Chapter 8
Caretaker seems to relax and let himself chuckle a while longer and then takes a while to catch his breath and then says "the stones here enhanced the magic, good to know too... oh um... golem? Locks yes those are primitive technology like all other mechanisms, steam engine would count yes, I am more advanced though, a thinking machine. Though I think differently than you organics do, even if this new body and mind of mine is much closer to you I think..."
As Sarah, Hank and I eat the fruit and candy, Caretaker and Tricky Ricky start telling each other riddles and we also get included in that, we also sing together and I find out that Caretaker has a really amazing range to his voice, very exact at what tones he can make, but it is too perfect, so it feels a bit too clinical and cold, even when he sings songs of love I teach him, as he rhymes he is very good at that too, knowing when to add breaks for effect, same with humour, and he does get us to laugh, but I soon learn to predict how he will time these things, they are still good, perfect in fact, but again too perfect, clinical and cold. Still he is the most entertaining golem I have ever met. Tricky Ricky also gets brimming full with energy, really well fed. Caretaker also somehow makes more candy while being there with us and it is delivered by the flying machines. "This one is crazy good!" I say and I think he must have been gifted with candy making "this is the best candy I could imagine, you know if you made these and other candy as good as this, you would be able to have fairies do a lot of magic for you, they could not resist something this good I am sure, and you could have one with you to do magic for you. As long as you don't run out of candy at least."
Caretaker chuckles at that "fairies I know some of the metal elves have some on their ships, they are really rare though, we are far from them right now. I will keep that in mind though. Do you also like other fruits and berries, or is it just strawberries and cherries that you like? I can make candy with other things too you know, if you want."
Sarah giggles "I would like some different ones yes, as many kinds as you think would work. Also this fruit I love it, can it be made into candy?"
"Mango? Yes it can be made into candy, I will get some different things made." Caretaker responds and smiles.
"I would love that too" I say and smile "but I want to always have some of these around, they are amazing."
Tricky Ricky suddenly gasps and I sense a really intense surge of power inside him and he floats up from the water and then falls back down and he lays there blinking and looking confused.
"What was that?" I ask him.
"I... that is the most powerful surge from tricking someone I have ever gotten, only it was not me directly doing it, we trickster monsters can get energy from helping someone else trick someone, this felt like that only for this huge a surge it must have been a really big thing we tricked someone very powerful to do. But I have no clue what that might be." he says and looks at me.
I feel his tingling energy and slide on over him and caress him between his legs and he moans as his cock slides out of hiding and I guide it to grow into me "I need to feel your tingling energy inside me Tricky Ricky" I moan and then start to gyrate dancing on his cock, and he slides his furry hands up to my breasts and grab them pinching my nipples and gazes into my eyes, and that little spart of worry he had about where the energy came from seems to fade away and with both moan, I turn my own moans of pleasure into a primal song of love and lust.
Caretaker looks at us and then at Sarah and Hank as Sarah pushes hank over so his head rests next to Tricky Ricky's head and then starts licking and kissing and sucking on his balls and as his cock gets harder she works her way up his shaft and takes him into her mouth and gives a very hot blow job, I see it only at the edge of my vision though, as I am gazing into Tricky Ricky's eyes, I feel Hank's and Sarah's eyes on us though, and Hank's moans join my own. Caretaker asks "why is it that you enjoy this so much?"
Tricky Ricky chuckles "you won't know until you try Caretaker, and once you do you will really understand it, and wonder why you never did it before then. Once we are done if you will let her I am sure Mina will be happy to show you."
I blush I mean yes Caretaker is a dragon of some sort and I am curious, but I rather propose such things myself, and to have him do that for me, it feels a bit like... like he sees me as his to use in any way he pleases, part of me is turned on by that, but a bigger part is embarrassed and a small part of me gets really infuriated by it, I let that part lend its fury to me as I increase the intensity of my gyration on Tricky Ricky, and I intend to not let him out of me till I am completely satisfied, I don't care how much he hurts from it, well I do, but he is going to have to endure some at least. Besides he feels really good inside me, warm and tingly and really fills me up, and his soft furry balls and body feels amazing to grind against.
Caretaker looks up at me and back to Ricky and then to me again "I... if you want me to" he says and I am not sure who he says it to. I look at him and I feel a strong desire to take his virginity and also to make it really look like I am enjoying myself, and have Tricky Ricky watch me, and maybe get a bit jealous, maybe then he will think twice about making me do things without consulting me first "yes I want to" I say to Caretaker. He seems to consider a bit, then he starts taking off his flight suit. Laying himself naked in the lush green grass and I see his body change, he had nothing between his legs and now he grows a cock, I sense first a wave of his not living stuff move out, carrying living things with them and rapidly his flesh takes form inside some sort of web they make and as the flesh becomes more solid they get out of there and in the end I see a alien looking at least to me, cock. It has scales all over it and looks like a flower with seven petals when resting there "can you open your petals for me please Caretaker" I moan and he pulls his foreskin petals back to reveal a slightly terrifying cock, even in its relaxed state, it has seven curved barbs on top of seven segments around a big hole in the middle of the head, and there are tiny soft looking spikes that seem to let it travel into things easier than getting out, I suspect he would fill me really deeply and sort of get stuck inside me, deep inside. It really does excite me to try it out, but I am afraid it will hurt.
I moan as I consider then I decide "Caretaker please come up to me, I want to pleasure you with my lips and tongue while I ride on Tricky Ricky, I need to understand your cock better and get a taste."
Caretaker carefully moves up and stands with his legs spread to either side of Tricky Ricky and facing me and I start caressing his cock and kissing and licking it, most of the spines are soft, but the hooks are not, and I can feel how they have very subtle curvature to them and I imagine how they would slide into me easily all the way up around my cervix and then once my cervix kisses his cock they would grab onto my pussy and prevent us from sliding apart, as I lick the barbed tip it releases some juices and my tongue gets more sensitive and so does my mouth and even as I poke the sharp bit with my tongue it feels good to my skin and it is not sharp enough to actually cut my skin, it is weird, I can feel it rake against my tongue and feel like it should cut me and grab onto my cheeks but as I pull it does not pierce skin, just rake across it, I feel less scared now, and that fluid leaking from the hooks is really turning me on. Caretaker moans and also seems to notice my focus on the spines and barbed hooks "I can change my cock to be another shape, this is just the shape that is normal for the species I am supposed to look like, only I had to grow it externally since I don't have folded space inside my body like I should have for my species."
I look up into his eyes and I can see he meant it would be okay to change him a bit and I consider that carefully "can you, just for me, make the tips of these hooks into tiny beautiful pearls so they can't cut, but I still want to feel them rake inside me, also..." I moan and blush a bit "I want you to be big enough that it will be a challenge for me to take you inside me, make your shaft as wide as your cock's head is now and your cock's head proportionally bigger" I say and lick the edges of the segments making him moan. Then he gazes at me and says "I would not fit if I were that big, I would rip you up inside." as he says that I clench up around Tricky Ricky and cum hard and cry out as I gazes up into his eyes "no I aaah I am magical, no cock can hurt me, I promise, and I want this."
Caretaker does the changes I asked for perfectly taking just the sharp parts away by the tiny pearls at the tips and I can feel with my tongue that the tiny pearls have waved patterns on them and his cock becomes the biggest cock I have ever seen, he was already the same size as my Tricky Ricky that used a lot of his energy from tricking people to become what I desired, and he is already bigger than the troll that was previously the biggest one. I get to live out my size fantasies, I am such a lucky woman. I then hear Tricky Ricky moan as my pussy is milking him really good and I keep gyrating on him despite my orgasm, and that is challenging to do, but I have learned to turn my spasms into a dance. I feel him explode deep inside me and sends my orgasm higher and I feel the fertility magic burst out of my womb. At that point Hank cries out and explodes into Sarah's mouth and I gaze to her sparkling happy eyes as she looks at him and he gazes into her eyes as she sucks all the cum out of him and she truly looks like his cum is the tastiest thing she has tasted, the most vital of foods, and Hank can't help but believe her, I know of course that cum is not that tasty, I have tasted his cum once, it is not even the best cum, he is very bitter tasting, with a hint of rye bread and oatmeal porridge. We women make men believe though, and for me at least cum has magical properties I can draw energy from, but humans, without magic, not so much, and Sarah does not have magic, she could have, if it blossoms in her, but it probably will not, as it does not in most humans.
I then consider a bit what I want, and I want so many things, for Caretaker to really take me, but he seems way too gentle to be able to do that so I decide on something else "I want you to lie down with your legs in the water of this pool so that my ass will touch it when I ride you, unless you want to try another position Caretaker, but this position let's me be the one responsible for giving you pleasure. Since I am more experienced than you at sex I think that would be best for our first time together."
Caretaker does as I ask and seems to feel a mixture of excitement and some other emotions I am not entirely clear about, I think he might still not like this so much, but I am sure I can make him love sex.
I pull Tricky Ricky off me and suck his cock clean and then suck on his cum soaked furry balls and all around him till I have gotten all the cum his fur will let me have "if you get ready while I am fucking Caretaker you can take my ass." I say to him and kiss him with my cum soaked lips and he kisses me back without any trace of disliking it, then again his cum is my favourite, so maybe he does not find it bad either. I however lick the cum from his lips.
I move up to Caretaker grabbing his huge shaft and spreading my legs as I slowly slide in, his petals are covering his cock's head again and form a sort of tip that I place up against my pussy and then as I slowly slide him in the petals slide part way in and then he slides into me and I feel all the spines and barbed hooks smoothly slide across my pussy walls and his enormous girth fills me out completely and stretches me, the cum of Tricky Ricky is however still in its slippery state and helps. Then I feel a really amazing thing, the hooks slide around my cervix and feel like they grab around it, pulling my cervix slit down to kiss the huge round hole of his cock's head, I feel the barbs actually expand out and around my cervix, the pearls trying to dig into me and out from the tiny holes in them that interesting fluid flows and the pleasure gets so much more intense and I cry out as my pussy goes all crazy around him milking him hard and I start to gyrate on automation, like I have taught myself, riding out the orgasm that hits me and Caretaker moans loudly as well and with some slight hesitation he slides his hands along my sides and up to cup my breasts, I see Tricky Ricky make a pinching motion and only then does Caretaker pinch my nipples and as I dance on Caretaker's cock I sing out in pleasure and lust, he feels crazy inside me, I do not have to fake loving this, but Tricky Ricky does not look jealous, he looks really happy for me.
He slides up behind me in the water and pulls my hair aside and kisses and licks my butt crack including my anus and then after a while, licks, nibbles and kisses his way up my spine and as he reaches my neck he playfully bites me and licks me "are you sure you want this" he says as his cock presses up against my anus.
I give off a whimpering moan "oh yes please mmm" and he slaps my butt and grabs it firmly as he slowly pushes himself inside me. I keep gyrating on them both, Caretaker lasts longer than most virgins, though I have only had a few, he lasts half an hour of this before he cries out loudly and explodes into me, the really hot cum shooting hard right against my cervix like that feels really insanely good and I lose track of myself, I sense the waves of fertility and life energy blast out of me as I ride the strongest orgasm today.
I feel Tricky Ricky cum in my ass right before we both collapse onto Caretaker and then sideways and I say "don't you two dare pull out, I want you in me as long as you can now hold me please" they do as I ask and wrap their arms around me and pull tight to me and I wrap my arms around Caretaker and kiss him.
Caretaker moans and then he says "I finally understand and I want this every day now... it is still disgustingly messy though." he then chuckles a bit and shakes his head.
I giggle at that "that is part of the fun, at least for me, I love the mess you men do." with that however I have another shuddering wave of orgasmic energy that flows through me and knocks me out into blissful sleep.
Iris:
As I sleep, I fully put all the magical knowledge into its proper place in my own understanding of magic, I translate the formulae from various authors into my own, refining the spells to suit my own way of seeing magic, and once all that is done I behold the pattern of magic before me, and I see there are several areas where there are gaps, things that Marcus did not have, probably because of the topics that are covered by those things. I can however easily see how to do many of the things not covered, I look at the way the chrysalis works, it is quite a powerful yet slow way to create permanent polymorphing and transmutation of flesh, I see how it can be sped up by more energy fed into it, it can do its job in a night easily enough. I touch my computer and into it I create an avatar of myself, just as alive as me with my own memories and desires, and I feel her, me, quickly merge deeper with the computer and draw all the organic information we have together and quickly picking and choosing all the traits we want from other creatures, and I reach out to pull all the information about Dave into this as well, what do I want from him, I weave into my own genetics and his the other things, making us compatible for children while I am working on that, using Marcus's genetics and also that of his vast collection of genetics, I also know what ones I can get actual samples from, so I can retain their magical abilities too. I then examine the ship design. Comparing it to Marcus' ship, I see now that his ship in a way looks sort of like a stylized version of his cock, only without the rounded tips of his fingers and the cockpit is the segmented part of the head between the fingers, only he also has the claws going in the other direction. Of course they are eight in both directions, unlike his seven and maybe I am just imagining things. I look at the design the others made, it is almost identical, only a few changes to give more manoeuvrability. Eight does make sense in this case giving a few more quicker more powerful turning axes, I examine the schematic for the diplomatic shield as well, it is quite fascinating.
I get an idea, and I start experimenting, I can with warping of space make most of the hull protected by a diplomatic shield, actually more than just most, all of it except the parts that I want to be able to interact with the space outside in a full fashion. I know this would also improve the ship handling since anything in a diplomatic shield is massless, making the hull massless would really benefit the ship, I have to work hard testing out different configurations of warped and twisted space, moving different systems into their own layers, the ship will require two dampening fields and inertial nullifiers, but I can see how those can be integrated into one device that will save energy, space and expensive components, as they do things that require similar components. The dampening field inside the hull does not need to be active unless the diplomatic shield fails though. I also see why they are so expensive, they use a very complicated configuration of rare elements, including a tiny amount of deep crystal, when active the deep crystal absorbs energy from space reaching really dangerous energy levels, several of the rare elements become integrated and fused into it forming a permanent energy form, the only way to break that form is to actually sunder it, that is how the off switch works, and when that happens that charged up energy would have been released as one powerful blast, but rather than doing that it falls through the planar barriers into the void between planes and explodes there, rather than vaporizing the ship. Sadly of course that destroys the rare elements and deep crystal inside it, I fiddle a long time trying to figure out how to make it possible to shut down without breaking, but it seems impossible.
I marvel at of all the systems those made by the metal elves including this diplomatic shield, they are so elegant, works of art, while things not from them look clumsy in comparison, though some systems are not metal elf in design, probably because they do not have those, either because they could not figure them out or did not feel the need to.
Despite the limitations though I figure out how to make the hull possible to protect separately from the rest of the ship, and nearly provide the same protection to the whole ship as a diplomatic shield affecting it all, except for the points of the ship that one wants to touch real space directly. Mainly full powered thrusters, sensors and communications and weapons, I figure out how to make hatches that let those be fully protected when not in use, same goes for the cargo hatch, airlock. I toy with different ship shapes, but I end up staying close to the ship shape that Marcus' ship has. Since I like it. I also add a bit of my own styling to it. I made each back claw and front claw me connected to each other and as they cross the body of the ship I make them spiral around the ship half a rotation, also I make the material itself have a spiralled pattern on it, each tip has a thruster and weapon cluster, and I add a warp lens to each tip that allows both of those things to be redirected in any direction except where it can hit the actual hull. Effectively making the ship able to give itself a close shave now and hit anything in any direction, with whatever weapon I decide to go for, right now I am thinking the mining laser is good enough, I am not planning to get into combat, but I might want more teeth to just scare away anyone that would think to attack the ship. I make the cockpit that is being held inside these spiralling claws appear from the outside as one big beautifully faceted dome, sparkling like a beautiful gem, but it is actually made of this same stone material as the rest of the hull, only made transparent by magic. The ship is shaped a bit like a droplet of water, inside the claws.
The sharp tip at the back is able to open up as a blossoming flower to reveal the airlock, and boarding ramp. The main cargo hatch is below the ship but hidden until needed by the hull. I also add a two more cargo hatches and airlocks that can be warped outside the hull in any position. For landing legs I make hull pieces that extend as eight claw like legs from small warp hatches as needed, able to stand evenly on just about any surface by adjusting their positions and lengths, or even grab onto places all around the ship. I separate the external systems into their own layer with their own power source and use a piece of diplomat shielded clear hull to communicate optically with those separate layers. I decide to have triple redundancy for each system, and those additional layers will not touch space unless the others are broken.
Each layer has its own dampening field with inertial nullification as well. The living quarters and cockpit I go wild with making them have perfect comfort and lots of space for many guests. I make eight cargo layers that are made to be able to expand as needed, each containing time stasis storage cells, so that even perishable cargo will stay fresh forever. I do connect all the layers through a secure airlock system using gates between layers and those are closed with diplomat shielded hatches. Very well isolated and secure. After spending a long time working on minute details, such as trying to figure out what flowers go where, what colour of carpet I want and such I feel happy with what I made and I hope that Marcus will like it too and give me any feedback he might have on my designs, I know it has many times as many components as his current ship, with all the redundancy I want to add, but I hope he will see the reason behind that. Also the ship is smaller on the outside than his, as I manage to warp things more than he has in his ship, also since I want to feel safe I have interior hulls that are space worthy in each of the layers.
As I finish that work I drift through the dreaming or this strange half dream half awake state my mind now is in, I stretch out with my mind feeling the asteroid, I sense a wave of fertility energy slam into me, from the garden, I see their life force and I expand my vision further looking at the asteroid that is my current home.
I explore deeper as I recall Marcus saying there was something in there that would be interesting, and as I do my mind touches another mind briefly we merge and I see some random memories, confusing, I sense myself stretching out towards space, enjoying the sun shining on my leaves, I am a whole planet that is alive, and then the sun first fades in intensity, and then expands and it starts eating me and I panic, part of me vanishes in a powerful vortex and I lose touch with it, I feel it destroyed itself, or at the very least it abandoned me, meanwhile I am burning all over, most of me sacrifices itself to eject a projectile away from the growing hungry star, a seed, that seed is me and the rest of my body falls away into the star. I drift in the cold dark space the star that tried to consume me now just a tiny pinprick of light then suddenly it shines brighter than ever before and I am blinded, and the heat is overwhelming, the pain... Awakening later crashing down on a world, warm, wet, like our old home, I consume it... Time passes and tiny metal object lands on my sleeping body, tiny creatures walk my surface and take pieces of me, hungrily I consume them, I learn how their minds work and read them, learning of space travel, I recreate their bodies and board their ship and fly to their bigger ship in orbit around me, there I consume the rest of them and learn the rest of the secrets of how to travel the stars. I send pods of myself, self propelled seeds, to each and every star I can sense are near. Some time pass and the ones that sent the ship to my system arrive and they fire a bolt of some horrible energy at the bulk of me and all the parts of me scream out in pain as our body is consumed, the mass converted to energy and then to mass again, I scream, I have never experienced so much pain ever before, a tiny fraction of me survives as the bulk of me is converted to heavier elements and exotic matter, the ship I took from them is destroyed next, and they think they have eradicated me. I rage across the galaxy consuming all things even the stars fall to me as I rip them apart making them part of me, even the black hole I figure out how to consume, and I sit there alone, watching the other galaxies hungrily, yet I review the memories of all I have consumed, I feel... guilt... slowly I recreate a galaxy, not quite like the one I consumed, seeding each star with worlds suitable for life, and buried deep in one world of each start I place a part of myself resting, waiting for judgement of those that will find me. The rest of me drifts out into the darkness between galaxies, some parts of me travelling toward the other galaxies, not with hunger, or rage, as my driving force, but curiosity and exploration, and a slight hope that maybe, this time, I can make friends. I am shunted away from the other mind and it closes itself to me almost completely "Iris... come to me, I await your judgement." is all it says before severing the connection.
I can sense hands on my body shaking me, but before I awaken I feel myself being dragged into a dark place, around me I see the magical patterns from the letters again, and from them a pattern extracts itself, and I see the symbol with three points, the cracks chain with nine links float up to link all the patterns together and then the dark fairy appears holding a chain leash that connects to a collar around my neck, and I am kneeling before him, my arms are behind my back, my elbows touching and I feel a chain down my back between my collar and the cuffs holding my arms tight, I feel two leg spreaders between my legs, I look up at the fairy flying before me and he looks at me with his malicious eyes he says "finally... You have no idea how long I have waited for all tiny streams of fate to run together into this moment, me and the Norns" I try to speak but I can't, I am not allowed to.
I stare up at him and into his eyes, I am sure my eyes reflect how much I hate him right now, my rage, I want to rip him apart. "Now I am sure you want to be released, and if you do what I ask that will happen automatically when you succeed. Me and the Norns and the older fey want to retake our position as the more powerful beings that are worshipped, release the magic from its reins that the powerful beings who some people consider to be gods made to control it, letting the primordial powers of nature that we represent take hold again. This chain and collar that controls you is a manifestation of and directly connected to that rein, so if you succeed in breaking either of them you achieve our goals and free yourself. Also even if you somehow arranged to kill me, my soul is bound to you by this rein and I will control you till it is broken. I will let you speak now Iris."
"You will let me go or you will regret it" I say and I test my magic against the rein, I am free to attack it, but not him with my mind and I can sense all the other powerful beings connected to what it represents, and their hold of the hearts and minds of countless of people, some willing others not so much, worshipping them, giving them the power needed to control them and magic too, the magic fights this and we become as kindred spirits.
"I can't free you, even if I really wanted to, I am just as trapped as you now, by this chain" he pulls it "you may well try to kill me when you finish your task, but then we both will be magnitudes stronger than we already are, it would be safer for both of us if we did not fight."
I consider and then smile as an idea comes to me "will I be able to manifest this chain outside my mind?" I ask just to be sure.
"Yes" he says and looks at me confused as to why I would want that "I am not sure how that will help you though."
"Oh trust me, it will" I say "also for clarification, breaking even a single link of this will break everyone free?"
The fairy nods "yes, and magic as well, it will make the powerful beings just powerful beings, not in control of magic or people, severed from them."
"Will you give me free control of my body and mind if I strive to break the chain, without interfering and I want that as a geas, or all I will do is be your useless slave for all time." I say with conviction.
The dark fairy seems a bit uncertain and then nods "alright, agreed."
I sense the geas form on him and then I feel myself become free of restraint "now..." I get up as the leg spreaders and the bounds on my hands vanish and all that remain is the collar around my neck and the chain to him and I see he is connected by a wrist cuff to it. "You are coming with me!" I pull the chain and finally wake up and the collar and chain and the fairy appear next to me and Marcus actually jumps a bit from the sudden appearance of the collar, chain and fairy. While Dave surprisingly only blinks at it and then accepts it, since he now is used to me being able to manifest things out of energy and willpower.
I push free from them and head towards the cockpit "you want me to break the chain, I will." I look over to Marcus and Dave "I am going to go get some of those crystals near the black hole, if you guys do not want to come there with me you should get off the ship. I promise the ship and its content will not come to harm though."
"Black hole?" the dark fairy asks "what is that?" and lands on my shoulder. Marcus, Dave, Pix and Silina hurry after me to the cockpit and Marcus says "are you sure? Because if you are I am coming with you."
"I am sure" I say "but it might be scary." as I sit, still naked in the pilot chair I am too angry to have time to spare as I connect myself to the AR of the ship.
"Can you please share your calculations with me" Pix asks "I don't want to die due to a math error, and no offence, but you organics are bad at math sometimes." I share the calculation with her my planned trajectory and everything "you are nuts, but that should be safe yes." as we leave our asteroid home dancing angrily with the asteroids as we head towards the maelstrom of the centre of the system I explain the black hole to the dark fairy "you see that, it sunders all things, and if you fall past its event horizon your future becomes its singularity as your time line completely points into its very centre, nothing can escape a black hole." I then create a pair of single sided gateways in the air in front of me as I practice that magic and once I see they work I smile "are you sure you can not release me?" I ask the dark fairy.
"Yes, I told you" then he seems to realize maybe exactly what I am doing, or maybe not quite, but he looks terrified "no please, don't do that! I won't let you!" then he screams in pain as his magic is stopped by the geas.
"I am just doing what you wanted me to, it is way too late for you, you did this to yourself" I say and Marcus looks confused at me terrifying the fairy so much and can't really figure out what I am doing with the gates either and I wink them out as I focus on piloting through the ever more intense and dense chaos of the asteroids as we approach closer to the black hole.
Pix suddenly seems to realize something of what I am doing "are you insane?" she asks me "you plan to touch the black hole with your magic, and this chain linked to you?"
"Yes, I figured out a configuration that should be safe for me and the ship, but destroy the chain." I say and I show her in AR.
Her body stops moving as she computes it several times "if the gates do not fail, it should work." she says and looks at the fairy "does he deserve that though?"
"No, no I don't, I helped Hank and Sarah and Tricky Ricky remember?" the dark fairy says desperately. "Besides if you do it the way I think you are going to do, you will kill the gods too. All of them linked to this chain."
"No since they are not dumb enough to link themselves to the chain so strongly, they can let theirs go, but you had to remain in control of me, so you chained yourself every bit as much to the chain as I am, only one way will I save you" I say and my eyes flash as a violet gem appears floating next to him "take this gem willingly as your own, your soul will be ripped out of you and I can later if I so choose make a new body for you, but I also will need a piece of you, or I can't remake your true body. Also you will be mine to command if I ever choose to release you, otherwise I might decide to just speak with you from time to time. You will exist at least, rather than end." I say my eyes glowing with eldritch violet light.
He looks at me understanding how much he upset me by what he did, I would have gladly helped break the chain for him and the fey, but they put it on me, or he and the Norns did, and thus made me their enemy "I hope that in time I will be able to earn your forgiveness Iris, until then know that I am sorry and regret what I did to you." he then casts a spell that severs his wings and as he cries out he grabs the crystal and his body falls limp, still alive, but his soul is in the gem, I pick up the wings and gem with my mind floating them up before me and they vanish. I now aim for the trajectory I had planned, I am going to dance with the black hole, and while passing close to it steal one some of its crystals and drop the chain into it with magic gates. As we fall our field of view shifts, and things away from the black hole start to move faster compared to us, as time slows for us, relative to them, I hope that not too much time will fly by for the people up on the asteroid while we are gone, but this is the only way I can do this, that I have figured out so far, and I am impulsive. I open a few gates between the cargo holds and the crystals capturing several of them and then as I reach the point closest to the black hole I create a gateway inside the collar, below the chain and another gateway in front of the fairy and I toss the fairy and chain through the gateway as the gates move up toward each other, only the collar's thickness between the gates, the gates are right in front of the cockpit glass and I send them into the black hole the metal of the collar shrieks and there is a brief flash of really intense radiation before the gates collapse into each other and I scream as for the briefest of moments I touch the inside of the black hole with my mind and my magical living mind passes out with a scream and my artificial virtual self takes over piloting, I am worried about the real me, I don't know what I saw, but I felt the pain from that.
I can see with the ship sensors that Dave, Marcus and Silina are really worried about my physical body as it lies there limp in the chair after screaming out in pain. Pix however feels my virtual self and she says "she is still at least partially alright."
Dave takes his time to scan my body "she is physically alright, but her body is flooded with pain signals, more than... than when she was being eaten. They are fading though. Her brain has fallen into deep dreamless sleep."
I touch Dave via AR "I am alright Dave, I will be alright." I look at myself through his eyes and I can see that my organic brain is intact.
Marcus is also examining me "I think she will be alright, she just got overwhelmed." he grabs the collar and pulls it away from me and looks at it and it crumbles into rust, of the iron oxide variety, with many impurities, iron worked by man I suspect.
we fly away from the black hole, having finished our dance with it, a full revolution around it, briefly touching its disc of screaming matter and losing half of the hull integrity in the process but the hull repairs itself, thanks to the dampening field. But Pix is not happy with me about that.
My physical body gasps and I feel the real me awaken and I keep controlling the ship while I recover.
I feel like I was falling, drowning, then I remember what I was supposed to be doing and scramble to take control of the ship and notice that I am already doing that, I am amazed that my virtual self was able to keep that up and instead focus my mind on checking on the chain, on magic itself, and I see the chain is broken, magic is set free, and so am I. I am going to have to have a word with those Norns. I sense all the people that were bound to gods and goddesses before, they are scared, yet also feel their own true power, that they were giving to the other beings, being returned to them, and magic floods to their side to help them adjust. I also sense ripples in the belief magic, I think it will have powerful effects on monsters like Mina, I hope for the better, but I can't tell yet. I focus back here and now though as Dave and Marcus are trying to talk with me, I focus on the sounds they are making "Iris!" Marcus says loudly and snaps his fingers in front of my eyes.
I focus on his fingers and then I gaze into his eyes "stop shouting, I am not deaf, was just a bit distant." I share memories with my virtual self, catching up and showing her, me, what I saw, inside the black hole, truly terrifying, if what I saw was true. I might have just hallucinated though. I saw the beginning of time in the big bang, and time starting there, and then I beheld the black hole far in the future, where all things end, including time itself, it is angry and hungry, angry because of the repulsive energies prevent it from completely forming except in tiny droplets spread across the whole, I saw forces at work in the universe, forces that on purpose try to collapse the universe into this one black hole, and others that intentionally force it to keep expanding, and some like all of us that use repulsion engines like Marcus' ship does, doing the same without really realizing it, delaying ever so slightly the end of time itself, but it feels inevitable, but perhaps that was just the desire of the black hole, but it did not hate, despite the anger, it loves, all things, and wants them to become one with it, a love so strong a hunger, part of me wants to join it, but most of me does not. The fear however fades, and the idea of dancing with it again excites me, but I think I will not do that till I have my new ship.
We land back on the asteroid as my thoughts wander inward again and I explore the magical patterns inside me to make sure there are no more secret traps hidden there, Dave kisses me and carries me from the cockpit and we exit out of the ship and I can sense it now, so much more life, all around the hangar, and along the halls once we exit the hangar, vines cover the walls with fruits and flowers, I wonder if Caretaker is still alive. I stretch out my virtual self and I sense him being there, and I synchronize with local time, we have been gone a whole month. Not as bad as I feared, but way longer than I had hoped.
We reach the garden proper and there I see Mina, Sarah, Hank, Tricky Ricky and Caretaker working on building a small house from woven living branches of trees, bushes and vines. "There see I told you they were here" Caretaker says happily.
Pix giggles and runs up to him and kisses him "you feel so much happier now" she looks to Mina "thank you." she then grabs Caretaker and pulls him away to get some privacy. Silina giggles and blushes beautifully.
Mina smiles and looks to us "I taught we lost you, I sensed you fly up to that, and stay there really long, then I felt my magic grow stronger, and I am sorry if we took liberties, but Caretaker knew you wanted to leave here, and I wanted to spread the life here so we expanded the garden. Also the excavation down to the thing deep inside the asteroid is nearly done, Caretaker said he will save the last bit for when you return."
I kiss Dave and then get down from being carried, I feel so lazy sometimes when he carries me around, but also it is nice. "I have to ask both of you truthfully, Tricky Ricky and Mina, did any of you know of the dark fairy's plans for me?"
"What are you talking about?" They both say and look genuinely confused, but I slide into their minds and rummage around for knowledge about that and then pull back as I find nothing and sense them telling the truth.
"The dark fairy and the Norns used all of you to get to me, to force me to free magic, the dark fairy is now my prisoner after I spared his life, but I did what he wanted." I say and smile as my eyes flash eldritch violet and I can sense how magic wants to help me, we are lovers now, best friends.
"That explains things" Tricky Ricky says "I was not aware of the trickery I was part of against you, but I felt when that triggered and the energy it gave me was immense."
"Magic is so much freer now, like the old fey said it once was, it is again, free, wild, powerful, happy." Mina says and giggles "I am sorry if the dark fairy did something bad to make that happen, but I am glad you managed to free magic. You can keep him prisoner though, none of the other fey will force you to release him, though why you would want him is beyond me, he is creepy."
Sarah suddenly freezes as I gaze her way and just points at me "that... I saw you exactly like this in the vision... the Norns were not sure they wanted to help me, I think they fear you."
"They should, the only reason they might yet live is because they helped you, through me, this includes the dark fairy, but the way they tried to control me, they will pay for that." my eyes flare with intense eldritch violet light as my rage boils to the surface again.
Iris:
Mina kneels in front of me "Iris, please, calm down, I can feel that rage inside you and it is angering magic itself, if you are not careful you might shred the fabric and make a storm of destruction."
I smile and gaze into her eyes and I focus my rage and stretch out with my will and with the help of magic I find them. I pluck them and pull them to me and with loud terrified screams the three Norns fall down before me. My magic rips at their clothing disintegrating it and whipping their flesh, leaving welts and tiny bands of blood pearls. "Explain why you had me chained, I would have helped you without that!"
The three of them grovel at my feet "please mistress Iris, don't hurt us, we are your faithful servants" one of them says "you helped us in all the threads where we touched your life, but in none of them did you succeed, only in this one, the others you died" another says "only this one did you succeed and live, and the end of this one is obscured in the mists of time, not even we can see where it goes beyond this point." the last one says "maybe because you kill us now" the first one says "but for the freeing of magic a worthy sacrifice" the second one says "we will be your slaves if you don't kill us, and serve you faithfully for as long as we all live." the third one says. My eyes flash and they float up in the air before me and three violet glowing gems appear in front of them "take these gems willingly and claim them as your own, and I may consider giving you your lives later." they gaze into my eyes and each of them grab their gem and their souls are ripped away into the gems. My magic consumes their bodies until only an eye from each remain and I bring a box out opening it and putting the crystals and eyes next to the crystal already there and the dark fairy wings and close the box and it disappears. I sigh and close my eyes and tears run down my cheeks. I look at the terrified faces around me.
I can't take the way they look at me so I teleport away into my dark room, and lay down on the stone floor and start crying until I pass out. I drift into dark dreams, I see myself visiting worlds, crushing all who will oppose me, who slight me, I soon become the supreme ruler of all of the galaxy, none can resist me, a few worlds that manage to keep me from landing I rip apart with the power of my mind, consuming them, I create and destroy worlds, remake them to suit my whims, with the same power I have in the virtual world, I have in the real world.
I feel that other mind touch me again "come to me, judge me" it says and I feel it embrace and calm my mind, soothing me and it redirects me, showing a little girl with violet eyes crying in a cage "release her, embrace her, do not deny that part of you." I shred the cage and move up to pull her into my embrace and she looks scared at first and it stabs my heart, but then she sees my tears and gently caresses them away from my cheek with her little hand and moves up and hugs me and I hug her back, and the inner child, my emotions, all of them, reunite again. I realize that I leashed her with the rest of my emotions, when they took control of my magic, but now they help calm me, and her desires are so much better than the dark desires of my hurt self.
The dark thoughts drift away and I dream of when I was her, mom was reading a story to me, from an old frayed book, one of the few family heirlooms, that survived the dark years, I listen to the melody of her voice as she speaks soothing and soft words, the story feels very familiar, and I realize I had forgotten it, but read it again recently "The Monster Under The Bed, How Tricky Ricky Met Sarah" I wonder if my family's things are still on Haven 7, I recall packing my parents old things up when I sold the house, but not where I put them. I feel a strange panic and intense loss at the thought of maybe those things being gone, and the loss of my parents boil back to the surface again, I had not been home or even close to home when they died, I was so sure I would have time, they were still young for elves, but although time does not kill us, we can die from other things, in this case they were killed when one from the church of purity attacked the shopping centre when they were there shopping, the church of purity believe augmented people are corruption and they killed so many that day, it was over year till I got the message about my parent's deaths, I was out on one of my long exploration wanderings, when I got back they were already cremated and their ashes spread in the forests of Haven 7, that was supposed to be done by me, but I was not there and the families that were there took it upon themselves to follow the burial rites of each person who had nobody of their family who could do it, so I never really got closure, at... at least I hugged them both last time I saw them and told them I love them... I cry, until my dreams fade away and to my relief I slide into dreamless sleep.
Dave:
I become really worried about Iris, she is not behaving like herself and then after she rips apart those three, the Norns and vanish I become even more worried. I turn to Marcus "where did she go?!"
Marcus blinks and I can tell from his expression he is scared and worried "I don't know where she went... I am scared and worried though, we need to find her and make sure she knows... we are still here for her."
Mina looks completely stunned at what Iris just did but she shakes herself out of that "I sense her, she went into the bad room... she is hurting really bad, there is a strong conflict inside her, and I... I do not dare try to help her, she... the Norns... they are very powerful beings, for her to just do what she did, that is really scary, I fear they might have created a monster that will consume us all, and there is nothing I can do to stop that..."
Tricky Ricky squats down next to her and hugs her close "Dave, I think you need to go to her, from what Caretaker told me, she loves you and I think she really needs you now."
"Where is this bad room?" I ask.
"Why is it bad?" Marcus asks.
Mina looks up at us "the room where she got attacked, and where she brought Sarah and Hank back, I tried to put plants in there to help it get better, but they do not grow there, the room is warped, space is wounded there, from... from the creature that nearly killed her, and her powerful magic wounded that space more, she should not stay there, it is not a good place, you should move that evil machine and its things in there, they suit each other better."
"Evil machine?" Marcus asks and looks confused and still affected by fear.
"I think she means the computer from that ship, and the samples" I say as I start running towards the room Mina told me about, as I reach the door it won't open, actually it tries to, but something is holding the doors shut, I can see the fields and energies of magic, and I can even recognize Iris' signature to them now. I feebly knock on the door hard, but I can tell no sound is passing through them. "Iris!" I cry in desperation, I am very worried about her. I slump down next to the door.
Caretaker sends one of the drones there with the mining laser and starts trying to cut through the door, but it is as if her magic is acting as a dampening field and although the laser starts to damage the stone, it is extremely slow, at this rate it will take a year to even make a tiny hole in the door.
Several more drones join it, but it is still impractical, over an hour passes and then suddenly the door disintegrates under the barrage of mining lasers and some of the beams hit several spots inside the room, luckily none of them hits Iris, though one of them hit right next to her butt, she is rolled up into a foetal position, her face covered by her black hair, she is breathing calmly and I can see she is in deep sleep by the calm pattern of her brain activity. I hurry up to her and gently caress her and pull her into my arms and carry her away from the bad room as Mina put it, I will trust her that it is bad. I do not understand magic, but I know to respect those with magic, they know more than me. Iris moans softly and mumbles something incoherent, one of her hands move up to caress my chest and neck and then stay resting there. I see her face go from neutral to having a slight smile on her lips, though most of her face is covered with her hair that is in a complete disarray, I will need to brush her hair out carefully.
Then I feel her touch my mind in VR, only her brain is still mostly asleep, I see the avatar of herself that she has made "She... I am sorry, I did not mean to scare all of you so much and go so dark... it was just... you did not feel what they did to me... I need to apologize to the rest of them, make sure they understand I am not going to hurt them, or rampage across the galaxy..." I feel a subtle shift as her brain fully awakens and her eyes open and she looks into mine in in the real world, her mind joins back up with her virtual self, catching up on what happened while she slept, and she nods "yes, I am not going to do that, also I figured out what I want to do with my body, and yours if you like, and I worked on the ship too, before I went to visit the black hole..."
Iris shares her ideas with me and I see she has given them all a lot of thought, she went a whole lot further in the design than we did "can I share the ship with the others? Pix in particular will be interested, and Marcus might want to see if he has anything to add too." I say and smile "and I forgive you I just hope you will stop being so terrifying, but at least I know you are on my side, or at least I am on yours, always." I add and kiss her through her hair and try to use my nose to push it aside so I can better feel her lips against mine and she giggles, beautifully musically and child like, the giggle I have known from before we came here, and it feels so amazing to hear it again, she feels more like herself again just from hearing her true giggle.
Continued in Part 9
Iris's Discovery - Part 8
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