Sex, Drugs, and Oblivian
7/21
Lucifer used all his skill to satisfy Lania, and then she turned the tables on him using a delightful harness to bring him to the same heights of pleasure. She introduced a switch and taught him the joys carefully controlled blows could add. He looked forward to adding it to his skill set. Even if nothing else came from the encounter, Lucifer was content that he'd be leaving here with an entirely enjoyable experience. Afterward, he lay on the rug panting, and Lania lay at his side, her claws lightly trailing over his lower belly.
"Well."
"Well."
They looked at each other. Lania smiled. "Was that interesting enough for you?"
He grinned back. "Mmm. How'd you like my talent?"
Lania laughed out loud. "Oh yes. I think you'll fit in quite nicely here."
He stayed the rest of ashfall, and Lania invited him to sleep with her over wind. It wasn't like he had anything to go home to. There were two males who spent the majority of their time preparing tea and meals, when they weren't lounging in a daze on the cushions. They didn't try to sneak flesh into Lucifer's stew, and whatever it was left his mouth watering for more. Lania invited him to share her own bedroll, and he did. It was the best sleep he'd had in hands of ash-falls.
And when he woke, Lania was there, ready to introduce him to new experiences. Those weapons he saw on the shelves in the private room, apparently weren't weapons at all. Each had multiple uses, and Lania helped him explore them all.
After reducing Lania to a writhing happy mess the third time, she tugged him down to lay beside her. "If I can get my legs to work," she said, stroking Lucifer's back slowly. "I have a special gift for you."
"Not thistles," he warned.
Lania laughed. "This is so much better than thistles."
She brought him back out to the common area and told him to get comfortable on one of the cushions. She came back with a small jar. "You're going to like this." She settled down beside him, licked her finger and dipped it into a powdery substance. She dabbed the powder on his lip.
He licked his lips. Whatever it was tasted sweet. For a moment that was all it was, and he wondered what was so special… Then his lips and his tongue started to tingle. The rest of it hit quickly after that. He had the sensation of his body lifting up, floating, and he nearly panicked and reached down to grab hold of the cushion beneath him as an anchor.
Lania laughed. "Relax. Close your eyes."
She brushed the back of her hand across his cheek, and the feel of her fingers against his skin set loose a cacophony of reactions through his body. Too much. "Let it take you," she continued to soothe.
Lucifer held onto her, as the room seemed to spin around him. She eased his head back against the cushion, stroked his hair. Let it take you.
He felt better as he relaxed. The floating wasn't so much alarming as it was familiar. It was flying. He knew it was all an illusion, but he could feel the memory of flight. It felt real. He stretched out his arms soaring on the air currents. Racing among the stars.
Lania laughed beside him and her finger brushed his lips again, he opened his mouth this time, licked the rest of the powder off her skin. The sensations within him magnified. It was amazing. He could spend forever like this, but slowly the world returned around him.
He lay, loose and comfortable in the aftermath, as Lania wove herself around him.
"What is this?"
"This is the other reason Lilim come here. It's called lethe. Do you like it?"
"Oh, yes."
He returned to his dome that ashfall. There were washing facilities at Lania's Den, far superior than the communal hut by the wall the guards used, but he needed to get fresh clothing. He needed to restock Maze's supplies.
The market was slowing down by the time he passed. Rillam's stall was closed, reducing his options. Nothing brought him back to reality faster than the disdainful looks the vendors at the outer stalls gave him, the way they spat into the ash as he stepped up to their carts. He ordered the flesh and the fungus jars, and the vendors quickly passed him the wares and rushed him away.
"Take your beast stench with you," the male jeered, and snickers from those nearby who heard joined in.
He took his items and moved on. The wind rose up more quickly than usual, and he pulled up his scarf, walked faster. He paused at a division in the lane, left or right? He knew this area, why was it difficult to concentrate? He took left, walked to the end. No, that wasn't the way. He turned and went right instead. The lanes emptied as the wind blew harder. He could barely see through the blowing ash by the time he reached his dome. And even then he had to pause and fumble with the door ties to get in.
Finally. He pushed his market items inside and crawled in, trying to hold back the coughing until getting the knots back in place as well as he could, and only then succumbed to the burning in his chest. The dome was dark and he bent double as he struggled to draw breath in as he worked to expel the ash he'd breathed.
The dome was cold. That was nothing new. He was well practiced at fumbling in the dark for the candles, and he left his cloak on as he threw some moss on the hearth to light a fire. Maze hadn't been back since her last visit. The thin coating of ash was undisturbed on their items. He worked at putting the provisions he bought away. Swept the corners.
He could have stayed over in Lania's Den again. Why didn't he? The off chance Maze would come home? She probably preferred it when he wasn't here anyway.
He stayed only as long as the wind kept him confined indoors, and at the first hint of ash, collected what he needed and went back to Lania. His mood lifted considerably when Lania greeted him with another offer of lethe, and everything that troubled him was swept away as he relaxed and let the drug ease his mind.
Many Lilim came and went from this place. They found partners, and some enjoyed themselves in the common area, some retreated to the private rooms to partake in the more creative tools to be found there.
"Wen?" Lucifer sat up when he saw Fraq's former pack-mate. But the whelp looked away and hurried on without acknowledging him. Lucifer assumed Wen was like so many others and considered consorting with a beast beneath his dignity. So be it. Lucifer wouldn't bother him again. His former companion followed another Lilim into a private area off limits to the rest of the patrons of Lania's Den. When he asked what that space was for, he was told was that it belonged to a powerful Lilim who provided this space for Lania, and to mind his own business if he knew what was good for him.
There were enough who craved new experiences that Lucifer wasn't alone for long. The patrons of Lania's Den learned that if they wanted a unique experience, Lucifer was the one to see. Every Lilim he accompanied into the private room came out with stories of how the angel beast used the tools in a way they never expected. None of them were ever disappointed.
There was a camaraderie he missed from the Leviathan's Pit. The patrons of Lania's Den were not friends; they were customers at a market seeking a service. It was a service Lucifer was wholly dedicated to providing, but there were no conversations or friendly moments of mutual satisfaction. Even the others, like Lucifer, who were there to collect coins rather than spend them, were uninterested in companionship.
There were some, the thralls, Lania called them, who came only to bargain for more lethe. A different caliber of Lilim came to Lania's Den to partake in what those were offering. The thralls often emerged from the private rooms bruised and bloodied, but when they settled in on the lethe cushions, their pain and need was washed away just as thoroughly as anyone else's.
Lucifer found the lethe to be a perfect way to begin the ashfall and forget the dinginess of his dome, and the loneliness of waiting for Maze, and even better at fortifying himself for what he was going back to. Nothing. The lethe made stopping at the market bearable, how could he be insulted by random Lilim spitting at his feet and mumbling about beasts under their breath when he was still riding the euphoria of soaring above them in his mind?
It took a moment when he arrived home to the dome to register the light creeping out from under the door flap. An intruder? What kind of intruder would light the hearth and stick around after?
He loosened the knots and stepped inside. Maze? She sat by the fire, lounging on the bedroll and messing with a leatherwork project he'd done hands of ashfalls ago. She had his work spread out around her.
"Maze!" He quickly tied the door flap closed and joined her at the hearth. Still elevated by the lethe he'd had before leaving Lania's, he brushed off the underlying tension between them.
"Where do you keep your new pieces?"
He didn't follow. Oh, the leather work. "There are no new pieces. Maze—"
"You stopped practicing?"
"Why would I waste my time on that?" All he ever did was waste leather that could be put to better use elsewhere. Nothing he did was worth anything, why else would she keep tossing it in the not-worthy-to-sell pile?
"You think leather working is a waste of time?"
He missed the tone that should have warned him. He tried to cover up his confusion with a laugh. "My efforts are obviously better spent on other things." There were so many new things he'd learned that he wanted to share with her. He rose up on his knees and leaned in, kissing her collarbone.
She pushed him away and he landed back on his butt. "Maze?"
"Am I a joke to you?"
He blinked. Where did that come from? "What?"
She swept his leather works to the side like the trash they were. "Nothing." She gestured at his basket from the market. "Have I been wasting enough time on leatherworking to keep our provisions stocked?"
It was hard to keep up with her train of thought, but he nodded. "Yes," he traded what she provided at the market, and he had a stockpile of coins that he'd built up from the trade he made with his own talents at Lania's Den.
"How does a wall-guard stop being a wall-guard?" he asked.
Maze glared. "This again?"
He refused to back down. "If I could—"
"Enough, Lucifer. You've done enough. This is a Lilim matter and doesn't involve you. Don't interfere."
He shut his mouth. She was right. He only made things worse when he tried to help. The memory of the lashes striking her back hit him yet again and he turned away.
"I'll take care of things," Maze said quietly. She made an effort to pile the leather works he'd made into a pile before standing up. The winds hadn't risen yet. Rather than wait any longer and risk being stuck in the dome with him, she pulled on her cloak and left.
Lucifer lay down on the bedroll. Alone.
He couldn't bear his own thoughts by the time ash-fall came and he went straight to Lania's Den. The dose of lethe he took when he arrived helped to settle the turmoil within, but only for a short time. He found himself asking Lania for an extra dose to quiet the voices screaming at him from within.
"You're no good to me laying here addled on the cushion," Lania scolded.
Lania was right. He could try explaining his plan to Maze again. If Maze understood, she'd accept his help to bribe her way off the wall, wouldn't she? And then things could go back to the way they were before. They'd be good together again. Everything would be fine. It was only the one extra dose he needed to get by, just this once.
He was fine.
