A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 70: Decisions

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 70: Decisions

About ten minutes after Carlotta left Caleldir and the drow, a trio of uncertain maids showed up at the door to Faust's old rooms. Ashyr had left the door open; it was still sort of broken after what happened to it the day before, and it didn't shut unless there was something to hold it that way. The maids had a cart of food to serve five people, but there were certainly not that many people there.

"Set it over there," Selene ordered with the causal authority one gets after ordering around servants for more than a lifetime.

Five minutes after that, Ashyr jogged back into the room with a tired but happy-looking blond wolf at her heels.

"Didn't find Althaia and Tsabdrin," she declared, and sat down heavily at the table.

Selene hadn't been able to keep herself from eating as soon as the food got there, so Ashyr didn't hesitate to make herself a plate.

It took a couple more minutes for the rest of the party to walk through the door.

"We saved you two some food," Ashyr informed them without even looking away from her plate.

"Oh! I do not have to pull something out of Stasis!" Althaia said happily. "We are in a castle now, after all. I have never had servants before... Well, not unless you count squirrels, deer, wolves, amorous satyrs, and whatnot. I do not. The satyrs were useless. Always declaring undying love, always refusing to..." she suddenly became subdued. "Actually, never mind that story. Let us eat." Sitting down at the table, she quietly began eating her meal, appearing to eat slowly, almost listlessly, but it vanished in record time anyway.

Tsabdrin settled down at the table next to Althaia. He ate in silence, though the nymph's strange listlessness did cause him to glance her way once or twice. In the end, her moved his hand under the table to softly rest it on the Paladin's leg. It wasn't a sexual gesture; he was simply trying to offer nonverbal support.

After her plate was cleaned, Althaia took a deep breath and looked over at Ashyr, Caleldir, and Selene. "Recent events have shown me, again, that three weeks in the non-Fey world is not enough to grant me the wisdom and sense to properly deal with a mission as delicate as that to the Underdark. So-" she explained her plan and her reasoning to stay in Port Afron. "If you end up needing me, just send word."

"That is an excellent idea," Selene said. The younger drow seemed pleasantly surprised by Althaia's plan. It took care of many of the mage's worries concerning the Underdark. After Selene said this, she went back to her food, her thoughts on the subject apparently exhausted. She could plan other things now that unleashing an unwise paladin in the Underdark wasn't going to be an issue.

Ashyr put down her silverware and swallowed. "If that is what you feel you have to do, then I won't try to change your mind." The ranger told the paladin. "We can use your strength, but you are right, if you don't know when to use it..."

Ashyr sighed. She had been angry with Althaia, but she couldn't hold on to any of that anger after seeing how badly the nymph felt and the unfortunate decision she had to make. The ranger found herself wanting to do something to put a semblance of a smile back on the young nymph's face. "I forgive you, by the way." Ashyr said softly, and a bit awkwardly. "For last night. You did stop the castle from being blown up, after all. How were you supposed to know that the asshole could teleport?"

"Well, I gather that teleportation is a standard issue spell for most mages." Althaia replied with a wan smile. "Although, I never actually studied arcane magic, and know almost nothing about it. I really had not considered that he might have such a method with which to escape. I really should have."

"It is? Why haven't you been teleporting everywhere, then?" Ashyr asked Selene. "Or are you not powerful enough yet?"

"Theoretically I can. For whatever reason, free-casting the spell never works well for me. I can make circles just fine, though, with some additional work and resources." The mage admitted.

The nymph sighed, putting her hand on Tsabdrin's. Then, she brightened a bit. "I think that it will be nice staying in one place and learning about the world. This place is very different from the forest..." She stared dreamily out of the window. "I look forward to learning about so many things..."

Caleldir had remained pretty silent this whole time. "I think that we can create a teleportation circle here in the castle and connect it to R.I.S.A.'s dimension," he mused. "That will allow us to move between the Underdark and Port Afron pretty much at will, should we choose to do so. However, the person holding R.I.S.A.'s figurine will not be able to travel, since if they port back here, well, R.I.S.A.'s demiplane is bound to wherever her figurine was last, and we would be stuck here."

"Oh!" Althaia clapped her hands. "That would make it very easy for me to reinforce you if you needed me!"

"If that is possible to do," Caleldir muttered. "I do not know if our treasury can handle that after we have reincarnated Faust. That will be expensive on its own." He shrugged. "I think that I will ask Gurzan to do me a favor and stay with you. He is the most level-headed old codger I have ever met. Plus, he is a master swordsman, peerless archer, and knows how to deal with fey. His wife is one, after all. So, he would be perfect to educate you. He certainly helped me to adjust to the modern world."

"It might be too dangerous to have a circle that connects to R.I.S.A. For one thing, it isn't even supposed to be possible to teleport between planes (unless you're a succubus, I suppose.) Not, at least, at my skill level. Someone like my sire can probably figure it out if he devoted a couple centuries of research on just that subject. And even if we do manage to do it, what if some unknown person gets into her dimension... well, I suppose they can't do too much damage to R.I.S.A, considering her power. Even if it were possible for us to do, the time and resources it would take would be prohibitive," Selene said.

"It would be really nice to bring Althaia in when we need her, though," said Ashyr thoughtfully. "Maybe you can do a one-time use sort of thing?" Then the ranger shrugged. She knew nothing of arcane magic.

"I misspoke. It would be a Plane-Shift, or even more accurately, a Gate, not a proper teleportation circle," Caleldir corrected himself. "But you are right in that both of those spells are several orders of magnitude more difficult and expensive than a common teleport. Now that I consider the resources we actually have, it seems unfeasible to make anything permanent like that." He rubbed his forehead. "A scroll of summoning, and a few of Sending for communications, those would probably be more useful and practical. They would be necessarily far more limited in use, though." Selene was right. A permanent Gate set up between Port Afron and R.I.S.A. would be a huge undertaking in terms of both time and money. It was something that they likely would not be able to utilize for years down the road.

"I'll leave all that magicy planning to you two. Anyway, if Gurzan is such a master swordsman, then why didn't he teach you to not fail so badly?" Ashyr teased as she poked at Caleldir's side. "Eh, Althaia would probably prefer that our new aasimar friend teach her. He doesn't look half-bad now: imagine how pretty he'll be with angelic blood!"

Selene rolled her eyes at her cousin. Wasn't Ashyr supposed to be mad at Faust? Apparently that wasn't enough to override the older drow's sexual imagination. Because of course not.

Caleldir bristled a little. "My lack of skill comes from the fact that I am half a ghost by birth, and physically weak and fragile. Well, except for being nearly unkillable. I admit not really taking advantage of his offers to really train me too, I might add. Also, I am still sort of dead."

"Oh, you refused Gurzan, did you?" Ashyr asked with the light of extreme amusement dancing in her eyes. "But then you came to me to teach you? How... strange. I wonder what made you make that decision." The female ranger stretched out in her chair and looked quite pleased with herself. Obviously she was drawing the conclusion that it was Caleldir's ploy to spend more time with her for his own sexual reasons - even considering how severely repressed he was at the time. The truth was definitely more complex than that, but for the time Ashyr was amused about that one little aspect that may or may not have been involved.

Selene rolled her eyes at her cousin.

"I asked you to teach me because..." Caleldir struggled for an answer, then finally shrugged. "Well, there were several reasons, but no matter what I say, you are just going to assume that I secretly wanted to have sex with you, which I probably did, so whatever."

"Anyway, I suppose that Faust-" Caleldir began to say.

"I think we should make his new name Phanuel," Althaia mused. It was a testament to how distracted Althaia was right now that she was not paying attention to the back-and-forth between Ashyr and Caleldir. "After the Angel of Repentance and Hope."

"- Or Phanuel, if that is what he decides to call himself once resurrected, will also be a good teacher. Although Gurzan can keep the both of them level-headed. He is very stable."

"Stable is good," Althaia agreed. "As for the Aasimar, well, I am not sure about him. Manly he is, but not really my style. But I do think it appropriate that he pay Ashyr with his body for the sin of having had Celeste killed way back. You know, as compensation." It was pretty clear that she was joking at this point.

"A lovely thought," Caleldir said dryly.

"If you are smart, you will allow him to show you the ways of being a ruler, because that is the role you will take within Port Afron while we are gone. He may shape you as much as you shape him. Perhaps even more," Selene advised.

"Yeah, and with us gone you shouldn't go around ruling out perfectly good sexual partners," Ashyr added with a grin. "Being a ruler - even a temporary one - might limit your options. I think I like that idea about Faust owing me one, though. Perhaps I should harass him a bit before we leave." Her grin broadened and turned feral. Althaia may have been joking, but Ashyr didn't seem to be.

"We can't harass him too much if we want him cooperative, Ashyr," Selene reminded her with a somewhat tired sigh.

"Well, I suppose I feel differently about him when he is less horned and furry. Right now, he reminds me too much of those annoying satyrs. I really hated those fuckers." That was the first time anyone here had ever heard Althaia swear. Her eyes flashed red before she calmed herself down. "Anyway, I do not have good feelings about horned, furred creatures. I will save my thoughts on Faust until his next life." She pursed her lips. "Also, I was thinking about taking a temporary vow of chastity as long as I am away from you. I mean, a lot of my foolishness has been from indulging my libido all the time, so it would probably be good for me to deny myself for awhile."

Caleldir blinked. "That was not something I expected you to ever say."

"Ha!" Selene scoffed. "I'll have to disagree with you there, Althaia. If you had known Ashyr during her days in the Underdark, then you would have known a truly foolish libido. You have shown more wisdom there than Ashyr had even in her hundredth year. No, you will need an outlet for frustration and a way to relax. I would think it a bad idea to forego sex for any length of time, especially since you can't be sure how temporary abstinence will affect you mentally. Keep one or two individuals around who you can fuck while retaining the respect of the people as a whole. Temporary abstinence would be just as much a mistake as opening your legs to half the city."

"Personally, I approve," Caleldir said. "I would forswear sex as a distraction during missions myself, except that I think I would give Ashyr conniptions."

"What is with you surface-dwellers and the idea of voluntary abstinence?" Ashyr asked, baffled. "You all act like sex is some unhealthy distraction instead of a necessity of life. It's godsdamned weird. I can't even think correctly when I'm horny."

"I am not sure how Althaia comes to her conclusions, to be honest," Caleldir said. "But I was raised by celibate monks. I could give you their reasoning, but it would probably not be helpful and only serve to baffle you more."

Althaia sighed. "Mostly, I want to be able to rise above my own race. My kind has literally given you the word 'nymphomaniac'. But I am a very different kind of nymph. I want to be more than my instincts. The voluntary abstinence would be in order to prove to myself that I can be more than a fey, that I can be civilized." She looked at the table, saying nothing. Then, she grinned. "Then again, perhaps I should take these sort of challenges one at a time. If I can find one individual to keep me in line, I will do so. Maybe Carlotta would be willing to volunteer to help me in that regard?" She shrugged. "I am not familiar with human sexual mores."

Caleldir shrugged. "Do not ask me. I come from a very strange culture that enshrined celibacy while nonetheless practicing polygamy. To say nothing of the weirder aspects of it."

"Carlotta would probably help you. Put a couple drinks in her, and she'll be all over you. Otherwise, she's shy but still very much likes the attention," Ashyr explained with her signature grin. "She would probably be a good choice, if you absolutely have to pick only one person to sex up.

"I just want to be discreet," Althaia said. "My threats towards those guards aside, I do not want to give the people of Port Afron the impression that the tales about nymphs and their ways are true. So, if possible, I would like to keep my sexual escapades at a bare minimum, and private."

"Then Lotta is your best bet. Caleldir knows how she can be. Intimately."

"Sex has a way of just sort of happening to you recently, Caleldir," Althaia joked.

"Speaking of which: rusalka."

"Ugh," Caleldir grunted. "Someone will need to go tell the Rusalka about events here."

"You are the one who needs to go to the rusalka, Caleldir. You made the deal with them. I'm not going back down there," Selene declared.

"They probably need me to stick around up here, too, so we can have access to Faust." Ashyr said with a less than pleased expression. "We'll need Althaia, too, more than likely. If you want moral support, you can take Tsabdrin and his beasts down with you. We'll send a rescue party if you're gone too long."

Caleldir looked over at Tsabdrin. "How would you like to go say hello to Althaia sadistic cousins in the sewers? If you would like to tag along, feel free, but I am not altogether certain which idea is less horrible. Althaia would be the best to have along, since she is the only one here to be able to actually pose a noticeable threat to all of them, but if Ashyr insists that she stay here, this will probably end in the rusalka roping whoever is down there into some sadistic orgy. No idea if your presence will make that more or less likely. I leave the choice to you."

"I would really rather not go down there," the male drow said as he turned a pleading eye toward Ashyr. In the strange dynamic of drow, it was ultimately Ashyr's decision whether Tsabdrin had to go down there or not.

"We need Caleldir back up here to get to work as soon as possible." Ashyr told the males of the party. "If they're determined to turn it into an orgy, then they'll tire themselves out quicker if there's two of you there."

"Ashyr..." Tsabdrin said, sounding a little distressed.

"Don't talk to her like that," Selene snapped at her brother.

"What, do you think Cal wants to go down there, either? I'm not having him go alone if we can help it," Ashyr responded firmly.

Tsabdrin frowned hard at this, folded his arms tightly in front of him, and looked off to the side with a sullen expression.

The youngest drow looked like she was about to tell her brother off again, but the oldest sighed. "I'll make it up to you, darling." Ashyr told him.

That seemed to make him feel a bit better about the situation. He heaved a heavy breath and began to rub at the back of his neck, but he wasn't frowning so hard anymore. "Alright, fine," Tsabdrin muttered.

"If he does not want to head down there, perhaps you could let him stay up here and help? If nothing else, I can swim better than he, and so can traverse the sewer far quicker alone than with him and two dinosaurs. And I do not think that 'tiring them out quicker' is a good strategy. I think that 'not getting ourselves roped into an orgy' to be a better one." To tell the truth, Caleldir would have preferred Tsabdrin along, to provide a bit of extra muscle (not that the skinny drow had much muscle. He had dinos though) but was not about to bring him along if he did not want to come. Neither did he want to overrule Ashyr though.

"You two probably don't have to go through the sewers." Selene said, "The rusalka get food and other things from the castle, if you recall. Go ask some of the servants here; they probably know something." But she didn't care to make sure if they did or not. Selene wasn't even finished eating.

"If you're done eating, Althaia, we should probably let the other leaders know of your plan. Originally, they meant to look after Port Afron while we're gone, but I think they'll be happy to go home," Ashyr said as she stood from the table. She concentrated for a moment, then her full set of leather armor appeared on her body.

The nymph pushed her plate away. "I am finished eating. Have been for some time. Let us go and talk with the leaders. Although, I thought that I would just be a figurehead and top enforcer, not actually in charge." She sighed. "Do humans have any books on leadership? If I am to be trying to actually be in charge, I want to be good at it. Reincarnated Faust will be helpful, but I should have more information than just from him."

"You will not only have Faust," Selene reminded Althaia. "We kept the engineer alive, and that little halfling. I'm sure they have some idea how to help run the place. If you're not trying to instate a multitude of new policies, then Port Afron should more or less run itself. You will simply have to take over Faust's daily tasks, which I understand from Ashyr largely involved dealing with the people. But I suppose we won't know for sure what is needed until we speak to Zarag and Dria."

"It will be fine, Althaia," Ashyr reassured her with a warmer, more friendly smile than was usual for her. "If they think I can be the new Matron of Duskhaven, then you can babysit Port Afron for a few weeks (or however long it takes us.) Besides, aren't Paladins supposed to be leaders?"

"I hardly think that I am one to try to completely overhaul the system on day one," Althaia admitted. "I mean, I am not educated in your political bodies and the running of them. I would not even know what to change, besides the most egregious of injustices. Even some of the things that personally offend me may be sacred cultural hallmarks that I do not understand. So, if the job is just dealing with people, I think that I can do that. I mean, I am divinely gifted with the ability to do just that. As you said, Paladin. All my allies but those with the darkest evil in their hearts are buoyed simply by being near me." All in all, she seemed happier about being given the job of 'babysitting' Port Afron now than she had before. She was not adverse to power, after all, just uncertain as to her ability to use it correctly.