The Feldavian Rift Pt. 02

Content warnings for: non-consent, mind-control, manipulation, restraint/bondage, group sex.

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The trail was cold underfoot. Beladnes looked around his small team as they stalked cautiously through the lengthening shadows of early evening. Sister Adara led the way, with the heavy platemail glinting disconcertingly in the pink glow of the rift. Syria, the ranger, walked alongside Beladnes, her bow now drawn cautiously. The only member of the party seeming at all relaxed was Wilson. Wilson was following along a way behind, kicking up moss and stones casually as he twirled one of his javelins idly.

"Is he ok?" Beladnes whispered to Syria. "Huh? Oh the soldier, he's probably just bored, I imagine a mission like this is all a little too diplomatic than he's used to" Syria glanced back at Wilson, and then forward to the Sister, "But, I'd feel a lot better about them if they were at least a little worried about what we just saw. I mean that, that imp? It wasn't scared of us at ALL. You know what sort of creatures, in the wild, show such... recklessness?" Beladnes thought for a second, but came up blank, Wildlife and 'survival' had never really been his specialism, "No, what sort?"

Syria's face was intense, "Only one type of creature. Apex predators. And then to go further than just recklessness, and to actually start... masturbating in front of us, as hot as it wa-" Syria caught herself, "what I mean is, that's the sort of behaviour that they don't try unless it actually works. Whatever magic the Sister was picking up must have been potent, any idea what it was?" Syria looked nervous, more than Beladnes had seen in the last 2 years of their apprenticsehip, even more than when she's almost put Fallor into a coma with an overly potent sleeping vapour. "It's not like our Magic Syria, this is, something more innate, more primal?... At least... at least we know our wards work as well as ever."

Syria smiled in relief, "So, we're safe whilst you're here right?" Beladnes shrugged, "Not perfectly, they're only temporary, require at least a little effort to keep them active, and if exposed to sufficiently powerful magic, they can be... overwhelmed."

"How powerful?" Syria asked. Beladnes shrugged "Hopefully we won't have to find out."

***

The camp looked... off, somehow. Like any hastily-erected military encampment, the same wooden stake walls surrounded the perimeter. It had the same four watchposts, and the same single gate, facing the trail towards home... but, the pink glow alone set Beladne's hair on edge. Sister Adara had stopped at the edge of the clearing where the outpost sat. The other's caught up one by one as she pointed out the two guards at the gate.

They seemed, distracted, bored maybe? One had propped his halberd against the wall and was slumped against it, the other was at least keeping some semblance of watchfulness, pacing lazily back and forth across the gate, halberd slung casually over his shoulder. Beladnes noticed that only two of the watchtowers seemed to have anyone in them.

"Something's not right, Wilson, stay back here, if something goes wrong, get back to the Tower and get help," Adara whispered as she handed Wilson a small charm on a string, "Single use protective shelter, emergencies only, ok?" Wilson nodded and took the charm, tucking it into his belt.

"The rest of us, we're going to go in there, find the camp commander, and see what's going on here. Keep your guard up, we're barely a half-day's travel from the rift here, so its effects are stronger, and the protection offered by the towers is weaker."

Beladnes nodded sternly, before giving Syria a reassuring tap on the shoulder, and began walking towards the camp. The guards didn't react until they were within a few steps. The shorter of the two, pacing, who Beladnesnow noticed was a woman, turned to face them. "Halt, who goes there!" she barked out, not particularly threateningly.

Beladnes stopped and bowed slightly, "I am Apprentice Beladne, with Sister Adara and Ranger Syria, from Inner Tower 6, we were sent to check on the camp, one of your messengers seems to have gone missing."

The soldier barely reacted to this new information. She shrugged, set her halberd's blunt end upon the dirt and waved them in, "Nothing to see here, just a bunch of alchemists and wannabe wizards playing with crystals." Syria spoke up from behind them "and a missing messenger." The guard shrugged, "Oh he'll be fine, he was our strongest wizard, an expert in abjuration and binding spells, he probably just got drunk and lost."

Beladnes waved the others through, "Oh and trooper, where is your commander?," the guard Sighed, "In his tent, I'll show you the way," before she left her Halberd leaning against the gate, and, to Beladnes' surprise, put an arm around his waist, leading him into the camp.

"Uhm, a little familiar there trooper?," Beladnes baulked, though not making any effort to shake off the comforting touch.

"Oh come on wizard-boy, you're not in the Tower anymore, relax a little."

"Nonetheless...," Syria interjected, lifting the Guard's arm from around Beladnes' back, "Best to keep a little distance, we don't even have your name yet Trooper."

The woman laughed, "Oh, of course, call me Frida, trooper 1st class, assigned to the 19th Outer Tower. And you don't have to be so cold, you know? Look, everyone here's getting to know each other, it's perfectly normal," she said sweeping her arm towards the tents around them.

Sure enough, Beladnes could hear the sounds of people getting to know each other very well. From one tent near to them, they could make out gasping, panting and moaning of at least 4 different people. Beladnes looked in shock at Frida, who just shrugged and smiled "There's not much else to do out here, the Wizards went to check out the rift with the advisor."

Sister Adara stepped forward, and muttered tersely, "Bel, wards, now." Beladnes quickly began to pull materials from his pouch, crushing a ripe berry before smearing it across his hands. Adara turned to Frida, "what do you mean they went to check out the rift? They're actually going closer?"

"Yes?"

"But... that's not been approved" Adara spluttered, "Why on earth would they go closer?"

Frida shrugged, "I'm no expert on all this stuff, but the advisor assured us it was perfectly safe."

Adara turned to Beladne, seeming more alarmed now, "Wards, now, hurry up," before turning back to face Frida. Beladnes hurried up his final incantations as Adara pressed the guard "Frida, who is this advisor? Which tower are they from?"

Frida sighed heavily, an ecstatic smile across her face, "The Advisor? Oh she's not from the Towers. She didn't tell us her name, but that's fiiine," the last word dragged out uncomfortably.

Beladnes turned to Syria and Adara, his palms glowing with white light, before stepping forward and placing one hand on each of their foreheads. The white light intensified for a moment, and Beladnes pulled his hands back, leaving a faint glowing imprint on each of the others. He rubbed his palms together, and repeated the process on his own forehead.

Sister Adara took a deep breath and nodded appreciatively at him. "Perhaps we should meet your advisor Frida?" Frida sighed heavily again, "oh yes definitely, they know so much about this place, and they're very good at keeping Evil things away from the camp. They helped us beat back a swarm of fairies just three days ago.."

"Three days ago?" Syria jumped in, before turning to Beladnes. "Three days ago we were still getting reports, and they didn't mention any Advisor, or fairies." Beladnes shrugged, "you think they'd mention something like that."

The group stopped behind Frida, who stood facing a tall, elaborately patterned tent at the centre of the camp. "The captain's tent. Unless you need me I guess I should head back to the gate, just in case anything tries to get in?" Sister Adara growled back "Send someone to take your post at the gate soldier, nothing comes in or out, come back and wait here for us," Frida dutifully plodded towards one of the perimeter watchtowers.

"Ready to find out what's going on?" Syria asked. Beladnes lifted the tent door and stepped in.

***

The heat inside the tent was unbearable, as though a dozen small fires had been left burning, and the air was thick with the scent of sweat, and a perfume that tickled the nose and forced it's way to the back of the throat. All three of them struggled to suppress a cough as they entered and took in their surroundings. The first chamber was small, just a brief entryway with an overloaded weapons rack. Two men were cuddling on the floor at Beladne's feet, fully naked, sweating and oblivious to the small group who just entered, as they played with each other's hair and faces.

Beladnes and Syria took a step back, feeling the cold outer cover of the tent on their necks, as Adara kneeled down next to the men and clicked her fingers. Neither man reacted. She reached out, grabbing one of the men, with dark brown hair, and shaking him by the shoulder. The other man's arm wrapped around Adara's in a flash, and tugged her in towards them. She gasped and yelped slightly as she was pulled between the two of them, who immediately began clawing at her armour and muttering to her.

Adara seemed caught off guard for a moment, stunned by the sudden unexpected affection, before looking up at Beladnes and Syria, and cursing. She lifted her knee sharply, catching the more muscular of the two men in the ribs. He coughed sharply, releasing his grip for a moment. Syria threw herself clear of the other man, who turned and threw himself across his apparent lover, who was still winded on the floor. Beladnes looked away as he heard gasps of pleasure mixing with the gasping coughs of the winded guard.

Adara shot them both a look, and drew her hammer, looking towards the next door. Syria whispered to them both "ok, so now we know, don't touch them." Beladnes stepped through the small flap that separated the entryway from the rest of the tent, "that... might be easier said than done."

Syria and Adara followed him through, quickly seeing what he meant. A sea of naked bodies covered the floor of the next room. Cushions, blankets and clothing had been piled across the floor, forming a deep carpet on which a hundred carnal acts were being played out right before their eyes. People of every gender were playing with each other, teasing, and in a few cases, outright fucking, without a care in the world. Beladnes even noted a few half-elves among the sea of bodies, and even the odd tail of a Tiefling emerging from among the carpet of lustful creatures.

Beladnes winced slightly, as he felt the ward on his forehead heating up. It was working, some sort of magic was being repelled, but whatever it was it was low-level. Looking at the perhaps 30 people crowded into this small room, Beladnes muttered to the others "some sort of Aura effect is active, concen... concentrated here, but it likely spreads into the whole camp."

Neither of the other two answered. He turned to look at Syria, whose eyes were just sweeping across the scene before them. She seemed to notice Beladnes looking at her, and jumped slightly, "Oh right, right, um, Aura effect you said?"

Sister Adara composed herself as well, "that... that would make sense, it could be... it could be a natural effect of being this close to the rift, but, we should have felt something before our wizard here placed those wards on us, Syria?"

Syria was staring again, and didn't turn to look at them before answering "I mean, I don't think I felt anything, but I've got to admit it's hard to be completely objective when I'm looking at... well...this," Syria gestured meekly at the scene before them.

Beladnes interrupted, "Whatever the cause of it was, It's hot as balls in here, we shouldn't hang around any longer than we have to, even with these wards on, they do have limits. If it feels like it's burning your skin then it's about to expire, and the longer we stay in this aura, the sooner that'll happen.."

Sister Adara nodded "Perhaps the commander can explain the total collapse of discipline among his troops.," and she pointed at the one last walled compartment in the large tent, typically reserved as the private quarters for the senior officer, between them and the compartment was a dozen bodies in various stages of intercourse. "Beladne, any way you can help us get across there, without interrupting them?"

"Nothing proportionate, I don't want to go burning anyone, although if we take our time I could maybe move them a little bit."

Syria smirked, "Oh come on, this one's easy." She took a small step backwards, before leaping forwards, and grabbing one of the heavy wooden beams that held the tent up. She looked back over her shoulder, the tight leather cuirass making the movement look somewhat awkward as it tugged at her chest. "Try to keep up!," she chirped, as she lifted herself, hand over hand, along the beams towards the door.

"Not so fast!" Sister Adara hissed across the room, experimentally lifting herself off the ground before gasping and dropping herself. She turned to Beladne, "Don't let her go alone goddamnit, I'll make my way through to you, just give me a minute," she cursed as she grabbed one of the spears from the first compartment and started gingerly lifting and nudging the people between her and the commander's compartment.

Beladnes leapt upwards, inwardly thanking his light frame for being easy to lift. He followed cautiously along Syria's path, glancing down at the carpet of writhing bodies beneath him. He looked up as Syria dropped softly down a few paces ahead of him. She looked back and grinned "Not bad Wizard, didn't take you for the physical sort." Beladnes grinned back, "I wasn't always a wizard's apprentice," as he dropped sharply down, almost on top of Syria in the cramped quarters. "Ladies first?"

Syria pulled a dagger from an elaborate sheathe on her belt, nodded at Beladnes, and stepped through the curtain. Beladnes heard a gasp, and dashed through after her. The first thing he noticed was the burning sensation on his forehead, he winced in pain as the ward fought back whatever magic was in here. As Beladnes forced himself to open his eyes through the pain, he saw Syria doubled over clutching at her forehead, and a naked body on the floor beside her, it's skin sagging between protruding ribs, as if he had died of starvation.

Beladnes tried to scan the room through the sharp pain, grasping Syria's arm and pulling her to her feet. The space was small, 10ft x 15ft perhaps. The roof low, one beam running through the compartment, the corner post obscured behind a tall paper screen. One large camp bed occupied much of the space, with another body, face-down on the bed, it's emaciated legs spilling down onto the floor. A large chest stood at the end of the bed, and discarded clothes draped over what little furniture he could see. Beladnes heard the curious sound of splashing water at the back of the room, from behind the paper screen. He focused his will in the palm of his hand, conjuring a small blade of ice. He nudged Syria, and nodded towards the screen. Syria winced, obviously struggling with the pain as well.

They both began stalking towards the screen, weapons drawn, when Beladnes stumbled on a discarded candlestick. There was a sharp gasp of breath from beyond the screen, followed by more splashing, and a distinctly feminine voice pouring out in the otherwise silent room (Beladnes only now realising that the sound of the orgy outside had completely disappeared), "Oh thank fuck one of you little morsels found your way in here. Come around here please, I have something special for you!" Syria raised an eyebrow at Beladnes, they both paused for a moment, and the voice cursed quietly, muttering something about 'the fucking aura... goddamn disabling' for a moment before continuing to speak more clearly, as Beladnes felt the heat on his forehead dim slightly, "I know you Neeeeed someone to help you with something oh so badly, come around here and I'll make your wildest dreams come true... come on now little pet, all you need to do is clean something up for me pretty."

Beladnes grinned, he was pretty sure they'd found another one of these creatures, but they had the upper hand. It didn't know they were warded, he held one finger up to his lips, then motioned for Syria to wait here. Syria seemed startled as Beladnes quietly unbuttoned his shirt, and let it dangle from his waist... He quickly tied a rag around his head, covering the ward mark, before making a show of stepping heavily, unsteadily towards the screen, and the voice. He grinned briefly at Syria before letting his face drop, looking almost vacant, like those people he'd seen at the edges of the orgy outside. He stumbled around the screen, putting one arm up on it as if to support his weight, eyes lifting to see a cast iron bathtub, and... lying back in the foaming water, a woman's face with bright pink skin, and two twisted horns rising up behind her ears. Bright red hair swept down into the water, obscuring Beladnes' view of her chest.

She purred up at Beladnes, one hand now stroking the edge of the bathtub, "Well hello cute little boy, got bored of your friends out there did you?"

Beladnes bit his lip, and tried to act drunk, speaking breathlessly "I uh... captain? Need to see...the captain."

The pink-skinned woman lifted herself up out of the water a little bit, water dripping from her chin as she tilted her head in curiosity at Beladnes. He saw her eyes clearly taking in his bared chest and he returned the gesture. "Oh? You're quite a strong-willed one, huh? Needed to warn your captain about the big... bad... creatures in the camp?"

Beladnes nodded clumsily.

The woman laughed, "Well, perhaps we can go find him together, come and scrub these runes off, and I'll look after you until we find him... I can be... very comforting," she purred as one hand toyed with a nipple. The other hand tapped, perhaps impatiently, at some small marks scratched onto the bathtub's outer rim. Beladnes stumbled forward, just a step or two to make it seem like the magic was affecting him, before he collapsed onto his knees. The woman laughed, a soft, endearing laugh that made Beladnes' heart skip a beat. "Oh you poor thing, I bet you just want to start stroking yourself right here... don't mind me, it only takes one hand," she stared expectantly at Beladnes.

His mind raced, would she figure out he was warded, could Syria see him from here? He took a deep breath and reached down to his waist, realising he was already painfully hard. He stroked his cock slowly through his robes, and tried to focus on the reason for the whole deception, stammering out a question "Wh-"

The demon interrupted him "Gooood boy, doesn't that feel better?"

Beladnes nodded, before continuing, "Why, the ru-"

She interrupted him again, "Shhhhhhhh, stroke a little faster, it's ok."

Beladnes sped up slightly, not wanting to give the game away, "but... the runes... why... scru-"

"Ah ah ah," she spoke over him again. "Faster."

Beladnes grunted in frustration as his hand sped up, although he wasn't sure whether it was at the constant interruptions, or at not being able to stroke himself properly through his clothing. He took a deep breath and blurted out "Why do you want me to scrub the runes out!?" He doubled over, putting his head on the floor by the tub, partly to hide his face, partly to try and sell the act that he was struggling against her magic.

He heard her voice, much closer now, "Oh, you're Strooong little one. Soooo much fun. I'll make you a deal, you take your robes off, and I'll tell you why I want the runes removing, sound fair?"