Author's notes:

This is an Alternate Reality story, where Atlantis, which the inhabitants called Baylon, was real and inhabited by a powerful humanoid race called Baylons.

About half the story happens in the bronze age and I've researched a lot for this story. If you find anything that looks like a mistake in the story, please double check to be sure that you're correct and then PM me about it. :)

A note about the language and notation:

The Baylon language is a predecessor to Latin, which is why it looks like Latin at a glance.

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings: This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

It's a long story and I suggest that you read them continuously (At least for a first time read).

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :) Just be warned that this is a LONG story :)

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Chapter 5 -- More healing, Less Vis

Saturday, 17th of June 2000, Outside Malaga, Spain

A knock on the door, followed by a whispered "Ivan?" woke me up.

Recognizing the voice as belonging to Alice, I sat up in the bed and after several tries, I even got the lamp to work.

"Yeah... Come in."

The door opened, and Alice walked into the room, dressed in the same short, black kimono-like dress she had worn in the morning. It still showed off her lovely long legs in the best possible way, while clinging to her fabulous body in all the right places but judging from the way she walked and the serious expression on her face, this wasn't a social call.

She stopped a few steps inside the room. "Sorry to wake you, but Cyra and Zena have growing pains again. Could fix it like you did yesterday?"

"Sure." I got out of the bed and walked to the dresser, where my clothes were.

The serious expression on Alice's face softened a bit as she studied my body while I dressed.

She discovered I was looking at her and winked to me. "Nice."

"Thanks." I covered the short distance between us, put a hand on her neck and gave her a kiss. The feeling of her soft lips against mine, caused a shiver to run down my spine, but as much as I would have liked to continue kissing her, we simply didn't have the time and I let her go. "Ready."

Setting the energy lines straight didn't take long and because Alice had looked so worried, I finished it off with projecting sleepiness into the kids, making them fall asleep almost as soon as I was finished.

"I would thank you in a better way," whispered Alice in her slow Latin as we were walking down the stairs. "but that will have to wait... They wake up easily now."

With the sleepiness I had projected into them, I highly doubted that, but it wasn't exactly something I could explain to her, so I settled for a hug and walked back to bed.

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I woke up feeling well rested and after a trip to the bathroom, I walked up the stairs to the kitchen to get some breakfast. To my puzzlement, everybody was there, and both Rita and Karen were injured. Rita was holding a pack of ice against her left wrist and Karen was applying a similar pack to the left knee. Alice was standing up, getting more ice out of the freezer and the twins were sitting on the kitchen table, looking around.

Stopping in the doorway, I asked. "What happened?"

"Accidents." Said Alice and slowly explained that they had been playing ball near the pool when Rita and Karen had collided and fell on the tiles.

"Sounds painful." I commented, while my mind raced. The injuries didn't sound serious, but I really dislike seeing people I like in pain. In addition, there was another thing to consider.

Alice had said that she needed to ask the others if I could stay here. Rita would say yes, but that left Karen and if I healed her, she would be more likely to say yes, which in turn would make my life easier. "May I take a look?"

"Sure," she said with a smile.

After examining Rita and Karen carefully, I was certain that the injuries weren't serious. They were however rather painful, so I asked them to wait, went to the room I was sleeping in, found my medical needles and walked back to the kitchen.

According to the knowledge I had gotten from Alice, acupuncture was one of the few ancient medical disciplines still used. However, without the use of Vis to go along with it, I doubted that it was as efficient now as it was in the 'old days', but at least it gave me a method to use, that didn't seem like a miracle or magic.

Karen lit up in a smile when she saw the needles. "Acupuncture." She took a closer look at the needles in my hand and her eyes grew wide.

"These are old style... very old!" She said in English, which Rita translated to me.

Having no clue what the 'New style' was, I just nodded and put a kettle on the stove, so I could disinfect the needles.

Karen shifted her arm, so the pack of ice was on the table and reached out with the other hand, while looking questionably at me.

Smiling I handed two of the needles to her. Made from adamant, like most of my surviving equipment, the needles were slim and had a small handling area made of jade, formed like small dragons.

"These are beautiful," she commented and studied the needle closely, before she looked at Rita. "Could you ask him where he got them?"

"They were given to me by my teacher." I said truthfully after Rita acted as translator again and then projected a feeling of not needing to ask more questions into the young woman.

I really need to learn more about the world, so I could set up a credible story. Otherwise, people would start getting suspicious and, in my experience, that generally leads to trouble.

Nodding, Karen turned towards Rita and showed her the needle.

While they chatted, the water started to boil, and I cleaned the needles in the steam, before placing them on a clean dishcloth.

Alice handed me a bottle of something along with cotton. "For cleaning skin."

I nodded my thanks to her and moved over to Rita. She looked slightly nervous, so I smiled and said, "It won't hurt."

She nodded, but still looked like I was about to cut off her hand.

I swiped her arm with the alcohol that Alice had given me and gently inserted the first needle, rolling it between my fingers as it went in. I looked at her and, seeing no signs of pain, inserted two more. Then I activated them by channelling a minute amount of Vis through the needle.

"Wow." She looked at her wrist in wonder.

"What?" Asked the others more or less at the same time.

"The pain went away," she said in English. "I mean... One minute it was there, and then it faded away and was gone!"

She went back to speaking Latin when she looked at me. "Thank you."

I held up another needle. "We're not done yet. The first three were for the pain, now for the healing."

This time Rita smiled as she nodded, and I inserted four more needles at the right points, before I activated them by channelling Vis to make the injured ligaments heal a lot faster.

After that, I turned my attention to Karen's knee. The sprain there was worse than Rita's wrist, but not more than could easily be healed, so I washed the area down and inserted the needles.

Karen spent a lot more attention to what I was doing than Rita had, but like Rita, she was pleasantly surprised when the pain went away. A moment later the rest of the needles were in place and activated.

There was a clap from the kitchen table and after everybody looked over there, Zena started to sign something.

Alice chuckled. "She wants to know how it works, because it doesn't make sense to her that putting needles in people heals them."

Karen started to explain in English, and I was suddenly glad, that she was the one with the hurt knee and not the wrist, because while she explained, she became animated and used lots of gestures. If she had been one with the injured wrist, she would have hurt herself.

She was also using many words I didn't know, so I didn't understand her explanation.

Instead, I leaned against the wall and just quietly enjoyed being among people who actually liked each other, while I waited for the healing to be complete.

About a glass (30 minutes) later, I walked over to Rita and examined her wrist. It had healed completely, so I removed the needles.

"Done already?" She asked in Latin.

I sent a smile at her disbelieving face. "As good as new."

She started flexing her fingers and testing the wrist, while I walked over to Karen and hunched down, so I could examine her knee.

That too was perfectly healed.

"You women are in excellent shape and in a good mood," I said and started to remove the needles, "and that makes you very easy to heal."

"Thanks," said Rita absently, as she was still testing her wrist.

I removed the last of the needles in Karen's leg and looked up at Alice "Could you ask her to try and walk a few steps?"

Alice did that, and Karen stood up and gently tested her leg by gradually putting weight on it, before she walked over to the sink, turned around and sent me a beautiful smile "Thank you."

The message was so clear that I didn't wait for Alice to translate and said, "You're welcome."

Alice translated for Karen and looked from her to Rita. "Are you guys really alright? I mean, that looked almost too easy."

The shorthaired woman nodded, and her beautiful, slanted eyes studied me for a moment, before they focused on Alice again. Speaking English, she said: "This guy must be a... #some word I didn't understand#... I mean... I have learned acupuncture from my grandfather, who's not only a doctor in #more words I didn't understand# as well a professor at the university and if I'm not mistaken, this guy here is better." She hesitated. "Bear with me a moment."

Turning towards me, she started speaking in a language, where the tones waved up and down. It reminded me of Lescarian and was quite beautiful, but unfortunately, I didn't understand a word.

"I don't know what you're saying." I said in Latin and a chuckling Rita translated.

Looking slightly irritated, Karen took pen and paper from the table and scribbled something down that looked a lot like the language I call New Lescarian. Then she held it up, so I could see it.

The scripture was indeed New Lescarian, but the knowledge from Alice revealed it was now called Chinese. The signs were a simple question and it read. "What name did your teacher give you?"

With a smile, I took the paper and wrote the name, causing her to laugh softly and nod to me.

Karen looked at Alice and said, "His Chinese name is Bai Bao, which makes a lot of sense."

"Not to me, it doesn't," said the blonde drily.

"Sorry," said Karen with a grin, "Taken literally, Bai Bao means Ghost Leopard, but Bai is also a name for white people and Bao means somebody skilled, so most likely it's 'the skilled white man', depending on how you translate it."

"I still don't get it," said Alice. "How can he understand what you have written, but not what you said?"

Karen shrugged. "I wrote it in Classical Chinese. No matter where they come from in China and what language they speak, almost all doctors read Classical Chinese, since all the old medicine books are in that language... and by that, I mean almost every book written on the subject since #some words I didn't understand# twenty-five hundred years ago. It's kind of like a written version of Latin in China."

Alice and Karen continued to talk about language, but I didn't pay attention to it, because I was hearing something else.

"< Do you think that needles would work on our voices? >" Cyra said mentally to Zena.

"< No. It's in our heads, remember? We're freaks >"

That shook me. No children should ever consider themselves freaks. Especially not when they had a gift I had been longing to hear for hundreds of years.

Acting on impulse, I projected trust and calmness into them before I reached out with my mind and connected with theirs.

"< You're NOT freaks >"

For a moment, their minds were utterly confused and slightly panicky, making me was happy that I had taken precautions, because I haven't, they would have run out of the room screaming.

"< You can hear us! >" said Zena's mental voice said, with a mix of fear and wonder, causing me to project more trust at them both.

"< Well, I didn't mean to listen, but you were 'shouting' so everybody who has the gift could hear it >" I said with a little mental laugh. "< You need to focus on each other more when you talk >"

"< What do you mean? >"

"< I'll show you >" I answered mentally and followed with a short explanation on how to focus their thought. As I expected, they already knew how to do it, they just didn't know it was necessary to do it to avoid others listening in.

Across the room, I could see them both smiling widely and Cyra said "< This is so cool! >"

"< Super fantastic cool! >" Zena said, "< I can't wait to tell mom! >"

"< Does she know that you can mind-talk? >"

"< Yeah... She discovered it when we were ten >" Zena sent. "< She was a little freaked out in the start, but she quickly became normal again >"

Cyra added. "< She can't hear us and doesn't like it when we use to too much, so we usually don't use it around her >"

"< Please don't tell her anything yet >" I thought to them. "< I don't think she would understand. Not yet anyway >"

"< He's right >" said Cyra with certainty to her sister "< Mom would freak out again >"

"< No, she won't >" argued Zena. "< Mom is cool >"

While the twins talked about how Alice would react, I realized it was the first time in almost a thousand years, not counting the years where I had meditated, that I have had a mental conversation with anybody and that I had missed it more than I thought.

For me it was like coming home.

Needing something physical to do to avoid the emotions creeping into the mental conversation, I started collecting the needles from the table.

"< Are you okay? >" Zena suddenly asked.

"< Yes. It's just been a long time, since I have talked with anybody mentally and it makes me happy to do so again >" Not wanting to explain further, I changed the subject. "< What did you mean, when you said that the muteness was in your head? >"

"< Oh... There's a part of our brain, that didn't grow right when we were babies. That's why we can't talk >" explained Cyra. "< That's what the doctors told mom >"

"< Can you heal it? >" asked Zena with a mix of hope and dread.

"< I don't know for sure, but I don't think so >" I answered and tried to explain it in a way they would understand. "< Healing is a way to fix something that is broken, but if something hasn't grown right, it's not broken and thus it can't be healed >."

There was a mental sigh as Zena said, "< Well, it was worth a try >"

"< Ops. Mom alert! >" said Cyra and both mental voices disappeared.

I glanced over at Alice, who must have had some kind of motherly intuition that something was going on, because she was looking at the twins with suspicion in her eyes.

To distract her, I walked past her to get the bottle of cleansing fluid I had used on Rita and Karen and 'accidently' let my hand slide over the silky soft skin of her lower back. Just to be sure, that I got her attention, I projected lust into her at the same time.

Startled she took at quick breath but looked at me with a smile and an expression of 'just you wait' painted on her face.

I smiled back and went back to cleaning the needles.

I didn't have to wait for long, because after lunch Rita and Karen decided to go for a walk and as the twins wanted to come along, that left Alice and I alone in the house.

She looked out of the window to ensure, that they had really gone and turned towards me with fire in her blue eyes. "You. My bed. Now."

Apparently, her language skills suffered a breakdown when she was aroused, and she was sounding rather primitive now.

Two could play that game I thought and grabbed her. A swift move lifted her up on my shoulder and I marched to her bedroom, shamelessly using the opportunity to caress her legs and butt.

"Warrior. Kidnap. Princess," I said slowly as I walked, trying to sound mindless as possible.

It took a few seconds for the words to sink in, but then she started laughing and continued to do so, until I placed her on the floor in the bedroom.

She sent me a dazzling smile. "Princess. Pleasure. Warrior."

I sent her a smile of my own and nodded slowly. "Warrior. Happy."

With a soft laugh, she took a pillow from the enormous bed and threw it at my feet, before she knelt down, took hold of my trousers and yanked them down to my ankles.

Unfortunately for her, I was already hard, and my dick sprang to attention as soon as it was freed, hitting her in the head.

I tried not to laugh as I said "Princess. Careful. With. Spear."

She smiled, but instead of answering, she leaned a bit forward and pressed her lips against the head, giving it a kiss, before she licked her way from the balls to the top. Then she gave me a couple of firm strokes and took the head in her mouth, playing with her tongue.

I moaned at the feeling and she looked up at me, her eyes smiling, while her lips tightened slightly around my throbbing cock. Holding my eyes with hers, she slowly pushed her face down as far as she could and holding it there. I could feel the pressure of pushing against the back of her throat. She pulled off just as slowly.

I shivered with pleasure.

When it was completely out, she flicked her tongue on the underside of the head a few times. "Spear. Taste. Good... Princess. Love. Spear."

"Princess. Wise," was the only reasonable intelligent answer I could come up with, while she sucked me in again, giving small sound of pleasure, showing that she liked it as much as I did.

Closing my eyes, I surrendered to her skills for some time, but while I have the excellent self-control that comes with being a trained Mentat, it's not unlimited and I could feel that I was getting closer to coming.

Placing a hand on the top of head, I pulled out of reach from her greedy mouth.

"Princess. Good," I panted "Warrior. Need. Break."

That made her laugh again, as I took her hand and dragged her to her feet.

As soon as she got her balance, she gave me a wide smile and a passionate kiss.

Without removing my lips from hers, I placed a hand on her shoulder and gently applied pressure.

She stepped back, but I followed, still kissing and still applying pressure on her shoulder. She took another step and was standing with her back against a closet.

My hand wandered from her shoulder to her breasts, while I turned her head with my cheek and kissed the hollow of her neck and jaw. Light, feathery kisses that made her squirm with pleasure.

Alice moaned and tried to reach my dick, but I pressed my lower body against hers, making it impossible for her to reach it, so instead she grabbed my butt and grinded her pussy against my cock. It felt wonderful.

Deciding that my plan wasn't working, I broke off the kiss, took hold of her t-shirt and pulled it upwards, freeing her breasts.

Alice lifted her arms to help and a moment later it flowed to the ground.

I bowed down and kissed her lovely breasts, letting my tongue play on the hard nipples, causing her to moan, before I went down on my knees, kissing her body all the way down.

Her belly button got some extra attention, while I used my hands to slide her skirt and panties over her hips and down her legs, tracing the route with my fingers on her skin as they went.

I spread her legs with my hands and inhaled the intoxicating aroma of aroused female, as I licked the skin between the pussy and the small patch of hair over it.

Alice gasped and took hold of my head with her hands my head, pulling my face hard against her pussy as my lips found her clitoris and the tip of my tongue went to work on it.

I wrapped my arms around her legs, so I could fondle her butt with one hand while licking her, causing her to moan louder and thrust her hips towards me.

The other hand wandered up her silky inner thighs until they reached the soft folds of her pussy,

Still licking the hood of her clitoris softly, I used my fingers to spread the lips and let my finger slide back and forth between them, wetting them, before I wormed my index finger into her opening.

Alice shuddered as I worked my finger into her, enjoying the feel of hot moisture of her arousal and the way the slightly ridged walls of her tight pussy clutched at my finger.

Then she gasped as I circled her clitoris with my tongue while twisting my finger slightly, followed by a firm massage on her internal pleasure spot.

"Warrior. Good." She breathed, the words turning into a moan, as I used my tongue on her clitoris, while my finger was rubbing the pleasure point inside her.

Adding another finger, I began moving them in and out, fucking her with two fingers, while my tongue danced on her clitoris, alternating between flicking it with the tip of the tongue and drawing circles around it.

Ever so slowly, her slick pussy started to contract steadily around my fingers each time my tongue did its little dance on the clitoris and suddenly I felt her hands on my head, pressing my mouth against her pussy.

"Faster." She groaned.

I increased the speed of both my fingers and my tongue, and it didn't take long before I could feel the muscles starting to twitch.

A moment later, she came with a long moan. Her legs collapsed under her and she slid down the closet, ending up sitting on the floor in front of me, panting but smiling. "Princess. Happy."

Grinning from ear to ear, I kissed her and said in the mock dumb voice, "Warrior. Take. Princess. Now."

Alice grinned back to me and stood up. Opening a drawer in the bedside table, she took out a pack of the same kind that she had been carrying earlier and turned towards me. "Warrior. Needs. Armor."

That put me in a bit of a bind since I didn't know how to use one of these things. Thinking fast I stood up, walked over to Alice and gave her a gentle shove that made her sit down on the edge of the bed. "Princess. Love. Spear... Princess. Put. Armor. On. Spear."

She giggled while she put the condom on me, and I used the short break to think about how she would like it. Possibilities ran through my head, but none of them seemed to fit the situation, which in my head was the warrior/princess role-play we had created.

"Warrior. Ready," reported Alice.

Looking down I saw that I had the protection on and at the same time, I suddenly knew exactly what to do.

Without saying anything, I squatted down between her legs and wrapped my arms around her. Thinking that it was a hug, she put her arms around my neck, but gave a yelp when I used my leg muscle to stand up, still holding her in my arms. Instinctively she crossed her legs behind my back.

I winked at her, walked the two steps to the smooth wall and leaned her against it.

That meant that her wet pussy was right in front of my cock and when I pressed forward, it slid halfway into her.

"Oh shit!" she exclaimed in English and hugged me tighter with both arms and legs.

Carefully I released one arm and sneaked it between my body and her knee, taking a firm grip on her butt, before doing the same with the other arm.

Since the weight of her body was now split between my arms, my hips, and the wall, I didn't even need to use any powers to hold her there. At least not for now. Martial Arts, sword and archery training had made my shoulder-, chest- and arm muscles as strong as Iron Silk ropes, though I had to admit to myself, that in my weakened state, I couldn't hold her six-foot frame there for long.

Thrusting forward I buried my dick in her and started to pump in and out of her, going deeper for each stroke, until my balls slapped against her with each stroke.

She moaned and rested her head against the wall, getting louder and louder with each stoke, until she came with a loud squeal through gritted teeth.

Knowing that I couldn't hold her much longer, I moved harder and faster, aiming at making her cum once more before we had to change position.

"Oh fuck," She half whispered, half cried. "I'm coming."

Her pussy tightened in pulses around my cock again, as the waves of her second orgasm coursed over her nerve endings.

Pressing her upper body against the wall, I managed to get a better hold of her and carried her to the bed, where I placed her on her back.

Her legs were still around my waist and my dick was still inside that wonderful wet pussy, so I started thrusting again, keeping my pace deliberately slow as I enjoyed being inside her.

"Oh, God," Alice moaned, lifting her hips against me when I slid into her. "Sooo good."

"Oh Yes." I agreed. With each thrust her pussy was clenching at my cock, ripples of pressure running the length of it.

We both enjoyed the slow action for a while, but then Alice looked at me, need in her eyes and a smile on her lips. "Princess. Need. Fast. And. Hard."

Returning the smile, I happily replied, "Warrior. Will. Obey."

Taking a hold of her shoulders, as I rested my weight on my elbows, my chest pressed against her soft breasts. I leaned down and gave her a kiss, letting my tongue run over her soft lips.

Alice moaned and returned the kiss, while I moved into the right position.

The next thrust was hard and fast, ending with my pelvis hitting her clitoris.

Her eyes popped open, as she broke the kiss to look at me with an expression of stunned pleasure.

With a smile, I began to fuck her hard and fast, exactly as she had requested.

Closing her eyes again, Alice moaned and bit her lip, throwing out her arms to grab the bed spreading and clutch them in her hand.

I used my grip on her shoulders to hold her into place and continued to pound her, burying my cock in her with each stroke.

Her moaning became constant, only interrupted when I slammed into her, and she began thrusting her hips up to meet my strokes, as her pleasure built toward its climax.

I could feel her pussy started to spasm once again and changed my angel just a bit. Enough to firm up the contact between my pelvis and her clitoris.

She started squealing and her legs were twisting as she came again... and then again. Her wet pussy contracting around my dick, as the climaxes rippled through her body.

Finally, she placed her hands on my shoulder and gave me a shove.

"Stop. No more," she panted in Latin.

With a nod, I stopped and moved to the side, so I could lay down beside her.

I haven't come yet, but that wasn't really a concern. I came yesterday and with the energy Alice had, I was sure that we would have more sex in the days to follow.

Smiling, I removed the protection and placed it on the table next to the bed. A piece of the knowledge I had gotten from her, surfaced in my mind: The protection was called a condom.

I jumped onto the bed beside her and gave her a hug.

She sent me a smile and seemed to think for a while before saying. "Princess. Rest," as she snuggled closer to me with a satisfied sigh.

Stretching, I reach out with my mind to find out how much time we had until the others came back. I detected the mental patterns of Rita and the twins about a quarter of an hour's walk away, but to my surprise Karen was much nearer.

In fact, she was located no more than 20 paces from the house and in a direction, that meant that she had been able to see us having sex through the window.

Chuckling slightly for myself, I focused a bit more and did a quick and superficial scan of her mind. It was filled with images of Alice and me having sex and she was extremely horny. As far as I could determine from the images in her mind, she had seen most it.

Just to see how she would react, I inserted an image sequence of me taking Alice from behind, while Alice was licking and fingering Karen.

The great thing about the image projection is that the mind does it all the time by itself and - if done right - the images I projected would seem to come from her own imagination.

The images only made her hornier, so I tried with a sequence where the two women were licking each other, while I was slamming into Karen. Her excitement reached new heights.

I let the sequence run for a while, before I became aware that Karen's excitement grew faster than could be explained by the images, which meant that she was probably playing with herself. The excitement reached a peak and there was a muted howl when she came in an orgasm.

Next to me, Alice lifted her head and yawned, before giving me a hug. "Did you hear something?"

"Not really, but we better get dressed, before the others come back."

"Yeah, in a minute," she agreed and didn't move an inch. "This is nice."

Smiling, I ran my right hand over her body and inserted exactly the same sequence of images into her mind, as I had given Karen.

She clearly liked it as she shuddered and groaned.

"I'm horny, but we don't have time." Shaking her head, she sat up and got her long legs out of the bed. "I need to take a bath."

"Not quite yet," I said and caught her from behind with my left arm, as the right hand sneaked down between her legs. She was still soaking wet.

"No time," she complained but didn't close her legs.

I bit her gently in the earlobe and whispered, "Come faster then," while I started to move my fingers in a circle on top of her clitoris.

Leaning back against me, she relaxed and started to breathe faster, so I started to caress her breasts with my other hand.

Suddenly I noticed a spike of excitement outside the house, and I realized Karen hadn't had time to move and, in this position, she had a front row seat to see Alice and everything my hands did to her.

Letting the base of my hand rest on her clitoris, I slipped two fingers into Alice. Just far enough to reach the first pleasure point behind the pubic bone.

That caused a shudder and she started to moan as I moved my hand in small circles on the clitoris, massaging the pleasure point inside her at the same time.

Enjoying the feeling of her wet pussy around my fingers and her vibrant body in my arms, I was tempted to draw it out, but since we didn't have that I moved my hand a little faster.

"I'm gonna come," she suddenly said in English. Her whole body started to shake and stiffened as she came with a small wordless cry.

I continued moving my hand in slow, lazy circles until she had come down from the high again.

Removing my hand from her pussy, I gave her a hug. "Now, you are ready to go to bath."

"Thanks," she said in Latin with a chuckle and stood up on shaking legs.

Very long and well-shaped shaking legs.

"Well. Aroused women need to get relief," I said with a wink. "Otherwise, they get frustrated."

"Consider me..." she searched for the word... "Not frustrated."

Blowing a kiss to me, she warped a towel around her body and the disappeared into the bath with her clothes in her hand.

A moment later, I heard the shower start.

Looking out of the window, I tried to get a glimpse of Karen, but the only thing I could see in that direction was trees and bushes, so I lay down again.

As always, I felt revitalized after sex as I had absorbed the Vis, but for some reason it felt less fulfilling than it had been in the past. Nothing like that happens without a reason, so I closed my eyes, slipped into a meditative state, and started to feel the Vis around me.

Since Vis Vitae is a force of life, it is generated by all beings, but intelligent beings produce a lot more Vis than animals because Vis, unlike most other forces, has a polarity.

Vis Vitae is a positive force that is mostly generated by doing positive things for other people and as intelligent beings usually do things that makes both themselves and other people happy, they generate more Vis.

I remembered Verina once called it 'the happy force' and it's really not a bad name, since whenever people are doing something that delight other people, Vis is generated. While having good sex is one of the best ways to generate Vis, it can be done by playing music, dance and many other things and even people who aren't trained in Vis Meditation can feel it.

On the other side, Vis Mortem or Negative Vis also exist and can be felt as well. Usually it's generated by pain, suffering, sickness and death, and if you have ever been in a spooky place and felt a chill down your spine without any obvious reason, chances are that's the negative Vis.

Opening my eyes, I studied the flow of Vis and what I saw choked me: Other than a faint residue of the Vis, Alice and I had created by pleasuring each other, there was almost no Vis in the area. I'm an expert at absorbing Vis, but I'm not that good. Nobody's that good.

Stunned I extended my senses to the rest of the house. The Vis was there, but it was even fainter than in the bedroom.

I wondered what had happened in the world to make the Vis become so faint. It was almost as if there had been so much Vis Mortem, that it had cancelled out the Vis Vitae.

Images flashed through my head as I went through the knowledge I had gotten from Alice: The Black Death, the Spanish Flu, Smallpox, Tuberculosis, the Thirty Years' War, First World War, Second World War, AIDS and various other wars and diseases. All had killed a lot of people, and all would have contributed to Vis Mortem, which in turn had cancelled out Vis Vitae.

That explained why it took me so long to get back to full strength after the trance.

Granted, it had been an incredibly long trance, but there shouldn't be a difference on a trance that lasted a day and one lasting two thousand years.

Vis would keep the body alive, and the body would generate Vis as well as absorbing it from the surrounding area, locking it into a circle of generating, absorbing and spending Vis energy, which in theory could be maintained indefinitely.

However, due to the lower amount of Vis that could be drawn in, my body must have been on the brink of 'Vis starvation' for the last hundred years or so and apparently, that had taken its toll.

It also explained why people no longer used Vis. At least not in the way I did.

Using your life force to heal people or boost your body is fine, but unless you can regenerate the Vis you spend, you'll slowly kill yourself, which was probably why I had been so tired after healing people. In fact, if I haven't had a lot of good sex that had allowed me to absorb Vis, I would feel extremely exhausted by now, instead of just being mildly tired.

The lack of Vis also posed a huge problem in regard to keeping my body young and alive.

The secret behind my long life and eternal youth, is a special Vis Technique that works continuously. It has the poetic name of 'Peaches of Immortality' and basically rejuvenates the body all the time, negating the aging process.

This takes a lot of Vis Vitae, which hasn't been problem before since all Vis users draw in Vis from the surroundings without even thinking about it, but it might become a huge problem now.

I did a quick estimation and frowned before I did it again and sighed.

The result was not good: The amount of Vis I used just to keep me alive and young, was more than my body could generate or absorb from the surroundings on its own.

While not an immediate problem, it meant I needed to actively support it by absorbing Vis from other sources, before it reached a level where the Peaches of Immortality could no longer function, and I would start to age again.

There were two problems with that. First, there was no way to know how fast I would age. The ancient stories told of some people who aged hundreds of years in a day, while others just started to age normally again.

The second problem was that the Peaches of Immortality was a technique, that required the use of a magical peach, that in all likelihood didn't grow anymore. In other words, if it stopped working, it would be gone forever.

I didn't like any of the options and that meant, I had to do something that generated Vis at least every other week and preferably more often than that. Using any Vis Powers would speed up that process, while doing things that delighted people to a lesser degree, would slow it down.

Overall, it boiled down to this: Unless I found a place where Vis Vitae was more abundant than here, I would have to have good sex quite often or slowly die. I could drag the time a bit by doing things that delighted others, but it wouldn't be enough to keep me alive.

That was a problem for later, I decided and stretched again, enjoying the feeling of the soft bed under me. It really was a nice soft bed.

Closing my eyes, I relaxed.