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Lucielle fell into Jian’s arms. He caught her, and the chill of his embrace sent a shiver down her body.
“Tell me again why you won’t allow me to turn into a Lich and live with you for eternity.” She danced her fingers up his chest, gazing longingly into his eyes. Though they were the eyes of an undead Lich, there was a warmth, a passion, that lay there only for her.
“Because, my love, I care far too much for you to allow you to do such an evil act. You are too good, and you mean too much to me for me to let that happen. I would rather live a short time with you and know you are able to transgress to the afterlife than be cursed to live a lonely existence with me. If you became a Lich, you would watch as your friends and family died off, and you would be lonely without them.” He took a deep breath, though he did not need to breathe, and ran a skeletally thin hand through her long, dark hair.
“And tell me again, how long have you been a Lich?” Lucielle asked.
“Over 500 years. And each one was more lonely than the last.”
“Until you met me?” Lucielle looked up to him again.
“Until I met the most beautiful high elf I have ever laid my eyes on, when 150 years ago she asked me to be her Warlock patron.” He smiled tenderly at her.
She giggled and buried her head into his chest, wrapping her arms tightly around his shoulders, “And it was the best choice I’ve ever made.”
Jian chuckled, “I can say much the same.”
Lucielle led him to the bed, sitting down and pulling Jian into her lap. The cool chills from his body made her shiver, but she ignored it.
“Jian, my lord, tell me again how you became a Lich.”
“You are inquisitive tonight, my dear.” He rested his arms around her shoulders, looking down to her with his glowing blue eyes. His gaunt face and curved horns betrayed that in his former life he had been a tiefling.
“Please?” Lucielle asked.
“Very well. It was a ritual brought on by something I never chose to be a part of, and was the only way to escape my situation. See, back before I was a Lich, I was a tiefling. And back then, tieflings were not very accepted. We were considered filth, the lowest of the low. So as a child, I had been sold into slavery, then bought up by a cult when I was in my early teens.” He adjusted as he spoke, so that he was sitting next to her, “They treated me worse than the slavers did. I was regularly beaten to break my ‘good’ habits, as they sought to release the evil that was stored inside me that had caused my birth.”
Lucielle looked up at him, lacing her fingers with his.
“They believed, like most others at that time, that tieflings were simply evil incarnate, rather than the product of the union of two beings, whether it be consensual or not. But unlike others, they sought to enhance and control that evil. I tried escaping several times, but it was to no avail.” Jian blinked slowly, then continued, “Unbeknownst to them, I was learning magic from their books when they were sleeping, and had made a pact with the demon that they served. She happened to be my mother, the Blushweaver. She said that she could provide me an escape if I worked with her. She told me that she did not approve of how her child had been treated, and that if I followed her words, I would be free.”
At his pause, Lucielle prompted him, “And what was that act, again?”
“I had to kill the cultists. Every last one of them. So I did. Even the tiefling children that they had in custody. There was not a living humanoid in that cave by the time I was finished. And so I was freed, but at a high price. I became this.” He took his hand from hers to gesture to his body.
“And your Phylactery?” She asked.
“It is the goblet. It must be protected at all costs.”
“The one we keep hidden behind the painting?” She asked again.
“Yes, the painting that’s backed by a thin sheet of lead.” Jian ruffled Lucielle’s hair playfully, “Now, is that enough questions from you?”
She giggled again, “Yes.”
“Good.” He pushed her onto her back, letting her warmth fill his frigid core, and straddled her.
When their lips met in a passionate kiss, their bodies formed a sort of homeostasis between the two of them, his cold intermingling with her heat. She shivered delightfully underneath him, and her legs wrapped up around his waist.
“You’re the best thing to ever happen to me, Lord Jian.” Lucielle murmured into his lips.
“And you are, to me.” Jian whispered back. He moved her arms from around his neck, pinning them with one hand above her head.
She gasped at the suddenness of his movement. The coldness of his body enveloped her like a cocoon, and she relished every second of it.
“Do you want this as badly as I do?” He asked softly, nipping at her earlobe. The tip of one of his curled ram horns brushed against her neck, and she leaned into the touch.
“Y-Yes.” Lucielle said. Her voice came out barely above a whimper. She clenched her hands into fists against the rising heat within her body.
“Good.” Jian’s voice was low as he pressed against her. In the midst of the numbing cold, something firm pressed against Lucielle’s body. Her breath hitched and she instinctively raised her hips into his.
Using his free hand, Jian cupped one of Lucielle’s breasts. He kissed her on the lips again, his frigid tongue slipping between her lips. She desperately sucked on his tongue, moaning softly into his lips. Jian squeezed her breast, his fingers moving to fondle her nipple through the thin fabric of her dress.
Before she even realized what was going on, her dress was ripped clean down the center, exposing her naked body to him. She gazed up at him in shock. Normally he wasn’t this aggressive with her. Not that she minded. She needed a new dress anyway.
He slipped out of his robes, and she admired his undead body. Despite being over 500 years old, he didn’t look too waifish, he still had all of his skin intact, and he didn’t carry the smell of death with him. Really, what gave him away to being a Lich was that he hovered and his eyes glowed -- other than that, he appeared more skeletally thin than anything. And, if you got close enough to him, the cold radiated off of him in waves. His skin was a pale red -- not pink, but a pale red -- and his hair was wild and unruly black curls that cascaded down past his shoulders. His eyes held an unearthly blue glow to them. She wasn’t sure what color his eyes were in life.
“Are you taking in the sight, my love?” Jian asked.
She nodded, biting her lower lip. He took a moment to admire the sight of her body, golden skin and hazelnut brown eyes with chestnut brown hair that went down past her hips. She had wider hips for an elf, but that was something that he had always appreciated. It was the deciding factor of deciding to be her Patron, if he was being honest with himself. That and having her around meant there was warmth in his normally cold life.
He closed his eyes, pushing the thoughts away, focusing instead on the beautiful elf laying in front of him, helpless and willing to accept his… gifts.
Jian pushed her legs to the side, conjuring a mage hand to hold her wrists above her head and using one hand to slip a finger inside her. It was cold. So, so very cold. Like an icicle, only flexible and non-melting. But it felt so good at the same time. His other hand held her pelvis down, to keep her from bucking too much. He fingered her for a little bit, savoring the warmth of her wrapped around his finger, and the heat from her belly under his other hand.
Lucielle moaned, saying his name over and over. She flexed her hands under the mage hand, not quite struggling but adjusting. Before she could cum, he stopped, pulling his finger out of her. He growled a spell under his breath, and she was flipped onto her belly, and he grabbed hold of her hips, lifting them up off of the bed and thrusting himself inside of her.
She found herself remembering that most Liches didn’t have physical body parts, but Blushweaver blessed Jian when he gave himself over to her for his freedom, that he would maintain most of his corporeal body. He could still feel pleasure, and give pleasure. And pleasure, he did give. Lucielle moaned his name, digging her fingers into the covers of the bed and biting at the blanket. The cold of his girth filled her, and she rolled her hips in tandem with each of his thrusts.
“Lord Jian…” She moaned his name loudly.
“Lady Lucielle, my love…” Jian responded in kind, his thin fingers digging hard enough into her hips to leave bruises where each finger dug in.
This continued for over an hour, before they were too exhausted to keep going. The both of them came at least twice, and when Jian collapsed on the bed next to Lucielle, he pulled her into his arms again.
“My love, I--”
The door silently swung open. Inside stood a group of shadowed figures, too obscured by the lack of light to see clearly.
Jian rose, his robes coming off of the floor and wrapping around him cleanly. The floor shook, and Lucielle tugged the blanket around her before standing next to him, taking a defensive stance. She called forth her mage armor, and said out to the darkness, “Who are you, and what do you want?”
“We are here to rid the world of abominations like Jian the Wrath.” One of the shadows replied.
“You will have to go through me.” She said, and hurled a fireball to the party.
They all dodged successfully, and Lucielle cursed under her breath.
The group rushed in. One cast sunbeam at Jian, a ranger fired off four arrows at an impossible speed -- also at Jian. The third, a fighter, ran in and slashed Jian seven times. The fourth one, a rogue, to come in aimed his two attacks at Lucielle, then ran off again. The fifth one, a paladin, rushed behind Jian, attacking him twice with two immensely powerful attacks. She readied another spell, but the sixth one countered it, then immediately threw eldritch blasts at her, knocking her back further away. Warlocks.
The fight went on like this for a short while, before Jian was defeated. She let out a cry of anguish, and she was tied up.
“You’re going to tell us why you were protecting a dangerous Lich. Are you a cultist? Did he coerce you?” The rogue asked. He was a tabaxi, with heterochromatic eyes.
Lucielle raised her chin in indignance. She had been defeated. And it would be around ten days before Jian regenerated.
“I’m not telling you anything.”
“Oh, you’re going to tell us. Or we’re going to kill you.” The paladin, a high elf, growled. She pointed her weapon at Lucielle.
Lucielle merely stared at her. She would have been intimidated if she weren’t so furious. At some point during the battle, she had lost her blanket covering, so she was completely nude and bound by ropes.
Another tabaxi, the fighter, draped it around her shoulders and tucked her in.
She noticed that most of the party was made up of elves, save for the two tabaxi and the warlock, who was a half-elf. The elves and half-elf began speaking in rapid-fire Sylvan. She didn’t understand the language, but she understood it as Sylvan due to its similarity to Elvish. It was light and airy, compared to regular Elvish, and none of the words sounded familiar.
The two tabaxi looked between each other and shrugged. The female fighter knelt in front of Lucielle.
“Did he… Did he rape you? Are you being held hostage?” She asked.
“I’m not a hostage!” Lucielle blurted out. She looked anxiously at the pile of dust that used to be Jian, hoping that he would regenerate sooner rather than later.
Suddenly the half-elf exclaimed and pointed at the painting. Lucielle’s heart sank.
“There’s a thin sheet of lead behind that painting.” He said in Common. “I can’t see through it. I think something’s hidden behind it.”
“No! There’s nothing behind that painting!” Lucielle shouted a little too earnestly.
The elves and the male tabaxi looked at her skeptically.
“I’m gonna look behind the painting. You guys keep her in those ropes.”
“No! Don’t!” Lucielle struggled in her bindings, and tried to summon her magic forth to help her burst out, but nothing would come forward. The ropes were laced with adamantine, a magic nullifying metal.
The tabaxi rogue opened up the painting, disabling the trap beforehand.
“Guys! Look at this chalice! This thing has to be over 500 years old!”
The ranger, an eladrin elf stepped forward, with a scowl. “That’s an ancient drow artifact.”
“Don’t do anything to that! It’s important to us!”
“Us?” The half-elf asked curiously. “How is it important to you?”
“It’s… It’s a family heirloom.” She lied. Everyone looked at her skeptically this time.
“Bullshit.” The rogue and the ranger both said.
“What do you mean by ‘us’?” The fighter asked.
“Me and Jian, we’ve been together a long time.” She admitted.
“You’re… dating a Lich?” The fighter asked.
“He’s not just some plaything for me! I love him! He’s my Patron, and he loves me too!” Lucielle growled, struggling against the bindings again.
The paladin scoffed. “You don’t actually believe that he loves you, do you? He’s a Lich, he’s undead. He’s evil.”
“He’s not evil! He did what he had to do to be free, he’s a good person!” Lucielle protested weakly.
“He had to do an unspeakable act of evil in order to become a Lich.” The male eladrin elf said. Lucielle figured out while they were fighting that he was a druid.
“Like I said, he did what he had to do in order to be free! It’s not his fault that he’s a Lich, he was tricked by the blushweaver.”
“Do you even know what he’s done since becoming a Lich? The towns and villages he’s decimated?” The paladin said.
“They were cultists!”
“No, they were innocent people. And he killed them.” The ranger said.
“There were accounts from neighboring towns. There were no cultists. He simply destroyed entire villages.” The half-elf said.
“No. I refuse to believe it.” Lucielle said. She closed her eyes and turned her head to the side.
“Believe it or don’t believe it. It doesn’t matter. He did it, and you not only made a pact with him, you’re sleeping with him.” The paladin crossed her arms over her chest, her lips pursed in a thin line.
“I… I love him. I refuse to believe he’s done anything more than what he’s had to do to stay free.”
The ranger and paladin both scoffed and turned away, chatting to each other in Abyssal. The deep, guttural voices they spoke in sounded foreign to their bodies, but once again, Lucielle couldn’t understand what was being said.
Their conversation was brief, and they seemed to come to an agreement.
“You’re going to destroy the Phylactery.” The ranger finally said in common.
“Why me?” Dread filled Lucielle’s stomach.
“Because you know how.” The paladin replied.
“Guys, don’t you think this is a little cruel? I mean, she’s in love with Jian the Terrible.” The rogue said.
“It’s the only way to ensure he doesn’t come back.” The ranger said.
“Besides, if she destroys the Phylactery, he will be set free for good.” The paladin said.
“He’s free now! If the Phylactery is destroyed, he will die!” Lucielle cried.
“Aha! So the goblet is the Phylactery!” The rogue yelled out, pumping a fist into the air.
“I never said that!” Lucielle protested.
“You never had to.” The paladin said with a smug smile.
“If you destroy the Phylactery, I will set you free.” The druid stepped forward, a kind smile on his face.
“And if you don’t destroy the Phylactery, we’ll torture you until you do.” The rogue said, his voice dark.
“Death is the only release from this. I will not do it!”
“I can make that happen. After you destroy the Phylactery.” The ranger said, a smirk on her face. She reminded Lucielle of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. A pretty face, but clearly very dangerous. It was enough to actually intimidate Lucielle.
“And you won’t… You won’t hurt me if I do it…?”
“Not at all.” The druid said.
Lucielle hung her head, tears falling from her eyes. “Okay.”
The rogue struck out with his blade, Lucielle flinched away, and the ropes fell from her body. She tugged her blanket tighter around her, and stood up on shaking legs. Summoning the last of her magic, she focused it all on the goblet.
Before she released it, she softly murmured, “I love you, Lord Jian.” Then, letting it out in a burst of radiance, the goblet exploded.
She sank to her knees, sobbing. The fighter patted her shoulder and said, “Would you like us to escort you somewhere safe?”
“N-No. I live here.” Lucielle said.
“Okay.” The fighter stood, and she walked out of the room. All but the ranger followed.
When they were out of earshot, the ranger knocked an arrow to her bow, and fired three times.
Each shot was a hit to the heart, and Lucielle fell to the floor, dead.
The ranger gave a curt nod, and followed her party out, locking and closing the door behind her.