by A. S. Etaski
“Mm, as my Elders decide. I mostly watched, but it seems that way to me.”
“But you didn’t just watch. You fought for me! You wanted me here, among you.”
“We need new Sisters,” I confessed. “Two of us didn’t make it through that Ornilleth battle where we met.”
Jael was surprised. “I …never heard a whisper that Red Sisters died in that.”
“They were taken away before anyone could see.”
It only took a moment’s thought, and the youth nodded her head in understanding. “I’ve heard …things. The others were talking as they fucked me. I know you are the youngest, besides me. Did you just want a new cunt to take your place at the bottom? Figured I’d be used to it?”
I smirked. “Not just any ‘new cunt,’ Jael. You are right for us, and you made it back to Sivaraus alive. Being on the bottom is a necessary test. Every Red Sister who gained her leathers has gone through something like this.”
“So you watched me. You are the reason they came for me?”
“No.” I wagered that she knew this already; she was testing. “You are the reason they came for you. My assignment was to observe.”
“Which you didn’t do when I was trapped by Tragar.”
“D’Shea hates wasted opportunity. More so than Rausery, I think.”
Jael huffed a skeptic’s laugh. “So, the Elder Sorceress follows strict orders only when it’s convenient.”
I chuckled. “Sounds about right. Working within to make them work for her.”
“Pfft! Gonna blow up in her face one turn.”
“Well, she’s six hundred, at least, and still alive. You could do with less rebellion and more bending. Your trial with the Prime should have told you that.”
She was dead silent for a long while. “Still watching me?”
“When possible. Not then. What happened at the Sanctuary when the Prime dragged you there?”
Too late, I knew the mistake. I had pushed her past a breaking point with that one. She jerked away, and I only just caught her back to me. She cursed at me and tried again to escape, whether to strike me or scramble to the other side of the room, I didn’t know, but I had Jaunda and Gaelan’s tutoring to thank for managing to hold onto the initiate now.
Jael wouldn’t give up, and I was forced to turn my new Sister onto her belly and climb on top. It wasn’t a hardship for me; the wriggling and flexing of her buttocks against my groin made me purr as I held on to both her wrists above her head and pressed down with my weight. The side of her face was pressed to the pallet, and she looked up at me with one eye through her hair. Her teeth were clenched.
“You’re going to do it now?” she hissed. “Fuck hard as you want to, you won’t impress me. Neither did the Prime, no matter what she tortured me to say!”
Her heart seemed ready to burst in memory of that torment, the sheer helplessness beneath both Prime and Sathoet. Her breath was ragged, getting worse.
She must calm down or she was going to pass out.
I lay on top, held her immobile, kissed her ear. “Maybe soon. You do smell good. But first, tell me what Elder Rausery said when we captured you running away from those first Sathoet in the barn. Who she was talking to? Do you remember? I can tell you if you don’t remember. I was there, soothing your netherhole for you with my tongue.”
Jael blinked, clear in her memory of me doing that. Satisfied, I watched as her eyes narrowed as she reached farther back. It was not swift, but I waited. Soon she had focused enough, determinedly expanding her lungs to talk.
“She complimented Lead Qivni on ‘snaring’ them in her first word.”
“Yes. I’ve seen the Lead do it before, sending away a Sathoet attacking me. And she did it for you. Qivni is the only one who knows how, I think, but I know the Priestesses can’t randomly send the demonbloods here because we have her.”
“The Lead blocks them.” Jael began to relax, perhaps seeing the Cloister in a new light.
“Yes. She’s only impressed with self-discipline, however, so you may have to work harder to impress her than you have with me.”
Jael was quiet but I could almost hear her thoughts racing; some of the frustration on her face melted away, along with the tension in her body. It was abrupt enough to make me wonder whether I could be wrong about something I’d just said.
“Or has she already seen you?” I asked.
She nodded an affirmative.
“And approved?”
“Yeah. Lead Qivni was the first.”
As Lead Jaunda had been mine. Huh.
“Does she like you?” I asked.
Her hips moved under me again as if she was trying to wriggle out or tease me. It had been brief.
“Jael?”
“Shut up,” she mumbled, white eyelashes down. “She warned me not to talk to you about her.”
I stared in disbelief but felt an honest glee that Qivni cared enough to mention me to the recruit. The connections and balances were still growing, still changing. The very thought energized me.
Jael wiggled again, and I pulled her arms down to cross her wrists at her lower back so that I could keep her in submission but have one hand free. She made an enticing sound, wordless but protesting as I slid my fingers down her side and in between us, along the crease of her butt and thigh, touching her sex. She squealed softly as I felt her netherlips and probed at her hole with a finger. She was a little moist, but only enough to suggest recent arousal—as we struggled but not before. I thought she wasn’t fighting me as hard as she might.
“As you wish,” I said, sounding pleased.
I released her, lifting my weight and moving to one side, and kept her between the wall and me. She rolled and scooted to gain a little space between us then she looked at me with high suspicion and incredulity.
“What the fuck are you playing, Sirana?” she demanded. “Or are you frigid with caits and only suck cunt around here?”
I burst out laughing and took her hand, leading it between my thighs, onto my naked, hot netherlips. “If that feels frigid to you, let me know!”
I was far wetter than she was, and her fingers played around with my sex. Lingering. She snatched her hand back as soon as I moaned aloud.
“Little tease,” I chuckled.
“So, you’re just playing. Qivni told me you only make light of things.”
Neither of them had seen me ranting about Shyntre not long ago. I propped my head on my palm and smiled, studying her face. “I think I know what this is. You both have that serious streak with a low threshold for prank. Am I not dour enough to arouse you?”
Jael scowled at me, not taking the jest well. “Fuck you, Twelfth, you don’t expect to stay on the bottom for long. I’ve never stood anywhere else!”
“This is about our former Houses now?” I shrugged. “I can say I have no idea where anyone else came from, they won’t tell me. Not even D’Shea or Qivni, both of whom seem to have stronger ties with the Sanctuary. Yet everyone seems to forget, or not talk about it. You survive long enough, Jael, I bet you’ll have a lot of younger Red Sisters under you who have no idea you were from the Lowest House. And you’re not, anymore, you’re in the Sisterhood.”
Copper eyes narrowed like sharp daggers, but she said nothing on this. She changed the subject. “So why did Qivni warn me about you? What did you do to flick her off?”
Had a bad dream in her room while stinking of divine magic.
I opted not to share that. I shrugged. “I couldn’t get her off. She didn’t want me, Jaunda did. What about you? Did you make Qivni climax?”
Jael seemed a little disoriented despite my letting her lead our topic. “Um. Yes.”
I smiled. “I’m impressed. Jaunda laughs while she fucks me. I think I prefer that, after trying everyone here, but Qivni might find it fucking annoying.”
I spotted a tiny smile on the novice’s face. Just a little on the right side. “Yeah. She does.”
My smile became a grin. “Goddess, you have had some good conversation with the Lead, haven’t you? Doubly impressed. She barely said anything to me. But I did figure it out eventually.”
“Figure out what?”
“Juicy lips down low loosen lips up high.”
Jael huffed again, a soft laugh. “Lead Jaunda talks to you, huh?”
“Center web.” I winked. “She’s my best shield. If you move your tongue to get Qivni to move hers, then she’s your best shield. Listen to her, and never refuse her when she’s horny.”
Jael gave me a look; perhaps she realized we were talking too much about our Leads. I was satisfied it had taken her this long to notice.
I reprised. “A Lead likes you. That counts for a lot, Jael. Don’t do anything stupid, like try to kill another Sister, and you’ll stay with us. Give it time, forge some successes, and we start to forget how we came to be here.”
“But you’re still new,” she said. “How do you know they’ll forget?”
I thought about that. Mostly, I got that impression from how fluid Reishel’s status had proven after she returned to us from a coma. Jael was right about one thing: I was already off the bottom rung, but it wasn’t because we just nabbed her.
“Most Sisters seem to live in this moment of time,” I said. “Only a few are required to live in perpetual forethought. I mean, you lived in your moment at your former House, Jael. Whose task or burden was it to live in the future?”
She didn’t even hesitate. “My Matron’s.”
“And in this Cloister, who has that burden?”
“The Prime…” She noticed my smirk and the slight shake of my head. “Hm. The Elders. Rausery and D’Shea.”
I nodded. “Do what you do best and, as their show of appreciation, the others forget where you came from.”
Jael thought this over in silence, staring at a spot on the wall before she looked at me again. “You’ll be one of those forethinkers, won’t you?”
Now I looked to the side. “Maybe.”
“You are. I can tell.” She shrugged. “And you can have it. Things get tight, just tell me where to stab, I got it, and my mouth stays tight, too.”
I blinked in genuine surprise, a laugh of disbelief slipping out of me. “You’re jesting.”
“You’re not stupid or petty, Sirana.”
I snorted. “So sure, novice?”
“Yeah.” Jael straightened her shoulders, offering a nice display of her breasts. “Panagan was one of Thena’s, and they mentioned you, too, while they fucked me. How you almost fucked up when they made you snap.” Jael swallowed. “But you worked with Panagan to find me, pushed a grudge aside. You have your reasons to do things, better thought out than most. Especially if D’Shea favors you. So, I mean it. If things get tight, just tell me what you want me to do.”
I stared at her. She could hear my heart; she made that plain as she tilted an ear.
No cait had ever handed me that kind of power, and no bua had ever sounded so sure of doing it. Especially this soon after any sort of bond. My eyes wandered as I considered what to say; my gaze trailed down her body, coming to rest again on that odd, bald patch at the junction of her legs. I missed the white, curling fur crowning her thighs. The white hair had still been there in the wilderness, and I had made it through my own trials still adorned.
Which Sister opted for this? And how? Why?
Ultimately, I could think of nothing to say to her promise, having no plan at all to use it. I released a long, thoughtful exhale as I stared at her, reaching out now to nudge her shoulder.
“On your back, Jael.”
She blinked, but obeyed readily enough, rolling herself in place to recline. I moved closer on my side and smoothed my hand along her inner thigh. I could smell her fragrance, though much subtler without the hair. If the scent were weaker for the lack, then maybe the texture would make up for it.
Jael’s gasp was incomplete as I pulled her leg open and crawled between her thighs on my elbows and knees. I kissed the bare mound. It was incredibly smooth, as if the shave with a superiorly sharp blade had just happened. I didn’t see how, though.
I ran both hands along her inner thighs and ended by rubbing both thumbs slowly along her pouting netherlips. Her hands gripped the blanket and I had to wonder what she expected, or dreaded, from me after what she’d just said?
I admired the novice’s naked slit, noticed the raw, dark pink look between her purple-tinged lips, and on closer inspection I saw tiny, swollen bumps where the individual hairs should have been. I touched and peered closely, realizing only then that no blade—no matter how thin and sharp—could have removed not only the hairs but the roots as well.
“Did a Sister pluck every hair out of your sex?” I asked, letting her hear the surprise in my voice.
She shook her head but didn’t elaborate.
“No? This wasn’t done with a blade. How was it done?”
“Melted candle wax,” she said shortly, staring up at the ceiling.
“Who?”
“Thena and Suna. Used strips of cloth dipped in wax to rip it all out. They had to tie me down.”
I imagined that and grimaced. “Did they say why?”
She tried to shrug it off but was too anxious. “Not really. Not beyond just wanting to see what it looked like.”
I frowned at that, gently rubbing my thumbs along her lips again. I didn’t see any torn skin. Just hairless. Slightly pebbled.
Trimming and sculpting our crotch fur was quite common among Davrin of both sexes but, at Court, a denuded Elf was either being demeaned or disgraced by shaving the head, too, or had been ordered to satisfy a Noble with suspicious tastes in lovers.
Given the Sisterhood’s strict line barring the rape of children with our Feldeus, I supposed Thena and Suna had simply been demeaning Jael. Except they hadn’t cut her hair, too. No one would have questioned if they had, but now I did.
The thought turned me off, so I set it aside. I could still admire the full, mature lips and the lovely symmetry, and the grown scent, even without fur. I leaned forward to enjoy a whiff of her slit. Closing my eyes, I lowered my mouth onto that naked sex, offering sucking kisses and flicking my tongue gently over the smooth flesh. She drew in her breath.
I tasted her body deeper, felt the heat of her slit—greater than my tongue—as I tested the spongy, swollen flesh. She was indeed sore. Forceful penetration might make her draw away from me. Her body language told me she was waiting for it, expecting it. Ready.
So am I.
My mouth settled into a quiet contemplation exploring her smooth skin, and I did not think about much except for the scent below my nose, the pure taste of her cunt, the warm give of tender flesh against my tongue and lips, and the moist heat on my cheeks which reminded me of an underground hot spring.
Sometimes I’d withdraw and let her feel the chill of the air as I blew soft breath onto her wet skin, then I’d lick lightly, suck with pure enjoyment, and always keep her wondering when I’d turn from lavishing to punishing as my hands explored her thighs and buttocks. I heard her arms move, and I looked up.
Her own eyes had closed, and her left hand was gently twisting one of her nipples. Her eyes opened almost instantly, and she stopped, either sensing my gaze…
Or she had just felt my lips smile against her.
“Mmm,” I hummed, encouraging. I saw her mouth open at the sensation.
Her hand fell back to her side just before I closed my eyes again, continuing to service her. Her lingering soreness and wariness made for a very slow climb, but at least the climb was there. Her tension through it changed at last from the anticipation of pain to the acknowledgment of pleasure.
When Jael involuntarily started closing her legs, a little bit at a time, and when those smooth, strong thighs finally squeezed my ears, I wrapped my arms more tightly around them, forcing them open, choosing my preference over hers. She gasped
at my first show of force, and I dove in, mouthing her with more enthusiasm, finally pushing her toward that steeper part of her climb.
It’s time that she be pushed.
“Ah! Goddess…” she moaned, and for a moment she sounded afraid as she gripped the blanket in both hands. “S-stop—”
She was losing control of her responses, and maybe it hurt just a little.
Good.
No cait in her right mind should stop at this point.
I pierced her with a spear-shaped, stiff tongue, over and over, alternating with harder strokes against her clitoris. She yelped and shifted her legs, then I felt her heels digging into my back. She gave me an aborted scream when I released one thigh to push a single finger inside her, rubbing hard a few times at the firm ridge at the roof of her cunt.
That’s it, little scrapper. Let it go. Submit again, it’s just you and me.
Jael moved her hips of her own accord and made frequent sounds— chirps and calls and groans—such a contrast from her earlier silence that her voice drove my excitement higher. I worked to push her farther, to see how far she could go. I was so aroused now, aching, I wished I had Gaelan’s Feldeu ready to penetrate her, to feel her slick body clutching around me as our breasts pressed together, her legs wrapped around my hips.
I used two fingers now, thrust them into her, drinking in those delicious, sloppy noises warning me the novice might stain the blanket below us very soon—
At that worst possible moment, the door broke inward, the chain sheered with a magic burst.
“Ha! Found you!”
Jael jerked away from me, her gasp of utter horror, her climb crashing in an abrupt halt. I was up and moving before I had a thought beyond something venomous, and the intruding Sister was ready for a response as I charged her in the tiny room.
But she still fell for a feint.
Her eyes focused on my arm and my fist as I wound up for a strike, at the last moment, I side-kicked her knee instead, following that with a thrust to her face with the heel of my hand. She stumbled and fell to all fours, reaching for something on her belt. I snatched my metal washbowl and smashed it down on her hand just as it came back up.
