As always, Patreon[1] supporters can read ahead by one extra chapter (for the 1$ supporters) and five extra chapters (for the 5$ supporters) ahead on my three flagship stories.
As of right now that means access to:
Shadows and Dust (Updated the 10th of every month): the Mass Effect story where FemShep has the Phoenix Force from Marvel. Chapters 21 through 25
Crown of Slaves,(Updated the 20th of every month) the Star Wars : The Old Republic Sith Inquisitor isekai. Chapters 28 through 32
Nothing Is True, Save For the Blood We've Shed (Updated the 30th of every month): the crossover between The 100 and Assassin's Creed. Chapters 32 through 36
Additionally, that provides access to the Wild Card story below, which updates once a month on a random date (whenever a chapter is ready, essentially).
And So The Eagle Conquered, a Skyrim story with the MC named for, inspired by, and planning to emulate Constantine the Great of the Byzantine Empire. Chapters 5 through 10.
Cauldron of Ghosts, a Worm/Solo Levelling Fusion Fic wherein Taylor becomes The Player. Not an AltPowerTaylor Stations of Canon fic! Chapters 4-8.
Even if you don't want early content for these three stories, consider becoming a 1$ supporter anyway! Every dollar adds up quickly and makes quite a difference in my life!
10$ Supporters now receive benefits as well, including NSFW and SFW images of various scenes or moments in various stories, or even just the characters themselves doing lewd things that aren't specific scenes!
Currently, this includes images from Echoes In Eternity, And So The Eagle Conquered, Crown of Slaves, Cauldron of Ghosts, Embracing the Stereotypes, and Shadows and Dust, but there are much more to come!
Finally, Patrons of any tier at all can vote in the polls to control actions and events in the Patron-Guided Baldur's Gate 3 story, Embracing the Stereotypes.
Consider joining my Discord[2]! It doesn't require payment of any kind at all, and not only will it allow you to get updates via announcements, nor just chat with me and your fellow readers easily, but you can also help make decisions about stories and in-story events through the polls that I often hold!
And thank you, as always, for reading! Like, comment, etc! Your appreciation fuels my creation!
################################################################################################
"I think the temple is our best option. Even if it's in ruins, it could tell us more about where we are, and it might have supplies that we can use." Heart responded after a long moment, shifting so that she could look at me, and I could see the moment that her eyes landed on the empty space on my far side. She scowled darkly, green eyes turning hard and narrowing. "I see that the damn gith has abandoned us. I wish I could say that I was surprised, but I'm not."
"I'll be honest, I expected her to stay too. Especially after I saved her life by flying us all down here instead of leaving her to try and ride out the crash." I admitted, somewhat put out myself, and I resolved mentally that the green-skinned warrior-woman would need to be suitably punished for ditching us the way that she did. Something for later, of course, as we had other priorities at the moment. Priorities that involved me -with manifest reluctance- pulling away from Shadowheart, enjoying the way she unconsciously pouted and shivered in response.
"Ugh, of course she wouldn't. That would require her having a heart." she scoffed, even as she sat up and brushed a bit of sand off, not that it helped overmuch, and man did she look good. Half-dried by her body-heat and the morning sun, the sand had turned into a fine, thin coating that was rather more similar to certain films and certain tropes than either of us had looked last night. Grimacing, she briefly pressed a hand to her lower stomach. "I need to empty my bladder before we do anything."
"Don't suppose I could watch?" I quipped, not remotely expecting any sort of approval this early in our relationship -I hadn't yet begun to corrupt her properly, hell , even in her dreams she just wanted cuddles and kisses. Not that I minded- and sure enough she leveled a Look at me in response. I held up my hands with an utterly unrepentant grin as she pushed herself to her feet and set off for the nearest rocky outcropping. I watched her magnificent ass sway away for a moment before turning my attention elsewhere. Predominantly, to the gacha. I didn't want my Heart to see me staring into nothing and muttering myself as I rolled after all.
[Congratulations! You successfully stole a magical item from it's owner during combat! You receive 1 Silver Item Ticket!]
[Congratulations! You successfully survived falling at high speed from a great height without aid! 1 Silver Ability Ticket! You survived while carrying a significant amount of weight! Ticket Upgrade! Golden Ticket!]
[Congratulations! You successfully used your succubus powers for the first time! Bronze Trait Ticket! For showing great kindness and gentleness to your seduction target instead of taking advantage of her helpless body and soul, Ticket Upgrade! Silver Ticket!]
[Congratulations! You successfully survived your introduction to this world! Horrible Night Curse has been resolved! You recieve 1 Platinum Gacha Ticket]
I almost choked on air, for several reasons, but I wasn't going to complain for even a moment. Nor was I going to roll for those rewards, just yet. I had a better idea. That last Curse had really come through for me, rewards wise, so let's see what another Curse or two could give me…~!
[Rolling for Curse! Roll Result: Cursed Remix!]
[Cursed Remix]
|Severity 12|
The world you are going to is different from the one you remember, not so much that the flow of fate is completely changed, but enough to make your life harder. Maybe some people have different parents, more monster varieties exist, some people aren't dead, some people are, who knows? There might be more beneficial changes for you, but they are definitely more than balanced out by the bad.
[Congratulations! You Receive 1 Advantage Gold Ticket! Roll for another Curse?]
Okay, that wasn't too bad. It explicitly said that the world wouldn't change too much, the story would still be there, just that things might be a little more complicated. Well, I could live with complicated! Ride, ride, ride again!
[Rolling for Curse! Roll Result: Exhibitionist!]
[Exhibitionist]
|Severity 12|
For every 1% of your skin that is covered, you lose 1% of your maximum stats, maxing out at -75%, reducing your stats to 1/4th.
|Resolve: Win 3 to the death fair battles against any target equal to or stronger than your 100% output while fully incurring the Exhibitionist curse penalty(75%)|
[Congratulations! You Receive 1 Advantage Gold Ticket! Roll for another Curse?]
FUCK!
Well, there went my fucking chance to get some good armor to keep myself alive with! Fortunately, I was still weak as well, basically just a regular elf with wings and a little bit of extra-clever seduction skills, so most fights would be equal to or stronger than my current full strength. Unfortunately, that meant that I couldn't actually accept any of my damn rewards, or rather roll for them, because that would make getting rid of this curse that much harder! And it also meant I was going to quite the curse thing while I was ahead, because something told me that pushing it would probably get me killed.
Gods, what a pain in my perfectly sculpted elven ass.
I mean, being naked was nice. Exhibitionism was a much loved fetish, right up there with public sex, BDSM, free-use…mmh. But still! No armor or clothes, at all, until I fought three 'fair' death battles! And what constituted fair, eh? Did that mean one-on-one fights? Did that mean fighting several enemies at once alone? Details, if you please, you fucking god-like gambling machine!
"Are you really so disappointed that you can't watch me piss, Sylvanas?" Shadowheart's voice, her tone almost indecipherable, pulled me rather embarrassingly from my internal complaints, and I flushed as I saw the blush-stained cheeks and the side-eye she was giving me.
"Only a little bit, sweet 'Heart, only a little bit. Mostly I'm just pissed off that we're stuck naked and weaponless in the middle of gods-only-knows where, and I have no idea how I can protect you like that." I responded -more like deflected, really- somewhat honestly, since that was definitely bothering me, and enjoyed the way that her blush deepened.
"I'm perfectly capable of protecting myself, you know. I'm not some damsel in distress, a princess locked away in a tower waiting for some knight to save her!" she huffed a bit snappishly, and I nodded in agreement as I got to my feet and stretched, rolling my shoulders to warm the muscles. When my eyes fell back onto her afterwards, it was to see her own hurriedly skittering away from my body, which she'd obviously been admiring when I couldn't see her.
"I know you are, lovely. Trust me, I saw enough on the nautiloid to know that! And I rather like the idea of you being my warrior princess, though I'm far from being a knight." I responded, pulling her into an embrace and wishing I could run my fingers through her hair without getting even more sand into it. "But you're obviously not a front-line fighter, and that means it's my responsibility to stay in front of you."
"You're obviously not a frontline fighter either." she pointed out, though she didn't even try to pretend she wasn't enjoying the hug, burrowing a bit deeper into my embrace. "You're an archer, a backline marksman, through and through."
"True, but with Lae'zel gone, we don't have a front-liner, which means I'm the next best thing. Now come on, let's get up to that temple. We'll walk down the beach, get closer, see what we can see." I gave the top of her head a kiss and stepped back, taking one of her hands in my own and turning towards the distant temple. After a moment of staring at our linked fingers she followed, the two of us strolling side-by-side down the beach like a couple on a romantic sea-side date. Which was nice, and something that would have to be repeated -nudity and tasteful amounts of sand included- at a more convenient time and not on a beach that was covered in bits of nautiloid and…yep, there was the first of the dead fishermen. Poor bastards, rushing in to try and save the day, only to get killed by the intellect devourers as a result.
In fact, come to think of it, hadn't there been that one mod that…
Yep, there was the screaming.
"There's a fight ahead, follow me as quickly as you can!" I quickly told my companion, breaking our hand-hold and taking to the sky, flying fast and low towards the place where there should, unless my memory failed me, be three unarmed tiefling refugees trying to fight a pair of intellect devourers. A fight that they were woefully incapable of winning, and one that would probably be unpleasant even for me. That being said, I had some distinct advantages on my side. Such as the fact that I could fly and had superhuman strength. Which is why -as I rounded a small sea-stack and the fight came into view- I picked up a large, head-sized and jagged chunk of rock off of the sand and dive bombed the first evil brain puppy with as much force as flight and gravity could give me.
Which was a lot.
And resulted in the afore-mentioned evil brain puppy turning into one hell of a splatter.
Blitzing past the battered, bewildered, and staring tiefling it had been about to kill, who was probably wondering what the fucking had just happened, I wove between his two friends, grabbed their opponent, tossed him in the air, and performed what was -in my humble opinion- a superb spinning kick that sent the little bastard flying about one-hundred feet off shore, where it landed with a splash.
Then I landed on the wooden…could I even call it a jetty? It was one person wide. It wasn't a gangplank, it didn't go to a ship. Couldn't be a catwalk, could it?
Whatever. Not important, doesn't matter! Much.
The far more important thing was making sure I was posing dramatically and looking suitably heroic, especially since Shadowheart was sure to praise me any minute now…
"Sylvanas, stop posing and give me a hand." said cleric's dry tones, laced with affection, cut through my thoughts and drew me back to the events at hand, where she was trying to extract the leg of one of the men from where it had punched through a rotten board in the…walkway, I'll go with walkway. Something that, I could tell, was not going easily. Banishing my wings again I hurried over, and after a minute or so of carefully inspecting his broken, tangled leg, simply opted to use my strength to tear more of the walkway apart rather than trying to bend it this way and that to extract it from the hole.
The tiefling in question -a young man with rust-colored skin, two very short horns, and black hair- was sobbing as we pulled him onto more level and stable terrain, and let out a sharp cry as I gently but firmly straightened his leg out. It didn't look good, would probably be fatal without a tourniquet and a very quick journey to the distant grove, but we had my 'Heart here, and that ought to be enough.
"Can you heal this, 'Heart?" I asked as she examined the leg, and she was quiet for a moment before nodding firmly.
"I can, he'll be fine. I'm no Life Cleric, but this level of injury doesn't exactly require one either." she confirmed, hands shimmering with brilliant golden light. "Unfortunately, this isn't going to feel spectacular. Numbing the pain isn't something I received all that much training for, so…brace yourself."
The young man nodded shakily, tears streaking his cheeks, before accepting and biting down -hard- on the leather strap that one of his companions put between his teeth. Smart man. Half closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to see what came next wasn't a stupid idea either, because what came next wasn't particularly pretty. See, when someone isn't a professional, expertly-trained healer but was a half-trained Trickery Domain devoted to the psychopath that was Shar. Somehow, I wasn't surprised to hear that she hadn't been trained to dull pain when she healed people. Though I was somewhat surprised that it wasn't something that the magic just…did.
At any rate, hearing bones snap back into place and watching flesh knit itself back together was…pretty unpleasant, and if it wasn't for my no-longer-human nature and what I had seen on the nautiloid, I probably would have been having to choke back bile. Instead, I just politely kept my eyes on the young man who was currently undergoing the unpleasantness and let a small tendril of my succubus powers flow into his mind. Not much, not enough to get him aroused or compromise his mind, but enough to kick his endorphins and dopamine production up to help with the pain and distract him.
Then it was over, the spit-covered leather was spat into the sand, and the young man was shakily running his fingers over his no-longer-ruined limb.
"Thank you so much, you're our heroes." the first man I'd helped ran a hand over his face, clapping the sitting man on the shoulder and gesturing to the other as he introduced them. "I'm Bivuak, the man you just helped is my younger brother Kivak, and this is our friend Vatas. We were investigating the explosion we heard last night, trying to see what happened, but…we ran into these damn things instead."
"Sylvanas, and you can call my beautiful healing friend Shadowheart. Can you tell us where we are? We were prisoners on the nautiloid that crashed up on the cliffs, and neither of us recognizes the landscape all that well." I introduced the two of us in return, and while Kivak and Bivuak sucked in sharp breaths at the information, Vatas seemed a steadier sort.
"The Sword Coast, on the banks of the Chionthar." Fuck, I'd totally forgotten that the water in the game was actually the Chionthar. Well, that explained the lack of salt on our skin and in our hair after our emergency bath, not that I was complaining. "A month west of Elturel, two weeks west of Fort Morninglord. Two or three weeks from Baldur's Gate along the Risen Road. Not sure if that tells you anything."
"A bit. At the very least, we know we're not in Chessenta. I'd hate to have to gut some idiot for trying to put a slave collar around my 'Heart's lovely neck." I responded, reaching to run a hand through my hair before grimacing and stopping as I remembered the sand and the blood that was coating it. "Any sort of settlement nearby?"
"There's a wayhouse a few hours further down the road, Waukeen's Rest, but there's no space there. It's full of Flaming Fists, waiting to escort Grand Duke Ravengard back to The Gate. Your best chance for shelter is to make for the local Druid's Grove. The Archdruid, Halsin, is a good man. He's been sheltering all of us, in spite of some complaints from his subordinates." he gestured vaguely in the direction of both, and I nodded thoughtfully as I pushed myself back to my feet, getting enjoyment and amusement both from the baffled mix of arousal and discomfort from the three men in front of me. Loving my tits, weirded out by my cock, I would wager.
"You'll likely find us there soon enough, then, but we're going to look around, make sure none of the mind flayers survived the crash. You three get home and warn the rest to stay in groups and stay close to the grove itself, alright?" I instructed, getting prompt and obedient nods from all three. Kivak tested his restored leg, giving my 'Heart a grateful -if rather watery- smile before letting his brother and his friend chivy him off. I watched them go for a moment, before I turned my attention to my companion. Interestingly, she wasn't looking at me or at the departing trio, but instead was staring at her own hands with an expression that sat somewhere between satisfaction and bewilderment. "What's wrong, lovely?"
"Nothing. That's what's strange. The magic came easier than usual, and felt…cleaner, somehow. I don't know why, though." she responded a bit absently, and I had to wonder if our little dream cuddle-fest last night had help leach some of the poison Shar had been pouring into her soul. Even after a lifetime of torture and brainwashing, she'd been a genuinely good person in the game, arguably your most good-aligned companion.
She would make a magnificent Life Cleric once she was finally free, I had no doubt about that.
Not that I could point any of that out to her just yet. Well, save the good person part. That much I could say without risking a breach in our tenuous but powerful rapport.
"You're a good person, sweet 'Heart. Better than you give yourself credit for, I think." The words came out soft, genuine, and she looked up from her hands with an expression that flickered between surprise and something almost like hunger. The kind desperate, hopeful hunger that came from hearing something you desperately wanted to believe but couldn't quite let yourself accept. Or, perhaps in her case, couldn't quite let yourself acknowledge that you actually wanted. After all, I'm pretty sure inherently good people weren't particularly popular in the Cult of Shar.
"You barely know me, Sylvanas" she said, but there was no conviction in it, just fragile vulnerability. She couldn't even muster a half-hearted scoff in the attempt, the poor thing.
God, as much as I wanted to seduce the Shadowheart, I had a deep and abiding need to cuddle and protect the Shadowheart. Something told me she wasn't going to be the brattiest submissive, but something more along the lines of a pet.
Though I had no doubt that she couldn't be a brat on occasion, she was the snarkiest little thing, and everyone knew that pets sometimes disobeyed their owners and earned a bit of punishment.
But such thoughts were for later! I was busy winning the heart and mind and soul of my sweet, sweet 'Heart! And shoring up her goodness! This was a vital moment!
"I know everything I need to. I know that you stayed with me, in spite of me perving on you constantly. I know that you healed complete strangers without a moment of hesitation or a word of instruction from me, as kindly and as gently as you could. Even the most mercenary woman in the world wouldn't spend a good portion of her daily magical strength for three random refugees she doesn't know, not when she might have to fight mind flayers or gods only know what else. Not just for a bit of information on where she is, and certainly not healing before getting the information that she wanted."
She stared at me for a long, long moment, her eyes shining slightly with moisture for all that she probably wanted to hide it, which is why I wasn't surprised in the least that she turned her head away, her chin rising defiantly and her arms crossing beneath her breasts.
"Perhaps I just wanted to make sure that they owed us a favor. Goodwill and emotional debt are valuable currencies, you know." she retorted, trying for haughty and missing by…well, I'd say 'by a country mile', but that wasn't generous enough. Honestly, it was almost pathetic, in the most adorable way. Especially with the way her lower lip wobbled ever so slightly and the way her breath caught slightly in her chest halfway through the words.
I let her have the deflection, though. Sometimes letting things go was the best choice to make, and that was especially true when pushing too hard could break something as fragile as the connection between us. Instead, I simply pulled her into a princess carry and resummoned my wings. She had just enough time to squeak cutely and throw her arms around my neck before we were airborne, soaring towards the distant temple…roof? Upper level?
Where the treasure hunter people were, is the point.
We touched down on ancient stone a few moments later, the headless old statue blocking our view of the looters and their view of us. A view that they were about to get, and my eye twitched as it occurred to me that they'd get an uninhibited eyeful of my 'Heart during the conversation…unless I did something about it. Which I would, because I had no doubt that they would take in as much of that eyeful as possible, and enjoy every moment of it. I probably wouldn't mind that so much if she was wearing my collar, then they'd just be jealous that someone so magnificent was all mine, but until then I was going to jealously guard her beauty for myself.
Probably shouldn't tell her that, just yet. She might find it flattering, she might get pissed off and slap me upside the face with a Guiding Bolt.
Best not to risk it.
"Sweet 'Heart, circle around a bit to the left side, please. I can sense people ahead, and I don't know if they're friendly. I'm counting on you to support me if it's necessary, alright?" I told her instead, which happened to be true -you could Talk no Jutsu the people on this level of the temple to leave in game, after all, even if for some stupid fucking reason the rest of their friends stayed inside the temple and had to be killed- before moving away as she nodded, letting my cock fade away for the first time. I wasn't evolved enough a succubus to seduce people regardless of their natural inclinations just yet, so perhaps it was best to stick with a more 'natural' appearance.
Putting a bit of sway into my hips, I padded straight up to the two men arguing -quite stupidly- beneath the massive stone slab held up by a single rope line. The two men arguing about investigating the giant, tentacle-covered, flaming spelljammer that had fallen out of the sky and was still half-alive while being scattered across a couple hundred yards of forest.
No one would ever accuse them of being brilliant, but then again, these were the same guys who saw an ancient death god's temple and thought to themselves 'you know what we should do? Rob it.' So obviously intelligence was something of a low priority for this lot.
"…crypt can wait! Mari and Barton have been trying to break in for days and haven't gotten anywhere, so…" the gnome was saying, before noticing me. It was gratifying, the way his eyes widened and his jaw dropped, and the yell of 'Stop!' was rather less commanding and more squeaky than he probably would have preferred. The spike of arousal that shot through him, and the even stronger one from the young elven man he'd been arguing with, was even more gratifying, not least because it was food for me, and it tasted quite good.
Not as good as a lovely girl like my Shadowheart, of course, but a nice snack was a nice snack.
"Gentlemen!" I greeted them cheerfully, before catching sight of the high elven mage to the side, giving her a wink. "Ooh, and a lady as well. Lovely, lovely." Turning away as she blushed lightly, my eyes returned to the gnome that was their leader. "Didn't mean to overhear, but I couldn't help but catch your interest in the nautiloid that I just help crash. I really wouldn't recommend looking into it. Nasty things aboard."
"You're just trying to bull in on-" the gnome started to snarl, before pausing and paling slightly. "Did you say nautiloid? And you helped crash it?"
"Oh yeah. Illithid, intellect devourers, thralls, possibly even a few imps or cambions left. The damn thing passed through Avernus on it's way here, you see. Anyway, they made the mistake of kidnapping me, and so I really just had to kill them all. Unfortunately, it turns out flying the damn thing while under attack was outside of my myriad talents." my tone wasn't the kindest, it was true, but then again I knew that this lot wasn't just looters, but murderers and kidnappers for hire. They were, in short, scum that I would happily kill if it wasn't for Shadowheart and I's unequipped state, and the fact that they'd likely come in handy as cannon fodder when passing through the lands around Moonrise Towers. "If you don't believe me, you can have your pretty little mage friend take a look at it. Should be able to get a nice view of all the scorched and shattered flesh, maybe a tentacle or two."
A jerk of the leader's head sent the mage scurrying away, leaving those of us that remained to simply stare at each other silently and uncomfortably, before she reappeared looking rather more pale and frightened than she had been not a minute or two before.
"She's right, 'tis a nautiloid, a full sized one. Heavily damaged, but I'm sure I saw at least a few Intellect Devourers down there." She reported, and a chorus of swears flowed from her compatriots as the boss rubbed his face.
"Alright, then. I've no interest in my lot getting eaten or turned to thralls by those monsters, not for the ruins of an ancient temple of all things." He finally said, glancing at the boy beside him and jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "Go on, lad, get down to the door and tell the others. We're up sticks as soon as possible."
"If I might make a recommendation?" I offered, getting a grunt and a permissive hand-wave in response, internally quite pleased that I wouldn't, in fact, have to fight the men and women inside the temple after all. Resisting the urge to give a very sarcastic bow, I instead pushed my seductive aura -such as it was, and what there was of it- to the very edge of it's current limits to make them as receptive as possible before I continued. "There's a druid's grove near here, with a large number of travelers from Elturel sheltering in it. It should be safe enough for the time being, and it certainly seems a wiser move than trying to brave the forest alone."
"Hmph. Right enough, and good advice." he scratched at his ear for a moment before glancing at the mage. "Quelanna, get your spare clothes from your pack. Least we can do is give the woman some clothes in return for the warning."
"Oh? Not going to invite me to come along, promsie to protect me, maybe for a favor or two?" I asked, purring the word, and though he -and everyone else- couldn't help but eye my shamelessly exposed body for a moment, he shook his head with a scoff that actually stung my pride a bit.
"Not likely. You're pretty enough that I'd be tempted, if it wasn't for the fact that you didn't claim to sink a nautiloid after being taken prisoner by it's crew. Which either makes you so damn dangerous that I don't want you near my crew, or your some sort of illithid pawn. Either way," We both looked 'round as Quelanna returned, the somewhat bitter-looking elf shoving a passel of clothing into my arms. "you're on your own from here on out. Maybe we see you at this grove, maybe we don't."
"Hmph. Well, good luck to you then. And I thank you for the clothes." the last came out genuinely, if a bit begrudgingly. I wouldn't be wearing them, but Shadowheart would probably appreciate it if I gave them to her. Disappointing as it would be for me to have her body hidden away, it would earn me some honest brownie points, and frankly making her feel safer and more comfortable around me was something I valued.
Then they were gone, scurrying away into the forest, leaving me alone.
Or, rather, almost alone.
"That went well. I expected them to do something stupid, with you on display like that. It seems that they either don't know what to do with a beautiful woman, or they were afraid of you." Shadowheart remarked, coming down the stairs to my forward left, having perfectly positioned herself to be able to take them by surprise from behind.
That's my girl~!
"Probably both. The women that they had with them couldn't hold a match, never mind a candle, to the two of us. And I am pretty scary, even when I'm not trying to be." I quipped in response, holding the clothes out to her. "Come on, get dressed. There's enough there for one of us, and that means you."
She looked back and forth between the bundle and my face, frowning faintly, gratitude and curiosity and concern warring with each other in her eyes.
"And what about you, hmm? You'll just, what, strut around like that indefinitely, will you?" she asked suspiciously -no, that wasn't quite fair, but I wasn't sure what else to call it- as she nonetheless accepted the bundle. When I shrugged and gave a half-nod, half-shake, she shook her head at me. "Why, exactly, will you being doing that?"
"Because I'm a pervert, love. And because, as you're well aware at this point, I'm not entirely human." I told her, before one of my ears flicked in amusement. "Well, I suppose I should say not entirely elven, but you take my meaning. I can stay like this, in worse weather conditions, almost indefinitely without getting sick."
The temptation to add a teasing comment about how I wouldn't be able to focus on fighting if she stayed naked was powerful, but I resisted. It would undermine my clear and honest efforts to make sure that she was safe and healthy and something that was at least approaching comfortable. So instead, I simply asked if she would like me to flying her back to the water to rinse off the sand, something that was happily accepted. That done, and the cliff reascended, we entered Jergal's temple at last.
It was time to meet Withers.
############################################################
Hours later, lying beside a crackling fire in a small and sheltered cave -one that her companion had scrutinzied both inside and out at length before declaring it was free of any bestial owners- and looking across it's dancing width, Shadowheart could only marvel at the woman sleeping there.
Sylvanas Windrunner.
An enigma, if one that was both breathtakingly beautiful, heart-throbbingly sweet, and endearingly infuriatingly perverse. An enigma that was also, quite plainly and by her own admission, not a normal elf. In fact, Shadowheart was quite sure Sylvanas wasn't entirely mortal at all, the wings and tail being something of a hint. No, she was obviously a succubus of some sort, and that only made things stranger.
Because succubi were, by their very nature, creatures of manipulation, deception, and predation. They seduced to consume, twisted to corrupt, and left nothing but hollow husks -in mind, body, or oftentimes both- in their wake. Every Sharran novice learned that much, even before they learned to curse the Moon Witch with their prayers or extract information from an unwilling subject. Any denizen of the Lower Planes were dangerous, that went without saying, but the true danger of lilim is that they would take everything you had…and you would feel nothing but pleasure.
And yet.
Her eyes traced over the woman who had saved her, protected her, and seemed intent on continuing to stay by her side. Silver hair, gleaming and dancing in the firelight, like liquid moonlight. The tail, which she had long since stopped hiding away, for all that the wings were often gone, curled loosely around her left leg with it's tip twitching occasionally in response to whatever dream she was having. It brought to mind a dog, sweet and loveable and fiercely protective, and Shadowheart found herself having to muffle a delighted giggle at the image.
Perhaps I should call her a 'horndog' tomorrow and mention this. See how she likes being on the receiving end of some teasing, for once. she thought to herself, before shaking her head in bemusement at her last minute or two of thoughts. She'd never been a particularly poetic girl, or at least not so far as she could remember, which admittedly wasn't much. And it was absurd that she would so lovingly describe the succubi's hair as liquid moonlight, when anything related to Selune should be an insult at best and a curse more often. But here she was, simpering over this woman like a love-struck teen. What on Faerun had put her so out of sorts?
Perhaps it was their dangerous encounter with the skeletal scribes in the heart of the temple's sanctuary that was leaving her so out of sorts, and the memory of it had her eyes compulsively checking Sylvanas' pale skin for the bloody wounds that had not so long ago covered them. She'd taken the brunt of their charge herself, drawing their attention away from Shadowheart so that the cleric could use what battle-spells she knew to fight from a distance, and had paid dearly for it.
Or, perhaps it had been their meeting with the being that only called itself 'Withers', the being whose presence had been…beyond anything Shadowheart could imagine. Ancient beyond comprehension, mysterious and powerful and knowing, looking at them and through them and around them. Recognized something in each of them that were beyond her understanding, beyond her knowledge, before informing them that he would rejoin them in time. That he 'knew their faces' and the color of their souls, whatever that meant.
Which was disturbing, to say the least, and was something else that spoke to his power. Whoever, or whatever, he actually was.
She sighed, rolling onto her back and rubbing her face, wishing that she could just fall asleep. Tomorrow promised to be a long day, harder than this one, one that she needed to be well rested for…and she felt no closer to sleep than she had when she'd first laid down.
She looked over at Sylvanas again as the other woman shifted slightly in her sleep, looking as though she was trying to keep herself more comfortable, and she remembered how easily she had slept when cradled in the not-elf's arms. She remember how safe she had felt, how valued and warm, and she realized that she wanted to feel that way again.
So she got up, carefully worked her way around the fire, and lay down with her back pressed against her hero's chest. She felt those arms unconsciously encircle her, pull her closer and hold her tight, and a lazy, happy smile creased her lips as she almost immediately felt herself starting to relax. Which probably should have made her paranoid, should have made her want to slip a blade between Sylvanas' ribs, but she didn't. She trusted this woman, bizarre as it might seem to an outsider, and so the only thing she did is wonder what Sylvanas had in mind for the next day.
Whatever it was, she knew she would follow the archer's lead.
After all, she hadn't been steered wrong yet.
##########################################################################
The votes that the Patrons have received to decide on are as follows:
Go to the Grove (Follow Up Poll)
Go to Waukeen's Rest (Follow Up Poll)
Grow the Party (Follow Up Poll)
[1] https://www.patreon.com/astandupphilosopher
[2] https://discord.gg/3VKjmXBYY8