Interlude Clues at the Spirit’s Hearth (Patreon)

Stepping out into the hall, she noted the lights on the second floor had been dimmed. Giving her just barely enough light to see by. She paused for a moment after closing the door to the room she shared with young Sae. It was right between the rooms for Derrick on her left and Alicia and Ellie on the right. The rooms were on the second floor of the inn, with magic lamps spaced evenly along the length of the hall. If she recalled right, the bathroom was on the right toward the stairs. 

Chloe took a step to the right and headed for the bathroom. Idly she glanced at the door to Alicia’s room. It was closed, but she could sense three life signatures within. Part of her was curious about what kind of discussion would take so long. Still it wasn’t like it really concerned her. So rather than look in, she walked right on by.

Sure enough to her memories, the door to the bathroom was right by the stairs. Chloe hurried on in and closed the door. Finding the light stone, she added an inconsequential amount of mana and it grew brighter revealing the room. The bathroom was fairly well sized with a set of sinks on either side of her, and just down from her were four stalls in which toilets were located. At the end of that short hall was a curtain that led to a room with a tub. There was a sign over the bath, that read; Only Females past this point. 

Chloe noticed there were some enchantments on the sign. Mental from the feel of them, meant to make sure no one questioned the sign and followed she guessed. It didn’t mean anything to her. Chloe walked to the nearest toilet stall and slipped inside to take care of business. It only took her a moment to finish.

Chloe left the stall, washed her hands and then turned out the light. Opening the door, she paused, the hall was a little brighter than before. Movement drew her attention, and from her spot by the door she peered down the hall, where she could see Krellik step out of Alicia’s room, followed a second later by Alicia and Elie.

Gone were their usual outfits as the pair of them were completely naked, but what drew her attention most were their eyes. They’d taken on a rather glassy hue. Chloe frowned as she pulled on her mana and shrouded herself in a shell of dark magic. While Light magic was often better for stealth, Chloe was well-versed in using dark magic to hide her presence. Hidden from view now, she took in Elie. Her light brown hair hung loosely around her face. Her eyes, normally full of life, were glassy and lifeless. She stood with her arms at her side, her large breasts on full display. They were quite firm and rounded, with large pink areolas and fat little nipples. Her belly was flat and lined with muscle, the kind one received from an active lifestyle. Down lower her hairless pussy gaped just a little and there was no doubt she’d been active recently, clinging to her pink lips was just a bit of white goo, presumably more was in her belly.

Alicia was also quite naked, there was a ribbon holding her blue hair out of her face but that was it. Her cute wings were fully visible and so were her modest apple-sized boobs. Chloe thought they were pretty cute, they stood proudly on her chest, her nipples full erect. She didn’t have the muscle of Elie but she was still obviously active, and down lower it seemed she hadn’t been doing anything sexual. Well maybe she had but she didn’t have any white goo clinging to her pussy, which was a lovely shade of pink with large lips.

Krellik spoke, “This way girls. That’s it, just walk with me, we will be done in just a bit.”

Chloe frowned, to herself as he led them towards her, then down the stairs. She followed. Glassy eyed and naked didn’t seem normal for them, what was he up to?”

She followed him to the first floor, then down a hall to the back of the inn, where they took another staircase into the basement.

Upon reaching the bottom, the Proprietess greeted them, “Took your time did you Krellik?”

He chuckled, “Maybe just a bit. The ritual chamber is ready?”

She nodded and opened some large doors before leading the girls within. Chloe followed them unnoticed and took in the chamber. It was circular, carved out of the stone, a strange dark crystal hung from the ceiling. Mystic glyphs were carved into the floor, leading towards a stone altar in the middle of the room. “It is, we are doing Elie first right?”

Krellik nodded, “Yes, she’ll be the faster one to complete.”

The Proprietess walked up to Alicia, roughly played with a breast, then fingered her pussy. “Hmm, yes I can see what you meant about this one. The Mistress will be pleased,” then she turned to Krellik, “Will we be doing anything with her sister. Sae was it?”

“I’d had some thoughts on that, but figured I’d let the Mistress decide.”

“Fair enough.” she replied before turning to Elie, “Lay on the altar,” she ordered.

Elie complied and walked to the altar before laying down. Krellik took Alicia towards a bench in an alcove and had her sit down before joining the Proprietress at the altar. Where they positioned her limbs, then produced a strange paint. A brush was used to apply inky black symbols that caught the light strangely to Elie’s skin, that formed swirling patterns up her legs across her belly and breasts and right up to her face.

They spent several minutes painting her, all while chanting. Mystic words that called forth magical power and charged the sigils in the room. A dark stone was placed on a pedestal above Elie’s head. It was a shiny black purple and roughly the size of an apple.

Krellik and the Proprietress produced a selection of needles, each one tipped with a magic stone. Chloe watched them start to pierce her skin with each needle, the locations decidedly weren’t random. Chloe began to get an idea of what they were doing, those points were connected to her magic paths.

It wasn’t long before the last needle was in place and the array activated. A strange inky blackness rose from the floor, whirled around over Elie’s body which began to glow, then it reached down piercing her core. Light rushed up into the inky blackness where it seemed to be smothered. Chloe blinked, now this was really interesting. They were extracting her soul, the method was different from the ones she was familiar with but soul removal was a staple of certain necromancy spells, it was required for creating things like lichs; an advanced form of ghoul. Chloe could easily stop this, but having your soul extracted wasn’t that big of a deal.

It wasn’t long before the last of the light left Elie’s body, leaving it soulless. The inky blackness now charged and filled with her soul swirled a bit more before rushing towards the gem on the pedestal which greedily drank it up. In moments, the dark stone began to take on a purple glow gaining life and structure. Krellik carefully lifted the stone up and smiled, “There we are Elie, that wasn’t so bad was it?”

Her body spoke, “No, it felt good.”

He handed the stone to the proprietress, who cast a spatial spell on the stone. In seconds, it seemed to shrink down to a much more manageable size, and she fitted it into the center of a pendant, before fitting it around Elie’s neck. “Alright, we are done, you may sit on the bench while we work on your friend.”

Chloe watched Elie walk over to the bench. A moment later Alicia was led over to the altar. Were they going to remove her soul as well? It was a pretty interesting process. She did wonder why they were doing it. Soul removal wasn’t that big of a deal and there were plenty of benefits.

Alicia laid down on the altar as directed, but the Proprietress produced a different paint from the first one. Krellik took a brush and dipped it into the reddish paint with a strange golden hue to it and began to apply a series of symbols to Alicia’s body. The symbols were sharper, more angular, and as each one finished, it began to glow an eerie purple. In moments they were done applying the markings across her belly and chest. A final symbol was painted on her forehead, but it was different from the others and glowed an ominous shade of red when finished.

Setting the brushes aside, the pair brought forth a strange black goop which flowed right out of its jar the moment the lid was open. It smeared over her skin while shifting eerily. Alicia’s skin and muscles peeled back, her belly opening itself to reveal her organs, while her breasts split open like a flower blooming, revealing the interior of her boobs.

Chloe blinked, now this wasn’t some soul removal ritual. What were they doing? Why expose her organs like that?

The Proprietess leaned over the table and carefully lifted Alicia’s womb out of her belly. Her hands glided softly over its surface for a second before she picked up a needle and pushed it into the organ. Several more followed, she spoke some words and the needles began to illuminate in a pattern. Chloe wasn’t sure what it meant, but the proprietress seemed to like the meaning. She smiled, “Yes the Mistress will be very pleased with this one. Krellik? You can sit down for a bit, I’ll get started on getting her ready for the Mistress.”

“Sure thing,” said Krellik, while the proprietress produced a number of needles, a magic paint and several vials of something. It was a strange purple and green fluid. She drew out some of it, then injected it first into the left ovary, then the right. Almost instantly the white little organ turned purple and started to swell. 

Taking the paint, she dipped a needle in it and leaned forward and began etching symbols on Alicia’s womb. Swirling and pointed symbols which glowed an eerie shade of green, quickly took shape.

Not long after she started doing that, she lifted an ovary, now double its normal size. “You’ve swelled up nicely,” she commented to herself, then produced a small blade and clipped the ovary out, before dropping it into a larger vial containing an inky green fluid. The second ovary soon followed, but placed in a vial with an unusual purple fluid. She sealed the vials, then set them aside before going back to etching more symbols into Alicia’s womb.

When she was finished etching the symbols, she took the vials with the ovaries and produced a small bowl, which she filled with a reddish fluid, then added the ovaries to the bowl. By now both ovaries were a deep purple with a yellowish tinge to them, almost like a bruise, and they had swollen up to four times their previous size. Hitting the new fluid made them react instantly, the color drained from them and they turned back to their normal white.

She took another needle and etched a few symbols into each ovary, before reattaching them. Weirdly they reattached themselves the moment the proprietress put the ovary near the end of the tube they’d been clipped from.

Finally she turned towards the young lady’s boobs. Taking a few needles she began sticking them into the flesh. Taking some notes on how Alicia reacted, before injecting her breasts with strange fluids.

That seemed to be the end of it, as next she cleaned up, before pulling a stone out. Waving it over her body caused the eerie black goop to flow off Alicia’s body, her muscles and skin shifting back to where it had been before. Leaving only the strange symbols on her body. Which were wiped off with a rag. The Proprietress spoke, “Alicia dear, you did wonderfully. Now you won’t remember any of this in the morning, but from now on unless Krellik tells you otherwise, you are to abstain from sex with males. Females are okay so long as you don’t use fertility spells or potions, we don’t want you getting pregnant on your own. Understood?”

“I understand.”

“Excellent, now your boobs and belly might feel weird over the next few days, especially your boobs. That’s perfectly normal and nothing for you to worry about. Understood?”

Alicia replied that she understood, and then she was let up.

Krellik stretched, “Okay I should get them to their rooms, before they are missed.”

“You do that, in the meantime. I have to get ready for a trip to The Shop. We have some merchandise to move.”

“Good luck.”

Chloe watched them clean up, and then followed Krellik up to the second floor. Where he simply put Elie and Alicia to bed before heading to his own. After he vanished into his room, she sat there for a moment wondering what kind of cult she’d stumbled upon? Still it didn’t seem anything really harmful had been done, but she’d have to give Alicia a closer look. Figuring out how she’d do it was a problem for future her. Shame she’d never learned mind magic. It would have solved a good number of issues for her, but it had never really been her style. With such thoughts in mind, she walked into her own room. Sae was still curled up on the bed, but it seemed she was the kind to toss in her sleep. Chloe chuckled to herself, fixed her blanket and then moved to the other bed to finally rest herself.