Part 56 (Patreon)

Shelgrish grabbed Nimue by the hair, and forced her to stand up. She led her in front of the hearth, and told her. “Strip. Now.”

“No, not the sleeves,” Miryala said, “they can stay. Take off your dress.”

Begrudgingly, Nimue slid off her dress, revealing a very full figure, and a pair of underwear with an oddly cute print. “What are those?” Miri laughed. “Now give us a little spin,” Shelgrish demanded, really enjoying humiliating this mage.

“Are you willing to tell us what we need to know yet?”

Nimue just laughed in response, although she was doing her best to cover up with her arms and hands.

Shelgrish responded by pulling a chair away from the table, and sitting down, grabbing Nimue and throwing her over her knee. “Perhaps this will convince you to talk.”

Pulling down the brightly-colored underwear, she planted a few very slow and deliberate smacks to the mage’s exposed backside. Nimue grit her teeth, ready for what was to come.

“Tell us what you know about the keystone!” Miri repeated.

The mage was silent. Shelgrish grinned an evil grin before laying down a rain of hard smacks, turning Nimue’s backside bright red, and eliciting tears.

“Are you ready to tell us?” Shelgrish asked. Nimue finally spoke up, in a whiny voice. “Bleakmorne knows I’m here. They know your party is here. When their people don’t return with the prisoners, they’ll send more here. Do I want to be the person who lost the prisoners, and helped them fulfill their quest when they arrive? Hell, no.”

Elsewhere in the keep, Glasha had found her way to a stairway that rounded its way up what must have been the central tower. Nearly out of breath at the top, she opened a door, and her face was overcome with joy. In front of her were tables and cabinets, loaded with alchemy ingredients, and on every wall, a huge shelf loaded with books. Glorious books! This place was a virtual paradise for Glasha. She wanted to stay forever. She spun around, did a little dance, put her fists in the air, and literally jumped for joy. She had never seen so many books before. This room alone probably held a hundred times more titles than she had ever laid eyes on. If this library didn’t belong to a hostile mage, she probably would have asked to live out the rest of her days here.

But then she thought of Auntie Grish, who was probably getting worried for her. She quickly surveyed the various bookshelves, and picked a few interesting titles for her travel pack. She did the same with an interesting potion or two. But then, she spied a large volume, open on one of the tables.

Walking over to it, something familiar immediately jumped out at her. There was a drawing of a jewel, a very familiar jewel, that had been passed down from her mother. Reaching down to her neck, she found it impossible that this was a drawing of any other jewel. Auntie could wait a little longer. She needed to read this.

She read out loud:

“The two gems chosen as the keystones to the Crypt of Beleth the pious were already famous in their own right, as more than amulets. These were magical power sources that can be used to enhance the strength of a mage’s powers. The one pictured here, alas, was lost but not before the other gem, which was slotted into a socket on the same jewel, had become detached from it.” She paused, looking dfown at her pendant. “Hmmm, what’s this? A note in the margins. ‘The other was broken in half; I haven’t found the other half yet, but I had a setting made to wear the half I have.’ I wonder if….” She took out the necklace she had taken from Nimue, and looked at the main gem in it. It slotted right into an empty fitting on her own pendant, but, she now noticed for the first time, it seemed to be broken in half. Glasha turned the page, and read: “Both entire keystones are needed to open the crypt, but even a fragment, worn about the throat from whence incantations resonate, can greatly enhance the power of any magic user.”

Glasha put Nimue’s necklace away for now. “And mother acted like reading was useless! Looking at this one tome, we went from no keystones to one and a half out of two!” Grabbing the book, and piling on the others that had interested her, she hurried excitedly down the tower stairs.