The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Dina reached the place she lived with her husband after a long, but uneventful walk. She didn’t call it a home anymore, as it had stopped being that a while ago, but the walk was pleasant enough in that it let her reprieve last a bit longer. She was increasingly angry with herself as she made her way through the streets.. She should have done more to dissuade Hanah from whatever her plan was and wondered why she didn’t.

Because you want to believe, you idiot. You want to believe that somehow this can all be made right and that the two of you can live happily ever after. That’s why you didn’t set her straight at the inn. That’s why you don’t break it off. You hope.

The manor wasn’t particularly imposing to anyone but her. It was large and impeccably maintained of course, but the privilege of reaching for the sky was gifted to the High Houses and the palace. To Dina though, it was a reminder of oppression. You’ll be able to get away again. Just smile, breathe, and wait.

The door opened almost as if it were automatic at the moment she reached so she could walk in and not break her stride.

“Good evening, Mrs. Stranix, Kav, the elder House Master said with practiced cheerfulness. “I trust your day was a good one.”

The question brought thoughts of Hanah and that brought with it a wide, genuine smile. “It was a lovely one, Kav,” she said as she walked into the ornately furnished home. She found it slightly ostentatious now even as it impressed her to speechlessness in the early days. She did grant though that it was just slightly overdone, not ridiculously so like some of their acquaintances who tried to overcompensate for the fact that, as powerful as they were, they were never going to reach par with the High Houses.

“Did you find anything of note in the markets?”

Another smile came almost unbidden. “Nothing to bring home today.”

But someday. Perhaps. I hope.

“Very good Mrs. Stranix.” He began to lead her down the hall. “Your timing is impeccable. Dinner is just about to be served and Mr. Stranix awaits.”

Dina decided that it was too much to expect that his meetings today would turn into an unexpected trip as some of them had previously. She used her time on the way to perfect the facade as much as she could. She’d thought she’d gotten pretty good at keeping it up over years. It was becoming like putting on a well-worn leather coat, though she was somewhat troubled by whatever truth there was to that. Part of her worried that one day it might not come off.

She entered the dining room to find the first course already laid out, though the servants were just departing in almost drone-like fashion. Etan Stranix liked things done a certain way, and the closer you were to him the more he required that you conform to his expectations. He ran his life like he ran his businesses and he liked to tell her that that was part of why their lives were the envy of others. “They see perfection and know that there is perfection.”

He rose as soon as he saw her, his smile as disarming as it had always been. It was the thing that had first captivated her about him. That smile. That charm. That feeling that when he was focused on you, you were all that mattered. They all combined to make her swoon those few years ago that seemed forever ago now. “Dina, my darling, you look ravishing as usual. He kissed her gently on the lips and stepped back to look at her. “So many women spend half the day primping and all my Dina needs is a day in the fresh air, basking in the energy of the markets, and she comes back looking so beautiful and content that she could be mistaken for the queen.”

A reminder of the day brought with it a reflexive grin that she decided couldn’t have been taken as anything but a blush at a compliment, “Thank you, Husband. It’s lovely to see you home at such an early hour.”

His dark eyes conveyed contrition, “I know. I work entirely too much. Believe me, dear, I know I have so many wonderful reasons to stay home, but I have so many irons in the fire, so to speak, and while it may be a personal failing, I just have the sense that no one can handle matters as well as I can.”

“That being so, certain other things important to me can get...lost in the shuffle...so to speak, and I’m very sorry for that, my love. I give you my word that I’m going to do the best I can to get everything back as it should be, including the two of us, starting tonight.” He pulled her chair away from the table as an invitation. “Please.”

By rote, she took the offer, smoothing out the bottom of her dress with both hands as she sat. It seemed odd to her only because it was such a rarity. She felt like an afterthought for the most part, which wasn’t a bad thing once she had an inkling of what he was. Once Hanah entered her life, she was happy to be virtually ignored as she basically built her life around one rendezvous, the next, and the times between. She focused on the appetizer, “Looks lovely.” And it did, the artistry in presentation alone was always such that it was always nearly a shame to eat it.

Etan gave a small nod in agreement as he took his place at the other end of the table, “Chef has truly outdone himself tonight, which is as it should be of we are going to begin a new chapter.”

Over the course of dinner, he again reminded her of what drew her to him before the reality of him revealed itself. He was charming and disarming, asking her about her days and her life, and following up on things that he seemed to find interesting. She remained careful in her responses at times, of course, but the conversation was easy and casual.

She asked him about his day, letting him tell her what he chose to. It all seemed quite mundane, really, and she couldn’t help but wonder what he wasn’t telling her. As much as she was thankful for not having to hear about him cheating this one out out of his life’s work or blackmailing that one, there was a part of her that held onto a morbid curiosity about it all the same. It was like being in the middle of one of those horror tales where one knows the monster is inside the cave and you can feel its gaze on your skin. One one hand you are terrified, yet there is a small voice inside that urges one forward to see if they can look upon the source of their terror just to do it.

You know enough.

He’d just finished talking about a first meeting with a spice trader that he’d hoped would yield a steady supply of rare goods for sale at a better than premium price when his tone turned slightly more somber, though still matter-of-fact, “It certainly wasn’t pleasant, after such an otherwise fine day, to have to come home and dismiss Trina, but that’s only served to make this evening between us even more important to me.”

Dina paused having not yet touched the dessert before her, her hand resting on the fork, pressing against it gently for fear it might start trembling otherwise. There was a pause as she not only worked up the courage to speak, but thought about her words tone in an attempt to sound as nonchalant as possible, but she wasn’t nearly as effective at masking her true feelings as her husband. “T-that’s a shame. Why would you have to do such a thing?”

He leaned back slightly in his chair, the sound of it creaking at the shift in weight the only sound to be heard just then. “She was playing messenger to help you arrange your little trysts, and that’s not something I can tolerate, but I shouldn’t have to tell you that.”

Dina could feel the color drain from her face and her hands shook anyway and she shivered, suddenly cold. She opened her mouth to speak, but he did before she could get a word out. “Don’t waste your time asking me what I’m talking about. We both know, so it’s just insulting and would do nothing but make me more...annoyed with the whole situation and with you. I don’t think that would help either of us as we start over, do you?”

He rose smoothly from his seat and took slow, measured steps towards her. “And, to be completely honest, I’m already offended as it is. After all, you swore before the Goddess that you would be faithful to me, and here I find out that you have chosen to abandon your vows and betray me.”

“And, as if that weren’t insult enough, you can’t even betray me with another man. You skulk away to be with that little jewelry maker that can barely make a living while I offer you nothing but a life of luxury. Anything you could want is here. If it is not here, I am happy to go to the ends of the world to provide it for you and you still go from one dark little room to another to writhe naked with that little nothing.”

“The only positive aspect of that that I can reason is that a woman can offer things that I cannot, so it’s at least a small comfort that I don’t have to look at a man and compare, looking for all the ways that I would come up short, so I suppose I can be grateful for that bit at least.”

He stopped before her and leaned his body against the corner of the table. Clasping his hands before him, he looked down at her in such a way that Dina felt as though she were shrinking under the gaze. He shook his head as though he were about to scold a child. “Honestly, Dina, the worst part of this business is the fact that you clearly took me for a fool and I cannot tell you how angry that makes me.”

“If you wanted to have a tryst now and then, that’s something I could at least tolerate. But it’s the...insult...to my intelligence inherent in smiling at me as we dine, making conversation with our friends, as if you were the honest, respectful wife you should be, all the while just waiting to see me off, just so you could go be with that woman. You wave me off, expecting me to smile and wave back like a fool.”

“For you to treat me with such dishonesty and disrespect. For you to treat me like I am so far beneath you to think that behavior is in any way justified? That’s what my real problem is here; it’s the fundamental dishonesty. Can you understand, Dearest?”

“That’s quite something,” she whispered.

“Pardon?”

There was a flash of anxiety as she realized that she confused her thinking voice and her speaking voice, but that anxiety fed the beginnings of a fire in her belly. There was a pause before she said more loudly this time, “That’s something. Honesty? From you? What do you know of that? Do you tell business partners that you cheat wherever you can? You try to ingratiate yourself to Court, but did you announce to them what I’m fairly certain of; that you burned your competition out of business? When we were courting, I don’t ever remember you telling my father that you run gambling and prostitution dens from here to the Larian Coast.”

She stood, feeling a rush as the flood of years of emotion would no longer be denied. “Yes. I lied to you, Etan. I lied to you because, in this house, what’s one more lie? I couldn’t stand it, Etan.” Her skin suddenly crawled thinking of it all. “I look at you and I compare what I thought you were and what you actually are and it stuns me. I spent years wondering if you were good at hiding or I was just that stupid, and maybe it was a little bit of each.”

“I did not plan to break my vows, dear husband, but when you are crushed by truths you cannot bear and you feel as though there is no escape, someone who shows you love and you know will be there for you because they have been is like the breath of life. What else was I to do, suffer in silence until I die so that you don’t feel like a disrespected victim of my dishonesty? I didn’t believe you would let me go, so I did not ask you to. I figured that you had your secrets, so I had mine and, as long as I practiced some discretion, there would be balance.”

“So that’s what I did, even as I did what my heart demanded. And, while we’re on these subjects, can we please dispense with the idea that I wounded your ego by breaking my vows, no matter who I chose to be with. That doesn’t really matter to you, does it? Your ego is in the brothels and gambling houses, in with the secrets you keep and lord over others and the people you hurt to get your way. It’s all in the money and power you can acquire, not me. So can we please not pretend things are something different than what they are?”

Her own anger of the moment spent, she began to rethink the wisdom of every word she uttered as he scrutinized her carefully, as if seeing her for the first time. Dina focused on the light from the fireplace reflecting in his eyes because it helped her not look away. She couldn’t look away anymore. This is who he was and she wouldn’t look away. The hiding and pretending had to stop and it might as well be here and now. That said, she would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that her heart wasn’t still threatening to burst from her chest and not because of her spent rage. She had no idea how he would react.

But, whatever it was she’d imagined, it wasn’t what he actually did.

A smirk grew into a grin and a grin turned into a full-fledged smile as he clasped his hands together. Wonderful, Dina, my dear. Thank you. Honesty. Pure honesty. We each know where the other stands and, as I see it, there is no better way to get this new chapter of our lives off to the best possible start.”

“You’re quite right. I had a role to play in your transgressions. I thought it best to try to protect you from some of the more unsavory characters that being a successful businessman in Erette forces one to deal with. That left us apart far too much, so, of course, you were drawn to someone else to help you fill your needs and your time. But I have the solution to that.”

He waited a few moments for her to respond, then took her silence as his cue to continue. “I think that, form this time forward, I should involve you in the business as much as I can. It is, after all, your business now, as the two of us are our own family. You should see everything, know everything, and we should look for opportunities for you to be helpful.”

Ebon placed his hand smoothly on her shoulder, gripping it just enough to be felt. “It’s my way of strengthening our union. After all, neither of us wants to end this union.” The ache in his voice was actually believable if Dina didn’t know better. “That would leave me without a wife I adore and your family in a much more difficult position than they are used to being in after all this time.”

Dina could already feel herself collapse under the weight of her future. Her husband would kill her a bit at a time. Having her worst fears confirmed and more would just be the first step. She had no idea what he would actually have her doing in the end, but it hardly mattered. That sort of thing poisoned your soul. How long would it be before she just didn’t care. What frightened her more was in contemplating the path of her husband. He wasn’t raised in the kind of life he lived now. He chose it at some point. Even if he’d been forced to start down the path, at some point, he chose to follow it on his own.

She could see herself reaching a point where she didn’t care anymore, but could she ever end up so corrupt in her soul that she liked it in any way that he did?

“We’ll be together, Dearest,” he began, coming in behind her, the warmth of his breath tickling her ear and giving her goosebumps that chilled her. “There is nothing we can’t do together.” A pause before, “You might find it pleasant. Power is a wonderful thing. Queen and Court does what it does but it is people like me...us...that makes the world spin.”

Both hands were on her shoulders now, and the feeling was like she were being ground into the floor. “It’s probably for the best for you to use this opportunity to distance yourself from Hanah.”

He watched her head dip briefly towards the floor as she processed the words and he heard the puzzlement in her response, “What do you mean ‘for the best?’ What are you talking about?” She turned quickly to face him, staring into him almost as if trying to read his mind right there in the moment.

He exhaled and closed his eyes. “You’re quite right about me, Dina, as much as it pains me to admit. I’ve done things that I regret in order to gain our position in the world and maintain it. Not because I truly wanted to, of course. I detest violence. But in some circles it’s simply how things are done. Those are the means that those people employ in their daily business, so, to get to where we are and to maintain our place I have responded in kind as necessary, but so do they.”

He took his hands gently in hers, “I promise you that no harm will ever come to you. I protect my family, I am proud of that and, in spite of the circumstances, I make no apologies for it.” His voice suddenly carried weight. “But even my reach only extends so far. I’m not sure I’d be able to protect her. If the more unsavory characters I must deal with were to find her...something could happen that I couldn’t prevent, and that would break my heart for the simple fact that it would break yours.”

It was no one thing that she could point to, not just his voice where the pained tone just sounded a little too put on even when compared to the rest of the false veneer of concern, or the look on his face that looked to her like an actor’s mask, as though he were waiting for the director to call for the end of the scene. Nor was it the nearly imperceptible tightening of his grip on her hands. It was all of it together. All of it combined to chill her to the bone and later when she thought back on it she’d find it remarkable that almost the only thing that happened in response was that her jaw quivered. “Husband,” she said, clearing her throat after the word came out gravelly and with virtually no sound . “You have given me much to think about. Would you please excuse me?”

He gave a small nod and a loving smile, “Certainly, Dearest. It is a lot to contemplate. We’ll speak again in the morning.”

Dina pulled her hands away as though they were near a flame and walked out as quickly as she could without running. She saved that for when she was clear of the manor.

Etan watched her go, the satisfaction he felt shaping his face more and more the longer he stared at the empty doorway. He knew her well enough to know that this whole mess was probably over. She may have been his wife, but that didn’t make her any different from any competitor or business partner he dealt with. Sometimes you had to apply pressure, so you found what they valued and you squeezed, and, if you had to, you crushed.

That wouldn’t be necessary with Dina, of that he was certain. Dina loved that woman and would do anything to protect her. Stranix wasn’t a complete monster. He never contemplated killing the girl. It would have been counterproductive anyway. Alive, Hanah would always be a reminder to Dina of what could happen to those she cared about if she strayed, so she wouldn’t, probably ever again and that was the ultimate end. She was his and she would behave so. If she didn’t, another lesson would be necessary.

The clicking of boot heels against the floor snapped him from his contemplation and he looked up to see a tall, lean man in a black, woolen overcoat approach. He looked as Etan always thought he looked; almost blank, so singularly focused on the job that he’d never bothered even to feel much less express emotions. He never could read the man, but he didn’t have to. He knew enough to know the job was already done. Even so, “I assume all went as expected.”

He sounded indifferent. “There was someone with her.”

His brow knotted, “And you didn’t wait?”

He shrugged with the slightest twitch of his head. “What would be the point? You had your little bit of theatrics planned for tonight, so today it had to be. If I had come to you and told you it hadn’t gone to plan you would have thrown your usual cool and measured fits and, for as well as you pay me, it’s not worth it to me to endure.”

Etan’s jaw tightened for a moment at the insult and the feeling ebbed because, whatever happened, the job was done and, to be brutally honest with himself, his man wasn’t entirely wrong, at least in the case of tonight. Still, there were concerns. “What about both of them, Dex?”

“There was a struggle, as you might expect, but I left the stranger in mostly the same condition as the target. She was a witness after all. Had I left the person be they would have sought help and set the authorities on us. Now, she’s likely to rethink that. There was no way he was going to tell Stranix all of it. He wouldn’t want to know about the difficulties, and there was a chance that he wouldn’t need to anyway. Despite everything that had happened, the mages were a pragmatic sort. He lost people himself and he had left the woman alive. Unless she took a turn for the worse, which was possible, as even a simple beating meant to send a message wasn’t an exact science, he was sure an understanding could be reached.

The man he lost didn’t really matter. He was just muscle, and there was always more muscle to be found. He would proceed as Stranix wanted him to and whatever the mages extracted from him he would get back from his employer in upcharges for future work.

“I’ll leave that to you,” Stranix began before a pause, “just make sure it doesn’t come back to me.”

“Has it ever?”

“I’m just telling you, Dex. Anyway, stick to the plan: follow her. Make sure she’s gotten the message. Make sure anyone with her gets the message, too.”

He turned on his heel and the the harsh clicks of boot to floor began again.

“And be polite.”

Dex’s voice grew more distant. “Unless there is reason not to be, I always am.”

Guild eyes were everywhere, almost by necessity. They watched out for one another, despite the aforementioned rivalry, gathered intelligence for and about clients, and sought opportunity. It was said that if a guild decided it mattered, by morning they would know what you had for dinner the night before.

That being the case, it didn’t take long for the incident at the jewelry maker’s house to become known. Once it was known that a user of magic was involved, the guilds took added interest. And once they had a name to put to the story, word was sent to the appropriate guild while others kept watch, waiting to see if there were dangers that threatened them or opportunities to be had.

Her guild came to her aid rapidly, taking up observational positions at the four corners of the block while others met Vale in the home, moving her and Hanah quickly to the clinic of Deres, mate of their guild mistress. It was slightly more distant than the nearest, but it was a safe place for mages for that reason as well as the fact that Deres himself practiced the art of magic well beyond the use of the healing arts that was legal. Deres arrived first, assessing his patients and directing Hanah into an examination room in the back. As she was being moved, with the both of them following behind, he took a moment to assess Vale. Dried blood freckled her face, congealed at her lip and her jaw and the left side of her face still with the blue and purple of bruising, but her green eyes were still sharp, “You look all right, more or less.” He tried to give her a reassuring smile.

She spoke quietly, as she usually did. “I just...did what I had to do in the moment for myself so that I could help her. If I passed out...I don’t know.”

“That you made it here under your own power tells me you learned the basic healing magics well enough. He used his own magic to give her a quick examination. He could see how the energy of her body surrounded her wounds and how that made the damaged tissue harder to see through as he traced her frame. It didn’t surprise him that she’d left some of her injuries be. Soft tissue damage took skill to heal. “You’re bearing those injuries very well.”

“I’m glad you think so, but I’m just breathing as little as possible.” It still felt to her that she had broken ribs even though that she could fprce a full breath if she were willing to endure the discomfort told her no. She closed her eyes for a moment wincing at not just the continued pain, but anticipation of what she thought was to come. “Does Mistress know?”

He gave a small nod, “Of course. She’ll be here soon.” He watched the stretcher turn left into the room, “I have to go now. I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

“Can I help?” Her skill in those was nothing compared to his, but she felt the need to ask.

“No. You’ve done enough in every good way, Vale. She’d probably already be dead without you. Sit. Rest. Bryana or I will be back to see to those ribs or whatever else. I’ll have one of your guild mates bring you something for the pain in the meantime. No need for you have to constant cast to keep the discomfort away.” With that and a parting touch to her back, he’d moved on to the patient who needed him more.

She watched his hands hover just above Hanah’s body and a pale, white, wispy magic fill the space between as his eyes examined his patient intently, his eyes beginning to carry a hint of the magic themselves. She took an examination room at the other end of the hall, closed its door behind her and stretched herself onto the examination table, managing to keep the hisses and winces involved with doing so.

Mere minutes later, her friend Lasker had come to give her a potion to ease the pain. He had nothing new to tell her and offered to stay, but the last thing she wanted was company. He nodded kindly, told her how well she’d done and that he would pass word of her to their friends.

Vale could hear the silence and it was a mixed blessing, welcoming because she could pretend that she had distance from what had happened, but an anchor because she now had more than enough time to replay her mistakes, and, in her mind there were so many. She pumped cold water into the sink and splashed her face, careful not to move too much, relishing the cold as it numbed her skin a little. She took a cloth, rubbed it across the soap bar, and cleaned the dried blood from her face, hands, and neck. It speckled her outfit as a continuing reminder of her failings.

Hanah wouldn’t have been harmed if Vale had the skill that she should have, that much she was sure of. The more experienced mages would have been able to protect her and themselves. Lian? Hovis? They weren’t all that much beyond her in years, but it seemed like they had so much more skill and confidence as she did. They would have done better.

And Guild Mistress Lia? Lia would have ashed them all before they got through the door. She lived in awe of that woman. She felt less embarrassed by that knowing that most of the her guild did the same. Even, Lian, who once chafed mightily against her governance for reasons she didn’t understand beyond him wanting his own power no matter how he tried to justify it. For Vale, she wouldn’t even be where she was now if not for Mistress Lia. At first, even the most basic skills of a mage seemed difficult to master, despite her yearning to do so. Other guilds might have dismissed her, or simply allowed her to live as their servant, or worse, mascot.

Lia cared about her, though Vale was never sure why. She took Vale under her wing, spending countless hours helping her build her skills, with understanding, but resolve that she improve and not accept any excuses for not doing so. And she did, slowly and steadily. She wasn’t as good as the others, of that she was certain in her heart even though Mistress would have none of it, but she was far better than the girl who couldn’t lift a chair without shattering it to splinters. Maybe Lia just thought of her as a mascot or something. Vale never gave it much thought though, mainly because she didn’t believe it was true.

And she didn’t want to know.

She floated mostly pain free with her thoughts until the door opened. Her eyes followed suit and she saw Mistress Lia enter the room. Surprise led her to try to raise herself from the table, “Mistress.” The damage she had almost forgotten about announced itself, but she tried to push through it anyway. Lia’s hand firmly pushed her to the table again. “Enough of that. Stay where you are, dear, and let me take care of you.”

Even just seeing her over Vale to tend to her like this, to Vale, she looked like royalty herself. Her height, sea blue eyes, fine features, and natural grace always told Vale that this woman could blend seamlessly into High Court. Add her power, intellect, and cunning, Vale knew Bryana Lia could rule the world if she ever had that hunger.

“How is the client, Mistress?” She tried to sound detached, as she thought Mistress would expect her to.

Magic from Bryana moved down Vale’s body and her hand stopped over the various points on her left side that hosted most of the wounds that couldn’t be seen beyond the wicked bruising that Bryana knew was there. “Deres and I just finished. She will be well, thanks to you. The worst of her injuries are healed and she’s resting. Her love is with her.” Her tone was a bit clipped only because she was multitasking.

“Dina,” Vale answered, watching the ceiling as her body tingled and she felt the flesh mending.

“That would be her. Tell me everything.”

She began from the guild’s first contacts with Hanah in the event that she wasn’t familiar. She left nothing out until the moment a piece of hard leather cracked against her temple and she blacked out, and what came after until she ended up in the examination room. Bryana took it in and in return shared her part of the story, from the extent of Hanah’s injuries to Dina’s arrival, sobbing the moment she saw Hanah in treatment. Vale could see Bryana’s empathy as she spoke and anger over what had happened.

Vale took a breath, noting with relief that now that she could take a complete one and moved to a sitting position on the table. “I’m sorry, Mistress. I failed.”

Bryana had busied herself making sure the room was organized as she allowed the young girl to rest. The words made her turn to Vale in genuine confusion, “Failed in what way? You’re alive, the client is alive, and she lives because you acted as you did. And you took an enemy before you fell. I’d say that, under the circumstances, you did quite well. Where do you see failure?”

Vale knew that teaching tone well. “I should have been able to eliminate them all,” she began with a hint of bitterness as her eyes grew distant. “When she hit the wall...it was so loud. How does a body hitting a wall like that crack like thunder? And that’s not even mentioning the screams. They were moving on me so fast I… I froze, Mistress. I froze when I should have acted, and the only reason either of us are alive is because they didn’t intend to kill us.”

“Yes.” Bryana briefly debated a white lie to save her confidence, but confidence based on delusion tended to be short-lived and fall apart in spectacular fashion. “Dina told us her side of the story and that seems to be the case. Hanah was a message to her and your presence was simply a matter of poor timing.”

“But under a slightly different scenario, the assailants could have seen mage fire and thought better than to kill one of us or someone we valued enough to be in their company.”

“Lucky me then.”

She continued to speak plainly. “Yes. No matter how skilled the mage, you will still find there are times when your future depends on the fortune of the moment.”

Her head hung low as she shook it. “But I hesitated.”

“You were shocked for a matter of seconds, Vale. You had no reason to expect such a thing and when the unbelievable happens, sometimes one hesitates simply because they cannot trust their senses. It’s normal, Vale. It’s human. While we are capable of great power we are still limited by that humanity.”

She looked up, “Mistress…”

“Denna Vale, you are good enough.” Bryana’s tone was sharp, but still gentle somehow. “Your skills don’t hold you back to anywhere near the extent that you believe. Learning never ends, but you live in those moments when it took you longer to master the fire or the way the tongue rolls to accent some of the deeper spells. You live in those moments and no success is enough and no praise is enough to silence the voice that tells you you are unworthy.”

Almost as if to tell her she was right, the little voice within whispered to Vale that Mistress was right and that this is as far as she might ever get. Vale frowned at herself, but didn’t get very far in her self-recriminations before several rapid fire knocks at the door. Lasker popped his head in, his features displaying his wide-eyed youth, only choosing the guilds weeks before. His eyes darted briefly before focusing on Bryana, “Pardon, Mistress. There’s a man here that wishes to speak with Vale. He says it’s important.”

“Did he give his name?”

“No, Mistress. He said that she wouldn’t know his name anyway. They only met briefly...this afternoon.”

The words hung in the air and Vale could feel the blood drain from her face, by the feel of it, to rush to her legs and hold her in place, “What does he look like?” She was almost surprised that she wasn’t whispering.

“Tall. Thin. Dark clothes. Dark eyes. Just...dark all around him.” He was clearly almost as unsettled as Vale.

“Is he alone,” Bryana wanted to know.

“Yes, Mistress. Only him in the waiting area and the lookouts saw no one else approach.”

Bryana gave him a nod, “Thank you, Lasker.”

He took the gentle dismissal and left. Bryana watched the young woman before her carefully, imagining the war inside. She allowed it to be waged for several long moments before speaking. “Vale.”

“Mistress, would you…”

“No.” There was no room for discussion in the word. “He asked to see you.”

“I can’t. I just can’t.” Bryana found it somewhat remarkable and definitely amusing that Vale could pace the floor with only her voice. “I mean, what could he possibly want? It can’t be to hurt Hanah. It’s too late for that, and why come alone?”

“You should go ask.”

She shook her head, but said nothing.

Bryana sounded proud, as she always did when speaking of the skills of her kind. “You are a mage. You have power he can only imagine and more. He is one man and you are prepared. Do you really believe he can hurt you?”

She looked to Bryana, “I thought I was prepared before, too. Still…” Her body suddenly hurt like it did when she came to on the floor of Hanah’s home feeling like every inch of her was broken.

“That was then, this is now. Think of it as the new opportunity that it is.”

“Opportunity for fresh terror.” Her green eyes dropped their gaze to the floor, feeling naked as the day she was born before her idol with the unintentional admission.

“There is no shame in fear, Denna. Everyone with a hint of sense has been afraid. As humans, we aren’t immune to that either.”

“You have not been afraid.” There was a part of Vale that simply refused to believe it.

Bryana laughed softly, her blonde curls moving with her as she shook her head, “I suppose I should be pleased that my acting skills are adequate. I have been afraid, Vale. I’ve been afraid countless times and I expect I will be again. Not showing fear in the face of danger or to an enemy doesn’t mean you have none.”

“You show me someone with no fear and I’ll show you a person who will soon be dead. Some fear keeps you thinking; keeps you quick. Too much and you’re just waiting to die. Too little and you’re rushing to die. Bravery is facing your fear and doing what has to be done in spite of it.”

She sighed and her head shook again, but this time with some sadness. “I have failed you, Vale, and I truly apologize.”

The shocks just kept coming for Vale, who just stared incredulously at her teacher, “You have never failed me. I would not be where I am if not for your patience and your care.”

“I have failed you. I like you, Vale. I like you and you are as dear to me as I like to tell myself that I am to you. I like you because you have a gentle soul. You are quiet, kind, generous, and thoughtful. In some ways you are too good for the guilds, as we are sometimes called upon to do distasteful things.”

“I wanted to help you hone your skills because I see greatness in you if you could get out of your own way. I told myself that I was hiding you from the difficulties of our life because you weren’t ready. That was true.”

Bryana approached and placed her hands tenderly on the smaller young woman’s shoulders as she looked at the reverence in her eyes. “But I was selfish, too. I hid you from what we do because I feared how it might change you. To keep your soul pristine I allowed you to hide. It’s now a greater harm to you to allow you to keep hiding.”

“I, for the good of the guild, have to know that you can do what has to be done. And, my dear young lady, you have to know, too.”

The answer was within those green pools behind the anxiety.

“Go out there, Vale. Now. Face him. Face your fear. Control it. Use it. No one will interfere.”

“So...what? Am I to just go out there and burn him down?”

The thought amused Bryana. He certainly deserved it. “If that’s your wish. But I suggest, and only suggest, mind you, that you take your time. You know how to read people, Vale, and you do it well. It’s part of why few are better than you at initial meetings. It’s your gift. Use it.”

“You glean the truth from them. You see into them. Let this man show you how to ruin him. Use what he shows you.”

Vale’s jaw clenched. Going out there was still the last thing she wanted to do, but maybe Mistress was right. She didn’t like feeling as though she was so much less than her guildmates. Maybe it was so. Maybe the voice within her was right. Maybe it wasn’t. But she would never know just standing here. Run away and she would one day be an old woman still arguing with a piece of herself.

And there was a consideration that was, in its own way, just as important: Mistress would be disappointed in her if she didn’t try. Oh, she would still have a place. She believed that Mistress cared for her and valued her for herself so she wouldn’t send Vale away. But she would never have a real place within the guild. Vale would never have a place of leadership. She would never really be one of those that the young students to come would come to admire. More, there would be no place with the Guild Mistress she admired so. Bryana would still trust her with things, but she would never truly trust Vale if she ran and hid.

So, in a way that she could never escape, from then on, Vale would actually be that pet, and it would be a position in which she’d placed herself.

Better for that man out there to slit her throat.

Vale gave a nod and hoped she looked more confident than she felt. She smoothed her dress, stepped away from Bryana and headed for the door, hearing her call after, “If he does somehow manage to harm you, he’ll die for it.”

“Thank you, Mistress,” she said with sardonic gratitude. “At least that’s something.”

It was enough of a salve as a matter of fact that he kept her from feeling too much like she was walking to the gallows. Indeed, the cold lump in her stomach didn’t appear until she actually entered the waiting area to find one of the last images she remembered of the afternoon whole in front of her. As he took cautious steps towards her, his hands open at his sides in the most non-threatening manner he could manage she’d actually considered setting him aflame. It would be simple. He would scream and burn and it would be over. No one would question it. She still could when she chose, she decided, so she could at least hear him out. She stood in silence, doing her best to copy Bryana’s look of regal indifference.

He grinned, which is about all he usually did because a full-on smile usually looked fake, even to him. “I’m afraid we had no real opportunity to be introduced earlier.”

“When you were beating me half to death.” Her voice was ice.

“You were by no means the target, but you were there and, to be honest, I generally hire help based upon their zealotry and not for their intellect or self-control.”

“I was there to spend time with a friend.” He needed no details. He could probably make some good guesses, but that hardly mattered.

Dex smirked at the response, his disbelief barely hidden “I know much about Hanah and had no idea she had such friends.”

“Now you do.”

“Well, no matter. How is Hanah? I’m certain you don’t believe this, but I do hope she’s all right. It was never our intention to kill her.”

“That’s not your concern, is it?”

“I suppose not,” he conceded, “Either way, my involvement with her this evening is finished. Is Dina with her?”

Vale let her anxiety lock her body and expression in place and said nothing as Dex sized her up. She was a small thing. Then again, next to him, most people were small things. She had command of magic, so he knew he needed to be careful. “Never mind, as I am here to talk to you. Thank you for seeing me.”

“What do you want?”

He kept his tone friendly “You were hurt unnecessarily, and I sincerely apologize. If we had known you weren’t just a bystander, if we had known of your allegiance to the guilds, we certainly would have postponed But, what happened did and cannot be undone.”

“What we can do, you and I, is come to an understanding. You were hurt and I don’t wish to run afoul of your kind, so, I would like to know if you feel the need for...reparations of some kind. I have my own resources of all types, and we can come to an understanding, if you feel the need.”

Vale looked at him, conflicted. The dark voice in heart that told her she whispered again that she should just let it go. It wasn’t worth it. Just call it, ‘no harm done’ and walk away.

But there was another part of her that became increasingly incensed by him and the moment. That he could orchestrate her beating for no reason and then just stand there and act like she was nothing...like he could simply pay to abuse her...like she was some whore from the docks that he could use and send away.

Or that he might not need to do anything at all, like she might just shrug it off. Perhaps she was content to remain largely in the background because she was content with herself and not being the tallest, smartest, or most stunningly beautiful; facts many seemed to take pleasure in reminding her of before joining the guilds. One of the reasons she felt she had a home there in spite of everything was that, when push came to shove, there was acceptance. At the very least, in the guilds, all that truly counted was one’s gifts in the mage arts. Even by that metric, maybe there were better mages, but, by the Goddess, I’m not nothing.

So she began to look through him and into him.

“Or are you not in a position to bargain?” he wondered. “Do you have superiors I should speak to instead?” Her lack of response began to irritate him like an itch at the back of his neck. He was trying to be civil under the circumstances and she remained rooted to the spot like a tree and just as silent. “Are you listening to me at all?” He approached her slowly, hoping to perhaps snap her from her reverie and force her to focus on the moment.

She eyed him, and used her skills to look beneath the veneer.. The darkness was there, beyond the neat attire and the thin air of civility. No one needed magic to see it, but now she could see the ebb and flow of it in his mind like a flowing second skin. She decided to show him that she wasn’t nothing; that he couldn’t buy her silence or dismiss her like a spot of dirt on his coat and she decided that she would do as Mistress suggested for herself as much as anything else.

She could overwhelm him. He had no skill with magic, but he had a strong will. Overcoming that could damage him in ways that she didn’t want to. It could damage him in ways that would leave him unaware of what had happened. And she wanted him to know and take it with him. Vale’s ability to read others was something that was always there. In time she realized it was a certain natural tuning to the energy of people. It took her time to harness magic in other forms, but this came more naturally. Examine that ebb and flow and you could read them like books. That will of his would be like a barred door with the books behind. She had to make him want to open it, so she pressed on his will. Vale wanted his evil to bubble to the surface so she could use it to distract him; to cloud his mind and clear her a path. She stayed silent, waiting for it to reveal itself.

He looked down to see her looking up at him. She was a wide-eyed doe of a girl. The deeper he looked into them, the more he saw occasional twitches of movement, as though she was spotting something here and something there and following their paths wherever it was they led. No, he decided. He’d seen that look countless times. She was deciding where she could run. The speechless little thing was deciding if she could escape. She could use her power and end him in an instant, but she was deciding where she could run. “What’s your name, girl?”

The green eyes that seemed so entranced by him stopped, fixing on something in him. It saddened her in a way because it felt as though he saw into her as well, but it also marked the first steps she needed to take to be allowed inside his mind, so with thoughts of her own she nurtured his, subtly amplifying them, wanting his focus there. Even so, she jumped when he barked. “Your name, girl!”

“Vale,” she whispered.

“First or last?”

“Last,” she said finally.

“Your first name then?”

Her voice found volume, her eyes still tracing in small ways. “Denna. My first name is Denna.”

The smile smeared itself across his face again, “Can you and I come to an understanding? Or is there another I should speak to?”

Vale saw the ripple in his mind. She suspected what he wanted to hear, and, and she prepared to give his emotional response a boost if it was the one she wanted. “You can speak to me,” she said with a hint of indignation, puffing herself up and standing a bit straighter. Then Vale paused, her lips turning downward in the smallest of gestures that he’d only have noticed being so close to her. “Though the Guild Mistress has final say in such things. She allows most of us to handle those things ourselves.”

That was, of course, a lie, but she saw the reaction that she’d expected and she caressed it and amplified it. He was strong and she was weak. He held up his hands in mock surrender. “I mean no offense. There’s no need to get so upset.” He decided to give her a bit of a stick to see how she would react, “Unless you’re not one of those allowed to handle things yourself.”

To Dex, her eyes widened because he had indeed struck a nerve, so he pressed in a firm, but sympathetic fashion. “Is that it, Denna? Your Guild Mistress doesn’t trust you to handle your own affairs. Perhaps the others are more skilled?”

For Vale, her eyes had widened in satisfaction. She’d gotten what she wanted and put it to the top of his mind. She hoped that the fact that those thoughts mirrored her own insecurity would help sell the moment. She turned away, having woven enough of her magic into his mind that she could see the thoughts and emotions at play just from how they affected his voice. Indeed, the more he engaged with her the more she could drive those thoughts and feelings in such a way as to give her unguarded access to the deepest parts of his mind. “That’s not so.”

I’m strong and she’s weak. I can use that. “It is, isn’t it? You come out here to meet with me but you stand there in silence because you aren’t really allowed to speak for yourself. Everyone in your guild knows you’re the runt of the litter, as they say.” She sighed so deeply that he could feel it. “Not trusted by your guild, and not exactly wanted by them. How terrible that must be, Denna.”

“Perhaps a guild is not the proper place for you, dear.” He approached her slowly, not wanting to scare the little thing away. She’s weak and I’m strong. He came here wanting to put a potential problem to rest, but he’d forgotten that entirely in the face of a greater opportunity. “You have power, but you need your own place. You need a place with no judgment.”

“And where would that be?” Her tone was a tentative near-whisper. It was exactly what he expected to hear.

“I have associates with many different skills, and, while there may indeed be stronger mages, you are formidable in your own right.” His left hand went to her shoulder and his right slowly descended to her hip and his body drew closer to hers. She’s weak and I’m strong.

“They’re holding you back from great things. Perhaps they tell you you aren’t good enough and that you’re lucky they keep you around. Perhaps you know that you’re going nowhere. Is that it, Denna? You’ll always be the errand girl.”

Goddess, how that sounds like me. It took her a moment to realize how it was her. Her feelings and anxieties are being fed back to him. Maybe she didn’t quite have control over the spell that she thought she did. Or maybe they were strong enough inside her that they were bleeding through anyway. Oddly enough, they were helpful in their own way. He thought he could see into her and that made him feel more in control of the situation and of her. It made her task just that much easier.

And, in a way she didn’t anticipate, it helped her. The voice in her head actually had a voice and a body behind it. It was tangible. In hearing the voice now, as a means for this man to try to control and manipulate her she could see that Mistress was right. Each thought was a shackle and chain that held her back. A setback was just that. That someone was better at her at something wasn’t proof that she was inferior to them. She was, in her own way, to the point where that inferiority was manifesting in her magic. How often did that happen and how did that hold her back?

But she reminded herself that, in spite of all that, she was still in control and gaining more by the minute. He was so focused on trying to sway and control her that he was losing the ability to even conceive that she might be trying to do the same.

“Is that the only reason you’ve stayed?”

She tilted her head to the left and he took that as a question without being asked and he squeezed her hip firmly, “I imagine the Guild Mistress has a firm hand. Perhaps you enjoy that, Denna.” His hand moved to her ass and drew closer so that there was no more space between them now. She is weak. I am strong. “Perhaps you stay because some small part, or perhaps not so small a part, likes to be under control.”

Her skin went cold and felt like it was trying to crawl away from muscle and bone to the point where she feared the spell might break. It wasn’t surprising though. Feeling dominant tended to arouse one, and especially if that one was male. Even more so if said male made a life using and preying upon others. Such men often believed they were built with the perfect tool to tame a woman. Vale had urges the same as everyone else, but she was usually quite particular of who got the gift of her.

But it is the quickest way, she thought. He’s already wound around me and the spell enough so that he would happily defer to the desire of the head between his legs.

At least if she played the role he already placed her in within his own mind.

“Perhaps you like the leash, just a little, huh, Denna?” He squeezed her ass harder and her body stiffened. “Less responsibility then, eh, young lady. Less chance to make an error that costs. Believe me, I understand. You may not agree with anything I do, but I do understand that much at least.”

Anger flashed through her as she wondered how much of that was what he thought and how much was her own voice being reflected through him. “Perhaps,” she spat quickly.

His hand roamed the front of her, coming up her body to undo the buttons of her dress while his other arm gripped her waist. “I could hold your leash, girl. Go out, do my bidding, and earn your profits. Come back to me after your obedience,” he began as his hand found her breasts, his long fingers squeezing around it, “and I will certainly reward you for it?”

Her hand reflexively went over his, but she stopped herself from removing it from her person, “All about rewarding me, is it? You will get nothing from it?”

He let out a sound between a growl and a chuckle, “Oh, I will enjoy rewarding you, Denna. Very much.” His head dipped to her neck and she presented the tender flesh to his teeth and tongue.

At one particularly intense nip, her eyes closed and she winced because, despite herself, it felt good. All that had happened to bring the two of them together to this point and he felt good. She despised him and it felt good.

Maybe it felt good because that she was usually particular meant that it had been some time since she last chose to partake. Maybe it felt good because she knew every moment that passed got her closer to making him pay in precisely the way that he would never forget. And maybe a small part of why it felt good was because she despised him. There was a certain heat to it that she couldn’t deny. There was a violation of boundaries that titillated. All those maybes combined and conspired to tease and torment her. This is the path you’ve chosen. You have to see it through. She could show her face to her guildmates or Mistress even if she failed, but not if she did so because she felt conflicted and uncomfortable about that path and then just gave up.

So Vale chose to let go, feel what she would feel, follow through, and deal with the aftermath later.

Her dress peeled downward as he became more possessive. “You like the leash, Denna. Admit it.”

She was hot, he was falling, and she knew what he needed to hear to keep his focus on her until there was no hope of resistance. “Yes,” she breathed.

He turned her around, pleasantly surprised by what his eyes beheld. She was smaller to start with and more rounded, but those breasts were handfuls and then some, pert, and topped with thick, rosy nipples. They were quite lovely and stirred his hunger. He tried to keep his eyes on them as her hands undressed him, quickly unbuttoning him to find a layer of fine, dark hair covering his sinewy frame.

“That’s it, Denna,” he growled as he felt her hands at his pants, and then air against his cock. Denna looked upon it and the teasing parts of her combined and conspired again at the sight. It was like him, long and thin like a serpent and it dripped, which seemed appropriate somehow. Whether it was her own thought of how his intermingled with the spell, she knew it would give her pleasure and that disgusted and excited her.

He saw the look in her eyes and he liked it. While this was the first time he had ever fucked a woman that he’d crossed paths with so violently, he was no stranger to hate sex. She hated it, she wanted it, and she hated that she wanted it, but he wanted the words. “I know you want it, girl. Say it.”

The words would help bind him and if she didn’t speak aloud and own her thoughts they would hold her back as they so often had. So she spoke the truth. “You make me wretch and I want you dead, but Goddess that’s a lovely cock.”

“In time you’ll like my hand on your leash, pet.”

She stepped free of the pile of cloth that was her dress almost out of reflex alone. Then she heard sounds of things hitting the floor and paper flying through the air, complete lucidity only returning when she felt her back slap against the desk. She looked up to see the ceiling for but a moment before she felt him pull her forward as though she weighed nothing to leave her long hair falling towards the floor and her head over the edge. Then she saw his hand grip the base of his shaft and the velvet tip of him caress her lips, smearing himself over the flesh, “Open, Denna. It’ll please me.”

Vale opened her mouth, letting it happen so she didn’t have to think much of it. It slid in in segments. The serpent would slide in, pause, pull back, then slide in more deeply. She coughed and spluttered as it began to tickle, then push beyond the back of her throat. His hand clamped down on her left breast, using it to anchor himself as the fingers of his right hand meandered down her body, sliding through her soft, wiry bush and down farther still until the first two crooked a bit to get into her pussy. It was clinging to the digits, warm, and wet. There was a quick grunt in the middle of the gagging sound that went with him easing more of himself inside, feeling her tongue reflexively try to force him out, but he liked that because it felt like a rough caress. Pleasure built until an occasional grunt erupted from him while he bathed her clit with the fluid he brought forth from his fingers.

“That’s lovely, girl. Mmmm...that’s very fucking good. You’re a natural.” His balls were against her face now and he held there until she began to buck and squirm. When she bucked and heaved, he rolled his fingers around her clit in firm circles and occasionally squeezed, reverential of the tenderness of that bit of flesh. Dex pulled back, letting her compose herself. “We’ll reward one another, Denna. Do you see?”

Denna did. She used the wane to steel herself for what would come. He slid in deeply again until the whole of his crotch was against her face, blocking out everything. He became the sole source of stimulation for all her senses.

Goddess, she thought, as he slid in again. She coughed and gagged as strangled sounds escaped her thoroughly invaded throat, trying not to think of it too much for fear that she’d vomit from the overwhelming sensation as much as who she had inside her. Her reward came and it was like its own magic spell. Her body, in reflexive fear of drowning with the pounding heart and struggling like a beached fish that went with it, latched onto the pleasure. It was electric and she moaned on his cock.

Again, and again.

She knew what a mess she was without having to look. Her eyes watered so that they stung to open. Tears rolled over her forehead mixing with the saliva that drenched her face as though she’d bathed in it. It was in her hair and each time he would thrust and rest and rub her traitorous little clit she could hear glops of it fall to the floor with a pop. She heard, “Wider, girl,” through the mad rush of blood in her ears and she spread wider. She knew her cunt was as wet as her face because the air felt almost cold against it and she could feel a trail of her cunt juices find their way to the desk. The rhythm became familiar and her pussy looked forward to the moment when his balls would rest against her face.

This one is a little fireball. Her throat was doing sublime things for him. In his haze, it was all he could do not to drain himself into her belly. He could think of many uses for this one. A freelancer mage would greatly expand the scope of the services he could offer and the idea of fucking this hot, squirmy little thing nightly wasn’t a horrible thing. All women had their charms and he found the small, stout ones were hungry for it and could take it as hard as he could give it. His fingers were drenched and when she’d sputter and gag, her cunt would clench and threaten to devour the digits.

She came suddenly and furiously and the guttural sound from her throat vibrated against his cock. He closed his eyes and tried to ride it out, using the promise of finally fucking the little thing to help him find the will to do so, careful not to think of it too much, lest he go over the edge before he could follow through. When he opened his eyes, she was still squirming slowly, her thighs still shaking.

It was too inviting a sight to ignore and he pulled from her throat one final time, threads of saliva stretching to try to keep mouth and cock connected as she took in air in great gasps and coughs. Dex went to the side of the desk and grabbed her hips to turn her as he pleased before spreading her apart at the knees before grabbing his slicked cock again and aiming it for her gooey cunt. He grinned as he noted in his lust that her face almost like her cunt; wet and gooey. Her cheeks were red and her big green eyes only now seemed to focus on him as she lifted on her elbows to watch. When she spoke, her voice was raw. “Are you going to stick it in or just stare all night?”

Her words weaved through his muddled mind and he smirked, “Hating me a bit less, girl?”

“I fucking despise you, she told him. “Now bury that thing in me and be done with it.”

He obliged, watching her watch him fuck her with it. “Nice and tight, girl. Nice and...mmm, yes...tight. Hungry little fucking milker, aren’t you.”

Vale watched it slide effortlessly in and out, and fuck if it wasn’t caressing rarely touched parts of her pussy that had been long neglected. Trying to deny it in the moment was silly. She gave herself permission to like it for that and for the fact that his mind was wide open now. The only will within him at just this moment was to fuck her, fuck her hard, and fill her with seed.

She could take him when she pleased. He wanted to ride her and she wanted to ride right into his mind, and there was one moment that was always best: the moment when a mind was whited out with pleasure. She decided to help that along; to feed his mind and feed his lust. “Is this to be my job for the most part? Will my job be to choke on that thing between your legs and then spread for your convenience?”

“Why not?” He watched those tits bounce as he plowed, both hands on her knees, keeping her open. “You like it. You know you do, Denna.”

The reflection of her own deepest thoughts tied in the deep weaving of the spell continued and continued to make her uncomfortable. “Shut up.”

He gripped her behind her knees, pushed them toward her chest and leaned in to drive himself home, their bodies slapping together fiercely. “Nothing wrong with liking being treated like a whore now and then, honey. You like it. Maybe you like it more than most cunts.”

Droplets of sweat from his forehead adding to the drying mess on Vale’s face. “Pretty in your way, but always somebody more classically beautiful that the men wanted to fuck more. Someone taller. Someone with less hot, soft meat on the bone. Maybe you need it more than most cunts; need to be laid down in want and just fucked and used and left a mess.”

“Shut the fuck up, you worthless fucking animal.”

He growled like one as he took her compact frame, keeping himself impaled upon her, relishing how her ankles locked around his waist. “You love it. You need it. Say you like it.”

She looked into those dark eyes, fearing some of that darkness was inside her. It IS inside you, stupid girl, in more ways than one. But her cunt milked. It squeezed against his manhood every time he pulled out demanding that it not leave, the heat between her legs building again as he seemed to be trying to drive his cock into her throat via her pussy. As the head pressed against a particularly delicious spot, the words came out.

He grinned a dirty grin. “Yes, you do, you hungry cunt.”

He watched her eyes as her pleasure built again. “That’s it, girl,” he encouraged as she pushed forward at every downward stroke. That’s it.”

Vale let herself bounce, feeling his strong fingers digging hard into her ass as he effortlessly masturbated himself with her body. “It’s good. It’s fucking good, you piece of shit.” She looked up to the ceiling and then into those dark, wild eyes. She needed faster and he obliged without being told.

His cock sawing rapidly in and out, nearly to her belly and back again at just the right pace combined with her heat, her anger, and her humiliation lit the spark to the explosion beside her. She looked to the heavens and wailed and whined as her body gave in for the second time.

Dex’s sneering laugh brought her back to the now and the aftermath of the orgasm provided her with some semblance of clarity. He was ready and it was time. Vale hugged him tightly, her fingers working delicately up his spine, deliberately, almost as if playing a string instrument, feeling how far the spell had melded into him. “I’ll do what you want; everything you want,” she urged.

He groaned.

Fingers now to the back of his neck, moving upward. “I will slave for you.”

He tried to say the word because only came out in a pitch that suggested a question. “Ssss….”

“I will work for you. I will do as you bid. Then I will return to you and milk you as you please. With my mouth.”

He grunted long and loud as her fingers went to the back of his skull finding the points she needed as she began to sort through the images of his mind, some of which he didn’t even remember himself. What she found there grounded her and hardened her resolve because it repulsed her.

“With my cunt, because you seem to very much like my cunt.”

“Mmmmmmmmmmm...”

“And my ass. You will have all of me. I will slave for you. Cum now. It’s your turn now.”

She rested against him as he built to his end. She closed her eyes and focused on the spell, focused on the energy flowing through him. She adjusted one finger a little to the left and another a little bit to the right, finding the precise parts of him she needed, thankful that he was distracted, deciding that now was the time.”

“I’ll serve. I’ll suck and I’ll fuck. Heels in the air whenever you wish, cock in my mouth whenever you wish. I’ll...”

He screamed in abandon as a tidal wave of joy took him and his cock bucked against her inner flesh as his cock sent seed into her almost without pause. He had never cum so completely in his life and he hoped the waves would never end.

Even as Vale rode one of those waves into his mind.

Skimming the periphery of his mind moments before was bad enough, but to be immersed in it now was so repugnant she was certain that if she were still fully in her own body, she would be vomiting at seeing through his own eyes the story of his life. Vale saw it all. She saw cruelty to animals as a child just out of curiosity for the sounds they would make and the power over them. She saw his bullying of others through his school years. She saw the fights and the blackmail of students for money or favors...of all sorts.

Vale saw how he could be charming in his own way and use that and his displays of power to bring the weak-minded to his sway. She saw the thuggery of his childhood turn into criminality of adulthood. More blackmail, beatings and crimes against humanity even more vile.

He spread fear and terror wherever he went and did it now with an almost pathological apathy. The man didn’t particularly enjoy causing pain. He liked the endgame and getting what he wanted of course, but other people were simply things in the way of that. The endgame was all that mattered. He had no boundaries because, in the end, the only thing that counted to Dex was Dex.

Vale knew how to make him pay. It was fair and just and would cause him every bit of pain he deserved for what he had done to her and to everyone else he had wronged.

With a twist of the spell and a bit of pressure on his mind, she exposed the part of his mind that held the feelings he seemed to so deny and disregard as to be virtually unaware of them. Dex’s mind so flooded with the previously nearly unknown ability to feel that it overwhelmed what little bit of self-awareness the creature had left.

Having already gone through the memories within him, from those on the surface, to those dredged from the darkest corners, it was a simple matter to drive feeling to those memories. At the speed of thought she pressed those feelings into them, forcing Dex to live his life again in his mind’s eye, this time, feeling every moment from the perspective of the near endless stream of victims, from the guilt, shame, and anger of his parents over the fact that their son was something they couldn’t recognize as fully human, much less their child, to the sadness, resignation, and fear in the hearts of those he bullied.

He felt the humiliation of the young women he forced into sex with him to cover one minor indiscretion, only to use that to force them into further depravity. He felt the terror of every soul that he beat, tortured, or ended. Watching the life drain from their eyes had meaning to him that he could scarcely have conceived of before this moment. He imagined his victim’s pain. He imagined the sorrow of their loved onesHe felt Hanah’s suffering and Vale’s anger. He felt it all, and couldn’t stop feeling it. Dex screamed soundlessly and cried out to the Goddess...to anyone...to make it stop. But it wouldn’t. It looped again and again in perfect clarity before his eyes, all else forgotten.

Vale stood naked, shivering, arms crossed before her chest, green eyes darting along the floor in hopes of finding her own answers. Goddess, what have I done? The internal wail was not for Dex, as she knew he deserved every bit of what had been done to him, but rather for herself. Vale had debased herself beyond words, and, for what? Petty revenge? It had seemed like a good idea when she was staring him down, but now she thought far better of it. She had crawled inside that thing’s mind and rooted through its sickness. She felt it with him. She’d lived it with him.

As if that weren’t enough, she had given him her body. She had given him her body and, as she now stood a naked mess, and she hated herself for it. She feared that no matter how hot the water, how long she was submerged in it, or how much she scrubbed, she would never be clean again.

Bryana watched Vale clutch herself from the hallway, sympathy and an understanding of both Vale and Dex in her eyes that she could explain to an uninitiated soul if they had some spare years to devote to it. Bryana was not one to plea to the Goddess, doubting that there was anyone or anything to hear it anyway. Still, she hoped that there were more gains than losses today.

Her head dipped as she turned, leaving Vale alone with herself.