A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 86: Frehelvi

Author's Note:

A Drow's Dilemma began as a one-on-one roleplaying project and has been converted into a chapter-by-chapter format for weekly posting with the permission and assistance from my partner. It will contain a considerable amount of sexual themes such as femdom, lesbian, straight, 'reverse' rape, BDSM, group sex, romance, and other themes. The main goal of the story, however, is to tell an epic tale of adventures, gods and goddesses, fae, and nymphomaniacs. This episode and every episode to come will be available for free on Literotica for the foreseeable future. All characters that engage in sexual or suggestive situations are mentally and sexually mature: the human equivalent of 18 for their race.

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Episode 86: Frehelvi

The ever-smiling mercenary approached Sornamal's estate unnoticed. Conveniently enough, Varas's target was not inside the magically well-defended Manor house. Instead, he was carefully examining the various decorative glowing fungi in the garden just outside. Varas knew the man to be more observant than most of his acquaintances thought him to be, but not quite observant enough. Invisibly, soundlessly - with even the existence of that magic erased - Varas slipped up behind the surface elf in disguise and struck him with a syringe. Caleldir fell to the ground without a sound. Swift as a thought, the mercenary bound his hands and feet then dropped him into a bag of holding. He secured the bag, then focused his attention back towards the manor house. Well, he had his expensive slave, but somehow, that had been rather anticlimactic. And he was being paid to cause chaos. So, might as well cause some more chaos. Raise the alarm, wreck some stuff...

Taking a deep breath, Varas opened his eyes. Much too large, green as poisoned envy, flecked with shimmering gold. The pupils looked unnatural: almost catlike, or perhaps daemonic. The man blinked, took another deep breath, and closed his eyes. When he let out the breath, a cloud of green flames erupted from his mouth, hitting the stone of the manor and lighting it on fire, burning it away with acidic hisses. Twelve seconds later, he had moved far enough to light a second part of the manor aflame. Then a third, farther away. Finally, a fourth. Four was a good number, the number of death. Satisfied, Varas strode away.

"Do you smell that?" Selene's brow furrowed. Her nostrils flared once, twice.

Sornamal paused and looked up from the book both he and his daughter were studying. He, too, inhaled deeply through his nose. "No, I don't smell... huh." That was when he stood and strode over to the door into the hall. With a wave of his hand, it slid open and he looked out.

"Lolth's tits," he spat, then ran out of the room at full speed.

Such profanity coming out of her otherwise reserved sire was certainly cause for alarm. Selene joined him in scrambling out of her chair and out of the room. That was when she realized that the whole damned house was on fire. How in the abyss had that happened?! Gods, where was Caleldir? Her thoughts went immediately to him, and that more than anything made her heart clench with terror. He was probably fine. He was probably already trying to fix the situation. She just needed to find him, and then they could avert this disaster together. Those thoughts played on repeat in her mind as she ran outside and into the open where the noxious fumes could disburse. Caleldir wasn't there. What if he was inside, asleep? She was about to dash back inside before she felt a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Selene. The fumes. Help me put this out, and then we'll search for your consort," he ordered in a tight, stressed voice.

---

"Gods fucking damn it!" Ashyr said as, when she and Solerin were nearing the edge of the city, she looked up to see her 'safe' house on fire. She grabbed her 'slave' by the hand and sped forward as fast as she could go while dragging the pretty male behind her.

As they were running the final distance towards Sornamal's estate, they were joined by Tsabdrin. He looked just about as stressed as Ashyr was, right up until he saw that his cousin was safe. Then he simply ran beside her and... whoever it was running with her. He didn't really give a damn at that moment. Then his eyes widened, and he looked stressed all over again. He could run faster than Ashyr could with that male in tow, which became apparent as he pulled ahead of her.

Solerin could not run as fast as either of the drow cousins. He gave Tsabdrin an odd look, but otherwise was too busy being pulled along to say anything.

"R.I.S.A! Is there something you can do about the fires!" Ashyr yelled out as she mounted the steps that were cut into the side of the cave as a path up to the estate.

[I... I... No, not yet,] R.I.S.A. said with frustration. [I do not have the ability to leave my pocket dimension. Unless...]

By that time, Tsabdrin was already there. He went straight for the stables, where he had inexplicably stored his allosauruses. They were well, if a little singed. That was the last time he'd put them anywhere but inside R.I.S.A's dimension if he ever had to be separated from them. He would just have to deal with the odd emptiness he felt whenever they were in a different plane.

A few minutes later, a purple portal opened and out from it stepped Risa. At least, her body and face were those of R.I.S.A.'s favored avatar. The coloration was different: instead of purple skin, she had drow dark grey/black flesh, and her eyes were purple only in the irises rather than uniformly so. Her hair - tied back into a waist-length ponytail with a golden clip - was pretty much the same, though. Also, the woman was finally dressed, and in something that was not just a projection from her body. She wore a scanty purple halter top edged with gold, and a calf-length skirt with a slit just about to her waist in the same color. Also, sandals. It seemed that even though she had decided to put clothing on, Risa was determined to have as little on as possible without too egregiously violating social conventions. She carried a shepherd's crook. Or, given its slender, ornamental nature, purple wood and gold decorations, a cleric's staff more like.

"This will work," Risa said cheerfully. The voice was noticeably R.I.S.A.'s even more than Risa's, but sounded different, less glassy and more fleshy, produced by a throat, lungs, and a tongue, rather than by machinery. "I fused my central processing core with this body. This is now my permanent physical form. Now, let us move along a bit faster. Mass Haste!"

With the spell's casting, all four in the group found their speeds doubled. But Risa was still faster than either of them, for she could fly. The woman dashed off towards the conflagration, ready to use her clerical magic to douse the flames.

"Risa! You're out!" Selene said when she saw the A.I. She looked around to see Ashyr, but couldn't quite see her cousin from where she stood. She did, however, see her brother who had joined them in the lofty carved-out section where Sornamal's estate lie. The female mage nodded to him when he joined her side after rescuing his animal companions. With all of their efforts combined, the drow (and Risa) managed to douse the strange stone-burning flames. They still had some work ahead of them, however, to restore Sornamal's house to its proper understated grandeur.

That, however, was not what the Duskhaven drow could focus on. Caleldir was most certainly not with them anymore. It didn't even look like he died to the flames -- otherwise he'd be there still, wouldn't he?

"When did you last see him?" Ashyr asked both Selene and her sire in a voice tight with stress.

"Almost the same time you last saw him. We went into the study, told him not to go far, and-" Selene bit her lip and looked out over toward Duskhaven city. More specifically, she was looking at Duskhaven Estate. Had her brother and cousins-? Her hand was on her stomach again, and gripped the fabric there with a trembling, nervous hand. She couldn't get separated from him. Upon looking over to Ashyr, she realized that her cousin was going through a similar amount of stress. Ashyr, however, manifested that stress with anger.

Sornamal was much less invested in the safety of the future consort. What he did know was that there was a vaguely familiar noble male drow there for no apparent reason. Oh, and the other woman with the purple eyes who seemed a lot more useful than the shoddily dressed male.

Understandably, Risa was every bit as panicked as either Selene or Ashyr. After she finished dousing the flames, and realized with the others that Caleldir was gone, she became noticeably distressed and began flying around the estate in a panic, until she stopped, closed her eyes, cast some sort of divination spell, then returned to the others looking sad and depressed.

"He is gone, then," she said in a grieving tone. "But... where..." Opening a portal, she stepped into her pocket domain.

"Who was that, and who is this?" the ex-consort asked. "Who have you brought to my house?" It wasn't the most polite way he could have asked, but he was rather understandably annoyed that his house had burned a little by some unknown force.

Solerin seemed mostly to be just confused by everything. Confused and trying not to be in the way. Frankly, he felt out of his depth. He could wield a blade and a the usual noble drow spells, but that was it. Just enough to not die on the streets. Magic acid flames, women who popped in and out of portals at will, ridiculously skilled rangers and powerful mages were all well outside his ability to deal with. And one of those mages seemed angry at him for being there. Or angry at Ashyr for bringing him.

"I am Solerin Gallaer, my lord," he said simply. "I used to be a noble, but my House was destroyed and I am on the run. I used to know Mistress Ashyr back before."

Risa stepped out of her portal. "And I am Risa, the one who controls Caleldir's pocket domain. An artificial life form he created. Or at least helped in doing so." She turned to Ashyr and Selene. "Caleldir is gone from my eyes. I cannot see him anywhere. It is as if he has vanished from this plane."

The biological A.I. delivered this with a flatly stoic tone, although she seemed to be trembling. She moved closer to Selene, almost as if the prickly drow was her new security blanket now that Caleldir was gone. Or, more likely, her unborn daughter was.

"Come on, Risa," Ashyr said through clenched teeth. "Let's go retaliate. Get Caleldir back, if we can. Doubtless my brothers had something to do with this ... unless you'd rather stay back here and protect Selene?"

Risa seemed to hesitate, glancing back and forth between Selene('s womb) and the direction of Duskhaven Manor. She had programmed herself to be loyal to her creators and their progeny. The last of her creators left sane was Caleldir, and his only known progeny right now was in Selene's womb (perhaps some of the Rusalka were pregnant by him, and, if so, Risa could steal those girls and be loyal to them instead, but that was a long gamble that she did not want to rely on). The dilemma was clear: protect the One she knew where she was, or leave her unprotected while she ran off to try to find the One she did not know where he was.

Then, she stepped back into her portal. A moment later, she stepped back out, holding a fine violet crystal the size of a large man's fist. "I can do both. Ashyr? Can you give Selene my totem? I can step into my dimension from anywhere, but I can only step out within a few yards of that totem. If she has it, I can teleport us back to her the moment we have Caleldir and the children. In the meantime..." She tossed the crystal into the air. It stopped and floated about eye-height for her (just a bit higher than Selene's eyes).

After a moment of the crystal simply floating, a semi-transparent hologram version of Risa, like her ordinary form, but dressed in her current robes, sprouted around it. [I stand guard.] The hologram said. Like the servants in her pocket domain, this R.I.S.A. seemed less fully sapient, a semi-autonomous shard that lacked full personality.

Risa nodded. "Indeed, I will stand guard."

She turned to run after Ashyr. "Let us be off. I will buff you along the way."

As she ran alongside Ashyr, she began casting spell after spell to protect and empower the ranger.

Selene looked conflicted when she took the crystal from Ashyr. The female mage really wanted her mate back, but not at the cost of her girlfriend.

"Be careful, Ashyr," was all she ended up saying. She knew her cousin well enough to realize that there was no convincing her that she should stay, even if Selene was inclined to do so. For that matter, there was probably no convincing her to be careful, either. Selene let out a shaky sigh.

"I'll be back for dinner with our Caleldir," Ashyr promised with absolute conviction. Then she pulled Selene in for a heated kiss -- one that made Sornamal's eyebrow raise imperiously.

"Wait! Ashyr!" Sornamal said as it looked like the female ranger was going to run off without giving him some vital information. "What am I to do with Lord Gallaer?" His voice was almost demanding, despite the fact that he was speaking to a female and the technical matron of the house he used to be an integral part of. It had been a stressful day for the old drow.

"He's my slave, but you can borrow him! You need someone to help you around the house!" Ashyr called over her shoulder as she hurried back down the stairs -- whether Risa wanted to follow her or not.

Sornamal let out a long-suffering sigh. "I do not need-" he began to grumble before he remembered himself. "You'd better come in, then, Lor-" If he was a slave, he wasn't a Lord, was he? "Solerin. Hopefully you may make clear your reasons for staying."

Then the older drow walked into his front door, expecting the other ex-consort to follow.

"Yes, my lord. I will tell you the whole story," With that, Solerin followed Sornamal into the house.

---

The Duskhaven Estate was much quieter than it had been a mere couple hours before. Between herself and Risa, it became very clear that neither Caleldir nor the children were inside the halls. Not even the rest of the Duskhaven Males were there. The only people that the two women had to avoid were the various servants who wandered the halls. It was easy enough to hide from them; the commoners were too busy to look closely for interlopers.

Risa could vaguely sense Caleldir's location if she concentrated, ordinarily, but right now she was having a huge problem getting a read on him. It was as if he had been winked away from reality. Running through the lists of possibilities, it seemed most likely to her that Caleldir had been placed into a pocket dimension, most likely a bag of holding. There were a great many other possibilities, of course, but that one had by far the greatest probability behind it. The others would have given off energy signatures that she would have noticed. Probably.

So, while Ashyr was looking for Caleldir, Risa was looking for a bag. "Caleldir might be held in a bag of holding," Risa said to the drow. "That would explain why I cannot see him."

Her face went a bit ashen. "A bag of holding?" Ashyr asked. "That... those only have, like, ten minutes of air in them, don't they?" What if whoever put him there wasn't careful enough? What if Caleldir suffocated? Oh. Right. He usually didn't have to breathe as much as a normal person. Even then... well, then he would turn into Goelon and whoever took him would only know pain and death after that... but what if- Ashyr inhaled a deep, shaking breath. Freaking out more would do her no good. She needed to find him. Only then there wouldn't be a thousand scenarios running through her head that ended in the permanent death of her mate.

"The Master Librarian can survive with one-third the ordinary amount of air, so he has half an hour before he turns into his unpleasant personality." Risa explained as they rushed along. If her theory was correct, and he was shoved into a bag of holding to hide him, then whoever was doing it could be aware of what he was, and realized that merely stabbing him was useless. Alternately... "If one puts a flask of air in a bag of holding, the amount of breathing time can be extended between ten and one hundred fold." She was at least certain Caleldir was not dead. Well, more dead. If he was, she would know. "He is still alive."

But, bag or body, no Caleldir. Drat it.

Their efforts fruitless inside, Ashyr and Risa went to the back gardens.

The meeting with Varas was over, and the Duskhaven males had their own duties outside of the estate. Except, of course, Ethefien. All of his business recently had been keeping an eye on the boys and young 'matron.' There he was in the yard with the three small children as Ashyr crept forward.

-Risa. Take the children. I'll try to distract him.- Ashyr thought as hard as she could toward the A.I. She knew that Risa would be able to understand her if she was in her pocket dimension, but she wasn't so sure about when they were out in the real world. So, hidden from sight against a pillar, Ashyr waited for Risa's confirmation.

-I can still hear you like this,- Risa telepathically whispered back to Ashyr. -Distract him, then I will shove the kids into my portal. Then I will grab you, and when we leave my domain we will be back with Selene. Let us move quickly.-

Ashyr dropped into a low crouch and almost silently circled around behind Ethefein and the toddlers. The older male didn't realize who stalked him until it was too late. Ashyr snagged him from behind, and slapped a hand over his mouth. He struggled and thrashed, but he role as caretaker for three precocious drow children had taken its toll on his body; he was tired, hungry, and running off of sheer willpower. Quickly, he went still, though he still clutched at Ashyr's arm that had a hand on his mouth. His auburn eyes were wild with terror.

Risa darted out at light speed (well, not literally, but fast) and scooped up the girl child and set her into a portal. She was able to do the same for the twin boys. Then she waited for Ashyr.

"Hello, brother." Ashyr said, voice venomous and angry. "We're going to have a bit of a conversation, you and I. Not if you scream when I remove my hand, though. Then I'll make sure you'll never scream again." The ranger did as she said, and dropped her hand. It rested lightly on his neck instead. "You took someone from me. Where is he?"

"Please don't hurt me, Ashyr, I wasn't part-"

She cut him off by clenching at his throat for a moment. "Answer the question."

"I'm trying to say -- I don't know. They met with a man- the-"

"They who?" She demanded before he could continue.

"They. Adinyraen, Irahc'vic, and Duagmyr. They met with that guy who always has his eyes closed. Varas. He might have had something to do with it. But Ashyr, I swear I don't know what that is -- or who he is. I don't even know how they contact him," he explained quickly.

Ashyr knew Ethefein. She believed him. The ranger let out a brief, frustrated noise. The only comfort she had was that this mission wasn't completely fruitless. They had the toddlers. Ashyr would have traded them for Caleldir without thought, though. Especially since the children didn't seem too badly-treated, all things considered. There were simply not enough people to watch over them. She let go of her brother for long enough to turn him around to face her. Her hands gripped his shoulders. "You raped Selene." Ashyr accused as she glared at him with a fiery hatred.

"Yes." There was no regret in his features, but there was something akin to distaste. "It was Adinyraen's idea."

She so very much wanted to kill him after that confession. But she wanted to send a message. He would be punished severely enough for losing the children. Ashyr would have to be satisfied with that. -Get ready!- she thought at Risa. "Tell your brothers that I stopped by." Then she shoved him hard backwards and stepped back. He twisted around to catch himself, turning his back to her as he did so.