A/N Bit of NSFW in this chapter – I'll mark it out for you so you can skip it if you want, I'll warn you that the implications at the end of the first scene are very dark, very brutal. You know when you find something and you watch it or read it or whatever and you think it's awesome and then you realize how fucked it is? That's what's it was like for me writing the first NSFW scene. I never intended for any of my characters to be capable of what she does and for the most part they aren't – that's the dangers of fucking with someone's head I guess.
Also thanks to Nimatar for letting me know that had been eating the asterisks that I've been using to mark a change of scene – that'll show me not to check the previews – and to latindragon for helping me with a bit of plot, can't really say more at the moment without giving myself away.
And to everybody who favorite, follows, reviews or even just reads this – I love you all!
Neira swore that no matter what happened she would never, ever ask if a day could get any worse. She had asked herself that question an hour ago, after getting her arm broken by a flying dwarf and now she was in the fade, using three different types of forbidden magic to save an abomination while her body lay in the circle tower. With a Templar on the other side of the door.
It was tempting to ask how it could get worse but she really didn't want to know. Neira sighed
It had all started right after they got to the bottom of the tower and Irving had declared the circle saved. Cullen, the self-righteous asshole, had ranted on about how the mages could be corrupted and Elisa had told him to shut it. It had seemed like things where winding down when Alice had dashed in looking for her sister, needing her to go into the fade to save Arl Eamon's son. Unfortunately Elisa couldn't go into the fade for some reason and so the task had fallen to her. And here she was.
Neira sighed again; she might as well get this over with. Elisa had taught her how to use blood to track a person in the fade and so she knew where Connor was. She closed her eyes and jumped.
Five minutes later Neira faced down the desire demon responsible for her companions' trouble at Redcliff. The creature had used several images of Connor to mislead her temporarily, but you cannot hide from a dreamer in the fade and now Neira looked on the all-but naked demon, who was drawing Neira's attention to her breasts by running her hands over them. And Neira had to admit that they were very nice breasts.
A/N this scene is NSFW in an F/F sort of way, if that makes you uncomfortable then I'll summarize everything at the end and you can just skip to that. I'll put in another note to let you know when the scene is over.
"Perhaps we could come to an arrangement" the demon purred, running her hands along her body seductively. Neira knew that the demon was screwing with her but didn't want to shake her off; so long as the demon thought she had the upper hand Neira would be in a position to crush her easily.
"W-What sort of arrangement" Neira stuttered, largely captivated by the demon's body. After all it was a desire demon.
"I grant you a boon and then leave the boy for the time being, sometime later I return and take what is mine" the demon was doing the most interesting things with her breasts.
Neira spoke without hesitation, slightly forgetting that she was supposed to be affected the demon's influence "I want to learn how to use the desire of others to ensnare their minds"
"Do you wish me to simply place the knowledge in your mind or would you prefer that I… show you"
"I think you already know my answer" with that Neira stepped forward and kissed the demon on the mouth.
The demon responded by returning the kiss, wrapping her magic around Neira in such a way that she would be able to replicate it. "It is always wise to learn from Desire" the demon's voice was sultry, a pleasure in itself. Desire continued to kiss Neira and began to undo the mage's robes, letting them fall away. Neira responded by sliding the cloth that hid Desire's lower body off her hips, leaving the demon completely naked.
The demon broke off the kiss and began nibbling on Neira's neck, eliciting a gasp from the elf. She vanished her small clothes and the two sank to the floor, Desire on top.
Neira let out a small gasp as Desire slid her fingers into the woman's wet center, massaging her clit in an expert fashion. The feeling of pleasure was intensified as the demon lowered her mouth to one of the elf's breasts and began to suck on her nipple.
This continued as Neira came closer and closer to climax until the demon's fingers pushed her over the edge. She let out a scream of pleasure as the demon place her lips on the mage's once more. Neira push Desire onto her back and straddled her; the orgasm had completed the transfer of knowledge but that didn't mean she was done with the demon. Neira lowered the mouth to the demon's and kissed her, one of her hands going to the demon's breast where she conjured a knife to plunge into Desire's heart. "Desire may be your weapon, but it's also your weakness bitch." She hissed, drawing on her anger at what the demon had done to distract herself from what she was doing; even for a mage who completely divorced sex from love, this was brutal.
The demon laughed "But what a way to die" she whispered as the last of her life faded away.
A/N Sex scene's done all you have to know is that Neira learns blood magic similar to the power used by the apostitute in DA2 (Elisa knows it too – should make for a fun lemon later) and then kills the demon. She probably wouldn't have acted that way if the demon hadn't been screwing with her and she'll probably have a breakdown about it later. But for now back to the real world and serious, plot relevant events.
oOo
Alice had a messenger sent to Redcliff the second Neira woke up. Elisa had been playing with Loss beside the bed she had been laying on; no doubt praying that she wouldn't have to use it. She had smiled when Neira woke up, her face full of relief. "The demon?" she asked.
"Dead" Neira replied reaching for a glass of water beside the bed; Elisa handed it to her. "I… we'll discuss it later" Neira simply wasn't ready to talk about what she had done right now. How the demon had managed to increase her desire for pleasure just enough for her to come up with such an evil plan; even if the victim was demon what she had done was still beyond the pale. Elisa recognized this; perhaps she even guessed what had happened, she was after all an observer. "What's the plan?" she asked, changing the subject.
Elisa accepted the change without question "Arl Eamon's still sick and no magic that any of us know can save her, our only hope is the Urn of Sacred Ashes. The Arlessa told us to find a brother Genitivi in Denerim that has been looking into their location so half of us will go there. We also ran into a Levi Dryden that knows the location of Soldier's peak, an old Warden stronghold. Half of us will go there, hoping to find information on how to recreate the joining and the materials required. We'll take all of the recruits we've got to Soldier's peak and only wardens otherwise; if we find warden secrets I want to keep them as such – if we can perform the joining everyone who goes to Soldier's peak will leave as a warden, or not at all." The simplicity of the statement was almost reassuring; perhaps she would not judge Neira so harshly if she was willing to do the same "We'll wait for the others to join us here and then head out together until it's time to split up" she continued "we have five recruits; Clara, a mage that Alice found in the Redcliff dungeons named Jowan" Neira's eyes widened and Elisa smiled "Yes, Solona told me about your history, I know. Are you ok to work with him?" Neira nodded "Good, the other three recruits are Templars by the names of Henrick, Leroy and Jacob, they're probably under orders to keep an eye on the number of mages we've recruited but we need the recruits so if we'll keep them until they prove to be a problem, then we'll leave them in a ditch somewhere"
Neira adsorbed the information "We're staying here for now?" she asked
"Yes, the circle has some rooms set aside for guests and a rather distressing amount of empty rooms so we'll stay here and help make the tower safe until the others arrive in a few days."
"What happened to Wynne?"
"She passed out after the battle and hasn't woken up since; she was exhausted and will most likely sleep for a few days." Neira couldn't tell if Elisa wanted Wynne to wake up before they left or not; balancing the potential of a powerful ally against the risk of fighting Templars was a tricky thing.
Tired of life or death issues Neira flashed Elisa a seductive smile "So where are you staying?" she got up and slid her fingers under the gap between Elisa's upper and lower body armor, leaning in
"Here"
"Here?"
"This is the best guest room they have and since I'm the commander I get the best stuff"
"Who made you the commander?"
"I did" Elisa smiled at her "Sooo… You're in my bed"
"Do you have a problem with that?"
Elisa leaned in closer, a couple inches and they would be kissing "We'll discuss it after dinner" she whispered in Neira's ear and was out of the room before she realized what Elisa had said.
Neira ground her teeth; if Elisa did that one more time…
oOo
Elisa held Yusaris out in front of her, swinging the sword experimentally. She rarely used a greatswords, preferring the speed that smaller weapons and her Blood offered but for this thing she might make an exception. It was made of dragonbone and razor sharp, not to mention that it was far lighter than the average greatsword and heavily enchanted. Elisa sighed, as much as she loved the idea of adding the weapon to her personal armory she knew that Sten would be far more devastating with it; she would be able to do some damage with it but Sten would be able to swing it around like a feather.
They had managed to release Shah Wyrd without anyone realizing what they had done; better the release it on purpose and kill it when prepared for the battle then risk someone else releasing it by accident and getting caught unaware by the demon – such an encounter would most likely be fatal for all but the most formidable of fighters. The battle had proved to be useful for testing the skills of their three Templar recruits as well as their ability to fight alongside mages instead of against them; something they had all done well on, refraining from striking out when they would hit Solona or herself.
Provided they could think past their Templar indoctrination regarding blood magic they would be a great asset to the team. If not well… she'd make sure Kallian and Alice were behind them when she broached the subject.
oOo
"So, something occurred to me earlier, but we've been running around so I haven't been able to question you about it before" Solona looked shrewdly at Elisa as the two sat in the room that they had taken over and turned into a makeshift armory.
Unshaken, Elisa replied "What about?"
"When you pulled Silence and Loss out of Mouse's body they were covered in blood but when you pulled Blood out… it was clean"
"You've seen Blood covered in blood before; maybe it was a fluke" Elisa teased
Solona wasn't having any of it "Why would it happen after you used blood magic to fight the sloth demon?" she asked
Elisa just smiled
oOo
At dinner the group was given a place of honour in the mess hall, at the front of the massive room. The room was usually a noisy place, with hundreds of mages eating and talking but today there was a sober atmosphere as everyone was reminded how empty the normally packed place was. The tension was increased by the heightened vigilance of the Templars, treating every movement with scrutiny. The first time Elisa saw Henrick suspiciously watching Clara she informed him that if he could not treat his mage sisters with respect then they would have no need for them. Suitably chastised, Henrick made a visible effort to come to terms with the fact that the mages were equals and allies, not enemies; the other recruits did the same.
The food was good, prepared by the tranquil, who were thankful that things had begun to return to normal and were embracing their normal chores with as much enthusiasm as possible for them to have. Elisa would have thought that the tranquil were incapable of any feeling whatsoever but Neira had pointed out to her how much energy they were putting into their tasks; normally tranquil kept a slower pace, but today there moved noticeably faster. To Elisa it appeared as no different than a dinner that would be hosted by her parents but to the mages and Templars it appeared almost as if the tranquil were running.
Once dinner was finished the group drifted apart; Duran, Sten, Alice and Natia went off with the Templar recruits to spar, Clara headed off to the library to read a bit before going to bed – despite her being a maleficar she seemed to be most comfortable with her nose in a book – and Solona went off to see a mage that she had been involved with previously – obviously seeking to find respite from the stress of the last few day with physical pleasure. Neira and Elisa headed up to the rooms that had been set aside for the wardens
A/N Femslash time! For anyone who wants to skip ahead do so – I'll mark it out again. Don't worry about any plot relevant parts, all you have to know is that they have hot lesbian sex.
When the two reached Elisa's room Neira turned to the other woman "So you said that we could talk about me being in your bed after dinner" she smiled
"I did"
"And?"
"It was a sudden situation that you had no control over, so I won't hold it against you – this time"
Neira grinned flirtatiously "And what if it were to happen again?" she stepped closer to the human woman
Elisa put her hand on Neira's hip and pulled the elf against her; Neira could feel the heat through Elisa's clothes, for the first time since Neira had met her she had forgone her chainmail armor in favor of pants and a shirt. "If it happened again then we'd have to come to some sort of arrangement" she purred
"Perhaps we could negotiate then?"
"Lets" with that Elisa pressed her lips against Neira's, kissing her with considerable passion. Neira returned the kiss and slid her hands under Elisa's shirt and gasped in surprise; every woman she had been with before had been a mage, while many were magically dangerous few had any physical strength whatsoever and none had any scars. Elisa's body was so completely different than any she had touched before; she had small scars all over the front of her body, little nips and scratches that were just deep enough to leave marks on her body, and her back…
Elisa's back simultaneously excited and horrified Neira; it was a complete mass of scars, hundreds, if not thousands of small scars covered her back, clearly a sign of some form of torture. While Neira had been exploring her body, Elisa had opened the door to her room. Without breaking the kiss Elisa picked Neira up and carried her to the bed, closing the door behind her. Once they were there Neira tore off Elisa's shirt and broke the kiss to get a better look at the human's upper body.
Again Neira was reminded how different physically Elisa was from her previous lovers; while there was no doubting her femininity, Elisa had a certain physical prowess to her that defined her appearance. Her body was hard and muscled, not bulky but simply utterly lacking in any softness, toned to have only muscle and scars where most women would have softer flesh. She had a tattoo on her left shoulder, a strange design that resembled nothing Neira had never seen before. She ran her hands along the fighter's back "What happened here?" She asked.
"A case of voided luck" was Elisa's short reply "I'd rather not talk about it" She turned and kissed the mage, undoing her robe and letting it fall to the floor. As the two kissed Neira undid Elisa's breast band, letting it join her robes on the floor. Elisa quickly returned the favor and lowered her mouth to the other woman's nipple
Neira let out a gasp and allowed Elisa to direct her to the bed. There she found herself on her back as Elisa removed her loincloth and ran her tongue along the elf's slit. Neira was wracked with pleasure as she expertly went down on the elf; her pleasure building up until with one final lick, Elisa pushed her over the edge.
Her orgasm had her screaming in pleasure, made more extreme by the fact that Elisa had not taken her tongue off Neira's lower lips yet, lightly teasing her and prolonging the orgasm. When Neira's orgasm finally stopped she was disorientated, almost unconscious from the pleasure. She cast rejuvenation on herself to get a bit more energy and then sat up. Elisa was now sitting beside her, looking all too pleased with herself "Have fun?" she asked with a smile on her lips.
Neira kissed the human woman, enjoying the taste of herself on Elisa's lips "Almost too much" she murmured "my turn" she pushed Elisa over so she was flat on her back "and you're overdressed" she was looking at the pants Elisa still wore.
"Then do something about it"
"Gladly" With that Neira kissed Elisa and began unfastening her pants, not breaking the kiss at all. When the pants where off instead of sliding them off with her hands she simply used telekinetic force to remove them and her loincloth, baring her to the open air. Once that was done Neira called a small bit of lightning to her hand and ran it along Elisa's upper body.
"Ohhhhh" a moan broke free from Elisa's lips as the lightning tingled along her breast and upper body, just enough to feel good, precariously riding the edge between pleasure and pain. Neira finally broke the kiss and began nibbling her way down the other woman's body, paying special attention to many of the scars she had, all the while keeping the lightning going, intensifying the pleasure that Elisa was feeling. Once she got to the Elisa's mound she placed a gentle kiss on the fighter's clit before plunging her tongue into Elisa's center.
Keeping the lightning going and in control while making such a thorough job of going down on someone was a difficult skill, but Neira was not without practice and proved to be up the challenge. Elisa found herself brought over the edge quicker then she had in a long time and was all but unconscious when Neira finished with her.
When she recovered she looked over a Neira, "Maker" she breathed "where did you learn that?"
Neira smiled "Unlike you I've never had to hide my magic and I've had plenty of time to practice"
"Can you teach me?"
"It'll take some time"
"We've got all night" with that Elisa brought her lips to Neira's once more.
A/N Lemon's done, only point of notice might be that Elisa has a tattoo on her left shoulder and a massive collection of small scars that cover her entire back.
oOo
When Elisa left her room that morning she was greeted by her sister "Enjoy yourself?" Alice teased
"Immensely" she purred, unlike her sister, who had chosen to play the proper noble lady and stay chaste, Elisa had had a number of lovers over the years and was quite unabashed about her night time activities. Their parents had been frustrated by this as it had driven off many suitors, something that Alice suspected was deliberate; if it was ever discovered that Elisa was a mage any marriage she had would have been a huge scandal. "You should try it sometime instead of reading those books of yours"
Alice blushed; those books were the most scandalous thing she owned "Those are private" she snapped
"Indeed, maybe you should read them with Alistair, in private"
Alice's face got even redder "I have known Alistair for about a week; even if I was interested in him" Elisa smirked at her knowingly "that would be totally improper" Alice wondered why she never learned to not tease her sister, whenever she tried it she got more embarrassed then Elisa did; she swore the mage used blood magic to learn her every secret and used them with shameless precision.
"Well we do have a tent issue, so that would help…" At this point Alice's face was pure red, she knew her sister was just bugging her but still…
"Enough" Alice held up her hand "This conversation is over, I was going to ask if you wanted to help improve the Templars' battle skills after breakfast but I think I'll do it myself"
"By all means, vent your sexual frustration with the use of long, hard toys"
Alice loved her sister, but that didn't stop her from testing Elisa's ability to dodge flying objects.
oOo
The next two days followed a regular pattern. In the morning the wardens helped clean to tower, ensuring it was safe once more and in the afternoon Sten, Duran, Natia and Alice helped train the Templars while Solona, Neira and Clara worked with the mages while Elisa bounced between them both, helping train her wardens where they were lacking, teaching the mages new and more powerful spells, showing the fighters more effective techniques and showing everyone how to improve their mental defenses. The other group had finalized the issues at Redcliff and would be at the tower in about two days' time.
On the third morning Wynne woke up.
oOo
"I must admit I find myself facing a dilemma that I never thought I would face" Wynne faced Elisa, Neira and Clara as the four sat in one of the more isolated tower room, warded for silence. The three blood mages had agreed to speak with Wynne as soon as possible in order to head the situation off. "My entire life I have always been instructed about the dangers and evil of blood magic and have always assumed that if I ever met any maleficar that I would have no doubts about killing them or turning them over to the Templars" she continued "But now we are in the middle of a blight and the two most powerful wardens, Ferelden's best hope of surviving the blight wield blood magic. Without you two" she indicated Elisa and Neira "I am not sure that we can stop this. Furthermore, there is no doubt in my mind that you are responsible for saving the circle, if you had not been here we all would have perished"
The three looked at each other "So what are you going to do?" Elisa asked
"I will admit I am torn; I cannot in good conscience let three maleficar wander about free but neither can I so readily betray the people who saved the lives of so many. I think the best choice for now is for me to aid you on your journeys and see what your choices are"
Clara frowned "So mistrusting Wynne? Abandoning the circle when they need you so to follow us around the country and keep an eye on us?"
"What would you have me do? Simply trust one of the blood mages who nearly destroyed the circle to act in anything other than their own interests?"
"Perhaps if you were not so blind to anything that the chantry so much as looked at wrong then you would realize that blood magic is a tool and –"
"Enough!" Elisa snapped, worried that the raised voices would allow someone to eavesdrop on their conversation "Clara, make no mistake you are suspect. You aided in an armed rebellion against the biggest organization of Thedas. What would have happened if you had won? Would you have demanded tithes from the surrounding lands to support yourselves? Troops to combat the inevitable exalted march? Perhaps you would have decided that the country was better off under mage leadership? Do you have any idea how close you were to starting another Tevinter imperium here in Ferelden?"
"I-"
"Save it, you're not dead because you're powerful, because I think you earnestly seek to undo the damage you have done and because I believe I can control you. The second any of the changes you're another corpse on the road" Elisa rounded on Wynne "Wynne, I appreciate your caution, I spent some time in Tevinter a few years ago and still have the scars from the rebellion I helped out in there; never say that I don't appreciate the dangers of absolute power, be it in the hands of mages or mundanes." Neira shuddered, thinking of the scars she sees on Elisa's back every night "That being said, I will not allow your suspicion to hinder our cause; you can come if you promise that you will not act unless you bring the issue to me or whoever is in charge, understood?" Wynne nodded "Furthermore, I will not pander to your paranoia; if the group is divided I will send you off with whomever you are most beneficial to, you may well find yourself on the other side of Ferelden from one, two or even all of three of us and you will be expected to deal with it or leave. If you act without my express permission I will kill you, if compromise the mission I will kill you, if you start a confrontation without my go ahead I will kill you, do you see a pattern here?" Wynne nodded again "Good, grey wardens do what they must so I can't expect you to like everything we do, hell I can't expect me to like everything I do but I can expect you to follow orders, if it's too much you are free to leave at any time or speak to me at camp but that is the only discontent you are allowed, Clear?" Wynne considered what had been said and nodded "Good, I think you'll be a great asset to the team, do you still want to come?"
"Yes, but I have to ask; what will you do about your Templar recruits?"
Elisa smiled grimly "They'll get the same offer you did minus the chance to walk away"
oOo
Jowan poked at the fire and tried not to pay attention to the witch and the elf that were flirting on the other side of the fire. I had been possible to ignore them when they were traveling in a group but with just the three of them he found himself thinking longingly of Lily.
While the others of the group had headed to the tower it was decided that the intelligence of bringing an apostate mage was questionable at best and bringing a known maleficar was downright stupid. Theron had decided that he would rather not see how Shemlen mages lived and so had come along as well. The three were camped out near the tower where the group could pick them up when they left tomorrow and avoid confrontation with their Templar allies. In the meantime Jowan was stuck being painfully reminded how he had lost his own love; she had hated him when he left the tower and was now suffering because of him. He wished he had never thought of blood magic in the first place!
But it was too late now; all he could do was make the best of what he had and redeem himself with the wardens. Jowan poked at the fire, lost in the misery of his thoughts.
Unseen, an elf hid watched the camp from the shadows. He had heard them speak of a rendezvous with the others tomorrow, all the grey wardens together and could be taken out with a single ambush. He had enough men, he could do it.
The elf smiled, this job would be quick and easy, then he could go home and collect the lucrative reward.
A/N I wonder who that is…
Voided luck = Devil's luck
Sorry this chapter took so long, it was just really slow going for me. Also I've been spending more time on my homework, so that cuts down on the amount of time I have to write.
On another note I'm kinda curious about how the NSFW scenes went, especially the first one (I refuse to call it a lemon – a lemon is a nice, pleasant sex scene, that was a fucked up thing that kinda unnerved me when I realized what I had written). The second one was kinda whatever – for fun, I kinda want to know if it was good or bad but don't really care – but the first I'm curious to see what people thought, was it good? Did it seem way out there? Did it unnerve you at the end? Was it fucked beyond belief and I'm going to hell for writing it? Don't tell me if you thought it was the last one, I like to believe I have a shot at a good afterlife.
Also feel free to check out my one shot Tainted Mercy, it's set a few years before Tainted Blood and hints on what Elisa's capable of and what she's done. It's may not be a one shot for very long either – it really wants to become a real story (and may be fun to write to, I could write it as a romance except that everyone knows how horribly it ends – see how that turns out. And it would be a good way to show how Elisa started coming into her own, hmmm…)
And just like that another story pops into my head and starts clamoring to get out. Also I would like to comment on the fact that Elisa's lover in Tainted Mercy is male, just so no one gets confused. It was deliberate – mainly because I couldn't imagine a girl in that situation, or didn't want to – and I figure the explanation is pretty obvious.
Anyways as always, thanks for reading and please review