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I didn't even realize it was raining until I left the damn hotel. It had been four days since my last visit to Edith... I was quite looking forward the likely first full harvest with her since the very first one, as well as seeing how depraved she had become after the work I had put into her. As much as I didn't like the idea of going out in the rain, my little Edith mission was already dragging enough as it was; I decided to bite the bullet and just get it over with. At least the tree was more than big enough to have sex out of the rain, though I'd get plenty wet on the trek there.
Paimon hesitated a bit before joining me as I stepped out into the rain, but followed me after a few seconds; it seemed she loathed going out in the rain as much as I did, as she was being unusually quiet. She did speak up once we reached Mondstadt City's gate though.
"Are we really going out with this rain, Traveler?"
"Sure. Why, got something better to do?"
"Not really, but... Maybe we could stay in a bar or store or something? Or just relax in the hotel?"
"Look, I only plan to see Edith, so you can stay here if you want, or wherever you go when you disappear. Actually, do that, and leave me in peace for today." Her eyes lit up when I gave her an out, but her excited expression quickly turned into a frown.
"Wait... You're going to see Edith?"
"Yeah."
"Like... On foot? With this rain?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
"Isn't there a Statue of the Seven right by Edith?"
"My patience is growing thin, Paimon."
"Why don't you use a Teleport Waypoint?"
A what?
I followed Paimon back inside the city, past the lower square, up a set of stairs, and finally stopped next to a large red monument right above the balcony overlooking the fountain. It was of a rather abstract design and was composed of a red core of some mineral, perhaps a quartz of some kind, encased in stone and gold on a circular stone base. I had walked by it and others like it on a few occasions already, but other than the color, nothing about them caught my eye, not even the third one.
"There it is! The Teleport Waypoint!" I walked closer and examined it once more, noting nothing interest about it, though the object seemed to possess a vague red aura.
"So you say I can teleport using this?" I sent her a skeptical look. "Sounds like bullshit to me. And why didn't you tell me sooner, anyway?"
"But I did!" At that, she flashed me one of her classic pouts as she comically stomped the air with her little foot. "I told you right as we first saw one! But you were running ahead and ignoring everything I was saying!"
"Oh," I chuckled, "that does sound like me." I walked half a circle around the tall monument and stopped next to Paimon. "Well? What do I have to do to teleport?"
"Oh, that's super easy!" chirped the little floating critter, glad to be of any use. "You put a hand on the monument, close your eyes, and think really really hard about where you wanna go." She squeezed her eyes and fists to demonstrate, then relaxed again. "This only works with special places though, like other Teleport Waypoints and Statues of the Seven. You have to imagine how the place looks like, like seeing a painting of it in your mind."
"All right, well... Stranger things and whatnot." I had nothing to lose trying it, not even face; the town was almost deserted as the poor weather had kept most sensible people indoors. And if it didn't work, it gave me a good excuse to berate Paimon, something that always put me in a good mood.
I placed a palm on the side of the stone surface. I felt a *click* of some kind inside it, then it hummed lightly; it felt almost mechanical in nature, but it was more likely magical. After a moment the column of the monument rose over a foot in the air, leaving its circular base, and the entire red portion turned blue in the blink of an eye.
I pulled my hand away, and the monument slowly floated down until it rested once more in the alcove at its base. The blue color slowly faded away until the crystal was red and inert once more.
"See? See!?" said excitedly Paimon. "Now try it! Think of the statue and the big tree!"
I put my hand on the monument once again and waited for it to rise to a stop; I then closed my eyes and pictured the destination in my mind. It wasn't hard at all to do, especially after having visited the place several times in the past couple of weeks. The large tree, impossibly tall, the broken steps and columns of ancient ruins, the Statue of the Seven and the strange power flowing through it...
Suddenly everything went dark. It was a different type of dark than the one behind my eyelids; it was as if I had entirely lost my sense of vision. The sound of falling rain was gone as well, and so were all other sounds as well as the feeling of wind and water on my arm... Did I still have arms? Nothing happened when I tried moving them, no feeling or feedback, so I couldn't be sure about. I tried doing the same with my eyes, even my third eye, but nothing changed yet again. It was as if I was pure consciousness and completely alone in a sea of blackness.
Then, just as suddenly as it had gone, my perception of the world returned. The wind was back, and so was the cold of wind on my wet skin.
My eyes were closed when everything returned, so I opened them. Before me stood the tall Statue of the Seven, and its gentle energy prickled my palm that lay flat against its surface. Behind it and above me stood the massive tree of Windrise, shielding a vast area from direct deluge. By the time I pulled my hand away, Paimon had already appeared next to me.
"See? Seeee!?" There were stars in her eyes; maybe eating and adventuring weren't her favorite pastimes after all. Maybe she enjoyed being useful above all.
"All right, all right, enough gloating. You were right!" I sighed. "You know? I may regret saying this, but you may be the best travel companion after all."
"Oooh!" Her eyes went even wider, something I didn't think possible. "Does that mean we can—"
"Nope," I interrupted her, "I'm still gonna see Edith. But maybe tonight, yeah?" She nodded vigorously. "Now take a hike, will ya?" She smiled her dumb little smile before disappearing in a wisps of purple stardust.
Paimon had actually helped me make a huge discovery. The ability to instantly teleport would make getting from place to place much easier even though activating it required me to be next to of these monuments. Actually...
I placed my hand back on the statue and closed my eyes. I pictured a large valley that widened into a circular wide area; in its center was a shallow lake with an island; on top of the island, another Statue of the Seven.
After a few more seconds of what I could only describe as near non-existence, my senses returned. I opened my eyes to see I was indeed by that statue, the first one I had ever touched after following Paimon's directions. She's never really led me astray, has she? Maybe I should make her my accomplice after all.
I made one last test, placing my hand on the lake statue and picturing Mondstadt City's square in my mind; its stores, its stairs, its quaint houses and grey stone walls.
Sure enough, I was back in the city when I could open my eyes again, the dark clouds overhead threatening to keep pouring rain over my head for the rest of the day.
I closed my eyes on last time and returned to the tree's statue to finally have my meeting with Dr. Edith.
She was sitting a little ways off compared to where she usually stood around pondering about her research. She was half turned away away from me, and the sound of pouring rain was more than enough to hide my footsteps from her. Once I was close enough, I saw the cloth on her legs and the breadcrumbs on it. Right. Since teleporting seems instantaneous, that's probably her breakfast.
"Good morning, Dr. Edith!" I chirped. The girl was so lost in thought that my greeting genuinely startled her. She jumped to her feet and sent the cloth and its crumbs flying to the ground. The fear in her eyes melted away when she recognized me, and a smile of relief spread over her features.
"Dr. Aether, my goodness... You scared me half to death!" She still thinks of me as a historian... That meant suggestions implanted outside of the amnesiac effects of arousal charm lasted at least a week. That was a long time, for better or worse.
"I could tell you I didn't mean to startle you, but I'd be lying." I bent over to recover her cloth and handed it to her. "I do feel a bit sorry about it now though!"
"Oh, please, don't be! It was all in good fun." She folded the cloth and put it away in a bag nearby. "I was actually thinking about you, you know? I'm growing quite attached to your visits, and our discussions of course. Though I didn't expect to see you in this weather, or quite so early for that matter! You must've left at daybreak."
I briefly thought about what she really remembered about our encounters; the likely answer was very little indeed; had I tried to insist and ask her what those discussion entailed, she'd be hard-pressed to answer. Once the amnesiac effect of the arousal charm kicks in a short while after an orgasm, the victim forgets everything from a few minutes before the application till that moment. After that, they will do their best to think around the void in her memories, filling in the gaps with vague statements and feelings. Unless something impossible to ignore forces them to consider something did happen during their missed time, like a broken limb or a dead friend, they never even think twice about it ever again.
Edith, for example, had rationalized it as a few hours spent conversing about history and research. In truth, we engaged in increasingly intense sexual acts together out there under Vennessa's tree, and that day would be no different.
As to why she was growing attached to me... That was another effect of the arousal charm, one that came with multiple spaced application of it. As the invisible particles of the charm work their magic on the victim's body, they also make the person attracted to me. It's a slow but inexorable process, and their infatuation reaches a point where they can scarcely control themselves anymore after enough encounters; for all intents and purposes, they fall in love with me.
Jumping through those hoops was a necessity in worlds like Teyvat where I didn't have direct control over the emotions of its inhabitants. The exact number of application needed to achieve this changed from world to world, which was one of the variables I was trying to figure out with Edith. I was pleased to see she was already feeling a sense of attraction toward me, but she'd likely need a couple more meetings before she was head over heels for me.
Messing with people on such a life-changing scale was always fun, but making someone fall in love like that required lots of time and effort. Such lengthy machinations were utterly wasted on people with so little energy to give like Edith, but that wouldn't be the case with special people like Amber, Kaeya, and soon Lisa. As Noelle had proven to me, a full harvest while they harbor feelings of love for me completely empties their cores of energy, and in case of special people, that involved a mother lode of the vital and delicious resource. Edith ended up being my guinea pig for a whole lot of things.
"Say, Dr. Edith..." I interrupted her idle weather talk. "Do you know the legend of Primrose? I'm working on a book about it." And started counting four minutes thanks to the handy clock in my head. She was immediately interested, but answered negatively after a few seconds of pondering.
"I wouldn't say I have, no... But if you're working on a book about it, it must be quite something! May I ask you what it's about?"
"Of course. See, Primrose was a descendant of Vennessa..."
The story played out similarly to how it had during our previous meetings. Primrose was a hero herself, one who fought for freedom against the remnants of resistance of the old order just like her ancestor had before her. The character of Primrose had always been an aggressively free woman, flamboyantly so even, never hesitating making show of the freedom Vennessa had supposedly earned with her fight. I never gave Edith specific examples though, not before the "ceremony" at the end, but that would change that day.
The truth of it was, our interactions had actually enacted profound changes on the historian; Edith was already a very different person compared to when we had first met, and it wasn't just because of her budding infatuation. She couldn't possibly remember why or how, but she had been slowly warming up to the idea of engaging in sexual activities outdoors; that only happened at a subconscious level at first, but she'd soon become very upfront about it, fully embracing it. The amnesiac effect of the charm made her forget everything we did, true, but the constant focus on outdoors sex while under its heightening effect forced her brain to slowly start enjoying it as the same neural pathways were tread on over and over, associating it with sexual pleasure.
At one point in the story, Primrose was discussing the fundamentals of freedom with a group of reticent nobles who still held onto old principles; this event took place in a square and in front of a crowd. When the nobles still refused to believe she was willing to give anything for freedom, she tore her clothes and proudly exposed her chest for everyone to see. It didn't really make much sense, but it still did the trick.
The slight acceleration in her pulse as well as the increase in her body temperature told me everything I needed to know, but I peered inside her with the Elemental Sight just to make sure... And sure enough, the surface of her core was agitated by vaguely verdant currents that swirled in its otherwise pure white energy. Good Dr. Edith couldn't help seeing herself in the Primrose in the story, and the idea of baring her tits in front of a crowd bothered her quite a bit, but in a strangely good way.
I made up two more episodes of promiscuity. In one, she slept with two men together within her home; she wasn't particularly bothered by this one; rather, she was bothered by it, but not quite in the same way as the chest-baring one. The other was about teaching a young nobleman's son about freedom, and having sex with him on the balcony of his palace; no one could see them, but they could see the crowded streets below all right. Edith listened to that anecdote with wide eyes, and enjoyed it so much she had to awkwardly shift her weight from one leg to the other.
For the first time since I started making up this bullshit about Primrose, Edith had a good idea about where the story would end long before I was done telling it. Her ritual of freedom consisted in sexual intercourse under Vennessa's tree once more; on our fifth meeting, I told Edith that Primrose was leaning into the tree while her man took her from behind.
"That's quite the story, Dr. Aether... I've never heard of such a racy legend before. I'm definitely going to have to read your book once you're done. Very fascinating..." I was a bit surprised at how effective the story had been on her. I could've probably convinced her without the arousal charm if I insisted enough... But testing its long-term effects was part of the experiment, so I hit her with the invisible particles at the four minute mark.
The effect was nearly instant since she was already in a state of light arousal. In fact, she nearly gasped as a wave of heat traversed her body. I didn't want to leave her too much time to process the new sensations taking over her, so I immediately went on the offensive.
"Dr. Edith..." I took her gloved hands in mine and sighed before looking her in the eyes. "I know this may sound unprofessional, but I've come to appreciate your talent and passion for history over the last few days..." I saw her suck air in through her lips and holding her breath. I could almost read her thoughts as they raced behind those big blue eyes... Did she dare hope? Was it really happening? A chance not only to work with an esteemed historian, but also to scratch that itch that Primrose's story had made resurface; she'd always had a secret outdoors sex fetish, after all. It seems I won't need that suggestion anymore. She's already made it hers.
"I'd like to test Primrose's ritual, and I'd be honored if you were willing to be my partner in that." I squeezed her hand and timidly smiled, making sure she felt in control enough of the situation and on top of the conversation.
It took her a few moments to answer, during which I saw many more thoughts fight for control in her mind. She obviously wanted to agree, but she didn't want to seem to eager; was that because she didn't want to be seen fangirling for her academic crush too much, or because of the outdoors sex component? I suspect it was only the former, but I wasn't really in her mind. She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue as she opened them to finally reply.
"Please, Dr. Aether... I'm the one who's honored to work with you." She gave me a weak smile, but it did little to hide the fire burning in her eyes. And I couldn't be exactly sure, but I thought the look in her eyes went beyond professional respect... I wouldn't need to spend many more words past that point, as we were both eager and willing.
I led her to the massive trunk of the tree by hand, then made her lean into it and started kissing her. Her eyes went wide with surprise for a moment, but she quickly welcomed my tongue and started kissing me right back. The smell of arousal wafting from her skin was heady and thick despite the light rainy wind blowing around us, and it was quickly getting me in the mood as well.
"Would you mind lowering your underwear, Dr. Edith?" I broke the kiss and took a step back, slowly working on unbuckling my belt. She smiled, her breathing kind of short.
"Of course. But please, call me Edith..." Yup, she's definitely into me. That would make things even smoother than they already were, as if there was any need. She wasn't into me enough that I could be mean to her though, little Edith would probably be spared the worst of that. Her being an experiment not to be tampered with saved her from the worst I was capable of.
I put my belt on a rock nearby while Edith's hands disappeared under her skirt, supposedly to lower her pantyhose and undies enough to let me take her. When I stepped in, she turned around to place her hands on the tree... but suddenly stopped and turned back around.
"Dr. Aether...?"
"Yes?" What now? It took a lot of self control not to roll my eyes at her. Interruptions could make me lose my patience with surprising ease, especially when things were already chugging along.
"You mean to lift my skirt over my back to... gain access, correct?"
"...That was the idea, yes. What of it?"
"I think... I don't want to presume, but wouldn't it be more comfortable for us both if I removed my skirt altogether?" I blinked a couple of times; I had heard her all right, but I was so fixated in the way I had envisioned it that I had momentary trouble figuring out what she was trying to tell me. When I finally did, I smiled amicably.
"Of course, Edith. That's a wonderful idea!" Naturally, she didn't mind taking her skirt off in front of me and out there in the open... For one, she was secretly into having sex outside, and a bit of exhibitionism was just the cherry on top. Secondly, she was starting to fall for me. She wasn't in love yet, but undressing before a potential partner, even though just a fling for now, was really no big deal to her.
She smiled back and nodded as she got to work on her skirt; I didn't want to miss the moment, so I delayed the removal of my own pants. Edith opened a hidden zipper to the side and lightly bent over to lower her skirt and step out of it. She was holding it in one hand when she straightened up, and suddenly there it was... Right below the hem of her shirt and above the bunched up panties and stockings below her crotch, her perfectly pink and smooth pubes.
I was practically paralyzed by the ease at which she had undressed and showed herself to me, as well as from the raw beauty she had kept hidden from me for so long. She must've read my surprise in my face, because she played right into it as she got ready again. She slowly folded her skirt when she saw I still didn't move, placed it on a rock, then slowly turned back around. The way she bent forward and deliberately pushed her round ass out and up spoke of a desire to seduce that was equally spurred by her arousal and the perfectly absurd situation she found herself in. Her taut lips glistened with lubrication and clung together once she perked up on her feet and finally spoke again while side-eyeing me.
"Are we doing this or not, Dr. Aether?" A slow blink. "I'm ready."
That snapped me out of it all right. I quickly lowered my trousers and underwear, taking half a step forward and closing the remaining distance between me and her ass. I grabbed my freed raging erection and slid it a couple of times up and down her lips, parting her wetness with the tip and eliciting a little squeal and a giggle from the historian. She quivered when I placed my hand on her side; her skin felt scorching hot in the cool morning air.
She was as ready as I was, so there was no need to delay the moment any further. I didn't mind her feeling in control, on top even; that would make putting her in her place even more entertaining. I poised my cock against her entrance, right past her parted wet lips, then grabbed her sides and began pushing forward.
I made sure to penetrate her slowly, unbearably so; I wanted her to feel every inch part her pussy as my dick slid deeper and deeper inside. She moaned behind closed lips one quarter of the way in, and her legs began trembling past the halfway mark. She hadn't even realized just how horny she was; paired with my millenary sexual skills, she was unable to stifle a deep moan with closed eyes by the time I hilted inside her.
No more games needed, then; no more talk of legends and freedom or any of that nonsense. She was already in it just for the sex; if she still remembered the legend of Primrose by then, she was probably realizing she had only used it as an excuse to have sex with me. Considering her suggestions, I doubt she realized it had been an excuse for me as well, but it didn't really matter in the end.
I set on an agonizingly slow pace to start, pulling out almost as slowly as I had pushed it in, every few seconds in and out of the increasingly weak-kneed girl. That gave me plenty of time to peer inside her with my Elemental Sight and see her core, and what a sight it was.
Four harvests were beginning to make a dent in its size, making her core look slightly smaller than it had been; but the waves of excitement rushing this way and that on the turbulent teal sphere were a beautiful spectacle of harmony. The entire surface trembled when I slowly pulled out, only to swell and pulsate with every slow penetration as her heartbeat made it steadily pump. Its color was deep and dark, a stormy blue that was a far cry from the white purity of regular sexual excitement. If anything, it was darker than it had been during our previous encounters... It seemed that the baseline for what was considered shameful and depraved was calibrated on how the person was originally, at least for the time being. Hopefully she wouldn't adjust to her new fetishist lifestyle before I could get that final harvest a couple of encounters down the line once she was in love with me.
Regardless, there was no semblance of chaos in the currents disturbing her core. It seemed that sometime between three and four days was the perfect waiting time between harvests; four days would do moving forward if I ever found myself in a rush with somebody.
I closed my third eye and saw the girl was already practically hanging onto the tree rather than leaning on it. She was breathing deep through her nose, and her back was heaving up and down from the effort of keeping up with the pleasure assaulting her.
"Ready to get started, Edith?" I'm sure she meant to answer, but I didn't need her to. I pulled out much faster than I had till that moment, then thrust it back inside. That caught her mid-breath, causing her to half moan and half choke on her own spit. I took hold of her sides more firmly after a momentary pause, then started taking her at that steady pace.
Edith showed no restraint anymore as she completely abandoned herself to the act. She had also quickly abandoned any pretense of being even remotely in control of the situation; she merely hanged onto the tree and was busy enough with trying to prevent her knees from buckling. I wasn't actually fucking her as hard as I could have; I didn't want her to reach an orgasm much earlier than me, then having to reapply the charm and polluting the experiment. I made sure to let her climax slowly build inside of her while I hurried along the path toward my own.
I wondered whether I'd even be able to taste her budding love in the upcoming harvest. The changing color in people's cores had been a peculiarity of Teyvat, while such changes had usually been related to the taste in other worlds. The harvest of a person in love, other than consigning nearly all of the person's energy to me, tasted incredibly good... It wasn't a real taste though, more like a feeling that aligned to what can be associate with certain tastes and smells. The fragrance of a loaf of bread fresh out of the oven; the smell of a lit fireplace and a cup of hot cocoa; biting into a juicy steak when starving after a day of hard work. I doubted I'd be able to feel the hints of those under the almost physical sweetness that the teal corruption of these cores had given me thus far.
I took another peek inside Edith when her moans increased in volume, and the spikes of pleasure raced across the surface of her core in mirrored arcs that weaved past one another; she was very close. I sped things up as I myself was nearly there, and rushed us toward the goal with a handful of final powerful thrusts.
As I began spurting inside the young historian, I grunted from both the pleasure and the effort of helping her stand; her own climax had sapped her legs of nearly all strength, so I had to hold her up with my own arms and back if I didn't want her to crumble on the floor and make my cock pop out. It was a very powerful orgasm for her, surely enhanced by everything she liked or believed she wanted thanks to the suggestions and the reinforcing effects of the charm.
Her pussy clenched in sync with her lower back and abdomen, milking my dick as it deposited rope after rope of semen inside her. I quickly switched to my Elemental Sight and took hold of the tendrils of teal energy escaping from her pulsating core. Every squeeze of her pussy around my cock equated to a contraction of her core, each wringing more energy out and pumping them along the tentacles that I was directing to my own reserves.
Once all tentacles were latched and the deliciously sweet energy was gushing inside me, I closed my third eye and focused back on the physical pleasure. I squeezed her sides and pushed my cock deep inside her for the last spurts as I gyrated my hips. A whiny groan left Edith's lips as that gave her lengthy climax a slight boost.
Once her orgasm waned and the flow of sweet energy dried up, I let go of her; her legs were unable to sustain her own weight, so she crumbled down on the damp grass as a few trembles still shook her. My cock slid out with a wet *shlop*, and I grabbed her skirt from the rock to wipe it from the semen and pussy juices that still clung to it.
When I was done and realized she wasn't quite waking up from her post-coital stupor, I took matters in my own hands. The amnesiac effects of the charm would kick in soon, and I didn't want her to come back to her senses without her skirt and with her underwear around her thighs. I wouldn't normally mind with other people, but I needed her to forget everything and return to normality for the continuation of my experiment.
"Come on, Edith! Time to get dressed back up." I unfolded the only barely cum- and juice-stained skirt and lay it back on the rock. I helped the girl to her feet, and she was able to keep standing with her back against the trunk of the massive tree. I pulled her panties up even as my load was beginning to leak out, then the pantyhose. Finally, I grabbed the skirt again and held it open before her feet.
"One foot at a time, come on!" She somehow got the message through the haze and raised her shaky right, putting it inside the skirt, then the left doing the same. Once both were in, I pulled it up and roughly closed the zipper to the side.
"There," I said with a gentle pat to the side of her ass cheek, "all done and ready for some morning research." Her eyes were still quite unfocused as they wavered and tried to lock into mine. The playful kiss I left on her lips almost startled her. I licked mine for one last taste of the raw sexual excitement still lingering on the girl.
"See you in a few days, Edith. Who knows, maybe the next meeting with be our last!"
I waved the historian goodbye and headed to the nearby Statue of the Seven, eager to teleport back to the dry comfort of Mondstadt City.