TRC - Lord of the Glass Desert Ch. 10

Another thought flickered across her mind. If Perra died, she would be free of her oath.

The butcher yelled again behind her as stone began growing up his other leg. Gritting her teeth, Elta opened herself to the Goddess's power, trying to pull more of it into the healing spell.

---

With the carpet up in its couch configuration, Kal, Kashka, and Laika discussed which of the wealthy travelers would ask for a room in his tent tonight.

They were expecting Turam to call a stop for the night at any moment when Kal sat straight up, his eyes darting around, searching for danger.

"Ria, I need my staff and give Kashka her gear," he said, jumping out of the litter and scanning the surrounding darkness for threats.

"What is it? What's wrong?" asked the cat-girl, fastening her belt and throwing her cloak over her shoulders before joining him out on the sands. Laika laid flat in the contour of the carpet. In times of danger, she was supposed to run for the cart with the unused pleasure slaves where Turam's guards would protect her. As yet, no threat had materialized, so she was trying to make herself as unnoticeable as possible.

The feeling of being attacked vanished almost as quickly as it came. "Something's wrong," said Kal with a final look around, "but not here. Something happened back home, and it was big enough to reach me on the other side of the world." He impatiently pulled Laika by the wrist into a sitting position and hopped onto the carpet. "Ria, store the staff and get out here," he ordered.

"What's going on?" asked the sprite as soon as she appeared.

"Something big is going on back home."

Ria's hands came up, covering her mouth, "Oh, no."

"Exactly. I'm going to contact Perra, you know what to do. Kashka, I will look like I'm asleep, but you won't be able to wake me. Protect my body while I'm gone."

Daggers flashed in the cat-girl's hands, "With my life, Master."

"Laika, you're dismissed. For now, return to the slave's cart."

"But what's—"

"Now, Laika," he snapped.

"Yes, Master," replied the pleasure slave coolly before hopping off the carpet and collecting her clothes. Jogging toward the front of the caravan, she wondered why she felt so upset Kal sent her away.

Settling into the magic carpet's contoured seat, Kal drew a spell in the air in front of him, then slumped to one side the moment it activated.

---

He could tell something was wrong as soon as he appeared on the astral plane. Perra's mind shone like a beacon to him from their pendant-enhanced bond, only dulling while she slept. Now she was so faint he could barely sense her.

Worried, Kal formed the farmhouse around him as an anchor point and sent his mind across the gray void of the astral plane at the speed of thought.

---

Tears streamed down Elta's face. This was a battle of time, and the Goddess's power was losing. She had seen it too many times during her time as an initiate and acolyte. Mother's power sometimes just wasn't enough.

As one hand held the spell over the dying woman, the other brushed the hair from Perra's forehead. Touching the woman's skin, she felt another presence.

"Kal?" she said out loud in surprise.

Kuto looked around, searching for the mage, as did a few others in the growing crowd. The expression on her face was both hopeful and terrified.

Elta ignored them. "Kal, if you're with Perra, I can't save her without your help. I can't focus magic on her wounds. I'm healing everything at once, and it's too slow!" she shouted in desperate hope it would help him hear her through his connection with the injured woman.

"No!" the cleric shrieked as Kal's presence vanished, only to return seconds later even stronger. The gathered townsfolk gasped and stared at her, as did Kuto.

"Use eyes..." said Kal's voice in her head as the world seemed to tilt sideways for a moment. Reining in her amazement at how Kal could see magic, Elta immediately noticed some of the energy cascading off her healing spell was escaping into the surrounding air and onto the ground from how she was holding it. She quickly moved the magic circle around to the front of Perra's chest but didn't think that would make enough of a difference.

"Two... shrink... focus..." came strained words from the mage along with an image of a blue-skinned ogre holding two healing spells at once.

"I can't stop touching her, or I will lose you," said the cleric.

"Connected... you... not her..."

Taking a deep breath, she lifted her hand from Perra's forehead, and Kal's presence stayed with her. Holding out her other hand, she attempted to form a second healing circle, but the spell sputtered and failed, nearly taking the functioning one with it. When that didn't work, she attempted to shrink the spell, but it stubbornly remained the same size. Now that she could see the flows of magic, she tried directing them toward the gashes left by Kuto's claws, but failed yet again. Tears ran down her cheeks as Perra inched closer and closer to death.

She had seen people die before, even a few in this town. Why did the thought of Perra dying fill her with such dread? The answer came quickly: Perra truly cared about her. The woman had been her backbone when dealing with her intense sexual urges. She constantly reminded Elta that she was not broken or damaged and propped her up when life got complicated. Despite the oath Perra forced her to take, the woman had somehow become Elta's closest friend. The idea that she might die terrified the cleric.

What would she give to see Perra live?

A quiet voice whispered in her ear, "Do it."

Elta's healing spell flickered out, and she leaned over the dying woman, shouting, "Use my magic! Use my body! Just don't let Perra die!"

She could sense his surprise and doubt, but also his understanding that this might be their only hope.

"Give freely."

"Yes! Yes! I give myself to you!" she called out. A moment later, she felt something she couldn't fully describe or understand snap into place between her and the mage on the other side of the world. In the same moment, she also felt her conduit with the Goddess weaken until it nearly disappeared before quickly returning to its former strength.

Worry. Fear. Love. Despair. Determination. Kal's thoughts filled her mind. Holding both hands out, she drew two healing spells in the air in front of her side by side, matching the movements of one hand with the other exactly. Rolling Perra onto her back with her elbows, Elta held both spells over the woman's torso and watched as Kal went to work pushing the magic toward the gashes nearest her heart. What would have taken minutes to heal now only took seconds as the magic from both spells flowed directly into the wound.

Elta could feel Kal's frustration at the effort of using his abilities across the astral plane and through her. His thoughts made her think the energy's motion seemed sluggish compared to his idea of normal as it moved over to the other side of her chest, where Kuto's claws punctured Perra's lung. With the four most life-threatening wounds taken care of, the cleric wanted to relax, but Kal wasn't done yet. Determined to see Perra fully healed, he worked through the exhaustion Elta felt rising within him. His tiredness faded as she noticed other minds touching hers, siphoning off his fatigue and taking it upon themselves. Bea sat with Adalena in their cocoon home to the north. Aradelle retreated to her lower chamber and let her avatar fall apart to focus on helping Perra and Kal however she could. Gerda was only a few feet below them, holding the butcher in place. She could even feel Bas, Kal's other golem woman living far to the east, trying to assist the mage's efforts, though her distance lessened what help she could offer.

The only woman Elta couldn't feel was Kuto. A fleeting thought from Kal told her Kuto's guilt for harming Perra was threatening to overwhelm her. He blocked the harpy from him and the rest in fear she might distract them from saving Perra.

As the last wound in Perra's stomach closed, Kal's endurance ran out. Leaving some hasty instructions with Elta, he retreated to the farmhouse on the astral plane.

"He's gone," said Kuto as Elta finished healing up Perra's bruises. "Your eyes are back to normal."

"Normal?" she asked. The last of the bruises finally faded, and Elta released the spells. The healing magic's disappearance was accompanied by her conduit with the Goddess slamming closed as the thoughts from Kal's other women became louder. The cleric knew this would happen but hoped the Goddess would forgive her acceptance of the mage. At least she allowed Elta to keep her casting ability long enough to save Perra. She could break down and cry about it in a corner later. There were still matters to be taken care of now.

"They glowed blue like his when he was with you." The harpy's face fell, and Elta could feel the strong sense of guilt Kal brought up earlier, along with fear of Perra and Kal's rejection for what she did. "He didn't say goodbye," she mumbled.

The cleric was startled by the news about her eyes, but it made sense of the villagers' reactions when Kal returned the second time. "With Perra out of danger, he couldn't hold on any longer," she explained. "He didn't even get to say a proper goodbye to me."

Elta affixed the harpy with a stern stare, "But he did tell me what to do with you. Your penance for hurting Perra will be six lashes, one for each claw, across the bottom with a stiff belt tomorrow afternoon at the town stocks." Elta didn't agree with punishing the harpy over what was essentially Perra's fault for throwing herself in front of the bird-woman, but took a little bit of comfort that Kal didn't like it either. The punishment's sole purpose was to help Kuto deal with her guilt and keep it from consuming her. Elta was also none too happy he tapped her to administer the lashes. The mage felt Perra should be the one to handle Kuto's punishment as it would mean more to the harpy, but the woman was going to be bedridden as she recuperated from blood loss.

To the surrounding crowd, the cleric called out, "Lady Perra will need a wet nurse for a week or two as she recovers. Tolerance of monster girls is necessary as they will be closely guarding her until she is back on her feet. Those who are not currently breastfeeding and wish to help, come see me later. I have spells to make you start producing milk." She knew two women in town were wet nurses as they came to see her every few weeks but didn't know their feelings about having harpies and dog-girls coming and going.

Elta turned to the butcher, "You could have just left. Instead, you raised a hand to Lady Perra and assured your own death."

The man's eyes nearly fell out of his head, "Death?! The mage's whore is still alive! Besides, the bird is the one who nearly killed her, not me."

"This isn't how we do things in Telsin, Revered Mother," said Tanner, stepping out from the crowd. "And he is right. The harpy nearly killed Lady Perra, not him."

"No. Perra saved him from being ripped to pieces in front of the entire town and undoing our work at the Inn earlier. Kuto is Kal and Perra's lover. She would rather fly into a guard's spear than hurt her. But none of that matters anyway. Telsin has its rules, but so does Kal's family. This man raised a hand against one of Kal's women. Now he will pay the price." Looking down at the ground, she said, "Take him away."

The butcher started screaming as his body began phasing through the rock encasing his legs and sinking into the ground below. "Don't do this! I have a wife and a child!"

"Your family will be taken care of. Your child will not hunger from lacking a father," said the cleric. The coldness in Elta's voice shocked Baret so much he stopped yelling and stared at her as his head disappeared into the dirt below.

Elta checked on Perra again. She was pale and breathing quickly, both signs of blood loss, but appeared to be stable.

Sighing with relief, she turned to the harpy, "Kuto, Kal wants me to dreamwalk with him so we can talk. Bren will take Perra and me to the Inn. Guard us and let no one but him, Kahrin, Jurien, or Nina touch either of us until I get back." Lying on the ground next to Perra's unconscious form, Elta closed her eyes and answered the mage's summons.

---

Appearing in front of Kal and Perra's farmhouse, Elta took a moment to get her bearings before turning and seeing the mage standing next to the porch steps. Her cleric's robes faded away as she strode toward him, leaving her naked.

Kal smirked as the nude blonde approached, but Elta could see a sadness in his eyes as she got closer.

She stopped in front of him, "Make love to me, Kal. Make it worth what I gave up. I know we can't properly feel pleasure on this plane, but I need this. I need to know that without the Goddess and without my magic, I'm taken care of and loved."

Instead of answering, Kal leaned over and took her face in his hands before kissing her. Their lips touched, and images filled her mind.

Kal looked down on her naked body as she sucked his cock, her eyes smiling back up at him. The scene switched to her, begging him to go faster and harder as he took her from behind. Elta laid on her back as he again slammed into her hard enough to rock the bed, though her face was blocked by Perra's bottom, and she could see her own tongue spearing into the other woman's sex even as her back arched from an intense orgasm. In another image, he looked up at her as she carefully sat down on his lubed prick and savored the feeling of his cock slipping through the tight ring of her sphincter. Leaning back, she started rubbing her clit as her ass slid up and down his cock.

The scenes switched tone. In one, he woke up to see her head of golden hair between him and Perra in their bed. In another, she and Perra cooked a large meal in the farmhouse's kitchen with various foods not customary at a human's dinner table. In the last, Kal watched as Elta held a blonde-haired little girl to her breast while she chatted with a very pregnant Perra. Behind them, her staff rested in the corner near the kitchen fireplace, still in its current, spent form.

Tears ran down her face as they parted. "That was beautiful," she said quietly.

"But that isn't who you are," said Kal.

"No, but now that I'm bonded to you, it may as well be. There are worse ways to grow old." The sadness in her sigh was almost tangible, "But I will truly miss the feel of the Goddess's power running through me."

"And that's why I have to say no, Elta. If we consummate this bond, then what I showed you is just one of the futures I imagined for you. Well... the last part was, the first few have been in my head ever since you came back to Telsin."

"No? You're telling me no after I gave up my magic to save Perra?!"

"Yes, I am, and you know from what I showed you, it's not because I don't want you. Elta, I'm releasing you from your bond."

"You don't want me?" the words escaped her mouth before her mind grasped what the mage was implying. A moment later, his lips were again pressing against hers as scene after scene of them making mad, passionate love in every way conceivable and with several different other women flickered through her head.

"Still think I don't want you?" Kal asked.

"If I say yes, will you do that again?" she replied, bringing a hand up and tugging her nipple only to be disappointed by the lack of pleasure from her breast. The astral plane sucked.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't," came a female voice from inside the house. The door opened, and out walked a woman Kal felt he should recognize but couldn't place where he had seen her. Or maybe he hadn't seen her and her presence just felt familiar. The stranger was all but forgotten as she pulled Perra out of the house behind her. "I found this one wandering the border between this world and the next. I convinced her a couple of people were trying very hard to save her and to not cross over quite yet."

"It's not like you had to twist my arm or something," said Perra, pulling her hand away and walking down the porch steps.

"I worked hard to keep you alive. I didn't need you galavanting on to the next life after putting in all that effort."

"You worked hard?" said Kal, incredulous that this odd woman was taking credit for saving Perra's life.

"Who do you think maintained your cleric's connection with the Goddess after you two bonded? If not for me, Elta's magic would have disappeared, and your friend would be on her way to whatever heaven she believes in."

Perra froze in her tracks, "You two bonded?" Without waiting for an answer, she squealed with happiness and ran over to Elta, throwing her arms around the still-naked woman. Pulling back, she looked down at the cleric's body, "I hope you didn't do anything together. Sex isn't very enjoyable here."

"No, and sadly we won't be," sighed Kal. "I'm releasing her from her bond."

Perra spun around, her eyes wide, "Why?"

"So she can return to being a cleric," said the unknown woman, "and I'm here to make sure her connection with the Goddess returns or to forge a new one if it doesn't."

Perra looked back at the cleric, "Saving me cost you your magic?"

Elta nodded, "I was settling my mind into the idea of living with you and Kal, but he told me no. Then you two showed up. I guess the Goddess isn't done with me yet."

"And she won't be for some time," said the woman, "but your obsession with that man is hurting you, and the damage worsens the longer it goes on. Once you have your magic back, I'm going to take what I discovered to the Goddess and see what we can do to help."

"You're one of the Goddess's Agents," said Elta.

"I am."

"Why do I feel like we've met before?" she asked.

"We have, in a way. I was the one who whispered in your ear before you accepted the mage, and I've been watching over you since you moved back to this little hamlet. Unfortunately, I can't tell you more, and I'm afraid your memories of me will fade like waking from a dream once you leave here. But I did want to see you three united after all the effort to save her," she said, pointing at Perra.

"Kal, release her from your bond and do it quickly. Your ability to maintain this space is fading," she said, drawing everyone's attention to the porch railing. As they watched, the wood's outline frayed and blurred before snapping back into place.

Kal turned to Elta, "This feels wrong, but I know it's necessary."

"Wait," said Perra. Stepping up to the cleric, she pulled Elta into a soft and loving kiss while projecting how much she had come to care for her former adversary. Elta, in turn, showed Perra her feelings moments before accepting the bond with Kal. Breaking the kiss, Perra rested her forehead against Elta's. "After today, bonded or not, you're family." Stepping away from the cleric, she nodded to Kal.

"I've never done this. I won't hurt her, will I?" he asked the nameless woman.

"I hope not, but these types of bonds are exceedingly rare. I simply don't know," she replied. "Now hurry, you don't have long."

Closing his eyes, Kal remembered the feeling each time a bond formed between him and one of his women. He then followed that feeling back to Elta until he felt he had a grasp on the connection between them. Opening his eyes, he said, "I'm sorry," before bringing a mental blade down and severing their bond.

Tears sprang to the cleric's eyes as Kal's, Perra's, and the other women's presences vanished from her mind. They were quickly replaced by the familiar warm glow of the Goddess's power touching her.

"Thank you, Kal," she said. Turning to Perra, her robes formed around her once again. "It's time for us to go home."

Kal stepped over and kissed Perra soundly, "I love you, and I'll contact you once I'm rested. I found out something important while crossing the desert you should know about."