The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

An Apocalypse Rising

By Saddle Rider

Chapter Nine

“Give you my mind?” Anna wasn’t sure she heard correctly. “I hope you’re not suggesting I become some version of them.” she sniped.

Maylin shook her head. Her irritation made her slip in her efforts to heal Dalen slightly and the other grimaced in pain. “I’m sorry, Dalen.” Anna moved to the entry to keep an eye out as Maylin spoke.

Her fingers dipped downward now and then to get to the more deeply wounded flesh like one would press keys on a piano. “I am not her. My son is not her.”

Anna’s eyes darted to a shadow that was just, wincing in sympathy at the sound her friend made. “I know that. I apologize. What are you suggesting?”

“This is delicate work and I have to see. I have to sense my way through the wounds, so that means I have to be here. The spell for the ley lines and the protection spell that comes with it are complex, even for a well-trained mage, and not something I could teach you.”

“However, as the half-mages are conduits for Drexa, you could be so for me. We would be connected. We would share thoughts. And when you reached the lines you would know what to do and be able to draw on my skill to do it. “But you would still be you. You would still own you. And when the spell is broken we will each be as we were.”

Anna looked over her shoulder as she reasoned it through. “But didn’t Deres say that she can do what she does because she has power to spare because of these magic pools. If I joined with you that way and took yours to do this, doesn’t that leave you vulnerable?”

She let go a small sigh. “Between that and this...I would be vulnerable. As I say, it is not without risk. But, with luck, I would be finished or nearly so by the time you reached the lines. We can meet halfway and then proceed onward to the center of this place, where I suspect she is.”

Anna pondered. The plan seemed sound even though she loathed the idea of leaving them behind, and in an even more vulnerable position. The alternative though, was nothing she would allow to come to pass. “All right, what happens?”

The layer of gray light between between the mage’s hands and Dalen’s ripped back darkened. “I will be finished with Anna before the pain returns.” Straightening from her position from over the wounded soldier, she turned to Anna, studying her eyes and liking what she found there. “You have no fear.”

“Because I would do this for her even if it meant I was your slave, so it doesn’t matter.”

Maylin looked clearly uncomfortable at the notion and her tone was stiff. “That won’t be required.”

“And I trust you. I trust your magic.” An honest smile found her lips.

Maylin swept a hand through her hair to let go of some of that discomfort. “Thank you. It means a great deal to me that you do. Now, all you need do is relax. Calm your mind. Think of something that brings you peace.”

Anna’s mind went immediately to writing at her small desk at the end of every day. Sometimes it was just a few paragraphs. Sometimes she reported for duty having had only a few hours sleep because she couldn’t stop the words from flowing. There was only her, the paper, the pen, and the words born there. She felt the gentle touch of Maylin’s fingers at her temples, then at the nape of her neck near the base of her skull while she heard Maylin whisper in an ancient tongue.

That she understood.

As the consonants and vowels came together, they did so like pieces of a puzzle until the word and meaning were clear and the intuition of what came next. She sensed Maylin in her mind, her presence stepping carefully through her thoughts, not wishing to touch what Anna didn’t wish to share.

Even if Anna could speak, she would have had no words. She saw the spires as though they were her home. She saw all the buildings of the city of Adar and the gray blanket of the sky around it that let rays of sun peek through, beautiful in its own stark way.

Then she saw things that needed no special gift to describe or understand. She saw a girl being carried on her father’s back through a perfectly-manicured park. She saw pleasantly raucous dinners with parents and a sister. She saw quiet moments studying magic tomes that needed no book; they simply scrolled on glass sheets as the young woman looked to her teacher for understanding.

She saw love and more than one broken heart through the eyes of another, and she saw, through those eyes, a woman lay behind a dark-haired boy, petting him as they whispered while she allayed his fears as he sought sleep.

Anna saw that and more and she knew the other, in some ways, more intimately than her own family. The images slowly evaporated from her conscious mind, but the sense of the other was still there.

“You still belong to you and you always will. Do you see?”

Anna nodded, the look of awe still there. She felt there was so much to talk about, but there was no time. She pulled the cuffs and chains from her belt, locking each to the pommels of her daggers and the larger cuffs to her wrists to keep her daggers with her. “Take care of Dalen.”

“That was the point of all this, young lady. We will be all right. Hurry now.”

She knelt and gripped Dalen’s hand as if to share her strength. You hold on and I’ll see you soon.”

Dalen nodded. I’ll just...stick around here for a bit. Good luck, Anna.”

Anna lingered for a moment longer before she scanned the pathways around the entry. Having now an idea of where to go on her own, feeling the ley lines at the edge of her senses pull her down one path, she threw caution to the wind and began to run, hoping she could be insanely fast just long enough.

* * *

Neral was far more annoyed at being left hanging, wrists overhead, captured by emerald green vines than the fact that she was naked, toes just above the dirt. It hardly mattered who saw her. Military life had a way of stretching boundaries and chipping away at modesty.

The remaining vines had retracted upward, leaving them alone and freedom, or at least the chance for it tantalizingly close. Those that held them seemed aware enough that they would tighten to the point of cutting off their circulation if they sensed too much movement, but loosened their grip somewhat if they seemed docile. Even the thinnest of the vines had a rigidity to them when need be that could feel like steel cuffs.

As Neral had surmised, the slaves masquerading as refugees in need and the slave Neral had rendered unconscious simply waited for the trio to be overwhelmed, stripped them without word or ceremony and left them hanging for, by this time, a fair stretch of minutes. “I was a fool.”

Dion shook her head. “For trying to help someone? No. It was a trap, yes, but we could have been caught in a thousand ways from the moment we arrived to now. In some ways it was only a matter of time.”

Elan agreed. “I would have done the same if that matters to you at all, sir.”

She took a breath. “It does. Thank you. But I’m done wallowing for the moment. We should consider how we might escape.”

The line of thought was interrupted by the harshness in an all too familiar voice. “You really are a stupid bitch, Neral.”

The general looked to her left and closed her eyes, her heart sinking into her stomach upon seeing Bryana strolling in with a sway in her step that suggested the place was hers. The neckline of the black dress she wore plunged so that even a fraction of an inch more would have exposed her areola. The bit of fabric that covered her breasts formed a diamond at her midriff, exposing her belly and the head of the serpent tattoo that seemed to eye them all by itself. The skirt slid up the side, exposing leg all the way to the curve of her bare ass.

Around her neck was a pendant, the ruby in the center surrounded by runes carved into the yellow gold. The jewel seemed to feed off the light in the room, each facet seeming to work in tandem with the others.

Following behind her was a tall, bone white woman with black eyes and a far more graceful glide. Neral found her oddly beautiful, the deep, red gown she wore drawing a stark contrast to that unnaturally pale skin.

“Go find Deres and invite him to join us.” Bryana said smoothly to the other. If I know him, and I do, start from Drexa’s chambers and work your way outward to the milking chambers, implantation caves, and egg storage. He’ll be wherever he can cause the biggest mess.”

“What of Maylin?”

“What of her? She is off somewhere causing her own mayhem or heading straight to Drexa herself.” She shook her head in frustration. “The former makes her a threat to nothing She cannot fix and the latter means She wins anyway.”

She touched Elan’s cheek before letting her hand run over the subtle slope of her left breast as Elan looked at her with defiance. “Mistress has given me these to do with how I please so long as she gets what she needs, and having the good general gets her what she needs.”

“Find him. Invite him to me and he will follow. Just don’t give him any reason to burn you to the ground.”

She bowed gracefully. “Yes, Lady Bryana.” She backed away several steps before turning on her heels and disappearing.

Alone now, Bryana turned her piercing gaze on Neral, her tone derisive. “What’s the matter, my love?” She spat out the last two words as though she feared letting them stay on her tongue too long would make her ill. “Sad to see me alive?”

“I am happier than I can say that you are alive. I am only sad to see you like this,”

“Of course you are, dear. The leash is off. I am no longer your fawning pet. Her voice turned mocking, “Oh, Mistress, I’m so sorry, Mistress. I’ll do anything to make up for how I’ve wronged you for the next thousand lifetimes. Goddess, how that makes me want to wretch.“

Her hand went none too delicately around the soft flesh of Neral’s neck, nails digging in. You enslave me and pretend it’s all sweet and perfect so you and Deres can feel better about what you did to me.”

“But, I’m free now, Neral.” She twirled her finger above her head. “All this? My magic. My idea. Even Drexa didn’t think you were stupid enough, even as a primitive, to fall for it. But I knew you would. You are too noble, honorable, and kind-hearted not to try to save the poor innocents. You lead your innocent friends to their end, then and now, and you still cannot stop yourself.”

“We all have to be who we are, Bryana.”

“Yes. Yes, we do.” Her finger went to her chest and to Neral’s to punctuate her words. “This is who I am and who I always was until you stole me from me.”

“Perhaps that is so, my love, but...”

Rage bubbled to the surface. “Do not call me that, bitch. You never knew me to love me. One like you would not conceive in your nightmares to love someone like me.”

“But I do,” she said, her own emotion roiling beneath. “The magic used on you did not create the person I love from nothing, It simply allowed the better parts of you to come through. Or were you always wicked without fail. Did you never show another in your path mercy or kindness?”

Her eyes misted. “We both know you did. We both know your heart was never black to its core. You told me your stories. There were times when you helped another when there was nothing in it for you. There were times even then when you were decent for its own sake, even if you did think most people were beneath you. That is the person I love. That is the person Deres loves. That is the person the magic brought to the fore. She is still inside even if you choose not to see her.”

“This thing that lives in this place thinks everything not her is worthless. That isn’t you.”

“She freed me.”

“She thinks nothing of you. You are just another half-mage to her. There will only be one of you in the end once she gets bored with you and you have served your purpose. I love you. I do. Deres does. You know I speak the truth. You are not like her...”

“You will see, Neral.” She put her lips to Neral’s cheek before whispering, “You will see how much more like her I am than you.”

* * *

Deres moved swiftly through the passages, not allowing his mind to drift much to Neral and the others. There was enough to occupy his mind as it was. He had used his knowledge and tools to shut down the mechanisms in two of the milking facilities, dispatching the half-mages that were working in the place or guarding it, not engaging them enough to find out which.

The wails of desperation from the men when their bliss was taken from them were like the howls of wraiths being forced back to the depths. He’d left in a rush because an idea occurred that needed testing. Cutting a path to one of the smaller rooms with scores of eggs, he surveyed them and the gray, green, and black veins running throughout each one. He walked to the center of the room as his mind began piecing the spell together, pulling bits of the energy together that he would need from around him even as he drew his polished dagger.

Placing it firmly in his hand, curling his fingers around either side of the crossguard, he aimed the blade to the nearest eggs, his muscles stiffening as it channeled the energy through his body and to the metal that glowed an electric blue before the weapon itself seemed incapable of holding it back.

He swept the blue across the room, watching the light and the fine tendrils that split drain the color from every egg it touched, leaving them a lifeless white, some of the shells cracking and crumbling as soon as they were once again exposed to the air. Being able to infect the creatures in this way would be a benefit indeed.

He sensed the half-mage approach through her infantile connection to magic before he saw her turning to face her just as she came to the entry. She scanned the room with a pained expression. “Does it please you to murder so many children?”

“Children? These were not children. They are abominations and, yes actually, it gave me satisfaction to end them. Can I help you?”

Her dark eyes resigned themselves to his callous indifference. “It is I who can help you. Lady Bryana asked that I bring you to her and General Jaye.”

At the sound of their names his anxiety ticked upward as he eyed her suspiciously. “I should trust you, why?”

“If I lie to you, kill me.”

He took a step closer. “You offering me your life has little value since, when all is said and done, you don’t care whether you live or die.”

“On the contrary, I do care. While I am content to die in Her service, to die unnecessarily means I can be of no more use to Her.”

“It’s good to have your priorities straight, I suppose.”

“Follow me or take their location from my mind, it does not matter. It only matters that you get to where Lady Bryana wishes you.”

He knew all he needed to know already. Bryana was here, she had turned, and she had Neral. He’d go where he had to and do whatever had to be done. “Lead on.”

She turned and he kept pace several steps behind and his senses tuned in the event that it was indeed a trap. Leading him through the main passages outward closer to where they entered until finally he came face to face with the four, Bryana moving to stand behind Neral, running her fingers delicately through Neral’s brown hair. “Welcome, Dearest.” Her tone was equal parts charm and malice.

She saw him glance to the other side of the seemingly empty room before refocusing on her. “I know you see it, Deres. Step into the snare.”

“Well, this is familiar.”

“Isn’t it though? I’ve always liked turnabouts such as this. Step to the snare.”

“Bryana...”

Her blue eyes glared. “I am still not your better, but I don’t have to be. I can hurt Neral before you can stop me from it. The only thing that saves her or the others is you stepping to the snare.”

Neral shook her head. Indeed, all three shared the same look, but there was nothing else to be done, so he stepped cautiously into its boundaries. It blazed to visibility in a flash of golden light, the runes below and all around on the cavern walls could be seen now. Patterns into patterns, the outlines of each symbol seemed to physically move into and merge with one another. Deres’ body locked instantly, his breath and his eyes the only things willing to respond to him.

Still, Bryana approached him with some timidity at first, even though Drexa herself molded the snare. Satisfied that he was caught she entered it to face him. “Unpleasant, isn’t it, my mate; trapped in your own body due to another’s will? I will allow you to speak, but if you attempt to misbehave they will pay for it.”

She touched two fingers to his throat and he immediately felt the invisible hand there vanish. “What are you doing, Bryana?”

“What must be done...Master.” When she laughed it was a mirthless, heartless sound. “I need you to break her. And her breaking will break you, so there’s some lovely symmetry there, don’t you think?”

“You have me, Bryana. Let them go back the way they came. She gets what she wants in the end and it costs you nothing either of you care about.”

“At least I know where I stand, hm? Neral at least tried to save me even though it was only to save herself. You? The first thing out of your mouth are words for her.”

“Them. And I would help you if you let me, but I doubt you’re in the mood for that.”

She paced around him. “You are such a fucking liar. You’d kill them both if you had to to save her. Resist me and they pay for it. I shall not toy with you.”

He hurt at the words and it was reflected in his eyes and his tone. “You, too. I know, Bryana, that you’re going to do whatever you will, but if the person you are valued anything we had, will you do me two favors?”

Facing him again now, her face a mask, her words flat. “What?”

“Touch my mind as you mark it so that you know even now how I feel for you. And, if you ever regain yourself… know that, whatever happens to me, I know that this is not you. If you come back to yourself and look upon this, know that, should you feel the need to ask forgiveness, that person has done nothing that needs it from me.”

She scoffed but said nothing. Her fingers began to draw themselves across his features. One over the next, one into the other, Deres recognized it as a spell of corruption. It was a foot in the door of his mind. Intense enough and long enough it would open him to all the rest. He would fall and happily lead them where they wished to be. He called it a small mercy that Bryana’s disdain kept her from from using herself to do it. From the scent of her to every curve on her body, he missed her.

More than once, success at mastering something new, or simply a walk with her along the river led to a kiss, which led to ten, which led to rapture and exhaustion in the grass as the white noise of the gently flowing river soothed them. Had she not wrapped herself in her worst nature she might have seen that herself and used it. If that had happened he might have fallen even before he could do what he hoped to, which was admittedly not much, but not much of a chance was better than none at all.

As it was, it was a mad dash along a cliff’s edge to close off the smallest part of himself into the center of his mind so that she could not see and quash it as the heat grew within his mind, running like warm honey, thick and sweet down to his heart down to his heart. Everything seemed to become indistinct to his eye as it became harder to concentrate on anything but the beating of his heart and the sweetness of the voice in his ear.

“There you go, Deres,” she cooed seductively, touching easing through his mind as she went, working to close off the parts of him that she didn’t need. “You’re such a good boy. Tries so hard to be proper for his sweet Neral during the day, but at night he lets beast out for her. That’s what I want,”

She looked down to see the cloth of his pants tenting outward, the light brown fabric already showing wetness. “There you go, Deres. That’s it. Harder, sweet. Surrender. Longer and harder. The ache grows like your cock grows, doesn’t it?”

More and more, all he wanted was for her touch. “Yes.”

“Let it grow like your cock grows. Let it harden into an ache as your cock hardens.”

He sighed looking at her form in that nothing dress.

She followed his eyes. “Yes. “Let that need into more and more of your mind. Let every thought become about all the ways you can turn that ache into pleasure. Let those thoughts push away all the others. You do not want to eat. You do not want to sleep. You don’t want to think about your life before. Push those thoughts away.”

She could feel him consumed by the thoughts and her words. “The more of yourself you banish to make room for thoughts of fucking, the longer you will be able to fuck.”

Bryana almost giggled like a schoolgirl at the look on his face. “You like that, don’t you? The more you surrender of yourself to make room for fucking the better it will feel. Let fucking become all you are. Let fucking become all you are for. Think of fucking becoming all you exist to do while Bryana gets you something to fuck.”

She passed her hand over his face and got no reaction. Pleased with that, the mage closed in on Elan who carried uncertainty in those blue eyes that fed Bryana’s excitement. She remembered now how much fun the small ones were to play with. “People are interesting creatures, Neral. With enough power you can drain them and then fill them as you please. You can turn them into lover, killer...anything you like.

“It’s far more more fun to find the way in. You find the way in and they help you ruin them.” She paced around the petite young woman. “I have to admit it’s a little bit addicting by itself.”

He touched her cheek. “The more you know someone the easier that way in is to find. But sometimes they simply advertise it for all to see. Like this one: quiet...shy...focuses on her work and excels at it. She restrains herself so that she can be the soldier that she wants to be and bring pride to her House.”

“Do you see the jewel around my neck? Do you see the light grow inside?”

“Don’t look at it Elan,” Neral ordered firmly. “It’s her instrument to take you. “Do not look.”

“Oh, Neral,” she chided, “you’re still so stiff sometimes. One would have thought life with the two of us would have mellowed you more. Why shouldn’t she look? It only responds to her reactions to my words. When I speak the truth, she knows it. Her body knows it. Her mind knows it, and it powers the beautiful jewel. Her truth powers the jewel. Her truth will set her on the path to slavery and freedom.”

Whether that was the function of the jewel or not, Neral didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. “You are not hers. Fight.”

“Your truth powers the jewel, Elan.”

“And what do you think my truth is, magician?”

“That you are small. That you fear you are too small. That you fear you will make a mistake and someone will pay for it. That you will say the wrong thing and lose a friend you value. You live in fear so you are careful.”

The light grew steadily, as though each of her words was a rush of air from a bellows, feeding it. The light grew until it teased her eyes, “You are careful with your lovers so as not to shame your House. You give to them to keep them happy, sometimes at the expense of yourself.. The truth is there, Elan. Look to the jewel and see the truth.”

Elan hadn’t even been aware of when her eyes cast their gaze downward, but they did. It beckoned her to focus on the pulsing light and the way the rivers of color would flow, sometimes slow like a mountain stream, sometimes waves would crash into one another. Each was captivating in their way and each was like a strand of light tying her mind in knots.

“Isn’t that your truth: that you are careful and yet you wish to be wild. “Are you passionate with your lovers, Elan? Do you give your all to please them?”

“Yes, I do.”

The stone brightened.

“Even when it’s something you don’t want to do?”

“Yes.” Unbidden words rushed forth. “Vin wanted to...fuck me in the ass; wanted it, demanded it, then begged and pouted for it.”

“And you acquiesced to please him. That was so obedient of you, Elan. “You didn’t just lie there though, did you? You pushed back even as you grunted like a whore through the pain because being participating in your use that way made him happy even as it shamed you.”

“Yes it did.”

“Do you regularly endure the pain now?”

“Yes.”

“Because obedience is freedom. Surrendering your will to another pleases them and that frees you to do things you do not wish to do because it pleases them and that satisfies your need to be useful and valued. The more you think of being used, the more useful you will be. Think of how fucking will make you useful. Think of how I value the lust building up inside you. Think of it growing as it waits for me to set it loose, so that little Elan can have value.”

“I will... think of fucking.” It was quickly becoming the singular concern of her dampening pussy already

“Think of fucking for obedience. Think of fucking for your value to the one you fuck or the one who commands you to fuck.”

Elan’s thighs rubbed together as her mind drifted.

Bryana caressed the vines, leaving a mark before approaching Dion who had her eyes firmly closed as Bryana pouted. “You’re not having any fun and that’s just terrible.”

“Stop this, Bryana,” Neral snapped, knowing it sounded equal parts angry and desperate.

“Why, Neral, getting wet for your turn?” She unclasped her pendant as she spoke. “The good news for you, my good captain, is that, while you are not a mage, you have a bit more defense than some; in this case, your faith in the Goddess.”

“The bad news for you is that that simply means that the defense simply has its own unique way to be breached. Going back to good news though is that the breaking of the pious is quite fun and they seem to enjoy it more than anyone.”

She held the pendant before Dion as the captain began to mutter, “Praise be unto the Goddess of peace, fountain of benevolence, and arbiter of justice. I am her instrument in the world...”

“Yes you are, Dion. You are Her instrument. You do Her will. She owns your body and your soul. So you already used to being owned and obedient.”

“I forgive you, Bryana. I forgive you for what you do to me.”

“Thank you, dear. Look into the light for me.” When Dion failed to do so, Bryana pressed on, undeterred and playful. “The pious are always the same two people though. They are either people who wish to sin and do dark things that frighten them so they use religion to restrain themselves.”

She launched into another prayer. “Goddess protect me from evil and those who would perpetrate it upon the innocents of the world...”

“And those who have sinned enough for a dozen people, fear their mortality, and hope to make amends before the end calls. I know which you are. There is a darkness in you Dion. I can smell it on you like a dark and spicy perfume that a street whore might wear to tell men that she’ll drop to her knees in an alley for a few cents.”

At that moment, the vines uncoiled and Elan finally touched the floor. Her arms fell to her side and she stared ahead as vacant in her own way as Deres was and it crushed Neral.

“Look who’s ready to be put on the path,”

“Aww...if it makes you feel any better, Neral, she’s only mine for now. All I’ve done is put her on the path to Mistress. Never fear though. Soon.” She looked at the waif with a smile. “Elan, what do you want to do?”

She sighed. “I want to be commanded. I want to be fucked. I want to be commanded to fuck.”

“Ever sucked girl juices, dear?”

“No.”

“Perfect. A new experience for you. Come tease your captain.”

In what looked a single fluid movement Elan brought herself before Dion and dropped her knees to the dirt. She breathed in the scent, her long tongue, tentative at first, gained confidence from the strained whimpers that came from Dion’s throat as she struggled to contain each one.

“Your body is built for that, Dion. The Goddess created it to thrive in pleasure and sin. What other purpose does that bit of flesh serve, girl? It pleasures you. It rewards you for getting it licked. It rewards you for getting a hard cock near it. It rewards you for sin.”

“It is temptation,” she breathed, muscles in her belly quivering, fluttering like branches in a breeze, her pussy weeping onto Elan’s tongue, crying for release. “Temptation is an unquenchable thirst that spirals a soul to the depths.”

“But what a ride, captain. Sex without love. Sex just to feel bodies grinding together a mad urge to find new sensation to surrender to. Sex that you need a steaming bath after just to try to wash the tingle of depravity off of your skin...and your soul.”

The eyelids that were a moment before pinched shut became smooth, then opened and looked upon the mage, not with hatred, or even defiance, but with the surety of one who knows themselves and what they are about, even if she was speaking with a wavering voice. “I’ll not play your game because it’s what you want, isn’t it? You want me to fight with everything I have until I have nothing, then you get what you want.”

“The fight for my soul is mine,” she said, voice trailing off as Elan’s tongue snaked deep inside before nipping at Dion’s lips to tug at the meaty flesh. “And if I lose...I lose. Give me your light then. Put me on the path.” Dion embraced the light and its rhythm, eyes widening, pupils expanding to take it all in.

She marked into the vines holding Dion as she spoke to her. “Tell yourself whatever you want to justify giving up, dear. Take your strength with you. It’s meaningless. You will shatter, and She will mold the pieces to Her will. You will live a life of sin and filth.”

Dion’s legs spread with Elan lifting them onto her narrow shoulders and homed in on what pleased her from listening to the sounds that each lash of her tongue would make while Dion’s eyes took in more of the light that set out to cloud her mind and chain her spirit.

Speech was lost to her in favor of a series of long, drawn out, “Uhhhhhnnn.” sounds that came from deep in her belly, each successive groan lasting longer than the previous until, with a sharp intake of breath, the sounds stopped entirely. Her lips parted while Elan’s full head of ghost white hair flitted rapidly left and right while Elan’s tongue pulled the violent climax from her.

Dion lifted herself from Elan’s shoulders as the vines released her to a standing position, her eyes not looking away from the jewel until the light dimmed within it and Bryana clasped it once again to her neck. Elan rose as smoothly as she had gone to her knees, her face covered in Dion’s orgasm.

Bryana looked at the two, touching their shoulders to put them before Neral. “Aren’t they pretty now, Neral? Look at them. They will try and they will fight, but you know what will happen, don’t you? They will be Hers and then that will be two more gone, thanks to you.”

She shook her head. “I know my part in this, but this isn’t my doing, it’s hers. It’s thanks to that thing that has you, too.”

Anger flashed over her features. “She has me because she accepts me.” After a cleansing breath, the mask descended again. “I wonder how long they’ll last. It’ll be fun if you all fall together, don’t you think? Do you like how they look? She looked to them, “Did you have a good cum, Captain? I know you liked it. “Do you want to sin some more, hm?”

Even though her expression was blank, her voice held a touch of reticence. “I do.”

Bryana noted the tone with a sneer. “How’s that fight between your soul and your cunt going, dear? Not well, I imagine.” Bryana expected no reaction to that and got none. “Lucky for you that I am here to help.”

She pointed behind her. “There’s a man behind you with not a lot on his mind aside from all the things he can and should be doing with his cock right now, I’m sure you can help, can’t you? Release yourselves. Enjoy yourselves. Your commander and I will just watch for a while.”

They turned and Neral watched as Elan pulled him down to her by the neck and jammed her tongue down his throat as though kissing him was the key to life itself. She broke the kiss, tugging slightly at his lip. “Make me useful, she said, her voice small and pleading. “Fuck me.”

That was the key that unlocked his mind enough to focus on her as something to slide his painfully hard cock into.. He kissed her hard, trying to suck the air from her lungs while she tried to take it back. The more they kissed, the hungrier they became, Elan running her fingers through his short hair with Deres pawing her form.

She peeled his cloak from him and her long fingers deftly untying the thin rawhide strips that held his tunic and took that from him, too, exposing his hale physique. He looked hopeless for a moment as she slid down and away from him, only letting her go once his hind-brain realized she was going to release his cock. Take it out. I want my cock out. When those thoughts became words Elan responded by working more quickly.

He started watching her and it was only then that he seemed to notice that there was another woman there. His eyes tracked upward to see her face without truly seeing it. She was something else to fuck. He pulled her by the arm to him and kissed her with the passion of Elan only a moment before.

Shock took the dim from her eyes and she whimpered for a moment as her hands rested on his shoulders, the internal struggle clear in the way her fingers clawed his shoulder as her mind fought. When he hooked a powerful arm around her, sounds of lust flowing from his mouth to hers as Elan cupped his balls in one hand while almost methodically working the shaft into her mouth.

She’d taken half of him when it bucked and began to fill her mouth with seed. Elan took it more deeply and quickly determined to milk and please and be of value.

Dion felt his orgasm in his kiss. The sound of him went more guttural in pitch like the snarl of a wild animal. It stirred her insides and, aided by the teasing of his chest hair irregularly brushing hers she wrapped her arms around him and kissed back as Elan continued to fuck him with her mouth.

Bryana touched Neral, hand up that taut belly, over a scar just under a full, supple breast and up her neck to her chin. Neral said nothing, but it was clear that it brought her reluctant pleasure. “See? I remember how to touch you. I remember what you need.”

She made her way slowly behind her captive. “I did all this for you, Neral. Oh, they will be given to Her. You all will; but the means? The means are mine and the means are a small way to repay you for what you called love for me.”

“I do love you, Bryana. I love you still.”

The mage ignored it, beginning to mark Neral’s face with the runes of her trade. “Of course you do. But..it wasn’t at all an unpleasant lie to tell me, so I thought the means of your corruption might as well be something I know you enjoy; that it will help you fall more quickly is just a bonus for us all.”

Neral struggled against Bryana, but those fingers kept their grip and, with each pass, she could feel her anger and fear slipping away, which left her a different sort of terrified: frightened in a sense, but almost as an abstract...as though it was all happening to someone else.

“There you are, Neral. No need to squirm. No need to resist. You know, one of the reasons I failed to mold you as I should have when we first met was that there were a few nights I just spent playing with you when I should have been working. Mmm, but you were so responsive that some nights I just played you to see what sounds you could make. My fault, really.”

She looked to Calla, “Go to Mistress. Tell her that what she wants is minutes away. I know she wanted to see at least one of the mages crumble.”

Calla bowed and seemed to float away on her path as Bryana kept working and whispering. “Don’t fight, Neral. You have let me in before and I happily enhanced your pleasure and you enhanced mine. We can do that again for one another. That’s why I did it this way. I know you. Watch them, Neral. Watch them.”

It grew harder to look away from the sight, now the two soldiers on their knees, handfuls of their hair in his hands as they took turns with his cock, playing with the shaft, stroking it before Dion sucked the head into her mouth, bathing it as Elan seemed to take pride in tracing each vein with the tip as though she were sculpting him, their eyes on his.

Each pass of Bryana’s delicate hands seemed to stoke a fire in Neral, try as she might for it not to be so. “Ooooo” escaped her as Bryana reached ahead, pulling those thick nipples outward before twisting them, sending shockwaves to her toes.

“You like that. Neral Jaye is a watcher. She loves to fuck, but to play voyeur is almost better, isn’t it? You love seeing yours drowning in pleasure. You love watching all the ways they fit while you carry no jealousy. Your only shame is that you know you cannot stop yourself, and you know it, but no one is going to stop the mistress of the house from seeing what she wants to. You know that, too.”

Remember how you would lay in bed and watched us fuck, Neral? You would watch him kiss up and down my body. You would watch me do to him what Dion is. Remember?”

She did. Memories crashed into one another. All the times she saw them accidentally and all the times that she sought them out to feed the prurient beast inside her. There was a different joy and heat cultivated in her watching Bryana’s form bounce on him before grinding her hips, both of them lost in themselves.

“Such a wicked woman deep down that you said nothing when he stopped washing his cock after me...after Cassea...after Tessa. You said nothing because the three of us knew you liked tasting where he came from. You like knowing you can take your man’s cock in your mouth and know where he has been, then your mind races to create the vision for you even if your eyes missed out.”

She hissed through her teeth, her world becoming the haze of lust that sight, sound, and dark magic cultivated.

“Yesssssss...it is vile and gutter and not the least bit proper for a woman from a family of High Court. That’s why you like it.”

“Fuck her,” Neral hissed. She didn’t care who at that instant. She wanted to see cock in pussy and it had to happen. In that instant she wanted to be a mage so she could will it to being.

Bryana was pleased. “Very good, Neral. Very good. Fall for me.”

She needn’t have worried. Whether Deres had actually heard or only the animal inside did, he lifted Dion as though she were a rag doll, driving her up and down while she took her impalement with relish as they all struggled on the icy slope of sanity with the pit of corruption and slavery below them, but the darkness having more and more appeal.

Elan crawled forward, drenching his his balls in nearly white froths of spit before pulling it up to make Dion’s clit swim in it. “Wicked, sinning fuck,” the captain, breathed, trying desperately not to think of how truly good it felt or how many laws she was breaking even consorting with a mage much less letting him fuck her. Oops, I thought of it, and she moaned again, mixing it with a giggle, sounds becoming more in time with his thrusts as Dion looked down at that messy mop of white hair and felt her work.

All of it oozed into Neral’s mind and she began to welcome it, remembering the nights when Bryana toyed with her for her own ends and the nights since when Bryana’s only goal was to enhance their sex. All is lost. No one has stood against it. Kress could not and she was stronger than I ever was. It feels good. Fuck all it feels good.

Bryana, from over Neral’s shoulder could see her heaving chest and the sweat beading up on her hot flesh,. She came around to see her eyes locked on the scene before her and the rivulets of arousal running down her thighs and she smiled. “Ready now, aren’t you?”

She didn’t even know what for. Bryana wanted her to be ready, so she was ready. “Mmm-hmm.”

“Good. You will pull him down and the rest will go to if they haven’t yet.” she drew closer feeling the air that Neral expelled strike her with full force. The general really was beautiful. “Give yourself to Her.”

Neral did not hesitate. “I give myself to you.”

The magic flowing through her and around her wavered and she eyed Neral suspiciously before she skimmed through the mind opened by lust. “What?”

Neral’s mind felt the quiver around her, but didn’t really react. It was just more magic she didn’t understand anyway. It didn’t matter. Bryana was there. She would make everything all right. “I give myself to you,” she said with an almost childlike innocence. “I love you, you love me. I know you’ll take care of me.”

Bryana’s mind muddled further, muddling the spell, too. It was the other that Neral loved. It was the other that those brown eyes looked so trusting for. It was not her. It could not be her.

But what if it was?

That mind was open. The emotions were read as easily as telling summer from fall by the leaves on the trees. It was there and undeniable. Even as those behind her filled the cavern with the sounds of their sex, Bryana looked to those eyes and that face, thoroughly confused.

Neral felt herself.

Admittedly, it was merely a piece of herself that felt like the old her amidst the heat. She was silently grateful to Bryana that she was blocking the sight of the three because the sounds alone were making her want to cum. Those magic, blue eyes weren’t exactly protection, but it was something she knew. She pushed, forcing herself to remember and forcing herself to think before it was taken from her, or worse, she gave it up.

“I... give myself to you. I...have before, I do now, And I will again. Because it’s you. If I have to give up me. If I have to sacrifice all of us...better to you than her.” She forced the gears to turn in her mind though it was like trying to force them to turn in a pool of glue. Maybe the old Bryana is lost to me, but I can reach this one just enough.

“You are better than her. If I have to choose for us, I choose you. If I have to choose for the world...I choose you.”

The suspicion returned. “What are you talking about?”

Her footing became more certain even as she had to fight errant thoughts that came with the sounds of three fucking feet from her. “You want power and so does she. You know she’ll kill you when she’s done with you. Or empty you. You know it’s true because it’s what you would do. She may love you, I don’t know, but she will never love you as much as herself.”

“She wants everything. But my Bryana is a pragmatist. You? ...You would be fine with enough. Stand with me against her and stay clear of the kingdoms. Stay clear of me so that you do not become my problem and...you can do as you please.”

Bryana looked her up and down, her voice carrying a seductive lilt. “You really expect me to believe that?”

“I love you. For what we were I will help you get her before she gets you. That and you are simply the lesser evil.”

“Tsk...now that’s hurtful, Neral Jaye. Lesser evil, indeed.” But the general was not wrong. She knew the love was real. And, for her there was such a thing as enough power, enough reach, or enough wealth. It was to be acquired and managed, not hoarded. Enough of the world if she left the kingdoms be?

And...what if Drexa did not care? What if she lied, too? The confusion that never quite left her intensified. But what she felt from Neral’s unguarded mind was real and that is what drove Bryana’s lips to Neral’s.

Their lips met at first simply brushing and Neral had second thoughts. There were hints of who she used to be in those precious moments. No. It has to be done. A simple change of her mind and it so over for us all. I’m so sorry. Not allowing herself to dwell on it she put the spell slip on her tongue, closed her eyes, and waited for her to be the one to slip inside. In that instant, she relished one more moment with one of the anchors of her world. Once she did, she had one last thought:

Break.

Bryana’s eyes widened in shock and rage once she felt the magic fill her body, the feeling of broken glass raking her insides bringing a scream from her as she stepped back before dropping to her knees as the pain wracked her body, The room spinning now, wisps of the black and violet magic escaping her mouth in spastic coughs.

The vines holding Neral loosened, Ignoring her own pain, she pulled free of them before scrambling to their weapons, putting one of the daggers in a white-knuckled grip. Bryana, still in numbing pain, went to the ground from the force of Neral’s weight alone.

The long blade hovered over her throat as the magic continued to waft from Bryana and into the air. Neral looked into those blue eyes and watched them shift from looking up at her spitting the rage and betrayal that had consumed her as the magic had,

What Neral didn’t expect was the sadness and resignation. Goddess, how that golden hair curls so...softly It had to be done. Lives depended upon it. Perhaps every life did and she knew there might not be another chance. Suddenly, all the moments that had comprised their all too brief life together were her enemy. All the laughter and the quips; all the passion and tenderness stood against her making her hand tremble as another series of coughs ripped at Bryana’s throat.

Neral could have made up a hundred reasons why and some of them might have even made sense, like having to try to save those with her while she could, but the truth was undeniable. It was more than just Bryana’s eyes, but the life in the eyes before her had a glimmer of the familiar and she hesitated.

Those eyes were familiar and tears fell from hers to Bryana’s chest and she could not drive drive the blade. “I love you too much.”

In the midst of another coughing fit spewing magic into the air, rage flashed in those eyes and a hand came forward. It never touched her, but the force it brought with it was like getting hit with the forearms of one of the beasts. Neral slammed onto her back, and, somehow retained her blade. She looked up to see Bryana crawl away several steps before forcing herself up as her body now tried heaving the toxicity of the spell from her.

She watched the other stagger away, but the only thing on her mind was the fact that she had to hurry. They had to hurry. The thing was on her way. Thank the Goddess the spell is broken.

Then she turned to look. She turned to help realizing with a tantalizing horror that that wasn’t true at all.

The truth of the words Bryana used to craft the spell enticed her. Looking upon the man she loved, rutting away into two women who looked more like paid for street whores than soldiers was a vision that did not just seduce her mind, but pinned it down to enrapture it. Her cunt twitched and a heat blossomed in her belly that threatened to rob her of thought, leaving her with only the thought that she really needed to be a part of that.

* * *

Anna had run as far as she could down the paths before she stopped, both because she needed to conserve energy as the temperature rose and she had no interest in being somehow blindsided due to her haste. Sweat was pouring from her now and the heat leeched her energy, but she pressed on, knowing she was getting close, not only from the heat, but from the sense of things she now shared with Maylin. The closeness of the magic was like a loved one calling to her in a crowd. She picked the familiar and let it lead her.

It was marvelous. Anna thrilled to it. She could see the world with new eyes, and a world she never knew was possible. Energy flowed. Life flowed from everything and to everything in a mesmerizing ballet of circles within circles that made up the tapestry of existence itself. She no longer doubted that teaching her to shroud herself would have taken years.

Though she would give anything now to be able to do it.

The link between them let Anna know that Maylin and her patient were well enough, not that that assuaged her fear for them entirely as she rounded the corner to her prize. Down the path ahead she could see a cave with the black and orange flow of lava visible and moving slowly wherever it was meant to go, so hot that the waves of heat bent the air.

Guarded by two ape like creatures mid-way between her and the flow and two half-mages just at the entrance itself, she weighed what she saw. No one she owned would have to be guarded against so they were there for whoever came, and their loss would surely bring more, but Anna was pleased at Drexa’s arrogance. The defense supposed that the mages wanted the magic for themselves. They would waste time with the wards and eventually be overwhelmed.

She stepped back out of sight, remembering who was where and who the greatest threats were as she slowly retrieved her bow, fearful that any sound would alert them and more. She took it in her hand before retrieving an arrow. After years of practice with the balance, she could shoot nearly as well with the weight of her daggers attached to her wrists as without, and she would probably only be able to use it once anyway. For an instant she was reminded of Hennis, but pushed it away.

Ready to strike, she waited no longer, releasing her arrow to drive cleanly through the heart of one of the women sculpted by even as they were corrupted by magic. Anna rushed forward, eyes looking for the slightest predictors of how they would move. The beasts howled and rushed forward to meet her.

Timing where they would meet, at the last moment she launched herself to her left to climb the wall. By the time the beast’s solid forearm swiped, it was squealing in pain as she used her momentum and the anchor of the dagger now firmly in his shoulder to put herself behind him.

From the corner of her eye she saw the hand of the second half-mage begin to glow red as it harnessed energy. The thought Push. came to her unbidden and Anna extended her arm.

Struck by the unseen force, the other woman hit the wall with a shocked cry and the bolt of energy went high as Anna went low to bury both daggers into the chest of the second beast that had turned to her. Using the pain and confusion around her, she closed the distance, finishing the mage with a strike to the heart as well, taking great satisfaction in watching the hollow eyes drain of life.

Turning to see the second creature paw at its wounds before losing itself and joining its counterpart on the ground she looked into the room that held her goal, feeling like she was in the flow itself even from here. Unsure if Maylin could actually hear her, her mind called out. I’m here. Now what?

In her mind flashed symbols in the form of runes, a specific sequence of seven that she had to open her mind to and use the power around her to imprint to her body that would protect her from the toxic gasses around her. The wards protected others from them, but she might be exposed once she breached them herself. Imprinting them exactly as her mind showed her at each step, her lungs tingled as though she had just taken in lungs full of winter’s bitter air.

The cavern itself was long and narrow, leaving room on either side for little else and only three or four men high. The lava was like a lattice of black and orange following the path carved by it and for it that went in both directions and as far as she could see. She dropped to her knees and waited,

Then, what had been a sense of Maylin up to now became more the sharing as it was when the link was first forged. Words came into Anna’s mind that she had never heard before, but she knew what they meant and the precise inflection with which they had to be said. Her fingers twitched and curled on their own; Anna watching fascinated as they marked the very waves of heat.

After long moments she knew it was time and brought her hands with her still moving fingers closer to the essence of power that built the world. She saw the wards as a blizzard of golden flecks of light swirling around her, fingers, then hands, then wrists trying to stop a spell they were never meant to.

Anna’s hands touched the lava, sank inside, and did not burn.

Wonderous.

To Be Continued…