The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Awareness came in pieces.

First, there was simply the sense of self. She had emerged from the blackness. Her heart beat strongly in her chest. She was not dead and not in any real discomfort, so she took a moment to relish that and focused on breathing in the damp air, still chilled despite the fact the flicker of torches and lamps teased her eyelids. She could smell the sea, so she knew she was still near where she started on the south side of the city.

Next came the acute awareness of her body as a whole. She was fully nude, her nipples firm in the chill. Her arms were over her head in a ‘v,’ cuffed to heavy chains that were anchored firmly to the ceiling. She was going nowhere until whoever it was decided to let her go. Then there was the collar around her neck. It felt like a thin metal and fit snugly, but not so that it threatened to impede breathing. The fear of the unknown led her to think of the sensation as fingers at her throat.

Then came memory. She was in the markets in the south quarter of the city shopping for some odds and ends for the house. Good deals could be had and Mistress had an affection for the handmade quilts from the merchants there. The now captive had arranged for delivery of several and moved on to the rest of her list when someone brushed her. She turned to her left to see one of the urchins that claimed that part of the city. She didn’t remember his face specifically, but, to be fair, she hardly looked. He was as unkempt, threadbare, and dirty as too many in the quarter. He’d brushed her hand so quickly and lightly that, if not for where she found herself now, she probably would never have paid it any mind. Not long after that came the blackness.

Feeling stronger and knowing that she had no hope of getting anywhere without knowing her surroundings, she opened her eyes, which was easier than she thought it would be. She’d expected the lids to be somewhat more leaden given how groggy she felt in those first moments.

She looked around the room. It was indeed well lit, showing her the limestone that surrounded her, but sparsely furnished. All that she could see was a table that had her shoes paired next to her clothes that were neatly folded. Sitting on that table with his hands on his knees and a grin on his face was someone she knew of, but little more. Deres “Where am I?”

“Where I need you to be,” he told her. “I do commend you though, you seem very bright, Cassea. You surveyed yourself and your surroundings before opening your eyes and revealing yourself that way. Many other women would have simply started screaming and so would more men than would dare admit it.”

She looked him over. From broad chest to powerful limbs, he didn’t need height to be imposing, but he carried it casually even now. She noted that they even looked similar, both with dark hair and blue eyes. At first glance they could be related, but the idea that she could be mistaken for the kin of some wretch from the south quarter was upsetting no end. “What good would screaming do?”

“Absolutely none. You could scream until your voice were gone and you could scream with people right outside the door and no one would hear you at all.”

She clearly puzzled over his last words, but said nothing more.

“I commend you too in not being particularly bothered by the nudity and the chaining and all that.”

Cassea sounded genuinely indifferent, “It’s done. Begging for my clothes would be as foolish and pointless as screaming or begging you to let me go. Since it is done, you may as well tell me what you think.”

“You should be proud of every inch, honestly. No one would expect a body so...athletic under those clothes. Lovely thighs, toned belly, and I could probably bounce a coin off that backside. I’m not sure how you run a house and have the time to maintain it.”

“Enjoy looking. It’ll just be another thing you pay for.”

He hopped off the table, standing before her, and sounding almost bored with what was coming, but willing to acquiesce to the demands of the situation. “This is the part where you tell me people will be looking for you. My answer to that is, your shopping errands are being completed while we’re here together, and the goods will be delivered. So, to anyone that might want to look for you, it will look like you did your job and then decided to spend the rest of our time together on whatever leisure activities you have, like keeping that body firm, for example.

He gave her an impish grin, “By the time anyone is really worried enough to start looking for you, there won’t be anything to worry about because you’ll be back running the house and no one will be the wiser.”

She snorted, taking a moment to imagine herself biting through the soft tissue of his throat. “Where you think I’ll tell exactly no one of my kidnapping and rape at the hands of General Jaye’s pet?”

He put both hands to his heart as though mortally wounded, “I’ve been called far worse than that, both before I left Erette and since I’ve returned. You don’t even get points for effort. But, to put your mind at ease, no, you won’t tell anyone what has happened here. You won’t even want to.”

She didn’t believe it for a second, “Of course I won’t,” she said as though agreeing with the crazy person with a weapon in order to avoid a fight.

He touched her cheek just so see her reaction and was pleased she didn’t flinch. This woman was strong-willed and, in that way, not unlike his beloved Neral. He liked that a lot, not for the least of reasons being that what would happen later would be all the sweeter for it. All things in their own time, he thought. “You know who I am?”

She jerked in annoyance, the chains rattling in response, “As if you don’t know you have been the talk of the Houses for months.” She took on a more formal tone, as a crier might if reading off his accomplishments, “Deres Valtise, pauper and orphan of the south quarter who ran away to find his fortune and his name, returns after a life who-knows-where to tend the sick and wounded. Almost immediately, he weds so far above his class that, if the general had any self-respect, she wouldn’t have him lick her boots clean, much less warm her bed.”

He smiled, “It has such a nice rhythm and cadence when you say it that way. Do you write poetry?”

That he was seemingly imperturbable made the whole situation that much more difficult, but perhaps something else could reach him, “You’ve started a war, you know. In taking me for even a minute you’ve invited my master’s House to war with yours. Do you really think you, in your position, a position that entirely depends on her position, can afford such a thing?”

He sighed at this well-trodden bit. “Let me guess, if I let you go, you will speak to no one of it and it will be as though none of it happened?”

“Pfft...you will pay me well and regularly for my silence because that will be cheaper in treasure and less costly in blood than any conflict and it’s certainly less a burden on you than your House’s banishment.”

He laughed a belly laugh that took his breath away as it echoed through the room, Deres pacing as he worked it out. “Oh, I really do like you, girl. You are where you are and I am where I am and you still have the iron in your spine to think that I’m just going to pay you to let you go.”

“What choice do you have?”

“We haven’t even started yet, dear.” He scratched at his jaw and paced her again, “You know what interests me? We’ve been here a bit now, you and I. We’ve sparred and that’s been fun, but you wake up here and you see me and ask where you are, but not why you’re here. Why would that be? Would it be that you know why?”

He enjoyed her silence.

“I think you know exactly why. Here’s what I know: a war has already started between Houses and it was your master that started it. Prince Kudan of the Kressin is nursing along a centuries old grudge, or maybe he’s just looking to cause trouble and take advantage of whatever mayhem ensues. He wants to strike fear into the heart of Erette, but he can’t do it all by himself. He needs a guild mage to pull it off and one from closer to Erette is best because the greater the distance from Kudan, the better.”

“Who knows how the got into contact? Maybe one of your master’s aides likes the courtesans from Kressin and messages passed. Maybe they crossed paths at some ambassadorial function; it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that, through links in a chain, Kudan and Vesik join forces and it’s Vesik that contacts the guild first, though at least one soul from Kressin met with the guild because he is who the mage dealt with. In the end though, Kudan gets his revenge, and Vesik maybe, just maybe, ascends to the throne of Erette. Even if he doesn’t, the House of Jaye is gone and he is a lot more powerful.”

“In order to make all this work though, money goes back and forth and, at one point, on a gray beach on a cloudy day, because Kudan just has to see where his money goes, he spies you picking up the gold.”

Cassea was good. Had her eyes not bulged ever so slightly at being caught out personally, her face would have betrayed nothing at all.

“But you did run gold at least once for a failed plot against arguably your entire kingdom and certainly my House. So, when you wake up here, you don’t have to ask why.”

Her jaw tightened as she studied him, trying by force of will to determine how much he could prove simply by studying his face, “If such a thing were true, what could I tell you that you don’t already know?”

“You’re going to confirm it and you’re going to tell me how involved the family you serve really was.”

“Am I?”

“Then you’re going to help with a plan of mine.”

She nodded, “Of course I will, just as soon as I can flap my arms and fly away from here.” Cassea worked her jaw back and forth for a moment before spitting in his face. “Rape, torture, or kill me, but, if you’re going to rape me, I’d prefer you killed me first. I’d rather not live with being mounted by a creature from the dregs. But, whatever it is, get on with it.”

He wiped the saliva from his face with his sleeve without missing a beat. “That sounds fine to me.” He touched his forefinger against the collar, triggering a flash of electric heat that flowed through Cassea, from head to toe and back again before dissipating entirely.

She looked around in wonder as the feeling took her and when it was gone she actually seemed pleased. “Ohhhhh, you are going to burn, mage. When this is over, I am going to scream ‘forbidden magics’ to the heavens and you will burn for it, and I’ll throw wood onto the pile and laugh.”

He shrugged, “After we’re done, you’ll be able to tell anyone anything you want. But, first, what’s your name?”

She was taken aback by the seeming non-sequitur, “What?”

“I know your name. You know I know your name, so why don’t you just tell me?”

“Fuck you.”

“Perhaps later. What’s your name?”

Her voice dripped with contempt, “Is that why I’m here? You need a real woman? You must know we all talk about her. That’s a cold bitch, that Neral Jaye. How long can you fuck her without the frostbite setting in? The poor guttersnipe has to fuck that frozen cunt to have a bed. Is that all you do, Deres? Does she have you sucking cocks while she watches just to amuse her? How many get you a hot meal?”

He brushed her cheek and watched with satisfaction as she flinched and turned her head away. The veneer was slipping. He knew that look. It was the same look that so many of the upper classes gave him in streets as a boy when he would beg for money to eat. Many wouldn’t even look at him as they tossed coins, quick to be away from them while still being able to tell themselves they were kind to the poor child. Later, that revulsion was useful for picking their pockets. How to reach her was in her flinch and in her words. She projected her own fear and revulsion onto others in the guise of insult as so many did.

He moved behind her, kissing up her shoulders, licking ahead with the tip of his tongue before planting another. “Maybe we should fuck. Do you know how many upper-class souls come here to play. Have you ever tried?”

“I’d have myself sewn shut first.”

He touched her back and all her muscles tightened in response as she tried to worm away. “They come to us because we’re more animal than they will ever be, with their having to measure each step they take by what other people will see. Sex is an animal act, and they come to the animals that know how to fuck. Maybe I should start a line of men to take you before you go.” He touched her firm ass and squeezed as he kissed, moving to her left shoulder, “You’d love it. In twenty minutes you’d be screaming for more.

“We’re potent, too. You would end up bred by some merchant sailor, or blacksmith, or carpenter. That perfect body will be ruined, but when you think of it, how much heat will be mixed in with the shame; house mistress of House Vesik bred by some southerner with dirt under his nails and a throbbing animal cock.”

“Die.”

Deres rested his chin on her shoulder as he forced his hand between her legs, “Do you hate me, Cassea?”

“Of course I haaaaaaaaaa….”

The world dissolved for her as she convulsed when an unstoppable wave of pleasure burst from the center of her being, wracked her body, and showered his hand and her thighs in her juices. The heat would ebb for a moment and then explode through her once again, pulling another scream from her lungs. When it faded finally, the stars left Cassea’s vision as she struggled to pick her head up from its resting place, her chin on her chest. Words hurt as they departed her near raw throat, “What did you...do to me?”

Her head finally steadied on her neck as he came to face her again, looking the picture of innocence, “I did nothing, Cassea. You did that to you. That was your reward. I asked you a question, you answered honestly, and that was your reward.”

His fingertips began running trails over her belly. “I am a man that likes to offer choices whenever possible, so, you can answer and reward yourself or not. Now, I suppose you’re thinking that all you have to do keep your mouth shut and hold out until someone comes looking for you. That’s actually true, I suppose.” He stepped back, examining something that only he could see.

Cassea opened her mouth to respond, closing it almost at once. I won’t give him the satisfaction. I’ll hang here until the sun goes cold, but I won’t betray my master and my House.

“It would be so boring to talk to myself though, so, what’s your name?”

Her jaw set and she was was determined to say nothing, and, for several seconds she was successful. Then, the room started to orbit her, faster and faster until she had to shut her eyes to get even a slight reprieve from the bodily turmoil caused by the motion. Her stomach turned and twisted in her body making her heave. She opened her mouth to vomit, but nothing would come out. Time dragged for her as the sickness took her, certain she would die, and part of her hoping she might.

“Forget I asked.”

In less than the space of a breath, the room rooted itself to the ground again and the retching nausea passed as though it had never been. She still stared at him as before, trying to will him dead, but there was fear as well.

“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “You won’t die. It’ll feel that way, no matter how much worse it gets, but you won’t die and nothing will be permanent. All you have to do is hold out for as long as I can afford to keep you. Truthfully, if you can, you will deserve your freedom.”

Worse? In the name of the Goddess, how could that get worse? She looked at him, not wanting to look as though she were pleading, but she knew what was coming and dreaded it.

“What’s your name?”

She swallowed hard, closed her eyes and waited. Seconds passed and the nauseating merry-go-round began once again. Her stomach muscles clenched as she gasped and heaved. She heard the question again and the spinning seemed to increase. She tried staying as still as possible for, if she moved, the air around her cut through the cold sweat like blades of ice. Shut up. Goddess, shut up. His voice, even at a whisper, thundered through her ears.

She didn’t know how much time had passed. In one sense she was so focused on enduring that she didn’t notice while, on another level she was keenly aware of it dragging forward at a snail’s pace. For her it was just another symptom of the near painful disorientation. She was so disconnected in fact, that she was barely aware that with one of her heaving breaths, “Cassea Voss,” escaped her lips.

Like a candle snuffed, she was taken from the pits of misery to heights of ecstasy. The illness now simply gone, she gave herself to the joy in her body that every nerve sang its own song of. When she came back to the now, he watched her with satisfaction while she looked at him with burning hatred, hatred for what he was, hatred that the Goddess could grant power like he had to one so lowly, hatred for the fact that someone like him now had any status in the world at all, even if he did only get it by marrying beyond his station.

And hatred for herself most of all because, in the pit of her soul, she knew he had already won, and she knew he could see it.

He closed in upon her and another wave of shame swept her because she didn’t recoil. Her body registered him as responsible for pleasure enough to drive her insane and her legs parted for his fingers on their own, happily betraying her. He deftly rolled his fingers over her clit in nearly the same way she did when she loved herself in the dark. Her pussy was drenched in her own cream and she held her breath to feel it before releasing slowly.

“What’s your name?”

She mustered what she had left to fight with, resisting the next wave of sick, but, added to it now was this spot of pleasure between her legs that was imprisoned by the nausea and general ill. It tormented her as it pushed against an intangible barrier she knew was unbreachable while she resisted. She looked down to see his hand there, moving in hypnotic circles. Time lost meaning again, but she somehow knew far less had gone by than last time. “My name is Cassea Voss.”

She threw her head back, spread her legs and let the dam crumble. She started up at the ceiling thinking how beautiful the stone work was. Everything was beautiful.

He watched her ride it out, slowing his ministrations, savoring the look on her face. She really was stunning, and, even now, so spirited. “Every time you speak the truth, your reward will feel just this good. You won’t tire or dry.” The last word came with a wicked smile.

She took a deep, resigned breath, “I still hate you.”

“You hate me and yet you’re mine and you know it. Doesn’t hating me make it better though?”

“Yes.” She humped against his fingers like a street whore and surrendered yet again. When she came back this time, a giddy laugh came with awareness.

“Good girl, Cassea.” His tone dripped condescension and dominance. Ordinarily that tone from anyone but her employers would have gotten them a mouth full of shattered teeth, but she couldn’t muster much beyond annoyance.

“Are you ready to tell me what I want to know?”

There was horror at the betrayal of herself and her House. There was hatred of him and the way in which he had torn her asunder. And there was the feeling of heady anticipation between her legs that came with her response, “Yes.”

The happy stars appeared in her eyes again and never left as she answered question after question, telling him how Lord Vesik had done all he could to carry the plot forward with the help of Cassea and his daughter Drexa. She told him how Lady Vesik had spoken against it over and over, fearing the reprisals that could come both with it’s success and failure, but, ultimately had not intervened to stop it. She told him all he asked, and offered more just to get him to perhaps ask more questions.

After what seemed like an eternity in orgasm she found that hearing, “Good girl” did not annoy so much as remind her of her distaste for him, which aroused her like little else ever had. She looked upon him as he came towards her. When had he stripped? Was his chest always so muscular? Those arms look so...powerful, too. Her eyes drifted down to his hard, twitching cock. Goddess, if that was all he ever had as a man to offer his woman it’s enough.

He grabbed her ass as she hung there, but she didn’t flinch. He’d told the truth. She was sweaty and disheveled, but she felt energized and still as though she could take that train of peasants inside her, and part of her wanted to.

“Our business is concluded, so I think we should have some fun together.” His voice firm and seductive, promising her even greater passion. “Have you ever tried one of us...guttersnipes, was it?”

“No.” She waited, but nothing happened. She wailed plaintively, asking what had happened to her reward without saying a word.

“Shhhh, Cassea. Your rewards will come back soon, but only if you continue to answer me honestly. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Deres.” The whimper in her voice wounding her soul.

He kissed her chin as he squeezed that ass, so firm, even it resisted him, “You know noblewomen come to us. You know noblemen line up to grab the ankles of and wishbone the women of the this quarter. “Have you ever wanted to try?”

There was shred enough of her left to feel shame for a fleeting moment. “Yes. Your kind down here...breeding with no care.”

“Like animals?”

“Yessss...it’s disgusting.”

He bit her neck and she whimpered and leaned into it, “But that makes you wet.”

“...Yes.”

“Is there talk about whether or not I please my mate?”

“The workers mutter. We notice that she smiles more.”

He slapped her breast hard enough to leave a mark and she grunted. “You know we’re going to fuck now? You know I’m going to fuck you like the animal you think I am. You know I’m going show you the animal that you are.” He kissed her lips and her tongue snaked in on its own. He pulled away and her lips chased him, “Though three hours of you screaming like a slut while you begged me to ask you questions should have told you enough about who you really are.”

“I had no choice.”

“You chose to stop resisting, that was choice enough. Do you still hate me?”

“More than before.” They kissed again.

“But I won’t be raping you, will I?”

“No.”

He commanded her, his voice as fierce as any noble to their servant, “Show me.”

Without hesitation she lifted herself on the chains and locked her ankles around his waist. He nestled closer to her, reaching down to guide the tip of his cock to her wet folds, pleased to find her cunt drooling on his cock. He held her effortlessly so that, to her, she seemed to float, “You may give me one command. That command will reward you, no matter what it is. Since I have what I need, you can even order me to let you go and I will. Command me, Cassea Voss.”

She swallowed hard, her aches overriding her shame. She could tell him to go and it would be over, but she shivered, craving that mind-melting reward. She let her body scream at her mind just to build the sensation of impending surrender before she finally uttered the words that were really her only choice, “Fuck me, animal. Fuck me hard. Fuck me without mercy like you must fuck her.”

She smiled a slightly crazy smile as she howled as another of the countless orgasms took her. Her pussy clamped down on his cock as if to strangle it as it drove up and up through her seeming not to stop until it reached her mind.

And, when his cock started to fuck it, she found she had room in it for nothing else.

Cassea touched her neck for what seemed like the hundredth time to find the collar still gone. On the outside, she looked none the worse for wear. She’d been able to clean herself and put herself back in an outwardly presentable position. Inside was another matter. Inside she felt ruined to her core. She’d betrayed herself and her House, not to mention given in to the most vile, debasing sex she could have imagined with a man she despised on a dozen levels.

All of that was nothing compared to the fact that she remembered every delicious surrender.

He sat behind the table with a satisfied look on his face. Why shouldn’t he? If I had so bested him I’d be planning a party. It took all she had to keep looking him in the eye, but she would not let him cow her so completely that she couldn’t.

He spoke to her, his voice firm, but seemingly not without sympathy, “Bring me an item that belongs to each of them. It doesn’t matter what beyond the fact that it must be something that you know they will wear to the Spring celebration at Court. You tend to that just as Tessa does for our House, yes?”

Her voice uttered a barely audible, “Yes.”

He leaned forward, clasping his hands, “Bring me what I need and I’ll make as much of it go away as you want. That empty feeling you have will grow over time like the sick before, though not as quickly and you should be able to conceal it. I’m the only one that can remove it, and I can’t exactly do that if I burn, can I?”

“I understand.” The bitterness dripped from her words. “You’ll have them as soon as I can get them to you.” She paused, trying to grasp the enormity of what had happened, “I betrayed my House...and I’m going to do it again.”

He leaned back, surveying her.“Don’t expect all that much sympathy from me. You and yours started this, we’re going to finish it.”

Words were on the tip of her tongue, but she grabbed the door and left before releasing them.

A week had passed and Deres kept to his normal routine of throwing hours into his healing practice, mostly helping the upper classes before going to the poorer parts of the city. They all, regardless of where they came from, needed his help, but without him reaching out to those most in need, they could never afford the services of a healing mage. That’s where he knew he was doing the most good.

It was in his clinic in the upper quarter at closing where Cassea came to him. She came through the front door, having made an appointment, and no one looking at her would have questioned the need for one. From the dark circles beneath her eyes to the fact that she hid her hands whenever possible so she didn’t have to see them shake she, looked ill indeed. Even so, the rest of her appearance was as immaculate as would be expected from the house mistress of a noble.

Deres found even more respect for her as he was certain she was not the type of woman to have asked for help in that regard, so, despite everything, she’d maintained herself and likely her House, too. Anger and fatigue both reflected in her eyes as she stood opposite him with a small table between them in one of the examination rooms. She reached into her tan cloak and pulled out a black, drawstring pouch, placing it on the table while keeping it in her hand.

“I assume this is what I asked you for?”

She nodded, her voice quiet as though she weighed each word as a separate betrayal. “Brooch, ring, and a necklace; always worn at official functions, ignored otherwise. They’ll ask for them just to see them and make sure they’re properly cleaned soon, so you cannot have them for more than a day or two.”

“I only need them for a few seconds. The spells are already set and stored.”

Ordinarily she might have asked what it all meant, but it hardly mattered. When he reached for them she tightened her grip and pulled them to her while still leaving them on the table, her eyes burning fiercely like a wild dog trying to warn others away from its food. “First things first, mage.”

He gave his head a small shake, “After I’m finished, then I’ll clear your spell.” Even as he spoke, she removed the braided silver and gold necklace she wore and tossed it harshly, it clinking on the table in front of him.

“I don’t need that,” he told her.

Her blue eyes suggested she could either scream in rage or burst into tears. “I cannot sleep. I can barely eat. I feel...hollowed out. I feel like I will never feel joy again. All I do is go back to the memories of that day.”

His voice hardened just a bit. He knew she was fragile and understood why, but his own ends were clear. “And I’ll make that end, but not until I get what I need.”

“I despise you,” she spat.

He sighed. “We’ve covered that.”

Her eyes narrowed, “Are you really so obtuse, pauper? This isn’t just a game to make me squirm so you can savor it?”

“Perhaps I am, but I genuinely don’t know what in the depths you’re asking me for.”

She picked up her necklace and clenched it in her hand, adrenalin giving her a respite from the quavering muscles. “I loathe you with all that I am and I loathe what you did to me even more.” She threw the necklace to her chest as hard as she could in a barely contained rage, “But I want the collar. I need it.

He tried to be civil and understand and he honestly tried not to enjoy it. Even so, a small smile escaped him.

Her spine straightened and she stood proud. “Gloat if you wish.” Her voice wavered as she touched the truth again, “I can barely function in the world. I’m already a shell that looks like a person, mage. It walks and talks and does its duties, but it’s a shell. The only relief I get comes from...touching myself thinking of myself chained, aching for your next question.” Her eyes were distant for a moment, “And even that feeling, so powerful that it paralyzes everything but my fingers, is a pale shadow of what was.”

She looked down at the floor for a moment, “I...cannot go back to a life where that was nothing but a memory. Endless pleasure and all I had to do was be controlled in a way I couldn’t stop no matter how hard I fought. To never touch that again...” The thought chilled her.

He thought about her words. She had a hand in what was done, but, on one level, she was only serving her House. He knew Tessa would have done no less. “I could and I will take the memory of it from you wish. I have what I need from you. In a few moments you’ll be on the street heading home after having the jewelry cleaned. You’ll place them back as you always would, without a second thought, and that will be that.”

“Mercy?” She almost looked amused by the idea. “Stop, or I may actually want to thank you for something. I’ve thought of that, mage, but having the memory of such feelings taken away is, in its own way, worse than knowing you will never have them again.” She gripped the pouch again, “Collar me. Make me feel what I felt before and you can have what you want.”

The necklace was a pile of coiled metal in his hand before he closed it, “That was a means to an end. If I give you what you want permanently, you would have to be bound to me.”

“Mistress? Secret whore? I’ve thought of that, too, Deres. I...,” she struggled for one more moment, “accept any terms you offer. I’ve sacrificed my House to whatever you plan. I knew that, one way or another, I was forfeit as well the moment I left the grounds to come here. Do as you must so long as the feeling of that day never dies inside me.”

Cassea tossed the pouch to him, waiting.

He looked to see that what was promised was there. Once done, he eyed her curiously, “What keeps me from sending you away as though you had these cleaned as I offered before?”

Some of her old confidence returned, “Because you’ve fucked and been fucked by this body and it offers you its slavery; there’s no way you don’t take it.”

He laughed and shook his head, “I do like you.” He paused, wanting her to hear and feel the truth of what was coming, “Know that I will treat you well.”

She shrugged, “Since I’m not sure I will care either way after what is done is done… Tell me one thing though: did you enthrall the general in the same fashion?”

He shook his head. “She’d already agreed to marry me in exchange for my help in unraveling the plot. She chose a love spell to help make her life pass more pleasantly, and because she touched some of the feelings that you did, though not by my hand.”

He thought of her and contentment was simply there, “She also knew before she chose that I love her.” He focused on the now. “She is still completely herself though. You will be something slightly less.”

She nodded, flashing a sardonic grin, “I don’t wonder why she smiles more. So she will not care that you have collared me?”

“Not at all.”

Cassea dismissed anything further. “No matter; do what you will.”

The family trinkets were easily disposed of. Laying them out on the table, he pulled out from his own pocket, one at a time, slips of glass two inches long and about the width of two fingers. Inside, green and red gasses mingled together. Cassea watched as he placed one in his palm and then over each item. A second later the glass broke and the gasses infused themselves in the metal until there was no trace to be found. He hadn’t lied when he said it would only take a moment.

“Yours will take time,” he said, focusing his concentration on the necklace she’d offered, “as I have to start yours from scratch. Be quiet, please.”

She took a seat from near the door and put it before the table before using it to watch as he created the tool of her enslavement. She watched as light seemed to simply appear from the space between his hand and the necklace and how the metal would move in response to it, sometimes seeming to almost liquify and re-solidify before her eyes as Deres watched the process intently. She saw the light reflecting in his eyes for a long time before she realized some of it was actually emanating from them instead.

With nothing to do but wait, the nervousness returned and she rubbed her hands together to calm them. The hollowness returned as well. Rocking slowly seemed to help, but she’d freeze every time the floor decided to creak, fearing that would disrupt his work, though he didn’t seem to notice.

Cassea sat there for over an hour before the light faded from his hands and he took a deep, cleansing breath and a moment to stretch stiff muscles. She looked up anxiously, “Is it done?”

She reached for it and he placed his hand over it. “I like you, Cassea so I did not wish to change much. You will be mostly who you have been, but you will also be mine. Once you put it on, it doesn’t matter if you take it off.”

She snatched it from under his hand and clasped it around her neck. The metal felt different somehow; heavier and warm to the touch. It felt like a lover’s caress around her neck. Seconds ticked by but she felt nothing else. Panic set in and she pressed it into her flesh with both hands, “It’s not working. The spell is wrong. Fix it! You have to fix it!”

Her eyes were saucer wide as she watched him casually take a chair. “Please fix it. Please. I need what it was before. Deres, please.” Her tone as she repeated herself alternated from commanding to abject begging.

He sat down, leaned forward, and clasped her trembling hands, “Tell me, Cassea Voss, do you still hate me?”

She squeaked and her eyes fluttered shut, There it was. It was like standing in a tank that was slowly flooded with water. That was what the warmth felt like as it bubbled upward from her toes and up through her legs. When that heat hit her clit she jerked and froze, her mouth hanging slack. Up it flowed, and when it met her breasts, her nipples hardened to points. When it flowed through her heart she began to weep. It was different, yet the satisfaction was the same as what she felt that day in the dungeon. When the heat engulfed her mind, she welcomed it and happily drowned in the sea that had claimed her.

She opened her eyes, tears still wet on her cheeks. “More, if that’s possible.” She felt energized and alive in a way she never had before save that day, but she knew now that it would always be a part of her, the fatigue and emptiness gone.

The answer pleased him, “To whom do you belong?”

“I belong to you, even though you’re a worthless urchin.” Both parts of that answer fired her heart and her body, the loathing of him making even the thought of riding his cock or obeying his whim that much more profane and thrilling.

“Good girl.” He relished the flush in her cheeks, “Your master’s House will be diminished if not gone soon, are you all right with that?”

She searched herself; the answering pleased him and contented her, as it kept her on her back, floating in that ocean of control and submission, “No, but...”

“But?”

“I don’t want to prevent it. I want to help you make it happen...because it would please you and I belong to you.” Goddess, the thrill of sacrificing my loyalties and people that I care for to my Master. Her surrender truly was complete that such a thing could make her wet to consider.

“With your House not being what it was soon, I find that I would be in need of an assistant, someone to aid me here, when I may need to travel and, certainly at Court. You’ll help me?”

“You do seem helpless at Court and I suppose I have no choice but to help you.” Instead of wanting to entirely rip the smile from his face, it truly pleased her. That the two feelings co-existed was curious to her. “Once my House ceases to be what it was, I will be able to come to you without suspicion.”

“I may have you taste Neral,” he teased, “just so you know how frigid she is not. I know that you’ll resist that.”

“But I will break.” Knowing that was like the long draw of a tongue along her clit.

“And you will ride a guttersnipe’s cock frequently.”

She finished the thought, her eyes twinkling in anticipation. “Hating every moment of it and you even as I cum so hard the world closes in.”

He eyed her with lust and her skin tingled more than it crawled, “I may well ruin the firmness of that belly one day.”

She bit her lip, feeling the submission and luxuriating in it, “It’s yours to ruin.”

He sent her away thinking of what was to come. Revenge was indeed at hand for those who threatened Neral and that pleased him. In his more immediate future though, was the return home. He would, of course, tell Neral of today and, she would, of course, not be bothered by the turn of events. Bryana, on the other hand, would likely roll her eyes and never let him hear the end of it.

That, in its own way, pleased him as well.