Chapter 1 - Divine Delving: Surface Tension

Ralum inhaled the fresh morning air as he knelt on the bare rock. His golden brown skin gleamed with persperation as he held his posture. The sun was rising, a great beacon over the horizon. The man's silver hair was pulled back into a neat braid and he was as naked as the rock he knelt on. His hands were in his lap, palms up and open in suplication. His lips were tight and before the Sun rose to eye level he muttered a single sentence.

"I fucking hate protocol." And he opened his eyes into the Sun.

Really? A voice that imposed itself on his mind rung like church bells in a distant country. You don't mind walking around naked when its with a few of your tavern doxies.

"What's the good of curing diseases with a touch, if that touch isnt a pleasurable one?" He mused. It was a filthy world, and most countries hadn't a working concept of 'hygenie' yet, let alone 'germs'. Still, spreading the good word of hot water and soap was a worthy pass time. Plus it made money.

We have offered you compensation for your efforts.

"I've heard how your 'rewards' turn out." Ralum shook his head at the idea. "No thanks. I'd do the job for the experience."

Very well. The voice relents. Here is your next target. Images flood his head: A stone and mortar dam; pillars of stone at the edge of the reservoir; a tear without color or light in the black, beneath an archway of obsidian, imbedded with glowing red iron spears. 

"Wait." Ralum "Those spikes. Those are Infernal binding spikes." Even as the images fades. 

Indeed.

"The bindings are supporting that arch," Ralum expounded, "And that arch is pushing the tear down, but it's still opening."

Indeed.

"I let off a bamf of Positive Mojo, and that's going to roast me."

Indeed.

"Unless I have back up, back up from the Other Side."

Indeed.

"And you're stuck in a loop."

Indeed.

"I fucking HATE protocol." Ralum broke eye contact and stood. Slivers of white light ran under the his flesh. 

---

There's only one dam on the whole continent made from stone, Wulford Rise. It had been built, originally, as a fortification against an invasion from the Riverlands, but it had been so overbuilt, that over the years it became a damn and new occupants found a use for all that water power.

Mills. Lots of Mills.

"We've been hearing weird noises on the inner walls." A dwarf led Ralum along a stone corridor. As if on cue there was a low bellow from their right. "Right. That. There's no structural damage, no weakening. No bending, bowing, breaking; we've fixed all the mistakes of the original construction."

"I've heard that once dwarves take over a human construction, within a decade all the masonry has been replaced." Ralum's robes shuffle silently behind him and he looks ever bit the monk he isn't. "Though for something as large as this, it must have taken longer."

"It was half the size when we took ownership. My Grandfather told me this venture was foolish. But I told him. 'Damnit, old man-"

"People need bread!" A dozen workers nearby shouted in chorus, and Ralum smiled. Wulford 'Rising Bread' grain was sold from coast to coast and famous throughout the land as been wholesome, and affordable.

And now it was being threatened by a Nameless Destruction.

"I was worried when the other two showed up." The Head mason led Ralum up a staircase, the third since they'd arrived. "They seemed a bit.... well...."

"Their appearance aside they serve... to maintain life on this world, such as it is." It was a roundabout way of saying it, but it wasn't a lie. Probably.

"Aye, but all the same, they were giving my lad's all manner of queer looks," He sighed. "I mean they aren't gold panners, they get plenty of action in the city proper."

"Tieflings have a way of drawing out those desires that go unfulfiled to the surface of our minds." Ralum assured the dwarf as he crested the last step and felt the sunshine on his face. The dwarf coughed and looked away at the Aasamir's words. Raum's eyes didn't hurt like a normal human's would walking into the light. He could stare into the Sun straight on. "Oh what the actual fuck." He swore as he saw what was standing beyond the doorway.

He strode out, past the dwarf, toward the two nearly naked figures who were sitting on the railing, looking out at the reservoir. One had her wings stretched wide, soaking in the sun. The other was flexing her ass, letting it go taught, then soft. Tails swished back and forth, curled tight and relaxed with both delicacy and strength implied by their motions. There were a number of 'working' dwarves watching the two of them show off.

"Succubai. Actual, honest to fuck succubai." Ralum swore.

"Such a mouth on a choir boy!" The demoness with her wings spread wide cooed. "I wonder what else those lips can do?" She spins on her ass, lifts her legs, and turns to face Ralum. "Ooh, you are fine."

Her partner leans back and straightens out, her toes in the air and her breasts jiggling as she smiles. She licks her lips and eyes him up and down, but her eyes linger on some of the more chaste folds.

"I'm more interested in what he's hiding under those boring old robes." The second succubus groans, her hands travel across her body. Ralum sighs and opens up his robes. "Whoa!" The demon falls off the railing. "What happened to vows of chastity?"

"Not my vow." Ralum replied and closed his robes.  "So, what shall I call you?" Asking for a succubus's Name was a quick way to a short life, but asking a for a petname or something to call them by, that got you somewhere.

"Caressa." The demoness still seated dipped her head. 
"Fuundel." The luscious demon lounging on the ground purred.

"Glad to know I've made it to first." Foreplay names were a good start, but things were going to get dangerous before they got better. "You scope out our target?" He walked up to the railing and crossed his arms. It had the effect of pulling the back of his robes tight against his rear, and earning a coo of approval from the succbus on the ground. 

Her friend shamelessly leaned forward to admire the view from her seat. Ralum idly wondered if he was trying too hard, or if he just seemed desparate. "Ladies, could you focus, please?" 

"Oh we are." Fuundel slipped her fingers between her legs and Ralum could see her tail snake its way up her leg. 

"Then could you multi-task, please?" He turned and gave a pout to Caressa, "For me?" She laughed aloud and her friend soon joined her. Ice. Broken. "Is it as bad as the Biggun's think?"

"It's a hand-me-down problem." Fuundel sighed. "Someone from our end tried to put a plug in it because they didn't know how to sew up the rift at the time."

"Twice over from the look of it. Those spikes seemed like they were add ons, boosting it."

"Yeah," Caressa noded. "That's our bosses' work. They burned up all their time on the Rock to forge those and put them there."

"All their time, or all the time they had left?" Angels and Demons had a set amount of time they could spend in the material world. It was a valuble commodity and a non renewable resource often pilfered and schemed from new demons or recently fallen angels. 

"All the time they had left, which was a lot, by your standards." Fuundel sat up, her breasts squishing together as she rested her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. Her eyes locked on the folds of the robe as they grew more snug against Ralum's ass.

Ralum was worrying the folds of his robes, pulling them tighter as he stared out into the lake.
"Something's coming. Something soon."

"There's nothing IN the reservoir, at the moment." Caressa sighed and gestured at the motionless water.  "We scanned it to the bottom."

"The water is carrying the sound. It's still teasing the tear." Ralum was speaking their language, and it was getting their attention. "So I say we go down there and tell the freak its money is no good, it's not welcome, and it should fuck off back to the Abyss." He looked to the two succubai and they smiled.

This really WAS going to be as fun as She prosmised. 