The Royal Estate. Farryn. Vorthe.

Rihal

It had taken tremendous effort to succeed in sneaking into The Aviary. Vorthe didn’t take their Sacred beasts lightly — who knew? But being able to achieve this much showed his tenacity and determination to get to the root of the matter bothering him. Although, he still couldn’t figure out if it’ll all be worth it.

The Aviary was a cozy underground forest, but it didn’t feel like a forest at all. Rihal came to the conclusion that Vorthe invested much into making this place feel as homey as possible for all the magical beasts that lived here. On the outside, it was as big as a mountain. In fact, a whole mountain was hollowed out to create this underground space. But on the inside, it felt like a smaller version of Terra Praeta. 

The space was wide — so wide, he couldn’t see the boundary walls of the internal structure of the mountain, except he used his Sight. And even with that, the walls didn’t look like walls, but an extension of the forest. Only a trained eye would notice the difference. 

The place was a forest choke full of foreign life. Butterflies with wingspans as big as his head flew past him and the croaking of frogs around him suddenly seized. The butterflies disappeared. He turned to see three bullfrogs the sizes of adult dogs, happily chomping on them without a care in the world. They were also probably twice the size of normal bullfrogs. He didn’t know much about them as he wasn’t a tamer.

“This is a thriving ecosystem. Way to impress,” he said with a proud smile. Vorthe was the most powerful state on the continent. If he ever doubted it, his doubts were put to rest here.

He moved forward in silence, making sure to stick to the shadows. The tamers should be at the central tree. What was it they called it again? He looked up to study the tree at the center of the forest — Ygg.  Whoever came up with that name probably risked rousing the anger of a certain god who Rihal had been taught not to name. The tree was huge, reaching up to the roof of the underground chamber. It looked like it was what held everything up.

He could literally feel the vitality of the enormous tree pulsing through the air. The Abdiels do a good job of providing it with vita-aura from the Redwood Forest, so much so that the tree was almost looking red — maybe it was a trick of the artificial sunlight beaming down from above. Rihal thought about Jerome’s mantra and how it generated vital-aura. If he could do it here…

He chuckled. He almost missed his disciple… Almost. But he would never admit that. He shook himself free of his thoughts to concentrate on his plans. Rihal stopped beside a huge rock in the path of Ygg, the central tree. He squatted down and began etching a rune into the underside of the rock.

Two quarters of the day later and he had etched his spy rune on many surfaces. His skills with runecrafting weren’t the best, but they were good enough to help him listen in on conversations. He stood in front of the Ygg, breathing hard from exhaustion. He had etched no less than three hundred runes around The Aviary, all while avoiding tamers of various Realms. If runecrafting wasn’t so damn time-consuming — and essence-consuming — he’d have liked to place more around. But he was tired and he couldn’t risk getting caught.

Now came the hardest part. Waiting. And in uncomfortable silence, more or less. He just hoped he wouldn’t have to wait for too long. With one last gulp of air, he activated a rune in his ajanai which caused him to rapidly merge with the giant roots of the Ygg. His heart beat slowed, as he disappeared into the mammoth tree.

 

~~~

 

Csala

Csala didn’t know what was going on. One moment the human peaked out in her hand and the next something pulled her mind out of her body and they were both standing in a glade surrounded by trees. The air was chilled with signs of the coming winter and red-brown leaves fell from the trees. It was a beautiful forest, but it felt like a prison. 

“What sort of trouble have I got myself in?” she muttered.

Csala remembered attacking the Sprout just now. He was normal one moment but the next his presence grew to encompass everything around her suppressing her with a strength of will she never thought possible. That made her rethink attacking him again. She looked around and tried to figure out where she was but she had never been to a place like this in Terra Praeta. Csala caught sight of the red dress on her body and gasped. 

This was destroyed in the flame. How come…? The thought trailed off. The dress looked and felt real but she somehow knew it was not. Csala extended her perception and gasped at what she felt. Everything around her was different from what they should feel like. The whole world was like one big illusion.

She screamed in fear and ran forward, hoping to find a way out of this place. She had to get out of here. Succubi were known to be masters of illusion and dreams, yet someone had put her inside an illusion. One that she didn’t figure out quickly. If he wanted to kill her, he would have done so effortlessly.

 

~~~

 

Jerome sat up on the table as Suzie shredded its legs to pieces. He hit the ground with a thud, sandwiched between the tabletop and the beautiful succubus. He took a moment to free himself from the glowing ropes Csala used to tie him down, before setting them aside beside his armor. His broken limbs had long since healed by now. He picked up the soulless shell of the succubus and placed her on the tabletop next to him on the ground, his hands lingering for longer than necessary. She wasn’t dead yet, there was just no soul inside her, hence she was an empty vessel.

If she spent a few more days in this state, her body would begin to waste away. But that might also take months since she had probably lived for centuries. Her body would be able to endure.

Jerome felt the urge to ravage her where she lay as her naked body was laid bare before him. He restrained himself, forcing his eyes away before standing up to clean himself up. His bones creaked as he stood up and his muscles complained. He stretched for a while and took deep meditative breaths to center himself.

Jerome took his time to put on his armor. He searched through the many storage rings he took out of Csala’s chambers until he found his. There were a lot of good things in the other rings, but many of them weren’t that useful to him though. He gathered the strange ropes Csala used to tie him up and sucked them into his storage ring. He wanted to suck in the other storage rings but found he couldn’t. He shrugged. His armor had pockets, so that would do for now.

He turned to her once again, wondering why throughout their time she never had sex with him no matter how aroused she was. She only stimulated him to climax every single time not bordering on helping herself out.

That was some willpower you have, he thought. Or maybe there’s something more to it…

He gazed longingly at her once again. He could try to find out for himself. He took a step toward her with his heart racing in anticipation. 

Wrong. It felt wrong. He shouldn’t be having thoughts of bedding an unconscious woman. He turned around and walked out of the chamber on rickety legs, slumping against the door as it reformed itself. He waited a while to calm his beating heart. He stood up after a while to go search for Csala’s other captives.

Jerome followed the direction in his memory to try locating the first chamber he was locked in, which was moot because he had passed out after Csala caught him trying to escape. He got lost after searching for a very long time so he decided to ask Csala for directions.

The succubus was a walking zombie when he re-entered the mind plane. She looked haggard, with dark circles under her eyes. Her skimpy red gown was torn in many places and she didn’t have that glow he associated with her anymore.

“What have you been up to?” Jerome asked.

Csala looked up at him and for the first time, Jerome saw fear in her eyes. She took a step back and shook slightly.

“Nothing. I’ve been doing nothing,” she said.

“Nothing but trying to escape, you mean.”

She shook her head vigorously trying not to use words because her voice had become shaky.

“How do I find my way around the tunnels? I need to get to the first chamber you locked me in. I also need to know about this mountain and Terra Praeta.”

“Ah,” she muttered, knowing what he wanted to do. She couldn’t stop him even if she wanted to, but she could bargain with him.

Jerome watched as the hopelessness in her eyes disappeared and was replaced by determination. She stood up straight and marched up to him, crunching leaves underneath her feet until she stood toe to toe with him. The cold wind blew both their hair into their faces as she looked up into his dark black eyes and he into her red ones.

“Free me and I’ll tell you what you want to know,” she said looking up at him. 

Jerome looked down at her for a long moment before answering. “I could force the information out of you, you know?”

Csala gulped, her determination wavering for a split moment.

“You can try,” she said, “but you’ll never be able to read my mind.”

Time seemed to pause as they both stared at each other — Csala, waiting to see what he was going to try and him, waiting to see if she was going to back down.

“You’re gonna regret this,” Jerome said at last.

Csala folded her arms beneath her bosom, drawing Jerome’s gaze there for a moment before he looked up to see her smirking at him.

“Very well,” Jerome said and kissed her.

Csala felt the same force pull on her once more, but this time she was ready. She compressed her psychic energy and attacked, blasting Jerome across the forest and into a tree in his trajectory. Jerome stood up after a moment and grinned at her as he walked up to her.

“You can’t take me by surprise now…what was your name again?” Csala asked.

Jerome was incensed at that. How could she forget his name when he remembered hers? He walked up to her with long, quick steps and kissed her again. This time he was a lot more meticulous, suppressing her Will first and slowing down her advancing psychic energy. He could sense it as she gathered it around her like a fluid weapon pouring out of her. She compressed it like a spring, readying it to shoot it out with a mighty force. Csala’s energy slowed down considerably and weakened in the process. It still blasted him away from her but not as far away and not as strong as it was the first time.

“Stay away from me,” she said, as Jerome stood up and walked toward her.

 She started moving backward as Jerome stalked her like a predator.

“I only lack practice,” he said with a devilish smile. “But with you, I can get all the practice I need. And then…” he left the rest of the words unsaid but she got his meaning. He was going to get inside her head whether she liked it or not.

Csala ran. She ran and ran wanting to keep as much distance in between them. When did things become like this? Just a day ago she was the one stalking him and now the wheels of fate had turned around.

She broke into a clearing only to see the human at the center of the clearing waiting for her. She tried to stop instantly like she always did but she couldn’t. Her body didn’t obey her like before. Was this even her body? 

Csala dug her foot into the ground to stop herself before she got close to the daimon. She turned around and started running in the other direction but the air seemed to pick her up and dumped her in the daimon’s waiting arms. His presence had grown as the air picked her up as if he was controlling it.

“Let me go, you daimon!”

“You can’t run away from me, Csala. In here, I’m god,” Jerome whispered close to her ear. 

His voice sent shivers down her spine which was strangely arousing. Csala shivered slightly—as much from excitement as from fear. She struggled in his arms but she couldn’t get her body to respond with the strength she once possessed.

Jerome turned her around to face him and tilted her head up with her chin.

“Now will you tell me what I want to know or should I continue?” he asked.

Csala gulped, “I’ll tell you…I’ll tell you all you want to know,” she said, her voice shivering from fear. If Jerome continued, he would sooner overcome her psychic powers and get what he wanted.

“Very well then,” he said with a smile, “let’s sit like civilized people.” A divan appeared out of thin air behind him and he sat down with Csala still in his arms. Well, in his laps.

Csala looked at him expecting him to put her down but Jerome appeared not to notice.

“So tell me what I want to know,” he said.

“You’ll have to put me down so I can draw a layout of the part of the mountain I visit.”

Jerome raised an eyebrow. “Can’t you just psychically pass the information to me?”

Csala looked away from him. “I don’t want stray thoughts and intentions clinging to whatever would be passed to you.”

Jerome nodded and set her down beside him. He waved his hand and the wind picked up, blowing away the dead leaves on the ground to reveal soil beneath. Csala’s hand was holding a stick in the next moment which startled her. She looked over at Jerome and he shrugged with a smile, gesturing for her to go on.

Csala took a deep breath and started drawing, explaining how she discovered the mountain a few hundred years ago.