The Ritual

Vivian felt unbelievably awkward as she began to strip out of her clothes in the vine hut Verdia had grown to give her some privacy. If she wasn’t in such a state, she might have found it a bit funny she had this level of trepidation over something non-sexual when she could and would readily disrobe for her partners. But only a bit; there was a difference between being naked for them and being naked for a mix of a near stranger and two friends.

‘Gaia above, Kiera must be a nervous wreck if I’m this worked up about this,’ she thought, imagining how red the bluenette must be in her own little hut. She took a deep breath. ‘She decided to do this, so I can too. And maybe she can use my resolve to bolster her own.’

Nerves subdued, Vivan finished her disrobing and placed her attire down on the small, vine woven table sticking out of the wall. She paused at the exit, tapping down the final bit of hesitation, and strode out into the clearing, intending to hold her head up high.

Her mouth went dry as right before her, close to the base of the world tree, Nephele worked as she prepared the ritual space. The witch was arranging a number of stones Verida had dredged up, ones that would soon create a fully enclosed circle. That was something she told them she was going to do before they changed. What was surprising was that the pink-haired witch had already removed her clothing, sans a pair of leather gloves.

She stood in profile to Vivian as she placed a rock, her pink locks acting as a curtain preventing the witch from seeing the redhead’s gawking. And gawking she was, unable to take her eyes away from Nephele’s pale, flawless skin. Her eyes traveled up the witch’s long legs and to her hanging breasts that swayed as she carefully placed the stone and bounced perkily as she stood back up.

Vivian managed to avert her gaze before Nephele brushed her hair out of her face, her heart racing.

“Well, at least one of you knows the value of punctuality,” Nephele said as she sauntered over to collect another rock, her hips moving with seductive ease.

“Looks like there’s still some time before you’re done,” Vivian remarked, working to keep her tone even.

Nephele glanced back at her, a smirk on her face. “I suppose that’s true. However, I don’t remember requesting those not participating in the ritual needed to strip down.”

“It’s a show of solidarity,” Aeolia’s voice came from behind and Vivian whipped her head around to see her and Beth had discarded their attire and were as nude as she was. Aeolia stood as casually as she would fully dressed while Beth looked a bit less comfortable, her posture slightly bent as if to make herself smaller.

Any other situation would have Vivian admiring the athletic forms of two of her partners, but right now wasn’t the time.

“Not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t think this is as good of an idea as you think,” Vivian said in a hushed tone.

“Why not?” Aeolia asked. “Figured an ‘all in this together’ sort of thing would make it easier.”

“For me maybe,” Vivian admitted. “But I don’t think being completely surrounded by naked people is going to make Kiera feel any better.”

“I think that can be a matter of debate,” Aeolia asserted. “Is it more traumatizing to be one of three people naked, or one of five? Or six if we can convince Verida to join us. Besides, Kiera was adamant about doing this, even after knowing the dress code.”

“I think there’s a difference in her being willing to bite the bullet, as it were, for this endeavor and everyone showing up nude,” Vivian hotly said.

“I think I will help her feel more comfortable,” Verida’s voice carried over the clearing as she returned from visiting the goblin village. They all felt it would be best to inform them of the goings on and to warn them from approaching the clearing for a while.

“You,” Vivian began to say but the words died in her throat as she turned towards the goddess. Verida had clearly elected to join the growing nudist movement. The divine dragon’s skin was pale save for a faint blush that colored her cheeks as she approached them, her hips swaying slightly and her breasts jiggling in a way that Vivian couldn’t help but find alarmingly enticing.

“I don’t think I told you that being naked was required of you,” Nephele said to Verida, an amused smile on her lips. “Is there something in the water or air here that makes people want to strip down?”

“Nothing of the sort.” Verida chuckled at the witch’s humorous observation. “While yes, you did only indicate you, Vivian and Kiera had to be nude for this, I came to the same idea as Aeolia. However, I had the foresight to ask Kiera if she would feel comfortable if I did.”

“Not all of us are brain-linked, you know,” Beth chimed up, clearly growing more comfortable with the situation the longer it persisted. “You tell her Aeolia and I are au naturel?”

“Did once I saw you,” Verida replied. “She was a little shocked but touched I think by your show of solidarity. I think she’s ready to come out now.”

“Y-yes, I’m r-ready,” Kiera shakily announced as she stumbled out of her vine hut. Her face was beet red and she kept her eyes glued to the ground. She stood awkwardly, keeping one leg lifted slightly to obscure her crotch and her arms crossed over her breasts like a mummy to hide them as best she could.

The desire to comfort the painfully shy girl was nearly overwhelming, but Vivian knew if she did fuss over her, it would make her embarrassment worse. Instead, she slowly approached her and asked in a kind voice, “You ready for this?”

Kiera nodded rapidly. “Y-yeah.”

For just a split second, Vivian caught Kiera looking over her, before she snapped her gaze back down, her blush growing stronger.

“Then it’s a good thing the time approaches,” Nephele said, having placed the final stone.

“The rocks were all good?” Verida asked.

The witch nodded as she took off her gloves and threw them away. “They were. Now, if you could call the gnoshrooms and enter the circle.”

Nephele stepped into the circle and looked over to Aeolia and Beth. “Please remain at least several meters from the circle. I’d rather not risk there being any interference or anyone getting hurt when the pathways are made.”

“Can do,” Aeolia said as she and Beth began to draw back as Vivian, Verida and Kiera made their way into the circle of stones. Once inside, Verida lifted a hand and the gnoshrooms loitering around the clearing raced in after them, forming a loose ring around them as they stood in the center.

“You all recall how this is going to proceed, correct?” Nephele asked them as she bent down and picked up an engraved disk, identical to the ones John and Estelle had.

“I am to stand at the center,” Verida recited as she took the disk, “and direct my will at this.”

“Kiera and I are to join you in powering the spell,” Vivian added, “forming a circle around Verida.”

Nephele nodded before she looked over at Kiera. “I had a thought that might make things more effective and less draining. You being in your dragon form would likely synergise with Verida’s magic better.”

Kiera didn’t respond for a moment and Vivian was about to leap to her defense when the shapeshifter said, “I-I can try. I h-have to get used to it, r-right?”

Vivian wanted to protest, but the words died on her lips as Verida subtly shook her head, the look on her face saying, ‘Let her do this.’ Vivian relented and watched with concerned eyes as Kiera tried to actively draw upon the draconic power within her.

She scrunched her face in concentration, and after a few moments, her arms changed, blue and green scales covering them from elbow to fingertip, which were now capped with dark blue talons. Kiera kept her eyes shut as she opened and closed her hands experimentally.

“Your scales are lovely, Kiera,” Verida said, a soft smile on her face. Kiera then opened her eyes and looked down at her arms.

“Yeah, they really are,” Vivian chimed in, hoping the affirmation would help Kiera feel comfortable.

“My arms don’t really feel different,” Kiera muttered. “I didn’t notice before.”

“As much as I’d like to give you time to properly assess your new power, we are on the clock,” Nephele cut in, her tone curt. “But, if you’d like, once we get this done, Estelle and I can linger and help you figure out some of the eccentricities of this development. We have some experience with this sort of esoteric magic.”

“I-I wouldn’t mind some help,” Kiera softly muttered before she glanced over at Vivian. “I-is that going to be okay?”

“Of course, we can do that,” Vivian replied. “Even if we had some pressing issue, we want to help you figure out just what happened.”

“Thank you,” Kiera quietly said, a small smile gracing her face.

“We should begin,” Nephele interjected. “It would be best if the ritual is in full swing when Estelle and John connect. They’ll waste less mana that way.”

Vivian nodded, finding the witch’s logic sound. The mana they would be expending would mostly be contained within the circle until they began to forge the pathways. From what she knew about John and Estelle’s part in this, they would be throwing out a signal regardless of if they were trying to reach them or not.

Nephele pointed to where she wanted Vivian and Kiera to stand and took up her own position before lifting her arms, fingers splayed out. Vivian mimicked her action and pressed the fingers of her right hand against Nephele’s. She glanced over to Kiera, who hadn’t yet moved, her eyes closed and breathing slightly labored.

Then, with slightly jerky movements, Kiera lifted her arms. With her eyes firmly closed, her aim was completely off and Vivian moved to correct her placement, gently grabbing her scaled wrist to get it in the right spot before she pressed her fingers lightly against Kiera’s new, strangely dull, talons.

Nephele did much the same and Kiera let out a nearly imperceptible whine of discomfort, her face growing redder. It wasn’t hard for Vivian to understand why, as out of the corner of her eye, she could make out Kiera’s now uncovered breasts, her nipples standing at attention.

Vivian focused her gaze at Verida, doing what she could to respect Kiera’s clear desire to not be seen. At least Verida didn’t seem to mind.

She tried to ignore the part of her that found the goddess visually appealing.

“Alright, let us begin,” Nephele intoned, her voice carrying a sort of unyielding authority, and a spark of power shot through Vivian, flowing out of the witch and across her spread arms, feeling like a sort of suction into nothingness. As it traveled through her, Vivian felt her mana flare, joining the current as it passed.

A second later, the accumulating power traveled through her again, now a mixture of all their mana. Nephele’s sucking void was joined by the sensation of warm water gently gliding over her and the feel of sunlight on her skin. The combined mana passed through her faster, taking more of her mana as it went and continued its cycle.

Around and around, their combined power passed between the three of them, growing in strength as Nephele chanted something in a language Vivian didn’t understand yet knew the meaning of. It was a litany of their intent, to collect their mana and focus it into Verida, for her and the gnoshrooms to reach out to John and Estelle and form new pathways to their locations. The circulating mana reached a speed so fast that it seemed to be in all of them at once, blending not only the flavor of their auras but their emotions as well. Vivian felt Nephele’s laser focus and Kiera’s cloying embarrassment as if they were her own.

Then, everything changed in an instant. Like a flash of lightning, Vivian felt John and Estelle’s mana reach them and the storm of energy racing through them flooded into Verida. Nephele’s will shouted at them to keep their concentration and keep the mana flowing. Images bombarded Vivian’s mind; she saw John’s backyard and the parking lot of the witches’ domain, and not only as they were, but a montage of memories associated with them.

She saw Brenda and a man that looked enough like John that it could only be his father standing by a small charcoal grill, a small pile of fallen leaves gathered up by a nearby rake, the witch’s lab with bubbling beakers belching black brume, a chalk array drawn onto the parking lot under a full moon.

Those moments from John and Estelle played in the participants’ minds in a slideshow of increasing speed until they blurred into white and a blast of **** knocked them all back, breaking their connection. Vivian struggled to remain on her feet, her legs suddenly feeling like she had been running for hours. Beside her, Kiera had completely lost her footing and was splayed out on the ground.

Despite the physical exhaustion, Vivian bent down to check on Kiera.

“Are you okay?” she asked, gently touching the girl’s shoulder.

“Body feels like jelly,” Kiera groaned.

“Seems I underestimated the amount of resistance there would be from forming two pathways at once,” Nephele remarked in a very tired voice. “But at least it worked.”

“It did?” Vivian asked.

“It did,” John answered, his voice muffled. Vivian looked to where his voice came from and saw him face down on the grass, Aeolia and Beth bent over him like she was to Keira. A short distance away, Estelle was in much the same position, only she had managed to roll onto her side, giving Vivian another shot of her breasts. Around both of them, the gnoshrooms they took with them danced about excitedly, apparently unaffected by the rough summoning.

Out of the corner of her eye, Vivian noticed Kiera stiffening at John’s words before curling into a ball and she realized they were all still naked.

“John, can you, um, stay down for a bit?” she called out to him. “And re-equip your clothes.”

John lifted one hand and gave her a thumbs up.

“I think that’s something we should all do,” Nephele said. “Especially if you’re still up for discussing your magic, Kiera?”

A muffled sound of affirmation came from Kiera and Nephele nodded.

“Alright then,” the witch remarked before striding over to Estelle. “You hear that, Estelle?”

“Yeah,” the brown-haired witch answered as she pushed herself to her feet. “I’ll go and get dressed now.”

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.