Lilith's Fall: Eden's Rise Ch. 02

"That sounds amazing." My brow furrowed. "Why haven't we been practicing something like this?" I gestured between the two of us.

"It takes a certain amount of compatibility that we lack. Both partners have to open themselves up. It takes an insane amount of trust. I'm simply too set in my ways to be able to alter my aether-working like that. It makes sense that she would be able to do that with you considering how open you are. Not to mention how aether leaps to your command. The only thing I don't understand is why she's showing such interest in our affairs."

Damn. Soultwined, huh?

I mulled on what I'd learned and lost most of my concerns. "Oh. That's okay then. She's like my lab partner, but for magic- sorry -aetherwork. Sheesh. I literally just met her. I'd be concerned to learn she's my fated partner. Especially with her having that indistinct form." I was a little saddened I wasn't going to be working that kind of magic with Helal, but all her talk of partners also brought a different activity to mind. "I prefer something a little firmer." I boldly let my hand reach out and glance across the section of her shirt that concealed her chiseled abs. The fact that I couldn't look at her while I did it, or that my face was a particularly vivid shade of red, didn't matter. I was feeling amorous and it helped me overcome my natural shyness enough for me to at least hint at what I wanted.

And Helal picked up on it.

"Do you? You like my muscles?" Drawing back her sleeve, she flexed her bicep, making it protrude into an impressive lump.

Swallowing dryly, I licked my suddenly chapped lips as my eyes remained locked on her displayed appendage.

"It is nice to feel appreciated," Helal remarked. Moving quickly enough that I didn't recognize her intentions through the distraction, she scooped me up off the couch. Taking me to her bed, she brought me to orgasm no less than four times, whispering such sweet affections that made my heart swoon the entire time. She even let me pleasure her with my tongue, but only after I'd begged for the privilege to do so. Later, when she was fast asleep, I leaned my ear against her chest, listening to the steady beat of her heart.

I've never been happier.

Two days later, Helal swooped out of the sky. "El, there's something I need you to do."

Dropping my trowel, I rushed over to her, leaving the conjured tool in the dirt with my haste. "Absolutely, what do you need?"

Snorting with amusement, she ruffled my hair playfully. "It's not that big of a rush. It's about the forest."

"What about the forest? Did I screw something up?" I wrung my hands nervously.

If I put her and the girls in danger because I don't think that I-

She silenced the worrisome thoughts with a sweat-slicked kiss that tasted dark and rich, colored by the fertile loam dust that flavored my lips. "Nothings wrong. The forest is fine. It's just that there's one small problem with the location."

Location?

She sketched a quick circle in the air, her eyes flashing gold as her finger produced a thin arc of smoke that remained motionless. "You made a near perfect circle, as far as I can tell from the air. The limit of your spellwork projection marks the edge of the forest. Which means, at the center-" She poked a center point into her drawn smoke-circle. "- is our-"

"Home!" I immediately grasped my folly.

"Exactly. So I thought I could fly you out and add some bulk to one side, make the circle more organic and thus harder for them to find our positioning."

"Absolutely. How long do you think it'll take for us to... Wait. Did you say fly me?"

"Yeah. I mean, if you want to, I wouldn't drop you if that's what you're thinking."

"You could take me flying, and you haven't offered yet?" I inquired. I was somewhat peeved, to put it mildly.

"I, um, I didn't realize it was something that you would want to do?"

"Didn't think I would want to fly? Are you daft."

She blinked at me, taken aback for a moment before chuckling.

My eyes crept open, wider and wider, before I realized how I spoke to her.

"I kind of like this side of you, El. It's nice."

I blushed furiously, hiding my face by ducking my chin and letting my strikingly dark hair cover it like a veil.

"Lilith," she said softly, drawing my hair back from one side so she could see one of my eyes before repeating the process with the other.

When she says my name like that... Maybe it's not so bad.

"Would you like to go flying with me?"

"Absolutely. When can we go?"

"I mean... Right now if you want to. But we can go later if you were doing something-"

"Now. Let's go now. I want to fly with you Helal."

Five minutes later and the still air whipped past my face with the speed of our passage. Helal's fiery wings were larger than I'd ever seen them. We'd set up a steady supply of aether that I drew forth from the atmosphere that she then channeled into the thirty foot appendages. They were glorious as they captured the wind like twin sails and forced it out and away from us. I clung to Helal with my arms around her neck while her arms supported my lower back and knees. Fear of falling was the last thing on my mind as we rose above the treetops, the green dot growing smaller and smaller beneath us as we rose into the air. The landscape was exquisite, despite the relative lack of landmarks.

"Wow." The word echoed from my lips with me noticing or meaning to issue it.

Helal's heart trilled at the opportunity to share this with me. "It's something else, isn't it?"

My gaze drank in the view, slipping across every mile in a serpentine path that landed on the rolling green forest that concealed our home. "I can't believe you don't spend more time up here."

"It gets a little lonely. I'm glad you like it. Maybe we can fly again together some other time."

"We are absolutely doing this again."

"I'd like that, El."

We spent a few more minutes enjoying the view before Helal began to glide down to a spot near the edge of the forest. As we were coasting down, an idea occurred to me. A gift that I thought Helal might love.

Although it'll take some work to make happen.

After we landed, I began to quickly set about capturing the same frame of mind I'd used in the initial creation of the forest. Having done it once I was much more confident in my abilities this time around, even without a supernatural entity of the land supporting me. Another section of brown bark, fluttering leaves, and green grass sprouted around us, much smaller than the first but of equal quality. This time, however, the process left me feeble and weary, even with the smaller nature of the conjuration.

Once done, Helal praised me for my efforts and immediately scooped me up and swooped me back home, where she deposited me straight into bed after conjouling me into drinking a glass of water. For the next day my head felt like a poorly repaired doll's head, complete with cotton stuffing and liable to fall off at any moment. I couldn't help but wonder at the difference the genius loci's presence made between the spellworking instances. It took me three days to mostly recover, Helal commanding me to stay in bed and drink plenty of fluids. It was almost adorable to watch the fierce fighter fret over me. She felt so guilty about asking me to do the forest that she hardly left my side. I did my best to hide my aching symptoms, and to pry myself out of bed with a smile. She looked dubious and hovered around me like a mother hen; she even kept asking me why I had such a dopey look on my face when I noticed her doing it. Another week passed and she loosened her well-meaning reins.

I was running through a series of practice exercises developed by Helal when I felt a chill line be drawn across my lower back. Flinching, I spun my aetheric senses still cranked up to full blast. A wavering tendril of brilliant blue led off into the distance.

"What the fu-" I lowered my fists as it made no further moves. Recognition eluded me for a moment before I realized that it was one of Alora's. Once I did, I waved at it. It waved back before beckoning me to follow it. I followed after it, interested in what she wanted with me. When I tracked her tendril back to its point of origin, she was chatting by the riverside with Chi. Twenty or so tentacles encircled the scorpion-tailed woman. Leaning in she gave Alora a chaste kiss on the cheek before waving goodbye and flapping her wings. The updraft tickled my hair as she disappeared overhead, adroitly weaving through the trees.

"Hello, Mother."

I blinked for a moment before shaking my head. Will it ever not feel weird to be called that. "Hi, Alora. You... called, I guess. They're very pretty." I said as the multitude of appendages worked to 'see' me, touching pieces of me. I didn't mind as I understood what it meant, but I still felt somewhat vulnerable when she approached places I considered pretty private.

"I did. I'm sorry for scaring you, that was not my intention."

"While I don't mind... Hey!" I swatted away a tendril that was getting a little too familiar as it ascended my leg from my inner knee. "That's off limits!"

"Oh. I didn't know. Can you show me where else is off limits? Chi said she enjoyed my exploration of her body and I wouldn't want to offend."

I rolled my eyes. I'm sure she did.

Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I reminded myself that Alora was new to the world and not everyone had my sense of modesty.

Let's be real, no one has my sense of modesty.

"Sure. Although, in the future it might be best if you asked for permission before attempting to touch anyone in that manner." Taking one of her tendrils in hand I hover it over the areas I wouldn't want her to touch: my crotch, ass, and tits.

"And everywhere else is okay? It is not my intention to make you uncomfortable."

"Should be fine," I assured her.

With exceeding care, she avoided all the areas I'd marked while sampling everywhere else with thousands of cool little touches. Even the bottom of my feet were not spared, and I giggled in surprise.

"Was that wrong?"

"No," I responded with a little grin. "That area is just a little sensitive."

"Hmmm. I wish Chi's reaction was like that. That sound was enchantingly cute."

"So, why did you bring me out here? I doubt it was to catalogue my responses to your touch," I deflected, not wanting more information on their relationship than was strictly necessary.

"Indeed it was not. Merely a nice side result. Chi told me about your pursuers and the fortifications you've made to your home. I would like to demonstrate my ability so that you may factor me into your defenses."

Stunned, I could do nothing but gape at her for a moment.

I'd never considered whether or not she would want to help.

Now that the idea had been presented, I found it... distasteful.

She's so delicate. I would hate to see her get hurt.

"You don't need to do that Alora. This is not your fight."

"Mother," she said in the same condescending tone all daughters instinctively knew. "It's frankly insulting for you to say that to me."

"If I'm your mother, shouldn't I know best?" I asked, only halfway serious.

"I've talked to Chi. I know how much you value your life against those of your companions. So, in this... No, you don't. Besides, you haven't even seen what I can do yet." Twisting lines of her scales began to glow with a sharp, cold light. Four of her aether tendrils, hardened, the aether that composed them hardening into something that was visible, the edges distinct like that of a soap bubble.

"While pretty, I don't understand..." My voice trailed off as her almost invisible tentacles lashed out at the surrounding forest. The first sliced halfway through a tree trunk that was as large as my thigh and finished it off with a secondary stroke. The second didn't cut so much as it crushed, limbs snapping under the constrictive force of her slithery limbs powered by her will. Another tree met its demise when it was speared like a charging boar, the glistening tip emerging from the back. Then the tendril expandied, splinters showering the ground as the top tilted to fall to the ground with a thunderous crash. Cutting, splitting, crushing, smashing, breaking, and hammering her tendrils positively writhed as they worked to reduce the forest around us to kindling.

"Oh..."

While I was enraptured by her demonstration, Alora was also focused on executing her true plan. A thin tendril, weaker looking that boasted little pinpricks of light, like it'd been dipped in the essence of a night sky, carefully approached my lower back. Questing around a bit, it found my intestines and darted forward. The hair at the nape of my neck rose in a wave, chills spreading across my body as I witnessed the wanton destruction that was hidden within my daughter's body. Splitting her focus, Alora's nonexistent eyes stared into the abyss.

When she was done, the trunks of all the trees within forty feet lay cut, shattered, and otherwise completely brutalized.

"Alora..." I said, somewhat taken aback by what I'd witnessed. That changed when I realized what a difference she might make in the coming conflict, despite my reservations about her getting injured. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" she inquired, her tendrils quieting into what appeared to be their passive observative state.

"I underestimated you. You are..." My head swiveled around, taking in the carnage. "You are impressive." My voice dropped into a soft whisper. "Intimidating." I continued in a louder voice. "I just didn't expect that, with how delicate and beautiful you are."

"Awww, Moooom." Wrapping me up in her magical limbs that'd just displayed a scary knack for violence, she held me in a long-ranged hug. "That's kind of why I wanted to show you. I had the feeling you might have the wrong idea about my capabilities after how you reacted to my lack of optical nerves. Also it's good to see you, I wouldn't mind if you took the time to visit me now and then."

I picked up on unsubtle implication. "I'll make the effort. I thought you might want some time with Chi," I said defensively, the statement only partially true.

"Chi, although she doesn't show it, would also like to hang out with you. She's very fond of you in her own quiet way. And if you cooked for her," Alora sucked some air between her teeth. "You'd have her, unironically, eating out of the palm of your hand."

"That... Actually sounds nice. We could make a picnic out of it. I could collect some finger foods and..." I drifted off, mentally planning the meal.

Alora smiled and left me to my thoughts. Her face looked as sad as her droopy tendrils that watched me, the only other indication that anything was off with her mood were the occasional disruption of the gently flowing river from her tail lashing about.

"How about tomorrow?"

"That works for me," Alora responded. "It's a date. Anyway, that's why I called you over. I don't want to keep you from doing... whatever it was you were doing."

"I was practicing-" I clammed up. "I was practicing a gift for Helal."

"She won't hear about it from me," Alora assured.

"Thank you, see you tomorrow," I said with a wave, eager to get back to what Helal thought I was doing, namely working on my disruption techniques, before she learned I was missing and started asking questions.

After I was safely out of earshot, Alora slipped beneath the water, cradling her stomach as her body jerked and thrashed. Pained sobs vibrated the surface of the river with their strength. Her gills flapped open and closed, her breathing shallow and rapid. Eventually she managed to control her response. Curling her tail on the riverbed, she sat in it's circular depression, gripping and releasing her arms. "Okay. I'm not going to let that happen to Mother. What can I do..." Spreading her hands wide, threads of aether slipped into the timeline tracing the branching paths, searching for something to grasp. Something to hold on to. Something to build upon. Two hours later and Alora's hands shook from fatigue and her stomach growled at her mistreatment.

"This is beginning to feel impossible. I'm just smacking my head against a coral reef. I need a new perspective. Someone with experience..." If she had eyes they would have sprung open wide. "She's been probing me fairly regularly anyway." She placed a closed fist against the ground and sent a scouting tendril deep into the core of the planet, a request and a messenger all in one. "Tartarus, I must speak with you."

Tartarus responded instantly, appearing beneath the water next to the mermaid, her form differing from what she'd shown to me.

Alora wasted no time. "Something is coming for Lilith-"

Tartarus sat down, and patted Alora's thigh. "I know."

"You know? Then why aren't we doing anything?!" Alora cried.

"There's nothing that can be done."

"So we just abandon her to suffering and death? I'm unwilling to accept that," Alora declared, her tail swishing about agitatedly.

"No. Of course not. But certain things are unavoidable, that's just part of life. Even with the abilities such that we possess."

Alora looked distraught and pained. "So there's nothing that can be done?"

"We will be there for her. Help support her. But we can't dictate what she chooses to do."

"But if we-"

"You know how that ends."

Alora pinched her face frustratedly. She looked back into the future, idly flipping through the possibilities.

Tartarus patted the mermaid's thigh again. "All is not lost, little one. Sometimes the future isn't quite where we think it will be." With that, Tartarus' proxy dissipated, leaving Alora to riddle out that puzzle.

Once she did, she spread her hands, once more reaching into the timeline with her aether. She found her sliver of hope. "Clever. Very clever Tartarus. I can work with this. I'll have to talk to Chi-" Her thought was interrupted by her stomach and a wave of tiredness that soaked into her limbs. "But first I should care for myself." It was at this time that Chi floated down with some apples from a newly grown grove. "Perfect timing, and it saves me from having to make a trip." Alora wiggled her fingers at the butterfly woman and laid her chin on her forearms on the side of the bank. "So much to do and so little time. Why is there always so little time?"

A week later, I was alternating between working on aether disruption and practicing my gift for Helal. Only it wasn't going particularly well. Covered in dirt from various methods of introducing my body to the ground in new and painful ways, I considered heading in to take a shower.

Or maybe I can go visit Alora. Have a chat while also getting clean. That sounds pretty good too. I wonder how it feels to live under the... water... Oh no! What if she's found by the people that are hunting us?! She's all alone out there.

I took my concerns to Helal.

"Simple. We can make her a chamber that leads to the river, a simple escape hatch with an accompanying ward. It'll give her the freedom of the river as well as the security of a place within our home. Shouldn't take the two of us more than a couple of hours."

My love for her bubbled in my chest like an overpressurized soft drink.

This is who she is. A protector and a problem solver. I feel like I can take anything to her and she can fix it for me. She can make anything better.

I threw my arms around her and kissed her tightly. "Thank you."

"For what? This was simple."

The fact that she didn't get why this was such a big deal was part of the reason that I loved her so fiercely. "Not to me."

"Okay..." She said awkwardly. "Do you want to do this now?"