Tooth and Claw, Part 32
Even after his abrupt departure, Nergan's ultimatum leaves an uneasy feeling in the air, one that dampens the excitement from Nevati's achievement. So you decide to counteract that. "Well..." you say, hitting just the right note of reassuring confidence to convey that everything is still under control. "I do admit to a bit of curiosity. Let's not delay... and see why Melca finds it so very urgent that I do this."
It doesn't take long to return to the Witch Queen's chambers and explain the situation. Lily looks worriedly up at you, her face going pale. Given her history with the deity who holds her soul hostage, she probably doesn't anticipate anything good coming from this. But even if she doesn't like it, she understands the necessity, and agrees to the exercise with a nod.
You each sit in chairs facing each other, and you close your eyes. Thanks to your new power, with a willing participant it's no longer necessary to wait for true sleep. It takes mere seconds to enter the Plane of Dreams, and only a few more to draw Lily in after you.
The two of you stand alone in a small, secluded valley tucked between a range of mountains, a tiny spot of green amidst the towering crags. Nestled into one of those mountainsides far above, you can just make out the distant stone shape of a familiar convent. Though this time it is whole and intact instead of burning. A scene from Lily's memories, then.
Both of you glance around. "So... what happens now?" your mistress asks, uncertainly. "Do we wait until—"
A huge hand rips straight down through the fabric of the dream before she can say any more, clutching you in its grasp and wrenching you back upward with a sickening lurch. In the space of a heartbeat, you're pulled from that dream into a new one. Lily is left behind, even as she leaps forward in a futile, instinctive attempt to grab hold of you. You hurtle ever upward, your vision blurring around you, until you emerge into a new dream that manifests itself in a lurid kaleidoscope of fire and chains and thorns and hopeless screaming. And standing there in the center of it all, you come face-to-face wtih Dread Melca herself.
The dark goddess towers over you, holding you entirely in a single enormous hand. Her stringy black hair hangs down all around her pale, cruel features. Her teeth are pointed and razor-sharp. She is clad in a long black dress fitted with a pattern of dark red gems. In her other hand she holds a whip—ancient and radiating fell power—its length serrated with thorns and shards of bone. A crown of iron rests on her head, reminiscent in design of the crown of Kovora you've seen on Lily, except far more grandiose.
"Hellspawn..." Melca snarls, as her eerie orange eyes study you very, very closely. Her voice is like thunder in its impact, and you can feel the heat of her breath wash over you. "I require an explanation of your recent actions."
You give nothing away in your response, only looking up at the giant figure in clear confusion. "Which actions do you mean? I was summoned with the task of saving your nation from the utter catastrophe it's facing... and by my reckoning, every mission I've undertaken has been a success."
"I want to know why you haven't bred that little bitch of a queen yet," demands the goddess. Her hand constricts around you, the long, sharp nail of her thumb pressing hard into your throat. "I also want to know why you didn't bring Fallhazel back to Kovora, like you did with all the other heroines. And I want to know why you're still wasting time with foolish plans and dream weapons, when I'm the only one who can stop the Incubus King inside you from taking you over."
She makes all three demands together, moving quickly from one to the next. And yet... your keen eyes detect that they are not all actually equal to her. She tried to slip the middle one in—the question about Fallhazel—as merely one demand among others. But she doesn't have quite enough control over her emotions to hide her agitation. Not from someone as inhumanly perceptive as you.
Those other two issues? They may well have been of crucial importance to her before. But today? Today they are little more than window-dressing. It's the question of Fallhazel that has prompted her to seek you out. It's the question of Fallhazel that has prompted her to take these measures that she hasn't resorted to until now.
She knows what Fallhazel is. But she isn't sure if you've figured it out yet. Which means that she has to be careful... lest her own inquiry betray a hint to this secret weakness that she so desperately wants to keep anyone from learning.
Which, in turn, gives you a lever.
"A seduction like Lily's is not something I intend to rush," you respond calmly. "Especially not when the girl I'm seducing my is sole tie to the mortal realm. As for your offer of 'help' with my problem... you'll forgive me if I exhaust all other options before letting you turn me into your mindless husk of a slave."
Now you shift to your best puzzled frown. "But in regard to Fallhazel... why is that even an issue? Her duties and seat of power lie in the forest, and... well, I suppose I saw no reason to press matters when she told me she wanted to remain. As long as we've pulled her away from the heroines, why not let her operate from a place where she is strongest? Not to mention that it will allow us to secure the only route between the two enemy nations, if necessary."
Melca, however, has an answer ready. "Such passive tactics will not win us the war," she says, her grip tightening on you even more. "Her powers could be better used here, to feed my armies and fuel their eventual conquest. Call the druid back. I will not have my troops starve while you play your games."
She's watching you very, very closely, and you know that this is a test. Melca has seen your deceit before. It must have occurred to her that might have figured out the truth for yourself, that you might even now be hiding your own knowledge of Fallhazel's identity. So how will you react? Will your expression betray any slight hint of your duplicity to her eyes, under all this pressure? Will she catch the crack in your mask that she's clearly looking for?
Not a chance. You've gained all manner of powers and abilities from the brand on your palm... but your incredible charisma is still entirely yours, raw talent that was then honed and trained over so many years of practice. In the end, you trust in your skill with words more than any other might or magic that this curse might bestow on you.
"But... your troops are in no danger of starving," you say, your face displaying no trace of anything but honest confusion. "We were even able to fulfill an unexpected need among the ratfolk just now, with a generous surplus still remaining! Why waste someone as powerful as Fallhazel adding even more to that overflow?"
That might have been a harder claim to sell the goddess on if you hadn't invested so much in building that surplus... but with so much food in reserve, there's really no denying it. You see the muscles in her jaw clench in frustration, but she presses on. "And how long will this surplus last? What happens when it runs out? What happens when the next emergency strikes?"
The more you press Melca, the more her aggravation grows, and the more her pretense slips. It's obvious that the food situation is nothing but an excuse. More than anything else—more than the continuation of the Witch Queen bloodline, more than the safety of Kovora—Melca wants Fallhazel somewhere she can strike at her with every single resource at her disposal. All the other threats are, in the end, threats to Melca's agents in the mortal realm. All the other threats are threats to her toys.
But Fallhazel... Fallhazel is a threat to Melca herself. A threat to the stolen power that has made her the strongest goddess in this world.
"We have already begun to acquire steady sources of food," you say. "And so long as Fallhazel holds the Great Forest secure, we may be able to find even more there. We are in no danger whatsoever of running out." Then you frown again, cocking your head like you're trying to puzzle out a mystery. "Really, I... don't understand why this matter is so important to you."
That brings Melca up short. Your little jab has reminded her that if she presses too hard, it could risk "giving away" Fallhazel's true importance. Of course, even now she can't be sure that you don't already know. But she's still utterly paranoid about you learning her secret if that's not the case, leaving her trapped.
You can see the uncertainty lurking in her eyes, the hesitation she's struggling to hide, as she tries to figure out exactly how hard she can risk pushing. Do you already know? Do you know that she knows? Can she still maneuver you into calling Fallhazel back, unaware of the true reason that Melca wants her brought to Kovora?
Her indecision mounts, her thoughts racing... until you see her eyes light up with a sudden idea. "...very well, hellspawn," she finally says. "You are... not wrong. Kovora's situation is better than it has been in many a year. So long as we have consistent sources of food from these other new sources you have found, there is no need to call someone as unimportant as this druid away from her forest. But... she is available as a backup, yes? Should she one day be necessary?"
Melca's orange eyes bore into you, still scrutinizing you for the slightest slip to give weight to her suspicions. But you don't give it to her. "Of course," you say, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "She is certainly an option we can fall back on. And we will only gain more with each passing day. I will ensure that no matter what happens, your Kovora will only grow in strength."
The dark goddess says nothing in reply to that. She only gazes at you for several seconds more, the suspicion still not entirely gone from her eyes. But in the end she releases you from her grasp, hurling back down in a wordless dismissal. You fall through the dream, the world dissolving into a rushing blur around you, until you land in a tangled heap back in Lily's dream.
Immediately, your summoner rushes over to kneel by your side. "Are you hurt?" she asks. "What happened? Did she do anything to you?"
You sit up, giving Lily a reassuring smile. "I'm fine," you say. "Even Melca, for all her power, can't cause physical injury in a dream like this. She just wanted to talk about our current strategy, is all. She was... strangely interested in Fallhazel, for some reason. But I'm not sure why. I'll have to give it some more thought when I get the chance."
Just one more little parting shot, in case Melca is still listening in. You want to keep her on her toes. Keep her worried that if she's too obvious, you might "figure out" what you already know.
Lily lets out a breath of relief, and together the two of you exit the Plane of Dreams. You then proceed to give a more detailed description of the encounter to Lily, Rysanial and Nevati, albeit still acting under the pretense that you don't know the true purpose behind Melca's demands. Once you finish discussing that, you at long last retire to your chambers. It's been an eventful day, to say the least. You could use some rest before you tackle the next challenge.
Fortunately, you find Greta and Marta waiting in your quarters, just as you requested of them earlier. The mother and daughter pair both throw themselves wholeheartedly into helping you relax and recover. And when—many hours later—you finally drift off to sleep with their naked bodies each tucked under one of your arms, you feel refreshed enough to face even the seemingly-insurmountable odds in front of you.
The next morning, you decide to continue your dreamwalking. After your recent encounter with Melca, you decide to seek counsel from someone experienced in dealing with deities. Filathia, the priestess of the elves, is quick to accept your request, and soon you are speaking to her in a dream of the same shrine where she once held you in custody. Only this time, she's the one kneeling and bound where you once were, looking up at you with a gleam in her eye that is both excited and naughty.
You present your cock, and she immediately begins to lick at it. She still has a ways to go in terms of skill, but her enthusiasm certainly can't be faulted. While she services your member, your hand resting on the priestess' head, you describe your encounter with Melca.
"...and I assume that she wanted me to visit Lily's dream in particular because that was the only dream she had free access to," you say. "At the very least, I can't imagine that she knows what Fallhazel and I discussed in her dream."
Filathia pulls herself away from servicing your cock for a moment, and nods. "The deities are highly restricted in how much direct influence they can exert on the mortal realm from the Divine one," she says. "They can observe the material world. They can give very general guidance through specific signs and portents. They can interact most easily with their Chosen One. They can also speak through their oracles. And if proper propitiation is made, they can even grant dreams and visions to their clergy who are empowered by them."
"The terms of the Celestial Treaty..." you muse, as you run your fingers absently through the kneeling priestess' hair. And since Lily is a Chosen One who operates on terms grandfathered in from a time before the current Treaty, Melca has even more leeway than usual when it comes to her.
But then another idea occurs to you, prompting you to ask another question. "What 'propitiation' would be required for you to make direct contact with Havti? And if she appears to you in a dream that I joined, might I be able to make an appeal to her as well?"
Filathia freezes, her eyes going wide in adorable fashion. She's enjoyed everything you've taught her. And she clearly does believe it's for the best. But even so... the thought of actually facing her goddess in her current state is still enough to embarrass her.
Still, she swallows and answers. "It... would depend on how you wanted to speak to her. With the proper ritual I could request a vision from the goddess. That would indeed allow you to meet her in a dream, much like this. But a ritual like that would only give you a single conversation to make your entreaty. If you wanted the goddess' counsel on a more recurrent basis... for that, you would need an oracle."
So. Two options, then. "Does your goddess have any oracles at present?"
The priestess shakes her head. "Those who fulfill enough qualifications to become an oracle are rare. Especially for those unwilling to... force... some of those qualifications."
With a grimace, you remember the drow girl Ioni, and the ritual spikes that the Church of Melca drove through her eyes to blind her. Apparently, that loss of sight truly did serve to make her more attuned to whatever level of oracular gift she possessed. Though... that, in turn, raises another idea.
"Those qualifications to be an oracle..." you say thoughtfully. "I assume that Ioni must have them. Would it be possible for Havti to speak through her?"
Filathia nods, and you get the sense this isn't the first time she's given thought to this. "It would be possible to reconsecrate her to my goddesses' service. The rite for doing so would be more extensive. But once completed, it would forge an ongoing connection, allowing you to hear the goddess's guidance on a more regular basis. Though... I do not know to what extent the presence of the oracle of a rival goddess in Kovora would antagonize Melca..."
You ponder the balance of risk and reward for a moment, despite all the unknowns plaguing any such decision. Is it worth the more enduring connection to Havti to draw even more of Melca's ire? Not to mention that, from the sound of it, you'd probably need to spend a significant portion of your downtime between missions to accomplish it. More than just a dreamwalking, at least.
Filathia looks up at you as you think, nuzzling your cock with her cheek. Finally, you exhale. "I'll consider my options," you say. "For now... let's enjoy ourselves."
Spinning the holy woman around, you bend her over and start to take her roughly from behind, while conjuring three more duplicates of yourself out of the fabric of the dream. They close in on the helpless priestess from every side, one of them spitroasting her with you while the others force her to give them handjobs, trapping her in a cage of demonic flesh to her utter delight. She loses herself utterly in the act of being gangbanged by you, and by the time it's over she lies splayed out on the ground in a deliciously-satisfied, cum-coated mess.
After what you've learned from her, however, you decide to summon Ioni next. She too appears quickly in response to your call. Though when her slight form appears in the dreamworld she draws in a short breath of shock, looking in awe and wonder around herself before glancing down at her body.
As you approach, you see that the drow girl is struggling to hold back tears. "It's... just like it used to be..." she whispers, the words tumbling out slowly. "Even when I sometimes dream of what it was like... before they took my eyes... the dreams are usually so vague and hard to remember. They aren't vivid at all. They aren't like... this."
You smile, allowing her some time to let it all sink in. This conversation will clearly require a much more delicate touch than the previous one. When you do speak, it's in a calm and reassuring tone. "How are you and the others doing? Is it easier, now that everything is out in the open with the elves?"
Ioni lets out a giggle. "It's been wonderful. Even back when they distrusted us, they were still kinder than I would ever have expected. And now that there's nothing left for them to worry about, Belan has been introducing me to all his friends and family. It's been so good getting to know them. And hearing all the funny stories they have to tell about what he did growing up."
You can hear the fondness in her words as she speaks of the boy who helped her through the fear and the uncertainty of her escape. And while you suspect that "getting to know" all those other elves was likely a debauched affair all around... there is unmistakably still a special place in her heart for Belan, one that none of the others can truly match.
With that inroad established, you decide to press a little further into serious territory. "Is there anything else troubling you?" you ask. "I know such a sudden change can't be easy. And if there's anything I can do to help..."
The girl is silent a long time... before finally replying in a solemn voice. "It... can be hard. I have nightmares, sometimes. In them, I'll be back... there. In the dark and the pain. Alone. Like I dreamed up everything that had happened. You... Belan... the escape... Like it was never real. Like I would never know anything but that place you saved me from."
She takes a deep, shuddering breath, and wipes her arm across her eyes. "But... everyone is helping me through it. The nightmares... don't seem to come as often when I sleep between Belan and Esile, and they're both holding me. And Syvel taught us a charm that keeps them at bay even more."
You place a steady, comforting hand on her shoulder. "That's good to hear," you say. "Those memories will always be hard... but you're already stronger than them. I can see it in you. And you're only going to get stronger from here."
Ioni responds with a brave little smile. You decide against mentioning the possibility of reconsecrating her oracle gift. At least not quite yet. It could bring up those bad memories... or it could be a cathartic rejection of Melca's hold on her. But either way, you don't want to trouble her with considering the possibility until you've made up your mind whether it's a good idea overall.
You talk with her for a while longer, hearing more details of life among the now-corrupted elves. Then, right when it's time for you to leave, you decide to give her another parting gift. Sending out one more summons, you pull another willing participant into the dream.
The drow girl turns, seeing movement out of the corner of her eye. And then, for the first time ever... she actually sees Belan.
He's standing there, scratching the back of his head nervously. And despite all the erotic and sexual things the two have already done together... this unexpected connection has him bashful. After all this time that they've gone without sight, will the girl he adores like what she finally, actually sees?
Of course he knows it's silly. But it's the oh-so-adolescent fear of disappointing her, even in a small way. Something no amount of rational argument or consideration can entirely dispel. Ioni, of course, runs to him immediately, launching herself into his arms. You watch them for a moment with a wicked grin, then leave the two lovebirds to their dream as you move on to your next task.
Part of you wants to make your next stop another comforting one... but you feel that you can't put off the next meeting any longer. Drawing a deep breath, you send out a request for Taharial to join your dream.
Unsurprisingly, the succubus doesn't accept your summons as quickly as Filathia or Ioni. But while she might be a bit more hesitant, she does accept before too long. You pull her into the new dream you've created for this meeting. It's an empty replica of the very first House of Sin in which you practiced the arts of pleasure. A small, unremarkable building on the outskirts of the capitol city. It was a run-down place even at the best of times, and never boasted any notable mortal sinners among the souls in its charge.
But you have fond memories of the place. And you can think of no better location to face Taharial.
She's still watching you warily when she appears in your dream, still not willing to let down her guard. But before you can say anything to set the stage... you see a second figure enter the dream, entirely unbidden. Someone else is dreamwalking into Taharial, from where the succubus now sleeps in the Second Circle.
You recognize her immediately. The rich, ornate sashes and hanging golden chains that drape her heart-stoppingly curvaceous body are far more regal than the last image you saw of her, back when she was dressed as a slave, as she drove the Night's Embrace through your the Incubus King's chest. But you could never, ever forget that face. Her horns curl back along her brow, golden adornments hanging from them as well, framing the achingly beautiful lines of her visage. She fixes you with a look that promises to fulfill desires even you didn't know that you had. Lust radiates out from her, and she sculpts it effortlessly, with the skill of a seductress who has spent millennia honing her craft to its very utmost limit.
In that moment, you want to claim her. You want to throw yourself at her feet and worship her. You want to rip out her lying, traitorous heart! Make the bitch pay, make her pay, MAKE HER PAY!
You clench your fist, your nails biting into your palm once again as you call on all your willpower to fight back both the temptation of pleasure and the temptation of rage alike, forcing yourself to the eye of the storm between the two raging passions. Finding that balance, you keep your mind firmly on your task as you face down the Lust Queen herself.
Even knowing her secret—that she isn't actually a true Demon Lord—doesn't cause you to relax your guard in the slightest. Indeed, if anything, it makes you even more wary of her. You never found raw, direct power to be all that impressive in the first place. But this... this is a succubus who also understands that. This is a succubus who has led the Second Circle through untold crises, balancing and seducing and manipulating countless more powerful threats... all while concealing the truth about herself.
Not to mention that, even if she doesn't actually bear the mantle of the Second Circle's Demon Lord, any succubus as ancient as she is will likely still be extremely powerful in her own right. This display of dreamwalking is just one example. You're pretty sure she hadn't attained that power yet, back in the last memory you saw of her.
Even as you meet her gaze, the Lust Queen is looking intently into you. And of course, there remains the most unnerving part of her power to one such as you. She is an Empath. Even if she can't read your thoughts exactly, she will know the absolute truth of all your emotions and feelings, irrespective of all your usual facades and misdirections. A window into your soul. A perception of you that is entirely beyond your ability to influence or control.
You feel more... naked... than you can ever remember feeling before. Your throat tightens, and it takes everything you have to resist the urge to swallow visibly.
"So..." Lehatial says quietly. "At last we meet."
