The Scorpion's Empress

by Yoshiyuki Ly

  “What are you talking about…? You ended our communion…I couldn’t feel you anymore. I still can’t.”

  Vespair scoffed, disapproving. “I did no such thing, Videl,” she argued. “Something’s growing within you. It’s cut off our communication with one another. Raj is able to tap into the darkness inside of your heart. While it isn’t dangerous yet, you may take a wrong turn. Once you fully embrace this darkness, it will hurt without proper training.”

  I turned away from her, muttering, “I’m not fit to be a dark knight. This isn’t the same darkness.”

  “I didn’t think you’d be this naïve,” admonished Vespair. “I know you’re curious. So act on it. Ask me to train you to become a dark knight, and I will.”

  “You said it yourself—you were gone for two months. You abandoned me. Now you…want to train me?”

  She just stood there, looking at me. Even though I couldn’t see her face, I knew I’d caught her in something. This something wasn’t right; didn’t make sense. I’d slept off my subspace from earlier and I could think clearly. I felt her controlling nature piercing through our fond memories together.

  “Accept my offer, Videl.”

  My chain rattled as I shifted. Her ire grew by the second; I practically felt her sneering at me.

  “I’m starting to realize that you were never honest with me,” I told her. “Not completely. Not about anything. You treated me as a child you had to protect from the world. I’ve found the one for me—the one I want to let hurt me—and you’ve come back to cradle me in your capable arms.” She didn’t move or react at all, but I knew her well enough. I struck a nerve. “What do you want from me? My attention? Do you want me to go back to following your every word without question? That’s not going to happen.”

  “…I want you to become a dark knight.”

  “For me or for you?”

  Vespair paused for too long. “This is for your sake, not mine,” she insisted. “You will learn to wield the darkness in your heart—to use it to discern more clearly. If you maintain clemency, you will forever be blinded to the truth, as you are now. I’ll give you some credit for sensing…some of it.”

  “Sensing what?” I asked. “What is it that I’m supposed to see? That you’re trying to manipulate me? Is that it?” She didn’t say anything to that. Of course not. “What do you want, Vespair? This can’t be about training or dark knights. What is it?”

  “Your Empress has been wise to not send any more raids on Eden’s grounds. Doing so would have incited a civil war between our already divided city. The Holy Knights Thirteen are using her inaction to spread paranoia among the nobles and the Excalibur both. Suffice to say your case has been put on hold for the time being.” I wasn’t surprised. “You don’t care? You have worked your entire adult life to raise your sword to protect the needy. How have you not gone mad here with this boredom?”

  “You should know better than anyone that I’m not bored.”

  “You’re too close to her, Videl,” said Vespair. “You have a sworn duty as a paladin to remain impartial. I know better than anyone that she has blinded you with her dark ways. Your purity does you no favors.”

  “So what is the truth?” I asked, fully expecting her to lie to me.

  Vespair knelt down beside me. “The truth is simple,” she began. “You know that I wish to be your mentor. I want things to go back to how they were before. I tried to stop her from going after you; I failed. She wasn’t so afraid of me that she would lie to you about my intervention. I’m overprotective of you.”

  “I’m not a child anymore. I don’t see you the same way. Not after what you did.”

  “What can I do to make things right? I need your forgiveness.”

  “Prove to me that you don’t want to hurt her,” I replied.

  “And what if I told you that I’m protecting her now?” asked Vespair. I found that hard to believe. “Oh, of course. Eden has elevated her status from Queen of Rats to the true Empress of the People. They recognize that she governs Elysium with a generous fist. Her ways have inspired prosperity for her loyal followers. It is only natural that the corrupt branch of the Holy Knights Thirteen wish to emulate her for their own gains. False charities in the name of better health benefits, additions to the Empyrean Palace that will conveniently be forgotten about…”

  “Where do you come into the picture?”

  “I simply make certain that your Empress is not in the picture. I’m sure you catch my meaning.”

  “I don’t like having to do all of this guesswork with you,” I said. “Why can’t you be straightforward with me? It’s like you’re hiding something all the time. Would it kill you to be honest for once?”

  Vespair stood up. “Yes, actually,” she said, completely serious. “It would kill me. Or at least get me killed.” She tossed a necklace over my bed. “Never forget our oaths as Knights of the Excalibur. We are to deal with corrupt nobles on our own accord or by holy mandate. The Excalibur gifted you that chain when you became a temple knight. Let it be a reminder for you to prioritize your duties over this baseless affair—”

  I bolted to my feet, chains singing behind me, and said, “Baseless? God, Vespair, don’t you get it?! I love her!” Her dull silence made me think she was speechless. “She stays by my side. She takes care of me. I’ve given her my heart even if I haven’t said the words to her…not yet. The Excalibur has abandoned me just like you have. As long as they’re corrupt, I’m not loyal to them. I’ll go after my own honor. Sacrificing for Raj—devoting myself to her—is the only way I’m able to fill my soul again. I’m doing what I want. Why can’t you support me?”

  “I, too, am loyal to my own ideals. You will see—when the time comes, and you must stop dallying here in Vassago and act, she’ll only hold you back. She is spineless. The power she holds will rot in these streets, and all of Tynan will suffer for it. I thought you wanted the city’s suffering to end?”

  “This isn’t about power, Vespair. You know just as well as I do that I can’t change Elysium or Eden. Love and politics are two different things. I love her.”

  Vespair turned away from me, slowly, as if in pain. “You will always be a paladin, as you say…”

  A vortex of darkness appeared at her feet. Vespair disappeared into that maw of black and red anger and fear. This baseless affair. Spineless. What did she know? What could she possibly know about how I felt about Raj after all this time? I snatched my old necklace and stared at it through the dark. The gold chain glinted in the scraps of light my eyes had made up. The pendant was still there—the lemniscate, or the infinity symbol, as an hourglass that held within infinite time to know God; infinite time for one’s faith in God to grow in service to Him. In giving this to me, Vespair wanted me to consider what I’d done. I followed her before as my mentor, as my God who walked this earth by my side. I’d held her in the highest regard for over a decade. She’d been my God in human form. I didn’t stop, not until she crossed me. And yet she threw this at me, reminding me of our oaths, our duties, to guilt trip me into feeling bad about my decision.

  I threw the necklace at the opposite side of the room and forgot about it. If Vespair couldn’t respect my relationship after trying to sabotage it, I couldn’t respect her anymore. Out of anyone in this world, she should have understood. She should have supported me. Vespair’s disapproval and dishonesty stung me, stung at my eyes, making me tear up from frustration—the same slight stings scratched at my back as I lay over it, staring up at the ceiling. I waited dutifully for Raj to return. My comatose sleep weaved in and out as the short time passed. I worried about what Vespair had said about Raj. She was one to talk about someone else’s dark ways considering she was a dark knight, of all things. How far would Raj go with these games we played? She was naturally a generous, humble person. Sometimes her pride and ego got the better of her. Would she use me to prove something to her bandits? Would she show them how much she had me under her control, to tell them that I was no t
hreat? Terrible images flashed through my dreams: of her bringing a group of her bandits down to the basement, letting them watch her fuck me; or worse, them having their way with me while Raj stayed off to the side, goading them; or if she wanted more money for her people without having to rely on Nirvana, she could charge anyone to come down here and have sex with me, because I’d already said that I would let anyone else have me if that was her wish. The weakest parts of me imagined crying out for Vespair to help me, only for her to ignore my begging. She would only say that I had gotten myself into this mess. That I deserved it.

  Worse still, she could have let Nyte watch, again, to prove something. Maybe to make her jealous. Their detached friendship these days could have been a cover-up for all I knew.

  Keys rattling in the basement door stirred me from my sleep. The sounds of the door opening and slamming shut echoed through the makeshift dungeon. I heard Raj’s sandals along the ground, quickened footsteps nearing me. I could’ve sworn I heard other, lighter footsteps—heels. Must’ve imagined them. I did my best to banish my thoughts from earlier. Headspace. Raj wouldn’t have been pleased if anything got in the way of our scene. These issues could wait until later. That didn’t stop my pulse from picking up. Her silhouette was barely distinguishable through the dark. She carried something in each of her hands. A plate of food in one and a dangling object in the other. She set the food down on the nearby table. Smelling the steaming white meat and the sugar over the fruit made me realize how hungry I was. Raj wasted no time in kneeling over me, jerking my waist up and about as she strapped the harness on. I whined in surprise from her forceful touch. She grabbed me and fastened the harness with such urgency, it overwhelmed me.

  “I’ve missed you, slave,” she hissed, making sure my harness was tight enough. “It’s been a fucked up day. I need to unwind. Stay still. Don’t touch me. You’re useful…so I’m gonna use you.”

  Raj removed her shorts from beneath her sari. She grabbed the base of the dildo and lowered herself onto it. I heard her, the ease, seeping down to my shorts—she was already soaked. She moaned and laughed in the same breath, looking right at me. She had no idea how I felt inside; what had gone through my mind for these long hours. Raj only cared about getting off. She rode me, fucked me harder than she ever had before. I clenched my fists to keep from touching her; grit my teeth to keep from making a sound. If she could see my problems in my eyes, she didn’t stop for them. Her tunnel-vision about sex right now was strangely erotic to me. The chill in the basement and Raj’s colder disregard of me as a person made the thin hairs along my arms stand up on-end. It was all about her, her pleasure, as she wanted and needed. I was her toy, her slave, as I wanted; not so much needed in this moment, but the beauty of her sounds and physicality were more than enough to satisfy me. She pressed her hand down over my chest, pushing down on me in-time with her fucking. Her other hand, she combed through her hair, keeping it pushed away from her sweating face. The louder she moaned, the more I had to resist the urge to thrust up into her, sharply, to get another reaction. Every impulse I had for that slipped through my body, building. I stared at the sheen of her smooth skin, catching the specs of light reflected off of the few clothes I had on; at the beautiful bends of her legs at my sides, working to push down on me harder and harder each time; at the curve of her waist and her toned midriff; at the silk flow of her sari spread over me, holding her body as I wished I could.

  I stared into her eyes with my every desire. The things I would do to her with her permission; the way I would move into her, speak to her with my hips alone, and my hands; the way I would hold her and fuel her pleasure.

  She buckled and bent over at last, whispering, “Hold me, Videl.”

  As I wrapped my arms around her back, I noticed the whites of someone else’s eyes out of the corner of mine. Nyte was there. Watching. Staring right back at me. I don’t know what came over me; I grabbed Raj’s legs, sat up, and pushed her down onto the bed. She moaned, winded; louder when I pushed inside of her, deeper, and gave her everything I had. I kept my head next to hers, facing our voyeur. There I saw Nyte widen her eyes. She watched me fuck her ex. I wanted to make her feel like a fool for leaving Raj and breaking her heart all those years ago. Any jealousy Nyte had of me, I made sure to multiply tenfold, making Raj whimper my name with breaking breaths. I surprised myself with my aggression and possession. How could I possess my own Empress, when it was her express desire to possess me at all times? From the way Raj gripped me around my back, and the looseness in her legs around my hips, open for me, this slavery I served was perfectly balanced. She held just as much power over me as I held over her. I thrust sharply into her with this power seeping into emotion, my senses melting with her sounds for me. She became me in this moment. She whispered into me, winding through any doubts I had and whisking them away. She sent me up so high; I imagined what it would have felt like if this toy between us were real, and I could feel her clenching around me, caught in the depth of her need, soaking me as I could hear. Her voice broke again the closer she got. I’d never heard her sound so weak before, like I’d caught her off guard. It fueled me further. Raj latched onto my honor and turned it all into her, her essence, that I might serve her endlessly with all of my devotion. I gave her mercy, fucking as hard as she needed me to, as deep as she required.

  I finally looked away from Nyte, and turned to Raj. I kissed her jaw, and moved up, licking the sweat dripping from her forehead. As softly as I could manage between hard thrusts, I spoke to her: “My heart is glued to you. Your skin. Your clothes. Your spirit. Your bones.” Raj quavered underneath me. She clawed along my back, trying to hold me everywhere at once. “You are the Empress of my emotions, my desires…my life and my death. I’m yours, Raj. I’m yours.” Finally, she broke. Higher she went, all the way, all the way. I kept kissing her, whispering her name again and again as she came over me, letting my love for her drip through my voice. I wanted to tell her that I loved her. I wanted to give her this part of me. I wanted her to know how deeply she moved me each and every day—that I would forsake the one who had protected me for over a decade, all for her. The sentiment made me too emotional. I couldn’t speak the words. Instead, I held Raj through the waves. She didn’t want me to stop. So I found the energy and strength to give her my all without daring to rest. When I turned back around, Nyte was still there, watching with wide eyes.

  ***

  Hours later, Raj took me back upstairs. On the way there, she carried me over her shoulder. There was broken glass all over the landings—her disloyal bandits had officially gone rogue, having smashed pictures and decorations in a rage on their way out. I didn’t have any shoes on. It wasn’t a good idea for me to walk on my own. Raj had planned on carrying me like this, so she had purposely neglected to bring me any shoes earlier. I still had the strap-on over my waist, too. The plastic pressed down over Raj’s breasts; she laughed in amusement over it in between explaining what had happened with the rogue bandits. We passed by a few workers cleaning up the mess, all of them quietly bowing to both of us. Some of them must have wondered why I didn’t have any shoes on. Luckily my undershirt was long enough to conceal my harness. None of them could tell as to the other reason why Raj carried me.

  “Basically,” Raj was saying, “They’re dead to me. They think I can’t make decisions about this city and have a relationship at the same time. If they knew anything, they’d know there ain’t no decisions to make! We’ve got it made down here. I feel like this was all one big excuse for them to go off on their own.”

  “Aren’t you worried about them getting back at you?” I asked.

  Raj waved her free hand. “Nah,” she replied. “I changed my security policies after they left. We’ve got all new routines they won’t know about. We’re gonna practice ‘em tonight. Let’s go get you dressed so we can all head out for a walk. I kept you down in the basement all day. You deserve to stretch your gorgeous legs a bit more.”

  “We?”

&
nbsp; “You, me, Satya, Luna, some of the gang…” she trailed off, pretending to think. “Oh, and Nyte, too. If you don’t mind, that is.”

  “I don’t mind,” I said. Now wasn’t the time to ask about her watching us earlier.

  Raj sounded amused. “That’s news to me,” she answered. “You’ve been real suspicious of her. I want you to see for yourself that she’s harmless.”

  “I trust your judgment. It’s just a natural reaction I have. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  Suddenly, Raj stopped walking. She stood there in a strange silence. I couldn’t see what the problem was from this angle. I wondered if I moved just a little, I’d be able to get a better look.

  “Videl?” asked Luna. My nerves flailed in my stomach. “Hey! There you are! I’ve been looking for you all day!” She walked around Raj’s statuesque figure, smiling at me. There was a small box in her hands. “Why is she carrying you? There isn’t any glass on the floor here. Did you step on any earlier? Or did you sprain your ankle or something? You were gone for a long time.” My face was so red. I couldn’t look her in the eye. Then I watched her eyes dart to the collar around my neck.

  “Oh.”

  In one small moment, Luna understood everything that I’d been trying to hide from her. I thought she might have read my mind and screamed her confusion at me; accused me of being a vile pervert. Thankfully, she didn’t. “…okay,” she muttered. “Well, here.” She offered the box to me. “Today’s the anniversary from when you first became a temple knight. You were so proud that day. I got you this as a present. No matter what happens with your case, you’ll always be my protector. Remember that for me.”