The Price of Passage - Part 2

Part 2

The clouds overhead hadn't started unloading yet, which was nice, but they did make it even gloomier than the fading light normally would have left the scene Phrae was looking at. Once she'd gotten all the useful, or even possibly useful, information she could out of the girl in the inn, she'd made her way through the streets, just one more person out doing their thing.

Now, though, she was leaning against the wall of what looked like a warehouse of some sort, studying the building across the street. Even if it there'd been any nearby neighbours, the place would have stood alone. There was just that sort of aura about it... and she suspected that was also as good a reason as any for the fact that she was the only living soul on the street.

I guess mundanes would say it's creepy, she thought with a wry smile. I can feel the latent energy of the place from here.

And if what had occurred to her on the way here was right, that was precisely because of the reasons there had been such reluctance to give her the answers she sought. Temples, abandoned or not, were places of belief, after all, and from what she'd heard, Phrae had no doubts at all that the locals - or a good portion of them, it seemed - had every reason to believe in what want on inside.

Letting her gaze roam over the intricate carvings and delicate stonework that made up the temple's façade, Phrae pondered the tales she'd managed to extract from her informant... and didn't bother to hold back a grin as she did so. By the sound of things, Aelena, the goddess who this temple had been dedicated to, would have been her kind of girl. Most churches had a tendency to be rather too stuffy and up themselves for her tastes, but she had a hard time picturing that applying to those who served a deity of, among other things, fertility and joy.

Sadly, it seemed that was no longer the case... but that didn't mean that the temple had been left to gather dust. Not when it had become something of a tradition for the local girls to sneak inside, daring each other to stay in there as long as they could bear before retreating to join their giggling fellows outside.

Honestly, if what she'd heard was even half true, she could well understand the inn girl's nervousness. Whispered tales of what happened to those that went inside would account for quite a lot of embarrassment, she supposed. Though the little bits that had been passed to her ears suggested that the local menfolk should be grateful for the education their womenfolk had been getting.

Still, none of this was getting her any closer to what she was after. This close, she could feel the target of her search, and it lay right there across the street. All she had to do was get to it...

"Fuck it," she muttered to herself. "Not like ghosts putting on a show's going to be much of an obstacle."

Straightening from the wall, she took a moment to settle her cloak on her shoulders, then strode across the street toward the temple door.

As she got closer, the eyed the heavy bronze doors, figuring how much work it was going to take to get them open. When she got there, however, it turned out to be no effort at all, as a simple touch had one of them swinging lowly, and silently, inward.

Given how long ago this place had apparently been left to fend for itself, that was quite impressive.

This close, the building's aura of power was even stronger. At the same time, though, it was... benign. Yes, it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, but she could feel the lack of menace, the patience that lay beneath the surface. This temple was waiting. What for, Phrae had no idea, but it felt like it was content to just bide its time until whatever it wanted came to pass.

Shit, the girls sneaking in here probably feed it. If this place draws power from faith, having the that faith reinforced by young idiots on a dare would still do the job.

Taking a slow, even breath, Phrae stepped across the threshold and into the temple itself. As soon as she was far enough inside the dark interior, the door that had opened for her swung closed once more, cutting off what little light had come in from outside. Almost instantly, though, a dim glow started to spread across the ceiling of the open space she'd walked into, giving just enough illumination to make out the altar that lay in the centre of the room, along with the carvings that decorated the walls and the old, but still beautiful, drapes and mats that were dotted here and there.

Nothing else happened, which was actually something of an anticlimax, and Phrae let out a snort of amusement at that thought. She only let herself dwell on that for a moment, though, before her attention focused on a stone arch that stood a short distance from the opposite wall. That was all it was, an arch, not connected to anything and with plenty of space all around it for people to walk past, but she knew that it was what she sought.

"No way it's this damned easy."

Her soft words seemed to echo around the room, even though there was no way they should have carried enough force to do so. At first, she put that down to a trick of acoustics, but that was before she saw the faint mist beginning to gather at the foot of the altar.

Eyes narrowing, she watched as the mist began to coalesce, forming itself into a rough figure... and kind of wished she'd had enough time to replenish her reserves before coming here. If things turned bad, she had pretty much no other weapon at her disposal but running like hell - and that was not the result she wanted.

"If it helps," she said with deliberate calm, addressing the misty form, "I'm not here to cause any trouble."

"It would make little difference if you were."

The reply carried an eerie, otherworldly echo, and whilst her words echoed, these most definitely did not. They also didn't come from the form in front of her. Instead, they seemed to have come from somewhere to her left, and she slanted a look that way, spotting another pool of gathering mist. On a hunch, she glanced the other way as well, and sure enough saw the same thing.

"There is no harm you conflict here," the voice continued. "Save to yourself. But you have the air of a Seeker, not a Witness."

"Is that important?"

Trying to divide her attention between all three misty figures wasn't easy given how spread out they were, but Phrae did her best. Her question hung in the air for a few seconds, then the forms flanking her began to move, ghosting across the ground to join the one in front of the altar.

"It has been long since a Seeker has come."

"The Witnesses come to renew us."

"A seeker allows us to serve."

This time, it had been three voices, all subtly different, taking it in turns to speak. Thinking on it, Phrae was fairly sure she knew what they meant by 'witnesses', but that didn't answer the whole questions she had about what they'd called her.

"Serve how?"

"What do you require?"

A simple question, which came straight back at her on the heels of the one she'd asked. She heard nothing in the tone other than simple curiosity, but she still hesitated before saying anything. Some people, especially church people, and especially ghostly church people, tended to be a bit less than accommodating to those who turned up looking to make free with their stuff.

Still, there was little to be lost by trying...

Pointing past the trio of figures, Phrae gestured to the arch. "That. Specifically, to go through it."

"Ah."

That was all the response she got for a minute or so, and she started easing herself to one side, seeing if she could clear herself a path past the altar and it's foggy attendants.

"You do not carry the key."

Phrae blinked, surprised by both the apologetic note of what had been said and the notion that the arch needed a key at all. The box told her things like that, and had even be known to provide a key if needed, but in this case there'd been no mention of one.

And that was not especially comforting to learn.

With a curse, she felt her shoulders slump as her mind raced to try and figure out any other way to get what she needed. Unfortunately, all she could come up with was... nothing.

"Relax," one of the voices said again, making her twitch in surprise given that it came from right behind her. Spinning around, she found one of the misty figures no more than arm's length from her, and it was only the soothing tone of its voice that kept her from swinging at it. "It is a change that came when our Mistress fell. But we can grant you the key."

"Yeah? And what's it going to cost me?"

She made no attempt at all to hid the wariness she felt, or the cynical assumption that there'd be a catch.

"In a way... nothing."

That came from another of the figures, and she looked over her shoulder at it with a frown. "In a way?"

"The blessing of a fallen god will open the way."

If that was the key, it made sense that it only started being needed when the deity whose temple this was had been taken out. This did little to reassure her, but she could seen the logic. Which still left the big question of how she got that blessing.

"Still not hearing what it's going to cost me."

"Simply allow us to bestow it, Seeker. Join us in celebration of our Mistress, and allow us to aid you on your journey."

Yeah. Right. Like it was going to be that simple.

"Let's say I agree to that. What sort of celebration are we talking about?"

After all, she'd encountered a fair range of ways religious devotion could be shown, and a depressingly large number of them were ways she had no desire at all to be on the same continent as, let alone participate in.

Instead of showing any sort of offence at her rather blunt and sceptical tone, the three figures actually seemed amused. She got the distinct impression they were smiling at her, and when the one closest to her spoke again, there as more than a little humour dancing in its words.

"What do the Witnesses witness?"

For a second, Phrae was irritated by the riddle, then she realised it wasn't a riddle at all. It was a simple question, and one that, thanks to her 'chat' at the inn earlier, she had the answer to.

"Seriously?" she asked with a surprised laugh. "That's the sort of celebration you had in mind?"

"You expected something else? Remember, Seeker, who we serve."

The local good time goddess, if she'd heard right. It took only a matter of moments to think it over, weighing the options... and deciding that there was little real option if she was going to get through that arch before it become nothing more than decoration for another year. And besides, hadn't she planned on pretty much exactly this sort of activity when she'd found the chance...?

"You know there's a certain amount of trust involved, right? After all, it's not like we've spent any time getting to know each other."

There was a sense of solemn nods from all three of them, and she spent a few moments studying them in silence before speaking again.

"Screw with me, and I will fuck you up beyond recognition." Delivered more as a promise than a threat, it still glossed over the fact she had little way to do it at the moment, but again all she got back from the trio was a sense that they considered her words nothing more than sensible. "I assume we can get this done before its too late to do any good?"

"The full rite takes three days," came the reply, leading to a moment's distraction whilst Phrae tried hard not to imagine what that would entail. "But yes."

Nodding to herself, she thought it over one last time... then reached up to undo the clasp holding her cloak in place. As the fabric slithered down to the ground, she shrugged her satchel off her shoulder as well, letting it fall to floor as well, then spread her arms and turned a faintly challenging smile on the three foggy forms.

"Let's pray."

---

A shiver seemed to run through the air, a dizzying instant that had Phrae blinking to clear her vision. When the world stopped feeling like it was trying to shimmy its way around the multiverse, she found that the inside of the temple had changed.

No, not really. The layout was the same, but it all looked newer, fresher... Sunlight was streaming through the windows that ringed the chamber, up near the ceiling, and made the whole place look far more inviting than it had moments before.

It wasn't just the room that had changed around her, either. In just the same places as they'd been before, the three figures that she'd been talking to stood calmly - and no longer formed of mist. Instead, Phrae found herself looking at three fully fleshed men, dressed in light, well tailored robes. The trio all returned her gaze with an amiable appraisal of their own, and she took the opportunity to look at something more solid than what she'd been talking to so far.

And the change was definitely for the better, in Phrae's opinion. All three looked to be in their thirties, with the same pale skin and dark hair that seemed to be common around here. They were also remarkably easy on the eye...

"So... that happened."

Her dry tone got her a smile or two from the men, but she knew she wasn't showing anything like the level of surprise they might have expected. She was too used to screwing around with people's perceptions herself, and she could make out the little hints, the tiny flaws, that told her that she was standing in nothing more than an illusion.

Not that illusions couldn't be be downright lethal, if done right...

Phrae's study of her surroundings came to a rather abrupt halt, however, when she noticed something about the way the three men were looking at her. She looked down at herself, then back up again, one eyebrow raised in a question that didn't really need voicing. The light, airy robe similar to what they wore, that was draped over her body was not, after all, what she was supposed to be wearing. It was also all she appeared to be wearing.

"I am Tor," the one closest to the altar said with a slight bow before gesturing to the man beside him. "This is Kerel, and that is Yuril."

Phrae's eyes flicked from one to the other as the names were given, before coming back to settle on Tor without a single shift in expression.

"The attire is part of the-"

"I get it," she interrupted, though not harshly. "A little warning might have been nice, though."

The one off to one side, Yuril, chuckled, whilst Kerel flashed a grin and Tor offered her an apologetic shrug. With a similar shrug of her own, Phrae looked around the room again, then nodded absently to herself. "Okay, so how is this going to work?"

By way of an answer, she felt Yuril step up closer behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder just to keep an eye on what he was doing. As it turned out, it was simply standing there. Kerel, however, had taken something from the altar and was walking over. A closer look showed her it was a pair of what looked like glass bottles, each with a clear liquid inside that sloshed about sluggishly as he approached.

A light touch on her arms had her glancing behind her again, and Yuril change his touch to urge her to lift her arms. Doing so, she was hardly surprised to feel the robe covering her shift, parting a little at the front, and when she looked back Kerel was standing before her. He lifted the bottles he held, and she got a good look at the oily contents as he pulled the tops from each.

Holding them out to her, he let her take a sniff, and she had to admit that the perfume rising from the bottles was... nice. Very nice, actually, skirting just short of intoxicating. Lifting her gaze to meet Kerel's again, she gave him a twisted little grin.

"That for you or me?"

"Perhaps," he replied, "it is for both?"

"Fair point." Phrae nearly twitched when she felt Yuril's hands skimming across her shoulders, but she managed to suppress it. Taking a breath, she deliberately closed her eyes and made herself do nothing but feel as the robe's breezy fabric shifted across her skin and began to glide toward the floor.

"Relax, Seeker," she heard Tor's voice saying from toward the altar. "I doubt you, of all who come here, would be at risk from what surrounds us all."

Which was enough to have Phrae wondering just how much these guys knew about her - and how.

The mixture of the scent of the oils was more than a little distracting, however, and the shiver that flowed across her skin wasn't just due to the faint breeze stirring the air. In fact, she was increasingly aware of just how close to her the men were, and how naked she now was.

Until something gave her reason not to, though, she saw little reason not to let herself enjoy the feeling.

Pretty soon, in fact, she was hard pressed to do anything but revel in the sensation that were skimming across her body. The mens' touches were soft, almost reverent, as they began to rub the oils into her skin, and there was no denying that she was responding to those touches. By the time fingers brushed over her breasts, the tips had already tightened into hard, sensitive little peaks, and a quiet gasp slipped out of her lips as fingertips were replaced by the wet heat of a tongue.

"Hmmm..." she breathed. "For ghosts you're good at this."

"Practice," Tor chuckled, and her own laughter joined his. Or tried to, at least, as a pair of hands skimming over her ass diverted her somewhat. Especially when those same hands then slid around her hips to start massaging the front of her thighs.

For a moment, she very nearly said something, hovering one the very edge of protesting just how intimate those touches were getting - then simply parted her legs to allow the touches to get where she was starting to really want them to go.

A haze seemed to descend over her, but it was a weird sort of feeling. Part of her, the paranoid part that was always on the lookout for threats, was fully aware of everything that was going on, where everyone was, and what they were doing.

That wasn't the part that did most of her thinking, though. That one was having a very hard time keeping track of what happened over the next while, simply revelling in the feeling of having two men's efforts focused on driving her body toward ever higher levels of sensation.

Somewhere along the line, she'd ended up on her knees, straddling Kerel's face, the slickness of her arousal smearing over his lips as his tongue teased and probed her sex. The attention wasn't all one way, though, as Yuril was simply standing in front of her. Admittedly, he was standing with his cock buried deep in her very willing mouth, but apart from the occasional groan as she sucked him off, he wasn't actually doing anything.

She wanted more, though. Gripping Yuril's hips, she made sure he didn't slip free of her mouth as she scooted herself down the length of Kerel's body, taking the time to make sure she ground herself against every single inch of her long, taught body, until she got where she was going. She could feel the hardness of his length under the rob he still wore, and let out a low growl from deep in her throat as she pushed her hips downward, pressing herself against his sex and rocking herself ever so slightly back and forth until he got he hint.

The problem with that was the fact that she was showing no signs of actually letting him move. Yuril was hardly in a position to do anything either, as was amply demonstrated when he tried to move and felt her teeth scraping along his dick in a clear warning to stay put.

Fortunately, there was still another player on the stage. Not without a bit of effort, Tor got his hands under Phrae's ass and lifted her off of Kerel enough for the other man to move. Between the two of them, they got Kerel free of his robe and lined up with her wet and waiting slit. With barely any warning at all, Tor more or less let her drop, ripping a groaning cry from her as she was impaled on Kerel's shaft. Muffled by her mouthful of Yuril, the cry would have been incoherent even if she'd been able to form words, and a few seconds later she had no choice but to pull her head back and gasp for air.

"Fuck..." she managed after a few hard breaths. "Don't... uh... don't just lie there."

"As the Seeker wishes," Kerel chuckled, and she felt his hips rock under hers, pushing him even deeper, if that was possible, into her. Meeting his movements with her own, Phrae - reluctantly - let him slip out of her a way, but only so that he could thrust into her again. Without another word, the pair of them set up a slow, steady rhythm that had Kerel pumping in and out of her, sending waves of pleasure through her as she took Yuril into her mouth once more.

With hard, male meat filling her from both ends, and loving every single second of it, Phrae was barely aware of feeling more of the oil that had been massaged into her skin as Tor poured a thin trickle of it onto the top of the crevice of her butt. She became a lot more aware, however, when he started using a finger to massage it over the tight bud of her asshole.

"Hmmm?" she murmured, then pulled away from Yuril long enough to look back over her shoulder at Tor. "Really? You can't just wait your turn?"

"I thought you were in a hurry?"

His dry tone, as well as the faintly raised eyebrow, had her laughing. "Suit yourself," she shrugged, then gave Yuril a long slow lick from balls to tip before just as slowly swallowing his length yet again.

Under Tor's probing, Phrae felt her ass begin to relax, letting his finger work its way inside her. It took only a few moments for him to match the rhythm she and Kerel had set, and the added sensation pushed her even closer to the edge. When he pulled his finger out of her, though, she was left on the precipice, so very very close to the release her body craved that it was nearly torture.

She very nearly snarled at all three of them, only for it to turn into a hungry groan when she felt something a great deal bigger pressing against her tight sphincter. With agonising slowness, Tor pressed the head of his cock against her tight opening until, finally, it slipped inside.

The feel of that last invasion, stretching her, filling her, was the last straw as far as her body was concerned. Her head fell back, strands of saliva dripping from her chin as Yuril's shaft fell from her mouth. Her climax ripped through her like a fireball, wiping out any sense of the world around her and driving the raw, animal scream that tore out of her throat. Amid the storm, she felt... something... wrapping itself around her, calling to her on a level she would have been hard-pressed to resist even with a clear head. Almost instinctively, she reached out to it - and screamed again as pure power slammed through her hot on the heels of the orgasm that had almost sent her spiralling into unconsciousness.

She was barely even aware of the way her own power swelled within her, recharged and refreshed to a level she hadn't had the chance to feel for a long time. The eruption of energy within her tore the illusion cloaking the temple's interior to shreds, and when she eventually came to her senses, everything was back to how it had been when she had first entered. Apart from the fact she was on her hands and knees, gasping raggedly for breath whilst no sign at all existed of the three priests of Aelena she'd just been... celebrating with.

Gritting her teeth and trying to ignore the aftershocks of pleasure that still bounced around inside her, Phrae forced herself to her feet - and when she lost her balance and ended up on her butt, chuckled sourly to herself and tried again.

"Okay, that was.. something."

Finally upright, and fairly sure her unsteady legs would keep her that way, she checked herself over. Everything was where it was meant to be, clothes and such all in the right places, and her cloak and satchel still sat on the floor where she'd put them. In fact, the only evidence of what she'd just experienced was the way her body was humming in its afterglow.

Scooping her things off of the ground, she tottered toward the arch, taking a second to steady herself as she passed the altar, and grinned when she felt the way the arch reacted as she drew near. Standing in front of it, she made sure everything was settled how it was meant to be, then took a slow look around her at the temple's interior.

"Thanks for the help, guys," she said softly, and wasn't entirely sure whether or not she imagined the reply that ghosted across the edge of her awareness. Either way, it seemed she had what she needed... and whether she might have been tempted to stick around or not, she was not going to miss this connection.

Taking a breath to steady herself as much as was possible, she turned back to the arch, offering a silent prayer to the Mistress of this temple just on the off-chance it might help, and stepped forward. Just as she'd hoped, the eerie non-light of the portal enveloped her - and she took one more step closer to home.

Continued in Part 3

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