Purple Haze Ch. 02 - Ulrise

Chapter 2 - Ulrise

"Call me Mistress," my ass!" Ulrise grumbled while breaking through the thick forest undergrowth.

"Every client I met made up some dumb generic nickname. How many Masters have I met so far? Nine? I lost count already."

As she stepped out of the forest, the Karth river meandered in front of her. According to the map, the location of the cave was a couple of miles away.

Ulrise adjusted her travel pack and moved forward. She was making good progress since she left the Forsworn lands. So many days lost carefully creeping forward and avoiding the attention of the savages at all costs. The illusion magic served her well, so she managed to invisibly slip through without disturbing the tribes.

She was looking forward to finding this cave. This would be the first step in doing the contract that will earn enough money to finally quit the world of backstabbing and treachery. Also, having a roof over her head would be nice after many nights of sleeping in the wilderness.

Finding the cave took some time. Without knowing the place, it could be missed easily, entrance hidden in an inconspicuous crevice.

When the white-haired assassin entered the wide opening of the cave, the first thing she noticed were skeletons. Lots of skeletons. Carefully walking between them she quickly realized none of them were human. A bunch of wolves, a couple of humanoid-looking ones but with canine skulls, which she figured were werewolves. Most of the skeletons had signs of violent death - bones broken, skulls crushed.

She stopped in front of a hulking bone colossus three feet taller than herself. Three eye sockets indicated this was a troll, and its massive form utterly dwarfed the short woman. She reached with her hand and touched the bones. Not a shred left of flesh or sinew.

"No scavenger can pick bones that clean. And what is this pink crap?" Her glove was covered by a thin layer of pink dust. She traced her finger over a bone again and confirmed the suspicion - the skeleton was covered in it.

She quickly checked it - not poisonous, but surely somehow enhanced.

"I should gather some as a sample and check it with an alchemist." She produced a vial and carefully gathered some dust from the bones. Looking back, Ulrise noticed her footprints on the floor. It also was covered in a thin layer of this pink crap!

"I wonder if it is safe to breathe here. I better move forward." She fetched a piece of clothing from the backpack and made an improvised breathing mask, just in case.

As she advanced, signs of battle became more obvious: furniture was thrashed, and doors forced open. She also found a lot of empty cages, some quite spacious. Ulrise was not one to be intimidated easily, but this cave definitely had a sinister feeling to it.

The cave ended in a massive circle room where most cages stood. There were very few skeletons though. Ulrise figured that someone was using animals in the cages to make experiments, probably magical. This would explain the pink dust and absence of flesh on the bones. But then a hostile force showed and the cave owner released the monsters on them.

Judging by the number of skeletons, it did not help. She spotted a peculiar one and approached, genuinely curious. It was a husk of an enormous charus exoskeleton, its legs broken off. Ulrise encountered these creatures before, but never had an opportunity to study one's corpse.

"This is one ugly fucker." The words rang in the cave, echoing and jumping around. She retrieved one of the vials given by Mistress and gulped it down. The taste was as good as she remembered, rich and sweet.

Now fully convinced there were no enemies in the cave, the assassin sat and tried to detect this particular source of magicka from the potion around her.

It was everywhere, but something was off. Not as pure as it was in the potion, as if diluted somehow. She took a bunch of pink crap from the charus husk and it felt like holding a handful of warm and dirty sand, contrary to the pure radiance from the Mistress.

"So my target somehow got affected by this magic. Were they in this cave, one of the people who fought the monsters? I doubt it. By the traces of combat, it looks like there was a squad of fighters, they all would be affected if this was the case. And I know for sure that I am looking for a single person."

Ulrise slowly circled the room when she suddenly felt the same magic emanating from behind the wall. Another room, perhaps?

After some finagling around, she discovered a hidden switch. A good chunk of the wall slid to the side and revealed what looked like a working cabinet.

She walked noticing stacks of papers perched on a table, soul gems lying everywhere, and a collection of magic books on a shelf.

"This room does not appear to be thrashed. Someone gathered their stuff and retreated in an orderly manner." She checked an alchemist cupboard to discover a bunch of reagents lined up in good order. "Yes, whoever marauded the upper levels did not reach here. This is good. This is my chance to figure out what this magic is and maybe find some clues. And stuff my pockets," - she thought, spotting a big glowing soul gem.

All books on the shelf were related to the sources of magicka. Ulrise was not educated properly, mostly stealing books and figuring out her talent by experimenting. But she got the impression that it is common knowledge among mages that the source of all magicka is Aetherius, which is another world or plane of Oblivion or something. She was not interested in the dry theory of the Art, mostly content with Illusion magic to hide her and Destruction spells to annihilate enemies.

She quickly skimmed the books - lots of speculation on what alternative sources of power could be out there. Some gruesome stuff, like extracting it from blood or enslaving Daedra. "A cave full of bones and books about bloody sacrifices and how to summon demons. Lovely. I still do not see how this pink crap fits into this.

"I guess I have to dig through these," she sighed, looking at randomly scattered sheets of paper.

The researcher who lived here sure loved to write down everything. She flipped through sheet after sheet, diving deeper and deeper. It looked like she was about to get some answers.

The mage believed it is possible to harness the life force of a living being and turn it into pure magicka. Similar to blood sacrifices, but actually working. She carefully read the numbers - extremely low values of magicka after draining a wolf, more from a troll. No way to store it, and if not ingested by a mage immediately it just disappears. The ritual involved drugging the animals with some serum. Within the list of ingredients of this concoction, one was highlighted as "the secret one."

More and more intrigued, Ulrise reached for the next sheet. In a rush, she slid a finger over it, sending the sheet flying to the floor. Cursing, she caught it awkwardly. The assassin hissed from sudden pain when she cut a finger with the thick paper edge. A long red scratch immediately started oozing blood.

"Damn! I do not want to stain the paper with blood." Without thinking, she put the finger in her mouth, licking the blood away. Something was off with the taste though. Blood is supposed to be salty, but there was an unexpected sweet undertone. The mystery was resolved instantly when she licked her lips in confusion.

"Fuck, my mask did not work! This pink shit is on my face! I have to clean it off. The more I read these research notes, the less I like this dust."

She wiped her face and then used her limited knowledge of Restoration magic to stop the bleeding. This will have to do for now.

The story of morally dubious experiments continued in the papers. The mage tried to develop a solution to store the extracted magicka, but the best he was able to achieve was converting it into physical form. The pink dust. It was what their flesh and blood turned to.

She leaned on the back of the chair, feeling sick. So, the stuff she just scrubbed from her face was what is left of some wolf? Or the charus?

Not without some hesitation she continued reading. The author theorized on how to distill the dust in an alchemical potion for future usage. There were also speculations of using other life force-carrying components of a living being to achieve more 'sustainable' harvesting that did not kill the host. The papers ended with a note saying that the mage is about to use a new formula on the 'pets'.

The white-haired assassin reached the end of the research notes and contemplated what she read. This source of magic sounded like a poor deal. Even if it worked, the magician would need to drug the victim with alchemy, and then somehow consume their life force immediately. Generic magicka potions were cheap to produce and easy to carry and use. The method they developed here felt overcomplicated.

"Still, someone became affected by this stuff and they did not dissolve into dust like trolls. I can still feel them, somewhere to the north from here.

"It is highly doubtful that one of the monster killers picked up this condition. Either someone discovered this cave before me or one of the monsters escaped and did Gods know what to pass this to a human."

She searched the entrance of the cave and has not found any traces of anyone entering it recently. This left her with one option - some of the monsters escaped and spread this magic.

"I hoped I would not have to track a beast in the woods. Damn it. Okay, it is getting dark. I will spend the night in the study room, it looks safe enough and clean of this pink crap. Tomorrow morning, I will look at the tracks. Good gods, it is a huge mess, warriors' and animals' footprints mixed wildly."

And so she did. Ulrise returned to the cramped room and found accommodations there. She closed the stone door and put several defensive runes around herself, as well as some physical traps in case the owner of the cave returned.

She opened her eyes in her hometown, Riften, instantly recognizing the central market square where she used to steal food two decades ago. Even though everything was covered in a dense purple mist, the narrow streets and bridges over the channel were unmistakable.

Ulrise walked around, mist swirling around her. After a moment she realized what was wrong in this dream - there was not a single person on the market square. Normally it was bursting with activity 24 hours a day, but in this dream, it was eerily quiet and still. Silhouettes of buildings rose above her, and not a single light or sound disturbed the solemn silence. The mist contorted them, made them rise to the sky one moment and collapse to the ground the next.

"There is some beauty in this." She was strangely self-aware in this dream, fully understanding that she is asleep right now.

"Yep, definitely asleep," she watched a sudden rush of flowers blossoming around the square, consuming the booths and leaving only a small circle around her unaffected. She idly prodded one with a boot, making it disintegrate into purple dust.

"This dust looks awfully familiar. This job fucks with my head. Hopefully, I will find my target soon."

Flowers continued blossoming around her, tightening the circle. They crept up her boots and leather pants to her jacket. The woman jumped on the place, making the flowers explode in the cloud of dust. She was mesmerized by the shimmering beauty around, standing there and allowing flowers to cover her clothes.

"I am a fucking spriggan now. This is fun and all, but it is starting to freak me out. Being a tree is not something I aspire to."

As if by command, she woke up. In the pitch darkness of the cave, she rose from the bed, suddenly feeling weirdly off balance. The blonde stumbled, failing to find good footing. Failing because her pants were uncomfortably tight.

Cussing, she cast a ball of magic light. There was something in her pants. She reached into her pocket, feeling something hard and warm through the fabric.

"Did something crawl there?"

She got the answer soon enough. Ulrise dropped her pants and stood wide-eyed, staring at the meaty shaft protruding from her crotch. It twitched slightly, with a glistening drop on the tip.

With legs failing her, the woman sat on the bed, still bare-assed. But she hardly registered it, trying to wrap her mind around what she was looking at right now.

She closed her eyes, shook her head, and looked down again. Nothing changed. She did it one more time with the same result. Pinching the skin only produced a painful hiss but did not wake her from this fever dream. She carefully touched the erect dick with one finger and swiftly pulled it away.

"So this is not an illusion either." Ulrise pulled up her pants and rushed to the exit. It was early in the morning, in the murky sunlight her newly grown appendage cast a long shadow.

"Fuck me, so it is real. I bet it is somehow connected to this weird magic and the fucking dust!" She wanted to kick the nearest skeleton but restrained herself.

"I knew there was something fishy with this job! Should have asked more about what I drank and what sort of magic that is. Not curses or poisons, fuck this shit. No fucking known curses!

"Okay, what exactly I am dealing with here?" She traced her cock with a finger, groaning from the intense sensation. It was around eight inches long, more than any she ever took in her life. Thick and completely hairless, with a set of bloated testicles hanging below. Not without relief she found that her woman parts were still with her, right behind the balls.

The dick itself looked weird. She had a fair share of fun with men in her life, including different races, but none of them looked exactly like her new organ. The shaft was pretty similar to a human one, though traced with thick veins. But the glans was more like a stump, a flat piece of meat with a circular fleshy ridge. A peehole was exactly in the middle.

Her legs got weak so she slumped down again. Ulrise saw truly gruesome body mauling in her life but this looked even worse. Unnatural. Gods know how much time passed before she finally rose up and dragged herself back to the cave.

"Okay, I better come to terms with my condition if I ever stand a chance of curing it. It is obviously connected to this pink dust, and maybe to the alchemic substance that Mistress gave me. This fucking bitch! She is behind it somehow; I can feel it."

Ulrise gathered her belongings as thoughts rushed through her head, "The dick did not grow up when I first tasted the magicka potion, so I am guessing the pink dust served as a catalyst of sorts." Looking at other vials of white stuff sitting in her traveling backpack, Ulrise was overpowered with a desire to drink it, contact Mistress, and demand answers. She almost popped a cork of one vial but hesitantly pulled her hand back.

"If I just tell her that I grew a dick overnight she will think I am insane and will never speak to me again. No, I should think this through."

The thinking was not easy in her case since she still had a throbbing erection. At first, she hoped it will go down by itself, but this simply did not happen.

"Why none of the men I slept with were able to stay hard for an hour straight?" she grimly chuckled. Jokes aside, it was getting really uncomfortable. She had to drag the pants up to the waist to button up and now it was chafing on her dick. Also, the erect outline was clearly visible through the fabric.

At first, she was afraid that touching it might affect her even more somehow, but with time the sensations became unbearable. Ulrise let a sigh of relief freeing her flesh monster from the clothing confines.

"Do I have ideas on how to relieve this, apart from the obvious one?" she asked rhetorically while looking at the tip. The glistening drop of precum rolled down, creating a sticky strand hanging from the tip. It looked disgusting and fascinating at the same time. No ideas came to mind.

She tentatively reached and grabbed her fleshy rod. The feeling sent goosebumps through the entire body. The veins pulsated under her hand, pumping blood into the dick. Her blood.

"Do I like it or not, this is part of me now. I should deal with this and be on my way, I spent too much time running around in this fucking cave."

She grabbed it firmly and stroked, making sure to have as much grip and skin contact as possible. Ulrise knew her way around cocks and how to please them but doing it to herself still felt surreal. But she quickly got the hang of it.

Her body shivered, as the stroking sent waves of pleasure through it, especially when she dragged the skin over the meaty glans. Precum now flew in a steady trickle, so soon her strokes became well lubricated, fleshy sounds of it filling the room.

"No wonder men like it when I touch their dicks, it is so sensitive." She accelerated her hand, invoking the first moan. The tip and veins along the shaft became angry purple, infused with blood. The shaft twitched, promising the impending release.

She changed the hand and stroked with renewed vigor. It quickly paid off and the boiling hot cum rushed from her swollen balls. As her mind plunged into the blissful abyss, the first spurt hit the wall, making an audible splash. Ulrise did not have time to wonder at the amount, the next volley added more gooey glazing on the wall.

She spewed it for almost a minute, each load smaller than the previous one until it diminished to a weak dribble. Every spurt sent an explosion of pleasure to her brain, so she stood for some time, mouth open, eyes closed, trying to gather her wits again.

Eventually, the blond returned to her senses. "Damn, it was intense. I do not remember cumming like this in my whole life! This wall looks like sloppy paintwork."

She shook her dick to clean it from remaining cum and admired the view. Even though Ulrise was not exactly ecstatic to have this extra appendage, the orgasm was undeniably great. And there was something immensely arousing about looking at the wall covered with streaks of jizz. Thick wads of it were still sliding down slowly, making the sight even more perverted. The air was rich with smell, almost intoxicating. Maybe it was the light of the room, but one moment Ulrise could swear she saw her cum glowing. As if it was beckoning her.

With an effort of willpower she turned away, put on the backpack, and exited the cave. Her head clearing on the fresh air, Ulrise regretted giving in to the temptation. Who knows how this cursed cock interferes with the rest of her body? What if she just worsened her condition?

She felt great though. Rejuvenated even. Ulrise created an illusion over the cave entrance to prevent anyone from falling into the same trap she did. The illusion won't hold forever, but this was better than nothing.

Sitting on a stone, she considered her options. The Mistress probably knows what kind of curse it is, and maybe even how to cure it. Ulrise still had nine vials of these tasty white 'magicka detection' potions that can help her contact the redguard woman but was hesitant to use them. How can she get any credible information?

Ulrise needed leverage over Mistress. The woman hired the assassin to find whoever was affected by this magic and paid a ton of gold, which meant it was important to her. The blond smirked, a plan forming in her head. She will find whoever her target is and take them hostage. Then she will contact Mistress and demand answers under the threat of killing the hostage.

But where to head? The nearest village was Dragon Bridge, so if anyone was affected by this purple crap they are probably from there. She moved on, using the sun for orienting.

Slowly she traversed the forest, moving not in a straight line but making left and right zig-zag turns and searching for possible tracks of humans or monsters from the cave.