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.
*****
Episode 121: Cornered
It took a few days for the united forces to fully occupy Grand Oak. Fortunately, the few 'survivors' of the city were able to vastly speed up things. Only the most powerful of the old inhabitants managed to cling onto some form of life (the rest disappeared to the afterlife once the corruption cleared). Due to those powerful additions, the united forces ended up greatly strengthened despite fighting the various undead and malfunctioning machines around the city.
But securing the immediate environs was only the first step and Caleldir's partly trained engineers ended up quite swamped with work in getting the ancient, malfunctioning, half-destroyed infrastructure back up and running. The duty of overseeing them could be delegated to some of the Deusterran survivors, at least, so Caleldir could focus a bit more on the complicated dangerous bits with Dahlia as his protector while he worked.
The Duskhavens didn't have much to do to assist with the infrastructure. They did have quite a lot of managing when it came to keeping their troops in line. Selene and Ashyr barely had time to get enough sleep each day, let alone spend any 'bonding' time with Caleldir.
As many of the powerful survivors of Naliira's city had picked up engineering skills as they survived past the onset of the curse, they were able to provide a good deal of help and assurance that they could handle things. Caleldir could be free to move about where he pleased as soon as some of the more complex issues were sorted. A good deal of things could be resolved by their unique brand of nature-tech that was grown by the powerful dryads as much as built. Four days without the curse hindering them were all they needed to get the city well on its way to full functionality.
Several of the powerful adventurers from the Deusterran curse-lands showed up in the newly revitalized Grand Oak. One of them was Cieraela, who first talked to Althaia in the Aelsunite camp before finding Ashyr and Caleldir near the city center. The young human woman seemed a bit more serious than she had been before but otherwise did not show overmuch in the way of trauma or the like. She explained that her mentor, Slasjowskew, had apparently left the country a few months ago, but she had stayed. Further details were not immediately forthcoming despite both Caleldir and Ashyr pressing her.
Their conversation turned headache-inducing business instead. Carlotta was with them as well, since the chief of the conversation was the logistics of getting a brewery started on a larger scale. Both ladies deemed a good supply of booze incredibly important for the morale of the refugees.
Arrangements were made for Cieraela to stay in a recently cleared house within the newly purified city, with Carlotta's new brewery conveniently nearby. As such, the two young human women were often in each other's company while they weren't busy. It worked out well, as Carlotta's drow and nymph acquaintances sadly could make very little time for her.
A couple more days passed and Naliira began looking towards old Deusterran facilities she knew to be nearby but was unable to visit. They needed some sensitive equipment from one of them, so the dryad queen requested that Caleldir retrieve the supplies. Caleldir remembered the facility as well (only vaguely, but he had been there once for a few hours), and he quickly agreed to head there and retrieve the equipment. As it was within the territory that they had reclaimed, he did not believe himself to need much of an escort. So, he made his way to the old power and information installation with Dahlia in tow. The succubus seemed to be taking her job as protector very seriously now, even bringing one of her Seduction with her (Lavender) for extra help.
Caleldir took a few minutes to give himself full security clearance, after which he entered the sprawling building. An hour after he did so, Cieraela showed up at the entrance. She quickly disabled the security completely and entered after him.
Dahlia was the first to sense that something was amiss. She nudged at Lavender's arm. "Did you notice that?" she asked, looking towards where she knew the entrance to the facility to be. "Caleldir, I think we have a visitor." Dahlia continued. A partly succubized visitor whose 'scent' she didn't quite recognize.
"I sensed that," Lavender confirmed, a light of recognition in her eyes.
Although Caleldir still found having two naked succubi follow him around while he worked to be rather... well, strange, he was a bit past being overly distracted by some things. "A visitor?" he asked, pressing his lips together. "That is unusual. How would they have gotten past the security?" He sighed and kept working. "I am fine in this room, and there is only one way in or out. If you two would go investigate this intruder, I would appreciate it." He barely even looked up from his work on the console.
Dahlia agreed that he would probably be fine where he was. Besides, no one could actually kidnap him. She would know and would be able to stop it. So she nodded to Lavender and the two of them exited the room they were in to inspect who it was.
"It's the cyborg human, Dahlia," Lavender warned when they were out of earshot. "The one that got away." She bit her lip with worry. "We may only just be able to take her on. I couldn't do so on my own, you know."
Dahlia acknowledged her companion's words. "We will be on our guard, then. Make sure she doesn't slip through the door. I will distract her until more come." With that, she walked forward to show herself to the intruder, all the while sending out a mental summons for all in her seduction that could free up their time.
"So, is that Lavender's lovely voice I hear?" Cieraela's sweet tone came from the hallway.