The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

An Apocalypse Rising

By Saddle Rider

Chapter Eight

Neral hated waiting.

She hated it even though it was a sizable part of her job. Lots of mundane tasks, between long stretches of waiting for the few minutes of murderous frenzy to begin. So she would have hated it even if she hadn’t been waiting for her husband to scout a path and into the fortress ahead.

“He knows what he’s doing just as well as I do.”

She knew Maylin was trying to be comforting, and it did help, albeit only slightly. “I know.” The group, she knew, shared her tension for their own reasons. It was on their faces and in their eyes and the rigidity with which some gripped the reins. Death was one thing that every soldier had to prepare for, but, laying Pel to rest this morning was a reminder that, on this day temptation, and the risk of falling to it was something else that they had to remain vigilant in the face of.

It also concerned her that it was taking longer than the previous scouting trips had but she reminded herself that he was now literally in the face of the enemy and each step taken had to be thought through before it was made. But, at least once per minute, her mind had gone to wondering, ‘What if…?’

“Nice day to save the world,” Dion said, looking up at the perfectly cloudless sky, the sun just now able to peek above the trees. “Perhaps She favors us today.”

Neral jutted her chin ahead. “She doesn’t. So I guess everything depends upon whether or not the Goddess decides we’re worthy of Her strength today.”

“I’ve put in a few extra words to Her between last night and now.”

“Guess we’ll have our answer by tonight, won’t we?” Her tone found a sour edge. “Just once I’d like to hear from Her loudly and boldly before the fact.”

“There are times where I would like that myself, General.”

As if coalescing from ether, Deres appeared before them, his stride smooth, but his face a study in dismay.”

“Is it as bad as it looks on your face?”

His features relaxed appreciating the attempt at levity that came with the delivery. “Things could be much better, yes.” The soldiers shifted the horses to form a circle around him, Dion taking the reins for Maylin as she gripped the horse in order to hang on. The cube in his palm flared again, using light to draw a picture of the main entry to the fortress and the grounds before it.

As it formed, even with the outlines of all manner of beast walking over it, it was clear enough that Maylin’s skin blanched and Neral began to recognize the intricate, maze-like pattern. “Isn’t that like the glyph that is in your meditative space at home?”

“That’s exactly what it is.”

Maylin’s embarrassment was plain. “Of course. How could I not have seen? I was so focused on her wanting the world that all I could see were legions of those things running over everything else. It never occurred…”

“Those things are for Adar,” Neral concluded, clenching her jaw.

Deres nodded. “The glyph not only marks a passage to and from the city, it creates one. Once the marks within marks are created exactly so, the passage exists.”

Elan concluded, “So what she wants is the city?”

Maylin nodded slowly, the enormity finally turning from abstract construct to a reality she could see in the sights and sounds of home. Legions of those things...that black death appearing throughout the city at once with no warning? She could take it. Or destroy it. Or use it.”

“If she has the city, she needs nothing else.” Deres looked grim. “She takes the city to take her revenge on the people who dismissed her, then she takes everything else.”

“That city could take the rest of the world by itself?” Kestral looked as though she was having a hard time even believing it and, the city being the stuff of legend or not, she was not alone.

At that moment, Neral was keenly aware of the weight of the sword on her back and the gift it held within the steel, imagining a plague unleashed across the land, picking man, woman, and child apart from the inside out as the mages had promised the gift would do to Drexa and her beasts.

“I imagine so,” Neral told them, looking to the mages, in any number of ways.”

Maylin’s blue eyes acknowledged the depth that the general was attempting to convey. “Fire, plague, or any number of other unpleasant inflictions upon the world; the choice would be hers.”

As much as the vision frightened her, it strengthened Neral’s resolve to fight and had made her glad that she had made the choice to make a stand here before whatever happened did. She realized that there was no standing against whatever it was at home once it was unleashed.

“Why did she not take the means with her when she left Adar and use it then?”

“Because the Council would have acted had she tried to take such means out of the city,” Maylin explained carefully. “Until the moment she left, they believed that they ultimately had control of her. They would have come after what was Adaran to keep it from outlanders. That she left with only herself let them shrug. The city is not a prison and, as far as they knew she committed no crime.”

Deres picked up on her thought “And, as much as they might debate her acts now while the scope is vague and impact limited, something traceable to her that sweeps across the world greatly increases the likelihood of a response. So she takes revenge and stops the only ones with the power to stop her”

“The glyph is not enough to help her though,” Maylin continued, “it is a passage, yes, but it is a locked one. With her ideas and the danger posed by them, the locks were changed. She was happy to be gone and the Council was happy to be rid of her.”

Neral finished. “That’s why she let us get this far. That’s why she let us in. Looking to Deres and Maylin in turn, “She needs one of the keys we possess.”

“Why not overwhelm us and take them, sir?” Kestral almost demanded. “Take them and break them and use them to get in.”

“The Adaran mage mind has some defense. It would take time to wear them away on her own,” Deres answered, his tone uncharacteristically bitter. “Let the journey do it. Let it torment them and take away things that matter while she can just go on about her business.”

Maylin wanted to reach out to her son.“Let them come to her in anger, rage, and grief and her job is simpler.”

“What if… she were denied the keys?”

Everyone looked at Kestral after it was said and the wife in Neral wanted to tear at her. She allowed herself a moment of selfish within her own mind. will not be left with nothing. I cannot be.

“If I thought it would stop her, I’d take myself out of the equation...one way or the other.”

“As I would,” Maylin agreed.

“It only delays the same end,” Abren concluded as though it should end the debate. “Deny them the mages now and she just grows her beasts and runs them over the world, spreading suffering. Taking everything but Adar might be win enough for her.”

“But if she does get a response from them she still gets her victory. If the result is the same, acting now is better than later.”

“So how do we actually get in to stop her?” Dalen wanted to know as she pet her horse, more to soothe herself than him.

The glyph disappeared at once replaced by representations of a latticework of passages within the mountain, the mapping of which went to black not all that far from each entrance. We will have to travel on foot for the last leg, but there are several very narrow passages inside from the mountain pass. She may have gotten her first victims through them, who knows? But they’re still open.”

“For our benefit, no doubt.”

“And perhaps booby trapped, also for our benefit.” Dion amended for her commander.

Deres shrugged. “That or the front door.”

“Nice to have a choice.”

The corner of Anna’s mouth turned upward. “Most of them have been terrible up to now anyway, Dalen. It’s tradition now.”

“Can you even the odds?” Neral, asked, Deres. “Do you think maybe you can break the wards she uses and tap your magic pools ourselves.

He put his device back in the pocket of his cloak “Not in enough time to matter.”

For the first time in a long while, Maylin looked pleased “We may not have to. I have a good idea of the nature of the wards she uses because I know what she expects. She expects a mage to come and face her skill to skill and want to use them as she does, so that’s what her wards are designed to prevent. So I won’t try to.”

“So what will you do?”

“I believe I have created a spell that can poison the ley lines.”

Deres was shocked before it gave way to a look of sinister glee. “What?”

“Poison them? If you could poison them, wouldn’t she defend against it?”

He looked up into Neral’s eyes, genuinely excited at the prospect of having a real weapon to use as he closed the map. “She’d never see it coming, my love. I never even thought of it myself because I doubt any mage has conceived of it; it’s that insane. I mean, would you poison everything in your own larder?”

“Even if it did occur to her,” Maylin added, looking slightly wicked herself, “her home is full of the spineless. Why contemplate a defense against something that you know for certain your enemy would never have the courage to do even if they knew how?”

“Succeed and her power is diminished to that of either of us,” Deres told Neral. “It probably also eliminates any power the half-mages possess. The only reason she’s allowing them to be conduits at all is that it serves her and she can tap power to spare. When she no longer has that to spare...”

Elan liked the idea, the vision it created too lovely not to share. “I should love to see her face when her well dries up.”

“So we have a plan for that, then? I like it.” Neral pondered the other problem as she saw it. “Your map is incomplete, so I’m not sure how we find her in that labyrinth of tunnels even if they are not crawling with the things she made.”

“As we draw closer I should be able to sense her, given that she doesn’t seem to want to hide,” Deres told her, stepping alongside Stenna just to touch Neral. “The devices that mother and I possess will map as we go. Between the two of us, we should come up with a good picture of the layout.”

She nodded, allowing one more unspoken thought when it came to deciding whom to trust. She had wrestled with it often over the course of the night before accepting the fact that they could all already be corrupted as far as she knew, including, perhaps herself. Even the mages didn’t fully understand all the ways Drexa worked. If we are all ruined somehow it’s already over and none of this matters anyway. Trust all of us or none of us.

“We split into three teams. I’ll go in with Dion and Elan with the intent of causing as much mayhem as possible, striking at any targets of opportunity that arise.” She looked to each in turn, seeing the resolve on their faces. “Kes, Delles, and Abren will do the same. Anna and Dalen, it’ll be to you to do what you can to help Maylin get to where she needs to be to cut Drexa off from access to her power.”

“Deres will scout ahead, marking a path for us to her, destroying what he can. And, if Bryana is alive, he will keep her from aiding Drexa one way or another.”

“We are certainly walking into a trap, so we fight as long as we can. We...resist as long as we can. Our best defense at this point is the fact that she has done nothing but toy with us. If she continues that game in her home she allows the rest of us opportunities. Every moment we buy those with us is a moment that could allow them to succeed.”

“Success, thralldom, or death it is, then, sir.” Anna summarized wryly.

Neral nodded soberly before taking a deep breath. “I am not one for long speeches. You know what you are fighting for and what you are fighting to prevent. If that’s not enough for you...it’s too late to go home now.”

There were smiles at the attempt at levity. “But know that, however this comes out for each of us that, it was my honor to lead you and to know you.” She placed her fist to her heart in salute.

The soldiers with her did the same and the exclamation for her was as resolute as any before. Once the soldiers equipped themselves they set out toward the jagged stone, Deres and Neral in the lead with Maylin riding with Neral “Is there a special reason you asked to ride with me?”

Maylin looked thoughtful. “Just a few extra moments with you. I would have hoped that we would have gotten to know one another under better circumstances, but these times have value, too. I am quite proud to call you a member of my family. You are lovely, intelligent, and properly thoughtful.”

“Properly thoughtful is interesting, I must say. Not so primitive as far as the primitives go?”

“We have abilities that outlanders lack and the worldview that can come with them. Despite what some in Adar believe, that does not equate to superiority. It’s why I and others travel the world; to see what they have to offer, and some of them offer much. You are not a primitive and neither are any of those that travel with us. You are all certainly braver than most of my own kind.”

“Well, I am superior to you, Mother. I can ride.”

She squeezed Neral as she spoke. “Vile beasts,” she said without real venom.

When we succeed. you will return for a long and proper visit and you shall not leave until you can ride to my satisfaction.”

“I’m not sure she’ll want to stay that long.”

“Do not be disrespectful to your mother,” Neral chided gently.

Another squeeze. “Thank you, Daughter.”

He cleared his throat and looked to each. “There is not enough time to say everything that should be said. Even if there were, I’m not sure I have the talent to find the words, but, thank you both for my life. I love you.”

“And I you, Deres. You have helped me build a life that pleases me. I’ve looked forward to waking up with you each day; even those where I occasionally wished to throttle you..”

“Throttle my son? I’ll bet those are interesting tales.”

Neral ultimately dismissed it. “Those are long stories as well, but the desire is, only fleeting. Then he attempts to charm me and...it usually works, much to my chagrin,” though she didn’t seem particularly bothered in admitting it.

His shoulders swayed with a bit of swagger. “We all have our gifts.”

Talk ebbed as the incline slowly rose and the green gave way to dirt paths that twisted around the rocks like veins. They didn’t get far before the loose gravel with the grade of the slope made it too hard to continue with the horses so they dismounted and continued on foot with Neral admonishing Stenna with the sage advice, “Don’t let anything eat you.”

The hike was a relatively short, but daunting one. The gravel made climbing daunting, with all of them almost spilling back down the path at one time or another. Eventually though the rocks jutting from the earth were frequent enough to help them make their way to a crack in the rock twice as tall as a man but scarcely wide enough for one to slide through sideways.

“Off with the armor, leathers only” the general said, examining the crevice. “I doubt that it’ll save us anyway.” They all stripped to their worn leather padding before Deres and Maylin lead the way, reaching outward with their senses as they went. With no immediate danger apparent, Neral and the others followed. Neral fought back a quick wave of claustrophobia as the rock threatened to squeeze her as she made her way inch by inch, having to suck in her stomach and hold it, the tip of her nose touching the rock a few times to worm through, hearing her sword scrape rock as she did. How in the depths did you get through here, Deres?

His hand touched hers and she took it before finally finally stepping into the cavern, filling her lungs with the warm air as she did so, now grateful that she had shed the armor because if she ended up going down into the depths of this place she’d have baked in it. One by one the rest of the party emerged with her as she took a moment to marvel as the cavern opened to a corridor ahead that was lit by no form of lamp she had ever seen.

Forcing herself from that momentary sense of awe, she checked the pockets within her leathers to make sure that everything that should have been there still was, including the spell to be used against Bryana tucked safely into her boot. Deres had one as well and she prayed to anything that might be listening that she wouldn’t have to use it.

Her fellow soldiers looked around as well, several of them seemed somewhat surprised that they weren’t in the middle of a fight already and Dalen spoke, her voice always seemed to have an almost musical quality, her heavy-lidded blue-green eyes searching warily. “Surprised we’re not swarmed already.”

“Eventually,” Neral said. “Perhaps.” She admitted to herself that would be preferable to this eerie calm.

“That’ll probably happen once we start messing with her machinery though,” Kes observed.

“Then we lead them to the narrowest corridors and start piling up beasts,” Dion answered, anxious to do just that.

“We all know what we are here to do, You all know your jobs so...” Neral didn’t finish as a woman with olive skin and hair to her mid-back turned into the entryway. While she wore a red and gold wrap, very little was left to the imagination.

She looked concerned, yet there was emptiness behind her eyes and, while her voice managed to convey concern there was a hollowness to it, as though the words were not entirely hers. “I am Siian. You must have come a long way. You won’t need those weapons anymore. You’re safe here. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Come with me and we can tend to all of your needs.”

Everyone exchanged looks, uncertain of how to proceed. “We don’t really need any help at the moment,” Dion told her.

Her tone was unchanged. “You surely have come a long way and need to sleep at the very least. Allow me to take you somewhere where you can at least sit down.”

“What if we’d rather not?”

She looked to Neral, seemingly unable to process the question. “Then we’ll send someone to collect you after you have had a chance to rest.”

“What if we want to go out the way we came?”

Siian now seemed on firmer footing, “You are lucky to have made it here at all. Outside is not safe.”

“Enough of this,” Deres said sharply, putting fingers to her forehead, catching her as she crumpled forward. “She’s just got mind enough left to bring any stragglers to where they need to be.”

He pulled the Adaran device from his cloak and held it with one hand as the fingers of his other drew symbols on her forehead. “So empty that she has no resistance and has probably been here long enough to have been all over and remember where she’s been.”

Neral, Dion, Kes, and Anna covered the entryway for the time it took him to work. When the general glanced back a lot of the pathways in the map had been filled in and marked. There was still a blank area that Maylin examined as she pointed to it. “I’d bet the place where she touches the ley lines is there.”

Neral felt the tension in her body tick upward. “I would prefer not to dawdle here, lest someone notice her absence.”

Deres’ tone was sharp as he rose from his position bent over her. “Done. She’ll wake in a few moments with no memory of us.”

“Then let’s go,” Neral looked left and right to see that the passage was clear. “Good luck, everyone.”

“Goddess guide us all,” Dion whispered.

They took separate paths, splitting again, and then splitting again before setting out to do what had to be done.

* * *

Maylin, Anna, and Dalen moved carefully but as quickly as they could through the passages. As they moved onward and downward none of them could help but see the men and women come and go, They had none of the modesty of Lian in that they did not even have the luxury of a wrap to cover themselves, but none of them seemed to care.

The men were proudly erect, cocks jutting outward, bobbing as they walked and twitching, sending pre-cum in droplets to the floor while the women’s breasts would drool milk; almost every one of them appearing to be in some stage of pregnancy. And there wasn’t a single one that did not share Siian’s emptiness behind their eyes. And, when the women would touch their protruding bellies they whimpered in near sexual satisfaction.

“They look happy at least,” Dalen whispered.

“Keep that kind of happiness,” Anna said harshly, slightly annoyed at the growing heat prickling at her skin as they descended as much as Dalen’s words. “It’s fake. No happiness from seeing a friend you’ve missed or finding a new favorite book or song. They’re just happy because they’re told to be. They get their brains wiped and just...happy.”

“It’s a powerful temptation,” Maylin told them. “Every one of them found that better than your version, Anna. Resisted with all they are or not at all, but they all surrendered to her. They’d all now rather be dead than not have it. Indeed, they will die without her to give it to them. They’re simply our opposite now.”

Anna hissed them to silence at the sound and feel of many beasts at the intersection ahead of them. She spun her index finger in a circle to have Maylin shake her head at the notion of trying to go around. ‘Too long,’ she mouthed.

So they waited, creeping up as far as they dared, not willing to chance that the beasts were as willing to ignore them as the people. Anna looked them in wonder. Some of them were clearly men once. They had the same proportion and gait even if they were covered in fur or scales, or whatever seemed to tickle the witch’s fancy. Others were thick, muscled beasts that Anna guessed would barely be able to fit through the more narrow passages with Dalen taking point.

Time ticked and Anna was keenly aware that every moment of it was being borrowed from everyone else. The creatures filed through, perhaps to another exit to join the rest of their brethren and Anna contemplated going around after all before the procession finally ended with a pair of once-men moving out of sight. They waited a while longer before moving forward to a passage on the far right.

Whether it was a straggler from the group or something laying wait for them they would never know, but Anna gasped when, two steps into the intersection, Dalen hadn’t even had a chance to lift her sword before something attacked. She attempted to evade the strike before she screamed in pain as a set of gray claws raked her back. Her sword clanged against the rock as it flew from her hand, hissing and groaning through the pain, growling like a beast herself in an effort to maintain consciousness and turn with her dagger in hand.

The thing, a mix in size and muscle between a once-man and a beast, hands like gnarled talons and a body with fine hair. The red eyes seemed capable of little more than rage. Its mouth not unlike the snout of a wolf with incisors that curved inward to hook onto flesh before tearing it.

“Get to Dalen,” Anna called out, full of her own rage. “Protect Dalen.” An arm swung outward at Anna and she rolled out from beneath, reaching her right arm outward as she did so, letting the blade of her dagger slide under the hide of his leg and to the flesh. She came up from the roll, body low, both daggers in hand, ready to move again.

The thing didn’t even seem to notice the cut even though it bled well. It smiled at her in its own way, spittle erupting from between its teeth and put its weight on its hind legs as though to lunge. Anna twitched, watching his muscles to guess his direction at the moment he left the ground.

His head shook violently from side to side before focusing on her again. His legs moved, but, instead of lunging, forward at the cause of his rage, he rose partially upright and looked around again, lumbering forward before collapsing in front of her, his snout almost at her feet.

That close to its face, she could smell the stink of its breath and see how human it had once been as well. She could see that it wanted her dead even now as she stood and looked down upon it, but it couldn’t make itself move to take her.

Anna allowed herself a moment of celebration. “Fuck you. And die happy.”

Anna went quickly to Dalen’s side relieved to hear speech, labored though it was. “We can’t be in the open, especially not if someone finds him. We have to get somewhere out of the way.”

“I can walk,” Dalen said with more confidence than was realistic. Down the path and several turns later they found a small storage area and placed Dalen on her belly on top of the crates soliciting a fresh cry of pain from her.

Anna got her first good look and it wasn’t pretty. Her leather had offered almost no protection and her body even less as the claws dug their trails diagonally left to right. The bleeding had clearly slowed to her eye and she bent down to hold her hand. “I have always told you you are too slow.”

“I’m fine. You are simply insanely fast.”

Anna dreaded looking at Maylin whose hands were already busy working their literal magic. “Is she going to be all right?”

“If we had time. I suspect he was as startled as she was. Had that been a planned strike...”

“What do you mean ‘if we had time?’

“Just what I said, Anna.” Maylin’s voice was tinged with sadness. “If we had time. We don’t have any to spare. With every moment they are buying time for us with their bodies and perhaps even their souls. I could fix this and get her able to fight, but doing so endangers us all.”

“How long?”

“Twenty minutes, perhaps a bit more. Perhaps less.”

“Then we wait.”

Maylin didn’t even look up. “You would leave your other friends to her mercy? Your General? I will not leave my son to that fate. I simply will not.”

Dalen spoke this time. “And what about everyone in Adar? What about everyone in Erette and everywhere else? You must go.”

Anna anguished over the truth. They were both right, but she had lost friends in this already. By the Goddess, she helped dispatch them, but they were gone to her already. They were taken from her, yes, but even that was very different than leaving one on the field. “I...”

“Perhaps...”

Anna seized on the single word in desperation, her eyes drilling into Maylin. “Perhaps what?”

“Perhaps there is a way for me to be in two places at once. It still...risks everything, but it yet leaves us a good chance. I believe your fellows would take the risk. And Deres would be willing as well as he is occasionally deliberately contrarian to common sense.”

“How?”

She finally looked up though she didn’t stop working. “Give me your mind.”

* * *

Kes, Delles and Abren opted for stealth over volume. They reasoned that, with the general and Deres making their own loud distractions elsewhere, they should focus on smaller scale diversions until they saw evidence of a response to either of them. A sudden increase in threat then might cause confusion as they determine a proper response, leaving other areas open.

And so far it had gone well. They had stayed away from the main passages and took targets of opportunity whether it be beasts or machinery, which seemed as susceptible to steel in the right place as anything else. The people still seemed to ignore them and they let them remain in their blissful stupor. The trio would strike and move again and again; gone before anyone focused on them. They didn’t know how much they were helping the others or hurting Drexa, but it at least felt productive.

They were moving, still in earshot of the latest disturbance they’d created as Delles watched as two women, one shorter than the other by a head and both with large weeping breasts and very distended bellies simply went from holding one another’s hand as they walked to the taller pressing the shorter into the stone, their bellies grinding as they kissed, tongues teasing each other in plain sight as the taller kissed her way down to her breast.

The dulled eyes of the shorter focused on Delles’ own and she grinned only half seeing her. When the taller’s lips began to suckle the left breast in earnest the other shrieked in orgasm, body quaking. Her eyes never left Delles and that made her cold all over. Goddess, it’s like she’s...cumming for me..

“Delles,” Kes snapped, hoarsely. “Let’s go.

She forced her eyes from the sight of the taller woman’s fingers headed southward.

They reached a three way intersection with the sounds of sex still behind them as a male approached from the left.

“Which way to you want to go?”

The man’s index finger brushed Kes’ hand with the lightest touch as he continued on his path. Kes herself didn’t even seem to notice as she debated the question. “Let’s follow him and see where he goes. He might lead us to a good target.”

Abren was uncertain “And if he leads us nowhere?”

“Or to her?”

She looked at them. “So we follow for a few minutes. If he leads us to nothing or it starts to feel like he’s going somewhere we don’t want to be, we go back to what we were doing.”

Not coming up with a decent argument to counter it they followed him down a winding path as others came and went with the same emptiness. They stayed well behind in order to react if needed, but they followed all the same as the path opened into a large open cavern, roughly half the size of the massive ones that served as storage for the eggs. The room was nearly full with paths barely wide enough to step through and the sounds filled the rest of the space.

Kes looked about. “Fuck.” It was an accurate descriptor of the scene as much as it was an exclamation of shock.

All around the room were dozens of bodies tangled all over, their own twisted beasts; a wicked fusion of arms, legs, fingers and tongues. One woman bounced madly on a cock while she had one in each hand stroking furiously while she literally slobbered wantonly on another, lines of drool dripping from her chin to the chest of the man beneath her.

Another pile had half a dozen women linked together in a circle, attached by fingers and lips, pausing their explorations for nothing. Even orgasm just caused a blonde link in the chain to shudder and force her tongue deeper into the wet pink of the dark-skinned woman she had all but melded herself to.

Still another had a woman squirming happily, enjoying the struggle enjoying the restraint of being held by her arms by two men and her ankles by two women as the man pumping wildly on top of her suddenly froze and howled in satisfaction, ass cheeks clenching. Abren saw his balls tighten to his body, as he placed both hands on her distended belly and poured himself into her.

He pulled away, his seed running from her as one of the men took her place while her eyes tracked him. “Fuck me.” She pulled her limbs to no avail which only made her moan, enjoying the physical reminder of how owned she really was. “Use me. Fill me up.”

All around them there were acts that they had only seen in deliberately salacious sex manuals and some even those didn’t cover. Any type of coupling one could conceive was happening before their eyes in a strangely macabre spectacle of lust. They watched the man they followed in be pulled to the ground by two other men before they began to back away.

“Let’s double back.”

As they turned there stood a woman at the door they came through, so inhumanly tall that she had to dip her head to pass through the entry. As long as her body and limbs were there was still a sense of elegance and proportion to her body. Her fingers long and delicate, tapered near the tip. Her skin entirely a glossy black reflected the light as did the slightly darker pools that were her wide, round eyes. She was also nude and her delicate lips carried with them a pleasant smile. Abren was disgusted at the sight, not because the nude form was so disgusting, rather that the witch seemed to revel in making these abominations for their own sake.

“Hello and welcome. I am Jessa.”

Kes eyed her. “Very polite for a twisted up thing, “I’ll give you that.”

She paid no mind to the insult, inclining her head instead. “Thank you.”

Abren’s eyes narrowed. “I hope we haven’t caused you too much trouble.” Sarcasm dripped from every word.

“You and your friends have been an annoyance, but a small and not unexpected one. You have done nothing that cannot be undone over time.”

Kes looked up at her. “Well, if what we’re doing doesn’t matter, we’ll just get on with it” She looked to the two with her. We’ll leave you to your orgies and be on our way.”

She stepped back carefully several steps, not taking her eyes from the woman before turning and heading to the opposite entryway.

Jessa raised her hand as the three walked away. You should stay and rest a while. You have had a long journey. Wasn’t it tiring?

They continued to walk.

“So much loss and pain. So far from home.”

“Miles and hardship...so tiring. So exhausting. Each step is its own hardship now. You have come so far and yet accomplished so little. Is it not tiring?”

Abren found herself taking a deep, breath that seemed to sweep fatigue into her body and weight her limbs. She turned to face Jessa but that left her panting which just led her to breathing in more fatigue. “Stop this.”

Jessa’s voice was so sweetly sympathetic. “It is tiring for all of you. “You’ve accomplished nothing and it was all so tiring. Just stand and catch your breath. I will not harm you. No one here will harm you. You are only our enemy because you wish to be. She only wishes to for you to join her and belong and be happy and obedient without care.”

The weight on their legs seemed to add to itself with every lung full of air until the last movements of the three were but shuffles across the ground, until that one more step to the other side of the room was just too hard to take before becoming tiring to even contemplate.

‘That’s right,” the creature said as she closed on the three, turning them to face one another as one might pose a mannequin. “Do you see one another? Do you see how tired you are? You could stay for a time and play. Listen to all the sounds around you. They have finished their current round of tasks and now is their time to play and enjoy the peace She provides them.”

“Feel the muscles in your body ache. They yearn to relax, do they not? Look at one another. Be the mirror for one another. Do you not see your own yearnings in their bodies...in their eyes.”

She moved carefully behind Kes so as not to break the lines of sight between the three, fingers moving Kes, if you look closely into their eyes; if you could be right before the mirrors to their souls, what would you see?”

Another breath. “My reflection.”

“What does your reflection tell you?”

“I….want to relax. I want to relax so much.”

“Good. Relax Kes. As you relax your friends want to relax too because you reflect them.”

“If I want to relax it’s because they want to relax.”

Abren’s fingers twitched as though do something, but with the next inhalation they went still.

“I want to relax,” Kes said. “I want to relax.”

She droned it...slamming it into their minds with each utterance, battering it into their resistance. Delles was the first to repeat it with her. Abren struggled, each word fighting its way from her lips. “I...want to...relax” Her muscles sagged as though he had carried a wagon uphill. Each time became easier to repeat and more true.

Abren looked at them, seeing the dulling of the fire in their eyes knowing it reflected hers. With a last moment of true lucidity Abren saw Kess slink over to Delles, seemingly unaffected by the spell as Jessa found Abren herself, turning her to face Delles who was continuing to drone.

Kestral began spilling filth into her ear. “I watched you, Delles. I watched you watch her cum. “You have never cum like that in your life. They cum like that with the merest touch. Sometimes they cum like that just thinking about what slaves they are. Listen...” She turned to the tangles of bodies. “All of you cocks and cunts here are just Her slave meat.”

None too few of the voices of the men and women fought one another to be heard loudest as they surrendered their bodies to the truth.

Delles swallowed as a droplet of dew tickled her thigh, soon joined by others.

She licked that delicate ear, making Delles break her mantra with a squeak before she found it again.”

“I want to be naked.”

Delles’ eyes were so wide and so unblinking they stung from the air. “I want to be naked.”

Delles stared into Abren’s eyes. “I want to be naked.”

“I want to be naked.”

Abren joined her.

“I need to be naked,” Kes whispered. “I need to be naked.”

She reached to the small of her back to one of the cinches and her hands moved with mechanical precision just as her reflection did as Kes and Jessa kindly helped them from their leathers and linens leaving them where they fell.

Delles’ body was ripe, her mind open. While the crow’s feet and creases on Abren’s face gave a hint to her years in service her body defied it. Freckled and toned it was no wonder she could still rush into battle with those half her age. Her dark nipples stood proud and aching feeling worked even with just the feeling of the warm vave air against them while her breasts were pleasant handfuls that defied age.

She compared it to her own lean body with its more pale skin, and plump heart-shaped backside and found much to admire. Her tongue wanted. Her fingers wanted. Her pussy wanted. Her mind begged for it all. It tried to hang on to a thought of home or resistance, but her mantra dismissed it.

She watched those long, black fingers graze those nipples with the lightest touch as Jessa whispered to her as they danced along her body. She saw Abren’s chest begin to heave and when she heard Abren’s mantra change only the lack of permission to collapse to her knees kept her from doing so.

“I want to...belong. I want to play. I want to obey.”

Delles repeated it. Each word felt lush and filthy on her tongue and she savored each like a lover. “You want the path to Her, don’t you, Delles?”

“Yessssss….I want the path to Her. Show it to me. I want it. I want her.” Jessa flicked a finger even as she continued to soften Abren. When Kes turned Delles her world became the man standing before her: a swarthy man with a long, thick, dripping cock.

Delles groaned, realizing that the feature of him that enticed her most was his dull eyes that suggested so little going on behind them anymore. I’ll be like that soon. The thought made her cunt clench as the gentlest pressure of his calloused hands on her shoulders put her on her knees with his cock bobbing an inch from her lips.

I’ll be empty like him. So empty. And other people will fill me. Goddess. the value of home and hearth diminished in the face of joy like this for as long as she could have it. She took it in her mouth as far as she could and forced it farther down, choking herself on it before pulling back and forcing it again, each time, her pussy clenching as though his cock was pushing inside it as well.

In short order she was rhythmically driving her mouth onto it, driving herself to orgasm, pushing on it faster and faster. And, when the rush finally took her she looked up into his empty eyes, seeing that, with each moment of bliss her eyes were a mirror of his.

And that drove Delles to even greater heights of ecstasy and depths of vacuity. He pulled himself from her, leading her to other men and she followed on all fours like an eager puppy trying to catch it with the tip of her tongue.

Jessa loved this one. Abren was pressed against her back, rocking gently against the long middle fingered nestled firmly between her folds. She still had a spark in her, this one. “Did it not feel so good to relax and obey? There is no point to fighting.”

Kestral came to her, planting desperately feathery kisses on her neck to punctuate each statement. “She’s right, Abren. There’s no point.” Kress was strong. They were all strong. I was strong. It didn’t matter, Pel took me so fast. Let go.”

Her eyes closed tightly even as he hips pumped faster. “N….No. I..d...don’t...”

Jessa moved her finger to compliment Abren’s hips and she screamed, “Goddesssssssssss!” The rocking continued even as the sensations ebbed. “Wasn’t that good?”

“Yesssss.” Abren had no choice but to tell the truth. Giving in to the heat between her legs and in her mind was intense and effortless. Why was she fighting? There had to be a reason, but seeing it was increasingly like trying to find your way home in a thick fog in the middle of the night.

“I’ll stay with this one,” Jessa said with some enthusiasm. “It’s so sweet when the strong ones break.” She looked to Kestral. “Return to yourself and wait for Her will.”

Kestral smiled as Jessa led Abren down to the nearest tangle of bodies, hands reaching out, eager for a new piece of flesh to welcome to Her service. Jessa smiled. They all killed their wills in the end. The temptation She offered was too great. The stubborn ones like this one needed one of Her chosen to help cloud that stubbornness and whittle it away until they surrendered.

Being that direct instrument was sexual beyond words and Jessa touched herself as a strapping young male mounted and two pairs of female hands started massaging the soldier’s firm flesh. Abren looked on in anticipation and trepidation as the cock drove home. Her head snapped back to find a woman’s pouting lips waiting for her.

When her tongue darted out to meet them, the half-mage’s smile broadened.

It was only a matter of time.

* * *

Neral felt good just now as she and hers ran from the glorious red fire that was in the midst of consuming one of the egg storage caverns, complete with the sounds of those things dead or dying in a symphony of screeches and wails of pain and desperation as they burned. There was no sympathy in her heart for the things whose only purpose was to bring pain to others.

The people were another matter. They were lost, but not due to any real fault of their own and, if they threatened her or those with her it might have been different, but, as it was, it didn’t seem honorable to attack them. They let themselves be ordered from the rooms with a firm voice and little else. Neral would strike, then leave quickly, retreating to the tunnels and spaces that formed something of an outer ring in her lair.

Resistance seemed to increase with each strike and Neral hoped that that meant that the others were drawing attention. The beasts responses occurred more quickly and in greater numbers, but so far there hadn’t been anything that they couldn’t dispatch with the modified weapons, which was a positive, but they had to remind themselves that, just because they made things easier, there was still no room for sloppy and that fate would likely punish it.

Dion was a strong right hand and, as time had gone on, especially in this type of action Neral realized why Elan spoke sparingly. In the heat of battle she just seemed uncannily intuitive. She seemed to know where and how to move to complement the others. She was an impressive dancer that way for someone with so little practical experience.

“They’re going to close on us soon, sir,” she’d said, seemingly reluctant to inform her of something that the other surely already knew. The noose tightens. I’m sure that you’re already aware...”

Dion and Neral exchanged amused glances. “We are, but don’t let that stop you from saying something to anyone. Maybe they do know or should, but keeping quiet on the assumption that they do could cost. We’ll move up the ring, then deeper in. It’ll buy us time and maybe help Deres, too.”

She spoke as they moved. “You’re doing well, Elan. Hope the swords and daggers are not too troublesome. You do well with both.” She hefted her short sword and glanced at the dagger tucked into her belt. Thank you, sir. Arrows don’t work up close.”

“You could just stick them with the pointy end,” Dion remarked.

“That’s what blades are for, sir. Though I have indeed done so.”

“Fair enough.”

Indistinct voices could be heard in the distance of the empty corridor. Neral hunched slowed her pace, creeping forward to listen. At first she suspected that they were half-mages for the simple fact that that they were speaking in full sentences and without that dreaming, blissful quality, but a more keen focus on the words painted the picture and she hurried her pace, looking about for signs that it was drawing attention.

They entered the large cave that, judging by the contents seemed to be storage to find what appeared to be a father and daughter backing up towards the crack in the rock, clearly larger than the one that Neral and her group came through. This time it was a ginger-haired woman in a white wrap, but the scene was familiar enough. “We just want to go now. We didn’t mean to bother anyone.”

“You need to stay,” the young woman said imperturbably. “Outside is not safe. Stay, We will protect you.”

The young brunette shook her head. “We need to get out of here.”

In a single, swift move she wrapped her right arm around her neck, while bracing it with the left, applying pressure until she felt the weight of the other sag before leading her gently to the ground. Everything after that happened quickly.

Neral looked to the two, about to, “Are you all right?” about to pass her lips when she saw that, without the fear in their eyes there was little else.

Then the rustling from above drew their eyes upward to see the thick, green vines descend from the high ceiling.

Dion braced herself. “Shit.”

Neral let them come near, trying not to reach to hack at them. It was a valiant dance for all of them, but even the vines that had taken slashes seemed to have no end. Half a dozen became a dozen and those became more while the man and woman just watched, Neral thinking that if they were thinking at all they were probably actively rooting for the vines.

There was no backing out themselves because many split in opposite directions to form a wall against the exits. There wasn’t time to wonder if it was a trap for her or for just anyone, though she had her suspicions. One wrapped around her left arm over the elbow and pulled it upward before her blade cut smoothly through it. They sliced at anything that got near, trying to help each other as much as themselves.

But Neral knew a losing battle when she saw it. More were coming and all this was doing was sapping their energy. She heard even more rustle around her coupled with the sounds of metal cutting through them and the sounds of Dion and Elan as they projected their strength, the vines now teasing them all over.

The general swung low to take the spell glass from her boot and place it under her tongue as the vines took her limbs in their harsh embrace.

To Be Continued...