Danica Pt. 20

“I don’t know if it’s love or lust, Danica.” Celes took a deep breath and shuddered. “Gods, Danica, I can taste the scent of you in the air. I changed the toy you made me so that it is you it summons when I activate the magic. I need you there so badly that I had to do something.”

Danica’s passions were rising to a fever pitch now, sitting close to Celes and seeing the need in the woman’s eyes. “What is stopping us?” Danica breathed huskily.

Again, Celes’ lip quivered. “Danica, beneath the illusion you see, I’m still old. The moment you touch me, you’re going to feel reality, not the illusion. I couldn’t bear it if you winced away from me. That would surely send me over the edge into madness and despair.”

Danica slid her hand behind Celes’ head, stroking the woman’s dark tresses and looking into her eyes. In a sudden moment of passion, she leaned down and kissed Celes.

Celes stiffened at first, and then she melted into the kiss. Danica could feel nothing except the raw emotion pouring out of Celes, joy and wonder at a kiss she never thought to feel.

Their lips parted, although Danica remained close. The illusion was not broken, Danica still saw Celes as young, vibrant, and filled with need. Her hand moved to the material of Celes’ robe, bunching it up with quick movements of her fingers.

Celes trembled, whispering, “Danica... We... I... Please don’t tease me. We can’t do this.”

Danica kissed her again, more passionately this time. She pulled at Celes’ robes with renewed vigor as well. When they broke from the kiss, Danica said, “I still see you as you should be.”

Her robes now bunched up above her knees, Celes gasped as Danica tugged the cloth higher. “It will be different if you... Danica, the illusion won’t hold. I can’t bear it.”

Danica pulled the cloth up above Celes’ panties, and then quickly cupped the woman’s sex in her hand. She could feel the heat radiating through the cloth, and Celes’ back arched toward her from the touch.

The illusion – reinforced by the image of her true self in Celes’ mind – held.

Looking up into Celes’ eyes, she slid two fingers beneath the cotton cloth and pulled it away, pushing Celes gently down to the bed at the same time. Looking down, she saw the woman’s perfect folds, and Danica’s arousal spiked to levels that she could no longer ignore.

“Please, Danica,” Celes sobbed, the tone of her voice betraying that she could not decide whether her own statement was meant to ask Danica to stop, or to hurry, as her back came to rest on the bed below.

Danica hooked her thumb under the cloth of Celes’ panties, and slipped two fingers between the woman’s nether lips.

Celes loudly moaned, her back arching completely up off the bed. Danica’s senses reeled in the face of Celes’ scent of arousal, and the moist warmth squeezing tight around her fingers. Danica stroked the digits, drawing a sharp gasp from Celes. The illusion Danica saw did not even waver. The sense of peace she had sensed around Tam flooded through her, but it felt as though it were coming from within instead of without this time. The serenity mingled with her arousal and love, strengthening it.

Danica’s other hand moved to Celes’ thigh, and Celes snapped her legs wide apart the moment she felt the touch. The woman was still sobbing, but she was committed now, she could not have forced Danica away to save her very life at this moment. Even though she still felt this would only come to disaster, it was too late to stop the inevitable. She needed Danica – desperately – and she couldn’t bear to wait another moment.

Danica leaned down, drowning in the scent of Celes’ arousal, enraptured by the sight of the woman’s wetness clinging to her fingers. Fueled by the magic of the Awakening and the need flowing out from Celes and echoing in her mind, Danica barely noticed the illusion wavering slightly before her as she drew nearer to Celes’ sex. Her tongue snaked out, and the moment it made contact with Celes’ flesh, a violent jolt of energy shot through her, hurling her off the bed and into the floor below.

Scrambling back to her feet, Danica stared in horror at Celes. The illusion had shattered, revealing the truth of her old body, age spots and wrinkles dominating what had been smooth thighs a moment before. The woman was hovering a foot above the bed, her back arched so that her hair draped over the mattress and her toes grazed it as well. Celes’ mouth was open in a silent scream, and her entire body trembled as if shaken by a violent earthquake from within. An angry red glow surrounded her, and her flesh rippled in nauseating waves over her bones.

Danica reached out and moved forward, but some force hurled her violently backward again before her hand could touch the obviously pain-wracked woman before her.

Rolling back up to her knees, Danica stood and sobbed out Celes’ name, again walking toward the bed. She was determined that she was either going to do something, or die trying.

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

A jolt passed through Zoraster, knocking him back in his chair and sending the glass of wine in his hand tumbling to the stones below.

Reaching out with his mind, he discovered nothing amiss. His eyes narrowing and his teeth clenched tight, he began gesturing to the mirrors arrayed before him. Zoraster shifted the focus of the devices to hundreds of people and places he watched, attempting to discern the nature of the disturbance that had just assaulted him.

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

Rogan Illiciat’s hand twitched, rendering the spell scroll he was scribing useless, although he paid the ruined document absolutely no attention.

Reaching out with his mind, much as Zoraster was doing hundreds of miles away, Illiciat smiled and chuckled, finding what he sought where the other found only frustration.

Opening his eyes, he whispered, “Well, well – it appears perhaps things are moving more quickly than I thought,” and rose from his chair.

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

The stone suddenly sang out with a note of exaltation in Vellana’s mind. She opened her eyes and gasped, seeing the stone’s glow was now a rosy pink, the light pulsing as if in tune with a fast heartbeat. “Master, what is it?”

A wide smile on his face, and tears gathering in his eyes, Tam replied, “Hope.”

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

Danica turned her head to the side, the glow surrounding Celes growing brighter by the moment. She quickly spoke the words of a spell, her hands moving through the gestures in a rapid dance before her. The magic came into being, and then almost immediately dissolved.

Danica risked a glance back at Celes, and found that she couldn’t even see the woman through the nimbus of light now. Indeed, she couldn’t even look directly at her, because the light was so bright it stabbed into Danica’s brain.

She started to cast the spell again, but had to stop and back away when a wave of heat erupted from the burning light in front of her as well. Danica stumbled back, her arms held like a shield in front of her face, screaming Celes’ name in choking sobs.

Just when she felt her robes were going to burst into flames, the heat blasting against Danica started to ebb. Through her closed eyelids, she could see the light in the room dimming as well.

Letting her eyes flutter open to just slits for fractions of a second, Danica opened them fully when they could bear the still diminishing light. The heat was gone now, and Danica let her arms fall. On the bed, the light was still too bright to look directly into, but in the edges of her vision, she could see a faint outline of Celes now, still hovering above the bed and trembling.

The light faded, and Danica stared in wide-eyed wonder at her friend on the bed. Celes’ eyes were closed, and she appeared unconscious, but the rise and fall of her chest revealed that she was still alive.

Running to the bed, tears of joy filling her eyes, Danica cradled Celes’ head in her hands and called out her name. Celes stirred slightly, moaning and tightening her closed eyes. When one of Danica’s tears fell on her cheek, Celes’ eyes fluttered, and then slowly opened.

“Danica?” Celes asked wearily, a look of disorientation and weakness evident in her face.

Danica let out a little chuckle, broken by a sob of joy, and cried, “Oh, Celes!”

“What happened?” Celes asked as Danica helped her sit up on the bed. Her head was clearing now, and the weakness she had felt upon waking was fading rapidly as well. The wide smile on Danica’s face was still confusing, as was the joy and wonder reflected in her eyes.

Then it hit her.

Celes looked down at her hands. Smooth and unlined, the age spots that had plagued them were missing. Pulling over a lock of her hair that was tickling her ear, Celes saw it was raven-dark, rather than iron-grey. Her eyes opening wide, Celes reached up to squeeze her breasts, finding them riding high and firm once more. She looked at Danica, tears now streaming down her face as well.

Danica gathered up Celes in her arms, sobbing laughter wracking both their bodies, and she gasped, “Zoraster’s curse is broken! You’re young again!”

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

Zoraster darkened all the mirrors with a thought and a harsh slash of his hand. He stood and stomped out of the room, irritated by the sensation he could not pin down. It had felt much as if a powerful spell of his casting was broken, something he had not experienced in years, but there was no evidence anywhere of this having happened. The sensation felt muted compared to that which he remembered as well, and rather than the weakness that normally followed, it left a strange void within him.

When he stepped out into the hall, a sight greeted him that drained away his irritation. Appearing in a flash of light was his newest servant, returned from experiencing the world for the first time.

Zoraster examined the man, pleased with his creation. Standing some six inches taller than most men, he was powerfully muscled. His dirty-blonde hair hung just to his shoulders, and his long fingered, strong hands rhythmically clenched at his side. A wide smile decorated his handsome face, a face dominated by piercing blue eyes, flecked with gold. Zoraster had searched the world over until he found the perfect specimen for his experiment.

“I trust you find the world a pleasurable place, Ebonar?”

The smile on the man’s face grew even wider, and more wicked. “Indeed, I do, Master. Memories fade. In their making, they are experienced in their full glory.”

“Excellent. You will soon be ready to assume your place in my great game. Go now and take your rest. We shall test your command of the Art on the morrow.”

Ebonar dipped his head in a shallow bow, and walked down the hall to the room set aside for him here within Zoraster’s inner sanctum. He had never been here, yet he moved unerringly through the halls, acting upon memories given to him over the course of a year’s nurturing.

Zoraster watched the clone with deep satisfaction. Housed within that perfect body were his mind and his memories, carefully altered to keep Ebonar tractable. The one being he could trust implicitly, Ebonar would hold the reins of power here whenever Zoraster had matters more important to attend to elsewhere. Zoraster was now free to move forward with the more intricate portions of his grand design.

“I will cleanse this world in fire, and forge it anew,” Zoraster chuckled under his breath.

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

Still sniffling, the grin on her face so wide it felt unnatural, Celes asked, “But how?”

Danica shrugged, wiping her eyes and nose on her sleeve. “I don’t know, and frankly I don’t care!”

Celes laughed, squeezing her breasts again. “Gods, that feels good,” she muttered, drawing another laugh and a slight moan from Danica.

A knock sounded on the door, and both women frowned in irritation. “They probably saw the light, or felt the heat, it was tremendous,” Danica explained.

Celes sighed. “I don’t remember anything except a vague sense of pain. Go on, answer it and then get them to go away. I just want to be with you right now.”

Danica smiled and replied, “Me too,” while going to answer the door.

Tam smiled wide when Danica opened the door. “So, the curse is broken, as I suspected.”

“How did you...” Danica stopped and laughed, “I suppose that’s a silly question. You seem to know everything, and you probably won’t tell me anyway.”

The old man winked. “Even a wish has its limits, and the power that cursed Celes was great. There would have been conditions placed upon the spell, a means to break it. It would have been something the man who cursed her assumed could never come to pass, but remained within the realm of possibility.”

Like the touch of another woman, Danica thought.

Tam nodded, and Danica blushed, remembering that the old man could apparently read her mind.

With a slight chuckle, the guardian patted Danica’s cheek fondly. “Please, see me in the morning. There are things I can reveal to you now, but I am sure you wish solitude this night. I simply wished to ensure what I believed had happened here, and I have done that. Blessings upon the both of you.”

With that, Tam nodded again and turned away from the door to walk down the hall. Danica closed the door and turned back to Celes.

“Zoraster never expected another woman to find me arousing again, and thought his condition was perfect,” Celes speculated.

“That has to be it,” Danica agreed, crossing the room. She sat down on the bed, her passions roaring to bonfire intensity once more. “Why don’t we pick up where we were so rudely interrupted,” Danica suggested in a lusty whisper, and then soundly kissed Celes’ full lips.

Their arms entangled as Danica and Celes both reached for each other’s robes at the same time. Danica laughed into the kiss, and then pulled back from Celes slightly. Reaching out, she traced her fingers over Celes’ right breast, drawing a sigh of pleasure from the woman. Letting her fingers slide down, she untied the belt at Celes’ waist. Danica then turned her attention to the clasps holding the robe closed, starting at the neckline.

As each clasp came undone, Celes breathed deeper, her anticipation growing. Danica reached through the part, pulling the cloth wide when she unhooked the clasp just below Celes’ breasts.

Danica moaned and glided her hands over the firm globes, circling the puffy, slightly darker areolas with her fingertips when she reached them. She then rubbed Celes’ hard nipples with her thumbs while caressing the globes with her fingers.

Danica leaned forward, flicking her tongue over the turgid bud of Celes’ right breast, bringing Celes’ hand to the back of her head. The dark-haired woman stroked Danica’s hair and whimpered contentedly as her nipples were suckled in turn.

Danica did not even release Celes from her mouth when she continued to open clasps. Celes reached down to tug and unknot the belt around Danica’s waist at the same time, immediately followed by unhooking the clasps on Danica’s robe.

Both women shrugged off their robes, and then fell into each other for a deep, impassioned kiss. Their breasts tightly pressed together, sending shivers up both their spines. There would be time later for gentleness and exploring, for now they both had a deep, urgent need that demanded satiation.

Danica leaned forward, pressing Celes down to the bed – their tongues dancing over each other as they kissed. When Celes came to rest on the bedclothes below, Danica gave a last teasing flicker of her tongue over Celes’ and rose up above the other woman on her hands.

Danica’s pendulous breasts swayed slightly, her large nipples grazing over Celes’ perfect globes. She leaned down to kiss the valley between them, and then trailed kisses down Celes’ body, drawing ever nearer where they both wanted her to be. When she reached the neatly sculpted patch of night-black hair above Celes’ sex, Danica traced around it with her tongue. The strokes of Danica’s tongue drew tantalizingly close to Celes’ aching pussy, causing the other woman to writhe and moan beneath Danica.

Moving downward slightly, Danica looked up into Celes’ eyes, letting her auburn locks tickle over the smooth-shaven nether lips below. Licking her lips, Danica slowly lowered her head, enraptured once again in the sight and scent of the aroused woman beneath her.

This time, the touch of Danica’s tongue drew a sharp whimper of pleasure from Celes.

“Oh gods, Danica, I’ve wanted this so badly, for so long.”

Danica moaned, looking up at Celes, and teased her tongue over Celes clit in quick flickers, smiling mischievously. Celes responded by letting out an impatient – but sensual – growl, laying her hands on Danica’s head and tugging the woman’s tongue into her folds.

Pulled into the fragrant flesh, Danica suckled Celes’ labia between her lips, rolling them with her tongue. The bittersweet taste of Celes’ juices was intoxicating, and Danica stabbed her tongue as deep as possible into the woman’s hot sheathe, seeking more of the steadily increasing wetness.

Celes’ hips rocked upward in a steady rhythm, chilly pinpricks of pleasure erupting all over her skin, but centered in her nipples and the throbbing bud at the apex of her sex. After long torturous years of dreaming about it, Celes finally experienced Danica’s questing tongue driving her toward a thunderous release.

Danica quickly turned her attention to Celes’ swollen clit, eager to feel the woman quivering in orgasm beneath her. With broad swipes of her tongue, flickers of the tip, and urgent suckling of the erect bud, Danica pushed her friend ever closer to the edge.

In a series of sharp gasps, Celes exclaimed, “I’m so close. So good, Danica. Don’t stop.”

Danica had no intention of stopping, and increased the urgency of her lapping, hungry to taste the flow of Celes’ cream and hear her explosive screams of orgasm.

Those screams came a moment later, Celes pulling Danica hard against her quivering sex, and wrapping her legs tight around Danica’s back. The excitedly moaning redhead lapped for the flowing stream of Celes’ wetness, filled with wonder from the tight squeeze of Celes’ pussy against her tongue with each orgasmic contraction.

Danica continued to lap and suck, holding Celes in perfect blissful release for several moments before Celes’ arched back fell heavily to the bed once more. Danica slowed down then, for a time, but did not stop lapping the beautiful pussy beneath her. She was soon building Celes toward another explosive release, and drowning in the wonderful sensation.

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

When Danica awoke, she and Celes were facing each other, their bodies intertwined, in exactly the same position as when they had fallen asleep. As Danica roused, Celes stretched and let out a little moan.

“So what do you think?” Danica asked.

“I think we probably both need a bath,” Celes chuckled.

Danica swatted her playfully on the bottom. “I meant, how do you feel? Is it love, or lust that’s drawing us together?”

Celes smiled and replied, “A bit of both, really. I do love you, but I’m not sure I’m in love with you. We’ve just been so close while Zoraster tormented us, and you were my only distraction from the place for so long.”

Danica returned her smile and agreed, “I feel pretty much the same. Anyone who wants to get closer to either of us is going to have to accept that we have something special, and we’re going to feel the need to act on that once in a while.”

“More often than that, I think,” Celes teased, and moved in to kiss Danica’s neck.

Danica shivered, moaned, and then gently pushed Celes away. “Stop that. You’re right, we both need a bath.”