Thelenia was standing next to a folding chair. Human craftsmanship always found ways to amaze her. Here was a metal chair that weighed almost nothing and could collapse into a flat and stackable form. It was objectively amazing. And yet, it was also hideous. She was aware that humans could make things of great beauty, which simply reinforced the point that humans had made these artifacts to be unpleasant to the eye as a conscious choice. Each chair just stood there being a brown painted spindle of metal as an act of aggression. This was humanity reminding the other races that they had riches and marvels beyond comprehension, and that they would nonetheless surround themselves with ugliness. With these folding chairs, the queens of Earth had declared themselves untouchable. All seven other elves were
sitting
in the chairs that had been offered, but Thelenia preferred to stand.
Of course, the elvish Scout preferred to stand because she had a lump of metal lodged in her asshole, but the chair was pretty unsightly on its own. She might have chosen to stand even if Max had not shoved an Essence lock into her back door. Max had agreed to take it out and end their master/slave relationship entirely as soon as they had some privacy outside the dungeon. Unfortunately, as soon as they arrived back to Camp Acheron, Thelenia had been yanked off to a meeting. Apparently, some queen or another wanted to talk to the new elvish hunters after their first mission.
Thelenia did not want to talk about her mission. Not with a queen, not with anyone. She reached under her tunic in the back and touched her seal of binding. What would happen to those seals when she stopped being one of Max's slaves? She didn't know. It was too much to hope that she'd get her own body back, she was grimly certain that the adjustments for Max's aesthetic preferences were going to end up permanent. The bonuses from the seals were very large, and she couldn't imagine that she'd be allowed to keep any of them. If she kept them then surely every single woman in Camp Acheron would be made to watch him kiss his girlfriend. It would be a huge benefit for the Alliance, but Thelenia wouldn't be alone in finding the process offensive and degrading. She took her hand away from her seal and began straightening her clothes.
"What blasphemous nonsense is this!" A furious voice blurted out from behind her. Thelenia turned in confusion and saw Chaeryn rising from a chair and pointing at her accusingly. "We just got out of a dungeon, how did you even have
time
to paint yourself with this sacrilege?" The Shadow Elf had skin too pigmented to visibly change color, but the flaring of her nostrils indicated that she was near apoplectic with rage.
With so much on her mind, Thelenia wasn't able to find a context in which to process the dark-skinned woman's anger. "I don't know what you're talking about." Even to her own ears, she sounded more defensive than confused, and that probably did nothing to defuse the situation.
"Yes you do!" Chaeryn shrieked.
Fenniel made a hand gesture that was derogatory and had vaguely racist origins. "This is why the Ancients are mistaken to give hunter's marks to
lower
elves." He said it to the two Wood Elves, but he was loud enough that everyone in the room heard him. The Wood Elves didn't say anything, knowing full well that whether
they
were considered higher or lower elves depended greatly on which other elves were present.
Glyffildir was more magnanimous. "Look, I'm sure we can work out... whatever this is. Firenia, Queen of the Roan Spire is here, and we don't want to make a bad impression." Her gold eyes dug deeply into both Thelenia and Chaeryn as she stared expectantly into the other women. The Leaf Elf's freckled face looked both empathetic and stern, and Thelenia could well believe the rumors that Glyffildir was going to be a queen herself one day.
While the Sea Elf had been given implied permission to give her account first, she genuinely had nothing to say. Her time forfeited, Glyffildir turned to Chaeryn for an explanation she was bursting at the seams to give. "Thelenia drew the mark of the Spider Herald's chosen on her back and then flapped her shirt so that I'd see it!"
Fenniel leaned back in the folding chair and made an exaggerated sigh. "Oh, Great Tree! Here we go..."
Glyffildir made an expression that indicated that she was disappointed in her crop mate. Thelenia sputtered denials, but the Battlemage turned her around and lifted her shirt. The binding seal was fully on display. "Why would you do this, Thelenia? We're all here at the seat of the Ancients to fight the monsters. Together. Deliberate provocation like this is beneath you."
"But..." Everything was going wrong. "This is just what the seal looks like! I didn't draw anything!" Now every elf in her crop was staring at her back. She'd practically peed herself while Max shoved dungeon equipment into her ass, and yet she was now more embarrassed withering under the scrutiny of her peers.
Fenniel's expression soured. "That's not funny. The underground prophecies aren't real." He turned to Halendir, the only support in the room. "Halendir, end this charade. Thelenia can apologize to Chaeryn. She can apologize to all of us."
The green haired Wood Elf rattled her fingers and the soothing rustle of wind in leaves filled the room. Green light began to coalesce into a halo over Thelenia's head and then it splintered with the sound of twigs being crushed under foot. "I... can't. Her seals are too powerful, I can't add to them." She might as well have simply thrown a golden apple, the room erupted into pandemonium.
Many hands make light work, and a half dozen elves motivated by a healthy mix of fury and curiosity rapidly stripped Thelenia naked over her own feeble objections and those of Glyffildir. Soon her tunic and pants had been stolen from her, and she was laid bare in boots and bracers, her seals on lewd display, along with her horrendous B or perhaps even C cup breasts. Worst of all, the Essence lock that was still ensconced in her butthole was now impossible to hide, her small ass cheeks being simply insufficient for the task. Hands scratched at her back and buttocks, trying to peel off her seals, accomplishing nothing.
Thelenia screamed in shame and frustration. No longer having anything to lose, she stopped trying to cover her nipples and butt plug with her hands and just started punching and kicking. Her physical strength and agility were substantially increased from what they could be expected to be for a D-tier Scout, and her blows landed fast and hard. Fenniel went flying and landed awkwardly on a folding chair that promptly folded up. Halendir took a punch to the mouth and to the stomach, and she collapsed. Chaeryn got an elbow to the neck and went down on her back when Thelenia brought her leg around to kick the Shadow Elf in the back of the knee.
