The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

“Etan Strannix,” Bryana repeated. “He just gave you the name?”

The fire crackled behind him, Deres enjoying the warmth of it as he lounged in one of the plush chairs in Neral’s study. A chill had descended on the city this evening and the trip home was surprisingly cold and breezy. It was early for such weather and, if tonight was any indication, winter would be exceptionally cold.

He ran his hand through his close-cropped dark hair in order to stifle the smirk that wanted to appear. “He just gave me the name of the man he knew as his employer. I took that name to the dockmaster who, in return for a sizable sum of gold skipped the nonsense of going through a few more shadow owners he was supposed to surrender in the event anyone ever asked and give me the one that mattered.”

“And you’re sure he just didn’t give you another name that he was supposed to give you in the event that anyone asked?” Neral prodded from behind her desk while Bryana stood near the bookcase on her left.

“He was so concerned about giving it up that his price for doing so was enough gold for a fresh start and the means to that new start. He told me that the number of people who knew who actually owned what was exceedingly small, and Strannix was a man of sufficient ill-temper to maybe get rid of all of those few just to make sure he got the right one if he felt crossed. He didn’t know about the human cargo and when I told him he saw where it was all going to lead and he wanted out before anyone mentioned him and maybe tried to pin it all on ‘the little people.’”

“Strannix is the right man,” Bryana said glumly.

Neral looked to her. “How can you be sure?”

“Because his wife was relocated and my guild was responsible.”

Neral absorbed the information without expression. “Explain, please.”

She steeled herself for what she was sure would come and began the story. “Strannix is what he is, I’m sure I don’t have to explain that to you.”

“He is someone you can go to for hard to find items. He’s someone you can go to if you want things that aren’t legal or aren’t legal without long delays and sizable duties. I know several families that have gone that route for various finery.”

“And there is talk because there is always talk. There’s talk that there is no limit to what you can have from him if you’re willing to pay, though I know of no one who will admit to doing so to me. Not that that much surprises me, as I’d like to think myself an honest soul who would do something about it if they told me, never mind that my position would obligate me to act anyway. Continue.”

“Whatever you’ve heard is true and probably understates the matter. He has reach in the underworld and control of vice in two kingdoms. And he has buried scores of bodies in order to maintain that reach and hold that power. Are you aware that his wife has gone?”

“I’d heard she’d gone on sabbatical somewhere on the coast.”

Bryana couldn’t help but being amused at the benign explanation Strannix put into the wind. “She is at least ‘away.’” Bryana needed to move and, since she couldn’t act decisively on the issue before them, she settled on pacing. “Dina Strannix took a lover some months ago. That lover contacted my guild to arrange a fresh start not unlike what the dock master has bargained for. Before that could be done, Strannix sent men to send her a message, catching her contact with my guild in the process. They were both hurt badly.”

Deres remembered the night. “I can vouch for the badly part. The client nearly died and if the guild contact hadn’t been caught up with her she probably would have.”

Neral had to ask. “Don’t trust me enough to name names?” There was no anger in the statement.

“A guild keeps its confidences. But it’s you, if you can come up with a compelling reason that you should know, under the circumstances, I…”

“I can’t. I understand.” It was best if she didn’t know details of Bryana’s work and she made a point to never ask. She simply trusted Bryana not to act against the masses, the queen, or Erette and there had never been a reason to question that trust. Indeed, Bryana’s position was beneficial in that she kept Neral appraised of the broad strokes of activity of the other guilds. It was an added layer of security for Erette and its people and the general treated it as she would any other passive espionage operation.

“I swear, there is nothing I would not do to protect my family.”

“Bryana,” she said firmly, “I know that. I know that. I don’t need to know. If something changes and it might be helpful to know I’ll make my case. But I think I know where this is going, so those details don’t matter.”

The pause in Bryana’s story held for a moment more. “Anyway, before dawn, the contact exacted revenge on their attacker, and, later that day I transported Dina Strannix and her lover to their new home myself.”

“So he wants revenge against you for taking what’s his,” Deres concluded, “and he doesn’t dare exact that revenge on you directly, so he takes something that matters to you.” There was a spark in his eye as he played out the plan. “Not to kill her because the soldiers could have tried that on the street and there’s no need to take her to a place guarded from magic. He takes something that Bryana values to get back something he values.”

It suddenly became almost unbearable to look at Neral so Bryana’s gaze went down and away. “This is my fault, all of it.”

“Bryana.” Neral rose, her heart growing heavier in her chest seeing the ache in the other’s very being.

“It is my fault.

Neral took her hands, close enough now to feel the warmth of her body. “Look at me, my love. Please.”

Bryana mustered her courage and looked up, confounded by the empathy and understanding that she found there and then in Deres’s Locking on to Neral’s dark brown eyes once again, her own misted. “I’m sorry.”

“We met because my House has enemies; because they hatched a plan to kill the queen and use me to do it. Remember?”

There was no way to forget. The dark creature that she once was was hired by the leader of a rival House to corrupt Neral, one of the few with unfettered access to the queen. Ideally, the queen would die, the House at the queen’s right hand would fall with it and he would have seen his power greatly expanded even if he hadn’t found his way to the throne itself.

But Deres had found the traces she’d left behind first and hatched a plan to trap her. Doing so, and using a mix of magic and science far beyond that which this corner of the world, they turned her toward the light, and so began the adventure of their lives together. What began as the need to repay Neral for the wrong inflicted upon her, and to a lesser extent to repay all of those she had wronged had blossomed into love, security and a peace that Bryana thought impossible to feel and, at times, still undeserved. It felt to her that her sins were chasing her down seeking true penance. But there was no anger or blame to be seen behind Neral’s eyes.

“This House still has people around it that wouldn’t weep if it fell, and do you think I have no enemies? Do you think there’s no child or sibling of a bandit I’ve imprisoned or soldier I’ve killed in combat that doesn’t nurse daydreams of revenge? Even Deres, in his travels, has no doubt made an enemy or two.”

“Through no fault of my own, I’ll have you know.”

Bryana laughed even as a tear fell down her cheek. “I love you and I could throttle you most days.” Like just this moment when he gave her that crooked grin.

Seemingly reading her mind, he rose and moved casually over to his two and ran his hand down her cheek. “Have at it then.”

A wave of that calm washed over her. Her two were within reach and neither of them were interested in blaming her the way she blamed herself. “Perhaps later.”

“It was an enemy of yours who has tried first. It doesn’t make any difference. I birthed her and if it were an enemy of mine I would be where you are, but would you allow me it?” She gave him her gentle gaze as well. “Either of you? No. You would tell me there is no way I could have known. You would tell me that I did the right thing, even if something like this was a consequence, just like I’m telling you. You didn’t harm him without cause. Goddess, you didn’t even harm him. You saved two lives in taking them from his reach, and Khylen proves that. You didn’t bring this darkness to our door because you are dark. It’s here because your life touched darkness. That’s true of all of us.”

“Self-recrimination does nothing to solve the problem before us,” Deres told her. “The problem is Etan Strannix and that has to be dealt with.”

The mage was careful with her words, not wanting to draw another rebuke from Neral, “It’s because of my actions that he has focused on this House. I will find him and I will deal with him.”

“We will deal with him. In the morning I will go to the queen to see if something can be done.”

“Do you think she will?”

Rather than answer him directly, she set them to a task because she knew the politics the queen would have to contend with, “What I think you need to do is come up with contingencies in the event that we’re on our own.”

“Those are already being planned, Neral.”

“Dare I ask what they are?”

“So far, I have only enlisted the other guild masters’ aid in the search for the mages responsible. When there’s more to say, you and Deres will be the first to hear it.”

That was good enough for Neral at the moment.

The queen’s castle was a wondrous creation that had evolved over the centuries and it showed. Paintings and murals could be found in virtually every hallway, and where they were not, tapestries from every corner of the world hung between sculptures and examples of fine porcelain. New building techniques and architectural ideas meshed flawlessly, with each ruler having left their mark on it in the building and rebuilding over years. A keen eye could walk a corridor or enter a room and know which king or queen touched it.

Sometimes Bryana walked through the whole of it just to immerse herself in the history to be found there, and to just feel the belonging of knowing that she could. She couldn’t help but find her spirit uplifted by it. Erette was not perfect, nor were its rulers. Indeed, some of them were arguably as dark as she once was, and some of the murals touched on those dark moments. They were sometimes portrayed as celebrations of the moment, created in a time when the people saw those moments in a better light and some of them were presented as warnings to those that followed of how far man could fall.

But, for the most part, Erette was a force for good in the world, and she was proud of her place in it in even this peripheral way. And, given recent events, she remembered fondly Khylen asking about the story behind every mural, every painting, and almost every sculpture as Neral or ‘Auntie Evaline,’ as she called the queen, told their stories as the young one listened in rapt attention.

Now her heels clacked on the gleaming white and black marble of Ruler’s Hall. Each black section held the seal of the royal house etched into it and filled with gold. The white sections carried an etching of an eight-pointed compass, the implication being that the ruler at the end of the hall knew the way and would steer Erette true. Bryana had come to have faith that Evaline would continue to do so with the kindness, intellect, and wisdom. You have faith in people, Bryana. When did that happen?

Sunlight streamed in from the floor-to-ceiling windows, making it seem as though it might be warmer outside than it actually was, though, watching the wind blow, and having just been out in it, she knew it was chill and had some power behind it. Against the pillars equally spaced throughout the hallway were guards in gleaming silver armor that could leave one seeing spots if they caught it and the sunlight just so. On their white breastplates was a gold sword that marked them as members of the White Guard. They didn’t acknowledge her as she passed and she didn’t expect them to. They knew she was allowed to be there because the queen allowed it and that was enough.

She paced slowly in her autumn brown dress and other finery that was fit for a trip to the castle like a caged animal. The royal gardens and the city beyond the grounds provided a lovely view that could catch her attention for a moment, but eventually it would serve to remind her that any action she could take was out there, not in here. This place was Neral’s dominion and she found herself hopeful yet again that in Evaline’s wisdom, her affection for Khylen, and her lifelong friendship with Neral could convince her to act.

All she could do was wait here as time slipped away, but at least it was time she could use to think. The guild masters were delivering their records to her now, and, once she had a place to start the hunt would begin. Whoever they were, Bryana was certain they were still helping Strannix, who hadn’t been seen since the riots. To avoid guild eyes for so long, one had to know how they worked. He was running and so were they, even if perhaps they didn’t see it that way. And she couldn’t discount the possibility that they were simply regrouping to come at them again, which gnawed at her all by itself. She was not one to play defense; that was for her enemies to do.

She heard the doors open and made her way towards them more rapidly than she realized as Neral emerged. The guards on either side closed them as soon as the general cleared them. They didn’t acknowledge Neral either because, as members of the White Guard, none of the soldiers here answered to her. Her service uniform was gray and black, the same as any other soldier’s, the difference being, her rank trim made up four gold braids that broke pattern to make room for her rank insignia that was placed over her heart. It was the minimum required for a formal audience and, since she was there with the intent to ask the queen to use her power on Neral’s behalf, she owed her that respect. Bryana noted that it may as well have been her black full dress uniform covered in her medals and badges given the way she carried herself. Bryana felt her pride just looking at that perfect uniform and those glossy boots. The woman that she was admired Neral’s beauty and always thought the way her ponytail swayed just so with her steps was adorable. Such was something that she and Deres had in common.

The look on her face though, told Bryana all she needed to know. She couldn’t hide her disappointment, particularly from herself as she fell in stride with Neral. So much for faith in people. “She will not act against him?”

“She will not.”

“Not even with the threat of mages involved in something so bold?” The queen was shrewd. Clues spread out over years led her to suspect that forbidden magic, was, while still forbidden, not the stuff of stories of old history or musings to scare children around a campfire, and that Neral’s two might have a connection to it.

She had asked Neral for Deres’s help with a means of tying her to soon-to-be consort and prince, Danil, so that the two could live happily for life since they were destined to be joined until death parted them and Evaline would have endured almost anything rather than suffer decades of cool detachment and have their children have to endure it as well. Also at play was the fact that she knew now that other rulers were making use of mages to varying degrees and she realized that the kingdom needed its own in-kind response to them, even if the public remained largely unaware of their prevalence.

“She can’t, and I understand why. She has nothing to go on but my say so. The soldiers involved remember nothing, and, even if they did, what could they say that wouldn’t cause a panic?”

“There is the dockmaster and the ship captain.”

“Yes,” Neral agreed as they made their way through the corridors. “Two men who profited by all of this, with one who is facing a large portion of his remaining life in prison and one who traded his knowledge in order to escape punishment for his, lesser though his crimes are. Two men who, under the circumstances, would be willing to say almost anything to lay blame at the feet of someone else to get mercy for themselves. To court it will seem all the more convenient that the person they name cannot be found.”

“And that the person they name is someone half of them have used for this service or that that they would rather not be common knowledge.”

Bryanna’s humor was tinged with bitterness, “What’s the point of being queen if you can’t simply wave your hand and smite the people who threaten you?”

“She is queen. She still could, but not without cost. Imagine if, as you see it, without cause, the queen simply wipes a powerful businessman from Erette. She seizes his sizable holdings and he is simply…gone.”

Bryana had no trouble imagining it. “If he’s an example for me to see, what will she begin to ask for from me to keep my position so I don’t vanish?”

Neral continued, “Everyone around me is thinking the same thing. What are they doing behind my back to curry favor?”

“Or to vanish me me so they can fight over my leavings. It would be the era of stagnation all over again.” Neral referred to a time many generations ago where the Houses warred on all fronts with their own spies and armies as they sought power. As a result, the progress of the whole of society, from the arts to the sciences slowed to a crawl. “Rather than risk the loss of position and property, openly or not, the Houses of Court would seek a new ruler.”

“She will act,” Neral promised. “She has given me her word that it will be the army that she unleashes on him and his holdings here, not the constables. It’s my hand that will destroy everything he holds dear in this kingdom.” It was still something of an unfamiliar feeling for her. She was gifted at the art of war, but she never relished it. Enemies of Erette were simply that. She rarely had a bloodlust running through her veins to rend someone limb from limb like she had now. Neral ached to make him suffer.

“But she needs proof,” Neral told her, raising her voice now to be heard over the breeze as they entered the gardens on the path to the a side entrance. Neral looked at the way the wind caught Bryanna’s golden hair and it almost made her look like she were flying. “The queen needs proof. She needs so much proof that the members of court that have used him and use him still have no choice but to wash their hands of him, even if it’s only to save face in front of the others.”

“So, my dear, we have two problems: first, we need proof. We need a mountain of proof so high court will need a guide to climb it.”

“I will get it, Neral. There will be enough that court will choke to death on it as you shove it down their throats.”

“Should I ask how?”

Bryana decided to answer honestly. “I’m guessing everything you need is in his home. I doubt he’ll return anytime soon and it shouldn’t be that hard to locate, especially if those inside are willing to help.”

“Unless he took it with him. Or he destroyed it.”

“There’s no way to know unless someone looks, so I will look.”

“You cannot be seen,” Neral admonished. “It cannot look like my hand is in it or it will taint what you find no matter how much it is. It will look like I’m trying to grow my power at his expense and, given our closeness, such a perception still taints the queen.” She thought carefully. “Khylen is safe and I would sooner forget retribution and just move on with our lives than do that.”

“No one will see you in this.” Her tone was a promise. They walked in silence for another dozen or so steps before Bryana decided to prod Neral. “Second?”

“Second, even with the queen’s blessing, all I can do is chase him from Erette.” He has power and reach beyond the queen. As much as I can wound him, I can only wound him. He may take a lesson from that to leave well enough alone, but if he would respond to a disappeared wife that he could arguably replace as he has, I suspect that, sooner or later, he’d have at revenge again. What then?”

“As I understand things, the vast majority of his holdings are in Erette and Kressin, yes?”

Neral nodded, “But I doubt the newly-annointed King Kudan will be disposed to tear such a man and his holdings out of his kingdom just because Queen Evaline demands it.”

Bryana laughed softly. “When the queen gives you the word and you pass that word to me, he will be burned out of Kressin just as surely as Erette. Nowhere he knows will be safe.”

“You are certain?” He’d had a hand in leading Bryana to cross Neral’s path those many years ago now and Bryana had seduced him with her body and her power to keep them on the path of their revenge, and here he was as a stone on that path again. The universe turned back on itself in strange ways sometimes.

“Did you think I just took what we needed from him and left him as a little bird to chirp in my ear should something interesting happen?” She was explaining rather than justifying her actions. “He was a threat to you, so I took him whole so that he would never be a threat to you again. He is mine because he has no choice and even now thrills in it. I am yours because I am, and it will never be another way.” There was a triumphant undercurrent to be heard. “So he is yours as well.”

“That is what I thought actually,” she said sheepishly.

“Because you have always been honorable, Neral. You would have what you needed from him and then left him be. Because, on some level, whether it be the infighting of court or violence on the battlefield, you believe a fight will follow the rules that have been in place forever and you have all agreed to, so it offends and appalls you when someone strays from that. Few of the battles I’ve fought in my life were ever fair as you understand it, so I tend to fight much differently.”

Neral couldn’t argue about the benefits of that approach just now, thankful that, when the time came, the fleeing rat would have a hard time finding a familiar hole in which to hide. They now approached the gate that the White Guard was already opening ahead of them. “Love me anyway, despite my stodgy nobility?”

“I do,” Bryana answered wryly. “No one is perfect.”

The wind died and the night was calm, though clouds still blanketed the sky so that the only light came from the city lamps. Both these facts worked to the benefit of she who moved from rooftop to rooftop with the balance of a dancer and with leaps that bordered on flight. The moonless night and the glare from the city lights anyone would have to fight when they looked up conspired to make her invisible. Those combined with the black, form-fitting cloth she wore to let her be swallowed by the darkness.

And Imir Ageko thrilled in it as she had always done. A spy, assassin, courier, or almost anything else that someone needed her to be when there was something to be done that required, strength, skill, and a disregard for the law or morality. She had started as a courier when her age first broke double digits and, not long after that, she’d caught the eye of a longtime assassin who had used her to run messages between nameless contacts. He saw in her great potential. She was fit, fast, and strong already and, in her eyes, he saw the drive to be more. There he also saw no shortage of the coldness he saw in his own. Knowing that there were far fewer days ahead than behind because, as it did with all people, time reminded him by taking speed, stamina, and wit just a sliver at a time, he saw in her someone he could live on within, if in just a small way. She took what he offered because he offered power and asked for nothing in return beyond commitment to learning how to wield it.

She had exceeded his expectation. Technique was easy to teach. He was brutal but fair, and anyone could learn how to balance if they fell a thousand times first or how to fight once they’d decided they’d spilled too much of their own blood, but what was a rare gift was the ability to turn off the voice that told most people that killing was a thing never to be done unless it was your life or the lives of your loved ones in the balance. He’d never had that voice to start with, but she had the unique and amusing ability to talk that voice into all manner of things.

The target was fat and ate like a pig. They fucked anything that moved, spitting upon their vows to their family and the Goddess to do it. They were born to privilege and didn’t deserve it. There was always something upon which she could unleash her hatred and make their deaths a service to the world. That hatred provided drive, but never clouded judgment so he simply made a game with himself wondering what she’d fixate upon with this target and that. He taught her all he knew and, as time victimized him in its many little ways, he began to send her in his stead and she never failed him.

The night she came to him in his sleep and he felt the knife at his throat he was ready for her and ready for what she’d come to do. How ever many days he had left beyond that night, he would never be able to live them as he would choose to. As the blade slid smoothly and he felt the odd sensations that came with having his throat exposed to air and blood rush forth, he smiled, wondering what she’d chosen to hate about him personally that allowed her to slide the blade, knowing that simply being aware of his history was enough.

Ageko had lived her life as she chose until she took a contract to assassinate Queen Evaline. She would have succeeded if not for one simple move the woman shouldn’t have known because none of her kind ever did that bought her enough precious moments for help to arrive. Ageko had fled, but she could not escape Mistress Bryana’s reach. Mistress took her mind and soul and changed her body in the ways she wanted so that Ageko could best serve Her. She was stronger and faster now than she was before or ever could be without Her magic. Mistress had given her gifts and kindness. Mistress had given her more than she deserved.

Knowing that she was owned and that every move she made was in Her service made her even more graceful and powerful because that truth gave her an inhuman focus. To have a misstep or to lose to a foe that She set her loose upon was to fail Her and Ageko wouldn’t allow it. Her path in life was now perfectly clear. She could see it as clearly as she could see the path to the manor of Etan Strannix. She was almost upon it now. Her foot landed perfectly upon the apex of the gable roof, and she sped up her pace, needing the speed as she planned. Her eyes and her mind decided her next movements even as her body executed her will in the moment with such fluidity that there was no space between one and the other.

The angle was slightly odd and the distance was vast enough that no normal person could jump it to begin with without meeting death, much less gauge their speed, strength, and arc to aim her body where she wanted it to be.

Her footfalls were rapid fire now. She took a deep breath and held it as she ran those final steps, Ageko neared the edge and exhaled as she leaped into the night, but there wasn’t even the first thought that she would be leaping to her death. Mistress needed and she would not fail. She felt the cold night air against her skin and she thrilled at the weightlessness and the momentary perception of flight. As gravity made its presence known and she felt it begin to pull her to the ground, her left arm reached out and felt the ledge and her fingers touched the window ledge, gripping tightly.

Her joints took the force required to keep gravity at bay and Ageko felt no pain, her changed body able to withstand far more than that. Her other hand found the ledge and she began to lift herself, testing the window ledge. Once she believed it would hold she put much more force into the lift, sending her into the air once more so that she could grasp the sculpted stone that formed the arch above the window. Looking inside, she could see through the darkness to find it was an unoccupied bedroom.

Feeling it was safe to proceed, she held on to the arch while bracing both feet against the corners of the windowsill, her right hand reached into the pouch at her belt and retrieved a well-used sliver of metal. The most reliable tools were the simplest and this piece of metal she’d carried for so long it felt like a natural extension of herself had yet to fail her. It slid neatly upward, releasing the lock with the faintest click. Ageko replaced the tool and it was a simple matter to balance once again, open the door, and step inside. Her soft boots pressed against a plush rug and the room smelled of the not unpleasant mix of oils and solvents used for cleaning.

It was nothing for one like her to gain entry into such a place unseen. Even untouched by Mistress it would not have been difficult to gain entrance without a single pair of eyes noting her presence. It would have just taken a bit longer and would have been done with a bit less flourish. Ageko could have searched the home for what Mistress sought tonight, found what was needed or where it likely was and returned for it, but She didn’t want to risk what she sought being moved or destroyed if it hadn’t been already. She had laid out what she was to do and gave her the means to do it. It was quiet and her senses warned her of nothing, so she allowed herself a brief moment to feel Mistress’s power. It was within her and with her as she carried with her the tools to do what needed to be done. Why seek out what was needed when it was easier to get someone in the home to do it if it could be done and to bring a voice to make it all real for court?

She knelt in the dark, not because she needed to, but because she chose to. It made her feel good to submit, even when no one was there to see it. The next steps were simpler than even getting into the home. She reached into the pouch again and wrapped her hand around the chain Mistress had placed in her care Herself. Bringing it into the open she held it before her, her arm rigid now because Mistress had told her it would have to float free work as intended and it might take be some time before someone answered its call. She did not know what it would do or how and she didn’t ask because it didn’t matter.

Her words would activate it, Mistress told her. “I give you control of this until the job is done. Activate it and wait for someone to come to you. If they are not who you need, take everyone in that house with it until you get what I seek or learn where it can be found. Take them all anyway, as I will have need for them later.” Ageko could have roamed the halls and gone to work but that opened the possibility that in that time someone could realize something was wrong and escape or create some other problem that might keep her from finding what Mistress sought.

It was time. She wanted as much of the night as could be had. She could feel the stone’s power. It felt like the chains that bound her. Her heart began to race at the thought of saying the words that would activate it. Mistress had kissed her forehead, making her live in a way that nothing else matched. The words were a reward for her service and devotion, she said, before telling her to enjoy her time as she waited, too.

“I am powerless.”

The words threatened to take her breath from her. Her nipples pressed against the cloth that covered them.

“I submit.”

Her cunt began to drool like a starving animal and it was. It starved for Mistress and her control. It starved for more even though Her control was already absolute.

“I obey.”

The words rolled off her tongue like syrup and when the round gem lit from its center outward with the flash that washed over her, she came, her body shivering almost imperceptibly, only the sudden sway of the gem giving away her submission to the power Mistress commanded. The waves and roils within the gem created light and shadow that moved around the room as living art..

She breathed deeply and watched it move. She breathed as the soft hum from the gem lulled her and sang to her. Mistress was calling out to and singing to others. They would come and then they would know Her power, too.

Mistress is so kind. She took who she needed with beauty and pleasure. Ageko could have wept, but that would have marred her view into the limitless center of the gem.

She floated with the currents within the gem as she waited for someone to join her in admiring its beauty and power.

Nights were lovely things. She liked doing as much of her work as possible at night. She could work at her own pace, cleaning the empty rooms, replacing unused linens in unused rooms and making sure that nothing was out of place in rooms that few entered to begin with. She didn’t understand why people lived in a larger house than they needed, but it at least provided her with a job.

She also preferred working at night because the atmosphere was calmer. Strannix was a walking cloud of tension, barely harnessed rage, and volatility. A dresser that wasn’t dusted could illicit a stern reminder to the employee nearest to them or firing them on the spot whether they had anything to do with the transgression or not. And there was always a cold calmness to the man, as though the only thing that kept him from doing or saying the things he truly wanted to do was a sense of decorum that he couldn’t abandon. The only thing that made him tolerable was that, for as long as one had a job in this house, he paid well.

His wife was a wonderful woman though. She was kind and easy to please. Dina Strannix would talk to them like they were people and not parts of the machine that was the house. She remembered names and birthdays and gave small gifts to honor them. She even helped clean now and then simply because she got bored shopping, reading, or wiling away the time with the other merchant’s wives. But even she couldn’t seem to stomach him anymore, leaving one night after a seemingly normal dinner and never returning. None of the staff believed the story their employer gave about a spiritual retreat. They all believed that she had simply abandoned him, and some of them went so far as to whisper that perhaps he’d gotten her out of the house...one way or another, though no one dared elaborate, or needed to.

Strannix himself left after the dreadful riots, and the staff decided he was probably personally tending to his losses at the docks and would be back eventually. In the meantime, it was a well-paying, easy job that she could almost do without thinking about, as she did now, carrying a bundle of clean, pressed sheets destined for a bedroom closet when she was taken from her thoughts and rote by tiny insects buzzing in her ear, a tickle almost within the canal as though they were considering landing within it, or were simply on a quest to be as annoying as possible.

The maid shook her head to warn them off and the buzzing little things couldn’t have cared less. She hooked the bundle under one arm in an attempt to bat whatever it was away, but the sound was still undeterred. Then, as the sound had distracted her from her own thoughts, something at the end of the long, narrow hall took her attention away from the annoyance in her ears.

There was a light coming from beneath the door of the guest rooms at the end of the hall. As far as she knew she was the only one puttering about at this time of night, but, as she looked on, that someone else was awake and in the room wasn’t the only oddity. Certainly, there was light, but it wasn’t a lamp or a candle, it was too red and it flickered too quickly. It defied explanation, the closest she could come up with were the sparkling patterns that healers created at parties and shows. She moved a small decorative vase aside to make room before placing the sheets neatly next to it on the half table in the middle of the hall.

She moved slowly, almost afraid that if she moved too quickly, whatever was making that peculiar light would disappear and she’d never find out what it was or who or what was responsible for it. It really was a red she’d never seen before, something like that found in the setting sun, but brighter and more ethereal. Even from here it looked almost alive. The dark patterns weaving through it that made it seem to flicker danced along the floor and against the opposite wall. They moved, came together, then parted, swirling to and fro. She stared into the movement. Just when she thought she could time the beats and anticipate the swirls with the dark and light the pattern changed, daring her to refocus and try harder to see the patterns within. She thought that if she could anticipate them it would be like she was part of them.

The nearer she got to them, even if it was by just a tiny step because she was afraid to scare them away, the more beautiful and intricate they seemed to her. The more she looked at them, the more inviting that they were. Only by getting closer to them and becoming part of the dance could she be part of them. And, the more she looked, the more that being part of the pattern became part of who she was.

She shivered, as though hot breath sighed against her ear. There was no buzzing anymore. It was never just a sound at her ear, she realized as she took yet another step toward the door. It was a voice calling to her, beckoning and tempting with tones that curled her toes and shimmied up her spine. Another step closer and they were in time with the patterns as well in their own way; not mirrors, but companion pieces, as though an orchestra played in time with dancers on the stage that was the floor and the wall before her.

Another step and they were whispers of sex like the ones lovers had hissed in her ear. They weren’t even words as much as tones that played with her feelings Some were loving, promising to care for her forever. Some were deeper, more soulful, and more openly raw, promising to fuck her until she was spent and then fuck her more because her place was to submit to their needs, and she would revel in every moment of her use.

Another step and she realized there was nothing before her eyes but sparks of that deep, luminous, glorious red. She didn’t panic because she could feel it on her body now. Looking down she saw those patterns on her leg between her dress and her shoes. It felt like the voices in her head promised it would. Loving and submissive, it would take nothing she wasn’t prepared to give. Yet it was raw and dominant, demanding that she give everything. They could touch her. They wanted to touch her. They begged to touch her. They demanded it. She slipped the shoes from her high-arched feet and her breath caught. The patterns were now free to dance upon her exposed skin. She put her hand to the knob slowly, frightened that the slightest sound could make them flee. There was a click and she pushed the door open slowly.

To find a star from the sky had fallen before her.

The patterns and voices that were not quite voices came from its core. It was blindingly beautiful. It was everything blissful and decadent in the universe in a single point of light. It was like the Goddess before her. The light was caressing her now and every bit of exposed skin. The first coherent thought that she remembered having in who knew how long made her push the door closed without looking away from the gem that held everything perfect. The thought of her sharing that with anyone else made her jealous. She needed it to be hers. The door closed and she now felt perfectly secure. It was just her and the light now. She could feel it all over her, she realized how simple a thing it would be to feel it everywhere. As she undid the buttons of her dress she felt the softness of the light and roughness of the shadow take her exposed skin and dance upon it, the light like fingers, and tongues, that shadow like hands grabbing at her body as if to take her.

She whimpered when the light and shadow touched her small breasts and wandered down her belly. When the dress fell to her feet, the sound of her weak sigh escaped her, the sound descending into a wanton groan when the shadows crossed the folds of her pussy, seeming to fill it while the light licked her clit like a dozen tongues at once. They were making her a part of them and a part of the gem. She wanted to be closer. She wanted to see the center. She wanted to see power. She stepped forward and let it all wash over her, let it kiss her and fuck her and draw the strength from her, kneeling before it rather than risk falling she dropped close to it so that it filled her vision. She could feel that, as she peered into it, something peered back. It was an orchestra, she knew, the sight and sound combining to bring her here. There was a conductor in the center and if she peered deeply enough and gave of herself enough, she could see who it was.

She peered deeply through the ripples and waves of light and the rough and sing-song cadences of sound. She fell to it as much as she was pulled now, deeper and deeper into it. Deeper and deeper until the center was before her. It was small, a pinprick to her wide eyes that held nothing but swirling light, but it was still everything. She breathed in and out as she listened and watched. Time was lost to her now and that seemed as it should be.

After a lovely forever, a voice broke the silence, though, whether she heard it or simply felt it in her mind, she wasn’t sure. “Do you see?”

“It’s so beautiful.”

“Do you love the ocean we float in at this moment?”

“I do.” There were no worries or cares before her here.

“We float within it together. Do you feel it?”

“I feel it.”

“Heat?”

Hotter than anything she’d ever felt, but she would not burn within it. “Yes.”

“Passion?”

More than she had ever felt for anyone or anything in her life. “Yes.”

“Submission. We feel all those things. They surround us. They consume us. They drive us in all that we do, and even in what we think. But we cannot live in this on our own. We aren’t strong enough. If I take the gem away, you will lose all you feel now. You will wake as if this were a dream.”

She cried out from a place deep inside her soul, heedless of the prospect of being heard.

“But it is real now and It can be real until you draw your last breath.”

“Mistress needs you. She needs you and needs help only you can give Her. You are so important that I am here to give you this chance to be Hers.”

It was only then that she noticed eyes staring back at her, mirrors of her own. “Are you Mistress?”

The voice responded as though it were answering the understandable, yet ludicrous question of a child. “I am not. I have power. She is power. What power I have now She has given me. She has made me all I am, and given me love, passion, and submission to Her that lives with me always.”

Some small part of her mind that made sense of things beyond feeling could not fathom it and she gave it voice. “Goddess, I am nothing. What could I possibly give Her?”

“What she asks for is all that you are, but I am here for you because She wished it. What is your name?”

“Devin,” she said quietly, afraid again that the light, shadow, joy and submission that caressed her would be gone with the slightest misstep.

“I am here, Devin, because She needs you. She called and you have responded. Her need is great. Do you see the center? Do you see the point of light at the center of the gem?”

“Yes.”

“She is there in the center. She waits for you.”

The voice was gone now. There was now only her and the rippling, roiling sea between her and the center. She tried to push towards it, but, like fighting a tide, a wave of light and shadow pushed her back like a wall rushing forward. Again and again she was pushed away. Desperation and anguish welled within her. Mistress offered so much. She offered bliss. She offered purpose. She offered everything, but She pushed Devin away just when she offered everything in return. The voice told her Mistress needed her, but she was shunned at the last moment. Perhaps Mistress finally deemed her unworthy and her heart broke when she had tried so hard to reach Her.

But Mistress hadn’t abandoned her. The caresses hadn’t stopped. The light still made love to her and the shadow still mauled her as if she already belonged to it. The song still sang to her. There was something Mistress needed her to see, or do, or be.

She was trying so hard to learn what that was.

She was trying so hard. Mistress offered Devin everything, but She demanded everything in return. Devin was using her will and her strength to try to reach Her as though they were still her own when Mistress demanded all. Devin’s heart skipped a beat because, somehow, she knew the revelation was truth. Mistress already owned her. She owned her the moment Devin saw the dancing light from the hallway. Her mistake had been trying to reach Her under her own power with her own will. That was already gone. She just had to admit the truth. The words dripped from her mind to her lips.

“I am powerless.”

Despair threatened her again as the tide built against her before crashing against her with such force that she thought it might shatter her, but the power of it cradled her and pulled her down towards the center. Everything she was thrilled at the feelings of power that surrounded her, drawing her to Mistress.

“I submit.”

The current flowed faster now. It couldn’t be fought even if she wanted to fight it and that added to the exhilaration. Mistress would have her. Mistress was claiming her even now, but there was one more step to take. Mistress could crush her. Mistress could smooth her to glass and leave her with not enough mind to remember to breathe and, if that was what She willed after She took what She wanted, so be it, but Devin would not go back to being nothing when the alternative was to be of service to Her, no matter what was asked.

“I obey.”

She screamed it, or felt like she screamed it, as the center of the gem and Her power within subsumed her.

It was with her now. It was part of Devin and always would be. Every inch of her sang with Mistress inside it. The gem went dim, though there were still flickers of light to be seen. Her power was still within.

“I am Imir Ageko. The other, now almost entirely enveloped in darkness told her. “She is my power, for I am powerless without Her. I submit. to Her in all things. I obey Her in every action and thought.”

She could hear her own voice now and Mistress rewarded her now in even simply speaking the truth. “I am Devin Colls. She is my power, for I am powerless without Her. I submit to Her in all things. I obey Her in every action and thought.”

Ageko stood, and the newest slave followed suit. “Your employer is an evil thing and Mistress means to see him destroyed.”

The words came with a slow nod. “He is. What would She have me do?” Nothing was beyond the lines drawn by conscience anymore.

“He is a criminal who works within the underbelly of the world. He has records of that that he wouldn’t wish for others to see. Do you know if they are here, or where they would be?”

“No,” she admitted, pained that she couldn’t be of service. “I was just a maid. I spent my days cleaning as I went and running laundry about. Even though I was an ignored fixture, he spoke of nothing like that where I could overhear.”

Imir was untroubled, “Who in this house would know?”

There was no doubt. “Kav. He is master of the house and has been Mr. Strannix personal servant longer than anyone. If such things exist at all, he would know where they are.”

“Is he here?”

“Yes. He would inform us before leaving and he had said nothing.”

“She has ordered me to take this house, but I must have what I seek first. Can you take me to him on a path that will lessen our odds of being seen?”

“I can, Imir. Follow, please.”

She turned and entered the hall, her eyes adjusting almost at once to the light, thrilling at her obedience, and completely indifferent to her own nakedness. Imir stayed a few paces behind, the chain still wrapped securely around her hand with the gem swaying in time with her steps. If she thought of it, not entirely incorrectly as a leash with Mistress on the other end, it made her happy. The round, supple ass in front of her was almost equally as pleasant. Even that reminded her of Mistress. She occasionally made use of women in order to achieve her goals, but it was always mechanical and a means to an end. But that was before Mistress. She could live on her knees pleasuring that pussy and, more than once, did so until Mistress had to command her to stop. The sight. The scent. The softness. The giving of pleasure to, and receiving it from, Mistress was like fucking the Goddess Herself and it taught Imir to love women.

Devin took her to the end of the hall, down a spiral staircase and through another narrow hall, then left along another that, judging by the muted sounds and clinking of metal Imir decided were two or three other night-dwellers on kitchen duty. Turning right down a shorter hall, she led Imir to a door on their right which was only one of two on that side. The House Master was afforded much more room than the common folk.

Devin turned the knob slowly and the unlocked door gave in as Imir once again prepared to call upon Her power within the stone.

Light played at his edges of his eyelids like predators surrounding prey, at first as dimples and splashes. The predators moved in quickly though, closing in on him to drown him in a rippling sea of brilliant, nearly blinding red. It was the most simple, vivid dream he’d ever had. And when he opened his eyes he was still dreaming.

The patterns of light and darkness were still his world, but now he could see their source in the star that dangled above him, and those patterns were reflected back to him in the two sets of eyes before him. His voice still carried the slowness of half-sleep. “What’s…?”

Imir’s voice was smooth and she’d hoped she was properly conveying the will of Mistress. “What this is is power. See it. See Her Power.”

He did. He saw it in the brilliance of the light, a luminescence that he had never seen matched, even in dreams.

“You can’t look away and you have no wish to, do you? Feel Her power.”

He did. The brilliance seemed to use his eyes as a path to his mind, pressing against his brain, teasing and tormenting it. The light promised rewards beyond imagining if he did and the shadows demanded that he do so.

“Know it.” This one will, she realized. Devin craved Mistress before she even realized someone like Her was a possibility. “Surrender and you will know it. Each surrender brings you closer. “What is your name?”

The shadows became more demanding, the light receding slightly in their wake. They pushed, insisting that he answer, whispering to him that he was already owned and doing so was inevitable. “Kav,” he said, finally. The light found dominance again and it was like the caress of every lover he’d ever had.

“You feel and know Her power now, don’t you?”

“Yes.” He sighed as the warmth wrapped around him.

“Do you want that forever?”

Who wouldn’t? “Yes.”

“Mistress needs you to surrender yourself and then your master to Her. Obey and you will know happiness for all your remaining days.”

Happiness forever sounded wonderful and to be surrounded by Her power was indescribable in its perfection, but, rationality intruded. Yes, Strannix could be vile to those who had crossed him, but he rewarded loyalty, and Kav had been well rewarded in his years of service. And what was being asked of him by Her was betrayal. What good was happiness for the rest of his days when the number being spoken of would be whittled down to weeks or days when Strannix returned and learned of what was done, even if it was only the smallest thing?

Her power surrounded him, but he feared even that power could match his. To offer me this in return means She did not want a small thing.

“I...can’t.” The darkness found prominence again, gnawing at his flesh and bone. Even so, he

found strength in the words.

“You can,” Imir said. “You choose not to. She can destroy you. She can destroy your mind, and through me, She will to gain what is required from you.” She began to purr, “And I will revel in it because it serves Her. What She needs is more important than you. That is true today and that will be true always. It is true for me, and soon it will be true for you, one way or another.”

“No” It was more a plea for Her not to than the expression a belief that it couldn’t happen as he felt her power continued to fill the room. There was resolve within him. If nothing else, it was resolve not to be found by Strannix to be a traitor. “I can’t help you.”

She leaned forward slightly so he could see some definition to her fine features, though the stone still captivated his vision. “But She is loving and merciful. I offer you the chance now to experience Her love.” Imir retreated into the shadows once again. “Mount him. Show him the love that She can provide.”

The other moved and then Kav felt weight join him on the bed, on either side of his knees, sliding the blanket down his nude body. He slept that way simply because he was more comfortable and now some part of him wished there was some bit of protection between himself and the light. Oh, the mauling shadow and the caressing light was everywhere on his body now. He’d read romance novels where men and women tore at each other in love, hunger, and need, but, while he had loved and been loved in his life, it was never some all-consuming passion. But he felt Hers now. Her all consuming passion was to consume him.

His cock stood straight, almost painfully, wickedly hard now. In his youth it had led him around as though it owned him until maturity and will did its fair share to tame the man and, by extension, the beast between his legs. Now, it was happily complicit in whatever would happen next. The gem shifted towards the headboard and his eyes followed it helplessly, his body increasingly beyond the desires of his will, which frightened him, but less than it would have under any other circumstance. He felt the unmistakable heat of a woman just above him now and felt a drop of her essence wander down his cock. His breath became ragged from that fear and desire and that combination of feeling gave him the strength to speak. “Please.” But he wasn’t sure if it was his mind begging for it to not happen or his cock begging for it to.

“Feel Her power.” Imir’s voice was the last thing he heard before Her hand held his cock and Her body descended upon his

He felt it. His maleness was wrapped in it. His maleness wanted it. His body bent towards Her in that moment and his hand found Her hips as She pounded Her ass down upon it. His grip loosened incrementally with every thrust. When She rose She took some of his strength into Herself. Weaker and ever so much weaker with each thrust until he was sank fully into the bed. The gem only showed him light enough to define the darkness and shadow around her form. They ruled it now as they began to rule him. “Ohhhh...” He came with the power of youth, shooting seed into Her as though he could drown her as the light filled his gaze again. This was Her love. He resisted. She took, proving to him that She could. She could empty his body and mind at will.

Once the orgasm ebbed, another began to build. She could take him and destroy him, but, instead, She continued to give him pleasure and love like he’d never felt before and didn’t think was possible. The center of the gem beckoned. She was there. She waited for him. “Faster. Please, faster,” he pleaded.

She complied and he rushed to the center of the gem.

He was helpless. He was inside Her and She wanted inside him.

“This will never end.” Ageko promised. “Her love will never end and She will be within you always. All you have to do is admit to Her that you are powerless.”

It was already true. He was a puddle that couldn’t lift himself from his bed if the manor was on fire. “I’m...powerless.” He poured more of himself into her and She came with him at the sound of the admission. The fear of Strannix was still there, but it was nothing compared to Her warmth and acceptance.

“Tell Her you will submit.”

It was easy now. It was easy because what was left of his rationality decided that death was worth this. “I submit.”

The ecstasy in the sound of Her orgasm triggered another within him. He felt Her hands on his chest now, bracing Herself against him, her right hand over his beating heart. He took Her hips, feeling the great gift of touching Her.

“Tell Her you will obey.”

“I will. I will obey. I will obey. I will obey.” He kept chanting it even as the center of the stone filled his mind.

From Kav’s room it was a short trip back upstairs to Strannix’s office. Once Kav, still as nude as Devin, lit the lamps and, once he could see his way about, he went to the chair behind the desk and ran his thumb on the underside of the right arm, feeling for the nub of wood he knew was there that would slide back and let the key that was there drop into his hand. Turning, he pulled five books on the six shelves in sequence, each coming forward before a click was heard. Once the final click was heard, it was followed by the harder thunk of metal on the left side of the bookcase releasing its hold. The bookcase slid to the right easily, revealing a large safe within the wall. Opening it to reveal half a dozen large, leather-bound ledger books, Kav stepped back.

He stepped away and allowed Imir to take his place there. She took one of the books and paged through it . It was what Mistress sought. Contained within it were the locations of all his establishments, what depravity or vice they dealt with and how much they made. Another section was a list of prominent citizens who decided to partake in those vices, how much they spent, and how much they owed. “This is everything?”

“There may be evidence of more recent contacts or endeavors that haven’t been formalized in the ledgers or contracts that have yet to be signed and sealed. But the ledgers should cover the majority of his activities.”

“Those other records are here?”

“Most likely,” Kav told her. “Or in his office in the merchant district.”

“If any exist there, She will want those as well,” Imir informed him. “You will see to it.”

“I will.” In truth, it would be his profound pleasure.

“I’ll take these now in the event he tries to come back for them.” She believed he probably had more pressing issues to contend with at the moment, like staying out of Mistress’s reach.

“If he does return?”

Mistress had instructed Ageko regarding the most obvious possibilities, trusting her to handle the unusual because Her servant was clear on the goal. “Tell him they were taken by the order of queen and court. Tell him they already pursue him. If leaves any idea as to where he might go, you will know how to reach me. In the meantime, you are to behave as normal until I call upon you again.”

“I understand.”

She sat the ledger on the desk and glided to the desk and touched his face. He was a bit on the old side with a belly given to him by age over sloth, but he wasn’t unattractive. To Ageko, all that belonged to Her were sublime in their beauty. She caressed his cheek. “When I return these to you, that will be your cue to take them to the queen. Years of his horrid deeds and your mere knowledge of them weighs on you. You must cleanse yourself of the burden to cleanse your soul for the day you meet the Goddess.”

After tonight, he was certain he already knew Her. “I will.”

“You will share all you know and will do so with the conviction of truth. Know that doing so is what Mistress demands.”

“I will.

“Know that from tonight on, you will never be alone. She will be a part of you now forever. Mistress will be there to love you and be loved by you.”

He smiled and, inside, he was giddy at that truth. “Yes.”

Ageko then examined Devin more closely, moving slowly around her body. She was nice. Her skin was unblemished and she had natural muscle tone. This one had potential. “Do you have family, Devin? Do you have anyone that would miss you if you were gone?”

“Not since my father passed. There is no one.”

“I see.” Ageko cupped Devin’s ass and, when she squeezed, the other woman released a shivering sigh. “Mistress would have me seek those who might have more to offer Her. You must remain here as normal until this is resolved.” She looked into those eyes that were wide with wonderment and the bliss of submission. The two of you can writhe together as you live in Her light”

“Yes.” She saw him anew and in much the way Ageko did now. He was never someone she would have wanted before, but now they belonged together because they belonged together.

“Until I come to collect you for Her greater purpose. I believe she will see in you that which I see and remake you as She sees fit.”

Devin was powerless.

Devin submitted.

Devin obeyed.

Devin also hoped that Ageko would not see it as weakness that she allowed a tear to escape and run a glossy path down her cheek at the potential of being remade as She saw fit and something greater than Devin could ever be without Her.