So I sat quietly, learning what I could, and when Omie let me practice on her, she only had to guide me a little. Then we went faster and faster. And then she said, "Full speed, and I will do the counter."
And the first time, she escaped from me and reversed it. But the second time when she tried to escape, I stopped her, and a moment later, she was tapping my arm and grinning at me. "Well done."
We each practiced the moves they had taught, and then Vorine said, "We will now have individual matches. Ask who you want."
Bea turned to me and grinned, and I nodded. I settled down onto my knees, and we began.
It was a good match. It was a very good match. Other than the time I tickled her, I never won, and I didn't win this time, but I nearly pinned her three times before finally she managed to flip me onto my back and pin me a moment later. We were both breathing hard when we were finished. I hugged her and whispered, "Thank you. That was fun!"
Aura asked me next, and a minute later, I had her in the move Omie had taught us that day. Aura tapped out, shocked I had gotten her.
"You're faster," she said. "Can we go again in a while?"
I grinned.
Neela then turned to me. We rolled around on the ground for a while, neither of getting the upper hand, but finally I trapped her legs, rolling her onto her back with me lying on top of her, also on my back, and I hooked her legs with mine and pulled up, then grabbed her legs and pulled further.
From below me she squeaked, then said, "Pinned."
I rolled off her. I had never pinned any of them before.
"Will you wrestle me?" Vorine asked.
"Of course."
I began down, and she gave me a good workout, not fighting at her full ability, but not letting me win, either. I knew she was intentionally working me, giving me experience, but in the end she pinned me. I lay on the ground, panting.
"Good match," she said. "That's the best you've ever done." She was panting as well.
Omie let me catch my breath, and then we were wrestling. She tangled me in a submission hold, but I broke it and nearly had her pinned to the ground, she was so surprised, but she scrambled away. She began a second submission hold, but I flipped her over, landing her on her back, and she was an instant from a pin before she broke free of me. "Maya! Very good!"
The third time was the charm, for her, and after a moment I tapped out, my arm caught in one of her favorite holds.
But we had gathered an audience, and I hear Malora ask, "Will you wrestle with me?"
"Of course," I told her. "But to be clear, tickle submission holds are legal."
I started down, and as soon as we began, I rolled under her, wrapping my arms and legs around her and burying my fingers in her sides, searching for the ticklish places I knew were there.
She laughed immediately. "This is not wrestling, Maya." She pressed me to the ground and had me immediately pinned, but I refused to release her, continuing to go after her ticklish places.
"Stop that!" she said, giggling. "This is unseemly. A queen is not ticklish."
"I bet she is," I said. "I just have to find your ticklish spots, and then you're in trouble."
I moved my hands and tried a new hold. And she began to squirm. "Stop that."
I continued to try to tickle her. She pinned me several times, but I refused to admit it, so she squirmed away and pulled my wrist into a painful submission hold.
"Okay!" I said, tapping her with my other hand.
"You are going to do exactly what I tell you to do," she said, flexing my wrist, not quite hurting, but it would hurt if she wanted it to.
"Yes!" I said.
"Promise to kiss me, and I'll release you."
"I promise to kiss you."
And then we kissed. From behind us, I heard Nori clear her voice. "That is not training."
Malora released me. "No, it was joy."
And it was.
"But I require a proper wrestling match," Malora said.
"Fine." I knelt down again, and we had a good match. She won, of course, covering her body with mine. I struggled for freedom, but she took her time before she pinned me.
"Tease," I told her.
"You liked it."
"Take it to your hut later," Nori said.
"My turn," Bea said. And so I wrestled everyone again, and it felt good.
* * * *
"You're faster," Malora told me during lunch.
"Omie said I had to impress her by wrestling before she would teach me swords. Did I impress her?"
"I guess you'll see this afternoon."
I had, for we practiced with swords that afternoon. We did our stretches and our run, then Vorine told us to collect our practice swords.
"We will start at the beginning," she said. "We have all done this before, but it is good to review to be assured of proper form."
I worked very hard, near to exhaustion, and they were ready to be done. But I asked for a bout. Omie looked carefully at me. "Vorine and I can do one at half speed with you, or we can get Nori or Malora."
"Full speed," I said.
Vorine ran over to the practicing warriors, returning with Nori. Nori smiled.
"I take it your experience has given you newfound commitment?"
I didn't answer but instead simply raised my sword. Nori smiled, held out her hand, and Vorine slapped a practice blade into it.
We fought for five strikes, and of course, Nori won five to nothing, but she worked me hard, and I was panting and exhausted when we were done. I bowed to her and thanked her.
"Good job," she said. She turned to Omie and Vorine. "She is not to spar at full speed with anyone except Malora or me until one of us tells you otherwise. She may spar at reduced speeds with anyone else."
"Of course," Omie said. "We're considering that a standing order for all new companions."
That night, while getting ready for bed, Malora asked me about my training. "You didn't believe us about the demons before."
"Seeing is believing," I said.
"Maya, Nori and I have talked. You will never be a warrior. You understand that, don't you?"
"I don't want to be a warrior," I said, curling into her arms. "I like it right where I am. But I want to be as good as I can be. Now, if you can pin me to our bed and tickle me into submission, you may then have my body."
It turns out she was very, very good at pinning me to the bed. And at finding my most ticklish places.
* * * *
For the next week, I visited the demon every morning, rising early. She confused me. She was kind, in her way. She seemed highly intelligent but, at the same time, deeply immature and self-absorbed. She fished for compliments at every meeting, and it became nearly a ritual for me to find nice things to say about her. It actually wasn't that difficult; what was difficult was holding back from saying the other things I would have wanted to say.
She had come to our land to hunt us for sport, after all. She had broken Ping's leg, and she seemed quite gleeful about it. She had tried to enslave me, and the irony didn't escape me that it was Nori who had saved me, on orders from Malora, just as it had been Nori who had first taken me, also on orders from Malora.
What worried me now was what she wanted. I learned she could give me pleasure; I also presumed she could give me pain. The lesson was driven home on our fifth morning together. The first four mornings I had answered her questions, although on the third day she asked a question I hadn't wanted to answer, and so she had gotten her half hour of conversation afterwards.
But on the fifth morning, it was different. "We're playing a new game today," she said. "I am going to do something to you, and you are going to tell me how it feels."
"How can you do anything to me from so far?"
"It is in your mind, but it will feel real," she said.
"I do not care to play this game," I told her. "We will play your question game."
"We will play this game!" she said, and her voice was loud in my head. But then
she was gentler. "If I do anything you don't like, you may tell me to stop, but you must tell me how it felt and why you asked me to stop."
"Fine," I said. "But you only get five minutes."
"Thirty," she said. "If I am clumsy and hurt you, we will stop sooner."
"Fine," I said.
She trilled her pleasure, and every time she did, it took me a moment to recover. It felt good. I couldn't tell you why. Then I felt her touch me. It felt like she was caressing my hair, gently, with her claws gently combing my hair. My hand flew to my head, but there was nothing there.
It felt nice, comforting. She did it for perhaps thirty seconds, then asked, "What did that feel like?"
"Like you were caressing my hair," I said, "and combing it with your claws. It felt nice."
She trilled her pleasure again. "My game isn't so bad after all, is it?"
"Not so far. How are you doing this?"
"I am in your mind," she said. "Everything that you experience, you experience in your mind. Your body collects the sensations and sends them along pathways to your mind, but it is your mind that interprets them. I am skipping some of those steps. Ready for the next?"
"All right."
Her touch moved to my hands. If felt like she was stroking my fingers and squeezing my hands, using two of hers per hand.
"That's nice too," I said. "There may be advantages to having two hands. Can you actually massage my muscles?"
"I can make it feel like I am," she replied. "And because much of the tension you carry is in your mind, making your muscles tight, with practice I can soothe you. But only in the mind, I cannot ease your actual aches." But after that, she did several more things, all of which felt nice.
But then she did something that felt really nice, and I gasped with the pleasure.
"Did I hurt you?" she asked immediately, her voice full of concern.
"No," I said. "That felt. Um. Wow."
"This?" she asked, and she did it again, but she let it last several seconds. I closed my eyes and couldn't help but moan from the pleasure.
"Oh," I managed to say, "you have to stop!"
She trilled pleasure, which added to my own pleasure, but she stopped what she was doing. "I think I know how to reward you, Maya. Ready for the next?"
"Give me a moment to collect myself," I said.
"Of course. Do you like my game?"
"Yes," I said. I shouldn't have. If I had understood what she was doing, I would have done anything to avoid her game.
Once I had recovered, she did a few more things that were pleasurable, but less intense, and then she said, "Now for something a little different." And then it felt like her claws were digging into my shoulder. At first it was uncomfortable, but then it began to truly hurt.
"Stop!" I said. "Oh stop!"
And she did, immediately.
"What did that feel like?" she asked.
"Your claws in my shoulder!" I opened my tunic, inspecting the skin, but there were no marks. "It felt so real."
"Did it hurt?"
"Yes. Please don't do that again."
"If you behave, I will not," she said. "Ready?" Moments later it felt like my hand was buried in a fire, and I shoved back a scream.
"Stop!" I yelled firmly, and immediately she stopped.
I stared at my hand, but it was undamaged.
"What did that feel like, Maya?" she asked.
"Please, Lathana. I don't like this game anymore."
"What did it feel like? Tell me, or I'll do it again."
"No!" I said. "It felt like my hand was in a fire."
"Oh, my poor little Maya," she said. "Was it unpleasant?"
"Very. I don't like your game anymore."
"Oh Maya," she said. "It was an accident. Here, let me help." And then she was giving me pleasure again, for perhaps five seconds, but long enough to leave me gasping. She paused and did it again, and then a third time.
"Lathana," I moaned. "Stop."
"You don't like this?" she asked, and she did it again, very briefly.
"It's too intense," I told her.
"Does it feel good?"
"Yes," I admitted.
"Then it is a reward for playing my game. Now, I am going to do one more touch, and if it hurts, then I will soothe you, and we can talk for a while longer before I go." She didn't wait, and I couldn't have told you what it felt like, except it was pain! Pain like I've never felt, all over my entire body.
I curled into a ball and screamed, "Stop!"
And she did.
"Don't do that again," I said. "Lathana, don't do that again!"
"I won't," she said. "But you must tell me how it felt."
"Pain like I've never felt before," I told her. "It was horrible."
She was silent for a moment, then she began stroking me gently, soothingly, and slowly I uncurled.
"Better?" she asked after several minutes.
"Yes."
"I am sorry for hurting you," she said. "While they may feel very different, the distance between pleasure and pain is not so far. We do not feel pleasure or pain the way you do. I do not fully understand pain, not intrinsically."
"You don't understand pain?"
"I can relate it only to a very bad thought," she explained, "a thought so terrible you cannot stand to consider it. I know that is a poor understanding. I understand that for you, pain can be crippling. It is a signal that something terrible is happening to your fragile body, and your brain is evolved to protect your body. Severe pain is your body telling you to stop whatever is happening to it."
"Do others of your people torment our warriors like this?"
"I do not believe so. I do not know if they have even thought about doing so. And I do not know if they could if they tried."
"Why can you?"
"We have a closer relationship than they have with your warriors," she explained. "You agreed to accept me, and my mind was very, very close to yours when I visited your world. There is much more of me inside you."
"Am I talking to the you that is inside me, or the you in your own world."
"They are one and the same," she explained. "Now, you have played my game today, and so you must have a reward." She began to stroke me, brushing closer and closer to the pleasure points she had discovered earlier. Each stroke caused me to gasp, and soon I lay on the rocks, shuddering as she stroked me.
"You must stop," I whispered.
"Am I hurting you?"
"Nooo," I said. "Please stop, Lathana."
"If you wish," she said, her touch pulling from me. "Didn't you like it?"
"I liked it a great deal," I said, "but you must not do that."
She trilled her laughter. "Oh, I will do that whenever I wish, Maya. You must be rewarded for your good behavior, after all. Enjoy your day." And then from one moment to the next, she was gone.
I lay there for a while, collecting my composure before sitting up. She hadn't threatened, but the implication was there. She would reward me for good behavior.
But she could also discipline me for poor behavior.
I didn't know what to do.
* * * *
It was two days later that I decided I needed to know more. I woke early again and whispered, "I am going for my walk."
"Are you sure I can't come with?"
"I must fight my demons alone, Malora," I told her.
She sat up abruptly. "Demons?"
"Figure of speech, Malora," I assured her, kissing her quickly. "I am going to meditate. That is all."
I returned to the river, and I called for Lathana Jara Marquine. On the third invocation, she filled me.
"Hello, Maya," she purred. "You seem excited about something. Tell me."
"Today, we play by my rules."
"Do we?"
"Yes."
"And what are your rules?"
"I will ask you questions. You will answer them honestly, succinctly, without misdirection, and in a fashion I am likely to understand, as best
you can. Five questions."
"Oh? And what do I get in return?"
"If you answer all five, then I will tell you how I spent my day yesterday. If you do not answer all five, then the conversation is over and I am not obligated to call you tomorrow."
"You will give me every detail of your day yesterday."
"I will give you reasonable detail. I will not detail every bit that I ate or every word that was spoken in my hearing. The telling will take at least fifteen minutes, or if it does not, you may ask me additional questions about the day."
"And tomorrow?"
"The next time we talk will be by your rules. And then mine, and then yours."
"I agree," she said. "Ask your questions."
"Why do you wish to talk to me each day?"
She trilled. "A most excellent question," she said, "and one I am pleased to answer. You relieve my boredom."
"All right. What is your world like?"
"It is very different from yours," she replied. "It is not a world like yours. There is no planet and no sun. Instead, the place we occupy has no form. It is perhaps like a soup. But we each carve away a section of the soup and make a space, a bubble in the soup if you will. Within each bubble, we are able to form what we want, limited by our imagination and force of will."
"That seems like half an answer," I said.
"I am being kind. I could answer at great length, consuming hours. I would very much enjoying doing so, but you asked for concise answers. So my world, as you say, is whatever I envision, after a fashion. Fashioning a bubble that looks like your world requires a great deal of imagination and even greater force of will. My world changes with my moods."
"I wish a follow-up question, and I do not wish it to count against my five."
"Ask, and I will tell you if I agree."
"Is it magic that you use?"
"Ah. I will allow that as a follow-up. You would consider it magic, and if you were here, it would seem like magic. But what is magic? To me, it is my imagination and my will that forms the space. Is that magic? There are no spells that you can cast, and if you came here with magic, it would not cause the bubbles to form."
"Thank you for answering. Third question. When you were ready to take me across the portal, you told me you would hold me in a cage, letting me out from time to time. Would this have been a cage that I would recognize, or something else?"
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