Chapter 15
Raven, formerly Grima, god of destruction, foil of Naga and main deity of the country of Plegia, watched her chosen consort fly off with another woman without so much as a backwards glance to her, and found herself suppressing a sigh.
"We'll… be alright, right?" Anna asked her, voice quivering slightly. "Right? Like, you're way scarier than him… right?"
"We promised no harm would come to you, and so it will not," Raven huffed, leaning back on her perch of barrels.
She lay there like that, ignoring the tense silence from the other women on the wagon for a few minutes as she stared languidly upwards. The sky was a bright slash of pale blue so light it was almost white in color, the only differentiation between sides of the drab, grey stone they travelled through. After a few minutes, Layne's pegasus returned alone, which had unnerved the others, but Raven saw the logic in the move; a pegasus was not a creature of stealth on the ground, so it was better to get it out of the way. Sune now led the creature by the reins from atop her own mount, and Raven languished in boredom.
"I am already bored," Raven huffed. "Really, why is it that whenever something happens he gets to run off and play hero while he makes us sit here and watch?"
"Who?" Anna asked over her shoulder.
"Ben!" Raven said, snapping up into a sitting position. "He never lets me have any of the fun."
"I mean… maybe he just wants to protect you?" Anna suggested.
"I don't need protecting," Raven pouted. "In fact, most of the time he's so brash because he knows I'm there to protect him!"
As she spoke, a few strands of her long white hair fell into her face, and she crossed her arms before blowing them out of her eyes.
"It is a man thing," Deneia said from next to Anna. "All the boys in my village were the same. They just have to take action when there are women around, they just have to protect them and prove their worth!"
Raven nodded slowly, leaning forward a little in her interest.
"So it is… some sort of mating ritual?" she asked.
"Ugh. They like to think it is," Deneia groaned.
Anna just snickered, her eyes still on the path ahead. Raven leaned back, holding herself up with her arms behind her, a thoughtful frown on her face as they continued along in silence for a time.
Eventually, Deneia turned in her seat with a frown on her face.
"What do you see in that jerk, anyway?" she asked.
Anna actually flinched at this question, turning a small frown of her own on the pegasus rider, but Raven just cocked her head in confusion.
"I do not understand," she said slowly. "Who do you mean?"
"I mean… you seem nice, well bred, cultured… you're obviously Grimleal… why are you wasting your time with an Ylissean lout like Ben?" Deneia asked.
Raven leaned forward again, resting her elbows on her knees as she crossed her legs atop the barrels.
"He's really not that bad once he warms up to you," Anna said defensively. "And what's wrong with being Ylissean?"
"Well, you're not so bad…" Deneia muttered awkwardly.
"He and I have a very long history," Raven explained. "He was the first person in a very long time to show me any sort of kindness. And I am not 'wasting' my time with him. If I choose to spend my time in any fashion, it is therefore not a waste. Only in inaction am I wasting time."
"He's been nothing but rude and cruel to us," Deneia pouted, turning away.
"To be fair, you lot did try to kill us," Anna shrugged. "Several times, actually."
"I think you are the only one here that hasn't tried to kill Ben," Raven giggled to Anna.
Deneia spun around, looking at the other woman with a very confused furrow to her brow. Raven just shrugged and grinned, her eyes flashing.
"Like I said, we have a very long history," she purred.
Deneia shrugged, turning away again. "I don't blame you. After this morning, I wanted kill him, too…"
"I personally feel like I've been a little too hard on him," Anna sighed to Raven. "I really dragged the two of you into a mess, and he's done nothing but fix it for me. You both have. Maybe I should be nicer?"
Deneia scoffed, but didn't otherwise comment, crossing her arms and leaning back a little in her seat. Ben's usual seat. Raven frowned at this, beginning to grow weary of the girl's disrespect. The urge to simply grab her by the hair and tie said hair to the back of the wagon so that she was dragged behind it for the rest of the day was almost impossible to ignore, but she took a deep breath instead.
"I find myself desiring some exercise," she drawled.
As she spoke, Raven slipped from the side of the wagon, dropping to the dusty stone path of the mountains. Sune watched this, urging her pegasus up alongside the 'goddess'.
"Is something amiss, Lady Raven?" she asked formally.
"I grow weary of the conversation on the wagon," Raven said slowly, pointedly glaring at Deneia.
The young pegasus rider in question actually had the nerve to shoot Raven a dirty look, and she had to take a deep breath to remind herself to remain calm, and not kill the little bitch on the spot.
Killing bandits was one thing, but she and Ben had promised not to kill the Plegian fliers unless provoked. The petulant mood of a child probably didn't meet that criteria.
… did it?
Raven sighed through her nose, reasoning that even if it did, Ben would probably be pissy if she killed Deneia anyway, and she didn't want to deal with his bitching.
But if she didn't get away from the girl soon, she'd kill her anyway.
"Would you care to ride with me, Lady Raven?" Sune asked politely. "Or I'm sure Layne's pegasus would be happy to carry you, too."
"I wish to walk," Raven declared. "Remain with the wagon. If any harm comes to Anna, I will hold you both personally responsible. You do not want that."
"As you wish, Lady Raven," Sune said, drifting back to the rear of the cart.
Raven left then, before she could hear any more of Deneia's whining. She walked ahead of Anna's cart; the feeling of movement surprisingly pleasant to her human form after so long spent immobile.
The nomad caravan moved quite slowly, their own horses and camels trotting along at a slower pace so as not to exhaust the creatures in the heat. Many of the other nomads walked alongside their carriages, too; mostly the men, patrolling with their hands on the hilts of their swords and their eyes on the mountain crags around them.
Without conscious thought, Raven found herself threading her way through the caravan, wary of the watchful eyes on her from their 'hosts'. Raven knew they were only guests of the nomad people as long as they were useful to them. Usually, such an insular people would have nothing to do with travelers like her or her lover, at least according to Robin's old memories. Most of the nomads watched her with a sort of wary curiosity, while a few of the older men looked down on her with outright hostility. She avoided them, threading her way through the carts and wagons until something caught her eye.
There, sitting on the back of one of the wagons, was a man bare from the waist up, his chest swaddled in thick bandages. A woman knelt next to him, tying off the last of the wrappings atop his shoulder. The wounded man that Ben had saved, Padi and his wife.
They both looked up as Raven approached, the woman saying something softly to her husband before he nodded and scooted back into the shade of their wagon's awning. Padi spared Raven a polite, perhaps even grateful nod, though, and, as she drew closer, the man's wife dropped down to the ground behind the wagon with a bright smile. She quickly bowed low in greeting before moving to match Raven's pace. Raven slowed, keeping pace with her wagon.
The woman looked curiously at Raven for a few moments before smiling and clearing her throat awkwardly.
"I… sorry," she said in broken Ylissean. "I not… speak… Ylisse tongue… good."
"Then speak Plegian," Raven said, using the local language flawlessly.
"Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have assumed," the woman said, switching to the Plegian language, her cheeks growing red.
Raven just grinned, tapping at the Grimleal markings on her face.
"I wouldn't wear these if I could not at least speak the language," she chuckled. "And anyway, I was born here in Plegia."
Or, at least Robin was, Raven added in her head.
"Again, I am so sorry," the woman said, smiling bashfully. "My name is Nisab. I'd like to thank you again for saving my husband."
"All I did was fetch the water, though," Raven laughed.
Nisab shook her head, smiling up at the taller Raven from beneath her robes.
"You saved him," she said, her tone bordering on reverent. "You and your husband both. I do not know what I would have done if he had died…"
"Wait, wait," Raven laughed. "Ben is not my husband! He is… my… ah…"
Raven blinked, coming up short. Now that she had to put the weird, ephemeral relationship that she shared with Ben into words she found herself unable to.
"In truth I do not know what he is to me," she admitted.
An awkward silence fell between the two women, lasting a few beats before Nisab cleared her throat again.
"Well, it doesn't matter," she said. "My husband is alive because of you both, and I thank you."
"He is… ah… doing better?" Raven said awkwardly.
"He is much recovered already!" Nisab said, before giggling. "Although he complains that the thread holding his wound closed itches fiercely."
"That is a good sign," Raven nodded. "It means he is healing."
"That is good," Nisab sighed, relief evident in her tone. "I know your… Ben said not to worry, but… Padi is all I have. So… I worry."
"I am… sure he will be fine," Raven assured her.
Nisab laughed, wiping at her eyes with the back of her fingers.
"I am sorry, I do not mean to make you uncomfortable," she said.
"No, I am just… not used to… this," Raven admitted.
"Used to what?" Nisab asked.
"Used to… gratitude, I guess," Raven shrugged.
Nisab looked at Raven in shock for a moment, before her face relaxed into a genuine smile. The nomad woman reached over and took Raven's hand in both of hers, holding it close to her.
"Well, you have my gratitude," she said.
Raven just blinked a few times before Nisab laughed, the local woman pulling Raven along behind her as she rushed into the press of other wagons.
"Come! You must meet the other women of our tribe!" she said brightly.
The previous evening, before Raven had bodily dragged Ben away to see to her needs, their little group had set up a camp of their own, separate to the nomad tribe. Thanks to Raven's apparent attempt that day to actually communicate with the nomads, though, this evening was different.
Raven, Anna, Deneia and Sune were sitting right in the middle of a lively communal nomad meal, the entire tribe present except for those men who had drawn guard duty. Children laughed and played around the adults and the elderly, while a group of about four of the younger women prepared a meal of pegasus meat stew and flatbreads baked in the coals of the cooking fire.
"I'm telling you, all it'll take is a little bit of work and you can absolutely set up a trading company," Anna was saying to the nomad chief, Mikhail. "You already travel everywhere, anyway, so why not get something out of it?"
The nomad chief made a thoughtful noise, rubbing at the wiry hairs on his chin as he considered her suggestion.
"And you're telling me that all we would have to do is move stock for your family?" he asked hesitantly.
"Exactly!" Anna went on excitedly. "And you'd be able to choose what you haul, so it's not like you'll have to break any traditions or anything! My family are strictly above-board when it comes to the shipping empire."
Mikhail nodded, and Raven tuned out, looking away and letting their conversation fade to background noise. To her opposite side, Deneia sat and sulked, staring darkly at the pot of bubbling stew.
"I still can't believe it," she muttered.
"It is better than starving, no?" Sune asked gently from her side.
"You wouldn't be saying that if it were your pegasus," Deneia insisted petulantly.
Sune just sighed, shaking her head and leaving the younger girl to sulk. She looked up, catching Raven's gaze and sitting up expectantly.
"Was there something you needed, Lady Raven?" she asked. "I believe dinner will be ready momentarily."
Raven just nodded, going back to staring into space. She found herself not particularly wanting to converse with anyone available at present. Well, Anna would have done in a pinch, but she was busy trying to sign Mikhail's tribe up to her family's merchant empire. Deneia was too busy sulking, which Raven had no time for, and Sune was too… Chon'sinian. The pegasus rider was still so wrapped up in her culture's ridiculous notions of honor and servitude to make for a decent conversation partner just yet.
Raven took a moment to peruse Robin's old memories, thinking back on how long it had taken Say'ri to warm up to the tactician during the campaign in Valm that hadn't even happened yet in this timeline, but Raven had still lived through twice now…
She snorted as her thoughts began to loop around the idea. Ben had been right; time travel was confusing.
Glancing up across the fire, Raven spotted Nisab helping Padi to sit down atop a small crate, the injured man laughing and smiling self-depreciatingly as one of the other men in the tribe moved to help them. The sight brought a small smile of her own to Raven's face, watching how they banded together to help the injured man. She stopped for a moment, wondering if Ben would smile like that if he had to take care of her if she was injured. She wondered if she would smile like that if she had to take care of him.
Deciding that her current company was less than adequate, Raven went to get up and join the nomads across the fire, freezing before she had even stood fully when one of the men that had been set out as sentries came up behind Mikhail.
"Sir, more scouts," the sentry said, his voice quiet but urgent.
Mikhail cursed, looking around at the camp they had just finished setting up. Anna looked over at Raven with wide, worried eyes, but none of the others around them seemed to have heard.
"I'll take care of it," Raven said quietly. "Show me to where you spotted them."
Mikhail, the sentry and Anna all looked up at her as she stood, dusting off the back of her robes. The sentry looked back to Mikhail, whose eyes narrowed slightly.
"Trust me, a few scouts will not trouble me," Raven promised him. "Watch after the rest of my party. I will only be a moment."
Raven stepped out of the firelight, waiting for the sentry. The confused man looked between her and Mikhail, until the nomad chief sighed and nodded.
"We are in your debt, Lady Raven," Mikhail said softly.
"No, you are under my protection," she said imperiously, turning to the sentry. "There is a difference. You. Show me to these scouts, quickly. I do not wish to miss dinner."
The sentry just nodded, hurrying out of the firelight and out towards where the path continued past their little camp. Raven followed at a more sedate pace, undoing the wraps that kept her robes in place and shedding the flowing garments. She folded her robes over her arm as she walked, wearing only her pants and chemise now as she strode through the dark.
Eventually, the sentry stopped at a low pile of rocks, crouching down behind them. Just ahead of them, the path sloped upwards before doubling back around a cliff, and that was where the man pointed.
"Up there, my Lady," he said in Plegian.
"How many?" Raven asked, also in Plegian.
"I am sorry," he said, hanging his head. "I did not see."
"Hold these," Raven sighed, shoving her bundled robes into his arms. "And wait here. I do not want to have to go looking for you."
Without waiting for further response, Raven strode boldly out towards the cliff. The night air was bracing on her bare arms and neck, the chill seeping through the thin undergarment she wore. It was invigorating in a way that she hadn't expected, and brought a predatory smile to her face. It only took her long stride a few moments to reach where the path doubled back, and without even a backwards glance she rounded the bend out of sight of the nomad camp.
Satisfied she had some privacy now, Raven took a deep breath and mentally reached for the repository of magical energy she had been building up. With an intoxicating rush, her eyes blazed with crimson light and she felt power flood her frail human form, strengthening muscles and improving her senses far past that of an ordinary human.
As the darkness receded from her enhanced eyesight, she caught a glimpse of three men quickly dashing up the path in the distance. They were perhaps two-hundred meters away at this point, but they may as well have been standing right next to her.
Raven shook out her arms and stretched her neck, suddenly struck by the realization that, aside from her little show of superiority with Aversa, she hadn't actually tested the limits of her newfound powers yet.
With a thought, her magic flared, and she disappeared, only to reappear directly in front of the fleeing bandits. The three men skidded to a stop in a comical manner, running into each other, one even going so far as to wheel his arms around to keep his balance.
"Hello, gentlemen," Raven purred. "What's your hurry?"
The three bandits stood transfixed for a heartbeat before they all moved at once. One took a step back, recoiling from Raven. The one closest to her began to dive away to her left, trying to get around her. The last began to draw his sword, an ancient, rusted piece of junk. All of this appeared to happen in slow motion to Raven, and she gave a low laugh.
All three bandits looked like they were barely men, two of them sporting scruffy, patchy attempts at growing beards. All of them had wide-eyed, panicked expressions. All of them no doubt knew, instinctively, that they were about to die.
Like Ben had said: killing bandits was kosher.
Whatever 'kosher' meant.
Raven brought her foot up, catching the diving bandit in the stomach. She felt his flesh rupture from the blow, organs pulping as ribs shattered on her foot, and rather than fly upward from her kick the bandit just came apart. She used the movement to flip herself backwards away from the spray of blood and viscera, the bandit that went for his sword shrieking and dropping the weapon as he was coated in the remains of his friend. With the wave of her hand Raven sent a small blast of Dark Magic out, decapitating the fleeing bandit, the man's head vaporizing and his body falling flat without even knowing what had killed him.
The third and final man fell to his knees, the acrid stench of urine reaching Raven's magically enhanced senses as he lost control of his bladder in his panic. With a small, superior smile, Raven strode towards him, swaying her hips suggestively and reveling in the sense of power she commanded.
"Was this all of you?" she asked politely. "Just the three of you?"
"P-p-please, by Grima's mercy, spare me," the bandit sobbed.
Raven sighed and backhanded the man across the face as gently as she could, the blow still sending him flying a good few meters. For a moment, she worried that she had broken the bandit's neck, but he coughed and sobbed some more as he pushed himself back up to his hands and knees.
"I don't have any mercy for the likes of you," Raven seethed, advancing on the bandit again. "Answer my question!"
Raven nudged him over onto his back with the toe of her boot, the bandit landing with a huff before desperately trying to crawl away from her.
"Yes!" the bandit wailed. "Yes, this was all of us! Th-they didn't want to w-waste men on scouting!"
"Thank you," Raven groaned.
With that, she knelt down, her hand snapping out to grip the man by the throat and pin him to the ground. He gagged, gripping her wrist with both of his hands and trying unsuccessfully to pry her off. Without even thinking, she began to siphon his energy away, but stopped with a strangled gasp.
Raven leapt away from the man, backing up a few steps as she looked down with wide eyes at her hand. Unseeable to the human eye, tendrils of mana clung to her fingers like threads of smoke, dissipating as she watched. At her feet, the bandit curled up on his side, beginning to openly weep.
"I don't want to die!" he repeatedly sobbed.
She watched him for a moment, before kneeling down in front of him and gently laying a hand on his shoulder. He flinched from the contact, looking up at Raven with wide, tear-filled eyes.
"I am sorry," she said softly. "I can't let you leave. It will put the caravan at risk."
The bandit sniffled, realization dawning in his eyes. Raven's grip tightened so that he couldn't get any ideas, and she smiled sadly.
"You asked for mercy," she said. "This is my mercy to you. You won't feel it."
Before her words could cause new panic in the man, Raven reached up as if to stroke his face. Instead his head was vaporized by another spell, the body falling limply back to the ground. She knelt there for a moment, looking at the corpse as it twitched its final movements, uncurling and rolling onto its back. There wasn't even any blood to mark the death, the wound cauterized by the spell.
With a sigh, Raven let the spells strengthening her fade, leaving her feeling drained and sick. She stood, turning away and beginning to walk back to the caravan automatically, struggling to come to terms with what she had almost done.
She stopped when she reached the sentry, slowly taking her bundled robes out of his hands without looking up at him.
"They are all dead," she said, her voice toneless. "Your people are safe."
Without even waiting for the gratitude she knew that he would heap on her, Raven just held her robes close to her chest and beelined directly for her tent. They had set it up on the outer periphery of the camp, next to Anna's wagon, but they were actually part of the camp this time, rather than separate from it. Raven just crawled inside and carefully set her robes aside, before planting herself atop her bedroll. After only a moment, she drew her knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around her shins. Still, she wasn't sure what she felt.
Some time passed, the sounds of the communal meal constant in the background, before the tent was opened again and light flooded in.
"Um… Raven?" Anna asked tentatively. "You didn't come back to the fire. Are you okay?"
She didn't answer, so Anna crawled into the tent as well. As soon as she was inside, the flap fell back into place, throwing them both into a dim twilight.
"What happened?" Anna asked gently.
Slowly, softly, the redhead placed a hand on Raven's shoulder. As if a dam had burst, Raven drew in a deep, shuddering breath.
"I killed them," she admitted, her voice thick.
Anna hesitated, before kneeling down next to her. The merchant's hand never moved from Raven's shoulder.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Anna asked. "I mean, they were going to report our position and try to kill us, right?"
"I… I swore…" Raven started, before sniffling and scrunching her eyes closed. "I swore… with Ben… that I wouldn't… wouldn't kill anymore… that I wouldn't… wouldn't be the m-monster I used to be…"
Raven trailed off, and to her surprise Anna actually leaned in and wrapped her arms around her. With another shuddering breath Raven turned her face to bury it in Anna's desert robes, trying to force herself not to cry as Anna gently stroked her hair.
"Shhh, it's okay," Anna reassured her. "You did a good thing, protecting these people. Those men made their choices. No one thinks you're a monster."
"You don't know…" Raven hiccupped. "You don't… know what I've done…"
"I know you've gone out of your way to continually save and protect a foolish young merchant," Anna told her softly. "I know that, when you were given the option, you spared the lives of the soldiers that attacked you not once, but twice. That doesn't sound like the actions of a monster to me."
"I destroyed the world, Anna," Raven admitted, her voice barely more than a whisper. "In… in the future… I destroyed everything…"
Anna was silent for a moment, before making a thoughtful noise.
"You don't want to do that now, though?" she asked.
"No," Raven muttered.
"I won't claim to know how time travel works," the redhead said slowly. "But… I guess technically, you haven't done those things yet. So I don't think that can be laid at your feet by anyone in this timeline."
Raven slowly drew back, her eyes wide and shining with unshed tears as she looked up at Anna. The merchant, for her part, just smiled at her.
"I don't think you're a monster, Raven," she repeated.
Raven finally cracked, her face scrunching up before she buried it back in Anna's shoulder, sobbing softly as the redhead rubbed comforting circles on her back.
"I… I… I almost… almost did it… again…" Raven sobbed. "I almost… almost stole the l-life from a human… for magical energy! I swore I… I wouldn't… but… but…"
"But you didn't," Anna soothed. "You didn't… ah… do… that… so it's okay."
Raven chuckled a little, calming and drawing back after a moment. She wiped at her face, not looking up.
"I draw energy from life, to fuel my magic," she explained. "Before I met Ben, really met him, that meant killing."
"Oh," Anna said, quirking her head a little. "But now that means…?"
"Now it means sex," Raven grinned.
"That explains so much," Anna muttered.
Raven giggled for a few seconds, before sighing and wrapping her arms around her shoulders again. Anna sighed, reaching out and nudging Raven's face up with one hand on her cheek. The merchant's hand was warm, and Raven leaned into it.
"You didn't do that, though," Anna reminded her.
Raven closed her eyes, allowing herself to luxuriate in the rare physical contact.
"I know," she said. "You know, you're only the second person that's ever hugged me."
"Oh, that is so sad!" Anna cried.
As she spoke, the redhead leaned forward, wrapping Raven in a tight hug again. The former-goddess laughed, leaning into the embrace and tentatively beginning to return it. Curiously, she realized that the merchant actually smelled slightly like metal; she carried the scent of the coins that she valued so in her very flesh. The fact felt so very Anna that it brought an unseen smile to Raven's lips.
"Are you going to be okay?" Anna asked her.
"I will be," she sighed. "When Ben gets back and I can… feed again."
"What, you're hungry?" Anna asked. "We saved you some dinner."
Raven found herself actually disappointed when the redhead drew away from her. She shook her head, feeling her cheeks darken a little in embarrassment, silently grateful for the dark.
"No, I… think I used too much mana when I was killing those bandits," Raven admitted. "I am low on energy, you could say."
"Oh…" Anna said, drawing out the phrase as she nodded. "Okay. I… uh… could I help you? Maybe do the whole, uh, blood thing-"
"No!" Raven said quickly, looking down again. "I… do not want to even see blood right now…"
"Okay, okay," Anna soothed. "Maybe something else? How… bad is this?"
"I will be as a normal human until Ben returns," Raven admitted. "I… doubt I will be able to protect the caravan if the bandits launch another full attack, honestly."
"That's not good," Anna muttered, finger pressed to her chin. "Does it have to be blood, though? Could I give you something else?"
"Unfortunately, I believe you are ill equipped to give me what Ben does," Raven laughed.
"Ugh, yeah," Anna sighed.
Raven slowly looked up at Anna, watching the redhead tap her finger against her chin in thought, and an idea began to form in her mind. Anna had been nothing but kind to her since they had met. Even when faced with the truth of what she was, what she had done, Anna hadn't turned away, instead choosing to comfort her as she wept. Just like Ben had…
"You would… help give me energy?" Raven asked softly. "You would let me drain some of your life force?"
"Yeah, of course!" Anna said without hesitation. "As long as it's just some and not all. But if you don't want my blood, I don't really know what else I can do…"
Raven nodded, slowly coming up onto her knees and positioning herself in front of the merchant. Anna watched her, an innocent expression of curiosity on her face.
"I… do not know if this will work," Raven admitted. "But I have an idea."
"Oh, really?" Anna said brightly, before her brow furrowed. "It's not going to hurt, is it? I'll have to charge extra for that."
Raven just shook her head with a breathy chuckle, before leaning in and pressing her lips to Anna's. The merchant let out a squeak, flinching back and looking at Raven with wide eyes.
"You said you would do anything, yes?" Raven reminded her.
"But… you… I…" Anna stammered, blushing as brightly as her hair. "Would… would that… I mean… will kissing… kissing… me…"
"I do not know," Raven repeated with a gentle smile. "But I trust you enough to try."
Anna swallowed, leaning forward again somewhat shakily before nodding.
"Right," Anna nodded. "I… I said I'd do what I could to help, and if you think this will… will help…"
Raven reached up, smiling again as she gently stroked the side of Anna's face.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Then she kissed the merchant again, but, unlike before, Anna didn't pull away, only closing her eyes and going a little tense. Raven had to resist the urge to chuckle as they kissed, the redhead's reaction so cute to her. After a few moments, Raven began to probe at Anna's lips with the tip of her tongue, the redhead giving a small sigh through her nose as she let her lips open slightly. Gently, tenderly, Raven began to explore the redhead's mouth with her tongue, Anna clumsily trying to reciprocate.
It was unlike kissing Ben, Raven noticed. Even though Anna's lips were dry and somewhat cracked from the desert heat, she was still much softer, much smoother. And, obviously, no errant moustache hairs went up Raven's nose. She found the whole endeavor to be greatly enjoyable, if she were honest.
Anna moaned and mewled into Raven's mouth, her hands clenching and unclenching in her lap. Smiling into the kiss, Raven gently took those hands and placed them around the back of her neck. Anna leaned into the movement, and Raven actually pulled back to laugh as they lost their balance, falling backwards.
The merchant landed on her back, looking up at Raven with heavy-lidded eyes as she breathed heavily.
"Did… did it work?" she asked.
Raven leaned down, placing another small, playful kiss on the redhead's lips before drawing back.
"I don't know," she giggled. "I was having too much fun to try."
Anna groaned in embarrassment, turning her face away from Raven's. The other woman laughed again, gently turning it back with one hand on her cheek. She let the hand linger, slowly stroking Anna's cheek.
"This is really embarrassing," Anna admitted.
"Why?" Raven asked.
"We're both women!" Anna groaned. "And that was my first kiss! And it was amazing!"
"Well," Raven chuckled. "Thank you for your first kiss."
"Is… this actually going to help you get your magic back?" Anna half-sobbed.
"Do you trust me, Anna?" Raven asked seriously.
Anna looked up at her, opening her mouth to respond before closing it, not saying a word. She looked up into Raven's blood-red eyes for a moment before nodding.
"I do trust you," she said.
"That… means a great deal to me, Anna," Raven said, her voice growing thick again. "Thank you. I will try seriously this time."
Anna blushed again, her eyes darting away.
"Well… maybe not too seriously," she mumbled. "That… did feel really nice…"
Raven grinned, leaning down. This time Anna came up to meet her, their lips parting in time as their tongues sought each other out again. This time, though, as Anna sighed and slowly wrapped her hands back around the back of Raven's neck, the former-goddess focused on the sensation of her feeding. It was slow, a much lighter flow than sex with Ben, little more than a slight tingle in her mouth, but Raven could tell it was working.
But working very, very slowly.
Raven drew back again after a few minutes, sighing and frowning slightly.
"What?" Anna asked, sitting up a little. "What's wrong? Is… is it not working?"
"It is," Raven said, sitting up on her haunches next to Anna. "But… it is working very, very slowly."
"Well… how… uh… how do you… usually do it with Ben?" Anna asked, before blushing again. "I-I-I mean, the energy draining thing, not the… uh… ohhh…"
Anna groaned, letting herself fall back and covering her face with her hands.
"I know what you meant," Raven snickered.
She thought for a moment, remembering all the times she had drained energy from Ben.
"I think… I get most of the energy at the end," she said slowly. "At the point of release for him…"
Raven slowly looked down at Anna, the redhead going very still and looking up at her with wide eyes. There was a moment of silence, each of them waiting for the other to be the first to break it, before Anna fidgeted.
"Would… that… work?" she asked eventually.
"I have no idea," Raven admitted. "But… the kiss did… so…"
"I… I've never…" Anna gulped. "I mean, it's my first… uh… time… doing this kind of thing…"
Raven sighed, shaking her head. Robin's memories had made quite clear, when she had gone back to look through them about her body's original owner's sexual experiences, that a woman's first time was important. Almost sacred. But then again, so, too, did they hold their first kiss…
"You don't have to," she said, smiling. "I mean that. I can wait until Ben comes back."
"I… um… don't mind," Anna said. "I mean, it's only fair, right? You and Ben helping me across the desert like this, and protecting me and doing most of the work, all I've really done is drive the wagon and… I'm rambling now."
"It's rather cute," Raven smirked.
Anna took a deep breath, still blushing quite heavily, but held a serious look on her face.
"I want to help," she said firmly. "However I can. All I've done so far is make more trouble, so… I want to do this."
Raven looked down at Anna for a moment, considering this.
"If you are sure," she said at length. "Although, as I said, there's no guarantee this will work…"
"I'm sure," Anna nodded. "I trust you. Just, ah, be gentle."
Raven grinned, leaning down and brushing her lips across Anna's, ever so gently, as she ran her hand up the redhead's side. Anna shivered under Raven's touch, leaning up into the kiss for a moment before pulling back.
"So… I know how a boy and a girl do this, but, uh… not how two girls would," she said nervously. "Do you… have any ideas?"
Raven grinned, chuckling a little as a thought occurred.
"I do, actually," she said.
She moved to gently kiss the side of Anna's neck, before leaning up to whisper in her ear.
"Let me show you the 'tongue thing' Ben is so proud of," she said.
It was hard to tell how much time passed as Raven and Anna explored each other's bodies, but by the time they were both satisfied, the fire had been extinguished and the rest of the camp had quieted down for the evening.
Raven smiled as she opened the flap of the tent a little, allowing some fresh air into the sweltering space. Moonlight fell across her bare form, as well as the form of Anna sprawled out on the bedrolls behind her.
"I cannot believe we did that," Anna gasped, her breasts still heaving.
Still grinning, Raven turned to admire where the line of silvery moonlight illuminated the younger girl. Anna's form was far thinner than her own, her breasts little more than a handful, her figure lean and svelte. With her bright red hair undone, spread about her head in a fiery halo where it had fallen, Raven was struck by how beautiful she was. An odd thought to have about another woman, she reasoned, but one that was true.
She really did find Anna beautiful like this.
"I cannot believe that worked," Raven admitted.
"Ah, good," Anna chuckled breathily. "After the fourth time I was worried it wasn't taking."
"I didn't hear you complaining," Raven said, her tone low and sultry.
"Complain!?" Anna scoffed. "It was all I could do to remember to breathe!"
They shared a laugh as Raven crawled back towards her, and after a moment's hesitation she lay down on the bedroll next to Anna. With a tired grin, Anna reached over and took Raven's hand in hers, their fingers lacing together even as the redhead gave a wide yawn.
"It really did work, right?" Anna asked.
"It did," Raven said, turning to look at the other woman. "You are not too drained?"
"Mmm…" Anna sighed, closing her eyes. "I'm exhausted. I think it'll be a late morning for us, but…"
"But?" Raven prompted as Anna trailed off.
"Totally worth it," the redhead chuckled.
Raven smirked, leaning over to peck a quick kiss on Anna's cheek. She opened her eyes, glancing over at Raven.
"But… what about Ben?" she asked. "Won't he… you know… be mad?"
"About what?" Raven asked curiously.
"About us!" Anna explained. "Doing this! I thought you and he were… you know… a thing. Isn't he your 'consort', or whatever you called him?"
Raven chuckled, a low, sensual sound as she leaned forward, placing a much longer kiss on Anna's lips. The redhead sighed when she pulled back, Raven's eyes sparkling with mischief in the moonlight.
"If anything, he'll be mad he missed it," Raven said. "He probably would have wanted to watch."
"Ugh, no thanks," Anna groaned. "Just doing it in front of you was embarrassing enough…"
Raven laughed as she placed another kiss on Anna's forehead.
"That's the good thing about 'consorts' though," she explained. "You can have more than one."
AN: Oh yes. After all the requests for me to make a harem story, it is time. But... who said the SI would be the one with the harem, and not part of it? HAHAHAHAHA! Gotcha. But yes, this is a thing going forwards.
I would like to remind everybody that my stories update on a 'when it happens' basis right now due to health problems. You can keep up more frequently on (P)atreon for only a buck, which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.
Thanks for reading, and Nagaspeed!