STARLIGHT AND LACE, ch.7 - Images of the Recent Past

 Author's Notes: I feel like I lost a bit of focus with this story at this point, to be completely honest. I don't like to self-criticize too much, but I struggled a lot with the framing of this story and this is where I realized I was running out of room to complete it. I think it still turned out pretty well (and there's several more chapters) but the pace certainly picks up.

Have fun in Southworld, and to like/favorite it on Hentai-Foundry, it can be found here!

[F/F] [D/s] [anal] [toys] [rimming]

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Cloud-filtered sun kissed Sina’s pale skin as she sat on top of the central academy of Drathwyn’s Townyard, one of the highest points in the city. The actual highest, of course, was too frequently occupied by young couples or thrill-seeking kids, directly going against the reason Sina had for trying to get up above all the shops and buildings and stalls. No -- for the moment, what Sina wanted more than anything else was to be alone.

Tilting down, she sipped at the cup of thin, bubbling purple fluid she’d bought, a cheap drink that she’d never heard of nor was she able to identify. It was sweet, fizzy, and just a little spicy, though, going well with the Volcano Aurox she’d nabbed on her way up to the academy’s roof. The gooey, spicy, meaty snack had become something Sina considered to be a guilty pleasure, perhaps not as ladylike as might befit a basileia, but nonetheless something she found herself craving more and more frequently.

A fortnight had now passed since “training” had started, and besides that, very little had changed. Tharis still didn’t look at her, and the Vay contingent had left Crannith one week prior, though none had returned in their stead, as they’d mentioned before. Sina was well and truly alone in this new world, and while she was gradually beginning to adapt to it, she yearned for familiarity and home. Yearned for something beyond constant solitude, daily “practice” with the puzzle toy and other such objects, and the chance to escape into the Townyard every few days or so. These moments were the only ones Sina found that she truly enjoyed.

“Well then, lookit you.” The voice was familiar, causing Sina to glance up -- Leli, the Kaldric girl that she’d met in the city before. The one who’d given her the puzzle that she... still hadn’t finished. “I was startin’ to think you weren’t ever comin’ back. Now it seems like you’ve figured out the place even better than I have."

“I’m a quick study,” Sina said, allowing herself a small smile and taking another bite of her odd meat-wrap. With her other hand she lightly patted the rounded, bronze-colored solar tile of the roof beside her, ushering Leli to sit. “You never did tell me how to find you, you know.”

“Told ya I worked at the Manufactory,” Leli corrected, setting her palm on the thigh of her damaged leg and limping over, unsteadily lowering herself down into an awkward kneel before sitting down completely. “Coulda looked for me there.”

“Didn’t think to, I’m afraid,” Sina murmured, looking over to the human girl, her brows turned up in silent apology. “I’ll try you there next time I manage to get out.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Leli smirked, reaching over to grab Sina’s snack from out of her hands, stealing a big bite of it herself. “I’ll punish ya for it later.”

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

“Now now, lady of mine,” Issalana purred, caressing gently along the Vay girl’s long pale hair, her hand sliding down to physically admire the curve of her spine, the smooth skin of her back, finally resting on her backside and giving it a soft squeeze. “I don’t want to have to punish you.”

“I’m... doing it... I am...” Sina groaned, on her knees and one elbow, reaching back to force the puzzle-toy into her backside while the maid watched her. She certainly wasn’t doing it as quickly or as forcefully as she could be, taking each thrust into herself slowly and easily. Clearly not to Issa’s liking.

Tsking quietly, Issa massaged the perky flesh of Sina’s backside again before bringing her hand down on it with a swift crack, making Sina wail out and attempt to force the toy in a little deeper. “If you’re going to please your husband you can’t just let him do all the work, now can you? You need to learn to be... proactive, if you plan to keep him by your side. Do you understand that, lady of mine? You won’t win him over like this. Show him you want to have that tiny ass of yours taken. Show me you want it.”

Sina chewed her lip anxiously, leaning forward on the bed a little to better show off her backside to Issalana, the slap to her backside already fading into a soft blue hand-print and stinging a good deal -- the strike hadn’t been all that hard, but Sina was delicate. She didn’t want to think about whether or not Issa had factored that in. Letting out a soft whimper, she tensed as she forced the toy in deeper, the puzzle box that had now become the primary instrument of her new “education.”

“Nnngh... i-it’s starting to hurt again...” Sina groaned, her wrist pumping clumsily as she drove the toy in and out of her butt. No sooner did she say that that she felt Issa’s hand on her wrist, pulling it away and withdrawing the toy.

She felt it slowly slide out of her, gasping softly with relief as she felt her narrow back entrance try to relax and close -- then tensed again when she felt the soft, slick flicker of Issa’s tongue along the tiny hole. “If it’s starting to hurt again, I’ll help moisten it, lady of mine,” she heard the Estyan purr, taking no small amount of pleasure in teasing and trailing her tongue around the abused little ring. “You went longer than last time... maybe I won’t have to punish you too much after all.”

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

“Punish... me...?”

“Aw, don’t get all cringey on me now, I’m just jokin’ with you Sina,” Leli offered a little smile of consolation, getting a little more comfy on her rooftop perch and taking another bite of the Vay girl’s pilfered meal. “So, I thought you were on vacation, huh? Pretty long vacation.”

“Pretty long, yeah,” Sina answered vaguely, sipping from her bottle of violet liquid again. Quickly deciding to change the subject, she switched the topic to Leli, figuring it wouldn’t be too difficult to get the engineer girl talking about herself again. “So you mentioned a Railer before. I didn’t wanna ask anyone else, since... I mean, who knows. But what is it?”

“Big fuckoff gun. Shoots spikes about forty a minute. Wedged so they chop right through armor or, in my case, the hulls of ships. Took down a few helinauts on their way down, of course, but mostly I targeted the sails. Not really a memory I like to go back to.”

“Because...?”  Sina nodded slowly towards the redhead’s leg, stretched out in front of her as she was unable to properly fold it.

Leli followed the basileia’s emerald gaze quickly, then nodded a little. “You’re a bolder girl’n most. Generally people don’t ask about it. Just pretend to feel sorry for me.”

“I’m Vay. Memories are something to always be treasured, even if they’re painful. They make us who we are.” Maybe advice I should actually take -- after all, everything we endure will be a memory someday. Then again, do I really want to be the person I’m heading towards? Sina fidgeted, offering the human girl a sip of her drink. “I’m sorry if it makes you uncomfortable.”

“Don’t sweat it too much,” Leli mumbled, shrugging a little. “Those Nathenet bastards, they bite y’know? Sorry if it sounds fuckin’ racist or whatever. I feel like you earn a bit of the right to prejudice if you’ve been crippled in a war.” She shuffled a little, setting her goggles down over her eyes as if she refused to make eye contact, like they were as much a psychological security blanket as they were actually protective. “Not a bite that fucked my leg though. Still remember those icy red eyes, all that hair everywhere, face like a maniac as he took me down. Rips one of my railspikes outta the hull of his ship and jams it into my leg, right into the bone of my thigh. Fucker woulda finished the job if I hadn’t gotten saved -- my commanding officer. Thex, LowKal like me, got some cushy job in military politics now. Asshole got me into the mess so I guess it fits that he got me out of it. Unloaded so many matter rounds into that shit’s skull my ears were ringing before I had time to lose track.”

Sina blinked. Thex -- the name rang a bell, drawing her back to the man she’d seen in the courtroom nearly a month ago. Raddeus Thex. He’d seemed nice. More than anything, it made Sina wonder exactly how long ago all this had taken place, considering how young Leli seemed.

“So now ya know the story. Not any tragic disease or massive explosion, no sole survivor story. Just straight-up fuckin’ stabbed. Long live the basileus though, right?” she sighed, taking a long drink of the fizzy purple drink before turning to Sina with a look of wild anger in her eyes. “Ain’t a fuckin’ lick of booze in this, is there? That’s straight trickery, that is. If you’re gonna make me open up about the war then you’re takin’ me to a winehouse. Fancy Vay girl like you, I’m sure you can afford it.”

“That is racist,” Sina shot back, half-playfully.

“Ah, I believe the correct answer is ‘why yeah Leli, that’d be my pleasure that’d be,’ and then ya take me and whisk me away to a magical world of wine that I ain’t payin’ for. That sound better?”

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

“This isn’t about my pleasure, my lady,” Issa assured her. “It’s about practice. Now, if Lord Endon is as you -- as we -- suspect, then there’s a possibility he may ask for something like this. Your training is going well, but it’s lacking in... diversity.” The Estyan maid licked her lips as she began to undo her corset once more, but this time she didn’t stop at that. She carefully undid the sash that was holding her skirt in place, offering the first glimpse Sina had ever gotten of what she looked like below the waist.

It was different than herself, if only superficially. Issalana Southwinds sported remarkable hips and a smooth, puffy womanhood that, while it wasn’t quite as delicate as Sina’s, was still quite aesthetic, arced by only a slim trail of neatly-trimmed fur that extended a few inches over her womanhood. Curbing her bizarre curiosity wasn’t necessary for long, as Issa turned and laid forward onto the bed (which now had far too many sinful memories), getting onto all fours and swaying her hips from side to side playfully, showing off the tan star of her own backside, crested just above the warming folds of her slit.

“Wh-what am I supposed to...” Sina murmured, folding her arms around herself as she was faced with a backside that was more curvaceous, more sumptuous than hers, odd pangs of envy competing against the cold pit of anxiety that still filled her stomach. “No. This is... he won’t ask for this. I know it. And won’t it be different? I mean... you’re a woman, and... and he’s a man, and....”

“Don’t let my being a woman get in the way of what you know you need to do, lady of mine,” Issalana commanded, looking back over her shoulder and swaying her hips a little more anxiously. “Man or woman, one part of us is always the same. If you’re going to learn to please him... you should practice on me.”

Sina knew what was expected of her, and couldn’t bring herself to do it. It was different when she was just being... molested... by Issa, but being expected to reciprocate was a different matter entirely. Those shapely hips lured her inward, hesitantly placing her hands on either of them and getting a little closer, her heart racing. “There you go, my lady... spread me, just a little, so that you can better use your tongue.”

Fuck. This was it. She was here, she was doing it, it was about to happen. Her hands trembling, she used her grip to gently dig her fingers into the smooth, dusky globes of Issalana’s womanly backside, spreading her cheeks just a little to be more directly, more unavoidably confronted with the sun-kissed star she found between them. Hesitating for a moment longer she leaned forward, slowly extending her pale little tongue and flicking the tip of it ever so lightly along the inside of Issa’s buttcheek, missing the actual hole at the last second.

A quiet coo of mixed disappointment and approval murmured out of Issa, clearly enjoying the sensation nonetheless but noticing Sina’s hesitance. “Not quite, lady of mine,” she said, her voice growing a little firmer. “Think of your husband.”

By the Winged Ones, I hope he doesn’t ask for this, Sina thought to herself, taking a deep breath and snaking her tongue out once more, finally lapping the flat of it across the puckered ring of Issalana’s anus, feeling it contract a little in response to her attention. The issued moan was less conflicted this time.

“Mmnn... there we go, my lady... just like that... don’t stop....”

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

“So then I say to him, ‘what do you bloody know about an oil engine? Rubber plants are as dead as the dragons! Show me you know your way around kadnivite and maybe we’ll talk, get me?’ And the wee shit turned and bolted, tail between his legs and the little contraption of his tucked beneath his sweat-stained pits.” Leli took a deep swig of wine from her cup, this time only spilling a little down the corner of her mouth, the bluish-violet liquid having already left a stain on her pale peach skin. “But... fuck. Engineering doesn’t interest ya much, does it? You have all your fractal energy and shite over in Endwood.”

“Actually, we’ve been looking into implementing kadnivite into our system. If we use it for larger scale projects, like factories, fractal energy can be free and given out to all the people. That’s the plan, anyway.” Sina took a smaller sip -- it was unbecoming to get too intoxicated, after all, particularly as much so as Leli was on the road to being.

“And damn the pollution, am I right?” the LowKal engineer snorted, swiveling on her stool to face Sina more fully. The Edindale Winehouse was a smaller establishment that Leli seemed to know well, cozy enough for the two to audibly converse and, blessedly, dimly-lit enough to give Sina’s constantly-strained Vay eyes a rest. “Sounds about right. I always figured the Vay for the nature-lovin’ types, but government’s government ain’t it? They’ll just pour the waste into the nearest ocean they don’t have to drink from. Use some of that sweet, sweet Endon money to grease a few palms.”

Sina frowned. Every time she talked to Leli it felt like she was learning a new, darker, more corrupt angle to the world she lived in, one she’d never noticed in her either her current position or her prior one. She briefly thought to blame her lethal combination of relative wealth and lack of responsibility, but pushed it from her mind with another sip of wine. “I guess. I was never really involved in anything like that.”

“Course you weren’t, never said anything of the sort.” Lelada exhaled through her nose, her mind chewing through material for something to change the subject to. Finally, she came up with something. “You ever finish that puzzle I gave ya, fairy girl?”

The puzzle. Sina’s mind flashed back, visualized it. She’d tried to play with it several times, eventually giving up on ever attempting to complete it. Every time Issalana saw it in her hands -- and she was never too far away -- she took it as a sign that Sina was ready for another round of playtime, or... “practice,” as Issa always insisted on calling it. Even going near that thing typically resulted in five or six inches of it getting stuffed into her butt -- of course, avoiding it just resulted in Issa applying her tongue and fingers instead. There was no escaping the nearly constant violation by her Estyan servant.

“No,” Sina murmured, staring off into space for a long moment and not letting her eyes meet Leli’s, afraid that the engineer girl would see the secrets she withheld. “No, I don’t seem to be able to make time for it.”

“Och. Remind me to give you another gift,” the human replied sarcastically, though her small smile was enough to ensure Sina that whatever hard feelings there were weren’t too very hard. “Well, I, uh...” she stammered, looking visibly tired now as she took another gulp of wine, attempting to stand up as she did so and toppling to the winehouse floor, giggling maniacally as the stool fell harmlessly on top of her. “I’ma blame my leg on that one! I ain’t drunk! Ain’t not a single LowKal ever drank more wine than they could handle!”

A roar of approval from the winehouse’s patrons -- which, Sina quickly noticed, mostly shared Leli’s reddish tint to their hair -- followed as Leli tried to stagger to her feet, still giggling. “I like ya, Sina, y’know that? I ain’t gonna fuck ya, but I like ya. You’re a cooool chick.” With that, the engineer fell forward into Sina’s arms, her body completely limp, eyes closed, and soft snores escaping the rumbling of her smallish chest.

Well. This was fun, Sina sighed to herself, stifling a tiny laugh of her own. It’d take a while to ask all the other patrons where Leli lived, but one thing was for sure... she had her work cut out for her for the night. Then again... it beat going back home, didn’t it?