Saren Selmy
Saren was walking down one of the halls in the upper deck of the Rising Dawn alone. Laeta had taken Lola away to the training rooms for her physical therapy session and now the youngest of the three sisters was left to entertain herself in the warship as it descended into combat airspace above Denver. Saren let her fingertips drag along on the surface of the walls as she walked. She could feel the thin breath of the ship as she walked. She could hear it creak and strain, tremble against the whirling winds. She could hear the beating heart, the fuming heat of it's reactor and engines. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could smell the history of this ship, it's shifting hallways, the stains of blood and sweat. She could almost see the faces of all of those that had once called this vessel their home.
Saren was a technopath. Her senses were sensitive to say the least, her entire body was like a conduit for electric pulses. So much so that she could interface with people and things outside her body.
People were hard to interface with though, the chemistry involved meant there were some significant barriers to melding with them. Electronics though, they opened their secrets as soon as Saren beckoned. They were almost like a second body to her. It had certainly taken time to learn how to read them, but now she was accustomed to visualizing the machine code as a second reality.
She tugged on her sweatshirt. It was loose and baggy, hanging gently on her skin. Any more and it might had been distracting. She hated wearing clothes. They made her feel like she was suffocating, no matter how thin the fabric was.
Saren reached the training room door. She paused. I made full circuit already? She brushed her bangs to the side and put her fingers on the metal door. Maybe I'll spar with Laeta while Lola gets checked over. This idleness is murder on my mind.
"Lola, do you like that I'm inside you?"
What.
"It... it feels kind of weird... but I... I don't dislike it..."
"Mmm... I like it though. It means that we're closer than ever. Here..."
"Eep! What... what are you doing!?"
"I'm just getting a feel for you Lola, mmm you're so tight."
"Don't! Don't touch me there!"
"How could I not take advantage of you when you can't defend yourself?"
"Ah.. no... please... please stop... You're getting me all wet..."
"It's only natural, Lola. I have to get you wet to help the muscles loosen up, or else I might just end up hurting you."
Lola whimpered and then squealed, "Laeta! You're being way too rough! You're going to break me!"
"Oh shush, your body's much stronger than that Lola! And I'm having way too much fun! You're so soft and hot and slippery..."
"Lae- Laeta! Your... your breasts are..."
That's far enough.
Saren swiped right and the servos holding the door in place spun with wanton ferocity, slamming the metal door into the wall cavity. "Okay, that's far enough! How many times do I have to tell you Laeta, you can't have sex wi-" Saren paused and exhaled. Laeta had taken Lola's shirt off, that was as far as it had gone. The white silk was folded neatly on her lap, Lola's hair was undone and gently bunched over one shoulder. Her shoulders were bare, but that was it. Laeta was leaning in on her, an elbow pressed against the nape of Lola's neck. Both girls were glistening with oil. Saren took a breath. Baby oil.
"It's not sex." Laeta pouted. She had taken off her sweater to facilitate the massage, leaving her in a sheer white camisole. "The doctor told me to help loosen up Lola onee-sama's muscles before they put her through the physical therapy test."
Laeta paused and bit on Lola's ear, she squealed. "Though, I wouldn't mind doing a little more service on you later, onee-sama."
"P... please don't..." Lola squirmed uncomfortably in her wheelchair. Her cheeks were red and Saren could smell the anxiety growing within Lola's breast.
The doctor came in soon thereafter. He was an old man of Asian decent. Small, thin, and kindly. He was flanked by two hovering automatons. The man was too weak to administer the physical therapy himself, apparently. As he had his robotic assistants push Lola into the next room over, where some medical equipment had been moved into a climate controlled training room, Laeta and Saren were left alone in the main chamber.
The two sisters looked at each other.
"Wanna fight?"
Saren smiled, "Don't hold back boobzilla."
---
[hr]
lucieon's story[hr]
"As much as a cage is for keeping you from getting out, it also exists to keep the outside from getting to you."
Lucieon leaned back on the warm limestone behind him. He grinned. "Would you still think yourself imprisoned had I not made your cage known to you?" He looked at Benedict, his eyes were cold as ice. Yet, there was no malice, no amusement, nothing of the sort that ought to had inhabited this malicious spirit. Instead, there was something like pity, fear. Defeat perhaps.
"The nature of a labyrinth is immense in scope. The simple idea that it exists is enough to confound most mortals. Yet, somehow I feel compelled to tell you." He shook his head, his smile disappeared. Her brushed the bangs out of his eyes. "All parallel worlds must be linked by powerful similarities or else it would be fruitless the travel to them. Clusters of similar worlds tend to drift toward one another, and in doing so the similarities that bind them become like a bubble - keeping them loosely together and permeable. A labyrinth is an artificial bubble."
He pointed at the sky, "Labyrinths are laws set forth by an intelligence. They are pocket dimensions that exist because of a wish or curse. Most are only large enough to consume perhaps a village or a town. The most powerful are able to host a city within the boundaries of it's rules. This labyrinth spans near countless worlds. Try and fathom the immense power of the intelligence that created it. How strong it must be to enforce it's will on so many lives, to tie together so many possibilities and to micromanage each and every event." Lucieon paused and shoved his hands into his pockets. He seemed somehow depressed now, "Think about the sheer scale that someone has to go through to set that up - not only to enforce their own laws, but to so perfectly mimic the lives of those living within such that it is impossible for us to directly observe any marked difference in our lives before and after the labyrinth was created. Whether this entity could be called benevolent is unclear, but personally I believe that it is just of illogical mind."
Lucieon raised his hand and summoned a swirling veil of black mist to shield himself from a lance made of light. "Not quite there yet, Flutterstorm Herald." Several butterflies landed around Lucieon, Katya, Benedict, and Antoinette. They were bright blue and glowed with an ethereal quality. With the same gentle presence, a girl appeared. Her boots made contact with the floor so lightly that it made no noise. Her cloak fluttered around her as if carried on the wing beats of her butterflies.
"My name is Jiyamuanna il Callaxiakio, the Flutterstorm Herald, at your service," she gave a polite curtsy to the gathering of outlanders. "You may refer to me as Jiyam." She gave Lucieon a gentle smile, "And one day I will return your tortured soul to rest, Lusiya-sempai."
Lucieon laughed, "Not today flatty. And didn't I ask for Gissella to come? Why are you here?"
"Jezell is currently busy dealing with adventurers right now and could not make it. Lady Maria has become much more popular now that you have left."
"I wasn't aware that Lady Maria would let Gissella fuck adventurers into going away. Seems rather crass of her to use her apprentice like some sort of prostitute." There was something in that statement that seemed unjust. A venom that laced the words that seemed to dig into Jiyam's calm demeanor.
She didn't speak immediately, but there was a visible increase in the gravitas of which she held herself. "Lusiya. Leave. You're done here. I will take care of these outlanders."
Lucieon turned to leave, "Yeah, yeah. Don't get your damn panties in a bunch. I don't like having to stick around anymore than you like have shit stuck up your tight little ass."
A swarm of black flame erupted from the end of Jiyam's crescent-moon catalyst and tore through the air toward Lucieon. The undead sorcerer turned, smiled, and vanished into thin air. The fire struck the limestone walls of a nearby building and left deep gashes in the rock, as if some beast had bit and clawed it's way through the stone.
Jiyam spent some time collecting herself after that. Her eyes, the same blue as the glowing wings of her companions, looked dazed. She brushed her fire-red hair away from her face and turned on her heel. "Please, follow me." Her voice was full of tension.
Jiyam's silence was only broken with brief intermittent polite introductions of the locations they were passing by. She listed the noble houses one by one as they passed each estate while ascending the mountain to the citadel above. The list of names were long and boring; Redriver, Shoulstadt, Mievvori, Hamhoor, Bael, Gorra, Ciattze, and so on. Each estate was more conspicuous than the last, tempered with groomed gardens, elaborate architecture, and no small amount of slaves on public display. Workers in the fields, women lounging by pools, children standing at attention. The people here were like trophies, each adorned with fanciful outfits of gilded gold, but always with an obvious yoke.
About halfway up to the citadel they passed a large church. Jiyam waved at it and commented on it's patron lord. It was some fanciful lord of light that delivered humanity from it's darkest hour. Unlike the Lord of yore, there was not host of winged messengers to proclaim his greatness. Indeed, this King of Light, the righteous hammer of paradise, was a literal physical entity. His likeness emblazoned on the stained glass and marble towers of the church. The God looked like a piece of animated armor, with a grisly skull-like plated face that glared out toward his adherents. His wings were made of blades, wicked and sharp, his hands were fierce gauntlets, and he was always depicted standing over a great door. "His name is Eden," Jiyam explain half-heartedly, "The people here revere him as God, but it's just a fanciful excuse to rape and plunder in the name of their justice. From my studies I can assure you that he exists. Though his jurisdiction is far from Godhood. He's some sort of guardian for something even greater. Perhaps a monster beyond measure that dwells deep in the depths between this world and the next."
They reached the citadel soon thereafter, just when the moons had finally risen from the far horizon. Looking down from the peak, Candor was alight with beauty. The fires that burned, the lights that shone, and even the stars above filled Candor with a beautiful orange glow. The clamor of the city did not die, and even up near the Imperial Keep they could still hear the sounds of living below. The four great bridges were a glow with light as well, filled to the brim with people living and working in hollows in it's broad limestone arches.
Jiyam stopped. She was silent as she stared out into the night. The twin moons held themselves in a soft dance. The smaller of the two bodies drifting visibly across the surface of it's much larger sibling. They both shone a brilliant white. After a long period of silence the Flutterstorm Herald wiped away some tears from her eyes and continued, leaving the splendor of the capital city behind and delving deep into the darkness of the citadel.
They spent little time moving through the keep proper. The upper levels was indeed decorated beautifully, but it was also full of people from the court. Jiyam lead the small troupe down a hidden staircase into the bowels of the mountain. They walked for what seemed like hours, descending into a pitch so dark that the world seem to vanish behind them as Jiyam's illuminating light wandered ever downwards.
After a long time, where Jiyam's uncomfortable silence had stretched into a short eternity, they reached the bottom floor and pushed out from behind a statue into a great hall filled with lit sconces. Before them was a great gate carved from bedrock, adorned with depictions of ancient lords and scholars. Jiyam held her staff out to illuminate the sheer size of the hall they were in. It was easily 35 meters tall, it was impossible to discern the ceiling even with Jiyam's additional illumination. The hall also ran backwards for as long as they could see, a straight line of columns and statues that stretched into infinity.
"The dungeon entrance actually starts in Boral of Althia in the next country over. Most adventurers don't ever make it this far. The trek to Lady Maria's boss room is no less than a hundred and thirty miles through mobs, traps, and inhospitable environments. Not to mention the defenders of the Library that hold each stronghold on the way here." She turned and tapped the great door twice with her staff. It creaked open by itself without much fanfare. "Usually that would be much more dramatic, but I have to reset all of the fancy charms since it looks like the party that came through actually got into the room." She paused, "They must be pretty good to get this far. I can't remember the last time Jezell lost a fight."
Jiyam led the group into the darkness of the library antechamber. From there she tapped her staff twice on the ground to summon a staircase into the rafters above, which she led them into. "Come, this way. You have the rare honor of seeing Lady Maria fight." They ascended the stairs onto the web of stone walkways that made up much of the library. There were others standing all over the walkways looking down at a large stone arena below.
"These are the other Guardians of the Library." Jiyam motioned toward them.
"Jiyam!" another woman said, waving from her seat. She looked like Jiyam, but had her hair in a short ponytail. Otherwise, they looked identical, except for this woman's extremely impressive chest, which she kept covered with nothing but a bandeau. She grinned, "Come take a seat! Fight's about to start!"
"You're looking awfully well for having lost to them not too long ago, Jezell." Jiyam motioned to Katya, Antoinette, and Benedict, "These are the guests that Lusiya wanted me to pick up and show to Lady Maria."
"Nice ta meet ya!" Gissella grinned, a small snaggletooth glimmered in the light of Jiyam's staff. "An' there ain't no ha'd feelin's between me an' them. It was a fair fight 'tween us. Right down ta the wire."
Jiyam crossed her arms, "You're too kind-hearted Jezell."
"Shh! Here she comes!" Gissella jumped up, a excited glimmer in her eye. The others around them cast soft murmurs into the darkness before them. They all anticipated their master's arrival.
Below, four adventurers wandered into the stone circle, and the bridge leading into the arena collapsed behind them. Jiyam raised her staff and butterflies started to descend into the arena, lighting the battlefield with a soft blue glow. Then from the darkness a flurry of scrambling claws brought the heaving form of a great monster out of the depths. It landed onto the arena, shaking the entire platform.
[HEADING=2]"Show me your mettle, adventurers."[/HEADING]
Code:
Homelands"As much as a cage is for keeping you from getting out, it also exists to keep the outside from getting to you."
Lucieon leaned back on the warm limestone behind him. He grinned. "Would you still think yourself imprisoned had I not made your cage known to you?" He looked at Benedict, his eyes were cold as ice. Yet, there was no malice, no amusement, nothing of the sort that ought to had inhabited this malicious spirit. Instead, there was something like pity, fear. Defeat perhaps.
"The nature of a labyrinth is immense in scope. The simple idea that it exists is enough to confound most mortals. Yet, somehow I feel compelled to tell you." He shook his head, his smile disappeared. Her brushed the bangs out of his eyes. "All parallel worlds must be linked by powerful similarities or else it would be fruitless the travel to them. Clusters of similar worlds tend to drift toward one another, and in doing so the similarities that bind them become like a bubble - keeping them loosely together and permeable. A labyrinth is an artificial bubble."
He pointed at the sky, "Labyrinths are laws set forth by an intelligence. They are pocket dimensions that exist because of a wish or curse. Most are only large enough to consume perhaps a village or a town. The most powerful are able to host a city within the boundaries of it's rules. This labyrinth spans near countless worlds. Try and fathom the immense power of the intelligence that created it. How strong it must be to enforce it's will on so many lives, to tie together so many possibilities and to micromanage each and every event." Lucieon paused and shoved his hands into his pockets. He seemed somehow depressed now, "Think about the sheer scale that someone has to go through to set that up - not only to enforce their own laws, but to so perfectly mimic the lives of those living within such that it is impossible for us to directly observe any marked difference in our lives before and after the labyrinth was created. Whether this entity could be called benevolent is unclear, but personally I believe that it is just of illogical mind."
[HEADING=2]"Turn Undead!"[/HEADING]
Lucieon raised his hand and summoned a swirling veil of black mist to shield himself from a lance made of light. "Not quite there yet, Flutterstorm Herald." Several butterflies landed around Lucieon, Katya, Benedict, and Antoinette. They were bright blue and glowed with an ethereal quality. With the same gentle presence, a girl appeared. Her boots made contact with the floor so lightly that it made no noise. Her cloak fluttered around her as if carried on the wing beats of her butterflies.
"My name is Jiyamuanna il Callaxiakio, the Flutterstorm Herald, at your service," she gave a polite curtsy to the gathering of outlanders. "You may refer to me as Jiyam." She gave Lucieon a gentle smile, "And one day I will return your tortured soul to rest, Lusiya-sempai."
Lucieon laughed, "Not today flatty. And didn't I ask for Gissella to come? Why are you here?"
"Jezell is currently busy dealing with adventurers right now and could not make it. Lady Maria has become much more popular now that you have left."
"I wasn't aware that Lady Maria would let Gissella fuck adventurers into going away. Seems rather crass of her to use her apprentice like some sort of prostitute." There was something in that statement that seemed unjust. A venom that laced the words that seemed to dig into Jiyam's calm demeanor.
She didn't speak immediately, but there was a visible increase in the gravitas of which she held herself. "Lusiya. Leave. You're done here. I will take care of these outlanders."
Lucieon turned to leave, "Yeah, yeah. Don't get your damn panties in a bunch. I don't like having to stick around anymore than you like have shit stuck up your tight little ass."
[HEADING=2]"ABYSSAL HAZE!"[/HEADING]
A swarm of black flame erupted from the end of Jiyam's crescent-moon catalyst and tore through the air toward Lucieon. The undead sorcerer turned, smiled, and vanished into thin air. The fire struck the limestone walls of a nearby building and left deep gashes in the rock, as if some beast had bit and clawed it's way through the stone.
Jiyam spent some time collecting herself after that. Her eyes, the same blue as the glowing wings of her companions, looked dazed. She brushed her fire-red hair away from her face and turned on her heel. "Please, follow me." Her voice was full of tension.
---
Jiyam's silence was only broken with brief intermittent polite introductions of the locations they were passing by. She listed the noble houses one by one as they passed each estate while ascending the mountain to the citadel above. The list of names were long and boring; Redriver, Shoulstadt, Mievvori, Hamhoor, Bael, Gorra, Ciattze, and so on. Each estate was more conspicuous than the last, tempered with groomed gardens, elaborate architecture, and no small amount of slaves on public display. Workers in the fields, women lounging by pools, children standing at attention. The people here were like trophies, each adorned with fanciful outfits of gilded gold, but always with an obvious yoke.
About halfway up to the citadel they passed a large church. Jiyam waved at it and commented on it's patron lord. It was some fanciful lord of light that delivered humanity from it's darkest hour. Unlike the Lord of yore, there was not host of winged messengers to proclaim his greatness. Indeed, this King of Light, the righteous hammer of paradise, was a literal physical entity. His likeness emblazoned on the stained glass and marble towers of the church. The God looked like a piece of animated armor, with a grisly skull-like plated face that glared out toward his adherents. His wings were made of blades, wicked and sharp, his hands were fierce gauntlets, and he was always depicted standing over a great door. "His name is Eden," Jiyam explain half-heartedly, "The people here revere him as God, but it's just a fanciful excuse to rape and plunder in the name of their justice. From my studies I can assure you that he exists. Though his jurisdiction is far from Godhood. He's some sort of guardian for something even greater. Perhaps a monster beyond measure that dwells deep in the depths between this world and the next."
They reached the citadel soon thereafter, just when the moons had finally risen from the far horizon. Looking down from the peak, Candor was alight with beauty. The fires that burned, the lights that shone, and even the stars above filled Candor with a beautiful orange glow. The clamor of the city did not die, and even up near the Imperial Keep they could still hear the sounds of living below. The four great bridges were a glow with light as well, filled to the brim with people living and working in hollows in it's broad limestone arches.
Jiyam stopped. She was silent as she stared out into the night. The twin moons held themselves in a soft dance. The smaller of the two bodies drifting visibly across the surface of it's much larger sibling. They both shone a brilliant white. After a long period of silence the Flutterstorm Herald wiped away some tears from her eyes and continued, leaving the splendor of the capital city behind and delving deep into the darkness of the citadel.
---
They spent little time moving through the keep proper. The upper levels was indeed decorated beautifully, but it was also full of people from the court. Jiyam lead the small troupe down a hidden staircase into the bowels of the mountain. They walked for what seemed like hours, descending into a pitch so dark that the world seem to vanish behind them as Jiyam's illuminating light wandered ever downwards.
After a long time, where Jiyam's uncomfortable silence had stretched into a short eternity, they reached the bottom floor and pushed out from behind a statue into a great hall filled with lit sconces. Before them was a great gate carved from bedrock, adorned with depictions of ancient lords and scholars. Jiyam held her staff out to illuminate the sheer size of the hall they were in. It was easily 35 meters tall, it was impossible to discern the ceiling even with Jiyam's additional illumination. The hall also ran backwards for as long as they could see, a straight line of columns and statues that stretched into infinity.
"The dungeon entrance actually starts in Boral of Althia in the next country over. Most adventurers don't ever make it this far. The trek to Lady Maria's boss room is no less than a hundred and thirty miles through mobs, traps, and inhospitable environments. Not to mention the defenders of the Library that hold each stronghold on the way here." She turned and tapped the great door twice with her staff. It creaked open by itself without much fanfare. "Usually that would be much more dramatic, but I have to reset all of the fancy charms since it looks like the party that came through actually got into the room." She paused, "They must be pretty good to get this far. I can't remember the last time Jezell lost a fight."
Jiyam led the group into the darkness of the library antechamber. From there she tapped her staff twice on the ground to summon a staircase into the rafters above, which she led them into. "Come, this way. You have the rare honor of seeing Lady Maria fight." They ascended the stairs onto the web of stone walkways that made up much of the library. There were others standing all over the walkways looking down at a large stone arena below.
"These are the other Guardians of the Library." Jiyam motioned toward them.
"Jiyam!" another woman said, waving from her seat. She looked like Jiyam, but had her hair in a short ponytail. Otherwise, they looked identical, except for this woman's extremely impressive chest, which she kept covered with nothing but a bandeau. She grinned, "Come take a seat! Fight's about to start!"
"You're looking awfully well for having lost to them not too long ago, Jezell." Jiyam motioned to Katya, Antoinette, and Benedict, "These are the guests that Lusiya wanted me to pick up and show to Lady Maria."
"Nice ta meet ya!" Gissella grinned, a small snaggletooth glimmered in the light of Jiyam's staff. "An' there ain't no ha'd feelin's between me an' them. It was a fair fight 'tween us. Right down ta the wire."
Jiyam crossed her arms, "You're too kind-hearted Jezell."
"Shh! Here she comes!" Gissella jumped up, a excited glimmer in her eye. The others around them cast soft murmurs into the darkness before them. They all anticipated their master's arrival.
Below, four adventurers wandered into the stone circle, and the bridge leading into the arena collapsed behind them. Jiyam raised her staff and butterflies started to descend into the arena, lighting the battlefield with a soft blue glow. Then from the darkness a flurry of scrambling claws brought the heaving form of a great monster out of the depths. It landed onto the arena, shaking the entire platform.
[HEADING=2]"Show me your mettle, adventurers."[/HEADING]
