The Smuggler's Ascension: The Ties That Died Read online

  “Are you ok?” Sabine asked worriedly.

  “I’m fine, my love,” Anasha said with a smile. “The operation of the sphere calls on our spiritual energy as much as the chanting, and it is very tiring. This is why only Su’Tani can use the Sphere, and probably why only we can move it. It calls on the same energy to move it as to use it.”

  Max appeared with a glass of water for Anasha, and another for Celeste. The two women were most appreciative as Sabine rubbed Anasha’s back and shoulders. Kristof knelt beside Anasha, but stayed where he could see Celeste too, as he posed his own question.

  “The Void and the Underworld are considerably vaster than the living world,” Kristof pointed out. “Are you two going to be able to handle this by yourselves?”

  Anasha gave Celeste a questioning look through the rings of the Sphere. They seemed to be having a wordless conversation that Sabine and the others were excluded from. As her former teacher, it was likely Celeste had taught Anasha a wordless language Sabine thought, and wondered if it was something she could learn as well without being Su’Tani.

  “We will search the Void next,” Anasha said at last. “Being for the most part empty, the search should go fast, we think. After that, we will decide on whether to keep going or not, if we do not find Cassandra in the Void.”

  “Ok,” Kristof said in a tone that clearly said that he did not think it was ok, “But if anything seems off with you two I am ending it.”

  “Agreed,” Celeste said quietly as she set her water aside.

  Sabine returned to her seat as the next search began. The chant was a little different this time, she noticed right away. Different ring, different chant, she thought to herself. The Void appeared and was much as Kristof had explained it from his time passing through there. It was a vast, unimaginable darkness, only here in the vision there were points of light in its vast depths.

  Kristof repeated his request to find Cassandra, and the Sphere complied. The search was harder to detect this time as it passed through darkness with no points of reference other than the random point of light that came along and then was passed by. The first search had lasted fifteen minutes. The search of the Void lasted for half an hour and then ended, again finding no trace of the Goddess.

  Anasha again was sweating, profusely this time, and she was also panting for breath. Celeste too was on the verge of exhaustion from her effort. There was a look of annoyance in her eyes though as Max again brought the women fresh glasses of water.

  “I think we are doing it wrong,” Celeste said once she had caught her breath.

  “How so?” Anasha asked tiredly. “It is searching fine, as far as I can tell.”

  “Yes, but I think it is searching backwards,” Celeste said with a rueful grin. “I believe we have transposed the meaning of one set of words, and have thereby been making the rings spin in reverse and it is vastly more difficult that way, or so I believe.”

  Anasha and Celeste conferred quietly together as they rested. Kristof came to Sabine’s side and looked down into her eyes. Sabine loved when he would gaze at her like he did now, his eyes filled with love and wonder.

  “How are you feeling, Your Majesty?” Kristof asked with a playful smirk, knowing she hated the title coming from his lips.

  “Her Majesty is feeling fine,” Sabine said and stuck her tongue out at him.

  Kristof laughed and kissed her softly in apology, and Sabine held him in his apology for a long moment, enjoying the feel of his lips on hers and his tongue wrestling with hers. She released him at last, and smiled at the look of love in his eyes. Anasha joined them, too, and Sabine grabbed a lock of her hair to pull her down for a kiss as well.

  Kissing Anasha for the first time as a flesh and blood woman had been a truly amazing experience. Her lips were softer than Kristof’s, as were her cheeks as she caressed them, and each woman seemed to know what the other wanted and needed. As such, their kisses tended to last longer and be more passionate, making Kristof joke about coming up for air sometimes. They did not kiss for so long this time, though Sabine wouldn’t have minded as she smiled at her beautiful wife.

  “Well I feel all energized again now,” Anasha said with a brilliant smile as she straightened up. “Celeste is right,” she continued. “We’ve been doing it wrong. I felt from the beginning that it shouldn’t have been so exhausting, but I never even considered we might be doing it backwards. I just thought it was something that got easier once you practiced at it.”

  “So you want to try again, I take it,” Kristof said doubtfully.

  “Yes, my love,” Anasha said before she pulled Kristof in for a kiss of her own. Sabine watched them, she loved watching them, and smiled as they kissed and held each other.

  “Not fair,” Kristof gasped as they broke apart, causing Sabine to giggle. “How am I supposed to argue with you when you do that?”

  “You’re not, that’s the whole point. Life isn’t fair, my dear,” Anasha said as she walked back to her place beside the Sphere. “Let’s get searching, I’d like to sleep sometime tonight.”

  Sabine watched Kristof shake his head as he took up his place beside the Sphere. Anasha and Celeste began a third chant, again different, and the largest of the rings began to move and spin. Faster and faster is spun until it disappeared like the rest. The vision that appeared was not a pleasant one. Sabine had seen the Underworld once before, and it had been a bleak and blasted place then, as well.

  The sight of souls burning or being tormented made Sabine want to cry as the Sphere conducted the search for Cassandra. It seemed the misery of the Underworld went on forever, and at its center was a great maelstrom of spinning, tormented souls. The search went rapidly, until it again slowed near where it started. Before the vision could fade, however, Death appeared before them. His face remained shrouded as his body twisted and turned in jet black folds like a cloak caught in the wind. Lightning flashed deep within his body as he caught the view of the Sphere and held it.

  “You’ll never find her,” Death hissed, “And you are all going to die by my hand.”

  “I do not believe so,” Kristof said, his voice low and deadly as his eyes came alive with cold red fire. “If you could truly kill us, you would have done so by now. Instead, your lackeys fail again and again. You made a mistake in choosing my sister as well, she isn’t what one would call stable, but now you’re stuck with her. Now be gone, lest I slay thee here and now.”

  With a shove to the air, Kristof knocked away Death’s hold on the Sphere’s view, and slowly the image faded away as the largest ring came to a rest. Sabine could see the anger in Kristof’s face, but there was no sign that he would have another episode like before. Anasha also appeared worried as she looked to Sabine, since this was the first time Kristof had touched the Father’s power since his dark episode.

  “Why didn’t you kill him then and there?” Max asked, breaking the silence.

  “It wouldn’t have worked,” Kristof said regretfully. “It was just a vision. Azrael didn’t need to know that, though.”

  Sabine laughed weakly as she considered that Kristof had just bluffed Death.

  “So now what do we do?” Sabine asked after a moment, once her laughter had subsided. “We’ve searched all three rings and found no trace of Cassandra.”

  “I don’t know,” Anasha said disappointedly. “I was positive this would work.”

  “Perhaps we have simply missed something,” Celeste said as she joined them. “I will continue to study the Sphere and see if I can glean any new knowledge from it. You three should go rest, though. From what I heard, you had quite the time obtaining this artifact. So quality time alone will allow you to recharge yourselves.”

  “But I am the one with batteries, not them,” Max interjected, causing them all to laugh.

  “Point conceded,” Kristof laughed, “But I agree we all need a break. Are you feeling up to it, though, Celeste? You’ve been working pretty hard here yourself.”

  “I am fine,”
Celeste said quietly in her musical voice. “I find that as I grow older I need less rest. Perhaps it is because I know my time grows shorter in this world day by day, and year by year.”

  “Nonsense,” Sabine disagreed, “You’re still a young beauty.”

  Celeste laughed and drew Sabine into a hug.

  “You are a true treasure,” Celeste told the tiny Queen with a smile. “Your mates are extremely lucky to have you.”

  “Told you so,” Sabine said with a wink, and they all laughed again.

  “Go, rest,” Celeste ordered them, suddenly very maternal sounding. “I will remain and seek to find what we are missing here.”

  “Thank you, Celeste,” Anasha said as she embraced the older woman affectionately, “For everything.”

  Celeste nodded as Sabine took Kristof and Anasha by the hand and led them both to the bedroom they shared. The sheets were blessedly cool as she climbed naked between them. She stretched out and watched as Kristof and Anasha also undressed in the dim light of the room. Anasha’s muscles moved beneath her skin, and Sabine admired the amount of effort Anasha put in to have her physique so chiseled and defined, while still remaining feminine. Her curves were hypnotic, and Sabine longed to touch her and run her hands over her.

  Kristof had also stripped down, and Sabine also admired the way he was muscled and most definitely male, as his arousal was apparent in its semi-erect state. Since coming to Purannis, he had also spent much time in the gym and had added quite a bit of muscle. She was glad the medics had been able to cure most of the scarring he had started to get from his wounds he received from his brother’s torture, so his skin remained mostly flawless as it moved over his muscles. Sabine found herself wanting to grab his ass really hard, and promised herself that soon she would.

  Both of her loves climbed into bed with her, and Sabine suddenly found herself being devoured from both sides as her loves caressed and kissed her all over. It seemed they had picked up on her mood, and had responded in kind to her needs and desires. They all remained somewhat restrained because of the baby and the awkwardness of her condition, but when Kristof lay on his back and Anasha had her straddle him, all seemed right in the universe.

  Anasha guided Kristof’s hardness to her, and Sabine slowly sank onto it and allowed it to fill her completely. Anasha’s hands roamed over Sabine’s body as Sabine moved above Kristof while his hands rubbed her stomach. She smiled wickedly when she felt Anasha’s hand glide over her ass to grasp Kristof beneath her, which elicited a deep groan from their husband.

  The night passed slowly as the three made love together. Sabine loved watching Kristof and Anasha together as she rested on her side, loved watching Kristof’s powerful strokes as he took Anasha from behind, and she reached out to grasp Sabine’s hand as her orgasm broke over her. Their lovemaking was always a group affair with them, even when one was far away, since their minds were tightly bonded in the marriage bonds of Akana’San’Tani, The Binding Ritual. In this tightness of their bond, even now Sabine could feel through Kristof’s mind how it felt to be inside Anasha, and how it felt as he swelled in orgasm above her.

  Entwined in each other’s arms at last, with hands from everyone upon her stomach, Sabine lay in bliss as they slowly drifted off to sleep one by one. If only the Gods could love so freely and completely, she thought as she drifted off, the universe would be so much better for everyone.

  ~26~

  The Palace had state of the art facilities for just about anything a person could want to do. Kristof was a simple man, though, so of all the facilities available to him in the Palace the gym was about the only one he used. He had always been fairly fit, the life of a smuggler didn’t lend itself to being a slow, over weight target. It hadn’t been until he’d come to live at the Palace that he discovered the joy of working out just for the sake of working out and becoming stronger.

  So that was where Kristof found himself two days later following their searches with the Sphere of the Universe. So far Celeste and Anasha had had no further luck in deciphering the artifact’s abilities. More writing had been found upon the armillary base, but this set instruction had confounded their efforts do translate.

  Frustrated and restless, Kristof had come to the gym to work off some of his tension. Sweat covered his body as he worked with the free weights in the gym, ignoring all of the high tech equipment available in favor of something simple and straight forward. Too many things had become complicated in his life, Kristof liked his workouts simple yet strenuous.

  Out of breath, Kristof dropped the weights at last and grabbed a towel and water bottle as he looked around the gym. Anasha had joined him, and he watched her now as she hung from a bar above her and pulled her legs up in large, sweeping arcs to strengthen her core. Kristof knew Sabine loved and envied Anasha’s washboard abs, which was why Anasha worked so hard to keep them toned. Anasha wasn’t the only one who enjoyed pleasing their tiny Queen.

  Watching Anasha work, Kristof’s thoughts drifted back to the Sphere and the way its rings moved and spun. Each ring had moved independently to show them the different realms of life, the Void, and the Underworld. It had seemed awfully simple to Kristof, yet since the device had been made by a Goddess, perhaps that wasn’t so hard to understand. The mechanics of the device were probably profound beyond imagination, but made simple to operate by the Goddess’s expertise.

  Still, Kristof wondered why the device have three rings, then. Why not have one ring and have it respond to the different chants instead of three chants and three rings. Then he wondered what would happen if all three of the rings spun at the same time. What would that show them? The idea stuck in his head as he thought about it while he stretched out his tired muscles.

  “Anasha,” Kristof called to his nearby wife.

  Anasha dropped from the bar she’d been hanging from and came to Kristof. She was sweating heavily as well, and he couldn’t help but admire the way it shined on her body as she walked towards him. It was with difficulty that he pushed his amorous thoughts away to focus on the problem.

  “What is it, handsome?” Anasha asked with a wink and a grin as she neared.

  “What would happen if all of the rings were to spin at once?” Kristof asked as he gave Anasha a thorough and appreciative look from top to bottom, making her grin turn to a full blown smile and a slight blush.

  “I don’t know,” Anasha said after a moment’s thought. “There’s nothing on the Sphere that speaks about that, unless that is part of the section we can’t decipher.”

  Anasha paused as a new thought occurred to her and she started to think hard. Kristof watched her intently, partly because he loved looking at her, and partly because he hoped she had had some idea on how to solve the riddle of the Sphere.

  “Go shower,” Anasha said suddenly as she knelt to grab her water bottle and towel. “We need to get back home, I have an idea.”

  “Join me,” Kristof said with a lustful look, but Anasha threw her towel at him instead.

  “If I do that it will take us twice as long to get home or more,” Anasha said with a laugh. “We’re in a hurry to solve the riddle, I thought.”

  Anasha came to give Kristof a hand up from where he sat stretching and a kiss before heading off to the showers. Right as she passed him she gave him a playful grab before she ran off out of reach, laughing as she went. Kristof watched her go, unable to take his gaze off of her tight body as she ran to the lady’s showers. Once she was out of sight, Kristof groaned and grabbed his own things before heading off to the locker rooms.

  Once he was able to get his mind back on business, Kristof showered quickly and waited for Anasha to emerge from the ladies locker room. Amazingly, she didn’t keep him waiting long. She had showered and tied her long blond hair back, not bothering to dry it.

  “So what’s this idea of your?” Kristof asked as they walked through the Palace corridors heading home.

  “The rings needed two people to decipher them,” Anasha said as they walked
. “It was in a way like a two part harmony in music. So what if the remaining writings are a three part harmony? Three Su’Tani, linked by minds, as they read as one.”

  “Aren’t we headed the wrong direction, then?” Kristof asked. “If you need a third person to read Old Puranni and try to decipher this thing, you need to get someone from the Temple.”

  “I think Celeste and I can link with you and work around that particular problem,” Anasha said excitedly. “Between her and me we should be able to use your mind to direct you in what you need to know. We’ve done similar things with psychic healing, so this might work.”

  The remaining trip home went quickly, and Anasha went to discuss her idea with Celeste, who was still in their home examining the Sphere. Kristof found Sabine in their kitchen drinking a cup of the tea she hated so much but seemed to calm the baby. He saw that she had not dressed, favoring instead her black silk robe that he had gifted her a few months ago.

  “You two are back early,” Sabine commented between sips of tea. “I expected you to be gone for another couple hours, after an extended shower of course,” she added with a wink.

  “I tried,” Kristof said with a laugh, “But Anasha had an idea on how to solve the riddle of the Sphere. She was too eager to get home for a shared shower.”

  “Bummer,” Sabine said with a smile, “I was looking forward to peeking in during the shower.”

  Kristof laughed again as he helped Sabine down from her stool and they walked back to the living room together, where Anasha and Celeste were talking animatedly. Celeste, it seemed, had picked up on Anasha’s excitement for the possibility of solving the Sphere’s last riddle. Max had come from his guard station by the door to observe things better, which made Kristof smile. He’d told the android repeatedly that he didn’t need to be on guard all of the time, especially here. It was a bit a bit disheartening to see Max always standing guard at the door when he was family and not a servant.