NOVEL NEXT (Mostly) Sexy Times
5/9 night
“Come on, Kalecgosa! It’ll be fun!” Anveena wasn’t overly concerned about her lover’s sudden transition. She’d gotten an explanation easily enough from Tyry, even if Kalec had been confused by her questions. Not long after they cleared everything up and Anveena decided that she definitely still found Kalec attractive, they had gotten a mission. It was so exciting; she had an opportunity to be useful!
Kalec had been changed surprisingly little by becoming Kalecgosa; she was a bit preoccupied with her species’ population crisis now, but she was still the same kind, gentle soul Anveena had fallen in love with. Thankfully Anveena’s sexual preferences had been adjusted to be quite indiscriminate when it came to members of the retinue, so Kalec could have looked like anything and it wouldn’t have impacted their sex life, at least. From what Tyry had explained, most blue dragons didn’t have many close long-term companions outside the flight; Anveena was on a surprisingly short list of significant others that could raise objections.
Kalec simply didn’t remember that she ever had been male. Even when Anveena and Tyrygosa let her know and provided proof, the idea of returning to her birth sex simply didn’t appeal in the slightest. Even pointing out that she had once been betrothed to Tyrygosa simply resulted in an explanation, seemingly pulled directly out of her ass, that blue dragon life mates were largely unrelated to reproduction except in that both sides helped care for their eggs communally. However, all of this made Kalecgosa only slightly more amenable to Anveena’s plan to shave Magister Derenis.
“You need to fertilize eggs, right?” Anveena wheedled, “I want to be involved in that somehow, and Derenis is a man. If we seduce him together, we can ask Ysera to keep him asleep while we shave him. Then he’ll just think it was a mean prank. It’s not like anyone will recognize us if we disguise ourselves. Ooh! We could be twins! Guys like that, right?”
Kalec grumbled, but she did have a quota. Anveena was at least partially right; spending time with her girlfriend while also fulfilling her quota and completing a mission would certainly maximize her time. “Fine. But I hope you know how to seduce someone.” This comment, intended to be a bit of a wet blanket, had the opposite effect.
“I don’t, actually, but I bet Tyry can figure something out! Let’s bring her too!” Anveena’s eyes sparkled with mischief as she pulled out her amulet. This would be so much fun!
••••••••••
Magister Derenis woke up the next morning feeling exhausted but extremely satisfied. It’s not every day that one gets to have a foursome with blue dragon triplets, even if one had spent most of the night watching and fiddling with her amulet. The offer had seemed too good to be true, but he’d decided to let things progress once he’d verified that they weren’t undead. Even when he checked the mirror and realized that they’d shaved off 16 months of hair growth, he decided that it was a worthwhile trade. In fact, he’d be up for a repeat if they wanted more hair in a few months.
••••••••••
Alexstrasza lay with her consort, Korialstrasz. She loved Erich, but she loved this dragon as well. That was one of the most important reasons she had called him here. She desired his company of course, but she never interrupted his work with the humans lightly. She knew little of it, but respected his judgment. He was counseling the humans of Dalaran towards peace and reconciliation with the members of the Horde, as well as assisting in the efforts to rebuild their city.
He would drop everything to attend to her if she gave the order, but despite Erich’s request she had not commanded him to return at once. Better to let him wrap up his projects or entrust them to that human mage he was so fond of, as well as seeing to the defenses of Dalaran against Nefarian. He’d be returning soon enough to continue that effort, and be far better equipped when he did. He was quite adept at pleasing her and his company brought comfort and joy, so she might even accompany him. She was feeling strangely interested in the affairs of mortals since she became Erich’s consort, and surely even the mysterious archmage Krasus might have a lover. If not, perhaps it would be nice to visit a human city.
After one of many bouts of pleasure, meant to accelerate his capture among other things, Korialstrasz was sharing his concerns with her. “I do not know what it was, my love; Ysera erased my memory of the entire meeting. What could possibly be so important that I would go straight to her and Nozdormu before consulting even you, and so sensitive that she would summarily remove any insight from my mind?”
Alexstrasza nodded at him. “I’m afraid I know precisely what you must have uncovered, and agree that it is a matter for others to deal with. I will respect Ysera’s judgment in this matter, but I hope I will be able to share the details with you soon. Rest assured that all the aspects are aware of it and working to address it.” Simple as that, the matter was settled. “So, how goes the defense?”
“Well enough. I’ve manage to convince the majority of the Kirin’Tor to agree to routine mental checkups, and strange artifacts are already examined by small teams. They’ve been briefed on the subject and know the danger these crystals pose, though so far we haven’t found any yet. You’re sure of Vaelen’s information, yes? If I could get a sample crystal to show them, I’m sure I could get them to take further steps. Even pushing for basic precautions on my word alone is straining my credibility.”
Alexstrasza stroked his back. “I’m sure we can find something, but they are extremely dangerous to handle. Even I would likely be entranced if I looked directly at one of Nefarian’s crystals. It makes them nearly impossible to study.”
Korialstrasz sighed. “They would certainly try. Stubborn mortals. Perhaps it’s best not to give them the opportunity.” The two had many such conversations, in between many bouts of lovemaking. He was ready to be told about the amulets before morning.
••••••••••
Ironaya could not productively track Nefarian through the disks for now. His penchant for teleportation meant that they could only do so much. The Obsidian Dragonshrine was encircled, so if he tried to use that location as a teleportation point again they would be able to intercept him. That would have to be enough until he was sighted once more. Until then, she had a building to design, and a ritual to contribute to.
Ironaya had been put in contact with Lady Sylvannas Windrunner, Jaina Proudmoore, and Calia Menathil. They were suspected to be the three people that knew the most about the Lich King at this point. The first thing Ironaya had scouted was a location of substantial importance to the Lich King. The answer was blessedly simple: the location where Arthas Menethil, the future Lich King, had killed his father in cold blood. In a way that was apparently intuitive to the human women but was obviously false from a technical perspective, that was the moment when he had truly become the being he currently was. Building a conductive tower out of the marble slabs the palace was built from would be an effective first step, worth two resonance when she was done with it.
She assigned all three dozen earthen she had available to the task of disassembling the castle. They would work tirelessly until it was complete. She worked alongside them while internally planning the design. It would take a minimum of two weeks to tear down, redesign, and rebuild the palace for the purpose of channeling tantric energy. A shame, but where else was she going to find completely tireless workers?
“Uh. Excuse me. What the hell are you doing?” A discolored female “human” with pronounced sexual characteristics was watching the work with crossed arms. She was wearing armor; likely she was part of the garrison here. Sixty seven humans, some like her, some physically optimized males, and some appearing to be in a desiccated state, had gathered around to watch but thus far had not interrupted her work.
“I am building a structure in the name of my lord which we shall use to subdue the being known as the Lich king.” Ironaya didn’t stop working while she answered. “I have been given permission from Banshee Queen Sylvanas Windrunner to complete this task in this location.”
The humans began whispering among themselves. General approval. Good. One of the desiccated ones shouted from the crowd. “You need anything for that?”
Ironaya stopped to consider the answer to that question, noting that many of the individuals here had been Ordered, especially the optimized living ones. She explained the tasks which required the minimum levels of precision. The bulk of work was simply moving stone out of the way and then moving it into position for the last stage of the process. Once she revealed her requirements, she was given the opportunity to see how the New Order operated. Individually each of the “volunteer” workers (what a novel concept!) was hideously inefficient, but they flooded out of the tunnels below the ruined city like insects and collectively worked together at every point of the area of operation simultaneously. She updated her expected time for completion. Three days at most.
••••••••••
“Yes, yes no take candle.” Auffrey repeated for the ten thousandth time. “Not only no take candle, we will give you candles in return for sparkly rocks.” The young noble was slowly, patiently explaining the concept of commerce to the gravelsnout Kobolds for the eightieth time today. She had approached as a harpy, as these kobolds had a relatively positive relationship with the nearest harpy tribe, using her new sense for who would be most receptive to her offers to choose a single kobold. That had, perhaps, been a mistake.
Nearly every kobold in the entire tribe had individually been brought to interrogate her on the subject. It wasn’t hard to convince any individual, most of them wanted additional food, tools, and candles after all. They seemed scared to openly show support to an outsider until they had a majority of the clan on their side for some reason, instead bringing one kobold at a time to be individually convinced.
She found out why at long last when their chieftain arrived, quite enraged that his kinsmen had dared to harbor an outsider nearly all day. Even worse, the outsider was advocating the wonders of the outside world, which was scary and bad. He charged her out of the blue with a pickax. It was startling, but Auffrey remembered what Magister Doan had taught her and incinerated him to ash near-instantly.
The other kobolds were silent for several seconds before one stepped forward with an uncut piece of emerald. “I take candle?”