Chapter 35: 35. The Quiet after the Storm

 

The lich had looted the remaining tombs on this level and cleared everything out to the central chamber, but we find a sarcophagus that's still intact and lay Kerda's body in it, so it won't be despoiled by scavengers.

It's a weird and awkward moment. I feel like we should say something, but I wouldn't know what to say. I'd only known her for about a week, and sure we'd been intimate, but I couldn't really say that I knew her. She'd never told me anything about herself outside of the game. Plus, Morgan is right: this is game-death. I've never mourned before when a player in my party died. Why are my feelings so strong now? Is it because of the immersive aspect? Or is it because the rules have changed and there's now as much uncertainty about what happens after dying in Feronia as there is IRL?

The others must be feeling similarly depressed because no one talks much as we search the other rooms and collect the loot from where the lich stashed it. There more gold and jewelry, but the only equipable items are a Necklace of Mysticism, which we give to Morgan, and the lich's dress, which goes to Lynesse (who changes into the slutty thing reluctantly). It was a higher tier to the one I got off the first lich I'd met, but being white, I was unable to equip it due to my species' restriction that demands I wear only dark or drab colors.

I'd leveled up in the battle, putting me at 9. This makes me curious as well as a little nervous about what will happen at level 10. I'm suppose to undergo some kind of evolution but have no idea what that actually means. I put that concern aside for more immediate matters. My level-up gives me a free attribute point to allocate, and I take a while debating exactly where it will do the most good. In the end, I put it into Harmony bringing it to 15, which was getting up toward the top of what was consider normal for a mortal in this game. But it powers my spells, so at the risk of having an imbalanced player, I decide I want to make my magic as powerful as it can be.

We stick around a while healing up and restoring our magic pools before going up to the next level of the tomb. We encounter almost a repeat of what we just faced. Except this floor's lich doesn't kill any of us and doesn't raise a monster of bones. But that doesn't mean it's easy. This time it's Astra and Lynesse who are enthralled. They're almost immediately turned against the rest of us. However, I tackle the lich-pets and Bronte goes one-on-one with the lich, while the others fend of reanimated skeletons, and we get through it with no lasting damage. 

We collected the gold and jewelry this lich has looted from the tombs, and we get another one of those unrealistic drops where everyone receives one useful item each. 

Astra get a studded leather mini-skirt that matches the crop-top she recently received, and now she looks less like a naughty school girl and more like a dominatrix or a heavy-metal rocker chick. Except the fox-girl features are too cute and throw both comparisons off. Bronte upgrades her sword. Morgan finds an ivory hair-comb with a swath of delicately carved flowers carved into it that has a spell-casting bonus. Vladimir takes a necklace with an attack bonus. It's a bit girly and very gaudy, and he's a bit annoyed that the bra he wears offers no way to hide it. Still, he drapes the chain over his slave-collar. Lynesse gets a new magician's staff made of bone-white wood.

And this time, because it's black and because it's tier 5, I take the lich's dress. It's a little goth for my usual tastes, but it's super revealing and shows my body off to its best advantage. I'd love to hit the clubs in this little number. It would get me so much attention, and I'd be sure to go home with some hottie.

Wait! What?

No, what I meant to say is that it's really flimsy and close to bondage wear, and I feel humiliated putting it on. Yeah, that's how I feel about it!

Smooth fabric molds tight around my hips, and then transitions to a leather corset around my midsection. Silver buttons hold three straps in place across the front of it, and the leather is molded to provide a shelf for my breasts. Above this the fabric resumes in two half cups. My boobs would just spill out of them, except extending from the corset is some crisscrossing straps in the same leather that hold the cups in place and mold around them defining the curves of my chest before joining a steel rings at the front of a choker that fits snug around my neck. My arms and my back above the corset are completely bare.

It actually looks really good with my old knee-high boots. I'd seriously have no trouble getting laid wearing this IRL. It would have even the most straitlaced girl wanting to dom me.

Where the hell did that thought come from?

I shook my head. Sometimes I still thought of myself as the Triste who was a sex addicted high school senior living at home, instead of the Triste that was away at college. I mean, instead of the Triste who was a man.

But why did I have a Spanish girl's name? Maybe it's the other memories that are the false ones?

Before I can explore this thought, the party regroups and it's decided that we should get 8 hours of sleep before going to the 3rd level. We run into a problem on waking, however. Both Bronte and Lynesse have hit the Arousal Potency maximum. The cat-girl is particularly freaked out by this development.

"What the hell do you mean! Why didn't anyone tell me about this before?"

Astra says, "I guess we forgot you didn't know."

"What does it mean I'll get a kink?"

"No one knows."

Morgan says, "We've never let it come to that."

"What do I do?"

"Masturbation helps," Astra says trying to sound helpful.

But Morgan cuts in, "It will help for today, but from my observations, it only reduces your Arousal points by 1. And since you gain 1 each day, it's a very short term solution. You're better off having sex with someone."

"Oh, yeah. Who?" Lynesse says, sounding more annoyed than panicked now.

I feel myself getting all wet and eager. She's so much bigger than me and a cat-girl. It would be so crazy to be with her. But then, Bronte needed assistance too. I'd never been with a futa before. Obviously, since there not exactly common in reality. I wonder if I could convince them to share—

"Triste, are you alright," Astra asks me with concern.

"No," I say. "No, I don't think I am."

"Are you due too?"

"No. No notification this morning." But then I think about it, and it has been a while since I'd gotten off. I say, "I might be getting close though. My thoughts are kind of muddled."

"Well, I don't care what the rest of you are doing," Bronte says. "But I'm going to find a quiet corner and yank a couple out. At least, this dick is good for getting it done quick."

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"Ladies and gentlemen," Morgan says, "My sister, the premature ejaculator."

As she walks away from us, Bronte says to her brother, "Fuck off!"

Meanwhile, Lynesse has slipped a hand up her robe and is rubbing at her pussy. "So, anyone want to help me out?"

My mouth is so dry and I so want to volunteer, but Vladimir exclaims, "What the hell are you doing?!? Are you just going to do that in front of us?"

"What's the prob—" Her eyes suddenly go wide, and she yanks her hand away from herself. "Sorry! I was thinking of... something else." Then, shyly, "I'll go find a quiet spot."

I'm reminded of what she told me about the reality she was shown being a culture where sex was everywhere and everyone was totally casual about it. It would seem, she was having trouble separating the hallucination from actuality too.

After Lynesse leaves, both Morgan and Vladimir slink off with out a word to separate crypts. I guess to keep their Arousal low. It's not a bad idea. I could really use a good going over myself. I just wished I had access to some of my toys. What I wouldn't give to have that high-power vibrator wand now! Still, it won't take me long, especially if I follow that fantasy I started about being with Lynesse and Bronte.

Except, before I can go my own way, Astra approaches me. She shakes her head at the retreating figures of our two Fairy-folk party members. "Boys!" She laughs a little. "I'd suggest you do them same before you max out. But I know you'd never do that unless you absolutely had to."

"I... um..."

She sits down against a pillar and signals for me to join her.

"Anyway, I'm glad we got a chance to talk alone. I wanted to apologize again about attacking you in that battle."

She'd fired several arrows into me while under the control of the lich. "There's nothing to forgive. I know it wasn't you doing it."

Astra turns and hugs me. "Thank you! I was afraid you'd hate me."

"Hate you! Never!"

"That makes me so happy to hear," she says sounding a bit teary. "It was terrible when she ordered me to kill you. I didn't want to do it, but it was though I was just an observer and my body acted on its own. I fought–I want you to know I fought, but..."

I pat her back. "Hey, it's okay." I hate seeing her upset like this. But at the same time it feels so weird. Why is she concerned about what I'll think. I'm so baffled by it, I blurt out, "Why is it so important that I forgive you?"

She pulls away and looks at me, her face streaked with tears. "Because your my best friend in this game. I don't know what I would do with out you."

What?

Then, looking away, she says, "Also, I've had a lot of friends turn their backs on me." She sniffs and wipes her eyes. "I do a pretty good job of driving people away."

"I can't imagine that's true," I say earnestly.

She nods through a sob. "It is. Can I tell you a secret?" I let her know she can. Her voice hitches when she starts to speak but she gets out, "This isn't at all what I look like in real life."

This makes me smile. "You mean you don't have a big fluffy fox tail? I would have never guessed."

She smiles a little at this, but says. "No. I was assigned male at birth. But I'm not... you know... That's why I like these games. I get to be more like I wish I was."

"Oh." I'd never guessed it for a second. Shock washed over me quickly followed by guilt. Here she was torturing herself because she felt she was hiding something from me, when I've been lying to her since day one. And she wasn't even lying. She was a girl whatever her body looked like. Whereas I was full of deceit and to scared to reveal the truth.

But I realize I need to. She'll understand. Or maybe she won't. Maybe she'll be the one ending up hating ne when she finds out I've been keeping my real gander a secret as though it was some joke. However I can't just let the lie sit between us. Not now.

I'm about to come clean, when she asks, "Do you hate me?" There's such anguish in her voice, it kills me.

"No! Astra, no! I would never hate you!" I say. "You're important to me. And you're one of the smartest most beautiful women I ever met."

She waves this off. "Not beautiful. It's just the game avatar."

"I wasn't talking about your appearance. I was talking about the person you are."

She crushes me in another hug. Then, to my amazement, she kisses me full on the lips.

 

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