Chapter 69: Fertile Ashes

As it turned out, the Westerlin hotel did feature a small pair of restrooms right off the hotel lobby, directly across from a partitioned-off dining area where she remembered enjoying a continental breakfast during last year’s AnimeCon. The ladies’ room was clean and well-lit, containing the expected basic amenities—Rebecca had hurried past the row of sinks beneath the wide mirror and into the privacy of the farthest stall, a larger handicapped-accessible one.

There was no time for Rebecca to undo her sword belt or unwrap the winnagas wound securely around her shins and ankles. The skirting of tunic that hung down nearly to her knees was lifted up and the hem clenched in her teeth, frantic fingers undid the neat ties on either side of her viking rus trousers, and they were shoved down together with the simple historical smallclothes she wore beneath. Her back thumped against the far tile wall and then slid downward as Rebecca let herself drop into a squatting position, knees splayed wide.

Mara cast aside her Rebecca qualities almost as quickly as the girl had managed to work her medieval garb out of the way.

Her trembling hand hovered over her exposed labia for a moment, fingers curling into claws that ached to simply maul across herself. She managed to hold herself back—just barely— fingers splaying wide and then clenching into a tight fist and opening again. Maintaining control when that maddening itch of pink was ravaging up and down her astral body was more difficult than she could have ever imagined. Stephanie’s flames were everywhere and they were nowhere.

The brilliant color remained in a distant dream, and it was also right here wreathing her in insatiable fire. Mara’s naked thighs were fair and pale as they tensed with anticipation beneath the cold, sterile light of the ladies’ room, and also somewhere beyond that the rich mahogany hues of her many limbs were splitting and crackling beneath the onslaught of a thousand bright pink tongues of flame.

Searing heat. Simmering sex. Delirious pink smoke in billowing, choking clouds, each one its own thick puff of FUCK ME lust issuing out from Stephanie over there as she—

Squeezing her eyes shut and letting out a slow, ragged breath, Mara began like she usually did and flashed an ungentle slap across her own pussy. It stung in a delicious way, making her jerk back and shiver against the bathroom wall. The fabric of the tunic was ground between her teeth as she followed up with a few more little love taps, then she shoved her hand down to clamp down at the juncture between her legs and squeeze herself.

She was warm and wet and begging for more attention.

“Mmmmhph!” Rebecca squeaked out around the mouthful of tunic she was biting down on. “Mnn, mmn, mmmmphh—phh!”

She raked fingers across her one thigh and tried to massage the muscle—Mara’s entire body was aching for attention but there was only so much she could do at once. The foreplay she really needed was a violent brawl, to grapple wildly with an opponent, to throw out vicious strikes and receive them in turn, to be wrestled to the ground, to smash together into tree trunks with her opponent and roll down a hillside of rocks and roots and scraggly underbrush. To be locked in unbroken combat with someone large and overwhelmingly male and preferably about to fuck her.

Ahhhhh okay okay time out, out of control, OUT OF CONTROL! Rebecca reeled in the bad brains Mara part of her that sometimes went a bit too far when it was horny time. Rape fantasies are all fine and fancy ‘till it gets fuzzy on who’s raping who! BAD! BAD! It’s a—um—ah, it’s slippery, it’s so slippery, it’s such a slippery slope there!

Rebecca almost spat out the mouthful of tunic, her eyes flashing open in surprise as more Mara needs were forced out into the open in a vibrant hiss like steam and smoke. Her middle finger was snug and soaked and definitely inside herself somehow already, and even hunkered down and propped up against the wall as she was, Rebecca—Mara still almost lost her balance. The telltale schlick schlick had already begun as she began to frig herself in earnest. Experience taught her over and over again that no one was able to be as ruthless as she could be to herself.

It was also a lot harder than expected to not imagine Brian right now.

No no no, safe thoughts, safe thoughts—Jarenth, Rebecca decided. Goblin Labyrinth fanfiction smut. Jarenth the Goblin King just can’t help but seduce me because of a wicked spell he’s been put under. Or, um. Yaoi boys kissing? Brian’s back and shoulders. NO NOT BRIAN—GEEZ.

Rebecca’s free hand had been helping hold up her tunic against her body but she was forced to grasp and fumble against herself in search of her breasts because she needed a bit more sensation and it was just so frustrating! The corded musculature of her forearm would soon cramp up because of how fast she was fingering herself—her hand was a blur of motion but she was too wet and it was like she couldn’t find the traction she needed to really get off.

Ohhh my goodness. Ice-skating anime boys. Figure-skater anime boy butts, Rebecca tried, mewling into the mouthful of tunic and squeezing her eyes shut. Hands on my throat. No? The way Megan looked at me in that shower—okay, I guess no. Sinking up to my clit in, um, in VIBRATING QUICKSAND—no? That one really good tussle in my tent with—no, not even that? Jarenth in drag—no? H-how a fair maid can milk a bull, and with every stroke comes out a bucket-full? No?!

Pink flashed and flared in the distance, explosions on the horizon of her mind, and Rebecca shuddered and squirmed in response. Somewhere out there, she knew Stephanie had climaxed. Unfortunately, that didn’t bring the Mara in her to satisfaction either—she was still feeling beastly desires, still left in the still-burning aftermath of a wild blaze of smoke and ash, a forest fire of sexual devastation that left her only partway to that spectacular orgasm finish of her own she needed so much.

Um um um, okay okay. Brian… and Stephanie? Rebecca wondered. Them… doing it together? Is that even okay to think about? Is that—

Her knees knocked closed in surprise and she almost lost her footing and toppled over. Something about that particular line of fantasy matched up in perfect magical conjunction. Like when single shines the triple suns, because the sudden and immediate effect on her libido reaching greater heights may as well have been ritual spellcraft. Spreading her legs wide open again, Rebecca resumed fingering herself with new vigor.

Okay—yeah that’s okay. Yeppers. It’s okay okay. It’s okie dokie okay day today okay—? The Rebecca train of thought popped out in a giggle of delirium until Mara strained a finger behind her thumb and then released it to give her clitoral hood a vicious flick.

“Mmm, mmm, Mm Mm Mmmmmhhh— !” She couldn’t help but toss and turn her head at the power of the sensations this time, and her wild tangle of hair flicked across her face with the motion.

Brian atop Stephanie, pumping into her. Brian BRUTALLY FUCKING Stephanie, thrusting into her, over where they are in the hotel room. Brian and Stephanie but they’re NAKED and doing it right there. Slapping flesh and squeals of surprise. Sounds of pleasure. Brian finally letting loose, Stephanie’s big smile—I raced over here because the fire’s spreading ohhh it’s spreading, I can’t get away nope I can’t STOP them, I have to stop this but I can’t—nothing will stop them!

They’re having sex. I’m watching somehow and I shouldn’t be watching but he’s driving that enormous big man thing of his into her over and over and I can’t stop them, I can’t stop watching and I can’t stop from playing with myself and it feels so GOOD as they—as I—it’s—it’s—?!!

Rebecca’s mouth opened and let out a faint, wordless croak as she quivered and came, the unheeded tunic slipping back down over her thighs.

Dozens of trees groaned and splintered and finally toppled over with a deafening crash of branches, the burnished lines of wood grain within the split timber flickering with strange light. The last of those pink embers were still dancing in the air about her, and Mara’s—Rebecca’s—mind felt like it was clouding over with a verdant spread of sudden fresh growth. Young saplings were sprouting up anew from the remains of the felled tree, pushing apart broken old bark with new life, each in bolder browns and richer russet hues than what had been there before.

It feels… ohhh my mercy that feels soo good… The veil of pink smoke was finally lifting, her head was clearing, and Rebecca could only let out a small contented laugh at herself and the mess she’d made—she was slick down with fluid arousal and dewy droplets had even been flicked across the floor tile.

A periodic fire like that is… healthy for a forest! It’s, um, it’s perfectly natural to rack up a few tree rings on the inside like that now and then. I’m not a VOYEUR or anything weird. It’s not like I could even stop receiving all of that—I don’t think? It was… nice. Fun? I feel so much better.

“Yes, yes,” Rebecca mumbled to herself with a silly smile. “That. That is what magic should be like.”

---

Kelly slowly stretched out her limbs as presence of mind began to return and bring the hotel room back into clarity. She hadn’t passed out—at least not exactly—but she’d absolutely fallen into that bleary twilight between awareness and unconsciousness for a bit. Sending seemed to take more out of her than just concentration and effort, and some sixth, seventh, or maybe eleventh sense of hers that she was on the cusp of properly discovering felt like it was now running on empty.

“Hey,” Kelly huffed out in as cute a voice as she could muster. “Hey, you two.”

She hoisted herself up on her elbows upon the bedspread and with some difficulty managed to slither over in what felt like an ungraceful lizard crawl to settle on top of Brian and Stephanie’s naked bodies. Her inner clock felt off now, distorted from her brief brush with the past. It wasn’t that she felt like she hadn’t seen these two for days, it was like she was about to see them here, in a few days from where she was now.

But now, HERE is now, Kelly blinked at them, struggling to get her bearings. It felt like she’d been interrupted in the midst of a good book, and then when she returned to reading again she’d picked up from the wrong page. Or something. What the actual fuck?

“Hey, you. Boyfriend,” Kelly repeated, looking at Brian for a moment and then turning to Stephanie. “Girlfriend.”

“Kell,” Brian acknowledged, managing to pull his arm out from beneath her so that he could wrap it around her in an embrace. Kelly’s body seemed to soak up his attention like a sponge, and she rested her cheek against him and half-heartedly blew strands of bright-red hair out of her face with a puff of her lip. He was still breathing heavily, and the steady rise and fall his chest that was gently rocking her view became strangely comforting.

“Baby,” Stephanie beamed at her, nuzzling closer into their small pile of bodies. “...Did you see?”

“Kinda,” Kelly admitted with a wry smile. “Might need to see it again—just to make sure.”

It was a little dismaying to realize that she wasn’t entirely joking. Part of what she’d just seen remained here with her, and part of it had been sent far away and now felt distant and unreal. It was like a buffet plate Kelly had piled up for someone else and carried over to a different table—she remembered what she’d put on it, kinda, but the memories weren't right here in front of her to double-check and make sure.

Which is totally unfair! Kelly decided, inwardly pouting. Like, fuck that—I’m not sending back actual good bits ever again. The good bits, those are for ME, me here in this timeline. From now on, I’ll only send back like, a little monologue to myself. Like that other Kelly did. IF ANYTHING. My power fucking sucks.

Stephanie giggled—a beautiful sound that plucked at Kelly’s heartstrings and forced her to engrave the melodic laughter deep into memory—and the naked girl with her fluffy pink hair in disarray stroked fingertips down across Kelly’s shoulder. There was something different about Stephanie, something not quite tangible, and Kelly examined her for a moment in a struggle to decide if she’d become more lovely to her because of charm magic or whatever, or if it was simply Kelly’s own feelings of love and adoration coloring her perception.

“Do I look any different?” Stephanie blushed, turning shy beneath the intensity of Kelly’s searching eyes.

“Yeah,” Kelly decided, although she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what changed. “I think so. Do you feel different? Like you’ve become a woman?”

“Kinda?” Stephanie squeaked out in embarrassment. “A little, maybe? I feel… I feel… like I feel different? Maybe?”

Kelly strained her neck forward so that she could give Stephanie a peck on the lips.

She still didn’t think of losing virginity as a big deal, but she was willing to acknowledge it as a milestone of sorts. After all, Stephanie didn’t lose it—she’d given it to Brian. In at least some small way, Stephanie had closed one chapter of her life and embarked on the next. Brand new start for all of us, huh? In a whole bunch of ways, I guess.

“How was it?” Kelly asked with a knowing look.

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“It was…” Stephanie trailed off with a look of wonder as she groped for words to describe the experience. After a few moments she gave up and simply answered with a positively radiant smile.

“That good, huh?” Kelly felt herself warming with a glow of relief and satisfaction. “Good. Great. How ‘bout you, Brian?”

“Me?” Brian seemed surprised that he’d been remembered.

“Yeah, you,” Kelly planted a kiss on his collarbone. “How do you feel?”

“I feel… wow, I guess it’s been a while since anyone asked me that,” Brian said with an uneasy laugh. “I feel good. At peace. Like it’s been a while since I ever thought things might turn out okay, but now it actually seems like they just might.”

“They just might,” Kelly agreed, kissing him again. They really just might…

“Ugh, we’ve gotta get going,” Brian muttered with a soft groan, searching for his phone for a moment before realizing it was still missing. “It’s gotta be almost eleven already. Really wish we could keep the room for one more night and just, y’know, decompress a bit.”

“That’s a funny way of phrasing ‘fuck like rabbits,’” Kelly smirked.

“Can’t we stay just one more night?” Stephanie asked with a pained expression. “I have money, I can see if—”

“Much as I’d really, really love that…” Brian sighed. “I have work at six tomorrow morning, and I live a little over an hour away. There’s no way I can stay another night.”

“Call in sick?” Kelly suggested, slowly rubbing her cheek across the perplexing firmness of Brian’s pectoral muscles. “What do you do for a living again?”

“Drive a forklift at a packing plant,” Brian grumbled. “I’m fairly essential. They’ve got a team that packs the boxes and loads them on the pallets, then they need me to either get the pallets down to the warehouse, or more often than not quickly shuffle stuff around so that they get to the loading docks immediately. The same little two-hundred yard stretch basically, but like a couple hundred times a day. Wasn’t even easy to use my vacation days I’d saved for AnimeCon—the plant manager called me into his office trying to convince me to work through the weekend, trade in the vacay days for cash.”

“So, what—does nobody else in the whole place know how to drive a forklift?” Kelly asked.

“Probably not?” Brian laughed. “The more qualifications a worker has, the better pay grade they fit into. Which naturally means that to cut costs, the plant employs nothing but the worst workers they can for packing and whatnot. Mostly from a temp agency, and then if they can get by for six months without being written up or flaking for a better job, they get hired on.

“My manager’s the only other guy certified to drive the lift, and he’s not very good at it,” Brian confided. “He has to take it real slow. So, filled pallets are gonna be crowding up the floor, packers trying to get them out of the way with pallet jacks just to keep their operations going, the truck guys’ll be getting impatient because they’re waiting on him and it’s throwing off their schedule—everything turns into a huge clusterfuck and tensions are gonna be running high.”

“Christ,” Kelly mouthed. “Sounds rough. Funny story—I’m actually scheduled to work tomorrow, too. My retail job. Pretty sure I was gonna no-show either way, though.”

“Do you need to call or anything…?” Brian asked.

“Nah,” Kelly murmured. “Fuck ‘em. Seriously, just fuck ‘em.”

“Where do you work, Kelly?” Stephanie asked with interest.

“Dollarydoos, on the other end of the city here,” Kelly snorted. “Typical discount variety store—situated in the shitty low income part of town right ‘tween the liquor store and this super sketchy payday cash advance place. Everything Dollarydoos sells is overpriced trash, which is really fucking saying something, because every item in the store costs a fucking buck. One single dollar. Well, plus tax sometimes, I guess?”

“Think I’ve been in a Dollarydoos before,” Brian chuckled. “Bought a broom there once— ‘cause it was on my way home—and the piece of shit was only good for like, three or four back and forth sweeps before the bottom part with the bristles broke off the flimsy plastic handle.”

“Ohmigod, right?!” Kelly slapped a hand against his chest in aggravation and sat partway up. “We have to use one for sweeping store at the end of shifts. Like the whole bottom of ours is nothing but duct tape so it like, bends and wiggles and it’s all floppy when you try to use it. Flaccid fucking cheap piece of shit. Arrgh, and the whole fucking thing is only like, eight inches wide! Rhonda—this other old bitch that works there, she said that the normal kind of real broom you’d get anywhere else the brush is thirteen inches wide, like that’s the normal standard.”

“So, I shouldn’t ever shop at a Dollarydoos?” Stephanie asked with a faint smile.

“Definitely not,” Kelly scowled. “I don’t even want you going inside one—it’s nothing but meth addicts and landwhale fucking single mothers of six with their screaming little shitstains running around the toy aisle pulling everything off the shelves. People actually go into Dollarydoos with their food stamps and fill their fucking carts with nothing but off-brand soda, tiny little dollar bags of chips, snack cakes and shit—and it’s like, Jesus, lady—this is what you’re going with for your groceries? Seriously? Seriously?”

“Well, you could call in and try to get transferred to the Dollarydoos in my town, rather than burning your bridges with them completely,” Brian suggested.

“That’s not even fucking funny,” Kelly said, giving him a withering look.

“No, I’m being serious—think about it for a second,” Brian said. “Ours isn’t this inner city Dollarydoos—”

“—Still not funny,” Kelly warned. “There’s no fucking way I’m—”

“—because half my area’s like, these rich upscale neighborhoods,” Brian continued. “Never went in there much, but from what I could tell, the Dollarydoos we have mostly just sells cheapo holiday decorations to old people. Party favors, teaching supply stuff, and, you know, the junk toys and novelty stuff. It’s a very different kind of, uh, locale. And, you’re already trained for the job and everything.”

Kelly fell silent, her next retort failing to emerge.

“I said I’d support you until you get your feet under you, and I meant it,” Brian promised. “But, I also worry that that’ll make you uncomfortable, or like, strain the relationship between us with stupid power dynamic stuff. Don’t want you to feel like you’re beholden to me, or dependent on me if you don’t want to be, and Dollarydoos seems like it’d be just like this easy, low-pressure part time job income that could give you some… I don’t know, agency? I guess? I’m not saying I want you to suffer at some Dollarydoos job you obviously hate, I’m saying that it’s an option you could have if you wanted it. So that you don’t feel trapped with me, or anything. I don’t want you to feel trapped.”

Kelly regarded him in silence with searching eyes for a long moment, both rendered speechless and struggling with a surge of unfamiliar emotion.

That’s… totally not a romantic thing to say, Kelly thought. Right? Why does it halfway feel like it is? The fuck? There’s nothing, NOTHING fucking appealing about working at any Dollarydoos. I fucking HATE Dollarydoos.

His eyes were sincere, though, and something about what he said had her feeling weird. While as an extraordinarily attractive woman Kelly was very accustomed to guys telling her things that would make her happy, she’d long since learned that their words were always suspect. There was always a motive, the age-old dance of guys plying a beauty with honeyed words had gotten so stale to her that it had begun to feel purely transactional in nature.

So, what? Is this a charm magic influence thing? Kelly wondered, momentarily bewildered. Or, is it like… because he’s not saying things just so I’ll like him, but he’s actually just… thinking of me? Worrying for me, putting thought into things on my behalf? Is that how he always is with Emily? Is it fucking weird and psychotic that him telling me I could keep working at fucking DOLLARYDOOS actually goes full circle and becomes… almost kinda touching? What the actual fuck, Kelly?

“Uhh,” Kelly began, feeling conflicted. “Okay. I’ll think about it. I really hate working there, though.”

“I figured,” Brian nodded. “I don’t exactly love my job, either. Just, take it as something to mull over and really consider?”

“I think it’s a brilliant idea!” Stephanie insisted. “Try it, Kelly—please? It could give you a better start moving in with Brian—if you end up not liking it, you can always quit later. If you just no-show at the Dollarydoos you work at now, the one near Brian won’t ever want to hire you! Can you call them, call your work, do you have their number in your phone? You can tell them it’s an emergency, or that your living situation has suddenly, um—”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down, guys,” Kelly rocked back, running her fingers through her hair. “I’m gonna—I don’t know? It’s weird for me to put a whole lot of thought into what I’m gonna be doing, let alone have other people thinking about it. Er, thinking about me? In that context?”

“You’re gonna have to get used to it,” Brian said, gently shifting Kelly off of him so that he could start to get up.

“You’re going to have to,” Stephanie agreed, looking at Kelly with an intensity in her blue eyes that Kelly found mesmerizing. “We love you.”

Or, it’s like they DO have a motive, and it’s just that they want what’s best for me, Kelly swallowed, trying not to feel overwhelmed by a moment that seemed so insignificant to them. How fucking crazy is that, these days? What do I even DO with that, how do I respond to that? How does a lifetime of just getting fucked over and then fucking over other people in turn ever prepare you for… for THIS? What the absolute fuck are you getting yourself into this time, Kelly?

“C’mon, let’s get dressed and meet up with everybody,” Brian said, assisting Stephanie up from where she’d been cuddling in close on the bed. “There’s still a little bit of AnimeCon left for us to check out before this weekend’s really over.”

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