Ice Gives Way to Fire

"Sleep while you can, Heinrich." she advised him. "I will have my will obeyed!"

"I will sleep, but you should as well." weakly responded Heinrich. "For only in your dreams will I obey you."

* * *

Azria tossed and turned in her bed that night, but not in the grip of her recurring nightmare of failure and defeat. She lay awake, thinking of Heinrich. Like an iceberg he was relatively unmoved by physical assaults. He had his moments of weakness but she was yet unable to totally render him subservient. And something in that fact enticed her. She would never relinquish her control to a partner, but the idea of dominating, totally controlling such a powerful man... it so excited her. She wanted him broken, but the idea of constantly battling his will into submission was invigorating. But her duty to the nation came first. She'd procure information from him first, then do as she pleased with her troublesome little captive. He could not resist her for long. Already he was being worn down.

Meanwhile, down in the private interrogation chamber, Heinrich tried to slumber. A guard had fitted him with special wrist-bands they'd not had time to give him before Azria's arrival earlier that day. These new shackles stopped his natural flow of energy, thus preventing his elemental magic entirely while he remained a captive here. He was meant to have them the entire time, since his arrival, but had instead received the more temporary chakra-blocking strikes from one of the guards. Quite an oversight, he mused, but one now corrected. He felt the urge to call upon his ice magic, but he knew it was hopeless. Azria had exerted her will, he could not even try to subvert these new restraints.

But Heinrich resolved never to betray his folk. The Lady Infernum could batter him, beat him, and abuse him as her whims dictated, but he'd never turn against his own kind and never sit passively at the feet of his captress. With those thoughts of rebellion in his mind, he slept, shackled now on the floor on his back. He slept and he waited.

* * *

Boot steps on the stone stairs down to his prison woke Heinrich. He lifted his head and saw Azria standing over his spread-eagle body in the unsteady glow of the torches. She looked so beautiful, so cruel, looming over him. The picture of authority. Heinrich's body reacted against his mind's wishes, his manhood stiffened at the sight of Azria. She looked down upon him with an unreadable look before firmly planting her right boot on his genitals. Heinrich groaned, but Azria did not remove her boot.

"Today, you will learn the meaning of servitude." she told him. "Today, each word spoken against me will have consequences. Not like yesterday, when I was so very merciful."

Heinrich was silent.

"No clever reply?" Azria scoffed.

"I'm only wondering," Heinrich spoke, "how weak you truly must be to keep me so restrained and helpless. Are you that frightened, Lady Infernum?"

Azria applied pressure with her right foot and Heinrich threw his head back and screamed. His head struck the hard floor and blood started from a freshly opened wound on the back of his skull. Azria removed her boot but replaced its pressure with the force of a quick burst of lightning to Heinrich's most sensitive region. His shriek of agony was resonant and thoroughly satisfying. Azria let him have a few more controlled lightning bursts, keeping her power low enough not to cause permanent damage.

"That should put an end to your rebellious streak." she said at last, to no response from Heinrich.

Azria stepped away from him and to Heinrich's amazement, she began to disrobe. Shortly thereafter, her pale, naked body was visible before his eyes. He was speechless. Her lithe build, that shapely, curvaceous figure, excited his every fantasy. Azria saw that look of longing on his face and she knew she now had him at her mercy. There would be no rebellion this time.

"I will break you yet, Heinrich." Azria whispered as she crawled over his helpless body.

"I... will... not accept this." weakly stammered the captive.

"You weren't given a choice." the Lady Infernum pointed out.

Azria's smooth, firm thighs encircled Heinrich's hips. She sat upright and gazed down upon her prey. His eyes now held a blur of confused emotions; lust and hatred fought for control. His eyes shut tight with unwanted pleasure when Azria guided his erect manhood into her depths, slowly taking him in, sliding down to the base of his shaft.

"Open your eyes," she ordered, "I want to see the look on your face as I shatter your resolve."

Against his will Heinrich met Azria's eyes while she rode astride his hips. He longed to caress her face, to kiss her soft lips and then to move his mouth lower and lightly run his teeth across the supple flesh of her breasts. His loyalties, his pride, all were forgotten, lost to the rhythmic motion of Azria's hips. But as he neared his climax, his pleasure building up to its apex, Azria reached down and seized his testicles in her hand and carefully applied pressure, keeping her hand there while she continued to massage his manhood within her hot inner depths.

Though her motion continued and the tightness of her inner walls stimulated Heinrich, that pressure she so precisely exerted prevented him from crossing over the brink of orgasm. Heinrich let out an animal-like whimper, the stimulation without release becoming almost painful. Azria rode him tirelessly until her own lust was satiated and she moved off of him, leaving her poor prisoner both helpless and yearning. His eyes followed her every move, watching her clothe herself slowly, deliberately taking her time. He wanted to hate her, he wanted to curse her, but now more than anything, he just wanted her.

"Please." he begged. "Azria."

"Quiet, dog." she ordered, sending a single spark of lightning toward his chest, just enough to make him jump in his bonds. "You'll learn your place."

And she left him, desperate, agonized, and wanting. Heinrich's mind spun, his thoughts dizzying and perplexed. Was this his fate, to be brought so close to pleasure and then have it denied by this heartless temptress? So it seemed. For days on end he was treated this way. He was fed minimally and given only enough water to survive. His resolve weakened along with his body. Each day Azria would harm him in some new, cruel way. With lightning, fire, whips, and strange devices that stabbed, squeezed, and twisted at his body, he was routinely tormented. But each session ended similarly, with Azria riding his shackled body to her own prolonged orgasm while keeping Heinrich's climax at bay.

In time, he did not know how much time, he began to beg her. He offered her things, things that degraded his withering dignity, and often she took him up on these offers, but never did she fulfill his desire to have his release. She unshackled him after a long while in captivity, but he never raised a hand against her. When she bid him do so, he knelt before her, reverently kissing her feet.

"You would do anything for me, wouldn't you?" she asked of him.

"I would," he answered, "for my release. I am miserable, I need what you have the power to give."

"And I need what you have the power to give." Azria responded.

"Yes, anything!" Heinrich desperately exclaimed as Azria made to depart. "My people they... they depend on the water-ways and ponds for fish and fresh water. Control the water and you can take the island."

"Good to know." Azria praised, petting his head. "If they ever rebel, I will keep that in mind."

"What?" Heinrich was confused.

"A few days after your capture, they surrendered." Azria informed her new slave. "But I still needed you to be... defeated."

"But why?" demanded Heinrich, his eyes flashing with rage.

"Because I knew it could be done."

Heinrich made to rise, to strike at her. But Azria pushed him back down to his knees, forcing his head down, his face against her boots, and she laughed. A melodious sound like wind whipping through a forest of frozen trees. She laughed because he'd been defeated, she'd won.

"Did you even try to conjure your way to freedom?" she inquired.

"I cannot, the bands--"

"Are nothing." she concluded. "If I had such technology, why would I have been so foolish as to not use it on you from the start?"

"An oversight?" Heinrich sounded uncertain.

"I do not have oversights." Azria reminded him. "You were broken from the start, but you didn't know it. Those paralyzing strikes were quite real, but the shackles were nothing but ordinary bands of metal."

"Then I...?"

"You submitted to my word without thought." Azria concluded.

"I could attack you now." Heinrich growled.

Azria stepped back and laughed once again. She strolled casually to a shelf and produced a leather collar with a small lock that kept it closed. Azria opened the lock with a silver key from the shelf and presented the collar to Heinrich.

"You won't hurt me," she stated flatly, "because then you will never have that pleasure you so crave. None can do for you what I can."

"No... I will..."

"Come, dog," the Lady Infernum ordered, "take your collar and follow your mistress."

Silently, Heinrich obeyed. He took the collar and locked it around his neck. Then he followed Azria to her bed chamber, where she sat in a large chair by a fireplace to enjoy a bit of reading as the day faded to night.

"Remove my boots, Heinrich." she ordered, glancing up from her book: a thick tome detailing a history of military tactics and their evolution.

The blonde-haired former warrior complied, setting Azria's boots carefully aside. He sat before her, cradling her soft feet in his hands. Still that spark burned in his eyes. He hated her, but she'd so mentally damaged him that he was impotent to act on his hatred, despite having the power to do so. He was exactly what she wanted in a personal slave. Broken and aware of just how broken he was. He would serve her well...