Chapter Six: The Witch

The morning ushered in light and the sound of chirping birds. The sounds of the forest rushed into the room and roused me back to the waking world. In spite of all this beauty, the dawn did not herald any cure for whatever strange ailment was plaguing me. I felt delirious and unfocused, and it didn’t take Seirke very long to notice it.

“Alex, are you okay? You don’t look so good,” she said as she slipped on her bottoms.

It took me about two more seconds than it should have for me to react and then pry my eyes away from her gently wobbling chest as she went about her dressing routine.

“I… I don’t think so,” I replied in a **** tone that surprised even me, “I feel hot, feverish and… well this is really strange, but I can’t stop staring at your chest. Like, more than usual,” I laughed a little, hopefully to take the edge off.

Seirke notably did not laugh, only made a wan smile that didn’t bring much comfort, “That’s strange, here, I’m going to use some magic to try and figure out what’s happening.” She walked up to me and held out a hand. Her palm and fingers were glowing a dull white and she hovered it a few inches from my forehead. Then she closed her eyes in concentration, “Any other symptoms?”

“Well, not a symptom,” I began, trying to sit still at the edge of the bed, “but anytime either you or Erys touch me, or when I touch you, it feels immediately better and clears up for a moment.”

“Hm,” Seirke opened her eyes and reached down, grabbing my wrist gently and bringing my palm up to her breast. As soon as my palm made contact with the pillowy flesh, I felt the fever go down significantly, and I instantly got more mental clarity.

“Ah, like right now it feels much better. I barely even notice the heat and I can think more clearly.”

Seirke took her hand away from my head and frowned, “Looks like the shadow demon left you with a parting gift when I drove it away. You’ve been cursed.”

I was suddenly gripped with fear, that didn’t sound good at all.

Perhaps seeing the look on my face or sensing the chill from the hand on her breast, Seirke caressed my cheek comfortingly, “Don’t panic, Alex, it can be treated. I’ve seen this before and I know what to do. You aren’t going to die or anything.”

I nodded but still swallowed hard, “What exactly is a curse?”

Serike tapped her chin thoughtfully, seeming to try and find a good way of explaining, “I suppose the easiest way of describing it is a magical disease that has infected your very existence, not your body. It’s likely it won’t go away on its own.”

“Can it be cured?”

“Well, sometimes curses can be lifted. But if there is a way to remove this particular curse, I don’t know of it. As far as curses go this one isn’t really all that bad, though, especially not for you.”

“What is it?” I was a bit relieved to hear it wasn’t anything major, but obviously the idea that it wouldn’t go away was still worrisome.

“It’s a minor lust curse. The purpose of the curse itself is usually just to get someone in trouble. All it will do is, well, you’ve felt it. It makes you feverish and delirious but hyperaware of sexual stimuli or things that you find sexually stimulating. Boobs in your case. The trouble is this will continue to get worse and worse as time goes on, and if left untreated you will eventually start to develop obsessive or even possessive behavior.

“As you can imagine, this can drive people to sexually **** those who may be less than willing to accept such an advance, which usually ends in getting locked up or killed, depending on who the victim was. The worst-case scenario is that the afflicted individual will be driven mad with lust and feverish thoughts.”

“That sounds pretty bad.”

“We’re lucky the curse wasn’t placed by a succubus or incubus; their lust curses can do far worse and can end in ****. Honestly, as I alluded to earlier, a minor lust curse won’t really be a big problem for you, because there is a way to treat the symptoms.”

“And what’s that?” I asked.

Seirke responded by reaching a soft hand down to gently stroke my shaft, “Well, you’ve kind of already figured it out. Sexual stimulation dampens your fever and gives you some clarity back. If you manage to orgasm, the fever will go away completely, and your focus will be unhindered for a time.”

I was beginning to understand, “Oh, so it’s not so bad for me because I can basically get my treatment whenever I need it.”

“Exactly. There are those who are far less lucky. One of our initiates back at the temple is there specifically because of a lust curse. It’s much worse for folks who live in the northern kingdoms where they tend to be a bit more modest and less open about sexual things.”

“Okay, so all I need to do is orgasm?”

“Yes, though it’s better to do it with someone else. Masturbation can be effective but without stimulation from a partner it eventually stops working.” That did sound simple enough. “In the meantime, you might find yourself having more lustful thoughts and desires in general, though.”

“I understand,” I nodded.

“Good, then I should probably get to work on your treatment. You’ll definitely need to be focused today,” Seirke said this in a dutiful manner, but her tone made it clear that she would love nothing more than to administer treatment.

“Sounds good, but let’s try and make it quick. While I’d love to take my time, I’m eager to get moving. The less time Lafula spends in the dungeon the better.”

Seirke nodded diligently and dropped to her knees in front of me, “You’ll just have to make it up to me once she’s free, okay?”

“Deal.”

Seirke then plunged herself immediately down onto my cock, sliding it all the way down and sheathing it completely in her mouth. This was such a sudden and intense gesture that I nearly came just from it alone. But she didn’t stop there, she eagerly and swiftly began bobbing up and down my length. It felt so good to have Seirke giving me a blowjob again, and to be able to remember it this time.

It was working wonders right away. I felt virtually no fever at all, and my thought process was immediately more lucid, at least, as lucid as it could be given that I was being sucked off. I was frankly surprised at how quickly it turned around. I was feeling great, and not just because Seirke’s soft lips were sliding up and down my shaft.

“Fuck, that feels amazing,” I said, hoping to encourage my companion to redouble her efforts.

It worked, she picked up her pace and even started moaning for good measure. Every now and again I saw her hips jerk from one side to another as she no doubt felt quite similar waves of euphoria smash into her. I wasn’t sure what gods or forces were responsible for the creation of this particular universe where everyone could be sexually stimulated using only their mouths, but I wished I could personally thank them.

Even her face betrayed how much she was enjoying this, her eyes upturned slightly and partially closed in an expression of absolute bliss, moaning like mad. I reached down and placed a hand on her head, to help guide her movements and to run my fingers through her silky silvery hair. She seemed to enjoy this gesture, her blush deepening and her eyes smiling up at me.

After just a few minutes of my “treatment”, I couldn’t hold it in any longer, I began exploding into her mouth. I didn’t think I would ever get used to just how much I could ejaculate now, it was probably more than I urinated. But no matter how much it was, Serike remained with my rod sheathed in her throat, swallowing every single drop that erupted from my tip. Her hips were twitching wildly, and moistness was leaking down her thighs.

When at last the torrent of spunk had subsided, she pulled herself away and gasped for air, “Ahhhh,” she sighed a bit jaggedly, “that feels so good, Alex.”

“It still surprises me that it feels that good to you.”

“It still surprises me that you come from a world where it doesn’t, people there must be miserable,” she said and managed a giggle as she panted from her kneeling position, “How do you feel?”

“Much better,” I replied, “about how long should it stay that way, though?”

“Well,” Seirke began, standing up and finishing her routine of getting dressed for the day, “It can vary. Curses often resonate with a substance called flux, so the more of it there is, the more heightened a curse’s affects will be.”

“Flux?”

Seirke began to give me the basic gist. Magic was fueled by mana, and when mana was consumed to create magical effects, flux was created as a sort of byproduct. Lots of evil and dark energies are made more powerful in places where there is lots of flux, and many necromancy and domination spells use flux as its fuel source instead of mana.

“In conclusion,” Seirke said as she put on her stole, “since the elves of Anvar are naturally magical and practice magic often, there is a lot of flux in the commune. And what that means for you is that your curse will react more intensely while you’re here, and you probably won’t have much time before your symptoms come back. Don’t worry though, you’ll be with me all day so as soon as you need relief, I will be here to help. I’m sure some of the elves we visit wouldn’t mind helping either. They all consider you their lover, after all.”

Back in my own world, a statement like that one might have been accompanied by a hint of jealous venom, given how deeply Seirke seemed to care about me. But I could sense no such negativity in her words, in fact there was only neutrality, like she was telling me I could go to the store to pick up some eggs, but I could also pick up some milk instead if I wanted. The differences in social behaviors in this world would never cease to amaze me.

“All right, all ready to go, let’s get you dressed and then we’ll head out,” she smiled.

I nodded and stood up. It was time to get serious, I was about to be on a hunt for a witch, a witch who could literally be anybody. There were roughly one-hundred elves in the commune altogether, around thirty of whom were adolescent. Splitting this number in half was still fifty people to talk to, it likely would take all day, and my feet would be sore by the end of it for sure. It was going to be a lot of walking.

But when I thought about Lafula, a girl who was almost bursting with love for me, in the dungeon alone, it filled me with determination. She didn’t deserve her treatment, and I was going to clear her name if it was the last thing I did.

The hours passed by in a long and grueling chain. My legs and feet were already killing me and to top it off, Seirke had been right about the curse. I could already feel the fever starting to come back, and the skimpy and frankly erotic clothing of the elves I had been visiting were not helping in the least. Furthermore, we weren’t making much headway into finding the true witch.

Most of the elves already believed Lafula to be guilty and didn’t understand why I was bothering. Only a single pair of them, fraternal twins who looked nearly identical save for one being a fem and the other a woman, claimed to believe Lafula to be innocent and boasted that they had been childhood friends of hers. Unfortunately, they had no ideas as to the identity of the true witch.

Hope was starting to slip away from me, and this was making it even harder to focus than the creeping fever did.

“Are you feeling okay, Alex?” Seirke asked me as we made our way through one of the massive garden parks toward the next group of homes.

“I’m sore, the curse is creeping back, and...” I almost divulged my sense of hopelessness, but decided to keep that feeling to myself, “and I think I need to take a break for a bit.”

Seirke frowned, “That sounds like a good idea.”

I nodded, “Would you mind if I was just alone with my thoughts for a minute? You don’t need to be far I just… need to think.”

Seirke nodded, but was obviously concerned, “Okay, I’ll just be up ahead. Shout if you need me.”

Once she had left, I sat down on one of the ornate benches, my head back and my gaze up into the canopy of leaves and the blue sky above. A gentle breeze blew through them, making them rustle in waves of glittering green. The smell of flowers rushed into my nose, and the sounds of birds chirping could be heard all around me. It was such a lovely day. The kind of day you wanted to be enjoying, not moping or witch-hunting. The kind of day you didn’t want to be locked up in a dungeon for.

“Fuck,” I said, to nobody in particular.

“Oh, I am sorry felai,” a voice replied anyway.

My head jerked downward to find that I suddenly had company. Elenvell, the commune’s spiritual leader herself.

“Oh, I didn’t hear you approach,” I said.

“We elves are often called light on our feet. We do weigh significantly less than humans,” she sat down next to me, though perhaps still sensing the tension between us, she did so very gingerly and stiffly. “Taking a break from the hunt?”

I nodded. I still wasn’t much in the mood for chitchat, but I was curious about my new friend, “How is Lafula? Did you visit her?”

“Yes, but she would not speak to me. I told her what you were doing, and that seemed to cheer her up. I did apologize to her as I left, but I do not believe simple words can mend eighty years of perceived wrongdoing.”

Silence fell, it made sense that Lafula wouldn’t have said much. Elenvell was at least partially responsible. I then asked her something that had been on my mind all day concerning this idea, “Lafula told me something when I talked with her about you. She is convinced that the rumors about her promiscuity began because she confided in you about her increased libido because the rumors only started after she told you. Why did you do it?”

Elenvell was quiet a moment, then replied, “Felai, you have made it abundantly clear that I no longer have any good reason to lie to you, so I ask that you please believe me when I say that I did not.”

“Then how did the rumors spread?” I asked, growing very weary of the constant back-and-forth our conversations always seemed to devolve into.

“If I must be honest, I have always believed they had begun because she had acted on her libido. It seemed like the most reasonable cause to me. I believe the humans have a phrase ‘where there is ash there was once flame’. If you were to ask me if she continued to act on those desires throughout these decades, however, I would not be so sure.”

“You’re positive you didn’t tell anybody else what she told you?”

“Well, yes, I did. But I only told my most trusted advisors, who would have no reason to spread such rumors about her.”

I blinked, and my eyes widened. In books and movies, the phrase “everything fell into place” had always seemed like such a cliché line to me. It wasn’t until exactly this moment that I realized what the phrase meant, and why it was so ubiquitous. It was a very prominent feeling. All the pieces were slowly coming together, and with them, my confidence was returning.

“Elenvell,” I said.

“Yes, felai?”

“I’m beginning to see the reason we have so much tension. Ever since Lafula began to learn magic, rumors about her witchcraft began to swell, is that right?”

Elenvell nodded.

“As I’ve been talking to the elves today, many of them have said that they are convinced that witchcraft has been happening, a few even claim to have witnessed strange things though they didn’t have any real physical evidence to point to. Would you say that’s pretty much what you understand to be the case so far?”

“Yes,” Elenvell replied, but hesitantly since she still couldn’t quite see where this was going.

“What if all those rumors are true?”

She blinked, “Pardon?”

“What if they aren’t just rumors and witchcraft was being done all along. You see, we’ve both been wrong this whole time because we’re each half right but about the opposite things. You’re right about the witchcraft but I’m right about Lafula’s innocence. Up until now I’ve only been assuming the witch had appeared recently and is pretending to be a member of the commune, but what if she’s been here all along?

“Think about it for a moment. Imagine you’re a witch, and you have managed to infiltrate an elven commune, or perhaps you were always a part of it, but you’ve honed your witchcraft in secret over the years. Obviously, you can’t just perform witchcraft out in the open because people will start to notice that something is amiss, and they might start pointing fingers back to you.”

Elenvell seemed to be following so far.

“But along comes an elven man from the woods one day who brings a child. A child whose mother’s identity he refuses to divulge. Suddenly, you, as the witch, have an idea. A rare opportunity has presented itself, all you needed to do was sow the seeds of doubt. A whispered suggestion in just the right ear about who the mystery mother might be, and the idea spreads across the commune like a wildfire. That child grows to adolescence, divulges to one of the most prominent members of the commune that she has an overactive libido and starts to show an aptitude for domination. One more whispered suggestion in just the right ear. One more idea that spreads like fire.”

A look of realization was dawning in the elder elf’s eyes, and with it a look of horror.

“And why might you do all this, as the true witch?” I asked, rhetorically.

Elenvell answered anyway, “Because the child can be a dyed robin.” This turn of phrase was completely lost on me, but luckily Elenvell seemed to sense the confusion and explained, “We have a children’s tale about a wicked crow that dyes itself to look like a robin and dyes a robin to look like a crow, so all the other robins don’t trust it and don’t suspect the crow for any of its wrongdoings.”

So, it was this world’s equivalent to a patsy or scapegoat, “Yes, exactly.”

“But that would mean…” she looked at me, the horror deepening, “That would mean the witch was…”

I nodded, “I’m afraid I need you to tell me the names of all those ‘trusted advisors’. And I do mean all of them. Talking to them just became my priority.”

Seirke and I arrived at the home of Velsa Nel Variamne, one of the three advisors Elenvell had confided to and the first of them we were going to visit. It was the elder’s opinion that Velsa had her ear pretty close to the ground as far as local gossip went, so she would have a pretty good idea which of them it was. We had ourselves a nice little plan of action that we hoped would determine if Velsa herself was the witch or not, and if she wasn’t we’d be happy to use her as a resource.

It was showtime.

I knocked on the door, feeling confident and focused even in spite of my fever. I was pretty sure I was thinking clearly about this, I had to be right about it.

The door opened to reveal a gorgeous raven-haired elf with fairly large breasts. In fact, while I had vaguely recognized nearly all of the elves I had spoken to today from the penis-kissing session, this one stood out to me in particular because she was the second elf I had ejaculated onto or into. At the moment I couldn’t quite remember which I had done to her, only that she had given me a very vigorous handjob as she had been making out with me.

Today, she did not appear to be wearing anything at all, her full slender but stacked frame on display for my viewing pleasure.

“Felai! Forgive me, I was not expecting any guests today let alone the felai elveth himself. I hope my current state of undress does not disturb you, I know you come from a world with different customs, after all.”

“Not at all,” I replied truthfully, “after last night I’d say it would take more than nudity to shock me.”

She smiled enchantingly and laughed beautifully, “And you must be Seirke, his savior.”

Serike smiled, “I was just doing my duty as a priestess of the Erynessan faith.”

“Please come in, my home is yours” she motioned for us to enter into the home’s central corridor, and once I had stepped inside, the black-haired beauty wasted no time in stepping toward me and immediately locking lips with me in the same passionate kiss she had given me the night before. This was followed by a wandering hand that groped and stroked my package under the robes.

When we parted lips, she gave me a warm smile, “I apologize if that was too forward, I must admit that what little I was permitted to do with you yesterday was not enough to satisfy me.” She said this as she led us into what appeared to be her living quarters. A few chairs were neatly arranged around a single strange glowing orange orb set into the middle of the room’s stone floor. This was an orb I had seen multiple times by now and was already aware of its purpose as basically a fireplace. It kept the home warm without the need for an actual open flame.

“That is perfectly fine by me, I’d be lying if I said I don’t enjoy the welcomes I have been getting in this world so far,” I shot a smile to Seirke, who blushed slightly after no doubt remembering our meeting in the bath.

“I am glad to hear it,” Velsa said, “and I am glad to see that you are safe. When I heard you had been attacked by a shadow demon, I feared the worst. How are you feeling felai?”

“Mostly fine, I’d never been that close to **** before,” I said and then realized that was technically a lie. I had apparently actually died to end up here in Teranos, after all. But since I didn’t remember that experience, I supposed it was basically the truth.

“The demon did leave a mark, however. A minor lust curse.” Seirke said. I paid very close attention to Velsa’s reaction to this, looking for any signs that this was good news for her. I saw none at all. “Thankfully, he’s the Chosen One of Erynessa, so he should never find himself in a situation where it will be an issue.”

“Oh, that is terrible, felai,” Velsa led me over to one of the chairs and I took the cue to sit down, “but if you have been going around all day looking for this witch, you must not have gotten very many opportunities to get relief. And this place is so full of flux, too.”

I shrugged, “It’s been kind of a pain, yeah, but I don’t want to get too distracted.”

“Well, how about this,” Velsa leaned down in front of me and gently pulled aside my robes, “I can multitask, I will give you some much needed relief while you ask me whatever questions you have for me.”

“I suppose that will kill two birds with one stone,” Seirke admitted, shrugging.

Taking this as permission, Velsa began stroking my already rigid member up and down, making me more lucid by the minute and easing my fever. Her pace was quick, just like it had been last night, but also precise and very skilled.

“Okay, so, how do you feel about Lafula?” I managed to ask.

“I do not particularly know,” Velsa said, “I suppose it depends entirely on whether or not she truly is a witch. If she is, then of course she is horrible and even worse for having been manipulating you this entire time. But if she is not a witch then I truly feel bad for the girl.”

“Do you believe she is a witch?” Seirke asked.

Velsa sighed and slowed her pace slightly, seemingly only to prolong my pleasure before I needed to burst, however. At her previous pace I wouldn’t have lasted much longer. “I am not so sure. I think she is just unlucky. I have heard the rumors about the kind of witchcraft that has been used and it is the kind of spells that would require centuries of experience. The girl is barely an adult.”

That was an interesting revelation, and I made mental note of it, “Let’s talk about the attack, then,” I said, moving the interview along. This last word came out strained, however, because my climax was fast approaching. The way her long, delicate fingers glided up and down my shaft was too much to handle, even if she had slowed her pace.

Luckily, Velsa seemed to notice this, because she leaned forward and slipped my tip between her lips as I began to unload myself.

Equally serendipitous was Serike’s evident intent to continue where I had left off, “During the time of the attack, where were you? Did you happen to notice anything strange?”

As Serike asked this question, Velsa was swallowing mouthful after mouthful of my cream, she stopped only once the query had been made and allowed what was left of my ejaculate to cover her face instead.

She maintained eye contact with me as she replied, her gorgeous grey eyes leveled on mine, “I was on my way back from the Variamne house with Alina and Mela, the other two of Elenvell’s advisors.” She closed her eyes briefly as one or two spurts came dangerously close to ending up in them, and tilted her head around, even allowing my sticky spunk to coat her pristine wavy black hair, “The only thing I noticed was that Mela in particular seemed extremely pleased with something. Well, I mean, we were all pleased after meeting the felai elveth, but it seemed like she was happy about something else too. When put into this context that does seem rather suspicious. Maybe you should speak to her next?”

“Sounds like a decent idea,” I said as my climax started to slow down, but much to my pleasant surprise, Velsa did not stop pumping her hand. It was sensitive for a few seconds, but eventually the sensitivity waned, and it was back to feeling great again.

“Agreed,” Seirke said.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

Velsa blinked and glanced between Seirke and I.

“I think it would be best if I got that,” my silver-haired companion said.

“Yes, I am not exactly in a welcoming state, am I? You can tell them to come back later if you need to,” Velsa said smiling up at me, “I am honestly enjoying myself a little too much at the moment.”

Seirke nodded, shot me a glance that seemed to indicate that I should be careful before she disappeared through the archway that led out into the corridor. This left me alone with the horny beautiful black-haired elf.

“You are quite the tease, you know that?” I asked, “Both times I’ve been in your presence you’ve just stroked me to get me off.”

“I am not trying to tease; I just enjoy this method. Is there something else my felai would like to try instead?” She asked, winking at me, and moving her body in a sultry manner to show it off, “Perhaps you would like my chest?” Then she leaned forward, wrapping my stiffened member, slick with cum, between her large and soft breasts.

“Your Eminence!” I heard Seirke call from the hallway before I could answer.

“Yes?” as I responded, Velsa began bouncing her breasts in my lap, stroking my length with her ample cleavage and giggling softly as she did.

“It’s Erys, he needs to talk to me for a moment. I’ll be just outside, shout if you need me, I’ll hear you.”

I was a bit nervous to be left alone given what happened yesterday, but on the other hand, I was excited to have my way with this busty elf, “Okay,” I called back and then heard the door close.

Though this titjob did feel pretty damn good, I had a different idea. Velsa had some pretty full and pouty lips, soft too as I knew from our makeout sessions. I was eager to feel them on my cock. I put my hands on her shoulders and gently urged her off and away.

“Oh, what are you pl—!!” before she could finish speaking, I had stood up, grabbed both sides of her head, and impaled her onto my throbbing cock, immediately sliding myself down into her tight throat.

She gagged and sputtered but looked up at me not with anger or resentment, but with fire and passion. This added fuel to my own desires as I began guiding her head along my shaft. I was pretty sure this was called “irrumatio”, but I had always preferred the term “face-fucking”. And fuck it I did, dragging her plump lips along my shaft from tip to base over and over, rapidly and intensely.

It felt absolutely amazing, and I was so overcome with pleasure and animalistic intensity that I was even hunched over slightly, enough that I could see her hips shaking in a way I was beginning to enjoy seeing from my oral partners.

Eventually, a general concern for her ability to breathe prompted me to pull my length completely free of her mouth’s moist embrace. She inhaled deeply and even let out a slight cough, though didn’t seem to be having as much trouble as I might have expected.

“By the three, I suppose I must have been teasing you pretty bad to earn this sort of treatment, there is no need to be so rough, though, I will gladl—!!!” I interrupted her again by plunging myself as deep as I could go and holding her there.

“If you can talk, you can suck,” I replied, roughly and darkly, a tone that surprised even me.

She was moaning and sputtering around my cock at this point, and I noticed her hips jerk wildly in the telltale signs of orgasm as I began nearing my own boiling point. But this didn’t make her lose her stride, in fact perhaps now that she knew what I wanted, she began sucking even harder. It was starting to seem like this woman had a masochistic streak in her.

“Your throat feels so good, it’s a perfect cock-sleeve,” I told her and was happy to hear her practically whimper with delight. This was exactly how I wanted her. When I felt my impending orgasm coming, I didn’t hold back, happily letting myself explode into her mouth and directly down her throat, holding her head down at the base of my cock as I did.

Her eyes widened as her mouth began to fill up even more, and she quickly began swallowing again, probably to avoid drowning in my sperm. Once again, I saw her hips jerking wildly. I stood up straight again, letting my head relax while I let out a satisfied groan and sigh of pleasure and satisfaction.

But that feeling was soon cut off, in fact, nearly all feeling had been cut off. After a wave of tingling sensation that coursed through my body, I had become frozen in place, unable to move. It seemed she had been the witch after all.

Velsa managed to wriggle her head free from my hands and pull herself off my length, “There we go,” she said but then began coughing. I was happy to see her have a coughing fit knowing I had caused it. She also tenderly rubbed her throat as she began to stand up, “That was fun, but I am afraid the fun ends now. For you, anyway.”

I opened my mouth to yell, but no sound escaped my lips, a small part of me began to worry. This was not looking good. The very real possibility of my **** was presenting itself to me yet again.

“That is right darling, I am the witch you have been looking for and you are the moron that played right into my hands. In the end, your lust was what did you in, how poetic for the messiah of the goddess of sex.”

I glared at the woman, she was single-handedly responsible for the torment and anguish Lafula had felt for eighty years. I was actually kind of glad I had treated her the way I did. She deserved it.

“Oh, do not give me that look. It will not do you any good now. Do not worry, though, your **** will not be for nothing.” As she said this, she brushed a hand against my cheek in faux-sympathy, “It will completely dash the hopes and dreams of all Erynessa-worshippers, and then your silly little religion will be easily wiped from the face of Teranos.”

I kept my eyes locked on hers. Even though I wanted desperately to look away since I noticed movement just beyond her and didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“Fierce and determined to the end. That is fine. I did rather like you, I hope that whatever strange magic that brought you to this world will bring you to another.” This was a surprisingly sweet sentiment, but she still snapped her fingers and then I felt a very familiar cold sensation at my back. A pitch-black hand slid into my field of vision and then rested itself against my chest. It was the shadow demon.

Hello again morsel, are you ready to submit? the poison disguised as words manifested in my mind, I missed you… your life is so tasty.

The hand crawled down my belly and toward my penis, taking the organ in its palm and wrapping its cold fingers around it. Unlike every other time, this stimulation came with no relief from my fever, instead causing it to burn even more than ever before. Then once the hand began to move, the pain crashed into me all over again. Like I had been tossed into an ice-bath full of needles. And just for good measure, the ice wasn’t water, it was frozen acid so the heat of my body would slowly melt me along with the ice.

I tried again to scream but no sound would emerge, and I suddenly felt another hand across my face, shoving its shadowy fingers into my mouth.

Shhh, no more pain, just silence and sleep forever. No one to interrupt us now.

“You really like this one, do you not?” Velsa asked the shadowy creature, chuckling, “I suppose that makes sense, though. I like him too, a shame he has to go to waste like this. Goodnight little hero, your adventure ends here.”

I could feel my consciousness slipping away, and in that moment I prayed. For perhaps the first time in my entire life, I prayed. Not to any of the gods of my own world, as I had never truly believed in any of them, but to Erynessa. I was her champion, it had to count for something, right? I didn’t want to die, I wanted to see Lafula’s gorgeous blue-green eyes again. I wanted to wake up next to Seirke and Erys again. I wanted to explore this strange but wonderful new world. I wasn’t ready to die.

Please, save me, I called out in my own head.

Then, the entire room was filled with a bright and nearly blinding light which resulted in Velsa recoiling and stumbling away from me and caused a horrific shriek from the creature behind me. I no longer felt it at my back, and its hand was removed from my penis, bringing back some semblance of normal feeling again.

“What—!?” the witch began but could not continue, as once the light faded, I could see that the blade of a dagger was against her throat, a dagger that was burning with an orange glow like it was fresh out of the forge. Even though it was a solid yard away from me, I could feel its heat, and could only imagine how hot it was against the throat of the elven woman.

“Not this time, you bitch,” Erys said from behind her. The woman struggled but Erys just placed the blade gently against the skin of her neck, causing a sickening sizzling noise and a shriek of pain, “I said, not this time. It’s over. Release him, or I’ll melt your throat. Either way, he gets released, understand?”

Suddenly, I could move again, but I had grown weak and simply collapsed backward into the chair.

“Alex!” I heard Seirke call out and rush toward me. She immediately threw herself onto me, mashing my face into the bosom I loved so dearly, bringing with it a relieving wave of comfort, “Are you okay? Say something!”

I opened my mouth, found that I had a voice again, and said the only thing I knew would assure her I was just fine, “Boofs. Face. Soft.”