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 77: Althaia
It was the night following Caleldir's marathon ordeal with the Rusalka. Tsabdrin sat on Althaia's bed, cross-legged, and with a book in front of him. His hair was loose around his face, and still slightly damp from when he had washed himself after a sparring match with both Ashyr and Phanuel. His armor was nowhere in sight, but he did wear his loose tunic and trousers that were generally worn under his armor. He had debated taking that off, too, and waiting for the nymph completely naked. That was until Hadia poked her nose in to wonder if he needed anything while he waited. He decided that he would remain dressed until Althaia had safely locked her door with both of them inside her room.
Just outside the room, Althaia rubbed her forehead. It had been a very long, somewhat headache-inducing day. More so than most even. But, with time, she was sure to get used to her new position. She shook the stress away and strode up to her door. Tonight she would be with Tsabdrin, which should be interesting. Taking a long breath, she opened the door to her chambers and closed it behind her.
Tsabdrin looked up from his book when he heard the door open. Upon seeing Althaia, he grabbed a piece of torn paper he was using as a bookmark and marked his place with it. "Hey." He greeted her softly as he set the book aside. "How was your day?"
The nymph gave him a rather tired smile. "It was busy." She sat down on the bed next to him, then flopped down backward. "Civilization is even more than I thought it would be." She said in an ambiguously happy tone.
"Just be glad you aren't going underground. If you thought Port Afron was complicated..." He scoffed. "It takes a drow over a quarter of a century to even get used to their homelands. And even then you have to constantly adapt." He spoke in undercommon, as he often did with Althaia recently. How else was she going to learn?
"Eh, I will get used to it eventually," Althaia remarked in the same language. She picked up languages stunningly quickly. "I mean, it has been less than a week, and my foray into civilization - more complex than a few naked sex-addicts in a pool - begins with my immediately ruling said culture. It is a bit of a leap. So, if I went down into the Underdark, and no one tries to Smite Good me, I should be able to get used to things pretty quickly. Probably. I assume that there is much down there I would not be fond of."
"Ha, no. You would not like it down there. It is... confining. At least you would have the advantage of being female," Tsabdrin said as he flopped down beside her. Then he sighed. "I do not think I'm looking forward to going back."
"Well, you have the advantage of being drow. Not sure which is the greater advantage really, but I thought drow were not fond of non-drow. Then again, I suppose I could dye my skin and bleach my hair. Magically, of course." She thought for a moment, then her clothing melted away. She stretched out contentedly, like a cat. "I am ambiguous about clothing."
"No. Generally we look down on people who aren't us. Drow pride and all that. But it wouldn't be hard to make you look like an unusually pretty drow." He glanced over towards her as he suddenly saw a lot more skin than she was displaying before out of the corner of his eye. Right. Nymph. Clothing was generally frowned upon. So he sat up for long enough to pull off his shirt, then flopped back down to lift his hips and pull off his trousers. Now he was as naked as she.
"I would have to be shorter too," Althaia mused. "I mean, I am a good foot taller than you." She noted Tsabdrin's undressing out of the corner of her eye. "An interesting thing about clothing," she mused. "On the one hand, I want to like it, because it represents civilization, and rising above our animal natures. On the other hand, I do not actually need it, ever. Armor, yes, sometimes. Clothing? Not necessary to protect me from sun, rain, insects, cold, or scratching plants. So it feels unnatural."
"Not everyone can afford those rings the rest of you have. And even the drow think it is shameful to walk around naked all the time. Orgies are one thing, but walking around the streets? It's undignified. Up here, it's even worse."
"I understand that," Althaia said. "As I said, clothing means civilization. Thus, I wear it. The real question is: when I have daughters, and hopefully a fully-nymph son or two, can I at once get them used to wearing clothes, and also not embarrassed about their bodies? I mean, Caleldir and Carlotta's self-consciousness is amusing, but I would not wish that on my children."
Tsabdrin shrugged. "With R.I.S.A you can have... I don't know, naked zones? Then they might be comfortable being naked, and everywhere else they'll be used to wearing clothes. That is if you don't mind your children seeing each other naked..."
Althaia pursed her lips. "You have a point. I had not really considered that. Incest is not something that fae worry about, even among the races that do reproduce normally. We cannot ever become inbred, so it never became a taboo for us. But, if we are to be a civilization, perhaps we should make it a taboo?" She shrugged. "I gather that incest makes mortal races rather uncomfortable."
"I cannot say for the rest of the world, but drow try to stay away from breeding with their siblings. We're a closed enough community as it is. Inbreeding is a real issue. If it wasn't a problem, though..." He shrugged again. "You're making your own race. You can set your own cultural rules."
"I will ask Caleldir about it then, once I tell him about the Plan." Althaia sounded more than a little apprehensive about that. "Which I will once they are done liberating Duskhaven. Or... maybe when I have my night with him. Actually, that will probably be a better time anyway." She was silent for a moment, then continued. "I mean, unless we find several more half-nymph men, and they are vanishingly rare, the first generation might have to do a little sibling (or half-sibling) marriage anyway. Like the first generations of mortals did." Sitting up, Althaia clapped her hands together. "But enough of that! The questions that weigh on my mind these days are rather silly, do you not think? I mean, most of these will not be relevant for decades, or centuries! No sense worrying about it all now."
"Talk to Caleldir - and Ashyr - about it. They will have better insight than me. There is probably a little sense in worrying about it. Some drow plans span for centuries, you know. But until you talk to people who will be integral to your plan, you shouldn't worry."
"Yep, you are right. And I do think that I should talk to Caleldir about everything." She frowned and turned away. "I did not expect that part of the plan." She said softly. "How I would react to... never mind."
He turned a curious eye to her when she trailed off. Of course, now he wanted to know what she was going to say. "To what?" He turned partially towards her, using his arm as a pillow. Damn, she was gorgeous. But at the moment, he was more curious about her. Tsabdrin wasn't a nymphomaniac like Ashyr was.
Althaia sighed, her back still to him. "Do not take this the wrong way, but I feel as if I can be honest with you because I have known you the shortest. I like you, and I can See that I can trust you, but my feelings towards you are shallow, for they have not had time to take root. Neither have my feelings towards Caleldir, Ashyr, Selene, and R.I.S.A. really have had time to take root. But still, I... I... think that I am falling in love. The bane of a nymph's life, the others told me."
"The bane of a drow's life as well," Tsabdrin responded as he flopped down to his back again. He didn't mind her confession that she had only shallow feelings towards him. She wouldn't be the first woman that he liked to feel that way, and she certainly wouldn't be the last. "Though I think your sisters object to it for different reasons." He went silent for a moment, contemplating whether he should ask. In the end, he was too curious. "Who are you falling in love with?"
"I am not sure. Ashyr seems more my sister than those self-absorbed nymphs ever were. Even if she is currently behaving like them, or like how I did when I first realized that humans were stupidly easy to seduce. And R.I.S.A., well, I am not sure. Her touch sends tingles through me that are not just the electricity." Althaia looked down at the bed. "And then there is Caleldir. I feel as if I had found a brother, something that my race never has. And, well, it is really playing with my ability to have sex with him. When I am with him, I do not want to have sex, not really, I just want him to love me. Is that... is that normal?"
"I'm not sure I'm the person to ask if something is normal or not. I grew up with Ashyr. She's more like my sister to me than Selene ever was. But that never stopped me from wanting to have sex with her. I mean, it was pretty much the only affection he was going to get from her, so..." He trailed off, unsure of what to say after that.
A giggle came from Althaia. "Well, maybe R.I.S.A. could help me. If she was not currently going schizophrenic. Other than that, well, we have Ashyr, Selene, and the object of my affection himself." She paused and pursed her lips. "Probably the 'not wanting to have sex' is because I am developing feelings for him beyond the sexual, and am feeling guilty about holding secrets from him. Maybe if I confess, my desire for him will return!" She grinned broadly and gave Tsabdrin a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for listening! Sometimes all we need to sort through our feelings is a sympathetic ear."
"Yeah, honesty will probably help. Which probably sounds really odd coming from a drow." He let out a chuckle of his own, but it was half-hearted. His own thoughts were threatening to consume him. "You're welcome, though. I'll listen whenever you'd like to talk."