Page 58 of Fallen: Darkness Ascending, Vol.1

Act IV

U radri hated crowded cities. Nothing else so heavy and pungent could scatter her focus so easily.

Until it all becomes noise.

She masked herself as an average Davrin: darkening her skin to the night sky, lightening her blonde hair further until it blazed white, and gave herself non-descript, dark red irises.

She had snatched a pale green garment from a servant’s wash line, and later a sash while hiding her bare feet. She eventually procured a headwrap that protected her ears from the sun even though she didn’t need it.

Walking as a lone female down the streets, she listened to the gossip in market districts throughout the morning and evening when the city was most active. Some of the people’s conversations about what should be done with the Valsharess’s half-breed children were viscerally disturbing.

The Queen was due to arrive that evening, yet the Sovereign still hadn’t heard about the Seer. If only she could fly upon the light without conscious thought. Her intuition often served much better than tedious, mundane interactions.

That evening, when the Valsharess and her guard paraded back to her palace, Ishuna wasn’t beside her. She and the acolyte were gone.

I should have tracked them in the wilderness and skipped the city. This could be over. Sigh… Time to see the hidden path.

Uradri found the highest point she could access in her mundane form: a bell tower in the nearest worship hall.

Poking her head out the window, she scaled the wall onto the flat roof, standing up with the night wind in her face.

Without the sun drenching the land, it was easier to feel just the Ley as the currents drifted above and through the sands.

Ice blue due north… Forest green to the west… Golden red to the south… She paused, facing east. Violet fading away into nothing.

Above that, random motes of festering yellow floated upward like ash.

That way!

She must fly to find the source of that wound, but this left her vulnerable and easier to track as well. She smirked.

Well, if we’re all going to fight, I should call on some old friends to help.

Though impossible to summon other Sovereign while pregnant with Indrath’s child, now she was free. Uradri tore her garment to feel the air on her skin, letting her dark-skinned disguise fade.

*Trinity. I’m open.*

The Sovereign stripped bare, allowing the linen to drop onto the street below. She displayed herself before the city.

*My Trinity, Io’tracta. Hear me!*

Fingers caressed a tight and mended sex. One hand caressed a breast still swollen from feeding, pinching the nipple until it hurt.

*I summon you, Io’tracta, to aid me. Come.*

She made herself wet, rolling fingers over slick folds, aware when an ethereal tongue eased in to begin lapping.

*Yes. Drink from me. Use it to grow strong so we may face our enemies.*

The Trinity’s tongue became three, one of them a full mouth, suckling her nub, setting her to quiver.

*Come! Yes, come to me..*

Unlike her, they’d never been native to this world. They needed her, needed to know her, to recognize her home as she did.

*Don’t be shy. Come inside…*

Powerful hands took her shoulders from behind, pushing her down to her knees. Uradri bent forward to land on all fours, spreading her legs apart in invitation. Picsi seized her waist and lunged his corkscrew phallus into her sex, twisting in, settling deep and snug.

“Uradri…” he whispered, drawing on her aura while simultaneously spurting small, continuous jets in the passage between her legs. “My…offering…”

The grounded Sovereign accepted, helping him to harmonize his exotic aura with the land around them. She lifted her head and opened her mouth, extending her tongue in a second invitation. Jois, the second of her Trinity, was there to slide his downward-curving member into her throat.

“Uradri,” he echoed, grunting. “So good to…feel you…!”

*Hurry!* Emmelil urged. *Spill into her! Let me drink!*

The two newcomers climaxed and became solid for their mission.

Picsi and Jois then pulled Uradri up so Emmelil could slide underneath, the four working together to align their mouths with their sexes.

Pressing her semen-stained lips into Emmelil’s folds, Uradri mashed her own soggy center against the face of her third, feeling the greedy tongue go deep.

Picsi took advantage of their position, as he usually did. Parting their summoner’s pale cheeks, he pushed his tapered, curling cock through the tight pucker between them. Humping her, he settled in to take an extra turn in Uradri’s netherhole while the females feasted.

Every act of bonding helped to anchor new arrivals, so Uradri didn’t mind the second entry, exactly, but Picsi often forgot how long he took on his second round.

“We need to fly!” she reminded him, tossing the words over her shoulder long after Emmi was done. “Other factions may be watching!”

The first of her Trinity slammed in thrice more, his huffing suggesting excitement in that idea. The base of his prick forced her straining ring as wide as she would go, making her squirm as he began to come.

“ Ungh! Picsi! Enough!”

“Almost… done… ahhhh …”

Fortunately, he withdrew without getting stuck. So soon after birth, however, her backside was throbbing again. She stood up and slapped his star-studded shoulder.

“Sorry, ,” the other Sovereign laughed. “I get excited coming here. So many addicting sensations!” His hum vibrated along her skin. “But why are we here?”

Uradri’s expression changed from a frown to an eager snarl. “We’re here to hunt down a demon.”

“ Jeeesh ,” Emmelil hissed, wrinkling her nose slit. “No wonder it was so easy for us to get in if the Dragon is ignoring this !”

Uradri scowled, staring up the narrow crack in a rough, red hill about half a day’s ride outside the fringe of V’Gedra. The end of the crevice disappeared into impenetrable shadow.

“You are so right,” she muttered. “How could the Flame let this stand in his own Territory? ”

Moreover, why hadn’t Indrath eradicated this putrid Abyssal nest? Surely he couldn’t tolerate such a threat to their dark-skinned children any more than she could!

Maybe he’s not that strong despite his Infernal ties. Otherwise, he probably would have beat us here.

“I don’t think she’s in there now,” Jois said. With his shade of orange eyes, he could probably see more than any of them. “But she’ll be back.”

“There’s almost certainly an anchor or a phylactery,” Emmelil insisted. “We could steal it or, better yet, destroy it.”

“That would ensure she returned even quicker.”

“So? That’s what we want! We’ll be ready!”

“Four against one,” Picsi agreed with a broad grin.

Jois breathed calmly outward. “Very well. I’ll erase the ethereal path behind us, try to buy us time.”

“Be stealthy, everyone,” Uradri said.

None touched ground or brushed rock as they drifted up the crevice upon the slightest breeze. The night grew cool even before the Abyssal shadow touched their wings. They all shivered, wisps of the cold void clinging to them.

“Maybe we should have waited until sunrise?” Picsi asked, shaking his wings like trying to shed raindrops.

“Nah.” Jois brushed off a wisp from his shoulder. “These kinds of doors close to us in daylight. We got lucky, it’s wide open now.”

“Shh!” Emmelil hushed, pointing.

The end of the crevice was a dead end.

“Cockmangler,” Picsi cursed.

“Door,” Jois said, pointing at a slab of stone.

“Thank you!” Uradri beckoned Emmelil to study the defensive runes. “Abyssal for sure.”

“I got ‘em,” said the other female, spreading petite fingers across the harsh carvings, gradually burning them smooth. “Picsi, put your back into it.”

The largest got to one side and pushed the slab until it rolled, revealing the cave entrance behind. Picsi sniffed the claustrophobic air, deep and unhesitating.

“Something’s alive in here,” he murmured.

Uradri agreed. Stress. Fear. Suffering. All I’d expect with the Abyss. Poor creature.

She stepped in, the sensation of cool, bare stone caressing her feet but not much else. The site hadn’t been corrupted too much. It would be, but presently it was safe for even mortals to enter.

The foremost space was high enough for their heads and wings; they could stand up straight but there wasn’t much room to maneuver. Subtle glowstones illuminated the wandering shape of the floor, a hollow created long ago by water erosion.

Far more recently, someone had widened the cave at the back, creating a livable dwelling space complete with a platform bed and functional shelves carved into the wall.

“Where is the wound?” Jois whispered, orange eyes scanning. “We should be upon it.”

“And where is the mortal?” Picsi added, striding toward the back and sniffing around.

Without a word, Emmelil touched the walls with her fingers, tapping and patting with the tips, her face tight with concentration.

Meanwhile, Uradri listened to her body, to her blood. The Red Desert and its Dark Elves were not as familiar to her as their pale cousins in much greener forests.

But you are both still my own.

So, where was the one alive?

Speak to me. I’m listening.

“Not much space to cover,” Picsi rumbled, pacing back to Jois. “Don’t get why this hovel is at the end of a black fissure.”

“Perhaps there’s another door outside.”

Hh…

“What do you think, Emmi?”

The smallest of the Trinity was still patting the walls, as baffled as the rest.

Hhh…

“Maybe we should go?” Picsi suggested.

Hhhe…!

Uradri frowned, scratching her ear at a strange, gnat-like whine. “Do you doubt what you first smelled upon opening the door.”

“Not doubt, but it has lessened. Maybe we missed whoever it was, and the place just needed to air out.”

Hhhelp…!

Uradri stiffened, turning her focus upon a plain rock wall.

Hhhelp meee…!

She gasped.

Please, goddess, see me…!

“Emmi! Here!” She pointed. “Touch here!”

Alien, pastel eyes blinked. “I thought I did?”

“Doesn’t matter! Touch it now!”