Labrintho, the city of glory and riches! It is a gigantic, enchanted city, walled and magically protected. It is a labyrinthine place built up in layered rings, rising into a great spire but also said to extend uncounted levels deep into the ground below.
Each level of the city contains a different environment with its own unique dangers that can be explored and conquered to gain glory, riches, and artifacts of great power! Spread through the dungeon-like city are safe heavens, the smallest of them little more than protected mid-dungeon encampments while the largest are self-contained cities!
Adventurers come from all across Alaria to enter the city. Experienced ones come to test or prove their skills and might, while novice ones come to gain experience. Some come in search of riches while others come chasing down rumors of ancient and powerful treasure. Others come simply to say they’ve been, seemingly drawn there as if the immense magic of the place has called them to it.
It’s also a city of secrets and mysteries, yet these mysteries seem to go unnoticed by most who have never entered Labrintho. Among these rarely noticed mysteries is the fact that few who enter Labrintho ever leave. Those who seem able to notice this suspect that the riches, glory, and comradery of like-minded individuals prove too addictive to leave behind. Others can’t help but wonder if the place is more dangerous than the legends suggest.
Yet even those who notice how few return from entering Labrintho’s walls seem to notice that the women drawn there NEVER leave. And that IS something that should go noticed as far more female Adventurers are drawn to the place than male ones. Yet such an easily observable fact is never noticed by anyone outside of Labrintho’s enchanted walls.
Could these mysteries be going unnoticed for a reason? Perhaps. Perhaps Labrintho’s magic is so immense it can affect the world outside its enchanted walls. Calling people to it from all over Alaria. Calling men who are ripe for corruption who will stay to become perverse dangers equal to those native to a place full of perverse dangers. Calling women who are strong, attractive, and will put up valiant but doomed fights as the enchanted city of dangers and its perverse inhalants have their way with them!
* * *
Rhuna Irontaker’s pace increased as the road she was following overtook a hill, allowing the Orc Priestess her first proper glimpse of the enchanted city of Labrintho. It stood on the horizon, its towering spire so tall that it was obscured by clouds. At its base was the great wall surrounding the mysterious city, walls that she saw were tall and wide enough around they could have hidden the largest of the city-states her travels as a Priestess of Naiona, Goddess of Exploration and Discovery, had taken her through.
They call it a city, she thought as she looked in awe at the towering place of mystery and magic, but I’ve never heard details of what that means. The legends and tales talk about endless dangers to explore along with riches and treasure beyond imagining to discover. In Naiona’s temples all across Alaria it is spoken of in hushed tones. It is a worshiper of Nainoa’s divine duty to explore and discover as doing so is a form of worship as powerful as direct prayer to the priestess.
It was why Rhuna had come, her journey to Labrintho a kind of religious pilgrimage. Although in the prime of her life Rhuna was still young, a full Priestess but one that hadn’t yet had the years to prove herself to her goddess.
She’d begun as many Priestesses of Naiona did: she’d taken up the life of an Adventurer. Rhuna now had some, although not much, experience under her young belt. But she’d found she didn’t care much for adventuring with others. Every party she’d tried traveling with had left her feeling… dissatisfied. Limited. Held back! She needed the freedom that came with traveling, and adventuring, alone.
As she made her way down the winding road that ran through the peaceful, rolling hills of the open land that surrounded Labrintho Rhuna found herself thinking about the adventures and quests she’d undertaken on her journey here. Every moment alone had been more thrilling and fulfilling than what she’d undertaken when with a party. She could move at her own pace, exploring and discovering as she pleased and not needing to move at anyone else’s pace.
While memories fluttered through her mind the young Orc’s eyes rarely left the looming presence of Labrintho growing steadily closer to her. As the clouds and mist that clung to and surrounded the towering spire shifted there were times what it was obscuring seemed to change. Once she swore the towering spire at the center of the city had become a colossal tree covered in buildings. Another time she thought the concentric circular levels that made up the spire had become hard obsidian stone pulsing with sinister magic and sharp edges. More than once the tower seemed gone, replaced by a mountain larger than her mind could comprehend, yet each time this happened the mountain appeared differently.
“What is this?” she muttered, clinging to the emblem of her goddess that hung from a necklace around her neck. “An illusion? Distortion caused by the magic and enchantment on the city? Or is this something real I’m seeing?”
She fell into deep thought, trying to puzzle out this mystery. What if Labrintho was such a place of mystery because it wasn’t, in fact, a single place? What if the walls surrounding and hiding the “city” really acted as a portal of sorts? What if when she passed through a gate into the great city of mystery she’d be going through a portal taking her somewhere distant?
The young Priestess chuckled, not quite dismissing the idea as stupid, but doubting she was right. It was just a flight of fancy, a mental whim that was helping whet her appetite for discovery and exploration.
As she drew ever nearer she noticed another oddity. From all she’d been told there was only one road leading to Labrintho from the direction she’d come from, and all said it led straight to the gates into the enchanted city. Yet now that she was close she could see other roads, paths, and foot trails moving through the rolling hilly fields around her. All close enough that she could see other figures moving down the paths, but none close enough for her to make out any details of those figures. Some were on foot like her, others rode horses, while still others were in carriages or even part of caravans.
I’m certain those roads and paths hadn’t been there earlier, Rhuna told herself. Many of the hills were high enough to see all the surrounding land. I COULDN’T have missed them. This is magic! An illusion? Perhaps, but I doubt it.
She looked up at towering spire of Labrintho, smiling knowingly at it. A place blessed by Naiona, I’m certain of it. Maybe not JUST a place her divine power has created, but it has to be at least influenced by her divine might. Maybe it’s a kind of grand temple! A magical place of endless exploration and discovery where those searching it don’t even understand their journeys are a form of worship to Naiona.
As she drew near to the city’s great gates the other travelers on the other paths disappeared. She had expected to see the paths meeting hers, creating crowds waiting to enter the city together. But no other travelers appeared, leaving her wondering if they had been illusions after all.
Maybe each path brings a traveler to their own gate, leading into a different part of Labrintho. Then she remembered the way the towering spire had seemed to shift and change. Or maybe we’ve all found our way to different gates that will take us to different interiors.
The excitement and joy she felt, and knowing the beginning of an open-ended quest of discovery was only one gate away, left the young Orc bouncing with eagerness. Her heart was pounding as she approached the immense, intimidating gates, wondering what she’d need to do to make them open. She saw no guards and the gate was far too large and heavy for her to have any hope of opening it on her own.
But then, just as she drew close enough to need to stop and ponder what to do, the gates creaked and opened. A ripple flowed through the air, bursting out from the opening doors. Rhuna closed her eyes, inhaling deeply as the wave hit her. “Magic,” she whispered, savoring the taste. “All of it unknown to me,” she added, her heart aflutter. “So much to explore and discover,” she added as she opened her eyes to see what the gates had opened to reveal.
The sight stunned her and it took her a few moments of shocked silence to fully process what she was seeing. The gate had changed while her eyes had been closed. It was smaller, wasn’t it? She tried to remember how big it had been or even what the doors had been made of. The harder she tried the more confused the recent memories were.
Whatever it HAD been it was now an almost unremarkable gateway with open wooden doors leading into a bustling city! She walked forward, slowly and with her heart pounding, as she took in the sight of the city before her.
At first glance it was like countless ones she’d traveled through on her journey here. A busy place packed with people of all races, its roads filled with carts, carriages, horses, and crowds on foot. A prominent place, perhaps the capital of a small kingdom or a central trading hub full of shops and dwellings. She half expected to turn a corner and see an Adventurers’ Guildhall.
Yet the longer she looked about the more different and unusual the place seemed to be. The architecture of the buildings, which at first glance had seemed familiar for this region of Alaria, was revealed to be anything but. The majority was what one would expect, but nearly every building had accents or touches from distant lands. It gave a sense of the city being a melting pot, a collection of all the peoples of Alaria in one place, stewing to become something unique.
But this can’t be all there is, Rhuna realized. Labrintho has to be so much more than this city. Or was I right? Did the gate take me somewhere else? Is that Labrintho’s secret? It’s nothing but a massive portal?
When she looked over her shoulder she saw the towering walls surrounding Labrintho. They were massive and imposing, towering over even the tallest of buildings she could see and looking so perfectly smooth she wondered if even with the aid of magic one would be able to scale them.
Then she turned back around, looking “ahead” to where the towering central spire of the enchanted city SHOULD be. What she saw left her disoriented and confused. There was… nothing? No… there was SOMETHING. Mist. Clouds? Something shimmering and shifting, as though the central spire had yet to choose what shape it would take.
A feeling washed over her, a sense that she shouldn’t look in that direction right now. THAT mystery would be revealed later. For now her focus should be directed into the city she was standing in. Now it was time to explore and discover what was HERE.
Rhuna felt overwhelmed as she explored the city within Labrintho. It was crowded with people AND magic, presenting her with an almost oppressive, suffocating feeling she felt increasingly in need of escaping. It was a feeling that deeply disturbed the young Orc Priestess, as normally the prospect of exploring somewhere new would have filled her with enough religious zeal to push past any such feelings.
For a time she wondered if it was some kind of divine warning about this place. Could she have been wrong about coming to Labrintho? Was this Naiona telling her to be on guard, or maybe even turn and flee?
The thoughts slipped from Rhuna’s mind almost as quickly as they had arrived, as though some external power was willing her to ignore the possibility of danger. It’s not a warning, a voice not her own whispered in her mind. It’s just that this place is so crowded with magic that you’re feeling overwhelmed. All these strange people crammed into this packed city? It’s too much! You just need somewhere peaceful and quiet to recenter yourself…
“Somewhere peaceful and quiet,” Rhuna muttered, not noticing that her eyes had glazed over and she was mumbling as though in a trance.
She looked around, swaying a bit as the crowded streets suddenly felt even more oppressive. Perhaps a tavern or inn would give her the peace she so desperately needed to recenter and find some calm? No… those kinds of places might feel even more crowded and overwhelming than the street did. If only she wasn’t in a packed city… somewhere green and pretty with clean air, THAT was what she needed!
The crowd in front of her parted to reveal the most tranquil, beautiful, and inviting urban garden Rhuna had ever seen. It was mostly obscured by tall stone walls, but an open gateway leading into it revealed all she needed to see. She stumbled forward, the peace and beauty the garden offered calling her like a siren song. The Priestess was so entranced she failed to notice the way the crowd parted for her, the townsfolk and visitors moving as though being controlled to create not only an unopposed path forward but also creating a wall of people that would have prevented her from moving in any other direction if she’d turned from her destination.
As she neared the garden Rhuna became focused on the archway leading into the small public garden. It was stunningly beautiful, with the craftsmanship of the stonework some of the finest she’d ever seen. When Rhuna passed through it she was left even more awed, realizing much of the art worked into the ornate stone were hidden runes of enchantment that created a kind of invisible barrier at the arch. People could pass through it unopposed, but once through she found sound and odors from outside the garden were held at bay.
The sudden quiet and explosion of peaceful floral and clean green scents hit Rhuna like a wall of serenity. Only with the cacophony of the crowds and the chaotic mix of odors removed did she realize just how overwhelmed they’d all been.
Rhuna let out a long, calming sigh as she closed her eyes and inhaled the pleasant odors and taste of clean air. She let it calm her, suspecting that at least some of the beautiful flowers filling the small but impressive garden must have magical properties adding to the waves of calm washing over her.
She let the waves come, embracing them as her eyes fluttered open. The beauty of the place was stunning, and the vine and flower covered walls surrounding the place made it easy to ignore the city outside. She drifted for a time, shuffling peacefully as she admired the place until she found a comfortable-looking bench next to a tranquil fountain.
As she sat her mind was processing the implications of her surroundings. She felt powerful magic all around, woven into the stone walls and ornate statuary spread through the garden, the plants, and even the bench she’d sat down on, which was enchanted to soothe her body and relax her muscles. There was even magic crafted into the peaceful fountain beside her, causing the splashing of the water to form into a cooling mist that was magically directed to blow at anyone sitting on the bench.
If this peaceful little place was so chalked full of magic what would the rest of Labrintho be like once she explored it properly? And this was just the city at the gates! As she explored deeper, perhaps going up the central spire or down into the rumored sub-levels, surely the intensity of the magic would increase.
Thinking about Labrintho’s central spire led Rhuna to look in the direction she knew it should be. Beyond the garden’s walls she saw the city surrounding her, and beyond that… Nothing. Clouds? Mist? Some magic obscured whatever lay in that direction.
“You won’t be able to see the central Spire till Labrintho chooses which version of itself shall challenge you.”
Rhuna blinked, looking around in confusion. The voice that had spoken to her had been the strangest she’d ever heard. It had been the most prettily feminine voice ever to reach her ears, with near musical undertones yet also so dainty it had an almost ethereal aspect to it.
“Who said that?” Rhuna asked, continuing to look around and seeing no one who might have spoken to her.
“Down near the fountain,” the small feminine voice replied. “That big lily pad with the puffy purple flower atop it.”
Rhuna looked down just as the large puffy purple flower’s peddles opened to reveal a Pixie who fluttered out of the flower as she came into view. The small woman’s entire body was no larger than one of Rhuna’s big, green-skinned hands. Her wings, glowing and leaving a trail of shimmering fairy dust as they fluttered, glowed yellow for the moment, but as Rhuna’s time with the tiny Pixie continued she would learn the color of that glow would change with her moods.
If sized up to be the same height as a normal Human woman the Pixie would have looked dainty and fragile. With as small as she was the Pixie looked dangerously ephemeral, as though a mild breeze might be enough to destroy her fragile, lithe little figure.
The outfit she wore, a skimpy blue dress that flowed and drifted open as she flew through the air, would have been scandalously revealing on its own. It was low cut, showing off the swell of the Pixie’s tiny, perky little breasts. The bottom of the dress was not solid, instead it was a series of strips that fluttered and parted, sometimes showing off the Pixie’s slender legs, at other times revealing a tantalizing glimpse of her backside to reveal she had no underwear on.
It was a “revelation” unneeded as the sparkling blue garment was so transparent one could make out every bit of the Pixie’s light-skinned body almost as easily as if the small woman had been fluttering towards Rhuna naked. Her flowing dark brown hair, beautiful but wild and hanging down past her ass, often did more to hide her backside than the garment did, although with how frequently it shifted and blew in different directions as she fluttered through the air the hair did little to keep any one part of her obscured for long.
“You’re a stunningly pretty little thing,” Rhuna said with a calm and slightly flirtatious smile to the Pixie as she fluttered to hover at eye level with the Orc. “What’s your name?”
The Pixie ran a hand through a thick tangle of hair that had blown in front of her face then flung it over her shoulders, where her fluttering wings blew it even further out of place. “Shimmerbelle,” the Pixie declared, grabbing the skirts of her dress and performing a cute aerial curtsy. “And you are Rhuna Irontaker, Priestess of Naiona. Here to answer the call of Labrintho.”
Rhuna furrowed her brow and narrowed her eyes at the Pixie. “And how, exactly, do you know that?” There was a hint of suspicion in her voice that would have been much more pronounced if the magical garden hadn’t done so much to put her at ease and muddle her mind with relaxation.
Shimmerbelle ran both her dainty hands through her hair this time, tossing the pretty tangled mess back to give Rhuna a clear view of her diminutive face. “I know because Labrintho has appointed me as your guide! I am what the magical city shall use to let you know what you need to know WHEN you need to know it as you journey and explore this place.”
After a pause Shimmerbelle continued, “And I will be MORE than a guide, I’ll be a companion as well,” she added, posing and preening pettily in a manner that suggested the offering of more than friendly companionship. “If you’re interested in that kind of thing,” Shimmerbelle added, her confidence faltering as she took a closer look at Rhuna.
Shimmerbelle put her hands on her hips as her wings fluttered furiously behind her. She hovered higher then began to circle Rhuna as though appraising her. “An Orcish woman, but one who does all she can to LOOK masculine presenting. If I were to guess you identify as a woman but do not go out of your way to correct someone when they mistake you for a man, which I must assume happens frequently in some lands where gender norms are strictly defined.
“No Orc would mistake you for a man, but members of other races? I think most would see that big, strong Orc build, helped along by masculine presenting clothes and hair, and easily have their brains say ‘man’. Especially with the deep, sexy Orcish voice of yours, and what appears to be a flat chest.”
The Pixie had circled Rhuna several times during this so far astutely accurate appraisal. Now she stopped in front of the Orc, hovering closer. But not to float at eye level with Rhuna’s face, instead the small woman moved close to the Priestess’ chest.
“Something hidden here,” Shimmerbelle said, waving vaguely at Rhuna’s chest. “An illusion. A lie you tell the world.” She looked up, meeting Rhuna’s eyes, and grinned. “Something that if not hidden through sartorial lies would make male presenting a LOT more difficult, maybe even impossible.”
“You’re quite forward,” Rhuna grumbled, waving the Pixie away from her chest in a careful, nonthreatening but assertive manner that made it clear she did not like the attention being paid to that part of her body. “What does or does not lay hidden under my clothing is personal, something only I and my intimate partners need know about.”
Shimmerbelle giggled and fluttered up towards Rhuna’s face. She preened and posed in the air, cutely at first but then in more openly sexual manners. “Which brings me back to my question of just what kind of companionship you’d like from me on our journey into Labrintho! Shall I be guide and friend, or,” she trailed off, fluttering around and thrusting her ass out suggestively, “more than friends?”
Rhuna’s green cheeks flushed with a deep magenta hue as she giggled in amusement. “VERY forward,” she said as she held a hand out, palm flat so that the Pixie could land on it. “You assume much,” Rhuna said when Shimmerbelle landed in her hand, her weight so insignificant Rhuna barely felt it as the woman’s tiny bare feet landed on her skin. “Like that I’m willing to take you on as guide. Let’s say I am and let’s say I’m also interested in the ‘companionship’ of women. You’re charming and cute and cheeky in a sexy way that MIGHT be making parts of me flutter and warm. But… you’re so small! How would such a thing even work? I worry if I were to close my hand now I’d crush you to death!”
The Pixie threw her tiny hands up, making comically tiny fists as though challenging Rhuna to a fistfight. “First off, I’m FAR tougher than I look,” the Pixie declared. “I’m a servant of Labrintho, and while I remain within its walls no true harm can come to me. It is the same for all that give themselves to this place and let it take them.”
She dropped her fists and began strutting up and down the length of Rhuna’s palm, walking as though a member of a harem trying to entice her master to pick her for the night’s companionship. “As for how intimate relationships would work with our size difference, well, let’s just say I’m a VERY creative woman. Outside Labrintho’s walls I’d be able to think up countless ways to make the size difference work, some of which would even rely on it! And Labrintho is a place of nearly pure magic where ANYTHING is possible here!”
Rhuna smiled, her cheeks still slightly flushed. “Well, I’m making no promises, but mark me down as interested. As a follower of Naiona it is, after all, my religious duty to explore and discover. An intimate relationship with a woman as small as you would be something new worth exploring! But for now, let us only say I have accepted you as guide.”
She then sighed heavily, glancing at the city beyond the garden walls. “It was a bit overwhelming out there. Will you guide me where to go first? I’ve been called here, but I’m not even sure how to start or where I’m going.”
“That,” Shimmerbelle said with a swelling of excitement that sent her fairy wings fluttering and caused her to lift into the air, “is because Labrintho has yet to choose its shape! Now that you’ve accepted me as guide it should happen at any moment. Now is the time, Rhuna Irontaker, to look to Labrintho’s central spire and discover what form it has chosen as the challenge for you!”
The small woman rotated in the air, hovering facing the direction of the obscured central spire. She threw an arm out and point, declaring with excitement, “Look! It’s happening, it’s chosen!”
Rhuna looked past the Pixie and saw the mist part. As the central spire came into sight the world around them shifted. The bright sun overhead dimmed. As the mist parted the sky grew dark, filling with stars as if it had always been night and not mid-day mere moments ago. The spire, bathed in moonlight and shadowed by a dark sky filled with an unnatural number of stars, had become an urban spire. It looked less like a tower and more like an upward jutting rocky formation covered in a never-ending urban hell of tall urban mansions and castles connected by sprawling slums. The city shrouded in night spread out as it moved down till the upraise evened out into a low hill that seemed to end where Rhuna and the Pixie were.
A glance around them revealed that the garden and the nearby city had changed as well. The place was no longer vibrant and green. The garden had become a half dead place filled with flowers and plants that looked nearly as deadly as they were magical while the walls surrounding the garden were crumbling and barely held together by makeshift repairs and the gateway into the place no longer kept out the bustling of the city outside.
“Labrintho has become the Night Spire,” Shimmerbelle said, voice low and quiet. She hugged herself protectively, shivering in fear as she fluttered closer to Rhuna. She looked up, fear on her tiny face. “You’ll need my guidance more than ever now. And I’ll need your protection,” she added, moving even closer.
“Speaking of which,” she said, glancing around nervously. “We had best be on our way. I think we’d not like to linger with the kind of botanical nightmares likely to inhabit a garden found in the Night Spire.”
“I’ll trust in your guidance,” Rhuna said, determination on her face as she stood and marched towards the exit. Her stride was sure, her glance ahead on the lookout for the kind of danger her diminutive companion seemed to be warning about.
It was attention wholly misdirected. The Orcish Priestess was certain her new companion was following her. She was correct, but if Rhuna had glanced back to check she’d have seen something revealing on the small Pixie’s face. Till then that face had shown mostly mixes of sweet innocence, eager playful flirtations, and anxiety at their new surroundings. But the moment Rhuna had turned her back the tiny woman’s pretty face had twisted into an evil, eager sneer of malicious mischief followed by a lecherous, indecent licking of her lips as she lustily looked the Priestess.
Labrintho had called Ruhna Irontaker and the Priestess had answered. She’d arrived, unaware the place was a deeply perverse place infused with evil and that it had no intention of ever letting her leave its walls. It would twist her, turning her into a fiend to be used to pervert others. And if it couldn’t? Then it would joyfully BREAK her.
Rhuna was doomed. It was just a matter of how long before she discovered this. Then she’d need to either accept her fate or begin an inevitable losing battle where she’d be forced to submit to her fate…
One of the last polls determine that Rhuna is “incredibly busty, but hides this fact by binding her breasts. Why she does this, and just how oversized they are, will be determined by future polls.” Right now we need to decide just how big Rhuna’s breasts are (with the why being decided later). (Choose up to 2 options from this poll)
The next entry will center on some kind of sexual encounter featuring Rhuna’s new Pixie companion (and if anyone else they will be only women for now). What will it be? (Choose up to 2 options from this poll)
So far the story has only featured f/f action. Should it stay that way?
Philo Hunter Erotica 