07

Notes: 1) My thanks to Arec for reading over this and giving me a few things to look at and adjust! 2) If you see

this

version of the story anywhere other than Literotica it isn't supposed to be there. 3) Because of shorter chapters, this is being posted in chunks.

* * * * *

*One*

Syreilla slipped back into the chamber she shared with Vezar, the chamber she had been commanded to remain in. The half-dragon was returning, she could feel it. He always sent a thought ahead as if he didn't wish to enter unannounced.

A moment later he opened the door.

"Well?"

"He has named those we are to-"

"Is he letting me out of this fucking prison, Vezar?!"

"It will take time, my treasure, you-"

"Almost a hundred years, Vezar! I'm going insane! If he wants me punished he should send me to one of the punishments, I could take those better than this! I'll even give him suggestions!"

"Syreilla!" He scowled at her. "This is not a punishment, you're here with me."

"Locked in one chamber! That is punishment. I was never the stay in the mine type and this is punishment for us both-"

"This is not-" Vezar tried to stroke her arm and she jerked away snarling at him.

"How can you be happy here when I'm ready to rip my skin off and yours too,

you beardless

-" Taking a deep breath she barely managed to keep the dwarvish curses in check.

Vezar's furious and hurt look didn't help things. "We have our task Syreilla. You know his reasons for confining you. Only time will ease his concerns.

"I can ask if we might visit the chamber of sunlight to-"

"I hate that room worse than this one, those people..." Syr shuddered at the memory of peeking in at the vast fields of smiling empty-headed people playing in the eternal sunlight.

"You were commanded to remain!" The surprise on his face annoyed her. "If he learns-"

"If he hasn't caught me in twenty years he isn't going to." She gave the half-dragon a flat look. The thought that if he hadn't agreed to let her out of the chamber in nearly a hundred he wasn't going to either, crossed her mind bitterly.

"We have our task." Vezar stalked out sourly and she followed.

Going above to hunt for lich or lost souls was the only thing that brought any relief from her confinement. She could almost imagine she were free for a moment and putting herself into a task took her mind off of everything else. The task of fetching lich was always her favorite, she could pick up new tricks and vent her frustrations.

It delighted her that they'd begun preparing for her inevitable visits, offering her at least some semblance of a challenge. But even that small thrill was beginning to be dampened in the face of unrelenting confinement.

As they usually did, they gathered the lost souls who had somehow not been able to breach the veil first. Syr had learned an excellent dispelling from one of the lich they'd collected but it almost felt like cheating to use it.

Usually, she sent the souls in to trip the wards and entered, laughing at the lich's confusion, as she siphoned the power from the releasing wards to use against them. Though once or twice, she'd sent the souls in to distract with their ward-tripping while she mixed dragon's fire with the lich's own ingredients.

Today she didn't feel like putting on a show. Before his death, the mage had spent a great deal of time and effort pouring power into a round clear stone. She drew nearly everything from it and cast the dispelling before strolling in with Vezar.

It could barely be called a fight. She'd cast Zylius' wards so many times that they had become second nature and the lich was aflame and crumbling before he could finish his own incantation.

With that, the outing was over.

Returning with their prey, as Vezar still called them, Syreilla finally balked at crossing the threshold. The thought that she would never be allowed any kind of freedom but what she had on these hunting trips had been gnawing at the back of her mind like a frantic rat and this joyless trip had driven home the impossibility of continuing this way.

"Vezar... I can't. I can't go back in there one more time. I am losing my mind and making us both miserable."

"You have no choice, Syreilla. We serve." He looked at her with something close to exhaustion in his eyes, "Would it be easier for you if I-if I asked the Divinity to grant me a different form?"

"This has nothing to do with your form. You

are

beautiful. Even when I'm screaming dwarvish curses at you." She saw his lips twist bitterly. "I was never the stay in the mine type. And this... this isn't even a mine, this is a prison. I can't walk back into it one more time, Vezar. I'll serve if he calls on me but I won't go back in." Sitting heavily outside the entrance, she shook her head. "I'm sorry."

The half-dragon ushered the former lich and the pair of helpless lost and lingering souls inside wordlessly. When his back disappeared into the blackness she rose and started walking. Vezar opened the doors but she was sure she could find the back door he'd once mentioned that opened into a garden. Where she would go and what she would do from there...

Her heart felt lighter at the thought of being able to go anywhere she wanted,

do

anything she wanted. Being a thief was what she was to her core and to be able to return to that was a relief. Syr wanted badly to see Hammersworn again, but that might get confusing for everyone involved, she could get close enough to ask though.

"I cannot let you leave me, Syreilla," Vezar's agonized whisper came from behind her.

"I'm making you as miserable as I am locked-" She stopped, seeing who stood next to him in the entrance.

Hevtos with his face set in its perpetual unhappiness, had his hand raised at the level of his waist, palm down. The ground under her feet was moving, drawing her back; in her reverie, she hadn't realized she wasn't making as much progress as she should be. The feeling of her hopes being dashed was like razors scoring her soul.

"I know you don't want me here, Uncle Hevtos. Let me leave."

"You swore to serve," his voice was the closing of a crypt.

"I will still serve if you require it, but I can't go back in there one more time. I'm losing my mind, locked away like that."

"I have not punished you for defying me, sneaking into places you should not be when Vezar is occupied. You are not so confined." Hevtos' gold-flecked gaze was as piercing as an elvish blade.

"I go

enviously

watch other people be punished because their punishments seem so much lighter than mine!" Snapping at Hevtos was ill-advised but she couldn't stop herself.

To her surprise, it looked like the god smiled faintly. "Perhaps I should put you to better use. You were a thief once?"

Syreilla stared at him for a moment before approaching him. "Don't toy with me, Uncle. You let me be a thief again and I'll find a way to steal the sun out of the sky if you ask me to."

"There are places you may not steal from," Vezar reminded her with consternation.

"Imos hasn't sent anyone to ask me anything at all about securing his temples, I could argue that the promise only extends to Syreilla Hammersworn." She gave Vezar a tilt of her head and a half-smile.

"You will keep your word fully." Hevtos definitely smiled for the briefest of moments. "You promised only to no longer plunder his

temples

?"

"Caught that did you?" She gave him a broad grin. "Tell me what you want fetched and I'll bring it to you."

"The older gods, all save two, each have a stone that resonates with their power, a jewel to give to their priests to perform the occasional miracle." His gold-flecked gaze was hungry. "I require as many as you can bring me, all if you can."

She rocked on her heels and took a breath, feeling like she'd been underwater for too long and had finally come up for air. Launching herself at him, she embraced Hevtos and squealed with joy. Releasing the stiff and still god she sprang toward Vezar who caught her and looked at her as if she were mad as she bounced and grinned madly at him.

Calming after a moment, she looked at the bemused god and asked, "Can I borrow Vezar? I'm going to need some help and he has some potential."

"You may summon him when you require him, but he cannot roam at will without attracting a great deal of attention. Those of my line are watched carefully. You, they have long expected to abandon me."

"I can promise you Master Odos hasn't expected that. He knows me."

"They hold him in low esteem. They will not listen if he speaks." Hevtos' face was no longer quite as unhappy.

Studying Hevtos' face she asked, "How likely would he be to help me? I'm good, but he's the best."

"I need you to bring me his as well." His lips curved as if she'd asked if she should knock on doors and politely inquire after the jewels.

"Do something nice for his mother with it and I think he'd give it to you." Syr shrugged. "But... I've never been religious so I need to know who the gods are and what they do. That was why I wanted Vezar, that and the fact I like his face." She gave the half-dragon an impish smile and he blinked.

"We will both assist you in your planning." Hevtos gestured and Syr allowed herself to be taken back down. It felt different this time knowing she could leave, knowing she

would

leave and that she had a purpose of her own.

"I had not truly believed you, Syreilla, that you were not angry with me, you were simply unhappy here." Vezar followed after her in the few moments they had while Hevtos was preparing and organizing her education and her new tools.

"I adore you, Vezar. You can be difficult but you're a kitten compared to me." She teased him, taking his hand and backing toward their chamber.

"A kitten? Has it been so long since I let you feel the teeth of a dragon on your perfect skin?" His golden-brown eyes were alight with excitement.

"It's been so long I can't remember the last time you said I had a perfect anything." Syr bumped into a wall and he pinned her, kissing her roughly and letting her feel his claws through her clothes. She moaned helplessly against his mouth and when he broke the kiss she nipped at his lips. "I think I need you to take an inventory with those teeth and claws, Vezar Edra."

"Immediately," he murmured eagerly. "Do you remember the first time? When you thought you would not be able to walk in the days after?"

Her face flushed, "Do that again?"

"We may not have time for me to be as thorough, my golden treasure." The feeling of his claws shredding her clothing made her desire burn.

"Your treasure needs her dragon on top of her," Syreilla purred, making his breath catch.

"Had I known thievery would bring the life and joy back into you I would have been begging him to let you work." Vezar lifted her and carried her quickly back into their chamber, laying her on the large bed.

"How could you forget how much I live for the challenge?" She kissed his throat before he pulled back and stripped himself.

His soft scaled skin against hers had felt strange at first, but she had learned to love it. The ridges of his face weren't the only ridges on his body and the feeling of them under his skin, especially in intimate places made her toes curl.

"Things changed after..." He paused his urgent rubbing against her, "Did they change?"

"Some did,

you

are the one I want and I like the feeling of your skin better than-" The fierce kiss that cut her off was coupled with the pressing of his claws into her back making her arch away from the bed and against him.

"You were not going to the mine?" Vezar breathed, as he pushed himself between her thighs and rubbed against her, making her writhe.

"I wanted to see Syreilla Hammersworn, or at least to know how she is, what she's been doing." Syr could feel the way he was peering at her threads and she opened herself, letting him see how badly she needed to feel free and whole. It had been decades since he'd last tried to look, her fury and frustration had been too much for him to see past.

"I would have you whole, Syreilla. But I will not risk you choosing

him

over me."

The demanding way he kissed and bit her neck and shoulder as he worked his large, ridged member inside made her whimper and moan loudly.

"I will make you beg for me before I allow you to go, Syreilla."

"Yes, Vezar,

please

, I want you to." The way he moved was a marvel, powerful and controlled, but his ever-moving hands and hungry mouth were what pushed her over the edge each time.

"My perfect Syreilla." His too-wide grin as he brought her panting to release was something she hadn't seen in far too long.

*Two*

As his spectral priests busied themselves with the preparations he had ordered, Hevtos sat in contemplation. The fears he'd had when Vezar had brought Odos' daughter down to his realm never seemed to be realized. He had been certain that with time she would show her true intent, yet she had served loyally, if sullenly, on occasion. And while she had begun to sneak about in defiance of his orders, there had been no malice in her actions. Those who watched her from a distance said there was a longing on her face as if she wished to join the runners she most often watched.

She couldn't know her other half, Syreilla Hammersworn, had passed from the world of the living into his realm but her wandering had begun soon after, and Syreilla the Rook had roamed, peering into the chambers, until she found the one that held her mortal half. The runners that drew her counted the half-elf among them.

Her motivations were still suspect, but a thief was what he needed to put his long-considered plan into motion. That he possessed half of her, he could be more certain of the rest. Still, there was no way of knowing if she could succeed. She needed an education and she would need tools and help.

If she was as loyal as she wished him to believe, providing these things for her would only benefit him. If she weren't, he would be giving away his plan to his enemies, and he would make her pay for it. What she had considered punishment would become a fond memory.

Disgraced priests and master thieves were at his disposal. Even the builders of the temples themselves, men who had been slain immediately to keep them from revealing their secrets, were at his fingertips. If this girl had any skill at all, she should be able to get enough of the stones to be of use. With enough of them, he could pull Zyulla from the wretchedness of her confinement, break some of Atos' curses, and put right the wrong he had brought about with his selfish desires. Perhaps she might succeed in gathering all of them and allow him to force Atos to share their stone once more, it would give him the power to be free, to begin putting his temples right and give his priests power to face those of Imos.

That Zyulla might choose to join him was too much to hope for after the heartbreak he had caused her. It was because of his seduction she had suffered so many centuries of torment. The sons he had given her had been cursed. Dragons, death on wings, as covetous and monstrous as their father had been to steal their mother's affections. Hunted and reviled by most, worshipped by a few, and loved by fewer.

As the dead he required were gathered, he pulled himself from his reveries to summon Vezar and Syreilla. Their delay in arriving began to sour his already precarious mood. When they did choose to grace him with their presence, he noticed they were as affectionate as they had been in the first years after their arrival. Something he hadn't seen from them in decades.

"Forgive our tardiness, Divinity." Vezar bowed, separating himself from Syreilla.

Her warm smile reminded him for a moment of Zyulla as she watched Vezar and ran her hand down his back. "You have such pretty manners, Vezar. You have no idea how glad I am that decorum doesn't extend to the bedroom."

"Another reason for Vezar not to accompany you. How well could a distracted thief succeed?"

"Is that... Syreilla Hammersworn?" A man stepped forward and bowed. "If any thief can get the job done while being sidetracked it would be her. I heard she was drunk when she looted the Nameless."

Another eyed her hand on Vezar's back. "I heard she was as round as a ball with a dwarf child in her belly when she robbed House Acharnion. That can't be her."

"I'm Syreilla the Rook. Hammersworn and I were the same person when we looted the Nameless, and we weren't drunk, we had been drinking. There's a difference." She was grinning. "I would love to hear about her robbing Acharnion."

"You have a job to do,

Rook

." Hevtos directed a scowl at her and watched as she tilted her head.

"And I'm eager to get to it, but if you brought thieves out to help brush up my skills, this is how we do it. We talk, we brag, we might even drink and show off. It's how we pick up new tricks and get new ideas."

He was glowering at her when he heard the murmur, "Hevtos' Golden Rook. I thought she was a myth."

"What do you know of my Rook?" He turned to glance at the disgraced priest of Isca who'd spoken.

"You send her to hunt lich. The mages I spoke to said she breathes dragon's fire and she goes through wards like a wraith." The terrified look on the man's face staring at Syreilla would have been amusing if it didn't mean that some, at least, might think he'd given her gifts.

"I told you that you shouldn't have used dragon's fire, Syreilla." Vezar chided her gently.

"But it's so pretty!" The half-elf thief was trying and failing to look contrite. "And it works so well."

"I know that you can't breathe dragon's fire." Hevtos frowned at her.

"No, but I

can

mix it. I do it now and then when we need to subdue a lich that has the right ingredients on hand. Before I became your Golden Rook, I always used to make sure the rumor was firmly in place that crossing Syreilla Hammersworn meant she would pay you a visit breathing dragon's fire."

"The name still invokes it." One of the thieves volunteered. "As fiery as a Hammersworn, as vicious as a Hammersworn...

No one

crosses a Hammersworn."

"Good."

The fierce smile on her face reminded him of his own and Hevtos made his offer.

"You haven't asked for payment,

my

Rook." With a gesture, a table and chairs rose from the stone floor. "What would you have?"

"True, I've been so excited at the prospect of being what I am again I haven't thought of payment." She sank into a seat and leaned on her elbows looking at him intently. "Being able to come and go as I please and take Vezar with me would be a-"

"I require you to serve." He narrowed his eyes and Vezar rested his hands on her shoulders from behind.

"I am willing to serve, I'll keep my word to you, I just need to be able to leave when it starts feeling like my skin is on too tight. I will come back and I'll obey-"

He waved his hand making her fall silent. "If you bring me all of the stones I will be able to permit it. If you do not, you will be bound as you are now."

Her head dropped and he watched as Vezar massaged her neck before running his claws over her skin.

"I'll get your stones, Uncle. And I'm not trying to get out of my word to you. I'll serve. I actually enjoy the task you've set Vezar and me to." The pleading look in her eyes as she lifted her head made him more confident.

"Is there nothing else you desire?"

She paused and closed her eyes, tilting her head toward Vezar.

"My Syreilla wishes to be whole again."

"That I could offer easily. Syreilla Hammersworn passed from the living and into my realm some time ago." At his words, she stared at him in horror.

"She... Tell me you didn't put her in that horrible place with the sunshine and the blank faces, Uncle."