by Aaron Crash
Tori gazed at him, her face pale. “You really do hear her, don’t you?”
Ymir shrugged. “She seems nice enough. For a ghost.” He had to once again swallow his fear. Then he smiled at how insane his life had become. Trusting ghosts. This school really had perverted him.
The spirit directed him. PUT THE RING IN THE ASZECULUM, CLANSMAN.
Ymir, in his gloves, took a fresh grip on the tongs holding the steaming ring. He moved over to the bowl, careful not to block the moon. In the light shimmering in the bowl, he saw a face appear—that of a dark-haired elven woman with a lined face and a wry smile curving her lips. He gritted his teeth so he wouldn’t cry out. A line from the poem came to him: The aszeculum catches the night’s sacred power; the amalgam washed in the terrible light.
The face vanished, the moonlight was dimming, covered by clouds, and this was his one chance to finish things. He set the ring in the bowl and the water frothed.
The ghost of Sarina Sia shouted above the wind and through the night. “Bone and gold melded together—that which can burn will always ignite!”
“I fucking heard that shit!” Jennybelle screamed in fright.
There was a flash. The water was gone. Ymir lifted his tongs, and the ring glowed.
“What do the last two lines of the poem mean, Sarina?” Ymir asked.
I THINK IT WOULD BE MORE APPROPRIATE FOR YOU TO CALL ME PRINCEPT, DON’T YOU THINK, YMIR? YOU ARE ONLY A SOPHIST, AFTER ALL. PLACE THE RING IN THE WHITE-STENCH CRYSTALS.
“Lillee, bring the pot, and set it on the lab table,” Ymir ordered.
The elf girl rushed over and set the pot on a stone trivet.
Ymir dropped the ring into the white-stench powder. The bone-and-gold ring burst into flames even as the powder solidified into ice.
Again, Sarina’s voice rose above the wind. “But what is summer can be made into winter. What is spring can be frozen into fall. The white-stench crystals freezing wet fire. The flames of winter will rise to consume all.”
The pot shook and split, the metal ruined by the overflowing mixture of alchemical ice surrounding a magical fire. The crystals were condensing down, trembling, making the air colder around them. The ruined pot fell away as frost crusted the table. The crystals became a circle of white. Another ring was forming.
Ymir dropped the tongs. He watched in fascination.
The moon was gone. The rain struck. Droplets sizzled off the fire ring. They froze to the ice one.
“By the Axman’s beard.” Ymir smiled. “Two fucking rings.”
A gust of wind blew over them and the Sunfire lantern winked off. Ymir and his princesses were left with the dancing flames of the bone-and-gold ring, burning with a yellow flame, while the ice crystal ring was surrounded by white flames.
Tori, Jenny, and Lillee all stepped back from whatever was happening at the table.
Ymir, though, would never retreat. He would follow this path to the very end, and he would remain true to himself. He was dealing with dark forces, yes, but Sarina Sia’s ghost around him wasn’t evil.
THUS YOU HAVE THE YELLOW SCORCH RING AND YOU HAVE THE WINTER FLAME RING. USE THEM WISELY, YMIR, SON OF THE MAJESTRIAL, USE THEM TO PROTECT OUR SCHOOL.
The strange flames on the two rings flickered away and died.
“Sarina!” Ymir called out as the rain washed him. “I don’t suppose you can tell me anything about the Black Ice Ring. Or maybe the nature of the afterlife? Or anything else that might be useful?”
Only rainfall answered him.
He smiled and picked up both rings. The Yellow Scorch Ring felt hot, the Winter Flame Ring felt cold, and neither had the clammy feel of the Veil Tear Ring.
He put the Yellow Scorch Ring on the middle finger of his right hand.
He made a fist. He could sense the objects in the world around him. Everything had an energy in it. Or, to put it in words that Fifunn Rendlim might have approved of, he could feel the amwabs in everything.
He concentrated on the table itself and felt his dusza fill the Yellow Scorch Ring. Yellow fire sprang from the circle of bone and gold. A second later, the table burst into flames before simply exploding, flinging debris through the night. He whipped off the Yellow Scorch Ring and slid on the Winter Flame Ring. This time, when he channeled his magic into the jewelry, cold white flames burned around the ring. Again, he felt the amwabs in the world around him. He could cool the air, sweep away the flames, and put down a fine layer of ice across the rooftop. This was easy magic for him, given his practice with Flow magic.
He wondered what would happen if he were to wear both rings at the same time. He wasn’t going to push his luck.
He slipped the Winter Flame Ring off his hand. He held both in his hand.
Tori, Jenny, and Lillee crept up to him.
Rain dripped off Tori’s nose as she smiled. “Well, I think my second time crafting a ring went more smoothly than the first. Am I wrong?”
“Only about the number of rings.” Ymir showed them what lay in his hand.
Tori moved up and basically ignored the fact he had two powerful magic rings. Instead, she gave him a little hug. “Well, good luck with those rings. I promised I’d play some river deck with Charibda tonight. Better get over to her before it’s too late.”
And with that, the little dwab was off the roof and down the ladder.
Jenny was the one who sighed. “Do we know what’s going on with our favorite redhead?”
Ymir wasn’t sure. Even Lillee was quiet.
But the clansman didn’t like it, not one bit. But if Tori didn’t want to be with them, he would let her go. He valued freedom and let the dwab be free.
Besides, he had other things to consider. The merfolk attack was less than a month away. However, he’d just crafted not one but two magic rings to fight them with. That just might sway the battle in their favor.
Chapter Thirty
IT WAS A FRIDAY NIGHT at the beginning of March, and the Honored Princept couldn’t sleep. Her room felt like a prison. The night felt restless. She was thinking of breaking down, finding Agneeyeshka, and borrowing a kharo stick from the security guard.
No, she had to stay strong.
Thinking of the guard, Della would be placing Agneeyeshka in front of the door when the Lover Moons filled the sky. That was less than a month away. Sure, a security guard might raise some suspicions, but it would make Della feel better. Besides, not many people visited the sixth floor.
If it was more well-traveled, she and Beryl would’ve been caught in their alcove.
Della stood by the window, watching the rain. She’d had an erotic dream that night. The intensity of it woke her. In the dream, she’d been at her desk on the mezzanine. She’d heard noises from the Scrollery, the shrieks and screams of what she thought was torture. But when she went down the spiral steps, instead of torture she found herself in the past, witnessing one of Sarina Sia’s ttoogs. The room was full of sweating bodies—humans, elves, and orcs, and even one bare-chested dwarf with a hard-on—fucking the Princept herself. Sarina had been a black-haired elf with dark eyes—not so common for the Ohlyrra. Even less common, she never wore her essess and she didn’t have the mark of the Sullied.
She’d embraced her sexuality—that was clear. She was on her hands and knees, her ass lowered so the dwarf could pound her with his stiff, girthy uht.
In the dream, Sarina had smiled at her, and Della awoke, disturbed. What had that smile meant? She wasn’t sure. It seemed as mysterious as the look in the former Princept’s eyes. There was a power in the air, a restlessness that Della had felt before, when that demon-summoning bitch Hayleesia had been at her school.
Della pulled herself from her bed and walked up the iron steps to the Illuminates Spire. Sunfire lanterns ignited at her approach, giving the room a nice glow. Rain streamed down the narrow windows.
The Princept made sure all the books were there on the shelves, all the forbidden texts, some encased in ice, some burning with a green flame,
still others bound in human skin. The seven pedestals where the forbidden artifacts sat were all secure. The room was locked and sealed, warded and safe.
She’d been checking on the Fractal Clock more frequently now, though it was interesting to call it a clock. In reality, it was a staff, a bit taller than she was, with a clock’s face near the top, thick with gears. It always told the proper time and kept track of the days, as well as the moons. It was the first Friday in March, and the time of the Lover Moons was coming. After that, they could relax. Until then? They would have to continue to keep everything secret.
Keeping the lie alive—the Fractal Clock was far away at the Kifu Yun Lirum University in Four Roads—had made Della suspicious of Beryl Delphino. The mermaid was loving enough, and candid enough, and yet, Beryl’s brother-in-law was the current Ocean Father Divine of the Delphino family. He’d come to visit Charibda, supposedly a friendly visit. Even then, he’d been asking questions and getting in fights. Ymir had been sensible enough not to kill the merman. Gatha had also shown restraint. That was good. But all of it kept Della on edge.
The Fractal Clock could freeze water, vast areas of water, and that was how the Vempor Aegel Akkridor had kept the merfolk from overwhelming his fortress. He froze Angel Bay, and the merfolk’s reinforcements inside it. Countless merfolk were slain, but it had also annihilated the fish population, which meant the fishermen had to venture out farther. The common man didn’t care about empires and sieges, and the vempor’s popularity in the region waned...not that he was loved before.
Such a weapon could be used again, and so it made sense for the merfolk to come for it. With that weapon neutralized, they wouldn’t have to worry.
As for the second time the merfolk attacked, they had won their way into the citadel. The vempor wasn’t there to wield the Fractal Clock. But the merfolk had all died by fire, and that was all anyone knew. Some kind of Sunfire magic was used, and yet, in the middle of the hall, the Fractal Clock was there, on a pedestal. It was a mystery no one had been able to explain. The artifact could freeze water. Could it also burn air? That didn’t seem likely.
Suffice to say, the merfolk weren’t done with Old Ironbound, not yet. If they weren’t satisfied with the trade deals, if Marrib wanted an empire, he would need to take possession of the Fractal Clock.
That was one thing that worried Della. Another was Ymir’s would-be assassin. Had Nellybelle Tucker and Darisbeau Cujan made their move? Were they behind the attempt? Or was it someone from the Midnight Guild?
Della knew she needed to get outside if she had a chance of sleeping. She wanted to get away from this spire and away from her room. She put her Sunfire robes over her nightgown. Taking both a glass of wine and a well-worn book on the history of Old Ironbound, the Princept made her way outside to her ancillary office on the sixth floor. She liked being closer to her room and the Illuminates Spire, and she liked the privacy there as well.
Thunder cracked overhead, and the windows flashed from the lightning. That matched the electricity working its way across the shelves. She sipped her wine and read her book, focusing on the chapters covering the three hundred years that Sarina Sia had managed the school. Though the world was full of heartache and misery, Sarina had kept the university safe and prosperous. The Age of Withering gave way to the Age of Isolation as the last of the puppet vempors fell away and the ineffectual Holy Theran Empire was founded.
There were some scandals, and Sarina had her critics, but all in all, she’d done a fine job of running the school—and she slept with her entire faculty while doing it.
Della felt the presence coming up the stairs before she saw the familiar green hair as her mermaid lover walked over and sat. “I thought I might find you here.”
This didn’t help the Princept with her suspicions. “Really, Beryl? It’s the middle of the night. How did you know I would be here?
The mermaid smiled. “I hoped. I come up here every now and again when I can’t sleep. I like the books here, the history, however troubled it has been for my people. It’s not closed, is it? Accessing the books with the lightning is dangerous, but I thought the shelves were always open.”
“Officially it’s closed,” Della said. “And there is a certain she-orc who would be very upset to find you.”
Beryl walked over, so tall, so regal, in a flowing nightgown with a fur coat over the top. She was barefoot. “Can I sit, Della?”
“Just sit?” Della asked. “Or did you have something more in mind?”
The mermaid’s sparkling green eyes lit up, and she grew shy. “You have caught me. I come here when I’m feeling lonely. And when I’m feeling aroused.”
She sat and immediately leaned over, kissing Della. Her lips were soft and wet, and her scent was clean and fresh, edged with a flowery perfume. Her kiss was slightly salty.
This felt so perfect for Della. This older woman felt so right. “Ignis inanis,” the Princept whispered. The lights went out. Now only the lightning, inside and out, would let her see.
“Do you worry about getting caught up here?” Beryl asked.
Della had, though that was part of the excitement. They’d only ever made love on this couch. Now, after reading about Sarina Sia, after seeing the elven woman getting fucked, getting caught might not be as damaging as Della first thought.
Professor Leel certainly would frown at her, as would some others. The Ironcoats definitely would have issues—the Morbuskor seemed as asexual as Issa Leel did, with her forearm cuff firmly in place. The Ohlyrran professor was back teaching class, finally healthy.
If Della was caught having sex, Gharam Ssornap wouldn’t care. His wives wouldn’t either. In fact, Korga or Gurla might invite Della to join them in bed. Della had fantasized about sucking on Korga’s huge tits.
The Princept had so many fantasies. It was nice not to be making love in her head. The reality of the mermaid in front of her was far better. Beryl had her coat off and her gown pulled down. Her lovely breasts were in Della’s face. The mermaid’s nipples were tiny on her tiny titties. Della sucked on them. She felt small and wide against this long, thin woman, and yet, there was so much love between them.
Or was there? Was Beryl just sleeping with her to get close to the Fractal Clock?
The mermaid sighed contentedly. “Would you like to try something new tonight?”
“That might be nice,” Della said. “I’m having trouble focusing. You smell good, your skin is soft, and I love your breasts. But, Beryl, I have a lot on my mind.”
“Which is why you came out here,” the mermaid said with a smile in her voice. “Otherwise, you’d have stayed in your bed, playing with your wet little pussy.”
That got Della’s attention. A tingle went through her. “You know me well.”
The mermaid got a sultry look in her eyes. “Instead, you can play with my wet little pussy. But not between my legs.”
Beryl got off the couch. She dropped her gown to the floor. She was naked now, a long, lean woman with a hairless slit and narrow hips but an hour-glass waist. She had some loose skin and stretch marks on her belly, but Della didn’t mind that at all. She liked that this sexy woman was a mother.
Scales, like gooseflesh, broke out over Beryl’s arms and across her shoulders. Then smooth skin replaced them once more. By her shivers and the look on her face, it was clear that the mermaid enjoyed Della’s heated gaze. “So, you won’t be shocked if I change, will you?”
Della shook her head. She’d been looking forward to this moment. She took off her Sunfire robes. She pulled up her nightgown around her waist to expose the white pubic hair that the mermaid liked. She pushed her top down and her nipples hardened in the cool air. No, it wasn’t warm, but the Princept hardly felt the chill. “Please. Change.”
The skin on Beryl’s legs scaled over before those scales rippled, and then her whole body glimmered with a sparkling light. The flesh on her legs parted, the bone disappeared, and then suddenly, standing there was a naked woman with a huma
n top above eight white tentacles. Each tendril was about six inches in girth with little pink suction cups. Pink and white, the tentacles were actually kind of cute.
Beryl moved in a writhing wave of coils. Della could hardly breathe. She knew what was coming.
Suddenly, those rubbery tentacles were touching her, circling her arms, pulling apart her legs, and overwhelming her. Fear seized her. Was Beryl making love to her or taking control of her? Perhaps to break in to her chambers and seize the Fractal Clock?
Before she could cry out, the mermaid pushed her sex in Della’s face. There was the familiar musk of a woman’s oheesy in her nose. Lightning flashed. She was given a light to see. In the middle of the tendrils were both her puckered rosebud and the tiny swollen slit with the little pearl at the top. Around it was more rubbery flesh, but this was a woman’s sex in front of her, pure and simple.
Lust wrestled with her fear. Should she push the mermaid off? Cast a spell? Fight?
Her libido took over. She could do all those things once she licked this tentacled woman into heaven. Then her defenses would be down.
The strange tendrils felt so alien on her, but also good. The pink suction cups were soft, gentle, on her skin. Coils caressed Della’s tits and teased the inside of her thigh.
The Princept couldn’t hold back her lust a second longer. She licked both of the woman’s holes, then worked her tongue into her wet, salty slit. The tunnel clung to her tongue as her face was drenched in the mermaid’s copious juices.
Della wanted to get her hands down to her aching ohi, to rub herself while she licked this strange woman, but the tentacles held her. She raised and lowered her hips, wiggling and feeling her own girl cum dribble down between her ass cheeks. The couch wasn’t new to such stains. She’d been able to get them out with Form magic before anyone could see.
Then Della felt the tickle of the tentacles glide up her inner thigh. She couldn’t help but whine her encouragement. The mermaid’s coils, the tips, were tapered—they would fit perfectly in her. This was new. This was exciting. She hadn’t exactly considered what might happen when she had sex with the mermaid outside of her human form, but yes, this was a bit of perverted fun.
