“I knew thou had potential.” The strange witch stated, her single blue eye studying me intently.
The blue-skinned witch sat upon a small throne, in the tower ruins of Caria Manor. I hadn’t met to meet the strange witch, but after banish a dragon and being escorted inside by the wolfman I’d encountered on my journeys, I couldn’t refuse the meeting.
“But what business hast tho here, tarnished? I don’t remember inking thee an invitation…”
I had known her as ‘Renna’, at the start of my journey, where she had been a strange individual who had gifted me my beloved steed Torrent, and the ability to rouse the ashes of the dead.
I think it was because of the apparent aptitude I had with these ashes that I had survived as far as I did, for the spirits they summoned seemed to do a lot more than the rogue spirits I’d encountered in the catacombs spread all over the Lands Between.
“You must be Ranni the witch, behind the Night of Black Knives.” I stated, refusing to use any inflection to betray my intentions.
Witches were clever and cunning, but they still needed something to work with to deduce anything.
The ghostly face silently laughed at my audacity, while her real face was amused.
“I see. Quite the Slueth, aren’t we.”
I paid little attention to what she said, beyond hearing her confirm what little I had discovered from the Black Knife Assassins, and Tiche had been willing to confirm.
A blade that could slay gods, if the wielder had the skills to manage such a task.
The witch had made them, which meant she possibly knew how to slay The Two Fingers.
Once she was done, I began my plan.
“I wish to serve you.”
The dark witch cocked her head, curiosity apparent in what little her features did to betray her.
“Oh, is that so? Thou wouldst render me aid, is that thy proposal? Affording thyself opportunity to grope about for the cursemark’s location, no doubt?”
She wasn’t wrong, as she tried to assume what my plan was. The Rune of Death was but one of my goal’s, and I wasn’t against serving a beautiful witch if it helped us mutual achieve goals.
“Very well…”
She beckoned me to knee before the hand opposite her witch’s staff.
“There’s nothing wrong with a well-laid scheme. What’s more, if my past and past wounds beckon to thee, I am curious enough to see what thy destiny portends… I’ll allow it. Enter my service.”
She raised her hand to my lips, and I kissed her fingertips in submission.
“And good hunting to thee.”
She paused as she contemplated something, allowing me time to stand before my new liege.
“There is, in my service, a half-wolven warrior by the name of Blaidd. I would have thee join him in searching for the hidden treasure of Nokron, the Eternal City.”
The hand holding her staff glowing a deep blue briefly, before she directed my attention towards the stairs.
“I have called for Blaidd to greet thee below. Take from him the particulars. Ah, and there wilt thou find Iji, my war counselor, and Seluvis, preceptor in the sorcerous arts, also.”
She paused again, this time raising a hand to her mouth as if to whisper something scandalous.
“Heed not their peculiarities; feel secure in gaining from them what advantage thou canst. I am sure the others will be doing just the same.”
Her posture relaxed, and she went back to the seemingly asleep pose she had been in prior to the wolfman named Blaidd had roused her.
“Speak with the three who await thee below. Thou needst not indulge them unduly, but they too wish to appraise thy worth. It hath been a passing long time since a newcomer entered my service, after all.” She muttered, as she trusted me to leave and do her bidding.
And I did, for loyalty was important for what I needed, and I needed her to trust me.
————————————————–
Blaidd had been exactly how he’d been when I met him in the forest. Stoic, quiet, but now much more forthcoming knowing we shared a lord. He’d spoken of a festival he planned to partake in, that would ‘free the stars for Princess Ranni’, and gave me directions so that I would help him in his quest.
I’d agreed, for the scarlet lands that surrounded the castle where the festivals were supposed to take place was not something I’d challenged yet, and I was eager to see if the stories of flesh plants and geography made from the flesh of rotting giants were true.
Iji had a grand speech in comparison to Blaidd, but seemed happy with my calibre, and invited me to visit their small forge out front of Caria Manor, so that I would be prepared for helping their Mistress with her task once they were done. Given the length of their speech, Iji had definitely spent time around nobles besides Ranni.
There were two types of mages that I’d encountered, wandering through The Lands Between. The first were like Ranni, who sought to break the great taboos not because they can, but because mastery required going beyond the norm. So long as you held their trust, they would give it in return, and had been instrumental in my survival.
Then there were the other type of Mage, the ones who broke taboos purely because they could, especially if they could take advantage of someone or cause someone else to pay any prices you needed to pay. They were easy to tell, because after surviving and gaining some power, the stain of Pride never left their voice or attitude.
I would use him, and he would use me. But I would cut him down in a second if he got between me and my task, and I was fairly certain he was planning some depravity for our shared Mistress.
But, grudgingly, the man was just as skilled as he claimed, only hampered by the fact he was a single person.
Having done what was asked, I headed back up the tower, and to find out what was expected of me.
————————————————–
“What would you have me do?”
“Thou shall help Blaidd, for until the stars can freely roam the dark fields of the sky, the path to desire remains hidden.” She said cryptically, as most of the mages I dealt with were inclined to do with their newest ally.
Sellen had been the same, and had only begun to trust me once I had proven my worth. If Ranni was of a similar ilk, then I would just have to divine what she was truly saying until I earned her trust.
“So I’m to slay a demigod, without a Black Knife?”
It was possible. I’d slain Godrick, but considering how little of his own flesh had been remained after all the grafting he’d done, only the Great Rune I’d taken from his corpse of amalgamated appendages had proven he was indeed of the Golden Lineage and thus a demigod.
Whereas Radahn was without equal, if the rumors were to be believed. But I refused to believe that.
The lands he ruled were overcome with such a corruption that there was no way the great warrior hadn’t atleast been fought to a standstill, a stalemate.
Ranni smirked.
“If thou wisheth to find the cursemark, greater threats yet loom. My brother is indeed strong, but those who wish to serve me should be able to surpass thee.”
The brief squint I gave when she revealed that dangerous tidbit of information gave her the answer she was apparently looking for.
“Now go, and do thy bidding.”
…I was bound to the service of someone who was born of the Golden Lineage, who’s Golden Order I hoped to supplant and free the realm of.
Fuck.
————————————————–
Finally arriving back at Ranni’s Rise, I collapsed at the door.
The Scourge of the Stars, General Radahn had finally fallen at my hands. But the monstrous foe he had become had been from the combined efforts of the entire festival, for the sheer might the General had brought was enough that to fight the fearsome warrior solo would be a fool’s errand.
It had taken the combined might of the eight individuals who had turned up for the Festival, my spirit ashes, and the use of my faithful steed Torrent to survive the one man army named Radahn.
Arrows that rained unending, powerful gravity magic that would draw us in if we tried to break melee range, and even the Starscourge taking to the sky and using his ruinous bulk to bring fiery devastation to any who lay in his path.
And according to what I’d learnt on my trek back to Ranni’s base of operations, this is what the General had been ‘reduced’ to, after he fought whatever had caused the Scarlet Rot to devour his lands. Which meant, somewhere in the Lands Between a warrior who could battle the Starscourge to a standstill still existed.
Hopefully I would never encounter such a fearsome warrior.
Blaidd had stayed behind to rest, the all out melee taking a lot out of the wolven warrior, so I had been quick to report back to our shared Mistress.
I took deep ragged breaths, chest heaving as I lay on the cold brick doorstep. Despite the small armed force we’d fought the Starscourge with, they had all fallen, and it had been I who had claimed the killing blow. I had been the one to free the stars Ranni desired freed, and I would be the one to announce my success. After I had laid there for hours, and Seluvius had ‘accidentally’ tripped over me and berated me, I pulled myself together and made my way up Ranni’s tower.
Upon entering, I realised something amusing, about the sleeping Ranni on her throne within the tower: she was sitting atop a fair few books, to give the illusion she was taller than she was.
You wouldn’t know it, looking at her from the front, given how her billowing robe ensured you would never see anything about her body without her permission.
But the angle from the door way, if one were perceptive enough, showed just enough.
My quiet laugh roused the sleeping witch, so I was quick to go down on to one knee before her. Once the room held the atmosphere of a dark winter’s night, I knew she would be awake.
“The Stars have been freed of the Starscourge’s control.” I stated.
To any others I had encountered, they would expect more. But Ranni seemed to enjoy brevity, and so that is what she got.
“Good, then I ask we proceed with haste.” Ranni began, as she took control of the conversation.
“Art thou aware of the star that struck Limgrave?”
I shook my head. Something had happened after I struck the deathblow on the Starscourge, but Limgrave was vast, and I had been determined to report back quickly.
“It left a vast crater, and through it lieth the Eternal City of Nokron. Go there and find the city’s hidden treasure.”
“What about my reward?” For a ‘true’ servant, what I had just asked was a grave affront, for no servant would demand a reward from their liege lest they be punished.
But I was neither servant not slave, despite being willing to help the witch.
“When thee acquires the city’s hidden treasure, I will grant thee a boon.” Came the bemused reply I received.
So unlike the other ‘nobles’ I had met along my travels, Ranni either tolerated more from those who served her, or she hadn’t been raised in the sort of environment that caused those with power to abuse their underlings over the slightest affront.
My frustration peaked and bubbled over.
“With all due respect, my Lady Ranni.” I didn’t rise, and I kept my eyes down, but I couldn’t hide the tone in my voice.
“I fought and killed your brother, one of the greatest warriors the lands have known. That in itself should be deserving of a reward.”
The silence that followed was long, but I refused to break from my position. I needed her to help me find the cursemark, I needed her on my side. Atleast, until some other method for finding it was found.
The cold brittle silence finally broke with a dangerous whisper.
“Rise, and approach my left side.”
I did as commanded.
“What would you think a worthy reward?”
My thoughts froze.
I had actually convinced the witch to reward me? Maybe she wasn’t like any of her siblings, or the dynasties that came from their influences.
But now that I was given a choice, my mind froze.
What could Ranni offer me? My current armaments were fine, and none of what Selivus or Iji had offered suited my needs, for my bloody spells were a rarity within the Lands Between, or atleast what I had explored of it so far.
My garments were also suitable, given what I’d survived with them.
And I dared not ask her for her own spells, for a Mage only gave their spells to their students or their closest confidantes. Hence why the greatest betrayals a mage would deal with was often right after the sharing of their special forms of magecraft.
“…I’m sorry, my lady, but I’m at a loss of what to ask.”
If I was being honest, the only reward that was usually offered to me that I couldn’t just get while exploring the Lands Between, was skinship.
Sure, I could take it from any I stumbled across, but that would make me no better than those already pillaging the lands, and I had no reason to stoop that low when a lot of people seemed willing to offer it someone risked their very selves to help them.
“For thee to be so demanding, yet not even offer a thought when pressed? How vexing…” she chuckled, as she pulled herself out of her voluminous robes, the small mage’s form emerging from within its fabric cocoon.
Unlike the baggy robe which hid all her body had to offer, the small white shift she wore beneath hid barely anything. The fabric wasn’t sheer, so I couldn’t see all, but the way it’s too tight fit hugged her body revealed almost as much as it hid. Almost as if the shift had been fitted on to her instead of something she had found and chosen to wore.
What surprised me the most was the fact that she both had four arms, and that her body was actually that of a doll’s.
I’d assumed the upward facing hands that had been in her lap were a form of religious ornament, since strange interpretations of religion seemed common among all the noble lineages I’d stumbled across in my journeys, or that it was a symbol of some promise she was required to keep.
But upon seeing that her body was that of a puppet, her having a second set of arms made sense.
But why was she a puppet? Was she a failed experiment that had led to the horrors Godwyn had performed in his pursuit of grafting?
I was brought back to reality, by feeling one of her hands starting to fondle my balls, causing blood to instantly swell and make my desperate need known.
It had been too long since my last offer of skinship, and the way she expertly toyed with my testicles reminded my body of exactly what it wanted.
“Blaidd hides how desperate for release he is, but thy honesty is refreshing.” She didn’t look at me or my cock directly, only looking out of her left eye, as her other left hand freed my symbol of manhood for her perusal.
“I can only offer thee a taste, but if thee find’s the city’s hidden treasure, I would not be opposed to offering thee more.”
She held a testicle in the palms of both her left hands, using said palms to knead and roll them while using her thumb to stroke up my length a little.
“What else is included in that offer?” I moaned, entirely within her power.
I had to give her credit, her skill was impeccable.
Despite the rather awkward way she was doing this just using her left hands, I could feel my balls churning and tensing, the way she kneaded them making my cock desperate for actual stimulation, for the way her thumb stroked the needy length near my balls was not enough to do more than tease the desperate nerve endings further up my cock.
“Bring me the hidden treasure, and I will permit thee use of my body while I sleep.” If Ranni’s kneading and light coaxing of my cock had been more strenuous, I might have unravelled then and there at what she offered me.
With only my cock hardening and pre-cum now liberally dripping down from my crown, I managed to contain my orgasm, my ragged breathing and the way my cock was pulsing in desperation showing how close I had been.
Her spectral eye rolled while her doll face seemed amused.
“I take it that thee see that as fitting reward for thy service?”
“Very.” I panted, constantly on the verge of orgasm but her careful gentle kneading just not enough to push me over the edge. Her careful kneading ensured I couldn’t buck in her hands, especially since her hands weren’t on my cock in a way that thrusting into them would push me over.
Then she stopped, earning a needy moan from me.
“Then straddle me, and I will seal this pact between us.”
I obeyed, my mind fully at the whim of the one controlling my cock.
As I straddled the doll-like mage, she used her lower set of hands to free the sculptors ideal of porcelain breasts from within her robe.
They weren’t the largest, but given how they were porcelain, who knew what bounties they held if they were freed from the cold embrace to that of mutable flesh……
My attention was drawn from the blue porcelain nubs that were her nipples to the aching release of my cock as the doll-jointed fingers of her upper set of arms reverently wrapped around my shaft.
“Focus your desires on to my chest.” Ranni’s lower arms began to play with testicles again, but instead of the gentle kneading from before, these were a firm squeezing, as if she was trying to emulate the muscles used in funnelling my sperm through my cock.
Her squeezing was getting a result, as pre-cum would occasionally jet forth and sully her doll-like chest, the pre-cum dripping down from between her breasts and leaking into the chest seam between her chest and stomach.
My instincts took over, and I began to thrust into her hands.
“With your offering, this body will be ready for you by the time you return.”
She tiled her head up, both her spectral face and her doll face now looking me in the eye.
“Now give me thy seed.”
I obliged, hilting myself in her grip, one hand settling at the base of my cock while another stroked my length in time with my orgasm, prolonging it with each spurt, and each spurt noticeably larger than I was aware I was capable of producing as she also firmly squeezed my testicles as whenever she felt my cock pulse with a new load.
Each load she directed to different parts of her body, a few spurts for each breast, some more for each thigh and her stomach, allowing the final few spurts to roll down the fuzz of the faux pubic hair and drip along the outline of her pseudo-pussy.
“With that, our pacPHM~.” She tried to continue, but I had other ideas, using that brief moment to try and claim one more area for use.
I straddled her higher, forcing my cock towards her mouth, hoping to hilt myself in her throat.
But the magical doll was stronger than she looked, and stopped me just short of my goal, my crown now sitting in the unyielding hole of her mouth, her lower hands unintentionally squeezing harder than she’d intended and forcing the last of my cum out and into her mouth.
With my brazen impudence thwarted, I fell back to my previous position, breathing heavily. The orgasm had been intense, and taken more out of me than I’d expected. Maybe my mana had also been drained to help fuel Ranni’s spell….
“’tis a foolish and greedy thing thou attempted, but I do not dislike that about you.” Cum began to drip from her lips as she talked, the liquid not seeming to cause her any difficulty in conversing.
“But our pact is sealed. Bring me the treasure of Nokris, and thee will have free use of this body.”
I pull myself away, after regaining my breath, and knelt before my defiled lord.
“As you wish.”
Ranni smirked, as more cum dripped from her mouth.
“I now need to rest, as I had not expected to use this much magic. Please make me presentable, then leave…for your…task…”
Her head began to tilt forward, before she fell still, chest still exposed and covered in cum, the rivulets of cum from her lips finally ceasing as it joined the mess pooling around her pubic hair.
I stood, and contemplated what she asked.
I needed to make her presentable, yet the cum cover her body was apparently necessary for whatever she meant by ‘our pact’.
Being the greedy and brazen servant, I trailed my finger into the pool of cum, and ensuring I had a thick dollop of seed, eased the mage’s head back and swirled my finger around the porcelain orifice.
I’d been right in my desperate ploy, her mouth was as rigid as the rest of her body was, which meant I had to ensure my cum was also in her mouth consistently, to ensure I could use it.
I repeated the process a few times, ensuring the inside of her cheeks and her tongue had a thick coating, before further defiling the sleeping mage further by getting a large scoop and pooling the resulting fluid into her mouth and tilting her head further back.
If she was going to give free use of her body, I planned to get full use of all her holes.
After a few minutes, I let her head loll forward, before standing and rubbing my cum-covered cock all over her face. The porcelain felt nice when I wasn’t attempting to thrust into it, but I was curious to see what the spell would do.
While I wait for the cum-stained mess on her face to dry, I pulled her robe open further, and pushed my hand into the remaining cum puddle, down over her pseudo-pussy, and down into what felt like a pseudo-asshole.
The doll body had holes in the right places, though due to being made of this strange blue magically-receptive porcelain, I couldn’t fit more than a finger into either, so I repeated the process I had done with her mouth, ensuring whatever her magic had done, would grant me full access to her slumbering form.
I pulled her robe up, and covered the cum-glaze mess that was her body. The under robe was less a robe and more just a sheer dress, obviously meant to be pulled aside for quick access, whereas her big robe was thicker and would ensure no one saw any evidence of what we had done.
I searched around the room for a water jug to make cleaning her face easier, but I quickly decided against it, and settled for using the inside of her robe.
Thankfully, due to Ranni’s room being high atop a tower with an open window, the window would easily rid the room of the smell of my defilement.
Having finished my Lady’s first command, I re-dressed and opened the door to head down and begin my true assignment, only to walk into a wall of fur and bounce off it.
Before I could fall back, a big wolfish claw grabbed me by the shoulder, steadying me.
“You all right?” came a gruff back from Blaidd, who had seemingly just arrived to report.
I couldn’t believe my luck. If I had been but a moment slower in what Ranni and I had done, her loyal wolfman would’ve seen me getting a treatment he apparently craved yet was too craven to ask for.
“Yes. Just finished my report and our lady gave me my new orders.”
The large wolfman squinted at my words.
“Your new orders?”
“I’m to descend where the star fell, and find something within the crater.”
“She say what she wanted me to do?” The wolfman seemed concerned, as if this wasn’t a common occurrence. He took a deep breath, before making a weird face, as if smelling something.
Fuck. I didn’t account for stronger senses.
“Not that I recall.” Blaidd let me go, and attempted to move past me.
But I held my hand out, which he respected.
We were of similar strength, given how we’d fought the Starscourge and survived. The large wolfman had bulk and I didn’t have the room needed to move about, but I’d earned Blaidd’s respect by taking down the former General.
“I wouldn’t bother her if I were you. She seemed to be falling asleep as I was finishing.”
“Strange.” Blaidd mused aloud, before turning back down the stairs, as I followed him.
“She was asleep last time too. She should have been awake for the next few days….”
“Maybe she’s preparing for something? She seems to think something important is in that crater she wants me to explore.”
Blaidd grunted.
“Aye, that’d make sense.”
We made our way silently down to the bottom of Ranni’s tower, Seluvis and Iji not present.
Turning abruptly, the towering wolfman forced his snout right up against me, taking deep sniffs.
“Why do you smell of squid?” he growled.
I did all I could not to freeze with fear, and give the bestial warrior evidence only one with his senses could use.
“Seluvis wanted my opinion about a female doll he had recently acquired, and he wanted me to thoroughly ‘test’ it.”
A lie, but not one I couldn’t easily back up.
I detested the mage, but I was curious about the strange control magic he was developing, so he would occasionally ask me to sexually test them, to see just how well the magic suffused their bodies.
I didn’t ask where he got the bodies from, and he’d agreed to support this one lie if anyone ever chased up on it.
I hadn’t expected to need use it, I had just wanted the crafty mage to have a reason to pause before he made a move against me. His type often reaped ‘the chaff’ before the more useful people they knew, and my willingness to help had been enough to get him to let me into his ‘good’ graces.
Blaidd’s wolfish face pulled a strange expression that could imply vague disgust.
“And you didn’t think to clean yourself up before meeting her?”
I squinted my eyes at him, conveying I thought the idea daft.
“Why would I?”
The wolfman tried to form an argument, but if our lady was to be believed, Blaidd was of the belief that his feelings for Ranni were hidden from everyone, so he failed, as any of the reasons he seemed to mull over would only reveal this poorly kept secret.
“That’s fair. Sorry ‘bout that.”
“’sall good.” I drawled, before heading toward the door.
“Could I ask you to atleast try and not reek of that when you report back next time?” The strange emotions in his tone were darkly amusing to me, given how I had left Ranni.
“If I come back and she has a problem with it, I will.”
Just because I respected the warrior, doesn’t mean I was going to bow to a pointless whim.
Especially since Ranni was going to smell like that every time I came back to visit, once I had reclaimed this hidden treasure of Nokron.
Blaidd grunted, and went about whatever other business he had in Ranni’s tower, as I began to the long trek to where the star had crashed.
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