TRC - Searching for the Sky Ch. 28

Molo looked questioningly up at Senshu but the sword maiden shook her head. "Your trial, your call."

"I wasn't made to kill people so I guess I could let it go."

Suppressing a sigh of relief, Kal took the frog-girl's hand. Something immediately felt odd and he tried to adjust his grip but Molo's hand acted like it was glued to his.

She said with a menacing smile, "Once in my grip you don't get free. Now answer me these riddles three."

Senshu covered her face, "Rhymes? Really?"

"My trial, my call. Now fuck off, Senny, and let me finish."

The sword maiden held up her hands, warding off the frog-girl before resting back on the coils of her lower body.

Molo began speaking,

"Three lives have I.

In my first life, I am gentle enough to soothe the skin but pain you when excited.

In my second life I am light enough to caress the sky but only speak while among others.

In my third life, I can shatter stone but when enraged, I become gentle."

Kal put his head down, he hadn't expected riddles. "The only thing I have ever seen shatter a stone is lightning and it was explained to me that water inside the rock heated up and turned to steam. Lightning certainly isn't gentle when enraged, so that doesn't work.

"Caressing the sky sounds like a cloud... and a lone cloud won't produce lightning or thunder, at least I don't think it will. Gentle enough to soothe the skin, cool water definitely feels good on a burn, and boiling water certainly causes pain. But shattering rock... can water shatter rock?" Kal vaguely remembered the jagged landscape at the base of Felli's Peak. Did Ikuno mention that the large sections of sheared, jagged rock were because of ice?

Kal looked up, "'Three lives have I.' It soothes as a liquid, it caresses the sky as a gas, and it shatters rock as a solid. The answer is water."

"Correct. Now for the second one:

No legs have I to dance

No lungs have I to breathe

No life have I to live or die

And yet I do all three."

"I actually heard that one before when I was very young. The answer is fire."

"Excellent," Molo's smirk as she drew out the word was making Kal worry. "Now for the last one:

On my own, I am darkness, a black abyss. But, life brings me light with its gentle kiss.

I am quiet and cold, but warmth I can hold. With majestic wonders, and sights to be told.

My surface may be bare, of this I am aware. But, beautiful secrets I am eager to share.

My mouth so large, I swallow you whole. To be deep within me is your goal.

What may lie within can drive men to sin. Greed and desire, gluttony's kin.

For some, I am fear. For others, hope. My image is shaped by your life's scope.

From the earth, I have come, and forever will stay, even if parts of me crumble away."

The frog-girl looked up, eager to see the stumped look on the human's face. Her confident grin quickly turned into a scowl at the sight of Kal's smile. "Fuuuuck."

"A few years ago I would have been completely lost on this one, but a few years ago I wouldn't have figured out the first riddle." He cast a meaningful glance back at Sera, "Unfortunately for you, twice now I have found things of desire and beauty... in caves."

"Dammit!" she said wrenching her hand away from his.

Behind him, Senshu chortled at Molo's frustration. "That's been her trump card for the past few centuries, not many have answered that one right! Most of the men guess the answer is 'woman.'"

"Fuck you, Senny. Stop that damn laughing or so help me..." The frog-girl ripped off her cloak, revealing her skin had turned a rich blue with her body being slightly lighter and sporting various sized black spots. It also turned her eyes completely black.

Stretching over the gorgon, fox, and rabbit, the sword maiden grabbed Kal by the shoulders and dragged him away from Molo. "Be careful! He just passed your trial, you don't need to go killing him by accident."

"I suppose," she grumbled. Stepping off to the side, she pointed further down the road. "When you go, stay in the very center of the road. The plants are the only one of the original traps we were never able to destroy or disable. Kithana will see you and be waiting for you near a large sphere on a pedestal."

"Traps?" asked Kal.

"Finish your challenge and we will explain," said Senshu.

Molo reverted to her red-eyed, rainbow-colored form, her expression anxious, "Is he not going to stay and rest up? Maybe..." she rolled her hips forward suggestively.

The silver lamia shook her head sadly, "He wants to try all three challenges right away."

"Nooo..." the frog-girl stepped forward and grabbed Kal's hand, holding it tightly. "Wait just a few days. We'll have a big orgy in your honor. Between all of us, we can make sure your cock never sees the light of day. A few of us even know magic that will keep you hard as long as you want. Just wait before taking Kit's test. So many of us have waited a very long time for a man to come by."

The mage opened his mouth to answer but it was Sera who spoke first.

"Kal, I'm worried. Senshu and Molo are both acting like you are walking to your death," frog-girl and sword maiden nodded in unison. "I don't think you've considered an alternative. You could stay here for a while, make all these women happy, then be on your way to meet Ikuno. Sure, you would arrive later than you wanted to, but at least you would get there. You can't meet her when you are dead."

He smiled at the gorgon. "Thank you, Sera. But I have to be there to protect her. Without Ikuno, you would still be in a cave fending off mercenaries because I never would have become a mage. She sacrificed herself to save my life, I should be willing to do the same."

"But it's not the same! When she dies she comes back in a few years! When you die you stay dead!"

Kal sighed, "Now that Azrin managed to find Ikuno he will likely do so again. According to Kelthor, this time it will be easier. If he finds out where she is when she wakes up, then he can go and destroy her shrine. Once that happens she will be as mortal as you or I. If I don't do this and try to be there to protect her, then she will very likely 'stay dead' the next time."

Sera hung her head, her serpents hiding her face. "I think I knew your answer before I asked. I just wanted to make sure you considered turning back as an option."

He reached out and lifted her chin then kissed her on the forehead once the serpents had gotten out of the way. "I'll do my best not to die."

"You'd better. You still have a son and a few daughters to look after," the gorgon glanced over at Velt and Graff, "and a few more still waiting on their daughters. Me included."

"You decided you want a child?"

"Not right this second, but yes, and I want you to be the father."

"As I said, I'll do my best not to die." Kal looked up at Senshu, "You're certain it's best to be drained of magic?"

The silver lamia nodded solemnly.

"Then let's go."

---

"You don't belong here," snarled the sprite as she hovered next to the large black sphere. She looked exactly like Ria other than being made of flesh, slightly taller, and having a different face.

This was not how he had imagined his first meeting with the fabled Kithana going. "I passed the other challeng—"

"You shouldn't be here."

"What's wrong with you Kit?" asked Senshu. "I've never seen you act like this before."

"He shouldn't even exist!"

"That seems harsh," said Velt.

Kal held up a hand, "No, in a way she's right. My mother was barren and had a magic potion crafted just to have me. Kithana is right, I was never supposed to be born."

"Yet here you are," snapped the sprite. "Reeking like you spent your entire life soaking in a mana pool and wearing Prentas's magic like it was some kind of cologne."

Kal raised an eyebrow "Prentas's magic?"

"I can smell the spell on your cock from here. Who do you think created it? Someone who needed to comfortably fuck something as small as me up to something Senshu's size and beyond. Who even cast that on you?"

"An oni named Ikuno."

"THAT BLUE BITCH! HOW FUCKING DARE SHE GIVE ONE OF PRENTAS'S SPELLS TO A CHILD! Where is she? I'll kick her ass halfway across the world for pissing away a spell that I GAVE HER!" The sprite froze in place mid tirade here eyes going so wide Kal thought for a moment they might fall out of her head. He knew sprites were very elastic and, for all he knew, there was a possibility it could happen. "Wait... why are you here?"

"Ikuno told me that I might find the knowledge to complete my flight rune here."

Kithana was silent for a long moment. "Prepare yourself. Remove anything that you don't want destroyed and give it to your friends," she said before flitting over and picking up a tiny bowl sitting on the sphere's pedestal.

Removing Ria's pouch, Kal tossed it to Sera. He doubted whatever might happen could harm the bag of holding, but it was better to be safe.

Coming back, the sprite hovered in front of Kal, showing him the ceramic dish. "As a mage, you know that fae are immortal beings of almost pure magic."

He nodded.

"Senshu, present one of your blades," Kithana instructed. "Our magic is also present in our tears and sex fluids which I have collected here," she said, holding up the bowl. "Three drops, one for you, one for the snake-haired basilisk, and one for the rabbit doe."

Behind him, Kal heard Graff whisper, "Did she just say that little bowl is full of her pussy juice?" and was immediately shushed by the other girls.

The sword maiden came forward and held the tip of one of her blades between him and the sprite. Kal noted that in her smaller form it took two of her six hands to hold one of her swords.

"Cut your palm on the tip of the blade and hold it out to begin the trial," said the fae.

"What am I supposed to do for this trial?" Kal asked, hissing in pain as he nicked his hand on the magical blade and held it out to the sprite.

Flying forward, Kithana dumped the contents of the bowl into his palm where it mixed with the small pool of blood forming there. A moment later the puddle began glowing brilliant blue and seeped back into his hand, the vessels shining beneath his skin as the glow began making its way down his wrist.

Kal grabbed his arm as though squeezing hard enough might slow the magic's spread and looked up at the sprite in confusion and panic.

"You are supposed to survive."