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"writing": "[b][u][center]The Bonds of Need\nChapter 5\nFor a-lycotonum\nBy Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]\n \n \n \n \n \n\n\n\nVitus and Shereeza were closer than he expected after the fuck. No, it was more than just being ‘close.’ They were Pack in a way that none of the rest of them could quite match. Not even his thoughts of Robin quite matched what he felt towards the once-elf. Having another Hellhound in the wagon meant that the hound in the back of his head was…satiated, comforted in a way that it had never been before.\n\nHe knew that it was more than the similarity between them in species. For the Hellhound side of him, it was the fact that it had finally fulfilled a portion of its purpose.\n\n[i]You can’t just do this all the time. We can’t do this. Not to…\n\nThey are Pack. They must be like us,[/i] the Hellhound growled.\n\n[i]They don’t have to be.\n\nThe Huntmaster commands it.\n\nI don’t care. No more. No more without my permission. No more without…[/i]\n\nNo more without. He groaned under his breath as he laid against the side of the wagon with Shereeza cuddled up to his leg. She hadn’t bothered to snuggle up to his side the way that past lovers might have done, nor did she lay against his chest the way that they did. No, all she did was press herself to his body, taking in the heat of his legs and lower half rather than pushing close to his chest. This was no human cuddle; this was something lower, something more bestial, and…\n\nAnd he could tell that it was done to give room for anyone else that he might want. This was a hierarchical positioning. She willingly took the lowest rung, and made space for someone else with his other leg, his arms, his lap…\n\n[i]She understands her place. We are Alpha.[/i]\n\nThe Hellhound was satiated, but he needed to remember that it wanted a full Pack. Not just one, not just a bunch of humans and other species following him. It wanted a Pack of Hellhounds, and so did Mechiresa. Her happiness at getting Shereeza’s soul couldn’t be relied on as relief from him getting others. Sooner or later, she’d want more progress, and he’d have to balance how long he could keep her distracted and who he would have to sacrifice next.\n\nAnother groan as he cupped his head. So much for doing this the good way.\n\n“We’re almost there,” Piers called from the front.\n\nKatya woke from her meditation near the front of the wagon, and Neena stirred from the magical sleep that she’d been put in. The younger woman grumbled, shaking her head and slapping her cheeks.\n\n“Stop doing that, damn it. I may be on Brundir’s side, but we have to work together. You can’t just keep knocking me out.”\n\n“So long as you’re a liability, you will be taken care of as needed,” the older woman said, shaking her head. “Stop making it more convenient to keep you asleep, and I’ll stop sending you to dreamland.”\n\n“…See how long that keeps working, you bitch…”\n\nVitus shook his head. Disentangling himself from the sleeping Hellhound female, he walked to the little pocket door at the rear of the wagon. He knocked, and it opened a crack. Marcus poked his head up with bleary eyes.\n\n“Mmmph?”\n\n“We’re almost there.”\n\n“Already?” Marcus shook his head. “We haven’t even made any preparations.”\n\n“If everything goes the way that I’m hoping, you won’t need to. Just do your best to mask that hole; we should be able to pass right through if everything goes right.”\n\n“Pass right through? Into Egorian? Are you insane?”\n\n“Hopefully not.”\n\nThe more solid of the Cinna pair shook his head, but pull the pocket door shut again. Vitus kept his eyes on it for a few seconds, watching as some sort of magic warped it from the other side. Even though he knew right where it was, it was as if the seams of wood melted into the rest of the wagon, and more, as if the magic that led to the little pocket dimension disappeared, as well. Even pushing as hard as he could, he could no longer sense it.\n\nIt wasn’t perfect; he could still feel a tingle of magic at the back of the wagon, though it was impossible to tell just where it was coming from. If he could sense that, then so could the knights watching the gate. Simple stealth wouldn’t be enough to get them into the capitol, but –\n\n“Vitus…do you see this?”\n\nPiers’s incredulity was something new. He stepped away, walking through the wagon and past the near-naked Neena to the front. Leaning through the gap while carefully keeping the wagon flaps as closed as he could, he looked ahead –\n\n“Holy…”\n\n“Nothing holy about that…”\n\nHe had to agree with Piers there, but the sight of Egorian from a distance was something else. It stood beside a great lake, fed by two rivers from the north and spilling south near their road. The city itself was walled, with the far outer ones in greater decay than the inner ones, but mighty and tall at the same time. The outer walls were sandy-colored, while the inner ones were red with black sigils dug out of them, with greater runes floating over the battlements like cursed protectors bound to protect the inner city.\n\nEven the architecture was different between the core and the outer districts. Stark, terrifying, brutal buildings loomed over the inner walls, staring down like great judges that would fall on and shatter anything that defied them, while the buildings in the outer districts looked…warped, almost organic in the way that they spread and bubbled and seemed to shift when one looked away.\n\nIt felt like the embodiment of the lower planes had been given physical shape, and it made him sick to his stomach to look at it.\n\nAnd yet, there was still a strange beauty to the whole thing. Perhaps that was the most disturbing thing about it; there was something about the city that appealed even in the most horrendous of ways. He bit back the gag threatening to drag his stomach up his throat, looking away.\n\n“That’s our destination,” he muttered. “I didn’t think…”\n\n“…Neither did I,” Piers admitted. “Order…but at what cost?”\n\n“I wouldn’t call that…well, maybe it is,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s just…order picked by the wrong person.”\n\n“…”\n\nPiers’s lack of response almost felt more condemning than anything that he might have said. If the guard couldn’t defend it, then just how bad was it? What had he missed if Piers was actually ready to say that this was wrong?\n\nFighting the shiver running down his spine, he pointed toward one of the gates facing south, one with a great many wagons leading in. It was difficult to ignore the slave pens that were being dragged along by greater caravans, but he forced that from his mind.\n\n“Get us in line down there,” he said. “And see if we can get ahead of someone with a covered wagon.”\n\n“Why a covered wagon?”\n\n“Makes the distraction more effective.”\n\n“…I can manage that. Do you need me to keep them busy?”\n\n“Probably.”\n\nPiers nodded, flicking the reins. They picked up speed, joining the flow of road traffic as the various pathways from the south merged together as they reached their destination. Vitus ducked back into the wagon, shaking his head as he turned back to Neena. She had managed to put a robe on, something dark and suitable for one of the devil clerics, though without the pendant that most of them would have carried. He shook his head as she crossed her arms in clear and present annoyance, choosing to ignore the frown on her face.\n\n“I need Brundir’s summons now.”\n\n“Oh? Which one?” she asked. “Or should I take care of that –”\n\n“One of the celestials.”\n\nShe blinked. He held out his hand, gesturing for her to hand it over, and after a moment’s more hesitation, she did.\n\nIt was a blue scroll bound in gold at the sides, and he could feel the tingling pain that coming into contact with something so…so opposed to his current nature brought him. He gritted his teeth at the heated pain streaking up his arm, clenching his fist tighter around it as he forced himself to tolerate it. He was, after all, part demon with his Hellhound side now. He would be facing this for the rest of his life. He had to get used to it. He had to.\n\nThere was a specific reason that he wanted something celestial. Quite aside from the fact that it would have greater power than just a randomly summoned beast, something summoned from the ‘good’ realms would have a distinct aura that would get the attention of the Hellknights at the gate instantly. They would be driven to find it, seek it out, and destroy it, and once they found out where it came from, they would be completely and utterly focused on it.\n\nThat was why he wanted to be ahead of a wagon with a covered back. If he could summon it to one of them, ensure that it looked like some magic had gone wrong and someone else looked like they were smuggling celestial goods into a devil city, it would keep all the Hellknights’ attention on [i]that.[/i] They wouldn’t have the men or the attention to spare to filter out anyone that was clearly not part of the same operation, and he and his people could slip in.\n\nProvided that he could cast the spell quickly, of course. If he cast it too soon, then the celestial aura would appear before they got anywhere close, and the Hellknights would be interrogating everyone in line. If he waited too long, however, the Hellknights would be going through their wagon and catch him in mid-casting. He had to balance it just right, and considering that the casting time with a scroll like this was at least two minutes…\n\nWell, it was going to be close. That was all he could say. It was going to be very, very close.\n\nThe wagon was quiet as they joined the queue to enter Egorian. Every little clip-clop forward left them holding their breath, and every time that Piers didn’t call back that it was their turn, they breathed out in relief. Vitus’s hand burned around the scroll, reminding him how wrong this was, how he should be better than this, that he was a failure for falling into hellish ways again –\n\n[i]Not a failure…not yet…[/i]\n\nHe held onto that thought with everything he had. It was not easy; everything that he had done, everything that he had gotten wrong, was stacked against him. Losing Robin, losing his life in Absalom, being wanted by Demon Lords and fallen aasimar rather than the good people that he used to know: all his failures outnumbered his successes. And here he was, a walking testament to the weakness of man, trying to sneak into the stronghold of devil worship in the mortal world. The kind of hero that wanted to rescue a friend from a place like that was certainly not present in this wagon.\n\nBut…\n\nHe was stubborn. If nothing else, he was a stubborn man. He had entered the Arcanamirium as a sorcerer, and had tried to learn as a wizard, and even managed to get the theory down well before anyone else. He had nowhere near the power levels of his peers, and yet, he had managed to fight and escape a Demon Lord, even if he had come back to her.\n\nAnd he, more than anyone else, had managed to outwit a legendary hero and escape his grasp.\n\n[i]I’m not a failure until I’m buried…and even that’s not the end…[/i]\n\n“We’re next,” Piers whispered back.\n\nKatya gave him a stern look. He understood what it meant; she couldn’t rescue them from this. If he didn’t get the spell right, then this was going to turn into a fight. Best case, they were able to get away, but without most of their supplies.\n\n[i]Get it right. Get it right.[/i]\n\nPiers guided the wagon forward, and as soon as the wheels clicked to a stop, he unrolled the scroll. As the former guardsman chatted with the Hellknights, Vitus started whispering the spell.\n\n“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” Piers said, his voice quiet in the background. “I’m a foreigner, so I’m not entirely sure of most of the rules. Would you mind walking me through the process?”\n\n“We search the wagons and you go through.”\n\n“I’m sure that you search them quite thoroughly, but isn’t there a law on what is and isn’t allowed?”\n\n“Yes, that’s why we’re searching –”\n\n“But I’m a foreigner. Which means I realize I may have things I could declare, and which I’d have to leave behind, but if I do declare them, that would certainly save us both the time of arrest and processing.”\n\n“Just let us –”\n\n“And it would go a long way towards helping your numbers, showing your efficiency,” Piers added. “And it would help me understand the law to make sure that I don’t have to go through this again with someone else.”\n\nVitus was barely hearing them, but he smiled nonetheless. For all their arguments, Piers was someone that knew the legal system and the underpinnings of it. He was keeping the guards busy, stretching out the usual pre-search conversation, and –\n\nHe missed a letter. Vitus stopped immediately, seizing the magic that was already flowing from the parchment. Oh, how it seared, and he doubled over as it felt like lashes of fire through his soul, cutting, burning, incinerating pieces of him. The magic punished him for daring to put his soiled touch on something holy, trying to escape before it could be finished.\n\nA quiet growl was his response, and Vitus sank his mental teeth into the spell before it could do any more. He clenched his hands around the parchment, forcing his eyes back to the beginning. Again. He had to try it again.\n\nAs he read through the spell once more, he could barely make out the continued conversation. Piers was leading the Hellknights down so many legal tracks, opining on this and that without getting annoying. Never quite challenging, just keeping with their code and –\n\n[i]Stop. Spell. Focus on spell.[/i]\n\nThe Hellhound half was right. They barely had a grip on it to begin with, and if he did let it go again, they weren’t going to get it back.\n\nThe parchment started to glow as he reached the midpoint again. Shereeza moved in front of him, blocking the passage of light from the back of the wagon. He kept reading as he felt the fires of the celestial realm searing his hands, burning portions of the black fur on his fingers away, and his claws turned red with the heat. He shook as he kept reading it, forcing himself through the twisting sentences that felt like they were sliding away under his vision. It was overwhelming.\n\n[i]Focus…focus…[/i]\n\nHe could feel it. The celestial being had caught the spell and was starting to respond. It didn’t want to come at the call of something ‘evil’ like him, but it was bound and had to come with the call of the scroll. Vitus focused his attention behind him, thinking of the wagon just one slot back. Just a little bit away. He imagined it, forcing the image as strongly as he could into his mind. The wagon, the interior, the white cloth top, the wooden sides, the half-orc sat in the driver’s seat.\n\nThe last word passed his lips, and there was a sudden pulse. Not from him, but from behind.\n\n“HOLY!”\n\nIt was not a scream of surprise, but a shout of warning. The Hellknights leaped into action, infernal enforcers lunging around the sides of their wagon to the one behind them.\n\nVitus would have smiled if it wasn’t for the fact that the agony of casting the spell caught up with him at that moment. He collapsed, his hands clenched to his chest as he hissed through canine teeth. His ears were flat against the top of his head, and his eyes blurred with tears as the pain surged through his digits.\n\n“Give them here,” Katya muttered.\n\nHe almost couldn’t, and it took his bitch’s help, as well as Katya’s firm grip, to drag his hands forward. They were already underway, waved through the gate, while the old woman looked at the damage.\n\n“It’s bad, but it will heal,” she said, shaking her head. “Unfortunate; holy punishment does not heal easily for people like us.”\n\n“Nnngh…I can tell…”\n\n“Can you bear it?”\n\n“Do I have a choice?”\n\nShe smiled ruefully, shaking her head. As his mentor reached for some of the medical supplies, Neena shook her head.\n\n“Why…why did you use that one?”\n\n“It worked,” Vitus muttered. “And it will be strong enough to get out of there without dying, more than likely. That was at least a Deva, from what I could feel on the other side. Mmmph…fuck, fuck, fuck…ow…”\n\n“But it hurt you, didn’t it? Why did you ask the master for something that would hurt you? You could have asked for any number of things. Dragons, other demons, devils –”\n\n“Yeah, but I didn’t.” Vitus hissed as the bandages were applied. “Because they’re used to that. Summoning a devil would just mark us as someone that served that, and we’d have all kinds of interested parties chasing us down, studying us, trying to figure out exactly where we fit in their little game. If we summoned a demon, then it’d be a declaration that we don’t support the local lords and their contracts with the devils. And if it was a dragon…do you really think it would have listened to me rather than Brundir?”\n\n“…”\n\n“Katya will back me up on this. I’m not [i]that[/i] good at magic. I want to be, I have power now that I didn’t used to, but I was never [i]that[/i] good at it. But the one thing that I can do, the one thing that I am good at, is figuring out how it works. I have always been good at learning the theory under the spell, [i]and[/i] I’ve gotten very, very, very good at knowing what will work and what won’t.\n\n“So, yeah, it hurts. It hurts…so much. But it meant that the summons was strong enough to survive, that it wouldn’t be turned to serve the Hellknights immediately, and it’s not something that they can immediately track to us. It’s not part of their political structure, and…mmmph…”\n\n“In short, Vitus did the right thing,” Katya said, shaking her head. “And he did it knowing what it would cost him.”\n\n“…”\n\n“Frankly, I’m startled that you care, Ms. Mattas,” Katya added, looking at the younger woman. “I understand that you want to deliver your master’s goods to him, but to care that much about the wellbeing of someone that you were willing to harm in order to transport him back…Has something changed?”\n\n“Nothing. Nothing at all.”\n\nAnd yet, Vitus was all but sure that something had. Even as Neena looked away, he could feel something…different between them. He wasn’t sure what it was yet, but he knew one thing for sure: they’d suffered something painfully similar with Gralon Brundir, and she was starting to face the same realization that he’d had.\n\n“Where to?” Piers asked.\n\n“Ask about a place called ‘The Tiefling’s Charm,’” Katya said. “We should find some refuge there.”\n\n“That’s an outer-district inn,” Neena said.\n\n“Then you know where it is.”\n\n“Yes, but –”\n\n“Then guide our driver, and make sure that he gets there without…distractions.”\n\nThe aasimar’s agent narrowed her eyes, but nodded. She made her way to the front of the wagon, sitting with Piers. As she gave instructions inaudible to Vitus, he slumped back against the wagon wall. Katya joined him, her legs pulled up to her chest.\n\n“In future, warn me about some of your plans. I understand the purpose of this one, and I agree with the results. However, Neena has a point. You [i]are[/i] the center of our plan, and our group. Without you, this will fall apart, and I would prefer not to have to stitch all the pieces together again without your presence.”\n\n“It was needed.”\n\n“It was a strong idea, but it was hardly the only one. There could have been other ideas, less harmful ones with the same basic premise, that would allow you to use your hands later. And considering the hungers of your new bitch, I believe that you’ll miss the use of them tonight.”\n\n“…Fair point.”\n\n“Not to mention that this will slow down our lessons until you heal. Even with Hellhound regeneration, I doubt that you’ll be able to move your fingers for at least forty-eight hours.”\n\n“Good thing that he still has his tongue,” Shereeza said, the other Hellhound giggling.\n\n“That will satisfy you…but I doubt it will do the same to me.” Katya chuckled. “Nor would it be enough to put Ms. Mattas in her place with a doubtlessly overdue –”\n\n“Changing the subject!” Vitus groaned. “What lessons can we do with just my mouth?”\n\n“…I think we can find a few.”\n\n#\n\nVitus would admit to feeling a bit impressed at the rooms that they were able to secure at The Tiefling’s Charm. The inn was on the waterfront – admittedly in the outer city part of the waterfront rather than the richer inner-city part of it, but still on the waterfront – and looked out at the lake. A great many yachts and small boats kept to it at all hours of the day, darting this way and that. Some fished, others were clearly trade vessels coming down from the north and heading south or into Egorian proper.\n\nRegardless, all of them were stopped and checked by much larger warships carrying Hellknights and other enforcers. He watched them from the balcony of his room, leaning on his elbows as they swept in on any craft that hadn’t been checked or didn’t have the same sigils as the great nobles of the city. It was madness and efficiency wrapped in one tight little package.\n\n“Are you coming back to bed?”\n\nShereeza smiled at him as he looked over his shoulder. The female Hellhound had her legs spread, one hand between them and rubbing the puffy, bestial pussy that he had just finished fucking a few minutes ago. She was insatiable, as every female that had touched his cock had seemed to be –\n\n[i]Except Hazel…[/i]\n\nA little shiver ran down his spine as he remembered that woman. She had been so special, and yet…\n\nIt was impossible to entirely forget what he had seen in that scrying spell. Seeing her on all fours, taking a [i]dog[/i] between her legs, and knowing that she would have taken it further while ignoring him…it hurt. He remembered his love for her, the lust that he had felt when they were close, and then all the pain and suffering that had come when he realized that she just didn’t want him. Not for real. Not when he was a Hellhound and she was…\n\nHe sighed, shaking his head. He walked back to the bed, rubbing her thigh as she spread her legs further. Her juices ran down to her other hole, flexing just as lustfully as her pussy did, and he smiled as he ran a bandaged digit down to that pucker.\n\n“Mmmm, do you want that one instead, Alpha?” she asked. “I’ve practiced with that one with some old masters.”\n\n“I don’t know.”\n\n“Mmm, when you decide…”\n\nShe’d do whatever he asked. That was something that he already knew, but it was something else seeing her showing off, flaunting, all but hanging off his arm and whimpering for his touch.\n\n[i]Never thought that it would be like this,[/i] he thought as he looked her over. [i]Someone that wanted to be with me like this…someone that craved me with abandon. I mean…Robin was almost like this sometimes, but this…\n\nShe is Pack. All that are Pack are beneath the Alpha. All of them will follow, and obey, and need us.[/i]\n\nWhich felt all the more reason to not fuck them and change them, but at the same time, he couldn’t deny that there was a part of him that wanted to see what would happen. He [i]wanted[/i] to see what a devoted Katya would be like, or what would happen to Neena if he fucked her properly and gave her soul to Melchiresa and kept her body for himself. What sort of resources, what sort of support could he make for himself if he just…took them…turned them…\n\nHis cock throbbed from his sheath at the thought, growing out until the tapered tip bobbed and bounced by inches at a time, showing off just how much need still burned between his legs. His balls churned away, and the air was thick with the smell of sex and demonic power. It was salty, earthy, and with just a hint of sulfur to it, something that would have been far more noticeable anywhere else in the world. But here? In the realm of the devil-worshipers? He doubted it was anything more than a new flavor of incense to them.\n\nSliding back on the bed until his spine was against the headboard, Vitus leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. Shereeza laid herself over his legs, her head on his thigh like some pet dog from a royal manor, and she just stared at up him, waiting for commands.\n\nIt was almost ridiculous. Here he was, in the middle of a rich room – the walls covered in tapestries of great and powerful tiefling heroes of Cheliax, from the warriors to the seducers, and with rugs that were soft and gentle underfoot, with candles that lit the room and lent it a rich, comforting fragrance – and he couldn’t stop thinking about what he [i]didn’t[/i] have. Even now, injured and forced to take it easy, he couldn’t. It was…it was downright impossible.\n\nA knock at the door pulled his attention back to the moment. He turned his head and nodded.\n\n“Come in.”\n\nMarcus and Pollius entered, the former on two legs, the latter on four, and with a very fluid body extending around him as he kept shifting from one shape to another. Even as they shut the door behind them, Pollius was warping, morphing, changing, rising up on two legs again with a slug-like deliberateness to the whole thing. It was so strange to watch, and yet, intoxicatingly fascinating at the same time.\n\n“We had a thought,” Marcus said.\n\n“Well, more accurate to say that my husband has had a thought,” Pollius corrected, chuckling in his mellifluous way. “And I happen to agree with it, as it stands, particularly as a means of cutting the boredom of the moment.”\n\n“Any time that you are not indulging your hedonism is boring to you.”\n\n“Correction: my hedonism or my studies,” the oozing man said, chuckling. “And my dear, dear husband, you know that I will indulge both [i]greatly[/i] in the coming days. We have alliances to make, after all, and we all know that they aren’t really sealed without at least a little copulation.”\n\n“What are you talking about?” Vitus asked.\n\n“The chances of finding Robin are not…great…in the outer city. For all that the Hellknights maintain hideouts all across the city, I doubt that they will have taken a prisoner like her to somewhere less than perfectly secure. Which means that we will have need of allies. Particularly those with access to the inner city.”\n\n“…And…you can get those allies?”\n\n“Oh, with remarkable ease,” Pollius said.\n\n“I wouldn’t go that far.”\n\n“Mmm, and what would be the point of going short? Heh, we have many contacts from our trading network here in the city. Some of them would be remarkably pleased to meet friends of ours, and I’m sure that there’s someone that can be bought.”\n\n“Is that true?” Vitus held up his hand as Pollius was about to answer. “Marcus. Is that true?”\n\n“…While I do not have the same confidence as my husband, I think that it’s worth asking around. [i]Quietly.[/i]”\n\n“But –”\n\n“If we get invited somewhere, I’m sure that you’ll have all the fun that you desire with some of their staff at whatever manor that accepts us, but until then, we should at least make some attempt at being surreptitious. I don’t know about you, but I do [i]not[/i] find being draped against a torture wall to be a kinky thought.”\n\n“…Hmmm, a thing I had not considered,” Pollius muttered.\n\nNor had Vitus, but he didn’t have any interest in that. It was almost a relief to find something that his Hellhound side actually protested to; it had been far too interested in any kink that it could get of late, and he really wanted a break from that. Shaking his head, he sat up a bit straighter.\n\n“If you think that you can find someone that’ll help us out, go for it. I’m going to have Shereeza take a walk and sniff out the streets, see if she can find any of Robin’s scent out there –”\n\n“On my own, Alpha?”\n\n“…Maybe with Katya,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Just to keep someone else from putting a leash on you.”\n\n“…Maybe I should get one of those, too.”\n\nHis cock jumped at the idea of his bitch on a leash for him, and he had to grip the bed tight to keep from just leaping onto her. The moment eventually passed, and he shook his head.\n\n“Let’s not go there. Not right now, at least.”\n\n“Oh, when there’s less guests, then. That’s fine, Alpha.”\n\nStill shaking his head in disbelief, he waved the Cinnas away, leaning back in bed as he considered what the hell he could do.\n\nThey were in Egorian, now, and they hadn’t been chased by any of the Hellknights from the gate, not even for statements or follow-up interrogations about what had happened. They were probably mostly in the clear, though he’d have to talk to Katya and Piers about anyone that might be keeping an eye on them from a distance. His mentor would be able to tell him if they were in any magical danger, and Piers would know how to spot followers from a distance. It’d be part of his training, after all.\n\nAnd Neena…\n\nHe still didn’t know what to do about her. She was such a pain, so overbearing and so hyper-devoted to Brundir, but at the same time, he understood why. Even without the controlling, gaslighting magics that the aasimar used, the former hero had gravitas. He made his underlings feel as if they mattered when he was focused on them. When he [i]wanted[/i] them, they knew that they were wanted, and even with all the hate and fear Vitus had, he couldn’t entirely get those good memories out of his head. It was…intoxicating thinking of those times, both with the aasimar himself and with the underlings that he had been given. Including that harpy –\n\nTwitch, throb.\n\nHis dick complained about the lack of stimulation that it was getting as he kept indulging sensual memories, ranging from Brundir’s thick cock over his face to the harpy drow’s talons around his shaft, and he had to pat his lap to get Shereeza working again. Another blowjob should be enough. Another blowjob and orgasm would let him think for a while, and then he could get started on planning their next move.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]\n \nSummary: Time to enter Egorian, and the party starts to show off some of their mutual skills.\n \nTags: M/F, Nudity, Teasing, Post-Sex, Magic, Deception, Series, Hellhound, Celestial, Near-Miss, Hellknight, Human, Various Species, D&D-esque, Erection, Planning, Devotion, Mind Control, Corruption, ",
"writing_bbcode_parsed": "
The Bonds of Need Chapter 5 For a-lycotonum By Draconicon
Vitus and Shereeza were closer than he expected after the fuck. No, it was more than just being ‘close.’ They were Pack in a way that none of the rest of them could quite match. Not even his thoughts of Robin quite matched what he felt towards the once-elf. Having another Hellhound in the wagon meant that the hound in the back of his head was…satiated, comforted in a way that it had never been before.
He knew that it was more than the similarity between them in species. For the Hellhound side of him, it was the fact that it had finally fulfilled a portion of its purpose.
You can’t just do this all the time. We can’t do this. Not to…
They are Pack. They must be like us, the Hellhound growled.
They don’t have to be.
The Huntmaster commands it.
I don’t care. No more. No more without my permission. No more without…
No more without. He groaned under his breath as he laid against the side of the wagon with Shereeza cuddled up to his leg. She hadn’t bothered to snuggle up to his side the way that past lovers might have done, nor did she lay against his chest the way that they did. No, all she did was press herself to his body, taking in the heat of his legs and lower half rather than pushing close to his chest. This was no human cuddle; this was something lower, something more bestial, and…
And he could tell that it was done to give room for anyone else that he might want. This was a hierarchical positioning. She willingly took the lowest rung, and made space for someone else with his other leg, his arms, his lap…
She understands her place. We are Alpha.
The Hellhound was satiated, but he needed to remember that it wanted a full Pack. Not just one, not just a bunch of humans and other species following him. It wanted a Pack of Hellhounds, and so did Mechiresa. Her happiness at getting Shereeza’s soul couldn’t be relied on as relief from him getting others. Sooner or later, she’d want more progress, and he’d have to balance how long he could keep her distracted and who he would have to sacrifice next.
Another groan as he cupped his head. So much for doing this the good way.
“We’re almost there,” Piers called from the front.
Katya woke from her meditation near the front of the wagon, and Neena stirred from the magical sleep that she’d been put in. The younger woman grumbled, shaking her head and slapping her cheeks.
“Stop doing that, damn it. I may be on Brundir’s side, but we have to work together. You can’t just keep knocking me out.”
“So long as you’re a liability, you will be taken care of as needed,” the older woman said, shaking her head. “Stop making it more convenient to keep you asleep, and I’ll stop sending you to dreamland.”
“…See how long that keeps working, you bitch…”
Vitus shook his head. Disentangling himself from the sleeping Hellhound female, he walked to the little pocket door at the rear of the wagon. He knocked, and it opened a crack. Marcus poked his head up with bleary eyes.
“Mmmph?”
“We’re almost there.”
“Already?” Marcus shook his head. “We haven’t even made any preparations.”
“If everything goes the way that I’m hoping, you won’t need to. Just do your best to mask that hole; we should be able to pass right through if everything goes right.”
“Pass right through? Into Egorian? Are you insane?”
“Hopefully not.”
The more solid of the Cinna pair shook his head, but pull the pocket door shut again. Vitus kept his eyes on it for a few seconds, watching as some sort of magic warped it from the other side. Even though he knew right where it was, it was as if the seams of wood melted into the rest of the wagon, and more, as if the magic that led to the little pocket dimension disappeared, as well. Even pushing as hard as he could, he could no longer sense it.
It wasn’t perfect; he could still feel a tingle of magic at the back of the wagon, though it was impossible to tell just where it was coming from. If he could sense that, then so could the knights watching the gate. Simple stealth wouldn’t be enough to get them into the capitol, but –
“Vitus…do you see this?”
Piers’s incredulity was something new. He stepped away, walking through the wagon and past the near-naked Neena to the front. Leaning through the gap while carefully keeping the wagon flaps as closed as he could, he looked ahead –
“Holy…”
“Nothing holy about that…”
He had to agree with Piers there, but the sight of Egorian from a distance was something else. It stood beside a great lake, fed by two rivers from the north and spilling south near their road. The city itself was walled, with the far outer ones in greater decay than the inner ones, but mighty and tall at the same time. The outer walls were sandy-colored, while the inner ones were red with black sigils dug out of them, with greater runes floating over the battlements like cursed protectors bound to protect the inner city.
Even the architecture was different between the core and the outer districts. Stark, terrifying, brutal buildings loomed over the inner walls, staring down like great judges that would fall on and shatter anything that defied them, while the buildings in the outer districts looked…warped, almost organic in the way that they spread and bubbled and seemed to shift when one looked away.
It felt like the embodiment of the lower planes had been given physical shape, and it made him sick to his stomach to look at it.
And yet, there was still a strange beauty to the whole thing. Perhaps that was the most disturbing thing about it; there was something about the city that appealed even in the most horrendous of ways. He bit back the gag threatening to drag his stomach up his throat, looking away.
“That’s our destination,” he muttered. “I didn’t think…”
“…Neither did I,” Piers admitted. “Order…but at what cost?”
“I wouldn’t call that…well, maybe it is,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s just…order picked by the wrong person.”
“…”
Piers’s lack of response almost felt more condemning than anything that he might have said. If the guard couldn’t defend it, then just how bad was it? What had he missed if Piers was actually ready to say that this was wrong?
Fighting the shiver running down his spine, he pointed toward one of the gates facing south, one with a great many wagons leading in. It was difficult to ignore the slave pens that were being dragged along by greater caravans, but he forced that from his mind.
“Get us in line down there,” he said. “And see if we can get ahead of someone with a covered wagon.”
“Why a covered wagon?”
“Makes the distraction more effective.”
“…I can manage that. Do you need me to keep them busy?”
“Probably.”
Piers nodded, flicking the reins. They picked up speed, joining the flow of road traffic as the various pathways from the south merged together as they reached their destination. Vitus ducked back into the wagon, shaking his head as he turned back to Neena. She had managed to put a robe on, something dark and suitable for one of the devil clerics, though without the pendant that most of them would have carried. He shook his head as she crossed her arms in clear and present annoyance, choosing to ignore the frown on her face.
“I need Brundir’s summons now.”
“Oh? Which one?” she asked. “Or should I take care of that –”
“One of the celestials.”
She blinked. He held out his hand, gesturing for her to hand it over, and after a moment’s more hesitation, she did.
It was a blue scroll bound in gold at the sides, and he could feel the tingling pain that coming into contact with something so…so opposed to his current nature brought him. He gritted his teeth at the heated pain streaking up his arm, clenching his fist tighter around it as he forced himself to tolerate it. He was, after all, part demon with his Hellhound side now. He would be facing this for the rest of his life. He had to get used to it. He had to.
There was a specific reason that he wanted something celestial. Quite aside from the fact that it would have greater power than just a randomly summoned beast, something summoned from the ‘good’ realms would have a distinct aura that would get the attention of the Hellknights at the gate instantly. They would be driven to find it, seek it out, and destroy it, and once they found out where it came from, they would be completely and utterly focused on it.
That was why he wanted to be ahead of a wagon with a covered back. If he could summon it to one of them, ensure that it looked like some magic had gone wrong and someone else looked like they were smuggling celestial goods into a devil city, it would keep all the Hellknights’ attention on that. They wouldn’t have the men or the attention to spare to filter out anyone that was clearly not part of the same operation, and he and his people could slip in.
Provided that he could cast the spell quickly, of course. If he cast it too soon, then the celestial aura would appear before they got anywhere close, and the Hellknights would be interrogating everyone in line. If he waited too long, however, the Hellknights would be going through their wagon and catch him in mid-casting. He had to balance it just right, and considering that the casting time with a scroll like this was at least two minutes…
Well, it was going to be close. That was all he could say. It was going to be very, very close.
The wagon was quiet as they joined the queue to enter Egorian. Every little clip-clop forward left them holding their breath, and every time that Piers didn’t call back that it was their turn, they breathed out in relief. Vitus’s hand burned around the scroll, reminding him how wrong this was, how he should be better than this, that he was a failure for falling into hellish ways again –
Not a failure…not yet…
He held onto that thought with everything he had. It was not easy; everything that he had done, everything that he had gotten wrong, was stacked against him. Losing Robin, losing his life in Absalom, being wanted by Demon Lords and fallen aasimar rather than the good people that he used to know: all his failures outnumbered his successes. And here he was, a walking testament to the weakness of man, trying to sneak into the stronghold of devil worship in the mortal world. The kind of hero that wanted to rescue a friend from a place like that was certainly not present in this wagon.
But…
He was stubborn. If nothing else, he was a stubborn man. He had entered the Arcanamirium as a sorcerer, and had tried to learn as a wizard, and even managed to get the theory down well before anyone else. He had nowhere near the power levels of his peers, and yet, he had managed to fight and escape a Demon Lord, even if he had come back to her.
And he, more than anyone else, had managed to outwit a legendary hero and escape his grasp.
I’m not a failure until I’m buried…and even that’s not the end…
“We’re next,” Piers whispered back.
Katya gave him a stern look. He understood what it meant; she couldn’t rescue them from this. If he didn’t get the spell right, then this was going to turn into a fight. Best case, they were able to get away, but without most of their supplies.
Get it right. Get it right.
Piers guided the wagon forward, and as soon as the wheels clicked to a stop, he unrolled the scroll. As the former guardsman chatted with the Hellknights, Vitus started whispering the spell.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” Piers said, his voice quiet in the background. “I’m a foreigner, so I’m not entirely sure of most of the rules. Would you mind walking me through the process?”
“We search the wagons and you go through.”
“I’m sure that you search them quite thoroughly, but isn’t there a law on what is and isn’t allowed?”
“Yes, that’s why we’re searching –”
“But I’m a foreigner. Which means I realize I may have things I could declare, and which I’d have to leave behind, but if I do declare them, that would certainly save us both the time of arrest and processing.”
“Just let us –”
“And it would go a long way towards helping your numbers, showing your efficiency,” Piers added. “And it would help me understand the law to make sure that I don’t have to go through this again with someone else.”
Vitus was barely hearing them, but he smiled nonetheless. For all their arguments, Piers was someone that knew the legal system and the underpinnings of it. He was keeping the guards busy, stretching out the usual pre-search conversation, and –
He missed a letter. Vitus stopped immediately, seizing the magic that was already flowing from the parchment. Oh, how it seared, and he doubled over as it felt like lashes of fire through his soul, cutting, burning, incinerating pieces of him. The magic punished him for daring to put his soiled touch on something holy, trying to escape before it could be finished.
A quiet growl was his response, and Vitus sank his mental teeth into the spell before it could do any more. He clenched his hands around the parchment, forcing his eyes back to the beginning. Again. He had to try it again.
As he read through the spell once more, he could barely make out the continued conversation. Piers was leading the Hellknights down so many legal tracks, opining on this and that without getting annoying. Never quite challenging, just keeping with their code and –
Stop. Spell. Focus on spell.
The Hellhound half was right. They barely had a grip on it to begin with, and if he did let it go again, they weren’t going to get it back.
The parchment started to glow as he reached the midpoint again. Shereeza moved in front of him, blocking the passage of light from the back of the wagon. He kept reading as he felt the fires of the celestial realm searing his hands, burning portions of the black fur on his fingers away, and his claws turned red with the heat. He shook as he kept reading it, forcing himself through the twisting sentences that felt like they were sliding away under his vision. It was overwhelming.
Focus…focus…
He could feel it. The celestial being had caught the spell and was starting to respond. It didn’t want to come at the call of something ‘evil’ like him, but it was bound and had to come with the call of the scroll. Vitus focused his attention behind him, thinking of the wagon just one slot back. Just a little bit away. He imagined it, forcing the image as strongly as he could into his mind. The wagon, the interior, the white cloth top, the wooden sides, the half-orc sat in the driver’s seat.
The last word passed his lips, and there was a sudden pulse. Not from him, but from behind.
“HOLY!”
It was not a scream of surprise, but a shout of warning. The Hellknights leaped into action, infernal enforcers lunging around the sides of their wagon to the one behind them.
Vitus would have smiled if it wasn’t for the fact that the agony of casting the spell caught up with him at that moment. He collapsed, his hands clenched to his chest as he hissed through canine teeth. His ears were flat against the top of his head, and his eyes blurred with tears as the pain surged through his digits.
“Give them here,” Katya muttered.
He almost couldn’t, and it took his bitch’s help, as well as Katya’s firm grip, to drag his hands forward. They were already underway, waved through the gate, while the old woman looked at the damage.
“It’s bad, but it will heal,” she said, shaking her head. “Unfortunate; holy punishment does not heal easily for people like us.”
“Nnngh…I can tell…”
“Can you bear it?”
“Do I have a choice?”
She smiled ruefully, shaking her head. As his mentor reached for some of the medical supplies, Neena shook her head.
“Why…why did you use that one?”
“It worked,” Vitus muttered. “And it will be strong enough to get out of there without dying, more than likely. That was at least a Deva, from what I could feel on the other side. Mmmph…fuck, fuck, fuck…ow…”
“But it hurt you, didn’t it? Why did you ask the master for something that would hurt you? You could have asked for any number of things. Dragons, other demons, devils –”
“Yeah, but I didn’t.” Vitus hissed as the bandages were applied. “Because they’re used to that. Summoning a devil would just mark us as someone that served that, and we’d have all kinds of interested parties chasing us down, studying us, trying to figure out exactly where we fit in their little game. If we summoned a demon, then it’d be a declaration that we don’t support the local lords and their contracts with the devils. And if it was a dragon…do you really think it would have listened to me rather than Brundir?”
“…”
“Katya will back me up on this. I’m not that good at magic. I want to be, I have power now that I didn’t used to, but I was never that good at it. But the one thing that I can do, the one thing that I am good at, is figuring out how it works. I have always been good at learning the theory under the spell, and I’ve gotten very, very, very good at knowing what will work and what won’t.
“So, yeah, it hurts. It hurts…so much. But it meant that the summons was strong enough to survive, that it wouldn’t be turned to serve the Hellknights immediately, and it’s not something that they can immediately track to us. It’s not part of their political structure, and…mmmph…”
“In short, Vitus did the right thing,” Katya said, shaking her head. “And he did it knowing what it would cost him.”
“…”
“Frankly, I’m startled that you care, Ms. Mattas,” Katya added, looking at the younger woman. “I understand that you want to deliver your master’s goods to him, but to care that much about the wellbeing of someone that you were willing to harm in order to transport him back…Has something changed?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
And yet, Vitus was all but sure that something had. Even as Neena looked away, he could feel something…different between them. He wasn’t sure what it was yet, but he knew one thing for sure: they’d suffered something painfully similar with Gralon Brundir, and she was starting to face the same realization that he’d had.
“Where to?” Piers asked.
“Ask about a place called ‘The Tiefling’s Charm,’” Katya said. “We should find some refuge there.”
“That’s an outer-district inn,” Neena said.
“Then you know where it is.”
“Yes, but –”
“Then guide our driver, and make sure that he gets there without…distractions.”
The aasimar’s agent narrowed her eyes, but nodded. She made her way to the front of the wagon, sitting with Piers. As she gave instructions inaudible to Vitus, he slumped back against the wagon wall. Katya joined him, her legs pulled up to her chest.
“In future, warn me about some of your plans. I understand the purpose of this one, and I agree with the results. However, Neena has a point. You are the center of our plan, and our group. Without you, this will fall apart, and I would prefer not to have to stitch all the pieces together again without your presence.”
“It was needed.”
“It was a strong idea, but it was hardly the only one. There could have been other ideas, less harmful ones with the same basic premise, that would allow you to use your hands later. And considering the hungers of your new bitch, I believe that you’ll miss the use of them tonight.”
“…Fair point.”
“Not to mention that this will slow down our lessons until you heal. Even with Hellhound regeneration, I doubt that you’ll be able to move your fingers for at least forty-eight hours.”
“Good thing that he still has his tongue,” Shereeza said, the other Hellhound giggling.
“That will satisfy you…but I doubt it will do the same to me.” Katya chuckled. “Nor would it be enough to put Ms. Mattas in her place with a doubtlessly overdue –”
“Changing the subject!” Vitus groaned. “What lessons can we do with just my mouth?”
“…I think we can find a few.”
#
Vitus would admit to feeling a bit impressed at the rooms that they were able to secure at The Tiefling’s Charm. The inn was on the waterfront – admittedly in the outer city part of the waterfront rather than the richer inner-city part of it, but still on the waterfront – and looked out at the lake. A great many yachts and small boats kept to it at all hours of the day, darting this way and that. Some fished, others were clearly trade vessels coming down from the north and heading south or into Egorian proper.
Regardless, all of them were stopped and checked by much larger warships carrying Hellknights and other enforcers. He watched them from the balcony of his room, leaning on his elbows as they swept in on any craft that hadn’t been checked or didn’t have the same sigils as the great nobles of the city. It was madness and efficiency wrapped in one tight little package.
“Are you coming back to bed?”
Shereeza smiled at him as he looked over his shoulder. The female Hellhound had her legs spread, one hand between them and rubbing the puffy, bestial pussy that he had just finished fucking a few minutes ago. She was insatiable, as every female that had touched his cock had seemed to be –
Except Hazel…
A little shiver ran down his spine as he remembered that woman. She had been so special, and yet…
It was impossible to entirely forget what he had seen in that scrying spell. Seeing her on all fours, taking a dog between her legs, and knowing that she would have taken it further while ignoring him…it hurt. He remembered his love for her, the lust that he had felt when they were close, and then all the pain and suffering that had come when he realized that she just didn’t want him. Not for real. Not when he was a Hellhound and she was…
He sighed, shaking his head. He walked back to the bed, rubbing her thigh as she spread her legs further. Her juices ran down to her other hole, flexing just as lustfully as her pussy did, and he smiled as he ran a bandaged digit down to that pucker.
“Mmmm, do you want that one instead, Alpha?” she asked. “I’ve practiced with that one with some old masters.”
“I don’t know.”
“Mmm, when you decide…”
She’d do whatever he asked. That was something that he already knew, but it was something else seeing her showing off, flaunting, all but hanging off his arm and whimpering for his touch.
Never thought that it would be like this, he thought as he looked her over. Someone that wanted to be with me like this…someone that craved me with abandon. I mean…Robin was almost like this sometimes, but this…
She is Pack. All that are Pack are beneath the Alpha. All of them will follow, and obey, and need us.
Which felt all the more reason to not fuck them and change them, but at the same time, he couldn’t deny that there was a part of him that wanted to see what would happen. He wanted to see what a devoted Katya would be like, or what would happen to Neena if he fucked her properly and gave her soul to Melchiresa and kept her body for himself. What sort of resources, what sort of support could he make for himself if he just…took them…turned them…
His cock throbbed from his sheath at the thought, growing out until the tapered tip bobbed and bounced by inches at a time, showing off just how much need still burned between his legs. His balls churned away, and the air was thick with the smell of sex and demonic power. It was salty, earthy, and with just a hint of sulfur to it, something that would have been far more noticeable anywhere else in the world. But here? In the realm of the devil-worshipers? He doubted it was anything more than a new flavor of incense to them.
Sliding back on the bed until his spine was against the headboard, Vitus leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. Shereeza laid herself over his legs, her head on his thigh like some pet dog from a royal manor, and she just stared at up him, waiting for commands.
It was almost ridiculous. Here he was, in the middle of a rich room – the walls covered in tapestries of great and powerful tiefling heroes of Cheliax, from the warriors to the seducers, and with rugs that were soft and gentle underfoot, with candles that lit the room and lent it a rich, comforting fragrance – and he couldn’t stop thinking about what he didn’t have. Even now, injured and forced to take it easy, he couldn’t. It was…it was downright impossible.
A knock at the door pulled his attention back to the moment. He turned his head and nodded.
“Come in.”
Marcus and Pollius entered, the former on two legs, the latter on four, and with a very fluid body extending around him as he kept shifting from one shape to another. Even as they shut the door behind them, Pollius was warping, morphing, changing, rising up on two legs again with a slug-like deliberateness to the whole thing. It was so strange to watch, and yet, intoxicatingly fascinating at the same time.
“We had a thought,” Marcus said.
“Well, more accurate to say that my husband has had a thought,” Pollius corrected, chuckling in his mellifluous way. “And I happen to agree with it, as it stands, particularly as a means of cutting the boredom of the moment.”
“Any time that you are not indulging your hedonism is boring to you.”
“Correction: my hedonism or my studies,” the oozing man said, chuckling. “And my dear, dear husband, you know that I will indulge both greatly in the coming days. We have alliances to make, after all, and we all know that they aren’t really sealed without at least a little copulation.”
“What are you talking about?” Vitus asked.
“The chances of finding Robin are not…great…in the outer city. For all that the Hellknights maintain hideouts all across the city, I doubt that they will have taken a prisoner like her to somewhere less than perfectly secure. Which means that we will have need of allies. Particularly those with access to the inner city.”
“…And…you can get those allies?”
“Oh, with remarkable ease,” Pollius said.
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Mmm, and what would be the point of going short? Heh, we have many contacts from our trading network here in the city. Some of them would be remarkably pleased to meet friends of ours, and I’m sure that there’s someone that can be bought.”
“Is that true?” Vitus held up his hand as Pollius was about to answer. “Marcus. Is that true?”
“…While I do not have the same confidence as my husband, I think that it’s worth asking around. Quietly.”
“But –”
“If we get invited somewhere, I’m sure that you’ll have all the fun that you desire with some of their staff at whatever manor that accepts us, but until then, we should at least make some attempt at being surreptitious. I don’t know about you, but I do not find being draped against a torture wall to be a kinky thought.”
“…Hmmm, a thing I had not considered,” Pollius muttered.
Nor had Vitus, but he didn’t have any interest in that. It was almost a relief to find something that his Hellhound side actually protested to; it had been far too interested in any kink that it could get of late, and he really wanted a break from that. Shaking his head, he sat up a bit straighter.
“If you think that you can find someone that’ll help us out, go for it. I’m going to have Shereeza take a walk and sniff out the streets, see if she can find any of Robin’s scent out there –”
“On my own, Alpha?”
“…Maybe with Katya,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Just to keep someone else from putting a leash on you.”
“…Maybe I should get one of those, too.”
His cock jumped at the idea of his bitch on a leash for him, and he had to grip the bed tight to keep from just leaping onto her. The moment eventually passed, and he shook his head.
“Let’s not go there. Not right now, at least.”
“Oh, when there’s less guests, then. That’s fine, Alpha.”
Still shaking his head in disbelief, he waved the Cinnas away, leaning back in bed as he considered what the hell he could do.
They were in Egorian, now, and they hadn’t been chased by any of the Hellknights from the gate, not even for statements or follow-up interrogations about what had happened. They were probably mostly in the clear, though he’d have to talk to Katya and Piers about anyone that might be keeping an eye on them from a distance. His mentor would be able to tell him if they were in any magical danger, and Piers would know how to spot followers from a distance. It’d be part of his training, after all.
And Neena…
He still didn’t know what to do about her. She was such a pain, so overbearing and so hyper-devoted to Brundir, but at the same time, he understood why. Even without the controlling, gaslighting magics that the aasimar used, the former hero had gravitas. He made his underlings feel as if they mattered when he was focused on them. When he wanted them, they knew that they were wanted, and even with all the hate and fear Vitus had, he couldn’t entirely get those good memories out of his head. It was…intoxicating thinking of those times, both with the aasimar himself and with the underlings that he had been given. Including that harpy –
Twitch, throb.
His dick complained about the lack of stimulation that it was getting as he kept indulging sensual memories, ranging from Brundir’s thick cock over his face to the harpy drow’s talons around his shaft, and he had to pat his lap to get Shereeza working again. Another blowjob should be enough. Another blowjob and orgasm would let him think for a while, and then he could get started on planning their next move.
The End
Summary: Time to enter Egorian, and the party starts to show off some of their mutual skills.