The Longest Road, Part 29
You decide against prying too deeply into Verika, choosing to focus instead on creating a good impression. You make amiable small talk, regaling her with an abbreviated version of how you and Khaytala got to know each other, using all your skill to color it as best you can.
For one thing, you definitely put a lot more emphasis on Khaytala's role in scaring off the orcish warband than your own intimidation. Verika would doubtless have learned of it one way or another; better to get ahead of the most incriminating part by framing it in your own words.
It also allows you to work Khaytala into the telling, drawing her out of her embarrassment a bit. Soon she's adding her own perspective... but in ways that you can subtly control through the pacing of the overall narrative and where you leave the openings for her to jump in. That allows you to guide her to topics that she can speak about without arousing suspicion, while not giving the impression to Verika that you're speaking for her.
You can tell that you're making a dent in the drow's doubts. Everyone loves a good story, and you pepper it with just the right amount of humor and self-deprecation. This, in turn, leads Khaytala to object with her own view of the matter, showing how much she cares for you.
At last, you finish with explaining your joint victory over the assassin, to which Verika sighs. "Wish I could have made it in time to help you," she says. "Still, it sounds like you two had it in hand after all."
"It turned out that way," Khaytala admits. "And... it did... help me realize how I felt. So I guess it all worked out."
"I'm glad it did," says Verika, and you get the sense she means it this time. "Just so long as you're happy, Khay. You deserve it, after all the shit you've had to go through."
"I am happy," Khaytala says, with complete honesty. "Happier than I've been since..." Her voice breaks off, before continuing. "Talavar... is a good man. I know he'll be there for me."
It feels... strange... to you, hearing the simple, wholehearted trust in her voice. Strange in ways you didn't expect. Strange in ways you're not even entirely sure how to describe. But you don't let any hint of it through to your smile, as you smoothly continue the conversation.
You continue to keep it light, playing it safe. You do chat a bit about Khaytala's past with Verika, the first time they met when Khaytala was taking a caravan through the forest much like now. But you don't press hard enough to learn anything truly personal.
Verika follows the caravan for quite a while, talking with the two of you, but eventually she has to take her leave. "It was good to see you again, Khay," she says. Then in elvish, she adds: "Stay safe, and may the spirits trace out your paths with grace."
"You also," Khaytala replies, also in elvish, though hers is still rough and thickly accented, probably since Verika hasn't been teaching her for long. "May the spirits... blessing the health and returning you to the hearth."
Verika smiles, then turns to go. Khaytala hesitates, then blurts out after her. "Wait, Verika!"
Your heart clenches in your chest... but in that moment of truth, you decide not to interrupt. The drow glances back, and Khaytala continues earnestly. "You... you know I've got your back, right? No matter what happens. I'll always be watching out for you. For all of you."
Verika blinks, puzzled, then smiles. "Of course I know that," she says fondly. "You're the most loyal person I've ever met, Khay. Why would I ever doubt you?"
With that, the ranger turns and continues on her way. Once she's out of sight, you walk up and take Khaytala's hand again. "She's right about that," you murmur reassuringly, for only the two of you to hear. "And she will understand. Especially once she realizes that you found a way to stop the war altogether. She'll see you did the right thing for everyone."
With Verika gone, what little remains of the trip passes quietly. The caravan winds its way through the forest road until it finally emerges on the other side, without further incident. Arne still keeps a tight watch over Greta, to her clear exasperation. But now that you're spending the nights in Khaytala's tent, as well as trips into surrounding forests while camped for even more privacy...
...well, it's safe to say that you have no issues whatsoever keeping yourself fed.
From there, it's a short distance to the trade city that is the caravan's ultimate destination. There's a palpable outpouring of relief from both the merchants and the guards once its walls come into view. This trip has probably been more harrowing than they're used to, and they don't even realize the full extent of the danger that you and Khaytala managed to avert.
Once the caravan makes it within the city walls, most of the traders and guards go their own separate ways. Arne is certainly not sad to see the back of you. Still, amidst the hustle and bustle of the city he's no longer able to keep his daughter on such a tight leash, and with some more help from her mother, the two of them slip away. That allows you to catch up with them for a moment of privacy, tucked away in a side street in a less-reputable part of the city.
Greta is studying the ground, clearly despondent that you're leaving, though you'd made it clear from the beginning that this was only a temporary tryst. Still, best to leave on good terms, if possible. You ruffle the young teen's hair, causing her to look up. "You're going to do fine," you say. "Just remember everything I taught you, and you'll be snaring as many lovers as you could want."
"Won't be as fun as with you..." she mumbles, a little petulantly.
You allow yourself a smirk. "Of course not. Still, if you compare everything to the past, you'll just sour all the fun you could have had living in the present instead. Just enjoy the debauchery that presents itself in the moment... and I'll wager you'll find fun enough."
Greta sighs. Then she steals a glance to her left, where you can see a narrow alley that turns a blind corner out of sight. An alley not unlike the one you tricked her into when you first met. She looks back to you, biting her lower lip. "Okay. But... one last time?"
Your smirk widens. In reply, you grab both of them, pulling them with you as you vanish into it. Unlike her daughter, Marta is startled, not having made up her mind completely after just one experience. She puts up some reflexive, token resistance, but it's easily overcome.
You drag them both out of sight, then pin them against the wall such that they're wrapped tight in each others' embrace. Greta's back is against the stone, while Marta is facing her, pressed up tight against her daughter. Their arms slide around each other as you lift Marta's dress to take her from behind, and soon the alley is filled with the sound of moans and gasps as you fuck them mercilessly.
Unfortunately you don't have much time to spare. But while you can't stretch it out as much as you like, you're most certainly thorough. By the time you're finished they're disheveled, leaning crumpled against each other, on the alley floor, propped up against the far wall, both their wombs filled with cum.
You wait until they've recovered enough to shakily start to clean each other up and make themselves presentable again. Still, you do need to get moving, and so you bid them one last farewell. You do feel a bit of pride as you regard your handiwork. The more people out there spreading uninhibited lust, the better... and you have a feeling these two will do great things with your tutelage.
Humming a half-remembered tune under your breath, you head back to the room at the inn where you and Khaytala are staying. Upon arriving, you waste no time in pulling her down into bed with you, which she allows with a laugh... and with her, you're able to take your time.
You spend the rest of the afternoon alternating between intense bouts of sex and more restrained pillow-talk, your sweat-slicked bodies grinding together again and again. This is the first time you've ever had a bedmate whose bottomless stamina matched, or even exceeded your own, and the two of you make the most of it.
The next morning you depart, buying horses with the generous stipend that Lily gave you and heading south, back toward Kovora. Khaytala is clearly nervous at such a huge step, unsure whether she isn't making a huge mistake. But she sticks to her decision, and you do everything you can to convey your gratitude.
The entire trip back you continue to stain her in your colors, over and over again, so that every inch of her body understands it. Before you reveal the full scope of what you intend to do, you want her to know the depths of what your way can truly offer her. What your way can offer her friends.
What your way can offer her world.
It's all going well. It could hardly be going better, to tell the truth. And yet... you can't help feeling a sense of unease, growing greater by the day. You can't put your finger on why, but you have the inexplicable sense that something is wrong.
Then, during one of your nightly sex sessions, it happens.
You're letting Khaytala do the work right at that moment, lying on your back while she rides you energetically, her hair flying around her as she impales herself over and over on your cock, crying out in ecstasy as she does so. But right in the middle of it that feeling of wrongness spikes... and almost too late you realize what it truly is.
"Get back!" you shout, desperation in your voice as you sit up, giving Khaytala a shove with all the strength you can muster, pushing her stumbling away from you. She tumbles away, but quickly rights herself, staring at you with incomprehension. Then her eyes widen as she sees a pulse of hellish red energy erupt from your right palm, wrapping your entire body in a furious vortex of magical energy. The shockwave flings her away, she was already far enough away that she's mostly unhurt.
You clutch your wrist as the power rages around you, looking down at your right palm in time to see the second rune blaze to full life, not the partial flickering you briefly saw before. Just like the last time you can feel power suffusing you, as something vast and terrible awakens, its might raging through you, changing you, reshaping you.
ᚡ ᛤ ᚡ ᛤ ᛠ ᛤ ᚡ ᛤ ᚡ ᛥ
It's more powerful than the last time, that you can tell right away. Not only do you feel a new power awakening, but you also feel it altering the very makeup of your body. Some effects are immediately clear; you feel that your ability to store the Lust that you feast on has been greatly increased, allowing you to go for longer between feedings should the need arise. You also feel a vastly improved sense of that reservoir of strength, allowing you to track it with a precision you could never manage before.
What's more, you feel one particular attribute of your nature increasing in potency, giving you an incredible boost to your abilities in that area. It seems that whatever this strange mark is, it has more than one type of change that it wishes to make to your body.