Errol

“That’s enough praying,” I said coolly. “You can stop now.”

Instantly the air deserted Sierra’s lungs, halting whatever spell she was preparing. “Wait, why did I stop?”

“Because I told you to, and you’re my humble servant, after all.”

“I am not,” she huffed, seemingly unaware of the words she had just been spouting. 

“My, you still haven’t realized yet. Why don’t you take a look at the chains binding me.”

She craned her neck to get a good look and her eyes went wide. The chains were a gorgeous blend of yellow and violet, as much my power as hers. Then she looked down at her own body that started to tremble. “You tricked me,” she whispered. 

“Now you feel it, don’t you?” I said, no longer hiding my delight. “My aura coursing through you, twisting your thoughts, warping your desires. Or would you normally masturbate in a situation like this?” 

It was true. Ever since she reached for the pearl, her hand hadn’t left her womanhood. It just remained there, lazily rubbing little circles. She gave a delightful little gasp. Her hand flew from her sex straight to cover her mouth, which inadvertently smeared her juices across her cheek. 

With a modest wave, I dismissed the chains holding me. They were built from my Aura after all. “You don’t have to stop on my account. It’s perfectly natural. You are in the presence of a very powerful, commanding man.” I confidently strode the distance between us, only stopping when our bodies were pressed together once more. “You can do whatever you want. So what do you want, Sierra?”

This was the ludicrously dangerous part of my plan. At this moment, Sierra had the full gifts of her Goddess at her disposal, my tampering aside, and my own powers were running thin. If she could see through the haze of arousal clouding her judgement, she might just incinerate me where I stood. So I watched her quivering lips with baited breath. 

It looked as though a war raged behind the emerald glass of her eyes, but at last the flames behind them died out. Her eyelids began to droop and she said in a sultry voice, “I want you to fill me with your gift, great one.”

It took all my restraint not to call her a good slave, but I couldn’t risk spooking her again. “That’s my faithful follower,” I said instead. I took one of her breasts in my palm and felt its pleasant weight. Sabrina didn’t resist, but rather melted into my touch. “Then turn around and bend over again. I’ll grant you my blessing.”

Salena turned and assumed the same position I’d placed her in, legs spread with pussy and asshole on full display. Except this time no phantom chains bound her, the tethers were all of her own making. I paused for just a moment to appreciate the view, and then resumed my work, releasing my shaft from its trousers. By this point my quarry’s cunt was sopping wet and I slipped in effortlessly. 

Sierra began convulsing as waves of pleasure racked her body. Still I couldn’t relent. I would run out of Aura soon and I had to break her before that. I seized her hips and began pumping furiously in and out. She did her best to match my rhythm despite her spasming muscles.  “Resume your prayers,” I commanded. 

“Oh, great one, oh please, please don’t stop. I beg you,” she murmured, voice dripping with desire. “Fill your servant’s pretty little pussy with your blessing.”

Without warning, I seized her hair and yanked her head back as I pulled her into me. Her eyes rolled up and her mouth fell open in a silent scream of joy. Perhaps she’d shattered, and was ready to be reforged. “You worship me.”

“I worship you.”

“You worship my cock with your body.” I punctuated the order with a hard thrust. 

“I worship your cock,” she said with a whimper. 

I gave a particularly deep thrust after that one. “You will serve me.”

“I will serve.”

“You will obey my commands.” Another hard, wet smack. 

“I o-o-obey commands,” she said, forcing the words through her own moans. 

Good, she seemed broken at last. “You are my slave.”

“I . . . I . . . am,” she panted. “Your . . . your . . . sl.” She paused. Why was she pausing? How could she even still muster the slightest resistance with so much of my Aura coursing through her. “I can’t. I’m sorry, great one. I can’t be your slave. I want to so badly, but they need me. They all depend on me.” 

Speechless, I was speechless. I could feel my reserves draining. The Aurora would break soon, and I had no idea what to expect of her when it did. Granted, she was largely corrupted, but not completely. There was a fair chance she’d just keep wanting to fuck, but odds were about equal she’d regain some composure and murder me. Either way, I’d be at her mercy. 

That’s when the blinding flash came. All the enchanted torches burst into a bright glare of red and orange. “Mira.” A deep rumbling laugh echoed from my lips. 

“Mira?” 

“Yes, it appears she’s made her choice. That was the signal we’d agreed on before this whole escapade. It’s over, you’ve lost.” 

“I . . . I . . don’t understand.”

I yanked her hair back again. “No you don’t. You never understood the potential you had under your own roof. That girl has more Aura than anyone I’ve ever met, more than me, more than Veralyn and you had her swinging a sword about.” 

“That cannot be. She could never channel Solaris’s gifts.”

“And I thought I was arrogant. You truly believed that power could only come from your Goddess. You never even tested her innate abilities did you? Let me guess, you had no sorcerers within your ranks so you didn’t bother.” 

Sabrina fell silent, and her words deserted her. I saw it. The way to snap that last thread. As distasteful as I found it, I simply needed to tell the truth. I slid out of her, eliciting a whimper of protest. “Mira belongs to me now. You’ve failed her.” 

“No, no, she can always find redemption in Solaris’s grace.”

“She has no need for your redemption. I’ve given her true power and it’s only the beginning. I’m an old man, Salina. I’m past my prime, and nearing my last sunset. But Mira is young, hungry, powerful. She’ll bring this kingdom to its knees in pursuit of her own ambition. She will be the instrument of my vengeance, vengeance for everything you people did to me and to Veralyn. She’ll burn it all down, and I owe it all to you.”  

“That can’t be true. We took her in.”

“You pushed her away. You created an opportunity for someone like me to sneak in and lure her to the darkness, and now there’s no going back. She’s tasted control and you can never change that. She’ll break this kingdom, starting with your little Abbey. It’s over, you failed.”

“I tried to guide her, to give her discipline. I failed her,” she admitted with a whine. Then she began to softly cry.

There. She finally broke, and not a moment too soon. I could hear it in her shrill wails. Now to pick up the pieces. I crossed around the desk, and gently placed a finger under her chin, raising her puffy gaze back to meet mine. “You did fail, but that’s ok. You can still make things right.”

“How?”

“By joining me, joining her. Mira is breaking your knights as we speak. Soon your whole order will be under our control. You can still help them, show them the proper path to submission.” 

“I can?” She asked, breath slowly steadying.

“Of course. They still need you. In fact they’ll need you more than ever. Without you, they’ll be lost, adrift in the ecstasy of submission. But you can still guide them, give them purpose, teach them to accept the gifts I offer. All you have to do is submit.”

Her jade eyes studied mine for a long moment, turning the choice over and over in her mind. Of course the playing field had already been tilted in my favor. My power pulsed within her, masking the holes in my logic, pushing her towards the only conclusion. “I submit,” she said softly. 

“You’re making the right choice.”

“I’m doing it for them.”

With a subtle tug, I guided her forward until our lips met. I poured the rest of my power into the kiss, imbuing it with rapturous ecstasy, hopefully enough to push her over the edge. She moaned into my mouth, as she became unable to even form words. When we finally broke apart, I pressed my forehead against hers and stared her down. “You are my slave.”

“Yes, Master.” She said it without a trace of doubt. I saw it then, that blank page I’d worked so hard to create. I’d only time left to etch a few words upon it. 

“Serving me is your divine purpose.”

“My divine purpose.”

“Utterly loyal and devoted.”

“Utterly loyal and devoted,” she agreed. 

The last of my Aura faded and I collapsed, my hand brushing down Sierra’s cheek as I fell to the ground. I lay there, staring up at her and hoping it had been enough. 

She looked down at me for a moment, wreathed in the chamber's light, like an angel. If the control was incomplete, she’d finish me here and now. At last her lips parted, “Master, are you okay?” And then she was crouched beside me, cradling my head in her lap. 

“Oh, much better now.” 

“Is there anything I can do for you?” 

“I thought you’d never ask,” I said, suppressing a cough. “I could use some Aura, if you wouldn’t mind lending it to me. There’s still something I need to do today.” 

“Of course, Master.” She didn’t need to transfer the power with a kiss, but she chose to, which I appreciated. As her soft warmth pressed against me, I felt the vitality return to my tired bones.  

***

Mira

The echo of Amara’s surrender still sounded in my ears, but it wasn’t enough. The challenge, the spectators, the consequences had been all but forgotten. All I knew was that I had Amara, The Dawn Blade, the most fearsome woman in our order, prostrate before me. That knowledge was enough to fully unleash the beast within, and it demanded satisfaction. “Crawl to me.”

Instantly, Amara fell to all fours, like the bitch she was. Her hands and knees shook as she tried to remain in place. 

“Crawl.”

Her body groaned into motion, slowly plodding across the short distance between us, sword still gripped uselessly in one hand. When she arrived, her head hung low in shame. I poked her forehead with my big toe, smearing sandy dirt across her tanned skin. “Lick my feet clean.”

Amara’s head tilted up in short, spastic motions as she fought the command the whole way. “You’ll pay for this.” But even as she spoke, her tongue flicked out, beginning to submit. It would just take a couple more pushes and she’d be lapping away. Perhaps I could make her think herself a dog. Oathbreaker’s limits had yet to be tested, after all. 

Suddenly I felt a cool, gauntleted hand on my shoulder. “That’s enough, Mira,” came Lynda’s calm voice. “You’ve proven your point. The challenge is over.”

“It’s enough when I say it’s enough,” I snapped. I no longer cared for Lynda’s advice. My sisters had all made their allegiance perfectly clear. Even though I’d won the combat, they would never consider me an equal, not that they ever had. This whole time I’d been walking a twisted, tortured road, torn between two lives, the darkness of Errol’s magic, and the light of Solaris, but I’d cast the light aside the moment that sigil had hit the ground. 

“Mira?”

I chose devotion to myself. Not to Solaris, not to Errol, me. For the time being, that meant accepting Errol as my Master and gaining all the power he offered. And my Master wanted an Abbey of obedient, submissive slaves. I had already signaled him with the torches, as per our original plan. 

“Mira?”

Whether the old man saw my flare or not, I would simply put every knight and cleric in this courtyard under my spell, one at a time. Just the prospect lit a fire deep in my belly. With Amara already enthralled, I felt certain I could conquer the others as well. That would teach them to look down on me. Before she could repeat my name again, I whirled on Lynda, intent on claiming my second puppet.

But she already had her shield drawn, and raised it in time to deflect the strike. Shocked gasps erupted around the audience. “Stand down,” she barked.

“Amara, incapacitate Lynda for me,” I ordered my new slave. 

The Dawnblade lurched to her feet, still stuttering and starting like some clockwork doll. “Captain, I’m sorry. My body is not my own.” Her attacks were jerky and uneven, a far cry from the elegant assault I'd faced earlier. Still, Lynda only had the one shield, and it was currently occupied with my little plaything. I sprang out to the side and paced around behind her. 

I raised Oathbreaker high and prepared to strike, but suddenly the sword caught in the air. I looked up to see cords of woven steel wrapped around my blade, holding it back. Belle. 

“Come quietly, Mira. I’d hate to have to hurt you,” she said with a sadistic glint in her eye. 

Midnight. I’d have to leave Lynda to Amara. I turned to face Belle, following the line of her whip as she pulled against my sword. She had me locked in a stalemate, unable to move freely without abandoning my weapon. Unless. 

I lowered my head and charged straight for the jailkeeper. Her hold had left me only one direction to go, directly towards her. She flicked her wrist, releasing Oathbreaker and then arced the whip back into the air, readying to bring the metal down on the exposed flesh of my back, but she wouldn’t make it in time. She’d been ill prepared for the ferocity of my unencumbered speed. I knew it. She knew it. The fear showed behind her bright blue eyes. 

If not for the morning sun, I may have missed the knife completely, but luckily it flashed in the light as it sailed towards me. I barely managed to stop in time to avoid it. Aryn had joined the fray. 

Less fortunately, stopping had given Belle time to finish her own strike, which landed on my bare shoulder.  

I strangled the scream of pain, and did my best to remain focused. 

Aryn stalked forward, balancing another throwing knife between her two fingers. “Don’t be an idiot, Mira. You can’t defeat all of us.” 

“If there’s one thing I’m tired of,” I growled. “It’s people like you telling me what I can’t do.” I reassessed the situation in a heartbeat. I’d have to focus on Aryn first. She’d be far too dangerous at range to leave alone. In fact they both would be, but close quarters favored me, so I’d just have to make it personal. I pressed off against the coarse ground and came at Aryn in a broad arc. 

She snapped a second concealed knife into her hand and prepared to defend. 

Belle drew back her whip, but then hissed in frustration as she realized what I’d done. I’d maneuvered myself so Aryn was between us. She’d have to reposition, which gave me a precious opening. 

I closed on Aryn, and brought Oathbreaker down. She raised her twin blades to block. Unfortunately for Aryn, I’d seen quite a bit of knife fighting recently. In order to counter a powerful swing with such a small weapon, she’d have to keep her frame tight and compact, just as Finnick had done. That made her stance predictable. 

Just as the sword was about to connect, I stopped short, releasing one of my hands. Before she could react, I had seized her wrist. Aryn managed to land a shallow cut down my other arm, but in the same moment, I yanked forward pulling her off balance. She toppled over, heavy armor impeding her reflexes. As she fell I relaxed my grip on Oathbreaker so it would point straight down, and plunged it into her chest. 

I felt something. A connection. I’d never noticed it before, but it was definitely there. A faint tether, linking me to Aryn and another running to Amara, and perhaps even another one, though that didn’t make sense. I’d figure that out later. “Stand up and help me with Belle.” 

Much like Amara, Aryn was doing her best to fight the command, but her best was insufficient. She regained her footing, despite her jerky movements, and held up a knife to throw. 

“Tch.” Belle ground her teeth, realizing the situation immediately. Her whip began to glow white hot as she channeled Aura into it. Then she swung wildly, creating a frenzied cage of hot steel between us and her. “Both of you stay away from me.” 

Aryn threw anyway, but the flurry of molten metal easily deflected the attack. Still she was only postponing the inevitable. There was no way she could sustain a technique like that for very long. I began flanking behind her, when heavy chains of golden light burst into existence and wrapped tightly around me. 

Averi’s voice rang out over the din of combat. “Stop this disgrace in Solaris’s name. Mira, release your hold on my friends and I won’t hurt you.” 

Friends

Her friends. They were her friends. Not me. Never me. I was never a part of their group. I would be on the outside no longer. I would take their world and tear it down. Even restrained as I was there had to be something I could do. I looked at my two slaves still trying to resist their orders to fight. Friends. Then it came to me. 

“Aryn and Amara, listen carefully to me. Your friends have all been placed under an evil spell. You must defeat them. You need to save them.” 

Aryn’s eyes rolled back and her lips parted as my words reshaped her world. When her gaze settled back on Belle, it did so with steely resolve. She tracked the motions of the whip and fired a knife at the perfect time, pinning it to the ground. Then she paced forward. Across the way, I could see Amara pressing Lynda backwards. Once again she moved with the lethal grace I had come to expect. Excellent. In truth I hadn’t been sure that would work, but it appeared my dolls had learned how to dance. 

“You brought this upon yourself,” Averi spat as she began to glow. “Solaris, cast your judgement down upon the lost daughter who hath forsaken . . .” And then she crumpled over and the chains holding me vanished. 

A moment later Finnick faded into existence. “Mira, what in the gods' names do you think you’re doing?”

“Fight now, ask questions later.”

“Yes, Mira,” he answered, turning his attention to Sofeigh. 

There was that tugging sensation again, but no that couldn’t be. Regardless, I didn’t have time to consider it right now. Aryn had managed to get Belle in a headlock. I needed to get over there and enslave her. Yet the look on Sofeigh’s face caught my attention. 

She was practically leering at Finnick. 

I could hear the desire behind her words as she said, “No please, stay away. Don’t touch me.” 

A pang of rage shot through me. No, not rage, envy.

Finnick raised a hand. “I wasn’t going to touch you like that. I’m flattered really, but I’m sort of pursuing someone else at the moment.”

The longing in her stare turned to resentment. “It’s never me.”

“What?” No, it’s nothing to do with you”

“So-Ku-Chu, green!” she yelled. Her lizard companion began channeling Solaris’s might and it grew to the size of a hound. Then it opened its mouth and released a jet of acid. 

Finnick leapt backwards, but some of the foul liquid still splashed his motheaten scarf. He screamed as though it had scalded his flesh. What was with him and that shadowing thing? 

I knew I should go and assist, but then some of Errol’s words drifted back to me. He didn’t have slaves so that he could do work himself. I turned and walked over to where Aryn and Belle were still struggling. 

“Aryn, she’s enchanted you, you have to fight it.”

“You’re the one who’s been enchanted. Let me save you.”

“By choking me?”

“I must incapacitate you.”

With a casual ease, I poked Belle in the nose with Oathbreaker. Again I felt the bond form. “Belle, stop resisting.”

She flopped into Aryn’s grip like a puppet whose strings had been cut, dark hair falling in her face. 

That was a more intense reaction than I’d expected. It made me wonder if she’d stopped resisting in all forms and I could give her more intense commands. “Belle, I am your commanding officer and you will carry out my every order without question or hesitation. Am I clear?” 

“Yes, my lady,” came her groggy response. 

Oooh, ‘my lady,’ I could get used to that. “Very good. Now Sofeigh has displeased me. I want you to punish her.”

“Yes, my lady.” Belle regained her footing as Aryn released her. She scooped up her whip and marched off towards Sofeigh and Finnick. I slapped her ass as she passed. I couldn’t help myself, but she didn’t even react. 

Aryn stood there blankly, waiting for another command, which I was happy to give.

“Aryn, go help her. You need to free Averi and Sofeigh from the dark enchantments.”

She began to follow after Belle.

“Say ‘yes, my lady’ when you obey me.”

“Yes, my lady,” she said without pausing or slowing down.

Apparently my previous command had disoriented her enough that she was no longer resisting either. Oh, sunbeams, I was getting wet. I probably could have made the two of them strip down and fuck right here in the sand. Perhaps I would later. Then it occurred to me that Amara was likely just as pliant now. At long last, everyone who ever looked down on me was getting exactly what they deserved. Nothing could ruin this moment.

“Who are you?” a thin, quivering voice asked from over my shoulder. 

I turned to see Janelle, staring at me with reddened eyes, her brow stained with nervous sweat, her chest heaving in ragged breaths.

“Who are you?” she asked again. “Because you can’t be Mira. You can’t be my Mira. She would never do this.” 

Her words cut far deeper than any wound. “Janelle, it’s me. I’m the same me I’ve always been.”

“Liar!” She snapped. “Mira would never rip our home apart like this, not after everything she did to belong here.”

“But I never belonged here. Neither of us did. They were always going to look down on me, down on us. Don’t you see, they deserved this?” 

“That doesn’t matter,” she said, barely holding back a sob. “It doesn’t matter what they deserve. You were supposed to be better than them. You made me want to be better. Who am I supposed to be now?” she said as the tears started to roll down her smooth cheek. 

“Janelle, I. . .” I began to speak, but couldn’t find the words. In my rage, I’d forgotten Janelle. She shouldn’t have to suffer any of this. 

“Save it,” she finally said, bowing her head. “Just do what we both know you’re going to and use your cursed sword on me. Make me your plaything.”

Before I even realized what I was doing, Oathbreaker was hovering in the air, ready to claim Janelle as its next victim, but no. I couldn’t do that, not to Janelle. She deserved so much more. 

“Well, what are you waiting for? Please, I can’t stand to see you like this.” 

My stomach churned, roiling with shame. Had I made a mistake? My grip went limp and Oathbreaker thudded to the dirt. “Janelle . . . I . . . I’m sorry.” I looked out at the pandemonium unfolding around us. Amara had disarmed Lynda’s shield, and had the veteran captain falling back. Averi had regained her footing. She and Sofeigh stood back to back, trying to fend off Aryn and Belle with blasts of holy fire, while So-Ku-Chu chased Finnick. The rest of the order had dissolved into chaos, sisters turning on each other out of pure suspicion. Was this what I had wanted?

Janelle opened her mouth, but another voice cut her off. “My daughters, enough of this. Turn not against each other. We all share a common purpose.” Sienna’s voice boomed across the courtyard, amplified by magics. 

Oh Midnight, no. Suddenly I felt like a child who had been caught sneaking sweets. Sienna’s magics would be strong enough to quash my young rebellion with hardly an effort. All the combatants stopped and looked towards the upper window she spoke from.

She must have been wearing an awfully low cut dress. From this angle she practically looked naked. The Matron continued. “There is no need for violence. We are all devoted to a higher purpose, a common purpose.”

Murmurs of agreement went through the crowd. 

“We all live to serve Master and see his will done.”

What did she just say?

“Simply look to the sky and all will be revealed.”

Then it started. The vibrant violets of the Aurora eclipsed the morning sun, casting the courtyard into an eerie twilight. One by one, my sisters succumbed to its charms. Their weapons slipped from their fingers as their thoughts dissolved. I turned back to see the lights already dancing in Janelle’s eyes. “Janelle, don’t look!”

“But it’s so pretty,” she said in a dazed sigh. 

My imagination flooded with images of Janelle bound and yoked to Errol’s will, just like Liana, Janelle naked and bouncing atop him in the night, Janelle dancing for his amusement, Janelle kneeling at his feet with the same hapless happy smile that Liana always wore. No. I wouldn’t allow it. Not her. “Janelle, I’m sorry.” 

“Huh?” 

My fist found its mark, digging into her stomach as hard as I could manage. My oldest friend keeled over and passed out. Good. That would save her from the Aurora at least, even though it was so pretty. That was my last thought before the neon tide swept my own consciousness away. 

“Mira.”

I couldn’t think. The lights were so beautiful. 

“Mira, wake up.” Suddenly a hand was shaking me, and my thoughts began to flow again, like the first trickles of a thawing stream. Someone was standing next to me, a man, Master. 

I snapped to attention, taking in the scene around me. My sisters all stared blankly up at the Aurora, all save Janelle who lay asleep on the ground. Thank the Goddess.

Eroll stared at me expectantly. 

Then the reality of my choice came rushing back. I had chosen Errol’s darkness. I needed to regain his favor if I wanted his magics for myself. I fell to my knees and lowered my head before him. “Master, please forgive my lapse in loyalty.”  

He stared down at me for a beat. “What are you talking about?” he finally said. 

“Master, please understand, it was hard for me to betray my sisters. I grew up with them and I thought they finally recognized me. I couldn’t just throw that away.”

He shrugged with casual indifference. “That was all clearly acting. You may have fooled them, but not me.”

“Master?” 

“You won their trust, lured them into a trap, gave me a window with this one,” he said waving a hand to Sienna, who I only now noticed was standing behind him, clad in lacy black underwear, with her head demurely bowed. “And bested quite a few of them yourself. Now we have one of the most ravishing forces in Elysia ripe and ready for the taking. As far as I’m concerned you followed the plan to perfection.”

I rose to sitting, finally understanding his meaning. “Of course, Master. It was all according to plan.”

“And since you’ve served me so well, I think you deserve a reward. I’ll let you pick any two of them to be your personal slaves. Well, not Sabrina here. She’s already spoken for, but anyone else.”

“I get two slaves, and you get, what, forty some?” 

His stare turned cold and instantly I regretted my outburst. “Yes. If you prove to me that you can care for these two, perhaps I’ll grant you more. If I were you, I’d just be grateful.” 

I bowed my head again. “Yes, Master. Of course, you’re right, Master.” At least for now. 

“Now make your choices.”

Once again I sat up and surveyed the women I’d known all my life. That familiar fire began to spark between my legs. These women had barely spared a look for me, and now I could own any of them. I felt like a child in a confectionery shop. Where to even begin. I knew Aryn hid a spectacular figure under her armor. I’d love to peel it off of her. Then again Belle had been simply gorgeous when she’d submitted to me. I wouldn’t mind having her at my beck and call. 

Then there was Averi who had spoken so unkindly to me just now. Perhaps I could put that mouth of hers to better use. And Sofeigh had ogled my man. She certainly deserved to be punished for that, although not as much as Lynda deserved punishment for interfering with me earlier. Despite that, there was, again, no real choice. 

One person had been crueler and more vicious to me than any other. “I’ll take Amara,” I began. And one person needed my help more than any other, who I would never leave to Errol’s machinations. The kindest, sweetest girl I knew, who now lay asleep at my feet. “And Janelle.”  

End Act 1