The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

I let out a soft sigh as I stood on the edge of the beach, watching the waters roll in and recede, over and over, a serene and calming view, unlike the torrent of thoughts racing inside my head. The surf surged again, the edges lapping at my toes before withdrawing yet again. I couldn’t help but smile slightly at the sensation. Despite everything, nothing could ease my troubled soul as completely as the simple sounds and smells of the ocean at sunset.

It’s been such a long time since I last visited this beach. Indeed, it seems an eon since last I’d left Home at all. I did seem to leave it far less than my Sisters did. Verdandi traveled back for forth regularly, and Skuld, in her newest incarnation, spent far more time in the so-called real realm than she did at Home. I supposed it natural that I stay behind most often, being the matriarch, and the pillar on which the Nornir were built. Still, despite being blessed with divinity, I was still, at heart, only human.

Wading out into the surf, I closed my eyes, simply letting the waves crash into me, standing still despite the pressure of the water rushing around me. Not that there was any danger of me being washed away—Lacie may have been the strongest among us, physically, but we goddesses were, by nature, a rather resilient lot. As I stood there alone, amongst the sand and surf, I let myself relax, allowing the worries and concerns of my station, of my responsibilities, and the impending doom facing us all, just wash away, at least for the moment...

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” a male voice spoke from behind me, startling me. “The view, I mean. I’ve traveled far and wide, seen sights most people couldn’t even begin to imagine... but there’s something about this place, this beach, this spot at sunset.” Strong arms wrapped around my waist, and a warm body pressed gently against my back. “Of course, the fact that you’re here is what makes the view truly exceptional.”

I pulled away, turning around, glancing up in annoyance at the one who’d come to intrude on my precious alone time. “Jeffrey,” I said curtly, glowering at him.

“Victoria,” he answered back. “You’re still as beautiful as ever—”

“It’s Vurdra,” I corrected him, hands on my hips. “And you, are just as persistent as ever. You’re the reason I rarely leave Home!” I announced with a scowl. “Why do you persist in tormenting me with your presence? Why can’t you just leave me alone? Can’t you get it through your thick skull that there is no ‘us’?”

But he merely shook his head, still smiling at me in that same infuriating way that I always found annoying... yet somehow endearing. “Alas, my beautiful one, things are not that simple. There may no longer be an ‘us’,” he said making quotes with his fingers, “but that doesn’t detract from the fact that the bond between us still remains.”

I sighed, turning away, my earlier good mood soured. “You want to hang on to yesterday,” I commented idly, kneeling down to pick up a seashell. “To live in the past.” A wry smile creased my lips. “If anyone would know the impossibility of such a thing, it is I. But no matter how badly one might wish it, the past cannot become the present. Once something has ended, it is gone.” I gestured with a hand, and the waves stopped, frozen, the sunset placed on pause.

“Nice trick,” Jeffrey mused, walking back over to me. “But it seems to me that you are only proving my point. That it IS possible to live in the moment. To hold onto now and make the most of it.”

I sighed, a melancholy sound, tossing the seashell into the air, letting it freeze in place along with the rest of the world. “No, it only proves MY point. That as nice as this moment may be, it cannot last forever. In time, the shell will drop, the waves will rush in to swallow it, and the sun will set, bringing this day to an end. Even if this exact same thing were to happen tomorrow, it wouldn’t be the same as today. Once this moment passes, it cannot be reclaimed.”

Jeffrey grunted, walking forward, making a show of walking through the frozen water without disturbing a single droplet, something not even I could manage. “Such a dreary outlook,” he mused aloud, turning to look me in the eye. “When did you become such a pessimist, Victoria? What happened to the happy, smiling, free-spirit that I used to know—”

“YOU KNOW DAMNED WELL WHAT HAPPENED TO HER!” I snapped, letting my anger and frustration finally show. “For the last time, my name is Vurdra! Victoria is gone. She no longer exists! And everything she was, everything that made her ‘her’, is long gone!”

“And yet, you stand right here before me, right now,” he countered, just as determined. “The same woman, the same soul, the same person that I loved all those centuries ago. Not even your stinking little WITCH COVEN could change who you truly are inside—”

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” I growled, time unfreezing, the calm relaxing ocean changed instantly into a storm surge, a rough wind and rain pelting us now. “Speak ill of me all you like, but do not DARE to besmirch the name of the Nornir!”

“Oh?” he replied back, unimpressed. “You would defend them, then? The people that kidnapped you, and stole you away from me? The people that took away your very past, that killed ME and our son?”

Our... son?

I gasped, the breath catching in my throat. Keoni. My son... from ages past. Unbidden, tears welled up in my eyes. “Damn you for invoking him in this,” I said softly, turning away, walking back onto the shores. The gathering storm faded, resolving into calmness once again. As much as I hated it, as hard as it was to accept, his words were all true.

I’d been a young girl once, a fresh-faced maiden named Victoria, a resident of this very island back many thousands of years ago. As had Jeffrey. We’d fallen in love, and married, even birthing a son by the start of my twentieth year. My mother was revered as a shaman and priestess among our people, and it was said that the power was even stronger in me. Alas, the truth was that the blood that ran in our veins, the source of our power, was that of the Nornir. I had heard the Call years before, but I’d resisted. I had a wonderful life. and a man I loved and cherished. I hadn’t wished to give them up.

Unfortunately, She, who was the matriarch of the Nornir of that day, had not given me a choice in the matter.

I still remembered that day, the day that she and several other of the Nornir appeared in the center of our village, proclaiming that I had been chosen and that I was to come with them. They demonstrated their power, and the villagers, rightfully so, proclaimed them goddesses and fell to their knees in supplication. All, except for Jeffrey, that is. Cowed by their power, yet he’d fought back, refusing to give up the woman he loved. He’d yelled. He’d raged. And in the end, he’d placed himself between me and Urdrae, the Matriarch, even daring to grab her arm.

Urdrae had considered it a personal insult. And with the merest flick of her fingers, she’d destroyed him, rending him asunder, turning him to ash...

“Do you even remember your life from before?” he asked me, in the here and now. “You are Urdr’s reincarnation after all. All aspects of the past are your domain. Even if the Witch who was your predecessor removed your connection to your own past, you must still know it.”

I sighed. “Yes. I remember. Urdrae may have erased my past in order to control me and indoctrinate me into the fold, but I was able to rediscover my past once she passed on.” I shook my head. “But knowing my past did not reconnect me to those memories. Everything from before my life as Urdr’s descendant feels like it happened to someone else... like watching someone else’s memories instead of my own.” Which was true enough. It also meant that I likewise felt no deep emotional attachment to those memories either.

And that was the crux of the problem between Jeffrey and I. Slain by Urdrae before his predestined time, he was reborn as an Aun, with all his memories and attachments intact. And upon obtaining his power, he’d attempted to attack Home, to take his revenge for all that he’d lost. Auns were a divine race, just as powerful as we Nornir, only where our providence is time, they were masters of space and dimensions. It was only after a fearsome battle in which many innocents were slain, as well as, unfortunately, the inhabitants of our village, including our son, Keoni. And even though my past had been severed, holding his broken body in my arms as he breathed his last breath, was enough to arouse my maternal bond to him.

“And anyway,” I snapped waspishly, “you are as much to blame for what occurred as anyone else. It was your selfish bid for revenge that caused the bloodshed—”

“Blood had already been spilled,” Jeffrey countered angrily, “MY blood, spilled by your Nornir sisters!” He sighed shaking his head. “That night, that long and terrible battle... the battle against your accursed sisters? I was more than prepared to rage on, for me and my Aun brethren to fight until we forced our way through your precious veil and ripped every last one of you asunder...” He sighed, turning away as the anger bled out of him. “I’d thought myself prepared for everything, for anything... but I wasn’t prepared to face you... to raise my hands against my own beloved, now sided with the Nornir...”

“What would you have me say, Jeffrey?” I asked him without heat. “We both know the way it was back then. Despite the lives we’d lead, we were both destined to become what we did. Mistress Fate conspired to bring us to where we are. And though I serve Her will, and you continue to flaunt it, in the end, we can only be what we are.”

Jeffrey sighed softly. He strode forward into the water, and, with a backward glanced at me, leaped forward, striding atop the water without sinking into it. “Yes, yes, I know. Slightly sacrilegious I suppose, but I’ve always had a thing for the classics.” Sprinting across the ocean, he leaped atop a particularly large wave, surfing along the edge as it made its way back towards the shore, to stand before me once more. “We are who we are, eh?” he said. “If that’s true, then despite what She did to you, despite what you’ve become, Victoria still loves within you. You only need to embrace her once more.”

If only that were true. There was a definite disconnect between me and the life I’d once had. I’d tried before to reclaim what I’d lost many times centuries ago, but in vain. Even among the other Nornir, I was considered... stiff. Detached. Unemotional. Which was hardly true! I... I felt things, surely. I merely... restrained myself. Why bother getting overly emotional on things that I had no control over? And why bother getting emotionally attached when eventually those attachments with wither and fade?

But... embrace Victoria? The woman I used to be? Could it really be that simple? And... did I even truly want that? I sighed softly as I felt Jeffrey’s hands circle around me once more, clutching me close to him. Did I want this? Did I want him? I honestly didn’t know.

It wasn’t as if I hadn’t had sex with other men during the years. Indeed, a large part of Urdr’s responsibilities was in ensuring the bloodlines. I’d given birth to no less than six children over the centuries, including Keoni. And those children in turn lived and grew, and had children of their own. And so on, and so on, throughout the generations. All the while, I’d continued on without becoming emotionally invested in their particular lives. Not until Amelia did I truly feel a connection to them again.

Amelia...

From the moment of her very conception, I’d known she was special. I’d felt such a deep bond to her... such a... closeness. Which was why I’d insisted on bringing her back to Home and raising her there from the beginning... and why I’d insisted on bringing her back once her own daughter, Lacie Ann, had lost her connection to her Nornir blood.

And when she’d died? Amelia’s passing... was that when I’d closed off my emotions again? Or had I truly always been this way?

Jeffrey’s kiss broke me out of my dark thoughts, pulling me back into the here and now. Despite myself, I responded, kissing back, though it was more a physical response than an emotional one. He broke off, staring deep into my eyes. “Victoria?” he asked again, but I merely shook my head. “Don’t you feel anything towards me at all?”

“I can’t help that I don’t feel anything!” I said in frustration, only to gasp as he kissed me again, sealing away my protest. Before I could pull back, however, he responded by slapping me hard across my ass. Yelping, I jerked away glaring back at him as he chuckled. “Congratulations,” I spat, “you managed to finally make me feel something—aggravation!” Rather than be put out, Jeffrey laughed again.

“For you, Vicki, I’d say that’s a good start.” As my dour look, he shook his head. “I’m actually being serious. Your emotions aren’t gone, just repressed. Even still, particularly strong ones can still leak through.” He moved back, grabbing me by the neck, causing me to gasp in surprise. “The fact that I can still evoke emotion from you is a good thing. It means the connection is still there. You just need to open yourself to me... to let me bring it out of you.”

“O-open myself... to you?” I asked, gasping. He meant, make myself vulnerable to him. To lower my defenses and allow him to pierce my mind, my body, my very soul. “Are you... mad? Why would I ever consent to such a thing...?”

“Because deep down it’s what you want,” Jeffrey continued, relentless. “You’re always alone, always apart. Yet we both know that what you want more than anything is to feel connected with someone again.” I glanced away, but he took me by the chin, forcing me to look at him. “Your two sisters, Verdandi and Skuld, both of them are developing lives apart from their duties to the Nornir. They both have lovers and a family. They both have what you were denied, what was taken from you... and they are both showing that it’s not only possible, its actually making them better and well-rounded goddesses for the experience.”

What could I say to that? It was all completely true. I... I wasn’t really jealous of my daughter’s daughter... was I? And Skuld, and her beloved James? But... I had noticed how happy they both were. And even though I no longer felt that happiness, I did still remember being happy with Jeffrey once, long long ago. I was surprised when dampness suddenly landed on my cheeks, water that had nothing to do with the splashing ocean waters. “I... I do want that,” I admitted after a while, as my vision swam. “I just... I can’t... I don’t know how...”

“Let me help you,” he said again, gently, as he wiped my tears. “Just... let me in.”

Saying nothing, I nodded. Everything in my head told me this was a mistake, that the Auns were my enemy, that I couldn’t trust him. But... this time I was thinking with my heart. Powerwise, Jeffrey and I were equals. He could hold his own against everything I could throw at him, and vice versa. The only way he could assert any level of control over me is if I allowed it. And... as crazy as it sounded... that was exactly what I wanted him to do.

“That’s it, Vickie,” he said soothingly, as he moved around facing me. “Now... just look deep into my eyes.” Resisting the urge to make a scathing comment about such an asinine comment out loud, and obeyed. I looked deep into his eyes...

His eyes...

I felt my own widen slightly, a wave of sudden dizziness sweeping through me as I felt his power wash over me. It was... an unusual feeling. Not unpleasant at all... more of a strange giddiness accompanied by a warm wet squishy feeling in the pit of my stomach. He was in my head, inside my mind, I could tell. And while it would have been child’s play to protect myself and push him out... a large part of me wanted this. And as his control over me solidified, I felt that warning voice screaming away in the back of my mind grow fainter and fainter... and finally fade altogether.

Drawing back from me again, Jeffrey raised a hand, gently caressing my face. And... Goddess Bless... the simple contact, it was nearly orgasmic! I gasped, the breath tore ragged from my lips as I felt myself melting into him, my mind and body, hell, my very soul feeling as if I’d suddenly found something vital to my very survival that I’d been missing all my life and never known until just this moment! And I whimpered—me, whimpering!—when he withdrew his hand, moving to follow before I could stop myself. Jeffrey laughed, and I blushed—again, me, blushing, from his amusment!—as he chided me gently.

“Now, now, sweet one. Don’t be greedy. We’ve both waited for this for a very long time,” he said, caressing my long snow white hair now, running his fingers through it. “I want us to take our time and enjoy ourselves. And... you agree, don’t you?”

I nodded softly, staring at him, utterly infatuated. “Y-yes... I agree,” I managed, panting heavily.

Needless to say, we made love, he and I. More modern women might consider it simply ‘fucking’, pure, brutal, primal, raw and raccous fucking. And yes, there was indeed plenty of that. But there was also foreplay, gentle teasing, and caressing, a delicious agony of blissful sensation that brought me to the edge long before his hands ever made their way to my needful pussy. And gods above, when finally did he explore my hot wet tunnel, I was brought to a screaming end the likes I’d never experienced before! And just when I thought things couldn’t possibly get any better, any more enjoyable or pleasurable... THEN he finally entered me.

We fucked on the beach, amidst the sand and salt of the ocean, letting the waves wash over us, not caring, simply letting it add into the experience. I was no stranger to sex. I’d fucked numerous men before, given birth several times, all the while remaining in control of myself and the situation. It was almost perfunctory, merely the most efficient way of gaining the man’s seed and perpetuating the bloodline. I don’t recall ever truly gaining any satisfaction from the act itself at all; my gratification always came afterward, at my own hands. But this... gods above... if THIS was sex was truly like, then I finally understood my Sisters and their fascination with it!

And speaking of my Sisters... as Jeffrey lifted my legs, placing my ankles atop his shoulders, I felt what it truly meant to be dominated, to be used and fucked and knowing that you existed in that moment for His pleasure, not your own. Which, as impossible as it might seem, only brought my own pleasure soaring to new heights! I felt nearly delirious, ‘cum drunk’ as they call it, as my lover continued to pound into me, each hard thrust bringing me to climax again and again, shattering the one before it, an ever-increasing level of non-stop pleasure. Words unbidden tumbled from my lips, things that I would be ashamed of later, much later, but now, in the moment, felt the truest expressions from the very core of my being.

“Aaaahahhh!! Gaaaaawwwwdd! YESS! Maaaasssettteeerrr!!” I screamed, thrashing, long silver white hair flying as my head whipped back and forth in a frenzy. “Fuck me, Master! Take me! Own me! USE ME! Yours! Make me yours! Master! YES! YES! AAAAHHHH! FUCK YEESSSS!!! MOOORRREEEE!!!”

I’d surrendered myself to him completely. And that bond, that connection, that I’d thought long dead, flared up again, in all its glory. Undeniable. Unforgettable. He was mine, and I was His! In the dim, fleeting, recesses of my mind not completely flooded with bliss, I laughed at the incredibility. Three Nornir Sisters, supreme among all others, goddesses of fate and time... yet all three rendered helpless, pliant and needly slaves to the men we loved and cherished.

At least in my case, the man I’d submitted to, so wonderfully ravishing my thrashing twitching body, was more than a mere human. At least I had that.

In the end, both Jeffrey and I decided to cheat just a bit. He had been using his power subtly the entire time, exciting and exploring my body, bending space around his hands, his lips, his tongue, his cock... to make it feel as if he was touching me everywhere at once. Even as he slammed his manhood into my pussy, again and again, I also felt it in my ass, as well as pressing between my lips. His hands, likewise, seemed to explore every part of me simultaneously, circling and teasing my clit, pinching my nipples, caressing and stroking my hair, my face, back, and even slapping and squeezing my ass. And his mouth... mmmm... sucking and nibbling, licking, every part of me, from my toes to my nose. Was there any wonder I was in sensory overload?

As I reached my limit, I decided to return the favor. My control was pretty much shot, considering my situation, but I managed to bring us both to the moment of absolute pleasure... and then freeze time around us, locking us into the moment. Imagine it. Frozen in the moment of climax, at the height of pleasure, cumming endlessly, over and over, without stopping, without ever winding down, or lessening the sensation, held right there at the peak! Our screams of pleasure blended together perfectly, echoing through time as we both held each other, clenching, laughing, crying, swearing, gasping, shuddering, all within the blink of an eye, yet around us, time flowed like quicksilver, as the tides went in and out, the sun and moon rose, then set, then rose again.

And still, we came there together, in that moment.

It wasn’t until Jeffrey’s strength finally faded, when he managed to gasp out a command to release us, that I broke us free. We collapsed then, panting, breathing hard, too exhausted to do anything by lie there, nestled in each others’ arms. My eyes fluttered closed, and I let out a sigh, one of true contentment, as I slept, feeling sated, safe, and held.

“Mmm... it’s just no good...”

I roused sometime later, yawning and stretching. I was naked, lying on the warm sand, and it actually took a second or two to recall where I was and what was happening. Then Jeffrey’s words came back to me, and I sat up, finding him standing a few feet away, staring out at the ocean. “What’s no good?” I asked, curious.

“Oh? You’re awake,” he responded, turning back to join me. He sat down, naked, next to me, and I sighed softly at the feel of him, of our skin touching. I guess that meant our bond truly had been restored. “Sorry... I didn’t mean to disturb you, I was just... thinking out loud.”

“Indeed. You said, ‘it’s no good’. What did you mean? Not this, I hope,”

“This?” he asked, chuckling as he pulled me in for a quick kiss. “Not on your life. This, my love, was wonderful! In fact, the only regret I feel is that we waited so long to do this, spent so many centuries bickering, then fighting, then avoiding one another. All that time lost...” He sighed a deep melancholy sound. “But no, I wasn’t talking about the past. I was referring to what is coming next.”

“Hmm? And what comes next?” I asked, leaning into him.

“Armageddon,” he stated flatly, causing me to stiffen. “The approaching Cataclysm, as you call it. We Auns can sense its approach just as surely as you Nornir.” He sighed softly. “You know that old saying about people who love the sea?” I glanced up at him. It was something of a saying back from before. Back when we were both still human.

“They know when the tides have fish,” I answered, remembering the saying all too well. “They know when the tide is strong. And most importantly...”

“They know when a storm is coming,” he finished grimly. “Aye, And a great storm IS coming, looming ever closer, just over the horizon. One whose tides will rip apart reality itself. And your beloved Sisters are to blame.”

I scowled at that, pulling away. So much for the tender moment. “We know about the upcoming Cataclysm. We know who will bring it about. And we are busy trying everything we can to prevent it from happening! You cannot lay the blame for this squarely upon our shoulders—”

“It is not about laying blame, Victoria,” he replied, wistfully, sadness in his tone. “Your Sisters committed a great sin... a sin against me. Against both of us, here on this very spot, long ago.”

I shook my head. “Yes. And they paid dearly for that betrayal, didn’t they? And here we are now, connecting again. Can’t you just let it go, Jeffrey?” I asked, a pleading tone creeping in despite my best efforts. “The past is in the past, after all. It cannot be undone.”

“It’s not about forgiveness, either,” he said softly. “And truly, this night, when I held out my hand to you and you finally accepted it, in that moment I forgave them for their part in things.” He shook his head. “Truth be told, ever since I awoke as an Aun, a part of me knew it wasn’t the Nornir who were to blame. You are all, large and small, merely pawns of your Mistress, Lady Fate, after all. She is the one that weaves the threads of destiny... all the Nornir do is follow the plan as she has directed it. But alas... even Fate herself is not infallible. She gives you all a destination but allows you to get there by your own path. And the paths that your sisters have tread have lead us to this place.”

I couldn’t really refute that. Lacie Ann had indeed set things in motion when she chose to put the life of her beloved husband above those of her Sisters, and her duties to the Great Weave. And yet... each of us, including myself, had all felt that she’d made the correct choice. Here, now, with emotions unlocked, able to feel my love for Jeffrey anew... I know I’d have made the same choice in her place.

“But don’t think I refer just to Verdandi,” Jeffrey continued, drawing my attention again. “I also refer to Urdrae, when she acted to take you from your life here and to end my life. Auns are born out of the mistakes of the divine, when gods and goddesses mistakenly take a life that was meant to live on. Each of us are living reminders of those mistakes. And each of us is a hole, a missing piece of the Great Weave.” I gasped, as realization struck. “Yes, you begin to understand. The grand tapestry has been damaged for eons, with the Nornir managing to somehow hold it together. Barely. This upcoming event... it is merely the final straw, the one that breaks the camel’s back. And this particular straw, the one that sets all this in motion... is a man known as Jeremiah King.”

I gaped at him. “No. NO! That... it’s impossible!” I objected. “Lacie Ann... she defeated him! Destroyed him! She removed him completely from existence and even rewrote reality so that he never HAD existed!”

But Jeffrey shook his head. “No, that is what everyone believes. But the truth is actually more complicated. King wielded the power of a Key, just as young Lacie did. Even though she bested him, she could not completely remove his existence. To do so would in and of itself be a paradox. Think about it. If Jeremiah King never existed at all, then how is it that you remember him?” I blinked, frowning at that. “And how could Verdandi’s reincarnation have fought and beaten someone who never existed? The fact that he does not exist in reality right now is a given fact, but if he’d NEVER existed at all, then how could the memory of him persist?”

I shook my head, unable to deny the logic of his argument. “So what are you saying then? That someone who does not exist is somehow going to reappear and get his revenge on us for erasing him?”

“In a word... yes,” Jeffrey replied, to my surprise. “True, King was removed from reality... but even so, he had to go somewhere, right? Your Lacie rewrote time and trapped him an in endless loop at a pivotal moment in history before he first obtained the power of a Key. And to be doubly sure, she removed that time loop from mainstream reality and locked him away in a pocket reality separate from this one. But alas... King himself ALSO wielded the power of a Key. And he knew that the possibility of his defeat might exist, unlikely as it was. So he planned ahead. Even as he was being erased, he used the last of his power to alter things just enough to allow him a way back.”

I moaned softly, shaken by this. It was one thing to face the end of all things, to know it is coming, and to plan to stave it off, or at least face it head-on. It was another to realize that the thing that would end the world was caused by one’s own actions, the mistakes of our past coming back to bite us in the worst possible way. I couldn’t help but see my own fault in things as well. Lacie was indeed the catalyst, the linchpin that connected Jeremiah King, the Key powers, and the destruction of reality. And yet... all of it could have been avoided if, when I’d come for Amelia all those years ago, I’d simply taken the child with me as well.

I’d discarded her, wrote her off as unimportant, because I couldn’t sense her connection to the Great Weave. Yet, not only had she turned out to be a child of destiny, she had given birth to two more, one of whom had nearly brought about the Cataclysm all by herself with her own sheer unbridled power! And I... in my arrogance, in my own self-importance, had brought all this about by casting her aside, by leaving her vulnerable instead of protecting her as I should have from the very beginning.

Hindsight, I fear, is always twenty-twenty.

“Is there no way to stop this from happening?” I asked him, wincing as I saw him set his jaw. “Yes, love, I know. You Auns serve Entropy the way we Nornir serve Fate. That the end of the universe means little to you—that the Auns exist outside of time and space, everywhere and nowhere at the same time.” I turned to him, openly pleading now. “But surely, you must know some way that we can prevent this! Please, Jeffrey.”

He sighed softly, smiling down at me sadly. “Believe me, my love... I wish I did. I’ve already revealed far more about the situation that I was supposed to. Telling you about Jeremiah King and his involvement is the most aid I can give you. I have neither the knowledge nor the power to act to stop whatever machinations he has set in motion from occurring.” He strode forward, however, pulling me into an embrace. He then kissed me. “But I swear to you here and now, Victoria... Vurda. If there is any way that I can help you, anything that I can do to keep from losing you, I will do it. No matter the cost.”

“I know, my love,” I whispered softly, clutching him tightly to me. “I know.”

We held each other there, on that beach, for a long long time. We talked. We laughed. We cried. We made love again. We fucked, as if the world would end in the very next moment. And we reconnected. In the end, we once again parted ways, me returning to Home, to my family. And he returned to his. Jeffrey, who’d been my lover, my husband, my enemy, my friend, and finally my lover once more. The future is not my domain. I know very little of it, only that it has yet to be decided. But I do have the past. And as I move forward towards the future, I take with me all that I’ve experienced here. And I take with me the promise and the knowledge that if Fate so wills it, I will see him again in the future.

And come what may, even in the face of impending doom, I can look back on this time that we spent together with a smile. And that will be enough.