The smell of the fresh ocean air woke me from my slumber, and I rolled in my sleep. I fell off whatever I was resting on and crashed onto the floor below in a heap. I glanced around, saw I was in Raven’s tower and that I was in a fluffy white bathrobe instead of my gear. I had fallen off a couch that was beside the fireplace and searched for the devil woman.

“Hmm, a word for someone that misleads others, using lies, emotional manipulation or false appearances. It also starts with the letter D…” Raven said, sitting in a nearby chair.

“You deceiver!” I shouted, pointing at her.

Raven looked down at the stack of papers in her hand and crossed her leg, using her thigh as a surface to write on. She was also in a fluffy bathrobe, but hers was bright pink, and I saw she was wearing soft slippers too.

“Thank you Willow, finally got that crossword done,” Raven said, using an ink pen to write down the word. She tossed the papers into the fireplace and gave me her full attention. “So it looks like we might become fast friends, since you drop by every time you nap.”

I rose to my feet, brushed off myself and glared at the devil woman. “Was all that because of you?”

Raven put her elbow on the arm of her chair and tilted her head to the side, she didn’t have a clue what I meant. “Can you…elaborate.”

“Did you put a hellish mark on my sword?” I asked.

“Whoa, getting a tad accusatory. I’ll have you know after I kicked you out, somehow, I took a long bath and did some breathing exercises. I was just relaxing and all of a sudden your naked body appeared. So I put a robe on you,” Raven said, sounding a bit annoyed.

“The temple, the priestess with the lust hex and her huge dick…” I said, trying to see if Raven reacted.

She looked surprised, and moved to sit on the couch. She waved a hand to magically hover food, drink and slippers over to the table. She offered me the footwear, and I put on the comfy pair of thick red slippers that looked like cute animal foxes before sitting down beside her, arms crossed. I was tempted by the slew of treats and cheeses on offer, and Raven nudged me to take some.

After we each got a plateful of food I saw Raven wave her hand towards the fireplace and mumble something magical. A shimmering purple dot appeared in front of the flames and expanded until it was nearly six feet across. It solidified, and looked like a dark purple plate. Images started to appear, blurry at first before sharpening into focus. I saw myself standing at Sergi’s table.

“Uh oh,” I said.

“Let’s run through the day, I need to get caught up,” Raven said, pointing a nail at the floating plate. Sound came through and I heard my conversation with Sergi. Raven waved a hand at herself as she saw Sergi reach over for my shards. “He’s a handsome one.”

“We really don’t have to do this,” I said. “I can just tell you-”

“Willow, the connections to the sword have strengthened and I can finally see and hear the outside world through you. Sorry, but I would really like to see how things have changed,” Raven said, her tone telling me I couldn’t convince her to change her mind.

I slunk down in my seat and watched the day's events pass. For the most part Raven was silent, drinking in the details she saw, only asking me for clarifications when she saw things that stuck out to her. Apparently the architecture was an old design from out west, part of an old human empire that had been rebirthed in a new style. The talk went over my head, but I could see she was happy to talk about the arches and material used to build things.

When we reached the part of the temple she halted the spell, the sight of Bazz and I entering the temple frozen in place. I had to explain what little I had gathered about the religion and apparently it was a pretty old one, starting in the days when my ancestor and Raven walked the world together.

Raven purred when she saw the priestess and I covered my face as the events came to pass again. I did peek through my fingers since I got to see the action from another angle, and I bit my lip as I saw myself fondling the nude priestess.

“Hmm, call me one of the sisters of envy because I am jealous,” Raven said, her tail swishing behind her. When it fell into my lap she yanked it back, and winked at me. “Can’t have you pulling my tail, seeing as you're quite skilled at it. It would get me riled up, and I need to focus on the spell here.”

I felt my face burn and I tried to hide inside the bathrobe as Raven started to comment on the sex scene. Pointing out my positioning and technique, areas for me to improve and what to watch out for in a threesome, especially with so many partners with tails. I tried to ignore her comments, and focus on eating a snack, while watching out of the corner of my eye.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Finally it passed and it wrapped up with Martha’s house and what we were told. Raven listened intently to the wizard’s theory and nodded along, as if agreeing with him. The last bit was fuzzy, and the sound was muffled. I saw Martha put me on a bed, strip me, wash me with a wet cloth and tuck me in to sleep under the covers.

“What an adorable couple, and one well versed in the world. I have to agree with the elf mage’s ideas, that priestess is a fraud, taking a short cut like that. At least she got a good time out of it, like you!” Raven clapped happily. “I would have loved to have ridden her like that, you even got stuck!”

I blushed heavily, speechless. I felt the heat go from my face, down to my core and further into my legs. I squished my thighs together and coughed. “Are you doing this to me?”

“Honestly I think you might be affected by me, a little bit. I always had a healthy sex drive so I guess the aspect of lust would be the most connected. But I don’t understand why you tried to break me out,” Raven said.

I looked at her in confusion. “You want out don’t you? Why question it.”

Raven narrowed her gaze, about to give me biting words before confusion set in stopping her. She ran through several more emotions before sighing, “I’m just confused. Why would you help me?”

I tapped my fingers on my arm and looked at the beautiful devil woman. I didn’t hate her, and I felt bad for what my ancestors had done to her. If I was stuck somewhere for so long all I would want to do is go home.

“You don’t need to answer for the sins of your fathers,” Raven said.

“Oh right you can read my mind. Look I’m just trying to find out what happened to my family and if you being in the sword is messing with my head and feelings then it would help us both out if you could go home, right?” I asked.

“You know…usually I have to offer a pact to get anyone to work with me. Yet your ancestor and you are both forthcoming in wishing to get things done. Do you both have something wrong with you?” Raven laughed. She laughed until she cried and as she wiped away the tears I saw she was smiling. “Then again, maybe that’s why I like you too.”

I smiled and got up to look out the window at the waves. This place was a lovely retreat, and I wondered if it could be restored. So I could use it like my ancestor and Raven had back in their day.

“How do I get you out?” I asked.

“I have some ideas about that, but it could be dangerous. You would have to awaken the seals and the hellish aspect, and combine them somehow. I have a theory on it, but I wouldn’t want to put you through that,” Raven said.

“Come on, at least tell me,” I said.

Raven waved her fingers and purple sparks appeared over the food. It formed a smokey image of a tower on an island, and far away there was a patch of land with buildings on it. I saw a devil that looked like her standing on top of the tower, holding up a sphere and on the shore of the far away land was an elf with another one. A bridge appeared between the two of them

“It would be a long process, but to start it you would need to summon another hellish aspect of lust and deal with it. If you could slay it, it would return to the plane of hell, and I could drain some of the energy to strengthen the bond on the sword. Then we would need some very, and I mean very rare materials to create a dream realm. We wouldn’t have to do the full spell, just set it up, and on this side I could draw it in and bridge the gap between our worlds,” Raven said.

The smokey image erupted into a flash of light, and the devil was standing beside the elf. The two of them then embraced, sharing a happy hug. Then the elf waved goodbye while the devil opened a portal and left. The elf was able to use the orb to teleport to and from the tower several times without issue.

“It would leave me with the dream tower here,” I said, inspecting the walls. “I always wanted my own summer home.”

“As much as I love to be friendly and say we will help each other, I suggest we make this deal permanent. Mostly for your sake,” Raven said, swiftly walking over to the fire and plunging her hand into it. She pulled out a long scroll and held it out to me. “Standard fiendish contract.”

I poked at the scroll first to make sure it was safe to handle and when it didn’t burn me I took it. I opened it up to read over the terms, and it looked quite favourable. It essentially read that Raven would walk me through all the steps on how to make the dream realm spell to repair the damage to the sword. Once the sword was repaired she would be allowed to leave and return to her realm, ending her employment.

“As long as she doesn’t read the hidden part this deal should be in the bag!”

The voice wasn’t real, it was in my head and I tugged on my ear. I looked around and laid eyes on Raven sipping her wine, content with herself. Dreama had a spell to talk mentally to people if we were sneaking around, and I had other mages use it on me too. I could recognize telepathic speech.

“There’s no way she can hear me, what is she thinking?” Raven asked.

It was her! Raven’s eyes shot open and I unfurled the scroll completely finding a tiny spot of text along the very bottom. I had to look at it pretty closely to make it out.

“Critique and assist during and after sexual activities?” I asked. “What the hell Raven?”

“Oh come on!” Raven shouted, pointing to the purple disc. The image shifted to me mounting the fox girl. “Look at this, it’s like a pent up virgin country girl finding a dick shaped vegetable in the field. No style, and look at your positioning, you could tilt back here-”

“I don’t need your help with sex!” I screamed, feeling my ears burn.

“I’m perfectly good at it,” I huffed. “None of my old boyfriends complained.”

“They were being nice darling,” Raven said.

“Oh my gods and goddesses. Please tell me you can’t do this when I’m awake,” I said, rubbing my temples.

Raven’s smile didn’t fill me with confidence.