Freedom Pt. 06-08

Casiama smiled. But she dared not speak. She knew in her heart that Talos blamed not Rayya's actions for her demise, but instead only blamed the two souls currently in the room. Casiama thought it strange, as he was so strong in every other aspect of his person.

"She had so much potential," Talos continued sadly. "One time, long ago, we were passing this... boy, honestly, who was signing up for the Imperial legion. I made an off-hand remark to Rayya that he was just one more soul for the slaughter, but I didn't pay it much attention." Talos paused, sighing once.

"Rayya paid attention, though. She read the boy's thoughts, then convinced him in a matter of moments to reconsider. She reminded him of his father, his home, and his pet which was... some stupid duck, or something."

Casiama laughed appropriately, but did not speak. Talos' eyes fell to hers.

"I'm not sure what I would do if I lost you, too. I'd sooner die, I think."

Casiama smiled. Talos needed a distraction, she knew. He was stronger than this. She brought a hand to her corset and ran her fingers slowly down her willowy, toned body, banishing all of her clothes in an instant. She remained on the bed expectantly.

"You're better than that, honey," she said seriously, patting the mattress next to her. Talos shrugged.

"Not now," he dismissed with a wave. Casiama rolled playfully on the bed towards him, ending up in the same position but far closer.

"And the aetherium would dare not separate such a beautiful joining as ours, anyway," she added. "So why think of the impossible, Talos?"

A smile. Casiama returned it, yet Talos remained silent. She decided to distract him further, eyes transfixed to his.

"You know I told Tatiana you fancied her a couple days ago?" Casiama cooed sweetly. He chuckled.

"Why in the world would you do something like that, Cass?"

She giggled mischeviously. "I was just playing with her. She seemed so... scared, you know? I wanted to see how she reacted to it."

Talos waited a moment before replying with a smirk. "And?"

"She was positively terrified. Which tells me one thing," Casiama smiled.

"Honey, she would likely be terrified of a rodent..."

Casiama shook her head. "It told me that she felt the same thing I did when I looked into your eyes for the first time. Your... magical eyes, Talos," Casiama sighed, shivering delightedly. "They frighten me in all the best ways."

"Cass, you're not making any sense," he smirked, finally leaving the table to join her on the bed.

"Are you not afraid of me? Just a little?" she whimpered as his hands began to explore her trim waist. "All the best love is served with a bit of fear, probably." Talos thought back to when he first met Casiama, and nodded. He feared her just as he feared an enchantress to the south, and realized she was correct.

"Yeah. Okay, maybe a little," he grinned, bringing his other hand to her smooth, toned thighs. The elf shivered at his touch, spreading her legs apart. Talos took it as an invitation, bringing a hand to her inner thigh.

"Do you want her?" Casiama asked whimperingly.

"Huh?" Talos parted her folds, brushing his fingertips against her wetness. The elf had been mentally preparing for this for a while, he thought. She was positively flooded already.

"Tatiana. Do you want to fuck her?" Casiama moaned. He brushed against her clit.

"No, Cass. I only need you," he said softly, bringing his lips against her cheek. Casiama squirmed when she felt his stubble brush against her soft skin.

"I didn't ask if you needed her, Talos." Talos blew into her ear, tickling the elf with a jolt of excitement. "Hey!" she giggled as he began vibrating a fingertip against her button.

"I only want you, Cass," he restated with a whisper next to her pointed ear, which stood just a bit straighter at the touch of wind. Casiama sighed as her lover worked her patiently, and shut her eyes. She responded after a minute of sweet pleasure.

"What if I told you... I wanted you to want her?" she asked through a moan, reminded of her first dozen orgasms at the sight of him railing a voluptuous sorceress. Her knees arched upwards, and her legs clenched to keep Talos' hand where it was.

"I'd call you crazy," he chuckled, rubbing her more intently as her moans intensified.

"Then call me crazy, Talos! Call me mad!" she screamed through her orgasm, legs falling to the mattress contentedly. Talos slipped his hand from between her thighs, and gave her a silent moment of reflection that he figured she needed.

Casiama instead rolled her face towards him and kissed him deeply on the lips. She spoke when their lips unlocked.

"At least mull it over?" she asked as she panted, smiling sweetly. "The thought really gets me going."

Talos smirked, standing from the bed to unclasp his belt buckle. He didn't want or need to think of such nonsense, and decided to let Casiama fantasize about someone else.

"What of Alanna? We'll be seeing her soon," he asked, kneeling on the bed and parting Casiama's legs toned legs. Her eager pussy was dripping with enthusiasm at the mention of the enchantress, and the elf brought her fingers to her clit.

"Mmm... even better, Talos," she replied through a moan, rubbing herself sensually. Talos crept towards her, placing his hands on her thighs. "Will you let me watch? Like before?" Casiama asked with eyes shut.

Talos smirked. If only he had known of the princess's proclivities sooner.

"I didn't let you watch, Cass," he chided, pushing the bell of his throbbing cock against her wetness. Casiama's hand sped up, and she soon slid her body down the bed to eagerly take his length.

"I... uhn... I know. But that's why I conjured our tent back in the Borderlands. To let us all sleep together."

Good gods. "Seriously? To watch?" he asked incredulously as he thrusted into her recklessly, the elf yelping in surprise. She opened her eyes again to meet his, and bit her lip as she nodded innocently.

"Yes..." she admitted lustfully with a sigh. He was soon pounding into her aggressively, finding the idea strongly encouraging. "Yes, Talos. I dream of you ravaging her... and filling her fully... oh!"

Holy shit. No man was capable of surviving such an onslaught. The elf squirmed and cried under him as he fucked her raw. "Um okay, Cass. I'll let you watch," he offered as he drove into her to the hilt, their bodies lewdly slapping together with intensity as he fucked her. Casiama soon found another peak, her hand falling away from her pussy as she laid back panting for air.

"Yes! Yes! I want to... ah! I want to watch you fill her, Talos! Fill her with your seed!"

What the fuck is this? Talos mused with a grin, incapable of keeping himself from erupting after only a minute. He drove into her, gripping her sides tightly as he filled her to the brim.

-

Morning drew, and Kjartan stepped onto the bow of the Mercy for once unburdened by his wenches. His gaze traveled over the fire sorceress, who had since grown accustomed to her new life judging from the lack of noise she was producing. Her legs still quivered as they tried restlessly to stand within the confines of her pillory, and she was still squinting to get the sun out of her eyes. But she was accomodating as well she could, he figured.

He gazed off of the Mercy's starboard side, the jutting stone pillars and large walls of Villjord coming into distant view this glorious morning. Kjartan would have dozens of other sorceresses to choose from shortly, if the assault on the city proved successful. The port district of the town appeared unwalled and unchained, which would make an ideal landing location.

Only ten of Kjartan's smaller longboats were still sailing with the Mercy, the rest having been sent to plunder the remaining coastline of Villjord. Their strategy would need to be perfectly executed to ensure victory over the well-defended city of mages, a city already aware of his presence judging from the bells he could hear over the water. But Kjartan's pride demanded victory.

-

Casiama awoke to the ringing of bells in the early morning. She turned towards her lover on instinct, finding Talos already standing beside the bed fixing his swordbelt.

"What's going on?" she asked sleepily, wresting the covers from her body. She brought a hand to chest, summoning her winter clothing, pack, and weapons in a white flash.

He shrugged, having just woken up not half a minute ago. "Fire, maybe?"

The pair rushed downstairs, finding Sigismund waiting for them armed and ready. A subtle nod between him and Talos were all the discussion that was needed at the moment. They rushed outside to meet the morning noise.

Talos scanned the port side street he found himself on. Soldiers in black-and-blue were already making way to the docks, manning fortifications that Talos hadn't noticed the day before. In a moment he realized why he hadn't, then noticed a blonde sorceress suddenly materializing a wooden tower with a stone base out of thin air. The fishing vessels just out of the port were already returning to the safety of the city, running from a threat Talos couldn't yet recognize. Most of the soldiers had their eyes set on the endless sea to their west.

Talos immediately thought of the reavers, but found the idea of attacking a fortress city idiotic. They couldn't be that-

Casiama tapped him on the shoulder, pointing to the horizon to draw his attention. "Ships, headed this way."

"Sails?" he asked.

"Black," she answered quickly. Talos gulped. Perhaps they were that reckless. His hand went to his sword instinctively. "A cross of red over them. One of the ships is... absurd. Massive."

-

"Bring it about!" Sigurd screamed over the raucous noise of two-hundred oarsmen and sailors. "Flags! Hold position!"

Kjartan watched trebuchets atop the city's towers launch hurried stones at his vessel from a half mile away, falling uselessly into the sea before the Mercy. Fortunate, that. Rather than scare the marauders away, the hasty shots allowed the Mercy to anchor just outside of their range.

Kjartan planned to besiege the city before a strike, a rare decision for a reaver. But a reaver had never plundered such a glorious settlement, and had certainly never attacked a foe many times their own number. Over the Wanderer's many years, he'd learned several rules of an assault on a walled settlement, having razed several in his time.

One, that a successful attack required the one attacking to have larger numbers than the defender. Storming occupied defenses with a band of screaming reavers is unlikely to work even on the best of days. Two, if you didn't have numbers, you would need to surprise your opponent instead with an overwhelming attack before they could prepare a defense. Unfortunately, his presence here today was not a surprise to Villjord, due to the city's impressive magically-enhanced warning system.

So if both of those rules had failed, you brought a weapon that your opponents did not expect. An edge.

"Bring it about!"

Kjartan grinned, realizing he would finally get to see his secret weapon in action once more. He'd acquired it on a journey to the far west, purchasing them in massive quantity before setting the city that sold them to him alight.

The people of Masakrai called them "Beehives". A curious invention really, originally designed with entertainment purposes in mind, the weapon had since been used effectively by the Emperor of Masakrai in putting down mage revolts in the southern part of his empire. Kjartan watched his men wheel the weapons about atop the deck.

It looked innocuous enough; a large table with a row of tubes mounted on top of it, tilted just above the horizon, with a line of rope hanging from each of the tubes. All one needed to do was set the rope alight with flame to transform each of the tubes into a noisy projectile that floated up to a mile away. On impact the missile would explode in a glorious purple fireball, causing damage to any ward or person that was within two-hundred feet from where it struck.

Kjartan grinned with anticipation.

-

Casiama saw the flames first. Then everyone heard the whistling.

"What the..."

The overcast skies and dark waters were instantaneously illuminated in a purplish hue as a dozen glowing strands of light raced towards the city from the massive ship. They let out a high-pitched and eerie whistle as they soared higher, a noise which was just as abrupty extinguished right before they reached the port district. The projectiles were carried by momentum the rest of the way to their target, massive eruptions of light emanating from where they struck.

Then came the noise. Talos could feel it in his bones; a nascent, omnipresent hum that turned into a catastrophic blast of potential a moment later.

"Let's back up a ways!" he tried shouting, grabbing Casiama and Sigismund by their sleeves. He pulled them away, the nearest impact landing not five-hundred feet from where they stood, annihilating the guard tower and pier it had landed on in a flash of deep purple flames. He noticed several sorceresses converging on the port from the city's interior, and he hoped they had a better plan than he.

A quarter of the port was already aflame in hellish purples and reds when the next volley was launched from the coast. Casiama turned to watch the terror, pulled along by Talos as the trio fled towards an empty central market. Most of the town had already fled to the far side of the city or had barricaded themselves indoors, and only those willing to die this day had stayed.

Casiama noticed a glimmering, transparent shade fall over most of the port, then saw what had caused it. A dozen sorceresses in blue held their hands skyward to cast the ward, a magic Casiama was familiar with. She gripped Talos' shoulder and tugged on it, beckoning him to watch.

The second volley whistled and tore through the air, missiles spinning haphazardly towards the port. They soon fell silent, then tumbled into the city's magical shield. The massive ward suddenly became translucent, awash with purple flames flowing over the barrier. They heard a hum, then the crash. A massive amount of energy washed to the sides of the ward, but did not pierce it.

"Talos, look!"

"I noticed!"

It was hard not to. Even its all its potential destruction, the purple explosions rippling across a magical glass may have been the most spectacular sight the man had ever seen. They still needed to retreat, and he pulled her arm again. The trio ran further into the city, Talos soon finding himself supporting his weight with a hand against a stone structure.

"Cass, get on the caster and tell them not to come here!" Talos shouted. He could think of no counter to the alien weaponry and had already been contemplating retreat, as the city guard were likely thinking as well.

"But that's them! You wanted to stop this!" she cried, already opening her pack to fetch the stone.

"I don't know how!" he admitted. "Do it!"

Casiama nodded, her thin eyes darting away from him. Another wailing set of whistles emerged from the coast behind the building they were situated against. Three moments later the sky flashed, a bright white shield warping blue then purple as the missiles struck their target.

"Vex! Hi!" Casiama shouted into the farcaster. "Don't come to Villjord!"

>>

Vex, Markus, and Silvia sat naked underneath their shared sleeping bag from the previous night, having been woken by Casiama's plea from a hundred miles away.

"What do you mean 'don't come', Cass?" Vex asked nasally. The elf didn't respond immediately.

"We're, uh! The city is under attack! Its... it's crazy Vex!" Casiama exclaimed, the excitement in the elf's words far outweighing the exasperation.

"What do you mean? What's going on? Who's attacking?"

Another long pause. Casiama's voice came through garbled, as if irritated by the coarsest grains of sand.

"The reavers!" Casiama answered three seconds later. "And well, you'd really have to see it to believe me! I can't explain it!"

Vex paused, glancing nervously at Silvia and Markus. "Can you try?" she asked coolly.

"Uhm... imagine a dozen arrows, but they're on fire-" Casiama halted abruptly, continuing her failed explanation four seconds later.

"They're afire with purple flames, and noise! And then they make more fire! And more noise! Like a... 'whoooom'."

Silvia shook her head, still gazing at Vex. "I've no idea," she whispered. Vex agreed, but didn't share it. Markus shot up from the covers between the girls.

"I want to see," he said enthusiastically, grinning. Two elbows flanking him shoved him back towards the ground.

"No heroics Cass," Vex said calmly. "We're on our way."

"Wait, what?! Talos said he didn-" Vex pushed a bit of magic into her stone, terminating the transmission before Casiama could finish. She smirked.

"Been waiting to do that, huh?" Silvia giggled.

<<

Casiama held the dormant farcaster in her hand, furrowing her brow.

"Well that was rude of her," she said to herself as another ball of flame smashed against the magical ward over the city.

-

Kjartan's siege of Villjord lasted the better part of two hours, yet he had no luck in piercing the ward over the port district of that city of mages.

He instead turned his attention towards the walls and towers of the city, his beehives doing little damage to the foritifications themselves. Many missiles spun uselessly over the walls, whistling futiley as they crashed into the city beyond.

Much of the city was soon alight with a dark purple glow, which pleased him all the same. The explosions had set off several large fires, which was undoubtably frightening the doomed peoples of Villjord.

Once his stores of the rockets had been depleted, the Wanderer gave the order to his four longboats to assault the city at midday, his roar declaring that Villjord would only receive mercy through their blood.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Freedom Part 8: Assault

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

An eerie silence overcame Villjord that morning. The city was alight in purples and reds, stone structures collapsing here and there when their wooden supports had lost their strength. Many citizens were just now recuperating what was left of their hearing after the beehive attacks against Villjord. Three of those people were sitting on the blackened steps of the great pyramid in the center of the city, waiting for a portal they knew would soon be placed right atop them.

Casiama held a hand against her pointed ear, pushing against it in a vain effort to battle the ringing within it. She would have fared worst of all, having far better senses than a human, but with no way to disable it when that sensitive hearing became a problem. Her mouth was opened wide and her jaw was twitching back and forth, fishing to relieve the pressure.

Sigismund sat silently with his arms crossed, but briefly mused that perhaps humanity wouldn't be so doomed in a future war against the elves after all. A couple of those purple arrows would be all that they would need to ensure victory in a pitched battle. He glanced away from Casiama, inspecting the newest column of spearmen marching past them towards the docks.

"What in all the hells are they thinking, Sigi?" Talos asked incredulously. "I've counted four-hundred spears and two dozen sorceresses already. They have to be mad to raid here."

Sigismund shrugged, finding it hard to believe himself. "They are mad, Talos. Reavers only know of one thing, and they'll end themselves for one more taste of victory."