Charm 04: Calm Before the Storm

Sezithorum's estate was far enough north and the days were long enough that when the sun rose, it did not illuminate the south-facing windows at all. It was well past dawn before the sun finally shone into Roji's small and sparsely-furnished room, constructed from mortared bricks and located at the southwest corner of the house.

The bed, large enough for two people to sleep comfortably as long as they were friendly, took up most of the space. Dust floated casually through the glaring sunbeams as they crept across the west wall, approaching the dresser that crouched there, opposite the bed. The light furtively slithered among the few personal effects Roji possessed, scattered across the top, and the discarded clothes that were draped on and around it. Finally one intrepid ray reflected off of a small silver belt buckle and illuminated the pair, sprawled beneath the blankets.

Roji rolled over and embraced Tiska, and she felt his charm growing again. She reached down and grabbed his swelling penis, saying, "As much as I'd like to take care of that for you, it's late, and—"

"It's not really that late, it's just that the sun comes up so crushingly early these days," Roji grumbled, squeezing her tighter and pulsing his erection at her.

"Right, the sun's been up for that long, and so has he, neh?" She let go of Roji's crotch and tried to push herself up to a sitting position, with only moderate success. Roji's face nestled in beneath one breast, which he nuzzled, grinning. "We ought to go check on him. If he's been back at the Codex, he'll need attention a lot more than you do, neh?" She swatted at the bulge beneath the covers that was still twitching against her leg.

"Yeah, yeah," Roji mock-complained as he released her and rolled out of bed. Tiska sat up and retrieved her robe from the floor. It lay in her lap as she stared at the wall for a moment. "I'm still really worried about him. There's something else going on he hasn't told us about."

Roji shrugged into his robe and told it to close. "There's always stuff going on he doesn't tell us about. He didn't say anything about his trip to pick up the Codex, other than, 'I shall return tonight, or possibly tomorrow.'" Tiska giggled at his impression of their master. "And that mention of him being in the prophecy? What was that about? You think just because he opened up and spilled a few drops last night that he's going to tell us everything?"

"All right, fine," she conceded, standing and donning her own robe. Roji loved the way her breasts bounced as she moved. "But we need to see what we can do to encourage him to do that some more, neh?"

"Hmm?" he mumbled, still staring at her now-covered chest. He flicked his eyes back up to her face. "Right, yes, get him to talk more. Definitely."

She raised an eyebrow and half-glared at him as she turned away. He followed, far enough behind to watch her hips swing.

When they emerged into the main laboratory, Sezithorum was standing in his customary place, munching a piece of fruit, and writing notes on a piece of parchment. Even from where they were in the doorway, they could see that his robe was bulging again.

"I'll take care of it this time, you go get us some breakfast, neh?" Tiska whispered. Roji nodded, and moved quietly along the wall toward the kitchen.

As Tiska approached him, the wizard put down his quill and the half-eaten lemma, looked up and glanced between them. "Ah, there you are. Here are your parts for the ritual, mine in black, Tiska in green, Roji in red. Practice them. I will complete the circle." He handed Tiska the parchment, picked up the Codex, and swept past her toward the ritual room.

Roji had stopped at the stairs down to the kitchen when he started speaking, and had turned to look. Tiska stared at the parchment for a moment, then looked up at his retreating back. "Master?"

He stopped, turned, and blinked at her. "Yes?"

"Is your charm overflowing? Do you need me to help you?" she asked hesitantly

"Ah!" he exclaimed. "Right. No, we must all allow the charm to build, we will need all the charm we can muster to manage this summoning." As he turned away again, he muttered, "I should have brought Durkentl back... Worthwhile asset... Worthwhile ass..."

"We're doing it now? Today? We're not going to do the regular day of cleansing and meditation?"

He stopped in the doorway of the ritual room. "We must, unfortunately. There is no longer any time to lose. The succubus's power augments by the day, and our visitor will need time to adjust as well. There are still so many factors yet to fall into place, all of which may require more time than we plan for. We must not wait any longer than absolutely necessary."

Tiska looked back down at the parchment, then turned to Roji, who was still waiting at the top of the stairs. He shrugged and motioned her to follow him down.

When she arrived in the kitchen, Roji already had the stove lit, and was slicing beelo into a pan. She leaned against the wall and scanned the parchment. "Well, what does it say? We've been part of the rituals before, but just for generating more charm, not as speakers."

"Actually, for a lot of the other rituals, I do have a single phrase I'm just repeating over and over, to collect and then release the charm. For this one, obviously he's got the primary part, and I've got the secondary, as the charm receptacle, but it looks like he's condensed all of the rest of the parts and given them to you. You've got more lines than I do, but it's mostly just a few phrases repeated a bunch of times."

Roji continued chopping vegetables, and adding spices. "He just said we have to practice it, right? Not memorize it?"

"Yeah, and a lot of times he's reading his lines during a ritual. You shouldn't have much trouble anyway. Here's one of your lines." She read off a string of eight syllables that sounded like they contained too many consonants.

"Yeah, I recognize most of those words. What does 'pkunk' mean?"

"Peace, or tranquility, or something like that."

"That makes sense, followed by the negative 'mfk,' since we're trying to summon a warrior." After another pause, Roji spoke up again. "This is almost done, can you get some eggs?"

"Sure." She put the parchment down on the counter and went out into the stable. Roji picked it up with one hand and continued stirring with the other. Yeah, it was just a lot of repetitions of the same few lines.

What caught his attention was the note, "repeat until release" near the bottom, next to a pair of lines, one for Tiska and one for the master. Then he noticed another similar notation earlier, next to another pair of lines, this time one of them was his own. This was a complicated rite, and called for multiple stages of orgasm, for the various people.

He began practicing his lines, trying to wrap his mouth around the strange combinations of sounds. "Pretty good, but that 'thp' sound isn't voiced, and the 'p' sound at the end really just means a hard, solid cutoff, you close your lips to stop the 'th' sound," Tiska said as she came back in. "Only two eggs today," she held out two red orbs with faint violet stripes, slightly larger than her fist. "I think the hubbers are annoyed at me for not getting out there and feeding them earlier."

"Yothp. Yothp. Yeah, that does sound better. Do you need to go back out and take care of the rest of the animals now? I'll finish this."

"I should, thanks. Just leave mine here, and I'll get it, neh?"

Roji cracked the eggs and stirred them into the rest of the sizzling food. He continued practicing his lines until the eggs were cooked, then waved the fire out and scooped the mush into three bowls. He carried one up to the ritual room, where he found the wizard in much the same position Tiska had been in the night before. He whispered a heating incantation to the bowl, and silently left it near the basket of chalk. The master would find it eventually, and he probably wouldn't notice until then that he was hungry.

On his way back through the lab area, Roji picked up the remains of the lemma and munched on it. Back down to the kitchen, his own bowl of food, and the parchment.

By the time he finished eating, he felt pretty comfortable with his part in the ritual, including knowing his cues. He could also feel the effect just practicing was having on his charm. His entire crotch was throbbing, and it was just as well he didn't have a free hand, or he would have been stroking it. Tiska still wasn't back, so he heated her bowl as well, and took it and the script out into the stable area.

She heard him coming and turned, glancing down at his bulge. "Here, eat, and study, I'll do the rest." She thanked him and straddled a bench, placing the parchment in front of her so she could read it. Roji looked around, and quickly surveyed what had been done and what still needed attention. Thiri was eating, and her stall had been swept out. The hubbers and the veros had been fed, but their area of the stable was still a mess. The maleroks and deenx still needed to be fed as well.

Periodically Roji would recognize one of his cues, which reassured him about his own skill, that he wouldn't screw it up under pressure. At one point, he interrupted her. "Is that how that's supposed to be pronounced? 'Sthrak?' I was saying that 'sthrok.'"

She blushed slightly. "That's how my previous master said it, but that may just have been his accent. And mine too, neh? We should ask about that."

By the time they finished with the animals, the sun had climbed high and Roji was dripping sweat. They called their parts back and forth, smoothing out their pronunciations. His erection had subsided with the manual labor of shoveling manure, but it resurged now that he was repeating his part of the ritual again, and he could feel the charm rebounding within him.

He looked over at Tiska, who was still seated, no longer straddling the bench, but leaning back against the wall behind her, her eyes closed and her legs crossed. As he watched, he could see her thighs clench and press together beneath her robe.

She could smell him walking toward her, the musk radiating off of him. He stopped just out of arm's reach and panted for a moment. "It's too bad he told us we have to contain our charm until the ritual."

She opened her eyes, which were level with his bulging crotch, and let out a growl. "I was just thinking it's a

good

thing he did, because otherwise I'd jump you right now." She stood and gazed up at him. "As it is, I suspect we're both headed to wash, which is a bad idea as well, neh? You go first, so you're not looking at my bum on the way up the stairs. I'll check on the critters in the house." She was careful not to get too close to him, both to prevent unnecessary temptation, and to keep him from looking over her shoulder and seeing the wet mark she had left on the bench.

"All right, fine. You're right," he sighed as he walked past her and up the stairs.

She closed her eyes for a moment, rolling the parchment tightly in her hands, drew a deep breath, and followed.

Sezithorum had doffed his robe because it was getting in the way of his crawling around on the floor and drawing the last of the symbols required for the summoning circle. He had then had to tie a rag around his penis, to prevent his ooze from dribbling and smearing the lines. He had finished, however, and was now shoveling breakfast into his mouth while surveying it, and comparing it to the depiction in the Codex. A few touch ups, and it would be ready.

The last thing to be done was to arrange and charge the other paraphernalia. He turned around to see Roji ascending the stairs. "Ah, do we have any bestra?" he burbled around a mouthful of eggs and vegetables approaching the doorway of the ritual room. "Even unripe ones will do."

Roji sputtered for a moment, caught off-guard by the question. "I... don't know. I'll check," he replied, turning to go back down the stairs.

Tiska had followed him into the kitchen, and was breaking up greens to feed to the rebik, Pfarth, and some of the birds. Roji descended and started toward the pantry, then stopped. "Do you know if we've..." He trailed off as he noticed the wet spot on the back of Tiska's robe.

"If what?" she asked, turning around.

Roji stifled a laugh. "Nothing, just the big wet spot on your butt."

Tiska glared at him briefly, then returned to tearing leaves, more forcefully than was strictly necessary. "As if you don't have spak tracks all over the inside of

your

robe."

"Umm, right. Anyway, do you know if we've got any bestra? He's asking for them, even if they're not ripe yet."

"Nope, it's been a dry season, they're running late. They're still too small and green now, nobody's picking them yet. What does he need them for?"

Roji shrugged. "The ritual, I guess."

Tiska turned to face him again, and cocked her head to the side. "That does kind of make sense. The style of the bestra flower is one of the longest in the world, between where the pollen gets deposited and where fertilization occurs, in the ovary. And since we're trying to transport someone from one world..."

Roji had cocked his head to the other side, and was just blinking at her. She trailed off self-consciously, and shrugged. "Well, it makes sense to me, neh? Just go shower," she admonished, picking up the knife from the counter and waving it at him. Roji shook his head silently and scaled the steps again. Tiska took another deep breath and let it out slowly, but she could still feel the blood rising in her cheeks. She bent her head back toward the greens. "You smell too tasty."

Back up in the laboratory, Roji walked to the doorway of the ritual room, and looked in. Sezithorum held a crystal in front of him in his left hand, his head tilted back and his eyes closed, and was speaking softly to it. Roji waited for him to finish, then caught his master's attention and repeated Tiska's diagnosis on the current state of the bestra. "Ah, well, we shall have to do without, then." He raised another crystal and began whispering to it.

Roji turned away and continued down the hall toward the washroom, which sat on the south side of the house, between his chamber and the master's. As he opened the door, he spooked several songbirds, which hastily departed in a colorful flurry of wings.

The room was almost entirely vegetative. Bamboo, specially bred and enchanted to withstand years of weathering, formed the floor and walls. Lining much of the walls was greenery of many shades, with blooms scattered throughout, the plants spilling from pots or growing directly from pockets of dirt between the culms forming the floor.

Large-diameter bamboo culms, cut in half lengthwise and nested together, formed the roof of the inner portion of the room, and funneled rainwater outward. The covered portion of the room contained a receptacle for water and a seat that, when uncovered, led down through the ceiling of the stable, to a barrel that collected their manure.

Roji had been familiar with the idea of a two-story method of collecting manure, but before coming to live with Sezithorum, had never actually seen one personally. Most people he had associated with weren't affluent enough to have a house with multiple floors, they just had a stool and a bucket.

The fancier houses, like the one his parents lived in, did have a special closet with a box enclosing the bucket. The box was then accessible from outside the house, rather than inside, which made changing the bucket both more of a hassle, in having to leave the house to change the bucket, and less, in that it no longer had to travel through the house. The deciding factor was that keeping a cover on the hole in the seat helped to keep the smell and the bugs out.

The basin for holding water was nothing new either. It was how the water got there that was so special. There was a series of reed-like tubes that brought the water from a cistern to the ceramic depression, and another that drained it away to be used for irrigating the crops. That kind of arrangement was only possible with the application of charm, to put pressure on the water to get it to flow uphill, and to keep it from leaking out at the joints between the segments of tubing.

What was even more wondrous was that it wasn't just a stream of cold water. With a twist of a knob, he could change the temperature of the water. And the same was true on the rain deck, the outer part of the room.

The southern wall consisted only of a curtain of seashells, small vertebrae, and glass beads on strings. Beyond the curtain, the room debouched onto an open platform surrounded by a bamboo bench with a railing behind it. The deck extended to the left, and had another similar curtain leading into the master's washroom on the opposite side of the wall. Arrayed along the edge of the roof were four spouts that also spewed water, and were controlled by a bank of knobs on the wall between the two curtains.

Roji shrugged out of his robe and dropped it on the floor. He pushed past the curtain and turned on two of the nozzles. Normally, he preferred hot showers, but right now, he really needed to cool off, in various respects. He let the chilly water play down his face and chest, tracing rivulets across his firm abdomen and down his thin legs. He wasn't scrawny, there was definitely meat on his bones. The problem was that his bones were so visible.

He turned around and let the water spray the back of his head and run down his back. He looked out across the plains to the south. Huge tracts of land, planted with grain that rippled in the breeze. The zephyr blew across his skin as well, chilling him. His erection had now subsided completely, and it felt good to finally have the pressure off. The cold was causing his testicles to crawl back up inside his body, however, which wasn't so comfortable. He sighed and flushed the sweat out of his hair.

He was still rinsing salt off of his body when he heard another nozzle come on. He looked over and saw Tiska, testing the temperature on her own stream of water. She carefully avoided looking at him as she removed her robe and draped it over the railing. The wet spot on the back had faded and shrunk, but it was still present.

Roji watched as she stepped into the spray. Droplets bounced off the curve of her shoulders and slid past her shoulder blades. They crawled along the small of her back, detoured around the arc of her hip, and disappeared into the cleft between the globes of her rump. Roji ached to trace the same paths with his fingers, and then with his tongue. He felt his groin heating up again, despite the chill in the water.

He shut off his nozzles and stepped up behind Tiska. She moved her hands over her body rubbing at the accumulated dried sweat and dirt, but studiously kept her back to him. He softly touched her ears with his fingertips, dragging them along the rim, then fluttering her earlobes as each finger flicked past.

Tiska's back stiffened and she stood up straighter. Both arms dropped to her sides, and she tilted her head. The warm water spraying on her was a shock after his own cold shower, paradoxically making him feel even colder, and he shivered, his scrotum clenching again. Roji's fingertips descended her neck, his touch blending with the droplets that streamed over her skin along ever-changing tracks.

He stepped in closer again, pressing his resurging staff against the small of her back, the tip nestling between the twin moons of her rear. The water running down his chest was now being focused down his spigot, tickling as it flowed past her puckered orifice. The turbulence in the stream, wavering as it collected on her labia, and stroking as it drained away, sent tingles up her spine to meet those originating from her ears and neck.