mouthporn.net
Free Sex Stories & Erotic Stories @ XNXX.COM

sexstories.com

Font size : - +

Introduction:

This is the beginning of the end.
Part Sixteen: Checkmate

Chapter Fifty-Five

LEVERIA

I awoke to an explosion. Metal screeched, then banged, and I was suddenly hurled from my bed, and smashed into a wall. My head smacked against the stones, my teeth clicked, and whatever sleepiness remained left in my brain was shot out with a concussive thud. My blurred vision made out a pair of orange eyes, each of them bulging and trembling with wrath.

“Good morning, Yavara.” I groaned.

“What did you do?!” She snarled.

I blinked, trying to focus my vision. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“YOU KNOW WHAT I FUCKING MEAN!” She roared.

My eyelids fluttered, and my lenses finally focused to clarity. It was barely past darkness outside, five in the morning, if my estimation of the moon’s positioning was correct. I glanced around the cell. There was Zander, of course, with Titus beside him, and an orc woman between them. All of them were pallid with shock. They looked right through the Dark Queen, and stared at me. For a moment, I was as confused as they were. Then, it dawned on me. It had happened. The knight had finally moved upon the proverbial chessboard, and had laid the final blow upon the trapped Dark Queen. Checkmate.

I smiled, then I giggled, then I burst into uproarious laughter. When I saw the realization of what I’d done dawning across each of their faces, I only laughed harder. I’d been betrayed, dethroned, raped, tortured, and subjected to the worst humiliations and perversions, but it had all been worth it. I would’ve done it all over again without hesitation just to see that look on their faces when they knew I had WON. I looked down at Yavara, and choked on my hysterical mirth when I saw the expression of utter disbelief upon her face. I wish I could’ve had it painted. I wanted it tattooed to my eyeballs so that I could see it for every waking moment of my life.

“Leveria?!” She snarled, trying to sound angry, but I could hear the terror in her voice. Oh, it was so sweet to finally hear it, and to hear it directed at me, but it was even sweeter to see it in her eyes, to know that she finally beheld me for what I truly was. It was the look I deserved, the look I was owed from her! Now she knew. Now she realized. All her power, and all her strength meant nothing to me. She never had a chance.

When I caught my breath, I managed to utter between spasmatic inhales, “I take it… the horde… didn’t… arrive… tonight?!”

WHAT DID YOU FUCKING DO?!” She screamed. The walls tremored with her voice, and her orange eyes blazed with power.

“Oh, Yavara.” I croaked, “Do you see it now? How the pieces aligned so perfectly? Shall I recite my moves to you? They were as follows: Adrianna, Zander, Prince Matthew, King Arthur, and then the knight. My plan never changed; even when I knew my reign was over, I still moved my knight to checkmate you. When Ternias’s watchmen were charging up the stairs, I gave my last official order to Cavalry Commander Krakis. I told him I only needed his loyalty for one more day, and he gave me one more day. For one day, he waited, and waited. He waited for the horde to cross the marshlands along those narrow land-bridges you set up—those twenty-mile boards that are barely wide enough to pull a cart through. He waited until the horde would be at the halfway mark, then he rode out of South Fort with ten-thousand horsemen, and he skirted the old military path to catch up, and then he smashed into the rear of your precious horde, and it didn’t matter that they outnumbered him ten to one because you exiled your cavalry like the stupid cunt you are, and the rows of infantrymen that crossed the marshlands were BUT ROWS OF DOMINOES, AND HE KNOCKED DOWN EVERY, SINGLE, LAST, FUCKING ONE OF THEM!” I was shrieking the last words, my voice rising higher and higher until it was throttling in my gullet, splitting my voice-box so that I tasted iron. I panted into Yavara’s stunned face, and croaked, “Three days ago, Krakis told Field Marshal Shordian that he’d massacred the horde, and the entire Highland army turned around to amass at South Fort. They’ll be here tomorrow, right around when the Lowland fleet arrives. You thought the war was over, dearest sister? You thought you had won? Do you remember what I told you so many months ago while you were on that pirate ship? I know you do, because you recited those words verbatim just four days ago. I would like you to recite them to me once more.”

Her lower lip quivered. She mouthed something, but words wouldn’t come out.

“Your Highness?” Zander said cautiously, “The Lowland fleet will be here tomorrow. What are your orders?”

“What orders can she give?” I giggled, “Evacuate the city? Make your people homeless tribesmen of the Great Forest once more while Arthur burns Alkandra to ash? Perhaps you should draft your citizens to fight so that they can be massacred? Or maybe you should just pretend it’s not happening, and torture me for one more day to get a few cheap laughs and an applause from the mob you love so much!” I spit into her blank face, and laughed uproariously when she blinked, the rivulets of spittle running down her eyes and cheeks.

“My queen?” Zander asked again.

Yavara’s eyes suddenly focused, and flitted with panic. She looked this way and that, frantically searching the cell as if there would be an answer upon the walls. Finally, her eyes rested on me. I knew in that moment, that I had uttered my last words. Yavara cocked her fist back, and infernal energy burst from her flesh. She reared back her arm, and hurled her flaming fist into my face. It stopped an inch short. I could see nothing but the yellow fire, and feel nothing but the scorching heat. My nose began to blister with it, the pain began to crawl into my nerves, and my mouth opened to scream. Then, the fist was pulled back. My vision darkened with spots, but I barely made out the blurred image of Zander Fredeon struggling with all his might to hold Yavara’s arm back. She seemed confused for a moment, unsure of why I wasn’t a burnt splatter on the wall. Then she whirled on the man behind her, and with nothing but a backhanded slap, she hurled him against the bars. He crashed with a sickening thud, and landed in a heap on the floor. Titus and the orc woman rushed to his side, and turned him over. He coughed, and brushed them off him, his arcane shield fractured like glass from where her telekinetic swipe had struck him. He struggled to his feet, and faced Yavara.

“Why did you do that?” She hissed at him.

“Because you need her now.” Zander said, “A confession from her lips is the only thing that will stop Arthur’s fleet from raining hell on this city.”

“He won’t believe it; he’ll think it’s coerced.” Yavara growled, “Our only chance is if I go out there and attack the fleet before it gets into the bay.”

“You’ll die.” Zander said.

“But I might take enough of them with me for the city to survive.”

“Ah, no.” I interrupted, “Aren’t you forgetting about the vengeful Highland army? Forty-thousand strong? Without you there, who will save your people?” I giggled at her dismayed face, “But you can go ahead and destroy Bentius if it’ll make you feel better.” I yawned, “I don’t really give a shit. I never did. By all means, burn Ternias alive, and see if I shed a single fucking tear.”

Yavara ran her hand through her hair, staring ahead, but seeing nothing but the thoughts that ran behind her eyes, every scenario that I’d already ruminated over meticulously a hundred times now playing out in brutal detail. And with every passing moment, it became clearer and clearer to her that there was no way out. She had already lost. Either Arthur would burn her city from the sea, or Ternias would do it from the land. It was inevitable. Finally, she looked up at me.

“What would you do if you were me, Leveria?” She asked softly.

I raised my brows. “I’d start by eating a breath mint.”

“Please,” she whispered, “you must know a way out.”

“Yavara, are you actually asking for my advice?” I asked disbelievingly.

“Yes.”

I burst into fit of hysteric giggles. “Oh my god, this is precious! You want my advice?! How about you fucking kill yourself, you pathetic cunt!” My voice was shrill once again, “How about you just go to the top of the tower, climb onto the balcony, and jump off so that you can die just like Elena did?!

“Enough!” Zander roared before Yavara could be bated to anger, “Enough, Your Highness. Listening to her will do you no good.”

“Then I should kill her now!”

“Sending her to Arthur might buy you a few days, and a few days might be all you need.” Zander said, extending a calming hand, “There is a way out of this, but we have to keep our wits.”

Yavara nodded, staring past Zander’s outstretched hand, and at the floor. She sighed, suddenly looking very tired. “You’re right, of course, Zander. There is a way out of this. We just need to consult with the hybrids and see what they come up with.” Yavara glanced up at the orc woman, “Certiok, I’m putting you in charge of organizing the city’s defense. Work with Faltia to get the most able-bodied fighters we can.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” Certiok grumbled.

Yavara noted Certiok’s dismissive attitude, but didn’t bother reacting to it. She just ran her hands through her hair, and yawned. “I expect to see you all at your posts in two hours,” she mumbled, “I’ll leave you all to your tasks, whatever they may be.”

She walked out of the cell door with her shoulders drooping, her back bowed, and her head hung low. Titus, Zander and Certiok watched her go, then turned to me.

“You could’ve told me what you had planned.” Zander growled.

“Why the fuck would I do that? Because I’m the Dark Queen?” I asked mockingly, “I’m not your fucking girlfriend, you crazy old bastard. I’m your worst enemy.”

“I am going to kill this Highland cunt.” Certiok hissed.

“Then fucking do it, you orc dyke.” I sneered, “All talk and no action. Your whole race has the testicular fortitude of a post-operation transvestite.” I spat at her, “I massacred your men. I killed them like dogs! Now the Highland army is coming to gut your sniveling pups and rape your howling bitches!”

Certiok exchanged a look with Zander. “Yeah,” she sighed, “you’re right about her. She’s definitely the real one.”

“For all that matters now.” Titus sighed, “Little queen, you do realize you’ve just played yourself completely, right? Any chance you had of surviving is now gone.”

“What are you, my fucking rescue party?”

“That’s exactly what we are.” Zander growled.

I laughed again. “What was the plan, boy-genius? To get Yavara to hate-fuck me into being the Dark Queen? Even if it is possible—which it’s not—do you know how asinine that plan is?”

Zander tapped his staff, and my flesh was suddenly a rich bronze, my body was tattooed in various symbols and cartoons—most of them crude—and my tits had gone up a size. “I’m… Brianna?” I asked with a voice that wasn’t mine.

“Yavara doesn’t know Brianna as well as the others. For one, Brianna doesn’t have a cock, which makes her instantly less interesting to Yavara, and two, Brianna has a blithe attitude that doesn’t really mesh with Yavara’s personality.” Zander explained, then turned to Certiok. “You know them best; is Brianna really the right choice?”

Certiok shrugged. “I guess. From what I can tell, the Highland cunt is most like Eva, but Yavara and Eva are too close, and you said you couldn’t simulate a dick very well with a spell.”

“I can simulate a dick just fine, but Yavara would instantly know Leveria was an imposter when she tried to use it.”

“Good point.”

“Hey!” I snapped, “Why are you all acting like this is going to happen? I didn’t agree to this shit!”

Certiok smirked cruelly at me. “Because you fucked it all up, so now it’s your responsibility. Yavara obviously doesn’t have any fucking answers.”

“She’s a god! What am I?”

Titus snorted. “She’s exceptionally powerful, but she’s no god. If Zander could hold back her strike, then she doesn’t stand a chance against five-hundred Lowland mages.”

“Besides, that kind of power does us little good now.” Zander said gravely, “With an army behind her, she is mighty, but one woman cannot defend an entire city by herself. We need a different kind of power.”

I looked from Zander, to Titus, then to Certiok. The other two regarded me with something akin to respect, but I could see the hatred in Certiok’s eyes, and I was still hoping for a quick exit. “I killed Brock and Trenok,” I sneered at her, “they’re dead in the marshlands right now, sinking into the muck and shit where they belong.”

“Brock and Trenok died weeks ago.” Certiok replied coldly, “They died because they were led by a weak woman who had too much sympathy for her enemy.” Certiok shook her head, studying me with mild disbelief, “We were fighting the Dark Queen the whole time; no wonder it was so hard. If we had you from the beginning, the Ten would’ve been brought to heel immediately, the rangers would’ve been ignored as a nuisance, and we would’ve crushed the Highland army before they even crossed the marshlands. We would’ve broken the Rift without hesitation, and we would’ve invaded the Highlands before the winter snows arrived.” She laughed bitterly, “If we’d had you, Brock and Trenok would still be alive, and we’d all be dining in the halls of Bentius right now.”

“You’re not getting out of this, Leveria.” Zander said with an amused smile, “You said that you were my worst enemy? Now you are your own worst enemy. You got us all into this situation, so now you must navigate us out.”

“Or what? You’ll torture me? Rape me? Kill me?” I laughed, “What more can you do to me, Zander?!

“We can leave you alone.” Titus said, “We can put you in a high tower in some ancient long-forgotten castle deep within the Great Forest, and we can give you three square meals, some water, and a pot to piss in. I know of such places. Places no one will ever find you. You will live a very long life, little queen.”

“Sounds like a vacation.” I sneered.

Certiok shrugged. “I’m still all for killing the bitch, if no one as any other ideas.”

Zander stepped toward me. “I know you, Leveria.”

“You know nothing, you crazy old bastard.”

“I’ve seen you behind dozens of faces. It’s funny how you all look the same to me.” He pointed to his eyes, “It’s here. Not in the eyes, but in the spaces around them. You can’t see the similarities unless you really look, but once you notice them, they’re uncanny.”

I rolled my eyes. “Someone shut this sappy geriatric up. He’s clearly in the late stages of dementia.”

Zander stopped at the side of my bed, and looked down at me with something akin to fondness. “You are a spiteful, vengeful, merciless little bitch. You always were. It was never enough for you to win; you had to destroy your opponent completely. When you raised the first Alkandra, you didn’t do it to found a great new nation; you did it out of hatred. You tore the Highland empire in half and built a kingdom that was the antithesis of everything the Highlands stood for, and you rained terror upon your neighbors for five-hundred years. Why? Because you were once a scorned high-elf woman, and you wanted those who rejected to you to pay. You told me two days ago that people aren’t complicated; find out what they want, and you’ll find out who they are. Well, I know what you want, Leveria.”

“What?” I hissed.

Zander planted one foot on the bed, and stooped low until his face loomed an inch from mine. “You want to take everything from Yavara. It’s not enough that you’ve stolen the love of her life, killed her mother, murdered her friends, massacred her army, and destroyed her kingdom. There’s still one more thing you can take.” Zander took my chin under his thumb, and raised my face until our eyes were level, “You can steal Alkandi from her. All that power, all those abilities, and all that strength; but it’s not just that, oh no. Yavara has lived with Alkandi all her life. It was Alkandi that gave Yavara her daring nature, her adventurous spirit, and her charisma. Everything your father adored in her was given to her by Alkandi, and that’s what this is all really about, isn’t it, Leveria?” He drew his thumb along my jaw, and snaked his fingers into my hair, “There was one time in Yavara’s life when she was without Alkandi. She separated from her in the astral plane, and when she returned to her body, she was only herself. She was just like your mother. Weak, fragile, sensitive, and cowardly. It was so easy for Alkandi to take her then. She just grabbed her by the hips, and raped her into submission!” Zander took a firm grip of my hair, and tugged it hard, “Don’t you want to see her like that?” Zander growled, “Don’t you want to see who your sister really is when you rip out her very soul?

“Yes!” I gasped.

Zander pressed me into a vile kiss. His lips opened mine, his tongue snaked into my mouth, and he tasted me with avarice and a gluttony. I indulged in it for a moment, enjoying the rawness of it, the bitterness, the regret and the pain. Oh, I knew this man. I knew this man to the core. Perhaps he had loved me across lifetimes and centuries, perhaps he’d kissed my mouth in a dozen different bodies, but when my tongue slid across his gums and teeth, I only knew that he kissed me exactly like my father had. It was a love that tasted so very much like hatred. I knotted my knuckles in his hair, and ripped his face away, my breath panting from my gaping lips.

He looked right into my eyes, seeing me all the way down. “It really is you,” he muttered.

“That was disgusting.” I snarled.

“That’s just how you like it.” He snarled back.

I grinned then, and he grinned back, and our mouths moved to devour each other once more. I fished into his robe, and found his hard weapon. I aimed it between my legs, and he thrusted all the way inside, splitting my gripping cunt down the middle until he hit my bottom. I gasped in pain and pleasure, and he growled like an animal, and mounted me. I didn’t even notice when Certiok and Titus left the room. I couldn’t hear them leaving over the cries of ecstasy that sounded from my gaping lips.

ELENA

Leveria stood before me. She was backlit by the full moon, painting her heavenly body in cold, pale luminance. I couldn’t see much of her; only the profile that I recognized so easily. The rest was obscured in shadow. I walked toward her. My bare feet crunched in the cold snow. She raised her head, and I could make out the bow of her cheek, the point of her nose, and the curve of her lips quirked in her signature smirk. I smiled back, and pulled off my scarf. For whatever reason, it was the only garment I wore. The cold didn’t seem to bother me, nor her, though she was standing in at least six-inches of snow. She shifted alluringly when I approached her, putting her hands on her hips, and her weight on one leg. I changed my walk to a strut, and sauntered through the snow to her, my erection growing between my legs. She tilted her head, letting her hair cascade from her face, and the moon illuminated her portrait entirely. Her eyes were gouged out. Her teeth were rent from their gums. She reached out for me, and her hands were void of fingers. She stepped from the snow to reveal that her feet had only stumps instead of toes.

“Do you like my gift?” Yavara asked from behind me, “I did it for you.”

I awoke with a jolt, my heart beating him my throat, a scream poised on my lips. The room was dark, only the sounds of soft snores and sighs filling it. I looked to my left to see my mother. I looked to my right to see Catherine Jonias. They were both naked, their heaving breasts tangled in the sheets, their blonde hair tossed in a careless disarray about their heads. My breathing eased slowly, and my heartrate decelerated. My blood pounded in my ears for a few more seconds, then quieted. I took a deep breath, and shifted myself forward on the bed until I reached the foot. I hopped off, and steadied myself on my feet. It was still difficult for me to achieve states of balance, and I swayed back and forth for a while before feeling comfortable enough to walk. I didn’t know how I was going to fight in a battle in only a few hours, but I’d manage. I was a ranger, after all, and I’d been trained by the very best teacher to fight at every disadvantage.

I walked to the bathroom, opened the latrine pot, and sighed contentedly when the pressure released from my bladder. The single best thing about having a cock was not having to squat to piss. As my urine sounded in the bowl, I glanced out the window. Most of the rubble from the noble district streets had been cleared, and was now piled up alongside the sidewalks with the mounds of plowed snow. The bodies were obviously long-gone, and the blood had been washed away, but gashes and flame spots alongside the alley walls told the stories of battle. I wondered if the place would ever be truly washed of it. Still, the streetlamps had oil burning in them again, illuminating the boulevards in soft orange light. And there, at the very end of Flower Street, was a mass of torches. I narrowed my eyes.

A semicircle of golden-armored watchmen was formed around a house. Feractian’s house. A single figure was kneeling before them all. Feractian. His blood covered the snow around him. The figure behind him raised his arm, and brought it down viciously. I heard the faint crack of a whip, and a scream. Feractian pitched forward onto his face. Two more figures suddenly emerged; one golden-armored man holding a struggling woman. The woman was thrown to the ground next Feractian, and the man behind her drew his sword. Feractian’s scream could be heard clearly now. He threw himself at the man’s feet. The man barked something. Feractian raised his head, then turned his face. From a quarter-mile away, I could see him raise his arm, and point one finger right at me. The watchman nodded, and then kicked Feractian to the side, and drove his blade into the woman’s chest. The other guard drew a mace, and bludgeoned Feractian until his body was still, and his voice silenced.

My stream sputtered out.

ADRIANNA

The hint of dawn could be seen over the eastern horizon. It painted the black sky with a gradient of mauve, and dimmed the stars and moon. I was atop a hill overlooking a vast basin. The basin stretched for miles, and was etched with hundreds of tributaries that branched for as far as the eye could see. Each of the tributaries would be a nautical highway for ships and ferries to supply and trade with the great estates of the Highlands; Jonianas, Straltairanas, Ternianas, Feractianas, Tiadoanas, Xantianas, Shordianas, Droughtianas, Feltianas, and Huntiatanas. Those great estates were like the organs of the Highlands, the tributaries were the veins, and those veins all converged in this basin, the heart of the Highlands. The basin became a great river, and the mouth of the river became a great oceanic bay, and upon the banks of that bay, sat the spectacular city of Bentius. It was a tiered metropolis built upon a steep hill, backed by a dormant volcano whose spent ash made the basin the most fertile land on Tenvalia. Now that fertile land was blanketed with snow, the tributaries were frozen over, and the city itself sparkled with ice like a jewel. Hundreds of ballistae lined the hundred-foot walls, the wrought-iron twinkling threateningly in the moonlight. As a ranger, my sworn purpose had been to defend that city. For a thousand years, those before me had kept the enemies of the Highlands at bay, fighting them in the forests, the fields, and sometimes, even on the steps of the great estates themselves, but no enemy had ever gotten within fifty miles of Bentius. Now, I, the man who had once been Head-ranger Thomas Adarian, was going to launch the first ever attack upon its walls.

I adjusted myself atop Sasha, allowing my legs to straddle evenly across her massive shoulders. The wargs behind me growled and yipped, shuffling their great shoulder-humps, flexing their muscles. They knew something was going to happen, but they didn’t know what; they just knew there would be blood. The orcs that rode the beasts stared out upon Bentius with comingled awe and greed, imagining the riches, sins, and pleasures they would enjoy once they breached the mighty walls. A half mile down the ridge, the rebels waited, concealed behind a hill. A lone figure stood before the rest, and watched me. Esmerelda.

“Adri, I’m hungry.” Dog Meat grumbled, wiggling her sparkling stumps frustratedly. I had a makeshift baby carrier made out of leather belts that I kept her strapped in so that she was secured safely to my chest.

“Here,” I muttered, and pulled my cloak to the side so that one of my breasts popped free. I’d begun lactating sometime in the last few days, and Dog Meat was more than happy to take advantage. She moaned in both carnal and primal satisfaction as she nursed from me, and I enjoyed a comingling of sexual and maternal pleasure in turn. Was it strange to have a full-grown limbless woman covered in obscene tattoos suckling from my tit while I bestrode a man-eating wolf? Yes, but strange had become such the norm for me that normalcy was more bizarre. Everything I did seemed to be so steeped in irony that I wondered if my life was nothing but an existential punchline.

“What are we waiting for?” Dog Meat asked, smacking her lips contentedly.

I pointed out over the basin. “When the sun touches the wall, I’ll launch the attack. I want the men who guard the wall to see us coming from a long way off.”

Dog Meat nodded, and muzzled my breast once more, securing my nipple between her gentle teeth. “Will you go with them?”

“No, I’ll be back here with the rebels.”

“Waiting for when the orcs start climbing the walls, right?”

“That’s right.” I said, petting her hair, “The watchmen will hold them off for the few minutes we need to close the distance.”

“Then you and the elves will…” she pitched her voice to a whisper, “…then you and the elves will kill all the orcs, right?!”

I smiled down at her. “That’s right.”

“Yay!” Dog Meat cried gleefully, wiggling her sparkling little stumps, her magical dust turning from blue, to red. Her mirth turned suddenly sour, and she frowned. “But… what about Sasha?”

I sighed, and patted Sasha between the shoulders. “Sasha will go with the rest of her pack.”

Tears formed in Dog Meat’s eyes. “Sorry Sasha,” she whimpered.

“Sorry Sasha.” I echoed, rubbing the beast affectionately, but not too affectionately. She was a killer just like me, and neither of us deserved much sympathy.

“How much longer?” Dog Meat asked, sniffling away her tears.

“An hour at the most.” I muttered, “The sun is low in the winter, and it will luminate the basin the moment it crests the hill.”

LEVERIA

“Brianna doesn’t walk like that.” Certiok said. “Nope, not like that either. Use your hips, you skinny Highland cunt! Hips!”

I glared at the she-orc, then walked to the other side of my cell, and tried again. I threw back my shoulders, pushed out my chest, elevated my chin, and sauntered across the floor, popping my hips like I was trying to dislodge the ultimate thong wedgie.

“You walk like a fucking goose.”

“And you squawk like one.”

Certiok slapped me so hard that I spun before I hit the ground. Her fist was in my hair a moment later, and her foot was pressed into my lower back. She ripped back my head, and snarled into my face. “I don’t give a shit who you’re supposed to be, you Highland whore. Right now, you’re just a little piggy, and I’ll make you squeal if I want to.”

“You gonna do it, or are you just gonna talk about it?” I asked breathily, licking my lips at her. “All talk and no action; it’s always the same with you people.”

She growled, and yanked me to my feet by my hair. Actually, she yanked me past my feet, and I had to stand up on my toes to avoid the searing pain in my roots.

“Ow, ow, ow!” I yelled, scratching at her arms, tears forming in my eyes.

“Ow?” Certiok laughed, “After everything you endured, this get an ‘ow?’” She walked me around the room, keeping my posture high from above, “This is how you Highland girls all walk,” Certiok taunted, “up on your toes, little baby steps, hips fixed together like you’ve got a cock stuck up your ass.” She dropped my hair, and my feet collapsed onto my heels. “This is how an Alkandran walks,” she guided me by the hair with a twist of her wrist, “every motion is a tease, every sway is an invitation. You want that ass to roll above your thighs, and let every salivating cocksure fool behind you know what it feels like to watch you walk away from them.” She put her other hand on my hip, and guided it into a sinuous sway as she instructed my feet from above like a puppeteer. “That’s it, Highland whore. Don’t walk like you’ve already got a cock stuck up your ass; walk like you want a cock stuck up your ass. Every step is an advertisement, and you’re open for business. Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot…”

She let go of my hip and hair, and watched me saunter around the cell in the sexiest strut I’d ever walked in. It didn’t feel right at all for me. I could be sexy—I knew that very well—but I wasn’t flirtatious. For Highland royalty, courting was a very rigid affair. My steps lost their sensuality by the footfall, and after five more paces, all of Certiok’s instruction had disappeared.

She sighed, and ran her hand through her dreads. “Maybe Zander was wrong about you.”

“Of course he’s wrong; he’s a delusional old fool.” I smirked over my shoulder, “But he fucks me just like Daddy did, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Certiok snorted. “Or maybe he was right.”

“And what are you going to do when he’s not?” I inquired amusedly, “What happens when we trick my stupid little sister into eating my pussy, and when I come, I grow a fat cock, and she realizes you and Zander tricked her?”

“We’re dead either way. Might as well take our shot.” She sneered at me, “And it’s amusing to me that you think your cock would be anything but pathetic.”

I ignored the insult to my hypothetical penis. “Certiok, even if everything is true, what do you think I can do to save you? Zander told me Alkandi chose Yavara over me because of Yavara’s natural magical potential. That means I have no natural magical potential. All I’ll have is what I inherit from Alkandi—a diluted powerbase at best. Right now, Yavara can at least buy you a slim chance.”

“If we fight this battle, we will lose. Whether we fight it with Yavara or not, it doesn’t matter. The Highland army still has its mages, and the Lowland fleet has the best magic users in the world. Yavara will fall, and when the people see it, they will lose all hope, and we will fall soon after. You’re a conniving little worm; you’ll find a way to wiggle out of this, and you’ll wiggle the rest of us out too. Now wiggle that fat little Highland ass over here.”

“Why?” I grinned coyly.

She looked at me from the top of her brows. “I said get over here.”

I grasped the bars of my cell door, pressed my tits against them, locked my knees, and bent over low at the hips. My ass spread out behind me, and I looked back over my shoulder with a lecherous grin at the she-orc staring transfixed between my parted cheeks. “You wanna taste real royalty?” I whispered, and licked the metal cell bar.

“Get over here, you elf slut.”

“No,” I giggled, “you will come to me, Certiok. If I’m your queen, then you will follow the proper customs. Get on your hands and knees like the good little orc bitch you are, and come over here to lick your master’s wet pussy.”

Certiok stood up, imposing in her six-foot muscled frame. She walked across the room, snatched me by the hair with one hand, and jammed her fingers inside me with the other. I cried out, seizing around her in pleasure and pain, bowing my body from the arch of my back to my upturned face. Her fingers were long, and they slid into my holes with ease, exploring my ass and pussy, pressing against every surface, toying with me until she found the places that made my knees buckle. She grinned at me from her tusked mouth, pleased to hear me mewl like a whore for her, pleased to see the submission in my eyes, pleased to see the need. She wasn’t cruel with me, but she was dominant, and I could be her subservient little whore-queen if she wanted, just as long as she kept touching me just… like… that…

“Oh fuck!” I gasped, staring at her inverted visage from the tops of my eyes. Her ring and index fingers twisted into my gripping rectum, opening my anus until it was a puffy ring. Her pink and ring finger pushed into my tight slit, pressing deep inside me, rubbing that spot mercilessly. My milky thighs pressed and rubbed around her squelching digits, lubricated by the flow of lust that dripped from my blushing petals. My anus clenched and winked around her ravaging fingers, sucking her deeper into my filth, beckoning her to violate me further. I coaxed her with my weak feminine tones, pleading and whimpering in my abasement, and her cruel black eyes became avaricious and wild. She penetrated me hard and fast, dividing her hand between my holes, jamming her fingers through my soft innards, deforming the pliant flesh, dilating my channels until they were weeping with my lubricating release, and I was crying out in the throes of ascension. I collapsed in the heat of my orgasm, but she held me upright by the inside, and tortured me ceaselessly until I was out of breath.

“Little Highland piggy,” she purred as I squealed, “you talk such a big game, but you are so very easy to tame.”

“I’m fucking coming!” I sobbed against the bars, “You’re making me come! Oh my god, you’re making me come!”

“Come for me, little Highland piggy.” Certiok breathed heavily, her eyes wild with megalomaniacal lust, “You can’t help yourself. High-elf sows are all so easy. So, so, easy…” She purred, and pressed every finger hard against me. I collapsed against the bars, grasping them with what little strength I had left in my hands, my cheek pressed between them, my eyes looking back at her, enraptured by her snarling savage beauty as she raped me so perfectly. My wobbling breasts pressed against the cold metal bars, then squished through them, dividing between the pole that pressed against my sternum. My belly flexed in spasms, my abdominal wall distending to accommodate the exaggerated arch of my back, which was being-ever exacerbated by the violent ecstasy being forced into me over, and over, and over again! I came with a scream, my spray of juices exploding from between Certiok’s aggressive fingers. She ravaged me through it, unrelenting even as I turned to butter between her wriggling digits, now saturated with my release.

Only when the last quivers of my orgasm left me, did Certiok finally pull her fingers out. After sucking her fingers clean, she took me by the hair, and my strengthless neck allowed her to move my head without resistance. My body was hers to do with as she pleased. She pulled me gently to my feet, put her hand on my hip, and walked me around the room. In my post-climactic trance, I moved with a sinuousness that was strange to me, but seemed to come quite naturally. My hips swayed, my feet moved in line with each other, and my shoulders rolled easily back to present my chest. Certiok let go of me, and I sauntered about just as she had guided, every motion steeped in sensuality.

“There,” she said, a tiny glint of pride in her black eyes, “that is how an Alkandran walks.”

YAVARA

The hybrids sat at the long table with me. They’d been mostly silent while I explained the situation to them. When I was done, that silence endured, pervading over us as they stared at me. Their gazes were wracked with confusion and fear, but Furia’s seemed downright accusatory—or perhaps that was just my paranoia. I hadn’t slept all night. I shifted in my chair, and cleared my throat.

“If any of you have any ideas, please bring them forward.”

“Have you tried contacting King Ternias?” Kiera asked.

“He destroyed the Jonian Spire,” Furia said, not once breaking eye-contact with me, “under our queen’s orders.”

“I didn’t want the Lowlands and Highlands conspiring against us again.”

“And yet here we are.” Furia said softly.

The others looked from her, to me. Brianna spoke next. “We need to send an emissary to the Highlanders.”

“They’re not going to talk to us.” Furia said before I could speak.

Soraya shifted uncomfortably. “We are an extremely wealthy nation. Perhaps we could pay off the Lowlanders. They don’t yet know of our horde’s fate. Zander could cast an illusionary spell to mimic the horde from afar, then we could send a boat to parlay peace for a price.”

“There won’t be any peace with the Lowlands.” Furia said, “Not after Faltia chopped off Prince Matthew’s head.”

“You’ve done quite a bit of naysaying, Furia; perhaps you’d like to make a suggestion yourself?” I said.

All eyes turned to Furia, but she kept her gaze fixed on me. “Well, there’s only one option, isn’t there, Your Highness?”

“And what is that?”

“You know what it is.” She said darkly.

“I don’t, actually.”

Faltia cleared her throat. “What are the Highland army’s numbers?”

“Forty-thousand.” I answered, “The Lowlanders number about half that.”

“It would be a force that would rival the full strength of our horde. Now, it’s astronomically overwhelming.” Eva said, “Your sister played us brilliantly.”

“She only played one of us, Eva.” Furia said, “Adrianna should’ve known better.”

“I’m also to blame for this.” I muttered.

“Like I said, she only played one of us.” Furia replied coldly, “Come now, Yavara, speak it into existence.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The only option left. The only way we can possibly get out of this. Say it.”

“Furia, I don’t know what you’re saying.”

“You have to attack Bentius.” Faltia muttered, then looked up at me, “It’s the only strategical advantage we have. If you fly right over the invading army, they’ll have to turn around.”

“It’s the only way.” Furia said, sitting back in her chair, looking at me like she didn’t recognize who she was seeing, “The horde is gone, the armies are closing in, and there’s no escape. For the sake of your people, you must do it. You are absolved of all the evil you must commit.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Furia, do you have something you want to say?”

“I’ve already said it. Do you have something that you want to say, Your Highness?

Now, there was no doubt as to the nature of their gazes. Each of them was scrutinizing me like an insect they’d found in their food. It took me a moment to realize that I was staring at one of Leveria’s insidious plans blossoming into fruition. When I did realize it, I almost smiled at how perfectly it had been calculated. I decided right then that my sister would not live to see the next sunrise.

“Prepare the city’s defenses.” I said, “When the time comes, I will choose what course of action to take.”

ELENA

It had taken us ninety seconds to get out of the Jonias mansion. It was barely enough time. Thirty of those precious seconds had been wasted frantically explaining the situation to Catherine and Mom as they rubbed the sleep from their eyes. The next thirty seconds had been spent rushing to get Catherine’s house-mage, Javi, out of his quarters. The last thirty seconds were a flurry of panicked steps as we stumbled to shove our feet into boots, and rush out of the servant’s entrance. Ten seconds after we’d rounded the corner in the alleyway, twenty men of the watch had surrounded the house. They smashed the doors in, crashed through the windows, and raided the residence with frightening speed. The screams of Catherine’s servants sounded, and the clash of steel rang out a moment later. We didn’t stay to watch any longer.

My legs were still wobbly, and dashing through the wet snow was an exercise in balance that I was not prepared for. I fell over three times, and each time, my night gown was doused in the rank slush that filled the alleyways. We struggled to keep quiet through it all, for the watchmen were out in full force. They marched through the streets, knocked on doors and outturned the residence for questioning. The gates were barred and heavily guarded, the surrounding walls were patrolled, and the river was frozen solid, an ice-dam blocking the outflow into the next ward. We were trapped.

The city criers yelled from every street corner, their voices baying their repeated message into the night, “Lady Straltaira, surrender yourself, and no harm will come to you or those who aid you! To those who are aiding the Lady Straltaira, you will not be punished for turning her over! You will be rewarded! Lady Straltaira, surrender yourself and no harm will come to you or those who aid you! To those who are aiding the Lady Straltaira…“

“What do we do?!” Catherine hissed. We were secluded in a dark space between two shops, the width barely enough to allow us to turn our heads without scraping the walls. It was claustrophobic to say the least, but it provided the necessary cover from the passing patrols; at least until dawn broke, and the sun illuminated all.

“Cast an illusionary spell.” I whispered.

“I told you, the royal mages are using seeking spells!” She hissed back, “Using any magic will bring them right to us!”

“Lady Straltaira, surrender yourself and no harm will come to you or those who aid you! To those who are…”

“Maybe you should just give yourself up.” Catherine whispered.

“What?!”

“I mean, they said if you—”

“They killed Feractian and his wife in the fucking streets!” I hissed, “What do you think they’ll do to me?!”

“…Lady Lydia Straltaira, surrender yourself and no harm will…

“Me?!” Mom gasped.

“Take one for the team!” Catherine whimpered.

“Shut up!” I snapped.

“We need to get inside,” Mom whispered, pointing to a door across the road, “we’re too exposed out here. If the guards don’t find us, we’ll surely freeze to death.”

“Go inside where?” Catherine snapped, “I can’t cast a lock-picking spell without altering the hunters!”

“I can lockpick.” I whispered, “I just need a pin.”

Mom fished into her gown, and pulled out one of her bra pins. She passed it to Javi, who handed it to Catherine, who tried to hand it to me, but her fingers were shaking so much that she dropped it right into the two feet of snow we were standing in.

“Shit!” she squealed; her voice shrill with panic.

“Shh,” I whispered, putting a calming hand on her shoulder, “it’s alright.”

I didn’t have room to squat between the walls, so I had to shimmy outward toward the dangerous light of the street, then stand on one leg, and lean down. I braced myself as best I could against the walls, and gritted my teeth against the sudden dizziness I felt. The maneuver would’ve normally been as easy as tying my shoes, but tying my shoes was now a task that seemed to require as much dexterity as playing a piano concerto. I didn’t know how I thought I was going to fight in a battle later that day; it would take at least a month to fully recover.

With the utmost concentration, I peered into the dim mound of snow, and found the tiny hole the pin had fallen in. Careful to control my breathing, I reached into the snow. The cold had made my fingers numb already, and the snow offered nothing but more of it. The dull burn of frost suffused my fingers, and I could feel nothing past the second knuckle. Still, I daintily fished through the slushy mixture, closing my eyes to bring more sharpness to my other senses. Finally, something interrupted the homogenous bath of cold, and my numb fingers managed to grip it.

“Got it!” I hissed, plucking the pin from the snow. I wheeled myself back upright, and shuffled down the wall until I was at the edge of the shadow. I could see about fifty feet of road on either side, but no further. I listened for the sounds of marching and heard only the distant footfalls and the crier’s call.

“Elena?” Catherine whimpered; her voice tight in her throat.

“I’m going to go across. If I get caught, all of you run the other way.”

“No.” Mom hissed.

“Don’t be selfish!” I snapped at her, then turned back around. I took two breaths through my nose, turned my hips, planted my front foot, and dashed forward. I made it two steps before I fell flat on my face. The warm lamplight above illuminated me like a spotlight. I scrambled onto my hands and knees, and frantically crawled across, then flattened myself against the wall, my breath heaving from me. I looked to the left, then to the right. The only men in eyeshot were the criers on the corners, and they were both facing the other direction. I looked forward, and could clearly make out the bulging terrified eyes of my comrades from between the buildings.

“Get over here, quick!” I hissed. Catherine collected her skirt, and sprinted across the street. Javi deftly navigated the road without any incident, but Mom stumbled before she finally flattened herself next to us. I didn’t have time to worry if we’d been seen. I knelt before the door, and placed the pin into the keyhole. My fingers were so numb. They slipped on the pinhole, twisting erratically. My hand was trembling with the cold. I had to steady it with my other hand just to line up the pin well enough, but my fingers were still so clumsy, void of any feeling. The sound of marching boots became louder. From my periphery, I could see the faint glow of torchlight being cast on the buildings down the road.

“Elena!” Catherine squeaked.

“Shut up!” I snapped. I fumbled with the lock for a few more seconds, then cursed my fingers, and put the pin between my teeth. Carefully, I guided the point back into the keyhole, and slid it forward with my tongue. I felt the resistance of the first spring. I pinched the stem of the pin with my thumb and forefinger, but not too much to rely on my hand for guidance. I bit down hard on the pinhead, and pressed my face forward. The first spring disengaged.

“Elena!” Catherine whimpered, more urgency in her voice. The footsteps were louder now. The torchlight glow became brighter, and the shadows were cast onto the walls, a row of heads and feet connected all by a mass of shadowed torsos, spearheads poking from it like spines on its back. It was deformed now, but it was becoming clearer and clearer with every second.

I turned my tongue, and the pin notched into the second spring. My finger and thumb came around to brace into place once more, and I gritted my teeth, and pushed my face forward again. The spring disengaged, leaving only the third spring.

Elena!” Catherine sobbed, squirming against the wall.

“…surrender yourself and no harm will come to you or those who aid you! To those who are…” The criers called, the marching became louder, the shadows became clearer. My heart was beating in my throat. My blood was pounding in my ears. I closed my eyes. Carefully, I angled my tongue, and even more carefully, I placed my thumb and finger before it, and bit down on the pinhead. I pushed forward. The pin snapped in half, jamming the lock. My eyes flashed open. The shadows had taken form down the road. The marching was practically upon us. I could see the glint off spearheads. Someone was yelling. An order was suddenly given. The marching turned to running.

“Oh god, they found us!” Catherine screamed.

Javi slammed his hand on the door, and cast a spell. The lock clicked. Just as soon as it had happened, a great beam of ethereal light surrounded him. “Go!” He yelled, and shoved his mistress through the door. I dove in after, and dragged Mom with me just as Javi slammed the door behind us. From the window, we could see him sprint down the street, the ethereal beam of light following his every step, a beacon for all to see. A rush of footsteps followed after, accompanying the clanking of armor and the barking of orders. The sounds faded away. Then, there was a scream.

“Oh, Javi!” Catherine sobbed into her gown.

Mom put a comforting arm around her, and Catherine wept into her breast. I caught my breath, and assessed our surroundings. We were in a butcher’s shop, though since the trade embargos, there’d been little in the way of meat even for the nobles. Cobwebs spanned the meat hooks that hung from the ceiling, and dust had collected everywhere. My eyes fell upon the knife-rack behind the counter. They were brutal blades, more tools than weapons, but they could cut through meat just fine. I struggled to my feet, went to the rack, and picked out knives for Mom and Catherine. If it came to it, their best bet was to just stab at the enemy with the pointy end, and so chef’s knives would do just fine. I picked a pair of cleavers for myself.

“Here,” I muttered, passing them their weapons, “remember what I told you last night. The man who strikes first, kills. Don’t hesitate.”

Catherine and Mom stared wide-eyed at the knives in their hands. It occurred to me then that the pair of them were likely the two richest women in the entire kingdom, and had about as much experience in the kitchen as they did in battle. They didn’t even know how to hold the knives. They looked from me, to their new weapons, an expression of utter helplessness and hopelessness in their eyes. It would’ve been cute if I wasn’t just as terrified as they were.

“Hold on.” I muttered, and pulled a sharpening strap from the counter. I took the knife from Catherine’s hands, and wound the metal handle with the leather. “There,” I said, “that’ll keep it from slipping when you stab.”

“W-w-w-when I s-s-stab?!” She stuttered.

I placed my hands gently around hers, and adjusted her grip. “Push through with your shoulders,” I instructed, “everything from your elbow to the tip of the blade should be a straight line. Just thrust, thrust, thrust, you understand? Don’t stop thrusting until they’re down, then back off. Always strike first, remember?”

“Elena, I c-c-c-can’t d-d-d-do this!”

“You’ll do fine, Catherine.” I smiled, “Don’t worry, I’ll be right next to you.” I patted her cheek, then turned to Mom. She was practicing the thrusting motion I’d just showed Catherine, her face set in a very grim mask. “You got it?” I asked her.

“Just keep stabbing them until they go down,” she muttered, more to herself than me, “I got it.”

“Good.” I said, and leaned back against the counter, “But only if it comes to that. We just have to wait.”

“Wait for what?” Catherine hissed.

“Feractian’s barons already paid off the rioters. The noon bell will toll, and they’ll come out no matter what.”

“You think Ternias will give a shit about some rioters?!” Catherine exclaimed, “He’s uncovered a fucking conspiracy! He’ll have all five-hundred men of the watch up here until Shordian comes with the army tomorrow. The lower wards can burn for all he cares.”

“She’s right, Elena.” Mom muttered, “There will be no watchmen for the rioters to attack. The mob will form, then crash uselessly against the gates. After a while, they’ll just quit.”

“We’re fucked.” Catherine whimpered, “We should use these knives on ourselves!”

“If it comes to that, Catherine, I’ll just kill you.” I said softly, “You won’t even see it coming.”

She blinked at me. “Um… thanks?”

I snorted. “You’re welcome.” I looked out the window, assessing the eastern sky, “But until that time comes, we’re just going to wait.”

“For what?”

I smiled, and shrugged. “A miracle.”

ADRIANNA

The sun touched the top of Bentius’s ramparts. I dismounted Sasha, and adjusted the straps of Dog Meat’s carrier. The wargs moved from my path, bowing their heads respectfully as I walked through the orc ranks.

“Do you see that city?” I asked them, my voice projected commandingly, “That city is a fat whore. She hasn’t been fucked in ages, and she’s been pining for a good, hard cock. Now she’s just naked, laying in the snow, waiting for someone to finally give her what she deserves. She even took off all her clothes. The army? She took that off ages ago. The Royal Guard? She took it off just last week. The city watch? She’s still got it on, but it’s just barely hanging onto her fat ass by a strand. I mean, the poor whore isn’t just asking for it; she’s begging for it.

Sardonic laughter sounded from all around, and I smiled with them. Dog Meat wiggled her stumps, all worked up with excitement. I opened my robe so that all the orcs could see the magical high-elf I wore like jewelry. “The fat whore needs a good fucking, gentlemen.” I said, “She needs it hard, fast, and rough. Who’s gonna give it to her?”

“We are!” They roared.

“I said who’s gonna fucking give to her?!” I yelled.

“We are!” The roared even louder.

“Then go fucking give it to her!” I screamed, and the orcs brandished their swords in a symphony of steel, kicked their feet into their wargs, and charged out over the hillside. I watched them ride into the basin, then I closed my cloak around Dog Meat, and hurried down to the adjacent hill to where Esmerelda and the elves were anxiously waiting.

“Now?” Esmerelda asked, her voice pitched high with anxiety.

“Not yet!” I said, grabbing the reins of my new horse, and mounting it, “Wait until they reach the base of the walls. The watch will keep them pinned there for enough time for us to close the gap. We need as many of those wargs dead as possible before we hit them in the back. Even with surprise on our side, it’s going to be tough.”

Esmerelda pursed her lips, and gripped her reins tightly. “I hate this,” she muttered.

“You’ve trusted me this far; don’t falter now.” I put my hand over hers, “We’re only one step to the end, Your Highness.”

She flinched at the honorific, though she did also blush. “Don’t ever call me that, Adrianna.”

“Then what should I call you?” I smiled.

She tried to conceal her smile by gnawing on her lip. “‘Ma’am’ will do fine.”

We watched as the company of wargs formed a crescent formation in the basin. It was a crude rendition of the winged cavalry formation, but it was effective. It concealed their true numbers, made them look more numerous than they were, and presented an easy counterattack to any flanking maneuvers by the enemy. By the time it was halfway across the basin, the formation no longer seemed like a conglomeration of individuals, but a strange shape moving rapidly across the flatlands.

“Shouldn’t an alarm have been sounded by now?” Esmerelda asked.

“We might not have heard it.” I muttered, narrowing my eyes at the wall. The ballistae were static in their positions, the great iron bows relaxed and pointed at the sky.

“Adrianna?” Esmerelda asked, her voice tight in her throat.

“Wait.” I muttered, holding up my hand, “Those weapons are ranged for the Bentius River. They don’t want to tip their hand too soon.”

The crescent coalesced at the bridge, and thundered across it. It took them a minute to traverse the whole span, and they flowed from the end of it like spreading water into the basin.

“Adrianna?!” Esmerelda exclaimed, nearly squealing.

Dog Meat stuck her head out of my cloak, and assessed the situation. “Uh-oh.” She said in her babyish voice.

Adrianna?!” Esmerelda screamed at me.

“Goddamn it, Ternias, you stupid bastard.” I muttered, and drew my sword, “Now!” I kicked my heels into my horse’s flank, and charged into the basin. The rebels flowed after me, all of us riding at full-tilt. The thunder of hooves sounded from the snow-covered ground, and the war-cry of the women carried after it, propelling us ever faster. It didn’t matter. These might’ve been the fastest thoroughbreds in the Highlands, but they were nothing compared to wargs. The black crescent became smaller and smaller before the walls of Bentius. Then it was just a line along the wall’s base. For a moment, it was if they’d disappeared. Then I saw little black dots moving up the wall. One, two, three, four; they shot up the side of the wall as if they were running on flat ground, and one by one, they disappeared over the top. A minute later, all of the black dots were gone.

I looked at Esmerelda as we thundered toward the bridge. She looked back at me with horror writ across her face.

YAVARA

The stadium was silent. The streets were empty. Every able body was put to work building the city’s defenses. Soraya commanded Alexa’s old construction crews as they worked nonstop to erect walls along the river banks and before the docks. Zander cast defensive spells all over the city, while Titus and his black-cloaked vampires laid traps in every corner. Faltia hastily organized thousands of new recruits, while Furia and Eva trained them in sword and bow combat. Brianna ran the supplies crews up and down the newly-built ramparts while Kiera and her crews rushed to get the food from the silos in the fields, to the safety of the castle.

“I can see the Highlanders now.” Arbor said, standing beside me atop the tower, “The horse-riders stand at the edge of the forest. They could be here by nightfall.”

“They’ll wait for the rest of the army and arrive tomorrow.” I muttered, “The same day the Lowlanders come, just as Leveria planned.”

“They will have to go through my woodlands first.” She answered, “I will take my children with me deep into the Pines, and we will thin the herd before it arrives.” Her green and pink eyes seemed distant as they looked out upon the wintery landscape, “None of us will return.”

“Thank you for your sacrifice.”

Arbor regarded me with a clinical and impassive stare. I’d seen her emote nearly like a mortal with Zander and the hybrids, but I only ever got the emotionless forest spirit. I looked back at her, waiting for her to finally break the silence.

“What?” I finally asked.

“I joined you because Elena and Zander convinced me that you would defend my children against the elven invaders. Now all of my children will die defending you against them.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yes, you are.” She said coldly, “Fifteen-hundred years ago, I rejected Alkandi’s allegiance because I did not want to be thrown into the teeth of mortal wars. Still, Alkandi staved off the imperials for centuries. You could not even last the winter. Now I am a marked enemy of the Highlands, and the imperial rangers will hunt my children just as they did the orcs.”

“Not if we win.”

“There is no victory here. You will die, your city will burn, and then the Highlanders and the Lowlanders will chase your people back into the forest, and cull them like animals until they become as savage as they were before. You have changed nothing.”

“I tried to do what was right!”

“What was right for whom?” Arbor cocked her head, “Your people? If you wanted to do right by them, you would have destroyed their enemy when you had the chance. The Highlands? If you wanted to do right by them, you would have extended your hand in peace at the cost of your pride. No, you wanted to do what was right for you, Yavara.”

I rubbed the exhaustion from my eyes, and sighed. “Maybe I don’t know what’s right, Arbor. I just guess who’s right.”

“A tree that bends with the winds will topple to them eventually, but an oak that stands strong will only be strengthened by them. I should have seen what you were before.”

“And what am I?”

“A young palm on a sandy beach. My children deserved so much more.”

I looked into her dispassionate eyes, and smiled. “Fuck you.”

Arbor blinked. “What?”

I laughed. “Fuck you. Fuck. You. You don’t get to judge me. You think you know what’s best for your children? You’ve stunted them completely. They can’t even write their own fucking names. You fostered dependency because you’re a psychotic tree ghost who enslaves her own children and calls it ‘love.’ So go ahead and blame me for their deaths, but blame yourself for their so-called ‘lives.’”

Arbor actually scowled at me. Her purple face turned slightly darker, and her mouth twitched a little. “I have a great desire to hit you right now, Queen Yavara.”

I snorted. “If I struck a nerve, it’s because you know it’s true. You like to speak in candor, but you don’t like to hear it. Do you know what that makes you? A pussy.”

Arbor’s brow furrowed, and her fist tensed. She took a deep inhale through her nose, and said, “Fuck you too.” Then she flew away. I smiled, and watched her go. I was glad we parted on good terms.

ZANDER

Brianna Dedaclia was usually a bubbly girl who gave off the impression of being somewhat of a twit, though she was anything but. She was as cunning and dangerous as all the other hybrids, and her easy-going demeanor was very effective at making people lower their guard. While the rest of the city was in full-blown panic, she issued orders with a smile, laughed easily, and joked to bring levity to the pervading dourness. She was the polar opposite of Leveria Tiadoa.



“How exactly do you expect this to work?” Titus asked me as we watched Brianna in her element, “None of the hybrids will betray Yavara for Leveria even if they believe you.”

“I don’t have time to convince them anyway.”

“So, what’s the plan then?”

I cleared my throat, and looked over my shoulder. Yavara was surveying everything from atop the tower, though I thought it was more likely that she cared less about seeing everyone, and more about everyone seeing her.

“Zander?” Titus asked, “You have a plan, don’t you?”

“I did, but we’re not going through with it. We’re improvising now.”

“We’re going to improvise a coup against the most powerful being in the world?”

“Leveria poked ten holes in my plan the moment I was done explaining it to her. I asked her what we should do instead, and she told me that the best plans are crafted in the wake of opportunity. So, we are waiting for an opportunity.”

Titus raised his brows beneath his black veil. “You’re taking orders from her now?”

“I trust her.”

“Why in god’s name would you do something as foolish as that?”

“I trust her capacity for spite and her willingness to survive. She knows she can’t run from me, so her only way out is through Yavara.”

“Or perhaps she’s hoping you’ll get killed. Like you said, she is a spiteful creature.”

I smiled. “Of course she’s playing all the angles, Drake, but we must trust her now, because that is our only chance.”

“Do you even know what her plan is?”

“She refused to tell me.”

“Brilliant,” Titus sighed, and glanced at Brianna. “So, what kind of opportunity is our little queen waiting for?”

“We need a way to get Brianna alone that won’t attract attention, then we take her.”

“That’s rather difficult when she’s the center of attention.”

“Indeed. Not to mention Kiera is likely to check up on her at any moment, and Yavara is being ever-watchful.”

“And so, the day will slip by us without a single opportunity presented.”

“Then we must create the opportunity ourselves.”

“Ah, so a plan has formed after all.”

I looked out at the calm bay, and muttered an incantation under my breath. A fog formed in the distance, then a ship was borne from it. Immediately, the watchman let out a cry, and the alarm bells were tolled. I looked up at the tower. Yavara’s gaze was fixed on the far horizon, then it levelled on me.

A scouting ship? She asked telepathically.

It’s likely a Lowland illusion. That fog isn’t natural.

I’ll check it out.

Be careful. It could be a trap.

It most certainly is. She answered, and launched from the tower. The entire city surged into chaotic defensive positions as Faltia, Furia and Eva barked orders. Soraya hastily organized her construction crews out of the way, while Kiera made her crews drop their supply caches and sprinted for the cover of the castle. Brianna ran for her command tent, where she would stay throughout the battle to organize the distribution of supplies. It was pertinent that she be readily accessible to all of the couriers during the madness of battle, but upon the onset of the engagement, she was not needed. She parked her ass on a stool, and twiddled her thumbs nervously beneath the table while she smiled and waved at the passing soldiers.

“Opportunity.” Titus mused with a fanged smile.

“Indeed.” I said, and walked over to Brianna’s supply tent. She connected eyes with me a hundred paces away, and though she broke the contact sporadically to encourage passing soldiers, she made it clear that she was aware of me every step of my journey.

“Zander!” She said grandly when I was within the radius of conversation, “What up, bro?”

“I’m just checking to make sure you’ve got all the supplies you need.” I said, walking under the shade of her tent.

“Is that so?” She asked with a twinkle in her eye, “And why were you and Mister Fat-fang spying on me?”

“We were discussing the logistics of battle, and noting how important your role is.”

“Hmm…” she grinned, and put her feet up on the table between us, “I wonder why you’re lying to me?”

I swallowed. “Titus was telling me you have the word ‘Wow’ tattooed around your anus. I wanted to know if he’d managed to capitalize the ‘O.’”

Brianna exploded with laughter. “He did! I don’t call him Mister Fat-fang for his teeth!” She wiped a mirthful tear from her eye, and leveled her amused smile at me. “That was very good, Zander, but I’d like to hear the truth now. Specifically, why I saw your staff glow a second before that mysterious ship appeared in the harbor.”

I snorted. “Who was spying on who, Brianna?”

“I never did trust you, bro. Don’t take it personally.” She pulled out a joint from her cloak, and lit it between her teeth, “Kiera’s watching us right now. I signaled to her ten minutes ago. By now, she’s put two-and-two together. So have I. Whatever you’re doing right now, you don’t want Yavara to know about it.” Brianna grinned around her joint, letting the smoke filter over her face, “If you do anything funny, Kiera’s going to make sure Yavara knows about it. So, let’s hear it, bro.”

I looked over my shoulder, and noted that Keira was indeed, watching us very carefully. I waved to her, smiled, stood up, and walked away from Brianna. I meandered over to Furia, and asked if she needed any help, then I walked briskly over to Faltia to do the same. Brianna and I watched my magical projection do this as we sat at the table, and Kiera watched it from her perch. When she was satisfied, she made eye-contact with Brianna’s magical projection, and nodded. Then, she slipped away to join her crew.

“Wow, man.” Brianna giggled. She took a deep inhale of weed, and blew it out. “Well?” She asked, “What are you going to do to me?”

“I’m going to render you unconscious.”

“That’s it?” She tittered through a smoky exhale, “Shit, bro; I was going to do that myself. Before the lights go out, can you at least tell me why you’re doing it?”

“Yavara’s not the real Dark Queen. Leveria is. I need Leveria to impersonate you so that Yavara will have sex with her, thereby transforming her into a hybrid—but, I’m postulating that Yavara’s transformative powers are actually a product of her unnatural merging with Alkandi, and that Leveria will not just transform, but take Alkandi’s spirit from Yavara entirely, thereby making her the Dark Queen she was always meant to be.”

Brianna blinked, looked at the joint she was smoking, then looked at me. She giggled, farted, and took another drag of her smoke. I put my hand on her foot, and sent her into a state of blissful slumber. Titus scooped her in his arms, and gracefully carried her along the side of the wall, and into the catacombs. I followed behind, allowing the projection of Brianna to play out behind me, before I guided the mirage to get up, walk behind a corner, and disappear.

ELENA

They had found us. A hound yipped and barked outside of the butcher shop, and the watchmen surrounded the windows and doors. We’d barricaded the front door with all the tables and chairs we could get our frantic hands on, and Catherine held the windows together with her spells, shielding the glass from the strikes being dealt by hammers and spear-butts. Mom and I stood behind the counter, an arsenal of heavy objects between us. There were knives, ball-bearings, iron hooks, and buckles.

“Remember,” I said, testing the weight of a hook in my hand, “when they get close, stab first. Go for the face and neck.”

“Face and neck; got it.” Mom echoed; her composure remarkably calm.

Catherine was in a state of full-blown panic, her bulging eyes flitting from window to window, her trembling hands casting spell after spell. Her complexion was ghostly, and her back was bowing as though a weight was upon her shoulders. Every spell she cast bought precious seconds, but it cost her dearly. Still, she sapped herself without thought, firing incantations from her fingers until she was stumbling like a drunk. Her terror had stripped away her sanity.

“Catherine!” I yelled.

She wheeled around. It was like she didn’t recognize me when she looked at me.

“Get back behind the counter!” I ordered.

She blinked at me.

“I said get the fuck back here!”

She turned back around like she hadn’t heard me, and redoubled her efforts. Her hands shot this way and that, and she screamed at the top of her lungs to the watchmen outside, “Stay back! I said stay back! Do you know who I am?! I SAID STAY BACK! I’M WARNING YOU!” Her voice was so shrill that it was a squeak, so rasped with terror that I could hear the blood in it. She cast two more spells that brought her into a deep bow, then two more that dropped her to her knees. She cast one more spell, then collapsed completely, sobbing.

I jumped over the counter as the sounds of breaking glass erupted from the front of the shop. I grabbed Catherine by the hips, and pulled her upright. She was wailing in terror, thrashing manically, the entire front of her gown soaked in her urine.

“Save me, Elena!” She screamed, “I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die!

I hauled her over the counter, set her down behind me and Mom, and whirled to face the front windows. Catherine clawed at my leg, begging me with snot and tears pouring down her face. I ignored her, snatched a ball-bearing from the counter, and hurled it through the broken window. It struck a breaching guardsman right in the face, and he tumbled backwards. Mom grabbed a ball-bearing, and threw it as hard as she could at the other window. The ball bearing went wide-right by five feet, and bounced uselessly to the floor.

I gawked at her. “Mom, what the fuck was that?”

“I never played sports, OK?!” She gave me an irritated look, and hurled another ball-bearing. This one met its mark, dinging off the helmet of a man coming through the right window. “Huh, how about that, Elena?!

“I’ll take the left window!” I yelled, grabbing a hook, “Just keep throwing! Don’t stop!”

I launched the hook across the room. It spun viciously before striking the man in the chest, knocking him backward out the window. I threw another hook, blasting a man in the shoulder as he came through the window. He twirled with a grunt, but he fell forward. Mom’s throw struck the ceiling, and the man it was meant for barreled through the window, and rushed the counter. He launched his spear, Mom ducked, the spear struck the wall behind us, the man drew his sword, Mom grabbed her knife, the man raised his arm, Mom stuck the knife in his throat. He stopped abruptly, a look of utter surprise on his face. Blood trickled from his mouth, and poured from his neck. Mom retracted the knife, and the man stumbled forward. She looked at the crimson blade, then at the man, then at me, an expression of absolute bewilderment on her face.

“Holy shit, I just killed someone!” She gasped, “Elena, I just—LOOK OUT!”

I ducked instinctively just before a spearhead was shoved into my eye. I grabbed a hook from the counter, stood up, and hurled it into the man’s face. It smashed his nose in, and when he opened his mouth to scream, I jammed a butcher’s knife down his throat.

Two more men came through the windows. I struck one in the face with a hurled ball-bearing, and he went down screaming, clutching his crushed cheek. Mom hit a man in the chest with an iron hook, and he took the blow in stride, and rushed around the end of the counter to flank us. He rounded the corner, then his head suddenly shot back, my thrown knife stuck in his eye. He stumbled forward with a groan, then face-planted in the floor, the blade driving through the back of his head.

Goddamn, Elena!” Mom exclaimed, stuck somewhere between impressed and horrified.

“Duck!” I screamed, and pushed Mom out of the way as three crossbow bolts thudded into the wall behind us. The sound of sudden footsteps alerted me to the invasion the archers were covering, and I rolled out from behind the counter, snatched the cleavers from my belt, and whirled into the trio of men. I caught one clean in the face, splitting it in two from forehead to chin. The next man thrusted his spear at my gut, and I had to curve my body around it, my hands and feet making the end of my parabolic arch. Transitioning from the compromising stance, I pirouetted, and brought my cleaver down hard. It chopped the man’s hand clean off, and he screeched, clutching his pumping wrist. The third man was the one whose cheek I’d crushed, and he came at me with a fury. I dodged his spear easily, but my footing was not nearly what it had been before my death. My ankles knocked, I pitched forward, and smashed into the man’s braced shoulder. I was hurled backward, and smashed into the side of the counter, the wind blasted from my lungs. The man raised his spear to make the killing blow, and was suddenly beset upon by a fury of blonde hair. Mom had pounced on the man from atop the counter, wrapped her legs around his head, and was now stabbing him repeatedly in the face as she screamed at the top of her lungs. The man toppled backward, and she landed atop him with both her hands bathed in crimson, both clutching knives that were imbedded in his eye-sockets.

“Goddamn, Mom.” I said, then leapt to my feet, snatched her by the hair, and dragged her backward over the counter just as the door burst open. The chairs and tables we’d jammed in front of the door were blasted to the side, and the morning sunlight exploded into the room, glinting off the helms of the watchmen as they flooded after it. They dropped the battering ram with a mighty thud, drew their swords, and crashed into an invisible shield. Energetic light shot from the fingertips of Catherine Jonias as she lay on the floor behind the counter. Her face was as pallid as paper, her lips were turning blue, and her skin was shriveling, aging her by the second.

“I made a fool of myself, didn’t I?” she croaked, “Screaming and pissing myself like a goddamn toddler.”

“Catherine, you can’t—”

“Shut up!” Catherine yelled, “don’t waste your breath telling me how to die! This is much gentler than what was in store for me with them!” She blinked away her tears, “God, I can’t believe it’s already over. It feels like yesterday I was drawing cartoons in kindergarten.” She looked at me, her expression suddenly nearly frantic again, “What’s it like on the other side? Tell me!”

“Light.” I whispered, “Just a gentle light, a feeling of warmth. That’s all I remember. I don’t think it’s a place for memory.”

She narrowed her tearful eyes. “You’re a lying cunt.”

“It’s the truth.” I croaked, “It’s lonely, but it’s beautiful.”

“Lonely and beautiful.” She muttered, her expression softening, accepting my lie, “I can take that.”

“Oh, Catherine!” I hissed, falling onto her, collecting her in my arms.

“Why did you think I wanted you to hug me?!” She hissed in my ear, “Did I ever seem like the sentimental type to you?”

I laughed into her greying and thinning hair, “Even prickly bitches have soft insides.”

Her bony, arthritic hand touched my chest, and she gently pushed me back. The old woman in my arms stared up at me, the cataracts dulling her once-clear eyes. “You know of death curses?” She whispered.

“Yes?”

“There are also death-blessings.” She extended a knobby finger, and pressed it gently to my sternum, “It’s all I can give you. I return your body to the state it was before you fell from the tower.” She grinned cruelly at me, “This time, don’t fuck it up.”

“I won’t.” I whimpered, “Catherine, I swear I—” but she’d already gone limp in my arms.

“Elena?” Mom asked, her hands trembling around the knives she held.

I took two deep breaths through my nostrils, and felt my lungs fill fully for the first time since my rebirth. My heart beat steadily, my muscles electrified, and my nerves remembered my body like they used to, knowing every reflex and motion, every strike and stance.

“Stay behind me, Mom.” I muttered, and stood up, the meat cleavers ready in my hands. The shield around us disappeared. I saw it happen in slow-motion. The ethereal bubble thinned to nothing, revealing the faces of the watchmen surrounding our counter. I didn’t recognize any of them, but I could see that they recognized me. They remembered the hybrid at the top of the tower. They remembered how she’d slaughtered them by the dozens before she fell. It was a face that had tormented them in their nightmares, and the great relief they felt in their waking moments was the knowledge that she was dead and gone forever. I saw the horror cross their faces, and I knew which men these were. I grinned.

“Oh shit—” were the last words of the first man before I leaped over the counter, and split his throat right in half. He gargled and clutched the new smile beneath his chin, crimson flowing between his fingers, dripping onto my face as I decelerated into a crouch, and launched myself into the fray. I went low. My cleavers hacked through shins and calves, split kneecaps, sliced tendons from heels, and carved through the bellies of hamstrings and quadriceps. The watchmen stabbed frantically at the floor, but I was already gone, a scurrying spider too fast to catch, too dark to see in the sharp contrast of morning’s light. Dust speckled the sun rays that illuminated the room, casting the shapes of broken doors and windows onto the floor, and I stayed at their edges, living and killing in the deep shadows, those shadows that still had much of the night still left in them. I scurried between a man’s legs, and chopped upward into his crotch. As he went down screaming, I rolled into the window’s square of light, darted away from a thrusted spear, and reemerged behind my assailant as he frantically looked for me, his eyes struggling to adjust from light to dark. I carved out his voice-box, and his gurgled shriek alerted everyone to where I was, but I was already gone.

I climbed a man from behind, and planted a kiss on his cheek before slicing his throat. He went down backwards, and I darted out from his fall to bury my cleaver right into another man’s shin. His leg came clean off, and I skidded by his planted foot as the rest of him tumbled forward. Moving with my momentum, I caught my heels in the edge of an elevated plank of wood, carried myself into a roll, and swung as I spun. I sliced through a breastplate and chainmail with such ease that his guts felt like cutting through butter. As his intestines unwound themselves upon the floor, I pivoted on my palm, and changed direction before the next man could bring his sword to where I would’ve been. I planted my foot into his face with the back swing, and when he lurched to the side, my cleaver was waiting for him. I split his face from eye to lip, dividing his nose grotesquely before I brought the other cleaver around the back to sever his spine. I rolled over his back as he went down, and brought both blades down on the trapezius of the stunned man behind him. His shoulders slumped, now disconnected, and I swung from the hooks I’d made of my knives, launched myself between his legs, and pitched him violently forward as I extracted my knives. I opened my legs just in time to avoid a spear that would’ve punctured my thighs. The spearhead imbedded in the wood, and I chopped the haft away as the man tried to yank it free, sending him flailing backward into his comrades. I used my cleavers as climbing hooks to ascend his body, then jumped over the top, cut one man’s head clean off, and cleaved a jaw right from another’s face. Dropping into a combat roll, I twirled to chop the knees out from three men, then pivoted forward, and launched myself at a fourth. He tried to catch me, but I’d removed his hands mid-flight, and when I landed in his embrace, his pumping stumps slid off my back. I returned the hug, imbedding both blades into his lats, and I ripped across to open his dorsal muscles for all to see. His gripping arms flopped uselessly, and I licked his stunned face before flipping over the top of him, and imbedding both knives into the top of the next man’s skull.

For a moment, the room was clear. More than a dozen men lay dead or screaming on the floor. Blood had leaked out to fill the spaces between them, pooling and crusting into the dusty cracks and grains of the boards. Mom was still behind the counter, blinking bewilderedly. The entire fight had lasted seven seconds. From her perspective, it likely looked as though the men were being felled like trees by a blur of darkness. It took her a moment for her eyes to find me.

“Oh, there you are,” she said, in the same tone she might’ve if she’d momentarily lost me at the marketplace.

“Here I am.”

She clutched her butcher’s knife, and examined a wounded man holding what was left of his guts in. “That seemed rather rude of you.”

“I guess I should apologize.”

“Is he going to be OK?”

“Are you serious right now?”

“I just want to know if I should… you know…” she made a stabbing motion, “…send him on his way.”

“He’ll get there on his own.” I muttered, wiping my cleavers clean on my gown, “And it’ll be too soon.”

“Good god, Elena.” Mom gasped, giving me an expression of maternal concern, “You and I are going to need counseling after this.”

I laughed. “You think so?! I thought our relationship was quite normal and healthy.”

Her lips quirked impishly. “I guess you’re right. Our poor therapist would need therapy after one session with us.”

I sighed, and eyed the watchmen marshaling at the door’s entrance. “We’ll have to fight our way out, or they’ll just block the doors and set the place on fire.”

“How many of them are out there?”

“By now? Probably all of them.”

“We’re going to die here, aren’t we?” She asked quietly.

I gave her a solemn smile.

“Was it true then, what you said to Catherine?”

“It might be,” I said, and readied my cleavers, “like I told her, Mom; I don’t remember it.”

“You lied to her.”

“I guess you’ll have to find out for yourself.”

“Elena!” She yelled. I whirled my head at her. She blushed a little, then said with a little voice, “I love you.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

She raised the butcher’s knife she had clutched it both hands, the blade quivering terribly. “Shall we go kill some fine young gentlemen then?” She asked.

I held out my hand. “We shall.” She took it, and I kissed her deeply. As our lips and tongues moved in contest, the waning echo of bells could be heard tolling from all over the lower wards.

ADRIANNA

I could hear the chaos from the other side of the wall. I could hear the roar of wargs, the laughter of orcs, and the screams, oh god, the screams! Shrieks so shrill I could hear the agony in them, the blood gurgling in the throats, the change in octave that sounded when the belly was opened. The panic, the agony, and the horror—that realization that comes when the mortal wound has been dealt—all creating such an awful harmony. It seemed like it took me forever to fish into my sack, and grab the grappling hook. Every second was filled with those hellish wails. The men bellowed, the women shrieked, and the children squealed. God, they sounded like pigs! I cocked back my elbow, and whirled the hook over my head, trying to block out the noise. I tied Dog Meat to the saddle, tossed the hook into the gate’s grating, and hauled myself bodily from the horse. Scaling the gate took an eternity, and it was only half the distance to the top of the wall. When I got to the grating, I had to hold myself against the bars with one hand, and toss the hook up with my other. I missed. The hook finished its arc five feet short of the wall’s top, and came plummeting back toward me. I flattened myself against the wall to avoid it, and caught the rope as it passed me by. All the while, the screams sounded. Collecting the rope in my one free hand, I whirled the hook again, and launched it. This time, my aim and strength were truer, and I felt the reassuring tension in the line when I gave it a hard tug. Trusting to the hook’s hold on the battlements above, I put my full weight on the rope, and began to climb once more.

I topped the wall after an exhausting and terrifying ascent, and raced toward the pulley. I kicked the lever, and the great weights fell from their constraints, turning the gears that ticked open the gate below. The wrought-iron gate opened, and the rebels poured in, roaring a myriad of war-cries over the thunder of hooves. But there was no enemy to face. The wargs had leapt from the rooftops, and scaled the second wall. Even now, I could hear the familiar discordant cacophony in the next ward. But I could see it in this one. Doors hung from hinges, windows were smashed in, houses and apartments were ablaze. Pieces of people lay in pools of blood, squirming and writhing with what life was left in them. The dead and wounded littered the street, leaving no cobblestone unbloodied.

“Adrianna!” Esmerelda screamed from below, “We need to open the second gate!”

The second wall was half as tall as the first, but it might as well have been a thousand feet high. By the time I descended the first wall, raced across the ward, and ascended the second, the wargs would already be in the ward above. As my thoughts processed, the screams cut through the air, accompanying the horrific roars and snarls of the feasting wolves.

ADRIANNA!” Esmerelda screamed.

“Sasha!” Dog Meat cried from my horse, “Call for Sasha!” Dog Meat wiggled her stumps frantically, and howled like a wolf, then yelled, “Call for Sasha, Adri!”

Not knowing what else to do, I let out a long and mournful howl. It sounded nearly as ridiculous as it felt, but when I stopped, I was answered with a howl from the next ward. A minute later, Sasha lumbered over the wall, raced past the stunned elves below, and scaled the first wall in five great vertical leaps. She was panting when she got up to me, and her breath stank of death. Bits of fresh meat and torn clothing hung in her razor-sharp teeth, and blood covered her muzzle. I knotted my fist into her fur, and threw myself across her back. I kicked my feet into her haunches, and she leapt off the top of the wall, and landed on a building twenty feet below. I didn’t even have time to scream before she’d already jumped another thirty vertical feet, her great paws softening her landing, her great muscles decelerating into a crouch. When I got to street-level, I passed the elven rebels in a blur, but not fast enough to see the looks of utter hatred they gave me. The women I’d trained, the women I’d lain with, and the officers I’d groomed, all stared at me with the same dagger-sharp gaze of betrayal, but Esmerelda’s look was one of pure guilt.

LEVERIA

I looked at the sleeping beauty Zander had laid on my bed, and sighed. God, Brianna was hot. On her worst day, she was way hotter than me on my best day. Even snoring loudly with a small dribble of snot coming out of her nose, she was hotter than me.

“Well, wake her up.” I said.

“What?” Zander asked.

“I’m a great liar, Zander, not a great actor. If I’m to impersonate this woman, I’ll need to meet her first. So far, my only interaction with her was when she pissed on my face.”

“That was fun to watch.” Certiok sneered.

I ignored her, and looked at Zander. “Wake her up.”

“We don’t have much time.”

“I only need to ask her a few questions, then you can knock her out again.”

Zander nodded, and touched Brianna’s temple. Her eyes fluttered open; blue irises rimmed with bloodshot red. She was high as a kite. Her dilated pupils focused on me, and she giggled.

“Oh shit,” she croaked, “it’s the Dark Queen!”

I smiled at her. “You’re the funny one, aren’t you?”

The funny one?” She snorted, “Aw man, no one wants to be the funny one! Why can’t I be the mysterious one, or at least the damaged one?”

I noted her affectations, and the way her lips curled when she smiled, and mimicked them to the best of my abilities. She watched me bemusedly. “Are you making fun of me?”

“Is that what you think I’m doing?”

“I have no idea what the hell you’re doing.” Brianna giggled, “Bro, I don’t know what the fuck’s going on right now!”

“Are you frightened?”

“I’m freaking out a little bit.”

I pulled out the knife she’d had in her belt, and rested it against her throat. “Can you please show me fear?” I asked.

Her eyes flashed dangerously. “Yes,” she said. In less time than it took for me to blink, she’d snatched my wrist, twisted the knife toward me, and rammed it into my neck. The blade shattered against Zander’s arcane shield, and Brianna’s hand recoiled. Titus was on her in a flash, snatching her arms and holding them over her head while Certiok scrambled to secure her ankles.

“You too, bro?” Brianna giggled up at Titus, “This shit must be serious if he got you roped into it. And Certiok?! Holy shit, girl, what the fuck?”

“Hold still, Brianna!” Certiok growled, then darted her eyes at me, “Why did you do that?!”

“To see her reaction to danger.” I said, watching Brianna carefully, “If Yavara questions my identity, I’ll need to know how Brianna would react to it.”

“You’d think a transgendered racially-altered combat veteran might have enough identity issues as it is.” Brianna chortled.

“That’s a fantastic response, thank you, Brianna.”

“You’re welcome,” she tittered, then grinned wickedly at me, “And to top it all off, I even have an evil alter-ego.”

Her red-rimmed eyes became completely red, and her bronze flesh turned suddenly pale. In an instant, she was two feet taller, laced with muscle, and rippling with power. She kicked Certiok clear across the room with just a twitch of her leg, and nearly tossed Titus through the ceiling before he got ahold of her. Though he was the more experienced vampire, she was the more experienced soldier, and she grappled with him until she was wrapped around his back with his neck in the vice of her elbow. She might’ve torn his head clean off had Zander not put a spell on her. She collapsed onto the bed, still giggling manically, and she changed back into her elf form with a merry sigh.

“Fuck!” Certiok cried, clutching her side, “Brianna, you fucking bitch, you broke my fucking ribs!”

“Oh, so you are real!” Brianna tittered, “I just assumed all of you were either Zander’s projections, or Kiera laced that joint with LSD.”

“Goddamn it!” Titus yelled, rubbing his neck, “You fucking ungrateful bitch, using my gift against me!”

“That’s what you get when you cross a gangsta, motha fuckaaaaaah!” Brianna howled.

“Calm yourself, Brianna.” I said, putting my hand on her shoulder.

She glanced at my trembling hand, then back up at me. “I’m perfectly calm, but you look like you need some medication. I got the good stuff in my right pocket.”

“That’s very kind of you.” I said, and slid my hands together to mask how terribly they were shaking. “Now, I’d like you to tell me about Kiera.”

Brianna’s jovial attitude faltered slightly. “What about her?”

“You obviously love her. You carry her child. Why don’t you tell me what your relationship is like?”

Brianna slid her eyes across the room, then back to me. “Why don’t you tell me about Elena?”

“What?”

“Us girls talk, you know. Furia told me that you and Elena were more than just fuck-buddies.” Her red-rimmed irises studied me carefully, “She told me other interesting things too.”

“Like what?”

“Like that you told her Yavara had gone batshit crazy, and was going to fake an attack on the horde as an excuse to burn Bentius.” Brianna said, then looked from me, to Zander. “Did you hear about that?”

Zander nodded.

“And you believe it?”

“I do.” He lied coolly.

Brianna turned to Certiok. “And you?”

“I’m not sure.” She lied noncommittally.

“And you, Mister Fat-fang?”

“It’s quite possible.” Titus lied rationally.

“What do you believe, Brianna?” I asked.

Brianna contemplated me without emoting anything. “Hmm… that is an interesting question. You see, I know firsthand that Yavara is one-hundred-percent batshit fucking crazy. I don’t know if she’s bipolar, or if she has severe attachment issues, or if she’s just a megalomaniacal nymphomaniac, but something isn’t going right upstairs. Then again, you’re not exactly a trustworthy source either, are you?” She looked from Certiok, to Titus, to Zander, then back to me, “But for some reason, these three geniuses bought your bullshit, so maybe I’d like a sample.”

“What does that mean?”

“Feed me your bullshit, Leveria.”

“If I win, you might live. If I lose, you’ll all die.”

She smirked. “It’s that simple?”

“It’s that simple.”

“And what’s your grand plan once you take Yavara’s mantle—if you can, that is?”

“I’m not telling you.”

She looked at the other occupants in the room. “Have you told anyone?”

“No,” they said in unison.

Brianna looked back to me. “So I’m just supposed to trust you against two armies and a psychotic god-queen?”

“That’s right.”

Brianna elevated her hand, formed a fist, and extended her pinky out. “Pinky swear on that shit, bro.” She whispered.

I linked pinkies with her. “I hereby pinky swear on it.”

“Right on.” Brianna nodded solemnly, “So, do you got enough material to be me for an afternoon?”

“I think I totally do, bro.”

She smiled, transformed into a vampire, then transformed back. “Kiera’s my blood-mother. She was waiting outside the cellblock to kill you, but now she’s been updated with the newest info. She’ll be your chaperone while you’re me.”

“I don’t need a chaperone.”

“But you’ve got one.” Brianna smiled in such a way as to broach no argument, then looked to Zander and Titus. “You two better get out there before Yavara wonders where you went.” Brianna snuggled into my bed, reached into her robes, and pulled out a perfectly-rolled marijuana cigarette, “I’ll just chill here while you’re out being me, Leveria. Guess I’m no one now.” She giggled at the thought, and put the spliff between her teeth. “Far-fucking-out, man.”

YAVARA



The ship evaporated the moment I got to it. In its wake, there was only the sea. The great blue expanse stretched to the horizon, opening from the mouth of the bay like a vase to pour over the world. Its surface was glassy and calm, remarkably so, painting a mirror for the blue sky. Nobody knew what existed on the other end of the Eastern Sea. The summer isles crested Tenvalia just twenty miles off, but beyond them, nobody knew. Was there another continent? Balamora resided a thousand miles off Tenvalia’s western coast; perhaps two-thousand miles off the western coast, there was an even larger continent. What mysteries would lie there? What wonders? What people? If I went there, no one would know my name. No one would know what I’d been, or what I’d done.

I looked down at my reflection. “What tethers hold me here?” I asked myself.

I reached down, and dipped my toe in the water. A ripple passed over my face, and I remembered that day I walked along the banks of the Knife River on route to Castle Thorum. I had filled my canteen in the stream, and a ripple had passed over my eyes, turning them from blue to orange. I thought it was a trick of the light at the time, and perhaps it was, but now as the ripples passed over my face, I saw my eyes transition from orange to blue, then to orange again, and I felt a terrible pang of nostalgia. I had been but a girl then, and my entire life seemed to be in front of me, vast and unknowable, frightening, but filled with hope. It wasn’t even a year since then, but everything seemed to have changed. I had accomplished so much, and in so doing, I had burned through a lifetime’s worth of future in just months. I was tired. I was nineteen years past my birth, and I felt old. I looked out to the eastern horizon, and felt a smile crease my lips. I could be young out there. I could be wild and free, unconstrained by guilt and regret, lighthearted and brilliant like the sun that rose above that horizon.

I looked back at the castle built in my honor, at the city that had been made just for me, and all I saw was a prison. How strange it was, that just a bit of distance and perspective could make me a different person. Out here, it was all so clear, but in there, everything was shrouded in a fog. When had I become so callous? When had I become so vengeful? Where exactly had I strayed from myself, and become a creature determined by everyone else?

“When did I stop being me?” I whispered. Elena made me love. Leveria made me hate. Brock made me feel empowered. Zander made me feel naïve. Prestira made me feel daring. Adrianna made me feel forgiving. Patricia made me feel maternal. What did I make me feel? Where was Yavara?

“What did you take from me, Alkandi?” I asked to the void. I looked down at my reflection again, and saw only the bronze woman with orange eyes. She was a stranger. I looked out at the city once more, and let out a long, slow breath. I was no one. I searched for myself in others, and found no kinship or sameness at all. Only someone I would want to be, or something I would want to feel. A beast of sensation, a whore of emotion. I floated back to my destiny with my shoulders drooped, wishing I had it in me to just go the other way. But deep down, I knew that I wouldn’t find what I sought on the other side of the sea.

ELENA

I shot through the door, ducked a spear thrust, and cleaved through a man’s shin, pitching him forward with his foot still planted firmly in the snow. I rose up in an arc, split another man’s chin through his cleft, then spun around him with my blade arcing wide, and slashed a man’s throat all the way to his spine. I plastered myself to my victim to avoid a sword thrust, and the man’s weapon pierced his comrade’s side, sending a shrill scream from his lips. As that man tried to pull his weapon free from his friend, I chopped his arm off just below the elbow, keeping the weapon stationary, the hand still gripping the hilt. I squirmed out of a chokehold just in time, sent my heel into the assailant’s balls, and dove forward with the blow, letting the man who was about to put a spear in my guts put it through the eye of the doubled-over wrestler behind me. I traveled along the spear’s haft to its bearer. His eyes barely had time to register me before I’d cloven his face, then I spun around him with my meat-cleavers held out like fan blades, and I slashed open a pair of leather-armored bellies to let all the pink goo flop out.

Mom stayed three paces behind me, cleaning up the mess I made with two-handed jabs to the throat. She was remarkably calm in the frenzy, and oddly polite about the whole ordeal. Clutching her long butcher’s knife with both hands, she bent over at the hips, and carefully lined up her shot before dealing the executioner’s blow. I thought I even heard her say, ‘sorry’ a few times.

I ducked a saber swing, whirled around the man, sliced above his hip, then came around to deal the death blow to the back of his head. As he pitched forward, the next man before me swung overhand with an axe, forcing me to sidestep. My cleaver met his neck, and our combined momentum sent his head toppling from his shoulders. Moving around him, I blocked an upward strike between my crossed blades, crouched before a decapitating swipe, then swung my body on the axis of my cleavers, slid through the man’s legs, and brought my cleavers around to separate both his knees. I came up on my skidding heels, cleaved a man’s face, dodged a spear thrust, hopped on the half-faced man’s shoulders, and sprung onto the unwary man behind him. I caught him in an embrace, locked my blades around his head, and with the corners of my knives, I scored the entire circumference of his neck. His comrade thrusted a sword at me, and I swung to the side, letting the man take the blade in his chest so that I could whirl around his back, and avenge him. My cleavers separated the assailant’s shoulders, and I used his body to knock back the man behind him, leap over them both, and spin into a mass of watchmen.

They were all around me, but none of them knew where I was. I ducked and dodged, weaved between them easily, and cut my way through the fray. Crimson sprayed from every direction, flung about golden armor and pale faces, speckling the white snow as the bodies dropped one by one. I whirled and pirouetted, a dancer of blades, a painter of blood, moving with such sinuous motions that I was like liquid between them. I didn’t brawl my way through the mass, but contoured to their bodies, flowed in the empty spaces, drifted seamlessly through the path of least resistance. All the while, my hands moved on their own, bringing the blades around, slicing and cleaving, slashing and gashing, passing through flesh and bone without effort. I was a whirlwind of death, but I wasn’t inexhaustible. The cleavers were becoming heavier by the second, my steps were becoming more sluggish, and my reactions were slowing. I hadn’t been touched by the enemy yet, but I knew the strike would come soon. I didn’t think about it. I was only in the moment between breaths and heartbeats, dancing with my partners until the music stopped. The bells tolled out from the lower wards, louder than before, and I stepped in time with the discordant metallic drone.

ADRIANNA

I summited the second wall, and kicked the gate lever open. The gate rose in a succession of metallic ticks, and the rebels poured in. The wargs and their riders paid no heed to the screaming women on horseback, and continued their gleeful slaughter. Two wargs wrestled with the degloved remains of a mother before her screeching children. Another warg dragged a man by his entrails. Four orcs jubilantly shortened the outstretched limbs of a man while a fifth forced himself upon the man’s screaming wife, holding her head up so that she had to watch. It was hell, and I was somehow numb to it already.

I calmly drew my bow, and notched my arrow. From two-hundred yards away, straddling atop a moving beast, I steadied my aim with two successive breaths, and waited for the moment between heartbeats. I loosed. The arrow shot from my string, flew into the air, descended through the buildings, and pierced the eye of a wolf below. The great beast pitched suddenly forward, its momentum carrying it into a tumble. The rider was sent flailing off its back, smacked onto the cobblestones, and was then crushed in a splatter by the lifeless one-ton body that landed upon him. The other orcs turned around just in time to catch the volley of arrows sent from the front ranks of the rebels.

High-elves were the best archers in the world, especially on horseback, and the back ranks of the beasts were mowed down in a second, a dozen falling in porcupined piles. The front row of horsewomen peeled off for the second row to fire, then the third, then the fourth. I had trained them to do it, and the first few formations were perfect, sending volley after volley without reprieve, but the fifth formation stumbled when one of the riders missed her cue, and it was all the hesitation the wargs needed.

The great wolves pounced into the ranks of horses, and began tearing through walls of flesh with their claws and teeth. The shrieks of horses and women rang out, and the formation abruptly stopped. The riders packed into each other, losing all momentum, and the wargs prowling the tops of buildings leapt onto the rows of prey. With massive swings of their forepaws, they tore through horses and riders like butter, showering their victims with sprays of comingled blood. Their claws cut through flesh and bone with equal ease, leaving grotesque notches deep into the bodies of those they met. One woman had her entire ribcage torn clean out, another’s awful was sent unraveling into the air, a third woman’s entire front was torn from her body, opening her like a cadaver for all to see her still-pumping heart and dropping organs. As the wounded shrieked, their brethren moved frantically into position, harrying the beasts with uncoordinated spear thrusts that did little but draw the beasts’ terrible ire. The wolves snapped their great jaws, and the horses neighed in a bloodcurdling pitch. The wolves’ bite profiles were ripped in the horses’ flesh, allowing me to see the alignment of canine teeth by the horrifically-clean removal of muscle and bone.

I kicked my heels into Sasha’s haunches, and propelled her onto the rooftops below. Reaching backward into my quiver, I collected three arrows between my knuckles, and loosed them in quick succession. The first one sent a rider careening off his mount, the second pinned the wolf’s forepaw to the roof shingles, and the third went into his heart. Pulling out another three, I took aim at two predators tearing through the equestrian mass. As I rounded them atop the roof, I loosed, taking one wolf in the back of its head, and the other in the spine. Five riders at the end of the building saw me, and they turned their ferocious mounts around, and charged. I collected three more arrows, and loosed.

The first one was imbedded into a warg skull, sending the great beast toppling forward, crushing her rider. The second arrow went through the eye of another wolf, causing him to pitch forward violently, flinging his rider like a catapult into the fray below. The third arrow missed its mark, skidded of the thick brow of the wolf, and imbedded into the knot of muscle at her hump. They closed the distance between us in more time than it took my heart to beat once more. In that space of time, I collected three more arrows, drew them, and loosed. The first went into a warg’s open maw, shooting through flesh and bone to exit his skull. The second went into another’s neck, causing a reflex that send both wolf and rider skidding off the side of the building. Before I could launch the third, the warg leapt. His great paws were outstretched, the knife-like claws retracted before his gaping mouth, the snarling nose peeling back the lips to reveal the black gums and ivory teeth. I leaned backward, keeping my legs clenched around Sasha as she charged forward, and I loosed the final arrow. For a moment, my attacker and I were in symmetry. The warg was airborne above me, her great jaws snapping at the place where my head had been. I was on my back atop Sasha, watching the warg pass me from above, the fur of her underside grazing my face. Her chest, belly and crotch all flew over me, and her tail swished by me a moment later. She hit the rooftop behind me, and tumbled for ten yards, flinging pieces of her crushed rider everywhere. When she came to a sliding stop with my arrow imbedded in her eye, there was nothing left of the orc that once rode her.

Esmerelda was in the fray with the rest, frantically stabbing at a surrounded wolf and rider. Five of the great beasts lay dead from a hundred wounds, but the tole they’d exacted from the rebels was great. At least fifty horses and women were left in pieces on the cobblestones, many of them still horrifically alive. The rest of the rider descended upon the last warg in a frenzy, so mad from the battle that they threw themselves bodily against the beast until it finally disappeared beneath them. A cheer rose up when the death cry of the monster sounded, but it was a dispirited celebration. Of the one-hundred and five wargs in the pack, we’d only managed to kill twenty-two. The rest had scaled the third wall, and likely the fourth as well in the time it took for us to prevail.

Esmerelda assembled her riders, and charged them to the third gate. They were truly her soldiers once more, though it mattered little. What was the prize of victory now? For among the fifty-something dead riders and twenty-two dead wolves, were hundreds—maybe thousands—of dead citizens. Men, women and children who had packed the roadways in the bustling morning, who had laughed and joked and yelled over each other as they sold their wears, shopped, worked, or simply enjoyed a clear winter’s morning. Never had they imagined such horror would befall them, and by the shock on their faces, I could see that they still couldn’t believe it. They just stared slackly at the rebels that rode to the next gate. They stared at Esmerelda as she solemnly led the charge. There were no rose petals for the savior rebel cavalry, nor even calls of thanks. Only silence adulated the glorious horsewomen, and only glazed eyes bore witness to their triumph. Those eyes fell on me, but they didn’t linger for long. I was a devil bestrode a hellhound, and though they had watched me save their lives, they saw well that I was the harbinger of their horror. It was impossible to hide.

LEVERIA

Kiera was casually sharpening her dagger on the stones just outside of the catacombs. When she saw me, she snorted like I was a joke, and continued sharpening her blade. “You almost got the walk down,” she said, watching the sparks come off the steel, “but I guess you can’t fake seven years of ranger training. Your hips move right, but your feet are all wrong.”

I stopped five paces from her, and folded my arms over my new chest. I was just as bronze as the hermaphrodite in front of me, and quite a bit more buxom, but I lacked the easy confidence they all had, and it was impossible to fake.

Kiera glanced up at me. “You gonna come out and play, Your Highness?

“You gonna stab me the moment I come out, bro?

She grinned, her incisors still a little too long. “I might stab you with something else. It wouldn’t be strange if I manhandled you in the middle of the street, and fucked you senseless. Brianna and I like to get rough in public sometimes.”

“I think I’ve got you beat in the ‘getting rough in public’ category.”

She laughed. “I suppose so.” She twirled the knife between her fingers with expert precision, then scabbarded it. I took five tentative steps out of the catacombs, and into the sunlight. For three days, my time had been spent either in the catacombs, or in the arena above. It was where I expected the rest of my life to take place, and so my entire universe had shrunk into it. Stepping onto the Alkandran streets felt akin to stepping into a new dimension, and I felt a strange wave of nausea hit me when my entire body was exposed to the sun.

“That’s perfect!” Kiera laughed, “That look right there—that’s how Brianna looks every time she walks into a new room after she’s blazed herself senseless.”

“I want to go back into my hole and curl into a ball.”

“Yeah, you’ve definitely got some serious life-altering trauma,” Kiera said companionably, and took me under her arm, “you’ll probably never get over it. You’ll probably spend the rest of your life waking up in the middle of the night covered in cold sweat and screaming your lungs out. You’ll probably have to kill yourself just to make the demons go away.”

“You’re very helpful.”

“I’m sorry, was I supposed to be helpful?” Kiera asked slyly, “I was under the impression that I was supposed to make sure you didn’t try to run away.” Something sharp poked me in the back, “You can’t outrun me, Leveria. Not if you get a ten-mile head start. Remember that.”

“You don’t need to tell me.” I growled.

She put her lips to my ear, and whispered, “Also remember that the only reason I’m not dragging you to Yavara right now, is because Brianna vouched for you. I love Brianna with all my heart, but her judgement can be poor. If I think she’s wrong about you, I’ll make my own call.”

“Because your judgement’s so great?”

“That’s right.”

“You’ve got a little cocaine leaking out of your nose.”

She snorted, and grinned. “Try not to get me too paranoid, Your Highness.” She slid the blade between my asscheeks, and giggled when I shuddered, “Who knows what I’ll do?”

She walked us down the boulevards, which were mercifully vacant while the city was on lockdown. Passing guardsmen saluted us, and we raised our fists back. Some men even asked for our blessing, and I confusedly followed Kiera’s lead as she pulled out her breast, and squirted milk into the orcs’ faces.

“Something you need to remember, Leveria,” Kiera muttered as we walked hastily around the bend, “is that people expect something of you every time they see you. Keep your fucking chin up, and acknowledge them without hesitation. Shyness is fear, and beasts can sniff out fear a mile away. Want some coke?”

“I think I’m fine.”

Kiera did a bump off her finger, and blinked furiously for a moment. “Oh my god,” she gasped, “I forgot to say goodbye to Arbor! What the fuck is wrong with me?! Here, hold this.” She pulled open her robe, uncaring that her cock waggled out for all to see, and she began rummaging through her pockets. She handed me three used syringes, a bent spoon, four bags of questionable substances, two dildoes, three butt-plugs, and a box of tampons. Finally she pulled out a wad of pine needles. She sprinkled them on the ground, kicked off her shoes, then stepped barefooted on them. “Arbor,” she said, talking to the sky, “it’s me—well, obviously you know it’s me. Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I’ll always count you as my friend, and if I get through this shit somehow, I’ll be waiting for you to come chill or something. So… yeah. Goodbye for now, you big beautiful bitch.” She collected the pine needles from the ground, then sequestered her paraphernalia from my hands. She did another bump of coke, blinked furiously, then gurned her jaw for a second before blowing air through her cheeks.

“Alright!” She said, collecting herself, “What’s the plan, huh? Brianna said you need to fuck Yavara for some weird reason.”

“That’s… yeah, that’s the plan.”

“Cool,” Kiera sniffed loudly, “alright, alright, alright. So, you into incest or something?”

“It’s kind of my thing.”

“Cool-cool-cool…” Kiera trailed off, looking at the sky, “yeah, I think I’ll probably fuck my daughter when she’s of age, you know? Be the one to teach her. Be the first one inside of her. Brianna will be there too. It’ll be a super wholesome family experience. Fuck, I’m getting hard just thinking about it.” She patted her pregnant belly, and laughed, “And of course, Aunt Furia and I will be there for your first time, you little bastard.” She beamed proudly at her pregnancy bulge, then up at me, “First dark-elf male in history right here; can you imagine the cock this kid’s gonna have? Ever since he’s been inside me, my libido’s been off the fucking charts!” She thrusted her cock at me, “Why don’t you give me one of those famous royal blowjobs?”

“Uh… what?”

“Eva was raving about how great you suck dick ever since you blew her. So, wifey…” Kiera twerked her brows, “…perform your matrimonial duties.”

“You want me to suck your dick… right now?”

“Your ears work very well, Leveria, congratulations. Yes, I want you to suck my dick, right here in the middle of the street, right now.” She gave me a sly look, “Brianna wouldn’t have to be asked twice, you know. People might start getting suspicious.”

I glowered at her, then pulled my robe off, folded it twice, and made a cushion for my knees at Kiera’s feet. I knelt there, and Kiera laced her fingers in my hair, and guided me forward. I had to admit, her cock was absolutely beautiful. It was a lovely shade of bronze, well-proportioned and tastefully veined, with skin so supple that it almost made the masculine organ seem feminine. It was very-much like Eva’s in that regard, and Elena’s. Putting me in that mindset made it very easy to close my eyes, open my lips, and slide her inside me.

“Oh, shit…” she groaned breathily, and slid her fingers deeper into my mane. I smiled around her girth, enjoying the way her delicate cock-flesh pulsed and throbbed within the soft suction of my lips, savoring the way her precum dribbled upon my tongue, melting like butter as I took her into my throat. The cold air caressed my body, making me aware of my nudity with the wind between my moist thighs and pert nipples. I could feel people’s eyes on me, but it didn’t bother me. It excited me. I slid one hand between Kiera’s legs, and penetrated the slit behind her cock with my middle and index fingers. She thrusted against me, smooshing my muzzle into her crotch, and I inhaled her wonderful scent, and rotated my lips around her base, swallowing around the bulge in my neck.

“Goddamn it, Leveria.” Kiera whined, “Gah! Fuck! Eva was right about you!”

I moaned around my consumption, and slid my other hand down my belly, through my mound, and into my tight depths. My fingers were wet with just a mere graze, and they squelched when they entered me, seeking that spot I knew so well. As the point of my tongue teased Kiera’s underside, the end of my thumb rubbed my stiff clit until my thighs were shaking. I pressed against Kiera’s insides, beckoning her forward, and I pulled and plunged with my mouth, drawing my lips up and down, sucking so tightly that my cheeks were drawn gaunt, and vulgar slurps emanated from my oral seal. I made it nasty. Spit dribbled down my chin, dribbled in bubbly rivulets onto my chest, and fell from the point of my nipple to speckle my robe, joining the droplets of feminine nectar that salivated from my violated netherlips. Kiera groaned and purred, whined and whimpered, and held onto my head for dear life. She didn’t try to force me to her liking, but recognized a master at her craft, and guided me through her desires through suggestion. I acquiesced when I felt like it, but in truth, I knew what she needed better than she did, and every little perverted surprise put her deeper into my lustful control. I was so enamored with my lecherous consumption, that I didn’t notice the sound of approaching footsteps. When I felt the presence behind me, it was too late to make a strategic exit. Surrendering myself to the role of Brianna, and pulling from my experiences of lustful helplessness in the arena, I widened my squat, reached further back with my molesting fingers, and opened my cheeks in invitation. I just hoped the lucky son of a bitch had the decency to spit first.

“All that bitching you do about the cold in the castle, and I find you out here in nothing but your shoes?” Yavara chuckled behind me.

It was a testament to my method acting that I didn’t gag and barf all over Kiera’s cock right there.

Kiera knotted her fist in my hair, and pushed her cock deep into my throat. “She’s already numb from head to toe anyway,” Kiera laughed through her moan, “we’ve snorted enough powder to dust a ski slope.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t.” Yavara admonished.

“What is it with you and drugs?”

“I don’t care what or who you put in your body, but you’re both living for two now.”

“For another day, at least.” Kiera groaned, and smeared her crotch all over my face, keeping her cock plugged deep in my gullet, “Goddamn, Brianna’s gotten so good at this! All that cocaine just opens her throat right up!”

Yavara sighed. “I guess I shouldn’t be lecturing you two. Everyone else is losing their minds—me included. You’re the only ones who know what to do right now.”

“Why don’t you join us?” Kiera asked breathily, and slid her cock from my open mouth. She touched my lips affectionately, and whispered, “Is that OK with you?”

Not daring to look back at my little sister, I just stared up at Kiera with spit and precum stringing from my lips, and nodded dumbly.

Kiera laughed, and bunched her fists in my hair. “This little coke-whore can’t even talk anymore!” She exclaimed, and shoved her cock all the way down my throat, making me glug around her, “Come on, Yavara. Give this slut what she deserves.”

“If that’s what this pathetic coke-whore wants, I guess I can oblige.” Yavara giggled behind me. I felt her hands mold into my ass, and I felt her breath caressing my anus. “Can you give me a little wink, Brianna?” She whispered.

I clenched my rectal muscles, and she tittered delightedly. I felt heat, then I felt wetness. Then, I was moaning in pure bliss. I had forgotten how good she could be with that little mouth of hers. Her lips opened around my asshole, and drew gently until my rim swelled with sensation. Her tongue slithered out after, and lathered each of my spokes individually before teasingly poking my twitching center. I opened for her, beckoning her inside, and she squirmed her wriggling tongue into me, and wetted my tight, hot innards. My eyes rolled back into my head, and I began mindlessly consuming the cock before me, moving with lecherous instinct, swallowing and slurping like I could love nothing more than the piece of sex-meat throbbing in my neck. Yavara’s delicate fingers squeezed into the fat of my ass, prying me further open so that she could push her face deeper into my crack, and taste my vile depths. I was already so close.

My fingers worked between my thighs, each digit slick with my nectar as it dribbled into the puddle I was forming between my knees. My knuckles rolled in series, driving each member into me, pressing against my front and back sides to feel the tandem of my erogenous center, and her tongue’s pressure against my fingers. The quaking was rising with me, the tumultuous spasms coursing through me. I was so close. Kiera’s breathing became labored; her cock began to pulse wildly; her pussy began to clench around my molesting digits. I was so close. I mewled desperately around Kiera’s cock, and swallowed continuously, drawing her deeper, massaging her stiff length with my consuming muscles. I could feel how she radiated into me, the preeminence of her fountain roiling through her loins, her delicious nectar ready to burst. I was so close. My anus opened loosely around my little sister’s tongue as she kissed it sloppily, lathering every surface with her swirling appendage, pressing and prodding with the wet, pliant tip, finding my reactive spots. An ecstatic lassitude began to permeate from my rectum, comingling with the surging in my loins. I was so close. My breath was short and rapt, my body bucked and swayed. My mind was a fever of sensation, awash in the traffic of signals that enslaved me. Suck, fuck, spread, open, take. They were inside me, violating my tender channels, desecrating my sanctity. The sweltering inner-flesh was contracting in glee, spurred into tormented ecstasy by their merciless invasion! I was so close, I was so close, I WAS THERE!

Kiera burst down my throat, and held me fast against her crotch as I fell into an orgasmic arch, my crotch touching my robes, my back curving violently behind me to give access to my little sister’s ravaging tongue. I sobbed stupidly around the cock in my throat, and orgasmed like a fountain, finally ruining my robes. Yavara sucked my anus as I came, drawing the pressure into her mouth, pulling the sensations to the surface until they were screaming through my synapses, and I was bucking like a wild horse just to shove her face deeper into my ass. She feasted upon me through it all, ever-gluttonous in her consumption of my most disgusting part. I hissed and croaked through it all, and finally, I was released.

Nothing happened. I felt no metamorphosis, nor surge of power. My masturbating hand confirmed that I was still completely female. Yavara parted from my anus with a satisfied smack of her lips, and Kiera pulled out of my throat, leaving a trail of cum to wet my palate, and dribble from my quivering lower lip. I pitched forward onto my hands. I was suddenly very aware of how cold it was. The sweat that glistened from my skin chilled me, and the air was dry and sharp. Someone was asking a question above me, but I didn’t discern the words. It hadn’t worked. Not only did I not become the Dark Queen, but I didn’t change at all. Zander really was just an old sentimental fool. Kindred spirits; how did I fall for that sappy bullshit?! How could I let myself feel hope?! I’d ruined my blissful schadenfreude with it when I’d already made peace with my death, and now my last days were going to be spent in despair!

“Brianna?” My sister’s voice asked from above.

“Don’t worry about her,” Kiera laughed, hoisting me into her arms, “I’ll get her something to sober her up.”

“I’ve got it.” Yavara said, and touched me at the nape of my neck. A great warmth spread from her touch. It suffused with my muscles, loosened the knots in my back, unwound the taut swaths of sinew, and made me gelatinous where I’d been rigid. She’d cast scores of healing spells on me before, but none had been so thorough as this. She’d wanted me alive, not comfortable. I felt every strain and protrusion ease back into liquid normalcy, and I shuddered with the relief of it. I hadn’t realized how much pain I’d simply been registering as background sensation.

“Oh my god, Brianna!” Yavara gasped, “You were in really bad shape! How much did you do?!”

“Like Kiera said, enough to dust a ski slope.” I muttered into Kiera’s breast, suddenly very tired.

“Let me check to see if the baby’s fine.”

“She’s fine.” I said, catching Yavara’s hand. “I just felt her kick.”

I made eye-contact with my sister for the first time. Never in my entire life had I seen her give me a look of compassionate concern before. I hardly recognized her with the expression on her face. I had to suppress the urge to cringe when she brushed the hair from my face, and slid the strands behind the point of my ear.

“Don’t give up just yet.” Yavara said, “I need all of you to stay strong for just a little longer.”

“Have you decided what you’re going to do?” Kiera asked.

“I’ll do whatever it takes.” Yavara answered with a rueful smile. She took me gently by the back of the head, and brought my lips to hers. I tasted my vile flavor in her mouth, and slid my tongue along hers to taste more of it. Our lips wrapped and smushed sensually, and our noses breathed evenly. She held the kiss for a very long time. When she parted from me, she did so with her hand resting on my chin, holding my face up. Her gaze was scrutinizing, almost suspicious.

“Yavara?” I asked.

“You’ve never kissed me like that before.” She muttered.

I grinned to mask my terrified grimace. “Did you like it?”

“Immensely,” she said, studying the shape of my mouth carefully.

“Don’t I get a kiss too?” Kiera asked, shoving herself between us. She grabbed Yavara’s head, and plunged her tongue into Yavara’s mouth, and all of my little sister’s suspicion washed away. She indulged in Kiera’s kiss for a long time, then separated with a smile.

“Wow,” she said, “what did I do to deserve that?”

“What do you mean?” Kiera laughed, grazing Yavara’s face, “Don’t you always deserve that?”

Yavara looked genuinely touched. Her cheeks flushed a little, and she tucked her chin bashfully. “Oh gosh, Kiera, you’re making me all mushy inside.” She tittered.

“I might’ve slipped some ketamine on your tongue.”

“You didn’t!”

“Better go rinse and spit before it gets into your system!”

Yavara giggled, and launched herself into the sky. Kiera watched her go, then hocked, and spat onto the street. I just stared up at the empty sky, feeling like the stupidest person in the world.

“I can’t believe I actually believed that old bastard.” I muttered.

“Hmm?” Kiera looked at me confusedly, then laughed, “You can’t transform from your asshole, dipshit!”

“I can’t?”

“I know it’s easy to forget, but that fun little hole back there is not a sex organ. To become magically transgendered, your reproductive organs have to be changed, right? The only thing you’re reproducing with your asshole is—”

“But didn’t Yavara begin her transformation through anal sex?”

“And she finished it by getting cervically plowed by Alkandi herself. Some women can come without even touching themselves, the lucky sluts. If Yavara were to read them an erotic novel while they did it, would they transform? No. There’s a science to it.”

“Of course.” I sighed, “I should’ve seized the opportunity, but I froze up like a goddamn amateur! I ruined everything!”

Kiera did another bump of coke off her wrist, and looked at me confusedly. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not going to get another chance like that. I blew it.”

She snorted, and giggled. “Do you have any idea who you’re pretending to be right now? If you wanted to, you could walk up to those two ogres over there, and politely ask them to fight each other to the death for your amusement, and they’d do it with a smile on their faces. You’re a hybrid of Alkandra; if you want to fuck the Dark Queen, you just have to knock on her door.”

“That’s it?”

“It’s that easy.” Kiera winked. “You know what they say, fortune favors the bold, and Lady Luck is a total slut. So go up there and gamble with your little sister’s pussy, you evil, murderous bitch.”

“You’re going to let me go do it on my own?”

“That’s right.”

I gulped. “You’re… you’re not coming with me?”

Kiera giggled, and patted my head affectionately. “D’aw, do you need me to hold your hand? My job was to chaperone you to the castle. Now, by job is done.”

“But—”

“Leveria, if you think I’m gonna be anywhere near you when Yavara finds out what you tried to do, then you’re as crazy as she is. So have fun dying! Bye!”

Kiera planted a kiss on my lips, and strolled away without a look back. I turned around, and looked up at the imposing spires of Castle Alkandra. Of course she’d be at the top of the tower. Between me and her, were twenty floors of castle, all packed to the gills with monsters preparing themselves for an impossible battle, and all of them knew Brianna. All of them knew me too; the queen who had massacred every single brother, son and father who had enlisted in Yavara’s horde. The things I’d experienced in the arena would be child’s play to what would happen to me if I was caught.

“You with me, Elena?” I asked the sky. I didn’t know why I did it; I didn’t believe in an afterlife, but for some reason, I felt her in that moment, and she gave me the peace of mind to take two breaths through my mouth, let them out through my nose, and step into the shadow of Castle Alkandra.

ZANDER

“You’re not going to help her?” Titus asked as we watched Leveria step through the castle’s double doors.

“She needs to do this on her own.”

“What? Why?!”

“If she truly is the Dark Queen, she’ll get through it. If not…”

Titus chuckled.

“What?”

“I once knew a man named Rodger. Rodger was the best boxer in Ardeni Dreus for five years straight. He was the undefeated bareknuckle champion until one day, he drank a little too much the night before the fight, and lost the bout on a decision. He didn’t get knocked out, mind you, but his punches were just a little too slow, and his dodges were just a little off. He was enraged with himself. His opponent was his lesser, and everyone who watched the fight knew it. That day, Rodger resolved to—”

“Is there a point to this story?”

“There is, if you’ll let me make it.”

“Please do.”

“Rodger resolved to never drink again. He was still in the best shape of his life, and there wasn’t a fighter out there who could hope to match him. But you see, Ardeni boxing rules are such that everyone—even former champions—must go through the tourney to face the current champion. So, Rodger set himself to kicking the shit out of every scrub in Ardeni on his way back to glory. The tournament was where he belonged anyway; fighting tooth and nail in the rough bars and clubs of Ardeni Dreus’s underbelly. He was in his element. He was a god among men. The very first match, he faced-off against a boy who barely had a hair on his chest. The lad was practically pissing himself. When the starting bell tolled, Rodger tripped and broke his neck. The end.”

“That’s one hell of a story, Drake, thank you.”

“You see the point though.”

“Yes,” I sighed, “I see it. I’ll go help her.”

Zander, Titus, what the hell are you two doing just standing around?! Yavara’s voice rang in our heads. I glanced up at the top of the tower to see her tiny silhouette in the window, Zander, get back on the wall! Titus, get back in the streets! Do I really have to come down there and micromanage you two?!

Titus and I looked at each other. “She’ll be fine.” I mumbled, and went back to my post.

YAVARA

I turned away from the window, and puzzled over the map of Tenvalia. I traced my finger from Alkandra, to Bentius, then back to Alkandra. The full journey would take me a day. One day to commit an unspeakable atrocity. I had promised Leveria I would do it. I had meant it too, but when it came to the actual doing of the thing, I found myself hesitant. As I pondered the familiar rivers and tributaries of the Highland Basin, I became awash in old memories. Memories of a woman who no longer existed. She hadn’t died, for she still looked through my shining eyes, and spoke with my breathing lips, but she was not there anymore. The memories she had meant very little to me, but I knew they were precious. Like a useless novelty item found in an old box, it wasted the space that it occupied, but within it, there was a piece of me—perhaps a dead piece, but one that I could not cast away.

“If I fly over that army, they will turn around to chase me.” I muttered, tracing the route back to Bentius, “It will take them four days at least to get back to the capital. I’ll wait outside the walls then. Just sit there in plain view of everyone, and force Ternias to negotiate. He’s a coward. He’ll blink first. I hope.” I turned my attention back to the symbol that represented Alkandra, then drew my eyes to Ardeni Dreus. “Arthur has already committed to nothing less than my annihilation. He won’t stop until the last of his ships is sunk. Even Zander can’t handle five-hundred Lowland mages on his own.”

I placed my finger onto the edge of the Great Forest. “My only hope is that Arbor can delay the Highlanders so that I can defend Alkandra against the Lowlanders, survive, then force the Highlanders back.”

I sighed, and let my finger slide off the map. God, I was tired. I just wanted to snuggle into a soft bed, rest my head against a cool pillow, and sleep for a month. I hadn’t slept for nearly a week. Every time I closed my eyes, I dreamed of that memory of Elena—Leveria’s memory—and I awoke with tears in my eyes. It wasn’t rage I felt anymore, but a cold grief, and a jealousy so bitter that I could practically taste it. How could she? After everything we’d been through? All those memories we shared… but now they were memories of a woman who no longer existed. They were cold and lifeless without her, my last link to that person I’d been. Memories that were carried alone were like stories that couldn’t be told again. They just sat on the shelf of my mind, collecting dust. But then why did it still hurt so much? The hole she’d left in me was yawning and bleeding, so deep that it faded into cavernous darkness. Leveria’s pain couldn’t stitch it shut, for no matter how great her agony, she had still won. She had felt love deeper than her hatred for me, and that was the jealousy I truly felt. For as long as I’d known and loved Elena, I’d known and hated Leveria longer, and that hatred was precious to me now. So precious.

“No.” I whispered to myself, “That’s not me.” But it felt like I was lying to me, a disingenuous reassurance from someone who no longer cared.

“Burn it all down.” I whispered instead, flicking my eyes to Bentius, “Kill the memories once and for all.” Even that felt forced. I just wanted to go to sleep. I sighed, and looked out the window. Brianna was making her way up the castle steps, and venturing slowly toward the door.

ELENA

“Left!” Mom yelled. I ducked, stumbled, and struck. The motion was awkward, but my blade parried the incoming strike before it landed. I scraped my metal upon his until my edge skipped over his crossguard and sliced off the knob of his wrist. His weapon went slack, and I slashed his throat.

“Right!” Mom yelled. I whirled around, stepped over the dying man, blocked the downward strike over my head, my arm held high to meet the blow. The energy of the attack transferred down my body, through my hips and into my feet, and I rebounded off it, pulled my cleaver backward, and cut into the man’s belly before he could reestablish his guard.

“Left!” Mom yelled. I spun too slowly, and barely avoided being decapitated. Ducking under the swing, I twirled with my arms outstretched, too tired to swing with my shoulders anymore, and I imbedded both cleavers into the man’s ribs.

“Right!” Mom screamed. I turned around and—cold metal went inside me. I cried out, stumbled backward, and slashed violently across and back, harrying away the men that surrounded me. No longer did I dance like a deadly viper between the ranks, but flailed in the center of them like a hunted buffalo, surrounded and isolated. Hot blood poured from the wound in my side, running down my leg. The cut was superficial, but it was a signal of what was to come. I’d exacted more than my fair share of death, and now it was their turn. They wouldn’t be quick about it. They laughed and sneered as they shoved their weapons at me, making me move this way and that, forcing me to dodge and parry for their amusement. It was only a matter of time before one of them finally anticipated my next move, and gutted me to uproarious laughter.

“Stay behind me, Mom.” I growled, moving with her back-to-back, our elbows locked.

“How can I not?!” She snapped, seeming more irritated than terrified.

“Don’t let them get their hands on you.”

“They won’t have any fingers if they try.”

“You know what I mean.”

She didn’t answer for a second, then muttered, “I don’t think I can do it, Elena.”

“If they—”

“I know what they’ll do!” She growled, “But I can’t do it! You’ll have to!”

I braced our joined arms, and twisted her violently away from a spear thrusted at my belly. I grunted, catching the edge of it across my thigh, and I spun us back around to launch a feeble counterattack with my cleaver. The man stepped backward from the swipe, then pointed and laughed at my scream of frustration.

“Elena?!” Mom cried, “Promise me! Promise me you’ll do it if they—”

“Fuck that,” I growled, “we’re not going out like a couple of pussies. Ready?”

“What?!”

“Now!”

I charged into the laughing and pointing man, and enjoyed a moment of grim satisfaction when I saw his face fall. My cleaver took off his gesticulating hand, then split his face on the backswing. Mom barely got her footing, and she wheeled around me in our elbow-lock, and dealt the man a final blow with a stab to the throat. It was our last act of defiance. The ranks closed in immediately, and the blades came out. In slow-motion, I watched myself being propelled inevitably to them, my momentum too great to stop with Mom’s radial swing, carrying me ever-closer to the end; to blackness, and nothing. I opened my mouth, and screamed. I screamed in utter terror, void of all grit and valor, one step away from pissing all over myself. Mom screamed with me, our voices harmonizing, and we raised our weapons overheads to deal a parting gift to our killers.

The men before us were suddenly without their heads. For a moment, they just stood there like vandalized mannequins, blood flowing from their stumps. Then they collapsed like dropped puppets to reveal the beleaguered and bloody face of Sherman Huntiata.

“Come on!” He roared, and snatched my wrist. He hauled us after him, dragging us on springing feet through lines of soldiers locked in combat. I recognized a few of my own bannermen amongst the fighters, as well as Feractian’s, Jonias’s and Huntiata’s. We raced through the lines of men, burst out of the congested battle, shot down the steps of the bluff, and stumbled onto the shores of the Bentius Bay. Our bannermen disengaged from the battle and reformed behind us, clamoring down the many steps that lined the bluff. The beleaguered watchmen receded into the streets of the district to regroup, allowing us a precious moment to breathe. When I caught my breath, I grabbed Huntiata’s sweaty bald head, and planted a fierce kiss on his lips. Before he even had a chance to gasp, Mom ripped his head away, and plunged her tongue into his mouth. They parted with a loud smack, leaving the bewildered old lord blinking in the morning sunlight. He touched his lips, then gave my Mom an appraising look, and she blushed to the roots of her blonde hair.

“How?” I asked Huntiata.

“They came to my house,” he said, mopping his dripping pate, “me and the missus got out of the side door you used to use. We have a boat down here, and we used it to sail out of the city. I got on shore, ran to the outer walls, and saw that no one was guarding them. Had to lash a harpoon to a mooring line and use it as a grappling hook if you can believe it. Got all our boys from the lower wards, and put them on the boat. Took a while to get back up here as we were sailing against the tide. Precious time lost. Where’s Catherine?”

“Dead.”

His face fell. “And Feractian?”

“Him too.”

“Shit.” He muttered, and looked out at the bay, where two royal man-o-wars had set sail to block the mouth, “We don’t have time to mourn them now. Our only chance is to get to Ternias before the watchmen head us off.”

“Well then,” I said, gripping my cleavers tightly, “let’s go kill a fucking king. Come on!”

We raced along the shoreline to Castle Bentius, me leading the charge. In the district above, I could see the twinkling armor of the watchmen blinking between the houses and shops, running in the same direction. Castle Bentius stood between us, the great structure built into the bluff so keenly that it seemed to have been carved from it. Though the two forces were equidistant to the castle gates, we would have to climb the many steps from the shoreline to get to them. An uphill battle against a superior force after an exhausting run was a disadvantage to say the least, but we had desperation on our side, and the watchmen worked for a paycheck. They could break. I dug my feet into the snow, and gritted my teeth against the pain in my side. Every step I made now would be one step less on the climb up the bluff, and every second I dallied would be one more step I’d have to climb, and at least one more dead man on our side. As my feet crunched into the numbing cold, the bells in the wards below tolled louder and louder.

ADRIANNA

I loosed two arrows, and down two more wargs. Sasha pivoted atop the roof, her claws tearing out the shingles with each stride. Below me, the riders of horses and wolves engaged in a churning melee within the streets of the merchant district, the shops and apartments painted with red. A warrior woman screeched as her viscera was ripped away by gnashing jaws, an orc howled as he clutched at his smashed ribs, a horse neighed as it writhed in its own pool, and a warg shrieked as it tried to hobble away on a stump foreleg. It was chaos without any semblance of order, a brawl of beasts, of predator and prey, of hacking and slashing and gashing with no precision or reason. I skirted the rooftops above it all, killing foes before they even saw me, raining down on the mass below.

I shot an orc before he could deal the death blow to Esmerelda, than I killed his steed before it could do the same. A warg’s head shot up from the fray, and its eyes focused on me. He launched himself off the haunches of a felled horse, splayed into the air, and landed before me. I reached back into my quiver. It was empty. The beast was a male, outweighing Sasha by at least a hundred pounds, and he prowled around the pair of us arrogantly, snarling at the wolf I mounted. Sasha backed away against my command, her shoulders pinching back, her head dropping low. The male barked at her, and she scurried back, whimpering.

“Easy,” I muttered, running my hand into her hair. She bristled at my touch, and bucked. I was tossed bodily from Sasha’s back, thrown into the air, and off the roof. I barely caught myself on a shutter before plummeting ten feet. Securing my hands to the stucco wall, I made a controlled descent to the street, and ripped out my sword.

“Elf cunt!” an orc scream, and hurled himself at me the moment my feet touched the ground. I parried his blow, ducked his fist, and gutted him easily. He went down on his knees, and I parted his head from his shoulder as I walked past him, and toward the churning mass at the center of the street.

I skirted around the rears of the horses, and moved along the periphery of the battle. Here, I fought through orcs that had dismounted their steeds in attempt to flank the rebels. I blocked an overhand axe, let the blade slide down my sword, ducked a swipe, curved around a spear jab, then with my blade still scraping, I whirled into a sudden arc, and separated two orc tops from their orc bottoms. Their disembodied halves toppled over, and I jumped forward just before those behind could adjust. I struck an orc clean between the eyes, splitting his skull, then I dipped my shoulder to avoid a sword thrust, caught the offending orc at the wrist, and yanked him forward. I wasn’t nearly strong enough to pull him off balance, but it was enough to get him into the range of my sword, and I opened his chest with a quick stab before racing past him, and impaling the final orc behind him.

The bodies dropped behind me, and I wheeled around the fray to find myself at the flank of the five riderless wolves in the center of the battle. They were tearing through the pressing horses, leaving a wall of dead before them. The rebel women screamed as they tried to climb out from beneath their dead steeds, but the equestrian pile was too large, and those that didn’t meet their ends at the wargs’ claws and jaws were simply crushed by the weight of those atop. A warg swiped at a breaching rebel, and her entire front was torn clean away. Another warg snapped its jaws, and a woman was suddenly a double amputee. The horses and elves fell like a cresting wave over the mound of gore, but still they pressed on. And in the middle of it all, on the ground between the pounding hooves and stomping paws, was Dog Meat.

She rolled this way and that, maneuvering her little stumps as best she could, feebly flailing to shoot ineffective spurts of magic between the storm of deadly limbs that struck all around her. She scrambled beneath the belly of a warg, and tried to curl herself into as small a ball as she could. Unable to protect her head with the arms she no longer had, she simply tucked her chin into her chest, and wailed frantically. Then she saw me through the dust, and screamed, “Adri!”

I rushed forward unthinkingly, leapt over the back of one of the wargs, and stabbed it between the shoulders. It went down in a heap, and before the one next to it could turn to see why, I’d rammed my blade into its throat, and ripped through. A great gout of blood poured from the gash in its neck, and it pitched forward to reveal the snarling maw of the next one. Great teeth snapped before me, a great paw was swiped, and I was whirling backwards, barely able to catch myself. Before I could even pivot, another wolf was rushing my blind side. I simply fell backwards to avoid the strike that would’ve vaporized me. I struck the cobblestones with a grunt, the wind shooting from my lungs. Paralyzed by the diaphragmic spasm, I watched as the third warg disengaged from the rebels to charge the more potent threat. They converged on me a fraction of a second later, and I barely got ahold of myself in time to rolled backward. It was too late. A claw dug into my ribs, cleaved into the bone, and ripped away. I screamed. I felt the sinew, gristle and tendons rupture around the invasion, and I felt my muscle and flesh torn like paper from my side to my spine. Searing agony shot into me, compelling me to frantically scurry from beneath the thrashing claws and snapping jaws that nearly caught my feet. I rolled onto my side, and was immediately smashed backwards, sent airborne five feet before thudding against the mush that used to be a horse. The wolf leapt after me, its forepaws extended, its jaws opened to display the ivory razors, its black pit of a throat dilating, ready to consume the meat it would rip from me. I snatched a spear from the ground, pivoted the butt against the horse’s sternum, and let the doomed trajectory the wolf had put itself upon run its course. The spear went through its jaw, and out of its head, and the rest of it slid harmlessly down.

“Adri!” Dog Meat’s scream met my ears again.

I jammed my right arm into horse meat, and shoved myself upright. One of the wargs was holding back the pressing elves, desperately swiping as it was overwhelmed, but the other stood facing me, its forepaw resting gently atop Dog Meat’s belly. Dog Meat stared with bulging eyes at the set of six-inch razors threatening to open her, her usually-wiggling stumps now deathly still.

Traitor. The warg emoted at me.

Let the girl go. I emoted back.

The warg’s snarl was like a grin. I knew what it was going to do. Its claws flexed, then—a spear was in its throat, and it lurched to the side. A woman came screaming over the top of the pile, brandishing a wood-axe overhead. Before the warg could react, the manic elf was hacking into it, burying the axe head deeper and deeper into its throat. She chopped into the warg until its head came off, and then she dropped to her knees before the limbless elf, and screamed.

“Justina?!” Was the name that came from her horrified throat. “Oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my…” she blubbered until her words were an incoherent knot, and she pulled Dog Meat tight against her. Dog Meat let out a screech more terrible than any she’d sounded when in mortal danger. She squirmed and thrashed, then bit into the elf’s ear, and ripped out a notch. The woman staggered back, clutching the side of her head, and Dog Meat wiggled her way on the ground back to me. When the woman looked back, I realized who she was. Juliet. I never saw a look of hatred purer than the one Dog Meat’s twin sister gave me as she watched her crawl on her belly to me. It was as if everything that had befallen them while in Gorlok’s captivity had been my fault, and it was me who had made her chop the limbs from the woman once known as ‘Justina.’ She took one step toward me, and then was splattered into gore by the sudden reemergence of Sasha. My wolf panted proudly atop the remains of Dog Meat’s twin, pleased to have defended me from the perceived threat. As for Dog Meat, she only seemed relieved that the painful memory was gone.

I collected the quadruple amputee in my arms, and struggled to get myself onto Sasha. The other warg was finally overrun by the rebel cavalry, and went down in a storm of flailing limbs. Esmerelda was among them, her hair and face so splattered with blood that she looked to have bathed in it. She stared at me from the tops of her eyes as she put her sword into the screaming beast again, and again and again. In the ward above, the bells warning bells tolled. In the ward above that one, the high tower of Castle Bentius could be seen glinting in the morning sun.

LEVERIA

When I’d heard stories of Alkandra as a little girl, this was what I imagined. A throne room filled with chaos. The walls were lined with couples fucking against them, the columns were center-posts of orgies, the main floor was an impromptu gladiator ring, and every corner had unconscious druggies piled atop each other. The balconies were filled with flailing limbs and jiggling breasts, the chandeliers were but swings for daring revelers, and the alcoves were perches for the lonely voyeurs who watched it all. There were at least ten dead bodies within eyeshot, broken glass everywhere, and spilled fluids of every variety. While my eyes were filled with the churning debauchery, my ears were bombarded by a cacophony of bands playing music at competing tempos, moans and screams of lust, clashes of steel, roars of pain, and cries of manic jubilation.

“Bri-bri!” A goblin girl squealed, and sprinted over to hug me. She wrapped her green arms around me, and buried her little face into my tits.

I tentatively hugged her back, and patted her on the shoulder.

She looked up at me with a confused expression. “Bri-bri, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just need to—”

“Brianna!” roared a voice so deep it vibrated against the walls. A great twenty-foot shape emerged from the shadows. He had brown-red fur, had arms thicker than tree-trunks, and fingers as long as my leg. He bared his teeth at me in what looked like a predatory death-snarl, but was probably a smile. I had never in my life seen a troll, and I felt I deserved an acting award for not shitting myself. “Brianna?” The troll asked, elevating his mighty brow as he loomed over me.

“There’s my favorite elf-bitch!” a fat, muscular orc announced jubilantly, and bounded over to me. He raised a mighty hand overhead, and brought it down to crush me. I screamed, and dropped to my knees, cowering with my hands behind my head.

“Uh… Brianna?” the fat orc asked, holding up his hand, still waiting for my high-five.

“Is everything alright?” the troll inquired.

“Bri-bri, what’s going on?” The goblin girl asked, “You’re acting so weird!”

“Is it the Lowlanders?” someone else asked, “Have they come already?!”

“Population’s Director, why are you on the floor?”

“Madam, what’s going on?”

“It’s the Highlanders! They’re already at the gates!” someone screamed.

I looked up, and realized that everyone in the room had surrounded me. Terror and alarm suffused their expressions as they gawked at me, all of them wondering why the bold and fearless jester of the hybrids was cowering on the floor. I stood up on shaky legs, and cleared my throat.

“I…” I said, my voice so small that it came out in a squeak, “I… I… I just did way too much acid.” I blinked rapidly, “I don’t even know what fucking planet I’m on right now. Carry on, bros.”

A wave of palpable relief ran through the crowd, followed by cheers and laughter. A moment later, the people of Alkandra recommenced their chaotic debauchery.

The orc gently patted me on the shoulder, and laughed. “Sorry for coming at you like that, bitch.” He chuckled, “I bet it happened in warp-speed.”

The she-goblin waved her hands in front of my face, and giggled. “Can you see the fractals, Bri-bri? They’re dancing in the light that shines from my fingers!”

“They’re beautiful,” I muttered, not having any idea what the fuck she was talking about.

“You’re out of her goddamn mind,” the orc laughed, clapping my shoulder, “Tom, why don’t you get Brianna up to her room so that she can stare at the wall in peace?”

“Of course,” the troll said. He reached down, and with surprising gentleness, he wrapped his massive fingers around me, carried me twenty feet in the air, and plopped me on his great furry shoulder. I clutched to his thick fur for dear life, and watched as the chaotic revelry changed perspectives to a bird’s eye view.

Though I was protected from the beasts below, those on the balconies above cheered and whooped to me, and those that swung from the chandelier tried to snatch me to join their ride. Many people screamed to me familiarly, and I waved back with what I hoped was a stoned-out smile on my face, and not the terrified grimace it likely was. Some of them called for me to join them, and I gesticulated my apologetic refusal as best I could while clutching Tom’s fur. He lumbered through the throne room, up the staircase behind the Black Throne, and into the winding tower. The mania didn’t end. Creatures of all kinds fucked, fought, and frolicked in a churning mass, forming great organisms of writhing limbs and rivers of flowing bodies. Tom’s massive profile thankfully shielded me from most people’s view, but a few still caught my eye, and greeted me with great toothy beams on their faces. The hybrids weren’t just worshipped by their people; they were wholly loved by them. I didn’t see a single false smile on my way up the tower, though false mirth was the best emotion I could return to them. By the time Tom reached the top floor, my jaw hurt from my rigid grimace.

“Here you are, Brianna.” Tom said in his great baritone voice, and lowered me before the door.

“Thanks, bro. I owe you one.” I muttered, and patted his mighty calf.

“You owe me nothing,” he said proudly, and walked away, his footsteps shaking the floor until they were but rumbles in the rooms below. The top floor was empty. There were no gates to protect the hybrids from the masses, nor even spells. It was respect that gave the hybrid elves their sanctuary. I pressed my hand to the door, and swung it open.

The room was almost entirely occupied by the world’s largest bed. It was a circular piece of furniture adorned with literally hundreds of pillows, and between the plumage of linens and cushions was a veritable treasure-trove of sex toys. Plugs, dildos, gags, strap-ons, massagers, whips, leashes, flails, cuffs, clamps, chains, straps, and a variety of insertions I couldn’t even identify. There were thousands of them, and it looked they’d all been used. The aroma of sex inundated my sinuses the moment I walked into the room, and I was the only one in it. I paced around it, marveling at the shear excess of sex on full display. I imagined what it must be like for an ambitious young male orc to be lucky enough to befriend one of the hybrids, then be even luckier still to be invited into their sanctuary. I imagined opening the door to paradise, and seeing the hellish angels already doing their heavenly sins upon each other. I imagined how it must’ve felt to have all those angels interrupt their lust to turn their hungry gazes upon me. Undoubtedly it had happened to many young men and women of Alkandra, and they had told all those who would listen. And so, the legend grew, and so it would percolate to the masses until all of Tenvalia knew of the wicked fun to be had at the top of Castle Bentius. In a way, this room was the very heart of Alkandra. It was a sacred place. It was the center of power. Those legends and rumors held more weight than ten-thousand swords, and more worth than a mountain of gold.

I circled the bed. It took me a full minute to get all the way around it. On my way, I searched each door. All of them led to either bathrooms or closets. There was no royal chamber at the top of this tower. I looked out the window, and let out a long sigh. There she was. Across the main structure of the castle, hundreds of feet away, was my sister in her own high tower, puzzling over a map. The idea of going back down without Tom to carry me over the raucous was daunting—no, it was impossible. I wouldn’t make it down one flight of stairs. There was only one thing to do then. I took a steeling breath, leaned out the window, and screamed, “Yavara!”

She didn’t answer. She kept her back to me, and continued studying the map. I yelled it again, but again, she didn’t hear me. The oceanic winds were strong, and they stole my voice before it even had a chance. I waved to her, tore off a curtain and flagged it, angled the mirror to catch the sun, but she wouldn’t fucking turn around! I let out an exasperated growl, simultaneously enraged and relieved that she hadn’t seen me.

“Goddamn it!” I snapped, and turned around. Furia was standing behind me.

“What’s up, bro?” I squeaked.

She casually reached into her robes, pulled out a dagger, and pressed it to my heart.

“Uh… we getting kinky today or something?” I laughed nervously.

“I know who you are,” she said calmly, “I came down to your cell just fifteen minutes ago and found Certiok and Brianna fucking in your bed.”

“Oh.”

Furia closed the window, and beckoned me to the bed. “Sit.”

I sat.

“Brianna told me what your plan is.” Furia said, “She told me you have Titus and Zander on your side.”

“Yes.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Zander, I can understand. The man’s lived a thousand years with a singular purpose, and he can’t come to grips with the idea that he’s fulfilled it. He needs to fabricate a reason to keep it going.”

“I’ve always said he’s a delusional old fool.”

“But Drake Titus is not. What did you say to get him?”

“He came to me.”

“Then what did Zander say?”

I looked at the dagger in her hand. “Why did you come to my cell, Furia?”

“To kill you.”

“Why?”

“For Adrianna. For Yavara. You see, I fell for your bullshit at the most critical time today. When Yavara told us what had happened to the horde, your voice popped into my head, and your little lie floated in. I let myself believe it, and in so doing, I made all of the others doubt her when she needed us the most. It was only when the meeting was over, that I realized how perfectly I’d been played.” She touched the blade to my breast, “You did to me what you did to Adrianna, and now I’m going to do to you what Elena should’ve done months ago.”

“Adrianna’s alive!” I said as the point punctured my flesh, “That’s why Titus joined Zander! Because he spared her!”

Furia stopped, the blade freezing, a droplet of blood pooling around it. “Please explain,” she whispered.

“Zander exiled her. He knew he would need the help of those who cared for her, so he showed mercy, and traded the secret for their loyalty.”

Her lower lip quivered, but it was the only emotion she displayed. “Even if it’s true, why should I spare you?”

“Because even though Zander’s a delusional old fool, he’s right. You know he’s right.” I stood up, and stared her evenly in the eye, “You’ve known since the beginning that there was something wrong with Yavara. All of you have. She’s an imposter. She’s a pretender. She didn’t make Alkandra; you all did. And when she came back, did she feel like a queen, or a guest? Or perhaps, did she feel like an intruder?”

“There’s only one intruder here, Leveria.”

“Yes, there is. They talk about me, don’t they?” I asked, “Eva, Faltia and Soraya. They all came to my cell after they’d done their worst. They wanted more. What did they say about me?”

“Enough for me to know that you’re too dangerous to let live.”

I smiled. “I’m too dangerous to kill, Furia. That’s why you’re not here to kill me.”

“Is that so?” She hissed, “Then why am I here?”

“To be convinced.” I whispered, wrapped my hands around hers, and pushed the blade away. She let me guide it outward away from our bodies, but she would not let me compel her to release it. I moved into the space where the knife had been, and pressed myself to her, squishing our breasts together. As our eyes connected and locked, I extended my hand upward, carefully hooked a strand of her hair with my index finger, and slid it behind the sharp point of her ear, revealing the tattooed side of her face. That finger then drew gently along her jaw, touched below her chin, and guided her mouth to mine.

She let me take the lead. She let me open her lips with my own, and slide my tongue between them. I knew she was one of the most potent lovers in the world, and I could feel the weapon she had between her legs growing hard against my pubis, but she held herself back. It was a test. It was why she kept the dagger in her hand. I raked my fingers through her hair as my tongue danced in her mouth, and moved my fingers down her splendid back until I was cupping and squeezing her succulent cheeks. I opened my legs around her hard shaft, and let it rise between my thighs until it pressed into the damp cloth at my apex. Moaning into her mouth, I glided my soft pussy across her, making her feel the way she parted my petals, teasing the moist heat at my center. All the while, I kissed her. I kissed her like an enemy, like a lover, and like a whore.

The knife’s blade glinted in my periphery. It turned me on. I slid my hand from her ass, up her muscular back, along her shoulder, and down her arm. I grasped her wrist, and guided her killing hand back to me. She slid the blade under my chin, and I shuddered in exhilaration when I felt its cold edge glide across my throat. The heat between my thighs became more radiant, and the flow of my arousal saturated the sweltering cloth so much that I could practically feel her bare flesh through it. She was so hard now. Her thick cock raged between my folds, pressed firmly into my petals, throbbed in cadence with my pulsing femininity until our heartbeats were one. Her breath was hot, and her mouth was filling with saliva. I slowly slithered my tongue out of her, painted her lips with it, then touched our brows, connecting our eyes.

“Why did you stop?” she whispered.

“I need to go.”

Her brows knitted. She dropped the knife between our breasts, and it clattered to the floor. Her hands came around me, tentative and unsure. She made to take me by the flank, but she instead rested her fingers lightly on my hips. She pulled us gently together, and we both gasped when her cock grinded against my sopping slit. “Don’t leave me like this.” She pleaded softly.

I drew my hands up her side, grazing my fingers across her nipples. They were so hard that they leaked with her pregnant milk, and the mere graze caused her to quiver like a taut bowstring. She breathed heavily against me, molding her body to mine. “Please, Leveria. I’ll beg if you want me to.”

I smiled tenderly. “I would love to hear it, but I have to go. My sister—”

“Fuck your sister.”

“That’s the plan, actually.”

Furia’s eyes were fevered with lust, topping her lids with sweltering desire. “I could just take you,” she hissed.

“But you won’t.”

“Don’t test me.”

“You can’t take what I have, Furia. I can only give it.”

She pondered me for what felt like an eternity, then stepped backward. “Fuck it,” she muttered, “we’re all going to die anyway.” She grabbed a bow and arrow off the wall, went to the window, drew the weapon, and loosed it toward the bay. The wind took the arrow, glided it northward, and sent it on a path right for my sister. It struck her squarely in the back of the head, bouncing from her arcane shield. She flinched, rubbed her head, and turned around.

YAVARA

There were times when I greatly regretted drunkenly telling Eva Alecia during an orgy, “If you ever want to get my attention, just shoot a fucking arrow at the back of my head, HAHAHAHAHAHA!” It really wasn’t that funny now.

“Fuck!” I grunted, and rubbed the back of my head. I turned around to see Furia’s figure in the window across the way. I looked back at the map of Tenvalia, then out over the bay. It was nearly dusk already. I would have to make a decision soon. The prospect was daunting, and the distraction of the hybrid was so damn appealing. I could just push the decision back a little later; just long enough to clear my head so that I could… no. No, I had to decide now! The future of my kingdom depended on—another arrow struck me in the back of the head. I glared over my shoulder at Furia, then snatched the arrow from the ground. I scribbled *what?!* on a sheet of parchment, rolled it around the arrow, pulled my bow from the wall, and loosed the projectile. My aim was as true as ever, and Furia caught the arrow before it impaled her eye.

She scribbled something on the parchment, then shot the arrow back at me. I stopped it an inch before me with a telekinetic reception, and read her reply. *Wanna fuck?*

I wrote back, *I can’t right now :’(* and sent it.

The arrow was shot back at me with the message, *but I’m so hard ;)*

Oh, I was tempted, but I wrote, *Jack off.*

*Help me?*

*Aren’t you supposed to be on the wall?*

*The enemy won’t come until tomorrow, but you can make me cum tonight.*

*Tempting, but no.*

*Yes*

*Later!*

*Now. Brianna’s here too.*

I looked up from the message to see Brianna shoving her bare ass out the window, and spreading it. I chewed on my lip, then moistened it with my tongue. I jumped out of the window, and flew across the castle.

ELENA

The watchmen had gotten to the gate first, but not by much. We clashed at the final flight of steps upon the bluff, and began a systematic game of slaughter at that chokepoint. The width of the steps was barely enough to hold five men abreast, and with Huntiata and I at the forefront, the steps may as well have been a meat-grinder. I’d put away my cleavers for a short sword, and with a proper blade in my hand and my flank secured, the high-elves were simply no match for me. I was just too fast.

I parried away a sword, then stabbed the defender in the throat. He went down gurgling, and I moved up a step. I blocked a down-strike overhead, then opened the man’s belly with my dagger. He went down belching blood, and I moved up a step. I cut off a man’s hand before he even had the chance to raise it, then I put my sword through his sternum. He went down gasping, and I moved up a step. Step by step, we moved up, the men behind me loosing arrows into the ranks of the men in front of me, sending the dead toppling off the stairs and tumbling down the bluff. The men behind me held shields over their head to avoid the same fate, and with the front ranks constantly advancing, the high-ground advantage of the watchmen was negated.

“Corporal Karl Fertia, I believe I still owe you some backpay!” Huntiata roared, twisting his sword into a screaming man’s belly. He pulled it out with a string of viscera unwinding after, and he swung overhand to clash blades with another man.

“Captain Yefta Enura, congratulations on your promotion!” Huntiata laughed, and smashed poor Yefta’s face in with a gauntleted fist.

“Jionan Porculia, how’s the wife?” Huntiata jeered as he impaled the unfortunate private.

He caught the next strike on his crossguard, and frowned at his assailant. “I don’t recognize you, boy. Whose outfit were you in?” Before the boy could answer, Huntiata cut his head off.

His voice rose over the clatter of metal and the screams of the wounded, a cheerful note to the otherwise terrible symphony. We fought our way up the steps, and into the courtyard. It was packed with watchmen already, and more were streaming in from the Noble District by the second. A mere hundred feet behind them were the castle gates. They had been left open.

“Push onward, boys!” Huntiata yelled, “We’re only a few steps away, and we’ve already got ‘em shitting their pants!”

Those behind us cheered, and rushed into the courtyard beside us. Here, our numbers hurt us. The courtyard was expansive, and the superior watchmen force could flank us indefinitely, stretching us out until there was nothing but holes in our line. The only solution then, was to drive straight through the middle. I screamed, raised my sword overhead, and rushed into the thicket of men before me.

I blocked a downward strike and ducked beneath our joined swords, letting the man’s momentum propel me into his body so that I could eviscerate him. Drifting past him, I stuck my sword into the chest of the next man, slipped into the space beside him, put my dagger into another man’s throat, and was then suddenly slammed full-force into another’s chest. I was pinned, propelled forward by the momentum of the charge behind me. The watchman and I were pushed together, snarling into each other’s faces, unable to even move our arms. All around us were pairs of men in similar situations, enemies pressed together like lovers, shifting in their confines as best they could to free an arm and deal the killing blow. Unfortunately for my partner, my frame was narrower than his, and I managed to pull my arm out, raise my dagger, and stab him in the neck. Smashed against him as I was, I didn’t have enough room to put any kind of force behind my attack. All I could do was stab him shallowly over and over, gouging his neck as he screamed. He gnashed his teeth, spit and coughed, but there was nothing he could do. Tears welled in his eyes as my dagger went in and out, in and out, in and out. He blubbered and cried, tucking in his chin to preserve his throat. In and out, in and out, in and out. Blood poured from the wounds and smeared all over his face. In and out, in and out. He begged me to stop. In and out, in and out, in and out. He called for god. In and out, in and out, in and out. He called for his mother. In and out, in and out in and out.

He slumped forward against me, his head rolling lifelessly, his neck so full of holes that it looked honeycombed. I was pressed against him, carrying him forward through the melee. Tears wetted my cheeks, and as hell propelled me ever forward, I prayed for the man I had just sent into oblivion. I didn’t know why I prayed; I knew for a fact there was no harbinger on the other side. Or maybe that was just for me? That thought was incredibly disturbing, but with men shrieking all around me, bodies pressing on every side, and no ability to do anything but step with the mass lest I get trampled, I found myself in a strangely existential and introspective mood. What if everyone else went to heaven, and it was just me who—we broke through. It happened so suddenly that I nearly tripped over the dead man who collapsed in front of me. In his wake, there was nothing but empty space all the way to the castle gates. I collected my footing beneath me, and made a full sprint for the entrance. The men behind me roared as they pressed the already-bowed watchmen line, and a second later, the entire force broke through the middle. We charge forward, screaming with the exhilaration of victory, and the watchmen behind us just watched. It was if they’d agreed upon the terms of our victory beforehand; if we managed to break their line and get between them and the king, then they wouldn’t stop us. It made sense, after all. Even if they pursued us, we’d still get to Ternias, and then who would be signing their paychecks? Me. The queen of the fucking Highlands.

It was setting in; the reality of what I’d just achieved. As I raced toward the castle gates, I came under the astounding realization that I was really running to my new front door. I looked back at Mom as she sprinted behind me, and saw she was in nearly as much disbelief as I was. She smiled through her blood-splatted face, and took my hand in hers. Together, we ran toward our new—a roar cut through the air. Not the roar of warriors in combat, but a roar. The sound sent a prickle of primal terror right up my spine, and stuck my feet into the ground so violently that I skidded to a stop. I recognized that sound. It was unmistakable. It had never occurred to me until that moment why the bells may have been tolling. All of the watchmen were up in the noble district, and the riots weren’t set to start for another two hours, and yet, every single bell in the city was tolling from every ward, creating a discordant harmony of hundreds of different metallic notes. The warning bells. The fire bells. The invasion bells. I turned around, and looked up.

Upon the wall, was the silhouette of a great wolf. Its massive shoulder-hunch struck an unmistakable figure, its ivory teeth shown like ivory knives, and its red eyes seemed to glow from its black profile. It stood alone atop the walls of the Noble District. Then, another appeared. And another one. And another one. One by one, they summitted the walls, some with riders, some without, all popping up until they lined the entire battlements. The watchmen and bannermen stood in the courtyard like chickens in a breached coop, and the wolves above assessed their meal with salivating jowls.

“Run.” I croaked, then the terror welled up inside me, and burst from my mouth in a shriek, “RUN!”

The bannermen and watchmen turned heel, and sprinted in mass to the entrance. The wolves leapt from the perches, and disappeared between the mansions of the Noble District. For a moment, the only movement in the courtyard was the panicked stampede of elves. Then, they came. The wolves burst from the streets and alleys, their massive paws tearing the cobblestones from the mortar with every stride, closing the distance between us so quickly that a single blink would’ve missed the chase. The men in the back ranks turned around at the last second, and the wargs smashed into them. I couldn’t see the carnage; I could only see the rows of men disappearing in the feeding-frenzy, but I could hear it. I could hear the blood-soaked shrieks, the horrific growls, the clashing of steel and the snapping of bones. The rows disappeared one by one, and those in front pressed frantically toward the entrance, packing themselves in, trampling those who were too slow.

Mom and I rushed through the gates, and the panicked herd burst in after me, filling the halls with their clanging footfalls, friend and foe running in pure terror side by side. Huntiata rounded the corner opposite me, and grabbed every passing man he could get his hands on. I did the same, snatching watchmen and bannermen, and thrusting them against the bars of the wrought-iron gate. Many of them fled, but enough stayed. I looked at Huntiata, and he looked at me. The stream of fleeing elves flowed past us, and the sounds of carnage became louder and louder. I nodded to him. With all our might, we pushed, and the gates began to close. The stream of men narrowed. The gears above ticked; the mechanism built so that the hinges locked into place with every inch they were closed. Though the resistance we pressed against became greater, the gates would not open even a fraction more. Those lucky few that made it through added their weight to our side. How could they do it? How could they know what it meant to be on the other side of the gate, and the next moment, throw all their might against those who were behind them? But I knew the answer, for I felt it in every fiber of my being. Terror. Terror drew a line in the sand between life and death, and those on the other side were the enemy, for they brought death with them. The gears above ticked slower, but still, they ticked. I didn’t look at the men on the other side. I didn’t look at their horrified faces as they pressed against the bars, and begged me. I only paid heed to the ticking of the gears. Tick, tick, tick, tick, clang. The gates shut. I stepped backwards, and looked up. I made myself watch this. I watched as they screamed and begged, putting every ounce of their strength against the barrier to their sanctuary. I watched the hunched shoulders of the wolves appear behind them. I watched the horror come into their eyes when they realized what was going to happen. Then, I watched them die. It was not over quickly, but still, I watched. I watched until the last crunching bite sounded, and the last gurgling squeal faded. As the wolves feasted upon the dead flesh, an orc split the crowd of fur, and walked to the gates. He was surprised to see me on the other side, but not as surprised as he should’ve been.

“Ambassador Straltaira, is it?” He asked, “I heard you were dead.”

“What’s your name, soldier?” I hissed.

He just sneered at me. “You’re the Dark Queen’s bitch, are you?” He licked the blood from his dagger, and eyed me, “I heard rumors about you. Can’t say I fancy a woman with a cock, but that’s an easy fix.”

“The Dark Queen will—”

“The Dark Queen doesn’t know you’re alive, Ambassador.” The orc laughed, “But maybe we’ll send her what’s left of you when we’re done.” He clanged his blade against the bars, and chuckled, “Did you think that traitorous bitch had the balls to order an attack on Bentius? No. All you elves are the same. Dark or light, it doesn’t much matter. Even the one who brought us here stabbed us in the back.”

“What? Who?!”

He withdrew his blade with a scrape, and examined the edge. “Fresh paint, eh? I heard there was some kind of a coup that went on here ‘bout a week back. Guess they got through.” His eyes sparkled as he looked up at the gears on the ceiling, “I reckon that if a bunch of limp-dicked elves can knock down this gate, then it shouldn’t take long for us to.” He looked at me, and grinned wickedly, “Make yourself pretty for me, Ambassador. I’m coming in.”

ADRIANNA

The financial district was empty when the horsewomen stormed through it. The slaughter was already over, and the bankers and tellers were left in pieces on the streets. Stock papers floated in the air, windows were smashed in, and vault doors had been rent open. It seemed once the orcs realized the vaults were empty, that they lost interest. The wealth of the Highlands was in the army, and the gold that had once filled the coffers of noble banks was now in the form of sharpened steel. All that steel was on its way to Bentius. I just had to keep the city breathing long enough for them to get here.

I grimaced as I withdrew my finger from the wound in my back. It was deep. It was very deep. It ran between my ribs like a groove, opening me all the way to the side. It was a miracle that my lung hadn’t been punctured, but with the hole in my diaphragm, it was already hard enough to breathe. I stuffed the gauze back into the weeping cut, and gritted my teeth as I reapplied the bandage. There was no way it wasn’t infected given the source of the wound. Likely a flesh-eating bacterium was already making itself at home deep in my sinew, but I didn’t have time to think about it.

“You’re leaving me here?” Dog Meat asked woefully, her big eyes filling with tears.

“I’ll be back.” I said, tying her to the flagpole above the gate’s entrance.

“No you won’t.”

I snorted, “Thank you for the bode of confidence, Dog Meat.”

“Who’s gonna take care of me when you’re gone?” She blubbered, “I’ll be all alone!”

“I told you I’ll be back.” I grunted, testing the tether of the knot. It wasn’t like she could untie it anyway, but I’d be damned if I was going to let her wriggle her way off the roof.

“What if you don’t come back?”

“Then someone here will find you and take care of you.”

“You said you’d take me to Alkandra.”

I sighed, and ran my hand through her blonde hair. “I told you that I’d be back. Are you calling me a liar?”

“Yes.”

I laughed, and stroked her face affectionately. “The only way back home, is through that castle. If the orcs take it, they’ll take the city, and all the people who still live will be killed. Then I’ll have no bargaining chip to get back. The army will come, they’ll siege the city, and if I’m somehow still alive when they get in, I’ll be executed on the spot.”

“Then just run away, Adri,” she whimpered, “take me, and just run away.”

“I can’t, Dog Meat. I’m not made like that.” I planted a kiss on her lips, then grunted in pain as I rose to my feet. The Noble District was laid out before me. Half of it was rubble, but it was old rubble from the coup. The wargs had raced right through the mansions and boutique shops without a care, and had charged the real prize. The courtyard before the castle was a bloody mess, and the gate had been ripped from its hinges. I could hear the faint echoes of battle from the stone halls within. It would be a bloodbath in there. Close-quarters fighting without any room to move, every dark hallway and room packed with screaming, sweating battle of the most intimate nature. Even from across the district, I could see the frantic flicker of light from the castle windows as shadows moved violently by the torches. It was hell in there.

I looked back down at the assemblage of rebels in the financial district below. Less than half of them remained. How many wolves had we killed? A third? Less? We didn’t stand a chance, and they knew it, but they bore the grim responsibility of what had happened here, and so, they waited. Esmerelda finished whatever speech she was giving them, then looked up at me, and nodded. I kicked the lever of the final gate, and the rebels poured through it. Across the city, the bells tolled, sounding the warning of what had already happened.

LEVERIA

Yavara flew through the window, and landed a foot away from me. She had her fists on her hips like a goddamn superhero, and her chest puffed out in a state of grand bravado. “Did someone order fresh booty?” She smiled at me.

I giggled like Brianna would giggle, suppressed my sheer terror, and replied, “I believe I made the booty-call.”

“And my booty’s calling me,” Furia said, “I’ll be back once I’ve answered it,” and she left for the washroom.

For a moment, Yavara and I just stood there, looking at each other. She smiled warmly to me, obviously expecting me to jokingly break the strange tension. For all that I was gifted with words, I was not a comedian. My jokes were all terrible, and the things I found truly funny would make most people cringe in horror. So, in my panic to keep Brianna’s character, I said, “What-up, bro.”

Yavara inclined her head slightly. “What-up bitch,” she answered.

Again, there was another silence between us, this one even more uncomfortable. I could feel the sweat prickling from my scalp, threatening to run down my face to reveal my anxiety. My hands weren’t in the right positions, my feet were set all wrong, and my hips were off kilter. The façade was breaking down by the second, and I just stood there like a goddamn scarecrow grinning at my imminent death.

“So…” Yavara said, twirling her hair, “…you’re still high as a fucking kite, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.” I grinned stupidly.

Yavara snorted. “Good god, Brianna. Just go to bed.”

“Tuck me in?” I smiled coyly, and ran my fingers between my legs.

Yavara’s orange eyes flashed, and she grinned her wicked grin. “I said get your fat ass on the bed, you druggy slut.”

I giggled and climbed on the bed, trying to mask my shaking limbs with the discoordination of intoxication. I managed to get on my hands and knees atop the mattress, and stooped sexily, letting my ass pop out from the bottom of my robes. I looked over my shoulder at Yavara, who was in the process of unlacing her corset.

“Keep it on.” I purred.

Her fingers withdrew from the lacing of her corset, and she watched me from the tops of her heavily-lidded eyes as she secured her thumbs into her panties, bent low, and slid them down her thick bronze thighs. From my angle, I could only see the profile of her small pussy, just the outer-lips that blushed so vividly from her dark complexion. She ran her fingers through them, licked the nectar from herself, then climbed on the bed after me. I crawled away, tittering musically as I fled, my hips rotating behind me to tease the juicy meal that dripped between my spread cheeks. Yavara stooped into a predatory crawl and stalked me from behind, pursuing me ever further into the maze of bedding.

I snaked between massive folds of comforters and blankets, and slid through piles of pillows. I didn’t know how far I’d gotten into the plush labyrinth, but I could no longer see the edges of the bed, nor the walls of the room behind the walls of linens. I was trapped on all sides by great mounds of silks and satins, but at least I had no shortage of weapons at my disposal. There was a veritable armory of sex toys around me, and I produced the largest dildo I’d ever gotten my hands on as my sword. I nearly used it as such when Yavara came slinking around the corner, an evil glint in her orange eyes, her bronze skin contrasting the light cloth that surrounded us.

“You’re trapped.” She purred.

“I guess I’ll just have to fight you then.” I snickered, holding up the dildo.

“Such a big sword.” Yavara muttered, crawling up my body, “But this dragon knows carnival tricks.” She wrapped her hand around mine, and swallowed my sword. Her eyes beckoned me to push it deeper, and so I did, watching in fascination as her purple-sheened lips sucked, and her elegant neck was grotesquely deformed by the bulge that went down it. She hummed her moan as she slurped upon it, twisting her lips so that her black hair cascaded down one side of her head. She watched me from her sparkling orange irises, then drew her lips away, leaving a saliva-coated piece of flesh-colored silicone in my hand. I slid it between her breasts, down her belly, and through her mound. She straddled atop me, and breathed into my nostrils, wafting her intoxicating aroma into my sinuses. She angled the tip of the dildo against her slit, and eased herself down.

“You’ve stabbed me.” She murmured, her brow knitting together.

“Such a deep gash,” I moaned back, “I think the wound is fatal.”

“Twist the blade!” Yavara groaned, “Make me suffer!”

I torqued my wrists, pressing the hilt into her slit until my gripping hand was wetted about my index finger and thumb, pushing into the lush wet flesh of her entrance. She took the toy with ease, her tight lips enveloping the bottom of it, pulsing around it in sexual gluttony. I pulled back and thrusted into her, and she lurched with a delighted yelp, taking the ferocious plunging of her insides so easily. Again and again, I ravaged her, and again and again, she accepted my violent penetrations with grace, molding herself to me, pressing us breast to breasts. Our mammary fat squished together between my robes and her corset, the bulbous globes bulging and glistening, bronze on bronze, the nipples sneaking out until the constraints of clothing could not hold them, and in a jiggling explosion, our breasts were freed. Our nipples toyed together, tingling their felicitous sensations into our chests, drawing a line of erogeneity to our sweltering sex. I stirred my little sister’s insides, and she grinded atop me, moaning and hissing, covering me with her aroma. Her juices saturated my hand, and my grip was slipping around the toy. She thrusted her hips against me, and I lost my weapon entirely, consumed by her avaricious lower mouth.

“You’ve been disarmed, Brianna.” Yavara moaned, a curtain of black hair concealing half her face, the other writ with an imperious smirk, “Surrender, and I might be merciful.”

I held my hands out beside my head, and splayed my fingers, each digit webbed with Yavara’s lust. “I surrender,” I giggled, “do with me as you please.”

“Oh, I like the sound of that.” She purred, and grabbed a pair of fuzzy handcuffs from the pile of toys.

“Surely you don’t need those.” I said, “I’m giving myself to you willingly.”

“You’re much too dangerous.” She grinned, and pulled my hands beneath and behind me. She clicked each wrist into the cuff, then gave me an evil look, and pulled out a dull metal hook from the pile.

“You said you’d be merciful!” I cried in both false and true fear.

“I lied.” She chuckled. She linked the end of the hook between my cuffs, and pulled it down. My shoulders were stretched back, and to avoid the pain of impingement, I had to arch my back, expand my chest, and bow outward to accommodate the lowering of my bound hands. Yavara guided my pelvis into an anterior tilt, and slid the dull point of the hook through my moist crack. I shuddered to feel the cold metal against me, and whimpered in pleasured anticipation when I felt the point press against my anus. Yavara held me in tension for an excruciating moment, then let my wrists go. My shoulders shifted forward, my back began to straighten, and my bound hands moved upward behind me. My rim dilated around the point of the hook, then opened, and I groaned in satisfaction when I felt the cold hard metal dig deliciously into my filthy tender channel. It went deeper and deeper, scoring my rectal flesh so beautifully until the bend of the hook molded to the fat of my pelvic floor, and my arms ceased their ascension, leaving me partially bowed, the chain between my wrists pulled taut.

“Comfortable?” Yavara asked.

“You’re so cruel.” I whimpered.

“You don’t know the half of it.” She whispered, and pulled a spreader bar from the pile. She secured my ankles into the loops, and adjusted the length of the bar until my legs were opened painfully wide, peeling my cheeks apart to expose the way my tight asshole sucked upon the metal hook violating it. Yavara sat back on her knees, and examined my compromised state, running her eyes over the drape of damp robes that clung to my athletic body, my bronze breasts heaving, my displayed midriff clenching and unclenching with the spasms prompted by the delightful digging of the metal point inside me. She reached between her legs, and slowly extracted the dildo I’d put inside her. After revealing each moist inch of the toy, she crawled over to my face, and hovered the tip above my lips.

“Stick out your tongue, and say ‘ah,’” she requested softly, “I need to check your tonsils.”

“You’re my doctor now?”

“Ah-hah,” she giggled, “now open wide.”

“You can’t just keep changing characters.”

“I can’t?” she winked, “That’s awful hypocritical of you, Leveria.

YAVARA

For a beautiful moment, my dumb older sister just gawked at me, her eyes widening and trembling. Then she blinked, and offered me an innocent, “What are you talking about, bro?”

I pursed my lips, and blew a telekinetic spell over her flesh. The magical wind stripped Zander’s perception spell from Leveria, removing the bronze muscular glory of Brianna, and revealing the alabaster softness of the former Highland queen. “You all think I’m so stupid,” I whispered, savoring every bit of the terror that rose in Leveria’s eyes, “you all think I just walk around with my fingers in my ears. It was Zander himself who told me ‘trust is more dangerous than a heathen god,’ and I always took his lessons to heart. I knew it was only a matter of time before another traitor appeared after Adrianna, but I never thought it would be him. I never thought it would be all of them.

“How?” Leveria croaked.

“How what? How did I find out?” I laughed, “I can read minds, you dumb bitch! Even if you’ve been trained to lock your thoughts from me, you can’t hide who you are! The moment you kissed me, I knew who you were, and a quick scan of your mind confirmed it. When I scanned Kiera’s mind, I knew she and the other hybrids had to be in on it, because she was broadcasting ‘wow, Yavara’s sister really knows how to suck a dick,’ from every synapses. Which reminds me…” I shoved the dildo all the way down Leveria’s throat. She wasn’t ready for it, and she gagged, her bulging eyes watering. I forced my cunt-sheened silicone fuck stick down her gullet until I could see the bulge in her neck, then I held it there, enjoying the sight.

“God, you really are good at that.” I remarked, “When Elena told me you sucked cock better than me, I was so fucking jealous.” I pulled the toy to the glans, then forced it back in before Leveria had a chance to breathe. She glugged around it, instinctively opening herself to receive, taking every bit of the ten-inch monster down her neck. “I practiced on every swinging dick that came my way that afternoon. I sucked so much cock that my belly was distended with cum, but somehow, I knew I still wasn’t as good as you.” I face-fucked her, plunging the dildo until she was slurping and gargling in cadence with the deforming and reforming bulge in her gullet. “You always were so talented with that mouth of yours, so tell me…” I jammed the entire thing into her mouth, palming her face until her teeth clicked around the end of it, “…how is it that you got everyone I loved to betray me? First Prestira by coercion, then Elena by love, then Adrianna by loyalty. Now the hybrids, now Titus, now even Zander?! HOW?!

I ripped the dildo out, sending a spray of spit from her smeared lips. She coughed and sputtered, her breaths heaving into her lungs with rapid, panicked intakes. “Shh…” I hissed soothingly, threateningly, and grabbed her by the throat. She became as still as a feigning opossum, the only motion being the quivering of her eyes. I placed the dildo back against her lips. “Talk whenever you’re ready.” I said, “There’s no rush. I just knocked out Furia with a telepathic overload, I sent Zander and Titus to their posts, and the other hybrids are all outside. No one is coming to help you, and even if they were, no one could.”

Leveria swallowed, then whispered, “Just kill me.”

“Tell me what you had planned.”

She smiled with fear-quivered lips. “You know I won’t talk, Yavara.”

“Fine then.” I said, and stroked the matted hair from her forehead, “I’m done playing your games, Leveria. You beat me every time.” I touched our brows, and whispered, “There, I said it. You’re better than me; you always were. Even with all my power and strength, you’ve defeated me so completely that I no longer care that I’ve lost. I almost ran away today, you know. I almost flew across the sea because the bonds that held me here were so weak. Now you’ve severed them completely. Now there’s nothing keeping me here, but you. Once you’re dead, I’ll leave this place and everyone in it. I don’t care that they’ll all die. I won’t even bother killing the traitors myself.” I laughed, and felt a great weight slip from my shoulders, “I won’t even say goodbye. I’ll just jump out of the window, and fly away. Come to think of it,” I giggled, “I’m not even going to kill you.”

“You’re not?”

“Nope!” I said, “In fact…” I took the crown off my head, placed it upon hers, and said, “I hereby abdicate my crown to the next in line of succession: my older sister, Leveria Tiadoa.” I picked up the dildo, and laid the ‘sword’ ceremonially upon her shoulder, “By the power vested in me, I name you Queen Leveria Tiadoa of Alkandra. Long may you reign.”

I eased myself backward, and rested in a pile of pillows. I didn’t know why my heart felt so light, but it did, and I laughed musically. Leveria just stared at me with comingled confusion and terror, the obsidian crown lying crookedly upon her blonde head, and the picture was so priceless that my laughter only intensified. Soon, I was belting out screams of mirth, clutching my aching sides and gasping for breath. Tears ran down my cheeks, and my voice sputtered out until I was only hacking soundless spasms of hilarity. It took me a full minute before I was done, and by that time, Leveria had become so pale that she was nearly ghostly white.

“What?” she hissed at me.

“What do you mean, ‘what?’” I snorted, “You’re clearly supposed to be the Dark Queen, right? I mean, everyone betrayed me for you for some fucking reason—shit, I should be the one asking you the questions! Just why in the hell did everyone betray me for you?”

Leveria blinked stupidly. “Because… because…”

“Because…?” I asked with a broad smile, waiting for the punchline to this long-built-up joke, this fucking comedy that started all those months ago in the Great Forest.

“B-b-b-b-because…” Leveria stuttered, then said, “because Alkandi was supposed to pick me.”

“Wait, what?”

Leveria dropped her chin, and muttered, “I… uh…” she swallowed, “I actually was supposed to be the Dark Queen.”

I nearly died. Right then and there, I nearly blew out my guts laughing. I honked and heaved, choking on retches of hilarity so violent that I doubled-over with them. It was perfect. It was, without a doubt, the funniest fucking thing I’d ever heard in my entire life. Of course. Of-fucking-course.

I wiped the tears from my eyes, and came down with a sigh. “Please explain the joke, Leveria.”

She shifted uncomfortably in her binds. “Alkandi and I are kindred spirits.”

“Kindred spirits…” I chuckled, “what the fuck does that even mean?”

“I don’t know,” Leveria laughed a little, “just some stupid shit Zander said.”

“But there’s merit to it, huh?” I mused, “That’s why everyone who should hate you is on your team.”

“Maybe I’m just more fun than you are.”

I giggled. “I used to be fun, you know. Before you came in and fucked everything up, I was having the time of my life.”

“The sentiment is mutual, believe me. Life was a fairy tale until you were born.”

“You're six years older than me.”

“And it’s been downhill ever since.” She laughed, and I laughed with her.

“So,” I said, echoes of laughter in my voice, “what exactly was the plan here?”

She tucked in her chin insecurely. “I kind of don’t want to say it now.”

“Come on.”

“No, it’ll sound stupid.”

“Come on…” I goaded, poking her with my toe.

“Can’t we just end this on a high note? I outsmarted you at every turn when it was my plan. This was mostly Zander’s plan, ok, and I’m already super embarrassed.”

“I promise I won’t make fun of you.”

“Fine,” she mumbled, “the plan was… to fuck you.”

WHAT?!

“You said you wouldn’t make fun of me!”

That was before I knew how fucking stupid your plan was!” I roared, pointing and laughing at her, “So lemme get this straight. Your plan was to get me to fuck you, then you change into a hybrid, right… and then what? You smite me with your mighty cock?” I held up the dildo and slapped it against my face, “Oh no, Leveria’s cock is just too awesome! She made me come so hard that I realized how much of a beta bitch I really am! Now I’m going to be her little sex-slave forever because I can’t handle how good this dick is!”

“It wasn’t going to be like that, OK?!” Leveria snapped, struggling in her bondage, “The plan wasn’t made up by thirteen-year-old virgins!”

“No, it was just masterminded by a man who I’m beginning to realize is certifiably insane, and a woman who is so cartoonishly evil that history books are going to have to dumb her down just to make it believable.”

“Oh, because you’re a bastion of virtue.”

“Everything evil in me can be traced directly back to Alkandi. We’re not kindred spirits, Leveria, therefore, I am absolved of everything.” I wiped my hands for effect, and twinkled my fingers. “Torture? Not my fault. Rape? Not my fault. Murder? Not my fault. Alkandi made me do it.” I kicked Leveria in the thigh, and laughed when she cried out, “Alkandi made me do it! Not my fault!”

Leveria cringed in pain, then glared at me. “Are you gonna let me go?!”

I snapped my fingers, and her cuffs snapped in two. She groaned as she folded forward, rubbing at her wrists. “Well,” she muttered, “I guess that’s that, unless you want to, you know…”

“Tempting, but no. I really don’t feel like fulfilling your grand plan.”

“But if that plan’s so stupid, then what’s the risk?”

I grinned, and prodded her with my toe again. “Do you think I don’t know what you’ve been doing this whole time, Leveria? Come on now. I’m your sister; I know the game you play. Nothing you’ve presented me in this conversation has been genuine but the fear in your eyes when you were caught; everything after was bullshit.”

Leveria’s face settled into her usual sardonic expression. “But I wasn’t lying.”

“I know you weren’t.” I poked her nose with my toe, and smiled, “But you were trying to disarm me, and it’s not going to happen. You’re not a bumbling little fool; you’re the deadliest woman in the world, and I would be remiss to think you’d ever give up. I’m not playing your game anymore.”

“Then leave. Quit. Admit defeat once and for all, and—” Leveria’s brains splattered against the pillow behind her. I lowered my foot, my toe still tingling from where I’d shot the kinetic spell, and I gazed upon the scene before me. Her face was slack, and her eyes were rolled into her head, nothing behind them. A droplet of blood dribbled from her nose, and pooled upon her gaping lips. Her breath rattled out of her, a retarded note sounding with it. Then, she went limp.
0 comments
SUBMIT A COMMENT
You are not logged in.
Characters count:     
mouthporn.net