Chapter 7

The deck of the ship was awash in silvery moonlight. Dark clouds occluded the curved edges of the moons, and the illumination was more than enough to see the lovely shape of Charlotte as she twirled and laugh softly. She was in a dance – and her hands were held in the pale green hands of the Corpse Lord. The Lord’s body remained as fascinating and repellent as it had been when Sari had seen him ... or her ... before. The pronouns remained difficult and, according to everything Sari had heard, deliberately impossible to nail down. The Corpse Lord was tall and broad, her shoulders muscular, her arms straining with strength. Seams ran between the joints of elbow and shoulder and belly and breast – for she was made not of a single body, but many. They had been well chosen, crafting a butch figure that towered over Charlotte and looked dangerous and sensual both in the moonlight.

“You dance divinely, Lady Arranti,” Charlotte crooned, her head resting casually against the bared breast of the Corpse Lord – her cheek pressing to the gray-green nipple. Her eyes half closed and she sighed softly. “Your body is rather chilled though...”

“There is a way to warm you, my sweeting,” the Corpse Lord purred. “Not many know my birth name. Please. Call me Ari.”

“Ari...” Charlotte’s sigh became a whimpering moan. Between blinks, the glorious, redheaded form of Charlotte was nude. She was on her back, her thighs spreading, her whole body rocking with every powerful thrust from the Corpse Lord as she took her – for while the Corpse Lord had the body of many women, she had the cock that could only have come from an ogre, for it was large enough to cause a faint bulge to strain Charlotte’s belly. She moaned in bliss with every thrust, her eyes rolling back into her head as she arched her back. “Ari ... Ari ... oh my Lord ... Ari!” she gasped.

Sari could not move. It was as if her entire body was locked in place – save for her own girldick, which was as throbbingly hard and eager as the Corpse Lord’s. Her eyes could see the glistening length of the Corpse Lord’s massive prick – emerging from Charlotte as the redheaded magician moaned in pleasure between every ... single thrust. The Corpse Lord smiled up at Sari, her voice a soft purr.

“Come join the dance, my dear little destroyer of worlds,” the Corpse Lord said – and Sari found herself moving forward. Her cock was out and throbbing and Charlotte giggled, arching her back, opening her mouth, her tongue sliding up against her chin as she exposed her throat to Sari, who grabbed onto her head. She thrust into Charlotte and felt the warmth of her throat, tightening around her. This position brought Sari’s own face quite close to the Corpse Lord’s. The Corpse Lord chuckled, softly. “Oh dear...” She whispered. “Look at what you’ve done...”

Sari looked down – and saw she had not thrust her cock into Charlotte. Instead, she held in her hand a dagger, and blood was pouring from a warm, wet gash in pale flesh and puddling around Charlotte’s head. The young girl gurgled, and reached up towards Sari ... and smiled, as if she had just been given the most dearest reward. Her mouth moved and Sari almost read what she said, but the only sound to escape Charlotte was a wet choke as blood bubbled around her teeth and her lips, staining her pale skin with crimson. She slumped and her head lolled to the side as the Corpse King slid her girlcock from her body, cum joining the puddling blood, flowing from Charlotte’s well fucked corpse. White and red mixed and swirled together as Sari stumbled backwards, dropping the dagger. Her fingers spread as she looked down at the blood soaking her hands. Her breath came panting and shallow.

The Corpse Lord walked towards her, her eyes flashing.

“Do you ever ask why you are so good at killing, my little Sari?” Her cool palm cupped Sari’s ass, squeezing her. “Why lust and battle draw so close together. Because I know why.” She leaned in close, whispering in Sari’s ear. “But you have to submit to me to hear the answer. Become my little pet ... my little rebis...” Her massive prick – easily twice as big as Sari’s cock – ground against Sari, teasing her with the sensation.

“N-No,” Sari moaned out.

“You say no – but know, for every you spend unchained to me is another day more people will die. When will Charlotte be the unlucky one?” The Corpse Lord purred in Sari’s ear. “My little destroyer of worlds ... I will have you, or I will snap your neck. Those are the only outcomes.”

Sari trembled, and rocked, shaking her head. “N-No ... no! NO!”

She jerked upright in her hammock, flailing and crashing to the deck with a thump. She gasped, her body trembling – the dark images of the dream flickering through her mind as her skin turned into goose flesh. Sari gasped, looking wildly around the room – and saw that warm light was trickling through the porthole. She stepped to it and peered out at the vast, endless sea that rolled away beyond the deck of the ship. She could hear the sounds of the crew at work – calling out to one another and following orders with alacrity.

Sari rubbed her palms against her face. “What the hell was that dream about,” she whispered. Then, frowning, she looked around herself. “Rana?” She asked – but there was no response from her succubi. Which meant that that troublesome imp was off, likely perving on someone or something. Sari rubbed her palms against her face, then started to dress. The only flaw in her plan was that her girldick was harder than she was after a fight. She bit her lip, slightly, then started to rub her fingers on the base of her dick, gasping, biting her lip to keep from moaning aloud. She worked herself faster and harder, hazy images of Charlotte’s breasts popping free from her filmy outfit burning through her brain like lightning.

With a quiet gasp, Sari’s back twitched and her balls clenched and she let out a shockingly piteous mewl as she came.

Hard.

Her girlcum splashed on the deck and was lost against the wooden slats in a few seconds – dark spots against dark wood was an impossible thing to check for.

Panting, Sari shook her head. “Having a succubus in my brain cannot be healthy,” she whispered, then yanked her leggings up.

Seeing Charlotte after the nightmare was a relief. She was perched on several crates set near the poop deck, her face looking faintly greenish as she clutched her knees to her chest – a position that made her skirts frill up and expose even more of her milky thigh than normal. She groaned as Sari stepped out and stretched, her back popping. In the center of the deck, Sir Seldon was swinging a blunted practice sword in an area cleared for his use, shirtless and glittering with sweat. He was trying to keep his footing as the ship rocked gently. Sari looked from him to Charlotte, then grinned, slightly.

“Normally, you, uh, like this kind of view,” she said.

“I ... forgot that I hate sea travel,” Charlotte groaned, her eyes closing. “if the Nine Dragons wanted us to travel on the oceans, they’d have made us live in them.”

“They did make them first,” Sari said, then sighed. “Are you going to be all right?”

“Oh yeah. So long as I keep ... urk...” Charlotte whined, then stumbled off the crates. She almost bowled Tazli over, the gobliness blinking in surprise to have her passage thwarted by a stumbling noblewoman, then got to the railing. There, Charlotte was loudly and violently ill.

“Ah, you’re awake, finally,” Rana said, walking casually through a wall. She smirked, craning her head to peek up Charlotte’s skirts.

“Rana!” Sari hissed. “She’s vomiting.”

“And doesn’t wear-”

“Rana!”

“What was that?” Charlotte asked, wiping her mouth off with a wave of magical energies, using a magical spell to clean her teeth and lips and gums in a single flash of blue-white light. “Yuck. I can still taste it even with a magical spell. Bleck.”

“I, uh, I was wondering how far we were from Rarous,” Sari said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“That’ll be another few days of sailing,” Seldon called out, swinging his sword with a grunt and then resuming his posture, lowering the point as he smiled. “If you need anything to do while passing the time, I could use a sparring partner of some skill. Fighting on a boat takes a bit of extra effort and I don’t want to get rusty.”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Sari said, shrugging. She could keep her footing rather easily on the ship – and she didn’t even feel queasy, despite the rather doleful state of their rations. She shucked off her tunic, revealing her undershirt and her own muscular arms. She stretched again – and out of the corner of her eye, saw Charlotte’s eyes widening. The expression on her face made Sari feel as if she had just grown several feet. She grinned, while Seldon tossed her another one of his practice swords. She caught it by the handle, then swirled it around.

“Everyone, give the two their room!” Tazli shouted, and Sari stepped close, twirling the sword around and around to feel the weight of it.

“To first point?” Seldon asked, nodding to her as Sari smiled.

“Sure,” she said. “And don’t worry. No magic.”

He laughed, then stepped into a two handed grip, eyeing her. He shifted left and Sari moved with him, shuffling to the left, feeling the shifting of the deck under her feet. The nobleman moved with the rolling of the deck, adding its momentum to his thrust at her chest. Sari knocked his blade aside, then returned with her own stroke that he barely parried. His sword and her sword clacked together and, for a moment, his eyes widened. But Sari pressed the attack. She thrust again, then gripped her sword in a half swording grip, using the extra control to hook and flip his leg out from under him, then jab the tip into his chest.

“Point,” she said.

Seldon winced. “D-Dragons Balls!” he exclaimed, holding up his hand, letting his sword rest against his chest. Sari lifted her blade and took his hand, hauling him to his feet. “How did you get so strong?”

“Uh ... I’m not that strong,” Sari said, shrugging. “I mean, I’m a Rebis girl, but a rebis potion kinda sucks when it comes to upper body strength. I had to keep training really hard to keep from falling behind.”

“Are you sure?” Seldon wrung out his wrist. “I feel like you could have broken my wrist with that stroke.”

Sari snorted. “Sure you’re not just a bit unsteady on your feet?” She asked, gently kicking at his ankle with a grin. But Seldon’s expression wasn’t amused. It was ... faintly frightened. Sari felt a cold chill run along her spine. “Want to go again?”

“I think I need a bit of a break,” Seldon said, then nodded to her and started off towards his lover. “Sari.”

Sari bit her lip, then asked one of the passing sailors.

“Where are you keeping the ghoul?”

“Gonna molest our prisoner? How deliciously evil,” Rana purred as Sari stepped down into the cold, dank hold. The ship was rocking even more now that it was under weigh, and the close confines were causing her stomach to gurgle a bit nervously. Sari put her hand on the wooden wall as she walked forward, shaking her head subtly.

“I’m not going to molest her. I’m going to ask some questions,” she said.

“Ooh, what about?” Rana asked.

Sari considered the dream she had had. The Corpse Lord ... in the dream, Charlotte had called her by her name: The Lady Arranti. It was not impossible that Charlotte knew that name – after all, she had researched the Corpse Lord, who had been expelled from a magical academy. That name would be on the record. But asking Charlotte would mean explaining the dream. The vivid image of her blood, puddling under her neck, the dagger used to slit her throat in Sari’s own hand, was burned into her mind.

“Sari?” Rana asked.

Sari shook her head. “S-Sorry, just ... I heard Charlotte talking about the Corpse Lord and I wanted to learn some things about her from Hecate. That’s all.”

“Hurm. You know, you don’t need to keep secrets from me, dear,” Rana murmured. “Did you have another one of those awful dreams? I told you, the necromancers-”

They came to where Hecate had been lashed up. The undead woman looked every inch of her newly stretched height, lashed as she was straight down to a stretcher, which had been propped upright against a wall. A lantern swung nearby, casting its jagged, irregular light along her body – making her eye seem to glow from the darkness every time the shadows slipped over her. Hecate had a gag in her mouth and was looking deeply bored. Sari waved her hand and magic pulled the gag from the ghoul girl’s mouth – leaving it dangling. Hecate laughed, then let her tongue loll out, licking herself with the length of it, before crooning. “Sssssssssari.”

“Hecate,” Sari said. “Do you know the Corpse Lord’s name?”

She nodded. “And her cock,” she purred softly.

Sari’s cheeks heated. The dream memory flashed in her – the massive girth and length of that immense girldick, making her feel shrinking, even as she had gotten harder and more excited. She tried to barrel forward: “I don’t want to hear about your puerile little ... playtime.”

“Heh,” Hecate purred. “We didn’t play. Not until we got back.”

Sari crossed her arms over her chest. “Okay. Is her name Lord Arranti?”

Hecate cocked her head. Her eye narrowed. “Yes,” she said, softly. “It is in my mind. A bit of knowledge. Burning coal, left there by a connection. Lord Arranti ... reborn Corpse Lord, revenant queen of the undead. The Umbral Messiah.”

“That is what the prophecy says,” Sari said.

“Mmm, prophecy, prophecy,” Hecate whispered. “Before the chop came ... down...” She lifted her chin – and the swaying lantern spread illumination along the jagged staples that seamed her neck and throat. The visceral image of her head rolling away from the headman’s block flashed into Sari’s mind and she crossed her arms even harder over her chest. “Hecate used to say that there was no prophecy. Just acting. Just doing. But there’s so much that you can’t do. You can’t stop the chop. You can’t fight them when they say you’re going to die, to die, to die ... you can’t fight fate...” Her eye glowed a bilious yellow. “Maybe that’s the prophecy, old One Eye thinks.” She grinned. Sharpened teeth flashed. Black, long tongue flicked against her lips. “Maybe prophecy is just enough people all agreeing on the chop.”

Sari frowned. “What about you?”

“What about me?” Hecate said, shrugging as best as she could. “My brain’s working faster, better, stronger, smarter, more living...” She cocked her head to the side. Then cocked it more and more and more until a vertebrae snapped and her head lolled almost entirely upside down. She giggled. “ ... maybe the salt water, between me and her, shrouding command. Or maybe it’s you.” Sari blushed and the grin grew more wicked. “Maybe you fucked her out of me. Maybe you fucked old One Eye into being smarter.”

“I-I thought it was a dream,” Sari said, slowly turning her gaze on Rana.

“Ahh, a dream. Maybe. Maybe.” Hecate giggled. “A very good dream.”

Sari stepped back and wished she could grab and drag Rana with her. “You said it was a dream,” she growled.

“Well, I, heh, I may have embellished slightly,” Rana said, spreading her hands slightly. “You got distracted by carnal pleasures. It happens to the best of us. You fell asleep and were in danger.”

“So, what happened?” Sari blinked, then scowled. “You possessed me.”

“I mean ... didn’t I already-”

Sari tried to grab Rana by the collar of her thin white gown, but her hands passed through her. She stepped in close, despite that, snarling. “You moved my body with your powers. You controlled me! While I was asleep!”

“To save your liiiife!” Rana said, her voice a quiet croon. “It’s okay. Did you want me to leave you in that little bathhouse, all fucked out, dripping with ghoul-juice, for the Corpse Lord to take back and feed to her pet spideress?” She clicked her tongue. Her black on black eyes were gentle. “Sari, you’re so untrusting, but I’m here for you. I’m here to help you. And I have, haven’t I? I find dangers. I give advice. Confidence.” Her palm hovered, just an inch from Sari’s cheek. “Have I ever truly done anything but give a few fibs here and there for your peace of mind?”

Sari felt the proximity as a strange, burning heat on her cheeks. “Y-You lied to me!”

“To comfort you,” Rana whispered. She leaned in. Her lips were almost brushing Sari’s lips. The almost contact, even if it was a illusory one, made her lips tingle. Rana’s voice was a happy purr. “To bring you confidence. Now you know, but take heart. If you’re ever knocked out, if you’re ever hurt. I’m here for you. I’m always here for you, my sweetie. My Sari.” Her voice was growing softer. “A little voice that tells you what you want and lets you do what you need. And what you want right now...” Her palm stroked the air between Sari’s legs. “Heh ... do you want to take that eager, throbbing girldick and show this ghoul what being captive means?”

“I-I...” Sari stammered.

“You can smell her arousal. She wants it.” Rana whispered, her dark eyes shimmering. Sari bit her lip, hard.

“Sari?” Charlotte’s voice snapped Sari away from Rana – but Sari’s body still burned. Her cock was still achingly hard, her nipples were poking out against her top, even as she waved her hand – the gag flying over Hecate’s mouth before Hecate could say anything incriminating.

“W-What’s up?” Sari asked.

Rana grinned as she walked around behind Charlotte’s back. “Speaking of smelling arousal,” she purred, her finger brushing intangibly along Charlotte’s back. “The little witch isn’t even wearing panties.”

“I wanted to ask you about your ... abilities,” Charlotte said. “I-I know that may sound strange, but ... I’ve never met anyone as young as you who is as adept with magic and swordcraft.”

“W-well, uh...” Sari rubbed the back of her neck. She was feeling ... harried. She wanted to pin Rana down, to get straight answers from her. But what Rana had said, it halfway made sense in her brain. She had saved Sari’s life. If Sari had just sprawled out on the ground after going mad with lust, then she would have died. Or worse.

“Swordcraft? Hmmm?” Rana purred. Her hand made a lewd gesture between her thighs.