Chapter 22 – Catching Up and Settling Down

In the dim light of early morning, I led the gaggle of nervous slave girls and boys over to the crowded street. The town guards had a stack of blankets for the naked survivors of the destruction, but apparently, they ‘weren’t for slaves.’ Father Jordan was stressed out enough, so I didn’t insist. I told him I’d meet up with the others and head back to the rectory hall. He would stay behind to help clean up the mess and manage the survivors among the brothel clients.

There were four dark elves, including Lothelea with frilly French maid dresses, but I was the only one who had a blanket to cover my bits. Everyone else, including Chloe, was naked. Some slaves cupped their hands over their private parts. Others, particularly those who’d been tortured the longest and had the fewest fucks to give, just displayed their nudity without reservation. They’d long since given up on dignity.

Lysander and Maddie were waiting for me, gawking at my strange entourage. When I got close, Maddie rushed me and bundled me up in a big hug. She let me go, and did the same for Chloe.

“Tyler, I’m glad you’re alright,” Lysander said. “When we found out where you’d ended up, we feared the worst.”

“Was it… as bad as the rumors suggested?” Maddie asked carefully.

“Worse, probably.” I sighed. “I was personally spared the worst of it… but some of the shit I saw… Guys, it was fucked up. Like… Spanish Inquisition levels of a fucked up.”

“Yikes,” Maddie said uncomfortably.

I looked over at Lothelea, she was helping another dark elven slave walk, supporting her arm with her shoulder. This one was naked, but Lothelea seemed to know her pretty well. It took me a moment to recognize her. It was Nephaline, the horrifically tortured dark elf who’d been nailed to the wall in the dungeon. This was the first time I’d seen her without horrible disfiguring wounds all over her body. She was a beautiful girl when she still had skin.

The poor tortured girl was distracted and glassy-eyed, not entirely present, mentally. She stared up at the open sky, and cried silently, not saying a word.

“So uuh… who are they?” Maddie asked.

“Slaves from the brothel. Victims that have been though some serious shit. They’re… ours now, I guess, a gift from the god Emi summoned… Those collars are registered to the six of us Earthlings.” I explained.

“The ones in the dresses too?” Lysander asked.

“Yep, those are personal slaves of the brothel’s former owner. The tentacle monster decided to give them to me too. They’ve all experienced some nasty stuff too…”

Lysander continued to scan over the gaggle of slaves, “Is that a furry?” She asked, gesturing towards Foxy with her nose.

“That is Feral Foxkin, level twenty-something monster, also ours,” I said. “She’s sort of a mindless rape beast, and she’ll pounce on anything with a penis if you release the collar’s magical control on her. I’ll teach you the commands I know. She’s got some nasty claws, careful around her.”

“I see,” Lysander said, “and you haven’t killed her yet because…?”

“Levels for Ash?” I suggested. “She’s pretty gentle and well behaved, for a rape monster. I’m pretty sure she’d be happy to grind some levels with him.”

“I don’t think Ash is a furry…” Maddie commented skeptically.

“Ash is a manwhore… every hole is a goal,” I countered. “Plus, it’s a good way to level, quick, pleasurable, and with low risk to us.”

“What about the pink one?” Maddie asked. “Another monster? or some weird slave species I haven’t heard of?”

“Also a monster… A Demonblood Elf, I think she’s called? That’s what high elves turn into when they’re Tainted. Level fourteen. She’s for us female bodied people to level with.” I explained.

“She’s a girl, how’s she going to…” Maddie grumbled, but then saw a certain piece of anatomy, still hard and twitching between her legs. “Oh! I see… nevermind.”

“You’ll like her Lysander… she’s super subby.” I said conspiratorially.

“A subby monster?” Lysander gave the pink girl a confused once-over.

“Yep, the first and only one I’ve seen. Not that I’ve seen that many, I suppose.” I shrugged.

“Indeed, I’ve heard of no other. Granted, I haven’t specifically searched for examples.” Lysander suggested.

“So… what do you say we head on over to the rectory hall, meet up with the others, and you guys can tell me what exactly happened while I was away.” I said.

“Sure, but we’re the only ones who aren’t… busy for now,” Maddie said.

Lysander gestured ahead, Maddie and I started walking.

“C’mon my lovely lads and ladies! This way,” I called out to my slave harem.

My slaves obediently followed, keeping a wide berth of the two collared monsters following me as well. Foxy and Pinky, it seemed, were both still affected by ‘Command: Follow,’ and it turned out I didn’t need to command them again. They focused only on me, and kept a respectful distance while robotically following me everywhere I went. They’d probably keep following me forever, until I released my control on them or commanded them to stop.

“So… they’re busy?” I prompted Maddie.

“Well, Ash is still out hunting monsters. He comes back tomorrow evening,” Maddie said. “And Emi… umm… It’s a bit complicated.”

“She is currently residing within the Cathedral of Endless Violation. She will remain there for a period of ten days, as per the terms of the bargain.” Lysander explained.

“The Cathedral of Endless what?” I stammered.

“A region of the Infinite Abyss under the direct control of Nyar’Shiggurath, his personal realm. The god demands a favor for a favor. The price for rescuing you and punishing those who took you was a restoration of physical virginity, followed by ten days of constant violation.” Lysander said.

“Fuck… that sounds a bit scary…” I said.

“She was there for only an hour the first time. That was the price to earn and bind her familiar. She didn’t want to give us many details,” Maddie said.

“’Tentacles everywhere,’ was the only thing the said on the topic.” Lysander added.

“So Emi sent herself to tentacle hell for ten days to save me?” I gasped, astonished. “Fuck, I really owe her one.”

“Indeed,” Lysander said.

“So… how did that happen anyway? The last thing I heard, Emi was just trying to boost her Unholy skill.” I said.

“You recall that Emi wanted to reach rank ten in her first tier Unholy magic skill and then take Summon Familiar as a capstone spell?” Lysander explained.

“Yeah.”

“Well she did that. Maddie and I accompanied her to the woods last night, during the Night of Monsters, to conduct the familiar summoning ritual. The ritual involves sending a call out to the Infinite Abyss, using the blood of a virgin maiden to entice an eldritch entity into a trap and then bind it to her will.”

“I see where this is going… she enticed Shiggy?” I asked.

“Indeed. It appears the gods want to help us clear the Taint as much as possible, but are bound by rules. Apparently, there is no rule that says the Elder God of Violated Purity cannot intentionally become a summoner’s familiar.”

“So… that big tentacle monster just now… was her familiar?” I gasped. That was ridiculous and overpowered.

“Erm… no. When acting as a familiar, the amount of power Shiggurath can project is restricted by Vyreth’s system. As a familiar, Shiggurath is merely a ball of tentacles, roughly the size of a beanbag chair. What you witnessed was an ancient ritual the old god taught Emi allowing a somewhat larger portion of the god’s power to manifest on the mortal realm.” Lysander explained.

“Somewhat larger? That’s an understatement. That mass of tentacles must have been at least sixty feet tall,” I gave Lysander an incredulous stare.

“This is how Emi described it: Imagine an ocean, and then get an eye dropper, and place a single drop of water into your palm. That is Shiggurath when acting as a familiar. The Rite of Ankadiesth is more like… a swimming pool. Indeed, it is quite large when compared to the eye dropper, but when compared to the ocean…”

“Ah… I see.” I said.

“So umm… why didn’t anybody else rescue us?” Chloe, who had been quietly listening the whole time asked. “I mean… they could have sent town guards instead of a god, right? I don’t know if Mistress Tyler’s enslavement was legal, but I was definitely stolen property.”

“Yeah, I’m still pissed off about that. We figured out where you guys were pretty much immediately.” Maddie said. “Adam survived, by the way, just barely. Apparently, someone stabilized him with healing?”

Chloe smiled, and raised her hand.

“Yeah, thought it might have been you,” Maddie smiled. “Anyway, so someone nearly killed Adam, and Father Jacob went on the warpath. Tier threes are scary, let me tell you. He incapacitated a whole gang of thugs with magical glowy shit, and we found out they’d sold you to the Scarlet Thorn.”

Maddie gave me a frustrated frown. “That’s where the investigation ended.”

“Father Jacob refused to investigate that place for some reason. He apologized to us, said his hands were tied, and offered to reimburse us a hundred gold, Chloe’s approximate market value. As for you, Tyler, Maddie blabbed to him about your demihuman nature, so he only told us that you were legally enslaved and he merely regretted that we didn’t have the chance to enslave you ourselves first.” Lysander said.

“You blabbed, Maddie?” I gave her an accusing glare.

“Well he was all like… ‘Why was Tyler taken? That shouldn’t be possible.’ so I might have… explained why?” Maddie looked down at her toes guiltily.

“Eh, whatever. Even if I was human, I doubt that would have stopped them. I bet they’ve kidnapped humans too. Madam Orchid seemed to think so, anyway.” I said.

“So, naturally, since none of us wanted to abandon you to your fate. It fell to us to rescue you.” Lysander said.

“Yeah, but after seeing what a tier three [High Priest] could do, we sorta realized that a level three, a level five, and a level seven wouldn’t be able to assault what was basically a castle full of armed thugs in the second tier or higher,” Maddie said.

“Our plan was to level into mid second tier, perhaps level twenty or so, and hopefully unlock some skills to bypass their defenses and break you out. Wind magic in particular has some useful options for stealth.” Lysander said.

“But then Emi got herself a pet god… and we were able to act a little sooner. You know the rest.” Maddie added.

“So you guys levelled up?” I said.

Maddie raised her hand proudly, “Level six.”

“Level nine” Lysander added.

“You guys should borrow my dickgirl. I think Chloe went from level three to level six in what… two hours?” I said, looking at Chloe for confirmation.

“Level seven actually, Mistress.” Chloe said proudly.

“That’s not even close to fair… I spent like, eight hours killing shit.” Maddie complained.

“As bizarre as it seems, Tyler’s idea of domesticating monsters for easy levelling is a good one. I wonder if there are limitations imposed on the rate of sexual levelling…” Lysander said.

“It’s a shame we don’t have like… a numeric exp bar. That would help us graph the levelling rate.” I said.

“Fucking nerds,” Maddie, the former neckbearded Linux guru, teased.

When we got back to the rectory hall, my friends had a pair of dresses set aside for Chloe and me. My dress was white with red accents, with a neckline that wasn’t too low. It was a nice modest cut, still a dress but not overly frilly or feminine. Quite tasteful, and well chosen. Chloe’s dress was a simple charcoal grey, comfortable and well made, yet designed not to draw undue attention to her. Perfect for a tastefully dressed slave girl. Both came with some cute knee socks, and comfortable shoes.

Sadly, my friends didn’t have enough extra dresses ready for the twenty-six girls, boys, and monsters in my new ill-gotten slave harem.

The temple rectory building was large, but not that large, and much of it was occupied. They had only the one extra bedroom to spare for us. The rest were reserved for the priests and acolytes. We’d have to figure out where to let all my slaves sleep. Hopefully we could rent a house on short notice… For now, since it wasn’t bedtime yet, we settled on cramming everyone into the drawing room.

The drawing room was the size of a somewhat small living room. With two couches and a chair. I pushed both couches against the far walls, to maximise floor space. Still, the room was definitely not big enough to hold everyone comfortably.

Twenty-four slaves, plus Chloe, me, Maddie and Lysander… Twenty eight warm bodies in a tiny little drawing room. The two monsters weren’t included. One of the priests nearly had a fit when I tried to take my monsters onto their sacred temple ground. I had nowhere else to put them, however, so we reached a compromise. I commanded them to sleep, and stuck them in the cellar for now.

Apparently, the durable monsters were resistant to cold and dank environments, and they had no real biological needs other than satisfying their libido, and maybe occasionally breathing. Knocking them out and storing them like abandoned sex dolls wasn’t actually harmful to them.

I chose the chair for my seat. Chloe knelt on the floor between my knees. Maddie and Lysander sat on one couch. The slaves were all too nervous to sit on the other couch, electing to kneel on the floor instead.

I clapped my hands to get everyone’s attention. “Okay, hi everyone. As you no doubt figured out, you’re all sort of my property now… You have six masters, though only four of them are here today.”

I pointed out and introduced myself, Chloe, Lysander, and Maddie.

“I’ll be honest, I have no idea what to do with you…” I admitted. “We’ll figure this out as we go, but expect a bit of an awkward adjustment period.”

“Are you keeping us?” asked a cat girl with black hair.

“That’s the plan so far, unless it turns out that I’m not able to properly take care of you all,” I looked over at Lysander.

“If we fail to please you, will you dispose of us?” asked a wary dark elf in a maid uniform.

“Umm… If I can’t take care of you, I might try to sell you to someone who can? I’m not sure. Like I said, this is all a bit sudden. I don’t even know most of your names.” I stammered feeling awkward.

“We won’t kill any of you,” Maddie added.

There were a few sighs of relief. Oh… was that what they were worried about?

“Yeah. No killing, no torture. No sexual duties unless you’re genuinely willing to serve us that way,” I said.

I got a whole bunch of uncomfortable stares. None of the slaves believed me.

“Will you kill us if we do not consent?” asked a nervous high elf girl.

“No, that’s sort of… not consenting then. If you don’t want to serve us sexually, then we’ll give you a different job. Cleaning, labour, cooking, I dunno. Depends on what your skills are.” I said.

There was an awkward silence, as the slaves looked around nervously, “I’m only good for eating ass,” came a quiet little voice, barely audible, from somewhere in the crowd.

“Okay… we can work with that I guess…” I said, giving a knowing glance at Lysander. Lysander nodded sagely.

“Perhaps we should conduct interviews?” Lysander suggested.

“Yeah, good idea,” I agreed. “Also… Lothelea?”

“Yes Mistress?” the dark elf maid piped up.

“Can you help me manage the group? You have experience tending to them, and you’ve known some of them for a while. I’d like your input.”

“Yes Mistress,” Lothelea bowed her head to the floor respectfully. “In that case, can we find a barrel?”

I looked at her curiously, “A barrel?”

“An empty one… to place the Barrel Girl inside,” she replied.

I just gave her a confused stare. Lothelea looked over her shoulder and craned her neck, searching for someone. “Pardon me Mistress,” she said, getting up and walking over to another slave girl.

This one was a dark elf, unnaturally skinny with tangled and matted white hair that would probably stretch down to her ankles if she was standing. She looked completely feral, like she’d never had a haircut or brushed her hair even once. She was barely visible in the crowd, lying on her side, curled up into a ball, hugging her knees. Her tear-filled eyes were shut firmly, and she was shivering in constant terror.

“This, my most generous Mistress, is Barrel Girl.” Lothelea explained.

“Okay…?” I said, a little confused. “Can you maybe explain a little more?”

“She was an experiment performed by a teenage Lord Anthony. He bought a six year old dark elven girl, and stuffed her inside barrel, just to see how she would react to constant sensory deprivation and a confined space. He instructed the maids to feed her once a day, and purify the crap away once per day. Other than that, no interaction at all.”

Lothelea stared into my eyes, with ice cold fury, “He then forgot about her for the next thirty years.”

“Oh shit…” I groaned.

“My predecessor fed her, and used a runic purify array inscribed on her barrel to clean her. I continued the tradition. Sometimes I tried to talk to her, but I don’t think she understands words. Lord Anthony did not give me permission to feed her or take care of her, but he also didn’t tell me not to do that. I suspect he wasn’t aware of her existence at all. She was kept in the back of the cellar, next to where we stored the wine.”

“So now that she’s free of that bastard’s influence, you want to put her back in a barrel?” I said, making my annoyance clear with my tone.

Lothelea’s eyes went wide in terror. She immediately dropped back to her knees and placed her forehead to the floor. “Please! This lowly slave would never dare tell her mistress what to do, though since Mistress has asked her opinion, this slave has shared it. Please forgive the impertinence.”

I sighed, and softened my voice, “No, I didn’t mean it that way… I meant like… I’d rather not torture her further. The poor girl has clearly been through enough.”

“Then giving her a barrel would be a mercy, Mistress,” Lothelea said quietly.

“Hey Tyler, imagine you lived your entire life inside a barrel, and that became your entire world. What do you think it would feel like to suddenly be outside that barrel, exposed to the big scary world for the first time? She’s like a turtle without a shell,” Maddie commented.

I sighed again, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Does the church have any extra barrels lying around?” I asked Lysander. “How much does a barrel cost? Do we need to go find a… what are they called?”

“A cooper,” Lysander said helpfully. “I’d suggest buying a new one. A used one might smell unpleasant.”

“Okay then… we’ll add a barrel to the shopping list. For now, we can toss a blanket on her, I guess. It might help.”

Lothelea smiled with relief.

“I need a volunteer,” I said raising my hand.

A few slaves looked at each other nervously. Ginny, the ginger haired tabby catgirl raised her paw, giving me a tentatively hopeful gaze.

“Thanks, Ginny. Go upstairs, first door to the left of the upper landing. There’s a room with eight small beds, take a blanket from one of those beds and bring it down please.”

Ginny smiled with relief that I wasn’t ordering her torture, and nodded. “Yes Mistress.”

She scampered out of the room and up the stairs. Less than a minute later she came back with a heavy woolen blanket. Lothelea took it from her, and draped it over the shivering barrel girl.

“Okay, anything else I should know right away?” I asked, looking at Lothelea again. She looked around the room thoughtfully.

“I respectfully request that you torture me, or Paintoy, rather than Nephaline, should you find yourself desiring our tears,” she said bowing. “It is my humble opinion that Nephaline has suffered far too much for one lifetime.”

“Paintoy?” I asked, looking around curiously.

Lothelea gestured towards another dark elven maid in the crowd. This one was a slender tomboyish girl, with short white hair and an androgynous figure a bit like Lysander. She gave me an awkward half smile, and raised her hand. She blushed a deep shade of purple.

“Should I ask how you got that name?”

“It’s what I am. I am a toy… for pain, Mistress,” Paintoy said.

“I got that… but it doesn’t really explain anything…” I said.

“I am meant for hurting,” she added. And smiled hopefully.

“I wasn’t really planning on keeping a torture toy…” I said.

Paintoy averted her eyes, her shoulders slumped and she nodded sadly. “I see… I’m sorry if I don’t meet your expectations, Mistress.”

“That’s not what I… You’re a super hardcore masochist aren’t you?” I said flatly. I should have known there would be at least one in Lord Tony’s harem.

Paintoy nodded nervously.

“Alright then,” I sighed. “If I get into the mood to hurt someone, I’ll hurt you, okay?”

Paintoy smiled and blushed again. She nodded.

A lightly tanned elf girl, with vibrant blue hair and a skin complexion somewhere between caramel low elf, and pale high elf, raised her hand. “I volunteer… I am meant to suffer,” she said in a quiet murmur. She averted her eyes shamefully to the floor.

“Another masochist?” I asked.

“When suffering the attentions of a cruel and merciless torturer, I feel good,” she mumbled shamefully.

“Okay… I guess you’ll be on pain toy duty too? Uhm… name?” I asked.

“Sana, Mistress,” the blue haired slave girl replied.

“Okay,” I turned to the other slaves. “Anything else for now?”

“Can I worship Mistress Maddie’s feet?” asked a very hopeful looking mouse boy. He blushed and smiled at Maddie.

“Stand up for me,” Maddie ordered.

The mouse boy stood up. He was a young looking guy, in his late teens, probably barely legal. He was short for a male, with a slender, somewhat effeminate body with nicely toned muscles. He had a modestly sized humanlike cock between his legs. His mousey features included brown shaggy hair, with two round ears poking out above his head. He also had a slender whiplike tail, and long sharp claws on the tips of his fingers and toes. Maddie tapped her chin as she looked him over.

“Kay, I’ll give you a try,” Maddie said with a warm smile. “Come kneel next to me.”

Mouse boy happily scurried over, and knelt between Maddie’s knees, mirroring Chloe’s position in front of me. He smiled proudly as Maddie took off her boots and socks.

“Okay then!” I announced. “If there’s nothing else pressing, the rest of you can relax. There are no duties for today. It’s free time. Do not leave the temple grounds, and do not do anything stupid to get me trouble with the clergy. Other than that, relax and recover from your ordeals, and we’ll talk to you specifically if there’s anything else. Got it?”

“Yes Mistress,” came a chorus of voices.

A few slaves nervously got up to leave the room and get some fresh air outside. Most of them remained in the room, nervously huddled together. Some were having whispered conversations. I ignored them for now, turning to my fellow mistresses.

I explained to them what Father Jordan said, that he was going to get in touch with the Archbishop back in the capital city of Baltour, and that we’d probably be summoned. I also mentioned that he was offering to rent us an empty mansion in town to stay.

“Eh… I don’t really trust that guy,” Maddie said. “Or maybe it’s the Church I don’t trust… there was some blatant corruption there, with them refusing to step on the toes of Lord Whatshisname. I don’t like the idea of relying on these twat-waffles for lodgings and safety.”

“Is this… invitation to the Capital going to be considered compulsory?” Lysander asked. “Perhaps we would be better off keeping to ourselves, levelling on our own and gathering our own resources for now.”

“I get the impression that the Church of the Untainted is a big deal. I’m willing to bet that they’ll ask us nicely to visit, but if we refuse, they’ll ask us again, not so nicely…” I said.

Lysander sighed, “Yes that’s likely.”

“So, we’re hanging out in town until we get an invitation to go to the capital? We could just say ‘fuck it’ and flee into the woods again…” Maddie asked.

“What about the slaves?” I asked.

“Sell them?” Maddie suggested.

“And who would buy them? Another torture brothel? I don’t want these poor things going to another cruel master or mistress.” I replied.

“We should consider potential benefits of going to the capital too, rather than just risks.” Lysander said. “In particular, I would like access to a proper library or other repository of knowledge. We could also make use of our status as chosen ones to gain resources, such as equipment, trainers and access to other experts.”

“I guess we have our pet monsters, so we can still gain levels, even if we’re far from the Tainted wilderness.” I said.

“So, I guess that means we’re doing what Father Jordan says? I guess we were already planning on renting a house in town…” Maddie said.

“Indeed.” Lysander said. “I’ve already taken the liberty of investigating houses for rent. I mostly looked for smaller options, though there are a couple that might suit our new needs. When Father Jordan gets back, we can confer with him.”

“I don’t like relying on him to pay for it…” Maddie grumbled. “Why don’t we just get a house ourselves?”

“I don’t think it’ll make a difference whether we take that gold or not…” I said. “Might as well accept the free rent and use that money for more important things.”

“In this case, I agree with Tyler,” Lysander said. “We’ll still need to purchase a proper weapon for you, and we need to feed and clothe twenty four slaves. That will be a considerable expense.”

“Eh… whatever. I want my objection to be on the record though,” Maddie grumbled.

“It has been noted,” Lysander said.

“So in the mean time, while we’re waiting for our priest to get back here, we just hang out getting our toes licked?” Maddie asked.

I looked down at her feet, and saw the mouse boy hard at work, sucking on her toes with a look of ecstasy on his face.

“We could set up those interviews,” I suggested. “Figure out who we own, and what exactly we got ourselves into…”

Lysander and Maddie agreed. I sat on the chair and leaned back, relaxing as my friends did all the work.