A matte black door stood at the back of the office. Impossibly, a shield hung in mid-air over the doorway, hovering in front of the door itself. Nathan had restored the shield yesterday, turning it from a faded, rusted mess into a decoration bearing the emblem of the Imperial Army. He figured he needed to put on a show of loyalty in case somebody visited.
Now a monochrome doorway had popped into existence behind that shield. It had appeared while Nathan had been away.
He pulled the shield off the wall. The mounting bracket hovered in mid-air. He needed to use magic to pull it out, and flakes of stone puffed out when he did so. Where was the stone coming from, he wondered.
The doorway felt solid, and Nathan couldn’t feel where the old wall had been. But when he dove into his binding stone, he couldn’t sense the new door, only the wall that he couldn’t see.
What the hell was he seeing? Had reality broken down?
A lump formed in Nathan’s throat. Given the color of the door, and the impossible nature of its existence, he had a bad feeling about it.
He gripped the knob of the door.
Nathan pulled on the door. It didn’t move.
Nathan pushed the door. It didn’t move.
Frustrated, he banged on the door and tried to force it. Nothing worked. He stepped back, growling.
The door swung inward. He saw only solid white light in the gap it created. He pushed the door all the way open, but only a white void appeared.
The binding stone still told Nathan that there was no door here. Only a wall that he had stuck his hand through.
Nathan closed his eyes and stepped through the strange doorway. For an instant, he felt his entire body warp. Or shift. Or something. The sensation was unlike anything he had ever experienced. The closest thing he could compare it to was the feeling that his entire body was being transformed from the ground up.
When he opened his eyes, it felt like nothing had changed. He wore the same clothes, his hands looked the same, and he thought the same thoughts.
“Finished appreciating the ship of Theseus paradox?” an all-too-familiar voice asked.
Chapter 9
Nathan looked up and blinked.
Kadria lounged on… something in front of him. She looked exactly as she had on the night he first met her, when she destroyed his fortress and his timeline, and gave him a second chance in life. She had bronzed skin, wore nothing but underwear, and had terrifying eyes of red and violet that bore into his soul. She raised an eyebrow at him.
More concerning was what was around her, and under her.
The entire room, if Nathan could call it that, was an outline. He couldn’t see any objects, only outlines. The white void had become a black void, and everything inside this space was outlined with white lines. Nathan felt that he had stepped into a world where everything wasn’t merely monochrome, but lacked depth.
Had he been blinded?
And what was a ship of Theseus?
“What the hell is this?” Nathan asked, horror creeping into his voice.
Kadria blinked, eyes narrowing. “You can see them?”
“Them?”
“The furniture. The room. The cushion I’m sitting on.”
“I can see outlines. Have you blinded me? What the hell have you done?” Nathan nearly yelled. His breath quickened.
“Calm down. You’re not blind. This room isn’t like your world. Think of it like the world that the portals appear in. A ‘place between worlds,’ I think you described it as to your would-be squeeze?” Kadria explained, leaning into her cushion.
“I can see just fine in the portals.” Nathan tried to calm down, however. He had to believe his vision defect was temporary.
“The portals are closer to your world than not.” Kadria shrugged, and it did interesting things to the thin strips of cloth covering her admittedly small chest. “This place isn’t. Not yet. I’m able to connect it to your world thanks to you, but the fact you’re able to see anything other than me is a miracle.” She paused and eyed Nathan cautiously. “Honestly, most of this has been a miracle. You’re a more talented Bastion than I thought.”
“Why thank you,” he muttered. He had calmed down now and was regaining his bearings.
The room—assuming it even was a room—wasn’t especially large. Perhaps the size of a minor noble’s bedroom. The walls were rounded, lacking corners. The outline of a bed occupied most of the room.
Nathan blinked. The bed appeared to be massive, larger even than those Nathan had created, but the objects alongside it didn’t quite line up. Nathan took a step forward, in case the problem was because of his poor depth perception was staring at the outlines of shapes.
The room seemed to shift, and nothing felt right. Nathan took a deep breath and instead focused on Kadria. The Messenger lounged on her cushion, watching him intently.
“Don’t stare too closely. Like I said, this room isn’t very close to your world,” she said gently. He didn’t know her voice could be so soft.
“What the hell does that mean?” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to quell the migraine he felt coming on.
“It’s complicated. Suffice it to say that I’m not from around here,” Kadria said, shrugging off the question. “Tell me, does your talent usually cause you so much pain?”
“I say again, what the hell does that mean?” Nathan growled, more annoyed than confused now.
With a wave of her hand, Kadria summoned an image on the floor between the two of them. Nathan saw the space between him and Kadria become farther apart, saw her face become smaller, but the room somehow didn’t seem larger. Kadria was distorting space itself on a level he had trouble comprehending.
Closing his eyes, Nathan realized he was in well over his head. He reopened them and stared at Kadria, who pointed at the image between them.
Sen’s face appeared there, from the battle earlier today. Every pore on her face was visible, the sheen of her lips, flecks of dirt, the slight whiteness of a scar that must have recently healed.
And terror. Raw terror was evident in her eyes and her expression.
Nathan looked away with a scowl. He couldn’t stand to look at Sen’s face like that any longer. The memory was too fresh.
“Let me ask again. Does being such a talented Bastion usually hurt you so much?” Kadria asked. She wasn’t taunting him, he thought. “This ‘Sen’ girl of yours is terrified of you. Terrified of your power. Wasn’t she one of your precious Champions from your world?”
“I’m a Bastion. She’s a bandit. Of course she’s scared,” Nathan said.
“She knew you were a Bastion the moment she saw your adorable little catgirl run up and try to cut her arms off. It wasn’t until you started throwing around complicated sorcery like it was child’s play that she became genuinely frightened.” Kadria crossed her arms.
“All I need is the chance to talk to her, and make her realize that I can help her,” Nathan said, looking over the image at Kadria. He did his best not to let his eyes drift down to the only other colorful thing in the room.
“Oh, yes. I’m sure she’ll be keen to listen to the man who killed all her friends.” Kadria sighed. “I am trying to help you here, if you’d stop being so defensive.”
“Help me?” Nathan resisted the urge to scoff, if only because he realized he had no reason to doubt Kadria. She had been true to her word so far. “Why? Haven’t you already gotten what you wanted from me?”
She raised an eyebrow and changed position on her cushion. Her lithe legs shifted about until they crossed at the ankles, which only drew Nathan’s eyes further in, to the tiny strip of cloth covering Kadria’s nether regions. Her panties were far too thin, he felt. His imagination didn’t need to try very hard to create an image of what she looked like without her underwear.
“Neither of us have gotten what we wanted yet,” Kadria said, a broad grin crossing her face. “The fact you can’t bear to tear your eyes away from my crotch is proof of that.”
/> “You’re tempting me,” Nathan said, raising his eyes.
“I am a Messenger.” Kadria wagged a finger at him. “But that’s not even my point here, as much as I adore your attention.” She took a deep breath and schooled her expression. “I sent you to this world to prevent it from turning into a wasteland. We both agreed that’s what we wanted. And while it’s not a wasteland right now, it still has a shockingly high likelihood of becoming exactly the ruin that I collected you from. So, no, I don’t have what I want. And neither do you.”
Kadria’s violet eyes bore into his, and he felt her red pupils were ablaze. “We’re still partners. You need to claim binding stones, empower Champions, and prevent the world from falling apart. I’ll help you overcome any seals, enjoy the women you want to turn into Champions, and find what’s going to be the next problem. Sound like a good deal?”
Something about her end of the deal didn’t sound right to Nathan’s ears.
“You’ll what?” he said.
“Too crass? I figured you’d like that given how badly you’re lusting after your catgirl and me,” Kadria said. “Champions don’t just stick to their Bastions, they become sticky.” She gave him a lewd smile. “So yes, my part of the deal is to help you with problems such as this ‘Sen’ girl.”
“And to stop other Messengers? Or is that too much work,” Nathan asked, trying to avoid the topic of Sen.
“You need to stop the Messengers, but I’m more than happy to point out when they’re coming and give helpful tips.” Kadria ran a finger along her belly idly. “I don’t want them horning in on my territory.”
Nathan let that slide, as much as he disliked the way it sounded.
“How exactly do you plan to help with Sen?” he asked.
“Your problem with her—with all of your former Champions from your world—is that she doesn’t have a reason to trust you. Those years where they built up trust in you, and were filled with trust by you, are gone. But not to me.” Kadria waved her hand and the image between the two of them changed to that of the older Sen, with red eyes and white hair. “I can make the Sen in this world remember you in the same way that your Sen did.”
Nathan’s eyes widened. She could bring Sen back? His Sen?
“Wait,” he muttered. “You’re going to implant memories from the Sen in my timeline into the Sen in this timeline?”
“Is there a problem?”
“You did that to me. And it completely changed me,” Nathan said, enunciating every syllable clearly as he thought through something that had been bothering him since he arrived. The disquiet he had felt when exploring his implanted past in Anna’s manor grew. “I’m Nathan Straub in name and remember that past, but I only feel and care about the memories and things that Nathan Martel does. When I look at my memories from this timeline, it’s like I’m reading a book. It’s fascinating, but it’s not my life. Nathan Straub has been overwritten with the existence of Nathan Martel.”
Kadria stared at Nathan, her eyebrows almost vanishing into her black bangs. “Oh my. And here I thought you were completely lost on the ship of Theseus. I really have underestimated you. No wonder you’re terrifying those around you.”
“Who even is Theseus, and why do you keep bringing him up?”
“A myth from a much, much different world.” Kadria tilted her head, and the bangles in her ears chimed. “Don’t think too much about it. Mostly because I’m not saying I’ll restore Sen’s memories.”
“Then how will she remember me?” Nathan asked.
“Her emotions. Her feelings of trust toward you. Her love. She’ll remember the parts of you that will make the Sen here feel the same way about you as the Sen from your world. But she’ll still be the Sen from this world.” Kadria smirked. “I can do that to any of your former Champions. If you’d like, I can give your catgirl a push. She’s very into you, but add on the emotions of her other self and she’ll be slobbering all over your cock tonight. That’s what you want, right?”
Nathan glared at her.
In response, Kadria sat forward and shifted her legs slightly to make her crotch more visible. The tiny black cloth stuck so tightly to her body that she might as well have worn nothing. Her hardened nipples poked through underneath her bra. She ran her hands along her naked belly before cupping her small breasts. Her tongue slithered out of her lips for a moment. Nathan could smell her arousal, but he couldn’t describe the scent as anything other than distilled lust.
“That’s what you want, you mean,” Nathan responded coldly. “Only one of us is talking incessantly about sex, and it’s not me.”
Kadria’s smirk widened. “Your pants are straining to contain you and you’re chastising me about being lewd?”
Nathan took a step forward. The room shifted, the projected image of Sen vanishing, and he found himself face-to-face with Kadria. Or crotch-to-face, as he towered over her while she sat on her cushion.
Hot air blew over his crotch. Kadria’s breathing quickened. She glanced up at him, but her focus quickly returned to the bulge in front of her face. Her hands wandered up his legs and pulled his cock free. He finished hardening in response to the fresh air.
Something wet touched his balls. Kadria ran her tongue along his shaft and gobbled up what was leaking out of the tip. Her eyes lidded in pleasure and he felt the pressure of her swallowing with her lips pressed against him.
“I was right. You want this,” Nathan said. He tried to step away but couldn’t. His legs wouldn’t move. They were frozen. Not merely glued to the ground, but frozen. His entire lower body was stuck in place.
Kadria giggled. “Let me feast for a minute or five. You taste amazing. So much magic has been distilled into you that I can only imagine this is going to be like sucking down a long, thick, gooey milkshake.”
A what? And those words didn’t sound right together to Nathan.
Realizing he couldn’t escape, Nathan was damned if he’d let the demon have her way. He grabbed two of her curly horns. She gasped, freezing in place.
“Let me go,” he growled.
She stared up at him but didn’t answer. Her tongue flicked out and suckled on his tip, and he groaned. Her eyes curved, and she continued to ignore him and instead focused on pleasing him.
He wanted to pull her off. Ruin her fun and take control. But she knew what she was doing, and her ministrations felt amazing.
As lust overtook him, Nathan realized he could control a different way. He pulled his arms in.
Kadria’s eyes rolled into the back of her head as her lips kissed the base of Nathan’s groin and he filled her throat. He felt her pressing down against him, felt pleasure rising within his balls.
He pumped her back and forth along his length. A wet sound joined the bubbling and gurgling Kadria made with each movement. Looking down, Nathan saw her fingers buried in herself, splashes of liquid flying out onto her bronzed thighs or vanishing on the black void floor.
A climax rose up within Nathan, and he rammed himself as deep in her throat as possible, pulling her horns hard. Seconds passed as he emptied himself more than he thought possible. Kadria tried to moan around the thing in her mouth.
Nathan freed himself from her with a pop and leaned back with a groan. Kadria’s eyes watched a little bit of white leak out afterward, and she quickly lapped it up.
“You should use the binding stone to get yourself ready for more,” Kadria said. “I feel like I’ve filled myself up with the greatest milkshake humanity has ever produced.”
“The binding stone doesn’t work on living things,” Nathan said, all his fire gone for a moment. He watched Kadria clean him up and wondered how much she would moan when he got hard again.
“Uh-huh. And that’s why we’re still in your world, surrounded by a ruined fortress, right?” Kadria said.
She pulled back and licked her lips. Feeling returned to Nathan’s legs, and he tried to move forward, but an invisible force stopped him.
“Let’s stop here for no
w. I’ve had my taste, and it was as unexpectedly good as everything about you has been. But I like my relationships slow, and this is already going a little faster than I’d like,” Kadria said. She gulped as she stared at Nathan’s throbbing length. “Plus, it’s important for you to remember who is in control.”
Nathan knew who was in control. He knew all too well.
And it wasn’t the Messenger staring at his cock with her fingers buried in her crotch.
Chapter 10
The next two weeks passed in a blur. Before Nathan knew it, a convoy of soldiers arrived on his doorstep.
“You work fast, Bastion,” Kuda said. Nathan recognized him as Anna’s beastkin adviser, and possibly also a servant. His red wolf’s tail remained surprisingly still behind his body.
If Nathan were to describe Kuda in a word, it would be “disciplined.” It was common for beastkin to be servants, but they were often unruly. Their animal features weren’t for show. They often displayed animalistic behaviors, and those behaviors couldn’t be trained or educated out of them. It was part of their nature, the same way that fairies needed to fly, and humans breathed.
Wolf beastkin were social animals, desiring constant contact with those they accepted or desired. At the same time, they were wary of anybody outside of their social circle. Nathan sometimes spent days convincing a wolf beastkin to speak with him at all when they first started working for him.
So for Kuda to have no issues at all being Anna’s liaison with Nathan surprised him. Trusted adviser or not, Kuda’s faith in Anna must be absurdly high.
Or somebody had somehow trained the shyness out of Kuda. The man’s poker face was too good for Nathan to tell if the beastkin was anxious.
“Construction is something I’m good at,” Nathan said. He looked past the beastkin at the half-dozen wagons. “I expected more soldiers and fewer clerks.”
“As you proved at Trantia, ordinary soldiers are no match for the power of a Bastion, Champion, or sorcerer. Lady von Clair is happy to provide you one half-company of her private guards to help with patrolling the keep. The rest are to assist me in my duties,” Kuda explained.
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