The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

It was a nice day in Erette. There was a thin layer of clouds that spread across the sky, serving only to dapple that sky in a more pale blue than the usual and contrasted against the gaps between those clouds. The temperature was surprisingly comfortable for the time of year, but that wouldn’t last long. Soon the transitional rains would come and then the cold would descend and the world would be blanketed in white.

Until that happened though, the streets of the markets would be bustling in celebration of today’s good weather as much as for the normal course of business that drove everyone in the city here in the same way that everyone was drawn to the markets in their own cities. It was one of the few places where all classes mingled.

There were still overt examples of stratification, of course. The poor were quickly moved out of the section of the markets frequented by the upper classes if they were simply there to dream of things they could never afford to buy and the upper classes didn’t often frequent the section inhabited by vendors from the poorer southern quarter. And, if they did, they almost never browsed. There was one specific quilt maker or baker that they knew of, got in, got their goods and got out before their fear of being a victim of crime got the better of them. There was crime, of course, but it was nowhere near the level of prevalence that the elite whispered about to one another. Or before they were somehow contaminated by exposure to the lesser peoples.

Many loud voices were the sign of a good day.

On any other day like today Hanah might have managed to lose herself in the wares to be had or at least the idle chatter with the merchants as they tried to get her attention, sell her a bauble, or just discuss the day during an ebb in business. But today was not one of those days. Today was one of the days where she waited impatiently and looking at the wares for sale was something to do to distract herself while she did. It was almost always a mix of emotions, which caused anxiety by itself.

There was excitement at what the afternoon might hold and fear that it may not happen at all. Sometimes it didn’t happen. Sometimes it couldn’t and, the worst part was, there was no way to know beforehand which way the day would go because there was no real way to get a message to her one way or the other. So Hanah would do what she would always do: wait as long as possible, then head home. Sometimes she’d buy herself a little something as a consolation and to tell herself that the day wasn’t a total waste.

Every moment that went by, even when it was still early enough that she really didn’t have to entertain the idea that her love might not be able to make it, like now, deflated her a little. As those moments piled onto one another she would fight with herself, asking herself why she put herself through the torture of it all.

You’re never going to be together, not really. Why do you waste your time, Hanah? Goddess, you’re young, you’re attractive, so why are you doing this to yourself? You could at least find someone who isn’t someone else’s. You could find someone that could at least be there for you and be there with you. You...

When she looked up from the small ceramic pieces she’d been looking at while interrogating herself to see Dina moving briskly up the stone walkway. For her part, Dina moved quickly to reach her goal: to escape her life for a time with someone she adored. For a while she could pretend that everything was as she always hoped it would be. There were no constraints on in these moments and the next, however many there would be.

There were no familial obligations that led her to a man that she did not love or want. There was no living in the daily torment that came with knowing you were mated to a monster. His veneer of a reputable merchant hid the fact that at least half of his wealth came from the darkest vices in this kingdom and at least two others. No vice was beneath his ability to cater to so long as the price could be met, and he maintained control over all of it through any means necessary. If threats could be mollified with kind words, invites to parties where those threats could make new connections, or simply be bribed or purchased outright, so be it. If those threats needed to be ended, they were ended in brutal fashion, as much to send a message to others as to end the problem.

Dina learned who he was a piece at a time. She knew that he tried to keep it from her, at least in the beginning. It was a matter of a piece of paper left behind here, or a bit of conversation overheard there. Maybe he thought she wouldn’t care because she was absolutely well taken care of and wanted for nothing. Maybe he just thought she was too stupid to put it all together. Whatever the case, a life with him that already felt like a prison sentence now felt like daily torture.

But, ahead of her, for a time, was peace, and she couldn’t get to it fast enough. It was just a personal quirk to her that she felt few women could wear their hair short and still look feminine. Hanah managed it. The style of her thin chestnut brown hair seemed playful, much like the woman herself and it helped to emphasize her delicate cheekbones and brows. Add to the mix her doe eyes and a broad, easy smile and Dina fell for her so completely that there were almost no words for what she felt. She’s who I belong to. She’s who I belong with. A twinge of sadness tempered the smile for a moment, as the idea of the two of them together with any permanence seemed like a fantasy.

But for now, right now, she could live it. The two embraced briefly, but fiercely, both keenly aware of exactly how long would be appropriate before glances became stares. “So good to see you, Hanah.” Dina’s nose lingered near her neck just to experience her sweet, spicy perfume.

“You as well, Dina. “ She looked to the other, hungering for a moment for the soft pear-shaped form beneath.

Dina noticed the lingering glance. “How is the shopping today? Is there anything that piques your interest?”

The corner of her mouth turned up, “One or two things; how is your day?”

Dina’s tone carried a hint of mirth and conspiracy. “It goes well, even if things are a bit boring at the moment.”

“Boring?”

“Yes, sadly,” she opined, her green eyes sparkling in a way that Hanah always found almost hypnotic. “With only the servants at home until late, I’m left to my own devices all day and into the night.”

Hanah’s mind wandered to really the only way she was really interested in wiling away the afternoon. “Such a shame, that your day has been so boring, that is. So you’ve come here to shop about and see if you can find something that appeals?”

“As I often do,” Dina said, walking down the path, letting her fingers graze along a green and white tapestry, glancing at Hanah and trying with only some success to suppress a smile. “But you know me, I’m very particular about what what moves me. It has to be beautiful...stunning, really. Just looking upon it has to make my heart skip a beat. It has to be so unique and so one-of-a-kind that I simply must make it mine.”

“You do seem very passionate about what you want,” Hanah said coyly.

“How could I not be? So many people have things in their lives and no appreciation for them. Because I am so fickle I value those things in my life and look forward to the moment every day when I can look upon them again, be in their presence and have that moment again where my heart stops to look upon them.”

Hanah drew closer to her as they passed a kiosk of various ceramic works. Some of them seemed so fine she feared even touching them. Her hand rested on Dina’s for a long moment before picking up a small curio with a cartoonishly depicted bird that looked so adorable that she resolved to come back for it if it was still there. “You have a unique perspective, my lady. I should like to hear more.”

Dina’s eyes closed at the touch, submerging herself in what others would see as such a small thing. It sated her cravings and fed them at once, “Should we go to the inn and discuss it?”

“I found a different place,” Hanah said smoothly. “I understand how...delicate such discussions can be and why we shouldn’t be seen arguing so routinely. It’s not as nice as the inn, but it’s quaint and it’s clean.”

“Sounds wonderful. I think you should show it to me.”

Hanah was right. It was a smaller place that usually only saw much business when the larger inns in the city were full, but it was nice enough. The rooms felt barely large enough for two and this one felt smaller still because, by accident or design, it lacked a window. Lamplight created dancing shadows everywhere, and the lack of a view to the outside world and the small size of the room created in Dina an extra feeling of liberation with the seclusion. She could simply be, and be with who she was meant to be with.

Thoughts of love for Hanah were always there. Sometimes they were the only things that got her through the day. But now they took a backseat to the hunger that was a part of her being almost equal to the love. They carefully but quickly removed the shackles of propriety that kept them apart and hidden from one another, letting the other unbutton, untie, pull and peel them away until gravity took them. The two would confine themselves within them once again soon enough.

But, for now, they were free.

Hanah took a moment to let her eyes feast upon Dina’s voluptuous form. Her heavy breasts and wide hips were some of the ways Hanah defined femininity and desirability though, honestly, every body type had its charm. Dina’s body was a dream to Hanah, her voice like a song, and her touch, like answered prayers from the Goddess. This was why she came to the market and sometimes wasted her days. This was why she scolded herself mercilessly when she went home alone, swearing that she would break it off because going home alone cut too deep, but, with a note from Dina, she would be back at the markets waiting.

The squeak she heard when she bit the flesh of Dina’s neck sent a tingle through her entire body, “My, you are ready, aren’t you?”

“I have been ready for days,” Dina breathed, craning her neck to capture Hanah’s pink, puffy left nipple to suck it and bat it about. “Oh, how I’ve missed you, Hanah.”

“I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to come.”

The other sighed. “It was all I could do not to leap in joy when I knew I’d have the day.”

Hanah let her fingers run through Dina’s hair as she tweaked the nipple with her tongue and pulled it gently with her teeth. “Since you made me wait so, you should kiss me by way of a proper apology.”

Dina’s smiled, looking up at the eyes that always seemed to sparkle, “I think I’ve only given you a few dozen so far, I certainly think I owe you a few more.”

“Seems reasonable.” Hanah took her shoulders and pushed her back roughly. Taking the cue Dina scurried back on the bed as Hanah crawled on her knees to position herself over her lover. Giving a smile, she leaned forward and gripped the headboard firmly with both hands and waited for the kisses to come.

The kisses came.

So did Hanah.

They didn’t need a window to know that the afternoon was bleeding into evening and their time together was running short, which made Hanah’s heart ache anew. That warmth and sense of absolute security was about to vanish again for who knows how long this time. She kept much of the ache from her voice just because letting it out was unlikely to change anything and do nothing but ruin their last few moments. She decided on the honest, yet generic, “I wish you didn’t have to go.”

Dina’s thumb traced its way along her lips, and she smiled when Hanah’s lips pursed to kiss it. She needed to burn every moment of their time together into her mind, for sometimes it was all that sustained her until the next time. “So do I. I wish it could be different.” Tears threatened to roll down her cheeks, “But some choices made cannot be unmade...no matter how much I would want them to be so.”

“We could just go.” It was something she’d given thought to a thousand times, but had never spoken until just that moment because she knew how that path would resolve itself. “We could just pack up some belongings and go. We could simply ride out and be gone. I have a friend that owns a trade ship; spices and oils. One note to him and we could slip away, your husband would never know where we went.”

Dina let her eyes close and, for a moment, let herself be on the deck of that ship. She let herself smell the salt in the air and feel the wind against her cheeks. She let herself have the freedom and wonder of where they might end up. She let herself feel the joy of knowing that as long as the two of them were together it didn’t matter.

That moment faded when the fear and dread of reality made its way back into her mind and soul. “We can’t. He would know. He’d find us no matter where we went. We’d never have peace.”

“So you will just remain a prisoner for the rest of your life?”

She wanted to sob. “It’s the only way to avoid things much worse.”

Hanah believed she understood, letting her hand drag down Dina’s arm as she rolled out of bed and began to collect her clothes. “I know you’re worried for your family, but once we were settled somewhere, I’m sure we could make some arrangement. It couldn’t be as helpful as you can be now, but we would do all we could do, I promise.”

“That’s not it,” Dina said quickly, not wanting to begin to confess what she knew because she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to stop talking and that, eventually, Hanah would flee as fast as her legs could carry her. What she thought she knew included things even worse and those were things she didn’t want to have confirmed because she might never sleep again.

Even though that would probably be the best thing for her. All you do is hurt each other. You can never be together and you know it, but you’re too gutless and selfish to break it off like you know you should.

But Dina just couldn’t. She knew she should, but these moments were the only time she felt alive. She left almost all the fear and dread out of her voice, “I wish it were that simple.”

Hanah held her gaze as she dressed. “What if it were?”

Dina puzzled over the words because the impossible was impossible. “What do you mean?”

“Just what I said,” she continued as she began to methodically button herself into her dress. She had done this often enough in small rooms with no mirror to speak of that she could feel how she looked, certain to leave the room looking as neat as she looked when she entered it. “What if I could come up with a way that we could slip away and he really would never be able to find us?”

It was simply an insane dream, but part of her wanted to grab onto it with both hands, “How?”

She buttoned from bottom to top, “Leave the details to me, but, if I could do it, would you want to?”

“Yes,” Dina said almost before Hanah even finished speaking. Rationality took the reins a moment later however, “Before we go ahead, I’d have to know what the plan is and we’d have to talk it all through first.”

She shook her head and smirked, “Of course, my darling.” Dressed now, she leaned down for a long, rapturous, goodbye kiss, taking her time as she felt her tongue caress hers and tasted her breath. The kiss broke with a soft pop, “But next time we will really have something to talk about between bouts of eating that lovely pussy until my tongue goes numb. Until next time, my heart.”

“Until then.” Her fingers brushed Hanah’s cheek as they parted and she watched the other go. They never arrived or left their meeting places at the same time. Dina loved that time when it was her turn to linger. The scent of them together lingered in the air and she usually spent the time remembering the best moments of this time, imagining the next, and daydreaming about the life that couldn’t be. She watched the lamplight dance along the walls and ceiling because the shapes could be anything; the possibilities were almost endless.

She had no idea what Hanah could plan to make their dreams possible. Honestly, she believed that nothing would come of it, but she found bliss for the next hour or so contemplating those possibilities and fashioning those dreams. Reality could go to the depths.

At least for a while.

She focused on those fantasies so completely on the way home in the hopes that that they might replenish the reservoir of endurance that she called upon to survive her days that she didn’t notice the tall, lean man watching her intently from across the street when she finally did leave the inn.

This is probably not a good idea. It’s the only idea, but it’s probably not a good one. That thought bounced around in her mind as she paced the living room of her small, modest home. Her grandmother had provided her with a few baubles since she had no other grandchildren to leave them to. They didn’t amount to a lot. She didn’t have the wealth to do anything she wished like the High Houses, but she was left with enough to have a nest egg and see her way through an emergency or two.

She hoped it would be enough.

It will be. It has to be. Of course, she had no idea what would be asked of her because she’d never dealt with the mages. She’d always heard rumors and whispers, of course. If you needed healing you couldn’t afford, needed things done that weren’t exactly legal, or needed things that simply couldn’t be done without magic, there were mages practiced in all manner of forbidden skills that could meet those needs or wants...for a price.

She’d heard the stories of healing, which were certainly believable because healing magics had been part of the world for countless years. Some of the other stories were less believable, but with the very word ‘magic’ being attached, nothing could be discounted as unbelievable. The only other thing she’d heard about dealing with the mage guilds was that they kept up their end of any deal and were...unkind...to those that failed to keep up theirs. Knowing that, she made the choice to ask a friend to pass a message like a chain to their friends until they reached the one that had some contact with the guilds.

She told herself that she certainly wasn’t going to make promises to them that she couldn’t keep. She felt a quick rush of fear as she followed that thought to its logical conclusion, What if they ask something you can’t give? How far are you willing to go? Her mind began spiraling towards all the possibilities, finding that, in the end, there would be very little that she wouldn’t do to have that future with Dina.

Hanah understood Dina was frightened for her family and concerned that her husband might take it out on them, so it’d be up to Hanah to take the first steps. So engrossed in thought she was, that when the door knocker rapped against the wood three times in rapid succession she nearly jumped from her skin. The silence hung heavy after the sound as she fought back another wave of trepidation, almost literally trying to flee it as she headed to the door, deliberately slowing her pace. Calm down. You haven’t committed to anything. You’re just going to talk, it’ll be fine.

She opened the door to find a most unassuming young woman in a blue gray dress with gold buttons and white lace at the cuffs and collars. Her eyes were an almost translucent green with her hair naturally curly and brown. Her plump frame and round cheeks implied youth, but there was something in the way that she carried herself just standing there that implied more. Perhaps she was as nervous as Hanah, even though she hid it far better. Unlikely, but at least it made the young woman feel better to think so. “Hello,” she began, clearing her throat to lower the pitch of the sound that came out. “Can I help you?”

“Perhaps,” came the soft reply. “My name is Vale, are you Hanah?”

“We have a mutual acquaintance in Bek who suggested that we might have enough in common that we should meet in person.”

There it was. This was another step down the road. There was still a chance to walk away and try something else, or simply find a way to be content with passionate afternoons whenever fate gifted them with time. She so fell into the spiral that it took Vale’s voice to bring her back into the moment. “May I come in, or was Bek mistaken?”

“No, no….please come in.” She stepped away and Vale entered, taking stock of the home and its decorations. “You have a lovely home.”

“Thank you,” she began, making certain she bolted the door. The rote nature of pleasantries gave her the the impetus to keep talking, which she hoped would make everything else easier. “Please sit. Can I offer you anything?”

The other shook her head as she seated herself in the nearest chair. “Nothing, thank you.” Her tone became more authoritative as she moved past those pleasantries herself and into realms that she had more experience with. “Now, so that we do not waste time unnecessarily, why don’t you tell me what you need? Then we can discuss how and if it can be provided, and what the price of that might be.”

“You’re...from the Guild then? You’re a... mage?” Even saying the word felt like a criminal act.

“Yes, and yes.” No need to tell Hanah that she was still learning her craft and had yet to earn her Guild markings. She wouldn’t be the one doing whatever needed to be done in that regard anyway. She was selected to undertake these initial meetings because she had an excellent instinct for reading people and her unassuming nature often made people more comfortable around her.

“You’re uhhh...not really what I expected.”

“What did you expect, dark cloaks, a sinister demeanor, and perhaps a sign that says, ‘I am a Mage?’

Truthfully, some variation of a couple of those notions would have fit what she thought she would find, “I guess I’m not sure.”

Vale thought little of it, as it was a very common reaction. “Blacksmith. Seamstress. Cook. Those are all simply other people, not all that different from anyone else, with specialized skills. Mages are the same. We look like you and sound like you, and we simply have skills you lack.”

With her next breath, Vale hoped to move things along, “While there is no set time limit for meetings, the Guild’s time has value.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Hanah hurriedly took another chair, bringing it in front of Vale as she spoke in a rush. “I’m not sure exactly what I need from you or what you can do. I...and another need a fresh start elsewhere, need to not be found again after, and need to make arrangements to take care her...the other’s family in a way that cannot be traced. You probably want more details than that”, she said, rubbing her hands on her lap in an attempt to self-soothe, “I’m just really not sure where to start.”

“Very succinct, thank you, but there are details that I need in order to better assess your needs. Please, start at wherever you think the beginning is and I will stop you and pose questions as I need.”

So Hanah did. And once she did, the story didn’t stop coming forth. She told Vale of meeting Dina at a small gathering of merchants Dina’s husband sponsored. She spoke of their instant attraction and the passion between them that had blossomed into love. Hanah told Vale of Dina’s fears that her husband would find them and make trouble and the fear for her family being without the financial help she could now provide. They wouldn’t be begging on the street without it, but with it, they had just reached comfortable.

When she finished she felt relief at having someone to share it all with. Hanah kept everything but the fact that she’d found a secret someone from her friends, and even then she only told them because they were beginning to actively question her about her seemingly random disappearances over the past few months. To have a dispassionate someone to lay it all in front of was a release that made her physically fatigued. Burdens like that really did have weight after all, it seemed.

For her part, Vale took a long breath as she picked through the elements of the tale that mattered. Otherwise, her face was a practiced, expressionless mask as she attempted to break the story down to an itemized list. It wouldn’t do for a client or potential foe to reveal too much in any fashion, “So it seems to me that you require a new appearance for you and Dina, transportation to parts unknown, and the ongoing transfer of funds from your destination to Dina’s family here in the city.”

She gave a small smile, “These are things that can certainly be arranged. The transformation would be the most costly, of course. The transportation from the city without alerting Mr. Stranix is not difficult, though specialized, as there are very few mages with the appropriate skill set. Setting up a stipend to transfer funds from there to here undetected is a simple thing, so...”

“Wait,” Hanah said, holding up her hand out of reflex, “Transformation? What does that mean, like a disguise or something?”

Vale shook her head. “Eventually disguises get shed. A transformation is just that, your faces and bodies are permanently altered. There’s no disguise to let falter because it is who you are as though you have always been.”

Why is that the hardest part if you can just...get us away from here to someplace no one knows?”

Vale tilted her head, internally chastising herself, as sometimes she still didn’t ask or explain all she needed to. Guild Mistress Lia and several of the other mages had assured her that it was a mortal failing that they had all been guilty of from time to time. “I’m sorry, I assumed that you still wanted to stay within the bounds of civilization. If you want to truly be on your own, that can also be arranged, and a transformation unnecessary.”

Silence hung in the air as Hanah worked her way through her confusion, “Why would we need to go to all that trouble?”

It clicked in Vale’s mind at that moment. Hanah didn’t know anything about Stranix beyond what most everyone else knew and Dina didn’t bother to fill her in for her own reasons. Mages, having to live in the dark corners of the world familiarized themselves with everything that shared the dark with them as a matter of safety. She measured her words, “Mr. Stranix is not one to take the sudden departure of his wife well and, given the breadth of his business interests, word of your whereabouts has a fair chance to get to him almost anywhere. A permanent transformation is safest for the both of you.”

It was at this moment that she started to make sense of Dina’s hesitancy and trepidation, “You really think he’d hurt her for trying to leave?”

Vale knew the likely answer because she knew stories of what he had done to people that he felt betrayed him that he didn’t have an emotional investment in. “Any man is likely to react poorly to having his wife leave him. Mr. Stranix would likely...react more poorly than most. Given his power and reach, a transformation is the safest course.”

She closed her eyes as the weight returned again before she surrendered. “All right, all right.” If they could be happy in the end, it’d be worth it. “This is what you people do, If you think it’s best, then fine. How much would it take?”

Vale had already calculated cost as soon as Hanah finished her story, happy to get back to matters she could treat with detachment . “For a transformation as described and one-time transportation to a mutually agreed location will be fifteen-hundred gold.” Vale continued as she watched the other’s eyes widen and her face lose a bit of color. “Ten percent of any stipend is taken by the guild on a continuing basis for as long as you wish to maintain it, though that percentage guarantees delivery. Once you have paid, those you designate will be paid in turn.”

Silence fell again. “That’s a lot.”

Vale prayed to the Goddess that this woman was not one to try to negotiate. While some accommodation could be made for extraordinary circumstance at a mage’s discretion, there was no negotiating to be done “It’s reasonable for what’s being asked.”

“I don’t have gold though.”

She nodded amiably, “Many clients don’t. I assume you have other things of value?”

“Of course.” She turned and led Vale to her small but warmly-appointed bedroom and waited patiently as Hanah went to the other side of the bed and reached under it to pry away a piece cut from the wall to find the box hidden there. Getting both hands around it she pulled it free and placed it on the bed before opening it to reveal an assortment of jewelry, some of the pieces being quite old and some with heavy stones.

Vale was already examining a necklace and a pair of earrings as Hanah came back around. “My grandmother left these to me. Are they worth what I think they are?”

Vale wrapped a gold chain around her wrist as she examined the pendant with a yellow gem in the center dangled, catching the light. This having not been her first time trading goods she had become something of an expert on anything that might have value. “They are.”

Hanah realized she’d clenched her fists to fight her fear. “Do we have a deal?”

Lifting the trays to be certain that there was nothing she was missing, she nodded. “We do.”

As if on cue, the knocker rapped against the wood again, causing both women to jump, startled by the sound. Hanah felt better that she wasn’t the only one while Vale scolded herself for it. One day she would be a mage. She already had some mastery of power, though she often feared not enough, though Mistress Lia had tried to calm her anxiety there as well, which only made it worse sometimes. She shouldn’t have to nursemaid me. I should be stronger, like her. “I assume you aren’t expecting anyone?”

Hanah shook her head quickly, glancing down at her valuables.

“Be calm,” she said with more tranquility than she felt as she put the various pieces back where they’d come from. “We have committed no crime. We have a mutual friend, things in common, and thought that might be enough to strike up a friendship of our own.”

Hannah listened as she hurriedly placed the box back where she’d hidden it before rising and smoothing her dress. “Yes. Right.”

“If it is someone with cause to ask, that’s enough to tell them. Don’t embellish.”

“Yes, all right.” She feared she might hyperventilate before reaching the door as whoever was behind it knocked again. Vale stayed off to the side and out of sight, beginning to pull power to herself, just in case

Hanah white-knuckled the metal, and she had no more than turned the knob when the sudden force of a man barreling into her sent her into the wall behind her, and her head snapped against it making her vision swim even before his fist smashed into her face. Behind that wall of muscle, three other men rushed in, heading directly for Vale as soon as they spotted her.

Her breath caught as a moment’s hesitation turned her into a statue as they moved on her with a speed stunning for their mutual bulk.

The last one casually through the door as though he had been invited for tea was a tall, thin man, unremarkable, save that he was so familiar with violence that, even as things took a decidedly unexpected turn that would have made others recoil in horror as though demons had come to life, he didn’t even flinch.

There was blackness that surrounded and confined her as though she were buried alive. For a moment she wondered if she were dead, then, for two reasons, decided that that was unlikely. First, if she were dead, she didn’t think she’d be able to pose the question, much less answer it. Those who were experienced in the arts of magic often had a belief in an afterlife simply because they had experienced and could manipulate the energies that bound everything together. Whether they ended up with the Goddess, or elsewhere, most believed that that which was uniquely them returned to the ley lines of energy that created and fed everything that was or would be. Vale believed similarly, but she wasn’t sure she believed that there would be sense of self left enough to ask.

Second, whatever form a life beyond death took, she doubted there would be this much pain. Everything hurt and it crashed into her in rhythmic waves. As her mind slogged to put itself back into the now, she realized the reason for the rhythm. Broken ribs. She tried to use her skills to see if she could sense the presence of others, but there was just too much pain to bring her will into focus. And then she was afraid. Without magic, she was back to being nothing.

She was back to being that little girl helpless to do anything as their landlord evicted her family from their home after father died. She was the girl who could disappear into into a crowd because she felt there was nothing special about her and no one went out of their way to tell her any different. Add quiet and shy to the mix of being average, not ugly enough to perhaps garner sympathy as much as scorn, and not quite beautiful enough to be able to trade on it, and she was just...there. It seemed to her that people could look right at her and not see her.

Magic gave her something. It let her be something even if no one else noticed. Indeed, being someone that no one usually noticed or remembered aided her greatly these days. Her first Guild Master told her that anything could be an effective weapon if one knew how to use it. All she had right now was pain, so she decided she may as well use that. She breathed as deeply as she could manage, embracing the pain, clawing at it, riding it back to consciousness.

Her eye popped open and she whimpered in pain as more of her senses came under assault from reality. Every inch of her body hurt. Her face was swollen and when she choked as the blood in her mouth trickled down her throat, her chest stabbed at her, making her whimper anew. Her nose burned from the assault of the scents of burned fabric and flesh and, with that fresh attack came bits of memory in the form of men rushing towards her, red mage fire, screams, and then...blackness. The fight must have gone on for longer than I remember. I must have fought them off. No one standing over her, and no voices, so she was alone.

It doesn’t matter One thing at a time here. Use the pain. Focus through it. She wasn’t a healer, but she knew the things that all mages did. Pushing through the pain, she began turning the energy around her to her own ends, feeling it coalesce around her hand. The simple fact that she could bring it to bear made her feel better. She twisted and formed it right until the moment she pressed her hand to her ribs. Vale shrieked as magic touched bone. She could see it in her mind now, the fragments of bone and the cracked ribs themselves. The magic consumed the fragments and used what was consumed to help rebuild the bone. Her swollen lips formed a smile as the worst of her pains ebbed and vanished. She took a deep breath and reveled in the fact that she could do so for the most part. The rest of what ailed her could wait.

Bruises she was previously unaware of made themselves known to her as she rolled to her side and looked around the room. It was remarkably undamaged considering how substantially she herself was. It seemed that they had what they wanted with her and Hannah. Well, Hannah, she surmised as she found her form still by the door, face down. There were rivalries within guilds, of course, but no one would resort to bringing others into it like this, thereby risking public notice. There was some competition between guilds, but they were tempered for largely the same reason. Protecting one another was in the interests of all.

And I wasn’t the one looking to take something from Etan Strannix that he values.

In front of her now was the charred remains of the attacker closest to her. She didn’t need to be a healer to look into his open eyes with contracted pupils staring into nothing and know for certain that he was dead. She felt a pang of regret because she, unlike some others, had no love for the idea of taking life, but no real remorse, as she reminded herself he attacked her first and with no provocation.

Putting it all aside, and swallowing a bit more blood as she moved, she crawled over him to reach Hanah. She carefully turned her and had real regret at the brutality she saw there. It looked like they beat her until they were simply tired of hitting her. She was literally a bloody mess.

Vale closed the eye that could close on its own and touched Hanah’s chest and, to her surprise, Vale could see that her heart still beat within. She fought to live, but, now having a sense of what had been done, it was clear that the people sending the message took a bit too much joy in the process and, without aid, she would most likely die. Vale could buy time, but she would have to get help soon.

She pushed aside her own pain and marshaled her energy and the energies around her once again, hoping that she had skill enough.