The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Thank you for your swift reply to my epistle, which arrived even before I could pen the sequel to those thoughts which I confided in you. For it is dank and lonely here in the Chamber of the Unicorn, a habitation which, in spite of its dainty appellation, has seen more cruelty than chivalry. On one wall there is a window by which I may see half the sky and the city below, while on the opposing side there is a gnarled tapestry on which the faint embroidery of a unicorn may still be perceived. It is a pathetic remnant of generations past, dominated by the troubadours and their cult of love, a time prior to the rise of the new sciences. Now we know, and by we I mean those who make it their business to know, that there is no more mystery to love than to the loadstone. In a hundred years I dare say nobody in Europe will have the nerve to write a love song. However by that time the mortal part of you and I shall be, like this tapestry, food for moths and worms, and I much sooner than that.

Therefore it was with joy that I tore open your missive, however when I reached its content I was filled with consternation. For you do me the wrong of suggesting that I dealt with the Lady Leonora in the manner of those who practice the black arts. I bid you remember Telesio, that it was not I, but Fra Scarpiglione, who first reduced her to slavery. What could be more deceitful than the practices of that black robed monk, for he seduced the lady in broad daylight. Not, in so far as I can determine, the seduction of the couch but of the throne. For in seizing the throne she became his pawn, and in becoming the daystar of our city she served only to blind the eyes of the people to the dark machinations by which he controlled the state. Therefore I decided to rend the veil asunder, and to expose his naked duplicity to the inspection of human opinion.

As you know Telesio, all disciples of the Master, you and I included, were forsworn to abjure the seduction of virgins. Yet I find nothing virginal, at least in spirit, about the Lady Leonora. Rather she allowed herself to be ravished by the words and doctrines of Fra Scarpiglione, and then compelled both the court and the citizenry of Parva to suffer the same, on pain of being handed over to the office of the Inquisition. What more abject slavery could one be subjected to than to serve another and yet to think oneself to be a sovereign? Yet this was the condition which Fra Scarpiglione imposed upon our regent the princess. Therefore I made it my resolve to emancipate her from this condition, and swore that if I succeeded in transferring her from the clutches of Fra Scarpiglione and into my own, that she would at least be granted the boon of knowing that she was a slave, and the privilege of wearing her manacles openly.

But I cannot hope to secure your approbation with appeals to the purity of my motives. Rather, let me continue my account of how I insinuated myself into the confidence of the Lady Leonora, and the inevitable results which ensued from such. In that way you will begin to grasp the outlines of my grand scheme...and see how utterly chaste and selfless was my intent.

Soon we were meeting regularly, several times each week, either in her study or, weather permitting, in the enclosed garden which had been the site of my first audience with her ladyship. In the latter case I allowed her the company of her lute, for I wished her to remain happy, at ease, and off her guard during those precious hours when I was able to gain her attention.

She progressed with remarkable speed in the discipline of forgetfulness. Soon she could banish any irritating memory from her mind at will. It is, as you know well, an elementary and very legitimate technique. Fortunately she had never been tutored in mental philosophy by anyone before, or she would have realized the danger of having someone else prescribe one’s banishing formula. Therefore, my Trojan horse having been firmly positioned in her citadel, it was only a matter of time and labor until the full measure of her subversion was accomplished.

“You are now, having mastered forgetfulness, ready to commence your studies of memory proper.” I announced by the third week of our studies.

“So soon?” She gasped, “But there are still so many things that I have to forget.”

“How much do you wish to forget my lady? If you wish it can be arranged that you forget to put your clothes on in the morning, so that you might reign each day like Eve in the garden of earthly delights.”

The princess regent gave an uncharacteristic blush. I reflected that it would indeed be a pity to deprive her of her wardrobe, for she wore it well, although justice and the consummation of my plan would eventually require it. At the moment we spoke she wore a saffron skirt trimmed with purple, sleeves of the same filled with woolen stuff at the shoulders and a heavy but low bodice of silver damascene laced with golden cords which tightened her waist as they accentuated the thrust of her chest, bare to a line slightly above the nipples. At one extremity she was shod in slippers of silver cloth, and at the other the ample amber hair which fell loose about her shoulders was adorned by the elegant simplicity of a circlet about her brow. As besotted as she was by the outward seeming austerity of Fra Scarpiglione, the princess regent had never been able to eschew ostentation. She, and the inner circle of her court, had purchased sumptuary indulgences from the monk who, in turn, being sworn to poverty, entrusted the proceeds to the coffers of the Madonna of Good Works, a local shrine who’s sole warden and trustee was none other than Fra Scarpiglione himself. The court’s revenues were in turn partially derived from the sumptuary legislation of the princess regent and her council which had requisitioned all gold and silver ornaments, jewelry, and fine cloth.

“Master Isidor!” She cried after a pause in which she had no doubt contemplated the pretty picture which I had drawn in speech. “What impudent boldness of expression! You are fortunate indeed that I have come to value your counsel, and grown tolerant of your eccentricities. But don’t worry, all is forgiven provide you teach me the art of memory. And if, after all, I find some discomfort in the recollection of your biting wit and insolent words, I have only to rehearse that magical phrase of banishment which you taught me, to excise them from my memory. So please proceed.”

“Very well. Normally I would proceed with the definition, the history, and the parts into which the art of memory is divided. However you are a sovereign, not a scholar, and I suspect that any lengthy prologue would only sour you on the meat of the subject. In a nutshell, the art of memory is based on mnemonics, or the skill of reducing all one’s knowledge to a single phrase. This miraculous compression, together with the art of forgetting which you are already well embarked upon, disencumbers the mind from the tedious and piecemeal acquisition of facts, and liberates the spirit from the ardor of ordinary study and thought.”

She clapped her hands together in excitement. “How wonderful if true! I for one would be glad to dispense with the drudgery of thinking. Even after delegating as much to my servants and ministers, especially dear Father Scarpiglione, as possible, there are still so many decisions to be made by the head of a state. You say this is determined by memory?”

“Precisely, for it is memory which organizes and automatizes our faculties of thought.”

“Then, Master Isidor, teach me this phrase at once, this summa of all wisdom, this compression of all thought!”

“You should know that it is not a single phrase for all alike, but rather, for each there is a different set of words...according to their temperament and the stars of their fate. For you I have determined that the best of phrases would be this:’Return me to the mountain if you would not suffer the wrath of my lord.’”

“’Return me to the mountain if you would not suffer the wrath of my lord’? Why, those words have no significance to me what so ever. How can they somehow suffice to contain all wisdom?”

“Not all wisdom without exception...but all wisdom which pertains to you my lady.”

For a moment the Lady Leonora sat on the garden bench, figeting with her handkerchief and the soundboard of her lute. During that while I entertained some apprehensions that she would not go for the bait...leaving me the necessity of rethinking the basis of my plans, but at last she smiled and seemed to accept the proposal. “I see, it’s a sort of nonsense phrase, as in a fairy tale. It seems as if I have heard somewhere that this is how mnemonics work...everything hangs upon some sort of riddle.”

“A very good way of putting it my lady. Therefore I hope you will take as much time as possible to remember the phrase.”

“Oh, I have remembered it already! It goes: Return me to the mountain, if you would not suffer the wrath of my lord.”

“Without insolence my lady, but that is only ordinary, not deep memory. You should repeat the phrase constantly until it haunts your every waking moment and invades the realm of your dreams. It should eventually push out all other thoughts and concerns, for it is the seed of your new being, the synopsis of your new mind.”

“You imply that I am in need of a new mind?” The Lady Leonora looked at me with some suspicion.

“Indeed, a new mind which will be as pliant and efficient as your present one is puffed up with pride, vanities, and ignorance.”

“Master Isidor, you forget yourself!”

“Forget? It is you who should forget. Remember, you have a remedy against my insolent forays into wit and veracity. Feel free to banish them from your thoughts.”

“Never, ever, never, ever, never, ever...” She assiduously invoked the forgetting phrase that I had trained into her, “...never, ever Leonore.”

I waited a while before asking, “Do you feel better now?”

“Considerably. You said something a while ago which greatly upset me but I have no recollection of it now. I assume you were testing me.”

“No. I just said something that happened to offend you. But now I will test you indeed. What is the phrase which I told you to remember?”

She visibly strained her mind to recall the words she had been taught, at last in resignation she admitted she couldn’t find the exact expression. “I know it had something to do with a mountain.”

“That, Lady Leonora, is not good enough. I warned you that there are many levels of memory and that you must implant the phrase deep enough that you can produce it at will, at any time.”

She was distraught to imagine that her new enthusiasm was floundering due to a lack of perseverance. “I’m sorry Master Isidor. I shall repeat it over and over again until it is engraved in my mind like words cut into marble.”

“One thing is absolutely essential. Make sure you are relaxed when you repeat the phrase.”

“Can I take a cordial? A few timely drams often calm my nerves.”

“No. The liquor would blank out the memory. There are times in this art when drugs are useful but this is not one of them. The best way of relaxing is after a long period of vigorous activity. For example, as in the case of a man having emerged blood splattered and victorious from battle, or lovers who have exhausted themselves with copulation.”

“Master Isidor,” her eyes widened, “your examples are most sanguinary. How are they to apply to a gentle maiden?”

A gentle maiden who had conspired in sending scores to die in her dungeons, I reflected grimly. “The only thing I can think of is dance.”

“Ah!” She smiled. “I am good at dancing.”

“Not the dancing of the court which is too measured. But there is a kind of dancing, wild and barbaric, which comes from the lands of the East. If you were to submit to its rhythms you would soon enter a state in which the mind resigns itself passively to any impression.”

I could see the evidences of struggle within her mind, at once intrigued by the prospect of the barbarous dance, and frightened by a possible affront to her dignity. “As ardent as I am to learn the secrets of your mental philosophy Master Isidor, I am afraid such methods are out of the question. With my father the Duke fighting for the Catholic faith in Germany, I can hardly, given my responsibilities as regent, go journeying to the infidel lands of Egypt or the Levant just to find a dancing master.”

“The origin of the dancing is foreign but with earnest searching you might find it practiced nearby, here in Lombardy, nay even in the poorer districts of Parva itself.”

“You mean I should visit the poorer taverns of the city to make myself acquainted with this dance form?” There was excitement in her voice, for in times past, before the coming of the cowled one, she had ventured out, incognito, to spy on the common people, and took much vicarious delight in the observation of their license.

“No, not for the time being. We are now at a crucial time in the affairs of this state, and the people are starting to grumble about the policies of your chief minister. It would be dangerous for you to travel about in the poorer sections of town. However there is a solution yet closer at hand. You have a handmaiden named Esmeralda do you not?”

“Indeed. How do you know?”

“She is a distant relative of mine. Our families immigrated to Parva several generations ago from Andalusia. More to the point, she has some knowledge of the dance forms of which I speak. She will be able to instruct you in their finer points within the privacy of your bedchambers, which is just as well, for they evoke a raw animal vigor which drenches the body in perspiration, and thus it is well to minimize the encumbrances of modesty.”

“O what a clever plan Master Isidor!” She clapped her hands together in delight. “It sounds enjoyable, and I will be able to avoid the censure of Fra Scarpiglione. Whatever people may say, we are not always agreed...especially with regard to the suppression of dancing.”

“The dancing is only a means to an end. You shall dance until you swoon, and as you swoon you must repeat over and over again the phrase which I have taught you.”

“Return me to the mountain if you would not suffer the wrath of my lord. Return me to the mountain if you would not suffer the wrath of my lord.”

“Such is the phrase, but you must learn it not with the tip of the tongue, but in the very recesses of your being. Moreover you must learn to pronounce the phrase in every language spoken upon the Earth.”

“What!? Surely you jest Master Isidor.”

“It is no idle jest madam. If you are to be my disciple in these matters you must do precisely as I say.”

“But why?” Her eyes were upon the point of filling with tears at the shear impossibility of the task.

“My lady, you are an accomplished luthier are you not? And is it not the mark of a skilled musician that they should be able to play the same air in any key upon demand?”

“Verily it is so Master Isidor.”

“So it is with the polyphony of tongues. Though you should harp upon a simple melody for the rest of your life, you must learn to transpose it into all modes, in Chinese and Turkish no less than the dialects of Poland and Muscovy. Do not blame me for the luxurious growth of languages by which the two legged beast has been cursed, blame your ancestor Nimrod, godfather of all tyrants, whose insolence pricked the wrath of Jehova and shattered the harmony of human speech upon the plains of Shinar. As he let loose the babbling plague, so I have a physic for it, being a polyglot and professing the rhetoric of many nations. As for those languages into which I cannot render your phrase, there are many in the city, scholars and travelers, whom you can summon to your aid.”

“But Master Isidor all...even the cannibal dialects of the Indies?”

“I would that it were all, but out of pity I shall grant you an indulgence for Carib and the languages of Mexico and Peru, just as the wise Master Scarpiglione has granted the court indulgences for pride, ostentation, usurpation, and fornication. The babbling of all Europe, Africa, and Asia should be sufficient.”

“Then I shall proceed at once to the task! I shall put the lie to the rumor that those born to high estate are slovenly scholars and slow pupils. Henceforth, dearest Isidor, you shall be not only my master of memory and philosophy, but of rhetoric, dance, foreign languages, and all other arts pertaining to the mind and its connection to the soul.”

“And music.”

“But Master Isidor, I already have a fine instructor in music. Why should I cast him out in your favor?”

“Look at your lute and you will see the limitations of his teaching. Of what are the stings made?”

She examined the instrument with pride. “Of the rarest and finest material available, the sinews of a wolf.”

“Then you wish to howl? For know that the virtue of every thing is comprised in its every part. Each time you play your instrument you mar its tone with the carnivorous instincts of a predator.”

“How logical, yet my teacher never mentioned it to me.”

“The mark of a shallow scholar...inattention to details, even the most essential ones. If I were you madam, I should unstring my lute at once, and call for strings made from the sinew of sheep. It is only the sinew of sheep which can calm the human heart, making it receptive to the tuition of novel ideas.”

“Ah! I grasp your meaning Master Isidor. The airs upon my lute, like the dancing, are themselves an avenue to the perfection of my mind. Your wisdom is truly as rare as your strange manner of speech, Master Isidor. Henceforth I release all my instructors and tutors save you. As Fra Scarpiglione rules the state on my behalf, so shall you govern all things pertaining to my household. I am even favorably disposed to grant you knighthood.”

“That would be too much my lady. Like Fra Scarpiglione himself I prefer to labor in humility. Simply refer to me as master.” I looked deeply into her eyes.

“Yes master.” She uttered the phrase with guileless sincerity.

And so I became the second man of the state, Counselor-General of the Duchy of Parva. I had risen close to my apogee and was scheduled, in the immediate plan of things, to take a fall...but this too I had foreseen, and was willing to suffer injury in a greater cause. But of this more and of more interest later dear Telesio.