Unconquered Pt. 05

"The Shrike!" Ember said.

June frowned. "Do we know what defenses they have at Iremire?"

Ember clapped his hands and started off. The whole lot of them arranged themselves around the entrance to Jerin Kah's cell. The window swung open and the magic connected - and the air filled with: "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh yes!" Ember peeked through the glass and saw one of the guards - a skinny, blue skinned girl with pale white hair and small, feathered wings - rising and falling on Jerin Kah's cock with the rhythmic slap slap slap slap of flesh meeting flesh. His hand cupped and squeezed her ass and his eyes were closed as he laid his head back on the pillow, a look of pure contentment on his lips.

"How...did she even get in there?" Ember shook his head. "Yo! Jerin!"

"Hello Unconquered," Jerin Kah said, not opening his eyes as the woman threw her head back - his hand had found her clit and his finger rubbed her in slow, steady motions. "Having a nice day?"

"Yup!" Ember said, trying to ignore the woman's shuddering orgasmic pleasure. Her wings flared out wide, concealing Jerin Kah's face for the moment. "Uh, just wondering, what are the defenses of Iremire Cauldron? No reason, just curious."

Jerin Kah sat up - his hand gently levering the woman's wing down so that he could look over his shoulder at Ember. He locked his eyes onto him as he continued to drill into the woman, though now, he was doing more of the thrusting. Before, she had been rocking herself. Now she clung to him as he jackhammered up into her. His teeth skinned back into a casual grin. "And why do you want to know that?"

"I just said! No reason!" Ember blushed.

"We're going to blow it up!" Chirp said, their hands over their face.

Jerin Kah frowned. "You're going to blow up my home and you asked me for help?" he asked.

Ember frowned. "Your home? You weren't born at Iremire were you?"

Jerin Kah snorted - tossing his head dismissively. "Of course not."

Ember felt a tiny spark of golden flames - flickering along the back of his hand. Out of sight. He spoke, his voice calm. Casual. Almost conversational, rather than interrogatory. "Where?"

"Hm?" Jerin asked.

"Where were you born? Before Iremire? Who were your parents? I mean, your amazing legends and exploits never talk about them," Ember said, nodding. "And, hey, I mean, you fondled my mom-"

"Did more than that..." Jerin purred happily. "On the ride here, I mean."

Ember's cheeks heated. "-I deserve to do the same, right? Fair's fair. So, who is she? Where was she born?" Jerin Kah's face grew troubled - and he opened his mouth to respond. Then closed it. And before he could school his features more, Ember continued. "What about your dad? Did you have a saris? Is Jerin Kah your birth name? Were you even born green?" He leaned in close. "Does your life just start in the middle of Iremire?"

Jerin Kah frowned, slowly. He had paused in his thrusting - not that his partner seemed to notice. She was too dazed, and her body quivered with the tremerous aftershocks, quivering and sparking through her body. Slowly, Jerin Kah laid back on the cot. He looked at the ceiling. "I...I was always Jerin Kah. I think." He frowned. "I mean, they said that I had parents. They even showed me letters, between my training and the..." His face clenched with a sudden flicker of pain - his fingers tightening in their grip on the other woman. She made a quiet, confused murring noise.

"And the what?" Ember asked, his voice intent.

"I...it was just training," Jerin Kah said - uncertain.

"I mean, they call you Infused. Infused with what. Don't you want to know, Jerin?" Ember frowned.

A long silence came from the cell. Ember glanced at his Lunars. Chirp gave him a thumbs up, while Xora looked mildly shocked. June was looking at him as if he had just grown a second head, while Goat was smoking on his pipe. Jerin Kah spoke up then: "What are you proposing?"

"You come with us," Ember said. "You help us get past the defenses. If Iremire is as nice as you remember, then I'll switch sides. But if it's not what you remember, if there's something dark and evil in the heart of it, if the Regency really does deserve to go down...you help us blow the place. Deal?"

Jerin frowned.

He lifted his head.

"Can I still fuck the cuter members of the crew?" he asked.

"It'll just be me, my Lunars, Goat, and June."

Jerin Kah brightened.

"Still gay," June said into the mic.

Jerin Kah scowled. He rolled his head back, glaring at the ceiling. Finally, he snarled. "Fine! Fine! If you want to go to Iremire, if you want to see the righteousness and the justice of the Regency so badly, fine. I'll take you." He paused. "Now, want to watch me finish in her?"

"Uh..." Ember glanced at Chirp and Xora. "Nah?" He closed the hatch.

***

The Great Eastern River was, as it transpired, a deathtrap. The Regency patrolled it with ships (actual ones, that moved in the water), and their long ranged vortex arrow catapults could saturate half the horizon with enough concussive death that, even if they didn't hit the Starshrike directly, they could still knock it out of the sky. Getting within line of sight of it was similarly a deathtrap, since the ships could spot them.

"Well, we'll be disguised as a cloud!" Ember had suggested.

No no. The ships of the Regency used magitech systems straight from Iremire. That meant that they could pierce through illusions, even the illusions crafted by an Unconquered. The Third Unconquered might have been a genius, but that had been seven Unconquered ago. There had been advances in magitech, in scrying, in everything.

That meant they'd have to either go through the Desert of Glass or the Desert of Fire. Ember had thought that both sides of the river was one big desert of glass and fire. And apparently, that was kind of true, but the southern bank was more fire, while the northern one was more glass. Either way, away from the comforting, peaceful currents of the Great Eastern River, the more likely of a wild chaos storm smashing up. It sounded nasty: Shards of glass the size of small cities flying through the air and exploding. Random fireballs and meteorites smashing down with the concussive force of a furious god.

"So, how do we get through without dying?" Ember asked.

"We don't," Jerin Kah said, casually. "Though, if you wished to disguise yourself as my prisoners..."

"Not doing that," Ember said, frowning.

"I have an idea," Xora said.

"Come on, you'd make a very lovely prisoner," Jerin Kah crooned, grinning at Ember.

Ember snapped his fingers under Jerin Kah's nose. "Xora had an idea," he said, then looked at Xora. "Xora, lay it on us. Give us the idea."

Xora gulped. "W-Well, my village storyteller said that this whole world is surrounded by an infinite chaos called the Sunder. Which is full of these monsters, called the Fair Folk?" She frowned as Jerin Kah made one of those little 'no shit, everyone knows that' sounds. Ember kicked his shins from under the table they were projecting the map onto - it was in the office that the governor had given him. The paperwork was all put away, and June's thamaturgy was once more proving very useful. Xora continued: "You can get beyond by going out - beyond the boarders. But, um, what if you go down?" She pointed at the Great Eastern River. "That river is pure water."

"No pollution?" Chirp asked.

Xora shook her head. "No," she said. "I'm from the Great Ocean."

"Aren't you from some islands? The Gyognor is-"

"You're a Gyongnorian?" Jerin Kah asked, his eyebrows shooting straight up. Chirp looked as if they wanted to drop instantly dead and be rid of the embarrassment about to come. They shook their head - but Jerin Kah took their hand and bowed low over it.

"A pleasure to meet you, oh honored lady of the sky," he said.

"Saris!" Ember snapped. Then he blinked. "...of the sky?" He looked at Chirp. Their eyes brimmed with tears - and they looked away.

"I...t-the Gyognor Islands are in the Flying Islands. I...bye." they turned to go, fleeing from the room. Ember trembled with rage, then forced himself to calm down. He shot a death glare at Jerin Kah - and was only slightly mollified to see Jerin Kah looking somewhat shocked and unhappy that his attempt to be gracious had backfired so hard. Xora followed after Ember as he ducked out of the room - and the two of them found Chirp, curled up in the drawer of the writing desk that Ember had set up. Ember gently took them out of the desk drawer and started to pet them gently, until they stopped shivering and hiding under their wings.

"It's okay," he whispered.

"Yeah, fuck that guy," Xora said. "Well, not, literally fuck him. But, you know."

Slowly, very slowly, Chirp shifted back to their human form - so that they were between Xora and Ember. Ember felt a bit precarious, because Xora leaned against Chirp and Chirp leaned against him, meaning he was bearing the weight of a slender twig of a saris and every single inch of blue, muscular sharkgirl that was his Amethyst. Chirp churred happily in their embrace - and when they spoke, it was halting and soft. "I hate the Gyognor islands. I hate them. I hate the slaves, I hate the fashion, I hate the culture, I hate the lawns. I hate them I hate them I hate them, and I hate that I hate them, because I don't want to hate something so hard, so fiercely. It makes...I...I..." They trailed off. "It makes me feel like...evil."

Ember nodded, nuzzling against their neck. Squishing or no squishing, he would bear this. "It's okay, Chirp. You don't have to talk about them, or think about them, until you're ready. Okay?"

Chirp tensed. Their breath felt like it was being held tight - and Ember wondered if they were going to pass out. Instead, Chirp nodded. "Okay," they said. "I-I'm not ready now, though."

Once they were back in the map room, Ember placed his palms down on the table. "No talking about the Gyognor islands. For now, lets focus on Iremire. Xora, you were saying?" he asked, nodding to Xora. Xora, looking as if she had not expected to be put on the spot so suddenly, stood up straighter.

"S-So, uh, if you live on the ocean, you, uh, well, you learn the difference between water and pure water. Most water is cupped on the Land. There's space underneath. But there's patches of pure water - water that flows straight into the raw chaos. And the Great Eastern River is pure chaos once you get far enough down. You can tell by the color, by the way it flows, and by the fact that the deserts to either side of it are wracked with chaos storms, and the fact that the Regency patrols it with incredibly heavily armed warships armed with magitech weaponry." She nodded. "T-Those were my clues."

Ember nodded. "So...we just...fly the Shrike into the river and go down until we hit...raw chaos?"

"Yup," Xora said. "...wait, that might just be more dangerous."

"No, actually," June said, quietly. "Chaos in the Land is dangerous, since it's making physical objects fling themselves around. But in just raw chaos, all we have to worry about is the Sunderstuff mutating us directly. And since we'll be inside of a sealed ship, we won't be harmed. The ship's a machine - less mutable and changeable than flesh. So long as we're fast and don't make any detours, the ship will be fine. Then we can pop out of the chaos here..." She pointed at where the river cut through a pass in the Barrier Mountains. "And make straight for Iremire."

"That...might...actually work," Jerin Kah said, slowly.

"Cool!" Ember beamed. "So, uh, what's a Fair Folk?"

"Shapeshifting, soul sucking weapons of war created by some madman in a previous Cycle, before the founding of the Unconquered," June said, blithely. "They breed in the billions, can skeletonize a megacow in five seconds, and are unkillable by mortal weapons."

"...oh..." Ember whispered.

"We may need to prep for that," June said.

Goat, who had been smoking on his pipe, chuckled. He blew a pair of streamers from his nose, his grin wicked. "I know exactly how we might be able to do that." He said, cheerfully. The way that he was looking at Ember made Ember feel distinctly uncomfortable.

***

Mom, Dad and Saris stood before Ember on the jetty that led to the ship that would be taking the Rataka villagers back to their homes. Saris was still peppering Ember with kisses, planting kiss after kiss after kiss. "I am so proud of you, my little coal," they whispered, their eyes gleaming with unshed tears. "I...I've seen how you take care of your saris, your Chirp. I'm just...I'm so happy for you!"

"Remember, son," Dad said, frowning. "You'll be having five partners. That means you have five times the word to do. Five times the listening. Five times the tongue work."

"Dad!" Ember squawked.

"Oh, I don't think that last part is giving him trouble," Mom said, her voice quiet.

"Mom!" Ember put his hands over his ears as Mom spoke - and damn his enhanced hearing, he heard every word she said.

"See, the rooms in that apartment building were quite cheap. And thin. And June was more than happy to explain to me which moan was whose. Apparently, she's been forced to listen too. Now, what I'm more concerned about is the fact that our son is going to be fighting monsters for his day job." She put her hands on her hips, frowning at him. Ember took his hands off his ears.

"I can handle that way, way, way easier than..." He gestured at the three of them.

Dad laughed, then reached out. He cupped Ember's head, looking down into his eyes. "Even if you're the Unconquered, you'll always be our son, Ember. Now, give each of us a hug and a kiss." He said, then drew Ember in close. Ember kissed his cheek, even if he had to stand on his tip toes. He did the same for Mom and Saris, and once he was stepping back and away, the headwoman called from the boat.

"Hey! We're casting off soon!"

Dad chuckled. Ruffled his hair.

And the three of them started away - walking to the boat. To their quiet, happy life. And Ember had a pretty good sense that they would be happy. At least, for now. Nex-Ho's governor had promised to send patrols, regularly. And the Foo Dog that was on their force was pretty strong. Not Lunar strong. Not Unconquered strong. But for most things, she was more than strong enough. He tried to make sure he could believe that as he watched the boat row away. The oars bit and sent it sculling along - for the current was slow and sluggish and they didn't need to work too hard to move against it.

Ember felt the breeze blowing along his hair. He smelled the river in his nose. And he nodded slowly.

"So!" Goat said, appearing behind him with such stealth that Ember screamed and leaped almost five feet into the air. He landed and spun around around to face the old, grotty martial art sifu.

"Don't do that to me!" Ember exclaimed.

"...I believe I shall keep doing it more," Goat said. "Now, I'm almost done working out your martial arts training regime. I've seen you fight. I've seen you move. I know what you can and cannot do." He bowed his head, slightly. "But first, we need to get this little trip into the Sunder prepared." He smirked. "How do you feel about fucking someone other than your Lunars?"

"Uh..." Ember blinked at him. "F...I...will have to ask them?"

Goat turned and clapped his hands twice. Chirp and Xora peeked out from behind a collection of crates that had been stacked up at the end of the pier. Xora waved nervously. Chirp was blushing bright, bright red.

Ember, gulping, called to them: "Can I fuck other people?"

"Sure!" Chirp said. "If I can watch."

"I, um..." Xora paused. "I don't know. I guess it depends?" She rubbed her neck, her tail twitching. "I mean, can I watch too?"

"Sure!" Goat said. "In this case." He pulled a pipe - a different pipe from all the previous pipes he had ever fished out before - from his loincloth and lit it with his thumb. He puffed upon it casually, then blew a streamer of smoke into the air. "Very well, Ember. We shall travel, on foot, together out of Nex-Ho and towards the Wildfree forest. There, we shall attain our passage, our safe passage, through the Sunder and past the legions of the Fair Folk."

"How?" Ember asked.

"By finding the Queen of the Fair Folk in the Fairie Market," Goat said. "And fucking her brains out."

TO BE CONTINUED