An Overextended Family

An Overextended Family is the twenty-first chapter of Tales of Sheol'gotha:  Shadow of the Abaddon.

Synopsis
Sharess, making her return from the room where she met with Lyn'sust, avoids as many of the shifters as she can in the hopes of esaping their territory without being seen. Reaching the final door, she is about to leave when the door opens and she is forced to rush behind it to hide. As the shifters start to enter they at first don't notice her, but one detects her scent and tears her from behind the door and brings her out for all to see. Hja De-jin then emerges, flanked by other matriarchs and her daughters as well as her sons. When Sharess tries to play off the idea that she was looking for Hja the entire time the shifter doesn't believe her, accusing her first of stealing, and then of plotting murder.

It is apparent that Hja is both grief-stricken and paranoid regarding what happened, and Sharess' attempts at settling the matter are met with strikes which send her to the floor. Still Sharess pleads her case, and for a moment it seems as though she reaches Hja, but it turns out that the matriarch is silent because two baals are approaching. One of her sons keeps Sharess silent as Fearngaus Q'tai Txu and Gariboragh Var'shan join them and inquire as to what is going on. When Hja orders them to leave they insist on staying, looking to Sharess and seeing the marks where she has been struck. Gariboragh warns Hja to call off her children, threatening more of them with death if she does not comply.

She in turn threatens him, and Sharess requests the two baals leave before anything happens. They depart reluctantly, taunted by Hja as they go, and the door is closed on them forcefully leaving Sharess alone. After promising to take a child from her at some point, Hja leaves with the other females, leaving the males to do whatever they think of as being prudent for a succubus. Sharess calls after Hja, demanding that she reconsider, but the shifter matriarch does not and is gone quickly. As the sons descend upon her Sharess fights as much as she can before being pinned down, and after some hesitation the first of the males, Okhir, forces himself upon Sharess and into her.

Sharess, traumatized but not unaccustomed to such violation, takes the opportunity to mock and degrade the shifter throughout, taunting him until he strikes her, and continuing until he removes himself prematurely. He demands another of the brothers, Nymhir, take over, but no one else is willing to step up. As he looks around his eyes fall on another figure who arrived without them even realizing it. The vampiress Iwotha observes them, gesturing for them to continue what they were doing, but the hesitancy and lack of committment make it apparent that the shifters knew what they were doing was wrong, and she quickly flies into a rage. Shrieking at them, she claws at them and rips through their skin, scaring them off and forcing them to run away. As she attends to Sharess, the succubus asks that she doesn't tell any of her children what transpired, and Iwotha offers to help Sharess get revenge on the shifters.

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