Lament of the Fallen

”Eilian, this is the fifth dress you’ve had me try on. You could have finished a painting by now.” Dee complained as she stepped out of the dressing room. Some of the dresses that Eilian had wanted Dee to test took a while to get into, either because they were so elaborate or because they were so tight that Dee actually had to change her shape a little to slip into them.

“I know you won’t be modeling for me all that often, so I’d rather have a single good painting than several mediocre ones. That wedding dress was nice, but it wasn’t you, if you catch my meaning. Even though you looked stunning, it almost felt like I was mocking you by having you wear it.” Eilian countered and looked up from her preparations. She had to give a small whistle of appreciation. “I think we have a winner. White is definitely your color.”

Dee gave a small laugh. “I think your appreciation is based on all the parts of this ensemble the dress isn’t covering.”

Dee had a point. The small folds at the side of the open back dress gave an airy feeling, but that was a false impression as rest of it clung to Dee like a second skin. It actually covered most of her cleavage but it outlined every contour of Dee’s rather formidable stomach and hips. At first glance, the dress looked like an indecently short skirt, but the lower part of the dress was actually supposed to function like pants. Pants that barely covered anything and were extremely short. It left her long legs uncovered in their entirety and had a bit of her buns showing thanks to the open back. Or it would at least if her tails didn’t cover that area. There was no question this dress would not be decent enough to go outside in, assuming Dee cared about such things.

“I do appreciate the freedom it grants my wings and tails though.” Dee mused, showing her lack of awareness.

“Yeah, that. Let’s go with that.” Eilian mumbled, lost in the sight. Dee had looked excellent in pretty much everything, but this was the best so far. Eilian found her gaze drawn especially to the contour between Dee’s flat stomach and the part where that area dipped backwards to disappear between Dee’s legs. Something about that area just made Eilian’s hands itch in the worst way, as she wanted to run her fingers along the smooth skin.

She managed to gather her thoughts. “Err, you’ll need to strike a pose for me to paint. Something natural that you can maintain for a while.”

Dee assumed a fairly standard standing pose, with her hips twisted just a bit as she rested her weight on just one leg, and her eyes seemed to be looking at something far away. In fact, she was thinking about many of her plans for the future, so the impression she was giving off was correct. Eilian took a look at the pose and got ready to paint. Just as she was about to begin, she felt something wasn’t quite right. The pose was great, but still, something felt…off.

Eilian chewed on the other end of her brush for several minutes, thinking about what was wrong before it struck her. All the pieces were great; they just didn’t form a coherent whole when put together. For once, the parts were more than their sum. The dress was great and Dee looked alluring in it, and the pose was interesting and worth painting. They just didn’t work together. “Dee, the pose is great, but could you try something alluring instead? The dress screams something with a more erotic vibe, but the pose is more thought-provoking. They clash a bit.”

Dee looked at Eilian with some amusement. She had a hunch about the direction this evening might be going in but had not been sure before now. She knew the nature of the painting would set a tone for the rest of the night, and had purposefully given Eilian enough space to back out and make her own decision. They both knew that the more erotic tone the painting took, the more likely it was that the night would follow in the same spirit. And Eilian had just made the call. What amused Dee was that Eilian had not made that call with the rest of the night in mind, but because that’s what her artistic spirit told her. Yet, the call was made. Might as well go for it.

“How about this instead.” Dee tugged the top part of the dress off so that it pooled below her breasts, held there by her hands. Her wings shrunk in size and swung in front so that they covered her now exposed chest, but only barely and very suggestively at that. Her balance shifted ever so slightly, so that while her stance had looked restful before, now her hipshot stance looked challenging instead. Dee’s smile looked inviting and a bit mischievous, and her eyes looked positively hungry and demanding. Her tails also shrunk and were placed around her waist in ways that made her dress even more suggestive, showing just how much skin the dress left bared, but hid what the dress actually covered.

Eilian gave an audible swallow. She just realized the decision she had made almost by accident. Not that she minded. It was just that something that had been a mere possibility before had suddenly become an almost certainty. And that naturally changed the mood. “Yes, that will work.” Her voice sounded a little panicky.

She tried distracting herself by throwing herself into the painting process. To her credit, her focus was excellent and she had really dedicated herself to the craft. Unfortunately, Dee made it extremely hard to concentrate as she kept teasing Eilian, by occasionally licking her lips in a blatant provocation or making other suggestive gestures like letting her wing ‘accidentally’ slip out of place. Nevertheless, Eilian did her best and managed to finish the painting in a record time.

Being a mage gave certain advantages when it came to being an artist, and those advantages both sped up the process and could help the piece become more lifelike. Normally Eilian avoided using those methods, as she’d rather do things the hard way to learn as much as possible instead of taking shortcuts, yet now she was taking every shortcut in the book, as otherwise the painting would never be finished. She could feel the heat and tension in the room building, and there had been this alluring scent building up in the air as well.

As she looked at the finished painting, Eilian snapped the brush in her hands as she realized there was no way she would be showing this painting to anyone, as great as it was. It was positively indecent, and Dee’s bedroom eyes were practically screaming lust at the viewer. Eilian had apparently done a little projecting and put some of her own feeling in the painting. It felt like Dee could step out of the painting at any moment to provide the viewer with the best night of their lives. She also recognized that the painting would sell for almost anything she desired if ever put up for auction.

Eilian squeaked in surprise as she felt a hand land on her shoulder, and pull her closer to a rather familiar and very bare and full chest. “Well, well. Someone took certain liberties with their art. Not that it’s completely untrue.” Dee’s now normal sized wings enveloped Eilian inside a world of their own as Dee slowly caressed the side of her neck. Eilian idly noted that the white dress had been left bunched up on the little dais Dee had been standing on while posing.

**********

“Shall we discuss these artistic liberties you took in your bedroom?” Dee’s seductive voice whispered close to Eilian’s ear, who in turn shuddered with desire of her own as Dee’s breath tickled the sensitive ear.

Eilian noted that the alluring scent had become thicker as Dee got close and idly realized it was a combination of arousal and pheromones. “Yes, we shall.” She replied breathlessly.

Dee easily lifted Eilian into her arms and carried her towards the bedroom. She had for a moment considered using the famous princess-carry but had instead gone in another direction. Eilian felt as Dee moved her in the air and invisible hands seemed to guide her legs around Dee's waist, bringing them face to face. Dee allowed Eilian to make the move and after a brief hesitation on Eilian’s part, their lips joined together, first slowly and gently, and then with growing passion and need.

Eilian barely even noticed as her clothes all disappeared on the way and suddenly felt the bed under her back while Dee was above her. Dee liked to take her time, but this time both of them felt needy and ready to go. Still, Eilian felt like countless invisible hand slowly caressed her everywhere, at first gentle as butterfly’s wings, growing in response to her own mounting desire. Dee was shamelessly sending feelings of desire and lust straight towards Eilian’s mind, who in turn didn’t even try to resist.

Eilian suddenly bit at Dee’s shoulder as Dee’s fingers had wandered down her body to her most needy regions. Dee lifted herself up and Eilian watched with rapt attention as Dee slowly moved downwards, parting her thighs with gentle pressure on her knees. Eilian willingly parted her legs, her heart beating fast in her chest and fought hard to not shudder from Dee’s first touches, hoping Dee would not notice how wet those regions of hers were getting.

Dee did notice and didn’t even bother hiding her own arousal. Working with a certain practiced efficiency Dee parted Eilian’s lower lips and gave a small tentative but insistent lick, at the same time breathing in the scent of Eilian’s arousal. She rather purposefully let her fingers stray towards the little button above Eilian’s sex, and made small circles around it, closing in slowly. Then she dove in without any further preamble, her long tongue slipping inside Eilian while her fingers ever so gently rubbed the tender nub that she knew would be the key to Eilian’s pleasure. Her tongue quickly also found a small rough patch inside Eilian’s cave, and she knew to focus her attacks on that spot, though of course not to the exclusion of everything else.

As Eilian was already running so hot before the real fun even started, it didn’t take all that long for her to reach the peak of her pleasure and tumble down to a first orgasm. With interest, Dee noted that while Eilian practically convulsed among her shudders of pleasure, her orgasm had been a rather quiet one despite its intensity. She took this as a challenge. By the time the evening was over, Eilian would most certainly be much louder.

As Eilian managed to catch her breath a little, Dee didn’t give her time to rest and instead turned her around on her stomach and started to slowly caress her everywhere. Instead of the previous heated and quick release, Dee started building this one slowly, almost starting from a simple massage. Once she noticed that Eilian was once again starting to get hot and ready to go, she pulled the Sidhe woman from the bed so that they were both kneeling, with Dee’s feet on the inside of Eilian’s wider stance, forcing the other woman’s legs apart. Dee was behind Eilian’s back, with her breasts pressing into the shorter woman’s shoulder blades.

Dee held Eilian to her chest as her four arms roamed over the Sidhe woman’s front. She used two of her hands to cup and caress Eilian’s rather well-formed breasts as her two other hands took hold of Eilian’s hands and gently guided them downwards. She took a firm grip of Eilian’s fingers and used them to gently but firmly start pleasuring Eilian by rubbing her in all the right places in her nether regions. Dee was basically forcing Eilian to masturbate herself with both hands, but kept a firm control over the whole thing, constantly adding her own caressing to the mix to heat things up. She slowly but surely allowed the pressure in Eilian to build but kept pulling back when the other woman was getting too close.

Dee’s own mound was in constant contact with Eilian’s firm but soft butt cheeks, as she slowly rubbed herself off as their hips gyrated. Eilian’s hips moved to try and get closer to her own fingers to find the release she sought, and Dee’s because she simply enjoyed the motions and all the good things the motions were allowing as Eilian’s behind slowly but surely rubbed her closer to her own release. When Dee judged that Eilian had suffered enough, she finally allowed her to tumble off the high peak into the sweet arms of an explosive release, and was rewarded with a very satisfied and audible “Mmmmmmmmm!” of pleasure.

Dee had also found her own release but was not about to reveal that. In an odd display of her Domain, she found her own pleasure in controlling the pleasure of others, and bringing and maximizing said pleasure when she so chose. That said, Eilian was going to have to repay these favors later on, and it would be simpler if she though Dee had not gotten off on her own in the meantime. “Ready for round three?” She asked with a hungry smile. “I think we can still improve on that previous sound.”

*********

Dee got up from the bed where the exhausted Eilian slept the sleep of happiness and satisfaction. This little tryst had been fun, and certainly necessary after all the years spent in the elemental planes. Dee wasn’t exactly the most highly sexed being in the universe, but she was still developing needs and those had not been met for a long time. She supposed Nyx would have been more than happy to satisfy those needs during the time they were gone, especially judging by hungry eyes the Meilin had made towards Shioko during the meeting. It was clear where Nyx was planning on finding her own immediate release. Still, it would have felt odd to sneak behind Moirai’s back, so Dee had decided to abstain.

Eilian had been an eager and willing partner once Dee had shown her how to best get her off, but the tryst had also revealed something Dee had not thought of before. While the whole thing had most certainly been pleasurable and something she intended to repeat if the opportunity arose, it also felt a little lacking in a very particular way. That time in the witch’s den of the Coven had shown Dee how much pleasure could come from two psions mirroring feelings to one another, and that was something Eilian could not replicate. It left Dee wanting something more. So while someone like Eilian was excellent for a bit of fun, if Dee ever decided to get serious with someone, that someone would most likely have to be a psion as well. Otherwise, Dee would eventually have to find that connection elsewhere. And that might become a problem.

She noted that the evening was still young and decided to pay a visit to Faylen. Faylen’s baby had naturally been born by now, and that made the child something like a niece or a nephew to Dee. As Dee knew Faylen and Moirai were friends, she was not surprised to find the Meilin almost at Faylen’s door, clearly with the same destination in mind. It seemed Moirai had managed to sort things out with the other Meilin.

Moirai sniffed the air a little judgmentally as she noticed Dee’s rather satisfied expression. It didn’t take a psion to figure out the reason. “You smell of sex again.”

“I most certainly do not. I made sure to clean up afterwards.” Dee protested. She had used several cleansing spells to remove the combined smell of Eilian’s and her own juices.

“You may have, but you’re still putting out those pheromones of yours.” Moirai gave a small sigh. “No matter, I suppose it’s understandable considering the two of you behaved so well during our trip. I am slightly curious about who got the pleasure of being your partner. I know there’s no lack of volunteers.”

“Ladies don’t kiss and tell.” Dee replied with her amusement clear. She knew this was making Moirai uncomfortable for several reasons. “I suppose I don’t have to ask if you had your own fun.” She knew Moirai had not, not the same kind of fun anyway.

“I’ll have you know, I had plenty of fun smacking Ushas around. Her arguments were pathetic enough to make me wonder if the other Meilin put her in the position on purpose, just because she was so unsuitable and easy to depose. They seemed to like watching her squirm.” Moirai sounded thoughtful, as she knocked on the door. That was a theory worth exploring at some point.

“Well, Moirai, I might have misjudged you!” Dee gasped in feigned shock. “It’s not that you’re not interested in matters of sexual nature, you just get your jollies from torturing others! That explains certain things from my training period.”

Moirai knew Dee was simply teasing and just made an exasperated sound as the door opened. “Dee, Moirai! I’m glad you’re back!” Faylen almost shrieked with joy. “Come in! Come in!”

Faylen led them to a room with several chairs around a large table and started pulling out refreshment to lay out. “Taeral went to visit home briefly, but I’m sure he’d be glad to see you both safe and sound.” She turned towards the nearby stairs to the second floor. “Viansola! Vian! Come down and meet your aunts!”

Dee and Moirai watched in fascination as a small elven girl tromped down the stairs with a radiating smile on her face. “Auntie Dee and Auntie Moirai?” The girl asked innocently, apparently recognizing them from the many stories both Taeral and Faylen had told her.

Dee noted the girl had small toy wings she had apparently fashioned from small twigs on her back, and she was carrying a small stick with an odd circle made of small twigs on top of it. Dee got up from the chair and came closer towards the little girl. “What do you have there?”

“Vian, this is Aunty Haydee. Dee, this is Viansola Haydee Faydark.” Faylen said gently, making it clear to both where the little girl’s second name came from. “The next one will have the second name Moirai.” She whispered conspiratorially to Moirai.

“Auntie Dee!” The girl was clearly ecstatic and the reason for the odd thing in her hand became obvious as she placed her hand behind her back. The small circle of twigs created a small toy halo above her head. As if the source of inspiration wasn’t obvious, the small girl declared: “I’m an angel just like you!”

Dee had been standing bent down at her waist above the small girl, covering her with her own wings. Suddenly tears came from her eyes, and Faylen and Moirai heard a weird chocked sound full of emotion from Dee, who suddenly hugged the little girl in a rush of emotions she couldn’t recognize. Something about the sight awoke sleeping emotions and instincts inside her.

Both Moirai and Faylen stared in shock, as they had never seen a burst of emotion like this from Dee, who never showed any motherly instinct. There certainly was a very protective air around Dee now though. They couldn’t help but smile at the tears rolling down from Dee’s closed eyes. Even the small girl noticed something odd was going on, but didn’t know what. “Welcome home!” In an effort to make Dee feel better, she uttered the sentence she had several times heard her mother and father say that brought such warm emotions every time.

“Welcome home indeed.” Moirai muttered quietly, being the only one to have any idea what was going on inside Dee.

----------

Dee shook her head to focus her mind back on the task at hand. Playing with little Viansola had been a nice distraction as they got along swimmingly, but now she needed her mind focused on what she was doing. Their planned attack against the sanctum of the Spider Cult was about to begin and she had the most important role to play. The dark temple complex loomed ahead on top of a wide hill.

The sanctum wasn’t a fortress in the traditional sense, but it was made into one by the numerous holy spells surrounding the place. The most prominent feature was the powerful shield powered by the presence of the avatar. That shield would take potentially weeks of concentrated bombardment from the gathered forces of the coalition. In addition, every building was magically reinforced and several traps littered the place. The sanctum itself was a rather eerie place made of dark stone and metal, and was of course built with the spider motif in mind, with several sculptures and carved webbings everywhere. Dee wasn’t sure what all the spikes were supposed to represent, but who was she to judge.

The coalition forces started their bombardment. The countless spells, ki attacks, and holy spells were more focused on sustained bombardment instead of trying to break the shield in one blow. Partly this was because it would take a long time to break the shield and partly because the whole thing was a distraction. Not that most of the coalition attackers knew that. Still, the desperate situation of the Spider Cult was evident as every sortie of undead or spiders was cut down before even reaching the coalition lines. Most of the Death Lords and necromancers stayed inside the sanctum.

Dee’s role was to use the opening this distraction created and infiltrate the sanctum. There were a couple of problems with that though. When under attack, the shield would allow nothing to pass through to the inside. There were always methods around such things, but this shield was well made and it would take time to find a loophole. Secondly, Dee could sense a psion inside the sanctum, a psion most likely focused on using the Mindscape, just like she was now doing. Many high ranking communities had hired such psions as an added layer of security, as they were an effective method to ward of stealthy psions like Dee. And these high ranking communities could afford the potentially pointless expenditure in the interest of just making sure. Thirdly, her holy powers would barely work inside the sanctum, just as Umbra had warned her.

Now that wasn’t to say none of her holy abilities worked. She had the blessings of four deities and those blessings didn’t stop working just because the Spider Goddess was around. They would work in diminished ways, but they still worked. She wouldn’t be able to pull an army out of the shadows, but that didn’t stop her from using those shadows to facilitate her own movement, which provided her a simple way through the shield.

Dee waited several hours until she sensed the enemy psion was separated from other minds inside the Mindscape, and used the shadows to arrive near the psion. The Authority Dee possessed hid her mind from the psion for a short time, but that didn’t stop the psion from sensing the shadows rising to reveal Dee nearby. As the psion also served a dark goddess and didn’t sense a mind inside the rising shadow, at first she saw no need to raise an alarm due to seeing similar things before, but wanted to do so as soon as Dee appeared. Unfortunately for her, Dee was much faster as a dark pearl suddenly appeared from the psion’s own shadow and made a fist-sized hole in the psion’s throat. Dee caught the falling psion and gently laid her down in a place where the body would not be found quickly. The attack had been extremely successful, mostly thanks to the fact that the enemy psion was so much weaker than her and had not expected the attack from her own shadow.

‘Well then. That was the easy part. Now all you have to do is to find a way to bring the shield down, kill a Champion of the Spider Goddess and then the avatar of the Goddess herself. That should be easy enough.’ Croestia commented.

‘Don’t forget staying undetected and all the traps I have to avoid.’ Dee replied with a grin and started moving towards the places she had designated as her targets. ‘And to be exact, I don’t have to kill the Champion. In fact, I’d prefer it if I didn’t run into them. They’d be much easier to deal with once the goddess is gone.’

‘Yeah, good luck with that. You have such a good track record with those things.’ Croestia’s voice dripped with sarcasm.