Pride of the Drow Pt. 01

"Knife-ears, Knife-ears!" The children ran around the street shouting the name over and over again, laughing amongst themselves as Allisa walked past them, her armour clanking with every step. Allisa scowled at the little humans but she didn't dare do anything else.

Were this Severterzem, her home, even the youngest of children would bow their heads when a noble such as Allisa walked by. Proper respect was ingrained within the dark elf culture, but clearly humans lacked the same values.

She continued through the human city of Elswick, head held high, moving from the lowly inn that the Bishop had housed her in (an insult, for sure) toward the Bishop's keep.

The human children soon got bored of their game and disappeared, but the older humans didn't disguise their looks. For the women, their gazes were disgusted, as humans and elves had no love for each other. For the men, some were disgusted, of course, but others had different expressions. Allisa felt their eyes roaming her body, moving across her ebony skin and along her ample cleavage, which the metal plates of her armour didn't quite cover.

She gritted her teeth and stalked past them, trying her best to avoid the humiliating experience. The Bishop's tower was near the center of town, and she was forced to wait on the guards at the gate, who refused her entry until she could produce her credentials.

When the Alliance formed a peace treaty with the dark elves, or drow, after a slaughter that left one out of every three elves dead in the caves of their underground home, some drow were sent as envoys to human cities to broker trade deals. Allisa hated every minute of it, but her duty to her people demanded it, and so she was forced to endure humiliation after humiliation. She would have presented her terms of when she arrived yesterday, had the Bishop agreed to meet her, but apparently the woman was too busy.

The guards finally granted her access to the Bishop's tower, and once inside the servants directed her to the top floor. There they knocked respectfully on the door and when they heard the female voice call "enter" they bowed and left Allisa to the task.

She opened the door and stepped inside a large study, feet finding cushy carpet, and stopped for a moment, confused. Elswick was to be her second human city to deliver terms to, and the first Bishop's office had been quite familiar to her. Lord Jaston was a no-nonsense man who kept his office as he kept his house: clean, functional, and without adornment, like the elves did. There wasn't even a single piece of religious adornment on the walls; the title of "Bishop" was more functional than anything, a kind of human town leader.

This Bishop, though, was something else altogether: instead of empty walls or plain tables and chairs, the room was filled with beautiful flowers and green plants. The carpet was adorned with golden designs of diamonds, the walls were covered with tapestries of human battles, and an enormous desk dominated the room, built of a dark, rich mahogany that was inlaid with gold leaf. Behind it sat a woman, staring at her.

"Allisa Norfina?" The woman asked. Allisa narrowed her eyes. The human woman was brown-skinned, the shade of a southerner, which was, to her eyes, more acceptable than the pale-skinned ones. However, to Allisa, the creature was woefully lacking. To elves, the pointed tips of the ears were considered extremely beautiful, as was a large bust, which Allisa had in spades. This human, however, displayed her rounded tips proudly with her hairstyle which had her long hair brushed back, and had a chest so small you could use it as a washboard. She couldn't have been more than twenty-six or twenty-seven, no more than a child in drow years.

"Bishop," Allisa said stiffly.

"Call me Sera," the woman said, smiling. "Please, sit."

Allisa approached the desk, drew a piece of paper from the folds of her armour, placed it on the desk and sat down in the chair. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the Bishop—Sera—until the woman picked up the paper.

"Ah, yes, the terms," Sera said, reading the paper. For a few minutes she scanned the thing thoroughly, tapping one finger against the wood of the desk. Then she put the paper down and looked up again.

"I'm sorry. I can't agree to these."

"What?" Allisa sat forward. She snatched the paper and stared accusingly at the woman. "What parts of the terms do you disagree with? Lord Jaston was more than willing to accept everything."

"It's just... well, do you know much of the study of herbology?"

Allisa narrowed her eyes. "What do plants have to do with this?"

"I learned some of it from my grandmother when I was a child. In the document you have presented me, one of the demands for trade from the elves is the regular supply of Wenscat mushrooms."

"So?"

"Wenscat is a local name for "white bane", a mushroom that is used to create drow paralysis poison. Surely you know this."

Allisa gritted her teeth. She knew, of course: every mature drow could craft the poison, which they used on their crossbows to great effect during combat. She even knew the local names. No doubt the drow nobles believed the lords that signed the terms of the agreements would not know the connection and sought to exploit the weakness in typical drow form.

"If you cannot accept the terms of the trade then I have to return to our homelands," Allisa grunted, not pleased with the prospect of returning home only to embark once more through human lands.

"Such a shame. What's more, should I choose to notify King Mathias, then I cannot bring myself to imagine what would occur as a result." Sera grinned and relaxed back in her chair as Allisa stared wide-eyed in shock. "To think that the elves would try to deceive the humans immediately after the peace treaty, well... I would not be surprised if the King tore up the treaty altogether. Clearly you can't be trusted."

"Don't be ridiculous," Allisa snapped. "It must have been an oversight! I will make sure it is corrected. I will speak to the nobles myself and explain to them..."

"It doesn't matter that it is corrected, what matters is it happened."

Allisa's blood froze at the self-satisfied smile that was presented to her. The humans bred too fast for any kind of war. Conflict would mean the end of her species.

"What can I do?" Allisa asked desperately.

"Leave. Goodbye. I will do my duty and inform the necessary parties. What happens from here on is down to how Mathias would see this, let's call it as it is, backstabbing."

Sera picked up a pen and began to write, completely ignoring Allisa. How had it happened? Over the course of a few minutes she might have witnessed the birth of another war!

Allisa got to her feet, hesitated, then sat down again.

"I can't leave now. There has to be something I can do!"

Sera put the pen down, went hmmmm, then smiled. "There is one thing, actually. You can beg."

"What?" Surely she hadn't heard that properly!

"Beg."

Allisa and the woman stared at each other for a few moments before Allisa looked away.

"Please," she said, blushing as she said it. She was a noble born daughter, used to having women cower before her. She wasn't used to humbling herself before another.

"How can you beg in armour? Sitting in one of my chairs?" Sera asked. As a long silence stretched after her words, she continued, "remove the armour, and get off my chair."

Allisa hesitated for a few more moments, turning it over in her mind. She had option but to do as the woman said. She could complain... but the Bishop was the highest authority in the city, and the humans didn't think anything of an elf's word. She could... what? Go home in disgrace? Wait for the humans to make their decisions, when the wrong decision could mean disaster?

Allisa slowly stood and began to unbuckle the plates of armour off her body. The shoulders came first, falling to the carpeted floor one at a time, revealing ebony shoulders covered in thin cloth. Next came the chest piece, which removed the support to her breasts, making them dangle in the fabric. Finally, the lower hip pieces and leg pieces, and she was standing in nothing but her underclothes.

"Please don't," she said, looking at the floor. It was better than looking at the human's eyes.

"Get on your knees," Sera said, bored.

Allisa obeyed, kneeling before the woman.

"Now crawl around the desk. I want to see this up close."

Allisa almost snapped then and there, but as she was about to rise to her feet she thought about her family, the drow elders, and she closed her eyes and obeyed, crawling along the carpet like a dog. She felt her breasts dangling, brought down by their enormous weight, and she knew that the neckline of her shirt hung open, revealing a scandalous amount of cleavage. Even still, she ended up kneeling at the feet of the woman next to the desk.

She looked up at Sera with hate in her eyes, furious at the treatment. The woman's emerald-green dress hung all the way to the floor, and far above Sera grinned wickedly down.

"Now say it," she said.

Allisa let out a deep breath and said, "Please don't tell them. Please spare my people."

Sera placed a hand on her tanned chin and let out another hmmmmmm.

"You have humbled yourself before the Bishop of Elswick. I appreciate that, of course; one must put aside their pride for the greater good. However, is it enough?" Sera licked her lips. "Understand that it is my great duty to inform the King of this transgression. But, perhaps, I can put my duty aside if you can prove to me something that moves my romantic heart."

"What can I prove?" Allisa asked, confused.

"I am an old romantic soul. If you can demonstrate that you love your people, and that you are willing to put everything aside to serve them, then perhaps you will move me enough to change my mind and stay my hand."

"What do you want me to do?" Allisa asked, her heart beating wildly. She knew that the woman was pushing things as far as she could to see where she could take them. She also knew that she had no option but to do whatever the woman asked.

"Bend over my desk."

Allisa snorted. "What?!"

"You heard me. Bend over my desk at the waist. Prove your commitment. Or should I send word to the King?"

Allisa opened her mouth, speechless. She couldn't do that!

"Then I guess I have no choice..." Sera prepared to stand up from her chair but Allisa's hand held her leg. Allisa stood up first and, taking a deep breath, did as she was asked. She bent over the overlarge wooden desk at the waist, standing on tip-toes on the floor, her ass pointed toward the window. She held onto the far end of the desk, her breasts spilling over her sides as they pressed against the wood. She felt incredibly vulnerable, covered in nothing but the thin fabric of her underclothes.

End of Part 1