Drow's Dilemma Ep. 103: Labor

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 103: Labor

Everyone got through the portal into Risa's dimension and the door shut out the horrors of the fleshy domain. Safe in her realm, Risa sighed weakly and smiled. "The succubi are in my bag. Someone should pull them out." With another deep sigh, Risa collapsed into the arms of her subsystems and carried herself away to recover. The core party wasn't too surprised when the goddess of this realm collapsed. That was a lot of power that she had just spent - right after she drained a lot of power getting her dimension's time altered.

Thankfully, there were a lot of succubi freshly rescued to aid in powering her back up. Phanuel took the pouch and rather haphazardly dumped its contents onto the floor. Anything that wasn't sex demon, he put back into the pouch. He didn't quite approve of the seduction's existence, but could easily draw the conclusion that they needed to be around, being partially familiar with how Risa worked. Besides, he knew a certain Nymph who may one day prevent the foibles of her born nature from ruling her life. Just as he, a former tiefling did.

"I can see your thinking there, Phanuel," Althaia observed. "And I do not think that the succubi will help with Risa until they themselves have recovered a bit."

[Do not worry. We will take care of them all.] R.I.S.A. said in response. [They will all have to be fed, which takes a lot of effort, but for now, we will put them with the main program in recuperative sleep. They will recover at least a little on their own that way.] And so, the R.I.S.A.s carted away the whole Seduction.

Ashyr stirred in the duergar's arms, and her brown-and-red eyes finally fluttered open. "Tor?" She muttered in confusion.

About the same time as Ashyr was stirring, so was Caleldir. He got up from the ground, groaning. "I am not fond of that personality," he sighed. Then he brightened. "But! he helped get us out of there!"

"Where... oh gods..." the ranger began to ask before her face contorted into a mask of pain.

[You can't have him...]

A faint voice came, this time centered around Ashyr. Evil not natural to her nature began to read in her aura, and chaos began to radiate off her body in heat-distortions that literally caused the air to shift around her.

"It's not over yet," the duergar ('Tor'?) grumbled aloud. "I need a bed to put her on and divine and psionic spellcasters to help ward him away. And a midwife." As he said this, he began to walk purposefully across the hall towards the bedroom that he read off of Selene's mind (who was frozen into speechless inaction.)

"I... can qualify as a midwife, I suppose," Caleldir said uneasily, trying to get his wits about him. "Things are a bit more complex than I usually like, though." Caleldir directed Tor away from the bedroom that Selene had thought of and down to the laboratory, where Risa and he had started recreating the first vestiges of the Geneforge. It was not done yet, and barely functional, but other tools and machines down there could help quite a bit in controlling what was going on.

"I can do the Divine spellcasting when Risa is not available. Sidhriia can help," Althaia added. "And I believe that Selene can use psionics from her artifact. Finally, Phanuel can help ward his father away."

"The first thing to do is to get a genetic sample of the infant," Caleldir said in a brusque tone. "I have Faust's DNA on profile; we can match it with that to check and see if the child is that of the Dark God." Because that really did seem to be the most likely scenario at the moment.

The chaotic evil presence subsided when Ashyr's contraction did. It was still there, though, faintly felt. Waiting like a tiger in the grass. No more words came, only a sense of anger and frustration.

"There is really no need to test whose child that is," Phanuel told the party gravely. "I would be shocked to the core if that isn't my father's. He is doing what he tried to do with me, only this time from birth when the mind and soul are not formed enough to fight as I was able to. But why does he want to be mortal flesh so badly?"

"You can't understand the mind of a chaotic god," Tor grumbled. He seemed to accept the rest of the plan, and so followed Caleldir's lead to his workshop and set Ashyr down with Phanuel's help (for insufficient height reasons.)

"Even if it is obvious that this child is your half-brother, Phanuel, I still need to do a quick genetic analysis," Caleldir replied. "That will tell me a lot of things besides the parentage. And give me the data to concoct a genetic cure for the extreme predilection towards evil that a half-fiend demigod would otherwise have. It will be much more difficult since the baby is currently being born, but it will still be possible with help from Risa." Who was still unconscious. R.I.S.A. could fill in for her somewhat, but only somewhat. "Furthermore, we can also come up with a less-severe version of the countermeasure we took with you to sever your genetic connection with your erstwhile father. This is going to be very difficult."

By that time, Ashyr was more conscious and had yet to undergo another contraction. She was still worryingly sallow and filthy. Her hair was matted and it looked as if she had been wearing the same clothes for months. This seemed to irritate Selene the most; she began to neaten up her cousin with gentle magic and an angry expression. What was left of the clothing had to be removed entirely. Ashyr let herself be fussed over with a dazed, disbelieving expression.

"Tor... how do you know what my family looks like?" she mumbled.

"This is not a mindscape, girl. We're out," The duergar said casually as he began to set out a warding ritual. From seemingly nowhere, He began pulling large crystals that appeared to be non-magical. Selene, however, looked up at them with wonder. To her eyes, they pulsed with intense focusing energy.

Ashyr might have been inclined to respond, but another contraction clearly hit and it was all she could do to struggle through the intense pressure-pain. With it came the heat-wave of evil and the feeling that something was about to claw its way out, just as before.

"Shh, try to relax dearest," Selene cooed softly as she continued to clean Ashyr up. She supposed she was the one to fill the role of birthing coach since she was the only one truly experienced in the mother's side of childbirth. While also trying to focus on assisting with psionic protection and staying calm (because she could do neither job if she panicked.) "I know it hurts, but you have to remember to breathe. The more you fight it, the worse it feels."

Meanwhile, Althaia helped the Duergar with the ritual, while Caleldir and R.I.S.A. started work on prepping their machine. Caleldir did take a moment to give Ashyr a wry smile and a reassuring squeeze on the hand - which she didn't seem to notice - but otherwise was busy with the labor.

The ritual took about as long to set up as this unfinished version of the Geneforge did. It was an ornate ritual that wove together arcane, divine, and psionic magics. It was complex and needed some creativity to properly fold divine magic into the other two. But, when Ashyr's next contraction came near the end of the setup, they were able to activate and proverbially slam the door in the demon god's face when he tried to punch his way through the dimension through his newest son.

"I wonder if we could lay a trap for him," Caleldir mused. "Build a fake, soulless version of this child and 'fail' to keep him from getting through. If we structured that right, we could trap him in a near-powerless form in Risa's domain in a prison specially made for him."

Selene twisted her lips in a dubious expression. That sounded... difficult and unlikely to work. It was, however, the only idea they currently had for taking the demon god down a couple of levels. So she didn't try to outright forbid that plan of action for the present. Not that she was really able to concentrate on anything but making sure that the demon god didn't come into Risa's realm and harm her family. And that Ashyr was as calm and comfortable as possible.

[I am not sure that is possible.] R.I.S.A. responded dubiously. [The theory is good, and building a soulless homunculus version of this child would not be difficult, but I think our enemy is too smart to fall for that.] The projection quivered a bit, thinking.

The Geneforge's setup was finished, however, and the party turned their eye to the projection of a young man standing proudly in front of them, identical to the man from 'Tor's' prophesy that he shared with the party back in the dungeon. At first glance, he was very much like Faust with a slight color shift. His skin coloring was darker crimson, and his full head of hair was a shocking bright red. Ridged and spiraled antelope horns sprouted from his temples and curved around his scalp all the way past the back of his head. And he was large: easily six and a half feet. Aside from all that, he looked like a regular, strangely colored half-elf.

But then things began to change as the Geneforge processed more. His alignment was an uncertain, roiling mass of confusion. A miasma of red-black Chaotic Evil roiled across the outer layer of his skin, but it seemed that underneath was a beacon of Good instead. The layer of Good seemed to bleach his skin to albino white and changed his body and head hair a silvered lilac. Sidhriia smiled at what she could see underneath and brushed her fingers through that part of the projection.

"God-touched either way. Why am I not surprised she'd pull this sort of trickery?" the duergar complained in a low grumble. Most of his concentration was on keeping the ward up, but he was curious to see what the forge did. "Don't get distracted, girlie. Keep channeling," He reminded Riia as he turned his attention back to the ward.

Caleldir drew a deep breath. "Well, that is interesting. It requires further investigation." He rubbed his forehead. "Risa?"

"I have never seen this before, but I can guess what it is," the biological A.I. replied. "Divinely touched, her son is. Clearly from Ashyr's side, but the genetics are not natural."

"Ah. Of course," Caleldir looked over at Sidhriia. "An Oracle," he realized. "Let us get this baby delivered and Ashyr stabilized. Then we can proceed."

In fact, that was what most of the people had to focus on before anything else; Ashyr's contractions were coming more frequently. With each strain her body made, the people around her had to likewise push against the evil presence. It only got more difficult as time went on. In the quiet moments, no one seemed to want to talk much; they merely wanted to recover and gather their strength for the next few difficult moments.

About an hour into it, Tsabdrin stormed into the already crowded room with an angrily annoyed expression on his face. "You should have sent for me," he growled. "Who has nature magic, hmm?"

Hesitantly, Sidhriia raised her hand.

"I am a high-level Druid," Althaia pointed out. "I have lots of nature magic. No experience helping bring a humanoid baby into the world, though."

The male ranger's lips thinned. Right. Okay, so he did not have a concrete excuse to be there. But he'd sooner jump into the abyss than not somehow be of use to Ashyr. "Well. Um. How many of you have assisted in drow births before? I've assisted with all my sons. And a couple of siblings. I can help."

"I know some nature magic, but I am a geneticist, not a midwife," Caleldir added. "If you take my place helping, I can concentrate on brewing up a genetic antidote and decoy for Faust's half-brother." Ashyr's son, that was. Caleldir was not happy about that. Why should Ashyr's child be with that demon god? Sigh. If he was not as dedicated to life as he was, he would have advocated simply killing the child and avoiding any chance of the demon god taking control of him. But he, Althaia, Risa, and possibly Phanuel at this point would have nothing of that plan even if the drow could be persuaded that way. "Technically not a drow birth, though," he added angrily. He did not want to know the details of how this child was conceived.

Selene looked torn. She needed to focus more on her psionics, and Tsabdrin was really the better and more appropriate drow for midwifery and birth-coaching. But she wanted to personally give Ashyr all the attention she could... "Go on," Selene finally said as if it pained her. She stepped out of the way. "You can focus on her."

And so, Tsabdrin joined the group. Althaia and Phanuel continued helping push back against the possession, Caleldir and R.I.S.A. stepped away to build the homunculus and transfer the evil part of the child's nature to it. At this point, before Risa was awake again, the two of them had no idea how long that would take, but the sooner it was done the sooner they could permanently stop the risk of possession.

Hour after exhausting hour went by, with the whole party working in quiet concentration - aside from the occasional mumblings from the scientists and words of encouragement to Ashyr. There was no screaming or really any noise in general from Ashyr. Her face merely contorted with pain in regular, increasingly frequent contractions. There was still exhausted quiet during the in-between times, which only got more pronounced as time went by. Tsabdrin showed the least amount of fatigue, which was as it should have been; his work was mostly for after birth.

Finally, after a half-day of effort, Tsabdrin's encouraging words got more excited and Ashyr looked as if she was in a lot more pain during each contraction. But as this happened, the child's father became increasingly desperate to punch through and possess the child. The strain was like nothing the defending party experienced before or during this ordeal. Sweat drenched the drow sisters' and Phanuel's brow, and all three were trembling. Even the duergar looked as if he had the most massive headache. The screams of frustration from the demon god filled their ears and their minds, and finally, Ashyr screamed back at him with a fury that surprised everyone.

Then a third voice offered his screams to R.I.S.A's little dimension. Tsabdrin worked with quick precision on the crimson-skinned but otherwise completely normal-looking male infant. His skin coloring wasn't even all that off from some strains of drow, as demon-soaked as the race usually was. The chord was cut, and abruptly everything went quiet.

"I think we foiled his plans," said an exhausted 'Tor.' "The child's Mind, once entwined in the mother's, is now a separate entity. His Self is part of his own body now. I believe the demon takes that to mean he failed."

Phanuel nodded slowly. It made sense to him. Tsabdrin shrugged. He wasn't quite sure what was going on. What he did know was that he needed to towel off the worst of the mess on the baby and take care of the afterbirth. Selene and Riia did not make their opinions known about that theory; they both had collapsed into chairs and were sleeping.

"Good thing we got there when we did," Caleldir replied, still working on his job. "Any later and the infant would have been born and possessed."

Althaia shrugged. "As long as we did not delay, we would always have arrived at the exact last moment to avert the end. Such is how these things go."

Caleldir scoffed. "Yeah. In stories."

Althaia nodded. "Indeed."

'Tor' sat down heavily onto a chair and let out a long sigh. "It's more likely that there was something that was suppressing her body from starting the birthing process. Xalthylth was likely not quite ready to take the form of the child. And don't call me Tor. I am High Lord Torernumir Mindshaper. For those ignorant of my name, I am the leader of clan Mindshaper and arguably the most powerful duergar next to the king. Do not reduce my name to 'Tor.'"

Althaia acknowledged the duergar with a slight incline of her head. She was not particularly fond of him. At least her mental fortitude was such that she could easily avoid any mindshaping. Especially from an evil sort like him.

"His name is Xalthylth, then?" Caleldir asked, turning briefly to Phanuel with a bit of a question in his eyes. "That is helpful enough information on its own. I was hungering for a proper noun to appear at some point. Just, it was never quite the time to ask 'who is this guy anyway'." He laughed bitterly. "Anyway, High Lord Mindshaper. Good to know."

Tsabdrin's lips thinned as he continued to examine the child and magic away the birth from him. "The infant might look on the slightly early side. Easily term enough to not worry, though." He ignored the duergar's introduction; Tsabdrin knew who he was. He didn't look too comfortable with him still residing in the birthing room, but he wasn't going to complain after all his assistance. The High Lord probably helped save the whole of the Underdark from a tyrant even the evil-natured denizens would be horrified to have as a ruler.

"As soon as you are ready, Tsabdrin, we can transfer the evil part of the infant's nature to the homunculus," Caleldir said.

"Didn't you hear Lord Torernumir?" Althaia interjected. "The timeline for the possession is over. The mind is no longer interlinked. The demon failed."

"Yeah, but the demon still tried to possess Faust, and Faust was an old, hardened, iron-willed fully mature ruler. This baby is a baby. Better we move ahead and sever the connection now. Even if we have a breather, we do not know when he will rally and reattempt."

"Can... I have him?" asked a quiet, hoarse Ashyr.

The male drow hesitated. Caleldir had said that they were going to 'fix' the child's nature as soon as possible, but that was the first request - the first intelligible words - he had heard from her. "We can wait a bit longer," Tsabdrin said firmly. He wasn't actually sure if it was safe to wait, but he placed this infant at his mother's breast anyway.

Caleldir simply nodded. He was not going to take the baby away. It was hers, not his, after all. Hers and Xalythylth's. What a father.

Ashyr fell back to silence as she received her newborn. Her face was unreadable, but it was beginning to become damp with more than just sweat. She held him, though, in her weak arms. There were no signs of outright rejection.

Caleldir stepped forward and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Ashyr went still and slightly stiff. Her eyes closed and more tears escaped down her cheek.

Abruptly, Sidhriia's eyes snapped open, a moonlight glow bathed the room in its white light instead of her usual pink irises. [Xalthylth is throwing a temper tantrum. Duskhaven is being destroyed. Rescue her people, heroes.] She said in a light, feminine voice. It was more than just a voice, though. It was a feeling. A smell. A vision.

The interruption of probably-possessed-by-some-holy-force Sidhriia was almost welcome. Althaia stood back up from where she had heavily sat down with a sigh. "Well, no rest for the righteous." She put a glowing hand on herself, closed her eyes, let out a long breath, and shook herself back to full energy. "I can magically stave off weariness for a time, so let us leave R.I.S.A. with you, Ashyr, while the rest of us go and make sure your city will still be standing for your triumphal return. "