More Than One Kind of Inner Storm

Ludmara got herself some vegetable soup and dwarven beer that was on tap; it felt good to be 21. Even though most people could drink beers and wines as early as twelve years of age, there were laws on the record saying what ages were appropriate for non-human alcohols and the like, and 21 was the bare minimum for the lighter dwarven beers and eleven wines. Most dwarven ales and beers were too strong for most humans, even at the age of thirty. Ludmara was two or three years older than her cousin, Ludina, who was the first princess. The same first princess that was best friends with the saint and hailed as a hero of the people, most folks didn’t know how much she despised being **** into her magically compelled oath to serve the crown; Ludmara and the saintess were both very aware of this aspect of Ludina’s life, and the restrictions imposed on her that made the swearing of a different oath not as viable as it appeared at a casual glance.

She often joked with her cousin that even though it was Ludmara who was born with the power of the storm, it was Ludina who had to face an inner storm on a regular basis. Both cousins found that kind of humor to be more amusing than most people around them. Her cousin had even expressed how Ludmara seemed to have more freedom than her, only jokingly half the time she said things like that.

Ludmara could feel her inner storm getting a bit more active. The sensation usually hit her when she was feeling a surge of power, or something potentially interesting was near. Sometimes it even acted as an early warning system when a fight was going to happen, but she didn’t sense any hostility in the area; if anything, it felt like the opposite; the place felt hospitable and welcoming. Whatever danger was lurking here was likely more subtle, and Ludmara had gotten into the habit of throwing up half a dozen protective spells when heading for bed, even in places like inns.

She decided to take her meal in the commons, surrounded by her fellow adventurers. This way, she could hear any rumors for the area going around, and scope out anyone she would want to do a mission or two with. But there were pros and cons to everything. Regardless, it would still be a few hours until when she was told it would be the start of mealtime.

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While Ludmara was debating with herself, Delvin was in the storage area beneath the inn, accompanied by Hilthrika; the demoness was expressing interest in how Delvin was going to begin the sorceress’s corruption, and also expressing a desire for Delvin to pound her again. “So, what is your approach to this new one,” inquired Hilthrika with excited interest, “I know you’re working on how to embed the corruption into the saintess and the princess. So, how do plan to approach this one?”

“Already did,” said Delvin nonchalantly as he inspected the produce in the cool chamber, “Looks like the tomatoes are starting to go bad; the potatoes are in a similar state; I know they’re both pretty cheap to procure, but it’s the distribution time that’s a real annoyance.”

“Thankfully, one of your sluts is a merchant,” said Hilthrika, “and can now travel faster with her demonic powers. Care to elaborate on how you already started the sorceress’s corruption?”

“I was told a while back that I could lace my corruption into scents in what I made, and the sounds from my body,” said Delvin as he continued his inspection, “When I spoke with the sorceress earlier, I laced my voice with a generous helping of my corrupting energies, she’s likely experiencing my power spread through her as we speak. Of course, it’s a bit harder to tell if my power is working on her at a glance, seeing as Sorcerers and Sorceresses usually tend to be pretty light on their attire in most cases.”

“But you can still feel her being corrupted,” said Hilthrika with a seductive lick of her lips.

“To an extent,” said Delvin, “I can tell she is still being corrupted, but it doesn’t seem to be to the extent where we can move on to her rebirth just yet. That said, I will have a better idea on that the closer in proximity the two of us are, and it seems having demons under my control in similar proximity to her and myself might be influencing my senses there; I’m still honing that sense; after all.”