A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 79: Setting Out

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 79: Setting Out

The next morning, as Caleldir was doing his morning devotions, Althaia glided in, looking apprehensive. Caleldir sighed, and turned towards the nymph. His eye twitched a bit when he saw that she was naked, and her eyes a morose blue. She was also unveiled, which could have blinded or enthralled a non-nymph, but Caleldir was unaffected. "So... Althaia. What is this about? And why are you naked? You usually wear clothes around the castle."

Althaia grinned sheepishly. "It is time for no more secrets. I came to tell you some things. More than I have even told the others. More than I knew with the others, as Aelsuna spoke to me again last night. Please... can you..." she put her hand on the couch next to her as she sat down.

Sighing, Caleldir sat next to her, a bit away. Althaia, unusually, did not scoot closer. She did reach out and slip her hand underneath his shirt to dismiss his clothing. "You should be naked for this as well," she said. "And unveiled. This is a discussion nymph-to-nymph. It would be best done in a spring, but this will do."

His usual complaints about being stripped naked melted away, and Caleldir softened and turned towards the nymph, who was not looking at him. "Althaia, I know that I frequently act annoyed with you, but I do not dislike you in the least. I am actually quite fond of you. What is this about? It is not about breaking down the mage tower again, is it?"

This drew a short laugh from the nymph. "Not in the least." Her hands clasped and unclasped, and she let out another long sigh. "It is about... my mission. What Aelsuna wants from me."

"She wants you to have children with me, right?" Caleldir asked, his tone a bit awkward. "I... I do not mind. I do like you, Althaia. I even love you. You are charming, personable, and have a strong sense of duty and justice that is enormously admirable. You are, after all, a paladin. I think that you are overly sexual, of course, but I do not dislike that about you. I find attractive, actually, if annoying to deal with. As long as Ashyr does not completely shut it down, I would be happy to marry you properly."

Althaia smiled, looking at Caleldir, her eyes glimmering with a golden sheen. As far as Caleldir remembered, that meant that the emotion she was feeling right now was Love. But her eyes quickly changed to back to the blue-green of self-consciousness. "If it was just that, then I would hardly be worried. My goddess telling me my mission is simply to have children with my dream man would be nothing to fight against. But..." she swallowed. "I was told to go to the Spring that you met me at in order to wait for you. I did not know that it was you I was waiting for until after you had arrived, but I was always there to wait for you. Moreover, my mission is to not just have children with you, but to make you the father of the new, reborn Nymph race."

Caleldir's eyes narrowed, and he looked over at Althaia, who was now observing him closely. She looked rather flushed and aroused, purple quickly mixing with the blue-green. "What do you mean, 'father of the Nymph race'?"

Althaia squirmed, her arousal and self-consciousness both growing. "Aelsuna told me that, long ago, the Nymphs were a race like Elves or humans, but greater. Less than the Titans, but greater than the mortals of the present day. They had sciences, culture, architecture, arts, political organization, royalty and aristocracy, and so forth. But something happened, and they were scattered and decayed into semi-elemental mystic fae, forgetting everything except for hedonism, content to simply lay around in springs and watch the centuries fly by without drive or ambition. But Aelsuna remembers what they were, before mortal history, and wants to bring them back. In order to do this, she needs Nymphs to be born, as Born nymphs like me who have been infants and children and grow up are needed for a nymph society to form, instead of nymphs just appearing where mystic energies build up enough to spawn us from nothing."

She continued. "That is where you come in. Firstly, you have knowledge of genetic manipulation. You can repair our damaged genome, and even add onto it to make us more resistant to the same problems that that brought us down in the first place. But that is not all. You see, when nymphs spawn out of mystic energies, they are only female. When they reproduce with mortals, they only produce half-nymphs-"

"I know that," Caleldir interrupted. "We have discussed this before. Your father was one of the very rare half-nymph males, which is why you and your birth sisters, wherever they are, are born nymphs."

Althaia nodded. "So far, born nymphs are only female. But it was not always the case. And... Aelsuna told me that, due to your unique lineage, you are the only half-nymph in the world who can father male nymphs. So it is not that I need you to have sex with me and have children..." Her breathing was deep, her entire body flushed with arousal, more than Caleldir had ever seen from her, and she was squirming with desire. "I... I need you to have sex with and repeatedly impregnate every single nymph we can find. A few thousand of us, preferably. Including your daughters. That way we can have enough of us born nymphs, female and a few males, to start back up our civilization."

It was at this moment that Caleldir was upset that he was naked. Because something that he was even more upset about was blatantly obvious to Althaia: he was as aroused and erect as was physically possible for him to be. But that was just his body's reaction. His mind was another thing altogether. For one thing, what was with that ridiculous addition of daughters to that list? Absolutely not. Absolutely not!

He shifted so that his erection was less obvious. "That... I cannot possibly do that. I am not going to knock up thousands of nymphs. I will happily have children with you, but not with the entire nymph species. And definitely, definitely not with my daughters. That is just messed up!"

"But I cannot possibly have enough children on my own!" Althaia replied. "There is only one of me. We will need tens of thousands of us to rebuild an entire civilization! And when it comes to your daughters, well, that is how we will increase the percentage of males. At least, that is what Aelsuna told me. Something about how even with the Geneforge you can only have .5% sons with spawned nymphs, 1% sons with born nymphs, but 4% sons with your daughters. Unless we want the new nymph race to be 99.25%+ female even among your descendants - to say nothing of other nymphs that are only female like the spawned ones and those descended from other male half-nymphs - we need to double down on your genetics."

Caleldir's mouth opened and then closed. "I would need to see the data on that reproductive ratio." He shook his head in disbelief. "So... you have been awkward and avoiding me because you feel guilty about the fact that your goddess plans on making me a breeding stallion for an entire species. And, you do not like this at all."

"I know that you would hate the idea," Althaia said miserably. "Or, at least, you would react this way. The more I have come to know you, the more I do not want to do something that would make you hate me. And studding you out to that many women I know would make you hate me."

"And make you feel jealous, no doubt," Caleldir said sympathetically. "Well, seeing as you do not want to go through with this, just tell your goddess we will have to find another way."

"Oh, I am not jealous in the least," Althaia said, her eyes fully purple and slightly glazed over. "The idea of you having that much sex and impregnating that many women, it is the hottest thing I can possibly imagine. If it was not for your feelings on this, I would be beyond ecstatically gleeful to go through with this. But even though my love for your feelings makes me hate myself for planning to involve you in this, and makes me hate myself even more for being so aroused by the idea, I cannot give this plan up. Aelsuna is adamant. She says there are reasons for needing the Nymph Race to return. Remember how you said that my sense of duty was what you found most admirable about me?" She smiled miserably. "Well, this is my duty. I intend to make you the father of the Nymph Race. It does not have to be this century. As you are now, with this curse on you, you are not even yet suitable for breeding the race. I... I... can probably also talk Aelsuna into waiting until Ashyr and Selene are dead of old age, so you do not have to betray them. But eventually, I will make you the sire of the species. I... I have to. It is my purpose. The reason I was born."

Caleldir looked at the floor. "This is far too much to take in. Thank you for telling me, but... this plan is perverse beyond belief. There is no possible way that I would ever participate in such an abomination. I will help with the Geneforge to repair the Nymph Genome, and I can marry you, but no more."

"We... we have time to discuss it," Althaia said miserably. "Goodbye, Caleldir." She pulled Caleldir's face to hers and gave him a tender kiss. "I love you. I really do."

With that, she fled from the room, and left Caleldir in shocked thought.

--

Eventually, the time came when there were no longer any excuses for the drow and Caleldir not to leave their friends at Port Afron and begin traveling down the road towards the city of Duskhaven.

There had been a nice send-off party at the castle - organized by Hadia, of course, who was ever the advocate of good relations within the group of people considered important to her city. That meant an early breakfast with Phanuel, Althaia, herself, and the departing group.

During that time, Ashyr went back to her standoffish and brooding habits she had displayed when she first joined the troop all that time ago. But she did give Althaia a hug, kiss, and fond farewell with eyes that the oldest drow would never admit to being slightly misty.

Tsabdrin was much the same even after his very brief acquaintance of the strange nymph Paladin.

Selene was as she always was: regal and proud. She did give Althaia a slight but respectful bow of her head, though.

The drow and Phanuel treated the whole event as very formal; the former had already said their goodbyes after their nights with Althaia, and the latter was actually quite relieved that the dark elves were leaving his erstwhile domain.

Although she had briefly shown a willingness to be a bit more emotive about the whole 'departure' thing, Althaia was quick to mimic the moods of those around her, and so was relatively restrained in saying her final goodbyes. She had already spent a good deal of time with each of them. So, she kept control of herself, although seeming just a little sad, when she said goodbye to each of them again. She seemed rather apologetic to Caleldir though.

Caleldir, for his part, was quietly neutral the whole time. Farewells were never something that he had particular trouble with. Eh, he would see everyone again eventually, no need to be sad. He seemed to be being just a little cold towards Althaia. Not angry or resentful, just a bit distant. He had not yet talked about his reaction to Althaia's plans. When asked about it, he merely said that he was thinking, and no more. When it came to Phanuel though, Caleldir was friendly enough to tell the once-tiefling to call him if he had any problems with his new body. He mentioned something cryptic about 'potential trouble-shooting' that reminded those present that the slightly lazy half-nymph elf had a very strong undercurrent of mad researcher syndrome.

As for the leaders of the troop, druid town, and mercenaries: they had all filtered out of the city during the past week or so. With Phanuel and Hadia to guide Althaia, they were able to focus on what truly mattered to them: their own people. Each had already said their goodbyes at the appropriate times to the appropriate people. By the time the party was ready to leave, most of the 'invading' factions were already gone or filtered into Port Afron's population.

There was a moment near the edge of the gates that led out of the city where Ashyr was ambushed by the other notable adventuring party. Carlotta was recognized by all even if all they could see of her was a brassy red blur of shockingly curly hair that near tackled the drow ranger to the ground. By the time she let go, the little human was sniffing and hastily wiping tears from he eyes. Carlotta then went on to hug Caleldir almost as aggressively. Next in line to embrace Ashyr was Demetus. Ioxus, who looked like a strangely aquatic version of his brother, merely clapped Ashyr on the shoulder. Finally, the odd batlike tiefling, Thynelius Barrut, gave the drow ranger a fanged grin and said aloud that he would gladly wreak havoc with her again. Ashyr was clearly sad to say goodbye, but she wasn't nearly as affected by it as her farewell to Althaia made her. She was able to walk away from them with dry eyes.

Caleldir gave Demetus a congratulatory smile, glad that the former ghost had recovered. The others he had not really met, so he merely nodded at them. Carlotta got a much warmer goodbye, Caleldir had a soft spot for the human girl.

A strange moment happened as they followed the river into the unnaturally thick forest. A pale girl with an impressively long and thick blood red braid stepped from around a hiding spot dressed in a brilliant blue dress. With impressive speed and strength, she grabbed Caleldir and kissed him firmly on the mouth.

"Goodbye." She said in a familiar voice, and then laughed as she dove into the river and away from the drow who just missed hitting her with their various attacks. Fortunately for her, they weren't going in for the kill. The city would likely frown upon them for killing a girl for stealing a kiss.

Caleldir was taken by surprise by Mirjana - for who else could it be? He was standing still in shock even after the drow had chased her away. He shook his head. "I had not expected her to even own a dress." He admitted. "It is a good look for her. Although perhaps a slightly darker color scheme would contrast nicely with her complexion..." He shook that thought away.

But that event was quickly dismissed. There was a mission more important than a kiss thief. They could have ridden their mounts to speed things along quite a bit, but Ashyr practically begged that they at least walk a little of the way while they could still enjoy the forest. Tsabdrin backed her up. Selene ignored her and summoned her spider to ride along with them. The youngest drow did not try to hurry them along, though. She had seen the near desperation in her cousin's eyes.

"R.I.S.A. could bring out that Spider-Tank again now, I am sure. We could travel at five times the speed of the fastest non-magical horse! Or we could take a leisurely hike through the forest, enjoying the sun-dappled terrain, breathing in the soft late morning wind, and listening to the quiet rustle of leaves. That works too."

"I don't know how useful the spider-tank would be. Isn't it rather large? The are some very cramped places we'll have to ride through on our way to Duskhaven." Tsabdrin told Caleldir. "But with it, we can probably chisel down the travel time by- well, about half, by my estimation. A week and a half total, I think."

Caleldir grimaced though. "We definitely need to set up a better portal network. Both an 'open' one for our followers to use and a secret one for our use only. The secret one would be inside R.I.S.A.'s domain. It would be a targeted plane-shift instead of an ordinary teleport though."

"Three weeks to get to Duskhaven on foot?" Ashyr said, clearly in a bit of shock.

"Well, yeah. They destroyed the portals. Or at least access to them. The way down is entirely different. That's why you didn't kill me outright, remember?" Tsabdrin said. There was a bit of bitterness in his voice about that. Or perhaps it was pain. Whatever it was, his relatives ignored it.

There was something Ashyr wanted to speak to Caleldir about "Cal?" she said softly as she twined her fingers with his. "You seemed rather distant towards Althaia earlier. Any chance you're ready to talk about what happened between you two?"

At those words, Selene dismounted her spider and had it trail along after her. She wanted to be privy to that particular conversation. The mage walked on Caleldir's other side, but otherwise said nothing. Her brother, though he knew almost everything that was going on, took that as his cue to see if he and his animal companions could find some surface world food while they still could. Yeah, they had plenty of resources from Port Afron, but when one could store something indefinitely in an awesome pocket dimension, why not take advantage of it? That, and the Duskhaven women and their Consort clearly needed their space.

Caleldir would have brushed off the topic, but Selene joined them and Tsabdrin moved away, so it was apparent that this time answers were wanted. He took a deep breath. "I suppose I can. Althaia told me everything. More than she told either of you in fact, but I am not really at liberty to discuss those portions of her words. And, I was not really happy that some silly love goddess had apparently decided to use me as the world's biggest breeding stud. I am no follower of Aelsuna, and I never will be. She is a daft deity with a silly philosophy. Nothing like the depth and breadth of intense and subtle intellect that has gone into the Philosophy of Eternity."

Ashyr rolled her eyes a little at Caleldir's professed dislike of Aelsuna. When compared to the goddess that was supposed to be her own, Aelsuna seemed extremely attractive in all senses of the phrase. Althaia's goddess was even trying to better herself, to prove to the rest of the deities and to herself that she was worthwhile. Lolth was practically doing the opposite, last time Ashyr heard. But that issue wasn't at all pressing, so beyond the eye roll, Ashyr didn't comment. Neither did Selene, for that matter.

Caleldir took another long breath. "Althaia... Althaia wants me to be the father of the nymph race, by marrying the entire species and... then some. It was a rather..." he sighed. "It was a rather perverse plan. I do not really want to talk about it. When it comes to the idea of creating a race, well, I am very much in favor of it, and very glad to lend my knowledge, but I am not in the least happy with what she insisted had to be the means by which this plan was enacted. I mean, using nymph genetic material to create a race of hyper-intelligent, extremely beautiful, wise and cultured super-soldiers would be quite something! With a force like that, I could conquer the world. Build an empire such as never have been seen. Add to them the technology and magic of my homeworld, and conquering the gods may not be the mad delusion I feared it was. A mad dream, certainly, but not a delusion." Caleldir licked his lips. "An army of the Nymphborn would look the best in uniform of any army ever." It was clear that Caleldir was not completely sane on this particular topic.