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Cloud cover consumed the night sky. Even her refuge of star gazing was denied tonight. Nilen remained on the hill, sitting on the grass. Her skirt bunched up under her.
Not too far away, the air split. A door appeared from no where. The noren blew lightly on the smooth wind. Nilen knew the symbol on the white linen. It was a jouhatsu. Magical vanishing taverns. Relatively common this side of the Twilight Mountains, being so close to the border of the Elemental Divide.
The night sky being taken away from her, Nilen rose and made her way to the jouhatsu.
Upon entering, it was rambunctious. Many beings of different species enjoying themselves. Dining, drinking. Nilen's first point of interest was to scour the jouhatsu for anymore of her kind, Tenerbrate. She needed eyes on them first, so she could avoid them.
She had herself a drink and stowed herself in a booth furthest from the band. To her surprise and annoyance, she was not allowed her drink in peace.
“My, and what is your name this eve?”
Her annoyance was quickly shut down when she looked upon the person already sitting themselves in her booth. They were the sky.
A being made from the cosmos. Their skin the darkest of blues. Shining, freckle-like stars scattered all around. Light violet and pink nebula coasting over their skin. A thick, flowing, vapour-like moustache; waving enchantingly with it's pink and violet hugging the top and bottom of the strange facial hair that pulsed when they spoke.
They took a sip of their drink and smiled, looking at Nilen while waiting for a response. Well, at least she assumed they were smiling... and looking.
Their white eye-lashed eyes were peering closed at her. The moustache covered most of their face, she couldn't even see their mouth. They had poured the drink in the middle of the moustache. The crinkle in their eye and the raised cheek bones were all she had to go on that they were smiling.
“My goodness, how rude of me!” They bellowed. “My name is Augustus Lactea.” They said as they put out a hand to Nilen.
Unsure why they were speaking to her, she gave them her hand and replied with a deep, cautious voice. “...Nilen Coalshine.”
“Please to make your acquaintance!”
She could not say the same. They were far too chummy too quickly for her liking.
“Do you frequent the jouhatsu often? Where are you actually from?”
Nilen took a sip, eyeing this, Augustus. “I've been to enough. Where I'm from isn't important.”
“Oh!” They replied with flowing waves of their moustache. “An adventurer are you then?”
She scoffed. “No. I'm a seamstress.”
They brought their drink to their lips. “I assume you made that outfit of yours then?”
How did their moustache seem to smirk?
“...I did.”
“Quite fetching. Eye-catching, even.” Their arm lay over the back board of the seat. Their fingers could almost touch her. “...Caught my eye, at least.”
Nilen felt herself go stiff. She'd never received a compliment like that for the garments she was wearing. There was nothing alluring about her outfit. An ankle length skirt, waistcoat and shirt with the shoulders cut out. Simple everyday wear.
“...Thank you.” Nilen responded and drank some more. Augustus followed suit.
“You must be a fine seamstress with your days full of happy customers given the garments you make for yourself. No doubt the best of your town and the envy of the others that share your skill.”
She sneered at his words. “Your compliments are falling flat given the reality of the situation. Their mocking and bullying to my face may have stopped since becoming almost masterful of my craft, but that doesn't make up for my childhood of having to learn sashiko on my own simply to make clothes that fit. Or the other children telling me my shadow mark was the work of the gods trying to kill me before I was born because they knew I would come out wrong.”
Nilen sculled her drink and slammed it on the table.
Augustus stared at her, caught between a breath. “...That's... terrible! Why would they do that?”
“Look at me! Have you ever seen a Tenerbrate my size?”
“What an awfully close-minded town she must have come from.” Thought Augustus.
Tenerbrates were quite waifish in their figure. As they looked at Nilen, they noted her plumpness in comparison. No, they had not seen a Tenerbrate of her size before, and that's what they were drawn to.
“And your... abnormality?”
“I don't have one!” Nilen huffed. “...I'm too fat for them to show through.” Even in her adulthood, the cruelties she was given as a child still stung.
“Miss Coalshine.” Augustus squared up with her, leaning in.
She looked at them feeling overwhelmingly impolite. They've been listening to her complaining about being fat when they were twice her size!
Their belly was smooth and rotund under their dark green waistcoat. Their forearms were thick, with sturdy hands almost twice the size of hers.
“If you may permit me,” Augustus began. “...may I touch your shadow mark?”
That was not what Nilen was prepared for them to say.
“It's fine if it's a no.”
“No, I... wasn't, expecting.” She sighed to get her thoughts clear. “...Okay.”
Augustus' hand came to her neck. Her shadow mark was black and looked like a serrated slash across her throat. It would have saved her some bullying if she wore high collars to cover it up like the rest of her body. But that was the one edge she had over them. If it was indeed the mark of the gods attempt on her life before birth, then it was the mark of their failure. She would show their failure to the world.
Nilen sat still as she let Augustus' thumb skim her mark. Their hand was cool, refreshing. Like the first jump into a lake on a hot day.
She noticed the pink in their moustache expand. Slowly becoming the dominant colour over the violet and white.
Their hand rose, and now they cupped her face. Their thumb, caressing and pulling her lip down just so. Their head tilted down, getting closer. Her head rose. Unknown to her what was so captivating about them, she leaned in and pressed her lips onto the glowing pink moustache.
Augustus pulled her in deeper. Their hand collecting one of her orange plaits. Everything seemed to go quiet in the jouhatsu. Nothing mattered besides what they felt from each other.
Nilen had no clue what she was kissing. Whatever the moustache really was, it felt like lips. Soft and supple. Becoming too invested, her tongue emerged and ventured out into Augustus.
It was moist but unlike saliva. There was both nothing there and yet it was the softest of clouds. She pressed deeper, lost in the feeling and trying to figure out how it felt only to pull away in a sudden motion. Something went inside her mouth!
Nilen stared, shocked at Augustus as a deep pink flowing tendril receded back into the depths of their moustache.
“I'm sorry.” They apologised. “I thought since you were, I would.”
“What...” Nilen was already embarrassed by her next question. “What are you?”
Her question caught Augustus off guard.
“I'm a Samuten.”
“What is that?”
“You've never met a Samuten before? Not even at another jouhatsu?”
Nilen shook her head. “I don't even know if I've heard of a Samuten before. What are you? And what is that?” She nodded at the moustache.
“We're, galaxies. Entire cosmos in material form. We don't have a set shape like most species. We shape shift. This is just the form I prefer.”
Nilen's head was in turmoil. “You prefer being that big?”
The moustache was so different to when Augustus arrived at Nilen's table. Instead of the short, flowing waves of the bottom, they were long and now the violet and white was completely consumed by the deep pink.
It seemed her embarrassment had disappeared and been replaced by curiosity.
“I'm sorry, can I..?” Without waiting for a response, she eased a finger into the moustache. Searching around in that strange, empty mist feeling like on her tongue.
Augustus couldn't help themselves but fall into it. Nilen gasped as they sucked on her finger. She felt a tendril wrap around, sliding up and down, pulling her fingers in further.
Tendrils came out from the moustache and wrapped around her long, jagged ears, pulling her back in for a kiss. She kissed Augustus again with open mouth, this time ready and eager for the tendrils.
Two went inside, sliding and massaging around her tongue. They tasted refreshing. Everything about them was like a much needed sigh of relief and mindfulness.
Her hands scrambled at their body. Squeezing and squishing their belly. Pulling open their already low collar, her fingers trailing through the white, curly chest hair. While Augustus may have felt cooling, she most certainly was not. She was getting hotter. Every pulse from them drove her hotter!
Augustus withdrew from her lips and their hand wrapped around her body. “Shall we go somewhere more private?” They asked before pulling her head back from her plait and kissing her shadow mark.
“...yes.” She moaned.
They lead her out of the booth holding her hand. Augustus did not lead her up the stairs to the rooms where she usually went for some privacy with someone. When looking back, they noticed Nilen fixated on the staircase.
“How does my place sound?” They asked without waiting for an agreement.
Augustus stopped the pair in front of a bare wall. Nilen watched as Augustus blew, the moustache vapour spread from them and covered the wall, swirling and pooling, taking on the shape of a doorway.
“Shall we?” They implored, looking back at Nilen who stood there bewildered.
Before she could respond, they pulled her through.
It felt like misty rain as the pair walked through. Nilen had squinted as she took her steps. When she opened her eyes, it was a completely different place. She turned around and the vapour dispersed, the doorway evaporated before her eyes.
She took pause for a moment, looking at the scenery before her when moments ago, it was simply the insides of another jouhatsu. It was a zen garden now. A large one at that.
She peered over at the design in the loose stones around the rocks. She looked left and right... wait a minute. Why did the rocks over there seem familiar?
Nilen's thoughts were interrupted from the fusuma sliding doors Augustus pulled open. They revealed a tatami room. The far wall had the oshiire cupboard doors decorated with patterns of deep green forest trees and cliff faces. A large futon lay in the middle of the room with a duvet, it's design matching the theme of the doors behind it. On the walls hung a painting or two, and a storage cabinet below.
“Please remove your shoes before entering.” Augustus had already placed their shoes to the side of the open doorway. Nilen followed suit.
The tatami were soft under Nilen's feet. She already felt calm simply by standing in the room. Her eyes dropped to the design of the duvet, admiring it.
Augustus was enamoured with her eyes. The dim light displayed her luminescent red iris'. A beautiful thing she was in the darkness.
They reached out their hand to stroke across her shadow mark once more. She turned her head towards them, her eyes wide and open looking up to them, the subtle glow brightening her green skin.
Nilen also noticed how they shone. The moustache flowed out, keeping her eyes drawn to it. It seemed in the travel, the pink receded. It grew deeper and dominated the other colours as they continued to stare at her. A hypnotising contrast to the endless dark blue space and glittering stars that imitated their skin.
Augustus pulled her in, wrapping their arm around her and once again kissing her neck over the shadow mark. Nilen's fingers scrunched the material of their clothes. Tugging them, bringing their body closer to her.
Her hands flowed up their body. Feeling for the buttons on the waistcoat. She tickled the chest hair exposed in the low, open collar. Effortlessly, when her hands came back down, she undid all their buttons.
Augustus pulled away frantically. Their hands removing the waistcoat and undressing themselves. In smoother, yet hurried motion, Nilen did the same. When her skirt fell to the floor, as the final layer of her clothing was removed, she returned her gaze to Augustus.
“Oh, that's... hmm.” What was she to do with that? What was that?
Augustus chuckled upon her reaction and took her by the wrist. “What do you want it to be?”
Just like the moustache, there was that flowing, deep pink vapour where Nilen was expecting genitals. And just like the moustache, a tendril emerged from it, worming itself into her hand. She felt it's cool, plump thickness.
She could only gasp in anticipation of what it would feel like inside her. Squirming it's way between her wet pussy lips.
“...what do you want it to be?” Augustus repeated in a whisper by her ear. A moustache tendril gliding across her mouth.
Nilen couldn't verbalise a response. Her fingers wrapped around the thick tendril in her hand and she began stroking along it. Augustus moaned in her ear. Arms wrapping around her, grabbing handfuls of that squeezable, naked arse.
Lost in the embrace, the two stood together, pulsing their bodies against each other. Grinding deeper into the other's grasp.
The tendril in Nilen's hand was smooth and lacked texture. No ridges, no nubs. Simply smooth and squirming; she hoped, happily, in the embrace of her fingers.
There was something else between her legs. Rising up her inner thigh and sliding itself between her folds. Another tendril. Smaller than the one in her hand, it teased her, stroking outside of her, coating herself in her wet, rubbing her slippery clit.
Nilen let go of the larger tendril, and grabbed onto Augustus' body as she raised a leg to allow more of an opening for the tendril.
“Oh, you want it that way, do you?” Augustus scooted her over to the cabinet by the wall.
They pushed Nilen over so her elbows were resting on it. That beautiful large behind, jiggling with her footsteps. They squeezed her cheeks together and pushed them out again. Giving a cheeky slap just to watch it jiggle a little longer, then tantalising her with a tendril; sliding up and down that juicy cunt.
Augustus snatched her leg and raised it. Elbows on the cabinet, one foot on the floor and the other over their shoulder, they had her perfectly stuck in position to be fucked.
Her tummy and love handles rolled over themselves in folded formation. Her breasts hanging and swaying as she twisted towards them.
“I thought you said you had no abnormalities.”
“...I don't?”
“What's all this then?” Before giving her a chance to respond, Augustus dove in, suckling a breast. And as they did, their fingers skimmed over the marks on her other one. The purple marks were scattered over her body.
The marks appeared slowly after it became apparent that Nilen was growing bigger than all the other Tenerbrate children. They looked like tears across her skin. Stretched and torn to her rare and large Tenerbrate form.
Scattered on her inner thighs. The underside of her tummy. Her buttocks, her under arms and her breasts.
“You're so decorative and beautiful.” Augustus praised before returning to kiss her again. “Are you ready for me?”
Nilen's hand instinctively went to their chest, caressing them under the bristling white chest hair.
“Yes.” She responded.
“How do you want it?”
“...Pardon?”
Augustus wormed the thick tendril up across her tummy. It changed to all manner of shapes. A thick head. Thin with ridges. Tapered head while getting thicker at the base.
“How would you like it?” They asked, eager to learn a favoured shape of hers.
“Oh...” Her eyebrows raised. “I guess just, normal Tenerbrate for now? Do you know what they look like?”
“I do.” Augustus replied, a little disappointed. “I've not engaged with one personally but yes, I do know what they look like.”
“And proportionate!” Nilen shot in. “Well, proportionate to your size. Don't go overboard right now.” They nodded and she watched as they made the tendril change.
The head was small but rounded. Nubs formed down the shaft and at the base was the larger ridge, usually centralised and able to stimulate when thrusted fully. She would not let them know she'd never engaged with another Tenerbrate either.
Nilen felt pitiful asking a shape-shifter to give her the cock of her own species. This was not her first time going home with someone from a jouhatsu, or even bringing an interesting adventurer passing through back to hers. Other species never had a problem with her size. But her own did.
Her hand trailed up, lightly pinching a nipple and pulling them in.
“Close enough.” She approved with a dull expression.
Augustus' mist, both moustache and genitals, twitched at the taunt. Their hips reeled back, the head slipping between her soaked folds. Her hand smothered their entire titty, gripping them in eagerness.
They entered her slowly, effortlessly, slippery, making her feel every nub. Nilen hung her head back, moaning at their cosmic cock, formed especially to her liking.
They thrust, and she steadied herself on the cabinet, trying not to go unbalanced and fall. She did her best to remain still. Letting Augustus pound her, filling her with the shape she'd always dreamed about.
Augustus enjoyed the view of her boobs swaying with each push they drove deeper into her. The way she looked at the cock they made for her with so much desire.
They smothered their body over her, giving Nilen a double tendril kiss. Encircling her tongue. Swimming in all the wet her body could offer.
Each thrust got longer. They wanted to draw out the feeling of them going deeper inside. Wanted her to feel every perfectly sized nub slide past her pussy entrance. She'll never go back to another vulgar, disrespectful, slanderous Tenerbrate again.
Her shadow mark is the mark of the gods attempt on her life. Ha! Augustus will show them!
Their head dipped, lapping at her neck. Smothering it in desperate love and desire. Their hands latched onto her arse cheeks, spreading them.
“Do you want more?” Augustus asked breathless.
“...What?” They asked a lot of questions for making her mind go so blank from pleasure.
“I can give you more.” They answered with the touch of another tendril at her second hole.
Nilen gasped and her glowing eyes widened in excitement. “Not too much, though.”
“How would you like it?” Augustus enquired with a kiss on her ear.
“Give me your hand.”
She inspected their hand. The nebula under their skin swarmed and pulsed under the gleaming stars.
“As big as that.” She pointed to their pinky that was about the same length as her pointer and double the thickness.
A tendril came up and mimicked the size. At the end of the length it widened, reminiscent to Nilen of a katana tsuba, guarding the hand of the wielder.
“Make it easy to slide in, won't you?” Augustus pleaded, propping the end of the tendril on her lips.
Nilen's tongue licked the tendril head. Moulding around it's shape. Swirling around it's tip, hiding it behind her lips, she began sucking. Augustus moaned for the delicious warmth of being consumed by Nilen, both mouth and pussy.
They removed the saliva coated tendril and whipped it down, pressing at her eager hole. Nilen moaned in their face and another tendril from their moustache went inside. Augustus watched her erotic face as she accepted all their tendrils inside every one of her holes.
Her lips vibrated in moaning around the tendril as the new one eased inside her arse. So tight but hungry for it to delve deeper.
Augustus pulled back, standing upright admiring their work on her body. Over their stomach they saw their tendrils pump in and out of the biggest, sexiest Tenerbrate they had ever laid eyes on. Everywhere jiggled as she accepted every thrust, every tendril trying to be consumed by her. To be the deepest inside her.
They had to claim every part of her. More tendrils spurt out, constricting her fat, chunky body. The moustache entangled itself around her leg sprawled on their shoulder, holding the glorious view open. A new tendril coiled around her other leg massaging and pumping her like it were a hardened cock.
“Fck...” She mumbled. Nilen's body was becoming limp. Never had she felt so adored and reached.
She could feel the tendrils inside her. Rubbing together, tight and slippery. Thank goodness Augustus was cool to the touch. They made her hot. She needed them deeper to cool her down. The tendrils thrust in unison and then played in different motions touching all her spots.
The ridge of the tendril cock flicking her clit. Pushing her closer. So close.
“Rub into me.” Nilen cooed, reaching up their neck and pulling them close.
Augustus raised her onto the cabinet, uncaring about the decorations being knocked out of her way.
They pressed into her, enlarging the ridge to stimulate her more. Opening it up to consume and suckle her clit. Driving her into a moaning scream as she shook and squeezed every limb around them, holding on tightly as all her strength was depleting.
Her breath wavered and she felt dizzy. But they weren't done. Augustus kept pumping inside her, making the feeling last. Pushing deeper, holding her tight, keeping her full.
Nilen watch their nebula expand around them. Forming like rain clouds. Light temporarily shining through like lightning. The moustache growing a deep, deep pink.
She snatched the waving mist. Brushing her fingers through, clenching her fist, feeling it throb in the palm of her hand.
“Nilen...” Augustus groaned, picking up the pace.
Her hand dug in deep to their titty. She pulled on the moustache so she could breathe in their face.
“Ahh!” Augustus jolted her into the wall.
More and more tendrils shot out and coiled around her. Her boobs were wrapped up. Her neck was practically being choked. She opened her mouth trying for air only to be filled with another tendril.
The embrace was like a death grip. There was desperation in the hold. Nilen looked to them as their body shook against her in their hold of imprisonment. The nebula exploded. Crackles of lightning snaked over their skin.
Without thought, Nilen swallowed the cool fluid the tendril spilled into her mouth.
Augustus stood motionless. Mind blank to the euphoria of filling her everywhere. Now they could really get started.
Nilen felt the tendrils loosen but remain latched onto her. Augustus drifted her off the cabinet and set her down on the tatami where she rolled onto her stomach.
The two were silent, aside from their panting. She had felt something flow into her. Something cool. Something relaxing. Should she have considered protection? That time had passed. She'd done the worst now.
Something was amiss, though. Nilen felt unsatisfied. She wanted more. Usually she lost all her fight after cumming. Now she felt like that was just a warm up.
Her mouth began to water. She needed to suck on something. She needed at least one of the tendrils again. She needed her legs held open and for Augustus to give her even more. Her cunt burned with desperation for more and it could only be cured by those cold tendrils.
“Augustus... why do I urgently feel like I need a second round?” She probed.
They had a sinister chuckle to them as they crawled over her. Their stomach grazing her butt cheeks.
“I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not. If I were kind I would have taken more care with you being unfamiliar to my species.”
Dread seeped into the heart of Nilen.
“Samuten don't reproduce, you see. We're created from, a sort of... big bang if you will. What we produce upon orgasm, is what's called, samas.”
She could feel their mist tickle her ear.
“I've just filled you with an aphrodisiac.” They whispered. “It's all about prolonging the pleasure.”
Something pressed against her folds. She could not help but spread her legs to fit them. Augustus hummed their appreciation at her compliance under their samas. Not that they seemed to have needed it with her. She proved perfectly agreeable to everything they offered.
She moaned as they teased her with the tendril. Pushing in to spread her cunt lips and receding again.
Their arm swooped under Nilen, between her breasts and grabbed her neck. Stroking the shadow mark. Playing with the texture of the crevice.
“Tonight, you'll be my chubby little play thing. Horny and desperate for me to fill you with more samas. I'll fuck you past the point of exhaustion and you'll still want more. And you'll take more too. Each release will make you more pliable. All your pretty holes will stretch eagerly around everything I give you.”
Augustus kissed her ear. Her eyes rolled as the tendril snuck in.
“Just keep going.” She thought. “Just keep filing me!”
“Tell me what you want me to fuck you with. I can give you a bigger Tenerbrate cock?”
“No!” She roared. She was no longer interested in the cock of her own.
Why would she take another when Augustus could give her anything she wanted? Any size she wanted. She was done longing for something that wasn't good enough for her.
“No, I want... I want a Gruun.”
Augustus propelled themselves energetically back. “That's more like it!” They bellowed as they slapped her arse and reshaped the tendril.
They lay it between Nilen's cheeks so she could feel it's girth. Bigger than what they just gave her. A flat head and thick shaft with no room to ease someone onto the size. They wasted no time and shoved it inside.
Nilen's back arched as Augustus' new Gruun cock pounded her. The stretch was hard to push through but she needed Augustus to keep going. She wanted them to use her and fill her with any shape she could think of.
Each time she watched them with their exploding, lightning crackled, starry abyss of a body, it stroked her ego from how many times she made them cum. Each time Augustus poured samas into her, Nilen requested a new shape for the next round.
A Rai-Neko, who's spurs scratched her inner walls. Two long Promethean members. Reaching deep, being thrust independently so she felt like she was always being stuffed with more and more.
Then for Augustus' own pleasure, when Nilen requested the Dwarf, they shifted their body to Dwarf proportions and shrunk to Chibi size. They sat on her chest and played with her gargantuan titties. Squishing them together and fucking between them.
Augustus sucked and pinched her nipples when the moment felt right. They exaggerated the normally short Dwarf length so they could shove it down her throat. Tendrils upon tendrils still spreading and reaching to fuck her holes and finally, after five intense rounds, they passed out on the futon.
There was minimal light when Nilen stirred from slumber. As if the sunrise was behind them. The doors had remained open, so the shadow of the house kept them protected from light.
She sat up and peered out to the rock garden. She'll take a closer look before she left. Augustus was to her side, sleeping. Or were they?
Their eyes were in a permanent closed position. They never opened whenever she had looked at them. So were they really asleep, or were they watching her?
The colour change in the vapour moustache intrigued her. It was possible it changed from emotions. It went a deep pink when they were at it. That could be linked to happiness or arousal specifically.
Violet was prominent now. Calm? Asleep?
Nilen sighed and went about collecting the clothes she left in a crumpled pile upon removal. She tried to smooth them out before dressing.
Augustus was stirred by her motion. They turned to her, watching as her breasts swayed as she tried to smooth out clothes that most certainly would not by simple hand pressure.
“Enjoy the night, pet?”
Nilen paused and her eyes locked onto them. She said nothing but sighed and shook her head, getting back to her clothes. Augustus knew there was a smile on her face.
“Might you have some breakfast before I portal you home?”
“I might.”
“You'll have to tell me where you're from this time. I can't portal just anywhere, you know.” They groaned in a big stretch. “Will you go back to working today?”
Nilen moved on to pressing another garment. Her long plaits fell over a shoulder. Her head was fuzzy with stray ends from sleeping in them.
“There are a few errands I need to run today.”
“What would you rather do instead?”
Nilen turned to them, curious.
“If you could do anything, anything with your craft, what would you want to do with it most?”
Her shoulders sunk and her eyes drifted in thinking. She had something, they knew it.
“...There's this type of fabric, a cloth. It is thin and light weight, but durable. It's made from volcano dust collected by the Dust Devils. It's said to be softer than silk, it's colour burning with the embers of the volcano itself.”
Augustus perked up at the description.
“The trouble is, to have it made for you, it'll cost you your soul. No one would sell their soul for cloth, least of all, commission me to make use of it.” Nilen looked down at her hands, the material of her skirt held in her fingers. “Even for myself... I'm not sure if I would give up my soul to be able to work with the kasei cloth.”
“IT WAS THE KASEI CLOTH YOU WERE SPEAKING OF!” Augustus bounded up, crawling their way to Nilen.
“What are you- Oomf!”
Augustus trapped Nilen under their body. Climbing their way over her and pinning her down.
“Just breathe me in!” They said hurriedly.
“What?! What are you-”
Their hand clasped over her mouth. Nilen's eyes widened in shock. Augustus thrust their face into hers and she took a deep breath in through her nose.
She breathed the vapour in.
The air was cold and electrifying as it passed through her nostrils. She felt it pass all the way down into her lungs, chilling her core. Scraping the inside of her lungs with crackling claws.
Augustus seemed to know when the feeling had stopped and removed their hand from her face.
Nilen couldn't stop the tears leak from her eyes. “...What have you done to me?”
They took deep breaths as if they had just exerted themselves. “I've blessed you with my godly powers! You are bonded to me now. I'm commissioning you for a tombi coat and togi pants made from the kasei cloth. Go to the volcanoes inhabited by the Dust Devils and make for me the garments.”
…
“...You're a god?! Why didn't you tell me this?!”
“I don't tend to pull as many mortals when they know upfront.” Augustus' thumb traced across her shadow mark. “I needed you last night. We had so much fun, didn't we?”
“Take me home!” She said as she pushed their lips away before kissing her mark. “Get off me and take me home!”
Their waving moustache went stiff. The colours went dark. Both the pink and violet. Not deep like last night. Dark.
Augustus took pause, observing Nilen's scared expression. They took a breath in and the moustache flowed again, colour returning.
“If you speak the words, “Unga iiyo,” you can link to me and my power. I shall bless you with luck, giving you an Edge on a task.”
They rose from Nilen, opening a cupboard door and retrieving a nagajuban robe to cover themselves.
“Don't think you can stray too long without making any progress. I should hate to have to Snag you with bad luck to get you back on track.” They walked around her and stopped around her head looking down on her. “Meet me in the garden when you're dressed.” They proceeded out of the room and slid the doors shut.
Nilen remained still for a moment. Her heart pounding, tears silently flowing at the ramifications of her one night stand.
This god is forcing her to sell her soul for a cloth.
She timidly slid the door across after dressing. The sun was brighter here. She squinted trying to grab for her shoes. They were gone. Nilen looked across the way and saw them hanging on Augustus' fingers. She walked towards them.
“What region am I portalling to?” Augustus asked upon her arrival.
“...Twilight Mountains.”
“Hmm...” They hummed in mild fascination, walking away. They gestured to the rocks with the hand holding her shoes. “And what about your town? Where is that?”
Nilen looked to the rock they stood before.
No way. That's why it was familiar. That's why the garden was so vast. The rocks were the continents of the world. That rock was her mountain home!
“...Yama Machi.”
Augustus' moustache flickered. “Really? Right by the Elemental Divide border. Explains why you've been to jouhatsu before.”
“That town is deeply sheltered in the mountain.” They thought. “No wonder her people treated her poorly.”
They peered over the mountain ranges in search of something. “I can't portal you in without knowing a safe space. I could put you on the hill-”
“There.” Nilen walked up beside them, pointing. “That's the hill I usually stargaze on. The jouhatsu door opened up nearby last night.”
“A stargazer, ey? It seems we're both each others type.” Augustus offered her shoes with that chummy smile they used last night to talk to her.
Nilen snatched her shoes back and put them on.
How dare they? Acting like they didn't just force a bond between them to make her inevitably give up her soul. For cloth!
She straightened herself up and smoothed her clothes. Augustus taking notice the way her hands flowed over her body.
Nilen sighed, looking bored and unamused at them. “I'm ready to go now.”
They chuckled with the pulsing, wavering moustache. Stood back from the edge of the garden and blew their vapour. Pooling and spiralling as it did last night, taking shape of a doorway.
“I shall be ever so looking forward to our next play time, pet.”
Without time to retort, Augustus kissed Nilen strongly. The moustache tendrils wrapping around the back of her head. She scoffed at them upon release and was shoved through the vapour doorway.
Nilen stumbled over the rocks on the hill side. She looked back in frustration and saw the vapour had evaporated before she could scowl at the mistreatment.
“What would that do?” She thought. “They're a god.”
As she stormed away into the mountain, she stewed in her anger. Pissed off that she could still feel the cool crackling deep in her lungs.
When Nilen returned to Yama Machi, there was no one curious as to where she had gone last night. No one wondered why her hair was a mess, why her clothes were riddled with night old wrinkles.
She arrived at her parent's house. She seldom felt comfortable calling it her home. Greeted her parents who gave a lazy glance her way, and continued to her room.
Not even bothering to get her futon out, she flopped on her bedroom floor. Last night's adventure still had her exhausted.
“Caught my eye at least. You're so decorative and beautiful.”
Nilen forced her face into the floor. “Get out of my head.” She groaned.
“It seems we're both each others type.”
She was completely defeated on her walk to Yama Machi. Despite withholding information about the samas, despite forcing a bond and blessing upon her, despite not letting her refuse a commission that would cost her soul.
...She wanted them again.
Nilen remained in her room that day. Her errands were ignored.
The next morning she rose early to chip away at some of them before work. When she left the house, she stepped on the letters left in front of the door. The one on top was addressed to her, but the name was spelled wrong.
Nylen Coalshine.
She put the other letters on the table and opened the envelope addressed to her.
Dear Nylen,
I hope this letter finds you in good health and spirits. As the Deputy Liaison of Solara's Haven, I am reaching out to share some intriguing and potentially life changing news...
“What?” Her eyes darted back and forth over the letter. Making sure she was reading correctly.
She was adopted? She had a “Patron” that played a role in her up bringing? They've passed away and left her a property in Solara's Haven? She is one of many orphans being asked to return and claim their inheritance left by the Patron?
She clasped her hand over her shadow mark.
“Did you do this?” She whispered.
Her mind was numb to the information. She couldn't just up and leave for Solara's Haven.
“Why not?”
She was only half respected at her job. She felt no community in the town.
She felt her lungs chill. She needed to travel to volcanoes with Dust Devils.
Nilen looked once again at the details in the letter and sighed.
“...Okay.”