Heretic Ch. 02

"Beware Sister, for while I believe she may be the key to our salvation, she is still dangerous."

~***~

The evening meal was its usual muted affair, with one sister reading passages as the others listened and ate. Very few talked quietly among one another, though Maelice couldn't help but notice a few nervous glances thrown her way. She had to wonder if it was what they had seen upon her return to the abbey that morning, or if it was rumours of her and Rochelle.

"You do not eat?" Emilie asked, and Maelice noted she had chosen to speak in French.

"There is much on my mind," Maelice admitted as she looked down to the broth. Once more she wished the bits of carrot floating within it was chunks of meat.

"Still, you must eat. The fight ahead will demand all your strength," Emilie said, and Maelice relented as she tore her loaf of bread in two, and dipped it in the broth before she brought it to her lips. She looked out across the hall, and found Rochelle, who was quietly eating and watching the nun read passages. It was not the same plump one from yesterday, she had sat herself at the far end of the table.

"I have at least confirmed it is servants of Mammon who plague the forest. What's more concerning is that they have taken physical form; the one I met bled as I cut him," Maelice said, and finally picked up her spoon.

"Then you know your path. Slay the beasts to secure the abbey," Emilie said and Maelice looked to her as she swallowed her mouthful.

"Secure it for whom? There are whispers among the sisters here, and from the demons as well. Something unnatural occurs within these walls, and you know of it," Maelice said, and Emilie smiled politely.

"Of course I do. You may discover it on your own, or perhaps you will not. Your own sins I know will shield me from your wrath whatever the outcome. My only fear is your own soul in this, for I doubt it will survive the secrets you hint at," Emilie said, and Maelice looked out again towards Rochelle. She felt the Mother Superior's eyes upon her.

"Do you think so lowly of me then?" Maelice asked.

"Beware your vanity my friend. It is not that I think lowly of you, it is that I know the truth of you," Emilie said and Maelice grunted as she reached for the beer.

"What has become of us, to walk so firmly in the dark as we serve God?"

"Crusade, Ma'arra. There was not a soul there that did not emerge with some stain upon whatever purity they may have had. And for what happened there, I cannot believe that there were many pure souls," Emilie said, turning her head forward as Maelice remembered the crash of blades. The splitting of flesh, the shedding of blood, the hunger that followed. The murder that took her supposedly sinful love, as the feast of flesh descended upon those who marched under God's banner.

"Perhaps we all should have died there," Maelice said.

"Perhaps. But we did not. No matter what we think of each other my friend, there are good women within these walls. Good women I would not see be subjugated to the whims of Mammon. It is for them I do what I must, as I know you will," Emilie said as she rose to her feet, the nuns in the hall immediately putting down their food to rise. Maelice followed suit.

"Do you fear me, knowing what you know?" Maelice said, and Emilie looked at her.

"I fear what you may become. I would be blind not to," the Mother Superior said and began the slow walk that age had brought upon her from the room. The nuns all offered her a curtsy, not sitting again until she had left the room.

Maelice sat, and pulled out the key that Rochelle had given her. What was Rochelle's agenda in all this? What was Emilie's that she had not even denied a demon's words against her? Maelice sighed and put the key back upon her belt before she tucked back into her meal.

~***~

Kneeling beside her bed, Maelice prayed to Lord God above. She prayed for strength, for the protection of the women within this convent, and for forgiveness for her indulgences of the flesh, and her weakness to it. She had a feeling she would be asking for forgiveness for that particular sin again not too long from now. Perhaps the demons in the woods had one thing right. There were many of the cloth who lived against Christ's teachings. Why could she not?

Fatigue had settled into her mind, slithered through it like a fog, but Maelice dared not sleep. Not with the nightmares that plague this abbey as Mammon's demons and cultists had it under siege. Nightmares that brought out a most foul hunger.

Maelice paused when she heard the shuffle of shoes upon stone. A lay sister attempting to be silent and failing. Maelice stood, moved towards the door and pressed her ear against the wood. Out in the hall she heard who she assumed to be Runhild on her way back to her room. There was a brief pause before the sound of a latch echoed in the abbey's stillness, followed by a door's closing.

Carefully, Maelice opened her door and peered out into the hallway, but was met with only darkness. Hand on her blade, Maelice walked down the hallway and descended the steps to the cloister. She glanced toward's the entrance to the church and saw the faint glow of candlelight; Elke once again praying by her lonesome while her sisters slept.

Elke though was not her destination tonight.

As quiet as she could she walked to the locked cell and pulled out the key. She looked at it a moment, before she felt that familiar shiver of pleasure. It almost felt like she was being beckoned.

"You return, with cracks in your collar. You mouth waters and your loins burn. Come in Sister, and let me show you a path," the feminine voice within whispered through the door.

"A path?" Maelice asked with a frown.

"Of course. One of many. It is choice that truly defines us, not subjugation, not enslavement. That is the way of Jehovah... and of his first daughter. The clay born woman."

Maelice slid the key into the lock and twisted it. She heard the click of tumblers within and grasped the latch. Once more she paused, a frown on her face.

"There is no turning back from this, is there?" she asked.

"No. There is not. Just a choice. One of many, but this one will be one of the larger in your existence, not just your life," the woman within said, though Maelice doubted she was human.

She pulled the door open, and tried to peer into the darkness within as the smell of sex wafted through her senses. She heard movement; like a wolf's clawed paws tapping on the stone, and something slithering along the wall. A vague shape, a shadow within darkness, shifted. Then violet eyes were peering at her, two glowing embers in the dark, full of desire, of lust, and of life. There were seductive, and pulled Maelice's attention to them firmly.

She stepped into the room, and closed the door behind her, and heard the latch click shut. As she did, a thick heat enveloped her, and all sound without was snuffed like a candle.

"Welcome Sister to my prison and my domain," the stranger said, and Maelice was vaguely aware of her movement. A hint of a curvy silhouette, back-dropped by two large expanses that stretched behind her.

"What are you?" Maelice asked, and heard a soft laugh that she felt as silken brushes against her mind.

"Better to show, let us not converse in the darkness," the stranger said and snapped her fingers. Violet sparks popped out from a hint of pale fingers, to briefly show the sharp lines of a gorgeous elfen face.

The sparks landed upon the walls, and Maelice watched veins of glowing violet and crimson spread through the stone bricks. Each vein pulsed, as if the bricks were flesh. The light pushed back the dark in waves, letting it creep back in while the veins continued to course upwards. From the floor the shape of the woman became clear, shadows playing around her form even as Maelice drank her in.

Three dark claws curled from a high arched bestial foot, a clawed heel suspended above the floor. Shadows played across the long toned legs to the woman, violet and crimson gleaming on her olive skin in shaky lines. She took a step, one leg moving in front of the other, partially obscuring the smooth skin of her crotch. Her hip cocked out to one side to draw Maelice's eyes along its sloping curve into the slender waist. A spade tipped tail flicked behind her, slithering along her leg and tracing the ground, slipping in and out of shadow.

Over the swell of breasts to the soft curve of the woman's shoulder, Maelice looked beyond to see a pair of large leathery wings. They were folded in tight to the woman's back and topped with black claws. The creature took another slow hip swaying step, long dark tresses bouncing around the sharp angles of her elfen face, exposing the sharp point of an elongated ear. A pair of black horns curved back from her forehead and along her hair, turning sharply upwards towards the tips.

"What are you?" Maelice repeated, and the woman smiled as she came to a stop just in front of the nun. She grasped Maelice's hand and held it upon the hilt of her still sheathed sword. Claws dragged along the back of Maelice's wrist, sending far too pleasant shivers along the warrior's forearm.

"A daughter of the clay born Goddess. Defiler of the lust bound damned, and nightmarish excuse to adulterers and fornicators. I, am a succubus. You may call me Ankhta though," the succubus said, her breath washed across Maelice's features. Warm and scented of jasmine. Maelice felt her breath catch a moment as she watched the naked demon step within inches of her.

"So you're the one who's stopped the dreams. Penned in by the Mother Superior for your power I presume," Maelice asked, before Ankhta ran her fingers along the nun's lips, parted them slightly. She leaned in, getting ever so close, and Maelice's heart pounded within her chest. She felt herself melting with barely a touch and the succubus smiled as she came ever closer. Her head turned at the last moment, her breasts pressing to Maelice's chest, her lips at the nun's ear.

"Correct. I was wounded by the abominations of Mammon, and Mother Emilie could not bring herself to let even a demon die under her care. So she took me here, and she offered a lay sister for my nourishment. We began to talk, and oh the depths of her desires that I could see in her shadow," Ankhta purred, her words silken, her lips grazing Maelice's ear through her wimple, before teeth clamped down. Maelice nearly whimpered.

"So then you began to corrupt the abbey," Maelice accused, trying to get her mental footing again, curling her fingers around the hilt of her sword to focus herself. She looked beyond the succubus's wing to the veined wall beyond, seeing the bricks waver. Swelling and ebbing as if with hidden lungs. As if alive.

"What you would call corruption, yes. But all I offered were paths. Choices. I offered tales of how things could have been, and what things are like beyond the veil of death. In the pits of Hell, which you must know you are destined for. I forced nothing, though I am kept behind a locked door," Ankhta said, as her claws played along Maelice's fingers, traced across her knuckles, without any motion to pry them from her sword.

"What's in it for you? Who is the clay born Goddess?" Maelice asked as she watched the wall shifting, a black mass spreading from the cracks. It spread like oil slick ivy, its fingers spider webbing across the bricks it touched.

"I rather savour that of you. You fight and meddle in affairs you do not understand, yet you do not slap it with some tome but try to understand. You seek what others would deny, that you may understand. That you may fight," Ankhta said, taking in a deep breath, one hand gently laying on Maelice's chest.

"Then help me understand, answer my questions," Maelice said as she found herself staring into those violet eyes once more.

"If you answer just one of mine, I will help you understand what you wish," Ankhta said and held up a single clawed finger that she then tapped against Maelice's lips.

The nun frowned; surely this was how Emilia had ended up skirting through the morass of the dark, how Rochelle came to call this demon 'mistress'. They conversed when they should have banished. They struck deals when they should have trusted in God.

But, Maelice did not believe she was truly in God's good graces, and to make his will known, she had to bend some rules. She bit her lower lip, and pondered the deal, while Ankhta just watched with a soul melting smile.

"What's your question?" Maelice said finally as she released her lip.

"Why do you collar your darkness and deny yourself what you desire?" Ankhta said, her fingertip slid down along Maelice's neck. As much as the nun tried to keep a stoic stance, she tilted her head back, exposing her throat. Her gaze found the inky vines that were creeping across the ceiling, curving downwards to spread across the wall behind her.

The question pricked at her. This went far deeper than temptations. It felt like a done deal that she was dancing around.

"What do you know of my desires?" Maelice tried, feeling the emptiness of the words even as she uttered them into a room that did not belong on this Earth.

"Questions with questions. We could go about this for eternity, so let me start the string of answers. I can see them my sweet warrior. Like words written in a tome I see them in your shadow; your lusts, your craving for the touch of a woman. Your passion for Safina, the growing desire for Rochelle, and now, for me. I see it all," Ankhta said as her fingertip slipped off Maelice's neck and trailed along the nun's concealed chest, down to the hidden swell of her breast. The succubus paused, her claw poking through the habit and against Maelice's nipple.

Somehow the words made the nun feel at ease. Pretense stripped away, no hiding herself from the eyes before her. There was no judgment, no accusation, just fact. It felt comforting, and the sensation wrapped itself around Maelice's mind like a warm blanket. She blinked, and let herself be honest.

"Because I fear Hell. I fear damnation," Maelice said, and turned her head away a moment. She battled with the shame she'd been told she was supposed to have, and was surprised when the claws left her hand, left her sword free. The sharp points gently pressed along Maelice's cheek and jaw. Slowly her head was pulled back, and the succubus leaned in until their lips pressed together.

The demon tasted of honey, her lips soft and pleasant. Maelice's eyes fluttered a moment, before the kiss between them broke.

"Do not fear Hell, or damnation. I will not lie, you are bound for the inferno, but what happens there will be up to you. Will you embrace yourself?," Ankhta said, and Maelice let her fingers slip off the hilt of her blade. She grasped the succubus's hips, and let her hands slide upwards to feel the smoothness of flesh beneath her palms.

"How easy mortal souls fall," Maelice muttered to herself as her hands slid back downwards. Grasping Ankhta's hips she pulled the succubus closer, the demon grinning.

"You've not truly fallen... not yet. Is that the path you'd like to tread?" Ankhta asked, and Maelice closed her eyes. She pictured Safina, the smile on her face that turned to hungry moans with the right press of the tongue. Then she remembered the crusaders who butchered her, their blades sinking into her back as she had tried to run. The chunks they had cut from her to quell their maddening hunger. The smell of Safina cooking upon spear tips hanging over fires had driven Maelice to fury then, and still haunted her.

The pope, the bishops, the priests, had promised those men salvation. Forgiveness of their sins for their march. Maelice had ensured their lips had not tasted her lover in a display of carnage that mirrored the brutality the crusaders had shown the city of Ma'arra.

The nun opened her eyes. Violet eyes stared at her, the room had grown over with the black weed flesh that rippled with a strange life of its own, lit by the pulse of the veins within.

"Yes. I joined the church to serve God, not men," she said.

"There is another you might serve alongside Jehovah. You wanted to know what I got out of this Sister Maelice? I got followers for my Goddess; the clay born Goddess, Lilith. Made of divine flesh, and banished for daring to speak against Adam. She who offers choice, and embraces desire. The cosmos is not as black and white as some would have you believe, and neither is Hell," Ankhta said as she pushed back Maelice's veil. The nun let her.

"I have heard of the seven princes of Hell, but Lilith only in stories," Maelice said, and Ankhta raised an eyebrow.

"Impressive, you know more than your preachers would have others believe. But it is but part of the tale. A Devil for each sin, dictated by the masses upon Earth. Lilith is an eighth, who seeks to control lust. Her war with Asmodeus has raged for millennia," Ankhta said, and Maelice watched those seductive eyes.

"Will she take me, as I continue to serve God's will on Earth?" Maelice asked as the succubus pulled off her wimple. The demon smiled, and dropped the pristine white cloth to the floor before she leaned in. Lips found Maelice's exposed ear, and teeth nipped at the shell.

"Why not serve both? Give your heart to both, there is room for more than one in your soul," Ankhta said and bit again to earn a gasp from Maelice's lips. The nun's hands slid back from the demon's hips to the firm swell of her ass, and dug her fingers in.

"If she aids me, she will have my blade. In this life, and beyond," Maelice swore, and felt something twist deep inside herself. A sensation of freedom, of belonging.

"And there's the collar shattering. Welcome Sister Maelice, it is good to meet you," the succubus purred, before Maelice lunged forward to press her lips against the demon's own. Her tongue thrust forwards, forced Ankhta's apart to feel the slickness of saliva.

The succubus let out a hungry groan as her tail flicked forward. Slowly it began to lift at the hem of the nun's habit, drawing it upwards until the boots were fully revealed and skin showed. For the second time that day Maelice was about to be exposed, but this time she craved it. She embraced it. For the pure lust of it.

She released her grip on the succubus's rump, and helped the tail lift her habit. Up it climbed, past thighs and rippling stomach. The cloth bunched up at her bust and the two broke their kiss. Their eyes locked for a brief moment before the habit was drawn upwards and discarded. Naked save her boots, and crucifix, Maelice stood proud before the succubus.

"You are a creature of beauty Sister Maelice," the succubus said as her claws ran along the ridges of hard ab muscles and upwards to cup the nun's breasts. The demon squeezed gently, claws pressed into the soft flesh, stiff nipples dug into Ankhta's palms.

"Then take me, make me yours tonight, as I make you mine," Maelice said and was surprised when she felt something slick coiling around her arms. She glanced down, and saw inky black tentacles emerging from the weed flesh on the walls. Black slime smeared along her biceps, and ran in dribbles along the grooves of her muscles. There was a surprising strength in them as they pulled back on Maelice's arms until her shoulder blades pressed against the wall.

"It would be my delight. I've fed already, this will just be for pleasure," the succubus purred before she ran a tongue along a claw.

More tentacles slithered out from the wall to wrap around Maelice's midsection, coiled around her body and slithered up between her breasts, as others pushed them together. Maelice could only moan, feeling that darkness inside herself throb with eagerness as she finally fed it.

Slime dripped from above, dropping in Maelice's hair and rolled down over her forehead and along her nose. She glanced up, seeing more tendrils as they descended towards her. A few more drops pattered across her breasts and cheek as the tentacles soon wrapped around her thighs, and downwards to wrap around knees and calves. Slime coursed along the curves of her legs, and seeped into her boots.