Magic Has Benefits

Author's Notes:

Howdy again all!

If I thought the last one took a while, this one took a HOT minute. A lot has happened irl since the last part, but I've been trying desperately to get back to writing this story. I've really enjoyed it and it's turned into a sort of passion project for me.

Speaking of! Much like the last part, this isn't a one and done sex thing. In this series, Riley is really the only character that thinks about sex commonly, so it only comes up often in regards to him. That being said! Spicy stuff does happen, but much like the last part, it's usually more of a finale than anything.

SO if you're into that, please enjoy! I'll be working on the next part soon and I'm super happy to be back in the swing of things!

Enjoy!

- WwW

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Oskar Grawl had never felt so conflicted in his entire life.

Sure, he's faced plenty of hardship, and there was no shortage of difficult choices when you lived a life like his. He's had to run away from unwinnable fights, decide to scale difficult cliffsides, and stubbornly march across a desert. He was used to hard choices.

But this was... different.

Riley was different.

Oskar had spent the last three days in the company of Riley Volstrand, a very knowledgeable wizard living in a small cabin deep in the Horsestray Woods. Oskar had sought his magical aid, being told a witch lived in the forest. Inadvertently, they managed to save each other's lives. Afterwards, they had returned to the wizard's cabin, where the two spent a night of... passion... together.

Now to preserve the image of Oskar's taste, this was not the typical visage of a wizard that the warrior had been taught. This was not an eighty year old man with a white beard dragging the floor in front of his feet with a pointy and starry hat on top of his wrinkly forehead.

No. Riley was a brilliant young man. And while the wizard may have seen Oskar's words as mere flattery, he had truly never seen anything more beautiful.

It wasn't just in the extraordinary figure. Oskar had met countless women, and none could hold a candle to the wildfire that was Riley's body. He curved and flattened and swayed in all the right places. Oskar could stare at the supernaturally glowing pink eyes framed by the rose gold hair for hours and never tire.

However, all the physical details paled in comparison to the rest of him. The way his face made all of those self assured expressions. The endearing chuckles and laughs that so often punctuated their conversations.

And the conversations! Oskar had never met anyone that he could verbally spar with in the way that he could with Riley. His wit was sharper and faster than the tip of a rapier. They could pass an entire evening away with easy banter, a fact that seemed to please the wizard to no end.

Speaking of pleasing the wizard, there was the... other aspect of their partnership.

Oskar had once spent an evening conversing with a tavern whore. She was more than willing to fulfill her job and was quite pleased to be making coin off of a profession she enjoyed doing.

She had LIKED sex.

Riley LOVED sex.

Oskar had been under the assumption that Riley had simply been alone for a long thing and that his first night in the wizard's cabin had been a release of half a decade of tension. But that proved to not be the case.

The first morning, Oskar had suggested he go hunting in the nearby woods. Riley had admitted to him the previous day that he enjoyed the taste of meat, but was not skilled as a hunter. Oskar had returned with a boar and a finch, using his long honed skills as a hunter and ranger to skin and prepare the animals. Riley had watched the process with a mix of intense memorizing and a sort of excited energy. The warrior then prepared a simple but hearty meal, supplemented by the vast array of vegetables Riley had managed to grow in his garden.

The meal was nothing special to Oskar, but Riley devoured it with eagerness. Afterwards, Riley had given him countless praise for it and suggested that he be 'rewarded' for his hard work. He had said it in a sultry purr, a tone Oskar had begun to associate with "I'm thinking impure thoughts".

And it worked. Every time.

From that point forward, every time Oskar helped Riley with a chore, the slighter man would insist on rewarding him. The half orc knew that it was Riley's addiction that was spurring this reward system, but he wasn't about to say no. For one, it made Riley happy, and that in turn made him happy.

Also, the sex was mind blowing.

Riley was a nymphomaniac and that translated very obviously into his experience. Oskar had been with almost a dozen women in his time, and none had the skills and abilities that Riley possessed.

And so it progressed like this for three days. Oskar would help Riley with a chore, Riley would "reward" him for his efforts, and they would spend the days bantering and generally enjoying one another's company.

Which brought Oskar to seventy two hours later.

Oskar had been awake for about two hours. He had found out early on that Riley was powerful as a spellcaster, but drawing upon this esoteric power always left him feeling exhausted. Yesterday, he had practiced some kind of ritual that he claimed was "experimental". He didn't explain more than that, but he had seemed satisfied when a folded letter in the middle of his drawn chalk circle had disappeared. He had also brewed various potions and generally been busy.

It was the one night he'd been so tired that he had simply given Oskar a half asleep kiss before passing out on the bed.

Not that Oskar had minded all that much. In fact, he had been more than happy to stroke the long rose gold locks and look into the peaceful face of his strange new friend.

Oskar shook his head of these pleasant thoughts, turning his focus back to the task at hand. He picked up the bucket that was being used to collect water from the nearby stream and brought it to a drier section of the garden. He used it to fill a watering can and proceeded to water some of the plants he'd been instructed needed it by Riley.

He could have laid in bed with the soft man all day, but he needed the busy work. He knew what was coming and was dreading it. Looking around at the cozy cabin and beautiful garden upkept by an even more beautiful person...

Oskar knew he would have to leave. If not today, he would have to leave soon. He'd made a promise to his mother, had sworn on her death bed and again on her grave to accomplish the task she had set for him. He was to take his mother's amulet to Overkstien, come all nine hells or high water.

Staring at Riley's face all morning would have made this next part worse.

He set to work with the morning chores, something Riley had admitted to taking him five hours if he really tried hard to get them done. It seemed that no matter how much he set upon these physical tasks, he never grew more muscle or mass in any way. Oskar had pointed this out and the wizard had made some disarming joke. Oskar had seen through it though. Riley was being kind to Oskar, but he was not being entirely honest. Something deeper was going on with the wizard that he wasn't willing to share.

Oskar didn't press it though. Everyone had their secrets.

Still, it took Oskar less than half of five hours to complete the same set of tasks. He admired his handiwork with his hands on his hips for a moment, enjoying the pleasant sights and scents of the garden.

"You're a real work horse, you know that?" A familiar, feminine and scholarly voice came from the top of the small ramp that led to the cabin's cliffside platform.

Oskar turned with a soft smile to see Riley sitting on the top of the steps, looking back at the half orc with a small grin. He was wrapped loosely in a golden robe that he wore when he didn't feel like putting on the rest of his clothing. His hair was still messy from how he had slept against it.

The disheveled nature did nothing to subtract from the visage.

"Well, I had to do something while you continued to get your beauty sleep," Oskar's smile widened, "Not that you need any more."

"How can you be so charming so early in the morning?" Riley chuckled, "Does it come with being ruggedly handsome? Or was it something you really had to work for?"

"I think I'll keep that answer to myself," Oskar crossed his massive arms and grinned, "You can't be the only one keeping secrets."

Riley laughed in that musical way he did, "That's a fair enough point!" With that, he got up from his sitting position and descended the steps to the garden barefoot. Oskar had noted before the Riley was graceful, but not to an extreme extent. It was hard to call a human graceful when he'd seen elves walk across loosely packed snow as if it were solid. But still, Riley carried himself and his body very well.

"It seems my proclivity to reward you has made you eager to jump to tasks of mine even before I give them," he said as he neared him.

The purr was not present in his voice and was instead replaced with a sort of barely contained mirth. Oskar knew at this point he was simply teasing him.

Oskar shook his head, "I'm not that trained yet. I simply... needed to think."

"Oh?" Riley was now toe to toe with Oskar, looking up at his face with a look of interest, "What about darling?"

"Well... it's been over seventy two hours since you gave me that anti toxin..."

"Eighty one."

"Huh?'

"It's been eighty one hours," Riley repeated. But as Oskar looked at him, there was a slight frown on his face.

It killed Oskar to see it there, but he knew what he needed to say, "Yes. And my condition is still perfectly healthy, thanks to you. I just... what is the favor you would ask of me? I must complete it so that I can be on my way."

The words came out faster than he intended, but he felt like he needed to say them quickly or they would get stuck in his throat. He watched as Riley listened without moving, his face set stoicly with a stiff lip.

"I thought that might be the case," the wizard finally said after a minute, his tone matter of fact, "You are a... driven man, Mr. Grawl."

Oskar was also starting to get a feel for Riley's subtleties. His use of the honorific and Oskar's last name instead of the now familiar "Darling" suggested that he was upset. He knew Oskar preferred his first name.

Oskar felt the intentional verbal dagger hit its mark in his chest and it was all he could do to keep from wincing, "Yes... I am a man of my word. Both to the favor I promised you and the dying request of my mother."

It was a long minute before Riley did anything at all. He simply stood a foot from Oskar, his lips pressed into a thin line as those brilliant pink eyes bore into the warrior in front of him. It made Oskar uncharacteristically nervous.

"And what if I ordered you to stay as my servant for the rest of your life?"

The words were spoken in a way that made Oskar's skin crawl. They were much darker in tone than he had ever heard Riley speak, and it shocked him. The wizard's face had not changed, but there was a darkness to it that Oskar couldn't really place.

"I..." Oskar was briefly at a loss for words. He thought about that for a moment and shook his head, "Riley... you identified an object for me. I'm grateful, but I hardly think that's a fair request for..."

"It doesn't matter what's fair," Riley claimed coldly, "You shook on it. You said, and I quote," Riley took a deep breath and said in such a perfect replica of Oskar's voice that it shocked him, "I am a warrior of my word. If you help me identify the properties of my magical item, I will do you a favor in turn."

Oskar was taken aback. He'd never heard his own voice come from someone else before.

Riley was seeking to unnerve him, and it was working.

"But..."

"You did not specify the intensity of the favor or how long it should take to complete," Riley stated, once again with cold and calculated logic. All the fun and passion in his voice was gone, "And then you shook hands with a spellcaster on vague specifications. I can't stress to you enough how foolish that was. I could absolutely keep you here as my servant."

With that, he brought up a hand and snapped his fingers. A pink light swirled around both his fingertips and Oskar's right arm. Oskar blinked at the lights. He remembered the weird trill of sensation that had went up his arm when they shook hands three days ago, but he hadn't considered it had actually been a magical effect.

"Do you have any idea what I could do with this?" Riley was almost sneering at him, "I could make you go to both poles of the entire planet just to put a flag with my face on both. I could make you swim across the Waterdune Ocean. I could make you assassinate King Evernore."

Oskar stared with wide eyes at Riley, for the moment entirely lost for words. He could see the hints of fiery anger in those usually thoughtful eyes. For a moment, Oskar was about to panic. Making deals with wizards and magical folk in general was something his mother and father both had warned him about. He probably would have despaired at that moment for his ignorance.

But he'd spent the past three days with Riley. He was sure he knew him better. Looking into his eyes, he was sure he could see the truth in them.

"You know I'm not saying this to hurt you Riley," Oskar said, his voice calm and even. He took a step forward, closing the gap between the two of them. Riley took a half step back, still glaring up at the bigger man.

"The last few days have been truly wonderful," Oskar claimed, gesturing at the garden and shack, "This place is remarkable and you... you make even this place seem dull by comparison. The idea of staying here with you forever is a beautiful dream. And maybe one day we could realize that dream together. But I've made a promise, one I intend to keep. So I implore you. I know you have all the power here, and you could make me do as you see fit. But please. Allow me to continue upon my journey after assisting you with a completable task."

Riley continued to glare at the man as he spoke. For a warrior, Oskar had an incredible way with words, which again has allowed him to work his own special kind of magic.

The wizard brought his fingers up like he was prepared to snap them. With anyone else, this may have been a silly gesture. But Oskar knew what Riley could do.

He pushed his hand up close to Oskar's face and said in a quieter tone, "I could make you stay..."

"You could..." Oskar took Riley's hand in his own. His large mitt enveloped the soft pale hand with ease. He squeezed it gently and lowered it so the two men could look into each other's eyes. Oskar could see a brimming moisture in the vibrant pink eyes, "But if you have any respect for me. You will honor our deal fairly."

Riley grimaced and his hand relaxed in Oskar's.

He then gave a little groan of frustration, throwing his head back and causing his hair to cascade down his shoulders and back.

Despite the circumstance, Oskar couldn't help but admire his beauty.

"Ugh! Why can't you be unreasonable!?" Riley turned his glare back to Oskar, "Shout at me! Demand that I don't enslave you here! Tell me you'd kill me before you'd let it happen! It would make it easier to... to keep you here..." His voice trailed off with a hitch in his breath.

Oskar felt a small smile enter his features again, "I would never harm you Riley Volstrand."

"Fuck, I know darling," Riley took a deep breath and blinked a bit, moisture gathering at the edges of his eyes. He still looked frustrated, but more in a sad way than an angry way, "And if you were any less perfect, I would force you to stay here."

"I don't believe that," Oskar shook his head, "You've been nothing but kind to me."

Riley grimaced again, "Do not mistake the way I treat you as my usual cadence. I'm usually much more of a... well an elegant word would be a 'megalomaniac'. But perhaps simply calling me a 'bitch' would be more accurate."

"I'm not sure if that's true or not," Oskar admitted, "But you have shown me nothing but kindness and I want nothing more than for our companionship to remain as well meaning as it's been."

Riley's expression turned into something more familiar. An annoyed pout.

"Fine. I'll let you keep your free will."

"How very kind of you," Oskar chuckled, then brought the wizard in for a hug. He had known from the beginning that Riley had no intention of doing as he threatened. He had just been upset by the notion of his new friend leaving and had simply lashed out.

Riley sighed into his chest, "I knew you'd talk me out of it. I've never met a man whose tongue was made of pure silver before. It's hard to argue with you."

Oskar pet the back of Riley's soft hair for a moment before pulling away, "Your words flatter me, master mage."

Riley shook his head briefly and pushed himself away with a deep breath, "Anyway, I know what your task will be. I've spent the past twenty four hours preparing for it."

"Very well," Oskar stood up straighter, his mind shifting from the calm collection it had been to a familiar, more objective based focus, "What do you require of me?"

"I need you to escort me to Hillgesin and back," Riley explained, "You will be acting as my bodyguard for the journey and even more so when we get there. I have an old... acquaintance that I must speak with. She's been in touch with the rest of the world, far more so than me. I seek to acquire certain information from her, and then I need to return here."

Oskar scratched his chin, "Hillgesin is a week's walk from here. This will take some time."

"Yes, but there is a small town at the edge of the Horsestray," Riley claimed, vaguely motioning in a southern direction, "They can probably sell us a horse, which would cut the travel time to about two or three days."

Oskar frowned at that, "I... do not have the kind of coin that it would take to purchase a horse."

"I do," Riley waved his hand dismissively, "And as an added bonus, when you return me home you can keep the horse. I don't know how to ride one personally, and probably won't have much need of it after... after you leave..."

Riley's face fell a bit at that last statement and Oskar felt a strange sinking sensation in his chest.

"That is most generous of you," Oskar said in a low voice.

"You're damn right it is," Riley finally forced a grin on his face, "And I expect to be shown the proper amount of gratitude!"

Oskar chuckled at the expression, "I can start right now..."

With that, he put his hand firmly on Riley's waist and drew him forward, planting his lips onto the grinning face of the small wizard. He was stiff at first, but Riley quickly melted into the kiss, their bodies sinking into one another as the kiss deepened.

They remained there for a moment, the kiss growing in passion as the sun rose clearly above the tree line.

Riley broke away first, a bit breathless, "Ah! Your tongue is silver in more ways than one darling."

"You've given me plenty of practice the last few days," Oskar claimed.

"I suppose I have," Riley tapped Oskar's chin, "As much as I would love to continue training that tongue of yours, we have some traveling to do. Best to do it when there's daylight."

"Agreed," Oskar nodded, "I need to gather my gear."

"I will as well," Riley glanced back up at the shack on its platform up the cliff.

"Well," Oskar bent down and put his arm behind Riley's knees, scooping him up easily into his arms, "Let's go."

Riley giggled. A sound so addictive and intoxicating to Oskar that he would do anything to hear it. With that, Oskar carried Riley up the steps and back into the quaint little shack.

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Five hours later, the pair were making their steady way through the trees of the Horsestray Woods.