Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black) (24 page)

about her place for who knows how long. Now she knows you’re going to keep

her, and you know that she’s perfectly happy being in your bed.”

“You’re pretty perceptive,” I admitted.

“Thank you. It’s a part of my art I haven’t had the chance to practice as

much as I’d like, so I’m glad I got it right. That reminds me, would you mind

loaning me some magic before you go out, like you did when you healed me?

Now that I have a stock of ingredients I’d like to work on some things.”

I shrugged. “Sure. You know, I still don’t really know what you can

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do?”

I sat at a table that had appeared since the last time I’d been in the

room, noting that I seemed to be the only one around. It was fairly early, but I

still wasn’t used to rising at dawn the way everyone else here did. Probably

Cerise and Beri had already had breakfast and headed off into town to run

errands.

Avilla retrieved a bowl of batter and started pouring hotcakes.

“Oh, a lot of different things. Most of it isn’t all that impressive, but it’s

useful to have. Anything to do with keeping a home is part of my domain, so

things like cleaning and organizing are easy for me. I sew almost as well as I

cook, and once I properly claim a house again I can hold dominion over the

little elemental spirits that live there. I’m good at keeping my own garden, for

herbs and such, but that doesn’t work outside my own land.”

“Hmm. What’s involved in claiming a home? Is that something you can

set up and take down as we travel?”

She winced. “That sounds unpleasant. I have to put a lot of myself into

a place to claim it, blood and magic both. I could probably do something like

that if I had to, but I think I’d hurt myself. My magic would be damaged, at

least. I’d much rather wait and do it right.”

“Fair enough. What does that entail?”

“Well, that gets back to what I was telling you the other night about

needing a partner. I can get by with a series of rituals to work myself into a

building, but that takes days to build even a weak claim and it’s always a bit

fragile. Hearth magic is wifely magic, you know, so it works best if I have a

man involved. Your magic for strength and protection, mine for nurturing and

healing, mingling our power to lay a claim with sex and surrender…”

She set the hotcakes down in front of me with a naughty grin, bending

low enough to give me a good view down her dress in the process.

“If we do it right I’ll become my home, like a dryad with her tree. As

strong as you are your magic will be in everything I do, making me more

powerful than I ever dreamed I could be. It’ll be like having your own

personal house-nymph. Won’t that be fun?” She teased.

I chuckled. “I think I’d better watch it or you girls are going to make me

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die of exhaustion.”

She giggled, and went back to the stove. “I wouldn’t worry about that,

Daniel. Everything I cook is at least a little bit magic, and I like you being

more man than I can handle. If your magic ever flags mine will be right there

to fill in the gaps.”

I paused with a bite halfway to my mouth. “You put magic viagra in

this?”

“Oh, there’s hardly anything in it today. Some encouragement for good

health and general hardiness, maybe a little extra manliness if I’m lucky. I

don’t have the ingredients or the kitchen for any serious work, but I do what I

can. Make me an oven and give me a few days to get situated, and then maybe I

can manage something noticeable.”

“Oh.” I considered that. “So it’s like the thing with the wolf steaks?

That’s interesting. Just promise me you aren’t going to start playing games with

it like Cerise.”

“I have more sense than that, Daniel,” she said seriously. “If I abused

your trust in this how would I ever get it back? Right now everything I’m doing

is meant to help us all survive until we can find a new home. If there’s ever a

time when we’re safe there are some games I might like to play, but I’d talk to

you about it first.”

“Games?”

“Games. Harmless recipes that sound like they might be fun. For

instance, there’s a sauce that’s supposed to make a man’s seed… ah,

overwhelmingly copious?”

She blushed prettily at my raised eyebrow, and ducked her head.

“Ahem. Granny collected all sorts of unusual recipes. Things that make a girl

wonder what it would be like.”

“But you’ll need to have things in a better place with Cerise first.

Please be strong for her, Daniel. She can’t help playing, but she needs someone

who can take her in hand and keep her grounded. She’s always been a bit wild,

but this last year I’ve seen her starting to lose herself bit by bit.”

“Yeah, I was afraid of that. How can I help?”

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She chewed her bottom lip cutely. “If we complete the coven bond it

will help immensely, but I think you’re right not to rush that. We only get one

chance at it, so we need to do it right. If she takes a turn for the worse there are

some rituals we could try to help stabilize her, but they tend to be dangerous

and costly to her power.”

“No, I think the best course is to avoid magic for now. You’ve been

wonderful to her so far, you just need to stop holding back. Demons are made

to serve a master, and her stolen power needs to be tamed before she can

command it properly.”

I considered that for a moment.

“I think I get it,” I said. “Normally I’d hesitate, but Cerise likes power

games anyway, doesn’t she?”

Avilla blushed faintly, and nodded. “Oh, yes. The things she’s made me

do... well. You’re a worldly man. I’m sure you can imagine. Just remember,

we want her to be a witch who controls the powers of a succubus, not the other

way around.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I nodded. “Well, let’s get you charged up.”

I scooted my chair back, and she settled into my lap. Her dress seemed

to unbutton itself, and fell to gather about her waist.

“I’m ready,” she said breathlessly.

I chuckled, and started feeding her magic. “For future reference,

holding hands would work just fine.”

“I know,” she said, taking my hands and moving them to her breasts.

“But this is where my magic is stored. So it only makes sense to watch them

carefully, in case you give me too much.”

Her magic eagerly embraced mine, drinking in the donation of

power like some exotic desert flower greeting a rainstorm. I had far more

energy available that the last time we’d done this, but I didn’t know how much

she could handle so I expanded the flow gradually.

“Ah, so that’s how it is,” I teased. “You make excuses about needing

power for practical projects, but you really just want to find out how much you

can hold.”

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“Y-yes,” she admitted. Her hands on my shoulders were trembling

now, and her pupils were huge. “Oh, Daniel. Please, please don’t stop this

time. I don’t care if I’m a mess afterwards. Your magic is so warm. Please, fill

me up. Stuff me until I can’t take any more.”

“Heh. Are we still talking about magic here?”

Her eyes lit up. “Oh! Yes, that’s a wonderful idea! Take me right here

on the kitchen table while you fill me with your magic.”

I increased the mana flow, and watched the cascade of reactions within

her body. Her back arched, pressing her breasts into my hands as a soft moan

escaped her lips. The faster I gave it to her the more erotic the experience

seemed to become, and from what I was sensing her storage capacity was

immense. This could be fun.

By the time I worked my way up to my maximum flow rate Avilla was

stoned out of her mind, babbling a happy stream of incoherent nonsense as I

worked my tool in and out of her warm, gooey center. She seemed to be

climaxing more or less continuously, but that didn’t stop her from wrapping

those long, golden-brown legs around my waist and fucking me back with

delirious enthusiasm. I had to reinforce my self-control with magic to keep

things from ending prematurely, but even then I couldn’t last forever.

When I was done I gathered her back into my lap and held her until the

trembling passed. Her beasts were tight and swollen now, her nipples so

hypersensitive that a casual tug was enough to make her squeak and twitch as

another sharp little climax cascaded through her tender flesh. But the fog

gradually cleared from her eyes, and after a few minutes she twined her arms

around my neck and kissed me tenderly.

“Thank you,” she breathed.

“You’re welcome. You alright now?”

“Yes! Oh, Daniel, I love you so much right now. Ask anything you wish

of me, I’m yours.”

I shook my head with a grin. “Ah, the mating cry of the well-fucked

woman. You say that now, but you’ll be back to spending all my money and

ordering the servants around in a few hours.”

She giggled. “Maybe. I guess you’ll have to fill me again whenever you

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want me breathlessly swooning for you. The rest of the time I’ll just be your

practical, hard-working house-nymph. Such a hard life you lead.”

“Yeah, it’s a rough job but somebody has to do it. Speaking of which,

that wall isn’t going to build itself.”

Tearing myself away from that vision of buxom blonde beauty wasn’t

easy. It was so tempting to just stay there and make love to her all morning.

Maybe get her help giving Tina a special first time, and then pounce on Cerise

when she got back from whatever errand she was on. With the near-infinite

endurance my amulet gave me it would be easy to get carried away.

But if I went down that road we’d all be dead in a matter of weeks. So

instead I pried myself away, and went to work.

There were men patrolling the top of the wall now, and troops moving

into several of the new towers. They were glad enough to get out of the

overcrowded barracks in town, although the exposed position of the new

construction left them a little nervous. Since the new wall didn’t connect to the

old one it would be easy for monsters to sneak into the empty ground between

the two fortifications at night, and stage ambushes or try to break into the

towers.

But there was no way to reach the top of the wall without going up

through a tower, and their exterior doors were heavy masses of stone mounted

on pivots set into the wall. Nothing small enough to fit through the doorway

was going to break in overnight, so as long as they didn’t get careless they

shouldn’t have much to worry about.

Besides, it was a temporary problem.

By lunchtime I’d extended the wall well around the curve of the town,

although of course the tops of the new defenses towered over all of the original

construction. Still, it was good enough that after Beri delivered lunch I felt I

could afford to take a few breaks. So once she was safely gone again I

retreated to the top floor of a newly-built tower and pulled out the book Holger

had sent me.

No, I wasn’t planning to put some kind of slavery spell on the witches.

But with both of them warning me about Cerise’s problems I’d be a fool not to

look into my options. Maybe there would be something here I could use?

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It was slow going at first. Like most hand-written books it was short,

barely a hundred pages of neat calligraphy. But the language was dense and

obscure, full of unfamiliar references and poetic turns of phrase. I would have

been completely lost if not for the grounding provided by my mana sorcery,

and even then making sense of it wasn’t easy.

I spent most of the afternoon alternating between projects, snatching

twenty or thirty minutes at a time to read in between throwing up new walls

and towers. It wasn’t the most efficient way to do things, but it gave me time to

mull over each chapter’s contents.

There was a lot of talk about souls and spirits, which I tentatively

decided were probably real in this magical world. There was also a fair

amount of stuff I would have dismissed as standard medieval bullshit back

home, but here I had to stop and think about it. Did biology run on some kind of

elemental magic here? Was it actually meaningful to talk about non-sentient

forces like magic being innately good or evil? Was it plausible to think of

corruption as a literal force that drags anyone who deviates from divinely

mandated moral principles down into utter depravity?

Fortunately I had the right forms of magic to check some of these ideas.

A careful self-examination confirmed my previous impression that