Facing Legacies: Chp 5 ALTERNATE (NSFW) (Patreon)

Notes: Sooooo when I wrote chapter 5 of Facing Legacies, I might have written this version first just to get their sexual tension out of my system... I couldn't focus on the real ending otherwise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. And I couldn't possibly keep it to myself. Just keep in mind that THIS IS NOT CANON. It's smut because I have no shame and couldn't help myself.

Chp 5 with that GoodGood(TM)

Having finished my duties for the day, I paced through the castle until I came to the door of a study. It was where Rhien and Akamar had been having their lessons for the past handful of weeks, and I’d been so busy that I’d yet to observe any of them. It was nearing the end of the day, so I wouldn’t be able to see much, but a few minutes would be enough.

I told Andor and Amiran to wait outside and then slipped into the room. Akamar and Rhien were sitting at a table, Rhien seated on the surface, leaning over to watch while Akamar read aloud from a book. He looked up and grinned at me excitedly when I entered, but I motioned for him to keep paying attention to his reading. He sighed and buried his nose back in the book, but Rhien had taken to watching me while I wandered away from the door. I made the same motion at her with a teasing smile, and she rolled her eyes before refocusing on Akamar’s lesson.

I listened to Akamar read while I skirted the edges of the study, busying myself with reading the titles of books on the shelves, or the labels on the various bottles and jars magic ingredients that Rhien had stored in a cabinet. My interest in the items was slight, however, as my attention was almost wholly on the language Akamar was reading in. Called Gydesprac, it was the language of magic. The language of the goddess, which all magic-abled in the kingdom learned to perform their gifts. Some people without magic learned simply for the sake of knowing it, even if it had no practical use for them, but I never had. I didn’t understand a word of what Akamar was reading, and he didn’t seem to understand it all yet either.

Every so often, he’d stop and look up at Rhien, repeating a word or sentence with an inflection of curiosity. She told him the meanings, and then repeated the words or phrases herself, and every time, I stopped my wandering to watch her say it. She spoke with none of the clumsy falter that Akamar did, but with the ease and familiarity of someone who’d been speaking it nearly all their life. It rolled so easily off her tongue. So gracefully. Hearing her say it while I stood in front of her cabinet of ingredients was a reminder of just how different her world was from mine. Every day that we spent time together, she slipped so easily into my world, and a part of me desired to know hers better.

After a few minutes of Akamar reading, he must’ve reached the end of a passage, because he closed his book and asked, “Are we finished, Rhien?”

Rhien cocked an expectant eyebrow. “Mec abidin Gydesprac?”

He thought about it for a few seconds. “Androge-” He thought a moment more. “Andrigenan?”

Rhien smiled. “Gea, odide weldon.”

Akamar flew out of his seat, running across the study to me. “Did you hear me reading, Nira?”

“I did,” I chuckled, tossing an arm around his shoulders and walking him back toward Rhien. “You did wonderful. Are you enjoying your lessons?”

He shrugged. “They’re alright. I want to learn magic, but Rhien says I have to learn other things first.”

“I believe she’s right,” I told him. “You’ll learn soon enough.” I removed my arm from his shoulders to pinch his cheek, saying teasingly, “No naughty business with the magic, then, you understand? Any pranks on your queen, and you’ll get the stocks.”

Akamar snorted, cupping his hand to the side of his mouth and whispering at Rhien. “You hear that? She said no naughty business…”

Rhien smirked, cupping her own hand beside her mouth but deliberately looking at me while she said, “Maybe a little naughty business.” Akamar nodded like it was their little secret, and Rhien grinned at me when I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Nira,” Akamar prompted, and I tore my eyes off Rhien’s smile to look at him. “Can I go to the kitchen and sneak a sweet roll?”

I pursed my lips in thought. It wasn’t long before supper, but long enough for him not to ruin his appetite. “One sweet roll,” I emphasized. “But if Hena catches you, you’re at her mercy.”

“Alright,” he laughed, and sauntered out the door to sneak down to the kitchens, closing it behind him.

“You were right,” I said to Rhien, leaning sideways against the table beside where she was still sitting on the surface. “He is learning quickly.”

She hummed her agreement, reclining back on her hands. “He’ll be fluent in no time. Does it help your hesitation to see that I’m introducing him slowly?”

I nodded. “I’ll have you know, however, that if he pulls one joke on me, I’m blaming you.”

“You know he will…”

“Heed my warning,” I scolded.

She laughed. “I can live with it.”

“Naughty,” I muttered, and she tried to hold back another amused giggle. “You were right about something else, as well.”

“Oh?”

“About how to aid the magic culture in Valens,” I said, and her head tilted with interest. “I’m going to send Entertainers, and hope they do a good job of intriguing Valenians with their magic. But they’ll also be spreading a message.”

“What message is that?”

“Well, you got me thinking about other ways to help without using force, and so I sent a letter to Kingston with an idea. One he liked, and… well… we’re going to build a school in Valens.”

Rhien straightened up with a look of surprise. “A school?”

I nodded. I’d been nervous about telling her because, while my advisors had approved, I cared a great deal what she thought. Whether she thought it was a good idea. A peaceful idea. “I’ll send a sample of masters from each faction, and they’ll teach some of our first Valenian students, hopefully paving the way for Valenian universities in the future.”

“Nira,” she said, face lighting up with a smile, “that’s brilliant.”

My own lips split with a grin. “You think so?”

“Absolutely.” She reached out to grab my hand. “Oh, I’m so proud of you. It’s perfect.”

“Thanks,” I said, but my cheeks were burning. She liked it. And I was so suddenly bashful I could barely look her in the eyes. “I have you to thank, though. Wouldn’t have thought of it without you.”

“You had it in you,” she said, “you just needed a nudge in the right direction.” I smiled gratefully, and gave her hand a squeeze before letting it go and glancing around the study. I could feel her watching me as I retraced my earlier exploration with my eyes, taking in the books and the cabinet of ingredients. “What is it?” she asked.

“Do you do magic every day?” I returned my gaze to her. “I was listening to you and Akamar, and I realized that most of my experience with your gift is from books.”

“I don’t,” she answered. “The magic that mind masters do is one of the more social magics. Most of it is done with or performed on others.”

“Is there a shortage of volunteers?” I asked.

“I certainly don’t go around asking people if I can do magic on them.”

I winced. “Have I stolen you from a magical oasis and replaced it with a desert?”

“Not at all,” she laughed. “I like it here. I’m happy here.”

“You could do magic with me whenever you wanted,” I told her, and she smiled like she thought I was joking. “Honestly. We’ll do it right now. What’s your favorite thing to do?”

“My favorite?” she asked, glancing down as if to think about it. But then her eyes widened, and her cheeks gained a visible blush. “Oh, no. No.”

“What?” I asked amusedly. “What is it?”

She waved a hand. “It’s nothing.”

“But it’s your favorite,” I pointed out. “Come on, what is it?”

She inhaled a breath and held it, clearly debating whether or not to tell me. Eventually, she said, “It’s called Sehrine. The Touch.” I nodded with interest. “I just speak to you, describe a touch… and you feel it.”

I took in the hesitation and lingering tint in her face. “Why is that making you so shy?”

“I generally do it,” she began to say, breaking eye contact, “you know,” she cleared her throat, “with women.”

My mouth fell open when I realized what she meant – that she used it in a sexual context – and I tried not to laugh at the way her cheeks darkened even more. “Naughty,” I teased.

She folded over and shielded her eyes with her hand. “I regret telling you that.”

“Don’t,” I laughed. “And I said we could do it, so let’s.”

She shot straight to look at me. “What? No.”

“Does it have to be sexual?” I asked.

“No...”

“Well?”

“Are you serious?” she asked in disbelief.

I shrugged. “Why not? I’d like for you to share more of your magic with me, especially if you’re not able to do it as often as you used to.”

Her eyes scanned my face with a world of uncertainty, and it took her almost a minute to say, “…Alright.”

“Tell me what to do,” I said. She had my unending trust, and I was comfortable enough to follow her instructions, whatever they may be.

“You should stand here,” she said, gesturing in front of her. I moved to stand right in front of her. “It works best if you close your eyes.”

I fixed her with a skeptical stare. “Then how do I know you’re not just using your hands to touch me?”

“Honestly, Nira?” she laughed.

My shoulders bobbed casually. “Some people say most of what you do is merely a slight of hand.”

“Then they’ve clearly never tried it,” she said, rolling her eyes. I smiled, but she could see that I was serious. “Fine. I suppose, um…” She glanced down, setting her hands on the edge of the table. “You can hold mine, so you’re sure.”

I don’t know what kind of solution I expected, but that wasn’t quite it. It made me wonder if maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all, because I could hardly be around her lately without feeling and thinking things I shouldn’t. But she was waiting, and I’d been so determined to let her do this that I couldn’t back out now. I stepped forward until I was standing between her knees, and close enough that I could set my hands on top of hers. Goddess, it was close, and her gaze met mine with the same nervous hesitation I felt.

“Eyes,” she reminded. I let my eyes drift shut, anticipating the moment I’d feel her magic. She shifted slightly, until she’d leaned forward enough that I could feel her breath on my ear, and her voice whispered, “Lede Sehrine’nura easlan.”

A pair of hands landed on my shoulders, but Rhien’s were still trapped securely beneath my own. The touch was sudden but gentle, and so warm it felt real, and combined with her whisper in my ear, it sent a shudder down my spine. I drew in a sharp breath and leaned back, opening my eyes to look at her. The touch disappeared the moment my eyes opened.

“You felt it?” she asked.

“I felt it,” I confirmed, and looked down at where my forearms were exposed by the rolled-up sleeves of my tunic, taking one hand off hers to show her my skin. “I’ve got gooseflesh.” She took her hand off the table, running it up my arm to feel for herself and laughing. “Keep going,” I said. I grabbed her hand to trap it back on the table under my own.

“Are you sure?” she asked. I nodded, leaning forward to bring my ear closer to her lips and closing my eyes again.

Then her voice was back, whispering that smooth language as the touch set again on my shoulders. With every word she uttered, the warmth moved, the testing contact directed elsewhere by the skill of her tongue. It rounded the ball of my shoulder, cupped my bicep, slipped so far down my arm that it nearly met our joined hands, and then worked its way back up. It moved across the backs of my shoulders and up to the base of my skull, increasing in pressure as it worked over the muscles in my neck like the beginnings of a massage. After only a minute of it, the gooseflesh was gone. It put me at ease, and I was enjoying every second for more than just the physical pleasure.

I knew that Rhien wasn’t touching me. I knew that it wasn’t her hands and her warmth that was pressing into the muscles of my upper back. But I felt her knees against my hips, and her voice was so close that every so often her lips skimmed my ear, and knowledge gave way to feeling. A huge part of me liked the idea of it being her hands, and I couldn’t keep myself from imagining that it was. And so it was.

It was Rhien’s hands falling along the dip of my lower back, and then tracing up my spine. It was her hands moving down my arms until they reached the height of my hips, and wandering back up my waist until they had to move inward at my shoulder blades. It was her hands exploring my body, and while the touch wasn’t exactly intimate, I hadn’t been touched like that since the last time I had been intimate. And I was enjoying it far more than I should have been, because I wasn’t just enjoying the touch. I liked the warmth of Rhien’s body so close to mine, and the heat of her breath on my ear, and the tickle of her lips.

I was melting so deeply into every motion and word that I leaned my head against hers, closing the distance between us so we were pressed cheek to cheek. And I knew that Rhien had lost herself in it too. There was less tension as she spoke, less stiffness in her hands beneath mine, and the touch seemed to match the tone of her voice. It came more smoothly, moved more fluidly, lulled me into such a sense of comfort that I almost pushed into it in encouragement, and it went where she directed with more confidence the longer it lasted.

It gained in confidence as it wandered again along my arms, and the gentle caress continued down the back of my one of my hands, until it’d traced the lengths of my fingers. It felt like Rhien, even though I knew it wasn’t, and I responded to the touch without thinking. My fingers twitched against Rhien’s hand, spreading apart as if to accept the locking of our fingers. At her smooth voice, Sehrine grazed the space between them, stroking from my knuckles to my fingertips so gently that I leaned even further into her. But that was all it did before retracing its path up my arms. I missed the affection of it almost instantly, and my thumb began to brush its range of motion over the back of Rhien’s hand.

She faltered at my touch, and I was near enough that I heard her swallow, but when her words continued, it was with her lips closer than ever. I’d already reached a point of comfort where she could’ve directed the magic wherever she desired. More than that, however, I wanted her to. Wanted to know exactly how far she’d take this when it was me she was doing it with, because there was a sense of freedom from duty when she wasn’t really touching me. A sense that I could let her explore more than I ever should, and it wouldn’t be a breach against the crown.

I almost got what I wanted as she directed Sehrine once more along the dip of my lower back. It went down my spine until one hand set against my hip, the other dropping just a little lower and then stopping. Her voice stopped too, and I recognized the hesitation in the pause. Recognized the unspoken desire to let that touch wander even lower.

“You’re not bold enough,” I whispered without opening my eyes.

I was just as close to her as she was to me, so that my voice was in her ear and I felt her hand squeeze beneath my own. There was only a hint of that reaction in the barely audible tremor of her voice as she said, “Is that a challenge, Your Grace?”

It most certainly was, and I adjusted so that my lips skimmed her ear when I repeated with that challenge in my tone, “You’re not bold enough.”

She whispered again into my ear, but the touch moved across my hips instead so that I thought it wouldn’t happen, she truly wasn’t bold enough. But just when I’d given up on the idea, her next phrase brought the touch straight down, and there was a firm grip against my backside. Even though I’d all but dared her to do it, it was unexpected enough that I let out a quiet squeak as my hips bucked, my hand twitching to land on Rhien’s thigh for something to grab.

I didn’t dare to open my eyes. I didn’t want it end, and so while she huffed her amusement into my ear, I laughed quietly, “I stand corrected.”

Despite her amusement, her voice was almost nervous as she whispered something in Gydesprac that brought the touch creeping back up to my hip. “Should we stop?” she asked, and then muttered to bring the touch inching back down.

Though I was tense with anticipation, I answered honestly, “Probably.”

She hesitated, Sehrine lingering halfway down my backside as she considered the vagueness of my response. It took her a long few seconds to ask, “…Do you want to stop?”

The idea that she’d do it again had my heart thudding in my chest, and I could feel the quickened pulses of her breath against my ear. “No.”

For several long seconds, she said nothing. She simply sat there, unmoving except for the heat of her breath on my ear, the rise and fall of her chest against mine. I wasn’t sure if she’d stop anyway, and a plea for her to continue was on the tip of my tongue. But she didn’t make me beg. That lingering hesitation ended, and when she finally began to whisper again, Sehrine picked up somewhere that made me draw in a sharp breath.

It wasn’t anywhere more intimate than it had already gone, but it set against my lower back, and though none of my clothing had shifted, I felt the touch of skin on skin. I felt Sehrine beneath my tunic. The sensation was so real that with the breath I inhaled, my hand clenched at her thigh. I pressed harder into her as the touch slid up my back, as it ignited a flood of heat that crashed through my body and settled low in my belly, so that my breath was trembling by the time I let it out again.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” I whispered, struggling not to pant so it wouldn’t be painfully obvious what she was doing to me.

But it was painfully obvious what this was doing to her. She was breathing as inconsistently as I was, the pressure of her knees against my hips was firm and she’d set the hand I’d abandoned on my forearm, gripping as if it was the only thing keeping her from taking this where we both knew it shouldn’t go. “Whatever you want,” she said, whispering incoherently as the touch wandered forward, hesitating at my waist like she was giving me the chance to say I didn’t want this.

But I did, and I said nothing while she spoke again and brought Sehrine to my stomach. It caressed across my naval, my flesh so sensitive that it drew half a whimper from my throat before I managed to choke it down. The sound caused Rhien to let out a hard breath against my ear, and I don’t know if it was her lips or her tongue, but something hot and wet grazed my earlobe as she breathed, “Stop me.” But even her plea didn’t keep her from directing the touch with more whispered words. It grazed across the expanse of tender skin between my hips, so low that it neared the waist of my trousers, and wandered lower still as it moved back across and she murmured, “Nira, stop me,” between instructions.

“Don’t stop,” I panted.

She caressed lower still, dipping the touch beneath the waist of my trousers as it reached the center of my belly, but then wandering back up as it got to my side. It was such a tease that my hand left her thigh for her hip, gripping to pull her nearer the edge of the table and closer to me. Oh, and she knew what I wanted. She ordered the touch again below the waist of my trousers, so low that it fondled the place where my thigh met my hip, but it wasn’t what I’d grown to need.

“Rhien,” I begged.

“Say it,” she muttered, and this time it was unmistakable when her teeth grazed my earlobe. “You have to say it.”

“Please,” I said instantly, too desperate to care about anything but the way she felt. The way I needed her. “Touch me.”

That was all she had to hear. She whispered something that sent the touch directly between my legs, and it was such a profound relief as it slipped through my folds that a series of stuttering breaths left my lungs. I wanted to whimper. Goddess, it felt so good when she started circling my clit that I wanted to moan, but I couldn’t get the air to do it. All I could do was let out shallow, trembling breaths as I set my forehead against hers, wanting to meet her eyes but not daring to open mine. I wanted to kiss her, too, as her whispered words tickled my lips, and my mouth hung open with breathlessness so that every panted exhale she let out fell against my tongue.

After a few more seconds of it, I couldn’t stop myself. I kissed her. I met her lips so openly with my own that she moaned, and the sound sent such a powerful wave of arousal through me that I didn’t even realize Sehrine had paused until I stopped clenching. And as her hand slipped out from under mine so she could reach up and cup my face, I was torn between wanting her to speak and wanting to kiss her. Her lips were the softest things I’d ever felt, and the slick feel of her scorching tongue as it slid over mine made my heart stutter out of rhythm.

I could’ve kissed her forever, but she pulled away to find my ear, to continue the hard-panted words that brought the circling touch back between my thighs. So I kissed her neck instead, her hands tangling in my hair to encourage it when I nipped at her pulse and sucked at the smooth surface beside her throat. But I was so overcome with raw desire as the touch worked against me that just kissing her wasn’t enough.

I reached down to find the bottom of her dress with one hand, my voice ragged with arousal as I slipped it up her calf to her knee, and along her thigh while I asked, “Stop me?”

Amidst the instructions rolling off her tongue was a panted, “Never.”

And there was nothing else that could stop me. I slid my hand the rest of the way, the tips of my fingers meeting the hot moisture between her legs. Goddess, she was wet, and my touch caused her next phrase to stumble clumsily off her tongue, so that it translated into the faltering of Sehrine. All that did was make me want her even more, and I pressed deeper into the wetness again my hand to find her opening, and slid one finger deep inside her.

Rhien released a breathy whimper against my ear, going so weak as I filled her that she fell back onto the table, pulling me down with her. Her hips rocked against my hand as I settled the weight of my upper body against her, encouraging the slow rhythm I set as I thrust into her again. It didn’t matter that every word she spoke was muttered and broken, interrupted by the occasional moan when I hit the perfect spot inside her. She didn’t give up on touching me for a moment, and the feel of her tightening around my finger and the pleasured inconsistency of the motion between my legs only made it better.

I’d never needed anyone so badly in my life. Never been so quickly and completely consumed as I was with Rhien, and I was nearing the end far too soon. “Rhien, I’m-” I kissed down her neck and collarbone to suck at the exposed skin of her heaving chest, and though I was too lost in my pleasure and in how she felt to finish what I was saying, she knew.

“Touch me,” she begged, one hand clutching at my head while the other had fallen to my hip, encouraging me to move against her as she rocked into me. “Pull out. Touch me.”

I did. I pulled out of her to find her clit with my fingers, and she moaned as her head fell back, her back arching to push herself harder against me. She had to be as close as I was; she could barely speak. All she could do was repeat the same phrase over and over again on every fragmented exhale, but it was enough to work the same perfect circle at my core. Even more, the hoarse desperation in her voice was so arousing to me that every word sent a spark through my lower belly, adding to the tension until I couldn’t hold it back any longer.

I peaked, burying my face against her collarbone to try and muffle the long, drawn out moan it pulled from my lungs. She finished hardly a moment later, crying out once before she realized that the end of words meant the end of touch, and so she tried her best to keep talking. Every wave of climax turned her words into moans, so she was whimpering phrases that kept drawing burst after burst of pleasure from my core, the feeling intensified by the sensual sound of her voice.

The moment we finished, I removed my hand and collapsed on top of her, my head on her chest to listen to the racing of her heart. She stopped speaking to gasp for much-needed air as her arms fell to her sides. It took a long minute for me to finally open my eyes, and the first thing they landed on was the bruise I’d sucked into the skin of her chest. Maybe, once my pulse was back to normal and we had to talk about this, then I’d start worrying about what we’d just done. But all I could do then was press a kiss to that bruise and cherish the way it made Rhien hold her breath. I pushed up to meet her gaze for the first time since this started, and her focus fell to my lips. It was so clear what she wanted even if she didn’t have the courage to do it herself, but I couldn’t resist. I met her lips with mine to kiss her slowly. Deeply. I could think about this later.