[b][u][center]The Distractions of Affection
Part 6
For a-lycotonum
By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]
 
 
 
 
 



Three days had passed since the attempted incursion at the Arcanamirium library, and the Halstad were-rat that had been taken prisoner remained hanging in the back of her laboratory. Nthabi would occasionally spare him a glance, but little more; the rune-wards that she had set up around him allowed her to see in, but did not allow him the same privilege without at least three separate keywords, all to ensure that he was never accidentally allowed to see what she was doing without her knowledge.

She leaned over the bubbling mixtures of the were-rat’s harvested fluids, watching as they changed color when added to different flames and alchemical mixtures she’d reserved for her tests. Every so often, one would alter itself slightly, indicating that there were some minor chemicals added to it, but never enough to explain the power that he’d wielded that first day.

Nthabi shook her head, tapping her chin. The pressure inside of her, located just above her stomach, continued to swell and shrink by turns. So far, the wards had held against the strange curse that her prisoner had tried to use on her, but it was remarkably stubborn about being interacted with. Her own theories of where it had come from were proving more correct by the day.

[i]Mild mutations typical of were-rats that stay in their beast forms more often than not, but nothing that would allow for this…[/i]

She’d felt the demonic touch through the kiss before she’d properly captured him, but had hoped she was wrong. Apparently, she was not.

“A host, then…”

Except he wasn’t. Any Dean knew the signs of possession, these days; after the efforts of Orlov, they had gone through a refresher course of how to spot the signs of those that were affected by demons, driven by them, and this were-rat wasn’t anything like that. All his motivations were mortal, and more than that, vengeful.

She glanced over her shoulder. The steel chains that held his arms over his head kept him in place, but he still shamelessly showed his cock, flexing it and making it bounce like some wild horse flinging its stallion-hood around. She shook her head, looking away from him as she felt the curse flare inside of her.

[i]An incubus, then?[/i] She nodded. [i]More than likely. He wields sex like power, which would be a sexual demon. Too aggressive to be some wild spirit. And too…seductive.[/i]

It was possible that she could exorcise the curse from herself, but to do that, she needed more knowledge about it. A simple bit of priestly power might have done something, but considering the growing gap between the Arcanamirium and the priesthoods that dotted the city…

She shook her head. Headmistress Vadu had done many things for the Arcanamirium, but Nthabi didn’t know what could have been done to save them from the gradually growing concerns of the rest of the city. The priesthoods had risen in power as the years wore on, and while the magical academy was still the most prestigious in the world, there [i]were[/i] other options out there. Their isolation probably didn’t help matters, nor the fact that they were so unapproachable.

But for the things that happened within their walls, did they have a choice?

She stepped away from the bubbling liquids, looking inward again. Her eyes closed, her hands cupped together over her stomach, she mentally nudged at the walls that she’d raised around the curse. It was flaring hot within those magical barriers, and she let them down, just a tiny bit –

“Mmmph…”

And it was like being grabbed by Hell itself, warm and firm and sultry all at once. It promised pleasure, bliss, power –

And she cut the connection once more. Her heart raced behind her ribs, beating against her bones, and Nthabi had to focus her attention on it, slowing it down.

[i]Calm…calm…calm…[/i]

The heat was once more contained, but the effects were there. A sensitivity remained, a warmth between her legs, and a stiffness along her nipples. One hand rose, brushing against the leather apron that she always wore while working with her potion ingredients, and she hissed as the leather felt more…more pleasurable against her nipples than it should have done. She shook her head, bringing her hands back to her sides.

[i]This is going to complicate things…[/i]

To remove the curse, she had to study it. To study the curse, she had to interact with it. The problem was, the longer that she was in touch with the curse, the less she cared about it, and the more effect that it might have on her body.

That little touch hadn’t been enough to allow it more than a burst of arousal through her, but it had been sufficient to leave her more than a trifle damp between her legs. She shook her head as she pushed her initial instincts to check that back to the rear of her mind, taking another deep breath, then another, and another.

Soon, that heat had been banished. She was in control again, but the power was locked away, and with it, any details about it.

[i]…Clever…[/i]

It was a magic meant to distract those afflicted by it from trying to remove it. Even those with brilliant minds and powerful magic would be distracted by its effects, so focused on what it did to them that they couldn’t react to it, or fight back. And as a result, she was forced to exert her magic to keep the cursed locked away, weakening her to an extent, until it could be removed from her.

Very clever. And very irritating.

Nthabi lifted the leather apron off her neck, resting it against the wall before gesturing towards the fires burning beneath the various chemicals and reagents. It went off instantly, cooling the room as she pulled her mail shirt back on. Her eyes went back to the were-rat, wondering what was going through his head.

[i]He’s afraid of someone…someone very powerful out there…[/i]

There were few people that were both willing to use a rat like this and still have that level of power on their own. Most of those with that sort of ill-intent never rose to great prominence without showing their true colors, and those that did were limited to the greater temples of the evil gods on the far reaches of Absalom.

They were known, however, and they were bound by the same strictures that their gods were. Here and there, little sorcerers and other magic users would crop up, but usually the Arcanamirium would be sufficient to take care of them before they grew too strong. The militia, likewise, tended to get involved at a base level before they ever reached a point of empowering and threatening a were-rat like this.

And with this being an incubus in him…

[i]That doesn’t leave many suspects…[/i]

Particularly not after the Outbreak. Nthabi remembered the possessed, empowered creatures that had rampaged through the city and slammed against the walls of the Arcanamirium. They had been determined to take the academy, to rip down the walls and step inside. The creatures within the former mortals, the outsiders that had been placed within their flesh, had been driven by unseen whips to do the impossible.

And they had paid the price.

Nthabi clenched her fingers into fists as she remembered what she’d done as part of the defense. Acid, dancing blades, and more had adorned the walls of the academy, forcing the possessed people back. Some had died, some had crawled off, injured, and still others had disappeared completely. There was no record of the casualties, no true ones…but they all had a good idea of where the creatures had come from.

[i]Brundir.[/i]

It was the only possibility that made logical sense. The aasimar was a former adventurer, someone with sufficient power to make most blanch, and the only reason that he was so trusted was that he had done so much for the city.

More than most would do.

More than any should do.

[i]He is too generous…too caring…too focused on making people like him…[/i]

She knew what she had to do. First, she had to get the curse out of her, and for that, she needed information about it. The were-rat wouldn’t tell her how to remove the curse, but just as he was the source of it, he could apply more.

If she was careful, it would be fine. If she was not…

She would be careful.

Nthabi shook her head, hardly believing she was doing this. But until she got the curse removed, until she studied it enough to know how it worked, she would be sacrificing her power to keeping it contained.

And that wasn’t a viable option. Not with the dangers looming over the academy.

Nthabi took one more deep breath. She knew that this would be something that the rat would want to do. He had already declared how much he wanted to rip her down, take her out, show her where she ‘belonged.’ With her body…well, it would be no difficulty to tempt him into using the curse again.

She looked down. Even through the mail shirt, she knew how she looked. Tall, dark-skinned, with long braids of black running down the sides of her head and a good way down her back, she was lean and muscled. Tight and trim along her middle, she had little of the curves many others in the academy boasted. She had all but worked them off, cutting them down bit by bit with her exercise routine until nothing but the corded muscles remained beneath her flesh.

Oh, there were some curves, but not many. She was not what most would consider sensual.

But the rat? He would see his temptations.

She pulled off her belt, tossing it to the side, and did the same with her boots. Might as well give him some hope. Something to cling to. Something to make him think that the curse was already working.

Perhaps it was; she would normally only consider something like this in utter extremis. Much as she was slightly desperate, they weren’t in that position yet.

[i]We need information…and I need to remove this curse.[/i]

She adjusted her clothing, making it a little looser, a little more easily removed for the sake of her work. Once satisfied, she walked over to the rune-marks on the wall, floor, and ceiling, and waved her hand.

As soon as the walls came down, the were-rat’s eyes locked with hers. He smirked, but there was a faint fear in his eyes, something that knew that he wasn’t completely safe.

Good.

She stepped close, grabbing him by the chin with her metal gauntlets. He grunted as she applied pressure, pulling him that bit closer without letting him touch her skin.

“I want you for something.”

“Mmmph…All the ladies want me.”

“Not for this.”

“Yeah? I bet that you want – Nnngh!”

He was obedient enough – or perhaps just scared enough – to shut up when she squeezed his balls. They were swollen again, which meant that he had the were-rat libido. They probably had little in the way of a refractory period, too, allowing him to keep going, and going. Better than some humans, more than likely.

[i]A detail as dangerous as it is fascinating…[/i]

She put that out of her head, as well as the temptation to test that. Instead, she looked at the burn marks she’d left on his cock. [i]They[/i], unlike the tip of his tail, hadn’t regenerated away. There were limits to what the were-rat could pull back, which meant that he was still rather vulnerable and reliant on lycanthropic strength and the power of the demon inside of him. That would give her the advantage.

She slowly released his balls, and he hung a little more limply in his chains. As he huffed for breath, she squeezed his jaw slightly tighter.

“What you’re going to do…is exactly what you are told to do. Do you understand me?”

“Mmmph…I…Understand.”

“Good.”

She loosened the chains. Not much, at first, watching as he realized that he was no longer strung up quite so high. She pushed him down, the chains loosening as she used a barrier spell to slowly work him down, down, down to his knees. The chains fell, hit the floor, and were magnetized with another spell to stay there, keeping him on his knees.

“Mmmph…so…what are you going to get out of me?” he grunted.

“I need to know more about your curse.”

“Heh. I knew – mmph!”

She pinched his jawline, this time closer to where the hinge was. A little pressure there would completely disconnect the joint, forcing the maw to fall open and stay that way. He knew it, too; he shut up quickly.

“You will not speak.”

“…”

“Good. Now, understand this. I am the one in charge. I am the one telling you what to do. If you take one step out of line, then I will make sure that every further test will be worse again. The burn on your shaft is just the start. Do you understand that?”

“…”

“You may nod.”

He did.

“Good.”

Nthabi slowly loosened the waistband of her pants, letting them slid down to her thighs. The rat’s eyes went wide, probably for the fact that there was nothing beneath them. Her sex was wet, already, glistening from the bit of curse-touch that she had attempted before.

“Your power is exchanged through oral contact, yes?” she asked.

“…Yes.”

“Then you can express it with a kiss here.”

“…Heh, you think you can take it?”

“I will understand it.”

“You asked for it.”

“Then give me…what I asked for…”

She hooked her leg around his head, pulling him close. He yelped, clearly surprised that she was as forward as she was, but it was the only way.

“Kiss.”

Her order was followed all but instantly, and it was like the two ends of a magical circuit were finally connected. Her muscles tensed from head to toe, and she hissed through clenched teeth as the heat suddenly hit her with all the fury she had expected, and more. It was so intense that what little drying out her sex had done was instantly replaced with a new deluge down there, and she could feel his tongue working inside of her.

[i]Not long…not long…[/i]

The curse was feeding itself, getting more of the power that the incubus used before and getting stronger in her core. Her insides were clenching on nothing, pulling on nothing, trying to milk a cock that wasn’t there. More than that, she could feel…tendrils. Tendrils of ghostly things that were all but writing on the inside of her womb, trying to place something there, and –

“Nnngh…mmmph…mmmph…”

She barely kept from rolling her hips against his tongue and mouth, holding back her reactions with a deathgrip to keep him from realizing what he was doing to her. Her clit twitched in his mouth, her pussy clenched around his tongue –

And the pleasure was spreading. The heat and warmth and prickle-sense of need that came with a rapidly-oncoming orgasm was already hitting her, leaving her sweating down her spine, her skin tight, and every hair on her body stood up in anticipation.

[i]No…no…no…[/i]

She could feel it coming, felt it right on the verge of completely overtaking her. The heat ran from his mouth to that curse-box in her middle, feeding it…

Growing it…

Swelling it…

Empowering it.

With a grunt, she stepped back. He tried to follow her, clearly trying to keep the curse going, but she managed to stop him. As soon as she got some distance, she slammed the door down on the curse-ward inside of her, pinning it in place once more.

This time, however, it was…stronger. It pushed back, trying to break through her wards, and she knew that it would require more power to keep back. Her breath caught in her throat as she took one deep breath after another, forcing herself to calm down, to relax, to feel…

To feel…

Focused…

Cool.

Collected.

Bit by bit, she managed to take control of herself, and though her sex was still soaked, she was able to keep from changing further. She felt it, though. She felt it…and she knew what it was.

“Clever,” Nthabi said, the shivers and shakes running down her arms and legs coming to an end as she pinched her nose. “A spell…designed…to arouse someone so greatly that they cannot do anything but give in. One that uses the arousal to feed the transformation…and encourage a drain elsewhere.”

“…How the [i]fuck[/i] are you still standing?” the Halstad were-rat muttered.

“Willpower. Intelligence. Magical ability. And the fact that I will [i]not[/i] allow someone to bring danger to my people.”

“…But what about to you?”

She narrowed her eyes, and he smirked.

“Oh…Oh, ho, ho. There it is.”

Shaking her head, she whipped her leg up and around. The were-rat slumped back as she kicked him across the face, and she pushed his head back, heel against his chin, grinding his face against the stone wall behind him.

“Try and analyze me again, and I will do worse –”

He dragged his tongue over her foot. It was nothing more than slime, likely no more than spittle that coated the underside, but she yanked her leg back, regardless. He chuckled as she took a step back, putting the wall up around him once more.

[i]I lost control.[/i]

Not necessarily of her power, but most certainly of her anger. Allowing a specimen to rile her up like that was not something that she could afford to do. Not with the danger that he presented to the common mages.

As she hopped on one foot to her wipes and cloths, she made a mental note. He [i]could[/i] antagonize her…but she had information. The flood of curse energy through her had been most enlightening, and she was starting to understand how he worked.

Sooner or later, she’d have a way to end the curse.

#

Lord Gralon Brundir was not happy, and the source of his unhappiness – or at the very least, a contributor – sat across the table from him as he looked at the latest announcements that had been put up over the city.

“Your brother’s reputation has become a problem,” he muttered.

“It’s not my fault,” Mika said.

“It is sufficiently your problem, however.”

When he’d ordered her to smear the Arcanamirium’s reputation throughout the city, telling them of the overreach that the academy was committing by keeping one of the private citizens of the city within its walls, he had hoped that the Arcanamirium would know better than to escalate. He’d relied on it, as a matter of fact.

They hadn’t just escalated, though. They’d outplayed him.

Not only had they admitted that they were keeping a prisoner, they went into the full details of just who the prisoner was. Not only the relative of a judge – a judge that was using her civilly-designated power to try and accomplish a personal goal – but a wanted, dangerous criminal in his own right. A criminal, it was rumored, that the judge had set free using various connections of her own.

It stopped just short of pulling the aasimar into the whole mess, but it was a scant miss, and he knew it for what it was. They were showing him ‘mercy,’ allowing him a chance to walk it back if he knew what was good for him.

He hated it. And he hated them.

“Master, I’m sorry. I thought –”

“You followed orders,” Gralon muttered under his breath, saying it to remind himself as much as to remind her. “And you did what you were told. The fact that it wasn’t enough…”

He shook his head, pushing the parchment of Sivar’s face away. Someone on the other side was playing hardball, and they were playing a very dangerous game. They clearly didn’t have enough to throw at him just yet, or they would have called him out with their various announcements to the city…but were they holding back what they did have intentionally, or was there really nothing left?

In either case, they had Sivar there, and for now, he was holding strong. Gralon had checked in with him twice more since the initial scry and confirmed that he was not revealing anything to the professors. Thankfully, his captor seemed more interested in the rat’s curse than in who he worked for, which was working in the aasimar’s favor.

But it [i]did[/i] mean that he had a weak link, and one that he couldn’t easily sever. Tapping his fingers against the table, he glanced out the window at the city.

[i]With the amount I’ve done…[/i]

There would be support among the commons for a time, but the commons could not hold for long against the empowered temples and others. They were tied to him, to a large extent, but if the Arcanamirium managed to spread much more information about him, if they were able to get the rank and file members of the temples to start questioning whether they should be tied to someone like him, that could lead to his contracts being revised. And if they were revised, if those that were in his debt decided to pay it off rather than keep their power…

All the plans that he had, all the progress that he had made towards taking Absalom, would be tossed out the window.

And then…

“Leave me,” he muttered.

“Master –”

“I need to think.”

Mika slowly nodded, the judge getting to her feet and slowly walking out of the sitting room. He remained where he was, tapping his finger against the table as she shut the door. Even when the faux-light of his little devil came to his shoulder, whispering to him, he stayed where he was.

“The master will not be pleased.”

“I know.”

“Your operations are compromised.”

“I know this.”

“What are you going to do?”

There was just a hint of smugness in the devil’s voice, as there had been since the start of his woes. For all that they were working together, and that the devil was meant to be a link to Dispater and a source of power, there was always the fact that the lesser devil was in it for himself. To see someone that had risen higher fall would mean that there would be a new place for the devil…and a potential pet in it for him, too.

If the aasimar failed, then the devil would have to take control. Gralon refused to let that happen. He stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“To talk to your master,” Gralon said.

“Already?”

“He will want an update. Better from me.”

#

The chains of Dispater’s realm welcomed him like a curtain before a door, spreading to allow him entrance while clinking and clanking menacingly as he stepped through them. The overbearing, humanoid leader of the realm leaned against the railing of his balcony as the aasimar approached, not looking at him as he did.

“So…there’s a problem.”

“One could say that,” Gralon said.

“I feel that one should; after all, with all the groundwork that you’ve laid, one shouldn’t see more than ripples of difficulty, let alone something this serious.”

“I’m not here to debate whether there’s a problem. There is one; I’m trying to find a solution.”

“Heh. A solution, dear Brundir?”

Finally, Dispater turned to him, his head tilted to the side, and those deep, empty eyes pulled at him. It took all the willpower that the aasimar had left to stay where he was, to not be dragged into the chains of servitude that were inherent to the Archdevil of Hierarchies. He gripped the railing near him, holding tight and not daring to trust himself to let go as the Archdevil continued.

“A solution to your faithlessness?”

“…My faithlessness? To what?”

“There is much that I will forgive, little aasimar. There are many things that those on the heights are permitted, but to show no sense of protection for those that you have taken in…for something that may still be useful…”

Gralon bit his lip, but the Archdevil continued.

“The forces of ‘good’ say that we have no attachments to our underlings, that we will sacrifice those below us for the sake of our own power. We have no loyalty, no understanding of compassion, of what it means to be responsible for someone else.

“They are only partially correct, and you [i]know[/i] this. You serve under me, dear Brundir, and yet, you betray that tenet. To be a lord in the Hierarchy, to stand under me, is to take on a debt. A contract of aid to those beneath you.”

“Are you actually telling me to attack the Arcanamirium? Now, when I have nothing left?”

“No. I am telling you that, if you do not come up with some way to show that you are keeping to my ways, I will assume that you no longer mean to keep to them. And if you choose that, then I am allowed to remove you from my service.”

The aasimar’s breath caught in his throat. Of all the things that he had feared when he came to report, to be told that he would be removed, that he could be left without all that he’d traded for, was worse than his worst-case scenario. He leaned against the railing, looking down on the soul-built city of the underplanes, and he imagined what would happen to him if that aid was removed.

Nothing good.

Everything bad.

And everything that he had worked for would be for nothing. All the time that he had taken to try and craft a better world, where order mattered, where things could no longer go off the deep end because some agreement or other kept those with power from stepping in to fix it, wasted.

He couldn’t let that happen.

“…I will try.”

“Try, and make me believe that you mean to succeed. If I believe that you [i]truly[/i] pushed for it, then succeed or fail, I will continue to invest in you. If I believe, even for an instant, that you have abandoned your subordinate, then I will see to it that you are not only left bereft of my power, but chained worse than your deva ever was.”

#

The Headmistress opened her eyes, taking her vision from the portal in the lower planes to the board of three-dimensional figures that she had assembled weeks ago. She shifted the aasimar-styled piece further down, taking him towards the lower third of the board, shaking her head as she did.

“Further in debt, further involved.”

The other pieces didn’t move as much. She shifted the Halstad pieces, the female one moving further up, while the male only moved horizontally. A female human was dragged down by him, but served as a counter-balance, someone to keep that piece from moving or acting. A valuable piece for a pawn, but effective for the moment, and useful for directing the other pieces all over the board.

She leaned back, resting her chin on one hand as she observed the game. Certainly a wild one, and most certainly one more serious than the game board itself actually presented it to be.

“Mmm…such a delightful game…”

Headmistress Vadu shook her head at the board. There were pieces on it that were spread far and wide across the real world, and everything that she learned allowed her to add a piece on the board. Still, for all her manipulations, she still had less options than she would have liked.

Less, but that was still better than none.

“He will come soon enough,” she muttered. The scrying that he had done through Sivar had allowed her the chance to back-scry him as he went to the lower planes, and that had been more than slightly enlightening. “He has to; he can’t afford to not put himself out there for the sake of his subordinate.”

And that would mean sacrificing at least a few minor students, much as she would have preferred to do otherwise. The fight would have to be believable, something that nudged Lord Brundir to take a step back, to retreat rather than push himself further. Just hard enough to make the retreat believable without pushing him to overcommit out of pride.

And if that worked…

[i]Another day of safety for the Arcanamirium…[/i]

And even more than that, forcing him into a corner to reveal more of his true colors to the rest of the city. His pawns were already degraded, losing their power and potency on the board. Sooner or later, he would lose then completely, forcing him to use more of his other, more well-hidden pieces.

[i]And then I can see what else you can bring to bear. Mmmm, such fun.[/i]

Headmistress Vadu chuckled as she sat up straight, lacing her fingers together and imagining the days to come. The Arcanamirium was in dire straits, there was no denying that, but she knew that there had never been someone quite like her in the Headmistress’s role. If there was anyone that could guide them through, it was her.

“Well, Lord Brundir, I’d say it was your move…except I know exactly what you’re going to play…and exactly how I can counter it,” she muttered, her fingers hovering over a particular piece on the board. “Oh, my, my, my…and then, your move again…but what will you do when you find out about this?”

The Headmistress cackled as she reached out to that one piece, and placed a delicate spell at a distance. Nothing much, just a faint drip, drip, drip of acid on distant ropes…

 

 

 



[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]
 
Summary: Nthabi experiments, Brundir grumbles, and the Headmistress cackles.
 
Tags: M/F, Femdom, Domination, Oral, Cunnilingus, Rat, Were-Rat, Human, Aasimar, Plotting, Political, Corruption, Magic, Series, Nudity,