Afterglow

Elizzel woke up with Norazzel cuddling on her chest. The dream wolf had ignored the bed allotted for her and had taken the liberty of pretending to be a soft pillow instead. The Faunel of Freedom didn’t mind and gave the pup a tight squeeze.

Norazzel stretched, reaching up with her paws to push the disturber away. Elizzel took that as a sign to climb out of bed before those tiny claws scratched her face.

With a yawn, she emerged from her room to find Frein. A simple tug on the Tether already informed her that his physical body was asleep, quite exhausted from the evening’s intimacy to the point that he reached Art fatigue.

You two don’t have to go all out every night.

Elizzel shook her head. She followed a bunch of paintings heading up the second floor of the Mind Palace, into a large study hall where more paintings had gathered. She didn’t dare guess if this hall was even larger than the Visitor’s Exhibit.

“Hey, Eli.” Frein emerged from a wall of stacked paintings, pushing them like a door. “How’s sleep?”

“Lovely. Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“My physical body is.”

“I know, but there’s a difference.”

He nodded, quickly conceding the point. Elizzel couldn’t help a yawn escape. She could tell there were more arguments in him.

“What is it?” she asked. She didn’t mind when Frein continued poking around the paintings, selecting and discarding batches as though he had multiple invisible assistants presenting him with information. When he spoke, he didn’t even bother turning her way.

“Apparently, having a dream wolf’s favor works to my advantage, Eli. Nora can just sleep in my stead. Not my physical sleep, mind you, but she can send one of her wolves to substitute for my Dream manifestation. Which technically means, I don’t have to sleep at all. She gets to rest, I get to keep working. It’s a win-win situation. Potentially, I could even travel other Dream Realms if she deems it safe enough, but we don’t have any use for that right now except for the novelty of it.”

“That sounds risky,” Elizzel said. “Are we sure it works that way?”

“You’re not convinced?” Frein asked. When she shook her head—regardless of whether he could see the action or not—he continued. “I’m the same. That’s why I’m testing it. Besides, I want the advantage. This way, I can work on my research and other stuff while my body rests after a long day of training.”

“You sure you’re exhausted from training?”

“Did we bother you during your sleep?”

“No, but it’s lingering in the Tether.”

“Actually, Kat wants to talk to you about—”

“It’ll happen when I feel like it’s time, Frein. We don’t have to push the ball this early.”

“Fair enough. I’ll let her know.”

“What are you working on anyway?” Elizzel asked. She already knew there was no talking the Visitor into getting some proper sleep. It was better to just move on and do something productive. She pointed to a small book in his hand.

“Oh, this is a research paper on synthesizing organs. Remember when Doctor Jo’war said they had to replace most of the organs in Katherine’s abdomen? He said she was lucky her heart and ovaries were left intact, since they couldn’t artificially synthesize those. I got a few questions in my head, so I asked for more information.”

“What questions?” Elizzel asked, immediately taking on the soundboard role just like last time.

“How were the organs made? Aside from the heart and reproductive system, what else can’t they synthesize? Why not?”

“And what did you find out?”

Frein gestured for them to walk and talk, heading deeper into the study hall. “The organs were created using Nightmares.”

“What?” Elizzel stopped just as she was about to take a step.

“It’s not that crazy if you think about it,” he explained, not even holding back to wait for her. “They harvest the parts from subdued humanoid Nightmares, then a Void Mother will purify them off their Nightmarish influence before storing them in condensed pure meiyal. By pure, I mean Brymeia’s meiyal. This prevents the organ from assuming any other form, essentially freezing it in its current state.

“When it’s time to use one of them, they prime it with the patient’s cells and their own meiyal, nurturing the new organ and utilizing the Nightmare’s malleability to transform it exactly how the original one looked and functioned.

“This requires two things: First, the patient’s meiyal core—Katherine in this case—must be Opened and understand Void Control Techniques in order to pull the Nightmare under her influence. Second, she has to be strong enough to withstand the Nightmare inside her body.”

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“Which are two things Katherine can do easily,” Elizzel confirmed. They reached the end of the study hall where a large table waited for them. Frein threw the research papers which slid conveniently beside an already existing stack.

“Correct. This process also answers a lot of my questions so far.” Frein sat on the table while summoning a blank canvas. A paintbrush hovered and began listing down his thoughts.

“Elaborate,” said the faunel.

“Well, for starters, it explains why this sort of medical operation isn’t streamlined or provided to the public. See, it doesn’t solve the issue of a defective organ, only replacing damaged ones. It’s for people who sustained significant injury rather than those who have theirs deteriorated due to some disease or illness, or even age.

“Plus, common folk would probably riot if they ever find out the process behind this treatment. It’ll isolate every member of the Order of the Void. It also makes sense that only members of the Order could utilize this medical feat, since it requires a lot from the patient in the first place. Heck, even I eat Nightmare cores and I think it’s weird.”

“I’m surprised they shared with you this information, then.”

“Perks of being a Visitor, I guess. Or maybe Doctor Jo’war knows my relationship with Katherine.” Frein shrugged. “Anyway, this also explains why they can’t synthesize the heart and the reproductive organs. Also the brain. And the spleen for some reason. Kat was really lucky.”

Elizzel thought for a while. “Yeah, I can understand the other three. Actually, no. I can understand the heart and the brain. You’re basically dead without those. But the reproductive organs and the spleen?”

“Well the only common thing on those four according to this research is that they’re always damaged beyond repair. They can’t harvest it from any Nightmares.” Frein finished the painting and sent it floating to disappear behind another already existing stack. He sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Elizzel asked. She took a seat opposite him.

“It’s not like I’m expecting more organ replacements in the future, but I’m just wondering how they’re faring in terms of supply.”

“Supplies? You mean Nightmare organs?”

“Yeah. Right now we’re missing one key ingredient.”

Elizzel recalled all the information they had so far. It took her a few seconds to pinpoint exactly what Frein was going for. “Oh! We don’t have a Void Mother.”

He nodded. “As far as I can tell, Irista Nation’s main contact with the Order of the Void comes from the Western Sanctum. We know little of what happened with Void Mother Selfiya; all we know is that she survived.

“Kat said she’s been waiting for a Soul’s Walk contact, but so far, we have nothing. Either something’s preventing her or she’s deliberately avoiding us. I think the Void Mother just doesn’t know we’re here, or she does but she has other plans.

“This is just a wild guess, but if the Western Sanctum couldn’t contact Irista Nation because the enemy got to them first, then maybe Mother Selfiya’s taken prisoner. All I know about Soul’s Walk, based on Katherine’s descriptions and what little information there are in books, is that the Blessed one can send her soul like an apparition and talk to people.”

“That’s what I know about it, too,” Elizzel confirmed. “I’m also pretty sure Soul’s Walk apparitions can channel meiyal disciplines, but it will cost her more meiyal. Not to mention the Blessing can only reach a certain range. If the Void Mother’s being kept as a prisoner, I imagine her captors are keeping her meiyal starved to prevent her from using the Blessing.”

Frein clapped his hands together and hopped off his chair. “In any case, that’s an issue beyond our reach until we can safely explore the Nightmare Lands. You want to practice with B.M.F.?”

“What’s a B.M.F.?” Elizzel asked. She wondered even more when the Visitor groaned, pressing a palm on his forehead as he cringed.

“Sorry, the acronyms are getting to me. Long story. I meant, the Blood Moon Fulgurblade.”

Elizzel shook her head. “But you’re asleep, and we can’t practice this in your Exhibit. That’s not how it works.”

“Oh, that’s another perk for having Norazzel’s favor,” Frein said as they headed out of the study hall. “I can force myself to wake up anytime. Two hours of deep sleep should be good enough, right?”

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The firsts of the lime rays of the morning sun made themselves known to Katherine, waking her up. The sweet pain of her aching muscles and the freshly inflicted bitemarks soothed the hurt of not finding Frein beside her.

She touched each aching spot, running her fingernails along or around the mild yet throbbing wounds. They stung, waking her up even further by reminding her how Frein feasted on her last night. She bit her lips, recalling every moment of how he dismantled her.

She felt devoured, savored, and enjoyed. Dark thoughts lingered in her head. A discussion that they had had, and subsequently decided to forgo. For no matter how mad and depraved they were, Frein could never actually tear off her flesh and consume it. He was not that sort of man, though the way he used her body more than made up for it.

Katherine’s fingers worked on her breasts, desperate to reenact how he took away her bra. She remembered they were still in his Spatiera and wondered how long he would keep it there. Naturally, it brought her thoughts to her panties.

She reached under Frein’s pillow. Somehow her ripped underwear ended up there. It was a little sticky and flaky from when Frein used it last night in a fit of heated passion. She remembered licking from it when he was done before using it again after she had swallowed everything.

This piece of garment had become their toy, and they had done all sorts of things with it.

Katherine sniffed the abused piece of clothing, overwhelming her senses with his scent while she played with herself. It was maddening; addicting even. And she lost control. Her tongue reached out and licked the flaky parts of the underwear.

Bitter.

After lubricating it well enough, she propped it between her legs with a finger and pushed it inside. It was like Frein was back, forcing himself inside her like a maddened dog. She let her imagination run wild, using one hand to mimic his rhythm, while her other hand squeezed her bitemarks.

Katherine raised her legs and she let her voice echo all around the room as she labored away on repeatedly shoving her underwear inside. She touched herself in earnest now, using both hands to work both inside and outside her groin while she kept the image of Frein ramming her within her imagination. Her breathing ragged and sweat dripped all over her skin. She squirmed from one side to the other, desperate for something to bite.

She ended up turning over, raising her hips like a dog in heat and doubling her intensity.

Katherine chomped down on Frein’s pillow at the same time the electrifying sensations sent her to ecstasy.

Fuck, Frein. I want to keep going…

Katherine breathed heavily, sighing in both satisfaction and frustration. It just wasn’t enough without him. The clarity of what she had done dawned on her. At this point, she had to admit, she was getting too addicted to her depravity.

She smiled, looking at the glistening sheen on her underwear and the thin, sticky thread between her fingers. Admitting was one thing. Doing something about it was something else entirely.

Katherine hopped off the bed and prepared for the day, knowing exactly where to find Frein.

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