The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Neral walked with purpose. “One must always walk with purpose,” her mother had told her often, “head up, spine straight, and eyes ahead. Never look like you don’t know where you’re going or what you’ll do when you get there. We are judged in all things.”

In the hindsight provided by the journey from child to adult, she realized that her mother was speaking the truth on a great many levels. Being of noble birth from one of the most well-known and longest-surviving Houses in the land it seemed that sometimes not a breath could be taken without someone taking note and whispering their commentary at the next party or official function, though sometimes it seemed there was very little difference between one and the other.

Then there was the fact that her future in the military was virtually mandated by her House of birth. It wasn’t much of an exaggeration to say that much of the military history of her land was written by her ancestors who had served on the line in almost every position, from messenger, to medic, to marksman, to leader of men; the latter leading to another point of judgment far older than her House. Mother had taught her the fine points of marching even as she took Neral to the park as a girl.

More of mother’s wisdom came with drilling into her and her sisters on a near daily basis that, as a woman, she would have to prove herself twice better than the best male simply to be considered an equal. That had proven far closer to true than not, and if it were not for her family’s closeness to the royal house, opportunities to rise may not have come at all, but they did and Neral knew that her job was to take them when they came and to excel in such a way that no one could question her skill. She did that many times over until she stood today as only the third woman to be placed in charge of her kingdom’s military.

As much as part of her relished the battles as they came to her, she preferred peace, if for no other reason than she wasn’t in a position to have to order someone’s spouse or children to their deaths. Being a woman of honest introspection however, she hated that peace usually consisted of meeting after meeting, either greeting people she’d never seen before and would never see again, or explaining the same intricacies of battle or logistics to the queen’s advisers over and over again. Fortunately the queen often took pity on her and aided where she could to make the time pass more painlessly.

Despite those efforts Neral would be happy to finally be home for the evening. It was a short trip from the castle to her estate. Even its placement mattered in the grand scheme, showing all her family’s position near the royals themselves. She walked up the stone pathway, beginning to remove her cloak just before reaching the door, which opened just before she reached it, “My Lady.” The soft voice greeted her as it always did: firmly, but as if the girl could be frightened away. “A good day?”

Neral crossed the threshold and handed Tessa her cloak, “Thank you, Tessa. It was a...normal day. That it wasn’t particularly bad is always a positive.”

“Of course.” Tessa trailed behind as Neral walked, the curls of her copper hair bouncing with each step as she filled in her Lady on the events of the day. For her part, Neral was already focused on how she might spend the evening and how tomorrow would unfold. Part of her mind was there and part was listening for keywords from Tessa, good ones and bad, but a certain sequence stopped her in her tracks. She turned and eyed the smaller girl, “What guest?”

Those green eyes projected puzzlement and her body shied away slightly, “Deres. He said he was expected.”

Neral was irritated, which caused Tessa to shrink towards the wall a bit more, “Someone knocks on the door and you let them in because they say they’re expected?”

“Certainly not,” She looked appalled at the suggestion. “I checked the book and his appointment was already set.”

She sighed. “Show me.”

Tessa hurried away and returned with the appointment book. Rifling through the pages quickly she found where the entry should have been. She puzzled at not seeing it and became visibly flustered. Tessa flipped pages back and forth thinking that perhaps she’d entered it in the wrong place. “The appointment was made. I’m certain of it. I—”

She was more annoyed for the fact that her day wasn’t over and what few hows she would have to herself would be further whittled away by whatever this Deres wanted than by the fact that it wasn’t entered even though the girl usually missed nothing. The young assistant could rattle off Neral’s daily schedule between the time she’d finished breakfast and the time that she’d headed out to actually accomplish it.

The oddity troubled Tessa a good deal as she tried to resolve the issue in her own mind. “I...I’m sorry, it must have slipped my mind.”

Neral saw the extent to which it was troubling the poor girl and took it as a sign of contrition, “Don’t worry about it”, she said, placing her hand gently on her aide’s shoulder, “everyone forgets now and then. I’d probably go out half-dressed most days if it weren’t for you.”

Tessa’s eyes lit as she breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank you. Again, I’m very sorry.”

Neral waved it off with a flourish as Tessa once again started to trail behind. “It’ll be fine. Where did you put him?”

“In your study.” Her tone was once again self-assured, having taken Neral’s dismissal of the issue at face value. “He declined any refreshment. Should I bring you something?”

“No, thank you.” She actually took it as a good sign that he didn’t want anything. Perhaps his issue could be quickly disposed of and she could still have time for a quick meal, a long bath and a book in bed.

Half a dozen steps from the door Tessa scampered ahead to open it for her. The handle turned with a loud click and the heavy wooden door to her study pushed inward. It was a large room, but not so that it lacked a sense of intimacy. The small fireplace was alive with a steadily flickering fire and the air had the spicy scent it always carried because of the oils and powders used to maintain the furnishings as well as the books themselves. At first glance the room was empty until Neral turned to her right to see the man known as Deres, neck craned, examining a row of spines just above him. When he turned to look at her she eyed him carefully, attempting to take his measure. It was an almost reflexive habit these days that tended to cause those with softer spines to wilt under her gaze. The enlisted men often whispered that the battles she’d won came simply from staring her enemy down.

This one’s spine wasn’t soft though. He was a good head shorter than she with blue eyes that seemed at once piercing and playful. His body was solidly as well, as though he’d worked most of his life. Clearly he was no stranger to fighting either. His stance, at once casual but with enough tension held in the legs that told her he would be ready to move in the blink of an eye. His cloaks were dark and just worn enough to be broken in and comfortable.

Of course, he looked her over as men often did, though he at least had the class to not leer and she didn’t begrudge anyone a look. Even the rank and file soldiers were allowed a glance and a daydream so long as they looked at her with respect when she looked them in the eye and did their jobs. Men were men, they were going to look and dream anyway so she may as well accept that and meet them with that unspoken compromise.

And, being honest with herself, she was attractive enough and didn’t mind the looks. Tall with deep brown eyes and hair almost the same color that flowed to her shoulder, sharp features and a firm jawline with a few small scars here and there that added character. Add to that the muscle of a runner and a rider and a fighter and she knew she had appeal.

Chastising herself for the momentary lapse into vanity and focused on the stranger in her study. Extending her hand, she met his gaze, “General Neral Jaye, “ though I assume you already knew that as you went to all the effort come see me, and at such a late hour.”

His grip was firm without attempting to assert dominance, “I did. It’s my pleasure to meet you. He took his hand from hers and shifted on his feet slightly, “I didn’t want to presume before your arrival, but I’m feeling a bit prickly.”

The slight brush of his hand against his cloak was all the cue she needed. “Please, make yourself comfortable.”

He exhaled sharply as he put his hand to the clasp of his cloak, “The old manors in this quarter were built to withstand siege as I recall. They don’t lose a bit of heat, do they?”

“Since most nights have bite...”

“True enough.” He rested the cloak on the back of the chair in front of her reading desk. The clothes under were more casual and loose, but didn’t hide that broad chest. Add to that piercing blue eyes and close-cropped dark hair and he was most attractive in his own way.

Eager to move things along she ignored his interruption, “I would have met with you sooner, but I’m afraid our meeting slipped the mind of my servant. She’s usually very good with such things.”

He waved her off, “Don’t worry about it. She didn’t remember a meeting before an hour ago because that’s when I put it in her head.”

He said it so casually, as though he were commenting on the shape of a cloud, that it took her a moment to process it and stayed silent as he turned the chair slightly to face her, “Did you say you...put it in her head?”

“I did.” He said it with that same casual air. You should commend her. She was very resistant at first at even such a small thing. She’s quite loyal to you, but once I assured her that I meant you no harm and I let her feel that, she was quite easy to work with.”

“You’re a sorcerer then?” She barely kept the derision from her voice. Magics had their uses, but only in the healing arts. It was said that its power could be nearly infinite, but most of the texts that might lead down those roads were lost to war, time, and fear of corruption. As generations passed, to her people and many of their neighbors, the fact that it could be much more was nearly myth. Even so, this Deres believed it was more and acted as though it were so and that made him definitely unhinged and possibly dangerous.

She made a wide arc around the table while still trying to appear at ease, putting it between them. She was grateful for her mother’s dagger at her thigh, though she couldn’t help but wonder what good it would do if he were speaking the truth. It did make a sort of strange sense, as Tessa simply wouldn’t have forgotten the appointment.

“ ‘Mage’ works for me. “Sorcerer has always seemed far too highbrow a term.”

Entertaining him seemed the wisest course until she could figure out more of what it was about. “All right, Mage Deres, what is it that you think I can do for you?”

He turned the chair back to face her and rested his hands on the table, “It’s what we can do for each other at the end of the day. But, for now, I only ask that you sit and listen to what I have to say. At the end, you’ll know its truth. If you reject my offer I’ll be gone, you’ll forget I was ever here, and what will happen will happen as it was going to without me.”

Those last words weighed on her. He was definitely dangerous, but maddening in her inability to read his motives. Despite her control, her frustration slipped into her words, “Why not just make me believe whatever you want?”

The first words from his mouth chilled her to the bone, “I could. Given enough time I could play your mind like an instrument.” He softened his expression, offering a glimpse perhaps into...what, she wondered as she scanned him, a heavy heart? “But I don’t want that. It’s already been done to you quite enough and that’s not what I want.” Please. Sit and hear me out.”

Her jaw tightened and fire burned in her eyes as she contemplated the dagger going across his throat at the implication, “What, by the Goddess, do you mean that it’s been done enough to me already?”

He met her anger with calm, spreading his arms and raising his palms at the table in a sort of surrender. “I really will tell you everything. Just sit.”

She sneered at him, “Why don’t you just float a chair over to me, Sorcerer?”

His eyes closed for a moment before his lips turned upward in a grin before opening again to see her staring at the chair that was once in the far corner of the room dropped behind her. “No strings or anything. Sit. Please?”

Neral was at a loss for the moment at seeing what was once a mythical use of power anchor itself in reality. Listening seemed to offer her the best opportunity to compose herself and investigate this man further, so she sat and waited for him to begin, and he finally did.

“I was born in a hovel on the south side of this city. You know, one of the places you wouldn’t go unless you were ordered?”

She stiffened at the reality. It was the hard edge of town. Life was hand-to-mouth for most. Nobility never went there and the military only did to quell the occasional bouts of unrest, and even then only when it threatened to spill out into the rest of the city. It was a place for people with no place. Migrants with no place to claim as their own ended up there as did petty criminals and those who had been, for whatever reason, cast off from their families. They were drawn in for whatever reason and that’s where they lived their lives. Many claimed to prefer the sense of freedom it provided, but Neral couldn’t bring herself to believe it.

“My mother died when I was too young to remember her face and my father died when I was six over a gambling debt in a bar, or so I was told.”

“I’m sorry for both.”

“No sympathy needed,” he said, eyes distant for a fleeting moment, “no pity wanted. But, if you offer the former, thank you.” He went back to his story. “I was taken care of for a time by some friends of his, but they had their own mouths to feed and their own problems, so I was left to my own devices. As you might expect I learned to feed myself with pilfering here or a quick pick-pocket of the middle-class merchants that come to buy the handmade wares.”

He smiled at the memory and it was actually a warm one, “I got quite good at it. I still am. Anyway, I was about eight and a woman happened through. She looked like all the rest of the middle-class ones: a little dim and quick to be in and gone. I saw the hint of a gold chain peeking from a pouch at her belt. If the gold was good enough I could eat for weeks.”

“You got it, I take it.”

He was incredulous, “Of course I did. I told you I was good. I tracked her and I got it. But that gold chain was keeping blue stone that looked alive. Light swirled in currents in its center. Idiot child that I was I thought it was some special jewel that belonged to some grand House. If I could offer that perhaps some family would adopt me and I’d be all right.”

Neral almost said she was sorry again, but stopped herself as that one really would have been nothing but pity.

“I knew my part of the world pretty well. I could weave through crowds and fit through cracks in the mortar with the best of them. Imagine my surprise when this waif of a woman came from nowhere and picked me up one-handed as you might pick up a twig. You see, I’d taken a talisman of hers that she was tied to. There was nowhere in the world I could have gone that she would not have found me.”

He extended his arm, hand in a claw, grasping an imaginary neck, amused expression on his face. “Those eyes looked through me for forever. Then she grinned and let me down, telling me I had a gift.” Lowering his arm, he pressed on, “Either way I was giving the talisman back, but she gave me a choice: come with her to a life in a place I could only dream of, or stay here. I had no parents, she had no children, and if I said yes, perhaps we had things to offer one another. Since the something she offered was better than the nothing I had, I said yes.”

He leaned casually back in the chair, it creaking slightly at the redistribution of weight, “So off to Adar we went.”

She stopped him there at the mention of the name, the disbelief readable to anyone with eyes. She failed to stile a small laugh, “You were raised in the fairy tale city where there is no want over the mountains and beyond the wastes where nothing lives?”

He nodded, “I lived there. I was raised there. It’s a beautiful city. There’s little crime, petty or otherwise, and the people work together because for centuries had they not they’d all be dead. Science and magic co-exist peacefully and all lives have value. Is it perfect?” He shook his head in answer, “No place is, but it was paradise to a boy who slept under houses.”

Neral folded her arms across her chest as a ward against the ever more fantastic story. Insane. Definitely.

Deres paid the gesture no mind. “Too late to make a long story short, but she raised me and taught me her skills, which I am indeed gifted in. I loved her as my mother and still do. She loved me as her child and still does.”

Her head tilted, taking his measure, “Then why come back here? Why leave life in paradise to come back?”

He sighed, “Because as insane as you think I am, I may be. As horrible as it was in many ways, I miss home. I miss the cold nights and the view of the mountains and the fragrance of the wildflowers in spring.” He thought back fondly, “Mother thought I was insane, too, but she kissed my forehead and wished me well as mothers do.”

“Welcome home.” Sincerity was lacking in her tone. He was maddening. Those blue eyes were still playful, as though he never took anything seriously, except perhaps his stories. “What brings you to me?”

“Magic,” he said plainly, seemingly done dancing around the edges, “I happened to see you and your servant at one of the upper markets a few weeks ago.” He turned almost shy looking across the table at her. “You really are beautiful, you know. I could have followed you around forever just for that. But the magic coming off of you piqued my interest in that it was there at all and was well-concealed. She has some skill, that one. She’s not my equal by a mile, but she has some skill.”

The unease came back with a vengeance, “Magic coming from me? What are you talking about? And who is ‘she?’

He shook his head and, for the first time, looked annoyed, tension creasing his forehead and brow, “I don’t know yet, to be honest. My investigating of this had to be a bit more traditional than I would have liked. Ordinarily, I would have rummaged through a mind or three and found what I needed, but magic leaves a mark. I wasn’t sure if she would see it or what she would do if she did. If she called on others, it would surely make things more difficult.

“She seems to be a member of one of the mercenary guilds that you and your more grand neighbors pretend don’t exist because, if you only use magic to heal, surely everyone else does the same because you are to be emulated in all things, no?”

Sarcasm dripped from the last and she all but felt it. “So you’re telling me some woman from a secret guild of dark mages has cast a spell on me without my having a clue?” The sheer absurdity was almost stunning.

I watched her slip into this house and presumably into your room several nights a week since I started looking around. That and I’m almost certain that the Royal House of the Kressin hired them.”

A cold, dark pit formed in the center of her stomach. Kressin was a small kingdom in the Eastland that once spanned half the continent. They ruled with brutality for centuries until the noble houses there that would eventually form the basis for the five kingdoms that ruled most of the world today today led a rebellion, fracturing the Kressin. Over the course of generations the remnants had tried everything from open warfare to sowing seeds of discontent. Why her people and those of the other nations hadn’t simply driven them from existence was lost to history. Perhaps it was a misguided sense of mercy or it was punishment; a permanent reminder to them of all they had lost.

But, with the last war, centuries ago, it was Neral’s own people that had formed the bulk of the military force on the planet, having the largest, so it was they that the Kressin blamed most for being driven back and kept from their rightful place.

“There’s an anniversary coming up, isn’t there?,” His eyes expressed concern and what she took as sympathy for her.

She nodded slightly, lost in the ramifications, her dark eyes peering elsewhere, but she smiled at her own resolve, “We will be prepared. We will crush them.”

“No, you won’t. Not when it’s you that made it possible that they win once and for all.”

“I would never…”

“Knowingly,” he interjected.

She couldn’t get past the implication that she would aid enemies of her people. That this loon with parlor tricks would come to her home to game her to whatever end was bad enough, but to suggest that she would aid them. Nothing could make her. She stood in a flash and spat words at him, “Get out.”

His hand took her off-hand in an iron grip. Without planning the action her other hand went to the dagger at her thigh.

Her fingers closed around the hilt before it didn’t matter and visions crashed her consciousness, taking her from her study.

She saw herself and her horse traveling the muddy path from guard post to guard post that she followed weekly to remain in touch with her soldiers and scouts when she saw that first flicker of unexplained light that lured her into a field near a small growth of trees.

She saw the entrancing light of the lure reflected in the eyes of her enchantress. Easily her height with wisps of blonde hair coming from under her cowl in soft curls, something in looking into those eyes had made it impossible to move.

Then the touches came that made it impossible to want to.

The way her fingers drew so gently along her forehead and down her temples before shifting directions to go up her cheeks and then down her jaw as though Neral might break if too much pressure were applied made her heart race in her chest. On top of that was the way they made her nipples crush themselves against the padding beneath her armor and her pussy dribble juice like a spring rain from the roof of her home.

She remembered the nights when the room was pitch black and there was no seeing her, but there was the feeling of her long fingers up under her slip, brutally owning her insides while that thumb pressed down in hard circles on her clit while she clenched her fingers around wadded sheets and lifted and whined like a nobleman’s bedpet. The orgasms ripped through her one into the next to the point where she now wondered if the same magic had kept her sane during. As it was, her mind was emptied of everything but that glorious sensation and the promise of more.

That and the words.

Try as she might she couldn’t focus on any one specifically. They came across as but a jumble of sound, but she knew how they made her feel. They were tantalizing and seductive and promised endless joy and all she had to do was obey them.

And she did. She saw herself in meeting after meeting, making subtle changes to scouting routes here and opening the distance between manned outposts there. She’d done it all and expertly allayed the concerns of subordinates and the queen herself. The core of the kingdom was too well-fortified for an all out assault with anything short of an army, the gaps she created would allow small teams to sneak through unnoticed and cause untold damage to the cities and small towns along the border before anyone could regroup and react.

And the queen. She could remember no words that told her, but she knew the beast wanted her to kill the queen. Neral was one of the few who could come and go from the queen’s presence with impunity. In the panic that would ensue as word of the guerrilla strikes spread would be the perfect time to let her mother’s dagger glide across the queen’s throat. The horror of that act alone was impossible to put to words.

Whatever the damage done and lives lost, the fault would be hers. Her family would pay as well, banished to the hovels that Deres came from if they weren’t hung as conspirators as her entire line was simply purged. She tried to tell herself for a moment that the images were more of his parlor tricks, but she knew it wasn’t true. Those images were real. She’d done the things she’d now remembered doing and, while the queen was still alive and well, that last vision could become as real as the rest. Tears ran down her cheeks as she contemplated the enormity of all that had been taken from her already.

She collapsed in her chair as the tears flowed. His hand still held hers, but it just rested there in sympathy. Indeed, a range of emotions seemed to play across his own features.

Everything she thought she was was turned upside down in the space of moments. Her dignity lay in tatters after the spell casting of a vile witch. She’d betrayed her people already. That it hadn’t yet come to a bloody result didn’t matter just now. By comparison, it was almost irrelevant that she writhed with a woman, something that hadn’t ever been a desire beyond something her mind wandered to as she slept.

She pulled her hand away from his, ignored the tears, and stood to her full height. “Thank you for telling me. I am in your debt, she said, keeping her tone formal. She wandered toward the fire. The heat was like the hug of a friend and the flames licking upward helped her focus and dry her tears. Neral knew the witch had to be stopped, but how was the question. The tactician in her played the most obvious choices in her head and countered them. In short order she came to realize that her only choice was to capture the bitch, to, at the very least, be certain that there was no alternate plan. But even that was fraught with risk.

Not turning from the flames she voiced her conclusions, ending with a question, “You are her better in this magic, yes?”

She heard his voice from over her shoulder as he moved behind her. “She’s skilled and not to be taken lightly, but I’m better at this than she is in ways she can’t comprehend.”

“I realize that your childhood home hasn’t always been kind to you, but the land has appealed enough for you to still call it home and come back to it. Will you aid your homeland when it needs you?” She closed her eyes for a moment, unwilling to admit how badly she needed the answer to be yes.”

“What is my help worth to you?”

There it was. She’d expected it and there it was. It wasn’t a bad thing though; she needed help and he was willing to give it. All that was left was to make a deal on price. She turned to meet his eyes. My House is wealthy enough to make you so.”

He smirked, and when he did he looked like a prankster about to spring his trap. “I’m sure it is, but I have no need for that.”

She didn’t know how much time she had to act so she didn’t have time to haggle. “So what do you want?”

“You already know what I want. I want very much to return home.”

She was at a loss, “So return home.”

He raised his brows at her, “No House to claim me, remember?”

“If you have no need of money, then you have wealth enough. If you have wealth enough, you don’t need a House; wealth enough and you can buy your own.”

He turned from her and walked two steps back before doing a half turn and sitting on the table with aplomb, “Yes. With the difference between my childhood and now being that they’d be slightly less inclined to laugh in my face and my children get whispered about for a few generations before they finally cross the threshold to old nobility.”

“Or, the queen could grant me title given my...special service to the kingdom. No one would dare say a word. But, then, you’d have to tell her what that special service was,” noting the unsubtle manner in which Neral clenched her teeth, “which, quite understandably, you’d rather not.”

“Now, it seems to me,” he worked to sound nonchalant about the whole thing, “and I’m just presenting this as an idea, if you were to marry me it would solve both our problems. I’d, of course, help you with your problem. In return mine gets solved as well. Marrying up isn’t unheard of, and with your status on your own as well as your ties to the royal family, the snickering would die down quickly.”

She almost didn’t believe she’d heard it, but once she’d taken it in she shook her head at him, derision in her tone. “So much for your love of home. You could prevent untold suffering and all you can think about is what’s in it for you.”

He shrugged. “I can do both.” As her expression soured even more he threw up his hands a bit and took on a more serious tone. “No. I don’t want anything to happen to anyone. Yes. I want to come home when it’s really sort of crazy for me to want to at all. What’s wrong with me wanting to have a decent life once I do?” His lowered his tone, “It’s not as if I’d be a terrible husband. I could be very helpful to you. But I’d be a fool not to take advantage of an opportunity that comes to me.”

She searched his face. She’d had to learn early on how to judge and read others; to know which people would have her back in a battle and which would flee at the first cry or spray of blood. Outside of that, she had to know who to trust in the game of strategy that was Court politics. Something in the pit of her stomach said she could and she’d always trusted that place, but she had to wonder if he wasn’t already weaving some spell on her to make her agreeable.

No. In spite of everything she had to trust herself. If she already considered herself that damaged she may as well crawl under the covers of her bed and never come out, as she’d be useless to everyone, herself included. Besides, if he were truly malevolent and could do more of what the other did and, according to him, do it better, he could make her do as he pleased anyway.

Neral thought a long time, not sure that she wanted to hear the answer to the question, but she had to ask, “Would you help me even if I don’t agree to your terms?”

He looked away in thought, “I don’t know.” Looking back to her, “I accept that that may make me a less than perfect soul, but then, I never claimed to be.” That grin played at the corners of his mouth. Fortunately, I don’t have to decide that because you’re going to agree.”

She groused and he continued before she could speak. He loved the way those brown eyes could smolder. “I didn’t go rooting around in your mind when I unlocked those memories. I didn’t plant anything. All I did was read what was there. You didn’t care what happened to you. You didn’t care if you were driven from your home and you didn’t care if you hung from the nearest tree. What mattered to you was your family, and your people. You’ve given your life in service to them. They matter to you more than you. In the face of that, marrying some man from the dregs of the city who can help you save them is nothing by comparison, is it?”

It wasn’t. She was only angry at him for pointing it out. He was right of course. She’d risked her life for them countless times on the field and would die for any of them if need be, class be damned. She allowed herself one more flash of anger for the fact that he already knew what her answer would be. The flare spent, she took a deep breath to steel herself. “If your assistance prevents this attack, then, yes, I agree.”

The smug and coy were gone for a moment. Did he look happy? Yes. There was warmth there. There was a good man there under the surface so perhaps being married to him wouldn’t be so horrible in the end and she said so aloud.

“I have something that might make your married life much more pleasant.” He walked to his cloak and, fishing through one of the pockets, he produced a small red rectangle that looked like a slip of glass.

She looked down at it, not daring to touch it, “What is it?”

He held it between thumb and forefinger for a moment, letting the light catch it before placing it in his palm. “A spell. Break the glass and you’ll love me. Always.”

Her stomach turned and it was all she could do not to spit on him, “Your puppet instead of hers then? How ever will I choose?”

He shook his head before closing his hand around it and, for the first time, she saw irritation crease his features, “Not a puppet, if I wanted a drone I could make a dozen. You would still be you. You would still be the noble woman and noblewoman you are today. I won’t lie to you; this would change you a bit around the edges, but the soldier and woman you are at your core would be there as strongly after the spell as before. Anyone would be a fool to change that which makes you so beautiful.”

Those eyes again with that gentleness to them that suggested something desirable beneath the rest.

Damn it.

“I’ve watched you indirectly inasmuch as I’ve watched her watch you. I would never take you from yourself as she has.”

“But you’re fine with making me love you.”

“Not making you,” he corrected quickly. “As a choice was once given to me, I give it to you.”

She stepped back from him, ready to fight. In response, he took the crystal and dropped it back into the pocket of his cloak carefully so that she could see it done without any attempt at misdirection. “I can’t break it. The only thing that can is your will that it does. You will still be you. You’ll still be the proud woman and leader willing to give her life for her people.” That look that attempted to make slightly smug look adorable appeared again. “The only difference is that you would love me... adore me, really. There’s a certain deference and willingness to accommodate that comes with that, of course, but you would still belong to you.”

She shook her head, “No. If you help me I will marry you. I’ll endure the teasing of my sisters and the whispers at Court. I’ll be a dutiful mate, but nothing else to you.”

“Even though what I offer, part of you wants?”

She snorted at him, “You are insane.”

He drew closer, but she didn’t pull away, “I only read what was there. She manipulated you, yes, but she stoked embers that were already glowing even if you pretended they weren’t there. Part of you liked her filling your mind against your will. Part of you ached for the next command just so you could follow it. Part of you liked her pulling your mind open in submission even as much as you loathed why.”

Her throat tightened at the words. If only she were better at self-delusion. She jumped despite herself as he took her hand in his. She looked down to make sure he hadn’t somehow palmed the crystal. Seeing that he hadn’t, her eyes drifted back up to his.

“You live a lonely life in many ways. You had to, and I understand, but it felt good to be more than desired. As much physical pleasure as she gave you whether you wanted it or not, it felt good to be owned. You liked that and we both know you did. All I’m suggesting is that you let yourself have a bit of that feeling with one who respects you and knows what they have in the woman that is you.”

Her mouth opened as if to speak, but she closed it because she feared what she might say in response.

He pulled his hand from hers, retreating from her a little, “Something to think on.” He cleared his throat. “Whatever she or they have planned, it has to be in its final stages, if not now, soon. Regardless, she’ll visit you again, either to give you more tasks to perform, make sure you’ve done the ones already set, or to make sure that you haven’t found out or been found out.”

Neral was grateful to have something to focus on that was more in tune with her expertise. “That’s...tactically sound.” She watched this Deres head back to the bookcase and examine one of the tan leather bound novels that was nearly out of his reach. “I assume you have a plan?”

He spoke as he thumbed pages, not looking up at her, “I have all I need, Neral.” He finally looked up. “Can I call you Neral? I mean, we have just been betrothed, so it doesn’t seem too out of line, does it?”

“Conditionally so,” she corrected.

There was the smug that she wanted to slap from his face again as he waved her off, “It’ll work out. I’ve been planning on how to deal with this since I started having an idea what was going on in the first place.”

She didn’t hide her irritation as she approached him, “I don’t care for your certainty that I was simply going to agree to your offer.”

“No magic involved, Neral. One simply doesn’t hold the position you do without being pragmatic.” He closed the book and put it back, reminding himself to read it later, as the title was interesting. Focusing his attention on her once again he smiled and asked, “Where’s your bedroom?”

Her annoyance at the question was forgotten quickly as she realized why he wanted to be there. The witch had come to her there before and most likely would again, so there is where the trap would be set. Neral was admittedly fascinated watching him work even if she understood none of it. He explained the basics of the snare and the wards he would use before setting to work. She stood just outside the door watching him with his eyes closed, deep in concentration, lips moving in whispers and fingers occasionally drawing into the air as he orbited the room over and over. She didn’t know what energy he was drawing from but to do so was clearly an exertion on his part with the knotted brow and sweat forming at the hairline. Finally, he sat at the edge of the bed, breathing deeply, looking tired. Deres looked around the room seeing things she did not before straightening up. “It’s done.”

“You’re sure?”

He nodded, “The hard part wasn’t the snare or the wards, it was covering it all up so she doesn’t sense it the minute she comes in. I know I’m better than she is, but I don’t know for sure by how much so there’s no margin for error. We don’t know what plans she has in place or backup, so this has to work first shot.”

“All I thought of watching you work is what fools we are.” Neral took the edge of the bed to his left, “There’s all this magic around us and it can do all these things and all we use it for is to heal the sickest of the sick and the most wounded. It’s a wonder we haven’t all been burned down by mage fire.”

He shook his head, “You’re not fools. It’s dangerous, and you know that better than almost anyone here right now. You’ve learned to use what’s most beneficial to you and buried the rest, that’s not a bad thing. And the magic is not as common as you think. The bands of mages she no doubt comes from are small and layered in secrecy exactly because you and your allies are so fearful and unified against magic’s broad use. You’d burn them out of wherever you found them if they were more than whispers.

Neral’s anger flared again, brown eyes seeming to darken from the rush of emotion,“I would lead that charge.”

He looked at her, smile in his eyes, Her anger gave way to fluttery nervousness, hair on the back of her neck standing up. It wasn’t something she wanted, but Deres was right, she was a pragmatist. “I’m ready.”

He looked at her, taken aback, “For what?”

The words tasted like bile, “For you to wipe my memory of all this so that she doesn’t know that she’s compromised.”

He saw the look at her face and the pain and resignation tugged at him, “No need for that. I won’t do that to you. All you need do is behave normally and refrain from standing in the middle of the street searching for her.” They both grinned, sharing the vision, “You won’t see her watching you and you won’t see me watching her.”

There was no small measure of relief that her thoughts and memories would remain hers, “Won’t she sense my memory of you, or...”

Deres’s voice was reassuring, “She doesn’t dare get close enough to you during the day to sense a trace of me, mage or not there are too many variables and she’d risk detection. No, here is where she comes to you, and once she enters this room she’s caught, so it doesn’t matter if she senses the memory of me in your head or not.”

“That actually makes me feel better, if anything in this can.” She suddenly became uncomfortable with his gaze. “What?”

“You are even more beautiful when you smile.”

The smile broadened and she turned away for a few moments with the embarrassment of it. She saved herself by grasping on to the other, more somber topic she needed to broach. “If this works out, you know I will keep my word.”

He looked at her, the wondering on his face made her sure he wasn’t rooting around in her head, “Of course.”

“I will marry you and do my best to be a, she searched for the right word, “satisfactory wife, not that I have much idea what that is.”

Deres wanted to make whatever it was easier for her, “Such a high bar to set for yourself, are you sure you can manage?”

She ignored it. “I need your word on something as well. If this doesn’t work and something happens and I end up dead or...what might be worse than dead with all this milling around in my head that has been done of late, give me your word you will do whatever you can to stop people from being hurt. Promise me you will try to save the queen, and many of the people who would take the brunt of this in the villages are people not unlike you used to be. Do what you can to help them.”

He reached for her hand as he looked into her eyes, “You’re going to be fine.”

“I’ve planned a great many things well on the battlefield. Rarely did they go as I’d planned.”

His voice was tinged with smugness as though he’d caught her, “But sometimes they did. This will, too.” He squeezed her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. “You’ve got my word. I’ll help and, if I have to, die helping them, though I’d be happy skipping that last one.”

She believed him and, looking down, realized that the feeling of his hand in hers wasn’t so foreign or terrible a thing after all.