Ari swung her staff in a wide horizontal arc, creating a crescent arc of energy that flew forward. The monster they were fighting swatted the projectile aside with an arm without even looking.

 

She was getting tired of this fight, and it looked like her partner Caden was getting winded too. Vesmyr were always a pain in the ass to fight, but it certainly didn't help that whichever incompetent scout reported this party absolutely biffed it on identification. The two had dropped both of the knight-caste vesmyr, but they weren't prepared to fight a marquess. Standing easily at eight feet tall and moving like the wind, the creature was a force to be reckoned with on its own. And, inconveniently, Ari found it incredibly hot.

 

Vesmyrs were a kind of hive mind fey, and not the most humanoid ones at that. The marquess was bipedal, but with digitigrade lower limbs that transitioned to a chitinous exterior at the shins and terminating in two-toed feet, with white fluff growing where there was skin up to its mid-thigh area-

 

Ari shook her head and pulled back to keep focus on her mental ward, which was the only thing stopping the thing from sweeping over their minds like a gale force wind. Caden was doing an admirable job deflecting attacks and maintaining his footing against the stronger opponent, but marquesses were notoriously agile compared to the knights they often travel with. It swayed effortlessly around his attacks, occasionally blocking one with the chitinous bracer-like growth on its arm to create an opening for a punch, or even a kick from its powerful chitin-covered feet. Caden darted around to its side, putting the marquess between him and Ari and giving the mage a clean shot at its back. The angle also gave her a full view of its backside, including its generous ass, crowned by a part of its body that seemingly couldn't decide whether to be a tail, or the sort of abdomen a bug might have. It was crimson, save for the wobbly black bands that circled it.

 

Ari shook her head again. She could be a hot mess later. She prepared a glob of powerful magic at the tip of her staff and flung it directly at the marquess's center mass. It whirled around to deflect the attack, though this time it seemed injured by the attack. It clutched its one arm with the other, stroking the white fuzz that grew up its arm to nearly its elbow, covering its breasts but otherwise exposing the pink ventral surface, the source of the pink swirling lines that contrasted its otherwise crimson skin. Caden prepared an overhead strike to plunge into its back, but it whipped around and landed a kick directly in his gut, causing him to double over. The vesmyr took to the air on its powerful translucent wings, probably to regroup. Ari rushed over to Caden to do the same.

 

Caden suddenly looked up and shouted, "Arianna! Below you!" She looked down to see the green glow of the magic beneath her, and dove forward just in time to avoid a magical snare attack. She looked back up to focus on healing her teammate and-

 

Caden rose to his feet, staring through her, slack jawed and glassy eyed.

 

Shit, she thought. Ari faintly heard the marquess's mental commands against her psyche, though she knew who they'd been given to.

 

{Subdue the other one, drone.}

 

Caden brandished his sword and rushed toward her. Ari quickly re-cast her ward as he closed, focused solely on herself, cursing as she did so. She brought her staff up to block an overhead swing. There was an opportunity for a counterattack, but a magical bolt from the creature forced her to waste the chance on a dodge to the side. Caden brought his sword down, then lunged toward Ari. She redirected the attack with the bottom of her staff. Caden over committed and lost balance for a second, an opportunity Ari used to bash him upside the head with the top of her staff before ducking under another projectile.

 

This was bad. Ari had magic that could probably kick the marquess out of Caden's mind, but it was difficult to cast in battle at all, let alone in a one-versus-two. She could try reasoning him out of the spell, but vacant look on his face suggested that the creature's control over him was much too deep for that. Defeating the marquess would free Caden from its control, but Caden's attacks were the ones that required the most consistent attention. She'd have to knock him out first.

 

A sweeping kick brought Ari back to the present. The jerk never did know when to let up. She fell on her back and narrowly rolled out of the way of a plunging attack. She jumped to her feet and blocked an arcane bolt from the marquess, then sidestepped another overhead swing from Caden.

 

Ari's anger boiled over, and she put her concentration into a fortification spell on her staff before whirling around and clocking Caden squarely in the back of the head. Caden dropped to his hands and knees, but Ari barely had time for relief before she felt the marquess's mind wash over her own like a tidal wave. The choking currents of the marquess's warring emotions pulverized her own thoughts in an instant, grinding them to dust and leaving her obedient and docile before her staff could hit the ground. She looked up at the marquess her Mistress and her beautiful, piercing red eyes, and smiled. It flashed a devilish grin back at her, feather antennae twitching with what Ari knew was delight.

 

She stared forward as the fey floated wearily down to Caden, helping him up. Embers of thoughts and feelings of anger, shame, and lust danced in her mind, but were extinguished before she could grasp them. She could feel Caden in her mind too, relieved to be done fighting and joyous at his current condition.

 

{Come, servants. You belong to the hive, now,} the fey thought at them as it turned to leave.

 

The pair replied, "yes Mistress," and followed obediently after it,