Editor's note: this story contains scenes of non-consensual or reluctant sex.
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Author's Note:
A Drow's Dilemma began as a one-on-one roleplaying project and has been converted into a chapter-by-chapter format for weekly posting with the permission and assistance from my partner. It will contain a considerable amount of sexual themes such as femdom, lesbian, straight, 'reverse' rape, BDSM, group sex, romance, and other themes. The main goal of the story, however, is to tell an epic tale of adventures, gods and goddesses, fae, and nymphomaniacs. This episode and every episode to come will be available for free on Literotica for the foreseeable future. All characters that engage in sexual or suggestive situations are mentally and sexually mature: the human equivalent of 18 for their race.
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Episode 62: Deeper
After Caleldir gained what information he could from the two naga guards, he hurried off down the passage after Althaia and Selene. They had an Ashyr to find.
Sensing that Caleldir was rushing up behind her, Althaia slowed her pace until he caught up. "What did the naga say?" She asked.
"Some sort of soul-sucking, heart-breaking, singing creature that resembles the two of us probably has Ashyr." Caleldir summarized.
"Lovely." Althaia said with more than slight sarcasm. "Sounds like a particularly malevolent Lorelei."
"Soul-sucking nymphs?" Selene demanded. Nymph was what she assumed, anyway. It was always some sort of fey creature ruining their adventures.
"Not exactly like a nymph." Caleldir said uneasily. "She mentioned magic songs. Nymphs have great singing voices, of course, but there is nothing overtly magic about the sound. And nymphs are the opposite of sadistic, which these creatures apparently are. I suspect some relative of nymphkind: my instinct say Lorelei, but there are too many species to be sure. I wonder if Port Afron knows about this." He mused more to himself than his companions. "They would have to, wouldn't they?"
"I hope that they are either able to see reason, or are ugly." Althaia mused as she walked. "After all, it is against my religion to destroy beautiful people. I still will, of course. I just tell Aesuna that they were really ugly and just using illusion to fake beauty. Which is not entirely a lie, as outward appearance can be said to be an illusion with contrasted with the inside, but it is easier not to have to resort to such wordplay." Her tone was clearly rather joking.
"Your religion is very silly." Caleldir observed to the paladin. "Also, anything similar to a nymph would almost by definition be extremely beautiful. Lorelei are no exception."
Althaia looked exaggeratedly scandalized. "What? You are insinuating that the goddesses of beauty and nymphs, hedonism and cats, and festivals and bards are not completely serious? They are the only deities able to recruit Lawful Paladins despite being Chaotic! That is the height of Seriousness.
"Oh, if only Lolth were that easy to manipulate." Selene responded dryly. Then she blinked, having just realized what she said. That was damn near blasphemy coming from her. Her free hand came up to her mouth as if such an action would be able to make her unsay what was just said. "Glad I don't use divine magic." She muttered under her breath.
"I think Lolth is the one doing all the manipulations. Everyone caught in her web, and all that." Caleldir responded to Selene's whispering. "The One I follow is beyond all comprehension, so I do not even attempt manipulation. But, then again, He does not really empower clerics or paladins in the same way as the gods of this world do. Instead, my people drew their divine spells from our Philosophy."
"If he does not interact with his followers, how do you know he even exists?" Althaia asked curious. "I talk to my goddesses every day, and most days they respond. Every day they give me magic as direct proof of their existence."
Caleldir hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "It is our Philosophy." He finally said. "That and He spoke to me once. Told me to follow Ashyr when I was considering running."
The path was clear while the party walked and talked (and distracted themselves from their worry for Ashyr.) The party made the unspoken assumption that the way they needed to go was down. And that happened to be the way they'd chosen not to go in the first place. So down they went. The flowing water may have been a problem if they hadn't had their own sturdy full-nymph paladin to keep them from falling clumsily downstream
Althaia probably would have continued the conversation, but she became distracted by the scenery they were going through. "Oh! We are out of the sewers proper." She said happily.
Indeed, after about five minutes of walking, the tunnel had abruptly turned from carved stone to natural caverns. Around that time there were parts of the passage that Selene only had to wade her feet through. There were even patches that were (mostly) dry. There was still a moderately deep river flowing down the center, something that an unconscious person would very easily float down.
The party continued in worried silence. They could no longer distract themselves with conversations about gods and God; they didn't want to announce their presence to the not-nymphs if at all possible.
Twenty minutes later, on one aforementioned dry spot, there was a clump of bright purple hair woven and knotted securely through a delicate chain. Anyone who spent even a little amount of time with Ashyr would recognize it as one of her adornments. Selene could just about make out its color in the gloom - likely because of how the caverns glowed a strange greenish hue up ahead. The mage frowned a little harder for a moment, picked it up, and shoved it into one of her pouches. "Going the right way." She observed simply.
"Yep. Definitely going the right way." Caleldir agreed. "Unless the flow of water pushed Ashyr one direction and her items another, which seems improbable."
Since there was no other (logical) way than forward, the party advanced into the glowing light of the caverns beyond. The light came from some sort of fungus - something that Selene at least was well used to. It gave off a very low light. The average human wouldn't be able to see, but thankfully there were no average humans in the party. The atmosphere became a little warmer as the light level improved, but it was no less wet. Another few minutes of walking saw them in a large, circular chamber about sixty feet across that was apparently a dead end. The river flowed into a pool that took up at least half of the back of the space. Along the walls were dozens of alcoves in various shapes, like a misshapen beehive. From where the party stood, all that could be seen within those dents in the rock was blackness.
Most magnificent was the center of the area. The underground river flowed around a pillar that even Caleldir couldn't reach his arms across. Like veins in the natural rock, fungus and mushrooms clung and glowed and illuminated the center of the room. It lit all the way up into the ceiling, which was at least as tall as the room was across, if not more so.
Two of the mysterious alcoves along the walls proved not to be empty just moments after the party was able to take in the details of them room. Figures emerged with sinuous grace from the holes in the wall, one from each alcove. They were decidedly feminine, swaying things as they approached the party. In fact, the only thing really strange about them that the party could see was their almost impossibly long hair flowing about their bodies as if the creatures were submerged in water on dry land. They stopped a safe distance away, their posture completely unthreatening. Both were completely naked, of course, and every bit as beautiful as any nymph. But the shadows they cast on the walls were not unlike that of flowing tentacle beasts that merely waited for the merest provocation to strike.
"Greetings." Said one in a rich, exotic northwestern accent.
"More visitors, sistra?" The flaxen-haired one asked despite the obviousness of her question. Her attention was focused entirely on the party, and on their reactions to that one little phrase: More visitors.
"Yes, it would appear so. We are quite popular," the one with dark ink-hair agreed. Her eyes fell upon Caleldir after she glanced at the drow and paladin. Those eyes widened slightly, and the smile already on her face widened just a little. "We really should kill them, sistra. But I think we'll find out what they want, first. They rarely just walk in."
Caleldir gulped down and took a step back, especially after the dark-haired one gave him that look. "We have come to negotiate." He said with as much composure as he could muster. Reverting back to his default behavior with females not in his inner circle, he pointedly avoided looking below their necks and seemed ill at ease.
On the other hand, Althaia's eyes gleamed in interest, and she freely ogled everything on display. As a matter of habit, she checked to see what sort of aura they were giving off: evil, of course. Regardless, they had her attention. "You have amazing hair." She said sincerely. "My cousin here speaks correctly; we are here to negotiate. We think a comrade of ours washed down here, and we would like to have her returned."