The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Deres closed his eyes, trying very hard to focus on the pleasurable feelings Neral’s strong, delicate fingers were trying to provide as they caressed and kneaded his broad shoulders. Her fingertips followed the edges of the muscle while she would occasionally bring her hands together as if in prayer to run them with some pressure up his spine before spreading them outward over his shoulders almost like a blooming flower. Despite the fact that there was an admittedly somewhat crazy desire to hold onto his anxiety, she was helping.

He was sitting on the edge of the custom bed, large enough for three with room to spare with her long legs wrapped around his lap, as he felt as though he were on a cloud with the down comforter beneath them. He was home alone with the woman that he adored and that alone prompted him to take a deep breath and let the confession. “I feel so helpless.”

“For now, you are doing all you can do.”

“Which is nothing.” His dejection was palpable.

She was sympathetic, but she, as always, was pragmatic. “Sometimes that’s all you can do. It’s painful and frustrating, but it is what it is. There are times where your enemies want you to rampage. Act on emotion and your enemies will make you pay for it. Sometimes you attack. Sometimes you wait. Sometimes you simply make another move to see what your enemy does because it gives you a better look into their minds and how they work so that when you finally do act your odds of victory are much improved. Much of my career has been spent in waiting and even more of it has been spent not doing what I want to do.”

Her fingertips dimpled his neck, pressing softly as they moved. “I’m waiting for a name of the mages responsible. I’m waiting for the case against him to be presented to court. Once those things happen, I will be able to do what I want to do.” Deres couldn’t see the grin that found its way to her.

“Which is?”

“Come after all of them like the righteous hand of the Goddess...without all that mercy nonsense.” In due time they would all pay.

He snorted with laughter and shook his head. “I like the sound of that.”

Deres tried to find some solace in that. “The case will be ready at least.” The ledgers were in code, but with his and Bryana’s skills the code wasn’t particularly difficult to break. Beyond that flurry of activity for him, there was little else to be done. The case could be presented almost at will. They wanted to give Kav enough time to produce every single piece of evidence possible. Then it would take time for court to go through it all, but, in the end, there was no way the queen wouldn’t be able to unify them behind her. Then there would be more time taken for the logistics to be put in place to end his business presence in Erette.

That left the mages. It was unfortunate, but not at all unexpected that there was no straight line to be drawn from Strannix to them within the guild records.

“I just don’t feel like I’m doing what I should be doing.”

“Which is?”

“Looking for the mages myself, or at least helping in that.”

“Do you think Bryana isn’t doing all she can? Is she missing something in your mind?”

He huffed in annoyance and rose from the bed, physically feeling Neral’s absence. “The only fault I can find is that what she has to work with and trust the other guilds. They don’t exactly have our best interests at heart. They have no stake in this...that we can see anyway.”

“Based on what they’ve given her, they have provided her with at least a few possibilities. They seem to be acting in good faith.”

“I know,” he agreed, conceding the point. “What was used to take Private Hoben is something of a unique specialty. But, at the end of the day, we have to trust that they don’t have their own agendas. Perhaps some of them are paid to keep those responsible ahead of us.”

“Or it could be a trap for Bryana; a contingency in the event that the original plan failed.” Sometimes she didn’t like the way her strategic mind worked. “Since the guilds seem much like the Houses, it’s a possibility.”

His mind picked up a thread almost without realizing it at first, then picked up few others and tying them together with admittedly little more than intuition. “Maybe the ledgers aren’t useless when it comes to her. He passed on a lot of work to the mage guilds through one of his dens here in the city. Who says that he just used it for the guilds? Maybe that was a...hub of mage activity of all kinds. Maybe the name that passed on the money knows them and knows how to find them”

“Many ‘maybes’ to be had there.”

“Yes, Neral, but I like the sound of it.”

“And you’d be doing something.”

In his mind, he was already planning what to do and how to get what he needed. Appealing to this person’s conscience was probably pointless because one couldn’t work for a man like that, and in that capacity and have one. Either they never had one or they killed it to keep access to the money and the power their master had. Money? He didn’t care about money and he knew Neral didn’t either. They could make him rich in his own right. But that put him in the same position as Bryana with the mages. He had to trust him or her to tell the truth and not be acting according to some plan that Deres wasn’t aware of. There was really only one option to make sure he got the truth and he got all of it; this one would have to be corrupted, too. Only by owning him or her would he know all there was to know.

“You don’t think you’re the one going in, do you?”

The sound of her voice was sudden in his ear, temporarily pulling him back to the now. “Why not?”

She looked at him, slightly surprised that she had to explain it, even if she accepted that he was being driven more by his animal mind than his rational one. “Mage goes into potential den of mages. For all you know they’re waiting for you. Even if they’re not they’ll sense your power the moment you enter the place, and, while I know that you’re the most powerful mage to be found living among the rest of us primitives, are you really willing to bet your life on the idea that you can handle whatever, I don’t know, half a dozen of them try to do?”

She saw the look in his eyes, then amended herself. “You may be, but I am not and I am safe in saying that Bryana is not, and neither is our child. You remember her, yes?” When he softened, so did she. “So you are outvoted, love. Your idea, however, is basically a good one. Someone should go in, reach this Harken, and find out what he knows. But that someone can’t be one of us, and can’t be a mage, lest they alarm him and perhaps others there. What he might have, in concert with Bryana’s findings, might lead us exactly where we need to be.”

“We have friends that would be willing, we should go to them and ask.”

She again knew the tones in his voice as she knew her own. “Tomorrow is soon enough. That gives you time to decide how best to handle things when the time comes.”

He took a deep breath. Now that there was the beginnings of a plan, it was a little easier to relax. “We should make sure none of this interferes with anything that Bryana might be doing to further our goals.”

“Now you’re thinking. Isn’t that better?”

His mood was brightening by the moment. “Are you calling me dumb?”

She answered in her most innocent tone. “Not at all, but,” letting it slip into a tease, “you can be goaded into rash action from time to time without someone to temper your impulses.”

The way her lavender slip fell exposed a nicely muscled thigh. “Most fortunate for me that I have women in my life that are willing to do so.”

“It is always good to have another mind to test ideas against. Or to temper your worst impulses. Or, failing that...redirect them.”

He took one more feasting look upon her body and pounced on the bed and she couldn’t help but burst into laughter as his powerful arms clutched her. In this moment she was at peace. While she was honest with him in that she was content to wait, she very much wanted to be proactive and these embers of a plan scratched that itch. With her now having confidence that Deres wasn’t going to do anything rash, she could relax and enjoy the moment with one of her beloveds. “You are so incredibly easy.”

“Only because I am weak to you,” he said, nipping her neck, and kissing the scar of an arrow wound on her neck. “And I am weak to you because I adore you.” He kissed her lips.

“But there are so many women, even here, that you adore. House Jaye has become quite the stable for your concubines.”

It was hard for him to dispute it. He held her more tightly, feeling the warmth of her again and her fingers on her spine. “Everyone needs a hobby. But I always come back to my two. And, if it’s all right to mock my own, shall we say, harmless interests, I should point out that not only do you have your own, you enjoy mine. You enjoy knowing about them. You enjoy watching them. And you enjoy participating more than occasionally.”

She kissed him once, savoring the softness of his lips before giving him a smile, “As Bryana reminded me recently, nobody’s perfect.”

Neral kissed him again and let herself slip into the moment.

Anna received word that General Jaye requested her presence as soon as she entered the barracks not long after dawn. She knew that something was very off in the fact that the runner was waiting at the gate for her arrival with her tone that was clipped, firm, and with the words slightly over-enunciated. Suddenly she felt like a newly-enlisted soul again, with that accompanying sensation that she could jump out of her skin every time someone barked an order in her direction or abject dread when called in by a superior. That feeling diminished to mere puzzlement as she made her way to the general’s office. That she didn’t know what it could be about put her somewhat at ease. If she had done something wrong, she’d probably already know what it was, but, as she mulled recent events, she couldn’t think of anything obvious that could draw attention that would take her outside the normal chain of command to deal with it.

And, she dared think that she had a friendship with the general. Since the quest they’d undertaken together, Neral had stayed close with them. There was a unique camaraderie between them having seen and shared things between them that, even if they could be explained to another, it’s doubtful they would be understood.

Deciding that she’d find out what it was when she got there she saw to it that the troops she was responsible for were tended to before she made her way to the main barracks, which housed offices as well as elite combat and healer training facilities. She made her way to the office and there was another minor peculiarity with the fact that Adjutant Jaye was nowhere to be seen. She was often performing tasks all around the facilities or moving back and forth between the barracks and the castle, but the timing of her absence felt like another oddity added to an already odd morning.

She knocked on the door and waited.

“Come.”

She entered to find General Jaye standing behind her desk, looking as though she was feeling some of the apprehension that Anna herself was. Next to her was Deres who gave her a welcoming grin and a nod, no doubt in an attempt to put her at ease, but, that he was there at all was only another oddity that fed her anxiety. She stood, spine ramrod straight, and hoped that answers were forthcoming. With fist snapping against her leathers, “Captain Anna Evence reporting as ordered, sir.”

“At ease.”

Muscle memory caused her to widen her stance and put her arms behind her back.

Neral waved her hand, realizing her unintended choice of words, a momentary victim of military formality herself. The feel of the uniform alone tended to have that impact. “All the way at ease, Anna, this isn’t exactly an official meeting.”

She complied even though she was only slightly less confused than she was on the way here. An officially unofficial meeting and she’d never remembered Neral looking so uneasy, as if she didn’t know where to step next so Anna did her best to help the general feel at ease herself with some humor. “The runner made it seem like the world was about to crash down around my ears. Then again, that’s what all runners make everything sound like.”

“Well, you send a runner when it’s important, they know it, so they act like everything is vital because they usually don’t know whether it is or not and it’s better to err on the side of caution.”

Anna was a touch wistful, “I remember doing that myself. General, if this is important, yet unofficial, may I ask what it is about?”

Straight to the heart of any matter was one of the things that Neral liked about her she owed her the same. “You know about the incident with Khylen, yes? You know the truth of it?”

“I do. Those closest to you do. Colonel Dion entrusted me with that. I’m sorry that I haven’t made the opportunity to express how pleased I am that what happened resolved in the way that it did. I’m glad she’s safe and may those who are truly responsible pay for their crimes.”

Neral’s words were carefully chosen. “Don’t misunderstand me because I’m glad that she told you and I would have done so myself with you, Abren, and the other’s that fight closest to me, but this has consumed much of my time. Why did she tell you?”

“As an extra pair of eyes on the lookout for the unusual, and, in the event you needed help, we’d already know the why of it.”

She should have known Ynesa would have passed it on and perhaps she did. Perhaps she did because Neral knew she might need help and removed herself from that part of it so as to allow them to figure out for themselves how far they would be willing to go without the pressure that came with Neral standing before them and asking for it. Even if she didn’t know for sure, Ynesa did and acted accordingly.

“What can I do?”

Deres liked how quickly the words came from her. “You don’t even know what’s going to be asked yet?”

“And you should know that doesn’t matter. I’d give my life for a just cause, and bringing people like this to justice is cause enough.” And that didn’t even touch upon her loyalty to her fellow officers or the general herself. There was too much bloodshed and hardship shared between them over the years to turn away when one of those soldiers closest to her came to her as simply a friend in need for her to ignore. She locked eyes with Neral. “Whatever you need done that I can do will be done.” She took a deep breath and slapped her palms to her thighs as if to close the matter. “So what is it you would you have me do?”

“We follow a path to the mages responsible,” Neral began, but it’s not much of one at this point, and, to be honest we have no way of knowing if what we’re asking you to do will take us anywhere at all, but for now it’s all there is.”

“We have reason to believe that a lead can be found in one of Etan Strannix’s vice dens in the city that patrons call ‘The Void.’”

“I know it.”

Deres’s brows went up and he looked decidedly amused while Neral’s expression blanked for an instant. “You do?” It shouldn’t have entirely surprised her. Anna gave her all, worked hard, and tended to play just as hard. It shouldn’t have entirely shocked her that she might indulge herself a little in such places. Still, there were more savory places and ways to go about seeing to one’s indulgences.

Anna did her best to navigate the awkwardness and clarify things as the anxiety she felt on the way here returned. “Well, I know of it. I know what goes on beyond the public facade of the restaurant above, though I’ve never been in the back or the basement, mind you, sir. I’ve only ever seen the public face.” She held Neral’s gaze and then looked to Deres to find his grin had broadened in watching her flail. Her voice pitched upward just a little. “I swear it. The front has good food at a reasonable price and it’s not as if I usually have enough time in the day to make my own. To engage in the rest of it would open me to blackmail if they found out my position. I…”

“It’s all right,” Neral told her, trying to put her at ease once again. “It’s fine.”

“It helps us anyway.” Deres said plainly. “Her appearing arouses no suspicion, and it’s one of the reasons we went to her first.”

“I’m sorry?”

He was quick to clarify. “You like to shed the stress of the day with some zeal. No one who knows you would think it was odd that you like to gamble or...whatever...a bit, so no one would see it odd that you went there for that. As it is, no one will give your appearance there a first thought.”

That made sense enough. “What’s the other reason?”

“That you don’t fear forbidden magic, alchemy, and the rest. My mother spoke highly of you after we returned from dealing with the threat of Drexa. She said you were bright with an open mind that was remarkably in tune with the flow of magic. She still believes you would make a fine mage.”

“Coming from her that means a great deal.” It truly did. In another life, to be a master of such skills would have been a life she might have chosen. As it was she occasionally pestered Deres and Bryana with seemingly endless questions about this and that. It was another layer of the universe that was always there while almost no one acknowledged it. There were times it captured her imagination so much that she ached to know more.

“You’re not one, so any others that might be there won’t mark you as a potential threat or put anyone on alert if you appear there. That’s why no mage we could be sure of can go in and try to get what we want. But you are open enough to it to not be fearful about using the tools given you, and less likely to make a mistake with them.

“Won’t they see whatever you give me to use?”

“No.” He was certain of that much. “Because part of what I’m going to give you is just a bit of chemistry.” Some pride crept in, “A rather complex bit, actually, and created using some bits of plant here and herb there that I keep and tend for study and because they’re useful, but many of which cannot be found in what you know as the world, but that, in and of itself isn’t touched with magic.”

“The other part?”

From an inside pocket of his brown coat he presented to her a slender crystal that looked as if it had been shaped by the finest artisans in Erette. It was clear and certainly had no mechanism she could detect. Something shifted in it as though it were filled with a liquid in the way it bent the reflections within it. Handing it to her to examine, he spoke. “These are among the greatest tools in Adar and they have many different uses depending on how they are constructed, tuned, and manipulated by the user. Neral has something like this that she can use to communicate with me from any distance.”

“It puts me in a place with him, anyplace I can imagine, really, and we can see, talk to, and touch one another no differently than at this moment.” She would never quite be able to shed the awe that came with talking about such things.

“With a crystal such as this, it’s even possible to cheat death itself.”

Anna felt the weight of it in her hand. There was a twinge of apprehension, but mostly there was a sense of how boundless the universe was. She stared into it and she almost felt as if something was staring back; something to be touched and commanded.

He sat on the corner of the desk casually now, leaning towards her. “If you went to cave-dwelling primitives that didn’t know what a wheel was, all that you are and all that you can do would seem only within the realm of the Goddess. Much of it they would barely fathom. People do not look for things that are, and rarely know how to see things, too far beyond their experience. As a healer of Erette can rarely even glimpse at what a guild mage can do, so are guild mages with the magic of Adar. Add to that that it is a mix of magic and the sciences, it creates oddities in their perception so unusual that they simply dismiss it if they see it at all.”

“I understand. For them it’s unidentifiable noise.”

“Exactly.”

“I am going to use it with you to show you how to use it in the way that you need to. Seeing how the magic and thought ebb and flow will help you manipulate both.”

“And that, lady and gentleman, is my cue to depart. Duty calls as it always does. The room is yours for as long as you need it. though I hope you won’t need as much time to make your crystal do what you want as I did.”

He shook his head, “Don’t listen to her,” he chided. “She exaggerates her ignorance in regards to such things.”

Neral collected some notes intended for a staff meeting and then for some informal interviews and tucked them within her uniform. “I’m sorry, Deres. She is required by oath and law to listen to me. I shall not have you foment insubordination among my officers.”

Deres followed her to the door, his tone a shrug of indifference. “Whatever happens happens. Feel free to interrogate me later.”

She was equally indifferent. “Live in hope, husband.”

He locked the door behind her. “Take a seat,” he said, as he took the one next to her and turned it towards her, she followed suit so that they faced one another. He offered her both hands. “Yours in mine. It doesn’t really matter how you hold it when the time comes. It’s just easier to teach you this way. Magic can flow between us this way and I can sense your thoughts and help you shape them.”

Her hands rested within his and the crystal within hers. Yes, the attraction to him and to that of certain aspects of the magic was still there. His hands were gentle and strong. Suddenly the anxiety returned with some apprehension about whether or not he would notice and, if he did, keep it to himself. She assured herself of the latter at least. He could present as cavalier at times and the general and Bryana could tell stories, but they knew him to be decent at his core, as did Anna. Whatever will happen will happen, focus on now.

“You remember when my mother shared her thoughts with you?”

“I do.” It was impossible to forget. Deres’s mother in every way, save biology, Maylin Xon was faced with needing to be in two places at once. Her skill was needed to heal a wounded comrade, but time was of the essence in reaching the right place at the right time to hobble the enemy that was Drexa. To effectively be both places at once Maylin had shared a level of her consciousness with Anna to allow them both to do what needed doing.

“This will be something like that. Open your mind as you did then. Find a calm place within. When you are at that place, through the crystal, you will find me there, then we’ll begin.”

It took some time to put her emotions to rest and quiet the thoughts that roiled them but, eventually, they began.

Anna sat in the restaurant, finishing her light ale, opting out of wine or stronger spirits for obvious reasons. The general had funded her more than generously for the evening, so she decided to live it up just a bit and order some of the finer seafood that she only rewarded herself with after returning from a successful campaign because coming back alive was always worth some sort of special notice. It, as always, was meaty, buttery, and each bite was an event. She took her time to savor it, as the night was young.

Finishing that last perfect bite, she waited for the server to sweep in to take care of everything. An average in every way man eventually descended upon her. She knew his face but not his name, as they’d only engaged in moments of idle chatter as she came and went for her special evenings. He knew enough to know about her bit of tradition at the restaurant. “Are we finished capping off yet another victorious return home?”

“Actually, that’s not what tonight’s about.”

“Oh? Find some money in the street and decide to spend it on something utterly frivolous?”

She laughed at the joke. “Not that far off, really. New military policy provides bonuses for service milestones and I just hit one.”

He seemed to share her happiness. “Oh, lucky you. I might have done that but, I’d always be too worried about being too dead to spend it.”

“My thought exactly,” she exclaimed. “I can’t take it with me when I’m old and, for all I know, I might not make it that far, so, by the Goddess, I may as well enjoy what it brings me now. Her tone lowered, knowing the topic she was going to broach. “Since I can’t take it with me and I may as well spend it, I figure I may as well spend it doing something I’ve never done before, so...”

“Lakaberry torte,” he suggested.

“Maybe I could pay my bill and them some,” she said, putting gold on the table, “and then see the back tonight and do a little gaming?”

His smile faded just a touch as he took her measure as well as the measure of the coin on the table. He did it quickly and his good nature returned. She never impressed him as one of those soldiers that was always on the job, so she probably wasn’t looking to report anything to anyone, and she wouldn’t be the first soldier back there, and probably wouldn’t even be the only one there tonight. “I’ll see what can be done.”

He then cleared the table and disappeared. Returning with a wet cloth for the table he wiped it down in smooth circles as he spoke. “The large gentleman at the back will be happy to let you in. Have a nice time and good luck.”

“Thanks.”

Heading to the back corner under the stairs where there were more shadows than light, a hulk of a man separated himself from them long enough to open the door for her. Her senses piqued as she moved past him without a word and down a long flight of stairs, following the sounds of raucous laughter, cheers of victory and the mournful wails of loss. As she drew closer, she scented the various burning leaves that made smoke-filled rooms what they were.

A turn to her left and she entered a cavernous room that was larger than the restaurant above and had other rooms branch from it. Gaming tables of all types dotted the room and they were all alive with activity. The soldier in her took time to find where the unseen enforcers that no doubt lived here could come from as well as any path that might lead her to an escape should she need to while making sure to look like a curious newcomer as she did so rather than someone with other designs. No doubt there were passages used to get people who valued anonymity in and out and, while she was unlikely to actually find them if things went bad, she felt more secure in having a place to begin.

“Welcome, Anna.” a smooth male voice said. Even in the those two words Anna could tell that the man had experience in hospitality. “Forgive my presumption, but the fine people upstairs told me your name and I had hoped to put you at ease.”

She smiled at the mature man who had just left the days of youth behind, his red hair just beginning to thin on top and fine lines around his brown eyes still fine, but one could get the sense of exactly how the man would look in a few more decades. His finery was contemporary, which helped him hold onto that youth for just a while longer. “Thank you very much, Mister...”

“Harken, my lady,” he said, taking her hand as any gentleman might. “Charmed to meet you and, if it’s not presumptuous of me to say, it’s not often we get visitors to our fine establishment that are quite so beautiful.”

She smiled and dipped her head. “Thank you so much.” She glanced around seeing what patrons might have moved closer now that an unknown face was closer to the man responsible for this place. “Looks like so much fun.”

The salesmanship began. “Oh, this place is the true lifeblood of the city. We offer rare food and drink you won’t find upstairs, or, I dare say, in most of Erette. As you can see we also have more than a dozen games of chance.”

He leaned in with a dirty grin. “If you wish to sample some...pleasures of the flesh, as it were, we have the most beautiful men and women to be found in the world, and of any body type that might appeal.”

“Oh, I think I would just like to gamble tonight.”

“Very good.” He then looked like the very picture of sympathy. “While, we, of course, wish all our players the best of luck, we know that like doesn’t always smile on our players and, in that event, we are always willing to extend at least a modest line of credit to all our invited players.”

“I certainly won’t be doing that.”

“That’s quite wise.” Harken then wore an expression that Anna best categorized as practiced surprise. “Oh, one other bit of business: we trust our patrons to behave according to the norms of civility and decorum, so we don’t search our patrons for weapons and the like. Issues here are rare because, if there are any altercations, unless the offending party is clear and obvious to our observers, everybody pays for the offense, so that we’re sure the offender has paid. And, rest assured, that we have the resources to handle any altercation.”

“Do I look like a troublemaker?”

He laughed at her and touched her shoulder like he would an old friend. “It’s always the ones that ask if they look like one that are.”

“Well, I never.” She laughed with him. “To be honest, that was often my parents’ policy with me and my siblings, but, I give you my word that I’ll be on my best behavior.

“Again, good luck.”

Anna was off to try her luck, orbiting the tables, seeing which ones had a nice feel. She took coins from her small handbag. found a dice table, and got to playing. She never gambled much, though, when she did, she preferred cards over anything else, and was usually good enough to come out ahead. But, if she was gambling with someone else’s money, as she was tonight, she’d play anything.

She spent the next few hours playing and enjoying herself while making sure to win some while losing more as she went. An overly aggressive bet here, bet, lose, and chase smaller bets too long there and, while there were a few upward spikes in the night, her downward trend was assured. She knew eyes were on her because there were eyes everywhere, even if no one made her out to be anything more than she appeared, so she made sure she played her part; joy at winning when it appeared that her luck might turn and angst giving way to increasing despair. Time was a blur, but, eventually, Anna found herself at the bar looking suitably defeated, making a habit of putting her last coin on its side to spin it before just watching it move and twirl until gravity had its way.

Harken had been watching her over the course of the night with some satisfaction. If she’d won, it’d hardly matter. Sooner or later everybody lost, and many in that group lost enough to be indebted to them. Mostly having that debt was a slow drip of income for the business. The limit would be reached, they’d pay enough to reopen it, then come back just to chase their losses, but they always came back to eat and drink, too, so, game it out long enough and they paid in more than they ever took.

For some few though, that indebtedness was most helpful to the organization. Healers could be called upon for services. Scientists could give them access to, and sole rights, to breakthroughs. Soldiers would be eyes and ears for the organization, warning it if anything threatened, and, sometimes, those soldiers with a taste for it could be useful in collections. Eyes and ears near court had benefits that were almost limitless. Dens such as this gave his employer much more than money.

This one, he knew, from what the server had told him, was of some note, and that she trained fresh recruits at the city barracks would give Mr. Strannix an excellent lead on young, impressionable souls that might be willing to help him on any number of fronts. A few more weeks of nights like this and this one would be ripe for the picking. Tonight though, was the time to be a voice of understanding and to offer a helping hand. He waited until the coin spun itself flat on the light wood of the bar before he sat down.

Folding his arms on the bar, he waited while she pulled a small silver flask from her bag, pulled the cap free and downed its contents. She winced at the hot, bitter flavor that reminded her of swamp water. Neral had warned her that his concoctions generally weren’t palatable. Goddess, she wasn’t kidding. Honestly though, she’d tasted amateur attempts to produce alcohol that were probably worse. No doubt she’d already drank enough to get the job done, but she shook out the last drops on her tongue all the same, uncaring that it looked more than a little unladylike.

“We also generally prefer customers not bring in alcohol from outside unless it’s from the bar upstairs.”

She sulked “Yeah, well...sorry. If it makes you feel any better I’m all out anyway. I’m out of drink and,” she continued gesturing to the coin and glaring at it as though it were her worst enemy, “that’s what’s left of my money.”

He sympathized. “The night did not go well, I’m guessing.”

Her shoulders sagged. “That’s one way to put it. I should have quit while I was ahead with a nice dinner. But, no, the army puts a little extra money in my hand, and I think, ‘Hey, Anna, your luck is changing. Maybe it’s a sign that She’s smiling down on you. Try your luck.’ So, like a fucking idiot, I decide I should take a little extra to ride out a downturn and...”

He seemed to sadden with her, “You bought everything with you.”

“Everything I could hide away after over a decade in service and that’s all that’s left; that one miserable mocking, whispering gold coin. Am I an idiot or am I an idiot?”

“Well, that’s debatable, I suppose, but, you certainly aren’t the first one to spend beyond your means here. Here, let me get you another drink, this one completely on the house, so you can keep your last gold.” He raised his arm to catch attention.

“No, thank you,” she sighed in defeat. “It wouldn’t help, I don’t think.”

“Well, you might change your mind. If nothing else you can look at a nice, heavy glass filled with fine liqueur instead of one sad, lonely god coin.”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, barely registering what he’d said as she explored a feeling that she’d never felt before. A heat grew in her belly and her loins that reminded her of laying on the floor before a roaring fire in the dead of winter with a good book and nothing to do while the warmth penetrated every inch of her, creating that sense of comfort and safety that could combine to put one perfectly to sleep. It came upon her so suddenly that her eyelids fluttered and she let them close so she could ride out the sensation without arousing suspicion.

Then there was a chill that rushed through her veins, but that wasn’t unpleasant either, rather like walking into an icehouse on a warm day. She could almost track its progress from fingers to toes and from vein to vein. It stayed with her as an added weight and a sense of power that she knew enough to respect.

“...it whispering?”

Anna cleared her mind and turned her attention back to Harken, “I’m sorry, what was that? I was just trying to close my eyes and figure out how old I’d be before I saved up that much money again.”

“Your coin. What’s it whispering?”

She spoke on its behalf, a hoarse with a sinister whisper as she folded her own arms on the bar and rested her chin on them. “Spend me. Come on, Anna. You may as well. You may as well complete your failure. Hey, who knows, you could start winning. Before dawn, even if you made a quarter of it back you can call that a win and run away from here as fast as you can. Listen to those people behind you winning. That still might be you.” She groaned. “It lies mostly, but, to the depths with it. I may as well give it up, huh?”

He patted her shoulder in an almost fatherly manner. “I have to admit that I’ve almost never seen someone parlay a single coin into a fortune, so he might do better if he had some friends.”

Anna’s eyes shifted back to him, but she retained her melancholy. “So you’ve got gold you don’t care about anymore?”

He laughed honestly. He liked her wit. “Something like that.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” She saw her opportunity and took it, grabbing him by the shoulders and putting her lips to his. His mouth opened as his face adopted an expression of wonder and her tongue slipped inside before he took her shoulders firmly and pushed her away enough to break contact. “Well, thank you, dear,” he began, catching his breath, “and I must say, I quite like the way you express your gratitude, but I think you misunderstand a bit.”

She pulled away a little and her arms fell away from him as she waited cautiously for the hammer to inevitably fall.

“Anna, dear, I always care about gold, and I’m afraid I can’t just give it to you. What I wanted to suggest is that we do extend lines of credit to people that provide a service to us even if it’s not directly to us. Soldiers such as yourself guard and protect us and...”

“Us?”

He didn’t miss a beat. “All of the people of Erette, of course. Through no fault of your own you aren’t paid your worth, so, we feel that extending a line of credit is our way of...giving back to you for all you’ve done.”

Her eyes narrowed. “A line of credit?”

“It’s generous and our repayment terms aren’t onerous, I can assure you. After all, it wouldn’t make much sense for us to do this as a gift to soldiers that we know are underpaid yet make it so you can’t afford to pay it back. It’s all well-explained in a contract with easy to understand language. Why don’t I have my associate bring us one, you can look it over, then decide whether or not it’s something for you.”

Harken had learned long ago that to have a contract like that on his person could scare the prey. It was a warning that they were in a position to be taken advantage of, and enough heeded the warning so as to make him stop the practice. This way, he continued to seem like a friend and it seemed more like their idea rather than it looking as though he were just waiting to spring a trap. He watched the wheels turn behind her eyes as she fought with herself as he’d seen the unlucky do here a thousand times before, but greed and desperation combined into an almost irresistible brew that never failed to tilt the scales of common sense towards recklessness.

She weighed her few options. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to look at it.”

“I don’t believe you’ll regret it.” He snapped his fingers twice in rapid succession and, when another man appeared Harken whispered in his ear to dispatch him. Moments later he returned with a paper in one hand and a pen and ink in the other and placed both on the desk without a word before vanishing back to wherever he came. Anna’s fingers drew the paper closer to her so that it rested between them and began reading. Harken drew closer as well in order to begin to explain things and it was the first time that he noticed her perfume. It seemed to be everything at once: warm and refreshingly cool, sweet, yet spicy, and cloying while hinting that it just might disappear at any moment, and demanding to be taken in by him again.

He inhaled deeply. “What is that lovely scent? I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before.”

“I didn’t come in wearing it,” she admitted. “I’d hoped it would have changed my luck, but the dice didn’t notice.”

“Ah.”

Anna’s eyes widened in pleasant surprise, “Is that my credit line? I guess you weren’t joking. That’s very generous indeed.”

“It is. I admit that it is more generous than some receive and I’m afraid I have an ulterior motive for that.”

“Oh?”

“I told the truth when I mentioned that you are among the most beautiful women ever to grace this place and that fact benefits the club, so we make sure that benefits the loveliest of ladies. If you have more to play with, I suspect you’ll come come more often and stay with us longer when you do. That helps us.”

She looked around the room, the sway of her long hair bringing that intoxicating scent to the forefront again before leaning in. “I thought that’s what you had the whores for?”

She really is beautiful. “The who—… ladies do tend to keep the men at the tables, but they’re sort of expected. To have beautiful...beautiful people as part of our regular clientele lends to the sense that this is the sort of place that elites really want to be.”

She dipped her head shyly, “Well, thank you. I love the service, but, it doesn’t really allow a women to be beautiful very often, you know?”

“I can certainly understand, though I bet you manage that even in the worst of times.”

She took his hand and laughed. It was such a lyrical sound that, for a moment, it utterly captivated him and he laughed with her, though her hand on his made that laugh waiver. Her skin was like the finest silk running against his and even better than that.

“...this thing a little more; the terms and things. Contracts are not my specialty.”

He shook his head to clear it, but was only mostly successful. “Of course, dear l-lady.”

Grasping those things with which he was familiar helped as well. He took her through when repayments would be required, how much, and under what terms the debt could be fully recalled. He just let himself talk while she followed him through the paper. Her hand stayed on his and he found he didn’t even mind her asking questions. He found himself encouraging it just so she’d let that sublime voice caress his ears. He spoke, took in more lungfuls of that perfect scent, and simply took in more of her.

She took the pen, dipped it to the ink and let it hover over the paper, seeming to not even notice the sound of dismay he covered with the clearing of his throat that came from her taking her hand away from his to do so. She signed the paper with a flourish. “Here. I certainly hope that I don’t have to make use of all your generosity.”

She’s mine. “I’m certain that your luck will change.” His hand went to the paper and froze when her hand found his again, her silken skin gracing his. He thrilled for many reasons.

“Can I make a confession?”

“Please.” He wanted to know everything about her right now. By the void, if he looked away he might miss something.

“I’m feeling really, I don’t know, naughty right now.”

“You are?”

“I’m not an idiot, you know.”

“Oh, I could never think you are?”

“I know what it means to sign that paper. What happens to me if I can’t pay the money back?”

He shook his head and patted her hand, caressing it as he did just so the nerves of his fingertips could come to life touching her. “You owe us absolutely nothing at this point. Walk out, go home, and make tonight a memory if you like. If circumstances are such that you use up your credit line and have difficulty, we could certainly renegotiate terms.”

She looked down at her lap, not quite having the courage to look him in the eye as it came out as a half-joke. “Like having me put my heels in the air for the men who drop the most coin?”

Harken’s cock was went instantly rigid seeing it in his mind’s eye. Heels in the air, knees bent just a little, rocking as the man pumped away, simply using her for himself. He snickered as though it was a wicked joke. “You really are naughty, aren’t you?”

“Duty and all that, I guess. It’s just a different duty.”

“It appeals to you? Keeping them gambling...servicing them as they want? As I want?”

“Yes.”

“What if I were to tell you, Anna,” he began, sliding the note away from her and folding it neatly, “that I already have you? I will, of course, live to every word of the note, but what if I showed it to your commanders? What would they say? What would they do?”

“Nothing good.”

“I don’t think so either.” He knew so because some soldiers made it necessary over the years. He whispered in her ear. Even her hair carried that incredible scent. She must have bathed in it. “Would it arouse you to hear me tell you that you have to come to the back with me now?”

“I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

“Come back with me, Anna. Come back with me now and show me of how much service you can be and want to be or, first thing tomorrow I’ll destroy your career and you’ll be back here doing what I want anyway because that will be all there is for you.”

She purred and the sound of it almost made him orgasm then and there. “Yeah, my pussy definitely liked the sound of that.”

“You are a filthy woman. Come with me.”

She followed as he led her beyond the gaming room through a narrow hall. She memorized the path and noted other doors as she went. None of that was guaranteed to help her, of course, but it was habit.

The door to his office flew open and she felt his arms wrap around her tightly. For an instant, she was ready to defend herself, but as she spun about and he buried his head in her neck she relaxed, being not unfamiliar with that particular form of attack. Anna squealed and giggled, her hands running down his back as he buried his face in her neck, not to nibble with finesse, but to lick at her like a grateful dog. “Do you use every woman who signs a note like this?”

As he laughed it turned into a muffled growl. “Only when they look like you.” At least Harken thought he said it, but perhaps he only thought it, so consumed he was with this woman. The sweet smell of her filled his nose and it teased his thoughts away. The sound of her voice was a choir of angels. When it made sounds of pleasure, his hips would thrust into her through their own will. To kiss her skin was not enough, he had to press his tongue to it and lick to get more of the sweet taste of her sweat. He pulled at her dress just under the collar, sending buttons skittering to the floor like rocks skipping on the water, tasting his way between her breasts. She was perfect. No woman had ever tasted, sounded, or smelled like this before. No woman had ever been such an example of perfection.

She was perfect. No woman had ever tasted, sounded, or smelled like this before.

Harken wasn’t sure why that thought lingered in his mind, but it did even as he continued to assault his senses with her. She was attractive and supremely desirable, but was she really that perfect? He kissed his way up her neck to her chin just to gaze upon her. In those eyes that caught the light so as to sparkle like gems, he didn’t see true passion for him or even for the moment. He didn’t see submission. He didn’t see a woman that craved submission and use. He saw a woman that was simply letting him do what he needed to do. It was all just wrong. He clamped his eyelids shut so he didn’t have to be tempted quite so much even as he couldn’t stop himself from kissing her cheeks and letting the tip of his tongue taste the honey that was her skin. On her skin?

“Mage?”

“Hmm?”

Her nails raking his hair made the tiny hairs on his neck stand on end. “Are you a mage?”

“No.” Anna gripped his head firmly and pressed her lips to his with ferocity, her tongue slipping aggressively into his mouth once again, but this wasn’t like the first kiss. That was shocking and not unpleasant, but that was just a kiss. This was like being kissed by the Goddess. Her breath was life and her tongue like ambrosia. His brow smoothed and his arms went limp as he rode the delirious high of the experience.

“I just know people that are,” she answered, leaving him to sway weak-kneed as she took two steps to the door to close and lock it behind her. “The little drink earlier? It was supposed to make me irresistible to the one I...shared it with. Everything about me impossible to ignore and nearly impossible to resist. I literally exude what you need now, from every pore...from every part of me.”

“W-why?”

“Because there are things I need from you.”

With some space between them, his voice was beginning to regain its strong timbre, though his breathing was still labored. “What things?”

“We’re not exactly sure, so it was decided it was probably best to just learn everything.”

“No. I won’t.” Anger gave him will. “I’ve learned things. Mages have taught me things, too.” She drew closer to him and the scent of her tormented him yet again, teasing and urging him to give in.

“I’m willing to bet coin that my mages are better at this than yours. Besides,” she wondered as she put no space between them again, “I get what I want, and you get a good time, and all you have to do is not fight it. That’s a better deal than your bullshit line of credit. If you’d call it ‘path to servitude’ it’d at least be honest. How many of my brothers and sisters in uniform have you fucked over, hmm?”

He was nose to nose with her and almost swooning yet again. “Is that what this is about? I-I don’t make them gamble.”

“No, you don’t, but that would be enough for me to do this to you.” She kissed him again, all pretense gone now. His eyes closed and he made guttural sounds into her mouth as she pressed down on his shoulders. Did she get progressively stronger? No. He got weaker. He could feel it. Eventually his legs were so mush he let her take him to the floor. Harken opened his eyes again to find her knees on either side of his head with the skirt of her dress bunched to her waist. He felt dread, but that dread was amplified because there was no small measure of anticipation with it.

“Have a taste, Mr, Harken.”

His head shook weakly.

She lowered herself until she was inches above his mouth. She just let him breathe her in and watched him do it, admitting to herself that she was enjoying the power she had; the power she had over him now and the knowledge that she was in control, of him and of things beyond his reasoning. “It’s all right to like it,” Deres had told her as he taught her the power of the crystal and how to control it. “It’s all right to enjoy that moment. It’s all right to enjoy your power. Lying to yourself about it leads you to far darker places. Accept it.”

Anna accepted that she liked watching his head roll back and back and forth as he tried to resist.

“Taste, Mr. Harken.”

“Nnn...” She watched and listen to him breathe deeply, filling his lungs to their limit before exhaling, his hot breath tempting her in its own way. That annoyed her because she disgusted him, but she accepted it because she came in knowing that this level of...commitment might be necessary. She admitted that it excited her, too, because he was going to break. People like him have forgotten what it is to not be the one in control.

“Taste.”

She sank down on him fully, watching his eyes widen and finally glaze over as he slathered his tongue wildly and ravenously hooking its tip to pull the nectar of her into himself. She moaned because he was relentless and demanding. “Irresistible, is it? Keep dining, fucker.”

He groaned into her snatch and if she could have looked behind her just then, she would have seen a wet spot visible in his pants. He licked and sucked and lapped as she let the skirt fall to obscure him entirely. His tongue and his helplessness felt good. Accept it. Denying that it did might serve to distract her and letting the edge come off would help her focus later. She took his limp arms and placed them over his head before lacing her fingers to his wrists as she ground her hips and her mound into his helpless mouth in the same way that she would grind into a helpless pillow on a quiet night. Anna closed her eyes and thought of that. Anna thought of her power and his lack of it and how that intertwined and fed the heat for both of them, though in very different ways.

Anna’s voice squeaked as she panted and came, riding the waves of it all. Finally, she lifted herself back to a sitting position, ignoring his still wiggling tongue, she reached into the pouch at her belt once again to retrieve the crystal. She gripped it tightly as she lifted her dress and herself away from him to see what power had wrought. Anna stifled a laugh at the look of comical bliss that greeted her. He was nearly cross-eyed, his chin glistening from her juices, and he actively licked at the air as though she was still there to feed his need.

“Ready to be helpful?”

“Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.”

“Sounds like a ‘yes’ to me.”

Anna settled back upon him, a good cum and knowing there was a job to be done let her mostly ignore his continuing efforts. Settling its heft into his hands she placed hers over his and it once again. Closing her eyes and opening her mind as Deres had taught her, she used the keys he gave her to unlock the machine. “I could do this without linking to him as I will show you and you won’t be able to touch his mind quite as we are now,” Deres said. “His rational mind will be subsumed. All that will be there will be drowning in pleasure. Use the pleasure to find him.”

Anna let the rippling, tingly feeling from her clit carry her on the tides of power within the crystal. She saw in the distance, yet right at hand, similar notes and colors as those she was part of at that moment. Pushing toward them she found them even more intense, the colors brighter and the notes more prominent. Knowing it was who she sought, she sent a thought to the machine part of the crystal to prepare to perform its task before she dove towards the waves, using her will to maintain control and keep herself from looping into the pleasure with him. Thought projected outward. “Are you ready?”

For what?

“Are you ready to give me what I need in return for your continuing pleasure?”

That was enough for the part of his mind that ruled him now. Yes. That wondering sliver of him wondered still. What do you need?”

“Everything.”

The part of his mind that ruled now thought everything was a small price to pay.