Up and Coming 10 – Upstarts Gathering

Eldred looked up at the shuttle.

It was a hovering aircraft, propelled by a number of runes on the four wings of the bus-sized vehicle. It was painted white and trimmed gold, bright colours that made it stand out clearly at every angle.

He had seen the hover shuttles in the sky all his life. They were how people with money got around Iridescia. Even the city of plenty couldn’t provide fast air travel cheap enough that charity covered it.

“H-how does it fly?” Ellie asked.

“A highly sophisticated combination of alchemy and runic enchantments,” Eldred responded confidently. “There’s tanks of a fluid onboard that can be made to change from liquid to gas with minimal energy investment and the gaseous state is considerably lighter than air, providing drastic lift. The runes on the wings stabilise the flight and provide acceleration. Seems like this specific model also has an electric propeller, probably in case the other systems fail. Really, the most impressive part of these things is the crystal battery. See, putting an entire Pulsar onboard would take too much space for most uses, but–“

“Wow.” Avari’s interruption came in a tone drier than the dryest desert. “You never sounded more like a regular guy than in this moment.”

“I was a boy once, my dream job was flying one of these things.” Eldred grinned up at the vehicle. “Not my primary dream anymore, but maybe we’ll have a private one in the future.”

The aircraft descended almost soundlessly. Even the quiet whirs it did create could have been silenced, but, like the paintjob, some choices were made for the sake of visibility. It was a marvel of magical engineering, harmonising aspects of working within the laws of physics with the bending of reality that magic enabled.

It landed on the clean green grass of the property. A door on the side of the cockpit opened up. A uniformed man stepped out. He headed towards Eldred at first but immediately swerved when Avari stepped forwards with the proof of booking. “I hope you’ll have a nice flight. If not, just press the communications button,” the pilot presented what must have been a common joke in his field. Everyone around gave him a courteous chuckle.

Before boarding, Eldred turned to Ellie one more time. “I’ll be back in a week. Do not subsist exclusively off snacks and take at least two baths, got it?”

“G-got it…” the goblin stammered.

Eldred hugged the tiny, adorable girlfailure, then locked gazes with Neora – as much as her ‘disguise’ allowed. He spared himself making a threat he couldn’t make true yet. The strength in his eyes, he reckoned, would speak to the fact that her failing to protect Ellie or, worse, betraying this little deal they had made would see him break the Hurricane one day. A half-bowing nod was all the response he needed.

Ellie clung to him until she was on her toes, then reluctantly let go. Eldred kept looking back at her as he walked up the entrance ramp of the aircraft. Only once the sheet of metal had been pulled back into place, sealing him, Avari and Nyx in, did he turn to inspect their transportation.

The cabin was a comfortable, two room arrangement. There was the main chamber, dominated by a U-shaped couch around a table, and a tiny bathroom to be used as necessary. The seating was incredibly comfortable. A number of drinks had been left on the table for them. Nothing fancy, just water and a selection of fruit juices, anything more would have cost them extra. Avari had insisted they wouldn’t be in the air for long enough for that to matter.

Eldred took off his backpack, sat down at the edge of the couch, then began to wiggle on over until he was seated comfortably in the bend. With a loud, satisfied sigh, he reclined. The leather squealed slightly as he did. The gel beneath conformed to the shape of his back wonderfully.

“How funny would it be if Nyx stuck her head through the wall right now?” Eldred asked, looking over to the dividing door between their area and the cockpit. It was a heavy thing, a clear black statement among the white, gold-trimmed walls that it was only supposed to be opened in an emergency. These air shuttles prided themselves on privacy. They existed to facilitate movement and nothing more.

“It would be hilarious right until we hit the ground,” Avari drawled as she crawled up the length of the couch. She found her destination next to him, using his shoulder as her headrest. Eldred found it only fair to use her left boob as his squeeze toy in return. She did not disagree, even curving her back a little so his fingers could sink into her plush chest easily.

“No bra?” he asked her.

“I packed some.” Avari used her foot to gesture in the vague direction of their backpacks. “I can put one on if you need me to.”

Eldred grinned and pinched a hard nipple through the white top. “As long as you’re comfortable, I don’t mind showing off what I own.”

Smirking back deviously, Avari stretched up for a kiss. She got it. Nyx got comfortable on Eldred’s other side in the meantime. The soft hum of the walls indicated they were now in the air. Seated in a (rented) aircraft, arms around two gorgeous women, what more was there to life?

“Seriously? Nothing?” Avari asked, poking the flaccid member between his legs. “Where’s your vitality at?”

“Left it in Ellie.” Eldred dared the bratty gremlin to challenge him on that front. She would have him for the next week while Ellie would… well, he doubted she’d suffer much. In all due likelihood, she would blink at him in surprise when he was back sooner than she expected. Her forgetting the time in her girlfailure cave was a guarantee. Imagining it was adorable.

“We need to get you more Cores,” Avari grumbled.

“If you’re this eager, there are alternatives.” His hand journeyed down her midriff and between her thighs.

“No, that’s… okay…” Avari’s denial melted away with a long sigh as he brushed over her sex. One minute later she was writhing. Three minutes later she was naked. Five minutes later she was in his lap, getting her g-spot targeted. Another two minutes after that, Eldred had Nyx lick Avari’s pussy juices off his fingers. “…Whew… you know I hate to compliment you, but you’re really good at… paying attention.”

“How do you mean?” he asked.

“Just… finding out what I want.”

“What we want,” Nyx cooed, breaking her supportive silence. “You are incredibly observant of a woman’s reactions.”

That he had been told before over the past weeks, but he grinned and took the compliment again. Being told he was good at making women’s brains shut down was quite the ego boost. “Mhm…” Avari grabbed and looked at her wrinkled clothing. “So, how much of a lecherous reputation do you want?”

“Whatever is the honest amount.” After Nyx sucked on his fingers one more time, he pulled his hand back and wiped her drool off with a handkerchief.

“Good policy.” Avari swiftly put her clothes back on, deliberately failing at pulling them into place properly. Then, she returned to her seat, grabbed his hand and put it back on her tits. “As your primary advisor, Sir, I recommend you keep kneading until the wrinkles make it very obvious what we’ve been doing.”

“If we engage in such reputational displays…” Nyx nuzzled closer against him, practically urging him to do the same, similar or worse to her as he had to Avari.

Eldred had no reason not to. This was a private space and they specifically had rented the shuffle with all wipeable surfaces. The shuttle company knew what they offered.

He took advantage of it.

______________________________________________________________________

They landed about five hours later. Eldred had managed to get it up once during that time. Courtesy of Avari still needing her legs, Nyx had taken the brunt of that.

Both of them looked the part of having been left with a healthy young man for five hours. That was to say that they looked like they’d had fun, but not as if he had ravaged them for the entirety of the time. Slightly unaligned, wrinkled clothing, messy hair, and a dreamy smile on their lips – that was as far as it went.

Eldred noticed some people glancing their way. Whether that was due to that ‘sex-cretary’ look or the duo’s general attractiveness, he could not say and he did not care. Perhaps they would have garnered more attention if it weren’t for the wider surroundings.

They were part of the crowd that was pooling at the edge of the private property. Growing up, Eldred had heard of the Green-Grass district on occasion. A place where the super-rich lived in their walled gardens, it had been said. A description that was certainly apt.

A central plaza served to let other hover shuttled touch down. Each descent added a couple more people to the crowd. When the Neverrain Dominion had arrived, they had been a few dozen. Now they were in the low hundreds. All of them waited by the gate of curling iron that so artfully sat in the wall of metal posts and ivy vines. Past the gaps, Eldred caught glimpses of a massive estate surrounded by a garden straight out of a renaissance painting.

“Eldred…” Nyx’s scornful tone made him turn his head immediately. Concern cascaded into a brutalist form of anticipation. Teeth clenched and grinning, he started to march.

“Where are you–“ Avari began to complain. She must have caught on quick enough.

“And don’t you fuckers lose any of my stuff! It’s more valuable than you will ever be!” The grey-skinned half-ogre barked at the goons, carrying him stuff.

“Otto!” Eldred shouted.

Immediately, the massive man went for his weapon, ripping it out of the backpack his orc henchman was holding. Club in hand, he faced Eldred, who stopped three steps away. A flicker of divine fire was all he needed to bring his blade out.

“It’s been too long,” the driven man continued his greeting. “Way too long. I was wondering when I would get the chance to skewer you like a pig.”

“Just try it, beta male!” Otto glanced to the side. An unsubtle gesture of his head guided his henchmen to begin flanking Eldred. “I’ll break your back and keep you alive just long enough to make you die a cuck.”

“Holy greed, you weren’t kidding, he IS cartoonishly evil.” Avari caught up with the two of them and crossed her arms.

“And a coward,” Eldred added, his smirk only growing wider. “How do you feel knowing that it’s three Cultivators on my side now?”

“…That supposed to intimidate me…?” Otto pressed those words out a little too fast to hide his true feelings. Pig-like eyes stared into the depths of Avari’s cleavage, then looked for an escape route. “I could crush you, course I could, but THIS IS A PEACEFUL GATHERING, RIGHT?!”

Eldred coiled up, ready to jump the half-ogre immediately. The event hadn’t yet started, maybe he could–

A resounding clap echoed through the air, the sound carrying unnaturally far and lingering for way too long. Eldred clicked his tongue and relaxed. As much as he wanted to give Otto the plastic surgery his ugly mug deserved, he understood he had limitations. Another flicker of flame saw the blade in his hand disappear.

“Wonderful, I see that we are all getting along!”

Eldred’s eyes swept the crowd, caught something in the periphery, then looked up. The speaker, an elven male in his middle ages, stood on the decorative spike at the centre of the gate. He was the very image of a classy butler. Long hair, black and greying, pulled back into a low pony tail, a suit of an older style, and a monocle all added to that air.

“Welcome, all of you, to the Up and Coming Conference of the year 7984 of our wonderful city’s existence. I am Bertrand Batholomeus Bovarias. Please, simply call me Bertrand, good sirs and ladies, for I am your humble servant for this event, hosting you in the name of lady Oriana, sir Orelion and sir Orpheus.”

He jumped backwards, landing within the property just as the gates swung open. One arm before his chest, Bertrand took a deep bow. Behind him, two rows of servants flanked the cobblestone street that led up to the estate. More butlers stood to the left, maids to the right.

Eldred obviously cared only for the latter. They were a mixture of species, from human to succubus, aligned with the shortest closest to the gate and the tallest in the back. Their uniforms were wonderfully designed. The top was a mixture of a white, frilly blouse and a black, front-tied corset. Their skirts were long, flowing things, black with silver embroidery around the edges. Shoulders were bare, a halterneck keeping everything in place. Arms were often covered in silky elbow gloves, coming in both black and white, though several elected not to wear any.

It was a graceful outfit that did not surrender too much to the naked eye. Eldred thought they could show a bit more skin. If he made one of them his maid, he’d likely add a side slit or two to that skirt. ‘If they aren’t going to be put in a secretary outfit,’ Eldred thought. ‘Both are good, but I have a preference.’

“These men and women will be serving you for the duration of your stay,” Bertrand continued his speech. “You may have heard that they will be looking for new Masters and Mistresses to serve during this event – and that is true!” The declaration made the upstarts all around whisper. “However…” The head butler raised his head, grey eyes glaring at the lot of them. “…do not approach them with impure intentions. They are under my protection and under the protection of Triple-O in turn. I trust you understand, sirs and ladies?” Agreeing mumbles could be heard all around. Eldred didn’t bother partaking in them. He hadn’t had any bad intentions in the first place. “Wonderful! Then, please, come on in and let them show you to your quarters.”

And the tide of upstarts flowed towards the mansion.