A Sticky Situation

Eliette waited ahead of us at the side opening, holding the curtain aside with an expression of sweet anticipation. Karlach drew level with me and kept her voice low. “Want us in there with you, Boss? Just in case?”

I looked at Eliette, who smiled back at me, then at Karlach. “Sure, I don’t really mind.”

“If I may,” Kagha said from my other side, “you might not mind, but the queen likely would.”

“You think so?”

“Oh, yes. I most definitely believe she would prefer the intimacy of privacy. You alone are her betrothed, after all.”

I considered that. “When you put it like that, it does makes sense.”

Karlach squinted at the curtain, then at Kagha. “I’m not a fan of that idea.”

“You don’t have to be.” Kagha’s tilted her head with neutral smile. “We likely could not stop her first move anyway. But our presence just outside should serve as a deterrent.”

I turned it over a moment longer. My daily Charm was still unspent, a warm little coil of power at the back of my mind, and I had talked my way out of worse situations with less. “I’ll go in on my own.”

The two of them saluted. Karlach gave a casual military flick of the hand to her brow, accompanied by a generous jiggle I was fairly sure counted as a separate gesture. Kagha sank into a subservient curtsy while Teela raised her head from her wrist to supervise.

“Holler if she 's about to get hysterical, soldier,” Karlach added.

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

They took up posts on either side of the opening. Eliette gave a pleased coo as I drew closer, parted the silk with two fingers, and slipped through. I followed. The curtain fell back behind me, thin enough that the forge-glow still reached inside, thick enough to turn Karlach and Kagha into two dark shapes on the other side. The hum of Karlach’s engine just barely audible.

The room was small and somewhat cozy, a gallery that by rights should have been half collapsed. Old support pillars stood in neat rows, and a bench had been cut from the stone beneath them. I knew the place. In a regular run, Deep Gnomes had been worked to near-death in here until the ceiling caved in and a Drow boss named Nere was locked inside with them. Here, however, the pillars still stood strong. The people who were forced to weaken them were kept securely in silk and shadows.

Eliette turned to me, expectant, almost polite. “Are you ready, darling?”

“Yes.”

She patted the bench. I sat. The stone was warm from the magma deep below. She settled in front of me, abdomen folded low, human half leaning in, and her hands moved towards my belt with inhuman speed. No fumbling. In less than a second she had removed buckle, laces, and cloth with just a few clean motions, as if she had practiced on many a men incapable of moving on their own

Her palm closed around me. Warm. Precise. She watched my face with devoted intensity.

“You breathe so beautifully when you are close,” she sighed. “I learned that way back then. Before you gave me your gift.”

A string of drool left her tongue and landed on the head of my cock. She spread it with her thumb, then both hands, gentle and unhurried. The rhythm she found was not the rough one Lae'zel used, or the worshipful one Shadowheart preferred. It was immensely talented—technical, yet passionate. She changed pressure at the ridge, twisted on the upstroke, kept the other hand stroking at the base. Nothing escaped her attention. Every time my hips tried to chase her she eased off, smiling, as if the delay itself was the point.

“I will miss the way you guide my children,” she murmured. “They try so hard to impress you.” Another set of strokes, slower. “I will miss your voice. Your smell. The sound of your footsteps in these halls.” She leaned in and let more spit fall, catching it before it could drip onto the stone. “I will miss having a reason to spin a larger nest.”

I only managed to stammer a soft moan. My hands found the edge of the bench and stayed there. This was unlike anything I had felt before. Her dexterous hands kept me between torture and bliss. My sounds made it outside the curtain, Karlach shifted her weight. The silk moved slightly.

“All good in there boss?”

“Y-Yes, so good!” I managed to confirm.

As if on cue her grip tightened, just enough. Eliette felt the change in me before I did.

“Cum for me.” She whispered.

I did. She took me into her mouth at the first pulse and stayed there, swallowing around the head, hands still working the shaft, milking with the same careful pressure she had used to draw it out. It went on longer than I thought possible. I felt the last of it leave, a dull empty ache low in my stomach, and still she kept going until there was nothing left to give.

She drew off with a wet sound. Her cheeks were full. She held my eyes, then swallowed in one slow pull, throat working, and licked the corner of her mouth clean.

“Good boy.”

[Corruption +6]

My head tipped back against the stone. For a second the ceiling swam.

Eliette covered her lips with two fingers. A small, feminine burp escaped anyway, and she looked faintly pleased with herself.

“Pardon me.” She said “The taste is... rich. Decadent. I have never tasted anything quite like it.”

My head was still tipped back against the stone as I came back to reality. “Wait, I thought you wanted to keep it?”

A slow smile spread across her face. “Oh, but I just did. My kind can store seed for weeks this way. Months, if we are careful, and yours I shall take the utmost care of.”

“I see..” was all I managed.

“So you may take your time with that cure of yours.” She rose, smoothing the silk at her waist, the audience clearly over. “Now, I have preparations to make before you go. Packs, a proper farewell from the children... Off you go. I will find you at the pier.”

She shooed me toward the curtain the way a wife shoos a husband out of the kitchen when a surprise is being planned. I stood on legs that were not quite ready for it and pushed through the silk, straight into Karlach and Kagha, who had both been leaning in a good deal closer than guard duty strictly required.

Kagha recovered first, her smile serene and deeply satisfied. “You look well handled. I take it she was pleased, then?”

“Oh yeah, definitely. She got everything she needed.” I said.

Karlach scratched the back of her neck, her red skin a shade darker than usual. “So, uh, hypothetically,” she said, with a half grin. “You think she could be convinced to give me a turn?” Her voice dropped low. “...That looked insane.”

[Karlach Corruption +2]

Kagha slipped between us, gentle and final. “No. She is busy, and we are leaving. The others will be waiting at the forge.”

Karlach clicked her tongue, but did not argue.

I rested my hands on my knees and caught my breath. When I straightened with a stretch, a flicker of corruption ran through me and the hollow ache in my loins faded. Another quirk from Graz'zt, no doubt.

I felt rested and energized, and I had not even needed the charm.

“To the forge,” I said. “Before she comes for seconds.”