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Twin Souls By Green

The two figures huddled close together against the hustle and bustle of the marketplace. Parsonus was one of the oldest, biggest cities on this side of Rilodell, so much so that the distant city of New Parsonus, founded hundreds of years later and named in its honour, was fairly sizable itself. But the two bat-kin in high quality travelling cloaks (whose curious designs still marked them as foreigners at a glance) weren't interested in the city's history, not today. They were here with a specific purpose in mind, a hope that had brought them a very long way from home. As they walked along, the shorter of the two, a female, lowered her gaze to the cobblestone street beneath them and spoke in Nostri, their native tongue, to prevent any curious locals from listening in. It was the first time she'd spoken since they'd left camp that morning, having only just arrived at Parsonus after all this time. "Brother... I had that dream again last night," she said, her cheeks reddening already. Her travelling companion stiffened, blushing slightly himself, a hitch giving pause to his meaningful stride for a moment. He didn't reply for a long moment. "...The dream where you're tangled in the hair of a gigantic Human woman?" he replied, in the same language. His tone would have made it obvious to eavesdroppers, had there been any, that he was being sarcastic, even if they didn't understand the words. The shorter of the two bats - though only by a couple of inches - turned and looked at him, looking just slightly upset. "N-no, Boris! The other dream! The one about -" she paused, blushing harder than ever, and looked around. Foreign language or no, she still lowered her voice so that Boris could only just hear her over the general clamour of the market, and that was with the remarkably sensitive ears that were a signature of their kind. "...The one about us," she said, finally. She didn't elaborate. She didn't need to. When the other bat looked back at her, he had a slightly pained expression on his face. "Illiana... dear sister..." he said, finally, "Why do you tell me these things? You know it - you know it just makes things harder for me. For both of us." Pausing for a moment by a street sign, the bat looked up at the sky and sighed, his ears twitching in mild agitation. "Sometimes it felt like this trip was a mistake, you know? Sometimes it felt like we would never arrive, that it just lead to... embarrassing closeness in the tent." He looked back down at his sister and managed a smile, one of his hands slipping out from beneath his cloak and resting on her shoulder. "But soon, soon it will be over, Illiana," he continued, "and we can forget that any of it ever happened..."

Illiana smiled back, but there wasn't much strength behind it; it slipped off her face as soon as her brother turned away. She looked down, once again studying the cobblestone beneath their feet, a troubled expression on her face, as if she still didn't quite believe him. "This place is so big, so noisy," she said, after a few moments, "It almost reminds me of the Merchants' District back home... almost. How are we going to find one shop in all of this?" The male sniffed, the tips of his ears twitching as he took in every last one of the myriad sounds around them, better able to make sense of the wall of noise than any of the other species in view. After keeping a stiff back since they walked through the gates to the city, he relaxed, just slightly. Nothing threatened the two of them, at least not yet. "I have an address, at least," he finally replied, "With luck, their streets will be better labelled than the ones back home." A tall Human, so ugly he may actually have been a half-Orc, pushed past them, laughing boisterously as he continued telling a lecherous story to the Dwarf at his side. Illiana stepped away nervously, pressing against Boris' side. For a moment, he bit his lip, and then he forced a neutral expression to his face as he extended his arm around her side comfortingly. "It will be okay, sister," he whispered, "I promise you that, whatever happens." She looked back up at him, and this time the smile she gave him was significantly more genuine. They lingered just a little longer than perhaps they should have, and then stepped away from each other, blushing and avoiding each others' eye contact. Rubbing the back of his neck, Boris sighed and walked towards the nearest stall, picking one at random. "Alright..." he muttered to himself, this time in the more common tongue spoken both here and in the kingdom across the sea where one might find New Parsonus. Walking up to a bored-looking Human who perked up as the bat approached, the leatherwing opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted. "You've got a fine eye, sir, and a discerning taste!" the merchant said, pleasantly, "Of course, this was obvious from your travelling gear. Let me tell you about these new rugs I've got, all the way from the Sukairian highlands! Of course, I'm gonna have to be a bit stiff on the price, as there's been a shortage lately due to some kind of unexpected flooding after a wizard paid them a visit..." "Ah -" Boris said, trying to get a word in edgewise. He failed. "Now then, I know, I know, nobody likes a price increase," the man said, holding up his hands apologetically, "But just look at this fine material, it's beautiful, it'll last, and if I may be so forward," he added, lowering his voice conspiratorially and nodding to the street behind them, "I do believe it would accent your wife's fur very nicely were she to be sitting on it, say, in front of a warm, romantic fireplace?"

As the rug merchant grinned and waggled his eyebrows lewdly, Boris flinched and looked over his shoulder disbelievingly to confirm that, yes, the man had been talking about Illiana, who was currently scratching a feral horse behind the ears while the man who had been driving the cart the beast was pulling paused to get a drink from a water pump by the side of the road. The Human continued talking about the exquisite fibres in the rug, but Boris turned and slapped both hands, whose fingers were extremely long and skinny by Human standards but fairly ordinary for bats, down on the small wooden counter in front of the stall, hunching over and glaring at the man. "Enough!" he hissed, so as not to cause a scene, "We are not here to buy one of your blasted rugs!" Instantly, the merchant's expression soured, and he put down the Sukari rug and settled back down on his stool, crossing his arms and pouting. "Well then," he said, indignantly, "what does bring you all the way from Batsylvania, Count High-and-Mighty?" It didn't help that these last words were done in a mockery of Boris' accent. Suppressing the desire to growl, mostly because in bats it tended to be too high-pitched to be properly intimidating, Boris narrowed his eyes at the merchant and relied on years of training to be patient with the commonfolk. "All we need from you, carpet-slinger, is directions," he said, very carefully, "We need to find Stoneheart Street, and none of these signs point out the way. That's it. And for the record, the name is Ironclaw, one of the Houses of Nostromus." The salesman looked a little shaken - there were a lot of ominous rumours this far south about the city of Nostromus and the nobles that lived there - but he still looked indignant enough to make a sarcastic comeback, at least until Boris added one last thought. "Oh, and Illiana there is my twin sister, not my wife. Just so you know what you were suggesting." At that, the Human actually blushed, no doubt suddenly finding the bat's temperament a lot more understandable. Swallowing and adjusting his hat, he pointed across the market. "...Uhh, you take that road there, Bourbon Street. Stoneheart branches off from Bourbon and curls around for a bit, dead ends in the warehouse district," he said, quietly, before adding a muttered "Sorry about the, uh, the fireplace thing." Sighing, letting his anger dissipate, the leatherwing stood up straight and thanked the man, turning away to rejoin his sister and continue on their journey. "Hey," said the merchant, no longer sounding sarcastic, "In my experience, there are only two kinds of people who go to Stoneheart Street. And you two don't exactly have the storage space to be picking up or delivering a shipment of marble. What are you hoping to find?" Boris was perfectly okay with the idea of turning from the man and walking away, but Illiana, who had walked up to her brother as he left the stall, paused a moment to face the man. "That's just it," she said, nodding to the merchant, "we're looking for hope."

Soon enough, with little difficulty, the twins had made their way onto the right street, which, as the man suggested, was lined mostly with warehouses and storage facilities full of a multitude of kinds of stone, and shops belonging to stonemasons and the merchants who sold their goods. It explained the name, at any rate. But with the street essentially being one long, albeit curvy line, it didn't take them long to discover the building they were looking for. It was tucked in between two profoundly uninteresting warehouses, and it was squat and flat, about the size of the inn the siblings had stayed in before they left the small port town of Mothag, where they'd caught a ship from their home kingdom in the north to... whatever its equivalent near here had been called, they hadn't even stayed a day before venturing out on the long road on foot, and the name had slipped their minds. Unlike that inn, this building's entrance was at the bottom of a set of stairs built into the alley next to it, indicating that it had at least one other floor underground. The sign hanging from the small post in front had no words on it, as if it was reluctant to admit the building's purpose at all, but the symbol on it was the same as the one on the paper Boris had taken out to study so many times along the journey, as if to reassure himself that it was real. Taking a deep breath, Boris stepped forward, about to descend the stairs, but he felt a tugging on his cloak before his foot had touched the first step. "Brother, wait!" Illiana insisted. When he turned around, he saw quite the anxious look on her face. She'd pushed her hands forward, letting the sides of her cloak fall behind her like a cape, and revealing the thin membrane tucked away under her upper arms, waiting to be called upon and 'deployed' to its full size, which, while incredibly useful for travel, was less than ideal in most other situations, given that it robbed one's hands of most of their dextrous ability. Fortunately, bat-kin were born with an innate power, granted by one or another of the Seven Gods in ages past, to fold up their wings and allow their hands more freedom, though children had to work very hard at training their minds before they could manage the trick. The twins, meanwhile, had chosen to walk from the port to Parsonus instead of flying because the people of this region had too many legends and rumours about bat-kin for the Ironclaws to give them any more reasons to be suspicious of them. But such things were far from the leatherwing's mind as he turned to face his sister, taking her hands in his own and looking at her supportively as she voiced her concerns. "Boris, are you..." she started, biting her lip and hesitating for a moment before continuing, "Are you sure this is a good idea? Getting us mixed up with a spellcaster?" It wasn't the first time she'd asked this question, but Boris remained patient with her, reaching up and gently smoothing down an errant tuft of fur on his twin's cheek as he replied, his voice as soft as her pelt. "Illiana, dear sister, you know what Mikhael said, we're being affected by magic, we have to do something about it." he said, calmly, his usual response to her fears. This time, she pouted and sighed loudly. "Mikhael!" she grumbled, "Mikhael barely knows enough magic to qualify for doing party tricks!" As she started to turn away, Boris reached up and placed his other hand on her other cheek, gently but firmly making her face him. "Which is why we're seeking out an expert, Illiana. We've been over this. I - I know you're worried that he might fail, or he might make it worse, but if we do nothing, it will never get better." For a moment, Illiana seemed like she wasn't done arguing, but instead of speaking, she just directly met her brother's gaze, and raised her hands to gently grip Boris' wrists. The siblings looked deep into each other's eyes for a long, silent moment, as if they were plumbing the depths of their twin's soul. Then, blinking, suddenly aware that he was still cupping Illiana's face, Boris turned away, pulled his hands back under his cloak, and cleared his throat self-consciously. "...We've come all this way, sister," he said, "Will you at least meet with him?" Illiana said nothing, just sighed, but she slipped one of her hands into Boris' cloak and took hold of her brother's hand. And so, hand in hand, the twins walked down the stairs to the unassuming door.

The Ironclaws hadn't been sure what they were expecting, but what lay on the other side of that door wasn't it. This room, at least, seemed more like a curio shop than a place where magic was performed. There was a wooden counter, though no one stood behind it, and bins filled with all kinds of things lay scattered across the room seemingly at random. The bats exchanged an uncertain glance, then looked back at the chaos around them. They'd barely taken five steps, though, when Illiana inhaled sharply, stepping back instinctively as a very large, very hairy feral rat popped out of the nearest bin, sending little glowing stones falling to the ground with a clatter. Without thinking about it, Boris extended a foot across the aisle, placing himself in between the ugly little creature and the fair maiden, whose ears had swivelled all the way forward, all of her attention on the rat. Before either of them had time for a single conscious thought, though, the rat noticed their presence as well, and let out a sound that was very distinctly a gasp, which rather threw off the leatherwings. Though not as much, admittedly, as when it spoke to them in an off-puttingly normal male voice. "Oh! Goodness me, I didn't hear you come in!" the rat said, looking them up and down with its - his - beady little eyes, "I bet I would have if I had ears like yours, though, they're very impressive! My oh my, It's been so long since we've had customers seeking our service. Well, at least since there have been any that Felix would consider allowing to become his clients, he's very picky." "Uhh..." said Boris, raising an eyebrow, before being interrupted by the little rodent laughing softly. "Oh, by the Seven, where are my manners?" he said, waving a paw the way a Humanoid might wave a hand dismissively, "I'm Hugo! I'm the wizard's familiar. He's... not exactly happy to have you here, but then he's really only happy when he's pouring over his books, so don't mind that." "He knows we're here?" Illiana asked, looking around. The rat nodded, leaning back on his haunches and steepling his 'fingers' together. "He does now!" he said, pleasantly, "It's part of the spell that binds me to him, see, when he likes to, he can see and hear directly through my eyes and ears, though even when he's not doing that, he's aware of more or less everything I know. And I get to know how he's feeling and what he needs, so if he wants me to fetch a scroll of translocation or get the good tea, he doesn't have to call me to his room first before sending me to get it. He -" Suddenly the rat fell silent, a look coming over his face like he'd bitten into a bad egg. The twins glanced at each other doubtfully again. "...What's wrong?" Boris asked, unable to resist his curiosity. "Well, right now," Hugo said, somewhat sullenly, "Master Felix needs me to 'stop babbling and tell you how to get to his study so he can find out why you're actually here.' Hmph!"

And so, the two bat-kin found themselves in the curious position of following a talking feral out of the room and down a hallway, as he assured them that whatever their problem was, his master would be able to fix it. Boris found himself wondering if all familiars were this enamoured of their wizards, or if Hugo was just unusually clingy. The thought didn't last long, though, as he was more curious about the fact that all of the doors and staircases he could get a glimpse of suggested this complex, whatever it was, was enormous, much larger than the humble building outside would suggest. As the rat babbled on, Boris looked over his shoulder at his sister and wordlessly wiggled his ears, a silent warning so that she wouldn't be caught off-guard by what he was about to do. When she nodded, he turned his head forward again, took a deep breath and... opened his mouth, let out a huffy breath, then closed it again. At least, that's what most people would have seen. In reality, Boris had just let out a burst of sound that, while incredibly loud, was so high-pitched that very few species could even perceive it. Hence the warning to his sister, who might have been startled by the equivalent of Boris suddenly yelling at the top of his lungs. Closing his eyes for a moment, Boris listened for the returning echo of his 'ping', and... had to put a hand on the wall next to him from how dizzy the sound made him. Apparently the layout of this place made absolutely no sense, there were open hallways where the sound just disappeared without returning, short side passages that doubled back on themselves without turning, corridors that lead to the west and somehow returned from the east, and staircases that went to flat walls. Normally, a bat would send out several pings in a row, as a single one doesn't paint a complete picture of an area, but Boris wasn't sure he wanted one anymore. He'd heard that the homes of wizards often treated the laws of physical space as polite suggestions, but he'd always assumed that was a story made up to increase the glamour of the magical lifestyle. Illiana put her arm around his shoulders, and he opened his eyes to see a look of concern on her face. "Don't ask," he muttered under his breath in Nostri, "let's just follow the rat." Shaking off the headache trying to visualize this place had given him, Boris leaned off the wall and continued after Hugo, who was oblivious to anything having taken place while he was (verbally) trying to remember how long it had been since the last time a new customer had arrived, as opposed to a returning client. Before too long, fortunately, he stopped at one door in particular, which really looked no different from any of the others. "Here we are!" he said, pleasantly, making a sweeping gesture towards the door with his paws, "Master Felix knows we're here, of course, so just come right on in." With that, the rat scampered right up to the wall next to the door, and, placing his paws on the side of a large seashell carved into the wooden frame, rolled it to the side long enough to slip into a small tunnel bored through the wall, the shell snapping back into place without leaving so much as a seam visible. Instead of opening the door, Illiana bent down, curiously scrutinizing the shell and placing a long, skinny finger on the one on the other side of the frame; it didn't react in any way to her wiggling. "Hmm. I wonder how many of these we passed on the way in without noticing..." she asked. Boris chuckled softly and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You know, sister," he whispered, "I don't want to think about how this place works any longer than I have to. Let's say hello."

The knob turned without incident, magical or otherwise, and the door opened on silent hinges into a surprisingly ordinary-looking office. All the walls except the one with the door set into it were covered by bookshelves, though to the twins' mild disappointment, none of the books seemed especially supernatural, glowing ominously or bound in unsettling materials or whatnot. Even the man behind the desk, a dog with a pair of glasses perched on his nose peering down at one of dozens of papers as he scribbled something down with a quill, didn't seem especially 'wizardy'. He did, however, seem wrinkled, every bit of flesh they could see hung loose and floppy, his fur a thin layer of fuzz that did little to disguise this. All told, the scene reminded the Ironclaws of a legal firm their father consulted on occasion more than it did the stories they'd heard of wizards, confusing architecture notwithstanding. He looked up briefly and nodded as the bat-kin entered the room. Unlike many of the passers-by on the street, he seemed about as interested in their species as he was in their shoes, which was oddly comforting after the sideways glances and suspicious looks sent in their direction in the market. The canine indicated the comfortable-looking chairs facing the other side of his desk with the fluffy end of his quill. "My name is Felix, as I'm sure our mutual acquaintance informed you," he said, his voice calm and personable, and not half as tired as the look of his face suggested, "I am the master of these halls, and I bid you welcome to my home. I apologize for this, but I really must finish this before I can give you my full attention. Don't worry, it'll only take a moment." As the twins settled into their seats, Illiana's wandering eyes caught sight of a conspicuous gap on one of the shelves, and as if he had been waiting for that moment, Hugo emerged from another hidden panel just at that spot, crawling out from between the books and scampering to the floor and around the edge of the room, finally climbing up a small pedestal behind and to the side of the wizard, which hadn't exactly jumped out and caught the Ironclaws' attention as they entered the room. Boris half expected the little rat to 'keep them company' while they waited, but the rules were clearly different inside this room, as Hugo just curled up and appeared to go to sleep when he reached the top of his perch. Felix didn't even look up, clearly used to the rat's comings and goings. When the dog lifted his free hand to scratch at his cheek, demonstrating exactly how loose his jowls were, Boris suppressed a smile and, while he pretended to be examining the books to his side, muttered to his sister in their native tongue. "Truly, we have found a wizard who has spent many decades studying his craft," he said, pleased when Illiana coughed to hide the urge to giggle. The small smile he couldn't hide from having entertained his sister evaporated when Boris realized the wizard had directed his gaze towards him without changing his posture at all. His face unreadable, his voice calm, Felix responded in perfect, if accented, Nostri, and both twins found themselves blushing. "I'm thirty-five, jackass, I'm a shar pei." As Boris sputtered, deeply embarrassed to have been caught in a childish moment, the wizard waved dismissively. "Save the apologies, I'm as used to it as I'm sure you are to people thinking you're in league with the Fallen One," he continued, in the common tongue, "Just try and find some other way to stay entertained while I dot the i's and cross the t's." After a minute or so 'staying entertained' by studying his hands, Boris was immensely relieved when Felix leaned back in his chair and regarded them. "Once again, my apologies for the wait," he said, before tapping that quill on the table. It didn't leave an ink spot, but every single one of the scattered pages on his desk, not just the one he'd been writing on, vanished with a minute puff of smoke. Illiana couldn't resist a smile, which she hid behind her hand, and Boris didn't blame her. Right up to that demonstration of magic, he had been half-convinced that this man was the wizard's accountant and this was some kind of test. As he put the quill into its holder on the now much tidier workspace, he leaned forward onto his elbows and smiled slightly. "Now then..." he continued, "Who are you, and how can I help you?"

The twins glanced at each other for emotional support, and then Boris sighed and gestured to himself, then his companion. "My name is Boris Ironclaw, of the House of Ironclaw, in Nostromus. This is my twin sister Illiana." "Hello," the twin sister in question said, nodding, as if she just felt she should say something. "We've always been close, it's natural of twins," Boris continued, uneasily, "But when we came of age, something... happened." He tried to find the words, and Felix, who had come to rest his chin on his entwined fingers, looked them over with that damnably expressionless face of his and nodded almost imperceptibly. "Something magical, you mean." Boris nodded, and swallowed nervously. They'd never spoken of this to anyone except Mikhael, and the man was practically family. "Yes, but... but we didn't realize that at first, not for several years, in fact..." the leatherwing continued, "You see, ah... we were... we became attracted to each other." If the wizard had any emotional reaction to this revelation, he kept it to himself. "Sexually, you mean." It didn't sound like a question. "Yes, sexually," Boris confirmed, blushing, "We... we thought at first that it was just, how you call it, hormones, that we were growing into our bodies and because we were so close, and because we were a male and a female, our feelings were confused..." He took a deep breath, steadying himself to continue, and Illiana spoke up. "But they didn't clear up over time," she said, quietly, staring down at her feet, "They just got stronger." Boris lifted his hand, instinctively wanting to reach over and squeeze his sister's hand, to comfort her, then paled, worrying how that gesture might look after the revelation they'd just made, so he just averted his eyes and sighed. "It started out as just curiosity, trying to - to catch each other getting changed, to walk in on each other bathing, but no matter how hard we tried to ignore it, it just kept getting worse. We - seven sentinels, forgive me - we started having dreams about each other, we started spending even more time together... we even stopped being interested in other men and women. Illiana is... she's the only woman in my heart, no matter how wrong I know it is. We... we've had to fight so hard to do the right thing, to not... give in to our feelings..." The bat's cheeks burned with the humiliation, allowing himself to relive the shame of years of forbidden desires. He took a moment to compose himself, looking down at his short, hairless tail, not entirely unlike that of a rodent, peeking out from within his cloak and twitching against his leg, and Illiana spoke up for him, finishing the story. "We came very, very close recently to giving in, when we confirmed to each other after the lunar festival that we both felt the same way," she said, softly, looking away from her brother as she continued, "But the... the guilt was too much, so we went to someone we trusted, a friend of our parents, to ask him for advice. But the first thing he did was use a divining spell, and he said that what was affecting us wasn't just... wasn't just the two of us being deviants..." As she said this, she cringed and looked away, like the words hurt her to say, "...it's some kind of magical effect woven between us. Magic is just a hobby for Mikhael, though, he couldn't even tell us what kind of spell it was, much less break it." Felix leaned back in his chair, placing his hands on his somewhat plump belly as he did so, and nodded once more. "So you've sought out someone with a little more expertise, hmmm? My humble abode is a long way from Nostromus," he commented. Boris shrugged. "Most wizards seem to move around as they please, it's nearly impossible to find them... but the stories say you're always right here, though it's hard to get a hold of you." The shar pei lowered his glasses and looked Boris right in the eyes. "And I suppose it's merely coincidence that 'right here' happens to be hundreds of miles from anyone interested in gossip about the Ironclaw twins, eh?" he asked, not a hint of a smile on his face. Frowning, Boris suddenly found himself standing, his hands curled into impotent fists at his side. "This isn't about social standing, damn it!" he growled in Nostri, vaguely aware that the man would understand, "If I thought it was a better option, I'd make a public petition to the Green God of life at the Grand Temple itself! I don't want this... this curse broken because it's embarrassing, I want it broken before I... before I dishonor the real love I have for my sister, before we hurt this connection we actually have!" Felix's eyes had widened just slightly, surprised, though not threatened, by this outburst. As a cooling Boris awkwardly sat back down, muttering an apology, Felix actually smiled slightly, his gaze miles away. "...I used to mentor a wizard-in-training named Thaniel, he's one of the 'wandering wizards' you mentioned," he said, much more softly than anything else he'd uttered so far, "It's a shame you couldn't find him, he'd be perfect for this. I probably know more than him, but nothing could motivate that boy like a good story, especially a good love story." He looked up at the twins and grinned. "Alright. I can work with this. I'll see what I can do."

As simply as that, the wizard got up, casually picking up Hugo and placing him on his shoulder as he passed the pedestal, and lead the bats a short ways down the hall, to a significantly more 'wizardy' room, one lined with potions in bottles and brewing stands, crystals glowing from within, and yes, one or two books that floated above their display stands. Boris just thought it, but Illiana gave the question a voice. "So how come none of the books in your office do that?" she asked, pointing a thumb at one of them. The wizard looked over at it and then over at her, and while he didn't shrug, it seemed implicit in his voice. "I use that office for paperwork. The only magic in there keeps my inkpot from emptying and lets me return all the forms to their proper place at once," he said, as he gathered a random handful of things from a shelf, "That makes it the perfect place to meet with people I don't know yet." Hugo, who had hopped onto a similar pedestal to the side of the room, got up on his hind legs, grinning vacantly. "But boss, you don't let people you're suspicious of into the building!" he protested, "I thought you said you moved meetings there to put a stop to everyone asking if the books were 'light reading!'" As the shar pei gave his familiar a dirty look, Boris turned his head away to hide his grin, and Illiana giggled quietly. As he sighed (loudly) and started setting up crystals around the object in the room that drew the most attention, that being the round, slightly raised platform with a series of curious symbols carved into it, Felix glanced back at the leatherwings. "Oh, on that note, I apologize for the entrance leading you to the storage room. It's supposed to bring you to a nice central waiting room," he said, shaking his head, "Casual reading material, lists of my accreditations, that nice portrait of me the Duke had commissioned after I helped his son walk again after falling off a horse, no talking rodents to greet you... That's the problem with putting magic into something like a door, sometimes they develop a mind of their own." Boris crossed his arms, shifting on his feet uneasily and idly tracing his tongue across his sharpest teeth as the wizard lit a pair of candles on opposite sides of the dais, whose flames burned blue and green. "So... what exactly would have happened if you decided you didn't like us?" he asked, not sure he wanted the answer. Felix chuckled softly. "My friend, the house made me aware of your presence as soon as you stepped on the staircase, there's a gargoyle in the alley I can see through. You two looked earnest enough, so the door let you in. If I'd thought you were, say, thieves looking to lift something shiny from a wizard's lair, the door would have opened to a brick wall. But enough of that, please step up here and I'll take a look. Oh, don't look so worried, this is a divination circle, it just happens to be a very powerful one." Illiana tilted her head, unconvinced. "And a divination circle is...?" she asked, taking a cautious step forward. "How it works is impressively complicated, at least with one this sophisticated," Felix replied, "But what it does couldn't be simpler. You put something, someone, on the dais, and I can use the circle to read the magic field around them. I'll know precisely what kind of magic is affecting you, how it's doing it, and if we're lucky, it'll even give me an idea how to undo the spell or break the enchantment."

With that, the spell-caster made a sweeping gesture towards the base, and Illiana stepped towards it, but Boris reached out a hand and stopped her. "Wait... we haven't even discussed payment," he said, narrowing his eyes slightly. The dog nodded patiently. "That's correct, but until I know what it is that's affecting you, I won't have any idea how difficult it will be for me to remove it. You might be out of here, back to normal, in an hour, or we might be meeting throughout the next year or so, it depends on many factors. So let's take a look, shall we?" Sighing, unable to put it off any longer, Boris nodded, and stepped onto the platform with his sister. Felix walked up to the edge and raised his hands, palms out, just as a thin wall of soft light rose up from the edges of the dais, coinciding perfectly with the wizard's hands, like he was pressing them against glass. "Er, do me a favour and hold hands, would you?" he asked, "I know, I know, it's embarrassing, but if the spell is bound to your emotions, it will make it easier to locate if you give it, ah, a bit of a push." Boris glanced to his side and saw that Illiana was blushing just as hard as he was, but instead of protesting, he just took a deep breath and reached to his side, taking his sister's slim, soft hand into his own. He hated himself for the shiver of delight that ran down his spine at this simple contact between them, but reminded himself that soon he'd know how long until it was gone for good. Felix began muttering to himself in an ancient tongue and making arcane hand gestures. The light surrounding the twins changed to a bright magenta, and while it wasn't uncomfortable, per se, it was rather tingly. As the bats watched, fascinated, a bright light suddenly began shining within each of their chests, then lazily stretched out from their bodies, the lights entwining with each other just in front of the wizard. Boris noted that 'his' light was a slightly different colour from his sister's, but by the way they were spiralling together like that, it was impossible to tell them apart by the time they reached the end point. It was actually pretty, in a strange way. But Felix just frowned. "That can't be right... You'd need half the mages on the continent to channel a spell that could -" He trailed off as suddenly, the light surrounding the pedestal changed to such a bright, vibrant blue that it almost hurt the eyes, but the bats couldn't look away from the beauty in its simplicity; it was, simply put, the purest blue that either of the Ironclaws had ever laid eyes upon. All the wizard said was "...Oh," but the genuine surprise in his usually even voice was slightly off-putting. "Well now, that is interesting..." he muttered to himself, nodding as he squinted, examining some symbols that had begun to float up into the air from the surface of the platform. After a moment of glancing between the symbols, he lowered his hands, and the entire light show faded away. It took the Ironclaws a few moments to realize they could stop holding hands, and another few for them to actually reluctantly release each other.

Some of the symbols that had floated up off the floor still lingered in the air, changing from time to time into other, equally inscrutable symbols, and Felix examined them closely, jotting down notes in a small pad of paper he'd produced from somewhere. Just before Illiana was about to lose her patience and ask him what all that had been about, he took a deep breath and let it out through his nostrils, nodding slowly to himself. "Hmmm. If I hadn't re-calibrated this thing just yesterday, I'm not sure I would believe this..." he muttered, before looking up from his notes to the twins. "Well, you're being affected by a form of magic that's incredibly powerful, and astonishingly rare. Wizards live their entire lives without seeing this kind of spell, and given the longevity common to my profession, that's really saying something." As their faces fell, he suddenly tensed up, then, after a moment, he raised his hands entreatingly. "Now, now, don't give up hope. I just need to... get a more specific read of the spell in order to work out what I can do," he said, before frowning slightly, "It's just... you might not like this next part, and I'll understand if you refuse." That set off all kinds of alarms in Boris' head, but sheer curiosity compelled him to at least hear the man out. "What did you have in mind, exactly?" the bat asked, shifting on the spot uncomfortably. Felix put his hands in his voluminous pockets and made an apologetic face. "Well, my friends, there's a way I can get an even more in-depth reading of this spell than I get from the circle here," he said, "But I generally don't go there first because it requires... an alchemical component." "That doesn't sound good..." muttered Illiana, whose ears twitched in agitation. "Let me guess," said Boris, "You need a rare flower that only blooms in the heart of giant spider nests. Or a fungus that grows on the talons of dragons. Something extremely rare that requires a dangerous adventure to retrieve it, hmm?" Reaching up and scratching at the back of his neck, the canine spellcaster chuckled self-consciously. "No, it's incredibly common and all very close at hand," he said, "it's just... the hand that's required to retrieve it that might be an issue."

Boris and Illiana glanced at each other, silently asking the same question with their eyes; Did that make any sense to you? Seeing only blank confusion reflecting back at them, the Ironclaws turned back to the shar pei and said, as one, "What?" Felix sighed and muttered to himself in a language the twins didn't even recognize, much less understand, before he continued. "Alright, look, I'm going to level with you, and I'm going to say this in your language to make this as clear as possible," he said, before keeping his word and switching to Nostri, "It's like how having you hold hands helped the circle get a clearer reading; in order to get a stronger connection with this spell, I have to get a sample of the essence of the enchantment. And since the essence of this particular enchantment revolves around the two of you being sexually attracted to each other..." Boris swallowed, eyes as wide as dinner plates, all of his attention on the wizard, suddenly regretting asking those questions. To his side, Illiana whimpered nervously. The dog raised a wrinkled hand and pointed at the male twin, who flinched, much to his embarrassment. "For this next level of divination to work, I'm going to require a sample of your seed, Boris." Felix said, with an absolutely straight face. The leatherwing blushed furiously, resisting the urge to physically turn his back on his sister in his embarrassment. "W-well, ah, if it would help you help us, I suppose I c-could, uhh, p-provide you with a s-s-sample..." he stammered, suddenly sounding like a foreigner with very little grasp of Nostri. Instead of replying, though, Felix just swivelled his shoulder, so that he was now pointing at Illiana. "...And I'm going to require her to 'harvest' it from you."

"What in the nine hells?!" cried Illiana, clapping her hands over her mouth in shock. Her brother took it just as well. "Are - are you insane?!" he accused, "The whole reason we came to you was that we didn't want to - to do things like that!" Felix winced, but held up his hands apologetically. "I'm sorry, really I am," he said, still in Nostri, "But that's just the way it has to be. This isn't a pair of spells cast on you two individually, it's one single spell entwined between you; in order for the, ah, 'sample' to have the most potential to aid in my divination, it needs to draw upon both sides of its effects, namely your mutual attraction to each other." The bats didn't exactly seem sold on the idea. "But - but... to have my own sister touch me like that... It's - it's unthinkable!" protested Boris, "And what if giving in to these feelings makes the spell stronger or something? There are stories of curses that only activate if someone breaks a promise, or eats a certain fruit, or something..." The wizard stepped up onto the dais with them and shrugged, a sort of 'it's out of my hands' half-smile on his face. "While I apologize for the embarrassment and the emotional turmoil this will no doubt cause, I can already tell the spell isn't designed to increase its magical effects, I assure you... But I can also tell you it isn't designed to expire naturally, either. And it really does have to be that far, before you ask," he added, "Just, ah, touching yourself while thinking about her won't count, because she won't actually be involved. So the choice is yours; take this step, this one time, or put up with these feelings for the rest of your lives." The twins looked at each other uncertainly, having to break eye contact after only a few moments. "I... I don't know," said Illiana, reverting to the local dialect, "I mean, we just met you, how do we know you're not just a pervert, getting his jollies from making us do this?" Felix actually snickered at that one, though he looked a little embarrassed by his reaction. "Oh come now, it's not like I'm going to be watching!" the wizard said, "I've got a room down the hall you can use, nice and private. I promise you, I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't absolutely necessary, I'm no pervert." Across the room, Hugo spoke up from his pedestal, surprising the twins, who had forgotten that he was even present. "I'm a pervert! Can I watch?" he asked, with such a strangely honest excitement on his face the leatherwings found it hard to hold malice against the little rat. Felix seemed put off by his familiar's delight, though, and turned to glare at him. "No, you can't watch!" he snapped, "You're going to stay away from them until they return, you hear me?" The rat pouted, as much as a feral animal could, and sighed. "Awww, no fair..." he muttered, curling back up on his perch and ignoring the ani-men in the room.

Rolling his eyes, Felix gestured to the door. "So, shall I show you to the room?" he asked, neutrally. The twins reluctantly turned to face each other. "What do you think, Boris?" asked Illiana, toying with her hands. Her brother sighed and shook his head. "We... we don't really have a choice, dear sister," he murmured, before glancing back at the wizard. "Alright, show us this room of yours." Felix nodded and walked them to the door, only to pat his pocket and flinch slightly as soon as they were in the hallway. "Oh! I've forgotten something important," he said, "Wait here, I'll be just a moment." He hurried back into the divining room and began rummaging through the desk just next to Hugo's pedestal. As he searched the drawers, the rat lifted his head, looked around, and then spoke to his wizard in a hushed tone. "M-Master Felix, what's going on?" he asked, nervously, "I - I played along because I could feel how important it was to you, but... Why are you really making them do this? You've never lied to a client before, sir, and I don't think I like it. With all d-due respect, I mean..." Retrieving a small stone from one drawer and a glass beaker from another, Felix turned to his dismayed familiar, and paused briefly to pet him like, well, a pet. "It's alright, Hugo," he said, softly, "remember the second rule of the familiar: 'The wizard always has a plan.'" The rat didn't seem entirely convinced. "Y-yeah, but that's only because the first rule of the familiar is 'The wizard is your master. Never doubt or question him.' A-and you've never given me reason to before, but..." The dog sighed and narrowed his eyes ever-so-slightly. "I may have mislead them, Hugo, but I gave them my word, remember? I promised that I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't absolutely necessary. And I always hold up my word. You'll understand soon enough, but until then, you are forbidden to discuss any of this, you hear me?" Swallowing, the rat lay back down on his perch, nodding quickly. "Y-yessir, I'll just b-be here if you need me..." Satisfied, the dog turned his back on the rat and strode from the room, rejoining the twins in the hallway. "Sorry about that," he said, pleasantly, an apologetic smile on his face, "It's just down here..."

Soon, Felix lead the twins into what seemed very much like a casual parlour room, with soft chairs, a love seat, and a large couch around the edges, with more modest bookshelves filled with what appeared to be storybooks, as opposed to textbooks, actual light reading, even if it didn't float in the air. "Here we are," said the shar pei, his jowls wiggling as he hurried inside, "Ah, I'm afraid you're going to have to take my word for it, but I promise you on my honour as a wizard that I have no means of observing what takes place inside this room. And I've taken the liberty of ordering Hugo to stay far away from here, if his little outburst bothered you." Illiana bit her lip, eyes trailing around the room. "I don't know, those sculptures make me a little uneasy..." Felix frowned, seemingly confused, only to groan out loud as he realized that the perimeter of the top of the room was evenly lined with decorative gargoyles with excited, leering expressions. "Oh, seven gods, I forgot I had those moved in here. Ah..." The embarrassed spellcaster raised a hand and snapped his fingers, and each of the gargoyles simultaneously changed their posture, raising their stone hands to cover their eyes. "There. Sorry about that," he muttered, shaking his head, "Though that reminds me. Here." The dog retrieved the stone from his pocket and tossed it into the middle of the room. "Nu Kor!" he said, firmly. The stone responded by lighting up a nice yellow colour and floating up in the air, where it bobbed slightly, just off the ceiling in the exact centre of the room. Boris chuckled softly. "Dragon runestone, hmm?" he said, impressed, "Our family has a few of them, though I don't recognize the command word for that one." Grinning, Felix ushered his clients back into the hallway. "This particular stone casts a spell about the room it's activated in, makes it utterly soundproofed, but only from outside the field. So you'll be able to hear yourselves just fine, but even if someone else were listening from right outside this door -" As he spoke, he took a step backwards, across the threshold of the entrance, and the bats were pleased (and somewhat amused) to see how perfectly he was silenced; whatever he was saying, they couldn't hear a hint of it. He made a beckoning gesture, and they stepped back inside, where he snapped his fingers again, summoning into the room a standard modesty screen for one to change their clothes behind. "There, that ought to do it. So, ah, make yourselves comfortable, take your time, and if you, er, need anything, I'll be back in my office down the hall." With that done, the wizard looked uncomfortable, as if he'd just remembered the reason for them being here, so he just cleared his throat and handed Illiana the glass beaker as he nodded in the direction of the door. "Oh, and, ah, here's the vial I'd like the, uh, sample inside. I'll just... leave you to it, then..." With that, the wizard nodded to the twins, stepped outside, and closed the door firmly behind himself, leaving Boris and Illiana alone together.

The leatherwings turned to face each other, and the tension in the room was almost palpable. They just stood there, looking at each other, for what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than half a minute. "Griever's tears, sister, can we... can we really do this?" Boris asked, finally breaking the silence. Illiana tensed up, cringing. "You... you really name the Goddess of Sorrow over this, Boris?" she asked, "I would have thought... I would have thought you'd be happy, that we get to... indulge ourselves... just this once." She turned away, crossing her arms over her chest, and inhaled sharply as Boris suddenly stepped forward and embraced her from behind. "I'm sorry, Illiana, I just let the worry get to me. I... I just feel like it would be wrong to admit how happy this makes me..." His sister smiled thinly, and placed her hands over his. "No one can hear us in here, brother, no one will ever know what happens in here... so I'm not afraid to tell you the truth. I'm so nervous, but... Great Green, I'm so excited! I don't care if it's wrong, just this once, I get to have you, and if we're to lose our... attraction to each other, I'm not going to let guilt spoil the moment while it lasts." She turned around, and Boris shivered as he saw the look in her eyes, the strength of her need... her hunger. Swallowing, he stepped back and looked to the modesty screen. "W-well, then..." he stammered, avoiding responding to that, "I guess I should get undressed so we can... get started." He bent down and unlaced his hiking boots, finding his slender fingers trembling. He hadn't anticipated this, Illiana seemed so, so eager. He'd been expecting the most awkward, least enjoyable handjob of his life, with both of them averting their eyes and his sister giving unenthusiastic but even strokes, like some kind of machine. But she was clearly genuinely looking forward to her task, and he wasn't sure how to deal with that. Stepping out of his boots, he walked over to the screen and reluctantly slipped out of his travelling cloak, getting to work on the rest of his clothes, while Illiana tossed her own cloak to one of the nearby chairs and picked up a book at random from the shelves, trying to deal with her nervous energy. She flipped through the book, an anthology collection of short stories about the legendary hero Xander Shieldfall, a wandering adventurer whose enchanted spear became the bane of monsters throughout the land for many years, before he mysteriously vanished without a trace, leaving behind a family that persisted to this day, a notoriously reclusive clan of moderately wealthy merchants. Unfortunately, the tales were lost on Illiana, who had much less mastery over the written form of this language than she did over its spoken form. Even if it had been written in Nostri, however, she was too anxious to have really absorbed any of the information before her, her eyes seeing the words but not taking anything in. Five minutes from now, she'd probably be completely unable to even remember what the book was about. Her attention, thin as it was, was pulled away from the book when she heard a quiet fwump sound from behind the screen. Putting the volume back on the shelf, she turned towards the screen, heart suddenly pounding loud in her ears. "Boris?" she asked, holding both hands lightly in front of her heart. Her brother peeked around the corner of the screen, blushing harder than she'd ever seen before, then sighed and stepped out...

Despite herself, Illiana giggled. Boris was completely naked, alright, but that sound had been her twin deploying his wings to their full size and modestly wrapping his arms around himself, hiding his shame like a toga. He didn't exactly seem to welcome her reaction, cringing and looking away. She walked forward and placed a hand on her brother's cheek, both of them shivering at the light touch, the situation different from any that had come before because of his state of undress. "Boris..." she said, softly, "I'm not exactly going to be able to do this if you've... if you're hidden away inside." The male bit his lip for a moment, then sighed in defeat, closing his eyes - and spreading his arms. When they reached their full extension, he retracted his wings, reverting his hands to a usable state, but Illiana barely noticed, her eyes locked on her brother's parts, trying to take in every detail at once. The light pink of his flesh contrasted with the dark of his fur, and he was still flaccid (probably from fear), his penis draped down against his fuzzy scrotum. Adorably, his hairless tail, poking out from a small wing-flap of leathery flesh that extended a short distance down his thighs, was flicking back and forth in agitation, as though he were feline. "Dear brother..." she whispered, unaware it was out loud. She felt the urge to just take him in hand right now, but he stepped away before she gave into her desires. "S-so, where do you want me?" he asked, stepping away, "How about over here?" As Illiana watched, noting with a perverse delight that he had a truly excellent rump, Boris got down on his knees on the soft rug that covered the centre of the room, then bent forward, on all fours. The female crossed her arms and tilted her head, watching in confusion. "Brother, for the love of the Seven above, what are you doing down there?" she asked. Somehow finding it within himself to blush even harder, Boris stared carefully at her nose, avoiding her eyes. "You - you know!" he protested, then lifted one hand to make a gesture that his sister stared at blankly for a moment, bursting into surprised laughter upon comprehension. "Boris, I'm not going to milk you like a cow!" she giggled, "Get up, you silly boy, let's find a comfortable place for this." As her twin reluctantly accepted the hand she extended and got up, Illiana stepped in front of him as he started to turn away again. Lightly placing her hands on his shoulders, she forced him to look her in the eyes. "Boris!" she said, a little forcefully, "You're so, so tense. You know that won't exactly help what we're here to do, right?" He shrugged, ears swivelling down, and looked a little miserable. "I'm sorry, sister, it's just... I had hoped to keep things as, I don't know, as clinical as possible, so that we don't..." as he struggled for the words, Illiana placed the tip of a finger over his lips. "...So that we don't enjoy ourselves, perhaps?" she asked, smiling playfully. Boris whimpered, then winced, stepping away and pulling out of her reach. "Illiana! It's - we have to s-see this as a necessary evil to be suffered through, not an excuse to - to give in to these desires... remember, they aren't even really ours... it would be incest, sister, evil and forbidden in every kingdom known!" He seemed like he was about to continue the lecture, but when he looked back at her, he was taken aback. "...What are you doing, Illiana?" he asked. The distaff sibling smiled gently at him. "Do my actions not speak for me?" she countered, "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm getting undressed."

Boris' mouth worked, but no sound emerged as he watched, stunned. By the time he got his wits back, it was too late; Illiana unfastened the last button and pulled her shirt open, revealing that she hadn't worn a brassiere under her practical travelling clothes. As his eyes widened, unable to tear his gaze away from his twin's perfect breasts (by his standards, anyway), Boris swallowed and unintentionally mirrored her reaction to his nudity, though he had more to say afterwards. "Dear sister..." he breathed, genuine awe in his voice, "You - no, Illiana, we mustn't, this is - this is wrong..." There wasn't much strength behind his words this time, though his enthusiasm returned with his next utterance. "Orange's Chariot..." he gasped, actually stepping back with the force of his wonder as his sister slipped her pants down her shapely thighs and out of them, leaving her just as nude as he. He whimpered again as she repeated her gesture from earlier, reaching up to touch his cheek. "The Goddess of Beauty?" she asked, softly, "Now that's more like it, brother. Now then, you're going to... lie down on this nice couch here, and I'm going to pull up a chair, and you can leer at your sister's body as much as you want and not feel guilty, without worrying about being judged... even if it is j-just this one time..." Her expression clouded over briefly as she finished saying that, but Boris didn't notice, understandably, and she recovered almost instantly. "O-okay, Illiana... j-just this once..." he whispered, conflicted emotions dancing through his eyes and voice. He lay down and made himself comfortable, putting a cushion under his head to prop it up, while Illiana retrieved the beaker from her clothes and moved the most comfortable-looking chair in the room to his side, letting her eyes openly roam her twin's naked body. "I've seen you in my dreams so many times, Boris, and yet somehow you're even more handsome... I..." she whispered, trailing off after that one last syllable. Finally focusing on his genitals again, she smiled. Boris was at long last allowing himself to gawk at her body the same way, and he was at half-mast. "Mmmm... and I haven't even touched you yet..." she breathed, "Better fix that."

Both leatherwings held their breath, both unintentionally, as Illiana slowly extended one hand, reaching across the short distance between them, hovering over her twin's pelvis, pausing for a moment not so much with reluctance or hesitation as... reverence. Then, unable to wait another second, Illiana reached down and wrapped her skinny fingers around her brother's penis, both twins inhaling sharply from the simple touch, Boris' hips reflexively bucking off the bed while Illiana squeezed her thighs together, suddenly feeling very warm... and very damp. "Oh, nine hells, sister... your hands are so soft," Boris groaned, "I didn't know skin could feel this good..." After giving her brother's dick an inquisitive squeeze, shivering as she felt it twitch and pulse against her fingers, growing longer and harder by the second, Illiana began to stroke him, very, very slowly. As he whimpered again, she placed her other hand on his chest, cooing at him soothingly as she scruffed her palm along his short fur, tracing his well-toned muscles with the tip of one finger. "You're so tense, brother..." she said, clicking her tongue mock-disapprovingly, "Just relax, darling, lie back and enjoy it. Wizard's orders." Her smile widened as she felt that thick shaft throb in her grip. "D-did you just call me darling?" Boris asked, quietly, as he squirmed and trembled at her touch. Illiana chuckled, sliding her finger along her twin's jawline. "I've never seen you so anxious, Boris," she said, avoiding the question, "Are you always this nervous in bed?" As she delicately trailed a fingernail along the sensitive underside of the head of his cock, the male trembled, groaning quietly. Really getting into it now, his sister leaned forward, speaking in a hushed tone, even though the room was soundproofed. "I've wanted to touch you for so long, Boris, I've dreamed about opportunities like this..." she whispered, as she switched hands, bringing the one from his chest down to pick up stroking where the other left off, as it moved down to cup his balls from below, slowly rolling them around in her palm as if savouring the feel of them. "Gods above, brother, you're so big, too," she breathed, without a hint of teasing or insincerity, "no wonder the girls were always clamouring for your attention..." Hearing the girl of his forbidden dreams praising the size of his penis sent a shudder of pleasure through his body - she knew, because she could feel it. He also throbbed in her hand again, a glistening bead of pre-come emerging from his tip and lingering there for a moment. "I wouldn't b-be so sure, Illiana," Boris managed to say, "I think most of them were m-more interested in the size of our family's estate than in the size of my - sister? Why did you stop?" To his chagrin, Illiana had let go of his prick, though her other hand continued idly squeezing and jostling his testicles through the thin skin that contained them. She was staring at the drop of pre as curiously as if it had been a tiny daisy that emerged from her brother's cock. Slowly extending a finger towards it, she glanced back up at her confused sibling's face. "This - this is pre-come, right?" she asked, "I've never seen it myself, but I've heard other girls talking about it... it means you really like what I'm doing, right?" There was an unmistakable note of pride in her voice as she said this. As she gently scooped it off and held it up for closer scrutiny, Boris shook his head, frowning for the first time since lying down. "None of the men you've - you've known have done this?" he asked, incredulously, "Not every man does, Illiana, so I must assume they all fell into that group, because only a dead man could fail to appreciate a woman with such heavenly beauty as yours..." Now it was his sister's turn to blush, giggling to herself from the delight she felt at such a compliment. Boris even seemed embarrassed after delivering it, though he couldn't hide his smile. "Well," Illiana said, after a moment, "Felix didn't say anything about needing this..." So, grinning mischievously, she took this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and licked the pre off her finger, savouring this tiny hint of her brother's flavour, and turning him on enough that his long toes briefly curled up at the other end of the couch. Both siblings seemed happier and more relaxed than ever as she took Boris' manhood back in hand and resumed massaging his tender flesh.

They fell silent, aside from heavy breathing, for a short while after that, until Boris, biting his lip, closed his eyes and blurted out the mad words in his mind before it was too late. "I-Illiana?" he asked, eyes still shut tight, "I - I want to touch you. I need to touch you... Please?" His desires boiled too hot inside him to care about the pleading tone to his voice, and he slowly opened his eyes and dared to look at his sibling's face. "Touch me?" she repeated, eyes wide. He nodded. "You - you have to touch me, because the wizard needs..." he trailed off, swallowing, and skipped ahead in his thoughts, "But if we're already going this far, and it's only going to be the one time... please, sister, let me feel you too, let me... pay you back for what you're doing." The she-bat let out a whimper she didn't seem entirely aware of and averted her own gaze. "I... I thought getting the chance to do this for you would be payment enough, brother..." she whispered, slowing down in her stroking, "B-but I would be lying if I said those dreams never included your hands exploring my body..." She briefly looked about the room and sighed. "My kingdom for a proper bed," she muttered, "There's nowhere wide enough to lie down beside each other... Well... the positioning may be a little awkward, but if touching me is what you wish, dear brother..." She let his scrotum drop against his body and switched to holding his dick with her other hand, so that she didn't have to lean all the way over in order to touch him, sitting up straight in her chair, resting her free hand on the arm for the first time since they'd started... and scootching forward to the edge of her seat as she spread her legs, bringing her glistening labia into the forefront of her brother's attention. "Ohhh, Illiana..." Boris said, his voice half whisper, half sigh. Raising his nearer arm, he placed his hand on her knee and slowly slid it up her thigh, delaying himself out of veneration, as she had. Then came the moment both twins so desperately desired, as Boris lifted his hand away from her supple thigh and pressed his palm against his sister's vulva, his fingers instinctively curling forward to cup her mound almost possessively. She immediately reacted by gasping and closing her thighs together, momentarily trapping his hand in the place where it most wanted to be. As Illiana opened her legs again, now visibly trembling, her brother ran his hand up and down tentatively, his fingers tracing her sopping, sensitive lips and the slit which lay between them. "Orange's laughter, my Boris," she whimpered, "I - I can't believe you're really... I can't believe I'm so happy..." He chuckled softly and winked at her. "Oh, sister," he breathed, "if you think this is good, you're really going to like it once I actually get started." With that, he tweaked two fingers against her clitoris, which had fully emerged from its hood while she was touching him, and rubbed them up and down on either side of the sensitive nub. She tensed up, the distinctive gripping claws on her feet scraping against the smooth tile of the floor as her toes curled up. "Ahh - aahhh!" she gasped, arching her back as pleasure unexpectedly flooded her system. She was beaming from ear to ear, as the Human saying went, when she looked back down and glanced at Boris' hard member, realizing that she'd stopped stroking in her distraction from this 'reward' of hers. "W-well, brother? Shall we, then?" she whispered, trembling with excitement. Boris grinned toothily (not that that was hard, for their species) and repositioned his hand, spreading her lips wide with two fingers as he put the middle two in place to slide into the hot wetness within. "Oh yes, sister," he replied, "we shall." And as brother pushed his fingers deep inside his lover, and sister reciprocated by beginning to stroke him harder and faster than before, both Ironclaws let out loud, unashamed moans of purest desire.

Soon, they were twitching and panting as they energetically masturbated each other; Boris' fingers plunging into Illiana's tight channel again and again, feeling around with the tips of his long, nimble fingers and exploring the wet walls of his sister's vagina. Meanwhile, though her task was much simpler, Illiana was putting just as much effort into squeezing and stroking her brother's erection, paying close attention to what kinds of touches he preferred, such as squeezing him just as she reached the base of his shaft, or teasing her finger just above the scar left behind from his circumcision as an infant, as was the custom in their kingdom. She'd overheard their maids once gossiping that it made men less sensitive, though if the way Boris writhed and trembled was anything to go by, if he was any more sensitive to the touch, he'd likely spill his seed all the time from his clothing rubbing against him! Or perhaps it was special because it was her... Illiana's free hand had long since left the arm of the chair, to grope and squeeze at one of her breasts - at least until Boris had torn his eyes away from her pussy and noticed this, at which point he turned his body slightly towards her, to make it easier for his far arm to each her chest, whereupon he took up the task with an enthusiasm that was almost as arousing as his actions. Now, the time had passed, frantic, heated, and needy, and the scents of the twins' arousal filled the room, their pheromones working to make each other even more worked up, the actual odours of their scents curiously mingling in the air to make a single overpowering aroma of sex, desire, and... something else, that the bats dared not dwell upon. But as he tensed up yet again, as his prick throbbed and drooled more pre onto his stomach, Boris groaned. "Nooo, nooo!" he hissed through his teeth, "I - I can feel it, sister, I'm getting close... b-but I don't want to come yet, not before you do..." He left it unsaid that once he reached his summit, their once-in-a-lifetime excuse for such taboo debauchery would be gone, but the message was clear enough. Letting go of his cock, which throbbed angrily in the cool air of the room, Illiana boldly stood up and threw a leg over her surprised brother, straddling his upper body. "Then use both hands, darling," she moaned, "and I'll take care of my top half!" As he stared up into Illiana's dripping cleft, the tip of her tail tickling his chest, Boris was suddenly possessed by the urge to bury his muzzle against his sister's womanhood and bring her off with his tongue, but he restrained himself from crossing the line any further, instead nodding dumbly at her suggestion and reaching up, one hand resuming fingering her tight channel while the other used its fingers to tease and stroke along her throbbing love button. Sure enough, while he was doing this, Illiana raised both hands to her upper assets, squeezing and groping her breasts and tweaking the sensitive nipples in a display so blatant it made the bat beneath her briefly wish he had another pair of arms. "Yes, yes!" she moaned, trembling above him, "Oh, oh brother, I'm - I'm getting closer... I w-want to hear you say it, Boris, please, just this once, t-tell me to... to..." She trailed off with a whimper, unable to say the words even now, but as he added another finger to her love tunnel, Boris suppressed a groan and gave her what she wanted, as this kind of talk was one of his own fantasies. "Oh, Illiana," he said, "my sweet, lovely sister, come for me, come for your brother and hold nothing back!"

Only too eager to accommodate this request, Illiana arched her back and cried out, moaning her brother's name as every single muscle in her body tensed up, her vagina collapsing around his fingers and her clitoris throbbing hard in time with her racing pulse as an explosion of pleasure surged from her womanhood to spread throughout her body. A gush of her sweet nectar squirted forth around her brother's already soaked fingers, to paint his face and neck with her pleasure, but even as he licked his lips and shivered with barely-disguised glee, Boris continued rubbing her clit without mercy and forcing his fingers to push through her clenching muscles and rub at her sensitive zones. He'd never seen a girl orgasm quite this powerfully before, and he'd never been so entranced in watching a woman in the throes of pleasure. Though nothing was touching him, his prick throbbed again in the empty air, drooling a drop of pre onto his belly just from the pleasure he took from watching his sister twitch and writhe above him. Though he would have kept her dancing and moaning forever if he could have, and she would have enjoyed letting him, eventually, Illiana's climax came to an end, and she sagged down, leaning forward to hold onto the arm of the couch, just behind her brother's head, to wait out the sudden dizziness that had overcome her. "B-Boris..." she whispered, breathless and husky, "...I - I haven't c-come like that in - in years... maybe ever... oh, Green God, it was every... everything I hoped it would be..." Bending down, she laid a kiss on the crown of his head, between his ears, and smiled. "Thank you, dear brother..." she breathed, before reluctantly getting off him and sitting down on the floor next to the couch, where she just leaned against the sofa, panting hard, waiting for her strength to return. "Oh, Illiana... I've wanted to touch you for so long, it was my pleasure," he replied, adding after a moment "Well, actually it was your pleasure, but I enjoyed bringing it to you all the same." She giggled tiredly as her twin placed his hand on the back of her head, scratching her behind the ears. When she glanced over her shoulder, Illiana saw him licking his other hand, savouring the taste of her juices, and her pussy clenched down one last time, a minor aftershock of pleasure tingling along her veins. "So... how do I taste?" she dared to ask. It was a toss-up which she enjoyed more, that Boris' answer was 'delicious', or that he didn't even blush or look reluctant as he said it.

After a few moments more, Illiana got up on her knees and turned around to face the couch, reaching forward and taking hold of her brother's still-hard cock, enjoying the sigh of relief he let out. "Now then," she whispered, "As much as I enjoyed that, we should get back to business, don't you think?" Boris moaned unashamedly as she began to stroke his dick again, then chuckled. "W-well, if we must, dear sister..." he said. Reaching out and brushing the backs of her fingers across his cheek, Illiana briefly switched back into the common tongue as she winked at him. "Oh yes, brother," she said, playfully, "I incest." For a moment, Boris didn't look like he got the joke, but then he broke out into delighted, relaxed laughter, shaking his head at her terrible pun. "Gods above, Illiana," he chuckled, "you make me wish I'd never gotten us those lessons in Common, just hired an interpreter when we got here." The smile quickly faded from his face, but it wasn't because he was upset or less than happy, it was because he was very rapidly distracted from silly conversations by his twin's soft hand rubbing up and down his penis. He'd been close before they paused to finish Illiana off together, and his arousal hadn't gone down by much, thanks to how much he enjoyed that, so it didn't take long before he was whimpering and shifting around on the couch, eyes closed, biting his lip. He was fighting it with everything he had, not wanting this moment, this one moment when he could avoid the guilt, to come to an end, but as soon as he opened his eyes, reminding himself who exactly was giving him a handjob, he moaned in defeat, knowing it was just a matter of time. "Ahhh, by the spectrum, I - I'm getting close, sister..." he whimpered, "G-get the bottle ready!" Starting slightly, as if she'd forgotten why she was masturbating her twin in the first place, Illiana nodded and reached over with her free hand, retrieving the beaker from where she'd left it, and popped off the stopper with her thumb. Then, slowing her strokes for a moment, she brought the beaker in and carefully eased the head of her brother's penis into the mouth of the bottle. Then, with a shuddery, excited breath, Illiana began stroking Boris with real gusto, faster than ever, her grip tighter. Writhing on the couch, hands gripping the cushions beneath him tightly, Boris gasped and whimpered, until at last, he arched his back, his orgasm upon him. "Illiana! I'm - I'm coming!" he cried, eyes locked on his awestruck sister's face as his prick throbbed in her hand again and again, filling the beaker with spurt after spurt of thick, gooey jism. For her part, Illiana absolutely could not look away, enraptured by the way the other bat twitched and shivered as the pleasure spread through his body, by the pulsing of his dick in her hand, and by how shockingly productive he was; a part of her mind suddenly envisioned Boris' come threatening to spill over the sides, so that she was forced to pull the bottle away and replace it with her mouth, that she may get to sample her brother's most intimate flavour. She wasn't sure he'd buy the idea that she merely wished to spare him the mess, but sadly, it didn't come to that, as he sank back down to the couch with one final exhausted moan long before the beaker was that full. She let go of his penis almost reluctantly, knowing she may never touch it again, and carefully tipped the beaker up so that the tip of his manhood slipped out without spilling any of the creamy fluid, which was so warm, she could feel it heating the glass. After she firmly pushed the stopper back into place, she glanced back at her twin's dick, and seeing him throb once, drooling some leftover come, she snapped out her hand before Boris could react and gathered the semen on her fingers, licking it away and suppressing a moan as she clenched down on herself through another aftershock. No matter what happened, she told herself, she would always remember that taste.

A few minutes later, Boris sat up with a grunt and swung his feet onto the floor. "Well..." he said, barely above a whisper, "I guess that's that..." The bat stood up and stretched, turning towards the modesty screen, but before he'd taken a single step, he felt his twin sister embrace him from behind, her arms gently wrapping around his chest, her soft breasts pushing against his back. "Illiana?" he asked, just as softly. She nuzzled against his neck from behind and whispered into his ear. "The wizard doesn't know that we've finished our task," she said, a strange urgency in her voice, "If we stay a while longer, he won't know the difference." She eased up on the hug and gently turned him around to face her, looking him directly in the eyes with a curious pleading expression. "Boris... brother... before we go, please... lie with me on the carpet," she said, "Hold me in your arms. Make love to me." Despite all that had just happened, Boris was shocked. "Illiana!" he gasped, unsure what to say. She whimpered and leaned in a little closer. "Please, Boris, just this once, make me yours," she begged, "No one else will ever know, not even Felix or his rat." Even the she-bat, looking at him from outside, could tell a whirlwind of conflicting emotions was raging within her brother. Trembling against him, Illiana leaned in, obviously angling to kiss him. At the last possible second, though, he turned his head away and stepped back, forcibly pulling out of her grip. "No, sister, we mustn't," he said, regret obvious in his voice, "I would never lie to you, Illiana, I want to say yes. I desire you above all other women, every fibre of my body wants to take you the way you deserve to be taken... but my mind knows that these feelings aren't real, that very soon they won't exist, and it would only make things terribly stressful between us if we gave in to them now. Do... do you understand?" She looked absolutely crushed, but in her defence, she didn't shed a single tear, just cringed and looked away. "That's all well and good for your mind," she retorted, "but I need to know, what is your heart telling you, Boris?" The other bat's eyes widened and he looked rather taken aback. It did not escape his sister's notice that his response wasn't exactly an answer to her question. "Illiana, the more we entertain these thoughts, the harder it will be to go back to just being siblings," he said, his voice tight with the strain of controlling whatever emotions were within him, "Please, I beg you to stop." Illiana just stared at him for a long, silent moment, looking terribly hurt, and then, just when her twin was going to speak up again, she nodded sadly. "Y-yes, brother... I understand," she finally replied, "I'm sorry I asked. I... I should have been stronger." Sighing, Boris nodded back and walked away, but just before he reached the screen, she called out to him again. "Boris?" she asked, and then when he looked back to her, she stood up straighter and managed a smile, "I'm glad you allowed yourself to enjoy this, even if it was just this once. I want you to promise me you won't regret this later, once the... the curse is dispelled. I wanted this, you wanted this, and we both made each other happy. Even if the emotions are gone, I'm going to look at this like... like a happy memory with a former lover I no longer have feelings for. Promise me you'll do the same, please?" Looking much more relaxed, Boris smiled back at her. "I do," he replied, simply, "For you, dear sister, I promise."

Soon enough, the Ironclaw siblings were fully dressed and looking presentable again. There wasn't much they could do about the sweat (or other fluids) in their fur, so they just hoped if they played it nonchalantly, neither the wizard nor his familiar would notice, or at least that they'd have the decency to pretend not to notice. Unsure how to de-activate the soundproofing rune, they just left it floating by the ceiling and left the room, returning to Felix's office, where he looked up with a small grin as they entered. "Ah, good. All is ready, then?" he asked, dismissing the papers before him and standing up. "Y-yes, we're ready," said Boris after a moment. This time, Felix lead them to a different room, smaller in size and more focused around... something. An elaborate machine covered in many of the same runes and sigils as the divination circle, focused on a much smaller platform about a foot across, raised to about chest level on Felix. "Oh, I forgot to get my rat. Pardon me," said Felix, before snapping his fingers and causing Hugo to appear on one of the ever-present pedestals in a puff of purple smoke. "Aaagh!" cried the rat, falling onto the floor in surprise "Aww, master, couldn't you have just come to get me? I hate it when you do that! Leaves me all itchy..." The wizard gave a decidedly unapologetic shrug while the rat scratched himself and turned back to the bats. "Now then, the, ah, the sample..." he said, managing to maintain eye contact. Illiana blushed and retrieved the beaker of sperm from her pocket. "Oh! Yes, ah, here you go," she said, nervously, as she handed it to the spellcaster, who raised an eyebrow as he examined it. "I wasn't quite expecting this much..." he muttered, glancing up at an embarrassed Boris, who frowned and made a dismissive gesture. "I - I've been on the road for weeks," he said, "give a man a break!" Shrugging, Felix turned to his apparatus and, gingerly taking out the stopper, careful not to get any of the bat's seed on his fingers, he tipped the bottle up and poured a sample of the still-warm come onto a plate that he placed on the device's raised platform. Then, as Hugo scampered back up onto the pedestal to his side, Felix put down the bottle and raised his arms, once more casting a set of incantations, causing energy to crackle along the various tubes and wires and other assorted doodads of the machine, arcing down to focus on Boris' semen, which began to evaporate into a cloud of brightly glowing particles, a sort of mist made of pure energy. When he finally lowered his hands, one stopping at his chin to stroke his fur thoughtfully, Felix frowned. "Oh my," he muttered loudly, with a meaningful glance to his familiar, "Would you look at that... I had no idea..." Behind him, the bats looked at each other almost fearfully, and Illiana spoke up, wringing her hands together. "What? What is it?" she asked, obviously nervous. Felix turned around, expression unreadable, and snapped his fingers, summoning in a pair of chairs about halfway between the professionally austere set in his office and the soft, comfortable furniture in the room where the Ironclaws had briefly indulged in the taboo. "My friends, it seems some explanation is in order," the shar pei said, "Yours is a very rare case... and a somewhat long story."

Once the bats were seated, Felix laced his hands behind his back and sighed. "Where to begin, where to begin..." he muttered, "Alright, let's start with the basics. The Seven Gods who watch over the world are each associated with a different emotion, yes? But that doesn't mean that the other gods don't also understand or appreciate those emotions. There's a story of a girl who stopped an Avatar of the Red God in his tracks by making him cry, even though the Raver is associated with rage. At any rate, they all have the same feelings as mortals, they just exist on a higher plane than we do." The shar pei began to pace, and the twins watched him nervously. "Now, the gods are bound by ancient laws, just like we're bound by mortal laws. And not one of them has ever been known, in all of recorded history, to break a single one of their laws. Not once," Felix said, emphasizing his words by glancing directly at the Ironclaws. "But," he added, after a moment, "Some of them are known, from time to time, to bend them. And none of the gods is more known for this than the Blue one. The 'Sovereign of Sorrow'. The Goddess of Death." Illiana was visibly taken aback by this. "The Blue Goddess? But death is absolute!" she said, "Surely one of the others would be more willing to, I don't know, make exceptions?" Felix spun towards her, holding his hand out flat. "There are no exceptions!" he said, almost shouting, startling the poor girl, "Every mortal dies, that's the way of the world. It's what comes after where she blurs the rules." He went back to his pacing, to Illiana's relief, as he continued. "When a mortal dies, their soul makes its way to the realm of the Blue Goddess," he said, "But before that, each and every soul has an audience with the Sovereign herself. They're compelled to tell her the story of their lives, though it is not so she can pass judgement. Every mortal, from the noblest hero to the most despicable villain, the mightiest king or the most humble peasant, everyone gets their audience with the Goddess, everyone tells their stories, and everyone is mourned through her tears. This is why most people call her the Griever. You know, some wizards believe this, in itself, is part of her bending the rules; resurrection spells only work on the recently deceased because once a soul passes through those gates into the Griever's Realm, it is sealed off from the world of the living forever. But because every soul must wait their turn to have a private audience with the Blue Goddess, there's a... grace period, during which it's possible, through mortal magic, for a soul to be called back to our world and reunited with its body. Some believe that this, making resurrection magic possible, at least for a little while, is the real reason the Goddess of Sorrow grieves for each of us in turn." "I didn't know that," said Illiana, leaning back in her chair. She'd always loved learning new things, so her small smile didn't seem out of place. Boris, on the other hand, looked more anxious than ever. "That's all well and good, my friend," he said, struggling to keep his voice composed and hiding it poorly, "But what do the habits of the Goddess of Death have to do with us?" To his credit, Felix didn't look especially put off by being rushed like this. "I'm getting to that. You see, every once in a very, very long while, during a meeting with a soul, the Blue Goddess isn't just saddened by the ending of a mortal life, she finds herself genuinely moved by the story of someone's life and death, usually if they passed away early on, or the manner of their passing was exceptionally cruel or unfair." He paused a moment to stroke his chin, as if gathering his thoughts, then; "The Griever's hands are tied; she cannot, under any circumstances, restore life to a fallen mortal herself. But she has found a way to give such tragic souls a... second chance, if you will. It's called 'reincarnation'." Glancing at his audience, he repeated the word in Nostri, as best he could, before he went on. "Essentially, she uses her considerable magical abilities to erase each and every memory from a soul, and then, presumably through some arrangement with the Green Hermit, the God of Life, she sends this soul back to our world - not into its original body, but to take possession of a newborn body in the place of a brand new soul. In this way, the fallen who truly touch the heart of the Griever are reborn in new bodies, without any memory or inkling of who they used to be."

The bats exchanged uncomfortable looks, and Illiana spoke up, clutching her hands over her heart. "But... but that's a fate worse than just being sent to the afterlife!" she protested, "How would erasing everything that makes you, you, be any better than just dying? It would be like removing one person from existence entirely and replacing them with someone else!" Felix had a very small smile on his face as he turned towards the twins again. "Caught that, did you?" he asked, sounding mildly impressed, "Well, when spellcasters have found reincarnated individuals in the past, they've found it incredibly difficult to access their former memories, sealed as they are by divine magic, and usually not worth it, given that they ended up in that situation in the first place by having incredibly tragic lives. But what has been unlocked has generally revealed that while a person loses their memories upon being reborn, their personality and view of the world survives intact. It isn't just replacing dead person one with living person two, it's living person one, again. There are tales that upon meeting up with the Goddess again, such people are given all of their memories and allowed to enter the Griever's realm with the knowledge and experiences of two lifetimes, but of course, that's really just a story, since no one has ever come back from the afterlife to tell the tale." He shrugged as he said this, and returned to his pacing. "Now before you ask," he said, pointedly glancing at Boris, "What all this has to do with you is a story related to reincarnation that is so rare that, quite frankly, I believed it was just a legend. I started off by mentioning that the gods can feel the full range of emotions because even though it is the chosen emotion of the God of Life, the Griever in particular has a soft spot for tales of love. More often than not, the reincarnated will have some terribly unfair loss of powerful romantic love in their former lives," he said, pausing to extend an arm and let Hugo scamper up onto his shoulder, "The legend goes that every so often, the Blue Goddess meets a pair of young lovers with powerful feelings for each other who were denied their life together, their 'happily ever after' if you will, by dying at the same time. Slain in a raid on their kingdom, victims of a plague, natural disaster, any of the unfortunate ways mortals can leave this plane of existence, the important thing is that they truly loved each other and that they died, together, before they really had a chance to let that love blossom." Apparently tired of walking back and forth, the canine wizard summoned up another chair, facing the siblings, with a snap of his fingers, and sat down in it, finally holding his gaze on their eyes. "But if she just reincarnated such lovers as any random people, there's no guarantee that they would re-kindle the passion of their past lives. No matter how close together their birthplaces, they might never meet at all!" he continued, "So, the Griever... well, she reincarnates such lovers... as twins. That way, they are together from the very moment they are born." Illiana clapped her hands over her muzzle, and didn't make a sound. Boris stiffened in his seat, looking dismayed. "No..." he breathed, his voice so low and so quiet that even his sister, directly next to him, didn't hear it. Face just as neutral as before, Felix gestured to the two of them. "Re-using a soul for a newborn is bending the rules as it is, so it really isn't that much more shocking that in such cases, she leaves something in from their past lives. She takes the true love the couple felt in their original lives and weaves it into their very souls, to be activated as their new bodies come of age, so that with or without their memories, they're inexorably drawn to each other... and they inevitably fall in love."

Boris and Illiana Ironclaw stared at the wizard in shock, this hardly being the answer they were expecting. "But... but what can you do?" Boris asked, after a moment, "How can you make it stop?" To his dismay, Felix snorted in amusement. "Make it stop?" he asked, incredulously, "Were you listening? This is one of the Seven Gods we're talking about here, my friend. I wouldn't have believed it myself if it hadn't been for this." He held up his hand, and an intensely bright light shone out of it, making all present wince, the same profoundly blue light they'd seen in the divination circle. "There can be no doubt, Boris. What you see before you is the magical signature of the Blue Goddess herself. This is divine magic. Even if that weren't the most powerful form of enchantment there is, it's woven into the fabric of your souls. As far as I can tell, the only ways you could actually 'undo' this spell are to either kill one of you, or erase every single memory of each other from your minds, and then spend the rest of your lives apart from each other, lest contact between you bring those memories back." He frowned just slightly as he continued. "And I warn you, even if you were crazy enough to try either of those 'solutions', the love between you is so pure, so focused, that I seriously doubt you would ever be able to find real happiness with anyone else, even if you didn't remember that the other existed." Boris just stared forward for a moment, and then he sank back down in his chair, swallowing and staring at his feet. "...I see," he said, barely above a whisper. The wizard got back up to his feet and sighed as his chair politely disappeared. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry," he said, sounding a lot more empathetic than he had during his little explanation, "I know that wasn't the answer you were looking for. I... I won't be charging for my services today. Wouldn't feel right, given that I couldn't do the one thing you asked me to do. Though if you really wanted to argue the point, you could consider the opportunity to study a divine magical signature payment enough." The male just nodded and stood up, extending his hand and shaking that of the shar pei somewhat sadly. "I understand..." he said, softly, all the wind out of his sails, "I still thank you, wizard. At least you've given us... an explanation." Taking a deep breath, Boris turned and walked to the door. "The building hasn't re-arranged itself, has it?" he asked, "I'd rather we showed ourselves out, if it's all the same to you." Felix shook his head. "It hasn't, but why take chances?" He reached down and touched a finger to a bracelet on the opposite wrist; it glowed bright yellow for a moment, and a small orb of light rose out of it, floating towards the door. "Just follow the light, it will lead you to the door," he said, "Even stops to wait for you if you linger." Boris nodded curtly and stepped through the door. In all that time, he hadn't once looked at Illiana. The she-bat frowned, her expression indecipherable, and after a quick nod to the wizard and his familiar, she hurried to the door. "Boris?" she cried, seeming worried he might just leave her there. Then the door closed behind her, and Felix was alone with his thoughts. And his rat. "...I still don't quite understand, Master," said Hugo, quietly, "You knew what it was from the first divination. Why did you... why did you make her touch her brother like that?" Reaching up, Felix handed his familiar a piece of cheese he hadn't had in his hand a moment ago, and smiled ever-so-slightly. "I could have told them the truth after that first reading, it's true," he murmured, "And they'd have been just as emotionally confused, tormented even, had I done it then. But the fact of the matter is that there's nothing anyone can do to put a stop to their feelings for each other, so..." Chuckling softly, he shrugged. "So I thought that since they're going to be stuck with each other for life, I would give them one experience where they could be with each other without feeling guilty, one dalliance with a perfectly valid excuse. I wanted them to know what it feels like to be okay with how they feel about each other. So that they have the memory in mind as they ponder what to do with their future." Being fairly clever by rodent standards, thanks to his magical bond with the wizard, Hugo figured out what his partner was getting at and giggled happily, nudging the dog's cheek with one of his diminutive elbows. "Awww... Looks like Thaniel isn't the only wizard who's a romantic at heart, eh, Master?" Felix blushed, his floppy ears rotating slightly towards the back of his head, but he didn't protest this, and his smile only grew a little as the rat teased him. Still, there were benefits to being in charge... "That reminds me," he said, holding up the bottle that had contained Boris' semen, "Go wash this out for me, would you, Hugo?" The familiar pouted at that, but he didn't truly seem all that bothered. "Right away, Master..." he sighed, taking the bottle in his paws and scampering down to the floor, disappearing through one of the many hidden tunnels in the building. At that precise moment, the door to the lab opened up again, and Felix turned around to see Illiana Ironclaw walking back in. "Ah, Felix?" she asked, looking nervous, "I - I was wondering if I might make a request..."

A few minutes later, Illiana stepped through the door leading back into the ordinary alley on Stoneheart Street. Boris leaned against the wall at the top of the stairs, staring down at his boots. "Said your goodbyes, then?" he asked, without looking up, "I'm sure he appreciated you taking the time to 'properly thank him'." It was hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic or if his voice just sounded like that because he was hurting. Illiana just nodded. "I'm ready to go," she said, simply, and Boris grunted in acknowledgement and turned away, leading her out of the alley and back into the city. The two of them had set up a camp on the outskirts of Parsonus, as the presence of bat-kin at night tended to make the locals they found staying in the inns rather uncomfortable, and they'd been trying to avoid such confrontations. So they retraced their steps and left the city through its marketplace, heading back up the trail towards their campsite in the light of the setting sun. Boris didn't say a single word on the trip back, and he kept his gaze firmly glued to the ground ahead of his boots. It was all Illiana could do not to whimper.

That night, a short ways off the main road, Boris and Illiana sat on opposite sides of a gentle campfire that they'd used to cook their dinner. If they'd previously thought getting changed into and out of their travelling gear in the same tent had been awkward, turning their backs and pretending not to want to look, it was nothing compared to the heavy silence around the camp as they prepared and ate their dinner. It had been hours since Felix had delivered the news to them, and finally Illiana could take it no longer. "Boris..." she said, once she had gathered her courage. His reaction gave no indication that he'd heard her, as if it had merely triggered an outburst of his own. "I've decided," the leatherwing said, grimly, "I'll walk you back to the port town, but I'm not going back to Nostromus. I - I'll make my way back to Parsonus and catch a ship to the south, we have family, distant cousins I believe, in Knopple. I'll start a new life there." Illiana actually gasped out loud before she realized it, but wasn't terribly concerned with that at the moment. "Wh-what are you talking about, brother?!" she asked, horrified, "We have family, friends, lives in Nostromus, why would you -" For the first time in hours, Boris looked her in the eyes as he interrupted her, and she realized the depth of the pain he was feeling. "You heard the wizard, Illiana!" he said, jumping to his feet, "There's nothing anyone can do to break this - this damn curse! We're going to be attracted to each other for the rest of our lives! It will be easier on both of us if we just part ways and never see each other again... for the family's sake, for our consciences' sake... So that we may never give in to our deviant urges." He started to turn towards the tent, but to his shock (and hers, really), Illiana leapt to her own feet, stepping around the fire to grab him by the collar of his tunic. "No! No, damn you!" she practically screamed, "By the nine hells, brother, I'll be damned before I let you do this!" Stunned, Boris just reached up and gently closed his hands around her wrists, more to hold on than try and remove them from his clothes. "I-Illiana?" he asked, somewhat awed. She continued as if he hadn't spoken. "Did you hear the wizard, Boris? Did you hear the part where he said we would never find true happiness without each other?" she asked, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, "Did you hear the part where he explained that it wasn't just sexual attraction? Oh, Seven Sentinels, I've been t-trying to fight it for years now, tried to convince myself it wasn't true, but there's no use denying it anymore!" Her grip tightened as she took a deep, shuddery breath, those tears making their way down her cheeks. "I don't just have fantasies about your body, brother," she said, "I - I'm in love with you! I have been since we started feeling this way! And damn your cruel and callous words all these years, because now I know that the way I felt deep down has been true all along! This has never been a curse, it's a blessing! These feelings are real! They are mine! I've loved you with all my heart since before we were even born! We - we were literally meant to be together, Boris, and I - I won't stand by while you steal this from me now that we finally know the truth..." Suddenly, she pushed him back - and snatched the small dagger he'd had sheathed on his belt, just in case anything unexpected happened on the road. As her twin watched in horror, she brought it up before her with both hands, point angled towards her chest. "B-by the Griever who did this for us, brother, I swear to you that I would rather die than live my life without ever seeing you again. So I ask you the same question you've avoided for s-so long: How does this make you feel?" Boris' eyes went as wide as dinner plates, his jaw dropping open in horror, as Illiana raised the dagger in the air and moved to plunge it into her own heart. Barely aware of what he was doing, the leatherwing hurled himself forward with a cry that echoed in the trees above them. "Nooo!!" he screamed, tackling his sister down and grabbing the knife by the blade, ignoring the pain in his hand as he threw it as far from them as he could. They landed in soft, loamy soil, so it didn't hurt too much, but Boris was already forcing himself up, reaching for his twin, tears flowing freely down his own face now. "Illiana!" he cried, "Gods above, please be okay! Please, sister!"

Boris cupped Illiana's face, leaning in close to examine her, and audibly sighed in relief when her eyes opened and she looked up at him. Hugging her close to his chest, he let out a shuddery breath. "Sentinels, Illiana," he murmured, "why would you do such a reckless thing?" As he loosened his embrace so he could look her in the eyes, she reached up and placed a hand on his cheek. "All these years, you've talked about how ashamed you are by being attracted to my body," she whispered, "All these years, you've refused to ever talk about how you really felt. Boris... I - when I heard you talking about leaving me forever, I began to worry that you truly don't feel the same way I do, and..." she trailed off, beginning to tear up again. "Please, brother," she said, barely audible even to Boris' bat ears, "I need to know the truth, what does your heart tell you?" Mirroring her gesture, placing his own hand on her cheek and smoothing down a tuft of fur with his thumb, Boris sighed. "My deepest apologies, sister..." he whispered, "I - I had no idea you suffered so. If I'd known how much my silence hurt, I would have told you sooner..." He flinched, trembling against her for a moment, before he went slack, sighing and seeming to accept his own surrender. "Oh, Hermit forgive me... When our parents threw that celebration feast in honour of our coming of age, and invited everyone to share in our family's joy, I was watching the local girls from afar, nervous and awkward with these newfound feelings... but then you came into the ballroom, in that dress mother prepared for you, and... and it was like my heart stopped in my chest. Like everything I'd ever done was meaningless, and a new life had begun where all I wanted to do was gaze upon you from afar," he said, swallowing as he felt Illiana begin to tremble against him herself, entirely different tears welling up in her eyes. "I didn't realize it then, not until I dared to cross the hall and ask you, like it was a joke, if you'd share a dance with me, since the party was in honour of both of us," he continued, "It wasn't until we were dancing in the candlelight that I knew what this new warmth was... I love you, Illiana, I have ever since that night, and though I refused to accept it for many years, fought and denied it with all of my strength... it seems I can't run away from the truth anymore." The she-bat let out a noise that sounded like a choked sob, like she was trying not to cry from happiness and ruin the moment. "Oh, my d-dear brother... I - I was worried you would just say you felt for me because you feared I might hurt myself... but those words, the look in your eyes... you really mean it, don't you?" she asked, placing her other hand on top of Boris', keeping it pressed against her face, "I've been thinking about it for so long, imagining how I would tell you, but - but I can't find the words anymore..." She took a deep breath and smiled at him through her tears. "You'll just have to trust me, then, when I tell you that you have captured my heart, Boris Ironclaw, that I love you above all others, and that when you asked me to dance that night, I thought it was one of the gods answering my prayers, because I'd been wishing you would do so ever since I saw you looking handsome and mature, talking with father's friends across the hall." As she spoke, she released her brother's cheek and reached down to take his other hand in hers. When he flinched, though, she looked down curiously and her smile fell away. "Oh! Boris, you're bleeding!" she gasped, turning his hand over to see the gash on his palm, "Why didn't you say something?" Looking rather calm about it, the leatherwing shrugged. "I thought I was about to watch you die, sister, I'd gladly trade that fate for a stinging hand, ten times out of ten."

Soon, the siblings had picked themselves up, and they sat in the relative comfort of their tent, where Boris had removed his clothes from the waist up to prevent the dirt on them from making things worse, as well as let his sister get a better view of his hand, which otherwise was partially hidden by his very long sleeves, the better to hide their 'unusual' fingers from superstitious locals. It had been a simple, though somewhat uncomfortable matter of cleaning out the dirt that had gotten into the cut during their landing and pouring a (somewhat stinging) lotion onto the wound to keep it from getting infected. Now, Illiana knelt before him, gently wrapping his palm in soft bandages, careful to keep from imprisoning his fingers. They hadn't said anything not related to Boris' injury in a few minutes, but now, as he watched her work, he found himself compelled to speak. "Illiana... were you... would you really have ended your own life had I not intervened?" he asked, the concern obvious in his voice. The female paused in her wrapping and looked up, shrugging uncomfortably. "I... honestly, brother... I thought I had to do something crazy to force you out of your resistance," she admitted, "It never really occurred to me that you wouldn't save me... but the truth is, I really don't want to live without you, Boris, please tell me you aren't going to Knopple." To her immense relief, he shook his head. "No, I was... I was panicking, I haven't the first idea what I'd do once I got there, I just... didn't want to admit the truth, even after what the wizard said," he murmured, "I'm sorry, sister, truly I am. I just... even now that we know, even with what Felix told us... how can we let ourselves... indulge in these feelings? With all respect to the Blue Goddess, we're still brother and sister... I don't dare imagine the shame it could bring on the family name..." As he sighed, Illiana cut the bandage and tucked it into place, her brother's palm well protected from things that might make his injury worse, while not being bound tight enough to interfere with the use of his hand. She gently took this hand between hers and looked up to her twin's face. "Boris?" she asked, softly, "After all this time, everything we've gone through, and everything we said outside just now... I don't care anymore, not tonight, I just want to... Oh, brother, just hold me in your arms, please?" All his instincts protested this, and he could think of a dozen different reasons why this was a bad idea, but as he looked upon his sister's gentle smile in the soft lanternlight, unable to ignore how stunningly beautiful she really was, Boris decided, for the first time, that none of them mattered, not right now. He spread his arms wide, and held his twin close to his chest, rubbing her back through her shirt, and nuzzled against her cheek. "Illiana..." he breathed, letting himself trail off, as if he just liked the sound of her name. Then, for once deciding that he should be the brave one when it came to his emotions, he leaned away from her enough to get her attention, and as she looked into his eyes, he placed his uninjured hand on her cheek once more. But this time, as he gazed into her eyes like he was looking for his future in a crystal ball, Boris leaned forward, teasing his fingertips through his sister's fur. "I wouldn't kiss you in the wizard's home because I was thinking of what we did as... a necessary evil," he admitted, "I refused to believe it was 'real', that someday I would finally find 'the right girl'..." Here he swallowed, ears rotating forward to fully focus on his twin. "No matter how much I fought it, part of me knew, deep down, that you've always been the right girl, Illiana, oh, my Illiana... Please, there's nothing I'd like more than to make up for my mistakes..." As he finished speaking, he slowly leaned in, obviously angling for her lips, and Illiana chittered with excitement, closing her eyes as her brother pressed his lips against her own.

The twins brought their arms up to embrace each other as they finally let themselves express that which was so dear to their hearts, the love that they'd kept buried within themselves for so, so long now. Illiana whimpered and shivered in her brother's arms as their lips parted and their tongues met for the first time. Bat tongues being significantly larger, and orders of magnitude more flexible than those of Humans, their first kiss wasn't much like the tongues were wrestling against each other, as Humans often like to say. Instead, it felt, to both siblings, like a dance, like they were moving to music only the two of them could hear, their movements curiously synchronized, one pushing forward just as the other pulled back, one slipping around to the top just as the other moved to the bottom. It was, frankly, the best kiss either of them had ever had in their lives. Though there was a very good reason for that in one case... Boris sighed through his nostrils, in - relief? He was kissing his sister, and it felt every bit as good as he'd hoped, and yet the world was not coming to an end. When they finally broke off their embrace, with a pair of subdued gasps, they were both blushing. And as soon as their mouths were free, they were both smiling. "...Wow," said Illiana, breaking the silence with an expression of genuine awe, "That was great, brother..." As she spoke, one of her hands was running along her twin's chest, almost idly, as if she weren't aware she was doing it. Boris nodded, chuckling to himself. "Seven Sentinels," he muttered, "I can't believe we've been fighting this for all these years..." As he ran his hand down to her side, very gently trailing his fingers across the leathery webbing under his sister's arms that remained even when her wings weren't deployed, the male's eyes dropped from his twin's, and briefly traced along her body, from the gentle curve of her bust to her shapely hips and thighs. It only lasted a second, an instinctual response to holding a woman in his arms, but when he glanced up again, Illiana's eyes were half-lidded, and she wore a sly smile. "You're thinking about undressing me, aren't you?" she asked, teasing a finger across one of her brother's nipples, something she had carefully avoiding doing earlier while touching his chest. Before he could answer, she leaned in a little closer and lowered her voice, as if speaking confidentially. "You want to make up for past mistakes, brother?" she asked, "Well then, another recent one comes to mind..." Laughing softly, Boris smiled wide enough to show off his pointed teeth. "You're still talking about what happened after our 'necessary evil', aren't you?" he asked, "Really, Illiana? We've just gotten to a place where we're both comfortable admitting our feelings, and you... you want to make love?" The husky tone to his voice as he asked this last question betrayed the need quietly growing inside him. Illiana merely nodded, as if he'd asked if she'd seen a specific play or read a book. "Mmm-hmm. Why, don't you?" she asked, maintaining that casualness. It vanished without a trace as she gasped, then giggled with delight when Boris brought a hand up to blatantly squeeze one of her breasts through her tunic. "I thought you would never ask, sister..."

Soon, the twins flopped down to the floor of the tent, Illiana allowing Boris to lay her on her back as they started kissing again, much more hungrily this time, sharing the heat that was rapidly growing within them. One of Boris' hands cradled his sister's head as he kissed her, and the other trailed down to her belt, to the cloth straps that fastened her tunic, which was almost more like a Human 'poncho' than a shirt, owing to the presence of their peoples' wings. Undoing the knots that kept the front and the back close together, Boris released Illiana for a moment, and got up on his knees, briefly ducking his head under the front flap of the tunic as if he were a pervert taking a peek. "Hello again, girls, it's so good to see you again!" he said, cheerfully. Illiana scoffed at that, amused, and pulled the shoulder piece up, allowing her head to slide down so she could fix her brother with a faux-upset glare. "So you go straight for my chest, of course. You men are all the same," she teased, shaking her head and clicking her tongue as if disapprovingly. Gently lifting the tunic away and setting it to the side, leaving Illiana nude from the waist up, just like he was, Boris winked. "Oh, we're not all the same," he replied, "Every man with his faculties intact would love your chest, this much is true, sister... but I love the heart that beats within it even more." Despite the corniness of this line, Illiana couldn't help but blush before she was gathered back up into the arms of her lover - for that's what they were now, she realized excitedly, lovers in heart, mind, and soul! Now they just needed to check off the 'body' bit... "Dare I ask if you've been saving that one, dear brother?" she asked, nuzzling against him as he took hold of one of her breasts and gave it a gentle squeeze. Boris churred contentedly as he fondled his sister and held her close. "You may ask, Illiana, and I may even answer," he said, "but I find it more romantic if we don't question such things, mmm?" She giggled and shook her head. This side of Boris, a somewhat silly sense of humour, hadn't shown much since they left Nostromus on this journey to Felix's shop, he'd been so preoccupied with hiding his feelings that he'd been nervous and . It felt so good to see him happy and relaxed again... almost as good as it felt when he suddenly leaned in and closed his lips around one of her nipples. "Hermit's cave, yes!" she gasped as that nimble, clever tongue played along the sensitive, achingly stiff flesh protruding from her breast. Boris' tongue was long enough that he could probably reach all the way to the base of her teat with it and cover it in licks if he chose to, which would be a very strange sensation indeed, so she appreciated his restraint almost as much as his skill as he focused on pleasing her nipple instead. As she held her brother close to her chest, she felt one of his hands unfastening her pants, and whimpered with anticipation and desire. It was strange, they'd already seen each other nude - and more than that, they'd already masturbated each other to orgasm - but now that they had learned that their souls were literally joined, now that they'd each admitted their love for the other, everything felt new again, and she found herself almost nervous as her trousers came open and Boris began to slowly slide them down her smooth thighs. As with her tunic, he set her pants off to the side once her legs were free of them, but instead of just returning to kissing and groping her chest, the male surprised her, pressing his hand between her legs and cupping his palm - the uninjured one - over her mound, through her underwear. She tensed up all over and whimpered, finding herself pleased, strangely flattered even, when Boris released her breast in order to moan softly. "Nine Hells, my sweet sister," he breathed, tickling her saliva-coated nipple with his warm breath, "You're already so hot, I can feel it through your underwear..." She reached down and tilted his head up just slightly so he would look her in the eyes. "I've wanted you for so, so very long, dear brother," she replied, feeling strangely emotional, "that my body has yearned for you since you told me you love me too. I should tell you about some of the fantasies I've touched myself to sometime, you're a very thoughtful lover..."

Boris tried to come up with a witty reply, but his mind went blank as Illiana took hold of his belt buckle, carefully opening his pants and pulling them down. From all the cuddling and touching they'd done, his penis was already at half-mast, and he gasped out loud as Illiana took it into her hand through the thin material of his underwear. "S-so how do I measure up to the men you've dated, sister?" he asked, trying (and failing) to come across as casual, as if he didn't really care about the answer to that question. Realizing that the she-bat had no further interest in his pants, he awkwardly reached down to pull them the rest of the way off himself as she played her fingers across his hidden package. "I don't know yet, Boris," she teased, "Oh, you're nice and big, like I said at Felix's, but for all I know, you could be lousy in bed. Wouldn't that serve me right after all those daydreams..." His ego bruised, Boris frowned briefly, and then he took action, suddenly yanking his underwear down to his knees, taking hold of Illiana's hand before she could react and wrapping her fingers around his slowly hardening penis. "What do you feel, sister?" he asked, his voice dripping with need. Illiana swallowed audibly and gave him a tentative squeeze, tensing up as his cock reflexively throbbed in her hand. After a moment, she whispered "You're... you're getting harder." Boris smiled and released her hand, which she left exactly where it was, beginning to run the tips of her fingers up and down his shaft. At first, he thought she was teasing him with the light touch, until he saw the look on her face and recognized the adoration, the deference in her eyes. She was touching him this lightly because she really wanted to get a good feel for her brother's manhood this time, exploring the way the skin moved around the hardening muscle beneath, or the feel of the thin skin of his scrotum between her fingertips, getting herself intimately acquainted with Boris' genitals in a way there simply hadn't been time for before. As she continued exploring him, he leaned in closer and nuzzled against her cheek, whispering directly into her ear, and enjoying the shiver he felt run through her body as he did so. "That's right... m-my love," he said, doing a slightly better job of sounding casual as he used 'the L-word', since his anxiousness in this case was about the way his heart started beating faster as he pronounced those syllables and not simple worry about his male pride, "I'm getting harder... and it's all for you, my sweet, sweet sister, the girl who stole my heart before we were born, and who... and who I've been dreaming about just as long as she's been dreaming about me." She sucked in a breath at this last statement, her eyes widening and her cheeks reddening. "B-Boris? You've really been dreaming about me?" she asked, her attention finally drawn away from her hand, which remained, unmoving, on his prick, guided to its full pride by her gentle touch. "I - I would tell you about the dreams I had about us," she said, "But I didn't tell you that they weren't just about us having sex... I left out the parts..." As she trailed off, Boris pulled her in closer and kissed her on the cheek. "...Where we admitted our feelings?" he finished for her, "Oh, my Illiana, I don't know how many nights I dreamed we surrendered to our desires in some furtive spot, confessing our love in the middle of our passion... These dreams made me so, so happy, I would always think 'now we never have to fight it anymore, now we don't have to feel guilty'... I can't tell you how much it hurt me every single time I woke up and realized it wasn't true, that I still had to resist my feelings for you." "I would tell you about my dreams," Illiana said, after a moment, "Because every single time, I hoped I would work up the courage to tell you that I - I love you, Boris... but if you didn't know that... is that why you hated it whenever I did that?" He pulled away from her with a gentle smile, even as his prick slipped out of her grip, and lay down on his stomach on the soft blanket they'd laid along the floor of the tent to make it more livable. "It was, but we don't need to dwell on that anymore, my darling sister," Boris said, reaching forward and taking hold of Illiana's underwear, "Now, we can just enjoy each other, enjoy being together, and let our dreams come as they may..."

Illiana shivered as he pulled her panties down her slender thighs, and Boris chittered with excitement as his sister's cleft came into view. "You have no idea how badly I wanted to do this before, Illiana," he breathed, tossing her underwear to the side and gently spreading her legs, "no idea how much I craved the chance to taste you..." As the bat slowly, slowly moved in closer to his twin's slick pussy, staring so intently at her womanhood as it glistened with arousal that he might as well be licking his lips, Illiana brought one hand to her mouth, as if to hide her smile but not her blush. "Oh, yes I do, darling," she whispered, returning to the name she'd let slip out at their earlier explorations, "I - if we hadn't needed to bring your seed to the wizard, I would have stolen it all for myself. I c-considered doing it anyway, so we could have a second round and harvest that, but I thought a bigger, erm, sample would probably help him more..." Now close enough that Illiana could feel his warm breath against her labia, each exhalation making her tense up and tremble, Boris glanced up and snickered, caught off-guard by his own amusement. "Really?" he asked, smirking, "Mmm, I daresay I'll have to let you take your turn, then..." And with that, he extended his arms out and around the outside of his lover's legs, resting his palms on top of her thighs, and dragged his tongue from the base of his sister's slit all the way to the top, where her clitoris was emerging from its hiding place. As Illiana arched her back and cried out, Boris was playfully licking at his lover's outer lips, teasing the tip of his tongue against her labia without pressing between them. The other bat nervously lay back, resting on her elbows so that she could still watch her brother at work. Having finished his exploration of her vulva, Boris gave her another long, slow lap, savouring the taste of Illiana's desire. He'd cleaned her juices off his fingers at the wizard's place, but licking his sister's nectar directly from her feminine core, this was another experience entirely... All he said before he continued was the word 'Delicious', in a tone that suggested it was more confirming something he'd suspected for years than discovering it anew. Wiggling the tip of his tongue, slowly working it between Illiana's labia and into the wet, pink heaven beyond, Boris took his time, frequently glancing up at her face to see how his dalliances were affecting his lover, who now had one hand clamped over her mouth, embarrassed by the noises he was coaxing out of her. Snickering in amusement again (since he could do that through his nostrils, his mouth being rather busy), Boris leaned in and buried his muzzle against his sister's pussy, closing his eyes and picturing the task at 'hand'; a bat's tongue being significantly longer than a Human's, he intended to slowly inch it along, teasing at every portion of Illiana's inner walls, driving her wild with desire before he finally got to work pleasing her in earnest. But he didn't get very far before his eyes snapped open in surprise, and he pulled away from his sibling's opening with a look of genuine shock on his face, which was only slightly lessened by how he looked with his thin facial fur soaked in his lover's juices. "I-Illiana..." he said, staring at her in surprise, "You're - you're still a virgin?"

The she-bat whimpered out loud and pulled away, leaning against the other side of the tent with her legs closed, arms crossed in front of her breasts, as though she only just now developed a feeling of shame at being seen this way by her brother. "Oh, Boris..." she whispered, turning her head to the side and closing her eyes, "I was hoping you wouldn't notice, that perhaps we would move on to, uh, consummation and we could be done with it..." Getting up on his knees, feeling fairly self-conscious with his still-hard prick jutting out, Boris crawled towards his twin, concern etched into his features, even if she wasn't looking. "Sister, you act as if you have some terrible disease you were hiding from me," he said, softly, "This doesn't change my feelings about you, so why do you recoil from me?" As he reached her, he gently turned her head to face him, and when she opened her eyes, there was a deep embarrassment there. "I - I don't know, Boris, I just..." She bit her lip and managed to blush even harder. "I thought if you knew you might have second thoughts about - about making love to me. That's why I also didn't tell you... that that was my first kiss earlier." Smiling softly, Boris eased himself into a sitting position next to her, and then wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in close, both Ironclaws doing their best to pretend they didn't notice his erection occasionally brushing against her back. "You know," he whispered, running one hand along her hair, "if I'd given in to my desires on that couch, finding out there would have given me second thoughts, guilt even... 'how dare I steal my innocent sister's maidenhood' and all that... but now I realize you were right all along, that - that we were meant to be together, and it feels much more natural. I'm just surprised, really I am. You've had so many suitors over the years, Illiana... I know, because I was jealous of each and every one of them, truth be told." Illiana sighed, looking down to her feet as she spoke, "Well... I never let any of them get that far, it's as simple as that, brother," she said, fidgeting slightly, "I've known all along how I felt about you, I never tried to reject it, just to hide it... Even knowing you were my brother and I - I could never be with you, I..." Trailing off, she turned around to face her lover, placing her hands on his shoulders and looking him square in the eye, "I just couldn't let those men, handsome and charming as they were, lay their hands on me, because I didn't love them the way I loved you. You could almost say I was saving myself for you, in a way..." Boris swallowed, clearly touched by these words, but then his eyes went unfocused, as if examining his memories, and he frowned. "Oh, sister... oh, my love, I - I'm so truly sorry that I didn't do the same," he whispered, a stronger shame in his voice than there'd ever been on the few occasions when she'd coaxed him into discussing their 'problem' before they met with the wizard. "All those girls I dated, I told myself I was in love with them, that the stories of love that burns brighter than the sun were just fairy tales to entertain children, that real people have to settle for... something less. Now, I realize that I've just been in denial, that I was just trying to convince myself that what I felt for you wasn't real... oh, Illiana, I feel so wretched..." He tried to turn away, but she wrapped her arms around his chest and held him tight. "Brother, you have nothing to apologize for," she said, her voice trembling, "before today, I never thought I would be able to hold you, to tell you how I feel... to hear you say the same things back is a blessing I never dared hope for. I understand why you did those things in the past... but the past is past, and the future is about the two of us, and the fairy tale love you didn't think you'd find." She kissed him on the cheek, and he smiled slightly, but he didn't seem convinced. "Mmm... tell me something, Boris..." she whispered, smirking, "When you were with those girls... were you ever thinking about me?" Boris blanched for a second, his ears flattening as if he were a canine. "I'll take that as a yes," she laughed, delighted with herself, "So there you go! Your heart was in the right place, heh heh..." "How - how did you know?!" he asked as she giggled, leaning in to kiss his nose. "Just a hunch, my love, just a hunch."

As Boris continued to blush, Illiana nuzzled against him. "Y-you're taking this too well," he whispered, just a hint of paranoia in his voice, "You're going to make me pay for those girls when I least expect it..." Putting on a pout she clearly wasn't feeling, the slender leatherwing extended her arms, knitting her hands together behind Boris' head. "Awww, my sweet Boris," she said, "I won't lie, I was so jealous of those girls... Do you remember the masquerade ball the local Baron held last year? You were seeing that girl from the House of Duskwing, and I had these elaborate daydreams of drugging Natasha's drink and taking her place at the ball, of having my way with you in the coatroom..." Illiana was silently relieved that her brother didn't immediately look shocked and horrified, which would have suggested that he did have his way with Natasha in the coatroom at that dance. Sighing dramatically, she shook her head. "And then she had to go and spoil everything by bleaching her fur to look like a lightling. Wouldn't have looked at all like her, even in that costume." She maintained her deadpan expression for about three seconds after she made eye contact with her brother, and then broke out giggling. "Oh, Boris, I'm just kidding!" she said, "Look; would I be happier if you'd never been with anyone else? Maybe. But it doesn't mean I'm not happy that I've got you all to myself from now on." Without warning, she used both hands to pull him forward, pressing his head against her chest, and pretended not to notice that this meant his cheek was pressed against her naked cleavage as she stroked her fingers through her hair. "Just let those other girls leave your mind, you never need to think about them again, just focus on the here and now..." she whispered, cooing soothingly, "Focus on your sweet, virginal sister, who's desperately hot for you and can't wait for you to make her a woman..." If there were any lingering doubts in Boris' mind, he sure did a good job of hiding them as he heard those words, perking right up with a smile as he nuzzled his sister's chest and playfully kissed the side of the teat in front of his mouth. "Mmmm, you've always been able to help me feel so much better, Illiana, I've missed that so much..." he murmured, churring happily, a vibration his sister quite enjoyed, "You always did know just what to say..." Just as he was craning his neck to take one of his lover's nipples into his mouth, Illiana abruptly released him and stood up, walking slowly towards the middle of the tent, and looking up almost casually at one of the support poles inside the simple structure; the tent, designed for much rougher conditions than simply camping in the woods, and intended for more than just two occupants at a time, was shaped like a house, rectangular with a triangular 'roof' along the top. Inside, there was a sturdy pole running straight down the centre of the structure, right at the point where the triangular section began. As Boris watched his sister's hips exaggeratedly swaying away from him, Illiana reached up, closed her hand around this pole, and gave an experimental tug on it, followed by a much harder yank, which both failed to dislodge it in the slightest. "Well, brother," she said, "I think it only appropriate to start things off between us by... giving you a memorable experience, no? Let me just... hup!"

Without warning, Illiana squatted slightly, then pushed off the ground with her legs as hard as she could, flipping upside down during this jump with a practiced ease, and clamping her feet onto the pole above her, something the feet of their species were, of course, terribly good at; a curious muscle structure made their feet clench extra tight when they were hanging upside down, even when relaxed, which is what famously allows them to sleep inverted, their grip strength second to none. So it was as easy as breathing for Illiana to remain where she was, gripping the pole with her toes, talons curled up and around. "Ah, there we are," she giggled, "Now come over here, dear brother, and let Illiana show you how much she appreciates you!" Boris stood, eyes torn between leering at his sister's body and looking doubtfully at the pole. "Sister, as much as I like the idea, I don't think the pole will support both of us..." he said, eliciting a laugh from his upside-down twin. "No, you silly man, come here!" she said, beckoning him closer. His eyes widened as he stepped up to her - and she reached forward, taking hold of his penis and giving it a squeeze. Gently but insistently pulling him by the prick a little bit closer, Illiana made a distinct 'mmmm' noise and lashed out her own clever tongue, licking the head of his cock, once to sell the idea, and again to taste the drop of pre that drooled out from her first unexpected touch. Even as she trembled from the flavour, feeling her inner walls squeezing down and wondering if her brother could see it, feeling profoundly naughty from the thought, Illiana looked 'down' at Boris' shocked face and smirked. "You know, this isn't just for you, my love," she teased, "I'd spread my legs, be all inviting, but, ah, then I would probably fall on my head." Eyes moving from her face to her vulva, reaching up and placing his hands on her hips, Boris leaned in curiously, as though unable to believe the situation he found himself in. "The - the two-faced feast?" He asked incredulously, referring to the Nostri name for the act of simultaneously sharing the act of oral sex, an act some Humans simply referred to with a number, "Vertically? Ohhhh, Gods above..." If he had any complaints about this idea, he left them unspoken as Illiana lovingly ran her tongue from the base of his cock to his tip, sliding her tongue around to coat his entire manhood in her saliva. For good measure, she released his dick and leaned in to lap at his testicles as well, finding a naughty thrill in pressing her muzzle in close and sampling the musk of Boris' arousal. Moving back up to his hard-on, Illiana chuckled playfully. "Memorable, no?" And with that, she finally opened her muzzle and took her twin brother's penis into her mouth, both of them moaning with pleasure at the same moment. Thoroughly convinced by her compelling argument, Boris groaned with need and buried his muzzle against her sopping mound, pressing his tongue inside while Illiana squealed with delight around his cock.

Illiana's feet lived up to their species' reputation; their grip remained steady and strong, even as her attention was evenly divided between pleasuring her brother for 'real', for the first time since they'd admitted their feelings and become lovers, and the unprecedented bliss she was receiving from his own dalliances between her thighs. Boris was equally focused on the act, as lost in the pheromones of his sister's arousal as she was in the musk which grew stronger around her flat, leaf-shaped nose. Truth be told, anything short of an elder dragon landing directly outside would probably fail to rouse the twins' attention, and even that would be arguable if it paid the tent that had become their love nest no heed. The sounds of the forest at night had faded away, the only noises audible within those fabric walls being the energetic slurping and suckling of the siblings, along with the occasional gasp or sigh, as well as the regular creaking of the pole that allowed for their unique form of lovemaking to occur. It wasn't until Boris' probing tongue once again made its way to his sister's hymen, pressing against it curiously a few times, as if testing its strength, that one of them finally spoke up, Illiana making an alarmed noise and pulling back off Boris' prick with a pop and looking 'down' with wide eyes. "N-no, brother, don't!" she cried, squirming as much as she was able to without falling off the pole, "I've dreamed for so long of b-being held in your arms and comforted through the pain, of knowing that it meant you were finally mine and I was finally yours... d-don't take that away when I'm so close, please!" She whimpered in relief as she felt the pressure ease away from her maidenhood, Boris pulling his own mouth away to look down at her. "Well, I won't be able to show off my full array of tricks, I was looking forward to impressing you with the depth..." he said, smiling slightly, "But how can I ever say no to you, love, when you ask so nicely?" He winked down at her and leaned back in, closing his lips over her clitoris as she sighed with pleasure and went back to licking his balls, breaking off briefly to whisper 'Thank you, brother', knowing his sensitive ears would pick that up clearly. As she went back to his prick, Boris continued to suckle gently on his sister's throbbing love button, having mercy and releasing it after a few moments of delightful moans. One of the issues with this position, whether it was vertical or not, was that it put the clitoris at the bottom of the slit from Boris' perspective, not the top, making it just a little bit harder to focus his attentions on it while still pleasuring her inner walls. So he brought a hand in from her hip to press against her pelvis, reaching up with his fingertips to tease and rub at the sensitive nub while he went back to Illiana's vagina, shivering every time the girl tensed up and her walls clenched down on his muscular tongue. As if encouraged by his example, Illiana brought one of her own hands in to rub and massage her brother's balls, doing a pretty good job of stimulating his orbs given that she was upside-down.

And so, holding each other close in their inverted embrace, the twins energetically continued for quite some time, each diligently searching out their new lover's sensitive regions, a hint of a smile appearing now and then after being rewarded with a particularly satisfied moan or involuntary spasm. Eventually, though, Illiana's movements became faster, more frantic, and she began whimpering and trembling. Finally, releasing her brother's sac, the she-bat let him slip out of her mouth and gasped, positively shaking against Boris' body. "Oh, oh my d-dear brother," she whimpered, "I - I'm getting so close, don't stop n-now, finish me off, I need to come!" She placed a hand on her lover's shaft, but her strokes were uneven, haphazard, not used to doing such things while her body burned with such desperate need. Intensifying his ministrations and focusing on the more sensitive spots within his sister's vagina, twisting his tongue about to try and hit all of them at once (no easy task with her inner walls clenching down on him as hard as they were), Boris squeezed her love button between two of his fingers, stroking and rubbing at the throbbing nub for all he was worth. Down below him, Illiana was gasping and grunting and crying out, and whenever she wasn't making a pure noise of pleasure, she was murmuring a steady stream of praise, telling him how amazing he was, how long she'd dreamed about things like this, and how she couldn't wait to pay him back. But most of all, the thing that entered her long, rambling whispers over and over, she told him how much she loved him, and every time he heard her say it, he shivered just a little, and tried to work even harder. Finally, Illiana wrenched away from his prick, arching her back with a moan, every muscle in her body tensing up at once. And then, as her orgasm exploded within her, as her juices spurted up from her cleft to paint her brother's muzzle, the girl threw back her head, her hair brushing the ground, and cried out his name - in ultrasonic. As his ears rang with the echo of a sound most people wouldn't even have been able to perceive, Boris found enough of his mind not focused on his sister's climax to wryly thank the Gods their love nest didn't have any windows, for they might all find themselves broken. Soon, even that part of his mind turned to continuing the writhing she-bat's pleasures, as the feeling of her love canal rhythmically clenching and rubbing along his tongue was a hard sensation to ignore. Though he did briefly glance up when he heard a creaking noise, and realized Illiana's feet were now squeezing the pole above them incredibly hard. Watching her talons clasping at the wood and briefly wondering if it would give way, Boris made a mental note never to try out those positions he'd heard rumours of, where one partner pleasures the other with their feet.

Finally, while the last of her pleasures died off, Illiana's muscles relaxed as she let out a tired squeak, hanging limply from the pole and breathing hard, knuckles bumping into the floor 'above' her. When Boris slowly pulled his tongue out of her, she squeezed down one last time and made a reluctant whine, and the male realized she missed the feeling of fullness his thick tongue had brought her. He couldn't help but smile, looking forward to the future. Seeing that he'd taken a lot out of her, the leatherwing was more than willing to be patient, even though his own desire cried out desperately for fulfilment. So he just waited, lovingly licking at his sister's tired labia, gathering up the juices she'd spilled in her pleasures and savouring every last drop. "Ooooh..." she moaned, seemingly more from delirious afterglow than pleasure. "Mmmm, Boris... I had no idea it could feel so, so good!" she said, "Thank you so much, brother, I hope I can make it as good for you..." Boris chuckled pleasantly, finally leaning away from her pussy. "You know, I could sort of tell how hard you were getting off," he prodded, "That was a hell of a 'ping', my sister. If there were any colonies of our feral cousins in these woods, I think you just gave them a permanent map of every nook and cranny of the trees!" "Noo, don't tease me!" she laughed, reaching up to hold onto his thighs again, "It's your fault for making me come so hard!" He could almost hear the blushing in her voice. After a moment, he felt one of her hands cup his scrotum again. "You know, brother," she whispered, in a much more sensual tone, "Back at Felix's, when you - when you fingered me? That was the very first time another person had ever seen me come. Just the fact that it was you watching me made it so much better..." Boris shivered at this idea, feeling a pleasant tingle run down his spine as he remembered Illiana's other climax, the memory improved by this discovery - which was no doubt exactly what Illiana wanted, as before the tingle had even faded, Boris gasped out loud, caught off-guard as he felt his penis engulfed by the soft, wet warmth of his sister's mouth. "Oh fuck!" he cried, "I-Illiana!" He received a chuckle in response, the she-bat clearly pleased with herself. Boris found his hands returning to his lover's thighs, holding on tight as if he was afraid he would fall over; and in truth, he almost was. Without a task to focus his attention on, such as orally pleasuring his sister, this position meant that he just stood there while Illiana ravished him, but as he was completely unable to see anything she was doing, every single touch and caress came out of nowhere, leaving him twitching and tensing up, biting his lip to contain the more embarrassing sounds that her surprisingly deft tongue was wringing out of him. As if she had read his mind, she suddenly teased her teeth along the sensitive underside of the head of his prick, and, caught in his thoughts as he had been, he moaned out loud, blushing even as he did so. As she gently bobbed along his length, he occasionally felt her take his entire shaft into her mouth, and once or twice he could swear he could hear Illiana inhaling deeply as her upside-down nose nuzzled against his scrotum, and as before, the idea of his sweet sister deliberately reveling in his most intimate scent had his toes curling up on the floor 'above' her head. "Hermit's love, s-sister, where did you learn to do this?" he asked, helpless to resist the pleasure, "Gods above, it's so good..."

There was a muffled giggle in response, but no words, though he couldn't help but feel it was directly because of his praise that she stepped her game up; Illiana extended her tongue, perhaps inspired by his nimble actions earlier, and wrapped it around the entire length of his prick, like the stripe on a barber pole. He tried to resist, but when she squeezed down on his entire cock at once with that soft, warm flesh, he couldn't help but moan out loud, throbbing in her mouth and no doubt leaking a rather sizable dollop of pre. To his dismay, seeing that this technique was clearly effective, Illiana focused on it, slowly running her coiled tongue up and down along his aching shaft, squeezing it occasionally, practically driving him out of his mind with pleasure. The wet, squeezing sensation almost felt like actually having sex, though he didn't dare say so, worried she would take offence at the reminder that he'd done that without her. At the same time, she was gently squeezing his testicles in a rhythmic pattern, and he swore she was encouraging him to empty them, to stop resisting; wouldn't it feel good to come? Wouldn't it be nice to just let go? Before long, his right leg was twitching involuntarily, the heel bouncing up and down against the floor as he trembled constantly from his sister's ministrations. Almost unconsciously, he'd moved his hand back up to the joining of Illiana's legs and slipped two fingers between her folds, still swollen with arousal. He wasn't really working towards a goal, wasn't thrusting them into her or seeking out her sensitive regions, it just felt inherently wrong to be doing nothing to such a beautiful pussy right in front of him while being pleasured so well. "Ohhhh..." he moaned, his voice weak, his breath shuddery, "S-sister... I'm - I'm going to come! F-feels like it's going to m-make such a mess... If you want to pull back, f-finish me with your hand..." He trailed off as Illiana moved her free hand from the base of his dick to one of his buttocks, holding him tightly in place, preventing him from pulling away from her even if, for some reason he couldn't_possibly_ fathom at the moment, he had wanted to. The message was pretty clear, and it turned him on all the more. Closing his eyes and tilting back his head, Boris moaned again, long and loud, no longer trying to hide his embarrassing noises, giving Illiana the reward she deserved, the proof of how effective her techniques were. "Illiana... I'm - I'm almost there..." he whimpered, "I'm... It's g-going to happen, ohhhh, s-seven sentinels... oh, oh... Ohhh, sister... I love yoooou!" The bat's last word stretched out into a noisy cry, a thunderous declaration of the feelings he'd kept hidden and rejected for so many years, as his climax overtook him at last. Holding desperately onto his twin's body as he shuddered, hard, from head to toe, Boris' erection throbbed again and again, every twitch and every spasm spilling hot, wet bat semen into Illiana's mouth, which received it eagerly, almost hungrily, the girl moaning around her brother's shaft as her flexible tongue continued milking his shaft, drawing every drop out of him that she could, the gentle squeezing of his scrotum feeling almost like a reward, a thankful massage for letting Illiana partake of this most intimate gift.

Once Boris' orgasm finally ended, after a short eternity, Illiana continued to suckle on her brother's slowly deflating penis, encouraging any leftover seed to leak into her mouth, and Boris found himself rather dizzy. Not wanting to lean on his lover and end up pulling her down from the pole - or even breaking the pole with their combined weight, which might have been more likely - he let go of his sister, albeit reluctantly, and slowly stepped back, his manhood gently slipping out of her muzzle. Then, with a groan, he dropped to one knee in front of her, shaking his head to try and clear the spots out of his eyes. He'd thought he was quite spent, but he still felt a shiver of pleasure as Illiana audibly swallowed the last of his cream and reached forward, placing her hands on his shoulders and frowning, concerned. At least, that's what he thought she was doing; even for a bat, it was hard to read upside-down facial expressions when one is light-headed. "Brother?" she asked, softly, "What's wrong? Did I do something I shouldn't have? Did I hurt you?" Shaking his head slowly, he forced a grin to try and ease her worries, lifting a hand and placing it over one of hers. "No, no..." he sighed, "I'm fine, my love... just a little woozy. Heh, you made me come a lot harder than I was expecting..." Now he was all but certain that she was smiling in a more relaxed manner. The giggle helped this conclusion. "Oh, I'm so glad to hear that," she whispered, eyes briefly flitting 'up' to his dick before looking meeting his gaze again, "Mmm, you - you tasted so good, Boris, and from now on I'm the only one who gets to do that! Unless..." Blinking away the last of the spots, he looked up into her eyes and raised an eyebrow. "Unless?" he asked, mildly put off. She managed an inverted shrug and looked away. "Well, I can't help but recall the last time I saw you to your summit..." she said, anxiously toying with the fur on his shoulders. "You remember," she continued, after a moment, "you filled the donation bottle, we put the stopper in it, and when I asked you to make love to me..." She trailed off, partially because she didn't want to dwell on that memory and partially because it had just happened that afternoon and his memory would be just as clear as hers. "...Illiana, my Illiana," he whispered, turning her face towards him, "After all that's happened, are you really still worried I'll have second thoughts and leave you?" She didn't answer, but there was a turmoil in her eyes that was as clear as Boris' vision had become. So, returning the gesture and holding her shoulders, he leaned in and kissed her, the first time he'd ever kissed someone from this position. Their tongues gently entwined, and Boris could feel her relaxing slightly. When he broke it off, he ran a finger over her cheek. "Sister, I don't know how we're ever going to make it happen, but I no longer care," he whispered, "I don't ever want to be apart from you again." Once he saw the smile bloom on her face, he stood up and scooped his hands under her, gathering her in his arms. "Now, let's get you down from there so that we can cuddle properly..."

Soon, the Ironclaws had unfastened and opened one of the sleeping bags completely, spreading it out like a thick blanket, and now lay atop it, in each other's arms. After a brief kiss, Illiana immediately nuzzled against her brother's chest, pressing her ear against his skin and closing her eyes, as he ran one hand down her back again and again as if smoothing down her fur. "What do you hear, Illiana?" he whispered, after a few moments. She made a noise of mild disapproval, as if she'd sampled a delicious-looking fruit and found it bland but entirely inoffensive. "Mmmm, call me 'sister', Boris," she said, trailing her finger along the seams in the leathery webbing under his arm, "It makes me so happy to know that we're together even as twins... or 'my love', that always makes me feel so warm inside..." He chuckled, and kissed the crown of her head. "Very well then, but I'd like you to return the favour," the male replied, playfully, "What do you hear, my dear sister?" His smile widened as she rubbed her cheek against his chest, nuzzling him tenderly. "I hear your heart, brother," she said, "and it's beating slow and steady... you really are at peace with this, aren't you?" He hooked a hand under her thigh and somewhat roughly tugged her up his torso, until her giggling face was just above his, and he licked her nose and cheek. "Ohh, love, I would make peace with just about anything if it meant I got to have you," he whispered, "Tonight, not fighting the truth, it's been... You make me feel..." Positively beaming now, she leaned in as he struggled to find the words, and whispered the perfect one right into his ear. "Whole?" He couldn't help but laugh. "It's true, your love was the piece that was missing from my life..." he murmured, savouring the moment, her warm body draped atop his... and then she shifted slightly, her breasts dragging across his chest, and he felt the first flickers of that familiar fire deep within. He kissed her, deeply and hungrily, and he felt her sigh in excitement as his hand slid up her thigh, pushing her tail aside and cupping her buttock, wanting her to know what he intended. When they finally broke off the embrace with a gasp, a bridge of saliva momentarily joining their tongues, he reached up with his other hand and cupped her cheek as he whispered his feelings to her. "My sweet Illiana... my beloved sister... the keeper of my heart... I've never wanted anything as much as I want you now." She blushed, whimpering in delight as she placed her hand atop his, keeping it pressed against her face. "Oh, sister..." he continued, "I was a fool for turning you down before... I wish... I wish to make you mine, and to give myself to you, my body and my heart..." He struggled to come up with more flowery language to describe his feelings for her, but she sniffled, tears of joy forming in her eyes, and cut him off. "Oh, yes, Boris, yes! H-hold me in your arms, brother, make love to me!" she murmured, "I've wanted it for so long, now take me, my love, take me!"

To say that Boris Ironclaw didn't need to be told twice would be the understatement of the century, if not the millennium.

Groaning with need, he buried his lips against her neck, kissing and sucking as his hands slid down to her shapely rear, unashamedly groping his sister's ass, one hand giving the base of her short tail a playful tug before returning to the more appealing task of feeling her up the way he'd guiltily fantasized about on so many occasions when watching her walk away. Judging by the way she was grinding the other side of her pelvis against his own, helping to 'wake up' his flaccid member, she was enjoying it too. Soon, he could wait no more, and held her tightly against him before rolling them both over so that Illiana lay on her back, Boris on all fours above her. They kissed again, more hungrily and energetically than before, the fire within both of them spreading. Breaking it off, the male nipped lightly at his sister's neck before leaning back, getting on his knees and gazing down at her reclining form. No words were exchanged between them at this point; Boris looked down to his lover's glistening slit, then glanced up at her eyes, not so much asking a question as confirming an answer. Smiling nervously, Illiana nodded, and she lifted her feet and spread her legs wide, beckoning her twin closer. Reaching down and taking his manhood in hand, Boris walked towards her on his knees, getting down and moving into position, both of their hearts beating a mile a minute as he carefully lined his dick up with the female's entrance, and then, just as they touched, just as her juices leaked onto the head of his penis - Boris cried out and practically leapt backwards, a pained expression on his face. As he went through just about every profanity in the Nostri language, Illiana sat up, looking alarmed. "Brother?" she asked, softly, "Wh-what's wrong?" When he looked over to her, he was decidedly upset, but it seemed entirely self-contained, not directed at his twin in any way. "Raver's blade!" he muttered, shaking his head, "How could I be so stupid! Illiana, we - I almost didn't remember because it felt, I don't know, so natural to be with you... but we can't just jump into this, you could get pregnant!" Illiana smiled gently, which seemed at odds with the situation, but Boris was more preoccupied with his own frustration. "Boris..." she said, gently, but Boris leapt to his feet, seemingly not hearing her, and rushed around the tent, hurriedly grabbing for his scattered clothing. "I - I'll fly back to Parsonus," he muttered, "There's got to be an apothecary or something open, even at this hour, somewhere I could still buy -" "Boris!" Illiana said, rather more insistently, finally getting his attention. Once he was looking at her, she reached over to her outerwear, and, sticking a hand inside her right boot, retrieved a necklace that he'd never seen before. "...What is that, Illiana? I thought you didn't take any jewellery with you on the trip," he said, his mind briefly flitting back to a discussion about dissuading bandits on the road. The shapely leatherwing just smiled, carefully fixing the trinket about her slender neck, letting its centerpiece, a simple stone with a symbol carved onto it, nestle into the top of her cleavage. "This, my dear, dear brother," she said, putting her arms up and behind her head, as if posing for a less-than-formal sketch, "is a Heximus Charm. Zuk-ureym!" At her command word, the stone began to glow silently, not brightly enough to be distracting, just enough to show that something magical was afoot. "There," she said, pleased with herself, "now it's... well, it's a contraceptive charm, so while I'm wearing it and the light's on, I can't get pregnant. Simple as that!" As her brother visibly relaxed and a big, dopey grin appeared on his face, Illiana giggled and posed with it. "Isn't it wonderful, my love? This is why I really went back into the wizard's den; I wanted to thank him, it's true, but I also wanted to ask him if he had anything to keep a pair of twins from, ah, unwanted complications of their love..." The male dropped his clothes into a heap on the floor of the tent, moving back towards his lover, the hunger rekindling in his eyes. "Oh, my dear, dear sister," he said, playfully repeating her, "you're so thoughtful, I could kiss you... in fact, I think I will..." Neither of them could contain the chuckles of delight that followed.

In no time at all, encouraged by his sister's soft hands on his body and her softer lips pressed against his own, Boris had re-achieved the erection he'd lost while worrying about becoming a father and an uncle at the same time. As she continued to stroke him, he reached down and gently placed his hand on her wrist, stopping her movement. "It's time, love," he said, simply, feeling her shiver at the proclamation. Nodding, perhaps unable to find the words, Illiana once again lay on her back, legs wide, eyes locked on her lover's penis. And once again, Boris got down on all fours above her, giving her a reassuring smile before taking hold of his cock and lining it up with her sopping entrance. He stopped here, pausing a moment, before looking into her eyes and whispering not a request for permission, but the truest statement in his heart. "...I love you." No poetic additions, no comparisons or exaggerations, just the simple truth, in three syllables. Illiana beamed back at him, even as her eyes showed her nervousness, and reached up to put her arms around his neck. "I love you too." With that, gently cradling one arm behind her back so he could lean on his forearm, he pushed his hips forward, and Illiana Ironclaw cried out into the night as her brother's prick parted her folds, pushing into her body and easily tearing through her hymen, sealing their love once and for all.

Just as she'd dreamed about, just as she'd hoped for, Illiana gripped her lover's body tightly, trembling through the pain that shot through her body as her virginity was taken away, even raising her feet and squeezing Boris with her legs. "Oh - S-Sentinels!" she gasped, blinking away tears, whimpering as her brother held her close, just like she'd wanted, those strong arms wrapped around her as he stroked her hair and whispered to her soothingly, kissing her on the cheek now and then. "Shhhhh, shhhh, it's alright, sister, it will pass," he whispered, "You did so well, just relax and let it fade, shhhh..." It ended up taking much longer for the stabbing pain within her to fade completely than she'd expected, based on the gossip of maids and tales she'd heard from her friends, but when it did, she sighed loudly in relief, going limp in her brother's arms and trembling from the experience. "Ohh... I - I didn't expect it would be that bad..." she whispered, finding herself once again with her cheek pressed against Boris' chest. She leaned back to look into his eyes, feeling oddly self-conscious. "Is it - is it supposed to hurt that much? Or last that long?" she asked, hoping she didn't appear weak in her lover's eyes. To her surprise, Boris shrugged. "Ah, I'm afraid I don't know, sister," he admitted, "I, uh, I've never been with a virgin before." At that, an odd little smile appeared on Illiana's face. "S-so I guess I am your first, in a way," she teased, releasing the tight grip on her lover and lying back on the floor - with her arms, anyway, finding it pleasing to leave her legs right where they were, albeit not so tightly clenched around his waist. "If you want a first, my dear, you were the first woman I ever truly loved," he said, brushing the stray tears off her cheeks with the back of a finger, "I would say that counts more than any other firsts you could name." He leaned in and they shared a brief kiss, before Boris nodded down between them. "Are you ready, sister? I'm going to start moving now," he said, softly "Just tell me if it starts hurting again, and I'll stop..." As he pulled back, as she felt his shaft rubbing against her inner walls, Illiana inhaled sharply, not having realized, with the pain she felt from her defloration, how wonderfully full it felt having Boris hilted inside her. Looking down to the point of their union, she wasn't exactly happy to see traces of her blood on his shaft, but she'd expected that, and it wasn't enough to worry over, so she just averted her eyes and focused on the sensations as he pushed back inside. "Ohhhh..." she sighed, shivering, "This... this is really nice, brother..." Boris chuckled, dipping down for a moment to kiss her on the neck. "Mmmm, let's see if we can't do better than 'nice', shall we?" he teased, then began to move a little faster, starting a rhythm of thrusting into his sister's velvety warmth and then pulling back until only the head of his prick remained within her. After a few moments, the pain was a distant memory, and both Ironclaws were enjoying themselves. "Illiana..." Boris moaned, "Sentinels, you're so tight..." Returning her arms to the back of his neck and holding him tight, the she-bat shook her head. "No way," she said, "You're j-just so big!" Boris could have argued the point, but when the next thing to come out of his mouth was a groan of pleasure, he decided rather diplomatically to let it fall.

Soon enough, all fear of hurting his lover had faded, and Boris was thrusting at a generous pace, while using his free hand to squeeze and grope at Illiana's chest, careful not to disturb the charm that jostled between her breasts and guaranteed them peace of mind. A single sound caught his sensitive ear - an owl hooting somewhere outside - and he suddenly felt a moment of shame. "I-Illiana..." he whispered, despite his breathing being much harder and faster now, "I - I'm sorry that our first t-time is in a tent in the woods... you d-deserve a bed fit for a queen..." Squeezing her legs around his waist and trapping him within her for a moment, while simultaneously squeezing her vagina around his dick, as if reminding him of what he should be focusing on, Illiana clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "Now now, Boris, d-don't you try and s-spoil the mood..." she said, "I wouldn't c-care if our first time was in the mud outside, as long as it was with you, and you loved me back. Now stop worrying, you've got a girl to make love to!" Boris looked like he was once again about to make a delighted comment, but as if emphasizing her point, Illiana grabbed her brother by the cheeks and pulled him in for a kiss, to make him focus on what he was doing instead of what he was saying. Sighing happily, the male was only too happy to take this advice, increasing his speed a little and being rewarded with a muffled moan and the sensation of his sister's legs closing a little tighter around his waist. The twins continued their energetic coupling as they kissed with the hunger of one who has crawled through a desert without supplies, feeling each other up as if they couldn't believe their partner was real. For the longest time, there were no words, only sighs and groans and the wet, gentle slapping of their flesh bumping together again and again, as Boris drove himself deep into his beloved Illiana, as she joyfully accepted him within herself. Eventually, the she-bat broke off their latest kiss to cry out with pleasure, arching her back along the floor and letting go of his neck. "Ohhh, brother..." she sighed, "This is so wonderful... here, I want to do this for you..." Now holding Boris' complete attention, she raised her arms up above her head, forming her upper body into a Y shape, and winked. Then, with a flick of her forearms... fwump! Boris closed his eyes and stopped thrusting at the sudden whoosh of air into his face, then, blinking his discomfort away, he grinned as he saw that Illiana had deployed her wings to their full size. "Really, sister?" he asked, softly, "Our first time together?" She chuckled and raised her wings up, enveloping them both within them, returning the nose-lick gesture her brother was fond of. "Oh, hush," she said, "You make it sound like we don't even know each other. Now keep going..." Grinning eagerly, Boris did just that, after adjusting his position slightly, leaning into his elbows so he could use both hands to feel up her body. That was the symbolism here, after all; deploying their wings to full size robbed bat-kin of the ability to use their hands easily, making them especially vulnerable. To do so during lovemaking, to fully expose themselves to a lover and willingly put themselves in such a vulnerable state was a sign of deepest trust, and an act of incredible significance to their culture. So Boris made sure first that he was leaning against the membrane between her 'fingers' and not on the fingers themselves, as that would be quite uncomfortable for her, and then he let his hands roam her furry body, rubbing and caressing and teasing everywhere they went. "Ohhhh, Boris..." she moaned, closing her eyes, "Don't stop, make us one..." Shivering, the leatherwing began to drive himself home just a little harder than he had been before, his need coming to a fevered pitch.

They continued like this for quite some time, sealed away from the world by Illiana's wings, the gentle glow of the Heximus Charm providing just enough light for their eyes, adapted for the dark to begin with, to see the outlines of each others' bodies. As Boris continued to thrust harder and faster, driving his prick into his lover's inviting depths, and Illiana began to push her hips back at him, her soft inner walls clenching at his shaft with such urgency it almost felt like she was trying to keep him from pulling out, it became apparent to both of them that they were approaching the home stretch. Wanting to make his sister's first time as pleasurable as possible, Boris' hands began to gravitate towards her more sensitive regions, taking hold of both her breasts at once and tenderly kneading the pillowy soft flesh in his firm, confident grip, his thumbs teasing at the stiff nipples at their tips. Sensing his love needed more, though, it wasn't long before he pulled one hand away from her chest to journey south to the point of their union, rubbing and stroking at her stubby clitoris for the third time that day. As she moaned enthusiastically at his touch, he hunched his back, and for good measure, closed his lips around the teat his hand had abandoned. It was an awkward position, and he couldn't keep it up for long without making his neck ache, but access to his sister's perfect chest was one thing that he'd been denied by their curious positioning during the tongue-focused stage earlier, and as he ran his tongue over her nipple, as he suckled on the soft flesh, he sighed happily through his nose, deciding that the next time they made time with each other, he was going to focus his attention riiiiight here during their foreplay. The thought quickly passed, though, as it was difficult to focus on anything in the future, outside of this moment, outside of the girl in his arms, the nipple in his mouth, and the soft, wet walls clutching at his prick as he thrust his hips forward, again and again and again. All too soon, as his breath came hard and ragged, he found himself approaching the end, and groaned in disappointment, as if he'd expected this embrace to last for all of time, and he felt Illiana's wings squeezing on his back even as her legs squeezed around his waist. "Oh, B-Boris," she panted, "I - I'm so c-close... don't fight it, d-don't hold back... c-come with me, brother, fill me with your love and let's f-finish together!" Illiana had apparently worked out the not-terribly-difficult mystery that Boris shared her secret enjoyment for that kind of talk, and faced with such earnest desire, it was hard for him to argue. Boris arched his back, ramming his hips forward one last time and hilting himself in his sister's tight, wet channel, and cried out as he felt the moment rushing towards him. "Yes!" he practically bellowed, "Ohhh, Sentinels... s-sister, I'm coming!" Clearly encouraged by this, Illiana moaned out loud as her legs clenched shut around his hips, trapping her brother in the one place he most wanted to be as both Ironclaws tensed up, their pleasures upon them. Illiana gasped as pleasure burst within her, stronger than she'd ever felt it before - or perhaps just more meaningful; burning along her veins like fire and dancing up and down her spine as she was engulfed in a mighty orgasm, her clitoris pulsing hard against her lover's fingers. As her pussy rhythmically clenched and squeezed along her brother's cock, the reflexive 'milking' movements did their job very well and pulled the male over the edge with her; with a groan, Boris ejaculated harder, or at least more pleasurably, than he could ever remember, his throbbing prick spurting thick gouts of hot, wet come, emptying his balls into his lover and painting his sister's trembling inner walls with his seed. The twins threw back their heads, crying out to the night as their love was well and truly consummated.

When they had wrung every last drop of pleasure they could out of each other, the bats remained entwined, every muscle stiff as statues, as if their bodies weren't sure what to do next. Then, slowly, they relaxed, going limp in each others' arms, sighing as they settled down to the ground. Illiana allowed herself the luxury of closing her eyes and completely revelling in their afterglow, but Boris took a moment to carefully arrange his arms so that he wouldn't just lie directly on top of his lover as dead weight. After kissing Illiana's cheek, he rested his chin against her shoulder, and they just lay there together, listening to their breathing, holding each other lightly. A few minutes later, Boris shifted his position, which happened to make his hips pull away slightly, and Illiana made an indignant noise and briefly tightened her legs around his waist. The message was clear; she wanted to feel him inside her as long as she could. So even once his pulse had stopped racing and his breathing had gotten back under control, Boris didn't pull away, he just leaned back to look his sister in the eye and smiled, rubbing her cheek with one thumb. "I can hardly believe that just happened," he whispered, "Illiana, I..." he frowned, trailing off. "I... I..." She leaned in and planted a chaste kiss on his cheek, the kind that wouldn't have been out of place in a normal sibling relationship. "Having trouble putting it into words?" she suggested, smiling slightly when he nodded, "Don't worry, love, you're not the only one." He grinned back at that, and they just lay there in each others' arms for a time, before Boris finally spoke up, trailing one finger along the edge of his sister's ear. "It's hard to believe I ever wanted to leave you and ignore my feelings, like torturing the both of us for the rest of our lives would have been noble somehow," he murmured, shaking his head in disbelief, "It wasn't just that I took you to bed, sister, it's... since I let myself finally admit how I really felt about you, I - I can no longer imagine a life without you." His hand froze in place, and for just a moment, he cringed, averting his eyes. "...When I would try and convince myself that what I felt for you wasn't real, I would often remind myself of the many reasons why it wouldn't work out even if it was..." he whispered, "And the thing that came up most often was that we would have to hide the truth forever, lest we bring shame on the entire House of Ironclaw and all of their works. Illiana... what are we going to do?" Sensing that he needed more than a general embrace, Illiana retracted her wings just as her brother's flaccid penis finally slipped out of her, as if she'd given it a signal that the first stage of afterglow was over. As she lowered her legs from his waist, Boris lay down just beside her, resting his head against her chest in a surprisingly innocent fashion, as if he were listening to her pulse. She curled one arm around him and used the other to run her fingers through his hair soothingly. "I don't know, brother," she whispered, "I never let myself believe this could be real beyond the occasional fantasy. And even then, they were decidedly less focused on that sort of thing... Ohh, I don't relish the idea of humouring suitors I care nothing for in order to make the family happy..."

She sighed softly and muttered to herself, though of course her lover's sensitive hearing picked it up perfectly. "Maybe we could exile ourselves across the sea," she whispered, facetiously, "Where nobody knows who we are..." Boris perked up at that, a look in his eyes. "Wait!" he said, "We don't need to exile ourselves, we can just move somewhere where the family won't have a constant watch on us!" He sat up, furrowing his brow and staring intently at nothing as he thought, one hand idly scratching at the bandage wrapped around the other. "I think we have some holdings in the town of Sulastrus," he finally said, "perhaps we could go there under the pretense of overseeing the family estate there. It's far enough away that the House of Ironclaw won't know every time we sneeze... or make love... but it's in the same kingdom as Nostromus, and that's rather a lot closer to the life we know than sailing across the ocean, no?" He turned around again, surprised, as Illiana giggled in response. "Sister...?" She beamed up at him as she stretched out on the sleeping bag. "Oh, dear brother, I love that you're brainstorming this problem, and I like the way you're thinking right now," she said, "But relax, my Boris, it's our very first night together and we don't need to work out our future right now." She giggled again and leaned up onto her elbows, spreading her legs slightly and looking between them curiously. "I can still feel you inside me, love, it's a good thing I'm wearing this charm..." Following her gaze, Boris found his own seed slowly oozing out from between his sister's labia, and he felt his penis give a twitch, the merest hint of arousal, but despite its best efforts, it immediately slumped back down against his scrotum, the bat's libido thoroughly and absolutely satiated for the night. "You raise a good point, my love," he chuckled, easing himself back down, "I suppose we should get to sleep, now that you mention it, as it's quite late by now, and the road home is long..." It was Illiana's turn to flop on top of her lover, spooning against his side with a happy sigh. "We can sleep in, dear, we're not in any hurry to get back..." she said, "In fact, the longer the road home, the more time we have to discuss our plans for the future." She lifted her head, blinking, and then reached up to the top of the sleeping bag, where she confirmed that there was a coiled length of strong cord there. "Brother," she said, casually, "I saw this earlier, what is it for?" Following her gaze, Boris snickered slightly. "I believe that it's for helping keep the bag in one spot if the elements are unhappy with you, though I've just been using it to wrap up the bags tighter when we pack up camp," he said, "Why? Considering bondage? It will have to wait until tomorrow, I'm afraid, I'm just too spent right now..." Leaning up onto her side, Illiana smiled, her eyes twinkling happily. "No..." she said, "Actually, I was thinking of an old bat-kin custom, the traditional first sleep of a newlywed couple." Boris laughed at that, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "Really? Here?" he asked, pulling his sister closer to him, running his hand along her spine and down her hairless tail, "Well, now that you mention it, we are in the right kind of place, and we did just proclaim our undying love for each other..." The giggles of the bat twins were light-hearted and full of delight, with no hint of worry about the future.

Soon enough, they were snugly contained in the same sleeping bag, holding each other close. "Mmmm, I was worried about wind, exposed like this," Boris whispered, "But with you in my arms, I suspect I'd stay warm through a blizzard!" As he kissed her on the neck, playfully running his fangs over her soft skin in a way that would make paranoid locals remember the myths and rumours about their kind, the she-bat just snickered happily and squeezed him close. "I have just one question, my sweet Illiana," he continued, "Ah... how are we going to know when the sun comes up?" This time, she actually laughed out loud and kissed him on the nose. "It's like I said before, dear brother," she whispered, "After what we've been through today? We can sleep in!" The next kiss she gave him was a little further south, and they lingered a little longer before breaking it off. "Goodnight, Boris," she said, "I love you with all of my heart." "Sleep well, sister," he replied, "I've loved you since before we were born." And with that, both bats snuggled closer, letting themselves fall asleep, cheek to cheek... at the bottom of their sleeping bag, which was tied firmly to the thickest branch of a tree near their tent, a branch that all four of their feet, poking out of the opening where one's head can normally be found, were firmly grasping with an iron grip, even in unconsciousness. It would probably look strange to anyone from the area, but for the first time in their second lives, Boris and Illiana Ironclaw did not care how their actions were seen by others. All that mattered was that they'd finally faced the truth, finally admitted their feelings, and finally, finally, gotten to express a love so strong that it had brought their twin souls a second chance to find happiness, a happiness they had now definitively found in each other's arms.