Consciousness came back in fits and starts, my eyes fluttering open and closing again a few times. My insides and magic were no longer fully swaddled within the unforgivable sharp and cold winter wind of Isolde’s, and that was what allowed me to slowly gather the energy to wake up.

The biggest issue was how tired my body was, because the very act of another’s magic within myself meant mine and theirs ended up clashing. I shut my eyes for a bit longer, my mind still feeling so sluggish and slow.

At least I was lying on a soft bed, so much so I felt like I was sinking within it. Maybe… another sleep? That would be good. After all, I didn’t have anything to do, if I was left alone to sleep without any servants coming and helping—

I jolted up at that realization, my eyes immediately opening, my heart rabbiting inside my ribcage. The blanket draped over me was thick and heavy, and my still weak arms barely managed to sweep it away.

The room was luxurious.

The one I had back home wasn’t even half as full of opulence as this one, what with the curtain surrounding the bed I was on—even if it wasn’t closed at this moment, allowing me to see the huge mirror on the table on one of the corner. Even from this distance, I could see the mirror’s sheer size, and how clear it was. Far more than what Mother had in her room, which was more of a polished steel. Still fully clear, but this one in the room… I doubted Father, despite almost always deferring to Mother, would ever agree to buy it for the households. This wasn’t even counting the gems inlaid around the mirror too, each of them glimmering with magic, telling me that it was also enchanted. Not even Mother had something like that.

Of course, those weren’t the only furniture inside the room. Two stone dressers were on the side too, their visage tall and with more gems—albeit they only have a few, compared to the mirror’s. The lamp on the bedside table was made out of glass, with a soft leather surrounding its bulb to help dampen the light.

Even as my eyes couldn’t help but looking left and right and even upward—I couldn’t help but notice that there weren’t any windows. My heart still beat incredibly fast in my chest, not even slowing, despite the fact I could see that my captors weren’t here. I honestly didn’t know what I would do, if I saw Mother or Father was standing right before me, their eyes full of coldness and disappointment. Even the mere thought churned my stomach, uncomfortable and turning me into knots.

Dread pressed upon me in the back of my mind, a reminder of what this meant for me—and I ignored it, stuffing it down inside myself, as I tried to swing my legs to the side of the bed. At least the size was made for a single person, and so, I managed to plant my feet right on the carpet.

It was soft and fluffy, and when I tried to stand—I couldn’t. All I managed to do was falling back onto the mattress, the fear bubbling further inside my body. A cold hand grasped my chest, telling me that I had fucked up.

This time, I didn’t manage to fully push that away. My lungs struggling to keep the air I was trying to inhale. Because I remembered why I was here, what Isolde had done to me—and Isolde’s Dragon God’s last words.

An Emissary’s interest was supposed to be good. Maybe it would have been, if it didn’t come at the tail of my escape. At least this meant I wouldn’t be married to Duke Valius—I doubted his father wished to tether his eldest to someone like me, someone who had broken the law of the city.

I sighed out the little air I had within me, my breathing still wasn’t fully normal just yet. Resting for a while longer, I decided to do something else. I let my eyes close, and with each breath, I could feel my body calming. The blood stopped rushing and loud in my ears, my heart stopped beating as fast, and even my lungs weren’t struggling to hold onto my breathing as much.

With calmness, came my desire to delve into my magic—but I should be feeling it by now. My brows furrowed, and the tickle of fear was starting to come back. I tried and tried, to find the warmth I was used to feeling. Because it was a constant, something I had with me, no matter what happened.

If I didn’t have this to turn into during schooling, I didn’t know what would have happened. And now, without being able to—wait.

There was a flicker, so momentary I thought it was just a hallucination of a desperate mind—I ended up holding my breath, and that was then I managed to find it finally. My usually bright and warm core, one I usually didn’t have to delve this hard to find—had been reduced to such a pitiful state. Much alike embers, it would be able to become a roaring inferno with enough fuel and time. But right now, I couldn’t grasp anything from it, because all of my magic were all being twisted back into it, feeding it in the hopes that it would be back sometime soon.

I could try to wrestle them away, and just use them for myself. But I remember what Professor Baltings had said.

“While I didn’t expect this to happen to any of you, considering the Dragon Gods that protect us… it’s still good to know what will happen when your magic have been exhausted, whether it was from regular use of magics, rituals, enchanting and many more. There’s never an end to how to use them and so, you might find that sometimes you’ll end up with nothing. You can use them in that situation.” He said, eyes serious as he looked at each of our eyes, moving from one student to the next.

“If you wished to strain your magic, that is. As long as you keep forcing your overused magic, you’ll hurt it further and further until it’ll break in the end—of course, most people felt too much pain before it ended up that way, but that merely meant some people had managed to break their own magic irreparably through overuse…”

He had said more, but that didn’t matter for me right now. I knew there weren’t any sort of cure for it, beyond time and resting, the two things I didn’t have anymore. Nibbling down on my lower lip, I tried to think on what I could do… something else, because with the weakness in my limb, I didn’t think I could do much.

All I knew was that I refused to merely stay in bed. If I could manage to run away with merely my own guile and some magic beforehand, then I could try to stand and walk around. Just look around within this cell, and see if there were any sorts of weakness I could capitalize on. I clenched my fists for a moment, scrounging up all the will I found within myself.

I tried to stand up again.

This time, I put my feet down far more carefully, keeping the two of them against the soft carpet. I pushed away everything else, focusing only on one thing and one thing only—and it was on my attempt, on the way my whole body was starting to tense from fear of what might happen. That failure would happen again.

But my feet stayed solid beneath me as I stood up—trembling also happened, of course, but I could steady myself easily with grasping something. My hand helped to steady myself, allowing me to use the bed as my crutch.

A few minutes passed before I could trust my feet to stay upright, and I slowly took my hand away from the bed soon after. A moment of vertigo washed over me, and I nearly fell forward right onto the carpet—until I grasped the bed once more, body hunched slightly forward as I breathed hard.

Falling right then and there wouldn’t have been awful. But it still meant I had to be careful as I walked around, and that the best way to do it would be to continue finding something to use for my aid.

I searched, trying to see if I could find a way to get out—to escape.

The search probably merely took less than an hour, but it felt like hours to me—especially since I had to stop every few steps, my feet trembling too much after that much exertion. I didn’t want to fall, especially on the carpet that didn’t seem like it would cushion me too well. While I didn’t mind getting into some scrapes, that didn’t mean I would invite any other accidents.

But in the end, I found nothing I could use. The knobs refused to rattle, there weren’t any windows, and the only vents were too small for me. Maybe if I had miniaturized myself, but I didn’t think I have any sort of spell that could do that.

For now, I rested myself back on the bed, letting my feet and my body rest. Hopefully, my magic would come back sometime soon—I didn’t think I did anything that would have made it so strained like that.

A sudden and yet sharp knock echoed through the room—my heart beat faster, dread immediately entering my veins with the sensation of ice.

There weren’t any time for me to say anything, which might allow me to stall any sort of meeting. Whoever was coming moved fast enough that on one blink I heard the gears of the lock turning open, then the next I could see who had walked in and locked the door behind her.

Emissary Caralth stood before me, her head held high. Her pair of horns, sloped behind her nicely, looking sharp but gleaming under the lights. Golden hair cascaded like waterfall, long enough to reach onto her back. No wings, for there weren’t any bulge on her back, the blue robe flowing down to hide most of her body—even if I could still see the buttoned shirt and pants beneath it. Her tail lazily curled around her legs, not really moving except the few sweeps it did on the floor. She stood tall, golden eyes peering down at me. Silent and unmoving except for the twitch of her tail.

The ice continued to spread within me, and I gripped the blanket tightly. She looked content to wait for me to say anything, although considering Caralth’s face wasn’t fully human—she had the mixture of a dragon, scales growing on her skin as well as the slight snout on her face—I wasn’t sure if it was truly patience. Maybe she actually wanted me to get on with it.

I should try to be stubborn, but the more her eyes looked on me, with the same golden eyes as Isolde’s dragon—I couldn’t help but find the words I were bottling ended up bursting and out of my mouth. My grip never loosened, even as the words poured out.

“Is it so wrong for me to get out of here?” To avoid being married to someone I didn’t like. To see more of the wider world… I didn’t want to be kept inside the compound like this.

Calrath let out a soft whistling sound, the exhalation coming out of her throat that told me that was her equivalent of a sigh. “You are an adult now, Lyssa.” Her voice wasn’t cloyingly sweet at all, in fact, I would say it sounded almost like a balm to the pain in my heart. I was shaking on the bed, eyes looking away from Calrath as the Emissary started to walk closer toward me.

Her tail gently rubbed against my ankle, somehow feeling warm as one of her hand gently grasped my chin—not full of sharp claws, but more like human fingers—and I must admit that I didn’t really expect that, for I tended to think that the Emissary would look more like the Dragon Gods than anything else. Instead, Calrath looked more like… humans, but with the accents of dragons beyond a few parts that seemed as if she had lifted those up from the Dragon Gods themselves.

“But we have our duties, ones we can’t look away from.” Her voice sounded so reasonable, slowly slithering its way through my ears and right into my mind. “What you did… that’s a disappointment.”

The rebuke was said gently, and if it was from anyone else—I was sure that I would merely let it roll off me. But with her this close, I couldn’t help but found my own heart squeezing itself in reaction.

Calrath let loose another one of her sigh, and I couldn’t help but curled into myself. No words in opposition seemingly formed inside my mind, as her words continued to paint an uncomfortable picture within myself.

My mind felt sluggish, and I tried to find anything inside my mind. Because I couldn’t let her stamp down on me like this. I tried to fight against the guilt and shame she somehow formed within me, because those were familiar feelings. Ones I had fought over and over again, when I was meeting my Mother.

When I finally opened my mouth, I managed to find the words. I didn’t know whether it would be anything good or not, whether it would make the Emissary understood my side—but I knew this was better than nothing.

“No.” The word rang uncomfortably in the air, but that was merely the start. I slowly gathered more of my own willpower, dragging myself against the heaviness in the air. “I was forced into my role.”

Her fingers were still around my face, still caressing my cheeks and making my heart pound. But she didn’t answer, and so I tried to continue on, the reasonings I grasped when I planned my escape.

“No refusal is allowed, no choices given—the only role my mother, no, my parents wished for me is to become a breeder.” I almost snarled out the last word, but there was something suffocating my more negative feelings in the air. The golden eyes still continued to shimmer within my mind, their glow pressing down on everything else within me except to relax—and accept.

“Perhaps so.” She inclined her head slightly, albeit not in a way that said she agreed with me. “If you had told us, we would have found something that will make you happy. Obligations and responsibilities will come with it, of course, but you’ll still have your freedom. We’ll ensure that you’ll be nothing but happy with your life. But in the end you have broken the rules, after partaking on the advantages as part of the compound.”

She didn’t say it, but I knew what she meant. That I was being petulant, that I was being selfish and took all the positives while avoiding the negatives. Which was absurd, considering my situation, how I was born and everything else. The fact she pointed out that I should have found them too, all designed to make it sound as if I was completely in the wrong. I tried to shake my head, to summon some parts of my anger at the unfairness of it all previously.

But looking into Calrath’s eyes were dangerous, what with the fog filling my mind as long as she stared down on me. The more she did it, the more everything else felt dampened and hidden away—and the easier it was to just let her do more. On and on without end, until I was sure that she would completely bury everything inside me to put in what she thought would be appropriate.

I needed to fight her, to find some sort of cracks I could widen. Every moment that passed made that harder and harder, and I knew I had to do it without any sort of planning. Not unless I wished for it to be too late.

Finding the will was no longer easy. I had to dig so deep into myself, and merely produced a sliver of it. That would have to be enough.

Luckily, Calrath didn’t constantly continue to speak, mostly content to allow me to stew in my head—or maybe to let her words to sink deeper into my mind. That would have worked if I didn’t hold onto my stubbornness, the certainty that what she said was wrong.

“So, have you—”

I punched her, unable to think of anything else I could do at this moment. Words were surely would be clumsy, most everything hidden underneath the fog she had formed inside my mind. But the fact I had ramped things up, that I had gone physical on her—that managed to cut her off. Even if my fist barely even went through her robes, what with the fabric’s thickness enough to muffle my attack. Her face went severe immediately, a snarl forming there that looked especially feral considering the reptilian features she had.

Fear squeezed my heart for merely a moment—her eyes’ glows brightened, and words almost immediately eluded me. Everything inside my brain was melted down under the sun, not because she hated me… I could feel the heat burning behind her sight, that to think of her eyes as if they were twin suns slamming down upon me with their burn was more apt than I realized.

The fog that had been so comforting beforehand had all been dispelled away under her blazing light, and yet—no words still came forth, everything burned away under the heat.

“I didn’t wish to go this hard, remembering how the Whitehall family was… but you seem like you need this, don’t you?” Her voice sounded even sweeter now, easily forming in the depths of my mind—the one that she had cracked open so easily, leaving me empty and ready to be filled by her.

So she did, her caress not stopping at all. She felt so warm against my skin, easily complimenting the ones coming from her eyes.

“This is where you are supposed to be, beneath me and every other Emissary—and the Dragon Gods, of course.” She talked, and my head nodded, bobbing up and down following her grip. I didn’t move it at all, but if I was nodding, that meant I agree with her, right?

Even if that was one of the core tenet of what we were taught at school, when we were young. The one I had been a bit confused by, and so I tried to not think about it too much. But now the words easily slipped in, forming itself within my own psyche, all as a part of my belief.

The core of it, even.

“Good girl.” She whispered, her approval sending shivers of pleasure dancing across my body. Warmth bloomed inside my stomach, especially when I saw her amusement, so clear behind her eyes. The glow still continued to take everything I had, all of my attention was forcibly taken to look at her. Even if I wanted to think or focus on anything else—I couldn’t find it in myself to grasp them. Everything was helplessly be taken to look into Calrath’s gaze, as she easily said the words to sculpt me. “You desire to be that, don’t you? Being good and obedient.”

Another nod, another information that became a part of me. With how empty and blank my mind was, it was an easy thing for her to do. She merely needed to find what exactly she wanted to turn me to—and even if a part of me was screaming, I couldn’t even find out what it was being incoherent about.

“You’ll obey me the best you can, and with each one… you’ll find your body agreeing to it, becoming more and more aroused and feeling good.” She continued, easily drawing me into the road of becoming her pet—and it was all I could do to keep looking at her, to let her continue changing me the way she wanted me to become. “Aren’t you aroused right now, pet?”

She stopped there, her mouth wide with excitement—and waited. She was filled with patience, knowing that anything she said would be best when it was echoed and agreed by myself. That’s why she had made me nod, showing my mind and body that I approved of it, and so, ensuring everything she said would be fully written inside myself.

That didn’t mean that she needed any of my approval, of course. She could merely push and molded me until I would agree on my own accord, unable to think of anything else other than knowing anything she said was right.

Was she right, at this moment?

Before I gazed into her glowing eyes, I would have said no. That whatever she said had to be wrong, and I didn’t need to listen to any of her words at all. But right now, my mind was empty except for what she put there herself… and the last thing she said before that question? It was for me to become more aroused each time I obeyed her.

So as my mind stepped back, to survey my own body’s situation without any fight—all my rebelliousness had been snuffed out right now, completely dampened by those beautiful eyes, the sun scouring away my desire to resist—I was now left with the realization that my body was completely burned up.

Heat blazed across my body, but most especially my lower stomach—where I could feel how wet I was. The way arousal tugged inside myself, further dragging me into Calrath’s commands.

“I… I am.” I couldn’t help but whisper the words out, whimpering at how the fire burned a little stronger, a little brighter at that little act of compliance.

Her smile grew wider, sharper even. My stomach felt so tight as I stared at her, pleasure and arousal easily mixing within myself. Reminding and telling me what would be my future—as long as I followed her.

“And when you are aroused, you’ll find yourself more submissive. More obedient to me… which lead to your arousal becoming stronger.”

Her whispers were dangerous, a honeyed trap that would turn me into whatever she wanted. But I couldn’t remember why I even wanted to try fighting this by now. The memories easily slipped away from my grip, leaving me so painfully alone—except for Calrath.

Who was here now. Turning and changing me, but… she was merely reminding me of my position.

“To obey is to feel good, and to feel good is to obey… that’s what it meant to be a good girl. A good pet.” She cooed, her hands now moving away from my head, no longer forcing me to nod—but there was no need for that anymore. Instead, Calrath slowly caressed me through my clothing, allowing me to feel her warmth.

So different from the arousal burning within me, and yet still so complementary. I couldn’t help the way I moaned, body trembling and shaking slightly from the caresses she was doing. Especially when she continued, ensuring I wouldn’t be able to not enjoy anything she did to me.

“My touches will feel incredible against your body, a force of pleasure that further dragged you deeper into the trance. Into obedience and submission.”

It was incredibly easy to let her tug me further and further into the trance, my mind blooming open even further for her. She was ready to write within it, to write down the changes she wanted me to have.

Fire blazed inside myself, the arousal making me wet. My heart pounded, and my blood rushed so loudly in my ears.

Calrath still hadn’t stopped, her touches going further and further, playing more across my body and taking out more and more moans out of my mouth. The burn surged further, warmth and arousal mingling and pulling me into an easier state of mind—to want more of the pleasure. To let myself be consumed by it, and in doing so… allowing Calrath to finish the changes in my mind.

Because I was certain that was the end goal here, especially as I listened to her further. My body was growing more taut, the arousal that had been feeling so good beforehand starting to make me need more of them—until I had reached a point, a wonderful destination that made me scream and shudder in the twisted pleasures she pushed on me.

Her hands went down, not content to merely play on my chest, but going further across my waist and thighs—but she avoided the most important place of all, where I was sure she could make me go over the peak the moment she played with my body there.

“Beg for it, pet. And maybe… maybe I’ll let you reach what you need.” She purred, somehow able to do that kind of sound. But the way her tongue rolled across the syllables were enough, my body shuddered again in pleasure as my mouth opened, a few drools that had been pooling there slipping out at the corner. “Or perhaps it will be better to just let you stew in your arousal like this?”

Easy cruelty slipped into her words now, the golden glow becoming brighter for a moment before they went back to normal.

I didn’t know how to answer, my mind a chaotic place to be. It definitely didn’t help that I could imagine what either of those would lead toward. In the end, only a whine came out of my mouth, a begging sound that had to sound so incredibly pitiful… because Calrath let out a sharp laugh that mocked me—but that merely pushed my arousal even more, making me whimper in my inability to answer.

“Do you need me to decide for you, then?” She asked soon afterward, a teasing tone so clear in her voice—even if I didn’t know why.

My head immediately moved up and down, giving her my agreement without even a moment of thinking. Everything in my mind was now fully Calrath’s, and this would merely cement everything into her wishes.

Her smile grew wider, predatory and dangerous, and yet my body responded in the way it did to everything else before—with more arousal, a heady mix that made my head lighter than before. I couldn’t help but look at her even closer, desire burning across myself.

“Then you will stay like this.” Sadism easily slipped into her words, and I shuddered, happy despite the wail I wanted to let out. To be patient was horrible, and yet this meant she decided what would happen to me, and I wanted more of that. “So, so aroused until you can’t think of anything else… except to be mine.”

More nods came out of me in answer, as I stared at her with emptiness in my mind.

“But maybe I can be persuaded to let you cum.” She leaned close, her voice merely a whisper—and I shivered. I was tantalized, as I found myself tilting forward, a need burning inside of me. “I merely need you to show me your neck… and allow me to collar you.”

Her fingernails ghosted across my skin, making me shiver with need and want. I knew how easy it would be to just say yes. I wanted it. My body also wished for it.

But to nod here felt… wrong. As if I had given up so completely—it was hard to hold onto that knowledge, that to nod would be the bad choice. Calrath didn’t seem to give me which choice she preferred me to pick too, so the only thing I could do was focus on my own desire, and that was…

I shook my head, and her wider grin showed how right my choice was. I felt warm, the surge of arousal from her approval—it left my head light and heady, full of happiness that I did the right choice.

“Good girl.” She breathed out, nails digging into me. The pain made me whimper, even as the blaze of arousal continue to burn brighter and stronger inside myself thanks to the slight ache. “It is time for your reward, something that I can’t give you here.”

Dislike was incredibly clear on her last word—not hate. It wasn’t strong enough for that, but it was enough for her to let it out in a snarl, eyes furrowed and her fangs bared. She didn’t look like that for long though, almost immediately letting me go and backing off from me.

I missed her touch at once, wishing the warmth to come back. But I knew I needed to listen to her right now, and that was what I did, not thinking of anything else except for what Calrath wanted me to do.

“Come, it is time for you to be within my Nest.” She said, turning around and immediately walked away—not even waiting to see if I would follow.

I did. There wasn’t any future I could imagine that would lend to me doing the other choice, to stubbornly stay in this place, in this prison. Calrath had taken that away from me, and I couldn’t even be sad that I was molded so much I ended up in this situation. But there weren’t any anger inside me, even as I followed Calrath outside, through the corridors I didn’t even try to remember.

Only happiness and arousal burned within, telling me that I was doing the right thing—especially when we finally arrived outside the prison complex, the yard so wide and yet hidden by the tall walls.

I had never gone to this place, but it was only when Calrath started to change, her body transforming into an incredibly familiar form—I started to understand why I was never brought here—or anyone else, really.

Only the Emissaries.

The truth about the Emissaries were revealed right in front of my face, as scales sprouted across her body—and her body too, grew sharper and longer, the crack of bones as they became their proper form echoed so loudly within this field.

Calrath continued to change, not a single pained sound coming out of her. A few puzzles in my mind snapped together as I watched, as I understood why there weren’t anyone who could become Emissaries, only those born to it.

When she finished changing, her robe somewhere I couldn’t see—I looked at one of the Dragon God, and knelt in front of her.

Her golden eyes showed the happiness she felt at my action, and her mind pressed down on me.

“Let us go.”

I didn’t try to fight, not anymore.