NTR quest

NTR Quest 32 - Demonkine

The incursion into Demonkine consisted of you and your original party, naturally. The addition of the old Council Mage, Jeane, the prince and two other mages made it more of a band than a party. The two mages, you found, were named Chester and Farrah. Neither of them were on par with Jeane or the old Mage, Kasin. Not everyone could excel at magic in the world, otherwise things would be far more interesting and explosive. No, the two mages were useful, but could not be considered treasures like at least two of your companions.

As the band left the Den and began moving north the site of a battle confirmed your suspicions. The expeditionary army was defeated. Most of the soldiers that had split off were dead in a frozen field. The sight of so many corpses left to get picked at by wild animals turned your stomach. The only silver lining to seeing the army decimated was mentioned by Vura somewhat morbidly. It gave your group the ability to scavenge in order to make things easier on yourselves. To you it seemed disrespectful, but you were not going to argue for a more difficult time. By the end of the day you all had collected more supplies and two carts that could be pulled by four of the five horses that you inherited. The fifth horse belonged to the prince and being of far better breeding, he was not going to give it up. You accepted that condition as a payment for his silence. Even though he had the transport to be able to leave on his own, he did not have the ability to traverse the wilds. He seemed to understand that and reluctantly stuck to the carts like glue.

The organization was as such: Four mages, Luire and Heilan were in the back cart with Chester piloting it. You, Kara, Raithe, Vura and Jeane were in the front with Vura leading the horses on your cart. You thought it important to separate Jeane from her tormentor. But also, in a practical sense, splitting the two experienced mages between the carts made sense. Having the trusted and tested Luire in the back allowed you to keep an eye and an ear on them, and having Heilan over there also kept her from easily hearing anything important you had to talk about with Kara or Jeane.

The border into Demonkine was uneventful. It was not even a marker. It was simply more and more forest stretching on forever.
"Does this ever end?" You asked Kara.

"The trees do. It just keeps getting colder and colder and more lifeless. What's after that... Who knows?" She shrugged.

"Some think it wraps around." She drew a circle with her finger. After a few moments she glared in your direction.

"What?" You asked, even though you knew why she was mad. Raithe was clinging to you. You sat sandwiched between the two foxes.

"Are you really gonna to keep 'that' around?" Kara said with a sneer.

"It's your sister..." You argued. The others present on the cart found new places to look as the conversation turned a bit personal.

"Was." Kara clarified.

"What she did was extremely bad, yes, but-"

"I'm not saying I'm disowning her. I'm saying she's not there anymore... Her soul is shattered and consumed. Everything that's sitting there is just fragments of thoughts and memories. Raithe is barely a complete person anymore. It'd be better to put her out of her misery." As Kara finished explaining that point Raithe squeezed your arm a bit tighter. Killing her was out of the question.

You glanced over and made brief eye contact. Raithe stared back before averting her gaze elsewhere.
"It really seems like there's something in there, though..."

Kara groans loudly. She moved to kneel in front of you and Raithe, waving her hand in front of her sister's face. Raithe barely registered a response.
"Hellooo? Anybody in there? No?" Raithe stared blankly with her mouth parted slightly. After a long pause she merely leaned her head on your shoulder and yawned. Her twitching ear tickled your neck. You felt a very strong protective instinct with her. Part of it was guilt, part of it was the vulnerability she showed. A small part of it was the feeling that Kara had never been so annoyed and concerned with something that did not directly affect her. You stare at her.