AO 6 Ch 19

After a day spent traversing the Badlands and setting up a new, spider-free home, the Garrish mage, Diana, was still deeply and sickeningly in love with me. But she had managed to be useful.

While we traveled, she massaged my shoulders and cut my food. She even got stabbed by Maribelle for trying to shoo the maid away.

In the end, everything worked out. Or at least, it worked out for me. I healed her, and she apologized to me for upsetting my maid. Sooner or later, I was going to have to drop her off somewhere rather than deal with her forever. But I didn't quite have that figured out.

"Alright. I think it's Aurelia's turn tonight," I said as everyone was settling into their arrangements for the night.

"And why does she get a private night?" Emlyn squinted her eyes.

"Because she's asking to bond tonight." I quickly shot down any further pushback.

Emlyn's eyes went wide. "Oh. In that case, yeah, that's a very special occasion. Why don't we all go somewhere else?"

Diana’s hand flew into the air as she intended to argue, but Emlyn clamped her arms to her side before forcibly picking her up. "I'll take care of the doll," she said, awkwardly looking at the woman in her arms. 

"I'm just too charming, Emlyn. It's a curse, really." I ran my fingers through my hair. Being me was so hard.

"Yeah, a curse," she muttered. "Honestly, this woman just makes me generally uncomfortable," Emlyn admitted.

"Oh, you and me both," I hurriedly agreed. "I am deeply, deeply concerned with what is going on inside her head. I'm pretty sure if she thought it would get her closer to me, she would carve my chest open and crawl inside."

Maribelle’s head perked up, and she looked at me, seeming to consider the concept. “Wait, is that an option?" Her head tilted.

"Good joke, Maribelle," I chuckled nervously as sweat beaded down the back of my head.

"Right." My overprotective maid flashed a smile and then went back to work.

"Careful with your jokes there, Ard," Emlyn looked between the love crazed woman in her arms and Maribelle.

"I am being very careful.” I argued. “If you could not encourage her, that would be helpful."

"Pretty sure you were doing the one encouraging," she started, only to see a look from me and clamp her mouth shut. "But I'll keep my mouth closed."

"Thank you, Emlyn." My eyes fell on Aurelia. "Now, once they're all settled, I think it's you and me," I pointed between the two of us. 

Aurelia bit her lip and blushed ever so slightly. "I'll get things ready," she offered. 

I gave her a wink. "You're why I built the second bedroom in this building. Please go right ahead and set it up for us."

Emlyn leaned close, curiosity on her face while she still held Diana.

"Go, Emlyn. Aurelia asked for privacy, so she gets privacy." I folded my arms.

Emlyn blew a raspberry at me before disappearing for good.

I straightened up, beginning to stretch in preparation for going into Aurelia's room for the night. It was important to have good blood flow before being cuddled to death. My arms sometimes went terribly numb during some of the longer cuddle sessions.

Emlyn poked her head back out. "What are you two doing that you need to stretch?"

"Horrifying, terrifying things, Emlyn. Shoo." I waved her away and decided any more lingering outside was just going to provoke Emlyn's curiosity more. So, I stepped into the bedroom to see Aurelia making a small nest of bedrolls.

"Oh, you're in already," she said, blinking.

"Yeah, Em wouldn’t leave me alone. Can I give you a hand?" I offered.

She was in the midst of combing and fluffing the brilliant, vibrant, Virel red that her family was famous for. Since becoming a noble, I'd even seen a few rubies and could say her hair was even more red than those rare gemstones. She shook out her hair to check it and let it drop.

"A little long," she said, her hair falling softly around her shoulders and even tickling at her breasts like a drape of rubies. "But that's fine for tonight. I just want to be me."

She turned around from our little love nest, wrapping her arms around me and giving me a soft, gentle kiss.

"Do you want to change into something comfortable?" I asked. 

She bit her lip, nodding. "I wasn't sure if you were going to be in a hurry since you came in."

"Nonsense. Get comfortable." I smiled.

I joined her in quickly taking off my mage's robe, my boots, and all the things that made traveling more comfortable, but sleeping far less so. Aurelia was out of her kingdom blues in a flash. If anyone came out to the Badlands to meet us, they were either dead or we were in enough trouble. We no longer needed to hide our affiliation with Avente.

Once she finished taking off the kingdom blues, she fished out a thin powder blue nightgown from within her love nest. When she slipped it on the thin silk barely brushed her thighs. The mantikitten then pulled out a pair of matching sheer stockings. 

I frowned at them. "Really?"

"I noticed when you cuddle me, sometimes you like to rub the soft material that I'm wearing." She looked away only to slowly check back to see my reaction. "So I thought if I wore something soft on my legs, you'd be more content to snuggle longer."

"I truly admire your commitment to prolonged snuggles, Aurelia. I really do." I chuckled, having no idea where those came from. "Please put those on. I'd love to run my fingers along your legs all evening."

She smiled and quickly slid feet into the stockings. They weren't one of the connected pairs I'd seen some of the royal ladies wear. Instead, they were more like two thin, long socks. I paused, wondering if stockings were like that all the time. I don't know. I was certainly not an expert in anything related to women's clothing.

Aurelia quickly finished getting dressed, leaving me completely stark naked. But I knew that's the way she would prefer it to be, especially when her eyes roved over me, taking in my form.

I felt confident with the spark in her eyes as she continued to size me up, strutting one leg in front of the other as she closed the gap between us.

She leaned close for a long, tender kiss, her body pressing forward until my feisty manticore melted against me. Her lips were like the sweetest dessert and the freshest fruit. Juicy, plump, and could be savored all night.

While we kissed, I busied myself stroking her shoulder and slowly pushing her back towards the love nest that she had prepared.

Aurelia groaned with each step backwards, her eyes solidly closed as she moaned into my mouth, her own lips softly brushing mine. Her leg came up to rub the soft stocking against my thigh. It was a tender, sweet call for me to do more. 

I summoned up two balls of light that plastered themselves against the back of my arm where I held her. They allowed me to scoop her up and gently guide us both down into the little soft bed before depressing in a shower of sparkles.

Aurelia’s fierceness flashed for a moment. Her arms coiled around me, her legs wrapped tight around my hips, refusing to let me go anywhere until she had drained every ounce of physical affection from me.

This would continue until my patience or some other measure of unwillingness caused me to finally break our cuddles. 

"I am not going anywhere," I chuckled between passionate kisses. 

"Of course you're not," she said, breaking the kiss for a second to look at me and bat her lashes. "Tonight we're bonding, and that means lots and lots of time together." She nuzzled against me, then went back to kissing.

My own hands roved over her body. I found I quite liked this stocking idea. It was soft, and it gave me a different texture to explore.

And Aurelia seemed to deeply appreciate my wandering hands, savoring every touch with a soft sigh that escaped her lips. "I love you, Arden." After she spoke those words, she opened her eyes to see my reaction. 

"I love you too, silly. If you thought I was going to say anything besides that, then we need to get your head checked by a real life mage healer and not me, because clearly checking for sanity isn't my greatest ability. After all, first I picked Emlyn, then Maribelle and you.”

"Zuri?" Aurelia asked. 

"I think she's the sane one in this group.” I answered.

“I think she'd show you just how not sane she was if you got yourself in any real shit, Arden." Aurelia giggled. "It's always the ones that look sane on the outside you have to worry about." 

"What about those who look insane on the outside," I pointed at myself. "Does that mean we're safe?" 

"No, Arden. It just means you're comfortable with your insanity." She kissed me softly on the lips. "And that you present yourself for who you really are so none of us can complain when one day you're committed to the healer's ward." 

I chuckled. "I'll have you committed." My hands slid up her thighs and gently brushed away the lacy silk number covering her body.

As soon as I started moving away the fabric, my lovely manticore spread out, stretching her body and opening up for me. 

"You know, if you ever wanted, we could just do the cuddles," I offered her. 

She blinked. "The post-sex ones are the best ones," she said. "After two people have just spent themselves, writhed together, there's a particular closeness..." She bit her lip in thought. 

And to tease her, I slipped a finger into her silken folds. That lip-bite turned into an adorable gasp as her sex gave way to my finger, soaking it with her desire. 

"Well, I can certainly say you at least seem interested," I smirked playing with the slick fluid. 

"Very." She wrapped her arms around me again, squeezing me tight and keeping my mouth busy.

Meanwhile, my fingers explored the lovely new nectar tunnel. I had added a second and third digit, exploring, teasing, and drawing more of her honey out with each stroke. I could tell she was ready for more when her vice-like grip on me relaxed enough for me to move my hips. 

And my body was more than ready.

Aurelia was firmer than Maribelle, but still lusher than Emlyn or Zuri. She had a little more shoulders on her frame, which balanced out her chest.

Having her soft breasts squished against me while the beautiful woman in my arms refused to have her body be anywhere but pressed against me was doing wonders for my ego.

A quick, awkward shift in the bed resulted in her hand grabbing me to line me up.

I managed to push my way in without separating my chest from Aurelia's. As I sank in, there was a primal satisfaction in every inch that her sex swallowed my cock. I groaned as I swiftly bottomed out and she flexed muscles that I didn't know the name of to grip me tight. 

I had to put my hands down on her hips and push my knees down around her thighs to slowly drag myself out, only about halfway, before shoving myself roughly back in. 

Aurelia groaned as her silken folds embraced every inch of me.

We broke our maddening flurry of kisses to stare into each other's eyes. Her brilliant blues were even brighter when framed by her vibrant red hair. If it looked like it was made of filaments of rubies, then her eyes were nothing less than the purest of sapphires. They were so clear that I could see my own reflection in them.

"I love you," she said again. Her breath had an earthy sweetness to it, having changed with her arousal.

"And I love you too, my mantikitten," I replied, kissing her on the nose. "I hope you know, after tonight, you're never getting away," I whispered lovingly.

She kissed me quickly, her arms wrapped around my shoulders, tensing for a moment as if to remind me that she was the one that wasn’t letting me go. "I don't think I have to worry about wanting to run away from you. Instead, I have to worry about keeping you nailed down," she said.

I chuckled nervously at those words. "Are you telling me no more?" I asked. 

"I'm telling you that you always have to make time for plenty of this," she replied. She gasped again as I rocked back into her, both of our hips swaying and rolling, finding the same rhythm through some magical circumstance of our affection.

We were in perfect sync, and it gave a gentle build-up of pleasure that tingled through from her into me before running up my spine, coming out as a gasp as I broke the kiss and pressed our foreheads together. 

Aurelia let out soft coos and heavier but stifled breaths as she tried to keep herself from making too much noise. Not that any of our other anchors would mind, but because for her this was something between the two of us.

It was soft, it was intimate, and it was love. I had to admit that my life would be significantly dimmer without any of my anchors, Aurelia included. As the last to bond, I found myself somewhat eager to seal the deal and make sure that forevermore. The five of us would be inseparable. 

I pushed just a little faster, Aurelia keeping pace, her thighs squeezing urgently. Every time I drew myself out, only to squeeze myself back inside her pleasure.

Our sweet breath mingled and she kissed my lips like she was trying to steal the wind from my lungs as more urgency built up in her body through soft touches, longing in those sapphire blue eyes, and more need in every one of her breaths. 

Before long, her release came out in a shudder and she squeezed me into her. I was close as well. I rocked several more strokes, wanting to join her before my own pleasure erupted deep inside of her, pumping my hot love into her womb.

I lay there for a moment, holding her tight before pulling out, knowing what was coming next.

She smiled, heating up her body with the goal of stopping any potential pregnancy. I could feel the heat rippling off her before it slowly dissipated. More than a little extra heat  rippled down her stomach. It was over just as quickly as it began. 

"It's safe now," she said after a moment. She grabbed a cloth from somewhere in our little nest and wiped herself up before she tenderly cleaned me off as well. 

"Now for the main event," I smirked.

"You certainly aren't getting away with just that." She pulled me down into our bundle of blankets and pillows.

The two of us lay side by side, only to roll into each other. We lay side by side only for a brief moment. Before I rolled onto my back, and then she wrapped herself around me, curling her legs over mine and using my arm like a pillow. She made herself so comfortable. I saw a rare contented smile on my manticore. 

"Does it bother you that I'm not fierce in bed?" she asked after a moment. 

"No. This is lovely in its own way, Aurelia. Honestly, after Maribelle, I can revel in the simplicity of the softness and the love that you provide." I turned my head to stare into her eyes, only an inch away. "Aurelia, will you be my anchor now and forever? Will the two of us fight side by side? Living as we die together. Being together in sickness and health, and life and death. Neither of us is above the other, neither's life more important than the other." I poked her softly, reminding her that she wasn't just my anchor. She was more to me.

When I made all the ladies promise the Ard's Oath, they became family. "I, Aurelia Virel, swear to Ard's Oath, now and forevermore. I will be your shield, as you are my sword, neither to be used alone, nor cast off for the other. Instead, like the sword and the shield, we are a perfect pair to make a well-rounded team. And so I swear to stand by your side for eternity, both in this life and whatever exists after. I will find you and I will be your shield forevermore." She kissed me softly and pressed forward so that our noses touched and our foreheads clunked with a soft thud.

I chuckled slightly at the closeness, enveloping her with my body as much as I could. I pushed not just my magic but my soul magic into her, wrapping up everything that was Aurelia Virel and her soul, tethering it to Soulgard, to the spire that held my fox sphere aloft just for her. Then I built her a little avatar within the realm before shoving all that was Aurelia into that avatar. 

She gasped and shuddered but didn't let go. Something precious was draining away from her, and her body fought to keep it in place.

It only took a moment before her mind and her love overcame the natural reaction, relinquishing her soul to me, only for me to give it right back as life, vitality and my love filled her back up. It felt like in that moment our hearts were beating as one, our minds were in perfect sync, and our bodies nearly one.

She sighed, contented, as her body melted into mine and we fell asleep like that in her little nest.