick to agree to the break since it also gave Plague the ability to recruit more help without being bothered. But Jericho had ulterior motives of his own.
He envisioned a white villa near the beach located on an island in the southeast. Then he envisioned himself standing on the beach in front of that villa and as the ocean air permeated his nostrils, he was there.
“How’d it go?” Terra asked while adjusting her string bikini. The voluptuous elf’s nipples were barely covered and her bottom was just enough fabric to cover her pussy. “I assume good since you’re here.”
“Hey! Give that back you little runt!” Kadra yelled. Sirun sprinted while carrying Kadra’s top as the topless silver-haired beauty chased the petite red-head through the sand. “Get back here!”
“Darling,” Mirage handed Jericho a drink. Mirage smiled seductively at him while wearing a lascivious bikini that somehow managed to cover less than Terra’s. He got the nagging suspicion that she’d planned it that way. “Do you like it?”
“Yeah,” Jericho managed to mumble out.
“What about mine? Pervert! Lecher!” Jinx roared as she came running down the steps of the villa in a standard black bikini. Her tan skin glistened and even the pale tiger stripes running down her body were shining. As soon as she hugged him, he realized she’d covered her body in lotion.
“Wow,” Jericho said sliding his hands down her soft body toward her tight round ass. “You look so sexy.”
“No fair!” Ariel shouted as she burst through a red portal with a horde of dragons behind her. The group of azure dragons immediately rushed toward the ocean as Ariel approached him. He found himself thinking that he was happy Talia found time to correct everybody’s age as the slender fairy showed off her swimsuit. “You were supposed to wait for us! We had to do all the work!”
Ariel and Theia were both dressed in white swimsuits. While Ariels’ swimsuit was technically a one piece the stomach was cut out and was cut extremely low. It was almost like the swimsuit was designed to guide his eyes toward her perfect pink pussy hidden be
neath it.
Theia’s swimsuit was a white bikini with gold embroidery around the edges. What really surprised him was how small it was despite her ample frame. While it wasn’t even close to the lewdness of Mirage’s swimsuit it was definitely in the running.
“Wow,” Jericho couldn’t stop smiling as he looked around the beach. Cynthia and Raven both matched in surprisingly modest black one pieces. Raven was obediently massaging Cynthia’s back as she rested on a towel. “Fuck.”
“Master,” Sable said as she and Luna arrived. The two had been exploring a trail and Sable was wearing a small red bikini while Luna was wearing a blue one. “You finally arrived.”
“Yeah,” Luna smiled and struck a pose. “You certainly took your time. I thought you’d be more excited to see us all in our swimsuits.”
“Don’t forget to thank my babies,” Mai said emotionlessly as she approached wearing a violet swimsuit with a sash around her waist. Riseva stood next to her completely topless but wearing a matching sash. “They worked very hard on crafting all of these.”
“I will,” Jericho smiled politely. Fortunately, the giant arachnids had a deep dislike for both heat and water and preferred to stay home. As a thank you Jericho did have an entire crate of giant oranges opened up for them and they pretty much had free reign of the house.
“Great place, right?” Ederis said as he approached the group with his topless priestesses following close behind. The entire group seemed to be in a competition to see who could get away with wearing the most erotic bottoms. Cecilia was definitely winning with her bikini bottoms that were basically just a string of pearls.
“Whore,” Mirage mumbled as she glared jealously at Cecilia’s swimsuit wishing she’d thought of it.
“It was so nice of you to bring everybody,” Cecilia said while hanging off of Ederis’ arm.
“Master,” Talia said as she and Morgana approached from the direction of the cove. Both were topless while wearing matching white and black striped bikini bottoms. Talia quickly moved in for a kiss and he tasted Morgana on her tongue. Morgana immediately followed up and the taste of Talia mixed with it exciting him. “Why aren’t you in your swimsuit yet?”
“Give me a minute,” Jericho laughed. He pulled out his black trunks and quickly changed into them before removing his mages coat. “Better?”
“Much,” Talia said rubbing her hand against his crotch to find him already firming up. “Did you like what you tasted?”
“Would you like to taste more?” Morgana teased.
“How am I supposed to compete with this?” Diana gestured at the familiars running around playing as she walked through the portal wearing a red and white striped bikini. “Dammit.”
“It’s not a competition,” Jericho laughed.
“Darling,” Mirage pressed her chests against his arm. “We went through all of the trouble of designing our swimsuits. You have to pick a winner.”
“Who wins? Lecher. Pervert.” Jinx glared at Jericho.
“Mine’s the most unique!” Ariel said while twirling to show off the back was also cut out and exposed just the slightest bit of her ass. “I should get bonus points for that.”
“Riseva should win,” Mai said coldly. “She’s obviously the prettiest.”
“Jinx should win!” Kadra yelled while continuing to try to steal her bikini back from the other wolf women playing keep away. Jericho tilted his head wondering how they managed to get Kadra’s bottoms away from her as well.
“Yeah!” Rela laughed while tossing the top to Avara before Kadra could tackle her. “Jinx should win!”
“I vote for Freya,” Terra said as the silver-haired woman in the golden one-piece walked out of the clubhouse with two large drinks.
“Don’t tease me,” Freya blushed.
“What if Morgana and I enter as a pair?” Talia asked seductively. “Will we get bonus points?”
“What about me?” Luna said excitedly. “I could always lose my bottoms if it’d help.”
“I know how you like red,” Sable said seductively as she stroked Jericho’s arm.
“What about me master?” Theia asked while rolling the top of her bottoms several times to expose more skin.
“Better give them an answer,” Terra laughed as the familiar surrounded him. “I’m sure they’ll be happy no matter who you pick.”
“Really?” Jericho grinned mischievously at the busty elf in a string bikini. “Because I think you look pretty good right now.”
“Huh?” Terra blushed as all of the familiars glared at Terra. “He’s messing with you all! Don’t look at me like that! He’s the one that said it!”
The End
...One more to go!
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You may also like
Forbidden Arcana Series
Jinx (Book 1)
Ariel (Book 2)
Mirage (Book 3)
Theia (Book 4)
Sable (Book 5)
Luna (Book 6)
Talia (Book 7)
Morgana (Book 8)
Valaria (Coming Soon!)
Copyright © 2019 by Tamryn Tamer. All rights reserved. www.smirkpublishing.com.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. Except in the cases permitted by copyright law.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.