The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

An Apocalypse Rising

By Saddle Rider

Chapter Ten

Goddess, it looks so fucking hot. Neral fought to keep herself to herself, but it was like trying to climb up a muddy hill. One moment there would be enough sense of self that she could rationalize all the reasons that they had to stop, not the least of which being that the witch was on her way, but then the ground would slide out from under her in the form of Elan’s feathery kisses down her neck that made Neral whimper in heat and simply want to take her and fuck her until all their minds shattered into little pieces so long as they could still have just mind enough to cum.

Or it was in the way that Dion approached sex. For her, it seemed to be an exercise in learning what her lover liked and translating that to an attempt at dominance. She would bite to see how much one could take before it was too much. She would test one’s skin by dragging her tongue here and there to see which places made one moan loudest. She would even shift her body this way and that to see if a particular pose ignited passion, then use all of it to get and hold her lover’s attention.

Neral had to admit that she was doing well at that, arching her body as her commander wrapped her arms tightly around Dion as she spun her tongue around Dion’s right nipple before flicking it mercilessly and tugging it between her teeth, making her pull Neral’s hair with the general straddling her. “You are such a sinful whore, Neral Jaye.”

She slapped at the breast she bit. “That is no way to speak to your commanding officer, you disrespectful bitch. Tell me, how much penance you’ll have to do for that?”

Dion took Neral roughly by the back of the head and pulled her mouth to Dion’s already extended tongue. After the kiss broke, leaving a line of spit tying them together, she answered, “What the fuck do you care?” The dirty words and the thoughts that came with them were like a forbidden dessert on her tongue. They were sweet and decadent and not something she had often traded in before today. But they felt right in that they felt wrong. “You only attend the services you must at the queen’s side. Too busy at home sucking mage cunt, I suppose.”

Had she been in her right mind, the thought of Bryana would have stung, but the mention of her only brought with it images of them all writhing together in a heap, which reminded her of now, which only heightened her arousal. “Sit and listen to a priestess drone on all morning when I could be at home in a warm bed with my tongue in a warm slit?” She gestured to her husband who had both hands firmly on Elan’s head, “Or him pressing me into the wall trying to split me in two in the most divine way? You and the priestess can keep your homilies, Ynesa.”

Dion pushed her away and in that moment of play, fleeting lucidity returned. Something. I have to do something. Stop something. What was it? A mage. Getting out of a mage? Getting one into me?

She saw Dion as she turned, placing her cheek in the dirt, putting her ass in the air and giving it a wiggle. “I can’t do magic, but I think I can make you want me.”

That. I need to do that.

She dove in as if starving, swirling and suckling at Dion’s clitoris as she had her breast, making her claw at the dirt before she suddenly stopped. “Wait. Better idea.” She flipped onto her back and beckoned Neral forward. “Talk to me. Talk to me about your sin. Give it to me. Tell me what you do at home. Spread the filth to me.”

Neral felt Dion’s hot breath condense on her flesh, adding to her own wetness. She felt almost boiling hot between her legs as she settled in to be speared by that tongue. “We keep our decorum, Ynesa. We are not animals that simply endlessly fuck in the open with no thought. But we wander. The bull wanders to...to...Cassea, and Bryana, and...”

At that very moment, he chose to settle himself between Dion’s open legs and drive inside in a single rough thrust that vibrated its way through Neral via the sounds from Dion. “And now you, you sinful, depraved slut. Each bit of filth seemed to drive her tongue to twist, each thrust commanded another wave of rapid panting. “Quite sad that you can’t see what I see, but you feel it, The faithful servant of the Goddess is creaming her adulterous pussy all over a cock.”

“A mage’s cock.”

The words set Dion to screaming, sounds muffled by Neral’s grinding crotch, her lips locked to her husband’s. It was always ecstasy to be entwined with him this way. She did love watching him act the bull. She opened her eyes from the kiss enough to watch him pump quickly and smoothly, and the sounds of their bodies slapping together.

She even liked the scent of his sweat at times like now, distinctly different from what she would scent when he came in from working outside during the day though both had appeal Or maybe the difference was just in her mind knowing that this came purely from fucking. She spoke of it all, uncaring that she was helping, in her own way, to destroy them all.

Bryana was so right that she liked to watch. In some ways she lived for it. To watch them be together was as beautiful and loving as being in the middle herself. She loved watching the touches and plays between them and seeing how the other reacted to words of love, or the playful banter, or whatever else blossomed. She could see in her mind’s eye Deres’ thumb brush across Bryana’s lower lip, a little puffy from their hard kissing to see her kiss it. She could still hear the whispers as they lovingly teased her for being a dirty little voyeur.

She had loved him, too. That fact pulled her to sanity for one more moment.

Please, Goddess, help us. If anything we petty creatures do here matters to you, help us. The soft clay in her mind gave way again as that fucking sinner’s tongue was demanding her capitulation. Her hips twisted and Dion’s tongue mirrored as she struggled to hold on. If Drexa arrived now they would all be gone if it weren’t too late already.

Her fingers clawed his neck as her teeth marked him as her property no matter where else he wandered. The word she managed was quivering and fearful:

“Help.”

Part of the reason that Deres could wander was that Neral accepted that men and women were no different than any other animal. They had an innate desire to wander here and there and be physical But, no matter where he did so and no matter who else he had love for, there was a piece of him that belonged to Neral and no one else. That was the part that heard her. It wasn’t even so much the word as the tone that cried out in need.

The part of himself he had barely been able to close off from the dark magic was in a dangerous position, needing to fight through the pleasure that assailed his senses and the corruption that threatened to doom him. He looked down to see the way that Dion’s tits flopped and rolled in irregular circles as he pumped away. He looked up to see Neral’s dark, smoldering eyes and felt her lips, tender and fierce on his. The animal in himself had to be fought back. The animal in them all had to be fought back, as that was the key to this kind of corruption: the animal part of a soul wanted to live unrestrained and without consequence. Feed the beast enough and it becomes strong enough to quash everything else and then eagerly follows its liberator.

The animal in him resisted the rational in its own way and it was a curious feeling to have a part of him fighting another and seeing, hearing, and feeling actions he didn’t initiate with his own will. His body stepped back as Elan pushed him out of Dion when Dion’s lusty, orgasmic screaming stopped and pushed him with uncharacteristic ferocity for the quiet young woman. “I need to fuck,” she snarled. “I need to be useful. Sucking your cunt makes you...happy.”

In that moment’s pause before that ass called to him and called to be fucked he struggled to grab hold of more of himself, managing to grasp a bit more sanity before his cock demanded that he take that waiting hole. He slipped into that pink, wet sleeve of flesh in a single, gliding motion and the ache began again. But this time he was there with the beast inside him, no longer helpless against it as it tried to wear away at him, even if it and Elan’s pussy continued to conspire to seduce.

He took her by the hips in a vise grip, even as his eyes were locked on Neral, which fed her and led her to feed Elan in a twisted circle of aural depravity. “He’s not even looking at you, you know that? He’s looking at me. For him, Traymis Elan is simply something to make use of while he looks upon the woman that he loves.”

Elan squirmed and pushed back as much as she could without losing contact with the mouthful of girl she was loving.

“Talk to me,” he commanded Neral,

“What do you want to hear? Do you want to hear about how I feel when I’m stuffed full of southie cock?”

Yesss. He shook his head to clear it, or try to. “Tell me you love me. Tell me you need me.”

Lost in her own haze, she simply obeyed. “I do love you,” she said, even as she kissed him roughly, making smacking sounds on his lips. “Spell of love or no, I love you. I could not have picked a better match; that you have a dirty southie cock and know how to use it is a fucking glorious bonus. I need you, Husband. I do. It is joy to share the day with you. Sometimes it is only getting home to my life that makes the days bearable.”

She spoke and he latched onto each word as a lifeline, knotting each statement of tenderness and affection into a knot to pull his mind from the seething heat even as his cock bathed and burned in it in all the best ways. “Think, Neral. Focus on you before. Focus. Help me,”

The harshness of the demand snapped her to it, despite the sensation of tongue snaking deep inside. Her mind went to her her life, the mundane and exciting. It went to all the small pieces that sewed together for the whole. Deres was suddenly there as well. She felt his strong hand squeezing the back of her head and felt him in her mind, realizing what he was attempting she reached out to him as though to save him from a crumbling precipice.

Some piece of him lifted from the black and their minds embraced for the briefest moment of peace before she heard thoughts not hers. Dion. Elan. If it’s not too late.

She pushed herself off that sweet mouth and pulled herself away from all of it as Deres, flipped Elan’s thin, strong body onto her back and drove in again, and she whimpered as he pounded, man and beast still vying for control, but she could see the man he was in his eyes again.

And she felt him there, in her mind, extending himself via his magic and their will together. Now looking down into Dion’s confused, lust-filled eyes, her knees near the captain’s head, she spoke, trying to remember. Maybe she really did need to attend services more, “Praise be unto the Goddess of peace, fountain of benevolence, and arbiter of justice. I am her instrument in the world.”

Her tongue licked at the air. Neral leaned in, fighting desperately the urge to kiss her. Instead, she did her best to focus. “Praise be unto the Goddess of peace, fountain of benevolence, and arbiter of justice. I am her instrument in the world.”

“Praise be unto the Goddess of peace,...”

Dion’s eyes blinked rapidly, though her tone was still flat. “...fountain of benevolence, and arbiter of justice. I am her instrument in the world.”

The rote nature seemed to be helping Neral shake the fog as well and she began again and, as she went, Dion joined, their words melding into unison. “Praise be unto the Goddess of peace, fountain of benevolence, and arbiter of justice. I am her instrument in the world. May her peace live forever within my soul, May Her benevolence guide my hands and my heart in all that I do. May Her righteousness forever light my path.”

As they repeated the words, Dion’s voice gained strength until, with the fourth repetition, her palm reached up to touch Neral’s cheek.”

“Are you still in there?”

“I...almost was not. Thought was almost gone to me. As it is….”

“Yes?”

“I still desperately want to kiss you.”

She looked down at her form from head to toe. “I know the feeling. Resist that for now, and, if you still want to later, we can discuss it.”

“Yes, sir.”

Looking ahead of her to see Elan’s ankles on his shoulders as he thrust hard in and out of her hole, Neral had to consciously restrain herself.

“Fuck that hole, Deres, Slam it, and fuck it, and let me make you happy. You are happy, aren’t you? I’m pleasing? You feel good? Of course you do, you’re a man deep in a pussy getting milked as you should.”

The sight of the sex and the sound of the ordinarily quiet young woman being decidedly not quiet threatened Neral’s hold of herself again. She drew closer to see them, having to actively keep herself from touching him. As it was, seeing that ass thrust rapidly with the long muscles of his back flexing made her want to growl. She feared the worst looking into Elan’s eyes. “Is she gone?”

“Lost in haze and sex. Might be lost if I stop. All I can do to hold onto her. She’ll belong to Bryana or the witch,” he groaned long and loud, “as soon as they appear.”

“Bryana’s gone,” Neral said. “I wasn’t strong enough to do what had to be done. The witch is coming and we can’t stay.”

Dion caressed the small of his back before kissing it. “If her mind is such that it must be owned, can you take it?” She looked to Neral. “Lost soul, belonging to them, or belonging to him. There’s only one choice as I see it.”

“Can you do it? Claim her and bring her back to us that way?”

“Probably, but...”

Dion looked to Neral. “If it were me, I would want that. She will still be herself.”

“Do it,” Neral told him. “If taking her will restore her, do it.” Desire to see it touched her mind, reminding her that she was still feeling the spell herself. “Pound that hole. Take her”

“Yes! Pound it. Take me. Do whatever the fuck you want. I’m yours. Take me.”

Pleasure for them both built as he reached into her mind to bind them piecing the bits of herself together that she’d slowly forgotten as she’d surrendered. Be who you were. Remember those things of you. Embrace them. That is the woman I want. That is the woman I demand. Obey me.

The force of his will compelled her and she obeyed, remembering the person that she was because he willed it so. Vin was there in her mind as well, but now only as a curiosity. There was only one man for her now, the man who wished to own her; the man who demanded to own her. I want to be commanded. I need it. I need to please the man who...owns me.

She looked into those intense, beautiful eyes and surrendered to the feeling that their minds and bodies were tied. “Yes, Deres. I’m yours. Fucking own me. Fuck me and own me.”

He thrust faster and harder, rushing to build that bond as the women on either side of him touched him and urged him on. He threw his head back, trying to hold back that first quiver of his shaft as long as he could, that quiver spreading to every inch of his body and becoming a shudder as he spilled a river into her as her head thrashed while she called out to the Goddess.

Neral kissed his neck, tasting the sweat of him, watching Elan touch him tenderly and with wonder, as though he were a newly discovered treasure. “I am yours.”

“Do you remember who you are?”

She glanced at Neral before focusing once again on Deres, letting her hands roam his broad chest, petting the hair, “Yes, sir. I remember.”

“Can you fight?”

She didn’t look away from him. “Absolutely, sir.”

Neral felt as though Drexa’s eyes were already at her back. “Then let’s get out of here.”

* * *

Drexa nearly floated as she made her way to where her captives were held, imagining what she might find and congratulating herself on her wisdom in not killing or wiping Bryana. She was the weakness of those who led. She was key to getting what Drexa needed and it seemed to have worked out. The rest of them could muddle about and break her machines or destroy, a few eggs, wasting time while they thought they were doing some good.

She also believed that letting them make their useless version of progress made the mages a bit more predictable so long as the sword-carriers were milling about free. She would chain Deres to her, the attack on Adar would commence, and, while the beasts at her command overran the city, the rest of her prisoners would be left to her to kill or enslave as she pleased. Maybe she would keep a few alive and whole long enough for them to witness and despair at her ultimate victory over the petty, weak things that lived and breathed.

“Tell me again what you saw, Calla. I simply love the sound of it.”

“The mage Deres was firmly in a fuge helped along by two of the soldiers. The leader, Neral, was being enchanted by the Lady Bryana.”

“Good, good, good. I will deal with them quickly. I want you to gather your sisters and prepare for your journey. No mercy to anyone in Adar; no man, woman or child.”

“It shall be so, Mistress.”

The moment Calla turned to obey it all seemed to go wrong and Drexa froze to take it all in. Her sense of Bryana seemed to waiver as though she were trying to pull herself and her will from Drexa. Anger built in her over Bryana’s impertinence, and she chided herself for even considering keeping her whole. I’ll make a lovely experiment out of you. She imagined the possibilities until she felt the other’s confusion and pain before nothing at all.

The mage. He must have managed some trick even in his lust, so she hurried her pace.

“Mistress?”

“Follow me.”

She lengthened her stride, making it to the intersection and turning left, smiling as she sensed magic at the wards that guarded her power. Let them try. She willed beasts to the area and walked a dozen more steps before a cold rush passed through her as though she were suddenly doused in ice water. She shook her head in shock. How could...? What mage would..? It’s not possible.

But it was. Her tie to the ley line was tainted. Somehow, in some way, Maylin had blocked her from being able to touch the energy and bend it to her will. If I can’t touch it and they can? Even if they couldn’t, she was no match alone against two Adaran mages without help. She didn’t bother going forward, suspecting she knew what she would find.

Calla’s eyes showed their fear at seeing Drexa all but double over. “Mistress?”

Drexa looked into those beautiful black orbs. There really was fondness for this one as well. She embraced her new self like few others and, to show her mercy was perhaps more mortal frailty, but her and her sisters were only slightly more useful now than the drones. “See if you can find Bryana. If she is still mine, tell her I need her help. If she isn’t..” she trailed off realizing the likely end of that confrontation. “Just go find her.”

“I will, Mistress,” she promised.

When Drexa touched her forearm, Calla thrilled despite the circumstance. “You have served me well.”

She dipped her head ever so slightly. “It will always be so, Mistress.”

Drexa pulled her beasts closer to her.

* * *

Abren’s body felt drowned in flesh and her mind felt not far behind as the man on top of her pulled out. She reached a hand up to the base of his slick cock as he scurried to straddle her and she expertly slid the foreskin up and down his flesh, ropes of his pleasure, marking her from chest to neck while Jessa rubbed it into the flesh. “It feels good to not resist. Do not fight so. You have brought so much pleasure and will bring more if you give up to Her.”

Jessa’s magic tamped this urge and heightened that one. This one really was a warrior, unlike the other who looked a spent mess, but was on all fours looking for someone else to please. Despite the human’s strength though, her mind was molding itself nicely to Her purposes. The struggles became less frequent and intense, requiring less of her magic to undercut.

The next man, a barrel-chested soul that had more hair than some of the beasts even though the wasn’t one picked Abren up, taking her place on the ground, spearing her as another woman planted her ass on his chest and spread her legs, offering her pussy for licking. Since Abren now had the wet of several other women on her lips, she decided one more was fine and came forward, licking ravenously as her hands in the dirt braced her for her properly twisting herself on his cock.

It was so nice. She hadn’t felt so full of passion in years. Happy in her life? Yes. But not like this. The wild abandon had left long ago in favor of duty and her own family. Abren bit her lip and rode him almost casually, savoring the way his girth spread her open. It would feel good to let go and be free. It would be easy. And would it be so bad? All who fell were happy and this one...this one was like...like…

Ghent She moaned it as she thought it, pulling her husband’s name from deep within her mind. She remembered how her parents bucked tradition when it was still nearly unheard of to not arrange a proper marriage for one’s children by letting her find her own mate. She had met him at a winter dance, him looking at her from across the room with her knowing that he would not ask a young girl such as her because he knew from being told so by many a young woman that his size was...unappealing.

But she saw his shyness and his smile and both called to her. His heart made his body irrelevant to her that way and they they had built a good life together, raising four fine children with three in the military and one in the sciences, the oldest now with family of her own.

I cannot leave them like this. I cannot. She screamed it into her mind like a roar as she said the word between kisses on feminine thigh.

“Shhhh, sweet one,” Jessa said as the fog began to descend again.

Emotions welled up as the fog began to clear. “I will never be that bitch’s thing. The general will kill her. The mages will kill her. I will not give her my soul to die here like this, like some...used up courtesan. They need me. I want...to go home to them. I will go home to them.”

Her cunt kept filling itself with him of its own accord as she looked to see the half-mage still caressing Abren’s body, apparently unaware that, whatever the spell was, it wasn’t working. It was now her body against her mind and she demanded that her mind prevail. She admitted to herself no small bit of regret came with pulling her heated pussy from his cock.

Jessa’s mouth was agape, realizing only then that she had no more magic to wield. “What have you done?”

Abren pushed at her rational mind to continue to slap it awake as she made her way to Delles. “My friends are ridding the world of your mistress.”

“They can’t.” The tone was such that it may as well have been suggested that her friends could stop the world from spinning.

“They are.” She found Delles with her mouth firmly planted between the legs of another woman and lifted it away, causing both of them to whine. “Delles, come with me.”

The face stared back at her blankly for a moment before Delles tried to kiss her.

Abren struck her hard across the cheek, “Delles!”

She moaned before laughing at the strike, her eyes still glazed and, in their own way, dead.

Abren’s expression was crestfallen. “I will remember you well, and as you were. Goodbye, my friend.” She let her go find whatever happiness she would and collected her slip, leathers, and weapons as Jessa looked on. “You can’t leave.”

“Leaving,” her voice almost daring Jessa as she moved through the tangles of bodies. Try to stop me and your life ends that much sooner.” She remembered Kes and began to dress hurriedly near the entry they came through.

“You can’t leave.” She extended her arm to no effect.

Dressed, she armed herself and gave Jessa, one last look, “You’ve said that already and I’m still leaving.”

Desperation and fear co-mingled as she shook, not knowing what to do with her impotence. “You can’t resist her power!!” Her voice reverberated, the words causing a wave of orgasms to cascade through the cavern.

Abren turned to find her friends and fight for her life.

* * *

Neral followed Deres as the four made their way rapidly through the passages, feeling much more like herself as they closed on their target. “You’re sure these ley lines are blocked now?”

“I’m certain. I can’t sense them anymore. Mother did what she’d set out to do.”

“How long will it last? How much time do we have?”

“Like the wards, captain, they last until they’re taken down. Drexa is clever. If she’d put her mind to it she could undo it, but that would take time and then we’d know where she is.”

Neral noted to herself that they had seen far fewer beasts than before. “She’s not going to leave herself vulnerable there when she doesn’t know what was done, how to undo it, or how long the undoing will take. She’s pulling back to the center of things to make her stand.”

“Mother.” His steps quickened at the sight of her and he embraced her tightly and Neral and Dion extended arms to Dalen and Anna before embracing one another in quickly and fiercely. “You succeeded.”

She looked to Anna. “We did. It will make an interesting story for the trip home. “You are all right?”

“More or less.”

She looked him over, then to each of them before she made the leap. “Bryana? I’m so—”

“I could not,” Neral said quickly. “It came to the moment and I could not.”

She saw the disappointment in Maylin’s eyes and it was simply a mirror of the guilt she felt herself, but the look morphed into one of understanding. “Had it been me faced with that choice with Deres...I’m not entirely sure I could have either. We will...simply deal with it.” Seeing the way Elan looked upon him with quiet adoration that she never had before, she looked to him. “Do you have a story as well?”

“Bound to me or lost one way or another is the long and short.”

She nodded, looking to Neral. “We end this now.”

“Before she can counter,” the general agreed, looking at the hands she had left. “We don’t have time to find the others.”

“I can draw them,” Deres said. With the weapon enhancements done, I can pull the wielder to us, and hopefully it is one of our own.”

“Husband, I doubt one or two more beasts will make a difference.”

He took her in his arms and kissed her hard and she took a few seconds to relish the closeness of him. If things were to end today, they would at least be together for it. She had seen in her mind’s eye often the sight of him as the ranking officer in Erette at the time she fell coming to him to inform him as was custom when the commander of forces fell and it stung, to say the least. They parted fingers lingering in contact for a few more precious seconds. “If there is anyone to bring, bring them.”

He nodded as they began moving towards the center of it all, speaking with his mother as they went. “I came up with a way to transmit the disease through mage energy.”

“You always were a bright child.”

“I had excellent teachers.”

“Teach me.”

They moved as he did with Anna listening. “Don’t suppose we can all do that.”

Maylin had sympathy. “Sorry.”

“Figures. I’m used to stabbing anyway.”

“Are we going to have to dodge you as well as her?”

“It won’t harm you,” Deres told Neral, sounding as though he were teaching. “Only them.”

The Mage’s sense of Drexa led them toward her, but they searched for the narrowest of passages to bring them forward to avoid being trapped by the larger things of hers.

“General!”

The group turned to the sound to see Kes come to them, beast blood on her blade and happy to see them. “I thought I’d seen the last of you.”

“Delles and Abren?” Neral prepared for the worst.

“We were doing a good job of punishing them. After we trashed a facility the beasts pursued and we were separated...but alive and well the last I saw.”

Neral studied her before nodding. “One way or another we’ll find out what happened. Follow.”

“Yes, sir.

Minutes more of them weaving through passages and they entered what appeared to be a central egg chamber, this one with eggs numbering in the thousands. Two large passages on the other side were covered by gargantuan beasts reminiscent of the lumbering thing in the forest, though these had irregular spines along their backs as though the bone had been stabbed through them in random places. The room was lined with lesser things with another behemoth to their left covering the main entry. Neral and her soldiers took the time to take stock of from where the attacks would come, how fast they could move, and what to avoid first.

Near her chambers stood Drexa, a vision in black that accented her assets, hugging some and forcing others out, as though seduction was to be her last weapon. She certainly seemed unconcerned. On the contrary, she seemed more angry at the disruption than threatened. “Which of you is responsible for cutting me off from my magic?”

They moved slowly to the widest of the paths in the center of the room to face her while the animals snorted and frothed while growls bubbled from the center of their chests, preparing to strike at their meal. Deres gestured to Neral. “She did. Not much of a mage; it’s more a hobby for her, really.”

The witch was not at all amused which amused him.

“I am,” Maylin said proudly, “though I did have to have help since your things did their best to kill us. You may want to work on them a bit longer; more brains and less brawn would have been helpful.”

“They serve me. I’m sure you think me an abomination, but even I would never destroy access to magic.”

Maylin was unmoved. “That you might be able to use? Of course not.” She moved herself to stand between Drexa and the group like a wall.

She studied the group with some amusement. “I see that Adar still doesn’t care what I do. Had the Council sent you they never would have allowed you to join with the spear-wielders.”

“Someone had to stand against what you are and what you seek to do. I saw. I acted. And, these people…,” she looked to Neral and each in turn. “My daughter and those she commands sacrificed much to bring me here. ”

“Let them go, Maylin Xon.” Adar is full of doddering, sheltered souls that they are willing to just sit by and let the world happen around them. They would even debate protecting themselves to the point where you have to ally with the cave people to do it. We are the strong. We should rule over the petty children. It is our birthright. The universe demands it.”

She shook her head. “If you can so commune with the universe that you know its will, you are a great mage indeed.”

“Show me how great you are then. Show me that you can stand against all that is mine. Show me that yours is the superior will.”

Taking the invitation, Maylin drew her own blade and channeled the energy forward into a beam of blue and white that curled around the protective shell she had created. When it dissipated, Drexa laughed at the absurdity of it. “Is that it? Really, is that it? I’ve literally been hit harder by children.”

She shrugged. “It was worth a try. Let’s see how it works on something else. She aimed at one of the spike-backed animals and its tan hair where the beam hit simply vanished into dust, the hide underneath turning brittle and falling away, doing the same to the soft tissue beneath before cutting through entirely to some of the animals in the tunnel behind it.

Drexa studied the results, ignoring the primal cries of pain she heard as the magic wrecked them. She tilted her head and conceded, “That was better.”

“Did you think we were just going to come in here with nothing and hope for the best?” Deres glanced to his wife. “Study your enemy and seek weakness as long as they’ll let you.”

She drew her sword. “Good on you for paying attention, Husband.”

“I only feign boredom to get under your skin occasionally.”

“Must you?”

“It amuses.”

Drexa was done, “Let’s see how long you can hold out. “Take the primitives. Have one of them and the mages will submit.”

In response, Neral called out in her most commanding tone. “Everyone save one of the red slips. We will not be taken.”

The words got her a “Yes, sir.” in near perfect unison.

As Neral was used to, anticipation turned into frenzy as the beasts came from all around them, some lumbering, some skittering, some running in a way something like the way people run. Her eyes darted looking for an opportunity before choosing one at the entry. “Maylin!” She pointed to where she wanted to be. “Carve me a path if you can.”

She ran headlong to the nearest creature, glad for the weapons as they were. There were too many creatures for a protracted battle with any one of them. There was no time for finesse. There was only time to strike and depend on the magic. Drawing the blade down the chest of one creature she shoulder-rolled to the next, slicing at a leg before pushing herself away to dodge a strike before reaching into her pocket for the grenade slips.

Maylin’s magic threaded through a seemingly endless stream from both hands, felling them quickly, but more and more were coming. Clearly Drexa was trying to throw every creature meant for Adar at them, but the tunnels themselves were her enemy now, restricting their number and their flow.

Maylin forced enough of them back to let Neral run parallel to the beam and out several feet into the passage before she jumped and threw two of them with all her might before rushing back into the cavern and the fray. The explosions rocked everything, bringing some of the ceiling down on the creatures, shattering the lighting and sending burning animals careening into one another, slowing those trying to climb over the dead or dying.

It was coordinated mayhem with Deres and Maylin back to back, daggers in both hands, cutting down all they could reach and the soldiers slashing all they could in a lethal dance. Anna was vaulting from creature to creature, kissing them with her blades.

Dion took her anger out on anything near her. Dalen rammed her sword into the back of a once-human as Elan slashed with her short sword before drawing an arrow and using her bow to drive it into a creature closing on Deres while Neral threw her dagger into another before recovering it. It was getting hard to navigate the bodies of the creatures creatures and to keep up the pace. Even Maylin and Deres were feeling the strain in their tightened brows and sweat.

Kes ducked and slashed. “General! She’s retreating.”

Neral fixed her gaze at Drexa who was moving toward her chambers. She went to a full sprint with Kes not far behind, hearing the crackle of energy that marked the magic in use and saw it carving a path parallel to hers. She knew it was Deres without looking. Her breath was ragged from exertion, but she forced more from herself, quickening and widening her stride, oblivious to anything but closing on her target.

That being the case, she was unaware of Abren’s appearance in the cavern as the new arrival performed a running slide to slice a creature nearing Elan. Her eyes widened, cold fear running through her as she focused on the sight of Kes chasing Neral. She called out to anyone that could hear,“Stop her!”

The words pulled Deres’ attention even as his power cut through more of the beasts. His eyes darted to the two running soldiers now nearly on top of Drexa as she pushed past a barrier of magic and into her chambers. He looked back to Abren to hear, “She’s turned!”

When he turned back to unleash a lethal fire upon her the doors sealed themselves.

* * *

Neral stood, sword before her, with Kess to her left, controlling her breathing, conserving her energy. and preparing for whatever was next. “End this.”

“I offer you that opportunity,” Drexa said sweetly. “The battle rages. Magic is not infinite and two swords are gone now. One of them out there will falter, then the others will. I’ll have what I want in the end.” As if to punctuate her words, the floor beneath them shook and the thunder drowned her voice. Neral took some satisfaction that there was surprise in those unique eyes; she hadn’t planned it.

Still, she seemed untroubled. “Mmm..the sounds of desperation, Neral Jaye. The fight is being lost.”

“You hope.”

There was more thunder and more uncertainty beneath their feet. “As do you. Convince one of your mages to join me. Help me get to Adar and I give my word that that will be the end of it. Adar wronged me. The Council persecuted me. My grievances against them are real. They deserve what will happen.”

“You? Your others? You have fought for your lives and you are here. You have fought against your own corruption and have won. Those are the marks of of superior and worthy beings. I will stop at Adar if you help me now.”

Her derision was plain. “And just take your word for it that you’ll leave the rest be? No. And what of the defenseless there?”

“What of them? Why fight for people who will not fight for you? Look at what magic-weilders you have with you; one because he is your mate and another because she is a renegade not unlike myself. If the rest cared for you they’d be here and I would have been gone.” She snapped her fingers for emphasis. “Why sacrifice anything for them?”

She took a step closer. “Those that let apathy allow you to run roughshod have guilt, but that is not all of them. Some were afraid of defying the law. Some were afraid of you. None of them deserve to pay the price you’d take. Fighting for them is worthwhile enough.”

“Weakness.”

Neral, focused on her enemy, saw that merest flit of her eyes to the right and her sword met Kes’s with a clang. Neral looked into those eyes , now with a hint of wild and unhinged. “I am Hers, General. There is no choice.”

“She may have a piece of you,” she began as she parried a strike, “but there is still you. It speaks to me now.”

“I surrendered for joy. For pleasure. For obedience. It can’t be undone even if I regret what She asks of me.”

They circled one another, striking vigorously, looking for weakness and searching for the signs of a mistake. Kes was strong, and perhaps stronger, but Neral was more nimble on her feet and intuitive. She could see the subtle shift of her opponents limbs and tensing of muscles that telegraphed what she might do next.

That failing let Neral bring her blade across Kes’s shoulder, slicing through the leathers to her skin. She cried out in pain, but was able to bring her sword up to block the next strike, staggering backward as the earth shook once more.

“Bored now,” Drexa said, swiping her hand to the right and Neral was overwhelmed by the force against her, slamming her into the wall and forcing the air from her lungs in a rush and sensing her sword clattering to the stone under their feet.

“The mages will help me or you will die.”

Neral struggled, unable to move, feeling again like she was trying to squeeze through the passage again, but this time the rock wall pushed back. “Then I die. Maylin will not stop because she knows what is at stake is larger than my life. Deres will not stop for the same reason and that he knows I’m not sure I could forgive him if he made others suffer so just for me. Kill me!”

Kes waited for the command to do it before a voice echoed from the passage that led to Drexa’s laboratories. “Oh, I would be happy to.” Bryana leaned against the cavern wall while making her way to the doorway. Her pallor was slightly gray as Neral had imagined the retching had continued, but the spark of her was still there in her eyes and in the way she tried to remain composed and elegant even as she appeared now, though her words spat venom.

“Ever since I met you, Neral Jaye, you have stolen from me. You stole my life from me so I could have the honor of being your pet. I struggle and I am freed to be the person I am and you tried to steal me from me again.

Drexa drew closer to her. “What happened?”

“She exposed me to a spell. She tried to break me again. She tried to make me her pet again.” She shook her head. “No. I am the person I choose to be without you, vile bitch. At least Drexa is honest. You couch your evil in such fine morals. Go to the depths.”

“This is still mine to win and for us to share. Go. Draw the mages. Hear his love scream enough and he will do as I wish.”

Bryana nodded. “Let me kill her when it’s done.”

Drexa would have given anything at all, much less this nothing. “She is my gift. Go.”

Bryana shifted her weight to leave and Drexa looked at her stunned as metal bit and the knife slipped under her ribs. Blood lust fueled Drexa’s response as air fled from her chest. Red fire burned into Bryana’s belly, burning still as it drove her to the wall. Kes looked on in bewilderment as the impossible happened, paralyzed by the sight of her all-powerful Mistress displaying her mortality.

Freed and driven by a feeling she would later look upon as what the beasts Drexa had created must have felt inside, she pulled her mother’s dagger from its sheath at her thigh and loosed the rage at all that had been done and lost and the sight of Bryana’s body blackened and sank the dagger ito the soft of her belly before Drexa pushed her away effortlessly with magic.

Neral hit the floor and her vision swam for a moment before she shook herself aware and looked at Drexa, watching as she grinned, pulling Bryana’s blade free and tossing it aside. “Do you think your metal matters? Your entire army could come to try to hack me to bits,” she hissed, pulling Nera’s weapon from herself with no sign of pain, hands already at work closing the worst of her wounds, “and I would blast them apart. You are petty nothings and unworthy of blue weaving window.”

Neral’s brow knotted.

“Green along the house river?” Confusion colored her features as she realized she was not being understood. “Green along!” Now she realized she didn’t even understand herself. Confusion fell to horror as she perhaps found some inkling that something was tearing at the connections of mind and body from the inside that she could not understand. And that ability to fashion a coherent thought or understand was already all but gone.

Neral smiled, watching Deres and Maylin’s weapon rip at her. Drexa fell back, trying to grip one of the tapestries for support as both fell, her eyes fixed on an ever more distant point. Another sword hit the floor and Neral stepped back to her own at the ready before seeing Kes on her knees, shaking and crying soundlessly in her own version of her Mistress’s state.

Ignoring her for the moment, Neral rushed to Bryana, fighting crushing grief just looking at the wound. Cradling her, Neral called to her in frantic plea as Deres, Maylin and the others rushed in. They were bruised, battered, and spent, but they lived. The mages were ready to strike while Abren focused her anger and her blade on the still frozen Kes. “She turned. She gave us to them. Delles fell because of her. She swallowed. “I almost did.”

Neral didn’t look away. “I know. Come help Bryana.”

Deres and Maylin rushed to Bryana’s side, hands conveying energy to the wound. Bryana’s eyes found focus on Neral as they worked. “She helped us,” Neral said in a faint whisper. She saved me.”

Her hand touched her cheek with near reverence. “You really are a stupid bitch, Neral. Rushed headlong, didn’t you?”

“You know me.” She tried to smile. “I do that sometimes.”

“I do know.”

Deres looked down at her and a piece of Neral died when she saw tears fall. “It’s too much to fix in too little time, my love.”

For an instant she hated him. “What do you mean too much to fix in too little time? You’re mages. You have power. You’re a healer. You healed me. Make her well.

He looked at her, anguished. “What happened to you is not this. Half a dozen mages working in harmony, yes, but...there isn’t time.”

“It’s all right, Neral,” she said in a whisper.

“It’s not.” She brushed that blonde hair, some of the anger finding a new target. “Why didn’t you protect yourself?”

“I was...using my magic for other things.”

“What? What could possibly be more important than not getting burned through?”

Deres smiled holding Bryana’s hand tightly. “She was protecting herself.

Bryana nodded to him and managed a grin for Neral. “At least when I die I won’t have to kiss you again and forever worry about what spell you will slip me. I couldn’t let her come back to hurt you or anyone else. I couldn’t let Drexa try to bring her back. It took all I had to do that.”

A tear fell on Bryana’s cheek and Neral wiped it away. “Stay. Please.”

“If I could, I would. I do not wish to disappoint you. And I would wish for as many more days as I could get, but I made my choices for those I love. And, above all that...I did the right thing. Before that night in your room changed me, I hadn’t done that nearly often enough.” Her voice quivered. “I shall miss you both.”

She gestured for Deres to come closer and their lips met. “I know that..she was first. Know that I was never bothered by it; easy to share when we loved her so. Fine teacher. A fine man. Little else to say but that I love you.”

“And I you. Easy to share, indeed, even when it seemed like it was just the two of you. I loved watching that.”

“Your place never wavered, even if I did enjoy stealing her away from you now and then just to do it..”

Neral kissed her, and Bryana’s hand touched her again. “’I love you’ is not enough.”

She forced another breath. “In this life...and the next.”

Neral nodded, clutching her more tightly as Bryana slipped away. When there was nothing more to hold onto she wailed into the pit of anguish. Knowing that Deres was there and that he shared every bit of the loss was the only thing that made it bearable. Looking around she saw eyes around her in shared grief that left her feeling exposed as much as comforted. “I’m sorry, sir,” Dion said with sincerity.

Breathe. “What...ummm...happened out there?” Breathe

Deres forced words from himself to answer her. “There was no end to them, so...mother and I started sealing the tunnels. Then they just...started attacking each other and dying.” He looked at Drexa panting, staring at nothing she understood. “Worked on her as well as them.”

She could watch the pain between them no longer. “Move aside, Deres,” his mother said, iron will showing with every word.

In what was almost a reflex response from childhood at that tone, he moved away and Maylin took his place, roughly pulling the pendant from Bryana’s neck, snapping the clasp as she marked Bryana’s body with her fingers.

He watched, only recognizing pieces of her movements, “What are you doing, Mother?”

She worked. “I can give her life.”

Neral was at a loss. “I thought you couldn’t treat this?”

“Words matter, Daughter. Deres was correct. I said I can give her life. Forbidden magic, even in Adar, doesn’t mean unknown. It was discussed...in theory only, an an ethical exercise. Imagine someone in the community sucking life from others to sustain themselves? To save another? One of my instructors taught me much in secret just so knowledge would not be lost. I can give her the life of another.”

Neral stared into Drexa. “She deserves it for what she’s done.”

Maylin continued to work. “Not her. I wouldn’t attempt it to a mage from a mage as soiled as she is.”

“Then who?”

“Me,” as though the answer were obvious.

Deres was dumbstruck. “You can’t.” He looked to Bryana and ached anew. I’ll do it.”

“I will.” Bryana’s words in the cave would not leave her mind. Some part of Neral wondered if they were what the little negative voice that lives in every soul believed. “I will, so she knows that I loved her.”

“That kind of misses the point, Daughter. I’ve had a long, full life of adventure. I have a son I could not love more.” Her words carried the weight of someone who simply accepted the nature of life. “A parent passes and a child moves on. There is balance in that,” she looked to the two of them, “and one life spares three.”

“I’ll do it.”

All turned to see Kes still on her knees, disheveled and hollow-eyed. Abren stood over her, waiting for the slightest provocation, “I’m dead anyway, isn’t that so? Once she dies...I can’t live without her, right?”

“I expect that is so,” Maylin told her flatly.

She rose slowly and turned to Abren, “I’m so sorry.” She extended her hand and Abren stepped back. The rejection was like a slap to the face, but she nodded in understanding. She began to pace the room, words rushing from her. “I wish I were one of the empty things, then I wouldn’t remember or care, But I had to be me enough to pass, so I get to remember.” It elicited a bitter laugh. “I remember what I did to Delles, Goddess, Delles is dead because of me. I even remember what Pel did.”

“And I still feel her.” Her fingers hurriedly climbed the air in front of her, “like insects biting at me. Or like...like little whispers in my ear. Goddess save me, I want them.”

She stopped, looking down at Bryana’s lifeless form. “Even if you could cleanse me of that, I have no honor left. I gave it away. She wept. “I gave it away.” She sniffed and forced the emotion back. “If I can die and salvage something from this, let me. Please.”

Neral and Deres looked to Maylin who was contemplative for a time before answering. “I expect there’s enough of her left not totally consumed by the corruption so that she could. That she is willing aids us that way.”

“If it’s your wish.” Deres said, while Neral simply nodded.

“One thing first.” She hurriedly moved to stand over Drexa, driving her boot into the witch’s belly, bringing the first sound from her in several minutes before Kes spat upon her. “Fucking mage.”

Turning to her friends, she said all that she could think of to say. “I’m sorry for the choice I made. I’m sorry that I...betrayed you all. In the moment...”

Abren faced her own demons. “It was...difficult to resist.”

Kes looked hopeful for some small bit of peace to take with her. “Can you forgive me?”

“Not today. It is all too raw,” she told Kes before her voice reflected some of that hopeful tone, “but...someday.”

That seemed good enough for Kes who nodded and managed a small smile before moving to lay next to Bryana, her words tentative and fearful, not for herself, but for others. “General? I know that, no matter what reason you tell them we went through this, you have every right to tell my family of my betrayal, even if the why is muddled, as that much is the truth, but I beg you to spare them that.”

“Tell them anything. Tell them I slipped on a rock and fell off a cliff. Tell them I choked on a piece of bread for all it matters, but, please, do not make my House have to contend with my betrayal.”

“I will be able to tell them that you died so that the rest of us could come home. The particulars belong to us.” No one in the room questioned those words as Neral gripped Kes firmly under the elbow, one soldier to another. “Know that we will honor your name as long as we live.” Tears threatened to fall again, but her will kept them at bay. “Deres and I thank you for restoring our life to us.”

She looked to him to see him smile almost shyly, her eyes studying his. “It was a good journey with you. You’re not all fucking mages.”

He shrugged. “Some of us earn that just like everyone else.” He paused. “Thank you.”

She lay flat and waited, Maylin holding the pendant in the air between the two spoke. “I have never done this before. I don’t know if there will be pain.”

She stared up at the ceiling. “No matter. If there is I’ve earned some.”

“Be clear of her,” Maylin told them all as her eyes closed and she slipped into a chant. Deres and Neral stood away to their right and watched. Neral owed Kes that if nothing else. And she found herself piecing together a prayer. Or perhaps it was pieces of several half-remembered ones that somehow made sense together. Neral hoped that if there was a Goddess to hear, that she gave credit for sentiment.

She looked on with that mix of awe and hopefulness as one snow white wisp of vapor rose from Kes to the jewel that was now so bright it looked as though it could melt before it transitioned and vanished into Bryana. More life trailed after, dozens of lines of force unbound themselves from Kes, winding together, all drawn to the stone before moving with unity and melding with Bryana, the vicious wounds to her belly healing so quickly Neral could watch the progress. Maylin shook and continued to speak in tongues as Kes stared up at the ceiling, lips parting and eyes carrying a sense of wonder at something only she could see.

Her chest fell for the final time as the last trails of the essence of life made their way to Bryana whose chest began to rise and fall in rhythm. Neral dared to be happy even in the face of Kes’ sacrifice. Maylin fell forward, bracing herself on an unsteady hand before letting the pendant drop. Deres went to her, but she quickly waved him off. “I will be fine.”

He went to Bryana, looking at pristine skin where the torn flesh once was while Neral touched Kes, skin now white and slightly drawn. As one of her final duties to one she commanded, she passed a hand over Kes, closing her eyes and marking a close to at least that end of her journey. May the Goddess restore your peace.

She could not help but be drawn to the familiar voices that sang to her ear and misted her eyes.

“Everything will be explained later, my heart,” Deres said firmly but gently. “Now, I’ll carry you from here and we’ll go home.”

“Nonsense.” She tried to rise and every muscle protested, pushing her to the floor.

He smiled at her, unable to stop touching her. “I will carry you until you can carry yourself.”

“Listen to our mate,” Neral admonished softly.

She looked to him, rolling her eyes without actually doing so. “Yes, Master.”

“If only you meant that more.”

“I mean that in every way that matters to you.”

As Neral listened to the music Maylin looked was on bended knee looking at Drexa with disgust. “All you have done and you did not care. All the pain and you did not care.” She stood, looking down upon her in every way and drawing power to herself. “The only thing I regret about this is that I cannot see you know what is coming.”

Drexa made no sound as a blinding white consumed her, leaving nothing behind once it dimmed but Maylin looking upon the empty space with satisfaction.

Neral gave the place one last look as she and her troops gathered themselves and fell in behind her while Maylin spoke. “The lava will be useful.”

Neral nodded, needing no further explanation. “We will take Kes with us. She can rest with Pel. Bury this place.”

“As we speak, Daughter,” she answered willing the planet’s fire forward.

They stayed for hours until the tomb was sealed, buried in liquid fire and Neral watched it with Deres, and Bryana, now able to stand, even if it was between them for some bit of support and in the midst of a graveyard for Drexa’s things.

“I never expected to walk out the front door,” Dion told them with some surprise.

Anna looked to her. “How could you not? We are the best of the best.”

Dion thought about it. “Undeniable.” Putting her hand to Neral’s shoulder she had to remark, “She favored us today in many ways.”

“True.”

“Should I save you a place at services?”

She sighed with resignation and amusement looking over her shoulder. “Perhaps just to be with a friend.”

“I’ll take it.”

“Hail to you,” a strong, gravelly, male voice called to them.

They turned to see a tall male with some silver in his black beard, his skin only slightly lighter than his beard, his eyes dark enough to almost earn the term black themselves. With him was a slightly shorter woman with light brown hair that cascaded down her shoulders and pale green eyes. The black and brown robes with silver trim implied some station while the cut was similar enough to Deres and Maylin’s choices that Neral didn’t need to be told they were Adaran.

“Hail to you,” she said, keeping the tone she used with diplomats she couldn’t wait to be done with.

The man spoke again. “I am Xern and this is Tebia. We come from...a far place. We have heard stories of things ravaging the land. Do you know anything of whether these stories are true?“

“Maylin Xon,” Tebia whispered after eying her. “I recognize her.”

“It’s about time,” she said in exasperation.

“Maylin Xon,” he repeated, “are you well?”

Neral had no patience left. She had been through too much and lost too much. They all had. She laughed as though she had heard the greatest joke ever told. “They don’t care about you. They don’t care about any of this,” she said, sweeping her arm outward.

Maylin simply looked at her.

“Don’t you see, Mother? Their access to magic was interfered with. Do that and they come looking.”

“You lost sense of the line, so you came to investigate.” Deres was his own version of disgusted and the looks on the faces of the two confirmed the suspicion.

Tebia looked around and asked, “What can you tell us?”

Her response was cold after realizing Neral was right. “I will return home and explain in due course. In the meantime, my family and friends want to go home.”

The exclamation was loud and crisp.

They walked over the grass towards the mages. “Good to meet you,” Neral said, walking between them as an unstoppable force, her body alone pushing them aside, her people behind her.

“You’re welcome, by the way.”

* * *

Collecting the horses was a simple matter and, in much the same way they entered a new land, with Maylin ahead, talismans in hand, they came home. They all spied the road ahead leading them to the bustle of the city and the spires of the estates that formed a ring around the it with Queen Evaline’s castle over them all.

It had been decided that truth enough was that Neral had heard rumors of raiders outside the borders who were becoming increasingly emboldened by a lack of response. Searching them out and ending them before they threatened the outlying villages led to the losses. It wasn’t uncommon enough to be unknown and wouldn’t be questioned on its face.

“I am sorry,” Bryana said to both Dion and Elan, her eyes having been conspicuously downcast for most of the journey back.

“I told you in the cave that I forgive you,” Dion answered plainly. “I meant it then. I meant it even had I not watched you die and heard what you thought would be your last words. You were a victim just the same.”

Elan echoed the sentiment and added, “If you need me to accept your apology to feel at peace, consider it so.” Her eyes looked coyly at Deres. “It worked out well enough in the end.”

Deres sensed that it was directed at him. “I could simply have you return to Vin and your life.”

“And I would obey because I am yours. But, if my preference matters, I would prefer that you not do so.”

Abren rode just behind Dion, listening to the exchange. Having heard the story and understanding the necessity of binding her mind to save it, she could not shed her own discomfort. “Are you happy, Elan?”

She nodded. “I was lost anyway. I felt it. I knew it and there was no caring. I just...wanted a voice to obey. I wanted that mind that and voice to shape me.” She grinned at his back. “I am his and I am still myself. There was no better outcome to be had and I am happy with it.”

I was moments away,” she said to no one in particular. “I don’t know how long, but not long.”

Neral peered at her from over her shoulder. “If it were difficult to fall she could not have amassed an army. I know how easy it is. I was moments away...more than once.”

Bryana looked away again.

“As was I,” Dion told them.

Abren held her breath for a moment. “Does it get easier to live with, sir?”

“In time you will come to terms, I think. It will in many ways become something that happened in your past, even if there are times that you will miss the sensations. Immerse yourself in your strength, Abren. Go to your family and be close. Feel their love and give them yours. You will return to yourself more quickly than you realize today. Come back when you are ready.”

“I will be back, sir,” A warm smile shaped her face and offered her a moment of normalcy, “but some home will be nice.”

Neral looked to her right to Deres who gave her a smile, and to her left to see some small bit of the confidence she loved in the eyes of her other mage before looking ahead at her mother walking casually, letting herself experience the untamed greenery, while, off in the distance she could just now begin to make out the flag with the seal of her House rippling in the breeze as clouds drifted.

“Yes. Yes, it will.”

To be Continued...