Parasite Dawn Ch. 18

Parasite Dawn - Chapter 18

Reg was groping around behind some buildings, their backs right up against one of Capurn's walls, the space between them barely wide enough to count as an alley. The buildings were newer than the wall, so not much consideration was given to the need to come back here. Though with what he was looking for, perhaps people didn't really want to.

Stepping over piles of garbage and wood, he was hoping nobody assumed him some sort of vagrant, or other ne'er-do-well. The last thing he needed was the city guards called on him.

His bigger concern, however, was that the target of his search had already been uncovered long ago by someone else. It'd make for a great hiding place for contraband... or for more cutthroat criminal elements in the city, a place to 'educate' people that cross them in relative silence and isolation.

Or worse, to use it for the purpose it was originally built for.

He was coming to the end of the alley, finding it overgrown with weedy shrubs, grunting as he brushed them aside. A cat hissed and bolted in fright, practically bouncing off the reddish brick of Capurn's wall. Reg paid it no heed and continued on through the shrubbery.

And that's where he found it; an old protruding square of grey brickwork, covered by an iron hatch.

A rusted chain ran through an old, battered lock, looking like it hadn't been opened in some time, and there was an engraving on the steel of the hatch: Let nought recall this grim hole.

He was confident this was what he was looking for. The only issue was the lock, getting through it wouldn't be too hard with tools, but he didn't have tools on him. Still, given the state of everything, he was at least confident no one else had used it for anything. So it'd be perfect for what they had planned... as long as they could get their 'targets' here without them making a great big ruckus.

Satisfied with just finding the thing, Reg smirked and began making his way out of the alley, disturbing yet another cat who knocked over a pile of wood, encouraging him to leave in a hurry. He had a meeting to get to anyways...

Reg was back at Kris' little warehouse hideout, the young rogue and Karissa there as well, the three of them packed into the tight space. Kris was looking rather pleased with himself, and Reg was wondering why; Kris hadn't infested anyone new with his parasites, Reg could tell that much. It had told them to limit how many people they brought into the fold while Brie was on the loose. They had to focus on finding her.

"So?" Karissa piped up. "Did you find it?"

Reg nodded.

"I sure did. It's all chained up, but it doesn't look like anyone's gone down there in some time. I'll get some tools later and see if I can open it up and check if it's dry down there, or whatever else it might be. 'Tis no good if it's flooded or filled in or stuffed with other things. Anyways, did you get that 'stuff' to knock Brie out if need be?"

He leaned forward, picking a flask of ale up off the small half-barrel 'table' between them, taking a quick swig.

Karissa nodded and produced a small vial containing a dark grey fluid.

"I managed to get several doses, just in case," she assured.

Reg placed the flask back down, wiping his mouth and nodding in thankfulness.

"Mmm, and have you figured out what this 'Old Way' your friend mentioned is? That'll take us to the 'Cellar Attic'?" he asked Kris.

"Karissa and I were just discussing that," Kris agreed, fiddling with an apple that'd been in his hand since they all arrived here, and he hadn't taken a bite out of it yet. "We think we might have an idea where it is."

"You know the church?" Karissa asked.

"Yeah, been too long since I went there though, guess that's why the first god abandoned me," Reg joked with a chuckle.

"Well, the library is nearby. Long ago, that library was supposedly the original keep, back when the walls were still made of wood and Capurn wasn't a city. Stories are it was the first stone building in Capurn. Would explain why its relatively simple in its design. Anyways, there was an old mine dug out beneath the ground, gathering up precious metals, that's apparently how Capurn's wealth started. It'd definitely be dry now, but legends go that the mine was extended into a tunnel that went all the way out into the countryside, a way of getting in and out secretly if the place was besieged. It was also one of the only ways out when the land around the city burned, something that used to be very frequent all those generations ago."

"An 'old way'," Kris added. "Not many people seem to know about it."

"How'd you find out about it then?" Reg asked.

"We went to that library. I also asked a... friend, of mine," Karissa stated, looking aside with a smirk. "He was rather forthcoming about his historical knowledge of the city."

Reg chuckled.

"I'm sure he was," he quipped with a knowing look. "But back to what we were talking about, you think this... Cellar Attic is in this old mine?"

"It's the best lead we got, and it'd be a great place to hide any... illicit activities. These guys like to dabble in forbidden research and such. Things banned by the local authorities," Karissa continued.

"Let's hope they're not a bunch of crazy wackjobs harvesting organs down there, I don't think I'm ready to part with mine," Kris quipped.

Reg shot him a dirty look.

"Don't tempt fate, lad, I'd rather get this girl and get her to the oubliette without having to deal with people that want to cut me open," he muttered.

"Then we best be extra careful when we go down there. Especially since we know so little, we don't know what else these people have set up," Karissa warned.

"Booby traps, sentries, riddles and puzzles that if we don't solve, we'll never find out way," Kris also added, half-jokingly. "Truthfully, I don't know what to expect. My source says they're not the 'making people disappear' types, but they'll probably not mess around trying to keep their place secret if some fools uncover it."

"So, what, we just sit and wait and hope for an opening?" Reg suggested.

"That might be the safest bet we have," Kris agreed. "Otherwise, we watch things and get information. Maybe that'll help us infiltrate this place."

"And when we do, we just look for Brie and grab her?"

"That's about the size of it," Kris conceded, finally taking a big crunch out of his apple.

"Grab her, and anyone else she might be working with. We don't know what she's divulged, and to who. We can only hope that she's been moving slowly and carefully enough that she's still kept what she knows close to her chest. It doesn't seem like the wider authorities in Capurn know about us, so we still have time. But the longer we sit around waiting and talking about it, the closer Brie gets to bringing doom down upon us all. We must act now," Karissa stated firmly.

"I'm with you there," Kris agreed. "After this much time, she's gotta be close to something. Don't know what, but we gotta stop her before we're all dead and It falls again."

"Then what are we waiting around here for?" Reg interjected, grabbing the flask on the barrel and taking an extra deep swig of it, as if for liquid courage. "Come one, let's go make It proud."

Kris and Karissa eyed Reg with some amused scepticism, clearly finding his enthusiasm mildly funny. Karissa shook her head with a thin smirk.

"Well, I'm sure if we succeed, It will be nothing short of joyous for us," she assured.

"Can't even imagine how It will reward us. That I'm looking forward to," Kris remarked, prompting Karissa to shake her head, but ultimately say nothing in retort.

"You're right, Reg. Time's wasting, let's go," Karissa agreed, taking the flask from Reg's hand and taking a deep sip of it herself.

Kris got a chuckle over the offended look on Reg's face, and Karissa's knowing smirk didn't make him feel any better.

He just grumbled and stood up, leaving Kris' hideaway before the others... though he ultimately held back, as they knew where they were going and he didn't.

Travelling in daylight together was a little suspicious, as they all stood out against each other; a prostitute, a street rat, and a warehouse manager all walking together? That'd raise questions with more perceptive folk.

So Reg was sat around looking for Kris' signal, waiting outside the limestone facade of Capurn's library, a large structure, one that was quite lavish inside, but the outside looked like a mud-daubed brick with square windows. The top bore rounded, worn stone protrusions, the remnants of old battlements demolished once the building's time as a keep ended. The only other colour that adorned it being the banners of the city hanging from the edge of the roof. It was pretty bland otherwise.

There wasn't much for him to do yet, which made him feel a little self-conscious. He had in fact gone back and opened up the oubliette. It was dank, and a little moist, but empty, and he almost wondered if they wouldn't be insulting It by attempting to bring someone into the fold in such a place.

Just standing there, in the middle of that small, stone chamber with only light reflected from the outside to reveal his surroundings, he almost felt like he could sense the tortured souls of the condemned in that place.

Knowing about its purpose was one thing. Standing in it was another thing entirely.

But they needed to ensure they could keep any of their captives hidden away where no one would hear in the event they'd taken any of that protective potion. And that hole in the ground was their best bet. The old mine didn't seem like a good idea, some other member of the 'Cellar Attic' might've come along and sounded the alarm before they could intervene.

It was just how things were.

So he sat in the sunlight, humming a tune to himself, just trying to seem like a man taking a break, enjoying the gentle breeze and the smell of cropland floating over the tops of the city walls on the wind. A harvest must have been going on, all those strange, not unpleasant aromas filling the clearer parts of the city when the conditions were right.

Church bells started to ring, making him jump in his seat. Even the parasites in his belly seemed to roil in surprise, though he couldn't be sure it wasn't just a mistrust of the clergy.

A lot of them were useless, but the Church was often the one leading the charge against any 'unnatural enemy', real or imagined. They probably played some part in Its original destruction all those generations ago.

He wasn't going to allow that to happen. But until Kris gave the signal, he was unable to do anything.

But speak of the devil, there was Kris, standing casually by the corner of a building across the way. He glanced Reg's way, but only so he could spot the man in the periphery of his vision. Once he saw Reg stand up, he disappeared into an alley.

Reg followed casually. Perhaps too casually, whistling an innocent tune, but no one seemed to pay him any heed beyond a few odd glances, and some nearby guards shaking their heads at his off-key tune.

Down into the alley, he saw Kris ahead, who turned into another, carefully leading Reg to where they needed to go. All the way around to the back of the library.

Karissa was there, standing by a back door to the building.

"I think we found it. Just in here," she said, gesturing to the door.

"It's locked, how do you know the entrance is in there?" Reg asked.

Karissa promptly pointed to a little carving in the brick near the door's base. It didn't seem like much, the kind of idle carving a child vagrant would make before getting chased off. Swirling shapes interlocking with each other crudely.

"And?" Reg pushed.

"It's a symbol that I'm actually familiar with," she explained. "Something else I learned from one of my clients, if not directly. It means 'elder' in an ancient language from the nation neighbouring this one."

"'The Old Way'," Reg guessed.

"Exactly. This must be a little clue for the 'Cellar Attic' members to know where to look," she said.

Reg frowned.

"That just seems so unnecessary," he muttered. "If you don't want to be found, just show members where the place is, and remember where it damn well is."

"I think the idea is to give a person who wants to join the clue so they can prove themselves. Though I'm not sure everyone would know it even if they were the right type to join," Kris added.

Reg shrugged.

"Well, we found it, time to force the lock?" he suggested.

"Something like that," Kris agreed, getting down in front of it and pulling out a lock-picking kit. He inserted the pick into the lock, and then the wrench after. The quiet clicking and clacking made Reg nervous, and he saw Karissa was anxious too. If they were caught now, they were screwed.

Kris' brow was furrowed in concentration, his veins starting to bulge in his forehead from the intensity of his focus, the lock clearly difficult.

But fortune prevailed, and the lock clacked open. Kris jumped to his feet, and quietly pushed the door ajar, peering in carefully.

"No one around, let's go," he said, and they all filed in, finding themselves inside some storage room in the library. There were bookshelves that weren't so neatly filled, tables with small jars of glue and half-ruined books in the middle of repair, and quite a bit of polish. There was a smell to match, though after the amount of time they'd all spent in less than savoury places, it didn't bother them, Reg especially. He had to put up with a shipment of manure in his warehouse for a while.

But what they didn't see was any passage to some underground tunnel. They began to look around, doing their best to make as little noise as possible.

"It has to be in here somewhere," Karissa mentioned, checking the floors closely. But they were covered in dust, paper fragments, and stains from glue and polish, so it was hard to make out any seams or grooves that might've betrayed a secrete passage.

Reg peered around, and then noticed something, a crate. The floor around it was especially messy, but the crate itself was rather worn in a specific spot; along the bottom edges. The kind of wear that came from being pushed around across a stone floor.

"Over here," he beckoned, placing a hand on the edge of the crate. "See this? This has been moved a lot, slid across the floor."

"Good eye," Karissa praised.

"Well, I am often pushing things across the floor. Do it too much though and you start shedding splinters, makes the box weak. I think this one's about to start leaving bits all over the ground."

"Well, they won't mind if we shift it one more time, right?" Kris remarked, standing by the other side of the crate.

Together, he and Reg hauled it back, both of them wincing at the sound it made as it ground over the stone floor.

But Reg's insight proved correct, as they were now looking at a stone slab with an iron pull ring, a secret hatch if they ever saw one.

"Come on, give me a hand with this," Reg asked, and the three of them crouched down to lace their fingers through the pull ring.

"One, two, three," Reg counted, and then they all heaved with mustered might.

They almost flung the hatch open, the 'slab' revealed to me not much thicker than a paver, reinforced by wooden slats beneath. They wrenched on the lid to keep it from slamming into the wall and making a lot of noise.

"Fuck, that was close," Kris muttered, breathing a sigh of relief.

"I guess they didn't like the idea of breaking their backs every time they wanted to sneak around the place," Reg surmised.

"Let's just get in there before someone notices," Karissa muttered.

"They'll notice the crate is moved," Reg warned.

"So be it, we can find another way out if we have to. Besides, down there, in the dark... I think we'll have the advantage."

They all nodded in agreement, and they could already smell the dank aroma of old stagnant water and mildew wafting up from below. An iron ladder led down into the depths. Kris looked around the storage room, and grabbed a piece of lumber from a broken bookshelf. He wrapped it in a rag and then produced a fire starter kick from his pockets.

"... why do you just have one of them on hand?" Reg muttered. Granted, he couldn't talk much, he had rope stashed in his clothes to restrain their targets.

"Never know when you'll need one. Besides, gotta have light if I have a lady friend around in my nice little getaway hole," he answered, using some oil polish to help light the rag. It wasn't much of a fire, but it was enough to light the hole down into the tunnel, Kris going first.

Reg followed, and Karissa went last, slowly shutting the hatch behind her. It was not the quickest descent, definitely going deeper than the city's modest - crude, rather - sewage system, but eventually the three of them set foot on solid ground, though it wasn't the most even surface.

They could see the tunnel was hewn from the rock and soil, rough and crude. The wooden supports holding the passage up were neater, but also much older that most of the structures in Capurn. What wasn't old was a lantern hanging from an iron ring, the smell of fresh oil in its brass cage evident to the three and their enhanced senses of smell.

"Guess that torch wasn't necessary," Reg remarked.

"Take it, maybe anyone who comes by will think one of them got sloppy putting the crate back," Karissa suggested.

Kris nodded and lit the lantern with his torch, and Reg took the lantern. They made their way through a small passage, and emerged into a long, straight tunnel running into the dark either side of them. A small furrow carved in the floor trickled with moisture, flowing down to their right.

But they chose to go left, scenting the smell of oil and leather. Something they expected would lead them to this 'Cellar Attic'.

It was quiet within the tunnel, save for the intermittent dripping noise from moisture seeping down the walls, some of it likely sewage from the city.

Still, the smell of oil and leather pierced the subtle rank stench from everything else, and it led them true, right to what looked like a patio underground, several simple chairs around a table, along with crates and a lit torch lighting the space up. There was another ladder, leading up above.

"Guess we're going up again," Kris quipped, walking up to the ladder and checking on it. "Think there's a wooden trap door up there."

"So far, not much in the way of traps," Karissa remarked.

"Don't tempt fate now, someone's been here recently judging by that torch. We should be careful," Reg added, as they began to climb the ladder. Which left them hanging off it for a while, as Kris was forced to pick yet another lock, in quite the awkward position... but the parasitic tendrils emerging from his mouth helped hold his tools steady, while one arm held onto the ladder.

It proved an easier lock to crack than the other, so they all emerged into another stone room, one that looked far less used than the library storage room. Kris locked the hatch behind them, so it didn't seem like they were too sloppy of a member of the Cellar Attic.

There was light from a single slit window on the right side of the room, the glass clouded and dirty, so the light was diffused and dim. Spiderwebs hung on everything, and nothing of note stood out among the stacks of crates and boxes. No one had used this room for anything in years.

The footprints in the dust on the floor, however, told a different story; people had passed through here recently, leading to a narrow door in the back of the room.

Beyond that door was a staircase, spiralling up and barely wide enough for one person.

"The hell is this place?" Kris asked.

"I think I know," Reg added, his eyes locking onto a sigil engraved in the door, one of a lamb's head with tears in its eyes. "This is Laudner's Tower."

"Laudner's Tower?" Karissa asked. "In Old Town?"

"Definitely never been here, you?" Kris asked.

"Once," Karissa answered, "for a client. But this is totally unfamiliar to me, I don't recall the architecture being like this."

"I might have an answer to that," Reg revealed. "See, I heard about this place as a lad, whenever I got to go to the city, since my family lived outside the walls. Never could go in, place wasn't for the likes of us, but we always were fascinated with the place. There was a story that there was a whole secret part of the tower that nobody knew how to get into... maybe the 'Cellar Attic' found that out."

"Well, now the name makes a bit more sense. Hurry, let's get up there... and be careful."

Another shared nod was had, as they ascended up the staircase, feeling like they were circling around the entire core of the tower...

They reached the top at last, after passing a number of doors along the way that were locked - though Kris said he couldn't see much of interest in them through cracks in the doors, though at least one was occupied by a man, possibly the reason that torch was lit, but he was preoccupied with a bizarre painting - and finally emerging into another narrow room, this one much better kept, a maroon carpet laid out before them, and tables holding vases with simple flowers arranged along the walls.

The trio crept forward, and found a door to what must have been the top floor of the tower, inaccessible any other way. It wasn't locked, so Kris decided to peer through the keyhole.

"What do you see?" Reg whispered.

"I don't see anybody... but I do see a lot of alchemical equipment. And... a book. Can't make out what's written on it, but it looks like notes on how to make a potion," Kris answered.

"I'll put my money on this being the place," Reg remarked.

"Yes... but where's Brie? Where is anyone else?" Karissa murmured. "I don't like this."

"Think we should pull out?" Reg suggested. "Lie in wait?"

"I'd say so," Kris agreed.

"... since when did I become the leader here?" Karissa suddenly complained.

Both Reg and Kris shrugged.

"You just seemed to take charge," Reg admitted. "Not much I can do."

Karissa sighed.

"Then I guess... we head back to the tunnel, wait for someone to show up."

That plan was immediately scuppered when they heard the sound of footsteps coming up from the spiral staircase. They all looked at each other and blinked.

"Shit," Kris cursed.

They had no choice but to file into the room, doing their best not to make any noise as they opened and shut the door. The immediate problem then was finding a place to hide; the room was cramped, full of tables covered in notes and tomes and scrolls, while shelves lined the walls, filled with books or jars containing unknown substances and objects. There was another table covered in alchemical apparatuses, though it did not seem to pertain to the pursuit of an elixir to protect one from Its parasites.

Reg decided to hide under that table, as it had a cloth covering it, its edges hanging down the sides almost to the floor.

Karissa squeezed herself behind a bookcase that wasn't pushed flush against a wall, and Kris decided to duck behind a crate pushed into the far corner.

From there, they watched, stealing their breaths, and trying to stay as quiet as possible, especially when the door to the room opened.

A woman walked in, late thirties, perhaps forty. Raven black hair swept back into a neat bun behind her head, a few grey streaks running through it. Bright red earrings hung on ears that seemed tucked quite close to her head, and a small nose that didn't stick out much. Her lips glistened with a bright red gloss, and she seemed to wear simple half-moon spectacles made of a metal that shined like brass.

She wore an expression that, even all alone, seemed to carry with it a sense of strict severity, like she expected things to be in their proper place. But her green eyes betrayed a sense of curiosity and interest as she swept them over the table with what the others assumed was Brie's alchemical equipment.

The woman's cheeks were a little sucked in, but despite looking like a noblewoman and a secretary all at once - given her modest ensemble, deep blue robes with vermilion trim, a bronze-coloured belt pinching her clothes tight around the waist, and a pair of black shoes polished to a high shine - she had a bit of aged beauty to her, looking like someone who would've caught eyes in her youth, and managed to keep some of that appeal, just refined with time.

She looked over the notes on the table, and picked up a flask with an unknown liquid in it, unstoppering it to take a whiff of its contents. Her nose seemed to scrunch in displeasure, but she quietly nodded in satisfaction as well, corking the flask again.

She grabbed an inkwell and quill from another table, and jotted down some more notes. No one could see what she was writing, and none dared to make a move, or even a peep. Even the parasites on their bodies were abnormally still, as aware of this woman's potential danger as their hosts.

The three simply observed, but Reg didn't know the woman. He wasn't often around high society sorts, and she certainly looked like she belonged in some upper class establishment, following some lord around to make sure all his affairs were in order... or perhaps being followed by another to do such things.

Not skulking around some secret lab and library on the normally inaccessible top floor of an old tower.

Continuing to watch, she didn't do anything of note, and then grabbed a small notebook, and the flask, and left the room.

Now alone, the three emerged from their hiding spots, Reg looking to Karissa but finding her just as bewildered.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"Not like me to know," Reg shrugged.

Kris, however, had gone white as a sheet.

"That's Madam Tiana Wolcott. She's the wife of the city magistrate, but she does so much of the work that he's technically supposed to do. She's not that high up on the totem pole of the city, but she's got the ears of people who are just a bit higher than her, and they got the ears of people further up the ladder... you get the idea," Kris explained.

"The magistrate's wife dabbling in illegal practices, huh?" Karissa remarked on the irony.

"I think the issue here is this lady's all up in the business of important folk, and could make them believe that It is real and something to deal with," Reg surmised immediately.

At that, Karissa frowned.

"Shit."

Kris went over to the table that Tiana was looking at, and his concern only increased.

"This is it, this is the stuff on the potion, how to make it, how to find the ingredients. And that it's to protect against Its parasites," Kris explained as he picked up a thick book.

"If Madam Wolcott's in on this, she'll have the city authorities alerted for sure," Reg muttered, walking over to a bookshelf.

"I don't think she's said anything yet, there's still a lot of proof that needs to be found before she can really push the issue," Karissa surmised.

"I think they're plannin' on getting that proof," Reg spoke up, pointing to a letter he found, showing the others the writing on it.

Kris leaned close, and his eyes widened slightly.

"They're gonna take some of that elixir and head to Mollorn and see if they get jumped? And if not, figure out if something's up by nabbing someone and forcing this shit down their throat?" he remarked.

"We need to get Tiana, and find Brie, now," Karissa stated in no uncertain terms.

They didn't waste any more time, and quickly left the room, silently following Tiana back down to the lower level.

The trio found themselves in the tunnel beneath Capurn once again, anxiety filling all of them because they had lost sight of Tiana. After all, they needed to be extra careful not to reveal they were stalking her, or things could go terribly, terribly wrong. They went without light, staying in the shadows and relying on their heightened senses.

Tiana was ahead, lit by another lantern she must have acquired to find her way through the relative gloom of the tunnel. There were side passages, perhaps the Cellar Attic made use of them as well. There was no way to know, because Tiana didn't arrive looking especially suspicious she didn't find anyone else there, so maybe she didn't come the way Reg and company had come, and noticed the crate out of place.

There wasn't a lot of opportunity for ambush, but they were banking on rushing her, quickly silencing her with something Karissa had brought, and waiting until nightfall to get her to the oubliette, where they could hold her until any protections wore off, and she could be made one with It.

Of course, nothing ever quite goes to plan... as the trio spied two others emerge from a side passage, a man and a woman. The man seemed like he was relatively young, a bit older than the woman. Starry eyed, messy haired, but well dressed in black and grey garments, shirt and pants that seemed fit for labour, but were presentable in polite society. Only his boots were splashed with mud.

The woman though... Kris immediately grabbed Reg and Karissa.

"That's her. That's Brie. She's right there," he hissed.

Reg looked at the others, and they looked between him and each other.

This was their target. This is who they were after. The one who could bring about the ruin of so many enlightened souls.

But now it was three on three. The odds were not as favourable.

And in the gloom of the tunnel, it seemed Brie's eyes were sharp.

"What's that?" she remarked, furrowing her eyes.

Karissa, Reg, and Brie all looked between each other. And with a single nod, they charged.

"Infested! They have to be!" Brie shouted, her voice echoing through the tunnel, though it didn't seem like anyone else was around to hear.

"They're in the city?!" the man cried.

"They're real, you were telling the truth!" Tiana exclaimed.

"Don't just stand there, run! Tell the Magistrate, make him believe!" Brie ordered.

Tiana began to run, while Brie stepped out in front and produced a flask. She quickly swigged from it, and the man did the same.

"Get back, Luis!" she warned, and then plucked a glass ball from her robe.

She flung it at the ground in front of Kris and Karissa, and it burst into a brilliant shower of stinging sparks that made them recoil.

"Dammit!" Karissa cried.

Kris simply grunted in pain, trying to brush the sparks off his skin, seemingly clinging and fizzling longer than sparks ought to.

Brie suddenly pulled out a knife, and the look on her face said she was prepared to kill.

"I won't let you enslave this land," she growled.

Only to notice a rope go sailing past her head.

Tiana yelped, a lasso pulling tight around her arms and chest.

It was Reg, who had stayed back to prepare the rope tool. He quickly tied its end to a wooden support to keep Tiana from running away, and readied yet another rope.

"Where did you have those?!" Luis called out.

"Shut up and throw those potions!" Brie hissed.

Luis nodded, and produced another glass ball, and threw it at Reg. It burst on the ground in another shower of sparks, but he grunted and endured the pain.

He then looked up, and spied a crack in a support beam above Brie and Luis. And made a quick decision, throwing his rope up and managing to snag it on the support.

Then he gave it a good, strong yank.

It cracked, and gave way, forcing Brie to push Luis out of the way and dive herself as the piece of wood came down.

"Luis, are you alright?!"

"I'm fine, I'm--- whoa!"

It was just the time Kris and Karissa needed to push through the pain and charge Brie and Luis.

"Run, RUN!" Brie bellowed, hauling Luis to his feet, both of them sprinting down the tunnel as fast as they could go.

"Stay with her!" Reg commanded Karissa, pointing to Tiana. "Kris, with me lad!"

The two of them gave chase, pushing their bodies as hard as they could. The enlightenment only went so far physically, and Reg could feel his lungs and his legs burning, definitely not as spry as Kris.

But they kept the pace, keeping Brie and Luis from ever taking a side passage. Forcing them to keep running.

That was until Brie did something fateful, and threw out another glass jar. This one hit another support beam, and burst into a fiery and explosive conflagration, one that engulfed the entire wooden support.

It shook, and came down, along with quite a lot of dirt.

"Shit!" Kris yelped, jumping back and dragging Reg with him, not as slow to stop. Reg barely avoided having his nose near enough taken off by a falling stone as the tunnel collapsed. They backpedalled and retreated, until they reached a point where the tunnel remained standing.

Both of them were panting, and bowed over their legs.

"Haaa... dammit," Reg muttered. "Got away."

"At least... huhhh... they can't come back that way. They'll have to go all the way out into the countryside, if the story's true. We might... fuck... be able to keep them from getting back into the city."

Reg straightened up, groaning from the pain, though it quickly faded as his parasites released soothing substances to dull the burn.

"Maybe... but if they do get back into the city, what are we gonna do to keep them from raising the alarm?" he muttered.

"I think Karissa's got an idea there," he said, pointing to Karissa in the distance, crouching over a now unconscious Tiana, Karissa having used the drug she'd brought with her to knock the woman out.

They returned to her, and Karissa looked upon them with concern.

"What happened down there?" she asked.

"Brie collapsed the tunnel," Kris explained. "She and that other man got away. But they'll have to get out into the countryside, we might be able to head them off if they come back too quickly.

"The problem is if they get in anyways," Reg said. "But Kris says you have a solution for that."

At that, Karissa smirked.

"Well... we just need to buy enough time for Brie's elixir to wear off in Tiana... and then Brie will have no allies left in Capurn. Though we'll have to figure out what to do if Tiana's husband wonders where she got to when she returns."

It was Kris' turn to smirk.

"I wouldn't worry about that. From what I hear, she's often away from their home, even for extended periods of time," he explained. "I'm sure she'll come up with a suitable lie once she's one with It. We're on the home stretch, I do say."

With that, they all looked at the unconscious Tiana, and they finally felt like things were starting to look up... and a little bit of devious desire with it.

Getting Tiana across town was no easy feat, hoping she didn't wake up before they got her to the oubliette. They had to wait until nightfall after all, and hope no other member of the Cellar Attic showed up.

Reg and Karissa carried Tiana in a way that made it seem like they were helping a drunkard, while Kris did what he did best and used his charming roguishness as a distraction if they needed it, annoying guards and drawing attention from what few people were out at night.

But they eventually reached the oubliette, already unlocked and ready to receive its new prisoner, though this time they weren't going to starve in the dark down here... quite the opposite.

There was already leather and woollen sheets laid down on the floor, something Reg had done when he got his tools to open up the lock and chain. As for light, they re-lit the lanterns they'd taken from the underground tunnel, revealing features Reg at tried to forget the first time; on the damp walls of the chamber, scratches like claw marks, faint from the years of disuse, but unquestionably the remains of people scraping their nails upon the stone, mostly along the door as they cloyed for freedom. The walls, that could only be from madness.

Reg was thankful that Karissa was there to distract him with her comments.

"You actually came prepared," Karissa remarked, sounding a little impressed.

"Well, wouldn't do to have our captives scraping on bare stone... we want 'em to feel good, right?" Reg stated, his mind taken off the horror of what once transpired in this chamber.

"Right... by the way, I never thanked you for your help in the tunnel," Karissa said, laying the unconscious Tiana down upon the makeshift bedding.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just figured it would be useful is all, I grew up on a farm, I learned to use that technique from my father, who said he learned it off a foreign sort," Reg assured.

"Perhaps, but Kris and I were on the backfoot because of that potion. If we were any closer, it might've engulfed us in fire. But you staying back to get out that rope put you in a position to respond. That, and you endured the pain of that second potion well."

"I've done some blacksmithing work on the farm too. Couldn't always wait to get to the city after all. You get used to a bit of burnin'," he explained.

"Still, you saved us," Karissa praised.

She turned and clutched his cheek, and he was drawn into a deep, erotic kiss, her tongue mingling with his and her eyes lidding in satisfaction.

Reg wrapped his arms around her waist, returning the favour and letting his tongue flicker about her own.

They pulled back, and she smiled.

"Thank you, Reg~" she repeated.

"No problem~"

Groaning caught their attention, looking down at a stirring Tiana.

"Looks like she's coming to," Kris observed.

"Well, I'm sure you two can keep her company while I go make sure Brie and her friend don't get back into the city easily," Karissa informed.

"Are you going to be alright with that?" Reg asked.

"As long as I can keep her from the main entrances, I think I'll be fine. She won't cause a scene near the guards, and I can claim they're criminals. That'll only buy us time though. We need Tiana on our side. Then she can talk to her husband, at which point, Brie is finished."

"Then let's get to work on making Tiana here understand what it means to be enlightened~" Kris said eagerly.

Karissa smiled, and gave him an equally erotic kiss, before parting ways with the two others, closing the door to the oubliette; without a lock, it could be opened from within.

Now it was just Kris and Reg, and they got to work stripping Tiana as she slowly woke up from her drug induced stupor.

They both knew she was going to be terrified and despairing, so they aimed to inflict as much pleasure as possible, and to keep her off balance constantly.

Reg placed himself between her thighs, stroking his hands along her skin, fingers and thumb curling lecherously along her legs until they gripped her hips. Kris hovered over her head, removing his clothes article by article until he was as naked as her, his erection bobbing and leaking precum already.

Reg focused on Tiana's pussy, her pubic hair quite neat for an older woman, barely covering her looser folds. He didn't wait for her to come to completely, curling his tongue against her clit, and earning a half-conscious groan from the woman. Her eyes fluttered open, and with a start, she loosed a shriek.

"Get away from me!" she cried, only to be given a sudden, rapid flicking to her clit by Reg's quite vigorous tongue, the man gaining the experience It had accrued. It made her yowl in sudden, unwanted stimulation, and rock her head back, allowing her to see Kris crouching over her, smirking.

"Sorry, madam, but we can't let you help someone start a crusade against us. We only wanna bring enlightenment, but you'd see us all murdered. Don't worry, we're going to take good care of you~"

Before Tiana had a chance to scream some more, Kris laid himself down and grasped her chin, and sealed his lips to hers in an assertive kiss, his face upside down relative to hers.

She gagged and groaned, writhing about, still tied up. And Reg only pushed his assault further, digging his tongue around the edges of her clit, grinding the tip into the space between the bud and its hood, using the strength of his tongue to inflict as much stimulation as possible.

He peered up over her belly, and saw Kris sliding a hand down her body to grasp one of her breasts, fondling it eagerly, thumb and finger coming together to gently roll the nipple atop it between the tips of his digits.

Reg turned his attention back to Tiana's slit, and slid a hand down from her waist between her thigh and his face, fingers teasing her slowly wetting pussy folds. His efforts were bearing fruit, an unwanted arousal filling her.

But once the protection of her elixir wore off, she would not have to suffer feelings of despair anymore.

Reg stroked his fingers up and down her slit, and pushed a little firmer in order to catch the entrance to her canal, causing her to jump. He pushed her hips down to keep her controlled, giving him a chance to push two fingers into her sex, right to the knuckle.

A muffled groan and whimper escaped Tiana's mouth, still kept thoroughly sealed by Kris' aggressive lip-lock. She shuddered too, trying to wriggle out of her bonds, but also proving to be rather sensitive to stimulation.

Reg could feel how wet she was, it was honestly quite a shock. Under these circumstances, he didn't expect her to get aroused so readily, but he was not about to find issue with it. He just wished that damned elixir had never been made, then they could've done this much quicker, and she could've become enlightened with far less of a trial.

His tongue waggled swiftly against her bud, and soon his lips wrapped around her bud, the man suckling roughly, eschewing any gradual build up for Tiana's pleasure. They needed to overwhelm her, exhaust her, keep her unsteady. When the time was right, they'd be able to implant her with their parasites, and the safety of all enlightened, all within Its love, would be assured.

His fingers started to thrust, pumping back and forth from the tip right down to the knuckles, curling at the right moment to stroke Tiana's folds and ensure she felt every single thrust of his fingers. He pushed them as deep as he could manage, until he felt his digits brush over a spot that seemed to make her flinch powerfully.

He paused, and then roughly stroked that spot again, really having to push his fingers deep, and Tiana again squirmed in reflex.

Reg grinned, knowing he'd found a weak point... and between that, and his ravenous suckling and tongue lashing of her clit, he had her roiling on the ground, her body twitching every which way her bound arms would allow. Her legs kicked wildly, and he could hear her shrill whining garbled by Kris' relentless kissing, his own satisfied murmurs nearly drowning her out.

Her flinching seemed to increase in frequency, and Reg knew she was on the verge of her first climax already, the woman unable to resist this attack on her most sensitive points.

She bucked her hips, and wrenched them down, her muscles tensing as she tried to stave off the inevitable. But she could not suppress her body's sensitivity it seemed, and cried out into Kris' mouth, while a surge of moisture graced Reg's face. He continued to work away at her sex, making sure she didn't have any respite, prolonging her orgasm for as long as he could, thrusting his fingers away and thrashing his tongue to her clit.

And then he pulled back, giving the woman respite at last. Her chest heaved against Kris' grip, and he broke the kiss so she could pant and breathe freely, no words or cries of dismay to be had, too overcome by the ecstasy she just experienced.

But Reg wasn't about to let her rest too long, and start begging. He rolled himself onto his back, flipping himself over into an awkward position, head tilted so he could put his mouth to her pussy... and a soft gurgle followed when his parasites emerged from his throat, tendrils coiling around her thighs and waist, the main tentacle pushing into her depths while she was still shivering from the afterglow.

Her eyes bulged in their sockets, and she screamed, but no one was around to hear her save for Reg and Kris, the latter summoning his own parasites so he could attack her nipples more potently, tendrils coiling around her breasts and groping the mounts, while several focused on her nipples, using their tips to trace the sensitive bumps, swirling in every direction.

Reg did much the same, but his tongue was still at her clit, rolling and grinding up and down, making sure the bud was never free from stimulation. Only now, it was far more intense for the women, feeling writhing tendrils tracing her clitoris and attack every sensitive point on its vulnerable surface between every smothering roll of his tongue. While others joined the main tentacle in plunging deep inside her, right to her cervix.

It kinked and rocked in every direction, never doing the same thing twice in a row, and constantly pushed against her trigger spot, those feelers joining it tracing her folds and massaging said spot whenever the main tentacle wasn't pressing against it.

And with Reg's feelers wrapped tight around her waist, no amount of writhing could see Tiana freed from Reg's assault, building to another orgasm almost immediately. The whole while, Reg's hands were gliding up and down her sides and belly, massaging her mild fatty spread, kneading her pudge and letting his fingers stroke reverently around her body.

The woman could not hold out under this intensified attack between the two of them, and so her hips bucked again and another orgasm coursed along her spine, shudders spreading to every extremity in her body, her fingers splaying out and twitching, hands still bound by the wrists.

Another surge of moisture wet Reg's face, and he took it in a stride, continuing to stir up her innards with his tentacles until he decided Tiana had gone through enough of this, pulling back to allow her another small reprieve.

She slumped into the matting, panting hard as Kris also retreated, licking his lips as his tentacles retreated back into his body.

The woman was left shivering, groaning and whimpering on the floor during her come down from such intense back-to-back releases. But things were far from done for her, as Kris and Reg exchanged looks... and knew what to do next.

Reg stood up, and finally started stripping himself off, kicking his pants aside and his boots off, his cock bobbing proudly, a silver bead of precum forming at the tip, his balls hanging freely, his bush now gone since joining the fold.

Tiana watched as he dropped to a crouch between her legs, and she started shaking her head.

"Please... please no," she begged, tears starting to form in her eyes.

He ignored her, slapping his helm down against her slit a few times, testing her, before pushing inside her with little fanfare, stretching her pussy around his cock. She wasn't especially tight, expected of her age, but she was warm, and wet, and quivering quite a bit. Reg found it rather pleasant, especially once he started rocking back and forth inside her, his back rolling with grace he once lacked, ensuring each stroke of his cock was as stimulating as possible for the helpless woman.

It made her moan in pleasure and dismay, rocking her head back... only to have her throat filled by Kris' own prick, the younger man grunting as he held onto her head and shoulder for leverage, slowly thrusting back and forth, his balls lightly slapping against her face.

Her throat bulged out from his length, and she gagged at how deep he pushed. Of course, Kris was careful, making sure he didn't aggravate that reflex too much, and through his efforts, slowly made her throat a more accommodating place for his dick.

Reg focused on her body, reaching forward to grip one of her breasts, kneading the soft, generous globe beneath his fingertips, thumb rolling over the nipple with flicking motions.

She loosed garbled cries and whimpers from her throat, trying to sob but only able to moan instead; each of Reg's strokes seemed to hit her most sensitive points, the exaggerated rocking pushing against her walls and grinding his helm against her folds.

Each twitch of her body just made him feel even better himself, grunts leaving his mouth, and precum leaking into her clenching depths. Even her writhing just twisted and kinked her passage that little bit to impart slightly more stimulation.

"I'm going... to fill this lady..." he grunted between heated breaths.

"So am I..." Kris revealed, his voice laboured with his lust. "I'm looking forward to filling her with my parasites though, I do say."

"Haaah... just focus on fucking her silly until that damn elixir wears off," Reg retorted, prompting a nod from Kris who was more than happy to follow that piece of advice, starting to rock his hips even faster into Tiana's mouth, her lips struggling to form a seal, but her throat proving to be plenty stimulating.

His balls were starting to audibly slap against her face, while Reg could feel his own colliding with the lower tip of her pussy. He felt their contractions too, a pressure building in his loins as he picked up the pace, the wet smacking filling the room. Probably a far nicer sound than what likely haunted that stone in generations past.

Tiana was clenching around his cock. Involuntarily, no doubt, but it was increasing the stimulation he felt, and it was making his grunts louder, and more primal, and his pace that bit quicker. He wanted Tiana to really feel the pleasure that awaited her once she was brought into the fold.

Kris wasn't much different, stirring his hips about to push against the walls of Tiana's throat, his panting a sign that he was close to release.

They both were, likely to cum together... perhaps another of Its blessings. So they quickened their mutual pace, though they thrust in tandem; one pushing in, the other pulling out. But without trying, they occasionally synchronised, thrusting into Tiana and causing her body's soft parts to ripple even more strongly from the impacts.

Reg could feel the pressure building further, groping Tiana's swinging breasts, the other one free to wobble, the nipple making circling arcs in the air. It was a delicious sight, he only wished she had something tasty within that bosom to sip.

Then such thoughts were cast aside as ecstasy overcame him, and with a boorish moan, he slammed himself into Tiana's pussy, and Kris buried his own cock deep in her throat, both of them jerking against the woman's body once their climax came.

Hot cum flooded Tiana's depths, Reg's prick throbbing madly and his balls all but leaping in their sack with every pump of cum he shot inside her.

Tiana gulped chaotically, gurgling a surge of semen that Kris emptied into her throat, the infesting traits of their seed likely nullified by Tiana's dose of elixir. That was fine, they were going to corrupt her proper once the effects wore off.

But they weren't here just to get themselves off... so after a brief pause, their jerking ceased... and they started thrusting with even greater vigour than before.

Shrill, garbled moans of surprise emanated from her throat, mixing with the resumed wet slapping, her body shaking and rippling from impact and stimulated muscle spasms in equal measure.

So soon after climax, it was so very intense on Reg, and Kris too from the way his face strained. But they could endure such stinging pleasure, their cocks leaking fresh precum already. They weren't going to cum too soon though, they needed a bit more of a rest for that.

The one who did cum was Tiana, screaming in ecstasy as she was finally overcome, arching her back and sputtering another surge of moisture all over Reg's crotch. Her walls clamped hard and chaotically, stimulating his glans quite intensely.

They kept thrusting, kept her orgasm going, kept their own peak of pleasure burning strong, making the veins pop in their heads. But for Reg and Kris, Its blessing allowed them to endure and delight in this torturous pleasure, while Tiana was left to writhe and squirm on the ground, shaking and twitching and whimpering, utterly overwhelmed.

Until the two men gave her another chance to rest at last, ceasing their movements, and then slowly pulling out, Tiana coughing up some of Kris' cum and sputtering, while more trickled from her pussy.

She whined, almost exhausted, and groaned in stimulated dismay. The men weren't done with her yet, they had to keep her overwhelmed. She still needed rest, so they instead opted to start revering her body with their mouths and their hands, groping and kneading her skin, and tasting her as firmly as they could.

Reg let his lips traipse up her pudgy belly, while Kris started sucking on her neck, long curls of his tongue up her throat making her gasp and shiver. Reg crept further, leaving brush strokes of saliva against her skin, warm to the touch, her invigorated body providing the heat that kept the chill of the chamber at bay.

Higher and higher he worked, hands gripping her softer parts in twisting, kneading squeezes, until he ran his tongue up the underside of one of her breasts, his path starting to wind all over her globe, until he arrived at a firm teat. His tongue swirled about the areola, digging into the base of her bud before his lips clasped tight around her peak, and he began to suck, tongue pressing and smothering her nipple repeatedly.

Kris wasn't far behind, taking her other nipple into his mouth, and applying a slightly more aggressive approach, tugging on her breast and working his jaw a bit more thoroughly.

The result was Tiana continuing to moan and whine, while still recovering from her explosive climax.

She was still shivering, some of that lingering sensitivity sticking around for quite a bit longer. Something that would make what was to come next all the more overwhelming for her.

For now, Kris and Reg contented themselves kneading her body, massaging and caressing her, and sucking on her teats like she was producing, though all they sucked into their mouths was their own saliva.

Tiana's head rolled back all the same, whimpering as this ordeal continued. That was a sign to the two men that she had rested enough, and so they released her bosom and sat upright. They pondered her panting body, before Reg got an idea.

"Help me lift her," he said. Kris nodded, and wrapped his arms around her body along with Reg.

Together, they hauled her into the air, sandwiched between them and prompting her to yelp. Having already indulged in her pussy, Reg turned her around until he was facing her back, giving Kris quite the ample body to have fun with.

"I'm begging you," she pleaded, "let me gooooooah!!?"

Her surprise was owed to Reg prodding her back door with his pecker, grinding his helm against her sphincter firmly, back and forth motions stroking his helm to that ring of muscle.

"No, you can't, not there, get out you foul-ahhh!"

Her second shriek was thanks to Kris sliding himself into her pussy, thrusting up hard and making her belly ripple from the impact. He quickly got to work, thrusting away and keeping the woman unsteady.

Giving Reg ample time to tease and probe her pucker, precum lubing up the entrance and his own head. He was leaking so much, a lot more than he was used to, the stuff trickling down his length. Yet another of Its gifts, amplifying the lubrication he himself could produce.

It was a little difficult to get himself properly positioned to push inside her, with Kris thrusting away, but Reg was thankful he was keeping Tiana gasping and moaning, her eyes wide from the shock and pleasure.

Eventually, Reg took a firmer hold of her hips, and even as she was bouncing, managed to pull her down upon his rod, impaling her ass with his shaft to the hilt.

She cried out, only to be silenced by another of Kris' kisses, the wet noises of emerging feelers catching Reg's attention, before the purple tendrils appeared around Tiana's head. She gagged on his main tentacle, Kris simply using it to stuff her throat, even though she was not yet able to be infested.

But Reg quickly took back her attention, even if she had nowhere to look, once he started thrusting up into her ass, the strain mediated slightly by how much precum he was leaking, and how much of her own arousal she'd soaked his cock in from her pussy.

Eventually, the two men found a stimulating rhythm, one thrusting in, the other pushing out, just as they did before when taking her from both ends. And just as before, they alternated without thinking, thrusting into her at once. It was doing that they could feel the pressure exerted by the other, squeezing the flesh between passages, and somehow making it even more stimulating.

Reg groaned in delight, her ass much tighter than her pussy, though even Kris was finding her womanhood a delight, thrusting away vigorously, murmuring into his most extreme kiss. It made Tiana's eyes roll upward, the woman completely overwhelmed in the moment.

Reg contented himself with sucking on her shoulder, her neck, and her ear, his tongue curling with teasing, fleeting touches, earning extra shivers even through all the stimulation they were inflicting on her.

But they could feel that pressure building again, ready to burst inside her. Reg could. And he was sure Kris was the same, both of them groaning in need. They again picked up the pace, thrusting faster and faster, the loud clapping so rapid now, wet and obscene.

It wasn't just their orgasms they could feel coming; Tiana's innards were starting to clench and quiver sporadically, and her body was overcoming with slowly intensifying shivers. She wasn't going to hold out any longer than they were.

Though she would be exhausted well before they were. Exactly what they were hoping for, as they slammed their cocks hard into her body, Reg nibbling around her neck and murmuring lustfully, pants washing over her skin.

Tiana's own moaning was garbled by Kris' tentacle plundering her throat, keeping her thoroughly gagged.

And ultimately, distracted by the stimulation happening to her.

They both thrust faster, their dicks throbbing, leaking more and more precum into her holes, the wet clapping getting even more rapid, mixing with the strained grunts of pleasure from the two men.

It was reaching a head, and there was only so much they could to stave it off so that Tiana came with them, a decision they both decided on without words.

In the end, Tiana's climax was what brought them over the edge, the woman crying out intensely, shuddering and flinching as more fluids sputtered from her pussy, feeling the two men slam themselves to their hilts inside her, their strained, masculine groans of pleasure - garbled, in Kris' case - mixing with her gurgling ecstasy.

Each little jerk they made into her body was another rope of hot cum, filling her depths with their virile cream, their balls contracting in unison. Reg and Kris were synchronised, one in their purpose to bring this woman into the fold, and to ensure her despair was in check, overcome with relentless ecstasy.

Such that when her orgasm finally reached its end, and the two men slowly pulled out, it was not to be the finale.

Kris' tendrils released her head, and the main tentacle pulled out of her throat, causing her to cough weakly, sputtering up some of its secretions. But she remained held, and turned around, now facing Reg.

He cupped her cheek, smirking and licking his lips.

"When you join the fold, when you embrace It, feel Its love... you'll understand~"

And then he stole a kiss, sealing his lips to hers and thrusting his tongue deep... all as he and Kris once more pushed their dicks into her body, and started thrusting again.

For two more hours, they kept going, changing positions and filling her with their cum until at last they sensed her protection had waned... and took turns implanting their parasites into her body, each gifting half into her womb, and half into her belly, to ensure any vestige of the elixir would not be enough to condemn the number of parasites they released into her body.

At last, it was done. And with it, the threat of their end.

---

Leroy Wolcott groaned as he went over the papers before him, sighing out as he drank from a cup of tea gone cold. Tiana was late, she should've been back last night, though that wasn't unusual. She was a busy woman, and sometimes she went whole days without coming home. Still, it would've been nice for her to be here.

But as he was thinking about his wife, he heard the door open to his office, and speak of the devil, there she was, smiling warmly.

"My apologies, dear. I was held up with some business involving the merchants' representative," she informed him.

He rolled his eyes.

"Of course that'd be it," he muttered. The representative was an even more stubborn woman than Tiana could be. He had his own share of headaches because of her. "I hope you managed to resolve whatever it was."

"I don't think I did, but we've agreed to pause any action until we have. That wasn't why I came to talk to you, other than to say hello, my dear."

Leroy managed a smile, and turned around to face his wife.

"Well, hello. I did miss you," he admitted.

"As did I," she agreed. "However, I have been informed of some troubling information, regarding a pair of individuals."

Leroy cocked his head, leaning an arm on a desk.

"How so?"

"I heard they were preparing to produce a dangerous substance to start distributing among the population. They had this crackpot theory about strange creatures invading people's bodies and changing them from within. I thought that perhaps you should have a look into it should they ever be caught. Perhaps placing a bounty on them."

"Well... it's not really my place to cast judgements without more evidence. But if what you say is true, it'd probably behoove me act in some manner, before I get an earful from the Lord."

Tiana bowed her head, smiling thankfully.

"Thank you dear. I thought you would want to do something about such troublemakers. I heard they almost ready to produce this substance in large quantity."

"It is my job, after all. Now, anything else? I have so much paperwork to do," he told her with a sigh.

"Nothing else... but perhaps I can take some of that stress away from you?"

"Oh?" he ventured with a quirked brow. "And what would that be?"

He sounded interested, and had a wry smirk across his face.

Prompting Tiana to smile widely, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Would you give me a kiss, my love?"