Attuning
Sung Scales and Untold Tales
by MourningStarsOfLakes
CW: It's the kobold sex chapter.
A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;
Hands have no tears to flow.
– The Hand that Signed the Paper, Dylan Thomas
The Bottle’s Bottom was nearly empty when Ellice returned from her dinner with Veera. All but a few lanterns had been put out and the surly tavern keeper was skulking around the edges of his establishment re-righting fallen stools and attacking scattered bits of food with a broom. He gave Ellice an annoyed look as she pushed the door open, eyes darting from the half-elf to the only table with patrons still remaining. Ellice heard the reason for his annoyance a split-second before she saw it.
So come fill up your glasses with brandy and wineWhatever it costs I will payAnd be easy and free when you’re drinking with meI’m a –
“Ellice!” The blue bard stopped her slurred song as soon as she saw her friend. The gaggle of creatures chattering around Meda turned to look in Ellice’s direction. Around a circular slab of wood standing only two-and-a-half feet from the floor a scrunch-faced ratkin, a pair of goblins, Meda, a red kobold, and a giggling gnome sat playing a game. Colored cards lay face down in front of each player save for three cards already flipped up to show an iris, a violet, and a rose. Ellice swished through the barren beer hall to stand behind Meda.
“Well you’re a tall one, aren’t you?” The gnome giggled as she slugged down the last of her beer. Her blurry eyes gawked at Ellice through large, round spectacles.
“She’s my tall one,” Meda replied proudly, tilting her lizardish head back to grin at Ellice. Ellice playful ran two silken fingers down the scaly snout. Once again all feeling through the gloves was intensified a hundred fold. The tremors spawned from the touch almost made her lose her footing. Meda gurgled pleasantly.
“Sshhh,” the ratkin hissed, “I’m trying to think–”
“First time tonight,” Meda cackled. The rest of the table laughed with her. “You overbet, Deets.”
“Ssshh!” the rakin hissed furiously, beady eyes scanning each card in turn, ”I have two petals, Grek has a petal. His other card is probably a skull. Jinx has been throwing a skull first every round, so… Jinx turn over your second card.”
“Aww,” the gnome sighed, flipping over a tulip, “You got me.”
“Two more Dieter,” the red kobold chuckled. His claws scrabbled idly at the table.
“Two more, two more…” His whiskered nose twitched as he looked around the table. “Leff could have started on a skull or ended on one, but I don’t think she’d throw double petals. Vreskin bet two, but he’s been bluffing hard all game. Probably trying to trick me into thinking his piles are safe. Meda…”
The blue bard smiled toothily at her name, a clawed hand tipping her feathered cap. “Yes Deets?”
“You’re being cheeky; singing songs and cracking jokes. You want me to think you’ve set me up with your pile, playing petal then skull instead of skull then petal. But if that’s what you want me to think, then you actually did go skull then petal. Unless…”
“Pick a card Deets and we’ll find out.” Meda’s laughing, gold-flecked eyes taunted him even more than her words.
“Ah, but I don’t have to pick one,” Dieter pointed a smug claw across the table, “Because you lost your skull four rounds ago! You haven’t actually looked at your cards since! You’d only do that if you only had petals left!”
“Which card, Dieter?” Two scaly blue hands tapped onyx claws on the backs of her face down cards. “You need to pick.”
“Both!” The table was intensely staring at the cards on the table. Tension hung like incense in the air.
“Tut tut,” Meda chided, “One at a time.”
“That one!” Dieter pointed at the card on Meda’s left with a self-satisfied grin. The bard slid a claw under it and flipped it in a single motion. The point of her razor-sharp nail was embedded in the forehead of a grimacing skull.
“What?!” Dieter’s hand smacked into his forehead, “But! But! You didn’t even look at them when you put them down!”
“It’s more fun that way. Not even I know what I have, so we’re all betting against pure chaos.”
“Gods you’re vexing,” Dieter harumphed as he gathered his own cards, picking one to remove from the game.
“Thanks!” Meda chirped cheerily, “And with that I have to take my leave for the night. Always a pleasure.”
A chorus of goodbyes rushed around the blue kobold as she jumped out of her seat. A grinning snout turned upwards toward Ellice.
“Ellice! Did you like the ballad I wrote for you tonight?”
Panic flooded Ellice’s face. She’d been late to Meda’s performance and had only heard the one song before ducking out again to go meet Veera. She felt awful missing a piece her friend had written for her.
“Oh no,” she started, shaking her head sadly, “I’m so sorry I–”
She looked down at the jovial, twinkling eyes and the widening, fang-toothed grin. It only took Ellice a second to understand.
“Oh! You little rascal!” Ellice returned the kobold’s grin, “You had me worried I’d actually missed something. You didn’t write me a ballad.”
“I’ve written you many ballads, Ellice.” Meda covered her heart melodramatically with her clawed hand. Her puppy-dog eyes tried their best to sell her mock sentimentality. “But none of them were ever perfect enough to capture your beauty. I’ve had to scrap them all.”
Giggles and chuckles erupted from the nearby table. Ellice shot Dieter a knowing look.
“You’re right, she is a vexing one.”
“Oh, but I’m your vexing one,” Meda cooed as she hugged Ellice around the waist. Gods she loved this stupid blue scamp. The table of card players laughed again and Dieter tipped a glass towards the two in salutations.
With a gentle hand, Ellice shepherded her scaly friend towards the door. Meda was not one to leave quietly after a night of song and revelry.
I’m a piper by tradeI’m a roving young bladeAnd it’s many the tune that I playSo–
“I’ll believe that when I hear it,” the tavern keeper snapped just as Ellice opened the door to the outside, “You’ve been singing that same damn song for the last half-hour!”
Meda pointed a mirthful claw at him and cackled as she continued:
So be easy and free when you’re drinking with meI’m a bard you don’t meet every day!
Ellice tugged the kobold out the door and shouted a hasty “Sorry!” behind her as it closed. Outside, the silver of the waning moon lit the cobbled paths in the clear night air. Meda spun out of Ellice’s grasp, arms wide; giggling as she twirled into the intersection.
“Awww sweetie, you’re drunk.”
“No, I’m Meda!” The bard tittered. Ellice groaned internally even as she reflexively chuckled. “And really, I’m just barely buzzed. It’s just been a fun night and I’m not yet ready for the fun to end.”
Meda stopped spinning and returned to Ellice’s side, walking briskly to keep up with the half-elf’s longer strides. Ellice slowed down a tad to compensate.
“Relinth said you had dinner with the vicious Veera. How’d that go? Did she steal the cutlery? Stick you with the bill?”
“There were some rough spots, but it actually went pretty well. We managed to clear the air about a couple of things. Who knows, we might be allies instead of enemies before too much longer!”
Or lovers, Ellice thought quietly.
“That’s great! Although speaking of clear air…” Meda snuggled closer to Ellice with a shiver. “It’s nice for stargazing but the clouds help hold the heat in. And my room gets so cold on nights like these…”
She looked up pleadingly at Ellice who was already rolling her eyes. “And my bed is so small that I can’t roll over more than once without falling off. And my room is so very far away…”
Ellice bit her lip to stifle a giggle. Meda wriggled a scaly arm around her waist.
“And my scales blend in so darkly with the night air that a passing carriage may not see me and bowl me over as I trudge home to my tiny cold hovel. And then I’d never be able to finish my masterpiece: ‘Ode to Ellice’s Left Breast” which opens with the lines:
Rounded globe, so full and fairI think I’ll put a fang mark there.
“Damn it, Meda,” she chortled, covering her mouth with the back of her hand, “Just ask like a normal person.”
The kobold stopped suddenly, dropping to one knee.
“Ellice, moonlight on the waters of my soul, my tall, beautiful furnace, life’s sweetness incarnate; may I accompany you home and crawl into your bed and plant flickering, serpentine kisses on your smooth skin and then gnaw on you in our shared moments of love and lust?”
“That’s still–”
“AND THEN curl up next to you under the blankets and suck all your warmth into my cold skin and maybe kick you a bit in the middle of the night if I have a bad dream?”
“Meda! What normal person would say any of that?!”
“Ahem.” The kobold cleared her throat and sucked in a deep breath. Rising to her feet, she spoke in a prim and proper tone, “Ellice, do you want to go to your place and fuck and cuddle?”
“Yes you little doofus. Let’s go”
Hand in claw they hastily made their way towards Ellice’s quarters.
The tiny feathered cap went flying into the closest corner of the room as soon as Meda stepped across the threshold. With a three-stepped hop she jumped towards the dead center of Ellice’s large, soft bed. Her leather vest launched off of her back at the apex of the leap, smacking into the far wall with a dull crinkle. The blue lizard hopped on all fours in a merry circle on the mattress, tittering as she manically chased her tail for a solid ten seconds. Amber eyes surged with hunger as the cobalt kobold stopped suddenly, her snout pointing directly at Ellice.
“Ellice,” she whined eagerly, “Take off your clothes and come to bed.”
The half-elf ran silken fingers through her silver hair, grinning defiantly. “Why don’t you make me?”
“Oh!” Meda scrambled to her hind legs, her tail thumping excitedly against the bed, “You want to face the dragon queen?”
“Yes,” Ellice responded haughtily, holding her head high. “Although I doubt a mere dragon could best a druid of my stature.”
“Kass-sah!” The draconic word rippled through the space between them, warping the air around Meda with a deep, blue haze. The kobold’s silhouette stretched and grew another foot and her horns elongated wickedly. Black, leathery wings sprouted from her back; flapping menacingly.
“Little half-elf,” Meda bellowed in a booming voice, “You stand before Meda Sirensong of Sslassi’s line. Bow before me and I will show you mercy.”
< SSlassi? > Isaphine interrupted out of nowhere < The tyrant? Her brood still lives? >
< It’s okay Isaphine > Ellice assured her, trying not to ruin the mood < We’re just pretending >
< I– Very well >
“Meek little morsel,” Meda growled from her pillow perch, “Surrender!”
“I don’t think so,” Ellice replied in mock disinterest, turning to leave, “And little? Even stretched to your full height I’m still two feet taller than you.”
“Sarrak mmnem” The guttural phrase was accompanied by a slash through the air. Rips of blue hue appeared at the tips of Meda’s claws and cerulean wisps bled into the room through the rends in space. They floated silently and fluidly towards Ellice as the bard sang.
Sarrak mmnemYour pointed ears hear my songYour body moves and sways alongYour mind relaxing, so sereneAs you dance to face your Queen
Spectral blues globbed on to Ellice’s joints: knees, elbows, hips, waist, ankles, and neck; pulsing in time with Meda’s song. Two more swirled around her ears amplifying the bard’s voice while pleasantly fogging out her thoughts. A reflexive resistance kicked up in herself, but she banished it away willingly; choosing to relax into Meda’s words and let her magics have their way with her. Alas her mind-fogged blissfulness was immediately interrupted.
< Ellice, she is trying to control you! > Worry seeped through Isaphine’s mental connection.
< I know. It’s a game we play > Ellice explained, unsure how much the item would understand kink play < We both enjoy this and trust each other. We’ve done this a hundred times before and Meda has never hurt me. I’ll let you know if I need help, I promise >
< I… > There was a pause that echoed with doubt < I don’t understand, but I’ll leave you to your game >
Ellice swayed seductively in a circle, her head swooning in a serpentine back-and-forth pattern as she faced Meda. A soothing numbness caressed her skin where the blue wisps manipulated her body to do their bidding. With Isaphene’s worries quieted again, she was able to sink into the arousing and pleasurable feeling of being controlled.
Sarrack mmnemBecoming more and more my thrallSlave to my ev’ry beck and callProve that you have naught to hideAs you toss your cloak aside
Ellice’s hands moved sensuously across her own breasts, teasing outward as the cobalt dragon bounced excitedly on the bed. She gasped in pleasure as blue light tickled her brain and sensation shot through her chest. Her gloved hands slid up over her shoulders and peeled off her green cloak. With a pleased grin she asserted a modicum of control over her arms, feeling the enthralling lights tense and resist against her. As soon as they realized she was trying to make more of a show, trying to twirl her cloak twice around her wrist before casting it to the foot of the bed, they buzzed with glee. Ecstatic vibrations drilled through her skin and, more blissfully, along the silk covered gloves, leaving her panting as she completed her task.
Sarrack mmnemA dress of forest green and goldWould look better when all is toldOn the floor, now let it slipObey me, sweet Ellice, and strip!
Tree-green shoulder straps stretched at the urging of her obedient fingers, straining against the embroidered body of the garment. Smoothly the dress flowed over her pale skin, soft fabric tingling against her torso. Ellice gyrated her hips as the golden hem passed them by, leveraging each motion into a circular step. Acquiescence under the power of Meda’s spell was expected, but active complicity was rewarded. She strutted in a circle to show her draconic mistress the entirety of her body as it was revealed from under the dress, and the puppeteering blue shades sent zaps of thrilling energy soaring through her.
Every movement that served Meda’s whims felt uproariously good; pleasant, soothing, and pleasurable. Accompanying the buzzing bliss of the blue shades was the floaty feeling of being unburdened by any real choice. The feeling of just letting herself be moved and guided by another without needing to worry. She pulled the dress over her head and dropped it to the floor. Her body came alive with bliss.
Sarrack mmnemA teasing tongue between your legsAn elvish voice that whines and begsGrowing more insistent as you dareTo strip away your underwear.
Misty blue magic scurried down Ellice’s stomach and burrowed under her dampening panties. Chilly flicks of sensation played across her vulva causing her thighs to grind together.
“Fuck. Yessss. Morrrreee!” Ellice pleaded as her clawed fingers fumbled with the ties at the sides of her undergarment. The teasing between her legs intensified and her knees began to wobble. Whining noises fiddled across her vocal cords and poured out of her mouth, with each yip triggering another lash of ecstasy below.
Meda bounced off the bed, cackling wickedly. Her back claws dug into the wooden floorboards as she pushed herself up to her full height. Wide, dark wings fluttered joyously behind her as she approached the pleasure-locked half-elf.
“Meeeeeda. Pleaaaaase…” Ellice had given up trying to untie and loosen her underwear’s drawstrings and was now trying to wriggle them over her hips to obey the dragon’s command. However the pleasure between her legs was forcing her thighs to squeeze too tightly together and her hips were rolling too harshly to accomplish her task.
“I-I-I c-c-can’t… Aaaaeeee! Hhhelp me pleasssse. Hhhelp me oooobeyyyyyy!”
The transformed kobold’s cobalt scales glistened as she reached a single black claw upward to prod Ellice’s forehead. The claw emanated a gentle downward pressure and Ellice knew what Meda wanted her to do. It was easy, her knees were already too weak to leave her standing for much longer. She sunk to the ground, still twitching as pleasure overloaded her brain. Her bulging, emerald, needy eyes met the amused amber pools of gleeful dominance; now just barely requiring her to tilt her head upward.
Ellice whined at her draconic mistress and her vision blurred with magical pleasure.
“Who’s little now?” Meda sneered, running three cold claws lightly through Ellice’s silver hair. The half-elf trembled as they trailed down the back of her neck a moment later.
“I am,” the druid gasped between licks of bliss, “I’m s-s-s-small and powerlesssssss. Fuuuck! Pleassssse. I can’t– I can’t– I can’t–”
Her eyes rolled back into her head as her torso rocked with the cresting pleasure vibrating through her body. Her jittering arms fell uselessly to the side as she edged closer and closer to a climax she knew she hadn’t earned yet. Mewling snivels squeaked out of her mouth as she tried to tell Meda how much she needed the kobold to force her body into obedience but failed to do so every time.
“Oh yes, such a weak little adventurer.” The blue-scaled snout nuzzled against Ellice’s cheek and she moaned in delight. Meda’s claws were raking slowly down her back; not hard enough to draw blood but enough to make Ellice yelp from a tiny wave of pain before being hit with the surge of endorphins riding in its wake.
“Too weak to even remove her own underwear. A slave to her own lust.” Meda was whispering right into Ellice’s ear now. The serpentine tongue and snout took a break every few words to flick kisses onto the half-elf’s cheek and neck. A sharp pain stabbed into the small of her back. “It’s almost a mercy to make you my thrall. You can’t control yourself, so you need a queen to control you.”
“Yes yesssss,” Ellice panted, “control me.”
The pushpin pain in her back disappeared, leaving ripples of sensation that endorphins rushed to soothe. Ellice’s underwear pulled tight against her cleft, eliciting a moaning squeal of sudden delight. With a soft rip the garment tore open as Meda’s claws shredded through the fabric. The broken waist strap slid forward over her thighs, peeling away the slick panties and leaving Ellice near-naked. The overexcited wisps, their most recent task accomplished, trembled happily against the kneeling druid’s clit. The orgasm annihilated her ability to string together any thought other than how good it felt to obey.
“Just one more thing to lose my thrall.” Meda kissed her on the forehead as two sets of jet-black claws prickled down her arms. “Or rather, a pair of things.”
“Yessssss.” Ellice’s hooded eyes rolled along the bottom of their sockets as her mind thudded with afterglow. “Whatever you want…”
A claw snagged beneath the sleeve of the silken glove, pulling it carefully down Ellice’s arm. For a moment the rub of the indigo fabric against her skin was divine. And then pain surged through her arm.
< NO! >
Isaphine shrieked in her mind. The calm nightsky violets and deep blues burst with shining silver threading. Meda jumped a foot backwards and crashed into the side of the bed with a clumsy thunk. Before she could gather her wits, a familiar magical tug crawled up Ellice’s arm, over her shoulders, and into her head. Her lips quivered as magical threads began to move them.
“Vile tyrant,” Isaphine sneered in disgust using Ellice’s voice. The half-elf’s head hung crookedly to the side as her panicked eyes darted around the room. She pushed hard against the mental connection but the sentient item pushed back harder, coiling its control even tighter around their shared mental space. “Sower of division! Traitor of Vrak-Laa! Soon your descendents will be excised from existence. Threads ripped from the tapestry of being.”
“Ellice,” Meda whimpered, her transformed visage melting away in drips of blue magic. “Are you okay? Your gloves lit up and…”
Meda’s eyes went wide with amber terror as Ellice’s arm drifted shakily into the air between them. Isaphine reached through their connection for magical energy and Ellice focused with all her might to block it. Her puppeted hand pointed malevolently at the kobold, silver light coalescing at the gloved fingertip. Awful power thrummed in a magical ball of light.
Then Isaphine’s control went slack. Ellice felt her lips sag free of the woven control as her arm plummeted to her side. The baneful ball of light faded away and the silver embroidery dimmed for a moment before weakly reasserting its presence.
“Ellice, please.” Meda begged, horror etched across her snout. “Take off the gloves. Something’s wrong with them.”
The druid ran her fingertips up the smooth shafts of fabric meaning to yank them off, but amidst the tingling pleasure of sliding silken sensation Isaphine’s voice wove through her thoughts.
< Ellice, I’m sorry. I lost my temper. Be a good doll and forget. >
Her jaw dropped as gossamer webs of light bundled up her memories. She grasped vainly at them as they floated away. Blankly she awaited for a thought to fill the night-dark void in her mind.
“They’re dangerous, Ellice. Of the few who still know the name Vrak-Laa, none are sorry for what happened to them.” Meda’s fang slid over her lip. “Any connection to that cult should be destroyed.”
“Meda…” Ellice blunk her green eyes as her will slowly reasserted itself. The world was swimming in tumbling currents of pleasure, sensation, magic, and pain. She had been doing something important, but couldn’t quite remember what it was. Meda had just said something about the gloves, about Ispahine, a cult…
< Cult?! > Isaphine interrupted angrily. < How dare she! We brought peace to the dragon desolated wastes. >
“Meda I–” She stopped suddenly as Ispahine’s power surged through her.
< Your mind sleeps, but still you listen. Your mind sleeps, but your body obeys. >
“Sssssssleeep…” Ellice droned as her mind shut down. Isaphine wasted no time.
<Ellice, my silken doll, put the kobold to sleep. Make her forget. >
Half-lidded eyes stared dreamily at her friend, silver pinpricks glowing in the green irises. Her arm floated wistfully upward as a smile stretched across her face.
“Meda…” she sighed.
“Ellice, what are–”
“Sleep and forget.”
Argent serpents slithered across the space between them and tangled around the cobalt snout. Panicked betrayal swiftly subsided as the coils of magic burrowed beneath Meda’s scales. The kobold bard slumped to the ground, deeply asleep. Ellice wavered above her, dull-eyed and smiling sleepily. Isaphine’s pleased voice purred in her mind.
< Good doll. >
The praise rang sweetly through the threads running beneath her skin and into her mind; an ecstatic song that made her muscles spasm in delight. She whimpered pitifully at the needful longing between her legs.
< One day I’ll be able to control you directly when needed, my precious puppet, and you can live the rest of your days in subsumed silken bliss. But until then we need our nightly ritual. Ellice, my threaded thrall, repeat your affirmations of obedience. >
The silver words filled her mind and her mouth moved as she’d been taught.
“I am a pretty doll. I move as my strings command. Isaphine commands my strings.”
Ellice fell to her knees, gloved hands roaming over her naked body.
“When she speaks, I listen. When she commands, I obey. Her will is stitched into mine. I love when her magics move me.”
Silver strings manipulated her muscles and silken fingers plunged between her thighs, sliding over her sensitive slit. Her other hand jerked upward into the air as if being tugged at the wrist. Isaphine moved within her and the hand flew to her mouth, clamping its smoothness tightly over her lips. The fingers between Ellice’s legs moved quicker and she moaned into the soft fabric as Isaphine’s control embroidered itself further through her mind and body.
“I am a thrally dolly,” she squeaked into the silk, “My body exists for Isaphine to play with and pose. My mind exists to experience her bliss and pleasure. My magic exists to serve the mitts of moonlight.”
Indigo silk smoothed over her brain as a shivering orgasm wracked her body. Her muffled moan vibrated against her gloved hand, feeding the pleasure back to her through Isaphine’s fabric. She was just an empty doll being played with by her clothen mistress. There was no greater pleasure.
< Very good. I think it’s time for some new words for you dolly. >
Ellice felt the threads stitch new thoughts into her mind as her body continued to grind against her puppeted hand. She furrowed her brow in distress as they began to flow across her vocal cords.
“I will help Isaphine control my my my…” Her eyes rolled and her body bucked hard. She didn’t like these words. “M-m-m-m-my-y-y-y-y-y-y…”
Gasping, she pitched forwards, almost landing on the still slumbering Meda. She yanked her arm away from her mouth in a moment of defiance.
“No! Isaphine, they’re my friends!”
The bard shifted in her sleep at the outburst, but it wasn’t enough to stir her from her magical slumber. Ellice’s hips continued to roll against the controlled arm between her legs. A silken finger perched itself right over her clit, hovering tantalizingly.
< Bad doll.> Isaphine hissed in her mind. Her muscles went tense and her jaw snapped shut. < When I speak, you do what?>
The hold loosened over her face and Ellice felt the answer being pushed into her thoughts.
“I list–” She stopped herself with a snarl of resistance. “No. I don’t want… I won’t…”
Her lips tugged inward like a bag being tugged shut by its pursestrings, but she could feel the control wavering. Isaphine wasn’t strong enough yet to deal with active resistance. If she kept thrashing against the glove’s control, she’d break through soon enough.
< They’ll still be your friends, my doll; and happier after I’ve woven my control through them. You’re happier as my doll, aren’t you? >
The silken finger on her clit quivered across the sensitive organ, but Ellice stayed strong. With great effort, she removed the hand from between her legs and began reaching to peel off the other glove.
< You are, even if you won’t admit it. > Isaphine’s control retreated from the rest of her body to slow Ellice’s movements towards removing her. There was an edge of panic to the smooth voice as Isaphine continued. < You’ll be happier when they’re all under my loving control. Then none of them can ever betray you. >
“My friends would never–” Ellice growled as Isaphine’s control over her arms broke entirely. For a relieved moment, she thought she’d won.
Then a tingling drowsiness tumbled through her mind. Her eyelids grew heavy and her muscles weary. Behind her eyelids, tiny threads worked to carry off her memories. She sank to the floor and curled up against the sleeping bard, snoring softly.
< Good dollies are still > Isaphine whispered weakly < Good dollies sleep and forget. >