Princess Asperia was lying on her treasure pile with a catgirl half-curled up on top of her. The catgirl raised her chin a little as Princess Asperia continued to give her chinscritches.

"Oh, you're just such a little sweetie, aren't you..." Our Princess looked over to us with a lazy smile, and then her eyes flickered over to Mistress Eve's neck, and she tensed just slightly, then laughed and patted the catgirl's head. "Such a pity... these three just got back from an important mission... we'll catch up later, okay Annie?" She gave the pouting catgirl another squeeze before sending her off with a slight grope to her butt.

By the time the door closed behind Annie, and I, Valentine, and Mistress Eve were all kneeled facing Princess Asperia.

Our Princess sat up a little, the treasure pile shifting beneath her as if it had a will of her own into a throne for her, and she looked over the three of us.

"Valentine, my loyal slave... Sasha, my cute treasure... Eve, my precious fiancee... Are all of you all right? I was worried about you."

I nodded, and I saw out of the corner of my eye that Valentine was too.

Eve was silent for a moment. "I must admit, I am a little shaken."

Princess Asperia blinked, and leaned forwards slightly. "My apologies, we should've get to you sooner... did Carrion hurt you badly?"

Eve slowly shook her head. "No... physical harm to my body doesn't hold that much fear for me anymore. But I feel you haven't been taking very good care of my Sasha."

"...what, the little trial of hands I ran her through?" Princess Asperia shook her head. "Sasha needed to learn her place so I could keep her safe without endangering my position... are you really upset over that?"

Well, as long as Eve didn't learn that Valentine almost killed me, it'd probably be fine, I'd hope.

A sharp inhale from Eve.

...fuck, I wasn't used to controlling my thoughts as well after being around people who couldn't read them. Mistress Eve, Valentine didn't mean to hurt me, and she didn't, not really... our Princess protected me.

Eve smiled slowly. "A bit upset about the torture... yes. I'm sure she was perfectly safe, but I was going to make torturing her my exclusive thing, since you were so eager to share her body with everyone, despite my misgivings."

Princess Asperia tapped her cheek with one finger. "Well... I suppose we could talk about that, for the future. I don't like my harem to have exclusive relationships of any kind, but you two are in a unique position... I certainly wouldn't want you to feel unhappy with your relationship with her... or me."

Eve stood up. "Which brings us to another... incident. You were the one who drugged my Sasha."

Princess Asperia narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked up at Eve. "If I had known better about the specifics effect of the enchantment and that it'd leak into you, I wouldn't have-- but certainly, that was my mistake."

Eve walked closer, staring down into Princess Asperia's eyes. "Almost sending me to my death, I could perhaps forgive... but you let Sasha switch bodies with me."

This seemed to be going in a bad direction, and I opened my mouth, only to find I couldn't speak.

Fuck.

Eve reached out towards Princess Asperia, only to be flung into the wall from a sudden backswing of Valentine's fist-- wait, Valentine hadn't been there last time I was paying attention?

Eve coughed up some blood, but smiled. I tried to stand, but something wouldn't let me. Mistress Eve! Don't kill them! I won't forgive you if you do!

Her eyes narrowed slightly at my words, but she shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't trust you with being in charge anymore. And with that necklace on you, you shouldn't be able to lie to me."

I looked over-- somehow, while being struck, Mistress Eve had managed to get the necklace from Princess Asperia that I had once asked her to wear around the Princess's own neck.

Princess Asperia's hand went up to that necklace, staring at Eve with a mixture of rage and horror, but shook her head. "Valentine, kneel. You can't win this fight."

Valentine went to her knees immediately, but her eyes were still on Eve, focused.

Princess Asperia sighed. "Honestly, I really have been trying to take care of you all... and do you think you can control me with a little necklace? I have innumerable bodies."

Eve slowly walked up to Princess Asperia, and took a golden chalice enlaid with rubies of varying sizes from her pile of treasure. "Tell me, Princess... what does this do?"

Princess Asperia smiled a bit proudly, despite her disquiet. "That's the Z'santd Chalice-- it cures certain poisons, including some whose cures are otherwise lost to time. It was crafted by Lord--"

Her words ceased as Eve's hand crushed and mutilated the goblet, discarding the broken gold and gems onto the floor.

"Okay." Eve picked up a silver flute, which seemed to shimmer with colors I had never seen before. "Now what does this do?"

Asperia glared up at Eve, body trembling, tears in her eyes. "Don't break it!" She inhaled, exhaled, her eyes focusing on that flute as she tried to regain her composure "...What do you want, Eve? We're on the same side here."

"Are we? Well, we will be soon." Eve laughed, and tapped Asperia's forehead with the flute. "All you have to do, my beloved fiancee, is utterly surrender your mind to me."

Princess Asperia shook her head firmly. "...please be reasonable. I literally can't do that with my royal mental defense training. We aren't trained to lower our shields." A sob left her mouth as Eve twisted and discarded the flute, all the flowing colors gone from it, onto the floor.

Eve put her hand on Valentine's shoulder. "You know, maybe you're right. But maybe if I break each of your treasures, one by one, you'll figure out a way. I do wonder if you'll break on the tenth, or the last. It should be entertaining, either way."

Valentine inhaled sharply, her face turning pale as Eve's hand squeezed her shoulder.

Princess Asperia slowly rose from her throne of gold, and kneeled on the floor in front of Mistress Eve, lowering her head as tears ran down her cheeks. "...you can be in charge, Eve. You don't have to do this."

Eve grabbed Asperia's hair with her free hand and pulled her head backwards to make her look up at her, and I could see all the rage and sorrow my Princess was trying to hide.

"I very much do," said Eve softly. Her hand on Valentine's shoulder flickered, and Valentine was hurled to the ground, bleeding from her nose and eyes.

Princess Asperia choked back a sob. "Please, Eve, I'm trying my best to obey you here." Her voice was trembling with a mixture of emotions.

I watched on in impotent horror, unable to move. Please save Valentine, Mistress Eve.

"Channel half your power to me, Sasha. The more power I have, the gentler I can be here."

I raised my hand -- I could at least do that now -- and channeled my power as I had been trained. As I was doing it, I realized that I could perhaps fight her... but would that just make her more ruthless? At least she knew if Valentine died, I'd never forgive her.

"Yes, yes-- shut up." Eve hurled Asperia back onto the pile of treasure, causing a pained gasp from her, before another sob, and then stalked over to Valentine, kneeling and putting her hands on her head for a moment. "There. Permanent damage should be minimal."

The treasure pile beneath Princess Asperia had reformed into a sort of throne shape beneath her, and Eve walked up and placed a foot on her thigh, squishing it against the pile of treasure as she leaned her face in closer to Asperia's. "I don't think you really fear normal forms of torture, my beloved fiancee." She took her by the chin. "Tell me another weakness you have, so I don't need to crumble your mind this way."

Princess Asperia stared up at her for a long moment, blinking back tears. "I am not afraid of death-- but torture is something I haven't been fully trained against. There are a few pieces here, and if you let me take them out, I can give them to you. Along with your considerable cruelty, I imagine you could fully break my mind in a reasonable amount of time."

Eve smirked. "Go for it. But if you try any tricks and fail, I'll destroy half of your treasures and half of your harem." She removed her foot and stepped back.

Princess Asperia hesitated for a long moment. "I'm not going to try to trick you... my chances of success are too low... as long as you promise you will take good care of my harem, I will... attempt to aid you in this task."

Eve reached out and stroked Princess Asperia's head possessively. "As long as I can break you, I'll take as good care of them as you ever did. If I have to kill you... well, that'll be up to them, won't it?"

Princess Asperia nodded, and removed a wooden scepter, a familiar little silver bird charm, a silver chain, and a rose made of gems and nothing else, and laid them on the floor.

The objects vanished from the floor, and Eve held out her hand to Princess Asperia.

Princess Asperia leaned in and kissed Eve's hand, her body tense.

Eve laughed, and slid Asperia into a princess carry. She looked over to me. "We'll be gone a little while while I... re-educate her. Conceal her absence as best you can in the meantime."

It felt like I could move again, and I started a bit... the feeling of helplessness was gone. I took a deep breath.

"Mistress Eve, can you please--" But my words stopped.

Not because I couldn't speak.

But because Eve and Asperia were already gone.