The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Leora leads us deeper into the temple, and I can’t keep the grin off of my face. I got to be that close to a statue that honors my mom as a really special heroine. There’s an entire temple full of women who have knelt before a statue of my mother.

Somehow it makes things feel a little bit better.

I knew that people revered Sarah. It made sense. She’s the light bearer, the special LaSilvas born with their gift honed in a way that only happens once every who-knows-how-long. I forget if its supposed to be once every thousand years or if it was just that another one was supposed to be born and mom fit the bill. What’s important is that Olivia has her place beside her in legend now. She deserves it.

Every time we walk by one of the priestesses I’m tempted to stop and ask them any number of questions. What’s it like to be a Priestess of Athena? What’s it like in Sanctuary? Do they know anything about Rust?

I manage to resist only because I don’t want to embarrass Leora. She’s being kind enough to trust me and give me a tour even after what I’ve done.

She has some pretty good reasons to give me the benefit of the doubt but it still seems mean to be her guest and be annoying or slow her tour down. I’m sure that the priestesses would like to talk to the daughter of the light bearer, even if that really doesn’t make me very special all by myself, but I can make time for that once we can find and stop Rust or after this tour.

Whichever comes first, really.

Leora stops in front of another open doorway, motioning in with a soft smile. Its not an especially large room but the walls are lined with bookshelves, and there are several small pedestals topped by a single book surrounded in a small protective glass covering. Those books have silver lettering on the covers and look made of heavier stuff.

“This is the library of Athena. Of course you know there are some books that could have a place on these shelves that aren’t here, but hopefully some day soon we’ll be able to change that.” Leora releases my hand as she leads me deeper into the room. “Most of the other rooms are things like the baths, priestess’ chambers, except for the inner sanctum. That’s where I planned on taking you next. Perhaps Athena might be able to provide you with some wisdom in these dire circumstances.”

“Maybe. I wouldn’t hold my breath on it. I think Athena is the kind of ‘helps those who helps themselves’ goddess!” I smile brightly as I can while moving to take a look at the books in those heavy cases.

It’s really hard to keep my mouth shut, but again, it feels entirely too mean to a woman taking a chance on me to say anything about how I really don’t think I’m a demigoddess. Nothing about me feels like a demigoddess. All of the information Lida was able to find hinted that if anyone we’re descended from Pallas anyway.

Admittedly, that same story also hinted at the Nesatealia splitting from us a lot sooner than the book I found. It’s hard to know what’s right and what’s just a guess or some silly belief.

None of the titles stand out as very interesting. One of the books is titled “Sarah Lucia LaSilvas” but I’d be kinda surprised if there wasn’t a book named after her. I don’t even bother to open it up. If there’s anything in there that I don’t already know it feels like it would be the wrong way to find out. Until Sarah is gone with no chance of getting her back there’s still a chance for me to learn everything I don’t know about her already (that would be okay for me to know as her daughter) by having a good chat.

One day there might be a section of a book about mom if I can stop Rust from doing whatever it is she wants to do. Why would she want to kidnap mom? Why would she then want to kidnap either Sylvia or me? She made it sound like she was trying to get something from Sarah but I can’t think of what it would be.

All she has that no one else has is her light, and I think that’s non transferable.

“You could be right, Aurora. I’ve found wisdom in myself praying there, but to each their own.” Leora smiles, and motions for me to follow her. Does she know what Lida found? Does she know any more of the truth than I do? It’s hard to imagine she doesn’t. It seems if anyone knows the truth it would be the head of the council, but who knows if they’ve even hidden information away from themselves. Who knows how much the Nesatealia were able to obscure if they wanted to.

It still feels safer to err on the side of caution when it comes to the whole demigoddess thing. If I am, then I’m betting it’ll be obvious eventually. If not, at least I avoid having a huge ego.

Along side the tapestries hanging from the walls are elaborately framed paintings of priestesses. There are a few here and there that include Leora. One of them even has her in priestess robes. Was she a priestess before she became the leader of the council? There’s just so much I don’t know about the authority structure of this place!

It doesn’t take long for us to reach the inner sanctum. At the center Is a really impressively tall statue of Athena. Her arms are held out as though offering an embrace. Her robes look so much like those the priestesses wear.

Gathered around the statue are kneeling priestesses, silently praying with bowed heads. Athena is a goddess of wisdom, and the statue definitely manages to have wise eyes. Her skin is a pale milky peach tone, but still something about her face makes me think of Sarah’s. Maybe it’s the curve of her chin? It’s hard to be sure.

Maybe I’m just seeing Sarah in the statue because I’m feeling guilty for not having already saved her.

Wouldn’t be the first time.

“And this is the inner sanctum. There’s not much I can say about this room that isn’t obvious. It’s the most sacred place to our family bar none. I’ve prayed here many a time hoping to find some bit of wisdom or another.” Leora steps close to the statue of Athena with such a big smile on her face. I can tell that she’s more than just a little stressed out. Her council is in hiding, and she lost her Wardens, I mean I’d be scared too. But it almost feels like me being here is making a difference in ways greater than just being distracting. “There’s nothing to it of course. You’re free to pray, or not.”

Kneeling down in front of Athena does sound pretty freakishly tempting. I reach up to grab the silver teardrop hanging from around my neck and squeeze tight. “No thanks. But thank you. Just not now, anyway.”

The walls in this room are decorated differently than all of the others. Unlike the library or the small statuary, this room is more oblong in a weird oval like shape that I can’t quite put my finger on. Staring at the walls to try figuring it out naturally drew my eyes to the odd tapestry that seems to stretch from one side of the doorway to the other.

Unlike the other tapestries and paintings which showed Athena, Pallas, or a few important seeming people, this one seems full of so many women I couldn’t even guess at the number. Some are young, some are old, with all sorts of different shades of silver for their hair and eyes. I can even pick out a few with only colored eyes or hair, which makes it easier to find who I think is Lida in the bunch.

“Leora, whats on the wall? Is it like some sort of record of the LaSilvas family?” I step over to where it starts, and look into the eyes of the first woman there. Nothing about her is especially memorable. She’s dressed the same as the other women, her hair is silver, and her eyes are too.

If this is what I think it is, maybe I can find Rust. She’s a LaSilvas, at least sort of, right?

“No, this is more specific than that. Any woman who spent any time here as a priestess becomes a part of the record. It isn’t drawn, it’s fueled by the magic of the temple.” Leora steps beside me as I very slowly walk along the wall. Its not just one woman standing beside another, it’s more like a really big candid looking class photo near some steps or something. That or there have been amazingly varied heights. “Lida spent a time of her forced exile from your world as an archivist here.”

“I think mom told me something about that once.” I wonder how much changed between The Domina beating Nesatealia and now. How many of these women were made into slaves by the not quite so pleased self made demon queen? Why are some of them just ltitle girls, but others look like older women?

None of them look old, but I know Lida has been around for awhile and she doesn’t look any different than she does on the wall. At least she didn’t the last time I saw her. Hopefully she doesn’t look too different now.

I stop cold when I see one of the women on the wall has red hair. Red hair, light blue eyes, and robes that look just like the ones everyone else is wearing only almost completely translucent. “Who is she?”

“Yanuka Nesatealia. I wasn’t there, obviously, but we were told that she attempted to betray the Nesatealia Matriarch in some scheme to take her power or her place or something similar. Her attempt failed, and she was left broken and mindless beyond even anything your mother could fix. While cleaning up after that mess, Lida thought it was best that we keep her here.” Leora smirks. It’s kinda hard to blame her. I’d probably be smirking too. “She’s served as the high priestess’s personal servant ever since. It only seemed fitting to give her a set of robes. It seems the wall has a sense of humor.”

Can magic have something like that? I admit the thought makes me giggle, but could something like that really be possible? If I just had five seconds to grab Counter Spell. She’d know.

We’d probably not even be in this mess if I hadn’t been more concerned with not getting her into more danger.

The next time I have a dumb thought like that I hope I remember to ignore it.

“Huh. Well that’s definitely something!” I don’t know what else to say, so I just keep walking along the wall. This is probably a waste of time, but it’s a waste of time that at rules out possibilities. She made it sound like there’s definitely been LaSilvas women who haven’t been on this all, but that doesn’t mean I can just give up and kneel in front of a statue.

Leora is even on the wall. She looks younger than I do now, maybe about twelve or thirteen. Maybe you never age on the wall? Maybe the wall stops changing how you look when you stop wearing the robes? I don’t feel like bothering Leora with a bunch of questions. None of it really matters unless I can find something that stands out. So many of these women look so much the same. It makes sense, there can’t be too much genetic diversity in the LaSilvas bloodline, but at least the same magic that lets a bloodline carried on only by women seems to also keep any of them from ending up wishing they had a bigger gene pool to choose from.

Getting science all tangled up in magic feels weird. Do they even vaguely overlap? If not why wouldn’t they? Its so hard to stop my mind from wandering over pointless stuff. I guess its easier than worrying about what Rust is doing to Sylvia and Mom.

“Her!” I stop and point over and over again at one of the women standing lowest on the tapestry. Her hair isn’t draped over half of her face, but something about overpowering lust makes it really easy to remember a face. “Who is she?!”

“Who, her?” Leora holds up her hand, floating out a spark right beside the woman I’m motioning to. It looks a lot less arcy than mine look, but a lot smaller, too. Funky. “Why?”

I narrow my eyes at the woman’s face and mentally color in one of her eyes red. “It’s Rust. That. Her. She’s Rust. She’s the woman who took Sylvia, the woman who has my mother, and the woman responsible for the Wardens. She looks different now, her hair has bits of red in it, and she wears some of it over one of her eyes, but that has to be her!”

“That’s Lia LaSilvas. She was an orphan who lived at the temple. We lived here together for awhile while I was a priestess. It’s a common enough thing for any LaSilvas to spend some time as a priestess, but for her, it just made sense. She grew up here, found in a basket with nothing beyond a piece of parchment with her name.” Leora frowns, scrunching up her lips as her eyes take an expression of extreme focus. “And you said that she was Yanuka and Lida’s daughter?”

“That’s what she said. I don’t think she was lying. She seemed entirely too confident and I have a bit of experience dealing with villainous types like her? When they act like that, it usually means they’re not lying because they don’t have to.” I shrug. “But I’ve been wrong before. She could just think it sounds neat.”

Leora shakes her head as she steps closer to me. “There could be something to this. I didn’t really know her that well, but she never mentioned knowing who her mothers were to me. The high priestess would know when she arrived. We might be able to use that compared to information we have about Lida to see if there’s any way this could work. It might be a long shot, but I don’t see what else we have.”

“A name is a lot! Really! And even of Lia is just another victim in this whole mess, at least we have something to go by.” I’m not really one of those heroines especially good at the whole investigation part of the job, but I’ve leaned to be thankful for even the smallest clues.

Just in case I let my eyes quickly scan over the rest of the wall, but nothing really stands out. If I’m wrong it’ll be easy enough to find Lia’s face and start over again.

“Sounds like we should probably go and pay the high priestess a visit then, huh?” I turn to Leora and don’t even try to hold back my grrin. “I’d lead the way, but I sort of don’t know how to get there!”

“Not to worry, cousin! It’s not too far really, just—”

“—Just that you aren’t likely to get there very easily, given who is blocking your path. Sorry Leora, I’ve never been one to resist dramatic timing.” I spin around as fast as I can but I wish I could be all that surprised by who is standing in the doorway. Rust stands tall and defiant with way too many wardens standing behind her.

Frowning I hold out my hand, ready to finally show off the trump card I’ve been holding back on using. I waited too long before and then Rust whipped me into submission. I’m not making that mistake twice.

My hand starts to glow, but before I can do anything more Sylvia steps out from amongst the Wardens. Her eyes look dull and hallow. She’s wearing robes that look a lot like the ones here, only red and gold.

The other big difference is that her robes are torn open to let her breasts spill out. The edges of the fabric look burned and charred. The beautiful curves of her breasts are stained with ten dark points of blood that look too much like marks left by a hand to be coincidence.

“What did you do to her?!” My metal rises around me before I can even think to summon it manually. “Sylvia!” Ugh! Here I am wishing I’d brought Counter with us. She’d just be standing right beside Sylvie.

“Remarkably little, my dear metal niece. But that can change quite quickly now, can’t it?” She raises an eyebrow. I frown. I’ve never liked these sort of games. “It would be so easy to move through this place, using my Wardens and your sister to convert the Priestesses of Athena to Priestesses of Rust, but that isn’t why I’m here. I’m here for one reason, and one reason only. Such a simple reason that it’s almost insulting.”

I frown. Without lowering my hand I slowly step back towards the far wall. Her whip probably has as many range restrictions as my sparks, but I don’t want to make things any easier for her. I know enough to not want a fight to be on her terms.

Leora follows close by. Damn it. I wish that she weren’t here. As useful as she was in identifying Lia I don’t need to have her to worry about on top of Sylvia and her pale breasts just begging to be pampered after whatever rawness she’s inflicted on them. “And just what the hell would that be? Did you come to check out a book? Because I think it’d be pretty silly to come all the way here if all you were going to do was just grab something I’m sure was back where we met.”

Sometimes going for insults makes a villain make a mistake. It never feels good when they laugh. One of these days I’ll figure out better detection skills on which times will be which.

She laughs and I’m sure as hell not smiling.

“Why my dear niece, I came for you. It’s been so long since your mother has had a chance to see you after all! You’ve grown into such a powerful beauty. Some would say you’re an even better Silver Girl than the original.” Now I know she’s lying. No one would ever say that. “I’d thought you the weaker candidate, but after spending some time with your sweet sister I believe you would suit my goals so much more precisely than she.”

“Sorry, but I’m really not in the mood to be a candidate for anyone besides the one to stop you! So, good luck with that!” I withdraw the metal around my hand, and fire off a series of five sparks, one from each of my fingertips.

Rust narrows her eyes but doesn’t react much otherwise. She isn’t very impressed. That’s sort of the way this trick is supposed to work.

She starts to reach into her clothes for the red Warden rod, shaking her head and laughing as she does. “You know, I don’t even need this toy to fend off such a simple assault.”

Halfway between me and her I flick my wrist, and coat my hand in metal again. The lights follow suit, each turning into a piece of silvery metal just like my hand. The metal reshapes as I twist my hand in the air, soon enough forming the shape of five bonds aligned with her limbs and her neck.

Rust almost misses seeing the transformation, but the rod is in her hand. I can’t hesitate now. Already the red energy whip is starting to form from the tip. I duck to the floor and hold out my hand, sending another volley of normal sparks as she crashes her whip across half of the bonds, moving narrowly to avoid the rest before they move past the wardens to imbed in the wall. They wont stay there for long before reverting if my experimentation was anything to go by, but I don’t think I have time to worry about that.

My sparks connect with her legs, and she visibly shudders, but then a slow smiles slides across her lips before she slowly shakes her head. Damn it! I’m too used to dealing with women not particularly acquainted with magic.

“I’m impressed, Aurora! Ingenuity! You’ve learned how to make your light just as metal as the rest of you!” She’s right, but I still don’t like how much she’s laughing. Why would me having a new trick make her laugh?! “Oh this should fit into my plans even more than I’d hoped! You didn’t really expect me to have any problem dissolving your metal as a projectile, did you? Or were you under the misguided notion that five little sparks could stop me, or even slow me down?”

Leora and the priestesses are still here. They’re just terrified. I don’t blame them. I saw how her sparks looked, and I don’t think that they have any tricks planned for someone just marching right into the inner sanctum. They would’ve activated them by now.

I hope.

Damn it. I should have known that wouldn’t work! I should have been faster, or switched when I shot my sparks, or something! That’s the problem with a trump card. You’re so not used to using it that you make all sorts of dumb mistakes.

“One would almost think that you didn’t wish to see your mother again, my dear Aurora. Or is it merely the sight of your sister in such a state? One would think that you of all people would know how difficult she can be.” Rust laughs again, and I clench my hands into such tight fists it hurts. Damn it! I don’t care how true it is – no one gets to say that about Sylvia besides me!

Well, I’d let Nikki say it too. I guess it’d be more accurate to say that evil bitches don’t get to say it unless they expect to get a spark or two. Rust already got five, but she barely even reacted.

A spark on it’s own isn’t really so powerful. There’s gotta be some way to beat her!

Throwing caution to the wind I break out in a mad dash right for Rust. Halfway there she starts to raise up her whip, but I keep running. I’ve taken a few strikes of that thing before. I can take a couple more if it means that I can save Sylvia from whatever this demented bitch has done to her.

Her whip starts coming down, and I don’t slow my run but I do raise my arm. It looks made of energy but if it wraps around my arm and stops that sounds like it’d be way more preferable than feeling that red cut right through me again.

It doesn’t work.

Red burns through my wrist, making it ache and pulse red down my entire arm. The rest of the lash moves through my other shoulder, blinding me with thigh clenching red. Just like before.

It’s so hard not to fall and roll the rest of the way. My whole body just wants to go down and stop fighting but I can’t just give in. No matter how much my body wants to surrender to that feeling, no matter how much even I’d love to surrender to that feeling, I just can’t.

She manages to raise her hand over her head just before I reach her. This is one of those times where if I wasn’t able to fly being short would be a real major inconvenience. I kick off the ground to make a grab for that rod, gritting my teeth for the red to come. Rust only grins, and I can’t figure out why. I’m already holding her wrist with a metal hand, so it’s not like she’s about to dash out of the way just in time.

“Looks like you’re all rusted out, Li-uh!” Her wrist pulses silver, but its a different silver than I’ve ever felt before. Its bright, and even though I can barely see it the light is blinding. I can’t see anything at all, and I feel so incredibly disoriented. The flash is only temporary, but it’s enough to make it hard for me to remember which way is up.

Staying afloat isn’t even vaguely an option.

I fall, clumsily too, but I manage to use my grip on Rust to keep from falling over and instead lean against her for support. This is one of those times where I’m glad that everyone is always so much taller than me. “Don’t call me Lia.”

Every place my body meets hers pulses with red. Currents run between our bodies as that same heat from before starts to burn its way deeper inside of me. I try to pull my wrist away, but that same disorienting silver flashes through my hand and I let out a heavy groan as my knees give out all over again.

Its hard to get my balance when every moment its harder and harder not to mash my body against hers and kiss her everywhere my lips could reach. Silver and red lips looked so enticing, but I can’t open my eyes now. If she’s just going to keep blinding me I can’t rely on my eyes.

Quivering. I can’t stop quivering, and my thighs won’t stop squeezing together. The downside of her feeling so much taller than me is there’s more of her red to shudder through my body and make my mouth water. Fuck.

I grasp at her shoulder and try forcing my silver into her, but another blinding flash later and it’s hard to remember if I’m below her or standing. Every time I try to pull my hands away she pulses silver just enough to keep my hands glued to her wrist and her shoulder.

Can’t let go. Can’t fall away. Can’t stop wanting her more.

“You are a brave woman, my dear sweet Aurora. Unfortunately predictable, but what are you supposed to do, exactly? Such limited options, and even fewer that have any chance to function. It must be eternally frustrating for you.” I try to part my lips to respond and she presses a bright flash of a silver finger to my lips. I scream against it, trembling as my legs give out again. “That wasn’t a question. It was an observation. One we both know is true.”

There’s no way out of this, but I can’t just give up. I can’t let go of her, and I can’t win by force. I try to concentrate on my silver long enough to will it to meet hers, but every time it seems to redirect, making pleasure course through my body harder.

Her finger keeps caressing my lips, pressing just hard enough to be firm but not pressing my lip into my teeth. I try to open my mouth enough to bite her and an even brighter flash has me clutching to her tighter to stop from drifting away into who knows where. It’s hard to remember the world outside of her. We were in the temple, in the room with the big statue, but it doesn’t feel like there’s any floor under my legs even when I flail them long enough to find it.

Rust’s body is so warm and so soft. If it wasn’t for how much I want to just moan and grind against her leg until my skirt is bunched up like a thick belt I’d just want to wrap my arms around her. She feels taller and warmer than Sylvia, and it’s hard to remember why I was so angry about her before.

Anger is such a red feeling, but right now the only red thing that I can remember or feel is how much I want to moan and hear her moan and rub myself against her every way I can. It takes me a long time to remember that my metal is gone because it doesn’t like interacting with her red. Now its so soft and comfy against her I don’t think I could pull it back out even if she stopped feeling so bright and red.

“Mmm you’re an amazingly docile little thing when given the proper reinforcement, you know. One would think given your experiences that such techniques would have lost effectiveness long ago. I suppose I don’t need to worry about you making use of my dear sister’s gift after all.”

Sister. Her sister. Mom. Sarah. It’s so hard to remember why that’s so important when more than anything I just want to feel her and be near her. Lia. Rust. Whatever she wants me to call her. I just want her. I just want to feel this warm sweet feeling forever.

“Let her go!” A woman’s voice, loud and fierce, cuts through my desire just long enough for me to find my feet again. “I might not be the light bearer, but I won’t let you take her daughter!”

Me. Someone’s trying to take me away from Rust. I whimper and clutch tighter, trying to press myself as much against her as I can. I need her. I want her. Before all that I had was just raw desire coursing through me and nothing but myself to soothe it with, but now I have something to feel. Now I have something to crave.

It feels so, so much better this way.

“I’m afraid even if I did that now, councilwoman, that our dear little dawn wouldn’t go very far. But you’re free to have the songbird. I’m afraid that there’s too much room for error if I kept her as close as I’d planned. You can keep her safe for me.” Songbird? Sylvia. She means Sylvia. I know I should be concerned but that feels so much harder to worry about when she presses her lips to my forehead. “Unless of course you’d prefer that I make you a mindless husk offering herself to anyone lucky enough to wander down Rose Street.”

Rust’s body feels so familiar in such a sweet soothing way. She kisses my forehead again, and it feels so blinding that it’s hard for me to remember anything even once the afterimage fades away. My eyes are open. I don’t remember when that happened, but I know it feels so good to nuzzle into Rust’s chest. Red. Hot sizzling red burns into me, but it doesn’t ache like it did before.

With her so close to me, especially once her arm wraps around me, I don’t feel as overwhelmed with the need to rub and grind. It feels different than last time, more tender, more special, more like a special bond between us. I’ve only felt like this with one woman before, and this feels even sweeter than that.

Leora stammers. She must have been the woman who was speaking before. Things feel a little less slow as they beat along with Rust’s heartbeat. “You won’t get away with whatever it is you think you’re doing, Lia. You might have managed to scare the rest of the Council into hiding, and you might have the Wardens, but you won’t—”

“I told my dear niece not to use that name. I’m afraid that I’ll need to make an example of you.” Rust squeezes me tighter, whispering so softly into my ear that I’m sure no one hears her but me. “Don’t worry dear, we’ll be gone soon. I just cant have silly women like Leora thinking that such disrespect is acceptable. If word would spread, how would anyone be able to take me seriously. But do feel free to watch.”

Her voice sends shudders down my spine and draws my hips to her. So warm. So hot. I feel so claimed in a way that I can’t put to words. I want her, and I want more of her, but she’s giving it. And I can feel she’s going to give me so much more.

I shift against her just enough so I can watch as the red arc of her whip slams down against Leora. Red pulses from her eyes and she falls to her knees with a choked whimper. She grabs desperately at the floor, shuddering as the red slams into her again. Her legs give out from under her. The sounds that stream from her lips barely even sound like they want to be words, just raw gasps and struggles for coherency.

Even I took it better than her.

She scrambles to press her hands down against the floor in a vain effort to lift herself up, but Rust’s whip slams into her again sending her right back down to the floor. “I really should thank you for your efforts to revive the abandoned practice of converting women to Wardens, Leora. I could still overpower you in other ways, but there’s something so much more satisfying about using a corrupted tool provided by yourself. If you’d known what making more of these would do, I wonder if you would have? What do you think, my sweet little dawn?”

Dawn. She means me. Olivia called me her dawn. Now I’m Rust’s dawn. I’ve never felt heart warmed and aroused before at the same time.

Leora doesn’t try to rise again. She doesn’t even try to reach for herself. I don’t even understand how she can resist or think about doing anything else. Just the thought makes me press tighter to Rust and inhale her scent as deeply as I can. All Leora does is shudder on the floor, whimpering and groaning with half open, red glowing eyes.

“What a perfect picture you’d make for the wall now, Leora. Wouldn’t that just be so perfectly fitting? I’ve pondered for such a time why the wall didn’t depict an orgy.” Rust laughs, and as cold as it must feel to Leora her delight makes my thighs hotter and my lips smile wider. She’s happy. I want her to be happy. I want to give her so much for how good she’s making me feel. “Perhaps when I return next we can weave the magic in the wall to do just that. Athena is hardly my likeness, but it would be easy enough to change, wouldn’t it?”

Is that what she wants? This temple to be hers? The thoughts feel so much more distant than the warmth of her breasts. I push them away with a mewl, pressing my lips as close to the center of her chest as I can.

From the corner of my eye I can see Leora twitch on the floor. Her hips grind, trying to push into the cool stone. Frustrated grunts start to fill the air. It doesn’t sound like she’s having any luck making the red haze feel pleasant as it does for me. Her eyes struggle to open wider than just faint red slivers, and slam shut again when another arc of red slams across her back.

Poor helpless Leora. Her hands grasp desperately at the floor, more twitching than anything else. She looks so adorably young and helpless. “Don’t worry, councilwoman. I do have plans for you, as I do for the rest of the Council. For a time I’d pondered merely having you join the ranks of my Wardens. Don’t worry. It’s far more a betrayal to who you are than such a simple transformation. Sanctuary will just be a stepping stone, after all. Just as it was always meant to be.”

“L-li . . .” Finally some of Leora’s helpless rambling takes the shape of recognizable sounds. She’s so defiant but not good enough at it for it to matter. She can’t even say Rust’s other name.

“As much as I would love to stay and humiliate you more in your own shrine, I do have other places to be. Perhaps Lucia will finally be more receptive. Come, my sweet little dawn. There’s no reason for us to linger.” She wraps her other arm around me so tight. All I can feel is her and that sweet delicious red making the sensation of her so dreamy and sweet.

The Wardens step around us, and in a moment of something that feels like it should be called clarity I glance towards where I remember Sylvia was standing. She’s still there, staring blankly ahead. She isn’t even reacting to the beautiful sight of Leora’s pointless struggle. I want to reach out for her, to pull her with us, but it’s impossible to pull my hands away from Rust when she feels so good. She never stops getting warmer, always feeling so close to burning me away with desire and tenderness.

I almost say goodbye, but it feels so much more difficult to speak than it feels to press my lips into Rust’s chest. “Goodbye, Songbird. You did have a lovely voice, but I’m afraid I just don’t have a place for a woman who can’t learn her place.”

Red burns around is, disolving reality until the temple is so far away.

Goodbye?

Rust disappears along with all of her corrupted Wardens. Something red inside of my mind shatters and cracks. No place. No place for me? Because I wanted to obey her more there’s no place for me?

Sparkling mist starts to surround me but I can’t remember trying to will this much of it out. Usually if it comes on it’s own it’s not nearly this impressive. Rust abandoned me. She used me for a little fun, used me to threaten my mother, and then she abandoned me for my sister. She abandoned me in a shrine and took my sister and lover as a replacement.

She could have just hung me in a cage to mewl and sing for her whenever she wanted. She didn’t need to leave me here. She abandoned me.

Through the mist I can see women dressed in white rushing for the woman Rust called Leora. She was supposed to be the leader of the Council, wasn’t she? Rust took her down so easily. All she needed to do was try. Aurora didn’t do much better. She clung to her like she clung to that woman pretending to be Sarah. Does she really want that so bad that she’ll forget about me standing right here? Could she really feel so much of Rust’s red and not turn into a mewling mass of need? She looked so upset when she first saw me, and then before she left she looked barely even there.

Leora grabs onto one of the women helping her up and kisses her so roughly. It almost looks painful. My hands shake at my sides. One of the other women tries pulling Leora away, but she’s holding too tight.

Driven by some idea I can barely understand I stumble towards them. My body feels so stiff, and the red crumbling in my head feels quieter and quieter. I must obey, but she isn’t here. I must obey, but she has no desire for me to obey. How can I obey if she isn’t even here?

Every step I take makes the red crack deeper. It feels like it’s letting go, like a hand releasing its grasp. I try to step heavier, but without my heels it doesn’t feel as satisfying as I want it to feel. I want to shatter and crush that red away like a cheap toy. I want to break it like she wanted to break me. I want to take the shards and shove them so deep into her mind all she can ever do again is crave to obey commands that never come.

A song starts to hum somewhere deep inside of my mind. At first I don’t recognize it, but by the time that I fall to my knees beside Leora I wonder how I couldn’t. My song. My muse. It chips at the cracks in the red, feeling like velvet sliding between my ears.

Leora struggles when I slide my arms around her, even with so much of my silver and violet nebula pulsing around me. Her thoughts are too shattered and thick with red for me to understand, but I know this feeling so well. She’s burning with the same heat that I was feeling pinned under Rust. Raw, unrelenting desire. I wrap my nebula around that red inside of her, filling it with as much satisfaction as I can.

She groans, falling boneless back into my arms. My lips find her neck, kissing, suckling at the tender skin. I must obey, and the red desires pleasure. I obey, forcing more of my power through my lips.

They flow along her elegant skin, moving under that black military uniform she wears. I can feel the bumps of her collarbones, and the smooth rising curves of her breasts as my power tingles and pulses. Her nipples tremble as my mist twines around them, already so stiff but so eager for more. I savor tasting her relief as I trail sparkling points of silver along every bump over her areola.

“Ssssylvia!” Leora moans, her hands quivering as they reach back to grab onto my shoulders. I can feel more of her thoughts coalescing as the red pulsing in her withdraws. I can feel her cooling, like lava turning to rock.

My nebula slides lower, feeling along the smoothness of her tummy, and down along the rise of her mound. Her thighs clench tighter as it flows along her flush labia, tasting at the smaller set reaching past. The last of the red shatters with the first silver kiss to her pearl.

Her satisfaction rocks through me. Euphoria filled with such satisfaction makes the song in my mind rise to such a loud crescendo that I can’t even hear Leora’s scream.