The Pillaging of an Empire

by Amanda Clover

Tania laughed. “I don’t need luck,” she said, walking out the door.

  Demons in the Dark

  The trader town gleamed on the edge of the Eternal Sea. Tangled docks sprawled down to the shore, houses climbing along the cliffs to nestle in the small bay that sheltered it. Windows glowed yellow in the dark from the dark rocks and homes.

  No wall surrounded the town as Tania rode towards it, her entrance unnoticed. She slowed her horse’s steps, her eyes sharp as she glanced about the buildings. Her amulet glowed beneath her shirt, its weight heavy against her chest. She licked her lips, narrowing her eyes against the dark. She’d ridden hard out of the temple. A good rest had done wonders to her constitution, but she wasn’t a fool. She didn’t know what she faced this time. The runes had been more elaborate than the other two, and the book less clear. Likely whatever third demon the cultists had tried to summon had been what ruined their casting. What that meant she wasn’t sure yet. That said, she had handled them well enough. And she, for one, had the element of surprise.

  She paused on the street, turning slowly. Her amulet pulsed towards a particular house. A richer building than the others scattered about the shore. A merchant’s house? Perhaps a demon of avarice. She grinned. She could handle one of those easily enough.

  She dismounted her horse and started towards the door. A prayer warmed her lips as she tried the knob, the door opening with a lazy creak.

  Tania poked her head inside. Low lamps glowed here and there, washing the receiving room in a suggestive light. Silks draped the walls in lazy curtains, their rich fabrics glowing in the light. Her amulet throbbed in her hand as she ventured inside, closing the door behind her. Steps climbed to the second floor, and carefully Tania made her way up them.

  Giggles sounded behind a door. Tania stilled, listening. It repeated. Gasped. She smirked and put her hand on the knob and gently eased it open a crack.

  The room beyond was lit with more of the half lit lanterns. More, and far more elaborate silks draped the walls and looped from the ceiling like ropes, gathering about in a web of shining fabric. Many had been richly embroidered, each depicting strange figures. Monstrous creatures of wings, claws, talons, and insectile limbs, all of incomparable beauty, all twisted in the throes of ecstasy and triumph.

  The gasps, moans, and giggles came from a large bed in the middle of the room. A man was there, wrapped in the embrace of a woman. She was a svelte, pale creature, her modest breasts bouncing as she rocked atop her lover, stunted wings sprouting from her back. The demoness giggled again, gasping as the man’s cock sank into her cunt.

  Tania smirked. A lesser succubus. No wonder, considering the power that would have already been spent summoning a demon of lusts and gluttony. Holding her amulet tightly, Tania threw open the door. It banged off the wall. The succubus gasped, twisted atop her lover to look at Tania. The succubus’s pupils narrowed to slits. She hissed like a cat

  “I banish you!” Tania shouted. Gripping her amulet tight in one hand, she threw out the other in the sign of Kalind. “In the name of the All Father I send you back!”

  Force slammed into the demon, wrenching the succubus off her victim and flinging her through the air to slam into the far wall. The lesser demon screamed in pain, struggling against the force that held her. Tania laughed, her round glasses flashing in the light as she marched across the room. “I banish you, creature! I send you back to your pits! By Oreth’s will and all his children I banish you!”

  The succubus screamed, her body unwinding like strips of paper burning. Her final howl rang in the rafters as she dissolved into nothingness.

  Tania sighed, dropping her hand. The man in the middle of the floor moaned. Tania glanced at him with a small smile. She did it. She strutted to the man and bent over him. “You’re free now,” she told him, touching his head. “It’s okay. The demon-“

  Dark pits stared back at her. A wasted, emaciated face, grey as ash was in her hands. Tania gasped, jerked back from the bony form.

  Too late.

  The strips of silks on the floor suddenly surged up. Tania screamed as the cloth wrapped about her arms, her legs, her waist. She was wrenched off her feet, lifted into the air, arms and legs pulled behind her. The priestess dangled there, bound in ropy silks, her amulet swaying beneath her.

  Laughter rang out. Dark, cruel, mocking laughter. Tania’s eyes snapped towards movement. She gaped as one of the figures on the tapestries stepped out. A woman, tall, her skin so pale it could have been cream. Silks bound up her heavy breasts and fluttered from bracers on her wrists. Her eyes were dark as onyx, and from her back sprouted six spidery legs.

  “Oh that was too good,” the demoness chuckled with delight as she sauntered across the room, a spaded tail flicking behind her with pleasure. “You honestly thought you had it didn’t you?”

  Tania swayed in her silken bindings, her face blazing with humiliation and anger. “D-Demon! You-“

  “Oh hush.” The demoness flicked a hand and a wrapping of silk snapped around Tania’s mouth in a gag. “Honestly now, you’ve lost, little priestess. Better get used to it. Hm.” Her pale fingers picked up the dangling amulet, toying with the holy relic with amusement. “One of Oreth’s little whores, eh? How nice.” She met Tania’s eyes and ripped the amulet from her throat, tossing it away.

  Tania bristled in anger. But something else was seeping through her. Terror crawled like icy fingers down her back and her stomach clenched in growing unease.

  “Oh, I do like that look in your eyes,” the demoness giggled, stroking Tania’s face with teasing feather-light touches. “All defiant and brave in the face of danger. Now, let’s see what sort of fly I’ve caught in my silken webs. Hm?”

  Her arachnid legs reached out, the talon tips slicing cleanly through Tania’s clothes. The priestess shivered as the razor sharp limbs grazed her flesh, never hard enough to draw blood. Soon enough, all of her clothes fluttered to the floor, leaving her utterly naked. Helpless.

  The reality of the situation began to seep in. Tania shivered, looking up into the pitiless eyes of the demoness as she loomed over her prize.

  “Oh you look so much better than with those coarse robes on you. Such lovely, warm flesh. Just desperate to be touched and used like the little whore you are.” She tilted Tania’s head up by the chin, smirking down at her. “My name is Aretha,” the demoness said, tugging down Tania’s gag. “Keep it in mind. I’ll be looking forward to hearing you scream it.”

  Tania grit her teeth defiantly. “I will never, demon!”

  “Demoness,” Aretha corrected, giving Tania a little shove. The priestess squeaked indignantly as she swayed in the silks, the fabric rubbing her in ways that made her face heat up. “Let’s try and keep this civil. After all, once I break you, we’ll have oh so much time to get to know each other better.”

  Blushing in furious humiliation, Tania glared. “I won’t bend to your will, demon!”

  “Ooh, defiant!” Aretha giggled. “I like that. It’s oh so much more fun to hear them beg after calling me such names. After all, without your pretty medallion, all you’ve got is harsh language. Oh,” she said, lifting an immaculate black brow. “Or maybe… you’re waiting for rescue?”

  Tania bit back her retort. But her eyes betrayed a sudden hope. Of course. Lorik and the Red Mages were surely on her trial by now. And if she could resist the demoness until then…

  “Oh,” Aretha mused, her black eyes gleaming intently. “Oh, it seems this just got interesting.”

  Her talons clicking, she came to stand before Tania. She reached down and cupped Tania’s dangling breasts. Tania gasped as the demoness began to teasingly massage her dangling teats. “So all you have to do is resist me… and then you’ll be rescued? Mmm. I like that. But,” the demoness purred, leaning in, her breath scented like strange spices. “Can you, my little slut?”

  “I… I w-won’t succumb. D-demon,” Tania gasped as her breasts tingled under that deft touch, her veins burning with growing des
ire. “My faith shall hold me against your wiles!”

  “Oh the spirit is strong,” Aretha purred, crouching before her, fingers running teasing, narrowing circles around her throbbing nipples. Her fangs gleamed in her smile as Tania bit her lip to stifle a moan. “But the flesh is weak and so… sensitive. Isn’t it?”

  “I-“

  Ruby red lips silenced her. Tania gasped as the demoness kissed her, tongue sliding into her mouth. Tania shuddered, melting against those lips despite herself. She couldn’t help it. Her body betrayed her against this creature of lusts and bondage and hunger. The fingers circling her pale breasts zeroed in suddenly on her throbbing nipples, teasingly flicking them, sending sudden bursts of hot pleasure racing into her core.

  “Mnnnn!” Tania groaned.

  Aretha broke the kiss, fangs gleaming. “Like that?”

  “I-ah!” Tania bucked, swinging in her silken bindings as the spider woman’s tail teased along her puffy cunt. She shuddered as the spaded tip stroked her, her mound dampening rapidly under the gentle, teasing touch.

  “That’s it,” Aretha breathed into her face. “Fight it, my little slut. Defy me with everything you have. Fight my venom as it makes you so sensitive you just… can’t… take it. Give me your best and I’ll make you melt into my arms. By the time I’m done you’ll be begging for a chance to lick my demonic cunt. Urging me to tie you up again and toy with you. Edge you until you can’t take anymore. Maybe I’ll even stuff you full of my eggs. Would you like that, slut? Being so heavy and burdened with my eggs you can barely move? Just waiting for me to come and make you… cum?”

  “Y-you’re a monster,” Tania gasped. But her cry petered off into a needy moan. Unbidden, the image of her, bound in a spider’s web of silken strands, her stomach swollen, heavy, her breasts bulging with milk while she shuddered under the spider’s pleasured teasing sprang to her mind. Her blush deepened.

  Aretha chuckled, not fooled for a second. “Oh you priestesses. Always so eager to fight. You came here all ready to banish me back to the hells. But look at you. All tied up. Blushing and panting and so… needy.” She giggled. “I don’t know how you even slew those other two. Luck I wager. Even Porca probably had you sucking his cock like a nice slut.”

  “I-I never! I banished him, and I’ll… I’ll banish you!”

  Aretha giggled. “Sure you will. Right after I kiss your pretty lips again, slut.”

  Tania tried to deny those lips, but again she melted. Faster this time, her defiance washed away in a wave of lust, the spider demon’s tongue sinuous and thick with her intoxicating venom. Tania moaned, quivering in the silks. She pulled against them, but they had just enough give to let her rub herself to distraction and keep her bound. Keep her dangling. Keep her helpless against the long, hungry kiss.

  Tania realized her tongue was moving against the demon’s. She gasped as Aretha pulled back. “Oh. Did you like it?” the demoness purred.

  “N-no!” Tania gasped, though she knew her cheeks were glowing with a rebuke.

  Aretha laughed throatily, a sound that shot down Tania’s spine and right to her throbbing core. “Oh I do love you little priestesses. Always so defiant in the face of your own pleasure and submission. But let’s see you defy this.”

  The spider woman bared her fangs. The silks holding Tania lifted her head, thrusting out her chest, baring her pale neck. Tania shuddered, watching as the spider woman tilted the brunette’s head, fangs grazing Tania’s throat.

  “W-wait!” Tania gasped. “Do-oooooooooh!” she cried as the spider woman’s fangs sank into her throat. Venom pumped into Tania’s veins.

  “Ohhhhh M-Makeeeeer!” Tania whined as her skin pinked in a sudden flush of helpless arousal and sensitivity. Her veins blazed with the demon’s intoxicating venom. She trembled, gasping, her head spinning, her pussy soaked, lower lips puffing with need. Her nipples throbbed. Her asshole clenched. The feel of the silks binding her naked skin suddenly became unbearably good. She moaned, twisting in her bindings, rubbing herself frantically against the smooth cloth.

  “That’s it,” Aretha breathed, stroking her breasts again. “Just feel yourself warm to my venom. You need it, don’t you? You need so badly to cum, you poor, poor slut.”

  “Ah… Ahn… N-no…” Tania moaned, her eyes glazing in lust.

  “Oh?” Aretha breathed, her fingers sliding over Tania’s breasts. Tania gasped, arched as the spider’s other limbs began to playfully stroke her, gliding along her quivering ribs, teasing the crease of her bum and circling her mound and aching pussy. “You mean you don’t want to cum? You want me to keep edging you? Keep pushing you so close to cumming but not quite there? Keep you balancing on the knife edge until your pretty little mind breaks? Well, alright.”

  “Nyaaaaaa!” Tania screamed in tortuous pleasure. With the venom pumping through her, every touch, every stroke raced down her nerves to throb in her core. Her pussy ached to cum. Needed it so badly. She drooled, her eyes dark, glazed, her mind spinning in the helpless pleasure that threatened to drown her in maddening need. No. No! She needed to hold out. Hold out until Lorik could get there.

  But he was far away. And she was so… so needy…

  “What do you need?” Aretha breathed, kissing her. Tania moaned, kissing back feverishly. “Tell mistress what her silly, stupid slut needs?”

  “O-ooooh Oreth. M-Maker. F-Father of g-gods...”

  “Your god can’t help you, little slut,” Aretha breathed, her fingers and talons dancing across Tania’s flesh, every touch like cool water on her burning skin. Every flutter of fingers sending her swaying and keening. “Pray to him all you like. But he can’t give you what you need. Only I can. Only I can make you cum. Only I can give you relief. Not tell me, slut. What do you need?”

  “C-cum,” Tania gasped. “N-need… c-cum…”

  “What’s that?” Aretha asked, her tongue sliding over Tania’s lower lip, upper. “I don’t think I heard you. What do you need, my pretty slut?”

  Tania tried to resist. Tried to think of Lorik. Tried to think of anything. But it was so hard to think. So hard to do anything but shudder and moan and keen and… and… “Cuuuum!” Tania choked. “N-need to… need… c-cum!”

  “Only good sluts get to cum,” Tania said, her venom laced kisses raining down on Tania’s burning face. “Only good sluts. So what are you? Hm? Let’s hear it now?”

  “S-slut!” Tania screamed. “I’m your pretty sluuuuut!”

  Aretha smiled with long fangs. “Then,” she breathed, her tail stroking her overheated cunt. “Cum.”

  The spaded tail plunged inside her. Tania screamed, her mind creaking under the sudden explosion of wondrous pleasure. She bucked, panted, her juices splattering onto the bed below as she came. She swayed in her silken shackles, rubbing herself against the fabric as she bucked again and again with sweet completion.

  Gasping, Tania sagged, sweat dripping from her brow. She whimpered.

  “Oh we’re far from done,” Aretha purred. Her fingers twitched like a puppeteers and Tania was hoisted in the air, shifted until she lay on her back, shoulders high, ankles low like a woman giving birth. Tania’s head rose, her hazy eyes focusing on the pale woman as she kneeled between the priestess’s thighs. Aretha smirked, her fangs gleaming.

  Tania’s eyes widened. “N-no!” she managed weakly. “W-wait!”

  Aretha didn’t. She leaned in, and her venom laced tongue stroked her clit.

  Tania screamed, shuddering, but bound, unable to do anything but feel as the spider woman licked at her dripping cunt, every stroke against her buzzing clit sending mind breaking pleasure surging through her.

  But she couldn’t cum.

  “Ah… ahn… mnnn!” Tania squealed gasped, moaned. Every time she got near that plateau again Aretha would slow down, bring her back from the brink, then edge her higher again. Her orgasm glowed, just out of reach. Just beyond her grasp. More intense than the last. More shudderingly wonderful.

  “Want to cum
, slut?” Aretha purred as she edged the panting priestess. “Want to cum for your demonic mistress?”

  Words were far beyond Tania. She could only nod, moaning, “Uh… uh huh…”

  “Then be mine,” Aretha breathed, her narrow tongue teasingly flicking Tania’s clit, making the young woman gasp, buck, breasts quivering. “Give in.”

  “Y-yess!” Tania squeaked. “Yes! W-want… Want you!”

  Aretha laughed. “Almost too easy,” she purred, then dove in.

  Tania screamed. Her orgasm curled through her. Her mind blanked. The world vanished as stars exploded behind her eyes.

  She came.

  She gasped, grunted, writhed.

  She came.

  Animal need consumed her. The demon’s ruby lips pulled her to another height.

  She came.

  She came.

  She came.

  Aretha pulled her lips from Tania’s cunt. She climbed up the priestess’s front, smirking down at Tania’s glazed eyes and parted, panting lips. Tania tilted back her head, staring blankly at the demoness’s cruelly triumphant smile.

  “Mine,” Aretha breathed, and leaned in. Their lips locked, and Tania surrendered again. She sighed, feeling a warm bliss spread through her as the spider demon claimed her. Her hips quivered, her whole self seemingly drawn into the demon’s hungry lips.

  Aretha broke the kiss, her tongue flicking about her ruby lips, chasing a misty wisp of essence. Tania stared, uncomprehending. “Mistress?” she breathed.

  Aretha giggled. “Come along, slut,” she said, the silks lowering Tania to the ground. Tania fell to her knees, then crawled to Aretha’s foot. She kissed the dainty talons adoringly, her pale bottom raised into the air. A silken collar slowly settled around her neck, tightening gently.

  Aretha smiled proudly down at her. “Good slut,” she said, petting Tania’s hair. “Good slave.”

  Tania looked up at the towering demoness, love all there was in her eyes. She pressed herself against the demon’s leg, nuzzling the cold chitin adoringly. “Thank you,” she sighed. “Mistress.”