“If that’s the case,” you say, sipping from your own cup of tea, “why can’t Veleda send us back to Vorokesh?”
“She’s not faithful,” says Theora. “Nor are her merchants.”
Saleen shrugs as if not praying to Veleda is a reasonable choice.
“More importantly,” continues Theora, stoking the small fire in the fire pit, “Yasmeen’s power lingers. It will be hours before it fades enough for Veleda to return us to your farm.”
Saleen sits down on one of the clever folding stools provided by the merchants.
“Like I said, well past dawn before this one eases up,” says Saleen.
“I am going to enter the Crystal Sanctum and extract the information we require from Yasmeen,” says Theora, wrapping her hand around the grip of the sword in your sheath. “I will return soon.”
You begin to ask her if she needs any assistance, but before you can get the words out there is a flash of pink light and Theora disappears. The pink crystal in the grip of your sword glows and pulses several times before going dark.
“So that is how it works,” says Saleen. “I thought perhaps a doorway would open and you would step through it. You just touch the crystal and…” She snaps her fingers.
“I have to hold it up and say something,” you explain. “Theora can come and go as she pleases.”
“What is it like inside there?” Saleen asks the question as she unrolls a kerchief in her lap and takes out a small stack of flatbreads she purchased in Kazadar. She hands one to you and you take a testing bite of the surprisingly rich and herbaceous bread. It goes well with the sweetness of the sugar root tea.
“It’s beautiful,” you say. “It’s always sunset an there is this huge palace of white marble. There are rooms for everyone who wants a room and these doll-like creatures called Hina that take care of everything and cook food.”
“And all the monster girls you have captured. They are your pleasure harem.”
You almost choke on the bite of the bread you were chewing. The way Saleen puts it offends your sensibilities, as if she is accusing you of keeping pleasure slaves like Toad. Then you realize that the monster girls you have captured are your slaves and you keep them for your pleasure.
“I… I suppose that is, I mean, they want to pleasure me. They insist on it every time I go in there. I don’t have much say in the matter when a horny succubus is leaping at me.”
“If you’ve been bedding a succubus,” says Saleen, finishing her flat bread and her cup of tea. “You must be pretty good at sex.”
You do choke this time and only just manage not to spit your mouthful of tea all over Saleen. You gulp it down, steadying yourself and gasping for breath.
“Are you alright, Lucas?” Saleen rises from her stool and walks over to stroke your back between your shoulders in a comforting way. “You need to be sure to chew before swallowing.”
“F-fine,” you gasp, recovering and flashing a smile to prove you are fine.
“Good,” says Saleen. “Wouldn’t want you dropping dead before I get my turn.”
Her hand on your back moves slowly around to your front. You grab hold of her wrist as her fingers make contact with the very sensitive mound at the front of your robe. Saleen’s honey-brown, almond-shaped eyes look up at you. She chews her lower lip as she twists her wrist out of your grasp and returns her hands to the front of your robes.
“What are you doing?” You demand as she massages your cock through your robe.
“I thought you were cute when I first saw you in Vorokesh,” she says. “But I also thought you were weak. But you defeated Yasmeen. You must be hiding your strength pretty well.”
She grips your stiffening cock through your rope and bounces on her tiptoes to smack a soft kiss to your lips. You pull back in surprise and try to step away from her, but she keeps her hand fastened to your cock, squeezing and massaging your manhood through your robe. Her eyes blaze with amusement and lust in equal quantities. You try to retreat from her, but you are up against the vibrating back wall of the tent.
“Stop trying to run away, Lucas,” she hisses, barely audible over the sound of the storm. “Don’t you want a reward for your big victory? Don’t you want to know what it’s like to bed an elf?”
She starts to crouch down in front of you, but before she can lower herself to cock level there is a flash that fills the tent with blinding light. Saleen jerks away from you and stands upright as Theora manifests in the tent, the glow slowly fading from her voluptuous body.
“Y-you’re back already,” you gasp, adjusting your robe to hide your throbbing erection.
“She knows she is beaten,” says Theora. “She answered my questions about how to enter Chthona in the jungle of Saturana. It will not be an easy or particularly safe expedition, but I am confident we can locate the entrance to the underworld and at last take the fight to the succubus queen.”
Theora’s silvery-blue gaze flicks between you and Saleen. She seems about to ask you what you were doing with the petite warrior woman, but instead smiles serenely.
“You should take some leisure in the Crystal Sanctum,” suggests Theora. “I could join you there if you would like. We could… relax together.”
You are surprised by the deep well of desire you see in the beautiful angel’s eyes. Your cock shifts in your robe as you imagine the pleasure you could experience with Theora.
“Or you could stay here with me,” suggests Saleen. “I could teach you how to play Numian Stars.”
She produces a deck of well-worn cards from a concealed pocket of her robe and shuffles it one-handed. The suggestion is a poor cover for what she really intends to do with you and Theora’s keen eyes seem to see the truth.
“Well, make up your mind,” the angel says a bit hotly. “Either way, I am returning to the palace until this storm is over.”
She touches the gem in the hilt of the sword and flashes out of existence once again. Saleen shuffles the cards back together in her hand and tucks them away. She saunters towards you, a smirk on her pretty lips.
“Where were we?” She asks, grabbing hold of your cock through your robe.
Your cock twitches in her grasp. Your resistance to the beautiful assassin is fading. You know you have to decide quickly or Saleen will make the decision for you.
What do you do?
Stay with Saleen in the real world
Enter the Crystal Sanctum to get some rest
Triumphant over the lamia
“With Yasmeen defeated,” says Theora, regaining her strength and standing without your assistance, “word will spread through her guards and into the city beyond.”
“So?” You say, opening a small door out of the vast audience chamber and finding an unadorned servant’s passageway. You motion Theora inside.
“So Yasmeen kept all of the criminal elements and merchant clans in Kazadar under her coils,” says Theora, brushing past you to the lead the way. “With its demi-goddess gone, Kazadar will erupt into chaos. There will be open warfare in the streets.”
“That sounds like it will help cover our escape,” you say.
Theora gives you a tight-lipped smile. “Perhaps for us, Lucas, but Saleen and the caravan from Vorokesh are in the thick of it.”
“So we find them and we warn them,” you say.
“I’m glad to see we are reading from the same scroll,” she says, reaching through a dark doorway arch and grabbing a red-armored guard. She knocks him unconscious before he can make a sound and shoves his limp body into your arms. “Put on his uniform. It will help us escape.”
“You’re a six-foot tall angel with huge feathery wings,” you point out.
“And I’ll be your prisoner,” she says, clapping her own wrists in manacles lifted from the guard’s belt.
To your surprise, it works. You march Theora through Yasmeen’s extravagant palace as word of the lamia’s disappearance begins to spread among the guards. This filters down to the servants who whisper and dash
off to spread the word to their various criminal associates in Kazadar’s underworld. By the time you make it out of the gates of the palace, chaos is already infecting the crowds in the spiraling bazaar. Some shops are shutting down and closing up to try to weather the chaos, others are the battlegrounds for violent turf wars between groups of club and chain wielding thugs.
Theora suggests that looking like one of Yasmeen’s guards has now become a liability. You take off your lacquered red helmet and pull on your robe over the guard’s armor you are wearing. Theora breaks here shackles as if they were made from butter.
“We have to find Saleen,” says Theora. “She could be anywhere.”
You scan your gaze over the tumultuous marketplace with looters running wild, gangs battling, and merchants shouting and screaming.
“There,” you say, pointing over Theora’s shoulder and across the bazaar.
In the swirling chaos there is a pocket of calm. Merchants and their helpers are loading sacks of spices, bags of jewelry, rolled carpets, and paintings onto the backs of their sand shufflers. Singlehandedly holding the chaos at bay is a petite woman wielding two curved daggers. Any man or woman that enters the invisible perimeter she has established is shoved or kicked away. If they are armed, she slashes their limbs or chests before shoving them back.
Theora pushes her way through the chaos and you follow behind her. Saleen is so attuned to protecting her caravan that she almost attacks you as you approach her. You are fairly certain that if Theora did not have wings you would have been greeted with a slash across the chest from Saleen.
“It is time to leave Kazadar,” says Theora.
“You actually did it,” laughs Saleen, saluting you with one of her daggers before turning to shove a young man back. “How did you kill her?”
“I didn’t,” you say. “Not exactly. She is trapped in my sword.”
“Well, there is more to you than I thought, Lucas,” says Saleen. “Your winged friend here is right. It is time for us to leave this place before it turns into a bloodbath.”
Thankfully, you do not have to fight your way out. Once the sand shufflers are up to speed, the caravan is able to force its way through the pandemonium with the occasional angry shout from Saleen. You reach the desert and join a stampede of visiting merchants fleeing the city.
As night falls on the desert, your caravan separates and heads across the desert in the direction of Vorokesh. Saleen navigates by moonlight for a few hours before clouds come out and she decides to make camp.
“We should be far enough now,” she says. “We will be safe here for the night and a sandstorm is brewing in the east.”
You cannot see it, but you can feel it in the air as a faint prickling on your skin and a change in pressure. By the time the tents have been erected, the sand shufflers are lowing with concern and lying down in the sand. The storm follows soon after. Winds blow hard against the tents and muffle the noise of the world around you with an atmosphere full of particles.
“We are going to be here a while,” warns Theora.
CONTINUE >
The long journey across the Sea of Sand
For six days the caravan of merchants and guards rides atop the swaying backs of the sand shufflers through the seemingly endless Sea of Sand. The days are long and pitiless, the sun blazing down on the lowing reptiles and cooking you in your robes, heating shimmering on the horizon to create illusions that only reveal more sun-baked dunes. The caravan’s water is carefully rationed and it never seems to be enough. Your body aches from the saddle.
The nights are cold and often unpleasantly windy, with the cloth tents of the caravan whipping and fluttering and making it difficult for you to sleep. You are too exhausted to seek pleasure from Theora. You often awake to find your tent partially buried under sand that has collected overnight and you frequently awake to the sting of blood-sucking, scorpion-like insects called “erg nippers.”
You do sleep though, sometimes even in your saddle atop your sand shuffler, and your dreams are vexed by images of Chthona. The fiery underworld ruled over by Lady Rachelle is a nightmare realm of torture and depravity. All too often, you see the beautiful succubus with her mane of white hair and glowing red eyes defiling your mother. She likes to whisper suggestions that your mother is a willing participating in the succubus queen’s schemes. That Theora might be responsible for your father’s death. And that Veleda is not the goddess of justice and healing that you believe her to be.
Worse are the dreams where Lady Rachelle pleasure you and forces you to indulge in sick acts with your own mother. You are helpless to prevent such things, thrusting and cumming and often awakening to find your robes soiled with your seed.
On the seventh day, just before setting out, you are approached by Saleen. You have avoided her as much as possible and you grimace as the beautiful, elf warrior woman sidles up to you with her headdress loose beneath her chin and a smile on her plush lips.
“What is it, Saleen?” You ask, tying your day’s ration of water skins to the saddle of your sand shuffler.
“You do not like me, Lucas,” she says, matter-of-factly.
“I don’t have to like you,” you say with a shrug, cinching the bindings tight on your water skins.
“I do not dislike you,” she says, walking behind your back to your other side. “You think I am like Toad?”
“You serve him,” you say.
“He made me everything that I am today,” she says, holding her arms out and revealing the tight leather wraps she wears under her robes.
She must be boiling inside those, you think.
“A killer,” you say.
“A survivor,” she counters. “I know what must be done to endure. In the Sea of Sand that is a skill that makes the difference between a caravan that returns and one that does not. Without his skill, a soul will not last one hour in Kazadar.”
Her mention of your destination piques your curiosity.
“What do you know of Kazadar?” You ask.
She smiles again, seeing that she has your attention. Her honey-brown eyes are bewitching and you cannot ignore the simple sensuality of her as she tucks a lock of dark hair back into her headdress.
“Kazadar is a city enslaved by Yasmeen,” says Saleen. “She shapes the city itself to her will, demolishing whole quarters and erecting new buildings that suit her desire. There are monuments to her power everywhere and her guards and servants are everywhere. She knows everything that happens within the city the moment it occurs.”
“So why would you go there to trade?” You wonder aloud.
“Anything can be had for a price in Kazadar,” says Saleen. “Mind-altering drugs, dark magic, slaves, even demons can be bought there, or so I have heard. As long as Yasmeen gets a taste of every transaction, she allows traders to broker deals within her city. Cross her and justice will be swift and brutal. She has a taste for human flesh, they say.”
“She eats people?” You feel a tremor of fear.
“They say,” repeats Saleen. “And you seek an audience with her? You are braver than I, Lucas.”
“I am doing what I must,” you say, still thinking about being eaten by the lamia.
“You are the chosen,” says the beautiful elf with a nod. “How can you ignore the call to action of a goddess? But you are still brave, Lucas. And I would help you.”
“What? Help me?” You are surprised by her offer. She seemed to hate you before you left Toad’s fortress.
“I will teach you a skill that might save your life,” she says. “If not with Yasmeen, then perhaps some other foe on your journeys.”
She takes your hand and pulls you away from your sand shuffler. You glance down the length of the caravan and see that Theora is occupied talking with the merchants. Although you are wary, you allow Saleen to lead you over a low dune and into a patch of unblemished desert. She releases your hand and turns to face you, striking a combat stance.
“Attack me,” she says.
&nbs
p; “What?”
“You heard me,” she says. “You will not hurt me. I am ready for it. Attack me. Use your sword if you would like. Come on, Lucas. Are you a coward?”
You frown at her threatening your courage. She is unarmed and you feel as if you could take her head off with a single swing of your sword. She is a trained assassin. Surely she is aware of the risk. You brandish your sword and still she does not back down.
“Alright,” you say. “Have it your way, Saleen.”
You swing with a two-handed, off-she shoulder attack. She seems to dodge at the last possible moment, but your sword catches her across the chest. She spins from the impact, twisting and crumpling to the ground.
“Saleen! No!” You shout, instantly horrified by what you have done. You crouch beside her and reach out to feel for blood. Her body is dry. As you roll her onto her back, you feel the hard pressure of the tip of her dagger at your side. Saleen’s eyes open and her blank expression becomes a smile.
“It is called the Lure of the Lily,” says Saleen, removing the dagger from your side. “You fall dramatically, appearing to be mortally wounded, and you are an irresistible target for your triumphant foe. As they close in to savor the killing blow, you strike at their most vulnerable point.”
“A ruse,” you say. “Clever. Perhaps not honorable, but clever.”
You give her a hand up and she bounces lightly to her feet.
“There is no such thing as honor in one-on-one combat,” says Saleen. “If you fight to the death, then you do whatever it takes to win. And trust me on this, Lucas: you will be fighting to the death with Yasmeen.”
Saleen teaches you the skill of Lure of the Lily. It requires a dramatic flourish in the heat of combat that is difficult to master. Theora approaches and catches you and Saleen as you are mastering the skill.
“Teaching him to fight without honor?” Theora scoffs, her arms folded across her chest.
The Easily Defeated Hero's Monster Girl Adventure Page 83
