The explosion of Ston’s south gate was remarkable. There was no subtlety to it. Everyone in Ston with working ears heard it. The pieces of the gate, once over 40 feet tall, flew into the air beyond sight.

Four figures south of Ston’s south gate threw off their cloaks and revealed themselves to be male elves. The center one cast a fireball. The guards on a nearby tower turned into cinders. Other guards began their volley of arrows. It was useless. The male elves easily dodged their arrows.

Loud horns along the southern wall indicated the attack, for those few too stupid to figure this out. Guards from all over the city hurried out towards the breached southern wall.

Bon was in his bedroom. He was again on top of his exposed helpless prize. They were both on the bed. Aareesha’s cunt, tits, throat, and ass were his to command. Every part of her body was his possession. He’d long lost count of the number of times he’d fucked Aareesha today. He had made her keep wearing the ring. He had figured out she didn’t like wearing the ring when she was being fucked or punished. This didn’t make sense to him. He decided it didn’t matter. That was a good enough reason for him to make her wear it.

Like everyone else in Ston, Bon heard the explosion. All mansions including his were on the northern side. So while he heard it, he could also tell that the explosion was somewhat distant.

Bon at first thought this explosion was a problem for others to deal with. Still, he knew this was unusual. After a minute, Bon decided it would be wiser to get into his adventuring gear in case there was further trouble.

Trouble arrived only 5 minutes later. His mansion’s front door blasted off its hinges. Bon could hear the sounds of fighting. Bon opened his bedroom door. He walked a short distance to look down into his foyer below.

Bon did not like what he saw. Five male elves were below him in the foyer. The elves were fighting about 20 human guards. The bodies of five other guards were on the floor. The male elves’ swords rapidly flashed as they continued to mow down the human guards. It looked unlikely that any of the human guards would live much longer.

The elf in the rear looked up and saw Bon. He said, “there he is! That’s Aareesha’s master! Kill him and get her!”

The other male elves responded as one, “yes, great sir!”

Bon decided he’d seen all he needed to see. Unfortunately, all exits from his mansion brought him towards the elves. Bon raced back to the main bedroom. In spite of knowing its futility, he closed and locked his bedroom door.

The only other exit from the bedroom was a magically-reinforced window. Daylight streamed in through the window. Bon knew of no way he could break the window. Bon was strong. He could surge his strength further, and he had a magic sword. Unfortunately, he knew these windows were exceedingly strong. Bon placed himself near the door towards the foyer and raised his sword. He hoped to kill the first elf who entered. This was unlikely to succeed. It also wouldn’t change the final outcome. He waited for the end. Aareesha saw what he was doing. She cowered behind him.

The bedroom window crashed open. “Not again,” thought Bon glumly. He’d barely survived fighting an elf with one leg and crappy gear when that elf had crashed through a magicked window. Bon knew a healthy well-equipped male elf crashing through the window would easily finish him off. Anyone who could break that window could quickly overpower Bon.

Bon turned to see at the window… Kadn the magician! Well, technically, Bon only saw Kadn’s head. Kadn’s head was poking through an ellipse hovering outside the mansion, near where the window had been.

Kadn said, “jump through fast, young man. Your slave too. Hurry!” Bon and Aareesha raced to the ellipse and jumped through the ellipse. The ellipse disappeared behind them once they’d gotten through. The two found themselves in a well-furnished room. Kadn stood near an open window.

Kadn addressed Bon. “Welcome to the mansion of one of my friends. If you look out through the window frame, Bon, you can see the back of your mansion. It’s a good time to not be there.”

Bon replied, “the whole point of the mansion was to keep us safe!”

“It did. The guards did an impressive job slowing the male elves. Many guards gave their lives to do it. It’s even more impressive when you realize that the diversion at the south gate drained away many of the guards. If you had stayed in your townhouse you’d be dead. At the townhouse we could never have encircled you two with many guards and thick walls. I will say, Bon, that you could have been a little smarter today. You knew all of elvendom is looking for Aareesha. Parading Aareesha naked through the streets of Ston was not your best idea.”

“Sorry. I was thinking with my cock.”

“I understand. It may be for the best. This attempt will justify placing additional protective magics on your mansion to make it much harder for the elves to do this again. The elders didn’t want to allow those magics, saying they would be ‘unsightly’ and ‘unnecessary.’ I think we have a good counter-argument today. In the short term you should hide here. The mansion is still the best idea long term. We only need a little time to ramp up the mansion defenses.”

“Can we really hide here in this mansion?”

“Yes. There’s a secondary bedroom out and to the left. I suggest you take your slave to that bedroom and require her to pleasure you to the best of her abilities.”

“An excellent idea,” said Bon, grinning. Bon added, “I may apply some discipline to her, to provide adequate incentives.”

Aareesha didn’t like these ideas at all. She meekly followed her master wearing nothing but her collar, emerald necklace, and silver ring. She knew he would fuck her, over and over. She knew she could do nothing except her best to pleasure him.

Throofoonah mentally grimaced. She knew where this path led. Throofoonah didn’t want to feel Aareesha get fucked. Throofoonah would feel it as well. Throofoonah would repeatedly feel a desire to obey a lowly human, as well as a fear of his displeasure. Throofoonah didn’t want to experience intense magical pain, either. She expected she would be repeatedly experiencing it all today.

When they entered the bedroom, Bon indicated to Aareesha that she should lie on the bed to their right. She laid on the bed on her back. Bon collected her ankles in his left hand. He brought her ankles in front of her face, folding her at her waist. Aareesha realized Bon held the paddle in his right hand.

“Bitch,” said Bon, “you’ve caused a lot of problems. You need to be submissive.”

“Yes, sir, master,” replied a petrified Aareesha.

Bon vigorously paddled Aareesha’s ass. Aareesha screamed. Throofoonah screamed too, though only Aareesha could hear it.

Bon pulled her ankles down and spread them. He leaped between her legs and pulled out his hardened cock. He repeatedly thrust into Aareesha’s slit. He soon released his seed into her cunt. Aareesha and Throofoonah felt the deep desire to obey him and the fear of displeasing him. Bon stroked his ring, causing the emerald necklace to harshly punish them both. After 5 minutes, he halted the necklace’s punishments. He said, “heal me up!”

Bon repeated this sequence for hours. Aareesha and Throofoonah learned to beg for mercy. The begging never succeeded.

Kuunstoonar was angry. Earlier today they had almost captured the traitorous bitch Aareesha. He’d even briefly seen her master Bon. Bon had looked exactly like the sketches Kuunstoonar had received earlier. Aareesha and her master had escaped somewhere. The elves had lost the trail. As a result, the elves had retreated back to Sanctuary.

King Intaanoo had briefly commiserated with Kuunstoonar. While the king was as disappointed as Kuunstoonar, the king had also praised Kuunstoonar’s intensive efforts and near success in such little time. The king believed that this showed they were on the right path. The king even congratulated Kuunstoonar, saying that the Eye of Elvendom had given new hope to all elves. Kuunstoonar appreciated the strong support of his king.

It’s true that elven politics could often turn lethal. Yet in spite of human slander, it was not true that elven kings killed their subjects merely for failing at some task. Elves were smart. Elves understood that even excellent plans sometimes do not work out. What was dangerous in elven politics wasn’t failure, but disloyalty. All elves wanted power. Those in power always had to be concerned that those underneath might want to raise themselves through murder. The king wasn’t worried about Kuunstoonar. The king could easily grant Kuunstoonar higher social ranks without a danger to the throne. Kuunstoonar’s rank was entirely a benefit from the current regime. Kuunstoonar understood this. He was delighted to show full loyalty to his king and to his new emperor. Kuunstoonar’s anger was focused on humans, not on elves.

Indeed, the plan to connect the two continents had not worked out either. Yet neither the emperor nor the king were blaming each other, at least, not publicly. They were instead focusing on making improvements. The emperor was an extraordinarily powerful and knowledgeable sorcerer. Through clever tricks on both ends, they’d managed something previously thought impossible. When the lunar alignments were perfect, and the emperor and others focused their efforts, they could transfer small items like scrolls between the continents through a tiny aperture.

The wormhole aperture wasn’t large enough to transfer a power orb, and neither continent had a spare one anyway. The wormhole aperture certainly wasn’t large enough to transfer an elf or the sphere of human death. Still, this small improvement showed that when elves worked together, the previously impossible could sometimes be made possible. Kuunstoonar believed this was a sign. He was certain humans had much to fear from elves, in spite of the setbacks of the last hundred years.

Kuunstoonar had discovered that the humans were adding additional magical protections to where Aareesha was being kept. He wondered why the humans hadn’t done that in the first place. Kuunstoonar would have emplaced those stronger defenses immediately. He suspected the humans thought they had had more time. « How unlike them, » Kuunstoonar thought, « usually it’s the humans who are in too much of a hurry and us elves who spend too much time dithering. » Kuunstoonar was glad he hadn’t given them that time. He was disappointed that his effort had almost, but not quite, succeeded. The near-success had given the king much to praise, though. Kuunstoonar was delighted to receive such royal praise.

Kuunstoonar did not expect another small direct assault to succeed. An army would move too slowly. More subtle actions were called for. That was fine. Ston was now brimming with Kuunstoonar’s spies. Few knew they were helping elves.

Kuunstoonar had begun his more subtle efforts. They were less flashy, but he expected those efforts to succeed.