Love's Labors, Part 7


You and Ceriss continue your instruction of the two elementals late into the night, teaching their bodies to appreciate all the inhuman pleasures you can offer, both with you and with each other. All the while whispering seductive hints into their ears, hints about how sad it is that their beloved mistress cannot experience such joy with the woman she yearns for.

And how much you just want to help her with that yearning.

The elementals are simple creatures, and the outcome was never really in doubt as you ply them with both pleasure and persuasion. Still, they resist longer than you expected, and even in the end it's only by using those desires that they know their mistress has against them that you bring them around. It intrigues you enough to inquire more after the circumstances of their partnership.

"How long have you been Nevati's familiars?" you ask Aila, holding the air elemental in your lap. You're giving her a break at the moment, giving her a chance to recover a bit, contenting yourself with some light fondling to keep her in the mood, while the inexhaustible Tala takes a turn sucking your cock.

Even as spent as Aila is after all the fucking you've been doing, the flighty little thing just can't quite ever seem to completely stay still, shifting contentedly in your grasp. Not that you're complaining, as her movements pressing against you feel agreeable in and of themselves, inexperienced though they are.

"Oh, ever since we can remember!" she answers. "We had barely even been spawned when she summoned us, and I know I was really weak, and I don't know if I would have even survived if I'd just stayed in the Plane of Air because it can be a really rough place, but Nevati summoned me out of it, and it was the same for the others too, or at least that's what they told me, since I wasn't really there in the other planes, of course, because they all came from their own planes, and..."

Her stream of chatter continues to spiral off in random directions, but you're already considering what she said. If these elementals were newly spawned when they were summoned, then they've been with Nevati for much longer than you expected. In fact...

"How old was Nevati when she summoned you?" you ask, trying to gently steer Aila back on course when you can find a (tiny) opening in her ceaseless barrage of words.

"Only twelve!" replies the air elemental, her eyes lighting up with pride. "That's really early for mortals, right? She wasn't even supposed to be doing summoning magic yet because they thought it would be way too dangerous, but Nevati was really advanced, but she couldn't really make friends with her schoolmates since they were all so much older than her but she was curious to learn more about it so she managed to get hold of some books on the theory and figured it out for herself so she could summon us and they wanted her to send us back but she saw what bad shape we were in and she..." Here Aila actually pauses, swallowing. "...she wouldn't do it."

With that explanation, several incongruous details suddenly click into place. You'd noticed before how odd it was for such a genius wizard to have such average summons, relative to the kind of elementals someone of her abilities should be able to call down. But of course, you were thinking of it in terms of the current Nevati. For a twelve-year-old Nevati to successfully summon anything, working without any oversight, just from pure theory and what books a student barred from summoning could get her hands on... that's much more in line with the mind-boggling prodigy she clearly is.

Of course, most wizards wouldn't keep such early attempts around for any length of time. But it's obvious that practicalities of power had nothing to do with Nevati's decision. It's a rare wizard whose soul can even sustain four summoning contracts at once, and it represents an obscene degree of expenditure in terms of what such a mage is capable of.

But Nevati expended it all, simply so that a lonely young student could keep friends around her that she could talk to.

It also explains why her familiars are so unusually loyal to her. And why they seem a bit more... domesticated... relative to the wild, inhuman exemplars of their element that most such beings tend to be. They were all basically raised on the Material Plane from near-birth, with Nevati as some combination of their friend and sister and mother to whom they owed their lives.

It's clear that any attempt to get through to the remaining elementals will work best along the lines you've taken with these two, appealing to Nevati's own interests. But more importantly, it makes clear just how invested Nevati is in these familiars. Normally, if a wizard's familiar had been compromised you might expect that she would end the contract, sending the summon back. But in this case, you very much doubt that Nevati will be quick to just give up on them. On the other hand, given how close they clearly are, if she suddenly learns that her summons have been compromised as well it might provoke a particularly rash response in the heat of the moment.

Which could be good or bad for you, depending on the circumstances.

From there, you start questioning Aila about Nevati's plan. As the day wears on, you manage to extract that, left to her own devices, without you trying to influence her choice by Ceriss' location, Nevati is targeting the fortress for her investigation.

"Nevati told us that if the secrets we're looking for are anywhere, they'll be in the crypt beneath the fortress," says Aila. "She said there's a huge library down there, ancient records of the Witch Queens, guarded by powerful undead, and she was getting ready to sneak down there, but she told Tala and me to see how Ceriss was doing, except I guess you were ready for that, weren't you?"

Tala glances up from where—at this point—she and Ceriss are now scissoring. She gives you a silent, inscrutable look, while Aila continues. "Nevati told us to meet her where we set up camp if we got back in time, but I don't think we'll make it at this point, since I don't think we can get back in time now, and she'll probably already have made her move, so if you want to talk to her you'll need to follow her down there, just..." Here she shows another rare hesitation again, her face becoming downcast. "...just... please explain things to her, so she's not mad at us? I... I really don't understand much about mortal things like this, but what you've shown me is so good and I want Nevati to feel it too and I know she wants to do this with Ceriss and she's so unhappy and I want good things for her so this seems like it will do that but..."

When she finishes the thought, it's in a very small voice, as she seems to shrink in on herself. "...but I know I'm really stupid, and I know you could probably trick me in any way you wanted, but if I actually hurt Nevati after all this I could never live with myself. So... so please..." She swallows again, rubbing a hand across her eyes. "Please don't hurt her. That's the only thing I couldn't stand."

You reach up and caress her cheek, using all your charisma to reassure the anxious elemental. "Don't worry," you say. "I'm going to make her happy, Aila. Once she understands, she'll thank you for helping her see. I promise, she's going to feel just as good as you feel right now. Except it'll be even better by then... because you'll all be sharing it together."

Both Aila and Tala shiver at the mental image your words create for them.

You continue to work your magic, ensuring that both of them are brought around to your way of thinking, then spend one more night at the village to allow them the rest they'll need for the trek back. Even then, the elementals are fairly spent come the morning, and still a bit in shock over the memory of what they've done. But they make no protest as you quickly make arrangements to head out.

Ceriss rides on her own horse, with the orc child you found performing that strange, half-forgotten ritual on the horse in front of her. Tala rides behind you on yours, her arms wrapped tight around you for support, her face buried silently into your back. Aila, for her part, flies impatiently up ahead of the three of you, rushing out ahead before darting back to swirl around and chattering even more.

The village turns out to send you off, their grateful expressions a marked contrast to the worry and suspicion you received from them on your arrival. One of the orcs—Shel, the girl that Ceriss was teaching how to suck cock—even rushes up to her, shyly offering her a small collection of a few flowers. The gift would be considered scraggly by most standards, the flowers from plants that are little more than weeds, and not in the best of health at that, considering what can actually grow here.

But it's obvious how much of her heart went into it, and Ceriss accepts it with gratitude, giving the girl a long, lingering kiss in return, intense enough that orc girl is left dazed even as she waves goodbye. The villagers lot in life will still be a hard one, struggling just for survival... but your assistance has brought a bit of hope, and a new source of pleasure that they can all share.

The tiefling sorceress finishes bidding her affectionate goodbyes to the small group of friendly faces that you've grown so accustomed to over the past few days. As you start to leave, you can't help but make a mild observation. "Well. I'd say that worked out quite a bit better than having to tear through here with a legion of imperial knights... wouldn't you agree?"

Your words cause Ceriss to freeze. She's suddenly reminded of how she had, until so recently, been planning on entering Kovora. You can see it playing out across her face, as she imagines the fires of war coming to this little village that you've just spent so much time in.

To her credit, she had already wanted to avoid such a war if possible, on principle. But this is something entirely beyond that. Not just an intellectual understanding of it as something to be avoided. Not just a theoretical awareness of the cost to enemy civilians. It's faces, names to the ones who might end up caught up in the bloodshed. Dura. Shel. Ushug. Hrol. People she's spoken to. People whose warmth she's held close, their bodies intertwined against the chill of the night.

Even before, the war had been a regrettable necessity, one that she jumped at the chance to avoid. But now she looks as though she'll be physically ill at such a palpable understanding of what it would have entailed. When she looks back over at you, you can see a newfound fervor in her eyes. "It won't come to that," she says quietly, with absolute conviction. "We'll make them see. All of them."

You smile. "Yes. Yes, we will."

The trip back is uneventful, and Aila leads you toward the camp where she and Tala were to rendezvous with Nevati and the remaining elementals. Just as Aila predicted, however, you find it deserted. Nevati has already launched her secret expedition, going in alone with the water and fire elementals.

This raises a number of possibilities for how you proceed from here in your pursuit of your quarry. From what Aila has told you about the crypt, you feel confident you could locate it and chase after her right away, which would allow you to intercept her sooner. Alternatively, you might be able to gain an advantage navigating the crypt if you seek assistance from Lily, since this place seems to have something to do with the legacy of the Witch Queens.

It might take a bit longer to extricate her from her duties, however, putting you even further behind your prey. Not to mention that it might expose the inexperienced girl to more danger, depending on just what lurks in those shadowy depths... and what exactly its relationship to her is.

You'll also need to decide what to do with the elementals you've subverted. You could keep them back, leaving them with Khaytala, so that Nevati doesn't realize they've been turned. Or you could bring them with you, assisting you with whatever you might find down there. Or you could send them on ahead, pretending as though they've caught up on their own. That might give you allies on the inside of Nevati's group... but you're unsure how long it would last. Outside your supervision, you're not sure how long someone as airheaded as Aila could successfully keep up the facade.