Fan Fiction ❯ Temptation ❯ Temptation ( One-Shot )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

“ Who’s the human?” A deep, rumbling voice asked.
“ Dunno, but he’s managed to piss the boss off something fierce.” A screeching, grating voice responded.
“ Did he now?” The first voice asked. “ Poor bastard, is the boss going to take care of him personally then?”
“ Indeed, as soon as he gets back. Keep an eye on him until then.”
The deep voice grunted. “ And how long will that be?”
“ Who knows? Not my concern.”

Slowly, the darkness started to brighten, a dull grey blur swarming before Elric’s eyes. Behind his eyes, there was nothing but pain, a constant, throbbing ache though his head. He blinked, and the blur started to take shape, though it did nothing for the pain.
He was gradually becoming aware of more pain across his body, especially from his arm. Not his whole arm, just around the elbow, which felt to be locked into something as hard and firm as iron. Beyond that, he couldn’t feel anything of his arm or hand. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he hoped that it was merely from lack of circulation, and not a lack of arm and hand.
His vision was just starting to clear enough to make sense of things when his ears rang with the sound of hinges in desperate need of oil, and new pain shot along his arm as the world spun upside down. He caught a glimpse of something big and grey before he slammed into something hard and unyielding, and everything went black again.

Elric’s body tried once again to awaken, to bring his attention back to painful reality. Reluctantly, slowly, he pulled himself away from the empty bliss of total unconsciousness, his eyes cracking open. The same dull grey blur greeted him again, though this time it had a chance to resolve itself, becoming the dull grey stones of the ceiling.
The effort of sitting up brought with it a series of groans, grunts, creaking bones and many other sounds that a less brutally beaten body can do without making for such a normally simple task. His new vantage point didn’t show him much more then his old, the main difference being black iron bars, and the dull grey stones he looked at behind them were part of the wall, not the ceiling.
“ Well now, among the living after all eh?” A voice that had no business being in such a dismal place floated into Elric’s ears. The voice was far too fair, too sweet, too beautiful to be in a place as dull and grey as this. Still, it was there, it was talking to him, and best of all, as far as Elric was concerned, it was female.
Turning his head, Elric’s gaze crossed over the rest of the room he was in. It wasn’t very big, yet still managed to contain a good dozen or more cells like the one he was locked in. Then again, neither his cell nor any of the others were very big either, so it all worked out just fine. Only two of the cells had anyone in them, his and the one right by it. The other occupied cell was were the voice came from, the voice that was too good to be in there, and once he got a good look at the owner of the voice, Elric decided that she too was far too good to be there as well.
The woman leaning on the dull grey stone wall, framed by the black iron bars, was absolutely beautiful, stunningly so. She was the kind of exotic beauty one could only find by wandering around outside of one’s own plane of existence, and that was exactly why Elric was a plane wanderer.
Her form was perfect, slim and athletic, and he could see it very well due to the very revealing outfit she wore. It started by her ankles, but down there it was little more then a strip of cloth that hung from her waist, doing nothing at all to cover her long, flawless legs. After her legs, it wrapped around her waist and hips tightly, crisscrossing strips covering, but due to the sheerness, not concealing her flat stomach. A few inches higher it passed over her breasts, lovely and full, though the cloth itself at this point was, as far as Elric was concerned, annoyingly less see through. The outfit finally ended at the back of her slender neck, hidden under a mass of fiery red hair. Sharing space around her neck, was a tightly fitted collar of some shiny metal Elric couldn’t quite identify.
Framed by this hair, was one of the most beautiful faces Elric had ever had the great pleasure of laying eyes on. In fact, the only thing stopping him from declaring it the most beautiful was the fact that he had once been luckily enough to have caught a glimpse of a nymph, and even more luckily had managed not to be blinded for doing so.
He didn’t sense any unusual energy coming from the woman before him, didn’t feel his eyes threatening to darken permanently, and decided that despite her great beauty, she was not a nymph. Wanting to hear her wondrous voice again, Elric smiled a smile he knew to be charming, and answered her.
“ I would imagine so, I’d hate to think death could be this painful.” Elric brushed a few stray bangs aside, tucking his light brown hair behind his ear. He hoped he didn’t look too beat up; he had a face most women liked to call cute, and a body that was slim and robust. In other words, he was what less gifted men called a pretty boy. He knew how to use his looks and charisma to make most people his friends, or if that failed, he used his natural knowledge of arcane magic to make people believe they should be his friends, or that they should be somewhere further away.
“ Yes, you poor thing. You certainly got worked over good, didn’t you?” The woman stated more then asked. Elric cursed on the inside, his hopes of looking somewhat presentable slipping away.
“ Indeed, I’ll have to remember to be more careful the next time I deal with devils.”
“ Oh?” The woman seemed amused by this response. “You expect to have more dealings with them do you?”
“ Well, when I make my escape, I assume I’ll be running into at least a few, if not more of them.” Elric answered, and the woman laughed. “ Hey now, what’s so funny?”
“ You are of course.” She told him. “ Escape will you? From here?”
“ Do you see me locked up anywhere else?” Elric didn’t like the way the conversation was going. He preferred it when lovely women laughed with him, not at him. “ What’s your name?” He asked, cutting her off before she could answer his first question.
“ Kayleen, and yours?”
“ Elric, commonly known as Elric the Inferno.”
Kayleen arched an eyebrow at this. “ The Inferno huh? Cute, and how did you gain that nickname?”
“ It was given to me for my skill with fire magic, and a habit of setting things aflame with it.” Elric answered happily.
“ A spellcaster. Interesting...” Kayleen smirked slightly. “ And was it this habit of yours that got you beaten half to death and thrown in jail?”
“ You’re very perceptive Kayleen. Yes it was, you know, you’d think devils wouldn’t be so put off by a few little fire spells. I mean this is Hell after all, half of it’s on fire anyway.”
“ Well I’m sure that if they wanted the other half on fire as well, they would have contacted you sooner.”
Elric’s mouth started to move to deliver a reply, but snapped shut when the door, the one part of the room that wasn’t dull grey stone or black iron bars, swung open on loud hinges and a disturbingly large creature set foot inside.
It was grey, though a more interesting grey then the dull color of the walls. The grey was darker and shinier, and was laid over scales that covered a thick and powerful form. Huge wings had to be folded back to allow the devil in through the doorway, and even then the spikes sitting on said wings brushed against the frame. More spikes and some horns as well framed it’s face, and it’s face was not a happy one, as much as Elric could read a face that probably looked equally nasty regardless of how happy it’s owner was.
The devil said nothing, simply walked over to the cells, eyed both prisoners coldly, and dropped two trays of something on the floor, shoving them through a tiny space under the cell doors with it’s foot.
“ What is that?” Elric asked of the greyish, lumpy goo that he had just been offered.
“ Lunch.” The devil answered in a deep, rumbling voice. “ Eat it, you’ll need your strength later.”
“ If that’s true, it’d probably be better for my strength if I refrain from eating this so called ‘lunch’” Elric announced after a second’s consideration. The devil growled, but said nothing else as it turned and left, slamming the door shut behind itself. “ They can’t honestly expect us to eat this slop.”
“ Shut up and be glad they’re bothering to feed us at all.” Kayleen told him as she picked her tray up, poking around to find the least unappetising morsels.
“ Sorry, but I’m not one for believing in being happy with what I get simply because there isn’t any better alternative.” Elric commented as he started examining the cell door.
“ What are you doing?” Kayleen asked, coughing slightly as she forced herself to swallow some of the grey goo.
“ Making my escape, I’d say I’ve been here long enough.”
“ And just how do you plan to do this?”
“ Well, seeing as these bars seem to be nothing more then simple iron, I suppose I’m just going to melt them.”
“ Good luck with that” Kayleen choked out around another bit of her lunch.
“ Ha, watch me work.” Elric replied smugly, his hands tracing along paths of energy, his voice dropping in pitch as he uttered a few words of power. He felt the magic within his body, ready to explode outward.
The next thing Elric knew, he was laying on his back, looking up at the dull grey ceiling, in even more pain then he had been before. The pain was centered on his wrists, which burned as if someone had taken hot metal from a forge and wrapped it around his arms.
Looking down at his hands, he saw this wasn’t too far from the truth. Around his wrists, two bands of glowing metal rested. There was a disturbing smell of burnt flesh in the air.
“ Wha...what the hell?”
“ Spell locks.” Kayleen informed him. “ They prohibit the wearer from casting magic, and as a bonus, turn some of the energy of the blocked spell back on the caster.”
“ Well hey, thanks so much for warning me about these things before I tried to cast my spell, really helped me out.” Elric’s voice dripped with mixed venom and sarcasm.
“ You know, I considered it, but I didn’t because I seriously doubted the knowledge would have stopped you from trying anyway.” Kayleen sighed as she tossed her half finished meal aside. Elric fumed a bit, but refrained from saying anything else, mainly because she was right. It was a bad habit of his, even worse then the one of setting things a blaze. Whenever someone told him he couldn’t do something, he just had to try and prove them wrong.
“ Well, just how powerful of a spell can these thing handle?” He finally asked after spending a couple minutes calming himself.
“ I have no idea.” Kayleen admitted. “ Though I’d imagine a more powerful one then you could cast.”
“ Hmm...guess I’ll just have to see then.” Standing back up, Elric faced the cell door again.
“ Wha...don’t be stupid.” Kayleen protested. “ I just told you, those locks turn the spell energy back on the caster. You’ll kill yourself if you use a powerful enough spell”
“ Better to die now trying to escape then wait to be tortured to death later.” Elric told her. His hands wove a much more complex path before him, his voice taking on an otherworldly echo as he chanted. Tremendous power swelled inside him, rushing through his body, waiting for the final gesture, the final word that would release it. The spell locks were already starting to grow warm around his wrists, and Elric hesitated for a moment. Then he let the power loose.

Waking up, looking at the same old dull grey ceiling as he seemed to do quite often, Elric was surprised that he wasn’t in as much pain as he thought he should be. That’s not to say he didn’t hurt, because he did. He felt like someone had tossed his body into the Plane of Fire, left him to play with the elementals for a few hours, then dragged him back to the Material Plane and let a few trolls beat his cooked body just for kicks.
On top of it all, there was a really nasty taste in his mouth that reminded him of a time in the Green Dragon Tavern, when he’d been dared to drink a cup of some unknown brew a dwarven trader had brought along . Being happily drunk at the time, and offered a few pieces of silver, he accepted the dare, and had then spent the next few minutes being less happily drunk and more painful sick.
The sick memories came screaming back as he felt something wet, slimly, and foul tasting sliding slowly into his mouth. Gagging, Elric sat up, ignoring the pain the sudden motion brought long enough to turn his head, spit whatever it was onto the floor, and then fall back and hit his head on the same floor.
“ Ah good, you’re awake.” Through the new pain throbbing in his skull, Elric could just make out Kayleen’s voice. “ I was beginning to worry.”
“ How kind of you to worry” Elric groaned as he rubbed the back of his head. He tried to sit up again, decided it was too much work for too little reward, and gave up halfway. Expecting to hit his head again, Elric was rather surprised when his fall was slowed and cushioned, his head set on something much softer and yielding then the stone floor.
Looking up, he was equally surprised to see Kayleen kneeling behind him. It was her hands that had saved his skull further punishment, laying his head in her lap. She brushed his bangs aside and made another attempt to feed him some of the disgusting goo that passed as food in the prison.
“ No thank you” Elric told her, bringing his hand up to block his mouth. In doing so, he became aware of the thick bandages wrapped around his arm. He also sent a fresh wave of pain screaming through the limb, though by now he’d been in such a constant state of pain that a bit more barely even registered.
“ Now come on, it hasn’t killed you yet.” Kayleen tried to reason with him.
“ That’s because I haven’t been awake to taste it.” Elric reasoned back. “ I can assure you, it makes a difference.”
“ Fine then.” Kayleen shrugged, tossed it back on the tray with the rest of the goo, and then stood up, letting Elric’s head finish it’s previous trip to the floor. Sitting down across from him, Kayleen leaned back against the bars and looked at nothing in particular.
Rolling onto his side, Elric managed to prop himself up on what he figured was his better arm, given that it was the one in less pain. He glanced over at Kayleen, who seemed to be making a point not to glance at him.
“ What the hell was that all about?” Elric asked himself.
“ You’re lucky, in a way...” Kayleen suddenly spoke up. “ Your attempt to blow your own arms off earned you a reprieve. Vechemot didn’t think it’d be much fun to torture a man who was hovering on the brink of death, so he ordered that you be nursed back to health.”
“ Vechemot? Why does that name sound so...oh yeah. He’s the son of a bitch who beat me into the ground and had me thrown in here.” Elric complained, pulling himself up and sitting back against the wall. It was painfully hard, and as he rested his bruised head against it, he found himself missing the wonderful softness of Kayleen’s legs. “ So how did I end up in here with you?”
“ Well, devils really aren’t known for their healing skills. Beyond slapping on some bandages and gulping down some medicine, there’s not much to the art of healing they understand. So they made me a deal; either nurse you back to health, or take your place in the torture chamber.”
“ Not much of a choice there.” Elric commented.
“ I thought so as well.” Kayleen agreed, still refusing to look directly at him, though Elric could see her glance at him out of the corner of her eye. “You’ve been out cold for about a week now.”
“ A week? I’ve been out for a week?” Elric asked, astonished. His hands came up to his face, and he felt the light beard across his features. Kayleen nodded.
“ Like I said, you nearly blew your own arms off.” She tilted her head towards the cell Elric had originally been tossed in, and he could see a large stain of dried blood covering the floor. Looking down at himself, Elric saw his trousers were also stained with old blood, and he was willing to bet the back of his shirt was as well.
“ Kayleen,” Elric asked after a few moments of silence had drifted over them. “ How did you end up in here? I’ve heard stories of devil lords kidnaping beautiful women, but most of those stories involve said women getting chained up to the lord’s throne or in his bed chamber. None of them ever mentioned tossing the beauties into a tiny jail and ignoring her.”
Kayleen smiled lightly. “ Well yes, there is some truth to those stories, but I wasn’t kidnaped. I came here of my own free will.”
“ You...did?” Elric asked in amazement. “ That’s pretty gutsy, walking into a devil stronghold. Can I ask why?”
“ You could, but I doubt you’ll get much of an answer.”
“ Oh, why’s that?”
“ Because, I’m not really sure myself.” Stretching a bit, Kayleen stood up, walking over and sitting down right beside Elric. She took his arm, and draped it around her shoulders as she pressed up close to him.
“ Uh, Kayleen?”
“ Shhh, I’m tired, and I got used to having a very nice and quiet pillow this week. Lets not change that, okay?” Resting her head on his shoulder, Kayleen closed her eyes, and Elric found himself having little difficultly being a nice and quiet pillow.

The next day, at least what Elric decided was the next day, having nothing around to actually judge the passage of time, he just decided it was the next day since he’d gone to sleep and woken up, Elric woke feeling as if he was in less then constant pain, which was a very nice change of pace. His arms still hurt to move, and his back was stiff from leaning against a stone wall all night, but still he thought that he felt somewhat better.
Looking down, he found what he figured was a big reason for feeling as he did. Kayleen was fast asleep, laying across his lap where she had ended up after sliding down his body during the night. Her head was laying on his leg and her arms had found their way around his waist, hugging him firmly.
Elric would freely admit to anyone, nothing makes a man’s morning like waking up in the arms of a beautiful woman. His eyes traveled easily over her body, and for the first time in a long while, Elric managed to find a bit of peace of mind.
His hand brushed through Kayleen’s hair lightly, and he marveled at how soft it was. Even after a week, at minimum, of captivity she was still well groomed. A bit dirty from laying on the floor to sleep, but that was it. Something about that bugged Elric; he knew he had to be a mess, a week without a shave or bath, he could feel his skin itch just thinking about it.
Further thoughts along this line of thinking were cut off as Kayleen sighed deeply, rolled partly over so she was resting on her back, and yawned. Her eyes blinked opened, and looked at Elric with an expression as if seeing him for the first time.
“ Good morning.” He told her. His hand was still playing with her hair, something her eyes took notice of, darting to the side. They settled back on him, and she smiled slightly.
“ Morning, sleep well?” She asked.
“ Better then I have in recent memory.” Elric replied, smiling as well.
“ That’s good.” Kayleen yawned again, crossing her arms over her chest and giving no indication that she planned to move anytime soon, which was perfectly fine with Elric.
“ Hey...” Kayleen started.
“ Yes?”
“ Why did you come here?”
“ You mean to this plane?”
“ Yeah.”
“ Bunch of reasons. Adventure, gold, glory, fun...”
“ Fun? What kind of fun do you enjoy?”
“ All kinds. Drinking, joking, telling stories, especially with women.”
Kayleen closed her eyes, sighing a small sigh as she tried not to smile and only half succeeded. “ Of course. Any type of women in particular?”
“ Not really. I’m too big of a fan of women to be picky.”
Kayleen sighed again, sitting up a bit. She supported herself on one arm, leaning half across Elric, her face hovering directly before his. Her eyes were a deep shade of green, and stared into his blue eyes with an intensity that would have made him flinch if not for the unmoving wall behind his head. Elric was amazed by the strength of her gaze, and even more so at the way the gaze made it very hard for him to move or even breathe.
Whatever Kayleen would have done next, Elric didn’t get to find out, because at that moment the door opened in it’s usual noisy fashion, the guard entering with his usual nasty face. Kayleen stood up, moving away from Elric, who watched her for a second, then looked at the guard. The guard looked back with a look of someone who realized they had just interrupted something, and was not the least bit sorry he had.
He deposited the usual grey goo that was served for every meal, and left without a word, as usual. Kayleen took the trays, handed one to Elric, then sat down across from his to pick at the so called food.
The rest of the day passed in, what was to Elric, an uncomfortable silence. Something about Kayleen had shaken him, and even though he’d never admit it, even to himself, had scared him. There was something about her, something behind those deep green eyes, that suggested there was much more to her.
When she finally came back over to him, snuggling against him again to go to sleep, Elric found himself unable to do or say anything. He just sat there, letting her get comfortable against him, listening to her breath as it got softer and softer, until he was certain she was well and good asleep. Only then did he find the will to let his own breathing return to normal.

It was a long night, or at least it was a long period of time that Elric decided to claim was the night. He spent a long period of time thinking about and looking at Kayleen, trying to figure her out. When that failed to produce any results, he turned his mental activities to more base thoughts, such as imagining what the parts of her he couldn’t see looked like, what those and other parts of her would feel like, and other fantasies along those lines.
He eventually decided he needed something else to focus on, and found a weak replacement for Kayleen in his bandages. She said it’d been a week since he’d injured himself, and Elric was curious as to just how bad his wounds were.
Carefully he started to unwrap his right arm, mindful of the sleeping woman in his lap as he tried not to move too suddenly. The first thing he revealed was the damnable spell lock, the seemingly harmless band of metal still clamped tightly around his wrist.
Nudging the lock a bit, Elric drew a breath through his teeth at the dark band of scar tissue underneath. He had clearly burned himself pretty bad testing the limits of the lock, and worried how the rest of his arm would look.
Reluctantly, he peeled away the rest of the bandages, revealing inch by inch the skin of his arm. It was not a pretty sight, but upon a moment’s reflection, Elric realized it wasn’t as bad as it could, or should, be. There were scars, plenty of scars, enough so that he knew it was going to cost him many gold pieces to get them removed. However, despite the number and size of the scars, all of them seemed to be healing well.
While he tried to think of which church was likely to have the most generous clerics, Elric toyed with the spell lock on his wrist. He spun it slowly around, his thoughts drifting, when his thumb felt a deviation in the smoothness of the metal of the lock. Peering at it, he saw a thin, jagged line in the metal. Peering closer, he came to realize the line was actually a crack.
He held his breath, staring at the nearly invisible break in the metal till his lungs started to burn, at which point he let it all out in a rush and started to tear away at the bandages of his left arm. The sudden motion woke up Kayleen, who groaned in annoyance and growled slightly as she looked up to see just what had woke her.
Seeing a length of bandage dangling before her nose while her human pillow rubbed and peered closely at the metal lock on his wrist, she blinked several times, took a breath, let it out, opened her mouth to speak, closed it again, blinked, and then finally opened it again as her brain gave her something to say this time.
“ What...are you doing?”
“ It’s broken” Elric responded excitedly.
“ What?”
“ The spell lock, I think it’s broken.”
“ What are you talking about?” Kayleen asked, and got Elric’s right wrist shoved in her face as an answer.
“ Look, right there, do you see it?” He pointed with his finger, and just barely, right above his nail, she could see a very fine crack in the metal. She stared at it blankly for a few breaths, then snatched the offered wrist and looked at it more closely, her eyes lighting up.
“ It is...and it goes all the way through!” Kayleen sat up quickly, snatching Elric’s other wrist and examining the spell lock very closely, her eyes traveling over every inch of the metal very slowly.
“ Dammit, this one looks fine.” Disregarding the left, she grabbed Elric’s right arm again and examined the break. She pulled at the metal, trying to dig her fingers between it and his skin, but couldn’t get a good hold of it.
“ Hold on a second, let me try something.” Elric told her, nudging Kayleen aside. His finger twisted through the air, ending with a flick of his wrist as he tried to cast a simple cantrip spell. He growled as the metal warmed slightly around his wrists. “ Damn, it still blocks me.”
“ Nothing is every easy in hell.” Kayleen commented as she went back to trying to break open the metal lock. She managed to dig a finger nail in-between the crack, widening it slightly, but nothing that would make any difference. “ We need something to wedge this open with...wrap it back up.”
“ What?”
“ Just, do it. I have an idea.”

Several very long hours later, the door creaked open, the guard came in, food was slid into the cell, the guard left, and the door creaked shut. Inside the cell, the food was dumped on the floor, and the edge of the tray it came on was stomped on thoroughly.
Taking the tray, Kayleen started by wedging her nail into the spell lock’s break. Once she had managed that, she started trying to wedge the edge of the tray into the space. The edge she’d stomped on was just flat enough to allow itself to be forced into the space. After that, she started trying to slide the less flattened part of the tray into the slowly widening gap, and cursed as it instead slipped right out.
Taking a deep breath, she started over, first with her nail, then onto the tray. Slower this time, she inched the tray in-between the gap in the metal. Once this was accomplished, she grabbed the far edge of the tray, and pulled. There was some more cursing as it slipped free again, and the whole operation started over.
It took five more attempts before Kayleen managed to wedge the tray into the break so the lip would snag on the inner edge, letting her use the metal sheet to pry the spell lock further open. As soon as there was room enough, Elric jammed his fingers into the space between the lock and his arm. Kayleen abandoned the tray, shoving her own fingers into the space as well.
The break in the spell lock was now almost a inch wide. Kayleen forced her fingers around the metal to the opposite side, and pulled. Elric pulled his arm the other way, and both of them grunted with the effort as they tried to pry the metal off him.
Kayleen tried to ignore the numbing pain in her fingers as the edge of the metal band cut into her flesh, and just focused on pulling harder. If the spell locks were anything like most magical devices that came in pairs, removing one should render the other useless. And once that was accomplished, nothing would be holding Elric’s power back. After that, all she could do was stand back and hope he was powerful enough to get them out.
Elric gasped in sudden pain as the spell lock’s broken edges cut into his skin, but the sight of the metal just holding on, clinging just before the outer edge of his wrist, gave him reason enough to block it out. He pulled harder, throwing himself backwards and being rewarded with a fresh swelling of blood as the spell lock took a good chunk of flesh with it, but it didn’t matter. The lock was off, clattering to the floor as Kayleen staggered back into the cell door and dropped it.
Flexing his arm, Elric strode over to the door with a purpose, sweeping Kayleen aside and laying his hand on the lock. A few words, and the metal turned red, then white, glowing brightly as it started to deform. Taking a step back, Elric kicked out, his foot slamming loudly into the door, which budged slightly. Another kick shoved it out another inch, the lock barely holding it in place. A third kick and the door was open, a teeth clattering ringing issuing forth as it slammed against the bars of the cell.
The door to the room opened, swinging too quickly for the hinges to have time to creak. The guard stuck his head in, and barely had time to gasp before the fireball slammed into his face. The explosion blew the door off it’s hinges, never to creak again, and blew the guard down the hallway.
“ That felt so good.” Elric grinned, glad beyond words to be back in a position of power. He moved into the ruined doorway, looking down the hall at the guard, who was shakily getting back on his feet. Elric had expected as much, most devils were immune to fire, but the explosion of the fireball had tossed the devil like a leaf in a storm and he wasn’t looking happy about it, not that he ever had looked happy before.
The devil brought it’s gaze up, and Elric could see it’s eyes blaze with rage. He was going to kill him, regardless of his lord’s wishes or orders, if given the chance to. Elric wasn’t about to give him that chance.
He pointed down the hall, his index finger aimed right at the devil’s chest. Dark words of power echoed off the stones, and black, deadly energy snaked around his hand. The devil roared and charged, claws outstretched and ready to rend flesh. The energy leapt from Elric’s finger, streaking down the hall and slamming into the devil, which took another step, and then fell over dead.
“ Very nice” Kayleen applauded from behind the sorcerer.
“ Thanks, come on.” Stepping over the pile of dust that was the devil’s remains, Elric lead the way.

Having been out cold when he was brought into the stronghold, Elric really had no idea which way was out. After having Kayleen tell him for the third time that it would be quicker to go this way then that, he relinquished the lead to her.
“ So tell me...” Elric spoke up after blasting several jelly like creatures to goo, and hoping they had nothing in common with the so called food served in the jail. “ You said you came here of your own free will, though you’re not sure why. That’s fine and all, but what exactly did you do after you got in?”
“ I danced.” Kayleen offered as an answer as she considered the pathways before them, and chose the left most.
“ Danced?” Elric asked.
“ Yes, for the Vechemot. In exchange for being allowed to live in his strong hold, I danced for him.”
“ Sounds like a fair trade.” Elric murmured, his eyes traveling down Kayleen’s backside as he followed closely behind her. “ So why did he toss you in his jail? Got bored of your dancing?”
“ No, it’s because he’s paranoid. Just one day, out of no where, he accused me of being a spy and had me locked up. As I understand it, I’m rather luckily that’s all he did. Most people he accuses of being spies get executed immediately and have their corpses hung on the outer wall by their entrails.”
“ Charming.” Ducking into a side room to avoid a search party, Elric and Kayleen paused to catch their breaths.
“ What about you? What exactly did you burn up?” Kayleen prodded as they slipped back out the door.
“...Vechemot’s son...” Elric answered after a moment. Kayleen choked on her surprise and nearly tripped over it as well. “ Not my fault he was only half devil and thus lacking in fire resistance”
“ And you’re alive!?” She hissed.
“ Well he really wanted to torture me for it, but there was an army of demons approaching that required his attention first, so he just beat me unconscious and had me locked up for later.”
“ Lucky you”

The hallway opened up suddenly, leading onto a wide ledge circling around an enormous room, the ceiling hanging high overhead and the floor deep below. The walls sloped back from the floor, so that every level was wider then one below, forming a giant bowl.
From one of the higher ledges, words were shouted and fingers pointed towards the fleeing pair. Wings spread and several of the shouting and pointing figures leapt over the waist high wall that ran around each ledge.
“ Down!” Kayleen grabbed Elric, pulling him to cover behind the guard wall as a dozen flaming bolts rained down around them.
“ You know, if they weren’t trying to kill me, I feel like I could really learn to like these creatures.” Elric commented as prepared his next spell, holding it ready to cast as he stood up, and flinched.
The devils were already right on top of him, bows replaced with swords, ready to remove various parts of his being from the rest of his body. Elric hand snapped up, and as he uttered the final word to activate his spell, he thought about what a waste it was to have to kill these devils, as they were, with the exception of the psychotic looks on their faces, rather pretty.
Lightning leapt from the sorcerer’s hand, striking the lead Erinyes in the chest, knocking her back from the force. Almost instantly, arcs of electricity jumped from her body to every other Erinyes in the area, striking them down all well. The group went down, half of the devils slamming into the low guard wall and bouncing off hard, landing two or three levels lower. The rest passed over the wall, hit the floor, and skidded into the wall the ledge connected to. A few of them groaned and writhed in pain, but most were silent.
“ We need to get down there.” Kayleen pointed at the ground floor.
“ Ah, it’s times like this I wish I’d bothered to learn just one transport spell.” Elric complained to himself, but only for a moment. He was also wishing he’d hadn’t spent so much time learning fire spells, as they were pretty much useless to him at the moment, but he didn’t bother to voice that. Instead, he voiced the words needed to cast one of his handful of non-fire spells, and formed a wall of force into a slide that would take them were they needed to be. “ This way” Elric waved at Kayleen as he gripped the edge of the invisible barrier, and leapt onto it, seemingly floating down to the bottom of the bowl shaped room.
He hit the floor at a good pace, rolling over a few times before managing to halt his forward momentum, and getting a good reminder that his body wasn’t in the best of conditions. Groaning, he stood up just in time to get bowled over by Kayleen.
“ That could have gone so much smoother.” Elric muttered to himself as he untangled himself from the knot of limbs he’d ended up in, and them helped Kayleen up.
“ Never mind it.” She ordered. “ There’s the way out.” She pointed, and if by magic, the huge twin doors before them opened. Elric found himself wishing they’d close again, because the creature that they had actually opened for was one he had wished never to meet again.
Lord Vechemot growled deeply, a powerful rumble that rolled over the two unfortunate people his burning eyes were currently locked on. He strode forward, powerful wings snapping open wide from his back and casting a dark shadow over Elric and Kayleen. The devil lord’s blood red scales shined brightly in this shadow, as did the sharp points of his many claws and teeth.
Elric stepped in front of Kayleen, urging her back as he held a hand up, trying to think of something to cast, but all thoughts seemed to have been stripped from his mind in the presence of the pit fiend.
“ I should have just killed you both and have been done with it” Vechemot announced, his voice rumbling around the room. “ It was a mistake I will now correct.”
“ Are you sure it isn’t a mistake you could ignore?” Elric replied, his voice dropping off to near inaudibility after the first three words, his attempted defiance dying quickly.
Vechemot’s hand came up, and flame leapt from his palm, the fireball exploding violently as it slammed into Elric’s own fireball. He didn’t wait for the view to clear, magical lightning flashing through the smoke, and a pain and angry roar outspoke the thunder that followed.
The pit fiend’s eyes flashed through the thinning smoke, and Elric erected a wall of force between them as several fireballs hurtled forward. The explosions rattled his teeth and echoed around the room like a thousand brass drums.
The rumble had just started to die down when another volley of fire slammed into the wall, and despite a wall of force’s resistance to any type of damage, Elric half expected his spell to fail. The meteor swarm’s explosion was like a volcano going off, the sound knocked Elric from his feet as he tried to shade his eyes from the light. It felt like the floor had dropped out from under him, and it was only when his vision cleared that he realized the feeling was accurate.
Above him, the hole that had been torn in the floor shrank away as he fell. The dull ring in his ears resolved itself into a scream, which he traced back to Kayleen. He reached out for her, chanting a quick spell, and heard her gasp as their plummet slowed, leaving them drifting down as if sinking gently through water instead of falling through air.
“ Are you alright!?” He called out to her.
“ Yes, I think so.” Kayleen responded in a voice full of barely contained panic.
“ Good...” Elric said, more to himself then anyone. Looking down, all he could see was darkness. “ What the hell is this?” Forming a small flame in his hand, he tossed it down the seemingly endless pit, watching it glow dim with distance. The walls of the pit were rough and uneven, and in many places he saw what looked like tunnels, though the shadows were too deep to tell if they actually went anywhere.
“ Elric!” Kayleen’s shout drew his attention, first to her, and then up, as this was the direction she was pointing. High above, he could see the speck of light that marked the hole that had dropped them into the pit they were falling through, and right in the middle of it, he could see a small dot.
The dot rapidly grew in size, it’s features becoming clearer, though it had been obvious what it was from the start. Vechemot wasn’t about to lose his prey so easily, and would very quickly catch up with them. Elric considered ending the feather fall spell, but wasn’t sure if he wanted to risk being surprised by the floor while his attention was focused on the devil lord. Either one was likely to kill him very quickly.
Further thoughts towards working up a plan of action were wiped from his mind as bolts of flame came rushing down at him, and he tossed some up to meet them. Explosions thundered down the pit, debris rained down, Elric took a rock to the shoulder, and was spun into the wall.
The feather fall spell saved his life, instead of being reduced to a meaty paste by the impact, the sorcerer merely hit his head, an annoyingly common occurrence, and bounced back into the pit, just as a pair of fireballs slammed into the wall right above him. The blasts pushed him into the wall on the other side, and he bounced again.
When no more explosions pummeled his body, Elric risked opening his eyes again, and really wished he could just shut them again. Vechemot was nearly on top of him, the Pit Fiend’s claws reaching out. Elric froze as his mind tried to think of something, anything to cast. None of his attack spells were strong enough though, all he’d do was enrage the devil further.
As Vechemot closed in the final few feet, Elric panicked and just cast the first spell that came to mind, closing his eyes at the same time. He heard a sickening noise that sounded like a piece of raw meat being dropped on stone from a great height, and waited for the pain to tear through him.
After several seconds of feeling nothing, Elric risked opening his eyes. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and blinked again. Vechemot was no longer right on top of him, no longer just a few feet away from removing his head with a swipe of a scaley, clawed hand. The devil lord was instead, several dozen feet away and receding, laying crumpled up on the wall of force Elric had summoned into being.
“ Uh...wha...” Elric’s mouth made noises as his brain tried put together what he was seeing and fill in the blanks for him. This process included a very nice image of just what happens to someone that, when falling at a great speed, runs head first into something very hard and completely unmoveable.
Glancing over at Kayleen, Elric saw what he figured was the same look he had on his face, complete astonishment. She glanced at him, and he did his best to smirk, as if he’d planned the whole thing out. A brief gesture later, and a small wind propelled him over to her, their hands reaching out and grabbing hold.
Producing another small flame, Elric tossed it down the pit, watching it fall until it highlighted one of the apparent tunnels. Another gust of wind, and they were drifting towards the opening, landing inside gently, and then falling over in a mixture of exhaustion and relief.
“ Do...do you think you killed him?” Kayleen asked after several minutes.
“ I don’t know...he did hit pretty hard, but...he is a pit fiend. They’re pretty tough.”
“ Well then maybe...” Kayleen groaned as she stood up. “ We should get moving” Elric wanted nothing to do with the act of getting up, or walking, or anything else that involved him doing anything other then laying right where he was. However, he did just that, because even more he didn’t want to be laying right where he was if there was a chance of a very angry devil lord finding him there. Light sprang forth from his hand, and the two of them started to explore the tunnel, hoping it lead somewhere useful.
The tunnel lead to more tunnels, which lead to more tunnels, which all twisted all around, over, and through each other. Elric let Kayleen lead the way, since she seemed to have some sense of direction, and he felt utterly lost and turned around.
After what seemed like hours walking, climbing, and crawling around through untold miles of tunnels, fate seemed ready to give them a break, as the tight stone walls opened up, vanishing into darkness above and around them, becoming a vast underground cave. Elric’s light flashed off something large and metallic before them, and as he turned the light on it, a giant structure seemed to leap out of the darkness.
It looked to be made entirely of solid iron, shaped into a great dome that curved away into the shadows. The surface was rough, rusted and pitted, and Elric could only try to guess how many hundreds of years old it had to be to look as it did. The only break in the dented surface was a pair of doors, which were made out of heavy, solid wood that looked much newer then the rest of the structure.
“ What is that?” Elric asked, not really expecting an answer, but getting one.
“ It’s Vechemot’s private sanctuary.” Kayleen replied, her voice starting out in a slow, soft whisper, but growing with excitement. “ This is it. This is where he’s been hiding it, this is what I’ve been looking for!”
“ What?” Elric asked, not getting any answer as Kayleen sped off ahead, approaching the doors and eagerly tugging one open with some effort. “ Whoa! Wait a mintue...”
“ Hurry up!” Kayleen insisted, darting off inside. Elric stood rooted for a moment, trying to over come the feeling that this was a bad idea. Eventually he gave up trying to get over it and just settled for ignoring the feeling as he ran after Kayleen.

“ Kayleen!” Against his better judgement, Elric risked calling out her name. There was no reply at all, not even an echo. The walls seemed to swallow any sound, and it was eerily silent as he crept along the dark hallway. The room it lead to nearly dropped Elric to his knees, never before had he seen so much wealth.
The room itself was made of solid gold. The floor, walls, and ceiling glittered and glowed, etchings made of silver laid over the bricks. Scattered around the room were gems, diamonds, rubies, coins and hundreds of other items of value’s Elric couldn’t even estimate.
In the middle of it all, sat a throne of pure platinum, towering above everything else. It was almost blinding to look at, and the only thing that let Elric resist the urge to sit in it were the dozens of blacken and broken skulls that decorated it, even if they were stuffed full of jewels.
Hearing a crash, Elric jumped, his heart trying to climb it way up through his throat and escape out his mouth. Another crash followed, along with the skittering of many small objects. Following the noise, Elric passed into another room, equally stuffed with wealth.
Kayleen was kneeling in the middle of a huge pile of jewels, and it nearly made Elric cry to watch the way she carelessly tossed handfuls of them aside. She dug through the pile rapidly, clearly looking for something, and not finding it.
“ What are you doing?” Elric asked as she passed by him, heading back into the first room and looking around.
“ It’s got to be here somewhere.”
“ What does?”
“ I...don’t know.” Kayleen admitted as she passed into another room. Elric followed, and tried again.
“ You’re looking for something.”
“ Yes.” Several silk pillows, laced with silver, went flying.
“ But you don’t know what it is.”
“ No clue” A vase met a sad and noisy end on the floor.
“ So how will you know it when you find it?”
“ Because, then I’ll remember it.” A painting was moved from the wall to the floor, mainly by way of gravity . Elric considered this, thought about it, and then admitted to himself he’d have to try yet again.
“ What?”
Kayleen sighed, dumping out bags of coins. “ Okay, I figured out why it was I came here.”
“ Ah, well that’s good.”
“ I came here to steal something, something very important.”
“ But you don’t know what.”
“ No, because I had my memories suppressed.”
“ Seems like that would make things hard for you.”
“ Actually, it was the only way this plan could work. Devils are telepathic, if I’d shown up here knowing why I came, they would have read my mind, and killed me on the spot.”
“ Well, that would make things even harder.”
“ It’s no wonder I never found this place, it’s not actually in the stronghold, but under it. I doubt anyone but Vechemot even knows it exists. He really is paranoid.” Kayleen left the room, Elric trailing behind her. “ But now that I’ve found it, I’m starting to remember everything.”
The next doors they passed through lead them into a hallway of marble, a long row of fat columns leading the way down it’s length. On either side, there were dozens of small rooms, each with a single bed.
“ Hmm, slave quarters.” Kayleen remarked as she walked down the hall.
“ So where are the slaves?” Elric asked as he glanced around, watchful for any movement.
“ Probably dead. Like I’ve been saying, Vechemot is paranoid. I’d bet he had them all executed as spies.”
Reaching the midpoint of the long room, Kayleen paused. There was a break in the columns, and seated in the center of the room, was a wide, circular bath. It was simple and undecorated, but the water was clear and clean.
“ It’s still warm.” Kayleen commented as she knelt down and ran her hand through the water. “ It’s either magical, or sits over a natural hot spring.” She cupped some water in her hands and splashed it on her face, sighing happily. “ That feels so good.” Shaking free the drops that clung to her skin, she stood back up, eyeing Elric. “ You know, you are a terrible mess.”
“ I’ll bet” He sighed. “ It was rather unavoidable.”
“ Well, I think it’s time you cleaned up some.” Kayleen informed him as her hands brushed along the bottom edge of his shirt.
“ Uh...” Elric’s mouth said as two entirely different halves of his brain struggled for control over it. From her words, her actions, the gleam in her eyes, it was fairly obvious what Kayleen was suggesting, and Elric would need a damn good reason not to take her up on that suggestion. Unfortunately, almost painfully so, he knew of a damn good reason, that being that Vechemot could very well be alive, and the only guaranteed method of prolonged survival lay in putting many many miles between himself and the devil lord’s stronghold.
When Kayleen leaned in and kissed him softly though, survival became an after thought, discarded in much the same way his clothing soon was. The bath water was indeed nice and warm, and felt great on his skin, though even better was the feeling of Kayleen’s hands as she helped rub the worst of the dirt and grime of over a week off. He was happy to return the favor, running his hands repeatedly along her body, pulling her close against him.
His mouth soon joined his hands along her body, and Kayleen voiced her enjoyment of this very firmly, soft echos running through the hallway. Elric pinned her against the side of the bath, pressing their bodies together as she wrapped her legs and arms around him. The water was starting to become more of a hindrance then it was worth, and Elric lifted Kayleen onto the edge of the bath, giving himself easy access to her more sensitive areas, her voice echoing stronger along the hallway.
The bath was soon left behind, the nearest bed getting it’s first use again after many years. It’s frame creaked loudly with the use, the head board slamming even louder against the wall. Sheets that had sat neatly undisturbed for the longest time were soon tangled and twisted, the pillows laying on the floor instead of at the head of the bed.
The creaking and banging were suddenly silenced, replaced by a single throaty scream that filled the hallway, slowly tapering off to a low whine. Silence followed, spaced between deep, heavy breaths that eventually softened, and faded away.

Elric awoke, feeling utterly and completely exhausted, and feeling very good about it. Then he tried to sit up, and failed completely, and the good feelings started to wane a bit. He tried to raise his arm, but it refused to work as well. He soon came to realize he couldn’t do anything other then lay perfectly still right where he was, breathing weakly.
Laying there, he tried to tell if Kayleen was anywhere nearby, but he couldn’t hear her breathing, couldn’t feel her warmth pressed against him. As best as he could tell from his prone position, he was alone, and it was at a time that he most certainly wished he wasn’t.
It was a long time before anything happened, or at least it seemed to be a long time to Elric as he lay helpless, struggling to move even a finger, which he managed to lift slightly. A bit later he found his wrist became willing to bend, but these small steps did little to comfort him, especially when he heard soft footsteps coming down the hallway. As the owner of the footsteps came into view, Elric was both pleased and shocked, and the shock rapidly turned into rage as he mind connected what he was seeing with how he was feeling.
Kayleen walked up to him, smiling sweetly as she laid a large gem down on the bed. She sat down by Elric, leaning over him, her wings casting a deep shadow over his face. He felt her tail brush up against his leg, and he flinched slightly.
“ Demon” He accused, barely able to force his lips to part enough to utter the word.
“ Yeah.” Kayleen agreed easily, resting her head on his chest. Her finger traced lightly over his skin. “ Sorry love, but once I remembered who I was, I couldn’t help but be that person. If it’s any consolation, you were one of my more enjoyable victims.” The succubus sat back up, still smiling sweetly at the raging sorcerer, who barely had the energy left to scowl at her. She picked up the gem. “ I found what I was after, or more accurately, what my master is after. He’ll be so pleased with me.” Sliding off the bed, Kayleen knelt down by Elric, running a hand along his face as she leaned in close, her lips lightly brushing his as she spoke. “ Thank you very much Elric, for keeping me company, for freeing me, for helping me find what I was after, and most of all, for sating my needs.” She kissed him softly, and then left, walking off without looking back once.
On the bed, Elric struggled to move, trying to force his limbs to work. He would have given up all the drink and gold in all the outer planes just for the strength to cast one spell, to be able to strike down the treacherous demon bitch.
He finally gave up trying to do anything other then what he was, which was laying motionless on the bed. His rage died down into a smoldering hate; he wasn’t dead, his strength would return. And once it did, he would paying a trip to the Abyss...




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