Intimancer

Daniela reluctantly extracted herself from Sade’s nude body.

“S-sorry.  I, um… Yeah, t-that’s a good idea.”

Sade merely giggled at the dwarf’s adorable reaction and then turned her focus to drying her soaked clothing.

“Hey, um, Sade?”  Daniela asked from behind her after a few moments of silence.

“Yes?”

“D-do I n-need to have coito with Rick to c-c-change my body?”

Sade turned around to look at her.  The thief was staring at her, trepidation written all over her face.  But there was something more hidden in the dwarf’s crystal blue eyes.  Sade saw the faint spark of determination deep in those sapphire pools.

“Standard intercourse would allow both parties to benefit from the magic.  But all you really need to do is just make him reach climax several times if you prefer.”  Sade explained.  Daniela gave a resigned nod in understanding.

“Or…”  Sade continued, a ghost of a smile on her lips.  “You could fuck me instead.”

“¡¿QUE॔?!”  Daniela shouted, nearly stumbling to the floor in her surprise at the lude proposal.

Oh, she is just adorable!  Sade laughed inwardly at the dwarf’s reaction.  I wonder if she will be as fun to tease after she has spent a bit more quality time with us down the road?

She licked her lips in anticipation.  The others had long since gotten used to Sade’s more forceful tendencies, and merely played along for her benefit.  Sade was perfectly content with that, but the prospect of someone unaware, an innocent lamb walking inside a lion’s den, made the fire in her belly roar with desire.  Yes, she will have her fun with this one.

“H-have sex with you?!  D-does that mean…?”  Daniela trailed off after recovering from Sade’s statement.

“Yes.  I am also an intimancer.”  Sade confirmed.

The dwarf ran her nimble fingers through her blond locks.  “Really?!  But you never once mentioned it.  Plus Rick isn’t a pure mage.  While you… you are just amazing.  I almost pegged you for a magus.”

Oh no… she should not have said that.  Sade giggled.  The thief had set herself up perfectly.  “I could have been.  A magus I mean.”

“¡¿QUE॔?!”  Daniela shouted once more.  She cradled her head in her hands, unable to process the surprises Sade kept bombarding her with.  “You have got to be fucking with me.”

“Oh no, that will come later.”  Sade purred teasingly.  At the look on the poor girl’s face, Sade couldn’t help but double over and let out a great belly laugh, arms around her stomach and her bare breasts bouncing wildly.

“You’re fucking mean!”  Daniela pouted.  She crossed her arms, causing her own generous swells to puff out enticingly.

“Sorry, sorry… I will stop.”  Sade gasped out once she had recovered.  “Teasing aside, I was being truthful to you.”

The thief looked at her dubiously.  “About being a magus and… the coito?”

Sade did her best to adopt as serious an expression as she was able.  It was quite difficult with the thief still sporting an adorable pout.  “While I do tend to rely on half-truths, omission, and other forms of obfuscation when dealing with my secrets.  I am not in the habit of outright lying.  I really did choose to become an intimancer over a magus.  While I do not regret my choice, I was… ashamed of it.  Thus, I fell back on old habits and simply avoided talking about my vocation.  That decision, I do regret.  So now I choose to be more honest with those I trust.”

She walked forward and gave the shorter woman a quick hug.  “As I explained earlier, this includes you.  And since you have all but outright shouted your preferences on the matter, I thought you would be more comfortable cultivating coital energy from a member of the fairer sex.”

“But.. I’m not part of the group.  Won’t the other’s be mad? And would… would I have to sleep with Rick?”  The blond woman asked hesitantly.

“I believe Rick himself has consistently told you that nobody has to do anything they are not comfortable with.”  Sade chided gently.  “I am sure the others would welcome you to our bed if that is what you desired.  We could simply be together privately from time to time.  Or we could simply treat this as more a business transaction, albeit a pleasurable one.  The point is that however you wish to proceed from here, we will all try to accommodate.”

“Although…”  Sade said, giving the dwarf a critical glance.  “You are incredibly lovely already.  What is it that you wish to change?”

Daniela’s sun tanned skin flushed pink while she gathered up her soaked clothes.  She mumbled something under her breath that was far too low for anyone aside from someone like Tyr to discern.

“I am sorry, what was that?”

“I said I want to be smaller!”  Daniela shouted before she realized what she just blurted out and then buried her face in her shirt.

Sade blinked.  Of all the various answers she had anticipated, the desire to become smaller was something completely unexpected.

“... Smaller?”  She asked dumbly.

The already petite woman squirmed in embarrassment.  “Gah!  You probably think it's an estúpida thing to want.  But look at me!”  She said while gesturing to her body.  She stood tall, arms spread wide, giving Sade an intimate look at every curve of her supple body, and even slightly more.  “I know dwarves tend to be husky and all, but I’m just so tall and broad!  My tetas are always getting in my way when I’m trying to work.  I just wished I was slender and tiny, like a fairy.  Right now I feel like mi culata would just get stuck while I’m trying to crawl through a hole.”

It took a few heartbeats for Sade’s mind to register what the beautifully naked dwarf in front of actually said.  She quickly shook her head to dislodge both the improper thoughts and to outwardly show her incredulity on the subject.  Daniela was absolutely gorgeous!  She had a body that Sade would have dreamed of a year ago.

“The grass really is greener on the other side…”  She murmured.

“What’s that about grass?”  The blond woman asked.

Sade sighed and reached for her clothing once more.  “An expression Rick once told me.  In essence, it is referring to how people always long for the things they do not have.  I was short and child-like, and wished to become tall and curvy.  You wish for the reverse.  We are on opposite sides of a fence, thinking the other side is the greener pastures.”  She explained while casting a cantrip to dry out her various garments.

“Huh… I never thought of it like that.  Makes me seem kinda silly, doesn’t it?”  The dwarf mused while doing the same.

“It would be highly hypocritical of me to suggest wanting to change yourself into your ideal form as silly.”  Sade shot back with a hint of sass.  “Besides, Tyr and I can personally attest at how annoying it is to have our rear ends be too big to crawl through tight spaces.”

The thief’s eyes grew wide.  “Nooooo… That actually happened?!”  She asked in disbelief.  “You HAVE to tell me the cuento!”

Sade happily regaled her companion with the tale of their first mission for the hunters.  The embarrassment from the situation had dulled considerably with time, causing Sade to only giggle at herself in those long lost days of only a few months ago.  She greatly enjoyed the irony that her hips were even larger than they were during the incident.  Tyr herself would probably not even fit in the tunnel if she attempted it currently with her greatly enhanced body.

At the thought of her elven lover, Sade’s mood dampened slightly.  Their friends were no doubt worried sick about them.  Her heart ached at the thought.  They needed to quickly finish drying out their things and be on their way.  There was no time to waste.

It wasn’t long before both women had their clothes dried, armor and weapons checked, and their supplies stowed away.  Sade was the only one with a pack, since Daniela had to ditch hers to swim in the underground lake.  The mage took one last look at the dark waters they had crawled out of after their sudden decent.

“How did we even survive?”  She asked softly.  “Even into water, the fall should have killed us.”

“The rocks.”  Her companion stated simply.

Sade gave the petite woman a quizzical look.  “I am not sure I follow.”

The confident smirk that used to always be on the thief’s face slowly reappeared.  It didn’t have the same air of smugness as before, but the indomitable confidence was still there all the same.  “When the floor fell out from under us, all those rocks hit the water before we did.  This broke the surface tension and even made some happy little burbujas too.  Thus, the water didn’t behave like a sheet of bedrock when we hit it.  Cliff divers do something similar before they jump off really high places that would otherwise maim or kill them.”

“Huh…”  Sade replied.  “I did not know that.”

Daniela giggled softly.  “Oh?  Our busty big brained mage openly admitted she didn’t know something?”

Sade lightly smacked the teasing dwarf on the arm.  “Yes, yes I did.”  She said with a laugh.  “I could never compete with Lilie when it comes to the study of the functions of the body or even healing magic.  You and Rick are both quite knowledgeable on a variety of subjects as well, which helps cover my personal blind spots.”

“And Tyr?”  Daniela asked, a hint of teasing in her voice.

“Never underestimate Tyr’s intelligence or experience in worldly matters.”  Sade replied with complete seriousness.  “She may occasionally play the fool, but she has lived almost as long as the rest of us combined and has more than once demonstrated incredible insight when she feels like sharing.”

“Oh… I guess you’re right about that.  She really does play el bufón quite well.”  The thief said after a moment of consideration.

“Yes.  Far better than the ‘tough girl’ front she adopted when we first met, that is for sure.”  Sade laughed.

The two continued to slowly explore their surroundings.  Daniela stuck close to Sade, scouting ahead meant nothing if either woman was left alone to fend for themselves in an emergency.  Plus they enjoyed each other’s company, even if they spent long periods in complete silence for safety.

And then they ran across something… odd.

Sade stared at the stone face embedded in the wall.  Its surface was worn and stained with age, but the surviving features were of a person holding a serene expression.  The object they both assumed to be a statue was odd not only because it was a sign of civilization in the otherwise unexplored depths but also because it wasn’t carved out from the same type of stone that composed the tunnel wall.

Underneath the grime, the statue was of white marble, which contrasted greatly with all the dull brown and dark grey the two of them had been subjected to ever since descending into the mountain.  It almost looked to have been buried before the cave walls hardened around it.

“Should we just ignore it?”  Daniela asked.

Sade reluctantly nodded her head.  “We should.”  She made to move but hesitated.  “But I really want to dig it out and see what else is there.”

The dwarf gave the human a flat look.  “We don’t exactly have the proper tools or time for this.”

Sade grimaced.  “I know!  But the curiosity is killing me!  Ugh… damn my inquisitive mind!  I have some mana to spare for a quick spell, this should not take long.”

Before her companion could object, the mage internally drew the pattern for the earth manipulation spell within her body.  She winced at the rate her mana drained away as she directed the rock before her to shift aside like clay.  As a dedicated spellcaster, her reserves were vastly higher than most people, but they had no clue what hidden dangers awaited them further ahead.  Every drop was precious.

Rapidly, the rest of the statue was freed from its prison and began to topple over.  Daniela dove forward and managed to save it from shattering against the ground.

“Thank you for that.”  Sade said while swiftly cutting off the flow of mana to the spell.

“No problema.”  Her friend replied with a smile.

The two examined the newly uncovered artifact.  The carving was of a woman dressed in simple clothes, kneeling down with her hands clasped together in front of her chest.  Her head was tilted upwards, as if basking in the warmth of the nonexistent sun.

“How curious.”  Sade said softly.

Daniela eyed the taller woman.  “I’ll say.  Who sits like that?”

Sade chuckled at the minor joke.  “You are right about the odd posture.  But I was referring to something else.  What do you notice about her features?”

Her companion glanced over the statue with a more discerning gaze.  “Well… She’s pretty tall and slender and isn’t dressed all fancy.”

“All true.”  Sade admitted.  “What strikes me as odd is that she is too tall to be a dwarf, but obviously is not an elf either.”

While the face’s features had been worn down from exposure, the rest of the details had been miraculously preserved.  The two women could see clearly each individual finger of her clasped hands, the subtle details that showed her clothing was a simple one piece dress, and a waterfall of long hair pouring behind her upturned head.  There were even a few chips of faded paint along the stony surface.

“And how’s that odd?”

Sade pointed towards the hairline.  Prominently displayed between the carved strands was the woman’s ear with a distinctly rounded tip.  “Because she is human.”  She explained simply.

“And?  Humans aren't exactly unheard of.”  Daniela scoffed.

Sade’s smile widened.  “True.  But humans like me only arrived in these lands a few hundred years ago.  The dwarves several centuries before that.  And the elves for as long as anyone can remember.”  She petted the statue lovingly.  “If she had been buried long enough for the area to become stone, then our girl here is considerably older than most known civilizations.”

The blond woman’s eyes widened in surprise.  “Mierda…”

Sade nodded.  “Indeed.  Quite the mystery.  It is a shame we can not take her with us.”  She stepped forward, trying to memorize every detail of the kneeling woman from every angle she could before they inevitably moved on.

Her eyes caught something odd in her periphery.  The light from her lantern spell seemingly swallowed up by a blob of darkness from where the statue previously rested.  She quickly readied herself in a defensive stance, ready to attack anything that came her way.

Daniela had reacted to Sade’s surprise almost instantly.  She was crouched low and had her sword drawn and ready.  “What is it?”  She hissed while looking around wildly.

Sade paused as her mind finally caught up to her reflexes.  “It is… a hole.”  She cautiously stepped forward.  With a mental command, the tiny orb of bright flame floated forward through the opening to illuminate the other side.

Both women were shocked when the glowing ball slipped inside and was nearly devoured by the darkness within.  Only when Sade urged her spell a bit further did the soft glow finally reveal a feature beyond the gloom.  It was another face.

The mage raised her spell above where they could see it through the hole then forced more mana through the invisible connection between her and the cantrip until the room was bathed in a false daylight.  Both women let out quiet gasps at what they saw.

Several more statues littered the vast cavern before them, each figure depicted slightly different from the other, yet all had the same upturned face filled with serenity and contentment.  Behind the rows of carved bodies stood several stone buildings.  They were strange, unlike any architecture Sade had ever seen.  The buildings were stepped pyramids, with steep stairs that went straight up the middle towards the top.  Stone doors barred entry to their interiors from either side of the stairway.

“What is this place?”  Daniela muttered.

Sade was unsure how to answer.  She looked towards the top of the structures to spy what looked to be either stone benches or tables topped with what looked to be… crystal?  She once more observed the statues in an attempt to glean more insight.  Many were facing the pyramids, all were kneeling down, clasping their hands in…

“This is a temple!”  She gasped breathlessly.

The stone figures were all kneeling down in supplication, in worship, while staring up in rapture at the crystal tops of each temple building.  The realization sent an excited shiver down her spine.  Her inner scholar was salivating at the prospect of discovering a new chapter of their nation's prehistory.  She unconsciously took a single step forward into the temple cavern.

It was then that the two women heard loud thumps echoing throughout the tunnels.