Struggling to remain civil after the elf's derisive look at his wives as he mentioned his family, he couldn't help the cutting remark at the end of his explanation for why they were there.
As the elf looked over the assembled group he bowed his head a fraction towards Laurith as his gaze fell on her.
"Laurith the Black, I am pleased that you have graced our city with your... presence."
Backing up his foot an inch to swing for the snooty elf's shriveled balls Cade was stopped short by his wife's quick response.
"It is good to see you again too, Reqden. Are you still licking your aunt's boots for scraps of favor or have you moved your lips to her skinny ass to fill your belly."
Snorting as the superior look in the elf's face turned to one of surprise before quickly shifting towards indifference, he uttered a simple "come" before turning heel back towards the open gates.
Giving his group an inclination of his head towards the gates he led them into the dark elf city.
Slowing his pace as Reqden stopped to talk to an officer to grant them temporary passes into the city he matched his pace with his dragon wife's as they stopped to wait on the mithril medallions that would give them restricted access to the city.
"Friend of yours?"
Her quick response to the snooty asshoes remark had done wonders for his mood, he almost didn't want to kick the man's ass anymore, almost.
Snorting her own suppressed mirth as he found out the elves had better hearing than he expected, he watched a shiver of revulsion go down Reqden's spine that changed his almost to a want.
"Not a friend, during a trip to find a suitable place to nest for a few centuries, I came across this city. I took a bit of a liking to a few of their more comfortable caves and would have stayed except for their constant intrusions."
Enjoying hearing about his Laurith's life prior to their meeting he held her red yellow-rimmed eyes with his until she continued.
"They kept requesting me to move to different caves, citing some prattle about building houses or storage in the one I was in."
Still waiting on their group to file past an armored elf that looked close to tossing his cookies as he placed a medallion around the neck of one of Erot's orcs, Cade tossed out a question her story had brought up.
"Why did you leave?"
Asking his question he kept his patented mental kick in the balls on a hair-trigger as his Mina stepped up next in the pale elf's line.
If the idiot puked on his wife he wouldn't be having any kids ever and he would definitely know why.
"They tried to marry me into their little royal group."
Turning his attention from the elf that had kept his gorge under control, luckily for him, he gave his pet an incredulous look after her airy statement.
"I believe when we met I told you some races find this form attractive, stop looking at me like that or I won't finish, the dark elve's were one of those races and they believed if I was a part of their... family they would better be able to control me."
Enjoying her husky laugh after his eyes had grown wide in disbelief after she mentioned SOME races found her attractive, his playful expression turned to real disbelief as she finished.
"Well, I am glad you turned them down my love. I do certainly find you attractive if our little hatchling growing inside you is any indication. Their loss as far as I am concerned... mother fucker finally did it."
As the medallion elf finally lost his battle with his distaste of his task and puked at his Beth's slippered feet, Cade made good on his unvoiced threat and with a flick of his fingers sent the perpetrator of the ejecta on his dwarven wife's pretty slippered feet falling to the ground with a yodel of surprise as he held his damaged goods.
Enjoying the elf's groans of pain he cleaned the small splatters of sick on her slippers discreetly as she smiled at him.
He gave her an innocent one that she clearly didn't believe as she shook her head in amusement and turned to the more composed elf that took the place of the one Cade had sterilized.
"I hope they are all as transparent as the misses over there, I would hate for them to try something stupid. If they do happen to make us hurt them how would you feel about another dinner date, all you can eat this time?"
His Laurith's peal of laughter gained confused looks from the surrounding elves, including the two that had begun to carry off the heaving new woman in their arms.
Letting his Lauriths' still chuckling sexy self take the next place in line he waited for his turn to be allowed into the dark elves city.
Come again?!
Trying and failing to focus on the nasal words of Reqden as he walked them through the sprawling elven city, Cade managed to catch most of what the man was going on about.
The few parts that caught in interest were the pretentious dark elf's description of their caste system and how their economy worked.
Sneering at the idea of being held to one job and station regardless of ability or drive he nonetheless listened intently to that part of the boring elf's presentation.
Describing the usual jobs found in the mid-evil world his goddess had dropped him in he wasn't surprised as the hierarchy went from royals to military officers, down to mages, enchanters, skilled workers, and finally right above the bottom of the barrel unskilled laborers.
Surprisingly the bottom of the social hierarchy wasn't the unskilled workers but some lower caste called graven.
The graven were those who had been dismissed from their station and left to fend for themselves in the tunnels and caves below and beyond the city proper.
Seeing a few massive insects being ridden by soldiers and mages he imagined the kind of landscape that required a twenty-foot-long cricket to traverse didn't lend itself to traveling by foot.
As his Beth shivered in his arms after a high-pitched shreak followed by a frantic dive into his arms had landed her there as one of the huge insects had leaped over their heads, he heard her disgusted comment.
"Creepy crawly, nasty THINGS!!"
Holding back his laughter as another larger grasshopper leaped over them forced her final comment about the huge bugs with dark elven riders on them to leave her lips with a shriek he spotted an injured beggar in their path towards the large ominous castle in the distance.
Giving his shaking wife a reassuring hug as she tried to squeeze his head off his shoulders he watched their irritating guide intently, gauging the elves' treatment of their less fortunate citizens though Vic's life story gave him little hope for a good conclusion to the interaction.
He was surprised by the man as he knelt in front of the injured beggar, which he could now see was missing an arm at his elbow.
"Have you passed on your knowledge enchanter?"
A shiver ran down his spine as a beatific smile grew on the injured enchanter's face as he nodded vigorously at Reqden's question.
"My apprentice is ready for his trials and my wife has control of the business until he passes them. I am ready great one."
Beth's soft hand ran over his face and her mouthed "your face" as he looked at her smiling face caused him to forcefully wipe the disgusted expression from it.
Giving himself a shake to rid the revulsion from his emotions he set a less shaken Beth to her feet and walked over to the still smiling enchanter still staring in awe at Reqden as the royal sent a passing soldier off on an errand.
"Would you like me to fix thaaat?"
The end of his question was drawn out in disbelief as the enchanter almost ended up on his ass in a scrambling attempt to put distance between him and the tall brown-skinned man that dared to talk to him.
"If you would leave the esteemed enchanter to his last hours in peace it will be just a moment before the messenger I sent will return with help to give this precious member of our city his proper end."
Feeling out of sorts as the injured man cut him a scathing glare and then returned to worshiping Reqden with his eyes, Cade returned to his wives as they waited for th
e messenger to return with help to euthanize the injured elf.
"Hmm, creepy. I dont think we are going to get very far with the royals here. I think after we hear what craziness the matriarch is going to throw our way we should do a little exploring if we can get away with it?"
Giving his smiling wives a conspiratorial one of his own after his mental communication he made some seating for them and waited for the grim reaper to take another fanatic soul.
Walking through the "palace" as Reqden called it, Cade wasn't sure if the dark elf kingdom was going to be a thing after today.
Reqden had requested that Erot and his group remain in the barracks outside of the palace, only allowing Nat to accompany them after Cade had threatened bodily harm to anyone who tried to do so much as touch his pregnant wife without her permission.
Disgusted at the "artifacts of power" he kept seeing on their long long trek through the palace his opinion on the dark elves fell lower and lower as he passed each "priceless" heirloom.
He assumed they were of sentimental value as his literal pinky nail held more power than a room of the artifacts combined.
"I thought they were supposed to be great enchanters, this shit is all garbage. Eve could do better work and she doesn't have magic."
His wive's snort of amusement didn't answer his question as they walked by a suit of mithril armor that said it would turn all blades.
The suit of armor was lavishly designed but again held only a paltry amount of energy for him to absorb, only an order of magnitude more than what he would gain from the mithril it was made of.
"I think you forget sometimes how much more power you have available to you than us normal mages and enchanters my giant. That is a fine suit of armor my love and would do well protecting any who wore it. That being said compared to what you produce it is rather underwhelming. You still haven't made me my robes I requested, one would think you didn't care about the safety of our... assets."
Showing off her impressive assets to her husband as she thrust out her chest with a pretty laugh, he gave the idea some thought as he groped a large breast with one hand and rubbed her rounded belly with the other.
Her small squirm of suppressed lust made him want to remove her red robe from her, for purely enchanting reasons, but Reqden's loud gag ruined that idea before he could even enjoy its twin.
"Later my Beth, we don't want to offend our host now do we?"
Joining her in a poorly hidden eye roll they approached what he hoped was the last in a long line of weakly enchanted large iron-bound doors.
"This leads to my aunt's audience chamber, please do not insult her with your... antics. We elves seem to have a sense of decorum that the other races lack sadly."
Fighting his eyes for several moments Cade was proud of his restraint as he gave the pretentious elf a curt nod before Mina's derisive snort caused Sabine to suppress a giggle.
"Ladies let's not insult the etiquette of the elves, we need to put on our adult faces so we dont shame our races."
Impressive with himself as finished his request with a straight face he inclined his head toward the fuming elf and followed the uptight man as the guards to each side of the double doors opened them for the group.
Trying to keep the snickers from his wives from distracting him as a flash of hostility emanated from the room they walked into turned his attention from the elf he followed to finding the source of the ill intent he felt.
As he scanned ahead of them the sharp turn of his head toward the powerful feeling he gained no knowledge of who it had originated from.
Leaving his ability active he followed the dark elf with his other more deadly abilities on a hair-trigger.
Stopping in front of a raised dias Cade found himself in front of what he could only describe as an ageless elf.
Reqden could only have been a few centuries old if his ability to scan others and read the currents of their minds was any indication.
The white-haired dark elf sitting languidly on the throne above them felt... ancient in a way that he had only experienced with his Promena and her father, though thankfully she didn't radiate power as his father-in-law did.
She also reminded him of his goddess's alluring curvy form, her breasts a hairsbreadth from being too large for her short frame, her waist almost impossibly small, and her wide hips mouthwateringly flared to almost the perfect dimensions to light up men's primal breeding brain.
Opening his mouth to introduce himself and his wives he almost ended their talk then and there for one singular reason.
Watching a group of six near-naked males of varying races emerged from behind a pitch-black curtain behind the throne he tried and mostly succeeded in suppressing his contempt at what he saw around their necks.
Disgust flitted across his face as he watched a jaguar man sporting a lavishly decorated slave collar lean down and collect a kiss from the dark elf before offering her a cup of some fragrant juice to drink.
"Thank you, my dear husband. If you will join the others we can welcome our guests."
The toothy smile the jaguar man gave his wife was genuine to Cade's surprise as he watched the man take the dark elf in his arms and kiss her breathless before he joined the other five men that stood to the side of his group.
Rolling his eyes at Reqden's lack of reaction to his aunt's lip-lock with her jaguar beastkin husband he turned his gaze to the woman they had come to see.
"Mage Cade and his wives it is a pleasure to finally meet you. I have received so many interesting messages from the kingdoms you have visited in your world-conquering tour."
Leveling a neutral gaze at the sarcasm in the woman's tone he gave her the benefit of the doubt about her harem of husbands AND their slave collars.
"I see my reputation proceeds me, I hope that will color the terms of our agreement. One would think me a bully except those that do carry those sentiments are either dead or working to gain my favor on penalty of death. Which one will you be Liraden?"
"I will not STAND for my aunt to be spoken to in that way you bru..."
Closing the irritating Reqden's mouth with a small but satisfying push of power Cade turned to look at the silently fuming man and created a seat for the elf.
"You certainly won't stand for anything at the moment. Have a seat Reqden, the adults were talking."
Not willing to expend the effort to break the man's mind and puppet him into his seat he nevertheless forced his limbs into position with an immensely satisfying push of power and sat the surprised elf in his kiddie chair.
"My question Liraden answer it or I will have to show you how true my reputation is."
Ignoring the sneers from the matriarch's husbands the squeal of glee she let out was so unexpected from the ancient elf it threw him out of the dark mood the idiot in time out had brought back.
"I knew I would like you, we can begin discussions Mage Cade we have much to talk about."
Snapping her fingers she directed one of her husbands to remove Reqden from the room with a smoldering look directed at the minotaur that stepped up to do the task.
"Please follow me."
Giving his wives a confused look he let his Laurith lead them as they followed the black-skinned beauty, his still mildly shaken Beth holding tight to his arm as they followed Liraden through the curtains behind her throne.
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