Blood Ties, Part 23


The brandy continues to pour, as the three of you talk into the late hours of the evening. The relief from Ceriss' belief that the culprit has been caught is palpable, as well as the relief that she didn't have another victim die. Especially not right in her arms.

Watching her closely, you decide to push that line of inquiry. "How long have you been chasing this villain?" you ask.

Ceriss thinks for a moment. "I first heard about him around... two months ago, perhaps?" she says at last. "Goddesses, has it only been that long?"

"Considering how hard you were pushing yourself, I can imagine it would have felt longer," you say. "Between that and your court duties, how much sleep were you even getting for all that time?"

The sorceress tries to assuage the concern in your voice, making a vague wave with her had. "There are spells for that..." she says. "I was managing."

"It didn't look like you were managing to me," you say bluntly. "Are those spells really as good as actual sleep?"

"They're not." Janessa interrupts firmly, before Ceriss can say anything. "They never have been, even back when she used them during the war. Sometimes it would be pulling triple shifts during pitched battles. Sometimes it would be forcing herself to learn healing magic to help with the wounded, even though it was completely outside her intuitive magic as a sorceress."

The ghost of a wan smile tugs at Ceriss' lips. "But we made it through... didn't we?"

Janessa can only nod. She can't gainsay the impact Ceriss truly has had. Probably, the heroine was the only one available who could do the things she has done. Saved an entirely disproportionate number of lives. Put a killer on the run that no one else could catch. But that doesn't make it any easier to watch someone run themselves ragged, time and again.

"Yes," Janessa says quietly. "We made it through."

"I... I thought I could afford to take breaks, at first," Ceriss continues. "The killer—Hastrik—he had a pattern. So I thought my patrols could aim for when he was about to strike again. But then he started to change up the schedule. Sometimes kidnapping two girls in close succession, and then stretching it out for longer before he'd strike again. I realized that I had been a fool. That it could happen any night."

"He was... so good at dancing around my efforts. Those detection wards I placed through the city? I developed that spell specifically for this hunt, to try and tighten the noose as best I could. But even that wasn't enough. I was still letting people fall through the cracks. People... just like my mother."

The more she speaks, the harder it is for her to stop speaking, as the words tumble from her like water breaking through a dam, releasing all the pent-up stress, weariness and isolation. "And now... now it's all over? Just like that? It feels so... unreal."

Janessa rises to her feet. She slowly walks over to the couch Ceriss is using, and sits down next to her, putting a gentle hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "It is real," she insists. "Let yourself relax, Ceriss. Let yourself rest."

Ceriss lets out a sad, quiet laugh, almost indistinguishable from a breath. "Is that an order, commander?" she asks, amused.

You can see Janessa steel her nerve. Then she slides the hand on Ceriss' shoulder up the dusky red skin of her neck, until it's cupping the tiefling's chin, tenderly tilting her head to face Janessa directly, their faces now inches apart. "I'm not your commanding officer anymore, Ceriss," she whispers. "But... if that's what it takes... then yes. That damn well was an order."

Ceriss' eyes widen a little, and she reflexively glances over to where "Niko" is sitting... only to see that you're already moving toward the couch as well. You squeeze in on the other side of her, moving your hand to rest intimately on Ceriss' leg. She regards you with surprise as well, then turns back to Janessa. "A threesome?" she asks, with a weak little laugh, wiping a stray tear out of her eye. "Are you really the same Janessa the army sent to crack down after the West Wind Tavern incident?"

Janessa just arches an eyebrow. "Not already jumping at a threesome?" she echoes back. "Are you really the same Ceriss Zylnerios who orchestrated the West Wind Tavern incident?"

The her expression softens, and she pulls Ceriss into a close embrace. "I know I was hard on you, back then," she whispers into Ceriss' ear. "Maybe too hard. But I have always known what a good person you are. You have a passion in you, Ceriss. One that burns like nothing I'd ever seen. I just... I... wanted to give you the discipline to hold yourself in check, so you didn't completely burn yourself out. Whether it was throwing yourself into your revels... or throwing yourself into your causes."

Ceriss nods wordlessly, more tears falling from her eyes, and for a long time they simply hold the embrace. Then, finally, Ceriss pulls back from her former commander, wiping her face again. Her emotional walls are entirely down now, and you can see the weariness and the exhaustion laid bare. "So... what happens now?" she asks shakily.

Now it's your turn to interject. "Didn't you hear Janessa?" you ask. "What you do is relax. We're going to handle everything."

Taking that as her cue, Janessa leans in and kisses Ceriss, the two women sinking into a deeper embrace as their tongues intertwine. For your part, you start to pet Ceriss from behind as she's sandwiched between you and Janessa. You keep it light for the moment, your fingers running up her legs to her middle, knowing that you have plenty of time to build.

"Shall we adjourn to Lady Janessa's chambers?" you ask, during a brief break in their making out. Janessa flushes just a little at the suggestion. Come to think of it... all your trysts so far have been in the guest room she gave you. This will be your first time taking her in her own bed, and that first time is with Ceriss as a participant as well.

The room is just as you would have imagined from Janessa: neat, austere, with only a few bits of her past life to be seen, most of it from her military service. The two of you maneuver Ceriss over to the well-made bed, Janessa kissing her fiercely while you work the straps of the tiefling's dress off her shoulders, making sure to touch as much of her skin as you can while you peel her out of it.

Soon the three of you are naked on the bed, both of you vigorously molesting the tiefling. She writhes appreciatively at each touch, especially as your hand starts to drift lower, between her legs. At the same time her kiss with Janessa deepens, their bodies pressing tight as the two of them cling to each other, drunk on this new intimacy in their relationship. You take the opportunity to start finger-fucking Ceriss as you kiss down her neck from behind, causing her to moan in surprise.

The two of you play with her with increasing intensity, until you draw out her first climax of the night, her voluptuous red body shuddering between you. It doesn't stop there, of course. Immediately you're changing positions, setting up for a new way in which you can fulfill your promise for this night to the weary sorceress.

The promise to let her receive.

Soon, you have Ceriss sitting in Janessa's lap on the edge of the bed, Janessa's breasts pressing into Ceriss' back as she gropes the tiefling from behind. You, meanwhile, kneel between their legs, extending your tongue and starting to eat Ceriss out. Slowly at first—tortuously slowly—until she's squirming in Janessa's arms, trying to get you deeper. Eventually you show mercy, and start going as hard as she wants. "Oh! Oh fuck!" she cries, as she feels your tongue-lashing. "Oh, oh yes, yes, yes!"

"Quick study, isn't he?" Janessa murmurs into her ear. "You wouldn't believe how fast he picked it up. He's a natural... and we haven't even gotten to the best part yet."

The funny thing is, this still isn't even the best you can do, even without your aphrodisiac. Just the best Niko could plausibly do without being too suspicious to even attempt to pass it off as uncovering a hidden talent.

You continue to eat Ceriss out, her cries increasing in volume, filling the air with her lovely, throaty tenor. Soon she's coming again, her body convulsing in Janessa's tight grasp as the older woman continues to knead her breasts. Ceriss is gasping for breath now... but still the two of you do not relent. Rising to your feet, you place your own hands on her breasts, then gently push both her and Janessa back down onto the bed.

With a little squirming and re-adjusting, you follow shortly after. By then, Ceriss has shifted so that she's facing Janessa again, on top of her this time, their breasts pressing together as they resume making out. You position yourself behind them, placing your hands on Ceriss' hips as you work the head of your cock into her entrance.

Ceriss moans into Janessa in appreciation, wiggling her ass enticingly, but then otherwise allowing your to manipulate her, submitting to your guidance as you line her up for what comes next. She's absolutely soaking at this point, her and Janessa's arms each snaking tight around each other as the sorceress waits eagerly to take your member.

So it would be rude to keep her waiting.

You thrust in deep, burying yourself into her tight snatch. Ceriss clamps down, her body clenching in shock and pleasure, as she feels how big your cock is inside her. Her eyes go wide in wonderment, then sucks in a quick breath as you pull back, then slam in again, the impact driving her deeper into Janessa's embrace.

Ceriss starts to cry out with each thrust, the words running together as you pick up speed. Breaking off their kiss, Janessa instead runs her tongue slowly along Ceriss throat, as though tasting the vibrations, from each wanton shout, as you fuck one woman into the other.

The sorceress' cries have long since lost all intelligibility. But you continue to fuck her, taking it to the very limits of what you could plausibly explain. You can feel her third orgasm building, an unstoppable wave, and this time when it hits you release into the heroine, your seed spraying deep within her as she collapses limp onto her former commander.

She probably could have gone significantly longer than that, under normal circumstances. But just as she admitted... she truly was tired.

You flop down onto the bed as well, and soon Ceriss is sandwiched tight between you and Janessa as your warmth fills her. No one says a word. Just three different sets of breathing, overlapping each other as the darkness falls and deepens.

Taking a deep breath, you take stock of the situation. The night is fast upon you, and you'll need to decide what you want to do with it. A few things you'd considered before will no longer be on the table, at least. Neither patrolling the city nor putting yourself out as bait are likely to be of much use at the moment, not with the killer "caught".

You could still check out the witness' dream, though, to see whether or not there might be anything still to be learned from what she saw of the killer. Or you could visit the dreams of anyone else you chose, so long as you've seen them in person.

You could also try to contact the dwarf, both to try and learn anything you can from him, and also to see if you can convince him to aid you in your hunt. Or you could sneak in and interrogate the "killer" himself, to see if Hastrik could give you any information. Perhaps there's something he noticed that he doesn't realize is significant, if the true killer left any clues while drawing him into this trap.

Alternatively, if you wanted to focus on shoring up your gains you could spend the night looking for chances to influence the girls in your bed, trying to convince them a bit more toward your way of thinking. You could subtly raise the topics of either demons or Kovora, trying to wear down some of their antipathy toward either.

Either way, time is ticking away. At this point Nevati could arrive any day now, bringing fresh, unknown complications to your mission. And the sadistic killer is still out there. Still pursuing whatever his actual agenda is.

And you're the only one left who is in any kind of position to impede him.