Shield Maiden – Part 2.

	The weight of his decision seemed to press down on Cid's young mind, burdening him with scattered thoughts and half-realised consequences. His decision, a pact with the otherworldly being with which he had grown intimately familiar, was to destroy his clothes in return for the spirit to shield his naked body. At the time, he had agreed to it without much concern, simply seeing it as the best option available to him, but now he couldn't shake the feeling that he had agreed to far more than he had first thought. He had given her an inch, and now he had to see if Lucia would take a mile.
	Lucia claimed to be an Eidolon, an otherworldly spirit drawn to the beacon of Cid's heartfelt prayers and shaped to replace the mother he had never known. At first, Lucia's form had been constrained to that of a suit of golden armour, encasing Cid's body at the boy's command. As their relationship had deepened, strengthening the bond between them, she had developed a kind of stand alone existence, moving independently as a suit of living armour.
	Not long after realising her new found independence, Lucia had grown increasingly erratic, her behaviour rising up in great surges of jealousy or spite. Their entire argument, the result of which had sent Cid running naked through his village, had blossomed out of his insistence on wearing clothes beneath her, a practice that Lucia had grown to dislike. In the end, faced with the prospect of a return trip through his entire village – with many of the curious residents on the look out for him – Cid had caved, giving in to the Eidolon's will.
	Although, the thought of one particular encounter had given him pause. Following a blind turn into a darkened alleyway, he had crossed paths with the inscrutable Lady de Santos, one of the more unusual members of the community. Rather than acting shocked or scandalised by his nakedness she had been amused, her mirth only deepened by the reaction she had provoked in the young boy. The whole experience had been mortifying, cutting deeper than any mere embarrassment would have, and yet the memory alone was enough to set Cid's penis twitching with new life.
	Before he could be distracted any further, Cid thrust any thought of the enigmatic Lady out of his mind and reached deeper, looking inside himself for Lucia's otherworldly presence. As always she was like a phantom core of warmth within him, silently urging him to reach out and embrace her. Following her siren song, Cid closed his eyes and concentrated hard, envisioning the golden armour that would cloak him. As the image formed in his mind – strangely distorted, as if filtered through a smeared lens – he felt her material form springing into reality. 
	Even through his tightly closed eyelids, Cid could see the warm streamers of golden light that began to entwine his body, wrapping themselves tightly around each limb before solidifying, transforming into the familiar armoured form. Yet there was something unfamiliar here as well, some uncommon warmth that seemed to set alarm bells ringing in Cid's mind. Lucia's embrace had always been warm – like being swept up in a blanket of the finest fleece – but this was different.
	Now, there was a perverse fleshiness to her touch, the inner surface of her armour as damp and clinging as the inside of the boy's mouth. Worse still was the movement, the constant squirming as if there were countless slick fingers caressing his tanned skin. Shocked by the abrupt change – a betrayal, almost, of his every expectation – Cid tumbled backwards, wisps of tall grass rustling around him as he hit the ground.
	Lucia was growing tighter around him, gripping his delicate torso harder and harder until Cid thought that his ribs would break. Eventually, the crushing sensation relented, leaving Cid bound tightly enough that breathing freely was difficult, but possible. The revolting squirming feeling extended over his entire body, but the phantom fingers seemed especially drawn to his young penis, shielded behind Lucia's armoured codpiece.
	Already woken by his thoughts of Lady de Santos, Cid's penis eagerly stirred as the wet sensations washed over it, even as Cid himself shuddered in revulsion. As if encouraged by his stiffening shaft, Lucia's slick insides pressed in tighter around his crotch, clutching at both his erection and his buttocks. That intrusion was a step too far.

	“Lucia!” Cid cried out, his voice thin and gasping from a lack of breath, “What is this? What's wrong with you?”
	“Don't you want to be close to me, dearest?” the Eidolon's sweet voice whispered back, creeping into the furthest corners of his mind, “I've wanted to touch your skin for so very long. Hiding behind that armoured façade was so tiresome, but now...” Cid grunted in pain as the gauntlets encasing his hands tightened, gripping his narrow fingers like a steel handshake, “Now, I can always hold your hand,” Lucia purred.
	“This is...” Cid faltered, stumbling over his fearful words.
	“My true form? Not quite,” Lucia finished for him, “Worry not, dear. You'll know my true form before too long, I don't doubt. We're already close to becoming one, haven't you noticed?”
	Alarmed by the teasing note in her voice, Cid forced his eyes open and looked down at his body, wildly fearful of what he would see. Rather than the practical – if somewhat gaudy – golden armour he had expected to see, his body was encased in a suit of plate closer to Lucia's own, feminine form. Anything but practical, Lucia's curved form seemed like an attack, not just on Cid's dignity, but his masculinity as well.
	Her form was curved, moulded into nothing less than a grand tribute to the female body, and that same femininity was now inflicted upon Cid. His chest, normally strong and unadorned, swelled with the image of a heavy bosom before narrowing down into a slender waist that gripped his frail body like a corset. Even the decorations were different, a sprawling pattern of floral engravings clinging to every inch of the armour. 
	Even his legs and thighs looked more shapely, reaching down from well-padded hips. Cid shuddered to imagine what his backside must have looked like, vivid images of Lucia's sculpted buttocks filling his mind. His feet were perhaps the worst part, stretched out into a high-heeled boot that parodied even Lucia's thin heels. With nothing but a slender heel and the slightest portion of his toes touching the ground, even regular walking seemed like a challenge. The entire ensemble, covering every inch of his body save for his head, was absurd.
	“This is ridiculous!” Cid wailed, twisting and turning his limbs in fascinated dismay. On Lucia alone, the boy had to admit that the effect would have been striking – beautiful even – but when paired with his human head poking out the top, it became comical. Even gifted with the androgyny of youth, Cid's face clashed with Lucia's decidedly mature, womanly form. Forcing himself to remain calm, Cid reminded himself that he had control over Lucia's form. He could return her to normal, even if he didn't like the idea of forcing his will upon her.
	At least, he thought that he could shape her with will alone. No matter how hard he concentrated - forming the more traditional armour's image in his mind - Lucia refused to change. He couldn't even summon her helmet in order to shield his face, not that there was any chance of being mistaken for anyone else in the village. Ever since his first experience with summoning Lucia, Cid had gained something of a reputation as a spellcaster in the village. Now, following his mad, naked rush through the marketplace, he would have a whole new reputation to endure.
	“I can't...” Cid clenched his eyes shut and focussed again, this time actively trying to force Lucia into a more decent form. “This isn't working,” he muttered, sweat beading on his dusky skin. Finally, with an exasperated sigh, he gave up.
	“Our forms are becoming one,” Lucia told him. For once, her serene voice failed to bring any kind of comfort to Cid's unsettled nerves. “Why would you want to change that? We can be so beautiful together, dearest.”
	“But...” Cid stammered, “In public?”
	“Why should we hide ourselves away?” the Eidolon's voice took on a sterner note, “Besides, young man, I think you need a little lesson. We're going to take a nice walk, you and me, while you think things through.”
	“Right. A walk,” the boy muttered, shakily getting to his feet. His feet, though painless, were contorted into such extreme points that even standing up straight was difficult. Not expecting much, Cid started to run only for his legs to fold underneath him within the first few steps, dropping him down to the warm dirt. At the very least, Lucia shielded him from the force of the fall, meaning that the only injuries he suffered were to his pride. It looked like she was right – they were going for a walk.

	Struggling back to his feet, Cid wavered in place for a long time before he was able to find some kind of balance. Lucia's strength was bolstering his own, helping to keep his weary limbs upright after the long, desperate run he had so recently endured. That, however, was the only help Cid was going to get from the Eidolon. The motivation to put one foot in front of the other would be his and his alone.
	Motivation that, faced with a long, awkward stroll through countless gawking villagers, was hard to come by. He knew that putting it off would only make things worse – many sections of the community didn't even emerge from their houses until closer to noon at the earliest – but Cid could hardly summon the energy to get moving.
	“Maybe we should just enjoy the weather,” he offered, shielding his eyes as he looked up to the sky. Like most days it was gloriously warm and sunny, and the urge to lie back and take a leisurely nap was nigh overpowering.
	“Oh darling, I don't think so,” Lucia replied, the sadness in her voice almost good enough to be genuine. As if obeying an unspoken command, the squirming wetness around Cid's crotch grew in strength. Something slick and flexible – too boneless to be any kind of human finger – began to slide around his penis, finally wrapping itself around his immature shaft and tightening. Cid gasped in pain, but he couldn't deny that something about Lucia's manipulations was somehow... pleasant. 
	“I really don't think we should waste any more time,” the Eidolon scolded him gently, a second tentacle sliding across one of Cid's buttocks to rest against his tight entrance. Squeaking in surprise, the boy took a few uncertain steps forwards. They were little steps, barely half the length of his usual stride, but that was all he could manage without swaying drunkenly. As if rewarding him for his faltering start the tentacle loosened its grip on his penis, sliding up and down its length in an oily caress.
	Struck by the unexpected sensations her touch awoke in him, Cid almost lost his footing and was forced to lean against a nearby tree to recover. Each breath that rushed from the boy was strained, his chest tight in a way that had nothing to do with Lucia's crushing embrace. Cid could feel his cheeks growing warm as he pushed away from the tree, wobbling his way towards the dirt track leading back to town.
	“It feels good, doesn't it?” Lucia cooed in his ear as struggled down the path, each step ponderous and precarious. Cid nodded automatically, so engaged in keeping his balance that the thought of hiding his reaction never occurred to him. Not that hiding it would have done much good – Lucia seemed disturbingly apt at glimpsing into his surface thoughts. “I'll show you something that feels even better once we get home,” the Eidolon promised. Looking out at the long walk ahead of him, Cid didn't dare to think about what she meant.

	“Heavens above, lad!” the strident voice rang out, distracting Cid from his careful pace. He felt his cheeks burn red as he looked around, desperately wishing that he'd started walking earlier. Even if he had started his journey five minutes earlier, he wouldn't have had to cross paths with the young woman opposite him.
	Camille was one of the most insufferable girls Cid had ever known, although that wasn't a huge achievement considering the boy's insular lifestyle. There were only a few years between them, but Camille insisted on lording over him with as much authority as she could muster. Her family owned a great deal of land and, had he not discovered his magical talents, Cid would have likely ended up working that land when he was a little older. After all, she wasn't going to do any of the hard work.
	Beautiful and socially minded, Camille was a trophy wife waiting to happen. She had the same tanned skin and dark hair as all of the townspeople, but Cid was certain that her tan came from sunbathing, as opposed to working under the sun. Worse still, she would never pass up a chance to tease Cid, even without such a – and the term was highly appropriate – golden opportunity.
	“Just, uh, just a minor magical mishap,” Cid called out, hoping to interrupt whatever barb the girl was preparing. All the while, trying to ignore her wide, staring eyes, he forced a little extra speed into his pace.
	“Minor? You've got to be kidding me!” Camille barked out a disbelieving laugh, “Your chest is bigger than mine!” True enough, the girl was hardly spilling out of the loose vest she was wearing, but her breasts were entirely normal. Cid, however, did not see any sense in pointing out the intricacies at work. “And your feet!” the girl's harsh laugh brought Cid out of his angry thoughts, “Can you even walk in such things?”
	“I can walk fine!” Cid shouted back, somehow embarrassed by the fact that he was, in reality, getting used to walking in Lucia's ludicrous heels. As if to put the lie to his claim, he stumbled over a patch of loose rocks and nearly tumbled to the ground. Before he could stop himself, he cried out in a shrill, worried tone, the outburst provoking fresh gales of laughter from the hateful girl.
	“Walk fine, he says!” shaking her head and even wiping away a tear of mirth, Camille forced herself to calm down, adopting a straight face, “Listen lad, I'll get my horse and you can ride back into town with me. I can drop you wherever you like.”
	“Really?” Cid asked cautiously, scanning the dirt path ahead for any other pitfalls as he kept trudging along.
	“Of course,” a smile – slight at first, but increasingly wide and wicked – broke through Camille's impassive mask as she revealed her ruse, “After all, proper ladies like us don't trek through the dirt, do we?” She practically shouted those last words, as if mocking Cid for having even the slightest grain of trust.
	His cheeks burning red, and his face tilted down towards the ground, Cid resigned himself to the rest of the walk ahead of him. Camille was a cruel girl – surely, her jests were the worst things he could expect from the townspeople. At least, with her howls of mocking laughter ringing in his ears, that was what Cid tried to tell himself.

	“Oh honey, don't feel bad,” Lucia murmured in Cid's ear as the weary boy – deeply regretting ever having woken up that morning – took his first step back onto the paved road. It wouldn't be long before he was back home, relatively speaking. Yet he still had to brave the crowded marketplace and the village chapel before he could retreat into solitude.
	“Don't feel bad?” the boy shot back, not quite able to believe what he was hearing. Some insidious note in Lucia's tone seemed to imply that this was all his fault. If only he'd listened to her in the first place, that vague undertone said to him, this would have never happened. Of course, he had to admit that, if that truly was her meaning, she did technically have a point. He had been rash, lashing out at the motherly Eidolon out of some misplaced sense of rebellion.
	“Don't talk back to me, young man,” Lucia replied, never wavering from her usual serene tone. As if contrasting with her calm voice, the tentacles squirming around the boy's crotch seemed driven into some kind of frenzy, both stroking his stiffened shaft and prodding at his rear entrance. A shrill squeal escaped Cid as he clutched his backside, petrified at the thought of one of those alien appendages forcing its way inside him.
	She wouldn't, he desperately told himself, not in the middle of the marketplace. As if calling his bluff, the tentacle at his back pushed harder against the tight ring of his entrance. A low whine escaped Cid as his muscles tightened against the nagging pressure, clenching shut in a frantic attempt at blocking her relentless advance. His resistance seemed to deter her, at least for the time being. 
	Having seen off that problem, Cid realised that he had stopped, standing with glazed eyes at the entrance to the marketplace. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the strange sight of him staring off into space while clad in the most ludicrous armour outside of a ceremonial parade had drawn quite a crowd. A great many people stared out at him, so many that making out any one particular face was impossible, especially with his mind swamped with flustered shame.
	“Your townspeople await,” Lucia whispered, her sweet voice ringing out from the darkest corners of Cid's mind, “And so many! It almost seems like the whole town has come out to see you!”
	“Stop,” Cid murmured, breaking the inertia that had him pinned in place. As if responding to his movements, Lucia's tentacles resumed their explorations, sliding wetly around his shaft and squeezing his buttocks with lewd motions. Two of the feelers, much thinner than before, toyed with the puckered muscle of his entrance, worming their way inside him and forcing his entrance to loosen up. Cid stumbled, his eyes growing unfocussed as Lucia's skilled touch awoke a fierce pleasure within him.
	He moaned again, desperately pressing his lips together into a tight line to silence the outburst. Every motion he made, and every noise that slipped from his lips seemed to heighten the burning humiliation he felt as the crowd stared at him, their faces painted with mingled confusion, amusement and even worry. The marketplace was crowded, and yet they found the room to part before the armoured boy as he staggered through, not one single one of them willing to brush up against him.
	They were treating him as though he was diseased, dangerous, and it took a moment for the boy to realise that he probably looked the part. Red in the face, slick with sweat and wild-eyed, he must have looked like a man caught in the grip of a deadly fever. Any attempt at keeping a calm façade were ruined by the soft moans escaping him with every one of Lucia's teasing motions, as were his attempts to concentrate of the road ahead of him. This time is was a loose paving stone that caught his ungainly foot, sending him tumbling helplessly to the ground.

	With all his attentions devoted to breaking his fall, Cid's concentration lapsed, causing his defences to drop. As if capitalising on the opportunity, Lucia's tendrils plunged into his entrance, pain blossoming in Cid's abdomen as they reached inside him, prying open the tight ring of muscle sealing him shut. A third tentacle – larger and thicker – forced its way inside him, parting the clenched walls of muscle within the boy.
	A low groan escaped Cid as he clawed at the ground, heedless of the staring crowd around him. He was being filled up, his narrow passage stretched and opened up by the thick appendage. Yet for every stab of pain he suffered, there was an equal wave of pleasure teased out from his swollen manhood by another one of Lucia's constantly stroking tentacles. Mercifully hidden from sight, his member was so hard that it ached, a wetness gathering at its tip entirely unrelated to any moisture left by the tendril's manipulations.
	Desperately trying to ignore the mass of gawking faces around him, Cid scrabbled at the ground in a frantic attempt at escape. He wasn't even trying to walk any more – crawling would be good enough, if it got him out of the cursed marketplace. Even crawling was a trial, with his weak arms floundering against the uneven paving stones. Assailed by waves of pleasure from her relentless tentacles, Cid's entire body had been reduced to a sweat-slick mass, trembling within the cradle of her armour.
	It seemed like an age before Cid was able to drag himself into a shadowy alleyway and collapse down against a wall. By that point, the probing tentacle had writhed even deeper inside him, brushing up against something that sent him into throes of dizzying pleasure. He gasped out loud, no longer even bothering to suppress his cries, as he was gripped by another wave of intense sensation. The burning pleasure lingered for what seemed like a long time before departing, leaving the boy weary, yet yearning for another taste.
	Trying to force the tantalising pleasure from his mind, Cid stumbled to his feet and looked around the alleyway. It had only been a twist of fate that had led him down it, but for once it had been a lucky outcome. From here, he could cut through the dense network of alleys to get close to home without having to step foot in the more public spaces. It felt strange, having a stroke of luck for once, and Cid couldn't help but feel suspicious.
	“You said...” he panted, bracing himself against the wall and slowly getting back to his feet, “You said there was a lesson here.”
	“Of course there's a lesson, dear,” Lucia whispered, “Do you think I'd put you through this for no reason? For my own amusement?”
	Cid hesitated as he tried to balance on his absurd heels, unwilling to answer. Even with the Eidolon's supernatural strength bolstering his weary limbs, he felt just about at the limits of his stamina. Walking in such an unnatural posture was taking its toll on him. “Why else, then?” he muttered finally, taking a few tentative steps forwards. The tentacles, at least, had grown still inside him.
	“Honey, I can't just tell you,” Lucia cooed, “Where would be the fun in that?”
	“Fun,” Cid said to himself, no longer caring that he was speaking out loud, “Right.”
	“You'll have to figure it out yourself. If you can guess correctly by the time we get home, I'll give you a nice treat,” as if to hint at what treats awaited him, the tentacle coiled around Cid's penis resumed its slippery motions, crawling from the base of his shaft to the sensitive tip in a single flowing movement. Cid shuddered, but his lips twisted upwards into a shaky smile. “Doesn't that sound lovely?” Lucia asked warmly as Cid staggered down the darkened alleyway, rewarding his every step with another slow caress.

	The noon sun was high in the sky when Cid finally caught sight of his home. It wasn't much to look at, but for the exhausted young boy, it could have been a palace. Whilst still uncomfortable – painful, in fact – the last stretch of Cid's walk had been mercifully private. Shielded from staring eyes, he had found his mind wandering to Lucia's mysterious lesson. He had a few ideas, but none of them hinted at any positive fate.
	The most obvious less would be, quite simply, not to get on the Eidolon's bad side. Yet, Cid was unwilling to admit to himself that, perhaps, his companion even had a bad side. She was clingy and overprotective, but everything she had done had been done for love – at least, that was what she told him. Her growing independence was worrying, but Cid was certain that she wouldn't abandon him. They needed each other too much for that, if it was even possible. It had been his spirit that called her into the world – surely, then, they were bound together for life?
	Another lesson would be the extents of her control. Not only could she read his surface thoughts with ease, she could also tease or torture his body as her will dictated with any number of her countless tentacles. In a way, he was lucky that she was content with mere molestation and not anything more dangerous. That lesson came with a sudden, and terrifying, realisation. He had been able to summon her, but not to control her – could he even dismiss her?
	“You want to get rid of me?” Lucia whispered, taunting him with her ability to pluck the thoughts from his mind, “I didn't know you wanted to be alone so badly.”
	Cid opened his mouth to reply, but paused. “Alone?” he repeated. The word had an ominous ring to it, like the dolorous tolling of a great bell.
	“Alone,” Lucia confirmed, a warm purr in her voice, “I wouldn't want to stay where I'm not wanted, after all. I'm sure you'll have plenty of friends in the village to help take care of you.” Cid grimaced, remembering the looks on their faces as the townspeople had retreated from him, but held his tongue. Rather than wasting energy in a fruitless argument, Cid took a deep breath and focussed on the gradually shrinking distance between him and safety.
	
	The wooden door banged loudly as Cid leaned on it, practically falling through the open portal into the welcome darkness of his house. It was blessedly cool inside, and the thick curtains strung across all the windows would serve as a fine defence against prying eyes. A relieved sigh escaped the boy as he crawled further inside, kicking the door shut with one blow from his ridiculous boot.
	Lucia's tendrils, slick and pulsing with some unearthly vitality, were so entrenched within him that even a single movement was enough to caress his sensitive innards, sending him into a groaning spasm of guilty pleasure. His manhood burned within the hollow cage of her armoured codpiece, his aching shaft teased by the Eidolon's constant manipulations. There was a heavy pressure building in the base of his penis, throbbing with the rhythm of his fevered heartbeat. It felt like a near overwhelming desire to pass water, but somehow different.
	“You're becoming a man,” Lucia told him, her voice cutting through the delirium her ceaseless stroking had evoked, “And this is the pleasure a woman can give a man. It's good, isn't it?”	
	“Yes...” Cid murmured, his eyes drifting shut. The tentacle within him was thrusting again, pushing deep within his sensitive passage with sinuous, insistent movements. The pain had long since passed, his entrance stretched and loosened enough for the slick muscle to slide in and out without resistance, leaving only the giddy pleasure of its passing. “This is... your lesson?” he had to force the words out, fighting the growing urge to lie back and let the sensations wash over him.
	“Oh no, darling, it was your fellow townspeople that taught you a lesson. Did you see them? See their faces?” Cid's eyes widened in alarm as Lucia's silken tones continued to fill his mind. “You were a curiosity, once, but now they're terrified of you. You're unstable – dangerous. What was it you called it? A “minor magical mishap”? What if the next “mishap” hurts someone else?”
	“That's...” Cid shook his head, trying desperately to pull his mind from the deep, sucking mud of her hypnotic pleasures, “No, that's not right. They wouldn't think that. They wouldn't!”
	“Wouldn't they? They've always talked, you know,” a note of deliberate cruelty had slipped into Lucia's voice, passing unnoticed as Cid writhed in fits of ecstasy, “And haven't they always been so distant? They never let you play with the other children, did they?”
	“No!” Cid moaned, dearly wishing he could deny the Eidolon's words but unable to present a single word of opposition. He knew, in the darkest recesses of his heart, that her words were the truth. Even from his earliest days, he had been a pariah in the village. All the other orphans had been raised by the priests, while he had been given nothing but the most perfunctory of care. “It was you! It's all your fault!” he cried, bitter tears spilling down his screwed up face.
	“Now now, young man. I'm willing to overlook that, since you're very emotional at the moment,” Lucia's voice was stern, “But you don't want to take that tone with me. After all, I'm the only friend you have right now.”
	“But Lady de Santos...” the distraught boy began, but Lucia didn't let him finish.
	“That interfering busybody?” she spat, “She'll come to gawk at the freak, just like all the rest. Is that the kind of person you want to rely on?” the Eidolon's voice softened as her tentacles became gentle, coaxing out a new wave of pleasure from the whimpering boy, “Could she touch you like this? Could she ever hope to do the things I can do?”
	“I don't...” Cid's voice shuddered, his thoughts of the elegant awakening something new in him. They seemed to push him over some intangible threshold, past the point of no return. His wild fantasy of the older woman kissing his penis seemed to combine with the wet caresses Lucia was lavishing upon him to produce an overwhelming pleasure within him. Any other words he might have hoped to utter were lost as he groaned, gasping out loud with shameless delight.
	With a final spasm, Cid felt a tremendous sense of release paired with a wet heat in his groin as some sticky fluid spat from his manhood. At his moment of climax, Lucia's tentacle yawned open like a mouth and clamped down over his shaft, hungrily devouring every drop of liquid that leapt from the boy's member. The rippling caress of Lucia's flesh – once so unfamiliar and repulsive to him – coaxed unmatched pleasures from the supine boy, practically wiping his mind clean of any thoughts other than sheer hedonistic bliss.
	His orgasm seemed to last a long time, Lucia's skilful ministrations dragging further waves of pleasure from his tense, sweat-slick body, as well as devouring his seed with an unearthly hunger. When she finally relented the boy was aching and trembling, pushed to the limits of his endurance by her predatory lust. His mind was frayed as well, and ripe for another round of her sinister manipulation.

	“Wasn't that good?” the Eidolon purred, her voice seeping into Cid's ear like molten caramel – hot and sweet. “I could make you feel like that all the time.”
	“All... the time...” Cid gasped out, barely lucid enough to listen to his own words, let alone think them through.
	“Of course. Would you like that?” Lucia's grip on Cid's body grew looser, the damp layer of her flesh peeling away from the boy's own brown skin. “Really,” the Eidolon continued, “What other options do you have? To go out there, with people who fear and despise you?”
	“They don't despise me,” Cid tried to argue, even though his voice was as weak as his shattered conviction.
	“Hush now,” Lucia's voice grew soft and comforting, washing over the boy with a cooling breeze, “You're safe in here with me. You don't need to leave my side ever again.” Slowly, with the befuddled reactions of a dying man, Cid realised that the golden armour around him was growing larger around him, slick tentacles reaching out to caress his naked body. “I won't let anyone hurt you,” the Eidolon's whispering voice echoed in Cid's head as she reached out, wet ropes of muscle entwining around his limbs.
	Lulled into a state of near catatonic compliance, and obeying some deeply buried instinct, Cid pulled his legs close to his chest, bowing his head as if trying to make himself as small as possible. With the rolling tide of her gentle hushing noises filling his ears, the boy offered no resistance as Lucia's tentacles wrapped around his limbs and her armoured skin began to retract, closing in around him.
	Soon, all was dark and silent around the boy, the womb-like confines of the Eidolon's body holding him in a tight embrace. He was dreaming, his mind numbed by the constant blissful pleasure Lucia had promised. Rarely, the shadow of a fearful expression would pass over his sleeping face, but such contortions were rare and passed quickly, purged by Lucia's vigilant watch.
	The Eidolon herself was still, lying supine on the floor of the empty house. Her form was distorted, a rounded stomach bulging out from beneath her heavy breasts. She stroked the bump slowly, occasionally muttering a meaningless soothing sound to herself. Contentment gave her little reason to move, or to do anything but sit and rest.
	After all, she had everything she wanted right with her. What more could she need?