Affinity for Artifacts [MtG, "solo" female]

Affinity for Artifacts

	Mira bit her lip and squinted hard as she worked the metal against the polishing lathe.  The piece was thin and hollow, so she had to take care not to dent it while wearing down the rough edges.  A special project with a very special purpose, everything had to be done just right.

	“Girl!” called a voice from somewhere in the front of the shop.  “Where in the blazes are you?!”

	“Coming!” she called, sparing only a moment to dab some oil on her craftsmanship and place it under a silk cloth.  With a slight flick of the wrist she broke the connection between the lathe and the little disk that powered it.  She just hoped he hadn’t heard it running.  “I’m on my way,” she said.

	“Well, hurry it up,” said the voice.  It was raspy and rough, like steel wool rubbing against pig iron.  “It’s late and I plan on getting home before my diner gets cold.”

	Master Navere was one of the best artificers in the city and ran his machine shop as a tyrannical emperor.  Bent almost double with age, he was considered a state-asset: his creations served as troops in the army, mounts for the nobles, and several were even employed in masonry.

	Mira came bustling up to him, snatching a broom on her way.  Even crouched the way he was, she barely made it up to Master Navere’s chin.  She tried to console herself he was once very tall, but it didn’t help.

	His lip seemed to curl up any time he looked at her, but never quite made it to being a full sneer or grimace territory.  Somehow that was worse, like she didn’t even rate that much attention.  He was looking at her now with those beady little red eyes of his.  It was said he had made them himself after his original pair were burned out in a freak Myr accident.  She had asked how he could do that without eyes and was still waiting for the answer.

	“You’ve been up to something,” he said.  Rubies, that’s what they looked like.  Identical rubies, just smaller than real eyeballs.  She shivered despite herself.  He raised an eyebrow as though she had confirmed his suspicion.

	“It was nothing,” she said, lowering her head to avoid his gaze.  “I was just-“

	“Making something yourself.”  It was not a question and the emotionless way he said the words left her more apprehensive than outright anger would have.

	She opened her mouth to protest, but he raised a bony hand.

	“The polisher was running and you reek of grease,” he said.  Mira bit back a curse; Master Navere’s creations were famously quiet and efficient and she had oiled up the machine before starting, but somehow he had still heard.  Or maybe he just knew when something in the shop was turned on, somehow.  That would be just like him.

	“You’re years too early to start working on your own, girl.”  He shifted his weight to ease a kink out of his back.  “I’ll be docking your pay for the materials used,” he said.  “Clean up before you lock up and try to remember to turn off the lamps for once.  I’ll be charging you for any oil left burning from now on.”

	With that he placed a wide brimmed hat on his head and walked out the door.  As it closed behind him she stuck her tongue out.

	A muted whirring from the street told her the artificer was riding back to his estate on a self-walking platform.  His own design, of course.

	Shrugging with a little sigh, she doused the lamps near the entrance and kicked a nearby Myr, jarring it active.  She tossed the broom at it, not bothering to see if it managed to make the catch, and told it to start sweeping.  By the time she returned to the polisher the sound of wicker brushing against stone floors filled the room.

	Now that Navere was gone, she unbuttoned the tight jacket she wore and threw it over the back of a chair.  She breathed free and deep now that she was free of the constriction leather.  All she wore now was a plain white shirt, sleeves rolled up to keep them out of her way, and a pair of plan workman’s trousers.  Mira unbuttoned the top of her shirt and fanned herself a little.

	“Back to work,” she said.

	Withdrawing the piece of metal from the cloth, she hefted it in her hand.  It was a rod exactly eight and a half inches long and curved slightly.  Hollow, it was designed to screw onto an existing device.  The other end was slightly bulbous.

	Mira took off her leather gloves and traced along the edge of the shaft.  Her lips curled into a little smile at the smoothness of it.  It was flawless.  Despite the earlier interruption, she had managed to finish the piece.  The final piece.

	Dousing the lights in the middle of the shop, she made her way to the storage closets.  Well, Master Navere called them closets, but the name was quite misleading: each was as long and well stocked as a good sized warehouse.  She wasn’t quite sure how he had managed it, but the inside of Navere’s workshop was significantly smaller than it appeared on the outside.

	Going into the closets had made her nervous for the first few years of her apprenticeship, but Navere’s ordering her into it on a near daily basis broke her of that fear.  She was sure he just liked to watch her sweat.  Whatever his reasons, the expeditions she undertook had yielded additional benefits as well.

	In the first place, there was an archive that had designs she could barely even comprehend when she first started.  Colossal engines of war that could crush city walls and thinking machines in the form of living sphinxes were all at her finger tips; or would be, if once she decoded the confusing, foreign script.  But even when the words made no sense, the detailed schematics were good enough to give her plenty of ideas on their own.

	And there was plenty to work with, too.  Bins of ore and refined ingots covered in inches of dust lay undisturbed for years in some of the harder to reach places.  Dozens of spare machines and tools were lying around as well.  Mira had taken the time to check and was sure that none of them were recorded on any of Navere’s ledgers.

	The best thing she had found, though, was something Master Navere probably never knew about in the first place.  While trying to reach a box of miniature gears on a high shelf, she had fallen back against a wall.  Instead of splitting her head open, that wall had given; jolting back a good three inches.  Several hours and a good crowbar later revealed it to be a secret door leading to a secret room

	Perfectly square and covered in a type of warm stone she had never seen before, the room had a single window near the ceiling.  No matter what time of day Mira came to the room, light was always pouring through that window and always with the same, peaceful intensity.  Once, she had taken a ladder and tried to look through.  She couldn’t remember what she had seen, but it had left her feeling dizzy for hours afterwards.

	The room was useful.  It was here that she kept the little projects she was working on; everything she managed to make behind Navere’s back.  Her secret spot was full now.  Several benches and a few shelves were packed with scrap metals and half finished parts.  Jars of oil and grease teetered on the edges in a fearsome defiance of gravity.  In one corner, a brown blanket was thrown over a hulking mass.

	But the room had not always been so stuffy. When she found it, the room was bare save for a single safe of reinforced bolted to the stone floor.  It had taken her seven months to work it out, but, with the help of some of Master Navere’s toys, ones he no doubt wished to keep a secret from the authorities, she had managed to crack the number pattern and open it.  What she found inside was the real treasure, the real reason the room was so valuable to her.

	Mira bent low, slowly turning the lock counterclockwise a full four times (not three, like a regular lock) to clear it.  Five right.  Twelve left.  Three hundred and six right.  Four left.  One right.  She’d never even heard of a lock that used three digits, or had a five number code like that.  But it worked, with nothing more than a tiny squeak, the door swung open.

	Gingerly, she reached in and removed the small, mahogany box.  It fit in the palm of her hand.

	Standing back up, she turned to face the object underneath the brown blanket.  Mira placed the tiny box on a nearby shelf and put the metal rod on top of it.  Unable to resist the grandstanding gesture, she unveiled her creation with a swooshing flourish.  The fabric flew over her head and brushed half the objects on the desk the ground.  She winced, but recovered swiftly as she looked at the artifact in front of her.

	Mira was not a tall woman, and the figure in front of her, exactly six feet tall, was a head and shoulders above her.  Being shorter than a person was irritating, but, to her, an artifact creature being large was just the way of things.  She had built it.  It made her feel big.

	Humanoid in shape, its two arms were slightly longer than they would be on a human and the legs a bit too short proportionally, giving the machine a sort of hunched, apelike look.  The face was featureless and smooth and she had polished it to a mirror sheen.  Looking up at it now she could see her own beaming smiling reflecting down on her.

	Gently, she placed on hand on its chest, tracing a line down to the sigil she had etched into the metal.  It was her mark, a fanciful “M” sitting in the middle of a rose.  She pushed down on the icon and felt her pace quicken as it depressed into the chest.  When she removed her finger, it clicked back up and open; revealing a little nook.

	She slid the box out from under the metal rod and thumbed the latch, opening it as well.  The sight inside never failed to steal her breath away.  Light from the tiny window reflected off the gem and sent red back up in every direction.  The intricately cut ruby was set into a gleaming pendant of yellow gold, thicker at the bottom than at the top.  Oval in shape, it would have made for a fetching necklace.

	The beauty of the piece was not its true value, not by a long shot.  If she closed her eyes, visions of highland mountains and white-capped peaks filled her mind.  Warmth oozed from the gem and seeped into her body until she could almost taste the air of the scene just beyond vision’s reach.

	Shaking away the daydream, she carefully fixed the pendant into place on the handy perch inside the nook of her creation’s chest.  It fit perfectly, sinking further back into the device as the cover was replaced.  Time seemed to slow as a trembling spread through its limbs.

	Her face smiled back to her as the reflective head eased up, ever so slightly.

	“Are you active?” she asked.

	The man-shaped machine raised a hand and flexed the fingers, nodding once it was through.  Mira nodded as well.

	She kept her finger to her chin, appraising what she saw.

	“Stand in the middle of the room.”

	Dull thuds sounded as the artifact creature stomped forward.  Its movements were less graceful than she would like and it seemed a bit flat-footed, but it would do.  She turned and took a portfolio from a shelf.  Mira flipped through the pages.  The design was an old one and the designer’s mark had worn away, but it was a brilliant piece of machinery.  Some artifacts could be made to have extremely gentle motor skills for fine labor, like cooking or cleaning delicate clockwork; but the skill required to make one meant those features were generally reserved for hands or other manipulators.  This design, however, was delicate from head to toe.

	It was the intricate design that had caught her attention at first, but it was the intended application of the artifact that kept it.  Sure, she’d heard about mechanized aides before, but they were always simple and storable, easy to hide.  This machine was designed as a full body replacement for, well…
She smiled.

	It wasn’t quite complete yet.  The artifact man stood in the center of the room, waiting for orders.  Mira hadn’t been able to replicate the design in an exact manner, but that had never been her style from the beginning.  She preferred to make things here own and this project was no exception.  Its fingers were longer than those of the schematic and the engine sections were more powerful as well to compensate for the larger power source.  Her big friend would be quite vigorous, she mused.

	She traded the portfolio for the metal tube, tossing it from hand to hand and walking to the front of the machine man.  Well, it wasn’t quite a machine MAN yet, but that was about to change.

	Mira bundled up the blanket and placed it at the machine’s feet, kneeling down to use it as a cushion.  Right below eye level was the machine’s groin, bare save for a notch and a thin spike of metal protruding from it.
“If only real men could be improved so easily,” she whispered.

	Careful not to damage the spike, she gently slid the hollow tube over it, attaching it to the notch at the base.  It was crooked, but a little shimmying got it angled perfectly.  The rod, quite clearly an artificial penis, jerked up out of her hand.  She laughed to herself as it twitched, the rest of the device acclimating to the new addition.  After a few seconds, the whole thing startled to tremble with an electric buzz; the motorized spike was hard at work.

	“What do you think?” she asked her creation.

	Two large hands clamped to the sides of her head and pulled her forward before she could get away.  Mira opened her mouth in protest, only for the machine to force its metal member between her lips.  It hit the back of her throat painfully and tears welled in her eyes.  Part of her mind was grateful that the shaft hadn’t knocked a tooth out.

	The artifact’s rod was vibrating in her mouth, the warmth of it exciting her saliva glands and soon drool was pouring out of her mouth.  Her teeth trembled against the vibrations as she beat her hands against its body feebly.  It was too strong for her, much too strong.

	But the hold wasn’t painful, she instinctively knew it wouldn’t try break or squish her.  It just rocked her head back and forth over its member as the speed of the vibrations intensified.  She tried pushing away from it, but it did little good.  If anything, it just started to go faster.

	Soon, the buildup of saliva in her mouth became unbearable.  It pooled in the back of her throat each time the metallic shaft drove inwards; she started to gag and the beating of her hands against the machine became more frantic.  In desperation, she bit down.

Suddenly the machine let go and drew back, letting her fall to the ground, chocking.  Mira had been getting light headed and it took her a moment to catch her breath.

	“What the hell was that?” she asked, glaring up at her creation.

	The machine simply cocked its head and looked down.  All she could see were her own pouting lips and tear stained eyes looking back down at her.

	Mira felt how sweaty her body had gotten even in those few moments and looked down.  The entire front of her shirt was moist, mostly from her own drool.  Her body was tingling.  Despite how rough it had been, the machine hadn’t really made her feel like she was in danger.  Thinking back on how quickly the shaft had vibrated and how fast it was able to rock her head…

	She pressed her legs together at the thought of it.

	One of the machine’s fingers brushed against her chest and she gave a start.  It hadn’t even bent down very far, its long arms reached her easily.  It had noticed her looking down and tracked her gaze.  The finger was flicking gently against her nipple; a nipple clearly poking out from under the damp cloth.  Though not exactly large, the well rounded shapes of her breasts were visible where the moist shirt wrapped around them.

	Mira looked back up at her handiwork, right into the blank face and into her own eyes.  She needed this.
Shrugging, she got back to her knees and pulled her shirt up over her head.  “I did make you,” she said.  “I suppose I was going to do this sooner or later.”

	As the tail of the shirt reached her eyes, the machine’s hands gently scooper her up by the armpits.  It lifted her into the air as she gave a little squeak, blinded and disorientated.  The machine drew her closer and placed her on top of the metal shaft that was its penis.  Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around its waist to keep from falling.  The bulb was pressing up against her rump.

	The machine used one hand to give her something to lean back against and used the other to start fondling her exposed breasts.  Its cold fingers kneaded into her and made her flesh tingle.  With an effort, she wriggled out of shirt and tossed it aside.  She draped her arms around the machine’s neck.

	“Rambunctious little scamp, aren’t you?”  The artifact creature kept working her flesh.  It pinched her nipple between two long fingers and she tensed, feeling it down to her toes.  “I think I’ll call you… Nox.”
The shaft she was sitting on began to vibrate against her.  Mira let out a moan as the trembling worked its way up her stomach.  She felt like she was melting.

	“Let- let me get my pants off,” she said, breathless.

	Nox’s arms suddenly let go and she pulled hard at its neck to keep from falling.  They jerked behind its back.  Mira started to ask what it was doing, but stopped when she felt its deft fingers unstringing the laces of her boots.

	Staying balanced on Nox’s shaft while it eased her feet out of her shoes was hard enough, but the buildup of vibrations beneath her was turning her insides into jelly.  It was getting hard to think.
She hugged close to his chest and marveled at how warm it was beneath her skin.  Perhaps there was more to that little gem than she had imagined.

	Mira could feel the dampness of her trousers starting to spread.  Her feet were free and she tried to ease off of Nox so she could get them off.  Its arms spun back around and locked her in place.
“But I need to-“

	One of Nox’s hands eased around to her front and she felt it press two of its long, slender fingers against her navel.  The fingers inched downward as she clenched down against the rapid vibrations shooting up from her groin.

	Mira was getting so numb she barely felt the fingers until they slipped into her pants and tweaked her clitoris.  Her whole body jolted as the nerve was gently pinched again and again.  She cried out, only for the fingers to keep moving down.  Without pause, they both slipped through her lips and entered her vagina.  They eased apart, spreading her labia in the process, and twisted.  Vaguely she remembered that the fingers each had several extra joints.

	One finger bent inwards, rubbing so hard against her that she could almost feel a bulge forming at her belly.  The other finger bent in the opposite direction and she gave a start as she felt it nudging against her.  They both began to wiggle faster than she would have thought possible when she crafted them.
In moments the air was filling with the sounds of ragged panting and breathless screams.  Mira’s body went slack and her legs loosened their grip.  She started to slid off to the side, but Nox caught her and gently laid her on the ground.

	She lay there for a moment catching her breath and waiting for the tingling from the orgasm to pass.  Her whole body was tensing and relaxing rapidly.  She could feel wetness down to her knees.

	Nox crouched low, dropping to its knees on top of her.  She flinched, but couldn’t find the energy to react.  Its spindly yet strong fingers deftly eased into the sides of her trousers.  She felt Nox raise her up a little as it peeled the wet fabric over her buttocks, down her thighs, and off of her legs.

	Suddenly feeling an overwhelming sense of embarrassment, she drew her arms over her breasts and closed her legs.  Mira looked up and saw herself trembling in Nox’s face.

	Hands far stronger than she could ever be slid between her legs and slowly pried them apart.  She fought against it with everything she could muster, but it barely slowly Nox at all.  Its legs stayed still but its pelvis lowered into position.  Once in the general area, the shaft itself inched up and down and to the side, trying to gauge the perfect angle for entry.

	Mira tried to cover her swollen, dripping labia with her hands, but Nox’s caught hers and drew them over her head, pinning them in place.  She clenched her eyes shut as she heard the whirring of gyros coming alive.

	Nox’s pelvis rocked forward like a pendulum, the bulb of its shaft brushing aside her labia and piercing into her in one smooth motion.  Without pause it swung back outwards, stopping just before it exited completely.

	Again and again it cycled through the same motion as she wriggled underneath.  No matter how hard she clenched or squeezed or cried out it kept moving; in and out, in and out.  The rhythm was as precise and methodical as any clock, neither speeding up nor slowing down.

	Into her, the bulbous tip brushing hard against the walls of her vagina; out, her juices being forced to spurt down to the floor.

	In and out, in and out.

	That dominating, inhuman rhythm was the worst of it.  And the best.  Soon she was unconsciously timing her breaths to match the thrusts.

	Then the shaft started to vibrate again.

	Her body contorted as she tried to pull away, desperate to escape the waves of pleasure that were wiping her mind clear as a slate.  Mira tried to wrench her arms free and gave a cry of joy as one slipped through Nox’s fingers.  Before she could move it an inch, the other hand pinned it down, pinching her arms together.

	Nox’s free hand started to trace down the lines of her body.  The joints of its fingers started to wobble and twist so it felt to her like a roiling, kneading wave was passing over her skin.  It moved down her arm, across her side, and slid around her hip to cup at her buttock.  The cheek started to vibrate and jiggle as the hand fondled it in a way no other man or machine could.

	The tip of one of those fingers started to nudge between her buttocks.  It passed through the crevice and inched towards her anus.  Mira tried to twist away, briefly, but knew it was futile.

	All the while it kept pumping into her vagina with the relentless force of a piston.

	As the tip of the finger stated to trace around the ring, she realized something was wrong.  It was thicker and smoother than the fingers were supposed to be.  She couldn’t feel the many jointed knuckles.

	Nox’s hand moved up her back and traced the line of her spine.

	Mira’s legs kicked out in desperation and fear.  It had another metal dick.  Nox’s second shaft, another metal rod with a bulbous head, slid past her buttocks and into her anus.

	Her mind struggled to puzzle out how this could happen, but each thought was interrupted by a stinging jolt as the mysterious faux cock rammed up into her behind.

	Two metal penises thrust into her in an alternating pattern.  The first would rock into her, vibrating spasmodically as it threatened to knock against Mira’s cervix.  As it pulled out, the second would jam up into her until she felt like it would come out of her mouth.

	In/out, out/in, in/out, out/in, in/out, out/in. Again and again the artificial man would pump and retract.  Her pleas and cries of pleasure both died on deaf ears.  The only emotion Nox displayed was the mirrored reflection of its creators reddening, teary eyes face.

	The fingers of Nox’s free hand extended and seemed to separate. Two each went to each nipple and, after flicking them a few times, pinched down.  This time it was not gentle.  Nox pulled at her and lifted them up, stretching them.  As they began to twist, Mira thought she would pass out.

	Then the shaft in her anus started to vibrate.

	Mira’s body, from the tips of her fingers to her toes, jolted and writhed as she lost control of it.  Her spasms were so strong she could feel her wrists, still pinned to the ground, bruising as they tried to jerk free.  A second orgasm built up inside of her and she felt a spray surge out of her in every direction.  Her back arched and the new position cause the still thrusting shafts to dig hard against her.

	She tasted blood and felt bits of her inner cheek and tongue stinging.  Mira tried to clench her teeth down against her lips and screech at the same time.

	Light filled every facet of her mind as Nox knocked the sense out of her with its tireless thrusting.  She passed out feeling only a numbness that cried out for everything to stop.  And for more.

	The room was still well lit when she came too, as it always was.  Every muscle and joint in Mira’s body ached and she could already feel how sore she was between her legs.  She’d be walking funny for a few days, she knew.

	She peeled herself off of the floor and felt the itching stickiness of sweat and dried juiced covering her body.  Standing and swaying as she did so, Mira began to stretch the kinds out of her back, neck, arms, and legs.

	Mira glanced at Nox, squatting motionless in the corner where she had first turned him on.  Her “M” and rose sigil was open on its chest.  She could see the red glint of the pendant in its hand, hovering just beneath the crevice.
She wobbled forward, still unsteady on her tired legs.  Crouching down, she took the gem out of the artifact’s hand.

	There was a piece of paper under the ruby.

	Mira felt her body go stiff with cold as she slowly unfolded the little note:

“Apprentice Mira,
I must admit to being rather impressed with your ability to replicate one of my old designs.  Your interesting modifications inspired me to add one or two of my own.  You’ll probably need to take a day off to recover, but when you get back to work I have some interesting designs to show you.
								Master Artificer Julius Navere
Ps
If ever so much as think about using my Mox again without permission, I swear I’ll replace that thing’s vibrators with drill bits.”


	She looked down at her creation’s twin members.  The once gleaming metal shafts were slightly tarnished by the thin layer of sticky film that covered them

	Mira imagined them spinning.

	She licked her lips.