The Last Library Ch. 05

Mera crossed her arms and tapped a finger on her chin. "Was it any better than before?"

He thought about it and finally replied, "Yes, but not by much."

They both stood in thought until Mera turned to him and held out her hand.

"Try to make my fingers longer like you did to your hand." Ashur shrugged and stepped toward her. He stopped when she twisted her palm to face him in an arresting gesture. Taking a few steps away from him, she told him, "Try it from there."

The big man looked at her quizzically. "I don't know that I can," he said.

"Ahh, but you don't know that you can't. Try treating the air between us as an extension of your arm or mine."

Lifting his own hand, he pushed the flow of energy to his fingertips where it stopped. His face took on a look of concentration and his body started to shake with the effort.

"Hold the Staff on your belt," Mera suggested. He reached down with his other hand and the moment his finger touched the short rod, the power jumped from his hand to hers. His opportunity to make any changes was brief as the Staff in his hand shot out to its full six-foot length. The end of the Staff impacted the base of the monument and, still being tied to his belt, shoved the big man sideways and off balance. After a bit of cursing and fumbling, he untied it and held it away, rubbing his side where the top end had tried to imbed itself.

"Fuck," he muttered. He glared at the Staff for a brief second before turning back to Mera. "Sorry," he started. "Let me try that agai..."

The blue woman's face held a strange sort of fascination as she held her hand up level with her head. The smallest two of her fingers had disappeared and the other three had melded into one grotesque digit.

"That is..." she trailed off, turning her palm one direction and then the other.

"Fuck, Mera! I'm sorry! Hang on a second!" He dropped the Staff and jumped forward to take her hand in his. A few seconds later, he released her restored extremity and she studied it while wiggling the fingers.

"I could actually feel my bones shrinking and melting together. That was definitely a first." Giving her hand one last shake, she extended it toward him once more. "Try again."

"Are you sure?" he asked with trepidation. At her nod, he picked up the Staff and repeated his attempt. This time the power bridged the few feet between them easily and her first and second fingers elongated to twice their length.

She grinned at him wickedly. "I'll have to have you do this the next time I feel like playing with myself. I bet I could reach all sorts of place now."

Ashur shook his head ruefully and let his power flow again. When he was done, he asked, "What was the point of that? Other than to fuel your fantasies."

She pointed at the stone. "Connect with the Library once more, but from a distance this time. Hopefully, it should be easier on you."

Gripping his Staff tighter, he tried once more to bond with the giant statue and everything it represented. Instead of the crushing flood of information, the visions that passed before him were steady and distinct. He saw the Auditorium, the house, the administration offices, and the Shelves again, however this time he was able to make out what was going on in each area. Eventually, he began to feel as though he could control where to watch.

Shifting his weight to one side or the other, he took control of the inner meanderings and directed it toward where he and Mera stood in the Hub. Looking down from around the same twelve-foot height as before, he swung the vision around the statue, finally able to see it from a better vantage point. He moved closer to the face of the female half and looked deep into it. The woman's features seemed to be a blend of Mera's and another woman. Circling the statue, he did the same for the man and was startled to see that it was his own face mixed with another's. He stared at the mingled visage for some time before refocusing on the two people below.

His own body stood stock still with a far-off stare, but the blue woman seemed to be looking right back at him. She waved and he heard her voice from two sources at once. It bewildered him momentarily until he realized that not only was he hearing her voice from his bodiless position, but from his physical ears as well.

"Today is all sorts of firsts," she mused. "I can't really see you up there, but I'm looking into your mind and seeing what you see. I did the same thing way back when, but since it was just me, I had no idea if there was anything visible. I can't see or sense you up there so it must just be the Library relaying the information to your brain. This is really interesting! Oh! Can you feel anything? Try to touch something!"

Feeling playful, he zipped his consciousness around behind her and tried to pinch her rear. Even though he felt like he wasn't in his body, he still had the sensation of his fingers contacting something. Mera jumped a bit, but the reaction was delayed as though she wasn't certain if she had actually felt anything.

"Huh!" she exclaimed! "I wonder if I could do the same!"

Suddenly her eyes took on the same glazed stare as his. Far away, he felt a brush on his own posterior, but, had he been more in his own body, it might have been mistaken for a puff of air across his skin. He looked around but could see nothing of her.

Wonderingly, he tried to will himself back into his body and the vision faded slowly, overlaying what his physical eyes were seeing much like looking at the overlaps. Once his vision was clear again, he shook his head and looked around. Mera was still standing immobile, but she soon blinked a few times and focused on him.

"That was more fun than I thought. It's so nice to have someone else around!" She laughed delightedly.

"I take it that you really haven't experimented with that before," he rumbled with a smile. She gazed up at the face of the male half and then back at Ashur.

"To be honest, there is only so much you can do when it's just you. This is something that Colphon and I never really had the need to use, so I didn't even know it was possible until after I was by myself. The first time it happened, I thought I was hallucinating. Once the novelty wore off, I only ever used it to look in on the overlaps and to make sure everything was alright. After a couple of decades, the need to move around and get out of the house more made me start going on patrols. It was nice to be surprised when I turned a corner. Granted the surprise wasn't worth it a few times and I got hurt."

She snickered a bit and reached with her right hand to rub her ribs on the left side.

"Not exactly my proudest moments, but it did get really boring when all I had to do was look around mentally. There were whole weeks that I never even left the house." She stopped for a moment and her face went slack. Ashur thought that she might have gone looking around again, but she shivered and her eyes came back into focus.

"Sorry, for a second I wondered if that might have contributed to my bout of insanity, but that was too long before." She shook herself and started to walk toward the benches surrounding the Hub. "You know, we might be able to take the day off. Why don't you get a bit of practice in and check the Shelves for visitors? If we don't have to go chase anybody home, we can head to the house and rest."

Mera took a seat near where they had been sitting so many months ago and pointed to the spot next to her. "You might want to lay down and save yourself some back ache."

Ashur took her advice and started to rest his head on one of the armrests before she stopped him. "No, go ahead and rest here," she said, patting her thighs. "I'm feeling a little lonely and would like the contact." With a nod of understanding, the soldier lay back on the bench and, resting his head on her legs. He shortened the Staff and reached out to the Library.

For several hours, he psychically wandered through the aisles and rooms of the massive building. He could feel his partner shift from time to time and even noticed when she left for a few moments, but his attention was on his work. Progress was slow at first, but, with practice, he was able to not only govern his direction, but the speed as well. By the end of the first hour, he was speeding up and down the aisles. Because of this, he almost missed the first overlap he came across.

He circled around the area where the Library and another world transected. The actual circumference was only about twenty feet across, but it was irregular and misshapen. From what he could see of the world on the other side, there wasn't much chance of anything living crossing over. Rivers of molten rock raced through his field of view and occasional bits of cooling stone arced into the Library proper.

Ashur started to worry about that until he heard Mera say, "Don't worry about those. The upkeep spells will treat them like detritus and remove them before they can do any damage." Indeed, he saw that those fragments vanished before they could contact the floor or, worse, the books and manuscripts themselves. Reassured, he moved toward the boundary of the overlap, intending to do some experimentation. Mera brought him up short, however.

"Don't bother," she said. "Not only will it not work, but it's really draining to try." Taking her at her word, he moved on and kept scanning.

By the end of the second hour, he had found one other intersection, but, like the first, there was little chance of guests. Where the first had been a roiling mass of heat and fire, this one was a lifeless planetoid. He was shocked when his mental hitchhiker informed him that what he was seeing was a moon. She told him that not only did it have no life, but that it also had no atmosphere to support any. He wondered what that meant and tried to puzzle it out.

Apparently, she was linked to him enough to hear his thoughts on the matter because she told him that she would find him a few books that would explain it. That brought up the question of just how deep she could hear.

"Just your surface thoughts and what you are seeing at the moment. Until we're both more comfortable with each other, that's about as far as the connection will go. Come on back. I think you found them all and, if not, the Library will let us know if anything slips through."

Ashur mentally nodded and made his way back to where his body was laying. He looked down at his friend and she smiled up at him. Her hand was lightly stroking his hair while the other rested on his chest. It was rather a pleasant view to the veteran and he took a few minutes to enjoy it. True companionship between the sexes was rare indeed in the military since most unmarried interactions happened in brothels or the camp follower's tents. Mera caught the emotion and smiled gently.

"I'm enjoying it too...even if I'm not that kind of working girl." He silently chortled at that and remembered a few of the more "energetic" nights they had spent together. Suddenly the image of her in a very low cut, high hemmed dress and corset with badly applied makeup popped up in front of his eyes. Hers went wide and her skin alternated purple and pink for a couple of seconds. Remembering how she had consternated him with her toilet antics, he deliberately focused on the bawdy picture and started to manipulate it.

His first inclination was to strip her completely, but he quickly changed direction and slowly raised the skirt of her image. Inch by inch, the fabric faded away, revealing her thighs which he quickly remembered to put garters on. When what was left of the skirt consisted of a few inches of imaginary silk, he looked past it to see her physical body. She was mock glaring at him and the purple suffusing her was deep and full.

"Stop that!" she called out to him. A grin was trying to make its way through her faux-glower and her eyes were starting to show pink, so he turned back to the mental striptease.

In his astral view, the picture of her spun around and put its imaginary hands on the puffy hips of the dress. Her head turned to look over her shoulder with a smoldering smile. Without the aid of her hands, the fasteners on her dress started to undo themselves one by one starting from the top. As more skin was exposed, he took the experience up a notch and impressed the beginnings of arousal upon her.

The real Mera gasped and he looked down to see her rubbing her thighs together. The plum hue was most definitely being overtaken by a bright fuchsia and her breathing was getting faster and deeper.

Returning to his fun, he imagined the corset falling away and the top of the dress crumpling down to her waist. Still facing away from him, she ran her hands up her sides and, covering her breasts with them, leisurely bent at the waist. The last of her dress dwindled away leaving only the garters and sheer black lace underwear.

"Ashur!" Mera was actively moaning now as he increased the heat in his construct's core. The scantily dressed fantasy turned and stroked her own breasts once before standing straight and placing her hands behind her in a naughty parade rest. Her chest pushed out and the nipples were hard. Fully immersed in his imaginings now, Ashur created licking and sucking sensations on them and other parts of her neck and skin that he knew were particularly sensitive. The woman in his mind groaned and the sound was echoed by the one below him.

"Oh, please," she begged. What for, he wasn't quite certain, but he knew what she liked and continued his teasing. Sensations of stroking and feather touches surrounded the woman in his mind and she writhed in tortured pleasure, her fingers traveling of their own accord to her sex. The heat that he pictured there was already a glow that covered her hips and stomach. Curious, he made it bigger and brighter. Mera's vocalizations grew when it did, so he knew that he was headed in the right direction.

He was about to increase it a bit more, but he felt himself jerked back into his body as it landed face first on the floor. Before he could recover, the now frantic woman was rolling him over and tearing at his clothes. Hers were already laying beside them and he rushed to help her. Once he was fully undressed, she pounced on him and, without any preamble, speared herself onto his already stiff cock. He had been so focused on teasing her that he hadn't realized just how worked up he had made himself.

Her nails bit deep into his shoulders as she rode him and she mashed her lips into his, frenetically kissing him with abandon. He grabbed her hips and ground his pelvis up into hers. She responded by gyrating on him, working her clit against his pubic bone and grunting into his mouth.

For several minutes they enjoyed their frenzied passion until Ashur decided to take it yet another step further. Even in his ardor, he held onto enough control to push his power into her body. Suddenly Mera found herself re-experiencing all of the touches, kisses, and strokes that her mental counterpart had been enduring.

"Nononononono...oh yes!" she cried out and came for the first time, her vagina spraying fluid that splashed up between them. Before she could come down, however, he directed more energy to her clitoris, making it just a little longer and she came again as the shuddering of her climax brought it into contact with him again and again.

This time she screamed.

She sat straight up in an effort to distance her sensitive nub from him and braced her hands on his thighs. Her body was wracked with spasms and her nails ripped into his skin. He could no longer hold onto her bouncing hips and he settled for grasping her by the waist. When she ultimately started to relax, he took away the extra sensations and length.

Mera nearly fell backward, but he jerked up enough to grab her by the ribs and pulled her down on top of him. Her head thumped down on his chest and her ragged breathing started to slow. Eventually, she weakly pushed up enough to look into his face.

"Never...never do that again," she gasped weakly before laying back down. For a minute, he thought she might have fallen asleep, but she pushed herself back to a near vertical position and looked down at him.

"Never do that again," she repeated.

"You already said that," he replied.

"Did I? Fuck." She snorted once and slapped him on the chest. "I guess that proves why. I think I orgasmed my brains out. What made you think of that?"

Still lying on his back, he shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. I wanted to get you back a little for teasing me with taking you to the toilet way back when. The prostitute bit gave me the start of an idea. From there..." He shrugged again.

"And the extra touches? That was just mean." She leaned on his chest and noticed shredded bits of skin under her nails. She jumped off of him and stared in horror at his legs. Several bleeding strips marked a multi-lane path down his thighs.

"I am so sorry! Let me go get the ethobucil and some water!" Blood was flowing freely from the wounds, but he sat up and grabbed her before she could take the first step toward the house.

"Hold up, Mera. I've got to do this at some point, so this is as good a time as any." He looked down at his wounded skin and concentrated. It only took a second or two before the scrapes closed up and the skin returned to being healthy and whole. "There," he remarked calmly, "all better."

His lover brushed her fingertips over the injured area and, realizing that he was still hard, let them trace up to his penis. It had started to soften but was reinvigorated at her touch.

"Well, not all..." she purred and it was his turn to gasp as she inhaled his cock into her mouth. She worked him in and out, tightening her lips as she drew back and pressing him to the roof of her mouth when she pushed down. Then he discovered that he wasn't the only one who could create sensations. Every pleasure center in his brain lit up all at once and he could feel the ecstasy she had experienced as she replayed the memory of it in his mind. Wave after wave of rapture crashed through him as he relived the rush of her orgasms.

He grabbed his lover's head and held it tight as his body curled up around her face and he exploded in her mouth. His muscles spasmed time and again as his body pumped its seed into her. Once he was done, he started to fall back, but Mera had other plans. Taking his mind firmly in hand, she repeated her memory again, but added the extra sensations that had overwhelmed her clit and altered them to the head of his cock. He roared into the air as another massive orgasm smashed him into insensibility.

When he opened his eyes, Mera was grinning down at him. A small trickle of semen or saliva dripped from the corner of her mouth and her tongue snaked out to clean it up.

"Want to play some more?" she smirked. She lay down next to him and he tried to turn his head to follow her, but it seemed like too much effort.

"Fine. You win," he snorted.

They lay like that for a while until the stone floor had sapped sufficient heat from their bodies to make getting up a more feasible option. Gathering their clothes, they made their way back to the house and fell onto the couch. Both were asleep in seconds.

***

"Ok, I see at least two bipeds and a big damn thing that is oozing a weird clear mucus from openings on its legs. I'm so glad I don't have to clean that."

Ashur opened his eyes and faced his companion. In a rare moment of fashion for her, she had opted to don trousers similar to his instead of her usual dress. Her blouse was covered by a vest that was also twin to the one he wore. He noticed that, since they were spending more time occupying each other's thoughts, her mannerism had changed slightly and wondered if his were as well.

*Just a little*, she said directly into his mind. *Most of it's in your speech patterns and the way you react to the Library. You're not as skittish when we get notifications anymore. You used to jump so high!* Her laughter and a memory of the first time he "heard" the Library speak to him leapt up before his mind's eye. It was the same ageless voice from his dream that was neither quite male nor female, but boomed in his mental ears nonetheless. At the time, he had been able to grasp what was happening after a second of quick reflection, however the unheralded announcement had startled the experienced soldier more than Mera's intrusion on his efforts with the Staff had almost six months prior.