The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Dweomers & Domination: Droit du Seigneur

The Corporal Chained

I had been so distracted that I had barely noticed as the servants changed me into a dressing gown and pyjamas after supper. For ease of removal, I realized. Now I felt distinctly underdressed as I went to meet the brides and grooms, three of them soldiers, after all.

But I needn’t have worried about appearing insufficiently military. Of course they had given up their weapons when entering the castle, but in addition, Anfeald, Doran, and Xuza were in traditional northern wedding dress, thin white gowns with green borders decorated with unicorns in honor of Ehlonna, the fertility goddess. Lovisa still wore her floor length grey cloak from last night, with the hood up. It covered the barbarian princess completely from head to floor, with only her face and tips of her boots showing. Sergeant Doran was standing next to her, one arm around the taller woman, helping her to drink by holding a goblet to her lips, as even Lovisa’s arms were hidden by the cloak. Xuza and Anfeald were sitting on a couch together, holding hands. Xuza was sipping from her drink, while Anfeald’s was standing on the short table in front of them, seemingly untouched.

Private Anfeald was a young man, well muscled and broad shouldered, with medium length stringy blond hair and a fledgling beard he was trying to grow out. He had only just come of age to join the old baron’s troops when the baron had taken his army to help one of the pretenders make a try for the throne, and had been so inexperienced that he had been left behind. That probably saved his life, because the old baron didn’t make it. It also meant that he hadn’t participated in any of the old baron’s nastier activities. When the lieutenant had been in charge of the troops, and had tried to save their souls as well as order their bodies, Anfeald had been one of his most enthusiastic converts. Though physically strong, his character was rather simple. He respected rules and authority, and thought things were exactly as they appeared. I could believe what Xuza had told me, that he would assume that since she fended off the bar patrons’ proposals that she must be pure as the driven snow. Currently I could see the conflict in his face: on the one hand, he respected the law, but on the other hand that law would mean that his pure innocent Xuza would be violated by another man. Even if that man were his baron and captain, whose orders he would die following, this still troubled him. It troubled me also. “Maybe I should stop this now?”, I thought.

All turned to look at me as I entered. “Good evening,” I said, reflexively. Anfeald shot to his feet, we exchanged greetings, and three of them, all but Lovisa, bowed. Then there was an awkward silence.

In my ruminations during the day, I had comforted myself with the thought that if I was betraying my principles, at least I was going to do it for sex with amazingly gorgeous women. Xuza had a nice little body, with small pert breasts barely visible through the white gown, a pretty face, and her striking coloration, white skin and hair with green eyes. But she wasn’t as unbelievable as I had remembered her from last night. And Princess Lovisa’s lush curves were effectively hidden by the thick grey cloak. She was just a tall woman, with her face shadowed. So why was I doing this? Wouldn’t there be other women I could bed without exploiting the baron’s evil law? But I had given my word, I decided.

There was a chased silver platter on the table between the couches, and a matching flagon of wine with goblets. The servants had provided well. One goblet, gilded, presumably for me, was empty, two silvered goblets, Anfeald’s and Doran’s, were still on the table, barely touched, Xuza had returned to casually sipping from hers, and Doran was holding Lovisa’s. I filled my goblet and emptied it, which was a mistake: ice wine, yech. “So,“ I said, fortified, “who’s first?”

“Lovisa,” said Doran, without hesitation. “Sergeant’s bride before private’s.”

I looked at Anfeald and Xuza, who did not disagree, then turned to Lovisa and extended my hand. “Corporal? Lovisa? Will you come with me, please?”

The barbarian princess did not take my hand, leaving her arms under the cloak. She came off her position leaning on the wall, swayed slightly, and made awkward mincing steps towards me, accompanied by a strange metallic clanking noise. Her chainmail bikini again, perhaps? I didn’t remember it clanking yesterday. I thought I wouldn’t mind seeing it again.

“Let me take your cloak,” I said. As she made no move either to remove it or protest, I reached forward and unhooked the clasp at her throat, and lifted it away, revealing ... shock. Underneath the cloak, Lovisa wore the same white and green gown, stretched tight over her amazing breasts, and ending just above her ankles. But over the dress, she was wrapped in layers of metal chains, cuffs, and restraining rods. Manacles bound Lovisa’s strong arms together behind her, each wrist shackled to each elbow. Chains wrapped tightly around her body, one just below her breasts, keeping her arms pinned, and thrusting her breasts out, another around her tight waist, and again another around her muscular thighs, keeping her knees close together. Steel rods ran from an iron collar around her neck, down her back, through the chains, to iron bands around each thigh, so she could not bend her body at the waist or even her legs at the hips. Her normally wavy golden hair was stretched taut and caught in the chains behind her, holding her head up and back, so she couldn’t even nod. “What is this?!?” I cried.

“Restraints, for her vow,” Doran answered, as if it were perfectly natural. “Lovisa can not give herself to any man who has not defeated her in fair combat. She has to resist, and she’s much stronger than you are. You’d never be able to take her by force, she could dangle you one handed. So I chained her. In these restraints, she will not be able to fight back effectively, and you’ll be able to take her. There is no other way we can obey the law.”

Anfeald looked as horrified as I felt. Xuza looked more interested than shocked. Lovisa caught my glance, then turned her eyes down, shyly. Doran saw my expression of horror and sneered. “Don’t pretend you haven’t fantasized about screwing a woman when she’s helpless. You’re a man, aren’t you?”

I was speechless. For lack of words, I studied the barbarian princess’s bondage further. Clearly these were not improvised restraints from odd gear at a blacksmith’s, but shackles specially made for holding people. Doran must have kept some of the old baron’s torture gear back from the general destruction I had held of it. I’d need to settle that with her later, but for now I had a more important decision to make.

“No.” I said. “This is monstrous. I won’t ...” I looked around the others, Xuza and Anfeald, because I would be speaking to them too. I had known this Droit du Seigneur was a bad idea at the start, and the lengths that had to be gone to to allow it just underscored how bad it was. Taking back my personal word would be better than pretending to take these women against their will, following this evil law and denying all I stood for as a baron, as a captain, even as a man. I would rather be an oathbreaker than a rapist. I would send them home.

But I didn’t say any of that, because in looking around I had met Xuza’s gaze. The little barmaid’s eyes were bottomless pools of green. They swirled, in pine and lime, chartreuse and celadon. She was the sky and the sea and the forest, and the world. She was wonderful. She couldn’t say anything before Anfeald, but she didn’t need to, she had her eyes to do her pleading for her. She needed this for him. She needed to pretend to have been forced by me, to pretend that the child she was already bearing already was mine, just conceived now. It was a wonderful plan. So I needed to take Lovisa, bound as she was, so I could also pretend to inseminate Xuza. What were my moral qualms compared to the little goddess’s happiness? Maybe I would even get to have sex with her for real; my heart pounded in my chest at the thought, and my cock rose. So my refusal stuck in my throat, and different words came out.

“Come on, then,” I said to Lovisa. She looked puzzled by my change, but obeyed. I closed the parlor door behind us. Lovisa could only bend her legs at the knees, so went down the corridor in a slow, awkward, swaying walk, swinging side to side. I grasped her bare upper arms to steady her, and she stiffened and turned to me in surprise; the little she could turn. It was the first time I had touched her, but soon I’d be touching her a lot more. Her arms, tensed, were like chiseled marble under the thin cloth. We went on together, with small steps, the barbarian princess gradually relaxing her arms in my grasp as we did so.

I showed her into my bedchamber, and closed the door behind us. The loudest cries of passion might still travel to the three in the waiting room, but it would serve to muffle most sounds; and they knew what was going to happen here in any case. I went to my bedside cabinet where I kept a few things I’d need. I put a bottle of oil and the apothecary’s potion on top for easy access, and lit a stick of incense.

Lovisa was looking around the room with interest, giving only a quick glance to the fireplace and carpets, but looking longer at the windows and wall decorations, and studying the ornate bed carefully. I wondered if this was the first time she had been in a noble bedroom. Then I remembered she was a princess, if a barbarian one.

“Not as fine as your father’s palace?” I asked.

“Different,” she said. “We sleep on furs. The mountains are colder, and we need softness less. We hang more weapons on the walls than pictures, and our windows are smaller, so a man could not climb in. It’s too warm here. What is that, by the window?”

“That would be my orchid,” I told her. “A southern flower. They don’t grow here. I like the color, and it reminds me of my birthplace.” With my help, she stumbled to it as best she could to examine it more closely. I found that I liked holding her arms, so kept supporting her when she no longer needed it. For all her imposing strength, she was still a very beautiful woman.

“It looks like a cunt,” she said. She was not one to mince words.

I smiled. “That too, a beautiful shape. In a way, all flowers are cunts; they receive seed and bear fruit, which becomes future plants.”

That brought the subject back to what we were here for. “Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked. “Now that we’re alone, you can speak freely. Tell me the truth. Was sex with me your idea, or Doran’s?”

She tried to look down, but was unable to, from the chains pulling her hair back. Instead she looked away, anywhere to avoid meeting my eyes. She was silent.

“Make it an order, then,” I said after a while, and added a snap to my voice. “Corporal!” She would have straightened if the bars weren’t already holding her straight, but she swiveled her eyes around to meet mine.

“Was exploiting the Droit de Seigneur to have sex with me your idea?”

“Doran’s,” she said, then added quickly, “but I agreed to it!” I waited. She spoke. “She knew I had never been with a man, and she said that if I didn’t know what it was like, I wouldn’t be able to keep faith with her. Even though I insisted that I would, she said I was too young, I didn’t know my own heart. So I agreed to do what she wanted.”

“Then you don’t truly want me?” I asked.

“Oh, I do!” She said. “I … you know. She told you, yesterday.” She was unable to go on.

“You have a crush on me,” I said. She blushed, and tried to nod, but was unable to. She said, “Doran chose you, but if I had to, I would also. You’re ...” she trailed off again.

“How young are you, child?” I asked, kindly.

“I’m not a child! I’ve seen nineteen summers!” Lovisa said indignantly.

I smiled. “Yes, you’re a woman grown. But I won’t do anything you don’t want to do. If you like, we can spend half an hour here, then come back and pretend.”

She was silent for a while. “Do you want to have sex with me?” she asked shyly.

“Very much,” I said. “You’re beautiful.” She smiled, like sunshine on an icy peak. A day before I would have said she was the most beautiful woman, but Xuza was on my mind. I couldn’t explain why; though pretty, the small barmaid shouldn’t have been able to even be compared to the incredibly curved barbarian. “But I won’t take you against your will, chained or not,” I said. “Do you genuinely want me?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “More than anything.”

“Then let me show you the best way to use a bed, my dear,” I said. “I see you can’t sit, so please lie down.” I tried to help her to the bed, but she stiffened again.

“No. My vow. I can’t lie with you of my own will. I want to, I do, but you’ll have to force me.

“Please,” she added plaintively, when I looked reluctant.

I shook my head and grinned wryly. I’d played stranger games with women. Well, maybe not stranger. I put my arms around her and pushed, but couldn’t move her. Even with only being able to brace from the knees down, the corporal was still freakishly strong. At most, I could knock her over. I noticed I liked the feel of her in my arms. Corporal meant body, and did she ever have a body. She wasn’t perfumed, as I was used to from most of the women I bedded, but there were worse smells than freshly washed girl.

I bent, put my shoulder to her side, wrapped my arms around her torso, and lifted her off the ground. Strong she might be, but she still weighed less than I did. She tried to struggle but her chains held her tight. Her breasts were against my cheek, and I made sure to stay out of the way of her kicking feet. I took a few steps, lowered her upright again and caught my breath. My calling didn’t extend to carrying women like meal sacks. Fortunately, the princess’s resistance didn’t extend to purposefully trying to fall, presumably being prone on the ground would make her as subject to sex as on the bed. Another lift and carry got us to the edge of the bed. Then I put her legs against the edge, put both my hands on both her shoulders, and pushed. She fell back onto the bed neatly. I quickly straddled her and sat on her thighs before she could start to roll. She looked at me with bright, shining eyes.

“Normally, I prefer to start the seduction with a kiss, or even many,” I said. Lovisa opened her mouth and snapped her teeth, unable to lunge up at me due to her hair and bar restraints. Her breasts heaved under her thin gown. “I thought so.” I said. “Well, let’s see what else we can do for foreplay.”

I thought wryly that her corporal form, her body, might be chained with iron, but her spiritual was under stronger bonds from her vow.

Kissing on the lips was clearly out, and even trying to touch anywhere on her face, neck, or head would be vulnerable to being bitten. She furtively glanced down at her breasts before meeting my eye defiantly again. I considered. Her breasts were her most prominent characteristics, and her hair being tied back would hold her head back from being able to bite me there. But that would be too fast. In a way, after all, she was a virgin, I needed to move more slowly.

I turned around and restraddled her thighs facing her feet. I bent forward and grabbed a boot, and tried to slide it off. Lovisa clapped her feet together tight, barely missing crushing my fingers. The boot wouldn’t budge. I turned back to her.

“Relax,” I said. “You don’t have to resist everything I do, just when it’s sexual. These are your feet. Do you think I’m going to have sex with your feet?”

“No,” she admitted, and relaxed her legs. “But then why...?” I turned back, hiding a smile. Yes, she was effectively a virgin.

“Let me worry about the why,” I said. I pulled both boots off, and looked at her feet. They were paler than the rest of her lightly tanned body, and the nails were unpainted. Both the feet and her ankles were small compared to her strongly muscled calves. They were also clean; Doran must have taken my instruction to bathe her to heart. I held Lovisa’s feet in my hands. They softer than I had expected for a barbarian and a soldier. She must wear those boots most of the time for them to be this soft, I thought—which was obvious, if she even wore them to a seduction.

I reached to the cabinet and picked up a bottle of a perfumed oil, which I spread on my palms. I rubbed her feet in my hands, and warmed and relaxed them, then pulled on the toes.

“What are you doing?” Lovisa asked from behind and underneath me. “Aren’t we going to have sex?”

“Just relaxing you,” I said. “Sex works better if you are relaxed.”

“So this is sexual!” she exclaimed, and clapped her insteps together. But it was too late, her boots were off, and having her feet motionless was just what I wanted now. I began to press more firmly on certain areas of the soles, alternating between my thumbs and my knuckles. She realized her error, and started to kick, throwing my hands off, so I grabbed the green-embroidered hem of her white wedding gown, and wrapped it tight around her shins, several times, binding them together. With her thighs chained motionless, she couldn’t kick enough just from the knee to tear her gown, and I could hold one foot in both my hands strongly enough she couldn’t shake them off with just ankle movements. I continued to rub. Eventually, despite herself, she sighed, and stopped kicking. I rubbed some more until I was sure she was relaxed, then slid off her thighs and knelt by her feet, rubbing her feet all the while. I looked up at her face, and saw that her eyes had closed, and she was breathing deeply, inhaling the perfumed smoke from the incense stick, which was near her head. I bent down to kiss her ankles, then the tops of her feet, then the soles. Her eyes remained blissfully closed. I took one big toe into my mouth and began to lightly suck on it. At this her eyes opened, and I barely got my head out of the way as she kicked. But I knew she was relaxed by the slowness of her reaction. It was time to move on to more important erogenous zones.

I was getting hot, so I threw off my dressing gown and pyjama top, hanging them on the nearby bedpost, straddled her thighs again, and considered. The chains would have made undressing her normally near impossible, even if I had her cooperation. Fortunately her gown was merely cloth. I smiled—her chainmail bikini had been nice to look at, but would have made the next step impossible. I grasped the top edge of her gown firmly, despite her half-hearted attempt at squirming, then ripped it open, all the way down to where the chain below her chest allowed. She stifled a gasp, then tried to act as if she had expected it. She wore no brassiere this time, and her nearly head-sized breasts were completely bare. They were pale and perfectly round, almost unnaturally so, only slightly flattened, more than hemispheres, though she was on her back, and perfectly symmetrical, with large bright pink nipples in their exact center. The nipples were nearly flat, but I would soon change that. She blushed to see me admiring her breasts, and struggled to turn over onto her stomach to hide them. This didn’t work, as I was still straddling her thighs, and she couldn’t get any leverage to throw me off, being chained as she was; all it did was make her breasts bounce and jiggle deliciously. I even licked my lips. Seeing that her motion aroused me more, Lovisa instead decided she would hold completely still. This suited me as well, as I could now touch them just as I wanted.

I began to stroke lightly at the outside edges of her breasts, the oil remaining on my hands making my movements slick and easy. When I got to the areolae, the oil had worn off, and I brushed the little bumps that appeared on the areola edges with feather lightness. Her nipples stiffened, and her breathing grew ragged. I barely touched the nipples themselves, and she shivered all over and moaned. Her nipples were hard as stones now. I played with them, touching them lightly, as she let out little cries. Then I lifted my hands off, and slid down beside her on the bed.

“No, don’t stop!”, she said in a small voice, her vow seemingly forgotten.

I smiled, but didn’t relent. I tugged her dress down so the edge of the tear appeared below her chest chain, slid my fingers inside, and tore it further, down to the waist chain, then to the thighs, each time changing my grasp and tearing until I had split the wedding gown completely open down the front. The princess wore no underclothes at all, and was now completely naked beyond chains and rags. Her legs were hard and strongly muscled, barely dented by the tight chains around her thighs, but her belly was flat, and with just a hint of muscle definition, much less than would be expected given her strength and speed. Her pubic hair was golden blonde, untrimmed and bushy. I couldn’t resist ruffling it with my fingers, brushing the soft flesh underneath. She gasped. But again, that was too fast.

So I bent over and started to kiss her stomach. The muscles tensed at the touch of my lips, and I could feel them quiver, like bowstrings. I sucked her navel, then moved out in a slowly expanding spiral of kisses around her stomach, across her waist chain, to her ribs, then down again. I meant to end at her sex, but her thighs were chained together tightly, and I couldn’t reach it, or even her sensitive inner thighs. So I continued up her side until reaching the upper chain, then started kissing her lower breasts, adding little bites for variety, as she moaned in arousal. When I got to her nipples, her whole breasts were flushed pink, and I pressed them together with my hands and rapidly alternated kissing and sucking each nipple.

Lovisa’s eyes were closed, her mouth was open to release full throated moans, and her toes were curling. That seemed safe enough, so I did something I wanted to do ever since I saw her breasts pressed together in the chainmail bikini. My cock was fully hard now. I stepped out of my pyjama bottom, straddled the princess’s chest, dripped oil between her huge breasts, pushed them together, put my cock between them, and fucked them. Or rather, tried to. The breasts were fine, but the chain got in the way, rubbing against my testicles, and hurt. In addition, Lovisa opened her eyes, looked up at me with a strange expression and said, “Doran said you’d do that.”

Since I knew what Doran thought of men in general, I didn’t think that was a compliment. I stopped. My cock was still hard, and Lovisa was still flushed, so I was ready to move on to the main event. I reached a hand behind me, into the triangle between her thighs and groin and felt soft wetness with my fingers. “Yess...”, Lovisa groaned with anticipation and longing, but I could feel her thighs were chained too tightly, there would be no way my cock could enter.

Well, there was more than one way to skin a cat; or fuck a woman, as the case was. I unstraddled her chest, and in one smooth maneuver grabbed her arms and flipped her over onto her front, before she could understand what I was doing and remember that she was sworn to resist. Her back was still covered with the white gown, but this was split in the front, so it was a simple matter to pull up and back on the cloth and uncover her from her heels to her waist. Her ass was taut and muscular, with two adorable dimples above her buttocks, but yet perfectly rounded, like a soap bubble. But the beautiful sight made me stare in frustration. The very curve that made it so adorable, combined with the hardness that meant that it wouldn’t flex, meant that my cock wouldn’t reach her sex with her legs straight; and the iron rods running down her back meant that her legs couldn’t bend. Hoping against hope, I put my cock against the bottom of her triangle and tried to slide it in, but the distance and angle was just not right. I grabbed her ass cheeks, and tried to pry them apart with my hands, to get a different position. “Doran said you’d do that too,” said Lovisa’s muffled voice. I sighed. “Do what, my lovely?”

“Fuck my ass,” Lovisa said, with a sound like frustrated resignation. “Tits and ass are what men are really interested in, she said, and when you get a woman helpless, that’s what you go for. She says it won’t make the woman come, and it hurts, but men don’t care. Go ahead, I can’t stop you. I’m doing this to know what men are like, and I guess this is what they are like. The before part was nice, though, Doran never does that.”

I breathed in and out, choking off a nasty retort. Doran was the one who arranged the chains, no doubt just with this goal in mind, to prove how nasty men are. But complaining about the machinations of a sergeant would be beneath the baron and captain I was trying to be. If I wanted real intercourse, I had to get the chains off. Fortunately, I could do just that.

I got off Lovisa’s ass, and turned her over again. She looked up at me puzzled. “I need to get your leg chains off, my dear,” I said.

Her eyes widened. “No! You can’t!”

I smiled. “Because I don’t have the key? That’s all right. I have other methods.

“Dv@@re zabda!” I said, and struck the chain around her thighs with a knuckle. The lock sprang open. Lovisa stared in surprise. “How did you do that?”

“Magic.” I said. “It’s what I do, after all. Didn’t you know?” I pulled at the lock. Though it was open, the chain was wrapped tautly enough that just tension was holding it in.

“You’re a wizard?”, the corporal asked, in shock.

“Technically, a sorceror. What did you think? I don’t wear armor, or carry a sword. Ah, that’s got it.” The lock slipped free, and I started to unwrap the chain.

“I thought you were just … a noble,” she said.

“Well, yes, now,” I said. “But I wasn’t born one. I earned this post, thank you very much. Do you mind lifting your legs just a bit?”

“No, don’t!” Lovisa said, finally realizing I was unchaining her. “If you free me, I’ll have to fight you!”

I chuckled. “You’ve been fighting me all this time.”

“No!” she said, frantically now. “I mean, I have, but... Without the chains, I’ll win!”

“I’m not taking all the chains off,” I said. “Just the leg ones. Your arms will still be shackled, and your head.”

“No! That’s not enough!” she wailed.

“Simple enough then,” I said. “Here.” I twisted the now free chain around just her left leg, wrapped it around again, then around a thick bedpost, pulled the chain tight, and threaded the lock through the intersection. It clicked shut. “Now you’re more restrained than before, you can’t even get off the bed. Let me get the thigh cuffs off, so you can at least bend your legs. For male-female sex, that’s very useful, necessary even.”

“No, don’t,” the corporal moaned. I didn’t listen. Yes, she was an amazing fighter, but enough was enough. Without the leg cuffs she would have exactly one free leg, what could she do? If necessary I’d lock it to another bedpost or something.

“Dv@@re zabda,” I said, and struck the thigh bands with one hand each. The cuffs sprang open. I held Lovisa’s free leg with both hands and lifted it out of the now open restraint.

“Too late!” Lovisa cried. She bent her leg at the hip and knee, treating my restraining grip as if it was light as a snowflake, and almost casually kicked me in the stomach with her bare foot. I flew across the chamber and bounced off a wall. Then she bent her leg back as far as it would go, and kicked the bedpost her other leg was chained to with incredible speed and force. The thick oak exploded into splinters. That shouldn’t have been possible, surely her leg should have broken first. But it didn’t. If she had done that to me, I’d have been dead. Her second leg was free. She bent both legs and straightened them, jumping to her feet, and crossing the room to me before I could do more than get to standing.

Her arms were still shackled behind her, but she didn’t need them. She swept both my legs out from under me with a casual motion of one bare foot, put it down, then placed the other one on my throat, gently, but firmly. “Unlock the rest,” she sobbed.

I looked at her in surprise. Yes, she was crying. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I didn’t want this!” Lovisa wailed. “I wanted to have sex, with you! And now I never will! Why did you have to unlock me? Why couldn’t you listen? Now I have to go back to Doran and tell her! It was so hard for her to arrange all this, and now I have to tell her it was for nothing! Go ahead, unlock everything else. And don’t try anything, or I’ll have to hurt you, though I don’t want to.”

I swallowed, gingerly, under the ball of the barbarian’s bare foot. “You’ll have to let me up to unlock your shackles,” I said. “I’ll need to touch them.”

She didn’t. Instead, she knelt down, changing the foot on my neck for a knee, and lowering her chains to where I could reach them. A tear splashed onto my cheek. “Dv@@re zabda, dv@@re zabda, dv@@re zabda,” I said, touching the restraints two at a time. The locks sprang open. She shrugged, and her chains fell off onto the carpet with a muffled clatter, along with the remnants of her rags. She was completely naked now, but showed no shame, only sorrow. Her hair cascaded over her shoulders in a torrent of golden curls.

“You can stand now, Captain,” she said, straightening her arms and rubbing them to restore circulation. When I was too slow, she lifted me into the air and lowered me to standing. “I’m sorry that I hurt you, but I had to obey my vow. You shouldn’t have unlocked me.” Tears ran down her face and neck, onto her naked breasts. They stood straight out, without drooping, as round as they had been when she had been on her back, bouncing slightly with her sobs. I reached out to caress them, as I had been able to just minutes ago, and she casually batted my hand aside.

“You really want to have sex with me? And it’s only your vow that made you resist?” I asked. “You wanted the bonds on you, so you could have sex without breaking your vow?” I could look straight into her eyes, as she was of my height, rare for a woman.

“Yes, damn you, yes, yes!” she sobbed. She didn’t apologize for swearing at a superior officer.

“Then: K@@ namaa l@@ k*jeram@@,” I said.

She stopped still. She stopped crying. Her face changed from despair to a kind of puzzlement.

“I … I can’t … do anything,” she said. “What did you do?”

“I fulfilled your vow,” I said. “I defeated you in fair combat.”

“What? How?” she asked.

“I charmed you. You have to do whatever I say, short of something categorically against your nature. You won’t kill yourself, you won’t kill a friend, and, if I understand how important it is to you, you won’t break your vow. But you will do pretty much everything else, including surrender. So surrender. You’re defeated. Your vow is fulfilled. You can have sex with me.”

“That’s a trick!” she said. “It was not fair combat! I can’t!”

Now I got angry. “What do you think I do?” I exclaimed. “I am a combat sorceror! And a good one! That’s how I earned this barony, and this captainship, in combat. It would be a pretty lame world if there weren’t any more to combat than swinging swords! This was combat, as much as your kicking me in the gut was combat, but instead of your brawn against mine, it was my knowledge and will against yours. And you lost, Corporal, face it!”

She did. She could feel it. I hadn’t told her that the fact that she didn’t really want to win had helped her lose, or that whether or not she had been defeated in combat was a judgment call, but that was what persuasion was all about, right? Her features changed to a broad smile. “I lost!” Lovisa exclaimed, smiling. “What did you say you wanted to do before? Kiss me?”

She reached forward, gathered me into her strong arms, pressed me to her naked body, and gave me the longest, most passionate, open mouthed kiss I can remember.