Unconquered Pt. 06

"Hmm, did I, though?" The false Locust asked. She pointed with her off hand.

Ember looked back and saw that two cataphracts with more bravery than sense were plunging to the forest floor, bolts sprouting from their eyes.

"Wow," Ember said. "How'd you know I'd duck?"

"Eh, two birds, one stone," the false Locust said, then slapped his fist out of the way. She kicked back and Ember caught her ankle. She kipped up off the branch using her other leg, twisted her foot out of his grip, kicked him in the jaw, then dropped down, grabbing onto a branch below them and swinging herself around to the far side of the tree. Ember, staggering backwards, fell, reached out, dig his fingernails into the bark of the tree. His shoulder wrenched and white pain exploded through his skull. He clenched his teeth as the false Locust stepped from branch to branch, coming back to stand slightly below him, looking up with an insolent little smile.

"Who are you?" Ember hissed.

"Does it matter?" the false Locust asked, casually.

The chunk of bark that Ember had grabbed onto started to creak – coming slowly away from the tree. Sap bubbled around his fingertips.

"I wanna know your name for when I kick your ass," Ember snarled.

The false Locust cocked her head. Her blue/gold eyes glittered and her teeth flashed.

"Ceaith, sunboy," she said, reaching up and dragging the hood of her garment backwards. Her hair exploded free, cascading around her shoulders like a mane of brunette softness. But what made Ember gape was the small soulgem, sat right on her forehead. It was a small, lapis bead, and it glittered blue in the firefly light. She flicked her finger and Ember's free hand snatched a black chunk of energy out of the air – and he realized, with a start, that he was holding Chirp's pronouns. Ceaith's smile grew even more insolent. "Have fun on the way down."

"Wait-" Ember started.

The bark gave way.

Ceaith waved as he fell – and Ember gaped at her – right up until his back crunched into a tree branch. He pivoted, flipped, fell face first into another branch, rebounded, caught onto a branch with his legs, groaned for a second, dangled, then heard the snap of the branch as it gave way. He plunged another ten feet, struck the awning of one of the Goblin Market's stalls, punched through, and mashed into a whole heaping tray of softly rotting fruits. Ember sprawled there and just...decided to hurt for a while. Hurting felt like a better idea than moving. Or thinking.

"Ember?"

Ember slowly lifted his head out of the mashed fruit.

Goat, Chirp and Xora stood around him. Xora was looking deeply worried. She was only bested in that by Chirp, who looked as if they were about to bust into tears. Goat, meanwhile, was beaming. "You got it back?" he asked.

Ember groaned. "Yes..." He rolled slowly out of the muck and into the waiting arms of his Lunars. "I got...it back. Why. Are you. So. Fucking. Happy. Goat. You. Asshole?" He asked, each word scraping its way out of what felt like a billion bruised ribs. As Xora got her arms under his armpits, he held out the gleaming black gemstone that was Chrip's pronouns.

"Because, my student," Goat said as the fae that had dived for cover began to emerge from the houses. One of them was Broker – he was sprinting towards them, the pronouns he had offered in his arms.

"Give it to me, now, we agreed, we had a fair trade, a fair deal!" the Broker said, hurriedly.

"But of course, my good Broker," Goat said, his voice dropping from his normal sarcastic tones to a whispy, reedy, old man master voice. Broker snatched the pronouns from his fingers and then handed the pronouns that they had bargained for to Goat. Goat handed them to Ember, who winced in confusion and pain (mostly pain) as he held them to his chest.

"What is happening?" Ember asked.

"This...this..." Broker chuckled. "You two have no idea what you just traded away, do you?" His eyes gleamed. "This is an item that someone was willing to steal. To kill for. It's become more valuable than you can possibly imagine...and now it is mine." He chuckled. "I'll be able to wring Greeter for every single thing that he has." His grin grew wider as he looked at Chirp's pronoun, while Chirp and Ember exchanged a glance with one another. When Ember looked back at Goat, Goat was looking shocked. Appalled.

"Wait, no-"

"Come!" Broker strode away.

And as he walked off, Goat's expression shifted to one of delight. He looked back at Ember and gave him a saucy wink, then started to cry out after the Broker. "Wait, no, I want to renegotiate!"

Ember shook his head, slowly. "I want to go to a market where people just trade...money, next time," he said, leaning back into Xora's muscular embrace. "Can we do that?"

***

Greeter, when Broker found him, was in the court of the Fae Queen. Ember normally would have taken a few moments to drool over the Fae Queen – but after the day he'd been having, he was mostly focused on the fact that he felt like someone had worked him over with every branch on the pain tree. It was also a little trick to drool over someone's beauty when you were at constant war with your own sense of self. Instead, Ember focused on Greeter. He was sitting on a small cushioned chair, made of emerald glass and wooden panels, that sat next to the Fae Queen, while she lounged on her own far more immense and ornate throne. The immensity wasn't merely to be impressive: The Fae Queen had the proportions of a goddess. She sat nearly nine feet tall, and with a body that curved with dizzying geometries of female flesh. The fact she was dressed in an amount of cloth that would have been skimpy on Chirp's slight frame, stretched out to meet the bountiful expanses of her own bust, just added a surrealistic edge to her luminosity.

Greeter looked smug as shit, sitting next to her.

Goat, his hands on a walking stick that he had produced to make himself even more skinny and thin and harmless, crept forward before the Fae Queen. "Oh, Summer Queen-"

The Fae Queen bust out laughing. "Goat, you little son of a bitch," she said, her voice melodious. "Don't tell me you fooled Greeter and Broker with that old trick."

Goat immediately stood upright, his back flexing out as he stretched and tossed his stick to Chirp, who yelped, fumbled it, managed to bonk themselves in the face with it, and ended up clutching their nose as the stick landed on the ground before their feet. "I was wondering if it was you, oh Fuckable One." He bowed low. "Do you still taste like peaches and grape?"

"Mmm, you'll have to find out, Goat who Wrestles," the Fae Queen crooned.

"Goat, you didn't say you fucked her before!" Ember hissed.

"I didn't know if it would be her. The Fae nobility do have a bit of a cyclical thing going," Goat said, twirling his finger next to his head to indicate the spinning of a great wheel. The Fae Queen laughed, her voice tinkling like chimes.

"As much fun as it is bantering with you, Goat," the Queen said. "I have been informed that this young woman before me is the Unconquered."

Ember squirmed, clenched his jaw, then stepped forward. "I am," he said. He. He said. He said. Him him, he. It felt weaker and more useless each time – as if there was a great ocean of wrongness in his body, chiming in his skin. He wondered how Chirp felt, with their pronouns held in the hands of another fae. He looked at her and Chirp sent them a shy, nervous thumbs up with the hand they weren't using to pinch their nostrils shut.

"Well, normally, this would be where I send my armies to slay you, extract your spark from you, and use it to create an army of the fae that could consume the entire world from the inside out," the Fae Queen said, her voice as warm and crooning as she had been while flirting with Goat. "But that would be unimaginably rude."

"I'm glad you think that way!" Ember squeaked. "We like being not devoured!"

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no darling, no, honey, no..." the Fae Queen said, reaching down with an alarmingly long arm. Her fingers, warm as summer's sun, cupped her cheek. His cheek. His. She lifted his head upwards and looked into Ember's eyes with eyes that shone like kaleidoscopic gems. "It would be rude to Greeter. Greeter has the rights of a first bargain, to buy and to sell, before I take any precedence. He is, after all, the one who was contacted by Broker first."

"Speaking of," Broker said, stepping forward. "Greeter: I bear a single extremely valuable they/them pronoun, taken from a drakhul bat." He held it out in his palm. "In exchange, we shall purchase from you the following..." He gestured to Goat, who held out his hand. The pronouns that he had gotten from Broker floated in the air.

"Wait," he said, holding up his hand. "How...if those are the genders...if the genders that Goat has are the ones you gave us..." He pointed at Broker. "But those are the ones Greeter has? How the fuck did you give them to us before we bought them?"

Broker rolled his eyes. "That is the concept of trading for them, not the actual pronouns, you silly girl."

Ember threw up her – his! His arms. "What the fuck is the difference between the concept of trading for something and the fucking things if they're already ...you know what?" He crossed his arms over his chest, compressing his breasts even flatterer. "Nevermind. I don't even fucking care anymore. Just do the fucking trade."

"...as I was saying..." Broker said, turning away from Ember, as if he had never made the outburst. "Shall you trade this pronoun for these pronouns?"

Greeter rubbed his chin slowly. "It is a very fine they/them. Adorable. Androgynous. An excellent conformation. I do like how intensely it is weighted towards being a butt-slut. Furthermore, it has been stolen. Battled for. That makes it easily thrice as valuable." He grinned. "I believe that this is a fair trade." Ember flicked a glance at Chirp. Chirp's face had gone beat red.

"The trade is done," Broker said.

Ember looked at the gemstones and expected to see a bright flash. A flare of light. A crackle. A sparkle. Anything. Instead, Goat just plucked the they/them from the pile and tossed it to Ember. Ember caught it, blinked a few times, then looked over at Chirp. Chirp was looking at him, their eyes shining. Hopeful. Ember grinned, then looked at Broker and Greeter. Greeter was holding up his new they/them pronouns. Very shiny. Very fine looking. Ember chuckled.

"I'll trade you all me he/hims and my she/her for that he/him you got there," he said, casually.

The fae laughed. Not just the Greeter, all of them. Their eyes gleamed, sharpening. Like knives on a whetstone. Broker shook his head. "Unconquered, you may think you can demand anything, but all of those pronouns you have aren't worth that. And he-"

"Those aren't my pronouns," Chirp said, their voice soft. Very soft.

The they/them pronouns that Greeter held between his fingers cracked. Greeter's eyes widened – his mouth opening into a circle of shock. He scrambled, but the pronoun shed flakes of black powder before the entire fae court. The Queen watched with her hand before her mouth as Greeter stood and scrabbled at the air – but no matter how hard he clutched at the gemstone in his hand, the dust ran through his fingers. When he opened his hand, nothing sat in his palm but ashes. He looked up at Chirp, gaping.

Chirp breathed slowly in.

This was the part of the plan they had suggested – but Ember felt his heart breaking. He would do anything to save them this. But Chirp had said they could do it.

Chirp stepped forward, then cast their shirt and their pants aside in a fluid movement. They stood before the fae, naked, revealed. "I am Chirdellen Pinerie of the Gyongnorian Islands. I was born...as the daughter of Vasques Pinerie." She said, her hand sliding away from the smooth curve of her sex.

"No! No!" Greeter screamed.

"Those pronouns only exist as long as I used them," Chirp said, her voice fierce. "You just sold most of your stock for nothing greeter. Now, we'll give you some of pronouns you gave us if..." She thrust her finger at Greeter. "If you give my husband's pronouns back!" She blushed. "Please!" Ember hissed at her. "I mean not please! I mean, you have to do it right fricking now!"

Ember gave them, Chirp would always be them to him, a thumbs up. Chirp shot him a very nervous smile.

Greeter trembled with fury. He looked down at his empty palm – clearly doing the economic math. Goat had assured them that Chirp's plan was right. At the end of the day, it didn't matter that, on its own, Ember's masculine pronouns were worth more than the collection of he/him and she/her pronouns they had. It was one object, meaning it could only be traded to one other person. Greeter was trapped in the chains of his own swindle.

The Fae Queen watched with a smirk, her hand sliding away from her mouth – showing her amusement. The moment hung, suspended on a wire. Would Greeter accept. Would he deny in a fit of pique. Would the Fae descend on Ember and company like a ravening swarm of locusts? Ember looked from Greeter to the Queen to Chirp to the Greeter again. Greeter glared at his hand, quivering more and more. The Fae Queen opened her mouth to speak-

"Fine!" Greeter shouted. "I accept your bargain!"

Chirp clapped her hands. "Yes!"

Greeter reached into his belt pouch and withdrew a bead of golden white light. He flung it at the ground, as if he hoped to shatter it. Instead, it struck and rebounded and flung itself into Ember's palm. He snatched it and felt the piece of himself merge back into his body with a golden glow. His entire soul wrenched and settled and he felt as if an ocean had settled within him. Him. He shivered as he felt his chest shrink and his thighs press against the thickness of his cock. He grinned, slowly, as he tossed the pronouns that he had fairly traded for back to Greeter, who caught them from the air with the most sour glare that Ember had ever seen.

Ember turned to Chirp, who was standing there, her hands at her sides. She blushed, then crossed her arms over her smallish breasts. "W-Well," she said. "It's out there..." She looked away from him. "I...I guess it's like tearing off a scab." Her eyes closed. "I...I shouldn't have been s-so stupid. So stupid and dumb. I'm your Lunar Wife. I'm not...not a they, not a them, I'm a her. I was born to have babies, to have your babies, and that's just the way it is, and I shouldn't have tried to..."

Ember walked towards her. He placed the they/them pronoun that he had kept on his tongue. He caught Chirp's chin, lifted her head, then kissed her. His tongue thrust into her mouth, pressing the bead against the roof of her mouth. His hands cupped her ass, drawing her in close and Chirp swallowed, more out of reflexive shock than anything else. Ember drew back, his voice raspy and soft as he breathed. "You are Chirp..." he whispered. "My Lunar. My Sari. My Chirp." He looked into her eyes.

Chirp's body glowed a pale white – flaring brilliantly. Then it faded...

Their breasts were gone. Between their thighs, where their sex had been, there was instead a smooth, pearl white expanse of flesh. Not even a hint of pubic hair. Ember reached down, cupping them gently, smiling as his fingers slipped back to tease their taint. Chirp's eyes widened and they flushed, their back arching despite themselves. "E-Ember! Ember, I...w-wha...queen! Queen! Queen!" They pointed, frantically at the Fae Queen.

"Oh, I don't mind watching," the Queen crooned as Ember kissed and nibbled, ever so gently, at Chirp's throat.

Chirp rolled their head back, their eyes closing. "B-But...I..."

Ember bit down just a bit more and Chirp mewled, squirming. Ember pointed at Xora with his free hand and jerked his thumb towards himself. Xora blinked at him, then blushed, biting her lip as she looked around the throne room. Slowly, shyly, she began to tug off her robes and walked forward, revealing her blue-gray skin her full breasts. Chirp mewed and pushed at Ember and Ember drew back, his hand sliding away from their ass – but then Xora was at Chirp's back, hugging them from behind.

"Why!?" Chirp squeaked out. "I...I could have been a her for you, Ember..."

"What kind of huge asshole would I be to require that of anyone?" Ember whispered, cupping Chirp's cheek, his eyes meeting theirs.

Chirp's eyes brimmed with tears and Xora kissed the top of her head. "You're cuter like this, you know?" Xora whispered. "B-besides, if anyone can carry Ember's babies, it'll be me." She grinned, showing off her razor sharp teeth.

"Uh..." Ember coughed. "D-Do we have to discuss babies right now?"

"I dunno, someone looks quite interested," Goat said, his pipe in his hand. He used it to point at Ember's bugling loincloth. Ember glared at him.

"That's because I'm kissing my Lunars, Goat!" He snapped.

"Oh, and the idea of knocking them up doesn't appeal in the slightest. Sure. Mmhmm. I swear, I saw it twitch at the words 'knocking.' Goat grinned. "Twitched again."

"Okay, that's it," Ember said, his voice flat. He stepped away from his Lunars, turned to face the fae onlookers. Flames roiled along his fingers, rushing up to his shoulders, and his voice boomed like the voice of a thousand gods. His eyes flared and he thrust his finger towards the door. "Everyone out. Now."

The Fae Queen, the Fae court, Greeter, Broker, and even Goat vanished – so fast that they left behind swirling dust motes and faint impressions in the air. Goat's pipe remained suspended on the wafting air for a moment before it clattered to the nearly silent tile floor. Xora and Chirp both gaped at Ember, who breathed out a slow cloud of golden steam. He turned to them, his body still roiling with anima.

"Now," he said. "Throne or floor first?"

"Yes," his Lunars whispered at the same moment.

TO BE CONTINUED