Well, if she was gone, I’d no longer have a rival, and Mistress’s blade was already cutting into her throat-- wait, no, what the fuck!?

Before the words ‘stop’ even rose to my lips, Mistress pulled back her knife, flicking it away from her so blood didn’t splatter on her clothes. Princess Asperia stumbled back against a wall, clutching at her neck, and I rapidly moved forwards to grab at it so I could heal her, only to get my hand caught by Princess, who quickly held my hand with her fingers intertwined, in what would be almost romantic if her grip wasn’t so tight.

“Don’t immediately react on my first and most aggressive thoughts.” I didn’t want Princess Asperia dead, partially because she hadn’t been particularly cruel to me, but mostly because I worried about what would happen to all of her slaves if she died.

Why was Princess smiling at me? She still seeming relaxed despite her lifeblood flowing through her fingers, stroking the side of my hand softly with her thumb.

Mistress growled softly. “Don’t get near my pet.”

“Ah, sorry, sorry. I should be a good girl and let her kill me, huh? Well, it’s not like I can take her hostage.” She let go of my hand, and lowered her other hand from her throat, letting herself bleed out faster as she smiled at both of us, serene. Mistress stared blankly for a long moment.

“...I can see why you think you might be affected by Mind Magic. And you aren’t going to call your pawns?”

“Please. Any decent chess player would sacrifice a pawn for a queen, but none would sacrifice a pawn when it wouldn’t save the queen. My life is in your hands.” I moved forwards and laid my hand on her neck, casting Heal, and she blinked.

“Ahh, so that was what it was. Such a protective little puppy.” She petted my head, and my tail wagged a little reflexively.

Mistress growled again, raising the knife, only for Princess to raise an eyebrow, and walk in closer to her, hands held together behind her back as she leaned in close to Mistress’s face.

“I thought you were leaving it up to your pet?”

Mistress hesitated for a moment, then flicked the knife away from her again, and the rest of the blood flew off it, leaving it entirely clean… okay, there must be at least a little magic going on there… or maybe the body from that world could just move fast enough to shake liquid off of it? Hmm. The knife was gone while I was musing about it.

“I suppose I should be a woman of my word, at the very least.” Princess smiled, and took Mistress’s hand in her own bloody one, kissing the back of it.

“For which I am duly grateful, O Hero From Another World.” Despite her general calm, regal tone, there was something almost sardonic in her voice. ”Do come by or send a message if you’re still interested in negotiating. Oh, and the marriage is scheduled for a month from now-- either break off the engagement or come on time, it would be horribly embarrassing to be stood up for a wedding.”

“...You’d really marry an animalfolk?” Princess released Mistress’s hand, and looked up into her eyes with a smile.

“Didn’t I already say I would? I positively adore scandals.” ...okay, I was starting to get a little jealous again. Just because I didn’t want her dead didn’t mean I wanted them flirting more. Why was I so jealous of Mistress again all of the sudden? Was she messing with my mind now, was she that desperate?

Mistress intertwined the fingers of her clean hand in Princess Asperia’s hair, and leaned in close, kissing her full on the lips, slowly and deeply, before pulling back and smiling at her slightly as she stroked the back of her head. What!? Why was she doing this right in front of me?

“You’re just as calm when losing as when winning. I must say I’m impressed. I’m not going to break off our engagement for now, and I’ll try to think of a way we can coexist peacefully… I hope you will too.” She stepped back, staring at Princess for a long moment, and then turned and started to walk away slowly.

I stared at Princess for a long moment, and she smiled at me gently and blew me a kiss. “You better keep up with your Mistress, puppy.”

...Mistress wasn’t even waiting for me! My eyes started tearing up, and I rushed after her, back at her side within a few moments, glaring up at her reproachfully.

She smiled down at me.

“I must say… you are cute with tears in your eyes. But how can you be mad at your Mistress after sleeping with others against her orders?”

“...You were deliberately ignoring me.”

“I was messing with your mind… but the normal human way. There’s little like realizing that something could be out of your grasp forever to make you treasure it, don’t you think?”

“...is that how you felt about me when you found out what Princess was doing?” Mistress didn’t respond, and we walked along in quiet.

Finally: “Yes, part of it. To be fair, I fooled around with another girl in my own way, too.”

“...what!? As part of your mission?”

“I suppose you could say that. She was a target to be gotten out of the way, and I tortured her until she loved me desperately, and… it just wasn’t the same as being with you.” Mistress’s cheeks were a little flushed as she admitted this, but my mind was still focused on the whole torture thing.

“...I thought you didn’t want to do that anymore!” She raised an eyebrow, blush fading as she looked down at me.

“Not to slaves, no. This was a noble girl. I’ll do far worse to them to accomplish my goal.”

“What did you do to her once you were done?”

“...do you really want to know? Let her go, or killed her… would you be happy with either of those answers?”

“...I’d rather you let her go. Why did you even tell me in the first place?”

“Well, I did let her go, as it turns out.” Another twinge of jealousy. “I don’t like to kill girls I’ve trained. I just implanted some magic in her mind to make her not remember me, turned her into an animalfolk, and sold her as a slave.” I stared up at her, aghast.

“...that’s horrible!” She shrugged.

“I fully intend for her to be free one day, along with everyone else. She’s part of the class that owns the most slaves… indeed, she had slaves of her own. So what is unfair about that, exactly?”

“...That’s not the point, you got her to totally trust in you, and then just threw her away!”

“But I won’t do that to you. Should I go back and take her as my concubine alongside you?”

I swallowed, and nodded after a long moment.

“You should.” She took my hand and kissed the back of it, slowly kissing up along my arm and neck as she pushed me against a wall, and then took my chin and looked down into my eyes with a soft and predatory smile.

“All right, I will then. I’ve learned I can’t be stable without you by my side, and you being unhappy makes me unhappy, so keeping you happy is my second highest priority.” Her smile became a bit crueler. “I suppose that means you’re okay with me marrying Princess Asperia, as well?”

“I… I don’t know about that!”

“It’s the best way to keep lots of slaves safe, to get along with her, wouldn’t you say? All the girls in the harem you met, and all the ones you didn’t… don’t they deserve protection too? Is it somehow a different situation than the girl I kidnapped?”

“Yes!” I thought for a moment. Well… maybe I could get past it, if I knew I was really valuable to her. I was afraid of being left alone and helpless, but she did literally need me around and protected to keep herself safe… and it was increasingly seeming like there was more to it than that.

“Maybe not… I’ll try not to be so jealous, because we really do need allies, and I don’t want you to throw that girl away… but I should be allowed to sleep with other people too, shouldn’t I?” She frowned, and thought about this for a moment.

“I... suppose. It is part of the culture of Asperia’s harem… I guess I’ll have to make it so you can only cum with my permission… but sure, you can play around with others all you want. Well, I might torture you to make myself feel better about it if I get too jealous. That’s fair, isn’t it?” I felt my face get hot, and struggled to get free-- futilely, since she didn’t seem to want to let me go.

“What the hell is fair about that!?”

“Mmm, you disobeyed my specific orders, Sasha… if you had kept sleeping with others to the absolute minimum to what you needed to survive, and been otherwise loyal to me, we’d be having a very different conversation. Maybe I would’ve even become Princess Asperia’s daughter rather than her wife. But you’re too easily swayed by lust, it seems, so I’m dealing with my horny little pet the best I can.”

“I’m only horny because of you! I was never this horny before you turned me into Sasha!“ She laughed softly and slid her hand down the front of my pants, fingering me gently.

“Well, you’re welcome, I suppose.” I glanced around desperately.

“Shouldn’t we get out of here in case Princess Asperia decides to betray us again?”

“I really don’t think she will. Besides, I’ve been thinking about fucking and tormenting a certain slavegirl for days now.” I whimpered softly and stared up at her, stopping my futile struggles entirely as I surrendered to her will. Given her idea of what was kind, I could only imagine what torture consisted of.

“That’s my good girl… now, if you beg me to breed you, I’ll let you cum. Otherwise, I’ll fuck your throat until you pass out. Which would you prefer, pet?”

“I… I don’t know how I feel about being a mother, Mistress.” She stroked my cheek and smiled.

“I’m sure you’d be a great mother for our child… you’re so gentle and protective… really, with your soul, you were made to be a concubine, you know that?” A little shiver ran through my body and I was getting very wet. My jealousy made me want to be closer to her, and bearing her child was one way to do that… it wasn’t very smart to do right now, but I really wanted her to adore me….

“Please… do whatever you want to my body, Mistress… I belong to you….”

At my words, a sudden shock of overwhelmed pleasure coursed through my body as I came. She smiled down at me with cruel adoration as I trembled against her, moaning softly, and pulled her hands out of my pants, flicking her fingers away to get rid of the wetness, and swept my cloak off and put it on herself… not that it covered her up entirely, with our height difference. She gathered me in my arms, and said softly into my ear,

“Once we get to my hideout, I’m going to take full advantage of what you just told me, my precious Sasha.” I trembled more, a mixture of excitement and fear as I hid my face against her shoulder.

I really should’ve been more careful with my words….

Mistress kissed my brow slowly, letting her teeth graze against my skin just a little.

“Oh, yes, my sweet little pet… you certainly should have.”