Part 5C

Celes was in the room when Danica awoke early the next morning, "Ye've grown strong in yer art dearie," Celes said.

"Not strong enough. It was a near thing many times," Danica said, and then told Celes the story of what had happened.

Celes let out an explosive breath when Danica finished her tale, "Whoo — so many powerful spells so quickly. Dearie, yer lucky. Drawin' on that much power coulda left ye unable ta defend yerself in the slightest."

"I was overconfident," Danica admitted. "With the new spells I've learned, I felt that a few goblins would be no match for me."

"Even the easy battle can turn against ye, Dearie. Remember ye that, next time."

Danica nodded. She then remembered something she had thought about while reading the texts on illusion. She knew that men saw Celes as she should be, not as she was. Danica wanted to know what Celes really looked like before Zoraster cursed her with his dark wish. She slipped into the second sight, concentrating intently on Celes. She saw the faint edges of the dweomer, and concentrated harder on it. For just a split second, she saw the image of a young woman with dark hair, though she could make out little detail.

Fingers snapped in front of her face. "Danica, where did ye go lass?" Celes asked when Danica's eyes focused on the real world again.

"I'm sorry, Celes. I'm still a little weary I suppose. I sort of got lost in a daze I guess," Danica replied.

"Lemme get ye some water," Celes offered, and stood up to go fill a glass.

Danica slipped into the second sight again. She found it was somewhat easier and quicker this time. She saw the image of a shapely woman bent over filling the glass. She caught just a glimpse of a very young, beautiful face — almost teen like — when Celes turned back toward her. Danica slipped out of the second sight and smiled, accepting the water from Celes.

"Ye should rest some more, Dearie. Yer actin' right strange," Celes observed. "I'm needin' to be goin'. I've things I must do t'day. Get ye some rest, Dearie."

"I will Celes," Danica promised.

The old woman nodded and left the room. Danica gasped in wonder at the image she had seen while forcing herself to see the illusion. Celes was beautiful beyond anything she had ever imagined. She felt her eyes grow moist when she thought about how hellish it must be for Celes to be trapped in an old sagging body.

Danica sighed and stood up. She thought about the drug mentioned by the apprentice in the text, and decided to go see what she could discover about it. She went first to the apothecary on the grounds. She waited patiently while the old man ground up some herbs with a mortar and pestle, and then inquired about the drug.

"Aye, I know of it," the herbalist said. "I even used it a wee bit when I was a lad. It's not so dangerous, as long as it's used in small quantities and not so often. It opens up the mind and heightens your senses. I used it when I was seeking a lady's company, because I was a shy lad. Whenever I did manage to find one to tryst with, it was incredible. The drug awakens all your senses. I fear I probably enjoyed it much more than the lasses I was with though." He chuckled a bit before continuing, "I've not the herbs to make any though. You might try in the city, he's better stocked than I am."

Danica thanked the man, and passed him a coin in addition. His eyes widened, and he thanked her for her generosity. Danica smiled and left the apothecary to go obtain permission to go to the city.

The wizard approved her request, and Danica found the apothecary in the city a short while later. It was a beautiful building with expensive stained glass windows. Danica entered and heard a bell tinkle as she opened the door.

"Ah — welcome. Welcome," the man behind the counter greeted her.

Danica's breath caught in her throat. The shopkeeper was stunningly handsome. He was perhaps thirty, though his face looked younger. He had long dark hair, pulled back into a tail on his head. She could see the well-toned muscles of his arms as he clapped and stepped out from behind the counter.

"What can I do for the beautiful lady," he said and brought her hand to his lips to kiss it.

Danica blushed. I have some ideas about what you can do for me. Enough of that Danica, you're here on business. "I wonder if you might know of a drug called Poplium?"

"Of course. Of course," the shopkeeper revealed. "Seeking some enlightenment are you? Have you used this drug before?" He walked behind the counter and reached beneath it as he asked the questions.

"No, I read something about it and was curious," Danica replied.

"It is truly a wonderful experience," he said and produced a small case of glass vials from beneath the counter. "You should never use very much, or use it very often. It can be dangerous when used overmuch."

Danica nodded and said, "So I've been told."

"It is also known to cause strange reactions in some. Some people seem to be allergic to the compounds in the potion. That can be dangerous as well. I need to make sure you are aware of the possible dangers."

"Maybe I should have someone observe me when I use it the first time," Danica mused.

"Indeed — it would be wise to do so. I also have a potion here which counteracts the effects of the drug, if it seems to be harming you. If you are to purchase any of the drug, you should buy one of these as well. This provides some security until you are sure you will be unharmed in taking the drug."

"Yes, I'm interested. I don't know who I'll have watch me though," Danica said as she considered possibilities. Celes is out of the question. She'd cajole me until I went deaf. Andrea is too young and impressionable. She could end up using far more dangerous things if she sees me experimenting with this.

"I would be happy to observe you and be prepared to administer the antidote, if you wish," the shopkeeper offered.

Danica smiled and batted her eyes at the strikingly handsome man. "I wonder if I'm safe taking this and leaving myself at your mercy," she said with obvious put-upon worry.

He laughed, "You tease me." Clearing his throat, he continued, "You have nothing to fear. I am the model of the gentleman." He then bowed, looking up and smiling at her throughout the elegant motion.

Danica laughed as well. "I accept your offer," she said and pulled out her coin purse.

The merchant waved his hand and pulled one of the vials from the case. "Let us wait until you have tested the drug before you spend any of your coin. If it does not work for you, or works badly, I will not charge you." He then handed the vial to Danica.

"How kind of you, Sir," she said and examined the vial.

The liquid was translucent amber in color. She unstoppered the vial and sniffed. The potion had a sweet, fruity odor. It looked more or less harmless, so Danica tipped up the vial and drank the contents.

"It will take a few minutes to begin affecting you. Please, sit here," the man suggested, and gestured to a comfortable looking chair.

Danica sat down and waited. She thought at first the drug was going to have no effect on her, and then she felt its effects. Her senses came to life. Colors were more vivid. Sounds from the street outside were clear and loud. She could smell the myriad of scents from the herbs and potions in the shop as if they were directly beneath her nose.

She looked up at the handsome shopkeeper, and felt her desire flare to brilliant life within her. She gasped as she felt wetness gather between her legs and her breathing speed up. Impulse took over. Danica stood up from the chair and walked to him, kissing him passionately. She held her body pressed close against him as she kissed.

"It would seem you are having no bad reaction to the drug," the shopkeeper observed with a smile, when Danica released him from the kiss.

Danica smiled back, with desire in her eyes, and licked her lips. The man gently pushed her away and held up a finger to indicate she should wait for him a moment.

He went to the door of the shop and locked it. His eyes went wide when he turned back to see Danica dropping her blouse to the floor and bringing her hands up to caress her breasts.

Something in his peripheral vision caused the shopkeeper to turn, and he saw a young man looking in the window. The hapless passerby stared at Danica with his mouth wide open, as she ran her hands down her body and pulled on the waist of the long skirt she wore.

The merchant hurried across the room and managed to get Danica safely into a back room just as she stepped out of her skirt. He glanced back and saw the young man still standing there with his eyes and mouth wide open. With a shrug and a smile, the shopkeeper closed his back room door.

When he turned back to Danica, she kicked her panties off one foot, completing her hurried disrobing. She glided toward him, running her hands along her body. "Oh my," he said as he drank in the sight of her nude body.

Danica reached him and ran her hands over his chest. She then gripped his shirt and pulled hard, ripping it open. Buttons went flying everywhere and Danica leaned in to kiss his chest with rapid pecks. He moaned and reached around her to squeeze her buttocks.

Danica could smell the scent of the sweet oil he used in his hair. The sound of his quickening breath echoed in her ears. Her sex screamed for attention, so wet now it was close to dripping. She jerked his trousers down, gasping as his cock popped out. It was rock hard and of a very nice length.

Dropping to her knees, she ran her tongue over his well-defined body as she slid downward, pulling his trousers down to his ankles along the way. When she reached her knees, she grasped his manhood, and then engulfed it in her mouth.

He moaned and stroked her cheek softly. Danica greedily sucked him, feeling every throb of the shaft in her mouth. The sweet taste of a drop of pre-cum flooded Danica's mouth with intense sensations as her head bobbed over his manhood.

Danica's senses screamed in ecstasy as she continued to suck him at a furious pace. Her hand stroked him so fast it was a blur. Her mouth slipped over his turgid flesh almost as quickly.

She heard him gasp and grunt, and squealed around his cock as he flooded her mouth with sweet cum. Danica shivered from the intensity of the taste, the feeling of his seed sliding down her throat, and the sounds of his quick gasps. She thought she was going to come without being touched.

He pulled away from her suctioning mouth with a loud gasp. Danica licked her lips and panted for breath for a moment, and then lay back on the floor. She pulled on his legs to guide him downward. He knelt, and Danica dragged his mouth to her aching sex.

His tongue only touched her lightly for a few moments before she exploded into the most intense orgasm she had ever experienced. She gushed a fountain of her juices into his face, screaming shrilly as her orgasm exploded from every inch of her body.

She held his face tightly against her, and his tongue continued to wash over her. Danica's whole body was on fire, and teetered right on the edge of ultimate ecstasy. Then she tumbled over, coming with ferocious intensity once again.

It felt to Danica as if she were in the grip of a never-ending orgasm. Each wave rolled over her without warning and exploded throughout her entire body. Her vision swam as orgasm after orgasm made her writhe and scream.

She felt his face pull away from her. She growled in disappointment at first, and then growled in pleasure as his cock filled her. Danica could see nothing by the time she first climaxed on his cock. Her vision had gone so blurred that nothing was visible. Sounds echoed faintly in her ears. She continuously quivered and quaked, only to have another orgasm pull her body taut every few minutes.

Danica heard him scream and felt his cum flooding her depths. She screamed with him, as the most intense orgasm yet grabbed hold of her body. Her back arched high, until only her feet and head were touching the floor. Her bottom slammed down as the first wave released her, and then she was bucking her hips to stroke his cock inside her. Danica's vision swam again as another wave of her orgasm passed through her body. Then her world went dark.

She awoke a few moments later, still gasping for air. He had collapsed atop her, and they were both dripping with sweat. It took them long moments to pull apart, and it was nearly half an hour before they managed to rise from the wet and sticky floor.

"Gods above, I was not expecting that," the shopkeeper admitted and followed it with an explosive exhale.

"I-I don't think I reacted badly to the drug," Danica gasped and smiled.

"You most certainly didn't," he agreed and smiled back.

They eventually recovered, managed to dress, and left the back room to return to the shopfront. The merchant breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't see the young man still there with his face still pressed against the glass.

The shopkeeper gave Danica four vials of the drug without charging her, admonishing her again to not use very much or use it very often, and telling her to come back any time.

Danica made her way to a tavern across the street and purchased something to eat. The food in her stomach lessened the still intense effects of the drug enough that she felt confident in her ability to make the walk back to Zoraster's abode.

Her toy hummed inside her for an hour before she was satisfied.

Danica turned her mind toward the crafting of a new magic item, the one she had been inspired to create while stroking her toy in Andrea. She considered the construction of the item first. It did not take her long to discard the idea of working in clay. It would be too heavy, and she doubted she could make the item in such a way that firing would not deform it.

She thought of the flail handle Francine had pushed into her depths, and decided it would be possible to craft the item in wood.

Danica went to the tradesman's workshops on the grounds first, but she felt uncomfortable speaking to the men who worked in wood there. From what she could see, they worked with bulkier pieces than she had in mind anyway.

Obtaining permission to do so first, Danica walked down the hill into the city. She soon discovered a shop where a middle-aged woman and her daughter crafted fine pieces such as toys and musical instruments. The latter in particular fit well with the ideas Danica had in mind on how to craft the item.

She spoke to the older woman, vaguely describing the type of work she wanted done. The woman considered for a minute, eyeing Danica with a look that spoke of sensing something unsaid.

"Something is striking me as odd — but yes, I do that kind of work. It's very similar to a flute, but bigger," the woodcarver explained.

A man walked in as the woman finished speaking, nodded to Danica, and beckoned the woodcarver aside. The woman apologized and went to speak with the man outside the shop.

She stomped back in a minute or so later. "My fool of a husband has gotten drunk, and tossed in jail for brawling again. I'll have to make my way there and get him free. My apologies, Miss. My daughter is just as capable in the craft as I, so you may do your business with her. Daughter, your fool of a father is locked up again. I'm off to fetch him. I'll likely be gone a week. Take care of the lady here and try and keep up with the work as best you can. Take no new work unless you know you can handle it yourself. I'll already be on the road when you leave tonight."

The pretty dark-haired girl sighed and walked over to kiss her mother. "I will do my best mother. Go bring the old fool home."

"I'll drive the drunkard home with a switch," the woman snapped in exasperation, and then stomped out of the shop.

The daughter smiled and said, "I'm sorry I did not hear what you wanted made. I was busy and paying no attention as you spoke. Please, tell me what you want."

Danica again described in vague terms what she wanted made. She saw the young woman blushing as she spoke and her eyebrows twitched upward when she noticed, but she continued on with her description.

"It sounds very similar to work I've done before. I'm sure I can do it, but I'll need a better description to know for sure. Please come with me. You can look at some of the pieces I've completed and that I'm working on. It might give you a better idea to describe what you want for me."

Danica followed the woman to her workbench. She explained that the flute the woman was working on followed many of the properties she needed. It needed to be hollow, but closed on one end, and much bigger around than the flute. Another customer came in, and Danica waited at the girl's workbench while she went to speak with the customer.

Danica looked around the area at various completed pieces, and the hem of her robes caught an ink jar, spilling it. Danica looked around quickly and found a rag, wiping up the ink before it ran onto anything other than the bench. The she noticed what the rag had been covering.

It was a very realistically carved cock. About six inches long, it even had detail of veins in it. Danica picked it up and felt the finely sanded surface, very similar to Francine's flail handle. A fine layer of shellac covered about half of the carving, making it feel even smoother.

The young woman returned and blushed when she saw Danica handling the wooden cock.

"This is beautiful," Danica said.

The woman's blush deepened. "It's... I..."

Danica held up her hand and smiled. "It's alright, Dear. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. Every woman pleasures herself. You've simply decided there's a better way than your fingers, and used your skills to obtain it."

The young woman still blushed as she responded, "You do it?"

Danica chuckled, "Of course, quite often." She smiled and continued, "Sometimes you need release, and there's no man around to help. Sometimes you need to be filled, but don't want the trouble of the man attached to the cock. I would wager — considering how detailed this is — that you have little trouble finding the real thing." Danica offered a sly smile and a wink when she finished.

Danica's accepting and somewhat conspiratorial demeanor set the woman more at ease. "You want something like this, don't you?" She asked.

"It's very close, though I think we won't need to spend quite so much time on the details as you have here. What I intend to do will require my magic, and it would be much easier if I could craft the item myself. If you could teach me the basic skills I need, I can use my magic to make your toy something incredible," Danica offered.

The young woman smiled. "I'll try. Have you done anything like this before? Are your hands steady and your eyes sharp?"

Danica nodded. "I'm pretty good working with clay. I have made pieces just as detailed as what you have here. I'm sure that with the basic knowledge; I can learn to work in wood too."

"Well then, let's try and teach you what you need to know. My name is Carolyn," the young woman said with a smile.

"Thank you, Carolyn. My name is Danica. Finish your toy first. Explain to me what you use to coat it, and how it's done as you finish. It's sort of starting at the end, but I want you to have the physical item done so that I can use my magic on it tomorrow. I'll do it because you're going to try to teach me. Even if I'm a poor student, you'll still have your payment."

The young woman smiled and sat down to finish her work shellacking the toy. Danica listened intently, making notes about the resins and other things used to make the shellac. In only an hour or so, Carolyn finished.

"It should be fully cured by tomorrow afternoon," Carolyn explained as she placed the toy on a rack that hung from a small stove at the back of the shop.

"Good, that should give me enough time to study your craft, work my magic, and have your payment ready by nightfall." Danica twitched her eyebrows and winked.

The young woman blushed and giggled. "Well, I have a flute to work on. Since you wish to make hollow..." She paused — searching for a word — and then appeared to give up. "Since you need something similar, that's a good place to start that will let me keep up with the work I already have."

The young woman put a partially hollowed dowel of wood on the table, and then reached into one of the numerous drawers in the workbench to retrieve the tools she needed. Danica watched and listened carefully as the young woman described what tools were necessary and how to use them.

After a few minutes, Danica took a larger tool of the same kind and began to work on a dowel of wood similar in size to what she intended to work with later. It took her some time to figure out how to hold the tools, but she found the proper technique to hollow out her dowel with some skill by the time Carolyn finished her work on the flute.

Carolyn sat back with a sigh and wiped her brow. She blushed when her belly rumbled loudly enough that someone on the other side of the room could have heard it. Danica laughed and noticed the latest of the hour. She hadn't realized how long they had been working, "Let's go get something to eat," she suggested with another laugh.

Danica picked out a fine tavern nearby, and she paid for the meal. Carolyn had never eaten anywhere except her own home before, and she enjoyed the experience a lot. She also had never drunk undiluted wine before, and she was quite giddy by the time they finished eating.

Danica had caught sight of a messenger boy when she and Carolyn first sat down, and had given him a coin to take a message back to Zoraster's abode requesting to stay in the city longer. The boy returned just as they finished their meal, sweating and winded from the long run between the city and the complex on the hill. Danica gave him another coin, which he thanked her outrageously for, and then read the reply.

She was surprised to find permission granted for three days and nights, with only the stipulation that she must return on the fourth day before high sun.

"He was a bit too thankful to be believable," Danica said with a laugh when she finished reading. "He should practice a bit more and tone it down a bit."

"I imagine the thanks were genuine," Carolyn disagreed. "The first coin you gave him is what he could expect to earn for two deliveries. The second made it enough to likely rival the most he's ever made in a day."

"I had no idea. The city is fairly large, and this area is affluent. I assumed I was close to the normal payment," Danica admitted with a shrug.

"That's true. You just don't know how stingy the people here are with their coin," Carolyn clarified with a laugh.

Danica laughed with her. "I guess I should find a room. This seems as good a place as any."

"Oh please, come stay with me. It's lonely in the house by myself. That way we can leave together in the morning and you won't have to worry about oversleeping or waiting on me to arrive at the shop."