The Wandsmith [LitRPG, Isekai, Harem]

The warmth of the inn's common room faded as Ori and Ruenne'del climbed the creaking stairs to the upper floor. Here, the muffled hum of conversation and the gentle clatter of crockery gave way to the quiet darkness of a corridor thick with the musk of age and long use. Their room, unlocked with a brass key, lay at the far end, a plain, unassuming space, tidy and quaint to the point of novelty.

Ori pushed open the door to reveal a modest chamber with an adjoining washroom no larger than a cupboard. A narrow single bed, barely wide enough for one, was tucked against the far wall. A nightstand stood beside it, leaning slightly on three solid legs and a fourth fashioned from bundled scrap wood. Atop it sat a polished brass mirror, its surface dulled by use and grime. The floorboards creaked with every step, one near the bed warped enough that Ori made a mental note to keep his shoes on.

The room's only window was a square gap in the wall, shuttered from the inside with timber slats and lacking any glass. It admitted a sharp tang of the night air, tinged with woodsmoke and the faint, comforting scent of roasted chestnuts. Beyond it stretched a view of Redharrow: low-rise wood and stone buildings scattered among oak-like trees, a central clearing, and the distant silhouette of forested valleys beyond.

Ori smiled. "It's perfect," he said, his voice tinged with a boyish sense of novelty and discovery. Part of it was because even after weeks on the road since escaping Ghigrerchiax and passing through various villages, this was the first real town they'd stayed in. A silly sense of pride crept over him. He'd come this far, essentially travelling the equivalent length of Britain with little more than a roughly drawn map and the stars to guide them.

Ruenne'del stepped in behind him, her expression caught somewhere between fond exasperation at his emotions and quiet disappointment at the quality of the accommodation. She turned slowly on the spot, her wings brushing the doorframe behind her.

"I'd rather sleep under the stars and trees," she declared in her scratchy, laconic voice.

"Yeah, but you always say that," Ori replied, grinning. "I'm just happy we've got a bed."

"Why not take it with us? Or craft one… bigger and nicer?"

"It's an idea," Ori said, nodding. The thought reminded him that, in theory, he could use magic for basic carpentry. Crafting something like a springy mattress or a proper pillow would be another matter entirely. Maybe he should add it to Raven's growing list of items to store in her ring for transmigration. That list had already grown strange, with recent requests including measuring tools: digital scales, rulers, tape measures, containers and jars in every imaginable size—all metric. A unit system Ori hadn't realised he'd miss until finding himself in a world without it.

Rue gave him a long, appraising look. Her bemusement rippled into a crooked smile as his thoughts filtered through the bond like a fizz of sparkling water.

"That which amuses you is so strange."

Ori shrugged. "I am a man, after all."

The room had no bath, but the adjoining washroom, a cupboard in all but name, held a small copper tub, barely large enough to crouch in, and a half-full bucket of cold water. A worn washcloth hung over the rim. It wasn't much, but after days on the road, it might as well have been a spa.

Ori groaned aloud. "Not much water, innit? Times like this, mandem wishes he had a water affinity."

"Your Light affinity is just as good for getting clean," Freya replied, flitting into view. The iridescent glow of her sprite form added a shimmer to the dim shafts of sunset filtering through the shutters. "Besides, I dread to imagine how that mind of yours would twist the basic concept of water into something more… preposterous."

Her pixie form hovered in the candlelight, no taller than a foot and perfectly proportioned, her pixie-cut blueberry hair, dark eyes, lithe limbs, delicate curves, and a womanly elegance that defied her size. Freya stripped without ceremony, wings fluttering faintly as she dipped into the bucket and began scrubbing herself down with the washcloth.

Ori, for all his attempts at restraint, couldn't help but ogle.

Freya noticed.

Her eyes flicked towards him, narrow and knowing. "Isn't it impolite to stare?"

"Tell me to look away and I will," Ori replied evenly.

Despite her pointed look, she said nothing more, nor did she cover herself. There was no true anger in her expression, just a resigned acceptance tinged by the familiar, undefined intimacy they allowed themselves. It wasn't quite romantic, not exactly platonic either, but something shaped by their soul-deep closeness, the absence of boundaries, and the strange comfort of being wholly seen and known.

Beside her, Ruenne'del lowered herself into the copper tub, her wings fluttering lazily in the warm twilight air. She dipped her legs into the shallow water with a soft sigh. The amber glow of sunset spilt through the shutter slats behind her, dancing across her freckled skin and setting her wings aglow in a kaleidoscope of prismatic colour. She glanced over her shoulder as Ori's gaze lingered on the soft curve of her back, the pink blush of her nipples backlit by candlelight.

"You really do find me more… arousing than the waitress, don't you?" she asked, her smirk tugging at the corner of her lips even as her voice carried a thread of pride.

"Not going to lie," Ori said, adjusting his seat on the edge of the bed, "I find you, both of you, perfect. And also, you're naked. Naked fairies letting me watch them bathe is absolutely the kind of thing that'll get most human men... More than a bit worked up."

Freya huffed and turned away with theatrical disdain, but made no effort to hurry her wash or hide herself. Rue chuckled softly, the sound like velvet, her emotions flickering through the bond with quiet satisfaction.

"Are you sure we have to check out the town tonight?" Ori asked, not bothering to mask his reluctance.

"It was your idea. A 'date', as you called it," Rue replied, arching an eyebrow.

"Yes, but... naked fairies." He gestured at the tempting sight before him.

"Don't hold out on my behalf. I'm done." Freya finished with a flick of her wings and a flash of light, shrinking down further into her sprite form before slipping back into his soul space.

Next, it was Ori's turn, as he stripped, doing his best to ignore the chill of the water. As he began wiping himself down, he struck an exaggerated pose, flexing half-ironically while dragging the cloth across his chest.

"Behold the high human form," he announced with mock grandeur. "Bask in its glory."

Rue snorted, brushing her hair before the burnished mirror. "Half its glory. You forget, I've seen that thing at full mast," her deadpan delivery masking emotions sparkling with mirth.

Ori and Ruenne'del moved through the cobbled streets of Redharrow, her boots clicking softly against dry stone. Lanterns swayed overhead, casting warm light across timber façades and uneven paving. Despite the hour, the town remained lively. Travellers spilt from inns and rest stops, their laughter echoing through the narrow streets. Others clustered around food carts and open-air stalls, where the mingled scents of hot bread, spiced meat, and scorched oil hung thick in the air.

There was a comfort in it all, a kind of low-key rhythm found only in towns accustomed to wanderers. Voices drifted through the evening, overlapping in a dozen dialects. Children darted past with sticky fingers weaving between porters hauling crates of dried fruit, cured meats, and alchemical tinctures. No one moved too quickly, and no one wore a mask of civility they didn't mean. Redharrow felt practical, lived-in, unbothered by appearances or pretence.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Ruenne'del's wings twitched now and then beneath her cloak, catching the lamplight in soft iridescent reflections. She walked without hurry, her eyes alight with curiosity, enjoying the sense of freedom and exploration every bit as much as he did. They spoke only now and then, exchanging light observations but as the night wore on, the silence between them drew them closer. By the time they reached the far end of the street, the press of people and distant sounds had faded away. Without even realising it, they were walking arm in arm.

"Thank you," Rue said suddenly.

Ori glanced at her, trying to decipher the feelings flowing through the bond.

"For what?" he asked.

"Because of my magic," she replied. "It's hard to care about everything around me, about the present, because I'm always seeing the future. Living outside the now. But… now I'm free. Free to experience moments like this. And that's because of you. So, thank you."

Ori didn't answer with words. He simply pulled her closer, wrapping her in a tight hug as they made their way back to the inn.

It wasn't long before they were back in their room, stripping off clothes and gear between fevered kisses. The intense feedback loop of the bond made the idea of a slow, teasing build-up of passion impossible. Ruenne'del leapt up to wrap her legs around him, her jump assisted by a flap of wings.

They were naked within moments, the bed long forgotten as hands and tongues explored each other in a frenzy of kisses, bites and roaming touches.

"Mmhmmmm," Ruenne'del groaned as Ori twisted her nipple in response to fingernails scoring trails across his back. She felt weightless, Nascent ranker stats combined with the hollow mass of the petite fairy, made the standing position they found themselves in effortless. Ori's kisses shifted into licks and gentle bites across her neck, her collarbone, and the soft peaks of her perfect, pink nipples. With a grunt and a beat of her wings, their combined effort hoisted her higher. Thighs around his face, his arms held her firm, fingers kneading the soft curves of her ass as he continued his descent, his mouth exploring her navel, the faint pink fuzz of her pubis, the smooth, hot inner skin of her thighs.

He inhaled her scent, something faintly sweet and indiscernible, tinged with something deeper, more primal, it filled his nose as her fingers dug into his scalp, pushing him deeper, encouraging him as she mewled with breathy, low moans.

His cock stood rigid in the cool night air, straining and momentarily forgotten in the haze of bond-amplified arousal, his focus split between delivering what she needed, even as he tried to make sense of the flood of exhilaration and frustration pouring through their connection.

She needed him, needed him in the way only a man could fulfil and though curiosity and a desire to explore each other still lingered in their thoughts, the overwhelming urgency of shared desire screamed for them to complete their union.

He caught her again, one arm around her narrow waist, the other curling around the small of her back. His hands slid over the sensitive juncture where her wings met flesh, a place delicate and complex and trembling with sensitive skin and anticipation.

Their foreheads touched as their heavy breaths mingled. Her fine lips parted in shallow gasps, her face flushed, her brow furrowed in concentration as she reached down, wrapping slender fingers around him. She rubbed the head of his cock against her slick opening. She was wet, an intoxicating blend of warm and cool and warm again, of heat and slickness, of her abdominal muscles tensing and twitching as she toyed with him, groaning and quivering under his touch.

Unable to endure the maddening tease any longer, Ori took control of her body, his hips pressing into her core with a slow, deliberate, unstoppable thrust.

The sudden, molten heat and tightness tore a moan from his throat as the bond flared, an overwhelming flood of mirrored sensation surging through them as she instantly climaxed.

Rue's thighs and hooked arms locked around him, breath catching in her throat. Her wings buzzed and her glovelike core tightened into a fist around him.

Relishing the sensation despite their urgent desire to go faster, Ori took a near-sadistic pleasure in edging her second release. Even as his climax loomed, he controlled it with disciplined focus, prolonging the tension between them. Each thrust grew deeper, harder, no longer restraining the limits of his physical or arcane strength, even as additional spectral hands joined the rhythm, tracing and teasing every inch of her skin in a sensual envelopment of touch.

Meanwhile, similar to his experience with Harriet and Poppy during Taurna'diem, her soul reached out for his. Though this time, not in a single, shattering wave, but like the slow build of a tide, lapping, surging, pressing with every slow, deliberate thrust. It was a continuous, overlapping rhythm that wore away at the final wall between them.

As the pressure built beyond his control, he let it crumble.

The bond deepened as his vision turned white, his cock pulsed and bucked as he felt her tighten around him, and their connection thickened, twisting into something fuller, richer. Their souls intertwined and Ruenne'del screamed in raw, uninhibited ecstasy as another orgasm tore through her, more intense than the first.

"Oriiii!"

He gave her everything, his love, his strength, his trust and appreciation, and in return, he felt a deeply possessive edge to her pleasure. In that moment of soul-deep connection, understanding flowed with her emotions for the first time. There was the quiet triumph of a seeker who had found what she had long feared she never would. The everlasting wonder of a Seer freed from the shackles of foreknowledge, and unbound by early mortality. There was also the fierce pride of a woman wholly desired and wholly seen by the man she desired, along with the certainty of forming a family of her own design. And beneath it, all was the radiant joy of discovering a companion and of beginning a journey that would span all of eternity and one day rewrite Fate itself.

"What are you thinking about?"

Ori played with Ruenne'del's wings as she lay on her front, twitching intermittently as he ran his fingers over sensitive ridges thrumming with mana. She lay half awake, a pleased, peaceful expression on her face as Ori allowed his thoughts to drift.

"Nothing. Just… feeling… enjoying… being."

"Post orgasm high." Ori nodded sagely.

Rue shook her head with an enigmatic smile. "Our bond feels… larger"

He was more than certain the rest of the inn had heard her cries as they continued their session, taking up multiple positions around the room. Ruenne'del's feet never quite touched the floor again as he all but manhandled the fairy. He could feel through the bond how she luxuriated in the sensation of being held, his strength and control, the pinch and twist of her nipples, and how his thrusts turned punishing in exchange for bites and scratches. She delighted in his passion unleashed, in him being his true, unbridled self rather than the usual calm restraint and partner-focused control he so often defaulted to.

Lifeforce and Nascent-ranker stats made the experience far more extensive, with more seed released during climax and a refractory period so short as to be almost non-existent. Even now, he considered starting again, his cock already hard at just the thought of pinning down her wrists and driving back into her.

"Do it," Ruenne'del dared, her heavy-lidded gaze just short of full awareness, revealing her reaction to his desire. She was so beautiful, his pink-haired fairy princess, his quiet guide and companion, his muse. A woman he knew he would spend the rest of eternity unravelling.

He climbed on top of her just as phantasmal hands flung her to her back and pinned her to the bed.

"I love you. I'm glad you're mine," Ori said earnestly.

"I love you too. You are my joy," Ruenne'del replied, kissing him, then groaning as Ori thrust deep into her core.

It was just one of the many differences between her and his other bonded: the way she came so easily, how she relished the sensations of her own body provided, and the possessiveness that mingled with her constant testing of boundaries. She pushed, provoked, and tested him at every turn, a teasing little menace who delighted in pressing his limits. Yet every time Ori responded with firm control and well-placed pain, she melted. It was both punishment and reward, a sharp, possessive reminder to his scheming Seelie fairy, his little bratty princess, that he saw her, understood her, and wouldn't let her get away with everything.

In return, she relished in the attention, in the sharp, ruthless punishments, his taking what he wanted from her, and the knowledge that her body and their union were everything he could desire.

It wasn't that Ori didn't have to try to please her. He knew this was only the surface of her many desires and kinks. But for now, theirs was an easy kind of love, one that let him truly let loose on a body that, by all rights, should have been too fine and delicate to ravage so thoroughly.

Ori sneezed. It was a few hours into the early morning.

Feeling unusually groggy, he eventually remembered something Ruenne'del had mentioned between their many sessions during the night. Their bond had… changed:

Affliction: Weal and Woe of the Leanan Sídhe (ii)

Rank: Primordial
Description: This affliction reduces your Lifeforce and Lifeforce Regeneration by 80%, while improving
Intelligence, Presence, and Wisdom by 600%.
Notes: Part curse, part blessing, this affliction is an early death sentence for all but the very few who can withstand its effects. To those who can survive the attentions of a Leanan Sídhe, it may become an invaluable boon. The effects of this affliction may intensify over time.

His Lifeforce had dropped from seventeen to ten once more. However, most of the other changes were beneficial, most notably, being one step closer to summoning Raven, and having more Mana for his various other plans. However, knowing the curse would only get worse over time, Ori filed it away as yet another task he'd need to deal with, eventually.

He sighed, preparing to go back to sleep, when the quiet of the pre-dawn inn was broken by the sound of shouting and alarmed men echoing through the lower floors.