Danica Pt. 17

Celes sent her thoughts to Danica, Trying to get them away from Zoraster? Use the Hellgate to get them there. He can't trace that if you don't step through the portal on the other side. It might help hide them from him. She then said aloud, "Let me know when you get home."

Good idea. Thank you, Celes. Danica thought back, and then said, "I will. How about you, Andrea, and Marlena come here tomorrow and I'll roast turkey. I found one and had a taste for it. I'll never finish it all before it goes bad."

"I'll let them know. Maybe we'll finally all get together for once."

"See you tomorrow then."

Celes left for Marlena's room and Danica teleported to the seaside town of Suthpaeral in Agreseus.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

Zoraster sat receiving reports both magical and mundane. He was near to planting the first seeds of his conquest, and there was much to do in preparation. He had remained secreted in his study doing exactly that for several days. Everything demanded his attention, because he trusted no one to do it for him.

Currently, the most critical necessity was to ensure that his dupes and agents throughout the world were prepared and knew their role when the time came. As the reports came in, Zoraster was pleased to see that all appeared to be in readiness or proceeding toward such on schedule.

This night would see another critical part of his plan set into motion. There were many with similar goals to his who could prove troublesome. Most he had found ways to ally with or neutralize. There was one threat yet remaining, and he planned to deal with that tonight.

It had proved difficult and annoying to arrange the meeting with Meckataur the Destroyer. Zoraster would have preferred to simply teleport into the Demon's presence and begin his negotiations, but that would have precipitated a battle that was counter-productive to his plans.

It would also have forced the removal of the Demon's wards, which would prevent Darkniciad and others from spying on him. Arranging the meeting allowed him to negotiate under the Demon's magical protections that were already in place and effective.

Meckataur could prove to be an irritation if working against him, and a valuable asset working with him. An item he possessed was Zoraster's true goal, however. He had only just learned of the artifact, a welcome addition he had thought denied to him. The demon had no use for it, but it would serve as the final catalyst for a spell that would cause ripples throughout the world. It would also prepare the way for his greatest magic, opening a path to the stone at last.

Once the stone was in his possession, those ripples would become a tidal wave that would destroy any who opposed him, be they man or god.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

Zoraster didn't have an outpost in Suthpaeral; it was on the sea just as the couple wanted, and had many other factors that made it the perfect location for what Danica had in mind.

There was a magic school here that catered to the wealthy, the perfect clientele for the couple's wares. There was no glassblower in town, which was fair sized, but not too crowded. Many wealthy merchants had winter homes here, so the population was much more diverse than common in the region. The presence of those merchants had also prompted a local to make a very wise investment, constructing a large meetinghouse that served snacks and coffee around the clock. The place was dispelled, and had lead lined walls that prevented scrying. It had become a hub of merchant negotiations almost immediately upon opening for business.

Since nearly all business in the town was conducted there, Danica could make her purchases inside, and Zoraster would be none the wiser. Because she had purchased apartments in so many places, preferring to have a place to call home when she was outside the complex, her meeting would not appear odd. She had actually purchased a small dwelling to aid in covering up her true motive of getting Heather and Grant away from Zoraster's influence. This meeting would look like a follow up to seal that already completed transaction.

Danica had already observed the house she planned to buy for the couple inside and out through the Hellgate. She shook her head and chuckled as she considered that she hadn't even thought to send the couple through the Hellgate alone in her effort to hide them, until Celes had suggested it. She had noticed the place was for sale while exploring the town, and had instantly thought of Heather and Grant.

Danica went to the meetinghouse and found the man who owned the dwelling after only a few inquiries. He was in negotiations with another for that very building, and Danica had to bargain hard to attain it. She ended up paying a tidy sum of coin for the place, but decided it was well worth it.

Upon sealing the deal with a handshake, the merchant asked what sort of business was going to be conducted there. When Danica explained the nature of the couple's trade, he immediately recognized the lucrative opportunity, just as Danica had. He expressed interest in investing in the business, as he had some interests that could prove mutually beneficial with such a shop.

Danica promised to bring it up with the couple, thinking it would be a good idea upon hearing what he was offering. His suggestion would open up the potential for more wares in the couple's shop, and provide them with plenty of extra coin to get things going.

Another session of negotiations set into motion the construction of the equipment Grant would need to ply his trade. With that done, it was time to visit some of the shops in the region for typical purchases.

Danica bought what furnishings and other necessities she needed for her apartment, noting the wares of each shop so that she could point Heather and Grant toward them when it came time for them to furnish their home. Danica planned to cover that cost as well with a large gift of coin that she was not going to let them refuse.

She had already spent a large amount of coin purchasing her apartments, the home for the couple, and furnishings for her dwelling. When the cost of furnishing the couple's home that she had reached in her head was taken into account, it was a small fortune. The cost didn't really put a dent in Danica's finances, however. In addition to the coin she had available from Zoraster, Danica had began to make money enchanting common magic items for the wizards of the complex. Her reputation had spread as more of these items circulated.

Damian was still the master, but he rarely took common projects, so Danica reaped most of those benefits. The enchantments were simple and well documented, so it took Danica little time to complete the requests, and brought her a lot of coin.

Shopping done, she ate at a nearby Inn, and then went to her new apartment to arrange the items that were delivered that day. The rooms were still sparse at the end of the day, but at least they were now livable.

Danica lay back on her new bed, one that she would eventually replace with something more to her liking. The bed was comfortable, and because it was ready to be delivered today, Danica purchased it so she would have a place to sleep immediately.

Looking around the room, she was thinking about how she would decorate the place. She always tried to decorate in the local style – with her own unique touches – in each of her apartments. She was glad of the times she lived in, because only a decade or so before, it would have been impossible to find places like this. The business had been born of ingenious innkeepers who realized that numerous wandering sellswords and bachelors would like to have a small place to call home. Once the first few buildings filled to capacity, word quickly spread and they were springing up all over the continent.

With only one or two rooms, they offered more space and comfort than the room of an inn, but were much cheaper than purchasing or building a home that would have more space than a single person could use.

Here, Danica had a kitchen that was fully separated from the common room that also served as a bedroom. The owner of this establishment had also invested in a bathhouse for the tenants, one that rivaled the larger ones in the city for comforts and amenities.

Such bathhouses had originated in this region, and the ones here offered unique experiences not yet available elsewhere. Thinking about the baths, the likes of which she had not experienced in quite some time, sparked Danica to rise.

Leaving her rooms, Danica walked down the hall toward the back of the building where the bathhouse was attached to the complex by a short covered walkway. The small exercise yard at the other end of the walkway was empty, which gave Danica hope that the baths would not prove crowded. The locals engaged in light exercise before bathing, something that Danica had never fully understood. The whole point of bathing was to get clean, and the locals took time out to cover their bodies in sweat and dust before entering.

Walking into the bathhouse itself, the heat of the place hit Danica just before she reached the door. The intensity of the heat stole her breath at first, but Danica knew it was very relaxing once the initial shock passed. She walked toward the loincloth-clad servant who greeted everyone in the baths, accepting a pair of wooden soled sandals and a large towel from the man.

She located an empty cubicle in which to place her belongings and removed her clothing. Men and women bathed together here, though a few segregated bathhouses had emerged with the influx of foreign merchants. Nudity and sexuality had almost no stigma attached to them in this land, so the changing room was a wide-open space directly in view of the door, which didn't disturb Danica in the least. She was unashamed of her body, and anyone inside was going to see it soon enough.

Wrapping the towel around her, Danica was pleased to note that it at least did cover her completely. On occasion, she had found that the towels in the bath houses were simply not sized for a woman with breasts as large as hers. This caused the towels to feel uncomfortable and constantly threaten to come untucked and fall to the floor. She slipped her feet into the sandals and turned back toward the man who had provided her with them.

The servant was there to protect the bather's belongings as well as hand out the sandals and towels, but Danica warded the cubicle in which she placed her clothes anyway. She handed the man a coin from a small purse she carried, as was customary. The gesture also served to avoid offending him by the use of her magic to protect her possessions. Once the man accepted the coin, Danica passed through the doorway behind him.

The heat and humidity grew more pronounced as Danica walked down the short hallway toward another doorway. Clouds of steam drifted out of the doorway ahead, a signal of what she would find upon entering.

The room was completely filled with a thick cloud of hot steam, which was created both by the pool in the center of the floor and a man ladling water over hot rocks in the corner. This room was smaller than what might be found in a larger bathhouse in the city, so Danica could actually see all the edges. She knew that the steam in these saunas was thick enough to almost completely obscure the opposite side of the room in the larger bathhouses.

Danica decided to sit on one of the stone benches along the walls first, allowing her body to adjust to the heat of the place. The man with the ladle was the only other person in the room, again giving Danica hope that she wouldn't be crowded as she bathed today. She was soon coated in droplets of sweat and condensed moisture from the air.

After absorbing the heat of the room for a short while, Danica rose and walked toward the shallow pool at the center of the room. The water was obviously hot, steam curling up from its surface. Danica ignored the hooked implements hanging from stone racks surrounding the pool, which the locals used to scrape their skin clean, instead removing a washcloth from her purse.

The man pouring water over the hot rocks barely seemed to notice as she unwrapped the towel from her body and hung it over one of the racks. She walked over to the pool and kicked off her sandals, the heat from the floor tiles on her bare feet reminding her pointedly why people wore the sandals in the baths. She hurried to get her feet off the hot floor, walking down the two submerged steps and settling into the pool.

The water was hot, just barely below the point of feeling uncomfortably so. Danica felt like all of her pores were opening, allowing trapped dirt and oil to wash away. Laying her head back in the water, she floated and let it soak for a while.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the man in the room quickly tear his eyes away from her breasts and focus on the hot stones once more. Danica smiled, amused that a man who saw naked bodies all day would find his eyes drawn to her.

She wished for some soap as she washed, but felt as if the hot water was doing a good job of helping lift the oil and grit from her. She doubted the locals who didn't use soaps would be amused if she had brought some.

Danica rose up out of the tub and put back on the sandals, feeling clean despite the lack of soap. When she turned and flipped the towel over her shoulder, she saw the man with the ladle pull his eyes away from her again. She walked over and offered him a wink and a grin while depositing a coin in the bowl next to where he labored. He smiled back and took a good look at her as she walked out of the hot room.

Danica glanced at the twin pools in the next room, but passed them by. The water would be lukewarm, but would feel frigid after the heat of the previous experience. While Danica knew it would be invigorating, she didn't really feel like enduring the shock today. She continued on into the next room.

The air here was cooler by comparison to the previous rooms, though Danica knew it was still very hot in reality. The pool in this room was much larger, and had benches carved into the submerged sides that allowed bathers to sit and soak in the pool. Two men and a woman, all with dirty blonde hair and attractive, lounged in the pool chatting. They were all sipping wine, one man having his glass refilled by a servant who stood nearby.

"Welcome, my name is Phileta. Those who share the bath are Bellicus and Silvanus," the woman said, gesturing to the two men in turn. She was speaking in the common trade tongue, having recognized Danica as a foreigner.

Danica felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cooler temperature of the air in the room as the three let their eyes roam over her curves without shame. It was obvious in their appraising glances that they were intrigued by what they saw, and Danica's body was responding to that attention with desire.

Both men had square jaws and dark green eyes, giving Danica the impression that they might be brothers, so similar was their appearance. Their bodies were free of hair, through either plucking or shaving, and well muscled. She could just barely see their cocks through the ripples in the water, and her desire spiked higher when she noticed they were well endowed.

Phileta was fair skinned, blessed with large breasts that sparkled with droplets of water running down the half submerged globes. Her light brown areole culminated in only slightly darker, flattened tips that hovered at the water's surface, occasionally submerging in the ripples and with her breath. Danica could see the deep pink of Phileta’s bare sex beneath the waves as well, and the woman aroused her passion as much as did the men.

"My name is Danica. May I join you in the bath?" She asked with a smile.

"Of course, would you care for some wine?" Bellicus responded.

"That would be wonderful. I know how good the wine is here," Danica replied as she sank down into the warm waters of the pool.

"You have taken rooms here, have you not?" Silvanus asked, taking a sip of his own wine.

Danica nodded to the serving woman, who handed her a cup of wine. "Yes, though I don't know how often I'll be here."

Phileta pouted. "That is a pity; I hoped we might get to know each other better." There was an obvious note of suggestion in her voice.

Danica grinned, the smile revealing plainly that she had picked up on the suggestion. "We could get to know each other in the time we have."

Danica noticed that Phileta's nipples were growing more pronounced, obviously hardening. Her own buds were already swollen to stiff points, and she noticed similar swelling occurring beneath the surface of the water between the two men's legs.

Silvanus adjusted himself beneath the water, obviously trying to draw attention to his rising manhood. "We likewise desire to become acquainted with you."

Danica dropped all pretenses then and purred, "I'd like to become very closely acquainted with both of you as well."

Phileta let out a purring moan and rose from where she sat, moving to Danica and licking her lips. Danica echoed the moan, turned toward the other woman, and then gasped when Phileta locked her lips around the rigid flesh of her nipple.

Waves broke against Danica's back as the two men rose. She saw Silvanus walk in front of her as she felt Bellicus press his body up against her, kissing her neck, his erection nestling between her buttocks.

Phileta moved to the side, never releasing Danica's nipple as Silvanus came to stand in front of Danica. As Bellicus continued to kiss her neck, Danica reached down beneath the water and pulled Silvanus closer by gripping his erect manhood. She was aching to be filled, and wasted no time pulling the tip of his cock up against her sex.

The man laid his hands over her shoulders as Danica guided him inside her. She moaned as he penetrated her and felt Bellicus' hands gripping her hips beneath the water. A moment later, Silvanus was buried to the root and Bellicus was pulling her cheeks apart with one hand to guide his cock between them. Danica gasped as the flared tip of his cock pushed into her ass.

Phileta released Danica's nipple after a final tug at the turgid flesh, then ducked under Silvanus' arm and reached down to rub Danica's folds. "Ever impatient are men, but I am content to wait for a taste of you."

Danica gasped again as Bellicus pushed deeper inside her from behind and Silvanus started to stroke his shaft inside her. "You can taste Silvanus too when he fills me full."

Phileta purred and Silvanus let out a pleased grunt as he heard that Danica would allow him to come inside the hot sheathe of her sex. He thrust faster even as Bellicus began to stroke his cock in Danica's ass.

Danica groaned as she was assaulted from both front and back, the power behind the thrusting cocks inside her increasing by the moment. Phileta rubbed both Danica's bud and her own as the grunting men stoked Danica's fires.

Between being filled so completely and Phileta's dancing fingers, Danica was building quickly toward release. She gasped and yelped, the hot glow in her loins growing stronger and her skin steadily flushing in a deepening crimson as the heat within her sought escape.

Danica's half-closed eyes popped wide open and she screamed as her climax flared to life. The initial burst of release was quickly followed by another warbling scream as the two men's cocks and the woman's fingers continued their actions unabated. Were it not for the buoyancy of the water and the two men's hands on her, Danica would have collapsed when her knees began to quiver beneath her.

Silvanus' face twisted into a mask of ecstasy and he pushed down hard on Danica's shoulders, thrusting his cock upward inside her with a loud scream of release. Silvanus' sperm burst forth into her depths and Danica screamed, "Oh yes!"