Chapter 7

Ashur’s face just cleared the water. Sitting on the floor of the pool with his eyes and nose above the waterline, he still glared ominously at the two women who were grinning at him from their seats across the water. Grumbling to himself, he plotted his revenge.

“You can’t still be mad,” Mera complained. “We said we were sorry.”

The two women had spent the first hour after he had regained consciousness sitting quietly and contritely, talking in whispers to each other as he nursed his aching head. Once his arm had started to heal, they obviously felt that their time of penance was over and had begun their gentle ribbing.

Lifting his head from the water he groused, “You’re not the ones with a concussion and broken arm.”

When Xakelle had chirped at them after their coupling, Ashur had been so startled that his battle instincts had made him jump to his feet. Unfortunately, his left foot had come down on the edge of a towel in such a way that it had slid out from underneath him. The leftover spray from Mera’s climaxes had further lubricated the stone floor which reduced his already failing stability. The big man had fallen forward into the podium where the outside of his right upper arm had connected with one of the topmost edges and snapped on the unyielding corner. He had spun from there and only Mera’s quick response had saved him from breaking his neck. Unfortunately, it didn’t save him from hitting his head on the hard ground with enough force to render him unconscious.

By the time he had opened his eyes, he was sitting in the warm water again. The only saving grace in the entire matter was that he was being propped up by two soft and very pliable bodies. His companions were sitting to each side and had his arms draped over their shoulders to keep his head above water. They had both squealed and batted at his hands when he reflexively squeezed the breasts that just happened to lay under his palms.

Once he was able to sit upright on his own, Xakelle had moved to the seat behind him and used her spread legs for his support. Her breasts occasionally brushed the top of his head whenever she leaned forward to emphasize a point in her conversation with Mera.

That had been nice, but what had set him off to grumbling was when Mera informed him that she had known their hostess had been in the room and watching. The blue woman was dumbfounded that he hadn’t been aware and chided him for his lack of situational awareness. When he reminded her that she was the only one he could sense, and only in the Library proper, she had apologized and moved with the maroon woman to the other side of the pool to continue their discussion.

Now, he checked his injuries again. Xakelle had told them that the water of the pool would speed his healing by giving his Library-gifted abilities a boost. Indeed, his head had cleared and stopped hurting a while ago, but his arm would take another half-hour to restore itself.

The Guardian submerged his mouth once again and listened to the very technical dialogue the ladies were having regarding enhancements for the Library. He was still learning the basics of the Lexicon and, even though he could grasp fragments of their conversation, most of what they were saying made little-to-no sense to him. The fact that Mera was occasionally stymied and had to ask for an explanation made him feel better, but not by much.

He mentally turned away from them and looked inward towards his own dilemma. Mera’s reassurance of his honor and morality had helped in a few small ways, but he still felt unworthy of the responsibility they were eager to heap upon him. There was no way that he could guarantee that he wouldn’t slip up somewhere and make the wrong choice. It was impossible.

And what if he did make a colossal blunder? How many lives might be affected or even ruined? He could live with hurting himself. He could even accept that his partner would get injured or maybe killed in their new calling. It wouldn’t be the first time she had been on the brink of death by what she had told him.

No, what he couldn’t bring himself to face was the possibility of an innocent having to suffer as a result of his mis-judgment because it wouldn’t be the first time. On one of his first scout commands, he had mistaken a ramshackle, huddled group of tents for an enemy’s camp in the dusk twilight and had ordered a full charge. Fortunately, an old sergeant had caught the younger soldier’s mistake before the main body of Ashur’s forty troops had engaged. The experienced veteran had called a halt, but for some of the inhabitants, it had been too late.

The young commander had stood and wept over the five bodies and had not let go of the child until the old sergeant pulled her lifeless form from his arms. When youthful, tear-filled eyes had looked up, they met the gauging and knowing face. “At least you’ll learn from this one,” the older man had gruffly remarked before walking away.

Ashur had nearly given up his command, but his determination not to make the same mistake drove him to consider each decision and order before acting on them. Even so, he wouldn’t lie to himself that the possibility of another tragic accident didn’t exist. For now, however, he would have to put all of that aside and trust that his more experienced partner could also be his moral guide.

His arm had healed while he ruminated and he stood in order to swing it and test its mobility. Both women had stopped and were openly admiring his naked form. Their hungry looks were the final distraction from his worries and he put his fists to his hips.

“Can I help you ladies?” he jokingly asked with a raised eyebrow. They looked to each other and he could see the mental agreement to continue their planning at a later time.

With a smile to Mera, Xakelle stood and moved toward him. The water traced rivulets from her breasts as she rose. The smoldering look she gave him clearly announced her intentions and he looked over her shoulder to Mera as if to ask “Are you okay with this?”

She laughed and nodded. “I’ll explain later, barbarian.” Growing splotches of pink were coloring her blue body. With a shrug and tilt of his head, he turned his attention back to the woman who was now in front of him.

Xakelle had closed the distance between them and was now so close that her breath wafted gently across his chin and neck. It was warm and strangely floral although when her lips and tongue found his, the taste of her filled his thoughts of soft days until she started kissing him in earnest. He almost jerked away from her as his mouth was filled with a sharp sensation that was spicy and almost uncomfortable. The sting soon faded, however, into a pleasant burn that suffused his body and any part of him that hadn’t already responded to her was finding itself catching up in a hurry. Mera’s gasp in the background told him that his reaction was strong enough for her to pick up, even with her abilities diminished by distance from the Library.

Xakelle’s hand found the base of his skull and she pulled him tighter into her. Her other hand wrapped around his shoulders and he felt her breasts pressed against his chest. Once she was certain that he wouldn’t pull away, the hand on his back dropped lower to grasp the firm cheek of his ass.

Beginning to feel more observer and less participant of their tryst, Ashur copied her hand position and cupped his new lover’s behind with both hands and ground her pelvis into his. His cock had slipped between her thighs and was rubbing along the softness of her nether lips. Xakelle groaned and raised one leg against his side, wrapping it around him. They stood that way for several minutes, enjoying the intensity of their passion.

Eventually, Ashur backed up until he felt the underwater ledge against his legs at which point he sat, drawing the now moaning woman with him. The hand holding his head never moved, keeping their kiss while bending over him until she knelt and straddled his thighs. Once she was settled, his hands left her ass to run up her ribs to fondle her pliant breasts. She gasped in his mouth when his thumbs brushed gently across her nipples and she pushed her upper body forward as if seeking more.

He was mildly surprised to feel something across the tops of his hands until he opened his eyes and saw Mera looking over Xakelle’s shoulder at him. The now thoroughly rose-colored woman had quietly approached them and was pressed up against the immortal’s back. Her smile was hungry as her fingers interlaced with his across the maroon skin, eliciting another moan.

Since her mouth was so conveniently close to Xakelle’s neck, Mera took the opportunity to start nuzzling and nipping at the skin there. The hand holding Ashur’s head finally released in order to fist itself in his partner’s hair. Xakelle reluctantly released his mouth to lean her head away from Mera’s caressing lips, letting him turn his oral attentions to her nipples. Pink fingers cupped and lifted them to his face and he laved each of them generously with his mouth and tongue, alternating suckling and licking until Xakelle was moaning loudly and grabbing blindly for his manhood.

Frustrated that she couldn’t quite reach it due to their respective positions, she stood and pulled him up with her. Once he was standing, she dropped to her knees in the water and took him into her mouth and throat in one flowing motion.

“Fuck!” he gasped. Her nose was buried in his skin and rippling, undulating motions stroked his length. If he hadn’t known that it was her mouth on him, he would have sworn that she was using her hands except for the covering wet warmth. “How are you doing that?”

She pulled away enough to clear her mouth. “Remember that this isn’t actually my body. It’s a construct I built to interact with you two and for my own pleasure. Speaking of which...” Her body engulfed his cock once again and his shuddered as waves of ecstasy spread out from his groin.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Mera interrupted. “Don’t ruin him completely. I still need to be able to keep his attention for the next few thousand years.” Xakelle chuckled and reached behind her. In a heartbeat, Mera’s knees buckled a little and Ashur saw that she had grabbed onto the maroon arm for support. The hand attached to that arm was buried in the Caretaker’s vagina and the now fully pink woman was panting heavily. “Never mind,” she quavered. “I might be the ruined one.”

The trio kept on that way until Mera’s body spasmed hard. She let out a hissing sound from between her teeth and had to jump away from Xakelle’s hand to keep from losing total control.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” she chanted repeatedly. Fuschia waves washed across her skin time and again as her orgasm took her. Xakelle’s hand crested the water’s surface and Ashur was astonished to see that the five fingers had joined into one phallic digit. It seemed out of focus until he realized that it was vibrating slightly.

Any further speculation on his part was wiped away as the immortal turned her full attention back to him. The internal stroking grew more intense and focused on the uppermost ridge of his glans. He grabbed Xakelle’s head with both hands and forced his hips into her face and let loose everything that was in him. His cock exploded in her mouth and he was unable to stop the long low groan that escaped his lips.

His knees gave out and his ass hit the water to land on the ledge underneath. When he could open his eyes, he saw Mera floating on her back nearby, a satisfied smile plastered to her face. “Okay...” she mumbled. “Not ruined, but damned close.”

The other two laughed and Ashur beckoned to Xakelle. He patted the side of the pool next to him and motioned for her to lay back. When she had, he knelt on the ledge and leaned over her. Starting with her neck, he worked kisses and licks down her body, paying special attention to her breasts and nipples. When he reached the area where the fronts of her thighs met her torso, he breathed gently and traced feather touches with his lips and tongue along the crease there. Xakelle giggled and tried to bend double for a moment, but his body was holding her legs down. After a moment, she began to gasp and writhe as the ticklish sensation faded to be replaced by small jolts of pleasure.

Trying not to overstimulate the area, he shifted to a better position and brought his mouth to her sex. The lips were open and swollen and the heady spicy scent he had experienced from her mouth was in evidence here. He braced himself for the sting on his tongue, but when he traced her slit with the tip, he found the taste to be sweet and rich like honeyed butter. He almost lost himself in just enjoying the taste for a few heartbeats before remembering that this was for her pleasure, not his. Nevertheless, he still murmured in appreciation.

His oral efforts were rewarded with a rising series of moans as Xakelle writhed beneath his tongue. She drew in a sharp gasp when first one, then two fingers invaded her and began stroking upward and it wasn’t long before her moans turned to soft cries. She grabbed the back of his head in order to push more of his tongue into her.

Taking that as his cue for more, he straightened and found that the distance between the underwater seat and the edge of the pool were almost the right height for his cock to point directly at her dripping cleft. With a small lift and pull, he brought her ass to him and dipped the head of his hardness into her warmth.

“Oh, that’s nice...” Xakelle purred. “More of that, yes. More of that.” The big man acquiesced and pushed his hips forward to fill her canal. The heat was much more intense than any other woman he had been with and he could feel it all along the length of his shaft. The rippling motions that she had used while deep-throating him had begun again, causing him to stop his thrusting from time to time and enjoy. It wasn’t long however before he felt Mera pushing on his hips with her hands in an effort to speed up his pace.

“She wants more, lover,” she purred into his ear. “I suggest you give it to her.” Ashur took her suggestion and, grabbing the tops of the immortal’s thighs, pulled her harder and faster into him. Her legs straightened out to rest against his chest, but the twitching of her feet and the spasms in her calf muscles told him that her orgasm wasn’t far off.

Mera let go of him and moved out of the pool to kneel beside them. Her deft hand found its way between the slapping of their bodies to stroke Xakelle’s clit. That seemed to be the final touch and Ashur was nearly knocked back in the water when her body shook and abruptly tried to unbend. Not quite ready to be finished himself, he shifted his grip to her waist and shoved himself forward again. Her legs, pressed against his chest once more, folded at the knees and her feet beat an irregular rhythm on his pecs as her orgasm continued on and on while he pounded his way to his own finish.

Not wanting to be left out, Mera stood astride the supine woman so that her crotch was directly before Ashur’s face. One of her hands rested on his head to brace herself and the other dipped into her folds to wet itself in her arousal. Ashur got a very close view of her fingers almost violently stimulating her own nub and that was it for him. His hips locked forward and he roared his climax. His body stayed immobile and his scrotum contracted repeatedly, firing his semen off in multiple blasts.

Not only was his orgasm loud, it was powerful enough that he broadcast it to both of his lovers. Xakelle’s cry matched Mera’s in both pitch and volume as they came together. The hand bracing itself on the frozen man’s head kept Mera from collapsing and she sprayed all of their bodies while Xakelle’s hands grasped at blue and pink legs as leverage to push herself harder onto Ashur’s spurting cock.

Afterwards, they all collapsed into a deep and restful sleep.

Two days later, Ashur, Mera, and Xakelle stepped off the traveling platform in the Library. They had spent the intervening time in further discussion about the changes that would be made to the Library’s Lexicon-based structure with Xakelle’s help. Ashur would be, at best, an observer since he was still a tyro Lexicographer and probably would be for several more decades so it had been decided that he would spend the time scouting and clearing any animals or other intruders that had crossed into their home in preparation of Xakelle strengthening the defensive bubble that surrounded the Library.

Before that happened, however, Mera was adamant that they visit the Well and verify the Library’s attitude toward Xakelle. If she proved false, there was not really much they could do about it, but Mera said that a deep part of her would be much more at ease if she witnessed the reaction of the magical building towards their guest. To her great relief, when she had placed her hand on the interface panel and linked to the Well, a cloud of energy had separated from the vast floating sphere and wrapped itself around the two Librarians. They had felt a physical pressure that nudged them toward the immortal before the cloud started swirling around their guest in multicolored patterns. Mera had let out a great sigh and removed her hand from the panel.

After that, the two women began their preparations and Ashur removed himself to the armoury. His partner had told him that there were a few unwanted visitors and he spent the next week after their return shoo-ing strays back to their respective homes. After the last one was gone, he did a mental circuit of the outlying areas and Shelves before letting his partner know that all was well.

Come home, she replied. Xakelle’s almost ready to implement the defensive upgrade. When he got back, he went straight to the Well, but neither of the women were there. He called out to Mera and she told him to come to the Librarian statues.

Bewildered, he made his way to the giant representations of himself and his friend. The two women were standing on the other side of the statue from him when he entered the great area, but they soon noticed and beckoned him over. They were both talking and gesturing animatedly and his quizzical look did nothing to dim their excitement.

“Are you ready, love?” Mera asked him.

“Considering the fact that I have no clue what you are talking about ... sure!” he replied. As had often been the case since their return, he had been un-intentionally left in the dark due to his ignorance of the Lexicon.

“Oh, I think you’ll like this,” Xakelle exclaimed. She and Mera both held out a hand toward the statue’s base and, for a moment, nothing happened. Then Ashur was forced to jump back as the immense sculpture began to ponderously rise from the floor. Beneath it, four-foot wide curved columns came into view. He gave Mera an astonished look and exclaimed, “What the...!”

Slowly, more of the columns were revealed. He was surprised to note that the motion was smooth and quiet. Where he might have expected the floor to shake and rumble, the process soon completed without a single movement of the building itself. When it came to a stop, the base of the Librarians was supported nearly twelve feet in the air. The ladies motioned him closer as they approached the space between two of the supports. The Guardian followed them and saw the top of a curving staircase.

“I assume I would have found out about this sooner or later,” he joked to Mera. He looked down toward the center of the cylindrical space and saw what looked to be another lift.

“Oh, yes,” she replied. “In a couple of centuries when you had learned enough of the Lexicon to understand what you are about to see. For now, though...” She shrugged. “You should be able to grasp enough to understand a bit of what is happening. I’m not trying to be condescending, my love. I just know how long it takes most people to advance in ... how did you put it?” She turned to Xakelle.

“Lexicography,” the immortal responded.

“Yes,” Mera continued. “Lexicography. Why haven’t I heard that word before?”

“Probably because you were all so hung up on the term “magic”, I assume,” Xakelle said with a shrug.

By this time, the trio had reached the bottom of the spiral and Ashur was able to confirm that it was indeed a lift platform. When Mera placed her hand upon it, they descended at a slightly faster rate than the one attached to the house. There were no other levels to pass and Ashur watched the smooth marble walls slide by. Thirty seconds later, the lift broke through the ceiling of a vast chamber that put the hall in Xakelle’s house to shame.

Ashur gawked and stared at the sight below him. An entire medium sized town would have been able to fit with some room to spare and all of it was filled with enormous rectangular columns of glowing Writing. Each one stood more than seventy-five feet in height and spread nearly twenty at a side. He tried to focus on one or two of the nearer ones as they dropped, but the Words were scrolling around too fast for him to read easily. Reassuring himself that he would be able to catch them one day, he turned his attention to what the women were doing instead.

“We want to go that way,” Xakelle pointed. Mera nodded and the platform raced across the room, clearing the tops of the pylons by several feet. They moved quickly enough that it was only a few seconds before they reached the area that the maroon woman had indicated.

“Right down there,” she motioned and they came to a stop roughly halfway down between two of the columns. Mera pulled her hand away from the podium and moved to the edge of the platform.

“Are you certain?” she asked. “I would think it would be over in Section Five, Subsection Fourteen Hundred and Three.”

“Oh, goodness, no.” Xakelle shook her head. “That’s the wrong tack to take. We’re not trying to increase power flow and phase control. We need to change material conduction and attenuation and that’s right here.”

“Oh, I see.” Mera raised her hand and brushed it against the flowing Words. Parts of them changed color and began to reform. “That makes more sense!”

Wishing it made sense to him, Ashur stood for a few more minutes before taking a seat up against the podium. He watched his partner continue her task for several more minutes. Finally, she stood back and both women studied her changes.

“That looks right,” Xakelle finally said. “Ready for the next?”

The group spent the next hour zipping around the room, editing the scrolling Words as needed. Rather childishly, Ashur began to feel useless and wondered why, other than to show him the existence of the room, he had been brought along. Mera, now fully in his mind again here in the Library, picked up on this and turned to him.

“I know this is boring, love, but we are going to need you here in just a bit.” Feeling rather foolish at his petulance, Ashur waved her back to her task and sent a burst of his own love for her through their link. He also projected a mental “pinch” that made her jump and smirk back at him. “Stop that,” she chided him with a smile.

True to her word, the Caretaker turned to the lounging man a little over half-an-hour later and waved him to stand next to her. When he looked to her for instructions, she motioned to Xakelle who had created a slightly faded copy of the Writing that circumvolved nearby.

“Okay,” the immortal started, “here is what you need to do.” Several of the passages in her replica brightened significantly. “These Words need to be rewritten to these.” A second set of Words appeared below the first. It moved at the same pace to show Ashur where he would need to look in the real column.

“Take a moment to memorize it,” she told him. “I promise that nothing terrible will go wrong if you don’t get it quite right, but it can be annoying to have to repeat the process.” Once he felt that he had committed the change to memory, he nodded his readiness.

“Now what,” he asked.

“Place your hand in the stream and push your mind out to it.”

He inserted his fingers into the current and started to follow one of the original exercises that Mera had tried to teach him so many months ago, but before he could start, the blue woman’s voice stopped him. “Like you’re trying to change someone else’s body.”

“Oh!” he said. “That makes sense, I guess.” He chuckled at himself for needing to be told. He had been so caught up in Mera and Xakelle’s way of doing things while they made their earlier alterations that he had forgotten that his power worked slightly differently. He directed the now familiar flow of energy down his hand and into the column.

The instant his power reached the moving Words, he cried out in alarm as they grabbed hold of his consciousness and pulled it along. However, now they were no longer moving at the sedate pace he had been watching for the last few hours, but as a raging torrent that dragged his mind around in circles. He was caught in eddy currents and buffeted by the edges of the vibrations they caused in the fabric of his reality. He yelled again. The power of these Words was propelling him faster and faster along their path and his mind was beginning to unravel as he grasped the enormity of the effect they had on the space around them.

“Concentrate!” he distantly heard Mera call. Following her command, he mentally shook himself and focused which allowed him to regain control of his own energy. It had felt wild and primal in his body while the Words had control, but it was calm now ... if still much more potent than before.

Now the Words passed by his consciousness at a slow walk and he stood before them as an observer rather than passenger. He started to reach for them again but instinctively knew that was not necessary. His mind was already in the space to make his edits and he waited until the passages he needed started to make their way in front of him.

Once he recognized them, he visualized the changes he wanted to create. The new Writing overlapped the old at a distance of a few inches and he “pushed” it into the sentence, displacing the original which disappeared as soon as the edit was installed.

“Excellent! Well done!” he heard Xakelle’s voice in his ear. “Now do the next one.”

Ashur repeated the process for the next three changes. When he was done, he watched the entire string once more to verify that all was as it needed to be. He nodded to himself and slowly withdrew his energy to its place in his mind.

When his eyes opened, he stretched out his arms and neck. “That was ... intense,” he told his companions. “A little warning would have been nice.”

Mera shook her head in denial.

“I had no clue it would happen. I think this was another instance of you being of the Following races.” She started towards him but stopped with her brow furrowed. “I take that back. This might be more along the lines of your inexperience.” She held up a quick hand at his slightly annoyed expression.

“I didn’t mean it that way, my love. We learned the Lexicon slowly; over the course of decades and I think that allowed us to adapt to it gradually. You were just put in the same position as someone who had been practicing for almost a century. I’ve been so excited about what’s going to happen, I didn’t even think about it. I’m sorry.”

Mollified somewhat, he turned and looked at Xakelle who simply shrugged.

“I sometimes forget that you haven’t been doing this for as long as she had in this one. Next cycle, I’ll try to remember to warn you ... though now that it has happened, I am remembering that I was supposed to tell you about it this time.” She gave him a sheepish little smile. “Sorry?”

Ashur gave her a dark look and returned to his place at the podium. He had been drained by the experience and felt the need to rest for a bit.

Several hours later, a skipping immortal, a weary Caretaker, and a Guardian whose was having trouble staying on his feet re-emerged to the main floor of the Library. Ashur made his way to one of the benches and collapsed face down on it. Mera settled herself next to his head and slumped over to her side on top of him.

After his initial foray into advanced Writing, he had been required to repeat the process no less than fourteen more times. For Mera’s part, she and Xakelle had completed twice that many. Fortunately for the cerulean woman’s energy levels, she had experience and was mostly tired as the result of a busy day and less as a fight against the Writing. They had discussed Ashur’s situation and the only conclusion they could reach was that he would have to continue learning and ease himself into editing like Mera and her people had.

While the two Librarians rested, Xakelle circumnavigated the mammoth statue. It was evident that she could see changes that he could not, but he was willing to wait for her explanation ... for a few days if possible.

After completing two more rotations, she approached them and held out her hands. “Ready to finalize it?” she asked. Mera nodded and, taking one of the outstretched hands, stood up. Ashur seriously considered rolling onto the floor and letting his companions drag him to wherever they needed to go. Instead, he heaved himself upright and waited for directions.

“Now remember,” Xakelle admonished, “once we do this, the changes will be fully implemented. Everything we discussed will be put in place and start working.” She focused on Ashur and her look reminded him that he would be the locus of most of the power the new Library systems would be generating. He looked to his partner.