NOVEL NEXT 84: Mystical Telepathic Noses?
PEYDRAN
"So," Ren cleared his throat. "Is this literal? Sibsil Creed is alone and experiencing profound, mystical oral sex orgasms from a telepathic lover?" We were reading the stream book Within and Without: A Tindin Journey With Erotica By Sibsil Creed again, clothed and snuggled on the sofa.
And this very entry was why I hadn't wanted to read Ryst's book a second time. Ren was still focused on telepathic sex, though, and I couldn't ignore him. But how did I even think about this chapter without thinking about Ryst, alone in Media Monastery?
Plenty of the Within and Without stories were vague and dream-like descriptions. The reader would need to use some imagination to turn "seaweed all around me—or was it legs and arms?" into a description of sex. But what Ren and I had just read was not that. It left no room for imagination: a woman was alone and her invisible lover went down on her and gave her the most intense orgasm she'd ever experienced with his nose and tongue. There was exactly zero doubt about what that chapter was about. It was descriptive. Detailed.
I didn't want to think about Ryst alone getting off by— well, was it Nayth? Sands, I did not want to think about that. Was he getting her off years before they met? Really? Did it happen? I didn't want to think about it, but Ren did want to think about it. So, chose to think about it and talk about it.
"Ren, I don't know. I never asked her about it. I read the book, and I found a way to get her to publish it. But, she was still alone at the time. I— well, honestly, I didn't even want to think about this kind of intimacy between two other people. It's one thing to see it in videos, but this is real, and it's a woman who I love as a sister. And she was always so broken up, missing him and trying to find him. The whole thing was agonizing to watch. So, I never asked. I just read the book— that was only a couple weeks ago! And you know what it did to me when I read it. Ren— do you want to talk to her about it?"
While it may have looked like we were cuddling on the couch, in actuality, Ren was tense. His brows were furrowed. Something was going on in his head, and I didn't know how to get that something out. His mouth quirked side to side, and he grunted a little. "Humngh. Well, earlier the book said to use an observer role, right? I mean, that's how you're supposed to work your way up to experiencing what your lover feels in bed, right?"
Apparently, Ren had decided that Within and Without was a step-by-step textbook on telepathic sex. A quick and easy guide to mental erotica. "So, maybe Sibsil Creed wouldn't mind too much if I asked some observational questions?" he asked with a sort of grimacing smile.
Ren's eyes were earnest, not teasing. I knew this was important to him, and Ryst adored him. I swallowed my discomfort. I sent a command to Ren's pad, and it hovered over to him.
"Honey—," wait, was I calling Ren "Honey" now? Apparently, I was. I kind of liked it. "Why don't you video Ryst?" I suggested.
It would come to her from Ren's ID, so maybe that would help decrease the awkwardness a bit. "Ryst adores you, Ren."
He nodded and transmitted the video request. Ryst's face filled the screen. She was not only dressed, but also wore make up and had twisted her long hair into a braid with strands of red, white, and silver beads. She looked like she was getting ready to go out. She looked amazing, actually.
"Ryst! You look like a goddess of love!" Ren cried out.
"I'm going for 'mysterious sibyl,' myself. What're you two up to? Wearing clothes, I see."
"Actually, I found this stream book called Within and Without." Great job, Ren! Be objective, and we might just all get through this. "And I asked my boyfriend to read it with me. See,I think that telepathy makes a lot of sense because music is easier for me than talking."
At this, Ryst's eyebrows rose, and she watched Ren instead of paying attention to her braiding fingers. "And I really want to know from Sibsil Creed if orgasms from oral sex are possible from telepathy alone."
Ryst smiled softly and affectionately at Ren's sincerety. Finishing her braid, she took a deep breath. "Ren," she chuckled softly and took another deep breath. Then she looked right at the video and said, "Ren, I think it would be easier if I could merge with your mind and just show you the truth. I've never done it over video. Do you want to try?"
Ren's eyebrows crept up his forehead, and he nodded. "What— what do I do?"
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Ryst just closed her eyes. Ren closed his too, and then he smiled. Sands, no! Now I'd have no idea what they were saying! So uncool. Recompense for how I'd avoided that book. It was payback. I sat there watching them, pouting.
Ren nodded. "Hmm?" he asked aloud as though he asked a question. Then he said audibly, with his eyes open, "I don't know, Ryst. Okay. Let me try to tell you. It was like being hugged by you. The best hug ever. So much warmth. In my whole brain, and in my heart. Like you were my favorite love song, but all within me. Not a romantic love song, but the truest love song. All love, all in one feeling."
Ryst's eyes watered, and if she didn't get herself together, she'd have makeup running down her cheeks. It was in that moment that I realized that part of Ryst's loneliness when we had been alone—together— hadn't been about missing Nayth. It had been about being understood.
Finally, for the first time in four years, Ryst had someone who could understand her: Ren. She'd said she was dressing up as a "mysterious sibyl," not a goddess. Maybe she felt like Ren was a sibylline sister?
"But Ryst, I couldn't really tell if you were saying anything to me. I just felt. It was wonderful, and we can do that anytime, or all the time! I'll never stop hearing your song! It's like I've always known it, and I always will. But it's a song, not an answer."
Ryst had given up on not crying and let the water works flow.
She said with an almost derisive chuckle, "Yeah, that's the thing Ren, for you, music is the expression of your tangled feelings, right? For me, it's just sensations I don't understand and light and a constant waking dream. It's those wavy lines I was talking about before—." Sighing, she started again, "I don't think I have answers. All I ever have is questions and giant tangles that I can't unravel."
She shook her head. "Alright, I'll try to explain it in straight lines, but it might come out all jumbled up. Part of it is that I haven't told Nayth about Sibsil Creed yet. I want to surprise him with it, and I didn't bring his copy of the book with me to Sturm, so I haven't decided yet what to do about that. That's making it harder to answer your question. Because nothing is straight lines when I haven't made the choice yet."
"But, maybe we can ask him about it without telling him about the book yet? I'm not hiding it from him, okay? I just have a surprise for him at home. Hold on. We've been talking about the past four years and trying to piece things together. Hold on a sec— Ahtah, um, love? Can— oh, screw this. Look, this is normally a really private subject, but Ren already knows about it and has questions about telepathy. I don't really have answers."
"Greetings, Ren." Nayth also looked fancy in a grey kurta with blue embroidery.
"I think we can step back into observational roles, Ryst," Ren reminded.
"So, Ahtah, there were plenty of times that I had sexual, erotic experiences when I was by myself." Nayth held back a small smile, and his eyebrows rose in a "You don't say" questioning look.
"I experienced an invisible lover performing cunnilingus, and it was real to me." Nayth chuckled softly. "The question on the table is: was my invisible lover there at the time, or was I seeing something of a future encounter? A type of prophetic vision? Did it really happen in real time? Was I imagining it?"
Nayth responded with a slight nod of the head to Ren, "And from a purely observational standpoint, was the invisible lover's nose involved in this tryst?"
Ryst laughed, fully and freely. "You were there!" He just wrapped his arms around her and pressed his lips against her forehead. And there they were. A picture so much like the scene on my sofa: two people, unlike each other, but who'd chosen each other.
Ren wasn't finished. The man was dauntless. I think the Shurwinn phrase, "Ask any question" was made up for Ren. "So, it really works? Telepathic sex really works?"
Nayth looked at him, "In a pinch, it works over a long distance, but I think it's so much better when it's both real sex and telepathic sex at the same time. Does that help, Ren?"
"Yeah, yeah, I just gotta figure it out still. I'm not really like Ryst. I don't know how to do that merge thing she just did with me. Or—" he broke off, and looked at me, puzzled.
"Well, I followed a song once, but it wasn't the same as Ryst. It was a different type of music all together." Ren's eyebrows drooped, and his mouth twisted, like he was thinking very hard, and he stared at my belly button.
"Wait, but Peydran is immune to your telepathic zaps, isn't he Ryst?"
"I honestly don't understand that, Ren. I don't zap him, anyway. It's just that most people are automatically open to me, but Peydran has always been automatically closed to me. With only two exceptions: when he was in the hospital and the night at the Moreland's dinner table when his teacher Jerun was there. For some reason, it helped when Jerun was there."
I really didn't like where this was going, so I shook my head, "No, Ren. I'm not blocking you. I don't block you. I'm actively being open to you. All the time."
He nodded, "Yeah, I don't think it's that simple. I don't think you're blocking me, Pey'o. I'm not actually even trying to do anything for you to block, okay? I don't actually even know what we did that one time. I just followed the song."
"Can you sing the song for me, Ren?" Nayth asked.
Ren's eyebrows flew up, and he turned to Nayth singing, "I'll be a song, a song so beautiful. . ."
Nayth tilted his head and closed his eyes, leaning towards the video. His head swayed, and his deep baritone joined in, but in a harmony, not the melody Ren sang, "La, laaa-aaa." Nayth sang a different song, but it blended, and Ren's eyes sparkled as a smile entered his tune.
Ryst's face looked open and delighted, and I knew I had the same look on my face. The singing slowed, and the two men opened their eyes and looked at each other.
"We aren't done composing together, Nayth," Ren said, and it was one of those facts that Ren sometimes said. It was a thing he knew, and it would be as he said.
"I think I'm just a stanza in your symphony, Ren," Nayth replied softly and sweetly.
This love fest was going to keep going, and Ryst and Nayth obviously had somewhere to be, so I asked bluntly, "Ren, does the song help? Do you understand about the telepathic sex now? Does the song tell you?"
He shrugged, "We'll find out eventually. Thanks Nayth, Ryst. Enjoy your dinner."