Surfacing Ch. 02

There was no such understanding with these Sisters.

Suna came first in his mouth, and while no spunk touched his tongue, she behaved as if she were drowning him, pushing the tip far down as she could though he fought her still for the right to draw air. Fortunately for him, Thena wasn't far behind as Suna withdrew from between his swollen, sopping lips; the elder Sister made the same aggressive growl as she slammed her phallus all the way into him and he endured her climax as well, grimacing as Moria still wouldn't leave his scrotum and flaccid penis alone.

Auslan's sore netherhole throbbed after Thena pulled out quickly and gave his ass one final slap. He couldn't imagine enduring it again, yet knew two more Sisters waited now, and then after that...?

Moria's invasive fondling drew his attention then and he tried to crawl away from her, but she wasn't having any of that.

"Goddess, his taste," the youngest Sister murmured, her eyes glazed over. "So wonderful..."

"Yeah, well, it's your turn, so get humping," Thena said as she caught her breath and chuckled in satisfaction while removing her phallus from her body. She turned toward the door and began to speak, "Panagan, you want his ass or his m—"

Then everyone paused.

Panagan wasn't able answer her leader; she wasn't even able to speak. In the dark, it was apparent that she was suffocating as her heart rate became audible and her life energy surged through her in a fight response, but with an odd disconnect at her neck and head. She stood stiff and trembling and holding her throat.

Auslan saw from the floor a fifth Red Sister in full uniform; her arrival had been unbelievably silent, even with the noise of the struggle. He knew this one, but he did not know how relieved he should be.

"Elder D'Shea."

Suna had spoken first, sounding just that little bit nervous as she hurried to remove her phallus and close up her leathers. Thena made a gesture at her to warn her to silence. Moria rolled slightly on the ground and moaned softly as she reluctantly dragged her attention away from Auslan, far too slowly for an elite warrior. She acted sluggish and confused, and the former Consort knew she had been affected by his sexual magic as he'd feared.

D'Shea's face appeared impassive though she held a hand out as if she was pinching dead air. Panagan was holding her throat still and her eyes were wide open in fear.

"Corpora," the Elder said flatly with a single eyebrow arched in disapproval. She was looking at Thena. "Care to explain, since you're hushing the others?"

Thena took her time seating her own clothing properly and gave a very slight bow. "Explain what, Elder? We are awaiting other duties from the Prime or you, if you even care to give us any. Our time is our own until then, yes?"

Panagan's eyes had finally rolled back in her head and she collapsed onto the floor; D'Shea lowered her hand and stopped pinching the air at the same time. The tension was palpable as Auslan shifted partly beneath the cot and curled up on his side, trying to be small as possible. He wasn't even sure what he might wish would happen next. No good options came to his numbed mind, and his body was falling numb as well as he fought against shock. Every survival instinct screamed that he had to stay awake and aware.

"Beware your tone, Corpora Thena," D'Shea said softly and in a way that sent a shiver through Auslan. "Why are you here?"

"Forgive me, Elder," the ringleader responded, seeming not to adjust her tone very much as she thrust a hip out and crossed her arms. "We were bored. Perhaps you have too many of us to manage. Perhaps you might let Qivni take some of the burden until Elder Rausery returns."

D'Shea's eyes narrowed a bit and she did not speak.

Instead, she reached into a pouch and brought out what—by Auslan's best guess—was a small piece of brass and a...feather? Both disappeared into the Elder's fists and she murmured a few words, and the Consort could not breathe for a split-moment as pure, arcane power swelled inside the cell. His attackers did not have time to move.

With one gesture of D'Shea's left hand, Suna and Moria were both flung from their spots and against the far wall of the cell by an invisible force, their bodies slamming into it face first with their backs exposed. They were held there as if by some giant, unseen hand. Thena had actually begun to reach for something on her belt as she took a defensive stance, but D'Shea next moved her right hand.

Thena's head snapped back as if she'd been punched in the nose and, stunned, she dropped the pinch of powder at her own feet. Auslan was aware enough to grab his cloak to filter his nose and mouth and slow his breathing. Thena coughed once but then the air was knocked out of her as magical force struck her square in the gut, then on the back of her head and she collapsed facedown into the powder. The Corpora struggled to breathe and, with one more sweeping gesture on D'Shea's part, his attacker was lifted up and thrown against the wall next to her Sisters, but face forward. Thena continued to cough and blinked rapidly, wildly trying to focus on the Elder and failing.

"Even Elder Rausery would not be able to hold all three of you helpless like this without some charm from me," D'Shea said lowly, her magic swirling around her. "If you are so stupid you must be beaten soundly to show your respect, I will gladly oblige."

With a downward thrust of the Elder's hand, Thena's body was slammed again to the floor, then a coordinating upswing of sorceress's arm saw the Corpora's back next pinned to the ceiling; every strike sounded painful as it looked and drops of blood were spilling from Thena's mouth onto the stone directly below her.

"Please, Elder," she wheezed, choking still, "my ribs..."

"I'll break more without touching you."

Thena could barely shake her head. "N-no, Elder...forgive m—"

The invisible hand holding her to the ceiling suddenly let go and she fell free, landing hard and groaning in added agony. D'Shea moved her left arm again and both the other conscious Sisters hit the iron bars and collapsed on top of each other. The Elder reached out into the air and plucked an invisible throat again, and Suna jerked up to her feet in answer, clawing at her neck and was henceforth flung into Thena with battering force. Both screamed in pain, but D'Shea showed no signs of being finished with them.

Auslan, still tucked beneath his cot, could take a little satisfaction in the punishment being meted out. His gut told him it was not on account of their raping him in his cell, it was due to insubordination, and D'Shea's actions were well beyond that slight, he thought, unless the Elder intended to kill them.

He was uncomfortable with the escalating injuries that his attackers were suffering and didn't want to have to watch all this. In his past, he often had the opportunity whether to watch punishments or not. Frequently he had chosen not.

Maybe there was something wrong with him, but he didn't like to watch torture.

D'Shea focused on Moria again and Auslan found himself speaking aloud.

"She is already suffering for her sins, Elder," he croaked out loud as he dared. "She will suffer for a time yet if she lives."

The Elder Sister did not look away from her subordinates, did not look at him, but the way her shoulders stiffened meant she had heard him.

"Why is that, Consort?" she asked, her tone brooking no lies or hesitation.

"She drank my seed, Elder," he said.

D'Shea seemed to hesitate, and of the half of her face that he could see, she seemed to be smiling. Her tone was sarcastic. "Some sort of elixir, is it?"

"Not always, but I lost control," he said, his voice wavering. He'd been too afraid at the time and hardly remembered even now how it had happened so easily. It had never been so before.

"So she is compromised as well?" she asked with a twinge of bitterness directed at him and he understood the reference to Sirana. Moria herself did not even seem aware that she was being talked about. "For how long?"

"A few cycles at most, if she is not allowed near me again."

"And the others?"

"They suffer only what you have done to them, Elder."

There was a pause, and Auslan could feel when D'Shea released her spell entirely. The upsweep in violence had been broken by his speaking out, and all four younger Sisters yet remained on the ground, unconscious and unable to begin it anew.

D'Shea removed a pellet from her belt and broke it between her thumb and middle finger, whispering something he could not hear. Then she turned to him.

"Do cover up and stop hiding underneath that cot, Consort."

Only when Auslan moved and got to his feet did he feel the sore places in full; his throat, his neck, his knees, his buttocks and rectum. He gingerly pulled the cloak back out and put it around him about the time he heard the upper door open and yet more Sisters trooping down.

He did not recognize any of them and he tried to remain unobtrusive as they surveyed the damage and their softly moaning Sisters. One who had the bearing of a leader looked expectantly at D'Shea.

"Agalia, sequester these four in their quarters until I have time for them. They are to be given no healing draughts before I've seen them, and they are not to leave their quarters by any means. Collect their Feldeus and give them to Jaunda when you next see her. You may assign others to guard them, you need not do it yourself though you are held responsible for my orders. Understood?"

The rather comely Drow nodded and bowed in response, her face placid. "Yes, Elder D'Shea. I will see it done."

She gestured for her Sisters to gather and collect their casualties and they had the cell cleaned out in the span of a handful of heartbeats. The cell door remained open and D'Shea on the outside, and after the last Sister had exited solitary, the Elder turned to peer at the Consort.

"You can walk?" she asked, arms crossed over her chest and that eyebrow arched again.

He nodded. "Yes, Elder."

"Come with me."

She walked out of sight down the hall and left the cell door wide open. His heart began to beat wildly as he did not understand or know what to expect, but he gathered his sandals and wrap, tucked them inside his cloak and padded after her barefoot. He met her at the top of the stairs, climbing out of a pit that he had descended into first in the company of two of the only Drow he felt he truly knew, and who truly knew him.

Sirana's Elder then clasped her gloved fist into his shorn hair again and used it to push him forward and guide him where she wanted him to go. He kept tight hold of his clothes beneath the cloak and kept it closed, and accepted the plain behavior of ownership as D'Shea displayed him in front of several passing Red Sisters. He focused on avoiding a stumble.

Sirana had told him before she left that he could bargain with her Elder and that he should not reject her protection. She had seemed to assume that D'Shea would give it, but he'd been several cycles alone even after Shyntre returned to the Palace. Perhaps now he might bargain; he just hoped the price for that protection wasn't worse than the tastes of his visitors.

They came to a set of warded, stone doors not unlike many he'd seen in the cloister, except that he could feel the magic permeating the place long before the door slid open. Auslan was not surprised that she had brought him to her personal chambers, and he noted the relative comforts compared to the sparseness of most of the other rooms to which he'd been privy—granted, only an interrogation room and a holding cell, but these barracks had the feel of being very light on the decoration and luxuries. He knew opulence well, and this place had none of it. The cloister could be situated well out on the fringe of the City or into the wilderness, for all he knew.

"Draw a bath, if you like," D'Shea said, releasing the hold on his hair and stepping away to remove some of the more cumbersome items on her uniform. She lit a candle, and set about to making herself more comfortable.

Auslan did not hesitate long before doing the same; he very much wanted to wash the smell and stickiness from his defiled body. Only rarely did he let the scent of sex remain on him for long anyway; it was too distracting and sometimes he just wanted peace from his primary function.

It was not likely he would know peace again, if he remained alive.

D'Shea more or less ignored him as he drew a bath hot enough for steam to drift along the water's surface. He eagerly but slowly lowered himself in, the raw parts stinging in protest though he welcomed the cauterizing effect of the heat on his injured flesh. He was allowed to bath himself fully, to wash his hair and even soften the hard scabs on his shoulder, made from D'Shea's magical extraction of his Priestess's finding spell.

Former Priestess, he recalled yet again. Sirana had said Wilsirathon had been executed, and he'd known it to be true. He wasn't sorry; in fact, he felt far more satisfaction at that news than anything else. His first Priestess had been avenged at last.

Ironically, avenged by the Elder who now held him captive for reasons he feared to know.

Now the Bred Consorts had mostly been purged, but for the older ones like himself. There couldn't be many left, and their value had diminished significantly to the general population. Auslan could imagine whatever Consorts were still alive would start seeing more abuse such as he'd suffered in his cell. A mix of fear and reverence had kept them safe before; now they didn't have that unseen support, and more of the twisted lusts no longer being restrained would be visited upon them. The Consorts were so strangely beautiful, even for Drow... sometimes what one coveted, one also wanted to destroy if they could not fully possess it.

It may not have made much difference whether he had remained on the outside instead of being held in the Red Sister's cloister. Curgia had refused to leave him alone, after all, and her behavior had been getting more irrational and violent; she had choked him on more than one occasion as she rode him on his bed. Sooner or later, she might have gone too far.

Now his value would be only what he could earn for himself dealing with an Elder Red Sister almost three times his age. He had few ideas of what she really wanted, although fortunately he did know of two: Shyntre and Sirana.

It would be enough with which to start.

D'Shea sat at her desk next to her candle, a glass of wine next to her as she scribbled down a few things with a fine grain stylus and invisible ink. Her back was not fully to him but she played at ignoring him, even when he got to the point where he simply soaked in her bath and tried not to think about the gang rape.

The Elder Sister did not seem inclined to help him on that score. Soon enough she set down her pen, turned in her seat, and observed him for a few moments before speaking.

"I hope you do not pity yourself, Auslan. You did not suffer anything that both Sirana and Shyntre have not withstood themselves for much, much longer, to the very edge of their endurance."

He felt part of his mouth twist as an unnamed flood of heat entered his chest. "I am honored by the distinction, Elder Sister. You are correct, I only served two of the four Sisters. Certainly more visits were planned for later, until you showed your displeasure in no uncertain terms. If I may ask, how you came to intervene, Elder Sister?"

Elder D'Shea's smile had a twist similar to his own. "I keep tabs on you. I knew when they'd arrived. Unfortunately I was a little too far away to prevent it entirely, but you may be grateful for the interruption."

Auslan felt that strange heat tightening further in his chest, becoming more potent as it affected his ability to draw a full breath. He ground his teeth. D'Shea tilted her head at him.

"Anger? Not a typical show of gratitude, Consort," she commented with cool derision.

"Because you are lying, Elder Sister," he said before he lost the nerve. "You may have sensed their arrival, but you did not need to be close enough to stop them. You simply never issued an order regarding my treatment, one way or the other. Lacking any direction, what happened was inevitable and you knew it. I daresay you were waiting for it. You wanted me to be attacked so you could step in as you did."

His heart pounded in his ears and he trembled from both fear and anger in the warm water, somehow managing to look at her with his jaw clenched tight so his teeth wouldn't chatter.

The Elder was silent for several moments watching him; he could not read her expression as it changed very little, but he trusted his instinct that she was reworking her plan for their conversation.

"Why would I want that?" she said softly in a low, threatening tone.

He was willing to be honest enough to shudder visibly—she frightened to him, but he also knew he had more value to her than anyone else in this cloister, if only because of Shyntre who was not yet lost to D'Shea the way Sirana was.

He kept looking at the Elder though it took much effort to do so. He also kept going as she ordered.

"I see two benefits for you, Elder Sister. A demonstration of power over some of Elder Rausery's more impudent Sisters while she is gone, and...also giving me a taste what it will be like to be without your protection."

The Elder tilted her head slightly.

Auslan hurried to add, "If I may give you this, Elder Sister: letting them attack me was unnecessary to convince me, because Sirana simply asked me to seek your protection. I would have, had you even come to speak with me. I trust her judgment, even if you would blame me for how I healed her and would see me further punished for it." He paused slightly. "Which may be another reason for the events this eve."

D'Shea frowned at him and he could not hold the oppressive gaze any longer; he looked down at the water and twisted the washcloth beneath the surface. So much adrenalin coursed through him once again that he did not know what to do or say next.

"Such spirit, Auslan," she said quietly, still with that undertone of threat. "I hadn't known any Consort had it in him."

"You may thank your own son for that, Elder," he blurted, and instantly regretted it. He just felt so angry that she had let that happen, had practically planned it.

There may have been an air of surprise about her, unless he was mistaken, but the next moment D'Shea actually chuckled and the swell of threat in the room had diminished a little. When she next spoke, she sounded... amused? Rueful?

"Lelinahdara did suggest something like that, yes," the Elder said, leaning back in her chair and relaxing some. "He had some influence on you early in your life. Perhaps you care to tell me the whole of it?"

Auslan shook his head, still looking at the water. "He was more my brother than any of the other Consorts our age, you already know that. Ask Shyntre if you wish to know more."

He glanced up and saw the Elder was lightly annoyed.

"I gather you will allow more Sisters to visit my cell now?" he asked with a defiant air not unlike a certain wizard they both knew.

Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head. "Not as of yet. I rarely respond with short-sighted, overbearing methods, Auslan, you may know this about me. It leaves a broken and imperfect tool."

"And Shyntre would have more reason to hate you, Elder," he said. "What of his eventual knowledge of this particular event?"

"I knew it wouldn't break you," she said stonily. "Not after Sirana."

"But you were gambling that I would not connect your intentions, Elder."

"Granted. You are much more intelligent than even my subordinate reported to me. Such an underestimation won't happen again."