The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

An Apocalypse Rising

By Saddle Rider

Chapter Three

Passing through the barrier was, for the party, not much different from moving from one room to the next. The little hairs on their arms stood on end for the transition, but, one moment the horses were setting hooves on the grasslands of the fields of Erette and the next on the hardscrabble dirt of wherever they were now. Neral looked up and, judging by the sun it was now not long after sunrise as there was still some dew on the bits of green they could find. It was desolate on either side and behind, but there held the promise of green ahead. Neral surmised that people could have lived in what lay behind, but it would have been nothing like easy.

She kept her head turned to be certain that her major and the troops that followed them both emerged together. Once they had, the rippling of the rugged scenery behind them simply stopped. Kress glanced about briefly, looking for signs of an impending ambush, but kept most of her focus on her commander in front of her. The others were a little more active in taking in their new environment, but Neral was gratified that she saw wonder, curiosity, and some uneasiness, but not fear.

She looked to her two as they kept pace. Cloaked as they were in dark fabrics, with cowls ready to be pulled over their heads, they appeared to be the mages that they were. There was a certain honesty in how they now carried themselves with her now that she hadn’t noticed before. It’s the first time they haven’t had to hide who they truly are, she realized. There was so much they had to hold back in their daily lives so as not to confuse or frighten others, not to mention preserve their own lives. “I apologize, Deres.” She turned, “and to you, Bryana.”

His eyes conveyed his wonder. “For what, Neral?”

“For not beginning to understand what it is that you have given up to have the lives you do until now. Being a mage is part of who you are as much as it’s my sword that defines me.”

“That’s not your fault, he said. “I knew what returning home would mean. I accepted that. That I don’t have to hide the truth from those in my home is enough. That would have been its own special brand of brutality.”

Bryana seemed just as indifferent in her own way. “From the first moment I opened a forbidden tome as a guild mage apprentice, I knew it was either hide my truth or accept death. It was just another way death could come.” She looked somberly at Neral. “There are reasons there are very few old guild mages.”

Neral pondered it. “Still…it is its own bravery to be strong enough to bury your truth and carry on. It makes me proud to see it in you.”

Deres stared straight ahead, attitude nonchalant,“Though I’m sure Bryana is quite anxious to blast a wild beast or two.” He gave enough of a sidelong glance to her to see her grin before hearing the words. “Yes, my Master.”

The wry smile spread to him. “I do love when you call me that.”

“Yes, I’m aware that you approve of that honorific in any number of circumstances.”

She cleared her throat conspicuously. “I believe I shall ride ahead and leave you two to flirt shamelessly with one another.”

She trotted her horse up next to Maylin who continued to cover a surprising amount of ground without seeming to be winded in the slightest. “We can redistribute the gear from one of the pack horses if you wish. They are both suitable to take a rider.”

“No, thank you, General.” She grimaced slightly, remembering her last attempts at it, though they were many years before. “I have nothing at all against the beasts, it’s simply that, historically, we have been unable to find common ground, aside from the fact that they seemed to enjoy introducing me to it regularly. Don’t worry though, I can keep up no matter how fast you’d like to go.”

“’Neral’ is fine, Mother.”

She looked up at Neral affectionately, not missing that she had embraced calling her ‘mother.’ “Thank you, dear. I simply didn’t want to come off as too familiar in front of your people, lapses in discipline and all that.”

Neral shifted uncomfortably in her saddle to the point that she took it as a cue and he had to right her. “Are you going to be all right with me in charge?”

“I’m not military, dear.”

“No, you’re not, but, at the end of the day, and in the midst of battle, there must be one voice to choose the path. My soldiers are sworn to me and their duty. Deres and Bryana trust me, and I trust them, and I can trust them to do what I’ve asked them to.”

“So you don’t trust me?”

“I do in fact. You raised the man I love, and, knowing you as I do already I can see where your values shaped his. But I know that time is an enemy, and I know there is a part of you that wants to blaze a trail to her now and try to destroy her.”

“You assume much, Neral.”

“Not really. I just share the feeling,” she admitted. “Every moment we delay, she takes more and becomes stronger. But, if we weave our way towards her we can perhaps hinder her progress in small ways, and, if truly fortunate, can pick a point of confrontation on our terms over hers.”

“It becomes far more difficult to plan on a larger scale, and dangerous in the midst of something smaller scale, like the heat of battle if I have to worry about you running off to act on your own because you think you know best.”

“Ah. But what if I do know best?”

“Then convince me.” She gestured behind her. “The lowest ranking officer back there knows that if she has a concern to be addressed or an idea to be considered, she can take it to the major, and, if it’s sound, the major will bring it to me. You and my two have the benefit of my ear directly, so take me aside and convince me. The day I become too rigid to listen is the day I retire or someone retires me on the field, probably violently. Come, say what you must, but accept that the final decision is mine, and carry that out. Can you do that?”

“I will do as you ask, Neral.” She swallowed her frustration. “You’re right. All I want to do is tear up everything and everyone in the land until she’s broken at my feet. But that is exactly the wrong thing, especially with my son and his loves at my back. Part of the reason I asked him to come is because I knew he would temper me. I do not wish my feelings to lead to greater mistakes that favor her.” Her body language tightened with the admission. “Your judgment is probably superior to mine just now, so I will defer to it.”

For Neral, her word was enough. “Where are we?”

“Well back from where I suspect she is. I tried to guess from how far she might detect our presence, but I don’t know what her reach is. I don’t know the things she has done. It’s only a guess, so it could be a horrible one. If she knows where we are, I would expect to be overwhelmed soon.”

Neral weighed the options. “Not if she wants to see what we’ll do. Not if she doesn’t consider us a threat.”

Maylin’s tone was lethal by itself. “She will.”

She reached down. “Mother? Your hand, please.”

She glanced at it. “I told you I’m fine.”

“I’m sure you are. I’m sure you have all sorts of magics to keep you from fatigue. Or from needing to eat, sleep, and probably breathe. And, while I’ve spent more than my share of time marching, it tires me to look at you.”

She slowed just a little, looking at the beast. “And I told you, they don’t like me.”

“You have to let them know you. Besides, the reins are mine. The only way she throws you is if she throws me, and she will not throw me.”

She slowed yet again, feeling a bit less of the urge to tear up the world.“If she does?”

“Then the girl and I will have words.”

Maylin eyed the horse, then the outstretched arm. “It might be worth it just for that.”

She took the proffered hand, lifted herself onto the horse and wrapped her arms around Neral where the mail thinned slightly at the waist.

“Still this way, I assume?”

“Yes, Daughter.”

Neral slowed so the rest of the group could catch up, but, ahead they forged.

The day’s march was uneventful and Neral was grateful for it in more ways than one. Of course, that they did not have to fight was to their benefit. She would prefer to delay that as long as possible. Also, it gave her a chance to survey the land they traveled through. As expected, the hard ground gave way to lush short grasses including plumes of foliage, long, narrow and as tall as a man, their green reeds dappled with silver. Farther on, there were forests in the distance with trees taller than any she’d ever seen. She could have seen herself living in such a place under other circumstances, and it saddened her that it was now being visited by such misery.

Lunch of bread, salted meats and a smooth, light ale was had on the move as Neral wanted to make as much time as they could before camping for the night. As the sun began to set they found an open field to make their home for the night. It was open enough so that they could set up a perimeter of eyes and wards to give them plenty of warning before the threat hit the camp proper, but with enough concealment from the grasses and shrubbery that they wouldn’t be completely obvious from miles around to the unaided eye.

The troops watched with interest and some with suspicion as Deres, Maylin, and Bryana weaved wards around the camp, fingers glowing various colors that changed with the chanting and arms moving in a dance that was far beyond their experience to witness. As they did their work, Neral and Hennis, one of the archers unfamiliar to Neral beyond reputation, a squat woman with sharp features and long, braided, dark hair headed out.

Neral wanted to know her abilities, so they set out on a hunt together. The general was pleased that the area was, in fact, as game-rich as it appeared to be. It didn’t take them long to find a well-trodden path to a feeding area. Neral positioned herself slightly downwind while Hennis found a place with a winding brook at her back. The general was quite pleased with the archer, as she was methodical and quick, seeming to plan for acts several steps ahead.

She was also pleased that she remembered how to hunt, as life had taken her away from that skill. Father made a point of making time with his three daughters around what appealed to them rather than forcing them to conform to what he thought they should like. He was an enlightened soul that way and it was one of the many reasons she loved him still. He’d taken her hunting to try and she loved the sport of it as much as the time with him. Neral played rattler to the beast they encountered, driving the stag to Hennis who felled it in a single shot.

Dressing the beast in the field and returning the short distance to camp, the meal was served around the roaring fire. Maylin looked upon it as though she wasn’t quite sure what to do with it and Kress took note. “You don’t eat meat where you’re from, ma’am?”

She picked at it without actually picking any of it up from the metal plate, “We do, though the animals of the wastes aren’t particularly palatable. They survive where humans aren’t meant to, so most of them are as poisonous as the land. The meat we do eat is grown in proper facilities. We don’t have to, she began, trying to hide her distaste, “kill things that were once alive for it.”

Looks were exchanged all around the fire from the assembled women and all shared the same disbelief. Beyond the realm of the five kingdoms, there was nothing. Expeditions had gone out beyond the seemingly endless mountains countless times over the generations to all but vanish. Some few that did return only did so because they turned back in time and never without casualties. They told stories of storms with toxic rain, brutal wind and little to no food to be found. Everything beyond the mountains was dead, they said, and there was no evidence to prove them wrong.

“I understand your feeling,” Neral told her with sympathy, “and no one is going to force you to eat it, but, Hennis and I took this animal to sustain us, not to murder it. We respect the life given, and, to not use that life to its purpose means that it sacrificed for nothing.”

Maylin heard the murmurs of assent and looked to each of them to see some eyes waiting to see what she would do, so, she pulled a strip from the bone and downed it. It was more gamey than she was used to, but not unpalatable.“Needs salt.”

There were snickers and soft laughter to be heard, more when Kress responded with mock indignation. “Madam, I’ll have you know that I properly season all our food as I cook.”

“She’s right,” Maklleen, a doughy-faced part of the infantry told her with a daring glance of her hazel eyes. “It’s in desperate need of salt.”

Kress gave the woman her best stone-faced expression, though there was humor in her tone. “When I want your opinion, Lieutenant, I’ll tell you what it is.”

When the laughter died down, Delles, a sinewy archer with a horizontal scar along her left cheek from a near-miss from an enemy archer’s arrow. “How would you know what you can possibly eat in the wastes? Are you from Adar or something?” She laughed even as she said it, as did others. Some of those that had survived the wastes told tales of a city with spires that reached the sky where there was no crime or want. They became more grand with each telling until Adar was nothing short of a mythical paradise.

“I am.”

Delles waited for the joke as did others. An uneasiness fell when the punchline didn’t come. Neral looked to Deres and Bryana just for affirmation. It all had to come out eventually. She looked to Maylin, “When I asked where we were earlier, you didn’t exactly answer what I wanted to know. Where are we?”

Maylin took the cue and reached into her pack to pull out a one inch gray cube. It flared a bright blue in her palm and the half dozen filaments of light that emerged from it flitted over and around one another to create an outline map of the world in that same blue light. Two of the women jumped, fearing what the light might do if it hit them. “Shades,” one of them whispered. All watched in rapt attention. Even Neral was fascinated at how the world grew and grew. A lot of her world had gone unmapped. Once completed, the cube pulsed the same blue inside a rather large peninsula while she could see the mountain chains that surrounded her home far to the east.

“You are from Adar,” Hennis proclaimed in wonder. She looked immediately to Deres and Bryana. Deres’s eyes twinkled in the fire and his normal mischievous nature. He tilted his head to gesture towards Bryana. “She’s not. Technically neither am I, I just grew up there.”

“You are Adaran,” Maylin said plainly, closing the map as she closed her hand. “You lived there. You learned there. You are my son.”

“But you’re all mages, right? Not just her?” Dion, a member of the infantry with almond-shaped eyes and dark hair. Neral knew her to be unflappable in almost any circumstance. She would hold the line even if she were the only one left. “Real, mage fire, flying, conjuring mages?”

“Some things get exaggerated,” Deres said quickly, trying to avoid being tarred with some of the more fantastical mage stereotypes. “We can’t really fly.”

“Don’t cover it over for them,” Maylin told him with a bit of motherly scold, having recognized his tone. “We are what we are. We can do the things we can do.” She looked to Dion. “Not everyone can fly, and not for long. It takes a certain level of discipline as it’s a constant-cast spell. It takes much energy, as you essentially must ride the wave you create. No one can maintain it long.”

She looked to her son again. “I know you had to hide, lest their people string you up, but don’t rush to minimize what you are to make them feel better.”

Zynn, a member of the cavalry, full-framed and nimble with a mop of red hair that reminded Neral much of Tessa. “You knew they were, General?”

Neral looked her in the eye and then each of them in turn. “I knew. I’ve known since I met them and I don’t care. I know what the law is, and I know what I should have done. I love them, they are mine, and they have never done me harm, or anyone else in Erette. I will not act against someone for what they might do.” She looked to Bryana and Deres, her feelings etched on her face. “I will not rip out my heart on a chance.”

Bryana’s past was far more complicated. As a guild mage for hire she had committed many crimes before meeting Neral and Deres on the one night fate changed her. She had done enough to justify every fear of a mage the people had. But she was changed, and no more a threat to the people of Erette than anyone else.

“There’s a reason the law is what it is. They are living weapons that can run amok at any time.” Kestral said, stringy blonde hair fallen forward over her shoulders, cheeks flushed in anger that she tried to restrain out of deference to those that outranked her. “There is a reason that we’ve come to kill one and whatever stands before it.”

“Then perhaps I should kill you, soldier,” Maylin snipped, her eyes living up to the ice in their description. She could admit to herself that part of her enjoyed how the woman tensed, waiting for a strike.

Deres was shocked at her response, eyes wide and unsure of what else to say. “Mother.”

She consoled Deres with, “That was not a threat.” before turning her attention back to Kestral. “That’s simply where your logic ends, girl. You are a living weapon, aren’t you? Or do you not really know how to use what you carry and plan to beg your enemies to please kill themselves because you can never remember which is the sharp end?”

Some of the women laughed. Even Kress found a crooked grin.

You are a weapon that might run amok given a cock-eyed glance or too much drink, so let’s kill you now without judging your behavior. Your sword is a tool. Slay a demon and you’re a hero. Rampage through an orphanage with it and you’re a demon. Magic is no different.”

Maylin composed herself more as she went, hoping to teach. “Yes, the woman we seek is corrupted, but she was corrupted by herself. She was corrupted by a desire for power, an ego that puts her above others, and certainty in her own certainty. How bloody is your history over such men and women?”

Kestral was silent.

“And all they had were swords.”

“I don’t care,” Dion, said. “Bad person doing bad things and hurting people needs killing before they start coming after me and mine. That’s all I need to know.” She met Neral’s eyes with pride, extending her arm to clasp Neral’s. “General Jaye has never lied to me about things that matter.” She leaned back. “Had my love been a mage I wouldn’t tell a soul either.”

“Attitude is damn rich coming from you anyway, Kes,” Makleen chided with a snort. “How much trouble has that little shit you have back home been in in his life. This petty crime and that. A year in jail here and there.”

She stared daggers.“That was all a long time ago for him.”

“So? Proven bad. Lock him up forever.”

“Me, either, said Zynn. “Bryana fixed my grandfather when he was drowning in his own fluids. Wouldn’t take a thing for it.”

She remembered well. “Not entirely true. Your grandmother forced me to take the eggs.”

“Hash this stuff out on your own time and in any way you want, girls,” Kress said, finishing her plate by sopping a piece of bread through it before popping it into her mouth. “Just don’t let it get in the way of what we’re here for.”

“If anyone has any questions about what I kept from you or concerns because of it, you can bring them to me directly.”

No one had anything to say to her just then, so, after a little more chatter, everyone not on watch went to their bed rolls. Between the watches, the wards, and the horses, who often had a sense of incoming trouble better than any soldier she’d served with, Neral felt reasonably safe when she she’d placed her sword at her feet before laying down. She felt more so once she became the middle of her three after Bryana, and, finally Deres made his way to bed after talking with Maylin for a time. Her arm went around his waist as he caressed her cheek.

“Anything important that you talked about with Maylin that might matter?”

He shook his head. “Just talking.”

He seemed hesitant to her, so she couldn’t let it go. “About?”

“Being a mage in the world is all,” he said finally. “After this is over, what keeps them from telling the world when we get home?”

“When we get home, if we get home, nothing prevents any of them from telling what they know of you, really. To withhold knowledge of a practicing mage is a crime itself. I can’t order them to break the law. I ordered them not to speak of what happens here, but, ultimately, if they think you are the greater crime, they can tell without truly divulging how they know of it.”

He tried to lighten her burden with his most charming grin; one that always made her smile. “Well, sounds as though you’ve given it thought.”

“Since we married, Husband. You knew what the price was, and so did I when I agreed to marry you.” Her eyes went to that distant point. “It would cost my friendship with the queen, but, as a last testament to that, she could probably be convinced to let us flee in the short time between investigating the claims and arrest.”

Bryana’s neck craned over Neral to look upon her in disbelief. “You would give up everything. It would mean your position and your House.”

“Unlikely my House,” she said, unable to hide her melancholy at the prospect. “House Jaye would likely be safe, though not untarnished. “Mother and my sisters would shun me publicly, whether they meant it, or just for show.”

Bryana huffed in irritation at her parsing.“Only you dead to your House, then? What’s the difference to you, love? You take so much pride in your position that the smile you wear when in your dress uniform could guide ships to the harbor. What would you even do if you did leave?”

Thinking about it made her smile as she traced Bryana’s blonde hair with her eyes as it fell above her. “You made a decent living, didn’t you?”

“Hah. Neral Jaye an outlaw for hire? Never will I see that.”

“You don’t think I could do it?”

“I think you would excel at it, Neral. The problem is that your heart would never let you down that path.”

“We could always go to Adar.” When the two looked at him, Deres continued. “It’s part of what I talked to mother about. If the worst came to pass, we would be welcome there.”

Neral corrected him.“You would be welcome there because it’s your home. Bryana would be welcome there because, even if they think her primitive or not, she’s a mage, so she’s a kindred spirit. I’d be just the primitive.”

“You would find a place that was your own,” he assured her with a caress and a kiss.

Breaking it, she rolled to her back. Goddess, how that golden hair just curls so...softly. She could read the hint of feverish excitement in her eyes. “You so want to go, don’t you?”

The mage clutched her. “Have you no curiosity, Neral? Don’t you even wonder how far the spires of metal and glass truly reach?” She imagined it and it thrilled her. To be in a place that shows all what magic can be? Think of it. And we would be safe...all of us. If it came to that, where else is better?”

Neral would have been lying to herself if she’d tried to tell herself she wasn’t curious. The stories he told were sometimes more fantastic than the tales that she’d heard from storybooks. She was also introspective enough to know that being the oddity in such a place would be difficult, but a balance would be found eventually, as that was life. She pulled the mage to her and their lips met determinedly, Bryana giving back all she received.

As much as it would break her heart to be away from her mother and sisters there was family enough with her now to start over if it came to that. Even so, she prayed it wouldn’t have to.

* * *

The caravan seemed to travel forever, through the forest and down into the valley. Loved ones and friends whispered to one another now and again, but there was more quiet than not as the wagons moved down the roads, rattled down the barely beaten paths, and rocked through the areas where there was no path at all.

There were some attempts at escape or resistance, but they ended quickly, as the once-humans and the beasts wouldn’t touch the instigators in favor of punishing random others. This kept most in line with them watching one another for signs of trouble. As Beka thought about it, there hadn’t been a serious uprising in days. Everyone simply marched behind the wagons, each man and woman chained to the others or let themselves be carried in the wagons. She could catch a glimpse of her father in the chain gang, head down, focused on one foot in front of the other like the rest.

It bothered her that it didn’t bother her in the way she thought it should have. Oh, it still did, but things were different somehow. “I think there’s something in the water they’re giving us.”

Her brother Baen looked into her emerald eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Nobody has tried to escape in days.”

“So? What’s the point? They put us down and lash or let the beasts have at someone else for it”

She struggled to try to make him understand. “If they stopped, would you run?”

He just looked at her like she’d grown another head. “Of course.”

“Are you sure? Think about it. Think, ‘I’m going to run away, right now,’ then try to jump from the wagon.”

His brown eyes glared at her. “And get someone hurt? You do it,” he dared.

She looked around, not quite sure enough of things to not worry that someone might tell their guards. There were some looks, but no one acted, so she went on. “I’ve tried. I really have. I want to run. I can do whatever else, but when I think about running and try to make my body move and I just...forget about actually doing it without forgetting that I wanted to do it.”

“You’re crazy,” he said in that demeaning tone that he used when they were small children and he though it would be fun to repeat everything she said for the entire day.

“Just try. You don’t even have to do it. But when you’re thinking about doing it, mean it.”

She saw him shake his head at her. With a humoring sigh he focused his thoughts and Beka watched his brow knot in his frustration before finally putting his back against the side of the wagon once again.

“See?”

He dismissed her. “I just gave up. Someone else isn’t going to pay for me. Don’t worry, you’re still crazy.”

She hugged her knees to her, sat there, and fumed, at him now almost as much as her predicament.

The valley was a miles-wide and deep furrow beyond the forests and the hills that was carved into the ground by the finger of God, or so. Beka’s grandfather had said many years ago as she sat on his lap to listen to his stories. They took a meandering path to the valley floor and followed it through to a point where the valley flared open, giving way to mountains not far distant.

They reached those mountains at nightfall and the wagon was driven into one of the many fissures in the rock. Once they came to a stop inside Beka took what time she could to look around as the beasts and once-humans started driving people up the short metal staircase that led to a platform where a woman stood tall and proud surveying the scene as one might look upon a rodent in their kitchen.

Beka saw how the platform fanned into three paths, each leading down to their own hidden destinations within the rock. She’d never seen so much forged metal in one place. The various platforms, walkways, and supports made it all look so much like the skeleton of a larger creature she shivered at the thought of being in its belly to be digested. It was well-lit from lights overhead, but they weren’t like anything she’d ever seen. They were simply sheets of white that glowed even as they appeared to be cut into the ceiling above her.

“Out,” a creature that was once male snarled to Beka and a few of the stragglers in the back. He was now a misshapen thing with muscle and sinew corded into more muscle and sinew. Long, coarse black hair covered his body, save his chest which still had bare spots that suggested the human skin that once dominated.

She moved as quickly as muscles cramped in a wagon for days would allow and, as her bare feet hit the ground she contemplated bolting for the crack in the earth she came through, but the sensation she’d felt before was stronger here than before. Before, it was simply an inability to translate an escape thought into an action that might free her. Now, it was almost a voice in the back of her head that told her no and that she must stay.

Accepting that it was so, she looked up to see her father already being led to the far right by another creature who now held the chains. He tried to give her a reassuring smile even as he disappeared from sight. The smile was convincing enough, but it did nothing to help her as tears fell down her cheeks anyway. She didn’t know what would become of them, but she believed the voice in that there was no escape. Somehow Baen managed to be behind her as they reached the stairs and the look on his face was as pained as hers, though he refused to weep.

Reaching the platform, she found the men being directed to the left while women ushered through the center path. Knowing this was likely the moment they would part Baen squeezed her hand firmly, willing her not to forget the feel and the force of it. “Stay strong, Beka,” he said quietly. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Stop.” She did not shout, but her voice echoed through the chamber as though she had.

Everyone obeyed. Even the beats around them stopped to look up, waiting for her next word. Beka took stock of the woman who still looked enough of one to have the name, as the woman appraised her through eyes as black as death. The woman was taller than most of the men she had known dressed black boots to her knees, the knee-guard of those boots sporting blades that caught the light. The leather corset was adorned with gold, hugging her body as though it were painted on her skin was smooth, almost bone white, and accented with dark around her eyes and lips that Beka couldn’t tell was natural or not.

The creature’s smile was sweet, which only gave Beka goosebumps. “Tell me your name.”

She saw no point in being brave as she couldn’t escape anyway. When she thought it, she knew it was true. “Beka.”

Her smile didn’t fade. “Such is a lovely name, Beka. I am Calla. I saw that touch between you. Who is he to you? Are you newlyweds?”

“Leave my sister alone,” Baen said with a bravado that suggested he didn’t know that he wasn’t right where they wanted him to be.

One of the beasts was about to reach and strike him when the creature dismissed the act with a look. She then looked back to Beka. “Sister? Oh….that’s so wonderful.” She looked away from her for a moment and off at a seeming nothing point to her left. “Might I play briefly, Mistress?”

Beka barely had time to wonder who the thing was talking to before she saw Calla’s face light in joy. “Thank you, Mistress.”

She took Beka’s hand in hers. “I get to show you such lovely things, just the three of us. Come.”

The touch of her hand was warmer than Beka expected somehow. It soothed her. If Calla wanted her to follow she saw no harm in it. I can’t escape anyway. The thought brought certainty with it that was rewarding in its own way.

To the creature that ushered Beka from the wagon Calla issued commands. “Hold the procession for ten minutes, then proceed as normal.”

He bowed his head. “Yes, Mistress Calla.”

Baen tried to keep his hand from hers when she reached for it, but she was quicker by far when she saw the first hint of his recoil. Beka saw the touch act as a balm to him as well in the way that his expression softened. They followed. Calla found that she utterly adored watching the small ones break. She loved when that moment when they realized there was no way to fight Her and what She offered. On occasion, She allowed Calla the indulgence of having a more active hand in it herself rather than simply supervising.

They moved down the corridor at a leisurely pace, the siblings slightly behind her. Calla stroked the back of Beka’s hand with her thumb. Beka looked down to watch it happen. Seeing it pleased her and feeling it made her tingle all over. She tugged at the hand holding hers just a little. I can’t escape anyway. With Calla’s hand in hers, somehow that was all right, and even desirable.

Beka looked around the room they entered. More metal everywhere with rows and rows of men rising up on either side of the cavern. Beka had no experience with men, but, looking at most of them she’d have been fine if one of them were her first. They were all solid examples of masculinity, looking as a few came and went while the others stayed at their stations. Around the waist of each man, wrapped tightly to their bodies was a pulsing bit of flesh the color of freshly plowed earth. Covering their cock and balls, it pulsed as the faces of the men were studies of dazed ecstasy. A thread of that same flesh dropped down from the base, through the grated floor leading to somewhere she couldn’t see.

“You and your brother are such an important part of Her plans, Beka. She needs you.” Beka looked up into those eyes and wondered how eyes so dark could seem so expressive. As Calla stroked her hand with a feather touch Beka found that she wanted to fall into them. Calla smiled at her. She was such a cute little creature and so loving to be under her sway and Hers. “I’m going to help your brother for a few moments, Beka. Could you do me a favor and just keep touching me, Beka? Anywhere you like, but don’t stop touching me, all right. It’s so much more calming and soothing to be here when you touch me, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” She found her eyes drifting to that beautiful cleavage.

She turned to Baen, He had more apprehension in his eyes, but his body was just as pliable. She peeled his tunic from his body, exposing his broad chest that she caressed firmly as though she were sculpting it. “He’s very handsome, isn’t he, Beka?”

She’d never looked at him that way before, but it was so. “He’s fit.”

“Yes he is,” she purred. “What is your name?”

“Baen.” His voice wavered even on the single syllable.

Calla moved to her knees pulling his pants down with her, exposing his semi-hard cock. He stepped from them without thinking.

“I need you, Baen,” she whispered it like a lover would as she palmed his balls in her hand before slowly running that hand on over his cock from base to tip time and again. Calla felt Beka’s hand meander affectionately along her bare back as she parted her dark lips and engulfed him.

He groaned, closing his eyes to attempt to resist that insanely long, slathering tongue. He felt her bobbing up and down on his shaft Can’t touch. Can’t feel. Can’t look.

“Baen?”

Beka? Beka will help me be strong. We can fight it together.

“Baen?”

He dared open his eyes to see his sister kissing that long, smooth neck. “She needs you, Baen,” she said. “We can’t escape anyway.” With the heat of saying that aloud, she nibbled the neck before her. “It’s okay to like it.”

He looked down at those black eyes that seemed to be smiling up at him and his cock rose helplessly. He did like it and she needed him. He started to thrust as her head bobbed and continued to thrust the air even as she stepped away several times before stopping.

She led him to a vacant station, with Beka finding exposed flesh to touch wherever she could, urging him forward until the milking flesh sensed his presence. Once it did, the four appendages it possessed wrapped themselves around his waist and thighs, leaving space between the two in anticipation as Calla aimed his cock where it needed to be. Once done, the flesh closed the space between them and began to suckle, tease, and demand of him, working him to the edge of bliss while never quite letting him have it. It was so soft, plaint, and warm while still so alive that the inner flesh bulged and contracted to fondle him. He looked down, then back at Calla in wonder.

“It feels so good, doesn’t it?”

“God, yes.”

“I know it does. You are a perfect man for her,” Baen. You have so much seed to offer. I could tell just tasting you.” She couldn’t hide her excitement as she stared into his eyes, reading every emotion and feeling. “You will have no other cares, Baen. You will do as you are asked, you will eat well, and you will be milked. No more worries. No more fear or care.”

“I want to cum,” he begged.

“Go ahead. Give Her your seed.”

Calla was on the edge herself between the entranced little pet fawning over her and the young man throwing his head back in ecstasy as he sent rope after rope of cum deep into the thing that now controlled his cock.

When he came back to look at her, Calla had her own near silent orgasm seeing how the light began to dim in his eyes. Even the smile he took on started to look empty. She knew that the breeders softened quickly. In short order, if she wanted to punish them she could threaten to keep them from the stall. Not that she would keep them from Her purpose or that they even required punishment for anything by then; she just liked to hear them beg.

Now there was the matter of sweet, young Beka who was now looking at her in adoration. “Your brother is happy now. As new meat filters in, some will resist more than others. When they do, and you are available it will be to you to prepare them,” she said, stripping the girl with none of the seductive finesse that Baen received. Pert breasts, round hips and hair below slightly darker than the hair above made for a lovely package

Now she was talking to herself more than the girl as she led her from that room and down a narrow path. “Some only pretend to resist. They pretend that it repulses them and they plea, but they are hard as can be and plant themselves inside even as they demand to be free. Those are rare, but they are delicious to watch.”

Under other circumstances, Beka would have been shamed by her nudity, but the haze was so complete that she squeezed her hand on Calla’s toned ass as she compared it to her slightly more round and ample one. Under still others, she would have been embarrassed to see another young woman go by her, just as nude. Her belly protruded, clearly very pregnant, and her breasts looked almost as full as her belly, dark milk dripping down her caramel skin. Her face wore a mask of contentment.

And the old Beka would have been terrified by what she saw when the cavern opened to one of the breeding rooms. In the center of the room were two rounded blobs of pink flesh, each roughly the size of three men, red veins covering the skin everywhere there were not what appeared to be white cysts on the skin, and there were many such cysts.

On either side of each was a once-woman, not unlike Calla, arms outstretched, eyes closed in concentration as they cast a spell. Each of the four retained their beauty in a feral way, but it was clear that all four had been remade by Her. Energy from their hands danced across the cysts like lightening moving along the ground.

Surrounding them were metal chairs which allowed for restraints at the wrists and ankles. Most were being occupied, though no one was being restrained. Beka sighed seeing how one young woman was actively pushing against tendril that sought to bury itself inside her, biting her lip and urging it to take her.”Give me another. Fill me with another.” Another began screaming in orgasm as something egg-shaped pushed from where it could be seen in the tendril’s flesh before it visibly stretched her wide

She saw the woman just to her left, a woman clearly heavy before her taking being kissed and fondled by another woman who clearly thrilled at the feeling from being nursed on by the larger woman Still other women, some impregnated and some not were in the darkened corners of the room rutting gleefully with the once-men.

“Sit here, Beka.” The young woman let herself be led to the nearest chair before Calla clicked the restraints into place with a gesture.

Beka struggled, dark eyes panicked and needy as she swiveled her head to keep sight of the woman. “Calla? Calla, can I please touch you? Please?”

“No, sweet one,” she said, giving the young woman’s hair a last brush before standing just behind the chair. “This wouldn’t be nearly as fun for me if I let you do that.”

Beka was simply left to stew in the chair as the minutes ticked by and, as they did, much of the fog that had descended over her lifted. Struggling began anew when she realized what was happening around her. She screamed and pulled at the restraints, but there was no give to be felt. The only thing she succeeded in doing was helping them bite her flesh.

Her demand echoed through the room.“Let me out of here!”

Calla looked down upon her in more ways than one.“Don’t worry. “You’ll be just as happy and carefree as your brother very soon.”

Her eyes widened in horror as one of the tendrils headed for her. It was smooth, black and slick dripping with a clear ooze that seemed to be erupting from wide pores all over the surface. It moved as though floating on an air current, thick, but nimble. It twitched left and right, sensing the air before honing in on an empty vessel.

She tried to pull away again as the tendril brushed her left foot, leaving a viscous trail to run between her toes and down the sole of her foot. It was brought with it a warm prickling feeling that made her nerves sing. It dripped all over her leg as the thing slithered, searching for the part of her it needed. When the oily fluid rolled down the crease between thigh and pelvis she quivered against her restraints, but not entirely in fear.

“You think you know how good it will feel, Beka. You want it and fear it because you think you know how good it will feel.” Her smile was wicked. “You don’t.”

She looked down to watch it find her. Beka tried futilely to shift herself this way and that, only managing a fraction of an inch either way. She did finally feel shame in knowing that she was dripping all on her own. Once it found its quarry, it slid in without hesitation and, when it did, two things happened: she lost her maidenhead in the last way that she could have ever dreamed, making her wince in pain, and the pores let loose a gush of the oily joy with a wet plopping sound that bathed her lips and clit in it.

She threw her head and climaxed uncontrollably, which triggered one of the other women in the room. Calla watched it began to thrust, taking her, preparing her for what was to come. She watched Beka’s eyes go wild and her legs pull against the restraints yet again, this time in response to her muscles being wracked by sensation. Her knees spread wider to try to get more of it inside her.

Calla watched her respond to the fucking. It was such a perfect sight to see them go wild and dim all at once. To her surprise, Beka’s mouth began to form words even as the tendril savaged her. “Let….me...go… Please.”

Calla shook her head, “Tsk, tsk, tsk. You said it yourself, you can’t escape anyway.”

She craned her neck and screamed again.

As her heaving breath came back to her in gasps. “Let me go….so I can help it. Please. I can’t escape. Let me help it.”

Calla knew it wasn’t a bid for freedom. Even if she could get out of the room, her hips gave her away in how they lifted. With a flick of a finger Beka’s arms were free, her hands rushing to the black flesh, both of them squeezing it to draw the ooze free in gobs that she slathered all over her chest and face, kneading it into herself. Another dollop went down her throat. It was just as warm going down her throat as it felt on her body and it tasted so sweet. She licked her fingers as one of the cysts deflated watching the bulge as it made its way through the tendril.

To claim her.

Its pounding of her stopped as she felt it move up and up until she felt it enter her womb and flare, binding them together. She kept her eyes on it until it was inches from being inside her being. Beka leaned back in surrender, seeing Calla open the crotch of her outfit and back up to her so she would see her eyes as Beka ate her, and eat she would.

Calla’s pussy was dripping in anticipation of many little moments that came in rapid succession. When the meat’s eyes widened as she was claimed Calla lowered her lips to that waiting, panting mouth. Her tongue was clumsy at first, but she made up for it enthusiasm. The vibrations from her cumming little mouth brought Calla to the edge.

Seeing the meat’s eyes roll into the back of its head until only the whites could be seen as it was owned made her cum.

Beka wandered back the way she’d come, touching her expanded belly, her purpose growing inside her. When she passed by Baen she stopped to look at him. Not that they would have really known, but they now shared the same dull eyes, and the same happiness. She grinned as he scarcely looked at her face in favor of her body, thrusting towards her.

She wandered away. Perhaps the once-man who took her from the wagon needed pleasuring.

To Be Continued...