Forbidden Arcana: Morgana Read online

  “Fuck!” Jericho yelled as Owl’s face popped into his mind. The trigger wasn’t the expansion or anything else he was doing. It was Sapphire becoming the second most powerful mage in Forbidden Arcana after Jericho traded her information. Jericho twisted his time and returned to the present. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

  “What?” Terra asked while loosing an arrow into a soldier’s eye socket. “What’s going on?”

  “Owl’s changed sides!” Jericho’s elemental pathways instantly filled and combinations of flames and frost sprang from his body. He looked at an army of oncoming soldiers and released everything in a torrent of earthquakes, explosions, and icy blasts. “He orchestrated this!”

  “Darling!” Mirage appeared and smiled sweetly at Jericho while brushing explosive ash from her hair. “While I find it incredibly sexy when you flex your power, please give me a little warning.”

  “Sorry,” Jericho said while brushing some dirt from Mirage’s face. “It won’t happen again.”

  “Sorry Raven,” Jericho said. “I didn’t think how Owl might respond to Sapphire pulling ahead of him.”

  “It’s not all your fault,” Raven said coldly. “I should have predicted this would happen and cut him out of my inner circle.”

  “What do we do now?” Terra asked. “If they plan on destroying Rend and then crushing us, we should probably just retreat, right?”

  “Kaos!” Raven yelled. Within moments the enormous orc warrior crash-landed near them. “Owl turned on us and the city is littered with incendiary potions. Once they go off the full enemy force is going to come crashing down on us and we’ll have nowhere to retreat to. Inform the men that the goal now is to cause as much damage as possible. At the very least we’re going to make this a pyrrhic victory.”

  “Sounds fun,” Kaos said while loosening a body from his pike using his foot. “I’ll let them know.”

  “The rest of you pull back,” Jericho said to his familiars. “I’ll be sticking around with Raven. We’re going to the death but I can’t have any of you dying. Let Theia and Sable know as well.”

  “No!” Jinx stomped angrily. “If you’re staying, I’m staying. Asshole! Jerk!”

  “If Jinx is staying, we’re staying,” Kadra said.

  “Yeah!” Avara and Sirun chimed in.

  “And if Terra is staying, I’m obviously obligated to stay,” Freya added.

  “Fine,” Rela groaned. “If the rest of you are hell-bent on dying, I guess I’m staying too.”

  “I’ll let Theia and Sable know but I imagine they’ll want to stay as well,” Mirage said as she blinked away.

  A series of explosions erupted behind them followed by deafening roars coming from all over as the assembled armies rushed toward the battlefield. Rend was falling to pieces as the potions and accelerant instantly ignited the city.

  “Shit,” Jericho said as he grabbed Jinx by the arm. “Leave. Now.”

  “No!” Jinx stomped stubbornly while pulling her arm away. “If you want me to leave you have to leave! Imbecile! Bastard!”

  “We should probably get out of here while we can,” Terra said as she backed away from the incoming mixture of mercenaries and players. “We don’t have close to enough people to deal with this.”

  “Get out of here,” Raven agreed while shoving Jericho away. “Rend is Endgame’s city, not Sin’s. We’re going to fight but you don’t have to.”

  Another thunderous roar echoed all around them but this one was completely different from the last drawing the eyes of both armies to the skies.

  “Fuck,” Terra whined. “So much for running away.”

  “Holy shit,” Kaos said as Lapis came crashing down beside them and released another deafening roar. “I heard you had dragons but holy shit! It’s fucking huge!”

  Ariel, Mai, Riseva, and Talia jumped off the dragon and rushed toward Jericho and the others. Luna teleported next to him and shrugged as if to suggest she didn’t have a choice in the matter.

  “Master!” Ariel wrapped her arms around his waist. He was surprised that his petite fairy familiar was wearing an ornate gold leather corset and a long white skirt instead of her normal sundress. “Luna said you were in trouble so we came as soon as we could.”

  “You should have called for our assistance sooner.” Talia glared at the horde of incoming enemies. The scantily clad blonde smirked playfully at Jericho while adjusting her corset. “What’s the point of having a demigoddess at your disposal if you don’t pray for her assistance?”

  “You’re not a demigoddess,” Riseva rolled her eyes. The chitinous demoness slashed her three scorpion tails around wildly as if warming up. Jericho tried not to laugh as Riseva adjusted the dress Mai’s giant arachnids made for her. “God this is uncomfortable.”

  “Are you complaining about a present from the children?” Mai asked Riseva. There was an implicit threat in the statuesque duelist’s words and if Riseva knew what was good for her she’d answer appropriately.

  “I love the present.” Riseva smiled politely at Mai while making a few final adjustments to the dress. “There. I fixed it.”

  “I think it looks cute on you buggy.” Luna smiled playfully at Riseva and Mai quickly moved to grab Riseva’s arm possessively. She was extremely hesitant to share the demoness with anybody in the house other than Jericho. The only reason he got a pass was because Mai considered him the adopted father of her three giant arachnid children and herself his mistress.

  “I’d watch it if I were you blinky,” Riseva warned the playful Ethereal. “Mai’s still jealous of our relationship.”

  “Master.” Theia landed next to him with Sable in her arms. “Mirage said you ordered us to retreat.”

  “He did,” Mirage said while blinking next to him. “But he wants to stay and fight.”

  “Good,” Riseva said as the army resumed its approach. “It’s been forever since I’ve had a good fight.”

  “Don’t worry,” Mai said while drawing her longsword. She looked at Luna while leaning against Riseva, “I’m a powerful warrior. I’ll protect you since others are incapable.”

  “I know that was directed at me.” Luna smiled aggressively at Mai. “And for the record, I might not be a good fighter but I have other talents. Just ask buggy.” Luna immediately followed the statement with several lewd gestures involving her fingers and her tongue.

  “Quiet,” Jericho snapped while creating a series of enormous stone walls and swamps to slow their enemies’ approach. “It doesn’t matter! You’re all leaving! I don’t want any of you to get captured or hurt!”

  “You’re worrying too much,” Talia said confidently while patting his arm. She turned and smiled at the group. “Everybody, please join your hands and we’ll have this army wiped out in no time. Get it? No time.”

  “Pfft,” Jericho covered his mouth as he tried to stifle his laughter as everybody looked at him. An unfortunate side effect of time magic was when people made time jokes it was like being relentlessly tickled. “Goddammit.”

  “What’s going on?” Raven asked while grabbing Terra’s hand. Kaos connected to the chain as well and before long everybody in the group was touching somebody else. Some more appropriately than others. Once everybody was set, Talia touched the group and pulled everybody into her time flow as the world around them slowed and then finally came to a complete stop. “What the hell…”

  “Welcome to a three thousand six hundred multiplier. That means you are currently moving three thousand six hundred times faster than them. For every hour we spend in this time flow, one second passes for them. Unfortunately, it also means that for every second we spend in here, we age at a similar rate,” Talia smiled nervously, “multiplied by the number of simultaneous flows so let’s get this over with as fast as possible.”

  “Shit,” Jericho interrupted. “Okay, we better hurry. That’s over five years an hour.”

  “We will be reversing this all afterward, right?” Mirage shot Talia a concerned smile. “Right?”
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  “I don’t like this.” Jinx and the spectral wolves sat down in protest. “It feels wrong to kill defenseless enemies. Rogues. Villains.”

  “That’s fine,” Talia said while looking around the group for any more conscientious objectors. “As for the rest of you here are some things you need to know. The first is anybody you touch will come into your time flow so be careful. The second thing is avoid using magic, magic items, magic potions, basically anything that might have some odd interaction with going three thousand times faster than normal. The final thing is to return here once everybody is dead and I’ll return us to our normal time flow. Any questions?”

  “How long does this last?” Kaos asked. “Is there a time limit on when it runs out?”

  “Until you die or I return us to our normal time flow,” Talia answered instantly. “Anything else?”

  “Nope,” Jericho smiled as he looked at the thousands of mercenaries and players all standing still.

  “Good,” Talia walked over to Jericho and smiled seductively. “I will be expecting an offering later as a thank you.”

  “Of course,” Jericho chuckled as those unopposed to killing defenseless enemies began their rampage.

  The slaughter took several hours as they ran through the waves of enemies slitting throats and decapitating them. Every now and then somebody would bump one pulling them into their flow but they were quickly dealt with before they knew what was happening.

  By the end, everybody on the battlefield was set to fall except for Plague who was commanding from the rear. They couldn’t find Owl anywhere so they assumed he realized that something bad was going to happen and avoided joining the fight.

  “Alright,” Talia said as they arrived back at the meeting spot. “I’m going to get us all back to normal.”

  “That was interesting.” Raven looked around the group and pulled out a dagger to check her own reflection. Everybody aged roughly fifteen years in the time it took to kill all of the enemies. Most of them were still standing with their throats slit as the group waited for their time flows to join the rest of the world. “Am I just older now?”

  “It’ll take some time but it can be reversed,” Talia assured the concerned dark elf.

  “Um,” Ariel bit her lip anxiously. “Do we have to reverse it?”

  The aging impacted every familiar differently. Mirage appeared closer to the age she’d been when he first found her while neither Sable nor Theia appeared to have aged more than a day. Jinx and the wolves all aged normally as did Luna and Talia. Ariel, on the other hand, was a fairy which meant that she didn’t so much age as mature and Jericho understood completely why his familiar might want to keep her appearance.

  “No!” Jinx snapped at Ariel. She reached out and grabbed Ariel’s breasts which had filled out an extra two inches and her ass which had a similar growth spurt. While she was still very petite by any reasonable standards, she’d acquired a gorgeous figure. She also increased about an inch in height which resulted in a very regal appearance. “Absolutely not! You just want to keep these! It’s cheating! We’re all reversing! Bug! Insect!”

  “You heard her,” Jericho said while laughing at the nervous fairy being fondled by Jinx. “Anyway. First things first. Let’s get back to our normal flow.”

  Everybody joined hands and Talia expertly brought them back to their normal time. Jericho was admittedly jealous of how much faster and smoother Talia’s transitions were than his. He realized he really should have been learning to reverse his flow properly.

  “That’s quite an interesting sight,” Sable said as she watched all of the bodies on the battlefield fall simultaneously. A disturbing thud echoed through the area as they hit the ground.

  “Okay,” Jericho smiled. “I’m going to see how Plague is doing.”

  “The rest of you get to looting.” Raven snapped at her soldiers standing around confused about what had happened as well as Raven’s matured appearance. “We’re going to need money!”

  “Should we loot as well?” Theia asked. “There are quite a few bodies.”

  “Get to work!” Jinx commanded the wolves. “You know the drill! Every gemstone, necklace, ring, tiara, and bracelet is mine! Along with anything else shiny and pretty! Get me my treasure before somebody else gets it first! Pups! Whelps!”

  “You heard her!” Freya said as the women rushed off to loot.

  “Mai! Riseva!” Ariel mimicked Jinx’s commanding tone. “You know the drill! Every piece of fish, turkey, chicken, bear, and cow is mine! Along with all other meats! Get me dragon food!”

  “Do you think we take orders from you?” Riseva glared at the puny fairy and smacked her tails against the ground. Lapis leaned over Ariel’s shoulder and growled threateningly at the demoness who was unimpressed. “Do you think you can take me on dragon?”

  “Riseva,” Mai placed her hand on the demoness’ shoulder. “Ariel is the future wife of our master. She’s also the godmother to my babies. If bringing her food will make her happy, we should do it.”

  “She’s not the future wife!” Jinx yelled. “I’m the future wife! Usurpers! Betrayers!”

  “Well,” Jericho prepped for teleportation. “You all seem to have everything handled here. I’m going to get Plague.”

  Chapter 2

  A Fairy and a Feline

  Cynthia sipped her drink while wondering if she should have joined Ariella on the battlefield but ultimately decided to trust her. Of course, that didn’t stop her from worrying. Cynthia was aware of her tendency to be overprotective when it came to Ariella and did her best to give the young queen her freedom but it was difficult.

  While she felt very little love for the royal family that turned their backs on her, Ariella held a special place in her heart. Even when she was young, Ariella was kind and empathetic regardless of the person or situation. And when every other fairy in the village shunned Cynthia, Ariella always made time for her.

  It made her anxious. Normally she’d spend her time reading or devoting herself to the management of the city but whenever Ariella left, she couldn’t really relax until the queen was back home safe. So, she drank.

  “You wouldn’t understand,” Cynthia said while dumping a bottle of liquor in a dish for Squeaker, Izzy and Whippet. While the small dragons weren’t much in terms of conversation, they were fantastic listeners and held their liquor astoundingly well. “If something happens to her I’ll be all alone. And worse, one of those idiots would inherit the throne. Probably Jinx. I can’t imagine anybody challenging her for it. Oh god, a fairy kingdom run by a spectral beast.”

  Whippet chirped playfully while licking the bowl clean of liquor.

  “Don’t look at me like that.” Cynthia glared at the judgmental blue lizard. “And don’t act like you’re here because you like me. You’re only here for the food and drinks.”

  Squeaker and Izzy fought over a large chunk of jerky. Eventually Izzy gave up and quickly snagged a fish from the table. Most of the other dragons already stuffed themselves and either retired to their perches to sleep or went to the lake to splash around.

  “I see you,” Cynthia sighed at the shadows lurking outside the dining hall. “You don’t have to hide.”

  Ocho, Acht, and Huit skittered out from behind the doorway. The three giant arachnids were allowed to wander the manor but since most people found their presence unnerving, they mostly stayed either in their bedrooms or the crafting room Jericho set up for them. They normally only came out when Ariella was around since they were comfortable around her.

  “Here,” Cynthia said while sliding over to a pile of giant oranges. Huit quickly picked one up and thrust his enormous fangs into it to suck the juice out. She was impressed that the Mai had managed to raise three giant spiders in secret and quite liked them. Cynthia patted Huit’s head. “You’re all so well behaved and polite. Unlike all of the loud idiots always running around. I’m sure your mother is very proud of you.”

  The three spiders all skittered around ha
ppily while making a bizarre hissing sound. Cynthia found herself in Ariella’s camp when it came to the spiders, as long as they were well behaved and polite it shouldn’t matter what they looked like.

  Of course, others in the house liked them as well. Specifically, they earned a special place in Jericho’s heart when they learned how to sew lingerie. Cynthia chuckled at the perverted sketches Jericho gave the giant arachnids to work from. Within an hour the trio finished several of the most profane pieces of lingerie Cynthia had ever seen and from then on Jericho loved them. He was such a simple man.

  “Are you still working for Jericho?” Cynthia asked Ocho while scratching his neck. The spider looked away guiltily. “Of course, you are.”

  “Knock knock,” Carrot announced as she came skipping through the doorway. “Hello! Is anybody home!”

  “Carrot,” Cynthia smiled seductively at the feline beast girl. She was one of Jericho’s more interesting subordinates in that her personality was just as carefree as his. Her motivations seemed to be primarily driven by an insatiable desire for fun and adventure regardless of the risks involved. Cynthia was admittedly a bit jealous of that particular trait. “I’m afraid everybody is out for the moment but feel free to pull up a chair.”

  “Cynthia.” Carrot anxiously shuffled her feet. “Maybe I’ll just come back later.”

  “I must insist,” Cynthia said firmly. She disliked how everybody looked at her as potentially dangerous. Sure, her preferences were a little more obscure but what she did wasn’t so different than what Jericho did. The fact anybody could believe being tied up and spanked was harsher than having Jericho’s massive cock shoved down their throat astounded her, “I’m lonely. Keep me company.”