Sisters of the Mists Ch. 18

A tingling itch in the runes adorning his forehead prompted him to step quickly across the room. He could feel his new weapon -- Camilla -- stalking a black witch to increase her power. The runes tattooed upon her flesh provided her with protection and deadly magic, but more importantly, a window into her every moment. Likewise, the runes adorning Ebonar's skin allowed Zoraster to stand within inches of where his servant would appear within the lab.

Stacks of books, scrolls, and apparatus appeared when Ebonar's teleportation spell deposited him in the room, but only a single item mattered to Zoraster. Holding out a hand, he demanded, "The locket."

Having been given explicit instructions as soon as his master learned of the item from its creator's mind, Ebonar was ready, and held out the locket by its silver chain.

The moment the chain pooled in his palm, Zoraster could feel Godsbane thrumming within his robes.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

Danica opened her eyes and started. She'd been so deep into the use of her mental powers, gleaning the thoughts of the farmers outside the village, that seeing Marlena still wrapped in her disguise as a local had shocked her at first.

"I have a general idea where the village is, but it's not clear enough that I want to risk it. We need to be there when he arrives tomorrow."

Marlena shrugged her shoulders. "I guess we'll have to find someone who knows."

"We'll head north, because I know it's that way. We definitely don't want to attract much attention, though. That means you'll have to do something about the disguise." She gestured back and forth between them. "One of us is going to have to be a man."

"Hmm. There would be the same problem as with our breasts. The illusion will waver a little where it doesn't match reality. Neither of us moves like a man."

"Well, we're missing certain things that..." Danica trailed off as an idea occurred to her. "But maybe I don't have to be."

Marlena tilted her head to the side and lifted her eyebrows in confusion.

"You can make your illusions real now. Do you think you could make certain parts of one over me solid enough to make me aware of them?"

Marlena blushed bright red, the color rising in the cheeks of the illusion wrapped around her. "You mean..?"

Danica nodded, her lips curling up into a smile. "With all those things knocking around down there, I think it would make me walk a little more like a man."

"I could try, I guess. Let me start with just the illusion, first."

Danica cast out a mental net, seeking anyone who might be observing them. She had chosen the spot for the final probe of the village carefully, and didn't pick up anything. "Go ahead. Nobody's watching."

She felt a tingle of magic, and noticed the skin tone of her hands had shifted back to normal.

Marlena then pursed her lips. "I think you'll need to change clothes. The illusion will have to work harder to disguise your robes to look like the clothes men wear here."

"Pants and a top, then?" She started to pull her bag off her shoulder and another thought occurred to her. "And no panties. I don't think that's going to work too well with all the dangling bits."

Marlena let out a little chuckle. "I suppose you're right. You'll want to keep your brassiere, though."

Danica nodded and took off her bag.

"Just a second. I may as well practice a little." The illusionist spoke the words of a spell, conjuring up a wooden bench next to Danica. She nodded toward it.

Danica sat her bag down, finding the bench as solid as if it had been waiting for them all along in the little depression where they stood. "Thanks," she said, and then went to work removing her robes.

The bench was a welcome convenience. The aroused look on Marlena's face as clothing fell away was even better.

Though most comfortable in her robes, which also provided the best access to the tools of her magic, Danica had packed away a wider variety of clothing for this trip, trying to anticipate any need on what she expected to be an extended journey. She located a pair of pants and a loose, button-down shirt.

Feeling more than a little frumpy and ridiculous once dressed, she nevertheless stood up and said, "Okay."

Marlena waved her hand, causing the bench to vanish, then closed her eyes and began her spell. Danica could feel little chilly pinpoints swirling along every inch of her skin. She couldn't help but jump a little when her hand changed. It was far larger, most certainly manly, and once again darker in tone, matching the average of the local people. With it, she pulled out on the front of her pants and saw something that made her break out into a chuckle. Pulling the pants down, she exposed the perfect illusion of a cock and balls between muscular legs. There was only one problem. The new, alien organ was standing at full -- and impressive -- erection.

She gave it a flick of her finger, feeling no sensation through the illusionary organ other than a dim sense of attachment that was a testament to Marlena's power over illusion. It did bob and twitch in a realistic manner, though. "This may be a bit more awkward than what we were aiming for."

Marlena covered her eyes for a moment and laughed. "Sorry."

"What could you have been thinking of?"

"Behave," the blushing illusionist admonished before working her magic to modify the illusion.

Danica looked down just as the transition happened, and it made her feel a moment of dizziness. Once that passed, she saw a no less impressive, but flaccid member hanging between her illusionary legs.

"Let me take a look before you try the next part." When Marlena nodded, Danica pulled up her pants and reached into her bag. The spell she wanted to cast wasn't one she practiced often, and so required her to use the material components to focus the magic.

Even reaching into the pouch to retrieve the glass dust proved difficult. She knew that her fingers were the exact same size as always, but the illusion confounded her efforts anyway. Once she managed to gather up a pinch, she fumbled the spell when she saw the unnatural fingers moving through the gestures. Closing her eyes helped a lot, and she was able to complete the spell the second time with a sprinkling of glass dust into the air.

The air shimmered, creating what was essentially a full length mirror in front of her. It was all Danica could do not to look behind her for the strange person she saw reflected in the magic mirror. Her facial features were similar to Brandon's, but with hints of Venaru. Her body was likewise a mixture of the two men, and quite an attractive one. The clothing of the illusion was much like that of the farmers they had already encountered, though cleaner and less worn. She couldn't suppress the tingle between her legs the sight caused, even though she knew that she was looking at herself.

After moving and turning to see the full picture, she let her magic lapse and the mirrored air lost its reflectivity. "I think that will do, if we can keep every woman we run into from drooling all over me. Go ahead and make it real with your gift."

"I've never tried anything like this before. I don't know how well it's going to work," Marlena warned.

"Never know until you try. If it doesn't work, we'll figure something else out."

Marlena took a deep breath and closed her eyes. In what looked to be an unconscious gesture, she reached up and laid her hand over the pendant around her neck -- the artifact that enhanced the power of her illusions. As Danica watched, the illusionist slowed her breathing and bowed her head.

Danica sucked in a shocked gasp when the magic took hold. In an instant, she felt an uncomfortable pinch and snapped her thighs apart. In almost the same moment, she had to reach down and adjust the not-so-illusionary manhood, which was sitting uncomfortably in the crotch of her pants.

"Did it work?"

Still in shock, Danica felt her tummy, which was now hard with muscle. As she lifted her hands higher, she was alarmed to realize that she couldn't feel her breasts at all through the broad chest. "Y-yes," she answered in a wavering voice.

"Are you okay?"

Her rapidly pattering heart beginning to slow, Danica blew out a long breath. "Give me a minute. This is too weird. I barely feel like I'm inside this..." She swept both hands up in front of her, and then pointed her fingers at her chest. "This."

Concern evident in her expression, Marlena walked up to her friend and asked, "Should I let the illusion go?"

"I'm not sure. Can you feel my boobs at all?"

Marlena reached out and ran her fingertips across Danica's chest. "No. All I feel is muscle."

Despite the strange feeling of the magic, Marlena's touch triggered a surge of desire. Again, she gasped when a new sensation joined all the others assaulting her.

The tingling she was accustomed to whenever arousal made her wet was there, but along with it was something else. She reached down with her overlarge hands and pulled her pants down to see the cock there swelling and straightening.

"Is that supposed to happen?"

Marlena stared at the hardening member, her mouth and eyes both wide. "I... The illusion is supposed to respond to things so it looks more real, but..."

The feeling was like nothing Danica had ever experienced. The cock that she knew was nothing more than a powerful illusion stiffened, demanding every ounce of her attention. She could feel it throbbing, and had a nearly uncontrollable urge to touch it to relieve the intense pressure.

"Gods, this thing is... I can barely think about anything else. It's no wonder they're the way they are." Her arousal had melted away in shock, but the organ had yet to respond to that. Unable to ignore the urge any longer, she reached down and pressed it against her body. For a moment, the insistent feeling vanished, only to return almost as fast.

Marlena was still staring at it, her expression somewhere between fascination and fear.

Danica pulled up her pants, again dulling the call for attention from the thing between her legs for a moment, and breaking Marlena from her hypnotized stare.

"Why won't it go away?" Danica asked as she looked down to see it tenting her pants.

Marlena could only shrug and shake her head.

An idea occurred to her. "I'm going to turn around. Don't say anything for a minute or two."

Marlena nodded, and Danica quickly spun to look in the opposite direction. She turned her concentration to the complicated formula of the permanency spell, hoping that as her studies sometimes distracted her from her desire, it might also work for her current problem.

It took her what felt like an eternity, but she managed to focus on the inflections and gestures of the spell, running them over and over in her head. The tightness of her pants lessened, and the nagging throb between her legs waned. Finally, she turned around, relieved to not have the sight of Marlena set the thing off again.

"So..."

"I think I'll be okay, but try not to do anything that might turn me on."

"You could feel it?"

Danica quickly shook her head. "Not a good idea. I swear that thing is looking for any excuse. Let's just start walking, and concentrate on whether I'm doing that right."

From the first step, everything jostling around in her pants nearly drove her crazy. A choked off chuckle at the bowlegged way she was walking made her blush, but at least the embarrassment completely precluded arousal, and the disconcerting reaction it caused in Marlena's too-perfect illusion.

This was not going to be easy.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

Celes sat on a rock, well away from any of the crystals so they couldn't draw her in. Though more or less convinced that only the red crystals were dangerous after experimenting with Danica, she still made sure all the girls were close by, so she could gather them up in the mists if necessary.

After an hour of watching the girls explore the world beyond the valley in the crystals, she was moving beyond convinced to certain. Of course, the girls were all avoiding the pink crystals that homed in on sexual encounters, which she strongly suspected had been the primary focus of their attention previously. Created as little more than sexual toys by Zoraster, they still had a long way to go before sex wasn't first and foremost amongst their thoughts when left to their own devices.

Ready to move on to the next phase of her experiment, which would be the deciding factor on whether the girls would be allowed to return in private, she first took a moment to step outside the cave. A few wiggles of her fingers and quiet words conjured up a hovering ball of light, allowing her to examine the contents of a silken pouch.

The shards of red crystal within no longer glowed, and she had little doubt that there were many more pieces scattered around the cave. It was enough to perform a few experiments on, and so would do for now. The memory of the image she'd seen before the crystal shattered sent a chill up her spine, and prompted her to put the pouch away.

Back inside the cave entrance, she sought out Danielle. Though she had no proof, she believed that the youngest clone of Danica had been the first to come into her telepathic powers, and had probably advanced more than the others. Dominant and quick to attempt to assert authority over the other girls -- the polar opposite of Danica -- she'd probably kept much of what she discovered to herself.

Danielle was facing a blue crystal, her face bathed in the glow. She didn't look particularly interested in whatever she was watching, so Celes thought it was as good a time as any to move forward. She knelt down next to the young clone and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Dearie, can I talk to you?"

The glow from the crystal dimmed as Danielle's concentration lapsed. She blinked a couple of times, and then looked up. "Hmm?"

"I want to talk to you outside for a minute."

"Am I in trouble?"

Celes chuckled. "No, Dearie. I think you may be able to help me decide if you girls can come back here." Danielle pulled her legs under her and replied with a bubbly, "Okay."

Outside, Celes found a reasonably comfortable looking spot and sat down, gesturing for Danielle to do the same. Once the redhead settled onto the grass, Celes clapped both hands on her knees.

"All right. How much can you hear of what people are thinking?"

Danielle's eyes betrayed her worry. "I... Uhm..."

"Dearie, I already told you that you're not in trouble. Just tell me."

Danielle started twirling a lock of red hair and answered, "A lot."

"I need a bit more than that, Danielle."

"Except for you, Danica, and Edna, I can hear about anything if I think about it really hard."

"What about the others? Can they do it? Damika? Denise?"

She shrugged. "They can sort of do it, but I'm better."

"So, you were the one hiding this from Edna, weren't you." She didn't even need an answer when she saw Danielle stiffen. "I thought so. What about thinking things to your sisters? Can you do that?"

"Mmm hmm."

Celes made a gathering gesture, and then pointed at her forehead.

'I'm good at it.'

'So you are,' Celes thought back. "I want you to try something for me," she then said aloud.

"What?"

"I want you to try to hear your sisters -- one at a time. Then, I want you to try to let me hear it too."

Celes could see confusion and wariness in Danielle's face.

"It's not a trick, Dearie. I think the things you can do can make it safer for you girls to come here. I want to see how much you can really do."

That was enough to push her over the edge. Danielle smiled and said, "Okay." She then closed her eyes and her brow furrowed in concentration.

One by one, Danielle peered into the thoughts of her sisters, and after a couple of false starts, managed to connect to Celes as well. It was more difficult with the clones of Danica, due to the natural resistance of their own powers, but she was able to do it. Upon coming to Martina, one of Marlena's clones, they discovered that enough time had passed for her to feel safe in seeking out a pink crystal.

"That's enough," Celes said as Martina's aroused thoughts flowed into her head.

"Did I do good?"

"Very good. You need to stop hiding things like this. The things you can do can hurt you or your sisters, if you don't know what you're doing. You need to let us teach you, and you need to share with each other, too."

"Yes, Ma'am. So, we can come back here?"

Celes wasn't fooled by the show of polite obedience, but she didn't say anything. She'd learned most of what she needed to know. Danica's girls -- especially Danielle -- were developing their powers rapidly. It was high time to increase the amount of time spent on study and control.

"Not just yet. I want us all to have a chat with Edna first. There are going to be rules."

What she left unsaid was that the strong draw the girls all seemed to feel to the cave would provide the perfect reward to encourage them to follow those rules, and to learn things that could help them protect themselves.

The red crystal and the vision she had seen within proved that no place -- even here -- was truly and completely safe.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

A chill ran up Andrea's spine as she saw Turner walking toward the front gate of the Hall. Their eyes met as the guards waved him through, and she hurried toward him wearing a grin so wide that it made her cheeks hurt.

"Hey," he said as they met just inside the gate.

Andrea laughed at his cautious greeting and took matters into her own hands. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him soundly. When their lips parted, she responded, "Hey," and giggled.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too. A lot." She kissed him again. "So, what do you want to..."

The sound of a commotion from somewhere nearby in the city brought her up short, and caused both of them to turn toward the gate. The men there tensed, looking toward the right. Shouts and the ringing of metal on metal emerged from the general din, pointing toward a battle.

"Maybe we should go inside," Andrea suggested.

The front door of the keep burst open, and a handsome young man Andrea recognized as the Duke's oldest son emerged.

Andrea asked, "What's going on?"

He paused to grin and rest his hand on the hilt of his sword -- obviously trying to strike a grand pose. "Nothing of any great importance. A bit of a spirited argument spilling out from a pair of taverns down the street."

Turner shook his head and said, "Sounds like a war to me."

"You should spend some time on the south side of town after a high holiday. I should be going to see whether the guardsmen need any assistance in keeping it contained. If not, I might make a few wagers on the outcome." He winked at Andrea and said, "Farewell, Milady," before hurrying toward the gate, where soldiers appeared as if by magic to accompany him.

Andrea rolled her eyes at the young man putting on airs and flirting with her. When she looked at Turner, she saw him scowling at the noble's retreating back.

"Maybe you should be careful. Staring daggers at him might be considered some kind of capital offense."

A slight blush arose in Turner's cheeks. "I don't like the way he was looking at you."

Rolling her eyes again, she grinned and said, "Take it as a compliment, maybe?"

"You're making it hard to stay mad."

"Good." She stepped in closer, taking his hand as her thoughts strayed toward the bed set aside for her in the Hall.

For a moment, she saw what she believed were similar thoughts in his eyes. Then, his eyes shot wide open. He grabbed her arm and violently jerked her behind him. "Andrea, look out!"

She heard an odd pop and a whooshing sound as the sudden pull shocked her away from the naughty thoughts she'd been entertaining. When she regained her balance, Turner stood between her and a snarling demon that had appeared from nowhere in the middle of the flagstone courtyard.