With another day of listening while under the effect of Irendar's little potion, I now had a passing understanding of the local language - and I was happy to start trading. I'd brought a few more interesting items with me to sell to the southerners, and Kitran seemed like the place to unload. A big old bag of marbles. A six-pack of Pesicore Blue. Spare small monster cores. Lighters (and lighter fluid). A carton or two of pure grade iodized salt. A box of nails, and another one of needles. Things that were cheap and mass produced up North, but rare and labor-intensive to the point of absurdity down here.
I didn't sell everything I had brought for those purposes, but those items all sold for quite a pretty penny - exotic delicacies from the Far North, strange and useful devices, and copious amounts of salt. The salt probably had the biggest change in value, I think being worth somewhere around a hundred times its purchase price. Maybe the marbles had a bigger variation, but I sold them one-by-one so it was hard to keep track. I was pretty quickly the most popular man in the market, with items like that, and I made plenty of money. More than enough to live down in Kitran for years, if I stewarded the money well - and I had amenities seemingly no one else had, back on the Swordfish: refrigerators, washing machines...
There was a thought that came to mind, that I could just never go back North, maybe only go north and south once every few years, keeping the money, living a life of leisure like some merchant king... but probably, other trade goods would start making their way south in the not so distant future, and then I'd have to make my money.
Besides, I didn't want to just laze around. If anything, the time I'd had to spend, in this strange and new and wild land full of strange things - such as the giant floating pearl, almost perpetually visible in the sky, for one prominent example - just doing boring work like selling excess goods or learning the language was simultaneously achingly dull and drainingly strenuous.
So, armed with my newfound knowledge of the language and money, I started asking around for any interesting rumors or sites to see. There were temples to the local gods - I visited and paid my respects and gave a small but appropriate offering, just out of an abundance of caution - and a handful of truly venerable structures in the city. Thick concrete towers seven or eight stories tall, looming over everything around them, apparently having been built by a "giants" in a "previous era". The fact that they were made by another people was strongly suggested by the way that they had some type of waterproof material draped over the top and secured in place, their very highest stories having been destroyed quite some time ago. What use giants had for buildings with rooms that were about eight or nine feet tall, on the other hand, is left as an exercise for the reader.
The buildings were interesting, if not for their contents (by this time, they were repurposed as housing). In the north, we have our own dead civilizations, but they're almost all ruins long since reduced to foundations and buried, cities scraped off the surface of Kersh by long-forgotten weapons or magics, and the like. The concrete towers didn't look that special - maybe a lighthouse or something, in a previous era - so it was curious that they'd lasted long enough for people to come back and rebuild them. It wasn't like it was the deserts of Sofdurj, where a giant structure might have only had to deal with the occasional sandstorm; this was a coastal town. Surely storms would have wrecked it, if it had been left alone for millennia? I took some notes on the design, just in case there was some secret hidden in it that would answer that question, and moved on from there.
I was incredibly interested in getting to see the insides of the giant floating rainbow pearl, but unfortunately, it was forbidden for humans to enter - and some speaking confirmed that only the quendi (the race that Irendar belonged to, apparently) were permitted to go, so sending in my slaves on the argument that they weren't human was a bust.
I did start to hear rumors about some sort of cult living in the forest - worshiping demons (the mythological type, not Azanaga's type) and devils and dead witches and the like. To my ear as a northerner, it sounded like a bunch of superstitious bullshit... but the South was supposed to be where superstitious bullshit was actually true.
"You heard there is an evil cult of evil people living in the woods... so you decided that you want to go to the woods?" Azanaga asked, giving me her most cold, deadpan expression.
"Yes," I replied, succinctly. I didn't have to argue the point.
"Why?" Azanaga asked, sounding annoyed at merely having to ask the question.
"You know why. I came South to see the sights and learn the things going on down here. If you didn't want to come with me, you could have pretended to be a terrible civil engineer, and I would have had to resell you at a loss." Azanaga's eyelid twitched at that. "That didn't occur to you?"
"We demons are an honorable people," she said, with a sneering note to her voice that did little to disguise the fact that she obviously didn't think of that.
"Can I pretend to not be a capable summoner to avoid going into the forest with the demon worshipers?" Pichi prompted me.
"Please do not call them demons, I am a demon, these people are worshiping fanciful evil spirits, if they even exist, which they probably do not."
"The word in their language is ythraul," I told her. "But it means demon, in the sense of an evil spirit who lives in Hell."
"It is common for cultures to claim that outsiders and subaltern peoples are actually doing terrible things, out of allegiance to evil forces," Eshenesra offered. "Especially in the forest, which is traditionally a place full of wild animals and bandits and other dangers."
"I'm not sure you understand what a demon is," Voasary said, a frown on her lips. "Or a ythraul, I guess I should use that word, since apparently Azanaga is a demon?" She just stared at Azanaga for a few long seconds. "Demons and devils... ythraul and ynshuen, in Kitran," she clarified, not knowing if the North also had a people known as devils, "have the job of purifying souls of sin before reincarnation," she explained. "Since a soul is immaterial, they tempt it with vices it can't indulge, until the impulse is reduced. They aren't evil."
I was... less than certain that Voasary's religious opinions were the same as the locals. "Then why do they talk about devil worshipers like they're evil?" I asked.
"Demons and devils aren't evil, but if you acted like them, you'd be evil." She spoke like I was an idiot. "If you eat a huge scrumptious feast in front of a starving child, just to make him drool in want but not satisfy that want, that would be an evil act; but demons do that in Hell to work the gluttony out of gluttons, as souls can't eat food. Well," she paused, "that's what I hear. I don't know the exact details, since I've never been to Hell, or spoken to an ythraul or ynshuen."
That was a rather theologically specific interpretation of demons. I decided not to argue with her, given arguing people's religion is almost never a good idea, and instead simply nodded in response. "But what Eshenesra said still applies, doesn't it? They're evil for working with demons. So they're made up to slur whoever actually lives in the forest."
"I guess that's possible," she said in a tone of voice that said she guessed no such thing. "But I'd be ready for violence if you go into the forest just to find demon worshipers."
"I'd have been ready for violence if I went into the forest for any reason," I told her. "Really, I'm very ready for violence no matter what, especially with Jutaana."
"Mhm! I am protecting Master from any violence," Jutaana said, having had rather less to contribute to any sociological or theological discussions than the rest. "And Eshie can be helping too! She can be healing if Master is somehow being hurt," she explained, smiling brightly at Eshenesra, who just blushed.
"Right. Let's go, then," I said, and the girls followed me, including Voasary.
I did catch Eshenesra muttering to herself as we left, though. "Eshie...?" I didn't mention it, though Jutaana's ears twitched so it was probably a safe bet that everybody with huge ears (so, everyone except me and Voasary) heard it.
* * *
If you were to have me make a list of what I expected to find in the forest, the top thing would probably have been trees. If you were to say that you wanted a real list, and that I knew what you meant, then I would have added bears, or perhaps some kind of weird dangerous animal that was loosely like a bear, or bandits, or even real witches.
I would not have expected the first thing that I did see there: a deer that looked like it was made of plastic.
It looked as if you had flensed a deer completely bare of its skin, leaving all the red-raw muscle exposed - but then replaced the muscle with grey plastics, which warped subtly as it walked through the forest. The ears atop its head swiveled. It had little circular glass panes where eyes should be, and tilted its head to look at the group of us, staring at us from a distance. After a few seconds, it twisted its body around so that the head faced us, then began galloping backwards in a manner that I was pretty sure normal deer could not do.
"Did you see that?" I asked, halfway wondering if my gaze had misinterpreted what I'd seen.
"If you are talking about the naked deer with grey blood, then yes I was seeing it!" Jutaana exclaimed, seeming excited by the sight of it.
"Yeah. You stopped and gawked with your mouth opened," Azanaga said. "Weird. Guess that explains why there's no meat here in Kitran. I wouldn't want to eat something made of that."
"I could be hunting it down!" Jutaana offered.
I considered it, then shook my head. "Nah. If we want parts of it, we can probably buy some from the locals. I'd rather not risk running out in the forest after the monster."
"Ah, that is making sense, Master," Jutaana said, nodding. "Money is being amazing in how useful it is!" Azanaga made mocking motions with her mouth, copying what Jutaana had said.
I just shot Azanaga a dour look, and she responded by giving me a probing one, as if to say, What? "You know I don't have to fuck you, Azanaga."
"Ehhh?" Jutaana said, before Azanaga could even complain herself. "Master... I know it is being different with humans, but... it is bad for men to be having sex with women, and then cutting them off!"
"Yeah," Azanaga agreed.
"She was making fun of you," Pichi said, half to defend me, half to 'get' Azanaga.
"That is being okay, I am making fun of her sometimes too. I was calling her a dumb succubus whore for human cock a while back!" Azanaga seemed less happy with this form of defense from Jutaana, which of course made me smile.
Voasary frowned at the word 'succubus' - but our journey through the roads on the forest came to a halt as I saw a number of squirrels in surrounding trees. Only, just like the deer, they had no flesh: just grey, plasticky musculature, exposed and subtly shifting as they moved around in the trees, camera eyes seeming to zoom in and focus on us.
"Those are quite creepy..." Eshenesra said, fidgeting in place as she looked up at them. "Should I... kill some?"
"I don't think so," I said. "Not unless they attack us." As I gestured, we started to walk again, and it became clear that the squirrels didn't just happen to surround us - they moved with us, following us with a completely silent coordination.
Eventually, they gathered enough of whatever data they wanted, and skittered away - just moving out in random directions, as if losing their will to do anything at all, some crossing right in our path while others just leapt from tree to tree away from us. It was definitely more than a little spooky, but I hoped the weird forest-spirit-robot-god-thing was satisfied with what it had seen.
The deer spotter and the squirrel swarm had come remarkably quickly, on entering the forest - but now that both had ended, I realized how dead the forest sounded. There were no chirping birds. I didn't hear grasshoppers, or cicadas. The silence was almost deafening, but thankfully began to dissipate as various animals made their way through the forest as if we weren't there. There were still no cries of birds, but there was the occasional flutter of wings or movement in the underbrush.
We were following the road that went from the capital inland, but it was increasingly clear to me that very few people actually followed this road at all. It was made of many small stones, layered tightly together, without any sign of mortar but nonetheless not cracked anywhere. I began to wonder if it had been made by the same people who made the towers back in the capital itself - or, in other words, that it was only present because some civilization a thousand years ago had wanted a path through here, and thus any use it got today was purely coincidental.
By extension of the road's isolation, it was the most likely place for any secret witch cults to be... and also had no hunter or logger's houses for us to ask to put us up. It was getting late in the day, and I definitely didn't trust the local wildlife to not attack us while we slept, so I turned to Azanaga. "Well, it's time for you to do your thing." Azanaga blinked a few times. "Jutaana, Pichi, and Eshie would all be happy to help"
"Are you... saying you want to fuck my mouth right here?" Azanaga asked.
"Ah!" Jutaana actually raised her hand to her mouth before I could correct Azanaga. "Doing it beneath the open sky is being very romantic!"
"No," I clarified. "I am saying, you can build us a base camp. Since that's the thing you were purchased to do, and I only fuck you because you explicitly asked."
Azanaga's mouth worked at the air for a few seconds, her cheeks pink, while Pichi sniggered in obvious delight at her accidental self-humiliation. She cleared her throat at that. "Right. Must be that my Almerese is rusty," she lied through her teeth. "I'll get to work. Pichi," she said, making the pekina woman stop laughing, predicting work was coming. "...actually you pekina bitches aren't even good as manual labor," she huffed, shaking her head and enlisting Jutaana and Eshenesra instead.
Jutaana gingerly rubbed Azanaga's back and offered her condolences for Azanaga not getting fucked.
I did decide to at least slightly make it up to her by fucking her first. In the mouth, as 'requested.'
* * *
Jutaana woke up before me, her ears swiveling as she bolted upright. I followed her into consciousness immediately, my subconscious trusting her implicitly. Pichi and Azanaga both sleepily roused as well, their eyelashes fluttering as they took in the fact that it was still night, almost no light reaching us. I swiveled my hand, a blade snapping out in its place, and gingerly exited the tent. The surrounding darkness loomed around us, seeming to have an almost living presence, like some gigantic black slime aiming to swallow us up.
Voasary sat with a knife and a small chunk of wood, which she had been whittling, and looked up as she saw me emerge from the tent. "Something the matter?" She chose Almerese for that line, and I nodded in response.
"Jutaana heard something."
"Ah, yes," Jutaana said, having her sword in hand as she exited the tent, still naked, her eyes running over the surrounding forest. "It was sounding like humans?" She stilled, her ears spreading outward for a moment, wide and attentive like a radar dish. Her head swiveled sharply towards the source of the sound, raising her sword. "Be coming out now, or I will assume you are attacking us!"
"They don't speak Almerese," I pointed out to Jutaana. "My wife," I said, in the local language, "said that you should reveal yourselves so we know you're friendly."
There was a silent lull - and then a figure stepped out from the darkness.
She was a quite visibly inhuman figure, with long, curved horns, and vast, batlike wings. Her long ears sloped upwards and didn't stick out much. A long tail, with a spade shape at the end, flowed out from behind her. Her skin was a slightly-off shade of pink most places, but along her arms, large, webbed purple splotches stretched out, looking utterly natural. Cool purple eyes met mine. I did have to give her her due, though - she was also quite simply sexy. Curvaceous, with large, full breasts, and a nice round ass to boot.
Voasary stumbled back in shock at the figure, though I mostly just kept my blade up and ready. She spoke in a rapid-fire version of Almerese that was scarcely comprehensible. "Ohgodsitsademonohfuckanactualdemon-" and on like that.
The woman just sniffed the air, tail idly whipping through the air behind her as she contemplated the group of us. "Mm..." She licked her lips, her tongue visibly forked. "Yes... quite the little nexus of lust, here." She paused, sniffing the air again. "But not all just mortal lust. I sense an ythraul's lust," she said, her wings batting at the air with ambient energy. "Do you have a sister of mine? Haa... there's no reason to be so frightened, mortal," she said, her gaze falling on Voasary. "Your lust is a cute little ember. Maybe one day it will grow mighty enough to excite my hungers, but for now, it's the two in that tent that interest me."
I glanced back behind me at the tent - and Pichi interpreted that as a request for aid, because Akamarina formed shortly thereafter, her gaze somewhat irate as she saw Jutaana's state of undress. Then she spotted the presumed-ythraul. "Another spirit," Akamarina said, stepping towards her. "I am the great Akamarina; and who are you, to dare demand my summoner for whatever strange fornications you wish?" It now fell to me to translate her words.
The ythraul chuckled softly at that. "I am known by many names, among mortals. You may call me Whips," she said, her tail snapping through the air and producing a very sharp noise as it briefly moved supersonic. "I do not wish to fornicate with your summoner. Is she the ythraul? An ythraul summoning a spirit, quite the curiosity..."
"I don't have any ythrauls in my entourage," I told the figure. "My four wives are a leporagi, a pekina, an elf, and a demon," I said, using the Almerese words for the races, with small gestures in each's direction. I kept up the 'wives, not slaves' thing, for obvious reasons.
"Mm. So you call ythraul pekina up north? Or do you call them demons?" She just exhaled softly. Her language shifted, becoming something alien, unrecognizable to my ears. "Ahizpa! Zatoz nirekin hitz egitera! Entzuten dut hilkor batekin ezkondu zarela. Mesedez, istorio arraro honen berri izan nahi dut! Tira!" This also provoked no result, as literally nobody else there spoke her language. She hissed in annoyance when she realized it had failed. "So annoying... I'm so close I can almost taste it," she breathed out, her voice almost a whimper. "I don't want to fight. If you're my brother-in-law, then show me my sister," she whined. "A woman who has grown old and unambitious, but still full of eager lust, and an ythraul who sates herself on your lust... I want to see the ythraul. I can smell her."
Those descriptions were... well, quite accurate descriptions of Pichi and Azanaga, other than the fact that Azanaga was clearly not an 'ythraul.' I switched my other arm to a cannon, then stepped back slowly, keeping it trained on the ythraul. "Azanaga," I said. "She wants to see you. I don't think she's malevolent towards you,"
Azanaga had seen Voasary collapse and start scurrying away, so she hesitated. I wasn't going to order her out. But when the ythraul didn't do anything more than she already had, Azanaga at last, slowly, stepped out into the open sky.
Naked, because she slept in the nude. She stood up, uncertainly, halfway squaring off with the ythraul, who just stared in obvious confusion. Her gaze went to the horns, then to the rest of her body. At last, there was a sign of recognition in her gaze. "Ah! Not sister! Niece," she said, smiling warmly. "That's why she doesn't speak our tongue. Mm. Nor the local one, either," she added, with a small pout, crossing her arms. She placed one hand on her chin, one slender, clawed finger stretching up towards her cheek as she contemplated it. "My. How unpleasant. I wonder if this is quite what mortals feel, when they watch but can't participate?" She exhaled, then turned to Voasary and me, her gaze flicking back and forth. "You both speak this tongue, no?"
Voasary swallowed and nodded. I didn't say anything.
"Oh. I've made an awful impression on my... what is it when it's your niece's spouse? Nephew-in-law? I must come off as ever-so-scary," she said, with a plaintive smile. "Please forgive me. As I said, you can call me Whips." She idly flicked her tail at the air, slower this time. "I'd offer you my body, but I can't imagine you'd take me up on the offer. Yours is a pitiful lust, unable to tempt. Even that one's-" she gestured towards Jutaana, making Jutaana raise her sword an inch or so, "-could more easily lead one to ruin - not that I am ruin, of course. But you hardly know that." She sighed. "Ahhh. Mm. Dearie me. How frustrating!" She stamped her foot, then bit her thumb. "Four wives and the lust of a monk. You must be a terrible husband for my niece."
"If you mean sexually, I have been making her come quite a bit."
"Come?!" The ythraul looked honestly half-horrified. "My word... girl... ah, I could learn the language with just a mite bit of coitus..." She fidgeted, tail flashing back and forth. "Dear. An ythraul isn't having sex for orgasms. Sex is first and foremost a spiritual phenomenon."
That was similar enough to what Azanaga had said that I actually believed she was genuinely trying to help me fuck her 'niece' better and had special insight. I decided to go along with her - it wasn't like talking meant she could eat us now. "I mostly degrade her race."
"Yes? That sounds quite spiritual. You could hardly call a race a physical thing. Can you point to it? Not a member of it, but the thing-in-itself? Degrading the race, hmm." She started to pace back and forth. "Oh, that is quite the fascinating dynamic, yes. I might have to try that in Hell. Or here?" She added, flashing me a ludicrously coquettish fluttering of the eyes - something completely at odds with her nature and behavior. "Give me some lines, dear."
"Uh... the Nyzhraga empire only existed so that it would be hotter when demon bitches like you were made to bounce on human cock."
"Oh my!" She raised one hand to her mouth as if shocked. "My, my my! That is... a truly intoxicating blend," she breathed. "Haha, if she dies with that staining her soul, oh, what sin would it even be? Is it even lust at that point? Envy is so strong in there, pride, my-oh-my, I did think my niece didn't smell quite like a succubus..." She licked her lips. "Oh, yes, there's wrath too! Oh, do you do sloth? Say things like, You must do all the work, I'm feeling lazy? I bet she'd quite like that, yes. It fits with your whole dead fish aesthetic."
"I'm not a dead fish," I replied. She gave me a look, like, Who are you trying to fool? "Look, obviously I can't trust you, given the circumstances of our meeting, and the fact that you're an ythraul," I told her.
"Mm. Mm..." She sighed. "But you're my nephew-in-law! My niece may be my grand-niece, perhaps, but she's still family! There's hardly any family, this far from Mt. Suhandia," she explained. I just quietly shook my head. "Mm. Tch." Her wings unfurled more fully, seeming to darken the whole region, and she simply leapt upwards into the sky. For a few brisk moments, she swirled in the air - then she departed, and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in.
-x-X-x-
Everybody had a hard time going back to sleep, after that close encounter - Jutaana was the one who spent much of the rest of the night on watch, her ears swiveling, but I pretty much didn't fall asleep for the whole rest of the night.
Azanaga was out like a light, though. She didn't even bother asking about who the hell Whips was, before dawn broke the next morning. Once she was up and ready to ask those questions, I explained, as best I could remember, the contents of the conversation. Voasary vouched for my words even as she looked like she was about to pass out on her feet from not sleeping properly.
"So... she thinks I'm a relative of hers?" Azanaga frowned at that. "These ythraul and ynshuen, what are they, exactly?" She asked Voasary.
"When you die-"
"I didn't ask for a religious lecture," Azanaga said. "I mean what are they? The actual ones that I will actually interact with here on Kersh."
"Hell is inside Kersh," Voasary said, making Azanaga wear an annoyed-yet-arrogant look. "They're powerful, magical beings. Their impulses towards vice express themselves differently outside Hell. I've never met one, and what stories I have heard are almost universally regarding Hell."
"Wonders of a religious education..." Azanaga muttered darkly.
"I do think she understood something about you- us," I told her. "I mean, what she said about sex... it sounded right-ish."
"I guess her magical powers helped her out with that," Azanaga said.
I definitely didn't feel like it was quite that simple, but I nodded in reply. "Now it's time to get started packing up the camp," I told her, giving her ass a quick and pointed smack. She just quietly twitched at the ass-smack, more annoyed than anything else, but got to work anyway.
Pichi spoke up then. "Sometimes spirits interbreed with humans. Maybe one of Azanaga's ancestors got knocked up by an ythraul?"
"There hasn't been any contact between the northern and southern hemispheres since the torrid zone formed, two hundred sixty thousand years ago," I told her. "The airship we took in is the only thing dragging anything north south, or vice versa. If her ancestor got knocked up by an ythraul, it'd have to be before that." I paused. "Unless spirits can go north-south? Akamarina?" I prompted.
Pichi made some small movements with her hands, and Akamarina formed, a sudden dryness tangible in the air as she sucked in necessary water from the local humidity. "No spirit could go from north to south," Akamarina said. "Only by mortal assistance could cover such a great distance, and mortals cannot pass those lands."
"Ythraul and ynshuen can be summoned by a sorcerer," Voasary offered. "I've heard they'recalled from the ground, and that they can be summoned anywhere."
"There definitely aren't any rituals to summon them back north," Pichi said. She paused for a moment, looking at Eshenesra. "Are there?"
"Eh? Ahm, no... not that I am aware of, and I imagine I would be aware of such things," Eshenesra said.
"Huh." That was definitely strange. There were five known previous civilizations in the northern hemisphere, though. Each collapsed in turn, leaving the world descending back into a state of barbarism. Probably one of them figured out such a spell, and that's where Azanaga got her ythraul and/or ynshuen great-grandma. That would have been thousands of years ago - if not tens of thousands of years ago - but I guess Whips could have had a good nose for it.
* * *
The trip through the forest transformed once more into following the long and winding road through the place, seeing weird animals that looked like they were made of plastic, and keeping an eye out for any sign of witch-cults or interesting structures. From time to time, I'd have Jutaana climb a tree to see if she could see anything of interest from on high.
Around noon, she shouted in excitement. "Ah! Master! I am seeing a building!" She declared.
"What's it look like?" I asked her.
"Hmm..." She hummed. "If I am describing it to you, can I be getting bred, please and thank you?" She asked. Her voice had a tiny teasing note to it, but at the same time, if I'd said, yes, she would have clambered down out of the tree to glom onto me and just start making out.
"Just describe the building," I ordered her, and she let out a small sigh before speaking.
"It is being a tall tower," she explained, "it is made of stone. It is cylinder shape. It is tipped with big pointy thingy. It is not having windows. Mm. Ah! Master! The tower is speaking to me! It is saying, you must be getting bred by your Master soon!"
I let out a small laugh at her antics. "Alright, come on down," I told her, smiling as she just hopped down to the ground, landing on both feet on the soft dirt without any apparent issue. "Come here," I told her, and she looked guilty for just a second - then I gently started to massage her ear, making her wear a big, happy, dopey smile. "Tell you what. I promise I'll breed you when we head back to the northern hemisphere, okay?"
"Okay! Thank you very much, Master!" She said. She was bouncing in place with excitement at those words, which certainly did some interesting (and pleasant) things to her tits. "Um. When will we being back to North?"
"I don't know. A while," I told her. She pouted, but nodded.
We started in the direction of the tower. "I am going to be getting bred," Jutaana bragged, obviously expecting the other four girls to feel jealous. Equally obviously, none of them did.
"Good for you," was Azanaga's somewhat-sarcastic reply.
"Mhm!" Jutaana declared.
"I've had a few kids, they're not as much fun as you think," Pichi added.
"Ah, that is because you are being pekina. For a leporagi, it is being very different."
"Oh, is it?" Eshenesra asked, sounding curious.
"Yes! Leporagi are meant to be having lots and lots of babies so it is easy and happy and our babies are very extra-super cute!"
"Most babies are cute, the problem is that they cry constantly," Pichi said.
"Are the babies extra dumb, too?" Azanaga asked.
"No, they are being regular dumb for babies," Jutaana said, oblivious to Azanaga's insult.
* * *
The tower turned out to be quite a ways - Jutaana had to climb the trees to re-orient us twice - and was much taller than I had expected. I had assumed something like one of the towers in Kitran, eight stories tall and reasonably thick. This one was spindly and tall, stretching up to a height that made it look like a skyscraper. I didn't have a great estimate for its height from looking, but it was definitely more than twenty stories. Maybe more like fifty.
"Damn, that's tall," Azanaga said, just staring at the thing. "I didn't think these barbarians could build something like this. It looks to be a bit shorter than the Great Counting Tower in Nuruk." That was the tallest building in the whole Nyzhraga Empire. A few countries had managed to beat its height in the years since, just to prove they could.
"I think it's taller than that," Eshenesra said. "I've seen the Great Counting Tower. It's... not as tall as this, I don't think." Azanaga had a sour look, her pride obviously getting stepped on by Eshenesra's comment. "Ah. It's much bigger, though. This tower is so slender by comparison."
It was, indeed, slender. It was cylindrical, and probably about twenty-five feet across. Big enough for one or two rooms per story, but not the huge industrial administrative structure of the Great Counting Tower, by any means.
As we got closer, we finally saw what surrounded the building: a camp of people. A camp of people who, on seeing our approach, quickly armed themselves and pointed spears at our number. We rearranged itself as well, getting ready for a fight. "Who are you?!" One of the men shouted.
"I ha' seen him in the city," another said. "He's some Northman merchant. Them's his wives."
"Pretty rich boy. Ye got nice-lookin' wives." That one sounded like every cliche of bandits you've ever heard - lecherous, sleezy, violent, threatening with every sentence, but without an ounce of higher intelligence. I suppose the cliches have to come from somewhere.
"I've got nice-looking weapons, too," I said, the blade sliding out of one arm, my other hand transmuting into its cannon form. "Would you like to see them?"
"I can see 'em plenty good from over here," one of the men said, apparently having a bit more sense than his sleezier compatriot.
"Master, should we be killing these people?" Jutaana asked. "It is sounding like they are threatening us, and I am not liking that as I am going to be a mother soon."
"Fuckin' obsessed," Azanaga muttered.
"I can slay these fools if you so wish," Akamarina said. "They cannot harm me with mere sticks, and I can recognize their sort even if I do not know their tongue."
"I want to see what's in the tower," I told them.
"Too bad. You can't," the apparent leader said. "Now begone, before we have to kill you."
There were only about twenty or so of them - and a few were women. The women certainly didn't seem to be coerced into being there, some kidnapped brides or sex slaves, but instead willing participants in whatever crime ring the group represented.
"Mm. When you say, 'I can't,' do you mean that the door is locked?"
"No, I mean I'm not going to fuckin' let you in, and there's twenty of us, and five of you."
"Seven," I corrected.
"Oh, seven," he sneered.
And at that point, Whips landed between our two groups, idly flicking her purple-red hair as she hit the dirt. "Mm." She hummed quietly, gaze going from me, to the men, and back again.
"Whips," the man said. "These foreigners want to transgress on Yaj's tower."
"Oh my," Whips said, looking back at the group of us. "Oh dearie me. You do know what's in that tower, don't you?" She paused, her brow narrowing. "I don't believe I caught your name."
"Hob Arkwright."
"Hob Arkwright." She popped the name on her tongue, licking her lips. "Hob, this is the Tower of Yaj. It is full of all sorts of dastardly traps and magics and ancient monsters and so on and so forth. It would definitely kill you if you entered it." There was a certain eager note to her voice as she spoke. "Plus, it's sacred to this lot," she said, with a gesture behind her. "Surely you should just go home and fuck my niece silly instead?" Her tail lashed back and forth, this eager beating as her smile grew ever wider. "Ohh... mm..." She breathed in deeply through her nose. "You'd rather fight monsters than fuck my niece... poor Azanaga," she said.
"If I just wanted to fuck Azanaga, then I wouldn't have needed to come south."
"Why are you talking about me?" Azanaga demanded.
"Ah, guess it's not as fun not to get things when it's you," Pichi said with a little snigger. Azanaga made an idly kick with her leg, and Pichi just danced to one side.
"Your wives are fighting," Whips said. "Oh! Even that isn't exciting for you? Well, I suppose that could make sense... normally men like women fighting over them."
"They aren't fighting over me, just fighting," I explained. "Azanaga doesn't get on well with other people."
Whips giggled. "Aha. Well, some of us have such problems too."
"Whips," one of the men said, clearly wanting her to just attack and kill me.
"Shut up, mortal," she snapped at him, her voice sharp and angry, her diction suddenly switching to another register. "Did you not hear my words? This man has wed my niece, and is now bound by honor and oath to my blood." She paused. "Apologies! You know how mortals can be," she said, a smile curling across her lips. "Mm. I don't really see any reason that they shouldn't let you inside. Well, I don't think Azanaga should go in. It would be one thing if you died, but my first relative in so long! I'll learn whatever silly northern language she speaks if you die, I promise," she said, raising one hand in some faux-oath.
"If Azanaga doesn't go in, how can I be sure of her safety?"
"That one was suggesting raping his wives," Voasary said, pointing to one of the men. The one who'd pointed out how pretty my wives were.
"Oh, did he?" She turned round on the man in question.
"I was only sayin' they were pretty," the man said, seeming just about ready to soil himself.
"They are pretty," Whips agreed. She tilted her head to one of the other men. "Do you think he was merely paying them a compliment, or was he imagining forcing himself on them after killing Hob and the female fighters among them being rendered unable to fight back?"
The next man hesitated for a second or so, which was long enough for Whips to reach a decision. She showed off where she got her name, her tail slicing out towards the man in question, neatly cutting off his head in a single swift movement, his body collapsing to the ground a second later, the head rolling off.
The men now seemed afraid of her, twisting their spears around to face her. She just giggled. "Come now! I'm not threatening you, now am I? The man suggested raping my niece. It would have been a crime if I didn't do it." Her tail still absently swished around her, and the men backed away. "Ahh... well!" She hummed and glanced back over towards the group of us, stepping away from the bandits. "You know, dears, I am curious what you'd do in that tower! You can go in, and Azanaga can stay here with me, and perhaps we can puzzle out a few words of one another's language?" She smiled warmly as she spoke.
One of the men guarding the tower spoke up."We didn't say-"
"Did I ask?" She snapped at the man, who immediately fell back. "Now! Have I shown my good intentions, Hob? Or will you continue to distrust me?" She almost... pouted, as she spoke. "I just want to talk to my niece..."
I contemplated my options. I could try to kill her and the men. I could leave. Or I could take her offer. Those seemed to be the only three realistic possibilities, and given how swiftly she'd decapitated that guy, I really wasn't sure I could win a fight against her. Akamarina and Eshenesra and Jutaana would help, but...
"Akamarina," I said, switching to Almerese. "Go into the tower. See what's going on. You can't be killed as long as Pichi is alive, correct?"
"I can't be killed so long as Lake Nadi is still around," Akamarina said with a sniff. "But yes. If this body is destroyed, I can form a new one, using Pichi's own magical capacity." She headed into the tower alone.
Whips quirked one eyebrow, looking my way as Akamarina entered. "Oho. I see. Mhm." Whips said, nodding to herself. "I suppose I can't blame you for wanting to protect your wife, rather than leave her in my clutches. If anything, I should be glad! My niece has a caring, protective husband - how romantic!"
Basically nobody shared Whips's view of the whole situation. The people who had made camp around the tower seemed to be contemplating just running for it, now that Whips had killed one of them and seemed more aligned with us. The people in our party who didn't speak Kitran - that was most of us, by the way - didn't see any particular reason to trust her. And the only other person in our party who could speak Kitran had a religious fear of ythraul.
Whips apparently picked up on her lack of popularity. "Could you please be dears and leave?" She asked the surviving men. "You're scaring my niece."
The men didn't need more than that, hurriedly grabbing what they could carry, leaving much of their camp behind.
"Is she being our friend?" Jutaana asked me.
"I'm really not sure," I admitted back in Almerese, Whips unable to understand. "I think she wants to be, though."
"She's a demon," Voasary warned me, also in Almerese, avoiding even saying ythraul. "Her job is sin and vice."
"Yeah, but not lying." Voasary fidgeted at that. "What are your intentions, exactly?"
"Ideally, I would have coitus with you, and that sweet feeling of semen futilely filling me up would be accompanied by me becoming able to speak to my niece," she explained. "But I think you don't trust me well enough for that."
"She'll probably rip your dick off with her cunt," Voasary said, in Almerese.
I thought about it, long and hard. Everything that Whips had done, up until this point, was consistent with her being a weirdo, but also one who genuinely wanted to get to know her 'niece' - that is, Azanaga. She'd never pushed past any boundaries I had put up, unless you counted showing up when I was being threatened by twenty armed men and then killing one of them as somehow violating my request for her to leave. Still, with how... dangerous she was, I didn't feel quite able to trust her, unless...
"Ooo," Whips said, a certain shuddering note to her voice. "I thought you were a dead fish, but I do feel something, now. Tell me what it is, and I'll make it come true."
"Could I bind you, before the sex?"
"Oh my! Bondage? Is that all? Mm... do you want proper bondage? I am rather stronger than a mortal, if I'm being honest."
"You can't seriously be considering..." Voasary started, in Almerese.
"Can't be considering what?" Azanaga demanded.
"He's thinking of fucking her."
"Ah?! Master! If she is killing you, that would be being bad! Please knock me up before you fuck her, that way we can be being sure that I can have your baby!"
"Here I am, offering myself in bondage, and you still don't trust me," she said, pouting softly as her gaze fell on Voasary. "All those nasty rumors about us ythraul... we're just like you, you know? I just enjoy sex. That's all. If I was a glutton ythraul, I would like eating, it wouldn't make me a cannibal."
"Obviously you'd say something like that. Ythraul that get summoned aren't just doing their job any more."
"True, but if you'd been doing the same job for the past few thousand years, you'd probably want some time off too." Whips hummed softly. "Come on. In those packs, you have to have some nice shackles? Hogtie me if you like, wrap up my tail too, then fuck me. Don't worry about my pleasure one whit, just take it however you like," she said, her voice husky and tempting.
"I don't have shackles prepared."
"Agh." She hummed. "There's probably some in this camp, actually," she noted. "They do sometimes need to take prisoners, after all."
* * *
Whips actually trussed herself up, locking her ankles together, then looping her tail around and around until it was tight enough that the shackle there would keep it pretty much stuck, and finally placing shackles on her wrists and manually tightening the bolt with her teeth, slowly working it into position.
It was then that Akamarina reformed, the air getting sucked dry again, Pichi sagging for a moment. "That..." Akamarina began, then saw Whips, who had the bolt in her mouth. "Well. I suppose that is one way to handle a demon." She shook her head. "That tower is full of ludicrous creatures. The walls are far stronger and more solid than they appear, as well. After one beast nearly swallowed me whole, I simply followed the staircase without stopping to fight any of them. I got to the tenth floor or so, before being destroyed."
"Oh, Ho~ob," Whips said. "This little demoness is completely and utterly at your mercy now, see?" She struggled against the shackles on her hands, hopping up and down in place. "To get free, I'd have to slowly undo the bolt here, and in that time, why, you could do anything you wanted to me." She hummed softly at that. "Oh yes. Power. You love power, don't you? Power over women? Over defenseless women? No, over strong women. That's why you married the tall, muscular rabbit-girl, the magically puissant knife-ear and short stack... why, I must wonder what the tattooed one and my niece are capable of... but right now, all I'm capable of, is yielding to whatever it is that you want. It's a show of good faith, you know? Can you show me good faith back?"
"If anything goes wrong, they'll kill you."
"Yes! I mean, yes, of course," she agreed, smiling beatifically. "Now have a bit of fun with your dear wife's aunt."
"I can't believe you're seriously doing this," Voasary said, in Almerese. "If he dies or something, blow her away with one of your fireballs, Eshie."
"Ah?! Yes, yes, okay," Eshenesra agreed, swallowing.
"This is... an unusual decision," Akamarina said.
"I want to know if I can trust her. Can't think of a much better way than this."
I got within melee range, my blade arm still out, though my cannon arm shifted back into a hand. I gingerly reached out for her face, softly stroking it, and she just smiled placidly, not seeming too concerned at all. I raised the knife up to her throat, and she just inclined her head curiously, exposing her neck to me. "I would feel very silly if you actually killed me," she admitted, a pleasant note to her voice. "Here I thought you were afraid of me. If it was all a trick, my compliments," she said.
"You're not worried about dying?"
"Mm. I'll just go back to Hell, you know?"
"This blade is part of a dead god, it might actually kill you," I pointed out to her.
"My." She swallowed, glancing at it again. "My." She tilted her head towards it, running her tongue along the blade like that. "Mm... it does taste... so fascinating," she breathed out, before turning her gaze back to me. "I am at your mercy, dear. Please, fuck me, rather than killing me. I think we will both enjoy it more."
I took a grip on her horn at that, and she let out a small breath, her eyes closing - and then I dragged her down to her knees in front of me, rubbing her face into my pelvis. She let out a soft gasp at the manhandling, rubbing her cheek into my pelvis. "Oh, yes," she breathed out, all husky and aroused. "Oh... mm... making me kneel before you, yes, quite. Pride isn't my flavor, but as an addenda to lust, it's always beautiful," she said, looking up at me with smoldering purple eyes. "Are you going to put me in my place? Make me fuck my mouth on your cock?" She kissed at my dick through my pants. "For all my power, I am utterly at your mercy. Show me how you treat my darling niece. Spiritually connect your cock with my throat."
My length throbbed inside my pants, and I had, right there, one last chance to pull back - and I actually decided to do so, stepping back. "Alright. I trust you."
"Ahm?" She gasped, as I left her staring up at me, blinking in confusion. "That... you tease! You can't work a girl up like that and just withdraw! What a terrible husband you must be!"
"You aren't my wife." Voasary let out a small laugh at that.
"I... nngod," she whined, just falling limp as she knelt there. "Oh I hate teases. I thought you were going to fuck me, Hob. I really did. I thought I was going to feel your thick, throbbing rod, forcing its way down my throat, and-"
"I said, I trust you. So, you can get yourself out of those shackles now."
"Oh, yes, quite, I'll just slowly grind my teeth along the bolt," she said. "Can't you please release me, dearie? If you're going to be such a tease, you might as well help me out," she added, offering up the shackles.
"No. I want to watch your teeth slowly work the bolt free again."
She let out the sweetest little whimper. "I can feel your sadistic glee... well, at least it's fitting for Azanaga's supposed tastes," she said, reaching down to bite into the bolt, working hard to swiftly loosen it, flicking her head back and forth across it in an exhaustingly slow movement.
Once her hands were free, I spoke. I felt satisfied - or at least, as satisfied as I could ever reasonably be - that she really had shackled herself up despite being unable to break the shackles under her own power. That she really was showing her submission and trusting me. "If you want, you can still suck my cock," I told her.
"Oh, yes, please!" She sounded positively ecstatic at that, hands reaching up to just pull down my pants, my hard cock popping free right in front of her face. She moaned softly as she saw it, rubbing and nuzzling it, smearing it all over her features. "This cock utterly dominates me... I'm a slave to it," she said, kissing at the underside as it rested across her features. "I'm so powerful, yet I'll bind myself up just to be given the chance to service it."
She moved forward, wrapping her lips around the tip of my cock, softly suckling it, purple lips pursed against it. She stared up into my eyes, twisting her head gingerly, side to side, just keeping my cock in her mouth like that. "Mmf," she hummed around it, then popped back. "It'd be better for both of us if those strong, godly hands of yours, grabbed my horns and just forced me into doing whatever you pleased. If you used me as a mere tool for your pleasure. If you established your dominance so completely and utterly even an ythraul couldn't deny you had put her in her place."
"You definitely have a way with words," I told her, one hand going to either horn, gripping them tightly, and then starting to fuck her face. She bobbed on my cock, smoothly taking my length to the base, her breasts bouncing in their confinement, her wings absently beating behind her. Saliva spilled out of her mouth, drip-dripping onto her tits and the floor, spittle occasionally flying out of her mouth as I worked her over like that. Her tongue danced around, tasting me, slithering this way and that, her eyes looking up at me, quietly drinking in my own lusts and desires.
"Ah! Master is so amazing!" Jutaana clapped rapidly. Whips let out an intoxicated moan at those words, her eyelashes fluttering.
"I wish that was me," Pichi muttered. "Why even make other girls suck his cock? It's not like I'm not good at it." Whips let out another soft whimper, shuddering around my cock as I kept fucking her face. Her eyes stared up at me, smoldering with lust, and I peeled her up and off my cock, my length throbbing in front of her face.
"Put your arms behind your back. Clasp them together," I ordered, and she promptly did exactly that. "You're right. This is much better," I told her.
"So much better. Your dominance is just the way it ought to be. I'm the one kneeling, which is right where I belong. Imagine if you summoned me. Bound me. Made me your bride, just like my niece, just like the rabbit-girl, the knife-ear, the shortstack... is the tattooed girl your wife?" I shook my head. "You should make her your wife too. Where you come from, the husband has dominion over the wives, doesn't he?"
"Something like that," I told her, before stuffing my cock right down her throat again. She was probably picking up some dynamic relating to the fact that Pichi, Jutaana, Azanaga and Eshenesra were all my slaves, and I ground her face down, holding her on my cock. I spoke up again, this time in Almerese. "Going forward, you four must always act and speak as if you were my wives," I told them.
"Yes, Mmmy husband!" Jutaana said, seeming delighted to hear those words escape her lips. "Husband, husband, ooo, my husband is so sexy," she declared. "My husband has a big cock, he's going to breed me with his bi~ig cock when we go back north."
"My husband sure does have eclectic tastes," Azanaga said, her voice a complete deadpan - and I started to fuck Whips's face roughly, just pounding away again, her whole body bouncing on my dick as I enjoyed her mouth like that. She glugged wetly, each penetration of her throat producing a delicious wet noise that seemed to echo in the air. My balls slapped against her chin, and she submitted to me without the tiniest hesitation or resistance, letting me lay claim to her body like that. When I felt myself drawing close to the edge, I simply slammed my cock balls deep down Whips's throat.
"Here comes," I told her, and she moaned in delight around my cock, closing her eyes, drinking in a deep breath through her nose. I erupted, hot spunk spraying all over the inside of her throat, and she just shuddered softly in response, her whole body jiggling pleasantly beneath me. When I was spent, I peeled back and off, sighing. "Can you speak Almerese now?" I asked her, in Almerese.
"Mm, I can!" She smiled warmly, rising to her feet. "Oh, my. Quite the horny wives you have, too! I think all four of them got a tad jealous of that. Even the local girl," she added, with a flick of her gaze over to Voasary. "Her fear was swamped out by her jealousy. Good wives!" She told me, with a brilliant smile on her lips. "Such a good collection of women you've picked out." She clapped her hands in delight. "Oh! Yes. Azanaga," she said, playing with the name for a moment, before stepping forward- and promptly falling because her ankles were still shackled together. She let out a laugh at that. "Oh, how very silly of me," she said. "I'm at your mercy, Hob," she added, with a glance up at me, daring me to fuck her - but when I didn't, she just moved to get herself out of the shackles.
I glanced back at the tower. I now felt quite a bit more confident about the possibility of leaving Azanaga alone out here.