Quality of Life

Bianca lay in her cell with her back pressed down into her woven straw sleeping mat, struggling to escape. Her hips were flexed with her thighs held forcefully in place by two pitch-black shadows in the shape of young men. The mid morning light shining through her narrow window illuminated only the barest margin of purple as it struck their otherwise featureless shapes from behind. Arms with hooked elbows in dark silhouette rose from the floor and held her fast by her forearms and shoulders. Hands tightly grasped her tunic and fixed her single long braid to the floor. Overwhelmed by numbers and irremediably pinned, she allowed herself to fall still.

"This is cheating!"

"You're the one who cheated." Zdenka loomed over her with the front of both her skirts hitched up, revealing a small, rigid cock glistening with precum and a slick, arousal-reddened pussy. Her sumptuous, snow-white breasts hung free, framed by a now-unlaced green bodice that Bianca had torn open not a minute before.

The elf muttered something quietly to the shades. Faint purple smoke spilled from the corners of her mouth and her sweet voice crackled with energy as she uttered words of power too awesome and terrible for mortal tongues. A ghostly hand in answer obediently wedged a comfy pillow under Bianca's butt.

"Ear play is not cheating!" Not that she was too displeased with where this appeared to be heading.

"It is with me," the elf sniffed, twitching her ears. "It's against elf law." Bianca arched a skeptical brow. "And there can be only one fitting punishment."

Bianca felt a firm tugging on her chest. At a gesture from Zdenka, her dark, sea-blue monastic scapular tore obliquely at the shoulder and slid off to the side.

"Hey! I only have like two of those!"

"I'll mend it later." Bianca's tunic tented at the collar and then, with alarming speed, ripped open from top to bottom. She lay now wholly nude apart from a tight bandeau struggling with limited success to contain her really quite large breasts. Her own intensely aroused vulva lay vulnerable and exposed.

Bianca huffed. "I thought you had work."

"Teaching you an important lesson is work."

Zdenka knelt, bringing her pussy lips to rest just about a tongue's length from Bianca's mouth, her balls suspended over her chin. A small, curved metal bar set with polished pink gemstones pierced her perineal raphe crosswise. The paladin could smell her musk now. It was mixed with a subtle but distinct floral scent, which Bianca had trouble placing in the moment. She felt distracted for some reason.

It had been three long, dry years since Bianca had eaten anyone out. The elf's pretty little lips hovered tantalizingly close to her own. The tip of Bianca's tongue darted out and flitted between Zdenka's warm, wet inner labia. Shit. Still too far away for proper engagement.

"You know, you're kind of undermining your own point, here," Bianca said. Gods they were so close, with their twisty folds, swollen and darkened with arousal, lying against a delicate pink field. "Because now I'm both the bottom and the bitch."

"I said the relationship was contingent, not impossible." Zdenka had strong-armed her into accepting an elixir of transmutation which served, as she revealed only after the fact, a rather demeaning function. This had sparked their present contention as to what should and should not be considered submissive.

"Also, that's about enough debate from you." Zdenka lowered her hips, smothering Bianca's lower face with her pussy. "I can think of much better uses for your tongue."

The paladin received her gladly with her mouth, and not just because her juices helped wash away the ash-and-chalk aftertaste in her mouth. It was a condition of employment with Mistress Aurelia, apparently, to swish, gargle, and choke down a revolting elixir of durability, elasticity, and analgesia for her entrails.

Bianca explored the elf's pussy with lips and tongue, at first gently, shallowly, and slowly. Periodically she would venture to roll her tongue over and around the sexy girl's clitoral hood. Out of pique, she pointedly avoided any direct stimulation to the engorged glans peeking out from under the elf's hood despite the latter's encouraging sighs.

At a crackling word from Zdenka, a shade in the shape of a young woman rose up from the floor just far enough to reveal a pair of curvaceous breasts in outline. It glided over, resting its surprisingly warm hands on Bianca's vulnerable inner thighs, and set to kissing and licking its way down toward the prize.

The dark woman's jet-black fingernails flowed smoothly in stimulating patterns over Bianca's sensitive thighs and cheeks. Its inky tongue, lips, and teeth tormented her mercilessly as she enjoyed the sensation of Zdenka's using her face. Once in place, the thing focused on her perineum and outer labia, areas sensitive enough to give pleasure without satisfaction. She wondered if the elf had ordered it to be a tease, or if that was just how it was.

With gradually building frequency, Zdenka was involuntarily twitching and offering calculated but sincere moans to guide Bianca when she pleased her. The paladin grew bolder and firmer in response, focusing more on the hood than the lips and deigning to brush occasionally over the elf's deliberately neglected nub.

Zdenka rocked her hips to force her clit onto Bianca's tongue. The paladin suffered her to stay, rubbing herself in tiny circles on her stilled tongue.

"Please?"

Taking this subtle hint, the paladin allowed her tongue to take over the motion, alternately over and under the hood, rigid and soft, punctuated from time to time with light sucking.

Zdenka rested, her legs trembling, with the beautiful human's face buried in her pussy. As her heat mounted she began to occasionally slide forward to press her vestibule down against Bianca's smooth chin before returning for more clitoral attention. Girls were nice for this. No internal rugburn from Vespers shadow.

Bianca didn't mind the rough grinding, though it was making her sore. Some of the girls in her squire cohort had had the same predilection. But she was paying more than usual attention to the state of her jaw each time Zdenka thrust herself into it. The wretched elixir apparently had the side effect of making it easier to dislocate her jaw. Allegedly less painful to pop it back in place as well, though, so that was something.

Every time Zdenka's slid forward, it brought her perineum with its gem-studded piercing close to Bianca's temporarily unoccupied mouth. She wondered whether having a piercing there made it more sensitive. Only one way to find out. At least, only one fun way.

Zdenka slid back onto her tongue, her dripping labia pressing against Bianca's nose and upper lip as she worshipped her clit. Whether by art or by chance, the elf was pulling forward to grind just infrequently enough to make Bianca short of breath without literally smothering her. When at length she next slid forward, Bianca tilted her head back sharply, angling her chin deeper into her partner and putting the piercing within range of her tongue.

Bianca cautiously opened with a figure eight, the grace of her tongue intersecting on the skin separating the two translucent pink beads. The elf gasped and suddenly fell still. Encouraging. Bianca pressed the tip of her tongue against the elf's fourchette and flicked upward, striking a bead on the piercing and eliciting a delightful shiver of pleasure.

Zdenka sat up straight and went back into motion, but this was now confined to short curving thrusts, all but fucking herself with Bianca's jaw. She leaned backward, resting one hand on the ground with her back arched. With the other hand she encircled her cock and balls, tugging and squeezing them gently while using her middle finger to stimulate her clit with every thrust. For perhaps twenty or thirty more seconds the elf tolerated the combined sensations of fingers, chin, and tongue before yielding at the approach of forbidden release.

"Hey, stop." Her breathy, heated tone didn't match her words. Her fingers had stopped working, but she couldn't seem to prevent herself from thrusting a little as Bianca's tongue played with her piercing.

"Please, I need to stop now."

Bianca rested her tongue just for a moment. "No way, I'm not playing along this time."

"Why are you so mean?!" the elf asked with a feigned whine, still rocking slightly and letting Bianca's tongue carry on with its play. Her cock and clit throbbed almost painfully against her fingers.

"Might help if you didn't try to rub yourself off while I'm down here," Bianca mumbled over her tongue.

The elf deserved punishment for that drink. Unfortunately, Bianca's tactical options were limited by the shadows restraining her and Zdenka escaped easily as soon as she summoned the requisite will. She rolled over and off, deftly landing on the mat. She curled up on her knees with her head on the floor, long strands of glossy black hair scattered about her. If not for the flushed skin and heavy breathing, she would have looked just like a wrestler preparing for a forward bridge.

"Do you do things like this every time?" The elf's head lay right next to her.

"It really helps," came Zdenka's muffled voice in answer.

Bianca reached over and stroked her hair. "I have a serious question for you."

"Oh?" She turned and peeped out from between her curls.

"Does your asshole smell like roses?"

"It does! Thank you for noticing!" She sat up and took Bianca's hand. "I was worried it might make me smell like an old lady, but I couldn't resist being able to say that with a straight face."

"It smells nice."

"It's supernaturally immaculate too. If you're into that sort of thing. No pressure."

"Can't say that I am. It's very pretty, though."

"You're such a sweetheart when you want to be." She laid herself down with Bianca's strong arm behind her neck. The fading pink flush on her face stood out alluringly against her pale skin.

"Would you mind calling nightmare girl off?" The shade down below had methodically advanced to some more sensitive areas, but receiving oral from a being of pure shadow was mostly just off-putting without a fleshier humanoid in the mix.

"Fine." At a word the shadows withdrew, the three human-shaped ones standing silently off to the side. Bianca felt like they were staring at her, but it was hard to be sure. "You big baby."

"So are they... what? Shadow puppets?" It seemed suspicious that the males had distinct shapes and heights.

"Oh no. Gods, I wish I had that kind of coordination. They're damned souls from a hell of the lustful." Bianca's eyes widened.

"Oh it's fine. This is way more vanilla than whatever they were doing down there." The human didn't seem convinced.

"They came here voluntarily. They only fall under my control if they accept my invitation. Here, watch." She addressed the shadows briefly. The trio quickly embraced each other in an eerily silent mass of flowing, indistinct limbs.

"I said they could do whatever they wanted for now." The action was hard to follow without color or depth contrast, but they seemed to really be going to town.

"It's a hell of the lustful. There's a reason they're down there."

"Can't you dismiss them?"

"I could. But if they want to I like to let them run out the spell. They should dissipate in about an hour."

Bianca couldn't quite make out what the shadows were doing, but they were doing it on top of her only bench.

"They're not going to get ink all over my cell, are they?"

"If they do, it will dissipate too."

Bianca lay for a minute in silence, enjoying Zdenka's touch and listening to her gradually slowing breathing. She wanted to ask her a question, but the prospect was making her stomach twist. Even with what they'd just been doing, even with her arm already around her. It was like being an idiot teenager again.

"So, how long are you planning on staying here?"

"Not too much longer, unfortunately." She made a pouty face. "Mistress is covering the shop for me."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Bianca's eyes, afraid to make contact, rested on a heart-shaped, polished blue stone amulet resting between Zdenka's intoxicating breasts. "But I meant here in Ausona, for your apprenticeship."

"Oh!" the elf said, a little surprised. "Ten more years with Mistress." She rolled onto her side facing Bianca, resting a knee on the paladin's hip. Bianca's arm followed her up, still embracing her shoulders. "How about you?"

"Five. What are you planning to do afterward?"

"I don't know. I'm supposed to marry some brothers from Bilohrad, but I haven't decided whether to go through with it." She started to say something about the oldest one, a ranger in Kydonian service, but cut off when she saw Bianca's expression.

"You're betrothed?" Bianca, painfully aware of how silly she was being, felt a long-absent but familiar tightness in her chest.

"I am..." Zdenka said, carefully considering her next step, "but that's another benefit of being a wizard. It's pretty easy to skip out on things if you decide you don't want to do them." She gave a smile of encouragement. "And it would really piss off my sister-in-law," she added with obvious relish.

Bianca fished for something with which to fill the awkward silence that followed. "You said some brothers? As in, more than one?"

"Yeah." Shit, how did human kinship work again? "I would take over as secondary head of their household, under their mother. They would all become my husbands as they came of age. That would just be Borzek and Kvietosh to start with. The triplets are still in their thirties."

"And they're ok with you fooling around with other people?"

"Yes, of course." Was this not a thing with humans? "I won't even be back on my fertile cycle for another fifteen years at least." She cautiously brushed Bianca's free hand, which didn't draw away, and gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Sorry, sometimes I forget how weird your people's customs are." The elf took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Bianca stole a glance at Zdenka's glittering eyes and warm expression and managed a weak laugh. She wasn't precisely sure she felt better, but the tightness in her chest was mostly gone. She looked up at the ceiling.

"I'm curious. Are those your real names? The Wendish ones?"

"Sort of. Zdenka's what my family calls me. The serfs call me Zdeslava." She snuggled closer to Bianca's side and put an affectionate hand on her shoulder. Bianca looked over into her eyes, now drawn close.

"Given names aren't very important with us, the way they are with you." She gave Bianca a shy look from under her lashes. "Mine's Odogiel. I guess it would be Septima in your tongue."

"Very pleased to meet you, Miss Odogiel."

The elf scrunched up her face. "I prefer Zdenka."

"Sure, Zdenka it is." Her heart was beating fast again. "I wanted to ask you..."

"Mm-hmm?"

"Mid-spring feast is in a few weeks. I'll be relieved of duties for the week this year." Her enunciation became slower and more hesitant as it progressed. "I was wondering if you'd like to come with me." She was afraid to look over, but Zdenka was beaming.

"I'd love that."

⁂

"Good morning, Most Reverend Mother," Andreas said, bowing low before a rather irritated-looking Lucrezia, mother superior of the Palatine Abbey, and by virtue of the office grand mistress of the Order of Knights of the Palace of St. Matilda in Ausona. She was a sharp-looking woman in her mid forties, with high cheekbones and a dignified bearing to match. Her graying ash-blonde braid was drawn up into a crown, looking like a shining halo against her olive skin. She rather resembled her hallowed patroness as depicted in marble behind her, less the wings.

The abbess hadn't yet bothered to remove her surplice despite the hour. Perhaps she really was angry. Andreas approached her gilded seat, fell to one knee, and kissed her ring with perfect propriety. She begrudgingly granted a blessing in the name of God Most High and allowed him to rise. She dismissed her page.

"How may I be of service, your grace?" he asked, carrying over a heavy cushioned chair with one hand and draping himself over it. He was tall and strong, still with a full head of dark hair at thirty five, outgoing, adequately charming, and popular with the less savory of the knights, which was most of them. But the gods in their wisdom had afflicted him with markedly coarse features set in an over-broad face, and he in his folly had added a wine belly. His long, wavy hair and curly beard were well-kept, subtly oiled, and fashionably cut. She felt confident he'd had his tunic surreptitiously tailored in contravention of the Rule, which could not hide the incongruous pudge. He was a walking icon of, and a not inconsiderable contributor to, lax moral discipline within the order. He did have his virtues, however.

"I watched this protégée of yours singing at Terce this morning. I won't ask why you and Alessio recommended her. I can think of at least two good reasons."

"You mistake me, your grace. I gave up on that one long ago." He stroked his beard. "Besides, she's been my underling for three years. It would be weird now. She's like an uncomfortably sexy niece to me."

"And Alessio?"

He scoffed. "Our most wise and benevolent emperor, Ameretat grant him a hundred years, gifted us to the order for the same occasion. But as he's not in my cohort I've never yet seen him naked." He looked around furtively and in a mock whisper added, "And I'm not fully convinced that he has one."

The abbess sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Truly, that is the only reason someone might follow the Rule."

"The emperor does that sometimes, you know." He made a chopping motion with his hand.

"Please remind me, Sir Andreas," she said, still with her face in her palm, "why I should permit this arrangement to go forward. Rather than, say, finally hauling you before the central chapter for your many and varied corruptions?"

"Please don't joke of such things, Grand Mistress, it hurts my heart. What would the boys do without their wine? And their whores?" He placed a thick-fingered hand over his breast. "It would be poor Sir Leone all by himself. I don't think he could endure it, try though he might."

"I'm sure some of the novices could be persuaded if it really came to that."

"If you've no pity for the boys, consider," he sat up straight, sucked in his gut, and half-extended a hand in supplication, "that it would please me."

"I please you well enough already."

"True." He slid off the chair and shimmied over on his knees. He leaned a muscular arm on her thigh and rested his head on it like a puppy, looking up. "That it would please Alessio then, affirming his judgment. It's a favor that costs you nothing."

"I was prioress at the time of the goblin incident. I consider mountains of paperwork a cost." She put a hand on his head

"You have your own prioress for that now."

Lucrezia leaned back in her chair. It would be nice to have two commanders owe her a favor at the general chapter. Andreas was popular with the vicious and tolerated by the virtuous among the confirmed brethren, Alessio the opposite, which would hedge her bets. And it would be prudent to maintain good relations with Alessio. At some point she would be forced to appoint him to a higher post, if only for lack of acceptable alternatives. The pool of male knights had never been impressive thanks to the virginity requirement

She looked down at him over her nose. "This is a sensitive mission, Andreas. The White Sheep may not technically be in violation of their charter, but I have complaints piling up from marcher lords who bear us no love in the first place." His expression was noncommittal.

"And we could use their help. You know how our levy cavalry is." She ran her slender fingers through his hair. "So what are you going to offer as security?"