The Fire Inside Read online

  The Fire Inside

  Title Page

  Prologue

  Chapter 1. The Angular Wood

  Chapter 2. The Bishop

  Chapter 3. The Stocks

  Chapter 4. The Inferno

  THE FIRE INSIDE

  Master of the Elements – Book One

  By Paris Zane

  Text Copyright 2015 by Paris Zane

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the author.

  Author's note: All characters depicted in sexual acts in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.

  Published by Paris Zane at Smashwords.

  Prologue

  . . . Nine . . . Ten . . . Eleven . . . Alexa counted along with each tolling bell as they rang in the night, mouthing each silently to herself. Eleven. Right? Eleven. She nodded her head in the darkness and carefully slipped her legs out of her bedroll. Her eyes narrowed to focus on an oil lamp perched nearby, and she concentrated on its wick, brushing her fingers together while reciting a phrase she had practiced daily. “Sol Invictus,” she whispered, and the wick glowed warmly for a moment before a flicker of heat and light as it was set aflame. The illumination cut through the small, dark room, highlighting her broad smile and the glint in her eyes at the minor success. She'd rubbed her fingers raw and recited that phrase a hundred times before becoming adept at this simple conjuration, and she was quietly proud of her accomplishment. Still, too much light may wake the others, and with a quick twist of the lamp's key Alexa dimmed the light to a dull glow. An onlooker would have been transfixed by this young beauty in the shadows, long and lithe with tousled curls cascading from her head.

  The young woman still wore her tight leather Collector's uniform, with its many pockets, buckles, and belts designed for foraging and rounding up mushrooms, plants, stones, and anything that may become a usable reagent for the Masters. While utilitarian in purpose, the uniform fit her body perfectly, and she'd caught some of the Masters leering at her developing curves over the years since she was accepted into the Collectors' Guild. After her first few years in the Spire as a wide-eyed orphan child, she'd become a member of the lesser society and dreamed of eventually becoming a Master herself. It was folly, of course. Once accepted into a Guild one was expected to master that craft without regard to others, and she excelled at collecting. It was her proper placement regardless of whether it felt like her destiny.

  Alexa was up now, moving around the room, silently sliding open small drawers and pocketing the contents. A bit of jerky, a honeycomb, figs, aloe . . . her fingers were nimble and quick to their mark as she gathered everything she would need for her clandestine mission. She slung a skin of water over her chest and quickly patted down each pocket, going back over their contents with a finely attuned muscle memory. Alexa knew she wouldn't have long in the courtyard and needed to make every moment count. For Visandra. The young Apprentice had been Alexa's friend since childhood, and she was suffering in the stocks, a public spectacle of punishment and humiliation. Alexa would make certain her friend made it through this ordeal with her health and sanity intact. I have to, Alexa thought, I'm the reason she's there.

  Chapter 1. The Angular Wood

  Visandra had taken Alexa under her wing immediately on her arrival at the Spire. Bold, brash, and already a fixture with the Masters, Visandra was who the young orphan wanted to be, before she knew how to want anything real and true. Having nobody else to lean on, the young girl adored her friend and followed her everywhere. She learned to enjoy the native prickly fruits Visandra would pick for breakfast, accompanied her friend's musical experiments with off-key singing, and looked forward to the gusty storms that plagued the coast and left them both dripping with salty seawater and warm rain.

  On more than a few occasions Alexa had wondered what life would be like if it was only her and her friend, left to find their own way. But then something would happen to separate them, to break that bond, and she would retreat to her loneliness. An argument, a cross word, a moment when their emotions were out of sync, and suddenly it felt like darkness. It was times like these that Alexa realized her friend didn't need her in the same way Alexa needed Visandra. Vis had a family in the mountains and friends across the Spire, and Alexa's jealousy would begin to take hold.

  When they were sixteen, a few years past, the Guilds came calling. It was not a surprise that Vis was indoctrinated into the Masters Guild as an Apprentice, but Alexa becoming a Collector was a bit of a coup. She might have been a cook, a fisherwoman, a cleaner, or some other menial assignment, but instead she would learn a craft of great value to the Masters. Still, it wasn't what she wanted. She had prayed and dreamed of becoming an Apprentice to the Masters and instead watched her best friend elevated to that position without much of a desire or ambition to do so. An adept social climber, Vis had been well known and appreciated by the Spire's ruling class, but that wasn't the same as Alexa's burning desire to learn from these amazing magicians and become one of them. To be fair, Alexa's meager magical abilities were developed under her friend's unauthorized tutelage, and she was extremely thankful for what scraps she had gotten, but she'd had to beg and plead Vis to share what little she had.

  Each Apprentice was required to cast aside all beliefs except those that furthered the Spire, and wash their mind of opposing thoughts and theories about the utilization of the elements. The Spire demanded pure and true belief that fire was the element responsible for all things - creation, destruction, every person's quest for an immortal presence. Without fire we would be nothing, by fire we can destroy all, through fire we will live forever. Each Apprentice took this oath and carried it in their hearts from the day they were indoctrinated. If any one of them began to seek another truth, they forfeited both their place in the Masters Guild . . . and their life.

  This was the one solace Alexa took in Visandra's punishment – had she been punished by the letter of the law, she would have been burned alive in a prison of iron, which would melt around her burning body and encapsulate her forever in a metallic tomb. But the bishop of the Spire, Master Zafir, took pity on his friend and sentenced her to repent in the stocks, where she may regain her spot in the Spire after her sins were washed away by blood and tears.

  I'm not the reason for her punishment, Alexa reminded herself, and if anyone else had revealed her crimes, she would be dead. Her duplicity was her choice, and treason never goes unpunished. She thought back to her shock at happening upon Visandra in the Angular Wood, that far-off area of the forest which seemed touched by magic. A series of vertical cliff faces interrupted by horizontally growing trees that shade the brook below, the Angular Wood was not a prime location for Collectors, as the unpredictable foliage left few usable reagents. Saturated mushrooms would rot quickly, overgrown vines strangled fruit bushes, and few specie of animals thrived in the strange nestle of trees and shale. All these factors led to few collections in the Wood, and this unspoiled nature inspired Alexa to visit every now and again. She recalled discovering the waterfall hidden behind a thatch of trees north of the safest path through the Wood, halfway up the cliff side.

  It was so unique, so unexpected, so magical that Alexa was inspired to strip out of her uniform and lay under the cool spring water, feeling it wash across her bare breasts and stomach. Her small, round breasts dripped with moisture, her oily skin forcing the water to pool and fall away, while her nipples stood erect in the cold. As frigid as it was, the heat had risen in Alexa's body. She entered a sleepy haze in the chill, her body throbbing, and admired her nakedness, brushing her short curly hairs with her
fingertips innocently. The sensation pleased her, as it always did, and she put her hand between her legs and rubbed her pubic mound. Pushing her hips forward onto her cupped hand again and again, her body's lubrication mingled with the fresh water, and she plunged her fingers into her slit, wetting them with the slick fluid. She alternated brushing her fingertips between her lips and her erect clit until her gasps and moans became quick and loud, and then she relaxed and slowed her pace.

  Back and forth she went, her fingers inside then out, toying with her clit, and she began pinching and pulling on her hard nipples, twisting them until they felt numb. Her wrist grew sore from the constant gyrations, and just as she began to slow her work on her vagina, she felt the onrush of her orgasm. Her hips leapt forward and the other hand slapped into the water below again and again as she gave in to the pleasure. Soon enough the pulsing inside became a gentle, soothing hum, and her body became completely relaxed. Alexa's eyes fluttered and sleep overtook her, a quarter hour of soundlessness without dreams before she awoke shivering in the fresh water, giggling at her wanton behavior. That first time was one of her favorite memories, and she wanted badly to share her discovery with Vis, but her friend was so busy with her Guild that the opportunity had never arisen. In her heart, Alexa knew she wanted to experience her first encounter with another in the Angular Wood with Vis. It was the perfect setting to become a woman, and she wanted them to do it together.

  It was the lure of the Angular Wood that brought Alexa and Vis together on that momentous day. Alexa had been collecting without much success and felt lonelier than usual, having only seen her friend once in the seven days preceding. Dusk was fast approaching, and the other Collectors would already be headed back to the Spire. Instead of dinner alone in the dark she would circle around to the Angular Wood and enjoy the pleasures of her waterfall, and perhaps even collect some spores and usable fungi for her friend and the Masters. The journey to the Wood was uneventful, and she stripped down immediately, not even glancing at the spring for reagents before taking her position under the spray of her waterfall.

  It was easy for her now, her body trained to react to the cold water on her nipples and belly, her wrist adept at the motion she needed to reach ecstasy. She’d begun to pinch her nipples more and probe her tight rectum as she touched herself, and today was no different. Alexa came easily and hard in the beautiful solitude. Her eyes closed in the damp, her breath slowing, and she dreamed. It was the same dream she'd had since she arrived at the Spire, her subconscious replaying the shipwreck off the coast of Olandria, the near drowning, washing up on the shore and feeling the crush of sand and rock that meant she wasn't going to die in the sea. She thought nothing of the dream she'd had a thousand times before, more than a few times lying in this frigid waterfall.

  She startled at a sound, her eyes flicking open and searching for recognition. Dusk had fallen, with moonlight finding its way to the clearing below Alexa. She could hear voices in the distance echoing off the cliff side but couldn't make out any words through the din of the splashing waterfall. Quickly she became aware of her nakedness and the chill in her bones, and she shivered and moved towards her clothing piled away from the falling spring. As she began to step away from the fall the voices hushed hurriedly, and she froze, certain the interlopers were staring at her naked, shivering frame in the luminescence. Stepping back into the waterfall – had it grown colder still since she awoke? - Alexa could make out several figures below, looking in her direction. One of them was her best friend Visandra. If there was any doubt, her uncommon copper hair cinched it, and as she focused, there was absolutely no question.

  The group quickly refocused their attention to one another, and Alexa relaxed, realizing they couldn't possibly see her in the twist of branches, falling water, and dark shadows. If she stayed still she would go unnoticed. But what was Vis doing here, and who was she with? With her eyes now accustomed to the low light, she could make out clear features and movements. Vis was near the center of a semi-circle with three men and one other woman, and they seemed to be speaking – chanting? – in a way Alexa couldn't quite decipher. They seemed to be in accord with one another, and soon she picked up a rhythm to their dialogue, a scripted, musical quality to their movements and speech. She felt her throat seize up as she realized this wasn't the first meeting for Vis and her mysterious friends. Oh, wait, Alexa thought, these must be other Apprentices. They're going to cast a spell and I'm going to witness it. She smiled even though the chill remained in her bones, skin, all the way to the tips of her ears and fingers. The young girl crossed her arms to warm her skin and felt at ease with her theory.

  As if they'd heard her thoughts, the five in the clearing chanted louder and more melodically, and a mystical power seemed to come from below. The bushes and grass, once jutted in every direction, stiffened and rippled as though a beast was sliding across their surface. Alexa continued to watch as the force changed course and separated, taking hold of trees surrounding the clearing and the rocks themselves. Now it was as if a beast with many tentacles was pushing and pulling on the earth itself and all that came in contact with it. The ground flattened and the trees bent downward, and Alexa gasped as she realized they were calling up a magical force . . . but not the fire of the Masters, which Vis had sworn an oath to practice. They were using the power of the earth element. They were Druids, and Vis was one of them.

  Alexa wanted to run to the clearing, to confront her friend, but she was paralyzed by fear of the Druids and their dark power. Even if she fought off the fear, to what end? Visandra had betrayed her Guild, throwing away the gift of her Apprentice status . . . and for what? I don't understand, thought Alexa, what could they have offered her to turn against the Spire? The answer came as quickly as her question took hold in her mind. As if one, the members of this dark cabal shed their loose-fitting robes and stood naked while the flattened trees magically banded together in an interwoven platform a few feet off the ground. As the limbs seemed certain to wrap around Visandra's naked thighs, she stepped up and through the branches, lying back on the platform. Vis lay spread-eagled as the living berth finished its mystical writhing, a bed wreathed from black magic. One by one the others climbed onto the outstretched branches, encircling her prone, naked form. Time crawled to a halt as Alexa realized that her friend was going to be with these Druids. Her beautiful, vibrant, amazing best friend was going to give up her womanhood to a bunch of filthy earthers.

  Tears welled up in Alexa's eyes and her vision narrowed. She felt panic set in, her freezing limbs and fractured heart crying for escape from this horrible reality. But she couldn't cry out, she couldn't run home, she had to stand still and endure the pain as her friend turned into something she would never have recognized. She tasted salty tears mixed with fresh water as the Druids began their carnal caresses, pulling Visandra's legs apart and holding her arms down. The female Druid, with a shock of short blond hair and breasts that seemed too heavy for her frame, centered herself between Visandra's legs, pushing her fingers deep inside her. The blonde locked eyes with Vis while the men held her firmly in place, chanting in hushed tones. Her hand writhed into Alexa's friend, pushing against Visandra's exposed vulva as Vis began to buck her hips against the onslaught. It's too rough, Alexa thought, they're trying to hurt her. She bit her lip and felt an uncontrollable shiver through her entire frame.

  The blonde seemed to hear Alexa's thoughts, and she relaxed her assault before moving her head to Visandra's taut stomach, tracing her exposed flesh to the spot she sought. She looked up, almost playfully, to Vis before locking her mouth around the young girl's raised pubis. On cue the two men to Visandra's sides moved their mouths to her breasts, and three of the Druids sucked and licked at Alexa's friend while she moaned and rocked her body against them. The fourth, above Visandra's head, was massaging her temples and whispering to her. Alexa watched as Visandra's mouth sought his, beginning a deep, breathless kiss. My God, Alexa thought, she's enjoying this. She wants to fuck these
strangers, these earthers. Visandra's outstretched hands reached out for the aggressors' hardening penises, finding them without a moment of uncertainty. She pulled and stroked at the naked men's cocks, and Alexa felt revulsion mixed with the beginnings of lust, and the resultant shame. This was all wrong, but still she watched.

  The blonde woman pulled back, sucking on her fingers and laughing, and seemed to be offering her conquest to the brute to her right, a somewhat muscular man with shoulder-length brown hair and an erection that jutted out, pointing lasciviously at Visandra's sex. Quickly he mounted her, and Alexa became actively angry at the thought of this strange cock pushing into her friend. It wasn't jealousy. It couldn't be. She didn't want Vis to be her lover so much as she wanted to be the one she felt these feelings with. This was secret and dirty, nothing Vis would ever reveal to her friend. She had lust without love, and Alexa wanted Visandra’s . . . love? Perhaps.

  Before she could make sense of this swirl of emotions, Visandra's cries echoed off the cliff side as she was penetrated, hard and fast and without remorse. This bestial stranger ground his hips and pushed up and in, again and again, and Alexa became transfixed. Meanwhile, the blonde woman had moved to the Druid at Visandra's head and pushed him onto his back, mounting him like a wild animal. She rode him fast and hard while Alexa's gaze was torn between her friend and these rough strangers. She found herself staring now, narrowing her eyes to see if she could watch his cock move in and out of her wetness.