All That Lies Between Gods & Mice
part 3

              “Ah, you’re early m’lord!” A bubbly otter rose from their cluttered desk to meet the tall, brown ursine that had strolled into the library.

              “I’m eager to see the new volume.” His voice was low and deep, but he played with those last two words in a higher tone.

              “Naturally…” The otter wrung their hands and slumped their shoulders in preamble, “Unfortunately someone else has still has some time left with that particular volume, I’m afraid. But we of course have a strict policy in place, and it will be ready for you at the appointed time.”

              The bear’s eyes narrowed as he briefly flexed his fingers, causing them all to crack loudly over the quiet of the library.

              “P-Perhaps you might enjoy perusing the ah… prior volume while you wait? Perhaps uhm, ‘The Reborn Goddess’?”

The bear curled the right side of his lip. “I’m not much in the mood for… such a gentle tail today… Fetch me ‘The Lamentations of a Saint.’ ”

“W-w-well uh… I… could always prepare that…” The otter paused for a moment, his eyes at the ground, “But it is on reserve right now, and, well selecting from the reserve is a bit... extra.”

              The large bear tilted his head and scratched his chin at the thought for a moment. “If I recall, it’s an extra 10 gold pieces, yes?”

              The otter nodded nervously.

The tall lord let out a hearty laugh, “Well I haven’t had the time to tend to my… reading in a while, and I haven’t been able to check that tome out in quite some time… I suppose I can spare the pittance… I have been working tirelessly as of late,” the bear smiled with sharp fangs, “Very well, Lir, add it to my tab.”

“Ah, of course, uh… If you will…?” The otter meekly lifted a hand.

“Very well, lead the way, Lir.” The bear nodded casually.

 The otter opened a box behind him and pulled on a red wooden block with a “3” carved into it and then pulled on a gold block lying right next to it; after completing that short order of business he hurried out to lead the bear through the long halls of the library back towards the restricted section, down a stone staircase that opened just behind them.

***

              “GRITHEN!!!” A loud voice hollered over the chattering and clattering of the infirmary.

              “A moment!” He yelled back over his shoulder at the matron of the lower library. “There—you’re a ‘virgin’ again! Congratulations!”  He quipped with a snide smirk which the azure vixen in front of him returned with a chuckle.

              “What is it, Agate?” The pink rat stood up, placed his hands behind his back, and pushed in until it cracked. “I’m kind of busy…”

              “Special request…”

              The rat pursed his lips, “I thought I was off the meat hook for a week? Do you want the whole whorehouse to be ready for Vestal’s Day or not?”

              “You were… but…”

              “Yes, my butt” Grithen winked as he smacked it. “Not. On. The. Menu!” He had a cheeky grin and a happy confidence about him, but the smile left his lips quickly as he scanned the badger’s face and saw that look. “Oh no… no, not him.”

              “It’s good gold.” Agate shrugged.

              “I did my time, and I thought you had some new boy for that now… I told you I wasn’t going to serve that monster again.”

              “Yes, well, the newbie is very popular right now and Lord Piraim is very impatient and eager… and early.”

              “I’m not going to go through all that just because Lir pissed himself. He has the easiest job in this bloody shithole, he couldn’t hold it the fuck together up in the ACTUAL library for a FUCKING minute?! I bet he didn’t even try to get that grizzly fuck to wait the damn hour for his actual booking.”

              “Probably not… but he is paying the reserve price…”

              Grithen’s head recoiled backward, and he bit his lower lip as those words hit his ears. He thought for a moment, threw up his hands, shook his head, and grunted as he made his way out. “Last time, Agate. LAST TIME!”

              The grumpy rat didn’t have too far to walk, the infirmary and the ravage rooms were both on the lowest level so that only those who were down this deep could hear the screams that came from these depths. He stopped briefly by the prep room to change into simpler clothing, donning a pale blue tunic and simple hemp shorts, placing his more delicate silks and his bangles away in a drawer and locking it with one of the keys that hung from his plain brass bracelet. Then he walked to a cabinet, took two potions from the shelves, and gulped the olive-colored one down with a grimace, triggering his well-repressed gag reflex; with some difficulty, he managed to keep all of it down despite the urge to retch. After shivering in disgust, he splashed most of the other pale-yellow concoction over his face, genitals, tail, and around his rear hole, leaving the last bit to swish and gargle around in his mouth before spitting it out. He stood there for a moment, gathering his thoughts and steadying his stomach. After a few deep breaths, he put on his most devilish smile and made his way to a room simply marked by three deep, parallel claw marks carved into a large red door.

              Hardly a moment passed before Lord Piraim entered. “Ah, at least you have the good sense not to keep me waiting.” He growled cruelly under his breath.

              Grithen sprawled and turned on the haystack in the middle of the room, elegantly caressing himself from hip to chin with his fingertips as he unfurled his arm while he raised a leg invitingly in the air. “Perish the thought, sir, I could hardly contain myself when I heard you had decided to put me to good use again! I—I was worried you would leave me for the fresh meat like all the rest have.” Grithen turned his head down towards the ground, with the most pathetic look he could manage to force as he sniffled and whined.

              The large bear walked over slowly and grabbed the rat’s muzzle in his fat paw, claws already digging in as he wasted no time in filling the room with the scent of blood. “How could I abandon you when I haven’t broken you yet?” He smiled only by raising his lips around his sharpest fangs.

              Grithen laughed at him playfully. “Oh, you’ve broken me plenty, sir. I hope you’re not planning to be gentle today…” The rat garnished his performance with a convincing moan and started up at the bear with a soft smile, his cheeks flushed with his suppressed rage.

              Lord Piraim released his hold on the rat and swiftly struck him hard with the back of his paw, then struck him square in the front of his mouth, knocking out Grithen’s front teeth with practiced precision.

              The rat cried out pitifully as the smile on the bear stretched across his entire face as he ripped Grithen’s clothing to shreds, taking fur, skin, and blood from him in the process.

              “P-p-lease…” Grithen wheezed. “M-more…”

              “Oh, you’ll get your fill soon, slut; you’re going to earn every last coin tonight” The bear undid his pants. “But as always, you must beg for it like the pathetic faggot you are.”

***

              As the hour chimed, Lir descended back to the lower levels and door with three claw marks. He stood a moment and listened, hearing the indistinguishable sound of Grithen screaming in pain. Slowly, he approached the door and pressed an ear to it. When he could distinguish the sounds of squelching, choking, and gagging the otter took two steps back and began counting in his head until Lord Piraim was just under five minutes past his allotted time before he gently knocked on the door.

              “When you’re ready m’lord, we’ve prepared your bath. And your next booking will be ready shortly.”

              The otter clenched his fists and his sphincter tight as he endured a long, wordless, pause while he waited for the bear to emerge. When the door finally opened, he saw the great grizzly standing naked with all of his fur on end, he was covered in blood and dripping from his still throbbing member. He looked down at the otter and spoke with a warmth and calmness so ill-suited for the moment it chilled the air. “Ah, that’s lovely to hear. Thank you as always for your excellent service, Lir.”

              The otter bowed as the bear took the familiar route up the stairs to the private baths. After the sound of his hind paws plapping against the stone was out of earshot, he shamefully addressed the beaten rat lying on the floor inside.

 “A-are…” The otter began to ask, though he chose to shut his mouth as he entered the room at got a good look in the dim light of the interior glowstone.

              The rat was clutching his left shoulder with his right paw, where deep holes from the bear’s fangs bore deeply into his skin.  His left arm lay limp at his side, bruised and clearly broken at the forearm. His fur looked far more red than pink now, and his eyes were both half-lidded, barely able to stay open. The white fur of his chest and belly had three long gashes that matched the markings of the door and his tail was crushed and deformed in various spots.

              “I… I’m sorry…” Lir began.

              “Fuff hoff…” Grithen whimpered. He moved his right hand to his jaw and sat pensively for a moment as he mended his muzzle before moving it back to his shoulder. “Pity the new guy. That fucker seems even more worked up than when he started… I don’t think he’s going to go any easier on him and I’m not going to have the mana to heal him…” The rat lifted his head a moment. “Come to think of it, I haven’t even seen him in the infirmary once since he was brought here… How IS he healing? Hasn’t he been on the meathook all week?”

              “I believe they’re just using bandages, salves, and potions on him.”

              Grithen tilted his head. “Oh? From what I heard… I thought he was getting much rougher treatment.” The rat frowned. “Well, that poor mouse is going to have a very rough week. I’m barely going to be able to fully fix myself up at this rate and Vestel’s day is less than three days away now… Make sure Agate calls in a favor to that priest if she wants to have anyone available for… for this anytime soon.”

              “Can’t you tell her yourself?”

              “I… need a moment, Lir… several moments... I passed out halfway through but that fucker made sure to bring aetherstem to force me to stay awake the whole time… but I can get a head start on fixing all this at least… I’ll be here a while.”

              The otter nodded his head and kept it hung with the weight of his guilt as he closed the door behind him.

              After the librarian left the room, Grithen burst into tears. He screamed. He cursed. And started muttering under his breath. “It’s twenty fucking gold. Twenty FUCKING gold… I’ll be able to get out of this shithole soon. Twenty. Fucking. gold.” He pushed his broken body towards the back of the room with his left foot and right hand so he could lean his back against the wall. The pain cut too deep for the sligweed drought or frost-hearth salve to mute the agony of Lord Piraim’s malice completely, but it did enough to allow the wounded creature to focus his mind on channeling his mana to repair the damage.

After a short while, Agate entered the room without announcing herself. Her face cracked when she saw Grithen, but she did not remark on it, she had seen worse. She simply knelt beside him and began to clean and dress his wounds to aid the process, though it was more of a performative gesture than anything. When she was done, she carefully put a hand on his head, and very gently tousled his hair, taking great care not to touch the two green and purple antennae that poked out from his lush red hair.

              “Twenty fucking gold though, eh?” She said with a forced smile as she stood up.

              Grithen nodded lightly, “Make sure he doesn’t kill the newbie, okay?”

              “He knows better…” She trailed off and looked aside as she said that, knowing full well it wasn’t true. “Need anything?” She asked as she turned back to face him.

              “Chocolate… I want the BIGGEST fucking chocolate cake. And some good rum. Hell, get yourself some too, my treat.”

              “That’s okay… I wouldn’t feel right indulging with what you went through for that coin.”

              The rat shrugged, “It’s where it pretty much all comes from, everything that doesn’t get eaten up in expenses anyway. Otherwise, I’d never leave the infirmary.”

              Agate sighed, “I know. I’ll make sure you get that cake from the café.”

              “The BIGGEST fucking one, Agate!”

              “You got it, the biggest fucking one for the BIGGEST fucking whore!” she gave him a sly smile.

              “Not… not right now…” Grithen turned his face to the ground, of the many emotions passing through him, pride in his craft was not one of them at this moment.

              “Alright. I’ll be back then.” She said in a soft and apologetic voice before taking leave.

Though it felt like hours had passed before she returned, it hadn’t taken her more than ten minutes to return with the cake.

“Where’s my rum, badger?”

“You’re not having that until you piss out that sligweed.” She went to thump his snout with two large fingers out of habit but recoiled at the last moment.

“It’s fine, you know I handle the face and tail first.” Grithen grinned with restored pride. His eyes remained noticeably swollen and blackened, but just barely. His front teeth had already been restored, and his tail was idly curling and twisting on the floor as he channeled every twinge of pain into it to keep the rest of his body still. “Feed me. Ahhh!” The rat opened his mouth wide.

Agate frowned, but she obliged. “You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?”

“If you want to talk about ass pain YOU can take that bear’s massive dong without a drop of lube or at least an easing finger.” He spoke quickly so he could prepare for the first bite of the rich chocolate cake. As soon as the sweet taste hit his tongue his eyes went wide and his stomach growled. He hadn’t realized how famished he was over the overwhelming sensations of pain that still permeated throughout him. He opened his mouth again for another spoonful after barely swallowing the first. “Gawd…” he said with his mouth full. “I am SO drained…”

“Your wounds seem to be doing better,” Agate noted. “Your ribs still broken or just bruised now?”

“Bruised.” The bloodied rat said nonchalantly. “I’ll probably be as good as new before I pass out, but I’m going to be taking myself past the first threshold to get there. I was too generous in the infirmary earlier… I’ll be asleep for two days and won’t start regaining mana for three at least… And no, I can’t tough it out, you’ll have to make do without me.”

Agate huffed in annoyance. “Tell that to the rest of them! They’re counting on you!”

“YOU can tell them. I wasn’t supposed to be booked for the ravage rooms all week!”

“You had five days…”

Grithen glared at her but chose to simply open his mouth for more cake than to deign to respond.

“You regret it?” She asked weakly.

Grithen shook his head as he finished swallowing. “Twenty—”

“Yeah, twenty fucking gold.” Agate laughed. “Gods, what do you even do with that much gold?”

“That’s my business. My bath ready?”

“You didn’t ask—”

“You think I want to keep smelling like that royal shit’s piss and cum?”

“Didn’t want the water to get cold while you, uh, patched up… I’ll go have Cael prep it now.” After she left, Grithen paused his healing to scarf down half of the massive cake in front of him. The half that was left could feed two of him for a day, but his body cried out for more even as his stomach bloated enough to reopen some of his wounds. “Uhg…” he leaned back against the wall and gently rubbed his belly while resuming the healing process, one hand on his stomach, and the other on his thighs. “Fuck… I hope that poor mouse is going to be alright…”

Two quick raps hit the door, and Grithen began the slow, painful process of standing up and stumbling towards the door. The blue vixen from earlier stood outside to greet him, offering her arm for support. “Alright tough guy, here we go.”

Grithen leaned away from the offered arm. “Sorry, not my type of whore.”

“I will slap you if you don’t let me help you, bitch.”

“Fiiine… I guess you owe me anyway from earlier.”

“Friends can just help each other out you know,” the fox said with a sigh as she delicately leaned under the rat’s arm and steadied him with her arm as they walked.

“So how was your day of whoring and debauchery, Cael?” Grithen mumbled.

“Not as rough as yours… I could never do the ravage rooms. Our readers can get rowdy and rough enough in the main hall.”

“Heh, lightweight…”

“I’m tougher than you, I just don’t have healing magic. And if I did, I wouldn’t be caught dead in this shithole.”

“You been to many houses of repute? This is by far the nicest one in the kingdom.”

“No.” Cael glared at him and jostled him slightly, forcing him to wince in pain. “But I didn’t have the luxury to shop around… or choose this.” She spoke with an air of disdain.

“Well, they don’t exactly let fags into the priesthood, and the difference in pay between this and the military is worth far more than my pride or a few rough night’s sleep.”

“You still had options.” Cael offered coldly.

“Well,” Grithen said with a slight pause as they finally reached his bath, “as much as I would love to discuss the employment opportunities for rodents and how much I love having people stick their snouts in my affairs—shhht!” he broke off with a sharp inhale at the feeling of hot, soapy water lapping over his wounds as he lowered himself into the bath. He grunted and waved her off with a hand.

“You’re welcome, bitch.” Cael said with a flirtatious bounce in her hips and bosom, “I have to be a virgin again by Vestel’s Day, so don’t take too long, okay?” She blew him a sarcastic kiss and brushed his face with her tail as she turned on the tips of her hind paws to leave the prep room, but she quickly bolted back inside. Grithen perked up his ears and heard the distinct sound of heavy bear paws descending the stairs and he took a deep, painful breath before he submerged himself. He stayed beneath the bubbly surface as long as he could, until his lungs screamed for air. When he resurfaced, he was careful only to let his ears and muzzle break through the water. He heard the sound of the cowardly otter telling the bear to enjoy himself as a loud thud followed the closing of a large red door. Grithen and Cael locked eyes for a moment, but the vixen quickly ran out of the room without a word.

Grithen shook his head and sank deeper into the water trying his best to put the ravage rooms out of his mind. He entered a trance-like focus as he began gently massaging each part of his body as he finished healing himself up. The hour chimed once more before the rat had fully restored himself. The worst of the pain had subsided, his focus and control became sharper now and he was able to quickly remove most of what lingered in the splattering of bruises and cuts Lord Piraim had left him with. After a long scrub, he slowly shirked off the bandages and dropped them with a plop off to the side of the bath, and stood up, his muscles sore and his stability shaky, but otherwise, he was mostly restored. He put his arms up over his head, bent his knees, and leaned slowly sideways to stretch out his core, then leaned down to touch his toes but recoiled as pain twinged in his ribs.

After gently rubbing his sides, he finally stepped out of the bath and began combing through his drenched fur to shed excess water before grabbing a towel to finish drying his fur. He made sure to apply a handful of supplies from the cabinet to keep his coat soft and shiny, fighting hard against his mounting exhaustion to make sure to finish the process before he passed out in the common bunks.

Once he was finally dried off and dressed, Grithen went back to grab the rest of his cake before heading off to collapse into a short, relaxing coma. Upon entering the third red door, he realized he hadn’t heard a single scream from the mouse. Curious, the pink rat approached the second savage room and nudged the door. It was unlocked and empty and did not seem to have been used since it was last cleaned. He walked up to the first savage room and saw it wasn’t marked as in use either… He nudged the door but it didn’t open. He couldn’t understand why it would be locked if it wasn’t occupied, so he decided to exercise his special privileges and selected the appropriate key from his bracelet to unlock it. The interior wasn’t lit at all, but the light of the glowstones from the hallway crept in as the door opened and slowly fell upon a crumbled mass of bloodied fur on the ground.

Sprch! CLANG!

Grithen dropped his cake, and the plate rolled along its rim, grinding along the stone as the rat gazed upon what was left of the mouse. After the initial shock wore off, he ran to the mouse’s side. “SHIT! SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!!! FUCK!” He peered over the mouse, mangled with each limb clearly broken, bones jutting out in places, his face too battered to be recognized. The entire floor was coated in a mix of fluids with a deep red hue suggesting a severe amount of blood loss. But still, the mouse stirred, and it moaned. The rat sat there by the poor creature's side, overcome with shock as their freshly cleaned fur was already soiled with more of Lord Piraim’s mess. This savagery past all limits. Shock and terror intermingled on the healer’s face, as he bore witness to brutal injuries worse than he had ever seen or personally experienced. And a dreadful awe took root in Grithen’s heart for not only did the mouse still breathe, but it moaned, and nothing horrified the whore of a healer more than his absolute certainty that he was not hearing moans of pain and anguish, but of sexual pleasure.

“What… what have they been doing to you… what have they been giving to you?!” Grithen stood up quickly to run and call for help, to try and find out what the hell was going on, but as he fled the room he slipped on the remnants of his cake and crashed into the wall. He managed to brace himself and hit his head against his forearm instead of the wall, but the shock rattled what was left of his deeper bruising and dizzied him. He staggered for a moment and ultimately fell to the ground as the rush of the moment lost out against the immense fatigue of passing the first mana threshold set in. He lifted his head, looking back into the ravage room, guilt freezing his blood as he lay there, losing consciousness, unable to heal the poor little mouse. “hel-lp” he croaked. “helllp…” the rat mouthed his plea once more time, before he succumbed to darkness, his eyes closing with the image of what remained of the brutalized creature etched into his mind as he struggled to fight a little longer to help him; and his heart split with grief and shame as he failed.