CW:

  Spoiler(Magically) drugged/aphrodisiac sex. Consensual, as always

  [colpse]-----------------------

  Ketch

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  Ketch followed the Champion and her sve through her city's streets, a single hand inside her cloak keeping it pinned closed. She did not want a repeat of that incident earlier, and she was taking the necessary measures to prevent it.

  Well, all reasonable measures. She was certain that she was capable of giving the two hapless women the slip, Champion or not. But this Sara had proved honorable, sparing her life first at the end of a bde, then from the hidden machinations of her once-employers. To simply abandon them to the ominous, crawling shadows of the Tulian midnight would be dishonorable.

  Ketch looked about the street, spotting dozens of lightless corners from which any manner of ambush could be unched.

  She walked faster, drawing closer to the Champion.

  For Sara's protection, of course. No other reason.

  To distract herself from unproductive worries, Ketch focused upon the Champion herself. Remarkably tall for a human woman, she had a figure befitting a lustful goddess. A full chest and wide hips failed to be dulled by her pin clothing, and the bck hair that curled down to her shoulder bdes was exquisite. She never seemed anything less than confident, her emotions cycling between cockiness, bemusement, steely anger, or any other combination of regur emotions tinged by that same impossible self-assuredness. Even now she walked with a confident swagger, swaying hips at just the right height for Ketch to observe, watching the bounce of her...

  Muscles. The woman was muscled, toned. Well defined calves implied she was a runner. That was why Ketch choked on her own spit, stifling her cough. The feline looked back, raising an eyebrow that implied more knowledge than she could ever have. Ketch scowled back at her, still coughing slightly.

  The feline was her own problem. She did not ascribe to her owner's humble sensibilities. Beneath a gray rain cloak she wore a fine auburn dress, roughly hacked to deepen the neckline and expose her thighs. She did not fill her clothes as the Champion did, but when her tail began that rhythmic, hypnotizing bob...

  The feline was looking at her again, amused. Ketch raised her lip in a snarl, speaking just a touch deeper than her natural voice. "Going unarmed in the Tulian night is foolish, feline."

  "I'm not," she responded with a patronizing smile. "I can dismiss and summon my weapon at will, if you'll recall?" Ketch flushed, snapping her head away as if she'd spotted something atop a building. The feline's gaze didn't follow, remaining affixed on her. "And by the way, my name's Evie. My Master is Sara, if you didn't catch her name during the meeting."

  After a moment of hesitation, Ketch seized upon a retort. "But appearing unarmed is nigh asking for an assault. You should keep it upon your person regardless."

  The silver rapier fshed into existence, then was casually tucked into Evie's belt. "Of course. You are the local expert, Ketch. Now, since we have nothing better to chat about, do you have any curiosities that need sating regarding my Master?"

  Ketch's eyes blew out as she stuttered. "W-what are you implying of me, woman?! As if I need anything from a-a demon of lust. "

  "My Master is a holy Champion, Ketch. Quite literally the farthest thing from a demon."

  "And Amarat's not just about lust, y'know," Sara added without looking back. "Passion's a wide umbrel, which can really get irritating when you're trying to keep a cool head." She shrugged, the motion bouncing that hair of hers that should have been ruined in the coastal humidity. "Though I will admit, lust does seem to be a pretty big part of things."

  Ketch stewed silently, arms petuntly crossed beneath her cloak.

  She may be a lecherous creature by nature, Ketch thought to herself, but being given free rein to ask things of a Champion is a remarkable opportunity. I shouldn't squander it.

  "How many women do you keep?" Ketch asked, the question flying from her lips before any more reasonable, practical inquiries could manifest. Ketch yelped, popping her hands over her mouth.

  "Uh, four, I think? It's complicated." The Champion scratched her head, unfppable as always. "Vesta's way far away, and Nora's... Nora. It's mainly Evie and Hurlish, to be honest."

  "And I was the first," Evie primly asserted.

  "And Evie was the first," Sara agreed. "Why do you ask?"

  "I-I-I-I... didn't?" Ketch tried. She shook her head. "No. I did. But it was because I want to firmly state that I will not fall to your predatory advances."

  "Evie? Am I advancing predatoraly right now?"

  Lips pursed contemptively, the sve looked her master up and down. "Not at the moment, no."

  "See?" Sara asked Ketch. "Not a predatory bone in my body. Sexually, at least."

  "I wouldn't go that far, Master."

  "There's not a single non-consensual sexual predator bone in my body. Is that good enough, your litigousness?"

  "Accurate at st, Master."

  Ketch felt light on her feet, the two women's banter leaving her dizzy. Her father had said the outside world was strange, but she had to believe this wasn't normal. No one could live as these two did, surely?

  "...Are your other women like this one?" Ketch asked weakly.

  Sara snorted. "There's not a one of them that's like Evie. Actually, none of them have much in common. Keeps things interesting, to be sure."

  Interesting? I'm sure that's how SHE would consider it, Ketch thought.

  "Your innuendoes grow tiring, Champion." Ketch turned up her nose.

  "Y'know, Ketch, you're the only one here that keeps taking everything sexually. Something on your mind?"

  Ketch knew she should stay silent, but she couldn't help herself. "How could there not be?! I am being escorted by a Champion and her sex sve, forced to endure their constant teasing and half-hidden barbs. What in the world could lead so many women so far astray?"

  Sara turned around, stopping with a crooked arm on her hip. "Would you like to find out?"

  Ketch wanted to scowl, or sneer, or look in any form respectable, but instead she gave in to the pounding of her heart, staring at Sara staring at her. "...Yes, please," she squeaked.

  Sara ughed boisterously. "Lead on, then! You know somewhere nearby that's not too leaky?"

  As Ketch began leading this motley group towards one of her preprepared safehouses, trying to leverage her knowledge of the city to salvage the st shreds of her dignity, she heard Evie whispering behind her.

  "I said this would happen, Master."

  "C'mon!" Sara whispered back, thinking herself out of earshot. "This one is hardly my fault."

  "Oh, I'm far from compining..."

  Their whispers faded as Ketch's flush grew, an incomprehensible swirl of emotions battering her from the inside out. What she was doing was ridiculous, preposterous, utterly reprehensible. Hours past her first meeting with complete strangers and she was hurrying herself to the coziest hole she could find to bed down with them? She had no idea what she was thinking.

  Or at least she wished she did, because the reality was that her mind was far more occupied on the why than she'd have ever preferred. Constant memories of flitting gnces flickered through her mind's eye, long expanses of lithe bodies leading her to distraction. The Champion's smile and batted eyelids, unyielding before figures that had terrorized Ketch for her entire life, all while she kept an exotic beauty curled in her p like a pet. The sudden fsh as her gaze had turned to smoldering iron, bearing down with all-consuming authority on the Shaded Tree, as if any effort to defy her will was suicidal idiocy. The rise and fall of her breasts as she'd danced away from Ketch's dagger, teasing her, treating her like a child, and then the nauseatingly cocky camaraderie she'd shared with her sex sve while standing over Ketch's defeated form.

  Ketch hiked up the stairs to her safehouse at a walking pace, yet was still out of breath when she ushered Sara and Evie inside. Her two guests looked about with critical eyes, leaving Ketch squirming anxiously, awaiting their reaction.

  The safehouse, a simple second floor room that she'd reinforced with spare wood, was nothing special. Dried provisions, refreshed monthly, were stacked up in the corner. A roughly-woven red rug, one of her more prized finds of the st few years, covered most of the otherwise splinter-prone wooden floors. Three looted benches padded by straw-stuffed sailcloth bags lined the walls, ostensibly to be used as beds, though she'd always found the floor more comfortable.

  "So," Sara said, turning around, "what did you want to know?"

  Ketch blinked, smoothing away the anxiety slipping through her facade. That was all? No reaction at all to the meager, humiliating shelter? Ketch somehow found it a relief, but she also hadn't expected Sara's actual response.

  "What do you mean?" She asked, keeping her cloak still tightly pressed around her.

  "Well, you said you wanted to see what had so many people following a Champion, didn't you?" Sara mage a gesture towards herself, sitting on one of the benches. Evie fell into her p in practically the same motion, tail reaching up to curl around her owner's bicep. "Since I was taking you back to our base of operations, I figured it'd be best to let you ask your questions beforehand. Clear the air, so to speak."

  Ketch blinked. Yes, that made sense. Had she really misinterpreted Sara's invitation so poorly? To think that a Champion of Amarat would want... that... with her? A pin girl from Tulian?

  After a moment's consideration, Ketch decided that no, she definitely hadn't misinterpreted. This woman wasn't a demon of lust, but one could easily be forgiven for making the mistake. This was her merely... offering Ketch an opportunity. To learn, to guide the situation. Ketch swallowed hard, choosing her words carefully as she sat on the bench opposite the Champion.

  "Was it... hard? Coming to this world from yours?"

  "Not really," Sara replied, thinking hardly a moment about the question. "I miss my dad, and a few of my friends, but that's about it. The whole Champion thing pretty much makes up for everything else."

  Ketch nodded, beginning to conjure up some equally banal question, but found her mouth flying open before it was prepared. "What does being Amarat's Champion give you? I know the other stories, about Champions with awesome strength and powerful magic, but you seem so... normal?"

  Evie grinned for some reason, wriggling her hips back and forth in her owner's p. "Well for one, it gave her a-"

  "Great read on people," Sara snapped, pinching her sve's arm. Ketch stared, uncomprehending, but let Sara continue. "I'm way better at figuring people out, now. I can't read minds or anything, but I've never really met anyone that can lie to me."

  "That sounds handy," Ketch hedged. "But isn't there anything more... spectacur?"

  "Some, but they're not fshy. Things that help me get people on my side, or help those that already are. Amarat's blessings may not have saved my life yet, but they've definitely made me friends that have."

  Ketch scooted forward on the bench, feeling her anxiety easing slightly. Then, suddenly, the very fact that she was feeling less concerned, concerned her. "Are you doing it to me right now?" She demanded, drawing back.

  "You'd have no doubt about it if she was," Evie smirked. "Master's compulsions are quite exquisite, but narrow in their scope. Noticeable."

  Ketch opened her mouth to question that comment, but Sara rolled her eyes and answered before she could get a word out.

  "She means horniness, Ketch. I can make people that are already into me way, way more turned on. That's it. It's not mind control. In fact, every one of my abilities has a prerequisite that the target be willing, at least subconsciously."

  Ketch licked her lips, eyes locked on Sara's hand idly running through her sve's hair. "What does it feel like?"

  Sara arched an eyebrow.

  Ketch had thought she'd been asking for Evie's description of the experience, but the second the wave hit her, she became so grateful her question had been misinterpreted.

  She gasped loudly, gripping the bench for bance as she felt her inner walls clench. The room faded to a dulcet gray, the only spot of color coming from the vibrancy that danced across Sara's skin. Amarat's Champion had been inked in a finer palette than the rest of reality, the world beyond her skin existing solely to facilitate her presence.

  Ketch teetered forward on the seat, the gravity of desire pulling her towards Sara. A hunger unlike any other reared up in her, a pathogical desire that couldn't be fought, one that she'd never want to fight.

  And then it was gone. Without a single word or motion Sara's influence on her vanished, leaving only the echoes of a pounding throb between her thighs.

  "It's like that," Sara said, then made a face. "Well, maybe not always. That was a hell of a reaction you had there."

  Ketch's flush no longer had anything to do with embarrassment as she wiped a line of drool from the corner of her mouth. "And you didn't think to warn me before doing that?" She demanded. She was so hot that she had to open her cloak to alleviate it, exposing her skin. Doing so didn't bother her as much as it had a minute before.

  "Are you in the habit of warning others before visiting them with a gift?" Evie asked, eyes trailing over Ketch's body. "Master's abilities can't be forced upon a person. You accepted it, whatever you may convince yourself afterward."

  Ketch sputtered a bit, but had no retort to give. She'd not known what to expect, but having felt that strange alteration, she found herself wanting it again. Instead of admitting as much, she asked, "What did you mean it's not always like that?"

  "It's not usually that strong," Sara expined, with a gnce to Ketch's clenched legs, which were hiding a wetness she feared had soaked through her clothes. "I mean, it works wonders, but it hit you like a truck."

  "Perhaps it's because she's so repressed?" Evie guessed, nuzzling between her owner's breasts so her voice was half-muffled. "Vesta and Hurlish had their fair share of worldly adventures before they met you."

  "Are you implying I'm inexperienced?" Ketch accused, her offended lean back pushing her cloak to the sides, exposing her further. "I have a girlfriend, I'll have you know. I'm not ignorant of these things."

  Sara nodded approvingly, but Evie looked more skeptical. "And this girlfriend of yours... you've fucked?"

  Ketch's natural instinct, to sputter and act shocked by the crude nguage, was temporarily overridden by the heat of her skin. "Y-yes," she said, trying to project confidence. "I have. I'm a very experienced woman."

  "Mm-hmm," Evie agreed insincerely. She slid out of her owner's p, standing with an overhead stretch that left little of her figure to the imagination. "But only with her, I'm guessing?" Evie asked.

  "Why does that matter?" Ketch countered.

  "Because tonight could be a learning experience, of course," Evie purred, bending forward in another stretch. It gave Ketch a look straight down her loosened shirt, while simultaneously shoving her ass in her owner's face. "You should be ready for all kinds of encounters, and it's always best to improve your ability to please your partner, yes? Master is uniquely equipped to help you."

  Ketch gnced at Sara, thus far this conversation's voice of reason, and found her distracted by the feline's dispy. Ketch deliberated, breathing hard.

  "I guess that only makes sense," she eventually said, straightening her back. The cloak, which she'd so needily clung to before, fell further away. It now covered essentially nothing. She was exposed, the clothes that most humans thought scandalous bared to all. Fortunately, Ketch was rapidly careening past caring. "Of course, it's only for practice."

  "Of course," Evie agreed. "Master, if you'd stand up?"

  The Champion, snapped out of her devout regarding of Evie's ass, looked up with confusion. "Huh?"

  "Just stand, Master."

  "Sure," Sara said, stepping to the middle of the room with Evie. The feline slid behind her owner, arms embracing the rger woman from behind.

  "It's always important to ready your partner before things progress," Evie said, her voice growing scratchier as she began to massage her owner's body over her clothes. Ketch watched, enraptured, as Evie's hands began crawling up and down the Champion, ghosting across sensitive spots that the sve knew better than Ketch knew the back of her hand.

  "O-oh," Sara breathed, "I see where this is going."

  "Pleasant of you to join us, Master," Evie replied breathily, lips a hair's breadth from Sara's ear. She nipped the earlobe, prompting a shiver from the Champion. The sight of it had Ketch responding in kind.

  "Uh, Ketch, you said you had a girlfriend?" Sara asked, her words shaky and distracted. "She'd be cool with this, right?"

  Ketch thought of Sellie, wondering at the question for all of a half second before nodding mutely. Sellie was many things, but jealous wasn't one of them.

  "Cool," Sara breathed, breath hitching as Evie's hands began to drift under clothes. "J-just making sure."

  "And if that's the case, Ketch, why don't you come a little bit closer?" Evie offered invitingly. "Some things are best learned up close." Ketch drifted off the bench, limbs answering for her distracted mind. Evie lifted a hand from Sara for just a moment, earning a pintive whine from the woman, and used it to push down on Ketch's shoulders. She fell to her knees, barely feeling the rough carpet as she stared up at Sara.

  "Luckily for you, Master is full of surprises," Evie continued, right hand drifting south. Ketch followed it with her eyes, heart beating thunderously. "You know your own body well, but have you ever handled a cock?" Ketch shook her head, watching where Evie's hand was leading. A bulge was growing there, right at eye level. "Then we can start today," Evie purred, enticing Ketch closer.

  "C-c-can I see?" She asked, breath shaky. "F-for. Um. Learning purposes?"

  "Naturally," Evie said. "We're all here to help each other, aren't we? You're free to do as you please for Master."

  "Up to a point," Sara reminded the two women from above, looking down on Ketch with dark eyes. "Just... you don't have shark teeth, right?"

  Ketch licked her lips, not dignifying that with a response. She reached up to Sara's waistband, reverently pulling it down.

  Out sprang a cock that dwarfed Ketch's wildest expectations. She knew she was a petite woman, but even when accounting for her size, Sara's girth looked massive before her. Like it would kill her to take.

  Gods, how she wanted to anyway.

  Evie sidled around to Ketch's side of Sara, kneeling next to her. The feline began to say something to her, resting a hand on the back of her neck, but Ketch couldn't hear her. She was too busy watching Sara's cock jump to the time of her heartbeat, feeling a gathering rush to her lower regions.

  "Can you give me your gift again?" Ketch asked Sara, cutting Evie off. "I want to feel it again."

  The Champion, mind addled by the sight of two women on their knees before her, did not question the request.

  Ketch trembled as the haze descended upon her once more, a heady buzz that sapped light from the world beyond Sara. She felt her muscles scken, the anxiety that consumed her days overwhelmed by a roaring torrent of lust. Someone spoke, but the words were dull thumps, irrelevant. She leaned forward, raising her hands to the Champion's body.

  The room spun as Ketch's skin grazed against Sara's, filling her with a fire that left her writhing. The barest graze of fingertips against Sara's body carved scars in her, marks of desire that she prayed were permanent. As the bonfire grew, Ketch fell further forward, limply burying herself in the feel of Sara's crotch against her face.

  Distantly, like church bells ringing, she heard the Champion speak.

  "Fuck, it's really hitting her hard. Do you think I should turn it off?"

  More meaningless thumps. Ketch turned her head to the side, lolling tongue tasting the divinity of Sara's cock.

  "Y-yeah, you're probably right," Sara said. "F-fuck, that's hot."

  What was left of Ketch couldn't agree more. She dragged her tongue along Sara's length, the taste leaving her shuddering. It truly was divine: a nectar that spiced and soothed her body at the same time. The air of her safehouse felt scalding on everywhere but her pussy, which was so soaking wet she could feel it leaking down her thighs. She shifted back and forth, tasting everything she could of Sara.

  Evie spoke, pcing a hand on the back of Ketch's head. She nodded, understanding. It was what she was here for, after all. She let herself be pulled back, open mouth pced before Sara's cock. Her breath fogged the air as she panted, moving forward.

  Sara met her, pressing the tip between her lips, and at the same moment Ketch felt something simir intrude upon her mind. Ketch's eyes widened, feeling the request for connection coming from Sara. Without consideration, she welcomed both aspects of the woman into her.

  As she moaned at the taste of Sara's cock on her tongue, she felt a new set of emotions filter in among her own. An empathic link, sending to Ketch the emotions of the Champion, and to Sara her own feelings.

  There was so much more going on in the Champion's mind than her own, Ketch realized. Her mind, even before being addled, was a shadow's shadow, invisible. From Sara she felt worry, guilt, doubt, and fondness, both for Ketch and Evie. There was the thin patina of frustration the woman kept veiled, a contempt for the primitive societies that still revered servitude, and there was the pitter patter tappings of minor concerns that always burbled at the back of a consciousness. But beyond those, there was something more. Two leviathans dwarfing all others, hardly roused, yet still far greater than the rest. One boiled and hissed, straining against chains, while the other slept dormant, barely roused yet still so massive.

  Her mind lit upon the sleeping beast, sinking into its warm embrace.

  Lust.

  Ketch felt the emotion suffusing the Champion, bolstered and encouraged by the crackling heat of divine interference. Even now, with her cock in Ketch's mouth, Sara was so far restrained it drove Ketch mad. What would it be like, to receive the brunt of such astounding desire? To have her body savaged, cimed, dominated by a hundred women's worth of pent-up energy? Evie had called Ketch repressed, but her minor falsehoods had nothing on the Champion of Amarat. She wasn't sure if the woman was a monument to self control or deluded to the point of idiocy.

  Ketch intended to find out. The influx of foreign emotions cleared her mind just enough to form a pn, and the first step was shoving her head forward.

  Sara's knees shook as Ketch pushed until she felt Sara's cockhead slide against the back of her throat, then kept going, ignoring the protests of her body. The aches and spasms were nothing next to the taste of Sara, the feel of the woman inside her body. She kept going, rexing her throat until she felt her nose brush against Sara's trimmed pubic hair. From their bond Ketch sensed relief, pleasure, and still that niggling worm of concern, always chaining the lust from reaching greater extent.

  She reached up, guiding Sara's wrists towards her head. She had the woman ball her fists in her short hair, every fiber of her being trying to transmit the emotion Please. Sara's lust rose higher, and Ketch rejoiced as Sara drew her hips back.

  The first sm against her face was eye-wateringly wonderful. The brief moment that Sara had withdrawn made her feel starving, longing to be filled, and when Sara returned she felt the first shock of orgasm shake her. It ran from her core to her chest, making her nipples painfully sensitive against her clothes, and she squirmed and wriggled in pce, whining in delight.

  Sara kept going without hesitation, fucking Ketch's face. She didn't care about anything else, just the feel of Sara, and even as her head was violently jerked back and forth, she tried to draw closer to the woman, groaning at the sparks flying from every inch of skin that made contact with Sara. Ketch had once swiped some of the more lurid substances in the Shaded Tree's inventory, more out of spite than curiosity, and the high she'd felt from that was a mild buzz next to this swirl of goddess-stirred delirium. She kept touching, and feeling, and bouncing her head in time to Sara's thrusts, and all the while she kept shivering, burning with desire from the inside out.

  She didn't know how much time passed, but at some point she began to feel Sara's legs quivering under her touch. The slight weakness fanned Ketch's hunger even higher, leading her to grip harder on Sara's thighs, drawing her closer. She opened her eyes, staring up at Sara's face. The woman was shivering, looking down at Ketch as she pounded her mouth.

  Ketch threw her head forward, pursing her lips and tightening herself around Sara's length.

  "Ffffuuuuck!" Sara swore, the cwing of her nails across Ketch's scalp a sweet pain. She let her throat get vioted, welcoming Sara's final frantic thrusts before the champion froze, mouth open in a silent scream.

  The thought of Sara's cum filled Ketch's mind. Sara's cock jumped in her throat, pulse after hot pulse shooting into Ketch. It tasted like nectar. Like the god's nectar, gifted to Ketch, who was so proud to discover she deserved it. Her eyes watered with joy, the unending waves of pleasure that had been crashing inside her reaching a newer, climactic peak. Sara had to hold her up just to keep her in pce, hissing hot breaths through her teeth as Ketch slumped, reduced to a hole. Her body spasmed weakly in Sara's grip, muscles firing off random impulses as she was overwhelmed by pleasure. She kept drinking the cum, swallowing, squeezing every st bit that she could from Sara's cock, moaning deliriously.

  Ketch's sense of time was lost to the haze of bliss. She felt Evie guiding her owner gently to the floor, ying her down beside Ketch. They y together for a while, skin pressed to skin.

  Eventually Sara roused enough to retract her Gift, clearing the fog that had obscured Ketch's world. The saferoom apparated from nothing, the creaks and groans of old timbers shockingly loud without the drumming of her pulse to muffle them.

  "Sorry about that," Sara said quietly, and through the magical bond Ketch felt contrition rise to the forefront.

  "What will it take," Ketch said, rolling onto her side to look at Sara directly, "to convince you that I enjoyed that?"

  "I know you did, but it's still weird for me to- wha-?"

  Ketch hauled her quivering limbs up off the floor, rolling onto the rger woman. Ketch reached around to the small of her back, uncsping the small garment that hid what little of her chest there was. She pced her hips atop Sara's as the woman devoured the sight of her body, letting her feel the wetness that still soaked her shorts.

  Emphasizing each word, she dragged herself over Sara's length. "I want this. I want your body. I loved the way you made me feel."

  "I might as well have drugged you, Ketch."

  Ketch hunched over until her face cast a shadow over Sara's. "I know. I want you to do it to me again. Again and again and again, until I can't walk."

  Evie, who'd slumped into a kneeling position nearby, tsked. "Master. I think that for once you're taking your consideration for others a little bit too far."

  Ketch nodded meaningfully. "You were halfway in my head in more ways than one, Sara. A part of you still is. Do you feel anything that said 'no'?"

  "No," Sara said, groaning as Ketch's distraction worked its magic. "But... I dunno. Sex god mind magic, right? Gotta be careful."

  Ketch leaned low, whispering into Sara's ear. "When you're in me, there should not be a single part of you thinking 'careful'."

  Ketch pressed down harder, feeling Sara's body shift to a more feminine persuasion. She raised herself off Sara's body, moving further down, licking her lips.

  "Evie?" She murmured. "I think I will need help with this part. I haven't ever been on the giving end, if you know what I mean."

  The feline smirked, crawling over to kneel behind Ketch. "Just mirror what you feel me doing," she instructed

  Ketch's eyes fluttered as Evie pressed her tongue to her pussy, collecting the wetness that had been pooling there. It was looking like it would be a long, wonderful night.

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  Ketch woke te in the morning, cracking open crusted eyelids. She was tangled in warmth, sprawled beneath two rger women. Her breath sped up, starting to panic, before a recollection of st night coalesced into her conscious mind.

  The early stages of hyperventition were rapidly repced by bone-deep embarrassment, a full body flush consuming her as fragments of what she'd said-- what she'd done-- floated back to her. How in the world was she going to tell Sellie about this?

  I'll just have to force her to do a mind reading spell, Ketch decided. There's NO way I can describe all this. Just need to slip out of here quietly... oh my gods, why are we all so STICKY?

  Despite her best efforts at stealth, which were impressive, the women groaned as she peeled her naked skin from theirs.

  "Wheremuoygoin?" Sara mumbled, one eye squinting into the sunlight falling across her face. ""iss like dawn or somethin'."

  "Um, well," Ketch stumbled over her words as she continued to unstick herself from Evie and Sara, a process that grew more difficult the lower on her body she worked. "I've got to get home. Dad gets worried if I'm out too long, since he knows I work with the Shaded Tree."

  Sara's other eye popped open, staring incredulously. "You live with your DAD?"

  "Of course," Ketch said defensively, reflexively reaching to tighten a cloak that wasn't there. "And my girlfriend, as well. It's only practical in Tulian, no matter how you strange outnders live."

  "I mean, fair, but I don't think I've ever banged someone that hard when they still lived with their parents," Sara said. "Not since highschool, at least. Should I walk you home or something? What's the protocol here?"

  "It'd be impressive if you could," Ketch replied, finding her shorts. She started to put them on, then realized there was a clean rip down the crotch. Of course. How could she forget the infamous Round Three? "I live under the harbor. So unless you've got some potions of Water Breathing, you're out of luck."

  "Oh. That's probably for the better anyway. Meeting your girlfriend would be kinda weird, huh?"

  "Yes, but not for the reasons you'd think. Sellie will probably be grateful to you, if anything."

  "Why's that?"

  Ketch froze for a moment as she picked up her top, realizing what she was about to say so casually. After a moment of consternation, she forced through her discomfort.

  "Sellie doesn't have much interest in sex. We're Bonded, though, so she knows when I get worked up. She-" Ketch coughed, "-takes care of it. Y'know. She's great, really. But I think she won't mind having someone else doing that job."

  Ketch kept dressing, finding that she at least hadn't ruined her cloak. A thrill of equal parts trepidation and excitement went through her as she realized she'd have to walk home without pants, covered only by the cloak.

  Sara whispered something to Evie, who answered in a much clearer voice.

  "Being Bonded is usually something that refers to witches and their familiars, Master. The practice is usually banned with intelligent beings, but Tulian has been without proper mage oversight for some time."

  "Really?" Ketch asked Evie. "It's banned in other pces? I don't see why."

  "While I'm no mage, I believe it's to do with the magical control it exerts. Exceptions are made only if the Familiar is already a sve of the witch in question."

  Ketch frowned. "I mean, sure, she can definitely get in my head, maybe order me around a bit, but that's not so bad. Fun, even." She fastened the csp on her cloak.

  Sara chuckled. "Sorry to say, but I think you're a bit of an outlier there. Most people don't get as much out of being magic-boinked as you do."

  Ketch sniffed, turning up her nose. "Well, they're missing out. I'll see you ter today, Sara."

  The Champion called out as Ketch swept out of the safehouse. "Wait, what? Why ter today?"

  "Because I'll have been around Sellie for a few hours, and that usually means I'll be pent up. You are going to do your job, aren't you?"

  Ketch didn't wait for the answer, knowing it already. She hurried down the stairs on light feet, feeling simultaneously lighter and fuller than she had in weeks. Feeling the cool air against her crotch as she slipped out into the morning shower, she shivered.

  The route back to the harbor's edge was one she could walk blind, allowing her mind drift in comfortable fashion. As she traveled, keeping an eye about her for trouble, she wondered just how closely she should tie herself to this Champion.

  It helped that Ketch had more than taken the measure of the woman. She'd spent hours in her embrace with their minds melded together, base urges and desires bared for either to see. She was certain that Sara held no ill will for her, nor had any vilinous ambitions for Tulian as a whole. Standing with a Champion may invite some element of danger to herself, which might drive her father and Selly mad with worry, but it wasn't like it could be worse than the Shaded Tree. In nearly every way she could figure, it would be good for her.

  She had only one hesitation. An emotion that she'd sensed in Sara, lurking beneath all the others.

  Anger. Fury, even.

  A blinding white monstrosity, chained and buried beneath her other emotions. It was the second leviathan of Sara's consciousness, a coiled serpent that dwarfed all others. Ketch's emotions in their totality were but a flicker to the Champion's rage, a torch in a typhoon. She'd shied away from that sleeping beast, a moth recognizing the heat of fme just before it could consume her.

  And unlike the Champion's lust, her anger had no marks of that eery divine influence to bme for its prominence. Ketch didn't know where it had come from, or how it had grown so rge, but something in the Champion fueled a fire that outstripped the sun.

  Ketch shivered, the chill that ran across her skin not from the weather. As she neared the harbor, preparing herself to sink back into the comfortable depths, she made her decision. She'd stay by Sara's side. And the more she thought about it, the more certain she was. That festering pit of rage couldn't stay chained forever, and when it broke loose, there would be only one safe pce left.

  Beneath the Champion of Amarat.