I estimated that I was 10 years too early. A young master with his hands in his sleeves shouted that in my mind with an arrogant flair. He then vowed to destroy 9 generations of my family. I didn't have that many, but I apologized anyways.
'Quicksilver...'
This wasn't a terrible thing. With more time to prepare for the Calamity, the stress I had on my shoulders eased up a lot. I felt better, a lot better. Finally, I had time to focus on bettering myself instead of recklessly training with whatever I had in reach.
With 10 years, I had earned ways to not just survive the Calamity, but also survive the Umbral Era that followed. Then, thrive within the next Astral Era afterwards. I could create a network that would hold up the Scions even when things went terribly wrong. I could create safeguards for places where the future was uncertain. I needed these 10 years. Desperately.
'Almost out...'
It had been some years already since then. I stayed in the crypt and got to see the band of senior goldsmiths and guards that F'lhaminn brought with her.
We never found the murderer. Minfilia said he was shrouded in a dark hood. Thancred had theories, but ultimately, he threw his hands up. The trail was cold.
Likewise, I never got a satisfactory answer as to what was in that coffin. In the echo, Niellefresne's reaction made one think it was empty or something, but the crypt was locked down by the Syndicate soon after I left. Whatever secrets laid there, I was not privy to them. Not yet.
'Rock Salt...'
I also got to witness F'lhaminn's... reaction. I expected her to scream, shout in anger, mentally snap and say something like "He's just sleeping."
While it's true that she almost fainted, her reaction wasn't one of surprise. In a way, I wish it was.
'Almost out of that too...'
---
"F'lhaminn? Are you alright?"
Her knuckles were strained and pale as bone while she clung to my shirt for support.
"Yes. I'm okay. Thank you, Winter."
She was calm. No longer stuttering.
"Who did this?!"
"Was it you?!"
Twin Lalafell that worked at the Mining guild immediately started pointing fingers. I was still severely impacted by the sight of a young Minfilia.
I was in no state to accurately refute every accusation sent my way. Eventually, I'd slip up and my mind would fail me. Then I'd be made into the perfect scapegoat, despite my innocence.
"Enough, you two."
"But!"
Greinfarr, a Roegadyn with tanned skin and massive build, shut the twins up. He carefully inspected the scion's corpse. He was a regular at the Quicksand that I was familiar with.
The son of the Ul'dah Coliseum's owner. I assumed that scions of their ilk stuck together like glue. Perhaps the twins were the scions of some rich asshole too.
I wasn't interested in hanging around here any longer. I had to get back to the Quicksand. I had to relax. I had to think.
"Sir Greinfarr..."
"Hm? Wait, I recognize you, lad! You're the kin of Miss Momodi, ain't ya!"
"I'm glad you remember me, sir."
My little big sister's fame was widespread amongst alcoholics.
"Bah! With all the clicking and clucking birds do around you, how could I not remember!"
F'lhaminn gripped my shirt tighter.
"Haha, guilty as charged sir. Speaking of which, I needed to get back to the Quicksand post-haste. Pray tell if there was anything you require of me?"
"You're leaving?"
F'lhaminn's voice didn't sound right. She whispered that to me while the twins bickered and Greinfarr thought of what he may require.
"I have to settle the girl."
"Asc-"
"No. Hide her name."
"...yes."
The Bronze Bull was done thinking.
"No need. We've got all of this under control. If you could do us a favor though?"
"Anything."
I replied.
"Try to keep this situation quiet-like. It's more complex than a lass scorned. Ey?"
A gag order. Who was behind it? Greinfarr wasn't an idiot, but to think that he had the foresight to say this while his best friend's body was still warm...
"Yes sir. As you wish."
I didn't know what to think. I was still shocked at my arrogance, once again, being crushed into dust. Most of my focus was just trying to keep my body from shaking. Anger and fear wracked my brain continuously.
"Good lad."
I turned, forgetting that someone was still pinching my shirt.
"I'm coming with you."
F'lhaminn stated. It was loud enough for the room to hear.
""What?!""
Her friends were surprised. By this point people were beginning to swarm the tomb. I was anxious to leave. If this was before Nanamo became a complete and competent ruler, then the Syndicate were still in a state of uncontested power.
I couldn't afford to get swept up by their winds yet. I wasn't ready. I needed more time. I always needed more time.
"F'lhaminn! What do you mean?!"
"We can't just leave Niellefresne like this!"
The Songstress of Ul'dah did not reply and dragged me out with her.
The clouds were still blocking the sun when we departed. The heavy winds had died down, but the storm still raged. Illusionary stars came from on high and dissipated before hitting the ground.
I was no longer being dragged around like a ragdoll. The alleyways held unknown dangers and hidden blades. The streets were eerily empty. The Ul'dahn people knew when to stay in their homes.
"Are you okay?"
She was still dragging me through the side streets, I knew it was vaguely in the direction of the Quicksand, but I wasn't joking when I said it was one hell of a walk.
To think my little big sister did it every day...
I grabbed F'lhaminn's hand to ask what she was doing. She stopped and turned to face me. Tears were pouring down her cheeks.
"No. I'm not. I'm a terrible woman, Winter."
It was difficult to hear through the sobs but the gist of what I understood was this.
She felt that it was deserved. They had done terrible things in the name of having the people hail them as saviors. With that title they could have pushed reform through Ul'dah. But they messed up.
Hic-Hic
What was I to say? I was already dealing with my own problems. I was 10 fucking years before 1.0. I hadn't read a lick of what happened during this time. How was I to plan? How was I to live?
And this event, the killing of Asc-Minfilia's father. It did lie firmly at her feet. She could've stopped it at any time. She could've held a threat over that idiot of a scion's head. He deserved death just as much as she did. Lives were lost in a reckless and prideful bid for power. This wasn't something you could atone for. Her tears softened my heart, but my mind still knew that this wound would never heal. She would carry it for many years to come.
Sob-Sob
The guilt was eating her up from the inside, taking chunks of her heart with it. The shame burned at her soul, vowing retribution that would one day steal her life away. The fear, of that retribution coming when she least expected it. She was a Miqo'te in a storm of her own making, with no life raft. The-
Mm...Slurp
Lust. To cover for her mistakes. To atone for her guilt. To fulfill her desires before she was gone for good. Something primal mixed with something disgusting stirred within her heart. All stories that I could read within her eyes.
She forced her soft plush lips onto mine clumsily. I, of course, was not thinking or channeling my Aether. Or perhaps that's just the excuse I gave myself after the fact. If I had stopped there, if I had pushed her away, what would've happened?
I never asked those questions again.
Like a starved animal, I kissed her back.
Slurp - Mm - M-mph - Sluurp
We sucked each others tongues. Exchanging saliva. I bit and gnawed on her full lips. Heat spread through my body. Something unlocked deep in my soul. A carnal desire that I would fail to quench over and over and over again.
Our wild embrace had us making out against the rough walls of the alleyway. Her clumsy and rough kisses made it clear to me that despite having a lover, she was woefully inexperienced.
I didn't mind.
While sucking her tongue and making her swallow my drool I hastily undid her belt, loosened her pants, stuck my hands in and squeezed her soft pillowy ass.
Mmph!
It was plump and smooth. Her tail flicked to and fro but I held her down and kept massaging her behind, kneading and slapping as I pleased. I trained her to behave. She stopped moving strongly and instead traced her hand along my back whilst nibbling on my bottom lip.
Every love bite was an expression of obedience. Every scratch was a show of anarchy. I slapped her ass again and felt its ripples when she misbehaved.
She was a woman that felt better when she knew her place. She needed direction. I could feel what she probably tried to tell the young and brash scion, but failed to communicate properly. Her true desires didn't translate into the right language. Their love was a Rosetta Stone of deceit.
So I demonstrated the benefits of following my orders instead, by teasing her body. I would steal that love away. I would carve a new Rosetta Stone using my own hands.
Huff-Mmhah-Huff-Fuauh!
We traded our breath. I bathed in her sultry womanly scent and started digging the fingers on my left hand into her rose petals while I brought my right hand up and started working her soft breasts.
Nyah! Mm! Slurp! Mm!
She was sopping wet. I directly skipped putting my fingers in for now and instead glided my sticky fingers alongside her clitoris. Always sure to never touch it directly.
"Gnyah! W-Winter!"
Her body shook in surprise and arousal. A treat to my senses.
I gently continued to massage around my real objective. She relaxed into a muddy mess of sex appeal in front of my eyes. Her saliva tasted all the sweeter.
I was done playing around. In this rat-way, I wanted her. Not even a 30 minutes walk away lay her previous lover's corpse. And here, I would disrespect his memory. I would taint our morals into a deep and dark shade of gray.
After one last kiss where I sucked constantly on her tongue, I pulled back and held my hands on her hips. The trace of our traitorous kiss was the strand of saliva that linked our mouths.
We breathed heavily as we stared at each other. Her body was flushed with a steamy aura. I could smell the sweetness hidden between her legs and could hold on no longer.
I didn't know if this world had birth control.
I didn't care either.
I pulled out my cock. The tip was already cloudy with pre-cum.
F'lhaminn could do nothing but stare. Her breathe was even heavier than before. Her pants had long since fallen after I removed her belt. I pulled myself close to her while using my meat rod to pull her thin panties aside.
We kept our lips pressed together. Scared to let go and taste the cold apocalyptic air that swirled above Ul'dah even still.
sluuurp mm slurp mmmph!
I lined my member up with her steamy mess of an entrance and kissed the tip against it while I bit her lips and pulled her hardened nipples.
"Nyahhhhh!"
A flood of sticky love goop covered my member from top to bottom. She just came. I ignored it and directly pierced her honey pot. A wave of nectar splashed against me as I began the process of breeding my brand new bitch.
"Agyahhhn!"
Squeeeeeeezeeeeeeeeee~
"Ugh!"
Fuck. She was still cumming. My member was only halfway in. I used one hand to grip her curvy ass and the other to hold down on her head. I wanted to be all the way inside. I wanted to slam my meat into her cervix and breed her properly.
Her body continued to jump as if she were being shocked and her insides were stacking themselves along my length.
I pushed down on her head with my right hand. I pulled in on her soft ass with my left and bit down on her ear while pushing my cock with force.
shhhick-thuck
psshhhh squiiiiirt
"Ugh, God."
My woman's body went limp and she started wildly thrashing while drenching me in her juices.
The pressure was incredible. I wanted to seed her with my load right away, but held myself back. I wanted her to remember our first time. I wanted her to remember me jamming her onto my cock and feeling the results of my affection.
I had let my lover's ear fall out of my mouth and I inspected her beautiful face. The Songstress of Ul'dah looked blissful. Her eyes had rolled into the back of her head and her tongue was sticking out lavishly.
"Good girl."
I patted her head gently while still kissing the head of my cock against her rubbery cervix.
guuush
The response was another flood of nectar.
I leaned forward, leisurely sucking her lips and massaging her tongue with mine. I was in no rush. She was my bitch and would stay impaled for however long I wanted her to.
Who was going to stop me? Niellefresne?
slurp-pop-sluuurp-pop
Our kisses could hardly be called that. They were raunchy expressions of animalistic instinct. I didn't move my manhood at all, letting her pussy adapt to her new master's length. Her lack of preparedness and experience told me how little that sorry featherbed had done for her.
Confidence and pride swelled in my chest. I'd train her well.
I slapped her ass. This time as an expression of possession. She was mine now.
Her meaty insides quivered in approval.
Then I started pistoning.
thuck-slap-plap-thuck-plap-plap-thuck-sluck-plap
A wretched symphony of twisted love played in the dark of the alleyway. My cock was addicted to her warm insides, my hands were held onto her curvy, feminine hips, and my mouth was being occupied by her now awoken tongue.
With every thrust, I displaced her stuffy honey pot and heard a "uguh!"
With every pull, when the head of my manhood hooked on various folds and bumps that lined her innards, my woman cried with a "nhyah!"
It sounded hilarious, but I was too occupied to laugh. I could feel it coming. I started pounding her faster. She came for the third or fourth time, I stopped keeping count. I always made sure to give her an extra reward kiss for cumming while I fucked her senseless.
The wet sloppy sounds of me jamming my fat cock against F'lhaminn's cervix and our grunts and moans filled the alley. If the rainless storm above us wasn't so loud, surely someone would have seen us by now.
The Songstress of Ul'dah, a woman who was admired by the populace for her beauty and talent, was getting thoroughly dominated by me. The thought of it only made me fuck her with even more reckless abandon. I half wanted someone to see. I wanted someone to witness me dirtying such a beautiful woman with my beastly cock.
plap plap plap thuck plap
I couldn't stop my hips at all. Every fantasy that this woman put into my head when I met her earlier today, I channeled all of that into my wild and reckless fucking.
I was on the brink of release and smashed my head against the opening of her cervix, making her understand where my seed was going to go. I was going to fill her womb directly.
"Ahiiiii!"
"Fuck!"
I burst, strictly refusing to pull out for even a second.
glurp gluck gloop pump pump
"Urg! Gah! Take it...!"
"Gyahhhn! Ayhhhhnnn!"
Thick ropes of my seed battered her insides. She constricted her soft velvety walls around my meat rod and I could feel her warm splashes of ecstasy hit my belly and drip from my balls.
I kept pulling her ass towards me and bit down on her ears once again.
pshhhhh
Her bladder became loose and I kept shooting my baby batter into her soft and wet oven.
glug glue goop glug
"Ahg-fuck."
I was still cumming. I didn't pull away from her cervix. I kept my cock pressed and sealed against the opening, forcing her womb to expand like a water balloon. Her sweet fluids continued to stain my clothes. A strong sickly sweet scent marked my nose and I kissed her forehead as a reward.
kiss
squeeeeezeeee-squee-squeeeeeeeezeeee
pump pump pump glug
Each kiss tightened her innards and milked another thick rope from my length. I used my tongue to massage the unusual bumps along the surface of hers. Possibly a feature of Miqo'te, or perhaps a feature of my F'lhaminn. Either way, I would spend time getting to know each and every one of them from now on.
Huff puff ugh
After god knows how long, I was finally done marking my woman. I was still shaking, her pussy continued to massage my shaft, extracting every last drop of my thick cum.
mm slurp mphm slurp
I kept kissing her, sucking her swollen lips and letting my dick marinate in the mixture of our love juices. I gripped her soft hips, wide enough to deliver a healthy baby, in preparation to finally pull out. My meat rod was reluctant to part with its new home. I had to coax it by pushing in and out in small micro-movements that started to grow rougher as I grinded my pelvis against her mons pubis. If I kept this up, I'd end up breeding her again.
slurp-pop
With a wet popping sound, I had pulled my frothy meat stick from her seductive garden. Our mouths were still joined in union. Our tongues swapping stories and guilt. Mixing our fluids like that had thickened my cum considerably. A bubbly mix of ooze trailed between our sex in thick curtains of gelid fluid. Even though my dense baby batter threatened to slide out, in the end it stayed in.
Of course we couldn't go back to the Quicksand reeking of love and semen, so we stopped by F'lhaminn's dancing studio to wash up. The whole way I was strongly groping her round ass and her soft hand massaged my still hard cock that was bouncing happily in the open air.
All it took was one pair of eyes looking out of their window to see our naughty secret, but no one did. I was slightly disappointed.
When we had arrived, we couldn't keep our hands to ourselves at all. There we went for another round where I filled her with another helping of my seed from behind. I bit her tail and slapped her juicy ass, cumming over and over until I was satisfied.
I made sure to have her clean up the results of our sordid affair with her mouth. Her technique was lame but I taught her patiently. In just one session she learned to clean by swallowing our gelid gunk that oozed from the bottom of my balls first and working her way up, always making sure that my member was sparkling and clean from all angles.
She obediently handled the other side with her tongue and sucked the sweat from my cock skin with her plump lips. Upon arriving at the tip, she was instructed to suckle every drop of seed from my urethra, using the bumps on her tongue to glide around the rim of my head, to invite more seed to escape my prison, and swallow gratefully.
burp
"Ahhhhhnnnn~"
F'lhaminn opened her mouth wide and displayed the empty contents on her thick and bumpy tongue.
I was either a fantastic teacher or she was a perfect student because she earned another round of rough baby making sex right there and then.
After washing up from a second or third time, we had finally arrived at the Quicksand. My balls were numb and my mind was empty.
---
Needless to say, since then I had taken up the practice of learning to cycle Aether, even if I was sleeping.
What for? Oh, just training. To use multiple types of magic while simultaneously fighting in nail-biting sword fights, obviously I needed to know how to do this right?
...Ok training and control. Truthfully, I had been struggling to contain myself since that night. Without the cooling sensation of the Aether, I wasn't sure what I would do. My mind was far more fragile than I thought it to be. At least more fragile than it was on Earth.
'Shriekshroom... Is that really its name?'
Even now, while learning Alchemy, I used my "hands" to pull strings of Aether from the world around me and swing them around my "fingers".
I wasn't sure if this was training my "dexterity" but it absolutely was training my ability to manipulate Aether.
F'lhaminn retired from her career as a songstress and became Minfilia's adoptive mother full-time. Thancred and I put some of our funds together to buy them a small house near the Quicksand. Supposedly, more money had come in from the Goldsmiths' guild, likely hush money, but we used it as well to help Minfilia, and partially F'lhaminn, restart their lives.
I was under the impression that our time together was that of a mistake. Grief and guilt mixed into a hellish combination that had overtaken her senses and made her do something she wanted to forget. I would've understood, as I wasn't in the best frame of mind then either. I was willing to forget and move on.
That was not at all the case however.
I looked carefully at the currently mouthless shriekshroom in my hand.
'It won't actually shriek... Right?'
There were multiple times where I had arrived at their new home, being invited by who I thought was Minfilia, but opening the door and seeing a sweaty Miqo'te in a sheer thin dress, gazing at me with a sticky look in her eyes.
It wasn't anything serious, but I ended up gaining Minfilia's mother as an exclusive lover. I kept my mouth shut and so did she. It felt slightly evil considering just how we ended up together. But I didn't mind it anywhere near as much as she did. Or as much as I thought she did. The way she rode me and twisted her hips seemed to say that she didn't have the scion on her mind that often either. I couldn't tell.
'...Why do I have so much of it...?'
I hadn't expected to end up in a romance like this. If I wasn't careful, I'd stumble into every man's dream. A harem.
'Hehehehe.'
I shook my head of pink, pink, PINK, hair. No shot. Not with my luck. What would've been more likely, was my head being severed, put into an icebox, and sent down a beautiful river on a boat.
---
In these past some years as she matured, Minfilia had become much more energetic. She also started to resemble the Minfilia I knew from the game. In particular her 1.0 look. But she only resembled that Minfilia in appearance. Her behavior still vaguely resembled the uninhibited child I met those years ago. She had grown up well.
For some reason that I could not decipher, she yearned for the mines and spent lots of time down there only to come back to me with a face covered in soot and hands filled with ore and elemental shards. A hobby that I didn't know she had such a passion for.
"Winter Winter! Look!"
Her excited grin always brought a smile to my face. Minfilia loved to explain where she obtained each shard, gem, and ore. The process of mining was more intense than I anticipated. Some types of rock were harder than others and needed to be split with alternate tools before their loot could be picked out.
Elemental shards would slightly explode if you hit them with your pickaxe too hard, so picking those out became a more delicate affair. One made easier by the fact that the shards actually softened the stone around them. You could pick one out with just your hand alone if you wanted to.
I offered to buy any alchemy ingredients she dug up. At first she wanted to gift me everything for free so I had to spend time educating her on the value of time and hard work. She wasn't dumb, so she understood my meaning without much resistance.
One day, after a dinner between the Modi and Warde households, we sat by ourselves, playing a game that I had plagiarized from my world. Go Fish. Minfilia looked me dead in the eyes after telling her I truly did not have any 4s. I wasn't lying because I was about to lose.
"Perchance, if I were find a crystal during my expeditions down there, may I become your wife?"
An innocent but strangely bold question that she asked years ago at the age of 14. As it was her birthday, or as they say in Eorzea, her nameday, I didn't want to displease her, but I wanted to have a bit of fun as well.
"You can be one of them. Perhaps even the first, if no one else comes along."
I said it with a straight face and-
jingle
A pouch of crystals was dropped onto my work desk years later. A serious and dedicated Minfilia stood ramrod straight with a deadpan look on her face, as if waiting for the results of her purchase.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"... Go away! Don't you toy with me!!!"
---
Thancred, my ever busy brother, was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. He'd pop up here and there, then vanish. The drunkards called him a fantastic drinking buddy, but I understood that he was drinking these men under the table to gain intel. A stressful job that I wouldn't wish to do.
When, Minfilia heard what he had been up to, she twisted up her mouth up and called him something to the effect of a "wine soaked wharf rat". The shock on Thancred's face was immense and I could feel that he was going to start kicking himself harder.
To me, it was important that these two did not become estranged. Flashes of Heavensward would flicker across my eyes. The Thancred of that expansion made many enemies and turned off many players. I heard he earned even more hate beyond that in 5.0.
Thancred refused to speak to Minfilia about his line of work, the way he spoke to me about it. So instead, I found an alternate method. I started hounding him to come around more often. If Minfilia was just exposed to him more often, perhaps their dynamic wouldn't be so...strained. It was more difficult than I expected, but I prevailed in the end. As I always did.
The thing that finally locked him in, was me paying off his tab at the Quicksand.
"Little Winteeeeeeerrrr~"
"Get off."
He said that he wanted to introduce me to his Circle of Knowing soon. Supposedly Louisoix was curious about me. I agreed and the time for that was arriving in a month and some change.
Fans had long speculated about how Thancred felt about Minfilia. Translations into English had supposedly left things ambiguous. However, what I saw in front of me was a brand new and slightly exasperated father, running around the world to make sure his little girl got everything she needed.
Thancred's relationship with F'lhaminn was no longer as frosty either. He was thankful for her dedication to his new daughter, but the bard still didn't trust her.
Of course my relationship with him was still-
"Hey, Snowfall."
"Hi, Seawater."
""Tch.""
Like this.
"Why do they call you a bard? I've never seen you sing, dance, let alone play an instrument."
"Mayhaps, it's my smooth words, gentlemanly cadence and-"
"Nevermind."
"I DO play an instrument, by the way!"
"Sure you do."
And like that.
"THANCRED! Where in the HELLS is my applemelon cider?!"
"Anyroad, I should be off~"
"What's that bottle? That's- AHHHHH MY CIDER!"
Next time I see that bastard...