The Invasion
Chapter One
00
Chris and I fell in love when we were teenagers. My friends told me I was crazy; Mages and Holy Knights, they kept saying, are not compatible. Especially a Holy Knight who is next in line to rule our homeland. They warned me that she was a heart breaker; I would end up broken and alone, but I did not listen. Chris and I were together for almost exactly five years before the invasion of our homeland. The invasion happened three days before her twenty-first birthday, when she was to become our new Queen. Before I begin to tell our story, I should mention that my name is Rosalyn. I am a White Mage on track to become a White Wizard. My mentor, Circe, is the leading White Wizard in the homeland and one of our greatest elders. Circe thinks I have the potential to surpass even her skills one day. I am not so sure about that. Some days I daydream about staying in the castle and being a dutiful wife for the Queen. Run the castle, have her children, and be a good wife. No matter what I decide, as long as I perform my healing work to the best of my ability I know I will serve the homeland, and the Empire, the best I can. Like I said, before any of this could happen we had to survive the invasion.
It all began with a routine scouting mission. We were betrayed by one of our lancers. Neither Chris or I blame her; Daria’s will was not her own anymore. Nevertheless, the first attack was a cowardly act of betrayal. Chris and I were separated during the ambush. I ended up with Tamantha, another lancer, but got knocked out by one of the men. The last thing I saw before passing out was Leela escaping. When I woke up in my cell, everything had changed.
01
Last year on my birthday, Rosalyn surprised me by tricking me into thinking I had a healing assignment in an abandoned room in the castle. When I arrived, supplies in hand, all I found was a pink rose and a note to take the third book on the third shelf of the third bookshelf down from the stacks. I walked across the room, took the book down, and found a smaller note stuck to a button. “Push me” it said. Pushing the button, I stepped back a few paces when the bookshelf slid backwards and then turned sideways, revealing a series of stairs heading upward. A piece of loose leaf paper was on the third step with the words “walk up me” written on them in, now see-able in better lighting, Chris’ trademark crude handwriting. There was another pink rose next to the note.
Oh, dear.
Heart pumping, I made my way up the stairs, roses in hand, and found myself in front of a door. Slowly, I opened the door and found Chris sitting on a chair, looking paler than usual, holding another rose. She smiled slowly, “oh, you found it, that’s good,” and stood. We broached the distance between each other and my beloved handed me the third rose. “I, um,” she started nervously, “thought we could use a night alone, it’s your birthday and all that,” itching her neck and looking at me for approval.
I paused, not sure what to say or do. Chris wasn’t very romantic; she just didn’t do that sort of thing. She was more of a brawler than a lover. This was totally unexpected. Before I could speak, she turned and walked across the room and stood by the draped window. “This room hasn’t been used in a lot of years. My, um, grandmother, the Queen.” She stopped as I laughed at her speaking as though I did not know the empire’s Matriarch, the one who I had spent so many late evenings with trying to decipher the puzzle that is her granddaughter.
Chris sighed loudly. “Anyway, this was the room which she took her wife to before they were married. Grandma showed it to me a few months ago, after the funeral, and she thought it would make a nice hideaway for us.” Before I could speak, honestly I was moved by how she was opening up, she withdrew the drapes to reveal an incredible view of the town below the castle and the mountains behind it. I was speechless, blown away by this gesture. We stood at the window for a minute quietly. The view was spectacular and honestly I was genuinely moved. And getting a little horny, which was quite odd for me. I’m very shy and a bit of a prude about sex. Perhaps that is why Chris and I ended up together; she is so open and flaunts her, even for our Empire, gender ambiguity and casualness about sex. For the first time, however, I could tell that love was something she took very seriously.
Suddenly, Chris brightened and turned to me, taking my hands in her own. “I have your birthday gift. It’s so great!” For the first time I noticed a box on the bed in the middle of the room. She grabbed it and handed the box to me, seeming very proud of herself for whatever she had picked out.
I opened the long box and found a silver dagger inside. Oh, no. “It’s perfect for a White Mage!”
“It’s a dagger.”
“Yes!”
“Um, Chris, I’m a healer, not a fighter.”
“But what if we’re in a battle with some wolves and I need you to fight instead of heal?”
“Um...”
She took my hands again and kissed me gently on the mouth. “If I wanted a beloved who could annihilate a town with a level three incantation, I would’ve stayed with that Black Mage.” I groaned, remembering her. “I want a beautiful, angelic, feminine Mage, Rosalyn. She should be able to be a lady, but also defend herself in a battle.”
I grinned, amused by the gift at this point. “Who says I can’t defend myself?”
She scoffed, similarly amused. “Yeah, with a wood staff. Remember that time—”
I threw my hands up in mock disgust. “Fine!”
“I did get you flowers too.”
I smiled. “This is true.”
“I, Rosalyn, I,” Chris began, looking down at the ground, “...I love you, Rosalyn.” We kissed again. She bit down on her bottom lip, strands of blond hair falling in her face, “you’re a real woman.” I squinted at her. “”I mean, you’re smart, feminine...I guess anyone is compared to me. You’re the kind of woman I could settle down with one day.”
Stunned by her glowing assessment of me, I began to cry cheerful tears. She took me in her arms and held on. I pulled away and stared up at her, she was easily five inches taller than me, sniffling and laughing as she wiped it away. “I love you too.”
That night I did something I normally did not do. I took the initiative carnally and pounced on my lover. To this day, I am pretty passive, but that night I couldn’t stop myself from jumping on top of Chris, pulling her clothes off, and fucking her with my mouth.
We made love, in the moonlight, all night long taking turns pleasuring each other’s bodies. Chris took me to places I never thought I could ever go even in my most intimate jilling off session. Throughout the night I orgasmed more times than I had in the past six months. It was fantastic. I was in love.
In the morning, after we showered together, I slipped the silver dagger into my cloak and forgot about it. A few weeks later, we announced our impending nuptials on the day of Chris’ twenty first birthday when she could become the Queen of the Homeland.
02
After being in recovery for three days, Rosalyn was finally able to speak in front of the investigative committee. Her left eye still had a significant welt over it, her right arm made her wince when it moved. The lack of proper medical care her captors gave her only further enhanced her injuries. The most significant injury she had sustained however, was a broken heart. To see Chris, who should have been coordinated as Queen yesterday, her mind raped, her body not of her own will—”
“I said, would you like to begin?” Rosalyn was broken out of her depressive haze by Reannon, the head investigator’s stern question. Reannon, a tall blond who favored revealing feminine clothing and, in Rosalyn’s opinion, outlandish viewpoints on most things, despised both Rosalyn, thinking of her as a lowly healer not of high social or political regard, and Chris, jealous of her power and place as the next Queen.
The White Wizard named Circe, Rosalyn’s mentor, was also on the investigative committee and leaned forward to her microphone. “Dear, just start from the beginning.”For the first time, Rosalyn noticed the soldiers around the room. Archers, some of which she had known since she was a child, eyed her suspiciously. Knights, including a former lover from before she knew Chris, held onto their swords at their sides.
She sighed softly. Her right knee ached from landing hard during the ambush. “We were on a routine scouting mission to look for—”
Reannon interrupted her, “I’m sorry, but exactly why was the women in line for the throne out on a mission like that a few days before her coronation?” She was enjoying this. A few archers nodded to her approvingly.
Another woman on the investigative team announced, for the record, that Chris had decided to continue normal patrols, as her Holy Knight duties required despite her impending nuptials and rise to Queenhood.
Circe nodded to Rosalyn to continue. “Tamantha, Chris, Leela, Daria, and I were attacked. By men from the other tribe.” The room broke out in conversation, remarks of disgust and disbelief equally filling the air. The gray haired White Wizard pounded her gavel and instructed Rosalyn to continue. “We were outnumbered, but Chris and Tamantha held their ground with Leela and I assisting.”
The dark haired Mage took a deep breath. “After a few minutes, Daria turned around and clotheslined Tamantha out of nowhere. Leela and Chris were taking on a handful of the men, but got overwhelmed when Daria came up from behind and clubbed Leela with the back of her ax. The men pounced on Chris.”
She stopped as tears ran down her face. “A man knocked me to the ground. I landed on the ground and slid into a large boulder, where I sustained a lot of my injuries. I was knocked pretty senseless at this point, but the last thing I saw before passing out was Leela sneaking away while the men put shackles on Chris and Tamantha.” She broke down, sobbing loudly.
Rosalyn, after composing herself, bit her lip and kept speaking at the instruction of the committee. “The four of us were captured. When I woke up, I was in a cell with Tamantha. She informed me that Chris and Daria had been taken away. After we were captured, Tamantha was severely angry at our situation. it had been so long since there was contact with the separatists and this was how they reintroduce themselves?” Rosalyn paused, looking down at the floor. “Tamantha pounded on the bars of our cell and screamed for anyone who could hear how much vengeance she, and us, I guess, were going to extract for this.”
Heavily, the Mage sighed. “Our situation got significantly worse from there. One of the guards came down the hall to our cell and entered it. Tamantha struck out at him, but another guard entered and subdued her. They shot her with some kind of dart, which knocked her out.”
At this point, Reannon interrupted. “I’m sorry, but what were you doing at this point?”
Rosalyn took a long moment before speaking, replaying the scene in her mind. “I was taken aback by what happened in front of me. I watched Tamantha try to fight off the men, and do quite well, until she was attacked from behind and shot.”
Before should could continue, Reannon interrupted again. “You are a Mage, correct? Couldn’t you have used your magic?”
Rosalyn blinked a few times. What a fool. “Um, given the small area, I did not think it would have been safe to do so. While I could have fought off our enemies, I could have just as easily injured myself or Tamantha. I am a healer. I don’t do that. My fighting magic is quite low level anyway.”
Reannon jumped at that final statement. “Again, I have to wonder why our future Queen would bring someone like you...someone, who, is not fully versed in fighting skills.”
Rosalyn glared at this woman. Was she making a case for Chris abdicating the throne? Funny how the Mage, she thought suddenly, automatically assumed Chris would return. “Our future Queen believes that fighting should be a last resort. White Mages are there to heal, whether persons or the land. That is our job.” Reannon just glared back at her. “Can I go on now? Reliving this in front of you all is just so fun.” Rosalyn, normally so passive and level headed, was losing her cool. Circe glanced over, made eye contact, and gently shook her head.
Reannon nodded and Rosalyn continued. “These men from the other tribe were very hostile. The tribe I remember reading about in the history books were wrong-minded, but these people were horrible. As they took Tamantha away, one of them found her pocket copy of the Lectures of Persephone and picked it up. This man urinated on it, exposing his naked body to me.” There was chaos for a moment, whether more outrage towards the desecration of their sacred text or for a male from the tribe exposing his body to a female, Rosalyn was unsure.
Circe pounded on her gavel again. The room quieted down. The light haired Mage continued her story. “The worst part came next. After they took Tamantha away.” Rosalyn paused and put her hands on her head. “After Tamantha was taken away, one of the men returned with Daria walking behind him. She wore a collar around her neck and was naked besides a pair of shoes more useful to a dancer or maid than a warrior.”
Rosalyn blinked. “What disturbed me the most was how empty and vacant her eyes were. “There was nothing in her eyes, just a look of absolute devotion to the man. She never took her eyes off of him. It was disturbing.” Rosalyn closed her eyes, dreading the next part of the story. “The man told me that Daria was a good girl, and that I’d learn to be a good girl soon too. I didn’t understand what he meant at first, but then I realized some kind of magical, or technological, mesmerism had conditioned Daria.”
“After they left, I was able to finally get some sleep. I slept until early the next day, when a number of other prisoners were brought in. A few women in a similar state walked by every so often. Then, finally, Tamantha returned in the same mindless state that Daria had been in. Instead of the devoted stare that Daria had for her controller, Tamantha just blankly looked ahead.”
Quietly, Rosalyn broke down crying. Even Reannon was silent, to give her a moment to collect herself. “Following behind her was Chris. Chris was just as mindless and was followed in by the man who I identified as some sort of leader. He taunted me, nothing that needs to be repeated, and showed off his control over Chris, making her kiss him and touch his body. She referred to herself as ‘no one’ and remarked in response to his command similarly.” She paused. “It was sickening. I cried as they left, repulsed by my future wife’s rape.”
This time, it was Circe who spoke. “Child, what you have described so far is extraordinarily frightening to the future of our society. The only thing the committee needs to know, at this point, the most important question, is how did you escape?”
Rosalyn openly laughed. “I’m not even sure how that happened. Before the man left, he told me I would be conditioned the next morning. I slept for most of the day, in utter shock at Chris and Tamantha and...and...I had no idea what to do. I’m just a White Mage.”
“As the day went on, from observing various women passing through the prison, I realized that there were two types of enslaved women. Chris and Tamantha both had certain kinds of collars which made them mindless drones. They were different in shape and size than the one on Daria and others, which seemed to be more of an ornamental article. Something in that collar causes their wills to be overridden.”
Another member of the council asked the obvious question. “Can these collars be overwritten?”
I hope. “I think so. If there is a magical enhancement to them, there has to be some kind of counter spell. I would assume that eventually it becomes more permanent.”
Reannon pounced on the Mage’s innocent answer. “Which means that one of the future Queen’s most trusted lancers had been brainwashed for some time?”
Rosalyn stared stoically at her. How utterly foolish all of the archers, lancers, and mages who nodded along with this usurper. “I suppose that could be. I never saw anything to confirm either way.”
The same council member spoke again. “Finish telling the story of your escape.”
“Like I said, I was told I would be conditioned the next day. Not really knowing what to do, I fell asleep. Sometime during the night, I heard a rattling noise and caught a glimpse of someone darting out of my cell. A swipe card and tablet were left on the floor. The tablet gave me directions out of the complex. Both of the guards I found along the way were knocked out. From there, I was able to make my way through the mountain and call home to have someone get me.” She glared right at Reannon. “Before you ask, no, I didn’t have time to get anyone else.”
03
Rosalyn watched as her life as she knew it fell apart in moments. The Senate discussed in the open forum what to do next. Reannon slyly pointed out that if Chris and Tamantha had been brainwashed, there was a good chance that their captors had gained knowledge from them. The Mage teared up visibly at a lifelong friend’s mother proclaiming that Chris was a “lost cause.” The audacity of these people to give up on her so easily!
Then something dawned on her. Reannon had been openly getting into disputes with Chris for months. Chris just thought the woman was a cunt, but something more sinister is going on perhaps. Friends from childhood had suddenly turned on them, and influential members of the Senate were seen openly being hostile. Reannon could have been spoiling them for months. She wants to take the throne! Perhaps this related to their planet’s potential entry into the Empire?
After the hearing was adjourned, Rosalyn was taken away by two of the Royal Guards, who privately vowed to stand by Chris. She thanked them for their service and obedience, asking to be left alone for now. In her quarters, the White Mage paced back and forth, finally dropping onto the bed in disgust. Now what? She had a trick or two up her sleeve, but she needed to contact—
Just before she could voice Circe’s name in her mind, there was a knock at her door. The Holy White Wizard entered the room before Rosalyn could even look up. The Mage ran over to her mentor and hugged her tightly.
“It’s going to be fine, child,” the elder began, “Reannon is a fool. When we recover Chris, there will be hell to pay for this.” Rosalyn buried her head in the woman’s robes. The normally emotional Mage sobbed for a few minutes, letting out the emotions of the past few days.
When she quieted down, Circe pulled away and considered her momentarily before speaking. “We need to work fast on a counter to the collars. From your description, they combine technology with some kind of magical enhancement, conditioning the wearer to the whims of the owner.” She pulled a few books out of her robes. “We can begin with these and I can send my servants for more if needed. The technology is something I’m not sure where we can begin on, however.”
Rosalyn smiled and slipped something out of the her inner robe pocket. “Oh, well, I kind of lied during testimony about what was left for me in my cell when I escaped.” Quickly, the Mage put a pile of microchips on the table. “Do you think these chips will help figure out a counter spell?”
Circe looked at one in her hand for a moment and then hugged Rosalyn tightly. “Yes! I can analyze the chips for any magical enhancements and then begin a counter spell.” She held the girl for a moment again. “You have done well to hide this from the others. We will save Chris with this.”
Immediately, Circe began calling for various books off of Rosalyn’s shelves. Rosalyn quickly moved to obey. It felt good to be useful to someone. For the first time, she began to feel real hope that they would save Chris and the others.
04
Hours later, in the middle of the night, Reannon entered the cave she had been traveling to for the past hour. Three female guards waited at attention before the man who she had come to meet. Marcus waved them aside to allow her entrance. The dark haired betrayer of her people smiled at him, kissing her lover on the mouth.
Marcus, a tall man with a dark goatee, motioned for her to sit down with him at the desk on the far side of the room. “I trust all went well today at the hearing?”
Reannon nodded, trying not to give off any positive or negative emotions. “The panel mostly feels that Rosalyn could have been sent back as a sleeper agent. Chris and the others taken with her are being considered lost causes.” She stared directly at him. “Did you receive my word about the saboteur who allowed her to escape?”
“Yes, I did,” Marcus began as he took a sip of a glass of wine, “I had a sweep done of all guards. They were nowhere to be found.”
Reannon scoffed at him. Marcus put up a hand. “We will find her.” He grinned. “She’ll look great at your feet. Just like that one.” He pointed to the corner where Chris mindlessly stood at attention. The Princess stared at nothing, as if she had been turned “off” for the night.
The dark haired traitor crossed the desk and crawled onto Marcus’ lap. “all of them will be at my feet.” and so will you. “Once our plan is enacted.” She leaned down and kissed him. Marcus took the initiative and pulled her tightly. He tore at both of their clothes until they were on top of the desk making love.