Ria sighed, not for the first time since the day they had repelled the hellspawn from Sivia. Part of her was wondering why she ever agreed to this, even though she knew full well why. Hell would have won that day if she hadn’t but that didn’t stop her from regretting her choices. Regretting the path she’d chosen in life and how it led her to this. A knock on her door drew her attention, just before Aurora’s voice called in, “Come on and get out here, Ixil and I are ready to go.”
She groaned and turned away from the desk, her eyes briefly resting on her travel bag and the clothes within. Instead she opened the door to find Aurora, standing out there in humanoid form and naked as usual. Her eyes fell briefly on Ixil and she felt a surge of jealousy. She’d always been cute with her delicate features, light green hair, and creamy tan skin, but now she was the best dressed member of their little group. Like many demons she didn’t wear much, today she was wearing a pair of light green panties, and nothing else, letting her small naked breasts stand proudly on her chest. Yet that was more clothing that Ria was being allowed at this moment.
She fidgeted, “Do I really have to go out there naked? Can I at least have a pair of panties like Ixil?”
Aurora grinned, “Nope! Don’t back out now, you agreed to this!”
She groaned, “Don’t remind me.”
Ixil fingered her panties, “Maybe I should take these off?”
“Please do, I think Ria will be more comfortable.”
Ixil pulled her panties down and just tossed them to the side. Then stretched a little, “Today’s going to be fun! Think any cute boys or girls will be up for a little pussy stretching?”
Aurora giggled, “Ah, demonic youth, aren’t they fun?”
Ria sighed, “So what are we doing first?”
“Common courtesy is to let the locals in charge know that I am here. So we will be visiting the palace first, then I want to seek out young Hikari and see how she is doing. After that, we can go shopping, and then we will finish the day with a nice long soak in the bath, together.”
She tried to shrink into her frame. It was bad enough that Aurora had dragged her to Kamiria but now she’d be paraded naked before the rest of her family? By the Skylords, someone spare her! Why did she make this foolish deal? Oh it will be alright, she’d only be a plaything for a week, she’d thought. NO! This was far worse than she’d ever imagined. Maybe she should have sold her body to the demons; it might have been preferable. Ria let out a whimper as she was dragged out of the inn by a naked dragon and into the streets of the capital, where everyone could see her. She could already feel the eyes as dozens checked her out. Respectfully, but they were still looking and she could sense every gaze. By the gods, how did that dragon stand it? She glanced at Ixil, who seemed to be enjoying the attention. But she was a demon so that was only natural. They relished in attention, especially lewd attention.
Ria tried her best to ignore them as they walked down the streets of the capital, but she wasn’t a centuries-old dragon that never wore clothes. So it was a losing battle. It took far too long, and all too short of a time to reach the palace. A pair of guards was outside the gate of the palace. One of them recognized her, “Archmage Ria?” he looked her up and down, “Did you lose a bet or something?”
She groaned, “... No,” she let out a breath, “I... made a deal with a dragon.”
He frowned, “You what? I couldn’t hear that.”
Ixil giggled, “She made a deal with a dragon. Now can we go in?”
He chuckled, “Oh I see, well sure go on in” then he gave her a more serious look, “but I never realized how cute you were under those robes you usually wear. Care for a date?”
She flushed red and hurried past him and into the palace proper. She led Aurora and Ixil down the familiar corridors and soon arrived at Vivian’s chambers. The guard outside the door knocked twice, announced her and let her in. Thankfully this one didn’t comment on her nakedness. Vivian wasn’t so merciful.
She spotted her the moment she came in and started laughing, “So what bet did you lose?”
She groaned, and then pointed to Aurora, “Careful, she might just strip you next.”
Aurora smiled, “Nah, but getting her to bet her clothes away might be fun.
Vivian noted Aurora, but kept laughing for a bit. Then she composed herself, “I see, see,” she focused on Aurora, “and what brings one of the twelve to Kamiria? I thought you’d be off watching Arlie?”
“I was, but young Ria found something of more urgency to deal with. The Hellspawn had launched a major invasion of Sivia, and among their forces was no less than five Hell Drakes. She enlisted my help to deal with them and agreed to be my plaything for the next month in exchange.”
Ria groaned. She didn’t like being reminded of how long she’d agreed to be... a dragon’s plaything.”
“Well Ria, I wish you luck with that, and can’t say I envy you.”
Suddenly an artifact on her desk glowed, a voice spoke, “Sorry to bother you, Ma’am, we just received a priority missive for Archmage Ria, but we don’t know her current whereabouts, should we send it to you?”
“Well you are in luck, she just happened to walk into my office. Send it here.”
“Understood,” said the voice, and the artifact glowed again before a letter appeared on the desk. Ria immediately noted the distinctive writing on the front.
She snatched it up, even as Vivian spoke up, “Arlie went to Blue Rock Isle. Why would she need to send a priority letter?”
Ria flipped the letter open, and skipped the opening pleasantries. The meat of the letter was more important.
I know you might still be busy in Sivia, but I hope you have a moment to spare to get some books. I’m in Wilamark, on Blue Rock Isle at this time and things are a little off here. When we arrived a couple handspans after dark, we noticed the guards were unbecomingly lax, only two were on duty, one of them sleeping in front of the gate, while the other was holed up naked and pleasuring herself in the gatehouse. Not exactly acceptable behaviour by any metric for guards on duty. Walking the village, we found it unusually quiet, even the local in our party found it too quiet. At the inn, we had to wake the innkeeper, which might have made sense had we arrived later but most inns remain active till midnight or a handspan before.
When she came to greet us, we found her naked from the waist down, dressed only in a loose wool shirt. I didn’t notice at the time, as I was distracted by other details but apparently she was also wet. This was enough to set me on guard, but the inn didn’t have enough free rooms for all of us. So the Local in our party, a Knight by the name of Terrabeth, along with her fellow Knight Mirrelle went to the other inn in town, which is owned by Terrabeth’s mother, a Lust Imp from what I have gathered. The rest of us bunked in groups at the first inn, and I warded our rooms. During the night, I felt something probe at my wards, but nothing more.
Terrabeth, on the other hand, reported experiencing a strange dream during the night. Possibly the result of dream magic, and we both know that dream magic means it would be a lewd one.
Come morning, things seemed much more normal. The other patrons and the proprietress of the inn were properly dressed and as far as we could tell exhibited no unusual behaviors. Yet we can’t say for certain since we don’t know them. Terrabeth didn’t report unusual behavior at her inn either, but our visit to the garrison is worth noting. The local guard captain is apparently new and she was unusually reluctant to do more than token actions regarding the lax guard. Everything before was suspect, but I became certain in that moment that something is going on. My escort Knight Commander Tanyi Versa and I both suspect that a rogue mind mage is active in Wilamark. With that in mind, I wanted to ask you for every book you can send me on mind magic, and by extension dream magic. Just in case Terrabeth is right and I’m dealing with a dream mage. I’d appreciate it if you can get me the books I need sooner rather than later.
Vivian commented from over her shoulder, “I’ll see if we have any mind mages in the area, if not I’ll send one from the capital. She’s unawakened so she won’t be able to undo any damage the rogue has already done. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with an unawakened being so close to a rogue either.”
“She’ll be fine, I’d worry more for her friends,” said Aurora.
Ria shared a look with Vivian, “Why?”
“I’ve known the Bykura Kinsara for generations, each incarnation has been strong of spirit and mind, you’d need to be a dragon to touch her mind and even then it would be hard to bend it, much less alter it and in trying to alter her mind, one risks triggering her blessing and drawing the ire of the Goddess of the Cycle.”
Ria blinked, “I know that blessing can activate if she’s in mortal danger, but are you saying that it will also activate if someone tries to...”
“Alter her spirit, the mind element of the blessing, requires the same degree of threat the physical portion does. Her friends however share no such protection.”
“I’ll tell her to move in groups, that will make it harder for the mind mage and request she stay in Wilamark after she’s dealt with the mind mage, so that Vivian’s mind mage has a chance to scan them for any mental manipulations. The books should give her something to help ward against attempts.”
Vivian gestured at the door, “You can requisition the tomes from the Royal Library, send her our best copies, priority mail. The sooner it reaches her in Wilamark the better.”
It didn’t take them too long to pack up and send the needed books to Arlie. The moment she was done, Aurora was dragging her back into the city to enjoy a day on the town... naked. This was going to be a long day, Ria just knew it. As they stepped out of the palace, Aurora spoke up, “After some fun here, how about a trip to Blue Rock Isle?”