The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Sylanna waited until they were well away before she began to pace them by heading in their general direction. The pace and solitude gave her time to think, which was as much curse as blessing. She didn’t like any of this. In the days of her old self all that would have mattered is the talisman and getting it would be a relatively simple matter when she could weigh everyone in her path as, at best, either a witting or unwitting accomplice, or, if need be, collateral damage. If she could act as she once had, she would have the thing by morning.

But other things had value in the new Sylanna that could not be denied or dismissed. She felt for those women taken by a fool playing with things he was too stupid to comprehend. They didn’t ask for what happened to them, and to condemn them to a life of slavery without even making an attempt to free them or at least determining if freeing them was possible wasn’t an option. Life was so much simpler when I didn’t have to care.

What was done was done, so what mattered now was knowing what they faced. And, as Vale saw it as an advantage to have the more learned mage on the outside, it was better to have Vale where she was if they weren’t going to just attack. These people were prepared to meet aggression and it was probably to their advantage to meet them with someone not already spoiling for a fight. Who knew, Vale might be able to talk her way to the thing and the fool out of it because stupid, greedy people were stupid and greedy. Offer them a sack of gold or what’s in the empty box, and, if you talked up the box, or made it clear you didn’t want them to choose the box, depending on the variety of idiot, you could get far too many to take the box.

There were simply too many unknowns as she rode ahead, still plenty of day to be had and it was warm enough now that she could barely see her breath. Her mind went to little things like that to keep from worrying too much about Vale. Softness. Stop it. Fretting over the favorite would keep her from doing what needed to be done.

There were reasons she was favored though. She was kind to the new initiates, eager to know them and help them discover and hone their skills. Each one was precious to her and it looked to her that Vale almost fawned over them and they gravitated toward her for that acceptance. But she demanded of them, too. In her own quiet, calm, almost sweet way, she demanded commitment and she demanded improvement. “Your best is all the guild demands,” she would tell them and take them to task in her gentle, sweet, immovable, ‘Vale’ way, if they failed in that.

She had found a balance. She was open and kind, but by no measure weak. Sylanna remembered when they first met. Their fight had been brief, but Vale was quick on her feet and quick to counter. And when she looked into those eyes then, she saw a ferocity that she could respect because in that moment it mirrored her own. If anything happened to her, something important would be lost.

Stop it.

No one would be lost, at least not through her action or inaction. The problem was that she didn’t have enough information to decide what which needed to happen at just this moment. She had a path to Vale, but she restrained herself from using it right away. Give her time to use her skills, such as they are. In the meantime, with the setting sun, Sylanna, decided that since she now had an idea of where to go, she should probably stop closing on that place, lest their be roving patrols looking for slaves or other signs of life that it simply would not do to interact with.

She picked a hill far enough from the path not quite wide or worn enough to be called a road that she wouldn’t be easily spotted, but gave her a good view of the land and the chance to at least partially obscure the horse. Gathering rocks to heat when the time came rather than risk an actual fire, she promised herself that she would wait until nightfall to be contacted.

If not, she would touch Vale and see what there was to see, then do something about it.

The sun was about to set again and the young woman stopped to look at it, mainly to try again to take her bearings. It was really something to look at when she could do it as a free woman. She couldn’t say she’d paid it a lot of attention before, and maybe that was a mistake. The disc was a bright orange and its cast gave the clouds closest to it a pink and purple hue. She didn’t know how many more she would see as a free woman or at all, so she may as well take it in as she tried one more time to get some sense of her position in the world, not that she expected it to help anymore than it had any of the other times she’d tried. She had no idea of what she was trying to make her way to. If I get to go home, I’m going to watch a lot more of them, I swear. Goddess, help me.

She had been taken so far from home, moved mostly at night so that no one would see, least of all her and those like her. Nothing was familiar. Once they opened the gate for her, she ran and didn’t stop until she felt like she couldn’t run anymore. Once the excitement of freedom wore off, her body began to remind her of the position she was in as the cold iced the sweat on her skin, the wind whipped through the nothing she wore, and the snow and the forest floor bit at her feet. Add to that the fingers of bare and gnarled trees randomly trying to scratch her eyes out, she really didn’t know how she lasted the night.

The sun came up and she thought that might be her redemption, but, as the day went on, it only served to show her how dangerous her situation was. There was so much sameness around her that, for all she knew she’d spent the night spinning in circles. She tried to follow the sun, but that just seemed to take her deeper into the woods. Even so, she stayed on the path unless reason came to leave it.

She found her body leaving it though. She was tired and the cold was just enough to leech her life from her a bit at a time. It was no small miracle that she’d made it as far as she had, but the feeling in her toes was gone and her fingers weren’t that far behind. She thought that her pursuers would intentionally drive her in the direction she needed to go just by trying to stay away from them, but there had been none. By morning it was clear that they’d just let her go to die out here far from home. As miserable and sad as that was, at least she’d die free. It really was better than the alternative.

She’d stop moving, stop shivering, stop feeling, fall asleep, and that’d be the end of it. But she’d have to stop moving first and to the depths with that. She pressed forward with something between a shuffle and a walk, using that star as her guide for as long as she had left to see it. Who knew, maybe that was what going to the Goddess would be like. She pressed one step at a time until she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She stopped to look. In the approaching dusk and with the spots in her eyes, she wasn’t even sure of what she saw. A horse? She didn’t know for sure, but it wasn’t too far away and it was at least a certain destination. A rational shred within her wondered if it was the next step in a breaking mind that spent a night and day wandering in circles in the cold.

She used the cover of the trees and walked a wide arc around, keeping her thin frame against the trees to steady her as much as to give her a place to hide if the one that came with that horse was on the hunt for her. Her heart beat faster which dispelled the tiniest sliver of the cold as she came to the realization that she was being hunted. She hunched down, suddenly thankful for the impending night. Each step forward was as measured and as quiet as she could make it. If s stick poking above the snow snapped, she froze to make sure none of the lengthening shadows moved suddenly in response. One horse, but it was stupid to think there weren’t others out there to hunt her. Maybe the rider of this one was just scouting looking for hints of her.

Forward, step by precious, careful as she could manage, numb step. She had to reach it while sight of them was clear enough and she still spotted nothing but the horses. If they were out there looking for her they’d be back soon because they weren’t going to hunt her in pitch black. The big one might, but it didn’t change anything for her.

If she could make it to the horse, she at least had a better chance of living than now. If she could run the last half a dozen steps she had a chance at it. How she could do that when she couldn’t feel her feet anymore was its own problem, but there was no other chance. With still no one in sight, there was no better time than now for the only chance she had. She took another step closer to a chance at a chance.

The hairs on the back of her neck jumped.

The rest of her followed as she felt two fingers at the back of neck, pressing to the back of her skull with a touch so faint it scared her more than if an arm had hooked around her throat.

Before she could gasp, the sensation of falling forward took her. Sleep followed well before she could hit the ground.

To see at night as clearly as the day never stopped being beneficial. It was one of the greater gifts resulting from Sylanna’s experiments on herself, if certainly not the only one. She could work unimpeded and not compromise herself or the care of the woman in slave rags. She gathered more rocks, the smallest of which were the size of her open hand, forming a ring around her. This one needed heat and needed it quickly. Drawing the magic to her hands in a soft orange glow and transferred that power to the stones even as she used her mind to further excite the air over the woman, creating a bubble of warmth around her.

Malnutrition. Abuse. Exposure. If the weather had been any worse, she probably wouldn’t have made it this far. Her feet were in bad shape and would take more effort than Sylanna had time to spend. Honestly, the last thing she needed was this little thing to care for just now that fell into her lap. She quickly debated whether or not the girl was some sort of lure or trap.

The latter seemed unlikely because there was nothing that marked this girl as anything other than she appeared. If it was the former, while Sylanna found a new awareness of people and a new empathy for them, she was not fool enough to to risk everything by letting this woman lead her somewhere. Slaves were captured and sometimes, despite the best efforts of slavers, they escaped. The mage spent time putting together bits of nature in the ways that she knew how from what surrounded her and from her pack. What she put under the girl’s tongue would aid the effectiveness of the healing spells, while what she put down her throat would temporarily restore her strength.

Passing her hand over the woman, Sylanna waited patiently for the woman to be drawn back to the now. When those eyes opened to look upon the silhouette of a person blocking out part of the sky, panic tried to pull her upright only to be stopped by a deceptively strong feminine hand and the words, “You’re safe, but stay quiet.”

“What? Who…”

“Do you not know what stay quiet means? Lower. Your. Voice. Because I told you to. Who are you?”

She laid back and whispered. “Ani.”

“I am Sylanna. I assume you came from the place ahead of me on this path. You are a slave?”

“Sort of.”

“What does that mean?”

“That’s what they had planned for me, but fuck them. I’ll never do what they want,” she spat. “If you’re with them you can fuck yourself too, I’m not...”

“If I were with them, you would be back where you started. You being calm will help us both here. I assume you escaped.”

“Sort of.”

Sylanna’s exasperation was plain. “What does that mean?”

“It means that he let me go so he could hunt me down, but no one came looking. He let me out so I could die in the woods.”

The mage filled in the blanks with her own instincts. “I suspect he became preoccupied with other things.” There’s no point in letting her out just to die. Slaves were money and if one is so much trouble they have to die, they’d gut them wherever they were and not risk them escaping.

“We have to get out of here,” Ani hissed. She thought she’d long ago cried out her anguish at all that had happened to put her here, but the pain wracked her as though it was the first time she woke not knowing where she was. “Please. We have to get out of here. I want to go home.”

“Right now that’s problematic. The good news for you is that I found you before you died. The bad news for you is that I don’t have time get you anywhere safer than here. I’m in the middle of something and can’t leave.”

“In the middle of something? In the middle of the woods in the dark? Bullshit. What could you be waiting for other than for them to find us out here?”

“What I’m waiting for isn’t your concern. Just be glad that it isn’t you. As soon as I am able, I’ll…”

Things touched her mind. Fear. Panic. Confusion. Anger. They all flashed through her, washing over her in an instant. Her own heart began to pound in her ears at the intensity of it and she gasped. She found herself looking off in the direction of the source. Sylanna closed her eyes and, with some effort, tamped the flood of emotion that threatened to sweep her away, though she couldn’t close herself off completely. She needed to touch it in order to track it.

“You’ll what?”

She closed her eyes, concentrating her will and her power forward, hoping to see through Vale’s eyes, but it was nothing but a wash of color and blur. That told Sylanna enough of what she needed to know. Vale’s mind was under attack by powerful magic. Sylanna weighed her options. She could try to lend her power to Vale and aid her in resisting if not fighting back. But if she failed and the magic was too powerful for both of them together, both could be taken. And if that happened the situation would become much worse.

So Sylanna did the only thing she could. It was something the old her would have done without hesitation, but now it pained her. If Vale lost her battle, Sylanna would have to contend with whatever the aftermath would be. If Vale were to die, how would she explain it? Who would believe that Sylanna wasn’t responsible for it? Mistress would, but no one else in the guild would. That actually bothered her very little. They already hated and distrusted her and, as a backhanded benefit, perhaps she could be left alone after all.

But if they had to battle, Sylanna was certain of her ability to end Vale if need be. What she wasn’t certain of was her ability to live with it afterwards. Others could think what they wanted as to the why of it, but Sylanna would have to live with that. Feel it. Another ghost for the collection.

Stop wallowing in emotion and act.

“You’ll what?” Ani said more loudly than before. Alarm bells that had been going off in her mind before were blaring now. “I’m better off in the woods.”

“Hardly,” Sylanna countered. “The alternative is little better. I’ll have to take you with me.”

“Where?” She wanted to scream. She lifted herself from the ground and reminded of the cold surrounding her that felt hungry to leach her life away. “Back there? No.” Before she could protest further, it died as a whine in her throat as Sylanna’s hand touched her and sleep took hold again.

It was the only option, not that it was a good one. Ani couldn’t be left here in her current state and there wasn’t time to try to heal her only to leave her in the woods, hoping to come back to this spot for her. But she would have to be protected as well, which added another level of difficulty, as if she needed one. Putting the woman over her shoulder as though she weighed nothing, she draped Ani across the back of the horse and threw a blanket over her for warmth and concealment.

Lashing her securely to the beast, Sylanna joined her and began moving at a rapid but measured pace towards Vale, resolving to save her horse’s energy for a potential getaway over a rapid arrival. She tried to reason with herself that it wasn’t all that far relatively speaking, so she could afford the judgment call. It didn’t make her feel any better. All it really did was make her wish she could return to the indifference that once defined her.

“Come with me.”

Solos led Vale out of his rooms and down the upper hall where a simple change in the color and texture of the wood on the walls marked the shift from his private spaces to the common areas. The guards were behind her again and kept their same pacing from her as before. One broke away after Solos looked to one and said simply, “Bring the next one to the communal room.”

Solos spoke as they walked casually. “Young lady, I have no great love for magic or the people that wield it. It openly defies natural law, and for a man like me that tries to have a respect for it, it’s strange. That said, I don’t hate it either. It’s here, and people can make use of it, so it’s meant to be a part of things.”

“A wise position, Lord.”

“What I generally don’t like are the people that wield it, though I’ve made use of them before and will again. I don’t like the airs that they put on. They think they’re better than everyone else and that they’re lowering themselves to deal with you at all.”

Vale knew this well, particularly of late. “Would it surprise you to know that I often find myself feeling the same way? Too many of my kind allow pride in a skill to decay to arrogance.”

“That’s understandable,” he agreed. “That, I suppose, is true of all of us,” remembering more than one evening of drinking and boasting with others of his kind, whether they be hunters or peers in his other ventures He patted his big hand on the warm metal, reassured by it. “But, I have to say, I understand your kind a little better right now. Put me at the edge of a cliff yesterday and I’d be worried. Right now, I feel like I could fly.”

“Which is why you should allow me to have it now before you grow to like that power much too much. I know it clouded the one who came before because I know that’s how it works. Lord, I give you my word the help I bring, if you allow it, will not attempt to take the talisman from you. We will focus solely on Delvine.”

He finished the line of thought for her, “And if you can restore her, I give this up, is that it?”

“That makes you whole again, does it not? she said smoothly, “It puts you in the exact place you were before it arrived.” Here she paused for effect. “Also, to be as you were before it arrived at your gate, I would like the women he brought with him returned. They are victims of the magic taken from their homes, families, and lives.”

He snorted. “What about the rest of them? I take people from their homes, families, and lives, and it provides me a good living to do so. What about them?”

“If you would be willing to deal for them, I would certainly be open to that. My guild has resources enough to allow you to turn a handsome profit, but that deal would be a separate beast to this one.”

“Are you going to keep buying what I sell you? That could be lucrative for me. Not only do I have a reliable client with deep pockets I could sell, cut loose, and resell the same batch.” It was said only half in jest.

“No. This would only be a deal for those here now.”

“What about the poor souls who come after?”

She dismissed his pouting tone and there was an undercurrent of anger in her own. “I detest slavery. If it could be undone throughout the world I would wave my hand and do so, as I would for all the ills of the world, but I cannot. However, these people are here before me, and there is a reason that that’s so if I can help them, I will.”

He stopped to look down upon her. She spoke to him firmly and without fear. Looking into those eyes that didn’t flinch, he thought for a moment that her fearlessness came from her own magic, but he realized that it was within her. She had a keen sense of right and wrong and the possible and not.

“And, if Delvine can’t be fixed, what then?” he asked as they began to walk again

“What value does she have to you?”

“I seek to expand my reach and I’d hoped she would help me with that.”

“Whether she wants to or not.”

“Basically that, he agreed, “but it was going to be profitable for her. I had hoped to convince her of the value of helping me. If she cannot be restored as she needs to be able to help me I am not whole.”

“I disagree,” Vale asserted firmly, “Delvine had agreed to nothing and did nothing to further your goals which leaves you exactly as you were before anything happened to upset your plans.”

“A mage might be very useful in helping me with those plans.”

“A mage or mages might, she agreed, “but assistance would be costly.”

He patted his necklace again. “I guessed. Here we are.” He took the doors on his left and opened them. “Don’t give me a second thought girls,” he said with a lecherous chuckle. “You just stay comfortable.” Following behind him, Vale’s senses were assailed at once. She almost immediately recognized the women from the image left in the mind of the man she first encountered, all piled together with others languidly caressing one another, limbs wrapped together in tangles that looked like they would never come unbound again. The nipples of every last one were hard and each touch of another brought sighs and moans of constant arousal.

The room was filled with the heady mix of sweat, dried and not, and sex that stung her nostrils. And the magic. She could see the haze of it and she could feel it on her skin. Vale could see it waft through the air as steam did from a hot meal and she could trace it to the minds of each where it would nestle in the center of their minds. Their minds had been so thoroughly subsumed for so long now that they were feeding on one another for reward as much as the talisman. Several tracked it with their gaze. They didn’t care who controlled it, they only cared about being controlled and perpetuating the state they found themselves in.

Solos sat in the chair in front of her and it creaked slightly under the weight of him and he spread his arms to encompass the room. “Here they are. Here’s every woman that the man that called himself Kel came in with and then some. As you can see, no one has harmed a matted hair on their sweaty, well-fucked heads.”

“I need her what she knows to help me disrupt my competitors sufficiently to get my foot in the door, turn them against one another, then take over before so much damage is done their operations are worthless. So, what I hear you saying is that, if I give you this, and the women, you will help me do that”

“I dare say mages are good at disruption of all kinds. Assuming that Delvine cannot be helped, that is what I’m saying.”

“Don’t worry, she can’t, and I don’t need a mage to tell me that. Tell me, have you ever been hunting? I mean, one-on-one.” His voice carried a quiver of excitement, as if part of him was there and was savoring that moment. “I mean, where you are in it’s environment, the place where it lives, and breathes, and kills?”

Her green eyes gave up her amusement. “I’m afraid small game trapping is the limit of my skill without my other skills.”

“Oh, young lady, you are missing a thrill, and, if things work out, perhaps I’ll take you. There’s nothing like that feeling. You both know it can kill you. It wants to. It has no fear because it knows every bit of ground. Every tree. Every ditch and how deep it goes. You have to keep sight of it because if you don’t, the next time you know where it is, it’s on top of you opening your guts. But if you’re just close enough at just the right moment, you see it.

There’ s a light in the eyes of animals that’s not really the light of life. It’s something much more complex. It’s...cunning. They’re planning their attack or their counter. That’s not in her eyes anymore, so let’s not pretend that it’s something you can bring back. If you’re capable of that you’re really quite the mage. So, let’s talk about what you can do for me.”

His brows went up when he saw the guard that he dispatched return with a woman in front of him. She struggled somewhat in his grip until he spun her halfway around and gripped the back of her neck. Arm locked now, he led her three steps in before pushing her so that she stumbled in several more. Vale took note of her. Tall and reed thin, but, for this one, it looked more like her natural state. Her hair was a deep red and her eyes a light brown that made for just enough contrast to make one look twice.

She looked around and her eyes registered recognition and confusion before turning back to Solos after he asked her name. “What? What difference does it make?”

“None, aside from the fact that I asked you what it was. So what is it?”

Before she could answer, one of the women who was kissing down the belly of Rianna making her way to the pink feast between her legs. “Tria, Lord. She told us her name was Tria.” The woman caught the musk of the feast she sought. She quivered. The hot breath it drove from her caused Rianna’s eyelids to flutter as another soft moan escaped her. The woman groaned at the sound and dove in to dine.

Tria looked back and her eyes couldn’t hide her anger at the betrayal. Then there was confusion that she turned on Solos. “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing, really, Tria. I just made her a lot more agreeable. She seems to like doing what she’s told now. Well”, he conceded, “I didn’t make her more agreeable so much as this did, but it’s a useful tool. Look at her though. She’s fine. She likes it now. Isn’t this the better way, Tria?”

Vale knew what was coming next and with that knowledge came a choice. She didn’t know enough about this magic to know if it could truly be undone. Delvine was a lost cause, of that she was sure, but that these others had awareness was a good sign. Even so, it was a risk that they would never be whole. Part of Vale screamed from within, demanding that she help; to not just stand there and watch another person get taken.

He would know. He would feel it if Vale tried to be a presence in Trina’s mind to help her fight, and that would trigger a response that she might not anticipate. She knew of and had dealt with people like him enough to suspect why she was right here, right now. It was for the display of power and if she escalated the situation now it would spiral out of control and endanger others. He wanted to show her that he commanded the magic better than his predecessor and he was not to be underestimated. She had to keep it between them. And there was still a decent chance that he simply wanted a deal. If so, Vale could secure her freedom anyway.

She clenched her jaw tightly and began to build her defenses while, for the moment, surrendering to the inevitable that was unfolding before her.

“You’re going to be a slave. You’re going to get moved wherever I move you and sold wherever you get sold. And, wherever you end up, whatever will happen to you will happen. Won’t it be better if you like it? It’ll be better for you if you like it. Vale saw and felt the push that came with, “Don’t be afraid, Tria.”

“You’ve been afraid for a long time. (push) Since you got here. (push) Since before you got here. It takes so much energy. (push) It’s so exhausting. It just makes you tired and it doesn’t change anything that happens. (push) You don’t want to be afraid anymore.” (push)

Vale studied the magic with the intensity of an initiate. He drove the magic with some ability to modulate it. It drove into her, beating against the doors or her mind, slithering through the cracks of fatigue and fear as it melted through him as well.

As the magic slipped in, Tria’s muscles relaxed, releasing the tension she felt. She took a deep, full breath and it made her feel safe, as though she were back in her old bed and her old life. Each of his thoughts pushed through those widening cracks.

“You aren’t afraid, Tria. You aren’t afraid because there’s nothing to be afraid of anymore. There’s no reason to be afraid of being a slave. It’s going to happen. Nothing can stop it, so being afraid of it is such a waste of time. Of energy. Of life. You were prey and you were caught. I caught you. You are not afraid. You accept it.”

She stood there now, her bare feet rooted to the floor, but the rest of her seemingly so loose that she swayed in an unseen breeze.

He pushed harder. “You accept it.”

“I accept it.”

“That’s good. That’s right, Tria.”

“I accept it.”

“Very good. You’re a good little animal now, yes you are. You are calm. It’s so much better to be calm. Think of it. No more worries or struggling. More than calm. Many animals are calm, but for them, calm is just a break between bursts of rage. Tame animals are calm so they can be taught. They are quiet so they can listen to what their master wants. So they can listen to what their master wants to teach them. You’re very quiet now, Tria? All I hear is your breathing. All you hear is your breathing. You’re breathing and not thinking about anything and waiting to be taught what you need to know. Are you calm, Tria? All I can hear from you is your breathing, so you must be in a calm place waiting to be taught.”

Vale saw the power moving from him to her. This was easy for him, as he had a powerful will, and he was offering her mind the only escape that she would get. Each breath that she exhaled and each beat of her heart, her mind slipped into the haze and Vale imagined she was grateful to do it.

Tria grinned, her eyes staring into the talisman.

Tame animals that are taught how to behave, so that their calm is just the break between excitement at doing what they’re taught are domesticated. You can be that. You can be excited to behave and making your masters happy. That sounds wonderful doesn’t it? Happy and excited at making the people who own you happy. Calm. Docile. Tamed. Domesticated.”

“Your nipples are so hard, Tria. Vale could see his excitement at what was happening, and it wasn’t just the heady rush of the magic flowing through him. It was the thought of conquering her and seeing it happen before his eyes. His cock was rock hard, bulging from under the confines of cloth and snaking down his thigh. You want to be domesticated. Be happy and excited for what you want to be.”

“You want to be a domesticated animal for your master. No fears. No fatigue. No worries of escape that can never be. “You’re very pretty, Tria, tall and pale and pretty. Being tamed and domesticated is going to be wonderful for you and you’re looking forward to it. No cleaning or cooking for a body like yours. You’ll be fucking for your masters. You’ll be fucking and pleasing all the time, when they say, and how they say. In all your holes. One at a time or all at once. If your masters are happy then you will be happy. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

Her pupils were wide. Her jaw dropped but no sound came out.

“Speak.” He commanded as he would an animal.

“I want it. I want to be good.” She felt wild inside, but her master had bound her and not pressing against those bounds meant she was tamed. When her master would tell her how to be good and she did it, she would be domesticated.

“Then take off your rags and join the girls.”

She pulled the cloth over her head and left it where it fell. They were all reaching out for the fresh meat now and Tria let herself be clawed downward by the two closest to her as they led her on her back. One grabbed her ankles and brought her knees to her chests while the other moaned, open-mouthed as she began lapping at her like the animal she too was. Tria’s eyes rolled to the whites and then she was lost to the flowing haze that fed and took from them all now.

Vale watched Solos pull the power back, his breathing ragged and his face showing signs of strain that turned into determination and then satisfaction. From Vale’s view she saw the intensity of color ebb, but not entirely fade. It was still within him as it was the talisman and that would only grow over time. “Feels so very much better when you use it, doesn’t it?”

He gave her a sidelong glance as his breathing steadied, “You have no…” He stopped mid-thought to chuckle. “I suppose you do.”

She approached him slowly. “You’re strong, Lord. That much I can see, but, as I’ve told you, that’s not enough. It may take weeks, or it may take months, depending on how often you...indulge, but you will become no different than the one before you. You think the whispers you’ll hear are the magic, but they’ll be your own desires as they mix with the power. You will confuse and seduce yourself as you struggle to control it until you finally give in and look for reasons to use it and see how far you can go so you can keep feeling this and feeling it more intensely.”

“Look around you, Lord. In the end you’ll be them. Does that appeal to you?”

“No. No it doesn’t.”

“Then simply let me have it. You will be made more than whole by my guild. We can discuss terms now if you wish.”

“You don’t exactly look like you’re in charge of anything. No offense.”

“None taken. But one of my jobs in my guild is to negotiate deals between us and our clients. If you and I come to terms I can assure you that the agreement will be honored.”

“Perhaps we can come to an agreement, though maybe we help each other more indirectly.”

Her brows tightened, “Indirectly?”

“You speak as though you can control the magic. So, it seems to me that, if I control you, you can keep the magic from controlling me.”

Her mage’s eye saw the magic build within him before it lashed outward striking the walls she had erected in defense. Guild Mistress Bryana taught those skills herself because they were among the most critical to know. They were not only needed to defend one’s mind from another, but it was a key element in controlling the magic. She remembered the days when she could not master a base levitation spell because she could not separate a spell from her emotions, and that wasn’t the first time since that her own uncertainties had gotten in the way of what she wanted to do.

Now, she was proficient enough in such skills to teach initiates. In spite of that, the impact was enough to stagger her back toward the guard who moved to hold her, latching on to her upper arms. Vale feared. He had driven the power towards her as hard as he could, assuming rightly that she had defenses he had to take before she could react.

“S-stop,” she groaned, her eyes on the talisman and the writhing, mindless women surrounding her like some erotic horror nightmare.

“Give in,” he demanded. She thought she detected lust in his voice.

Impossible. It wasn’t just that her being under his control would make him that much more dangerous, it was the simple fact that she feared he would either not know when to stop or, in the thrill of using the power to take, he would forget to stop, or choose not to. If that happened, she would end up like Delvine.

She would not end up like Delvine.

Vale collected her fear and let it burst forth without finesse. The women closest to her shrieked as sudden terror overtook lust and they scampered away from her and toward Solos, their Lord and protector. The guard holding her screamed as though set ablaze and she saw Solos rise to his full height out of the corner of her eye in the surprise that came with feeling that fear himself before she made for the door.

He growled as he followed after her, yelling. Or maybe it just felt like that in her brain. She could feel the words reverberate over the walls in her mind and in her skull. “I like spark and all, but just let it happen. There could be a lot of fun and profit to be had if you give it up. You could join the girls when you’re not helping me. You’d like that.” When he looked for her she was already halfway down the stairs.

She could join the girls. She’d like that. She didn’t need to look up to see where he was, she could feel the power battering the inside of her skull. Visions filled her mind. Visions of sweet, endless fucking until he beckoned her. They so filled her that the guards coming up the stairs after her escaped her notice until they were almost on her. Her hand stretched out, fingers clawed as she tried desperately to focus and project her will outward.

They inadvertently saved her when one got close enough to take her forearm and pulled her to him and close enough so she could touch the other. With that contact came a rush of fear and pain that made them squeal and others around them run from whatever was happening that they didn’t fully understand. Clear for the moment, she thought to try to collect herself, but it was a mistake, just allowing the power to hammer her all the more and the hairline cracks to form between Solos’s power and her mind. “I’d even give you a good, hard rutting, too. You’d like that.”

Splayed for the beast. Him pumping away. Her pussy began to drip openly in want of it. “No!” she begged and demanded.

He heard that want and he casually walked to the stairs, his heavy boots making the floor creak. “You want to be tamed, don’t you, little lady? Tamed. Domesticated. You know I can do that. You want me to do that.”

His will was trickling into her now. She used the sound of his footsteps to spur her forward, though she had to actively force herself to move away instead of towards him, stumbling headlong into the courtyard. Eyes turned from their own concerns in their own lamp lit corners of the world to look at her fall to her knees and then force herself back to standing.

Vale watched him approach, her mage’s eye seeing the talisman shine like the sun, almost obscuring his form entirely. The energy tightened around her. She could just let go now, she reasoned. It might be the only way to save herself. If she announced her surrender, he would probably lessen his attack so as to spare her from being melted away. “He’ll take me to fuck the girls.” That would feel so good right now.

“I will, honey,” amused by the fact that she jumped, seemingly unaware that she’d said it out loud. “I’m not angry or anything. Animals struggle when they’re trapped. By the Goddess, I have a lot more respect for you here and now than Tria and the ones I used this to tame before her. They didn’t even try. They just gave up. They just blew over like dead branches in the wind. Come on, I’ll take you to fuck the girls and you can fuck the girls all you want.”

He stepped forward carefully, not wanting to spook the skittish prey. ‘You’re in such a heat right now, aren’t you? Maybe I’ll just fuck you right here and now; give the people here a little show. I bet they never saw a mage fuck before. I don’t mind that either, to tell the truth. It’s not that cold, and my cock will be nice and warm. And I know you’ll be nice and tame after that. Then we can really help each other out. You want me to tame you now, don’t you, girl?

Visions swirled, each one more tantalizing, hot, and submissive than the last. Not much longer and she would live for the feelings she felt as the two who held the necklace would live to use it. She could help him. She could temper him and it so that he could stay in control. Her mind was aiding in her seduction now, so wanting of the heat within, that it tried to tamp down her will on its own. You would save other women that way. Delvine wouldn’t happen again. You’d be protecting others.

With her help, he could stay in proper control of them.

Of her.

In proper control of her and the rest of the herd he was building. “Fuck me.”

“I will,” he promised. “So good that you’d wanna stay with me even without the trinket. You’ll love it like they do. Wet all the time. In heat all the time. In hot, wet heat all the time.”

All she had to do is give in. Be like the rest of them, only slightly more than less. It wouldn’t be bad at all. And she was sort of used to it. It would be kind of like her life before she found that she could learn magic. Go back to being nothing special. Go back to being what she was before Mistress Bryana knew her. Before she trusted her and nurtured her skills. She could go back to being the nondescript soul that no one at all looked twice at, much less looked to because of what she had to teach and who she was.

But she would be wet like now.

And in heat like now.

All the time.

Goddess, how I want to fuck and be tamed.

A torrent of rage twisted within her. As tempting as that state of nothingness was, and it was, that rage carried with it the truth that she’d rather be wiped away having been something once even if she didn’t remember it. She would rather be gone than to live with enough unleashed mind to know that she was once someone that someone that she idolized as if the Goddess herself increasingly looked upon as a peer.

And enough unleashed mind to know that there were mages following in their footsteps that looked to her for counsel as much as instruction in the trade, and that she gave it up.

Gave it up to be nothing but a domesticated animal in constant heat.

Her arm stretched again and she expressed that rage in a howl that threatened to pierce even her own eardrums and orange mage fire erupted from her fingers as scattershot as the tatters of her mind and will. The eruption banished the fog and made the air crackle as she watched the fire explode through an empty kiosk and move wildly as she swept her arm left to right, catching the edges of the roof shingles before she brought it down to Solos, who launched himself out of the way with surprising speed given his bulk as fire took the entryway.

The link between her mind and the talisman now severed she felt more in control, but only slightly. She could still feel it in her mind and if he reached out again she knew she’d fall. She thought for a moment she was hearing the echo of her own screams when she was hearing those of the people around her. She turned and two wobbly steps forward brought her to two her knees which led to several feet worth of clawing forward on all fours to her horse.

Reaching up to the stirrup as though it was hope itself she used it to pull herself to her feet. Having no time for niceties She wrapped her hand tightly around the leather keeping the horse to her post and burned through it. She flung herself over and onto her saddle. Vale led the two of them into the woods as fast as four legs could carry them both, leaving the outpost behind. She the horse choose the path, not trusting herself from one moment to the next. Vale realized that it didn’t matter that the connection to the talisman was severed, the magic was already firmly within, seeping deeper into the corners of her mind.

Time was hard to count. She tried to muster her skill to banish what was within, but she was still more confused than not, now that there was no immediate threat to distract her from the wet in her mind. The rhythm of the horse helped her mind soak the wet like a sponge. There was no one trying to hurt her now. She was safe. It was safe to be wet and to feel and to want. Vale was wet. So very wet and she sighed as she rode, the motion too much like fucking to be ignored. Vale let herself feel safe and wet and feel the motion that reminded her of fucking.

It was so much the extent of her world that when she felt an arm hook around her, she just didn’t care.

Sylanna tracked their way back to the shack, the rune showing to her mage’s sight like a beacon. When she found Vale, she saw the flames in the distance and looked upon them with satisfaction. Despite her confusion and fear Vale had delivered a serious blow on the way out. People underestimated mages at their own peril. Vale was disoriented but appeared none the worse for wear, though Sylanna would check things more thoroughly when they got somewhere safe, and, at the moment, the shack was all there was.

Sylanna assumed that any eventual pursuers would be familiar enough with the area to know where it was, but she thought they might have until morning. She heard and saw no signs of pursuit then or since, so she had guessed anyone that might either perished in the fire, were so concerned with putting it out if they could that looking for the cause could wait, or they were afraid to hunt a mage in the dark.

You should be.

She tethered the horses in the back and took everything from the packs that she thought she might need for them. “Vale, do you hear me? Stay here until I come for you.”

There was a lingering pause so long that she was ready to repeat herself before Vale said, “I’d like that.” The words and the tone did not quite match with the circumstance or Sylanna’s tone, as though she were responding to someone at another time or place. Not having time to dwell on it just now, Sylanna entered and put what she brought on the old table before tossing another log on the fire and, with a wave of her hand, ignited it and the small lamps on the walls.

Bringing Ani in over her shoulder, she placed her on the cot opposite to the cupboards before wrapping her tightly beneath two blankets and dosing her with her remedies once again and tracing runes on her forehead to place her in a healing sleep. There would be no dreams. All she would do is breathe and heal.

Vale was aware enough to help Sylanna help her from the horse.

“Excellent, Denna. We’ll get inside and get warm, then you can tell me what happened while I check you over. We should be safe here for a time.” She left Vale standing while she barred the door, though, she resolved that if anyone came, they wouldn’t get nearly as close to them as the door . She looked into Vale’s dreamy, distant eyes before putting her hands to Vale’s head, thumbs on her cheeks while opening herself to see into Vale, seeing the pool of molten heat in her mind almost at once.

It took no great leap of logic to know that she had touched what the women they tracked had. “I believe I can clear this, but it will go much faster if you help me help you. Can you help me help you, Denna?” Sylanna maintained the unfamiliar familiarity to try reach her.

Vale clasped her forearms. “I feel good, Syl. I feel so good.”

“I have no doubt, since I doubt you’ve ever so much as thought to call me, ‘Syl’.”

“Wet and hot.” Her hands began to caress and she drew closer to Sylanna causing Sylanna to step back until she pressed hard against the counter. “Fuck me, Syl. Will you fuck me? I want you to.”

She forced Vale’s hands from her. “You don’t, Denna. It’s all right. It’s not your fault it’s the magic. I can clear it myself. It’ll just take more time, but it’s all right.”

“I don’t want you to clear it, Syl. I want you to fuck me. I want you to take me. Tell me how to please you. Better yet, show me. I want you. I want to do whatever you want me to do.”

“You don’t.”

Vale was so close to Sylanna now that their lips brushed. “I want you. You want me. Fuck me. Show me your true form. I’ve seen it. I know it. It’s wicked and beautiful and I want to fuck it. I need to stop the ache. I need to stop being wet. I have to fuck and I have to obey.”

“I can stop the ache. All you have to do is allow it.” Her voice wavered. “Allow me to focus and take this from you.”

“I don’t want you to. I like this.” No longer interested in trying to reason through the haze, her tongue darted straight in to taste. Sylanna’s hands touched her in the same manner as before, but there was an uncharacteristic tenderness to it, her thumbs caressing those full cheeks. When the kiss broke, Sylanna’s voice was had gone from wavering to quivering, fearful of the words she would utter next. “You want me?”

Vale knew without thinking, which was good because thinking wasn’t something she was interested in. Mindlessness. Wetness. Being what someone else wanted her to roiling around in her mind her mind. “I want you.”

Sylanna’s eyes darted, searching. Whether she found what she sought or not, she kissed back ravenously. In the next moment the veil magic that she wore that she was so practiced in holding, she could very nearly do it in her sleep; the veil that she made an art of to the point of plucking features of others that she liked and integrating them into the identity of the moment. The veil she created to cover her true self fell away and Denna looked upon her with a new flush of heat at the differences between them.

Sylanna’s gifts, like the ability to see in night as in day were the result of years of self-experimentation with magic and combining that with her skills in alchemy, but those experiments changed her in more obvious ways. Her skin was pale with a slightly gray tone that hinted of blood darker than red, that darker hue more pronounced at her cheeks, and full, pouting lips that carried a dark purple tinge that on anyone else would have reminded Vale of one not getting enough oxygen.

Her hair fell straight behind her head and just beyond her neck, carrying a wet sheen of the darkest black. Tiny veins the color of her lips could be seen at points from her hairline. Vale touched her hair for the first time and it felt as slick as it looked. Sylanna’s nose was finely sculpted and her brows were sharp. But it was the eyes that held attention. They were an emerald green and the way the gold flecks within played with the light, the irises looked almost faceted the pupils not quite round anymore; definitely more animal than human.

Vale looked deeply into them and then kissed her again as deeply as before, her hand caressing that hair that felt like silk before Sylanna batted it away while holding the kiss because the positioning was creating an unintended obstacle to making Vale naked, which was supremely important to her just then. Sylanna’s long fingers wormed through the cloth pulling away the cloaks that would fall on their own and, using her gray nails that rounded smoothly to points reminiscent of claws, found the knot that would untie and let her work free the tight crisscross at the top of her shirt just to tease herself. The clothes that could be shed at once were and when the kiss broke, they both looked down and Sylanna watched Vale unhook her belt and shimmy from her pants. Sylanna could not yet see the prize, but she wanted to. After pulling Vale’s top free, Sylanna stared at Vale’s small, round breasts as she undressed herself as quickly as she could make her fingers and limbs work.

Sylanna was all defined muscle, her body always a work in progress. Her belly was taut, her ass firm and rounded, and thighs that looked capable of cracking a skull. She heard Vale whisper, “Fuck girls all the time.”

“I’ll happily show you how to do that.” She put her hands just under Vale’s ass and lifted her without effort. She grunted when Vale’s ankles locked around her and the kisses kisses kept coming. The tongue slithering in her mouth threatened to take her breath away. They spun together until they Vale faced the wide end of the table. “Down, girl,” Sylanna said it with playful desire, but Vale took it as a command, beginning to kiss, lick, and nibble down her body. Knowing what was coming, Sylanna decided to simply let it happen.

Vale worked down her breastbone, each hand hefting one large, slightly pendulous breast. She bit each breast harshly enough to draw growls from Sylanna, but no demand that she stop before her tongue sucked and played with each long nipple in turn with equal enthusiasm as Sylanna’s nails gently raked her hair while she closed er eyes and let the pleasure and the frustration build as the nibbling fell to her stomach, tongue probing, actually making her laugh out loud at the unfamiliar sensation.

The tops of her thighs, left, then right, kissing tenderly. Her eyes snapped open at the sudden force with which Vale spread her thighs to continue her kissing and the gentle meandering of her fingertips from the knees inward until Sylanna’s often limited patience reached its limit. “Eat.”

The heat in her mind heard a command and nudged her body to follow it. The lips were thick and the same dark as her other soft flesh that flowered around a clit prominent enough to pucker lips around and suck, which is how Vale attacked it, playing with it almost like a tiny cock, sending thrills through Sylanna’s body. There had been much change in her life of late, and she hadn’t realized how much she needed release.

She looked down at the mop of hair and urged for more. “Don’t forget to...uhh...lick as well. It is sweet. That was an...unintentional side effect on my part during my work, but since it encourages something I quite enjoy, there was no reason to try to undo it.”

Vale did and was rewarded. It was musky, but with a sugary sweetness as well. Her tongue searched for more, coaxing with each dive inside, drawing it up to flavor that clit to feed a mind that was only focused on sex and reward in order to make her want to suck longer and harder. Suddenly, the ankles at her back pushed her forward with more than a little force. Her hands clutched Vale’s head and she hunched forward and heaved as her orgasm too her.

She panted and in momentary exhaustion flopped backwards on the table, closed her eyes again and just let her lick her to the next and the next until she realized that, in Vale’s state, she would simply lick until told to stop. That seemed not terribly fair, even though desirable. Aside from that, she wanted to taste and explore, too.

She rose on her hands and pushed herself upright. Planting her feet on the floor, she nudged Vale gently away when she tried to crawl backwards to maintain her tongue on Sylanna’s clit. She lowered herself to her knees and Vale rose enough for the two to kiss again, Sylanna, tasting both Vale and the sweet. Breaking it, she lifted her gaze enough to look down the length of her body, the runes placed upon her from her marking ceremony, the rite of passage for all guild mages, and something Sylanna never saw herself after running so afoul of her guild that she was banished before it could take place.

Some were sharp, some were rounded. Some simple and some dazzlingly intricate, they all fit together to enhance her connection to power and help her focus it. The runes had other uses for the skilled. She could not partake directly in those herself, but she knew well how to manipulate those access points in others. Crafting the energy carefully through palms and fingertips, she was interrupted for a moment as Vale reached for more kisses.

Her response was firm and gentle. “Down, Vale. Be still. Be patient.”

Another order to obey. She put her head down and planted her palms on the floor, she waited as she was told. For what she did not know, could not reason enough to guess at, and ultimately didn’t care about.

Sylanna pressed her palms firmly to Vale’s shoulders and pressed down as if to begin a firm massage. As she brought them inward and together on either side of her spine, the gentle, unseen currents from Sylanna’s touch found those runes and fired the nerves beneath while flushing through her body. Vale’s joints locked, her fingers becoming claws scraping against the wood. Her mouth opened to release a single, monotone groan along with spittle as her body seized.

“The runes allow for the sharing of energies Vale. Mages with such marks can use them to give so much pleasure to one another. It can be overwhelming for the uninitiated,” she whispered softly. Vale’s pleasure ebbed slightly and mixed with a more physical shock as Sylanna as she spanked the left cheek within her reach and created a snap in the air.

Then once more on the right, then again. Sylanna liked the redness she created and the heat she felt when she held the spanking hand over the skin and she found that she was quite tempted by the rippling wave she created when she did so. Vale’s animal mind focused on what it felt and what that felt like “Fuck me. Fuck me more.” Feeling flowed through her. Magic flowed through her and feelings passed between them through that bond. Awareness of why she was feeling so wonderful; the sights and sounds of the moment, edged into her mind

The ravenous little thing’s zeal fed her own and Sylanna would in turn feed the runes, spank that ass and then sink her teeth into a hot cheek, repaying Vale in kind for the not so subtle bites on her breasts that she knew for certain would still be there tomorrow. She finally brought Vale to her for more frenzied kisses and Vale returned them as before when Sylanna shifted to leave more nips at her neck with tongue drags to follow them, lost in her own need as she dug into Vale’s flesh again, teasing between bouts. “Most women just have an ass, my dear. You have a rump. A full...soft...supple, rippling rump.”

Sylanna parted far enough to look at her. Breasts enough to fit in her hand over a soft stomach. She noted to herself if that ass was a rump, Vale’s stomach was just soft enough to be a tummy. Her hips were wide and inviting and the tuft between her legs was dewy enough to catch bits of light.

And Vale saw her. Vale saw her with the hazy awareness of a person dreaming, but one knows they are dreaming. She was aware of the who and the where and, while, that face might inspire terror in others and probably should have inspired at least bewilderment in her, the fog helped her not care or question. She was still in heat. Goddess, she was still in heat. Every inch of her wanted. So, when, in that barely aware haze, Sylanna led her to the floor, she followed, returning kisses as she went.

Sylanna knew what she wanted to see and followed her own cravings to turn Vale’s hips sightly away from her and lifting her right leg slightly so she could get between them. She pressed her pussy to Vale’s and moved slowly at first, to spread their wetness all over each other and gauging their positions so she could create a rhythm.

Vale’s head slowly rolled at the teasing. “Do it.”

There was no doubt that she would. Slowly at first, their lips caressed one another and their clits ground together. Faster and faster, their lips kissed what they could reach and their clits touched like the tips of tongues. When they connected, Sylanna used her skills to add to that pleasure. That Vale couldn’t return it in kind didn’t matter, the watching alone was enough to drive her harder. Vale had a leg over her Sylanna’s to touch and she could watch that bit of tummy move in kind and watch those dreamy eyes. Or listen to the sounds they were making together.

Those sounds built slowly even with the fierce rhythm. It often took patience this way. It took consistency, so that the mind and body could build together knowing that the next motion was as the last and would be as the one that followed. Whimpers filled the space around them. Then sighs as Vale through heavily-lidded eyes began to grind her hips to compliment her movements. Then moans as Sylanna bent backwards slightly to drive her point home. Vale screamed first and Sylanna followed. Watching that tummy and thigh before her quiver uncontrollably was more than she needed. She came, pressing her cheek to Vale’s leg and hugged it with both hands, sending some of her pleasure through the long, sharp-edged, and pointed tribal rune on her thigh, which made Vale cry out again.

When she was in in the moment again enough to look down, she found Vale peacefully asleep, heat spent, with hints of a smile still to be seen.