Xora 3: Shell Game

by Brandy Dewinter

 

Chapter 9 - "If It Were Easy . . . "

I was not the only distractingly beautiful sight that morning. Whatever disappointment I had felt at the way we looked when we woke up after our drug-induced dissipation was eliminated quite effectively when Kyla and Breen emerged from the swirling fog of their showers, looking like - well, looking like that old adolescent fantasy said they were supposed to look. It was a challenge to keep from drooling all over myself again.

Meeting that challenge - not drooling - was not enough to conceal the hunger that must have shown as I watched them don their own flimsy robes and start to work on their hair and makeup.

"Stars, Xora," Breen snickered at me, "you act like you'd never been in a girls' locker room before."

Well, no sense denying the obvious. A counterattack seemed in order, or at least an unrepentant excuse. "Girls, maybe, but from where I sit, you two are prime time women, not girls."

"Why, thank you, dear," Kyla smirked, fluffing her own dark hair. "However did you get yours to dry so quickly?"

"Oh, just lucky I guess," I replied blandly.

*"You're welcome,"* Titania said, tweaking my already-aroused nipples.

*"Of course,"* I replied. *"And stop that."*

*"Of course,"* she replied in turn - and did it again.

Breen turned away from her own preparations and offered, "If you're hungry, you can go get something to eat. The replicators aren't particularly creative, but they get the job done well enough for breakfast."

"I'll wait, I guess," I said. "I, um, well, what's . . . going to happen, um, next?"

"To you?"

"Yes, and to Tryx."

"May not be the same thing," Kyla muttered.

"Excuse me?" I prompted.

The dark haired girl sighed and turned to face me again. "Look, Xora, nothing personal but you have to understand, we're not particularly glad to see you. Either of you. I'd do anything for more thionite - anything - and Oslo has made it clear that if we, um, give each other a hard time we're out in a heartbeat so I'm not looking for trouble. But he also likes to keep only a half a dozen or so girls around. If you and, um, Tryx stay, that means some of us are . . . through."

I remembered that I had never heard the name of the powder before, not that they knew of anyway, so I asked about it first. "Thionite? Is that the powder?"

They both nodded, and even the thought of that concoction brought the look of hunger back to their eyes.

"So, maybe he'll just . . . tell me to leave instead?"

"Not likely," Breen said, smirking. "I was with Oslo when he saw you and Tryx kissing on the path by the beach. Holy heartthrobs, girl, I felt the heat from here! He's not going to let you two get away."

Kyla picked up the explanation, "But you're not, ah, playing the game very well. Tryx is making him feel like he's the most fascinating man in the galaxy - and of course he thinks he is. You're not showing any interest in him. Did you really just take the thionite last night out of boredom?"

This was an obvious cue, so I let a look of desire into my own eyes when I replied. "Oh, um, maybe, in the beginning . . ."

She nodded, and continued for me, "But now you'd do anything for some more."

"Well, maybe not . . . anything."

"I would," Breen admitted, standing as she finished her own cosmetic enhancements. "I don't even wish I'd never been . . . never started. I just hope that Oslo kicks someone else out instead of me."

Kyla stood as well, and she waved an arm to invite me to come with them. "There aren't many who fall for Oslo himself, like Tryx has. Maybe she doesn't have much experience with men, because frankly, he's not all that good as a lover. Most of us have gone through what you're going to go through instead. He's going to make it . . . difficult for you for a while, unless you start acting like you love him regardless of the drug."

"I supposed you could say that he's being fair," Breen offered. "You can just leave at any time. If you don't want to do as he asks, he won't make you."

Kyla concluded, "You just won't get any more thionite."

In the dining area we met the rest of the current harem. I had already known them from their dossiers, of course, so I was able to keep them straight. I found that I had made one major mistake in my prior assessments, though. It wasn't on red-headed Cheya, who was as bitter in the daylight as the nighttime version I had met as Tryx. Trislini was distant, not so much cold as living in another plane that only artists could experience. Laran was a minor disappointment, pleasant and polite, but distracted in an edgy way that made me think she might have been at a bad point in her monthly cycle.

*"Why Xora, that's quite sensitive of you,"* Titania said.

*"Hmm? Oh, no, not really. I learned the rules a long time ago."*

*"Rules?"*

*"For dealing with women. You always have to be aware of the possibility of PMS, but you never, ever suggest it as a cause for . . . moodiness."*

*"But you just did. Suggest it, I mean."*

*"Not out loud, and I'm not stupid enough to do it even when I look like one of them."*

*"Just 'look' like one of them?"*

*"In this case, yes, and thanks to you that's all the closer I have to get to that particular experience."*

Titania couldn't resist teasing me, of course. *"I could arrange it, if you want. You might benefit from, ah, 'that particular experience.'"*

*"No, thank you,"* I replied, and hoped she was truly only teasing and not really threatening. Her lurking laughter did not exactly soothe my worries on that topic. To get both our minds off the subject, I considered the last of the girls I had just met.

Eloi was the surprise. She was not the ghost I had expected. Eloi was just as pale, just as ethereal, and moved with a drifting grace that might indeed have belonged to a bodiless spirit. But there was nothing about her that carried with it the sense of lingering death or horror associated with ghostly spirits unable to depart this existence. She was a vibrantly living being of clouds and sunlight, as close to an angel as I was ever likely to meet. The pale robe she wore fastened at one shoulder and draped casually in a way that might expose her breast with any motion, but the effect was not lewd tease. Instead it seemed to be a leftover innocence from before the fall of Man, when Eve had not thought there was any shame in nudity.

*"Careful, Xora, Tryx will be jealous."*

*"Tryx is with Mordant,"* I snapped.

*"Oooh, now *you're* the one that's jealous,"* she chided.

*"Don't be silly,"* I said, then moved quickly back to an external conversation.

"What are Tryx and, um, Oslo doing?"

"Gathering up your stuff, I'm sure," Cheya said tightly.

Kyla offered a more complete explanation. "It's clear that Oslo has accepted you and Tryx. He's taken her to pack your belongings so that you can go with us."

"Oh, where are we going?"

"Now that you've been, um, selected, we'll go back to his moon," answered Kyla. "At least, most of us will."

I didn't want to dwell on the fact I was going to be the cause of someone being left behind, so I let a gasp of surprise into my voice and gushed a little. "He has his own moon?"

"Well, a large asteroid," Kyla said. "It's a couple of stars over in the Sigma Delphinus system."

"Why do I have the feeling it's named, 'Mordant'?"

Breen laughed, but denied my guess. "Bzzz! Wrong. It's actually called Dariabar, after some old legend."

"But that's just because he didn't find it, he bought it," Trislini said, finally joining the conversation.

Her words seemed to be a trigger for the last of the group to join the conversation as well. Laran said, "Who do you think it will be?"

Her cryptic question was apparently well understood by the others. Guilty, but sharply assessing looks flew around the room. Without a word, a consensus appeared, focused on the too-quiet Trislini, and the too-agitated Cheya.

"Damn it!" Cheya snarled. "I've done everything he asked of me. EVERYthing!"

"I know, hon," Laran gentled her. The ash-blonde girl seemed relieved the 'vote' had not gone against her, and she was showing a little more of the friendliness the agent had indicated in her background information.

"I've never been able to, um, enjoy it either," Trislini said, tears forming in her eyes.

I was trying to buy time to figure out what was going on by fading into the seat behind me - without using any of Titania's abilities to enhance that, of course - but it didn't work and Cheya turned on me.

"It's *your* fault, you and that damned, big-boobed blonde floozy you came with. Does she really think Mordant will fall for her stupid pretense? He's just like all men, and sex with him is . . . disgusting!"

"That's been your problem all along, Cheya," Breen said, and I remembered they had been a couple before encountering Mordant. "You can be the most loving, most giving person in the galaxy, and you'll protect those you cherish with your life. I know, you've done it for me. But you've never been able to, um, enjoy the attentions of men. And you can't fake it, not to Mordant."

"Let that be a lesson to you," Trislini said, bitterness in her own tone. "Have you had any experience with men or are you exclusively oriented toward women?"

"Not, um, much," I replied, an answer to the first part of her question providing a response to the second as well.

"Well, Mordant will give you a little time - and a few doses of thionite - to, um, 'adjust' your attitudes. If you don't . . . "

"You'll join Tris and me, and all those who came before us," Cheya snarled, running from the room.

Breen went after her, while the rest of the girls crowded around to console the inconsolable dancer, Trislini. It was almost as though the girls themselves got to choose who would be dismissed from the harem, though it would clearly be Mordant's choice. But there wasn't any doubt, and even if there had been some it would quickly have been banished when the toady man stepped into the room.

"What is it, Drem?" asked Laran, and in so doing I learned his name.

"Mr. Mordant wants Trislini to pack her things," he reported.

It was brutal. Drem left Trislini and Cheya very little time to gather their few possessions, then moved my things, and Tryx's into the rooms they had vacated. That was apparently a sign that Mordant would soon return, and the girls scrambled to make themselves presentable for their lord and master - or at least the remaining girls did. The ultimate brutality of that cruel moment was that Tris and Cheya were gone before the girls were ready for Mordant, and in the uncompromising focus of their existence that meant they couldn't even take the time to say good-bye to their departing sisters.

I nearly walked out on the whole, sordid situation. I would have, and duty be damned - at least my duty to Admiral Jones and the Federation - but I couldn't let that . . . abomination continue. Regardless of assigned mission, I wasn't leaving until I had found a way to put Mordant out of business. In one way, I became like the other girls. I would do anything, ANYthing, to get what I wanted. Thank God it wasn't the thionite I needed.

*"And thank you, Titania,"* I whispered to my secret guardian.

She gave me a gentle, hidden hug, in sympathy and in agreement, yet her resolve came across in unspoken words and was as firm as my own.

I needed to get ready myself, and for some reason (*"You know very well what the reason is."* *"Quiet, Titty."*) I decided to snoop through Tryx's scanties until I found stockings and a garter belt, and a lacy black thong panty. I didn't even try to find a bra to fit, of course. Those dainties went under one of my scarlet-and-white-lace, sensuality-and-innocence outfits. Unfortunately, the short skirt to my dress barely concealed the tops of my stockings, and only then if I stood very carefully.

*"As if you didn't know that would happen,"* sniffed Titania. Well, she was probably right. Again. But I had a feeling it would turn out to be . . . useful later.

It was actually quite a bit later. Though we were all casually nearby when Mordant swept in with Tryx on his arm, he virtually ignored us and headed back to his own rooms. It was only after another meal at suppertime that we were all invited into his presence back in the throne - I mean, common - room.

It was immediately obvious that the main program for the night involved me.

"Xora, dear," Mordant said heartily. "Have you enjoyed your time with my friends?"

"Yes, um, Oslo," I said carefully.

"Oh, good," he continued grandly. "I do so like for my guests to be happy. Don't I girls?"

"Yes, Oslo," they all declared dutifully.

"And my little powder?" he turned back to me and asked. "Did you enjoy that, too?"

I decided a little more enthusiasm would be in order. "Oh, yes, Oslo. It was a . . . wonderful experience."

"Quite," he said smugly. "I suppose you'd like to try it again?"

"Oh, yes! I would like that very much," I gushed.

"Well, you know my rules, don't you?" he asked, then moved on without waiting for an answer. "I like pleasing people and I think it's only fair that if I please someone, well, that someone should please others. Don't you think that's fair?"

"Of course, Oslo," I agreed promptly, though I deliberately let a little suspicion into my voice. I knew something unpleasant was coming, and I was pretending to be hooked on his drug, not stupid.

"Good, good," he said. "Tryx has been telling me a bit about you."

"She has?" I offered the straight line. This time it was even more likely that I would have some undertones in my voice, and I chose concern.

"Yes. She says you're not very experienced with men, but that you are . . . excellent at pleasing women."

"I'm, uh, gratified to hear that."

"Oh, yes," he confirmed, squeezing Tryx in a proprietary way that claimed her as his prize, and therefore showed his skills had supplanted even mine.

"So I have decided it would be fair for you to use your excellent . . . talents to please someone - and in so doing it would please me to give you more of my thionite. Would that be okay with you?"

"Oh, um, sure. I would be happy to, um, spend some time with Tryx again," I agreed, knowing that was not likely to be what he had in mind.

"Oh, no," Mordant laughed. "I didn't mean Tryx. She wouldn't like that anyway, would you babe?"

I didn't need to fake the shock I felt at that statement, though Mordant misunderstood the cause. I knew Tryx was pretending to have fallen for him - at least, I hoped she was pretending - but I wasn't sure even she was a good enough actress to respond, ah, in character to being called a 'babe'. In other circumstances, that would have resulted in at least a broken jaw.

But giggling like the prototype of all ditzy blondes she twirled her long fingers in Mordant's wavy hair and said, "Well, Xora can be fun, of course, but she's not really all that . . . memorable, if you know what I mean."

Mordant's answering laugh was directed *at* me, not *with* her, as he made the point he wanted. "No," he said to me, "I think you should share your, ah, talents elsewhere."

He scanned the room in apparent consideration, but I could tell from his smirk that he had made his decision well before. "Eloi," he called. "I think you look a little down this evening. Why don't you see if Xora can cheer you up?"

Well, the ethereral angel would actually have been my second choice, and though I had frankly hoped my first, um, girl-girl memories would include Tryx, I was required by my, um, duty to 'suffer' with a different gorgeous blonde.

Shrugging, I put a carefully unconvincing smile on my face and held out my hand to Eloi. "I seem to remember that the cushions in the room over there were quite comfortable."

"Oh, no," Mordant said, and the smile on his face hid none of the cruelty in his eyes. "It wouldn't be fair to deprive the other girls of your famous techniques. We can't let you go hide them away."

"You want me to make love to her right out here?" I asked in surprise. Well, at least I hoped it seemed like surprise. Disgust was real close to the surface.

"Of course," he confirmed, pointing at the pile of cushions that had served as a wrestling pit the night before. "Except, I never said anything about making love. I only require of you that you give her pleasure. In return for pleasure - the pleasure of thionite."

Eloi had known it was coming - all of it, I'm sure - and she moved in her graceful glide to the soft pillows, dropping her white robe as she did so. Her face showed a brief flicker of apology to me, and embarrassment, but none of that covered the hungry anticipation that was also displayed. I wouldn't have thought she was that . . . needful.

*"Needful is right,"* Titania said, *"But the need is for the drug Mordant will give her afterwards, not for your, ah, attentions."*

*"Oh, of course,"* I said, and the flush that filled my cheeks fit right in with my character, for all that once again it was not due to the cause Mordant expected.

*"Xora,"* Titania asked, *"can you do this? I mean, we've never . . . been with a woman before."*

*"I can get by,"* I claimed. *"It won't be my first time to please a woman. And, um, in the, uh, way that I'll have to use this time."*

Kneeling between Eloi's spread legs, the situation was beyond demeaning, and the worst was not about me. What was happening to Eloi was profane in a way that didn't rely on faith in supernatural beings. Eloi was . . . gentle, with a fragility that belonged in sunlit gardens amid soft-eyed does, not sprawled lewdly under the gaze of a lecherous human animal. It was obscene in a very visceral way to see those porcelain legs spread lasciviously in a public situation. All I could do though, was add yet another mark to the score against Mordant - a score that I had already sworn I would settle regardless of the cost to myself. Bending to my task, I was interrupted before I had begun.

"Xora, dear," Mordant called.

"Yes, Oslo?" I replied, turning to look at him.

"You intend to please Eloi, don't you?"

"Yes, Oslo. I'll do my best."

"I'm sure you will," he said, and his smirk showed he was setting me up again. "And I'm sure Eloi will be pleased. And do you know what will happen when she is pleased?"

"Um, yes. I think so?" I responded, letting a question in my voice give him the excuse to explain his point.

"Apparently not," he chided me. "Our Eloi is a quite . . . juicy morsel when she is aroused."

I didn't know what to say, but it wasn't really necessary because he was rolling to his conclusion. Or at least the conclusion of this part of my ordeal.

"It would be a shame to ruin that lovely dress you're wearing," he explained. "Rise and take it off. Laran will help you."

Laran's 'help' involved more than undoing a few buttons. She fondled every inch of me as she ostentatiously hunted for hidden fasteners. By the time she was done, my little signal flags were flying - diamond hard and aching.

*"Thanks a lot, Titty,"* I growled.

*"You're welcome,"* she said blandly. *"I didn't figure you were a good enough actress to fake that on your own."*

Any response I might have had to that . . . torment was buried beneath a most gratifying gasp as my Titania-supplied bosom was revealed to be high and firm, not needing any support, (*"You're welcome."* *"Shut up. Right now you're not thanked."*) followed by another as my tiny waist was shown to be, ahem, 'natural'. Then I was rewarded once again, though with a different flavor of breath, as Tryx recognized the source of the gossamer wisps of black cobweb that had been concealed by my dress.

*"Serves her right,"* Titania said, giggling. I didn't have any trouble stifling my own amusement.

*"Oh, lighten up,"* Titania ordered. *"You're about to make love to a gorgeous woman. There *are* worse fates."*

Mordant interrupted her with his own observation. "My, you are a *healthy* girl, aren't you, Xora? We may have to take advantage of that."

I decided the best way to respond to that threat was to ignore it, so I once again knelt between the legs of the waiting blonde. My thong panties made me feel even more exposed than if I'd been nude, and the constant tug of my garter straps on the taut stockings was . . . well, in other circumstances I'd might even have made some progress on that 'being pretty as well as looking pretty' thing.

Leaning forward and carefully pulling my long hair to one side, I took the first, delicate taste of my . . . target.

*"Eeew,"* I thought, and Titania echoed it. *"Doesn't that girl ever douche?"*

I had recoiled at the extremely unpleasant taste, triggering a loud guffaw from Mordant. "What's the matter, Xora dear? Not to your liking?"

Then his voice got very serious and the ugliness peeked out from beneath his urbane veneer. "You can always leave, you know. Drem can have your things packed in minutes and you can be on your way. Of course, if you leave Eloi so disappointed, it wouldn't be fair for you to receive any pleasure of your own - any thionite."

Titania interrupted any response I might have made with a report. *"That was artificial."*

*"What? His offer? Oh, I'm sure we could leave - but it's obvious he was waiting for a chance to deliver his ultimatum."*

*"No. I meant the taste. I've analyzed it, and in fact she has douched, but with something that tastes - well, you tasted it. In any event, she's artificially foul."*

Ti was herself interrupted by a comment from Tryx. "Come on, Xora. You never minded doing that with me." Her tone was sensual, and she gave a shimmy so suggestive even Mordant was distracted. But that distraction had a purpose and while his attention was on her hips, she was frowning at me with an order to proceed.

*"I can block the taste, you know,"* offered Titania.

*"Good,"* I said, and knelt once again to a task that was literally as well as figuratively distasteful.

This time my lingual probe met with only the sensation of fluid slickness though, and I tried to remember what had worked well the last time I had been, um, in that position. It had been a long time.

*"I modeled you on Tryx, you know,"* Titania said.

*"What?"*

*"Your own internal . . . arrangements are a copy of Tryx. I wonder if Eloi is, well, I wonder how close Eloi is to that . . . geometry."*

My concentration wasn't helped by Titania, um, looking over my shoulder, so to speak, and it was clear Eloi was not impressed.

"Xora, you don't seem to be living up to your reputation," Mordant called. I didn't look up, but I tried to be more, um, effective.

*"Maybe you would like a *different* taste,"* Titania offered, and all of the sudden it seemed like I had my tongue in a pool of chocolate.

*"Oh, god, no, Titania. Not chocolate. Not so close to her . . . well, I do NOT need to think of something brown and sticky at a time like this."*

*"Oops, sorry,"* she apologized, and my tongue was bathed in cleansing Earth strawberries, then in mistberries from Omicron 3, then in cloudfruit from Zeta 6. I didn't even have to say anything - or think it consciously in any event - because when Titania got to my favorite *fresh* taste, my enjoyment was obvious. That helped with the larger problem as well, because I was a lot more, ah, enthusiastic lapping at that flavor than I had been.

Eloi started to provide evidence of my success, squirming in place and beginning to breathe a lot more dramatically. I didn't figure I was living up to Tryx's advance billing, though.

*"I can help with that, too,"* Titania offered. *"Remember, soft tissue is easy, and there aren't any bones in the tongue."*

I wasn't sure what she meant, but she made it clear in a most-dramatic hurry. My hidden tongue felt like it grew two inches, and became so marvelously sensitive it was almost as though I could see with the end of it. I began to probe the recesses of my objective and my reconnaissance revealed some particularly effective, um, vulnerabilities.

It didn't take long after that. Eloi's breathing began to stop altogether for long periods, broken by little screams that didn't have enough air for volume. She surprised me again when she, ah, when I achieved my objective, though. For such a slight, delicate girl, she was really strong! She lifted me right off the cushions when her back arched in a moment of frozen eternity, then collapsed utterly.

At first I thought she had passed out, and I think Mordant did also. Not that he was concerned for Eloi, but his silence had enough respect in it that I knew I had made an impression. The speculative glances from the rest of the girls - and from Tryx herself - were even more interested.

I ignored them as best I could and bent to Eloi. Her eyes fluttered and then opened slowly.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"You're very welcome," I whispered back, and despite the setting it did indeed please me to have provided that fragile angel with a brief moment of enjoyment. I helped her to her feet and gathered up our strewn clothes as she approached Mordant.

Eloi never had a lot to say, and this time her eloquence was expressed in an arched brow and gentle smile. Even Mordant was impressed by her composure, or perhaps it was that angelic innocence that could stand calmly nude after being forced into a demeaning exhibition. In any event, he handed her two ampoules without comment.

This time it was Eloi who urged me to the side room, the hunger she had successfully concealed from Mordant very evident as soon as she turned away with the drug in her hand. I followed her, but as I did I glanced back at our cruel host. I knew I had just scored another point with him - in the negative category - by rising so far above the problem he had thought would test me. Our eyes met in what I had not intended to be a challenge, but which was certainly received that way. His anger was covered by bluster and an ostentatious announcement that he and Tryx would adjourn to his bedroom, but even his drug slaves saw through that - and he knew it.

Eloi's tugging hand pulled me along to what was apparently the official site for drug 'enjoyment' and handed me my own dose of the poison - that is, the powder. She was oblivious in an instant, but I remained aware until Titania had carefully encapsulated the foul substance. Then I once again surrendered to a period of enforced immobility and darkness.

 

 

 

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© 2003 by Brandy Dewinter. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, compilation design) may printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without express written consent of the copyright holder.