Ch.41

[Loredas, 14th of Last Seed, 4E: 221]

*Oof!* Three voices at once grunted and I found myself on my ass next to Neethsi and looking at Brennie fully armored up and about to enter the Wayshrine, having just stepped into the chamber from the hallways. “Girls! What the fff...what happened to you?” Brennie gawked at Neethsi, who was still a living piece of the night sky.

“I nearly ascended beyond this plane through sheer exertion from raising an island chain from the ocean depths.” Neethsi casually answered, as if that wasn’t something incredible.

“All so that a Tower could be reinstated.” I added the reason for doing so, it was worthwhile.

“Oh, thank fuck, because those facists just toppled Adamantine and Green Sap according to Twilight and her magic-scanner or whatever she called it.” Berserker huffed and got back to her feet while helping Neethsi up. I just floated back into the air, gravity is a suggestion for me when near any surface.

“Damn it, I just raised both Orichalc and Red Mountain back to their statuses as Towers.” Neethsi groused before perking when Berserker grabbed her almost impossible to distinguish nips and my beautiful goddess hissed in surprised pleasure. “Is this really the time?”

“You literally have yourself on display. You may nearly be a silhouette, but for people with keen eyes like me you’re just naked. Put something on.” Berserker chided before turning to me. “I’d say the same thing to you, but I know you have clothes in your other form.”

“I suffered fatal rapid decompression. I don’t know if my flesh is survivable right now.” I replied fearfully and Neethsi squeezed my shoulder before summoning her satchel and fishing out her robes. “I’m willing to try, but if it’s as I fear, then I’ll need a masterful healer right next to me to save my life.”

“I don’t count. I’m an Adept at best when it comes to Restoration. I can supplement it with Alteration, but you can only do so much without harming the body in that case.” Neethsi voiced after she finished pulling her robe on. She looked kinda silly with her aether head and hands sticking out of them.

“Damn it, come on then. My current plans will benefit in the long run from you two being with me.” Brennie huffed and led us outside to where Twilight was in a position of prayer at the base of the sapling of the Tree of Harmony. “Twi, back a bit sooner than expected! I’ve got Neethsi and Meen-Rei.”

“Oh, thank every deity on our side! Meen-Rei, I need you for the next phase!” Twilight urgently declared, but thankfully Brennie quelled her with her hands held up.

“Hold that thought. Rei here might be on the verge of death in her mortal form. Are you a master of Restoration?” Berserker asked the alicorn, who shook her head.

“No, I’m an Expert in the field, but that would be Healing Hands, my Restoration instructor.” Twilight’s words reminded me that, while they haven’t had reason to speak to me, this is a university with both maintenance and teaching staff still working despite the crisis. “He’s in the offices next to the clinic about this time, let’s get you to the clinic and we’ll help you, Rei.”

“Actually, since she’s needed here anyway, Neethsi. I could use your help. I was planning to warp to Dusk and run along the sea to Artaeum. The Psijic monks have restored the Crystal Tower in secret and now it’s helping hold up reality. We’ve gotta help them defend themselves.” Berserker declared and Neethsi turned to me.

“Rei, I need the Trident of Tides, as well as the Spear of Bitter Mercy considering you haven’t used it since Sheogorath gave it to you.” Neethsi held out her hands and I fetched both tridents for her. Seeing the orichalcum and ebony tridents in both of her hands was fairly silly, but I’m sure as a mistress of polearms, she’d be able to work with them. “Come along, Berserker. I’ll get us there even faster, just don’t get any ideas.”

“What are you talking about?” Berserker huffed as she followed my beloved goddess and Twilight almost had to drag me the other way.

“Let’s take care of you, Rei. As soon as you’re healthy, I’m going to need to borrow your womb.” Twilight informed me and I felt warm at remembering what she said about the Crystal Heart and my contribution to it.

📜

“This isn’t exactly fair.” Brennie huffed while feeling annoyed yet aroused. That green trident apparently gave the wielder a super-swim ability that didn’t even need the holder to move to rapidly traverse water. That said, she was forced to awkwardly grasp Neethsi’s tail as her passenger. What made this so much worse was that Neethsi had to go and inform her that her tail was also a male reproductive organ.

“Fairs are fun, so of course it isn’t.” Neethsi replied telepathically since they were underwater. No wonder the comms didn’t work. The rushing water alone would’ve overwhelmed the gain on the super-advanced microphones anyway. At this close she could just broadcast into the earbud alone.

“No shit.” Brennie let out a sigh.

“What? After how you grabbed my nips just a bit ago, I’d assumed you’d have been fine touching my tail-dick.” Neethsi teased while she kept them on course and at high speed. Already the sea floor was rising back up into view.

“Neethsi, am I doing what Mara wants me to do?” Brennie asked, but couldn’t help feeling bitterness towards the goddess’s name.

“Whatever you mean by that, she just wants you to accept Love into your heart. If it involves a specific person or in general, you’ll already know the answer.” Neethsi sagely replied before they reached the northwest beach of Artaeum. Indeed, on the north-east tip of the island there were two towers, the grander one was obviously the Crystal-Like-Law, but Brennie had to wonder why the shorter yet still awe-inspiring tower wasn’t a Tower.

“Then I guess I’m on the right track. Now then, Neethsi, set up a Wayshrine here so we can start bringing troops in. They may only be able to arrive in small groups, but it’s more than these monks have.” Berserker said to Neethsi, who seemed to get into a dancing pose-.

“I would request that you not. We still have a functioning Wayshrine here. Please come and link it to the new network.” The same monk spoke into their minds and Neethsi hummed in clear approval.

“So good to see someone using Mysticism. I just wish it wasn’t a member of the order who first discovered it.” Neethsi sighed wistfully and put the Trident of Tides in her satchel. “Lead on, we need to get to Ceporah Tower if we’re going to find that Wayshrine.”

📜

“Well, I believe this could be considered a success?” Jeelius uneasily commented as he and Shade watched the Dominion load soldiers into ships with all haste and sail north. “There’s almost no Dominion force remaining. I could kill them all in one night without assistance.” Jeelius patted Shade’s shoulder. “You head on back, I’ve got the rest from here.”

Oh thank gosh! Jeelius was so creepy! Sure, he was genuinely nice and fatherly, but that just made him creepier since under that mild-mannered facade was a murderous blood-craving beast! “I’ll do that. Take care of yourself.” Shade scurried off towards the Wayshrine to head home and Jeelius chuckled darkly.

“You’ll get used to it eventually, little whelp. Now then, I must return to my priestly duties.” Jeelius intoned as he reentered the temple while rubbing his Amulet of Arkay.

📜

She dragged the Bell across the old Wayshrine ruins from the first meld. The Khajiit grunted as she dropped down into the broken shrine in Hammerfell and her massive Ebony Bell landed with her. She looked around, watching for her former ‘allies’ before she began marching to Ska’vyn, the Bell telling her to bring it there.

To serve her Goddess, to Ring the Bell, to keep the world going.

📜

Life is Pain! I hate-! “Ah, hank.” I numbly slurred after the agony ceased from the powerful numbing anesthetic Mellow gave me with Freda acting as his nurse while Healing Hands was basically rebuilding all of the damaged blood vessels after restoring my surprisingly not-exploded eyes.

“Don’t thank me yet. Healing still needs to get your body functioning properly before I can work my own brand of magic.” Mellow said with a caring rub of my scalp while Freda held up a wooden box full of potions in case there was an emergency so Mellow could quickly apply them.

“Which will not be done all at once. It will take some time and repeated treatment to ensure you don’t hurt yourself more. Come in every morning so that I can check your progress. You’re fine now, but you’re not back to normal.” Healing Hands, a pink unicorn who must get some ribbing for his fur color, stated after he finished casting his magic on me. “If I go too far too fast, I could end up hurting you.”

“Hank oo.” I slurred through the numbing and struggled to sit up, but Mellow pushed me back down and Freda handed him a potion. He popped the cork with a thumb and poured the medicine into my loose maw, forcing me to swallow. I sat up quickly and groaned as I shivered, rubbing my body over and moaning in pain from the full-body bone-deep ache. Why did it do this to me this time, when fleeing from the Dreugh was similarly fast in ascent?

“Decompression Sickness or The Bends as argonian deep-sea divers call it. Thankfully a good potion regimen and a healer can help achieve a full recovery. It is as crippling as untreated Rockjoint otherwise.” Healing informed me with an accusing finger. “I’ll be seeing you tomorrow morning for your next session.”

“Yes sir.” I groaned and Twilight worriedly approached from where she’d been standing aside.

“That said, Healing, will she be able to handle what I need to do?” Twilight fretted as she took my hand and squeezed worriedly. Aw, thanks for caring, Twi, even if it is partly because you need a special environment to grow the Crystal Heart.

“If it involves her mortal body, then no. However, her atronach form is fine from what she informed us. Is that not the form she must take for your efforts, Headmistress?” Healing asked and Twilight nodded. Thank fuck. “Then I cannot say otherwise. Daedrology is Hex’s specialty.”

“Your atronach form is an atronach, a form of daedra. That said, anything about your biology or lack thereof falls under daedrology, the study of daedra.” Mellow informed me and I nodded.

“Fair enough. Well, let’s get me pregnant, Twilight. How are we doing this?” I asked seriously, because while I would otherwise be giddy or worried, the world was at stake here. My unease could put a sock in it and go sit in a corner.

“Well, originally I’d planned to try and find Transparent Law, the Stone of Crystal-Like-Law as the core and with Neethsi’s help, transplant that in your uterus. However, we’re going to have to start from scratch. It’s a good thing I’ve collected so much of your sap, because I can make the core of the Crystal Heart out of Hist Amber, which will actually make it easier to fully link the Tree of Harmony to the Hist.” Twilight informed me and I felt a bit giddy now.

“I would love to have some glowing amber jewelry once this is all done.” I said before I transformed into my magical existence, the pain thankfully not following like how shifting to it had spared me from death. “Much better...okay. Let’s get started.”

📜

The sun and stones of Bangkorai bit at her paws hotter than any of the warm stones of Elsweyr. The melon-sized Black Bell burned her hands even through the thick mitts she’d torn her tunic and skirt into, leaving her nude save her smallclothes. She’d strip naked, but she wished to retain what little comfort she could in her mad flight from Sentinel with what her former masters called a heretical daedric artifact like the blind bigots they were!

It told her to go to Ska’vyn, aka: Skaven, south of the ancient Wayshrine she’d used that the suspiciously intact one in the sewer underground sent her to upon the Bell telling her how. However it did, she wasn’t going to doubt the guidance of her goddess. It swore that there was a secret there, a place that would help ensure the Thalmor bastards didn’t succeed at tearing reality down upon their ears.

Her goal was to make a new Tower, to replace or at least compensate, for the loss of Adamantia. However, she didn’t need to make a tower, the Dwemer did that for her. She just needed to give it a Stone. As for why she had to make this brutal pilgrimage instead of just pop into Skaven? She hissed and looked at the fur falling from her blistering and healing hands, hands completely devoid of fur. Her paw-like pads faded and her claws thickened and dulled.

She moaned when her body thrummed with a heat that was neither the fault of the sun or a misfortunate mating period. She snarled and ripped off her bra when her breasts began to grow and her widening hips did the work for her on her panties, leaving her entirely nude now. She panted and hissed with tears in her eyes, but continued south. By the time she reached Skaven, she would be Skaven.

📜

“Is there a reason for that?” Brennie asked in frustration as she watched Neethsi dance while she reconnected the Wayshrine. Even if she was wearing a robe, Neethsi was such a fine woman that she was still incredibly alluring. It didn’t help her case when Twilight, both local and her wives, loved wearing robes and she’d learned to appreciate how they wore them.

“Yes, but actually no. Dancing does help advanced ritual magic, but ultimately I don’t need to do it. I just enjoy dancing, especially as a woman. It fills me with a vigor I can’t find many places besides sex or combat.” Neethsi replied and then sighed in satisfaction with her hands on her hips and her thicc tail twitching back and forth as she looked at the repaired Wayshrine.

Damn it, as if being a friend-with-benefits with Rei before wasn’t hard enough on her self-control, why did her chosen mates have to be so damn hot? Oh right, turns out she’s an alternate universe version of Willow. “Hey Juicy~! Pop dem tiddies bitch! I love big juicy!” Pandora squealed and Brennie growled under her breath.

“Oh, fuck off.” The human woman whispered with a sneer, before, low and behold, her Displacer herself decides to show up. Luci Fer was literally the sibling of Jehovah, the mother of all demons and the actual Goddess of Evil. She fit the sexual preference of the majority of the Lustful, which thanks to cultural appropriation, made her as shapely and buxom as the average warrior female in Wiatr’s dimension. “What do you want, Luci?” Brennie didn’t have time to-.

“I’m sorry.” Luci apologized...beg pardon?

“...Excuse me?” Brennie blinked in astonishment. Luci apologized for nothing. She was Evil Personified! Sure, she preferred the petty evils, the torments that left people alive to suffer, not excessively, but she was never sorry for anything!

“I’m sorry. For everything.” Luci repeated herself, kneeling before Brennie to show that she was serious. The sight of the ultra-sexy red-skinned devil-woman made the warrior uncomfortable.

“You know, I didn’t ask for an apology, but for the sake of getting this over with, I forgive you for all the Hell you put my family and I through. Especially since most of it was just because you were a negligent cunt who let Asmodeus successfully usurp you, forcing you to Displace us in the hopes that we’d finally clean up your mess.” Brennie gave Luci’s head a swift kick, not surprised when she barely budged and Berserker got a scuff on her boot.

“Could you please not summon a Daedric Prince right now? This isn’t exactly a safe place for that. Or anyplace for that matter.” Neethsi approached and helped Luci to her hooves. Damn it, why did she decide to go faun today? Seeing Luci with goat hooves was always weird.

“Girl, please, don’t go blaming her. She hates it when people assume the wrong thing.” Luci corrected Neethsi, but the local goddess was having none of it.

“I can banish visitors to this plane back to their home dimension whenever I want, I can assume whatever. Now, please either help us fend off the incoming navy of fascist high elves or at least sit down and enjoy the lovely weather of Artaeum.” Neethsi snipped and then turned to Brennie. “Now, Brennie, you don’t even need to stay here. You can go back and rally the troops or I can. I’m the Hortator, so I can move the whole...yeah, I should be the one to go back.”

“You’re not a big fan of your position of power. How...pure of you.” Luci pouted at Neethsi before the aethereal argonian jogged into the Wayshrine. “So, Brianna-.”

“Really? This again?” Brennie asked flatly as Luci blew raspberries at her. “Oh, fine! I let you-and only you-use that name.”

“Yay~!” Luci cheered as she hugged her angry little Doom Marine, giving her smooches and nuzzle-wuzzles.

“It would have been appreciated if you didn’t simply let a Daedric Prince wander about the isle. There’s all sorts of sensitive flora, fauna and other magic experiments that might try to kill her and ruin any results.” A Psijic Monk with the same pompous smarter-than-thou tone as before approached. “However, considering she is a Prince, we can understand it being unreasonable to expect you could control her behavior.”

“If you’re that worried, you could send her away. I mean, you have the power to do so.” Brennie suggested, but the monk shook his head and gestured for Brennie and Luci to follow. Hmph, sometimes she couldn’t stand brainy types. “Hng-?!” There was a sudden painful sensation throughout her body, then total darkness…

“Brianna? Brianna?!”

“Quick! Pick her up and follow me, now!”

“I can’t! That’s considered an act of Good!”

“Cursed Daedra, fine! Ugh! So heavy!”

“Lift some weights, you paper-wanker!”

Next Chapter: Ch.42 Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 10 Minutes