Despite Shinsou Vaan Osiris’s strength, each sweeping wave of pleasure that wracked his body sent his muscles into spasm and made them feel heavier than iron. It was an amazing feeling to have her, to be inside her. His arms and shoulders resonated with a soothing tingle, and the skin on his hands and cheeks glowed red with the combined toils of the erotic labor and the strange energy that seemed to be threading through his very being. Above him, Amari’s frost covered breasts bounced in time with her pounding, her face scrunched up with almost orgasmic pleasure. Her moist vagina rubbed and ground against him, increasing his libido even more ravenously and as their eyes locked, the Telgradian’s primal instincts told him she wanted more, much more. The familiar feeling of his loins preparing for climax rushed over him, but he wasn’t ready to give Amari what she wanted just yet. With his hand, he crafted another phallus of ice.

“I may be a cold-hearted bastard when it suits me, but I know how to play this game. Let me feed your appetite even more…I want you to give me everything you have got.”

With sleight of hand and that would have impressed a Radasanthian street urchin, Shinsou slipped the ice cylinder behind Amari, teasing her anus. At first it appeared she wasn’t sure but then the Ar’Tuel’s eyes lit up ferociously as she felt the chill of the ice tease her. She eased herself onto the cold dildo and after an initial groan began to ride both Shinsou and the new frost covered toy, much to the Telgradian’s satisfaction. The very compliance to his will released endorphins that brought him closer and closer.

Fuck me, this girl is talented. Oh, shit. Shitttt….

After a few more seconds of being on a cliff edge of anticipation, he felt himself cum hard, arching his back and growling like a feral beast, clawing his hands into Amari’s back. She felt the warmth inside her, felt it all despite being so soaking wet, and responded like a hungry wolf on a feeding frenzy, grinding down harder on her mount, pressing her engorged clitoris heavily against the base of Shinsou’s cock. When he was finally finished, the Telgradian fell back, panting, next to the icy floorboards of what was to be his resting spot for the night. The powdered snow of the blinding storm covered nearly every inch of the window outside, but the cold didn’t affect him at all and Shinsou made no effort to move.

Then, suddenly, reality was sucked into pure, brilliant white.

Shinsou panicked. The floor, the walls, the whole room had exploded into a million tiny fragments of reality that spun away from him uncontrollably like shrapnel from a bomb. Was this some sort of trick or illusion? Was Amari doing this to him? It wasn’t long before he realized, alone in the void, that he could no longer feel the pain of his aching muscles or taste the bitterness of Amari’s fluids on the tip of his tongue. His clothes were clean, his hair swept back into its usual slick style.

It was then it came; a vision. Or, more accurately, a memory.

***

Atlas Revaan hated going outside of Garah, doubly so if that meant crossing the border into the almost inhospitable land of Kratas. In many ways, the desert to the west was like hell without the roof. The heat was unbearable, people there were warier and warier of Telgradians the further inland one went and the only difference between there and the enemy Jal Shey heartland was that the populous still resembled something human.

There was actually another thing that annoyed the hell out of him. While the temperature in the city of Makarri was rather uncomfortable at the best of times, due to the restless sun, the harsh environment wasn’t doing any good for Rhovani, his partner. She was born of the Mithandrian people – the children of the Telgradian goddess of Ice – and her genetic makeup didn’t allow for long periods of exposure to anything above temperate climates. Unlike Atlas, Rhovani didn’t allow this to stifle her spirit. She felt the discomfort more than anyone but the mystique of the foreign land and the purpose of their mission was simply too intriguing, and the caramel haired princess wouldn’t be put off because of some mild nuisance.

Revaan stomped through the Makarri streets as if he was being led to his own execution whilst the slender, blue eyed Rhovani was full of zeal at his side, tugging his attention from one building to the other as she scanned the occupants with her senses. She seldom got involved with Council of Five matters – her status as royalty always making the other captains reluctant to risk her on some frivolous matter – but today that was not the case. Dangling from her waist was a pouch containing orders and a newly acquired but well concealed Kurai sword made by Telas Soltair himself.

Because of this, she was as happy as a child.

But spying on Makarri occupants wasn’t why Atlas and Rhovani were in the Kratas Outlands. No, it was to hunt the Jal Shey’s high-priest Nero-Ky, a job similar to the fruitless one they went on merely weeks ago. The Council of Five that commanded the Telgradians had another lead about this mysterious heretic, a Jal Shey that was supposed to have been gathering support for a war against Garah, but as usual information was vague and in short supply. Nero-Ky was a citizen of Makarri who had re-located further west to the more tribal regions, and would blend in well in a place like the Kratas Outlands, but like each and every individual on the planet his soul left a distinctive trail and Rhovani’s ability allowed her to trace his residual energy like a hound.

To the Council, it was the best chance of finding him. To Atlas, it was a wild goose chase and put a constant worry in the back of his mind about her health. To Rhovani, it was a chance to prove herself and to be with the man she loved a few days more.

However, besides a general feeling of unwelcome, there was nothing out of the ordinary here.

“Atlas, I can’t sense him. Do you think we could we get something to eat? Maybe somewhere outside of the city, though. They serve spicy food here and it’s too hot for me.” The brunette that now clung to his arm asked, looking up at him with a mild smile. Dressed in her short brown skirt and a sleeveless tank-top of the same color, Rhovani was a picture of beauty to the Telgradian.

“That’s fine with me. The last time we had anything hot to eat, we had to refill your glass twice to stop the burning.” Atlas responded with a mild smirk, walking down the cobbles of one of the multitude of Makarri streets. “Even afterwards you still came running to me in the middle of the night, asking to get you a glass of water.”

He made it sound like a chore, but of course he would fetch her the water if she asked. There was nothing he wouldn’t have done for the Telgradian princess those days.

***

“Where am I?”

He wasn’t expecting there to be a response, so when it came and took form of a softly spoken female voice, it startled him.

“Shin, are you ok? What happened?”

Amari’s form seemed to manifest through a cloud of grey vapour before his very eyes, and took a moment to fully appear. Her hair was straight, falling in soft waves over her still naked and frost covered body. Strands hung in layers about her glowing face. Her nose was petit and her cheeks were smooth. Her eyes seemed to consist of pools of light, ones that Shinsou’s own eyes could never really focus on, as if one were gazing into ultra-violet light. She gazed at him with those eyes that sparkled, those beautiful things that regarded him with a warm interest, and yet all the while seemed to enquire.

When the realisation hit him after a few moments of reflection, Shinsou’s eyes widened with shock.

It couldn’t be.

“I…that was…” The words failed him. He could hear them in his mind but they couldn’t be shaped because the Telgradian couldn’t believe their meaning.

“I just recalled a memory…from before. It’s the first time this has ever happened. It should be impossible…”

In the blink of an eye, the atmosphere changed and for a moment it threw Shinsou off guard. The air became hot and dry, but laced with a familiar scent of Jal Shey bitterweed that caused him to squint unflatteringly. Another memory; just a fleeting one, but still a memory.

What the fuck is going on?