Author's Note

Welcome back to Eros, slightly unexpectedly, folks! This chapter was originally the latter third of chapter 37.1, until I decided it was way too big for an opening chapter of a new story arc. I thus made the decision to break it in three. This also meant I had to add some extra transition text, so even if you've read this before, reread at least the start, since it's a little different now!

As the chapter number implies, this story arc takes place immediately after chapter 37 of Feathered Hearts - Continuation and Chronicles and will basically fill in the gap between chapter 37 and the future chapter 38, which will pick up after the events of this arc.

That said, I guess all that leaves is the content warning:

Chapter contains: Involuntarily stripped and aroused griffons along with one ibex buck and drakina, magical breast, cock and ball enhancement, several slowly developing scenes running the gamut from FF to MM and MMF, a lot of fantasy fodder, previously ignorant griffon eaglesses and tiercels discovering the joys of boobs and teatplay, two Paladin tiercels and two Raven eaglesss turned gay for each other, and Gilda actively and openly fantasizing about her comrades.

Enjoy, and thanks for following the story! Oh, and if you want some mood music? As this was originally released around Christmas, a Viking-themed Xmas album seems oddly appropriate given the season and theme:

To listen to it, I'm not actually sure what that music has to do with Xmas, but I'm glad it showed up in my suggestions all the same.

37.3 - Queen's Gambit: Erotic Explorations

Of all the sights that Gilda thought she might see upon entering a private room to begin negotiations with Tribune Cipio, watching the proud and powerful Obsidian Ire openly aroused and enjoying her own body was not high on the list.

And yet, it was happening before her golden eyes as the fire-breathing female turned her own tail to the purpose, curling it over enough to insert its tapered tip inside her own slit.

It was only when she noticed Gilda's rapt gaze upon her that she realized what she was doing, gaping down at herself. She tried to both rise and pull her tail away, but under the influence of the Queen's spellcasting, she couldn’t. “By the Ancient Dragon Lords... I can’t stop...” she said as she crouched down in front while raising her hindquarters high behind her; her tail curling over enough to move its small crest of spine scales directly over her opening. It caused her to hiss and vent more smoke into the air as the impressive prehensile appendage passed over her draconic slit repeatedly, making an impressive series of wet slurping sounds as the gaps between her chest scales began to glow bright.

"Feels too good... want more... and I... can't... stop!" She suddenly threw back her head and released a great gout of violet fire into the ceiling, announcing her draconic climax to the world.

Though it scorched the surface, the Queen took no offense or alarm even though Gilda could feel the heat of the fiery blast on her face. She couldn’t see the self-amorous act directly given the drakina’s hindquarters were facing away, but the three wide-eyed Ravens and Karin Kazal had witnessed it all from behind her.

“By all my wingfeathers, I want that done to me...” she heard one of the two lower-ranked eaglesses murmur as she was given an up-close view of it, only belatedly realizing she’d said it out loud at the looks the other two gave her. But they also didn’t disagree, beginning to paw at themselves more forcefully.

"Don't tempt me..." Obsidian Ire said in a slightly unsteady voice as she panted lightly, purple-hued smoke still pouring out of her nostrils even as her tail kept sliding back and forth against her slit. The sweet and strangely heady vapor the dragon female was emitting making her even more dizzy than she already was, Gilda had to agree, fantasizing about the drakina’s tail pleasuring her in such a manner. She couldn’t help it—for as brave yet abrasively insulting and disdainful towards authority as Obsidian Ire was, Gilda realized that she rather liked the other female. And not just for her unquestioned courage and combat skill, but for in many ways reminding her of herself. "For I don't dare."

Don't dare...? Gilda wondered, but the Queen’s words broke into her thoughts. "You might yet, Drakina. But that can wait if you wish. And thus, does this spell turn some rather difficult diplomacy into a den of desire that serves not just the purpose of powering up my Hive, but makes everycreature far more amenable to new experiences and different points of view. It is a very potent and multifaceted tool, my sexual singularity. For just as Optio Galen Giraldi said, I could not only disarm an entire enemy army swiftly, but it is an excellent aid in negotiations between two previously implacable points of view. For it is far harder to insult or ignore them when you are being intimate with them.”

She nodded at all the flushed faces and openly aroused bodies around her, though her silencer drones and Archons remained completely unaffected. They kept their armor and their smirks as they watched the scenes unfold, seemingly just basking in it like an off-duty Abyssinian servant in a sunbeam.

It was only then Gilda noticed that the two lower-ranked Raven eaglesses were rubbing their erect wings together as they watched Obsidian Ire, trilling softly at the contact before they seemingly couldn’t stand it any longer. As she watched, they turned to each other and began to make out directly as they slowly stood up to lean against each other, their talons starting to travel freely over the other’s wings and flight muscles.

“Ancestors…” Even Miles Fortuna was stunned to see it. Finally noticing her fully, Gilda was surprised to see that her head, chest and wings were that of a Northern Hawk Owl while her hindquarters were those of a clouded leopard, which she found to be an excellent match of feline and avian attributes.

But such thoughts were lost on the now-naked Senior Scimitar herself as she beheld her aroused and enamored eagless subordinates. “But… how is this possible? You said you couldn’t induce love where none existed, Queen Lepidoptes! Maybe the Paladins were always interested in each other, but I know these two—they’ve never shown even the slightest inclination towards…”

Her voice trailed off as her two fellow Ravens discovered the sensitivity of their newly enhanced mammaries, starting to rub their upper sets together before they finally lost balance from their awkward stance and stiff wings to fall over right beside Obsidian Ire. But Karin Kazal caught them in his aura and eased them down, positioning the ocelot-furred eagless on top of the serval-spotted one so that the former was straddling the latter over her lower belly, bringing their newly massive mammaries into full contact.

They trilled their pleasure as, with a helpful magical nudge from the Starshina, the former pressed her bottom set of her swelling and exquisitely sensitive belly breasts into those of the serval-spotted one beneath her, leaving the pair squawking in startled pleasure, visibly amazed at the sensations the unheard-of act among griffons evoked.

“Ancestors, these feel so…” was all the latter said before her talons found and closed on her partner’s upper set of mammaries in a explicit display that looked right out of the interspecies edition of the pony Playcolt magazine Gilda and Rainbow had once stolen from a bookstore. It had shown two idealized griffon eaglesses in intense and passionate lovemaking that even included a measure of teatplay (which she had assumed was more for their pony audience than a griffon one); their talons running increasingly frantically through the fur and feathers of each other’s wingbase as they couldn’t get enough of their partner’s bare body.

But the Changeling Queen herself was not so surprised as she addressed a stunned Miles Fortuna directly. “Indeed I did say that, Senior Scimitar, and it was the truth. So given your comrades are now openly engaging in lovemaking, what does that tell you?” she asked the Raven eagless pointedly with a wry grin, to which the Senior Scimitar’s beak fell open further as she watched her fellow Ravens fall deeper into the sexual spell they were under, starting to rub their teats together even more frantically before the ocelot-furred one fell fully on top of her serval-spotted partner and began to start kissing her again.

“Then… they do like each other?” Miles Fortuna asked, seemingly unaware she was staring at them with her head stretched out and talons starting to fondle her own wingbase.

“In a manner of speaking. I said before that sexual attraction was not as simple as ‘liked’, and this is a prime example of it. You would be surprised at how close it can lurk below the surface, or how easily a simple bond to one’s longtime comrade can be turned into it. Especially when you have spent the last day fighting at each other’s side,” she emphasized.

“This is exactly what happened with the Senior Stave and her Paladin paramours, though they seem to have a much longer history together,” Queen Lepidoptes further noted as the two eagless assassins began to grind their belly breasts together in earnest, eliciting a set of startled gasps from the pair as they gave the rest of the room a spectacular view of the act, seemingly no longer caring who was watching. “And I doubt they will ever regret it.”

“And neither will we, given we have a long history together as well…” one of the two entangled Ravens said as, finally fully recognizing their exquisite sensitivity, the pair mashed both sets of mammaries together fully, the flick of their teats against the others eliciting a fresh series of sensual squawks that even attracted the attention of Obsidian Ire, who paused the movements of her pleasuring tail long enough to gape.

“I agree. After five years of watching each other’s back and saving each other’s hide repeatedly? How can I not love her?” the one on the bottom then asked in a rhetorical air as her partner laid fully on top of her and they began making out passionately, talons finding and freely exploring each other’s wings and wingbase as they continued to grind their bellies together; the ocelot-spotted one raising her tail high over her back in front of her wide-eyed commander and Karin Kazal.

The former staggered back against the wall while the latter gave a lustful growl and began to move forward, his aura reaching for them only to be blocked by Obsidian Ire’s tail, who shook her head and gave him a warning glare.

“Look, but don’t touch, ibex,” she told him with a low but lustful growl that belied the sudden flame within her chest. “Not without an invitation.”

“By your command...” he said slightly sullenly, sitting back hard on his haunches, contenting himself with simply being an observer and stroking himself with his magic.

He got quite a show as the pair’s talons slipped under each other’s belly again, seeking out the exotic anatomy that they had only so recently acquired and realized were so supremely sensitive. They squeezed and kneaded them with squawking gasps and barely-bit trills right in front of their astonished audience of a drakina, an eagless, and an ibex buck.

Despite the former’s admonition, the latter still looked like he was barely restraining himself from reaching out for them with his magic while Obsidian Ire observed intently. Her slitted pupils were growing increasingly dilated as she watched the erotic eagless scene unfold, with wisps of violet smoke now steadily wafting out of her nose.

“The Queen speaks true,” Giraldi confirmed the Changeling Monarch’s words somewhat breathlessly but belatedly. He seemed uncertain to Gilda what he wanted to do or what scene he was more interested in, glancing back and forth between the Paladin tiercels and two Raven eaglesses. “You would be surprised, Miles Fortuna, at how often the simple act of fighting at one’s side or simply enduring a shared trauma bonds two griffons together. Even for a happily married griffon like me…”

As he spoke, his eyes even flitted to Gilda’s for a moment as if in appraisal, then down her belly at her still-swelling mammaries. Realizing instantly that he was at least in part talking about her, she automatically leaned back and spread her haunches to display herself for him, reaching down with a paw to pleasure and heft one of her Tara-sized belly breasts before him.

She couldn’t help it, delighting in his hungry trill and wide-eyed gaze, though she was surprised to find herself somewhat disappointed that Fortrakt didn’t notice, his attention still firmly fixed on the Magus and two Paladins attending her.

“Ancestors…” Giraldi said again to see his Centurion’s display. He looked like he was fighting himself for a moment, his talons making groping motions at her much like Cipio was towards Optio Virgo. Realizing he was fantasizing about fondling them and fighting an overwhelming urge to do so, Gilda likewise felt unsure whether she should allow it, part of her trying to stay loyal to Marco even in the face of her own quickly fading inhibitions and equally surging desires.

But once again, the Queen’s voice interjected itself into her thoughts. “As you say, Galen Giraldi. In truth, it can result from any form of attraction or bond. Any form of passion. Or simply a desire to enrich one’s life or reward another, much as you and the Centurion are tempted right now,” Queen Lepidoptes concurred with a wink, causing their cheeks to grow even hotter and the pair to look away from each other in some embarrassment.

The Changeling Monarch then leaned back into her cushions, holding her teacup in her aura before her. It left Gilda somewhat distractedly noting how easily she could magically multitask, which was something even the most skilled Magus had trouble with.

“So please do not be ashamed of such temptations, Galen Giraldi and Grizelda Behertz, and the same goes for the rest of you. In casting this spell, I am in part demonstrating how strong our sensual magic can be, and thus, why it was so hard for the Centurion and Starshina to resist it. Tell me, can any of you truly blame either of them for what happened now?”

Nocreature spoke until the bottommost Raven eagless did. “No…” she finally said somewhat breathlessly as her beak remained gaped open and eyes fixed on the talons fondling her flesh. “I cannot.”

“Nor I,” Optio Virgo spoke next. Gilda had almost forgotten about her, but instead of self-pleasuring as she had before, she had picked up her quill and parchment again to sketch the scenes around her from her back; judging by the papers scattered around her, she had already depicted everything from the swirling voids above various casting tools to the Tribune’s phallus to the Magus and Paladin threesome. “Not that I did to begin with…”

“Or me!” Fortrakt answered next, his voice strangely vehement as he sat back to stroke his enormous fifteen-uncia organ with one set of talons while watching the Paladin-and-Magus threesome, making odd motions at them with the other. Whatever he was doing, the trio seemed to have finally discovered the mounded masses of her four large mammaries, given two sets of tiercel talons had settled happily on her lower set.

They were now kneading them in open astonishment as the eagless herself did the same with her upper pair, all three openly marveling at the pillowy softness of her enlarged, mounded mammaries capped by a single prominent and—if Gilda’s were any indication—fiercely tingling teat.

“Good. Then we are already halfway to an agreement. Nor should you be surprised by the acts you see before you. Trust me—we know all the myriad forms that love can take, and by simple necessity are masters of bringing them forth,” the Queen added idly. She pursed her hooves before her as her horn remained strongly aglow, powering the series of swirling vortexes that continued to both arouse and enhance griffon and ibex alike. “So as I said, be not ashamed, Centurion and Optio. For far more powerful beings than you have been unable to resist its effects.”

“By your command…” she and Giraldi replied as one, noting again the effect of the sensual spellcasting on not just her erotic anatomy, but everycreature’s. It enhances griffons and ibex. But what about a drakina? Gilda suddenly wondered, turning her attention to Obsidian Ire. Alone among the room’s guests, she noted that the dragon female seemed physically unchanged other than the fierce flush on her scaled cheeks and intense heat that Gilda could feel all but radiating off her body, along with a steady seepage of thick violet smoke from her snout and prominent nostrils.

They said during Gauntlet training that dragons are highly resistant to all forms of magic, including transformative. So does that mean she can withstand this, or is it just that lacking any form of ‘boobs’ by being part of a reptilian race, she’s got nothing for the spell to enhance?

She didn’t know, but she also didn’t dwell on it. “I’m not ashamed…” Gilda finally answered the Queen, finding herself unconsciously echoing her earlier words. “And I don’t deny I’m tempted, Optio—Ancestors know that you have more than earned me. I just… don’t want to betray Marco again. Especially now when I know what’s happening.” She looked down and her beak quivered.

“And by all our Ancestors, I do not wish to make you betray him,” Giraldi granted in turn, forcing himself to turn away from her so her feminine form would not tempt him. “I respect both of you far too much.”

“Unquestionably honorable. But also unnecessary,” the Queen replied patiently. “To borrow the Las Pegasus catchphrase, what happens here stays here. I am certain that nocreature in this room will wish these events to be known publicly once they conclude. And believe me when I say that as Changelings, we are very good at keeping confidences.”

“S-so you enable dishonorable conduct by encouraging griffons to betray their mates, like me? Or worse, their very Kingdom by making them swear allegiance to you?” The Tribune tried to accuse, but his voice remained unsteady and body trembling as he had a front row seat from his hover of his former Paladin and Magus protectors now engaging in open and almost unheard-of intimacies before him.

“Betray the Kingdom? How dare you…” The Magus began as his words earned a glare from all of them, addressing him as she levitated herself up fractionally so they could slide their wings beneath hers and lay on their sides beside her more easily, allowing their spears to drape over her spread haunches and their talons to reach all parts of her body easily.

“Save your scorn and shut your deceitful beak, Tribune. You have no right to accuse us of dishonor when it is you who have been unfaithful and hidden your lineage from even your wife! We will gladly fight to defend our Queen and country—you know full well that we already have! But if, after the Cloven are beaten, the Kingdom will not recognize our relationship? Then our Queen becomes Lepidoptes instead of Molyneux!” The tiger-striped tiercel said heatedly, his talons dipping lower on her form until they found her slit, eliciting a startled squawk as a single meaty digit slipped inside.

“Agreed. For years, we have been partners, building passions by practicing and sparring together without once indulging ourselves. For years, we have put duty first and strictly followed fraternization rules no matter how much time we spent together, forgoing ruts and mating rounds! For the entire past day we fought to save both the city and the Kingdom, willing to die in defense of both! And after all that, you have the crow-damned gall to call us traitors?” the leonine one then shouted at him; if he had been Marco, Gilda had no doubt that he would raise a middle digit at him.

But as rude griffon gestures were more wing and tail-based, and neither were in a position to deliver them, they showed their disrespect by relentlessly teasing him instead, indulging with their own eagless even as he was denied the right.

“I would challenge you to a duel for that affront, Tribune. But here and now under the Queen’s guiding light, I think this is a far better punishment…” the tiger-striped one said, and then, with a glance at his partner followed by an evil grin, the pair began to probe the Senior Stave’s two eagless orifices with their talons as one, stretching her sensitive slit and sphincter with her digits to find them surprisingly yielding and malleable.

Enough that they could easily accept a second thick digit, which they promptly provided her. She squawked hard and her hips bucked once at the contact, spreading her legs wider and pulling them back to expose herself to their erotic explorations fully. She called for them passionately to go deeper as she orgasmed for the second time, again swearing to the Ancestors her intention to have Queen Lepidoptes marry her to the pair on the spot.

Despite the unleashed love and lurid scene before her, the Queen looked insulted again, turning her gaze and the full intensity of her mating aura upwards on a captive Cipio. “They are not the only ones offended. Did I hear you say that I encourage griffons like you to betray their mates, Cauda Cipio?” she began ominously, to which he wisely fell silent.

“I said before that lies do not become you. As such, I remind you again that you came to me of your own volition many moons ago. And then kept coming back once you learned that I could give you not just the physical pleasure but emotional bond that you had for so long lacked with your Uxor,” she said pointedly, causing him to look away.

Her expression then softened as she saw that he recognized her words as true. “Ultimately, that was the fault of neither of you. You tried to be a proper pair as the Kingdom’s societal and military rules required, only to find that the secrets you kept made that little more than a charade. That the relationship and style of rutting you truly needed, neither those rules nor your current partner could provide. It resulted in endless frustration and eventual estrangement that nearly ended your marriage, which to this point you honorably maintain for the sake of your cubs,” she recited, and Cipio did not dispute her words as for the first time, Gilda detected a moment of true shame and regret in his features.

His reaction was not lost on the perceptive Changeling Monarch. “But I say this to you now, Cauda Cipio: Your marriage can yet be saved, even in the midst of conflict with the Cloven. And yes, even with me involved. But only if both you and your wife acknowledge your true selves, wants and desires, just as your Paladin and Magus guardians finally did,” she said pointedly.

“And if that proves impossible because of her intransigence—just like you, your Uxor can be overly stubborn and unable to admit error to a fault—then I would suggest that Rubens Virgo is the eagless for you. Once she is properly seasoned and experienced, that is.” She gave a nod off to her side as the young Optio instantly perked up. “Despite the difference in age and station, I think you two would do well together. Her combat skill may be lacking, but she possesses a keen intellect while mating rounds never turned you on anyway.”

“Ancestors, yes…” Dropping her quill and parchment, the young eagless began to self-pleasure anew at the idea, trying to entice him again by displaying her breasts and nectar-dripping nest to his floating form, whose lips she pried open for him once more. “I would serve you as adjutant and wife!And make love to you however you like! My teats? My tail? You may have them all whenever you wish!”

Her display and declaration earned another strangled squawk and sharp twitch of his spear as he again tried and failed to orgasm on the spot; the Queen’s glowing bind at the base of his organ still blocking the release as Optio Virgo continued her enticement. “I mean it! After spending but a single day with you and seeing your military mind and warrior ability up close, I swear to the Ancestors that I would willingly spend an entire lifetime with you, Tribune! I need no mating round, and your ancestry does not matter to me! I only want to give you the love and devotion you need! The love and devotion of an eagless that I now know you have always lacked!”

“But… that’s…” he made a groping motion at her with his talons as his hips bucked hard, and desperate to climax, he nearly overrode the bind, releasing a sharp squirt of slightly cloudy fluid that left another glistening line down the Optio’s body, starting at her wingbase and tracing a diagonal path down her belly that intersected three of her impressive breasts. “By all my Ancestors, why couldn’t you have entered my life twenty years ago?” he asked forlornly, almost looking ready to cry.

“Ancestors…” This time, it was Miles Fortuna who spoke, lightly pawing at herself as she saw the display alongside her two comrades. They had paused their efforts long enough to watch and listen, only slowly but still-sensually caressing the other’s form as their heads had turned towards the scene. “Between her brains and beauty, she’s right out of a Minotaurian romance novel. And such incredible devotion and honor from one so young.”

“As you say.” Even Karin Kazal was impressed, his attention momentarily torn away from the three Raven females. “For all my experience among griffons, I did not think such eaglesses as her existed. Or the Centurion, for that matter,” he added with a nod and tilt-bow of his head towards her, causing Gilda to blush and somewhat weakly bear her throat back..

“Agreed. A more fervent declaration of love and loyalty you will never hear,” Queen Lepidoptes said with a smile, raising the Optio up from where she lay on the floor to rest on what Gilda had head one of Rainbow’s friends refer to as a chaise lounge, allowing her to be more comfortable and have a closer view of the action—or was so it was the Tribune could have a closer view of her?

“Her love for you is real and may yet be exactly what you require, but it is not, by itself, enough, Tribune Cipio. If you truly wish to free yourself from that bind at the base of your spear, you must surrender fully. Not to me and certainly not to the Cloven, but to the truth,” she told him not meanly but emphatically. His words made Gilda suddenly and quite vividly imagine one of Rainbow’s friends sitting up and applauding with her hooves, then waving her corny cowcolt hat in appreciation over her head.

“And that means no more lies and no more disguises, for you or your cubs. No more ignoring or suppressing your true desires and proclivities. Then and only then will you be able to properly pleasure and experience pleasure with a partner, finding the mutual passion that you so long lacked with your Uxor,” she told him.

“Then and only then will I no longer be needed, as you will have at long last become the mate and lover, griffon and commander that you were meant to be. At which point, if it is truly your choice, I will step aside and take a new consort,” she told him before sitting back in her seat. “But regardless, that choice, Caudo Cipio… is yours.”

“But… I’m married…” he said weakly again even as he stared longingly at the inviting form of his eagless aide.

“Oh, like that ever stopped you before?” Diva Desiderii snapped at him as her two new tiercel lovers continued to attend her; their two tongues and four sets of talons visibly driving her towards her third orgasm of the day. “Or was your impotence-caused infidelity only allowed when nogriffon knew?” she asked in a sharp remark that would normally earn an instant challenge from another griffon, but the Tribune fell silent at her words, his jaw going slack as their truth registered.

“If it makes you feel better, Tribune, you are not the only one grappling with such questions of betrayal and honor,” Giraldi spoke up, clutching his head for a moment to dispel whatever thoughts and fantasies he was having, sitting back despite his stiff wings to rub his temples.

“My Uxor and I have long had an understanding where I was allowed to take other partners on long deployments, as long as I tested them properly in a mating round. But I am uncertain what that means now, when I find myself with a sudden and severe interest in tiercel-tucking. Or what it means for our marriage,” he confided, sitting back heavily for a moment. The movement caused his rigid organ to bounce once in the air and droplets to be flung off it, a few of which found Fortrakt’s flank.

The sight gave him pause, though Fortrakt himself didn’t seem to notice, his attention remaining fixed on the Paladin and Magus threesome. “It seems odd that such things concern me now after such desperate combat and passionate copulation already taking place around me. Yet I find myself hesitating much like the Centurion, not wishing to betray my mate.”

“Because you love her, Galen Giraldi,” the Queen pointed out with an almost motherly smile, earning knowing nods from the two Archons. “Both her, and the cubs she bore you. Now more than ever, given your many close calls and brushes with death over the past day.”

“As you say.” He bowed his head towards the Queen. “You are as insightful as you are powerful, Queen Lepidoptes. As I do not want to offend your hospitality, I admit that I very much wish to partake in this… affair. And yet, despite my mind being stripped of inhibitions just as surely as my body is stripped of my armor, I fear that to do so will fatally wound the most important relationship in my life.”

“Such honor, even in the face of such all-consuming desire…” Fortrakt whispered almost reverently as his no-longer-tired eyes remained fixed on the threesome of the Tribune’s former protectors.

His stance was almost that of an orchestra conductor leading a symphony as he made motions with his beak and talons that were almost immediately copied by the two Paladins against the body of the now sorely-pleasured and frantically squawking eagless, whether pinching her teats or spreading her slit wide for all to see into her depths; as Gilda watched, the two massive males even seemed to respond to Fortrakt flicking his tail by swishing theirs aside and raising a leg to show off their own anatomy.

Despite that, her longtime partner offered up a surprisingly coherent rationale. “If I may offer my opinion, Optio, I say that your fear is misplaced. That despite your new interest in tiercels, your love for your cubs and Uxor remains strong and will continue to remain strong regardless of what happens here. I met your wife earlier and found her a loyal and honorable eagless. She clearly trusts you to always come back to her, or she would never have granted you permission to pursue other eaglesses in the first place,” he continued, then at least briefly turned his gaze on Giraldi, though his eyes flickered to Gilda’s prominent belly breasts in deep longing and appreciation for a moment.

“And as for coming between the Centurion and Marco Lakan, there is no need to worry. Because you were already with them both repeatedly that night, and neither objected,” he then noted, causing Gilda to look up sharply as Fortrakt finally began to reveal what he remembered from that forgotten night.

“Even for as much as he loved and couldn’t get enough of the Centurion, Marco was gay exclusively for you. In fact, it turned out he couldn’t resist you, Optio. You seduced him, then he seduced you, and then you seduced him all over again. And it all happened without the benefit of a mating round!” he said in audible wonder, eliciting a startled intake of breath from the Tribune and a knowing grin from the Queen as she saw his reaction.

“If you can believe it, he did it with his movies and an Ancestor-blessed confidence that allowed him to get away with amorous acts few griffons could, shamelessly taking liberties with both you and the Centurion that no tiercel would dare. He seduced both you and the Centurion repeatedly, turning you into as much of an eagless as she was! For that, I admire him immensely. In fact, I would emulate him if I could.”

“How interesting,” the other Archon answered, speaking up for the first time. “Then Marco Lakan gleefully treats taboos as nothing more than a seductive challenge? Truly a human after my own heart.”

“And mine as well,” Archon Archex added from behind Gilda. “I have met him, and to hear this tale, I have no doubt that he would make a very good Changeling.”

“Truly?” There was a rare note of cublike wonder in Giraldi’s voice as Gilda likewise found herself having to sit down heavily, which caused her breasts to wobble hard on her belly. “He made me as much his eagless as you, Centurion? And his only male interest was me?”

“He speaks true,” Archon Archex addressed him directly, causing their heads to turn towards them. “I hope you will forgive me for this, Galen Giraldi, but I briefly took your form while escorting the Centurion and Marco Lakan to their suite.” He did so with a flare of green fire as an example, causing Giraldi and Fortrakt to flinch.

He grinned at their reaction, even as he continued to speak in his own voice, which Gilda found very disconcerting coming from a perfect copy of her former First Spear. “I did so as an example of my own Changeling powers and seductive prowess, though I assure you that it went no further than that. I was simply trying to help their lovemaking along by offering them a mutual fantasy that they could share. That fantasy… was you, Galen Giraldi.”

Now it was Gilda who felt faint as Giraldi gave her a shocked look, his mind visibly turning as Gilda had no doubt he was actively fantasizing about being the center of their mutual attention. “And it worked. But… by all the Ancestors, how did you know Marco liked him?” she had to ask, to which the disguised drone gave a sly smile she’d never seen on Giraldi’s face before.

“It wasn’t that difficult to deduce, Centurion. To begin with, I could sense his eyes on me from behind, and his accompanying interest in my male attributes, along with yourself,” he began, causing her to flush and Fortrakt to give her a grin. “From his gaze and posture, to say nothing of the pictures on the wall he was looking at, I could tell that he likes powerful and well-endowed males such as the Optio, both to dominate and be dominated by,” he further explained, causing Giraldi and Gilda to flush.

He then turned to address Giraldi directly. “It is a proclivity I have seen among many a griffon male over the years, and I saw no reason to believe it did not hold true for humans as well. That led me to conclude that you, Galen Giraldi,were the most likely target for Mister Lakan’s… affections, given you most closely matched my physique, and we already knew from our contacts within the Kingdom’s intelligence services that you had been one of the victims of the ibex cider poisoning plot,” he continued.

“That in turn meant that it was very likely that Marco Lakan had already been with you, even if he didn’t remember it. But those proclivities do not disappear just because the memory isn’t there. And as we are perfectly aware that zap apple cider does not induce desires, only enhance existing ones…”

He reared upright and flattened himself against the wall in a sensuous manner, then repeated what Gilda instantly and quite headily recognized as the exact phrase he’d said to her and Marco earlier while in Giraldi’s form.

“Take my tail, Marco Lakan. It is hungry for your human spear. Fill me with its great girth. Mark me with your sensuous seed. By the Ancestors themselves, claim me for your race and make me your eagless again…” he all but purred in a flawless imitation of Giraldi’s voice, even managing a pitch-perfect sensual trill before he switched back to his own. “And be assured, Galen Giraldi, that he very much wanted to.”

“He did,” Gilda confirmed through a very dry beak as she beheld the display, suddenly and sorely wishing Marco was there as Giraldi visibly reeled at the sight of himself in a submissive posture, starting to sway where he stood.

“He not only admitted it to me after, but it was as if his spear kept trying to pull him towards you, forcing him forward. He knew it wasn’t really you, but he still wanted you to bury himself within you badly, Optio. And Ancestors forgive me, I wanted to see it happen.” She couldn’t believe she made the admission out loud, earning a shocked look from the suspended Tribune along with a leering one from Karin Kazal.

“Ancestors…” was all Giraldi could immediately say in response, looking ready to faint as he beheld himself in a submissive pose with wide eyes and a fiercely throbbing phallus that matched his doppelgänger’s. “Somehow, I knew this happened even though I couldn’t recall it. It explains why Marco Lakan was haunting my dreams and the source of many tiercel-tucking fantasies in my free time, though Christopher McLain and even the Decurion were also involved,” he said, causing the latter’s head to look up sharply, his focus on the trio faltering for a moment.

“Then fear no longer, Optio.” Gilda steadied him with both sets of talons on his visibly trembling chest even as she felt strangely heady at the revelation. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Marco when he said he’d been with Giraldi, but to finally have it confirmed makes me feel… She gave an involuntary shiver and licked her beak, suddenly reliving the fantasy she’d had about him taking Giraldi from behind while she buried her face in the junction of their oversized sacs, pressed together as Marco hilted him, allowing her to worship both their masculine essences at once.

“Ancestors above… then it almost happened just like before! So why, by all the crows, didn’t he do it?” a stunned and slightly forlorn Fortrakt asked as he helped steady a badly shaking Giraldi with a set of talons on his upper back, his earth griffon wings flared so wide and feathers so taut that she thought his pinions would emit musical tones if they were tweaked by a talon. “I would have wanted to see that, too!”

“Ancestors know he would have done it. And that I wouldn’t have stopped him—Archon Archex himself did so we could spend our passions on each other rather than him.” She bared her throat at him, to which he smiled and reverted his transformation, baring his throat back.

“Because just as I told you then, that was your time and not mine, Centurion. I knew that you wished to atone to Marco Lakan for your earlier infidelity, and I was not about to interfere in that. And besides, the tease had served its purpose by turning you both on further, thus increasing your passion and the accompanying potency of the love we collected. Though I do hope the Queen will forgive my minor indulgence in tempting you. Both then, and now.” He turned and bowed low to her.

“As you acted honorably and in the spirit of furthering their lovemaking? Of course,” she said with a bow of her head back.

“Honorably?” the Tribune echoed incredulously from his hover as he watched Fortrakt’s talons drift further up Giraldi’s body until they settled firmly onto his shoulders, rubbing him there as Giraldi could only arch up into it, taking a ragged breath that seemed to slowly settle him. “By all the Cawing Crows of the Kingdom, you’ve turned us all into tuck-toys? How is any of this honorable?”

“Though I will grant we have different definitions of it, it was honorable by our standards, Tribune,” she replied patiently. “To willingly forsake the chance to directly gain love so that other drones may partake of a greater share of it is a very generous gesture for a Changeling. Doubly so given the power he could have gained from them.”

“Agreed. It was a bit self-indulgent in the way he went about it, perhaps, but I would expect no less of him,” the other Archon said from across the room in a teasing tone, speaking in a deep voice that seemed to have a cultured Loondon accent she would normally associate with the local nobility. “Still, it was rather excessive. If it had been me, I would have needed no disguise to tempt them.”

“If it had been you, you would still be in the room with them and we would have to pry you off them,” Archex promptly retaliated, though there was a grin on his face and a bantering tone in his words.

“I believe you misspoke, brood brother. You meant, pry them off me,” the other Archon gave a smile that showed his long, sharp teeth, and then stretched out his hindquarters to show off a massive, glowing erection that immediately caught Gilda’s gaze, filling her hungry eyes with its impressive phallic form. It didn’t look much different to her than a griffon organ other than a few additional ridges and the bright glow; it even had an impressive bulb-like protrusion at his base.

“I will match my skill at seduction against yours anytime, with anycreature, Archex. By the Hive Mother herself, we’ll see who gets to be with them first.” A wave of allure came off him and wafted across the table to fill their noses and send them reeling, with both Giraldi and Fortrakt suddenly clutching each other hard as they stared at the exotic organ.

“Now that sounds like a challenge,” Archex rejoined, rearing upright to show off his own enormous erection and equally impressive orbs while crossing his forelegs over his chest, allowing his Changeling spear to protrude horizontally and drool glowing liquid on the floor before him, in easy reach of all three of them. Unlike the other Archon’s, his phallus seemed to have almost more equine dimensions, sporting a flared head and prominent medial ring that looked almost as large as the bulb at its base; his veins visibly pulsing along with the spurts from the end of his organ that she found impossibly enticing.

“If you like,” the other Archon rejoined easily with a lazy toss of his head. “We can set the full terms of the bet later.”

“So be it, brood brother.” As Archex spoke, his already-enormous orbs plumped further, producing a matching wave of male musk and pure magical pheromone that invaded her mind through her nostrils, leaving it all she could do not to fall to her knees before it and worship it with her talons and beak along with Fortrakt and Giraldi. “I accept. Let us see whose allure is stronger and whose sensual skill is greater. And most importantly, whose company the Centurion and her comrades prefer.” He stepped forward like a Minotaur towards Gilda and her group in offering.

Though Gilda wasn’t sure how she felt to be the subject of some form of sexual competition, even under the influence, the Queen put a stop to it. “That will do, both of you,” she said in a calm but commanding tone, causing them both to bow and step back, their bat-like ears laying flat for a moment. “Powerful though their passions are, they are our honored guests, not prizes to be won. As they all have strong reservations about participating right now, their love would be tainted and thus, they are not fair game.”

“I have strong reservations!” Cipio insisted weakly again before Gilda could offer her thanks for the reprieve.

“Which is exactly why I prevented you from indulging earlier with your aide, Cauda Cipio. Which is exactly why I am not letting you climax just yet, nor taking you for myself,” she informed him shortly. “As you’re not ready to release your fears just yet, that particular pleasure can wait. But no matter. Despite all the myriad distractions, be assured that I have not forgotten my purpose here, or the Centurion’s request,” she told them, putting her tea set aside to take an almost-meditative pose before them, levitating herself partially into the air.

All attention then turned on her. “Very well, then. Now that we are all far more comfortable with our surroundings and each other, it is time to continue the negotiations. Thanks in part to the love collected just now from Diva Desiderii and her two Paladin comrades, to say nothing of Grizelda Behertz and Marco Lakan before that, I am not just fully charged but overcharged with love despite this taxing spell, which greatly boosts our physical and magical strength but can also be unhealthy to us for anything more than short periods of time,” she paused briefly to note.

“So, I shall spend some of that power by sharing the Centurion’s memories with all present. You wished to show your comrades and commander what happened, Grizelda Behertz? I daresay they are now far more open and amenable to what they will see. So if you are still willing, and with the help of the Starshina’s spell, I will grant that request right now…”