A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 93: Plotting

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 93: Plotting

For some, the rest of the first cycle with Caleldir back was a time of pleasure. A time of acquaintance and reacquaintance. Soft whispers of affection and ecstasy filled the two rooms and empowered the rest of the dimension. Outside R.I.S.A's realm, however, very different endeavors were made by a very different pair. Divine and arcane spells alike were cast and recast until utter exhaustion set in. And yet they powered through it in the desperate hope to find where Ashyr had gotten off to. As the time for sleep grew late and cycled back into the time of wakefulness, the old arcanist grew more and more prickly and frustrated. In the end, there was no payoff. Only one very disturbing conclusion.

"She is simply not in this realm," said Sornamal the next morning when Selene, Caleldir, and Tsabdrin were finally dragged out of their beds and into the dining room within his small estate (Solerin and Jhul'une were happy to be left in the pocket dimension.)

Sornamal stood at the head of the table, leaning against the sturdy wood. He was told to sit, but he outright refused. The old man feared that sitting would mean not getting up again for another day while his body recovered. He would save resting for his bed after they spoke through everything. "If she was in this dimension, we would have found her. I only know of a handful of people in the world who could have been strong enough to cloak her from the magics that Risa and I can perform together, and I seriously doubt that they would have any interest in our struggles. I must conclude that she currently does not exist on this plane."

Caleldir went rather pale. He let out a long, slow exhale. "If you and Risa together cannot find Ashyr, then she has to be on another plane or planet," he agreed. He rubbed his eyes a bit. "As I have been worrying, I can only assume that she came across that shape-changing mercenary that kidnapped me in the first place. That man/woman/thing most likely got the better of her. I could not identify the creature, so we cannot rule anything out, I am afraid."

Selene let out a sigh that was a bit too shaky for her liking. She hated worrying about her cousin as much as she did, and yet she kept on worrying anyway. Then, with utter conviction, she said, "I wish she had died. We would be able to retrieve her then."

Tsabdrin grimaced. "Don't say that. What if they destroyed her soul?"

"I think the nature of the spell we cast would prevent that," Selene told him firmly. But then even greater worry crossed her face as she second-guessed herself. She looked toward Caleldir. "That's right, isn't it? She'd be out of their clutches even before she felt the pain of that killing blow... that's what I understood about that spell? Besides, you would have felt it if... if..."

Caleldir nodded. "We put too many protections on her soul and body. Unless one of those Great Powers you mentioned saw fit to get involved, there is no way that anyone could remove that spell. It was cast on her soul, after all. It functions even in a dead magic zone, and Disjunction itself could not affect it. Because it is a bit of magic that is on its own uncreated demiplane. It is foolproof. Well, mostly. Someone who knew that the spell was there could work against it, but that magic is... uncommon. To say the very least. Anyway, it is even harder to remove the magic without the casters realizing it than to remove it at all. Not impossible, but cataclysmically difficult. If the spell had somehow been removed, Selene and I would know. And if she had been soul-shredded, Goelon would know. As of yesterday, her soul at the very least was still in time rather than eternity, since Goelon would have let me know otherwise." He let a hand fall heavily to the table and leaned back, sighing. "But all that is only to say that the most likely explanation is that she has been banished off the plane. I... I am out of ideas. If she is on a non-evil plane, we can ask Althaia to get her goddesses to look for her in exchange for my... compliance in a plan of theirs," he scowled noticeably at this, "but it seems more likely that, if imprisoned or banished, it would be to one of the fiendish realms, and Althaia's patrons have no power or allies there. Except possibly for certain succubi in some of the Nine Hells." He fell silent, wracking his brain for how to search the fiendish realms for his lover.

"I, too, seriously doubt that she would be in one of the good planes. That would be... strange." Selene agreed. "More likely, the same thing that happened when the mage in Port Afron disappeared has happened with Ashyr. Gods, maybe that's who has her. If the mercenary who captured you is in the habit of selling people to the highest bidder... or even if one of the Duskhaven usurpers was offered enough money or assistance..."

"That is a distressingly likely possibility, I will have to agree," Caleldir said. "The mercenary is in that habit. 'She', at the time at least, made sure of that. They do whatever gets them more money. So, who would pay for Ashyr? Besides these rebels, that is. Because as far as I know, they are it?" His tone was questioning. Ashyr had been active for centuries and had made many enemies, as most drow active for centuries tended to do. But enemies willing to pay a lot for her would narrow the list.

All three Drow thought for a moment of the prospect of Ashyr being sold to someone other than the rebels.

"She certainly isn't well-liked in, well, pretty much the whole of the Underdark. But all that negativity has died down considerably over the past thirty years ago. Ashyr is nowhere near the most hated of drow at this time. So I cannot think of someone who would pay enough for her to make her capture worth it," Sornamal answered.

"Not down here, no. As for those on the surface, the mage might be tempted to pay for her. We really have no idea what he is truly like" Selene said in an annoyed tone. "If only we had the chance to talk to him... Fau-Phanuel had a disturbingly little amount of information on the man, only that he's old, bearded, and appeared to be human. He must have been paramount to Phanuel's father's plans, either that or he was just an opportunistic leech... and that is all we were able to determine." Discussions on that in the past had been just as useful as those in that moment. They still couldn't scry him, so speculation was all they did on that subject.

Selene frowned. "Perhaps... perhaps a visit to the estate is in order. Perhaps we should finally just... talk to our enemies."

He didn't look too pleased about it, but Tsabdrin nodded at his sister's suggestion. "That might be necessary. You can't expect them to tell the truth, but, well." He tapped the front of his head while looking at Selene - right where her circlet would have been if the brother wore it instead of the sister.

"That seems like the best option to me. The Brothers Duskhaven won't expect the power of illithids to be on our side," the father agreed. "It is a shame to risk revealing such powers so early in the game, but if we need it to save your Matron, what other choice is there?" He looked fairly grim about the whole thing. "I think I can get a message to them, arrange a parlay. That is if we can't think of a better plan."

The drow looked toward both Caleldir and Risa, hoping that they had better suggestions - anything, really, other than potentially revealing a secret weapon and/or walking into a trap.

Caleldir pursed his lips. "The only other option I see beyond a parlay is something more drastic: a full-frontal assault. Call in whatever allies we can like Althaia, and storm the estate. But that will take quite a while to gather our allies and without Ashyr will be more difficult anyway. No, a parlay is probably our fastest option."

"I do not advise a full-frontal assault. By the time we have the power... Well. There are worse things than dying. It would do us no good to have a Matron driven to insanity because we took too long to save her," the old arcanist said matter-of-factly. No one seemed to like having that information hanging in the air. Not even Sornamal, who generally tried and succeeded to appear aloof.

"Since we would need Althaia and her troops to storm the place, the shortest amount of time it would take to reach her would be for Risa to make her way there as quickly as possible, have someone sneak her totem inside the estate, then have her and whatever allies we can bring in from Afron port directly into the Estate," Caleldir said. "That would take..." he looked over at Risa.

"Eight, maybe seven cycles," she said simply. "I can use Xorn Movement to burrow to the surface then Overland Flight my way to the city, but it is still a long way off."

Caleldir groaned. "Seven cycles... no, that is not acceptable."

"There is one other thing we could do," Risa said quietly. "It is a longshot but has potential. I can summon devils, daemons, and demons, and then force them to search their respective planes for Ashyr."

"If the parlay proves to be fruitless, that might be something worth doing. How much power would you need for that, Risa? Would you need other materials as well?" Asked Selene. All eyes turned to her, each filled with grim curiosity. Dealing with demons was a fairly common thing; they all knew the dangers and potential payout of doing so.

"I was hoping we would have more tricks up our sleeve. So, parlay, or demon-summoning it is, then," Caleldir decided.

Risa nodded grimly. "I could do this a number of ways. I would indeed need a lot of power since most of my current storage was used to create my current form and shape my dimension. I am running quite low, I fear. I could kill two birds with one stone and summon a couple of succubi first and offer them sex as the carrot for helping in addition to the usual sticks, and then use the power I siphon off them to bind the others. Regardless, having some back-up casters to help with the bindings will be essential. And a few people - preferably males - with very good mental defenses and spell resistances, in addition to being unmistakably 'Good' in alignment, to act as succubus bait."

"I do not like this plan at all," Caleldir groused. "Let us go for the parlay."

"A number of good-aligned males? With good mental resistances?" Selene shook her head. "I only know of one good person in the whole of the Underdark, and I am quite fed up with allowing other women that much contact with him. Even if he's only bait, I have a feeling they'll be able to get a little further than we intend. Their kind usually does." She shifted in her seat, then reached over to take Caleldir by the hand under the table.

"It would not have to be Caleldir," Risa protested. "It could also be... hmm... actually, yeah. Caleldir is the only good-aligned male that we have access to right now. Unless we do a 'detect good' on all of Duskhaven and find the one Chaotic Good rebel hiding out in the city. Lawful Good is more attractive to succubi anyway."

"Yes, I know I am excellent succubus bait," Caleldir complained. "Rubella Silverwisp told me as much disturbingly often. I am excellent many types of bait, I have noticed. Supernatural women and those studying magic tend to want to have me. I am tired of it."

"Ah! Rubella..." Risa sighed fondly. "She is a succubus now, but she has no contacts with the Underplanes, so she would not be useful to summon. Her line has always stayed on the Material Plane in secrecy."

"We could just host an orgy, drain energy that way. Having a host of drow can't be worse than having a host of demons in our dimension," Selene suggested.

"It's still a risk. Riskier than a parlay, I think," Sornamal said. "I will send them a message. They might be persuaded to go to the Negotiations House. If the meeting is held there, we can be reasonably certain that they don't glean more information from us than you do from them. If the right person is talking." The right person obviously being Selene, as he was looking pointedly at her.

"The Negotiations House is something that my grandmatron had set up," Selene told Caleldir and Risa. "The entire structure is enchanted with a powerful truth spell and has other magical incentives for people to keep to their word. It prevented some unnecessary house fighting borne from distrust."

"Some," Sornamal agreed. "Currently it's used for mostly slave trade and other, lesser markets. Some of the highest quality slaves are bought at a high price from that area, as people can be assured of their true quality. Truth is costly here and in high demand. As you might imagine. Nobles use it on occasion, though I think they can stand to use it more. Ever since the first Negotiations House was established, we've been enjoying a lower rate of... 'accidents.' I theorize that it is part of the reason why we're expanding as a race."

"The negotiations house sounds like an admirable place. Let us go there," Caleldir said.

"Or I could make a subtle zone of truth somewhere else," Risa added. "They are not particularly complex."

"We would have a harder time luring them there. And we are planning on negotiating in good faith," Caleldir pointed out.

Risa seemed a bit chastised at that 'good faith' line. "But they definitely are not negotiating in good faith," she fussed. "We could lay a trap for them, catch them in my dimension. I could then read their minds even better than Selene."

"That option is removed if we promise them not to harm them if they show up unless they attack first," Caleldir reminded her.

The avatar sighed. "I know," she said sadly. "Ugh, Lawful Good is a hard alignment sometimes."

"On the plus side it makes you irresistible to succubi," Caleldir added dryly.

"No tricks, Risa," Selene said firmly. "For if Duskhaven won't follow the laws, then who will?"

Risa yawned. "I know, I know. Keep good faith, follow the rules. I blame the exhaustion. I am not used to having a body or mind that gets tired. I mean, my inorganic self went into standby mode for centuries if nothing interesting was happening, but even then I ran simulations and formulated experiments. This body right here - and my core programming along with it - needs sleep to function. Which is very strange."

"Calling back to the topic of succubi for a moment, you may find someone to suit your needs among the slaves. There is a bit of a market for such alignments, for reasons I am sure you two would find very cruel," Sornamal explained. "While you are at the Negotiations House, it might be worthwhile to do a cursory search for such people in case your parlay proves to be fruitless."

"Why... why is there a market expressly for Good-aligned slaves?" Caleldir asked in a slightly worried tone. "I mean, while I was a slave, my alignment was hardly a selling point."

"To feed to succubi, maybe?" Risa suggested.

"Not everything is about succubi," Caleldir chided her. "But I would guess that at least some of it has to do with sacrifices to demons and devils or whatnot." He shook his head

"Something like that," Selene said. She didn't particularly want to focus on that; she wanted to get things done. "Father, send your message to the rebels then go to bed. Staying up as late as you have has done you no favors." Especially since it turned out that that time was practically wasted.

There was a brief, flat look from Sornamal. No longer was she an apprentice, and technically she outranked him. Even still, it was strange for that particular male to be ordered around by the children he raised and taught. The old drow stood and made his way towards his study anyway. Selene was right, of course. His lack of sleep was getting to him.

"Risa, you look tired too." An almost Ashyr-like smirk twitched across her features. "You'll find that we added a reasonable amount of power back in your dimension - if you haven't already sensed it. I'm still not quite clear on how your body works." She had been distracted by other things recently. "We'll gather again after the two of you have recovered. Hopefully, the rebels will have responded by then."

"I did feel the power boost," she admitted. "It is hard to describe my relation with my subprograms running my dimension, but they are me. Just not all of me. This right here is all of me, but not the only one of me. It is the true me, though." She furrowed her brow. "Ugh. Mental exhaustion is dumb. Normally I could say things clearer. Maybe go ask a subprogram." She yawned again.

"Risa? Anything I can assist with? Do you... need help recharging or something?" Tsabdrin offered 'out of the kindness of his heart' and definitely not with 'particular thoughts in his mind.'

Risa flashed him a tired smile. "This me needs sleep. If you want to help me charge, one or more of my inorganic avatars would be happy to withdraw some from you. But I am afraid that this main biological avatar is special access only for a variety of reasons. And also too tired to adequately perform."

With that, she bowed, and a portal snapped over her. She was gone.

"Ah," was all that Tsabdrin said. Actual sleep. Didn't have access anyway. A mirthless, lopsided grin pulled at the corner of his lips, and he rubbed at the back of his neck.

Caleldir noted with concern Tsabdrin's predicament. Risa brushed him off, his sister was rather cool, and in general he seemed to be something of a third wheel. Part of him hoped that Tsabdrin would not develop a significant jealousy towards him since it would be very reasonable for the drow to resent... well, just about everything. Caleldir had stolen a lot from Tsabdrin, after all, from his sister to his crush and both of the other women he had seen him express interest in, even if none of it was done maliciously. But acknowledging that fact out loud would make things worse, not better, so Caleldir stayed silent.

"We need you anyway, I think," Selene told her brother. "You might be able to provide some more insight into what your cousins and brothers might be thinking and doing."

Caleldir turned to those remaining. "Well, after Magister Sornamal sends his message, how should we proceed?"

Selene turned to Caleldir with a much warmer expression than she used when talking to her brother. "We should go and perhaps talk about what our approach needs to be when we talk to them. Best do that inside of Risa's dimension, I think. Eavesdroppers are exceedingly unlikely here, but they are doubly so there."

She took Caleldir by the hand and walked back into the pocket dimension - towards the library, specifically. That was generally her favorite place to think and talk. When she, Caleldir, and Tsabdrin arrived, Selene settled down onto one of the more comfortable couches. Her favorite couch, apparently, as there were books that she wasn't done perusing lying on side tables next to it. Her hand went directly to her stomach - the way she sat accentuated the very slight bulge of her growing pregnancy.

As Selene sat down, Caleldir noted her baby bump and smiled slightly to himself. He was slightly worried about how fast it was going along, by elven standards, but he had made sure that that would not be an issue, so such worries were ultimately only the frettings of a father.