The Jade Harem 1-12

“Now, this is how a girl should travel,” Breanne said as she reclined into Evalynn. Gisley and Umtha were squealing from someplace above as Jaina, Hannah, Quinny, and Idris reclined on pillows while looking out the window. Countryside rolled by as the magical coach floated along on a disk pulled by Blackbast. She reclined like a cat across Frank's shoulders as he ran along the road at a modest pace.

They left from the graveyard early in the morning, just after Hannah finished her morning song. For two moves of the sun, they had been traveling along in the rough direction of this unknown hand.

Roric sat on a seat at the front of the coach with Chandice at his side, debating how far they thought they would have to go. Webster rode on top of the coach, playing with Gisley and Umtha while Zillix flew along beside Frank, asking questions about what they might find.

“We have so much more room,” Evalynn agreed. “And we can use the magic room for extra space.”

“I can't believe we are on the road again,” Hannah remarked as she lay on her stomach, looking out the window. She kicked her feet absentmindedly while Jaina lay across her tail beside her.

“We all knew this day was coming,” Jaina said as she ran a finger along the frill of Hannah’s tail. “I am just glad we are actively trying to make something happen and not waiting for the dangers to come to us.”

“We should have gone sooner,” Quinny suggested.

“I was thinking that too,” Hannah replied.

“How could you have? You had a kingdom to start and the whole harem thing to establish,” Jaina insisted. “Honestly, I am surprised you got to it this soon.”

“Whatever happened to the plan to portal to cities to try to triangulate where the hand is?” Evalynn asked.

“I'm not sure,” Hannah replied. “All I know is Frank and my mother talked about it and he changed his mind. Something about it looking suspicious, I think.”

“I suppose if somebody knew we were teleporting to cities all over a particular region, it would look suspicious, but who could possibly know?” Jaina asked. “They can't be watching every portal plaza in every city; even then, we could go disguised.”

“Ask Frank,” Hannah said with a shrug.

“I am sure he has a good reason,” Breanne said. “He rarely does anything without a well-thought-out reason.”

“He has proven to be a deep thinker,” Hannah agreed.

“Frank is hella smart,” Quinny laughed. “He's so good at reading people, too.”

“I have to agree,” Jaina replied. “I have never met anyone so good at detecting a lie or hidden motive.”

“My Frank is my hero,” Hannah said, then laughed. “I should say our Frank.”

“We all know you are the most important person in his life,” Breanne interjected.

“Oh, please,” Hannah scoffed. “He killed a werewolf to defend Quinny and fought an ogre to keep you. I think Umtha is the only one he hasn't risked his life for, but I know he would in an instant. I am sure he would do the same for the rest of you. He loves Jaina, Gisley, and Evalynn, and Frank won't let anyone harm the people he loves.”

“He is a big sweety,” Jaina agreed.

“I heard them talking yesterday about nearly being level one hundred,” Idris said as she sat up. “Roric was laughing about.”

“Wait, Frank’s as close to one hundred as I am?” Hannah asked.

“Oh, you didn’t know?” Idris said in surprise.

“No, I did not,” Hannah grumbled as she rolled over. “How close is he?”

“Umm,” Idris began as she looked uncomfortable. “I think he said he was ninety-nine.”

“What!” the others in the coach said in unison.

“I thought you were ahead of him in level?” Quinny said.

“So did I,” Hannah grumbled. “Obviously, he's been putting that collar I gave him to good use.”

“You do realize that since it’s your collar you can just look in your logs,” Jaina pointed out. “You do get a little experience from him.”

“I didn't want to look,” Hannah sighed, lifting her arm to rub at the flower tattoo. Up came her interface as the girls gathered around to look at what it said. Hannah navigated to her Lilim class, then the slave options, and finally, the list of people she had collared. Frank wasn't currently wearing a collar, so he didn't appear, but she could look at past logs. She pulled them open and found his name then brought up his activity.

“Oh, my god,” Jaina gasped.

“Wow,” Evalynn added as the list exploded, producing a scroll bar that seemed to go on forever.

“Look how many times Gwen is on it,” Quinny pointed out.

“Let’s not count that,” Hannah growled as she tapped the scroll bar and rolled it down for what seemed like forever.

“Gisley is on there a bunch, too,” Jaina said.

“Is he sleeping with a hundred women a day?” Hannah asked as she came nowhere near the bottom.

“It’s hardly a hundred,” Breanne quipped. “But it is a significant number.”

“You did ask him to spend time with Blackbast,” Jaina reminded. “So he's obviously in her temple most of the time doing what is expected. You can see he's been making love to her frequently as well.”

“At least twice a day,” Evalynn noted.

“He makes love to Gisley more than he makes love to me,” Hannah pouted. “And to my mother more than Gisley, Blackbast, and me combined.”

“Ahem,” Jaina said as she cleared her throat. “Don’t start throwing that stone around.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Breanne asked.

Hannah's face blushed as she recalled that Jaina had caught her and her mother kissing just days ago. Nothing had come of it, but it might have been much more had Jaina not interrupted. She would be silly to say something negative about Frank sleeping with Gwen when she nearly had herself.

“Anyway,” Hannah interjected to change the subject. “The boy has clearly been hard at work.”

“I could use a little hard work,” Evalynn laughed.

“So could I,” Breanne agreed with a smile before kissing Evalynn. “We should see if Drellis is in the temple.”

“I am surrounded by slutty women,” Hannah said with a shake of her head.

“So speaks the queen of them,” Jaina said as she tickled Hannah’s tail.

“Hey, careful, that’s sensitive,” Hannah warned.

“I know,” Jaina said wickedly before licking it.

Hannah tensed as the sensation rolled up her spine. The girls laughed and Hannah put away her panel, laying back down as Quinny moved to lay on her.

“So you’re only two levels away,” Quinny said. “What are you going to pick?”

“For my evolution or my special class feature?” Hannah asked.

“Both,” Quinny said.

“What are your options?” Jaina asked as Hannah let out a sigh.

“Let’s see,” Hannah said as she opened her panel. “Evolution wise, I can become a Lillim Matriarch, a blood huntress, or a fallen angel.”

“Ooh, what is a fallen angel?” Quinny asked.,

Hannah described it as becoming an angelic figure with feathered wings and a golden halo. The path focused on Unholy magic, giving her bonuses to existing unholy skills. She was naturally resistant to holy magic, but only so much. The class's true power seemed to be an ability to imbue a weapon with unholy power, turning it into something called a fallen avenger.

“So a big cosmetic change and a lot of unholy power,” Jaina surmised. “This is the magic focus path.”

“Right,” Hannah said, then moved on to the blood hunter. This was a vampiric class allowing Hannah access to blood powers. She would gain a blood pool that could be refilled by feeding like a vampire did on a victim. Quinny pointed out that Hannah could already do that but Hannah explained it was better. She got a range of physical powers that could be fueled by blood, turning her into a deadly melee specialist. Her attacks could also drain life from their targets to a healing pool she could use or transfer to her girls.

“That’s the warrior branch,” Evalynn said. “It sounds like you would be even deadlier in combat.”

“So, does that mean the matriarch is the slave-based build?” Jaina asked.

“Yes,” Hannah said, moving her arm so they could see her panel. “See, it doubles my collars and allows me to summon any girl in my collar to me three times a day.”

“That’s useful,” Breanne remarked as she looked closer. “But you also summon NPC Succubi to fight for you.”

“But they are only half my level in power,” Hannah pointed out.

“That's still very useful,” Evalynn countered. “This build gives you a ton of collars and a personal bodyguard. You could lead a team of like twenty succubi into battle. Imagine the chaos that could cause.”

“Look, all her succubi buffs are fifty percent cheaper and last longer,” Quinny said.

“This build is all about building a small army of succubi to act as your agents in battle,” Jaina said. That can be very useful considering how many enemies we have.”

“Yes, but only if she has the girls,” Evalynn noted. “If she doesn't have the girls, she might be better off as the blood huntress for the raw damage output.”

“The Fallen angel would give her access to a wide range of healing spells,” Jaina argued, then shook her head. “But I assume you showed all this to Frank already. What did he think?”

“He likes the matriarch,” Hannah replied. “He seems to think numbers will be more important than raw power.”

“Numbers do tend to be more useful,” Evalynn agreed. “And even her summoned NPC succubi will be better once they are buffed.”

“It’s too bad we can’t get Melody to join the club,” Jaina sighed. “She could be in Hannah’s collar and be a big help.”

“I'm not sure Melody likes any of us,” Breanne countered. “I went into the shop a few days ago, and she rolled her eyes, saying only sluts ever came in there.”

“She’s a little rough around the edges,” Jaina admitted.

“Let's not even start on her,” Hannah suggested, tapping her panel. “So I guess I will go Matriarch for Frank.”

“Then what about your level one special class power?” Jaina asked.

“That one's going to be harder to pick,” Hannah replied. “Frank couldn't decide and said I could pick what I wanted.”

“How hard could it be?” Jaina asked as Hannah tapped the choices open.

“Why does she have so many options?” Evalynn gasped. “I thought the rules said a player had three to four?”

“That’s just what the wiki said back home,” Jaina replied as she was dazzled by choices. “People put that together by what data they could get. They must have been wrong.”

“Or never encountered a chosen succubus,” Quinny suggested.

“So this is unusual?” Hannah asked as she looked perplexed.

“Only as far as people think,” Jaina replied. “The forums and wiki back home said that at every one hundred levels, you got three to four choices to specialize in your racial class. But honestly, we get so little information from inside New Eden that it's impossible to be sure they are right.”

“I like deadly lips,” Quinny said as she pointed to one of the special powers. “She can blow all her kiss attacks and buffs.”

“And any of her succubi buffs are double strength and duration,” Breanne added.

“Oh, if you combine that with matriarch, you can make all your girls super tough,” Jaina noted.

“That would definitely be a powerful combination,” Evalynn agreed but pointed out that buffs can be purged off a target. Still, she was in favor of this choice if Hannah was going to go matriarch.

They moved on to the next power called the Vixen of Lust. While using her sex powers to drain stamina, health, or mana, she could transfer the gain to any power pool she desired. Furthermore, she could boost the pool to two hundred percent, but it slowly drained back to normal levels over the course of six hours. The drain could be slowed by boosting the skill with points pushing it to two days in length.

“That sounds very useful,” Idris said. “So you could double your health, mana, and stamina?”

“And my passion pool,” Hannah finished. “But the most useful thing is obviously the ability to drain one pool into any pool I desired.”

“That does sound good,” Jaina agreed as she considered the options.

“Do you think you could drain something into essence?” Quinny asked, causing a shockwave to ripple across the girls.

“Could that happen?” Jaina gasped.

Hannah paused as she considered the wild notion that there might be a way to recover her essence pool and even double it in size. What would she do if there was a way to channel something Like stamina into essence? Frank and her centaur had massive stamina pools and the ability to refresh them at an alarming rate. Could she use that for something useful?

“A double-sized essence pool,” Breanne said as Hannah considered it. “She would be unstoppable.”

“If that was true, you have to take that one,” Jaina insisted as she recalled how dangerous Hannah was with an essence pool but how weak it made her when she ran out. With a double-sized pool, she could charge things to titanic levels or maintain a constant flow for much longer in combat.

“I don't know,” Hannah said as she looked over the options. “That one frightens me.”

“Alright, let's put that one in the maybe category,” Jaina suggested before asking her to go on to the next option.

Hannah read off the Queen of Desire, a change that made all her seductions an aura that she could maintain with little effort. Anyone who wandered into her aura would be affected as if Hannah had targeted them directly. It also had the bonus effect of slowly wearing down a person's resistance to seductions until it was halved.

“Now that's not fair,” Jaina argued. “I play a seductress, and I have nothing like that to choose from.”

“But how useful is that power?” Idris asked.

“I think it might be deadly,” Evalynn remarked. “She can affect everyone around her with seductions. That means she could easily stop an attack by rendering all the players too aroused to continue. She could stop huge groups in their tracks, and anyone who did resist would be worn down.”

“Hmm,” Jaina nodded. “I can see the usefulness of that, but once she arouses them, she has to finish the task.”

“What!” Hannah yelped in shock. “I am no sleeping with fifty people at once.”

“Oh, afraid of a little group sex?” Jaina teased.

“That's not a group. It's a mob,” Hannah insisted. “Two or maybe three at once is all I want to experience.”

“I bet she changes her mind about that,” Evalynn laughed. “Once she’s had a taste.”

“I don't need any more tastes,” Hannah protested. “And if I have them seduced, why do I have to go any further?”

“Politeness,” Jaina offered with a playful smile.

“Pft,” Hannah replied, waving the idea off before going to the next power.

“Unlimited,” Breanne read for the group. “It triples her passion pool and causes it to regen naturally without having sex. Having sex now yields double the passion gain.”

“Now, that’s boring,” Jaina protested. “Why would you want a power that allows you to have less sex?”

“Sometimes it's not easy to find a partner,” Hannah insisted.

“Oh really?” Jaina laughed. “You're surrounded by them all the time. I bet if you went into any city and said you needed somebody to help replenish your passion pool, a hundred people would volunteer.”

“What if I am not in a city?” Hannah argued. “I could be surrounded by monsters in some dungeon or cave.”

“So, seduce them,” Jaina said with a shrug.

“Who? The monsters?” Hannah balked.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t realize you could seduce monsters and animals?” Jaina asked with a smirk.

“I happen to be a good girl,” Hannah argued. “I don’t think about monsters, animals, or rooms full of men.”

“Not at all?” Jaina teased as she held Hannah closer. “Just imagine being held down by a group of strange men as they watch while taking turns pounding that hot devil body,” Jaina teased. “Imagine the heat as you lay helpless before them, every moan and twist of your body causing them to smile. Every direction you turn your head you see more men waiting for their turn to punish you. You can't escape, and you know it isn't going to end until they are done with you.”

Hannah froze as her tail curled and twisted. A blush came to her cheeks, causing her red skin to glow softly. The girls laughed at her reaction, and Jaina promised that she would do that and more once Roric began her training properly. Evalynn suggested that Hannah should be given to the gnolls a few nights a week to learn that lesson. Jaina agreed as Hannah insisted they talk about something else.

“Sweetheart,” Jaina cooed as she snuggled into Hannah’s side. “Are you a slave girl of the Jade Harem?”

“Yes,” Hannah replied nervously.

“And do you want to commit to this life by becoming the sex slave your masters want you to be?” Jaina pressed.

“Yes,” Hannah replied as she twisted under Jaina's hand, which was now rubbing her back.

“And if they want you to be a wild sexual beast that is frequently ravaged by groups of men, will you do it?” Jaina asked.

Hannah breathed hard while shaking under Jaina's touch. She could feel that tingling sensation running through her body just from imagining that happening. She nodded and voiced her agreement, but just saying it aloud made her jump.

“Good girl,” Jaina whispered.

“Why does even talking about this make me tingle?” Hannah groaned.

“Were girls,” Jaina explained. “We are designed to be sexual beings, and we have a skill for sexual fantasy. It’s in our nature to imagine things so powerfully it makes us shake.”

“But, why does it have to be so sordid?” Hannah panted.

“Oh, love, that's just the sense of taboo,” Jaina replied. “The more outside your comfort zone it is, the more shocking it is to your system. But always remember, just because you can imagine it doesn't mean you actually want to do it. You have to be honest with yourself because nothing will damage you more than guilt over what you did. And despite how we tease you, Roric would understand if you didn't want to do something. You need to be honest with yourself and him. Don't do something you aren't absolutely ready to do.”

“How am I supposed to know that?” Hannah asked. “Whenever one of these choices comes up, I lose control and become drunk with excitement. I can’t make a sound decision when I am like that.”

“Ha, she is made for this,” Evalynn laughed.

“She has an open mind,” Jaina corrected. “But this is why having conversations like this are important. You have to spend some time beforehand deciding what you want. You also need to share any fears or concerns you have with your masters. They need to understand what you are concerned about and if you are open to them pushing that boundary. Don't assume they can read your mind and know how you feel. If you don't open your mouth and speak up, you have nobody to blame but yourself.”

“So I can say no?” Hannah asked.

“Of course, you can,” Jaina said as she hugged Hannah while Quinny pressed into her back, resting her head on Hannah's shoulders. Hannah sighed as she was surrounded by love and admitted being glad to know that. Jaina did warn her that if she frequently told the masters no, they would begin to question if she wanted to be a slave girl. They might challenge her to reevaluate her desire to wear the collar.

“That makes sense,” Hannah said as she used her tail to rub Quinny's back, getting a soft moan in response.

“So what else do we have?” Jaina asked as Hannah twisted in tension.

“Umm, Sex priestess,” Hannah read out, then moved on to the description box. This class allowed Hannah to remove any and all negative effects from a player by having sex with them. Even curses could be removed in this manner, but the more powerful the effect, the longer she had to have sex. A player could not die while Hannah was using her healing sex, even if they were poisoned or under a condition that would otherwise have killed them. It even restored health to a player who would otherwise not recover health because of the negative effects.

“Wow, a complete no restrictions heal,” Breanne said.

“It has a restriction,” Evalynn laughed. “She has to be having sex with them.”

“But if she was, there would be nothing she couldn't cure,” Evalynn argued. “If we could find another Lilim with this class perk, could they remove the curses on Hannah?”

Again, the girls went silent as the potential to shatter the curses on Hannah was contemplated. They debated it for a moment, then settled on how hard it would be to find a woman who went down this path and could do it. Still, it was worth looking into any other succubi or Lillim they encountered to see if they got lucky.

Hannah's last racial trait was called Naughty dreams. It vastly increased her dream powers and allowed her to feed on people in their dreams. She kept any power gained this way, but the person suffered no ill effects once they woke up. It was a fun way to make sex in dreams more useful but was not considered a choice Hannah would make.

They limited the choices down to deadly lips, Vixen of lust, and Queen of desire. Jaina still favored Vixen of lust as she wanted to know if Hannah could recover essence with this power. Quinny and Breanne leaned toward deadly lips as it meant Hannah's buffs on them would be much stronger.

Evalynn saw the combat potential of Queen of Desire but admitted the bonuses of Vixen were hard to beat. Hannah decided she would worry about it when the time came and maybe ask Blackbast what she should do.

The girls continued to talk as the coach floated on, rolling through hills east of their borders. They passed miles of open land dotted by small clumps of trees or small rock features. Hannah remarked that the world was still empty, and Jaina said it was different in the Northwest.

Breanne added that the far east of the world had a large population that wasn't particularly friendly to Kevin. The necromancer empire had been to the North East, and some small kingdoms, a lot like Hannah's, had been further beyond that. But these were well beyond the spawn ring, deep into the wilds of the unmapped world.

“Do those kingdoms still exist?” Hannah asked.

“I couldn’t say,” Breanne replied. “I was trapped in that graveyard for so long I lost track of the goings on in the world.”

“Do you think this hand will take us that far?” Idris asked.

“I hope not,” Jaina said. “It would take us months to get there at this rate.”

“But what if we could form an alliance with them?” Hannah asked.

“But they are so far away,” Quinny reminded. “It’s not like they could come to our aid if we needed them to.”

“Hmm, good point,” Hannah said with a note. “But if Kevin came to wipe us out, we could retreat there and rebuild.”

“Now that’s a good idea,” Breanne said. “However, you would need early enough warning to get out.”

“Assuming those kingdoms weren’t wiped out in the war,” Jaina reminded.

“Yeah,” Hannah agreed as the coach suddenly stopped. Hannah closed her eyes to see through Webster's and looked across the landscape to see a river of color.

“Why did we stop?” Quinny asked.

“I think the biggest herd of nylacs I have ever seen is crossing ahead of us,” Hannah said.

“Girls, stay in the coach,” called Roric from above as they heard him moving. The door opened, and Chandice climbed in, saying they might have to make a run for it.

“How big a herd is it?” Jaina asked.

“Thousands,” Chandice said as she sat with the others. “It’s a band as wide as a house stretching for miles.”

“How could there be that many?” Idris gasped.

“I don't know, but Zillix is hiding us in an illusion, and we hope it will pass by,” Chandice replied as she dared to look out a window.

“That’s a crazy amount,” Idris added as she pressed her face to the glass.

“Says the woman whose zombie adventure spawned an army so large it nearly killed us,” Jaina teased.

“I made one small error in the variables,” Idris contested. “How was I supposed to know it would do that?”

“Shh,” Chandice urged. “Keep your voice down. They may not be able to see us, but they can still hear us.”

“I can hear them,” Evalynn said as her ears twitched. “Thousands of little feet tapping the ground.”

The entire coach went silent as they strained to hear, and one by one, the girls were shocked. They could indeed hear it as well as feel a faint vibration of the ground shaking. There were so many of the little creatures that constituted a genuine threat to even a small army of players. Webster was perched high above allowing Hannah a commanding view of the landscape through illusionary trees. She held her breath when the mass suddenly shifted, rolling their way as Frank stepped back.

“They are coming this way,” Hannah whispered.

“Just be still,” Chandice urged. “I will make a wall of fire to slow them down while Frank makes a run for it if we have to.”

Hannah could feel Quinny and Jaina hugging tightly as she watched the mass of deadly little fur balls shift and wave like a single living entity. She couldn't believe how numerous they were or that the line just kept coming. Now, they could all hear the small army marching without having to strain. Frank took a few more steps back as Zillix insisted he had to stay still or the illusion wouldn't work.

“Are they still coming?” Jaina asked in a faint whisper.

Hannah watched it all from Webster's perspective as the monsters came within a hundred steps of their illusion. The band of monsters then shifted again, moving away slightly as it poured by, flowing like a river.

“No,” Hannah whispered back. “But they are too close for comfort.”

“We could probably fight them off,” Quinny insisted. “We do have a lot of firepower.”

“I would rather not risk some of us being killed outside our lairs,” Breanne said. “You know the risk.”

“We all have dungeon hearts now,” Quinny reminded.

“I don’t,” Jaina said. “I don’t have a lair option. I am my own lair.”

“You run into the magic room if this goes bad,” Chandice commanded.

“What if the nylacs follow her in?” Idris asked. “They would flood into the middle of the harem.”

“We shut the door behind her,” Evalynn insisted.

“Nobody is going to reset,” Chandice argued with a low tone. “All we have to do is wait them out.”

Hannah agreed as the tense moment went on and on. Finally, the tail of the nylac train appeared and snaked its way toward them. Hannah let them know they had almost passed, and they waited a few minutes more. Finally, Roric opened the door and said the danger had passed, but they were going to give them a few minutes to get out of range.

Hannah and the girls climbed out to witness the landscape left in their wake. The tall grass had been trampled so flat it almost appeared to be painted on the landscape.

“Wow,” Quinny said as she looked across the breadth of the scene. “Look how much land is flattened.”

“How could there have been so many?” Idris said for the second time.

“That could not have been natural,” Blackbast said from her perch on Frank’s shoulders. “I have never heard of them traveling in packs larger than a few hundred.”

“And in this territory,” Roric agreed. “I know dangerous things can spawn, but that is unreasonable for this region.”

“Something about that is wrong,” Frank agreed and looked up to Blackbast. “Whose land are we closest to?”

“This land is unclaimed,” Blackbast said. “But if you went further north, you would be in Lord Dugal's territory.”

“That’s the direction the nylacs came from,” Hannah said.

“Could they have come out of his land?” Breanne asked.

“There are still several miles of open land before we reach his borders,” Blackbast pointed out, but she didn’t sound convinced.

“Do you think there is any chance this strange hoard is somehow related to Lord Dugal?” Roric asked as he looked at Frank.

“We need to find out,” Frank replied as he looked back to Hannah. “I know I said we would avoid other population areas until we were far away, but I need to know if this was random or..”

“Or if something has happened to the man who just became our secret ally,” Hannah finished.

Frank nodded, and she readily agreed. If there was any chance this strange mass had come out of his lands, they had to know more. Frank ordered the girls back into the coach so they could follow the swatch of trampled land to see where the nylacs had come from.