I stare at the empty space, where Thrall had been standing for a long time.
* * * * *
“The Mistress said you were to attend her, when the Smith finished with you.” The guard's tone is diffident. I do not remember him going to the arena, but he has probably heard from the other guards about my actions in the arena.
I refrain from sighing and make my way to Elan'fer'sha's ritual room. Inside there are whips on the altar and a small brazier with a few irons heating. Elan'fer'sha must be in a particularly masochistic mood.
When I try the door to her study, it opens at a touch. I pause in the open door, more than a little surprised at what I see. Inside, Elan'fer'sha is going over paperwork on her desk. In front of the desk, Mikumi is sitting nervously at the edge of her seat. Both females look at me, as I stand in the open door. Elan'fer'sha smiles languidly, and a relieved expression settles on Mikumi's face.
“The guard said you wanted me. What's goin on?”
The smile does not leave Elan'fer'sha's face. “The Smith kept you for a long time. You missed out on celebrating your victory over the Ogre with the other gladiators. Your little whore here looked despondent without your dick to satisfy her, so I kept her here with me. She should enjoy watching, while I take your Power.”
What the fuck? If I did not know better, I would think that Elan'fer'sha was jealous of Mikumi, but there is no reason for it. I am nothing but an animal in her eyes, just like Mikumi. Would either of them be fucking me, if they were not getting something out of it?
“Come!”
Elan'fer'sha stands and walks out of her study. She is already naked, though I am not sure if you can really call her normal clothing being dressed. It is not like I am going to complain about her running around naked or nearly naked, I enjoy the view.
Except for a translucent shawl, Mikumi is completely naked, but unlike the first time I saw her, she has her arms tightly crossed over her tits. The relief in her eyes from when she saw me has turned into fear. She drops her shawl on the chair that she was sitting on and rapidly scampers along at Elan'fer'sha's back.
My anger is simmering toward a boiling point. I hated the half-assed, fucked up social status and petty jealousy games that people play on Earth. I hate this little fucked production that Elan'fer'sha is staging now. I swear, everything with a cunt is completely fucking insane!
The door to the ritual chamber automatically closes behind us. The sheer number and complexity of spell formations and sigils built into this one room is mind boggling. Even being here every night, I have not even begun to get a solid grasp on their numbers, let alone their purposes.
Elan'fer'sha opens one of the hidden storage compartments and takes out an empty Power crystal and iron stand. After setting them up next to the Altar, she turns around and stares at Mikumi and myself for a few moments.
“I have never told you how a Wytch is trained, have I?”
“No.” My tone is stiff. Keeping my anger in check is getting harder by the moment.
Elan'fer'sha smiles. “Prepubescent female children with a predisposition for the Umbra are taken from orphan barracks or families without Provenance by an experienced Wytch. After being raped by a slave under their Mistress' direction, they are taught to wield mana, and if they have the talent, psi. The most important part of their training is to learn to use the Umbra and to embrace pain. Rape and torture are daily activities, and the child either learns to love both or goes insane and is disposed of.
“If the child has mastered the knowledge, spells and rituals by the time of her first menstrual cycle, she is given a test to become a Wytch. The test is being thrown into a cage with a male who is both a rapist and murder, the more brutal the better. If she can satisfy the male's lusts for sex and torture, and then kill him with her Umbral arts as he orgasms, she becomes a Wytch. If she fails to kill him as he orgasms and survives, the test will be repeated, until she succeeds or dies.”
Elan'fer'sha's stare is fixed on Mikumi, with a rigid smile on her lips. Mikumi's face is twisted in horror, and she is backing away, while shivering.
“I am a bit of a prodigy. I was lucky enough to survive twice, and performed perfectly on my third test. Most of the female children who are lucky enough to survive require five or even ten or more tests to succeed. Wytches are very few in number. To the Clans and Church, we are nothing but outcast trash, but they come to us time and again for skills that only we can provide.
“One of the Priest-Wizards gave Brand to me, on the condition that I provide him with twenty-three fully charged Power crystals. Because of Brand's unique disposition, I cannot properly torture him with my Umbral spells, but I have found that he cums harder, when he tortures me while fucking me. That is far more pleasurable for me, and I can extract more Power from him. I am going to allow you the privilege of watching us, my little whore. Come close, so you can better enjoy the show.”
Too afraid to defy one of the Masters, Mikumi hesitantly moves over near the altar. Even with her bronzed skin tone, she has gone pale as a ghost.
“I can see your dick getting hard. You should take of the pteruges come play with me.” Elan'fer'sha's smile is as seductive as always, while she sits on the altar fingering herself.
By using me in her mind games, that little bitch is pissing me off. I tear off my pteruges and loincloth, dropping them on the floor, and stalk toward the altar. Catching the many-tailed whip that Elan'fer'sha throws at me, I snap it the air. My breathing is heavy, and I am barely keeping from growling.
Spreading my ki through the whip's tails, I lash Elan'fer'sha, slamming her onto her back with the force of the blow. With a few more lashes, she is covered with welts from the tops of her thighs to her neck.
Moaning with pleasure and licking her lips Elan'fer'sha stares up at me, her eyes challenging me to do more. As I keep lashing her, she deliberately bites her tongue and paints her lips scarlet with her own blood.
“More! Hit me harder! Fuck me! My cunt is dripping wet. I'm waiting for you.”
No longer able to keep from snarling, I thrust into her. She is right. I get off on abusing her, as much as she gets off on being abused. My dick Is like a steel rod, as I violently fuck her. We are both so twisted that I am amazed we are even functional.
Moaning and gasping in time to my thrusts, Elan'fer'sha reaches out a pull one of the irons out of the brazier. It is thinner than her pinkie, maybe only a quarter the diameter, tapering to a sharp point. Smiling at me with her blood colored lips, she spears her own nipple with the sharp tip. Her shriek is a sick mix of pain and pleasure and her body spasm as she orgasms.
Not wanting to hold back any longer, I let myself cum. The flood of Power she drains from me makes every time before seem like a trickle. Her agonized shrieks fill the chamber, as she channels my Power into the crystal. The crystal keeps glowing brighter, until it finally shatters. Fragments fly out in all directions, embedding themselves in all three of us.
Even without a vessel, Elan'fer'sha does not stoop sucking the Power out of me. Without a repository to soak it up, my Power lashes wildly about the chamber. From her wide-eyed expression of terror, I do not think Elan'fer'sha can stop, and my own body is frozen in place as well. Except my mouth, howling with rage, I am as rigid as a stone statue.
Finally, the flow of Power stops. I collapse on top of Elan'fer'sha, barely able to move. We are both panting from the exertion of dealing with the flow of my Power. Body, mind, and soul, I am completely drained. My mind and soul feel like they have been sandblasted and lacerated by the flow of so much Power.
“Too much. Too much. Only a Transcendent should have that much Power. Too much. How can you have so much? How?” Elan'fer'sha's mumbled questions are only audible because my ear is next to her mouth.
Whimpering draws my attention to the side of the altar. Mikumi is half-kneeling and half-sitting, with her calves splayed out to the sides. Quivering with terror, she does not even try move out of the pool of her own piss. With her eye
s out of focus, she does not seem to even be seeing what is right in front her any longer.
“You're a sick fucking bitch.” My words are barely more than a whisper.
“Are you any better?”
I have no response to Elan'fer'sha's words. We are what we are. Is it sane or insane? Are we good or evil, both or neither?
“Stop blubbering, little whore. This what real Power is like. That little trickle of mana you use to make yourself more attractive and fuck better is nothing compared to the Power of someone who could rise to godhead.”
Mikumi silences her whining, but I can still feel her fear beating against my mind. I can feel her fear? I look at her again. Beyond her expression, nothing is visible, but I can definitely feel her fear. Empathy? Could I be an empath? I am too drained to try and figure it out now. After I sleep, I will worry about it.
“Get your leaden animal carcass off of me already!”
“Fuck you. I don't have the strength to stand.”
Elan'fer'sha tries to push me off herself but lacks the strength to move me. I push against the altar, trying to roll to the side, and we both fall to the floor in a tangle. More shards from the Power crystal get embedded in our skin.
“Idiot!” Elan'fer'sha's voice is getting muddled, like she is barely hanging onto consciousness.
I do not try to fight the exhaustion and let unconsciousness claim me.
*** Gor'achen Citadel - Battleground of the Damned ***
Return: Day 252
Pain brings me back to consciousness. My head hurts. My mind hurts. My soul hurts. From my stomach up, the entire front of my body feels like it has been sandpapered and is itchy as hell on top of it. Pain I can deal with, I am used to it. The shards from that crystal are worse than being covered in mosquito bites. The itchiness makes me want to hurt that fucking Priest-Wizard Kra'cha'len.
Elan'fer'sha mumbles and tries to snuggle tighter against me. Mikumi is curled up against my back. If it was not for the damage and irritation, I would be thoroughly enjoying this. Then again, considering Elan'fer'sha's ridiculous behavior last night, I probably would not be enjoying it.
Was it last night? Is it morning? I cannot even tell. Usually, I have a rough idea of how long I sleep, but at the moment, my head is so fucked up that I cannot even guess. I can feel pools of Power within myself, so at least enough time for me to partially recover my Power has passed.
I feel a shifting sea of emotions softly pushing against my mind from behind. They must be because of whatever Mikumi is dreaming about, but I can actually feel them. It has to be the first awakening of psychic abilities, but how did it happen? Why did it happen? The only thing that happened was Elan'fer'sha draining off all of my Power. Could that have torn something open within my mind?
I have to suppress my urge to grin like an imbecile. Turning my focus inward, I try to understand how the ability works. It seems that I have become and empath, but without knowing to use the ability, it is completely useless to me. My mind and soul feel like they have become larger, but that should just be my subjective perceptions. The reality is that dormant parts of my patterns must have become active, or maybe parts of my mind and soul sealed under the scars have started to work.
While I can feel the emotions coming from Mikumi's sleeping mind, I do not understand all of them. Perceptually, they are coming across as a combination of colors, smells, and sensations. Some are recognizable, like anger and frustration, but others I do not understand at all. What exactly is a soft pinkish-red breeze that smells of flowers supposed to represent? Will the emotions of every person have the same feeling to them? It is likely that I will misunderstand what I feel for a while, and possibly always misunderstand the emotions of people with odd mindsets.
The arm that Elan'fer'sha has around my neck tenses, with her entire body following suit. She is staring at me, when I open my eyes. Only a few inches separate our faces, and for a moment, there is an odd vulnerability in her honey-amber eyes.
This is the first time I have seen Elan'fer'sha appearing anywhere near vulnerable. Combined with her naked body pressed tightly against my own, it is an incredible turn on. My heartbeat accelerates slightly, and my I start getting hard again.
Whatever Elan'fer'sha's emotional state may be, I am only getting ghost-like impressions that I cannot begin to interpret. The innate mental shields that Thrall said all DokkAlfar possess must be interfering with my ability to read her, or maybe, they contain her emotions inside of her mind, so that they cannot be properly detected.
However, Elan'fer'sha's shields do not conceal her heartbeat, and I feel it accelerating. She does not resist, when I pull her face closer and kiss her. Despite the amount of fucking we do, we almost never kiss. For us, fucking is about Power, not passion. Surprisingly, she returns my kiss hungrily. It feels like she is desperate for something, but I also get a faint impression of regret and loss. A number of times I am certain I have seen a deep sense of regret and loss in Elan'fer'sha's eyes, but I have never tried to learn what it is for.
After long minutes of our tongues and hands exploring each other, Elan'fer'sha pushes herself away from me. The expression in her eyes hardens, and she rises sinuously to her feet. Without a word, she smoothly and swiftly moves to the door, which opens silently.
Sitting up, I look at her departing back and continue to stare at the empty doorway, until the door automatically closes again. The memory of a laugh that I will never hear again seems to echo in my ears.
“You can stop pretending to be asleep. She's gone.”
Mikumi sits up, hugging her knees to her chest. She looks like a scared and vulnerable teenager, instead of a confident whore.
I consciously adjust my blood flow, so I stop getting hardon settles down. Why does vulnerability in a woman turn me on so easily? When I see it in an attractive one, I want to dominate them and make them mine. That is not a new feeling. As far back as my middle school days, I can remember vulnerability in a girl inciting my lust in this same manner.
Mikumi looks at me and shivers. The fear her mind is exuding is as clear as day. Strangely, I do not get any impression of anything that seems like disdain or disgust from her.
Without saying anything, I rise to my feet. The dozens of crystal fragments embedded in my skin irritate the cuts and tears where they are lodges. Circulating my ki throughout my body, I identify them all, and with a small explosion of force, I force them out.
Mikumi stares at the falling crystal fragments, with a surprised cast to her features.
“Stand up!”
Mikumi rises to her feet, and I put my hand on her head. I feel her shiver, as I send my ki through her body. Like all living things, she has ki inside of her, but her ki is far to weak to put up any resistance. She completely lacks the strength in ki to make use of it in any way. Finding all the crystal fragments in her, I use my ki to force them out of her.
With her eyes glistening, Mikumi shivers. “That felt incredible. If you did that while fucking me, I would follow you for the rest of my life.”
I turn away from Mikumi, but I cannot keep the bitterness out of my voice. “The last girl to follow died in only a few months time. She was too busy paying attention to me, when she should have been watching her own back. I have too many enemies and will only acquire more.”
“Did you lover her?” Mikumi's voice has an odd tone, and her eyes are more focused on the ground than on me.
Opening one of the hidden compartments in the walls of the ritual chamber, I take out a small vial of blood red liquid.
“I told her I did. I lied to her, as she lay dying in my arms.”
Brand did not lie. Brand loves Perzey.
The “voice” sounds like it is in my own thoughts, but I can tell it is not telepathy. Looking around, I find a faintly pulsating energy field. There is no shape or form to it, but I can still tell that it is Perzey.
Steel is cruelty. Steel is pain.
I cast the pattern sight on both of my eyes, but it do
es not help much. There is not real pattern to the energy. If I was not specifically looking for something out of place, I would have mistaken it for a part of the air. Perzey had an air affinity, so maybe that is the reason.
Even with no body, Perzey tried to stay with Brand forever, but Perzey's time is up. Perzey's Power is almost gone. I get the faint impression of a smile with the thoughts.
I thought my mind was playing tricks on me, when I heard your voice.
Perzey's laughter fills my mind. Perzey watched Brand take the Power in the arena. If Brand takes Perzey's Power, a little bit of Perzey can be with Brand forever.
If I take your Power, you'll be gone forever. There's not much left.
Perzey knows. Perzey wants Brand to take her Power. Perzey wants Brand to have Perzey's love. Hurry, before Perzey is gone forever.
I lied to you.
Brand did not lie. Brand loves Perzey. Perzey knows. Hurry.
As I reach out my hand, a faint silvery-grey glow surrounds it. A gentle, somewhat bittersweet feeling fills my mind. Without being told, I know that this is love. There is not much Power, but what is there settles inside of me. A last image of a smile and happy laughter fades away.
What would have happened if my psi had not been jarred into a more fully awakened state by Elan'fer'sha's twisted games? Would Perzey have dissipated before I knew she was there? I do not think I want to know the answer. How much more have I missed by remaining dormant for so long?
“What was that?” Mikumi's voice is soft and faintly sad.
“A fading spirit. She's gone now.”
I glance at the vial that I am still holding. Moving to Mikumi, I hold it out for her.
“Drink this. It's a high grade healing elixir.”
Mikumi sniffs the vial, before drinking it in a single quick gulp. Her shiver and grimace give me an urge to laugh, but I refrain.
“It feel like insects are crawling all over my body.”
Slave Pits of the Tyrannical God (Path of Transcendence Book 2) Page 25