A small, out-of-the-way town is being terrorized by a demon! People are disappearing from their beds, being swept away into the quiet daylight. Lucky for them, Pelan is willing to help!
This thing started out as just a little diversion to keep myself from getting burnt out on The Contest, but I just kept having ideas for it, and it grew into a fun little adventure story. It has quite a bit of hypnosis, and, as always for my stories, if you're interested in fantastically large breasts, your cravings will be satisfied here.
Got a question? Comment? Drop it here in the story, message me on twitter, or ask it on my curiouscat.
-~o~-
Prologue
Kuraduyn was having a wonderful dream. The Ërus Shala Shei, the Great Crystal, was the tallest thing in Felu Shala. It jutted out of the countryside, so immense that the tip of it was sometimes enveloped by the clouds. It could be seen from miles away.
And they were on top of it. It was exhilarating. As they stood on the edge of the point that capped the Great Crystal, they looked down upon Telu Shei, the Sacred City, and marveled at how tiny it looked. The winding streets reminded them of a spider's web, and they were so high up that they couldn't even see the people making their way through them. A cloud was gently approaching from the south, and it was below them!
And Lorn was there. He smiled his gentle smile at them, and they couldn't help but kiss him. They fell off of the crystal, wrapped in each other's arms, but they weren't scared. The cloud caught them, soft as a pillow. Lorn was on top of them, his beard tickling their chin, his strong arms wrapped around them, his stiff cock pressing against their thigh...
They were naked now, the two of them, without having to take off their clothes. The cloud was as warm and soft as the finest wool-stuffed bed, and Lorn's arms and his chest and cock were hot and hard. Kuraduyn let him inside, gasped as he filled them up, delighted in the feeling of his body pressed up against theirs. They kissed him again, and he grunted. His cock stiffened inside of them, his heavy balls slapped against their ass one last time, and...
They wriggled underneath him in ecstasy and delight as his thick, hot cum shot deep inside of them, warming them from the inside, and when he kissed them again, they felt as if something was being... Taken out of them. Like they were being drained as they were filled. Lorn laughed a sultry little laugh, and as Kuraduyn looked into his eyes they felt like they were falling. The cloud was gone and they were falling. The city below rushed up to meet them. They closed their eyes, bracing for the end...
---
And then they opened them again. The last rays of the evening sun were peeking in through the window by their bed. Their bed, which was disappointingly empty. They sighed and rubbed their forehead. What an odd dream.
When the town gathered that evening to distribute work for the night, Kuraduyn saw on the list that Lorn had volunteered to check the cage around the Starbrights. It was an easy job, but it was rare that someone volunteered for it. Since the Starbrights were so dangerous, there were few who were willing to go near them. Except Lorn. He had always been brave.
Kuraduyn had never been brave, but they had always been eager to spend as much time with Lorn as possible. They volunteered to go with him. The two of them met on the edge of town after the meeting was adjourned, and being near him made Kuraduyn's heart flutter. He was kind to them - he always had been - but he didn't know how badly they wanted him. There was an easy way to fix that, they knew. Kuraduyn could just... Tell him. But the thought of it made their throat dry and their stomach turn over with nervousness. They had never been able to work up the courage.
As they walked to the grove that held the Starbrights, Kuraduyn found their mind wandering. Specifically, it wandered to Lorn's chest. He wore his robe loose, so that the world could see his hard pectorals and chiseled abs, and...
They blinked. Lorn did not have hard pectorals or chiseled abs. He never had. He was a strong man, but a soft one, and always had been. Where had that thought come from? They shook their head and walked on.
And they, the two of them, walked on. And on. And on. Something was wrong. The Starbright grove was only a mile and a half outside of town, and both Kuraduyn and Lorn had been there before. They both knew the way well, and there was even a dirt path that led right to the grove, but when they followed it that night, they found themselves walking for far too long, and eventually ended up right back where they had started, on the edge of the town.
Neither of them could explain it. The path wasn't straight, but there were no forks in it. They had not turned around while following it, so they could not have possibly ended up going back the way that they came. And yet, there they were.
Puzzled, they set out again... And after an hour of walking, they found themselves right back where they had started. They tried a third time, and Kuraduyn felt an odd, hair-raising chill shoot down their spine as they walked, but when they stopped to investigate, they found nothing... And then after they set off again, they found themselves approaching the village once more.
They started to tell folks around town that something odd was going on. Sala, who had ranged the nearby forests for fifty years, laughed at them for finding themselves lost on a road that led them exactly where they were going, and offered to lead them to the grove herself. With her as a guide, they set off again... And Sala was utterly confounded as the path led them away from the village and then back to it once more.
The same thing happened when Teolan tried to lead them there. And when Balë tried going to the grove alone. Another town meeting was called, and Nonin, the town's Speaker, communed with Konong Shei and Krolosh Shei to discover why the whole town was vexed in this manner. Nonin was old and frail, and could only Speak with the Sheis for moments before the strain made him pass out, but when he awoke, he uttered words that made everyone fearful: "There is a monster in the Starbright grove. A creature. It does not want us to see it there."
---
They were in Telu Shei's bathhouse. They had never been to Telu Shei before, much less its famous bathhouse, but in their dream, it was magnificent. The washing room was bigger than the entire common house that Kuraduyn and the rest of the town of Bora Lys lived in, with rows and rows of benches and buckets and sweet-smelling soap and towels, and cool water that rushed in from holes in the wall above. They washed and rinsed themselves among the other bathers, laughing and conversing, and once they were clean, when they moved on to the soaking room...
It was just as grand as the washing room, with three enormous pools of hot, steaming water. But there was nobody here. Nobody but for one person. There was a hole in the great stone roof, and starlight filtered in from it, illuminating Lorn as he stood there, between the pools. He was naked, and the way that the muscles in his chest and arms and stomach moved as he stepped calmly towards them made Kuraduyn's heart race. What made their heart race even more than that, though, was his cock. It was stiff as a rock, and big, and...
"You are not Lorn," said Kuraduyn as he approached them.
"No," he said with a cocky grin. He was wearing Lorn's face, but Lorn had never smiled like that. "But you want me anyway."
He wasn't wrong. Kuraduyn swallowed hard as fear mixed with arousal inside of them.
"Get on your knees."
They did. And they didn't need to be told what to do after that. Not-Lorn's cock loomed large before them. The head of it fit perfectly in their mouth, like it was made for them, and the hot, sticky precum that began to come out as they sucked tasted like the most wonderful thing in the world.
"You will make a good pet," said Lorn as he ran his fingers through their hair. "So eager! Yes, you will be the first."
Kuraduyn didn't know what that meant. All they knew was that they needed to keep sucking Lorn's cock. Not Lorn. They had to remind themselves that it wasn't him. But then his cock throbbed and more precum filled their throat, and the thought abandoned them.
"You are so eager," said Lorn, "that when I finish, when your mouth is filled with me, you will cum yourself, just from the satisfaction of knowing that you have pleased me."
"That's ridiculous," said Kuraduyn, and because it was a dream, they could say it even with Lorn's cock in their mouth. Not Lorn. But their body was on fire, their skin tingling, every sense alight with sex - the taste of his cock, the smell of his skin, the feel of his hands on their head, the sound of his voice, the sight of his beautiful eyes, looking down at them...
Without warning, he came. Thick cum filled their mouth, and they swallowed, and they shivered and wriggled as their own body exploded with pleasure. He was right. They clutched at themselves, writhing in their orgasm as Lorn filled their stomach, and...
---
They woke up far earlier than normal this time. The sun was still up. They looked down at their sheets, and found that they had made a mess of them. Their head was swimming...
They stumbled to their feet, and found that they could hardly stand. Their legs were wobbly. Looking down at themselves, they saw that their skin was pale and pallid. They were... Hungry. Hungrier than they had ever been in their life. Wobbling and off-balance, they left their bedroom, stumbling down the stairs to the pantry of the common house. They opened the door and tore open the first thing they saw - a sack full of crisp, blue apples. They bit into one, the juice running down their chin, swallowed...
It was as if they hadn't eaten anything at all. Even after they had stripped the apple to its core, they found themselves unsatisfied. They had a craving, and they knew that there was only one thing that would fix it. They padded back up the stairs, to the third bedroom on the left.
Lorn was surprised to see them there when they woke him up. "Kura?" he said, wiping the sleep from his eyes. They liked it when he called them that. "What do you need? It's so early. It's still light out..."
Part of them wanted to tell him everything. About the dreams. About how much he meant to them. About the things that they imagined him doing to them as they touched themselves in their bed in the middle of the day. But all that came out was a shaky, "I need you."
He was surprised, when they reached down and groped his cock through his bedclothes, but he let them do it. He said something, then. Something about liking them, too, but never imagining that they wanted him in that way. Kuraduyn could hardly hear him. When they pulled his trousers down, they discovered that his cock wasn't as big as it had been in the dream, but his balls were bigger. They wrapped their lips around it.
He came disappointingly fast. After what felt like no time at all, he was moaning their name, and his cock throbbed and filled their mouth with wonderful seed...
And a jolt of fear shot through Kuraduyn when they realized that it wasn't working. They swallowed every drop like they needed it to live, and for all they knew, they did. But it didn't help. Just like the apple, they felt no satisfaction, even after they had drained him entirely and taken every bit of it inside of themselves. Lorn was breathing heavily, saying something about love, but all that Kuraduyn felt was despair.
---
They grew weaker throughout the night. By the time that the sun had fully set and the town had fully risen, they could no longer walk. Their legs were too weak. Lorn had carried them back to their bed, placed them in it gently, and Kuraduyn spent the night somewhere in the space between consciousness and dreams.
People came to visit them: first Lau, who had been trained in medicine at the far-off Rose Collective, in the great city of Belan Telu. She could not make heads or tails of Kuraduyn's sickness. Next came Balë, who was skilled in herb-lore and chemistry. They tried to feed Kuraduyn dozens of things, from lichen to meat to vegetables to fish, but nothing seemed to fill their stomach and make them feel whole again. They only felt weaker throughout the night. Finally, Nonin the old Speaker came. He laid hands on Kuraduyn and Spoke to Vela Shei and Konong Shei, imploring them to work their magic through him and rid them of the ailment that had so affected Kuraduyn. He grunted with the exertion of the magic, and his eyes rolled back in his head, and he passed out once again.
And once he awoke, later in the morning, he sadly informed the town that Kuraduyn was beyond his ability to heal, nor did he know what, exactly, their ailment was. But the Sheis had granted him a piece of knowledge: The monster in the Starbright grove had done this.
---
Lorn had fallen asleep next to Kuraduyn's bed. He had kept watch over them all night, desperate to help them but unsure of how. Kuraduyn thought it was sweet of him. He was a good man. Good man... Their eyes were heavy. The sun was up now, and the light of it through the window was making Kuraduyn sleepy, but they couldn't sleep. Or, maybe, they had been asleep this whole time? It was hard to tell.
"Hello, Kuraduyn."
They blinked. Lorn was standing there, near the window, his body framed by the sunlight. They looked over to the side of the bed. There was Lorn, soft, kind Lorn, asleep with his head on Kuraduyn's bed. Two Lorns. That was impossible. They must have been dreaming.
"That's right," said the Lorn by the window. "This is just a dream. A very good dream. He was naked, as always, and his cock was already hard and dripping with precum. The sight of it energized them. The hunger in their belly that had kept them immobile all night... Lessened. They were able to stand. To walk. Suddenly they were in his arms, and they felt safe and protected and loved.
They were falling. Lorn had jumped out the window, into the light of the day. But Kuraduyn wasn't scared. Lorn spread his wings, and they flew.
-----
Starbright
Pelan had spent eight years at the Rose Collective, learning all sorts of wonderful things. She knew that the world revolved around the Sun, and could demonstrate proof of it with just a telescope and some mathematics. She could mix an acid that would dissolve even gold, and then distill the gold back out of it once it was dissolved. She knew how to grow molds that would cure most minor ailments and even some major ones. She could perform sorceries up to the Fourth Breaking, and was a competent enough Speaker to perform minor feats of god-magic.
But she had never learned how to hunt. Or how to forage. She could identify berries and plants that were poisonous, but she wasn’t any better than any other city-born person at finding edible flora in enough abundance to keep herself alive on the road, and even though she was perfectly comfortable eating meat, the thought of actually killing, skinning, cleaning, and cooking an animal made her queasy.
Because of this, when she woke up one evening to find that an animal had torn into her traveling bag and stolen all of the food that she had gotten back in Anu Tolm, it meant that she soon found herself very hungry indeed. It only took an hour of walking on nothing but some slighly-too-soft blueberries she’d managed to find on the side of the road and a magnificently botched attempt at catching a fish before she resolved to try to find a village.
And it seemed that luck was on her side that night. She was still stumbling away from the river, wringing out her hair and shivering in her soaking robes when she encountered a fork in the road. There was a signpost planted right in the middle of it. Kolan Aun, three days on foot, said the sign that pointed towards the right fork.
Kolan Aun was where she was headed – she had heard that there was a Speaker of incredible skill living there, and wanted very much to meet them. The other sign said, though, Bora Lys, one hour on foot. She had never heard of Bora Lys, despite her rather intensive study of the histories of this part of Felu Shala, which meant that it was probably very small and insignificant, but even a small town would likely have a farm or two and some food to spare.
She was emboldened when, after taking the left fork and walking for the better part of an hour, she started to notice signs of civilization. The thick, untamed forest that covered most of Felu Shala began to give way to more regular lines of trees with kili moss growing on them. Past that, the trees began to thin out even further, and suddenly there were buildings: first supply sheds for the farms that she had just passed through, then workshops, and then, finally, she spotted a large, three-story stone-and-concrete house sitting beside a small river.
She hurried up to it and eagerly knocked on the door. There was a sound of hurried footsteps, and very quickly she was greeted by a tall, stocky person with a big blue beard and a robe that was loose and open, revealing a rather hairy chest. Their eyes were sullen and bagged, as if they hadn’t slept in a long time.
"Hello!" they said excitedly. "Please, come in! We have been waiting for you!"
"Have you, now?" said Pelan, but the person was already walking inside the house, gesturing for them to follow. It was an odd way to be greeted for sure. Perhaps this person thought that Pelan was someone else. It didn’t matter though, because... There was breakfast cooking in there. She could smell it even from the doorstep – fried eggs and fresh-baked bread. Her stomach grumbled, and her nose compelled her to come inside.
"I am called Lorn," said the bearded person as they led Pelan through a door in the back of the entry room, hardly even giving her time to slip off her shoes. The door opened up into a dining hall that was quite large, given the size of the house. It must have taken up at least half of the first floor. Inside, there were five long tables arranged in a square with the seats facing inwards, towards the center of the square, where there was a raised dais of smooth stone. Most of the seats were occupied, which meant that there were perhaps four dozen people in the room. She realized that if this was the town’s only common house (and she certainly hadn’t seen any others around) she was likely looking at the entire population of the village.
They ranged in age from little children, some who were too young to walk yet, to the wizened elder in one corner of the square whose face was wrinkled and spotted, but one thing that they all had in common was their demeanor. None of them, even the children, wore a smile on their face, and there was a distinct lack of conversation in the room. When she stepped inside, every single person turned to look at her. She was struck by their faces. All of them looked, like Lorn, as if they had not gotten nearly enough sleep recently. Many of them also looked very puzzled, until Lorn clapped her on the shoulder and said, to the room, "Everyone, our Knight has arrived!"
"Your what now?" said Pelan.
"They don’t look like a Knight," said a thin, gangly person in the front of the room, casting a suspicious eye on her. "Aren’t they supposed to carry swords?"
"And don’t they have flowers on their armor?" said another person.
"They’re supposed to have armor," said a third. "All that this person has is dirty old robes."
"Dirty?" said Pelan. "I’ve been on the road for a week. Perhaps you ought to tell me who you think that I am, because I fear that you may be mistaking me for someone I’m not."
That made Lorn frown. "Are you not the Knight of the Chrysanthemum that we sent for? We do not get many visitors here, so I assumed..."
"I’m afraid not. I’m just a wanderer with a wide range of skills and a very empty stomach. May I have some food?"
"Oh..." Lorn’s face fell. He wasn’t alone. Most of the occupants of the room seemed to immediately lose interest in her, and went back to listlessly eating their breakfasts. "I thought... Well, no matter. I’m sure that our Knight will arrive soon. It has been a week now, and it’s said that the Knights move quickly. Um. Breakfast. Yes, certainly. Please, take a seat. All who come in peace are welcome here." That was a traditional greeting for travelers, just something that you said, when a stranger showed up at your door. "I’ll go fetch you a plate."
"Much obliged." As Lorn left the room, Pelan took a seat at the table, next to a thin, wiry person with long hair tied back in a tail who eyed her warily.
"Sala," they said.
The word meant ‘swift’. Pelan blinked. "Who? Me?"
"Me," they said, and grinned just a little bit, though there was no humor in it. "Sala is my name."
"Ah. Pelan. Pleased to meet you." She leaned in and lowered her voice a little bit. "Hey, what’s going on in this place? Why’s everyone all..." She looked around the room again. It was mostly silent. What few conversations were happening were happening in hushed tones, and many of the people here were eating in morbid silence, staring at their food.
"Same reason that we called for a Knight. You know anything about monsters, wanderer?"
"As a matter of fact, I do."
That made several of the folks around the table look up at her again, this time with raised eyebrows and curiosity. She took a look at them, and said, "I take it that this village has a monster problem?"
"You could say that," said Lorn, who had returned with a plate heaped with toast slathered in butter, fried eggs with pepper, and a cut of finely seasoned deer steak. Whatever problems this town had, it clearly didn’t have anything to do with their food supplies.
"Hello!" said Pelan. "You honor me with this meal." That was another traditional thing, just something you said when someone gave you food, but it also happened to be true in this case. She hadn’t been given a meal this hearty since... She couldn’t even remember the last time.
"People have been disappearing from their beds in their sleep, during the day," said Lorn as Pelan began eagerly stuffing food into her mouth. "Before that happens, they are afflicted with some sort of wasting illness which causes them to grow pale and cold, and they are struck with intense hunger that no food can satisfy. If you know about monsters, do you know what sort of creature could do such a thing?"
"Sure," said Pelan through a mouthful of egg. "Vampire, probably."
She realized how closely the rest of the room was listening to their conversation when half of them gasped, and a fresh round of murmurs broke out. Some of the children, especially, looked very fearful indeed. "Mama?" she heard one say with a small, quivering voice, "Did a vampire take papa away?"
"Ah! Wait," Pelan added quickly, and loudly. "You said that folks have been disappearing in their sleep? During the day? If that’s the case then it almost certainly was not a vampire. They’re only active at night. They don’t tend to like it here in Felu Shala, since we sleep during the day and are awake and aware during the only times that they can hunt, so they all go to other places, where folks sleep at night. It’s easier for them to find prey that way."
It wasn’t strictly true – she had read that vampires were harmed by sunlight, but she also knew for a fact that there were at least a few of them active in Felu Shala. Luckily, it seemed to calm the townsfolk a little bit.
"Well," said one of them, "then what could it be?"
"Well, um..." Pelan took another hefty bite of egg, to give herself time to think. "The symptoms that you’ve described sound like Witherplague, but that wouldn’t spread to just one person at a time. When a person comes down with this sickness, have you tried setting a watchperson to look over them while they sleep?”
“Yes,” said Sala. “We did that with every person after the second. All six of them. No matter who who is watching over the sick person, no matter what their constitution, they always doze off for a few minutes around midday. When they wake up, their ward is gone. Torlyn was the last person to disappear. We had no less than five people watching over her, and watching each other to make sure that nobody fell asleep. The room was also locked, and the window boarded.”
“Didn’t help, huh?” said Pelan.
Sala shook their head gravely. “All five of them fell asleep at the same time. When they awoke, Torlyn was gone. The door was still locked and the windows still boarded.”
“Spooky. How long in between each of the disappearances?”
“There has been one each night,” said Lorn. “For the past eight days.”
Pelan whistled. “I see now why nobody here is feeling very jovial.” She thought for a moment. Vampire seemed unlikely, since this was all happening during the day. Ghosts and spirits sometimes stole people away from their beds, but they usually struck without warning – they didn’t make people sick before they took them. The only type of creature that she could think of which matched all the signs was... “Tell me, Lorn, were the people affected by this sickness, ah..."
She looked at the children in the room, who were all leaning towards her with fearful faces. She turned away from them and whispered into Lorn’s ear, "Were the ones affected struck with an urge for sex?"
That made them blush a deep purple, but they said, "Yes. Uncontrollably so. When the hunger strikes them, it seems that that’s all that they can think about before it renders them unable to move."
"Oh! Yeah, I know exactly what it is, then. You folks have got a dreamrider on your hands."
Another fresh wave of whispers. Lorn furrowed their brow. "What is a dreamrider?"
"Type of demon," she said through a fresh mouthful of toast. "Do you know where it’s hiding? Usually they like to set up a little spot for themselves away from where they do their hunting."
"Grandpa Nonin talked with the Sheis, and they said it’s hiding in the Starbright grove!" one of the children burst out. Their parent quickly put a hand on their shoulder and said, "Hush!" but it was too late.
"Starbrights?" said Pelan, her ears perking up. "You folks have Starbright mushrooms?"
"Yes," said Lorn reluctantly, shooting a scolding look at the child. "We don’t normally tell strangers about them."
"Yes, of course you wouldn’t," said Pelan. "Very dangerous in the wrong hands, Starbrights." Her demeanor was calm, but her mind was racing. Starbrights! If she could get her hands on just one of those, she wouldn’t even need to see that Speaker in Kolan Aun! She could go back home to Belan Telu and give it to her sister, and the two of them could finally...
Well, she was getting ahead of herself. Starbrights were usually well-protected. She’d have to convince them to let her have one, first, and that would probably be difficult.
"Mm," said Lorn. "What did you say that your name was?"
"Pelan."
"Pelan, how are you so knowledgeable about monsters and Starbrights and such?"
The true answer was that her schooling was exquisite and she had led a very chaotic and very dangerous life for the past six years. But it occurred to her that she should say something else. Something that was not true, but would go a long way towards making the plan that was percolating in her head go more smoothly.
"Well, Lorn, it’s funny that you should ask that," she said with her best, brightest smile. "I take it from that dais there between these tables that this dining hall also serves as your village meeting place?"
"Yes," they said with a frown. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"And I take it that most of the folks who live in this town are here already?"
"This is the whole town," said Lorn. "You’re going to make a proposal for a vote?"
She was already walking to the center of the dais. She didn’t yet know what she was going to say, exactly, but Pelan was good at thinking on her feet, and indeed, it came to her the moment that she stepped up onto the cool grey stone.
"People of Bora Lys!" she said, loudly, which was traditional, but unnecessary, since everyone was already looking at her anyway. "I have told you that I am not a Knight of the Order of the Chrysanthemum. This is true, but I am afraid that I may have mislead you. I am not a Knight of the Chrysanthemum, but I am a Mage of the Chrysanthemum."
More muttering. Sala narrowed their eyes at her. "Why didn’t you just say that before?"
It was a good question, and the true answer was because she didn’t need to come off as trustworthy and competent enough that the village would agree to give her a Starbright before. There were only a handful of Starbright groves in all of Felu Shala, and it was widely known among those who tried to get their hands on them that they were, all of them, very carefully guarded.
And for good reason. A person could do terrible, terrible things with a Starbright, even if their intentions were good. They were notoriously hard to work with, and Pelan had read more than one cautionary tale during her schooling of alchemists and sorcerers who had accidentally killed themselves and others while trying to make use of them.
But who better to give a Starbright to than a member of the Order? They were known all throughout Felu Shala for their good sense, and, more importantly, their incredibly skilled scholars and academics.
"I didn’t know that you had a monster problem before," said Pelan, the words coming out as if by themselves. "But now that I do, I have a proposition for you! I will rid your town of this creature, and in return I ask only that I be allowed to take one of your Starbrights. Just one."
She had definitely struck a chord. The elderly person in the corner grabbed their cane from beside the table and ambled over to Lorn and Sala, speaking quietly with them, and she could hear things like "It’s only one. We would be getting the better part of that trade," and "If they really can rid us of the creature it’d be worth it," which only made her confident smile grow.
"I will, of course, answer any questions that you may have before you put it to a vote," she said to the room.
"Hold on," said Sala. "If you’re a member of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, where’s your pendant?"
"Those are only issued to Knights. As I said, I am a Mage." The lie slipped out of her without even having to think about it.
"And you are not the Knight that we asked for, but you just happened to stumble upon our village after we sent out the call?" asked Lorn suspiciously.
"Yes. A happy coincidence."
"I think that you’re lying," said Sala. "The stories say that all of the members of the Order carry the Chrysanthemum pendant."
Before she could respond to that, one of the townsfolk behind her said, "I don’t care if they are lying. If they can bring Torlyn back to us, I will vote to give them whatever they want. They can have all of the Starbrights."
There were mutterings of agreement throughout the room. Most of them seemed to share this sentiment, it seemed.
"You understand," came a quiet, creaky voice from the front of the room, and Pelan saw that it was the elder with the cane, "that if we give you a Starbright, and you do harm to the world with it, then we are culpable in the eyes of the Sheis."
"I assure you, grandparent, that I intend to do no harm to anyone with the Starbright. It will be treated with care and used only for a good purpose." That one wasn’t even a lie.
"Well, Mage, you seem to be confident in your ability to defeat this creature," said Sala. "Tell us, in your estimation, if the monster plaguing us is a dreamrider, as you say, is there even any chance that our missing friends and loved ones are still alive?"
That... made Pelan hesitate. She could have continued to lie. It probably would have improved her odds of leaving this town with a Starbright in-hand if she did. But...
No. She wouldn’t lie about that. In the past six years she had done some things that she wasn’t proud of, but she wouldn’t go that far. "I... Cannot promise that they are. I can’t know for certain. But what I can promise you is that if they are, I will do everything that I can to bring them back to you, safe and unharmed."
Oh dear. The room had gone silent. Off to her side, one of the townsfolk began to gently weep, and Pelan’s conscious caught up to her. What was she doing? Was this really worth it? Even if she-
"Well," said Sala. "What have we got to lose? The motion at hand is to give Pelan here a Starbright if they succeed in ridding us of the creature that has been stealing us away. All those in favor?"
Everyone in the room raised their hand. Everyone, including Sala. Including the children, who weren’t even old enough to vote.
"Well, that’s that," said Sala. "May the Eight bless and guide you, Pelan."
---
Pelan’s thoughts were chaotic as she made her way to the edge of town. They had told her the way to the Starbright grove, and told her about the strange magic that prevented them from approaching it. Demon magic. She would be able to handle it, she was sure of it, and that would likely be the hardest part of this whole thing. Dreamriders were easy, after all.
Oh, they were dangerous, to be sure, but the thing about dreamriders was that they were all practically champing at the bit to jump into the world from the Otherplace, for nothing satisfied them like the mortals who were so abundant here. That meant that they would usually take any means that were available to them to get here, and those means were often... Shoddy. Most of the time, the only thing keeping a dreamrider in the world was a thin string of magic. Cut the string, and they were thrown back into the Otherplace.
Pelan was no archmage or, indeed, a Mage of the Order, but she was was able to do such a trivial banishing. Dreamriders could be very convincing, but it only took a thought and a moment to get rid of one. She wasn’t worried about that part. She was thinking, now, about the townsfolk who had already disappeared. Eight of them...
Different people were more or less resistant to the magic of a dreamrider, but even the weakest-willed folks could fuck a dreamrider once and be mostly fine. (And fucking was really all that a dreamrider ever wanted to do, really.) Pelan knew this from experience. Once you were done, you would find yourself exhausted, and perhaps with a hazy memory of the fucking itself, but after a day or two you'd be back on your feet and feeling as well as ever.
If you did it twice within a few days, though, you'd find yourself growing pale and clammy, shivering with cold even in the heat, and you would start to get hungry, craving the touch of the demon again. Food would no longer taste pleasant, nor would having sex with anyone but the dreamrider, though it was common for their victims to quite voraciously attempt to slake their thirst with anyone who would have them. These were the symptoms that had tipped Pelan off when the villagers had mentioned the strange sickness, for they were quite unique to dreamriders. No other creature that she knew of could affect a person in that way.
She hoped that the missing villagers had only had sex with the dreamrider twice, because if you did it more than that, things started to get bad. Three times in close succession and you would be too weak to walk, unless you were in the dreamrider’s presence, and you would start to forget more important things. Things like your own name, and the faces of your loved ones. Depending on the person, sometimes those memories never came back. Four times, though... Pelan had never heard of anyone living through four encounters with a dreamrider.
The thing was, dreamriders knew what they did to mortals. If they just staggered out their encounters, fucked one person then moved on to the next, then the next, and so on, they could have all of the sex they wanted without draining anyone to the point of harming them. But they never did. Once a dreamrider got a hold of you, they fucked you until there was nothing left. And that was why she didn't hold much hope that these missing people were still alive.
She hoped she was wrong.
She found the grove without much difficulty. It was hard to miss the magic emanating from it, when you knew how to feel it. When she closed her eyes, she could see the glow of the Starbrights even from far outside of it, but she could also see... Something else. Other magic, hanging like a fog over the whole place. A spell of repulsion, probably, from what the townsfolk had described. Typical dreamrider demon-magic.
It was hard to get rid of demon-magic with sorcery. Beyond her abilities, anyway. Just as she suspected, this would be difficult. She would have to use Speaking. Her body couldn't handle very powerful god-magic, and half the time the Sheis didn't grant her requests in the first place. It was the only way that she was going to be able to do this, though, so she had to try. "Krolosh Shei," she whispered in her Voice when she came to the edge of the spell, "please disperse this magic so that I can confront and banish the demon plaguing this town."
Nothing happened. Pelan furrowed her brow. She knew that she had been heard. The Sheis always listened, even if they didn't always respond. She tried again. "Krolosh Shei, I know that I didn't entirely tell the villagers the truth back there, but you know that if their friends and family are still alive, I will do my best to see them back to their homes. And I really will banish the demon. Surely that can only be a good thing?"
There was a ripple in the air and a quivering in her chest as Krolosh's magic worked through her. The fog didn't disappear, but when Pelan closed her eyes again, she saw that there was a sphere of light surrounding her. It cut through the fog of magic around the grove, rendering it ineffective on her. Hopefully.
"Good enough," she said, and she started to walk towards the invisible lights in the distance.
---
Most of the folks in the dining hall had left, once they had sent Pelan off. Nobody had been sleeping well lately – after all, none of them knew who was going to be next – but there was still work to be done. The farms needed to be tended to, at the very least, and the town’s clothes washed, and the bathhouse cleaned.
Lorn was still there, though. He couldn’t focus on work today. Not after that. Nonin was there too, muttering quietly to himself while leaning on his cane, as he often did. Sala was idly braiding a bit of her hair - a nervous habit of hers.
"I still don’t believe that they were part of the Order of the Chrysanthemum," said Sala after a while.
"Nor do I," said Nonin. "I hope that we have not made a mistake."
"All we can do now is hope," said Lorn. "Hope and wait."
More silence... Until there came a knock at the front door. They all rushed to answer it at the same moment. Sala would have lived up to her name and made it there first, but for the fact that Lorn had been sitting much closer. He opened the door, hoping to see Pelan's round face and cheeky grin, but...
Only one of the people who greeted him at the door was grinning, but it certainly wasn't cheeky. It was more like a soft smile than a grin, really. There was no mischief in it. They were quite average in appearance, from the neck up, at least - blue skin, the color of the sky on a clear day, snowy white hair, golden eyes - all very mundane. From the neck down... Well, it was hard to miss that chest. They seemed to be quite proud it - their robe was fastened in a way that showed off quite a lot, and there was quite a lot to show off. That robe was also embroidered: there were words stitched in all along the hem. At a quick glance, Lorn noticed the names of several of the Greater Sheis, Vela especially. This person was a Speaker, then.
Their companion, though... Lorn had never seen a person who looked quite like them. They were short, for one. The top of their head barely reached the level of Lorn's chin. More striking, though, was their face. Their ears were round, not pointed, their skin was a deep reddish-brown in color, and their hair was black, tied up in a loose, messy bun. Even more striking than that was the armor. They wore a suit of mail made out of glinting, silvery metal, and on the gorget there was an engraving of a many-petaled flower.
"Hello," said the person in armor. "My name is Naala. I am a Knight-Errant of the Order of the Chrysanthemum. This,” they gestured towards the taller, buxomer person, who gave a friendly little wave, “is my friend and companion, Tula. I have been sent here because a call for assistance was received at the Order's waystation in Kolan Aun. I was told that an inhabitant of your village, Kuraduyn, was kidnapped from their bed in the middle of the day, and that there seems to be a strange spell of misdirection surrounding a grove nearby?" Their voice was striking – confident and commanding, if rather monotone, and they spoke Shalian with a strange accent. Mostly they sounded like they were from Belan Telu, but there was a strange lilt to their vowels, and they pronounced their Cs and CHs like someone from the south-east.
"Ah," said Sala, who was right behind Lorn. "See, this is a Knight of the Chrysanthemum. Look at their armor."
That made Naala frown. "Yes?" they said. "That’s what I said. This is Bora Lys, isn’t it?"
"You have the correct town," said Lorn. "I trust that you have a pendant, since you are a Knight?"
"Of course." Naala tugged at something underneath their gorget and pulled up a necklace. The pendant attached to it was made of the same silvery metal as their armor, and it too depicted a many-petaled flower. The carving was sublime - the pendant was no wider than an inch, but the petals of the flower were so detailed and intricate that they looked like they would be soft to the touch.
Nonin, who had ambled up to the door last, leaned in and looked at it closely. "Goodness! What exquisite metalwork. I see how it would be very difficult indeed to create a forgery of this."
"That’s the idea," said Naala. "May we ask a few questions about the kidnapped person?"
"I have one for you, first," said Sala. "Are Mages of the Order of the Chrysanthemum issued pendants like that one?"
"All ordained members of the Order of the Chrysanthemum have one of them," said Naala. "Both Stewards and Knights carry them at all times."
"Yes," said Sala, "but what about Mages?"
"Everyone who is a part of the Order of the Chrysanthemum is either a Knight or a Steward, regardless of how skilled they are with sorcery or god-magic. ‘Mage’ isn’t a rank that we use." They furrowed their brow. "Why do you ask?"
Sala, Lorn, and Nonin all looked at each other with pursed lips. "Your timing is fortuitous," said Nonin. "I think, perhaps, that we should speak about this. Please, come in."
---
Pelan knew that she was getting close when she spotted a patch of glowing mushrooms on the side of the path through the woods. They weren't Starbrights - they were the wrong shape and the wrong color - but the fact that they were glowing meant that they were feeding off of the Starbright's mycelium, which usually extended out no further than a few hundred feet from the patch itself. She strained her ears, listening for anything that sounded out of place, and heard nothing but...
Actually, no. She did hear something. Footsteps. Shuffling. The clink of metal against stone? Odd. There was a ridge up ahead - a little hill that she would have to walk over in order to get to the Starbrights. She was certain that she would find the dreamrider once she did. She took a deep breath, focusing her mind. Sorcery did nothing to combat the suggestive magics that dreamriders usually employed, but the mental exercises that helped sorcerers clear their heads before working their spells were incredibly effective (they had to be, when a loss in focus could mean that you accidentally burn yourself alive from the inside), and they had always helped Pelan keep her priorities straight when dealing with them. She closed her eyes briefly to make sure that Krolosh's protection was still upon her and, seeing that it was, she mounted the hill.
Dreamriders, she had found, were fond of making little beds for themselves when they were camped out in the wild like this. Oftentimes they found a patch of soft, sweet-smelling grass to bring their victims to, or they wove little tents for themselves out of vines and leaves, so that was what she expected to see on the other side of the ridge, perhaps with the dreamrider themselves lounging about, draining one of their victims. She crouched low, so that she wouldn't be seen, crested the ridge, and looked down into the grove.
And immediately, she sighed in relief. All eight of the villagers were alive. She was, frankly, astounded, but she had also never been happier to be wrong. They were there in the grove, using hammers and chisels to carve an intricate pattern on an enormous rectangular grey stone, which, from the ridges in the ground near it, looked like it had been dragged into the grove from elsewhere. Bizarre. Their eyes were all closed, which meant that they were in a trance, and under the dreamrider's control. Among them, there was a person with their arms behind their back, calmly observing them as they worked. The dreamrider, probably. Their eyes were open, anyway. They didn't seem to notice Pelan crouching there on the ridge, which was great, because Pelan didn't want to be noticed yet.
Okay. What else?
She had been wondering how the nearby village protected the Starbrights, given that they weren't growing in the village. What was stopping someone from stumbling into this grove in the middle of the day, when everyone was asleep, taking a few, and then wandering off?
The answer, it turned out, was that they had built a cage around them. Starbrights grew to about a hand's height, with big, round heads that glowed a gentle purple. This particular patch was roughly circular, with six mature specimens in it and perhaps a dozen more smaller, unripe ones. The cage that surrounded them was made of sturdy-looking metal bars which were anchored directly into the ground.
If the villagers who had made this were smart, each of the bars would have their base in a hefty chunk of concrete underneath the ground so that a sorcerer couldn't simply uproot them with magic. Pelan suspected that they were, in fact, smart - they had taken the effort to make the bars out of steel, which would have had to be imported from the south, rather than the copper which was so much more common here in the mountains. That was because many sorcerers could make fires hot enough to melt copper, but very, very few could melt steel.
Not that any sorcerer who knew anything about Starbrights would try. The villagers had also cleared out all of the trees immediately surrounding the Starbrights out to about a hundred feet - Pelan could see some of the telltale holes in the ground from where they had uprooted and relocated them. That meant that they knew what would likely happen if a foolish sorcerer did try to use magic to get through their clever little cage.
Okay. That was that. Cage. Villagers. Dreamrider.
This was weird. She had never heard of a dreamrider using their powers of trance to force people into manual labor. The pattern that they were carving into the stone pillar was clearly magical in nature, but she didn’t have the slightest idea what it would actually do when it was completed. It was entirely possible that it was already completed, and that the villagers were simply reinforcing or improving it. Whatever it was, though, it probably wasn't good. Best to end this quickly and efficiently.
Pelan looked at the dreamrider with closed eyes, to see what magic was binding them to the world, and found it almost instantly: a cord made of thought and dreams, keeping them anchored here. Snap the cord and they would drift away, back into the Otherplace. Except...
This one was stronger than the ones that Pelan had seen before. The cord was thicker, sturdier. She could break it, she was certain, but she would need to get closer. Probably very close. Troublesome. But not impossible.
The first thing she would need to do was take care of the townsfolk. It certainly wasn't in their interest to stop her, but dreamriders were very skilled at convincing people to do things that weren't good for them. She needed to be sure that they wouldn't get in the way, but she also didn't want to hurt them.
She could have used her Speaker-magic to put them to sleep, but in order to do that she would have to find a way to get each of them to drink a bit of her blood. That would be hard to do in the best of conditions, and with the dreamrider right there it was effectively impossible. Bad option.
She could use sorcery to push them away, but the effort of using magic to move eight grown adults even a few feet, combined with the strain on her body that Krolosh's protection was already exacting, would be enough to make her pass out. Bad option. That left her with only one idea. Lucky for her, it was also the most fun one.
She retreated back down the hill and found a hiding spot behind a big, purple bush. From her bag she produced a small wooden box, which she opened. Inside, there was quite a lot of delicate wool padding which protected three eggshells, which she had very carefully poked a hole in and filled with a solution of bloatcap oil and firebloom powder before stopping up the hole with wax. She removed an egg from the case, shook it a little bit, then threw it as hard as she could down the path, away from the grove.
Bloatcap oil was a fun substance. When you applied a flame to it, it burned a lovely blue color while at the same time rapidly evaporating into a gas, which very quickly expanded into a small fireball. Firebloom powder was a sort of pollen extracted from a plant of the same name which, when treated with the proper chemicals and a bit of magic, would burst into flame when it contacted air. The amount of it that she had put in the egg was only enough to create a spark... But a spark was all it took to ignite the bloatcap oil.
She heard the egg crack as it landed, and she couldn't help but grin at the satisfyingly loud foom that ensued as it exploded into bright blue light. The explosion left the nearby trees a little scorched, but, more importantly, it was visible and audible from very far away. Suddenly, the clinking of hammers and chisels stopped.
"Keep working, my lovelies!" a voice called out. "Do not stop! I will investigate."
Perfect. That was exactly what Pelan had hoped for. She settled down behind her bush and waited.
There they were. The dreamrider came over the ridge, and Pelan inhaled sharply. None of the books she had read about them ever mentioned how dreamriders smelled. It was a good smell, to be sure, like cinnamon and cloves and cardamom, but it was overwhelming. The presence of a dreamrider was overwhelming. Just being near one made your heart race and stomach flutter and your bits... Wet or hard, depending on what you had. In Pelan's case, hard. She suddenly felt like she was going to burst out of her smallclothes. She took a deep breath. Calm...
It was a good thing that dreamriders had this presence to them, though, because it was the only way you could tell one apart from a normal person, if you weren't a Speaker or sorcerer. They were consummate shapeshifters, and they tended to take on an appearance that would allow them to blend in wherever they went in the mortal world. In this particular case, the dreamrider had chosen to have muted purple skin, bright blue eyes, and lavender hair, which meant that they didn't stand out as especially different from any other Shalian, though they were astoundingly beautiful. They were lithe and slender, with small breasts and a perfectly pink pussy, which Pelan could see because they were completely naked. That was another thing about dreamriders - they only wore clothes when they had to.
They padded down the path, right in front of the bush that Pelan was hiding behind. She wouldn't get a better chance than this. She closed her eyes, reached out with her mind, and...
"There you are!"
The dreamrider looked right at her. Their lovely, wonderful scent overwhelmed her, and her cock throbbed. It ruined her concentration.
"Why don't you come out from behind that bush, silly? What are you doing back there?" Their voice was lovely and sweet and innocent. Pelan wasn't fooled, but that was only because she had experience. She stepped out from behind the bush, and found that she was taller than the dreamrider by a few inches. Still, that didn't make them any less intimidating, because she knew what they could do. But because she knew what dreamriders could do, she also knew when one was toying with her and when she was really in trouble, and she wasn't at that point yet.
"What is your name?" asked the dreamrider.
"Pelan."
"Mm." The dreamrider smiled sweetly. "I mean your real name, sweetheart."
"My real name is Pelan. If you’re looking for my birth-name, I never liked it and it never suited me."
"I see." They giggled. "I am called Zara."
"That's a conspicuously Shalian name."
"Of course. I am Shalian. Why would I not have a Shalian name?" They cocked their head to the side in a way that Pelan found endearing despite herself.
"Right. And I'm actually a frog that's been transformed into a woman. What are you making those people do over there, with that stone?"
"Take off your clothes," said Zara sweetly.
The way that a dreamrider's influence worked was that they subtly changed your thoughts to make whatever they wanted you to do seem like a very good idea, and, more importantly, to make you feel like you thought of it. Pelan was suddenly terribly, uncomfortably aware of how constrictive her underclothes were, how her robes were so itchy and heavy. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought that the sudden urge she had to take them all off was from purely internal influences, but then, she did know better. Still, there was a good reason that she should actually do it - if she did, the dreamrider wouldn't realize that she wasn't as influenced by them as they thought she was.
So she did it. Her robe hit the ground with a soft sound, then her underrobe, then the band that she used to hold her big, heavy breasts in place, and, finally, her loincloth. Her cock was throbbing, and there was a tiny bit of precum glistening on the tip of it. There was no way that she could hide her arousal now, so she figured that she might as well own it. She gave her hip a jaunty little cock to the side and put her hand on it. "Well? Like what you see?"
Zara's eyes got big. "Oh, aren't you lovely! Do you like people who look like you, with such big breasts and wide hips and soft tummies?"
It was a rhetorical question, of course. A dreamrider could tell exactly what turned you on just from looking into your eyes, which this dreamrider was doing to Pelan right now. Next she was going to pick up on...
"Oh!" said Zara. "Oho, what is this? That's quite a fetish that you have, Pelan!"
"It's a perfectly mundane fetish, just a very strong one. Are we still pretending that you aren't a demon? Because most folks can't read a person's sexuality by looking into their eyes, you know." Pelan's voice was cool and collected, but that was only because she had done this before. Inside, she was practically boiling over at the thought of what Zara was going to next, which she knew, because they all reacted in exactly the same way when they discovered this part of her. She just needed a few moments of clarity. A few short seconds where she could focus...
Zara giggled again. She was unbearably attractive when she giggled. "You're no fool, I see. If you know what I am, you know that I can give you what you want."
"What I want is one of those mushrooms in the clearing over there, and for you to let those people you have in your thrall go back to their families."
"I think there's something that you want even more than that. Something more basic. More... Primal."
Here it was... Mortals like Pelan could change their bodies with magic and alchemy. It was usually a slow process, and uncertain at times, but it was the reason that Pelan had all of her lovely curves. Dreamriders, on the other hand, could change their bodies as easily as they could change their clothes. There was no transition. No fade from one form to another or flashing lights. Demon magic was more subtle than that. One moment, the person standing before Pelan was thin and lithe, and then she blinked...
And suddenly, Zara looked completely different. Or rather, they looked entirely the same - their face was identical to how it had been before - but their proportions were different. Their hips, which had just had a bit of a pleasant curve to them before, now flared out wildly. Their thighs were thick, their tummy pleasantly soft. And their breasts...
Pelan blinked. "Well... You certainly aren't wasting any time. Normally they don't jump straight to-"
"To having gigantic, soft, bouncy, jiggling breasts?" Zara giggled again, and wobbled them gently between her arms. Gigantic was a good way to describe them. Pelan had traveled all over the known world, and she had never seen anyone, mortal, fey, or demon, with bigger breasts than the ones that Zara was wearing now. And she did have to remind herself, they were just wearing them. They were a demon, using their shapeshifting ability to lure her into sex, from which they would draw power and lure her into more sex, draining her over and over again until there was nothing left.
They looked very soft, though, and when Zara breathed in and thrust out her chest with a knowing grin, Pelan had to fight very hard to keep from inhaling sharply. This just got significantly more difficult, but she wasn't worried yet. She had been in worse spots before and still managed to escape unscathed, if a little bit hazy on the details of what precisely had happened. In the worst case scenario, she would just let the dreamrider have their fun, then perform the banishment in the moment of clarity that came right after her orgasm. That had worked at least three times before, and three times was a pattern, right?
"I would like it very much if you touched them, Pelan," said Zara, fluttering her eyelashes prettily, and, more distractingly, shimmying her chest back and forth so that they wobbled heavily against each other. "Can you do that for me?"
They looked heavy. Pelan suddenly wondered how they would feel wrapped around her cock. Yes, three times was a pattern indeed. A working strategy. She reached out to touch Zara's wonderful, enormous breasts...
But they pulled away. "Oh! But you have that awful spell surrounding you! You know, Pelan, that I can't touch you as long as you have yourself wrapped up in that sort of magic."
Was that what Krolosh's protection was doing? Pelan had just wanted protection from the mind-altering fog that surrounded this place. You never knew exactly what you'd get, with god-magic. Well, the spell had done its job at this point, hadn't it? She wasn't exactly going to lose track of the dreamrider when they were right in front of her. And she really did want to touch those big, fat, soft, bouncing breasts.
She ended the spell. The fog rushed in. She blinked.
"See?" said Zara. "Isn't that better?"
"I... Yes? What... What was I doing?" Oh, right. Dreamrider. This spell that they had going was powerful stuff. She was going to have to watch herself.
"You were about to kneel for me, Pelan," said Zara sweetly.
Was she? She didn't think that was what she had been about to do. Still, better to let Zara think that their tricks were working on her, lest they try something more insidious, and harder to resist. Pelan kneeled.
"Good girl," Zara cooed, which made her shiver. Of course they knew all of the little things that turned her on. Why wouldn't they? For the first time, Pelan started to feel a tug of doubt. The idea that she may have gotten in over her head crossed her thoughts.
And then it disappeared, because Zara grabbed Pelan's head and buried it between her breasts. She was overwhelmed by their scent, which filled her. She could see nothing but purple skin, feel nothing but their softness against her face, and the insistent throbbing of her erection. Yes, she was fine. Still in control of herself. She would simply let this play out until Zara inevitably made her cum, and then she would do what she needed to do.
What was it that she needed to do? She couldn't remember. Oh well, not a problem. It would come to her when she needed it to. It always did. "Only once," she muttered into Zara's big, soft, wonderful breasts. "Can't let you drain me..."
Zara chuckled. "Oh, silly girl. I'm not going to kill you."
Of course they wouldn't. Pelan wouldn't let them. After one cum, she would banish them. She gave one of Zara's breasts a little kiss, and she liked the adorable little giggle that it elicited, so she did it again, and again.
"You're a sorcerer," Zara continued as Pelan made a line made of kisses that grew closer and closer to their nipple. "Sorcerers are useful. You will be a great help to me when my friends over there have finished their work."
"M'not gonna help you," muttered Pelan between kisses as her lips reached the silky dark skin of Zara's areola. It was wider than her face, at first (which Pelan loved), but as her kisses grew more insistent it was starting to shrink as their nipple stiffened. "M'gonna cum, and then you're done." She giggled to herself at her little accidental rhyme.
"Of course you are, Pelan. You're a smart woman, and a powerful sorcerer. You'll have no problem besting a dreamrider like me. After all, you've done it so many times before!"
That's right. She was smart, and powerful. Because she was smart, she realized that there was something very off about what Zara had just said, but she was so smart that she knew that it didn't actually matter. All that mattered was that she was able to keep kissing and touching Zara's beautiful, fat tits for as long as she wanted. And sucking. Like their breasts and their areola, Zara's nipple was quite big, especially now that it was hard from their arousal. Pelan wondered what it would feel like in her mouth, what it would taste like...
So she started to suck on it. Zara made a lovely noise, something halfway between a coo and a moan. It made Pelan's cock throb and her nipples ache. It was a shame that she only had one mouth and two hands. There was so much she wanted to touch, so many things to kiss. She settled on using one of her hands to explore Zara's breasts while she used the other to touch herself, squeezing her nipples and...
Oh! She felt a set of soft fingers wrap around her cock. She moaned into Zara's nipple - just a touch from them made her cock quiver and shoot a spurt of pre-cum, which landed, quite uselessly, on their knee.
"Goodness!" said Zara with a laugh. "Aren't you productive!"
"'ad a Thpeaker make me make more." It was hard to talk while also sucking on a nipple, but Pelan didn't want to stop. "S'why my balls are so big."
"They certainly are!" Zara had small hands, but it still gave Pelan a rush of excitement that they could not completely cup both of her testicles in one of them. "Oh, these are just full to the brim, aren't they! I bet that you love emptying these deep into pretty, busty girls like me, don't you?"
'I bet'. As if they didn't already know. "Mm. You're a girl?" She said it in the brief moment that it took to move her mouth from one of Zara's nipples to the other.
"Sometimes," said Zara as they used one hand to gently press Pelan's face into their breast, encouraging her without words to suck more, harder. "Sometimes I am a man. Sometimes I am neither. Sometimes I am both."
Aesa, then, thought Pelan, and Zara giggled.
"Labels are such a chore, Pelan. Sit down."
She did, without question. There was something... Something was wrong. She couldn't put her finger what it was, though. There was just a sort of vague discontent hanging about in the back of her mind. It didn't last long, because Zara sat themselves on her lap. Their butt was big and soft and plump and felt wonderful on her legs, and when Zara wrapped their arms around her shoulders, they forced her head back between their breasts.
"Do you want to fuck me, Pelan?"
Her answer came in the form of a moan and a throb of her cock, which sent another large spurt of pre-cum out to spatter against Zara's tummy. It made them laugh. "Of course you do. You want to fuck me, so that you can cum deep inside my tight, hot, wet pussy. And then, when you have your little moment of clarity, you will banish me, right?"
"Right," said Pelan dreamily. That was what she had forgotten! The banishment. Of course. She was glad that Zara had reminded her. She certainly wouldn't forget again. After all, she was smart, and powerful. There was no distraction that Zara could inflict upon her that would make her forget it again.
She gasped, and her eyes got wide as Zara lifted themselves up and positioned themselves over Pelan's cock. Their lips were hot and dripping wet and felt satiny-smooth as they pressed up against the head...
And then Zara dropped, and Pelan was inside of them. Their pussy squeezed her in just the right way, marking her gasp in surprise and pleasure, moan and fall back onto her elbows. And that was before Zara had even started moving. Once they did, grinding back and forth against Pelan's crotch, she was lost... Her cock tingled and throbbed and shot yet another spurt of precum into Zara, which made them bite their lip and moan in delight and triumph. And then she did it again. And again.
Pelan was certainly not inexperienced, and she had never had a problem lasting long enough to satisfy any of her partners, but she could already feel her balls tingling and aching for release, to shoot her cum into Zara, to... Do something. There was something else, too. But it didn't matter. Her whole body was tingling, but especially her nipples. She wanted them sucked on, and the moment that the thought crossed her mind, Zara was upon them, squeezing them in their hands, lifting a nipple to their mouth...
It was too much. Zara was using their fingers to toy with one of Pelan's nipples while they sucked on the other, and their fingers were almost as good as their lips - warm and soft and... And their tongue was flicking back and forth across Pelan's nipple, and... And...
Pelan cried out. She hardly ever did that, during sex, but she couldn't help it. Zara laughed in glee and triumph as she shot spurt after spurt of thick, hot cum inside of them, over and over. One of Pelan's partners had once described her orgasms as 'copious'. 'Like a fountain,' were the words that another had used. Suffice to say, she filled Zara up until there was nowhere for the cum left to go, so it spurted out from between her cock and their pussy, making their crotches even stickier and wetter than they already were.
And when it was done, when Pelan had bucked her hips and squirmed and thrust the last of her cum into Zara's eager, quivering pussy, they giggled and leaned forward, pressing one of their big, stiff nipples against her lips. "Well, Pelan?" they said. "What do you want to do now?"
There was... Something. It was fleeting. She couldn't remember it. She knew, in a vague, dreamy sort of way, that she probably shouldn't do that again. That it would be very, very bad if she did. But she couldn't remember why. Surely it wasn't important? If it was important, she would have remembered it. After all, she was smart, and she was powerful. She knew what she was doing. "One more time," she said. "One more time, and then we're done."
Zara simply smiled.
---
They found the grove without any difficulty at all. It was tucked away in a little valley between the two of the steep hills that rippled all throughout these parts of Felu Shala. After explaining what had happened with the Chrysanthemum pretender that had come just minutes before them, Lorn and the others had told her and Naala right where it was. Not that she needed them to - Sumi could feel the magic surrounding this place long before either of them spotted it, and as they stood there, at the boundary of the spell, the force of it nearly overwhelmed her.
"A fog of warding," she said, as they looked down the path that led to the Starbrights, and, no doubt, the dreamrider and the false Mage. She closed her eyes and probed at the magic with her mind. "Warding... And confusion. If we tried to walk through this, we would become lost. Forget where we are and what we're doing. The dreamrider could then either lead us out of the grove and away, or into it, into their clutches, at their leisure. If they chose to lead us inward, they would likely do so only when our minds were softened by the fog, to make us more receptive to their influence."
Naala gave a little sigh. "I've always preferred dealing with sorcery to god- or demon-magic. With a sorcerer, you always know the rules. They'll make a big fireball and toss it at you, or try to throw you around. Maybe if they're very skilled, they'll know how to make bright lights to blind you. I've never liked the types of magic that muck about inside your mind. But then, I suppose, who does?"
"Oh, plenty of people," said Sumi. "Have I ever told you about erotic hypnosis?"
"Yes." Naala's lips grew a little thinner. "To each their own, I suppose. I can't imagine that I would find it anything but infuriating."
"Even if it was me who was doing the hypnotizing? You know that I wouldn't make you do anything that you would find objectionable."
That made Naala's expression soften a bit. "Maybe if it was you. Maybe. But this," she gestured towards the magical fog, which was a bit of an odd gesture, given that it was invisible, "is not quite the sort of thing that makes my nethers quiver. Are you able to get rid of it?"
"I think so. Probably. I will need your help, though."
Ah, there was a smile. It was just a little one, but Naala didn't smile often, so Sumi savored it when she did. "You know, you are more skilled than you give yourself credit for. I think that sometimes you only ask me for my help so that I will kiss you."
"Perhaps," said Sumi. "Even if that were true, would you say no?"
"Of course not." Naala stood on her toes and gave Sumi a kiss. It was just a quick one, but it made her heart flutter a little bit. "If you ask me to kiss you, I will kiss you. I don't need a reason, because I love you."
Sumi smiled at that. "I love you too, my flower. Are you ready? This will be a powerful one."
"I am. Let's have it done."
Sumi nodded and took a deep breath, and when she spoke again, it was in her Voice. "Krolosh," she said, "Vela. I call upon you both."
And there they were, inside of her, listening. Krolosh was energy and motion, fire and light. They crackled and invigorated her, made her chest tingle with heat. Sorcerers could borrow their power in imprecise, heavy-handed ways, use it to pull fire from the air or move heavy things with their thoughts, but only a Speaker could use it to counter a spell as intricate as this one. Vela was love and desire, but also warmth and kindness. They wouldn't be helping with the fog directly, but they were a guiding hand, helping Sumi to channel Krolosh's energy in a way that would not harm her, and their guidance was absolutely essential to what she and Naala were about to do together.
"We need to be rid of this fog, so that we can confront the creature that is stealing people away from the nearby village. Will you help us with that?"
They would. It would be difficult, too - Sumi suddenly felt almost unbearably hot. The spell wouldn't cause her any lasting harm - Vela would make sure of that - but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt. "Here it is," she said to Naala through clenched teeth. "Can you take it?"
In response, Naala kissed her again. The magic... Moved. Normally, a kiss would not be nearly enough to transfer a spell such as this from one person to another, but the two of them shared a connection that was powerful enough that that was all it took. The heat inside of Sumi's body suddenly lessened, and the oddest thing happened...
She could feel Naala's lips on her own, but she could also feel her own lips on Naala's. Which was to say, she could feel what Naala was feeling. As the magic progressed, the feeling spread, what she could feel spread. Proprioception was an odd thing - you never really noticed that you could feel how your own body was positioned, how your lungs drove your breathing, how your heart beat. Your mind blocked these mundanities out, so you could focus on other, more important things. But when you could feel someone else's body, feel their breathing, feel their heart beat just as they did...
It was wonderful, and terrifying. But mostly wonderful. The magic that bound them together didn't cease when Naala pulled away from the kiss; it was now in both of them. Sumi could feel how Naala's armor weighed upon her body, how light her hair felt compared to her own (which was much longer), and she could swear that when she closed her eyes, she could still see out of Naala's.
"Goodness," she said with an exultant sigh. "You can't see in the starlight nearly as well as I can."
"I can right now," said Naala. She took a deep breath, and Sumi could feel the air in her lungs. "Here we go..."
Naala was trained in sorcery, and though she was no university master or archmage, she was skilled enough to move magic around, to spread it outside of her body. She extended her arms, and they both could feel Vela guiding them.
And then she cast. They both cast. Just as the magical fog was invisible, so too was their spell, but they could both feel it working, driving the fog away, making it evaporate...
And then, just like that, it was done. The fog was gone. Their work finished, the magic left them, and Sumi's senses returned to the boundaries of her own body, just as she knew Naala's were doing the same.
Both of them collapsed, sweating and breathing heavily, but also giggling giddily. It was powerful magic that they had just worked, and it had left them drained. Drained, but feeling as close to each other as they possibly could.
"It's almost better than sex," said Naala.
"Almost," Sumi agreed. They kissed each other and giggled some more.
"Just one moment," said Naala. "Just a moment so that we can catch our breaths."
"Yes. But no longer than we need. The dreamrider will know that we're here, now that we've gotten rid of their spell."
"Yes." After a short while, during which they both simply leaned into each other, enjoying the feeling of their bodies pressing together, Naala rose, a little bit unsteadily, to her feet. "Okay. I think..." She stretched, her armor clinking lightly as she did it. "I think that I'm ready now." She shivered the same type of shiver that she did after a particularly powerful orgasm. "Aiyeyeye. I never understood how heavy your breasts are until I felt them the way that you feel them."
Sumi laughed. "Let's go, my love. We have people to rescue!"
---
Pelan was floating. Maybe literally, maybe not. She couldn't tell. Zara's beautiful, fat breasts were wrapped around her cock, still slick with her own cum, and they were so enormous that even when they pressed them down against Pelan's thighs, only the head was able to peek out above Zara's cleavage. Pelan couldn't see it - her view was obstructed by Zara's dripping wet pussy in her face - but she could certainly feel their tongue as they licked the tip of it, drinking up the fresh spurts of pre-cum that they were coaxing out. Some tiny part of herself, buried deeply in the back of her mind, was screaming at her that this was very, very bad, that she was in danger, that she needed to escape using whatever means she could, but she couldn't hear it very well. Mostly she just wanted Zara to keep going, to milk another orgasm out of her still-stiff cock, to make her keep cumming until...
Until...
Something changed. It was like the sun had come out and burned away the fog in her mind. She remembered, quite suddenly, where she was and what she was doing. Villagers. Grove. Starbrights. Dreamrider. Ice-cold fear shot through her. She had to do something now, or her life was in danger.
Zara noticed something amiss as well. They stopped their sucking and licking and looked up at the night sky with a "What?"
Pelan was in no condition to cast. Her focus was ruined and she was horribly distracted by the soft weight of Zara's body upon her, and by their breasts around her cock, but this might be her only opportunity. She closed her eyes, found the thread that was binding them to this world. She grasped it with her mind, and ripped.
Zara's connection was even stronger than Pelan had thought. She tugged with all of the might that her mind could muster, but they remained firmly in this plane. In hindsight, it was perhaps a blessing that it didn't work. When demons were banished from this world, typically their exit was rather... Explosive. Pelan would have been burned quite badly if Zara had been torn back into the Otherplace while laying on top of her. Instead, Zara screamed as if they had been burned, and leaped off of her to their feet.
Quite suddenly, all of their sweetness was gone. Their face, though still beautiful, was twisted into a snarl of outrage. "You!" they spat. "What did you do!? How did you get rid of my fog?"
The truth was that she hadn't. She had no idea why it was gone now, but it was a good thing that it was. She felt hot shame creeping up through her, embarrassment that she had let this dreamrider get the best of her, but she knew that those emotions would not help her right now. She forced herself to her feet and found that she was a bit wobbly, but mostly stable. "Maybe I am more powerful than you thought."
"You aren't," said Zara flatly. "I was in your head. I know what you're capable of. You couldn't have..." They trailed off, and started to sniff the air. "You... Didn't. That wasn't you."
"Mm. Guess there's no hiding anything from you." Pelan reached for the eggbox that she kept in her robes, and frowned when she realized that she was naked. Right. Forgetting things. She was going to be doing a lot of that for the next few hours. "Are you going to leave peacefully or am I going to have to try to banish you again? Or worse? I don't want to have to hurt you, but I will if I have to." It was an empty threat. Mostly. Pelan didn't like hurting people when she could help it. Even demons.
"Shut up," said Zara, distractedly. "You couldn't harm me even if you weren't exhausted, you foolish girl." They were still sniffing at the air, following their nose down the path, away from the grove. "What type of magic is this?" they muttered. "I have smelled this before..."
"Right," said Pelan. She cracked her knuckles. "I guess we're doing this." She took a breath, preparing herself to cast. She would try the banishment again, while Zara was distracted. She closed her eyes and found their tether - her previous attempt hadn't even weakened it. She reached out and...
Oh. Oh, dear. She couldn't... Her mind was still fuzzy. She couldn't remember how to do the banishment. She knew how in theory - you reached out with your mind, tugged at it with your will - but when she tried to remember how it felt to actually do it, it wouldn't come to her. Even though she'd done it just moments ago.
"Sit down and masturbate until I decide what to do with you." Zara's voice was annoyed, but the command hit Pelan like a sack full of bricks. Gone was the subtlety of before, the tricky magic that made Pelan think that the dreamrider's ideas were her own. There was now a force in her head, bluntly telling her that if she did not do what Zara told her, the pain would be immeasurable.
Well, that was that. She sat down and took her cock in her hand. How was she still hard? She vaguely remembered having one of the strongest orgams of her life just a few minutes ago. She shouldn't have been able to get it up again this quickly. Dreamrider magic, probably. As she started stroking herself, she heard, in the distance, footsteps.
Zara heard them too. Pelan saw their ears twitch... And she could actually feel their influence on her waning a little bit as they reached out with their mind to do... Something. Pelan wasn't sure what.
Whatever it was, it didn't please them any. Zara's scowl grew even scowlier, and she muttered, "Those two? Again?"
Pelan was still stroking herself. Her cock was still covered in her own cum and Zara's juices, so no lubrication was required. Zara was no longer in her head, reading her thoughts. Probably. She was fairly certain that they weren't. In any case, she felt like she was thinking clearly. Or at least, as clearly as she could while masturbating. She was still under their control, though. That was a problem. Pelan was going to have to work out some way to-
Too late. Two figures came into view, rushing around a bend in the path a ways off. One was short and thin. Judging from their skin and ears, they weren't from Felu Shala or Ettatiam, and judging from the silvery mail that they were bedecked in underneath their cloak, they were a Knight of the Chrysanthemum. A real Knight. Shit. This would probably make getting out of here with a Starbright a lot more difficult, but perhaps it was actually a blessing, because it would make getting out of here at all much more likely.
The other person was Shalian, and... Goodness they had an awful lot of bouncing and wobbling going on as they ran, didn't they? Their chest wasn't as big as Zara's was right now, but that was a very high bar. They were still enormous, so much so that they actually had to hold them with one arm to keep them from bouncing right out of their robe as they ran. "Hold it!" they cried as the two of them approached. They - the bosomy Shalian - were slowing down, gasping for breath, but their companion - the Knight - was still running right at the two of them.
Zara seemed to be shocked. Her eyes were wide, and she put her hands up in a placating gesture. "Now, hold on one moment! I'm sure that-"
"The one on the left!" the Shalian cried out. They were stopped now, catching their breath, clearly not used to running like that.
"I know," said the Knight. Zara raised her arms in fear, and Pelan could feel them gathering magic, preparing to cast a spell...
But the Knight was too fast. They crashed into Zara with an arm outstretched, putting a gauntleted hand right over their face. Pelan realized what was happening just in time to close her eyes and watch the cord - Zara's magical tether into the world...
Disappear. It was beautifully done. Zara shrieked, and their body burst into blue fire. The Knight used their momentum to rush right through the space where Zara had been a moment before, shielding their face from the flames with their cloak, which immediately caught fire, and then was immediately extinguished as they tumbled nimbly down into the dirt, deliberately rolling a few times to put out the flames.
As soon as Zara was gone, her spell of control was broken. Pelan was able to stop masturbating.
"S- sorry about that," said the Shalian, who was still looking flushed and sweaty as they approached her. "You have to deal with dreamriders quickly, before they have a chance to work their magic on you. Did they hurt you? Are you feeling okay?"
"I'm fine," said Pelan. "Head's a little fuzzy, but I'll be alright." Mostly she just felt ashamed. Now that she was out of danger, and now that Zara was out of her head, it was dawning on her how completely she had cocked this whole thing up.
"Can you remember your name?"
"Yes. Pelan." That was her name, right? Yes. Yes, she was sure. Pelan was her name. She ran through the birth- and adult-names of her parents and her sister in her head just to make sure, and was able to recall them all without any trouble. Her memory hadn't been addled that badly, then.
"Oh, good! I am Tula, and this is Naala." They gestured at the Knight, who had stood and was dusting themselves off. Their cloak was barely even singed.
"That was impressive," said Pelan. She was trying to avoid staring at Tula's cleavage too overtly, but it was difficult, because they were leaning forward in order to speak with her. She was suddenly quite aware that she was still rock-hard. "Um... Let me just..." She stumbled over to her clothes, which were still on the ground nearby, and sheepishly started to dress. Tula and Naala politely averted their eyes as she did it.
"Pelan," said Naala, as she was wrapping her breasts back up in her band. "You may want to know, for future reference, that all members of the Order of the Chrysanthemum carry a pendant."
Pelan winced. "Listen, I stumbled into an opportunity and seized it. You don't ask for payment anyway, so what would it have mattered if I slipped in and took care of the dreamrider before you got here? The villagers would have been saved either way. They're fine, by the way. They're over that ridge."
"Oh!" said Tula. "I should tend to them." They hustled off over the ridge, but Naala stayed behind.
Pelan finished adjusting her breasts in her band, and once she was certain that her crotch was covered as well, she said, "You can look now." Naala turned towards her, and she could see that they were frowning.
"The reputation of the Order of the Chrysanthemum matters," they said. "We don't ask for payment. You did. It's important that everyone knows that they don't need to give us anything for us to help them. We don't want anyone to avoid calling on us because they don't think that they can afford us. And more importantly, dreamriders are dangerous. What would have happened to you if Tula and I hadn't come along when we did?"
She probably would have been forced into doing whatever the dreamrider wanted her to do. Forced to work on that strange stone pillar, and then after that, Zara would have done to her whatever it was that they did with servants who had outlived their usefulness. Pelan didn't want to think about that. "I would have figured something out," she said defensively.
"Mm." Naala looked utterly unconvinced, which was fair, because Pelan didn't entirely believe it herself. "And why do you want a Starbright in the first place?"
"Listen, this dreamrider was different from the others I've encountered, in some strange ways."
The way that Naala raised an eyebrow at that told Pelan that they weren't impressed by her sudden changing of the subject, but they said, "How so?"
"Well, there was the fog that you two got rid of. Have you ever encountered a dreamrider who could do something like that?"
"Yes," said Naala flatly, which caught Pelan a little off-guard.
"Oh. Well. They also didn't seem to be interested in fucking the townsfolk that they kidnapped until they were drained."
"We know. If that's what they were doing, there would have been longer gaps between the disappearances. Once a dreamrider has drained a person completely, they tend to rest and lie low for a month or more. The disappearances were all only a day apart, which most likely means that they were bringing them under their control to serve some purpose, probably to either strengthen their connection to this world, or to help bring more demons into it."
Pelan hadn't actually known that, that dreamriders rested for a long time after they drained a person. She found herself incredibly annoyed that this Knight knew something about them that she didn't. "Well, they also said that they knew you."
That gave Naala pause. They furrowed their brow. "How so? Elaborate, please."
"After you cleared out the fog, they sniffed around and said 'Those two again?' Or something like that."
"Did they say anything else?"
"That's when you and your friend came bouncing down the path. You saw what happened after that. Though, really, I s'pose it was Tula doing all of the bouncing."
"Running is difficult for her, but we were hurrying. What did they say their name was?"
"Zara. Ring any bells for you?"
Their frown grew deeper. "No, but I think I know who-"
"Naala!" Tula cried, suddenly. "Naala, we're still in danger! Come here!"
They were already running before Tula even finished their sentence. Pelan watched them disappear over the ridge, and for a moment she considered simply cutting her losses and leaving, while they were both distracted. She would escape with her life, which wasn't a certainty before they'd arrived.
...But there was a whole patch of Starbrights over there. The villagers almost certainly knew that she had lied to them by now, but there was still a chance that she could snatch one somehow and run off before anyone noticed. She didn't know how she'd do that, but she was good at seizing opportunities when they came up.
So she finished fastening the sash on her robe, made sure her box of eggs was safely tucked away, and followed them over the ridge. When she crested it and looked down into the grove, what she saw made her pause.
The villagers were no longer working on carving the strange stone in the middle of the clearing. Instead, they were huddled up next to Tula. Some of them were clutching their heads, but they were all looking at the slab with fear in their eyes. Pelan could see why: It was glowing. The odd lines and patterns that they had carved into it were illuminated in precisely the same purple light that the nearby Starbrights emitted, and in the center, where eight lines converged into a circle, there was a hole that hadn't been there before. Inside the hole, Pelan could see only blue flames.
Blue flames... And an arm. A spindly, scaled arm, with a hand of six too-long fingers, all tipped with terrible blood-red claws instead of fingernails. It grasped the edge of the stone, and a face appeared.
"What is that?" cried Pelan. The creature had a face that was beautiful, if alien. Their eyes were just a bit too big to look right on their face, their mouth just a bit too wide, their teeth just a bit too sharp. They scowled and hissed, and their eyes filled with red light. Literally, their eyes actually glowed. Their tongue was far, far too long, and it was forked, like a snake's.
"Our dreamrider friend again!" said Tula. They patted the shoulders of two of the villagers. "Run! All of you, get out of here!"
They certainly didn't need to be told twice. They rushed past Pelan, stumbling over the ridge and away from the grove.
"That's Zara!?" cried Pelan. Naala was already rushing towards the pillar. They snatched up one of the chisels from the ground where the villagers had left them and leapt, aiming to dig it into the stone to break the pattern of intricate lines that were defining the portal. Pelan wasn't sure that it would work, but it didn't matter. The dreamrider pulled themselves up out of the portal...
This was the first time that she had seen a dreamrider unshifted. They were big. Their legs were still in the portal, but even from the waist up they were taller than Naala. Their torso was too long to belong to any kith of this world, as if some god had grabbed them and stretched them out, tallways. They had enormous leathery wings, and bumps on their chest that suggested breasts, but no nipples, and, bizarrely, no genitals, either. Between their legs there was nothing but smooth skin. They reached out with their too-long arm and gave Naala an open-palm slash across the chest with their awful claws. Their armor, that silvery mail, wasn't even scratched, but the force of the blow knocked them bodily to the side. They landed on the ground with a thud and a grunt.
"Naala!" Tula cried. They rushed over and began muttering something to themselves as they cradled Naala's head in their hands.
"Right!" said Pelan. "I think it's time for you to go back where you came from, Zara!" She didn't trust herself to cast - she was still too exhausted, and she wasn't even sure that a banishment would work on a demon who was halfway through a portal. She did the only thing that she could think of.
She opened her box of eggs, grabbed one, and tossed. Zara had one leg outside of the portal now, but they froze to watch the egg fly through the air... And land directly on their face. It burst into blue fire which engulfed them down to their shoulders...
And then dissipated, leaving Zara looking annoyed, but without even a minor burn. Dreamriders are immune to fire, Pelan thought to herself. Right. Important lesson, that. She was going to have to remember that one.
"Why is it," said Zara, and their voice was precisely the same as it had been before, "that every time I am foiled, it is by women who are obsessed with breasts?" They pulled themselves out of the portal, and the moment that their legs cleared the rim of it, it disappeared. The stone ceased its glowing, and as they straightened themselves, standing on top of it, their form changed. They looked as they had before - a Shalian with wide, curvy hips and astoundingly huge breasts. They had kept the wings this time, however. They folded up and surrounded them like a cloak. "The Lonian girl could hardly stop playing with her fat tits to save her own life, and that was before I even did anything to her! But somehow, somehow she managed to focus enough to ruin the summoning that I had set up!"
Tula looked up at them, aghast. "You? Again?"
Zara sneered. "Me. Again. Your precious Knight there lost her wits when I shoved her face into my tits, but then you had to come along and ruin my plans a second time! And now this woman..." She gestured at Pelan.
"Me?" said Pelan.
Zara grinned. "Well, I suppose that you haven't ruined anything, yet."
Naala was starting to stir in Tula's arms. The blow had knocked them unconscious, but they were waking up. Zara noticed. "And this time, I won't let you!"
They raised a hand, and when Pelan blinked she saw that they were gathering magic, preparing to cast a spell. Tula noticed too. "Vela!" they shouted. "Krolosh! Protection!"
"Vela!" cried Pelan in her own Voice. "Krolosh! Pro-"
Too late. The magic washed over the three of them like a tidal wave, invisible, but powerful. It wasn't painful, as she had expected, and she didn't drop dead on the spot. In fact, she felt... Energized.
"Pelan!" yelled Tula. "That was a curse! How do you feel?"
"I feel... Great!" she said, and it was the truth. "The haziness is gone, and my chest feels hot, and..." She looked down at Tula. More specifically, she looked at her huge, fat, blue breasts, which were still on the verge of falling right out of that robe of hers.
Zara laughed in triumph as Pelan found herself moving despite herself, rushing towards Tula. "Enjoy that!" they said with glee. "Because you're going to be stuck with it for the rest of your life!" They unfurled their wings and leapt into the air, but Pelan was beyond caring.
"Your breasts," she said to Tula, nearly tripping over herself to get to them. "They're so big! And they look so soft and warm. Can I touch them?"
"Not the time!" they shouted, looking up at Zara. "They're getting away! Krolosh! Stop th- Eek!"
Pelan tugged at Tula's robe, and gasped in delight when their breast fell out without any effort at all. Their nipple was a darker blue than the rest of their skin, and delightfully big, as were their areola. Just like Zara.
Naala was awake now. They took a deep, calm breath, but Pelan wasn't even looking at them. "Naala!" Tula cried, even as Pelan grabbed their huge, soft breast with both hands. "Don't hurt yourself!"
"Can't be helped," Naala muttered. Pelan was too distracted by Tula's breast to do anything but marvel at it. It was so heavy! And this was just one of them!
There was a terribly loud foom! and an enormous pillar of blue flame and hot air erupted from Naala's outstretched arm and jetted up into the sky. She heard Zara scream, and then a heavy thud. It didn't matter, though. All that mattered was Tula's huge, plump, weighty breast. Pelan planted a kiss on it, right on a patch of the blue freckles that dotted its upper curve, and she could swear that she nearly came in her clothes at the feel of Tula's wonderfully soft, delicate skin on her lips.
"My love!" cried Tula. "I love you, but that was stupid!"
"Worked, though," said Naala with a chuckle, and a cough.
"Okay!" said Tula. "New plan! Pelan, suck on my nipple! Quickly, before Zara gets up!"
Only four of those words made it past Pelan's ears, but they were the only ones that she needed. Tula's nipple was already beginning to stiffen, and Pelan delighted in rubbing her tongue back and forth over it, causing their areola to shrink and wrinkle, just as Zara's had done earlier.
"I said suck!" said Tula, and they pressed Pelan's face into their breast. So eager! She didn't need to be told twice. She wrapped her lips around it and... Oh! What was this? A fun surprise! Warm liquid filled Pelan's mouth. She'd been with people who made milk before, and it was always a delight. Tula's tasted wonderful, too. She swallowed it without hesitation, savoring the taste.
And as soon as she did, Tula clasped both of their hands around her head, in a decidedly non-erotic way. "Wha-"
"Vela, Krolosh, Konong, please rid Pelan of this ridiculous curse!"
Curse? What curse? Pelan just wanted to keep sucking on Tula's nipple, keep drinking her delicious...
Warmth flooded through her body, starting in her stomach and flowing outward, until it filled every part of her, from her toes to her head. And when it reached her head...
She blinked. Tula's nipple was still in her mouth. And she had ripped their robe open without their consent! She leapt backwards, as if she had been electrocuted. "Oh, oh! Oh, gods, I'm so sorry!"
"Don't worry about it," said Tula hurriedly. "We have bigger problems!" She pointed to Zara, who was on the ground... The spell! Naala had hit them with sorcery. She had moved the air underneath them to knock them out of the sky, but they were standing up now, and...
"I see," said Zara through a wet-sounding cough, "that you have bested me again." They were clutching their side, which was bleeding. They must have landed on something sharp.
"Your curse didn't even hit us," said Naala, who was still lying on the ground. "And Pelan is already cured of it."
"Only half of it," said Zara, with another cough.
"Half?" said Pelan. "What does that mean? What did you do to me?"
"Oh, you'll see. Do you want to know something interesting about me, Pelan?"
"I hardly think that you're in a position to make conversation, demon. Naala, can you do that again if they try to fly away?"
"'Fraid not," said Naala, weakly. "I don't think that I can even stand."
"Right. Well, I can." Pelan closed her eyes again, briefly, and saw that the cord tying Zara to the world was back... and it was weaker this time. Weak enough that Pelan was certain that she could break it. If she could remember how.
"Rude," said Zara. "I have a name. Many, in fact."
"Shut it." Shit, shit, shit. How did banishment go, again? Reach out with your mind, grab the cord, snap it. But how did she do that? She couldn't remember the feeling of it, and with sorcery, the feeling was the spell itself. Of all the things she could have forgotten...
"It doesn't matter. The three of you will be dead soon, anyway."
"Yeah?" said Pelan. "How do you figure? You're bleeding out, and me and Tula are fine."
"Actually," said Tula quietly, "I'm exhausted. Blocking the curse and then ridding you of it took too much out of me. I do not think that I can cast again..."
"Right," said Pelan, her confidence waning. "Well, I'm fine." Banishment, banishment, banishment. She had done this at least thrice before. Why wasn't it coming back to her?
"I was saying," said Zara. "Something interesting about myself. Me, my kind, fire does not burn us."
"Yeah, I picked up on that." Fuck it. Pelan was going to go for it, even if she couldn't remember exactly how. She would figure it out while she was doing it. She took a breath, prepared herself to cast.
Zara looked over at the Starbrights in their cage, with a grin. "All fire. Even if it's magical."
She realized what Zara was about to do just a moment before it happened. "NO!" she yelled, but it was too late. She didn't have time to stop them. It was such a simple thing, for a dreamrider, after all. Zara pointed at the Starbrights, and a tiny mote of flame burst out of her finger. It zipped through the bars of the cage, right into one of the big ones in the middle, and...
The noise was deafening. It hit the three of them before the fire did, and nearly knocked her off of her feet. The flames engulfed Zara, who was laughing, and they rushed towards the three of them, and she was sure that she was going to die...
Unless.
There was one thing that she could do. The effort of it might kill her, but she would die for sure if she didn't try. She reached out with her arms, and then she reached out with her mind, and the flames...
Moved.
---
Her senses came back to her slowly. Her head was throbbing, a fresh wave of pain with every beat of her heart. It was horrible. But then, at least she knew that her heart was still beating. She couldn't see, and every joint in her body ached.
"Ah," said a voice. "You're moving. Good. If you can hear me, open your mouth."
It sounded like Tula, so she did. Her throat was terribly, terribly dry, but she felt something being pressed to her lips. A cup, or a bowl. "Drink this. Just a swallow at first."
It tasted lovely, like jasmine and something earthy but pleasant. And breastmilk. It hurt to swallow, but when she did, it filled her with warmth, and the pain - all of it, from her head to her toes - eased somewhat.
"Thank you," she said, and she found that her voice was raspy and faint.
"Your sight should come back in a few moments, if it hasn't already. That was an impressive bit of sorcery. It very nearly killed you."
"Fire would have. If I hadn't..." She wanted to say more, but it still hurt to speak. She took another sip of the soothing drink. Her vision was starting to return. She could just make out the twinkling stars above her. To one side, there was a blue-and-purple blur, and to the other, there was a silver-and-brown blur. "That you, Naala?"
"Yes," said the silver-and-brown blur. "You saved our lives. Thank you."
"Saved my own life. You were just nearby..." Another sip, a bit more of the pain gone.
"You didn't have to move the flames so that they didn't hit us. You could have just protected yourself. It would have been easier."
"Yeah. Well. You saved me from dreamrider. Call it even."
Tula giggled. "Well, we are still thankful."
Pelan's sight was rapidly improving. She could barely move her body, but she managed to crane her neck a bit to look around. She was lying on her back, and they were still in the Starbright grove. Except...
The cage in the middle of the clearing now protected nothing but a smoking hole in the ground. All of those Starbrights, gone in a moment. Just the thought was almost enough to make Pelan cry. The cage itself hadn't melted, but the flames had softened it enough that it was sagging under its own weight. The grass in the clearing had all completely burned away, so that the ground was nothing but ash and dirt, except for a neat half-circle around the three of them.
"Did they escape?" Pelan asked hoarsely.
"I'm afraid so," said Naala with a frown. "I have already alerted the Order of the Chrysanthemum. We'll be looking for them, here and abroad."
"Already?" Pelan blinked. "How long was I out?"
"A few minutes. Don't worry about it."
"Right. Well." Pelan leaned back and closed her eyes. The pain was quickly leaving her, but it was replaced with exhaustion. Now that she knew for sure that the danger was gone, the strain of what she had just done was catching up to her. "I'm just going to take a little nap, then..."
-----
Epilogue
When Pelan opened her eyes again, it was in an unfamiliar bed, underneath an unfamiliar roof. The bed was warm and comfortable, but she had been sweating in it. There was a window nearby, and there were golden-orange rays of light filtering in through it, though she wasn't sure if it was the light of dawn or dusk.
She tried stretching, and found that the pain was gone. Mostly. She was still a bit sore all over, but it wasn't as unbearable as before. And her head had stopped hurting. She tossed aside the blanket that she was under and found that she was still in her robe. Whoever brought her here had not undressed her, though they had taken her egg-box, which still had an egg in it, and set it on a table next to the bed. Good thing, that. If the box had come open in her sleep, and she had rolled over on the egg... Gods, what a stupid way to die that would be.
She sat on the edge of the bed and tested her legs. She was a bit wobbly, but she could stand. When she did, she caught a whiff of something gross. After a bit of investigating, she found that the source of the smell was... Herself. Ugh. How long had she been asleep?
She grabbed her egg-box (best not to leave it laying around where someone could stumble upon it - she had learned that the hard way) and wandered out into the hallway. It was empty, except for a few paintings. That was a tradition here in the north: when a person died, their loved ones painted a portrait of them right on the walls of the common house. Pelan had always found it unsettling, having the eyes of the village's dead upon her when she was sleeping. None of the paint on the wall was fresh, though, so that was reassuring. She meandered around, looking for the house's exit, but she stopped when she heard voices from one of the bedrooms.
"Lorn... I wanted to tell you that I heard what you said to me when I... When I was unwell."
A pregnant pause. Pelan creeped up to the door. It was mostly closed, so that she could only see a sliver of the room through it. She didn't dare open it further.
"Mm. You remember that, do you?" came the deep rumble of Lorn's voice.
"I remember how you stayed by my side all night, watching over me until you fell asleep."
"If I was even half the man that I thought I was, I would have been able to protect you from that monster. They must have come right into the bedroom when they took you, and I didn't even stir."
Ah, Lorn was a man. Pelan had guessed as much - beards and chest-hair weren't especially popular looks for women anywhere in Felu Shala. Still, uncommon though they were, she had met women who proudly wore beards before, and men who were even bustier than her, and folks who were in-between or neither who came in all sorts of shapes and sizes. One never knew.
"Please don't blame yourself, Lorn! The creature was terribly powerful. Even if you were awake, I'm certain that there was nothing you could have done. They might have killed you if you tried to fight them. But that's not what I wanted to say. What I wanted to say was that... Everything that you said to me... I feel the same way, Lorn. And that night, it wasn't just the dreamrider's magic that compelled me to... To do what I did. That was me. In my dreams, the dreamrider enchanted me by pretending to be you, and there was a reason that worked so well."
Pelan wasn't sure what was going on here. It sounded vaguely like a love confession? If that was what it was, the other person should have just told Lorn that they loved him. Pelan never saw the point of dancing around your own feelings like that.
There was another tense silence. "Well? Aren't you going to say anything?"
"Kuraduyn, I-"
"You can call me by my birth-name. Please. I would like it if you did. It's-"
Pelan blushed furiously, covered her ears, and walked away. Eavesdropping on a private conversation out of sheer curiosity was one thing, but she wasn't going to eavesdrop on that. She didn’t like it when anyone called her by her birth-name, for any reason, but she knew that for other folks it was something that was very personal, shared only with those who had earned the right to hear it.
She'd been hoping to ask Lorn, when he was done talking to the other person, how long she had been asleep and where the bathhouse was, but if this was that type of conversation, he may well have been occupied for a while. Instead, she decided to just wander around until she found it herself. In fact, that would be better, because she wouldn't have to answer any awkward questions about why she had lied to the entire village to their faces.
She managed to escape the common house without seeing anyone else, and when she stepped outside, she saw that the sun was in the west. It was dusk, then. That explained why she hadn't seen anyone else yet - the whole town was still asleep, except for the two lovebirds back there in the house. That was fine by her. It meant that she would be able to sneak a quick bath and then put this place behind her before anyone noticed that she was gone.
She found the village bathhouse without much difficulty. It wasn't hard mainly because it wasn't really a house so much as a set of walls that surrounded a natural hot spring. She could see steam from outside, since there was no roof, and there was a relief carved into the wall above the door that depicted a mermaid. The mermaid was quite busty, which made Pelan smile.
She stepped inside, and...
Hello. Tula and Naala were there. Naala was seated on the edge of one of the pools of the hot spring (there were three), and Tula was in the water. Tula's face was buried between Naala's legs, and from the noises that they were making down there, it was clear that they were going at it very enthusiastically. Tula hadn't noticed her yet, but Naala was looking right at her. She didn't know if they were red out of embarrassment, arousal, or heat from the springs. Maybe it was all three. Regardless, Pelan turned right back around and closed the door behind her.
"Sorry!" she shouted back through the wall, and then giggled when she realized that Naala had said the exact same thing in time with her.
"Sorry," Naala repeated. "We thought that we could... Sorry. We thought that we were the only ones who were awake."
"Oh, don't mind me!" said Pelan. "I can come back later." She didn't want to wait - she smelled terrible, and the hot water would do wonders for the soreness that was still inhabiting her - but Naala had looked like they were enjoying themselves quite a bit, and Pelan felt bad interrupting them.
"No. No, it's fine." There was a soft splash. "We're done. You can come back in."
Pelan opened the door again and peeked inside. Naala was in the water now, but Tula was leaning back against the pool's edge, their huge breasts floating on the water and bobbing with their breaths, which were coming hard and heavy.
"Phew!" they said. "I could not breathe down there. Hello, Pelan! It's good to see you up and moving about. How are you feeling?"
"Much better, thank you." Pelan closed the door behind herself. "A bit sore, but that’s to be expected. Thank you for tending to me, after the explosion.”
That made Tula laugh. “We should be thanking you. Speaking of that, you may call me Suminara, if you’d like. My birth-name.”
That made Pelan blush even harder than she had upon walking in on the two of them being amorous with each other. "That wouldn't be appropriate. I hardly know you."
"Mm. True, but you did save my life, and the life of my beloved. For that, we both have love for you, no matter what sort of person you are. I think that it is appropriate."
"Well," said Pelan, "you saved my life, too, and I'm thankful for that. I hope that you won’t be offended if I don’t give you mine, though. My birth-name doesn’t fit me. I’ve never liked it."
"So it goes, sometimes," said Tula – or rather, Suminara – with a gentle smile. "I admit that sometimes I find it difficult to live up to mine." Suminara, in addition to being a name, was also a word that meant, roughly, ‘be happy’. It was an exhortation from parent to child. "If it makes you uncomfortable, I do not mind if you continue to call me Tula."
“I think that I would prefer that, if it’s all the same to you. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but... We only just met.”
Their smile didn't falter. "I understand. Naala and I are clean. We won't mind if you would like to join us, but if you would rather bathe alone, we can leave."
"Oh, I don't mind. I just didn't want to interrupt. The two of you seemed a bit... Busy. When I walked in."
That made Naala blush and Tula laugh. "Don't worry about that. We can finish later. I simply want to avoid causing you, ah... Any undue stress by bathing with you."
Pelan blinked at that. "Why would the two of you cause me stress?"
Tula just nodded their head towards Pelan's crotch. She looked down at herself... And after squishing her breasts up against herself with her arm, she saw what they were gesturing towards. Her cock had apparently jostled its way out of her smallclothes at some point, and it was making a tent in the front of her robe. "Oh." She sighed, and shrugged. "You're both very beautiful."
"Thank you.” Tula smiled earnestly. “I think that you are beautiful too. Have you noticed anything odd since you woke up?"
"Odd in what way?" said Pelan as she shed her robe and started working on the knot on her breastband.
"The dreamrider's curse. They said that I only fixed half of it, but I don't know what the other half of it entails. It's a dreamrider curse, so I can only assume that it will have something to do with sex."
Oh. Right. Zara had said that, hadn't they? "I haven't noticed anything odd, but I have only been awake for a few minutes." She struggled with the knot on her band for a moment. It was tighter than normal, probably because laying on it had pulled it taut at some point while she was asleep. She wished that whoever had deposited her in the bed had stripped her first, but of course, they would have no way of knowing that she would have been okay with that.
"Hmm. Well, let me know if anything seems amiss." They sat back in the water and sighed. "We will stay in town for another day or two, to make sure that being under the dreamrider's thrall has no lasting effects on the eight who were captured. Their memories are all a bit hazy, but nothing too terrible, considering what they all went through. I expect they will all be fine."
"Where will you go after that?" asked Pelan as she wiggled out of the last of her clothes. She was still hard as a rock, but neither Tula nor Naala seemed to mind, so she slipped gingerly into the water, on the other side of the pool from the two of them.
Tula looked at Naala, who said, "Back to the sub-headquarters in Kolan Aun. After that, wherever the Order sends me. Wherever we go, it will probably be in search of our dreamrider friend. We destroyed their portal-"
“Good,” said Pelan. “I think that it was being powered by the Starbrights, and I doubt that it would work without them, but better safe than sorry.”
“We thought the same,” said Naala. “It’s little more than pebbles, now. The hypnotized folks were very happy to take pickaxes to it, once they were on their feet again. So that’s taken care of, but the dreamrider is still out there. If the Order picks up any scent of them, I’ll be one of the first to know. I have standing orders to pursue them if I find any trace of their presence.”
"That's something that I never understood about you folk," said Pelan.
"My folk?" said Naala. "Which folk?"
"You Chrysanthemum folk. You choose a leader, and once you've done that, you just... Do what they say? All the time? Without question?"
"Ah," said Naala. "Not all the time. I have disobeyed orders before, when my conscious disagreed with them. I have been reprimanded, but I have not been removed from the Order, so..." They shrugged. "It's not so bad. I swore an oath to help people, not to follow orders without question. I have only ever broken orders to keep the oath."
"Mm. Well, I'm also headed to Kolan Aun after this. Why don't I travel with you two?"
Tula and Naala looked at each other, and some unspoken agreement was arrived at between them. "Yes," said Tula. "Good idea. That will give us more time to work out what this curse of yours entails, and I will be around to cure it, if I can."
"On one condition," said Naala.
"Name it."
"No more lying. Everything worked out all right this time, but you could have seriously damaged the reputation of the Order." Naala's voice was rather monotone, but it had taken on a commanding edge to it now that lent weight to their words. "I would like you to promise that you will not pretend to be a member of the Order anymore, even after we have parted ways."
"Okay," said Pelan. "Sure. I promise."
Naala blinked, as if they had expected that to be harder. But really, why would it have been? The only reason Pelan had done it in the first place was because the opportunity had presented itself, and it hadn’t even worked that well. She had the feeling that they would have voted to allow her to have a Starbright even if she hadn’t lied.
"Well," said Naala. "Alright then."
Pelan stretched and spread her arms out along the edge of the pool. The hot water was doing wonders for her. The last of the soreness in her was melting away. "That's that, then. By the way, Tula, to be completely honest, I suspect that the dreamrider was lying about the curse. I'm still tired from redirecting their flames, but don't feel any different." She frowned. "Um. I apologize again for groping you, by the way. I was-"
"No apology necessary," said Tula. "I've dealt with dreamriders before, and I've dealt with this dreamrider before. I know that you were not in control of yourself. No harm done."
"Still," said Pelan. "I want you to know that's not something that I would do."
"I want you to know that you can touch them any time you'd like, as long as you ask me first."
Pelan blushed. She was glad that they couldn't see her cock under the water, because she could feel it throb.
"You should know," said Naala, "that we tend to get ourselves into dangerous situations. The other night... Well, it's not every night that something like that happens to us, but it's also not the first time that either of our lives have been in danger."
"It's not the first time that my life has been in danger either. I didn't learn how to redirect spells like that by studying books. Could have used a bit more practice before tackling something that big, though..."
That made Naala chuckle. "It was well-done. When Tula and I found that we were still alive and unharmed, we were a bit shocked."
Pelan shrugged. "To tell the truth, I don't know if I could do it again. Sometimes you surprise yourself when your life is in danger, you know?"
"I do," said Naala, and the three of them sighed, all at once. “Say, Pelan, there is another thing that I would like to know about you, if you are going to travel with us.”
More questions. Pelan steeled herself. “Okay.”
“Why did you want a Starbright so badly, anyway? I asked you in the grove, but you never answered me.”
That made Pelan shift uncomfortably. “It doesn’t matter anymore. They’re gone.”
A raised eyebrow. “You understand that your insistence on avoiding the question comes across as rather suspicious, yes?”
She did. “I needed it to help a friend who got themselves into trouble. I wasn’t going to harm anyone with it, and that’s the absolute truth. You can put me under a geas if you want to be sure that I’m not lying. I don’t want to talk about it any more, though. In order to explain it I would have to relive some... Bad memories. Things that I don’t want to think about.”
Both Tula and Naala stared at her intensely. She noticed for the first time how striking their eyes were. Tula’s were gold, which stood out sharply in contrast with her blue skin and white hair, and Naala’s were a bright, emerald green, which contrasted in a similar way with her darker countenance.
“Hmm,” said Naala. “Good enough for me. I know what it’s like to have bad memories.”
Pelan sighed in relief, and released a breath that she didn’t realize that she’d been holding. She had a feeling that Naala would be keeping a close eye on her during their travels. Well, that was fine. She was telling the truth, after all.
"You know," said Tula, after a long pause, "I think that we are going to attract lots of attention, wherever we go."
"Hmm?" said Naala. "Why?"
Tula pointed at her own breasts, which were still bobbing heavily in the water in front of her, and then she pointed at Naala's and at Pelan's, which were doing the same.
Pelan couldn't help but laugh.
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