The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

A War Dawning

By Saddle Rider

Chapter Six

When Ariz heard from Dennet, it was a most pleasant surprise. He’d made use of the merchant’s services often over the past decade and he’d always come through in spectacular fashion. Anything from rare wines, finely crafted jewelry, and anything in between. Dennet had an uncanny ability to anticipate the man’s needs. There would occasionally be the pleasant surprise of a rare wine or a particular piece of art or jewelry delivered to him that he didn’t know he wanted until he saw them. Some of them even came as gifts. Dennet said he liked to show appreciation to his customers, but Ariz also knew that such gifts served to advertise what he could acquire for them and encouraged a deeper relationship.

He was an excellent source of information as well. Ariz could take whispers to the merchant and have them verified or not in very short order, which made him a substantial fortune and solidified his position to the extent that he could be as much a part of the city as he wanted to be, which was not much. He would rather be home immersing himself in his various interests, and he could hardly study the things that truly moved him if he were hosting dinner parties weekly.

Even if there were people in Court that shared them, they likely knew nothing by comparison and they’d bore him more than anything else. He’d studied things the world told him were forbidden almost since he could read and he knew he had few matches in the world. All the hobbyists could do is make him feel superior and, since he already knew he was, there was no point.

As a red-blooded male he had needs, but even those needs couldn’t be satisfied by the mundane. Any man could just roll onto a woman, rut, then roll away. That physical act was the barest hint of what it could be. There were layers upon layers of dominance and submission in each moment. It could be a battle that took the form of a hungry kiss, to a bite to mark your lover, to simply finding oneself on top.

A touch? A tongue? A cock? A pussy? Of course they gave pleasure, but they all did so in ways the body anticipated. It was in all the ways that a body could find pleasure that it didn’t anticipate that Ariz found his own pleasure. To mix pleasure and pain was a heady mix indeed and beyond most to truly grasp much less enjoy. To hear that shock on her voice as her body touched something it never thought possible was as much thrill for him as her. It was almost better than burying himself into to the hilt.

Almost.

But when she was so high from the mix that she could barely speak to do anything more than accept that he controlled her body and mind in ways no one ever had before, when she admitted she was his before that surrender turned her into little more than an animal, that made it perfect. Dennet helped him find the type of women he sought for his pleasures.

Dennet didn’t traffic in slaves and Ariz wouldn’t have wanted them anyway. They were ruined people and it wasn’t about ruining them; it was about opening their eyes and proving he could. It was in that way he proved his control. That wasn’t to say that he didn’t have particular desires when it came to his women. He liked them beautiful when he could find them so, but that wasn’t nearly so important as coming to him needy and already in a submissive position. He liked them coming to him reluctantly, or even with shame. They gave in, submitted their bodies to him, and he took control. And once he awakened them, some came back for more and more and more.

But he always sought out fresh blood. So when Dennet sent a message that afternoon that he found a lovely someone in need that might suit his, he thrilled at the chance to meet her. Making his way to a small tavern near the center of town he entered to find it clean and tidy, of course. There were few places in Idros that fit what the rest of the world saw as a bar. The décor was modern, the floor a light wood with the bar dark and lacquered that matched the chairs, with the tables alternating between matching the light of the floor and dark of the bar.

It was sparsely populated, but, judging by the description Dennet gave he could have picked her from a crowded room. In one of the far booths finishing her drink was a young woman with hair the color of fresh snow. As he maneuvered the tables and closed in, he appraised her more fully. In her military leathers and the way they hugged her waist, her figure was even more alluring, and the thigh displayed from uniform to boot invited the eye to roam.

He stood before the table and smiled charmingly at the waif before him. Those eyes. That skin. She looked ethereal. And the fact that a creature like this could be so in need as to be willing to surrender himself set his blood rushing through his veins. “You must be Elan.”

She looked up at him. Her height towered above him, but his frame was slight with a thin goatee and mustache as dark as his hair “I must be,” she said nervously before realizing how her tone might have presented itself. “I am. You’re Mister Ariz?”

“Antin Ariz, yes. May I join you?”

She gestured to the other side of the table. “Please.”

He slid in and looked to her now empty glass. “Would you like another?”

“No, thank you.” She looked at the empty glass and pushed it to the side slightly. “I don’t drink, really. I’m not sure why I started now.”

He looked to the empty glass with a smile at the memories. “I think we’ve all used alcohol to deaden nerves now and then.” He opted to change topics, “Is this your first time in Idros?”

“I’ve passed through now and again as part of my service.”

“I hope it’s always been a pleasant experience.”

She pondered it. “I would say so.”

“Good,” he said honestly, “I know that the city is not for everyone.” He just watched for a moment the way the candlelight from the center of the table danced in her eyes. “It seems we have a mutual friend in Dennet.”

She gave a quick nod before studying her hands at her lap intently. Her mind there open, bereft of anything but the ability to follow the commands of she who was now it’s puppet master in a literal sense. “We do. He said that you have been known to...help people in need?”

She shied away, sliding slightly further down her seat and closer to the wall as the barmaid appeared. He didn’t seem annoyed by the interruption, telling her that he would let her know if they needed anything. After she had gone he picked up where they had left off, “I’ve been known to help women who find themselves in financial straits. What puts a young woman like you in such need?”

Elan closed her eyes, “Not me, specifically.” She forced the next words out. “My mother. She...likes...liked to gamble.” She looked back at him, seeming to look for strength. The words flew from her lips in an attempt to save the image of a vice-ridden mother that only existed as vice-ridden woman because Ariz needed her to. Elan’s empty mind took those seeds and created an entire history around them. If he tried to touch her mind, he would find the truth of it because that is all that would be there.

“She liked to gamble. It started out so..nothing at first. In a few years she was selling our belongings...heirlooms that had been in the family for generations. We were finally able to stop her, or at least convince her to stop herself. It took a lot of what we had left to us to pay the debts and we did.”

He seemed sincere in his sympathy. “I can imagine. It’s not an uncommon theme.” Indeed many women had grovelled before him in submission to cover debts, though they usually of their own making.

“A...umm...creditor has appeared and demands payment. He’s willing to settle for less provided he can be paid quickly, but she...we can’t otherwise pay quickly, so...”

Her squirming and her weakness aroused his hunger to use her, even if he did respect the why of her presence. Outwardly though, he simply finished her thoughts with understanding. “So you are willing to help her. You are either very dutiful to your family or you love her very much.”

“I love her,” Elan answered, clearing her throat to push back tears. “She has rebuilt her life and reclaimed her honor. She doesn’t deserve this now. If I can help her, I must.”

Ariz was left feeling slightly intoxicated. “I can certainly help. How much did our friend explain to you?”

“Just what you’d pay and while your tastes might be...eccentric, I don’t have anything to fear from you.”

He reached his hand across the table and she gave hers back. He liked the strength in it. He would enjoy using it...taming it. “You don’t. Eccentric is a fair enough word. Our time together might leave you with a blemish or two, but nothing that will not fade and, by morning, you will have the money your mother needs. Do you agree?”

She nodded quickly.

His voice took on a tone that commanded even though it did not carry. “You will obey me tonight as if I were your king.”

“I will obey you.”

That it came unbidden even though with reluctance hardened him. “Tonight you surrender to me and I will use you any way I please. Answer your master.”

Her pale skin seemed to grow even more so. She struggled with the words and the shame that went with them. “Yes, Master.” She looked around the tavern fearful that others had heard.

Such a skittish little thing. She will be a joy. After you answer me now, you will gather your cloak and come with me to my home, not speaking again until I ask something of you. Is that understood, soldier of Erette?”

“Yes, Master.”

“I will settle the bill. Follow me.”

He stood, she did as he had commanded, and out of the tavern they went.

* * *

She said nothing as she settled into the plush seat of the carriage and he told her, “Lean forward.” as they were underway. She said nothing as she obeyed before the leather of the collar was wrapped around her neck. It was smooth and just tight enough to dimple the skin. It felt like being caught in the talon of some creature looking to toy with its prey, which was not entirely inaccurate Elan’s mind supposed. It was surreal to see herself as merely a passenger in her own body as though it were literally another person. Even physical feeling had a distance to it as though sensation had to take time to reach her.

She said nothing as the leash clipped the loop and he wrapped that supple leather around his hands twice and eyed her. She tapped her fingers quietly on her knee to dispel nervous energy as they left the city, but was otherwise calm, which he enjoyed. She was more open than many. “I believe that you will enjoy yourself. She looked at him, but did not respond, which pleased him. It was an honest statement, but also a bit of a trick. He should have known better though, he chided himself with some amusement. None of the soldiers he’d ever played with this way ever fell for it. He instead chose another path to arouse himself. “How did you come to know of your latest family difficulty? Did your mother come to you in shame?”

Elan’s mind picked up on the subtle cue of excitement in his voice at the last. Using those new seeds, her mind expanded. She nodded, her eyes distant and the tapping on her knee turning into a clenched fist. “She didn’t want me to know, and I wouldn’t had I not seen the man leave our home. He just, looked like the type, you know? She was still shaken and it didn’t take much pushing to get her to tell me. Not even father knows. No one will know.”

“Does she know?”

Elan shook her head, that white hair moving gently with her. “I will lie to her and tell her that I arranged loans through friends and can pay them back as I am able. She will never know what,” she choked on the next words, “how I will have debased myself for her sake.”

Oh my, yes. he imagined her mother’s fear and shame and the desperation that drove her to Dennet, willing to submit to anything to help her family. Outwardly, he gave the leash a small tug to vent his own nervous energy, “I suspect we will both enjoy ourselves and perhaps that troubles you most. When she looked at him puzzled, he continued. “To do things you find shameful is one thing, to do things you find shameful only to have them drive you to new heights of ecstasy is another. That is but another level of defilement. Spread your legs.”

As that which was her floated in ether she sent commands and her body obeyed. Her knees went wide as her head went down to watch his deft fingers slide between her legs and under the leather crotch to the tailored linen beneath. He liked the trepidation in her eyes when he realized it was as he suspected. “You are damp, Elan.” He made her watch him put the scent to his tongue to savor. “Yes, we will enjoy ourselves tonight. Stay in that wide stance the rest of the way. I like that.”

He didn’t speak to her the rest of the way home, so she stayed silent the rest of the way to his estate. His was expansive and, like the rest of the city proper favored that expanse over height. The walks were as clean as they could be, as though the groundskeepers job was to the snow plum to the walk. The cold registered, but didn’t bother Elan as she was led by the leash into the home.

Unlike the meeting Dennet, the servants here looked her over. Him bringing such women was not new and some of them appraised her. Ariz told her, perhaps with the intent to shock her, “If the guest is particularly responsive, I invite the staff to...partake.”

He was ahead of her so he did not see her blush at the floor as a male servant threw the bolts to the heavy door ahead of them and opened it as he waited for them to approach. “Your guest this evening is quite lovely, if I may say, Lord.”

The response was prideful, “She is at that.”

“I assume she will be staying the full night?”

“She will,” he said, looking over her shoulder, “won’t you?”

Elan knew there was only one response. “Yes, Master.”

“I suspect we’ll need a hearty breakfast in the morning, and perhaps a poultice or two as I also suspect skin so fair bruises easily.”

“Of course, Lord. Do enjoy your evening.”

The two made their way down the steps carved from stone into the well-lit room below. By the time they made it halfway, the door had closed with a weight that made the stone quiver and a pulse of air hit her in the back.

Judging by the upper floor, the size of this room doubled that of the living room and then some and looked like an Inquisitor’s chamber of old, though this one was well lit with lamps bolted to the stone on all sides and chandeliers made of steel hung in a diamond pattern. Heavy metal chains dangled from the ceiling at various heights suggesting mechanisms to bring them up and down and they were spaced closely enough together that two or more people could be placed almost back to back.

Farther out from that center were a rack, a cross with cherry finish, a restraint chair and a host of other larger devices that all looked well-maintained. Against the walls and between the lamps were cabinets, some opened to display a wide variety of whips, floggers and other tools, all neatly in their place. Some of the cabinets sported drawers which, no doubt held the smaller tools of Ariz’ hobby. After leading her to the center of the room, he took the leash from the collar, and, tossing it to the restraint chair, gave his voice the commanding tone of any officer on the field that knew they had absolute authority of those that they surveyed. “Do you have any questions? Now will be the only time you will be allowed to ask.”

Elan responded just as crisply as that part of the routine of life was imprinted upon her soul, “No, Master.”

“Good. For this night, you are mine and I am paying well for that privilege. As such, I, and only I decide when and if you you have reached your absolute limits. I do not care if you scream or beg. Indeed, I shall not gag you because I quite like the sounds. Attempt to fake them as some sort of theater for my benefit and rest assured I will know and punish you harder for it. You are not my first guest.”

His tone came closer to the friendly one he carried in the tavern. “You may also rest assured that I know my responsibility to you. You are not my first guest and I am not a beast. No one has ever left this place dead or maimed and they never will. I will know your limits when I see them and, while I may push them and while I may indeed break you in the sense of what you believe about yourself and what you are capable of, you will leave my care in much the same way you came to it. Do you understand?”

“I do, Master.”

“Excellent.” He took one step back, his air of command back in full force. “Tell me why you elected to meet me in your lightest armor?”

“Dennet said it would appeal. He said it would advertise my station and that...”

“Yes? You must answer fully and completely in all things.”

“He said that you would enjoy the tease.”

His face betrayed little, but there was mirth in his eyes. “Perhaps our friend knows me too well. Strip. Pieces in the chair with the leash.”

This was also rote and imprinted. Fist she unbuckled the bracers and then the shin guards, tossing them to the chair. Next came the buckles for the tassets, shoulder plates and chest plate. Stripped to her black linens it was a matter of nothing more than pulling the bow free from her upper back and again from her waist. Each piece tossed aside revealed more of his prize, and the more that was revealed, the more he wanted. The armor hid the tone of her muscles and suppleness of her skin. “Legs wide, but otherwise at attention for inspection.”

The left and last boot joined it’s mate next to the chair with metal cuffs for the wrists and ankles and the soles of her feet touched the cool, smoothed stone. She placed her hands behind her back, fixed her gaze to the wall before her, exploring how the shadows played as Elan waited.

His eyes lingered for a time. Loving the fact that the trimmed mound between her legs was the same white as her hair. Ariz went to one of the cabinets to the left of her and touched a finger to one of the heavier floggers in his possession. The straps were thick and the weight was reassuring. He held it, straps facing downward and fanned out the straps just to hear the little clicks they made when they touched. Each tool here had its effect and its place and its individual charm. This one she would feel through her body and prepare her for the next steps.

He turned quickly to perhaps catch her trying to peek in on his doings even as he put it atop the cabinet. On the one hand he was gratified that she had not moved and that those legs and that heart-shaped ass were exactly where he remembered them, he almost wish they had so he would have had more reason to punish her. Not that he needed any.

Ariz always allowed himself a bit of swagger just now as this was his domain and she had placed herself at his mercies. He eyed her, making careful note of her battle scars; bot their positions and types. There were not many, and they did nothing to mar her beauty. Indeed, like most of the men in Erette, he found them a testament to her endurance. He touched a thin line in the middle of her back. “I would guess that this one is a dagger or some other short blade?”

“Yes, Master. Archers are required to be as skilled with the dagger as the bow.”

“Of course. One doesn’t have the luxury of killing every enemy from a hundred yards away. As he came around to the front, he saw a jagged one that went several inches from the slope of her right hip towards her belly. He touched it as well. “An animal claw?”

In the seclusion of the crystal she recalled the mass of perverted flesh filling the caves when she believed it would be the last thing she ever saw, but, if her last breath protected her true Master, the price would have been worth it. “From some years ago, Master. The rest of it just missed, but the dewclaw did not.”

“Nasty thing.” He came around to the front, her breasts just large enough to have shape and those nipples, a bright pink, begged for abuse. Later certainly. He let the palm of his hand graze her nipple, his fingers spread, not touching her with them and he was pleased by the flutter of her eyelids. “You do like this, don’t you?”

He saw the flash of hesitancy there and decided to tease both of them. “Don’t answer. You might lie just now and I don’t want that.”

After securing her wrists to the biting leather cuffs and a bit of manipulation with the hand crank’s that held the chains with a long metal poll for the purpose, she was as he wished her, arms in a “Y,” somewhat behind her as though she were diving from height into water, torso forward and legs back and spread. It was a nice stress position for those strong enough to endure it and so far Elan had done so without complaint. He liked it too, because it showed off the sculpture present in her form. He had simply watched her endure it for twenty minutes he asked her while retrieving his flogger from atop the cabinet. “Comfortable?”

The only sign of real stress was a slight labor to her breath, “Not particularly, Master.”

“Wonderful to hear, Elan. You’re doing well. I’ve has women in your position who were weeping in half the time. It’s but one of the reasons I find servicewomen so compelling. The military teaches them tolerance.” He let his flogger spin and click again as he stood just behind that tight ass, “And it teaches endurance.”

She grunted when the strikes began and with every fourth or fifth, which seemed to be about as long as she could contain herself before she expressed the pain. It wasn’t particularly intense at first. It was only slightly stinging. She had gotten struck harder than that on the back during celebrations, but the “hands” were many and insistent. She could feel the force reverberate through her muscle and bone.

Lash after lash struck as he let his wrist turn and repeatedly transfer the energy to the flogger. Her muscles flexed and she breathed evenly, in through her nose, out through her mouth. Elan fell into the rhythm of the strikes too, finding the feeling and intensity not unpleasant.” The lashes went up and down, to everywhere they could reach and back again.

He loved the quivers of her. “Are you a virgin, Elan?”

“No, Master.” The answer came quickly and as a grunt.

“Do you have a lover now? A man?”

“I do, Master.”

“Does he know you’re here with me?”

He sped up, which shocked her from the rhythm she’d become accustomed to. “No, Master.”

“Does he love you?”

There would be too much nuance to explain to him in anything less than a week even if it were his concern, but she knew she had a place in his heart. “Yes, Master.”

He alternated speed and randomized the time between doing so. Too much of the same rhythm made for complacency for the toy. “Do you love him?”

The truth was perfectly appropriate here and now, if, for no other reason than it was what he would have wanted to hear. “Love has no depth by comparison.” She exhaled sharply this time. “I am his.”

“Yet you are here. Now. Love has no depth and yet, here you are, mine.”

“I do...what I must. One does not..touch the other.”

Her head sagged as he stopped to admire his work. Her back, form collarbone, to small, to the curve of her ass was a lovely pink and he was only getting started; the sweat making a sexy sheen that he just had to touch.

Then there was the scent of her that he had never truly noticed before. It was spicy but not strong. He knew some of the finer soaps one could find had scents that carried greater strength when mixed with sweat. He inhaled deeply and relished how she jumped when he touched her, his hand feeling positively icy on her back. He ran a serpentine line from her neck to her ass. “A lovely scent, dear. Did you prepare especially for me?”

“Yes, Master. Dennet arranged for me to have a room at the Temple Inn for an hour between guests before our meeting.”

“Your idea or his,” he asked as brought a small table from the periphery to sit near her.

“Mine, Master. I...needed this to work.” Without new pain from the flogger, her body was able to focus more on what had already happened. The pain was a now a dull, pulsing thud, her body having a memory of the last pattern and when her mind thought of when that impact should hit, the muscles responded.

Returning the heavier flogger in favor of a stinger with much finer straps, he put the loop to his wrist, he let it dangle there as he took two candles from the wall. Placing them on the table, close enough to reach, but far enough to avoid an accident he let the tips of the fine leather brush her back. “Of course you did, Elan. If you were an unappealing whore, you might not be here, now, isn’t that right?”

It was what he craved, so she gave it, “I’m not…”

That was defiance enough for him to start the stinger across her shoulders and layering it as the stinger made its way down. In tune with her distant body enough to feel and respond, she whimpered like a begging dog at the sensation. With her skin already raw, it increased the bite of the stinger more than a bit, making her body jerk to attempt to pull away from it. “But you are a whore.” He picked up the pace and intensity when he reached the meat of her ass to maintain the same level of pain throughout before layering it upward again.

“Your reasoning is not relevant. I’ve heard it all before and it doesn’t matter. You need to eat. You want nice things. You want to help your mother. Justify it all as you please, but you’re still mine for the night, having sold yourself to me. That makes you a whore.” Her back was fire red now and the hash marks had melded together nicely. It was like creating an abstract painting with leather brushes on a fragile, responsive canvas.

Elan found that she did enjoy it. The rhythm...the pain...the restraint. They all combined to put her body in a place not unlike her mind; it was afloat in a mass of sensation and the two states complimented one another. She feared and anticipated the next step.

“Admit it, girl.” He lifted one of the thick white candles into his hand, tipping it left and right to enjoy how the light reflected in the liquid wax. He tipped it slowly and the wax dripped from shoulder to shoulder. She whined and pulled against the chains and sucked in air in great droughts. “You are a whore. Say it.”

The cry came as the candle dripped down her spine. “I’m a whore, Master.”

He could not see her face but he imagined the drying wax as as her tears. And the spicy scent of her skin filled the room and his nostrils. He breathed it deeply in droughts, too. It was the scent of his victory. Her voice mixed with it and tickled his ears. It was glorious. Everything about this woman was a gift. “You are a whore. What would happen if your superiors knew you were here?”

“I would be...”

Drip, drip, drip.

She strained, “...susceptible to blackmail and...”

Drip, drip, drip.

“...drummed from the service.”

Letting her pain contend with her he caressed her ass with both hand, spreading to look upon that pink asshole and the white hair of her mound matted. The spice was even there, dizzying and teasing, his cock pressing against him demanding attention. The animal part of him, as much as he wanted her it was fearful that he would not last and he so wanted to savor it all. He’d never felt anything like it before.

“You like this, don’t you?”

Her resignation made his cock push against his trousers. “Yes, Master.”

“You will come to me, whore. You will come to me. I will hurt you in the ways that make you drip as you are now. If you do not, I will see to it that you are expelled from the service. Perhaps I will anyway…”

“...Goddess.”

That broken little word was too much and he positioned himself behind her, pulling out his thick cock, and rubbing it up and down her slit and let her drip upon his shaft rubbing it in. It was slick and creamy and smelled so of the spice that he knew if he bent down to eat her it would consume him. I don’t eat slaves. If he were in full control of his faculties he might have expanded upon that thought and perhaps posed other questions.

Having the sort of outside herself awareness she now enjoyed she sensed the brief hesitation in him and acted finding a mix between excitement and fear to drive what thrilled him about finding such women to bring here in the first place. “Please don’t. I’ll do as you say, just don’t cost me the service and I will... be your whore.”

“Mmm...you will no matter what I do, Elan. End your career and you groveling in any menial job you can find.” He sank fully into her and she welcomed him. He grunted as he pushed through her tightness which was easier to do than it probably should have been, but she was sooooo wet. It was like the sweetest syrup that helped his cock get deep quickly. The feeling, coupled with the look of her used body, and sound of her broken voice that expressed pleasure as it was filled.

“What...what will you tell your man?”

She was nearly breathless. “I don’t...I don’t know.”

“He will not think this does not touch what he thinks you feel for him.” Her wetness dripped from his balls and onto the floor, and the warmth of her spread throughout his body. “He will abandon you to your whore ways.”

She hoped that she’d sounded suitably mortified, “No.”

Even if he does not. Even if he is weak and allows it, I bet that will excite you as well. You will come home dripping me, with my marks upon your body.”

“Oooooooooooooooooo.”

“You want that.” The gentlemanly tone was long gone, the burning animal in him now holding sway. “You came to me with noble intent, but you wanted to experience being a well-used whore. Now you like it.

Elan came, straining her body against the sensations and catching the glimpse of her delicate toes digging into the floor tweaked him and he leaned forward to drag his tongue along her back. Her sweat was like a spicy honey, sweet with a bit of bite and he drooled shamelessly as he took another tasted as it mixed with the heat of her freshly tamed skin. Her pussy clamped tightly and the warmth of her filled him like an empty vessel. His cock bucked against her as he spilled seed deep within her that did nothing to quench the heat of her or his need to fuck.

Truth happily escaped her. “I like it. I want it. To be a slave is what I was remade to be.”

He rutted and she pushed her body back, driving him, letting her milk his body and his mind as he contented himself with slapping his body against hers with the crack like a single-tail against skin and slobbering all over her to get more of that sweet spice into his belly. Time passed before she made sounds other than a whimper, and those sounds were composed and now indifferent to the use of her body. Elan pulled her mind away.

There was work to be done for her true Master and her queen. “Ariz, what will happen if I tell you to stop?”

Right then, the very thought behind the question was an anathema to his continued existence. It was all about the next thrust into, orgasm with, and taste of his slave. “I’ll have to stop, slave. Please don’t ask me to do that.” His tongue tasted again, kissing with his licks. There seemed to be no end to the sweet and it was a joy.

“I won’t make you stop, but you must obey your slave.”

There was no incongruity in that for his drowning mind. “Yes, slave. I will. I always will.”

The chains rattled. “You created a poison recently; a poison that resists magic. Tell me how it might be broken. Tell me how you made it.”

The thought of him being of service to his slave triggered another eruption of seed that the slave milked as she should. He slowed long enough to relish it before fucking again in earnest.

It would please him to be of service to her. His mind pushed through the lust to answer. “Didn’t create it, Elan. Wouldn’t. I have no need to kill anyone. It was only a thought exercise; questions asked, pondered, then answered. I correspond with others that share my... interests and skills. It was,” he panted, “the result of correspondence over years. He...mmmmmmmm...actually made it? And used it?”

“Yes. Who is he?”

There was no hesitation.“Drax. A mage that lives in Draleth lands.”

“Later I will want to see the correspondence, all of it. For now, tell me everything.”

“Of course, slave.”

* * *

Evaline looked out the window. From this height, the city looked fine, the people bustling along with their lives, but she knew it wasn’t so. There was fear and uncertainty all over. Indeed, the only thing that kept riots from the streets was that uncertainty. Stories had rushed through the city like a flood of the fire in the sky that burned an island to a cinder and boiled the water around it to great plumes of steam that rose far into the air.

A few thought it was the end and there had been sporadic reports of suicides since, but, for the most part, people just didn’t know what to make of things and the greatest source of stress with the people was that they wanted answers. Was it true? If it was true, what was it? War? Something just not understood? Divine retribution? And queen and Court were running out of non-answers to give that would mollify them. She couldn’t tell them that it was a war and she couldn’t tell them that it was one that the greatest of the world’s military forces would vanish in a flash of orange fire.

She couldn’t tell them that the Draleth Ambassador was behind her demanding her surrender on their behalf without having fired a shot to defend them. She could see her father’s disappointment and hear his words. It wouldn’t matter why. It wouldn’t matter that it was beyond her control. He would simply look upon her as the last queen of Erette and that would somehow have met his expectations.

“Surrender,” she repeated.

“I fail to see what other choice you have, Majesty.” Ambassador Xi stood there, making little effort to hide the smugness he felt. His hook nose, beady eyes, and the arrogance he carried made him look like a carrion bird salivating at a freshly dead meal.

General Jaye stood to her right in her own full black and gold-braided dress uniform and Bae to her left in white with similar braiding, and the queen in her own formal attire while Xi stood there in a suit of muted browns. It was a contrast all around. “Surrender after you set up bandits to use your land to strike against us? For what purpose? Just to show us this weapon of yours?”

“We had nothing to do with that. It was just a fortunate coincidence that the military of Erette saw the first test. Word would have gotten back to you in any event.” He smiled at Neral. “But I trust that General Jaye has been forthcoming about its power. The Draleth have been pushed aside by the greater powers for far too long.”

He liked the sound of what came next. Now we are in a position to make the rules. Rest assured that we will be more than fair, assuming that you do not make it necessary for us to make an example of you.”

“Was assassinating me just to destabilize the kingdom? So you could get your surrender in the confusion?”

“I’m afraid I have nothing to offer when it comes to that most unfortunate event beyond my full cooperation, which I continue to provide.”

She saw the reaction to his choice of words in Bae’s eyes and could be sure it was mirrored in Neral’s had she looked. “Of course you do.”

“Think carefully, Majesty. Think carefully before you attempt to be the brave queen who stands against the unstoppable storm. Imagine each city of the kingdom burning around you. Imagine all the lives snuffed out.” He laid on the false empathy like glaze on a roasting pig. The blame would be yours. But the praise for saving them would be yours, too. And you would still have power. Of course, King Mareth would move the capitol here, but you would still wield power here. He will need a liaison between himself and the Court of Erette. You will all be needed to help keep the peace, lest other examples of our newfound power be required.”

The unveiled threat hung in the air and Xi leaned forward, his hands on the queen’s desk as if to dare her then and there. Evaline had to work to keep her physical composure, though her voice was almost monotone as she restrained her rage. “Ambassador, please allow us a moment to consider your king’s generous offer.”

He stood, pushing from the desk with a haughty grin on his lips, “I hope to be able to convey to my king that you’ve made the sensible decision and spared your people senseless destruction.” Once the door closed behind him, leaving the three alone, Evaline looked hopefully to Neral. “You’ve had time to think. You are certain there is no defense?”

Visions of the destruction were still crystal clear in her mind. “None, Majesty. The light...melted everything in its path. Anything touched by it is burned away. The kingdom would be gone as quickly as the island.” Neral loathed the position of impotence it placed her in almost as much as she hated and feared the threat it posed. To fall after a fight wasn’t shameful so long as you gave all of yourself in the effort, but to not be able to fight at all; to start from a position of loss and to know there was nothing to do to change it crushed her.

And it was acid in the wound to think of all the people she couldn’t defend. Evaline was right. She took everyone with her. She thought of the weddings in their lives, births, deaths and all the other stuff of life and she wondered how quickly all that would change for the worse. Mareth was a dictatorial pig and, in short order, Erette would be unrecognizable, leaving her to shudder at the thought of what it would become.

On top of it all, she had failed her queen.

She looked to both of them.“Magic? Or something from the old world?”

Bae pondered, her eyes searching her own thoughts. “The old world, I would think, Majesty. Not even the worst of the wickedness of mages in the stories suggested they had power like that, and it’s said the old world had all manner of weapons with which to happily destroy themselves. It’s even said they took the first steps toward exploring the darkness of space before they ended the world as they knew it. Who knows everything they had at their disposal.”

“Respectfully, does it matter? The choice is the same either way: surrender or fight.”

Evaline faced Neral, “My general chooses to fight.”

Neral’s brown eyes met hers. “There are many ways to fight. In this case there is...nothing to engage, at least nothing we can reach or fight in a conventional sense.” Her mood lifted slightly at the discussion because it was something that she knew. “But there are other ways to fight. We could play at surrender, pretend at compromise and look for that which we need to know, or simply make it so costly to hold Erette that they are forced away.”

“To burn us down anyway,” Bae finished.

“Perhaps,” Neral conceded with some bitterness, “but they will have paid a price to do it and that’s better than just inviting them in to raise their flag.”

“Court is terrified either way. They lose their lives or their place.”

Evaline’s eyes showed that she was asking a question to which the answer was already known. “Is there a difference?”

“At least is they are sufficiently paralyzed by the question that they will let you tell them what to do.”

“They could help lead a resistance,” Neral said, conveying a lesson of the word’s history. “The five kingdoms broke from tyranny. We could do it again.” The fire in her belly lit again.

Bae challenged her with the very ridiculousness of the notion. “Do you honestly believe more than a handful of the nobles are capable? Or willing?”

“It might be all worthwhile to find out,” Evaline said, the wheels turning as she looked toward the door, imagining Xi waiting for the inevitable. “Tell them that, Bae, when you have the White Guard evacuate Court. Even if no one asks anything of them, they’ll like the sound of it.”

“While you do what, Majesty?”

Evaline didn’t know and she said so, “Buy time for that. Make him pay a price that he’ll have to live with even if...this becomes his castle. Something. I cannot fight him and I cannot win. But the people expect us to do something, and I’ll be pitched to the depths before I kneel to Mareth without lifting a finger.” She flicked her hand toward the door. “Bring him back.”

Bae moved in a glide to the door and opened it. Xi strode in, almost as if he already owned the room. He gave a small bow before that smarmy look reappeared. “May I now tell my king that an understanding exists?”

She looked down on him even though he was taller. “What I believe is that my best response would be to send him your head in a fucking box.”

His mouth opened and closed quickly and he blinked trying to process the last thing he expected to hear and the vision of his dead eyes seeing the lid close. He managed to find words. “Majesty, you...”

She rolled over him, “You have challenged Erette to war, and a battle you shall have.”

He was stunned into silence for a moment. “A battle you have no hope of winning,” he spat.

“Your king has an impressive toy. He needs it because he has nothing else. If he wants Erette, he can be a man and meet me on the field. Tell him so. Tell him to come face me and look me in the eye and bring his men. Tell him that I may just be a silly little woman with big tits, but I am also queen of the greatest nation in the world, and I still bet my cock is bigger than his.”

Neral mostly suppressed a snort.

He stammered at the complete abandonment of decorum. “That is what you wish me to tell him?”

“Verbatim. Are you smart enough for that?”

“Yes, Majesty. And if his response to that is to simply blast the earth clean of you?”

“I don’t think that’s an issue because if that’s what mattered to him he would have done it already. But he wants this kingdom. He wants the city. If he roasts us all in response, he’s the weakling bitch I think he is and have always thought he was because he dare not face a ruler and her general because he hasn’t had tits that close to his face since he nursed from them and he fears women, the might of an army that he cannot defeat without being the honorless, weak piece of shit that he is, and he fears facing either.”

“Tell him exactly that. Do you understand, Ambassador?”

Xi’s face was difficult to read. He was either dealing with rage at the words thrown at him, or fear that he didn’t know how Mareth would react to them. His head just might end up in a box anyway. “Yes, I do, Majesty.” Each word struggled from his lips.

“Now get out.”

He gave a curt nod, turned on his heel and stalked out the door. Bae closed the door and turned to see Evaline looking a bit relieved and Bae smiled unabashedly. “That was...a diplomatic breach, Majesty?”

“Wasn’t it though.” She looked down at the gold-braid bracelet that was keeping her from death. “At least, whatever else might happen, I’ve had one of the high points of my life.” She gave the desk a small rap. “General? Every soldier that can ride by dawn is to ride behind us and we will play the cards we have left.”

“Yes, Majesty. By your leave...”

Evaline dipped her chin with her eyes closed briefly. “Give the order, then see to your own family.”

Neral returned the gesture and headed out.

* * *

Deres had hoped that the time spent in their quarters in Idros pouring over the notes Ariz happily provided might be enough, but, of course, very little in the world promised to be so easy. It was like having only half the pieces of a puzzle. “I can glean this piece and make an educated guess at that one, but one wrong move and she would die anyway. We need the rest of it.”

“So we seek this Drax and get him to help us,” Bryana said simply. We know where to start, so we go hunting.” She closed the distance on him, putting her arms around him. “We will go where we need to go and do what we have to do, just as it has been.”

“And in the meantime she is still in limbo.” Her closeness slowed his heartbeat and calmed his spirit. He touched her cheek and she leaned into it and put her hand over his.

“But she is safe and alive. She has the time for us to do this. And now we have the end in sight and the final piece.” She looked upon him with sympathy as she stayed close. “It’s terrible not to know everything, isn’t it? Adar, so advanced in so many ways that the rest of us wouldn’t believe what it were capable of even they accepted that the place of fairy tales were real and you cannot just wave your hands and fix it.”

“Do you really think me so petty, Bryana?”

“No, Deres. It’s not petty to want to help, but you make demands of yourself that no one can meet. You are frustrated when you can’t simply...fix it.”

“As though you know me.”

She rolled her eyes. “You are not some unreadable creature is all. So let the three of us discuss the best place to start when we arrive.”

It was then that there was the tickle at the base of his neck that told him that Neral was calling to him through the crystal that belonged to her. He was about to mention it to Bryana when he saw the knowing look in her eyes. The call was touching her as well and that concerned them both. He quickly went to his pack on the table to retrieve his crystal while she drew her own from the deep pocket of her cloak. “Perhaps the bandits have proven more formidable than she anticipated.”

“Or there has been another attempt against Evaline.”

“Let’s stop speculating and find out.”

They sat on their legs in the floor, gripped their crystals and concentrated deeply, letting the crystal envelop them and follow the thread of light before it opened into the expansive but comfortable living room of their home. The fire was warm and it was exactly as they knew it at first. But then they realized there was a cloying emptiness around them, as though they knew every room would be empty if they looked, which made both visibly nervous.

Before them, Neral stood in the black and gold of her dress uniform, complete with cape. They saw the tension in her body and uncertainty in her eyes and that only solidified their own fears. She cane to them, arms outstretched. At just this moment she loved magic. She could sense them. She could feel them and she basked in it. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I haven’t had time to reach you. Even now we are underway so I don’t know how much time I have.”

“What’s happened, Neral,” Bryana asked. She sensed that Neral didn’t want to let go which made her more concerned.

She filled them in on every detail, skipping nothing and they just let her speak. She concluded with. “I don’t know what will happen when we meet. At any moment I expect to be consumed by fire before I can register that I’m burning. That it hasn’t happened yet suggests that the queen’s gambit may save lives, even temporarily.”

Deres raged and ached inside in a way he had never thought possible. His first inclination was to use the full extent of his power to meet Mareth and simply end the man before he could unleash his hell upon the world, but, since he didn’t know what that hell was and what contingencies might be in place it was a foolish notion.

She saw it in the way he held his body coiled, “My knight will better serve me by not putting himself in the way of whatever that is.”

Bryana took his hand and grasped it firmly. “We know now that all of this begins and ends with the Draleth. Find this weapon there and put an end to it, and then we seek the other half of the puzzle of the poison. The question is how we reach the weapon.”

Deres put away his rage and focused on the problem at hand, thinking of all he had learned of the old world in Adar. It was far too long ago for those as steeped in the past to remember how it all worked, but science held sway there enough that if anyone could find it, they could. “Mother will be able to help.”

Neral grasped that hope even as she had to plan that it would come to nothing. “I dismissed the house staff that have places they can go. The others with nowhere else to be...I sent them with Cassea, Tessa, and Kylen. Cassea is bonded to you. You will be able to find her, yes?”

He nodded. “How is Kylen?”

Neral choked back the anxiety. “Frightened, but strong. She has Cassea. She has Tessa. She has people around her that she knows.” Mist threatened to overwhelm her vision even in this place outside of the normal bounds of the world. “She told me to win the fight and come home soon.”

Bryana felt the ache, too. She could imagine Kylen saying the words. “You will.”

“If there is a way, I will.” She took Deres’ hands in hers. “If the worst happens there is one place in the world that will be safe for you all.”

“Adar.”

She nodded to him. “I know that you, Bryana, and Kylen will have a home there, and that you will be safe. If you cannot see the staff with nowhere else to safety there, please help them find a place. They have been kind and loyal.”

He nodded, “It will be done. Your sisters and their families. Your mother?”

“They have their own plans. I have some idea of what they are, but I do not want to know should this somehow end in my capture over my death. Leave yourself so you can be found in some way and my own mother will find you. She will not forget about her grandchild.”

He couldn’t help but happily remember all the ways in which she doted upon the little one. “True enough.”

Neral closed her eyes and wallowed in her own memories. “You know, it’s strange. I think of all I have to lose and as much as it frightens me to my soul, it makes me happy. I had a home and position before I met you...yet I had nothing. Magic brought us together and tied us to one another, but it is time and life that bind us. I love you both far more than such a small word can convey.” She sandwiched herself between them to feel their warmth, showering their cheeks with kisses. Whatever this place was it was real enough to let her remember the spicy scent of the musk he favored and the flowery scent of her hair and the feel of them.

From the feel of their skin against hers to their lips upon hers, to his roguish good looks to, her sculpted and almost ethereal beauty, to his eyes, an almost sea blue with hers lighter, she needed to burn all of it into her mind. “I love you both.”

“And I you,” Deres said, “from the first moment I saw you rolling a vegetable in hand in the markets. You were so beautiful then, and only proved more so. Every day has been a joy. Even those days that are difficult are wonderful because they pass...and that is the stuff of life when you build your life with another. I would change nothing.”

Bryana’s voice wavered. “To be...bound to you both was nothing less than my salvation and I will never forget that. “I am yours in this life and the next.”

She pulled away from the two even though it stirred a fresh ache. “Send Elan my love, too, as I don’t know that I will be able to use this again. Tell her I was proud to serve with her and proud to command her. She is an outstanding soldier and she...added a lovely light to my home and my life.”

“Win the fight and come home soon.”

She sighed at the play on Kylen’s words, not bothering to wipe the tears away.

Neral Jaye faded from view and when the fine furnishings of their rooms in Idros became the world again, they found that both their cheeks were wet with the remnants of tears. “It...seems priorities have changed,” Bryana said, wiping the trails from her face. Holding to that cold, calculating bit of herself was the only way that she could go on. “We cannot hunt blindly for this thing. There simply isn’t time. When we go we have to know where to go without gambits and without waiting. She stood, smoothing her clothing more anxiously than she’d intended. “How do we do that?”

“Magic leaves traces and trails,” Deres said, not leaving his position on the floor. “So does science. Fresh soot on the wall means a recently burned lamp. If this is anything like I believe it to be, it leaves a signal to be traced. We learn what that might look like, find it, and then trace it to its source.”

“Mother will help with that, no doubt. It might still take time.” He sorted through the steps for his own clarity. “What records of the old world there are are there. Sifting through them, extrapolating...searching.”

Bryana kept her emotions checked. “It is, of course, complicated, Deres. Do not waste time talking about the time it will take when you’re better served by doing. Maybe you can get them to actually help us while you’re at it.”

He already knew how that would go. “If by that you mean a cavalry at our backs? No. Whatever help they offer, if any, will not involve that.”

She knew it was so and she fumed. “Of course not. It’s not as if they owe us, specifically, their lives.”

“It’s due to that, most likely, that they will help us at all. But they will not risk revealing themselves to a world that almost exterminated them and would try again if they had a chance.”

She understood. Being a mage herself, she knew how the world would react to her if it knew that she practiced beyond the healing and parlor tricks that were allowed. That she understood didn’t make her feel any better. The people of Adar were akin to Gods compared to the rest of the world. Sometimes she just wished they would swoop in and make things better even though she knew all the ways that could go wrong, too. “Good luck and give your mother my regards.”

“I will.” He gripped the crystal, let his eyes drift closed and while his body went stock still, his mind went elsewhere.”

And that’s how it was for a march of days. He would return to himself only long enough to update them and maintain himself before returning to commune. Eventually retiring to one of the bedrooms to do so, Elan and Bryana made it their own to sleep restlessly and watch over him in the event that he needed, sleeping in their clothes so they could leave at a moment’s notice. Neral was able to communicate with them for but a few moments that very night. Her troops and the Draleth were but hours away from one another and the hand of fate. Seeing her again was bittersweet for Bryana, but the sweetest part was that it told her there was still time.

And it gave Bryana solace to see that this time Elan and Neral got to say a proper goodbye.

Except that it will not be goodbye. I will not allow it. The vow alone was what let the mage finally sleep.

The tap of crystal to floor brought Elan bolt upright in the dark and the sudden movement had Bryana following suit. Adrenalin killing even a hint of fatigue her hands extended for the simplest of spells lighting the lamps in the room. As her eyes adjusted she saw him rising after picking up the crystal and pocketing it once again. “It has been fascinating, I must admit,” he said moving and speaking quickly to acclimate himself to his own body as much as than anything else.

“There was next to nothing in the histories about their tools of war since the world burned long before even the Exodus. We had to guess from Neral’s description and essentially build such a device in theory. Build it and then control it from afar without magic. Building upon sciences we already use, the technomages guessed again at how it all might work, then sought out evidence.”

As he spoke, Bryana rose from bed and when he finished to draw his next breath she took him lovingly but firmly by the shoulders. “This is all, as you say, fascinating and I look forward to hearing about it, but, do we have a place to go?”

He kissed her roughly. “We do.”

To Be Continued...