Out of the Shadows, Part 26

You give Relis a small nod. She flushes a little, stealing another glance over to the gnome. Without saying anything more, you continue your preparations for slumber. Eventually Belan extinguishes his light, plunging the cave into darkness, before returning to the bedding he now shares with Ioni.

For a while, all is silent. Verika is painfully tense as she lies right next to Khaytala, no doubt wondering what will happen after last night's debauched display. No one does anything, however... until the gnomes fall asleep. Fortunately that doesn't take long. They were clearly exhausted both physically and emotionally, and they are soon dead to the world.

Relis is the first to act.

The young elf woman rises from her prone position, then slowly and seductively begins to remove her clothes, letting them fall away piece by piece under cover of darkness. Verika's drow nightvision, however, allows her to appreciate every moment of her adoptive sister's secret striptease. She doesn't make a sound, though, her heart caught in her throat.

Only once Relis is completely naked does she crawl over toward where Emdyr lies, waking him by stroking his cheek. The aphrodisiac touch that your Boon can grant may be low-level by incubus standards, but by mortal standards it's still quite potent, and the gnome wakes, sitting up with a quick intake of breath. "Shhh..." Relis whispers, placing a finger across his lips.

Her other arm slides around the smaller body, pulling him tight against her. You can see his eyes widen as he feels the bareness of her skin. Her warm, lithe, athletic frame molds against his own, as she leads him into a gentle kiss. A gentle kiss that becomes deeper and more passionate with each moment.

When they finally break apart, Emdyr is panting for breath. Relis leans in to whisper in his ear, even as her deft hands work to strip him of his simple slave's garment. "I'm yours..." she murmurs. "For the rest of the night... do whatever you want with me."

At first, the gnome is too stunned to know exactly how to respond. So Relis takes the initiative. She lowers herself, pulling down his clothes as she goes, until she's kneeling before his smaller body, running her tongue along his rock-hard cock. Soon she takes it into her mouth, starting a vigorous blowjob. Reflexively, Emdyr's hands reach down to grab hold of her head, guiding her movements. Relis responds to the gesture of control with a low, appreciative moan that reverberates along his dick.

Verika can't look away as Relis offers herself submissively to the gnome. The only thing that eventually distracts her is when Belan and Ioni start to heat up as well. It starts with discreet petting, Belan's hands roaming freely along the body of the eager drow girl nestled in his arms as she cuddles up against him.

But that does not satisfy either of them for long.

Soon they roll to a different position, their movements already far more confident than last night's hesitant fumbling. Ioni straddles her lover, impaling herself onto his cock with an elated gasp of joy. Belan's hands slide firmly around her naked hips, guiding her as she rises and falls with an increasingly urgent pace, losing herself to the bliss, an expression of pure adoration on her face as she sheathes Belan into her depths again and again.

Verika watches the young lovers fuck, trembling both with her own need and her fear of it. Judging the time to be right, you stand, strip out of your own clothes, and begin to walk toward her. She tenses, watching you with wide, terrified eyes as you draw closer and closer. Her fists clench. Ready to fight. Ready to resist your advances. Even if she knows its a doomed fight she's already lost.

And then... you step directly over her. Lowering yourself instead onto Khaytala, as she lies right next to Verika. So close that you can feel your knee press against Verika's hip as you straddle the sexy half-orc. Khaytala give a quiet laugh of warm anticipation as you reach down, undoing her tunic and pulling it over her head, exposing her generous breasts. Your hands knead them, and she arches her back, offering them to you without reservation.

This time, you really put on a show. Verika watches in dismay as you reduce her dear friend to a mewling, shuddering wreck of pleasure with just foreplay alone. She can see her own fate written there, plain as day. What will happen to her as soon as you decide to claim her. She completely underestimated how dangerous you were... and now, as lustful need cripples the heroine, it's too late to escape.

Too late to even truly want to escape.

Your supernatural touch alone drives Khaytala to a shuddering orgasm. Then, as she weathers the aftershocks, you finish stripping her, pulling down her pants and leaving her muscular frame bare and defenseless before you. Khaytala spreads her legs wide to you in invitation... which also causes her right leg to drape across Verika. Khaytala hooks her knee, pulling her friend even closer, until Verika's petrified face is mere inches from Khaytala's own.

Then you lower yourself onto Khaytala, cock pressing against her soaking cunt. Before you begin in earnest, however, you lean in and give her a kiss, your tongues intertwining as Khaytala savors the affectionate gesture.

And then you start to fuck her.

It's rough, it's physical, and Khaytala clearly adores every moment of it as you rut her into the ground. Her strong legs wrap around you, locking together as though desperate to keep you close. The change in position releases Verika from her earlier grip... but the drow woman makes no attempt to move away. It's far too late for that. Instead, Verika's hands slide inexorably lower, between her legs, her body rocking in place as she desperately pleasures herself.

Through it all, her gaze does not waver, remaining transfixed on Khaytala's wholehearted, adoring expression. You turn up the intensity of your fucking even more, her body heaving as you thrust and thrust. On and on you go, expertly keeping Khaytala right on the tortuously delightful edge... but never quite sending her over.

Verika, however, is fast approaching that same cliff, already overstimulated beyond endurance. With perfect timing, you wait until she's almost there... and then release into Khaytala, sending her crashing into her own orgasm, right as Verika's was just about to hit. The sight causes the drow to come so hard that her entire body clenches in on itself, curling into a spasming, shuddering little ball.

After quite some time Verika finally slumps, looking weakly up at you through her disheveled white hair. You meet her eyes as you sit back up, and you can see the realization enter them that you just gave her the best orgasm of her life without even touching her. And on the heels of that realization, you see her realize what you will do to her when you actually fuck her.

Panting for breath in the darkness, Khaytala rolls over onto one side, toward where she knows Verika is. Her hands reach up, finding her friend's face and cupping it, then pulling her into a kiss. Verika's eyes bulge wide... then close as she melts into the kiss, starting to return it. And when Khaytala finally pulls away, Verika makes a small, needy sound. Khaytala responds with a gentle smile... and then leans back in to whisper one simple command into the ear of the pleasure-wracked drow.

"Give in, Verika. I want to share this with you so much."

And with that, the last of Verika's resistance crumbles.

She looks up at you, surrender in her eyes. You just watch in amusement, wordlessly making it clear that the next move is hers to make. That you want to see her offer herself up.

And she doesn't hesitate. Verika sits up, hands working at her tight, form-fitting garments. You watch in appreciation as they all fall away, revealing her toned, voluptuous physique. She fixes you with a gaze of uninhibited, smoky desire, her thirst overflowing as she crawls over Khaytala toward you. She presses her naked body against yours, climbing into your lap, her lips brushing against you in a series of teasing, feather-light kisses as her arms wind around your neck.

Behind her, Khaytala sits up, moving in to sandwich Verika tight between the two of you. The drow moans as her friend reaches around to molest her, strong hands groping her breasts. At the same time, Verika is rubbing her slit along your hardened length. The pleasure from that alone is beyond any sex she's experienced... but soon even that is not enough to satisfy the fire burning within her.

Verika rises, spreading her folds to position you at her entrance, the head of your cock inserted just slightly. She hesitates, trembling, knowing full well what she's about to do to herself. But she bites her lower lip, gathers her courage... and then slams herself down onto you, sealing her own fate with deliciously damning finality.

Her eyes roll back in her head, as a devastating orgasm wracks her body. You muffle her scream with another kiss, your tongue dominating hers as she shudders on your member. You take up the initiative, starting to thrust into her, fucking her against Khaytala, trapped in a prison of flesh. Verika can do nothing but accept it, as her world dissolves into merciless, delirious pleasure. Even so, she still responds as best she can, trying to serve you, trying to do everything she can to make it good for you... but she's so lost to the ecstasy that it's difficult for her to focus.

And all the while, Khaytala is whispering in her ear. "You can feel it, can't you? How wonderful it is? We're going to share this with everyone. Imagine it. All our friends, feeling what you're feeling right now. All of us, loving each other like we never could before. All of us... worshiping his cock." She punctuates her words by using her groping hands to pinch to Verika's nipples, causing the beleaguered drow to come yet again, a gasping, breathless orgasm.

Nor does it end there. The two of you continue to play with the toned body of the drow between you. And for all her resilience, she is no match at all for your combined endurance. Soon, she can do nothing but accept your attentions with an eager, exhausted yearning as you fuck her senseless, overwhelming her.

But before she loses awareness completely, you want to mark her as yours. You increase the intensity of your fucking once more, and you see Verika's eyes widen as she realizes what's about to happen. But she doesn't shrink back. She meets your gaze, looking you right in the eyes, her own gaze alight with anticipation.

And then you unload into her, claiming her womb with your seed, and the resulting orgasm wrecks her to the point where she slumps into unconsciousness. You hold her and Khaytala for a while longer, savoring the feel of their bodies as the shift slightly in satiated contentment.

Another heroine, fallen to your charms.

Glancing over to your left, you see that the gnome has already finished. Emdyr is lying beside Relis, both of them naked, his head buried against her as he clings tight. Not so much out of raw lust anymore, as much as simply clinging for comfort. For the sense of someone else's warmth. Just between the two of them, lying there together in the dark, he lets his fear about tomorrow show. She, in response, gently runs her hand up and down his back, whispering soft words of comfort into his ear.

When you look back to Verika, you see that she has recovered, if only a bit. She looks up weakly at you, terribly aware of her own vulnerability as you hold her naked body in your arms. She knows what you could do to her, if you wanted to, if you really were as malevolent as she feared. But when she speaks, her true fear is still for the ones for whose sake she kept exposing herself to your temptation. "The hostages..." she murmurs, barely audible. "Are you... still going to help...?"

"I told you before," you say quietly. "We're getting them all out of there."

And it's that final reassurance that allows her to truly rest, leaning back against Khaytala. She lets go, and allows her weariness take her into a more peaceful slumber than she's had in days.

You, meanwhile, must make a decision on how you're going to accomplish what you just reaffirmed you would do. There's Verika's original plan, of course... but there may also be other options.

One approach would be to shapeshift into Verika's form, and take the hit from the sorcerous weapon yourself, while Verika delivered your ultimatum to Lady Pheshera. Despite Verika's misgivings, that should keep her in line at least for a while. You could send Emdyr and Relis after Lady Mykra, and the rest of the group to save the hostages, while you pursued the Matriarch and attempted to force her into fleeing the city with you. Hopefully, that would leave Lady Pheshera completely unchallenged as the ruler of the drow nation... and under your thumb, at least for now.

Alternatively, you could feed the Matriarch the idea that Verika would snipe her from a tower, like Verika suggested, except have Belan create a distant illusion and bait her into using the weapon on that. You could send Emdyr against his tormentor, Lady Pheshera, while Relis, Khaytala and Verika rescue the hostages. With her advantage lost, you would try to get the Matriarch to flee to her safe room, where you could fuck her into submission, including posing as Verika yourself.

If you follow that route—and it all works as planned—you'd have to decide at that time whether you wanted to take the Matriarch with you or not. If you took the Matriarch with you, you would leave a power vacuum in the Underworld, with the most influential remaining figure being Lady Mykra, who could not rule... or at least, not personally. If, on the other hand, you left the Matriarch behind, you'd have a puppet on the throne, though a weakened one, facing off against Lady Mykra's schemes.

As a third option, you could try to convince the Matriarch that her plan is hopeless, and that her only chance is to reach a deal with Verika, brokered by a Corruptive Boon. If that doesn't work, Emdyr can be sent against Lady Pheshera, while you try to fool the Matriarch into wasting the knife on one of Belan's illusions, and you look for an opening to ambush the Matriarch yourself. Relis can be given the primary duty of rescuing the hostages, while you, Khaytala and eventually Verika all try to kill the Matriarch.

If the negotiation works, you might mitigate the threat of the Matriarch early on, resulting in a much simpler rescue, and a Matriarch who—while not under your direct control—will not be able to act against you. On the other hand, if you end up needing to kill her, then if successful, the power vacuum will also be left with the Matriarch's death, likely leaving Lady Mykra free to build out her own power base unopposed.

Whichever strategy you pursue, the effects could have lasting consequences on the world, and on your own efforts within it. Which approach do you settle on?