Embrace of the Goddess Ch. 05

Chapter 5: The Pools

Fella

"It's done." Fella took a step away from her apprentice and examined her work. Farryn's skin was like dark tea with creme, and now through each brown nipple was a small circle of bone carved from the larger bones left of Maloth. Iriel had told her all about it, and though part of Fella thought it was the ravings of a madwoman, she was compelled to listen. Perhaps it was curiosity. Perhaps it was respect for Iriel's position. It didn't matter. She had done as she was told, and now a splinter of the dark goddess ran through Farryn's flesh.

It had taken almost a week of the two working side by side. The concept was simple, imbuing a command spell through runes and enchantment into the bone so that whoever was pierced by it would obey the commands of the spell's caster. But a command spell is only a short term compulsion. It's fickle. A person can obey the letter of the law without obeying the spirit of it. For example, during their first test, Iriel had commanded Farryn to speak, but Farryn babbled in an imaginary language. She had spoken, but she was escaping Iriel's intention. A more powerful spell would require stronger components. The spell had to be continually replenished in order to sustain control.

That's when Iriel brought Fella down to the throne room.

She didn't know what was down here. She wasn't sure anyone did. Iriel mocked her the whole way down, saying she should see her own face. Fella was sure it was one of horror, though inwardly she was fascinated that beneath Azora's chapel was the tomb of Maloth. Maybe that was the spell. It was getting harder to tell these days what was the whim of Iriel's corruption and the slow compliance of Fella.

But what she discovered was not a tomb at all. Instead, there was a lush grotto covered in flowers and green grass. There was a waterfall that flowed into tiny pools, each separated from each other and dotting around the cavern like a spa. The water in the pools was foul, smoking and bubbling like thick tar. It didn't match the ceiling glittered with multi-colored crystals, or when Iriel was in a good mood, she would send up lights to the top of the cavern and let the light refract over them in an extravagance of beauty. At the center of the chamber, where Iriel said there used to be an exquisite mirror, was a throne made of blackened glass and obsidian. It was curved and polished, with ornate engravings Fella got close enough to see clearly. Whenever she got too close, she heard a faint whispering in her ear, like her cruel grandmother, or perhaps an ex-love. The worst things she could imagine being said to her radiated from the throne, and that was enough for Fella to avoid it as much as possible.

"You're sure?" asked Iriel. The High Priestess was still wearing the robes of a High Priestess of Azora, but down here she didn't keep up the pious farce. She left it unbuttoned so that the rising sun was split apart by the thin line of flesh between her breasts and her navel. Her body had changed to match her new brazenness: her breasts were rounder and full, her skin was a rich lavender, and her fingertips were replaced with long black claws. Her formerly copper hair was a dark black, and sometimes Fella thought she saw the beginnings of horns sprouting from the High Priestess's head. Iriel used magic to disguise herself when talking to the masses, but alone in her chamber or in the throne room, she became her new self. Her true self.

"Yes, I'm sure. Do you want to try?"

Iriel smirked. "Farryn, can you hear me?"

Farryn blinked several times. Her blue eyes were blank and her thick red hair draped down her back. Her chest was bare, showing off the thin lines of her body and the tight muscles under her small frame. "Yes."

"Crawl on your knees and beg me to fuck you," ordered Iriel.

Farryn flinched. She blushed as her eyes looked away from Iriel. "Um ... I ... I'm not sure this is a good idea, Your Eminence. May I please put something on? It's cold. I —"

"How do I activate the spell?" asked Iriel.

"Fove," said Fella.

"Please, Your Eminence," said Farryn. "Perhaps we can find another acolyte to -"

"Fove," whispered Iriel.

The bone piercings through Farryn's nipples glowed a faint purple as the spell lit the runes etched into it. Farryn didn't respond to the spell's power. "I won't tell anyone if you let me go," she said. "I promise. I'll even help you make more, but I don't see why I need to be the one to —"

"Crawl on your knees and beg me to fuck you," ordered Iriel.

Farryn fell to her knees and crawled, her robe falling from her waist and leaving her naked except for her undergarments. Iriel spread her own robe, revealing her bare and shaved pussy. Without hesitation or ceremony, Farryn pawed at Iriel's thigh and rested her head against the High Priestess. "Please, Your Eminence," she asked in the same whine as before. "Please fuck me. Please, oh please. I'll do anything you want, absolutely anything. Please fuck me. It's all I've ever -"

"Stop," ordered Iriel.

Farryn froze in place, her arms still wrapped around Iriel's thigh.

Iriel looked up at Fella and smiled. "Well done."

"Now." Fella cleared her throat. It was hard to look at Iriel like this, and even harder with her pussy exposed and Fella clinging to her. "You're sure that there is no taint of Maloth on her?"

"Taint?" Fella flinched at the edge in Iriel's voice. In working with the High Priestess, she found the elf highly volatile. Her patience was thin, and she found cruel and unusual ways to lose her temper. They'd lost an acolyte to insanity as Iriel kept eroding the poor girl's willpower till she couldn't hold thought or command in her head.

"Influence," correct Fella. "Like what you've done with me."

Iriel laughed. "You think this," Iriel bent down and flicked Farryn's piercing. The wood elf moaned and arched her back. "Is all Maloth's influence?"

"You ..." Fella looked away. "You cast a spell on me. Before. I ... It was Maloth."

"We'll see." Iriel stroked Farryn's hair, but the wood elf didn't respond. She was frozen until the 'stop' command was lifted from her. "But no. I didn't influence her at all. The experiment is pure."

Fella sighed with relief. "Good."

"Would you like to try?"

Fella shook her head. "She'll only obey you."

"I wasn't suggesting you control her." Iriel bent down and whispered in Farryn's ear. The redhead moved away from her the High Priestess and crawled towards Fella. Her hips swayed as she crawled over the grass of the cavern, and she smirked with a hungry look.

"I've wanted to thank you for all you've done," said Farryn. Her accent was the thick brogue of the wood elves. "I've enjoyed being your apprentice so much." There was a delightful lilt and roll to her R's.

Fella looked away. "Um ... no thank you. I mean ... I appreciate it, Your Eminence, but ..."

"Don't look at me," said Iriel with a shrug. "She's aching to fuck you, what can I say?"

"But ... the ... uh ..."

Farryn pulled at the hem of Fella's robe. "She speaks the truth, Fella. Let me thank you for all the lessons you've taught me."

Fella took a step back. The spell couldn't make Farryn want to make love with Fella. It could only make Farryn obey Iriel's command. This was all a script, a seduction, from the High Priestess herself. Farryn was a puppet, not a person.

"I don't want to take advantage of -"

"Fine," Iriel sighed. "Enough, Farryn. Go help the nymphs."

Farryn got up as though nothing had happened, as though she suddenly had a desire to get a drink of water. She walked towards the pools of water where the nymphs were easing themselves in there to soak. On the other side of the cavern, Fella could see where naiads were coming out of the water, their skin a thick black ink that dripped wherever they walked.

"You told her to say all that," said Fella.

Iriel shrugged. "You deserve a reward."

"I did it in service to ..." Fella ran her hand over her long braid. "Service to the goddess."

Iriel laughed. "I wonder how long you'll keep that up."

"What do you -"

"The piercings are just the beginning," said Iriel. She walked past Fella, and the cleric got the distinct feeling she was supposed to follow. Iriel only told Fella about her plans when she thought it would be useful to her research. The High Priestess did not say how she stumbled across the tomb of the dark goddess, but she made it clear that the bones could be perfect to house the power of the spell for their piercings. She never even made it perfectly clear what she wanted with the piercings, though Fella had assumed it was for debauchery. Everything Iriel did seemed to be motivated by debauchery.

"Am I allowed to know what happens next?" asked Fella.

"As you saw, the piercings make puppets, which is a good first step. But every parent doesn't want simple obedience. They don't want lip service." Iriel turned and smirked. "Though lip service is nice if you're getting nothing else."

Fella didn't laugh. Iriel made dozens of lurid jokes. Fella felt the High Priestess was testing her. Sometimes Fella feigned ignorance, as though she were too pure to get it. Other times she feigned laughter to appease Iriel. Whether it was the spell ruling her or deference, she didn't know.

"No," said Iriel as she continued her walk around the cavern. "A parent wants to be loved authentically. They want their child to love them with their whole self."

"You think of Farryn as your child?"

"Maloth does. But Farryn is to be my honored sister. You all are."

"And crave our sisters' flesh?"

Fella shivered at the incestuous language.

"Fuck our sister's flesh. Dawn be praised, I swear your false modesty is the most sinful thing happening in this chamber."

"False?"

Iriel turned. "Don't think I don't know what goes on in my Abbey. Even as I followed Azora, your secrets were never far from me. There's a reason I chose you besides your power." Iriel stepped closer and whispered, her breath hot on Fella's neck. "And a reason you obey though your leash is so loose."

Iriel turned away and approached the pool where Farryn was helping the ink nymphs press the reluctant naiads into the pool and holding them down while they soaked in the dark waters of Maloth. After a moment of struggling, Farryn let go and the naiad stayed under the water.

"Fuck the nymph," commanded Iriel.

Without hesitation, once again as though the whim naturally and suddenly came to her, Farryn turned and kissed the black and dripping naiad. Some of the thick sludge of its body parted to form lips and Farryn kissed it while a long black tongue slithered into her mouth. Tendrils of ink and slime erupted from the naiad's body and wrapped around Farryn, penetrating her pussy and ass as she lifted the wood elf off the cavern floor. Farryn moaned as she was fucked and ground her hips against the naiad.

"Good," said Iriel to herself. "The piercings work as they should."

"But they aren't the end," said Fella. Part of her, the part that was still terrified of all this, that longed to return to Mola and tell her all about the depraved things happening beneath the Abbey, that wished to go to Orilana and have the paladins come and slay all these abominations and purify the faith. That part hoped to get enough information to use against Iriel, to set up a resistance. It saw her little betrayals as acts of insurgence. If she saw herself as a spy, she could stomach the horrible pleasures Iriel showed her.

"No. This is the end," said Iriel, gesturing to the inky naiad sliding inside and through Farryn's flesh.

"The nymphs?"

Iriel shook her head. "The nymphs were a trial. I should show you what Maloth did to Prim, what she's going to do to me." Iriel looked at the long black claws on her hand. "It's beautiful what we're all going to become. Horrendously beautiful."

"Transformation?"

Iriel nodded. "The piercings will make it easier to bring someone down here. Or, if Maloth doesn't desire their transformation, at least they will make a useful thrall."

"What will they become?" Fella's words were thick with breath. She had done this. Her hands, her mind, her spell. They were going to be used not only to enslave others, which she assumed, but to corrupt them totally until even their flesh was a manifestation of Maloth's twisted desires.

"More," whispered Iriel. "Much more."

She gestured across the cavern where an oread, a mountain nymph, was rising out of the dark pools. Oreads were bulky and sometimes clumsy. They had masculine features and were useful for clearing the tunnels through the Abbey and making sure caverns didn't collapse. Every part of their physiology made them perfect builders and workers. Yet, the oreads that rose from the pools of Maloth were nothing like that. They were long and lean, feminine and smooth. Instead of the dull grey and brown of rock, these were flowing with bright lava. Their extremities were burnt and blackened, but over their torso was one long bubbling fount that draped over them like a smooth dress. There was an elegance to them, and wherever they moved the ground hissed and blackened.

"What do you think?" whispered Iriel in Fella's ear. Fella jumped at the nearness and her surroundings came back to her. "Would you like to fuck her?"

"I don't ... I ... can I or ... can someone touch her?"

"If you like. Maloth encourages all types of touch."

"But she'll burn me, right?"

"Mmm," Iriel kissed Fella's ear lightly. The brunette shivered. "What a beautiful way to die."

"I ... no." Fella shook her head and stepped away from Iriel. "I wouldn't want to ... um ... no."

Iriel laughed. "With the piercings I could force you." Fella instinctively brought her hands to her chest, and Iriel laughed harder. She raised her hand and a trail of dark smoke followed it. "Or I could simply bend you to it the hard way."

Fella took a step back. Iriel had been her friend her whole life, like a sister to her, but this was not the Iriel she knew. This was not the High Priestess of Azora. She stank of Maloth's influence, and in the short time Fella had been forced to work with her, Iriel had shocked her a dozen times a day. It seemed Maloth wanted more than debauchery and perversion; the dark goddess wanted it's worshippers to enjoy the corruption of others. She was a contagion, a plague of the heart that would send each worshipper to make more and savor the taste of each conquest. Fella wasn't sure if Iriel enjoyed her orgasms anymore, but she certainly enjoyed hurting and taking and forcing and burning and perverting. She desired those far above physical pleasures.

"Stop," commanded Iriel, and Fella froze. For a long moment she thought the piercings were in her, as though she was compelled to stop against her will, but then she looked behind her and saw Farryn and the black nymph separate. Tar dribbled down Farryn's body, out of every orifice. Even her eyes dripped black tears as a blank face stared at her new mistress.

"Restrain Fella," said Iriel, and without emotion, Farryn obeyed. Without thinking, Fella grabbed her crest of Azora and summoned magic to protect herself, but with a wave of her hand, Iriel dispelled it. Farryn grabbed Fella from behind, her fingers wrapping around Fella's wrist like dragon-iron. Fella flexed and strained, but Farryn wouldn't budge. She looked up into the delighted eyes of Iriel.

"I want to thank you for all your hard work," she said. "You deserve it."

"I ... let me go."

"Well, you were such a prude about that beautiful oread over there. What? You don't think Maloth can protect you from some burns? Imagine your lover running over you body, each touch is a heavenly agony, but your body is safe." She smirked. "After all, all bodies that serve Maloth are houses of pleasure. Squeeze tighter." Farryn obeyed, and Fella cried out. "Even pain is its own delight if you go deep enough into our order."

"Please let me go. I don't want this. Please."

"Soften, but don't release her." Farryn obeyed, and Fella gasped with relief.

"You forget how much you do want this, how deep in our camp you already are."

The ooze still staining Farryn's skin clun to Fella's arms. Iriel whispered a word, and the ooze came to live, slithering over her body until her arms were stuck to her side and her feet were trapped to the cavern floor.

"Come," commanded Iriel, and Farryn moved to her side. Iriel whispered a command to her, and then Farryn went, put her clothes on, and left the cavern. As she dressed, Fella saw one tiny tentacle of black slime still pumping her pussy. She shivered at the thought.

Iriel moved casually to the obsidian throne in the center of the chamber and sat down. Silence wrapped around them except for the bubbles of nymphs slipping into the pools and rising as monsters. Fell watched a forest nymph, a dryad, descend into the pools and climb back out looking elven with sensual curves and only vines to cover her chest and pussy. As she walked, a cloud of pink followed her, and each nymph she passed turned its head and followed it. She watched one such creature fuck an oread until it burst into flame. She watched another oread quenched with the black ooze of a naiad. Over and over the nymphs were fucking each other to death, then rolling into the pits and being reborn.

And none of it horrified Iriel.

The High Priestess was whispering to herself and laughing. If it weren't for the fear choking her, Fella would pity her friend. If she thought it would help, she'd try to reason with her. But she was beyond reasoning. Or perhaps that wasn't it. Perhaps she was perfectly reasonable and yet perfectly cruel simultaneously. One could not appeal to her morality if she had none left.

"How long have you and Mola been fucking?" asked Iriel as she sharpened her claws with a long file of blackened glass.

Fella coughed. "Excuse -"

Iriel waved her hand and gust of black smoke washed over Fella and silenced her. She felt the relaxation along with its falseness immediately, as though she were drugged.

"Let's skip the part where you deny it, and I present irrevocable proof. You think Maloth doesn't know? Did you think you could hide it from her?"

Fella said nothing. She wanted to deny it again, but she knew it would only upset Iriel. But she was wrong. Fella couldn't admit to fucking Mola. That's not what they did. They held each other. They were confidants. They were best friends. They were partners. They made love; they didn't fuck.

"Of course it doesn't bother me that you've been under the sway of debauchery for years. I obviously celebrate you. Hell, you two are pioneers. Perhaps when this is all over, I'll create a feast day just for -"

"It's not debauchery," muttered Fella.

"What was that? Speak up, love."

"We weren't under the sway of debauchery." Fella gritted her teeth as she spoke. If she could move, she'd storm up to Iriel and stare her down. How dare she call their love that? How dare she compare what they did to -

"Are you a priestess of Azora?" asked the High Priestess.

"Of course."

"A full priestess?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember your vows?"

Fella looked away. She and Mola had this conversation whenever they fought. Sometimes the words were hers and sometimes they were Mola's. They both knew what they were doing here, and they both knew it was forbidden. But at the end of the day -

"You didn't care," said Iriel. "You knew and you broke them anyway. Sound right?"

"It's not that simple." Another staple answer.

Iriel shrugged. "Whatever you need to say to yourself."

"It's not debauchery."

"Neither is it chastity, and I believe your vows were of chastity, yes?"

"Yes."

"And you haven't been chaste, have you?"