Patreon LogoYour support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)

Empty Spaces [IC] (Desril and steinulfr)

The manticore smiles indulgently. "You won't need any magic," he says. "Follow me."

So saying, he turns and walks back into the tunnel, moving just slow enough for Emilia's shorter legs to keep up. Less than thirty yards down the corridor, a hole in the wall large enough for the manticore to pass through easily leads into a large hollow. The ceiling is higher in here than in the corridor, likely high enough for the manticore to fly a bit, and it's clear that this is where he makes his lair. A large pile of furs seems to be something of a bed, and a larger pile of bones not far away hints at the ending of most of those brought here. Some of the bones have been crudely carved, but most are simply remains long since reduced to skeletons.

"Would you prefer to lie down or to stand?" the manticore asks, walking over to stand beside the pile of furs. "I am not sure which will be easier for you."
 
Following the manticore, Serathiel left behind once more as taking her might offend the beast, Emilia looks concerned at the bones littered through the lair. Still, she doesn't quite understand and answers with uncertainty, "I...will stand, unless the need arises otherwise," she says with a confused tone. "I...am not sure what you are wanting me to do," she admits.
 
"Oh, don't worry too much about it," the manticore says, stepping up behind Emilia. One large paw comes up and gently nudges Emilia's back, claws kept carefully sheathed, gently but firmly pressing her until she bends over somewhat.

Once she has, the rush of sensation is immediate and violently intense. The manticore's cock is thrusting into her, oversized feline barbs raking at her insides as he rams home in her. The force of the impact would send her sprawling, but his draconic wings catch her before she can, holding her in that bent over position, as her hands come up to brace herself against the wall.

"There," the manticore says, shifting slightly and in the process dragging those barbs around inside Emilia. "This should work, don't you think?"
 
Emilia realizes with a start what's about to happen only a moment before it does, crying out a desperate plea, not to the manticore, but to the Eternal Maiden, "Rose save me!"

The prayer is instantly cut short, however, as the manticore's shaft brutally delves into the depths of the defiled aasimar, making her cry out in agony. There was a certain pleasure to the monstrous member, but she was still raw from the gods only know how long breeding at the kennel, so even without the painfully sharp barbs digging into her insides the oversized cock would've hurt, but with them, she nearly blacked out from the intensity of the pain. For better or worse, however, she held onto consciousness, and mindlessly bucked her hips in tandem with the manticore's devastating thrust until she could feel his heavy sack push against her.

Between her ragged gasps for breath after her scream, and her quivering, jelly-like legs, the beast was probably experiencing something every bit as pleasurable as Emilia's was painful, however, her heavy breathing made it difficult to answer, and she had no idea how long it would take to properly entertain her host.
 
The manticore is surprisingly gentle as he begins to fuck Emilia, hips slowly thrusting and retreating as his cock glides in and out of her. The sheer size of the creature on top of her, of course, means that even these gentle thrusts are enough to shove her violently into the wall. He's not quite as large as the Yethazmari, but still more than large enough to spread her open, and those sharp barbs are tearing violently at her flesh.

The manticore clearly wasn't lying about how long he'd gone without, because it's only a bare handful of minutes before his strokes are speeding up and his breath is coming in hot pants, his belly heaving against Emilia's back. A few moments later, he thrusts into her and doesn't retreat, but stays buried within her as what feels like boiling hot semen floods into her. After a long few moments of him rocking and grinding into her, he pulls back out.

"There," he says, rubbing his face against her back like an enormous affectionate cat. "That wasn't so bad, was it? And it was very good for me."
 
Collapsing to the floor, breathing heavily, Emilia pants for a moment and silently nods her head in answer to the manticore's question and when she finally does speak up, the creature's seed still slowly dripping out of her as she rises to her feet, "If...you ever feel like you need more help...I'll be around," she says half in a daze, almost as if she saying it automatically from repetition, as if this was helping some poor child find his dog, and not as monster's fucktoy. "But I really must be going now," despite her words, however, her legs are quivering and she starts to stumble half-heartedly out the way she came in, toward Serathiel.

Cats and dogs and a manticore? I should just sleep in the stables, I'm a disgrace, the aasimar thinks silently to herself, absent-mindedly wiping some of the cum off her thigh and licking her fingers clean. It's not my fault though! I didn't have a choice! Even if no one believes me...it's not like I enjoyed it!
 
Serathiel is once again chortling when Emilia picks her up. This is getting to be a habit, the sword comments dryly.
 
"Next thing I know it'll be you forcing yourself on me," she mutters to the blade, aware of its tone but being too drained to properly defend herself as the aasimar turned bestial cocksleeve makes her way down the path, hoping to finally reach what she was looking for beneath the Dreaming Pillars.
 
The aasimar continues to completely ignore the much more direct path above, instead continuing down a path which leads through the domain of a particularly aggressive basilisk before finally reaching a set of stairs hidden behind a false wall which will lead her up to her destination. Fortunately for her the basilisk is currently at the far side of its territory, and she is unlikely to see it unless she continues past the false door for no reason whatsoever.

Past the other fork, Emilia sees a long tunnel. This appears to be an area that was once inhabited by something; rather than rough stone, the walls and ceiling in this area are neatly carved, and the floor is level. It leads on into the distance out of sight. A foul, musty reptile stink fills the air, and she can see scattered bones suggesting that this is something's hunting grounds.

It wouldn't have occurred to her to look, but there is a section of the stone wall that seems a bit off, as though it doesn't quite fit into the wall as a whole.
 
Looking around for the trap door mentioned by the odd voice, Emilia shakes her head, confused. "Useless...I must be going mad, there's nothing here."

Luckily, that at least meant that the basilisk probably didn't exist either, and she'd soon find out as she progressed, deciding to check out the longer tunnel.
 
As she walks forward, Emilia notices a slight downward slant to the tunnel. In front of her the dark is thick and cloying, feeling like it has a weight to it.

As she walks forward, not far past where the voice spoke of a door, she sees a small hollow in the wall to the left. She sees the basilisk head peeking out of it at about the same time as it sees her.

The serpentine creature lunges out of the hollow, letting out a hiss like steam escaping from a kettle. Its long tail lashes, and the spikes on its body seem to fluff up like an angry cat as it moves forward. Something about its eyes, dead black through Emilia's darkvision, is captivating, dragging her down into their pit-like depths.
 
Seeing the creature, Emilia couldn't look away from its eyes, lost in the void as she charges forward, as if entranced. She didn't notice as her feet turned to stone and she tumbled forward, landing on her ass, staring up at the ceiling now, dazed, and unable to move her arms or legs.
 
Seeing Emilia charge in and begin turning to stone, the basilisk seems almost to smile. She can't move, but she remains fully aware as the reptilian creature saunters over, tail swishing across the stone. It lies down next to her, moving with a lazy surety, and reaches out to her. One talon breaks off her lower arm with a sharp crack of breaking stone, sending a muted shock of pain through her. She can hear the crunching as it bites into the stone, breaking it into pieces before it swallows them with a gulp. It moves on into her body, snapping off the rest of her arm before moving onto a leg. It doesn't hurry; it knows full well that Emilia won't be getting away. Once both legs are crushed and swallowed, it begins on her torso. There is no blood, and the pain remains distant and muted as it chews its way from her abdomen up into her chest. Her shoulders are snapped off and gulped down, leaving only her head. The basilisk stares into her eyes again, seeming to leer with a savage awareness of her suffering, before swallowing that as well and plunging her world into darkness.


Some time later, our heroine wakes up on the floor of the bar from which she entered the Undercity. Serathiel is with her, but her other possessions, including her clothing, lies in ruins among the stone crumbles of her body.

As she looks at herself before moving, she notes a certain oddity in her skin. It is smoother than she is used to, and firmer. She easily shakes this off as her imagination, however, and proceeds back into the Undercity, where she will no doubt make use of the readily available shortcut to her destination this time.
 
This time, when Emilia reaches the crossroads, she looks down the tunnel and shivers, but not entirely in fear, before searching more thoroughly for the secret passage the voice mentioned, muttering to herself as she does. Eventually, when she discovers it, the newly restored and denuded girl thinks to ask her blade, "Do...do you know what happened? I could have sworn that I..."
 
Emilia takes a bit of time searching, but eventually finds a wall panel that isn't quite in line with the rest of the wall. A nearby switch is similarly concealed, and upon pressing it the wall slides smoothly open to reveal a cramped staircase leading back up through the stone.

Was turned to stone by a basilisk, yes, Serathiel replies. I remember it quite clearly.
 
Involuntarily shuddering at the blade's response as the wall slides open, "Then...it's just like before...I...how am I still alive? What's going on?" Her voice is more timid than usual, unsure of herself, and afraid of whatever is happening.

There wasn't any choice but to carry on though, whatever the answer was, as she follows the newly revealed stairs.
 
I've no idea, the sword replies, seeming strangely calm for the circumstances. I don't remember anything since you went to stone. I've never encountered anything like this before.

The stairs wind up and up, a seemingly endless distance that must be nearly as far as Emilia has descended, before opening into a room. Low-ceilinged and cluttered, it's cramped at best, outright hazardous to navigate at worst. It's unmistakably a laboratory or workshop of some kind, with tables and bookshelves scattered around. Most of the contents of the bookshelves are reduced to little more than powder.

There are, however, a few other things which are more intact. A pair of heavy books are lying open on one of the desks, and another one is closed. Ancient-looking glass laboratory equipment is sitting on one of the other tables. Across the room from the stairs Emilia sees another door, and to the left is what looks like part of a telescope protruding from the wall.
 
Frowning, Emilia bites her lip in thought, unable to come to a satisfactory answer as she advances on. "D-do you think whatever it is is...permanent," she asks, wondering if maybe she somehow stumbled into a painful form of immortality.

Once they reach the new room, however, she puts aside thoughts of her condition and examines the place, checking the telescope and the tomes, starting with the open one.
 
In my experience, Serathiel replies dryly, changes this significant leave a mark afterwards even if the change itself goes away.

The telescope looks up into a dark cavern at the top of which Emilia can just make out what looks like masonry. There's nothing else obviously apparent through it.

The books prove more interesting. The one which is closed is clearly a spellbook of some kind, and after briefly paging through it, she's confident that while the style is odd and archaic, it's still entirely usable. The others are a pair of journals written in an odd and ancient Dwarven shorthand. They appear to be charting the relative positions of two stars in the sky and cross-referencing them to other events. It's hard to be sure what conclusions the unknown researcher drew, though, without more detailed study.
 
Emilia continues to frown as she looks for a place to sit. This was a situation that needed answers quickly, and she had nothing else to do today as she took both journals with her and began to read them. "Hopefully something in here will give me some answers..."
 
Emilia has no particular difficulty deciphering the books, but it isn't immediately clear what connection they have to anything going on. The journals are vague at first, and they don't have any particular description of why the author was making these observations. Over time, however, their notes become increasingly focused on a handful of stars with no readily apparent links between them. They're spread across the night sky, in different constellations and following different patterns across the sky each night.

One thing does become clear, however. The author was tracking their relative position with a goal that was vaguely referred to as being related to a confluence of the five stars' positions with regard to each other.
 
Not having a better idea, Emilia did some calculations, trying to figure out when and where the stars would align.
 
Emilia quickly reckons the positions of the stars, and finds that the most recent such confluence fell on the night she encountered the Yethazmari. The next such will be in an unusually short time, only two weeks hence.
 
"Two weeks? That's not a lot of time to really figure out what's going on," she mutters to herself. "Guess I'll have to get what I can out of these until then and just make sure I'm in the right place at the right time..." Saying that, Emilia looks at Serathiel, drawing the blade. "What do you think? With everything that's happened lately, I've nearly lost you...more than once...it might be smarter to run away from this whole thing," she says, offering the black blade a chance to voice her opinion, even as her tone suggests that Emilia doesn't have a choice in what she's going to do.
 
I don't know, Serathiel replies, her mental voice worried and uncertain. I'm not sure we have a choice...I don't want to lose you either, but what's going on here is bigger than either of us. And no one else seems to know about it. I think we probably have to do something. After a brief pause, the sword continues. The note we found in the tower...it mentioned the Council of Truth. I remember they had a workshop in the undercity, but it was abandoned a long time ago when they disappeared. Maybe we should check there and see if we can find something related to this.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom