TRC - Lord of the Glass Desert Ch. 26

The katame knelt next to him and took a shuddering breath. At a glance, Kal could see the lust from his close proximity raging just below her nervousness. Kairi reached out and placed her hands on Mika's leg.

Immediately he could see something wrong. Kal blinked, and his eyes shone blue as he stared at the one-eyed woman's hands. Tendrils of magic reached out in random directions like lightning fanning across the sky, searching for places needing repair. Upon discovering damaged tissue, the connection back to her hand brightened until the area healed, then continued along in its lightning-like path. The method was extremely wasteful and even missed spots in need of healing.

"Stop, Kairi," he said. The herbalist drew back as if burned. "I want you to try drawing a spell. Push your healing power into the tip of your finger and imagine leaving a tiny trace of it behind as you move your hand," Kal explained.

"But I'm no priest," she protested.

"I'm not expecting you to draw upon divine power. I just want to help you use your natural magic more efficiently and effectively. This rune will help you do that."

"What if I draw it wrong?" she asked, watching with apprehension as the mage traced a circular rune in the air.

"Then the spell fails and wastes the power you put into it," Kal replied, pushing the rune over in front of her and letting it hang in the air. "Trace that three times," he instructed, "you will need a solid image of the rune in your head to hold it together as you draw, or the spell will fade. Go on."

Mika chuckled, "I bet you weren't expecting to learn proper magic when Oba sent you here."

The katame spared the cat a glance and shook her head before making her first attempt at the healing rune. Kal offered gentle direction, but after a handful of minutes and a few dozen attempts, she still hadn't maintained the spell long enough to complete it.

"She's distracted, mage," said Mika. "She can't focus her mind when her body wants you."

"I'm sorry. I'll leave," Kairi whimpered.

"No, you need to stay. I will be done with Mika soon, then you need to take over so I can fetch and tend to the next woman."

"Then you will need to take care of her lust first," the cat told him.

The katame blushed bright red and closed her eye in shame before whispering, "Please."

"Do you mind, Mika?" Kal asked.

"She's been trying so hard to control herself and be a good student. I think she's earned something in return."

"I mostly agree with Mika, but you still haven't completed the rune," he told Kairi, "and I won't give you what you want until you do." Knee-walking backward to make room, he used the strength rune to move the one-eyed woman in front of him. "I prefer to go slower and get to know the women I'm with a little before doing this. I hope you don't mind."

Kairi leaned over the bed, shaking her head vigorously. Mika ran her fingers through the nervous woman's hair as Kal undid his belt and fished his half-hard cock out of his trousers. After tugging her kimono from beneath her knees, Kal flipped it onto her back. The woman's juices soaked her inner thighs, and the scent of her arousal quickly brought him to full hardness.

Kal took a few moments to caress and admire the katame's rear, spreading her cheeks to see her rosebud and the glistening lips of her sex as she moaned with desire and embarrassment. Swiping two fingers from her clit to her entrance, the mage coated them with Kairi's juices before popping them in his mouth and humming in appreciation. After savoring the woman's taste, he collected more of her juices on the head of his cock and began slowly pressing into her pussy. Looking down, he grinned as the head of his prick disappeared inside her sex, growing slightly to best fit her body.

The one-eyed woman gently bit at Mika's belly, and her hands twisted the bedsheets as pleasure coursed through her. The feline woman continued stroking Kairi's hair while cooing encouragement at the katame and saying how lucky she was to find a good, strong man like the doctor to be her child's father.

Kal wondered briefly about her calling him a doctor but quickly pushed the thought aside as the exquisite heat of Kairi's sex enveloped his cock. He took a dozen or so long strokes, grinding against her pussy each time he buried himself inside the woman, then pulled her up off the bed. His hand dove into her kimono and roughly grabbed her breast as his thrusts slowed and then stopped.

Holding a hand out, he drew the healing rune in front of her. "Trace it. Each time you improve, you get more of this," he said, pulling out and then pushing back into the depths of her pussy. "Do worse, and I stop moving."

Kairi turned and looked at him, her eye's large iris widening in surprise. "Really?"

"Yes," he said, lifting her hand to the rune by the wrist.

---

In the time it took Kairi to successfully draw the healing rune, Kal could have been completely done with Mika, but speed wasn't the purpose of this exercise. The mage had her continue tracing the healing rune once she could do it perfectly three times in a row, but he sped up his thrusts each time, forcing her to ignore the increasing pleasure. As Kairi approached her climax, Kal had her trace one more healing rune, but this time on Mika's belly.

"Now, focus your magic in your hand," he whispered in her ear while continuing to drive his cock into the one-eye's sex. "Then, when you start to come, push all of it into the rune. Let the energy inside you surge up and into the healing spell."

"Yes, yes, yes, YES!" Kairi's body trembled with the first quivers of her climax as the healing spell beneath her hand lit up bright enough to make Mika and Kal avert their eyes. The light faded before the katame's orgasm released her, but Kal could see the magic still at work fixing the damage to Mika's lungs. The effect appeared to last much longer than usual as the rune continued to glow faintly beneath Kairi's hand.

Mika continued running her fingers through the recovering one-eye's hair while looking up at Kal. "You didn't finish."

The mage's eyes faded back to their normal brown as the healing magic spread out evenly over the feline's body, telling him its work was done. "I seem to have discovered something unexpected," he answered, "and if Kairi here doesn't mind doing that a few more times, I'd like to explore what just happened."

The cat looked down at the one-eye. "Do you think you can handle doing this a few more times?"

Kairi smiled back. "Absolutely."

------

"How are things going? " asked Kashka as she bent down to check on Kairi. The katame lay naked next to the bed of Kal's latest patient, a peaceful smile on her face as cum leaked from her sex to the carpet below.

"Good, although my assistant appears to be done for the time being. We got a lot further than I could have done alone."

"What's the deal with her? Aside from all the sex, I could tell something about her piqued your curiosity."

"Miyaki said sex was power to the wife of Kuji's lord, and it tripped a memory of something Ikuno told me shortly after we bonded. There is enough power in sex that there used to be something called eromancers who performed magic using sex acts."

"You think this one is an eromancer?"

"She damn well could be," answered the kappa laying on the bed. "They came in here and stripped me naked, he did anyway since Kairi was already about dead on her feet, then drew a thing on my stomach. Then he bent her over and gave her some of that sweet cock of his until she came off. When she did, Kairi put her hand on my belly and healed me!" said the turtle woman, ending with an overly excited shout.

Kashka gave Kal an incredulous look. "She healed her?"

"My cure disease rune, but Kairi's power. I was trying to use some positive reinforcement to help her learn the healing rune at first. She could use magic, but it was raw and lacked direction. The healing rune will help her use less magic to achieve the same result. However, I took things a little further than originally planned and had her heal Mika just as she came. Kairi's orgasm amplified the power of the spell. Not only did she completely heal Mika, but she still had magic to spare.

"After we brought the next woman in, I drew out the cure disease spell on her stomach, and we did it again, but this time I just had her power the rune. Kairi cleared almost all the sickness from the second woman and let her rest as I finished. Afterward, we did it again, but I let her do the healing spell on her own. We did the same with the other woman here at the Inn and the other two Oba had delivered."

"And oh, what a sight it was," Kal's patient cackled. "I'd like to see some more of that up close and personal," she said with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows.

"Ten times? No wonder she's exhausted. You seemed surprised she had any magic left after Mika. How did she last through nine more?"

"It was only eight times. She wasn't there for Mika's curing and fell asleep halfway through this one," he said, nodding toward the bed. Kal reached into a pocket and pulled out the medallion he had taken from Counselor Miyaki. "I kept her magic reserves topped up with this."

"You kept something else filled to," the kappa snickered. Kal shot a half-hearted glare at the turtle-woman. In response, she grinned up at him and moved his hand to her breast, pushing his fingers into the soft flesh.

Kal rolled his eyes and absently began kneading the nippleless mound as he turned back to Kashka. Like the frog-girl, Molo, kappa didn't have true nipples but slightly rougher patches of sensitive skin topping their breasts.

"What's the news from the Scarlet Bitch? You seemed upset earlier."

"Scarlet won't let us back on board in Kuji. The guards are already slowing things down by inspecting everything coming aboard, and she doesn't want any more trouble with the officials. Instead of tomorrow morning, they don't expect to be leaving until tomorrow afternoon or night.

"They will continue south around the bottom of Azumbaho once they sail. They'll slow the ship and have Emru pick us up if we can signal them from shore. Once The Bitch passes through the narrows of the southern tip, we will need to be at one of their normal ports of call when they arrive. Yalli delivered the message and mentioned that the narrows are where they most commonly run into pirates, and everyone would prefer to have us aboard before then."

Kal frowned. "That's unfortunate, but I think we can manage. I'll ask Oba to set a lookout for when the ship leaves. I'm sure we can get down the coast fast enough to meet up with them. These women will need to be out of the tent and into their recovery rooms by noon tomorrow. Magic can fix the damage, but only time will return their strength."

"Is she the last then?"

Kal shook his head. "Oba is out having more sick women delivered"

"And the girl?"

"Spending some time with her mother."

"And what of her?" Kashka asked of the sleeping katame.

"Once I'm done here, I'll take her to our bedroom to sleep. If she can recuperate quickly, I'd like her help with those coming in, but for now, she needs rest."

"Lend me a little strength, and I'll take care of that. Where are her clothes?"

"In the room next to this one. I think she was getting a little drunk off the pleasure and stripped in there," he said while drawing the strength rune and pressing it to Kashka's chest. "She didn't care if anyone saw her by the time we came in here. Now that I think of it, that was irresponsible of me. Miko could have walked out at any time."

"Considering what you two were doing, I doubt Mika let the girl out of her room," Kashka pointed out.

"Good point. I'll be in to check on her in a minute. I'm almost done here."

As soon as Kashka left with the much larger katame in her arms, Kal felt a hand lightly grope his crotch.

"Could I get a taste of this man-meat before you go?" asked the kappa.

The mage gently pulled her hand away. "Maybe on my next visit, but while we are here, that's best saved for Kairi."

The turtle-woman pouted as she laid back on the bed. Twisting her hand around, the kappa gripped his wrist and then pressed the mage's hand into her breast as he finished healing her.

---

Miyaki scowled as she swept the spyglass over the forests surrounding Kuji. Though the counselor maintained her outward composure, inside, she was absolutely livid. Not only had the mage humiliated her but then left whether she lived or died in the hands of her apprentices.

Already Ayako and Takeo's attitudes had changed. No longer did they jump to do every task. Now, there was a slight hesitance before following her orders. She saw the looks of doubt shared between them when they thought her back was turned. They were just fractions of a moment but still noticeable, and each one infuriated her more than the last.

Her frown deepened. If this disrespect continued, she would likely need to get rid of them. Unfortunately, the mage took her best means of doing so. It was easy to convince others that an overzealous apprentice had accidentally killed themselves pulling more magic than they could handle out of a crystal. Stories of such occurrences were plentiful and easy to pass off without garnering suspicion.

Adding to her frustration was the soft glow of arousal running through her body. Every apprentice was warned of the effects of too much magic at once. The world's magic instructors explained to every initiate how too much magic lit your senses on fire, filling you with blinding, indescribable pleasure before your body burst. Hours after the mage nearly killed her, she still teetered on the edge of orgasm and constantly fought the urge to touch herself.

She really wanted Ayako to lick her pearl as Takeo fucked her from behind. This morning she wouldn't have hesitated to order them to pleasure her. But since they saved her life, she now owed them a debt of gratitude. It put their relationship on a more even level than mere master and apprentices, and such requests felt uncomfortable.

With a firm image of the mage in her mind, she again scanned the ship, the city, and did a cursory sweep of the surrounding forests. If the mage were anywhere within the spyglass's sight, the item's enchantment should make him glow, but somehow, he was nowhere to be found. She dreaded asking her lord for men to search the city. It felt like admitting failure.

Shortly after Takeo and Ayako saved her, the captain of the guard arrived, asking about her guest's alarming departure. Miyaki answered him through the door while kneeling in a puddle of urine and sexual fluids, trying to recover. While weaving the spells to clean herself and her clothing, the counselor explained she and the mage had gotten into a heated argument. When the captain of the guard pressed for more information, she flatly refused to elaborate, only asking that he send some men to the docks to keep him from leaving the city. She would not allow another to capture the foreign mage. The honor of presenting the flying magic to her lord would be hers alone.

At the same time, she had to admit that her divination magic and a spyglass were not producing results. The scrying bowl on her desk offered only grey fog, and finder spells hovered in place for a moment before fizzling. It was as though the man and his cat vanished from this plane of existence.

Her clairvoyance and divination spells kept her lord and this land safe untold times. Now she couldn't even find a single man.

Miyaki's last resort was Iskar, an incubus who amassed a huge wealth of knowledge over thousands of years. The counselor dreaded summoning the demon even as the memory of his last visit made her juices run down her inner thigh. Instead of her soul, he demanded her pussy as payment for information. The incubus didn't need to take her soul. After experiencing the pleasure of his cock one too many times, she would eventually give herself to him.

But maybe this time she could avoid the demon's addictive phallus.

"Mistress, the guards have reported that the mage's ship is cooperating," Ayako reported after a brief conversation through the slot in the door. "The captain will refuse to take him aboard and turn him over to the guards if he tries to get aboard before they leave tomorrow."

"Excellent, that should buy me some time. Ayako, Takeo, prepare the summoning circle."

---

Kal sighed with exhaustion as Miko and Mika brought trays of food into the tent from a nearby eatery. A line of women also carrying trays followed them, splitting off into the tent's various rooms. A few paused just inside the door to marvel at the size of the space within, but Oba had warned them about Kal's magical shelter, and they quickly recovered before delivering the food to the mage's patients.

"You throw around your money too freely, Doctor," said Mika placing the tray and sitting next to Kal as Miko did the same for Kashka. The last two women gave the food they carried to the mother and daughter before Oba shooed them out of the tent and joined them with her own meal.

"Why do you say that?" Kal asked. The women had taken to simply calling him 'Doctor' or 'The Doctor' since he refused to tell them his name. Picking up the two bamboo sticks Azum people used as utensils, he transferred some thinly-sliced, sauce-covered meat to the accompanying bowl of rice. Using the meat, he gathered some of the sticky rice and popped the whole package into his mouth. Humming with happiness as he chewed, the mage muttered, "It's been so long."

"Because you are inviting a thief's blade. Being a human, even a handsome young man, will not protect you this far into the slums. Have you tried our food before?"

"A lover from Azumbaho made me some of the meals from her homeland. She wouldn't let me eat them with a fork and spoon and instead made me use these," he said, clicking the ends of the chopsticks together. "I've had people try to kill me before. She," he glanced at Kashka, "tried three times before I freed her from her master."

"He's frustratingly hard to kill. A quality I am extremely grateful for," said the assassin, watching the others manipulate the bamboo sticks before attempting it herself.

"And you trust her to travel with you?" Oba asked, sitting down beside Miko.

"More than that. After freeing her from slavery, she became my bodyguard and eventually my lover."

"How romantic," Miko sighed, looking between him and Kashka.

Kal chuckled at the dreamy look on the young girl's face. "It seems that way looking back, but how it all happened isn't nearly as interesting as what you might think."

"Where is Kairi?" Oba asked.

Kal pointed at the door to the last room with his chopsticks. "In there, hopefully getting some much-deserved rest. She's been through a lot today, but without her, I wouldn't have been able to help so many women." He noticed Miko fidget and looked over to see the girl's face was bright red. She had gotten an earful today as he and the katame repeatedly had sex.

"I must admit to being a little jealous of our herbalist," said Mika with a saucy grin.

Oba snorted. "This morning you were counting your last days in this world. Now you are up, walking around, and looking forward to tomorrow. This man gave you back the rest of your life, and now you want even more from him?"

"Be kind, Oba. My body was my craft for most of my life. Aside from enjoying his company, it is probably the best way I could thank him."

"Mama!" squeaked Miko, somehow getting even redder in the face.

Mika looked at her daughter, confused. "What has gotten into you, child? You grew up listening to me work and heard me say far worse than this."

"Because... " the flustered girl's mouth worked for a moment before she set her food to the side. Bouncing to her feet, she walked over in front of Kal. Miko's face burned bright red and her tail vibrated with nervousness as she stared down at him with a frightening intensity.