Living in a bustling little town had all the advantages and drawbacks that one would expect. It was seldom quiet, and never quite as clean as you wanted it to be, but in return there were always people to meet and customers to buy what you were selling. The other nice thing was that despite the tendency of larger towns to attract criminal elements, there was always some sense of security. The city watch was well-manned and decently funded, and the leadership, thankfully, didn’t tolerate any bad behavior from its rank and file. You might get pickpocketed in the marketplace here in the city, but at least you weren’t getting raided and killed by brigands and bandits.

Kassia had only known this life, but she knew that she preferred it to what must be a soul-crushingly dull country life. She couldn’t imagine only ever talking to the same handful of people for her whole life, marrying the son of the farmer two plots over, and caring for a litter of children and livestock until she became too frail to walk.

No. This had to be better. This was as good a life as anyone could ask for. In her father’s famous tavern, there were always new people to meet, new stories to hear, new things to learn from travelers near and far. She liked being a barmaid. She liked talking to people. Sometimes, she even liked the attention that her good looks got her.

It was a rather busy night at the ‘King’s Great Dane’, and Kassia was hustling and bustling between tables, carrying jugs and bottles and glasses and the occasional plate of greasy mutton shank, smiling and nodding and talking to strangers.

Tonight, however, there was a particular kind of stranger occupying the nook farthest from the fireplace. One with a hooded cloak, and a traveler’s sack, and a world-weary look.

“You got a wizard in town, don’t you?” asked the young man as she brought him his ale. She nodded.

“Yes, sir. In the castle. The viscount’s counselor. A good man. Uses his power to keep buildings from rotting and people from dying.”

The man nodded. Kassia thought that he looked rather roguish, with mottled, dark blond hair and a scar across his cheek. She noticed a dagger hanging from his belt. It was nothing unusual, but a sign to be cautious nonetheless. “So you know your magic around these parts? Nothing unusual?”

“Well…” Kassia said, taking a moment to gather her thoughts. “It’s still special, of course, even if it’s given so freely. He’s only one man, and he’s the only wizard this side of the mountains, as far as I know.”

“No wizards passing through here?”

Kassia furrowed her brow. “Are you looking for someone? I haven't seen anybody in black robes if that’s what you mean.”

The young man looked at her. It was the first time that he had really raised his gaze from the table or his glass. He smiled, and let out an amused breath through his nose. “You’re a sharp one,” he said. “I like you.” Kassia blushed uncomfortably. The young man might be somewhat handsome, but the barmaid wasn’t looking for advances.

Kassia cleared her throat. “Thank you,” she said slowly, carefully. “But…”

The young man reached into his collar, and pulled out a small necklace, and Kassia’s blood ran cold. She instinctively took a step back.

The man’s grin turned wistful. “So you know what that is, don’t you?”

Kassia’s heart was racing. Suddenly, the world seemed to have grown very small and very tight.

“A mind crystal,” she said breathlessly. “You can’t. It’s death. People will see you, and you’ll be hanged.”

“Why aren’t you screaming then?” asked the young man. “Why aren’t you screaming for help?”

“Please,” Kassia begged. “You can’t do this to me. I haven’t done anything. I–”

“Quiet. Don’t move,” the man said, and Kassia fell silent. A tear was running down her cheek as she had to stand there, unable to call for help. This can't be happening, she thought. No one could be brazen enough to use a mind crystal on a barmaid in full view of everyone.

“What’s your name, pretty girl?”

“Kassia.”

“Kassia. Wonderful. A pretty name for a pretty face. Listen to me Kassia: You like that this is happening. You want this to be happening. It does not worry you. In fact, it is endlessly exciting to you. If you screamed, or told anyone, all of this would stop, and you don’t want that at all.”

The barmaid shivered, and her face relaxed. It had taken less than a heartbeat to alter her will.

“You may speak again, Kassia.”

“Yes. Thank you,” Kassia said. Her eyes flicked down toward the crystal that the young man was still veiling in his palms. The nervous tension she was feeling was written all over her face. She was breathing rapidly through an open mouth, as if she’d just run up three flights of stairs.

The man noticed her gaze, and gently stroked the crystal. “Fascinating, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Kassia simply said, and after a moment of reflection added: “I still know what’s happening to me.”

“But it changes nothing, does it?” The man was looking at her, and she met his gaze, looking quite unmoored and overwhelmed.

“No.” Kassia said. “So… what are you going to do to me?”

“Right now?” the man said. “Nothing. But after you close up tonight, you will meet me at the east gate. You will come, against your better judgment, because you can’t help yourself. You want it. You need it. And you won’t tell anyone.”

“The east gate is guarded all night,” she said. “We might get discovered.”

The man smiled. “Is that so? I did not know that, Kassia. You shouldn’t have told me. I would have gotten arrested. Well, thank you for being such a good little girl. Where could we meet then, where we are on our own?”

“My father is out of town for another day,” Kassia volunteered. “When I close up, the tavern will be empty. Mother died when I was little, and he hasn’t taken another wife.”

“Wonderful,” said the man, and put the crystal back beneath his collar. “We will continue this later, then. Until then, you’ll act as if nothing has happened.”

“Of course not,” Kassia said, and smiled grimly. “It’s our little secret, mysterious stranger. I guess I’ll find out what you’re going to do to me later, but I think I already have an idea.”

“Exciting, isn’t it?” he asked.

Kassia sighed. “Regrettably, yes.”

“Tried to think about what you used to want, didn’t you? Didn’t work, did it? Really sharp one, you are. Good thing I know how to close those loopholes by now.”

Kassia looked uncomfortable. “If you’re going to have me later, can I ask that you at least make me enjoy it? I’m asking now because later I might not get to.”

The man looked at her intensely, then chuckled. “Of course. Wouldn’t do that to a girl like you.”

Kassia took a resigned breath, and nodded. “Thank you.I need to get back to work now.”

“Of course. See you later ,then.”

It was late. Almost two at night. Boris the cook had helped Kassia do the last bit of cleaning up and maneuvering the final guests out the door. Boris asked her if she was going to be fine, and she told him yes, and said goodnight. He left, and she was alone in the empty tavern. She extinguished the lamps, and was just about ready to go upstairs and lay herself to rest.

Just… go upstairs. Go to sleep. Leave the door locked.

But she couldn’t. She couldn’t bring herself to do it.

She had to do what she’d been told.

She opened the back door, and sure enough, standing in the dim light of the half moon was the young traveler that had forced his way into her mind with forbidden magic.

“I hope I’m worth it,” she scoffed as she let him in and closed the door behind them. “I can’t believe you did this to me. You–”

He raised the crystal in front of him and for a brief moment, the words caught in her throat.“You have never felt this wanton and needy. You want to give yourself. You want to be used and fucked. You want my body and my touch and my seed. More than anything.”

She kissed him, and clasped his hand, and laid it against her bosom.

“You’re a monster,” she muttered, words muffled against his lips as she unbuttoned his shirt. He was squeezing her tits, and a moan escaped Kassia’s lips. In her mind, an irresistible urge had taken hold. One that she was powerless to resist. She pushed her hips forward, grinding them against the man like a bitch in heat. When she was done unbuttoning the man’s shirt, she pulled out of the kiss, and her eyes were burning with unbridled lust. She smiled, as if she still couldn’t believe what was happening.

“You know that I don’t want this,” she said. “This is rape.”

She bent down and pulled up the skirt of her dress, and hurriedly dragged it over her head. The shift underneath was thin cotton, and her erect nipples stood prominently at the tips of her youthful curves. She tossed her dress away carefully, and rid herself of her undergarments just as recklessly, until she stood bare nude, her full breasts and glistening shame exposed.

“I hate you,” she said, and embraced him, and kissed him deeply. “But… I need you to fuck me, hard. I need it so bad. I… please. Not like this. You promised.”

The man let out a bellowing laugh. “Ahahaha! Truly your mind is nothing to be trifled with, pretty whore. Not even when I make you rut. Well then…”

He took the crystal into his hands again, and Kassia watched as he raised it and let his will flow through it into her. “You want me. You love me. You adore me. You are grateful for what I’ve done.”

She giggled.

“This is better, isn’t it?” the man asked, and Kassia nodded slowly, a calm smile spreading across her lips.

“So much better,” she said. “Thank you.”

She knelt down, and undid his belt, and pulled down his breeches. The man was already hard, and she eagerly took his turgid manhood into her watering mouth, endlessly grateful to have the privilege of sucking him off and being his wanton whore. The idea was irresistible, and so was the urge between her legs pushing her to suck harder and faster until she could finally taste his cum. There was no thought left in her that hadn’t been bent into subjugation against her will. He had turned her into his willing, eager whore, and she was doing what whores did: Offer their body. She was his property. She was his bitch, and it was getting her off. She sucked and licked around his length, and her core trembled with lust and need. She needed this! She–

“–stop,” he said, and instead commanded her to take him in her own bed. She eagerly and happily led him upstairs, past her father’s room, and into her own. Inside, she laid herself down and spread her legs for him with no more hesitation. But still, he wasn’t giving her his cock.

“Not yet, little whore. I’m not done with your bright little mind yet,” he said.

Kassia tilted her head to the side, confused. “Why? I want it now. I need it. I–”

“Shut up, whore,” he said, and Kassia immediately fell silent, her expression still bright with adoration, but now tinged with a worry much deeper than the one spurned by what the man was going to do to her body. Now, she was worried about what else he was going to make her think.

“You no longer have thoughts of your own.You exist only to please and to give pleasure. You need to be told. You need to obey. You need to be used. You’re a stupid little whore and nothing else, aren’t you?”

For a brief moment, Kassia’s eyes lit up with terror as she realized what he was doing to her. Then, her eyes went dull, and Kassia ceased to exist, and the bright little girl became exactly what she had been told to become.

“Yes,” agreed the little whore. “I’m a stupid little whore and nothing else.” She had been told so, and now she was what she was being told.

“You don’t care about anything anymore except for how to please and serve me. I am your master. You are my slut. You are my whore. You are my slave.”

“Yes master,” Kassia immediately affirmed. Her expression was empty, vapid, thoughtless. The power of the crystal had carved out her will and her thoughts. She lay before her master, legs still spread, but no longer because of forbidden anticipation.

“Do you still want to enjoy this?” asked the man, and Kassia looked up at him with a vacant smile. “I don’t want anything, master,” she said. “I exist only to serve and please you. I am your whore.”

“That’s right, Kassia.”

The whore still recognized her name, but felt no more attachment. She knew that she was in her bed, in her room, next to her father’s empty quarters, one floor above the tavern where she worked.

It meant nothing to her anymore. She didn’t think about it. She didn’t worry about it. She barely even knew it. She knew only how to serve, and she was wet and ready for her master to use her. Deep inside her stripped mind, she felt the most distant sense of melancholia without being able to understand why. Everything she still was felt only the absolute need to serve. She was Kassia the slave, the whore, the servant, and she would obey. It was the only thing she knew. It was the only thing she wanted.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” said the man that had turned Kassia into nothing more than a living sex toy, and the enslaved mind of Kassia had no choice but to spark with the joy that was all that she had left to feel. She didn’t even answer. She simply waited to be used, ready and obedient and nothing else.

This time, she didn’t have to wait. Her master pushed himself between her legs, his erect cock spreading her lower lips and entering her opening slowly and deliberately. He was looking at her as he shoved himself into her, and she dutifully met his gaze even when she shivered and gasped from the sensation of being spread and penetrated. Her nipples were hard when he cupped her breasts, and she moaned like the whore that she was when he started pumping in and out of her throbbing pussy.

He told her to scream ‘yes’, and she did. He told her to tell him what a slut she was, and she did. He told her to play with her tits and to tell him that she was his to use, and she did. It was all that she still knew how to do. Kassia screamed and moaned and let herself be fucked hard, tits swaying with every thrust, sweating and panting and pussy glistening with spit and sex juice, legs spread wide to offer her pussy, unthinking and unresisting.

It felt good to obey. She wanted this. She needed this. She was a slave. She had to serve. She had to please.

She did. All night. Until he was tired of her, and left her lying naked in her own bed, cum-stained and exhausted. Then he left out the back door, into the night, and was gone without another word.

The next Morning, Kassia woke raw and aching and groggy – but her eyes had regained their brightness, and her mind its clarity. She groaned and sighed and whimpered, and went to clean herself of the filth of her abuse. She put her room in order, and washed the sheets, an effort that took her almost two hours. Then, she started preparing the tavern. She cleaned glasses and sorted bottles and kegs, and swept the floors until her father returned to help her. She smiled, and greeted him, and told him about how business had been the day before. When it was time she unlocked the front door and began waiting on the guests that soon started pouring in. She took orders, carried trays, helped in the kitchen, wiped up spills, chatted,laughed and danced along when one of the guests brought out a lyre.

But it was all a lie.

Because all she could think about was if her master would ever return and use her again.

Until then, this life would have to be enough.