Conjured - Chapter 4

Soft pink light filled the room, Elsidora’s mane shimmering like a candle as Roch kissed her. After a moment, the light shifted a few degrees redder and a blazing tangerine split through it as the witch pulled away, holding Roch back with her arms.

In the dim glow of her hair, he could see that she was furiously blushing.

“Wh-what are you doing?!” she demanded.

“I… I’ve been downstairs, thinking. And… I don’t want you to free me. I want to stay here.”

Elsidora stammered and sputtered, her hair fading redder and redder. “You, you, no! That’s… y-you’re just saying that because I made you love me!”

“Is that really all that different from how it usually works? People make each other fall in love all the time.”

“But, b-but but!!” Roch fought to keep his face neutral, to not show how cute he thought Elsidora’s flustered stammering was. “It’s not, it’s not organic, Roch.”

He shrugged. “Neither am I.”

“But… but what about your family?”

Roch heaved a sigh, and felt a small lump in his throat. His body sagged, and he leaned against the bedroom doorway.

“I… I mean, I miss them. I miss them… very much. But…” he knit his brow, taking a breath to keep himself from choking up. “You know that… I don’t actually remember the day my daughter was born? I don’t know if I was there with Alara, or working in the stable, or… well, I suppose I wasn’t any of those things, right? It never happened. And, I told you about how I cut my arm playing as a child. But I don’t remember what I was playing or who I was playing with. I don’t remember seeing a doctor. The longer I laid down there, thinking, it’s like… I have some memories that are clear, but not a whole life’s worth. It’s mostly just… impressions. Ideas of memories. It’s… not quite as foggy as a dream, but not quite as firm as real life, either. The memories don’t feel as real as, well. You.” He took the witch’s hand, and she tentatively let him. “I think you’re a very talented witch. But, maybe not so talented as to give me a whole lifetime of experiences. Not on accident, anyway.

“The… feelings though. Those are real. And…” He breathed in sharply through his nose. “And, they… hurt. Feelings of, loss, and grief, and loneliness. And you… you’re the only person I actually have. I don’t want to throw that away.”

“Oh, Roch.” Elsidora threw her arms around him, his chin resting on her shoulder. Her hair faded to blue, but a lighter, duller shade than the inky tone Roch guessed represented shame.

“Maybe I’m assuming too much. You… No, I’m definitely assuming too much, aren’t I? You wanted a… a toy. I was a mistake. I shouldn’t assume that you would want me, not when… Sorry.”

“No, no, it’s okay. It’s okay.” The witch’s embrace gradually tightened as a shiver ran through Roch, her sultry whisper dancing on his ear. “I… I think I must have wanted you, on some level, or the spell wouldn’t have created you.”

“Even so, you weren’t prepared for… this. I shouldn’t try to push myself on you.”

“Roch. You have been nothing but kind, patient, and forgiving from the moment you came to life. If you really forgive me, then… then I’d be lucky to have you as… As…”

“As?”

The moment was silent and tense, Elsidora continuing to hold Roch close, her hair once more growing pinker and pinker.

“...For now, as someone to share my bed with. To sleep. I’m exhausted.”

Roch smiled. “That’s plenty. But… before we turn in, could I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“Why is your bedroom so messy?”

He’d had plenty of time to take stock of it while the witch had held him. In terms of furniture, there was nothing but a large bed and a nightstand. The rest of the room was dominated by books, piles upon piles of books. 

“Wh—I—look! It’s not as if I’m in the habit of entertaining guests!”

“But, doesn’t it bother you? There’s hardly space to walk.”

“There is a path to the bed!” she huffed. She broke off her embrace and took a step back, very nearly tripping over a stack of tomes. “A bed you are very quickly losing the right to sleep in!!”

Roch laughed a little. “Sorry, I’m sorry! I was just teasing. I guess… I guess I like to tease people I have affection for.”

Elsidora grumbled and pouted, her expression so cute that Roch had to hold himself back from kissing her.

“If it bothers you so much,” she muttered, crossing her arms, “maybe I’ll put you on cleaning duty. Make you earn your keep around here…”

Roch took the witch’s hand. “I’ll do whatever you say.” A shock of pink flashed through the room.

“Just… just… come on! It’s late.” Elsidora pulled away and climbed into the far side of the bed. Smiling, Roch followed. The pink of her hair grew brighter as he settled in next to her, face just inches from hers. A panicked look shot across her face as she rolled over, putting her back to him and blasting him with a faceful of light from the back of her head.

“Um. I don’t mean to complain, but… you’re um. A little bright.”

Pink gave way to orange. “Oh! Sorry, um. It should, settle down as I fall asleep.”

“...Can I ask why your hair glows like that?”

“It’s, well… it’s a devil I have bound to it. It augments my spellcasting power, but in exchange, it eats the energy created by my emotions, and emits light.”

“Oh.” Roch reflexively felt scandalized that Elsidora had communed with a devil… but reflecting on it a moment or two longer, he decided that he didn’t actually care much.

Slowly, as slowly as he could, Roch crept toward Elsidora’s side of the bed. Reaching a hand out, he gently set it on her shoulder and nearly recoiled at the sudden burst of pink and orange light. He felt her tense at his touch… but she said nothing and made no move to rebuff him. He let his hand rest there for a long, silent moment, feeling her muscles gradually relax under his fingers and watching as the orange bled out of her hair. He reached out further, wrapping his arm around her midsection, and felt a rush of butterflies as she gave in to his touch, body pressing back into him and going limp. He reveled in the warmth of her backside against him for longer than he could keep track, long enough that her vibrant pink hair slowly cooled to a soft, gentle glow. Memories of his wife played through his mind as he began to drift off, and his half-conscious mind couldn’t help but note that Alara really didn’t look much different from Elsidora, when he thought about it…

He awoke alone, wearing pajamas that he certainly didn’t own the night before. He sat up blearily and scanned the room. There was a bookshelf where there hadn’t been one before, one that took up the entire far wall of the bedroom; he immediately felt bad that he’d made her feel bad about the mess.

He rose slowly, still a little bleary-eyed, and traipsed over to the bookcase, curious about what kinds of titles his… well, that Elsidora had. He assumed they’d all be dense magical or medical tomes, academic texts to further her mastery of arcane arts, but he hadn’t been able to make out any of their titles in the dark last night. He tilted his head as he scanned a few spines:

The Courtesan’s Passions

The Demon of Lust Set Loose in the Chantry

A Tender Touch

Queen Takes King (Then Takes Him Again)

In Which a Princess Visits a Knight On the Dawn of War and Engages With Him in Such Grand Carnal Delight That She Persuades Her Father the King to Reassign Sir Knight as Her Private Bodyguard So As To Proceed With Their Illicit Tryst, Outcome Of the War Be Damned

These did not strike Roch as particularly scholarly titles.

That was fair enough, really. Elsidora was out here alone, she needed some form of entertainment. Roch reflected on what his original purpose had been and blushed. Well, if she needed some… male attention, that was certainly something he could do for her.

He laughed a little as he realized that, technically, he was a virgin.

It was clear to Roch after last night that Elsidora was shy, getting flustered from small gestures like a kiss or a tender touch. She had enough built up… energy that she’d gone and created an entire man whole-cloth about it, but now that he was here, she might be too embarrassed to let that energy out. He didn’t want to force anything, but he did want to encourage her to let him tend to her needs. How best to do that?

What had she said last night? Being an evil witch sounds sort of…. fun. I would never want to hurt anyone, never, but, as a… as a fantasy. Seducing a handsome, broad shouldered man, bending him this way and that with my magic, having my way with…

Roch smiled sheepishly and blushed as he remembered what she meant by “bending him this way and that” with her magic, the way that she towered higher and higher over him like a pillar of femininity as she’d shrunken him. The idea of surrendering himself to her control like that made him a little nervous but also… excited. 

He knew what to do.

Descending the stairs, he nearly lost his nerve entirely as he saw Elsidora curled up on her sofa with a cup of tea. She was wearing the same nightgown she’d worn last night, but in the dark he hadn’t been able to properly appreciate the way it hugged her curves or the deep valley of cleavage that rose above its ruffled neckline.

Great gods, she looked magnificent. Her hair faded to pink as she caught his eye and smiled at him.

“Good morning.”

“G-good morning,” Roch replied, intimidated by her beauty all over again. She beamed at him happily and he couldn’t help but return a giddy, joyous grin.

“I… I really, really liked last night. I… literally don’t remember the last time someone held me like that.”

“Then… you won’t mind if I hold you again tonight?”

“I won’t mind if you hold me every night for the next thousand years.”

Roch blushed and looked away. Her beauty alone was tying his tongue; if she didn’t stop saying things like that, he’d never work up the nerve to spit out what was on his mind!

“Um,” he said, clearing his throat. “Do you think we could head down to your workshop?”

Elsidora cocked her head. “Why?”

“Well, uh. I have something I want to try. I guess, call it a surprise.”

The witch shrugged. “Sure, I guess.”

“Oh, and, um…”

“What?”

“If you wouldn’t mind… could you change back into your Witch of the Pale Moon costume?”