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Chapter Text

As the last bright red dart of her magic missile spell struck her target, Saphi finally let loose the breath she had been holding in her chest.

The shadow creature evaporated into a puff of smoke, leaving only a strangely glowing orb where it once stood. "A shadow vestige," Saphi noted to herself, before picking it up and putting it into her pack for further examination later.

She turned to check on her companions. Shadowheart was already looking over Karlach's wounds - fortunately none too serious, from what Saphi could tell.

Karlach noticed the tiefling wizard peering at her over the rims of her glasses. "Oh, don't look so worried, four-eyes! I'm fine!" Karlach hissed at that moment as Shadowheart placed a bandage around the larger tiefling's bicep.

"You're not fine," the cleric scolded Karlach. "You need proper rest. But I don't know where we're going to find that in this godsforsaken wasteland." Shadowheart looked up from where she was bandaging Karlach's arm and looked pleadingly at Saphi. The cleric was worried. And she was right to be. But where would they go? They had found nothing but desolate, centuries-old ruins so far, and nothing had been spared the necrotic effects of the shadow curse. The only reason they were impervious to it was because of their fateful meeting with a pixie, who had blessed them in exchange for her freedom.

As if she'd heard the silent exchange between Shadowheart and Saphi, Lassandra stood from where she had been kneeling in prayer over the recently slain corpse of her fellow harper, Janus. "I know a safe place," she said, and reached a hand towards Saphi. "Give me your map."

------

Once the Harpers had left their company, slowly striding off into the darkness with only the light of their torches to guide them, Saphi realised she had yet to apprise herself of Gale's condition since the battle ended. Her adrenaline had barely begun to ebb when her heart jumped in her chest at the thought of him.

She looked to her left and right but didn't see him anywhere.

"Behind you," he said, and she spun around.

Gale was leaning against a long dead and decaying tree, clearly exhausted, judging by the dark circles under his eyes and the trickle of sweat that ran down his temple. Saphi’s eyes trailed his body, checking for any injuries. She tried not to stare at the beads of sweat that clung to the side of his throat, instead forcing her eyes up to look up at his face.

She was surprised to see him grinning at her, despite his exhaustion. His face bore the crooked smile she'd come to recognise, but had yet to fully understand its meaning and the intent behind it. As she pondered that, Gale stepped away from the tree and towards her. As the glow from the Light spell on her staff reached his face, she noticed the glint in his eyes. Hunger.

"It's quite thrilling," Gale said as he strode towards Saphi, his eyes transfixed on her, "to fight off such grim creatures as this region throws at us. Especially being at your side."

Saphi’s breath caught as Gale gently took her hand in his.

“I... um..." Gale started to say, but then looked down. Is he… embarrassed? she thought to herself. What could Gale of Waterdeep possibly be embarrassed about?

"Gale? Are you alright?"

The former archmage laughed in response. "Yes. Quite alright, I can assure you."

He raised his head to meet Saphi’s eyes again, and took a deep breath. Saphi noticed his hand – still clasping hers gently – shook as he exhaled.

"I once read a book that explained in some detail the effect a brush with danger has on one's desire for..." Gale looked down again, "other forms of stimulation."

"Have you read anything on that subject?"

Saphi’s heart was still racing from the battle only moments before and her brief panic at having lost sight of Gale. She tried to clear her mind, but all she could think of were the beads of sweat clinging to Gale's throat.

"I'm sorry, Gale, what are you saying exactly?"

The wizard let loose another awkward, breathy laugh, before raising his free hand to cup Saphi's cheek. Her heart skipped another beat – he’d never touched her like this before – as he looked into her eyes.

"I'm saying that I find you quite irresistible. Even illuminated by such rotten light as this place produces."

Saphi felt her eyes widen and immediately tried to hide her shock. Gale never missed anything though, and he was just stepping back and away from her, a wounded look on his face, when she reached out and grabbed his forearm.

It was Gale's turn to look surprised as Saphi pulled him towards her and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Read such a book?" she asked him, cocking an eyebrow over the rims of her glasses and grinning mischievously. She pushed Gale’s hair, damp with sweat, behind his ear as she leaned in and whispered: “I could have written the damn thing.”

She exhaled slowly into the curve of Gale's neck before leaning back to survey the effect her words had on him. Saphi was very pleased to find Gale staring at her, his eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

It took him a moment to compose himself, and as he did, he cleared his throat.

"Ahem. I believe you. You never look so beautiful as at the end of a stirring battle, your cheeks flushed, gaze bright, muscles glistening..." Saphi felt a warmth descend from her chest and settle in a spiral in her lower abdomen.

"You're drawn to me, even in a place like this?" she asked him. Gale smiled before pulling Saphi closer to his chest, his face just inches from hers.

“I can't imagine anywhere that could turn my heart from you - cursed or otherwise. You'd always be beautiful, and as impressive." His eyes wandered towards Saphi's lips, and she soon found her own doing much the same. She was about to lean in when Shadowheart made an annoyed and incredibly unattractive sound from behind Saphi, making her jump.

She’d been so caught up in Gale's words and his delicious-looking lips, she had quite forgotten they had an audience.

Gale chuckled at the embarrassed look on her face as Saphi felt the blood rush to her cheeks from her telltale and signature deep red blush.

"Unfortunately," Gale said, loud enough for both Karlach and Shadowheart to hear, "this is neither the time nor place to indulge such feelings." He let go of Saphi, and she lowered her arms from around his neck. "We must be patient and push all such thoughts aside."

Saphi clasped her hands together as Gale stepped away from her, still reeling with embarrassment. Not to mention the warm, wet feeling that had begun to pool between her legs.

She didn't even notice when, as he strode past her on her left side, he leaned in towards her ear. "For now," he whispered, his voice husky and his desire palpable.

Before Saphi could think of a response, he was metres away from her and talking with Shadowheart and Karlach.

It took Saphi a moment to unscramble her brain. Well... I'd better find us a safe place to camp then, Saphi thought to herself and pulled their map out of her pack. She smiled as she noted the route Lassandra had drawn on the worn piece of paper and the words scribbled there.


Last Light lnn it is.

Chapter Text

Saphi rubbed her forearms gingerly. Her skin still stung from where the magical vines had wrapped around her body moments before. The spell, cast by the druid Jaheira, had snaked around Saphi within seconds as soon as she set foot in the dome of strange, ethereal light that surrounded the building ahead. Saphi had tried to negotiate her release with the elder half-elf, but as the vines gripped her more and more tightly, the tiefling panicked and sent her magic surging through the vines, forcing them away from her. Jaheira and her Harpers had just taken up battle stances as a small tiefling child came running up from somewhere behind the druid. Mol. The leader of the tiefling children Saphi and her companions had saved at the Emerald Grove some tendays ago.

If it hadn’t been for Mol’s intervention, the situation would no doubt have devolved into needless bloodshed, Saphi realised. Honestly, would that have been so bad, though? Saphi heard a voice echo in her skull. There it was again. That dark urge.

Saphi shook the voice out of her mind as she saw Gale run towards her.

“Saphi!” He called out to her, his face wracked with concern. “Saphi, are you alright?” Gale, Karlach and Shadowheart had witnessed the altercation with Jaheira just as they stepped into the dome of light themselves, but were too far behind Saphi to intervene before she was caught in the druid’s painfully twisting vines.

Saphi stopped rubbing at her arms and, with some effort, forced a smile on her face and looked up at Gale as he rushed to her side.

“I’m fine, Gale. Don’t worry. Just a few splinters and some vine burn.” She tried to chuckle at her weak joke but, judging by how Gale was now staring at the bruises blooming across her pale skin, she wasn’t as convincing as she’d hoped.

She reached for his right hand with her left before raising the other to cup his cheek.

“Gale. Gale, look at me.”

It took him a moment, but he gradually looked away from her bruised forearms and into her eyes.

“I’m really fine. It’s nothing that I can’t mend with some herbs and some rest.”

“Come. Let’s go inside.”

Gale gave her a subdued nod, and Saphi started making her way to the interior of the building ahead. She noticed that Gale had yet to let go of her hand, instead letting her guide him inside Last Light Inn. He only released her hand as they stood inside the warm structure and surveyed the crowd gathered inside.

Saphi inhaled deeply, breathing in the air that, somehow, was free of the stench of decay that lingered everywhere else they had travelled in the shadow-cursed lands up until now. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the bright light of the inn.

Gale seemed to have recovered from his shock a moment before at seeing her injuries and sighed heavily next to her. "At last, we find a beacon of light amongst the darkness," he said, his eyes scanning over the gathered patrons.

Saphi recognised many of them as the tieflings from the Emerald Grove. Thank the gods, she thought. At least some of them made it here. She’d just about lost all hope of ever seeing them again after she and her companions found the corpses of several tieflings they knew while making their way through the shadow-cursed lands.

She was lost in her thoughts when she felt something brush against her tail. She jumped when she felt someone press gently against her back and was about to move out of the way when two arms crossed over her abdomen and held her in place.

"We found this place not a moment too soon," Gale whispered in her ear. "I'm quite ready for some...respite."

Saphi’s heart, still racing from being startled, began beating even faster, and the warm spiral in her chest returned. She began to pull away from Gale and turned to peer at him over the rims of her glasses. She held his gaze for a moment, during which Gale's confidence from a moment earlier seemed to begin to crumble slowly. Just as his mischievous grin began to falter, she leaned into him and kissed him.

“What do you know," she breathed against his lips, "I could do with a little respite myself."

Gale laughed breathlessly in response, pressing his forehead against Saphi’s. "Gods, you're such a tease. You had me worried for a moment there.”

"I know," she grinned. "Now, come, before someone notices us." She kissed him gently before pulling away and heading towards a series of doors on the right side of the inn. One of them has to be an unoccupied room, she thought to herself. Hopefully with a bed. But she had to admit that the way the warmth and wetness had begun to pool between her legs the moment Gale whispered in her ear… a bed wasn’t strictly necessary.

She made her way towards a door at the far back of the inn’s large drinking hall. Just as she was about to reach for the door she paused for a moment, wondering whether she should knock. Gale had seemingly run out of the patience he advocated for only a few hours ago, however, and reached past Saphi for the doorknob, turning it quickly and pushing at the door with his right hand. As it swung open, he stepped inside the room.

"Ummm. Saph, I'd really like to believe this room is empty, but I can't see a thing. Would you mind?"

Saphi giggled softly. In his enthusiasm, Gale seemed to have briefly forgotten that she was the one with darkvision, not him.

She followed him into the room and did a cursory scan of the surroundings. “Excellent,” she said out loud, satisfied when she spotted a bed on the far right, and pulled the door closed behind her.

------

As the door closed, what little light there was for Gale to see by vanished completely. He could hear Saphi moving in the dark, but his human eyesight was no help to him right now. He suspected this was very much deliberate on her part.

The thought made his heart beat faster as he strained to hear her movements and place her in the darkness.

------

Saphi smiled to herself as she watched Gale's eyes scan the room in a vain attempt to suss out her exact location. Oh, this will be fun, she thought to herself. She turned and locked the door before saying over her shoulder: "I hope this is..." "Good idea..."

They had both started speaking at the same time following the sound of the key turning.

She laughed awkwardly before Gale said with a smile: "Go ahead."

"I just wanted to make sure this is alright?" Saphi asked. Gale paused as if considering his answer. Saphi watched as his brow furrowed as it always did when he needed a moment to think of what to say next.

"What I mean is," Saphi continued, "are you sure this is what you want?"

------

Gale was surprised by the question. He hadn't been at all subtle about his growing feelings for Saphi – least of all since Elmister had cast the charm on him to stabilise the Netherese orb in his chest.

He could finally breathe again. He could allow himself to feel something for the first time in over a year without the risk of a catastrophic, city-levelling explosion looming over him. And he wanted, desperately, to feel something. He wanted to revel in every single one of the feelings she evoked in him. He wanted to feel her.

"My love, come to me."

------

Saphi paused. Gale had never called her that before. It was… nice.

She watched as Gale stretched his arms and hands out in front of him, grasping around blindly. She couldn't help but giggle at him, but did as he asked and wrapped her arms around his neck and twisted her fingers in the curls of his hair. He put his arms around her waist and pulled her body towards him before awkwardly leaning his forehead against hers, trying his best not to collide with her horns in the dark.

Saphi cherished the moment, of being held by him, waiting for him to speak his mind. She breathed in his scent, smelling faintly of lavender and the sweat of the battles earlier that day.

He muttered an incantation then, and deftly cast the somatic component of the spell with only the fingers of his right hand, as if refusing to release it from her waist. An orb of faint, white-blue light hovered above them as he pulled his face back from her and held her chin in his palm.

"I want to be able to look at you when I say this," he said, and looked into her eyes. "It has been a very long time since I've let myself feel anything, let alone feel anything for anyone," he said softly. He reached his hand up and brushed the back of his hand and knuckles against her cheek.

"Please believe me when I say this: I want this. I want all of it. I want you."

The earnestness in Gale's voice took Saphi's breath away. She couldn't think of the words that could possibly convey how deeply she was in love with him, and how much that knowledge hurt her, knowing what she knew. About her dark, murderous urges. About what had really happened to Quil that night in camp.

She saw the devotion in his eyes and felt her heart ache. He must have seen some fragment of her inner turmoil on her face, because next she knew his lips were on hers. They kissed gently... at first. But it wasn't long before she felt Gale's tongue on her lips, followed by his teeth softly pulling on her bottom lip.

She responded in kind, nipping at his tongue with a fang - not hard enough to draw blood, but just hard enough to encourage him further. Gale seemed to understand her intent and slipped his tongue into her mouth to dance with her own.

------

Gale felt Saphi begin to melt against him as he kissed her, and whatever thoughts that had caused that pained look she gave him seemed to drain away at the same time. Instead, she was fully focused on this moment, on him, just as he was focused on her. He pulled her tightly against his chest, her breasts pressing against him through her robe and her hips began to grind against his own. A moan escaped her as he moved his mouth from her lips to her neck and exhaled a shuddering breath on the area just below her chin where her neck scarf ended and her pale, freckled skin was bare.

As he leaned into the delicate skin, he gently brushed his beard against her throat and felt her shiver as her clawed fingers gripped his hair tighter. Gale teased her for a moment longer before biting her neck gently, causing her to moan yet again.

Gale started as he felt something twist around his left leg and press against the front of his pants. Something pressed against his cock, and began to firmly stroke against him. If he hadn’t been hard already (he was), he soon felt the discomfort of his erection straining against the front of his pants.

------

Saphi opened her eyes when she felt Gale flinch, and followed his eyes downward to see what he was looking at.

A tail, wrapped around his leg. A tail, stroking the front of his pants. Stroking his cock, already hard and straining against the cloth of his pants. It took her a moment to register what was happening - she was lost in the moment and the heat and wetness spreading between her legs.

Gale glanced back up at her then, cocking his right eyebrow and smiling his signature, crooked grin. She paused, looking at him questioningly.

A tail. Her tail. Oh gods, that was her tail! She was rubbing Gale's cock with her tail!

Her senses came flooding back to her as she gasped with embarrassment, and she felt her face turn a bright shade of red. She quickly unwound her tail from Gale’s leg and was about to take a step back when she felt his arms tighten around her and he gripped her hips.

"Don't," he said, barely containing his laughter.

"I'm so sorry, I had no idea it was doing that! Oh gods…" She tried to hide her scarlet face in her hands. "I'm so embarrassed," she said, and felt as if she and her lascivious tail had completely ruined the moment.

------

Gale burst out laughing as Saphi hid her face from him and he watched as her pointed tiefling ears turned more and more crimson in the blue-white light of his spell. "Don't laugh!" she whined. "That thing has a life of its own."

"I'd noticed," Gale said, as he tried to control his laughter. Gods, she's adorable, he thought to himself. One minute she was blasting away monsters with a lightning bolt, and the next she was as red as the darts of her magic missile and hiding her face in embarrassment.

I love you. The words rang out loudly in Gale's mind, wholly unexpected, even to himself. And yet he knew they were nothing but the truth.

He loved her. All of her, more than he had ever loved another living soul – mortal or otherwise. But he daren't say the words aloud. Not now. Not yet. She wasn't ready to hear them.

But if I can't tell her, I can godsdamn show her, he thought, and pulled her hands away from her face and kissed her, trying to convey the full depth and breadth of his love for her that he was unable to express in words.

------

Saphi was frozen in place as Gale kissed her, trying to focus on what her tail was doing. She settled for swishing it behind her before wrapping it around her leg. There. Now behave, she instructed it, though she suspected the command would go ignored soon enough.

She tried to focus on Gale, but she was still wracked with embarrassment after the unbecoming behaviour of her lecherous appendage. Gale must have sensed her hesitation as he pulled away from her. "Saph. Please, you don't need to be embarrassed. I quite liked it.”

Saphi gave him an incredulous look before turning her head to the side and away. Gale took her chin in his palm and gently pulled her to face him. "I promise," he said softly, and rubbed his knuckles against her cheek. "Here. Let me show you."

He took her hand in his, and she watched as he guided her to the topmost edge of his pants. The blue-white glow of the light he'd conjured gleamed against his belt buckle as he reached down to unclasp it with his free hand, shortly before guiding hers below the edge of the cloth with his other hand.

She gasped softly as she felt him for the first time. How hard he was... how hard he was for her. Her already racing heart started thundering in her chest and she was reminded of the wetness pooling between her thighs.

Suddenly, all this armour felt incredibly uncomfortable.

----

Gale had watched Saphi’s eyes widen as she looked down at his cock, but she said nothing. She didn’t move a muscle. As the moment dragged on for what felt like an age, he began to wonder if he'd made a mistake, been too forward. His concern was quickly assuaged, however, as Saphi’s lips curled into a hungry grin, the tips of her white fangs flashing just beneath them.

She looked up then; peering at him over the rims of her glasses. Still smiling, she raised an index finger and pointed at the white-blue light still lazily floating above them. "Would you mind?" she asked, the mischief on her face unmistakable.

Gale returned her grin with a devilish smile of his own before leaning into her neck and biting her gently. "It would be my pleasure," he whispered, and breathed an incantation onto her skin as he deftly twisted his fingers and ended the spell.

Chapter Text

As the conjured light winked out, it only took Saphi’s tiefling darkvision a moment to adjust to the gloom.

Gale, on the other hand, human as he was, was completely blind. Perfect, she thought, as she stepped back and just out of his reach.

------

Gale shivered as the warmth of Saphi's body receded into the night. His disappointment was almost tangible, but he knew his tiefling wizard companion well enough by now to know that she was merely taking a moment to plan her next move. Ever the lance board player, he thought to himself.

He shuddered as he felt her warm breath on his neck, and realised she'd moved to stand behind him. She pressed her body, her breasts, tightly against his back. She reached her arms around his waist and started to tug at his shirt, but as he reached down to help her undress him, he felt a sudden sharp, but not unpleasant, pain on the skin of his neck where she had bitten him with a fang. "Don't... move," she whispered with authority.

Gale felt his cock harden at her words, and dropped the edge of his shirt as he raised his hands, palms held upward in a supplicating gesture. "Of course," he said, grinning once more.

"I'm completely at your mercy.”

Gale heard Saphi giggle inelegantly into his neck before catching herself and clearing her throat. He battled to suppress his own laugh, but was soon distracted as Saphi lifted his shirt up and over his head. He felt her warmth recede into the darkness again even before he heard the discarded clothing hit the ground. He strained his ears to try and place her in the room and heard the soft rustling of clothes just ahead of him.

He waited a few moments before asking into the darkness: "Do you need any help?"

The rustling stopped and he heard something drop to the floor. He was about to repeat the question when he felt Saphi’s fingertips softly stroke across the scar the orb left on his chest. He inhaled sharply at her gentle touch across his damaged skin. Ever since the day the orb had almost wholly consumed him, clawed its way into his chest and buried itself there, he had felt nothing but pain emanate from the scar it had left. And even now, after Elminster’s spell, the pain was still present, even as it had lessened significantly. But the contrast of Saphi’s gentle touch against the lingering, chronic pain was wholly unexpected. He was reminded of the night when he first confessed to the presence of the orb to Saphi, and how she had vowed to help him, to find a cure, “No matter what hells we have to go to to find it.” The memory threatened to overwhelm him, and he pinched his eyes shut to stop the tears welling up in his eyes from spilling out onto his cheeks.

------

Saphi watched the wave of emotions cascade across Gale’s face as she stroked the scar on his chest. As she saw the pain in his pinched expression, she worried that she may have hurt him by touching the scar. She was aware that it caused him pain, but Gale always hid the exact extent of it from her and their companions unless he absolutely couldn’t bear it any longer, and needed to consume a magical item as a matter of urgency. She had hoped Elmister’s spell had removed his pain entirely, but what if it hadn’t?

She began to pull her hand away, chiding herself for hurting him, when Gale fumbled for her hand in the dark and stopped her. “Wait,” he said, before placing her hand back on the scar on his chest. “That… that… feels good,” he said, sniffling softly. “Are you sure?” she asked, and watched as Gale nodded and exhaled out a shuddering breath. “I’m sure.”

He traced his hand from the back of her wrist up her forearm and bicep, stopping when he reached her shoulder. His eyes widened. “Oh. Oh,” he said. “You’re… uh…”

It dawned on Saphi then that Gale was still completely blind in the dark, and had no way of knowing that she was standing completely naked in front of him. She giggled. “Why yes, Gale, I am quite naked. Would you like me to show you?”

She watched as Gale licked his lips and swallowed. “Yes. Yes, please.”

------

Gale wasn’t sure how to proceed next. Of course, as soon as Saphi confirmed his suspicions that she was, in fact, standing right in front of him without a stitch of clothing on her, it took all his rapidly dwindling willpower to stop himself from reaching out and grabbing her right then and there. Fortunately, he wasn’t left wondering for long, as barely a second passed before Saphi’s lips were on his and she pressed her naked body against his bare chest. She bit his lower lip and whispered: “How does that feel?”

Gale wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly against him, crashing his mouth against hers as if in answer to her question.

------

As Gale kissed her harder than he ever had before, Saphi felt her glasses smash up against her forehead and clash against her horns. "Ouch!"

"Hmm… These need to go," she heard Gale say and felt as he gently, but blindly, tried to remove her glasses.

"You know I can still see without them,” she said, laughing as he lifted them away. “Just not very well, admittedly.”

"Exactly," was his only response, but even though her vision was now somewhat blurred, she heard the smile and mischief in his voice.

"I'm not sure what good it will do us if we're both blind,” she laughed.

"Oh, we won't be for long," Gale said softly, before murmuring a quick incantation under his breath. Despite his attempt at stealth, Saphi recognised the spell immediately: Darkvision. She smiled broadly. "It seems it's my turn to be at a disadvantage." Gale removed himself from her embrace and she watched as his blurred shape moved towards a pile of her discarded clothes.

"Rightly so,” Gale said. “But just in case,” he added, moving to stand behind her, and she felt a piece of cloth pull across her eyes as Gale tied her neck scarf in place behind the back of her head. He’s a lot stealthier than I gave him credit for, she thought to herself, making a mental note for the future.

She felt her pulse quicken as Gale placed a hand on her bare hip, gently stroking it with his thumb. "Come," he whispered, and she felt him guide her across the room. Suddenly, she felt his arm hook behind her knees and the other across her back as he picked her up and hoisted her into his arms and against his chest. "Gale!"

She gasped as she clasped her hands around his neck to prevent herself from falling. "Don't worry, I have you," he said, and she felt him lower her onto the bed in the far right corner of the room. “Always," he added, and she felt the bed shift with his weight as he lay next to her.

Saphi felt his knuckles graze her cheek. She was starting to recognise the gesture as one Gale subconsciously used when he was being earnest. The realisation made her heart melt.

"Are you still alright?" he asked, stroking her face. "I'm perfect," she said, and pulled his hand to her mouth and gently poked her tongue between his fingers.

"That you are," Gale responded, and she felt him shift next to her as he pulled his hand away.

A moment later she felt his breath against her nipple, and she felt them stiffen in response. He murmured his approval as she felt his tongue skirt the engorged and erect tip. She couldn’t help but moan softly. She felt his hand give her other breast a gentle squeeze before he trailed a finger between them, across the ridges of her infernal heritage on her chest, and down her abdomen. The spiral in her chest coiled tighter and descended as his hand trailed a path across her skin, and the heat between her legs intensified as she felt his fingers slowly drag through her pubic hair.

Gale gently stroked her lower lips just then, deftly avoiding the desperate mound of nerves at the apex of her folds. She groaned with displeasure.

"Hells... Who knew you were such a tease?" she whined. Gale snorted in response. "Oh, this is only the beginning. I've waited a long time for this. I intend to enjoy every. single. moment." To punctuate his words, Gale slowly circled her clit with his thumb in long, languid strokes.

"Damn you, archmage," Saphi said, as she tried to stifle a moan through clenched teeth.

"Not an archmage any longer," Gale said, still slowly circling Saphi’s clit. "Just Gale."

"Gale," she repeated after him, just at the same moment as he slipped a finger inside her and curled it to rub against a particularly pleasurable spot. His name left her lips as a whine as he teased her, and she blindly reached her hands back to grasp her headboard behind her.

She barely noticed him shift further downwards on the bed as she lost herself in the feeling of his finger curling inside her. She gasped when she felt his breath, hot against her clit. He groaned then, clearly quite pleased with himself, but removed his lone finger from inside her. An involuntary whine escaped her.

------

At the sight of her engorged clit and the sound of her need for him, Gale felt the warm wetness in his shorts spread even further – perhaps even soaking through his pants by now. He'd been so focused on Saphi that he hadn't quite noticed the damp feeling, only recognising it when he first looked at her lower lips and watched as the wetness slowly spilled out of her opening and onto the bedsheets below her.

Gods, he wanted her. But he knew that, after more than a year of self-imposed celibacy thanks to the orb, there was absolutely no way he would last very long. He had to make this count. And besides, watching the studious young wizard's brow furrow in pleasure - furrow for him, rather than when she was completely absorbed by a book - was much more fun than it had any right to be.

He grinned at the thought as he leaned his face towards her folds and wrapped his lips around her clit and slowly stroked up from the underside of the bundle of nerves with his tongue.

She bucked her hips in response and he heard a rustling sound as she untwisted her tail from around her leg and wound it around his chest. He flicked his tongue upwards over her clit again and she moaned loudly.

------

Saphi was completely lost in the moment.

So much so that it took her a moment to notice that Gale's lips were no longer pressed against her, and instead, she felt his forehead against her thigh, his breath jagged as he exhaled onto her skin. She heard him burst out laughing, snapping her out of her reverie.

She pulled her headscarf up from her eyes to peer down at him, completely confused.

"Saphi," he wheezed, still laughing. "Your tail. It's suffocating me."

She looked down and saw the vice grip her tail had wound around his chest and immediately released him. "Oh gods, Gale, I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"

She shifted to sit up against her elbows, but he placed his palm against her chest and pushed her back down. He was still laughing.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I promise," he said, still catching his breath between chuckles.

Saphi crossed her arms over her face hoping to hide the blush she felt creeping across her features once again. The pent-up frustration and growing embarrassment about the antics of her lecherous tail caused little pricks in her eyes, and she felt as if she might just cry.

Gale seemed to sense this, and raised himself to lie next to her again. He gently removed Saphi’s arms from where they covered her face and placed them on her chest before leaning in to kiss her gently.

"It's alright, love. Please don't be embarrassed." Saphi shuddered a sigh and opened her eyes to see Gale looking at her warmly. "Don't worry about it. We'll find something for your tail to do over time."

It took Saphi a moment to realise what he was implying - he had no intention of stopping now, nor that this would be the only intimate tryst the two shared. The thought delighted her, and she smiled and kissed him greedily. He ardently returned the gesture.

"Feeling better?" he panted a moment later, still catching his breath, but this time as a result of their fevered kiss. "Much," she said, but she was still concerned that her tail might somehow manage to strangle Gale while she was lost in the moment. She watched as Gale eyed her tail as it restlessly lashed across the bed.

"I have an idea," he said suddenly, and reached across her to grab two pillows next to her on the bed. He placed one near her tail, and with his free hand raised her hips to place the other beneath her rear before looking up at her.

"Try wrapping your tail around this," he said, patting the pillow he'd placed next to her errant appendage. She did as he asked, but was about to point out that she couldn't guarantee it would stay there when she saw him gesture in the air and mutter an incantation. Hold person, she realised, only instead of affecting her entire body, the spell seemed limited only to her tail and where it wrapped around the pillow.

She gasped. "How in the hells did you...?"

"It's something I've been working on,” he said, grinning widely. “Admittedly I hadn't expected to use it in quite this context..."

He trailed off as he scanned his eyes up Saphi’s naked torso. She tentatively tried to lift her tail, but it barely moved, instead thudding uselessly against the bed.

She threw her head back as she laughed and raised herself on an elbow to pull him towards her. She kissed him again before whispering: "You're a genius."

"Always at your service," he grinned, evidently quite proud of himself. "Now... shall we continue?"

------

"Yes," she breathed. “Yes, please do." The sultry tone of her voice was clear enough, and Gale pulled her headscarf back over her eyes before repositioning himself between her legs. He picked up where he left off with a slow, and soft lick up her slit before gently flicking his tongue up the underside of her clit, eliciting another loud moan from Saphi. He resumed the languid pace of before, only speeding up intermittently to bring her to the very edge of her climax before slowing down once again.

Saphi's moans grew steadily louder and hoarser until he felt her grip his hair in her hands.

"Please, Gale. Please, I can't take it anymore," she pleaded. "I need you inside me." Gale smiled to himself and slowly slipped two fingers inside her slit. “Is this what you want?” he asked, deftly curling his fingers against her inner walls as if conjuring a spell. "Oh, gods, yes," she gasped.

He placed his mouth over her clit once again, sucking gently as he slowly began to thrust his fingers in and out of her warm, dripping-wet cunt.

"Oh, Gale," she mewled, and he gradually picked up the pace as he felt her wetness seep out from her and trail over his chin. He groaned into her in approval.

"Please don't stop," she gasped, even louder than before. She moaned again, but this time the sound was muffled. Gale looked up to see what she doing, but ensured that he continued the steady thrust of his fingers inside her. She had covered her mouth with her hand, and Gale realised she was just about to come completely undone in his grasp.

He returned to sucking and licking her clit, and felt her walls tighten around his fingers and her thighs clench as she moaned loudly against the back of her hand. Barely a moment later she began to grind into his face, and he crossed his free hand over her abdomen and held her down with his open hand, refusing to stop or slow down for even a moment.

He heard her then as she cried out, her hand barely stifling the sound that escaped her. He felt her walls clench his fingers so tightly that he could barely move his hand, and yet he did not stop gently sucking and licking her clit. Her orgasm seemed to last several minutes until her hips suddenly sank against the pillow, and he felt her leg muscles relax against him. He took that as his cue to stop and shifted her legs away from him and gently placed them on the bed before he sidled up next to her and wrapped his arms around her, holding her as she shuddered and rode out the remainder of her climax.

------

Saphi wasn't sure how long it took for her senses to slowly start coming back to her as she dropped her hand from her face and onto her chest. As she did, she felt a sudden pain in the back of her hand and winced. She felt Gale stir and gently raise her hand.

"What in the hells?" he said, his voice shocked. She was still lost in the afterglow of her orgasm, but the tone of his voice drew her back to the present. "What? Gale, what is it?”

"Saphi, your hand is bleeding!"

As she heard his words a vague memory drifted back to her. "Oh," she said. "Ummm. Yes. When you... when I..." she struggled to find the words. "I was trying really hard to be quiet, but you were so good... that I... Ummm.” She sighed. "Let's just say it was a struggle."

"I see," Gale said, and she felt his lips gently press against the puncture wounds her fangs had left in the back of her hand, causing her to wince again. He placed her hand down on her chest, and she felt him shift and stand up from the bed. "Gale? Is something wrong?"

He didn't respond, and she heard cloth rustling in the dark. She sat up and pushed the headscarf up against her forehead and gasped as she opened her eyes.

Gale was standing next to the bed facing her, and he was completely naked. The sound she'd heard was him removing his pants and kicking them aside. She couldn't help but stare at the corded muscles of his abdomen before her eyes fell on his erection, swollen and ready. Her heart started racing all over again, and she felt her pulse throb between her legs.

She followed the lines of his scar across his chest and up his throat. She expected to see his usual relaxed and mischievous grin on his lips, but instead, she was surprised to see he was frowning. His brows were furrowed in frustration, his forehead pinched in what seemed to be anger.

Before she could think of what to say, he looked up and into her eyes. Any words that might have come to her left her mind just then as she saw the furious glint in his eyes. No, not fury. Desire.

"Saphi," he said, his tone conveying all the seriousness she had already gleaned from his expression.

"I will not have you harm yourself just to shield others from their own narrow-minded sensibilities.”

"What do you mean?" she asked, confused by the turn the night had taken.

Gale continued to stare hungrily at her as he wrapped his palm around his hardened cock and began to stroke himself.

"What I mean is," he said, and kneeled on the bed, still pulling on his cock in slow, determined strokes. "If you have to hurt yourself just to stop them from hearing you..." He paused, leaning over her. "Then I'd much, much rather that you let them hear you."

------

Her eyes widened at that, and she bit her lip. "I can't help it," she said. "I didn't even realise I was doing it."

Gale stopped stroking himself then and took each of her forearms in his hands and raised them above her head. He held them in place with his left hand as he again muttered the incantation for the Hold Person spell, and twirled the fingers of his right. Saphi gasped as she looked up at the soft purple glow of the Weave winding around her wrists and through a gap in the bed's headboard. She tugged down gently, testing the bond.

"There," Gale said. "Do you think that will help?"

She smiled at him once again, her eyes sparkling. Gods, he thought. I would do anything for that smile. He returned his hand to stroke his cock as she replied: "I think that will do just fine."

------

Saphi watched as Gale positioned himself between her legs, still stroking himself. He lifted her knees and placed them on either of his shoulders and groaned as she opened up for him. He leaned forward and pressed his cock against her, teasing her. She moaned softly, but as he started rubbing himself against her extremely sensitive clit, she cried out loudly. She bit down on her lip to silence herself.

"Oh, don't you dare," Gale growled, and she noticed then that he had been closely watching the expressions on her face. He leaned forward until his lips were on hers, and he bit her lower lip not so gently. "I want to hear you. All of you. Don't you dare hold back."

"Careful what you wish for," she said, and ground her hips up against him, forcing a groan of his own. He leaned his forehead against hers - he was breathing heavily.

"Tell me what you want," he said, and he began to grind his hips against her in response, his cock rubbing along her lower lips. "I want you," she panted. "I want you inside me. Now."

"As you wish," he said, and sheathed himself fully inside her.

------

Saphi ground her hips against him as a loud cry escaped her. Gale had absolutely no doubt that someone just beyond the locked door to the room had heard her, and the thought threatened to undo him completely. He continued to thrust into her, trying his best to keep a steady pace and hold back the long overdue release that was beginning to build inside him. He growled and buried his face into her neck, biting her shoulder in an attempt to distract himself.

Fortunately, Gale didn't have to wait very long, if Saphi's loud whines of pleasure were any indication.

------

Saphi ground her hips against Gale and pulled him closer against her with her legs as she felt the pressure of her impending climax building in her cunt. And without any means to quiet herself, she heard the volume, frequency and pitch of her cries steadily increase.

------

“Gale, I'm... I'm..." she cried out, but Gale already knew as he felt her walls tighten around his cock and he came along with her as he continued to thrust into her.

------

She felt him twitch inside her as he came, causing her to come that much harder. Her eyes rolled back in her skull and she lifted her chest as the waves of pleasure cascaded from where Gale continued to thrust inside her. The feeling roared up to her chest, through her arms and fingers, her legs and toes, and finally crashed into her mind as she screamed his name one last time.

------

Gale sank down against her naked body, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath and his ears ringing from when she screamed his name, no doubt alerting the entire inn to the precise moment when he had caused her to become completely undone.

His mind was a blank - all his worries and fears from the last year wiped clean away. It took several minutes before his senses returned enough for him to realise he was probably pinning her down with his weight. He slowly untangled himself from her limbs and lay down next to her before gently pulling her against him. Her arms lowered from above her head, and he realised he had lost his concentration on his spell at some point.

I'll have to work on that, he thought to himself.

------

Saphi wrapped her arms around Gale. “Thank you," was all she could manage, too tired to say or do anything more. Gale laughed. "Only a pleasure,” he said, and Saphi could feel herself drifting off to sleep. She thought she heard Gale say something more, but before she could identify the words in her mind, she had slipped away into a dream.

------

Gale listened as Saphi's breathing grew deeper and heavier, and he knew she had fallen asleep before she had heard him. Probably for the best, he thought to himself. But he couldn't resist saying it out loud just one more time.

"I love you," he said, as he closed his eyes and pulled her tightly against his chest, before falling into a deep, dreamless sleep of his own.