“Fine. But before I leave today, I want you to tell me everything you know about the flow and the Dragon. And whatever you might know about the other humans before me. You can start with what you think I’m searching for.”

Vista nodded. “Are you going to stop playing with my nipple?”

“Do you want me to?”

She took a deep breath. “No. But I—ah! Might find it hard to concentrate.”

“Hmm. I think I like you all worked up. But all this clothing is getting in the way. Strip down, and join me over on that couch.”

Vista looked down at her clothing and seemed to finally notice that I had reduced her fancy dress to rags. She blushed and started stripping. I climbed out of my own clothes and tossed them over the back of a chair. They were the best I had, and I didn’t want to go to Kitana’s birthday smelling like city cunt. It would send the wrong message.

I sat on the couch and watched Vista as she awkwardly peeled out of the layers of her outfit. Maybe she was accustomed to having a maid help her. I thought I would get bored waiting for her to undo endless petticoats, but watching her strip down to her vulnerable nakedness had the opposite effect on me. By the time she was naked, I had a full hardon again.

“How do you want me?” Vista asked quietly.

“On my lap. Facing me.”

The elf blushed again and pressed a hand to her abused cunt for a moment before jerking a nod and climbing onto me. I shifted down so she could line her hips up with mine, and she settled down onto my cock with a moan.

I didn’t try and drive myself up into her. I had just gotten my nut, and the head of my cock was still a little sensitive. I let Vista find her own pace and depth, and occupied myself with her fantastic breasts. I loved the way she reacted whenever I sucked a little too hard on a nipple or nipped the underside of her breasts with my teeth.

Vista rode me for a few minutes before shuddering through a small orgasm. She dropped forward and lay against me, panting after breath with my cock still lodged a few inches inside of her.

“Ready to answer some questions?” I asked her.

She gave a strangled laugh, then moaned as the motion made my cock sink into her another inch. “Oh, Dragon. I don’t know what’s come over me.”

I ran my hands over her hips and gave her ass a firm squeeze. “All you elves seem hot for cock.”

“Ah! Yes. It’s human pheromones, I suppose. I never thought I’d get to experience it myself.”

“You’re something of an expert,” I observed. I traced a line down her spine and into the cleft of her ass. Vista hunched forward as I pressed the pad of my finger against her asshole.

“Oh, fuck. I could barely take your thumb earlier. I don’t know if I could fit your cock back there!”

“Maybe later, then,” I mused. “Where’d you learn so much about humans?”

“I studied them, you, in my path.” Vista had to pause and scrunched her eyes shut as I slowly pushed my finger into her asshole. She shuddered and started grinding her hips on me again, sliding my cock into her wet cunt once more.

“You mentioned knowing what humans are looking for. Tell me what you think it is.”

“Most humans, ohhh! They mention hearing a voice… fuck! Before arriving.”

“Seek the truth,” I nodded. Vista was starting to bounce on my lap with more energy, and a deep flush was climbing up her chest and turning the upper slopes of her tits rosy.

“I just don’t know what truth I’m supposed to find. It’s kind of a vague instruction.”

“It’s gasp personal to every gasp human. Oh, Dragon! Another finger?”

I had my first and second fingers inside her ass now, and I was holding them, so every time she moved her hips, she was double penetrating herself. “What do you mean, it’s personal?”

“It’s… oh, fuck, fuck fuck fuck!” Vista shuddered, then fell against me. Her asshole clenched repeatedly around my fingers, and her cunt milked my cock as her orgasm wracked through her. I was holding myself back, enjoying the way the conversation was going. It was going to take Vista a lot longer before she squeezed another nut out of me.

“It’s personal?” I prompted her once she stopped shaking.

Vista groaned and looked up at me. Her blue eyes were foggy with lust. “How are you still hard? Every partner I’ve ever had would have fallen asleep long before now.”

I flexed my hips and drove my cock up into her. She gasped, and her gaze went unfocused for a moment. “Do I look like some dinky-dick elf boy to you?” I demanded. “Answer the question.”

With a visible effort, Vista pulled herself off my chest and started grinding her hips again. To her credit, I think she was managing to get deeper than before, but she still had a few inches to go. “It has to do with why you came to this world in the first place.”

She was grinding slowly, pacing herself, which was fine with me. “In the moment before death?” I hazarded.

“It’s hard to say for sure, but that could be part of it. Perhaps the human wants to right some wrong. Or atone for something. Or complete some unfinished business.”

“Find a path?” I mused.

“Yes, exactly.”

“I don’t remember anything about my life before coming here. I don’t know what path I’m supposed to take.”

“You’ll never find the flow without it,” Vista said with certainty. “What do you like to do?”

I grinned at her. “Making hot little elves scream is pretty fun.” I punctuated my words by grabbing her hips with my free hand and pushing her down onto me. Her eyes jolted wide and she let out a yelp before slumping forward with a moan.

“Ohhh…” Vista had to take a few gasping breaths before she could speak again. “Somehow, I doubt that’s what your truth is.”

“Fair enough.” I used my fingers jammed up her asshole to get her moving again. “How do I figure out what it is, then?”

“Some humans likened it to what we elves do with our path.” Vista seemed exhausted. Whenever I stopped moving her, she slowed down and gradually came to a stop again.

“And how is that determined, exactly? I was helping Kitana find hers, but if I’m being perfectly honest, mostly I was just fucking her.”

Vista tried to look scandalized, but she couldn’t maintain the outrage with my cock socketed into her and two of my fingers up her ass to the second knuckle. “She has been rather mopey the last few months. If she stops getting this cock in her, I can understand it.”

“Yeah? Are you going to go all mopey too?”

“Assuming I live through your tutoring sessions, probably,” she groaned and started moving her hips again. “How did that little blonde slut fit this up her ass?”

“You want to try?”

Vista thought about it for a few strokes, then shook her head. “Maybe next time. If my ass gets stretched any farther right now, I’ll probably just pass out.”

“Hmm. I’ll hold you to that. How did you figure out your path?” My attention was split pretty evenly between the wet friction of Vista’s cunt gripping my cock and trying to figure out this path business. Despite my efforts to stay detached, I could feel the tightness in my nuts that precluded an orgasm. This slow fuck wasn’t going to last much longer.

“It wasn’t hard for me. I’d always been curious as a child, and fascinated by the stories told about humans. Most elves see the humans as a curiosity at most, an anomaly that is better ignored than engaged with.”

“So, you decided to study humans?”

“You’re making it sound more scientific than it is. I’m a curator of myths. A story collector, if you would. I never expected to actually see a human in my life. Let alone have sex with one.”

“Are you studying me right now?” I grinned.

Vista looked up at me and gave me a dick-drunk smile. “Fuck no.”

I pulled my fingers out of Vista’s ass, and she groaned in relief. I reached my other hand up and grabbed a handful of her braids next to her skull. “Hold on,” I warned her.

She had a moment of clarity where she realized what was coming, and she dug her nails into the muscles of my chest. “Oh, Dragon!”

I started fucking up into her, slowly at first, then gaining speed. Vista clenched her teeth against her shrieking moans, then buried her face against my neck. I still couldn’t fit my whole cock inside of her, and I didn’t try. I found the depth that drove Vista crazy, then pounded into her.

Her back flexed as she came, and she bucked against me. I held her tight and kept fucking her until the tingle in my balls spread up my cock. My orgasm burst out of me, and my pumping dick sprayed deep inside Vista’s cunt.

She let out a choked scream, then went limp. I held her in my arms until she stopped trembling. My cock slowly softened and slipped out of her. I had a brief moment of worry about staining the couch, but that was a problem for Vista to solve later.

As my sweat cooled, I thought back to the carved stone and the mysteries there. The fragments of clues Vista had shared with me meshed in with the carvings. There was a full concept there that seemed to be just out of reach.

Vista stirred against me and languidly stretched up to press her mouth against mine. We kissed, then she slumped back down with a long sigh. “And to think,” she mused softly, “I almost threw you out of the doorway.”

“Would have saved your outfit,” I grinned.

“Oh well. It wasn’t really practical in Bening. Too many splinters to catch on the silk. It’ll give me an excuse to buy something locally made.”

“Ask Kitana to help you. She knows her way around the local fashion.”

“Mm. That could work. Assuming she isn’t too busy with her new path. She’s choosing today, right?”

“Yeah.” I frowned and sat up, carrying Vista with me. “Speaking of. She asked me to be with her when she chooses.”

Vista gasped a little as her new position put pressure on areas still sensitive. She shifted in my lap gingerly before sliding off and testing her weight on her legs. “Ohh, Dragon. I feel like an old lady. You should be honored. Choosing a path is a very personal thing. Sometimes, even family isn’t invited.”

I got up and started getting dressed. Vista limped over to her discarded clothing and picked through it but didn’t bother trying to fit it back together.

“Sorry about your dress,” I said. “Do I need to find you a temporary replacement or something?”

She shook her head. “I’m staying in the rooms above the library. I have the rest of my travel clothing there. Nothing so fancy, but I’ll blend in more, I suppose.”

“That’s convenient. I… don’t usually make a habit of tearing women’s clothing off.”

“I did provoke you. And I got what I wanted. A dress is a fair price to pay for meeting the human.”

I stomped my feet into my boots and went to give her a parting kiss. Vista leaned into me, pressing her chest against mine. I broke it off with a grin. “Careful, Vista. I might think you want to go for a third round.”

“Oh, Dragon. No thanks. I’d probably die.”

I laughed. “I’ll be seeing you around soon. I have a feeling I’ll have more questions that will need answering. Tomorrow, maybe.”

She blushed and bit her lip. “I’ll look forward to it.”

I reached up and tucked a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. “I’m glad I met you, Vista. I think you may be the answer to my problem.”

“Anything I can help you with. Just ask.”

I nodded and left the library. As I eased the door closed behind me, I heard Vista give a muffled squeal. It sounded happy. I shook my head in bemusement. I put myself in her shoes for a moment, and realized she was probably beside herself. It’d be like if a religious scholar back on Earth finally met an angel, or something.

I set off toward the town square, too busy thinking about what Vista had told me to pay attention to the stares I was getting. The web of this world was woven together from the collective consciousness of the elves. The path an elf chose was a manifestation of need in the web.

Vista’s path as a collector of human myths wasn’t just chosen by herself. It was something this world needed, determined through some sort of collective unconsciousness. The fact that she had such a useless and arcane path stuck in my thoughts as important.

If humans had to find their path to access the flow, did that mean humans were part of the web? If we were, did that mean the elves somehow chose which human was to be drawn into this world? I was here to satisfy some sort of need that this world had. Not just the world; all the elves, collectively.

Now, that was a thought.

“Mister Jack!”

I looked up, suddenly furious that someone had jolted me out of my thought process. It was Ethel, her straight-laced stiffness emphasized by the scowl on her face. “What do you want, Ethel?” I snapped.

A silence fell around me as the elves close enough to hear flinched away from the anger in my voice. Ethel jammed to a stop, suddenly uncertain. She looked around at the staring elves and visibly pulled herself together.

“My daughter has been delaying her choosing ceremony,” she said stiffly. “I was sent out to find you.”

I eyed Ethel, angry at her overbearing attitude. God help Kitana if she had to deal with her mother even one day longer. Ethel was clearly indignant at being forced into such a menial task. It made me want to rub her face in it, but Kitana was waiting for me.

“Where is she?” I grunted.

“In the pavilion, on our grounds.” Ethel tried for a haughty tone, but it faltered as I brushed past her, heading toward the mayor’s mansion. “Where are you going?”

“To the pavilion,” I said without turning to look at her. “On the mayor’s grounds.”

There were too many people watching for Ethel to run after me. It would be undignified. She settled for a hasty, quick step that barely kept up with my long strides. I could hear her swearing under her breath as she hustled after me.

Part of me felt bad for embarrassing Ethel like that, but fuck her. Ethel herself had played some role in bringing me to this world, even if just a small one. I had been chosen out of all the billions of humans on Earth. Something about me was exactly what this world needed. Besides that, Ethel’s crotchety grumbling was insignificant.

I reached the mayor’s mansion and pushed through the side gate into the expansive, manicured grounds. Paper lanterns hung from the trees in the hundreds. It was midafternoon, but the candles within had been lit, and a soft fragrance hung in the air.

A few dozen elves stood about, clustered around tables burdened with refreshments and drink. One of them spotted me, and a frisson ran through them. I didn’t have to be close enough to hear the whispers to know what they were saying. Finally! The human is here!

The pavilion Ethel had mentioned stood in the middle of the grounds. The carved wooden railings and eaves were hung with more lanterns. Kitana stood alone under the pavilion, dressed in a virginal white robe that flowed down to her feet.

Penli, the rotund mayor of Bening, stepped forward to greet me as I headed toward the pavilion. “Mister Jack! I’m so glad you’re here. Kitana has been…”

He trailed off as I stalked past him. I wasn’t here for him or his friends. I half-expected him to chase after me like Ethel was, but both the mayor and his wife fell back to the clustered elves around the tables and left me to cross the clipped lawn to the pavilion alone.

I climbed the steps to the platform, and the treads creaked under my weight. Kitana looked up finally, and a broad smile spread across her face. The grim set to her shoulders vanished, and the worry tightening her eyes slipped away.

“Kitana,” I greeted her.

“Jack. I’m glad you came.”

“Not Master Jack?” I twitched a grin at her.

“Not this time,” she matched my grin with one of her own. “Later tonight, yes.”

I looked back over my shoulder at the gathered audience. None of them were close enough to hear our conversation. “I take it you didn’t invite them?”

Her nose wrinkled in disgust. “Half of them have sons my age. The other half are my father’s associates. All of them want something from me, one way or another.”

I thought I understood. An elf’s path was supposed to be chosen by the world and deciphered by the individual. There was some room for fudged path selection, but there were also social pressures that could overwhelm a young elf’s choice.

Ethel wanted Kitana to be in the business of governing—or, if not that, some equally prestigious role in the community. Kitana was also beautiful and vivacious, and her family was wealthy. A good catch for any son looking to improve his station.

None of that was what Kitana wanted. I got why she wanted me here. Of all the people she knew, I was the only one who knew her real desires for her path. I was the only one who would support her in her choice. And I was the only one with enough authority and force of will to overwhelm any objection others might have.

If I hadn’t come, Kitana might have been forced into one of the roles that others had laid out for her. I looked back to Kitana and met her deep brown eyes. “I’m here, Kitana. Whatever you choose for your path, it will be your choice.”

Sudden tears gleamed in her eyes, and she nodded. “Thank you, Jack.”

I turned my back to the watching elves. This ceremony had nothing to do with them. “I admit I’m curious what you’ll choose,” I said softly.

“I was hoping you’d help me pick,” she admitted.

“I thought it was supposed to be your choice?”

“Well, yes. But there’s a difference between the label and the intent. A farmer could grow wheat or pigs, apples, or chickens. Unless the intent is clear, a farmer's path could take time to solidify into a career. With clear intent comes a clear label. It’s part of the process.”

“Huh. I suppose that makes sense. Why don’t we start with intent, then? What is it you intend for your path to be?”

Kitana went to lean against the rail, looking out over the back of the grounds, and after a second, I followed her. “I want to be free,” she said quietly. “I’m not a child who just wants to rebel against rules or her parents. Freedom is meaningless without direction. But I want to be the one who decides the direction I go.”

I stayed silent, letting her get it all out at her own speed. This was for her, after all.

“I want power, enough to preserve my freedom. I want to be a siren and gain the power of the flow.”

There were flaws in that, but I held my peace. It wasn’t my place to argue with her. She asked me here to help her put a label to the intent she had in mind, not debate the feasibility of the intent.

“The Dragon is dead. But I want to find a way to restore the broken world and drive the orcs back out of the light and into their deep caves once more.” She looked up at me, a wry smile tugging at her lips. “Or something like that.”

“You definitely don’t think small,” I said. It made me wonder, though. Kitana’s path was something this world needed. The world needed the sirens to return. It needed the fractured land to be healed. And that need had brought me to this world of elves. And not just anywhere. It had brought me here to Bening, where I had met Kitana. There were too many pieces for it to be a coincidence. “Okay.”

“That’s it?” Kitana laughed softly. “Just, ‘okay’? I tell you, I want to restore magic to the world that has been lost for three hundred years, and all you have to say is ‘okay.’”

“It’s a good path,” I shrugged. “And I’ve been doing some thinking myself, but I can tell you about that later. If that’s the path you want, you should take it.”

“I do want it,” Kitana nodded fervently. “More than anything. I just… don’t know how it will work. If I chose the path of a farmer, there are schools I can go to and apprenticeships to take. Same thing with governance. If I wanted to follow after my father, I could go to Larinae and learn to be a good leader.”

“But nothing for being a siren,” I mused.

“There used to be,” Kitana sighed. “I’d find a mentor and learn to access the flow.”

“I wonder, have there been other elves who chose to follow the path of the siren before you?”

“Oh yes. Many. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to work out a different label for it. Being a siren is just a job. In the old days, sirens would primarily just help their communities in whatever ways they could. Strongmen would lift building materials, weather controllers would help bring the rain when it was needed, that sort of thing.”

“Not what you want to do,” I grunted.

“I mean, that’s part of it, sure. Power and freedom, but directed toward something. I don’t want to just sit on a throne somewhere and cackle in the gloom.”

I laughed at the imagery. Clearly, Kitana had put a lot of thought into this. “So, Dark Queen is not a good label, then?”

“Could you imagine? No, that sounds terrible. Anyway, all the sirens in recent years haven’t succeeded in their path.”

“What happens to an elf that doesn’t succeed?”

Kitana gave me a sideways look. “We don’t like to talk about it. It’s… grim, and a reminder that any of us could suffer the same fate. They just… fade away. Their life ebbs out of them, and they generally just kind of give up. They wander off into the wilderness and die or commit suicide.”

I winced. “So, choosing this path is not something to be taken lightly.”

She shook her head. “That’s why it’s so important I label it correctly. Just calling myself a siren would lead nowhere but to my inevitable slow death.”

“Shit,” I muttered. “Okay. Well, we better get it right, then.”

We stared out at the wind rustling through the trees. Behind us, I vaguely heard the elves watching us talking to each other, no doubt wondering what was taking us so long or what we were discussing. They weren’t important. I tuned them out and focused on Kitana.

“I don’t understand a lot about the flow, but I know it’s connected to the web of the world. All those threads binding your people together. Directed power has ripple effects that echo out into the world in a thousand unpredictable ways. Correctly applying force requires an understanding of consequences, for a flow-user more than any other.”

Kitana nodded thoughtfully. A small frown tugged at her lips. “Yes. That is important.”

“A good label should take that into account, I think. Control. Power without control is chaos. Understanding how the web of the world works is an inseparable part of that. You would be a weaver of the threads of the flow.”

“Ooh,” Kitana sighed. “Yes. A flow-weaver. Or maybe just a Weaver.”

I nodded in silence and let Kitana turn that over in her head. Minutes ticked by, and I let my thoughts drift idly as I watched the falling leaves spin to the ground.

Finally, Kitana nodded and straightened up. “Yes. That is my path. I will be a Weaver. A Weaver of the Flow.”