by Jay Aury
The far door burst open, dark cloaked figures rushed into the room. The sight of the scorpion on their clasps told her all she needed to know. Auria cast her hand towards them, sending the screaming secretary across the room to smash into the assailants. Men were bowled over like pins, dashed against the open door. Violet flames spawned up Auria’s arm as she hurled the licking fire into the pile of struggling men.
Auria walked through the screaming Night Blades without a glance, magic crackling from her. Doors opened down the hallway but at the sight of the elf, clothed in power like some avatar of doom, magic snapping from her flawless skin and carving jagged lines in the walls, every door was promptly shut. Bolted. And as an afterthought, a piece of heavy furniture shoved against them.
Auria ignored them as well, heading straight for the end of the hall where a massive pair of doors loomed. She blasted it off its hinges with a word of power. Steps twisted downward, winding through darkness banished by her power. At the end, light glowed. Her eyes narrowed as she stepped through. Sand crunched beneath her feet. She glanced about the high walls of an arena, her expression growing annoyed. A dome shut out the light but for a number of glow orbs scattered about, filling the space with a pale, violet light, washing off inlaid walls and elegant pillars like the bars of a cage rising into the sky. “Allithan!” she roared, stopping in the middle of the sands. “Allithan! Get your sorry excuse for an ass out here!”
A clap echoed through the dark. Lights flashed among the stands. Auria turned to see a raised dais jutting out of the wall. A high box had been constructed there, one which Allithan lolled at ease, his cloak draping him, a pair of dark robed Night Blades standing at hand.
“Well,” Allithan said, leaning back in his throne, his lips turned with cruel mirth. “Well well well. Well. My dear sister. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“You know what,” Auria said, tossing back her silver hair. “You stole my human and I want him back!”
Allithan inspected his nails thoughtfully. “Or… what?”
Auria hurled the magic bolt at him. Allithan laughed as the spell slammed into a shimmering wall which encircled him, rippling across the surface. “Oh please, sister. You’re not facing a bunch of petty bandits in the woods this time. But a sorcerer of far greater standing than you.”
Auria curled back her fingers. “I doubt you brought mother in on your scheme.”
Allithan’s smile grew strained. “I was referring to me.”
“Yes. You might be stupid enough to.”
Allithan leaned forward with a scowl. “You always had a mouth on you, sister. I’ve longed to see it put to better use. But I suppose this at least will do. Welcome to the arena! Pity you shan’t be staying long. But take heart,” Allithan crowed, leaning back into his throne. “Your death will set the trend for assassination for the next decade at least!”
“Oh? Going to sic your gladiators on me?”
“Not quite,” Allithan said. He gestured, magic flashing from his fingers, and the floor suddenly groaned.
Auria jumped back as a crack opened in the arena floor, slowly widening inch by inch to reveal a black pit below. Gears gave a sudden crash as they halted, and from the depths, something arose.
Auria stared in shock at the serpent as it coiled out of the darkness. Rows of jagged teeth filled its mouth, its scaly skin shining in the glow of the arcane globes. Huge, it slithered out of its prison under the arena and curled onto the floor. Pale, near sightless eyes fixed themselves on the shapely form of the violet skinned sorceress. Its maw opened, a hiss cutting through the air like a knife.
“A Skitaar!” Allithan cackled. “A monster from the depths of Hassia! Be honoured, sister dear. You’ll be the first to die to its fangs. A trend setter if ever there was one. No one will be able to match this triumph of assassination!”
Auria ignored her brother. She hurled a bolt of pure force at the monstrous serpent, the blast slamming into the creature’s head. It reeled, but when it swung back around it lunged for her. Auria dove out of the way, scrambling back to her feet before the monster could recover as she hurled another spell at its face. The monster lurched back, dodging the spear of power to let it burst among the stands.
“That’ll do you little good,” Allithan said from atop his throne, watching the exchange with delight. “The beast’s scales have been soaked in the magic of the Black Sands since its birth! Your paltry spells won’t even scratch it!”
Auria grimaced, bracing herself against the wall of the arena. Her generous chest heaved already with her efforts and her shoulder ached from landing on it. Damn it! She was nobility! She wasn’t meant for all this jumping around. That was what servants were for! She warily watched the head of the serpent sway before her. The sands hiss under its sinuous bulk. Waiting for a hint of where it would strike. Its low hiss rippled through the air.
It struck. Fast as lightning the serpent’s head slammed forward. She ducked quick as she could, the air over her head stirred with the creature’s passing and the stone wall behind her cracked under the impact. The creature jerked back, hissing and swaying, dazed. Auria seized the chance, chanting a hasty spell. She hurled the slowing enchantment on the creature, rings of gold enveloping the skitaar in shackles of magic. The serpent hissed, the sound drawn out as the temporal magic worked. Auria grinned.
And then the thing’s tail slammed into her.
She grunted, breath driven from her lungs. Had she not cast her spell all her ribs would likely be broken. As it was, she was sent sprawling across the coarse ground of the arena. Gasping, tears of pain in the corner of her eyes, she planted a hand on the sand and forced herself to her knees. A shadow fell over her, and she looked up to see the serpent looming above her, its scales shining like crude oil in the golden glow of her slowing spell. She trembled, urging herself to move to little avail. Her fingers clutched the sand as she stared down death.
“Yes!” Allithan shouted, bouncing in his seat. “Finish her! Finish it! Eat the bitch!”
The serpent opened wide its mouth, and lunged. Auria threw up her hands, a barrier of magic springing into place around her. The serpent’s jaws closed on the bubble, paused with surprise. It reared back, Auria giving a squeal as the serpent wrenched her into the air, suspended in her barrier. Then the snake worked its mouth, unhinging its massive jaws. Auria’s scream was cut abruptly short as the creature swallowed her whole.
Allithan laughed riotously from atop his throne, stroking his bulge through his tight pants. “Wonderful,” he cried. “Stupendous! This will be a triumph for the ages!”
Drogr eyed the snake, which looked intensely confused. “Um… sire?”
“A triumph of my skill and intellect over my sister! And the best part? Not a body to incriminate me.” Allithan cackled, stroking himself faster. “Oh yes. I’ll be the talk of Vassara! Killing people by feeding them to massive snakes will be bigger than drinking wine out of a slave’s cunt!”
Drogr’s eyes widened in horror as smoke began to seethe from the serpent’s mouth. “Sire!”
“Silence!” Allithan barked. “I’m gloating! How dare you! You’ll get the whip you will! I’ll… I’ll…” Allithan sniffed the air. “Is someone cooking?”
He turned slowly towards the arena in time to see the skitaar explode into flame. The snake thrashed, writhing as violet flames blasted through scale and hide, ribs showing through the fire like struts of a buildings. Allithan jerked back as the serpent fell, the arena shuddering as it crashed to the ground.
Ashes billowed across the floor as a sphere of living fire moved out of the serpent’s gaping maw. Her image shimmering in the flaming sphere, Auria flicked some hair from her face and snapped her fingers, banishing the barrier she’d engulfed herself in. She lifted her head towards her brother and brushed some ashes from her shoulder.
“Now,” Auria said mildly. “Where were we?”
Allithan choked on his own fury. He raised a shaking finger at the pair below. “I… you�
�� Drogr!” he gagged. “Express… my anger!”
The drab elf nodded dully. “How much anger, sire?”
“So! Much!” Allithan goggled.
The elf bowed his head, considering, then pointed a furious finger at Auria. His voice boomed with immaculate rage. “How dare you survive the serpent of my master! His fury is-“
A blast of force tore the man off his feet and sent him pinwheeling through the stone stands to slam against a wall in a crimson smear. Allithan stared, then twisted around to see Auria conjure another spear of shimmering power and hurl it at him. He snarled, throwing up a hand, the spell smashing into his barrier and splintering into shards with a crash.
“Ha!” Allithan crowed. “Was that your best? Seems your spell lacks the punch it usually does. But I’m not through yet! Let’s see you take on the rest of my gladiators!” He flourished his hand again. “Men! Take her!”
Another door of the arena opened, creaking as it rose. Auria turned, tense for this new menace. Instead, her jaw dropped as a familiar single figure walked out, cleaning a long sword marked with a number of runes.
“Felix!” Auria gaped.
Felix looked up sharply. “Auria!” he gasped, equally surprised. He looked at the blazing corpse of the serpent. “You’ve been busy.”
Allithan made a choking noise. A crash resounded through the arena. Allithan’s head jerked up. “Oh what now?”
“Oh,” Auria said, smiling. “Probably mother’s troops come to raid your little fortress, brother. And won’t she just be thrilled when I tell her what you’ve been up to.”
Allithan stared, trembling with anger. “You… you!” He raised his arms, power licking across his shoulders and up his arms in a mantle of writhing violet magic.
Felix turned, seeing the accursed man in the midst of casting. “Plan?”
“I can’t penetrate his shield,” Auria said with annoyance.
Felix glanced at her and bounced his sword in his free hand. “Can you send this?”
Auria looked at the sword, its rune glowing along the blade. She smiled and Felix nodded. He turned and cocked back his arm, then hurled the weapon with all his strength. Auria stepped forward and slammed a pulse of power into the hilt, sending the blade streaking across the arena.
Allithan’s eyes widened as the sword smashed into the barrier before him. Cracked it, punching through in a missile of steel and sorcery. It slammed into the dark elf’s shoulder, tearing him off his feet before impaling him against the back of the chair. Allithan gave a choked scream as his throne toppled back, slamming into the floor. He grabbed the hilt as Auria and Felix raced towards the wall of the arena. Auria propelled Felix into the air, bouncing him over the wall with a spell before sending herself soaring over the barrier, landing lightly on her feet. Seeing his death in the eyes of the pair, Allithan wrenched himself free, moaning in agony as the sword ripped through his shoulder. Clutching the bloody wound, he staggered back into the darkness behind his throne.
The remaining Night Blades standing guard took one look at the human and elf racing for him, turned, and ran. Auria and Felix reached the box just in time to see the gate at the end close, silver filigree twisting to lock itself securely shut.
“Damn!” Auria snarled, slamming her fists into the gate.
“Can you open it?”
“It’s mage locked,” she cursed, magic streaming from her arms and into the silver filigree. “But my darling brother isn’t getting away from me!”
Loss
Allithan slammed into his personal chamber. He spat a curse at the door, sealing the entrance shut with a rime of frost. The slave girl who had been waiting within dropped a decanter she had been filling a wine glass with, her eyes widening in shock as Allithan staggered back, breathing in gasps and clutching his ravaged shoulder.
“Problems, my lord?”
Allithan spun about, then exhaled in ragged relief as a masked figure stepped out from the shadows. “Wraith! Damn you. You scared me!”
“Unintentionally, I assure you,” the bandit said.
Allithan waved away his apology. “No matter! My sister has found me. Troops are tearing apart my arena! Quick! You have to get me out of here!”
Wraith tilted back his head thoughtfully. “Hm. I did warn you.”
“Yes, yes! Now come on. Let’s go! I have a warpstone in the lower level. It’ll take us outside the city. Help me damn you!”
“No.”
Allithan jerked, gasping. In disbelief he looked down to see an ethereal arm jutting out of his chest.
“I’m afraid,” Wraith mused from behind him, “you no longer benefit me, my lord. I’ve taken all your stored mana and secreted it elsewhere. So you see, you have no resources. No position. No soldiers. No fortune or family I require. But,” Wraith murmured, “there is one thing you can still give me.”
Allithan shuddered, his lips writhing with agony as his skin pulled against his bones, magic seeping from his body and inhaled by the masked man’s ethereal arm. “W… raith…” Allithan whimpered as the silver glow fled his eyes, leaving only darkness.
Wraith yanked his spectral arm free. Allithan crumpled to the floor, his eyes black with nothingness, his body sunken and twisted. Wraith flexed his spectral arm, magic crackling across fingers of silver and sorcery. “There’s something coming,” Wraith murmured, his voice whispering through his checkered mask. “Change, Allithan. I can feel it with this hand. Something new. A force of power like nothing this world has seen. And I intend to introduce myself.”
Wraith glanced up as the door to the room shuddered under a tremendous blow. He cast a glance at the slave girl trembling in the corner, her eyes wide with horror. “Adieu,” he said. Pulling his hood up, Wraith gathered his checkered cloak about him and slipped away into the shadows. A moment later the door gave way with a tremendous crash. Felix burst through, bringing around his sword. Auria shoved past him magic blazing across her arms.
“Allithan! Where are you? I-“
Crunch.
She paused, looked down. Delicately, Auria lifted his foot off what had once been Allithan’s arm.
“Oh…”
The door burst open again, Davina barreling in, her sword slick with blood. “Auria! My lady! Don’t worry! I-“
Crunch.
She paused. Glanced down.
“Ah…”
Auria rolled her eyes. She raised her head, her eyes fixing on the slave girl trembling in the corner. “Well, hello,” Auria said sweetly, her eyes glowing with silvery light. “And who might you be?”
Final Meetings
From atop her throne Nimeria scrutinized the wasted thing on the floor before her. “And you found him this way?”
“Indeed, mother,” Auria said. “Once we broke down the door, we found Allithan little more than… well, this.”
“Curious,” Nimeria mused. Then shrugged. “Well, his slave was most forthcoming about the situation. I suppose there’s no question of the matter.”
Auria smiled. “Thank you, mother.”
Nimeria leaned back, sighing. A young wild elf kneeled between her legs, the pale, slim man dutifully licking out the puffy cunt of the shapely matriarch looming above him. Humming in soft pleasure, Nimeria toyed with his leaf green hair as she glanced down at her daughter. “Well, my dear. You’ve done some commendable work. And your human?”
Auria let a small smile flick across her lips. “Felix, mother? He’s doing quite well. He’s in the family forge right now, working.”
“Oh?”
“Seems he couldn’t find a good blacksmith at the market.”
Nimeria hummed, lacing her fingers atop her generous chest. “Hm. And what do you intend to do?”
Auria shifted. “I believe we’ll leave, mother.”
Nimeria arched an elegant brow. “Oh?” She shrugged. “I can’t blame you. The Night Blades are less than pleased about their losses. Not to mention your brother had an awful lot of friends. No doubt they’ll be e
ager to see you dead.”
Auria shrugged. “Assassins? Hardly a worthwhile concern. But this bandit… this Wraith…”
Nimeria hummed, her expression shifting from the delighted pleasure to something approaching concern. “Yes. True. Such an individual… may prove troublesome to us. Goddess above knows he already has been.”
Auria smiled, though she didn’t say what Felix’s true reasoning had been. Some rot about destroying evil where he found it. But if that was what it took to get the man moving in the right direction, Auria was willing to let it go. And besides, a man like Wraith was doubtless to cause trouble wherever he went.
Nimeria moaned as her slim lover found a particularly tender spot her hips slowly rocking against the face of the elf between her legs. “Mnnn. And taking your human too? Greedy, daughter.”
Auria laughed. “Maybe when we return, mother, you can enjoy my knight again.”
Nimeria added her laugh to her daughter’s then gasped as the wild elf between her lips found her clit. She grabbed the youth between her legs and pushed him against her warm cunt and quivering thighs. Auria left as her mother moaned, shuddering as her orgasm poured through her.
Auria glided through the halls, her wispy clothes fluttering around her, a smile playing about her dark lips. She saw some of her siblings in the halls, watching her, envying her. She smirked at them. Let them play their petty politicking in the city. None of them would come close to accomplishing what she had that day.
She pushed her way out of the main building and crossed the grounds towards the forge. Pausing outside, she glanced inside.
Lit by the crimson glow, naked to the waist, Felix’s muscles moved with almost hypnotic surety, flexing as he hammered on his sword. Magic pulsed from the flames and the glowing steel. The power shuddering through Auria as before. The sorceress opened her mouth, softly sighing as she felt the reverberations, the magic that he worked with every clang of the hammer, embracing them and how her body yearned towards it.
A smile stole across Auria’s lips, her quim warming yet further. Yes, she mused, stepping into the room, greeting Felix with a wave and praising how the firelight shone on his skin. Yes. She could work with this…
