Shallan turned the tap, crem-water rushing into the bathtub. After a few seconds the water cleared, and she plugged the bottom. She pulled the straps of her night gown off of her shoulder, shrugging the gown to the floor.
It was well past dark, and Shallan had not been able to sleep. Not because of the stress of her workload. Cataloguing Sebarial's archives, going undercover to the Nightbloods, courting Adoling, all while trying to save the world from the impending arriving of the Voidbringers and finding Uritheru, was plenty reason not to find rest, but it was not this that kept the young veden.
The image that occupied her mind was of a very different nature.
Luckily the warm water seemed to relax her muscles somewhat. Sinking into the tub, Shallan breathed out a tired sigh. As she closed her eyes however, the scene that haunted her returned.
The day before, while looking for Palona, Shallan had gotten turned around within the corridors of Sebarial's palace. Despite having lived there for over three weeks, there were still parts she hadn't been to, and thus didn't have a mental map of.
The room she had ended up in was one where Sebarial's hired mercenaries got ready for their shifts. Where they got into their uniforms.
The moment she had realised where she was, she had hurried away, unseen. Still, the split second she had spent peeking into the changing room had been enough. The image had stuck in her mind, though involuntarily.
Thick. Wet. The skin glistening with perspiration. The wide hung heavily from the crotch. The image of one of the muscly, broadsholdered men's penis had firmly planted itself within Shallans mind.
If she waited long enough it would fade away, but she had not slept last night, and it did not seem like she would do so this night either. The only other way to get it out of her mind would be to draw it.
"Mmmmm," Pattern hummed melodically from where he floated in the corner of the room. "Something is bothering you." Everytime Shallan was naked around Pattern, she had to remind herself that he was not an actual man, and that there were other spren all around her all the time.
"I…" Shallan wasn't sure if she wanted to talk about it with Pattern or not. He would probably not judge her, but it still felt too intimate. "I just have a lot to think about."
"Mmmm. Lies." Of course he would know it was not true.
"Well," Shallan said, "if you remember yesterday, when I got lost in the palace? Well something happened, and it's got me bothered."
"Mmm, you are hungry!"
"No! Well… actually that isn't too far off. But it's not hunger for food, it's for…" She trailed off, it was simply too indecent. "Well, anyway, it's stuck in my head, and I think I need to draw it to get it out."
"'Stuck in your head,' a metaphor! Good lies."
Shallan stood up in the tub, water pouring from her long, red hair. She wrung it out before stepping out onto the floor. Before exiting the washroom she caught her own reflection in the full-length mirror. She stopped at the sight of her nude, slender form.
Her usually pale face and chest were flushed red. Shallan looked herself up and down, noticing her state. Her petite breasts were heaving as she breathed quickly in and out, her slim hips touched by freckles on the sides, her nethers crowned by an unruly tuft of red hair. She was covered from tip to toe by a thin layer of damp.
She looked – in her eyes for the first time – seductive. A lot truly had happened in the last couple of months.
Hurrying out into the bedchamber, Shallan found a charcoal pen and a sheet of paper from a stack of blanks she had left next to a fruit bowl. All over the table there were sketches and maps and notes and books, and other things Shallan used in her research. The mess had been getting out of control.
Shallan had started sketching even before she was back in the tub. It was hard keeping the water away from her drawing, but the days at sea had taught her how to avoid moisture getting to her art.
Mind going into drawing-mode, Shallan's hand flew over the paper, abstract lines quickly forming complex shapes. Soon it was fully detailed and shaded, a lifelike depiction.
Shallan sighed as she looked over her drawing. The large phallus, thick and vanie despite its flaccidity. Finally she would be free of it.
"Mmmm," Pattern buzzed from above her. "The male reproductive organ. It is made to go inside yours, Pattern has learned."
"Yes," Shallan said, her blush deepening, "but only when you want children. Or, well, sometimes there are other reasons too." She acknowledged how she had felt thinking about the thing. How she still felt!
"Sebarial's didn't look like that one though, it was more—"
"Please, Pattern, don't tell me about what Sebarial's penis looks like." Now her face turned deep red.
"Mmmmm. So this one is good, but Sebarial's is not?" Pattern had that jovially quizzical tone, as if they were discussing foreign cuisines, rather than men's private parts. Of course he didn't understand the difference it made, but they were private for a reason.
"It is not about whether they are good or bad, it is weird when it is someone I know. I I think about what Sebarial looks like naked, then that is all I will be able to think about every time I meet him.
"But this one you want to think about?"
"I am never going to meet the person this one belongs to again, and even if I did, I have no Idea what he looks like. So thinking about this... thinking about this penis won't be a problem." Her pulse had risen, and she had to breathe deeply to slow it down again.
"Besides," Shallan finally said, "the image has already been on my mind for over a day."
"How does it work?" Pattern buzzed happily.
"Okay," Shallan said abruptly, "that is enough questions for this bath!"
She put the drawing down on a stool beside the tub. She sank back down into the warm water, letting it envelop her body.
Shallan tried to relax, let her tensions be washed away. She closed her eyes, trying to put her mind to work. Constructing a plan or solving a puzzle.
It did not work.
Her body had an itch, and she realised it would need to be scratched if she were to be rid of it. It could not be helped, it seemed.
Slowly, in a half conscious, half instinctive way, she moved her safehand to her chest. Her fingers found her nipples, hard as pebbles, and moved around them. She kept her eyes closed as she tickled her sensitive chest, soon transitioning into a more knead-like motion.
After discovering the wonders of such stirrings – or more specifically of relieving them – Shallan's trying upbringing had become more tolerable. She had never had much opportunity to indulge herself, but the times when she was alone, she had put to good use.
When her father would send her to her room, she could soothe some of the ache and sadness she felt. The greatest times, however, was when she was allowed to wander the gardens by herself. Doing it because she wanted to, rather than needing to, always gave her the most pleasure.
There was also something entirely special about the outdoors.
Shallan moved her freehand down toward her hips – keeping her safehand bussy with her breast – yet even before it reached its destination, she knew it would not suffice.
Opening her eyes, Shallan rose once again from the water, again wringing out her hair. She walked back into the bedchamber, and over to the table. Something had caught her eye before, something in the fruit bowl.
She picked up one of the fruits, a strange, oblong thing, purple in colour. She didn't know the name of it, and guessed it had been shipped in from Shinovar or some other far off kingdom.
She hurried back into the washroom, once more sinking down into the warm water.
Shallan picked up the sketch she had drawn earlier, the paper slightly stained by water – it didn't really matter, she didn't dare to save it anyway.
Holding up the drawing of the penis next to the strange fruit, Shallan inhaled deeply, sucking in stormlight. At once, the room grew darker, at the same time stormlight swirled around the fruit. A moment later the smooth, purple skin of the fruit had been replaced with the veiny surface of the mercenary's thick member.
"Mmmm."
Shallan yelped, nearly jumping out of her skin at the sound of Pattern's hum. She had been completely focused on the moment, forgetting that the spren was in the room with her. She blushed deeply – somehow she could still get redder.
"Are you going to show me how the sex works?" Pattern asked, still oblivious to the intimacy of the topic.
"No!" Shallan said. "This is a private matter, not for other people to see. Or spren."
"Mmmmmm" Pattern seemed unsure what to say or do.
Shallan had dropped the paper and the phallic fruit when she had been startled. They now floated atop the surface of the water. She pulled her legs up against her body, hugging her knees. She felt suddenly awkward.
It had been unfair of her to shout at Pattern. With a little less self control and social understanding, she might have asked the same kinds of questions of her childhood teachers. Pattern was just curious, just like she.
"I'm sorry," she finally said. "It is just… very intimate for us people to do these kinds of things. Our private parts are very… private."
"These things are so strange to spren. Some parts of the body are a secret – even though everyone knows about them – while others are not. One hand must be kept hidden, but the other one not."
It was a little weird, Shallan had to admit. But that did not make the rules any less true or important.
"If you really want to, Pattern," Shallan said, "you can stay and watch. But please, do not talk! That makes it too weird."
"Mmmm, I will not speak." Patterned transitioned into his two dimensional form, moving across the walls, stopping on the wall opposite Shallan.
Shallan stretched her legs out again, the water in the tub was losing its warmth. She picked up the wet sheet, dropping it onto the stool next to her once again. She then settled down against the curve of the tub, spreading her legs under the water.
"Well," Shallan said, "here goes!"
She grabbed the penis – the fruit – moving it down to her dower lips. She placed its tip at her opening. Slowly she pressed it into herself.
She sighed as the fruit entered her, moaning lightly. This was it. This was the scratch for the itch she had been cursed with for the last couple of days. Finally the tension and stress would leave her.
Pushing the penis farther into herself, her inner walls clenching around the soft, round object. Shallan struggled to stop herself from forcing it all the way at once, but she realised that slow and steady was probably safer.
As the fruit bottomed out within her, the tip touching her very core, she couldn't keep another moan from escaping her lips. It was absolute euphoria. Shallan felt ready to climax already, and had to release her grip on the object within her.
After giving herself a moment to calm down, Shallan started moving the fruit in and out again. Her vagina hugged the member tightly, stretching to accommodate its girth. With just a few thrust she was once again close to release. This time, however, she sped up her motions instead.
Shallan moved the pretend-penis in and out of herself at speed, bringing herself toward closer and closer to orgasm. She whimpered and cried as she stimulated her insides. Any moment now.
With a burst of energy, Shallan reached her climax. The walls of her vagina clenched down on the invading object, as she continued to force it in and out of herself. She cried out as her orgasm consumed her.
Her heart thumped within her chest. She could hear it through her head. Her body was flushed and warm.
Shallan shuddered as she rose slightly in the tub, her chest now just above the water. As she let go of the penis it was ousted by her body, shooting up to the surface. When it splashed in the water the illusion broke, the image of the penis dispersing into stormlight, leaving the purple fruit to float in the tub.
"Mmmm" Once again Shallan was startled by Pattern's humming, this time she didn't scream, however.
"Well," she said, blushing. "That is how it works. Though there is a bit more to it in reality, when it's a real person, instead of a fruit." She picked up the purple fruit, looking it over.
She sniffed it, then opened her mouth to take a bite.