An Angel’s Touch

As he waited for Cordelia to make good on her promise to meet him on the Temple of Haverty grounds, Kendrath wandered his way down one of the building’s stony corridors, coming to a stop in front of a window made entirely up of sparkling, colored panes, forming a picture that almost seemed to glow as it provided most of the light for the space. But once he saw the subject, he couldn’t help but scoff.

In those panes was depicted a beautiful figure, a voluptuous winged angel spreading her arms out as if to hold the viewer in her tender grasp. Her modesty was kept intact by a snug silken garment that weaved its way down either arm to hug her ample chest, the fabric littered with the design and shape of countless roses, the window of her cleavage buffeted by a key hanging from a chain about her neck. Down below, her waist was nearly bare, save for two metal winged cherubs that sat snug against the curve of her hips, both working to hold a heart over her nether regions that was decorated with a hole for a key, allegedly the perfect match for the one around her neck, to be gifted to those followers worthy enough to receive it.

“Head Angel Carus Ancilla…” Kendrath murmured unthinkingly under his breath, suddenly finding that those words held a strange power here in Haverty’s hallowed halls. To many people, she was the practical face of the Haverty religion, the one to put forth Haverty’s final word on his domains of sex, love, virility, fertility, and mystery.

And it was a mystery, indeed, that had been haunting Kendrath’s dreams as of late.

Kendrath glanced over his shoulder, the dark-haired elven man abruptly antsy as his heel beat an anxious rhythm against the stone floor. Even looking past the holy connotations of this place, it was simply unnerving to be surrounded by this much stone; was he supposed to be a wood elf, or a dwarf? He attempted to salvage his fraying nerves by turning back to the window, but beautiful as it was, it couldn’t quell the rising distrust that grew in his heart when he now looked upon Carus’s visage.

Where Cordelia had gone on to pursue more divine interests, Kendrath had found his way to the world of magical academia, which was filled with long hours of study in order to allow the facts of the world to be laid bare. So it was only natural that as he learned this state of mind, and that as he read the same texts, scoured the same scriptures, and whispered the same hymns as all those who walked through these halls, an uncomfortable conclusion would begin to creep up on him. Carus didn’t just speak for Haverty on occasion, but in every instance he could find. All words from her lips came with his blessings; all deeds from her hand came from his command. Haverty remained aloof due to embodying mystery, it was said, but there was a place for mystery and another place entirely for weakness. Who were they really worshipping, if Haverty was constantly in absence? What was Carus’s agenda, to maintain such a tightly-held secret? What did any of it mean, the subterfuge and hiding, in the grand scheme of things?

It was these thoughts, and more like them, that had kept him from walking the path of Haverty as of late, and his devout sister had quickly taken notice. It certainly hadn’t helped when he’d found that his goals and desires aligned with another god entirely, one more open to communication with their followers. But what else was he to do? Pray for Haverty to reveal his influence? Worship Carus in his stead? “I will only follow the path of Haverty once more,” Kendrath said, unable to keep the bitterness out of his tone, “when it stops being lined with false idols.”

With that, Kendrath turned away—just in time to catch a glimpse of feathers disappearing around the next corner.

Kendrath froze in place, almost not believing his own eyes. For a moment, a paralyzing chill ran down his spine, wondering for a moment if his ultimatum had been akin to throwing meat to a basilisk whilst standing in its mouth. But then, his curiosity won out on him, and he found his body moving forwards, one step at a time, his need to know driving him in this as it did and had done in so many areas of his life so far. Unlikely as it may have been, the idea that Carus had appeared before him to explain her side of the story was… tantalizing, at the very least. Kendrath’s pace picked up, passing the corner and erupting in the corridor beyond, just in time to see another flash of feathers disappearing around the next corner. With his features set, Kendrath began pumping his arms in front of him, breaking out in a light jog to try and catch the source of so much of his confusion and uncertainty over the past fortnight.

The glimpses of rose-colored feathers guided Kendrath past and around two more corners, his surroundings growing ever more unfamiliar the deeper in the temple they went even as he remained too determined in his goal to think about slowing down. The chase seemed to abruptly end once they got to a cavernous chamber entrance hemmed in by twin open doors, her shape disappearing in its shadowy depths while Kendrath cautiously followed up behind. The sounds of his steps abruptly began reverberating and echoing through the large space once he passed through to the room proper, and the academic began squinting in the darkness in an attempt to make out what seemed to be raised, rounded steps stretching up towards the shadows. “H-hello?” He said at last, thinking that he might be seeing movement at the top of the steps. “Is there a person up there? …is that you, Ca—”

Abruptly, a light shone down from above.

Kendrath reared back, squinting and shielding the light from his eyes with his hand, before the accompanying scrape of stone clued him in that rather than any divine miracle, there was simply a person on the roof moving a stone slab in order to let the sun in. The new light illuminated parts of the large chamber to be more concrete, but still shadowy shapes, but mostly focused the brunt of its brilliance on the top of the steps, revealing it to be a short plateau with rounded steps leading up to the top in a circular pyramid-like configuration. At the top, was a small alter. And at the alter, was Carus.

It was startling, at first, how many small details had slipped through the drawings and illustrations, not to mention the songs and poems, or even the artistic representations like the window he had seen just minutes before. None of those had sent Kendrath’s heart hammering, made his mouth dry up before he could utter a single additional word, had his eyes glued to her every bounce and curve as she just stood there, hands cupped gently in front of her as though she were attempting to catch the sun’s light in her divine grasp. The light sparkled off her halo, glittered off her wings, glistened in her blonde hair—

Kendrath swallowed, shaking off his sudden stupor, and focused on noticing all of the abruptly apparent imperfections, all of the slight flaws with the costume, all of the ways that the model wasn’t a perfect fit for the Head Angel he had grown accustomed to. All things that didn’t change that it was still a very, very good fit.

“Isn’t that a tad blasphemous?” Kendrath finally managed to croak out, moving his foot forwards to the first step of the stairs.

Her eyes turned to him at that, and her face crinkled in a beatific smile that made Kendrath’s heart skip a beat. “Not at all! This is a ceremonial garb, for a large amount of religious services… It’s very popular at weddings~.”

Kendrath broke out in a low chuckle, even as he continued to climb the steps. “Let me guess, did Cordelia put you up to this? Put her rebellious brother in his place?”

“She said you were having difficulties, yes.” The blonde woman said, walking around the alter until she could sit back against it, facing Kendrath as he ascended the steps. “She also said that your faith in Haverty, in Head Angel Carus Ancilla in particular, had fallen far in recent days. So I thought it might be easier to catch you if I had wings~.” She let out a soft, musical giggle, reaching back behind her to run her hand softly against the feathered body of one of the immaculately-designed wings.

“You might find it easier to drop me.” Kendrath said, reaching the top of the steps, standing across from the woman. And then, as was customary and friendly, he reached out, and cupped her stupendous breasts in the palm of either hand.

The woman cooed in his grasp, flexing her back to push her chest more enthusiastically against his grip while his fingers squeezed and teased their way across the silk, quickly finding her erect nipples once they poked up behind their cloth prisons. “Mmm, just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s right~.” She said, the heel of her hands pressing frustratedly at the belt holding her lower entrance at bay, appreciation at his efforts flashing in her eyes.

Kendrath nodded, careful not to grope too long lest he give the impression that wanted more than she was offering. “My thoughts exactly.” He said, sliding his hands under the curve of her bust to gently lift either teat, using the natural pull of gravity to push the tips of his fingers in deep, pleasing circles. “There are no easy answers when it comes to this, but I believe that I’m close to the right one when I say that Haverty is missing, and has been for quite a bit of time now.”

The flush on the woman’s cheeks was accompanied by her thighs bunching together and squirming from one side to the next, even while she cocked her head to the side. “Would you stand in the desert and accuse the ocean of being missing because it must come to you through the clouds?”

Kendrath paused at that, his fingers making a slow, contemplative sweep over the bottom swell of either breast before coming to their front slopes, and then releasing them entirely to bounce in place as his hands drew back and a smile spread across his face. “I don’t think I’ve been giving you enough credit, you’re very scholarly for a priestess, Miss…?”

“Amaran’tha.” She said, throwing him a subtle smile and a wink as she reached down to pay his courtesy back in kind by running her hand gently along the shape of his bulge, his breath pulling back behind his teeth as she felt up its main bulk before trailing her fingers lovingly, torturously along the length of his reasonable, but still sizable shaft. “Though given the circumstances, I suppose you could call me Carus if the mood strikes~.”

“Now I’m almost sure that would be blasphemy.” Kendrath replied, not able to take his eyes away from the way her lips gently trembled, how she bit down on the bottom one as her hand reached the tip and the modest amount of pre already soaking that section of his robes. “No matter how far I stray, I don’t believe that I could bring myself to defile a priestess like that.”

“Oh believe me,” Amaran’tha said, her words coming out hot and breathy like Kendrath’s growing gasps, “it takes a lot more than that to defile a priestess of Haverty…~”

Kendrath’s eyes were nearly about to pop out of his head as Amaran’tha continued to lean in, the immense swells of her breasts seeming to fill up his vision more and more with each passing moment. But the pressure eased off, thankfully, once the natural groping length of time for new acquaintances ran out, and Amaran’tha was left with a subtle pout at whether Kendrath would return the favor once more. “My issue isn’t so much that I doubt the ocean,” Kendrath said at last, liberally licking his lips as he reclaimed his bearings, “as I have found a river willing to take me where I need to go. What use is a distant ocean then?”

“It’s simple,” Amaran’tha said, her hands bunching up in her lap once more, the motion strategically pressing the valley of her breasts together to emphasize their heft even more, “any river is fast, narrow, and shallow. But the ocean is slow—” She squirmed to one side, showing off nearly the entire expanse of her bare thigh. “—wide—” Her hand trailed up to toy with the key around her neck, managing to slip the tip down until it nearly disappeared in the canyon of her cleavage. “—and deep.” She bucked her hips up at Kendrath, the lack of subtlety almost comical were it not for how Kendrath felt like he was about to burst.

Kendrath stared at the woman, hands twitching by his side, sweat coursing down his brow, and as his eyes fell to where her thighs were pressing meaningfully together, he decided to return the favor after all, stepping forwards to rest his hands gently on her shoulders. Pressing her back slightly so that she was sitting fully back on the alter, he reached down to adjust the length of his prick tenting his robes so that it stuck straight out, while still being bound by the cloth of his robes. He then positioned it at the place where Amaran’tha offered her pressed-together thighs up to him, just a tad short of where the cherubic belt kept her lower treasure sealed away behind literal lock and key. “It’s not your fault,” he said, before bucking forwards, dragging the length of his shaft across and even dipping into the hot, slick space where Amaran’tha’s thighs were loosly clasped together, grunting and groaning as each of his polite thrusts against this practical stranger’s body caused said body to jiggle and sway enticingly, “but Haverty just can’t, urgh, give me what I need now. I have a, oh yes, new deity to follow, who—mmm, yeah—is willing to speak to their followers, and listen in turn.”

Amaran’tha let out a series of fresh gasps and moans as she and Kendrath engaged in this pale yet friendly imitation of sex, but was otherwise mostly silent as Kendrath thrusted and heaved against her, a flush spreading down her cheeks and across her neck as the stimulation reverberated through the belt keeping their friendly humping dry rather than wet. But just as Kendrath reached the point where he would have to either back off or commit to asking this goddess made flesh to do yet more, he was saved from having to make the decision as Amaran’tha laced her hands around the back of his head, stopping his momentum as she gently rested her brow against his. “All I want, truly, is for my best friend’s brother to be happy.” She said, speaking to him with her eyes inches away from his, as if staring into his very soul. “And I have found my greatest happiness in serving Haverty, no matter how mysterious he may be. But if that is not enough for you, I will try to see your point of view, and even make your sister see it too—all I ask is that you trust us enough to share this new path that you have been set on, so that we might not have so much cause to worry. Might you be able to do that?”

For a moment, Kendrath just pulsed slightly against her, his hips shuddering in place as his body struggled to catch up with his brain. But a short time later, he settled down, and a short time after that, he nodded to her, slowly. “Alright.” He said, taking a shaky step back, and revealing the stain of pre darkening the front of his trousers. His eyes made a quick scan of Amaran’tha, top to bottom, taking in the elegance of Carus Ancilla one more time, before smiling cheekily. “You’ll probably have to wear a different costume, though.”

Amaran’tha smiled impishly in response. “That can certainly be arranged~.”