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“He reads fashion magazines,” grumbled Kaladin as he sat despondently, staring out over the endless clouds below him. “And he’s very fashionable,” answered Syl, flitting around his head as a streak of blue. Several wind spren had picked up her cheery tone and were following her in a flutter around Kaladin’s head. It wasn’t helping his mood.“You say that as if it’s a good thing,” he complained. “Not everyone can look as dashing in a uniform as you, Kal,” she said, settling onto his shoulder as he hung his head in his hands. Kaladin grumbled something under his breath and Syl heard a faint hint of “brains in his balls” and “as much sense as a chull.” “Oh come on Kaladin. He’s handsome and loyal, and brave, and funny, and royal. Of course she’s mad about him.”“Yes, but when I was in the chasm with her. I felt that spark. I know she felt it. I felt destiny, Syl. My destiny. Entwined with hers. I know it,” he responded.“You’re being silly, she’s betrothed to him. This is how these things work. Stop moping,” she said, and she directed the wind spren to caress his cheek softly.He leaned into the caress before realizing what had happened. Then his eyes widened and he jumped to his feet.“Did you just touch me?” he asked her. “I think I did!” she exclaimed. “Through the wind spren, but yes, I wanted to make you feel better and - wow! I didn’t know I could do that.” She started zipping excitedly around his head again. He stood, stunned for a moment, hand on his cheek. Finally, he shrugged and let his hand drop. “We should practice that. Could be helpful if I’m falling off a cliff or something,” he stated. “You fall off cliffs all the time,” she teased. “You do it intentionally.” He humphed at her and headed back into the tower.A week later Kaladin paced in his room, attempting to calm the frantic beating of his heart. Blasted woman had been sitting on the ground drawing. She did that often actually. But she had her safe hand uncovered! She had been so engrossed in her work that she’d unbuttoned her sleeve and rolled it up past her elbow! Charcoal covered both her hands as she’d vigorously sketched and smudged her way around the paper. Of course Kaladin couldn’t say anything to her about it because he’d been sneaking around the ceiling at the time trying out a new escape route he’d been planning to work on with his wind runners. They’d haul people to the ceiling and pass them out the windows to safety. They hoped they could avoid conflict on the floor, saving lives. This really was what he had been doing, but he’d gotten distracted by her drawing and her bare safe hand and had stood (upside down from her point of view, of course) and watched her for a good fifteen minutes. He admitted it had been a little creepy. Especially once she’d freed her safe hand. He’d left when the front of his uniform pants had begun to grow uncomfortably tight. Well, that was what happened when you saw a lady’s safe hand all out and exposed!And so now he paced around his room, his pants still uncomfortably tight as he attempted to deny his predicament. He couldn’t ignore it. It had been fifteen more minutes and if anything, he was even harder thinking about her and being angry at himself. He sighed and felt slightly dirty as he resigned himself to taking care of his growing problem. He shrugged off the uniform bottom and sat on his bed. He took off the uniform jacket and his shirt for good measure. He lay back on the bed, just looking at the pulsing cock in front of him. Slowly, he moved one hand to the source of his frustration and began to stroke. He tried not to picture her safe hand all covered in charcoal splayed out next to the milky piece of paper she’d be drawing on, but he couldn’t get the image out of his mind. He forcefully tried to turn his minds eye away from her hand and it just moved to her breasts, which he also had had a clear view of from above as she bent over the paper.He played with a drop of precum, running it lazily over his head, around and around before he got back to stroking his shaft. He closed his eyes and gave in to the wicked vision of her breasts down the front of her dress, her nipples dark against the bright yellow fabric. He was very close to orgasm and began stroking more vigorously. It took him a moment to notice that his hand wasn’t the only thing he felt on his cock. But he was too far gone to stop or think or cry out in anything other than ecstasy. But what was that working around his head, running up the back of his shaft? He opened his eyes, and there was Syl, flitting with her wind spren around his cock. He could only watch as she flitted up and down his shaft. It bucked as he milked the cum, jet after jet. He took a moment to compose himself before addressing her.“Syl, what in damnation?” he asked, as eloquent as ever. “You said we should practice,” she said. “I meant on a cliff or in the practice room,” he groaned.“But I wanted to play with your cock,” she told him. “You what?” He sat up, surprised at the turn of this conversation.“It’s the only time you ever relax or do anything for yourself. I just wanted to join in,” she said. She didn’t sound guilty or embarrassed or anything a human might sound having walked in on a friend masturbating. She sounded matter of fact. She sounded like a spren. Kaladin reminded himself that she wasn’t actually a woman sitting on his bed in front of his still hard cock. She was the embodiment of honor. She was a spren. Spren were not normal.“Wait, do you watch me do this often?” “All the time.”“Syl, I think we need to have a talk about boundaries,” started Kaladin.“No boundaries. We are bonded. You’re mine,” she stated. He admitted to himself that was true. Then shook his head.“Syl. Do you understand what sex is?”“Of course, silly! I’ve been around thousands of years and enjoy sex just as much as anyone else.”“Wait, Syl, do you have sex? Like with other spren?”“No. But I love watching people fuck. Oh you should see Dalinar and Navani go at it! He does this thing where he -““No, stop Syl. Stop.” He put his hands up in front of his eyes and let them run down his face in as exasperated an expression as he’d ever shown. “You can’t just watch people fuck. There’s like etiquette. Or privacy. Or how do I say this. It would bring Dalinar shame if he knew you were watching him,” explained Kaladin.“But all the spren watch all the time. We live here too you know,” she argued. Why was he arguing with a spren? Now that he thought about it, did anyone care if spren watched them fuck? Last time he was with a woman (how many years ago had that been?) there had been glory spren surrounding them. And that wasn’t weird. So why was it weird if Syl watched people fuck? Because she was conscious and should know better. She was an honor spren! He didn’t think it could possibly be honorable for her to watch people fucking.“You’re being judgmental. And you don’t know anything about spren society. You don’t now anything about anything,” she pouted at him. He looked at her pout and her stance as she stood with one hand on her hip. It was both admonishing and at the same time defeat. He hated seeing confusion and sadness flicking across her face.“I’m sorry Syl. It just seems so wrong to me. But you’re the honor spren. If watching people making love doesn’t bother you, maybe I need to loosen up,” he admitted.“Good. So you’ll let me practice on you some more?”“No, wait, I didn’t say that!” he said hastily.“I can’t imagine why not. You have so much trouble relaxing and when you come, it’s the only time I see you truly free of your burdens and maybe there’s even a glimmer of happiness there for a moment. I want to help you get there. I like you when you’re like that,” she insisted. “Please, I want to make you come. I want to play with your cock. I like so very much how it danced for me just now.”“Syl. People are different. People have sex with people they love.”“Oh you know that’s not true. Look at Adolin. He’ll fuck anything with legs. Doesn’t even need to be female. He’ll still fuck it. Do you know, I saw him taking it up the ass last week from -““No Syl. I don’t want to hear about Adolin’s secret trysts. But damnation, he’s cheating on her? How is that honorable?!”“Haha no he’s not. She was there and she had his cock deep up her -““Stop, stop, stop,” he begged.“Plus, you do love me.”He thought about that for a moment. The moment stretched.“I do love you, Syl. But it’s not a romantic love. I’d die for you. I’d fight for you. You are more important to me than anything else in the world,” he said fervently.“You’d die for me, but not cum for me? That makes no sense. I’m going to help you. You’re going to let me. Plus, it’s not like you’ve had luck with any other women lately. And that is the end of this conversation.” Syl stalked off, making it about four steps before she disappeared in a dramatic puff of blue.Stabbed through the heart. No, he hadn’t had any luck with any women. Not since Laral so many years before. He did love Syl, but not like that. He didn’t think of her sexually at all. She didn’t even have a body. But if she was insistent, who was he to deny her what she obviously thought was in his best interest?Two nights later he again found himself on his bed with a raging hard-on. Shallan had been trying to out drink Rock and Kaladin had had to physically drag her away before she got herself sick. She’d slapped him. Chivalry was dead.His cock on the other hand was not. That slap was all it took. He had to excuse himself before his predicament became obviously apparent to her. He’d headed back to his room and fumed, his cock getting harder and harder until he’d been forced to strip from his uniform.But this time as soon as he’d laid on the bed, Syl was next to him. She’d taken on the form of a full sized woman, something she’d rarely, if ever done. He wouldn’t say he was comfortable with her lying naked on the bed beside him, but he was comfortable enough that his cock was stubbornly not going down.She ran a finger down his chest, and the wind trailed her lower and lower. She wound her fingers around his cock and began stroking up and down, the wind a vortex around his member, pushing against him, teasing him. He could feel the wind pressing solidly against him, as if it had its own mini pressure system right there around his cock.Syl brought her blue mouth to his head and as she met him with etherial tongue, a warm, moist breeze circled his head, dipping into his hole and making him gasp. He reached for her breast, but his hand passed right through. “I want to touch you,” he said. “I haven’t figured that part out just yet,” she said, lifting her mouth from him. “I do have a body you know. But you’d have to join me in shadesmar sometime.”He might have answered her, or even wondered how he’d get into shadesmar, but at that moment, she lowered herself onto him, a hurricane of pinpointed warmth settling around him. She leaned over him, and he couldn’t feel her hands on his chest, but he enjoyed the view of her breasts bouncing as she rode him. He didn’t know how she did it, but she’d created an incredible amount of suction working up and down his shaft in time with her bouncing.She sat up and writhed on top of him, caressing her breasts for his visual pleasure, throwing her head back, her hair streaming behind her. He came, jetting great streams of white straight through her into the air. He let his head drop to the bed and closed his eyes, focusing on calming his breathing as the winds subsided around him.He opened his eyes to see her head on his chest, her leg thrown over him. He lamented that he couldn’t feel her draped across him. I have a body in shadesmar echoed in the back of his head. “Good morning to you, bridge boy!” said Adolin jauntily as Kaladin walked into the room to grab some breakfast. He felt good. So good that even Adolin wouldn’t get under his skin today. Muscles that he hadn’t realized were tense for the past month had unknotted. He’d slept better than he had in the past he didn’t know how many years. And Syl was still just as silly towards him as ever. She’d made one of his boots stick to the floor as he’d gotten dressed this morning and then had flitted off to who knows where with her wind spren companions.She was back now and was whispering the most naughty things in his ear. “I think if I could get a combination of pressure, wind, and moisture in exactly the right combination as a very thin membrane, you could touch my breasts,” she was saying to him as he grabbed a roll and some fruit from the table. He could feel color bursting in his cheeks and mumbled under his breath for her to give it a rest for the morning. She stuck her tongue out at him and flitted away.“Well, look who finally has some good color to him!” exclaimed Shallan walking up next to him and grabbing the roll from his plate. He snatched it back from her and grumbled a quick greeting in her direction. “Did we have a late night last night?” she speculated, waggling her eyebrows at him. Damn red eyebrows. But yes, he did have a late night last night. Not that he was going to tell her.“He got laid,” said Adolin. “I can see it in the way he’s sauntering around all relaxed. It’s like he finally got the stick out of his ass.”“Oooooh!” shouted Shallan. “Spill it. Who is she?!” She was squealing. He found it both annoying and endearing. At the same time. “No. We are not discussing this,” he stated resolutely.“Almighty above!” Shallan squealed again. “Adolin, I think you’re right. He had a woman last night. Oh tell us who, Kaladin.”But Kaladin just brought his breakfast to an empty table and began working on the fruit.“Oh, if you only knew who it was he was fucking. It’s absolutely scandalous!” cried Wit from the balcony. How the fuck did he get up there on the ornamental balcony that had no entrance? Kaladin had stopped wondering how the man did anything. Despite the fact that no one but Kaladin (and occasionally Rock) could see Syl, he had no doubt that Wit somehow knew. Why wouldn’t he know? He always somehow knew. Kaladin focused more on his fruit.He didn’t miss the shadow stretching across the table as someone sat down across from him. He knew without even looking that it was Wit.“You might think twice about the trajectory you’re on. Honor spren and all,” said the odd man.“What would you know about it?” asked Kaladin, his good mood quickly beginning to sour.“I myself like a good cryptic between the sheets,” Wit stated. “After all, the best lies are told while fucking.”“I don’t need anyone to tell me how big my cock is. And I can trust that an honor spren isn’t going to fake an orgasm just to please me,” Kaladin responded. If the barb stung Wit, he didn’t let it show. “Think about what you’re doing. That’s all I’m saying,” said Wit, hands out in a placating gesture.“I know exactly what I’m doing,” shot back Kaladin.Wit lifted silently out of his seat and glided out of the room without a backward glance at Kaladin. Kaladin wasn’t sure what he was doing. And he liked even less that he’d gotten a warning from Wit. Wit knew things. But Kaladin couldn’t get his mind off of watching Syl’s tits bounce as she rode him the night before. He knew if he wanted to focus on the important things, desolation, void bringers, all that, he needed to get Syl off his mind. He saw two potential solutions. One, he could fuck Shallan. He considered that, but realized he’d never ask. And he’d have to fuck Adolin too. A packaged deal they were. Option two was to find a reason to visit shadesmar. And it would need to be all by himself. Well, except for Syl of course. There was an oath gate right here in Urithiru. He would just need to figure out how to convince Dalinar that it was necessary for him to go to shadesmar all by himself. Or he supposed he could take someone who knew their way around Shadesmar and then ditch them. But he would never do that to anyone. Except maybe Shallan and Adolin. Shallan could get them out and she was likely the most familiar with the realm other than Jasnah. Yes. He thought a mission involving him, Shallan, and Adolin could very well get him into shadesmar. And if it was an important mission, all the better.
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The almighty might be dead, but there was enough of him left for Kaladin to bless and curse him in the same breath. He sat in the briefing with Dalinar, Adolin, Navani, and Shallan, Syl sitting in a miniature blue chair on the table in front of him. “It’s time,” finished Dalinar. “We need to bring him back.” He was of course speaking of the herald living with the honor spren in shadesmar. Kaladin had been planning to approach Dalinar about going into shadesmar that afternoon. He’d concocted a wild story and mission that he thought had zero chance of convincing Dalinar to send him alone into shadesmar. But he had to try. Except that now he didn’t. Dalinar wanted to send him into shadesmar to travel to Lasting Integrity to bring Kelek back. The knights radiant needed training. They needed the herald. Dalinar had started the meeting long before Kaladin had joined the group around the table. The original expedition was only going to be Adolin and Shallan, but Navani was nervous about the two of them going alone. Adolin’s last experience in Lasting Integrity had been a trial. Literally. And Shallan hadn’t exactly been stable during the experience. But Dalinar had thought the two could get in and out more easily than the large group had last time. Navani also thought he was crazy to send them in without protection from pirates and with no guides. But things were different now.Navani had been the one to suggest Kaladin accompany them. After all, he was radiant. And he was bonded to an honor spren. And he was often in charge of guarding Adolin.Kaladin had been sent for and had only argued against going perfunctorily. He had argued that Syl wasn’t exactly popular in Lasting Integrity. But she had told him it was about time she went home. She thought she could actually be useful in ousting the herald from his position with the honor spren. The honor spren had been unsuccessful in helping him get off of Roshar, but Kaladin had an idea to rectify that.Kaladin knew something the rest of them didn’t. He had confronted Zahel months ago about his strange ways. His unusual fighting technique, his odd accent, his foreign mannerisms. Kaladin had met people from every reach of the world as both a bridge man and while traveling as a wind runner. He knew Zahel wasn’t native to Roshar. Zahel had all but admitted it to Kaladin over some strong drink and friendly banter. If anyone knew how to get Kelek off this planet, he believed Zahel would.“That settles it. You three leave in the morning,” said Dalinar with finality.The journey this time was different. Shallan was sure it was due to the honor spren traveling with them. She was regal in bearing and beautiful in ways Shallan couldn’t even approach if she used all her skill in illusion. She could study her every day for the next year and would never achieve the effortless glide of her walk. Her hair blew in a constant breeze and her dress billowed around her fetchingly. And yet she had this playful air about her. Amid all the problems of the world, Syl was carefree and happy. And absolutely everyone they met along their route either bowed to her, steered clear, or greeted her warmly. Even the pirates didn’t bother them.Shallan found herself really liking Syl, but also despising how inadequate she felt next to her. It had become painfully obvious as soon as they’d stepped into shadesmar who it was that Kaladin had become entangled with. As soon as the oath gate was closed, she was plastered to him, breasts pressed against his chest, head against his shoulder. And he’d responded by pulling her chin up for a kiss. And what a kiss it had been. Shallan was instantly jealous. And yet, she thought of what she was witnessing as entanglement. She could tell it wasn’t a romantic sort of love. Yes, Kaladin was devoted to Syl, and Shallan recognized that he loved her. But it was a wholly platonic love. She was convinced Kaladin was sleeping with Syl because she was a sex crazed lunatic. Or maybe Shallan was just lealous.She knew she was being ridiculous. She had Adolin by her side and he loved her. She still hadn’t come to terms with what had happened with Kaladin in the chasms. She’d felt something during that ordeal. It wasn’t love. It wasn’t lust. But it was powerful and important and fascinating. And it was all about Kaladin.The first day he’d set a grueling pace through shadesmar as if he thought he could travel all the way to Lasting Integrity in a single day. She and Adolin let him because they knew how long the journey would be. Kaladin was smart and would figure out very quickly that they’d need to pace themselves and they’d need to rest. Yes, the fate of the world rested on their shoulders, but they were still just human. Especially Adolin. She had to keep reminding herself that he didn’t have Stormlight to bolster him.The first night, they were all too exhausted for anything except sleep, much to the annoyance of Syl. She’d gone around their campfire as they’d finished up their dinner, putting a hand on each person’s head in turn. Shallan was reminded of a tagging game she used to play with her brothers as children.To Kaladin. “I want to fuck you.”To Adolin. “I really want to fuck you.” Kaladin, tired as he was nearly got out of his seat to beat the shit out of Adolin. Syl threw him a glance full of daggers.To Shallan herself. “I’d like to fuck you. If you’d have me.” “Of course,” she said. Adolin had sported a large grin at that. Kaladin looked thoughtful. To Maya. “I’d like to fuck you again.” Some looks of surprise around the fire, but Maya, of course, nodded.Syl had stopped in front of Pattern, eyeing the cryptic warily.“You don’t want to fuck me.”“I don’t want to fuck you.”“I assure you, I am quite cuddly,” stated the tall man.Maya had moved next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. Shallan had giggled. Cuddly was not a word she’d use to describe her spren.Kaladin was torn. He’d wanted a trip into shadesmar so he could be with Syl and get her off of his mind. But he’d found her sexuality to be boundless and playful and not limited to him. And he was conflicted because he’d been charged with such an important mission. They had to make the best time possible. They had to recruit the herald. They had to save the world.But by the third day, he’d realized they couldn’t continue the pace he’d set and he’d need to pace them more carefully. Their supply of Stormlight wouldn’t last indefinitely and it would be difficult to replenish it in this realm. Adolin was strong and disciplined, but he was not radiant and Kaladin wanted to make sure Adolin was able to keep up and keep on top form in case they encountered any altercations along their route.Did he feel bad about the sexual thoughts he had about Syl while they were supposed to be on this most essential mission? Yes. Did he feel bad about the sexual thoughts he had about Shallan? Doubly so. He figured it was time he did something about at least one of those.That night around the campfire, which he’d made sure to set early in the evening, he sat close by Syl. He held her hand. He had his arms around her. He kissed her neck. He fed her bits of his food. He made sure she knew how much he wanted her. And she accepted the implicit apology about the grueling pace he’d set over the past few days.He thought he was doing well until he saw Adolin’s arm around Shallan’s shoulder. He watched as his hand wandered down her arm, landing on her breast. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t remove his hand. She kept up the conversation as if nothing was amiss. Kaladin watched Adolin knead her breast and tweak her nipple through her dress. Adolin caught Kaladin’s eye and kept it for a moment too long as if to say, “mine.” Except was that what he was saying, or was that an invitation?Syl was blessedly oblivious to the exchange.Kaladin lay on his side, his cock embedded up to his balls in Shallan’s cunt. Syl’s breasts pressed against his back as she ran her fingers across his chest. Her knees were pressed firmly up against his as he thrust in and out of Shallan. Shallan’s breasts were lightly bouncing against his chest, narrowly avoiding Syl’s fingers, her arms at his waist. Adolin’s arm was also draped across him and his cock was up Shallan’s ass. Kaladin didn’t hate feeling the other man’s cock moving against his through the walls of Shallan’s cunt. If he wanted to continue fucking Shallan, it was likely a sensation he’d need to learn to enjoy.He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten to this point. There had been a lot of drink involved. It had been blue, the really potent stuff. They’d passed a bottle around the bonfire and the next thing he knew, his cock was exposed to the world and Syl’s head was in his lap. He was leaning back on his elbows as she worked her lips around his head. He vaguely remembered seeing Shallan’s skirts come off and Adolin kneeling between her legs, tongue flicking between her folds. Then he’d seen Maya disrobe Pattern and Almighty did he have the largest cock Kaladin had ever seen.His recollection after that was fuzzy at best, but he knew at some point Adolin had brought him in for a kiss. He’d kissed him back. Passionately. He still disliked him. Early in the evening when Kaladin had been in Syl, he’d mused that she’d felt vaguely like a rain storm on a hot summer day. He’d embraced her from behind, hands on her tits steadying her as he thrust into her. She smelled of the sky and made him yearn to fuck her hundreds of feet in the air, riding her over the top of a storm. One day, he’d promised himself.He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten from there to balls deep inside of Shallan, but there was something about the current configuration that just felt right. Admittedly though, the cultivation spren and cryptic sitting off to the side masturbating each other while watching the other four was a bit odd.“We are bonded,” said Shallan breathily into his ear. “Just as surely as you are bonded to Syl. You belong to me. Forever.”He stopped thrusting for a moment. “Getting tired over there bridge boy?” needled Adolin. Kaladin resumed thrusting.“I love Adolin. I’m going to marry him, have his babies, and die of old age by his side,” continued Shallan. “But there’s something about you.”“I felt it in the chasm,” he said. “We are inexplicably tied together. As closely as two people can ever be. And I feel this pull to express it that I don’t fully understand and cannot fulfill,” she said between his thrusts.“But this helps doesn’t it?” Kaladin said as much to himself as to her.He felt like he should say something more, but he knew there was no more that could be said at this time. So he kissed her, holding her head between his hands and hoped Adolin was jealous of the way she responded.
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The storming man was smug. Kaladin could see it in his eyes as he glared at no one in particular but continuously caught Adolin smirking at him. He needed to lay off the blue wine. He’d woken this morning with a sore ass and he was pretty sure it was Adolin’s fault. After all, he would have had to drink a lot more to let the cryptic up his ass.Things had been going well. He had licked and sucked at Shallan’s clit until she’d screamed for the almighty and torn at the ground around her. Syl’s tongue had been in his ass, followed by her fingers. In hindsight, he wondered if Adolin had conspired with her to get Kaladin ready for his cock. Storms. Thinking about her fingers in his ass, twining around each other and thrusting into him, the ever present chill of the wind in her digits, her hand clamped around his cock and stroking as she finger fucked him, he conceded that just maybe today’s soreness and Adolin’s cock was a small price to pay. Kelek’s breath, he was hard again. Storming man. Syl sidled up next to him, eyeing the bulge at the front of his pants. “You’re going to chafe something awful if you don’t do something about that,” she stated. Kaladin grumbled and walked a few paces more before calling the group to a halt for a brief rest. It was nearly lunch time anyway. Syl pulled Kaladin behind a giant black mushroom and he shivered slightly as she pushed him forcefully back against it and pressed herself tightly against him.He ran his hands down her back, cupping her ass as he luxuriated in the fresh smell of her hair. His cock was insistent against her stomach and she pulled away to free it from his uniform. Using just the tip of her finger, she circled around his head, skirting the rim. “I love the way it dances for me when I do this,” she said, running two fingers up the back of his shaft. “It’s almost as if it has a mind of its own.”She pulled up her skirts and settled onto her knees, her hair billowing in a silent breeze around her. Kaladin gathered her long tresses into his hands, stroking her hair as she took his cock in her mouth. He was in shadesmar and Syl was sucking his cock. A month ago he didn’t think he could have imagined a situation less likely. And Wit’s warning kept bubbling at the back of his mind. Did he know what he was doing? Syl added her hand around his shaft and began stroking up and down, up and down, as she worked her tongue around his head. Her other hand kneaded his balls, and he lost the ability to think about Wit or worry that they would approach Lasting Integrity tomorrow afternoon.She swallowed as he came in her mouth. He had a suspicion she only swallowed because she didn’t want to mar the pristine black obsidian surrounding them. He leaned back against the unsettling mushroom and closed his eyes, basking in Syl’s nearness as she threw her arms around him and kissed his neck.She was so comfortable. But she wasn’t Shallan. He felt fire when he was with Shallan. She made him yearn for something he couldn’t put his finger on. She made him feel incomplete. But when he was inside her, the realization there was something missing was a good feeling. He had something to strive for. The rest of the time, he just didn’t feel anything at all. At least when he was with Syl, she reminded him of the sky and the wind and she was so storming comfortable. But she didn’t make him feel alive in the same way.He put his cock back into his pants, buttoned himself up and he and Syl rejoined the group. They walked for a little while in silence before small conversations broke out around the group. Pattern joined him and engaged him in idle chatter for a while. Conversation with the cryptic was always a little strange, but Kaladin had grown used to it during their journey. At least he thought he had.“Why do you not allow Adolin to suck your cock like you did Syl just now?” asked the spren.Kaladin swallowed his spit wrong and began coughing uncontrollably. Storming spren. Storming man. No. He was not having this conversation with Pattern right now.“Excuse me,” he said and attempted to distance himself to no avail. Pattern followed him as he strode out ahead of the group. And damnation, Adolin had quickened his pace and was nearly upon them.“So. Why won’t you let me suck your cock?” asked Adolin.“He’s really quite accomplished,” added Pattern. Kaladin heard some quiet feminine snickering from behind him. He wasn’t sure which of them it was. Maybe all three. He was aware of the color rising in his cheeks and let his hair drop around his face.“You can suck on mine any time you want,” said Adolin, not helping the situation.“I just don’t particularly like men,” said Kaladin trying to keep a defensive tone out of his voice.“I really do not understand,” said Pattern. “You appeared to enjoy his cock greatly last night,” he pondered.Kaladin groaned. Of course the spren had been watching. Shallan and Syl had probably been watching as well. “What I do or do not do with Adolin’s cock is my business. Can we please drop this conversation now?” implored Kaladin.“I’m open for business. Anytime, Kaladin,” said Adolin. Definitely not helping. But the spren dropped back to speak with Shallan and Kaladin found himself alone with Adolin.“I get that you only indulge me because of Shallan,” said Adolin. “And that’s fine. I don’t particularly like you either. But she does.”“I don’t understand what’s happening between us,” said Kaladin.“I know. And it’s ok. Whatever it is, it’s ok.” Adolin clapped Kaladin on the shoulder and fell back to the others. Syl came forward and held his hand and talked about nothing in particular for the rest of the afternoon.“He what?!” shouted Shallan as the guards ushered them into the one building with windows inside the enormous blue structure. “He left the planet. Finally,” said the honor spren standing in front of Shallan. It was clearly not bothered by her sudden anger or her aggressive stance. “But all this time, you weren’t able to help him get away. How did he finally manage it?” she asked, an annoyed tinge heating her words.“Hoid, the world hopper. He said you all would be by to snatch him up and he couldn’t allow that. I personally think he’s a meddling fool. But he’s older than me, possibly as old as the almighty himself. So who am I to judge.”“Well, your judge is gone now,” said Adolin helpfully. The honor spren ignored him. On the way out of shadesmar, Kaladin reflected on the failure of the mission. They had not brought back the herald. Some all powerful stranger had snatched him up just so they wouldn’t be able to consult with him. Kaladin didn’t feel like it was too dramatic a thought when over and over in his head the words “we’re on our own now” circled. “You’re moping,” said Syl, walking up to him and taking his hand in hers. Shallan moved to his other side and took his other hand.“You know this mission wasn’t a complete failure,” said Shallan.Kaladin looked at her. He really looked at her. Her red hair spilled down over her shoulders. Her safe hand was safely tucked away in her sleeve. Her eyes danced with a tiny spark of Stormlight. But he only noticed those things in the periphery. He saw straight through her eyes to her very soul. And it pulled at him like nothing else did. He’d first noticed it a few days into the mission. He had been lying on his back and she had been astride him. She had paused in the slow rhythm of her ride and had stared straight into his eyes. The elastic pull between them had been so strong he couldn’t bear to look at her and he’d pulled her down onto him, crushing her to his chest and popping out of her wet cunt. When he was no longer inside her and no longer staring into her eyes, the sensation lessened, but he still felt it melting through his chest, tingling down his arms.She had pulled back and repositioned him inside her. He’d sat up and hugged her close to him as she finished and he followed. He had told himself he liked the feeling of her breasts against his chest, but it was really so he didn’t have to look into her eyes.“I know,” he said, thinking of her eyes and her breasts and her cunt.“The entire reason you wanted to come into shadesmar to begin with was to fuck me,” added Syl. “Mission accomplished,” said Kaladin sarcastically. “Oh Syl. This has been wonderful and I’m glad I got to fuck you. But I think I might know what Wit was talking about when he asked me if I knew what I was getting into.”“Oh? Do tell,” said Shallan.“Well. He knew. He knew all of it. He knew that we would come to shadesmar to get the herald. And he knew someone would whisk him away before we got to him. And he knew exactly what I would be feeling right now.”“You didn’t fail, Kaladin,” said Shallan gently. “The heralds will do what they will and we had no guarantee Kelek would have helped us even if we had found him. You know there is a reason we always swear by his name.”“No herald. We failed,” he grumbled. “This feels like an ending. We leave shadesmar. We face Dalinar. We resign ourselves to training ourselves. We fight. And that’s it. And what’s more, Syl has no body. You and Adolin go back to fucking whoever you normally fuck. And I’m all alone. Again. Like always.”“You storming melodramatic, whiney little man,” said Adolin, coming up behind the trio. “I will fuck you any time you want. Shallan adores you. You’re a storming knight radiant. You can have any woman in Urithiru.”“Except Navani. She’s awfully devoted to Dalinar,” added Pattern. Kaladin laughed at that. “And there are all sorts of things that I saw Shallan and Adolin doing that I want to try,” said Syl. “Some of them don’t even require a body,” she added cheerfully.Kaladin grunted. But he did feel better. Maybe the mission hadn’t been a complete failure after all.