The Puzzle Cell

"I am glad that I was able to help you," Coursa said. "Now about that message for my sister? Are you sure you can get it to her? You're not messing around with me are you?"

"I assure you I am not," Elody said. "I have already met Samantha and I will tell her anything you want her to know."

"Good," Coursa sighed with evident relief. "_Good. _You don't know how much I've wanted to talk to her. To tell her all of the things I just told you. To explain that I wasn't in my right mind, that neither of us were! And...and to warn her to look out for the same thing! I-I...is it getting warmer in here?"

Elody frowned, the chains which bound her wrists did not allow her much movement but she craned her need to see if anything had changed about the room. it was still the same. An empty cell of metal and stone. And yet, it _was _getting warmer. She could feel it now. The stone was starting to heat up. Not unpleasantly so, but noticeably,

"What is this, some sort of game?" Coursa asked.

"The jailer said that the cell was a puzzle," Elody remarked thoughtfully. "This must be part of it."

"Making it warmer? Is it some sort of ****?"

"I doubt that. Slaves have to be in good condition to sell well. But there is some trick here, I am sure. Let me see if I can figure it out."

For the next fifteen minutes, Coursa was silent as Elody tried to find out what was going on. It was hard with her body bound in the chains. She thought about releasing it and allowing her spirit to flow free, but decided that was not a conversation she wanted to have with Coursa right now. Besides, she didn't want anything traced back to Vrasha and if her true nature was discovered that would become inevitable.

So she didn't abandon the body. Instead, she closed her eyes and tried to expand her senses. It was Difficult. Doing this usually required strict self control, but right now her mind was awash with new feelings and desires. She could feel every prickle across her naked body, the heat which washed between her legs. She felt how stiff her nipples had become, and felt the eyes of her companion on her. Elody swallowed, seeking focus but it would not easily come.

"It's not magic." She said slowly. "I think it might be some sort of machine. A boiler or a fire. Stone transmits heat, so I think that it is being applied to the other side of the walls."

"Why?" Coursa asked. "I don't understand what the point is here. Not just to keep us warm I am sure!"

"Yes, I doubt it is that noble," Elody agreed. Heat did not bother her as much as it did the other woman. She simply shut down her body's ability to feel it. However soon enough Course's form was sleeked with sweat. Her body glittered with it and she was breathing deeply. Her chest rose and fell, and her hair looked damp and sodden.

"This is not...not particularly fun..." She moaned. "Is it some sort of punishment because we talked? I am thirsty."

"The guard said it was a puzzle." Elody said, trying not to look at the glimmering skin of the other woman. "That implies we're supposed to figure it out but our ability to do so is severely limited."

"Could be ****," Coursa rasped. "Heat's making us sweat out all our water. Not a drink to be seen. By the time they come back in the morning, we'll be **** enough to do anything. Good little slaves. Gods, I'm parched and it hasn't even been an hour!"

"Don't give up," Elody surprised herself by saying. She knew that Coursa was in no danger. Gelmina would not ruin a good ****, nor did they seem to be be much in favour of ****. She had no doubt that this whole thing had been carefully calibrated to be unpleasant but survivable. By the time they were taken out tomorrow, Coursa would be **** but not hurt. So she was not under any real threat and the logical thing to do was to ignore her state.

However Elody did not wish to do that. She could see the lolling of the other woman's tongue as she tried to catch her breath, and the way the sweat beaded her naked body. She was thirsty and getting worse. Elody had never been thirsty in her life. Or at least, not for the part of it she could now remember. She did not need to eat or drink. But she could starve. If she was removed the world and put in a place where the ambient energy of nature could not reach her, she would grow weaker and weaker as her body expended its reserves. She would die by inches and it would not be a pleasant ****.

Thirst and starvation, she imagined, probably felt like that.

"Do you think if I cried out, they would come...?" Coursa asked. "Maybe they want us to beg... no, fuck that. I'm not begging them. I'll die first."

"No one is going to die," Elody told her. "There is a way to figure this out, we simply need to find it."

She looked around, ignoring the growing edge of desperation which filled her thoughts. She felt pinned, trapped. At any moment she could end this by revealing her power but if she did, it would doom her mission from Vrasha. On the other hand, could she simply leave Coursa to suffer? If she did, would she be able to forgive herself?

But suffering was not ****! If she did nothing, Coursa would live! She wouldn't die, she would merely suffer.

_And is that any better? _Elody surprised herself by thinking. If I have the power to end that suffering and do not, what does that make me?

She shook her head and tried to focus. There had to be a way out without revealing herself and she was thinking that the puzzle the guard mentioned might just be it.

_Think, _she told herself. If it is a puzzle, you are meant to solve it. If you are meant to solve it, you must be able to reach it.

She looked around. The chains which bound her arms to the walls were sturdy and strong. No normal human could pull them free. The ones which clunk to her ankles were less tight, but still would not allow her much movement. She was sitting propped up on the stone block, and a few inches from her sex the stone phallus was still proudly erect.

Her eyes fell on it and an idea triggered in the back of her mind. The sort of thing which would appeal to the kind of people who made cells like this.

If she moved herself just so, she had exactly enough room to rise a bit above the block and place her sex directly atop the stone shaft. The tip of it poked against her womanhood, curved so as to spread her lower lips.

"What are you doing?"

"Thinking."

Elody braced herself and brought her lower body down against the shaft. It felt large, pressing against her womanhood with a cold and stony touch. Elody grit her teeth and pressed down, feeling it slid inside of her by inches. Her womanhood gripped it eagerly, and a slow, grinding pleasure began to flow through her body as she sank lower. With a flash of heat and embarrassment, she realised the point of the trap.

"The stone shaft," She said. "It is not made of pure stone. Just the outer covering. It moves when you put your weight against it. When you...use...it."

"What do you mean?" Coursa asked, her face screwing up. "You mean it's a pump?"

"I think so. And that being the case, it probably requires the two of us to use."