Chapter 1: Leashing the Thief

Note: Thanks to WRC264 for beta reading this. Illina – The Free City of Raratha

I pried out the stone in the alleyway. It was covered by a refuse bin that my lover, Barg, moved out of the way. Standing over me were the two people who had both saved my life, offered to hire me to do something I’d always wanted to attempt, and also posed a danger to me.

Could I trust this Paladin of Lagu, Goddess of Law, who was hiring a thief to break into a vault? Not just any vault, of course, but Cernere’s Black Vault. The strongroom of the Goddess of Crimes. Where she stored the items she’d purloined from the gods. Sir Bryce claimed hiring her didn’t break any of his oaths because the items were already stolen.

Which would be true.

He was offering everything I wanted: a way out of Raratha, freedom to my debt to the crime boss Fox, and the opportunity to break into the Black Vault. When a deal offered everything you wanted is when you have to be your most cautious. Greed got more thieves killed than anything else.

My mother’s ninth rule.

She had many such rules about how to stay alive and be a successful thief. She had taught them all to me before she’d went on her last job. To break into Cernere’s Black Vault. She’d never come back. She’d died in the attempt.

And Bryce claimed to have been the man who hired her to do it. Could I survive what my mother failed to do?

Yes.

“This is where I hid my notes on the subject,” I said to Monica, the priestess traveling with Bryce. She was my age, young but with a naivety about her. She came from a sheltered life. Protected. Pampered. She wasn’t spoiled. Wasn’t obnoxious. She was just optimistic. A smile burst on her face as I stared at her. She wore white robes that clung to the curves of her youthful body. Her brown hair was gathered in twin braids, hair pulled back from her smooth face. Brown eyes shone with bright delight.

“And you hid them here?” she asked as I heaved the paving stone to the side. Beneath lay the sandy dirt the alley was built on. A pouch lay there, leather oiled to be waterproof. I picked it up and felt the papers inside, my mother’s notes on the Vault. With it was the necklace I’d stolen from Lady Alloria Valis Korvan.

Robbing her had landed me in my current predicament. Most noblewoman wouldn’t have noticed missing the few baubles I’d stolen off her body when I’d seduced her and made love to her. That was my old con. I’d been posing as a young noblewoman, going to the parties of the merchant-lords of Raratha, and seducing their wives into lesbian passion.

I’d make them cum, steal the jewels off of their body, and leave them satiated and oblivious to the theft. It had been a fun few months, but then I robbed Lady Alloria. Since then, she had the entire city looking for me, spending a fortune. Sniffers on all the gates and docks to keep me from getting out, and spells warding the city wall to trip if I tried to go over them.

I had to make a deal with the halfling crime boss, Fox, for protection and to smuggle me out of Raratha. He’d agreed, but I knew he wouldn’t let me go. He wanted me to work for him, and he saw a chance to own me. I agreed to do a job to pay for it, a job I wasn’t supposed to be able to complete.

He’d ordered me to steal the entire fortune of Lady Alloria’s husband. He was a prosperous merchant-lord. Raratha, like all the other six independent city-states along the Nimborgoth, were centers of trade. Where wealth gained through commerce was more important than who your parents were and what pretentious title they gave you.

Things went badly during the robbery. The bastard Lady Alloria hired to hunt me down, a vile dwarf named Kurg Widowmaker, had attacked me in the middle of the job. He’d broken my lover’s back, unleashed his pet bugbear on me, and Monica and Bryce had to come to our rescue.

I did kill Kurg, though.

“This is all my notes and my mother’s on the vault,” I said to Sir Bryce. The paladin wore plate armor, his head left uncovered. Like Monica, he was a Secaran human, coming from the lands to the north. Pale skin, like her, though he had black hair he wore cut short. He had no humor in his face.

Not surprising for a man who served the Goddess of Law. He should be handing me over to the authorities for my crimes here in Raratha, but he needed me for something more important.

That was something I needed to remember. He needed me now.

When he didn’t...

Well, that was tomorrow’s problem.

“So, let’s get out of town,” I said. “I’m ready to leave.” I glanced at my lover, the rhythm of my heart speeding up as I stared at him. He was alive because of Monica’s healing magics.

Barg, wearing a toga like those who were native to the city, nodded. Like me, he looked human. He had skin as black as midnight, not that richer brown of a Halanian desertman, and had no hair on his body. He was a barguest. A race cursed because of their ancestor’s crimes. He could transform into a dog-like creature and had to spend a portion of his life as that.

There were a few other differences about him, including his cock.

“I think Illina and I can both agree that the sooner we vacate Raratha, the better,” Barg said, his voice bright and loquacious.

“Fox is not going to be happy with us,” I added.

“Fox?” Monica asked. The young woman, practically a girl even though we were the same age, gave me this curious look.

“Halfling who controls much of the underworld of Raratha,” said Sir Bryce. “He rose to power in the last year through aggressive actions.”

“And he is hard for me,” I said. “Literally. I was sucking his cock to buy myself room and board.”

“He is very much enamored with Illina,” said Barg. “And not just for her skill as a rogue.”

“Oh, it’s mostly my thieving skills,” I said. “Fucking me was just his bonus. He’s a halfling.”

“And?” Monica said, looking confused.

Did she truly not know about halflings. They were a dual-sex race, like humans or dwarfs, but they had an imbalance in the number of their sexes. For every one male born, there were seven females. That sort of imbalance has led to halfling males having stamina and lust. After all, they routinely marry a harem of women.

And halfling women seemed content to serve their lovers or husbands.

“He’s a horny bastard,” I said, leaving it at that. “Shall we get off the street at least. He’ll be searching for me.”

“Our inn,” said Sir Bryce. “If he tries anything, we shall defend you.”

I stared at the paladin. A holy warrior. He would have magics as well as his skill with a blade, and Monica herself had powers, too. She could attack with her strange magic gifted to her by carrying the child of a god.

Pater, the Father of All, the first God, might be a halfling himself. He sure fucked enough women. He had screwed half the goddesses, most of whom were his daughters or granddaughters, as well as beautiful women of various races. Some became pregnant and gave birth to demigods.

The baby in her womb gave Monica abilities she could harness for as long as she was pregnant.

“So, this thief wants to kill Pater?” I asked as we headed out from the alley.

“He is a bitter man,” Sir Bryce said. “He desires to punish Pater.”

“Who is he?”

“Dangerous.”

“Really?” I rolled my eyes. I fell into step beside him, my new toga wrapped around my body. My old one had been ruined in my fight with Kurg. “The guy wanting to kill a god, let alone Pater, is dangerous. I’m stunned.”

“Is she always like this?” Bryce asked Barg, looking past me.

“She has little patience for idiocy,” Barg said. “So you can understand why she wishes to get as far from Fox as possible.”

I burst into laughter and smiled at my lover. He had cared for me after my mother’s death. I had seduced him, of course. He was my mother’s lover, and I wanted to be better than her in every way. To show her I’d learned her lessons so well I outperformed her in every possible category.

I’d fallen in love with Brag just as she had. And he’d fallen in love with me. Not surprisingly since I looked identical to my mother. The same red hair and elfin face. We had the same petite figure, small breasts. Our nipples would be the same shade, our pussies holding the same flavor.

We were clockworks, a race constructed by the God Krab and then made into flesh by the God Las’s cum. We didn’t reproduce but build replicas of ourselves out of the semen of the men we fucked. I had the last load Barg fired in me stored in my uterus. It wasn’t enough to fashion a daughter. I wasn’t even sure I would fashion a daughter any time soon, but after he nearly died, I wanted a bit of him in me.

The afternoon was stretching to evening as we marched through the city. We made a strange group, all of us foreigners. My red hair made me appear Tuathan, a race who lived in the Lesh-Ke Mountains to the east, until you noticed my skin had a strange sheen to it that humans lacked.

It made me appear unusual. Made me stand out. I normally used a cream to hide it and blend in.

I’d have to see my alchemist. I needed supplies for this robbery. A giddy thrill ran through me as we moved through the crowded streets. Blue-skinned Valyan humans, the most common residents of the city, flowed around us. They wore their togas, light linen against the warmth of the day. People glanced at us, melting out of the way.

Their inn was near the northern gate. Close to freedom. Raratha lay on the southern coast of the Kingdom of Valya, though it was independent of the larger nation. Vast olive groves surrounded the city, the secret of its wealth. The oil made from the fruit was traded across the inland sea of the Nimborgoth, and up the major rivers that led into the interior of the continent.

The patrons in the common room all stared at us when we entered the inn. The innkeeper greeted Bryce and Monica with an unctuous and ingratiating smile. He bowed and spoke to them in flushing tones as we passed through.

“My companions are fatigued,” was Bryce’s answer.

“Of course, of course,” the man said. “It’s just I heard stories of a knight fighting a monster in the city. A madden beast who rampaged and inflicted grievous damage. And I thought of you and your martial presence.”

“It was him,” Monica said, sounding like a young woman besotted with a man. She had the sort of love that could be dangerous.

Beware the desires of your heart, for it shall feed lies to your reason to deceive you into the pursuit of satisfying your wants.

Another of my mother’s many rules. The fourteenth one.

“He was so gallant,” gushed Monica, staring up at Sir Bryce with that sort of blind love. Her heart whispered all manner of deceptions to her. Would that matter? Paladins of Lagu hunted criminals. Their word was trusted more than any other. “I was so frightened for him, but he fought that nasty bugbear and killed it.”

“It broke the law,” Sir Bryce said in such a cold way he might as well said, “I would have let it murder the entire city if it were legal.”

What had happened to this man to so squeeze the humanity out of him? Was he just that guarded of his emotions? What had driven him to become a Paladin of Law? To serve something as abstract as the rules of society. Not Justice, who was a different goddess, but Law. He didn’t care about redressing wrongs or punishing the wicked, just stopping it from being broken in any way possible. He would not care about mitigating circumstances. Stealing to feed yourself or to enrich yourself made no difference to the man.

And he hired me?

“I am honored to host you, Sir Bryce,” said the innkeeper. “I will inform everyone that our great hero is staying here.”

“Do as you will,” the paladin said, marching by. “We are leaving come the dawn.”

“Of course,” the innkeeper said, something dying in his eyes. He wanted to use this to drive more business here. It was the sort of honest greed you could trust.

“My companions will need a room. Next to mine,” Bryce added as he marched upstairs.

“I’ll ready it now.”

Barg and I followed the paladin up the stairs. He would want to keep a close eye on us. My instincts screamed at me to run. Not to trust anyone, but I wanted to get out of the city. And I wanted to break into the Vault. Now was the time. I wouldn’t have a better chance. I would only get older—yes, I would live longer than humans, but not forever—my body wearing out more and more, slowing down my reflexes.

I could do it. I was a better thief than my mother.

The knight swept into his room and placed his helm on a chest of drawers. His room was adequate. The bed looked comfortable, the bedding appearing clean. Monica sank down on it, clearly her bed as well.

“I must place my parole upon you,” Bryce said. “A collar binding you to me.”

I stiffened. “That will let you track me across the world.”

“It will be the only way the authorities let me march you out of here. I will remove it.” “Right, right after you march me to a magistrate after I’ve ‘recovered’ whatever it is you need from the Vault?”

“I serve Lagu, not Iustia. Whatever crimes you’ve committed were not before me. Why would I need to deliver you to the magistrate?”

“So I shouldn’t commit any crimes before you then, huh?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at him.

“I would advise that,” he said. “I shall remove the parole from you once we’re out of the city. I promise.”

I studied him. He gave his word, with a Paladin of Lagu, that meant it carried the same force as the law itself. The authorities knew I was behind the robbery of Lord Korvan and would not let me walk out the gates. “Won’t they expect you to deliver me back here?”

“Perhaps.” Sir Bryce fixed me with hard eyes. “I never promised that I would. Nor that you would answer for any crime.”

I didn’t like this. Another collar? One that got me away from Fox and put me into trusting this man. What were my odds of staying in the city? Fox would be after me now. I was running out of resources. I had the necklace I’d kept from Lady Alloria, but it wouldn’t fetch me much.

And my fence was one of Fox’s halfling wives.

“Fine,” I said. Paladins of Lagu never broke their words. “How do we do this?”

“There are two ways,” he said. “One of pain often used on the unwilling, and one of pleasure for the willing.”

“Oh, so you’re going to fuck me?” I asked. I hadn’t felt a stirring of lust from the man.

“Or I can hurt you,” he said, his eyes showing nothing. He didn’t care which I chose.

“Oh, by all means, fuck me,” I said. I was used to using my body. Barg wasn’t the jealous type anyways. He’d seen me being used by Fox without it affecting him. “I want to eat out Monica while you do it. I mean, my lover got to enjoy her pussy. I’m curious what she tasted like.”

I liked both, men and women. Between the two, women edged out men slightly. Well, save for Barg. No one could beat my barguest in bed whether in his human or monster form. Both gave me such pleasure and rapture.

He glanced at her and, to my surprise, seemed to be asking her permission. I had a feeling it wasn’t for me to eat her out.

“To bind her,” she said. “I understand. Like when I healed Barg.”

“You two are monogamous?” I asked in some surprise.

“We are,” Monica said, a smile on her lips. “I never thought I would be, but for him...”

You didn’t meet too many like that in Raratha. I heard it was more common in villages. Were the pair married? How did her being bred by Pater fit into it?

“Well, then let’s have some fun,” I said and unwound my toga. In moments, I was naked, my small breasts jiggling. I sat down on the bed and parted my legs, flashing my hairless twat. Unlike many human women, I didn’t shave. I didn’t have to.

It took a few minutes for Monica to help Sir Bryce out of his armor. It wasn’t the best garment to wear when preparing to ravish a girl. It just made me hornier and hornier as more and more of his muscular body was revealed. He might be in his middle years, but he was as fit as any young buck. His eyes stared at me.

Around his neck, he wore a white-and-black checkered locket. A Lubenite symbol. He’d been married by priests of the God of Love, who insisted on monogamy in their vows. Luben was, perhaps, the only God who didn’t have an affair, something that couldn’t be said about his wife. Biaute, Goddess of Beauty, cuckolded him left and right. She’d sleep with any god, but he’d sworn an oath to be her husband. Her lusts were the reason that their child, the son of Love and Beauty, was Las, God of Lust.

“You’re married?” I asked as he stripped off the leather pants he wore beneath his armor.

“Not yet,” said Monica. She touched his locket with a reverence. “The criminal we hunt killed his wife.”

Something black entered the paladin’s eyes. Pure hatred. Distilled rage. A cold, black sea of fury for the man who’d stolen his wife from him. A lot of things were making sense. “You weren’t always a Paladin of Lagu.”

“She sponsored my quest,” he said. “I serve her to bring justice upon my marriage. He took my wife from me, and I shall take his life from him!”

A shiver ran through me. This man had sent my mother to rob the vault, and she died. He hadn’t even shed a tear. Now he recruited me to try a decade later. He wouldn’t weep if I died, either. He’d gladly expend my life for his vengeance. He wasn’t after justice, just murdering the bastard.

Did Monica see it?

“We’re going to avenge her, my love,” Monica said.

“We shall, beloved,” Sir Bryce said. Emotion stirred in his voice then. Not rage, but something almost triumphant. He savored her love. He took pleasure in it.

Maybe something human beat beneath his chest after all.

She kissed the locket again, then she opened her robes. Her heart-shaped face turned to me as she bared her round breasts. Pink nipples topped those delicious tits. I shuddered, a wet heat birthing between my thighs. Her stomach was flat, her pregnancy not showing at all. She kept her twat shaved, juices already beading on her.

She stared at me, and hunger kindled in her eyes. Her hand fondled Sir Bryce’s cock and stared at my twat. She was no stranger to eating cunt. I smiled, a wicked idea popping into my head. How well did the knight eat pussy?

“Both of you, eat me out,” I moaned. “Get me wet and ready for that cock. Your man has a nice one. Not as nice as my Barg’s, but I suppose you’ll never get the pleasure of finding out.”

“I do not need the pleasure of finding out,” she answered. “Sir Bryce’s manhood gives me all the rapture I need. When his cock is inside of me, I feel wonderfully complete.”

Our eyes met and we shared this moment. We were both women who loved our men. She might be naïve, but in that instant, we understood each other completely. She wouldn’t spend my life as cheaply as drunk spent his coin on wine. If I could win her to me, she could be the voice whispering in Bryce’s ear.

A reminder of his humanity.

“Come, let’s share her together,” Monica said, her hand pumping up and down his cock. “We are already having sex with her, we might as well enjoy ourselves.”

He glanced at her, an almost troubling look crossing his face.

“I was going to marry a priest of Pater. A man who already had four wives.” Sadness flickered across her expression for a moment. “So, don’t be surprised that I want to share you with a woman. This might be our only chance. Let’s enjoy her. Show her that you can eat pussy as well as me.”

He groaned, his cock throbbing in her hand. He nodded. Once. It was enough to make her coo in delight.

The pair advanced on me. Barg watched, his dark eyes drinking in my body. He would fuck me so hard once we were done here. The best part of fucking others was how passionate Barg was when I returned to him. So competitive.

I loved it.

The paladin and the priestess crawled onto the quilted blanket of the bed. The frame groaned, the down-filled mattress shifting beneath me. They both leaned down, Monica still stroking his cock with her right hand, her left landing on my thigh. Her touch was light as she slid over my smooth flesh. I shuddered as she caressed lower and lower. My pussy clenched, the heat building in me.

Then his strong hand fell on my left leg. Callouses from wielding a sword adorned his palms and fingertips. The roughness contrasted with her feminine softness. Their heads lowered, cheek rubbing into cheek. He has stubble. She would feel that masculine sensation.

She smiled.

The pair nuzzled into my pussy. I groaned as they kissed at my cunt. Their lips both found my hairless pussy. His whiskers rubbed on my shaved vulva. Her smooth face felt amazing on me. I shuddered at the two different mouths at my snatch.

They licked me. Their tongues flicked out, sliding over my flesh. I groaned, my back arching. The bliss shot through my body. It rippled down to my cunt as their tongues caressed up and down my folds. I whimpered and groaned, my hands going to my small tits.