Britania's Ordeal
Britania's Ordeal
by Von Krieger
The young Dark Dragoon leaned against the solid rock face of Mount Ordeals, wiping the undead ichor from her lance with a cloth. She had spent most of the day trekking up the sacred mountain, fighting off the animated corpses and restless spirits of the dead that guarded Ordeals' secrets from the unworthy. Her name was Britania Strangeways, and she hailed from the Kingdom of Baron.
Long ago this mountain had been sealed, and the great hero Cecil Harvey and his allies had fought their way to the peak of Ordeals, to redeem the Dark Knight's spirit and gain the power needed to defeat the dark forces of Zemus the Lunarian, though they hadn't known that at the time.
Later on in their quest, a long sealed segment of Ordeals had opened up, offering trials to test the worthiness to fight of several of the great heroes of the Crystal War. Legend had it that the entrance to the Cave of Trials still existed, but only revealed itself to one who was worthy. But the peak of Ordeals still offered hope to any who could make their way to the Hall of Mirrors.
Usually one attempted the journey with others who wished to prove themselves worthy, redeem past sins, or receive a token enhancing personal power or might. For some it unlocked the power of the grandest of magics, Meteor, Holy, Quick, and the power to call upon the God of Summoned Monsters himself, Bahamut.
But Britania wasn't here for any of those reasons. She had been raised by the state of Baron and had for a long time held a place in its army. Her rare skill to wield a lance in the tradition of the Dragoons, to wear the armor of the Dark Knights, and to cast the spells of a Black Mage was a rare and somewhat unique combination indeed.
Her magic had come in handy, dispatching the shambling Ghouls who's rotting flesh, suffused with dark energies, turned away the black steel of her Dark Spear. The spirits and skeletons fell to her lance readily, but not the ghouls. It had been a relatively easy trek, all things considered. For all the talk about the difficulties of Ordeals, Britania had expected something fiercer, she hadn't even used but a handful of her healing potions.
She pushed off the wall, having regained her breath. The split peak of Ordeals wasn't too far above her, she could see the bridge to the Hall of Mirrors, and about a hundred feet below that, the spot where Scarmiglione fell to his death, at the hands of the Great Heroes. His second death, actually, maybe his third. Britania wasn't quite sure what Scarmiglione was in the first place anyway.
Britania climbed Ordeals not for glory, or redemption, or for power, but for knowledge. Knowledge not of magic but of herself, and of her family. She had been orphaned the day she had been brought into the world, birthed from a sorceress known only as Elena, a near-mad mystic that had arrived in Baron via Mysidia's Serpent Road. She had been dressed in Mysidian robes, but as far as anyone could determine that was not her place of birth.
As best as anyone ever found, Elena of the Strange Ways had been a pilgrim journeying to Ordeals, an easily noticeable person in the town of mages due to her tall, statuesque beauty, porcelain skin, and lilac hair. She had gone to Ordeals on her own, and seemed to have returned an insane wreck.
She found work as a mixer of potions for one of Baron's goods merchants, where her knowledge of medicine and magic could be utilized, and her mutterings to herself about scaled beasts and terrible deeds committed below the earth were kept away from the ears of paying customers.
Elena had died in childbirth, and none were surprised. She had never been the healthiest of individuals. Magic took a great deal out of a person, those who devoted their lives in whole to it by their sacrifice, and training the mind over the body ended up with a weak constitution and a frail physique.
By all accounts, Elena had been a powerful sorceress, she had shown mastery of powerful White and Black magics, and a hint of the use of Grey, the rare Space and Time magic that was practiced by few, and understood by even less. For so young a woman to wield so great a power, she would have had to make great sacrifices indeed.
As powerful a sorceress as Elena had been, she wasn't quite in touch with the real world. She often forgot to eat, she never seemed to notice wounds, which often got infected. The fact that she had been suffering from the terrible pains of Ghoul Fever when she arrived in Baron hadn't helped either. Her body had been made even more frail from the terrible wasting disease that she had never recovered from.
But despite it all, Britania had come into the world a healthy child with a full head of lavender hair. It had earned her the taunting words of the other children in her youth, and she had dyed it the moment she figured out how to do so on her own, a practice she kept up to this day. Though less often than she used to, as her helmet covered her hair most of the time, allowing her to let it grow out a bit before needing to recolor it again.
If her hair had been silver, as that of the royal family was, odds were she wouldn't have been mocked. Nor if she had been raised in Mist, where strange hair colors were the norm and indicative of a strong ability in summoning. But it was lilac, and she was born in Baron, and so things occurred as they did.
What she quested after was the knowledge of her family, who her mother had been before her madness, who her father was, where her kin had come from, and if any still lived. Thoughts of her goal filled the Dragoon's mind as her body glided effortlessly in battle, her spear whistling through the air, knocking skeletons to pieces.
Britania rounded a corner and found her breath caught in her chest. What stood in front of her, perhaps a few strides away were strange creatures, not the undead and damned spirits she had fought on the way up, but strange creatures. They appeared to be women from the waist up, beautiful women at that, but serpents from the waist down.
Five had radiant sea green hair, the scales of their tails a scintillating pink with shimmering blue markings. Four were blonde, with the pattern of a diamondback rattlesnake on their serpentine halves. Two more sported pale blue skin and metallic blue scales with navy spots upon their bodies. The last featured pale porcelain skin, and scales of brilliant gold and red. It was the latter three that gave Britania pause, for they had hair of purest lilac, the very shade of her own.
The Dragoon ducked back behind the corner. Lamias, that's what they were called. There were legends that they appeared on Ordeals, but they were thought to be nothing but myth. They were believed to inhabit the Tower of Bab-il alone, and no where else in the world. But here were a dozen individuals where none were supposed to be! Living beings did not reside on Ordeals, at least not for long.
Undead did cluster in groups, but never more than a handful at a time, easily able to be handled. But twelve of these she-creatures was definitely beyond the Dark Dragoon's own capabilities. They were too spread out to all target with a single lightning bolt, and even with her famed Dragon Jump, Britania was sure to be mobbed on the ground while she recovered between leaps.
She peeked around the corner, judging the distance, maybe she could use her Dragon Jump to hop over them and make a retreat? The stairwell to the next level of Ordeals was nearby, and monsters tended to avoid the stairs as they were treacherous places. While the spirits could simply float around, the clumsy skeletons and zombies might accidentally end their un-lives with a careless misstep.
Britania wasn't sure how well a Lamia could slither up stairs, but she was willing to take the chance. She stepped out from behind the ledge and tensed her legs for the jump. The golden-scaled Lamia turned, apparently deciding to talk to another one of her group, and caught Britania out of the corner of her eye. The serpent woman turned her head quickly, meeting Britania's gaze.
The Dragoon couldn't break eye contact, she couldn't move, all she could do was stare. Oh no. she thought, no, no no! She recalled her lessons on Bab-il creatures, and recalled the mind-warping gaze of the Lamia, that which could bind the heart of even the most powerful warrior to the will of the she-snake.
She wanted to run, wanted to flee, but she couldn't move an inch. She could feel the unwanted emotion rising up in her, noticing for the first time that the creatures wore no clothing only a few items of jewelery. Rings, tiaras, and bracelets mostly. An unwanted heat began to build in her loins as desire filled her, a desire for the female form that had been present at times in her life, but often ignored and never acted upon.
The golden Lamia crooked a finger, and Britania found herself walking towards them, placing her spear in its harness across her back. "Look at this, sisters," the golden Lamia said, "A new female plaything for our amusement."
One of the blues slithered up to Britania, her hands tracing over the Dragoon's armor. "A warrior, powerful and beautiful as well. A wonderful prize." she purred.
The other blue did much the same, removing Britania's helm. "Indeed, such a pretty face and such fair skin. A rare specimen of beauty. A pity that she hides her body in armor."
The rattlers conversed amongst themselves for a moment, giggling before slithering over, dexterous hands working straps and buckles, beginning to strip the warrior of her armor and weapons. In a few moments Britania stood dressed in nothing save her undergarments, gauntlets, greaves, and boots. She lowered her head and blushed deeply.
"Oh sisters, it seems we have a demure little pet to p..." the gold paused, slithering closer, her clawed fingertip running over the crown of Britania's head, running over the lilac roots of her hair.
The lead Lamia backed away, a fanged grin on her beautiful face, "Sisters, it appears that we may have more than a pet here. Tell me, pet, can you cast spells?"
Britania found herself nodding and speaking in a dreamy voice, completely enraptured by the golden Lamia, "Yes, Mistress. I am able to utilize Black magic of a mid line level."
The Lamia's smile widened, "Excellent. Sisters, we have finally found a subject for the ritual that we have traveled here to discover. The Ascension of Gia has found its first subject of this day and age."
Those words seemed to please the other Lamias greatly. Britania, in her mind-controlled state, couldn't help but feel proud that she had brought them joy, though the name Gia associated with the ritual sent a shiver though her body, the part of her that was still under her own control wincing at the mention of it.
Gia was a name associated with forbidden knowledge, the legends told of her in centuries past, a sorceress who desired immortality for the sake of knowledge. She wished to gather all that could be known, and knew that a human lifetime was insufficient for the task. She had extended her life, giving up her humanity piece by piece for extensions to her lifespan. She became a monster for knowledge, and her discoveries had brought many creatures into the world.
She was the first vampire, creatures that dwelled in caves and sucked blood, controlling giant bats. They weren't alive, but weren't truly dead either. Their souls had been pierced with a shard of unlife, giving them eternal youth but making them burn under the light of the sun. "The Ascension of Gia", that didn't sound good at all.
"You may call me Mistress Ralael, little sister." the golden Lamia said, placing a hand on the small of Britania's back, guiding her forward, "And what are you called?"
"Britania Strangeways, Mistress." the Dragoon found herself replying.
Ralael nodded, making a motion with her other hand becoming the other Lamias on. "Well, Britania, you may consider yourself incredibly lucky. I do not know what your reasoning for being on this mountain is, but my sisters and I have acquired the item we have sought, and now have the perfect subject with which to use it upon."
"Gather her armor and bring it along." the Lamia leader instructed her smaller, pink scaled kin, "She might wish use of it later. Study tonight sisters, for tomorrow we grant Britania her freedom from this weak body." The five Lamias nodded, doing as they were told, while the rest followed behind Britania and Ralael.
"You are about to have a great honor bestowed upon you, little sister." Ralael said to her Dragoon pet, "You will be the first since the Crystal Wars to undergo this ritual, which was lost to our race when the paladin Cecil slew our kin coming down this very mount."
"Our kin, Mistress?" Britania asked, curious.
"Why, yes, little one. Our kin." Ralael said with a smile.
"Why do you keep calling me little sister?"
"Because you are. You're one of us, born of a union of human and Lamia." the Lamia leader purred, finding delight in informing Britania of her heritage.
The Dragoon shivered, not from the chill of the approaching night and her state of undress, but from the knowledge just bestowed upon her. She had set out to take on Ordeals, in order to learn of her family and where she had come from, and know she knew the answers to her questions. She had been conceived by a serpent creature. The blood of monsters flowed through her veins.
Britania shivered once again, realizing sage advice present in the words "Be careful what you wish for."
-o-
The Dragoon sat on Ralael's tail as the Lamias gathered around the fire in a hidden cavern below Ordeals. This particular cave featured a path between the Underground and the surface world. The maze of tunnels beneath the earth was impassible to any who did not already know the way, making it a wonderful place to shelter from unwanted discovery. An hour's trek lead them to a wide cavern with a Traveler's Field in the center, a runic circle that would produce a fire that would burn for hours with only meager fuel, and put off a calming scent that made fighting difficult and kept beast-minded monsters away.
Britania had followed the Lamias at Ralael's side, walking peacefully, silently, speaking only when spoken to due to the enchantment placed upon her. Despite this, she had managed to learn a great deal. Ralael took it upon herself to instruct the half-Lamia in the aspects of a heritage that the Dragoon hadn't known existed but a few hours before.
Ralael was the designated Matriarch of this band of Lamias due to her age, experience, strength, and skill. A Lamia's scale coloration showed her strength and her power. The pink and blue coloration was that of a juvenile, one who had yet to tap into skill in combat, casting, or racial abilities. Britania learned the names of the five youths, Tyilae, Eodai, Eori, Haili, and Istyria, though matching the names to the proper Lamia was beyond her.
The rattler Lamias, Ailoru, Naena, Tyasri, and Dairith were all warriors, skilled combatants with fangs and claws. They were a new sort of Lamia that though ritual enhanced their own serpentine aspects. They lacked the Charm gaze of the other elders, but their fangs and claws were capable of injecting a powerful poison, and the strikes of their powerful tails could render a foe unable to move.
The two blues, Isur and Aena, were magic users, one Black and one White. In most groups, either would be strong enough to be the Matriarch. But with such an important task as the recovery of the Ascension of Gia, which Britania still hadn't learned a thing about, the group was under the command their Queen Ralael. Apparently she was that much more a cut above her fellows than would normally be found in such a small band.
Rather than a title of royalty, Queen was a title of skill and prestige, of one who was a master of both hand to hand combat and magic use. Britania had seen Ralael's skill in action, devastating a Mythril golem with a Flare spell, one of the most powerful Black magic spells in existence, far, far ahead of Britania herself was able to cast.
Britania sat, finishing off the cup of tea that Ralael had given her, watching the Lamias prepare for bed. Some just curled up their tails and rested atop them, while others coiled around one another, sleeping in a serpentine hug that reminded the Dragoon of snakes balling together for protection and warmth. The four rattlers entwined their lower bodies in a way that allowed them to avoid laying their upper bodies on the bare ground, and wrap their arms around another at the same time. They all looked happy and peaceful, several shared passionate kisses with one another before drifting off to sleep.
The Dragoon couldn't help but lick her lips, imagining what that must feel like. She felt the needful ache in her loins intensify, the persistent result of the constantly renewed Charm spell. Seeing the lamias act as they did brought forth from the back of her mind a question.
"You like what you see?" Ralael asked with a grin.
Britania nodded, "Very much so, Mistress. But I do have a question."
"Ask." purred the Lamia Queen, taking the empty cup from her pet's hands.
"Where are the male Lamias?" the Dragoon asked.
"Why, they're right here of course." Ralael said, gesturing to the rest of the band.
"But you all look like females." Britania replied, not understanding.
Ralael just chuckled. "Let me show you." she whispered, slipping her fingers into Britania's panties and drawing a gasp from the enthralled Dragoon as the Lamia caressed her nether lips.
Britania felt... confused. Her desire was finally being attended to, but she felt conflicted, even under the influence of the Charm spell. She wanted Ralael, wanted to pleasure her, wanted to be pleasured by her. But the unpleasant sting of the punishment that had been inflicted upon her when she had kissed another girl as a youth leaped to mind as a half-remembered warning against such acts.
She was magically bound, her desire artificial. She wanted sex, but she knew her lust wasn't her own. It was rape of a sort, and then again it wasn't. It felt wrong, but it also felt so right. Britania couldn't make up her mind as to if her feelings were real or false. She was half Lamia, and she wasn't bound by human culture any more. Ralael was a leader of her people, if she would engage in this, than it was okay in Lamia society. But then again...
But... but... but... argument and counterargument filled the Dragoon's mind. But all evaporated as she suddenly found her head pressed against a large, pale skinned breast pressed against her face, a lavender nipple forced into her mouth. "Pleasure me." came the command from the Lamia Queen, and the bound Britania had no choice put to obey.
She slipped off her gauntlets, her bare hands sliding over the Lamia's smooth skin and even smoother scales, running down the sides of her body, down to the Ralael's hips, moving inward on her scaled underbelly, back up to her trim, muscled tummy, and up to her beautiful, full breasts.
This wasn't her own action, Britania decided. She was being forced to do this, yes. A warrior of Baron magically compelled to pleasure a monster against her will. She was a young woman forced to take part in, and enjoy, the act of lesbianism. It was definitely rape.
And with that decided the Dragoon was finally free to fully act, one hand moving from Ralael's breast to her own, following the Queen's own hand into her underthings, hooking her thumb in the band and pulling them down. Britania pulled her head away from the Lamia's breast, allowing herself to remove her panties entirely.
Ralael aided her pet in her undressing, a simple motion with her clawed finger cutting Brit's bra in half and tossing it aside disdainfully. Her forked tongue slithered out, circling the Dragoon's breast in a slow spiral before coming to the sensitive center and rubbing the nipple, which sent a shiver through Britania's body and drew a moan from her lips.
The Lamia curled her tail back, allowing Britania to kneel with her mistress' tail between her legs, the Dragoon's moist sex rubbing against the smooth scales of Ralael's underbelly. Britania's hands sought the slit she had noticed on the Lamia's underside, a thin area where the plate-like belly scales split in half.
Her fingers parted it easily, finding the warm, wet folds of the she-snake's sex. Her fingers moved upward. The Lamia was cunt designed to accommodate the exit of eggs and thereby making it larger than the human version, or so Britania thought. About halfway up her hands encountered something she hadn't expected. It was something just as warm and wet, but hard as well.
Ralael pulled her head back from the half-breed's breast, allowing Britania to watch in rapt fascination as the Lamia Queen's cock slid free from its confinement. The Dragoon understood the Queen's words, the Lamias were all male, and all female, both in one. The sight sent a shiver through her body, she was more aroused than she had ever been before, looking down at the Lamia Queen's cock.
It wasn't at all like that of a human's, nor was it like that of a serpent's, though it shared features of both. The same lilac shade as Ralael's hair and nipples, the shaft was large, perhaps sixteen inches in length, but thin looking. The twin heads, one above the other, were about an inch and a half in diameter and were kind of triangular in shape, the two tips coming to a point.
Compared to a human length, one seemed to be upside down, with the slight split facing upward. It tapered down slowly, growing thicker until it was as big around as Britania's wrist at the base, covered in strange conical nodules, aligned in two rows on the elliptical shaped shaft, bigger up and down than it was left to right. The nodules grew larger the further down they were, until they stopped two thirds of the way down the length, where the shaft thickened and became rounded, a number of thick rings appearing.
Britania knew what they were for, having once visited a store that sold pleasure objects for women, just out of curiosity. The texture added pleasure, supposedly. She shivered again, a cascade of her juices leaking onto Ralael's tail. The Dragoon wrapped her hands around the solid section of tail, slowly bringing them up the slick length, and back down again.
She raised her head, looking into her mistress' face, smiling as she rose up and prepared to lower herself onto Ralael's rod, but the Lamia placed a hand in her lap, pushing her back down. "No, my pet, you must be pure for your Ascension in the morning. You haven't mated a male in the past week have you?"
The half-breed shook her head, it had been a long time since she had sex, period. She had had a few men in her life, but most of her pleasure came from her own fingers, except for those the times she had been stationed on Kaipo patrol. All alone in the middle of nowhere, with no one but her riding lizard to keep her company.
"Good." Ralael purred, lifting Britania up by the waist with ease, sliding the Dragoon's legs over her shoulders, bringing Britania's sex up against her lips, her long tongue immediately diving into the Dragoon's depths.
Britania felt her muscles turn to water at the pleasure of it. She had never felt such pleasure, the Lamia's skilled tongue twisting about inside of her, caressing all the right places, her upper lip moving in such a way to stimulate Britania's clit. The Dragoon moaned with pleasure as the Ralael's hands found her breasts. It was sheer sexual bliss.
She didn't mind at all when the Lamia curled her tail upwards, bringing the tip of her maleness to Britania's mouth. She opened her lips wide, allowing the Lamia Queen's cock to enter, slipping down into her throat with ease.
Being partially serpent explained something that Britania had discovered about herself a young age due to numerous eating related dares and contests. She had no gag reflex, allowing her to gulp down whatever she could fit in her mouth. She mmmed around her mistress' member, eyes closing in bliss as she sucked, delighting in the salty sweet taste of the precum that seemed to leak from those small nodules.
She felt Ralael's tail coiling around her body, soft scales pressing against her skin, a hug that no human would ever be able to duplicate. She could feel the tension building in her body, the hot pressure of climax in her belly. She didn't want to cum, not yet. She wanted this wonderful embrace to go on forever.
But Ralael's skill was too much for her. A muffled moan escaped her throat as she crossed her legs behind the Lamia's head, pushing her sex against Ralael's face. The Lamia mmmed happily, her agile tongue quickly lapping up Britania sweet nectar.
The she-serpent uncoiled from the Dragoon, shifting her eagerly sucking pet into a different position, allowing herself to lay down with the half-breed's lips still wrapped around her cock. She placed a hand on Britania's head. "Sleep." she commanded, "You will bring me pleasure filled dreams as we both rest."
Britania felt her eyelids growing heavy, and she fought them every hair's breadth they slipped lower. She wanted to stay awake, she wanted to taste the Lamia's seed, wanted to feel the sensation of each sticky jet flowing into her. But it was a command from her mistress, a command laced with a spell, and she couldn't resist. And so she slept, a good little pleasure pet, with her mistress' cock in her mouth.
-o-
The Dragoon awoke the next morning after dreams of dragons and serpents seducing her, snuggling with her, mounting her, filling her with eggs. Dreams where her body grew covered with scales. Dreams where she slithered on her belly and hunted rodents. Dreams where she burned villages to the ground with her fire breath. Dreams where she ruled a scaled empire atop a golden throne.
She awoke without the burning in her loins of the Charm spell. She awoke with Ralael's hard, erect cock in her mouth. The half-breed pulled away slowly, letting the Lamia Queen's dick slip from her mouth, thread of sticky precum linking her lips and the lavender shaft. She wiped them away with her hand, making slow movements, not wanting to awaken the Lamia while she was still in control of herself.
Britania sat up, looking around. The rest of the Lamia band was still asleep. Her eyes darted around the cavern, seeking her spear. The Dragoon attempted to ignore the feeling of fullness from her belly, a pleasant, warm, liquid fullness. She found her Dark Spear resting on the rock that Ralael was pressed up against. It wasn't quite in arms' reach, but if she leaned just a bit, she could grab it. The fire had died, the calming scent no longer in the air. The Lamia Queen was defenseless. This was her opportunity to escape.
But did she really want to escape? Her lavender hair, her lack of a gag reflex, the attraction to females and scaled creatures that had been present for her entire life. Her mother's pregnancy beginning after her return from Ordeals was more than mysterious. The pieces fit. They made sense. But Elena Strangeways had had lilac hair as well. Could it be that Britania wasn't half-Lamia?
She looked down at the sleeping form of Ralael, she looked so beautiful, so wonderful, the perfect ideal of beauty to Britania's mind. To humans she would be considered perverse, finding the ideal lover being one possessing a female form. She would be called worse than that if anyone had every discovered her literal love of riding lizards, the creatures that thrived in the dry heat of the desert where chocobos could not.
The Dragoon had traveled to Ordeals to find the answer to the question of her ancestry, and she had found it here, with creatures that the rest of the world called monsters. She had been sired by one of them, by a creature who was male and female, able to satisfy her eyes and fill her sex. What would be awaiting her if she returned to Baron?
Nothing but a rigid military structure that would not understand her natural desires, that would shun her for them. She knew that it was a one in a million chance that she would find a mate, a true mate. Someone who understood her, loved her, accepted her, knew of her desires and her heritage and embraced them.
Britania stood and smiled. This was where she belonged. She knew in her heart what she was. She wouldn't deny it any longer. Nor would she keep up the lie she had told herself the previous night. She had thought the Charm spell had begun to fade as she ate dinner last night, but she dismissed the idea, since the ache in her loins had remained.
It wasn't the false need of the spell that had aroused her, but her own desire. She had made love to Ralael of her own desire and her own free will. She walked to the fire pit, tossing a chunk of dried mushroom into the ashes, using the flame rod placed nearby to set it alight. She looked over her body in the light of the flames.
Pale, perfect skin, always free from even a single hair that was not upon her head another oddity explained away by her Lamia blood. As Britania thought, more and more pieces of the puzzle that was her life slide into place.
She smiled and shook her head, she could not return to Baron, not knowing what she knew, not having felt what she had experienced with Ralael. She shivered as she recalled the sensations that the Queen's tongue had given her, something no human could every replicate.
This was what she was. This was her family. For the first time in her life, Britania truly fit in. She was little different that any of the she-serpents around her, save for the fact that she walked upon two legs, rather than slithered about on a scaled tail. But that didn't seem to matter them. They called her 'little sister.' Even under Ralael's thrall, the Queen had treated her well.
The she-serpent's soft touch, guiding her and making sure she didn't get lost. The Queen always moving with Britania by her side, arm around her, pulling her close against the Lamia's own body. She treated the half-breed far better than any commanding officer ever had. And the other Lamias? They had been kind, friendly, playful.
Naked, save for her boots, in a cavern beneath Mount Ordeals, surrounded by she-serpents that the rest of the surface world despised, dried Lamia saliva between her legs, still moist precum on her face and neck, Britania felt something that she never had before. For the first time in her life, Britania truly felt at home.
She smiled and warmed herself by the fire, hearing the yawns of Isur and Aena, the two mage-serpents stirring from slumber. Britania placed the tea kettle on the fire, preparing the morning tea. She gasped softly as the two blue Lamias coiled around her, each kissing a side of her neck.
"Good morning, little sister." Aena whispered into her ear, the White mage identifiable by her darker hair, thicker build and her bracelets, alternating red and white triangles set into silver, the universal mark of White magic.
"I'm glad you've decided to stay with us." Isur purred into the other, her hair worn looser than that of the other magic user. She also wore a tiara with a black gemstone and fingerless black gloves.
"H-how did you know?" Britania said softly.
"Because you had the opportunity to poke Ralael with your spear..." said Aena.
"But you didn't." concluded Isur. The two mages true biological sisters, twins.
The two sat by the fire, waiting for the water to heat, Aena patted a place on her tail for Britania to sit on, which she did.
"We are Lorekeepers," Isur began.
"We have thought long and hard about what you have told us about yourself." Aena added.
Britania had, on command, told the Lamias about herself, her upbringing, her history, and some of her fears, desires, and dreams.
"And we believe we can fill in several gaps about your mother, and your father." Isur concluded.
The Dragoon smiled, "Wonderful. I would love to know, but first there's another question I'd like answered, if you can."
Both sisters nodded. "Go ahead," said Aena, "We will do our best to answer." Isur finished.
"What exactly is this Ascension of Gia ritual that I'm supposed to be a part of?"
The mages chuckled and told her, a grin appearing on Britania's face. She could hardly wait to begin.