The Assassin and the Sorceress Ch. 04

It was still the middle of the night, though Adrielle felt fully rested. Her head felt the clearest it had felt since she had been captured, and she felt like learning what she could from Morgana's other servants. Perhaps a few of them were still up. Was there a better time than the present?

She got up from her bed and wandered around the hallways looking for whoever might be up. Walking around, she quickly noticed the impulse to cover her naked body had subsided a little. Her arms swung naturally at her sides as she walked, just as they used to before. Maybe she was finally getting used to walking around without clothes. First, she quietly checked Morgana's chamber, but found it empty. Damn! She had hoped Morgana might be asleep, but no matter. There were plenty of useful questions she could ask in the sorceress' presence without sounding suspicious.

After turning a few corners, she heard the sound of voices. She followed them to some of the larger windows that overlook the courtyard. She leaned out the window and looked down.

Even in the dark, the courtyard was breathtaking! There were torches burning brightly, casting a warm orange glow on everything. There were trees, gardens, and sculptures, and the nude people lounging around made it look like a scene from a painting, perhaps a tribute to the Garden of Eden itself!

The courtyard seemed to have two levels. The far side of the courtyard was raised about ten or fifteen feet above the nearer side. The upper level housed most of the larger fruit trees, while two parallel staircases along either side of the courtyard led down to the lower level beneath her. On the side of the wall between these staircases was a giant stone face, a caricature of a bearded old man, or maybe a devil. It was hard to tell in the dim light if those spikes were supposed to be horns or just tufts of hair. Out of its comically gaping mouth poured a generous stream of water which emptied into the pool of that took up most of the lower level. It was the Roman bath that Cateline had mentioned!

A stone walkway continued on from the staircases and enclosed three sides of the bath. On the rest of the lower level was a grassy lawn shaded by trees that grew around the perimeter of the courtyard up against the walls.

Most of the courtyard's occupants were sitting in the bath. A trio of them was engaged in an orgy in one corner. There were two women and a man. The man and one of the women seemed to be double penetrating the second women between them. Even the woman? How? The water covered up everything below their waists, though she recalled Gwendolyn telling her one of Morgana's spells could make a woman grow a man's parts. That was a curiosity she decided would be best left unsatisfied.

On the opposite side of the pool was a couple, probably Cateline and Guarin, simply sitting with their arms over each other's shoulders. Cateline had her head resting peacefully on Guarin's muscular shoulder while he lovingly stroked her hair. Adrielle let out a happy laugh. It was funny. In the middle of a castle full of perpetual nudity, sexual debauchery, and sorcery, these two still found time for simple romance. She was really starting to like those two!

Up on the balcony above the stone face there was a semi-circle of stone benches overlooking the bath. On the middle bench she could see Morgana and Gwendolyn lounging next to each other. A third woman had her face buried between Gwendolyn's partially spread legs, though Gwendolyn seemed to be simply conversing with the sorceress, paying no mind whatsoever to the woman servicing her.

She was able to find her way through the castles twisting hallways and into the courtyard. She had managed to enter by the lower level not far behind Cateline and Guarin. Perfect! Just who she wanted to talk to. She looked up to the balcony overlooking the pool. Morgana had a perfect vantage over the lower level, but thankfully didn't seem to notice her newest serving girl's arrival. She would have preferred to converse without Morgana watching over her, but to suddenly back away now would look more suspicious than casually carrying on with her business. That was one of the things that had made her such a successful assassin. It was so much easier to hide your intentions than to hide your presence. Act unassuming and you will rarely be questioned.

She made her way to the pool and approached her new friends, Guarin and Cateline. They were speaking softly, whispering gently into each other's ears. It wasn't a romantic sort of soft, but rather a 'not wanting to be heard' kind of soft. They didn't seem to have noticed her yet. Maybe she could listen in for a moment.

"They're always so mean to her," Cateline whispered into Guarin's ear. "I've seen you be mean to her, too."

"You think? I don't really talk to her much," replied Guarin, sounding defensive.

"That's mostly how you're mean to her. I know you aren't trying to be mean."

"She doesn't talk to me, either. Or anyone, really."

"You you could try. You know, ask her if she's all right."

Who were they talking about? By now Adrielle had reached the edge of the bath. Again, she had to act unassuming, and she had listened long enough. "Guarin and Cateline, did I remember that right?"

They both jumped, looking startled and just a little guilty.

"Oh, Adrielle!" Cateline exclaimed, sounding relieved. "It's just you. Sorry about that, and yes, you did get that right."

"Please, climb in!" Guarin offered with a gesture.

Adrielle took an uncertain glance at the trio on the far end of the bath. She wasn't excited about bathing in the same water that people were currently having sex in, but she climbed in anyway. She made sure to climb in on Cateline's side. With these two likely being the only monogamous couple in Morgana's castle, she didn't want to commit some faux pas by sitting down naked next to Cateline's husband. It was probably nothing to worry about seeing as nobody wore clothes here anyway, but better safe than sorry.

She had been expecting the water to be cool like the night air around her. To her surprise, she found it was pleasantly warm.

"Oh, wow! This feels good!" Adrielle gasped with audible pleasure and surprise.

"Yes," Cateline agreed. "Morgana says the enchantments she put on this bath are her masterwork!"

"Really? More so than being able to produce food out of thin air? Or making people invulnerable to injury?"

"No, it's not the most practical of her enchantments, but she says it was the most difficult enchantment for her to perfect. If you ask her about it, she'll tell you it took her fifty years to make the spell work, and another hundred of tweaking with it until she was happy with it! The water always stays warm and perfectly clear, and it will pull the dirt right from under your fingernails and leave your skin as soft as an infant's. And no matter how dirty you might be before jumping in, the water never seems to get dirty itself."

"And no matter what people do in it," Guarin added.

"I see, then that must be why you have no problem being in this water with, well, that going on in it," she said, gesturing to the trio. Guarin and Cateline chuckled.

"Yep, precisely." Guarin agreed. "Any mess you make in here seems to vanish without a trace."

"Which is fortunate, considering that's mostly what people use this bath for," said Cateline.

"I haven't tried taking a shit in here yet to test that theory..."

"Guarin, disgusting!"

"What? I said I haven't done that! Geez!"

"You know what I meant!" she said, and gave his arm a gentle punch. But her scolding came out quite ineffectual considering how hard she was laughing.

This water did seem enchanted, Adrielle was starting to realize. She had only been in the water for half a minute, but she thought she could already feel its effects. It had been days since she had last taken a bath, yet already, with no soap and no scrubbing, she was starting to feel cleaner than she had felt in all her life!

"If you don't mind me prying," Adrielle said suddenly, "who were you talking about just now?"

"What? Oh, that? It was nothing," Cateline said, doing a poor job of hiding her guilt. "It's rude to gossip."

"That's fine, I wouldn't judge you. I was just curious."

Adrielle paused, trying to think of something to say. It was hard to concentrate on a friendly conversation with that orgy happening just across the pool from them. Maybe she could ask about that.

"So... you people just... do that out in the open?" she asked, gesturing to the three lovers. "Is that a common thing to see here?"

Cateline giggled. "I suppose that is a pretty common thing here. We have left the rigid rules of society behind. And why shouldn't we have? It was society that cast most of us out in the first place, so what do we owe to it?"

"Probably the same reason behind her strict no clothing rule," Guarin added. "Casting off the trappings of an oppressive society, or some such? Or maybe she just likes seeing naked people. Who knows? Either way, I get to look at this lovely woman's body all day long, so you won't catch me complaining. I mean look at this!"

"Flatterer!" she accused him with a smile, then gave him a peck on the lips.

"So, what about Gwendolyn?" Adrielle asked. "I mean, everyone else is as naked as the day they were born, but she must have like five pounds of jewelry on her."

"Oh, yes. Gwendolyn," Cateline muttered with obvious contempt and a roll of her eyes.

"Love, you aren't about to break your own no gossiping rule again, are you?"

"No, no. But... well anyone can see Morgana dotes on her."

Cateline had tried to stay polite, but Adrielle easily saw the jealousy in her eyes. Adrielle made note of that, though it wouldn't be prudent to push that topic any further just yet. There was a line between making innocent conversation and prying for details, and she couldn't have anyone thinking she was doing the latter.

"Never mind, I was just curious. So I was wondering... Morgana has these amazing powers she uses for this life of luxury. So, where did she get these powers from? Is she an angel, a devil?"

"I never thought of her as being a devil. Certainly not an angel! Ha-ha!" Guarin replied, looking up at the stars. "She seems pretty human to me. It was probably just a gift she was born with. Who can say?"

"Probably? Haven't you asked her?"

"I did ask her one day, but I don't really remember her explanation. Oh... what did she say, now that you mention it?"

"She didn't really answer your question at all," Cateline said. "I don't remember exactly what she said either, but she was evasive."

"Well, whatever. I mean, how could you possibly explain how magic works? Maybe it was a silly question. But anyway, I recall you said she took you in two-hundred years ago. That's a very long time for a human to live!"

"We're actually some of the newer ones here," answered Cateline. "But, yes, as long as we live within Morgana's walls, we don't age."

Guarin explained further. "She hasn't figured out a way to make a person truly immortal. Not yet, anyway. But just like how she can heal wounds on a person or make them more beautiful, she can undo the effects of aging. Think of it like maintaining a building. As long as she keeps doing that to you every few years, you'll never die of old age."

"Wow! And how long has she been doing this to people? If two-hundred years is new, who's the oldest of her servants?"

"Ooo, well, probably Susan up there," he said, pointing up to the balcony above the fountain. Something in his voice told Adrielle this was the one they had been talking about earlier. So Susan was her name. She couldn't mistake Morgana and Gwendolyn, so that left only the woman between Gwendolyn's legs.

"And how long has Susan been here?"

"Good question, I don't know. As far as 'here' goes, not much longer than us. I understand Morgana and her court have moved around over the centuries. As to how long Susan has been with Morgana: a long, long time is all I can say."

"I see," was all Adrielle replied, though much more went through her thoughts.

Sometimes the simplest things say the most. How had they never bothered to ask that? She was already getting the impressing that these servants, despite being practically immortal, preferred to live in the present. They seemed to have no sense of history, no care for how their way of life came to be, or what came before. Was this what a life of perpetual comfort did to a person?

"So, immortality, as long as we stay with Morgana. I can't die of old age. Wow! What about this invulnerability thing? Just how hard would it be to hurt myself? Like, what if I climbed up to the roof, tried to jump in the water, but missed and hit the stone?"

"Hmm... I don't know. I've never seen anyone try that, and probably for a reason. Our skin is almost unbreakable, sure, but I can't say about our insides. Who knows what you might knock out of place? I'm sure you could dislocate a joint or two, and a concussion might not be out of the question either."

"Please don't be the first one to try," Cateline pleaded. "I like you too much."

"Flatterer!" Adrielle teased, mimicking how Cateline had sounded earlier. So... severe blunt trauma might be a way to hurt one of them. Could it also hurt Morgana?

By now the threesome across the pool seemed to be reaching their climaxes. When they were done, they sluggishly climbed out of the pool one at a time. When the second woman emerged, Adrielle's terrible suspicion was confirmed. Swinging between her legs was the largest penis Adrielle had ever imagined! Even half-flaccid it was as thick as her wrist and hung almost down to her knees! It slapped her thighs as she walked. Where had she even been putting that a moment ago? Adrielle winced at the thought and averted her eyes, but found herself gawking at that monstrosity again a moment later. It was horrible, yet damned intriguing.

"A little much for your virgin eyes so soon?" Cateline asked.

"Yeah, kind of."

"What, you've never seen a horse cock on a woman before?"

"Guarin!"

Adrielle couldn't help but laugh. "No. Actually, no. I haven't."

The three emerging from the pool seemed to have drawn Morgana's attention down to the pool, because a moment later her eyes finally found Adrielle.

"Adrielle!" she greeted her warmly. "When did you come down to the courtyard? I'm glad to see you up and about again! Come; join us up here if you please."

Adrielle arose from the water, bid Cateline and Guarin a good night, and made her way up the staircase to her left to where Morgana and Gwendolyn sat. As she walked, it occurred to her that Morgana seemed to have lost track of her whereabouts, though she had been less than one hundred feet from her for several minutes. What if she had been climbing out a window at that exact moment? Morgana seemed to have a magical awareness of Adrielle's wanderings, but had she just caught a lapse in the sorceress' attention? Or maybe it was the doors and windows themselves that were enchanted. It was hard to know for sure.

"I see you've found the bath. How do you like it?" Morgana asked as Adrielle reached the top of the stone steps.

"It's amazing! I've never felt cleaner!" she said with enthusiasm, doing her best to sound as if the splendor of the courtyard was the only thing on her mind right now. In fact, she was more interested in the third woman, who hadn't seemed to unbury her face since Adrielle had first found the courtyard.

"I know! And wait until you see this place in the daylight!" Gwendolyn added with equal enthusiasm. "Its beauty would put the Garden of Eden itself to shame!" As she spoke, Gwendolyn's array of exquisite jewels glittered all across her body like a knight's armor. Next to her, the Mistress of the castle sat perfectly unadorned.

Morgana smiled shyly at Gwendolyn's flattery. "Thank you, though don't forget it took me much longer than seven days to get it this way."

"Morgana, my love, don't be modest. Your creations must be some of the greatest wonders on this earth. But anyway, Adrielle, there must be a hundred kinds of fruit growing here: fruits from places so exotic I've never even heard of them, and they grow all year round. And the stone carvings she's made are so lifelike I could just make love to them!"

Adrielle pretended to laugh. Was it time to ask more useful questions? Yes, perhaps it was.

"Speaking of making love, who is this woman you have, um... down between your thighs? I don't believe I was introduced to her at dinner."

Upon hearing herself mentioned at last, the woman with the voluminous red hair looked awkwardly up over Gwendolyn's thigh at her. It was strange. Though she had been kneeling there as if she was pleasuring Gwendolyn, she had been completely motionless the whole time. Now Adrielle suddenly saw why. She didn't seem able to pull her tongue away from Gwendolyn's cleft. Her tongue was pulled to one side as she turned her head, and the lips of Gwendolyn's vulva seemed to stretch out a ways so as to remain in contact with the retreating tongue. It must have been that same glue-like enchantment Morgana had used to stick Adrielle to the wall earlier.

"Oh, this miserable cunt?" Gwendolyn said dismissively. "Don't bother with her. She gets to be young, naked, and beautiful for all eternity, and still somehow manages to be miserable. Nothing but depressing words ever come out of her mouth, so I figured this is about all her tongue is good for. Well, you stupid cunt? Show my friend, Adrielle, what we did."

Obediently, Susan tried to pull her head back, again stretching her tongue and Gwendolyn's labia a good distance. Their flesh refused to part. Morgana watched and smiled.

"Yeah, I... I saw. Um, is she okay with this?"

Gwendolyn laughed. She raised her butt off the chair an inch and jerked her hips back a few times, yanking the poor girl's head forward violently.

"Well, bitch? Are you okay with this? You love this, don't you?"

Susan hesitated for several moments before answering. "Yeth... Mithtreth," she said, devoid of any emotion save hopelessness.

"She's been here almost since dinner, and I must say having a cunt stuck to her tongue is a vast improvement to her character. She hasn't said one depressing word all night!"

"I see. How long are you going to keep her there like that?"

"I suppose I'll have to relieve myself eventually. Maybe I'll have Morgana release her before then." A mean grin came over her face. "Or... maybe not."

Susan let out a tiny groan and turned her head to the side as best she could. Adrielle felt so sorry for the poor girl.

"Are you at least going to have her turn it into wine first?"

"Hmm... probably not. I don't think Susan likes wine."

Adrielle didn't know if Gwendolyn was being entirely serious, but decided she would try to put a stop to it anyway. She turned towards Morgana, who was supposedly the one in charge. Supposedly.

"Mistress, would you please release Susan? I don't think she likes this."

Gwendolyn replied instead. "She doesn't like anything. Let her go, and she'll run back to her room and be just as unhappy there. I think she can do to be part of my cunt for a while longer." Then, looking downward, "Isn't that right, cunt?"

Adrielle waited a moment to see how Morgana would respond. It didn't seem like Morgana had anything to add.

"Mistress?"

Morgana sighed. "You're right. It's not like she's being punished for anything today. Sorry, Gwendolyn, but she's entertained you quite well already. Let's give her a break."

Morgana snapped her fingers, and Susan finally found herself able to remove her head from between Gwendolyn's thighs. She stood up and quietly trotted off without a word. Adrielle only caught a fleeting glimpse of her face, but she could have sworn she saw the smallest of tears pooling in the corners of her eyes, reflecting tiny sparkles of torchlight.