Sacrifice

by Underwood, Patrick

  We ran as hard as we could, and just like that, I found myself once again in the forest, running for my life.

  25

  Interlude - Surrender and Fear

  Seir sat on his throne, perfectly comfortable while waiting for his next guest. He sat in the highest tower in the City of Nitre, the room once was the bedchamber of Josephina. Now it was a greeting room used to impress visitors and conduct orgies with those he considered worthy. Usually, it was the same women that were in this room with him.

  Because they were his property.

  Even if he treated Josephina well, all of them who had agreed to join his harem were his forever. He was the one who wrote most of the rules that governed the process by which they forced these Chosen to serve their masters in whatever manner they were ordered. He designed the compulsions, ensured their quality, and arranged them so he could achieve his own desires when it was his turn to descend.

  The only restriction placed on his creations was that they had to agree to their servitude with free will.

  He enjoyed the power immensely and his… benefactor had promised him this position many years ago for the services rendered.

  As the thought of what was now his drifted, he studied his current favorite toys.

  To his left, Josaphina sat in a chair only slightly smaller than his. She was the only one he allowed to dress as she wished. She had never disappointed him, and a small part of him enjoyed rewarding her with some semblance of self-control.

  Josaphina still played the part. She dressed regally and elegantly. Her slightly reddish-brown hair was done up and coiffed to perfection. Her legs crossed with one knee over the other, she waited patiently, just like him. She had a small and knowing smirk on her face.

  To his right, kneeling on the ground, sat a completely naked Miranda. Her hands were behind her back, and she sat up straight, with her butt on the backs of her feet, ankles crossed behind her. She had a leather ball in her mouth with a matching tie strap going over her ears and around her head, tied simply. She could remove it, if she chose, but her own inner desire, mixed with the compulsion that Seir personally wrote so many years ago, made it the furthest thing from her mind.

  She glanced over as he gazed upon her, a smile showing through the ball of leather in her mouth. It was a look that promised anything and everything he wanted, should he ask.

  Shifting his head to the left, he saw Patricia. She was similarly positioned like Miranda with similar accouterments, or lack thereof. So far, she was his favorite acquisition, resisting him longer than all the others. Even with the compulsion, she fought for her daughter even as she gave into the desire to pleasure him. It took him weeks to break her of that, even with the compulsion.

  Now, however, she did not differ from Miranda. She was a slave to his whims and only concerned with his needs.

  He had three others, but they were on assignment. He only kept his favorites with him. These women were powerful, and he had decided that after Susan that quality was preferable to quantity. A lesson he should have learned previously in his five-thousand-year long life before coming to Timeria. But even Demigods made mistakes.

  He had a tendency of thinking with his dick a lot more than when he was an ascended. As a full Roxannez, his baser instincts were suppressed, done so by the social propriety protocols forced upon his kind by the council and written into their matrixes.

  But his needs and desires were always trying to break through. Driving him to want to be on this world so badly, that he became the pawn of his master and agreeing to achieving the Overseers goals.

  A guard knocked on the door, and it opened, allowing a single female to enter the room.

  “King Seir, lady Einestra of Casting Harbor has arrived,” a guard with Seir’s glyph on his forehead announced.

  “She may enter,” Josephina called out.

  A beautiful young blonde woman entered the room. She tried to keep the bearing of a woman in charge of her fate, but Seir could see the signs of panic and nervousness all over her features.

  Her breathing was rapid and the vein on her neck was pushing in and out rapidly. Clearly visible as it pulsed all the way down her flow cut dress which highlighted her magnificent breast. Her neutral mask was further betrayed by eyes that darted over everyone in the room several times, stopping repeatedly on Miranda and Patricia.

  Part of her was aroused, if Seir was reading the signs correctly. Her sudden eye dilation when she glanced at the two subservient women followed by the release of pheromones she was giving off. They were wafting off her like a cloud of dust turned up like a tornado in a desert. Another advantage he had written into the ruleset for this world for an advantage. However, this improvement was only for him, a personal gift from his master, along with a few others.

  The woman stopped several paces in front of him. Saying nothing and standing erect, playing some kind of power game that she somehow thought mattered.

  The only thing that mattered to Seir was power… and pleasure. He would play any game that resulted in both things for him.

  “Lady Einestra, to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit? As we promised, I have given you safe passage to deliver your message and not forced you to wear a collar,” Seir said.

  Einestra took a breath, trying to do it slowly so her nerves would go unnoticed.

  She failed.

  “Lord Se—”

  “King,” Josephina interrupted, causing Einestra to fluster a bit.

  “King Seir, my apologies,” Einestra said, making her first genuine mistake of the conversation. “I have come to beseech you for power. I have heard that you treat those that come to you first...” She glanced at Josephina. “…better treatment than those you acquire through force.” She cast her eyes distastefully at both Patricia and Miranda.

  “Why would I do that?”

  The look of surprise on her face told Seir that she did not prepare for that question. Another person so full of themselves that they could not conceive that anything they offered would not be accepted.

  She again paused while she considered.

  “Be… Because I am the daughter of the Matriarch of Casting Harbor, first in line to her title, and I can give you the entire matriarch if you agree to my terms,” she said, nodding.

  “You, however, are not your mother. My question is, why would I choose you? What do you bring me that I could not get from her?”

  “I… my mother has locked herself in her castle. She has turned inward in abject fear of you and your fellow Demigods. The people suffer and she does nothing but fret. I am offering you myself for your power. With promises to deliver to you the entire matriarchy without having to resort to force of arms. I am of Lady rank to the level of Mistress. I can replace her and serve you with the same power as she. All I am asking in return is treatment equal to Josephina.”

  Seir put his hand on his chin and rubbed it, as though considering her offer seriously.

  “No,” he finally said, dropping his arm back to the arm of the chair with a plop.

  “What? What do you mean, no?”

  Her confusion was amusing to him, so he smiled.

  Seir snapped his fingers once, and Miranda and Patricia stood in unison, taking out the leather balls in their mouths and dropping them to the floor.

  Einestra lifted her arms and electricity sparked from her hands. Her hair lifted from an unfelt wind, and the curls in her blond hair rose.

  “What is this? You promised me peace!” she said in alarm.

  Seir reached out with his hand and made a crushing motion, using his power to neutralize hers. It was the other gift he was given.

  “How did you do that?” Einestra asked, deflated and shaking in fear.

  Seir did not answer. He simply snapped again, and Miranda and Patricia approached the throne he sat on. Bowing their heads in front of him, he watched as they worked perfectly in unison together to pull his pants down and expose his cock as though they had practiced doing that together hundr
eds of times.

  Because they had.

  As soon as they began servicing Seir’s manhood with their mouths, he gazed back at the incredibly nervous young woman. “You see, lady Einestra, I know something that you do not. You may say you want to be treated like Josephina here…”

  He glanced over at the woman to his left, who had now pulled up her dress and was pleasuring herself while watching Miranda and Patricia perform their duties.

  “However, I do not need that. I may be willing to give you the power you seek, but you will agree to become just like these two here.” He placed both of his hands on the heads of Miranda and Patricia. “Which I actually believe is your secret wish. But since I could be wrong, however, the choice is yours. You may leave and return to your mother just as you are, or take off your dress, get on your knees, and join these two in their duties. It is all completely up to you.”

  He relaxed his head, leaning it back on the throne as he enjoyed the two women moving their mouths in sync up and down his engorged cock. Each one had taken a side and was moving at a steady clip, their tonguing mingling together as they slathered him in their saliva.

  “Choose,” Josephina added, not looking up at the blonde-haired woman as she kept her hand in her womanhood.

  Lady Einestra stood there for a moment in indecision, several times making like she would walk out but never fully committed to the motion.

  Finally, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and reached up to undo the clasps of her elegant dress on each side of her shoulders. The garment lowered, exposing her supple and perky breasts. She then released the belt that held it all in place, letting the dress drop to the floor. She was left only in her panties and garter belts attached to thigh-high stockings.

  “What would…” she began, her voice squeaking. She coughed to control it before continuing. “What would you have me do to you, my king?”

  “Excellent choice. You may yet get all that you wish and more. Now, start with my darling wife. If you bring her enough pleasure and convince her of your sincerity, then I will make you an offer to accept of your own free will. Then you will get the power you hope for and take a place by my side.”

  Einestra took a step forward as she pulled her feet out of the pool of fabric that was her dress, undoing the claps of each of her garters slowly. When that was complete, she guided the underwear below her wide hips as she turned away from the king and bent over to guide them the rest of the way down. This provided Josephina and Seir with a perfect view of her wide and curvy hips and recently shaved nether regions.

  She stood back up and faced Josephina, taking another noticeable breath before moving forward to kneel before the older woman.

  Josephina smiled at the young woman, readjusting her seat to pull the entirety of her skirt above her hips and bunch it around her waist, fully exposing herself to the young woman. Then, placing each leg over an arm of the chair, she lifted her hand and gestured to her crotch.

  “You may begin,” she said.

  Einestra, now breathing heavily in excitement and with a noticeable run of fluids running down her legs from her eagerness, bent forward to claim her prize.

  She fully committed to doing the best job she could.

  Seir had never left his chair the entire time, but now he grunted to control himself.

  “Be prepared to accept my offer,” he said through clenched teeth as he prepared to shoot more than just his power inside the young blonde-haired woman.

  Einestra never responded. Instead, she focused on impaling herself repeatedly on his erect manhood. Facing away from him and towards the three former matriarchs who sat on the floor watching as the heir to the Casting Harbor throne debased herself on their king’s cock.

  Sweat dripped from her face, and her hands gripped tightly on the arms of the throne as she continued to undulate her tight opening into Seir’s lap. The loud slaps of skin with every hard impact echoed throughout the chamber as Einestra struggled to keep up her pace.

  “Fuck, fuck fuck, fuck,” she called out as she orgasmed again, but never stopped, even after the next climax passed.

  “Kneel before me,” Seir commanded.

  She got off his cock and turned to face him, dropping on her knees.

  Seir shoved his erect member deep inside her throat and shot his load deep inside.

  “Do you accept my service?” he asked, grunting between each word.

  “Mmm hmmm,” Einestra mumbled while nodding as she frantically tried to keep his fluid from spilling out.

  Power erupted from Seir’s chest, through his groin, and suffused into the Lady Einestra. Her entire body glowed with a bright white light.

  Einestra came once again from the flood of power, leaving a mess of bodily fluids on the floor beneath her as she did.

  Then she passed out, her mouth slipping off Seir as she hit the floor like a sack of flour. No one moved to catch her.

  “Miranda, take her and get her cleaned up. Patricia, make sure you get her properly attired when she wakes up and is ready to join you.”

  “Yes, my King,” Miranda and Patricia said in unison as they got up to complete their command.

  Josephina simply got up and moved to put her clothes back on.

  “Thank you, husband,” she said when they left.

  “I love to spoil you, my dear. It is a guilty pleasure of mine. But that makes seven of you now. I cannot add anymore.” He reached out and guided the back of his hand on the supple skin of her still exposed ass as she put the dress on.

  “Though I doubt Patricia will mind as much now. But we can no longer add her daughter as we promised.”

  “She is fully in your thrall now, my King. As are we all.”

  “As it should be.” Seir finished putting his own pants back on as a knock on the door sounded. “Enter.”

  The guard from earlier put his head around the door. “My lord, members of your guard stationed in Black Run have come bearing a prisoner.”

  “Bring them in,” Seir said.

  Seir sat on his throne and waited as four men escorted in a fifth with a hood over his head and fully bound. Something felt familiar with him, and he was giving off a strange feeling.

  “My King,” the senior guard said as he took one knee in front of Seir, the king’s glyph on his forehead plainly visible. “We captured one of your servants. He was helping some witches escape from the academy holding grounds… we could not retrieve them. My apologies, my king.”

  Seir was confused at their use of the term servant. A servant could not betray him so easily, but he had to address the incompetence first.

  “Who is responsible for this lapse?” Seir demanded.

  “I… take full responsibility, lord,” the man said.

  Seir looked over to Josephina who nodded and lifted her palm. A beam of light put a hole right through the man’s head, cauterizing the wound and leaving no trace of blood as the man hit the floor.

  Seir moved his gaze to the next man standing. “Ensure that it does not happen again. Who is this man… he feels… familiar to me?”

  “Yes, my king,” the new leader of this group said, his voice high in pitch and breaking from nerves.

  He reached over and pulled the hood from the man.

  “Impossible!” Seir cried out, astonished and shocked at what he saw.

  “King now? You have moved up since I saw you last, haven’t you?” the man asked with a giggle.

  “How?” Seir paused as he stared at the man’s face, eyes swollen from the beating he had received and marks and scars all over his body. The guards had not been gentle. “Leave now. The man stays,” Seir said.

  The guards who dropped the man to the ground and fled without a word, hoping to save their lives with a quick exit.

  When the door closed, Seir continued. “How did you remove my Mark?”

  Stern smiled through the pain from his position on the floor, unable to move because of the bindings and the broken bones. “I serve a new lord now.”r />
  He laughed briefly until he started coughing in a fit.

  “That’s impossible,” Seir said, speaking more to himself than to Stern.

  “Not anymore!” Stern said, somehow still giggling through the coughs while spitting out some blood.

  Seir put his hand out in front of him and closed his eyes. He sensed for the tell tale mark of power, but it was not in the usual place where one of his kind displayed such marks - prominent on the head to declare ownership. Instead, it emanated from the man’s arm. He opened his eyes and pulled back the sleeve.

  “Who did this? None of the others here would have hidden their mark in such a manner.”

  “Can’t say. Sworn to secrecy,” Stern said, still smiling.

  Obviously, the man had lost his faculties.

  “Josephina, kill this man and have Miranda incinerate the body. Send word to General Taimana to end the siege and take the fort by force, then get his forces back into the garrison. Bring me any important prisoners he captures and kill the rest. Start training and rebuilding his forces for a potential invading army of unknown composition.”

  “Yes, my King and husband,” Josephina said, concern in her voice.

  “I will speak to my benefactor. Have the women attend me when I am done… wake Einestra forcefully if you must. I will have many needs to be filled when I am done.”

  “I… will see it done. We will relieve your stress in any way you command us.”

  Seir marched into the back door of the chamber without answering, entering his private study. Just before the door closed, he heard Josephina use her power to end that miserable Stern forever.

  26

  Tears, Hope, and New Beginnings

  I awoke to movement next to me. I had been sleeping lightly, even through the complete exhaustion, just in case.

  We had found a traveler’s tree in the early evening hours the night before. Having moved away from Hills Crest, into the forests from the early hours of the morning into the day. I am not sure how Tyla and I had the stamina, but we had traveled many miles that I would hope would give us enough space to get away.