The potter down by the river was a doddering old man, his arms smeared with clay to the elbows but his clothes somehow pristine. He took my order for a collection of differently-sized beads scaled from a quarter inch all the way up to three inches without blinking, and only asked what color I would like the glaze to be.

I let Kitana pick, and she chose a turquoise glaze. The old man nodded and said he’d have his assistant deliver the beads once they were made. Once we left the shop, Kitana peppered me with questions, trying to understand why I wanted a bunch of beads made. I fended her off, and distracted her with the challenge of finding me clothes that were within my budget.

By the time I was dressed in new clothes, it was time to head toward the church. Kitana led the way, and explained that her family had a private box on the balcony.

“Will your parents be there?” I asked

She shook her head and snorted. “Yeah right. My mom doesn’t even believe the Dragon is real.”

“Lira seems convinced.”

“Yeah, well. Lira’s actually seen him. But only the priests and priestesses are allowed into his caves.

“Don’t you want to see him with your own eyes?”

Kitana shrugged. “Sure, who wouldn’t? But I don’t want to be a priestess.”

I saw Lira coming from the other side of town, and lifted my hand in a wave. She looked good, her hair done up in a complex braid. Her robe looked like it might be a little damp around the bottom hem still, but nothing that would be noticeable if you weren’t looking for it.

Lira returned my greeting with a professional nod before turning away, but not before I saw a little flush color her cheeks. She was walking a little bowlegged, but she was doing a good job hiding the fact that she had received a deep anal fucking not two hours earlier.

The church was a massive stone structure that sat on a hill to the north of the town. I could see scars on the stonework, and scorch marks around the doors and windows. The church was a place of worship, but it was also the town’s fortress.

Kitana and I fell into the stream of villagers coming to the church. Inside, ranks of candelabra filled the soaring hall with warm light. Kitana led me to the side, and we climbed a narrow flight of stairs to the balcony level. There were a series of private booths along the balcony, separated by filigree screens made of finely carved wood.

The screens were mostly opaque, but you could see through just enough to tell if there was anyone on the inside. We went to the booth on the end and Kitana opened the door. The booth on the other side was spacious, with a row of four plush chairs pushed up next to the balcony. We had a good view overlooking the rows of pews below and the dais at the front.

“Fancy,” I grunted.

Kitana rolled her eyes. “It’s the mayor’s booth.”

I sat down, and Kitana immediately moved to straddle my hips. I slid my hands over her waist and cupped her ass as she bent down to press her mouth to mine. There was something illicit about stealing a kiss and a grope in the church. The semi-public setting seemed to spur something on in Kitana and she moaned hungrily into my mouth.

We kissed for a minute or two, the rustle and mutter of the congregation settling in below us a distant backdrop. I was starting to get worked up, and the question of how far Kitana intended to take our little tryst was beginning to become more than academic. Then there was a knock on the door, and Kitana whispered a curse before sliding off me.

She tugged her skirt straight and patted her hair flat before opening the door. I saw her back stiffen in irritation, and she blew a sigh.

“What do you want, Eston?”

“Kitana, I’ve been worried about you!” An elf brushed past Kitana into the booth, apparently oblivious to my presence. Eston was a young man, a few inches taller than Kitana. He was classically handsome, and dressed in a stiff brocade vest. He gave me the instant impression of Kitana’s mother, just male and young. He looked like a total tool. “You missed our weekly date.”

Kitana rolled her eyes and looked over at me. “Mr. Jack, this is Eston. My mother’s chosen match.”

I stood up and moved to stand behind Kitana. I was head and shoulders taller than Eston, and probably outweighed him by a hundred pounds. He looked up at me with mild interest and gave me a polite nod in greeting before turning his attention back to Kitana.

“I saw you enter the church. It’s unseemly for you to be alone with the human. Come across to my family’s booth.” Eston reached out to grab Kitana’s arm, and she pulled back before he could touch her.

“I don’t belong to you, Eston, no matter what my mother’s promised,” she said with a curled lip.

“What’s your problem, Kitana? You’ve been distant for months, and now you won’t even speak to me in the streets!”

I think I knew the answer to that mystery. Kitana stopped being interested in this kid right around the time I rammed my cock down her throat the first time. An idea occurred to me, a way to test Kitana’s path, and a way to get the kid to leave her alone.

“Eston, right? Come here, lad.” I pulled one of the chairs back from the balcony and positioned it in the middle of the booth. Then I grabbed him by the shoulder, manhandled him forward, and pushed him down into the chair. He tried to get up, and I pushed him back down again.

“What’s your problem?” Eston growled at me.

“You and I are going to have a conversation,” I said firmly. “You are interested in Kitana? Romantically?”

He nodded at the first question, and shot a glance at Kitana before nodding again.

“Ugh,” Kitana sighed, and crossed her arms.

“Have you had sex yet?” I asked bluntly.

“We’re not like you humans,” Eston said stiffly, trying for a haughty tone. “We don’t have weird ideas about sex. We can have sex when both parties are of age and free to choose.”

I kept the grin off my face, but it was difficult. “Right. Well, I’ll take that as a yes, then.” I gave his shoulder a squeeze, making it hard enough to draw a gasp of pain and a flinch. “You sit there for a second while I talk to Kitana.”

He fidgeted, but didn’t get up. I guided Kitana off to the side and I put my back to Eston so he couldn’t read my lips. “Kitty, how would you like to test a potential path?”

She looked up at me with wide eyes when I used her pet name. “What? Now? Here?”

“Give him a blow job. I’ll make him pay for it with coin. It’s a different thing, to trade sex for money, Kitty.”

Kitana swallowed. “I was kind of joking about being a whore,” she whispered.

I shrugged. “Why? You enjoy it. You’re good at it. There’s nothing wrong with it, if that’s what you want to do.”

A flush rose on her cheeks and a grin quirked at her lips as she warmed to the concept. “Okay. But only if I get to suck you off too.”

I chuckled. “No argument here. Right. Let me set this up.” I turned back to Eston and squatted down so my face was level with his. “Here’s the deal, Eston. Kitana doesn’t like you anymore, in case that wasn’t painfully obvious.”

Eston sputtered, too indignant to put his outrage into words.

“However, she is feeling charitable. She’s willing to give you a farewell blow job.”

The kid stared at me, visibly struggling to come to grips with what I was saying. Predictably, he clung to the last thing out of my mouth. “B…blow job?”

I gave him a bright smile. “That’s right. If you don’t want it, you can fuck off. If you do, drop your pants.” I straightened up and stepped back, giving him room.

Eston stared at me. “Now?”

“Right here, right now.” I tapped my foot impatiently. “You’ve got ten seconds to decide.”

It took Eston all of three seconds before he reached down and started fumbling at his belt. I gave Kitana a grin and a wink. “All yours, Kitty.”

Eston stood up to shuck his pants down to his knees, then he planted his hands on his hips and pushed his cock out toward Kitana with a proud look in his eyes. “Come and get it, Kitana!”

His dick was about the size and thickness of my middle finger, with a little downward curve and a pink head. He was already as hard as he was going to get.

Kitana gave me a long-suffering look, and got down on her knees in front of him. Eston jabbed his prick into her face a few times, until she opened her mouth and took him in.

Eston grabbed her head with both hands and ground his hips into her lips. “Yeah, Kitana! You like my cock, huh? Just couldn’t say goodbye without one last suck?”

Kitana looked about as bored as when she was filing index cards in the town hall. She let him fuck her face, and even made little glug-glug noises to encourage him. To me, the performance looked forced, but Eston was eating it up.

He continued to talk shit at her, reveling in his sexual conquest. Then, after about two minutes, he stiffened up and blew his nut. Kitana grimaced and swallowed it down, then sat back on her heels. Eston flopped down into the chair and panted with a proud grin on his face.

“Thanks, Mr. Jack. That’s how you gotta treat the women, you know. Show them who’s boss.”

“Huh. Maybe I can take some pointers from you, lad. I think it’s my turn, Kitana.”

Kitana brightened up and knee-walked over to me. She ran her hands over the bulge in my pants and felt along my hard length. Then she hooked her fingers in my waistband and pulled my pants down to my knees. I sprung out, half-hard and getting harder with every pulse of blood.

Eston’s confident smile faded and he stared at my cock, eight inches long and as thick around as Kitana’s wrist. Kitana’s hands glided up and down my shaft, stroking me to full hardness. Then she stretched up and sucked the head of my cock into her mouth.

She bobbed her head forward and gagged as the head of my cock hit the back of her throat. There was still over half my dick left to go, and she swallowed me past her tonsils before slowly forcing herself deeper onto my shaft.

I stroked her earlobe as she throated me and she looked up at me with adoring eyes. Her big brown eyes were starting to water, and a tear ran down her cheek and off her chin.

“Holy Dragon,” Eston muttered. He started to get up, and I grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back down again.

“Hang tight, there stud. I’m sure there’s something left I can learn from you.”

Eston watched in horrified fascination as Kitana worked herself down until her lips were wrapped around the base of my cock. Her throat was distended almost down to her collarbones, and I could see the bulge of my cock head sliding back and forth as she fucked her own throat.

Kitana pulled off of me and gasped for breath. She stroked me as she panted, her fingers sliding in the stringy saliva that coated my cock. She gave herself a few seconds, then swallowed me again. I slid straight into her throat this time, and I tangled my fingers in the hair at the back of her head.

She mewled eagerly, her moans vibrating around the head of my cock. I pulled her head to me and flexed my hips forward, sliding cleanly to the bottom before pulling out and starting to fuck her throat in earnest.

Eston tried to get up again, and I gripped his shoulder until he whined in pain. “Stay sitting, boy. We’re not done yet.”

Kitana tapped my thigh, letting me know she needed to breathe, but I kept my grip on her hair and kept fucking her throat. Her taps became urgent, then she tried to push me away. I pulled her to me until I was all the way in her throat, and only then let her back off.

She coughed and sucked in a deep lungful of air. “Oh, Dragon, Master Jack!” she panted. “Do that again!”

I was happy to oblige. For the next five minutes, I fucked Kitana’s throat until tears were streaming down her face and strings of saliva swung from her chin. We were making a puddle on the floor, and I grinned at the thought of it creating a permanent stain. Something for Kitana to see every time she came to church.

Eston watched me defile his erstwhile girlfriend, rotating through a gamut of emotions. He tried rage, grief, insulted pride, and indifference, before finally settling on lust. His little dick got hard again. He tried to cover it at first, then started masturbating pathetically.

Kitana got into a rhythm, gagging herself for thirty or forty seconds, then pulling off to take a few deep breaths before diving back in again. It was quickly getting me to the edge. Part of me wanted to hold off and show Eston how a real man could control himself. The other part wanted to get my nut and drown Kitana in cum.

I settled for a happy medium, and held off until Eston gave a little shiver and squirted onto his pants. Then I grunted and hauled Kitana off my dick. She coughed and looked up at me, lost in a haze of lust and half-delirious from lack of air.

“Open,” I grunted.

She widened her mouth and stuck her tongue out. I gave my cock a few strokes, then came in a spurt that splashed into her mouth and up the side of her face to her eyebrow. She flinched, then laughed softly as the rest of my load splashed into her mouth. She swallowed, then showed me her empty mouth.

“Good girl, Kitty,” I said. I cupped the side of her face and stroked her ear. She nuzzled into my hand and shivered.

“Holy Dragon,” Eston said hoarsely.

I tucked my cock back into my pants and straightened my shirt. “Well, Eston. Maybe there’s not anything you can teach me after all.”

He tried to get up again, and this time I let him. He looked up at me, thoroughly cowed, but struggling to scrape together a defiant glare. “Having a monster penis doesn’t make you any more of a man than me.”

I cracked a half-smile. “Maybe not. But it does get me the girl.”

Eston looked down at Kitana and his shoulders slumped. “Damn it.” He turned to leave, and I caught his arm. “What do you want?”

“The lady gave you something. It’s proper to give her something back,” I said.

He blinked at me. “Like… what?”

I leaned over and eyed the embroidered coin purse hanging on his belt. “That looks heavy. I’ll take that.”

Eston followed my eyes down to his purse. It took him a second to process what I was saying, then he gasped. “You want me to pay?”

“You’re not her boyfriend, lad. What she gave you doesn’t come for free.”

He flushed. “Does that make you her pimp or something? I’m not paying you anything!”

Eston tried to push past me to the door and I knocked him back to the wall. “It wasn’t a request, boy.”

I matched his glare with a deadpan look. I could snap him over my knee without even trying. Eston lasted all of five seconds before he broke. He tugged the purse off his belt and pushed it into my hands. “Are we done, then?” he asked bitterly.

I gave him a light punch in the shoulder. “Hey, chin up, kid. You got your nut. Twice, even. Now keep your mouth shut about what happened here. If I hear you talking about the lady, I will come for you.” I stepped aside and let Eston by.

After the door shut, Kitana giggled and I looked over at her. She used a handkerchief to wipe the cum off her face, and swabbed at the drool on her chin. “Oh, Master Jack! The look on his face!”

I chuckled and bounced Eston’s purse in my hands. He carried more coin with him on his trip to church than I had made in my entire time in this place. “Well, Kitty, what do you think? Is this your path?”

Kitana sobered at the question. She got up and brushed her tangled hair back from her face. Her eyes were still a little bloodshot, and she took her time straightening her clothes and pulling herself together. Finally, she looked up at me and frowned.

“Master Jack, I love your cock. I’d happily choke on it every day for the rest of my life. But I didn’t really enjoy sucking Eston. I did like humiliating him, though. He’s a prat. But it was a one-time thing.”

I sat down, and Kitana immediately climbed up onto my lap. She snuggled up to me and lay her head on my shoulder. “So, not a whore, then,” I mused.

“I’ll be your whore whenever you want,” she murmured in my ear.

I wrapped my arm around her and stroked my hand up and down her spine. She made a happy sound in her throat and nuzzled closer. “Careful what you ask for,” I said softly.

“As long as you’re the one fucking me, I don’t care. I can’t believe I used to think Eston’s dick was big. He barely reached the back of my tongue.”

The pews below quieted, and I leaned forward some so I could look over the balcony railing. Lira climbed up the steps to the dais and spread her hands in greeting. “Good afternoon, friends,” she said. “Today, I want to talk about change. Often, we find ourselves in a position that we have accepted as normal for so long we no longer question how we got there or whether we’re happy. It takes something big to jolt us out of our acceptance and look at the world with fresh eyes. The Dragon has given us all the opportunity to live our lives in peace and comfort, but in the end, it is our decisions that make us who we are.”

It was pretty obvious to me that Lira was talking about Tamara and my intervention. Kitana lay in my arms, her eyes closed and her breathing even. She adjusted herself every now and then, but otherwise, she could have been asleep.

I listened to Lira’s sermon with half an ear, and split the rest of my attention between the girl in my arms and musing over the mystery of the Dragon and the flow. I’d listened to enough sermons in my past that I was familiar with the rhythms. Lira was good at her job, and held her audience rapt without having to resort to histrionics or hyperbole.

I didn’t have any proof of it, but I couldn’t help but suspect there was a relation between the flow and the Dragon. Something in me was drawn to the coast. Tamara had told me to avoid the deep ruins, but now I thought that was where I had to go.

Kitana lifted her head and looked up at me. “What is it, Master Jack?”

“I need to learn more about the flow. I know you have forgotten how to use it, but surely you have legends about it. What is the flow? What can it do?”

She frowned thoughtfully. “The flow is magic, I guess. Every person who uses it has their own way of manifesting it. We have stories of elves who could fly, or throw lightning with their hands, or grow larger than an orc.”

“Could all elves use the flow?”

Kitana shook her head. “Oh, no. One in twenty, maybe. They were our heroes, our saviors. And our rulers.”

That made sense. If I could fly and throw lightning, I wouldn’t be subservient to anyone. “And then… what? What happened to make the flow disappear?”

“There was a war among the elves. Three hundred years ago, there were several great nations. They fought for dominance, to rise above the others and bring the world under one ruler. The first battle was terrible. Whole cities vanished in a matter of hours. The sirens killed each other by the hundreds.”

“Sirens?”

“Elves who use the flow.”

“Oh.”

“The continent was shattered into a thousand islands. When the smoke cleared, the flow was gone. The sirens that survived the battle had lost their ability to reach it. Such was the fear and hate among the common elves that the sirens were butchered and their remaining temples razed to the ground.”

I grunted. “I don’t blame the reaction, but perhaps that was short-sighted.”

Kitana shrugged. “Scholars have spent their lives debating that very question. Some elves feel like the flow was an evil that was purged from our society. Others do everything they can to rediscover it’s use. After the flow disappeared, the first human arrived. Ever since then, there has always been one human in the world. Some discover the flow and return to your world, others die and are replaced.”

“And the orcs?”

“The orcs have always been. When the sirens had power, they hid in caves underground and dared not venture forth in numbers. Now, there are probably more orcs than elves. We have the Dragon to protect us here, but not all elves are so fortunate. Some islands are completely overrun with orcs.”

“Hmm. What are your thoughts? Would you use the flow if you discovered its secret?”

“Yes,” she said without hesitation.

I grinned. “I’m kind of surprised the other humans haven’t tried to teach the elves how to use the flow again. It’s clearly not gone forever.”

“Not all humans are like you, Master Jack. They take what they want from us, and never think to help anyone but themselves.”

“Michael was like that,” I mused.

“He was worse than most.”

“You don’t think I’m a bad person? I bet Eston wishes I would run off and join the orcs.”

Kitana smirked. “He’s just jealous that I chose you over him. I gave you a hard time about what you did to Tina, but the moth powder doesn’t change who someone is at heart. She really does like anal. And while you take your pleasure from us, you give us pleasure in return. I saw how you treated Lira. Michael would never have been kind to her. You’re different, Master Jack.”

I grunted. “Is it weird that I showed up on this island? Out of the entire world, this is the place I arrive at? What are the odds that Michael and I came to the same place?”

“Michael arrived on an island to the west. He traveled here in his search for the flow.”

“And instead, he found the orcs. I thought the flow might be connected to the Dragon somehow, but maybe it’s connected to the orcs instead.”

Kitana shrugged. “Nobody knows.”

Below us, Lira’s sermon was winding down. She was engaged in some sort of ritual back-and-forth with the congregation, then she finished it off with praise to the Dragon. The noise from the lower floor picked up again and the congregation started filing out of the pews, talking and laughing amongst themselves.

“I guess we’re done here. What’s the plan? Are you going to spend the night with me? I don’t mind, but it might be cramped with three people trying to sleep in my bed.”

Kitana straightened up and pressed her mouth to mine. We kissed for a long minute, then she backed off with a grin and a sultry look. “Of course I’m staying with you. Space shouldn’t be a problem, I don’t think we’re going to do much sleeping at all, Master Jack.”