A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 36: "Dusting"

Naliira grit her teeth as she felt herself grow closer to climax. She knew what happened after she felt satisfaction, and wanted to hold back as much as possible. If she chickened out before he was finished, then all of this would just become unnecessary cruelty. She began to move in time with the assisted thrust of his hips to force him deeper, harder within her. At least she got less angry, less corrupted as he pleasure grew. It was not enough to get her to realize that it was probably better that she stop entirely.

"Cum inside me, please, my love. I want to feel your pleasure." She urged - pleaded, even - with gasping breath. Her hands rose to caress the side of his face, but her eyes never left his.

--

"It's time."

"Fucking finally."

Both drow moved over to the pool of water they set up. It was in a heavy stone decoration of sorts that they found in what used to be the garden of the house's occupants. Selene had been completely baffled when trying to ascertain its original form and function. In the end, Ashyr decided that it was a thing for birds. Whatever it was, it was absolutely perfect for their purposes. Selene placed the silver mirror in the pool, then Ashyr poured water over it. Finally, after a good few seconds of concentration, Selene dropped a strand of Caleldir's dark hair into the pool.

It was a roiling fog of sickly shades of purple, black, and green. Selene gripped the stone sides of the pool and concentrated. Caleldir came into focus, along with muffled words of both him and a feminine voice. A very angry feminine voice. Her hands were upon him, spindlelike fingers taking handfuls of his robes and yanking them off of him.

"I knew it." Selene growled.

"Shush. Keep watching. Concentrate." Ashyr admonished.

Then they saw the branches come up to grab him, to force him to his knees. The picture panned out some to get more detail of the partially rotted room. It was then that they finally saw her: a beautiful terror that urged Caleldir to give in just as he refused to fully do so. Their conversation made the drow realize that this wasn't the first time a scene like this had happened. The drow watched as he was forced backward and mounted by the horrifying woman. The sight only made Selene more angry, made clear by how her knuckles grew ashen with how hard she gripped the side of the pool. The water shook, too, until the spell itself got cloudy and dissipated entirely.

Ashyr sat back on the bed next to Althaia's unconscious form, head in her hands. She didn't know whether to laugh or be angry. He was taken from them; he did not leave. It was a strange sort of relief. But then there was the knowledge that right at that instant he was being raped by a non-Ashyr-approved... thing. It was comic for how often that seemed to happen to him, and distressing that she couldn't stop it immediately. The older drow settled for a slightly hollow chuckle.

"Stop your fucking laughing." A very pissed Selene ordered as she angrily stuffed their meager supplies into her bags. "We need to go."

"Don't like watching it from the other side, do you?" Ashyr asked. She did stop laughing, though, and helped pack the rest of the things.

Flustered silence filled the room before Selene could properly reply. "I'm damned tired of watching Duskhaven property being taken away from m- us. Now shut up and let's get moving."

--

Some people claimed to know when other people were scrying on them. Caleldir was not one of those people. At least, he was not normally one of those people. Despite the majority of his body's senses being focused on the pressing matter of the mad dryad whose womanhood was currently milking him, he could still feel a prickly sort of sensation, together with that feeling of being watched that made so many mages so paranoid. Great. So the drow picked the perfect moment to observe him: when he was having sex with another woman.

But even with the thought that he was being watched to bolster his will, Caleldir was beaten down, mentally more than physically. Resisting the dryad was exhausting. The first time that she had forced him, he could prevent himself from orgasming through un-sapped willpower, but this was the third time, and the rollercoaster of guilt and arousal that she had driven him on made it so he did not even want to deny her his seed. Certainly, he knew that he should, that giving this woman the daughter (or, God forbid, a son...) she so desperately wanted was a terrible, terrible, idea, but he could not resist her. Not even concentrating on the bizarre, unpleasant sensations of roots and and nasty fungi could keep him from cumming.

His mouth opened to try to say something, some words of defiance in response to her pleading, but he could no more defy her with his words than he could with his body. He could only refuse to enthusiastically participate. And so, as she forced him as deep as he would go, he obeyed her order for him to spill his seed inside her. As he normally did, the tension in him drained out and he sort of collapsed back into the branches. "Do you feel better yet?" He asked the dryad somewhat wryly between his heavy breaths. If past situations were any indication, she was about due for a psychological collapse of her own right about now.

She couldn't hold her back for even a moment after she sensed him climax inside her. Any longer, and she didn't think she would have won the battle of wills. The tree abruptly stopped moving, and her body pressed more firmly against Caleldir as her body spasmed against him. It took her a while before she really registered the words he spoke. Eventually, though, she managed to figuratively crawl from the white-hot light of pleasure and into the dark and diseased horror that was her home. There was a moment of clarity in her eyes: horrible clarity filled with the bone-breaking pressure of despair. Naliira fled as she had both times before, only this time she went where he couldn't follow. When she rolled off of him she kept going through the floor as if it had been a mere illusory barrier. Then there was no sign of her. Very clearly she did not feel better.

While he had expected Naliira to break down, the mixture of clarity with the abrupt retreat took him by surprise. "Wait... do not go! I can help you!" He struggled at his bonds, and the branches actuallyreceded with sluggish reluctance, as if it wasn't quite sure what to do. Caleldir could both hear and feel the heavy groaning shift of the tree. It was an agonized sound, a desperate sound. Then there was silence beyond the natural wind pulling at the leaves. It was the most quiet the old oak tree had ever been.

Caleldir grasped vainly at the place where the dryad melted through the floor. He let out a sigh, and sat up, rubbing his arms. Great. She had raped him again, and he felt as guilty about it as she did. This was not a psychologically healthy situation for either of them. Although, it seemed that it might actually be possible to treat her issues with sex, as cheesy as that sounded. The more the two of them had sex with each other, the more clearly she viewed the world. For mere seconds, but that was something.

He stood up, put his clothes back on, and returned to the dining area to sketch out his the runes.

About an hour later, The morning sun shone through the various gaps in the walls and through the cage-like barred windows. Naliira appeared in the kitchen. Just melded straight out of one of the walls. There was a vague but happy look on her face, and the corruption across her naked body was completely gone. She hummed a lullaby to herself as she began preparing breakfast. It was like nothing at all was wrong with the world; there was no rot and there had definitely not been an incident the hour before. She was just a simple wood elf druid preparing a meal for her husband.

Caleldir had just about finished another piece of copper-painted paper. Her return took him by surprise. "Oh! I did not expect you back so soon. Welcome home, my leafy love."

She smiled at him. It was an expression happy to the core. "Oh, was I gone?" She asked absently. The information didn't seem to bother her too much. In fact, she pretty much immediately forgot that she was gone at all. How else could she explain her state of 'there, but inside a tree?' Besides, there were much less confusing, much more pleasant things to dwell on. This was more along the lines of what Naliira thought she wanted; a domestic life with her taking care of her husband, and he her. It did seem to bring her a measure of happiness. Somehow she recognized what he was doing with the copper ink was helpful even though she was still mostly convinced that the tainted rooms were only unpleasant to be in because they were horribly dusty.

Deciding that miming domestic happiness was the best way to keep the dryad from going crazy, Caleldir decided to indulge the crazy woman's delusions for a bit. "My silly Naliira." He teased. "You are getting rather forgetful. Remember that you just popped out to get supplies for me." Well, not just, but close enough. "You are really quite a powerful druid to travel through our tree like that." Levitating his ink quills, he made a meaningless magical gesture. "A druid and a wizard? What a couple we make!" Which was true. He was as much a wizard as she was a druid.

The dryad seemed to ignore his comment about the tree. It was a strange one to her - she only remembered going out the actual door (that had been unusable in a thousand years) and down the natural ladder. There was no accounting for what a slightly crazy, very forgetful man might think and say. Platter of fruits and vegetables in hand, she walked over to the table and set the food within Caleldir's reach but out of the way of his work. With her arms empty, she was free to wrap her arms around his shoulders from behind. Her lips brushed against his cheek in happy affection. She eyed the markings on the sheet of paper he was working on. "Still have everything you need, husband? I can go out and get more things for you. Wasn't there something you could do to help me cook with a safe fire? Maybe you can work on that if you get tired of this?"

He smiled at the food. "Thank you! I was getting a little hungry." He began eating an apple as he continued his work. He snuggled into her as she hugged him from behind. "I have most of what I need for a few days. But... to make a fire-less fire, I would need some Darkwood, a bit of gold, and the lowest-quality ruby, or even corundum, that you can find, so long as it is a red gem. With that, I can make you an oven that is safe to use in our tree-home." He put the final touches on his sheet. "And now, I can clean up the rest of the dining room! With that, we will really only need to worry about the living room, which will take about four more hours of work." Cleaning up the 'house' was easy, after all, it was the rest of the tree that would take weeks to purify.

Naliira absently nipped at his ear. "I think I need to go out and get more food soon, so I might as well get you more supplies while I'm out. How much Darkwood do you need? I'll keep an eye out." Naliira said.

"That is a good question... I think that about a little more than a dinner plate's worth of Darkwood should be sufficient." Caleldir noted that the dryad's thoughts were still somewhat scattered and inconsistent. So much cognitive dissonance on her part... Well, the insane normally believed the sane to be the mad ones, so there was nothing surprising there. "Actually, my dear, where is the door? I think that that needs cleaning as well. This time, at least, he was not plotting an immediate escape, he was planning a bit more long term.

"The door is just there." She responded. Her head nodded to a space in the truck of the tree adjacent to the living room. There was a space there that, upon closer inspection, was not part of the trunk at all. Instead, there were very closely woven branches laden with the dust of an age of lack of use. "I've sealed it off; wouldn't want anyone to fall down it." At first it was just one of the precautions she had made towards baby proofing the treehouse. Now she knew not even to trust her husband not to do something that silly. Her words weren't particularly emphasized nor aimed at him, though. As far as she was concerned, he couldn't help his random bouts of insanity. After all, who in their right mind would want to leave this place for good? Aside from the 'dust,' it was absolutely perfect.

Looking at the door, Caleldir grinned slightly. Normal dust as opposed to 'dust.' A huge improvement, actually. But it seemed that that way was well and truly blocked off. He would not be able to escape. Oh well. That would have been too easy. "Aye, falling down it would be bad, for people who cannot float that is." He levitated his papers. "For me, I do not need to worry about such things, but I agree that children would have trouble with such things. Or any guests we might have. Oh, do you think that we could have visitors once we are settled down a bit?"

She twisted her mouth in thought. What normal elf couple didn't entertain guests once in a while? She thought she could remember a time when she or they or whoever was here before used to have people over. Naliira didn't think too hard about that one; it made her brain hurt and her heart sad. "Uh, yeah I don't see why not." She replied after only a moment of thought. One of her elegant shoulders turned upwards in a half-shrug. She gave him one more light squeeze before letting him go entirely. She turned to lean against the table facing the 'very dusty' rooms that Caleldir was going to fix. "It's more the living room and second bedroom, I think." She told him. Indeed, the dining room only had maybe an outer edge of corruption where it and the living room met.

"Oh? There was a second bedroom? I must have missed it on my tour... but yes, I know that the dining room is not very, err 'dusty', but it is the next place on my list. I should get a bit of the living room as well when I completely finish cleaning there."

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed her dress just lying against part of the trunk. She hadn't put it on all morning. A look down at herself made her fully realize her nakedness. "Maybe I am as forgetful as you say." She said with an airy chuckle. Then she stepped back into her robe-like dress and tied it in the appropriate places. "Shouldn't get in the habit of running around naked if there's going to be children around someday soon." The thought made her smile softly and place a caressing hand against her stomach.

He stood to head to the dining room, smiling when she noticed her clothing. "I was beginning to wonder when you would notice that. I suppose I did not tell you because I sort of enjoyed the view." Caleldir was not quite sure why he felt the need to start flirting with the dryad, but perhaps this imprisonment was getting to him.

Naliira grinned, bit her lip, and blushed. She was clearly quite pleased with the flirtatious compliment. "Of course there's a second bedroom, darling." She said with a light laugh, drawing the focus back on business for now. "Where would our children stay after they've outgrown the nursery? It is a new addition, I admit. I think it might have been put in after you were stolen away from me." Whether it was or not, it was truth to her now. It easily explained why Caleldir would forget the layout of 'his own home.'

As Caleldir listened, he activated the second ritual paper and finished cleaning the dining room, and made a large dent in the corruption in the living room. Caleldir smiled. "There, that should to the trick." He turned back towards the dryad. "So, we can add rooms? That is useful. That way we can grow our house along with our family." Huh. If he was not careful, he might actually start to believe that.

"We could add rooms. Or... at least I used to be able to. I don't -" She blinked as a confused look crossed her features. The tree around them shuddered very softly.

Noting the confusion in Naliira's eyes, Caleldir gently nudged her to sit down at the dining room table with him. She turned her chair halfway towards him and pulled it closer. When she sat, their legs had to share space and rub together. The contact visibly calmed her. "Eh, I am sure you will remember how to add rooms. It is probably a druid thing. And once you remember, I would really like a library to stash books in. You know, so I can do my magic work somewhere besides the kitchen table."

"A library would be nice." Naliira agreed. "We need to have a space for all the books we're going to need to teach our children. I've found quite a few during my... wanderings. If they're anything like you, they won't be able to get enough of them." A fond smile graced her lips and she lifted a caressing hand to his chin and jaw. "If we did have guests, who would we invite? Who do we know here?" It was an absent-minded question, like most of what Naliira said. Her attention was more on the much healthier-looking space in her home. The cleanliness made her smile. A breath of wind like a relieved sigh brushed across the top of the tree.

Caleldir stopped to think about her questions. Who did they know here? Well, besides the three women that Naliira hated so much. There were all those cursed people from the monastery. "I know a great archmage, my teacher, in fact, named Fedwyn." her daughter, not that Naliira would recognize her name. "We could have her over. You might like her; she is quite gifted in nature magic." He rubbed at his head. Curses. He was beginning to act like he wanted to stay with her. This was not his place. He had other responsibilities.

But really, was it so bad?

"She sounds nice." Naliira said, still showing no signs of recognizing her daughter's name. "I think I could use some help in natural magic now and then. Maybe she can help me grow more rooms." That was assuming Fedwyn was more functional than Naliira was. The daughter was likely worse off than the mother.

"Now, if you don't mind, I think I'll take a nap for a while. I'm quite tired." She gave him another soft smile before standing and making her way to the bedroom. It was no wonder she was tired; Naliira still had to recover from all the time she'd been away from her tree.

"Of course I do not mind you taking a nap." Caleldir replied. "You must be tired after all your work. I will be sure to have this room finished by the time you awaken."

She paused in the threshold between living room and bedroom. A slender hand placed on the doorframe, she turned to look back at Caleldir. "There's more food in the cupboard. Don't strain your eyes working too hard." Then she curled up on the bed and dropped off into peaceful slumber.

With that, he went back to work. Four more sheets to completely cleanse the living room. That should take four hours, give or take, and she was likely to sleep for at least that long. Then he would need to examine the second bedroom, the one he had not yet visited. He sighed. This was a futile endeavor. It would be months of this before he could cleanse the entire tree, and even then, he would be unable to prevent the rot from creeping back in from the roots. The only sure was to break the curse. Which he would need to go to the monastery to do, if it could even be done. Probably not. Not this century, at least.

Still, he had nothing else to do, since he could not escape from the omnivigilant tree. Since the drow were likely scrying him, perhaps they could find and release him eventually, but even that was not certain. So he could do nothing but hope that, as he forced the rot back, the dryad would become a little more sane. With that in mind, he finished up the ritual papers. With all four in hand, he walked to the living room, finishing its purification. Exhausted, he collapsed on the coach and fell asleep.