Chapter 49: Chapter 49 – The Death Rattle of Shame

Chapter 49 - The Death Rattle of Shame

We stayed there, vigorously exploring one another’s bodies, until I was spent. And though I was quite impressed with how long I had managed to last, that being only my second time at real, full-on sex, and very much my first threesome, I could tell that they were disappointed when I announced that I could go no further. I had already come to completion twice during the session, and my genitals were giving off the dull ache of the well and completely used.

“Look, you two can keep going, if you want, but I’m sorry. I just can’t any more,” I panted finally, staring up through the branches above and beyond to the rapidly darkening sky.

It had been quite the eventful day, all told. I had trained myself to exhaustion. There had been multiple life and death fights, seemingly endless explorations into this maze of trees, and to cap it all off, I got to do this? I was not even starving anymore! Now, if I could just find a decent T-shirt and a pair of pants, I might be willing to admit that my life had turned a corner.

Jax’s head abruptly interrupted my field of view, “But Master, I ain’t got to do what Hess did, yet! And besides, she don’t want me.”

“I only did it that way because he likes to look at my backside,” Hess explained from where she was stretching her now well-used muscles. “But it really isn’t all that different from what you did before. Anyway, I’m not into women. Or lilim, for that matter.” Straightening again, she began swinging her elbows back and forth, twisting her torso before she suddenly paused, “Wait. Does that mean that you are still into women?”

“What do ye mean, ‘still’?” Jax asked. “I want what Master wants.”

Lifting my head off the ground slightly, I stared at her, “I think she’s asking about your sexual preferences now. I know you told me that you thought she was attractive a while back.”

“Really?” Hess smiled, apparently intrigued despite her earlier statement.

“In a way,” Jax clarified for her, “I can feel Donum’s desire, and that… sort of becomes mine. It ain’t quite the same, though.”

“So wait…” I asked, blinking in confusion, “Do you not find people attractive anymore? Unless I do?”

“That’s…” she paused uncertainly before tilting her head and amending, “I think so… Ain’t seen other people in a long while. Might have to see about that one.”

“Sounds fun…” Hess grinned.

I quirked an eyebrow at her. That sounded like she was getting ideas again, but I decided against commenting. Instead, I looked back at Jax, “Well, hold on, though. I’m not attracted to myself.”

Glancing back at me, a slow smile crawled over her lips, and she murmured, “Truth.” Creeping forward, she leaned her head against my chest, rubbing her face there for a moment before lazily inching her way up my torso until she could bring her lips to bear. “But I be,” she said, kissing me with renewed fervor.

Well… okay then. I had to suppose that the question of whom or what Jax might be attracted to was a little complicated right now. And I was happy to let that be. As long as I was in the mix somewhere.

“’Snails… where did it go?” Hess muttered, interrupting us. “Did either of you see where I tossed my panties?”

 

The next morning, I awoke to the sound of Hess very lightly snoring in my ear. I was, yet again, the middle spoon of our trio, although Hess, in her sleep, had assumed a bit of a death grip around me. Her arms, tucked beneath mine, were gently wrapped around my ribcage with one hand gripping the wrist of the other so tightly that the gray skin of her knuckles were turning an ashen white. And despite the fact that I was effectively imprisoned within her arms, I found it a bit sweet.

Well… now what?

Blinking blearily, I swiveled my eyes around the enclosure we had crawled into. Before we had settled for the night, we had found an uninhabited beetle warren, this time with an intact flap and wedged it closed with a few branches that Jax had chopped loose for us. I was not particularly confident that it would hold… whatever that thing had been at bay, but it would probably keep the beetles out. And as far as we could tell, they were far more numerous. In point of fact, Hess had not even run into the creature in all her time in here.

But before I could think about any of that for very long, I got my now quite familiar morning greeting.

<bing!>

Ah! And a pleasant morning to you, as well, Lady Bline. Uh… Bring up my Status page, please.

Mhmm… Good, good. Only one layer to go until this Boundary thing comes up. Hopefully, that’ll be straightforward, but we’ll just have to see, won’t we?

Other than that, my stats looked about like I had expected. Although, as I stared at the twelve in Wisdom, I experienced a bit of buyer’s remorse. Especially now that I was involved in a three-way sexual relationship, trying to push my Toughness seemed like a much better idea. However, I had already made that bed, and backtracking now would only draw things out. Best to stay the course, I figured.

<bing!>

Hey, now! That’s what I like to see!

I had long suspected that Manic Force affected how powerful my spells were but endurance, too? The question, though, was how much more powerful? I mean… was it just the difference of the extra point I had gotten or were there other bonuses, as well? Maybe, the bonus was just the knowledge I had obtained… but that would kind of suck. Not that I could do anything about it, but still…

In any case, it was kind of hard for me to judge exactly how strong my spells were. Really, they were not particularly mind-blowing, and in D&D terms, they would be nothing more than cantrips or first level spells. But maybe that was just my lot as a Foundation level caster.

Let’s see now… Everything else looks about the same… except… What the… Since when had Jax’s Loyalty gotten so high?! Ninety-nine percent? What had I been doing to achieve that kind of Loyalty? Was it just… steadily increasing from hanging out with me? Was it the sex? Or… maybe the offer I had made yesterday had something to do with it?

But what was it at last Layer? Damn it all… I could not remember, because I had not bothered to check!

Grimacing in frustration, I almost started to complain to the Lady about the lack of information, but really, I only had myself to blame. I should have been keeping up with it. It was not her fault. Still, once upon a time, she had let me know about things like that. She had even told me why they were happening!

Uhm… Lady Bline, uh… your most… magnanimous? I winced a bit. This was like talking to a brick wall. Would it be possible to again receive notifications about these Loyalty gains? Like you did before? Uh… especially when I bind… or that is… for my next lilim, it would be helpful.

Oh, really? Thinking about it, perhaps she had a point. Knowing exactly why someone approved or disapproved of your actions without their consent would be pretty invasive. Maybe that was why she had deactivated them. If that was the case, then she might have done me a favor without my knowledge. Still… it would have been nice to have been informed!

Sighing, I deactivated the notices again. I was just going to have to remember to pay attention. Although… Hess might be amenable to the idea of my keeping track. From a certain point of view, it was a bit like what Jax did to me all the time, and Hess would almost certainly have something like it. It was only fair.

But I would need to ask first.

That resolved, I needed to pick a new skill. But here I was left with a bit of a quandary.

So far, I had been picking abilities with a very reactionary state of mind. I had problems that needed solving, and I got skills to solve them. But what problems did I have now?

Hess would probably need a bow at some point, but I was not sure what sort of skill I could take to solve that nor whether doing so was even a good idea. It was her weapon, after all.

Otherwise, I had something to boost accuracy and damage. Stealth was somewhat ironed out, although it might be a good idea to look into some kind of muffling or a silencing spell. Then again, I had boots that helped me there, and I did not really like the idea of spending points on things that could be solved with equipment.

And as far as defense… there I was a little short, but Jax already had a skill for that. Kind of. Technically, it worked off of her Charisma, and it helped if the enemy in question was smart enough to perceive something like physical beauty. But when your main enemy was a bunch of venomous beetles… well.

What was her Charisma even at now? I was not positive, but I knew she should be a Layer behind me now. Given that she had started from one, then it should be at eight, I felt sure. I smiled slightly. She was getting pretty close to ten!

While my mind was on the lilim, I suddenly remembered the conversation I had with her the day before, and since I had the time and the point, I figured it would not hurt to check.

Can I get a skill that lets me enchant my allies’ weapons with some kind of… chain lightning? Or something?

Aww…

 

By the time that my companions woke up, I was deep into the skill menus and beyond frustrated. Almost any kind of spell that would put me somewhere in the realm of a ‘proper wizard’ was either unavailable because of my class or simply because of my current Layer. But I knew that already. I was just not ready to accept it. Still, I was certain that if I was clever about it, I would be able to find a workaround.

However, with two stirring feminine bodies pressed against me, I could not spare that any more of my attention.

Jax, as usual, was the first to wake, and she quickly spun in my arms, eager for me to take in her post-torpor changes. However, as soon as she laid eyes on me, her eyes widened and her brilliant smile slowly faded.

“What?” I asked, immediately concerned, “Jax, what is it?”

“I-It… I ain’t…” she stammered. “M-Master, ye… I ain’t never…”

“Well? Spit it ou…”

She did not let me finish, preferring to explain by lunging for my lips.

However, when she started trying to jerk me out of Hess’ arms, the huge woman finally startled fully awake, “No. No! I won’t let…” Blinking a few times as the fog of sleep finally cleared from her mind, she groaned, “Ugh… again? Is this going to keep happening with you two?”

“Sorry, Hess,” I said, doing my best to temporarily fend off Jax’s onslaught, “She was like this as soon as she woke up!”

“Course, I were!” Jax exclaimed. “Yer the most handsome I ever seen!”

“Really?” Hess smiled, intrigued. “Still putting points in Charisma, are we?”

“Well, yeah,” I explained, a tad defensively. “You said it was important for a summoner type.”

“Mmm… let’s take a look at you in the light, then.”

Rolling to her knees, she began crawling her way out of the warren, still tucking me to her chest with one arm.

“Here now, ye great bahoochie!” Jax protested. “I weren’t finished with him yet!”

Lazily slapping the wedges away, she opened the flap slightly and peered into the passage beyond. Even though she was in a teasing sort of mood, she was not about to go out there without assessing the situation first. Satisfied, she pushed her way through, letting the flap slap closed right in Jax’s face.

“Ach!” Wrestling with the webbed covering for a moment, Jax bonelessly plopped out of the tunnel like a new-born foal before staggering to her feet again, “Ye did that a purpose!”

But Hess was not paying any attention to her. With my chin in hand, she was closely examining my face, “What is your Charisma at now? Eleven? Twelve?”

“Eleven.”

She nodded, “Mmm… past the natural possible then. Still, not so handsome as all that.” The last part was addressed to Jax.

“Yer noggin be melted,” she protested hotly. Wedging herself between us, she stood on her toes, trying to put her face into Hess’. She was a tad too short for that, though. “He’s beautiful, ye mingin fud!”

Clearing my throat, a tad embarrassed at being the subject of the debate, I decided on diplomacy, “I’m sure she’s just seen a bit more of the world than you. There’s probably plenty of people who’ve focused on Charisma who are much more uh… advanced than me.”

“It’s not as common as you would think,” she replied calmly, “Amongst men, anyway. A funny thing, if you ask me. A lot of them seem to think that piling on the muscles is all they need to get women to come to their bed.” Pursing her lips for a moment, she amended, “I suppose it works for some.”

“What was that you said about ‘the natural possible’?” I asked, still uncomfortably trying to steer the conversation away from my looks. There was nothing like a good technical discussion to cool heads.

“Oh, that’s simple enough,” she explained. “It’s just that no one can get past ten in an attribute without putting points in their Core, is all.”

“Without…” I blinked. “You’re saying I could get my Strength and Agility to ten through exercise?”

“Mmm… maybe one or the other,” she amended. “Doing it that way, you can get very high Strength by lifting heavy things all day, but the bulk you would put on interferes with your Agility. Strength from your Core works a little differently. Just look at your lilim here.”

Reaching out, she grasped her by the shoulder, pulling her arm forward by way of demonstration. Jax still looked a bit grumpy, especially at being manhandled, but she was engaged enough in the topic not to interrupt.

“See? She definitely has muscle, but it isn’t anything like it would be if she had been tossing hay bales her whole life,” she explained. “What’s your Strength at now, anyway?”

Jax hesitated briefly before shrugging, “Ten. Same as before. Me Agility were lagging, and it were cheaper. Only have the two points to work with, ye know.”

“So, wait a minute,” I cut in, “Are you telling me that Jax here is as strong as someone who has been lifting weights their entire life?”

Hess nodded, “For her size and frame, yes. It scales somewhat. So, my ten counts for more than yours, and yours, if you got it that high, would be more than hers. But it works the opposite for Agility.”

I frowned in thought. I knew that, at least on Earth, the record for an overhead press was close to five hundred pounds, but the guy who had done it was freaking monster. I really could not see Jax pulling that off. It was something like twice my weight, and I was a pretty big guy.

“Do you think you could lift me over your head?” I asked her curiously. What can I say? Tests of strength are and always have been a man’s romance.

Her mouth twitched to either side as she considered the question before she said, “I dunno. Maybe? Me balance feels off right now.”

“Your balance?” I asked, immediately concerned. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Dunno,” she repeated. “Noticed it when I stood up.”

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Looking her over briefly, I could not see anything that might account for something like that. Certainly, her horns were still growing, and quite swiftly now. At this point, they had curled back over the full length of her head and were beginning to thicken slightly. And of course, her hair was still on the march, heavy and long enough now to begin to weigh itself down. Though, it was still quite unkempt, despite my efforts to finger comb it out.

As for the rest of her, there were the usual minor shifts here and there, too numerous and subtle to really call attention to them. Other than her breasts, obviously. For all my resolve not to pay them any mind, I knew exactly when or if they changed. At that point… well, I was never an expert on bra sizes. But I would say that she had exited ‘slightly too small’ and was encroaching on ‘just big enough’ on my personal taste chart. I was certain that most women would consider me a pig for that, but thankfully, they did not have access to the inside of my head.

“I think I see the problem,” Hess announced suddenly from the side, and I shook my head. I had been staring, I realized to my consternation.

“Do ye?” Jax asked lightly, grinning at me. From the way that she was angling her chest, she knew perfectly well where my attention had been.

“Mmm… come here, Donum. Look.” Using her hands to indicate, she said, “See here? How her hips have shifted? Yesterday, she had more of an upright posture, but now there’s sort of an angle where her legs meet her torso.”

I raised my eyebrows as I realized what she was talking about. I would never had noticed something like that with her calling attention to it.

“Do it… look nice?” Jax asked anxiously.

I did not answer immediately. I had never really thought about it before, but now that I was confronted with it, I had to admit. Yes. It very much did look nice. In point of fact, what with the way it seemed to highlight the curvature of her spine, I would go so far as to say that it was part and parcel to an attractive feminine profile. And now that I was aware of it, Hess had the same thing, although hers was slightly more pronounced yet. Maybe that was why I liked her backside so much.

“Well?” Hess asked, crossing her arms. “Do it?”

“He ain’t gotta say,” Jax jeered at her for the impersonation. “I can tell he likes it.”

I coughed in my hand lightly, deciding to leave it at that, “Yes, well… How would that affect her balance? Does she need to do anything to compensate?”

Hess made a face at me and snorted, “How would I know? I’ve never had to think about how it works.”

That was fair. I had not really, either. I mean, I knew that there were differences in the center of balance between the sexes, but I could not recall off-hand what they were. Who would ever really need to know that information, after all? Maybe an athletics coach?

Resting my hands on my hips as I considered the thought, I asked, “Hess, have you ever had any formal training? With weapons and such?”

She nodded, “Sure. My clan had a weapons master. Why?”

“Well, I was just thinking. What Jax needs, to get used to this, is to use her body, and if you know of some kind of… I don’t know… exercises? Stretches?” I explained.

“Hey, there’s an idea!” she exclaimed as she clapped her hands together. “And it’s just the thing to wake you up in the morning!”

And so, for a while, the girls began going through a series of stretches, rather like yoga I would assume, but with more of a martial focus. And very quickly, I decided to join them. At least that way, I did not feel like quite so much of a pervert while I watched them. After all, save for their boots and what remained of Hess’ wrap, they were totally naked.

Weirdly, they were positively giddy when I did.

 

Many hours later, we were recovering from yet another encounter with the beetles. For some reason, now that Hess was with us, it was always a grouping of at least five to eight of the monsters. This had been the third such run in of the day, and we were once again in the process of recuperating.

To say nothing of healing the two of them up, Hess had a bit of an ongoing problem. While she was quite resistant to poison, she was not immune to it, and if the fight dragged on too long, she would get overwhelmed by it. I could fix that, of course, but the cure was almost worse than the disease. And while she had a solution for that, too, there were certain requirements to get it to work.

Naturally, the two of them were ever willing to meet said qualifications, but I was only a man. At that point, I was feeling like a week-old dishrag, so for now, we were sitting around as we waited for Hess to work through the poison on her own. It really only took her around a half-hour to power through it, at its worst.

“Here, Jax,” she said, “Don’t convert all of the beetles. Give me one.”

“What for?”

“I’m going to eat it, of course,” she replied, matter-of-factly.

I paled, “You’re not serious?”

“I’ve got to eat something,” she countered. “With all the endurance I’ve been burning through, everything I got from that one sheep I managed to catch is gone already.”

I grunted in consternation. She had a point. Still, it was a bug. Even if it was huge.

“Should we at least cook it first?” I asked, trying not to sound as grossed out as I was.

“That would be nice, but…” pausing, she glanced significantly at the multitude of webs all around us. “And anyway, I didn’t cook the sheep, either.”

I closed my eyes, struggling to contain my gorge. I had been having sex with this woman. We had kissed. A lot.

Dragging one of the corpses in front of her, Jax let it drop with a sigh. Stretching out her back she muttered, “A’right. Here’s yer… food, I suppose. Don’t know how I ever managed to live like that.”

“It’s not by choice, you know,” she replied, loudly cracking open the carapace. “Sometimes survival isn’t pretty.”

“I know it,” she admitted before coming to sit in my lap. Hugging my head to her chest, she looked back at Hess, frowning, “I been where ye be and worse. Just try and be quiet about it. Yer making our man sick at his stomach.”

“Am I?” she asked innocently before snapping off a leg and obnoxiously slurping at it. Grimacing a bit, she belched out, “Sorry.”

Freely allowing myself to take in the softness currently enveloping my face and the scent wafting from it as a welcome alternative to the horror show going on behind her, I asked, “Have you given any thought to your next skill pick?”

“Some,” she admitted, shrugging. “I were hoping to match with ye again, though. It pleases me that our skills align so, Master.”

“Do you have any ideas?” I asked curiously. “Because I’ve been coming up blank.”

“Mah do,” Hess mumbled over a mouthful of bug. Swallowing audibly, she made a face. From her expression, the giant insect was not going down so well. “Gah… That’s so stringy.”

Jax’s back had gone stiff at her interruption, and she began delicately dragging her claws just over my spine, “Aye then, Oathbound. Let us hear.”

“Mmm… right,” she muttered, assembling her thoughts, “You’ve been taking a lot of combat oriented abilities, as far as I’ve seen. And that’s fine, considering the situation we’re in, but it isn’t all that common to focus on that so heavily. Have you considered taking a utility skill?”

“It honestly hadn’t occurred to me,” I admitted, intrigued by the idea. “What were you thinking? Like… conjuring some clothes for us or something?”

Jax frowned slightly at the suggestion, but Hess could not see that. “Uh… That’s…” she paused to pick at her teeth for a moment, “Actually, that might not be so bad… if you even can. I would think that would be more of a Tailor specific thing, but you are a summoner subtype. Mmm… but I did have something else in mind.”

Hess paused in thought for a moment, just long enough for Jax to begin to grind her teeth, “Are ye going to speak it or nay?”

She sucked in a breath, “Sorry, it’s just… Now that I’m suggesting it, it seems kind of selfish.”

Jax and I both turned to look at her. She had our undivided attention now.

“Go on…” I said.

“Uhm…” Nervously, she started working at another beetle leg and jerked it free. Staring vacantly at the contents therein for a moment, she glanced up at us, “First off, no offense here, Donum.”

Jax’s knuckles immediately cracked behind my head, but she said nothing.

“I mean, you’re a pretty good lover considering your lack of experience, but uh…” she paused again, and then hesitantly glanced at Jax before focusing on me again, “You do have two of us.”

I pursed my lips. Wow. I could see why she might not want to mention that. Here we were, never really certain, from one moment whether we might survive to the next, and she wanted me to take something like that? I could only imagine what Jax was going to say.

Anxiously, I prepared myself for the oncoming storm, but when I glanced up at her, she had a speculative look on her face.

Uh oh…

Her gaze slid down to mine, and she began to work the corner of her bottom lip with her teeth.

Oh, Jax… don’t do this to me.

 

Several minutes of sustained begging later, I was staring at a new skill card. I had not even really asked for anything. I had just opened my mouth, said the word ‘Lady’, and there it was. Ready to go. And the moment I read it, my face had gone totally flat.

“There’s no fucking way I’m taking this,” I announced deadpan.

“Language,” Jax admonished quickly before Hess cut in.

“Aren’t you going to tell us what it does?” she asked, a little too eagerly. Now that Jax was in agreement, she had abandoned her earlier hesitation and sidled close to us, apparently saving her ‘meal’ for later. If at all.

“I really don’t think I should,” I muttered out of the corner of my mouth.

“At least tell us what the name be,” Jax wheedled. “Come on!”

“I definitely shouldn’t tell you that.”

Hess scowled, “If you put it that way, then you have to. We’ll never leave you alone, otherwise.”

Looking between the two, I knew that to be a fact. Really, I should not have expected anything different. My fate had been sealed the moment I opened my mouth. I took a breath, “It’s called… The uh… The Hammer of Glory?” Whatever sense of shame I had left was screaming in agony at saying those words aloud.

“Take it,” Hess said instantly.

Jax hesitated and delicately cleared her throat. I could tell she was in total agreement from the way that she was shifting her hips, but she had decided to play it coy. “At… At least ye should tell us what it do first.”

I sighed. This was a done deal. There was no way these two were going to let this slide. Why was I even hesitating? So, in a dull and resigned tone, I began to read.

“Maeve…” Jax breathed out, her eyes wide.

“Donum,” Hess said, scooting even closer. Looking me dead in the eye, she announced, “I will never forgive you if you do not take this skill.”

“But it sounds so…” I started to protest, however Jax immediately cut me off.

“We be willing.”

“Extremely willing,” Hess agreed, almost talking over her.

I groaned in frustration, “Fine! But you have to promise me that neither of you will ever tell anyone about this! This is between us. No drunken confessions. No secret girl talk. Nothing! Understand?”

Hess nodded seriously, and holding up the last three fingers of her right hand, she kissed them, “By the Three, I swear it.”

Jax, however, just hugged me close, “Master, ye know yer will be mine. Always.” Though, when I quirked a doubting eyebrow at her, she amended, “Save this. I really want ye to take this.”

I just stared at her, unmoved.

“Fine,” she sighed, “By yer command.” Closing her eyes for a moment, she nodded.

I took a slow breath.

“Alright. Let’s see what this sh…” glancing at Jax briefly, I amended, “This skill does.”

And then the Words came.

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