A different kind of release

Hwa seethed.

This would not break her. This would not even make her bend.

No matter how persistent the accursed itch she felt between her thighs.

Lily’s trap had been, Hwa had to admit, elegant. The kumiho could recognize the nightmare witch’s handiwork now that she was already caught within its jaws.

The pillory was, of course, magic. That they had been baited with easy prey told Hwa that Lily was aware of her activities. That, by itself, was a message of course. A way to remind her that no matter how she worked, the hostess was aware of her activities.

That would not break her. The more arrogant her captor became, the better the chance that Hwa would find a way to slip free. What threatened her composure was far more simple, more direct than that.

Hwa was horny.

She was fully aware that her state was not natural. Instead, it was the result of an enchantment woven into the device which imprisoned her. While she was imprisoned, a feedback loop fed on the kumiho’s frustration only to funnel the energy directly into her loins. Hwa still wore the Token of Defiance, its skirt just long enough to maintain her dignity in the absurd position into which she had been ****. The garment’s magic meant that she should have had an easier time resisting the effects, but since she hadn’t, she felt them yet more keenly.

She could feel her own nectar as it dripped down her bare thighs. The undergarments she wore had long since soaked through, and the worse she struggled to deny the feedback of her body, the more energy she provided the contraption which tormented her.

Even that would not have been enough, had she not recognized the two faces that stepped forward from the crowd. Most of the peasants who milled about in the square had long since begun to ignore Hwa. She had rebuffed all offers to ‘shorten her sentence’, sometimes with teeth bared, and so the brightly dressed populace of the town had lost interest.

When the ‘Dungeon Master’ and his little pet Fae emerged, though, Hwa knew that she would not emerge from this day unscathed.

“Ahh, the great man himself arrives. Come to play with your pet fox while her bite is muzzled?” Hwa couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice. Not that she particularly tried—there didn’t seem to be much point.

“I came to see if I could get you out of this. Me and Elsie both. I know you aren’t exactly fond of me, but that doesn’t mean I’m just going to let you sit in that all day.”

He gestured towards the pillory, as though Hwa was not perfectly aware of what he meant without the foolish motion. “Then be on with it.” The wave of frustration that rose up within her bounced against the enchanted bondage equipment and rebounded against the kumiho’s already molten inner core, and it was all she could do to suppress the moan which threatened to escape.

Kevin drew in a long breath and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “It—Elsie, is there any chance that you can do something? I can change the rules of how this thing works, but it’s not like previous seasons of Harem Hotel have been big on ‘just let the contestants out of the bondage rig’ rules.”

The brownie frowned and stepped forward. She spent a moment examining first the equipment, and then Hwa herself, before walking around and returning to Kevin’s side. “I can try, but I can’t promise it will work. I already made my permanent item for the day, and I’m not sure the lesser ones will have enough oomph.”

Whatever reservations the little Fae might have had, though, she scurried to obey her master swiftly enough. From within the pouches of her belt, the English girl produced a selection of small tools and set to work. While she did, the vaunted Dungeon Master stepped aside to give her space and instead turned his focus on Hwa. “So, uhh… how exactly did this happen?”

Hwa scowled. “Does it matter?”

Again the human pinched the bridge of his nose. “Maybe. Usually when I had a character in the pillory in my games, it was because they did something worthy of public ridicule. Did you?” He didn’t wait for an answer before continuing, “We came here to help you, Hwa. Do you have to be a bitch about it?”

This time, Hwa had to bite down on her own tongue to stifle the moan that threatened to slip past her ruby red lips. She could feel a droplet of moisture as it slowly slid down the inside of her left thigh, and even the suggestion of stimulation that it offered was enough to make things worse.

Apparently, though, Kevin was dense enough to interpret the scowl of pain that flashed across Hwa’s face as hostility. “You know, I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job of being reasonable towards you, Hwa, despite your best efforts. I’ve gone out of my way to be polite, I’ve respected your wishes at every turn, I’ve done my best to just stay out of your way. Hell, I’ve been rooting for you to find some way to slip past Lily’s control, for what that’s worth.”

Hwa’s lips parted to retort, but the man was caught up in his own head and apparently didn’t see the need to listen to what she had to say. “Not that I think you can. Fuck, you’ll probably just make things worse for yourself, but far be it from me to tell the mighty fox spirit how to live her life. I could tell you all about the times other contestants of Harem Hotel tried to rise up against their hosts, if you’d bothered to ask, but I doubt you’d ever lower yourself to hear so much as a single word of advice from me. It’s not like I know anything about what’s going on in this city. Which I designed.”

At his side, Elsie finished assembling whatever contraption she intended to use. It looked not dissimilar to a hand-held drill, but rather than spiraling metal for a bit a chunk of irregular yellow crystal caught the light of the sun.

“Yes, I am certain you would have loved that.” Hwa’s head could not turn far enough to track the brownie as the other woman stepped up beside her and began to work on the pillory.

Kevin’s eyes turned to track Elsie’s motions for a moment, before returning to Hwa’s face. “You know what, I would have. I would have liked that very much, Hwa. And do you know why?”

“I am in no position to stop you from telling me, as you are clearly eager to do.” A soft snort of breath from the brownie might have been a grunt of effort, but it could just as easily have been a suppressed laugh. Hwa’s mind saw no reason to doubt that it was the latter, and the shame at her public humiliation sent another surge of frustration into the device, and this time she could not stop her thighs from squeezing together.

“No, you aren’t. I’m sure you would if you could, of course, but since you and I are going to be stuck with each other, let me tell you a couple of things. I’ll start with reiterating that one, in fact—we’re stuck with one another.”

A metallic squeal from beside her head caught Hwa’s attention as whatever Elsie had done with her device caused the pillory to protest. The metal which bound the kumiho’s wrists and neck did not loosen, however, and her attention returned to Kevin as the man resumed, “And I don’t just mean right now. When whatever multidimensional gods or beings—whatever the producers of this show are—when they set out to make a season of Harem Hotel, they bind the cast together. You and I will never be free of each other. The best you could hope for—and this feels so far out of reach it might as well be on the moon, right now—would be to have a casual sexual relationship with me for the rest of our lives.”

The sneer on Hwa’s face was a reflexive response to the human’s tone as much as the words. “I would sooner die.”

“You know what, I want to believe you, but I don’t. And you know what that means, Hwa? It means that you’re lying. You might be caught up enough in your own ego that you’re willing to mouth off at the two people who showed up to help free you from the magical bondage equipment you’re locked in, but apparently even you think that having sex with me is better than ****. Lily’s magic means you can’t lie to me about it, but I have to ask: can you still lie to yourself?”

Hwa’s teeth ground against each other as her jaw clamped shut. She would not dignify that with a response, but before the male could continue his tirade, the sound of shattering crystal announced Elsie’s failure.

“Fuck. Sorry, Kevin.”

To Hwa’s ear, the Fae child’s tone was insincere, but of course the human accepted it at face value. No doubt he had been hoping for exactly this outcome. “No, don’t worry about it. I’m sure Lily set this all up, somehow, and you springing the prisoner would take away all of her fun.”

“Still—I’m sorry, Hwa, I tried.” For a moment, Hwa actually believed the girl. It didn’t matter, of course. The girl had failed, but perhaps the insincerity in her earlier words was imagined.

“Well, then I guess it’s up to me to get you free. Or, I suppose, if you really want I can just leave you there, but you’ve got fourteen or so hours remaining, and that’s well past your curfew.” He sighed, then took in a deep breath. As Hwa watched a golden glow gathered about Kevin’s eyes as he channeled the power that the nightmare witch had funneled into him. The magic was obviously not her own, and as with so much of the ridiculous farce of a fantasy into which she’d been thrust, it left the fox spirit wondering about the point of the entire production.

That power was divine—in flavor, if not in magnitude—and surely a divinity had better things to do than to torment her.

A moment later, the human let out the breath he’d taken and the glow faded. “I can’t just make the pillory release you, but I can change how it works. I’m—you aren’t going to like any of the options, Hwa, but you have to pick one of them. If you don’t, I’m pretty sure that’s as good as eliminating yourself from the show. Lily didn’t tell us much about how that’s going to work this season, but I guarantee it’s going to be worse than any of the options I have to offer.”

“At least then I would be free.”

“No. You wouldn’t.” While the anger which had flared in the human had faded with the brownie’s failure, Hwa was surprised to hear some of the resolve that had accompanied it return. “Elimination doesn’t free you from Lily’s grasp, Hwa, it just means you give up any say in how the rest of your life goes. Every season I read about made that very clear. You’ll still be bound to me, but you’ll have given Lily the opportunity to dictate exactly what shape that takes. Is that what you want?”

It took Hwa several seconds to bring herself to answer.

In part, that was because for a moment she was not sure of the answer herself. It was not as though she thought the human was lying. He was far too simple, too direct for that. He obviously believed the words he spoke, and the kumiho did not doubt them even without the presence of magic to **** him to speak the truth.

That the Fae girl did not gainsay him might have reinforced his message, but it was obvious the weak creature had thrown herself at the man at her earliest opportunity. The two were no doubt rutting at every opportunity while Hwa tried to escape—she seemed the sort to enjoy it.

When she considered the truth of Kevin’s statement, though, the surge of frustration that rose up through her caused Hwa’s hips to buck. She felt empty in a way that had little to do with an unbroken fast. The magic of the pillory gnawed at her in a way that was less sharp than hunger, but far more pervasive, and the flood of moisture she could feel herself release did nothing to ameliorate her resentment.

“No.” The word rang with truth. While Hwa might hold contempt for the human, it was a candle against the bonfire she felt for the hostess. The ire she felt when she acknowledged that exacerbated her arousal in equal measure, but she bit back yet another moan as she felt her sex all but tremble with need, and instead proclaimed, “I will not yield. I will spit in the succubus’ face with my final breath if I must, but I will not allow her or you to win unchallenged.”

Kevin closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and reviewed his options. Hwa’s bold claim had run with conviction, which was a good thing because none of them were going to go over well.

“I—look, Hwa, as much as I can tell you obviously don’t like it, you’re going to have to bend eventually. Your alternative is that you break, and I’m not willing to live with that on my conscience. I’m going to give you some choices based on things I can change with House Rule. If one of them sounds better to you than the others, speak up, because if you don’t, then I’m going to pick based on my own comfort levels. Deal?”

The captive fox spirit clearly thought that she was concealing the effects that the magical pillory was having on her, but either she was a worse actress than she thought, or the effects were just that obvious, because while she bit back the moan, she couldn’t stop her generous hips from weaving back and forth. Her control of her form had already slipped enough that her nine fluffy white tails were lashing back and forth behind her, and either she hadn’t noticed, or she didn’t realize what that was doing to the skirts of her outfit, because if he walked behind her, Kevin could tell he’d get quite an eyeful.

Eventually, though, she spat out, “Deal,” and he felt the magic of Binding Bargains settle in over them.

“Alright. I’m going to remind you that the only way that I can change something is if it happened on a previous season of Harem Hotel. The good news for you is that there have been a lot of seasons, and while some of them treated their contestants as little more than toys, others opted for a lighter touch. That doesn’t mean you’re going to like any of your choices, but if one sounds better than the others, I expect you to tell me.”

None of Kevin’s explanation actually asked a question, so he wasn’t surprised when the kumiho’s only response was a terse grunt. Rather than worrying about her lack of courtesy or enthusiasm, he glanced over at Elsie for reassurance.

The brownie had been anxiously shifting from foot to foot as she stood at Hwa’s side. She offered him an almost frantic nod which gave him enough confidence to continue, “First question: You probably only need your duration reduced by two hours or so to make it back to the master’s suite by curfew. I could also keep going until you’re out of the pillory as soon as possible, but that’s going to mean more of—whatever it is we wind up doing to get you loose. Do you want the minimum interaction with me, knowing that you’ll spend all day locked up here, to get released as soon as possible, or something in between?”

The shake of Hwa’s hips was less subtle this time, and her tails lashed through the air behind her in agitation, but it took only a few moments before she hissed out, “I must be out of this device as soon as I can.”

Kevin winced. He didn’t know exactly what the pillory was doing to Hwa, but it must have been pretty intense for it to elicit that strong of a response. “Alright, we’re aiming for earliest release possible. Second question: I can group the different changes into four rough categories. Between pain, sex, temporary transformations, and permanent transformations, which would you prefer? I can mix and match them some if that’s easier, but I think that’ll wind up blurring the lines between them.”

To his surprise, Hwa showed much less of a reaction to this question than she had to the first.

Then again, those are probably exactly what she was expecting. As much as she’s rebelling against Lily’s control, it’s not like Hwa is stupid. She’s seen what’s going on around us.

“I would prefer–” The kumiho started to respond, then a flash of shadow crossed over her eyes, she stopped speaking for a full second, then the bargain they had struck earlier **** her to continue, “–a mix of the first three.”

A few heartbeats passed before Hwa all but shouted, “Fuck!”

“Not what you intended to say?” The fox spirit glowered at Kevin without answering. It was hard to take it particularly seriously, though, because the look was accompanied by the bucking of the woman’s hips as though she were trying to give an invisible man a lap dance.

He shook his head, thought for a moment, then asked, “What—fuck, how do I phrase this? What, um, limits do you have?”

From the red-eyed glare of the kumiho, that was the wrong question to ask, and he hastened to explain, “Look, I have no idea how you rate spanking compared to taking a facial. I could spank you, um–” Kevin paused to do a quick bit of mental math, “–like three hundred times, I think, and that would get you out. If I asked Elsie to jerk me off onto your face and that number went down to two-fifty would that be better, or worse? If I just stood behind you and fingered you until you came, uh–”

The next round of math took slightly longer, and he winced at the number he came up with, “–wow, sixty times sounds like a lot. Fuck. Anyway, my point is, I don’t know what you think is better or worse of the options.”

“Kevin.” To his surprise, Elsie’s voice cut through his blabbering with an unexpected intensity. The brownie had been growing more and more agitated as he continued, and after catching his attention she blurted out suddenly, “She needs to cum. So bad.”

For several long seconds, the inside of Kevin’s head could best be described as white noise. He glanced between the faces of his two party members, and when he was unable to muster a coherent response, the English woman added, “If you don’t do it, I will.”

Hwa let out a whimper that seemed utterly at odds with the personality she had displayed thus far, and it was only then that Kevin realized just how bad what she was suffering must have been.

Kevin made up his mind. He stepped forward decisively, speaking as he walked around the pillory to stand behind the kumiho. “Hwa, I’m going to touch you—to use my hand to bring you to orgasm. I’ll ask about the rest after that. If you want me to wait, you have thirty seconds to tell me to stop.”

While sound escaped Hwa’s lips, none of it was in the form of coherent speech. Instead, she gave Kevin the closest thing to an invitation he thought he was likely to receive—all nine of her tails lashed wildly for a moment, then fanned out and wrapped around the kumiho’s torso. The motion lifted her skirts above her waist, which left her lower body covered by nothing more than a thin scrap of sodden white cotton.

The underwear the fox spirit wore was surprisingly innocent—or would have been, if not for the way Hwa’s leaking cunt had rendered the pair of plain panties mostly translucent. They clung to her sodden sex like a second skin, and had long since passed the point where they could act to stop the flow of moisture from her wet slit.

As Kevin stepped up behind the squirming woman, the evidence became yet more clear. Her thighs were soaked to the point that he suspected the only reason she wasn’t standing in a puddle was that her shoes had caught the worst of the torrent. He watched a sticky strand of moisture cling to one thigh while the other end slid its way down towards a pale knee.

When Hwa whimpered again, Kevin realized he had waited beyond the half-minute he had allocated. A part of him continued to rebel, but a quick glance at Elsie’s face revealed that the kumiho was not the only one in need. The brownie’s eyes were fixed on the slowly undulating tails that covered Hwa’s torso, but her hand was inching slowly down towards the tiny skirt she wore as though she were about to start to finger herself.

His resolve firmed once more, and Kevin’s hand reached out to touch Hwa’s needy, dripping cunt.

This moan, she could not suppress. Hwa’s voice was surprisingly high pitched as her hips bucked, and Kevin nearly pulled his hand away. The heat of her inflamed cunt was a roaring inferno and for a moment his treacherous mind lost itself in wondering what it would feel like to bury himself inside it.

Then Kevin remembered himself, and got to work. Whatever magic the pillory possessed, it had already done most of the heavy lifting for him. He pushed the scrap of cloth to the side to reveal the dark, swollen lips of Hwa’s pussy. They were surrounded by a thatch of soft white hair more akin to that of her tails than the tresses on her head.

Rather than allowing himself the luxury of wondering at the sight, the fingers of Kevin’s right hand curled beneath the woman and slipped along her wet slit. Her swollen clit protruded enough that it was impossible to miss, and the moment his fingertips brushed it she cried out in ecstasy.

Hwa’s hips swayed so unsteadily that he was **** to bring his left hand onto her hip to hold her steady as he began to stroke the slippery little nub with his index and middle finger—one to either side. An ex-girlfriend had showed Kevin the motion, and while he knew preferred masturbation techniques and clitoral sensitivity varied wildly from woman to woman, the Kumiho was in no condition to give him a detailed demonstration of how she played with herself.

It didn’t matter. Hwa was so keyed up that she came within half a minute of Kevin’s hand touching her. For all he knew, she might have been cumming the entire time his fingers were in contact with her clit—her body was certainly trembling enough—but thirty seconds after he touched her, the fox spirit’s back arched, her tails lashed out wildly, and she let out a wordless scream of pleasure.

Brought to orgasm by the DM’s hand: +5 HP

First! (x2)