Aareesha began to yank off the silver ring from her finger.

The ring begged, “Please don’t pull me off, Aareesha. Please listen to me first. I can help thee!”

Aareesha thought, « Why should I listen? »

The ring said, “if thou art thinking something, please say it instead. I can’t read thy thoughts.”

Aareesha wondered if this was true. The ring could be lying. If the ring was cursed, Aareesha might be doomed no matter what she did. She had put the ring on. She couldn’t undo that. She decided she could risk a brief discussion. It’s not like her life was wonderful to start with.

Aareesha said, “Why should I listen to you? My life is miserable enough. The last elven city on this continent of Fourth has fallen to the humans. I was an elven princess. Now I’m a slave to a lowly human. A human named Bon, who constantly fucks me. My master has forced me into a magical vow, so I must obey him and please him to the best of my abilities. Once I had made my vow, he forced me to betray elvendom. As a result, all of elvendom wants to capture me and torture me. I don’t need a cursed ring to add to my problems.”

“I’m not a cursed ring. I think we can help each other. Both our lives could be far better if we work together.”

“What are you?”

“I’ll tell thee, but please let me tell thee the whole story. Oh, sorry, let me tell you the whole story. Language has changed over time. I sometimes forget to change with it.”

“Ok. Who are you?”

“I am Throofoonah.”

“Throofoonah. Wait, you mean the evil elven sorceress Throofoonah?”

“I am an elven sorceress. I am not evil. The elf who says I’m evil is Vrentanee. In my day, Vrentanee was a rival sorcerer. He is now Emperor Vrentanee the Cruel and Deathless. He’s the one who spread lies about me. He is not known for telling the truth.”

“He is no friend of female elves, I know that. You said in your day. That was over two thousand years ago.”

“Yes. For ages I have fought for female elves to have the same rights as male elves. Vrentanee believes female elves should be submissive and obedient to male elves. He is wrong. I have lost battles, but I will not give up.”

“You said we might be able to help each other. Explain.”

“I’m still a sorceress,” explained Throofoonah. “I’m trapped as this ring, so I have nowhere near my full power. Yet I am not powerless. I can temporarily or partly disable some of the terrible magical effects on thee. Er, you. I also have friends who can help you. In return, you can help me. I cannot move on my own. We can work together.”

“Why would I want to help you?,” asked Aareesha.

“Because we are both female elves. Female elves deserve better. Thousands of years ago elvenkind had a strict patriarchy. Before I was born, this had started to change. Elven females began to demand more equal treatment. Some male elves agreed. I was born in a tumultuous time, when elves were arguing about how elven females should be treated. I became a true believer in the rights that female elves should enjoy. I became a leader of the movement to consider female elves as having the same value and rights as male elves. There were protests and fights. Much happened. We female elves had many successes. For a century female elves had mostly equal rights to male elves.”

“What happened?,” asked Aareesha.

“Vrentanee. He is good at persuasion. Over time his speeches began to sway many male elves. He noted that we elves were having fewer children. He argued that left us vulnerable to the humans who reproduce rapidly. It’s true that we were having fewer children. Many female elves wanted to do something with their lives other than procreate. I explained that removing our rights wasn’t the answer, but he persuaded many male elves. He also persuaded many male elves that because female elves were gaining power, male elves were losing power. I argued, along with some of my friends, that it wasn’t really losing power, or that this change was appropriate. It was hard to convince some male elves that losing power wasn’t happening or that this change was desirable. He also claimed that some female elves were in league with the humans, trying to end the slavery of humans.”

“Was he right?”

Throofoonah sighed. She replied, “I can’t deny a few female elves did that. My friends and I were arguing that female elves should have the same rights as male elves, as they are both thinking creatures. A few female elves made the next mental leap. They said that humans are also thinking creatures, so they also deserved the same rights. I do understand the argument. I want to make it clear that I was not one of those betrayers who thought humans should receive equal rights to elves. Female elves are elves. We female elves should have the same rights as all elves. That is all I claimed. Humans cannot think at the same level as elves, so they do not deserve any rights. I never advocated for freeing humans. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. Unfortunately, Vrentanee is good at lying. He said my words were what I said in public, while I worked for the humans and against the elves in private. We lost some important supporters from those slanderous claims.”

“So eventually all the male elves got together and forced female elves to submit?”

“That’s not what happened first. It’s true that male elves have always been stronger and faster than female elves. A few female elves, like me, have powerful magical abilities, but a similar proportion of male elves have powerful magic too. What happened first was Vrentanee’s curse.”

“What was that?,” asked Aareesha.

“Vrentanee is good at persuasion, but he is also a powerful sorcerer. I am the most powerful sorceress in the world. He’s even more powerful. He also has dark sexual proclivities. Unknown to all female elves, he had spent over a century crafting a spell that would make many changes to female elves. Some of his male elf supporters helped him craft it and power it. On one dreadful night Vrentanee released his curse. All female elves immediately noted that we were undergoing changes. We could tell that he made all female elves more beautiful according to his own tastes. He grew our breasts, made us more curvy, changed our skin to be more radiant, and made our faces even more symmetrical.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Yes, if he’d stopped there it wouldn’t have been so bad. No, he went far beyond that. That’s merely what we first noticed. His curse did far more. He modified our throats, cunts, and anal passages to better pleasure cocks and maximize males’ sexual pleasure. He made us female elves become more submissive and fearful when male cum enters our vaginas. He modified our vaginal lubricant so males who vaginally fuck us will be sexually tempted to be cruel to us females. He blocked our orgasms so female orgasmic release requires a male elf’s consent and special magical actions. The curse gave female elves a desire to protect elvenkind, possibly to discourage female elves from working with humans. Female elves were always physically weaker than male elves on average. He emphasized that difference to an even a greater degree, so the strongest female elves now tend to be weaker than the weakest male elves. This curse permanently changed female elves. It is now being naturally passed down to all future generations.”

“Emperor Vrentanee did all this?”

Throofoonah the ring continued, “Yes, though he wasn’t the emperor at that time. In short, Vrentanee and his supporters cruelly redesigned female elves to encourage darker male elf pleasures. Once he released what he calls ‘Vrentanee’s gift,’ he unleashed his supporters to capture and subdue unattached female elves. Many male elves found they greatly enjoyed and preferred the new situation. The male elves changed elven laws to ensure that male elves’ dominance would never be questioned again. Now almost every female elf is under the thumb of her male guardian. Vrentanee turned his success and acclaim into even greater political power. That’s how he eventually became emperor.”

“I was told some of those feelings were natural in female elves!”

“Those feelings are ‘natural’ only if you mean that they happen automatically or that they are passed down the bloodline. There’s nothing natural about their origins. Female elves were crafted to be this way. Thou hadst been… whups, um, you have been told many lies and half-truths. You, and generations before you, have been under the thumb of male elves who do not have your best interests at heart.”

“So, what happened to you?”

Throofoonah replied, “I’m a female elf, so all those changes happened to me, too. His spell didn’t change the beliefs of me or my friends. He isn’t that powerful. The curse did give us a desire to protect elvenkind. We believe giving rights to female elves helps protect elvenkind, so we could counter that part of the curse. Unfortunately, most of my collaborators were quickly captured. Female elves without strong magical gifts were easy prey. All elves have magic and are suffused by magic, but few elves have especially strong magical gifts. Over the decades my captured female elf collaborators slowly became docile. They became obedient to their male elf guardians. I don’t blame them. It was enforced by magic.”

“That’s more about what happened to your friends. What happened to you?”

“For a while I managed to stay out of the clutches of Vrentanee’s goons. My magical powers gave me a great advantage compared to most female elves. Yet it was hard for me to stay free with hundreds of male elves continuously pursuing me. Over time there were fewer and fewer who could or would help me. Some were even compelled to betray me. I eventually became trapped in a citadel at night. I had no way out. So I transformed myself into this silver ring and made it look like I’d committed suicide. I hid as part of a jewelry set that they considered their prize. Eventually a female elf was allowed to wear me.”

“The feather gem said you weren’t magic.”

“If a feather gem could detect me, I would have been revealed two millennia ago. I’m good at sorcery. Mere feather gems don’t work on me.” Aareesha could easily hear the pride of both craftsmanship and power in Throofoonah’s reply.

Aareesha asked, “Are you a magic ring? Or a female elf?”

“I would say I’m a female elf who’s been a ring for too long,” said Throofoonah, “I was born the same way every elf is born.”

“I’m curious. What’s it like being a ring and sitting on some shelf?”

“From inside this ring, when I’m unworn, I receive no information from the outside world. I instead see a ghostly apparition of my own elven body, wearing the clothes I wore when I transformed. I live in a single ghostly windowless room, with a ghostly light above, a ghostly chair to sit on, and a ghostly bed to lie down on. I don’t need the bed and chair, but I put in those props to keep things as normal as I could. Normally I feel nothing. I sometimes have vague impressions of senses when someone carries me in their hand, but that doesn’t provide much information to me. It’s really miserable being isolated when I’m unworn. I get lonely and bored in my prison. There’s nothing to read and nothing to do. I can’t really feel much either. Imagine enduring years like that. I can’t begin to explain the awfulness of this isolation and sensory deprivation, year after year after year.”

“What happens when you’re worn?”

“When someone wears me, I receive all the senses of my wearer. I see what my wearer sees, hear what my wearer hears, smell what my wearer smells, feel what my wearer feels. It’s like my wearer’s body is my body. If my wearer touches something with his or her right hand, I feel my right hand touching the same thing. When my wearer or anyone else nearby speaks, I can hear what’s being said. I don’t control my wearer’s muscles, but I can ask my wearer to do something. When I speak, anyone touching me can hear me, though they have to be touching me. I can still cast some spells, but they can only affect me or my wearer. I’ve lived this way a long time, so in some ways I’ve started to think of myself as more like a ring than an elf. I often refer to myself as a ring. Yet I still burn to regain the rights of female elves so they are the same as male elves. I have not forgotten who I am.”

“Why don’t you stop being a ring?”

“I can’t. This transformation was a one-way trip. I knew that when I did it. If I had done anything else I would have been discovered, tortured, and eventually killed. I’ve only survived because male elves haven’t figured out what I am. My tricks prevent most magical detection, but they also prevent me from escaping. You have to admit it’s a pretty good disguise. Most male elves can even wear me without detecting what I am, as long as I keep my big fat mouth shut. There are sophisticated ways to detect what I am. So far no one has taken any of those sophisticated steps. It’s vital that you not give any hints that I’m more than I seem. Simply discarding me to the bottom of the ocean would doom me to a life of endless impotent loneliness. There are many ways I can be tortured as a ring. Someone with significant magical power could even undo my spell and restore me to my female elf form. That would take someone with significant magical power, though. There are few such elves. While I can’t transform back to my body on my own, I can address some of the terrible effects of magic on you.”

“Like what?”

“You said you vowed to obey and please your master to your best ability. I can suspend that vow, as long as you don’t try to kill him or hurt him. The moment you start trying to hurt or kill him, even quite indirectly, my suspension spell will end. You’ll also be subject to your vow again every time he cums into your cunt. It’ll take me at least an hour after any of those events before I could suspend your vow again. Of course, I can’t change everything. Whenever you get fucked in your cunt, as usual you’ll also desire to be more obedient to the male who fucks you and you’ll become more fearful of his displeasure. I can’t undo that, as that is Vrentanee’s curse. Vrentanee’s curse changed the nature of all female elves. Hell, if I get fucked in my cunt, I would have the same problem.”

Aareesha asked, “What about the magic runes in my collar?”

Throofoonah paused, then replied, “Hmm. You sure have a lot of magic runes in your collar. Let me examine them. You tell me if I missed something. Okay? The first rune, the adore rune, gives you pleasure every time you obey an order or receive praise from your master. The second rune, the fear rune, makes you fearful every time your think of going against your master’s orders. The third rune, the punish rune, gives you anguish when you deliberately displease or disobey your master. The fourth rune, the excited rune, makes your body unnaturally sensitive to pleasure and pain. The fifth rune, the clear rune, gives you mental clarity. The sixth rune, the sorcerer rune, is permitting you to use your magical abilities. You only have healing magic available, but that’s something. That seems to have imprinted on you anyway, so you can use healing magic without the collar. The seventh rune, the stamina rune, enables you to undergo work or physical discipline for long periods of time without injury. The eighth rune, the ensnarement rune, was designed to make it increasingly difficult for you to disobey or intentionally displease your master.”

“Yes. That is all correct. I guess it’s good you can perceive them. What can you do?”

“When I suspend your vow I will suspend the ensnarement rune, too. They’re related.”

“That’s wonderful!”

“Remember, my suspension spell will break every time he cums in your cunt, or if you try to hurt or kill him. If he’s even indirectly hurt or killed by your actions, your vow returns.”

“I understand. How about the rest?”

“I don’t think I can do anything useful about the other runes. I should warn you that I can’t counter pain or pleasure at all. Also, as a magic ring, I’m especially vulnerable to magic. Pain that’s magic or intensified by magic will hurt me even more strongly than you. The excited rune increases pain or pleasure. I fear it will affect me, too. I expect any kind of pain you experience will be horrific for me. Please try to take me off when you’re about to experience magically-induced pain.”

Aareesha wished Throofoonah could do more. Aareesha was still delighted. This was the most hope she’d had in a long time.

“I’ll try. How about the emerald necklace?,” Aareesha asked.

“I can’t do anything about the emerald necklace. Remember, I can’t do anything about pain or pleasure. You’ll feel whatever pain you’ll feel. If you’re wearing me when you receive magically-induced pain, I’ll feel the pain with even greater intensity. Magical pain is no joke when you’re a magic ring. I’m especially vulnerable to it. I don’t currently have a real body, but the pain I would feel would be exceedingly real to me. I know you can’t turn off the necklace.”

“Can you help me remove the necklace?”

“No, I can’t help you with that either. I’m as female as you are. Females can’t remove emerald necklaces. So please don’t wear me if there’s a risk that the necklace is going to be activated. Once it’s activated, you won’t have enough control over your body to remove me. I’ll feel what you feel, at even greater intensity. I fear that emerald necklace.”

“I don’t have a choice about being punished by the emerald necklace,” replied Aareesha glumly.

Throofoonah stated, “I understand. Do what you can. Take me off when you might be about to feel pain, please. If we work together, you can help both of us. Female elves are subservient to male elves. Elvendom is mostly defeated by the lowly humans. Yet if female elves and male elves work together, we could fight the humans together. I want you to help me convince the female elves to demand the same rights as male elves. Help me convince the male elves to restore rights to female elves. We elves can then, together, fight the humans. We can start by trying to contact some female elf friends of mine. I am still a leader of our movement, though this is not widely known. Our movement has long needed to work in secret. When I was taken from my last wearer, my followers probably assumed I going to be destroyed or made irretrievable. Let’s make it clear to them that I’m alive and ready to work.”

“Do I know any of your followers?”

“Not well. We don’t have many princesses in our ranks. We’re always worried about trusting princesses because of the addictions imposed on you princesses. We are well aware of every princess. As soon as you put me on in front of the mirror, I immediately recognized you and I knew who you were. I could have been silent when you put me on. You would never have known I’m a magic ring.”

“Why did you reveal yourself to me, then?”

“If I had been quiet, it wouldn’t have served either of us. Most of the time I would have been stuck alone in dreadful isolation. You would continue to be stuck as a slave. We need each others’ help. So, I’m trusting you. I know you didn’t receive the full addictive treatment. You only had a few decades of treatment before Merifuge fell. You’re a high elf, too, so by nature you resist external control. I’m confident you can resist your addictions. Please be loyal to me and to your fellow female elves. Together we can help all female elves, and then all of elvendom.”

“Thank you for trusting me. I picked you up from a room in Sanctuary. Why were you there?”

“My last wearer made a mistake that led to some male elves suspecting me, the ring, as being something more. You’ve got to be careful when I cast spells that let you do something you shouldn’t be able to. My last wearer wasn’t adequately careful when I cast spells. They threw her into a cell and confiscated everything she wore and had. They did tests that said I wasn’t magical. Usually that is enough. This time they had enough suspicions that they were going to do more thorough tests on me. I can’t fool every test. I was potentially in big trouble. I’m really grateful that you rescued me. I think it’s fate that you picked me up. Fate has a plan. Together, we will change the world for the better.”

Aareesha was intrigued. She’d never seriously considered the idea of female elves having the same rights as male elves. She had focused on surviving by obeying male elves. Perhaps Throofoonah could lead the way. Perhaps Aareesha could, instead of cowering and obeying male elves, be part of a feminine rebellion.

Aareesha was also skeptical. If Throofoonah was telling the truth, male elves had dominated female elves for practically all of history. There had been a short time, a mere few centuries, when female elves had been given more equality. Male elves had decided it was a mistake, and had put female elves firmly back in their place.

Aareesha didn’t want to join a lost cause. She feared this cause had been decided millennia ago. Aareesha certainly didn’t want to pay the penalty that would be meted out on her if she was caught supporting it.

Aareesha’s immediate thoughts had been wanting to escape control by a human. Aareesha was glad Throofoonah could suspend the vow and help counter her collar. Aareesha wasn’t sure she wanted to follow Throofoonah where Throofoonah wanted to go.