Chapter 14

Gently roiling fog glimmered in the glow of the magical lights above. The mists partially swallowed the nearby desks and chairs of the study, while the others appeared to float on clouds. Danica and Celes coalesced from the misty wall, and stepped into the study.

Danica stretched her hands over her head and groaned, glad to be home after a long evening of cleaning up after the goblin battle. Behind her, the mists slowly settled, leaving not a trace of their passing. "I need a bath - badly."

"Aye," Celes agreed, and then said, "That's getting to be second nature - using my gift." The raven-haired witch walked over to Danica's desk and shuffled through the notes regarding Ashley's cottage, summoning up the conviction to make a suggestion. "I know you think you have the beasties under control, and I'm not arguing with you, but I think we should use my gift to get around instead of the Hellgate."

Danica let out a silvery laugh and stepped over to take Celes' hand. As she tugged her friend toward the door, Danica said, "I wondered why you were taking such pains to learn about your gift."

"Seems to me that we can do anything with it that we can do with the Hellgate."

Danica nodded to the left, toward her room, and held up the letter she carried from Heather's family. "I'm not arguing with you, either. We'll do it your way when we can. If nothing else, we should experiment to see what else you might be able to do. You can already find a place you've never been. Maybe you can find someone you've never met." Danica leaned into her room and placed the letter on her desk near the door.

"Never thought of that," Celes responded with a little pleasant surprise in her voice. She took the lead around the edge of the common room, heading toward the hallway on the opposite end. A quick peek into Marlena's room revealed Ashley asleep in the Illusionist's bed. Celes dropped her voice to a whisper and said, "I thought I'd get more argument from you."

Danica whispered back, "I think the spell is useful, but I do know it's dangerous. Your gift seems to work just as well, and without the danger. I'm still going to test the Hellgate, though. I think I could help the three of you more if I can summon up the Soulblade outside the gate to use against demons. I haven't been able to call it up for more than a minute or two so far."

"Fair enough," Celes agreed with a little reluctance. The pair of friends passed the kitchen, lit only by the banked coals in the ovens and stoves, and turned the corner of the hallway. Celes cocked her head and listened ahead for a moment or two. "Notice something - or rather the lack of it?"

Danica chuckled. "The girls are probably just closing their doors now. It's a little early still for them to have worn themselves out with their toys." Once past the darkened kitchen and within the entrance hall of the manor, she pointed toward the girls' wing and nodded.

Hearing the faint sounds of pleasure as well, Celes shook her head and chuckled. After cutting across the corner of the entrance hall, she remarked, "You know, we didn't pick up anything to change into after our bath."

Danica shrugged and responded, "I have a couple of shifts in my bag, but you could just teleport us back to my room." She quickened her pace a little. "Right now, I just want the stink of smoke and goblins off me."

Celes matched her friend's speed. Danica grinned mischievously and walked a little faster. Celes let out a nearly silent scoff and caught up to pass her friend. By the time the pair turned the corner at the end of the hall, both were almost jogging. The playful contest ended in a tie at the entrance of the baths.

Both women stripped down and sank into the bath with contented sighs. Danica dunked her head almost immediately, the smell of smoke clinging to her hair tenaciously. Celes followed her lead, and then both women sat back to relax after washing their hair.

Resting her head on the edge of the tub, Celes slowly ran a washcloth over her body, luxuriating in the bath as much as washing. The sensation was nothing more than a faint tingle at first, but steadily grew. If she'd harbored any doubts about her connection to Ashley and Andrea before this moment, the feeling of intense, slow-burning arousal reaching across the miles from Andrea to her sister witch would have dispelled them. Celes knew without a doubt that Andrea was steadily building toward a breathtaking climax, and her body was responding predictably. It was all she could do not to gasp out and reach between her legs to tame the growing need there.

Danica's eyes popped open. She looked over at Celes and could see faint traces of the arousal the woman felt. She could feel it as well, her psychic powers latching onto the emotion. She pouted a little when she saw that Celes was resisting, but cared enough not to press, despite her own arousal. With a surge of concentration, she broke the psychic connection to the raven-haired beauty, hoping to calm down before the Awakening swelled within her and unnaturally eroded Celes' willpower.

Concentrating on what she planned to write in her letter to Heather helped distract her, and Danica managed to cool the heat in her loins. That in turn made her feel good, because conquering the Awakening within her was no small feat. Feeling that she could resist now, she climbed out of the tub and reached for a towel.

Celes opened her eyes with a sigh and followed Danica's lead. Danica picked up her bag of holding once she finished drying off and asked, "Could you teleport us back to my room? That way, I can just leave what I have in here for when we might really need it."

Hanging her towel over one of the wooden racks, Celes nodded and took Danica's hand. A moment later, both women stood in Danica's room. Danica walked to her chest of drawers to retrieve nightgowns for them both.

Celes gestured, and then declared, "Ha!" She shook out the nightgown she'd translocated from her own room with a triumphant smile.

Danica laughed and put the second gown she'd picked up back in the drawer. Once dressed, she sat down at her desk to compose the letter to Heather. Celes walked in behind her, and something within the drawer caught her eye when Danica opened it to retrieve a pen and paper. "What's this, then?" she asked.

"Nosey," Danica teased, but she pulled the notes she'd made for Edna's toy out and handed them over. She then went to work on her letter while Celes perused the sketches and notations of the design.

"Trying to outdo yourself, are you, Dearie?"

"I wanted Edna to have a toy that works without any need for hands," Danica explained as she continued to write. A few seconds later, she finished the brief note she planned to send with the longer letter from Heather's aunt, and turned back to Celes. Danica's eyes twitched upward just a little when she saw the other woman tracing the drawing of the phallus with a fingertip.

Celes noticed the reaction and rolled her eyes at her friend as she put the sketches down on the desk. "Told you already that I can understand the idea of a cock without a hairy man attached to it."

Danica stood up, placed the two letters into her message bowl, and spoke a word of command, sending them speeding off to the similar bowl in Heather's house. "Do you want to borrow one of my toys?"

At that very moment, miles away in Blackhawk Hall, Andrea and Christi reached a simultaneous, thundering climax on each other's tongues. Celes let out a gasp as the feeling washed over her, mingling with her fascination about Danica's toys. Danica put her hand on the desk behind her and gasped as well when the sharp thrust of Celes' arousal cut through the psychic controls she had placed between them.

Celes nodded her head, still panting from the wave of shared ecstasy. She turned toward the bed, pulling the straps of her nightgown off her shoulders as she walked to let the garment slide down her body to the floor.

Danica followed, dropping her nightgown as well, her eyes locked on Celes' perfect bottom. The beautiful witch crawled into the bed and rolled over on her back. She'd barely settled before Danica straddled her and leaned in for a kiss.

As their lips parted, Celes darted her eyes toward the nightstand next to the bed, where she knew Danica kept her toys. She then nudged the redhead's hand toward the drawer.

Danica let out an excited moan and opened the drawer, pulling out the first toy that her hand closed over. She spoke the command word to bring the magical cock to life, intensely aroused by the thought of using it on Celes. She wet the tip with a few teasing licks, and then asked, "Do you want it?"

"Gods, yes," Celes gasped, parting her legs to tease her moist folds.

A thought from Danica closed the door to her room and caused a rune structure upon it to flicker to life for a few seconds. The magic would keep sound from escaping, so as not to disturb Ashley, sleeping only a short distance away. Celes breathed heavily, gazing with a mixture of fear and longing at the toy in the redhead's hand. Danica leaned forward, reaching over a bent knee to place her hand on the bed. She then sat down and spun on her bottom to face the same direction as Celes, finding a comfortable angle. Looking over her shoulder with a sultry smile, she pressed the humming toy against Celes' nether lips.

Celes gasped as the buzzing tip touched her, her head lifting up from the bed. A second or two of grasping located a pillow, which she pulled under her head so she could better see over her rapidly rising and falling breasts.

Danica rubbed the mushroom tip over Celes' folds, letting the thrumming vibrations play through her friend's sex. Celes' breathing quickened as the toy wriggled between her moist, pink folds, pressing just a little harder. Danica licked her lips, and slowly pushed the magical cock into Celes' depths.

A long, almost pained groan escaped Celes as the toy invaded her. The vibrating cock felt twice as large as she knew it to be, stretching her lips wide and giving her an incredible sense of fullness. When she managed to force her eyes open, they immediately went wide when she saw that only half of the toy was inside her.

Sensing that her friend wasn't ready for more just yet, Danica withdrew her toy a few inches, and then pushed it back in again. Celes yelped, her head lashing back and forth on the pillow. The next stroke was a little faster, and she kept up the pace as she felt the resistance of Celes' tightly clenched walls decrease.

"G-g-gods! So big!" Celes cried out, feeling as though the toy was going to split her in half, while an aching void nevertheless screamed for more deeper inside her.

Danica's next thrust went deeper, setting off another series of gasps and yelps. She found her natural rhythm, stroking the toy cock ever deeper into Celes' canal, until the flickering tongue on the toy touched the raven-haired woman's clit.

Celes squealed as the fluttering probe assaulted her bud, and then again when Danica thrust the toy in to the hilt on the following stroke. Filled as she'd never experienced before - at least willingly - Celes felt a knot of humming, barely restrained energy building deep inside her.

Danica thrust her magical cock into Celes as fast as she could, amazed by the amount of wetness coating the toy and her friend's nether lips. The ecstasy painted across Celes' flushed face and the woman's sharp cries let Danica know her friend was close. "Come for me," she begged in a hushed, breathless voice.

Celes' back slowly arched up from the feather-stuffed mattress as the pressure of her impending climax built to almost unbearable levels. Just as she thought she would explode, her orgasm unleashed its power in a great burst.

She screamed, her body lurching first upward, and then to the side. Her wrenching and the tightening of her intimate muscles squirted the toy from inside her, as well as a spray of her juices. She continued to thrash as jolts of orgasmic energy tore through her, taking complete control of her body.

Danica rubbed her own moist folds as Celes came, the abandoned toy humming against one of the witch's trembling legs. Finally, the beautiful raven-haired woman curled up into a ball, covering her sex with her palm, and spiraled down from her heights.

Breathless and surprised by both the speed and intensity of her orgasm, Celes uncurled and collapsed limp on the bed as soon as her taut muscles would allow it.

"Did you like it?" Danica asked, already knowing the answer.

Unable to summon up enough air to voice the answer, Celes just nodded while continuing to pant. She closed her eyes, still twitching from the occasional sharp aftershock rippling out from her tingling sex.

Though her own need screamed at her, Danica fought the urge until Celes caught her breath. Once again, she reached into her toy drawer, seeking something specific this time.

"Oh my," Celes said in almost frightened tones when she noticed what Danica held.

"If you don't want to, it's okay, but I want it."

"Yes," Celes gasped, the sight of the harnessed cock causing her to feel a void in her depths again.

Danica slipped into the harness as fast as possible, tightening the buckles before speaking the command word that activated her toy's magic. She gripped the magical phallus in her hand as she edged forward.

Celes brought her knees up and back, the curious sight of a cock poking out from between Danica's legs surprisingly arousing. She steeled herself as the tip touched her, trying to prepare for the shock to come.

Both women groaned as Danica thrust her hips forward. Even as the toy penetrated Celes, an only slightly smaller cock thrust into Danica's depths. After a few halting thrusts, Danica found a rhythm, every pump of her hips filling both of them with throbbing magical cock.

Celes gasped as her lover gripped her thighs, using the leverage to thrust harder and faster. The redhead's heavy breasts bounced and jiggled as she enthusiastically thrust, once again fueling a hot bubble of ecstasy within Celes.

Incredibly turned on, Danica could feel her own orgasm building after only a few thrusts. She knew she was going to come hard - soon. When she could manage to keep her eyes open, she could see the signs in Celes that told her the beautiful woman she was fucking was tumbling toward the abyss right alongside her.

"Ah! Yes, D-danica!" Celes cried out, her voice broken in rhythm with the cock pounding into her depths. "Ohh - gods! I ... Aieee!"

Celes' orgasm triggered the magic of the toy, spurting a hot rush of the witch's girl cum deep into Danica. Danica slammed her hips forward a final time, reaching her peak before Celes' scream even died away. She too screamed in release, her juices spurting against the entrance to Celes' womb.

Danica fell forward onto quivering arms, the twin shafts of her toy buried inside both her and Celes. The throbbing cocks kept both women coming, their juices dribbling from around the shafts toward the bed below. A sharp jolt of orgasmic energy caused Danica to withdraw with a loud gasp, and she collapsed to the bed over her friend's bent right leg.

Gasping for breath and trembling in ecstasy, neither woman could manage to move for several minutes.

Man-shaped shadows - extensions of the night - crept across the chill desert. Though the men moved swiftly, virtually no sound of their footfalls reached the wary ears of the guardian priests.

One after another, the shaven-headed priests of the necropolis met swift, silent death, their blood staining the sand. One of the black-clad men knelt next to the final victim and removed his linen kilt, bundling what was inside by gathering up the edges. This he deposited in the offering nave, despoiling the altar with the priest's filth.

The plaster and stone of the tomb's entrance proved little barrier against the magic of the intruders. The men simply vanished into the wall, as though made of the very shadows they resembled.

Within, the desecration continued.

An hour later, the defilers emerged. The smell of burning linen and aromatic oils clung to their dark clothing. In each man's arms, a fortune in gold - save for one. The unburdened shadow warrior approached the corpse of a priest and picked up the man's curved weapon.

As the other shadows vanished into the desert night, the one who remained turned the appropriated sword upon himself. "My honor is restored," the man declared, and then plunged the sword into his own chest with remarkable strength.

A sharp groan escaped the dusky-skinned assailant as he withdrew from the woman's abused sheath. She wept, tears streaming down her face even as his seed seeped from her sex.

A thump drew the rapist's gaze away from his petite conquest. He chuckled upon seeing the woman's husband lying on the floor. The man had summoned up enough strength in his rage to overturn the chair to which he was tied.

A call from outside prompted a call to action. The assailant wiped his member clean upon the shredded clothing of his victim, and stalked toward the struggling man on the floor. A quick slash of a knife freed the almond-eyed farmer from the chair, but not from his bonds.

Across the village, other men emerged from houses, all congregating upon a single tree with their captives - all men - in tow.

The attackers fled toward the mountains and the desert beyond, leaving behind a tree decorated with human fruit.

A knock on the door awakened Andrea. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she shivered, remembering the night before. The Duchess still lay next to her, the dark curls on Christi's mound sticky with the evidence of their lovemaking. Christi stirred as well, and offered a crooked smile to the blonde witch.

"Andrea?" Marlena called from the other side of the heavy wooden door.

"Just a second," Andrea answered, wincing when she tried to move and found her thighs stuck together.

From outside the door, Marlena said, "I'm going to go have a bath."

"I'll come join you once I wake up a little."

"Don't be too long. We should get back."

"I won't."

Christi stretched, emphasizing her lithe, curvy form. "Mmm - what a wonderful night."

Andrea smiled, and leaned in as Christi did to kiss the dark-haired Duchess. "Mmm hmm."

"I'll wait a minute or two before I come to the bath. I know Marlena isn't exactly comfortable with that side of herself. As cute as your blush is, I wouldn't want to embarrass you either."

The color in question rose in Andrea's cheeks as she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. "I'll get to work on your brassiere as soon as I have a chance, and I'll bring patterns so your seamstresses can learn to size them and make them."

"Guessing from the glimmer in your eye regarding your young man, I would imagine we'll be seeing a lot of you here in the Hall."

Andrea shrugged, and sighed. She smoothed back her hair and said, "There's so much to do, and so much danger in the world. I feel selfish even considering it."

Christi sat up next to the younger woman and tucked an errant blonde lock behind Andrea's ear. "You can't deny your feelings. Do what you must to fulfill your duties - even those you impose upon yourself - but take the time for you too." She leaned in and kissed the young witch, kneading Andrea's bottom. "Now, you'd best head for the bath, or I'm going to hold you up."

Danica peeked into Celes' room as she walked to the study to find Celes dressing for the day. She could smell breakfast cooking down the hall, and no hint of anything burning. The girls grew more competent in the kitchen and in their studies by the day, it seemed.

Danica hugged her arms around her and shivered as she considered how much havoc Zoraster could have caused with his amazing cloning magic, had he not chosen to devote it almost entirely to base pleasure.

A step into the study revealed the surprising presence of Edna, who sat next to Ashley considering the plan and trap that Celes and Ashley had devised. Edna looked up and nodded. "I thought it might be a good idea to let them spread their wings a little without their mother bird hovering over them."

"So far, so good. I don't smell anything burning," Danica agreed as she crossed the carpets to sit down.

"Have you thought about where you're going to put your demon once you've captured it?" Edna asked. "I doubt the valley will let you return it here."

Danica answered, "Darkni's island would probably be best. Even demons would shy away from the amount of magical power there, and the thing wouldn't last long if it escaped."

"The beastie isn't getting loose," Celes scoffed as she entered the room. "This trap would hold a demon ten times as strong for a thousand years."

"Never hurts to be prepared," Danica said with a smile.

Melanie, the younger clone of Marlena, walked into the study and said, "Breakfast is ready." She then inclined her head as though she'd heard a sound.

Danica certainly heard something, although it wasn't a real sound. The silent mental chime announced someone arriving in the pattern room - in this case, Andrea and Marlena. "Did you hear that?" Danica asked.

"We all can," Melanie said with a roll of her eyes as she turned to leave the study.

"Oh gods," Danica groaned. "They're taking on a teenage mindset now. I think we're in deep trouble."

Edna chuckled. "I can just imagine your mothers trying to contain their laughter. Every woman takes a little guilty pleasure in watching her daughter deal with this. In your case, it's even closer to seeing what you were like at that age."

"Aye, we're in trouble," Celes reiterated.

Looking a little alarmed as she walked in the room, Andrea asked, "What's wrong?"

Danica laughed and waved to the blonde witch and Marlena. "The girls are just starting to show a bit of a maturity that isn't altogether pleasant to look forward to. Your outfits are gorgeous. Did you find everything we needed?"

Marlena sat down and glanced at Andrea, who blushed. "It's all in the pattern room."

Danica knew there was a story behind the glance and the blush, but decided to let it go and allow Andrea to tell it when she felt ready. "Feeling up to giving me a little of your magic after breakfast, then? I'm sure Ashley is ready for some space of her own."

"Certainly," Marlena answered. "Breakfast sounds wonderful. I'm famished."

Ashley helped Edna to stand, and everyone proceeded to the dining room. They found the girls in the midst of a hushed conversation that immediately ceased upon the arrival of the adults.

Danica knew it was yet another ominous sign.

Danica let her arms fall to her side and her chin drop to her chest. When she saw movement in her peripheral vision, she offered a weak wave of her hand to indicate that she was okay. She took in a deep breath and blew it out again before lifting her head.

The glow around the cottage had already faded, and Danica had little doubt that her magic had worked. She nodded to Ashley and said, "Go ahead."

Ashley picked up the model cottage, her green eyes aglow with anticipation. Everyone followed her out back and waited as the redheaded witch positioned the model on the shin-high grass behind the manor, directly across from Edna's cottage.

"Whenever you're ready," Danica said when Ashley returned to stand with the rest of the group.

Ashley's smile grew even wider as she took a deep breath, and then said, "Home."

The model cottage rapidly expanded, emerging into exactly what the command word for the magic item stated - Ashley's new home.

Danica leaned up against the wall of the manor with a sigh. "I need a little rest before we go demon hunting."

"We need time to teach Andrea the spell, anyway," Celes said with a shrug. When she looked at Ashley admiring her new home, she let out a laugh. "Or rather I need to teach her the spell."

"I'm going to go lie down, then," Danica declared, and then pushed off the smooth stone wall of the manor to walk toward the door.

Celes watched her friend, and couldn't help but consider the phenomenal powers that the redhead possessed. After weaving such a powerful enchantment, she should be on her knees. Even the joining spell that Celes had cast to lend her power and Marlena's to the enchantment shouldn't have prevented that.

Celes knew that there was more to Danica than anyone understood. The knowledge left her in awe - and a little frightened for her friend. As an Archmage, Celes knew the strain that great magic put on her when she called on her full wellsprings of power. She couldn't imagine how Danica managed to contain such vast arcane energies.

"Celes?" Andrea asked, noticing the distant look in the dark-haired witch's eyes.

"Sorry," Celes responded, pushing aside her ruminations. "Let's go teach you that spell so we can trap us a beastie and wring some information out of it."

The orange-striped cat hissed and arched its back in alarm as fog suddenly rolled up from the paving stones of the shadowed alley. The feline darted away when figures congealed from the mists.

Celes stepped from the cloudy portal first, followed by her sister witches. Danica and Marlena brought up the rear, the magical fog already evaporating even as the two redheaded magic users stepped into the alley.

Andrea pinched her nose against the stink of urine and garbage permeating the alley. "This smells like a place a demon would like."

"Let's try to do this quietly," Danica said. "The last thing we need are superstitious townsfolk organizing an impromptu witch burning."

"At least they'd be getting real witches for once," Celes grumbled with a shake of her head. While most of the world accepted magic due to its almost unavoidable abundance, some rural areas still clung to the old superstitions like a lover. This frontier town stood dead center in just such a collection of family farms.

Though Danica and her friends had dressed in a nondescript fashion, Marlena wove invisibility around them all before leaving the alley - save for Danica. Ashley had suggested that such magic would normally prove useless against even a minor demon, but questioned that common wisdom in the face of Marlena's mastery of illusion.

With soundless footfalls - another element of Marlena's magic - the group stepped out of the alley and into the crumbling flagstone street. Wagons rumbled down the pothole-laden thoroughfare while pedestrians stayed close to the edges to avoid the heaps of horse manure in the center. The attire of the people moving about suggested that most were visitors from the neighboring farms, though a few in cleaner clothes were likely townsfolk.

"The merchant's shop is over there," Celes revealed as she pointed toward a building at the end of the street. The place looked a little worse for the wear, and a general store on the opposite side of the street, closer to the center of town, appeared to garner the lion's share of the local business.

Danica popped a pair of buttons at the top of her blouse to reveal the swell of her bosom as she approached the shop and patted the coin purse on her hip.

"What's that all about?" Celes asked.

Danica sent her thoughts to her friends telepathically since no one but her could see them. 'I imagine that our shopkeep could use a little cheering up. The whole point is to give him some hope, isn't it? Besides, with the way demons seem to lust after women, it could distract it a bit as well.'

Celes chuckled and said, "You're the bait." She then nodded off toward the side. "You're attracting attention from more than demons and demoralized merchants, though."

Danica glanced over to see a young man staring at her with wide eyes - just in time to see him trip over his own feet and stumble down the weathered boards of the porch he was crossing. She looked away with a pursed lip smile and fought against the urge to laugh, not wanting to embarrass him any further.

"Okay, here we are," Ashley announced upon reaching another, much longer alley about halfway to the merchant's shop. The first alley had provided cover to mask the arrival of the five women. This one provided a path to the edge of town where the smell of a charcoal maker would keep away most prying eyes, and a stand of trees would serve as the perfect place to set the trap.

"We'll be waiting," Celes said as she turned down the alley.

"Be careful," Andrea admonished as she followed.

'I will, ' Danica telepathically responded as she continued toward the shop.

The plan was quite simple. The demon feeding off of the merchant's fears accosted just enough people who visited the shop to keep the man on the edge of ruin. Anyone who spent a large amount of coin in the shop became an immediate target. Danica would do exactly that, and then lead the demon back to where the three witches awaited with their trap.

When Danica pushed open the creaking door of the shop and triggered the bell hanging inside, she saw the merchant seated behind his counter with his forehead pressed against the wood and his hands atop his head. He popped up upon hearing the bell and greeted her with none of the depression he obviously felt in his voice. "Welcome. How can I help you?"