Chapter One Fifty Homes and Messes

Arrieta stepped out of the Moonlit Departures guild and smiled at the warm sun and lovely company. She rather liked the air of this dungeon town. A few figures joined her in a moment and looked around. She’d brought the poor boy she’d rescued from Lydia to Bordertown, along with his sisters and their daughters.

Darrel was certainly charming enough and he’d had enough bad luck with Abyssals. Having been in his memories she knew that better than he did, she’d made sure of that. The poor boy, if left to his own devices, might just run into another. Afterall, they’d run away from a Qayan, then ended up the pets of a Tymesian Maneater, one that bred them and was planning to kill and eat one of the two daughters they already had.

The mental scarring alone would have been horrific if she hadn’t dampened the memories. Of course, the brainwashing they’d been given had been helping before, but she’d removed that. For good reason, it wasn’t beneficial brainwashing. It was brainwashing meant to make them less protective of their babies, so that Lydia could harm them. Pretty classic predator behavior really. Well classic for abyssals that is, and she couldn’t say the behavior wasn’t tempting to her either, only for a different goal. Babies were so cute, she just loved to play with them, cuddle with them, and watch them sleep.

She blushed slightly as she realized where her thoughts were going. Hmm, maybe she needs a daughter or two of her own? Something to keep her from thinking of doing that? It was a thought for another time though, besides she was rather lacking in partners she’d want to share her genes with. She really liked Xiri and her friend Miri but they were just too young for that, and Darious? He had his redeeming qualities, but he was a hard no. Pursuing that princess Milith might be interesting though, it had the appeal of the forbidden to it. Yet they hardly knew each other. Something she’d like to change, there was something noble about her.

Suddenly a voice filled her head, “Hey Arrietta? Mind donating an egg for a good cause?”

Her mind sputtered for a moment as she processed that. If she’d have been drinking, the liquid would have spurted out her nose like some fictional story character. What kind of questions was that, why the fuck was she being asked something like that!?

“Well you see, I encountered the most interesting Qayan, and she needs a proper host. I figured someone part Abyssal like you would be most compatible.”

“Are you asking me to adopt a kid? Am I understanding that right?”

“Something like that, yes, she has the most fascinating obsession with pleasure and her mind is quite innocent. Besides you showed me that not all Abyssals are irredeemable, you’ve certainly tried to be a better girl.”

She blushed again, “Um thanks.” more blood rushed to her face, “be gentle with me.”

“Great, I’ll see you when I get back to the capital, in the meantime, I’ll see about feeding her. Shouldn’t be too hard...”

The voice trailed off, and suddenly a hand was waving in her face. It was Emilia, she frowned her amber eyes filled with concern, “You alright!?”

“Yes, fine, just a lordling talking to me.”

Emilia blinked, “I don’t see anyone.”

She gave her a look, “Don’t you know any communication spells?”

Her eyes widened, “Oh! Oh, I get it, right, that could be distracting.”

Darrel spoke up, “Well spacing out is one thing, but what’s with the convention of naked girls?”

Arrieta followed his gesture and noticed a lot of naked women moving down the main street; they weren’t locals either. She’d made a note of the locals last time she was here. That was unusual but she was going to look into it. She didn’t feel anything Abyssal going on, nor did she sense any signs of their touch. “No idea, but I don’t think it's important enough to bother with. Besides we are on the clock, we need to get your family settled. I’m sure your daughters would like somewhere to sleep sooner rather than later.”

“Right, good point. We can look into that later, when we have time.”

Kelly spoke up, “So where do we go first?”

“Where else? The local adventurer’s guild. Bordertown doesn’t yet have a mayor's office or anything like that, so the guild runs most things here.”

“Hmm, I see. Guess we should head there right away then.”

Getting to the guild was a bit of a hassle. The girls wanted to explore, as young kids were wont to do. Honestly, that was rather natural given their age. Arrietta found it rather cute, how they’d tried to tug them towards anything that caught their eye. Random food stand, a cute little armor shop, the cute little cafe on the corner. The two girls even pestered a rather cute merchant who stood out for wearing only jewelry and nothing else. Said merchant was operating a stall and had an array of cute broaches, rings, and fancy bracelets to pick from. Each one included some interesting enchantments, there was a bracelet that projected a magical ward, a ring that let the wearer cast Disassemble, a broach that made your clothes invisible, and an earring that gave the wearer cute cat ears.

It was a rather unusual spread of enchantments to say the least. The broach seemed weirdly useless to her. Why wear clothes if no one could see them? Would it not be better to just go naked?

The guild however wasn’t any busier than normal, but the two little girls with them were just as excited to be there, as they ran on in to look around. One of the sisters, Kelly she thought, ran off to keep an eye on them. Arrieta giggled, finding the whole scene cute, before leading Darrel up to a free counter. A younger woman was there to greet them.

“Hiya! How can I help you?”

________________________________________

Emily took the steps down to the ground floor. They’d arrived in town a couple of days ago, only to have their trip tragically stymied by the weather, the local roads weren’t really paved so the rain had turned them all to mud. Amber and her daughters seemed fine with that, but she was getting worried that they wouldn’t get to the funeral in time. Then there was this town, given where it was, it was populated by a mix of Fremur and humans.

She’d thought it was just a village the other day, but the locals all called it a town and there were a lot more families here then she’d first thought. It had been hard to tell in the dark with the growing storm and her map was a little out of date, the roads were all right but some places had grown and this villa had developed right into a town. Emily hadn’t thought much about that but there was something odd here and not just the strange black flesh growing just an hour away from town.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she took a short hall into the front room, where she noted the innkeeper’s daughter lounging at the desk. She was a human girl, rather cute actually but what stuck out most to her was the girl’s chest. The girl wore a shirt cut so her boobs spilled out completely, and she had fairly big ones. Not even a bra was worn to support them. Emily had to wonder however if she was feeling alright, her nipples were rather swollen and discolored. Not to mention capped with a rather strange piercing.

The whole thing looked rather painful, and not for the first time she thought about asking. Yet the thought slipped from her mind the moment it happened. Emily sighed, she knew something was strange about that, something was definitely up in this town. Amber however seemed to be the only one who noticed, her daughters didn’t even see it. She’d asked, it was easier to talk about with Amber and her daughters in private. Emily could only think her resistance from mage and alchemy training were helping. What was going on with Amber, however? Well she didn’t know.

It didn’t matter either, she just figured she could trust Amber to keep her girls safe. Not that Emily planned to stay long, the moment the roads were dry enough she would be making up for lost time.

Smiling, she inquired, “How are the roads looking?”

The girl at the counter looked up, “Hey Emily, afraid they are still a bit wet, but the weather is looking better today.”

“That’s nice to hear,” she replied.

“I’m sure your daughters will enjoy that. I know they are having fun with Amber but by now those kids might be climbing the walls.”

“Not quite there thankfully, but I get what you mean. This delay doesn’t help my schedule at all either.”

“I’d imagine not,” replied the girl as she shifted behind the counter, her naked breasts bouncing a bit with the moment, “but on a more pleasant note, with the weather improving the local market should be open again.”

Emily recalled asking about the local shops yesterday. The local market however was mostly open air stalls and only a few closed door shops but with such heavy rain most of the businesses shuttered their doors to wait the weather out. Only the general store stayed open and people had been staying indoors. “Nice I should check that out after breakfast then, would be a good chance to restock before we leave.”

“Speaking of breakfast, we’ve got some fresh eggs from the coop today. Mom was quite happy with them.” said the girl just as the kitchen door opened. The innkeeper stepped out wearing an apron, and a smile. Like her daughter her clothes were cut so that her boobs were left fully exposed, and Emily couldn’t help noticing her swollen discolored nipples. Topped with the same nasty looking piercing her daughter sported. Once again she wondered what it was about, but couldn’t bring herself to ask. Only she felt it was strange, there was something wrong about this but she didn’t know where to start.

_________________________________________

After breakfast, she made her way out of the inn and over to the stable where she was greeted by another young lady. She was rather fit and unlike the girls at the inn her chest was rather flat, but like them she wore a top cut so that her small breasts were on complete display. Including the same nasty piercing the inn girls had and discolored swollen nipples.

She grinned “Hey Emily, checking on your draft horse?”

“Just wanted to see how she is doing.”

“Pretty good actually, I just let her out to run,” she gestured to the fenced area where a few horses could be seen running around. Emily spotted her horse among them, grazing on some tall grass.

“She certainly looks happier today.”

“Of course she does, being cooped up for two days is torture for horses. They are such free spirits you know, but she took it fairly well I’d say.”

Emily agreed with that statement, “I think my visits helped.”

“Sure they did, so the weather looks better, you leaving today?”

“Thought about it, but the roads still need time to dry, it's pretty muddy here. I wouldn’t want the wagon to get stuck. Might be best to leave in the morning.”

“You got it, I’ll have her ready at first light, don’t be late.”

“Thanks Syra, I’ll see you then. I’m sure the others will be happy to get going too.”

Syra saw her off, and Emily continued on to the market. By the time she got there she found that it was already in full swing with a bit of a crowd.

Walking among the freshly prepared stalls, she took in the crowd. There were a fair number of women milling about, and she started noting how everyone she saw was walking around with her boobs out and on display. Size didn’t seem to matter, and all of them had those same strange piercings. Other than that, the town seemed rather normal, more or less.

Emily started noting that she didn’t see very many men, and while there were children playing she didn’t see a single young boy among them. At least the children seemed to be dressed normally.

A voice drew her attention to a nearby stall, where a Fremur woman was settled. She smiled, “Well haven’t seen you around. Looking for anything particular? I’ve got a fine selection of fine cloth to pick from.”

“I wasn’t really looking for cloth. I’ve got to get back on the road, this rain was a bit too much of a delay,” she replied while noting the Fremur woman also had swollen discolored nipples.

“Ah! Looking to stock up before the road I see,” she leaned forward, “In that case you’ll want to visit Tsia’s shop, she’s got the best selection in town. You should find most of what you want right there.”

“Uh, thanks? Where is she?”

“Just head that way, she’ll be the fifth shop on the left right next to the jewelry stall.”

Emily thanked her again, then excused herself and headed that way. It wasn’t hard to find, she paused briefly to look over said jewelry stall. Noting it only offered one item, it looked like the same odd piercing all the women were wearing. Emily couldn’t help noticing, that the visible cap of it was the same for each piece but the piercing end differed, all of them looking rather nasty. Wouldn’t these things hurt to wear? Yet the stall seemed pretty popular, as she watched several girls walk up and buy them and it had a line. Many others didn’t.

Shaking her head, she walked by it, and up to the shop she’d been told about, a worn sign read “Tsia’s General Goods”

The shop in question was rather large, the building was at least three stories tall and stepping inside she found she couldn’t see the other end of the shop. Numerous rows of shelves stuffed with a selection of goods dominated her view. Off to the left was a counter, a woman who looked to be around thirty lounged in a chair, greeted her, “Welcome, feel free to look around, and if you can’t find what you need let me know.”

“Um, sure,” replied Emily as she took in the woman, she was pretty and unlike everyone else she’d seen entirely topless. Giving Emily a great view of her naked breasts and her swollen belly, she looked about ready to pop any day now. The first thing that drew her eye however, were her swollen discolored nipples, once again capped with strange piercings. Emily barely noticed the faint pale red X on her belly, right above where her womb would be. A question came to her lips, only to die in her throat.

Shrugging she headed into the row of shelves, to look for supplies. Obviously she’d have to look into what was going on later. Something was up with the town alright.

___________________________________________________

Darrel looked around, he’d come here with Arrieta to look for a home. They’d hashed out the details with the guild who had found them a few mages and builders to get them a house built. What he hadn’t expected was for it to be half built already. By the time he got here, the earth mages had prepared the foundation and cleared the land he’d bought. Teams of men and women had already erected a frame and they were now turning that frame of timber into a proper structure.

“Well they work fast, I’ll give them that.”

A young woman from the guild her tail swaying behind her, “So does this meet your expectations?”

He nodded, “Yeah I get a good sense of the size, my family should be comfortable here. So um, how long will they take?”

“A few days, a week at the most. The guild has prepared accommodations at the inn for you.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Then she took a more serious stance, “Now mind if I ask what you plan to do while you are here?”

He grinned, “Oh did I not say? I have always wanted to own a shop of my own. I figured I would open a store.”

“Why not include that in the house plans then?”

“I’ve got kids, I figured it would be better to keep them away from the shop.”

“Ah, I see. Well I wish you luck with your shop.”

_____________________________________

Milith took the steps down into another hidden spot in town. She was making good progress on clearing this town of Abyssal influence. One thing she was starting to notice was that the town had far too many babies. Frowning, she asked the pregnant woman next to her, “These nurseries are far too full for a town of this size. What’s going on?”

“Breeding, my... mistress really enjoyed sex and keeping me pregnant. A lot of other girls I knew were pregnant all the time too. With the nurseries, we were pretty free to just have babies without regard to caring for them.”

Milith blinked, “Oh, I see...”

She trailed off as she came into the room. It wasn’t just a nursery like the others. She saw numerous rows of cribs, each with a baby in it, while on the other side, several girls sat in strange chairs. Her eyes fell on the nearest one, it was Kari, the girl from Darrel’s memories that had been shared with her. The one her fly had found a clue on, but she hadn’t followed it earlier.

Unbidden, a conversation came spilling to the front of her mind. 

“Jill! Fancy seeing you come by, do you need something or ...”

“I was just coming to check up on Kari, how is she doing?”

“Still in bed, I don’t expect her to get up for a while longer. Her fever is still a little higher than I’d like, but she should pull through.”

“I’m glad to hear it. I’ll be by to pick her up at the usual time then?”

“Sure thing, I’ll let her know later, but I’m sure she’d like to rest a bit more.”

“You know we can’t afford to let her rest. If she can stand, we need her doing her job, there aren’t enough hands in the village as it is.”

At the time it hadn’t really meant anything to her but now suddenly things made far more sense to her. Especially with the sight in front of her. What the fuck were these abyssal fiends doing?