No Demons But Us

by A. S. Etaski

“She’s got more wits than that, Prime. Don’t forget.”

  Another grunt and the Prime seemed to recall I was there, glancing my way before looking back. “And you have this one? Not really a fair trade, Raus.”

  The Elder nodded. “Nothing more pressing than the Worship Ball, though.”

  The old female’s mouth tightened as she contemplated my shape. “How is this one against other Sisters?”

  Rausery shook her head once. “Beginner. Lead Jaunda had been guiding her training, but right now we prepare her for the Ball.”

  The disbelief was evident; the Prime hadn’t made the connection. “You’re jesting me.”

  “No, Prime. The Valsharess selected her. I witnessed it.”

  “You’re fucking jesting me.”

  “I don’t understand it, either, but that’s the way it is. We give her two cycles and a set of reds. Push her out where the Nobles can see her.”

  The Prime glared at me, taking a deep draw of air as if she sampled my scent. That wasn’t good. “What in the ice pit did D’Shea do?”

  “I’d say she accelerated some front-end training, but not much more,” Rausery said, unruffled. “Been a while since we’ve had a recruit who could be a new face for the Sisterhood. Might ask D’Shea if that’s what she’s aiming for.”

  The Prime shook her head in disgust. “Manipulative cunt. She’ll have us serving taze as we watch the Nobles piss their time away at the table with crackjilts. Bah!”

  My stomach trembled with nerves. If the Prime hadn’t shown up for the Worship Ball meeting despite the Valsharess being here, and if the older female wasn’t aware of any plans Elder D’Shea might have for me, it didn’t speak well for the information gap between them. Rausery was the bridge for now; I’d be a fool to anger her.

  “I wanna see this slutty soft-bait fight before she struts around in any goddess-damned reds,” the Prime said, scowling directly at me; I could feel it even avoiding her gaze. “Where are Corpora Thena and her team?”

  I could have sworn Rausery started to smile before she reined herself in. “Also with Elder D’Shea.”

  “What?”

  “We traded full teams, Prime. She has my Three and Four.”

  “Suck a Drider’s ass… Who’ve you got right now?”

  “Panagan and Moria,” the Elder replied without much pause.

  A roll of the eyes. “Fine. Get ‘em together. Meet you there in a quarter mark.”

  The Prime bulled through between us, brushing Rausery perhaps but thoroughly knocking me to the side on her way past. I remained against the wall as I grappled with my fear. Elder Rausery watched the Prime leave, her hands relaxed on her hips. When our ultimate superior was out of sight, the Elder smiled at me with and hand-signed the lifeline I needed.

  *Prime knows about Jaunda interfering with you and Thena. She wants to see if you do it again. Entertain her, novice, and keep your temper. She’ll get herself off then we’ll move on.*

  Rausery had just run me ragged, and now I was expected to fight. I didn’t complain but worried about going up against two fresh Red Sisters. Without a word, the Elder led me to a stock room and collected a few things, handing me one I could identify by the three red dots on the black, wax seal.

  A rejuvenator.

  I drank it, felt the warm influx of mild but accelerated healing of my hot, aching muscles; it would keep working for a while yet. I nodded my head to Rausery, indicating I was ready but didn’t draw attention to the gesture. The most it confirmed was that, whatever Rausery had had in mind for me following that long wilderness run, the Prime had thrown us off-path.

  Now she brought eight healing potions of greater strength before summoning the two other Sisters with a message pellet. We met them in the hall on our way to one of several sparring rooms, this one lit by two torches. Panagan and Moria looked me over in the new light, took a whiff of the air around me, and smirked. Their red eyes showed the memory of their part in our last confrontation—when I’d been even sweatier and wrung out to my very limit—but made no comment otherwise. I was just glad it wasn’t Thena and Suna, as their appetites for torment were harder to fill than these two.

  The Prime came in and took the only fiberstalk chair. She said nothing but watched us with hard, faded eyes and an ugly scowl which gave no hint whether she might gain any enjoyment by watching this. I knew not whether Rausery had meant the Prime would “get off” on this physically or merely symbolically, but I was to “entertain” her. Somehow.

  “We don’t have a lot of time,” Elder Rausery said to us. “The Ball starts less than two cycles from now.” She looked at me. “I trust you’ll keep up.”

  I nodded. “Yes, Elder. For the Sisterhood.”

  Rausery looked at the other two. “Your goal will be to capture, immobilize, and penetrate her. Hers will be to prevent it.”

  They nodded as well, although Panagan signed to be acknowledged, which was granted. “Elder Rausery, didn’t we already do this?”

  The Prime grunted in displeasure, and Rausery smiled without showing her teeth. “No.” She looked at me. “First, I want to see what you know, novice. Begin.”

  Right.

  Moria blinked as I charged her and swept a hard kick at her knee. I couldn’t believe that I connected so solidly, or that she’d been so slow. Maybe it had been the potion. Regardless, she wailed hoarsely in pain and Panagan cursed, moving to attack me. I didn’t have time to grab the Feldeu at Moria’s belt; I back-peddled to avoid either of them seizing me and dragging me to the bare, stone ground.

  I’d learned a lot from Jaunda, and I wasn’t as ineffectual as I’d been before. My Lead and Gaelan knew my personal attacks and could anticipate them, but these two didn’t. I stayed away from Moria, who was reaching for her belt and led Panagan around the room, drawing her in and attacking and drawing in again. She bared her teeth and watched me with fierce eyes, unable to catch me yet but waiting for an opening.

  “Not as easy when there isn’t six of you, is it?” I said. The hatred in my belly flared to a boil fast, but I kept a tight leash on it. I must keep my temper; I had to focus.

  She sneered. “You wanted it that long, altar-bait.”

  My lip curled. “Eat Dwarf dung.”

  I heard Rausery chuckle as I landed a punch to Panagan’s cheekbone and she backed up, looking shocked. Then something small cracked open at my feet, and a burst of fumes rose up into the air, and both of us began coughing uncontrollably. We fell apart from each other, unable to breathe, when Moria crashed clumsily into me, shoving me to the far side of the room and out of the fumes.

  I tripped, still coughing, landed, and felt her haul me up only to slam me against the wall and let me fall again. I heard her gasping in pain as she did so, her boot scraping with a heavy limp. Moria was growling as she landed on me, yanking and ripping at my pants. I felt a hard erection smashed against my thigh and realized she’d had ample time to get her Feldeu in place. On the ground, it was harder to fight her off, but she still had that knee injury.

  As we struggled, she pressed a nerve point at my elbow just as I landed another blow on her knee; she screamed and gripped me hard, and I went rigid in pain, unable to make any sound. She left off her attempt at stripping me in favor of hitting me in the face and hissing rambling insults at me. I can’t say that I was impressed with the repetition. As soon as I could feel my fingers again, I grabbed her cock down near my hips and pulled. Hard.

  “Cunt!” she shrieked and punched hard into my gut to knock the wind from me. It almost worked but the hardened leather absorbed the worst, and I got another twist on her member before she squirmed free, mewling.

  I rolled but was not able to scramble to my feet before Panagan fell on me next, also ready with her pants open and raging, hard staff jutting out. She pressed me to my belly, and I cursed luridly, struggling to find a way to get her off me as her black pole pressed lengthwise between my buttocks.

  “Get
over here,” Panagan growled at Moira, who crawled over on three limbs. She didn’t need to be told to pull my pants down while Panagan held me.

  I never stopped fighting but cried out when, as soon as my leathers were down around my thighs, the Red Sister atop me crammed half her Feldeu into my sex. It was dry and not the least comfortable. It took repeated lunges, but eventually, she got it all the way in, dragged it halfway out, and rammed in again. It stung, and I gritted my teeth; I was in for a very rough grudge fuck.

  The Prime hummed.

  “A win, Panagan,” Rausery said. “At attention.”

  The body atop me went stiff, trembling in rage and lust. Panagan’s voice was incredulous, and it was clear she didn’t want to stop. “E-Elder?”

  “Now.”

  “But—”

  Rausery started to walk across the room, and Panagan fumbled off me, her slithering cock vacating my body with a reverse suck. I took the opportunity to surge to my feet, resetting and closing my pants and backing away, facing all of them. My lungs still itched from the gas pellet Moria had thrown down, and I could tell the other two were affected as well when Panagan heaved a panicked cough as she retreated from her approaching superior.

  “Stand still!” Rausery barked, closing the distance in a blink and grabbing her subordinate’s erection to keep her in place.

  I had a lingering question of mine answered as I watched; the Feldeu didn’t go soft. It did not even waver even though Panagan was terrified and had lost her fire staring into Rausery’s eyes. It remained turgid and at attention, though its wearer grimaced at the tight grip and did not look aroused anymore.

  “Don’t hesitate again,” our Elder murmured low and deadly, though we could all hear her. “Your purpose here is this,” she jerked on the magical cock, “for our use. Nothing else. Understand?”

  Panagan gasped at the tug and nodded. “Yes, Elder. I understand.”

  Rausery glanced at Moria, still favoring her leg and who piped up, “I understand, Elder.”

  She nodded, pausing before releasing Panagan’s cock, and turned her attention to me next. I stayed quiet as she stepped up to me since I really had no idea whether I’d done anything wrong or not. I almost looked away to judge the Prime’s mood, but that would have been a mistake like taking my hand off the glyphs before a Sathoet had left the room.

  “Your first choice was to crack her knee?” she asked.

  After a flick’s hesitation, I answered, “Yes, Elder.”

  “Why?”

  I thought it was obvious. “To put her out of the fight and take her Feldeu.”

  “Mm-hm. Didn’t work. Moria was still effective.”

  Between the gas pellet and her determined brawling, yes, she was. Now that I thought about it, Moria shouldn’t have been able to slam me into the wall as she had; she shouldn’t have been able to stand up at all. Was she that tough? She didn’t look it. She did have more tools on her belt, though, and I didn’t know what they all did. She’d probably taken something when Panagan was chasing me around.

  “No plan if you failed to get the Feldeu,” Rausery stated, watching me. “Just reacted to what Panagan was doing.”

  “Correct, Elder,” I admitted.

  “Escalation like that is either stupidity or revenge,” the Prime commented.

  “Or both,” Rausery remarked, smiling as she glanced at the superior in the chair before she looked back at me.

  I smiled back. “I admit both, Prime, Elder.”

  The Prime snorted, but I thought Rausery’s eyelashes twitched in a wink. I heard Moria call me a filthy name under her breath, and Rausery chuckled as she looked at her next. She removed a small bottle from her belt and held it out to her subordinate.

  “Drink this, Moria. You and Panagan go into the next room and wait till I call you.”

  Moria limped forward and took the bottle with quiet but polite gratitude, drinking it then and there. She grimaced—perhaps it was bitter—before limping with Panagan toward the door, their rigid cocks still bobbing in front of them. Moria’s gait slowly got smoother, and I knew she would be fully healed in a very short while, even as she made sounds as if the process hurt her.

  Rausery waited until the stone door had slid shut before speaking again. “Was the retribution enough for you, Sirana?”

  The Prime’s nostrils wrinkled, and I knew this wasn’t entertaining her, but I also didn’t know what either of them wanted to hear. My attention was fractured before I pulled it together to answer with an impulse.

  “No, Elder.”

  Rausery tilted her head. “You’ll continue until all four have cracked knees or worse?”

  I knew that wouldn’t reward myself in the long term, as great as it might feel for a moment. “No, Elder. I could be satisfied with their keeping their distance from me off-duty. After showing them, I’m not an easy mark.”

  Rausery hadn’t blinked. “You mean you want it different than it was with your deceased sister?”

  I didn’t want to compare them like that. “My Sisters are here. Panagan and Moria are my Sisters. I’ll work it out, as I did Jaunda and Gaelan.”

  The Prime rolled her eyes. “Don’t think they wouldn’t take an opportunity to see you lurch to your own death for being stupid, lowbie.”

  “So be it, Prime.”

  “You sound like a wizard.”

  This baffled me. I kept quiet. Rausery seemed more entertained than either of us.

  “Tell me one thing you’ve observed about Elder D’Shea, novice,” she said, and the Prime actually sat up. “Your choice, Sirana, but I must find useful.”

  Fucking Abyss. I grappled for something to say that wouldn’t put the Sorceress at a disadvantage because of me.

  “Has she fucked you, yet?” the Prime asked.

  Rausery’s mouth tightened at the direction. Maybe that wasn’t her first choice of information, but the Prime did override the Elder.

  “Elder D’Shea has not fucked me, Prime,” I answered.

  “You haven’t taken her Feldeu?”

  I had never confirmed she even had one. “No, Prime.”

  “Eaten her?”

  “No, Prime.”

  “Tell me what you have done.”

  Why does that matter? I swallowed. “I’ve bathed her three times. I’ve slept in her bed as often. Only once, she made me cum with her fingers in my cunt and a shock of magic from a spell.”

  The Prime looked disgusted. “That’s it? You don’t even know what her pussy tastes like?”

  I had just said that I didn’t. The tension against my Elder was rising, and I didn’t want to be here. “No, Prime.”

  “And she has all her parts? Is she deformed?”

  Where in Braqth’s Web did that come from?

  “Why would she be, Prime?”

  Her face shifted dangerously. “Answer the fucking question.”

  “No, Prime,” I obeyed quickly, “Elder D’Shea is well-formed and has all her parts.”

  Although nervous, I omitted the scars I’d seen below D’Shea’s breast and low on her abdomen. Let either be more specific in their impromptu interrogation about my Elder before I’d mention those. This smelled like fishing, anyway; if they knew something already and only wanted to confirm, they were doing it wrong.

  Elder Rausery’s mouth was tense at one corner now. She looked away at the far wall and frowned as if concentrating on something else. She didn’t seem fixated on my answers about D’Shea as the Prime was. It occurred to me that the Prime probably had the power to demand D’Shea strip for her. If the older female had such basic questions about the Sorceress’s body, why hadn’t she?

  “Let me show you a few moves before we call Panagan and Moria back in,” Elder Rausery said, backing off on her own question which had sparked the Prime’s interest. She even took a step back until we were within sparring distance, her body language warning me to get ready. This felt like a wasted opportu
nity, and we still had the Worship Ball to prepare for after “entertaining” the Prime with this.

  At least I’d have something to report to D’Shea instead.

  “When Panagan and Moria come back, you’ll have some tools to fend them off without cracking bones.” After a pause, Rausery added, “But don’t let that stop you with anyone outside the Cloister.”

  Anyone, huh? Including these same Red Sisters?

  I didn’t ask aloud. It seemed clear enough. The instruction began.

  I came to understand the “soft touch” Rausery was teaching to complement Jaunda’s efforts, and her demonstrations on me were very effective. No strikes, no bruises, but I blacked out in moments if she got hold of me. After I stood up the third time, I marveled at the skill. The other Nobles and I had been taught strikes, weaponry, and footwork, and Jaunda had built on that, and yet Rausery could subdue me, entirely and unharmed, between the end of one breath and the start of the next. My neck wasn’t even sore. It seemed odd for the reputation of the Sisterhood but, at the same time, having more tools to refine a response to different targets excited me all the same. It made a warrior less predictable.

  “Decent,” Rausery remarked. “For a beginner.”

  Understood, Elder.

  She allowed me to practice my arm and hand placements, so I could be sure of my technique, but also had a thumb on a nerve point just in case I tried to get cute and knock her out in front of the Prime. The thought made me smile but at no time would I volunteer to be standing alone in a room with the Prime, much less arrange it with a bite on the hand that protected me.

  After giving me four such techniques, all for various shapes of neck and angle of attack, Rausery called Panagan and Moria back in. They looked no less disgruntled for having the break, but they did look like they might’ve been sucking each other’s cocks while they waited.

  The first engagement was not successful for me. I failed to hold my grip even a few flicks on the first, genuinely furious Red Sister, and eventually found my face smashed against the wall, my backside abruptly exposed.

  “In her ass,” the Prime instructed in a grunt.