Font of Fertility Ch. 10

"Jeremiah," Adama said, coughing a little to get my attention. "Was the letter... helpful, honey?"

"Honestly?" I asked. "It gave me a lot to think about, but... no. It just gave me more questions."

"Hmm," Adama harrumphed. "Unfortunately, that sounds a lot like Ezekiel. The old man liked to think of himself as a philosopher."

"He did mention that you know where his safe is?" I said.

"Oh?" Adama questioned, then her eyebrows raised as she seemed to remember out of thin air. "Oh, I do! It's over here." She led me to the small waterfall. "It's entirely mechanical," she said, pointing at a specific point behind the water. "Whoever plundered the relics likely wouldn't have noticed it if they were looking for magic."

I got close to the place she pointed and there was a small dial, like for a padlock or vault. "What's the combination?"

"I... don't know," she said. "All I know was it was short."

"Well, this is great," I sighed. I reached into the water, feeling the cool splash over my hand and wrist, and took the little dial between my fingers. "What's a short combination?"

I turned the dial a few times, then pointed it at the 69 and pushed it like a button. Nothing. Then I snorted and shook my head, and tried 6 then 9.

"You've got to be shitting me," I sighed. The dial pressed in, and a section of the rock behind the waterfall hinged up and out, splitting the water. Inside the small safe I found three things I hadn't been expecting when he wrote 'a means to access my mundane wealth' or 'a small gift.'

The first item I recognized, but hadn't ever used - honestly, I couldn't even really remember seeing one in real life, it just happened to be the image of a Save symbol and I was nerdy enough to know it. It was a floppy disc, the old square plastic memory card labelled with a blank sticker. "How the fuck am I supposed to figure out what's on you?" I muttered.

The second item was a twig, maybe six inches long, with a small number of tiny, vibrant green leaves sprouting from the end. "What the hell is this?" I asked, holding it up to Adama.

"Oh, at least he saved you this," she sighed. "That is a branch from the Tree of Life. If the tree were to be destroyed, you could plant it and it would grow into a new tree, but more immediately it is a minor magic relic that makes any woman immediately fertile."

"Agh," I said, quickly putting it back in the safe. "How does it work?"

"You just tap a woman with it," Adama said. "Any woman. Menopausal, geriatric, doesn't matter. Not that I suggest doing that to a poor, little old lady mind you. The process of pregnancy would likely kill her, not to mention the birthing."

"Yeah, I'm not planning to ever use that thing," I said.

"You say that now," Adama sighed, shaking her head at me like a parent who knew better. "But you'll learn."

I ignored her and turned to the final item in the safe. It was a key, and if I wasn't mistaken it looked like an old car key.

"Any idea what this goes to?" I asked Adama.

"Oh, fuck," she swore. "Um. No, not at all. You should probably throw that away. Or into the volcano. Actually, that's a great idea. You give it to me and I'll throw it in the volcano."

"Adama," I said, gripping it a little tighter. "What is the key to?"

She rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed at whatever the answer was. "That can be used to summon the Nightmare, Victorious."

I blinked. And then again. "Adama, do you think I know what that means?"

Adama sighed heavily. "Victorious was the mount and companion of one of the first Seats of Death, the apprentice of the original wielder of Death magic. The oldest stories evoking demons and devils? They are remembrances of Lucefiron, the Seat. He moulded Victorious out of the finest horse in the world, a jet black thing with a bloodline harkening back before the end of Atlantis. Nearly twice the size of any other mortal horse. Lucefiron gave him a mane of fire, and the ability to fly on hooves that sparked against the air itself, and then he did the stupidest thing he could have done and gave the nightmare horse a mind."

"OK, that all sounds metal as fuck," I said, "But why does a car key summon a devil horse?"

Adama looked away, pursing her lips. "Ezekiel came into possession of Victorious during the time period you call the 17th century - he was a peace offering from a former Seat of Life who Ezekiel had butted heads with. Ezekiel never discovered how that Seat had come into ownership of Victorious, but he made... friends with the immortal nightmare. And during their last outings together, VIctorious asked to be turned into, I think his exact words were, 'The coolest fucking car, with the loudest engine. Let's go pick up some chicks.' So Ezekiel did that, and made the key so he could summon his friend whenever needed."

I held the key. "OK. OK. So I have a devil car now."

"I would suggest throwing that key away," Adama said. "You don't need Victorious, and he doesn't need you wherever he is. And you can't control him, he's a wild animal even if he is a motor vehicle."

"Alright," I said, but narrowed my eyes a bit. There was something strange about the way that Adama seemed to dislike the key, and the idea of the horse-car. Almost like she was jealous?

"Jerry?" Lauren called over to me.

I shut the safe, taking the three items with me, and quickly made my way to her because I heard the note in her voice.

As I rounded the bed, I saw that Lauren had been crying.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

She shook her head and held up the long, heavy letter, folded back in on itself. "I need you to burn this," she said.

"What?" I asked.

"Just light it on fire," she said again.

"No, Lauren, if something's wrong-"

"Nothing is wrong, Jeremiah," Lauren said, her voice getting stern. "It's what the letter asks me to do, and I'm doing it."

"OK," I said and nodded. I sat down beside her and took a breath, feeling the limited pool of power in my mind. It was so small - the smallest amount I'd ever felt inside. I touched it, and physically touched the opposite end of the parchment sheets Lauren held, and thought of a spark.

Soon the papers lit, and my power had drained a little more. Lauren held up the letter, pointing the fire up so she wouldn't get burned, and watched it go.

"Will you tell me what was in it?" I asked quietly.

She bit her lips, watching the fire for a long moment more, before answering me. "It was Ophalia's life story. She said she had never written it down before, never told anyone the full thing. Not even her children. She wanted me to know. Trusted me with it. Gave me a lot of advice." Tears started falling from Lauren's eyes again, and I took her hand in mine. "Are we still invulnerable to fire since Annalise?" she asked me quietly.

"We are," I nodded. "You'll feel some heat, but no burns."

She nodded and didn't say anything else, letting the letter burn down to her fingertips. Then she turned and hugged herself to me hard, and all I could do was hold her.

"I love you," I whispered after a long time.

"I know," she whispered back. Then pulled away and looked me in the eyes. "Will you make love to me, please? Not fucking, I want love today."

I nodded. "I should try and contact Annalise first. Make sure she's OK. I just don't know if I have enough power to do it, or what would happen if I run out mid-spell."

Adama cleared her throat, catching both of your attention. "If you two goappreciate each other in the Amplifier, you should be able to do that without any problems."

I looked to Lauren, who nodded. I stood and decided halfway that I didn't want to be further from Lauren than I absolutely had to be, so I pivoted and picked her up into my arms. She threw her arms around my neck and hugged herself close to me as I carried her from the bedroom and back out into the Amplifier chamber.

As I mounted the step up onto the circular stage, I saw that it was large enough to hold perhaps ten people comfortably - I wondered if Ezekiel had ever held an orgy here to cast a spell. If he'd impregnated women here to gain the maximum benefit to his working. And that made me wonder who he'd had with him. He'd had a Prime. Had he had a harem? Where were they now? It had only been 18 years. Were they out there, mourning him?

I set Lauren down carefully in the centre of the magic circle, laying her on her back and leaning in to kiss her softly. She smiled into the kiss and stroked my cheek.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too," I said. Then I started undressing her, slowly and smoothly. Taking my time to try and show her how much I adored every inch of her. I didn't know what was wrong, didn't know what Ophalia had told her in that letter, but I needed her to know it.

I kissed her fingertips, and the palms of her hands, and her wrists. Up her arms, the crooks of her elbows, her shoulders and collarbone. I layered kisses across her neck, and cheeks, and lips. Down her chest, spending a little time with those breasts I so adored, then down to her stomach. She moaned softly, always touching me with one hand or both, keeping in contact with me as I enjoyed the feeling of her skin on my lips. Then I took off her panties and I lay myself out before her and spread her legs and lowered my lips to her pussy and began to tease and nibble and love her.

"Jeremiah," she gasped. "Oh, Jeremiah."

I went slowly. By now I knew what she liked. I knew what would push her buttons - she liked it firm, and hard, and rough. She liked nipping, and teasing. She liked when I tugged on her thick patch of pubic hair. I did those things, but lightly. Softly. Slowly. Without surprise or shock, always with a kiss and a soothing breath. I caressed her buttons. Grazed them.

It was hard to say how long I spent down there, slowly, steadily showing her that it didn't matter who was what between us. I worshipped her, and she slowly writhed in the pleasure I worked to build in her.

Finally she'd had enough, taking my cheeks between her hands. "Please?" she asked.

I nodded and crawled up her body, kissing my way back up to her lips. As our tongues caressed each other again, I took hold of her and rolled us over so that she was on top, and she immediately reached between us and positioned my cock at her entrance, sitting down without any more waiting and settling my cock into her fully as we both exhaled in comfort.

"That's where you belong," she sighed.

I responded by kissing her jawline and hugging her down to me.

She started to slowly grind on me with her hips, both of our hands lightly touching. We'd explored each other like this before, knew the spots that would tickle and avoided them. We watched each other for a while, seeing ourselves in the firelight reflections. Eventually she lowered herself down onto me fully, her tits pressed against my bare chest, as we hugged each other.

"Is that enough?" she asked me. "Can you contact Annalise now? I don't want to stop, but I'm worried about her, too."

"Let me see," I murmured, and touched the pool.

The power was growing in me again, the sparkler growing to a firework, though it was at the rate I had been tracking before. Sex with Lauren gave about the same amount as with Lindsey or Stacey. As I touched the pool, I formed the idea of the telepathic connection with Annalise that I'd done before, out in the cavern. I was right, it would have drained me again, but now I had enough coming in to work it.

Before I did so though, I thought about the gold inlays beneath us, and I started to try to figure out how to include the Amplifier into my casting.

"Anything?" Lauren asked me.

"We can do it, I'm just trying to get the Amplifier to work," I said. "It didn't exactly come with a tutorial."

There was no way I could picture the whole thing in my mind - the geometric patterns were too precise, and that would make it harder to focus on actual spells. Instead I tried to focus on connection. I focused on my hands, touching Lauren's body. I focused on my cock, gripped by her pussy as she pressed down on me, humping me into her just fractions of an inch. I focused on my back, pressed to the polished rock floor and the gold inlay.

I thought of the warmth I felt through the floor, and the lava underneath us, and I realized that Ezekiel didn't just choose this place because it was out of the way or secret.

People thought of volcanoes as destructive, and maybe they were in the short term, but long term?

Volcanoes created. New land. New islands. New opportunities. New life.

I felt the connection and drew on the warmth of the gold inlaid into the rock, and my mind shattered open.

"Oh," I said, my eyes wide, pupils dilating as I saw a universe of magical currents before me, running through a starscape I didn't yet understand.

"What is it?" Lauren asked, a little concerned.

"Look," I said, and brushed my fingertips against her eyelids. "Feel it."

Lauren gasped, opening her eyes and seeing what I saw. "Is this what it's like all the time?" She had stopped moving even the little bit she had been, and I could feel her skin goosepimpling under my hands.

"Not like this," I said. "More like-" I directed our focus to one of the magical currents and dipped through it, surrounded by the way I pictured my pool of power. Fireworks, exploding in a riot of colour and spark, feeding in on itself but never consuming, always replenishing.

"It's amazing," she breathed out.

"Now imagine that happening in your head the first time we had sex," I sighed.

She giggled and sat up, taking me deeper into her as she spread her arms wide and looked up into the eaves of the golden structure above us where the rivers of power flowed and directed down towards us, and back out towards the walls. I let her revel in the beauty, until she bent back down and kissed me. "Thank you for sharing this with me," she whispered into my lips.

"Everything, always," I promised her. "Are you ready to try and contact Annalise?"

She nodded, pressing her head down against my chest and laying it sideways to rest as we held each other.

With the connection to the Amplifier open, I pictured my spell again but this time included Lauren in the connection. Immediately, even with the addition, I could tell the difference in power use. The Amplifier turned the spell into a trifle, barely a trickle of the power we were generating would be needed.

I let the spell ease into the flowing river of Creation, and as it washed away I felt my connection with Lauren merge, and then the third presence connect as well.

Annalise, I thought to her.It's us. I'm so sorry. Are you alright? Are you safe?

Jeremiah? Annalise thought back, and Lauren and I both exhaled in relief.Hold on, let me pull over so I can concentrate.

It's both of us, Lauren thought into the connection. It was the first time I was hearing her voice come back to me in my head. It felt warm, and tickled my mind just like her laugh did in my ears.Take your time.

After about a minute of silence, Annalise's voice sounded in our minds again.Are you still there? I had to explain what was going on to my sister.

We are, I thought.Are you safe? We don't actually know what happened.

Jerry collapsed when he sent you all of his power, Lauren thought.We've been worried, but had to wait a bit to get working again.

Maya and I are fine. We- I had to fight our father. Thank you for... everything? I don't think we would have survived without you, Annalise thought.

No, it's my fault you were in that mess to begin with, I thought.I take responsibility.

No! Both Lauren and Annalise thought at the same time.

My father did this, Annalise continued.He broke your proclamation. He killed our mother. I don't know where to go. We can't go to my brothers - they're of no use to him, so I don't think they are in danger, but they would be if we go to them and he looks for us there. And I need your help with something.

You don't need to ask, I thought.I'm glad you're safe, but he's my mess to clean up now. He has to be.

I know, she thought back.It's something else.

Annalise, just find a place to hide and sleep, Lauren thought.Somewhere with an address and a doorway. We'll come to get you tomorrow morning, Jerry might not have the power to do it right now.

There was a moment's pause.

Alright, Annalise thought.I think I can find a place. Thank you.

We care about you, Lauren thought.

We'll come to get you as soon as we can, I thought.

I got the sense of Annalise nodding, and I could picture that dour, resting bitch face expression alongside her deeply soulful eyes as she hated to ask for help, but needed it.

Without anything else to say, I let the spell fade, and I was alone in my head again.

"She's safe," Lauren said. "You don't need to worry, she's safe."

That broke me for a moment, and I felt a nearly overwhelming urge to sob, but I held it in. Annalise had nearly died. Had wanted to be dead, and it didn't matter what she or Lauren said, I still blamed myself.

It was Lauren's turn to rain kisses down on me, and she calmed me, and slowly made love to me. Then we rolled and I was on top again, and made love to her and kissed her when she wanted, and held her when she didn't. She got overwhelmed herself at one point, emotions rising in her, but when I asked she just shook her head and said she'd been thinking about what the letter said. I held her until she was OK again.

We came, orgasming together after a long time of slow love. It wasn't large or explosive, her legs didn't shake and she didn't growl, and I didn't grunt or groan. We felt it in each other, and with a look we knew, and we let go together.

Afterwards we both lay on our backs on the cool rock floor, breathing deeply as the magic of the Amplifier faded. I prodded my pool of power, which had continued to fill after we released the spell but wasn't nearly where it had been earlier in the day. I had enough to teleportal us back home with some sort of reserve, but I wasn't sure how much.

I had so much to do. I needed more. More power. More time. I needed power for the Council meeting - Adama had been vague about what would be required, but I knew I needed to be ready. But I also needed to hunt down George Stoker; no amount of power reserves would make up for having someone break my proclamation before my first meeting and go unpunished.

And then there were the mundane things. Helping Lindsey and Stacey secure their apartment, and moving Lindsey out of her old one before her old roommates returned. Figuring out what was going on with Angela, and sitting down to talk with her with Lauren present. I needed to have my dates with Lindsey and Stacey - hell, I needed to have an actual date with Lauren.

And do my fucking college applications.

Ugh, and figure out the fucking Benji situation.

"Fuck," I grimaced.

"What is it?" Lauren asked, rolling onto her side to look at me.

"So, I forgot with everything else going on in the past couple of days," I said. "I need to tell you about Benji. I kind of punched him in the mouth."

Lauren blinked, then sat up. "OK. Start from the beginning."

I sat up, as naked as she was, and sighed. "So, the stupid superdrone..."

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Thanks for reading! Votes are great, but Comments are even better.

Font of Fertiility is an ongoing series that will continue to see updates moving forward. If you have enjoyed the series so far, you might want to check out my Pushing series, or Technically We're Estranged series, for similar romantic harem elements.

Cheers!