DISCLAIMER: I do not own any original Forgotten Realms character or place. I just own the plot and Elis'sha.
WARNING: this contains spoilers for The War of the Spider Queen and especially for Extinction and Annihilation.
A sort of missing scene from Annihilation, set between the very splatter opening chapter and the scene with Gromph, Triel and Andzerel on the balcony.
There is not much plot but it is not a PWP either, and sorry if it is not good, but I have never written a lemon before.
Sorry also for the slight OOC-ness at the ending, but I am a romantic at heart.
Idea spawned from an interesting Forgotten Realm campaign in which I played a menzoberranzanyr priestess of Selvetarm with a secret crush on the Archmage.
After reading The War of the Spider Queen who has not thought at least once that Gromph Baenre is hot?
Enjoy!
It was ridiculous after all that days, but he felt like darkness was smothering him.
He, Gromph Baenre, Archmage of Menzoberranzan, was nervous and scared: his solution to his sight-related problem had been quite experimental, and though everything seemed to work fine and smoothly, yet there was a margin of uncertainty about the outcome.
The very thought of remaining blind after everything he had endured was enough to make him panic.
He had never felt so much pain in his long, hard life, or so it seemed.
Maybe he was suffering from recollection bias, as his suffering was so fresh - he pondered, more realistically.
His head hurt as if he had been severely pounded and his eyes itched and tingled below the bandages.
He had refrained from taking any pain-killing drug or potion, not quite knowing whether they could interfere with the ritual he had undertaken.
Two full days had passed since, and according to the ritual, it was time to take the bandages away and test if his efforts had gone wasted or not.
He could do it on his own, that's for sure.
He could take his bandages away right there and now but he felt he deserved to look at something special the first time he opened his new eyes.
"Archmage..." a soft voice called.
He turned on the armchair to look at the person who had just entered (with his explicit permission and invitation) into his private apartments, then mentally slapped himself, as it was absolutely useless.
He heard her footsteps as she approached to his seat and imagined her hips lightly swaying with every graceful step.
She stopped so close to him that he could feel her bodily heat and smell her scent.
He had never noticed anything of the sort before, when he could still see.
A small smile graced his lips as he rose from his seat and stepped closer to her, pressing himself onto her through their light clothes.
He was so grateful that she had left her armor somewhere else.
Tentatively he reached for her face and touched her just with his fingertips, tracing the contours of her sharp features, her high cheekbones and her lips.
She sighed with pleasure and lifted a hand to explore his face as well and he felt almost overwhelmed by the sensation: not distracted by her sight, he could concentrate on the feel of her hands cupping his face and of her warm body pressed against his.
He slid one hand through her short hair and buried his face in the crook of her neck.
The smell of her skin, a mixture of her perfume and leather from her armor, had always felt good to him, but now it was intoxicating, it drove him mad with desire.
It felt like he was drowning in her scent and he liked it.
"Elis'sha..." he murmured against her skin, sending a shiver along her spine.
"I guess you feel better, Archmage." Elis'sha whispered in a soft, playful voice he knew she used just with him.
In every other situation she had a quite loud and commanding voice, by which she managed to make herself heard even in the middle of a battle.
He just loved that.
"I feel better than I had in days." Gromph replied in a husky tone, letting a hand slide along her side to her waist.
"Hmm, I see..." she teased, grinding herself against his erection.
He moaned softly and dug his fingers in her side, stopping her torturous motions but holding her close.
Elis'sha put her hands on his shoulders, kneading lightly, then slid them up along his neck, lifting up his rather long hair.
He drew an unsteady breath and shuddered as she claimed his lips with her own, kissing him deeply and passionately, exploring his mouth with lips and tongue.
It was almost too much: he fought for control, fought not to melt in her embrace and reveal how much affected he was by her kiss, but it was all in vain.
He felt like he had never experienced anything like that before, as if this was his first kiss ever, even if he had kissed, and bedded, more women that he could remember.
It was so humiliating, because Elis'sha must have surely noticed that tonight he was completely in her hands, but it was also exhilarating.
After ravaging his lips, his bedmate trailed butterfly kisses along his neck, gently nibbling the sensitive flesh here and there, making his breath stop in his throat, then licked the shell of his pointed ear.
That was unfair, he thought, unable to prevent a whimper from escaping from his lips: Elis'sha knew this was one of his weak spots, and exploited it ruthlessly to subjugate him.
She was a jalil, after all, he thought.
"You are more sensitive than ever tonight. I love it." Elis'sha breathed against his skin, in her wonderful soft voice.
He could almost see her face in his imagination, her dark lips slightly parted and lust burning in her now-unfocused, copper-colored eyes.
He felt desire rising like a tidal wave in his body and mind and could do nothing but cry out in pleasure-filled pain when Elis'sha bit at his neck.
At this point he had almost decided to be a good jaluk once in his lifetime and let her have her way with him.
He half-wished she would take him right there and right now, just to make this sensual torture end, but she was still almost sober-minded.
"Let's get somewhere more comfortable, shall we?" she asked, playfully between kisses.
"Yes..." he replied, hoarsely, disentangling himself from her.
He led her to his private bedchamber, moving with a certain amount of confidence since he knew by heart every recess of his buen retiro in Narbondellyn.
Elis'sha was just beside him, but did not try to help or guide him.
Gromph was infinitely grateful that she pretended to ignore his obvious weakness and acted like everything was just fine: he hated being weak and would have just freaked out if she had treated him like an infirm.
Even if he could not see her and she was behind him, Gromph knew that she would not try to harm him, he knew he could trust her to a certain extent.
It was not because they loved each other, that's obvious.
They enjoyed each other's company, of course, and lusted after each other, but moreover Elis'sha would have no interest or advantage in his death or permanent incapacitation.
First of all, Elis'sha was a Baenre by adoption, rescued by his late mother after the downfall of her former House at the hands of another, which however had been caught.
This alone could not grant him any measure of security, since inter-House rivalries were often worse than those between Houses, but Elis'sha, strange as it seemed, was one of the few priestesses of Selvetarm in the whole city.
The devotees of the Champion of Lolth lived in service of the priestesses of the Spider Queen, and their Order served the Council and more specifically the First Matron Mother, which in this case was his sister Triel.
They might not be exactly friends, but he and Triel were pretty close and she knew that he was more useful alive than dead, especially during these times of crisis.
All these factors, together with her unconventional appearance, had made him approach her for some night-time activities.
They had been lovers for more than five years already.
As they entered the bedroom, Elis'sha started kissing him again, greedily, desperately, holding to him as if he was the last solid thing in the middle of a flood.
Suddenly he realized that he was not the only one in bad need that night, and that made him feel better, more confident.
He started unbuttoning her silken shirt, caressing every inch of exposed skin as he did it, never breaking the kiss.
Elis'sha moaned softly against his lips as he finished with her shirt and caressed her flat belly, hands sliding slowly up to knead her firm breasts.
She started to undress him with far less calm, getting rid of his robe and shirt and running her hands on his body passionately and possessively.
They retreated towards the bed, stumbling unsteadily, still locked in a tight kiss and still trying to get rid of each other's clothes, which proved not so easy.
A tearing sound informed the Archmage that some garment had gotten damaged in the process, he could not tell whose, though, and he was in such a state that he could not care less.
Finally completely undressed, they slowed down and took their time exploring each other.
Gromph felt overwhelmed by the sensations: not seeing what she did only heightened the pleasure brought by the slow and skillful caresses of his lover.
She rolled on top of him and he just let her, not even trying to fight for dominance as was part of their usual little game.
This night, just this night, he told to himself, he was hers to take as she liked.
And she did.
Elis'sha trailed hot kisses along his chest and abdomen, eliciting moans of sensual agony from her usually controlled companion.
He had always been so powerful and haughty, and she had sought to maintain his favor because of this as well, but now he looked almost helpless, shivering and moaning under her touch.
She thoroughly enjoyed being able to rob his precious self-control and loved the feeling of his hot skin against hers.
She had felt incredulous and furious when false news of his demise reached her while abroad on a mission for her Order, and only now she realized how much she had missed him, how much she had missed making love to him.
Her kisses trailed lower, agonizingly slow, until her lover caressed her spiky short hair with a shaky hand.
Elis'sha knew very well what it meant, although it usually required more coaxing from her part to provoke such indirect request.
She smiled to herself, it made her feel so good, having so much power over him tonight.
As long as she lived, she said to herself, she would never forget these moments.
Obedient to his silent begging, Elis'sha kissed the tip of his swollen manhood, making him gasp.
Encouraged by such a reaction, the priestess took him in her mouth and gently caressed the shaft with lips and tongue, driving him deeper with every bob of her head, until she took all of him, and he almost screamed, back arched, hands gripping convulsively at the bedsheets.
She stopped and gazed upwards along his body: the mere sight of him so lost to the pleasure made something low in her body tighten.
He could not wait anymore, but then neither could she.
Elis'sha straddled him and rubbed herself against his manhood, then impaled himself upon him, taking him as deep as she could, whimpering in pleasure.
She started to move rhythmically, riding him, as his body convulsed under her and his hands slid possessively on her body.
"I missed the feeling of you inside me..." she whispered sweetly bending upon him to kiss him.
The kiss turned ravenous as he gripped her hips and pushed hard inside her, making her almost scream against his lips in pure bliss.
They broke the kiss, panting, and Elis'sha moved harder, slightly changing the angle of her hips: this was his turn to almost scream and struggle to raise his upper body to ravage her breasts with kisses and light bites.
The priestess, threw her head back and moaned, feeling better than she had in her whole life, perhaps.
It was so good, too damn good: this was the only coherent thought Gromph could form in his pleasure-filled mind.
He felt like drowning in pleasure, every other experience of this kind paling in comparison.
She moved harder and he felt he was not going to last long, but he didn't want it to be so.
He wanted, he needed, he ached for looking at her face while she rode him to his culmination.
He ached to look at her face again.
"Stop! - he managed to say – Please, Elis'sha, stop!"
Ever obedient and unquestioning about his desires – how he appreciated her for this – his lover stopped, but still he barely managed to think past the sensation of being buried to the hilt inside her.
He fumbled with the bandages tied around his eyes, trying to untie them, then resorted to tear them, until he finally heard a glorious sound of ripping fabric and felt the cloth slipping from his face.
Slowly, cautiously, he opened his eyes.
At first he could see nothing but black emptiness in front of him, and terror gripped him, but then, slowly, shapes and colors started to appear, eating the blackness away.
He looked up, where Elis'sha's face should be, initially he could only make out just a blurred silhouette, but he concentrated and slowly her visage came into focus.
His eyes still itched and burned and now they watered too, but at last he could see her perfect unblemished obsidian skin, her dark lips, so utterly kissable, bent in a soft smile, and her lust-filled copper-colored eyes.
He gave them a better look, realizing that they were the lightest shade of hazel with a trace of red in them.
Strange that he had never noticed before, they were... beautiful.
She was beautiful, she had always been, otherwise he would not have chosen her as his bed-mate, but now she looked almost perfect to his new eyes.
His gaze trailed lower along her slender and strong body, the body of a warrior, pausing on her full perked up breasts and her flat belly and then lower still.
The sight of their bodies united made him shudder and close his eyes again in bliss.
"Is everything alright, Archmage?" she asked, with a slight trace of worry in her husky voice.
"Better than ever." he whispered, looking her straight in the eye, and smiled, sliding his hands to cup her breasts and knead them playfully.
"I am glad it is so." she murmured, beginning to ride him hard again, and he let her.
He let her move upon him as it pleased her, and whisper naughty, dirty, sweet words in his ears, basking in the feeling of her body starting to clench around him, her rhythm faltering, and rejoicing in the sound of her whimpering, letting go of any remain of control.
Elis'sha threw her head back and screamed her lover's name, her body convulsing in waves of blinding, mind-numbing pleasure, but still she fought to keep moving, for him.
Through the haze of overwhelming sensations, she felt his hands tighten fiercely, almost cruelly, on her hips while he pushed himself inside her again one last time and came screaming her name.
The feeling of his hot seed spilling into her, of his hands gripping her hard, almost painfully, the wild look on his face...
It was too much, so intense that she had to fight the tears of joy that threatened to fill her eyes.
Exhausted, she slid off him and collapsed on the bed at his side, feeling spent and, strangely, complete.
She did not move for long seconds, then, feeling an alien un-drowish need to be held in his arms, a need she could not explain even to herself, but so deep she could not deny, she snuggled closer to him, conscious of the inappropriateness of this move and waiting for rejection.
He did not make a move to repel her, however, upon the contrary, he put an arm around her shoulders and brought her closer, embracing her, their bodies fitting like pieces of a jigsaw.
Elis'sha had never felt happier in her two centuries of life.
Relaxing in his arms, lulled by the sound of his steady heartbeat, she felt herself drifting into the reverie.
Gromph Baenre had never been sentimental in all his life.
Had he been, he would have not survived for so many centuries in his cruel, beloved hometown.
This night, however, it felt just right to hold his young lover close and bask in the feeling of her body tightly pressed to his.
He felt so grateful towards her for just being there for him when he needed her and for acting like nothing was amiss...
He had not forgotten that there still was a war raging on out there, and tomorrow he would have to join the ranks again and get rid once and for all of the annoying undead and traitor wizard who had managed to trap him into his very office.
Tomorrow there would be fighting and suffering, the outcome uncertain now more than ever both for him and for the city, but just for tonight he could leave it all behind, couldn't he?
He felt Elis'sha relaxing in his arms and had to admit that he liked her surrendering so completely to him as to drop every last pretense of caution.
He buried his face into the crook of her neck and smiled against her skin.
"Next time you are going to be blindfolded." he purred seductively in her ear.
She gave an affirmative sleepy murmur and lay her head on his chest.
Embracing her tightly, Gromph Baenre, Archmage of Menzoberranzan, drifted into the reverie with a smile on his lips.