After spending the night being pampered by hot priestesses and handsome men, Reina was feeling more rejuvenated than a restoration potion could make her. A nice rest and massage every once in a while sure did wonders. The last time she was here, it was to beseech the goddess for a blessed fruit.

Although Vessyra did not come to visit Reina in her dreams, some of the priestesses and disciples did in the goddess' stead. Right now, two young beastborne boys were on the bed massaging her feet first thing in the morning.

A knock came to the door and in came High Priestess Gale with a plate of fruits and wine.

"How are you enjoying your stay?" she asked, setting them down by the nightstand.

"I think I chose the wrong profession. If becoming a high priestess means I get a harem of cubs to spoil me, put the sign-up sheet in my hands." Reina chuckled.

"Our work involves more than just relaxing. In fact, all this was to ease you into a favor I'm about to ask of you. I am worried about Ceris and Sheila; weeks have passed since their journey to Ors-Juna. They should be back already," she explained.

"If I'm assuming right, you want someone well-traveled in human lands to find out why?"

The high priestess nodded.

This didn't sound like a job for an alchemist at all. The extent of her travels in inner Talmora was from Parthun to Grathir. She might be able to reach out to some friends from the academy that know more about the lay of Ors-Juna.

"I'll see to the expenses of your travel. Of course, you won't go unrewarded. Should you refuse, I shall not hold it against you," she said, but the worried tone of her voice made it hard to turn her down.

"I'll see what I can do," Reina assured the high priestess.

With Aquessia in good hands, Reina returned to take care of the workload waiting for her back at the atelier. Figuring out how to find the two high priestesses in Ors-Juna was going to require a lot more preparation.

Until then, first things first.

Reina fetched the spell scroll and dropped a magic crystal on it. The parchment glowed with such intensity that it bathed the entire atelier in light.

"Oh? Much sooner than I thought," the witch said, staring at the philosopher's stone pinched between her fingers.

"What?" Reina checked her pockets and realized the stone was gone. "How do you do that?"

"Never mind me. Thank you, my dear! How shall I thank you? With a kiss?" she asked.

"No… Thanks…"

The witch shrugged, then tucked the stone away into her pocket. Reina wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do, but it was now no longer in her hands. She was more relieved to be parted from such a powerful reagent.

While the witch was here, Reina might as well ask for a favor in return.

"Do you think you can— eh?"

She was gone, replaced with another spell scroll that floated gently to the ground. A note on the counter read that she had enchanted the carriage doors before leaving. That damn witch sure was a wild one. They had met several times already yet still didn't introduce herself.

Reina inspected the two doors that were detached from the carriage leaning against the far wall. They didn't look any different. However, when she opened one door, the other also creaked open.

"By the goddess."

Her hand entered one and came through the other. She could even shake her own hand like this. Both were portals to each other, but how they were powered was unknown. It could be through magic crystals.

Thanks to this, she might actually be able to travel from her carriage to the atelier without actually 'leaving' the city.

The doorbell chimed, and several patrons entered looking for help. Once the atelier closed for the day, she vowed to get straight to preparing for the journey.

"I'm sorry, sir. The only way for me to make that is with a clartharis leaf, and I've been out of that ingredient for almost a week." Reina apologized a second time to her human customer for being unable to provide what he was looking for.

The bald man didn't seem to mind and waved off her apology. He tugged on his leather cloak, revealing a small tattoo of a lion's face just below the collar bone that tickled the back of her mind.

"Nah, it's fine. Where's, uh… you get that leaf anyway?" he asked, browsing the ingredients section of the atelier.

"Usually get the stuff high in the trees north of Vessyra. I usually have someone fetch them for me, but I might have to go out there myself." She sighed.

"Well, thanks anyway! I better be off." The man waved as he left.

What a strange person, Reina thought. He was quick to lose interest despite coming to her so desperately about getting his hands on hair loss potions.

While it wasn't unheard of for humans to come around these parts, they usually didn't come alone. The guy looked sketchy at first, but he seemed more like a lost tourist than anything. At least he reminded Reina of what she needed to be doing.

Neeks' absence had made alchemy difficult as of late, but Reina couldn't exactly rely on her friend forever. She had to take things into her own hands or the title of alchemist wouldn't befit her otherwise.

The entire day was spent fulfilling requests that could be fulfilled with her limited supply. Upon returning to the atelier, it was already early evening with sunlight quickly dwindling and priests lighting the lampposts in the streets.

She filled her belt with several restoration potions, stamina draughts, and a single elixir of strength in case things went awry. The harness on the knapsack snapped into place behind her back, with straps secured to the front of her chest for support. It should be able to fill everything she wanted to fetch from the wilderness.

"A late trek in the forest is the surest way to get yourself hurt," Perrwyn said, emerging from her pod. "Perhaps I should accompany you?"

"You just want to stick close to suck me dry again. Just hang tight, I'll be back in the morning. Help yourself to anything lying around in the atelier except for the soul stone. Understand?" Reina put on her shoes and fixed a lantern to the pack for when it got dark.

"Very well. But may I have a little snack before you leave?" the alraune asked.

Reina sighed and walked up to Perrwyn while unzipping the bottom part of her robes, fighting back the embarrassment of revealing her nether region. She pulled the fabric covering her crotch, which was quickly getting wet and turned on from the exhibitionist side of her.

"Take your pick, so I can get going," she mumbled, shielding her face with her other hand.

Tendrils emerged from within the pod and crept closer to Reina's body. They prodded and groped her thighs, slipped under the robes to tease her breasts, and many much smaller ones stroked her face.

"I would like both. It is only fair," Perrwyn said.

"You're greedier than Neeks." She rolled her eyes and compelled her penis to appear.

The alraune licked her lips as a tentacle opened into a four-pronged mouth. Reina jerked her hips forward as it clamped down on her erect penis. A tongue from within began to lick the tip of her member, and as it did, viscous sap leaked from its opening.

"Mmm. It's so hard and throbbing. Just the way I like it." Perrwyn smiled.

"Can you… nngh… hurry this up?" Reina asked, but behind the veneer of impatience, she was secretly enjoying having her dick sucked this way. Almost as if conditioned to enjoy it, Reina moved to the rhythm of the tentacle's suction. It moved up and down the shaft, leaving behind strings of sap-like threads.

"Are you sure you would like me to hurry?"

Reina was lifted into the air by the tentacles coiling around her waist and limbs. They spread her legs, and she could do little to stop them. Her body convulsed as a tentacle entered her pussy, and two more that had squirmed underneath her robes began sucking on her nipples.

"Uuhnn— Oh, gods… Maybe I should have said no… or, yes… yes! Aahhnn…" She bit her lower lip to stay sane as the pleasure became unbearable to resist.

"Ah. So you would like another?" Perrwyn asked

"What? No— Oooooohh! Ahh… ahhh! Perrwyn, you overgrown weed!" Reina cried after a second tentacle squeezed into her cunt.

The alraune ignored her, and shoved a third tentacle into her pussy.

"Ahh… ahhh— I'm cumming… non-stop… Why is it so good… Perrwyn… fuck…!" 

Perrwyn could be heard giggling through Reina's bouts of lucidity.

Three tentacles pistoning in and out of her pussy while her dick was milked drove her insane with pleasure. There was something about the helplessness, bound by restraints that held her wrists together from so much as moving, that intensified her senses to a rapturous degree.

A big one was coming, and she wanted it to hit hard.

"I don't care anymore," Reina screamed, surrendering herself to Perrwyn's mercy. "Make me cum again— aahh! Aaaahhhhhhhhhh!"

She threw her head back and moaned loud enough for her voice to echo. The three fucking her pussy pulsed and gushed a hot liquid deep into her womb. At the same time, her own cock throbbed and came so hard she briefly lost consciousness.

After Reina had stopped convulsing, Perrwyn let her down gently. Without anything holding her up and still lightheaded from the powerful orgasm, she took a few wobbly steps forward and put a hand on the door.

"Hahh… Thanks to you, people are going to wonder why I'm walking weird. Satisfied?" Reina asked, face covered in sweat and red up to her ears.

Perrwyn lifted the tentacle that had sucked Reina's dick up to her face and let the cum drip onto her tongue.

"Yes. Plenty satisfied," she said.

Reina thought to drop by the central tree to tell High Priestess Gale that she would be gone for a day. A larger group of warriors than usual in the courtyard were deep in a heated discussion. Among them was Logurn. Since the minotaur stood several heads above the rest, he spotted her approach from afar.

"Hello again, Alchemist Reina." He nodded his massive head and broke away from the group to meet her.

"Isn't this a little excessive to guard a single entrance?" Reina asked.

Logurn glanced over his shoulder and grunted. "A recent string of disappearances has everyone on edge. High Priestess Gale asked us to look into it, but we haven't come up with anything yet."

"People go missing all the time and turn up later."

"The pattern is that they leave the city alone and don't end up coming back," he said, shaking his head.

Another behind Logurn chimed in. "All of the missing persons reports we get are from family and friends who haven't seen 'em in days."

Could an animal have mutated into a chimera like the lizard creature? It made sense. On the other hand, that would make it the third philosopher's stone to appear around these parts. The probability seemed unlikely.

"Oh. I was just thinking about heading out north to gather ingredients." Reina rubbed the back of her head as the group of warriors turned to face her as if she said something dumb.

"We highly recommend you not go alone. Or at least have one of us escort you," Logurn insisted.

Rieina took a step back and gestured to the many vials attached to her belt. She was prepared in case something went wrong.

"If anything, you guys would slow me down. I'm more than capable of taking care of myself. I'll keep my eyes open out there. Anything weird and you'll be the first to know once I get back," she assured them.

The minotaur thumped his chest twice. "May the Goddess go with you."

Moonlight soon replaced the warm shine of the sun's rays. Bioluminescent moss high up in the trees cast a pale blue light onto the forest floor. Even at night, the high humidity and forest canopy insulated the earth such that one could go naked without fear of hypothermia.

Reina switched on the gas lantern hanging on a flexible rod from her knapsack. The space around her immediately became several times brighter.

So far so good. Nothing has attacked her yet. It might be best to make a fire here and wait until tomorrow to—

She couldn't have seen it unless there was enough light in the area. A trained hunter would have noticed this hours ago. The uneven terrain around here had softened. When she took a step forward, her foot would sink an inch of two into the moist dirt.

The path wasn't part of the main road or any branch that led to the other villages surrounding Vessyra. Reina had specifically gone off the beaten paths to forage in remote locations. No one but her, hunters, and wild animals should have come through here. Yet there were deep grooves in the dirt that suggested wagons moving through. Why?

A bad feeling told her to shut off the lamp and put her stuff down to make as little noise as possible. Following the trail led her to a group of people hanging around a campfire behind two cage wagons. She quickly realized that it wasn't holding animals or livestock, but living elves and beastborne women in tattered clothing.

Footsteps behind Reina forced her to find cover behind a tree. A human man passed by her, unbeknownst to him that they were only a few feet away.

"Where's your brother?" someone sitting by the fire asked the returning man.

"Says something caught his eyes. Probably the booze getting to him," he replied with disinterest. "When are we getting out of here anyway? This place gives me the creeps.."

"First thing in the morning, but I'm hoping we can catch one more lass before we skedaddle."

Reina's eyes soon adjusted to the light and noticed that these human men were well-armed and equipped. Six of them in total, and supposedly one more who had yet to return. They appeared nothing like typical bandits. Judging by the cages, they must be slave traffickers. This explained where the missing people had gone.

Slavery should have been outlawed in the human kingdoms of Talmora after the second Crimson Wars. Though she supposed that didn't stop people from wanting that which was exotic to them.

One bearded and portly man drunkenly walked up to a cage wagon. He leaned against it, one hand holding a waterskin and reaching in between the bars with another in an attempt to touch someone.

"Hey, girlie. I hear your goddess wants ya to fuck a whole lot. How about you ride my cock free of charge? Hehe…"

"I would never lie with someone as vile as you." An elven woman spat in his face.

He tried to lunge at her in fury, but everyone backed up to the other side. A much larger man with a scar down his right eye pulled him away by the collar and shoved him to the ground.

"What was that for, you asshole?"

"Queen's paying five hundred a lass. No touching the goods, or we gut ya and split yer share." He growled.

The man said 'queen.'

Someone high up in the human kingdom hierarchy was trafficking slaves. If Grathir and Headmistress Parabelle were to find out, this could be big deal.

Seven armed men. Could Reina take them with the elixir of strength and restoration potions? She had to try.

The moment she stepped back, a twig crunched under her feet.

Everyone drew their weapons and turned to where she was hiding.