The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Neral Jaye’s evening was setting up to be a most pleasant one as she padded barefoot to her room in nothing but a simple white gown. The house now was settled and quiet for the evening, save a few members of the house staff that preferred to do their work in the quiet hours before the rush of the day or those that were simply nocturnal and lived for the night in general.

But the members of her family proper, regardless of how they had come to live under her roof and bond to one another were retired for the evening and the rest of the night would be hers to spend. She walked the long hallway to the master bedroom and opened the door to find her mates in the oversized, custom bed, that, even with its size didn’t take up enough of the room for it to so much as begin to feel crowded.

On that bed lay Deres, her husband by ceremony, and Bryana, their mate equally and in every other way that mattered. His broad, sculpted chest with sparse, dark hair made for a most attractive sight. His blue eyes and close-cropped hair coupled with the power of his body to give him the look of a rugged merchant sailor who rushed to cut and trim himself back to respectability once he made port.

The obvious power of his body served to remind her in its own way of the power he possessed that could not be so readily seen. As a child of Erette raised in a land thought mythical by most, he returned with an understanding of magic, science, and how they could co-mingle that was unmatched in any of the kingdoms in the known world.

Forbidden magics that included nearly everything beyond those that could heal were not unknown, as Bryana herself could attest. A mage herself, she’d learned the darker elements of the craft hidden from most in one of the secretive mage guilds that dotted the lands and whose members plied their skills for profit. A gifted outlaw, Bryana Lia was set on a collision course with General Jaye after having been hired to mold the officer into one that could kill her queen.

Happening upon the plot by chance, Deres used his own skill to unravel it and, in so doing changed her mind and soul in a way that bound her to both of them. Time and the circumstances of life had turned that binding into a union of three as one. With the freedom to choose restored to her years before she had chosen her path with finality, which led her to laying upon the bed in a black bra and panties with rather exquisite embroidery that accented her long frame and served to compliment the dark, intricate tattoos that covered much of her body.

Some served as marks of the guild she once served while others, like the serpent the eyes and viper like fangs of which started just below the belly button before coiling around the small of her back and down her left leg with a depth and shading that made it look alive. Her eyes were a lighter shade of blue than his and her blonde hair flowed downward in soft waves. She and Neral were, in some ways very different women, but that simply made their passion more intense.

Neral could freely admit that one of her joys was watching those she loved be close, from the easy smiles they have for one another, to the shorthand language they developed together to show emotional intimacy. From the way Tessa, House Mistress for the House of Jaye would bicker gently with Cassea Voss, the House’s representative at Court, with the latter ‘advising’ the former about the best way to do things, to the way Neral herself could simply talk the evening away with Vessen Elan, a soldier that, by circumstance was now tied to Deres. That was something in and of itself since the archer was often shy and reserved.

All these instances were little things that showed her that it was more than just a group of people under a single roof. They were united with one another as much as with their House.

Bryana and Deres had also made a bit of sport over the fact that, in the privacy of their chambers, she loved to watch her loves together very nearly as much as she enjoyed being in the tangle with them. “All is settled?” Deres asked. “Kylen is finally asleep?”

Neral sighed, but it was a happy sound. “After the nearly third full reading of her story of choice, yes.”

“She’s been looking forward to your voice doing it for days,” he told her.

“And I’m glad that I could accommodate tonight.” Then worry crossed her features. “I fear I spend not enough time with her. I fear she might forget I’m her mother.”

“Utter foolishness,” Deres said lovingly. “If you were somehow lost to her already she would not have been giddy about the prospect of your rendition of The Grand and Fluffy Dragon.”

Bryana turned to her, “Aside from that, she has some sense of how important her mother is. After all, she sees you with the queen. She sees men in full battle armor who fear nothing stop everything to salute you. She may not fully understand what it means yet, but she knows her mother has an important role to play in things.”

“That matters little when I promise her a trip to the park and circumstance demands I break my word to her.”

“Bryana is right. She knows. We explain. We all explain when she wonders when you are not here to do those things yourself, but she knows. I believe she has your sense of duty even now.”

Bryana slid in again. “Her understanding is the least of your concerns anyway, Neral.”

“Oh?”

“Were I you, I should begin to fear for the security of my position. I have seen the two of you at the park together and she already marches better than you.”

“How dare you?” If the grin didn’t betray her feelings, the cartoonish level of affront did.

Bryana shrugged. “Things are how they are.”

She drew closer to the bed. “At least she has a mother for when I cannot be there to be her mother.”

“She has many mothers here,” Bryana countered, attempting to maintain some semblance of humility. “She has no shortage of strong women here to draw from and to help shape her.”

“But there is one she goes to first.” The loving softness in Neral’s voice was unmistakable. “There is one hand she reaches for as readily as my own.”

Bryana shrugged again, but the softness was contagious. “Must you watch everything? She is my child, too. I did not birth her but my heart does not know the difference.” Bryana’s tone softened “Her eyes are bright, her mind is sharp, and she is a joy even with her mother’s stubbornness. She is mine, too.”

Neral had known that it was so for every day of Kylen’s life up to now and it gave her a sense of security in many ways both spoken and not. She positioned herself at the edge of the bed as she wondered, “And just what is it that the two of you are chatting about?” She rested her head in her hand under her chin and displayed herself, enjoying the fact that both seemed to be entertained following the outline of her with their gaze.

“The usual things, Neral,” he began, ticking them off casually, “the events of the day that we did not manage to talk through at the dinner table, plans for tomorrow, how we barely tolerate you…” The devilish grin that accompanied the last made her smile. Then again, most things about him did. Their meeting was certainly an unconventional one and their courtship even more so in many ways, including Neral willingly adding a love spell to the mix.

Agreeing to marry him in return for his aid in the plot against the queen in order to give him the status he would need to return home to Erette and have a successful life, she had initially agreed to love him via magic because it would make her married life simpler. There was also the truth that touching the magics of submission as she had with Bryana when the latter had attempted to reshape Neral’s mind, she found that she enjoyed the sensations. All the days since had shown her that he was her match even without the magic and that his love of her at first sight of her on the streets of the upper markets had been true. The three of them had built a fine life over the years.

Bryana had interrupted him before they could continue. “We spend so much time talking about how difficult she is to live with though. Sometimes I wonder why we bother?”

“Perhaps you admire my prowess as a warrior and you take as much pride in that and in my position as I do?”

Deres and Bryana exchanged looks. “Unlikely,” he said.

Bryana put on her best indifference. “You can hack away with a sword? So can anyone. Let’s see you take their sword from them at ten paces without touching them.”

“Perhaps it is my wealth?”

“That which lets us disarm you lets us pick your pocket,” Deres said, his eyes drifting along the outline of her form covered by her silken slip. “Wealth is not so difficult a thing for a mage with ability and flexible morals.”

“In my days of witchery, I could have one pleading with me to take every coin and leave them on the street with nothing,” Bryana told her.

Neral prowled over to him on all fours until she was nearly nose to nose with him “Perhaps then it only this body that appeals to you, Husband? Is that truly our relationship then, with me as a toy for your amusement?”

His hand went from the small of her back around the slope of her firm backside. “Is that not the way of things? Lovers give to one another, yes, but there is…using the other for pleasure as well.”

Her lips touched his forehead and she stayed close enough to him to feel his breath and his heat. “And that is what you like, Deres. Love me? Certainly. I know you do. I feel it in even your roughest touch. But it hardens your cock to know that the head of a grand House and the leader of every man and woman that carries a sword and shield for Erette will surrender her body like a street whore for you to use.”

His lips met hers and his tongue darted into her mouth to taste her heat and her sweet. Breaking away from her pouting lips he eyed her. “And you get nothing from being used?” His lip turned upward with a hint of wickedness. “I’m certain that’s not so, not with the way you mewl and whimper in those times where I simply take what is mine before the Goddess. You like that submission General Jaye. You do not have to lead. You do not have to worry. You can let go and only concern yourself with how pleasing you are to me.”

She dragged her teeth across his neck. “You believe that is so?”

“It’s why you mewl and whimper. It’s why you chose the spell to bind with me. So you could be your powerful and independent self, but still taste that hint of being owned. You liked that feeling when Bryana touched you with it regardless of the why of it.”

Neral planted soft kisses along his forehead. And that hardens your cock nicely, too,” she whispered as she touched him over his loose, dark pants to confirm the state of things. As expected, he was quite ready to play.

“That’s actually what we were discussing before you came in,” Bryana said to Neral, sliding next to Deres without effort, letting her fingers run through the hair of his chest.

Neral prompted her as she was drawn by those eyes. “Hmm?”

“My day was a difficult one,” she began, “and I wouldn’t mind both a more playful and restful evening. To that end…”

Neral picked up the thread for her. “To that end you would like to simply be our plaything for the evening?”

She moved towards Neral seductively. “You surely can think of things to do to a suitably clouded pet?”

The general eyed that lovely form. The marks did not consume her body, but rather, managed to accent it where the sharp lines of the runes touched her flesh. “A little restraint, perhaps a bit of…discipline?”

“That will not be for me to choose, will it?”

Deres looked to the beauty that was Bryana, “I admire your faith that you will be yourself by morning.”

“We both have always been before, and we always will be when we play in that way, but that is your fault.”

“Mine?”

“Because beyond for a few hours of play you have no interest in an empty toy. You want them to challenge you. You want to know them and enjoy them as they are.”

He rolled his eyes, “You believe I love you for your sometimes deliberately contrarian views that exist seemingly only to give you cause to argue with me?”

She smiled, enjoying the fact that she caught him, “You said ‘love,’ not me. But, since you did, yes, you love me for me and as I am. I know where I stand with my two.”

Deres and Neral exchanged glances. “Apologies, Neral, my heart, but it is so.”

Neral’s deep brown eyes conveyed her sympathy. “It’s all right, I am similarly enchanted by the sorceress. Still, I see no harm in dimming the mage for a bit, especially since she’s asked so politely.”

With that, she gave Bryana a grin as she moved towards her and the blonde settled in front of her, leaning into her. Neral spread her legs wide so Bryana could relax and nestle herself between them, simply enjoying the feel of her. Deres looked deeply into those blue eyes. “Hold her,” he said. “You want to resist it, don’t you?”

“I do.”

Neral hooked her arms at Bryana’s elbows and held them like a vise, smiling at the response. “Squirm, my sweet. Fight as you please and we’ll see you in the morning.”

She did indeed squirm and struggle with more than a little ferocity, twisting her body to try to wrench herself free. Bryana couldn’t feel whatever intricacies Neral had employed when it came to the joint lock behind her, all she knew for certain was that she was afforded precious little movement. It created lovely feelings inside her; a mix of anger, frustration, and desire as her heart began to race in her chest, knowing what was coming, but not exactly when. “You will let me go or you will feel my wrath.”

Neral laughed into her ear. “I’ll let you go as soon as you’re a touch more agreeable, which will, of course, be soon.”

“Your wrath will be most pleasant in a bit,” Deres began, moving to straddle her, drawing patterns on her forehead. “See? You could struggle more even now. You could make it more difficult for me to do what I have to, but it will end the way you want it to end either way and you don’t want to truly delay it, my love.”

Her breaths deepened as she began to feel the energy from him enter her. As much as she enjoyed the struggle it lessened simply because he wasn’t wrong. There was excitement in the struggle in that it made the eventual, inevitable submission so much sweeter. Her skin tingled, not only from the magic and the promise of more of it pouring through her, but from the touch of his fingers to her skin.

Already she could feel her senses narrowing focus as the spell weaved its way through her. Any sense of depth regarding her environment began to slip from her. Her legs slowed their squirming as the sensation of immersing herself in a perfectly hot bath slowly took her.

“You wish to relax for the night and think of nothing but fucking and pleasing and submitting.”

She looked up at him, eyes wide, with all the love and trust she had in her to give even as words began to muddle together in her mind. “You just like me…stupid.”

“Now and then,” he teased. “You do seem to fuck better when you’re re-focused.”

The wool thickened in her mind and she welcomed it even as she resisted it, working to put more words together. “Any fucking is…good fucking for you.”

“Don’t let him have all the fun,” Neral whispered into her ear. “I like fucking, too.”

The wool had weight now and Bryana could feel it pulling her mind down even as her body responded to the rising sway of the primal forces in her body. Her nipples tried to push through her bra and the slow movement of her legs excited her as she saw his eyes drift to the promise between them. Complex thoughts couldn’t knit themselves together anymore and that was a lovely thing at that moment. The feel of his fingers on her forehead as he dulled her was sexual now and her sounds broadcast that feeling.

“Ffff-ucking,” Neral said, drawing it out after seeing how Bryana’s body was falling limp and how her eyes were locked on the bulge in Deres’ pants, loosening her hold on her other.

Bryana giggled with more than a hint of lust. “Fucking.”

Deres leaned in closer to her. “What does Bryana like?”

She puzzled. “I like lots of things.”

“You know this one. Neral just gave you the answer.”

She thought about it some more before the light flared behind her eyes. “Fucking. I like fucking.”

His hand touched her breast through the fine fabric, “Which do you like more, fucking or getting fucked?”

Bryana got one right and she was happy for that and saw the opportunity for another. “Both are different fun.” She saw an opportunity and scooted herself up to him, her hand pressing against him hard, so she could make it known through the fabric. “I want to fuck you.”

“Eventually, pet,” he said sweetly, running his fingers through her hair as Bryana hummed at the pleasant sensation, “But I think you should help me get ready for Neral first. Pulling the tie loose from his waist, his pants fell, exposing the plum head of his cock and the thick shaft that brought it forth with a hint of bounce.

Bryana knew what he wanted and, coincidentally, it was all she wanted, too. Her tongue left her mouth and licked upward to taste the pre-cum from him before grabbing his ass with both hands and driving him into her mouth with zeal and a symphony of wet sucking sounds.

The second or two that it took for Neral to peel her slip from her body and toss it aside annoyed her simply because it meant that she lost sight of what was going on before her eyes. Even now, it wasn’t just the sex, though Goddess, the sight of her attempting to consume him and the way he breathed deeply to power the pleasure and feed his lust was lovely.

It was seeing the way that blonde mane moved in rhythm with her. It was knowing that she had wanted to be dimmed for a time to more thoroughly play with the sexual creature within. It was knowing that, even without that, she could play with the same enthusiasm and place him in her mouth to focus on his pleasure in a way that she saw as the most profound of intimacies.

All of it together ignited a fire in Neral’s belly as it always did. There was no painful jealousy and, where the feeling existed at all, it was only toyed with by Neral to up her own heat. She watched his eyes roll and the lids droop now and then as she touched particularly pleasant spots on her journey. In response to it all, her hand drifted beneath the panties covering her damp womanhood as she looked at him. “Does the empty thing have a nice little mouth? You always seem to enjoy it a great deal.”

“Mmm…I do.”

“How she just slides that thing down her throat for your amusement.”

He groaned against her tongue and the virtual inhaling of his flesh.

“Yes, you do seem to like that.”

“So do you,” he moaned as Bryana whimpered at the touch of his hands on her head.

Seeing the way her head moved rhythmically upon him and the sounds of her lust from her as though she were being fucked simply doing it, moved Neral. She is a darling woman. And so responsive in this state, too.”

“You enjoy it well enough. She sets you to screaming.”

Neral withdrew her fingers from between the soaked nest between her legs, bringing them to his lips to be cleaned and kissed his cheek as he did so. “But we’re not talking about me tonight. And I do like her this way…now and then.”

She looked to Bryana, seeing how her chin was now reflecting the lamp light as it was now covered in her slick drool. She drew a finger down her cheek and Bryana squeaked and quivered in response. “Not much of a mage right now, are you? Not one simple spell that you can get to right now with your mouth full of cock and that bright mind dimmed out.”

Bryana pulled her mouth away only long enough to look the wet mess she made with vacant eyes before making her throat bulge again in taking it down her throat again. “Choosing to be an empty little fuck animal”

Her mind latched onto the phrase ‘fuck animal’ and she grunted in response, her eyes locked on his as her ears hungered for more words. As she continued to love him with her mouth, Neral let her hand follow Bryana’s spine, detouring to follow a few of her more interesting markings before getting back on the path to those wet, fabric-covered panties and pulling the crotch aside to see that she was dripping wet, her pussy clenching every time he slid back into her mouth.

“Sweet, Bryana. Weak and empty and wet. All I have to do is shove my fingers into this nasty little cunt like this.” Two fingers slid in with some roughness into a pussy that glistened in the light like Bryana’s chin and the walls of Bryana’s pink grabbed at her digits hungrily.

“Shove my fingers in and remind the dumb little mage that she has her man’s cock in her mouth and all there is to do is remind her that she’s tasting her man and doing nothing but giving him pleasure.”

Her face contorted at the thought, not to mention the spiking sensations between her legs and her mind latched onto the feelings. Deres pulling his cock from her mouth and smearing it all over her face as she came madly while chasing it with her lips and tongue.

After kissing it reverently and breathlessly Bryana looked to Neral with the corner of her mouth turned upward, a blush finding her cheeks as a girlish giggle escaped her, as though she’d been caught doing something naughty. And, admittedly, the hint of emptiness behind her eyes where there was almost always wit and fire was irresistible, so Neral didn’t try. She kissed Bryana hard and deep and Bryana responded by hooking her arm around Neral’s neck to keep her close.

Neral could have stayed in that moment with the kisses and the shedding of what little fabric each still wore, but his touch on her back drew her to him. Gripped suddenly in his powerful arms, she allowed herself to be weak and let him direct her as his own desires demanded.

Those desires demanded that he push her to the bed, his tongue running along her skin and his lips paying tribute to every battle scar on her body between her belly button and her lips. Soldiers of Erette wore the proudly as badges of service and sacrifice and their lovers paid respect. It was seen as a particular victory to earn the affection of a warrior woman, not that Deres himself cared overmuch He would not have cared if she were a blacksmith or merchant. She was perfect to him.

But, he admitted that her skill did excite him when considering she could go from warrior and leader of men to lover. He kissed the small scars on either side of her neck and realized that perhaps he cared just a bit more than a little about the heat of bedding a woman with her particular skill set.

When he reached her lips he relished the feel of her body and the heat of her breath on his skin as well as her and Bryana’s hands roaming over his body building his need. “Are you going to kiss me all night,” she began before kissing him again, “or are you going to shove that thing where we both need it to be?”

“I believe I can accommodate you.” He rose to his knees, using his hands at her knees to keep her splayed open. Bryana moaned again at the sight of it and let her tongue and lips have their way with both his cock and her mound. She kissed his chest, letting her fingers graze his nipples. “You like watching it go in and out,” Bryana said happily.

That seemed like a nice idea just then, so Neral propped herself up on her elbows to watch it slide inside, feeling its girth spread her apart and the joyous sensations that went with it as it became part of her. She bit her lower lip and threw her head back for a moment as they took her before focusing her deep brown eyes on him once again. “He does. He likes watching himself fuck holes…like any other man I have ever been with. They like to see themselves inside her and enjoy the look and feel of having conquered her.”

“You’re watching, too,” he breathed.

“That I like, watching my husband take me and take pleasure from me; that watching it makes me wetter and makes me want to cum like a whore by the end…mmmmm…changes nothing for what it means to you.”

Bryana watched it, fascinated herself with the way it seemed to get wetter and wetter with each thrust. “I want a turn, she pouted. When do I get a turn with that nice cock?”

“See, Deres? You upset the empty little slut.” A smirk fought for its place on her features, “Now I have to fix it.”

“As though you…fucking hate that. As though you have never looked for time alone with the mage pussy.”

Bryana twitched at the mention of ‘fucking’ and ‘pussy.’

She liked the look of her pussy lips flaring each time he drove back in. “That’s a different topic, dearest. It’s not my fault that both of my loves crave me and that I crave them. I can blame you both quite correctly. She crooked her finger at the blonde. “Come here, pet, and I’ll lick you until you get a turn at this lovely meat.”

“Yes. Lick my pussy. Lick it and lick it and lick it. Bryana scampered up, turning herself to face Deres, placing both hands on his shoulders before pulling him into a kiss as Neral impaled Bryana on her tongue.

Giving and taking to one another, they merged together in flesh and sensation.

Neral straightened her uniform jacket in the full-length mirror before her as Bryana finished her understated makeup at the vanity table behind and to her left in final preparations to travel the outskirts of the city as a healer in her own right. “You had fun last night.”

“What makes you think so,” she asked casually, applying a bit of blush to her cheeks.

“Because I remember last night and there is also the hoarseness in your throat today.”

I did enjoy the respite, yes.” For Bryana, there were only a few images that stuck with her. For the most part though it was the memory of simple feeling that lingered, from the heat of sex to the warmth of love. It renewed her in a way that a simple good night’s sleep did not.

“Back to your old self today?”

“The spell is well-practiced and does not linger, you know as much.”

Neral tweaked the position of her belt buckle. “I do. I simply worry now and then, as is my nature.”

Bryana gently dismissed it. “You have enough to concern yourself with, you need not worry about that.”

Neral decided her ponytail was proper before leaning down to Bryana’s reflection. “What number comes between six and eight?”

“Orange, of course,” Bryana answered plainly.

Neral kissed her cheek. “There’s my woman.”

“Of course.”

She left the bedroom with Bryana not too far behind, making her way to the living room to see Tessa, House Mistress for House Jaye already waiting for her, the general’s travel cloak in hand while one of the male servants held her short sword in its scabbard. Neral liked knowing that that rock of certainty in her life was there. House Jovis had been in service of House Jaye for almost as long as either line could be traced and not a day went by that she was not glad of it as Tessa made her life possible in any number of ways. “You look well, Mistress.”

“A lovely evening was had, Tessa, and that tends to brighten one’s morning.” She looked at the other’s thick copper mane and resisted the temptation to run her fingers through it.

She gave a knowing glance. “I’m glad to hear that, Mistress.”

Neral glanced to her left to see Deres straightening Khylen’s dark black coat with the tiny gold buttons that she seemed to tend to favor because, as Neral suspected with some humility, it reminded her of Neral’s military dress uniform.

She looked upon the little one with every ounce of love and pride she was capable of. Neral knew well her bias, but the child was the best of her and Deres. She had her mother’s regal features already, chubby cheeks notwithstanding, as well as brown eyes that could seem to go black if her little temper flared, though she was not prone to it even at her age. While Neral’s hair was dark brown Khylen’s hair was as midnight black as her father’s.

Named for Khylen Kestral, a soldier who, already a victim of magic and its corruption, sacrificed her life to bring Bryana back to the world after having been mortally wounded by the sorceress they had traveled across the world to put down, Neral hoped that Kestral would be proud of the young girl that carried her name.

Kestral’s parents at least certainly were. The particular circumstances would be beyond their ability to cope and create a number of problems for her at home so Neral had told them truth enough: that their daughter had sacrificed herself for Bryana and that House Jaye would forever honor that. “Ready for school, I see.”

“Yes, I am,” she said very seriously before hugging her father tightly and reaching up to Neral, who promptly scooped her up to hug her tightly, kiss her cheek, and just look upon her. She understood now, as the last of her mother’s daughters to have children, just what sway the little ones could hold. Even eldest sister Maia, a woman many of those that didn’t know her could call cold, softened visibly when interacting with her own.

“Learn many interesting things today and share them with me later.”

“Will you be home for supper?”

Neral did not hide her disappointment. “I have a late meeting with the queen, so I shall likely miss supper with you, but I should be home in time to read to you.”

She searched her mother’s eyes and Khylen found something in there to appease her. “Promise?”

Neral fought her own disappointment and she caught sympathy in the eyes of her loves. “I promise to make every effort.”

Khylen stiffened for a moment. “Promise to wake me up and say goodnight when you do get home?”

Neral smiled. “That I promise you will be done.”

Another hug and a kiss on the cheek seemed to seal the contract and Neral put her down to put on her cloak as Tessa filled her in on her schedule for the day. She had reached the point where she could file it all in her mind even as the other spoke without thinking much about it. She took the scabbard from Derik, “Thank you.”

“Annesta says it’s silly to do that.”

Neral stopped buckling the sword to her body to focus. ”Do you say thank you when her servants do something for you?”

“Yes. But she says it’s silly. They’re just servants and they don’t need that.”

“We say thank you to people that do us a service,” Deres admonished her gently. Having been born and raised a good portion of his youth in the impoverished southern quarter, he was particularly sensitive to class and, in particular, the disdain that much of nobility had for those that they say as beneath them.

“Annesta says if you pay them and it’s their place they were born in they don’t need people to thank them.”

“Payment or not, they don’t need to do those things for us. They could leave and find other work, but they choose this work and that’s worthy of respect,” Deres said.

“Your father is right, Khylen,” Neral told her as Derik held the sword while the general finished the buckling, “Thank you, Derik.”

Derik kept his tone formal as, being a parent himself, he recognized a teaching moment “You are most welcome, Mistress.”

“Tradition may suggest a path, but people still choose it in the end. They are not slaves to it or to us.”

Khylen could feel the change of energy in the room and decided she didn’t want to get into trouble. “I’m just saying what Annesta said to me.”

“Be less concerned with how Annesta acts or how she says you should act and more with how your parents say you should,” Bryana told her.

“Bryana is correct, too,” Neral said, bending to put a kiss atop that head. “Say ‘thank you’ when someone does something for you. Always. All right?”

She looked up, seemingly in awe of her mother in a way that put a proud weight on the elder Jaye. “Yes, Mother.” Before Neral could respond further, Khylen added “Yes, Father” and a “Yes, Mother Bryana” to the list.

Neral cleared her throat to stifle a laugh as she looked to Bryana with an ‘I told you so’ look as she often did when such things happened and Bryana smiled with her eyes as she also often did in response when she got the look.

“Learn many interesting things today, sweet.”

General Jaye’s day progressed well. There were several meetings with subordinates about both training regimens and border logistics. It was something of a chess game. One of those bordering Erette moved their own troops to test the defenses of their neighbors, saber rattle, or handle their own internal issues and then Erette and its neighbors responded in kind. In the end though, peace was maintained.

The afternoon was more pleasant for her simply because she could spend it watching the new recruits train. She liked to spot talent and test it at the same time. Some would wither at her presence, much less her gaze. Some steeled their resolve to excel in her presence. Some tried to show off. All their reactions, coupled with their skill, painted a picture for her.

It showed her the ones who were born with both talent and temperament. It showed her the ones who would likely fail because they lacked either or both in measure enough. Most importantly to her though, it showed her the ones who had the potential for greatness.

Some of the finest soldiers with which she had ever served had benefited from nurturing. Perhaps they’d needed help with the physical, or they simply needed time and urging to find their voices. She made mental notes over the course of the day and spoke with the instructors pointing out those that she felt might benefit from added attention and listening to the feelings of the instructors on the matter.

Through it all this day, behind her, as she had been for many days previously was her eldest niece Nelina. Eldest daughter of her eldest sister, not only had her House of birth led her to the service, she had been born with the calling of military service on her soul as Neral had.

She was solid in every way. Shorter than Neral by a good measure, her body was compact, her hair fine and a light shade of brown that she kept straight as it stopped just past her neck. Long bangs helped frame her face and her green eyes had the same intensity as her mother’s. Neral saw much of Maia in her aside from that. She carried her power well, whether it was measured by her skill as a warrior or as a woman.

Nelina had only fairly recently in the grand scheme of things taken the position as personal aide and was still feeling her way through things. Her dealings with the aides of other senior officers had the definite air of its own version of Court with officers trying to maneuver their concerns and sometimes themselves into being noticed.

It was complex, but Nelina was a quick study and adept in her own way having observed her mother and grandmother manage the family at Court since she could walk. She walked next to, but ever so slightly behind Neral as they spoke.

“You will brief the queen on the troop movements of the Draleth and offer your appraisal and recommendation.”

“Sir?”

“You heard quite correctly.”

Nelina remained remarkably composed as she looked around the general’s large, yet spartan offices in the hopes that she might find something to rescue her. “I’m not certain I am qualified to do so.” Her words belied her trepidation. Inside, she was certain that she was not.

“Nonsense,” Neral answered. “You have been with me through all of the briefings up to this point and we’ve discussed the reports at length. You are more than sufficiently versed to give the report to the queen.”

She quelled the rush of panic quickly enough to keep most of the display of it from her face. “The report perhaps, but an appraisal and recommendation? I think not.”

Neral tried to be both firm and gently reassuring. “You have a command of the facts and your mind is keen. I realize that you may be uncertain of things, but while I admit I do this to test you, it is not with the intent to embarrass you, nor with the expectation you will fail.”

She stiffened slightly at the words of confidence. “I will give my absolute best effort.”

“That is all I demand.” Her posture relaxed slightly as happier thoughts intruded. “Bear in mind that she will test you. She feigns ignorance in military matters and, while she may not know the intricacies of a cavalry charge, as a woman of High Court born to be Queen, her strategic mind is shrewd. She will test you and herself at the same time.”

“Yes, sir.” She said the words with far more confidence than she felt.

Neral read the stress and put her arm around her niece in a show of sympathy. “You are, in more ways than you realize, your mother’s daughter. You will do well. Take the energy of your fear and refocus it into something far more useful.”

She took a cleansing breath and attempted to follow the order. After the second one, she actually began to feel better. Seeing the general take pride in her response helped a bit more still.

“Come. Let’s get you before the queen.”

A caste system exists in every society, whether it’s acknowledged or not. Whatever form it took, from a more rigid system such as existed in Erette, to a simple acknowledgment that there are haves and have-nots, and that those two groups lead vastly different lives. No matter what form it took there are certain universal elements, namely, in this case, that those that had generally ignored those that didn’t. From ditch diggers, to tailors, to maids, those that made life run smoothly for those that had were largely ignored by them.

That offered advantages for people like Wyrnn to exploit, as she had many times before and would do so again. Anything that got her closer to her target was fair game. She had to admit that it all thrilled her. The hunt made her heart pound. Figuring out how to best approach her targets was in exercise in mental dexterity.

She had to learn who they were and how they lived and breathed to know the best time and place to strike. She played out every scenario she could think of in her mind and tried to come up with plans to counter them all.

But sometimes what she couldn’t anticipate came to pass and that was its own rush. She had to think fast and move almost as quickly to deal with the unexpected and that thrilled her almost as much as making the kill. In this case though, rarely was a target so high profile, so making the kill would be glorious indeed.

But kills at this level usually took time and not even so much from finding the way in, but from becoming part of the background long enough to become a forgotten piece of it. It took some months to do in the case of drawing herself close to Queen Evaline by finding a place amongst her score of lesser servants. It had taken months and a web of connections to settle her background sufficiently to gain a place where she might get close.

It was also helpful to Wrynn, in her line of work, to find things to dislike, if not hate about her victims. It made killing them easier. Killing royalty was usually quite simple as most lived safely ensconced in a bubble of their own ego and divinity. They were usually arrogant and condescending toward anyone not at their level, which meant, at least within their own kingdom, everyone else.

Evaline had some of that, of course. She was queen, you were not, and while she did not spend her time entwining her life with the lesser around her, nor were they the dirt under her shoes. Even so, any of that arrogance was enough. Wrynn chose her own path, as she felt everyone should. The Goddess, if She’d ever existed, came and went. She cared nothing for her creations and certainly did not personally select some to rule over others.

That someone felt they were innately better than another was someone that, to Wrynn, required correction. She looked around Evaline’s private quarters, seeing examples of that divinity all over, from the murals covering the ceilings, to paintings of each ruler in her line before her, to some of the finest furnishings to be found anywhere.

Wyrnn noted over weeks that, as was the case with most royalty, they were almost never left alone. Advisers, servants, family, friends, and lovers milled in and out throughout the day and well into the night, so much so that, once the individual was important enough, good times to strike were few and far between. It became a game of looking for patterns that suggested opportunities, and then of selecting the best one.

Wyrnn decided that time was now. The days were busy, but clear and consistent gaps revealed themselves over the march of weeks. After her maidens were finished dressing her for the day she was often left mostly alone to collect herself and prepare mentally for the day, with only a servant or two with her. Today she was one of the lucky ones to be in the room. She smoothed out the comforter on the massive canopy bed, wondering briefly exactly how many birds were plucked clean to make a blanket so thick.

Even as she wondered, she looked to the page in the room with the queen. She knew the queen was having her fun with the young man. Even if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she’d know from the furtive glances they gave one another and the fact that his eyes would dance along her thick, plush body and get visibly hard. He wasn’t that good at hiding his desires, but that was almost to be expected with a young man time had just thrust into adulthood finding himself in a position to thrust into his queen.

“You look particularly rested today, Majesty.” Wyrnn kept her tone carefully noncommittal.

Evaline smoothed the front of her gown before the mirror as her sturdy page paid particular attention to the back, finding little ways to touch here and there, ostensibly to help her, but they lingered in ways that would never be permissible publicly. Evaline, for her part, paid him no real mind, though the corners of her mouth did upturn slightly in the barest hint of a smile. “The night was frenetic for a time, but was most relaxed by the time sleep came.” She stiffened and the young man pulled away to stand at attention. Though the stance wasn’t military in bearing, it was clear that he understood that playtime was over.

“I’m glad you had a restful night, Majesty.” Wyrnn kept her movements fluid as she finished smoothing the bed. Bending down to keep the sides of the quilt even and straighten the fringes left hand drifted to the point where frame approached the footboard and touched the long dagger that she’d placed there days before. Getting it inside was the difficult part. Once there, the most obvious place to hide it was in the one place that would never be intentionally searched.

Ordinarily any weapon would do and the palace was full of them even if there weren’t a thousand ways to kill someone with a thousand ordinary objects. But this one was special, so Wyrnn had been told. If the cut didn’t kill, the poison the blade was infused with would. It was what her employer wanted used if at all possible as an additional layer of protection against the unforeseen and she had been paid handsomely for the additional risk, so risk she did, and now use it she would.

She took the blade and carefully slid it between the sleeve of her dress and the cloth she’d wrapped to her forearm to keep the blade from touching her flesh. When she had finished placing it only a hint of the curved silver pommel was visible.

“You know what they say, Majesty,” she began as she moved towards the queen, slowing her heart so that her mind didn’t cloud and prepared her body to do what needed doing, “A hard day of work followed by a long night’s rest is the key to a happy life.”

Evaline’s blue eyes were playfully amused. “Save that, as queen, the day’s work rarely ends.”

Her eyes widened at the display in the mirror as the scene played out behind her. Almost faster than she could see, like a snake’s strike, Wyrnn’s arm swung outward. A moment later, a thin trail of blood could be seen just before it began to run rivers over the page’s throat.

Seconds of shock froze both him and Evaline in place. While her blood ran cold, his eyes went from shock, to fear, to anger and he lunged for her, his own thick hands wrapping around her throat attempting to crush the life from her with what life was left to him. Wyrnn was surprised by the strength he still possessed. Between his hands trying to crush her throat with such ferocity that her vision was already blurring at the edges and her ears were already ringing and his weight driving her backward she was already felt control of the situation slipping away.

This time she brought the dagger to his chest slipping it neatly between ribs and to his heart. One more look of shock crossed his face tinged with sadness as strength and life faded away as he fell to his knees to linger there before falling forward.

As he lingered on his knees, Evaline shook her fear and found her voice and used it with all the power she had, the shout rattling the window glass. “Guards!”

Fuck. In that moment she realized her calculation was in error. She should have killed the queen first. She knew that now, but she hesitated, believing that the young man might have hindered her strike or the escape that would have to follow. Wyrnn had hoped for the shock to have gripped for a second or two longer, but, alas, it was not to be.

But it would at least now get very interesting.

Wyrnn rushed two paces forward and grabbed the queen by the hair, pulling the carefully crafted do apart in a shower of pins. For an instant, the assassin was close enough to let her breath caress Evaline’s cheek. “It’s not personal...Majesty.”

Something clicked in her mind through the fear. It was anger at the dead young man feet away. It was rage over this woman’s arrogance to attack her in her own chambers. And there was no small part of her that simply wanted to live. Her muscles acted from their own memory as both hands came up to grip Wyrnn’s forearm as tightly as she could, pushing it away from her body as she bent forward. Simultaneously, the heavy heel of her shoe came down on Wrynn’s right foot. Wrynn cried out in as much shock as pain. As she stepped back, the queen’s elbow struck her chin.

She should have expected it, but didn’t. With anyone else she would have, but she could count on one hand the number of noble targets that knew how to do more than be shocked or beg and grovel and still have five fingers left uncounted. In a flash of frustration at herself as much as anything else, she drove the blade forward.

Evaline whimpered as she felt the blade find her flesh. Pain radiated outward setting nerves ablaze. She had a flash of memory that had come with touching a hot cook stove as a child, but this felt like every nerve at once had been lit by that fire. She stared ahead at the small portrait of her father that hung on the wall, that stern visage so meticulously crafted she had rejected a full-sized version simply because it looked as though he were standing there every moment of every day passing judgment on every day of her rule. She saw that he certainly didn’t look favorably upon her today. He didn’t any day, but today was the first time Evaline thought he had cause.

She hit the floor without ceremony. Her ears heard the sounds of fighting in the grunts of exertion and her body felt the floor give beneath her as weight shifted. Her blue eyes stung with the dryness of the air because she did not dare close them simply because she fought the growing urge to do so and the knowledge that they might not open again if she gave in.

She spoke to death in the privacy of her own mind. You may take me, but you will have to take me. I’m not rushing to your embrace.

Breathing now caused pain. More than half a breath and a pinching sensation from the wound would cut it short. She stared up at the ceiling willing that next half breath. And the next. And the one after that.

Her eyes fixed on the chandelier above, using it as an anchor for her mind and arguably her spirit. She didn’t know how long she had made that point the center of the world. It seemed like forever, but the reality was that it was probably only a space of moments before the sight of she who was the queen’s right hand loomed over her, her face a mask of bravery covering over concern.

Bae appraised her, her expression one of reassurance, but her eyes betrayed nothing. “My queen, the threat is gone and healers are on the way. You will be all right. Continue to breathe until they arrive.”

Evaline felt her face cradled in those delicate, but deceptively strong hands, thumbs caressing her full cheeks in an attempt to soothe her. The catch in her breath cued a rasping reply that held some amusement despite circumstance. “Dare order me?”

Her voice was iron. “Yes, my queen.”

A small cough brought with it a tinge of copper on her tongue before she forced a reply. “Very well then.”

One more breath.