Shadowplay

The Shadow's arms crossed her chest, their weightless embrace a sense of sight only. One hand crossed up to the V of her bathrobe, then passed over her skin. Rifyll shivered at the odd sense of touch on her skin, and gasped in surprise as she felt the Shadow push down at the fingertips and stroke her bare skin.

Rifyll felt something press against her hair and slide up it, like someone gently running a hand up it but not disturbing it. Her body was hot, her slit wet and aching from this strange, wonderful encounter. Sex with a shadow! Now that is something she would love to brag about, but she was keeping this to herself. No need to tell those academy stuffies just what she'd laid with.

What happened next was electrifying. She felt skin against her long ear, and immediately her body snapped into a sensual attention. It wasn't like a hand against the back of her ear, no. It was like a set of lips, kissing her elfin flesh. Its touch sent in searing pleasure that made her feel like she woke up. Only the deepest of lovers would touch a elf's ears, and Rifyll thrilled to have this Shadow touching her like this so freely.

The Shadow's lips moved up and down the length of her ear, and with it came the shocks of sensation to her mind. Her nipples, already teased by desire, hardened into aching pegs, thirsting for touch. Her ear was ablaze with pleasure, the feeling coursing up and down her pointed elf-hood. The gentle touch to her felt so intense that her ear was twitching madly, like a cat petted just the right way. Yet even with its twitches and jolts, the lips kept to it.

Rifyll felt the lips slip to her pointed ear tip, her skin tingling deliriously. With a wickedly smooth, gentle motion, the lips moved back down her ear, this time encompassing her ear like a grip. Taunting pleasure filled her mind, and she groaned slightly from the sensation. She couldn't see her ears, there was no mirror nearby, but she could just imagine her ear cloaked in the weirdest, sweetest darkness, moving and stroking.

This was why few touched elven ears. Rifyll felt weak, her body boiling with pleasure as her ear was caressed and petted by the living Shadow. Her bodily vulnerability was pried open by the shadowy play of this woman-like creature attached to her. Her open body roiled with passion, and she wanted more.

Fingertips at her sternum began to move downward, passing over the meager tender flesh of her breasts as shadowy digits somehow hooked on the low collar of her bathrobe. Rifyll was helpless to stop the gentle parting, her lips trembling as she felt herself slave to pleasure.

Cloth fell from her shoulders, leaving her chest bare. Stripped to her waist, her arms trapped in the sleeves as her body responded to the call of lust, she was at the Shadow's mercy. The Shadow's hands skirted her sides gently, their body-heat touch electrifying her body in their wake. They climbed up her body, impossible to stop.

She felt them climb up her ribs, teasing her, taunting as they made their way to their destination. Rifyll gasped as she felt individual fingers press against what little flesh her breasts had. Each sparse touch was agonizingly good on her sensitive skin, her nipples so hard they could burst.

Rifyll groaned when those dark fingers felt up her nipples. Pleasure raced across her chest, her spine arcing uselessly away from the Shadow. She groaned again when those fingers pinched her nipples, sweet desire pouring into her. She groaned yet again as her nipples were tugged gently, the sensation of passion and love throbbing into her.

No-one else could experience this. She wanted to keep this to herself, to master it and be slave to it. Her face burned from the embarrassing hot pleasure shooting from her ear and nipples. Her eyes fluttered, ignorant of the room in favor of the sensation.

Shadowy hands circled her aching breasts over and over, shadowy palms brushing her rock-hard nipples over and over, shadowy lips kissing and sucking her tender ear over and over. Each movement was a burst of pleasure, wetting Rifyll's core with desire for more. With the Shadow clinging to her body, buzzing with happy ecstasy, no-one could stop the arc of her spine as she let the raw lust take her body.

But Rifyll thirsted somewhere else. This smooth rubbing, this dark touch, it wouldn't be completed. It'd continue on and on, and all that would happen was that she'd get sore. Rifyll craved for that ecstatic peak.

"Stop, stop, just hold on a moment," Rifyll said breathily. The touch on her ear and breasts retreated down her body. Breathing hard, she turned around and got onto her knees on the bed. Her hair fell around her head, cascading past her ears and eyes as she looked down at her own shadow. It looked far deeper than it should.

"You know," Rifyll said, gnawing her lip and rocking back and forth in anticipation, "what I want. But will you give it to me? Or will you just please me endlessly for your entertainment?

The Shadow wavered slightly before Rifyll's shadow lightened; The Shadow had moved. Rifyll felt the touch of the Shadow at her knees, climbing up her thighs, and then no further. She was still wearing the bathrobe! Before Rifyll could adjust her clothes for the Shadow, the bathrobe's sash came undone, its cloth dyed a deep black by shadows. Fingertips pressed themselves against her back and dragged downwards, pulling the bathrobe with it.

Cool night air hit Rifyll's wet, needy sex. Her juices must've glinted in the light of the candles like a jewel.

A creeping touch slid up Rifyll's legs, warm skin-like shadow sliding up her smooth thighs. She shivered with delighted anticipation as she felt weightless hands caress the flawless flesh of her ass cheeks. Dark caresses dug dimples into her skin, impossible fingers pushing and massaging her flesh. The Shadow must be enjoying her form quite a lot.

Rifyll felt a cool breath be blown across her burning snatch. Her lips buzzed and tingled with butterfly-like delight. Oh, how she needed! This Shadow was such a wicked tease!

Then, she felt the being's gentle shadowy touch skirt down from her buttocks to her moist petals. Rifyll let out a small gasp of anticipation as she felt feminine fingers pull her lips apart to gaze at her sex. Another gentle puff of breath made her keenly aware of how blazing her cunny felt. She didn't need to be teased! She needed to be pleased!

She felt the skin-like shadow fall over her slit and thighs, feeling as if it was less there than the thinnest of cloth, yet still having a gently touching presence. Her sensitive lips lit up and tingled as she felt something skin-like, something lip-like graze over them. Rifyll could feel the Shadow's gentle exploration of her sex, like fingers gently caressing her body.

Rifyll cried out lowly, partly in shock, partly from the massage of pleasure, as she felt a worming paddle trace her aching lips. It wasn't quite wet, more like a damp shadow, but she felt that it was a tongue tracing the contours of her sex. Bliss followed its trail as it tickled her petals' edges, joy delivered at the edge of a paper-thin messenger.

The Shadow's tongue dug into her moist flower's folds, her flesh being pushed apart like a finger was rubbing there. It pushed and slid against, dragging what felt like a real tongue against Rifyll's sex. Each pass was a trail of ecstasy seeping into Rifyll's heart, her mind thrilling and glutting itself on pleasure.

As her lips were pushed and parted by the Shadow's tongue, a blaze of ecstatic desire followed its trail. Each trickle of pleasure sent shivers down her spine, her wet sex dripping for more. It swirled around and around, tracing the barest edges of her cunny with a dancer's grace.

Rifyll moaned as the Shadow's tongue lashed against the soft pinkness of her sex, the wicked worm now tracing the inside of her lips. Its steady flow of pleasure sank into her like lengthening shadows, her velvet flower sunk into darkness.

The flat tongue brushed across her entrance, pressing against moist pink flesh in a quest of passion. Rifyll was enthralled by the pleasure it brought. Wherever the Shadow's tongue went, lusting ecstasy followed, her body echoing and calling out for the sweet numbing sensation.

Delirious pleasure burned inside of Rifyll as she felt the tongue press against the path inward, the tongue only as deep as a shadow. It couldn't pass inside of her, for whatever reason it may, but she could still feel it sear a lovely sensation across her cunny's lips. It tried valiantly as it squirmed against her sex, writhing tongue pressing against soft, venerable womanhood.

A bolt of pleasure shot through Rifyll as she felt the tongue twist, turn, and last against her hardened clit. The aching bean was graced as the touch of the Shadow encompassed it and caressed it like it had the rest of her body. She moaned to it, her boiling lust shocked and jostled by the inquiring movement.

Her aching clit felt like it burned with uncontrolled pleasure, the sweet sensation that felt like sucking and licking lighting Rifyll's body up with passion. The touches gracing it made it feel like Rifyll's nub was glowing hot and brilliantly.

The Shadow continued to lash and write against her sex, her lips lathered and licked, her hole pressed and prodded, her clit teased and touched. Pleasure mounted up inside her, riding her and controlling her. Rifyll couldn't help herself as her hips waggled and gyrated; the lust controlled her. Only the nonexistence of somebody behind her reminded her of this strange encounter.

Thoughts of arcane sciences and grudges against old fogeys younger than she was fled from Rifyll's mind, the river of passion flowing into her washing them away like dirt. Her mind was alight with the carnal secrets of the body, her sensation of self only a thrum of numbing, humming happiness.

It felt like there was so much pleasure in her. So much roiling in her, racing up and down her spine, buzzing and flying in her meager breasts and the depths of her belly. Rifyll sighed with it, her moans light and airy as the joy pulsed in her. Only the Shadow's touch seemed to matter.

There was almost too much. It grew in her, continuing to grow and spread in Rifyll's limited body as the Shadow unceasingly caressed and licked her nubile body. Her eyes rolled, unfocused, her ears batting madly, more madly than when they had been caressed.

With an aching cry, Rifyll came. Her body rolled, her hips quivering and gyrating uselessly. Her slit trembled, her interior walls squeezing and clamping down on nothing. Toes curled and fingers squeezed the bedsheets. Passion came like a tidal wave, sweeping Rifyll's world away into blankness.

And, like a tidal wave, it left. Slowly, sorely, pleasurably, Rifyll's orgasm drifted away like driftwood on a tide. Her body seemed to ring with the remnants of their passion, yet her over-attuned body could still feel the Shadow cling to her. Weakly, Rifyll collapsed against the bed, and the Shadow fled from her elfin body.

The golden room came back into focus as Rifyll felt a satisfied soreness encompass her body. It had been a long day, a very lucky day for her, so perhaps she deserved this bed. Rifyll turned to where the sun fell upon the wall, seeing the Shadow lay there like she was on her belly and watching Rifyll.

"Do you mind if I spend the night in this bedroom? It's incredibly nice, and it'd be a shame to waste it," Rifyll asked the Shadow.

The Shadow sat up and nodded, before melting from its position on the sun-lit wall and racing out of the room.

Rifyll sighed happily and collapsed on the soft bed. Its golden sheets were of utmost softness, cradling her body into sleep.

***

Rifyll Wyndcall groaned sleepily and twisted. Soft cloth twisted with her, a soft pillow was under her head, and she felt the warm rays of the sun shine across her body.

She was still in Castle Lurroc, she realized muddily. It had a very nice bedroom. Wait, she was still in Castle Lurroc! Rifyll bolted upright before settling back down. Well, it was someone else's, but they weren't using it at the moment, and a bedroom as good as this in a hollowed-out old castle probably meant that they didn't know about it. She was good.

Though, now Rifyll had to report back to the College's Magistrates. If she was gone for too long, they'd assume she was dead and send in an adventuring party to clean up the mess. She really wasn't supposed to stay the night; that had just been incidental.

Rifyll pushed the covers off herself. Well, she had slept nude. But the sex with the Shadow was oddly fantastic, so that made up for it. She probably hadn't even covered half the castle because of the, ahem, distraction. Oh, the Magistrates would really get on her about this if they knew.

Still, they didn't know, and there was still time to finish taking census of the rest of the castle. But sleeping in an abandoned castle at night alone, especially after bedding with a living shadow, had to be one of the less smart things Rifyll had ever done. If she'd gotten away with it, then the castle was probably good.

She stood up and stretched, her naked body almost glowing in the morning. The secret door to the bathroom was still open. She collected her clothes and put them on, then gathered up her rucksack and staff. Rifyll opened the bathroom door and set off into the dark passage, her staff-light still going strong.

The hallway beyond was swallowed by darkness, the nearby glow of morning not even a memory to the archaic passageways. Rifyll didn't know how to get back, she realized. She was caught in a labyrinth more than a hundred years old. Hopefully, her shadowy friend would come to help her once again.

Rifyll set off into the dark passage, her staff clicking against the ground where she set it down. The pale light of her magic lit her way, but each flagstone was identically cut. The passages that shot off from one another each contained the same inky blackness. It didn't matter which way she turned; every chance of escape was as dark as the next one.

As she walked on, the radius of her light seemed to grow short. Quiet footfall after quiet footfall, Rifyll continued, but it was getting harder to see. She drifted closer to the wall, just to make it easier to see where the next turn-off occurred, and if there was a light at the end of it.

Rifyll's vision turned to black, and she shrieked in surprise. Where was she, what had happened? Her hand was shaking as she stretched it out, and her fingers chanced upon cold stone. Her magic light had gone out, exhausted at last.

Stammering, Rifyll began to mutter the words to summon the light again. Her first attempt failed. Her second attempt failed. Her third attempt failed.

Rifyll was shaking, her fingers and knees quivering. Absolute nothingness was before her. The only sense that she existed was the cold wall she felt next to her and the little sounds amplified by loneliness. Her breathing, the rustle of her clothes, her heartbeat. Castle Lurroc had melted away into blackest night and locked her in a blinding nightmare. She couldn't get out.

A hand enclosed around her hand on the wall, a hand as thin as shadow. Rifyll automatically tried to look at it, but the gloom was so deep it felt like her eyes hurt. The grip tugged at her, pulling her along and guiding her. She had no other choice. Rifyll began to follow.

Left, then right, then left, and left again. Then sloping down, a spiral corkscrewing downwards into the castle's pits. All while Rifyll was utterly blind, without even Nature's stars or moon to guide her passage.

Finally, her hand was dragged across hard old wood. She flattened her palm against it, the grip pulling it along dissipating. Rifyll passed her hand across the door, and found the cold metal of iron, shaped into bars and rivets and even hinges on one side. Her hand felt around for a handle, and found a bar that she pulled down and pulled open.

The door opened onto a roughly circular room that was quite wide. It was painted a blood-like red, and musty couches and cushions lined the walls. Dull golden candlelabras stood in between the couches, tall drippling candles already lit and their glow shining across the red satin and gilded decoration. Mirrors lined the wall, driving the room into an endless circular dance. Even the door Rifyll had opened had a mirror on it.

In the center of the room was a shallow pit wider than a person was tall. Within this pit was a circle made out of what looked like golden dust. Lines of black charcoal powder crisscrossed it, and words and symbols were chalked in charcoal around the circle and within it.

Rifyll crossed to the circle and kneeled down next to it. It was written in Infernal! A second language was a requirement at the college, and Rifyll had chosen the demonic language as hers. In fact, she was rather good at it! It was the one bright point of her schooling career, despite the dark nature of the language.

The circle was purely ritualistic, she thought. It'd summon up something from the Low Planes and bind it to the summoner's will. Though, funnily, she thought as she squinted at the text, it seemed to also bind the demon to the place of summoning as well, even after the summoner's death. Huh, maybe the Lurrocs had some skeletons in their closets too spooky for them to handle. Unfortunately, Rifyll couldn't read the final stretch of the circle. Something about somebody new, but it wasn't in a format she could understand.

This room, similarly, was just as mysterious to Rifyll. When you heard about Summoning rooms in a wizard's tower or the like, it was always in a dark featureless room. But there was this circle here right in this opulent reflective room! Who had built it? What was it used for?

Shadows like serpents struck from the dark corners of the room, pooling in the circle's center. Rifyll jerked backwards, scrabbling well away from the pit as she watched the darkness amass.

First, it was just a flat pool of darkness, as dark as the moonless midnight.

Then, it stretched upwards, growing taller and taller, assuming a height just under that of Rifyll's.

Then, the shadow-shape morphed. It filled out, it shed shadows, it bubbled and grew. It changed into a She, shifting from a black abyss to a living shape that the candle-light reflected off of. A humanoid form developed, her breasts large, full, and firm and her nipples colored like the rest of her body, yet textured differently so as to appear on her dark, dark skin. There was a thin waist, curving out like an hourglass to form round, smooth hips and buttocks that gave way into long, graceful legs, with a hairless slit between her legs at her hips. The lithe arms' long-fingered hands as well as the human-like toes seemed to be pointed like claws.

The Shadow's head filled out. The delicate lips and the curved nose were there, as well as sharp cheekbones and closed eyes. The Shadow's ears were pointed twice, like the wings of the fey, and her hair was of cascading shadows, but what caught Rifyll's attention was the Shadow's horns. Four horns, two pointing straight up but short, and two curling like goat horns over the ears. Four horns, holding her hair back like a crown. The horns of a demon.

The eyes of the Shadow opened. The eyes were so dark that no light reflected off of them, and it was almost as if there were only empty eye sockets. Then, silvery cross-shapes for pupils glowed within the Shadow's eyes, coming into focus slowly. The Shadow blinked once, tilted her head, and smiled with closed lips.

Rifyll's breath was ragged. A demon was standing in front of her! A demon! She'd never be able to do that with her capability of magic! Yet, she was sure she had met this woman before. Yes, Rifyll was almost certain that this shadowy creature had been her strange bedfellow the night before.