#kipasra

Asra hadn’t had time to dress for the occasion. As the permanent Court Magician, he was always swamped with research and ongoing experiments. He knew his partner, Kipling Bronne, wouldn’t mind that he came to her as he was. In fact, she probably preferred it.

Still, the cloud-haired magician felt himself sticking out like a sore thumb. Guests were serving more body than costume. Their clasps and chains and streaks of laced fabric were mere highlights to the generous amounts of skin that shone and glistened even under the weakest of candle light.

Meanwhile, Asra kicked up a breeze with the trailing ends of his outer jacket and the layers within. His signature red scarf came along for the ride. He walked with purpose, parting the wave through the masqueraders like a headmaster going about their midnight rounds. 

By the time Asra made it to the rendezvous point, he had broken out in a fine sweat. He opened an iron gate into an enclosure overrun with plants and outdated stonework.

“Kipling?” He called out to the leafy dark. “I’m here.”

Ears sharpened by long term magical training, Asra heard the sound of a ward being activated. He was in her realm now.

“Magus Alnazar,” Kipling greeted as she stepped out from the shadows. His breath caught at the volume of coils and curls, interrupted by corkscrews of silver near her temple. Even from a distance, Asra could sense that she walked as tall as him that night. Her costume was a blend of nightcall temptation and black cat. 

Or rather a fox, but in black morph.

“Kip,” Asra breathed, both hating and loving when she addressed him by a formal title. It meant she wanted to play games. As much as Asra loved to tease and taunt his partners, it was always Kipling that knew just the right jab to throw him off. If neither of them backed down, the two of them could go all night.

Kipling approached with a lump of corded binders slung over her forearm like it was a handbag. But it had to be heavy. She dropped it at Asra’s feet unceremoniously when they were face to face.

“Burning the midnight oil again. How was my map?”

Asra carded a hand through his shaggy white curls. “You took me along the scenic route. So, I’m a little sweaty. Didn’t have time to stop for a bath.”

Behind the simple black mask, Kip’s face was unreadable. She kept her mouth set in an easy smirk regardless of what he said.

“That’s all right. You came to me when I called. That’s all that matters.”

She came forward to remove his reading glasses – Salim’s old glasses. Since becoming a full time Court Magician, Asra had taken on the habit of shaving less and growing his hair long and untamed. It drove the other courtiers crazy. It had a likewise effect on Kipling, but for entirely different reasons.

“Rules?” Asra asked as Kip gently set the glasses to the side before beginning the lengthy process of disrobing him.

A tilt of the head. Eyes fixed on their task. “You can talk. But you know better than to touch wild animals. And while you’re at it, you shouldn’t touch yourself either.”

Asra’s white eyelashes shuttered over brown eyes. There were hues of astral purple as well, but less than when he was younger. He wet his lips when the base layer of his robe came off. 

“What happens if I do, Vixen?”

Kip looked up at that. “Then it’s over. This realm disappears. And I with it.”

“Fair enough,” Asra huffed. Part of him wanted to test that to see if Kip was bluffing. But after his pants came down, he decided it wasn’t worth losing this moment with the dark fox kneeling down by his feet.

Kip made him wear a collar. 

“Bring the rope.” 

Asra scrambled to pick up the bindings. Kip was already pulling him along by a leash. He gathered the black cords and entered the slack, following Kip deeper into the stone garden where a stool waited for him.

Asra sat and swallowed through the dryness in his throat when Kip brought out the blindfold. She jerked his head back while putting it on.

“Stop squirming, Magus.”

“I want to see you.” 

Besides, it was within the rules. She hadn’t said anything against squirming or resisting. 

A chuckle. “You see me every day.” She moved on to tying him up with shibari knots.

“Not like this.” Asra was trying very hard not to whine. He turned his head as naturally as he could, hoping he would bump into Kip in a way that would make her want to caress him. Or kiss him.

He was only shoved backwards.

“Nice try.”

Asra shouted at the loss of his balance. But he was caught, the shibari knots kneading pleasantly into his back. He was pulled forward slowly until he had his balance again.

“Okay, okay. I’ve learned my lesson.” 

A crude comeback rolled off Kip’s tongue.

You’re a liar.

She had said it in Zadithi, which made Asra’s cock twitch against the knots. Then, two fingers walked down his chest. Two became one at his navel, tracing a line through his pale happy trail until they found his erect tip.

Another dry swallow.

“I’m not allowed to touch you, but you can touch me. s that right?”

“That’s right.” And then. “You think you can tempt me, don’t you? To touch you in earnest. You think you can make me drop the act and skip this very important lesson.”

Asra smiled. “I know it won’t be easy, but yeah, I do.”

A breathy laugh. 

Asra’s ears pricked when he sensed Kip leaning close to them. She had no words for him. Only the sound of her breath. It came out husky and full of want. The kind of want that came from a carnal, lawless place. Asra listened to all the ways she was already hot for him, just so he was aware of how much she suffered herself from holding back. The sound of her ragged, unchecked exhales was enough to make a little piece of him break.

“At least touch me, Kip. Fuck, touch me somewhere. Anywhere.”

A heavenly scrape of nails against his scalp. He let them tilt his head back. He heard the shift in weight as Kip straddled him, but didn’t sit.

“Open.”

Her gloved fingers went in. Her own slick coated the supple leather. It was so generous of her. Asra moaned, sending vibrations through the leather to Kip’s bones. He bowed his head forward, taking her hand down with him. 

Gods.

“... You have permission to struggle.”

Asra snarled when Kip danced back. He was tied to the stool and she had gotten away. He twisted against the ropes. They bit into his skin. It burned so good.

“You should see yourself, Asra,” Kip said from afar. Asra didn’t miss the awe she fought to conceal in her voice. “How careless you are with yourself… just to get to me.”

Blood creeped from the corner of his mouth where he had bitten himself. His vixen was trying to make him angry, but it only made him hard.

When he had no more fight left in him, the blindfold came off.

Kip was there. The amber in her eyes full of challenge. Of knowing what he would say and knowing nothing.

“How far would you go for me, Magician?”

This was Kipling’s realm. One of darkness and of truth. A Door she had learned to open long ago.

In her eyes Asra saw the reflection of his vulpine smile.

“As far as I have to. But only in this place,” he confessed. “Only here. I swear it.”

Kip stood up tall.

“Swear again, Magician.”

Her leg came up by his ear. She leaned in, tilting her head in that foxlike way that he knew because he was one too.

“I swear it.” 

He turned and placed a kiss on her inner thigh. 

“You broke a rule.”

Asra was the one chuckling now, dragging his nose along her skin, leaving imprints of his teeth as he went.

“Punish me then.”

Asra struggled again, this time to tear the fabric hiding her wet core. His hands were tied. All Kip had to do was dance off into the dark. He couldn’t chase her. The magical walls could collapse around him at any minute.

But they didn’t and Kip didn’t move. She only swore as Asra greeted her kitty with a slow kiss. Before putting his tongue to work.

“Asra.”

That was better. 

The Vixen’s gloved hands came to hold his jaw steady. She moaned deep enough that Asra felt the vibrations in her pussy. With her hips, she started her own rhythm for him to eat her out to. After some time, his head was drawn back. Kip dipped her head to kiss him soundly and lap up the blood from earlier. 

“My love.” Kip purred. “My magician.”

Kipling sank into his lap and embraced him. But he could not hold her because his hands were still tied. His whole body hurt from how much he had thrashed earlier. His cock was still throbbing from neglect.

But Asra had never been so at peace. Here. 

I’ll start with the basics first and then move onto Kip.

Locked boxes. Ok, not what you would expect in terms of things from the tale that are supposed to light up a reader’s brain, but whenever I see this little device (be it metaphor, motif, or just a plot developer) I go a little feral. First of all, I KNOW the box is empty. They almost always are, but that’s not the point. Locked boxes (and to be clear, I’m talking about the chest Gavin hands over) could represent a lot of things — a personal challenge, an unnamed reward, possible disappointment, tiny little worlds that the characters are entrusted to protect. They spark questions like: why me? Do I have what it takes (to open this bad boy?) Is this what I’m meant to do? What does it mean if I can unlock/protect/discover its contents? What does it say about me if I can’t??? As a writer who LOVES to drag out simple devices until there’s not a single crumb left, I was LIVING for that chest as soon as it was placed in Asra and the MC’s care. If I could extend the tale, it would be such that Asra and the MC end up taking the box with them in addition to the Hyberian spices. Or at least some version of the box (which I am happy to elaborate on in a future fic!)

Asra’s character was sooooo consistent! Y’all. With the unfortunate decline of the quality of writing in Muriel’s route, I was losing faith in the devs’ ability to maintain Asra’s character. We all know that he’s a little flighty — a trait that I find endearing and also a little personal because I’m also kind of spacey as well as naturally prone to overlooking details because of either (1) daydreaming (2) don’t think it really matters. Sorry — Anyway. Back to my point. Even though Asra’s supposed to give off the head-in-the-clouds vibe, they took that way too far in the last couple chapters of Muriel’s route to the point where (for me) he seemed rather childish and unreliable. For that reason, I was worried that this would be the case in the new tale. But it wasn’t! I felt like this tale showed all the sides of Asra that we came to know and love from his original route. It was so balanced and refreshing that for many points, I sat there staring at the sprites and the text, just processing all of the warm feelings I was having. And on top of Asra being consistent, he had also changed! The MC pointed out that Asra had been hiding his feelings for so long and now he no longer had to. I thought the scene where he got really protective of the MC was a great example of that. I don’t think that’s a side of himself he shows very often, especially in front of the MC because he doesn’t want to freak them out or push their feelings in a certain direction. For most of his route, it’s clear how much effort he puts into letting the MC make their own decisions and removing his personal desires from the equation in order to minimize any bias. But by the time this tale takes place, you can see that Asra is fully comfortable with being more open about his emotions. Instead of seething and shooting judge mental glares with salty comments, (because he also does this a lot) he actually elaborates on what he finds upsetting about the situation. He defends the MC without holding back as much as he has in the past. It was so hot 🥵 cool to see Asra stand up to Gavin like that! At the same time we got to see the bashful side of Asra in the bar. There were just so many sweet, fun small moments between him in the MC. I can’t wait to explore them in some way in the future!

THE CG???

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???? Y'ALL REALLY AIMED A MAGNIFYING GLASS ON THOSE DIMPLES AND LIPS AND SAID LOOK AT THIS???? I WAS SWEATING. I WAS CRYING. I WAS LIVING. I WAS DYING. HNNNNNNNNNN 😩🥴👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽🫀🫀🫀🫀

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Now I'm going to get a little bit into Kipling's magic...

For the record, my apprentice Kipling wields two types of magic: plant magic and teleportation magic. Though she relies on her plant magic more on average because of her job, it’s actually her secondary skill. Teleportation or grey magic is her primary and her mastery over it has taken much longer due to the fact that it’s tied to her culture, which she was not only separated from when she moved to Vesuvia, but also didn’t have a lot access to in the first place thanks to the centuries of cultural genocide that took place on her home island.

My timeline for Kip’s mastery of her primary magic doesn’t really sync up for when this tale takes place in the arcana timeline, so I have to repurpose it to fit the Door Lord timeline that takes place in my fics.

LOL I said all of that just to point out that during a lot of the chase scenes, Asra and Kip relied on her teleportation to evade the guild thieves. And since Kip is something of a locksmith when it comes to her magic, she was very intrigued with the box and was more concerned about opening it to see what was inside rather than delivering it to the marked location.

Also, in the Herbalist Hideaway, Kip’s first instinct to trade the box for the Hyberian spices because she felt that making Selasi happy was worth more than all this craziness with the chest. 😆 Asra of course, had to talk her out of it and encouraged her to give the merchant a reading instead.