TRC - Lord of the Glass Desert Ch. 19

On her breast, a soft and rounded version spider was decorated with the outline of a woman holding her hands over her head with wrists crossed.

"Pretty," said Kashka, "I didn't know you were an artist."

"I'm not, but I learned to draw out the things in my head when making runes. I suppose I got fairly decent at it."

The man whose tattoo he just removed clicked his tongue, "if anyone wants to copy that, it will be hard to make fine lines like in the middle there."

Saida spun around and ran over to Anika, presenting her breast for inspection. Anika raised an eyebrow and looked over at Kal, "It's pretty, but it looks a little... suggestive."

"It seemed to fit, but maybe that's because we've been together so much the last few days."

"You aren't lying?" asked the man next to him. "You've actually slept with her?"

"Yes, and if possible, I plan on doing so many more times before I leave. I don't know when I might be back this way. She may have found a mate by then, so I'm making memories when I can." He looked down at Kashka, "Except tonight. Someone else needs me more tonight."

"Kal! Did you actually make that leg shorter?!" Anika shrieked with indignation.

The mage just chuckled in response as the next man came up to have his Reaver's mark removed.

"How are you acting so friendly with them?" the man asked as Kal again drew the spell in the air to remove the ink.

"Why wouldn't I? The cat is my lover, and the spider is a friend who enjoys my company in bed. How would you expect me to act?"

"But... she's a spider."

"In fairness, I'm not interested in doing anything with her spider parts. But the human part of her is just that, human. I see no reason to change how I act toward her just because her body is different. She's still a woman, a fact I know intimately, and has many of the same needs."

The man stayed silent, lost in thought as Kal finished up and went on to the next.

---

Stripping off her clothes as soon as they entered the bedroom, Kashka crawled into bed as Kal finished undressing. The cat-girl lay facing away from him with her tail held out of the way and leg raised.

"You're expecting a lot if you want to make love on our sides and don't want me to fall asleep," the mage chuckled.

She looked back at him. "Do you mind using your spell? I'm not as interested in making love as just having you inside me."

After casting the rejuvenation spell, Kal slipped into bed behind her and guided his cock into her sex. After a few strokes, she put a hand on his hip to stop him.

"Just hold me, Kal."

He looked over their bond to see the earlier storm was still calm but still tinged with worry. He held back a laugh when he realized what worried her. "You think I'll be afraid of you for killing so many men? You should be more concerned I'll be jealous your count was higher than mine."

Kashka looked back, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. "That's not like you, Kal."

"Yeah, you're right. I was trying to make you feel better. You put down a lot of bad men last night. Bad men who would have slaughtered more innocent men and women. I don't feel remorse for killing Reavers and their ilk because I'm avenging those they murdered. I see it as saving those they would have killed. We saved a lot of lives last night, though they'll never know you saved them, and you'll never know who they were."

"I understand, but that's still a lot of death to deal with in one night."

"I know," he said, holding her tight.

------

The next few days were dedicated to cleaning up the encampment as the former servants mulled over what to do with their freedom. A surprising number chose to stay once Anika acquiesced to setting up a trading post.

Kal had heard of "Survivor's Guilt" but had not seen its effects firsthand. Many of those who chose to stay carried a strong fear of being judged or ostracised by the outside world for surviving. There were also several instances where a man just burst into tears for no apparent reason. He wondered why the former servants' grief seemed to be surfacing now when some of them had been captives for years. He didn't understand it, but the other men, especially Jagi's group, seemed to know what was going on in their heads and were often called on to talk to the former servants during one of these episodes.

Jagi and the men who followed him quickly proved themselves invaluable. By the evening of the first day, he had a line of men tromping between the ruins and the river to the south. The former servants collected anything valuable from the deceased Reavers, then tied the corpses to a pole by their hands and feet. Two more men then carried the Reaver south and tossed them into the river. The dead bodies attracted predators, and by the second morning, the water exploded into a froth as fish, large water-dwelling reptiles, and an assortment of other creatures fought over each new body. For their own safety, the men began unbinding the bandits and swinging them by their wrists and ankles before heaving them into the river.

Kal offered to lend some magical help, but Jagi refused. "The Reavers took these men's families, friends, livelihood, and freedom," he explained. "What arrives at the river may not be recognizable as the same Reaver they carried away."

Instead, he and Kashka set about disarming the traps on the road back to Lassedo since they would deal with those in Calfera's direction on the way there. The ape-women's skill with laying traps genuinely impressed him. Some were easy to spot, like the spiked pit traps. The Reavers maintained the road well enough that a stretch of leaves and debris covering a pit seemed very out of place. He and Kashka began to think the obvious traps were meant to instill a sense of complacency in their victims because the rest tended to be much more devious.

A particularly cunning trigger consisted of sticky threads almost as fine as Anika's silk hanging at head level. Kashka noticed the strands from her perch on the side of a nearby tree and pointed them out to Kal. Only the occasional bug caught in the threads would have been noticeable without the cat's sharp eyes. He tripped the trap with his staff, and an arc of poisoned needles sprayed out from a low bush beside the road. Two struck Kal in the leg and ankle despite his precautions, but he already had the cure poison rune working before touching the threads.

On the morning of the fourth day after the attack, Anika approached Kal and Kashka in the tent.

"I want to put the prince's suits back in the armory," she announced.

"Wouldn't it be best to have them available in case of an attack?" Kal asked. "Jagi or one of the others could wear it to defend the place."

The arachne shook her head. "I greatly appreciate Jagi and his men, but I just don't know them well enough to trust them with that kind of power. It would be too easy for one to turn on me. Without Ria and your staff, I doubt I would last long against either set of armor. I'd rather fight with blades, arrows, and my own strength."

Kal nodded. He knew she was strong from the days leading up to the attack but didn't have a good idea how strong until he saw the Reavers she left around the storehouse. When telling them about her part of the battle, she said the first guard she encountered spooked her. Panicked, she leapt at him, grabbing his arms with her pedipalps and head with her hands. Before he could shout the alarm, she ripped the Reaver's head from his shoulders and tossed it to the side. The popping and snapping of tendon and sinew wasn't silent, but it was still quieter than a man shouting. Seeing the method's effectiveness and relative silence, the rest of the Reavers she killed that night met a similar fate, and she only used her hairs as a distraction to get close enough to finish them off by hand.

"Can I study them if I come back this way?" he asked.

"I plan on arming the traps as we leave."

"Aww," he pouted. "Can I study them tonight, and then we'll return them tomorrow?"

"I guess, but it'll cost you," she said with a meaningful glance at his groin.

"Anything you desire," he said with a wide grin.

"Good, then I'm sending Saida over for you to take care of tonight."

The mage stood there and blinked in confusion, "What?"

"Jagi and a few of his men are willing to try a night with me, but that girl keeps them so drained they can't get it up when it's time to turn in at the end of the day."

"She's your servant. Tell her no," said Kashka.

"I hate to do that. She feels like she is helping."

Kashka shook her head. "That's beside the point. She pledged herself to you. If she's doing something you don't like, tell her to stop. If she doesn't stop when told, she may be goading you into punishing her."

"Why would she do that?"

"I don't know," said the cat, "it's just something Laika told me about. Some pleasure slaves intentionally act up to provoke their masters. She said some treat it like a game, some are aroused by the pain, some feel like they need to be punished periodically, and others just like seeing how far they can push their master. I didn't experience that side of slavery, so I'm just going off what she told me."

"If she's expecting a romp in the bedroom, sending her to me tonight may be a punishment," said Kal. "If I only have one night to study the lightning armor, I'll be doing that, not playing around with her."

"As long as you keep her occupied. These men have finally worked up the courage to try spending a night with me. I don't want any distractions."

"Fair enough. Even though I'm disappointed the silver armor is going back, I am looking forward to seeing this labyrinth."

"Don't get your hopes up. The catacombs hold most of the interesting engravings. The maze's walls are plain stone and enchanted to remove markings or etchings. The same enchantment doesn't care about cobwebs and dust, which is how the Reavers followed my trails."

"Sounds boring. What do you need me for?"

"I don't need you, but I thought you might like to come along. The armory is also said to hold a scrying pool the Ancients used for watching their enemies. I thought you might want to check in on your family."

"I still won't be able to touch or hold them. I don't know if that would be any better than visiting them on the astral plane, but it would be nice to see everyone without its grayness."

"Grayness?" the arachne asked, confused.

"I can't properly explain it. I'd have to take you there. Also, if you want me to come so I can see my family, I ask that we arrive there at night. They are on the other side of the world and will be asleep if we use the pool during the day."

"How do you think the Reavers got into the armory when you couldn't?" Kashka asked Anika.

"Jagi said two servants went down with Tavik when he retrieved the armor and didn't come back," Anika explained. "The traps on the armory's doors were the highest quality I've seen, and I think they were magical as well. Tavik had expendable men he could throw at the problem. I didn't. I couldn't afford to make a mistake trying to open it, so I explored elsewhere and mostly forgot about it. Now that the armory is open, I should be able to figure out how the traps work and re-arm them."

"Tomorrow night then?" asked Kal.

"Tomorrow night."

"Warn Saida that I will be instructing her on being a proper servant to her mistress before you send her over," said the cat-girl.

Anika glanced between her and the mage. "Considering how you two act towards each other, I'm not sure if that's a good thing."

------

"Just what exactly did you mean yesterday when you said you weren't sure if it was a good thing for me to work with Saida?" Kashka asked as they descended the steps into the temple depths. The top of the stairs was across the breezeway from Anika's room and took a shallow, spiraling path to the bottom. The outer wall had a thin trough at about waist height that ran the descent's entire length. Anika explained that the Ancients used the channel to transport corpses to the catacombs after being blessed by the high priest. The departed's litter would have two small stone wheels mounted on the crosspieces that fit into the trough while the mourners carried the other side. Instead of funeral litters, Anika and Kal carried satchels slung over their shoulders containing the princes' armor while Kashka held Kal's staff.

"You and Kal's relationship doesn't come across as very 'master and servant.'" the arachne replied. "Even Jagi noted that you two seem to be on equal footing with each other, and claiming you are his servant seems like more of an act."

"Don't get upset. You should take that as a compliment," Kal told the cat-girl.

Kashka grunted with annoyance as they continued downward.

"So, how did things go last night?" Kal asked.

Anika's face took on a dreamy expression. "Wonderful, I never even imagined what having three men at once would be like. It was so much better that I didn't have to bite them. Although I did find out by accident that if I barely scratch a man with my fangs, they can stay hard a lot longer without going lust crazy. What about Saida? She was a happy gooey mess when she came back this morning."

"Ask Kashka. She spent the whole night 'training' Saida. They only involved me when they needed my cock for a particular lesson. Otherwise, they left me in peace to examine the armor. However, I did have some fun with her before sending her back."

The cat grinned up at the spider. "The girl was already desperate to fuck Kal when she first arrived. Not just because she's a little minx, but she wanted to thank him for her tattoo. By the time I got done with her, she was drooling for his cock. Then she had to wait until he woke up only to hope he would do something with her. You would have thought she died and went to heaven when I gave her my spot for Kal and I's usual morning fun."

"Is that why the other two girls were mad?"

Kashka nodded as Kal chuckled and said, "I warned them about hearing a lot of sex. You were all there as witnesses, so they can't say I didn't."

The temperature dropped significantly by the time they reached the large room at the base of the steps. The air remained as moist as above ground but took on a musty odor that grew stronger as they descended. The chamber at the bottom appeared to be where Anika collected most of her information about the ruin's builders. Engravings of grand battles, religious rituals, pilgrimages, and royal marriages covered the upper walls, while more mundane events were inscribed on the lower portion.

The princes whose armor they carried appeared to be quite popular or just thought very highly of themselves. One depiction had the silver-clad prince pleasuring no less than six women at once with tongue, fingers, prick, and even toes. He sported a cock so long the woman straddling him stayed standing as they fucked. To one side of the one-man orgy stood a line of maidens anxiously awaiting their turn. On the other side, women walked away with large bellies. Further down, the women leaving lost their large bellies and carried baby boys sporting comically large genitalia.

Anika showed them around, illuminating the inscriptions with her mother's locket. "The passing of the silver prince heralded the downfall of the Ancients," she explained. "The brass prince took the throne but was not as beloved by the people or the gods and quickly fell into disfavor. He maintained rule by force for a short time but soon found it impossible without the people's support. In a final attempt to regain the gods' favor and save his people, he proclaimed all the faults and sins of his people were his to bear. He placed his armor in the vault with his brother's before publicly sacrificing himself to the gods. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough, and without strong leadership, the civilization eventually collapsed.

"The saddest part is that the silver prince's passing the Ancient's downfall had nothing to do with the favor or disfavor of the gods. The prince's death coincided with the outbreak of a disease that destroyed their primary crop, leaving hundreds or even thousands to starve to death. Death brought rats, and rats brought more disease. Inscriptions on clay tablets and jars in the catacombs tell of the disease starting far to the north well before the silver prince died."

"You mentioned the two princes. What about the king you spoke of with the gold armor?" Kal asked.

"Unlike the princes, who were just seen as mighty men, their father was revered as a god. Supposedly, his tomb is at the end of the labyrinth, which, as I said, I haven't found yet. He passed away quite a while before the silver prince. As I said, they revered him as a god and still considered him the king."

"But you found the princes' armory?"

Anika nodded, "If I hadn't, your fight with Tavik wouldn't have been very exciting. Speaking of which, how is Ria doing?"

"Getting cooler each day, but I'm still afraid to summon her until she is back to normal."

"I'm sure she'll be fine, Kal."

"Bags of holding were made with ancient Fae magic that makes them nearly indestructible. In that sense, I'm not worried, but what if I summon her and she's in intense pain. Or even worse, what if she doesn't know me."

"Why wouldn't she know you?"

Kal sighed. "Now that I'm thinking about it, this will probably sound foolish. Kithana, a Fae sprite I know, said that instead of dying, Fae reset themselves. They erase all memories of their former life and start over again from scratch."

"That sounds a lot like dying, even if the body stays alive," the spider commented.

"It does, but Ria's form is patterned after a Fae sprite, and in her current state, I keep worrying the lightning bolt reset her somehow."

"But she's not even a Fae," Kashka pointed out.

"I know. As I said, it's foolish. But I love her and can't help but worry. Let's go see this labyrinth."

Anika warned Kal the previous day not to get his hopes up. Unfortunately, her warning was well deserved. Anika occasionally explained a particularly interesting trap or pointed out where she nearly met her demise, despite her caution. Otherwise, the winding path offered nothing exciting until they reached an open doorway.

The outer face of the doors matched the surrounding rock, and Anika mentioned that the doors were invisible when closed. She only found them by noticing a few chisel marks the stonemasons left near the ceiling, far out of sight for a regular human.

The arachne drew Kal and Kashka's attention to the faint trails she left when traversing the tunnel's walls and roof. Though the tiny bits of silk her feet left were invisible by themselves, the dust and mold in the moist air stuck to the fine threads turning them into an easy-to-follow path if you knew what to look for.

A short hallway led to a second set of bronze doors left slightly ajar. Three skeletons with bits of desiccated flesh still hanging from their bones lay in the hallway surrounded by black, dried-up puddles from the bodies' decay. Two wore the torn and shabby clothes of the servants, while the other wore one of the enhancing belts marking him as a Reaver.

"These were the doors I couldn't figure out," she said, extending a foreleg to push the door open enough for them to enter.

The arachne shrieked and jerked backward, "Owww!"

Placing his hand on the leg closest to him, Kal quickly healed her. "What happened?"

"It shocked me! It didn't do that before!"

"That confirms there is magic protecting these doors. It's likely a final defense against those with the skill to defeat the physical traps.

If I come back this way, I want to examine how they enchanted this. Prentas could use lightning and magnetism beyond the offensive bolts like Tavik's. But Kithana has been tight-lipped about how he did it. I think if I can prove I'm making my own way down that path, she will be a little freer with his knowledge."