Satyr Play 04 Pt. 02

Author's Notes:

'Satyr Play Part 4, Part 2' picks up from the end of Satyr Play 4, Part 1. There is still much to do in Henry's tale.

No effort is made in this tale to explain the backstory, so it is highly recommended you read the stories in the following order:

• Satyr Play
• A Dark Heart (Short Story - for context)
• Satyr Play 2, Part 1
• Satyr Play 2, Part 2
• Song for a Still River (Short Story - for context)
• Bride in Black (Short Story - for context)
• Satyr Play 3, Part 1
• Satyr Play 3, Part 2
• Satyr Play 4, Part 1
• Satyr Play 4, Part 2

All characters engaging in sexual relationships or activities are 18 years old or older. Most aren't even human... or real. Or are they? Dun dun DAH!

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Satyr Play 4, Part 2

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Chapter 14

Quolliss was eternal... as long as its Masters willed it to be. It lived for its Masters, remaining still, hidden, and protected, listening for their voices.

Those moments were the rarest treats. Almost silent but filled with significance and madness, Quolliss would absorb these messages delivered to its subconscious in the long dark nights.

Sometimes they came with energy. Enough to fulfill the wishes of the Masters with a little left over to sustain Quolliss itself.

The Masters had a plan. They hadn't shared all of it with Quolliss, but it knew it was perfect and promised nothing less than the bliss of bringing the Masters to this realm.

Nothing would be allowed to interfere with the plan. Patience in this time-aware realm was a key requirement for its success.

Quolliss was patient, as time is nothing.

It couldn't be seen, heard, tasted, smelled, or touched.

However, its passage could be observed and obsessed over.

The Masters lived in a realm with no concept of time, and to Quolliss, to live there would have been bliss.

The inhabitants of this realm fought against time. They wailed and beat their chests in futile defiance of its uncaring passage.

Quolliss despised them as much as one could a mote of dust or flake of dead skin.

Time had much less meaning for Quolliss than it did for the ephemeral ones, but it, too, was aware of its passing. A great deal of it had slipped by during their extensive existence, far more than most of the residents of this world would ever experience.

There had been one the Masters gifted with eternity, but she betrayed them, and Quollis could no longer sense her.

Thinking of her resurfaced the jealousy and rage that tormented Quolliss' mind when it discovered that she'd been first. The witch, whom the Masters gifted with so much power only to see her refuse to do their bidding, was the Masters' first choice.

Quolliss was a failsafe, a contingency, a Plan B. The Masters created it to fulfill their desires. It would not fail them or refuse anything they asked. However, it once more thought of how much energy the Masters gifted to the ungrateful witch and how little it had received in comparison. It screamed a tortured sound into the darkness.

Its greed flared as it knew that this excessive share of the Masters' energy still existed. It was now contained within a new being who was proving more difficult to track than the witch!

The new being had a terrifying ability to make the energy disappear from Quolliss' perception. Most often for short intervals, but it recently vanished for so long that Quolliss' already fractured mind splintered further.

The Masters whispered to Quolliss as it slept in this tortured state until their patience was rewarded as Quolliss once more detected the energy, and a semblance of stability returned.

In the latest message from the Masters, they laid out the next phase of the plan.

Quolliss was awed by the intricate dance this would lead its unwitting participants to perform. The Masters' will would not be denied.

Soon, Quolliss would bask in their presence.

-=-

When Henry awoke, he saw the storm had finally passed, and the light through his window indicated he'd likely missed breakfast. The room needed a clock.

He noticed Camila had already gotten up to start her day. He couldn't blame her for that.

He stretched and yawned loudly and heard nervous giggles from outside the door. Then came a gentle knocking.

"Come in!" he called out, looking down at himself to ensure the covers hid his morning wood.

The door opened, and a head peeked around it. It was Steph.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," she teased.

He looked for his kilt as it had his cell in the pouch, but Camila had likely picked it up and placed it on the chair across the room. "What time is it?" he asked.

She moved to sit on the side of the bed and smiled at him. "It's almost eleven. Everyone is downstairs. We had breakfast in the cavern because the dining room table was still there. The Valkyries were trying to work out a way to carry it up without getting you to open the Magic door to the dining room, but the consensus was that it couldn't be done. The cave was very bright with those enormous windows and the lights above. It felt strange to be so far underground yet feel like it was ground level." She was speaking a little rapidly.

He smiled as he watched her fidget and play with the blankets.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" she suddenly blurted, and he heard the damage her idiot husband had done.

"I think you're very beautiful!"

She smiled in relief, but her expression broke again. "But I talk too much, right?"

He tilted his head at her as he looked at her curiously. "No. I like hearing your voice. It's so full of life and joy. Listening to you and Tish laugh and talk makes me very happy."

She bit her lip as her eyes traveled over his chest. "So long..." she sighed wistfully to herself.

"Excuse me?" he asked carefully.

Her face suddenly went crimson as she realized she'd said that out loud. "I-I-I'm sorry! It's n-nothing!"

He sat up, the blankets dropping to expose the hard muscles of his stomach as he took her hand in his. Steph was frozen. The blankets were so close to revealing what she wanted to see more than anything.

"Speak to me, Steph."

Her jaw moved, but she had no words.

Henry lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. She made an odd sound, then climbed onto the bed, yanking the blankets down in the process.

"Oh my god!" she gasped as she exposed his semi-erect cock. Then Henry slid his hands into her hair and pulled her onto his lap to kiss her deeply. He moved his hands down and undid her kilt, tossing it aside. She moaned into the kiss and grabbed his head as she chased his tongue with hers while dragging her wetness across the underside of his now very hard cock. She was trembling, then frantically trying to get him inside her. He assisted a little then he gasped as she began to accept him.

"I... I have to... warn you. We won't last... long, as it feels too good!" He struggled to speak as she dropped over his cock, gasping, cooing, and moaning as they fit together so well.

He was proven correct as once they were fully connected, Steph cried out and clung to him as her first release in a long time rocked through her. This triggered Henry, and she gasped as she felt his heat filling her deep inside. Then the Wild Magic surged through her body, filling her with another kind of warmth and tingling.

They clung together, catching their breath, and finally pulled back to grin at each other.

"It is... an absolute truth... beyond any question... that David... was a blind idiot... for not realizing... how fucking lucky he was!" Henry panted.

Steph's eyes welled up, and she kissed Henry fiercely. He returned the kiss, and soon they were panting once more.

"Again?" she asked and bit her lip.

"Oh, yes!" he agreed enthusiastically, and she burst into joyful giggles.

She had catching up to do.

-=-

Lunchtime arrived as Henry, fresh from a shower, rejoined the world in a new kilt, hunting a little sustenance to fill his empty stomach.

Tish met him in the kitchen with a large plate of leftovers from dinner. He gave her a grateful kiss and sat with her at the small table in the kitchen.

She watched him immediately devour half the contents of the plate and smiled at him when he sat back to take a breath.

"She wore you out that much?" she said with a grin.

Henry just looked at Tish with a raised eyebrow, and she raised her hands in surrender. He sighed and relaxed in his chair as his eyes looked towards the back windows at the brilliant blue skies outside.

"I can't understand why anyone would do what David did to her. She's so much like you... but with giggles," Henry said as he shook his head.

Tish grinned as she nodded and took his hand in hers to kiss his palm. He raised his eyebrows at her, then pulled her hand to his lips until she began to squirm and tugged her hand free. "Wicked boy," she whispered to him with a smile, then headed for the stairs to check on her sister.

Henry smiled to himself, finished the meal before him, then tidied up. He went looking for Sigrid and spotted her in the formal living room with her mother and roughly a dozen Valkyries who stuck around after the party. He sent her a quick questioning look and saw her shake her head, indicating it wasn't a good time, so he nodded and slipped away before Hilda could scowl at him.

He'd noticed that Talia wasn't present, nor were her twin enforcers Tove and Tore. The brutish Revna and her rude sidekick Kari were also missing. Off on Valkyrie business, no doubt.

The kids were split into two groups, the ones inside playing in the front sitting room and the ones outside playing in the snow.

He was headed for the back door when he met Meixiu returning from the basement. "Henry! Good morning!" she said, tilting her face up to him for a kiss.

He caressed her lips with his, then grinned at her. "It's no longer morning. Sorry for missing breakfast."

"Did you get some food?" Meixiu asked, gesturing to the kitchen.

"Yes, Tish made me a plate. It was delicious!" he said, and she nodded.

"Could you open a Magic Door between the cave and the dining room so the Valkyries can move the table back to where it belongs?" She drew him into the dining room to face the French Doors again.

He looked at the glass panes and hesitated. Being aware that these vast alien minds were turning their attention toward him made him less than eager to see them. "Uh, are the doors to the cave open or closed at the moment?" he asked, thinking to delay the process just a little.

"Oh! I will close them!" Meixiu exclaimed and rushed away. She returned in seconds, and he suppressed the sigh as he'd forgotten how quick she was.

He touched the door and linked it to the ones in the cave. Once more, the glass panes flashed black, and for less than a moment, hardly enough time for it to register, something looked back. Then the glass showed Sandy and Dayshia walking towards them, and Henry jumped from the tension.

The two ladies in the corridor squeaked in fright, and Henry pulled the doors open. "Sorry about that."

Dayshia put her hands on her hips. "You should be! Scaring us half to death like that! I'm of a mind not to kiss you!"

Sandy snorted. "Right." She skipped forward and pressed her lips to Henry's before Dayshia could respond.

The dark beauty approached Henry and threw Sandy a scowl. "You could play along with my teasing once in a while."

"And miss out on a kiss from Henry? Dream on," Sandy scoffed.

Dayshia raised an eyebrow at Henry. He smiled at her, and she rolled her eyes, gesturing for him to bring his face down to hers. They kissed tenderly, and he felt her melt a little. When he pulled back, her eyes fluttered open, a gesture that looked far more dramatic due to her long, feathered lashes.

"Okay, that was worth it," she sighed.

Sandy chuckled as she hooked an arm through her bestie's and pulled her away, the two now heading for the door to the vestibule.

Meixiu kissed his cheek in thanks and skipped away to let the Valkyrie know they were up.

The first thing he needed to do was add a control mechanism to the rift inside him.

He'd discovered the previous night that the flow of magic from it was almost negligible on Eden, the source of the magic. He should have better luck adding a control mechanism to the rift while there, with no internal pressure.

Henry entered the cavern and walked to the hidden passage for the doors to Eden. He removed the forcefield and activated the portal before stepping through to the other world.

The weather was perfect, and he found a nice rock to sit on by the entrance as he prepared to work.

As he'd mentioned to Marisa, he was thinking of a closing mechanism like a hydraulic door to a vault. He closed his eyes and envisioned how it might be constructed. After a few minutes of reviewing the design, he discarded it as it was too complex and bulky.

Another idea came to his mind. A camera lens aperture! Two rings, one stationary and one that spins, with interlaced blades sandwiched between them. The wide end of the blades would be fixed to the stationary ring and pivot there, controlled by pins in the blades that ran along channels in the moving ring. This turning ring would open and close the blades as the pins followed the channels. The aperture wouldn't close completely, as some pressure should be allowed to flow. He estimated it would be roughly ten percent of the maximum pressure. Opening the aperture fully would release all the pressure and allow the energy to flow freely.

He fussed with the design, making prototypes to test how many blades he needed to give more granular control. Testing took place by stepping through the doors into the hall in the cave.

Too few blades opened the aperture too quickly and gave him less control. Too many blades made them too weak to hold back the pressure, and they broke. Everything was made from Wild Magic, but even this energy seemed to have engineering limitations. He settled on eight blades and finalized his design, recording it in his memory. He built a new one and affixed it inside himself over the rift. He was ready for a production test. He stood up from the rock again to go back through the doors.

A slight air pressure change was his only warning before the Ribbon creature slammed into him, pinning him to the rock face next to the open doors.

Henry was only winded and dazed as the monster didn't have a tremendous amount of mass, but when he saw the creature's jaws snap open to take a bite out of him, without thinking, he did the craziest thing.

He stepped into its mouth and grabbed its two largest fangs in his hands.

Now, he was preventing the beast from biting down, but its jaws were its most powerful muscles. It took everything Henry had to hang on as it twisted and thrashed, trying to shake him free.

Before he was bashed against the cliffside again, Henry pushed upwards with his arms and down with his legs in a sudden effort. The bottom jaw broke with a series of rapid, sharp cracks.

The creature renewed its efforts to free itself from Henry's grip, but now its lower jaw was dangling free. He was able to step back out of its mouth and pull its head down, shoving its upper jaw into the soft ground. He threw his weight onto its head and released his death grip on the fangs.

"FUCK!"

Henry hissed in agony as his hands were badly cut by the sharp edges of its teeth. He struggled to remain on top of the beast's head while the rest of its body slammed into the ground, the cliff face, and against Henry to pry itself free.

Henry put his bloody fists together and slammed them down on top of the monster's head with all his Satyr strength as he roared. It took three mighty blows to crack its skull, and the fourth drove the bones into its brain.

The shock sent it into death spasms, and Henry was thrown clear, but he rolled to his hooves and faced it as its shaking pulled its teeth from the ground. He prepared himself to attack it, but its tremors quickly diminished, and it stopped moving.

Henry leaned back against the door jamb and caught his breath. He twitched as someone stepped through and stopped. It was Hilda. She was staring at the dead monster and glanced skyward.

He walked over to the massive head resting on its side now.

"There won't be another one in the neighborhood for at least two hours. Killing a big one sends a message to the others to piss off for a bit." He took a closer look at the corpse. "This is definitely one of the biggest I've seen."

"Were you hunting?" Hilda asked him incredulously.

"What? No! I was... working on something, and I got distracted. I forgot to ask the twins to clear the area first. It caught me by surprise." He frowned as he realized it might have just bitten his head off if it had any real intelligence. He'd been extremely lucky. He looked at his slashed hands and launched his healing spell on them. He swayed slightly as the pain was intense but took a deep breath when they were whole once more.

She scowled at him, but her expression was troubled.

"What? Why are you so angry with me?" he barked in frustration.

Hilda moved into his personal space, and he had to stop himself from triggering his shield to knock her back.

"You are my daughter's mate, you gave her a beautiful and strong daughter, but you are a terrible fighter! I just watched you step into its mouth! Never do that! You carry no weapons, but you'd probably hurt yourself with them if you did! I expected to see you die, but then you killed it... with your bare hands!"

"You saw me in trouble and didn't try to help me?" Henry yelled angrily.

She looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "Valkyries don't steal battles from other Valkyries or their mates! It's the way of Valkyries!" she yelled back.

"God dammit, I'm getting sick of hearing that same excuse!" he shouted in her face.

She was red-faced and breathing hard, but so was he. He tried to pull his mind back from the urge to beat some sense into her as he knew she would welcome the rematch.

"You were angry with me last night. What was that about?" he snapped as his adrenaline surged.

"You had no gift for the child—children!" she corrected as she saw him preparing to explode over her repeatedly denying his son.

He stared at her in confusion, then sighed. "A Valkyrie thing, no doubt," he muttered. "Nobody tells me anything!" he complained as he turned to the dead ribbon creature. He grabbed the largest fang and yanked it from the skull with a loud, wet pop. Then he rolled the beast over and repeated the actions with the other fang. He handed them to Hilda on his bloody palms as she stared at the deep cuts on his fingers. The teeth were deadly sharp.

"For my children, to be made into weapons they may use to defend themselves against whatever they face in the future. Is this a worthy gift?" he asked.

Hilda nodded as she watched him heal his hands once more. She caught the tightening of his eye muscles as he rode out the pain. She carefully lifted the heavy blades by their roots. "I-I will have a master artisan make them suitable weapons from these. These have tremendous value... in my culture."

He nodded stiffly then a thought came to him. "What did you come down here to say?"

"It doesn't matter, now," she responded as her eyes admired the deadly blades she carried.

Henry turned back to the corpse. "I'd better dispose of this. I don't want others to come to feed on it so close to the door."

He made Hilda step back away from it, then opened a tear above a lava field, and it rolled through to fall into the magma. He closed the tear, catching the tail end of Hilda's frown.