Mimic

Passion scanned out into the corridors as far as she dared. She still couldn't feel Zerret or Lox. The hour had already past, and they were all starting to wonder where their Keeper-Host was. She was finding it hard to keep from feeling what the rest of the women in the chamber were feeling as well. The door opened and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Norri was a blur as weapons flashed in her hands. Vale crouched behind a high back chair and brought her crossbow to bear on whatever stepped through the door. Sly stepped in a ring of spears wedged into the floor also poised for battle.

"Good. All of you will be getting a little something special from me this evening," Zerret said as he stepped into the room. Lox was only a pace behind. "Lox will explain everything. I am going to seal this door from the outside and come around through the viewing port in the ceiling."

{Ladies, we are reasonably sure that in the next three days the fortress is going to come under attack. The pisser is, Lunixri is going to be on the attackers' side. Trinseccet knows, and has not let on that she knows,}

Lox began.

{Just go with it. I will tell you the real truth personally after I make our chamber disappear,}

Zerret sent to Passion. A loving gentle pleasure poured into her senses with his words. She had to brace against the wall to hold herself up.

{The Dark Barons sent Dyneehlu in to kill Loc. She did and now they are coming. Lunixri knows I am awake, and could stop the whole thing. But Zerret and Trinseccet have made her think I am a raging sex beast with little control of my telepathic skills. Trin has hidden away the rest of his harem. So it won't be long before Lunixri finds out she and her dragon half are the only ones left in the fortress,}

Lox informed them all

. {Now after Zerret pulls a switcheroo on the other side of the door, we will be hidden from everyone save Zerret and Trinseccet.}

"How is Lord Trinseccet going to protect us?" Vale asked.

{She isn't. Zerret is. He could kill her if it came down to that,}

Lox sent sadly

. {He is trying to bait the Barons so we won't ever need to think like that again.}

"He would defend me? You would help me? Even after what I have...." Dyneehlu choked out as she broke down into heavy sobs.

Zerret pulled the doors closed, leaving the womenfolk to tend to things. Pulling his magical energy forth, he focused on fusing the door and frame into a solid object. It took a bit of time and more effort than he had considered. He would just have to deal with it. Backing out of the entryway, he imploded the walls and fascia. Weaving the broken materials into a flat wall it appeared the hall was a single corridor and that the door of his chamber never existed.

Turning on a heel, he headed in the direction of the dining hall. He geared himself up and locked away any feelings that might stay his hand. It was time to light the fuse. He sculpted himself into a creature of gothic horror. Plating his skin, enhancing the bulk of his musculature, and donning razor sharp bone-blades put him in the right frame of mind.

He manifested a cape to cover two large coiled tentacles he morphed from just under his shoulder blades. Raising a foot, he slammed open the doors to the dining hall with it. Screams and clattering furniture echoed from all around the hall. Trinseccet turned to look at him. She would likely have smiled if it were physically possible. Lunixri stood in the dragon's shadow as always.

"Dragon! What are you trying to burden me with, you bitch!?" he yelled.

"Whatever do you mean, child?" she questioned in return. Fiery humor in her eyes, ice in her words.

"The curse, you lesbian lizard! Who do you think you are, slut?!" he raged.

Some of those that had started to flee slowed their retreat in interest of the argument.

"I am Trinseccet, Lord of this Fortress and you will respect your place or I will kill you," she growled.

"Give it your best shot, you fire breathing whore!" he screamed.

Everyone ran. The threat of being burned alive by the dragon blanked all other thoughts. Lunixri had moved out of the fray, taking up a position along the kitchen wall. The dragon reared up and backhanded one of the dining tables at him. He jumped straight up, letting the table pass beneath him. It smashed into the rush of guards before they had much of a chance to cross the room's threshold.

She snarled and raised her head in an audible inhalation. His feet touched the floor and he morphed just before the curtain of searing flame engulfed him. Instinct took hold, coiling his structure to withstand the deadly inferno. He was almost at his limit.

Trinseccet's flame bathed him for three heartbeats. She was out of breath, and let the flame subside. A few of the tables behind her nephew were burning and a swath of the hall carpet smoldered. A pillar of ash stood in place of her nephew.

"Is it fucking dead?" Lunixri asked.

"Nothing survives a dragon's flame, save another dragon," Trinseccet stated proudly.

"You told him about the curse? How?" she asked.

"I didn't tell him anything. I simply answered a question."

Lunixri stormed out to look the dragon in the face. "What question?"

"How?" the dragon sneered.

"Did you tell him about the pact?"

"Would it matter now?" Trinseccet said, turning away from her glare.

"I wanna know, and that should be enough. As long as I wear this collar you are my slave. Now tell me how much you told him or I will hurt you. I will blank the memories of everyone in the fortress again. And this time I will leave them so stupid they will starve to death if you don't tell them to eat."

"I told him it was my curse, nothing more," Trinseccet said mournfully.

"That is all you told him! Loc told him, then. I didn't have him killed soon enough," Lunixri said putting her hand to her chin. "This is getting troublesome. You can get out of the fortress. And he can't get in."

"I don't think he figured that part out yet," The dragon interjected.

"Well it's dead now so figuring out I am a Jinn doesn't much matter, does it?"

"You are still too clever for me. I guess you have my number yet again," Trinseccet grinned at her.

"Why are you grinning and when did you return to your elven guise?" Lunixri questioned, coming face to face with herself.

"She didn't, you stupid heartless cunt!" he said as one of the coiled tentacles lashed out and wrapped around the white leather collar around her throat.

"You can't be, I watched her burn you!" Lunixri squealed in fright.

"Two. Six. Three," he said clearly and the collar unlatched itself from her neck.

"How could you... It isn't.." Lunixri cried. Her form twisted and reshaped. The elven beauty melted away leaving a haggard misshaped visage.

"It is time for you to return from where you came," Zerret said. "If you do not or cannot leave I will find a way to destroy you."

"Zerret, watch out!" Trinseccet said loudly.

Lunixri lunged at him. Her now taloned hands wrapped around his throat. He feigned that her hands were choking him. Her grin at this small victory was short lived. His split himself and shot more than a dozen thin black tendril tongues out around her upper body and arms.

"Zerret, don't..." the dragons voice seemed distant.

The world took on a small feeling as he dragged the twisted Jinn into himself. Thousands of equations flooded his mind and pain seared him with agonizing totality. Morphing grotesquely, an involuntary spasm caused him to vomit out the Jinns' remains. They fell to the floor in a hissing cloud of acrid smoke.

He rolled his form into something comfortable and easy to hold. A wine barrel. Trinseccet grabbed him up at that point and burned what Zerret had coughed up in a blast of her fiery breath. She backed away from the burnt Jinn remains.

"Zerret, are you alright? You still awake?" the dragon asked on the verge of panic.

{I will be fine. I just need to eat and rest, not sleep-rest. Put me in the cells with the Barons' minions.}

"Are you sure, Zerret?" she asked, worry in every word.

{I feel strange. A little out of my depth, but yes, I am sure,}

Zerret sent.

Trinseccet carried him. She moved quickly at first but gradually slowed. Finally she came to a halt altogether. The rain of confusion radiating from her gave him a sense of concern. Moving again he felt an echo inside of him, the feeling that he was seeing something from two sides at the same time.

{Uncle, where are we going?}

he asked.

"You said you wanted to go to the cells. I can't seem to find my way to the cells, though," she said. "The corridors seem to have changed. They are not as they once were."

He tried stretching out his feelings, instead he transferred his conciseness out of his body. He became the fortress. HE could feel the rooms and halls laid out with in his colossal form. All of the motes of life roaming with in his body; even the large presence of Trinseccet feeling no bigger than a finch.

A cascade of images threatened to split his mind. A silent scream arched through him. He felt like he was being crushed by his own weight. There were also numerous motes of pleasure, the kind that would compare well to the feel of orgasm. It left him with a sense of chaos.

{Keeper, I feel your thoughts. You are on your way back to the chamber?}

Passion asked.

{Zerret, what has happened? I sense you. You are everywhere and nowhere. Do you need assistance bringing your conciseness back under control?}

Lox asked.

A terrifying realization washed over him. He had bonded with the Jinn. He was the fortress which was for lack of a better term the "bottle" it was imprisoned in. The truth was laid out in his mind. Trinseccet had befriended the female Jinn. She had lied to the dragon and tricked her into a pact. Trinseccet was enslaved to the Jinn through the collar.

The Jinn stole the memories then split in two anyone who found out about her or as a way to keep Trinseccet from abandoning her. Lunixri had used so much of her magic sculpting her prison into the fortress it twisted her mind, thus enslaving Trinseccet.

Now he was in the prison. He had taken her place and become the Jinn. It was killing him. All of the changes Lunixri had made were trying to return to their original shape. This would twist and change whatever was attached to it as well. At the moment, that would be him. Not being a true Jinn, this could most assuredly rend him to pieces. He raced through memories for anything that could save him, with little success.

{Zerret, what if there were more of you?}

Passion asked.

{What are you thinking, Passion? More of him?}

Lox asked before he had a chance to hear the first question.

{If I were to bond with you, with Lox's help, the three of us could hold the fortress together. We would be able to get everyone else out of the fortress.}

{We would save everyone else but it might still kill us...}

Lox admitted.

{We have to try. Meet me in the treasury,}

Zerret sent then shifted himself back into his real body.

Once the shift had completed itself, he morphed himself into his normal bipedal form. He turned to look the dragon in the face, meeting her eye to eye.

"Uncle, change of plan. Take me as close to the treasury as possible. You are going to have to take the petrified other halves of Norri and Nye out of the fortress. I have taken Lunixri's place in the Genie's Curse. The fortress has maybe two hours at the most. Passion and Lox are going to meet me there and we are going to bond, in an attempt to get you and the rest more time to get out," Zerret blurted.

Trinseccet felt like she was going to cry, as if a dragon could shed tears. She didn't understand how, but she believed her nephew. If this is what he said was happening and that this is what needed to be done she was not going to disagree. Turning down a corridor, she headed straight for the vault with Zerret in hand.

*****************************************

The women in the chamber had heard the conversation. They started gathering things up. Lox watched for a moment, then realized what they were doing.

{Stop. Everyone just stop. There is no point in gathering anything. None of it is real,}

Lox sent

. {And even if it were, it would only slow us down.}

"Lox, let them do what makes them feel better," Passion said. "You and I have to figure out how to get out of this room and to the treasury."

The only woman in the room not to jump was Norrinshrin. And that was due to the fact she was looking the other way. The doors peeled back like an opening flower blossom and the wall beyond melted as if were made of wet sand. Vale dropped everything in her arms.

"Passion, I think you have an answer," Vale said flatly.

"Alright, let's get moving," Passion said looking at Lox. "The rest of you get out of the fortress. Dyneehlu, you were the last one to get in. Show them where. It should be the fastest way out and the first one to reopen."

"You're seriously going to hold the fortress together and let everyone escape?" Sly asked. "You better come back to me. I would die without you."

{We will find some way of saving ourselves. We won't be able to if there are other people in the fortress, though. So the faster we get everyone out, the sooner we get to living and loving each other. I want a real taste of all of you. I am not about to die without getting that kinda hot lovin'}

Lox announced.

Standing in the treasury, Zerret was able to focus more easily. It had not been overly difficult to open his chamber for the ladies. Shifting hallways to herd the rest of the fortress' populace to exits had been equally uncomplicated. He was able to let parts of the fortress shift and collapse, not holding everything eased the burden on him greatly. As the number of living decreased in the fortress, the pain lessened as well. It was working.

"Trinseccet, Uncle, if we don't survive you will still look after everyone, won't you?" Zerret asked.

"You know that I will. What are you really asking, Nephew?" she asked in return.

"If things go badly, take Passion and Lox to safety. Don't risk yourself trying to save everyone. It is the only reason you got trapped here in the first place," he said "Sometimes there are people you just can't save. You aren't very selfish for a dragon."

"And what an amazing creature are you. Survive this, Zerret. I don't want you dying before I get a chance to thank you," Trinseccet said.

{Everyone needs to put the thoughts of dying out of their heads,}

Lox broadcast to all as she and Passion came into the chamber

. {Otherwise, we'll dwell on it and doom ourselves to failure.}

Trinseccet reared back. Passion crossed the room and folded herself into Zerret's arms

. {Together, whatever happens.}

"How should we proceed?" Zerret asked.

{First, there is a matter of the others. Trinseccet, you are going to have to carry the statues of Nistine and Norrinshrin from the keep. If they remain, neither of them will ever be whole again. Once you are safely away, the three of us can begin,}

Lox sent, feeling she had a course of action already in mind.

Zerret crossed the room, shifting his finger to the shape of a key. It took a moment to get a feel for the inside of the lock but it opened. The door and frame started to crumble. Time was not really on their side it would seem. Backing away quickly he turned on a heel and stepped to the center of the room. As he kneeled, the lock was closed to the ring and he began to swoon. Passion caught him and brought him back to his senses.

{Take them and go, you surly slut dragon bitch,}

Lox sent to Trin in a mirthful cloud of mock anger.

"Be safe, you beautiful little bipeds," she retorted.

Grabbing the statues, she waddled like a drunken duck from the chamber. Zerret locked eyes with Lox. He felt what she meant to do. Her eyes softened. He knew she was right. There would be no other way. Passion's keen sense of timing asked:

"So what is the plan?"

{Hot sweaty sex! As much as your stud of a Keeper can give us, of course,}

Lox sent with a barrage of illicit images of his tentacles stuffing them in every hole.

"If we end up dying we wouldn't even notice, right?" Zerret quipped.

Passion shuddered. He lashed out tentacles to wrap both of them and bring them in close. He hugged Passion to his body affectionately. The embrace with Lox was all about the sex. He was quick to morph a pair of phalluses. Both he buried into the female Illithid hilt deep. Her mind blurred and swirled in delight.

Passion he took less aggressively. Gently sliding into her depths, conveying his love for her physically. When her body relaxed to him, the second slid carefully into her ass. Both women gushed waves of pleasure. He, too, felt a building in him. One he had felt from others yet not tasted in his own senses.

He pulsed vibrations into their clutching depths, sending them further into the clouds of sexual pleasure. His own pleasure increased with each trickle of the feminine nectars. The world began to fall away to the feeling of these women and the waves of pleasure from their countless orgasms.

It rolled through his body in thunderous convulsions. He orgasmed!! Passion, Lox, even the ground beneath him were eclipsed in the pulsing waves. Thoughts of anything stopped, and the blinding blur of pleasure took every piece of him. Blackness and silence followed. A voice whispered lovingly from the warm darkness,

{You are of each other now. Take care, my lovely stepchildren.}

Trinseccet scuttled along, very afraid. She had her charges held to her gently. The Fortress was crumbling around her as she passed. Familiar rooms imploded and halls twisted. She closed her eyes to what she saw, and held hope that somehow everyone one would survive.

The floor buckled and lurched, sending her toppling to the floor. She wrapped her wings around herself. But even she doubted a dragon could survive countless tons of fortress crushing her. Nothing came. She peeked from the folds of her wings and saw open sky. Looking down, neither of the statues had been damaged. She sighed.

Rolling to her feet, she looked back to where the fortress should have stood. There was only a gaping barren crater. Nothing remained. There was no sign of Zerret, Passion, or Lox. Nothing . Scanning the horizon, the women of her harem called to her. A second group yelled for her further off to the right of them. The would be harem of her nephew.

She put to wing, lifting her silver draconian elegance into the sky. She circled the crater once. Taking count of all the people her three most selfless friends had saved. She settled to the ground an equal distance between the two groups of women. Setting the statues in a respectful position and waited for the all of the women to come to her for answers. She feared many would not like them. She found them unpalatable herself.

The ground began to vibrate, then rumble. Looking out into the crater, fissures opened letting beams of pearlescent light gleam up towards the heavens. At an incomprehensible speed, tentacles and tendrils burst from the fissures and molded themselves into the infrastructure of a grand citadel. In the span of nine heartbeats they grew into an edifice of draconian proportions.

She blinked in disbelief. The many women of her keep stood with her in the shadow of the grand citadel which was now before them. None could find words to voice about what they had just witnessed. A figure appeared on one of the many balconies.

"Uncle! Are you just going to stand there with your jaw on the ground or are you going to come in out of the cold?" Zerret called. "The sun isn't going to wait for you." He gestured towards the horizon and the mid afternoon sun hanging just over the western range mountains.