Ori woke to the pleasant sensation of fingernails absently scraping his abdomen. The quiet sounds of women whispering drew him out of a dreamless sleep. He looked around to find himself in an unfamiliar room, on a large unfamiliar bed, beside the almost unfamiliar sight of a completely naked Harriet. Her legs were folded under her, one arm dangerously close to his crotch, while the other held a partially eaten cracker, her attention fixed on a stack of papers loosely arranged on the bed.
“It appears that our lover has finally recovered,” Harriet smiled as she noticed Ori's attention on her.
“That a mortal man could produce such a performance should be worthy of song,” another voice giggled. He turned to find Poppy dressed in a diaphanous nightie made of fine, semi-lucent navy blue linen. She perched at the edge of the exceptionally wide bed—at least twenty feet across, Ori guessed. She had been eating a slice of toasted bread before she turned to him, her easy smile dazzling in the early morning light.
“A feat worthy of an accolade from the Library to be sure,” Harriet teased, her fingers now tickling the short and curly hairs at the base of his cock.
“I’ve heard cautionary tales of men meeting dangerous women who drain the life out of them through their dicks. Having survived such an experience I can honestly say few would stand a chance if you had such intentions,” Ori said, groaning towards the end as he sat up and propped his back against the headboard.
“Who says we’re finished with you yet?” Harriet said, her smooth delicate fingers wrapping around his morning wood as she crawled on all fours towards him. The intensity of her gaze and the neediness visible beneath her Cheshire cat smile captivated and stole away his reason. She wasted little time climbing onto him, her slender hand pausing its languid stroking to position his tip just beneath her entrance before she lowered herself onto him, eliciting a groan from both. She stroked his face as she straddled him, her hips unmoving as the sensation of entering her almost unmanned him. “Spirits, I can hardly breathe as you’re so deep inside of me,” Harriet gasped as she sank deep enough for his length to hit the roof of her channel. “It occurs to me that I have absolutely no idea how to pleasure a man, beyond the obvious, please tell me what to do.”
“If the man in question is me, there’s very little you need to do, beyond the obvious, I’m having to hold myself back from exploding inside you just as it is.”
“Oh? And what should I do to keep you from holding back?”
“I…” Ori gazed into her in wonder, drinking in her naked form before returning to her deep blue eyes. “Just say what you told me last night.”
“Claim me with your seed?” Harriet asked hesitantly, but it was enough for Ori’s grasp on her hips to intensify; one thrust, two thrusts and on the third, he groaned as he thrust upwards as hard and as deep as he could, his climax exploding from him as he filled her with his cum. He found his head buried in her breasts while he came down from the surprisingly intense orgasm. A part of him felt shame at his display, as if proof of his clingy infatuation and sexual immaturity but soothing caresses across his face and a smile filled with joy and appreciation greeted him as he looked up to see his lover's reaction.
“Shhhh, it’s alright Ori, it’s flattering knowing I have that effect on you,” Harriet reassured him.
“You both do. Harriet, Poppy, just being near you drives me crazy,” he said, looking between both women to see Poppy had moved closer, her eyes intent on their coupling.
“Well, hopefully, you have some sense remaining. I’ve enjoyed our lovemaking immensely and hope for many more rounds, but there was a purpose behind our intimacy, wasn’t there? A certain Mana Nexus ritual we were supposed to undertake?” Harriet's coy smile grew as Ori’s eyes widened in recognition.
“Ha, I’d challenge any man to remember such details after the night we’ve just had,” he said.
“Perhaps. Unfortunately, I have matters to attend to that will take me away from the residence for some time today, so I would like to begin the ritual now if you are willing?” she asked. Ori nodded, getting used to the fact his dick was still as hard as iron, buried deep within her tight gooey core. “Thankfully, it seems as if the hard part, achieving Mana Union, will not be a problem for either of us.”
Ori looked towards Poppy, “Could Poppy join us? I would like her to be a part of this, her mana, her… presence to help form my Mana Nexus?”
“I would… though… I don’t want to upset the ritual, I haven’t learned what to do,” Poppy said hesitantly.
“It’s up to you Ori, I believe with Split Mind, his perception and abilities, he can manage two sources?”
“Yeah, I think so, and with our bond,” Ori laughed and shook his head in amazement at the fact he was now effectively married to someone less than a week after meeting them, and after another two weeks, might not see them again for who knew how long. "through Taurna’diem, it should be easy to follow what we’re doing with the mana."
Poppy cast a guilty glance towards Harriet, "I didn’t mean to, I mean, I couldn’t help it, I lost all sense when I came with him buried so deep within me and I—"
"It’s fine, Poppy my dearest friend, were it not for a minor premonition, I may have followed you into Taurna’diem last night as well," Harriet reassured her.
"A premonition?" Ori asked, his concern sending him into full alert.
"It is nothing specific, though I would've guessed that our union triggered something. Queens finding Taurna’diem are rare, rarer still are those found after inauguration. As so, records are thin on what to expect, especially with one such as you, my overachieving, unfathomably talented, irregular hero. As such, I intend to spend some time taking the appropriate precautions while you two enjoy your newly formed bond."
"Is there anything I can do, to prepare or help?" Ori asked.
"Craft your protective ward and anything that could mask your presence. Beyond focusing on your craft, I’ll need you to let me handle everything else," Harriet instructed as she tilted her head down for a kiss.
Poppy soon joined him, kneeling beside him, his arm wrapping around her waist as he kissed her, missing her touch despite having only just woken up. Together, they prepared to undertake the Mana Nexus ritual. The bridge between his and Poppy's souls, and the tendril of connection with Harriet due to their intimacy, reminiscent of the Resonance of Battle Harmony, made the entirety of the mana in the room hum with potential and shared purpose.
As Ori focused on his breathing, Harriet began to rock, her motions drawing him out and then back into her cum soaked channel again and again. The feeling of sliding in and out of her impossibly tight slickness tested the strength of Ori's prodigious will. It was all he could do to keep breathing as he found his arm pulling Poppy closer to his chest while Harriet continued to ride him. Then, with the flow of mana from Harriet, Ori signalled through their bond for Poppy to do the same. Multiple streams of power connected between the three of them in Mana Union, as power flowed into him, cycling through his body with each breath and their combined motions. Vision of the Progenitor flared as he fine-tuned the torrent with his will. Harriet's breathing grew ragged, the natural limit of the ritual—the participants' climaxes—fast approaching as a dense flood of mana, thousands of times more than he had ever handled, poured into him, saturating his skin and collecting at the base of his mind. It spun like a proto-star, collapsing energies twirling together even as the wet smack of flesh and moans threatened to derail Ori from this moment of pure creation.
Before his will dissolved beyond the fast-approaching cliff of mutual pleasure, Ori focused his will towards a single concept, reaching out to his partners to reinforce his message to the paracausal energies running rampant through his mind.
Condense.
Gaseous mana turned into liquid before crystallising into something tiny and dense enough to fall beyond the metaphysical layer where mana normally resided, bridging his mind permanently and fundamentally with the energy that best responded to it. A rush of mana and Peritia swirled around them in a brief metaphysical dust devil as he felt fate rewrite his soul.
"Ori, I’m going to come!" Harriet cried, her shuddering inhale the prelude to a monstrous orgasm. In response, Ori connected with his own Mana for the first time and instinctively cast 'Cure Wounds' with his inherent affinity from every cell in his body, channelling Mana at a rate at least ten times higher than he could cast before. Harriet, whose core enveloped his shaft as she rode him, and Poppy, who by now felt Ori's fingers plunging in and out of her as she clung to his chest, shattered, their spasms and simultaneous cries of release causing Ori to surrender in an explosion of euphoria.
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“When will you be going?” Ori asked, frowning and regretting how needy he sounded. Currently, most of his attention was on his newly summoned Arcane Hand, one of the spells from his familiar bond that he hadn’t been able to use until now. He had summoned it, curious to see if any of the spells he remembered from his original divination now worked with the formation of a Mana Nexus. To his surprise, Arcane Hand readily appeared as a ghostly prismatic limb that faded a few inches above the wrist. It flickered through Ori’s higher-ranked affinities, phasing in and out of existence with an exertion of will and a steady stream of channelled mana.
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The sensation was odd. While it felt much like a real hand, from how his brain controlled the digits to the sensations and signals it received, there were also some odd quirks. Firstly, the hand was strong; its grip strength was likely ten times more than his normal hands if not a hundred times more. This presented obvious issues, for example, a lot of the fine motor control he’d gotten used to would have to be recalibrated for use with this ghostly limb. Secondly, the limb had no mass; it could move and push things around, but with no body behind such actions, his brain struggled to provide the correct intent needed to give the right amount of force to a push, for example, as a lot of that force would have normally come from the rest of his body.
“We have some time yet. It’s fascinating watching you take to that spell so quickly, and given you have a domain, it’s no surprise that it possesses such strength behind its grip,” Harriet said as she watched him. She was covered in a white silken dressing gown as she continued administrative tasks and reviewed documents from the comfort of the large bed.
“Hmm, an Awakened cantrip made strong enough by a mortal to crush a Greater ranker’s hand. Just imagine the songs they’ll sing of his legend, Harriet, one day when this all comes to light,” Poppy said with a dreamy voice as she rested beside Ori, playing with the frizzy ends of his afro. "I wonder, just how much comprehension of the void you gained from our impromptu ritual?" Poppy gasped and looked towards Harriet. "Do you think I could teach him to Void Dance?"
"I... I would have normally said no as it's a class-bound to our Fae ancestry, but I find it hard to rule out anything as impossible where our lover's concerned. Is it something you're interested in Ori?"
Ori looked up. “Yes, the idea of instant teleportation sounds pretty amazing."
"It... well, it takes a few years of training in the steps before you can..." Poppy paused as Ori sighed.
"Years and months I don't have right now, besides, unlike you high elves, I have to choose my classes carefully and I believe there's a path though a much longer path than I'd like, towards some kind of instantaneous, long distant travel with one of my current classes," Ori said.
"You have a class capable of such?" Harriet wondered.
"White Magi of the Chromatic,"
"Isn't that for healing... ehem, such as when you did... when we..." Harriet blushed.
"When you impaled yourself on me, for your first time, without any foreplay?"
"Well, can you blame me for fearing you'd change your mind again?" Harriet pouted half seriously.
"As decisive as any guardian spirit." Poppy giggled.
"It is a healing class, but, I've been told that it could branch off towards a specialism with long distance travel."
Ori's heart grew warm seeing this side of her and was reminded of something Poppy once said. "I’d like to hear you sing at some point, Harriet,” he offered experimentally. They both looked at him in confusion, then consideration as they wondered whether Ori’s soul would survive a High Elven song.
“Do you... Are you sure you could bear the listening?” Harriet asked cautiously.
“Right now? No, I’m not sure, but give me a few days. Is there any way of starting small, a less dangerous song, and then working up?”
“It doesn’t work that way,” Harriet said, dashing Ori’s hopes. “A lot has to do with the listener's soul and temperament. Reducing exposure by listening to a short song might help reduce the risk, but I don’t know, I feel any risk is too much.”
Ori considered for a long moment, thinking that perhaps Freya might know when an idea struck him. “What about in the dreaming?”
“What do you mean?” Harriet asked.
“I could dreamwalk, drawing you into my dream, and then perhaps there it would be safe for you to sing to me?”
“Ooh, could you dreamwalk me there too? Would love to see what that was like.”
“I mean, I’ve never done it before, but I know I could find you in the dreaming if you're sleeping nearby. You’re even easier to find due to our bond, Poppy.”
Harriet sighed. “It still feels like too much of a risk if there's a chance of harm at all. Don’t worry, I’m sure one day we’ll figure it out. For now, don’t you have a plethora of things to take your attention? At least until I return,” Harriet said. Ori smirked and rolled Poppy over, causing her to screech in a surprised giggle.
"Yes, yes I do," Ori grinned as he climbed above Poppy and kissed her deeply, his ever-present lust momentarily surfacing as a mischievous idea sparked by curiosity took hold. Arcane Hand's caress added to their sensory experience as he explored his bonded's toned, supple body. Poppy squirmed beneath him, her slender form writhing as they matched the enthusiasm of their first kiss.
The quiet time they had that morning had given him a chance to make sense of the smattering of memories their union had gifted him. It turned out that he and Poppy had somewhat similar childhoods. She had been left with her father, a Var’drow elf Sovereign ranking royal guard, by a mother Poppy never knew and could only assume was a courtesan or prostitute. Due to his station and record of service, and the similar birthday to the crown princess, Serracent—as she was named by her father—was inducted as an official playmate to Anoriel, or Harriet as she was later named after her inauguration.
Despite the estrangement from her mother and her father's tragically early death, Poppy had lived a good life with a level of gratitude and respect towards Harriet that was near absolute. Unlike Ori, their friendship and mutual respect had been her anchor, a constant upon which a carefree, positive, and outgoing personality blossomed.
Her void affinity was unusual among celestial elves, of which she was only half, with her other half, a frighteningly possessive and intense side borne from her father’s heritage, one she often deeply suppressed.
As he kissed her, some of her Var'Drow traits leaked out—a bite here, a scratch there. While she was careful never to use her full strength, he often felt a measure of it as she squeezed her thighs when they wrapped around him or pressed him firmly to her bosom in the throes of release.
Enter Arcane Hand, as he took the offending claws in a firm grip and pushed her hands above her head. With more focus than he would have liked, Ori directed the phantasmal hands to push, pinning her wrists together deep into the mattress. Poppy groaned a guttural, primal moan, one that scared as much as excited him as he felt her dancer's legs wrap around his core and squeeze. It was Ori's turn to groan as he freed himself from the loose trousers he'd been dressed in and plunged his swollen manhood deep into Poppy’s perpetually drenched warmth.
Earlier she had shown him how she could dispel his Arcane Hands with her void dancer spells, a reminder to never rely solely on a single spell or ability, but here, as they focused on the physical aspect, Ori found it likely that even without mass, his intent could provide enough force to simulate the strength needed to pin down the arms of a Sovereign ranker.
This fact wasn’t lost on Poppy, who seemed to reach climax even sooner than usual, a wild intense look replacing her usual warm, welcoming smile. Ori embraced it all—her quirks, her uniqueness, her madness, and found the totality of it beautiful. She was his, and he was hers, from now until the time beyond the final light of stars.
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They had spent several more hours in Harriet’s room until she had left, before Poppy void-walked them back to his wing of the residence. Back in his workshop, Ori reviewed his collection of spells, noticing a shocking improvement in performance from his Mana Nexus. Beyond Arcane Hand and Spectral Voice, he couldn't discover any new spells or use any he hadn’t been able to before. However, the speed and efficiency with which he could now craft spells was significantly improved.
Previously, without the aid of his Mana Nexus, Ori had to corral swaths of ambient mana—a process that required absolute focus and often took more than ten seconds just to gather enough mana. This was before shaping mana into the geometric forms that approximated the function of the spell and then aspecting it with his affinity and giving it intent.
With his Mana Nexus, there was no delay between thought and spell formation, with that specific step of the process happening faster and with far more efficiency, causing less mental fatigue than before. He was astounded by how easy spell crafting had become and wondered how much easier it could get when he Awakened, a milestone Harriet and Poppy had described from their early spellcraft experiences.
Furthermore, the force or intensity of his spells had quantifiably changed. Harriet had judged that his general spells now carried the intensity of someone at the mid-Nascent rank, or two ranks above mortal. She also remarked that his solid-core Mana Nexus, though small in capacity, would serve as an excellent base for a channeller, someone who used mana in a continuous stream rather than all at once, which suited the enchanting process where the consistent, endurance of channelling for inscriptions and quickening was fundamental.
For a moment, Ori felt frustrated with himself; a new horizon of power had been unveiled, only to show just how distant the summits of the highest peaks were. However, ignorance was of no use to him. If given the choice between striving for growth or a blissful unawareness that could end abruptly, Ori knew he would always choose to strive. So, for the rest of the day, he practised spellcraft, channelling and familiarising himself with his Mana Nexus, frequently draining it and feeling it refill, learning the maximum amount he could sustainably channel for each spell. He experimented with split-mind dual and triple casting, discovering he could cast two Arcane Hands and sustain both with the amount of mana it's nexus could regenerate.
He considered performing Taekwondo Patterns that incorporated his new spectral hands, but decided against it due to the lack of space, his lack of control, and his lack of ideas on how to incorporate metaphysical fists into a martial art primarily designed around kicking. Instead, he practised picking up objects, setting a new goal: to summon Arcane Hands that could steal knives and swords from demons and stab them with their own weapons before they even realised what was happening, with the hope of achieving this over the next few weeks.
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Two days passed with Ori intermittently practising spellcraft, soulcraft, enchanting, dreamwalking, and making love with Poppy.
Harriet had returned, her attention focused on his successfully enchanted Dreamwalkers' Ward, the silver brooch, etched with Somnium-infused Orichalcum, glittering with swirling dream-aspected mana, its micro-domain making the immediate surroundings vivid and somewhat watery in a field that extended for five meters in radius around its user.
“How do you intend to wear it?” Harriet wondered,
"I'll just attach it to an armband for now, it's a bit too bling for me to be wearing it openly." Ori demonstrated wearing it by threading the clip through the band wrapped around his bicep.
"Even still, you know this will out you as an Irregular?" Harriet questioned.
"Because as a mortal, I shouldn’t be able to produce a domain?" Ori replied.
"Yes, and it’s just so odd. A mortal with such a lavish enchantment. I had consciously avoided informing you of the cost of the materials you used to make this, as without context, specific values would likely be lost on you, but a brooch like this, even with the domain requirement, would fetch a price greater than the monetary value of this residence."
"Rar! Innit? I take it that’s a profit on the materials used then?"
"Only just, even taking into account the materials wasted from failed attempts."
Ori rubbed his hands together. "Going to be a rich man, fam, just you wait and see, I’ll be rolling in it," Ori chuckled as Harriet shook her head in bemused consternation.
"What are these?"
"Aetheric enchantment breakers. My familiar suggested I learn how to break active enchantments as that might be relevant... after. Also, you never know when you need to take out static barriers or alarms, so…" Ori described the small, caltrop-like metallic objects piled separately from all the rest of the enchantments. Their dull metallic gleam contrasted with the mostly wooden objects Ori had worked on so far.
"So, what’s next?" Harriet wondered, checking in on his progress, her vibe somewhat distant, though relaxed given what had passed between them, her travels likely still on her mind. Ori moved to wrap her up from behind; she stiffened for a moment before melting back into him, his heart lifting in relief.
Ori summoned the shattered pieces of Seraphine and held it before them.
"I think It's time I figure out re-enchantment."