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Dark Magic Ch. 01

By: shameless_writer



Quick to the action, but for reasons I hope become apparent. I will try to post timely, short installments to make reading easier. 

Enjoy. And please please comment, I absolutely love comments. 

*****

Scripts from the Great Library in Nycene: 

From the introduction of "Basic Rune Etching":

Seals printed in special ink can be used to manipulate energy in the environment. This manipulation is known as 'magic' and these seals are known as 'runes'. 

Runes can be either printed on paper or etched into other, sturdier materials such as clay or stone. The more solid the material the rune is etched onto, the more powerful its effect. Simple runes may be quickly written on paper, used, and discarded while more complex runes require more effort and skill to create and utilize with their effects being more permanent and reusable. 

One form of rune etching is used only by dark mages and is expressly forbidden for state-licensed mages. This method places the ink of the rune directly into the skin of the mage in the form of a tattoo, allowing the mage to always have a steady supply of ready to use magic at his disposal. This method also carries with it the potential for unlimited power. Because the runes draw energy directly from the body of the mage, their limitations only extend to the complexity and design of the rune itself. 

Any mage caught utilizing tattooed runes will be branded as a dark mage and subject to spot-execution by order of the King of Nycene...

The darkness settled in around me in the saturnine woods. Crickets sang loudly while in the nearby pond, frogs competed for dominance of the nocturnal din. Somewhere in the thick underbrush a twig snapped, too lightly to be anything bigger than a rabbit while closer to me, a log in my carefully stoked fire popped, sending sparks high into the warm summer night air. 

I was just finishing my dinner of roasted rabbit, picking off the last of the meat with satisfaction. It had been a long day's walk and my muscles were just beginning to unwind after hard use. 

I was at peace, alone near the fire in the small, but cozy clearing I had decided to use for a camp that night. 

I was also being watched. 

I could not physically see my watcher, but a small patch of tattooed skin on my right forearm was burning lightly, alerting me to the presence of an intelligent being nearby. It was a crude ward, without the ability to discriminate between friend and foe, and it usually burned with its magic warmth constantly whenever I was around civilization. But for the week I had been out here in the thick, green forests of the northeast, it had been quiet. Except for now. Now it burned. 

Pretending I was unaware of my intruder so as not to scare him into attacking or running away, I began to prepare to turn in for the night. Dressed only in a light tunic and breeches, I unrolled my blanket out near the fire. It was summer time and even that far north, the night would be hot and humid for the most part. 

Next I removed my boots, placing them a safe distance from the fire so that they dried, but not so close that the leather got hot and cracked, ruining them. They were my only pair, and I still had a long trip ahead of me. Losing them would almost certainly leave me stranded and quite possibly dead. 

Lying down, I closed my eyes with a heavy sigh, listening to the wind in the leaves, the crickets, the frogs, and the fire, trying to pick up any sounds that did not belong to the woods, but rather to my secretive interloper. 

There were none for five long minutes, though my ward continued to burn. Then a rustle, too close to the ground to be the wind in the treetops. Fifty feet to my left, on the other side of the fire. 

Another rustle in the undergrowth, and a loud snap of a twig. Suddenly another ward activated. It felt like tiny pinpricks near the base of my right wrist. 

This one was more sophisticated. It only activated when someone was within thirty feet of my body, and only when that person was carrying a weapon. 

Concentrating, I tried to control my breathing so it came heavy and slow, feigning sleep. I would have to confront whoever was in the forest, but first I needed him to get closer. 

Ten minutes passed, and then fifteen before my watcher moved closer again. He was being cautious despite his possession of a weapon and his obvious advantage over me. Whoever he was. 

After another ten minutes, he moved once more, this time slowly and cautiously forward, through the underbrush as quiet as he could until he was twenty, then ten feet away and then finally he stepped into the light of my fire. 

Without hesitation I murmured a single word. My forearm burned fiercely for a split second. There was a flash, a high-pitched yelp and then a heavy thud followed by the sound of something being dragged across grass and dirt. 

I opened my eyes and stood, facing my now incapacitated stalker, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dimming firelight after being closed for so long. 

He was up against a large tree, his arms held straight up from his body, hands tied securely together by a length of rough vine that had been fortuitously growing from the tree, lending me a tool for which to bind my attacker with. In the dim blurriness of my adjusting vision I could tell that he was small and thin, with long blond hair and sharp, angular facial features.

It was only when my eyes had adjusted enough to make out his wide, feminine hips that I realized that he was a her. This shocked me a great deal. It was one thing to encounter another person out here in the middle of the wilderness, and quite another to find out that that person was a woman. 

"Please let me go," she said, her voice light and melodic although laced with obvious fear, "Please, mage, I meant you no harm." 

"Then why were you watching me?" I asked, now able to make out her more clearly. She was startlingly beautiful. Possessing a feminine yet strong body, with a strong jaw and hard, green eyes that danced in the firelight. She wore dark green matching tunic and breeches, both tied tightly to her thin, supple body, outlining her small breasts and shapely legs. 

"I was curious," the woman admitted, lowering her head in mild embarrassment, causing her golden hair to fall in front of her face, revealing two small, pointed ears. 

"You're an elf," I stated the obvious, "Interesting. And what, might I ask, was so curious about me?" 

She shrugged, looking up at me with those mesmerizing eyes, "The fact that you were out here." 

I paused, considering her answer. It was reasonable, I supposed. Not many people ventured out this far into the forest. It was considered the far frontier, only the Ancients had ever populated it. Which was exactly the reason I was out there, but the elf did not need to know that. The less people that did, the better. 

"Do you live out here?" I asked, stepping closer toward her, trying to guess her age by her face, but having no luck at it. 

She nodded, "I do. By myself. I'm a wanderer." 

"Ahhh," I smiled, "A nymph. Very interesting. I guess this is the part where I ask you what you will give me if I let you go. I hear nymph elves grant wishes to those who capture them and then let them go." 

"Those are nothing but children's stories," she said indignantly, "I do not have that power." 

I chuckled at her reaction, "Of course not. Then how about a name? Mine's Brian." 

"Celeste," she responded. 

"Well, Celeste, let me ask you a question," I crossed my arms in front of my chest and took what I assumed was an authoritative stance, "Why would you think it wise to spy on me so loudly while carrying a concealed weapon? How do you know that now that I've captured you I won't rape you and then kill you, leaving your used carcass for the wolves?" I smiled my most predatory smile. 

Of course I would never dream of raping the nymph. I preferred my women very ready and willing. But kill her? When it came to that, I never did discriminate. 

"I...I...," Celeste struggled for words, "Don't...don't know...oh please don't!" 

This time I laughed out loud. I wasn't labeled a dark mage for nothing. Fear and other unpleasant emotions amused me, and I took great pleasure in eliciting them in other beings. They also fueled my magic, as I was able to use empathic links to syphon off the energy they created. 

"Relax," I said, "I won't rape you at least. But unless you can give me a good reason to keep you alive, I might still kill you," I paused, donning a straight face so Celeste knew I was serious this time, "How do I know you're not a threat to me?" 

"I swear," the nymph said, staring straight into my eyes, demonstrating that strength I suspected she possessed, "I was only curious. There aren't many travelers in these parts and it's been at least ten years since I last saw anyone. You know wandering elves," she turned her gaze downward, suddenly shy, "They're naturally inquisitive. Among other things..." 

That last part was a clever plea, thrown in for good measure, and I admired Celeste's cunning. If she couldn't appeal to my humanity, then she would try to appeal to my manhood. 

I smiled, this time less predatorily, and murmured two words. The first casting undid the vine that bound her to the tree. The second elicited a sharp cry of pain from Celeste, who quickly lowered one side of her breeches and removed the small dagger tied to her hip that had suddenly grown white hot. 

"No surprises," I noted as she threw the dagger to the ground and rubbed at the red welt that had risen on the creamy white flesh of her thigh. 

She pulled up the material again and gave me a hard look, but then moved away from the abandoned weapon. 

The ward on my wrist stopped tingling. She had no more weapons. So it truly had been curiosity rather than harmful intent that drove Celeste to watch me like that.

"Are you going to repay me now that I let you go?" I asked, knowing the answer. 

"Yes," Celeste nodded in affirmation. 

Finding a large oak, I sat down on the ground, resting my back up against the wide trunk and beckoned at Celeste. "Come here, nymph," I said, "And show me why they call your kind such." 

She nodded and walked over, her hips swinging side to side as she did, pausing in front of my stretched out legs, waiting for me to tell her what to do. This was my show and we both knew it. 

"Stand in front of me," I said, "Straddle my thighs and don't move until I tell you to. Understand?" 

Celeste nodded and did as she was told, so that her pelvis was directly in front of my face, her feet planted firmly on either side of me. Through her thin breeches I could feel radiant heat on my face and smell something sweet and spicy. She was aroused, her sex already weeping in anticipation. 

Most elves lived in large groups together where a rigorous class structure dictated every aspect of their lives. What they did for work, who they interacted with, and who they married were all pre-determined by their individual castes. It was the best way, they claimed, to maintain order in a society whose individuals lived for centuries rather than decades. 

The majority of elves accepted the system and lived with it peacefully. But there were those rare individuals who step outside their caste and refused to live by the rules. These individuals are called 'nymphs' and are often easily identifiable by the time they reach maturity. 

Strong in mind and body, these nymphs have adventurous spirits and leave their society as soon as they are able to explore the world and live as 'wanderers'. 

In addition to their strong wills, nymphs are almost universally promiscuous and sexually adventurous. As long as there is physical attraction, a nymph will mate with anyone who is equally willing. They lack the societal limitations placed on both human and elven sex lives. 

That is why when Celeste offered herself to me, I knew it to be genuinely proffered and why she was so willing to obey me without any fuss now. She was attracted to me, and that was enough for her. And it was certainly enough for me. 

I reached up and pulled her breeches down her legs, stopping just above the knee so only her thighs and bald sex were bared to my view. She shivered when I blew cool air on her overheated mound, which was red and pouting with arousal. 

"I've never seen an elvish cunt before," I admitted, reaching up and inserting the tip of my index finger between her lips. White hot heat enveloped the digit as I moved it further inside her before withdrawing it. 

With mild shock, I marveled at the coating of cum that covered my finger. It was thick and viscous, like oil. Much more so than any human woman I had been with and when I tasted it, it was tangy and sweet and slightly musky. I found myself wanting more of it immediately. 

Celeste did not move a muscle as I inserted both my index and middle fingers into her cunt, moving them in and out slowly, coating them with the thick cum that begun to run in small trails down my palm. 

"You said it's been ten years since you've seen another person," I commented, rubbing the front of Celeste's inner wall with my fingers, searching for her g-spot, and finding the hard bundle of nerves in no time at all, "Is that the last time you had sex?" 

"Yes," she moaned as I stimulated her, trying to bring her to quick orgasm. I wanted to see what she would look like as she came that thick juice of hers around my hand and had little patience. 

"I can tell," pressing harder and moving faster, speaking close to her clit so that the vibrations from my voice further stimulated her, "You're so tight." And she was, there was almost no room for just my two fingers inside her.

Celeste came suddenly and without much warning, still without moving even her hips, her cry of pleasure loud in the late night of the forest. As her inner walls convulsed violently around the never ceasing movement of my fingers, thick waves of her oily cum cascaded from her cunt, spilling voluminously over my hand and wetting the end my long sleeve. 

"Very pretty," I grinned and removed my hand from between her legs, licking some of her delicious cum off my fingers while wiping most of it in the grass. Then I pulled my tunic, which was getting uncomfortably hot, off over my head. I pulled down Celeste's breeches so they went past her knees, leaving her legs free to bend before quickly undoing the laces of my own bottom garment, freeing my cock, which stood hard at eight inches long and thick from base to tip. 

"Lower yourself down onto my cock," I said, "Slowly, I want to feel every scorching inch of your cunt." 

Of course, she complied, bending at the knees and lowering herself down, using my shoulders as support as she did so. 

When Celeste was a fraction of an inch from the tip of my cock she paused, looked me straight in the eyes, and then dropped the next few millimeters. When the tip of my head met her lips, there was a slight resistance and then they parted, her scorching heat surrounding me at once, cum dribbling slowly down my shaft as she continued to lower herself onto me, forcing my cock into what little room her cunt had to offer. 

Fingers dug sharply into my shoulders as Celeste progressed inch by inch until I was fully seated within the tight confines of her inner channel, her knees planted on either side of me, her face level with mine, green eyes clouded with pleasure, waiting for my next command. 

I envied her a little then. She was able to just surrender to the pleasure of sex without any limitations. It wasn't submissiveness, but rather trust. Celeste knew that I would bring us both to pleasure and she was along for whatever I had in mind, knowing she would enjoy it. 

"Don't move," I whispered, and flexed my member within her. 

Celeste's eyes widened with shocked pleasure and her fingers clenched into small fists, her cunt rippling lazily over my cock. 

Gripping her hips, I lifted the small, surprisingly light nymph off of my member until only my head remained within her. My shaft glittered in the firelight, drenched with her thick cum, until it disappeared again as I lowered Celeste back down onto me. 

"Mmmm," she moaned softly, laying flat palms against my sweating chest as I continued to slowly raise and lower her body over my shaft, trying to angle her so that I rubbed along her g-spot with each stroke. 

I could feel my pleasure rising quickly. The last woman I had been with had been the serving girl at the frontier inn I had stayed on before entering the uncharted woods one week prior, and she had been nothing like Celeste, who was possibly the tightest and warmest channel I had ever had the pleasure of entering. 

It wouldn't be long until I reached orgasm, and by the way Celeste was rubbing her hands across my skin and moaning loudly against my neck, she was not far behind herself. 

I picked up my pace, moving her more rapidly, plunging deep inside her with each piston until I felt the all too familiar pressure of my release. Pausing on the downstroke I held on to Celeste as I shot my seed into her. Something about the sensation must have triggered Celeste's own release because she came around me soon after, her walls spasming violently. Fresh cream leaked out of her over-stuffed cunt, mixing with my cum and running down the sides of my shaft. 

"You can remove yourself now," I said breathlessly, and Celeste stood up. 

My cock escaped her channel with an almost inaudible 'pop'. Cum leaked from her cunt and down her legs as she stood back, a satiated smirk playing over her soft, red lips. We had been quick, but it had also been a while for each of us, meaning that slow was out of realm of possibility. At that moment I didn't know just how much satisfaction I would eventually get out of Celeste, but for now I was pleased. 

I stood as well, pulling my breeches up over my slowly softening member. "That was nice," I commented, "Perhaps you'd like to know what I've been doing out her all by myself now that we got our immediate needs out of the way." 

Celeste sat crossed legged on the ground near my fire, which was burning just as bright and hot as when I had started it, fueled as much by magic as much as by wood. "I suppose," she shrugged, trying but failing to sound uninterested.

"Hm," I said, pulling on my tunic and taking a seat next to her on my blanket, "Well. I suppose you could say I was looking for something." 

Celeste looked at me, the firelight dancing mystically over her sharp facial features, "There's not much out here but plants and animals." 

"That's what everyone keeps telling me," I admitted, "But long ago this place was inhabited by Ancients. And I have reason to believe they left something behind." 

"Like what?" 

"Treasure," I grinned, her eyes lit up with understanding, and a little fear. 

"You're a treasure hunter?" 

I nodded, "And a good one at that." 

"Well if you'd like, I could take you to one of their abandoned cities." 

"Are you serious?" I asked, disbelieving, "You know where one is? I've been following a blind tip from a grizzled old tracker. But if you know...really?" 

Celeste nodded and half smiled, "It goes by the name of Hester Roc and it was built around a river just north of here." 

I still couldn't believe it. What luck! For a week I had been traveling east, where the tracker swore he had come across an ancient city in his youth. Had Celeste not come along, I would have walked forever until reaching the great sea, with nothing to show for it. 

"You'll take me?" I asked, "Truly?" 

"Of course," Celeste said softly, "I will enjoy the company." 

Suddenly curious to the reason the wood elf was out here all alone, wanderer or not, I simply nodded and lay down, beckoning her over. 


Dark Magic Ch. 01



"We'll sleep now," I said as Celeste snuggled close to my body, "And leave tomorrow morning." 

She nodded against my neck and I allowed the fire to dim, bathing our prone forms in soft light as we both drifted off to sleep. 

It was be the beginning of an adventure which saw much loss, great gain. As I slept that first night, I was blissfully unaware of what waited for me in Hester Roc, and how much it would shape the future. For better. And for much, much worse...



Dark Magic Ch. 02



Scripts from the Great Library in Nycene: 

From 'Professions', a list of official jobs compiled by the State Mages of Nycene, 

"Treasure Hunter": a treasure hunter is a man or woman, usually a mage, who travels great distances in search of rare and sometime powerful artifacts left behind from the Magic Wars. Some treasure hunters seek objects of historical value, such as Ancient artwork. Others, and the majority, seek out artifacts that contain some measure of magical energy. 

Many of these treasures can be found in abandoned Ancient cities, which were used during the Magic Wars as places of shelter and bases for wartime operations. Nycene is the prime example of such a city, and continues to harbor the largest collection of state and private treasure hunters in the world. Other cities have been picked clean by hunters, leaving very little to be discovered by anyone considering joining the profession. 

As a result, the number of private treasure hunters has fallen dramatically in the past twenty years (Edit: private treasure hunting is now illegal by decree of King of Nycene). Any young hunter may wish to consider joining the state treasure hunters, who are consistently provided with steady work payed for by the state...

"So your parents were nobles?" I asked Celeste, who was blazing the trail ahead of me with deft skill, sometimes slicing through the thicker underbrush with her dagger. 

She nodded, her blond hair bouncing across her shoulders, "But they had me pegged as a nymph early, so I was never treated like the lady they wished I would be." 

"Hm," I mused, eyeing her swinging hips appreciatively as we scaled an incline, "You are most certainly a nymph. I'm not surprised they saw right through you. But I doubt you're missing much. The life of a nobel, at least a human nobel, sounds highly unappealing from what little I know of it." 

"That's what I've always figured," Celeste agreed and blazed onward, toward Hester Roc.

We had gotten up later than I usually did while on the hunt. Deciding to make up for sleep lost the night before, I had been deliberately lazy. When I had finally woken, Celeste was draped across my body and her hand had found it's way through the open neck of my tunic sometime in the night and she was busy idly playing with the springy hair that grew there. Gently I had woken her, and after a light breakfast of little talk we were off. But not until I had given back her dagger, intending it as a gesture of trust. 

"Do you need to stop wherever you live and get anything?" I had asked. 

The question was met with a coy smile, "Wandering elves do not respond well to the security and bondage of a home," she had explained, "I have no belongings. I sleep where the land provides me shelter." 

"Lonely existence," I mentioned. 

"That's why I have you now," she responded and began to lead the way north. 

Now it was just past noon and the land, while still hilly, was beginning to level out. Celeste had said that Hester Roc was only a day's walk away, which at the time had baffled me. I had come north from Lancaster after selling off my latest bit of treasure, deciding that it was time to explore the claim that there was a city of Ancients somewhere in the northeast wilderness. At the Green Seo outpost, on the edge of the true wilderness, I had asked the locals if they had ever heard of such a thing. Only one old, grizzled trapper had taken me up on my offer, swearing to me that he had come across a city somewhere to the east of the outpost that had been abandoned for centuries.

Figuring I had nothing to lose and everything to gain from not only seeking out unknown treasure, but also leaving civilization behind, I had decided to take the loony man at his word and head toward the fabled city. 

Directly east would have eventually led me closer to Nycene than I ever wanted to get, so I had tracked north and east instead. Although apparently further north than I had intended. Anything close to where I had thought I was would have been remote indeed, but not secret Ancient city remote. The knowledge that I had gone so radically off course frightening me a little. I did a lot of traveling on my own, and needed to remain deft in my tracking skills. 

"How did you find this place exactly?" I asked Celeste, falling in beside her. 

"When you've wandered the wilderness as long as I have, you tend to run into things that are out of the ordinary and very much out of the way." 

"And how long as that been?" 

She glanced at me sideways and winked, "Wouldn't you like to know?" 

Elves could live for centuries. As far as I knew, Celeste could have been living in the forest for longer than I had been alive. It was an interesting thought, but I did not press the issue. She would tell me if she wanted, if not, what did it matter. 

We crested the top of a small rise, and the trees suddenly cleared, giving us a nice view far into the distance. I could see the snaking path of a river cutting it's way through the green forests below, it's water sparkling in the bright summer sun. Along a gentle bend of the shore, and thrusting up against the backdrop of the blue, flawless sky was a tall rectangular, obviously man-made structure. Still small in the distance, I could tell that it was gray and filled with holes through which sunlight filtered through. Beneath it were smaller, similar structures, all clustered along the bend in the river. The clear remains of a city. 

"Wow," I breathed, genuinely impressed, "Is that it?" 

Celeste nodded, "We'll reach it by nightfall if we make good time. There are plenty of buildings we can take shelter in for the night. Tomorrow you can hunt for your treasure, whatever it is." 

"I wish I knew myself," I admitted, picking up the pace again with Celeste close behind, "All I know is that Hester Roc must be one of the few cities left in the world that hasn't already been combed over by a hundred different treasure hunters." 

"So I'm assuming you don't work for the state," Celeste ventured, "Having ventured out so far on your own in order to avoid the helpful cooperation of fellow treasure hunters." 

I shook my head and adjusted my pack, "No love lost between the King and I, that's all I'll say." 

"So I guess we're both a bit rebellious," Celeste smirked, and I laughed. 

"I guess we are," I agreed and we made our way toward the river and city that lay along it. 

The sun had just begun to set when we reached the outside of Hester Roc. Centuries of forest growth had reclaimed the streets and many of the buildings, leaving the only indications that we were at our destination the river and the few, tall structures that remained. These were falling down and rusted and I began to wonder if there would be any worthwhile treasure within them. Hester Roc was certainly one of the more run down Ancient cities I had visited. 

"Have you explored this place much?" I asked Celeste, who was leading us toward the river and a barely-there stone bridge that crossed it. 

"Hardly," she responded, stepping over a low stone wall that had once belonged to a sizable building, "But that big tower we saw is still very much intact, relatively speaking. There could be any number of things inside. It's where I figured we'd spend the night." 

"Works for me," I said, and watched as we neared the bridge, the tower in mention growing bigger. 

We crossed the river, watching our steps on the crumbling stone. It wasn't really stone, but the fused, seamless, stone-like material that was prevalent in Ancient cities. Whatever it was made out of eluded modern mages and engineers, though it appeared to be composed of a large number of smaller rocks somehow bonded together. 

By the time we were across the river, the sun had all but set. Muttering a word of activation, a spot on my arm flared, and then Celeste and I were bathed in a warm light emanating from a floating orb above us. 

"Interesting trick," Celeste commented, "But how do you use magic without writing runes? I've seen you use a number of castings but you don't have any artifacts on you that have etchings." 

I rolled up my right sleeve, baring the cluster of tattooed runes that almost completely covered my skin from wrist to elbow in colorful ink, "I'm surprised you didn't notice them last night," I said, "I've got another one on my back that's fairly large. I got that one for payment on one of my more lucrative hunting excursions." 

Celeste touched the runes with the tips of her fingers and marveled, "I did not know mages could do this. Why bother with artifacts and paper when you could have etchings with you at all time?" 

"Because it's illegal," I explained, "According to the state, no one should have easy access to such large amounts of power. I think it makes the illustrious King nervous up there in his throne room, which is why state mages have permission to kill any mage they see with tattooed ruins on the spot." 

Celeste spoke, "Sounds like the very type of thing that made me want to leave Lake Land so much as a child. The upper echelon telling the lower class how they should live. How much power they're allowed to have." 

"You're from Lake Land?" I asked, trying to gently steer the conversation away from those things that caused me anger, namely the King and the state. 

"I am," she nodded, looking toward the west where the sun had just set, "And sometimes I still feel too close to home, even though I know how far away I am." 

Lake Land was located far west of where we were, at around the same latitude. During the time of the Ancients it was sparsely populated. It was filled with beautiful lakes and forests which became the home of one of the largest groups of forest elves after their arrival during the time of the Ancient. If Celeste had been of nobility in Lake Land than she must have truly been a disappointment to her family, having given up such a powerful title. 

"We're here," Celeste announced suddenly, and indeed we were. 

Covered with ivy and hidden behind a small cluster of young trees was the facade of the building, or what was left of it. A small incline led up to squat, triangular bases, the remains of some long ago destroyed columns lined the front of the building's wall. Behind the wall, through what had once been the entrance, I could make out more trees and plants where sunlight was able to filter down through the many crumbling floors and provide life giving energy. Stepping through this entrance, I looked around, my light orb illuminating the area. 

Looking up, I could see the crumbling floors of the upper story by the orb's light, all but withered away by time. Climbing up would be dangerous, but I had tackled greater obstacles before. 

"Must have been an important place at one point," I commented, marveling at the size of this first floor. I could barely make out the far wall even in the bright light. 

Celeste nodded her agreement, "Perhaps it was where the government of Hester Roc once ruled." 

"How do you know the name of this place?" I asked, realizing I had seen no sign or indication of the Ancient city's former title. 

The wood elf shrugged, "I must have seen it on a sign once while exploring." 


I narrowed my eyes, skeptical. Any signs that had once been here would have rusted away long ago. The small things were the first to go in these cities. Only buildings and treasure remained. 

"Let's gather wood," I suggested, "We can build a fire and then eat." 

"Ok," Celeste agreed and set off into the relative darkness of the building. 

The second time we had sex came suddenly, but naturally. 

About an hour after arriving at the tall tower in Hester Roc we were both full and relaxed, leaning against my pack together near the fire, which was roaring happily in front of us. We didn't speak, only enjoyed the warmth of the blaze and of each other, my arm draped around Celeste's thin shoulders, holding her close to me. 

I was a dark mage who fed on the unpleasant emotions of others, but that did not make me a bad person. It was just my style of magic and a good way to claim energy, one that I had learned from my master as a child. I prefer to be alone most of the time, but being with Celeste seemed natural, easy. It was not love, not even lust. Just...pleasure. Happiness. Contentedness. 

At some point Celeste turned her face toward me and began to kiss my neck. Lightly at first, but then with more hunger. I turned toward her and she captured my lips with hers, immediately beginning to explore my mouth with her tongue, biting softly at my lower lip. Tender but aggressive. She wanted to be a more active party tonight and I was willing to let her. 

Feeling her hands roaming across my torso to grip the hem of my tunic, I lifted my arms up so that she could pull the garment off of me. Free of it's confines, she began to explore my body with her fingers, playing over muscle honed from years of hard traveling. All the while she continued to kiss me passionately. Her lips were soft and skillful, her mouth tasted sweet, a pleasant counterpart to the nectar that spilled forth from her lower lips. 

My cock was hard in my breeches and I could feel the heat from Celeste's cunt against my thigh as she tried clumsily to get closer to me. Gripping her shoulders, I laid her back on the blanket we had spread out, positioning my thighs between hers and grinding my erection into the blazing heat of her pelvis, our clothing maddeningly confining. 

Fingers ran down my back as I shoved one hand under Celeste's tunic, searching for the hard point of her small breast. Her skin was smooth as silk as my hand glided across it and her chest arched into my palm while she cried out in pleasure, throwing her head back. 

I sat back on my knees and pushed her tunic up over her chest and then her head, tossing it away and admiring the pale flesh of her naked torso in the firelight. Celeste lay back and arched her chest again, inviting me. I took her up, leaning in and capturing the small bud of her left breast in my mouth, sucking at it and eliciting another loud moan of pleasure. 

I moved to the other breast, toyed with the nipple, and then began to trail light kisses down her stomach, making my way to the sweet nectar that I knew lay just beneath the fabric of her breeches. 

"I can't wait to taste you again," I said, yanking down her clothing, exposing her steaming cunt. 

"Then taste me," Celeste urged, thrusting her hips into the air, trying to get to my face. 

Using my hands to spread her thighs wide, I dipped down and licked her slit from base to clit, gathering a tongue full of her sweet cum. She moaned as I lapped and sucked at the outside of her cunt, flicking the tip of her clit with my tongue to which elicited a sharp cry of pleasure. 

"Brian!" Celeste gasped as I inserted three of my fingers into her, rotating them, stretching out her tight channel. 

"Are you always this damn tight?" I growled against her clit, her heat scorching my fingers. 

"Elves are gifted with a good deal of favorable traits," she said, "Eternal youth being chief among them." 

With a chuckle, I began to move my fingers faster, lapping up the juices that escaped from her cunt with each thrust. 

"Keep going," Celeste moaned, gyrating her hips, "I'm almost there." 

I sucked her clit into my mouth and bit it gently while simultaneously pressing hard on the small bundle of nerves halfway up her upper wall. It did the trick, and the nymph cried out in orgasm. A small squirt of her cum shot from her cunt, landing hot on my wrist as her inner walls spasmed around me. 

Hands were suddenly holding my head in place, forcing me to imbibe the sweet nectar that came forth, which I did willingly. It was ambrosia and increased my own pleasure, making my cock feel harder and fuller than it ever had. 

When Celeste released me, I removed my fingers from her and stood up, undoing my breeches and pulling them down, discarding them. Celeste sat up and gave me a wicked smile before turning around, planting herself on all fours, exposing her dripping sex to me. 

I got down on my knees behind her, using my hand to line the head of my cock up with her entrance. I rubbed it along her slit, coating it with her cum, before gripping her hips and pulling them toward me. 

There was the familiar pressure of resistance as my cock head cleared her outer lips, and then the heat of her cunt engulfed me as she slid along my shaft. 

"Damn," I groaned, pulling out and reentering, her cunt just as tight as it had been the night before, small spurts of her cream escaping as I reentered. 

"Harder," Celeste moaned, and I complied, pumping my shaft into her with renewed vigor, her walls gripping me tightly with each thrust. Sucking sounds filled the building's first floor as wet suction formed between us. "Yes!" she cried, dropping onto her elbows, forcing her cunt into a deeper angle. 

I was sweating, my chest gleaming as I concentrated on getting as deep into Celeste as I was able, my pleasure rising with each tight thrust. To prolong my orgasm, I withdrew from her and pushed her hips to the side. 

"Lie down," I said. 

Turning over, Celeste lay on her back, her knees bent with her thighs spread wide. I moved down, planting my arms on either side of her head and slid into her cunt while staring hard into her eyes. 

"So full," she panted, and arched her hips upward to get more of me into her. 

I ground down on her pelvis with mine, mashing her clit between us and, gyrated my hips. This brought a scream of rapture and claws down my back as she came around my cock, almost sending me over myself. 

At the height of her orgasm, I began to thrust into her, hard. With each movement, she rocked back on the blanket, her small breasts bouncing with the force. At the edge of my emotional periphery I could sense there was pleasurable pain in my actions, and I fed on the empathic energy while continuing to thrust hard into her. 

"I'm going to cum inside you," I growled, never breaking eye contact with Celeste, whose own green eyes were clouded with pleasure. 

"Please," she begged, clawing at my back. 

With a few more hard thrusts, I stilled, pressure building and then releasing as I shot my seed into her, pressing hard on her clit with my pelvis, trying to bring her own, third release. 

It came, and her nectar spilled out around our joining in small squirts, coating my skin near her cunt and saturating the warm summer air with his sweet tangy scent. 

I collapsed lightly on top of her before rolling off onto my back, my cock withdrawing easily from her well-lubricated channel. 

"How was that?" I asked, my sweaty chest heaving with each breath. 

"Mmm," Celeste purred, laying her head on my shoulder and trailing a hand playfully across my stomach, "Perfect. Believe it or not, I think you're the best human lover I've ever had." 

I arched an eyebrow, "Where do I rank among elves?" 

Celeste appeared to think a moment before responding, "Near the top at least." 

"Ha!" I barked, "Then I guess you still have a few things to teach me." 

"I suppose I do," Celeste agreed and kissed my neck, "Tomorrow maybe. Right now I'm exhausted." 

"Me too," I said and pulled the blanket over our bodies and murmured a casting. 

"Oh!" Celeste gasped, her eyes widening, "What was that?" 

"Cleaning rune," I smiled, draping a hand over her shoulders and bringing her close, "Whisks away unwanted messes. Pretty useful when you're being dirty." 

Celeste giggled and shifted to get comfortable, "You are a man of many surprises," she said and closed her eyes. 

I dimmed the fire and closed my own eyes, thinking of what a fortuitous trip it had been so far. I had a feeling that something big lie within Hester Roc, the forgotten city of the north. Tomorrow I would find out what that was. 




Dark Magic Ch. 02



Tomorrow my true adventure would begin. 

Scripts from the Great Library in Nycene: 

"Ancients": 

The Ancients, also known as the First People, were a global civilization that lived thousands of years ago. They were technologically more advanced than our current civilizations, but did not have access to the use of magic. Little is known about the Ancient culture and technology, much have it having being destroyed with the arrival of the elves and the ensuing Elvish Wars. 

In the aftermath of the Elvish Wars, those humans that remained, and those who had sided with the elves were taught the elvish secrets of magic. Within a few centuries, and after the Magic Wars, which were waged between these humans, all non-physical traces of the Ancients were lost. Only their cities and the war-time treasures of the Magic Wars were left behind.



Dark Magic Ch. 03



Scripts from the Great Library of Nycene: 

"The Elvish Wars": 

At some point during the peak of the Ancients' global domination, a new race of intelligent beings made themselves known. These beings, termed "elves" in the Ancient script are of unknown origins. It is believed that they came in relative peace, wishing only to live with the Ancients and contribute to their society. 

A fair number of the humans inhabiting the world welcomed the elves, but the majority did not and declared war on who they perceived to be invaders. What followed was a long and bloody conflict that left many elves, and even more humans dead which will be detailed in the pages that follow. It marked the end of the era of the Ancients, their population dwindled to a fraction of what it had been...

Chapter 3 - The Source 

"How many stories up are we?" I asked Celeste, who seemed to be much more adept at exploring the large, tall building than I was. She leapt and bound across obstacles and sheer, dangerous ledges while I carefully maneuvered myself and my treasure pack along with all the grace of a mule. 

The wood nymph paused and looked down a large hole she was standing next to, "Maybe twenty? A little over halfway to the top." 

"Something tells me we have to go all the way to the top," I mused. I did not like high places, which made scaling this tower a great chore. But no one ever said treasure hunting was supposed to be easy. 

"What a weird word," Celeste was saying, picking her way to the very dubious remains of an ancient staircase, "'stories'"

I shrugged, following her, "It's an Ancient word. One of the many that remained in our dialect. Even if we don't know their origins, we know what they mean at least," I grinned childishly, "Like 'fuck' and 'cunt'." 

"You do certainly know what those mean," Celeste returned, walking up the stairs like they were still gloriously intact, "Now stop talking and start walking." 

"You could slow down, you know," I offered, slowly making my own way up the stairs, "We humans aren't as agile as elves." 

We made our way along, Celeste swiftly, me more slowly, and by noon, we had reached the twenty fifth story. 

"Only five from the top," Celeste announced, peering up toward the blue sky and sunlight above us, "And no signs of treasure." 

"It's here," I panted, sitting down on a ledge and pulling a light lunch of bread and hard cheese out of my treasure pack, "One of my runes was activated. It only is when I'm near sources of magic. There's treasure. And it's close." 

Celeste sat next to me and took the food I offered. "How does one come up with such clever runes?" 

"Practice," I responded, taking a bite of cheese, "Lots and lots of practice. And bending a few rules." 

"Where did you first learn magic?" she asked. 

I didn't like talking about my past. It was where it belonged, behind me. But Celeste was not trying to pry, she was only curious. And for some reason I found talking to her comfortable. "From a state mage believe it or not," I answered, "He's been dead for some time now. Executed." 

"I'm sorry," Celeste sounded genuine. 

I shrugged, "He was too bold. Broke the rules right out in the open where his fellow state mages could easily get to him. He was the one who taught me about tattooing runes, and he paid the price." 

"What was his name?" 

I froze mid-chew on a piece of bread. "That will have to remain a mystery for now, nymph," I said, standing and brushing crumbs off my tunic and breeches, "Come on. I want to reach the top soon." 

Celeste stood and said nothing about my refusal to name my master. To do so would have been a mistake, and I knew it. Anyone who knew anything about mages knew the name of my master and I did not want Celeste to associate me with him. Not yet at least. 

"It's in here," I said when we reached the top floor half an hour later. The structure was more intact this far up, free from the negative effects of the forest below and I stood before a wooden door, ornate in design but slowly rotting away from exposure to wind and rain. 

"Are you sure?" Celeste asked, placing a hand on my shoulder and peering curiously at the door. 

I nodded, "Positive." My treasure seeking rune burned hot and steady and I murmured a word to deactivate it. 

"Then let's go," Celeste offered and stepped forward, grabbing the seam of the door and pulling it toward us. 

Inside the room was pitch black, which was odd considering how well lit the rest of the building had been. What was even more curious was the inside of the door, which now faced us, having been swung wide open. 

"It's...," Celeste gasped, approaching it slowly. 

"It is," I marveled. 

The wood was untarnished. Glossy and new, as if it had not stood abandoned for hundreds of years. The looping and whirling designs carved into it's surface were clear and complex. Untouched. 

"Come on," I said, and stepped toward the room's opening, my heart beating hard in my chest. None of my wards were warning me of danger, but my stomach still clenched nervously as I pressed forward. 

Celeste filed in behind me and when I murmured the casting for my orb of light, we both audibly sucked air in complete awe when the view of the room was illuminated. 

"Just like the door," Celeste commented. 

I was silent.

We were in a completely untouched room. Red fabric covered the floor in a thick layer and the incredibly realistic paintings that the Ancients were known for covered the walls, looking brand new in their metal frames. There were no windows, and at one end of the space was a large desk, made of the same dark wood as the door, shiny and new. And on this desk, centered among the scattering of small, unknown tools and miraculously fresh pieces of paper was a glass orb, supported by an ornate, brass pedestal. 

The orb itself was about the size of my head, the pedestal of a similar diameter. I stepped across the room, and saw within its depths a swirling, black smoke. Forks of lighting flashed and danced along the smoke's surface as it broiled within it's glass prison. 

"Definitely magic," I observed. 

"There's writing on the pedestal," Celeste pointed out and I followed her pointing finger, "It's elvish. At least part of it." 

"The other part is Ancient script," I said, "I can translate if you can do the elvish." 

Celeste nodded and spoke, "It says, 'For our allies and friends, the people of Roc Hester we offer a symbol of our trust and admiration'" 

"Not Hester Roc?" I asked. 

"I suppose it probably should be," Celeste nodded, "But here the words are reversed and combined." 

"Hmm," I said and read the Ancient script a few times before settling on a rough translation. "The script says, 'The Source, to be used to further better the people of Roc Hester through the gift of elvish magic'" 

"What's 'The Source'?" Celeste asked and I shrugged. 

"I have no idea," I admitted, "But whatever it is, it's much older than the Magic Wars, the Ancient script was out of use long before then in favor of scripting runes. Judging by the context of the text I'm guessing it dates back to the middle of the Elvish Wars. Apparently the people in this particular city sided with the elves." 

"That's amazing," Celeste breathed and I agreed. Most treasure, if not all treasure, was left behind by human mages during the Magic Wars. No artifacts that I knew of came from the Elvish Wars, they were simply too old. If this orb was indeed that old, then I had just stumbled across the greatest find of my career. 

"Help me get it into my pack," I said, "I don't want to touch it." 

Celeste gave me a questioning look, and I held up my right arm, "I don't know what it does which means I don't know how it will react to my runes. It could kill me. I've seen artifacts burn incautious mages to a pile of ashes." 

She nodded in understanding and reached forward, grabbing the orb and wincing as she did so. Nothing happened. The smoke inside continued to broil, lighting continued to dance. She lifted it easily and placed it inside my open pack. I shut the flap and pulled the string tight. 

"That was less exciting than I expected," Celeste giggled and I smiled back. 

"Sometimes treasure hunting is pretty routine stuff," I said and gave a hard look around the room, "This place is so bizarre though. How could it remain intact after so many years? I bet it looks the same as it did during the Elvish Wars." 

"That orb must have something to do with it," Celeste said, "The Source. Maybe it preserved the room to keep itself safe. I've heard of artifacts being able to protect themselves." 

"That's true," I nodded, "Come on. I want to get back to camp and examine this further." 

We exited the room and I extinguished the orb of light. Soon after leaving, a resounding 'crack' sprang up behind us, causing us both to jump. I whirled around just in time to see the far wall of the room crumbling away, letting sunlight pour in and illuminating the rest of the space. 

In the revealing light, the room was old and dilapidated, as it should have been. The desk was nothing but a pile of rotted wood and the fabric on the floor was eaten away in most spots, in others it was grey and thin. Large portions of the floor were gone. 

The room had become like the rest of building. Old and forgotten. Just like that. 

"You can't stop time," I mused, frowning, "Hold it back for a while maybe. But once the dam breaks, it all comes crashing in. Nothing's immortal." 

"Poetic," Celeste smiled and turned her back on the room, "Come on. We've got a long trip down." 

I nodded and steeled myself for the second half of harrowing journey through the Hester Roc tower. 

"What exactly are you doing?" Celeste asked later that afternoon, after we had made it back to the first floor of the tower and our campsite. 

I was seated on a low wall that had once been a partition, hunched over my right arm, murmuring complex castings. I had been like that for the past twenty minutes, and Celeste's nymphish curiosity was getting the best of her. 

"Deactivating these runes," I said softly, trying not to break my concentration. 

Activating runes was easy, but deactivating them, especially when they were tattooed directly into your skin, was more difficult, requiring a careful series of castings. 

"So you can handle the orb," Celeste said in understanding. 

"That's right," I nodded and spoke the last few words I needed, holding my breath, waiting for it to work. One mispronounced or skipped over word would render my efforts useless. 

I felt a shiver run through my arm as my runes deactivated. The two that warned me of Celeste and her dagger's presence fell silent. Success. 

"Bring me the pack," I told Celeste, "Let's hope that was enough." 

"What do you mean?" she asked, carrying over the orb, "If your runes all all deactivated, shouldn't you be safe?" 

"There's one rune I can't deactivate," I explained, taking the pack from her, "The one on my back. I designed it to be incorruptible. For safety reasons." 

"May I see it?" Celeste asked, staring at my back intently. 

"Sure," I shrugged and placed the pack down on the ground before tugging of my tunic. 

Celeste moved behind me and traced her fingers along the red ink that spread across the expanse of my back in jagged, complex patterns. It ran from between my shoulder blades to the small of my back. A joint collaboration of design between myself and my old friend and frequent buyer, Seth, it was my greasiest accomplishment to date in casting. Receiving it had been painful and costly, but it had saved my life on numerous occasions. 

"What does it do?" Celeste asked, still exploring and causing shivers of pleasure to race down my spine at her feathering touch. 

"I hope you don't have to find out," I said, bending and reaching into my pack to grab the orb, "Now wouldn't you like to find out more about this orb?" 

"You are just full of secrets," Celeste smiled slyly, coming out in front of me and sitting crossed legged on the soft ground while I pulled out the orb, feeling my back burn slightly upon contact, but abating quickly. 

As far as I could tell, the orb was permanently affixed to the brass pedestal, since the two had not come apart in the pack. It was light, most of the weight to be found in the metal, and did not appear to react to outside stimuli. Beside the scripts in elvish and Ancient writing, there were no other markings. Just the glass orb and the plain pedestal. 

"Not even runes," I said, turning over the object for a fifth time, trying to catch something I had missed, "It's just an orb." 

"But what's the smoke inside?" Celeste ventured, "I think that's the key piece of interest for this particular treasure." 

I nodded my agreement, "But it doesn't react to anything. And if I try to use a casting on it, who knows what will happen." I peered at Celeste with inquisitive eyes, "Now would be a good time to tell me your age. If you were around during the Elvish Wars..." 

"Slow down there," Celeste smirked, "I'm not nearly that old. Decades, not centuries. I don't even come close to the Magic Wars, much less the Elvish." 

"Thought I'd ask," I said and fell silent, thinking for a long moment, losing myself in the swirling black smoke and lightning within the orb, before speaking again, "We need to find an expert." 

"In magic orbs?" Celeste grinned. 

"In the Elvish Wars...," I trailed off and frowned deeply, "And I know one. But..." 

"But what?" 

"He's in Nycene." 

Celeste nodded, understanding. I couldn't go to Nycene. I hadn't been able to for years. One foot stepped into that city and I was as good as dead. Every state mage knew my face by now, and given my history they all had fair reason to spot-execute me. 

"Come on," I sighed, standing up and placing the orb in my pack, "Let's eat. Then we can make a plan." 

Dinner consisted of dried jerky and the cheese left over from lunch. I had kept my tunic off, enjoying the late summer air on my skin as I chatted with Celeste about nothing at all. We were growing more comfortable with each other hour by hour. It was unusual for me to get so close to another person, but she was so easy going and curious that she drew me in. 

"So how old were you when you left Lake Land?" I asked as I gathered up a bundle of wood for a fire. 

"I was in Lake Land for twenty years," Celeste answered, using the sticks I brought her to build a sturdy structure in the fire pit, "But I won't tell you how long ago that was." 

"Don't need to," I said, dropping my load of larger logs next to the pit and stretching my muscles. It was hot and I was sweating. Celeste watched appreciatively from the ground, not trying to hide her gaze. "So were you kicked out or did you leave on your own?" 

"Left on my own," Celeste said as I crouched next to her and lit the fire with one murmur of casting. My runes had reactivated easily after I was finished with the orb. "But not before I tried to seduce an elf male out of my caste." 

"Tried?" I grinned, and sat back on the blanket I had spread, supporting myself on the my palms. 

"He was too scared to...uh...perform," Celeste giggled and came over to me, straddled my thighs and draped her arms over my shoulders. "Very unlike a certain human male I've recently had the pleasure of meeting." 

I arched an eyebrow and stared into the depths of her eyes, "So what do you want to try tonight?" I asked, my cock growing hard between us. 

"Hmmmm," Celeste hummed, appearing to think, rubbing her palms across my chest, "How about you decide. You have a look that says you know exactly what you want tonight." 

"Well...," I said with a mischievous grin, "I wasn't thinking this until right now, but...have you ever truly came before?" 

"Excuse me?" Celeste laughed. 

"You know," I said, "Female ejaculation. You ever spray some of that delicious cum of your's a little. Drives me crazy when women can. I can teach you." 

"And how did you discover this little trick of yours?" Celeste asked skeptically, but I could feel the temperature of her mound rise by degrees through her clothing. 

"Same way you learn all your secret tricks I've yet to discover," I said, "Experience." 

"Fine," Celeste said, pushing on my chest and standing up, "But tomorrow I get to pick what we do." 

"Deal," I grinned. 

Celeste stripped off her tunic and breeches quickly, baring herself completely to me. Her lips were already full and red with arousal, and I could see a small trail of her juices running down her thigh. 

"I think you'll be a great squirter," I said, patting the blanket next to me, "You're cunt is always so juicy to begin with. Now come lie down and spread your thighs for me." 

She did, falling back onto her elbows so she could get a view of what I was going to do with her, leaving me enough room between her legs so I could crouch on my knees. 

"Do you know where your g-spot is?" I asked, taking my index finger and sliding it into her channel. 

Celeste nodded, "It's right...there!" she cried as I pressed the tip of my finger hard on the tight bundle of nerves I had discovered the night we had met. 

"Right," I nodded, continuing to rub against it, adding another finger to join the first, "It's the key to this." 

"Well it already feels...so good," Celeste panted, trying hard to keep her hips still from undulating. 

I pulled out my fingers and licked the cum off of them before holding up three fingers. "Now when I start rubbing against you g-spot again, you're going to feel a building pressure. When it reaches it's peak. Just let go. Trust me." 

Celeste nodded and I shoved my fingers into her. She cried and arched her hips, a small trickle of cum ran down the back of my hand as I rubbed hard against her spot, feeling it start to swell. 

"How does that feel?" I asked, but Celeste's thrusting hips and leaky cunt told me all I needed to know, "Do you feel the pressure yet?" 

"Y...yes!" she moaned, "It's...I think I'm almost...fuck..." 

Sweat gleamed all over her skin. She was in intense rapture after only a few moments of stimulation and I was impressed. Most women took a while for their first time, but Celeste was a natural. 

"Just let go," I growled and rubbed harder, "Don't hold back." 

"I...am...FUCK!" Celeste cried out. 

Her channel spasmed around me and a stream of cum sprang from her cunt and splattered against my chest. Another jet hit my stomach while the third reached the hight of the first. She was quaking against the floor, her hips jerking and humping against my trapped fingers, cum squirting everywhere. I could smell it in the air and on my skin. Some got near my lips and I licked it up, amazed at her natural ability. 

"Fuck, Celeste," I said when her orgasm finally started to subside. Oily rivers of her spray were running down my chest and stomach and she was panting hard, her head thrown back in ecstasy. 

"That felt amazing," she groaned, "Sorry I got it all over you." 

"Don't be," I assured, standing and pulling down my breeches and displaying my raging member, "It turned me on so fucking much. Get on all fours, I have to fuck you now before I explode." 

She complied, offering her dripping cunt to me. I entered her in one hard thrust, her cum squelching out around my cock as I immediately picked up a hammering pace. After seeing her cum like that I knew I had to have at least two rounds in me that night, and I needed to get the first one out before it drove me insane. 

"Harder!" she cried and used her own hand to stimulate her clit while I pounded harder into her, "Make me squirt again. I loved it. Make me..." 

Celeste trailed off as a small squirt of cum sprayed from our joining from a micro orgasm. She convulsed around me and I came from the sensation, dumping a heavy load of my own cum inside her. I pulled out and a dribble of our mixed juices cascaded out of her stretched cunt. 




Dark Magic Ch. 03



"On your back," I said, and Celeste turned around. 

Roughly, I gripped her knees and pushed them up toward her head, holding them in place with my shoulders and opening up her cunt wide to me. With one hand I guided my cock to her used hole and entered, slower this time, feeling the hot walls of her inner channel combined with the slippery lubrication of our pleasure as I slid inside. I held still once I was inside, enjoying the look on Celeste's face as I filled her completely. 

"Are you glad I taught you?" I asked, shifting my hips to slowly penetrate her again. 

"Who says you taught me anything?" Celeste said slyly, gripping my arms and arching her hips up toward mine. 

I frowned a little. Maybe I hadn't. If she was decades old like she claimed, there was every possibility in the world that she had picked up her 'new' skill years ago. So why claim otherwise? Was she trying to make me feel good? Was it a test? 

"What are you thinking about?" Celeste pouted, "We were fucking here." 

I thrust into her, hard, jerking my cock against her upper wall. 

"That's better," she purred and I began to piston my hips at a steady pace, enjoying the feel of her around me, the way her eyes clouded in renewed pleasure with each movement. Testing me or not, Celeste was enjoying herself, and that was enough to feed my male ego. 

"In or on you?" I asked when I felt my release begin to build some time later. 

"In," Celeste moaned, "I like the way it feels. Fill me up." 

I nodded and picked up my pace until I felt myself release, stilling and groaning as I did. Not wishing to be alone in my pleasure, I pressed hard on Celeste's clit, trying to bring her to at least a small orgasm. 

"Fuck!" she cried out and came around my just finishing cock, leaking out around it and adding the already copious mess we had made. 

I withdrew, letting her legs drop back down and watched our cum leak out of her before muttering the cleaning casting and sending it away to some other part of the world where messes went when I made them disappear. I hadn't included a specific destination when I had designed the simple rune, and sometimes found it amusing to think of it ending up in someone's soup. Maybe the King's. 

Perhaps I should have specified a destination after all...

Without a word, we both shifted on the blanket, bringing our bodies closer in post-orgasmic contentedness. Within moments we were curled up next to each other, growing drowsy by the fire. 

"I think we have to go," I said softly after a time, "To Nycene." 

Celeste shifted under the blanket, "Are you sure?" 

I shrugged, "It's the only way I can think of to get any clue to what that orb is. I need an expert. Simple as that." 

"You've pulled me into quite the adventure, mage," Celeste said in good spirits, "I want to see it to completion." 

"Then we're back on the road tomorrow," I decided, "I can think of a way to get into Nycene while we travel. It will take a week to get back to the outpost town, Green Seo, and another week and a half to reach Nycene, less if we can find some horses." 

"You'll think of something," Celeste said sleepily, "You're the most intelligent human I've met." 

For some reason that made my heart glow. Celeste's approval had become important to me at some point and I didn't want to disappoint her with inadequacy. So as I drifted off to sleep I steeled myself for the journey ahead, confident that any other time it would have ended in my death. But thinking that maybe with Celeste's support it would end up alright in the end. Maybe...



Dark Magic Ch. 04



Scripts from the Great Library of Nycene: 

From "Tales of Forbidden Magic":

Among the blackest of dark arts is the drawing forth of entities from an unknown and unexplored world that is, through great exertion of power, accessible from our own plane of existence. These beings are known as the Summoned, and were instrumental in the near defeat Nycene's forces during the Magic Wars. 

The Summoned are human-like in anatomy and speech, but are physically stronger and more powerful in the area of magic, able to cast without the use of runes. How the first human mages learned to bring forth the Summoned is unknown, for the elves, who taught humans magic in the first place, do not possess this ability. Or, if they do, they do not claim knowledge of it publicly. 

When a Summoned is called forth, he, or in some rare cases, she, is at the command of the caster until it is dismissed. There are no degrees of control. If a mage has the ability to cast forth a Summoned, then he or she will have total control of it. Failure to cast results in failure to control in an all-or-none capacity. That is why the ability is, thankfully, limited only to the most skilled rune crafters and casters. 

To call forth a Summoned is considered the greatest crime in magic, both at the state and private levels. Any mage caught summoning will be executed immediately as will any mage found designing runes to be used in summoning...

Chapter 4 - The Road to Nycene 

The old farmer looked at me with obvious skepticism, his eyes narrowed to slits beneath his broad rimmed hat. I had just informed him that I was a mage and asked if, in exchange for any reasonable service that I could provide, he would give two horses to Celeste and I. We had been walking for just over a week now, picking our way through thick northeastern forest and had just come into farm land, which was outside of Green Seo and on the road to Lancaster, where we would turn east and continue on to Nycene. 

"What do you mean any service?" the farmer asked. We were standing outside his modest but biggish house, his small barn and sizable horse stables were located to the right and a large, unplowed field to his left. He must have been a pumpkin or squash farmer if he was planting so late in the season. Either that or he had fallen on hard times. Either way, the farmer could use the services of a mage like myself. 

I shrugged, "You name it and I might could do it. We mages have untold amounts of power, you know." I was playing it up a bit, trying to mystify the country man. 

"Hmph," the farmer grunted, and scratched his head through his hat. Celeste stood to the side of me, trying not to draw any attention to herself. Elvish racism ran deep in the county and she did not want to alert anyone of her heritage if she could help it. Even thousands of years after the Elvish Wars, families still remembered the countless human lives lost on these very lands. 

"How about that field?" I offered, gesturing at the unplowed land, "Looks like it could use some work. In exchange for your horses, I could plow it in one day. Guaranteed." 

The farmer arched an eyebrow, "All by yourself? I doubt your girl there would be much help, seeing how small she is." 

I nodded, ignoring his ignorance, "You'd be amazed how much I can do with a simple rune. What do you say?" 

"Hmm," the farmer thought on it for a long while and then laughed out loud at some secret joke, "If you actually plow that land in one day like you say you can, I'll give you them horses. I'll even throw in a place to sleep in the barn for the night. But," he chuckled again, "Something tells me you're full of it. Looking for a place to sleep. But I've got plenty of room for lonely travelers." 

"Thank you, but I promise I'll earn my keep," I said in response. I had set up numerous deals of this type while on the road. Farmers and town folk were always looking for the skills of a mage, whether they knew it or not. Most of them, like this particular farmer, were skeptical of my skills. But many of them begged me to stay longer after I had finished. The wonder of magic rarely made its presence known outside the illustrious walls of Nycene, and the common people were always mesmerized by it, if not a little wary of it. 

"Go ahead and settle up in the barn's loft," the farmer jerked a thumb toward the building in question. It was late and we were both exhausted. The sun had already begun to set behind thick clouds when we arrived and were now all but disappeared. Lights flickered on in the windows of the farmer's house. His wife getting dinner ready perhaps. 

I nodded in thanks and shouldered my pack, walking across the expanse of packed dirt in front of the farmer's house, toward the barn. Celeste followed and then fell in step with me once we were out of the farmer's earshot. 

"Can you really plow that whole field?" she asked in a soft voice, "With just magic?" 

I nodded, "I've done harder. Come on, I'll tell you how once we're settled." 

The barn was neatly kept, but bereft of animals. One lonely cow swished its tail lazily in the middle of the first floor, a metal bucket laying on its side next to a wooden stool. There were piles of hay for the horses that lived in the stables next door and a myriad of farm tools. A ladder led up from the floor to a loft that ran the length of one side of the barn. We climbed it, and found a few forgotten or broken tools but not much else. The floor was wooden, and would be less comfortable than the ground we had been sleeping on for most of our journey. But the sky was threatening rain, and it would be nice to be out of the elements if indeed the weather came. 

"No fire tonight," I grimaced and cast my light orb, uttering an additional word to change its color from a hard white to a softer yellow-orange. "We won't be able to see as much," I said, setting down my pack, "But it'll be nicer at night. Besides, I don't plan on lasting long tonight. I'm beat." 

"So what's the big plan tomorrow?" Celeste asked as she fished out the last of our food from my pack. I would need to stop and get more tomorrow before we set out again, after I was done plowing the field. 

"Simple," I said, "Remember the first night we met?" 

"How could I not?" Celeste grinned, "You tied me up and then had your way with me. It was all very erotic." 

It was hard to believe that two and a half weeks had passed since the night I had sensed Celeste lurking in the darkness around my campsite. It seemed like only a few days ago. 

"Well," I said, pulling up my sleeve and pointing at a medium sized rune near the juncture of my elbow, it was etched in green ink, "This is the secret to my success then and now. I designed it while treasure hunting in the swamp lands far south of here. There were vines and roots everywhere, and I was getting sick of cutting them out of my way. So I made a rune that can manipulate vegetation so I would be able to just move them instead. You can't manipulate living things as a rule, but with a few clever modifications you can alter a simple manipulation rune like this one," I pointed to smaller, similarly designed tattoo etched in black ink, "Into something that bends the rules a little bit. Namely, make it so you can manipulate really, really unintelligent living things. Like plants. Very dark magic, according to the state mages." 

"That's amazingly clever," Celeste said in awe, "But how does that help you with all that dirt? Even that manipulation rune won't be enough to move all of it in one day." 

"Did you notice all that grass and weed growing in that field?" 

She nodded. 

"I'll just use the roots of those plants to till the soil. If I form a chain of command through the complex system of them beneath the ground, I only have to do a few castings at the most. It will be done within two hours." 

"How do you come up with this stuff?" Celeste laughed, "That's insane." 

"But effective," I had just finished off my dinner and was stretching, my eyes growing heavy even though it was still relatively early, "Watch. You'll be just as amazed as that simple farmer at my skills." 

I lay down and closed my eyes, smiling when Celeste came next to me. I was asleep in minutes, more exhausted than I thought and the only time I awoke that night was to pull a blanket over our bodies and extinguish my orb of light, shutting us away in total darkness. 

"It's better than I thought," I said excitedly, "These weeds have had a nice, long time to get grow and get closer together." 

I stood in the middle of the farmer's field. It had rained the night before, as predicted, and the ground was hard with moisture. But the water had also invigorated the plants and I could sense them easily through the threads of magic that bound all things together in the universe and to which all mages are trained to be attuned to. It was all very spiritual. 

Or something. 

Off to the side of the field the farmer's wife, a tall scarecrow of a woman who wore a cotton dress that went to her feet despite the hot mugginess of the early morning. They had only one child, a daughter, who stood by her mother, watching Celeste and I. 

"She likes you," Celeste teased, jerking her head toward the women, "I can tell by the way she looks at you." 

"She just likes me because I'm the only man she's seen besides her father and old farmers he chums with," I retorted, "Which is fine. Any other time and I would be all over that, trust me. But now I have you. And you're perfect." I grinned, letting her know I was just teasing. 

"Ha!" Celeste laughed, "I'm a nymph, remember? I don't do the ties that bind. You want her, you can have her." 

I gave her a quizzical look, "You mean that?" 

She looked me dead in the eyes, "I'll watch." 

My cock stored in my breeches, and I cleared my throat loudly. "Let's talk about that later. Right now I need to concentrate on getting this plowing done." But Celeste had thrown me for a loop. She was serious. I didn't doubt the tone of her voice for a moment. It was not surprising that she was willing to share me, and truthfully I felt no guilt at the notion. She was a nymph after all, and I had never experienced love myself. But our relationship still seemed to run deeper than pure companionship and I found myself wondering what I would say about sharing her with another man...

"Brian?" Celeste called, "Are you ok?" 

I shook my head to clear it, then nodded, "Yes. Just finding the best place to...got it." I muttered a casting and bonded with a largish weed that grew about five feet from where we stood. Its roots were thick and long, connecting with a number of other systems. I followed these and the ones that they connected to, feeling my bond grow and spread throughout the field. 

The rune I was using grew hot on my arm as the link became larger and larger, until it was almost painful. Finally it stopped, and I could feel the edge of the field where the system of roots was interrupted by the fence that ran the perimeter and kept out all but the smallest of animals. 

After a moment's thought, I made my move, commanding the system of roots to move. They did, and I could feel the earth beneath my feet start to move with them, barely. I moved them another way, and then another, careful to apply enough force to affect the dirt but not enough that the roots tore themselves apart. 

It was slow going at first, the roots were deeply entrenched and the dirt was hard, but after fifteen minutes of slowly manipulating the entire system I could feel the dirt beneath me start to shift more obviously. Celeste could feel it too and let out a small gasp of wonder. 

Closing my eyes, I focused on job more completely. It was slow going. All told I stood in the middle of that field for just over an hour, working the dirt looser and looser by the minute until at last I opened my eyes and saw to my satisfaction a completely tilled field. The roots had loosened the dirt plenty and their host plants now lay toppled over and broken, victims of my manipulation. 

I smiled at Celeste, who clapped and laughed, "That was amazing!" 

Coming across the field and leaving footprints in the newly softened dirt was the farmer and his family, all three with wide eyes and wider smiles. 

"You really did it," the farmer was saying, shaking his head in disbelief and chuckling to himself much the way he had the night before, "And a deal's a deal." He turned to his daughter, who was staring at me with large, brown eyes in open admiration, "Maggy, go saddle up two fine horses for these two. They've earned it." 

Maggy nodded and walked off without at word, glancing back at me every few feet as she made her way to the stable. 

"Now there's no chance I could get you to stick around a little longer?" the farmer asked with little hope in his voice, "I've got a lot a work to be done and not a lot of time to do it. My son ran off with his girl last winter and I'm starting to feel the hurt." 

I shook my head, "Sorry. We need to keep moving. We've got a long road ahead of us yet." 

"Well then," the farmer nodded, "I guess you should go meet Maggy in the stables. She should have you all set." He stuck out his hand and I shook it, "Pleased to meet you, mage. Even if we never got to first name basis." 

"Likewise," I said, "And you'll understand if I'm cautious with my name. I have a lot of enemies." 

"All mages do," the farmer shrugged, as if he understood the half of it, "I've got no problem with them myself but I can see how they might rub some folk the wrong way." 

"Thank you," Celeste said, the first words she had spoken directly to the farmer, and turned to walk away. 

I raised a hand in departure and followed her across the field, admiring my handy-work. It had been an easy job and we had gotten two horses out of it. Not a bad hour's work at all. 

The stable was dim, and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust after the bright sunlight. Maggy was just finishing up with the horses, two healthy-looking animals, one white the other brown. I knew very little about horses, only how to ride them, but these two looked adequate. 

"Thank you, Maggy," I said and saw her blush, "Do you know where we could get some supplies for our journey? We're fresh out." 

"There's a trading post just inside town, to the east," she offered shyly while Celeste looked on with a bemused expression. 

"Thank you, beautiful," I smiled and approached the brown horse, letting it get used to me, while Celeste smoothed a hand over the neck of the white, still watching me. 

"Y...you're welcome," Maggy was as red as a beet. 

I smiled slyly and looked at her with what I hoped were lust-filled eyes, making her squirm a little under my gaze. Then without another word, I pulled myself up onto the horse. "Come on Celeste, we have to go." 

That's when I felt it. Disappointment. Coming off of Maggy in waves. I fed on it, refueling my reserves of energy with a small satisfied sigh. It was my favorite emotion to syphon. The disappearance of hope, no matter how small, was one of the most powerful negative emotions in existence and it provided a wealth of dark energy. 

I urged the horse forward, exiting the stable, Celeste close at my heels, leaving Maggy in the darkness. 

"That was cruel," Celeste said once we were off the farm and traveling toward the small town nearby. 

"It was," I agreed, "But I needed energy. And I just couldn't pass that delightful opportunity up. It was just too perfect." 

"Mages," Celeste shook her head. 

I barked laughter. Mages, indeed. Never what you expected. 



By late afternoon we had left the small farming community far behind and were making our way down a wide, tree-lined road, heading east. We had restocked our food supplies using the money I still had left from my last sell-off of treasure. I had also bought a new black tunic and matching breeches, deciding that my old ones were officially too worn to be any good. Celeste had gotten her dagger sharpened as well. Finally we had purchased a few extra blanket rolls, knowing that the air would get cooler the closer to Nycene we got and also aware that summer was slowly drawing to a close, making the nights cooler by the week. 

"How come you don't carry any weapons?" Celeste asked as we traveled down the road. 

"I don't need to," I said, "I'm a mage. I captured you without any didn't I?" 

"Yes," Celeste frowned, "But I was unawares. What happens when you get into a real fight?" 

I drew my horse up suddenly, and held up a hand. "You might get to find out sooner than you think," I said softly and listened close, hoping the trumpet I had just heard was a figment of my imagination. 

"What..." Celeste began, but was cut off by the loud, blaring sound of what was unmistakably a heralding trumpet of the King's guard, one of the few instruments I could pick out from a half a mile away with no problem.

We were in trouble. 

"Shit!" I swore and peered down the road. Three horses were coming toward us at a fast trot. They bore three armored riders, the metal gleaming in the sunlight that split through the trees. One of the riders held a banner that made my blood run cold. Embroidered in green and gold on the gray background was the flaming torch of the King. "King's guards," I told Celeste, "Just walk forward and don't make eye contact. They might leave us alone." But I doubted it. 

Within moments the riders were upon us and were slowing down, a very bad sign for us. The leader had long, greasy, dark hair that was swept back from his forehead and combed over his scalp. He stared at us with cold, grey eyes while his men, both brutish looking thugs with shortly cropped hair and violent eyes, stayed back. 

"State your name and business on this road," the leader said, "By order of the King of Nycene." 

"My name is Seth," I answered with a low voice, using the name of my frequent-buyer from the south, "And this is my wife, Celeste." There was no need to use a fake name for her. It would mean nothing to these men. 

"Where are you traveling?" the guard asked. 

"To Nycene," I admitted. There was no other plausible scenario. I could have said I was visiting relatives in one of the farming towns between here and Nycene, but the lie would have quickly unraveled. 

"Why?" 

"Work," I said, "We're recently married and are hoping to start a new life there." 

"I'm with child," Celeste added, and I admired her ability to play the commoner, "And we have no family to support us or land to farm so we figured we try to make it in Nycene." 

"Hmm," the guard said, "You know what I think? I think you're full of shit." 

"Excuse me?" I tried to sound indignant, but was not at all shocked that the guard had seen through us. They were trained to spot a lier from a mile away. Celeste was too pretty and I was dressed too nicely to be simple farm folk trying to struggle our way to Nycene. To top it all off, our horses were healthy and our supplies well-stocked. We had money and it was obvious. 

"Listen up," the guard said, "It's our job to protect the fine people of this land and when we get wind of some mage and his whore traveling through towns, casting dark spells, we have a duty to investigate. And right now," he smiled sinisterly, "You're our prime suspects." 

I should have seen this coming. Word of what I had done at the farmer's would have gotten around that town fast. And there were scrying mirrors in almost all villages that even the most common of common folk could use to contact the King's guard. Not to mention how I had treated poor Maggy. I bet she had gone off to tell about the handsome, but unkind stranger who had plowed her daddy's field using magic. 

Every time I had used magic in exchange for goods I had kept it small and used perfectly legal castings. This time I had been sloppy. Used a rune that was against the rules of the state to manipulate living things on a large scale. With witnesses. It was foolish in hindsight. Perhaps I had been trying to impress Celeste. I didn't know. All I knew is that the King's guard were experts in sniffing out even the smallest of rule breakers and I was in trouble. 




Dark Magic Ch. 04



The rune on my back warmed. I was sure I would have to use it despite my reservations. It would sap me of all my energy and expose my darkest secret to Celeste. But the guards would kill us otherwise. They did not care for the sanctity of human life. And I did not care for their's in return. 

"If this is about the field," I said calmly, knowing there would be no reasoning with the guards but trying it anyway, "I'm sorry. I know it was against the rules." 

"Just give us the rune you used and we'll let you off with a warning," the leader said with a victorious flair in his oily voice, "Since you're so sorry and all." 

I was in trouble now. They knew that any rune I produced would be evidence of my guilt. And if I didn't come up with one, they they would find out I had tattooed runes...

There was only one other option if I wanted to get out of this alive. "Celeste," I said in a low voice, "Whatever happens, just stay back." 

The guards exchanged amused expressions and then drew their swords. "Something wrong, mage?" the leader asked, "All I want to see is that rune." 

I stared him in the eye as I muttered the single, short word that set my back ablaze with activated power and drained me almost completely of what energy I had syphoned from Maggy.

There was a blinding flash and the horses whinnied in terror as a beastly cry echoed through the wooded road. 

"Maverick!" I cried, "The guards." 

From my right a large man rushed past in a blur. Quicker than the guards could react, a long, black sword was drawn, held out in front of the man. There was a cry and then a guttural choking sound as the attacker thrust this sword into the throat of one of the guards. Their leader raised his own sword and attempted to bring it down upon their assailant, but he was too slow and was decapitated with unnatural speed and precision. 

"Brian," Celeste gasped, drawing her horse nearer to me, "What is that thing?" 

"Maverick," I said softly while the third guard, who had tried to flee, was wrenched from his horse and had his neck snapped in one, clean motion. 

Our savior, Maverick, stood straight, and turned to face Celeste and I. He was taller than I, at around six and a half feet to my own six, and more heavily built. His hair was pitch black and ran down to his shoulders in silky, unkempt strands. His face was hard and covered with small scars, like the rest of his body. One of these scars ran from the corner of his left eye to the corner of his mouth. Eyes blood red, his skin ash grey. The light metal armor he wore was as black as his hair, bereft of any markings or symbols that tied him to any house or profession. 

He held out his bloodied sword, which was the same color as his armor and asked in a deep, demonic voice, "Her too?" 

Celeste let out a small sound of fear and I shook my head, "No, Maverick. Take care of these bodies. Then meet us inside the woods. I'm too tired to carry on today. I need to rest." 

I turned my mount toward the forest and began picking my way through the trees, getting deep enough inside that no one would be able to see us from the road. My back was burning uncomfortably and I was exhausted. Not even halfway to Nycene and I was already being harassed by guards. And the closer I got the city, the more likely that state mages would replace King's guards, doubling, if not tripling my problems. 

"Brian?" Celeste called gently from behind me, "Who was that?" 

"Camp first, then I'll tell you," I looked behind me and past Celeste and could see white flickers of bright light through the trees. Maverick was incinerating the guards. Horses too, most likely. 

About half a mile into the thin forest I was satisfied we were far enough from the road. Dismounting, I immediately began to clear the ground of large debris. I needed to set up camp and rest. Celeste got down and after tying up the horses started to help. Between the two of us it only took ten well-practiced minutes to clear the site and set up a fire circle, which we then filled with enough fuel to keep it burning a while. 

"I can't light it," I confessed, gesturing at the piles of wood, "I'm too exhausted. We'll have to wait for Maverick." There was a large, smooth log that we had left near the fire circle and in front of it was where I had spread one of our now numerous blankets. "Sit," I said and we both sat with our backs against the log, staring into the fire that wasn't. 

"So," Celeste prompted and I sighed, long and heavy. 

"That was Maverick," I began, "Or at least that's what I call him. His real name is hard to say and a little dangerous at that," I paused, "He's a Summoned." 

Celeste nodded, her eyes fearful, understanding. 

"I know what you're thinking," I said shamefully, "Magic doesn't get much darker than this. But I only use it in emergencies and I would never use it to hurt an innocent." 

"Summoning is considered the greatest atrocity to magic in elvish culture," Celeste said gravely, "But lucky for you, I don't think too highly of elvish culture. You did what you had to." 

My heart skipped a beat and I knew then my feelings for Celeste went deeper than friendship. If it was love, I couldn't tell, but it felt good nonetheless. 

Something was crashing through the forest and moments later Maverick burst into our campsite, his hands bloody. "I have done what you have asked," he said in his threatening voice. 

"Thank you," I nodded and Maverick took a seat on the log next to Celeste and pulled out his sword, which he began cleaning with a dark scrap of cloth he had produced from somewhere. 

"Who is the lady?" he asked, his eyes never leaving his blade. 

"My name is Celeste," she answered, bowing her head, "I am a wood elf from Lake Land. A nymph." 

"Hmm," Maverick hummed, red eyes darting over to her for a split second before returning to his work, "An elf. It has been a long long time since I have seen one of your kind."

"You've seen an elf before?" Celeste asked with mild surprise, "How? We do not have the ability to summon." 

"It has been thousands of years," Maverick explained, holding up his sword for one final inspection, before setting it to the side, "My old mistress was an elf. A powerful caster." 

"You never mentioned this," I said. 

"It never came up," Maverick shrugged, and began to work the clasps of his armor loose, "How long do you need me this time?" 

That was a very good question. Most of the few instances I had summoned Maverick, I had only needed him to get me out of a tight pinch, at which point I allowed him to return to whatever world he came from. But now was different. I was walking straight into danger and had already had to call him forth. There was a sinking realization that I would probably need him again before we got to Nycene and certainly once we had arrived. 

Maverick had stripped to the waist and was polishing his chest plate with the same care he gave his sword, with Celeste looking on with appreciation in her eyes. The Summoned was large and very well muscled, with a chest like a barrel and abdominal muscles that stood out in chiseled perfection with scars running along his gray skin.

Without warning, images flashed through my mind of Maverick taking Celeste while I watched. Of Maverick and I sharing her, both of us seated deep inside her while she writhed in ecstasy between our bodies. It made my cock stir despite my exhaustion. The Summoned was as much a part of me as I was of him. Remembering her confession back at the farm, I realized that if I had to share Celeste, which I now didn't doubt I would, considering her nature, I would be happy to do it with Maverick. We were bonded deeper than blood. This had never occurred to me. But it was an interesting thought...

"I will need you for a while," I finally said, "I am headed into dangerous territory. Your protection will be greatly appreciated." 

Maverick lay his chest plate next to his sword and stood to removed the bottom half of his armor. Celeste stay still, staring up at him as he immodestly began to undress completely until he stood tall and naked before both of us. The culture of the Summoned was markedly less prudish than human or even nymphsh culture and Maverick made no signs of embarrassment as he retook his seat on the bench, clearing the light armor he wore over his legs of any blood. 

Without a word to me, Celeste moved to kneel between Maverick's legs. He looked up and set his work aside, understanding and opening his thighs up wider. I watched, transfixed at the wordless understanding between the two sexual creatures as Celeste took Maverick's cock in her mouth and began to suckle it lightly. I wasn't going to protest, nor was I surprised at the suddenness of the interaction. Celeste was curious by nature, and her sexual curiosity was expected. 

Placing his hands on the log on either side of his body, Maverick leaned back, his cock growing longer under Celeste's efforts. Fully erect it stood about nine inches long, thick from shaft to head. Celeste could only fit about half of it inside her mouth, which she did so with eager skill, running her tongue along the shaft and then sucking on the head with pretty red lips. 

She began to suck on Maverick in a steady rhythm, which he watched with keen interest from above, his disciplined body remaining perfectly still while Celeste brought him closer to orgasm. 

When it arrived, it came without warning, Maverick's face remaining perfectly unchanged as he shot into her mouth in thick white ropes. It was soon too much for the little nymph to keep up with and it leaked out around the corner of her lips and down Maverick's shaft. But still it kept coming, making a wonderful mess, before finally subsiding after a long moment. 

Celeste pulled off him with a pop, a trail of his cum running down her chin and neck in a lazy river. "Wow," she said, wiping it off with the tip of her finger and sucking it down, "I've never had a man cum that much." She looked at me with lust-clouded eyes and then approached on all fours. Maverick remained where he was, his cock still standing hard at attention. "Pull your's out," she said staring at the bulge in my pants, "I think I have room for seconds." 

I undid my breeches and pulled them down, exposing myself. Immediately Celeste's eager mouth was enveloping me in warm bliss, cum and saliva dripping down my cock and balls as she bobbed over me with practiced skill. 

Maverick stood up from the log and knelt behind Celeste on his knees, gripping her breeches and pulling them roughly down her thighs, exposing her cunt. A drop of moisture dripped from her lips to the blanket beneath us, quickly followed by another. She was literally dripping her oily nectar from the thrill she was getting and her excitement fueled my own, my cock twitching within Celeste's mouth. 

Gripping his shaft, Maverick positioned himself at the entrance of Celeste's cunt, rubbing the head along her slit, coating it with her juices, causing her to moan around my own cock. 

"Fuck," I groaned, and threw my head back, enjoying the feel of her mouth around me, trying to hold off on my release for as long as I could. This was bliss for me and I knew it was for her as well. Nymphs get a thrill from less conventional sex. And although our trysts in the woods had been satisfying, having Maverick join in was a completely new level. 

I decided that I owed it to Celeste to feed her desires as much as she had fed mine. A whole realm of possibilities had just opened for both of us and I intended to explore it completely. 

With two thrusts, Maverick entered Celeste. The first only made it halfway into her channel before she proved too tight. The second had him seated fully inside, where he stayed, a deep moan of pleasure reverberating from his chest. 

Celeste let out her own moan, pausing her movements with my cock as far into her mouth as it would go, the vibrations running over my sensitive head. 

Reaching out, I slid my hand down Celeste's still-clothed belly until I found her clit. I pinched it gently between two fingers and then began rubbing my thumb over it in lazy, continuous circles. 

"Maverick," I said, "Her g-spot is right about...," I trailed my fingers up to where I figured the bundle of nerves was, and gave her skin a hard push, feeling the resistance of Maverick's member through her walls, "Here." 

Celeste squealed out around me and I swore. "Fuck, Celeste!" 

Maverick nodded his understanding and shifted his hips a little, withdrawing his member slowly from inside her. It was wet and nearly dripping with juices. He paused with only the head still inside Celeste. I resumed my play along Celeste's clit and she drew her mouth off of me, laying her head on my stomach, anticipating what was coming next. 

With a downward thrust, Maverick slammed back into Celeste. I could feel the skin of her pelvis stretch outward with the intrusion as I played with her clit. The force of it caused her arms to give out and she collapsed on top of me, her hips thrust up toward Maverick at a deeper angle. 

Again the Summoned withdrew and then slammed home, hitting her g-spot hard with his bulbous head. She cried out, a small gush of juices pattering onto the blanket. Another thrust, another cry, a bigger gush. One more and I was sure she would...

"YES!" Celeste screamed into my stomach after a third monster thrust from Maverick. He stilled as she began to spasm around him. A great geyser of cum sprayed from her cunt, wetting the blanket and my thighs as she twitched and cried out in pleasure. 

At some point Maverick continued his thrusting, prolonging the shattering orgasm for another five squirts of nectar until it saturated the air with its intoxicating aroma. I gripped my cock and began to jack it off myself, unable to bear the site of this show any longer. 

Picking her head up, Celeste resumed sucking my cock, albeit with less energy as before while she continued to climb down from her massive high. It wouldn't be long until my own orgasm. And judging by the grunts of pleasure coming from Maverick as he pistoned in and out of Celeste's saturated cunt, I knew he would be just behind me. 

"FUCK!" I cried mere moments later, and came into Celeste's eager mouth at exactly the same time that the wet slapping sounds of Maverick's fucking ceased and he shot his load into her cunt. 

Pulling her head up, Celeste allowed my seed to spray over her face in thin white strands. Further down her body, Maverick was filling her cunt to overflowing with his own seed. It leaked out around their tight joining and splattered thickly onto the blanket, joining the oily mess that Celeste had already produced with her own earth-shaking release. 

Finally he withdrew, a cascade of mixed pleasure running out of her channel and down her thighs. With a sigh, Celeste collapsed into her own mess, licking her lips of my cum but letting the rest stay where it had landed. 

"That was the first elvish cunt I have had since my mistress stopped summoning me," Maverick said with satisfaction as he stood, his cock still remarkably erect. 

"Glad I could service," Celeste said with a smile, sitting up, "Mind cleaning me?" she asked of me. 

I muttered the casting, the only one I had energy left to do, and she, Maverick, the blanket, and I were all instantly clear of our mess. As if what had just happened had not. 

"Thank you," Celeste said as she stood and pulled up her breeches, which had never been fully off her body. 

"For what?" I asked, standing myself and tucking my member back in my own breeches. If I was tired before, now I was completely spent. At least the pain in my back had begun to subside. 

"For sharing me," she said and smiled. 

Maverick muttered something and his armor, which had been laying next to the log, disappeared while a lighter suit of black, leather armor took it's place on his body, appearing in a flash of black smoke. Next he sheathed his sword in the scabbard that had appeared with the armor and pointed a finger at the wood in the fire pit. It burst into flames and he grunted with satisfaction. 

"I will go place wards along the perimeter," he announced, "Then make dinner. You must rest, master. Perhaps such an encounter was not wise so soon after summoning me. But your elf seemed overly eager." 

"Perhaps," I agreed, "But it was not unwelcome. I plan on having more of them in the near future." I grinned mischievously at Celeste. 

"If I am to stay on this plane," Maverick said as he began walking away, "I expect nothing less." 

He disappeared into the woods and I let out a small chuckle. The road to Nycene would be long and dangerous, I knew. But with Maverick to protect us, I felt for the first time it would be doable. And Celeste would be happy, too, with two men to satisfy her needs. Either individually or together. 

The orb had not been forgotten, and I went to check on it once more before I would finally relax in front of the fire.

It was unchanged. The smoke continued to swirl in it's depths and lighting cracked. "The Source" it was called. Perhaps Maverick would know something of it? I had not even thought of that before. Maybe I wouldn't even need to go to Nycene and all this trouble was for naught. 

I left the orb, thinking optimistic thoughts, unaware until much later that my magic energy had been completely restored without any empathic links. As if from thin air...



Dark Magic Ch. 05



Scripts from the Great Library of Nycene: 

From "The World's Cities": 

Nycene: 

Considered by many to be the greatest city in the world, Nycene is the only Ancient city that is still inhabited by humans. Located on a large island on the north east coast of the Feudal Continent, it is the seat of state power in the eastern kingdom. 

Ancient buildings left standing after the Magic Wars were rebuilt and refortified throughout Nycene, and it boasts many towers that would be impossible to build with modern technology. One of these towers is used as a palace for the King of Nycene. Another houses the Great Library, which contains the largest collection of scripts in the world, compiled by generations of librarians to preserve the world's history. 

The state mages also call Nycene home, and enforce the King's rule as far as the west as the Great Divide mountain range. 

All people who reside between the Great Divide in the west, the desert in the south, and the ocean are considered under the King's, and Nycene's rule. 

Chapter Five: The Road to Nycene 

We were back on the road to Nycene, Celeste and I were mounted and Maverick walked behind us, keeping up with his inhuman endurance. The sky was ashen grey, and a light drizzle soaked us, chilling our bodies despite the muggy weather. We were silent, and I was lost in thought. 

Having fallen asleep before Maverick had made it back from setting wards around the camp, I had woken very well rested. My sleep had only been disturbed briefly when I opened my eyes to a dark camp, lit only by a dim campfire, and the soft mewls of Celeste as Maverick thrust into her from behind on the other side of the fire. Something was dripping from between her naked thighs, and I suspected it was not their first round of the night, but I was too tired to join in so I had fallen back into a deep slumber immediately. 

That morning, both Celeste and Maverick were up and dressed, eating a light breakfast in comfortable silence. All of our spirits were already dampened by the rain by the time we got packed up and on the road, and I knew that it would be a long day's travel. 

It was mid morning when I had unconsciously moved a low hanging tree branch that would have scraped the top of my head if I had ridden under it, using the rune for manipulating plants. It was ten minutes later that I realized that I should not have been able to move the branch at all. My energy was replete and I had had no chance to replenish. There certainly had been no unpleasant emotions around the night before for me to feed on. 

So where had the energy come from? I quick check and I knew that I was completely full of it.

Only one thing could account for the discrepancy, and I eyed my pack with The Source cautiously, a fresh idea of where its name may have come from forming in my mind. 

"Maverick?" I called, and the Summoned trotted up to the side of my horse, his head coming to about my waist. 

"Master?" 

"Do you know of any elvish artifact known as 'The Source'?" I asked, and Celeste tuned a curious ear toward us. 

"Hmmm," Maverick thought, rubbing his chin, "It might sound familiar. But I don't know much about your kind of magic." 

"Celeste," I said, turning to her, "Let me run an idea past you." 

"Sure." 

"Do you think The Source is an actual source of magic? Maybe it's how the first human mages were able to learn the craft; with an actual, physical center of power," it was a crazy idea, really. Magic was found all around in nature. There would be no reason for any one object to contain it as long as a mage had a technique for syphoning this energy from their surroundings; such as empathic links. But as I had suggested to Celeste, it was not out of the realm of possibility that humans would need a starting point before developing these techniques. Perhaps a gift from elves to faithful cities. 

"Interesting thought," Celeste said, frowning, "But from I know about magic, it doesn't make sense. Why have a source of magic like the orb if magic can be found all around?" 

"That's what I was thinking," I said, glad Celeste was on the same page, "But maybe it acted as a kind of early conduit. A training apparatus of sorts." 

"You humans do need a lot of help with magic," Maverick boomed from my side, "It makes a semblance of sense." 

"I don't know," I shrugged, "I guess my friend in Nycene will know more." I didn't want to tell them about my miraculous return to full energy quite yet. It troubled me enough as it was. I didn't need them, or at least Celeste, fretting over it as well. Free energy could be a very dangerous thing. It violated fundamental principles of magic that kept all mages, dark and state alike, in check. 

"Who exactly is this friend anyway?" Celeste asked conversationally. 

"An old friend of my master's," I explained, "He works in the Great Library and is an expert in Ancient history. No love lost between he and the state either. He was a supporter of my master's when..." I trailed off, aware I was about to reveal a secret of my past I wasn't ready to. 

"I don't doubt he's a very wise man if he is a librarian in the Great Library," Celeste said, ignoring my unfinished sentence, "I've always wanted to visit." 

"It's the only place I feel safe in Nycene," I admitted, "The state mages stay away for the most part. They have their own collection of knowledge in their tower." 

We walked in silence for a while then. Sometime after noon, I think, we passed a wooden building hiding among the trees with the torch of Nycene painted on the front door. A guards' outpost. It was empty and dark, its only three apparent inhabitants having fallen victim to Maverick's blade. There were similar outposts scattered all around the wilderness, but that had been the only one we had seen so far. And it was new. The last time I had taken this road it had not been there. Perhaps the King thought he was losing control of his people.

It was hard to tell what time it was by the sun, seeing how the clouds refused to break their cover. When we did stop, it was only because it had suddenly become too hard to see the road. 

"Where would you say we are?" Celeste asked miserably as we made a pitiful camp that night. 

"A day and half more of all day riding like today and we'll be there," I promised, adjusting the tree branches above us to keep most of the rain off, "We'll start seeing towns tomorrow afternoon. We can even get a room at an inn if it's still raining." 

"Good," Celeste grumbled and wrapped herself up in blankets, "Because this is miserable." 

Needless to say, all three of us passed that night without any activity. 

The rain did not let up the next day and even Maverick and the horses starting to show wariness from walking so far in it. But the trees began to thin by around noon that day and we came upon our first town, a small cluster of houses and not much else, soon after. 

"There's an inn about ten miles down the road if I remember correctly," I said, speaking for the first time that day, "We'll stop. Have a hot meal and get a good night's sleep in a warm bed." 

Maverick had gone the long way around the town, opting for a longer journey rather than face a mob of angry villagers when they caught a glimpse of his grey skin and red eyes.

I doubted we would run into any enemies in this village, so it felt safe letting Maverick separate from us. The guards that had run us down had apparently been the only ones contacted. And by the time the other guards found out what had happened, if they ever did, we would be in and out of Nycene already. I hoped. 

"Good," Celeste said, "This rain is driving me insane." 

By late afternoon we had arrived at the small inn between the last town and the next, along a long stretch of road that cut through gentle, green hills of grass weighted down by the rain. With grateful groans, Celeste and I dismounted and gave our horses to the stableboy, who looked just as miserable as we were, and then we went inside. 

It was clean and warm and the innkeeper was a friendly, fat man with a booming laugh and a charming smile. He informed us he had plenty of room for two young lovers such as ourselves and called for his young son to please take our packs upstairs. 

Next we sat at a table near the fire, where a smattering of other folks, local farmers I didn't doubt, were drinking and playing cards, just grateful to be out of the rain. 

Our dinner was good and hot, and by the end of my second mug of ale I was feeling like my old self again, chatting with Celeste in the carefree manner we had developed of the past two and a half weeks. 

When it got dark out and the inn started to get more crowded with local folks, I suggested to Celeste that we retire, call Maverick, and chat about our next move. We would be arriving in Nycene before the end of the next day and we needed a plan before we proceeded. She agreed and we went up together, catching knowing glances from a number of the patrons. 

The room we were given was small, but the bed was large, covering more than half of the space. Other than that, there was only a small table with a mirror above and a wash bowl on top. Even a sparsely furnished room was better than being out in this rain, though. 

With a little push of energy, I sent a signal out to Maverick that he could follow back to us. I inspected the curtained window next to the table and noted it looked out the back of the inn, which would be perfect for the Summoned to climb through undetected. 

Satisfied, I turned around and was treated with the sight of Celeste stripping out of her soaked tunic. Her tiny nipples standing at hard points on her chest. 

"What are you doing?" I asked, grinning, "We have some business to discuss..." 

"Calm down," Celeste returned, draping her tunic over the table to dry, "I just couldn't stand the damn wet material anymore. You'll just have to try to keep your hands off me." 

"For now,"I promised, and heard the creak of the window's hinges open and Maverick climbed through like a giant spider, his leather armor dripping with rain water and his long black hair plastered to his head. 

"Getting started without me?" he asked, eyeing Celeste and starting to unbuckle his armor. I feared he would be naked in no time, so I dived right in to the business we had to discuss. 

"Before our hormones get the better of us," I said, "We will be on the outskirts of Nycene by tomorrow evening and we need to discuss how to best enter the city undetected." 

"Easy," Maverick said, already stripped to the waist. 

"Oh yeah?" I arched an eyebrow, "And how is it so easy?" 

"Go underground," the Summoned said matter-of-factly. 

Celeste and I exchanged baffled expressions. "Excuse me?" I asked, certain that my bodyguard had just completely lost his mind. 

Maverick removed the rest of his armor as he let out a low chuckle, "You humans have forgotten almost all of your history. It's almost pathetic." 

"Explain yourself," I said to the now completely naked and unmistakably aroused Summoned. 

"There is a large system of tunnels beneath Nycene left over from the Ancients," Maverick said while he looked hungrily at Celeste, who was biting her lower lip and squirming a little under his gaze, "We can access it from the outskirts of the city easily. Nycene used to extend much further than it does today, and some of the tunnel entrances are still pretty accessible outside the city gates. Then we can use them to navigate the city unnoticed." 

"There's an entire network of underground tunnels beneath Nycene and the King doesn't know about it?" I found that impossible to believe. With the amount of time and effort the King put in to learning every secret possible from the city and its people, I doubted very much that he had overlooked something this major. 

"I'm sure he does," Maverick said. 

"So it's guarded?" I spoke fast, trying to break through the cloud of sexual tension that hung in the air between all three of us. 

"Yes," Maverick admitted, approaching Celeste, "But much less so than any other entrance to the city. As far as he knows, no one else is aware of its existence. We could easily get around any guards he has stationed in them. Now enough talk," with one, rough motion he bent and yanked Celeste's breeches down her legs, the musky aroma of her cream instantly filling the air, "Get on the bed and spread those thighs. I've been smelling your juicy cunt since I came in this room and now I want to taste it." 

Celeste kicked off her clothes and sat down on the edge of the bed, doing as Maverick had commanded and spreading her thighs to give us both a perfect view of her glistening slit, dripping juice as always. With an unearthly growl, the Summoned knelt on the floor and spread her thighs even further, inhaling her scent deeply. 

"So good," he moaned and dipped his head forward, licking a long path from the base of her slit to her bud, gathering up a tongue full of cream as he went. Celeste shuddered and moaned, tried to close her thighs around Maverick's head but was prevented from doing so by strong hands that kept them wide open. 

Stripping off my tunic I got on the bed and knelt behind Celeste, allowing her to lean back onto my chest so I could get a good view of her cunt getting licked. My hands came around her back to cup her small breasts while I watched Maverick's tongue snake its way into the ever-tight hole between her lips. 

She was already sweating and moaning, her juices flowing freely, dripping down Maverick's chin as he began his onslaught. Gripping her chin, I turned her face toward mine and went in for a hungry kiss, our tongues dueling hotly with each other while underneath my grip, she squirmed and undulated with passion. 

"Are you going to cum?" I whispered into her ear, breaking the kiss and giving her nipples a hard pinch, "Are you going to dribble your sweet cunt juice all over Maverick's face?" 

"Yes," Celeste moaned, her hips bucking off of the bed, trying to get closer to the never-ceasing tongue of the Summoned, "Oh fuck yes." 

"Then are you going to lick your cream off his face while I have my own little feast?" I asked, feeling her body tense, knowing she was getting close to her first orgasm. 

"Y...yes," Celeste shuddered and I kissed her again, roughly. 

Moments later she squealed into my mouth as an orgasm ripped through her body. I stopped what I was doing to her mouth so I could watch as she gushed cum all over Maverick's willing face. He licked up as much as he could, but it still made a mess of his lips and chin. Not to mention the sheets of the bed and Celeste's inner thighs. 

I moved out from behind Celeste and swapped places with Maverick with unspoken communication. I knelt where he had knelt and smelled the sweet tang of the juices he had called forth from her cunt. Her thighs were sticky wit the stuff and a I started there, licking it up and reveling in its unique taste. 

Glancing upward, I saw Celeste had been true to her word and was licking and kissing the cream off Maverick's face while he held her head roughly by her golden hair. I smiled and turned my attention back to my target. With two fingers I entered her channel and began to rub against her g-spot, wanting her to squirt her cum all over me. 

Even though she had just had a sizable orgasm, it was mere moments before I had Celeste writhing above me. Maverick held her still while I pumped my fingers against her spot, feeling it swell. Leaning in I flicked her clit with the tip of my tongue and then sucked it hard into my mouth. 

"FUCK!" she screamed and I picked up the pace of my fingers, adding a third and thrusting hard into her, like I planned on doing soon with my cock. 

Her legs, free from restraints, closed around my shoulders, holding me in place as I coaxed her closer to release. Cream dripped out around my thrusting fingers and loud, wet noises filled the room. Anyone walking past the door would be able to hear, and even possibly smell, the extremely erotic scene taking place and he or she would be surely filled with jealously. I know I would. 

"Cum for me, Celeste," I said softly, but loud enough for her to hear it over her own pants and sighs, "Spray me with your juices." 

"Cum," Maverick growled and his hand slid down her heaving, sweating belly and pinched her clit with savage roughness. 

Celeste came, fulfilling my wish and squirting a strong stream of her nectar all over my chest and face. It smelled and tasted divine, and I stood so the next stream hit my stomach, the hot splatter fueling the erotic frenzy that was building in my mind.  

"Maverick," I said as Celeste's orgasm subsided, "Sit against the head of the bed." 

The Summoned moved along the mattress so that his back was against the wall behind it, his cock standing at full attention between his legs. Celeste was panting and sweating, but still looked ready for another round or five. 

"Climb on his cock,"I told Celeste, "But face me. I want to watch you while he splits you open." 

With eager limberness, Celeste moved toward Maverick. Getting on her knees, she backed herself up so that her legs were on either side of his. She continued to move until Maverick's cock stood poised at her entrance, pre-cum joining the mess of moisture already built up around her lips. 

"Down," I pointed and she lowered her hips. 

Maverick's head cleared her lips with amazing resistance, becoming engulfed by her tight channel as she started her journey downward. 

Celeste took her time, a fraction of an inch every few seconds. Cum dripped down Maverick's shaft and balls as she slid down and down. And he remained remarkably still, allowing the nymph to take complete control. Eventually she was seated completely on top of Maverick's hips. I could see the slight bulge of his cock where it pressed up against her upper walls, almost too thick to fit within her. 

"How does that feel?" I asked, getting a thrill from commanding and watching my own little show. 

"So full," Celeste moaned, and began to play with her clit, shifting her hips a little around Maverick's shaft, seemingly enjoying the feel of him inside her. 

"Now slide up his cock," I said, "Leave only the head. And remain like that." 

She did as she was told, using her thighs to withdraw all but the tip of Maverick's member from her over-stuffed cunt. The skin of his shaft glistened wetly with her juices and more continued to run down it as she remained poised above him, waiting for my next command. 

"Down," I said and she slammed home harder than I had anticipated, letting out a little cry of pleasurable pain. 

"Up." 

She slid up. 

"Down." 

Back home. 

"Up. Down. Up. Down." I continued in litany, watching the flush rise in her chest as she rode herself on Maverick's cock to my commands. 

The Summoned let out a few groans of pleasure now and then, but for the most part he acted the part of the tool very well. 

"Continue that pace," I said and stripped out of my breeches as Celeste continued to fuck herself in earnest, her little mewls of pleasure going straight to my cock. 

"Are you close?" I asked her and she nodded, "Keep playing with your clit until you cum." 

I climbed onto the bed and sat back on my knees, watching and waiting for the inevitable. 

"YES!" Celeste finally cried and impaled herself fully on Maverick. Cream gushed from her cunt around their joining. 

Maverick grunted soon after and his own cum began to leak from her opening as he emptied a giant load inside her. 

"Get off and get on your back," I said. 

She did, cum dripping from her snatch. I sat up on my knees and grabbed her hips roughly, pulling them toward my own. Then I pushed her legs back toward her head, exposing her well-lubricated cunt to my more than prepared cock. 




Dark Magic Ch. 05



I entered her. Combined cum squeezed out around my shaft and I could feel the gooey mixture facilitate my movements as I began to fuck her hard. She was still hot and wet and her fluttering walls gripped me tightly. 

Having watched her fuck herself on my Summoned had already brought me to the brink of orgasm. I knew that she was almost spent, and so I was racing toward the finish, enjoying the soft pliable flesh of her cunt as I fucked her harder and harder. Sweat and her nectar dripped from my chest and onto her body, which was writhing in pure ecstasy, climbing toward her fourth orgasm. 

With a final lunge I came inside her, filling her to the brim with even more cum as she squirted out around me, coating my pelvis and lower belly with juices, making me even more sticky than I already was. 

Maverick watched and stroked his cock. 

"On her belly," I told him, and he stroked harder for a few moments before huge ropes of white cream erupted from his tip, landing on the alabaster skin of Celeste's stomach. Apparently watching my own brief show had excited him like his had me. 

I withdrew and stood back to admire my handiwork. The nymph lay panting, exhausted, covered with cum, with even more dripping from her cunt. A bead of our three combined juices dripped from my cock and onto the mattress. 

"We did good work," I told Maverick and he nodded his agreement with a malicious smile. 

Celeste had become our shared object of pleasure, and we all three were reaping amazing benefits from the arraignment. 

"Fuck," Celeste moaned and lewdly rubbed the cum on her belly into her skin, "That was amazing." 

"Wait until we're both inside you at once," I said and murmured the cleaning casting that got rid our mess, which was becoming a little uncomfortable post-climax. 

"Shit," Celeste groaned and sat up, "I don't know if I can handle that." 

"You will," I promised, and flopped down onto the right side of the bed, my chest still heaving as I came down from my exhausting efforts. 

She snuggled up next to me, her head on my shoulder.

Maverick extinguished the lamp that lit the room and stood at the window, "I will watch the area while you rest," he announced. I always figured he did not sleep. This confirmed it. 

"Thank you," I said drowsily and noticed with amusement that Celeste was already asleep next to me. She had had quite the workout. 

The Summoned nodded and climbed out the window. 

For a while after he had left I pondered the relationship we had formed with Celeste. It had been an unspoken occurrence and the most exotic thing I had ever been involved with. And it would end as soon I sent Maverick away, making it unfortunately temporary. Just like my personal relationship with Celeste. 

Pleasure would be fleeting, it seemed. Which suited my life fine. I was meant to be alone. But still, it pained me to have to loose Celeste. She was something special. Strong and adventurous, rare qualities in many of the women I came across. 

'Stop fretting over things you can not control,' I thought to myself sternly, 'What will come will come. Just try to enjoy yourself while you can.' 

And I agreed with myself. I would enjoy Celeste and Maverick and everything that transpired between us until this particular quest was over. Then I would move on to the next one. Meet more people, have more sex, and eventually retire. 

Such was the life of a dark mage. The life I had chosen. The life I was good at...



Dark Magic Ch. 06



Really short scene of action at the end of the story. I didn't think that a big one fit well within the story line here. 

A lot of other kinds of action though, and some plot development which (I guess) needs to be done ; ). 

For those of you disappointed in the relationship between Celeste and Brian, I want to tell you right now that this is not a love story. So do not count it against me when it doesn't turn out to be one. I warned you. 

For the rest who are enjoying the story and the (hopefully) hot sex scenes, thank you for your support and don't forget to comment...

*****

We were near the water, and as a result the air was humid and hot, its effect doubled after the recent downpour of rain. Now that the sun was out it was making up for lost time, beating down on us as we picked our way across long-forgotten dirt roads that skirted the perimeters of the myriad of small towns that had built up around the prosperity of Nycene over the years. 

Approaching the city from the north, we intended to avoid the main traffic that moved in from the west. Our other reason for taking the long, roundabout route was that Maverick claimed the most easily accessible opening to the underground was just north of one of the three waterways that surrounded the island city of Nycene. Only the poor lived north of the city, which meant the King's guard's presence would would be thinner, allowing us to slip into the underground undetected. 

"Tell me again how you know where this entrance is," I asked of Maverick, who was walking alongside me. We had abandoned the horses soon after leaving the inn that morning, deciding it would be easier to come the rest of the way on foot. To lighten our load, the only pack I carried was the small one that contained The Source and enough food to tide us over if we got hungry. We either reached the Great Library that night or died trying. 

"I am much older than you might think," the Summoned answered. He was wearing his light leather armor and sword. "I've learned a lot about Nycene through years and years of experience." 

It was late afternoon and in the distance I could make out the smoke of chimneys and hear the cry of gulls as they flew overhead looking for food. We were getting very close now, and my stomach knotted with anxiety. No good memories lay within the walls of Nycene. And if I wasn't careful, it was where I would meet my end. 

We crested the grassy hill we had been scaling, and were greeted by the sight of hundreds upon hundreds of wooden structures spreading haphazardly across the land until they butted up against the river far in the distance. Dirty smoke rolled lazily from the chimneys of the hastily built homes, dirtying the air. Muddy roads crisscrossed between the buildings, teeming with people, carts, and animals, all trading or selling or stealing whatever goods they could to each other. 

Across the water, almost too far to make out, were the walls of Nycene. Built by the King to keep out his enemies, and his people, they almost obscured the hazy outlines of the Ancient towers beyond it, which rose high into the sky, nearly touching the clouds. Marvels of Ancient architecture, the techniques used to build them lost to history long ago. 

"This place is disgusting," Celeste said, wrinkling her nose at the smell of fish, sewage, and animals. 

"Humans in general are disgusting," Maverick observed and began walking down the grassy hill toward the slums, "Luckily we won't have to go too far into the heart of this place. The entrance to the underground is nearby." 

We followed the Summoned as he cut a path toward the western edge of the slums. There would be no guards around, so I was not worried about being spotted by them, but I still convinced that Maverick would draw unneeded attention to himself from the townspeople. 

But as we approached the first of the shanties at the edge of the complex, I was shocked to discover that no one heeded us any mind; as if we did not exist. Some of the poor citizens gave us dull, defeated glances, but then immediately turned away. No comments on the huge, grey skinned, red eyed Summoned that was shouldering his way through rapidly crowding streets. 

There had to be a reason why no one was staring. Had to...then the realization hit me like an arrow, piercing my heart with icy fear. 

"Maverick!" I shouted, grabbing him roughly by the upper arm, "Are you using magic?" 

He shrugged, "Yes." 

"Stop! The state mages, they'll be on us in seconds," my voice nearly squeaked with fear. I knew it was already too late. The wards around the city would be buzzing with activity, and an Investigator was surely already on the way... 

"Ha!" Maverick boomed, "You think I can't mask my magic from those hacks? You insult me." 

"No," I hissed, "I don't think you can. In fact, I know you can't." True, most state mages were hacks, but Maverick was missing a vital piece of information. 

"Oh? And how do you know that?" 

Celeste was looking around nervously as Maverick and I faced off among the oblivious crowd. 

"Because," I said, "My master designed the wards that surround the city. Trust me when I say they can see right through your castings whether or not you're a summoned. Now stop!" 

But it was too late. Just as Maverick's face fell with sudden uncertainty, a crack resounded across the air, followed by the scream of frightened people as they scrambled to get out of the way of the terror that had just materialized in the street close by.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit..." I chanted and did a mental inventory of all the runes at my disposal, knowing none would be sufficient against what was coming without proper preparation. 

The street had emptied of townspeople within seconds, leaving only Maverick, Celeste, and I alone in the mud when the Investigator rounded the corner. 

It was tall. Taller than Maverick by at least a foot, and thin. It wore hooded black robes that covered its entire body and face. In one of its hands it carried a thick chain of silver which dragged along the ground as it stalked toward us. The chain could be used to bind any creature capable of casting and doubled as a dangerous weapon. 

Created by the state mages by special order of the first King of Nycene, the Investigators are the state mage's personal henchmen. Whenever they get a whiff of magic inside the limits of Nycene, they send the Investigators to, well, investigate. That's why private mages usually refrained from using magic near Nycene. Because if an Investigator figured that anything illegal had taken place, it would act as judge, jury, and executioner on the behalf of the King. 

"Summoner," the Investigator hissed at me, "Dark mage. Private treasure hunter. Anarchist. By the power vested in me by the State Mage Association and the King of Nycene, I sentence you to death." 

It knew me. It knew what Maverick was. It was all over before it began. The creature raised a robed hand up and out toward me, preparing to cast. I stood like a fool, frozen with fear. My master had faced an Investigator when...

A wall of white fire sprang up between us and the Investigator. The creature let out an unearthly screech as a strong pair of hands grabbed my shoulders from behind and dragged me away. 

"Come, master!" Maverick shouted, "This way." 

I turned, stumbled, picked myself up, and ran after the Summoned, Celeste close at my side. We turned a corner, and then another. I knew the Investigator was closing in on us. Fire would not stop it. Nothing short of a King's official pardon would keep an Investigator off your tail once it had found you guilty of a crime. 

"How much further until the underground entrance?" Celeste asked breathlessly. 

"Close," Maverick assured, turning a sharp corner which made me slip in the mud as I tried to keep up. 

Celeste helped me up and we continued on. I noticed we were in a tight alley. Maverick's shoulders were barely thin enough to fit through the opening. The alley ended in a blank stone wall. Unusual in the shanty town of mostly wooden structures, but still a dead end as far as I could tell. What had Maverick been thinking? 

Risking a glance behind me, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the light at the entrance of the alley obliterated by the dark shape of the Investigator. 

"Guilty!" it shrieked and raised its hand. 

"Maverick!" I yelled, certain we were done for. 

Suddenly the Summoned slid to a stop in front of us. He stood to the side and gestured Celeste and I past him. "The entrance is through the stone wall," I hissed, "It's a scripted doorway. I'll hold off this creature." 

"Kill it," I said as I hurried away, dragging Celeste along, "It won't stop unless you kill it." 

I turned away from him then and ran the rest of the way to the stone wall. There was a flash of light behind me, but I ignored it, concentrating instead of locating the rune that would open the door to the underground tunnels. I was regaining my composure. There had been a reason I had designed the summoning rune and that reason was times like this. Maverick would do his best to protect me. 

"What's a scripted doorway?" Celeste asked worriedly as the sound of Maverick's sword being drawn reached our ears. 

"One that exists only through the presence of a rune," I explained, my trained eyes frantically roaming over the rough stone surface, searching for the etching. "There!" I breathed excitedly when I located the symbol. 

Metal clanged against metal and Maverick grunted in pain while the Investigator hissed with fury. I touched the tip of my finger to the rune and muttered the unlocking casting, not worrying about being flagged, seeing how an Investigator was already attacking us. There was an audible click and then a scraping sound as a door-sized portion of the stone wall swung toward us, revealing a dark, cool opening. 

Musty air rushed out of the opening, ruffling our clothing. I cast the light orb and directed it forward. Once cast, it would no longer alert the state mages, but I told myself that another casting would surely bring another Investigator, so resolved to make the orb my last one. 

"Definitely Ancient," Celeste said. The steps that led down into the earth were made out of rusted metal. Running along the wall of the steps was a metal bar that appeared to be used for support. Beyond the light of the orb it was dark. 

"Go," I told Celeste, "Maverick will meet us inside." 

She hurried down the steps and I followed. The door shut behind us with a thud and we were alone. 

With the glow of the orb, I was able to see the bottom of the steps about one hundred feet below us. They ended at a stone floor that stretched ahead under an arched ceiling to another set of steps. The walls of the hall were tiled with colored squares that were falling off in most places, but generally intact. Surprising, considering how old they were by now. 

We followed this path and went down the second set of steps. These ended in a larger room. Across this room from us were sets of stairs that led upward. In the middle of the space was a thick column that had once displayed something, but whatever it had been was faded with the centuries. Along the left wall was a row of metal boxes. Ancient technology I had no doubt. We ignored those and instead turned right, toward the row of short columns that formed a barrier between the room and yet another set of steps. These were wide, with multiple metal support bars running at regular intervals, and made of the same stone as the floor. 

"Obviously a place the Ancients used a lot," I mentioned to Celeste as we descended these steps, "They went through a lot of trouble to make it spacious and well-decorated." 

"Strange people," Celeste said, "Who would want to build such a place under the ground?" 

At the bottom of the steps we came into a long corridor. In front of us was a ledge, and when we stepped to the edge, we saw that it came to a stop before a wide channel in the ground with beams of metal laid out on the bottom. Turning right, we noticed that the channel continued out of the space we were in and into a dark tunnel. It did the same toward the left. 

"What do you think went in that channel?" Celeste asked, "Boats?" 

"Maybe," I frowned. I didn't have a clue. But we had clearly reached the underground tunnels that Maverick had mentioned. 

There was a loud thud behind us, which echoed of the high, domed ceilings of the underground area. I held my breath as heavy footsteps descended the multiple levels of steps, convinced that it was Maverick, but afraid all the same. 

"Sliced off its head and burned the body," Maverick boomed from the top of the steps to where Celeste and I stood, "It won't be telling any stories to the state mages. And by the time they send another one after all the casting I did up there, we'll be long gone." 

"Thank you," I said with a sigh of relief, "How bad was the damage?" 

"Not bad," Maverick shrugged, coming closer. He had a nasty burn mark around his neck from where the Investigator's silver chain had undoubtably landed, and his armor was sooty in places from smoke, but other than that he looked alight. 

"Your neck," Celeste said gently, "Does it hurt?" 

"Pain does not bother me," Maverick said, "Only death, which I narrowly escaped." He looked around with a satisfied grunt. "This will take us under the river and into a more complex system of tunnels. One of these tunnels runs directly under the Great Library. We'll be there soon after nightfall." 

"What ran through these channels?" I asked the Summoned as I followed him down into one. 

"I don't know," Maverick admitted, leading the way toward the mouth of the left tunnel, "These were out of use by the time I was around to see them. All I know is that they were used for transportation." 

We entered the tunnel and began walking, following the gently sloping walls for what felt like a very long time, speaking little. I was still rattled by my encounter with the Investigator. Very few mages escaped their judgement, and I knew for certain I would not have if not for Maverick. I was eternally grateful for the circumstances that had led me to summoning him, however unfortunate they had been. 

After a while the tunnel ended in an area much like the one we had come from, with steps leading up and out. 

"We are under Nycene proper, we have to be careful of wards now," Maverick announced, "You can sense them, right?" he asked me. I nodded. 

We continued following tunnels for hours, stopping at every 'station' as the Summoned called the areas which led back above ground so he could sense for the presence of wards. At one point we stopped following the tunnel we had been since before the river and turned down another one, heading east. 

In the middle of this particular tunnel Maverick suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, and held out his arms to prevent Celeste and I from advancing any further. I could sense it too. A simple enough ward that would alert the casters of anything that passed through it. It would have been easy to dispel if that level of casting would not have also brought fresh Investigators down upon us. 

"What now?" I asked and Maverick frowned. 

"I'm not sure," he admitted, "This is the only way to the Great Library. We're beneath the Three Towers now. I guess the state mages figured this ward was the only one they needed to keep anyone out of the area. If we go through it, we're done. If we dispel it, we're done. If we go above ground..." 

"Done," Celeste nodded, "They'll be looking for us now...," 

I set down the pack with The Source and fished out some food for Celeste and I. It had been hours since I had last eaten and the hunger was clouding my thinking. 

There had to be a way through, I just hadn't seen it yet. No way was I coming this far just to be turned around by a ward that any novice mage could cast. It was a simple rune. One of the first taught when learning about wards. 

I finished my light snack and walked toward the damp walls of the tunnel. If I could find the rune that was creating the ward, I could corrupt it and turn it off. But the chances of the state mages placing it anywhere that someone could easily get to were next to impossible. The ward would be tied to a rune buried in the rock somewhere or one on the other side of the perimeter. If only I could use magic...

"I have an idea," I said, and fished out the rune etcher I kept stored in my treasure pack at all times, "If I can confuse the ward for a second or two, we can slip by unnoticed." 

"Confuse it how?" Celeste asked. 

"With another rune," I answered, going back to the wall, "If this ward uses the same rune to draw its power as the one I draw, then it will momentarily try to draw its power from mine. Magic isn't intelligent. It's energy. It follows the path of least resistance. So if I give it a source that's close by, it'll choose that one over the original." 

"But won't that just shift the point of origin, rather than turn the ward off?" Celeste countered. I was impressed by her handle on the properties of magic. 

"Yes," I nodded, and began to draw the rune, "But I'm going to add something extra. An off switch. It will make the rune temporary, and when it runs out of power, the ward will switch back to it's original point of origin. That will leave us a second or two to get past the ward before it turns back on." 

"Doesn't that count as using magic?" Celeste asked. 

I shook my head, and stood back to examine what I had just drawn. Only one line until it would be ready. "I'm not doing a casting," I explained, "None of my energy will be expended, which means no alarms. Just the jumping from one rune to another and back again. It's how magic motors work. Or would work, if they were made properly." 

"That is smart thinking, master," Maverick said with a rare grin, "Ready when you are." 

"When I finish the rune, Maverick and I will be able to sense the ward's movements," I explained to Celeste, "When I say go, you go as fast as you can and as far as you can. Understood?" 

The nymph nodded and I picked up my pack. With a deep breath I drew the point of my etcher across the stone, finishing the rune. The ward faltered, and then shifted, drawing its power from my rune. Quickly I joined the others, waiting for the right moment when my rune's power would cease and the ward would turn itself off as it sought it's original point. 

It came sooner than I thought, mere seconds after I had finished drawing it. "GO!" I shouted as I sensed the ward disappearing and we all three ran forward as fast as we could go. Maverick and I were outpaced by Celeste easily, our weight and builds holding us back. 

"Stop," I said after we had ran for about a minute, "It should be reactivated by now. Let's wait and see if my plan worked." I was sure it had, but nerves still raced through my body like fire. 

We all stood perfectly still, listening for any indication that the state mages had been alerted to our presence. No one speaking, hardly breathing. 

After five minutes I let out an uneasy breath and cracked a grin, "Looks like we're in the clear." 

Celeste hugged me and laughed, "Genius!" 

Maverick clapped me on the back and I blushed with modest embarrassment. "It's just simple principles of magic," I shrugged, "Apparently the state mages don't expect to be outsmarted." It was luck. The King probably didn't view the underground as a viable means of entering the city, so had only ordered minimal protection. Any other place and I would not have been able to thwart the ward so easily. 

"Come on," the Summoned said, "This way. We're almost there." 

The Great Library is sixty stories tall, with the top ten stories used to house the librarians that live there. When we came into the tower from an underground passage Maverick knew an interestingly lot about, we were able to move up the floors with unimpeded ease. 




Dark Magic Ch. 06



No one visited the Great Library these days unless they were a librarian. Mages stayed away and the common people of Nycene had no use for the knowledge within its walls. Some nobles may come to the first few floors once in a while, but only if they want to impress their friends or mistresses with some random bit of knowledge that they could only get from a script. Other than that, it was silent, only our boots echoed as we walked through the shelves of bound paper script, moving from one floor to the next. 

"I hope Gene hasn't changed rooms," I pondered once we had finally reached the fiftieth floor. We were all sweating and out of breath, including Maverick.Here the sheaves were replaced by rows of wooden doors. Once upon a time the apartments behind the doors would have all housed librarians. Now only three or four lived on each floor, making the dimly lit stone hallways eerie in the late evening.

"Gene?" Celeste asked, "Is that the librarian's name?" 

"Yes," I nodded, "And I'm sure he's still in the hovel of an apartment he was in last time I saw him," I headed down a hall of doors, more cautious of our movements now that we were near potential observers, "This way." 

We turned left around a corner and went down another hall, which turned once more, this time to the right. This short corridor ended at a wooden door lit above by a floating orb of light. A plaque on door read "Gene Walker". I smiled and knocked. 

Moments later the door flew open and a very old man wearing a dirty old smock covered with stains over a similarly dirty tunic and breeches stood frowning in front of us. "What is...," he began to grumble and then trailed off, his frown becoming an open expression of horror when he recognized who I was, "Get in here!" he hissed angrily and shooed us all inside.

We all rushed past the old man at his urging, stepping around the stacks of books and clutter that filled the small living space that Gene called home. The windows were still visible through the mess, and I could see the lights of the nearby palace tower twinkling above the city of Nycene. 

"Miss me?" I asked as the librarian slammed the door and ran the bolt home. 

"What are you doing back in Nycene?" Gene demanded, nervously wiping his hands on his smock and eyeing Maverick and Celeste, "And with an elf and a Summoned in tow? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" 

"Already tried," I said, "But we took care of that. This is Celeste by the way," I pointed to the nymph, "And Maverick." 

"Sit down," Gene said, pointing to what had once been a couch but was now another bookshelf. 

I cleared the books while Gene disappeared into a small adjacent room which I assumed was the kitchen, rattling away and muttering to himself about foolish mages. He came back a few moments later with three cups of tea, offering Celeste and I each one and taking one for himself.

"I'm glad to see you made it out of Nycene alive," Gene noted as he relaxed into the only clean piece of furniture in the place, an old wooden rocking chair, "After that business with your master..." 

"Not now, Gene," I said with a nervous glance toward my companions, "I came back with something I thought you might be interested in." 

"Not a good excuse to come back at all," Gene lectured, "The King wants you dead or alive. Preferably alive. You've caused him many sleepless nights and I think he wants to repay the favor." 

"Later," I waved a dismissive hand and pulled out The Source, knowing it would change the subject abruptly. 

"What in the...," Gene got up and took the orb when I offered it out to him, "Where did you find this?" 

"In an Ancient city called Hester Roc deep in the northeast forest," I said, "Celeste showed me where it was." 

"'The Source'...," Gene frowned, reading the script along the brass pedestal, "And do you have any idea what this smoke inside is?" 

I shook my head, "I was hoping you might be able to give us any sort of clue on what this thing might be. It dates back to the Elvish Wars, but that's all we can determine." I didn't mention my theory about it being a well of magic, I did not want to bias Gene's observations in any way. 

"Clearly," Gene said thoughtfully, "It was a gift to the loyal humans of this Hester Roc or Roc Hester. One of many similar such gifts I imagine. There is nothing particularly ornate or ceremonious about the physical design. But this one has managed to weather the years untouched." 

"The room it was in was also untouched," I relayed, "And as soon as we took it out, time came crashing in, rotting the wood and destroying the rock." 

Gene gave us all a long, hard look, "Give me time to examine it," he finally said "You both look exhausted," he pointed to Celeste and I, "There's the spare room down the hall if you'd like to sleep." 

I nodded and stood, "Thank you." Celeste stood as well. 

"The Summoned can keep watch out here if he'd like," Gene said, "In the morning we'll discuss all of this. If this thing is what I think it may be, you've brought a whole world of trouble to my doorstep..." I quirked an eyebrow, which Gene waved away. "Bed, and then more tomorrow." He turned away and I shrugged at Celeste. Arguing with Gene would be pointless. If he wanted us to go sleep, I was not inclined to protest too much anyway. 

"Come on," I said and turned to Maverick, "Keep watch. And no casting. By now I'm sure the King himself has learned of the Investigator's disappearance." 

He nodded. Picking my way across the main room, I led Celeste to the hallway in the back of the apartment that led to the latrines and bedrooms. Our's was at the end and when we went inside, I was shocked at the neatness. It was small, with a bed big enough to sleep two comfortably, a desk and chair, a wash basin, and a cabinet for clothes. 

"A little dusty," Celeste observed, running a finger over the desk, and holding up the dirtied tip. 

A light orb had illuminated when we had entered the room, casting a warm yellow glow. The lights throughout the home had been gifts from my master to Gene. 

I stripped off my tunic and stretched out on the bed over the sheets with a loud groan of content. 

"So I have to ask," I said as I started to kick off my boots with my feet, "This thing we have with Maverick. How are you enjoying it?" This was our first opportunity to talk since the previous night's activities. 

Celeste smiled, "I love it," she got on the bed and knelt over me, looking down with those mesmerizing green eyes, "It's hot and daring and it makes me cum so much." She moved her leg so that she straddled my bare chest. I could feel the heat of her sex through her breeches. "But," she said, sliding up my chest and bringing the spicy aroma of her arousal closer to my nostrils, "Nothing beats a one-on-one session with you." 

"Take those off," I begged, forgetting all about Maverick, Gene, and The Source in a flash. 

Celeste giggled and stood over me, sliding her breeches down and off and then coming back down to my chest. A drop of cum escaped her lips and dribbled onto my skin before sliding off to the side, followed by another. 

I grabbed Celeste's hips and yanked her up so that her cunt was poised above my lips, eliciting a squeal of surprise from the nymph. A dollop of cream flooded from inside her channel and landed on my waiting tongue. Its effect was instantaneous, and my lust soared. 

Keeping a firm grip on Celeste's hips I ground her cunt down onto my lips and began to kiss and suck them with vigor. 

"Fuck," she moaned as her arousal dripped down my chin. 

"Do you like it when I lick your cunt?" I said hungrily, sucking her clit into my mouth and biting on it gently. 

"Yes!" she cried, her hands coming up her body to fondle her own breasts. 

I released one hand from her body and eased two of my fingers into her channel, coaxing more of her intoxicating arousal out of her cunt. She gripped the digits tightly and a small spurt of cream escaped into my mouth. 

"Ride my tongue," I said, removing my fingers and urging her hips against my head, my head swirling with her scent. 

Celeste began to shift her hips on her own, moving against my lips as I continued to explore her cunt. Cum was flowing freely and I knew she would cum soon. She was always so easy to orgasm. 

After a few more hard thrusts against my tongue, she came undone, spilling her cream all down my chin and neck as she stifled a scream of rapture. I held her still, her thighs holding my head hostage as she rode out the highest crest of her release. And when she finally stopped moaning and rubbing against me, Celeste climbed off with a pleased sigh. 

"Your turn," she said, and pulled down my breeched. She then spent the next five minutes sucking and licking me to my own satisfying orgasm, which she imbibed with lewd enjoyment. 

After, when we were both spent and lying naked and sweaty next to each other in the dimming glow of the magic orb, I told Celeste my secret. "I want you to stay with me for a while," I confessed, pulling her against my body, "I'm really glad I found companionship with you. And I don't say that to a lot of people. I mostly travel alone, going from town to town. From girl to girl. But something about you draws me in every day and holds me there." 

I could almost feel Celeste smile, "Well lucky for you I'm not getting sick of this little arraignment we have going on either. Despite all the danger you put me in, I'm actually rather enjoying myself. This is the exact kind of life a nymph always dreams of. Wild adventure and even wilder sex." 

Chuckling, I closed my eyes, and the orb of light extinguished. "Good," I said, "Because there's plenty more adventure to come. And sex of course. I have a feeling that what Gene has to say about The Source is going to surprise us all." 

Soon after, we slept. Unaware that the next day would be the best and worst of our adventure to Nycene...

*****

The way the story is currently progressing in my head, part one of this adventure is wrapping up next chapter. When that happens, I'm considering doing a perspective shift to Celeste's point of view. The reason why might make more sense after this next chapter. 

It think this will open a lot of possibilities in terms of story line and sex scenes. I just hope it won't be too confusing.



Dark Magic Ch. 07



Warning warning warning. Fair. Warning. There is a scene of double penetration and mfm threesome at the end of this short chapter. 

This chapter will also take a dark turn. Anyone who is hoping for a love story with a happily ever after ending should stop reading. I won't be offended. If you want love story, check out my other stories under the username secret_reader. 

Warning over. Enjoy : ) Comment : ) 





Chapter Seven: The Gift

It was early morning in the Great Library and Gene, Celeste, Maverick, and I were all gathered around a secluded wooden table hidden away somewhere on the fortieth for forty first floor. Gene had insisted we get out of his cramped apartment, convinced that the shelves of the Library would be safe. The Source sat in the middle of us, the black smoke boiling inside the glass orb like it had done the first day I had laid eyes on it almost two whole weeks ago. 

Gene was dressed in his official librarian uniform; a cream colored robe of light cotton with deep pockets around the cinched waist for storing books. Back in the days when people actually visited the Library, the white robed librarians moved like ghosts between the shelves, eager to help anyone with a question. Now librarians were rare, and dying off. I had my suspicions that once the last of the librarians were gone, the King would turn their tower into something else. Perhaps an expansion of his palace next door or barracks his King's guard. Ignorance was the King's greatest weapon. 

"Time for a history lesson," the librarian said, his voice grave as he stared into the smoke of The Source, "Thousands of years ago, as you know, the elves made contact with humans. Where they came from or why they decided to appear is a mystery lost to time. But, as you also know, not all humans took kindly to their presence. Factions formed and two groups of humans emerged; one that welcomed the elves and one that did not. Following a hellish attack by a group of rogue humans on an elvish settlement, the Elvish Wars ignited. 

"What you also know is that the elves taught humans the secrets of magic during these wars. What might surprise you though is that before elves, there was no magic in nature. The elves gave it as a literal gift, imbuing not only humans with the knowledge to manipulate it, but the land with the power itself." 

This did surprise me. Magic was so prolific and plentiful it was shocking to think that it had once not existed at all. I wanted to know more about this revelation, so I let Gene continue without interruption. 

"There is hardly any evidence to support this theory, until now perhaps, but," Gene continued, "It is thought that magic was given to the people and the land in symbolic ceremonies involving elvish and human leaders in major cities across the globe." Gene pulled out a plain wooden box from one of his pockets and opened it. From within he withdrew a glossy piece of paper with images of two small groups of people standing around an obscured object in the center of a wooden table.

"This picture, as it is known, is the only indication that we have that these ceremonies took place. Through careful preservation from some forward-thinking scholars, it has survived the millennia and has recently come into my possession. Very interesting that you should bring me this treasure so soon after, Brian. For I think they are connected. 

"You see, in order to spread magic around the land, the elves would have needed to possess it in some physical form. This form could then be released, where it would then spread out and bond with nature. After enough of these 'releases', the land would have been imbued with magic to the degree it is today." 

I cleared my throat, interrupting for a moment for some clarification on Gene's theory, "Just so I'm following. Elves brought not only the secrets of casting to the humans, but also the very magic to cast with? And this magic came in some physical form which would then be spilled out into the world following some sort of ceremony?" 

Gene nodded, "Exactly. And this," he pointed to the orb, "Would have been used in one of these ceremonies." He pointed to the middle of the 'picture', "Here is where I have suspected a vessel would be placed that contained the magic in its purest form. It would have been a temporary container, designed specifically for the purposes of this ceremony. Notice the lack of ornateness in this treasure. The orb is brittle glass and the pedestal common brass, with simple scripting. It was not meant to sit in any hallowed hall for eons, but to be used as a tool and discarded." 

"This all sounds very speculative," I said, "How do you know magic did not exist before the elves?" 

"The Ancients did not practice magic," Gene answered, "This we know for a fact. Whatever their technology ran on, it was nothing we have knowledge of. Humans are naturally attuned to the magic in nature after very little training. It is not a stretch to say that, had there been magic before the elves, Ancient humans would have discovered it purely by accident early in their history. But they never did, and the only records of magic existing are all younger than the Elvish Wars." 

"So there's pure magic in this orb?" Celeste said with awe, "That's what the black smoke is?" 

"I think the smoke is just smoke," Gene said, "But those flashes of light..." 

I shook my head in amazement. So I had been right, almost. The Source was literally a source of magic. A physical conduit for a force of nature that we all just took for granted. The spiritual connection I felt between myself, all living things, and even innate objects boiled down to some lightning in a glass orb. It was very humbling. 

"So how would this ceremony go down?" I asked. 

"I'm not sure of the specifics," Gene shrugged, "But I'd assume after some speeches or readings, the elves would break the glass orb and release the magic. It would be invisible, hence the smoke. Without it, there would be nothing to watch dissipate into the air." 

"This is all very strange," I said, and turned to Maverick, "Do you know of anything like this in Summoned culture?" 

He shook his head, "Magic has always been around in my world. But I will say that I had never visited this world or met a human until centuries after the Elvish Wars, once the gift had been given. And magic is needed to bring us to this world. It is what connects us." 

"So many questions," Celeste said with awe, and I cracked a smile at her natural curiosity. A nymph through and through. 

"What now?" I asked, staring at the eerie image of elves and humans gathering around a table as if some religious sacrifice were about to take place, "Can I sell this thing or what?" Despite the orb's importance, I was still a treasure hunter and had come to Nycene for a single purpose; appraisal. 

Gene looked like I had asked to fuck his sister while he watched, "Sell it!? Are you insane? Do you know how much power is contained in this one small orb?" 

"I thought you said it was just for ceremonies," I countered, "How much magic could it actually contain?" 

"The elves are a very ceremonious people," Gene said with a pointed look at Celeste, who nodded in mute agreement, "All the magic they released to this world would have been done so through orbs like this. And when you consider the sheer abundance of it around us, any conservative estimate of the power in each orb is still more than any one person should have access to." 

"So," I said childishly, "A lot?" 

"A million times more than a lot!" Gene shouted, his excitement rising, "If this fell in to the wrong hands, there's no telling what would happen." 

"I've heard that before," I chided, but a shock of fear shot through me. The Source had replenished my energy just by being around it a few nights before. 

What if I had been actively trying to draw from it? How much energy would I have gotten after just one second? A minute? Would the power destroy me or make me unstoppable? These were only a few of the questions I was sure were racing through Gene's mind at the moment. And they were frightening. 

"This must have been left and forgotten after the Elvish wars," Gene said, "It would have stayed forgotten in that tower forever if you hadn't gone snooping around. Now it's here and I have no idea what to do with it. Break it maybe. Release the magic inside..." 

"Don't you dare," I said in a low voice, "This is a piece of very pricey history, if you..." 

I stopped speaking abruptly, turning around in my chair and staring down the row of scripts behind me. Footsteps were echoing toward us, growing louder by the second. Someone was coming. 

"Brian," Gene whispered, "Take Celeste and the Summoned and go back to my apartment." 

"Who's coming?" I asked as I stood and tucked The Source back in my pack. 

"I'm not sure," Gene said, "But whoever it is, he will be less likely to ask questions if it's just me rather than me, a Summoned, a nymph and a wanted anarchist. Now go!" 

I didn't need another prompt. Quietly as I could, I led the others through the maze of shelves toward the stairs that would take us back up, careful not to get close to the footsteps or make any of our own. As we were leaving, I swore I heard Gene whisper, "...early...", but I couldn't be sure. 

Minutes later, once were safe in Gene's apartment, I sat down on the couch with a long sigh. 

"Not what you were expecting?" Celeste asked from the doorway. 

"Not really," I admitted as Maverick stalked through the space, looking for unwanted intruders,"I mean, I knew the elves taught humans magic. I didn't know they GAVE them magic, too. It's hard to fathom." 

"I agree," Celeste said, nervously looking at the door, "Do you think Gene is ok?" 

I nodded, "I'm sure it was just a fellow librarian. We were smart to get out of there. But no one has any reason to suspect Gene of any wrongdoing. He's been a regular here his entire life." 

"All clear," Maverick announced from the kitchen. 

"Thank you," I said with a small grin, "What do you think about all this business with the Source?" 

The Summoned thought for a moment, "I don't know. Magic has always been around me for as long as I can remember; which is a very very long time. To think that any place could lack in it is hard to imagine." 

"Fuck," I moaned, leaning back, "On one hand I understand what a powerful and dangerous object it is. On the other, I just want to sell the thing and get the fuck out of Nycene before the King figures out I'm here." 

Celeste came over and sat down next to me on her knees, placing her hands on my shoulders and looking me in the eye, "Relax," she soothed, "Gene is probably thinking of options for you right now. Maybe he'll buy it on behalf of the Library and that will be that." 

"Ha!" I snorted, "The Great Library doesn't have the kind of money I'll be asking for a treasure like that. Besides, any purchases by the Library are reported to the state, and that object there is illegal treasure." 

"Well," Celeste shrugged, casually throwing one leg over mine so that she was straddling my lap, "How about we clear your mind so that you can figure out what to do all on your own." 

"Celeste," I said as she began to trail feather light kisses down the side of my neck, "What if Gene comes back?" Her appetite for sex was apparently unquenchable. 

"Shhhh," the nymph cooed and rubbed her crotch against mine, making me hard, "Just relax." The feel of her hot breath against my skin as she spoke was quickly dispelling my fears of being caught. 

"At least let's take it to the bedroom," I suggested. 

"Then take me," Celeste said. Gripping the backs of her thighs firmly, I stood, lifting her. With her legs wrapped around my waist I began to kiss her, shoving my tongue into her mouth, which she eagerly accepted, writhing against my cock as I walked. 

Kicking open the door of our room with my foot, I entered, slamming Celeste against the wall and pinning her there while I dry humped against her pelvis. Her legs remained wrapped around me and I was vaguely aware of Maverick following us in. 

"Take me now," Celeste breathed, dropping to the floor and fumbling with her breeches, "Against the wall. You owe me for last night." 

Eagerly I agreed, and pulled down my own pants, freeing my cock, which was rock hard. Wasting no time at all, I pushed my hips forward and up, entering Celeste's exposed cunt with one hard thrust. She cried out and slammed her head back, allowing me to lick my way up her neck while I withdrew, before sliding back home. 

"Fuck!" she cried, clutching my shoulders. 

I looked down between our bodies and watched as my cock disappeared into her hot sheath with each thrust of my hips. Moisture dripped onto the floor from her leaking cunt and already the air was filled with the smell. 

"You feel so good," I moaned, fucking her channel hard enough to make her ride up with wall with each beat, "Just like the first night I fucked you in the forest. Do you remember that?" 

"Yes!" Celeste moaned, meeting my thrusts with ones of her own, "We have to try that tying up thing again sometime." 

"Anything," I groaned and could feel my orgasm coming fast as her heat rose by degrees around my cock. 

Wet slapping sounds filled the air as I fucked her harder. She would have bruises and scrapes along her back from the wall, but we were both enjoying this too much to care. Fingers tried to claw their way through my shirt as the nymph approached release. 

"Cum," I said, "I'm so fucking close." 

"Mmmm," Celeste moaned and then stilled. I could feel her inner walls clench around my cock as she orgasmed, the feeling sending me over into my own. 

I shot my load inside her channel before withdrawing and stepping back so I could watch the waterfall of cum escape down her thighs. I was not disappointed. 

Still hard, I pulled off my shirt and watched as Celeste did as well. Turning around, I was not surprised to see Maverick standing completely naked in the middle of the room, expectant. 

"All fours," I told Celeste, "Face us, with your sweet little ass in the air. It's time to try something new." 

The nymph of course did as she was told, displaying her tiny ass to us, cum sill leaking down her thighs. I knelt on the bed behind her and little to the side. Sticking out two fingers, I gathered a healthy dollop of our cum on the tips and brought them up to the crack of her ass. 

"You ever have this little bud penetrated?" I asked, rubbing the cum along the clean rosebud between her spread cheeks. 

Celeste squealed. "Only once," she admitted. 


I gathered more cum on my index finger, returning to her hole and sticking just the tip inside. She was tight and clamped instinctively around me as I wormed my lubed finger a little deeper. "Do you like it?" I asked, popping out the digit and scooping up some more of our natural lubrication. 

"I do noW!" she cried, her voice rising at the end as I stuck my index finger up to the second knuckle into her bud. 

"Maverick?" I asked, rotating my wrist and stretching her out a little more, "Do you think she'll like it when you have your cock inside her ass?" 

"I think she'll cum in one good thrust," the Summoned growled, stroking his cock slowly. 

I pulled out my index finger, got more cum, and then slowly eased my index and middle fingers into Celeste's slowly widening hole. She was well lubed now so I jerked my head for Maverick to approach while the nymph moaned and squirmed beneath me. 

Maverick knelt directly behind Celeste and gripped his cock. A drip of pre-cum fell onto the sheets and I removed my digits from her. She was ready. 

Sitting back on my feet so that I could get a good view, I watched as my Summoned positioned the tip of his cock at the entrance of Celeste's rosebud. It dwarfed her entrance, and for a second I doubted it would fit at all. But slowly he drove forward, inching the tip of his member pass the resisting hole until his entire head was sitting just inside her entrance. 

"Oh," Celeste moaned, "Fuck that's tight." 

"Just relax," I soothed and Maverick moved a little further forward. 

"More," Celeste groaned, and the Summoned complied, sheathing half of his nine inches within her. 

"Feel good?" I asked. 

"Yessss," Celeste hissed and Maverick was now six inches deep. Another three inches and he would be fully inside. 

Concentrating, the Summoned entered the last few inches with ease. Celeste was completely filled, and panting with a potent mixture of pleasure and pain. Maverick waited for a few moments, sweat running down his scared chest, as Celeste got used to his size. 

When he was satisfied, he withdrew in one, long motion. "One good thrust," Maverick muttered to himself and slammed his cock back inside. 

"FUCKING FUCK!" Celeste screamed and a river of cum ran down her thighs from her pussy, pattering onto the sheets as she came hard and long, all the while Maverick thrusting slowly into her overstretched asshole. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..." she panted with each thrust. 

Maverick was grunting with his own pleasure, using Celeste's ass more roughly by the moment, using her hips to aid his hard thrusts. She came again, the musky aroma hitting my nose like a wave. 

"Cum in her ass," I told Maverick, my cock reaching new heights of rigidness as I watched the live scene in front of me, "I want to see it leaking out around you two." 

Maverick's thrusts picked up in speed while Celeste mewled and swore and came some more. Eventually he stilled and groaned as he released a load of seed into her ass. Something about the sensation triggered yet another small orgasm from Celeste, who's thighs were coated with a fresh wave of her cream. I had lost track of her releases by then, amazed at her endurance. 

When Maverick pulled out, a waterfall of his white cream cascaded down her gaping ass, over her pussy, and then onto the sheets. 

"Sit up in the middle of the bed," I told Maverick. 

Celeste moved out of the way and the Summoned did as he was told, supporting himself on the palms of his hands, his wet cock sticking straight up and his legs spread wide. 

"Face me and lower yourself onto his cock so that he fills that perfectly prepared ass of yours again," I said to Celeste. 

She crawled forward and then turned around, lifting her ass over Maverick's cock before slowly sinking down. They both groaned as he slid easily inside until she was seated fully on top of his lap, her back against his chest. 

"Now lie back," I said and Maverick did, bringing Celeste with him so that she was prone on top of his body, which lay back at a slight incline against the head of the bed, "And hook your legs around her's and spread them wide." He did so and I was treated with the perfect sight. 

Celeste's cunt was displayed perfectly in front of me, her ass impaled on Maverick's cock. Sweat was gleaming off her skin and her inner thighs were painted with coats of our combined cum. More leaked out of her lips as I moved forward to kneel between their legs, my cock poised at the entrance of her channel. 

"Are you ready to be filled by both of us?" I asked, rubbing the weeping head of my cock along her tight lips, coating it and eliciting little groans of pleasure from the nymph. 

"I've been ready since you summoned this monster," Celeste moaned, and Maverick thrust his hips upward into her ass. 

I laughed and thrust forward. The head of my cock slipped easily past her lips and I moved further inside. She was tighter than I thought possible, and I could feel the hard ridge of Maverick's cock between her inner wall as I forced my way deeper. 

"Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck," Celeste cried, squirming on top of Maverick's body. His hands snuck around her back and found her tiny nipples, pinching them roughly.




Dark Magic Ch. 07



Her inner walls fluttered around my cock and a small wave of cum slid down her lips. I was fully inside now. My chest heaved as I looked down my body at our joining. Maverick's cock up her ass, mine deep in her cunt. It was a sight I could die happy after seeing. 

"Cum," I commanded, and thrust my cock up. 

She did with a sobbing cry of pleasure, a stream of juice splattering against my stomach while I continued to thrust. Seeing her in so much rapture was fueling my own lust. I continued my movements while Maverick did likewise beneath Celeste. We met each other's thrusts, when he withdrew I entered, and vice versa. 

Celeste came again, and once more. I was sure she would be out of fluids in no time judging by the amount of her nectar that kept getting ejected onto my skin with each orgasm. 

"FUCK!" Maverick roared, and I knew he was cumming in her ass again when he stilled. 

I wasn't close behind and I knew it. Slamming into Celeste's over-fucked body, I spilled my seed moments later while she came one last time, a weak squirt of cum drenching my pelvis before I withdrew and collapsed onto my back at the foot of the bed. 

The mattress shifted and Celeste was next to me, panting and covered with sweat and cum. "That was....," she started to say, but stopped, unable to find the breath or the words to describe her experience. 

"Yeah...," I agreed and Maverick chuckled deep in his chest from where he was still sitting. 

"You should come to my world," the Summoned said, "This is considered boring by Summoned standards." 

"Then I'd definitely like to visit," I said with a smile and Celeste laughed prettily, warming my body with its lightness. 

It was the last good memory of the nymph I had until my world became hell for a very long time. 

It all happened too fast for me to do anything, and was over before it had begun. Later, when I reflected on the events of that post-coital period, I can only blame myself. I had entered the lion's den and expected not to get hunted. I was foolish. State mages see all that Investigators see. When the one we had fought laid eyes on me, that was it. They knew who I was. They knew who I would come to for safety. I was foolish. So very foolish...

Something crashed loudly in the other room, startling us all out of bed. I grabbed my clothes and pulled them on with practiced speed. Celeste and Maverick did likewise, our moment of pure ecstasy forgotten in an instant. 


Another crash and the sound of male voices. There were at least three. One was in charge, commanding the others who acknowledged the order with gruff discipline. 

"Guards," I hissed, my stomach knotting, "Maverick can you take them?" 

"I'm sure I'll have no...," the door to the bedroom crashed, no exploded, inward, sending splinters flying everywhere. Four men stood at the shattered remains. One wore the green and gold torch of Nycene, the other three....

"Master!" Maverick shouted, and gripped me roughly by the shoulder. 

"Bind them!" an unknown voice cried. 

"Brian!" Celeste screamed. 

There was a bright flash, a tearing sound and the sensation of falling before total blackness. 





When I woke up, it was by Maverick's rough urging. 

"Get up," he boomed, "Here is not a good place." 

I was lying on what felt like hard earth; either stone or packed soil. Sitting up, I looked around. It was dark, but I could tell I was outside. The was nothing discernible around me, only more hard earth in all directions. There were a few pale stars in the purple sky, but no moon. 

"Where are we?" I asked, struggling to my feet. 

"There was nothing I could do," Maverick said softly, "My prime command is to protect you. I acted on instinct." 

"Maverick," I said, my stomach dropping, "Where is Celeste?" 

"Gone. The state mages..." 

I shook my head and clenched my fists in anger. Anger at myself for being so careless in Nycene. Anger at Maverick for transporting me to who knew where. And, mostly, anger at the King...It was his fault I had to leave Nycene to begin with. If he could have just...

"They'll torture her. Rape her. Kill her maybe," I spoke to the ground, trying to control my emotions, "We need to get her out of there. It's my fault she was taken. Now where are we?" 

"Brian," Maverick said, laying a hand on my shoulder. I braced for bad news, he had never used my name before, "I had to transport us and the only place I had a strong tie to was my world." 

I looked up, "Are you telling me that we aren't even on my world anymore? Is that what you are saying?" My anger was barely in check, but I struggled to keep it in and not take it out on Maverick. 

"Yes," he confirmed, nodding. 

"Well," I squared my shoulders and stood straight, determined, "I guess we had better find a way back."

I began walking forward, not sure of what direction I was heading. All I knew was that somewhere Celeste was in trouble, and I owed everything I had to get her back. Even if it meant going through hell and back....

**********

End of 'Dark Magic'. Will continue with Celeste's perspective in 'Dark Desires' . Darker themes ahead.