Unconquered Pt. 07

Xora nodded as he walked towards her, carrying a massive bundle of clothing.

"So, you like her?" She asked.

"No! I want to kick her ass!" Ember said, kneeling down and lifting Xora's foot so he could begin to dress her. "I want to best her in unarmed combat. I want to kiss her on her stupid mouth and shut her up by making her moan my name in orgasmic pleasure as I eat her annoying pussy out for days on end! I want to fuck her against a wall, and have her leave claw marks in my back and maybe have babies with her. Like, ten babies!" He tugged a silk stocking up, fiercely.

Xora was smiling, enigmatically.

"What?" Ember asked.

"Oh. Nothing." She sounded as if she was trying to not laugh. Ember frowned, thinking back to what he had said. His red cheeks turned nearly black.

"I didn't say those last...three sentences!" He said, hurriedly.

"Of course you didn't, my glorious Unconquered," Xora said, her voice play-meek. Ember scowled, then reached up, and gently slapped her muscular, blue rump. Xora squeaked. The next few moments were a haze of hasty tugging, buckling, strapping, binding, and furious adjusting. Ember felt mana flowing through his fingertips as he adjusted the dress that he was putting on Xora -- and he felt her flesh responding in a way that it wouldn't normally be able to. But just as he could lift a house above his head -- defying the expectations of humanity -- he found that he was able to channel the mana of his Unconquered powers into the act of dressing his love up.

The only downside was that he had learned that what June had told him, ages ago, was true. He was good at lifting things and throwing things. That kind of magic puissance came easily as breathing and his anima only needed to flare when he was driving himself to his upmost. But dressing his Lunar up was not what his Unconquered's exaltation had exactly prepared him for. And so, when he finished the last clasp and tied off the last binding on the bra, he felt his anima dim and his head spin. It was like standing up after laying down for several hours while being sick with some fever. His skin glistened with sweat and he found himself stumbling backwards onto his ass rather than standing.

Weakly, he gestured. "Tada!"

Xora, her eyes still screwed shut, knelt down grabbed him. "Ember!"

"I'm fine! Just, uh, low on mana..." Ember said. A hideous thought occurred to him: If this had been a battle, I'd be dead. Like, super duper amazingly dead. He had heard June talk about how an Unconquered could be felled in battle. He had known, intellectually speaking, that Unconquered had been killed before. After all, even the Good King Bahul had been taken out by the Regent, and he was the incarnation before Ember's. But it was another thing entirely to feel so weak. So...

Human.

Ember felt a creepy, crawly horror sliding along his back again. He remembered that thought, from a few days ago.

What if he wasn't Ember anymore?

What if he was just an Ember Puppet, with the Unconquered's powers using him, the way he'd use a sock puppet to try and entertain June while she was working and ignoring him. Ember was so distracted by that that he barely noticed Xora opening her eyes and looking down at him, her face full of concern. Ember then saw exactly what his hard work had wrought upon his Lunar. His jaw hung open in shock.

"W-What?" Xora asked. Then she looked down at herself and screamed.

Chirp hurried into the closet, their fists raised in the most adorable fighting stance that Ember had ever seen. They skidded to a stop and screamed as well.

Xora's hands had clapped to her cheeks -- and despite the fact that Ember had used nothing but cloth and his own hands, those cheeks had become slender and feminine. Her fingers were thinner and had become smoothed as well. Ember had faint memories of caressing them while his arms blurred and his hands moved all over her body and his anima burned like a small star. Gone were the blunt, trimmed fingernails. In their place were beautifully painted, beautifully manicured claw-tips, which looked as feminine and sleek as anything Ember had seen in his life. Her arms were still lightly muscled, but they no longer bulged like...well, like a massive shark body builder. Instead, she looked svelt. Skinny. And her breasts, while still large and firm, were concealed beneath a flowing black dress, which drew taut enough around her belly to show her belly button, before sweeping out to cover her hourglass perfect thighs. Her legs were contained in sleek fishnet stockings and she had tucked her feet into high heeled shoes that made her stand just a bit taller.

Which was the other shocking thing: Xora looked as if she had lost two feet in height. When Ember stood, he was taller than her.

"Whoa," he whispered.

Xora, her eyes brimming with tears, flung her arms around him and mashed herself against him, her dress rumpling up as her shark tail flipped up. "Thank! You! Thank! You! Thank! You!" She said, her voice high and feminine -- and unlike before, there was no pretense about it. She didn't have to make the effort, and that fact was painted clear across her face as she drew away, her fingers touching her throat in wonder. Ember was glad. Glad that he had somehow done a makeover so good that it had altered her vocal cords. Because, well, between each and every word in her sentence, Xora had bitten him with joy.

Her teeth were still shark sharp.

"I'm bleeding," Ember whispered.

Chirp pressed up against his neck and began to lick him. Ember breathed a sigh of relief at the touch of their coagulating tongue -- but then Chirp's fangs sank into his jugular and Ember groaned as his two Lunars bore him to the ground. Ember struggled, weakly, but his mana was still low, and the ecstatic pleasure of Chirp drinking his blood left him unable to do more than mewl and moan softly. Xora wasted exactly zero time. She kissed her way down his red body, pausing to swirl her tongue around one of his nipples, before tracing a line along his muscular belly, kissing his belly button, and then grabbing onto his loincloth and pulling it down and to the side. His cock thrust into the air, smacking against her pale blue cheek. She kissed his dick with a soft moan, her eyes half closed.

"Ember..." She crooned.

Chirp withdrew their fangs from his neck and licked the wound shut, their hand reaching down to grope at Ember's dick as well -- while Xora began to lick and nuzzle at the very tip of him. Her tongue teased along his foreskin, sliding around and around and she made a tiny, happy squeal as she tasted him. "He tastes so good, Chirp," she purred. Chirp nodded, mutely, and then kissed their way down Ember's body, throwing one of their legs out and planting their knees to either side of Ember's head. This gave Ember his second chance to admire what had happened to Chirp's body.

Before, Chirp had needed to conceal themselves. To cover their unwanted genitalia. To try and pretend that they were a they and not...well, no, pretend was the wrong word. Ember tossed it out of his head with a tiny jerk of his head. Chirp had been a they. But they had been a they with a vagina, and that had been enough to make them feel uncomfortable. Unhappy. So, while Ember personally thought that Chirp had had a very cute, very pretty pussy...he was still overjoyed to see the smoothness between their legs.

He reached up, gingerly, then caressed that smoothness, shaking his head. "How do you-" He started.

Chirp shut him up in the best way they knew how -- by taking the tip of his cock between their lips and sucking eagerly, their tongue swirling around, crooking to tease the underside of his glans, while Xora licked and kissed the underside of his dick, the tip of her tongue pressing to the throbbing beat of his vein. Both Lunars began to shimmer with their own animas -- Chirp a pale blood red and Xora with a deepening purple hue. Chirp's anima looekd a bit more like a cloud than flames, while Xora looked as if she was being slowly plated in reflective, purple armor -- glittering and winking as Ember felt the effect of the two Lunars channeling their mana.

The blowjob, which had felt like divinity incarnate, went from feeling like that...

To being that.

Pleasure rocketed through Ember's nerves. They burst into flames and his back arched, driving his cock into Chirp's mouth -- though his Ruby reacted with supernal quickness, adjusting their head and opening their mouth wider, so they only made a tiny glugging noise as his shaft plunged down their throat. Xora's hands squeezed his balls and she lapped at his cock, and every dragging motion of her broad, warm, wet tongue drove Ember even more crazy. He reached up and gripped Chirp's ass, squeezing them frantically as he groaned. "Gods!" His body rocked and his balls tightened and his cum pulsed down Chirp's throat. They swallowed -- then drew back.

They timed it perfectly.

In the infinitesimal moment between one spurt and the next, Xora had taken Chirp's place. Her mouth slipped down his cock, so that his seed began to fill her throat. She drank and drank, while Chirp swallowed her own load and sighed with such contentment that Ember almost laughed. Xora waited until the last pulse of his cum had come, squeezing his balls to make sure before she pulled back, a single strand of glittering salavia connecting her dainty lips to his member. She leaned over and kissed Chirp. Chirp kissed her back, their eyes widening a bit in shock before slowly closing. The two Lunars' tongues warred with one another, and the soft mewls and moans that escaped their interlocking mouths made Ember grin.

Xora drew back, her lips smeared with some of Ember's cum, while Chirp swallowed the load that had been passed to her, tongue to tongue. Chirp gripped Xora's cheeks, not letting her draw back further, then leaned in and licked her lips slowly clean, then kissed her again.

"Ah..." Ember sighed.

Chirp drew back, whispering. "I love you," they said, looking into Xora's eyes. Xora's eyes widened.

"I love you too!" She said, sounding shocked.

Chirp squeaked and then sprang backwards, standing fully up, their hands going to their flat chest. "What?!"

"What?" Xora's eyes widened as she looked up at Chirp, then blushed and shot a guilty look at Ember. "I don't! Do! Love! What?!"

Ember's brow furrowed. "What's the deal?" he asked. "What's the matter? I mean, it's obvious, you two would have to love each other."

"No it's not!" Chirp squeaked. "The Unconquered has five Lunar wives, Lunars have one Unconquered husband -- that's the...that's how it works. I shouldn't feel anything for anyone but you!" They put their hands on their cheeks, blushing furiously, their pointed ears drooping. "I mean, y-yes, I want to see Xora ride you until you pass out. But...not...anything else!"

Xora nodded eagerly. "It's still kind of weird how happy you being with Chirp makes me..." She admitted, ducking her head forward to not meet either of their gazes. Her fingers drew slow circles on Ember's thigh, the claws dragging fierce, attentive lines in him -- not breaking the skin, not even causing pain. It was just impossible to ignore their points. "Part of me is trying to...grab onto the guilt and anger and jealousy I should have. E-Every story of every courtier and king and love story I've ever heard says I should be." She closed her eyes. "B-But I'm not and that scares me."

Ember gritted his teeth as he began to force his tired, aching, drained muscles to respond. Though it took every iota of willpower in his body, he was able to slowly get himself from laying on his back to sitting up, his hand cupping the back of Xora's neck, his other grabbing one of Chirp's thighs, pulling his sari close to him. He nuzzled Chirp's belly, shaking his head. "No. No. No. Screw what is and isn't supposed to be. We're married. All of us. But that means all of us. I refuse to be the Unconquered who hogs all of your hearts, who goes, you have to only love me, no one else. Nothing makes me happier than the idea of Xora loving Chirp and Chirp loving Xora."

Xora smiled at him, her eyes brimming with tears. Chirp nodded, reaching down to caress his head slowly. "Yeah," they whispered.

"What about Ceaith?" Xora asked. There was the teeniest ghost of a playful smirk on her blue-painted lips.

"We'll work on that when we come to that," Ember muttered.

"Ceaith?" Chirp asked.

"Our next Lunar," Xora said. There was definitely a smirk on her lips now. "Ember loves her."

"No I do!" Ember squeaked.

The interior of the room crackled and June's voice came through it -- she sounded attentive and a teeny bit excited. "Hey, Sunboy, get you and your Lunars up here. We're about to hit the Sunder."

"Got it!" Ember said, struggling to his feet.

"Ember, if you just said got it, I can't hear you," June's voice continued, blithely. "This is a one way PA system. Chirp, punch him in the arm if he said anything."

Chirp, giggling, punched Ember weakly in the shoulder. Ember pouted and Chirp immediately said: "Sorry!"

Xora punched his other arm -- and sent Ember flying through the air, knocking over coat racks and clothing stands. He slammed into a wall, back first, then collapsed down onto the ground with a groan. Chirp, their hands over their mouth, gaped at the line of destruction left behind. Xora whimpered, then looked at her knuckles, then looked at her seemingly thin arm. She gulped. "N-Note to self," she said. "Still strong."

"It's okay!" Ember said, wobbling as he stood. "It's just a standard post sex concussion."

***

The bridge of the Starshrike was rapidly becoming familiar to Ember. This was why he immediately noticed that Goat was sitting in his chair, almost before he took in the view out of the window. He scowled and walked over. "Sifu," he said.

"Student," Goat said, puffing from his pipe.

"That's my chair," Ember said. "And as I'm still the Unconquered, the last time I checked..."

Goat chuckled, then stood, with languid slowness. His joints popped and creaked with every movement he made and he took seemingly inordinate amounts of pleasure in stretching his arms above his head, causing his skinny, saggy, liver spotted back to contort as he craned his head backwards and gave Ember a quiet leer. "But, oh glorious one, I serve the true Unconquered with such fervor that surely you can begrude me resting my old bones on your chair. Or would you rather I rub my loincloth against the chair soon to be occupied by one of your lovely wives?"

Ember opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. "When are you going to actually teach me some martial arts?" he asked.

"When I'm good and ready," Goat said, his voice soft. "I'm still studying your form. Your basics. Your kinesthetic shinima." He puffed on his pipe. "I want to be able to teach you the form of the Vengeful Crystal Hawk quickly and efficiency."

"Read, lazy and fast," June said from the Lapis console -- the console that controlled the flight and the sensors. Goat chuckled to himself, while Ember finally took notice of what was beyond the windows. He yelped and pointed.

"June! We're under wa-" he stopped. "Right."

The plan had always been to soar into the pure water of the great eastern river. Ember had listened itnently to the explanation, and if he understood it properly, the Land of a Billion Gods floated in a vast chaotic wilderness known as the Sunder. To live in the Sunder was to invite mutation and madness -- assuming of course you weren't skeletonized by the Fair Folk. The Sunder was not just a danger, though. As it bled into the Land, the nature of the Land shaped it. Gods crafted it and mortals solidified it, so that the chaos of the Sunder became earth, water, air, even fire. Pure water, such as the river that flowed through the great eastern river, wasn't merely water that rained from the sky or melted from the mountains. It was water that congealed out of the Sunder.

Which meant if one drove deep into the river, one would not reach a silty bottom. One would instead pop out of the bottom of the Land and into the Sunder itself.

Which was why the front window the Starshrike showed a crushing blue wall of water -- fish swimming and bumping curiously against the sleek windows as they moved through the river. They were poised over a shimmering, silvery sheen that made up the demarkation point between the pure water and the Sunder itself -- it looked rather like looking into a river when the sun was striking it at exactly the right angle, turning the water into a mirror. The light that came from it played along the belly of the Starshrike like fingers, leaving whirling, beautiful, almost hypnotic patterns.

"So, we just...dive down there?" Ember asked. "Then we can fly straight to Iremire without running into any patrols."

"Exactly," June said, through her lips were pursed. "Assuming that fae bitch didn't sell us under the river."

"I dunno," Ember said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I fucked her pretty hard."

June rolled her eyes.

"Uh, question-" Xora raised her hands.

June glanced over, then yelped as she clapped eyes on Xora. "What the fuck happened to you?"

"I gave her a makeover," Ember said, puffing up his chest ever so slightly.

"Right..." June muttered. "Makeover charms. Wonderful."

Xora, blushing, stammered, mumbled, ducked her head forward, then lifted her head, just a bit. "N-No. I won't be ashamed, I like looking like this." She squared her now much more slender shoulders. "Just because I'm pretty and in high heels and I'm not eight feet tall now doesn't mean I'm not still...good at...my job!" She blushed, her voice breaking off as she looked down. "I just...want to know what that job is exactly."

June, who was looking at her with a slightly bemused expression, sighed. "Sorry, Xora," she said -- which made Ember back down from his fierce 'give June a stern talking too' expression. She stood up and walked over to Xora's console, pointing down at it. "The Amethyst is the bulwark and the defender of the Unconquered. Where a Ruby is more of an assassin and damage dealer-" At that Chirp turned into the smallest, fluffiest version of their bat-form that they could and settled into Ember's lap. Ember petted them gently, rubbing their fingers through their fur. "-the Amethyst is more about preventing enemies from doing things and drawing fire. That's carried over to the Shrike: Your console controls the mana cannon turrets, while Chirp's handles the vortex arrows."

"Right..." Xora bit her lip, looking down at the controls. She laid her fingers on the buttons and then blinked as her eyes began to glow. "O-Oh! I can see through the turrets!"

The two turrets that Ember could see -- the ones mounted on the forward prow of the Starshrike -- began to whirl around, spinning on their axis and elevating and lowering their barrels.

June smiled, slightly. "There, you got it. Chirp!"

"No thanks!" Chirp squeaked, their voice so high pitched it was nearly inaudible.

"I mean, do we need vortex arrows?" Ember asked, petting Chirp even more.

June frowned. "Oh, I dunno, we could always just let the bad guys blow us up. Sure. That sounds like fantastic tactical advice."

Ember sighed. He settled his palm underneath Chirp, then lifted them up, so that his nose was pressed right up against their squat, flaring noise. Their fur bristled up, making them look like a small poof of white flower-seed, the kind that was picked up and carried on the wind. He looked into their eyes. "We're going to need to be ready to fight sometimes, Chirp," he whispered. "You can do it."