6/3 morning
Eranikus laughed as he mangled the Druids of the Talon, batting them from the sky and raining down lances of pure shadow, nightmares made manifest. He didn't spare anyone, but nor did he make any special effort to finish anyone off. They were in the realm of his god, any who attempted to repair their dream form through force of will here would take in the essence of the nightmare.
Below the dryads that had seen the glorious might of- what was he doing?! Eranikus looked down at the carnage and felt sick. Those were allies, people who have willingly chosen to dedicate their lives to protecting and helping the natural world. He didn't know why he was suddenly lucid, but he looked around and saw that the tide of the battle had shifted.
All around him, the green dragons he'd been leading in combat had stopped attacking, and some had turned on the corrupted dryads and Druids they were fighting alongside. He couldn't afford to ponder; the battle was turning into a brawl and his children might end up dying heroically at the hands of their still-corrupted dragonspawn a few moments after becoming lucid.
••••••••••
Lillibeth enjoyed her breakfast. The food was an awful slop, but she was eating while surrounded by members of the retinue. She always felt better with good company. During the night, she had woken up multiple times in two hour intervals in order to charm her roommates, and now they were all captured. The old ones were very curious about Agnes's transformation, which was attributed to a ritual Lillibeth had been taught by her teacher to the south. Quite a few elderly students were very interested in the process, and Lillibeth magnified their desire to be like her.
Vectus had selected two students on the verge of failure and taken them aside for experiments. The rest of the teachers had written them off; in all likelihood they would have been killed soon to be used for practice anyway. They had entered his lab with great trepidation, and had left with the knowledge of how to cast two new spells each and a nearly instant improvement in all areas of study. The Sarkoffs were excellent tutors; the secret ingredient was love.
Instructor Malicia had been a problem. She kept Lillibeth after class for nearly a full hour, cleaning the room and being watched like a hawk. She noted the formation of a new clique and inferred a large part of what was happening based on her own experiences. Vectus proposed gifting her a necklace, and was able to pull it off by presenting it as an amulet which made one resistant to mind altering magic.
With the ability to acknowledge misconduct from the retinue stripped from her by her new jewelry, Lillibeth charmed her without any of the subtlety she had begun employing on this mission. Adoration was directed at Lillibeth, who briefly swapped out with a disguised Talaada while meeting Malicia during her work hours. The number of faculty members captured was up to two, and Malicia had been planning on meeting with Illucia tonight anyway. She would go equipped with an amulet and an orb.
••••••••••
Merithra was holding back the tide. She was the only thing keeping C'Thun contained. The only thing separating him from the Emerald Dream. The only member of her flight here. She'd stayed back to cover the retreat. To make sure that the Quiraji couldn't escape while the Scarab Gate was sealed. Her vigil was eternal.
As she sent out pulses of energy through the dream, messages requesting help, she didn't think about where she was sending them. To the bottom of the ocean. To the far north. To the darkest reaches of the dream. To the lost continent of Pandaria. To the island of Zuldazar.
As she wove traps and snares within the dream around the temple, she didn't think about how effectively they would ensnare her own flight. As she sang a song of madness, she did not hear the words. As she looked to her fellow prisoners, she did not consider how they were all making defenses that would keep people out, rather than keep them in.
Until she did. The sudden clarity was paradoxically disorienting. Everything she had known, everything that had been so clear moments before, was pure madness the moment that she could look at it clearly. She would have screamed, or lashed out, or tried to escape immediately, but a veil of cold logic fell to cover her emotions.
She was trapped, deep in enemy territory, just down the hallway from an old god. She needed to plan carefully, and fleeing would mean abandoning her blue and red companions, who were trapped in a similar reverie. Instead of making a scene, she began including the Emerald Dragonshrine in her outgoing messages as she pretended to still be enthralled. She listened in on the old gods' conversation, actually comprehending what she was doing for the first time in centuries, and echoed it to her mother alongside a personal message. "I'm here. I'm trapped. I'm scared. I'll do what I can."
••••••••••
After my call with Aegwynn was completed, I had a quick negotiation with my dick. You see, my dick wanted to fuck Aegwynn's brains out, but I had just given her an assignment. She was booked. I managed to bargain little Erich down, but he was pretty insistent that I should absolutely be balls deep in a blonde archmage milf who lives in Theramore. Lucky for me, I had another one of those available as of this morning.
I teleported directly into Lady Proudmore's chambers, because why the hell not? Apparently the reason why not is that she has a nocturnal bodyguard. A hot one, too, who would have been only an enhancement to this plan had I shown more foresight. When I appeared, the pink skinned, purple haired woman was already awake and working at a desk, and leapt into action with admirable speed.
She aimed to disable and question me, which made it relatively easy to hold her off. I'd managed to get up to level ten as a warden with all the slaughter; I was probably in the top hundred living warriors on Azeroth. If I wasn't, it was because wardens are more focused on mobility than hand to hand combat. In any event, I was able to grapple her to the ground while Jaina woke up.
When she saw us, Jaina froze the night elf solid on reflex. Non-lethally; she does this to her own allies all the time. "Pained! Stop. He is a guest." She looked at me with a fond, but confused smile. Pained, for her part, hung her head when she was released.
"I'm sorry, lord Erius. I didn't recognize you and you were unannounced."
"Don't worry about it. You're a bodyguard, right? That's your job. Now then, I'd really rather like to talk to Lady Proudmoore alone, if that's alright? There is something of great importance I need to discuss with her in private."
"Leave, Pained. I'll let you know what is going on later." The elf, having been asked by two people she trusts completely to leave, did so with only a few seconds of hesitation after being released from the ice. "What's this about, Erius?"
I took off my armor with a thought and pulled her into a kiss. She was in a light shift for bed, so there wasn't much between her body and me while I pulled her into the bed with me. To my surprise, she pushed me off of her after a few stunned seconds. "What. No. You're with Aegwynn. I don't want to…"
She was breathing heavily and red in the cheeks. She was absentmindedly grinding her sex against my leg, and she only pushed herself a few inches away. She wanted this as much as I did, if not more, and she wasn't questioning that part. She just didn't want to be the other woman her friend's new lover cheated on her with.
"Oh, that's sweet, but not necessary. I am not exclusive with any one woman and Aegwynn is fully aware of that. You don't need to worry about hurting her by becoming one of my consorts." I hiked her shift up to reveal that there wasn't anything under. Huh. Period accurate age of sail underwear in this setting? I was half expecting to find lingerie. Convenient for me though.
"Consort?" She gasped out as I pulled her down onto my cock.
"Yep. I'll let you know if it means that you're not allowed to date anyone else, but for now all it means is that you're available for me to do with what I wish. No matter who else may enter the picture." I began pumping slowly into her. She was pretty tight.
"I don't… why am I…" she was in shock, letting out little whimpers as I fucked her. I nibbled on her ear, and gave the only real response I could.
"Because you're mine now. If you accept it, you will be happy. If you deny it, it will upset you. If you need help, I can provide it." I sped up my thrusts as I spoke, and she wrapped her legs around my back, moving her hips in time with me. She was on a hair trigger, moaning out her pleasure two times before I filled her with my seed. We lay together after that for a few minutes before she made a request.
"Don't… don't hurt me. Just be someone I can trust, please? If I can't help loving you, don't become a monster." Given how her last canon boyfriend butchered a city and then became the Lich King… I could see why she'd be nervous.
"Agreed. I'm here to help." For some reason that didn't make her relax.
••••••••••
While Jaina and I ate a somewhat awkward breakfast together, I went through my amulet again and noted that the rebate on trace defense went through. I had ten credits to drop, and drop them I did. Mind Runes. With a wicked little smile, I looked through the options available from the description.
Mental transformations for all retinue members are now unlocked in the jewelry app. In addition to libido and submissiveness, attention span and intelligence may also be altered, as well as hobbies, likes and dislikes, fetishes, personality traits, memories, fashion preferences, etc. This is extremely useful for anyone who wants to fine-tune their close harem or play around with individual members' roles. Your retinue members cannot modify their own orders or apply mental transformations to your profile without express permission. These functions otherwise work the same as their physical counterparts.
Oh yeah. This was going to be fun. I'd need to be careful to play with this in moderation; there were a ton of practical applications for it in addition to fun, but if I didn't budget my time with this I would absolutely never get anything else done.