Lilith's Fall: Eden's Rise Ch. 01

"No! Stop it!" I stepped out in front.

"El. Step away. You don't know if it's dangerous. Better safe than sorry."

The command in her voice made my loins move in silly ways but I wasn't about to back down. I could see the wispy trails of her magic as it slipped from the air into her hand to form her weapon. Not, knowing what else to do, I reached out and grasped at the energy.

Helal gasped when I stole the magic from her control, her sword flickering once before winking out of existence. The magic danced across my hands like playful salamanders. It was different than when I practiced alone, the threads were more lively slipping too and fro, flavored by my angel's touch. The magic began to peter out. Entranced by the dancing display only I could see, I decided to try to stoke the fire.

It worked.

Only, it worked too well.

The magic blazed into the visible spectrum as the fire feasted on the glut of energy I fed to it. I was so shocked I forgot to turn off the tap. The heat startled me and I instinctively tossed my hands out away from my face.

And straight at the butterfly bug.

The half formed ball of mixed magics slammed into the creature, flaring up like a dying star before winking out of existence. By the time the magic cleared the bug was curled up on the ground.

"I guess that takes care of that."

"Nooo. I killed it," I cried mournfully.

Helal snorted. "You're a big softie, aren't you?"

I frowned at the motionless little creature. "I used to capture the spiders in our house and let them go. It's not their fault my sister was scared of them. They were just trying to live their lives getting rid of pesky things like mosquitoes and flies."

Helal chuckled and ruffled my hair. Just as I was about to turn away, the legs twitched.

"Ooohhh. Oh, oh, oh!" I pointed excitedly. "Not dead."

Those golden eyes I loved so much got that look in them and her arm drifted out, empty fingers curled around a hilt that had yet to form.

I slapped her shoulder. "Don't even think of it." I hustled over to her pack. Ruffling through it, I tossed a thin looking blanket, a prickly looking circlet, and what looked to be a stone carving of an eye with a complete optic nerve, in order to grab a piece of ration. Returning to the bug, I tossed it a generous crumb of the calorie-rich substance.

Its wings wobbled uncertainly for a moment before it scurried over to the thing. Once there it lowered it's body over the food. It's wing and straight tail vibrated quickly for a few seconds, and when it rose the food was gone, presumably eaten.

Having fed, the insectoid creature flapped itself to the roof of our cave, jabbing it's wicked stinger upward into the rock. Tiny graspers curled around the backside of the black chiton pulling it's body close while the delicate wings wrapped everything up like a present. After everything was done, it seemed like nothing more than an oddly shaped ball that hung down from the ceiling.

"See? It wasn't so dangerous."

"We still don't know that yet. For all you know it could swing down in our sleep and inject us with eggs or something."

I shivered at the thought, but remained true to my conviction. "You talk about justice, but one little butterfly comes along and whoops," I mimed throwing something to the side. "There goes those morals, right out the window," I teased.

Helal did not take it well., grumpily crossing her arms over her chest. "I just want to keep us safe."

I socked her playfully in the arm. "And I truly appreciate that. But, if you could do it without killing innocent creatures, I would be ever so appreciative," the low purr to my voice did it's job, and the surliness left her face. She turned those captivating eyes my way and my hips performed a jig of their own accord under their intensity. A heat settled between my thighs and I began to stiffen. My old modesty reared its head and my hands twitched in an effort to cover it up for a moment. The motion drew Helal's attention, locking onto it like a fighter jet.

"Is someone feeling a little... frisky?" She asked, circling around me like a hungry cat while she dexterously stripped out of her armor, discarding the pieces negligently to the ground. Her eyes never left me, prowling after me with a predator's intensity.

That was all it took to make me ready.

To make me more than ready.

To make me needy.

One look and a not-so-innocent question and she had me swooning. "Please, don't make me wait," I pleaded, clutching at her while kicking off my pants. She didn't dodge away like I feared she might. Her body and her presence filled my senses that keened with sweet joy at pleasing her. Her teeth tugged at my ear for a moment. Grinding against me, she forced my cock to weep lubricant against her toned stomach.

"Do you want it sweet?" She paused a moment for dramatic effect. "Or do you want it spicy?" she inquired as her hand dug into the ample swell of my backside.

It hardly required a second for the answer to come to me but it took me considerably longer to overcome my natural bashfulness and whisper the word that would lead to what I needed from her.

"...Spicy," I admitted, quiet enough that I wasn't sure she could hear me.

She did. I knew she did by the way her growl vibrated against the side of my head.

But she wasn't about to let me off the hook when presented with such an easy target.

"What? I didn't quite catch that?"

"Spicy," I said, barely any louder. Panting, I thrust out my chest and shivered.

Stripping me of my top, she continued to tease me. "Huh? Once more. Almost had it that time."

"Spicy!" I practically shouted at her. My subservient instincts twinged at the raising of my voice but she didn't seem to mind.

"Then why are you still standing?"

Huh?

Her eyes blazed as she crafted magic, the aether moved through the air at a mere trickle. My wrists and neck buzzed as iron restraints appeared. Chains came next, clinking as they hung off the restraints down to the ground. Then they grew taught. Inch by inch, link by link, the chain began to slip beneath the ground, taking me with it. I fought it for a moment, panicking at the sensation of helplessness. Helal took my mind off of it by gripping my cock and leaning in to take wet swipes at my labia with her tongue. She rode me down, first to my knees and then fully spread on the ground. After my initial struggle, I relaxed into it, allowing Helal and her magic to have their way with me. The submission was freeing. There wasn't anything I could do anyway so why bother. I was a more than willing passenger to whatever my girl had planned for me.

"How we doing?" Helal asked, taking a moment to make sure everything was fine.

"Great." My response was somewhat breathless and my voice tight with a thick thread of needy desire that coursed through my body that'd been partially crafted by a sex crystal.

"Good to hear." Then her ministrations switched places, her pillowy lips slipping over my glans while her hard digits slithered inside my wet pussy. A cry of bliss leapt from my lips as she began to dip her head, slowly working my cock deeper into her mouth.

She played with me for a time, until I was on the verge of popping. As if sensing the cusp of my orgasm she let me slip from her mouth while holding her fingers still inside me. Slipping from deep in my chest, a wanton whine sprung forth without my notice.

"Tsk tsk tsk. No concern with your partner's pleasure," Helal chastised. "Whatever am I to do with a slutty little thing like you?" she asked, tweaking one of my rigid nipples absentmindedly.

The framework laid by the slave rune still existed inside my brain, taking in her lightheartedly teasing words as the truth. Somehow the mixing of magics between the rune and the crystal meant that the commands of the rune were firmly entrenched in sexual situations, when my natural defenses and identity were the softest. Raw icy horror flooded through my body at Helal's seeming disappointment. Claws of self-loathing slashed repeatedly at my brain.

I failed her. She's displeased with me.

A litany of apologies slammed together into an incomprehensible mash of syllables while my arms fought the restraints until thin rivulets of blood ran down my arms. "SorrIdidnpleasforgivedondobett-"

I sobbed once, tears spilling down my cheeks as pleasure soured into fear and guilt.

Helal wasn't sure what just happened. One moment she was playing with a little dirty talk and the next thing she knew I was destroying myself while fighting the bindings I'd just an instant before safely enjoyed and accepted. She dissolved the restraints with a wave of her hand. Once free, I threw myself into her arms, my brain screaming at me to make her feel good in any way I could. My eyes wild, I tried to capture one of her breasts into my mouth. Scared, Helal stopped me by catching my shoulders and forcing me to face her.

"El, talk to me. El, what's wrong? Please stop it and talk to me. Tell me what happened."

That last command snapped me out of the worst of it and I began to speak. "I... I... Let you down," I hiccuped the words out as best I could.

She pulled me close against her chest. "You didn't. I messed up somehow. Not your fault," she insisted, despite having no clue if this was true or not.

The cloud of despair lifted slightly. "I... I... I didn't?"

"No, sweet thing. I was trying to be sexy and I think it backfired."

I snorted a couple brittle chuckles. "You could say that again." My heart rate began to slow towards the heavy exercise range rather than the jet-engine fueled jackrabbit one it'd been attempting to sustain.

Helal scratched at her head while also rubbing my back soothingly. "Seems I need to be careful about what I say and how I act if it leads to that sort of visceral reaction to my words."

"That would be good," I agreed.

"How about we head to bed? Now that I've gone and ruined the mood and all."

Sniffling, I wiped away the last of my tears. "Actually..." I hedged. The desire to make her feel good still lurked in alleyways of my brain. "I kind of feel like going down on you... If you don't mind of course."

This only managed to further confuse Helal. "I mean... I'm not going to say no to that. But, are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine." That wasn't entirely true and I immediately felt a twinge. "I'll be fine." I licked my lips and let my eyes dip down the smooth curves of her athletic body. "Also, if you could..." Oh my, this is so embarrassing. "If you could perhaps praise me when I do a good job that would probably help. I'm pretty sure it cuts both ways, the bad and the good.."

Smirking, Helal stroked my luscious hair and refrained from commenting on my childish request. "No problem." Still on edge after my sudden breakdown, her tension was obvious as I slid down her body. I kept my chin touching her and my eyes trained on her the whole way down.

Need to do something to change the mood.

My confidence in my ability to inspire lust was as big as the current size of my balls, so I settled on an old staple: humor. Smiling up at her, I reached my destination, my tongue darting out to slip between her folds. I smacked my lips a couple of times before blowing a kiss up at her face. That earned me a quiet laugh that she failed to stifle. Just like that, things weren't quite so strained between us. The pall that covered her whenever she was thinking about how the crusaders had ruined my life, lifted. I breathed a sigh of relief before tucking into her, slowly working the delicate petals of her flower, learning her preferences.

Turns out she loved when I met her eyes. Every time I did, her body would lovingly convulse and tighten around my tongue.

"Good. Keep doing it just like that." Her words caressed my mind like a silken stroke, pleasure swimming down my spine, my own sex wetting in an ingrained response. I felt like a cracked plate and this therapy was slowly slotting my pieces together and lovingly binding them with her praise.

"Juuust like that." Her stomach started to gently rock, grinding her pussy into my face. I remained steady, more than willing to be of use to her.

"So beautiful. You're so beautiful and I appreciate you doing this for me."

The part of me that wanted to protest the first portion died a quiet death as I reactively trusted her words as the truth.

"I'm close, El. So close. Don't stop. Don't you dare stop."

As, if...

I smirked and would've rolled my eyes if it wouldn't have broken the routine that seemed to be working for her.

"So... Don't... Right... Unnnnggghhh." A breathy moan issued from her lips. She let her head loll back and her hips pump up into me. Fluttered around my tongue, her pussy gushed, its wetness spilling out across my face. A sympathetic reaction washed over me, running down my spine in a pleasurable sensation quite similar to that of an orgasm. I huffed a few quick breaths but never stopped my work.

She hadn't told me to, after all.

Helal seemed surprised for a moment when I continued to ply her with my tongue. But after a second or so, relaxed back into the motions, more than game to let me keep playing.

Later, when we were sweaty and lying atop our pushed-together bedrolls, Helal lightly trailed her hand across my hairless stomach, slowly circling my slick navel. An unconquerable smile dominated my otherwise tired face. I felt relaxed and safe in a way that I hadn't since childhood. Here with Helal, it felt like the bad things in the world couldn't touch us.

"El, I want to talk about why I won't say... those words," she finished slowly.

"Oh, you don't have to. It's not like I-"

Her body tensed next to me and her hand's movements stopped. "No. You deserve to know. At least the broad strokes. It's still cuts pretty close, but the longer I spend in your arms the easier it is. I do care about you, El. It's important to me that you know that."

"Okay," I said in a small voice that did little to disguise the unbridled joy that those words sent ricocheting through my body.

"A long time ago. I was in love. The whole nine yards. I thought we would be forever. The sun would dark before and all that junky poetic jazz. She was my first. Many of my firsts, actually. And, after a romantic evening together, I worked up my nerve and I told her. I said those words." Helal fell silent, her expression indecipherable as she stared at the ceiling. When she spoke the next time her voice was molasses-thick with emotion. "It was like I'd run her through with a burning blade. She was that stricken. And I am quite familiar with that expression. As I was lying next to her, trying to find the courage to confess my love, she was thinking about how she was going to tell me about accepting a job at the premier research facility off plane, a collaborative effort in one of the faye realms."

Oh, La...

My fingers ached to comfort her, but I played with the edge of the bedroll instead, unsure if she would welcome what could possibly be thought of as pity.

"I did not take it well. At the time, it felt like a betrayal. Age has brought with it some perspective. We were just a different crossroads. Our lives moved in different directions, but that scar still remains. I'll get there, just be patient with me."

"What happened during the breakup?"

She snorted, and an embarrassed look crossed her face. "The bed did not survive the event, and that's all I'll say."

After a moment to process the words I burst out laughing.

Helal's brow furrowed until she chuckled. "Not like that. It was not a fun kind of bed breaking, more smoldering than anything."

"I don't know. I find your smoldering quite charming."

Helal rolled her eyes and leaned in to give me a kiss. When we separated I could see how much her lack of admission was bothering her and I couldn't leave it alone.

"I don't mind," I provided after a time.

She opened her mouth to protest and I silenced her with a finger against her lips.

"I know how you feel. You don't have to say it to make it real. It's obvious in the way that you look after me and treat me. The words are an afterthought compared to that."

Pulling me in close, she held me tight against her. My leg threaded in hers and the cool night air was nice against our naked skin.

"Thanks, El. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, La." We fell asleep pressed against each other, and I've never felt more loved than I did in that moment before drifting off.

The next morning Helal woke me with an agenda and a plan. "After that stunt yesterday, it's become painfully obvious that I need to instruct you about aether manipulation."

"The what manipulation?"

"Aether. It's the scattered bits of energy that make reality, well... reality. It is what we mold to make our desires manifest." She held her palm out and a tiny pegasus, formed entirely of brilliant crimson flame appeared as her eyes gained a golden gleam. "Magic, I believe I've heard you people call it."

Bubbling with excitement, I stood up straighter. "You're gonna teach me? I mean, I've been trying things out and it's been going okay, but it's more trial and error than anything else."

"Then you are off to a good start. The first lesson in dealing with aether is that everyone's interactions with it are different. People smarter than me have done the research, and have concluded that the soul is made up of completely unique types of firmament, or condensed aether. Therefore, everyone manipulates the aether in their own way. But-" She held up a single finger. "There are a few commonalities that are useful to know and a few pitfalls to avoid. And one absolute rule."

My exuberance, while tempered with her warnings, still threatened to have me bouncing on the balls of my feet. "Got it."

"Do you want the fun stuff first or the warnings?"

"Fun stuff," I answered instantly. "Leave the cautionary tales for after."

"Fair enough. This is the way it was described to me by someone a lot smarter than me. Spellwork is like painting. The paint brush is your mind and aether is like the paint. Firmament is that canvas. What you need to learn is some simple brushwork. Now, I saw what you did back on Earth, so let's start with something in that area. What's your favorite flower?"

I thought about it carefully, my mind going back as it often did when I looked at flowers. " My mom used to grow these delicate yellow one's that she called buttercups. They have five little petals, outstretched to catch the sun. Whenever I see one, it always makes me think of a family, each piece an individual but everyone bundled up around a soft core."

"Perfect. Now, what I want you to do is visualize that flower."

I immediately closed my eyes and began to do just that.

"No, it's important to keep your eyes open," she said with a smile in her voice. "There are three parts to interacting with the aether. The first is visualizing what you want, and is in fact the least important of the steps. Then, you reach out and hook yourself into the aether, touch it, draw it in, send yourself out to meet it, whatever works for you."

I tried to comply but she stopped me with a quick tap to my nose. My eyes went crosswise and I stopped.

"Before you do that, you need to see how you want the end result occuring, all the way from conception through the stages until you reach the goal that you visualized in the beginning." She slipped in behind me, molding herself to mine. Our palms met down the length of our outstretched arms. "If you think you can keep all of that in mind, I want you to try to grow a buttercup out of the air in front of you."