Xora 3: Shell Game

by Brandy Dewinter

 

Chapter 12 - "You Did What?!"

 

I managed to sneak out on Mordant, but it was so late it was early when I did. Heading to the locked room, I found the door open and Tryx inside. Jingling.

"Surely you don't *like* those things, do you?" I asked. Then I noticed she still had a tail, too.

Tryx laughed and said, "If he'd have tried to do that before I had a symbiont, I'd have killed him right on the spot - and Drem, too. But Bee protects me from any pain, and, well, I do sort of like the jingle. And look what else I can do."

She stood and gave a little hip shimmy that made even my backbone ache, but the long, dark tail flipped from side to side and any man with a pulse - hell, any human, alien, or undecided - would have ignored a supernova in favor of watching that ripple.

*"I told you Tryx can work her hair better than you do,"* Titania reminded me.

*"I never disagreed,"* I reminded her in turn. *"But I never expected the same sort of magic with a tail!"*

*"Me neither,"* Ti admitted. *"We'll have to practice."*

*"Do NOT even think of it,"* I demanded, but I couldn't keep the back of my legs from twitching as I reflexively checked to see if she had decided I needed my, ah, 'practice' right away.

At least her laughter was silent. Tryx's, on the other hand, was just about as loud as she could get away with and not alert the whole moon. Something to do with the expression on my face, I'm sure.

Then she shrugged - and jingled - and said, "Eloi was my last, ah, passenger, and she said Mordant had given her permission to release my arms and take off the bridle - I really did hate *that* - but that I had to leave the bells and tail on until he decided otherwise. It's no big deal."

I nodded doubtfully, then looked around what was obviously an office. "What did you find?"

"Too much," she said wryly. "I've been going through these books most of the night, and I know more than I want about the underlings but nothing about the guys Mordant works for."

"Well, at least that takes care of the proof of Mordant's drug dealings. But he can't be the top of the whole thing. Where does he get the thionite?"

"That is the megacred question, indeed." She sighed and stepped toward the door. Looking down the corridor, she said, "We'd better be getting back. I'll have to try again tomorrow night."

"Uh, oh," I said. "I think that will be a problem."

"I was afraid of that," Tryx said, pulling a handful of liquid night over her shoulder. "Let me guess. Tomorrow night is Xora's turn to be amazed and enthralled by the galaxy's greatest lover."

"Yeah, well you got one thing right. Tomorrow, um, actually that would be 'tonight' is Xora's turn. The 'amazed' works, too, I suppose, since I was amazed at the size of his ego - and the lack of justification for it."

"Not impressed, huh?"

It was probably a good thing that Tryx couldn't hear Titania's answer. *"After Darius, we may *always* be disappointed."*

My response to Titania's comment was not so well hidden.

"Oh, so you *did* enjoy yourself," Tryx said, grinning.

"Not with Mordant," I claimed quickly, then headed off any further comments from Tryx with one of my own.

"You better teach me how to bypass that palm lock so that I can take over tonight."

"There is a simpler answer," Tryx said. Then she swished her tail and gave a little bounce that added a clear-toned jingle.

"Oh, no . . ."

Titania pointed out my hypocrisy with typical ruthlessness. *"Just last night you were so incensed at the thought of Tryx taking your punishment that you were ready to take on the whole galaxy. Was that just for show, since you knew you didn't really face that challenge?"*

*"No, I was, well, I was ready to fight, but this is just . . ."*

*"Just what the mission requires. Or are you not as committed to your duty as Tryx is?"*

*"Damn it, Titania, that is NOT fair!"*

*"Isn't it? Why not? She not only took your part, but she's strong enough to find humor in the experience."*

Tryx's argument was even more effective. She did nothing. She didn't even smirk at my obvious distress. She just stood there while I argued with myself and let that most effective of foes do her work for her. At least, that's all she did until I looked at her again. Then she pointedly looked at the clock.

"All, right, damn it," I said to both my opponents. "How do we get those damn rings in my . . ."

"You can say, 'nipples,'" Tryx said dryly. "After all, it's just us girls, right?"

"Answer the question, Tryx," I grumbled. "I may have to do this, but I don't have to like it."

"Actually, you do," Tryx observed. "If you're too bitter, then Mordant will be suspicious. After all, you can always just leave. You've got to make him think you don't mind doing this, if it pleases him."

"Well, I'll work on it," I replied. Knowing she was right didn't make it any easier.

Tryx answered my earlier question by demonstration. Reaching up she pulled on one of the bells and the ring pulled through her protruding nipple to pop free.

"Oh, god, didn't that hurt?"

"You need to learn to trust your symbiont, Xora," Tryx said.

*"Indeed. You have just embarrassed me in front of Bee,"* Titania grumped. *"As though I would let something like that hurt you."*

*"I'm sorry, Titania. I guess this is all just too . . . extreme for me. That seems like . . . mutilation."*

*"I wonder what Mordant would call what I did to your, ah, plumbing."* mused Titania.

*"That's different . . ,"* I started to say, then spluttered to a stop. Titania didn't even bother to claim her victory. She just let me stew in my own stupidity.

*"Oh, lighten up, Xora"* my symbiont urged. *"Maybe it's even a compliment, in a sort of roundabout way, that you are so comfortable with what I do that you don't think of it anymore."*

*"Thanks, Ti, for offering me an easy way out. Now just help me with the stupid things."*

Maybe the worst thing about that whole mission, even worse than watching in horror as the golden rings sank into my own nipples, was the fact I was so distracted that I hardly noticed Tryx had taken off all her clothes - what there were of them - and stood before me in glorious nudity.

*"That's *your* body, braggart!"* Titania chortled in my ear.

The fire in my cheeks was answer enough. Then it got even worse when Tryx's form . . . flowed. In moments, the room held the galaxy's most beautiful blonde. Twice.

Tryx saw my fascination and giggled, then she let the most amazingly vapid expression form on her face and said, "Back to blonde. Good-bye intellect. By the way, Xora, do you know what they call a blonde with half a brain?"

"Um, no," I said cautiously.

"Well, then, you better change yourself back to a brunette. I don't want to have to explain the joke twice."

Even I didn't think blondes were that bad, and she knew it. But her humor finally pricked the bubble of outrage I had wrapped myself in and I had to laugh, too.

"The answer is, 'gifted,'" Tryx reported as I made my own modifications. I chuckled again and shook my head.

"Startburst, Tryx, but it was harder to simulate your bimbo mode than to keep up with your, ah, prowess in bed."

"Oooh, do tell. What did *that* involve?"

"Um, no time," I claimed, then tried a distraction. "Can you help me with this corset?"

I paid a price for that distraction. Never, ever, offer to let Tryx tighten your corset. Especially when she's a bit . . . unhappy with you. I, um, succeeded in putting off her question though, at the cost of a tail and jingling bells. Once I had them, um, personally, I couldn't *not* try them out.

"Damn, girl," complained Tryx, "I spent half the night figuring out how to swish that tail, then you take two steps and it looks like it grew there naturally."

*"Oh, yeah,"* Titania snickered.

*"Oh, no,"* I growled silently. *"No way. Forget that idea right now!"*

*"Hmm? What are you worried about?"* asked Titania with an innocence that I didn't buy for a heartbeat. I wasn't about to say - or think - anything she might consider to be a suggestion. Or an excuse, since she didn't suffer from a lack of, ah, creativity on her own.

It really was getting late enough that we needed to get back into less suspicious areas of the moon. I jingled my way toward the common area so that I would be easy to find if Mordant relented on my remaining penance items. Tryx, who had been up all night, went to her room to catch up on a little sleep. My tactic bore fruit first.

Mordant strolled through the area like he owned the place, which of course he did, and laughed smugly when he saw my bells. "My dear Xora, you seem to be contributing some cheer to the ambiance this morning. Are you finding that bringing pleasure to others is something you enjoy now?"

Since it was clear I was in for another bout of unpleasantness, the other girls who were there tried to fade into the cushions. At first I thought I should show respect by standing at attention or something, but I remembered Tryx's attitude and took another tack instead. It didn't dislocate anything when I threw the tail around, but only because my hidden partner kept a better hold on my bones than mere human sinews.

I made sure my bells rang clearly as well, then put a pout on my scarlet lips and said, "Yes, Oslo. I'm very sorry it, um, took me so long to learn that lesson."

"But you *have* learned your lesson?" he pushed.

"Yes, Oslo. I'd be, um, happy to do whatever you think would bring pleasure," I murmured, slowly licking my lips. Well, Tryx's observation that he had an oral fetish had been confirmed by my own experience - as Tryx - and subtle would have been wasted on the pompous fool.

"For myself as well as my friends?"

Dreck, this sack of fermented bat guano (*"Goodness, Xora, that's a good one!"* *"Well, he deserves it."* *"Oh, I quite agree."*) just wouldn't quit. I'd show him what would please me all right, just as soon as we had what we came for. But on the outside I just nodded my head in abject submission. Well, I nodded vigorously enough to send jingles throughout the room, but that just added to his satisfaction - as I knew it would.

"I'm glad to hear it," he said imperially. "I suppose you found it a bit . . . challenging to sleep with your little adornments?"

"A bit, Oslo," I answered. With the bells in front and the tail behind, it would have been virtually impossible to sleep even aside from the pain of freshly pierced nipples. I added the obvious follow up, "But I didn't, um, don't mind."

"And they are so becoming to you," he mused, arrogantly wallowing in his power to decide if I would continue to be so 'adorned'. After a pause long enough to make his point even to the most obtuse blonde he had ever met, he smiled beneficently and said, "You can take them off now. The bells and the tail both. Unless you'd like to leave them on?"

He was fishing for another obvious reply, so I gave it to him. "Whatever you want, Oslo."

"Why thank you, Xora. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. Tell you what, let's compromise. You can take off the bells and the tail, but why don't you leave those pretty rings in? And wear something that shows how pretty they are. Would that be fair?"

"Of course, Oslo, if you say so."

His smirk went from smug well over into fatuous as he strolled grandly back toward his private office. Eloi came over to help me gently remove the bells, then offered to loosen the corset.

"Thank you, Eloi, but if you'll just remove the tail, I guess I'll leave the rest on. Oslo seemed to like it."

"You know what he intends for tonight, don't you?" she asked.

"I expect so," I sighed. "But . . . "

"I know," she said. "It seems like a long time since I've had any thionite, too."

"You've had some since I have," Laran said sourly. "And as I recall, after Xora was quite . . . pleasing to you."

"It's not zero-sum, Laran," the gentle Eloi pointed out. "Oslo might give us all some tonight, or none of us."

"You're right, Eloi," Laran said. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that Trislini got left behind, and I'm sorry that we are so dependent on Mordant for the thionite. But I want some more of it, too."

I had also been up all night and most of the day as well. It wasn't for the reason Mordant thought, though he'd been with me most of the time. He just didn't realize I'd been there with him. His assumption about my sleep deprivation provided me with a good excuse anyway and I took advantage of it to go to bed. Alone.

Of all the ways there are to be awakened, having a naked, beautiful woman slip under the covers with you is hard to beat.

*"I'll bet Darius could, ah, top it,"* smirked Titania.

*"Who?"* I asked blandly, but I didn't need any enhancements from Titania to reveal my . . . interest in that suggestion.

*"By the First Morph, Xora, but you are hard to please. In bed with the woman of your dreams and you're thinking about someone else instead."*

*"Hey, *you* brought him up."*

*"Oh, that's atrocious,"* she groaned in my mind.

*"What did I do now?"*

*"'Brought him up?' Is that supposed to be cute?"*

I laughed enough that Tryx giggled in response - though I don't think she knew the real reason for my humor. *"Yep, I brought that bad boy up a few times at that, didn't I?"*

*"Braggart,"* snapped Titania, but I ignored her with regal dignity.

Tryx snuggled into my arms - a very nice distraction indeed. (*"Nice? Ha!"* *"Okay, a 'good' distraction. Lighten up!"*) Under the cover of her physical closeness, Tryx whispered into my ear.

"Stars, Xora, what *did* you do last night? Mordant himself treated me with respect this morning - well, at least treated me politely - and two of the girls walked right up and gave me a huge hug and a *hot* kiss!"

"Oh, Tryxie-wixie," I snickered, "you know I couldn't just tell you. It's not something that can be described, you know."

"Are you, um, offering a demonstration?" she asked quietly.

"Are you asking for one?" I asked in return.

She let a soft hand trail down my corseted side - somehow I could feel the heat even through the leather - and said, "Well, it would seem to be . . . prudent. After all, I may be asked to, um, repeat the performance." Then she laughed and tugged on one of my new adornments.

Any immediate answer I might have made was literally swallowed up in her full, ripe lips. After a long, delicious moment, I pulled back. "I . . . we, um, we don't really have to do this. I think we could . . . work something out, maybe. Using our symbionts to, ah, transfer the . . . "

"Shut up, stupid," Tryx ordered softly. "Why do you think I came to your bed - and left my clothes behind?"

Then she kissed me again. She convinced me.

Eventually I moved to a position between her supple legs. As I bent to my task, Titania managed to distract me even at a moment like that - almost making me laugh out loud.

"What flavor do you want this time," she asked helpfully.

***************************

I should have done that before. (*"You can say *that* again!"* *"Quiet, Ti."*) It turned out that Tryx was almost a screamer. She made the most endearing, soft little cry when she . . . went super-nova. Strictly in the interests of the mission, of course, I should have simulated that the night before in Mordant's orgy.

*"With what you did to the others, no one was paying much attention to your own responses,"* Titania reminded me.

*"Just trying to maintain Tryxie-wixie's reputation,"* I claimed nobly.

*"Right now, you should try to maintain her consciousness. I think she's . . . elsewhere."*

*"I know,"* I agreed - and even I could hear the smugness in my thought. Well, this time I thought I'd earned it. I slid up beside her and cradled her head in my arms.

*"She'll probably agree, when she can think again,"* Ti said, equally smug. Well, that was fair, too. She'd certainly had at least an equal part to play.

*"Thank you, dear,"* Titania replied, *"but I'm beginning to understand humans and their tools. I was just a tool this time, and you were the artist."*

*"Mutual admiration later,"* I said, but I sent a thought of thanks as well.

Tryx's eyes fluttered, then opened, but it was another moment or two before they focused on mine.

"Wow," she whispered.

"You're welcome," I giggled.

"Where have you been all my life?" she asked, then didn't give me a chance to answer. It wouldn't have been polite to bite her tongue, after all.

"That was . . . amazing," Tryx reported after, um, thanking me. "Is that what you did with the other girls?"

"Well, each girl is sort of . . . special. It's more a case of paying attention to what, um, works, than a specific . . . recipe."

"It certainly works," confirmed Tryx, still a bit breathless.

*"Bee should loosen her corset a little,"* Titania observed judiciously.

*"Yeah, right, like that's ever been something that concerned you,"* I sniffed.

*"You've never let me squeeze you as much as Bee does for Tryx,"* claimed Titania, and I didn't argue - but I certainly didn't agree, either.

Tryx got a sly look on her face, and sent shivers all the way to places only Titania knew about when she licked at the side of my neck. Then she whispered, "Well, if the, um, technique is that, ah, complicated, perhaps I need another . . . demonstration?"

"Stars, girl, your reputation does not do you justice," I snickered.

"Stars, girl," she mimicked me, "we're just getting started. After you, um, after I learn your technique, it would only be, ah, prudent if I, um, tried it for myself, right?"

*"Wow, partner, careful where you throw those rings,"* laughed Titania. *"I nearly lost my hold on them when your little glass-cutters got so hard."*

*"Shut up, Titania,"* I said, but I took any anger out of my words, then giggled as I slid down again. *"This time I want dewberries from Pegasus 4."*

************************

I don't think she really needed that second demonstration. By the time she decided she was ready for her . . . checkride, she was adding in embellishments I had never considered. But she did. Twice. At least. Things got a little fuzzy in there for a while.

*"A little 'fuzzy'?"* Titania repeated. *"Half the time you weren't even in this galaxy!"*

*"Ooh, don't I know it,"* I replied, too satisfied to argue.

"That should just about cover what you did to, ah, impress Eloi and Kyla and Laran," Tryx said smugly after my eyes refocused and my breathing became less impossible.

I just nodded, and smiled the thanks I was still too . . . scrambled to put into words. Then a frown marred Tryx's porcelain brow and it seemed like nothing in the world was more important than making it go away.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Oh, it's just . . ," she started, but she didn't finish that sentence. Instead, she changed the subject.

Tryx leaned back on the bed and said, "Men are s-o-o-o easy to manipulate. There are lies you can tell them that they will absolutely, no-question believe."

"Hey," I started to remind her of my, ah, special background, but her grin said she hadn't really forgotten.

"You don't believe me," she said. "Let me prove it to you. I'll bet that any man, any where would believe what you told Mordant last night."

"What I told Mordant?" I repeated in confusion.

"Sure," she said. "Laran told me what you said, and I guess the way Mordant treated me confirms that you snowed him completely."

"What, that I wanted to be with him? That I was you? What lie?"

"Oh, no, none of those," she laughed. "Those are specific. I'm talking about the *big* sorts of lies, the ones *any* man will believe."

"Like . . . ?"

"Like, 'I know it's tight back there, but would you please try again?'"

"Eeeuww," I groaned. "I never said that to him. I never *did* that with him."

Tryx giggled and said, "Don't knock it 'til you've tried it, girly. But I'm glad you didn't, ah, stretch things quite that far."

*"Eeeuww,"* Titania groaned in her turn. *"How can she *say* something like that?"*

I shuddered a little myself and said, *"I guess Tryx is just more, um, experienced than we are."*

*"I didn't mean that,"* Ti sneered. *"I meant that horrid pun. 'Stretch' indeed."*

I didn't have time to laugh at her distress because Tryx was still teasing.

"So you think you wouldn't have bought that one," Tryx mused with a giggle. "Back when. . . . you know what I mean. Okay, how about, 'I'd like to go down on another girl. Wanna watch?'"

Now it was my turn to giggle and say, "Stars, girl, I never had a chance for that one. He didn't wait for any suggestions like that from me."

"So no girl ever used that line on you?" prompted Tryx, then she laughed and said, "I guess you weren't the same as the men I've met, but I think we already knew that."

Looking more sharply at me, she said, "But I don't think even *I* could tell the whopper you told, at least not with a straight face. Did you really tell him that you, 'liked the taste,' and then swallow so . . . willingly?"

"But I *did* like the taste," I protested. Then I started laughing almost too hard to speak. Gasping out, I continued, "After Titania got done, um, adjusting the flavor, that is."

"Oh my god," Tryx gasped, then broke into laughter of her own. "I never thought of that. I'll have to have a word or two with Bee."

Titania's crow of triumph at having surpassed Bee almost drowned out the idea that had finally come to me. Now I knew why Tryx had frowned - and she had only seemed to change the subject.

"Too bad you won't let me show you what I did with Mordant, too."

"I don't have the right, um, equipment," she sighed, but that wasn't really the problem she made it seem to be. And we both knew it, even if only I would admit it.

"Trust your symbiont, Tryx," I suggested with my own smirk. We were intertwined so thoroughly that Titania had no trouble conveying the proper . . . advice to Bee. Tryx's eyes got very wide, and then a very strange look twisted her features and she squirmed under the covers. The contours of the sheet were showing a shape that was all the proof one might need, but she had to check for herself, first with a shy hand, then with unbelieving eyes.

"Oh my god," she gasped.

"Do you still want a, um, briefing on what we did with Mordant?" I asked. "Strictly in case, ah, the mission requires you to know?"

"That would seem to be the, ah, responsible approach," she agreed.

*"Ohh, yeahhh"* whispered Titania softly, and this time I think it was her response that showed in our little tattletales as much as mine.

"You wouldn't mind?" asked Tryx, but her eyes begged me to agree.

"Of course not," I assured her. "It's not like Mordant is particularly, um, challenging."

I have to admit, it was strange to see a well-remembered . . . shape as a part of her. Once upon a time (*"You mean, before you met Darius."* *"Of course."*) I would have been horrified at the thought of what I was about to do, but somewhere along the line (*"You mean, when you met Darius."* *"Quiet, Titty, we're wasting time."*) I had realized that pleasing my lovers was pleasing to me, and the specific geometries didn't really matter.

Titania disagreed. *"It mattered with Mordant. You didn't like pleasing him at all."*

*"He wasn't my lover, Ti. He was just my user."*

But Tryx was someone I truly wanted to please. I did have one regret as I knelt once more between her flawless legs. *"If I'd have known I was gonna spend all afternoon bent in half, I'd have let Eloi loosen this corset."*

**************

"Thank you, Xora," Tryx said a bit later. "I've always . . . wondered."

"Glad to be of service," I said with renewed smugness.

Tryx reached out to stroke my dark locks and asked, "Do you ever, um, regret . . . what happened?"

"Not really," I said, honestly. "There are some things I, um, miss, but overall it's been wonderful - much better than I could ever have imagined."

"Being a woman?"

"That's part of it, but the plumbing isn't what's important. I was a . . . geek, who worked at a computer terminal and for pleasure played computer games in a holodeck. It was an artificial life."

"I would have thought you considered this to be artificial."

"Well, I suppose in the sense of being a product of 'artifice', I guess it is," I admitted. "But that's plumbing again. What really matters is that I'm a Federation field agent. That's incredible! And thrilling, even when it's, um, challenging as well. I'm more alive than I've ever been."

I grinned and reached out to tweak one of Tryx's tight little buds and said, "And I'm in bed with the galaxy's most beautiful blonde. The old Xora never would have had a chance with you."

"I'm afraid not," admitted Tryx. "I'd like to think that I can see a little deeper than surface attractiveness, but . . . . you really were a geek."

We giggled together for a few, special moments, sharing in ways that didn't need words and weren't driven by our bodies - except that we were so in tune with our bodies, more than anyone else had ever been, that we could add each sensation, each touch, each texture to our sharing as well.

It was a purely loving moment that became even more special when Tryx said, "So, you said sometimes you, um, miss it?"

I shrugged. "Sometimes."

"So. . . ?" she asked, and laughter danced in her eyes.

Titania shouted in my ear with an unnecessary observation. *"Don't just sit there, dolt! She's offering to make love with you! With you as a, well, you know."*

*"I most certainly *do* know, partner,"* I said. *"But I believe the next step is mostly up to you."*

*"Oh, right,"* Titania replied, and I could hear the chagrin in her mental voice even through the excitement.

It didn't take long, not even when I realized . . .

"Oh my god," Tryx whispered reverently.

I sighed and said, "This is Titania's idea of a joke."

"Darius?" Tryx guessed.

"Yes," I said. "Give me a second to get my partner's low sense of humor under control, and I'll, um, take care of it."

"Oh, no," Tryx said quickly. "Don't, um, I mean, I don't mind. That will be, um, fine."

*"Damn sight more than fine, as I recall,"* snipped Titania.

Well, I had to admit to some rather fond memories of that particular, ah, geometry myself. It wouldn't be fair not to share them, would it?

****************************

That time, I guess I'd call the experience mutual. Neither of us was particularly cognitive after we finished. In fact, only the alerting chime summoning us to Mordant's imperial audience chamber roused us from our satiated somnolence.

 

 

 

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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.