Chapter Sixteen
Alburet woke to the sound of Stacia’s muffled moans of pleasure. He turned towards the sound to see her engaged with her Copy in a sixty-nine. He watched them with a smile as she brought both of her bodies to orgasm at the same time. When they collapsed into a heap, Alburet dismissed the Copy, which allowed him unfettered access to Stacia’s quivering flesh. He pinned her arms down as he loomed over her. “An interesting way to wake, Kitten, but now you’ve gotten me up.”
She gasped as he pressed forward, her legs wrapping around his waist. “Mayhap ya be goin’ to punish me for it?” she moaned as he began to take her.
Sometime later, when they were both sated from the morning exercise and cuddling on the bed, Alburet stirred. “I should check in with Ioaniss, Rolland and Kim this morning. We should also see what the others want to be doing today.”
“As ya wish, master,” Stacia murmured into his chest. “How do ya feel today?”
“Fine,” he replied as he stroked her hair.
“Ya passed out as soon as we got home,” she told him. “Mayhap it was just a way for ya body to adjust to the change.”
“Possibly,” Alburet gently untangled them and got to his feet. He stretched, and checked his new body out. He was relieved to see that nothing below the waist had changed, aside from the color of his skin. He hadn’t been paying much attention to those sorts of details earlier. Curious, he brought up his character screen to check if anything had changed. His race now was listed as Half-Blood Infernal. Tapping the race brought up an information screen, which he read over.
Half-Blood Infernaclass="underline"
You are half Infernal, either by birth or by deed. Your demonic heritage grants you abilities based on the demon type of your Infernal half. Imp blood grants the ability to forgo the verbal components of spells. Destroyer blood grants resilience in battle and passive damage reduction. Succubus blood grants the passive ability to influence the emotions of others. The more powerful the bloodline, the more powerful the ability for those who are directly tied to that bloodline. Your blood comes from the Dark Lord himself. You gain the abilities of all bloodlines, at maximum rank.
You also gain 50% resistance to fire damage from all sources.
Negative side effects include lowered reputation with all factions by one full rank and slower reputation gains with all factions.
Alburet whistled softly, as he checked his reputations and saw that they had indeed all dropped by one standing. “Wow, that was quite the reputation hit,” he muttered.
“Aye,” Stacia said from behind him as she wrapped her arms around him. “Are ya goin’ to be okay?”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Alburet told her as they went into the bathroom to clean up.
Almost an hour later, Alburet sat at the table sipping coffee as Stacia started breakfast. “You really are insatiable, aren’t you Kitten?”
“Tha’ be nay true. I be perfectly content at the moment,” she replied. “It nay be me fault tha’ every time me eyes land on ya I be thinking of being under ya hand.”
Chuckling, Alburet pulled out his Mindstone and sent off messages to everyone. He filled his friends in on his day and sent messages to Rolland, Kim and Ioaniss. Not a minute later his icon lit up and he checked who had replied.
Message from Karen:
Can we come over and see? Fluff is with me.
Message from Gerald:
After my meeting we were thinking of hitting the Snowblind Hills, what do you think?
Alburet replied to both of them in the affirmative, telling Stacia. “Put two more sets of food on, love. Fluff and Karen are on their way over.” No sooner had the words left his mouth than knocking came at the door. “That was fast,” he laughed.
Answering the door, he found not the duo he expected, but his in-laws and friends. “What’s wrong?” Alburet asked, seeing visible worry on their faces.
They all stared at him with varying degrees of shock, except for Lilith, who smiled at him. “I’m sure you are not aware, but the Dark Lord informed his followers last night that he had bestowed his favor upon a Two-souled. We could think of only one person who might manage to procure such an honor, so we came to check.”
“What did you do?” Stewart finally said, having gotten over his shock.
“Come in and I’ll explain,” Alburet said, stepping aside. “Stacia, your family is here.”
Stacia looked over as they all came in, “We be expectin’ others in a few as well. Ma’, will ya join me in the kitchen an’ help get food enough ready for all?”
Lilith nodded as she glided over to help her daughter as the others all found seats. Before Alburet could close the door Fluff and Karen came around the corner. “We have company, so things might be a little tight for places to sit,” Alburet greeted them, giving them each a hug as they came in. Stewart and Grimgar gave up their seats to the ladies before anyone said anything. “Okay. Since everyone is here, I only have to tell the full story once.”
He began his story, and was interrupted very quickly by questions about how he’d come to have Ioaniss’s information. He cut them off and asked them to wait until the end to ask that and any other questions they came up with, and continued with the tale. Half-way through, Stacia and Lilith served plates to everyone, then taking their own seats in their husband’s laps. Alburet found it difficult to continue his story as Stacia alternated feeding him and herself, but he managed. He left out any mention of his memories. The subject still bothered him, and he wasn’t yet ready to share his concerns. There was a few minutes of silence as everyone finished eating when he’d concluded the tale and invited questions.
“I would love to know how ye even had Sir Jones’s information,” Grimgar said.
“He exchanged it with me back when I talked to him at the castle.”
“What about the Magiblood couple? Why were they so eager to go with?” Stewart asked.
“They’re good friends, and Rolland has an interest in all forms of magic. I saw no harm with them tagging along. I don’t know what he planned to ask the Dark Lord.”
“Ioaniss must be after information about the Forgotten Prison or something else equally obscure,” Alistern mused with a distant look.
“Did it hurt?” Fluffball asked softly. “The change. You said you took some kind of elixir, but not how it affected you.”
His eyes closed briefly as he considered how to explain it. “It is, without a doubt, the most physically painful thing I’ve ever experienced. It was as if my blood was boiling inside of me, and my bones were being twisted around and my teeth yanked out of my mouth without any anesthesia. Sprouting horns is the worst headache you can possibly imagine.”
“What does it mean? To be a Half-blood Infernal? Does it give you any cool perks?” Karen asked, garnering a look of puzzlement from the others.
“You aren’t upset about him being a Half-blood?” Stewart asked.
“No, why would I be?”
“Because Half-blood Infernals are barely tolerated in the city,” Fluff replied. “Alburet probably took large hits to his reputation for his change.”
Alburet opened his reputation tab. “Lost a full ranking with each major faction. Didn’t seem to affect individual reputations, those will probably change when I interact with specific people.”
Reputation with the Stormguard Guards has been reduced to Friendly.
Reputation with all Stormguard factions has been reduced to Liked.
Reputation with all Dwelden factions has been reduced to Wary.