Sufferance Ch. 15

For once, every Priestess was silent and did not interrupt Jaunda; it would seem they all could imagine exactly that of which she spoke—and without coaching, there was little chance the Red Sister Lead would have known some of these details unless she had actually seen them.

Unfortunately, most of our opposition would simply assume she'd been coached—but the Valsharess seemed to be doing something else as Her eyes glittered just a little and I felt that warmth at my chest again. Damn, I hoped she wouldn't notice this.

Jaunda continued, "He had other significant changes as well, all demonic. Another set of arms and a set of leather-like wings. We managed to gain his attention and interrupt the ritual, but we only intended to subdue him, Your Grace, to capture him alive if possible. Regardless, we could not let him escape or open the gate that Sirana said was his intent. He told her he wanted to cross over into the Abyss, and she was his altar to do it."

The Valsharess did not look bored now, but I could not say She was horrified in the way that most of the Priestesses seemed to be. Wilsira almost looked overtaken with grief again, and even Lelinahdara appeared as glad as the rest that the gate had never been opened.

My eyes shifted to Auranka, who merely looked as though she was trying to predict which of us would be given to her at the end of the audience.

"Very briefly, Lead, who did what to win the fight?" the queen asked. I thought it was very well-phrased; Jaunda would respond to it with a fine point.

"Shyntre broke the talisman spell. Jael and I kept Kerse busy while he did so. Gaelan assisted both sides, magic and martial defense. Ultimately, though, we did not kill him, Valsharess."

Everyone not in the Sisterhood looked dumbfounded at that outrageous claim. The High Priestess actually laughed.

"You most certainly did!" Wilsira's voice boomed. "I felt when it happened! He's gone!"

Jaunda shook her head and made eye contact with the stricken Priestess. "No. We didn't. He killed himself rather than be taken. He broke the collar that had been holding the Illithid hostage, and the blast destroyed the entire cavern. That is plain to see for any who visit the place now."

There were several loud, incoherent protests against this claim but the Valsharess looked impatient and Her cold stare silenced them.

"Is that why all of you involved look so bedraggled, Lead?" the queen asked in amusement.

With a bow, Jaunda said, "We did our best to clean up for Your Grace, but yes. We all lost our uniforms and most of our equipment. If not for Shyntre's magic, the healing bottles would have burst from the heat and we would not have made it here today."

Jaunda's testimony was strong, I could feel it, and I wondered whether the Valsharess was even a fraction as impressed as I was.

The queen's tan eyes shifted to Shyntre next, and I would have bet his former pendant now around my neck that he was not happy about it.

"Strong magic is required to take down a Draegloth. Sharp blades alone cannot do it," She said almost softly. "Step forward, Shyntre."

He did so, bowing properly, but his form quivered just a little bit. I wondered if he was nauseous as his mother; he was using a lot of energy to keep calm.

"Good to see you here again," the Valsharess said with what I had to consider a sadistic smile. It was an odd thing to say, and I almost thought that She was teasing him like I sometimes did... in spite of that sounding ludicrous.

"My queen," he replied quietly.

"Did your magic kill the Draegloth?"

"No, Valsharess, the collar did. Of my magic, I used shields to protect the Red Sisters in combat, and one or two force pulses to push Kerse away from either me or the Sister whom we ultimately recovered. I also used magic to break the power of the talisman."

Somehow, the Valsharess looked pleased. "A difficult task in itself. Your heritage rings true. You do not omit anything of your actions?"

He shook his head immediately; I would have said he was truly afraid but holding up well enough especially given her compliment just now. "No, Valsharess."

"Why did you cast a divination spell that ultimately revealed these events were in motion?"

"It is...as the first time I stood before you, my queen."

"We see." She asked no further questions.

What was that supposed to mean? I glanced at D'Shea, and she had an odd expression on her face. In light of everything, I could not interpret it exactly. Anxiety, pain, pride, concern...? What had happened the first time Shyntre spoke with the queen?

"Have you anything to add?" She said.

He nodded. "Yes, Valsharess. I would present myself as a witness disputing Wilsirathon's lack of awareness of Kerse's physical changes before these events. I saw them with my own eyes as the Priestess forced the Red Sister Sirana to acquiesce to her demand to slack her son's thirst repeatedly almost a year ago. Wilsira spoke quite plainly of his new 'endowments' in moments of lust. She was aware of them."

"A mere lust dream! Your memory is compromised, wizard," Wilslira spat, her loathing for him every bit as bright as it was for me. "Surely you remember from personal experience the incense. I always use it to strengthen the Drow blood inside my son as he couples with one I would not see injured. I took care of the Red Sister, protected her, and in any case she agreed willingly to couple with him. The incense has hallucinogenic qualities as a side-effect, however, and your own eyes cannot be trusted while standing in the room."

"Is that why a combination of rania, trothum, and web dust doesn't provide an antidote?" he asked dryly.

The Valsharess actually smiled and I trusted my gut at what I thought I saw: the queen liked the wizard. She favored him somehow...but he was afraid of Her.

"That is the antidote, isn't it?" the queen asked, and the High Priestess reluctantly nodded her head.

"Yes, my queen, it is."

"So his word could be valid."

"He's had plenty of time to research that without ever having done it, my queen," Wilisra insisted. "It is not as he says. He dreamed the changes he thought he saw."

Shyntre looked at me, and the queen noticed.

"Sirana. What of your experience?"

I felt my face heat up and I swallowed. "The change felt pretty real to me at the time, Valsharess. A knot at the base. Stretched me the same all nine times and at least twice when there was no incense. Kerse had changed, and I remember the same words from the Priestess about her pride in his...enhanced endowment. If hallucinations can be shared, the wizard and I shared the same one at least four times."

I almost couldn't believe we were discussing Kerse's cock as we'd fucked as a point of contention in this trial....

"No proof," Wilsira said through clenched teeth. "You've all had time to plan what to say. Your Elder to whom you report, Sirana, would have known the significance, yet she took no action. Either it never happened, or she is guilty of ignored the signs as well!"

That was a good point...hadn't D'Shea the opportunity to start the downfall of Wilsira through Kerse long before now? Even worse, D'Shea didn't acknowledge the accusation now; she only stood stiff as before. What was wrong with her?

*No, wait...*

That wasn't how it was.

It was only when I realized the look of confusion on my Elder's strained face that I remembered. Last year, I had chosen not to report something important to her. I hadn't told her anything of my conversation with Auslan, because of seeing Shyntre and Auslan in the garden. She'd said we had to prove Kerse dangerous through his behavior, and I'd forgotten about what Auslan had said about the physical change itself being enough to indicate a danger. And the Valsharess would likely order him killed then...

...perhaps I hadn't wanted it so. Perhaps I'd wanted Wilsilra to come down another way rather than put her son to death.

Regardless, D'Shea hadn't known about it. I was the one who ignored the signs.

*Oh, no.* I'd fucked up.

That was when Lelinahdara smiled, her cunning, green eyes brightening. In my doubt, I'd almost missed it. She took her opportunity then, however, when the Sisterhood was temporarily at a loss to explain.

"D'Shea has a good reason, which we may explore later, but first, Wilsira, what about a similarity to a recent change in the Consorts? I do not believe the Sisterhood knew about that and could not plan to speak of it now."

Wow. If looks could kill...

Even the Prime quirked a brow at the Priestess-liaison before glancing at her two Elders for an explanation. Both of them shook their heads. I had seen one of the strange Consorts nude, but he hadn't had a knot that I saw. My look of confusion was as genuine as the rest.

"Show Us, Tarra," the queen said simply.

"Wait! My queen, wait," Wilsira protested urgently, and in response Auranka straightened up with her nostrils flaring a little. "That one is a mere deformity. It is not the first time we have seen imperfections in our breeding and we always cull those. You know that only a fraction of those babes that survive the process grow to be Consorts."

"This one is a perfect one who lived to be eighty and is ready for breeding, Valsharess," Tarra said confidently. "It is a recent change, but I don't believe it is a deformity. He still functions perfectly well."

"Show. Us." After that Valsharess would say nothing else. She went eerily still, waited without so much as tapping Her finger.

Lelinahdara sent the younger Priestess standing closest to her, who left by way of slipping past the Sisterhood to the circle. We waited patiently for her return, Shyntre shuffling back to his place. Wilsira attempted to communicate something with the High Priestess but all of a sudden it seemed Roshenthanon was trying to gain a little distance from the senior cleric of Lolth. I relished the leaking scent of fear as she struggled against it; so did a lot of others in the room.

Eventually the younger Priestess returned, guiding a beautiful but—as Shyntre had put it—"vapid" Consort, much younger than Auslan. He had white-blue hair and near-matching eyes that were disconcertingly distracted, as if he was listening to music no one else could hear. He was well-formed of course, but wearing a silk-spun blue wrap; he was likely to have been one of the virgins at the next worship ball. He was not the one that had spoken to me but he was one that had run out of the room.

The Consort seemed bewildered overall and but not intimidated at being surrounded and stared at by a room full of powerful females—quite the opposite reaction that he'd had to seeing just me standing in his doorway. He offered an inviting smile which seemed to have a tangible effect on Jael, Gaelan, and all of Qivni's team.

"What in the Abyss...?" Rausery muttered.

Tarra gestured to the Consort and he immediately went to her, leaving the younger Priestess to retake her place. The liaison put both her hands on the Consort's shoulders and guided him forward to stand before the Valsharess. She remained standing behind him to keep him in place, but she did not make him bow and apparently he didn't think to do so on his own.

"I believe the ritual is becoming unstable and Wilsira has grown too accustomed to things to be able to sense it," Tarra said plainly. "This one has more in common with a thirty-year Draegloth than he does a newly-grown Drow, and he was spawned from one of Wilsira's eggs. It is curious to hear that the knot is common in both this Consort and her wayward son, my queen."

The Valsharess actually frowned. She repeated for the third time, "Show Us."

Tarra leaned to whisper something in the Consort's ear, and he obediently removed his wrap to stand nude. I could see a rather cute hind end from where I stood but not his genitals. I watched the Valsharess and Auranka instead, and their subtle change of expressions told me that they were confused.

"He looksss normal," the Drider Mistress commented.

"Yes," Tarra said. "Not deformed, Auranka, and we agree that is what Wilsira claimed, yes?"

A cunning look passed over the Valsharess's face and She commanded, "Show him ready for breeding."

As if waiting for just that, Tarra reached around and I could very well imagine what she was doing. The Consort gasped softly and moaned, leaning back against her and closing his eyes as she held on to him tightly and sped up her strokes. His hips moved in response and the low growl I heard next was a brusque, conflicting oddity with the delicate beauty of the young male Drow. It did not fit the Consort.

But it did remind me of Kerse.

The Valsharess stared at whatever She saw at first, Her face a placid mask, but soon enough slowly stood up out of Her throne. She seemed to loom over the rest of us though She was not the largest frame here; it was the fact that Her aura surged and we all felt magic collecting rapidly in the relatively close room. I doubted my warming gem was having any measureable effect on it.

"Stand back, Tarra," She said.

The Consort whined in protest as the Priestess stopped touching him and moved briskly to one side. He was immediately struck in his bare chest with a magical blast from the queen's hand. There was a low shudder of energy that followed and filled my ears, and I almost didn't hear the nubile body landing on his back on the carpet. His eyes were wide and he tensed, his back arched a moment as if in intense pain before he stopped moving. He stopped breathing right after that, and the last glimpse of his erection before it faded did imply a familiar knot...

"Have you somehow contacted Kerse's sire, Wilsira?" the Valsharess asked though did not seem to require an answer. "You know it is forbidden. That way is madness."

"H-he gave the inspiration only, Valsharess," the Priestess said, "centuries ago. I developed the Consorts and the method for breeding them after giving birth to Kerse. You deemed it safe, you approved it!"

"Do not lie to Us. This is much more recent."

"You must agree our magic has only grown stronger with the use of the Consorts among the Nobles! Lolth blessed the union with the Abyss long before we came to this place!"

"We know this. Yet when there is evidence he is attempting to change Lolth's race irrevocably, you ignore the signs? There is a reason We do not breed beyond the half-bloods, Priestess. When did you make contact?"

"Valshar—"

"WHEN?!" Her voice boomed, causing even several of the Red Sister to start.

Wilsira looked as if she might collapse onto her knees, though she clasped her bejeweled hands to her chest and remained waveringly upright. "Re-reverie...two hundred and ten years ago..."

"And the first clutch of Consorts after that?"

"W-within the following decade..."

The Valsharess was more alive than I'd ever believed She could be, Her eyes becoming pure gold in Her anger. Her aura seemed to be expanding and making it hard for me to breathe. As I glanced briefly around, I saw a similar effect on others—only some were better able to hide it.

She said, "We have a job for your Sisterhood, Prime."

"I am at your command, my queen."

"Slay every Consort born within the last two hundred years, including all children on the third and fourth floors within the Sanctuary now. Lelinahdara will assist you."

There was a genuine cry of protest from the Priestesses, from all but Tarra who stayed perfectly still.

"No, Valsharess!"

"Our children—"

"The future Consorts, what will we—?"

More than the queen's eyes showed Her anger now as Her face became the most terrifying mask I'd ever seen. She sliced Her hand across the air and they silenced themselves. Or She did.

She continued to speak to the Red Sister Prime while still glaring at the Priestesses. "Each child of the Nobles born directly from a Consort from the last one-hundred twenty years, kill them. Those yet unborn, round up their mothers to the Palace dungeons, we will await the births. Capture the children of any parents sired by a Consort who have matured to bear of their own, and We will watch this second generation to determine how tainted they are."

My thoughts flew first to Auslan and my heart seized in my chest, pure terror flooding through me before I remembered that he was born prior to Wilsira's confession. The Consort and the wizard both had told me that Auslan was the elder between them, he should be old enough.... Perhaps barely so?

I would find out very soon. I felt light-headed to imagine the Sisters targeting him, or me ordered to kill him or any of his offspring.

Including mine.

My mind whirled still as I thought of myself and my former House, of my birth mother's fourth daughter just born... No, we hadn't been blessed with a Consort in the past two hundred years and all of Mother's daughters had been conceived from different males not significantly younger than her, as far as I knew.

The lavender-eyed Consort at House D'Verin, however...he was one of those marked for death, and the child of any Drow now pregnant by him. Add those to dozens of others in more than half of the Houses, all of them in the top ten stations of power....

The power balance was about to shift dramatically.

My next realization was that I would be helping to do this. A true purge as we had not seen in my lifetime. The reputation of the Red Sisterhood would be strengthened once again, to be maintained as one of nightmares, of abductors of children and mothers, killers of those unfortunate families who drew our eye, our blade, and the queen's judgment.

The Valsharess looked at Wilsira again, but for the final time. "Auranka, she is yours if you want her."

"No!"

The doomed Priestess shouted denial; she backed away as the sauntering werespider stepped forward, but something else drew my attention right then. Something caused me to look at Elder D'Shea.

She was focused hard on me and I thought I heard something. Not from a message pellet but...

A thought.

*Draw her wrath! Please, now!*

Why?...

I obeyed, responding to the desperate urgency of another mind I knew well, another Drow trapped and so close to being set free.

Draw her wrath.

I laughed at Wilsira trying to escape her new Mistress. "Kerser'yn'czael will be shouting with glee from the Abyss, you shriveled, dry cunt!"

That was all it took.

Wilsira flinched hearing that name as much as Kerse himself had. She spun around and lunged for me, hands outstretched and screaming in rage. Every Red Sister but I reached for a weapon, and I prepared to turn her attack, drawing down into a fighting stance.

What happened next, however, was something I'd never seen before. Three small, black spiders jumped down from my shoulders, startling me as they skittered down my raised arms. They leaped an impressive distance onto Wilsira's face and I could tell by her screams when they had bitten her, even as I succeeded in using her momentum against her to deflect her away from me.

She collapsed onto the floor, surrounded by Red Sisters ready to strike but waiting for a command, and the spiders crawled into her Priestess robes. I could only presume they kept biting as she screamed and slapped at herself.

The venom worked visibly fast as her flesh began to swell and puss leaked out of tiny wounds that were quickly turning necrotic. My Sisters and I moved away then and everyone tried to watch both the thrashing Priestess and their backs at the same time as bodies shifted around the room.

Auranka was scowling in displeasure and the Valsharess had slowly sat down in Her throne again to watch almost curiously. No one moved as the Priestess's throat swelled shut and her muscles twitched uncontrollably. At last Wilsira suffocated, the life leaving her eyes along with the pain.