Sufferance Ch. 03

She sounded a bit breathy and I caught her hand moving toward her white-adorned mound; she barely brushed it. Her scent was so familiar by this point that just the increased heat off her skin, the arousal on her part smelled...enticing.

Now came the question, if I could refuse now when I thought I couldn't before, would I choose to do so?

I didn't especially want to undress, but I couldn't deny that she smelled good; a welcome circle of something nearly serene after hours and hours of tension and revelation.

I could still say yes...but it didn't have to be like it was before.

Gaelan sucked in breath through her nose as I clasped her with red gloves beneath her jaw and covered her mouth with mine. My eyes were low and lazy but not closed, and I could see hers had gone wide.

I'd surprised her. Every other time we began like this, playing as if I were the ranking Sister before switching roles again, it was only after she'd insisted more than once that I "needed it." I'd never initiated it; she had to seduce me.

I continued to surprise her as I gathered her naked body close and let her feel the contrast, as the red leather caressed and slid against her skin. She moaned and relaxed, looping arms around my shoulders as I slid a glove between her cheeks, barely reaching her sex from the back. I felt the heat through the material and how easily it slipped between her netherlips.

Gaelan growled eagerly and began trying to undo my belt.

I took her wrist and put it at the small of her back, holding it there as I lowered my head to suck on her nipple.

"No," I said quietly, biting it lightly after it had tightened up.

She blinked, gasped, ultimately too aroused to come down off her climb and try to negotiate with me, or to ask for clarification on my refusal.

We kissed again and I moved one hand around to the front to caress her sex as I still held one wrist behind her. She made only approving sounds.

This was a good time.

"Do you still have it?" I murmured, and she would know what I meant.

Gaelan nodded, almost whispering, "Let me get it."

I let her go, her nectar coating my leather glove and teasing my nostrils, as she left to pluck up her key from the desk. That key was never there until she reached for it, and it was not a spell with which I was familiar. Though I'd observed it was always in the same place, I had never been able to find it on my own, nor had I gotten desperate enough to break the damned desk and risk unleashing the magic it contained.

Gaelan used the unassuming chrome key to unlock a different drawer—always a different one, and sometimes they seemed different sizes—to remove D'Shea's Feldeu in its pouch. With familiar ease she brought it out, once again waving between us.

I approached her to touch her and kiss again, which she broke off early to look down, beginning to insert the matching appendage between her legs. And again I took her wrist and stopped her, covering her mouth tightly with my other hand so she couldn't utter the command word.

"No."

We'd locked eyes and her confusion was just starting to turn to suspicion, but not yet alarm. I managed to wedge a few more inches between it and her.

"I want to use it on you instead."

Gaelan shook her mouth free, her expression plain disbelieve. "You can't. You know you can't wear it. I can't even say the word unless—"

"I never said I would wear it. I want to use it on you, not ride it."

Her eyes narrowed and I could tell the moment when she decided it was time to put me in my place again. Her muscles just started to tighten but I'd already begun moving. I snapped her up off the ground entirely and dropped her hard onto her bed a pace away, a much softer landing spot than my floor pallet.

I rolled her has we landed and she got a good grip on my plaited hair with one hand but had refused to let go of the Feldeu with her other. It gave me the opportunity to secure a hold on her in spite of the pain as she jerked at my scalp—we both knew that wouldn't be enough as I tightened by own hold. She only had seconds of consciousness left.

"Nno—" she choked off after one final thrash before slowly going limp.

I immediately tugged the Feldeu from her relaxed hand and used a leather thong from my belt to secure her hands behind her back. She would be able to work her way out of it eventually, I knew, but by then I hoped to have made my point.

I arranged her so that her face was down on the bedding and her knees propped her backside into the air. I had to use one hand to keep her balance for her, holding tightly to the knot between her wrists and using that forearm to keep her hips from tipping either way. Then I got to work.

Gaelan woke back up within a few moments, but it was to my tongue teasing her puckered netherhole and the receiving end of the Feldeu nudging and prodding at her twat, but not actually entering her.

"Sira—ah!" she started before reacting as the knob of the phallus slid over her clitoris, her anus tightening around my tongue. "No—let me—"

I chose that moment to press D'Shea's Feldeu into her, watching her flesh yield to it with moisture to spare.

"Oh!" she cried, trying to roll over but I shifted to use my weight to keep her in place. "No, Sirana—!"

I began working the magic erection in her sucking pussy, hard and fast, stunning her for a few precious seconds as I secured my hold again. It was just me, not two or more as it had been in other circumstances, as it was harder to keep her immobile than it had been with me.

Gaelan said my name several more times and continued to struggle, but each time it sounded less a command or admonishment and more as if she was growling in frustration, slowly giving up as I pummeled her snatch.

Eventually she only gasped and huffed for breath, her face grimacing and her toes curling but she stayed more or less still with her knees apart. I was very aware of my sex as it began to ache and I gripped the Feldeu harder. Now this was normally how it was between females; the receiver enjoying everything and the giver merely taking orders and focusing beyond her own need, working to please her but getting no release herself...

...except that this felt, here and now, like a decided "win." I liked that she was splayed before me and had failed to fight me off, that she was approaching climax as I forced D'Shea's cock-by-proxy to take some of her own potion whether she liked it or not.

"Oh...oh, Lolth...yes," Gaelan moaned into the bedding.

I took it as my sign to starting teasing her back-portal with my tongue again, spearing it twice, three times as she yelped and cried out louder with a screech.

Oh, I knew the sound, and I could feel it, smell it. She was definitely peaking.

I let her go soon after, withdrawing and keeping the Feldeu but standing two paces backward. I admired her puffy, glistening sex, left with a throbbing pussy of my own, as I watched her work to get her wrists free.

It took her less time than it did me to speak my full birth name.

She tossed the thong aside in frustration as she kneeled on her bed and watched me warily, glancing at my clutching hand and back up. The silence stretched for some time but I wanted her to speak first.

"Why did you do that?" she finally asked.

"I was never told I couldn't."

My tone held some accusation and now she looked a little alarmed.

"Are you...what do you mean—?"

"I mean you'll have more trouble getting me to bend over for you," I said, squeezing the life-like rod in my hand. "You and the others. Anyone else. If you thought I'd just be content to stay where I was, you thought wrong." I smiled meanly, my voice level and threatening. "I don't have to wait for a new candidate to arrive before I start climbing, Gaelan. I just found that out. After all that dung that happened, you didn't tell me. We'll just let the pecking order go naturally from now on, shall we?"

Having worked myself up, I slapped the Feldeu back on her desk and turned to leave, feeling powerful, but Gaelan jumped off the bed to get in front of me.

"Wait! Sirana, wait...don't—"

"Don't what?" I snapped.

"Don't start picking fights now—"

"I don't pick them! But I'll damned well finish them!"

"Don't do this to us," she said, sounding desperate now. "It'll ruin things—"

I sneered. "What's wrong, Gaelan, can't handle a more level field?"

"You'll have to defeat Jaunda! This isn't the way to do it, you're not ready! "she blurted. "Don't you want to know why I didn't tell you?"

"Not really," I growled, instantly disliking the idea that I couldn't choose to take on Jaunda when I wanted to.

I started to move again but she planted both hands on my shoulders, her face more furious and afraid than I'd ever seen it. She'd kept a good mask this whole time at playing quiet and tender and supportive.

She kept talking. "Sirana, we haven't had a new Red Sister in over five years and we've lost a few in that period. I've been at the bottom that whole time. You think it's bad for two months, well, you can just bite rock mold. You are going to climb one way or another, I don't see anything stopping you, that's just the way you are! But you were my first opportunity to change anything for me and—"

"If you haven't done it by now, it's not my task to let you step on my back to pretend to be higher than you are!" I raged, getting in her face. "Someone's got to be at the bottom. It won't be me!"

"Sirana, you don't understand! Rausery wants this! D'Shea sai—...."

As I watched, Gaelan's face turned a shade darker as she stopped breathing with her mouth open, the words dying in her throat as she clutched at it. The brief, wide-open panic in her eyes was completely genuine.

I leaned back, feeling my anger at Gaelan decline considerably. I recognized that affliction with more familiarity, more intimacy than I cared to admit.

It was a compulsion spell.

Gaelan couldn't say certain things, just as I had not been able to say anything accusing my sister of dangerous mistreatment while she'd been alive. And the last mention had been of our superior.

"Oh Lolth," she murmured, and she looked nauseous and suddenly defeated. "I..." She swallowed, looked at me, at the tacky Feldeu on her desk. She nodded something to herself and went to go sit down on her bed.

I took her moment of surrender to consider her words again.

D'Shea set a compulsion spell on Gaelan; it could only mean that she completely owned her. I'd suspected as much, but it left a deep feeling of foreboding in my gut. My last conversation with our superior had hinted that I might be heading in that direction as well. Perhaps sooner, if I forced D'Shea's hand before she was ready to show it, before I really knew anything at all. Hadn't I already seen, over and over, that trying to seize power too soon meant that even if you succeeded, you likely would not keep it long?

"I would have told you, Sirana," Gaelan murmured. "I have regret."

She swallowed again, speaking heavy and slow as if she was testing what words could pass her lips.

I stood, fairly convinced that whatever the motive, Gaelan hadn't thought of it on her own. What had D'Shea said of Gaelan using the Feldeu....? Her "reward" she'd earned...

I had been sure I'd take this "public" and make it known that I was stepping over Gaelan, and anyone else who wanted to step on me could challenge me. It seemed like the direct path to what I wanted; of course I need not take the abuse anymore. Rausery had told me, shown me...and I told D'Shea about it...

I reconsidered now. I'd be setting up Gaelan as an adversary, not based on anger, just on conflicting agendas. Jaunda and the others would be close behind if I handled them the same way I just had her. D'Shea would be adjusting her plans as well, that was what she did. Long-term, what would this outing do for me? How would the sudden upheavel benefit me another five years from now? Particularly if we didn't get a new Sister any time soon...

"Can you answer a few questions for me, Gaelan?" I asked.

"I don't know. I can try."

"Fair enough. A nod or shake of the head will do. Was your...relations with me supposed to be something you'd been told you earned?"

She glanced at me, and her chin lowered just enough for me to determine it was a "yes." She winced in pain at the effort.

D'Shea had already given me that, then, I only wanted to confirm it and see if she'd make the effort to answer me. She had, and it shouldn't matter now that it had been part of her compulsion—certainly not the center.

Now I knew D'Shea wanted Gaelan to have the appearance of a higher rank, in fact or perhaps only in show. It came to me that if I let this continue for a while longer, knowing just as D'Shea knew now, that I could stop it at any point, that I might learn a bit more about my superior's plans. At the same time, I would demonstrate that I could follow her directives regardless of my inclinations or impulses. I could show her that she would not have to take measures so strong as compulsion spell with me.

D'Shea was watching to see what I'd do next. What my choice and my foresight would be. I could take Rausery's skills and use them immediately, or I could wait... I very well may need that kind of self-control, build that kind of history, in order to glean any insight from my Elder's workings. Perhaps, even better, she may let me in on her plans eventually, give me more to do.

"Would you owe me a favor later?" I asked, approaching the side of the bed slowly.

The nude Drow looked up at me now, one white brow rising. Her throat was out-stretched and open to me and my gaze drifted to it, seeing the pulse that spoke of her lifeblood. Either she trusted me or she was not thinking right then. "For what?"

"In public, it's as it has been between us, for now," I smiled, touching her cheek. "You are the ranking Sister. Privately...I get to make you cum like you just did. I'd like to see your netherparts stretched and satisfied again by the Feldeu in my hand."

Her pupils dilated for a moment at the imagery, but overall she did look surprised. "Why...would you offer that?"

"Does it matter? I'm willing to play D'Shea's game, Gaelan. You're right, I don't understand but I can learn, and I can help you stay off the bottom when another future Sister inevitably arrives."

Gaelan shook her head slowly, though I knew I'd hit on exactly what she wanted. She was afraid that not only I would step over her, but so would the next. By then, her window of opportunity would be closed unless she did something desperate.

Still she sounded calm when she responded. "Sirana...I can't offer you an ironclad favor undefined—"

"It will not go against D'Shea at all," I said plainly. "And it will be in ratio with the favor I'm doing for you to give you what you want. You'll have to help me get something I want in return, when I decide what that is."

This was very different for me... Normally I did not take "help" in case they could betray me. Gaelan still could, depending on what I asked. It could be useful, and yet also I did not have to use it. Just knowing that she owed me might be enough for now.

She hesitated, chewing her lip briefly. "You have to help me until we receive another candidate, Sirana, however long that is. And the next one has to be Rausery's or it w—"

Her throat started to constrict and she stopped talking.

I didn't really like the sound of that, but then....perhaps the balance would sort itself out in unforeseen ways. The knowledge of the secret would change my outlook anyway, and I already knew that was a large part of attaining goals: the attitude.

Before now, I'd been in the dark and almost despairing at change. Now I had direction, and things I wanted to find out, challenges before me. Gaelan would help me, probably more than once as we worked through our deal. I would play the intrigue once again, and once again I had time. I could be more patient.

"I suppose we'll have to help find that new meat, then," I winked, smiling a little. "Is it a deal? Until a new candidate is found, I won't upset your bare status, Gaelan. I will probably be working a new deal with Jaunda as well, but I won't rebel outright."

She nodded. "It's a deal, Sirana. But I... wonder why D'Shea sent you with Rausery in the first place. She had to know...or suspect what she might say to you..."

That left the both of us wondering. It seemed to conflict with any plans for Gaelan and perhaps myself, D'Shea suddenly pushing me into an environment where I'd learn to be less pliable toward her and my unit. Had she really missed the fact that deceptive omissions don't work if one extends the influence around deceived? She couldn't have missed it; it was too basic in matters of control. Extended knowledge for subordinates guaranteed that old lies wouldn't hold back the uncovered facts spilling over them.

So now I came back to where I'd been before: D'Shea had to have decided it was time I find out otherwise, and wanted to see what I'd do.

Gaelan would tell her about our deal, too. She would have to.

Fortunately, I was counting on it.

I leaned down to kiss my roommate. "I'll help you, and I'll help you dress. We'll have some fun at this ball."

Gaelan smiled slightly, tinged with an expression I've seen many times, one that implied that if one was damned, so would be everyone else.

"We deserve no less."

To be continued...