Drow's Dilemma Ep. 118: Petition

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 118: Petition

Mizrae stared at the spot where the nymph demigoddess had been. After a long time, she blinked her crimson eyes, shook her head, and let out a long breath. "I am not sure how I saw that going," she admitted. "But that was not within my expectations."

"I do not know if we can, or should, trust this 'Amethelia'," Elerra replied. "She seemed off. Very strange. And the bargain she offered! I have heard incubi offering less damning deals."

"Seems we were greatly blessed!" Laele said happily. "Her offer was the opposite of damning. It seemed like offering salvation. I think that following Ellistraea will prove to be much more profitable than following Lolth. Besides, we already agreed. I don't think we can back out now. Not with a being of her power. It's foolish to back out of fae bargains."

"I know. We are going to have to go through with it." Mizrae looked glum. "But the price she is asking. Not the thing about the 'stone, bloom, metal, story, song, dance, laughter, tears, anger, dream, desire, and memory'. That is all payable. If she was saying we had to give up our ability to laugh, for instance, that would be steep. But, the way she said it, I am fairly sure she wants us to make her laugh. Then cry. Then get angry." She sighed. "So, that is all doable. It is the idea that this bargain will change us fundamentally that I am not sure that I am pleased about. Giving up the ability to deceive? That is a painful price."

"I don't think it'll be that painful," Laele shot back. The servant drow was getting much bolder in the face of her former betters. After all, she had stood strong in the face of a demigoddess, and they had not. "Will deception really serve us as daughters of the Queen of Moonlight? It served us as daughters of the Spider Queen, but what did serving the Spider Queen ever get us? We lost everything to a cave-in that she was powerless to prevent. And we only survived because our new Mother saved us! We're all Dark Elves now. We need to stop thinking like drow, and start being dark elves! And dark elves may be vague and cryptic, but they are not deceptive."

"We are starting our time as 'dark elves' with a deception, though," Elerra said glumly. "If... if you are right, then should we not call off the whole thing?"

Laele hesitated. Mizrae spoke first, cutting her off. "As your old servant has said: we cannot. We already took her hand. If she had been a common nymph, we could back out now. But she is not. She is a demigoddess. If we try to abandon our bargain with her now, who knows what she will do to us? Besides, even if we could back out, that still leaves us vulnerable to the disappearances. And without Houses. House Asegi is no more. I am the only member remaining. I have no kin, no lands, no money, no servants. And I refuse to be something worse than a commoner: a noble with nothing but the ghost of her forgotten nobility. I would rather be the least member of Duskhaven than that. So, though I am afraid of this bargain - afraid of what it will do to me, afraid of what I will become - I have to go through with it.

The two nobles looked glum, while the servant looked surprised and pensive. Then, Mizrae shivered again. "By the Spider Queen! I have never spoken that openly in my life on anything!" She looked at her companions, attempting to seem haughty, but failing and instead looking shy and vulnerable. "The magic of the bargain has to have already started. We... we are losing the ability to deceive. It... it feels nice to tell the truth. I feel a weight off of me."

There was another silence. Elerra looked as if she was going to speak but then did not. So, after a few minutes, while the moon traveled towards the horizon, Mizrae broke the silence. "We are determined to go forward, then. So! We need to figure out how we are going to pay her. First: the payment of the Body."

"She asked for a stone, a bloom, and some metal, right?" Elerra cocked her head. "I have a golden hairpin I can contribute for the metal."

"And I have a small sapphire ring I can give for the stone," Mizrae added.

Laele hesitated, looking around. She smiled, shaking her head, and walked over to a rose bush. She picked three roses. "There. A bloom," she said simply.

The two nobles looked at her. Elerra seemed to be about to protest, but she stopped. Mizrae spoke instead. "Looks like that will work," she said slowly. "So... the Mind."

"The songs and stories I know are mostly about things I think would offend Lady Amethelia," Elerra said glumly. "But I can dance for her."

"I know a few songs about cleaning?" Laele suggested.

"Then I should tell the story," Mizrae mused. "She is a nymph, so I will tell her some story about sex. That does it for the Mind. Now, the Spirit. We need to provide Laughter, Tears, and Anger."

"Those seem much more difficult," Elerra admitted. "Do we need to laugh, cry, and get angry? Or make her laugh, cry, and get angry?"

"The latter," Mizrae said after a moment of hesitation.

"We could probably make her angry or sad with a traditional drow joke," Laele offered helpfully. "I don't know how to make her laugh, though."

"Well, I will try to think of something to make her laugh," Mizrae decided. "Elerra, try to make her angry. Laele, try to make her sad. Which brings us to the payment of Soul: dream, desire, and memory."

"I think that she wants us to tell her about our dreams, desires, and memories," Elerra suggested. "Unless... she wants to take a dream, a desire, and a memory straight from our minds."

That idea gave the three pause, which led to a long conversation as to which would potentially give up each. None of them wanted to give up any of their dreams or desires, but in the end, Mizrae decided to give up a desire, Elerra a dream, and Laele a memory.

Mizrae looked towards the eastern sky, noting the horizon beginning to brighten unpleasantly. "Well, that is everything. We should come back tonight for-"

Further words were interrupted by the faerie woods materializing around them once more. Furthermore, it was once again midnight; the moon that had been low in the western sky was now high overhead. Amethelia the Ancient, Daughter of Aelsuna, floated in a sitting position in the middle of the clearing in which they found themselves. She was the only nymph in sight.

Amethelia smiled dazzlingly at the nervous Drow... no, the nervous Dark Elves. "So, you have decided who will offer what payment, Daughters of the Moon. You will all offer other payments, for you have found much more than you have sought. But the price will be things that you will at first miss only sentimentally, and later rejoice to have lost."

Mizrae, now acting as the leader instead of Laele, stepped forward, letting out a long breath. "For the payment of Body, I offer you this stone." She handed over her sapphire ring.

The nymph cooed at the gift. "Ah! Very pretty." She took it in her hand, closed her hand, and it was gone.

Elerra handed over the golden hairpin to the same effect. To the nobles' surprise and chagrin, Amethelia liked the flowers as much as the treasures. Mizrae wondered if she could have picked up a smooth rock from a stream and had the same effect on the faerie woman, but decided that regrets were useless.

Huh. That was a first. Normally she would be much more annoyed by the past. She rallied herself and moved on. "For the Mind, I will tell you a story?" she half-stated, half-queried.

The nymph smiled. "That is what I desire. Tell me a story that is important to your people. To who you were."

Mizrae swallowed. "Drow stories are not very nice," she said with a face heated with embarrassment. That was new too...

Amethelia giggled. "Child, you may be old and experienced by the standards of humans with your ninety-three years of life. By your own standards, you are but a young adult. But I count decades as you count months. The centuries flow over me like water. I have seen wickedness and pain to discomfort even the Daughters of Lolth. The world of the surface does not lack for pain or suffering simply because it is not spread as thickly. Tell me a story important to your people and your past. Not because I have not heard it, but because I have not heard it from you."

Mizrae thought on this for a bit, then let out a long breath. Well, a children's story would probably be perfect. So, she told the tale of House Myrret.

"Ranvyr Myrret was a very cruel woman," Mizrae began. "Who wished to ensure control of House Myrret to her own daughter, Imirahc, by killing her sister, Matron Talarene's, favorite daughter, Talabrina. Her plan was to promise beautiful jewelry for Talabrina on her eighteenth birthday and get her to reach into a big chest to get the jewelry. When Talabrina reached for the jewelry, Ranvyr slammed the lid of the chest down on her neck, and her head was chopped off. Ranvyr then propped the child's body up in a chair and placed the head back on her corpse, covering the wound with a handkerchief.

"When Imirahc returned, Ranvyr told her daughter that, if her cousin Talabrina won't answer her, she should cuff her around the ears. Unable to get an answer from her cousin, Imirahc smacked her in the face and her head fell off. Talabrina became hysterical, believing she had killed her cousin and that the Matron would kill her for it. Ranvyr comforted her, saying that they will hide the dead heir in a stew and no one will be any wiser. So they proceeded to chop up the girl's body, and put the pieces into a pot - skin, bones, and all. Imirahc cried so much while cooking that her tears perfectly seasoned the stew with salt."

Looking at Amethelia, Mizrae's heart sank to see her clearly angry, her lovely face clouded over. "How evil!" the nymph exclaimed. "What a terrible thing to do to her daughter!"

Mizrae swallowed and continued on. "Ranvyr then gave the stew to the servants to feed to the Matron. Matron Talarene loved the meal and proclaimed that it was the best food she had ever eaten. Imirahc cried ceaselessly as she watched the Matron devour her daughter. When the feast had ended, Imirahc gathered up the bones of her cousin and buried it in the wilds underneath a great mushroom. But soon after she left, a great Hook Horror dug its way out from the bottom of the mushroom and moved dolefully through the caverns destroying all in its way while singing 'My aunt killed me, my mother ate me!'

"Soon, the Hook Horror came to House Myrret, where the guards fled from its rampage. The beast found Ranvyr and ate her. No sooner had it devoured the last of Ranvyr, than it shuddered and collapsed, turning back into Talabrina, now a beautiful young woman. Talabrina ordered Imirahc to make a mushroom stew for her and her mother, and House Myrret prospered."

Mizrae finished the story. "It is a traditional children's tale," she explained. "Warning girls about the risk of their aunts trying to have them killed, their mothers plotting treason against the Matron, and the consequences of rebellion against the Matron."

Amethelia, who was smiling again, nodded. "I had heard several variations on that. In the earliest version, 'Imirahc', then called Valshira, helped her mother knowingly and they poisoned the stew to get rid of the Matron. It is an interesting story. Your version is the first where 'Talabrina' is revived. Perhaps it shows a more strict attitude against usurpation among the drow these days?" Her smile broadened. "A fine story."

"Then it is time for me to sing!" Laele said. She began to mime mopping the floor.

"Swish, swash, wish, wash

"Get in every crack

"Tish, tosh, dish, doss,

"Give that ass a smack!"

The song had twelve verses of similar subject and quality. Mostly drow maids singing about cleaning their mistresses' house while sexually harassing their coworkers, male and female.

This amused Amethelia greatly, who clapped along to the tune. "Not the most sophisticated of ditties!" she laughed. "But catchy, and with an interesting subject matter."

Next was Elerra's dance. It was only when the last daughter of House Noquana began to dance alluringly that she realized that the three of them were still naked, as was Amethelia, of course. The dance she had decided on was a striptease meant to seduce other noblewomen, but as she was already naked she could not take anything off.

Amethelia seemed oddly moved by the process. She wiped a tear away. "So elegant!" she whispered. "The way that the dancer removes clothes she does not have is so poetic!"

Mizrae let out another long breath and wiped the sweat off of her forehead. "That is our price of Mind," she concluded. "Now, it is time for the price of Spirit."

"Oh, you have already paid that," Amethelia said carelessly.

"What?" the three dark elves started. "We have?"

"Yes! Mizrae, you made me angry with the treatment of poor Talabrina and Imirahc. Laele's song brought me to laughter, and Elerra's dance moved me to tears. Your payment has been made!"

She stood up, smiling in a rather foreboding way, and moved towards Mizrae. "The only price left is that of Soul. Now, Mizrae of House Asegi, what do you wish to pay: a Dream, a Desire, or a Memory?"

Mizrae trembled. The nymph was much more intimidating than she ever would have guessed one of her kind could be. She swallowed. "A desire," she whispered.

"And what desire do you wish to pay me?" Amethelia asked.

"My desire to..." Mizrae swallowed again, then slumped. "My desire to surpass my sister," she whispered.

The nymph smiled broadly, with a fierce but not unfriendly light in her eyes. "Then I will take that from you." She pulled Mizrae into a deep, hard kiss, squeezing the smaller woman's nude body against her own. The nymph's tongue twisted around the dark-elf's, and she sucked something immaterial but noticeable right out of Mizrae.

When Amethelia let go of her, Mizrae stumbled back, then sat down, clearly stifling moans as her womanhood sparkled with moisture in the moonlight. "That was..." she trailed off.

Amethelia turned towards Elerra. "And what about you?" she asked sweetly. "What did you wish to give me?"

"I agreed to give you a dream," Elerra said weakly. Something about the way that the nymph had kissed her friend had made her inexplicably horny too. "Do you mean a dream, like what one feels when you sleep rather than trance, or do you mean a goal?" She took a half step back as Amethelia approached very close, but soon she was pulled up against the nymph's body just as Mizrae had been.

"Yes!" Amethelia replied helpfully. "Both of those at once."

Elerra, heart-pounding and half-collapsing in the nymphs impossibly soft yet divinely strong arms, felt confusion briefly overtake her arousal. "But... but what if there is no overlap?" she whispered.

Amethelia smiled divinely, moving her lips very close to Elerra's dark, pointed ears. "There always is. And I will now take one of those overlaps from you in payment."

She gave Elerra a kiss every bit as overpowering as she had given Mizrae. When she pulled away, Elerra found something missing, but could not figure out what that was.

The nymph turned to the last of the three, Laele, who was very close. The handmaiden pulled her hand from her damp cleft the moment she realized that Amethelia's attention was on her. "Well, bold once-servant," Amethelia giggled. "You are the last. What memory do you wish to give up? Or shall I select what I wish?"

Laele took a deep breath and said the memory. None of the trio could remember what that was, for once Amethelia drew it out of her with her kiss, even their memories of her words were pulled out and dissipated in the strange midnight morning air.

The final price paid, Amethelia twirled away, giving them all one of her smiles. Her eyes twinkled with mirth. "It is time for you to be blessed by the sun and the moon alike, daughters of Ellistraea."

The three dark elves felt overpowering light on them all of a sudden. To their shock, they saw the sun and the moon both in the sky - both larger than they had ever seen them before. It burned their eyes and flesh alike, but they were unable to look away.

"In the name of my mother Aelsuna," Amethelia intoned. "And thine adopted mother Ellistraea, in the light of the sun and the light of the moon: I change thee into women who can bring lust to he who is without lust. The Goddesses of Light bless thee and thine daughters with beauty surpassing. May the Light burn away thine old lives, that thou mayest be born into thine new selves.

The sunlight and moonlight only increased until it eclipsed all. Searing pain wracked the three dark elves and they fell unconscious.

When Mizrae awoke, she found herself in a flowering field, the sun high in the sky. Instinctively, she gasped and covered her eyes, only to realize that she felt no pain. Carefully, she put her hands down and looked up at the sky. She looked at the sun. Straight on. Her eyes adjusted, and she saw the great orb of light without pain. Not only could she go under the sun's light without pain, but she could stare at it unblinking. The sun was strangely beautiful. The way that its surface moved, some spots a bit darker, some a bit brighter, stirring around...

Huh. The sun was a ball of fiery gas. It was beautiful, but her old fear of it seemed ridiculous now.

Letting out a long breath, Mizrae stood to her feet and looked around. It took a bit under a quarter second (.24 seconds exactly, though how she knew that was a mystery to her) for her eyes to adjust from the overpowering brightness of the sun to the brightness of the field around her.

Everything was spectacular. She smelled the flowers, the grass, the insects, the dirt, the stones, the hint of moisture in the air, the stronger smell of water to the east. She heard buzzing, skittering, rustling, the flowing brook. She saw the way the wind moved through the grass and flowers, the way the bees flew from blossom to blossom, the ants marching along the ground underneath the plants. Even though she did not know their names, she instinctively recognized each different plant and insect, knew which ones were of the same kind, which were different, and the properties of each, from their uses in potions and poultices to how they would likely behave. And the colors were rich and vibrant, more so than she had ever imagined. Textures and shades that she had never dreamt of existing enriched even the most mundane and ordinary creature and object. She felt as if she could spend a decade staring at a single pebble and still learn new things.

And more than that, she felt it all. It was if she had ten thousand fingers on one thousand limbs, feeling everything within thirty feet of her without disturbing it. She could feel each petal, each insectoid limb, each pebble, and each clump of dirt. The sensation outside of her body was as intense as the sensations that her fingertips gave her before, but without pain or unpleasantness from even the harshest of shapes. But that was dwarfed by what she felt on her actual skin. The heat from the sun, the chill of her own shadowed side, the caressing winds... all of them were distractingly strong. So much so that her old self would have registered the feelings as pain, but now they were pleasure. Just feeling the air and sunlight was as good as sex had been before.