Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 TITLE: Thundersoul
PART: 9 of 11 - Phoenix and Dragon
AUTHOR: Big Al
KEYWORDS: MF MFF MF+ 1st F1st piv impreg inc cons size rom ScFi fant
UNIVERSE: Nexus Empire
SUMMARY: Aldric undertakes a quest for the all-powerful Godqueen.  Set
in the Nexus Empire, an original space fantasy setting of my own devising.

   **********


AGE: 39
Jizz rocketed up Aldric's massive shaft deep inside Elarora's drenched
young cunt, gushing within her in endless geysers.  Elarora rode her
daddy's lap as he sat cross-legged in mid-air, her legs around his waist,
her arms around his shoulders.  They had both lost their voices a long
while ago, and were gasping and grunting harshly with passion.  Aldric had
been cumming inside his pregnant young daughter for two hours nonstop, and

she was writhing spastically with unending orgasmic delight.

   The half-elf girl had enormous capacity for her daddy's cum, but after
hours of it, it was pouring out of her widely-stretched cunt, flooding down
his balls and falling to the floor, where a thick puddle was steadily
growing wider and wider.  Her juices were plentiful as well, and her boobs
were spraying milk, so stimulated was she by the nonstop climaxing her
daddy's cock and cum were giving her.

   Elarora had given birth to two girls already - one nine months after her
first time with her daddy, then the second another nine months after that -
and was six months along with her next.  The rest of the girls in the
Themys were also still pregnant, and orgasming at the same time - those who
were of age, at any rate.  Although the trillions of baby girls he had
sired on all the Themys had been born into the hive mind - thus multiplying
the hive mind's power exponentially, as all its scions were just as
mystically and psionically potent as their mothers - they would not join
the deeper communion of shared orgasm and pregnancy until they were
eighteen years or older.

   Although Aldric's mind was blazing with ecstatic pleasure, his tantric
focus was absolute, and with his daughter - now immortal and eternally 18
years old, albeit with the gigantic ripe round boobs that pregnancy had
given her - and the rest of the Themys, he was using sexual witchery to
cast a fabulous spell.  In the void outside the space manor in which Aldric
lived, the germ of a newborn star was forming, constructed by his
sex-fueled magic, as well as by his tapping into the massive wellspring of
energy that the Themys hive mind possessed.

   Slowly, the cosmic bits were conjured and crafted, a birth cycle that
normally took millions of years occurring in the space of dozens of
minutes. Aldric was creating a world, a star with a planet, for migrant
fairies from Oberon to settle.  Fairies had been streaming out from Oberon
- and from other fairy worlds - to scatter throughout the Nexus Empire,
each group of them accompanied by a member of the Themys.  With each Themys
girl's connection to the hive mind, each one was a gigantic node of magical
energy which easily sustained whole populations of fairies.  Thus Aldric
had worked out the deal between the Themys and the fairies, enabling the
fairies to grow in population more rapidly than they had in eons, and to
spread out to new worlds they had never been able to visit previously.

   Now Aldric had offered to create an entirely new planet, literally made
for his half-fairy daughters, one replete with ley nexes and magical
energy. It was an enormous task, to be sure, on a great many complex
levels, but Aldric's skill and power - plus the power of the Themys -
seemed limitless, and such large-scale and complicated usage of magic aided
him as he sought to achieve the rank of Ninefold High Archmage.  He'd
already become so incredibly skilled that he would qualify as an Archmage
in every one of the nine disciplines defined by the imperial codex, but he
hadn't applied for that recognition; he wouldn't be satisfied until he was
a High Archmage across the board.

   His ability to tap into the Themys hive mind's phenomenal wellspring of
mystic and psionic power aided his learning and spellwork a great deal of
course.  He had taught Elarora - and through her, the entire Themys - the
art of tantric witchery, and his lusty teen daughter had become even more
proficient at it than Zemeris (the Ealoa girl whom he had impregnated and
made a demigoddess).  But, as often as not, he also worked his craft
without the aid of the Themys, practicing with both enormous concentrations
of magic and scarcities of it, as part of his drive to understand it from
every angle and in every situation.

   For becoming a Ninefold High Archmage wasn't primarily about sheer power
- Aldric already outstripped any mage in known history in that regard, even
without tapping into the Themys hive mind - but about knowledge and
mastery. This was part of the reason that - despite the incredible energy
and concentration that creating a star and its planet required - Aldric
multitasked at the same time.  After all, his space manor was hardly empty
and silent.

   The gigantic, and luxurious, space station had been crafted by Aldric
completely from magic.  It was filled with his daughters and lovers,
including those daughters of his who were his lovers.  All of his daughters
loved their daddy with bottomless devotion and passion, and every single
one enthusiastically seduced him when she came of age, at 18 years old or a
little after.

   His many orc lovers had all moved from the village on Susa 4 to his
space manor, more or less founding a new orc village with him as chieftain.
Phabuka and Khammunra were senior among his orc mates, and at their
request, he regularly used rejuvenation magicks to keep them at an
eternally youthful and fertile 18 years of age.  There were portals from
his space manor to the orc village on Susa 4 as well, and also portals to
Eldenbrugh, so that he was in close contact with Belsarrae, who had
recently ascended to the ranks of the Lord Mages at Oberon's mystic
institute.  'Rae had recently given birth to triplet girls.

   He would have liked to open a portal to the Prime Foundries too, as that
was where Charelle dwelt, but such a connection was deemed far too insecure
for one of the most sensitive and protected locations in the Nexus Empire.
So he and Charelle had fashioned a talisman that let her, and only her,
travel to and from his space manor for their many trysts.  Charelle was
flourishing as Prime Techarcanist, and was pregnant again.

   There were also portals to the home planets of his other baby mamas
among the tantric witches.  Mazelth, the faun girl, was still an apprentice
in training on Oberon, but her twin faun girls lived with Aldric in the
space manor, and having just reached 18 years of age, the horny teen girls
had seduced their daddy and now boasted fat tummy bumps that did nothing to
hinder their gaits as they ran and played faun sports.

   Usura was a witchlord in the Nexus Empire military, and kept her
unhatched clutches of eggs on the space manor for safekeeping.  Aldric's
daughters from the several clutches that she'd already incubated were
primarily raised by him.  Another portal opened to Zemeris's estate on the
Ealoa home planet.  His half-Ealoa daughter by Zemeris - born a demigoddess
the same as her mother - lived with Aldric on the space manor however, and
like the faun twins was pregnant for the first time, utterly glowing with
happiness.

   Nilsannae, 'Rae's first daughter, was an apprentice at Eldenbrugh, but
lodged in the space manor with her daddy.  Like Elarora, she was pregnant
for the third time; all of his daughters were astonishingly fertile.

   Managing all his children, whether they were of age (and his lovers) or
not, was quite a task.  Khoraina's half-souldrinker daughters especially
were a handful, always trying to sap energy here and there from their
half-sisters.  In addition, he played with his daughters, read to them, and
most especially taught them a great deal of magic.

   Hadrial - his pixie daughter by Shaitresse, and currently pregnant with
her daddy's child - wasn't particularly adept at learning magical arts.  As
a fairy, magic was as natural as breathing to her; trying to learn
particular ways to do it were difficult for her.  Yet it was something she
enjoyed attempting nonetheless, particularly swordmagic, using the
miniature laser sword her father had charmed for her.

   His half-orc daughters preferred the orc shamanistic arts of their
mothers' culture, so Aldric had trained himself in orc shamanism, becoming
an undeniable expert in that field, just so that he could teach them.  It
didn't hurt that this also increased his own magical skill, becoming
another stepping stone on the route to the rank of Ninefold High Archmage.

   Elarora was by far his most magically powerful and talented daughter,
and had come out of the Labyrinth of Oberon last year, affirmed a mage by
Eldenbrugh.  Nilsannae wasn't as powerful, but was just as talented, and
would soon be ready for the Labyrinth herself.

   Tia was still around as well, as heavily pregnant as could be, though
she only showed herself to Aldric and Elarora, often in hot steamy
threesomes.  She was absent at the moment, however, and it was just Aldric
and Elarora, cumming together in husky desire as they crafted the heart of
the newborn star.

   --A mystic core would be ideal for the star, Daddy-- Elarora spoke into
his mind through their psychic link.  Her mind was hazy with passion just
as his, but their mastery of tantric witchery enabled them to focus BECAUSE
of the pleasure, rather than despite it.

   She was right, Aldric knew.  A star was the center of a system, and
although he could artificially create and shift ley lines in his new fairy
world - no mean feat, but definitely doable for a mage of his power - it
would be ideal if the star itself naturally attracted ley energies.  --We'd
need a core that would not only survive, but thrive in the heart of a
star-- he pointed out.

   --You'll come up with something, Daddy-- she giggled.  --Now I can tell
my sisters are horny, so why don't we take a break from star-building-

   He chuckled and pulled her in for a kiss as he finally let himself stop
jizzing inside her.  They made out passionately for several moments, before
she floated off him, his gigantic cock popping wetly from her cunt.  He
ceased all his mystical multitasking now, for when he fucked his lovers -
not counting when fucking for the purpose of spellwork - he devoted his
full attention to them; they deserved no less, in his mind.

   So he was nutting inside Nilsannae's purple pregnant cunt, whilst
groping and being groped by other hot sweaty girls, when his divinatory
awareness alerted him to a visitor.  He didn't react straight away, but
finished fucking his daughter's brains out, before pulling out and going to
the hangar.

   The hangar of his space manor not only contained room for spacecraft,
but also housed long-range tesserportation tubes.  He tesserported there,
as well as wishing his clothes upon himself - Shaitresse was a fashion
fiend, and constantly made new outfits for him; today he was wearing a
cloak, tunic, trousers, and boots that were all black but embroidered with
gold designs - and mystically alerted the cyberintelligence circuits that
the forthcoming visitor was to be granted access.  A split-second after
he'd said that, the being, who had been asking for permission to tesserport
in, arrived.

   "Welcome to my home," he greeted his visitor, bowing his head politely
and offering his hand.  "I am Aldric Thundersoul."

   The girl in the tesserportation tube blinked before taking his gallant
hand and stepping out.  She was speechless for a moment as she took in
Aldric's presence.  He was strikingly handsome - and had grown a strip of
facial hair on his chin - and exuded a completely natural pheromonal musk
that made her skin tingle pleasantly.

   He was used to this reaction from females, however, and maintained his
friendly smile as he waited.  He took the time to observe her, both her
physiology and her aura; rather than use a divination spell, he was relying
on observation through his various senses, mystic and otherwise.  This
practice honed his divination skills, making his scrying spells the
stronger for it.

   So, he could tell that the short girl was 18 years old, a phoenix, and a
devout worshipper of a deity, probably the Godqueen, and furthermore was
likely a priestess in training.  He also noticed her breathtaking
loveliness.  Appearing mostly human - rather than being in her alternate
firebird form - she had glimmering golden orbs for eyes, perky boobs the
size of oranges, and long crimson tresses that fell to her knees in
luscious cascades.  Her face was cherubic and adorable, and she wore a
simple but finely tailored white gown.

   Presently, she giggled at herself, and spoke.  "Thank you, Aldric.  I am
Fiera.  I'm an acolyte in training to be a priestess for our Godqueen." He
made the religious sign of respect, smiling, and she continued, "You've
probably already divined everything about me, right?"

   He shook his head.  "I could if you like, but in my experience people
like telling me about themselves."

   She blushed sweetly.  "Well, I'm nearly done with my training, but the
Matron says I have one more trial to undertake, and it was my task to
discover the trial and pass it."

   He cocked his head.  "I assume you've already discovered the task.  If
you were to ask me to divine the tasks' nature for you, that wouldn't be
your success, and you're clearly intelligent enough to know that."

   Her cheeks turned pink with pride at his complimentary observation. 
"Yes.  While meditating, the Godqueen sent me a vision.  A dragon's egg, in
a tomb full of dark spirits, with a thunder god by my side." He arched his
eyebrow; he himself was clearly the 'thunder god', with the 'thunder in his
soul', but he didn't know what the other two signs were, without doing
divination.  A tomb full of dark spirits might refer to the planet-

   "More meditation revealed the meaning of my vision," Fiera continued. 
"I was to seek you out, and accompany you to Eberschal, where Balthazar's
last egg is hidden.  Finding that egg is my last task before I am initiated
as full priestess."

   Both his eyebrows shot up this time.  "Balthazar's last egg was his
12th, a son that hatched for Zalrion ten thousand years ago." That dragon
had become the ancient emperor's battle companion and steed, and Zalrion
had ridden it into all his battles at the head of his then-fledgling
imperial knights.

   "No," Fiera shook his head.  "I know that's what everyone believes...but
there was a 13th egg."

   "All divination agrees that the 12th was his last," Aldric pointed out.
"Balthazar himself said he sired 12 offspring; even if he wanted to falsify
that claim, I'm uncertain how he could fool everyone who's ever divined the
subject."

   Fiera shrugged helplessly.  "All the other mages and priests I've talked
to say the same thing.  But this is a vision from the Godqueen herself."

   "Well, first things first," he said.  "We need to find this egg, be it
Balthazar's or no.  There are many ways to obfuscate divination," he added,
tapping a finger to his chin.  "Oberon's Labyrinth for example is heavily
warded against scrying.  But Eberschal doesn't have any sanctum that well
protected.  On the other hand," he went on, "if it did have some place that
well protected against scrying, we probably wouldn't know about it, would
we?"

   Aldric stopped, aware that he was starting to get long-winded - a habit,
perhaps, picked up from his highly intelligent lover Belsarrae.  Fiera was
hanging onto his every word though, her expression animated - clearly she
was highly taken with him, as was usual for young females around him, and
would still have been paying close attention even if he had been discussing
the dietary seasons of dust-elemental salamanders.

   "Well," he said, "I'm sure the temple outfitted you well, but if there
are any supplies you need before we head to Eberschal, my house is open to
you."

   "So you'll come?" she asked eagerly.

   He chuckled.  "A vision from the Godqueen herself, an impossible egg,
and the chance to accompany a lovely lady?" He winked at her.  "How can I
resist?" She blushed, and he studied her.  "There's something else, isn't
there?  Some sort of restriction or limitation?"

   She regarded him with an astute gaze of her own.  "You realized that
without using a divination spell?  You ARE good.  But yes," she sighed, "I
can only receive non-magical aid from you while on Eberschal."

   "Makes sense," he nodded.  "This trial has to be your success, and not
mine.  Should make things interesting."

   So he bid his many daughters and lovers farewell - save for Elarora,
Shaitresse, and Khoraina, who came with him.  As liaison to the Themys, he
was always required to have at least one girl in the hive mind with him at
all times.  The pixie princess was his familiar, and so was always with
him. And the souldrinker's bond with him imbued her with a need to remain
as close to him as possible.

   He programmed Eberschal's coordinates into the tesserportation tubes,
and in a sparkle of magitech, he, the phoenix girl, and his entourage were
there.  They were in a courtyard, ringed by pillars of sandstone.  The open
sky above bared the dim red giant that was the planet's aging sun, which
painted everything a dusky shade with its light.  Peaks and towers rose in
the distance all around them.

   The courtyard was filled with beings of all shapes and sizes.  Most of
them were prospective acolytes, as Fiera was becoming.  Eberschal was one
of the most famous - or perhaps notorious - magical institutes and
academies in the nine galaxies.  It produced extremely powerful and cunning
mages, but only a fraction of all acolytes became mages...the others were
almost always killed in the brutally dangerous training.

   And acolytes were in great danger from their fellows as well. 
Backstabbing was common, both figuratively and literally, and it was
permitted to kill other acolytes as long as no witnesses were present. 
Eberschal prided itself in producing only the most cunning mages.  Charelle
had once described the place as 'picky' to Aldric, but she had misspoken
slightly; they accepted anyone and everyone as acolytes...they were only
picky about who they graduated.

   "I don't like it here," Shaitresse shuddered, sitting on his shoulder.
"This place is steeped in magic, but it's all dark twisty magic."

   "I've absorbed far worse in my day," Khoraina shrugged.

   "If it's dark evil stuff, Daddy probably won't have an issue with you
feeding, to get rid of it," Elarora suggested.

   Aldric just smiled but Khoraina said, "Not interested.  Your father
keeps me so sated with his energy, I haven't felt any desire for other
energies in years." She sighed happily.

   Fiera tugged Aldric by the hand to the line.  Prospective acolytes were
signing up here in customs.  When the alien ahead of them reached the
customs agent and was admitted, he said, "Aren't you going to give me any
equipment?"

   The customs agent shook his head.  "Nope.  You succeed or fail on your
own merits.  Take this though." He handed the alien something, who took it
interestedly as he entered the sandstone archway into an edifice abutting
the courtyard.  "NEXT!"

   Fiera stepped up.  "My name is Fiera--" she began.

   The customs agent cut her off with a wave of his hand.  "We don't care
about your name.  Ten to one you'll die down in the tombs.  You *are* here
as an acolyte, yes?" He peered at her.

   "Er, yes," she said.  "With my entourage." She gestured with her hand to
encompass Aldric, Elarora, Shaitresse, and Khoraina.

   The customs agent shrugged, not caring, and gave Fiera the same sort of
object he had given the alien in line before them, then waved them through.
As they entered the sandstone edifice through the archway, Shaitresse
whispered, "Don't they care that she has allies with her?  Or that you're a
full mage already?"

   "They didn't check that closely," Aldric shook his head, "and even if
they had, they still wouldn't care.  All prospective acolytes are freely
admitted.  Think of this place as a bit like the Labyrinth...but you get
thrown in it at the beginning of your training."

   "That's brutal," Elarora said, eyes wide and horrified, but Khoraina's
eyes were alight.

   "Survival of the fittest," the short souldrinker enthused.

   "You WOULD approve of something like this," Aldric's half-elf daughter
rolled her eyes.

   "What's that?" Shaitresse asked Fiera, referring to the object that the
customs agent had given her.  It was a necklace, a silver chain holding a
dim emerald, and the phoenix had put it around her neck.

   "I don't know," Fiera said.  "He said all acolytes were required to wear
one.  It seems to be a repository for energy of some kind, but it's empty."

   "It's to collect your magical essence if you are killed," Aldric said,
and the other girls started.  "Eberschal favors the cunning and cutthroat,
even if they're only somewhat powerful in magical arts.  If an acolyte
survives to graduation, he receives one or more of those necklaces,
recovered from slain acolytes, thus aggrandizing magical power."

   "That's horrible," Fiera said in distaste.

   Aldric shrugged.  "Yes, but every acolyte enters of his own free will.
And Eberschal witchlords tend to be among the boldest, smartest, and most
highly decorated in the imperial military."

   Inside the sandstone edifice was a foyer with over a dozen portals,
glimmering with silvery iridescence within freestanding archways.  Each
archway was colored differently, and Fiera gestured to the green arch,
fingering the similarly colored jewel upon her necklace.  They passed
through, and Aldric sensed that they had arrived hundreds of miles away.

   This room, also made of sandstone, was filled with nearly fifty
acolytes, all wearing emerald-set necklaces.  A troll overseer was pacing
slowly back and forth in front of his charges.  "You're all dogmeat," the
towering figure was growling.  "No doubt the wild direhounds will rip most
of you to shreds before you even disturb any of the dark spirits.  But you
know your task.  Now go!" A door in the wall opened onto a dusty valley of
ruins, and the new acolytes all marched out, eying each other warily.

   "Um," Fiera said, going up to the troll, the others behind her, "I just
arrived.  What's the task?"

   "Beat it out of one of the other acolytes," the troll said.

   The phoenix stared at him.  "But--"

   "Get on with you before I kill you myself," the troll snarled, and Fiera
stepped back, perplexed and outraged.  Aldric laid a gentle but firm hand
on her shoulder and pulled her away.

   "The nerve of that man!" Fiera complained fiercely as the dust winds
blasted their faces upon exiting the building.

   "It's how Eberschal works," Khoraina said, delight evident in her tone.
"Let's go find one of these losers to interrogate."

   "I have a better idea," Fiera said, pointed to where a pair of other
acolytes were fending of an attack from three direhounds.  She sprouted
wings of fire from her back, and they bore her aloft as she zoomed towards
them.  Aldric was prohibited from assisting the phoenix with magic, so he
drew Thoraendir - his double-bladed laser sword - and sprinted along the
ground after her, with Shaitresse fluttering right behind him.  He wasn't
worried for Khoraina and Elarora; there was nothing on Eberschal that could
harm either of them.

   Vaulting over a fallen obelisk, he skewered one of the direhounds on his
laser sword even as Fiera loosed a torrent of mystic phoenix flame from her
hands at another one.  The two acolytes they were saving managed to down
the third one.  Khoraina ran up right then.  "I always miss the fun," the
souldrinker grumbled.  "I thought I might have a chance now, with you not
using your magic, but noooooo..."

   Aldric laughed and kissed her pouty lips.

   "Uh, thanks," the two other acolytes told them warily.

   "We're not going to hurt you," Fiera assured them.  "I just want
information."

   "What's that?" Just as wary as before.

   "What is the task the overseer gave us?" the phoenix asked.  "I arrived
a bit late, and he refused to tell me."

   "Uh," one of the acolytes said, "we have to recover the necklaces from
fallen acolytes." He tugged at his own emerald-set necklace for emphasis.

   "From the last batch of acolytes sent down here," the other one
clarified.  "And maybe even from batches before them, that haven't been
recovered yet."

   And from the current batch, Aldric knew.  Many of the acolytes wouldn't
be above killing their fellows to obtain a magic-filled necklace.

   "Thanks," Fiera nodded.  "Wait - you're wounded!" The acolyte in
question drew back, covering the bloody slash on his arm defensively. 
"Don't be silly, let me see." The earnestness of her appeal surprised the
acolyte enough that he relented, and she waved a hand over the wound,
breathing a silent benediction over it.  The gash closed, healing perfectly
with no scar.

   "Why would you do that?" the other acolyte asked her guardedly.

   Fiera blinked, and opened her mouth, but Aldric forestalled her.  "You
scratch our back, we'll scratch yours," he said.  "We could all use
alliances of convenience in this place."

   The acolytes nodded, and bowed their heads politely.  "Until the next
time," they said, and left, picking a ruin to enter.

   Fiera watched them go, and turned to Aldric.  "Why did you tell them
that?" she protested.  "I was helping them because I wanted to help.  I'm a
priestess of the Godqueen, it's what I do!"

   "No acolyte of Eberschal would believe that a fellow would help a rival
out of the goodness of her heart," Aldric explained.  "As far as they're
concerned, you're another rival.  They don't know that you're not here to
learn magic and graduate, and they wouldn't believe you if you told them."

   Fiera sighed.  "You're right, I suppose.  What a horrid place this is."

   "Horrid?" Elarora piped up.  "It's wicked cool.  Just look!" She swept
her slender arm to encompass the dusty valley.  Ancient ruins surrounded
them, spires and domes and arches formed from crumbling sandstone.

   "I know little about the place," Khoraina said.  "In my time, there was
a prison here.  The Pit, they called it, where even death wouldn't free
you. I heard of the dark spirits here, but there was no magical institute
at the time."

   "The dark spirits are a subspecies of daemon," Aldric said as Fiera
began inspecting the ruins, trying to intuit which would be best for them
to search.  "Not beings from any hell, but typically malevolent all the
same.  They're ethereal creatures of shadow and smoke, with fell powers,
but they rarely act on the physical world.  Rather, their very presence
causes chaos on its own.  Corpses and objects tend to animate, for example.
Objects and locations can become cursed or imbued with dark magic, or
both."

   "So they didn't build these ruins," Shaitresse guessed.

   "Nope," Elarora shook her head.  Divination had told her of Eberschal's
history as well; although she was not nearly the divination expert her
father was, the sheer power of the Themys hive mind, of which she was part,
afforded her easy scrying.  "In ancient times, the dark spirits were
worshipped.  Priesthoods and wizard orders rose up here, trying to appease
or harness them.  They built the ruins you see.  And their leaders were
often buried in tombs among these temples."

   "They hoped to live beyond death," Aldric added, "or at least have their
souls protected by the dark spirits."

   "The dark spirits don't seem the protective type," Fiera observed. 
"Let's go in this one." She entered a narrow archway leading into a ruin
that appeared to have been untouched for quite some time

   "No," Khoraina agreed as they followed the phoenix girl, "but
superstitious wizard-priests might be foolish enough to believe otherwise."

   "Hush," Fiera said gently, "we don't want to disturb whatever may be
down here."

   "Psh," Khoraina refuted her, "I welcome a fight!" Fiera frowned at her,
but the pregnant souldrinker got her wish, as they slew many wild
direhounds.  The direhounds were mutated by the presence of the dark
spirits in these ruins, being stronger and more savage, and their blood was
acidic.

   Fiera yelped in pain as some of the acidic blood spattered on her skin,
but she wiped it off - grunting in more pain - and her flesh regenerated in
moments.  "One perk of being a phoenix," she grinned tightly at the others.
Phoenixes possessed remarkable regenerative capabilities.

   "Means your kind last a long time when I absorb your energy," Khoraina
smiled gleefully at her, and Fiera made a face.  Elarora and Shaitresse
giggled.

   "Behave," Aldric pulled the souldrinker to him and pressed a kiss to the
top of her head.

   "Yes, master," Khoraina's tone was feigned reluctance, but she upturned
her face for a kiss.  Aldric kept her sated so completely that to many
onlookers she seemed 'defanged'; but she was still a deadly foe to anyone
who sought to harm her master.

   "Let's keep moving," Shaitresse urged them.  "The sooner we get out of
these tombs, the better; this dark magic is so oppressive."

   So they did, encountering more wild direhounds, and other creatures
mutated by the ethereal daemons' presence.  Shadows flickered unnaturally
in several places as they crept along, and indecipherable whispers
scratched at their hearing.  "I wonder why there are no bodies," Khoraina
murmured.  Aldric and Elarora said nothing; through their divinations, they
already knew.

   They finally reached a deep inner chamber, with an ornate sarcophagus in
the center.  Small thrones lined the walls, and most of them were occupied
by corpses in varying states of decay - some were even skeletons, the flesh
desiccated completely away over centuries - and every last one of them had
a brightly glowing emerald hanging from its neck.

   "Acolytes," Fiera said.  "Are these thrones deadly to any who sit in
them?"

   "No," Khoraina said, "they were killed in the hallways we came through."

   "So the dark spirits brought them here?" Shaitresse queried, her brow
furrowing.  "As some kind of trophies?"

   "No," Khoraina repeated grimly.  Aldric put his hand to Thoraendir's
hilt, as Fiera reached to unclasp one of the corpses' necklace.  "They
walked."

   A fell wind carried shrill moans in the air, as the corpses stirred to
undead motion.  Their limbs jerking awkwardly, they heaved themselves up as
the phoenix sprang back in shock.  "The dark spirits' very presence
animates corpses," Aldric reminded her.

   "And objects," Elarora said, as ancient melee weaponry lifted up into
the air of its own accord.

   Khoraina grinned savagely, and leapt into combat, tearing apart the
nearest corpses with brute strength.  Aldric activated Thoraendir and
hacked off limbs, rendering the animated corpses helpless, while Elarora
lazily used a telekinetic gust to send the floating weapons blade-first
into the ancient walls, where they were stuck.

   But more corpses shuffled from side passages, and the lid of the
sarcophagus was thrown off, as a mummified wizard-priest sat up, ethereal
black light flickering around it.  Aldric grimaced.  Due to the Godqueen's
restriction, he couldn't simply blast these all into oblivion, which would
be a simple feat for him; but this was Fiera's trial.  "Fiera!" he called,
"you have to be the one to stop this!"

   Fiera nodded, and an aura of flame appeared around her body, in the
shape of a firebird.  She cried out in defiance, and the aura exploded
across the whole chamber.  When the fire cleared, the corpses and weapons
had fallen to the floor, the animating presences banished from them. 
Physically, they were unharmed, and her companions were untouched as well.

   "Wow," Shaitresse breathed.  "That was amazing!" Fiera smiled proudly.

   "Let's take the necklaces and go," Khoraina suggested.  "The dark
spirits weren't actively trying to kill us before; that was just the side
effect of their presence.  But that giant burst of phoenix flame is sure to
attract them."

   "Right." The phoenix girl and her companions quickly gathered up the
necklaces off all the corpses and skeletons.

   "Poor acolytes," Elarora said.  "I'm glad their souls departed freely,
rather than being chained to this place." Aldric kissed her comfortingly,
and they carefully retraced their passage from the ruins.

   They weren't the first acolytes to return to the troll overseer, but
they weren't the last either.  More acolytes kept trickling in with one or
more glowing emerald necklaces.  But several didn't return.  One of the two
acolytes they had assisted earlier returned soon, bearing a single glowing
necklace.

   "A shame his partner didn't survive," Shaitresse murmured.  Aldric and
his daughter traded glances; their divinatory awareness informed them that
the one acolyte had turned on his partner, slaying him to gain his
necklace. And Khoraina was astute enough to realize that too.  They made no
mention of it to the pixie princess or the phoenix priestess however.

   That first day set the tone for the training of the acolytes.  Trials -
usually down in the ruins - ruthlessly weeded out the weak and inferior,
and inbetween them spells were taught to them by the troll overseer.  After
nearly a month, the troll said to Fiera, in its surly tone.  "Yer 'bout
ready to enter the academy proper, girl." This small edifice they were in
now was just an outpost, one of many scattered over the planet.  The
central academy was a complex of grand buildings at one of the poles; of
course, the training there was even deadlier, and the rivalry among
acolytes there was even more cutthroat.

   Fiera lit up; finally she would be able to fulfill the Godqueen's
vision! "What must I do?" she asked.

   "Go to the tomb of Odas Vyyr," the troll said.  "Bring back his crown."

   As they left, entering the valley again and picking their way through
the ruins, Shaitresse asked, "Who was Odas Vyyr?"

   "One of the ancient wizard-priests," Elarora said, drawing on her
divined knowledge.  "He worshipped the dark spirits as powerful deities,
using rituals to appease them.  In reality, his rituals harnessed their
strength for himself, but he thought the dark spirits were voluntarily
granting him their power."

   Khoraina shook her head in disapproval.  "To have such power and not
even realize it's your own..."

   "He must have been among the most powerful wizard-priests, then," Fiera
surmised.

   "Well, the grandest temple in this valley was built by him," Aldric
gestured to the giant, crumbling edifice.  "On his orders, anyway."

   "His crypt must be below that," the phoenix nodded.  "Let's go."

   "Eyes open," Aldric reminded her, and together they all entered the
great temple.  Wild direhounds and shuffling corpses attacked them, but
were easily dispatched; the phoenix and her companions had had much
practice at that over the past few weeks.

   The entrance to the crypt was well-hidden, but not well enough.  There
were marks in the floor where the secret entrance had slid upon it many
times in the past; other acolytes had clearly been here over the centuries.
Aldric wondered how many acolytes had been sent after the crown, only to
never return.  He divined the answer: several dozen.

   The crypt was an entire complex of catacombs running deep beneath the
great temple, and they navigated it carefully, fighting off animated
corpses and mutated beasts the whole way.  At last they entered an
expansive chamber, where sconces on the walls lit up automatically as they
entered, casting light over the statues and treasure and sarcophagi.

   Fiera scanned the treasure.  "I don't see the crown," she said
hesitantly.

   Khoraina pointed to the largest and most central sarcophagus.  "I'll
wager you anything that he was buried wearing it."

   "Careful," Aldric said.  "Let me." He went to the sarcophagus and slid
the lid aside, his muscles rippling attractively.  Fiera was ready for more
animated corpses - but not for what actually happened.

   The corpse sat up, its eyes glowing malevolently, and it spoke,
something no other animated corpse had done!  "Trespassers!" it snarled. 
"Defilers!  Who dares disturb my rest?" The ornate crown atop its withered
skull left no doubt as to who this was.  They had awakened the spirit of
Odas Vyyr, who had remained tethered to his body even after death.

   Fiera spoke as calmly as she could.  "My apologies, my lord."

   "Apologies are insufficient!" the corpse screeched.  "Only blood will
repay!  Aid me, my gods!" The torchlight seemed to dim as shadows crawled
along the walls and floor and manifested into dark ethereal wraiths - Odas
Vyyr had summoned the dark spirits themselves!

   The phoenix blasted them with her aura of flame, but it had little
effect.  Some of the shadowstuff forming the dark spirits melted away, but
Odas Vyyr was completely unharmed.  "Foul witch!" he spat at her, and the
battle was joined.  Khoraina's touch drained away some of the dark spirits'
energy, and they drew back from her, flying around her, just out of her
reach.  Aldric's laser blades sliced cleanly through them, producing wails
of pain, but they quickly reformed.

   Elarora could not be harmed, but had no non-magical aid that she could
employ to stop them.  Shaitresse's pixie dust seemed to disorient the dark
spirits, but had no significant effect.  Fiera's flames, blasting from her
hands, had the most effect, but it wasn't enough.  Odas Vyyr stalked
towards the phoenix, and Aldric flung himself in the undead wizard-priest's
path, stabbing him in the chest with his sword Thoraendir.

   The corpse laughed, a hollow rasp, and Aldric grimaced.  He could
channel his magic through the blade, disintegrating the evil wizard-priest
completely, but he would not, or the trial that the Godqueen had given
Fiera would be voided.  He dragged his blade cleanly through the body,
freeing it and cleaving Odas Vyyr in two.

   But shadowy tendrils connected the parted halves of his body, pulling
them back together and connecting them seamlessly once more.  Fiera
unleashed a torrent of phoenix flame upon the undead wizard-priest, calling
out fervent prayers to the Godqueen, but Odas Vyyr pushed through it, and
his cold hand closed on the phoenix girl's neck.

   She gasped, choking, and Aldric could hold back no longer.  His
divinatory awareness told him that if he didn't step in now, the girl would
die.  With a simple act of will, he immobilized Odas Vyyr and all the dark
spirits around them, paralyzing their minds and bodies.  He telekinetically
pried open the undead man's fingers, and Fiera broke away gasping, her
phoenix nature already healing the minor damage to her trachea.

   "We have to go," Aldric told her grimly.

   "But-- But--" she looked forlornly at the crown on Odas Vyyr's forehead,
but nodded; she knew she was outmatched without Aldric's magical aid. 
Together, they quickly withdrew from the tomb, leaving it far behind before
he released his paralysis from their foes.

   As they stepped out of the great temple, Fiera looked at the other end
of the dusty valley, gazing at the training outpost.  "We can't go back,"
she said.  "You saw what the overseer did to those other acolytes who
returned empty-handed last week." The others nodded; the troll had
transmuted the failed acolytes to ice, then shattered them with a kinetic
blast.

   "You can't take the crown either," Elarora pointed out.  "You're not
ready."

   "I...  I don't know what to do," Fiera said disconsolately.  "I've never
failed at anything before.  Maybe we can...  I don't know, hide out in the
ruins while I figure out what to do next."

   Aldric nodded.  "Some failed acolytes eke out an existence in the ruins,
unable to return without being executed.  We can go to them." The phoenix
girl nodded, her expression sorrowful and ashamed, and Aldric led the way,
holding the girl's hand and squeezing it gently, comfortingly.

   He or Elarora could have tesserported them all there easily, but he
didn't want to use any more of his magic to aid the phoenix girl than he
had to; he sensed that perhaps the girl hadn't failed utterly just yet, no
matter how she felt.  So instead they fought shambling corpses and
direhounds through tunnels and caverns, as they traveled miles to reach the
lair of the other failed acolytes.

   Beneath a cliff, an ancient temple had been half-buried by avalanches
over the eons, and within were two dozen men and women of various species.
They didn't have the same look of wariness that the other acolytes had had;
they weren't sizing them up as possible opponents.  Instead, they simply
looked weary, defeated.

   "Welcome to the Cave," one of them greeted them.  Its voice wasn't
bright and friendly, but nor was it surly and unwelcoming.  "Spindra will
want to speak with you." It gestured with a limb, and Fiera thanked it,
before following its gesture.

   Aldric sized up the various failed acolytes as he followed Fiera.  None
of them wore necklaces, and all of them had faces lined with hardship.  It
was no easy task living amidst ruins with dark spirits and shambling
corpses, but they had no way offworld.  He would have offered to tesserport
them away, but knew their pride would not permit it.

   They went down a tight spiral staircase into a crypt.  Within it were
lit several candles around a central dais, the sort that a coffin or
sarcophagus might lie upon - but there was no such coffin.  Instead a pile
of hundreds of necklaces was strewn over the dais.  In front of it stood a
figure in a faded brown robe, hood pulled over its head, its back to them.

   "Be welcome to the Cave, failed acolytes," it greeted them, its voice
revealing itself to be an elderly woman.  She turned around, showing
herself to be humanoid in race, with a face far more lined and wrinkled
than any of the other failed acolytes.

   "Just me," Fiera said.  "I'm the only...  failed acolyte." She flushed,
ashamed.  "These are my companions."

   "Just so," the old woman said.  "I am Spindra.  Take off your necklace
and cast it here, for you are no longer an acolyte of Eberschal, but an
exile." Fiera gulped, but obeyed.  Spindra regarded her closely as she did
so, then looked at Aldric.  "You...  seem familiar," she said to him.  "As
though from a long-ago dream."

   She shuffled to him in her elderly gait, and put her hands on his
temples.  He did not resist, though Khoraina growled warningly at the
elderly woman.  Aldric smiled reassuringly at her.  Spindra, he knew, was
centuries old, sustained by the ambient energy of the dark spirits, and her
acolyte necklace was at the very bottom of that pile on the dais.

   "It's you!" she gasped suddenly, pulling her hands away.  "I remember
now."

   "You've had a vision of me before then," Aldric said.  It was not a
question.  Curious, that his divinatory awareness hadn't picked that up. 
But if something was foiling his scrying-- A crooked smile curved his lips,
and he thought he knew what was coming.

   Spindra went to one of the candle holders on the wall, and pulled it,
revealing it to be a lever.  A compartment in the wall opened, and Spindra
reached within it, pulling something out.  She turned around, and Fiera
gasped as she realized what the old woman was holding.

   A dragon egg.

   "I found this here, long ago, when I first stumbled upon the Cave,"
Spindra said.  "When I touched it, a vision filled my mind.  A phoenix
girl, and a human man, with your faces.  It had been so long that I had
forgotten.  But I think I am supposed to give this to you."

   "Balthazar's last egg," Fiera breathed reverently.

   "Why has it never hatched?" Shaitresse wondered.

   Aldric took his hands to take the large egg from the old woman. 
"Because some dragons refuse to hatch until they meet someone with whom
their fates are entwined.  A mate, perhaps, or a boon companion, or a
comrade in arms."

   The surface of the egg split with a crack, and everyone save Spindra and
Aldric himself jumped.  "It's been waiting for me," Aldric realized,
smiling, and set the egg down.  More cracks spiderwebbed along its surface,
and then it burst away, sending fragments of eggshell flying.

   The newly hatched dragon was hued in gorgeous gradations of pink, and
was already the size of a small horse.  It seemed impossible that she had
fit inside the egg, yet somehow she had.  She regarded Aldric with a
reverent gaze, and from her jaws came a melodious voice.  "Master," she
addressed him, snaking her head down to rub fondly on his cheek.  "I have
long awaited you."

   "Amazing!" Fiera said.  "This is why the Godqueen wanted me to bring you
along - to hatch the egg!"

   "What is your name?" Aldric asked the she-drake.

   "Novarie," she said, then a burst of pink mist enshrouded her.  It
dispersed a split-second later, and the dragon was now in a humanoid form.
Completely nude, she appeared as a 18 year old girl in stature, with large
globular boobs pushing out of her chest, stemmed by nipples that hardened
as she looked at him, and her bald cunt was wet and inviting.  Pink dragon
wings sprouted from her back, her eyes were reptilian and yellow as a
dragon's, and her hair was long luscious pink cascades falling to her
knees. "Do I please you, Master?" she said.

   "You do, Novarie," he nodded, and she beamed, pressing her body to his
and kissing him passionately.

   "Incredible," Elarora said, getting horny herself as she watched the
lovely nude girl make out with her daddy.  "All this time, waiting for you,
Daddy.  Just like Balthazar's 12th egg hatched for Zalrion himself.  But
why does no one know about you?" she queried.

   Novarie pulled away from the kiss, her face shining with love and
passion, but she turned her face to answer Elarora, though her arms were
still around Aldric, as his were around her.  "My mother was not a dragon,"
she said softly, and Aldric understood.  "She was a powerful sorceress, who
took the form of a dragon and seduced Balthazar.  When he found out the
truth of her race, he was outraged, and disowned me."

   "Balthazar was a dragon elitist," Aldric added, nodding.  "He did not
deem non-dragon races fit to mate with."

   "But how would his disowning you fool divinations into thinking you
didn't exist?" Fiera wondered.

   "Dragons have a strong hold on their fates," Khoraina said, "more so
than anyone else, by far.  Balthazar said he had no 13th offspring, and for
him, in his mind, it was true."

   "And so that became his fate," Elarora realized.  "A dragon's words
become his fate."

   "How could a man disown his child?" Aldric wondered, and Elarora gazed
fondly at him.

   "I've completed the Godqueen's task then," Fiera said triumphantly. 
"Before we leave though - can we go rip Odas Vyyr a new one?"

   Aldric laughed.

   And they did.  He tesserported them back to the tomb - he could use all
the magic he wished now, as Fiera's trial was over - and unleashed Novarie.
The dragon and the phoenix, both beings of fire, resonated with each other,
multiplying both their strengths tenfold.  Their combined flames were
torrents of light and power that disintegrated the dark spirits and Odas
Vyyr with ease.

   "That was...  a bit anticlimactic," Khoraina said.  She sounded a bit
disappointed, and the other girls giggled.

   "To Tanthor, Aldric Thundersoul," Fiera said, smiling radiantly.  "It is
time for me to be confirmed."

   "Now you're a priestess of the Godqueen!" Shaitresse congratulated her.

   Fiera blushed.  "Not just a priestess," she confessed.  "The High
Pontiff."

   ***



   Aldric had tesserported them all to the Grand Cathedral of the Godqueen
on the Nexus Empire's capital planet, and had stayed for the official
ceremony anointing Fiera as High Pontiff.  Even he hadn't known that she
was the one being groomed for the position, chosen as Jihosyah's successor
since her birth; the priesthood's considerable power had gone into
obfuscating any divinations that might reveal that.

   As Fiera, in the regal accoutrements of the High Pontiff, knelt before
the altar in the high sanctuary, a wreath of fire appeared around her head
- the Godqueen's mark of approval.  The guests cheered as she stood, and
she spoke to them, giving her first address as supreme leader of the
imperial priesthoods and member of the intergalactic ruling council.  Her
words were broadcast to every corner of the nine galaxes, and far beyond,
and were recorded for posterity.

   Afterwards, Aldric and his entourage returned to his space manor via
long-range tesserportation.  His daughters and lovers clamored around him,
kissing and hugging him and begging for details about his trip.  So he
regaled them all, and just as he had told them of Novarie's hatching, High
Pontiff Fiera arrived at the space manor through the tesserportation tubes.

   Aldric smiled welcomingly at his visitor, bowing respectfully.  "You
never need bow to me, Aldric Thundersoul," Fiera smiled at him.  "The
Godqueen favors you as much as or more than even me." He blinked,
surprised; the High Pontiff was always the most highly favored of the
supreme imperial deity!

   "I didn't realize I was in such high regard," he said, humbled, "though
I thank her daily for the great gifts of magic she has bestowed upon me."

   Fiera shook her head.  "She tells me that your magic is not from her."
Aldric blinked again, in shock.  Before he could frame a question, the
phoenix girl went on, "Your magic is from yourself.  From the thunder in
your soul."

   'The thunder in your soul.'

   Tia had said that, and so had the Eldest eladrin.  Now, the Godqueen
herself was saying it, through Fiera as her messenger.  He bowed his head
reverentially, and Fiera giggled.  "I'm so attuned to her now," she said,
still a bit in awe of the reality of it.  "I can see so much of her will,
and her power flows through me.  Before I had barely any more divine power
than a temple initiate."

   "But why did she send you on that trial?" Elarora asked.  "I mean, I get
that dragons are important to her - she was their goddess before she
consented to become the head of Zalrion's pantheon - but why was it so
important that you do it?  How did it prove to her that you were worthy?"

   Fiera smiled.  "I was chosen at birth to become High Pontiff.  The
Godqueen sent signs for the entire priesthood to see.  I have undergone
many trials to become more and more attuned to her.  This last trial though
- it was to teach me humility."

   "Because you failed," Aldric said, "and it was only in failing that you
found the egg."

   "Exactly," Fiera nodded, beaming.  "Just as the Godqueen had to learn
humility when she could not defeat the Void Witch."

   Aldric and Elarora nodded; his eldest daughter knew everything he knew
about the Void Witch and the Godqueen's origins, that the Eldest eladrin on
Oberon had revealed to him.  After a moment, he said, "Why did the Godqueen
send you here?  It was for more than that." It was an astute guess; he
wouldn't be so arrogant as to scry the supreme deity's chosen
representative, and wasn't even certain he'd be able to regardless.

   "The reasons are twofold," Fiera smiled radiantly at him.  "Firstly, she
told me that you needed me for something.  A project you've been working
on?"

   "The star!" Elarora said, and he lit up.

   "Yes!  That's brilliant!" he enthused.  "Phoenix flame and dragon flame,
twinned at the heart of the star for its mystic core!"

   Fiera arched her eyebrow, not entirely certain what he was talking
about, but they explained it to her, and shortly, he and Fiera were flying
on the back of Novarie's dragon form out through space.  The phoenix girl
was riding behind him, yelling in exhilaration as she clutched to him, and
Novarie was roaring for the thrill of it.

   The baby star rose up before them, and they plunged into it, Aldric's
magic protecting them.  Novarie opened her jaws, and Fiera summoned fire in
her hands.

   From the space manor, the various girls watched through the viewport,
seeing the star pulse brightly before the dragon and her riders emerged
triumphantly.  The star billowed out, growing in size and strength, magic
radiating from it along with starlight, and all of Aldric's lovers and
daughters cheered.

   As the three arrived back on the station, Aldric was already plotting
out spells and vectors for more magic on the nascent star and the
accompanying planet he was crafting for his half-fairy daughters, when
Elarora nudged him.  "Daddy," she giggled, and gestured towards Novarie and
Fiera, who were looking at him hungrily.

   "Oh," he said in belated understanding, and his daughters and lovers
burst out laughing.

   "I told you the Godqueen's reasons were twofold," Fiera said
mischievously.  "The second is that she has bid me show you her favor.  And
I am eager to show you mine."

   "And you must make love to me too, Master," Novarie said; she was back
in her nude humanoid form.  "I hunger for your seed in my womb, and to
share you with my sister in fire."

   So Aldric found himself in bed, naked with two equally nude girls, both
18, busty, gorgeous, and horny.  He made out with them as they groped his
body and fondled his fat long sauage, moaning lewdly in teen bliss as his
strong hands caressed them and his gigantic cock throbbed in their hot
grasp.

   They reverse-spitroasted him, Novarie sitting on his face - and filling
his world with sweet wet paradise as he lapped at her drenched teen cunt -
and Fiera mounting his cock, sinking down to let his magnificent fucktool
impale her tight slippery virgin pussy.  As a phoenix, her pussy was even
hotter than most species, and it felt soooooo good!  He groaned into
Novarie's delicious cunt, and both girls cried out in ecstasy.

   Fiera and Novarie clutched each other, rubbing their hard-stemmed boobs
together and making out passionately as Aldric fucked one with his tongue
and the other with his fat long cock.  Fiera bounced eagerly atop his pole,
moaning and huffing her bliss into Novarie's mouth as he stretched her
tight virginity obscenely wide with his incredibly long girth.  Novarie's
moans were cute and lewd as she slathered his face with her fuckhoney.

   Both girls cummed at once, shrieking as they writhed atop him, and
Aldric bellowed into Novarie's cunt as he let himself go.  His nuts
clenched, spewing thick bulging ropes up his shaft, to geyser deep inside
Fiera's soft, lush cleft.  Fiera's orgasm spiked even higher, as she felt
his hot gunky jizz knock her up, fertilizing her eggs thoroughly and
completely with potent human cum.

   She wasn't sated however, and rode herself to several more terrific
orgasms, before he spunked inside her again, and then she let Novarie have
a turn.  The dragon girl lowered her pussy onto his huge shaft as well, and
her tight young cunt was just as hot as Fiera's.  The phoenix girl made out
with him as he bucked his hips up into Novarie's slippery satin vise, and
the dragon girl screamed with ecstasy as her sensitive walls were forced
wide apart by his obscene thickness.

   "Cum in me, master," she begged, "Breed me, fill me with your babies!"

   "Breed her just like you bred me, love," Fiera said huskily into his
mouth as they kissed, and he frenched her as spunk rocketed up his
tremendous shlong.  Novarie shrieked, thrashing in climactic rapture as
Aldric's cockslop splurted hotly into her fertile womb, impregnating her
with his flood of jizz.

   He kept fucking them for hours, unleashing torrents of spunk in their
cunts, and plowing their asses when they begged him to take their anal
cherries.  They also worshipped his meaty shaft together with their tits
smooshed around him in a double boobjob, bathing his cock with their
tongues and mouths.

   His other lovers wandered in, unable to stay away from his huge
thrilling cock any longer, and a massive reverse gangbang ensued...

   **********

   COMMENTS: Like many authors, I love hearing positive feedback and
suggestions!  If you like, email me: big DOT al DOT author AT gmail DOT com
   NOTE: All characters are 18+