She didn't know whether to laugh or resent her existence. Rennia was running through very narrow passages, squeezing and doing whatever she could to protect her breasts and her cock (which was awkwardly bouncing about) from being seriously injured. Everything was rocky in this little enclosure.
Gossamer's little Vinegremlins—the creatures were like miniaturized bandits. They were very fast, catching up to her constantly, nipping at her ankles or her feet, wrapping their vine-like limbs around her wrists, or just plain simply trying to spit the saliva that came out of their mouths onto her.
One was directly beneath her crotch the moment she'd gotten stuck between a passage. She kicked at the thing, squashing it into a wet, messy pulp, sneering her displeasure and disgust at the thing all the goddamn same. But of course, one came after the other. "Get lost, you little creeps!"
The creatures purred, squealed, and hissed at her. Kicking one away made no difference. Punching another left her hand messier perhaps. But everything left vine slime on her sweaty breasts.
"Ooooh! You really hate this, don't you! Haha, irritate her, my minions. Bite her tits off, lick her butt!"
The situations she gets herself into has been nothing but ridiculous. She buried the thought.
Quicken! she shouted. The skill was the only way to get away from them
.Their behavior was erratic to say the least, but she was pretty sure they were horrible at coordination—their attempts at capturing her had been failing horribly. Why Gossamer didn't swarm her with them was kind of a blessing.
However, anything to avoid capture. She didn't think Gossamer would be as merciful to her as she was to Maeve.
She took a detour. Instead of barreling forward—call it a hint or a feeling in her gut—but while she didn't know where she was going, there was an odd presence this way.
She vaulted and hopped and jumped, anything to get ahead or disorient the things behind her, and it had paid off.
She stumbled into a strange, compact chamber. There were all manner of things—tables, furniture, trinkets of every kind—but more importantly, she saw what she had been looking for. Her weapons. Gear. All crumpled into a pile in the corner. She lunged at the gear, only to hear her forehead make a small cracking sound.
A massive forcefield cut her off, transculent barely optical.
"No, no, no, Rennia. We can't have that~ Not yet, I'm afraid."
Rennia spun around to see the floating Gossamer and her minions approaching. She swiftly kicked one of the disgraces of existence into oblivion, then pointed at the Fae.
"You said you'd give my weapons back, Gossamer! I demand them back now!"
Gossamer summoned a vine from the ground below. She bounced onto it, her little wings stabilizing her body on the hanging vine. "Read the fine print, Rennia Perillion. You agreed to a personal contest, and I intend to see it through. Teehee~"
Rennia spat while kicking another creature. "I would like to see you 'teehee' when I make you squirm, you insolent excuse of a spirit."
Gossamer held her hand over her mouth. "How vulgar. You Osterrians really are a disgusting bunch." She snapped her fingers, her face turning very morose. "Chop, chop. The clock is ticking. If you fail, I might just have to keep you here."
Rennia scoffed and started running—heel into the ground, toe forward. Out of breath and out of options, she pivoted forward. That was at least one of the places she needed to go. This didn't feel like much of a game at all. It felt like Gossamer wanted her to get tired while running.
The next chamber came quickly after. This one was curious—filled with gear, adventurers' gear, nothing too rare. However, some of it may have belonged to previous adventurers who'd run afoul here. Maybe that Wildborn woman, Fyrne—perhaps her gear was here. The other adventurers too?
"Ignore that for now. Souvenirs from guests who couldn't play nicely. I had to take it as payment for entering my residence."
"Temporary residence, you mean!" Rennia hissed at her. "This town is going to stop at nothing to get rid of you. Everyone believed you're a spirit, but if word got out that a nasty little Fae is trapped in here, next thing you know, the mountain gets flooded with iron arrows."
While she had mocked Gossamer—who floated behind her, the little vine creatures suddenly disapearred out of sight—Rennia had walked up to an altar in the room. A golden chalice sat on it. That was an easy 1,000 gold coins, and it was just sitting here.
A vine shot out at her. "You wouldn't dare to touch that, and you wouldn't dare to spread nasty rumors about me, now would you!"
Rennia dodged the vine, but another came from behind, whipping her across her ass cheeks. Gossamer laughed as it lacerated rennia's ass. The pain made Rennia stand up straight, and she could feel her cock throb in response.
Why did she find that hot? It did hurt.
"Like that, don't you, dirty little human? They ought to ban big busoms such as yourself!"
Rennia, angered my insults and in a mood to spite the Fae, yanked the chalice from the altar and started running with it. If she was going to make it out in one piece, it would be richer and not in defeat.
"Hey! That's not part of the game!" Gossamer called out.
"It's more fun this way, no?"
The Faerie pondered about it. Perhaps it was. Perhaps her minions were boring her. Perhaps this was why she could lash Rennia herself.
Rennia, breathing like a chimney, kept the treasure lodged between her breasts, her other hand swaying in the air as she ran. The path forward led to a wider cavern—one on the upper parts of the mountain. There was a small stretch of sky that was open from above. She could see the sky, orange and blue, which meant that it had nearly been late afternoon.
How long was she asleep?
A vine tore out of the ground as Gossamer rematerialized, sitting in the air cross-legged. She was swinging her legs, looking down. "You're doing so well! Most adventurers either give up by now or beg me to spare their pitiful little lives."
Rennia, still gripping the chalice, took a breath and backed away. She stared at Gossamer and swore. "Fuck you! I didn't need all this. It was supposed to be a perfect job. But it looks like everyone wants a piece of me."
Gossamer was quiet, just staring. "Put down the chalice. This isn't fun anymore."
"What?" Rennia was outraged. It was her idea in the first place. "You made me run this far, and now you're backtracking?"
"Shut up! Put down the chalice and come here! Now!" The voice echoed, loud and distorted. Rennia shivered and...gave in to her whims.
"Good girl. So you do have ears after all."
Rennia shoved her finger in Gossamer's face. This creature was bringing up all the pent-up irrationality in her. "What the hell do you want from me? I came here to get rid of the spirit that plagued the town. You think what you're doing is ethical Faerie?"
Gossamer giggled. "Ethics. How cute."
Rennia had the urge to lodge a stone at her, but unsure of the fallout, she decided to avoid that particular thought. "You think toying with people's lives is fun. Fae are supposed to be morally good."
Gossamer sighed. "Booooring~ topic. I don't care about human and elven goodwill and laws. I want entertainment! I was sent here to do a job, but I can't do that while adventurers are taking my attention away. So I reckoned having fun on the job, was the only way to do that but I can't cast my glamour if adventures, keep interrupting me!"
Rennia stopped. She thought—there were a few things that tipped her off, and maybe pissing Gossamer off further wouldn't be the best option. "You mentioned someone... Ember. And the Dark Queen of Hearts. What do they have to do with this?"
Gossamer seemed happy by the change in conversation. She leaned forward. "Queen of Hearts? Only met her twice. What's funny is she has a cock much like you, and she's not afraid to use it." She giggled. "Yours is so small in comparison."
No. Noooo! This was what Arosia was setting her up to fight against. A dark lady with a big penis. Someone larger than her, it sounded absurd. It has to be lie or something. What would she do in such a situation. She was not a hero like her mother was.
It was not going to end well. It didn't take a rat's ass to know how that fight would go, but she'd have to confer this to Ishmere. What if the fight ended with the Queen's cock in her pussy? That would be bad, that would be terrible infact, terrible enough that she had to vividly think about it.
"And this Ember person?"
Gossamer put her finger on her lips. "Well... I'm not supposed to tell. She's kinda my employer for the month." Her face started to lighten up, as if she was in a trance. "She's a succubus, and apparently, she and her boss—the Dark Queen of Hearts—yeah, she pretty much needs all this sexual energy, which is why they got me to extract it from the silly humans in the town below the mountain."
"A succubus, huh?" Now she was intrigued. Everything so far lined up with what Maeve said. What was strange was that Ishmere didn't detect anything about this. "Say, about 'Ember'—she wouldn't be able to cast hexes, would she?"
Gossamer furrowed her brow. "Yeah, she's an expert. Why do you ask? You want her to cast a hex on you? Kinky, but I don't judge. If you want, I can give you her contact details. Just know she lives far away, though."
"Does she and this Queen of Hearts work together a lot?"
"Well, I—" Gossamer froze and looked up at the little crevice of sky above. "No more questions. If you wanna know everything else, you're going to have to earn it."
Or she could leave, beeline for the town, organize a raid, and hope whatever adventurers were there would be a force strong enough to chase the Fae away. Or she could stay here, keep entertaining Gossamer, and hope she leaked more info. It was risky, and judging by the way Gossamer was staring at her tits, it was going to get intense.
Then there was Maeve. Yeah, no. She had no choice in this matter.
Rennia faked the widest smile she had. "What did you have in mind?"
Gossamer started floating ahead. "Do you wanna see the hot springs? You wanna see where the silly villagers go to play? Because I can take you there, and we can play there, carefree."
She pondered. Well, she had already made up her mind. She was going to see this through, for Maeve's sake.
"Alright then. Lead the way." Rennia closed the distance between them.
"Trust me, you're going to love it." Gossamer waved frantically."This way. Last stop before I gotta prepare for temporarary leave."
Temporary leave wouldn't be enough, she had enough detail now to write a detailed rapport. She only need Gossamer to yap more.