Redemption of the Drow

This concludes the adventures of the dark elves and other races, and brings them up to modern time. This is primarily an adventure story set in a fantasy world, where the sex scenes are the spice but not the staple. I wrote one more sequel, set in the present day, but since I wrote it for children it does not contain any erotic elements. I may include it in the 'non erotic' section of Literotica.

Chapter 1: Xiana's defeat

Xiana materialised inside the Temple pentacle at the Hub of the drow complex. She had escaped unmarked from a difficult battle where she had seriously mauled her opponent; her beautiful naked body had not a scratch on it, but her pride had suffered a crushing defeat. A half-caste temple slave, a dwarfen freak and a renegade pervert had bested her, Xiana, Holy of Holies, High Priestess of the Spider Goddess, forcing her to run like a kobold into a hole. She knew that the Spider would punish her later but probably not as much as she punished herself with her self-loathing. A loathing that encompassed the universe, as she saw it all as an extension of herself.

There were five doors in each wall of the pentagonal temple, each door led to a small chamber, and each chamber was occupied. This was part of a trap that Xiana had prepared for her opponents, and which now appeared to be working against her. One of the doors opened, and the occupant stepped out.

It was grotesque. A hideous parody of a female figure, but with all the proportions unbalanced. The bulbous head with its bulging eyes was far too big for the spindly body, covered with barbed hairs and writhing whip-like tentacles. The legs were thick as tree trunks and the feet and hands were clawed.

The being smiled, showing large blood-stained teeth, sharpened to needle like points, and dripping with purple poison. It was not a nice smile. It was not even a cruel smile. The being showed no pleasure in cruelty, no triumph in victory. It was a smile of pure malice, untinged with any degree of emotion. A smile that told Xiana she was in deep trouble and would have been better off fighting until she died. The other four doors had now opened, and four equally twisted demonic beings stepped out of them.

"You will come with us to the Spider," one of them rasped.

Xiana had some powerful spells she could have cast. She could have stunned the five demons and then made a run for it. Teleporting to another bolt hole where she would be safe for a while. But she dismissed this option as prevarication. There was no escaping the Spider. Sooner or later she would be found, and caught in her sticky web. Xiana heard muffled cheers come from the torture chamber below. It appeared her usurper had wasted no time in cementing her reign. Xiana ground her teeth. The greatest mistake she had made in her life. She had herself connived to elevate Elspeth to the Secretariat, believing her to be of sound character. A career priestess to be sure, but no less useful because of this. Instead this little whippet had proved to be the worst traitor in the history of the drow. Far worse than the male pervert, and worse than the half-caste temple trash, who at least had her upbringing to excuse her.

Elspeth had been brought up in the most orthodox fashion, and it was ensured that no hint of heresy ever came her way. Yet somehow her brief contact with the human mercenary, contact Xiana had encouraged and indeed required, had unhinged her, and had let in a Power. A Power so great and terrible that even Xiana referred to it obliquely, if at all. For no drow dared name it, or even think about it. It was the bane of their existence, shut away since the Separation when the dark elves rebelled, but nevertheless occasionally breaking through and spiriting away promising drow to its influence. And now it had the new High Priestess in its sway, largely through Xiana's actions. It was no wonder the Spider wanted to see her, and fast.

Xiana bowed her head. "Let's go," she said.

The demons surrounded her and started their hideous chant

#

Xiana did not know exactly where she was. It was not solid ground, but nor was it dream like. The terrain appeared formless, yet at the same time deformed and ugly. It was colourless yet not dark. The only features with any form were the spider webs; vine-like tendrils knitted into a tangled and twisted shape that defied pattern. Her demonic companions had disappeared. There was no noise, yet the place did not have the peace of silence. Everything about it whispered of evil, and even Xiana, who had worshipped evil all her life, was deathly afraid.

Then she saw Her. A being she had previously seen only in visions, and then only the small parts that were revealed to her. In the flesh -- if such it could be called -- she was more deformed. It was not as if she was ugly, not in the way that flesh can be ugly. In her own way she was beautiful, her face crafted to correspond to the ideals of drow femininity, and even her spider body, so well proportioned and perfectly made, did not appear as grotesque as it might have done. The ugliness was inside. And then Xiana sensed something else.

"You don't even exist," she gasped. "We -- generations of drow -- have fashioned you in our own image."

The spider creature gave a rasping laugh. "So now you know the secret of the gods. Most of us are as you say, extensions of your own being. But does that make us any less real? What if the positions had been reversed as you like to think they are. If we had made you in our image, would you be any less real?

"You yourself have done more to make me real than most dark elves of our time," she continued. "But you have blundered terribly. You have let in something that even we do not totally understand in its destructiveness. And you will never rest, nor be free from pain and hate until you have totally destroyed it. Herein is your punishment, and herein your redemption."

The nightmare vision faded, and Xiana found herself back in the temple. The demons had gone. She heard more noises downstairs. It seemed her successor was going to celebrate her reign with a formal inauguration. Xiana decided she had better make herself scarce. In any event, she now knew what she had to do.

Xiana's first visit was to her quarters, where she put on her priestly garments and packed a few small yet immensely valuable items, including her spying ball. She opened a gold chest, one that had cost the life of a battalion of dark elves and who knew how many feral deep goblins to procure, and took out a jewellery box. She opened the box carefully, remembering to disarm the poison tipped needle that would shoot into the bearer's hand like a wasp sting, and took out the spider amulet. She then picked up her ceremonial mace. A heavy club with sharp projections, all of these stained with blood and hunks of hair-covered flesh.

Xiana lifted the mace above her head ready to smash the priceless chest to tin foil for no other reason than to stop her successor getting it. Just before she reached her upswing she heard footsteps outside. Her successor was wasting no time in starting her clean up, it seemed. A veritable army appeared to be approaching her room. Xiana was already exhausted from one battle against a foe that she had certainly underestimated. She was not going to be caught in another fight until she was better prepared. Just before the door to her room was pounded down, Xiana disappeared again.

#

Mira came home after another exhausting day at the hospital. Only a few weeks to go before my healing course is finished, and I can become a fully qualified healer, she thought. As the only healing house on the Frontier, the dwarfen healers were often required to travel to far outposts, including Formen and its surrounding villages. Mira was looking forward to visiting her friend Jade in Formen. Terry was a pleasant companion and a devoted husband, but terribly stilted in bed. He was away on patrol at present and would not be back for another week. Mira remembered the way Jade had looked at her during their vengeance journey. Now she was older and more experienced sexually, she knew what that meant. She started thinking of Jade, and what she would look like naked.

Her mounting excitement at this vision was interrupted by an urgent sounding knock at the door. Three drow women in leather armour stood there, holding a bundle. It was a while since Mira had seen a pure blood drow, and she gave a start at their dark skin and gaunt appearance. "Terry?" asked one of them.

"Terry is out. I am Terry's wife. Can I help you?"

The three drow conversed in their own language, then they handed her a letter and the bundle. "For Terry". Their accent was barely comprehensible. Then the three of them walked away. Mira took the bundle over to the bed. The bundle wriggled, then cried. Mira almost dropped it in surprise. Her first thought was to rush after the drow women and hand back the unwanted gift. Then remembering what most drow were like with children and animals she changed her mind.

Mira peered inside the swathe of spider silk blankets that the bundle was wrapped in and saw a human baby. Only not quite human. The darker skin, slanted eyes and fuzz of peroxide blonde hair gave away the lineage. Mira looked at the letter. It was written on parchment, sealed with the mark of a spider and had Terry's name written on it. Mira knew it was addressed to Terry and not her, but she was so curious about the obviously part drow baby, that she found herself opening the seal almost automatically, and reading.

My Darling Terry

I am sending our son who was conceived during our time of passion before we overthrew my evil predecessor. I wonder if you remember that time as fondly as I do. You are a marvellous lover. Gentle yet full of energy and vigour. As High Priestess I can pick any man I want, but I have yet to meet another like you. So sad that it was not to be.

I have had a few setbacks to my throne recently, and had no choice but to institute a few purges. I understand now why none of my predecessors ever left anyone over from the previous reign. As they say here, 'leftovers go bad'.

There are enemies all around me who would take my throne if they could, and I must be continually on my guard. The good news is my love for you has allowed me to continue with my healing power. As a result I am popular with the soldiers who suffered grievous injury in battle, and who would have died but for my ability. I am sending our son with three of these who I most trust.

I have sent emissaries to the humans and there is now peace between us. This has helped us no end. Instead of having to take human food by force, we can now trade with them, giving them gems from our mines and magical potions in exchange. Why ever did we not think of this before? We are twice as well off, and our young women and men are no longer dying on pointless raids.

I have received report on Jade and Maxi through these exchanges. I would love to have them here. They are difficult people and have often been abrasive and unpleasant to me. It seems they do not fully understand the obeisance that is my due as High Priestess of the Spider. Nevertheless I must admit that this lack of respect has its up side. I desperately need advisers who will speak bluntly to me if required and tell me what I must do, instead of what they think I want to hear. But the drow are not ready for half-castes and of course Maxi would not come alone.

This is also the reason why I am sending our son to you. I cannot dare to be seen with a half-caste human son while my throne is still shaky. I am High Priestess and therefore only one down from a goddess, but the sordid reality is that I can only rule by sufferance from others in power. And there are many here who would want to see me dead. I know you will provide our son with a better upbringing than I can, and one day I hope to see you both again.

Your ever loving

Elspeth

High Priestess by the Grace of Her Divine Majesty the Spider

Mira put the letter down, her face twisted with anger and jealousy. That hussy was still after her husband. What is more she had been breeding with him, while Mira had been trying to get pregnant for almost a year and nothing had happened. And what cheek, to lumber her with someone else's baby so she could lord it over down among the dark elves.

Just then the baby cried and immediately claimed her attention. It was not his fault after all that his mother was a selfish bitch. Mira wondered what she could feed him with. Babies out of wedlock are frowned upon in the straight laced dwarfen society, and wet nurses are hard to find. Mira thought of Harald, Freda's father. Since she had returned from the drow, somewhat of a hero after participating in a coup that toppled the evil High Priestess, Mira and Harald had become friends. Both had known the bitterness of betrayal, and by the same person -- a treacherous dwarf in league with drow slavers.

Harald owned all the rights to gem casting and forging in the main mine, and had recently become chair of the mine consortium so he was a very influential man among the pit dwarf community. He would no doubt find a way of looking after Terry's baby. Mira looked through the note but could not find any reference to the baby's name. Typical of Elspeth to even neglect this duty.

"Well Terry junior," said Mira as she picked him up and wrapped him in the bundle. "Let's see what your Uncle Harald can do for you." She debated whether to burn the letter then decided she would leave it for Terry to find. He would no doubt be very angry at her for opening it, but then their relationship needed something to quicken its passion.

Chapter 2: Xiana's return

Jade got out of the bed she shared with her lover Maxi and looked at her face in the mirror. An ugly gash was carved through her otherwise smooth and immaculate face, legacy of a raking fingernail from Xiana, High Priestess of the drow. After the battle her face had been badly mauled, but Mira the healer had set it right. Jade remembered even now the soothing sensuous feeling of the healer's hands on her inflamed face, and the almost immediate relief from the throbbing pain. High Priestess Elspeth had later cast a more powerful healing spell and the scars had closed up.

But now, three years later, this scar, harbouring who knew what dirt and corruption from the torture chamber, had opened up again. It spoiled her beautiful face, and although Maxi had insisted he loved her just the same, Jade knew drow men. Brought up in a world of eugenic perfection, they were revolted by any deformity, and Jade knew that although Maxi did his best and would be too solicitous to ever admit it, he would start feeling less attraction to Jade as time went by. Jade could hardly blame him; it was his nature as a drow.

Jade wondered whether the resurgence of her scar portended a renewal of power on the part of Xiana, the deposed High Priestess. If so, it might be time for Maxi to take up that offer to help Elspeth navigate the political maze required for her to keep her throne. Elspeth may even be desperate enough to let Jade join him, something she had not been willing to do two and a half years ago.

At that time, Jade and Maxi had met the emissaries to the drow. The chief emissary, introduced as Kerri, was a youngish woman, and Jade knew her by sight as a temple slave, though not one she had interacted with. She had a reputation for weird sexual fetishes. Kerri spoke the human tongue well, together with dwarfen, orcish and several other underworld languages. She not only spoke fluently, she spoke persuasively, and Jade recognised some enchantment skill.

Kerri was accompanied by a male scribe, very unusual, and two soldiers, one male and one female. The male soldier was thin and effeminate and his beard was wispy down. It seemed as if Elspeth had deliberately done all she could to defy the usual patterns of drow emissary parties.

Maxi had been promoted to military commander of the city and Jade to a senior city official soon after they had returned from the drow on their revenge mission, so they were present at the council chamber when the drow had made their official report. The drow had arrived in the heat of the day, something else that Jade found surprising, until she saw that their eyes were totally covered by sheets of black obsidian glass in a metal frame.

Kerri handed a scroll to the city leader Jim from the new High Priestess, sealed with the symbol of the Spider. It was a declaration, swearing friendship between humans and drow, and requesting an opening up to trade. The human and drow contingent spent a full day wrangling over details, finally agreeing on basic prices for goods and the routes of distribution.

"The first item you can trade are your light shades," said Jade. "What a brilliant idea. I still get a headache in the sun, and things must be worse for full drow."

Kerri turned to the effeminate man and said something to him. He waggled away and came back with a small chest. Kerri opened it and handed out a pair of obsidian light shields each for Jade and for Maxi. "A present," she said. "From her Holiness the High Priestess".

Jade and Maxi bowed low as they took the gifts. "These would be very useful," said Jade. "Not just for underground races, but even for some humans who work all day in the sun. If you can mass produce them, they could become much sought after as fashion accessories."

"Who knows, some day they may be," Kerri laughed, a laugh of pleasure, something Jade had never heard from the mouth of a drow, especially an ex-temple slave.

"Now we come to a more touchy subject," Kerri continued. "Amnesty for all drow exiles. Maxi, her Holiness wants you back. She will promote you to commander in chief and adviser for all military matters. The high ranks have rather a gap after you killed three of the best senior officers."

"What would happen to Jade?" asked Maxi.

"Her Holiness would love to have Jade as her own adviser and enchantress, but she is concerned about the reaction a half-caste would get among the more conservative faction of her priesthood. Jade will have to stay here I am afraid."

Jade was about to speak when Maxi continued. "Jade and I love each other. That means something among human societies."

"I'm sorry," said the drow emissary. "But that is the decision of her Holiness. She does not think her supporters will be ready for half-castes as free women."

"I will not return without Jade," said Maxi. "There are three other drow in our garrison. You may like to ask them. Though I will miss them. They are all excellent soldiers."

#

The emissary party had returned to the drow settlement. With them went two drow women from the city garrison who had accepted the amnesty offered by the High Priestess. The third had taken a lover among the city watch and refused. But Kerri was disappointed that she had failed in her main mission to bring Maxi back.

Not that failure was the terrible ordeal it used to be. If she had reported back to Xiana without accomplishing any mission she was sent on, she would have been beaten unconscious. Kerri had seen a number of her colleagues die from the terrible beatings they had been given. Elspeth on the other hand would be unlikely to do anything more malevolent than sulk, possibly rant and rave, and maybe throw something small and blunt. Hardly a matter to be frightened of.

Kerri had been more concerned about the future of Elspeth's reign. Although Elspeth had been doing her best, and conditions were far better than they ever had been in the living memory of even the oldest drow, Elspeth was inexperienced politically and not used to the machinations required to play one faction off against another and keep her throne intact. High Priestess succession had always been by conquest not primogeniture, and everyone forcing themselves upon the position knew that their ascendancy was only temporary. Sooner or later they would be usurped, and usually murdered, unless they had had the foresight to prepare a bolt-hole.