Pruriential Paladin Ch. 08

The Sisterhood had asked me to give them privacy as they transitioned again. This time at the direction of the new First, with the previous triad and her two clutchmates to advise, as she assumed her mantle of leadership. Gam'Itha had worn several in her tenure, she had enjoyed becoming a different person at every posting. I could see how much the woman reveled in her new life without responsibility.

Her most recent exploit had been allowing the dwarven teamsters to each fuck her over their repreive after delivering another round of supplies. As thanks for an early delivery. When I asked her about it she laughed and snorted "They'll be early next time too, if they're smart. Hth'Chav promised to fuck one in the sky, each trip, for smuggling." I'd just blinked and pretended I hadn't asked. I'd learned that asking about the specifics of the logistics the women employed involved words like 'steal' and had repeatedly heard them joke that STEAL was an acronym. Strategic Transfer of Equipment, Assets, and Logistics. Discretion is the better part of valor, I've heard.

Elysea and Allyar remaining was a surprise, but the additional training was absolutely vital to the new broods upbringing, apparently. Cha'Nah looked like I'd slapped her when I suggested it. Apparently I'm a thoughtless asshole of a father to kids I'm not even allowed to meet. Everything's fine... that phrase had become my mantra as I navigated the alien cultures rituals.

"You're doing it again..." Elysea's fingers squeezed mine. "They're not yours, they're ours. And this is what we want." She squeezed my hand again and pulled me about to face her. "We are immortal demigods, you and I. They are immortal now that they've become... Whatever they are. This is a safe land. We are powerful." Her words were firm, confident, and reassuring.

She grabbed my face as I sniffed in the dusty room. "Let us raise our children how we'd like, and come see what we've done in awhile?" She kissed me and my eyes stung more. "I've heard the others whisper about what they call the Sire's return, they expect you to return a greater Sire than you left... and they expect you to prove it..." her eyes took on a mischievous twinkle as she smirked out the last words.

"Now go! Be happy they didn't allow me to put you to sleep, it was my first suggestion." I couldn't tell if she was teasing me or not, especially after Allyar had filled me in on the breadth of their lives together, plural. "Time is more familiar to me now and I believe I can find a way to hasten this, for you at least. Think in months not years Dilin. Trust me, I have a plan, I'll let you know if it works." She pulled my hands to my chest with a squeeze. "I'll tell them after they've packed it all up." She laughed "as cruel a fate as that leaves my new wives too..."

"Wives?" I asked with an eyebrow.

She smiled that smile that told me there was a predator inside her, no matter how she dressed or looked. "Yes, a Sheikh needs many wives..." she pushed me away and onto my ass, my balance stolen, and unable to catch myself, my posterior slammed with a painful force. "Now, go. I am regent here now and you are trespassing on my Sire's land!" Her playful smile told me the game, the gleam told me she meant it.

I took off at a run and the pregnant woman lashed blades of air at and around me, sharp jolts of electricity stinging at my bruised backside as the woman cackled. I laughed as I made my way to my previous launch point and snatched the go-bag I'd prepared for exactly this situation. Leaping into the air and trusting the boots, I again mentally promised to polish in appreciation soon. I closed my eyes tight as the air rushed past me for an eternity.

I landed on my feet in the same spot as before, but the forest was bizarrely different. Gone were the haunting thick impermeable walls of conifers that had filled it before. Instead I saw the sparse deciduous trees I'd suspected from the cloud piercing height above.

I adjusted the enchanted haversack on my back, laden with my armor and what gear I'd need, and set off in a different direction than before at a jog. Without the fog it was easy to see the river I'd sought before. In the opposite direction I had traveled.

Questions for another day.

-- -- -- --

Alin set off with Gwen for Fool's Errant, accompanied by Jo'Ratha and Tah'Nish. Convincing them that the silent ivory giants were safe took less convincing than I had thought. When the guttural pair had first noticed the woman's trauma their demeanors shifted to accommodate. The mutes became stoic shepherds as Alin secured the woman into a harness to be carried by wing.

Alin warned me of another group roaming the area, slavers smuggling sentient and exotic cargo from the unclaimed lands. "If you're here to do what you say, then they need to be done." He and another had been hired from the port by a family looking to trade with a village of natives on the river when disaster had come calling in the visage of an Ankheg mating season.

With the threat eliminated and the surviving two humans safe, I set off toward a murky light I'd sensed when I'd been searching magically for the captured woman. A dark grey murky orb, lit from within with good but being smothered by taint.

This time I left on horseback, a scroll sent from Elysea burning away as a phantom nightmare steed sprang from the aether. It was an odd choice for the princess turned sheikh, she likely meant well and just wanted me to 'feel badass' or some nonsense. I urged the fiery horse to race faster and faster as I sought my next thrill, it felt good to do good. It felt better to be good at it.

A unicorn would have been cooler. And better company. And faster. And stronger. And more helpful in a fight. And probably have gotten us laid. And...

-- -- -- --

Statues speckled the landscape, but only one sign of habitation presented itself. A pale granite entrance, cut into the stone of a mountain. Inset, the doorway yawned and glowed orange from the torchlight in the warm dusk air. Metal clanged and screams poured from within. Two men stood outside, one with a crossbow drawn on a caged cart and the other fondling his nervously, while looking at the doorway to the odd structure.

The slavers inside would never find any support from their lookouts again. I gestured for the occupants to wait and keep quiet, the poor lot looked at me with terror in their eyes. Terror aimed at me. I seriously hoped I hadn't made a bad call... a glance at the stilled couple only reinforced my resolve. The facial tattoo, while cool, is often an abdication from societal norms. And slavers loved them.

I left the terrified civilians after giving them their guards weapons and made my way to the building, broken statues of horrified people lay strewn about. Confirming my suspicions a voice rang from inside "Cut the bitches head off! We don't need her alive!" A gutteral feminine voice roared as the clanging staccato ended.

The inset entrance was preceded by ionic pillars carved from the stone of the mountain. The walls were etched with art and designs I recognized from other gods who'd joined in the war. Gods from the stars who lived on a mountain that reached the heavens if I recalled correctly. A figure being shown cast into a doorless prison repeated often.

A second voice, male began to dissent, "Fuck that she's worth WAY mo-" the man's words ended abruptly as I shifted to see inside.

The gorgon I expected centered the room, silk ropes bound her wrists to two statues on either side. Each squatting and carrying a large pack, strangely. A statue stood before her, holding a bag with a stone drawstring over the woman's head. "Fuck! Kill her!"

The gorgon thrashed at her binding and I saw that her tail had been speared to the ground with a trident. She shrieked in pain as the slavers came at her, tearing at her wrists and tail, struggling to break free. She begged for her life in sobs and wails.

I closed my eyes and could feel that murky oily light coming from her and nothing else, it dimmed more as I watched. I kept them closed as I sent the slavers to their friends. I hoped they ended up in one of the worst hells. Preferably as food.

Afterwards she was silent, I could hear her shifting to watch me as I moved away from the hissing back towards a wall. "I mean to offer you no offense, and will leave at your pleasure." My heart still beating hard from the thrill of surviving, cock swollen from the rush. I worked to keep the heat from my voice. "I could heal your wound and assist you further though. I only offer assistance." My breathing became deep as I shook the adrenaline away.

An angry voice, one that seemed more fit for song than rage, answered, "And why, knight, would you do that? So you can get close enough to strike? To slice my head away? Or make me into some gladiator prize fight like these monsters?!" Her voice broke and I could hear a sob. "He was different" she pointed to the statue holding the bag. "He said he.. would help... he said... and... and it's what you ALL DO! You come here TO KILL ME!" I began dismantling and placing my armor and weapons into the small haversack I carried with me.

Her stunned voice asked "what are you doing?"

I laughed a bit, "attempting to help you see me as a non-threat so I can help you." I took a serious tone for a moment. "I can't imagine your life, but I know what a trident pinning your leg to the ground feels like. And that I can help with, and I'd like to." Silence hung in the air, I'd stripped everything away but my codpiece.

Hisses filled the air for a time before the woman spoke. "Remove it." Hearing the suspicion in her voice, I complied with a sigh. Pulling away the enchanted mithril codpiece I revealed my cock.

Still surging from the adrenaline, it stretched and throbbed with my heart. Fifteen inches, and girth that necessitated either wide hips or magic to accommodate for average beings, stood out parallel to the ground. Bobbing as it strained, it's skyward curve allowed it to stare back at the serpentine woman. Behind it, testes that filled a hand hung in a taut, swollen sack. One that had been released only by my hands for three days now...

Swallowing my pride and arousal, I raised an eyebrow and asked the woman I couldn't see "May I?" gesturing to where I guessed the trident would be.

An amused voice spoke back, "You may, my eyes are closed." I opened mine to see her clearly for the first time, what I saw took my breath away.

I gasped, she was fucking beautiful. And she was taller than me, by feet. Her face was that of a human woman's, heart shaped plump lips swelled me to straining. An ineffable allure drew my eyes to them constantly as I searched for what made them perfect. I needed to taste them on mine... Sharp beautiful features a siren would envy looked down towards me, eyes closed, eyelashes a rainbow. Red from swollen tear ducts, violet at the outer canthus. I searched for the words that I knew were hers to no avail.

Recalling the punishments and curses the Hellenes meted, I became incensed again at the injustice the woman had found herself victim of. Jealousy and abuse of power, the actions of a bully lashing out in tantrum. Curses were one thing I did know well. Arcane and divine magic twisted with emotion to harm or rob another of their free will, and this one specifically to rob its victim of her beauty as well. It sickened me, and my Mother's rule would have been punished severely.

One of the snakes from her hair lashed out at me and she smirked. "They don't like it when people stare."

"My apologies, your beauty caught me off guard and I lost myself in thought." Again I separated my emotions from my words, hopefully presenting as a non-threat at least. "I am never surprised when I see the cruelty of men and gods, the rarer sight of cruelty wrought by a woman is always jarring to me." It would make the next part safer for both of us if she trusted me. "I will do what I can to help you."

I put my boot on her tail and jerked the barbed spear free. A sharp scream of pain resounded as the ruddy serpentine body writhed in the pain. I replaced my boot with my shin as I pinned my exotic patient as best I could with my weight, purple blood flowing from the punctures as I placed my hands on the wounds. I expended what healing I could quickly. Bringing a sigh from the large woman as the wounds closed and she relaxed.

"I'm Dilin, by the way." I looked around the room as my heart raced again, old memories seeping in. I looked for things that distracted me from those days, I didn't find many in the abattoir.

She spoke again, labored as I cut her wrists free "and a paladin of Dolleya, by your heraldry. I am Rhael." It's not everyday a cursed snake woman hits the nail on the head like that. Her closed eyes smiled.

I hated that I could see secrets in people's eyes sometimes. Purple blood? And as I recall, the cursed medusae retained their species' natural forms... which typically included legs. The hints of color glinting from her figure here and there... who is this person?

A stray vibrant purple scale mixed into the dull green of her lower body. Her breasts hung nearly to it, flat empty loose, and stretched. Areolas consumed them with gnarled nubs off-center. Her arms varicose and flapping, nails thick on rheumatic fingers. The skin up to her neck was thick and blemished, colored a dull grey. At her collarbone it slowly became a pale rose, enmeshing with her contrasting face. A few feathers sat amidst the snakes, each a vibrant, colorful, deadly variant. Making her crown a twisting and writhing rainbow that promised a quick death, or a painful one at least.

Not as painful as seeing her eyes would be. I knew the woman's eyes would be as gorgeous as the smirk she wore now. I guessed at what might break that smirk. "I'll bet it was your lips." There it went, an eyebrow. "Whatever shitty Hellene bitch cursed you and put you here, I'll bet it had something to do with your lips. They're beyond divine..." I wonder when the last time she blushed was...

-- -- -- --

Two days later I was sitting on the stone steps to Rhael's prison/home when Elysea reached out to me. I reached back and we found ourselves before each other in my chambers. Or, as I looked around, her chambers.

It was furnished just as simply: a table, two chairs, a bed, and a desk with another chair. But apparently that second supply train had carted in more elegant furnishings and my cobbled together driftwood no longer satisfied the Sheikh's tastes.

Taking her in I realized that wasn't the only thing that had changed. Slim and wearing garb more fit for fighting than her previous attire, along with her cestus. The princess turned warrior turned sorceress was getting an early start on some post baby training. The woman was a machine. I smiled and hugged her tight.

She held me tight back, after a time she let go "The babies are fine, all of them. And before you ask I can tell you nothing except give you a number. One hundred and twenty five." She smiled with a sparkle, biting her lip. Telling me she had a secret with her excitement, but that one didn't count. The woman was transparent. "But enough of that, we're short on time."

She went on to tell me that they were putting the castle into an inverted stasis, or maybe something about a pocket? She smiled a lot and I lost her. When she got into the metaphysics my brain hurt. Apparently time there would freeze from our perspective, but accelerate in theirs. This was the gift they'd negotiated with my sister, juicing up Elysea for something. At what point did a gift become politics Politics infuriated me and I was happy to leave its minutia to someone less perplexed by doublespeak, double that for the arcane and its bizarre arithmetic.

Delegation came with strings though, "She did insist on one personal gift, however. A reward for 'a revenge served as hot as the one I was made for'. She insists that you choose a part of yourself to be enhanced." I knew there'd be a catch, my ever curious bipolar sister wanted me to ascend. To complete their triumvirate, and likely to become a woman to do so. But the boon would be honest, she always was.

I thought for a moment, "My eyes. I nearly lost that woman the other day because I couldn't find her underground." If I must then I'd make it worthwhile, and it would make a nice surprise for Rhael. I'd need to make a habit of teetering success and mitigated failure in the future, to avoid too many unnecessary rewards or punishments. Err too far one way and I'd lose free will, err too far the other and my life could become much more difficult.

She laughed and said in her best impression of Allyar's nasally voice "I'm sure it's only dirt you wanna peer through... biggun!" It was terrible, I doubt Allyar even knew the word 'peer' and would have been the first to call her on it if she were here. She calmed with a sigh and we said our goodbyes. "You can send us messages, but we won't be able to reach out. Anyone you send through the barrier will be safe, but trapped. Do good, Dilin. And trust us." She kissed me and she was gone.

My eyes warmed and my vision blurred as tears filled them. I looked towards my distant castle and it came into focus from an impossible distance, Leilli wasn't one to waste time. Slowly, from inside it a translucent purple crystal began to grow, passing through the battlements and encasing the structure entirely before becoming opaque, obscuring the view. Others formed until the entire structure was engulfed and I was alone.

I blinked away tears as a voice called out to me. "That woman seems to love you very much." Rhael's speech had gotten more exact since I'd asked to reside here with her for a time. She'd been startled at the request but agreed when I promised to leave my weapons with her, as well as my codpiece and any other magical items, and bind my eyes inside at all times. I didn't mention I could call each back to me with an effort of will, and I suspected she knew anyway.

I sniffed away my sadness "She loves her wife. They're just honeymooning with me." I knew she was right though. Open monogamy was Allyar's language, Elysea and I loved our partners each individually, I suspected. "Though I know she cares for me deeply, we've never said those words I don't believe. Outside of coitus." I looked back at her in her doorway, the open portal that imprisoned her until her curse was broken.

She stared at me dumbfounded. Her eyes were a rainbow kaleidoscope on her gorgeous shocked face. "Nooo!" She screamed and turned away, snapping her eyes closed. Her voice was terrified, I rushed laughing to show her I was fine.

"Rhea! I'm okay!" I rushed to the door and grabbed her face in gentle fingers, urging it towards mine. "Open your eyes" two of the snakes bit my face and she did, beautiful eyes wide in fear, my world exploded into an iridescent dream. "They're so byooiflull" my tongue swelled as the floor tilted and the beauty left me, my soul strained for me to get up, to see that beauty again.

"You are so STUPID!" A heavy thump struck my back twice as she screamed in frustration. "You better live so I can KILL YOU!"

-- -- -- --

Hours later I woke into a world of pain. Agony pulsed from where I'd been bitten, the swelling keeping my right eye mostly closed. Apparently the enhancement to my eyes hadn't covered soft tissue damage around my eye. The swelling ached immeasurably and blocked my vision, but my sight would be safe at least. The fire of the pain shot throughout my entire body from the punctures, setting me aflame with a stinging, burning pain as my nerves were assaulted by the toxin.

I sat up and licked cracked lips, "water...?" My head spun at the effort and I nearly toppled before her tapering tail shot out to wrap and steady me. The cold scales felt wonderful on my skin, an icy salve for the heat burning my body. I fell back into her, seeking more of the panacea as strength fled me.