Many Forms of Capitulation

Author's Note: This story contains futanari (hermaphrodites, dickgirl, whatever definition works for you).

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The twin moons of Suley and Imoran gazed down dispassionately on fields flush with blood and gore. Hekua of Five Burning Trees pulled her sword out of a gurgling Warinee, breathing hard as blood gushed up against her battle-warm skin. A Warinee; that people and hers, the Byluka, had once known years of peace. The Amayul Empire had absorbed the Warinee, the same way it desired to take in the Byluka underneath its widening shadow; it set formerly friendly tribes against each other.

Hekua staggered back as another combatant, dressed in the long grey robes of the Nyr-nyr, sliced at her with a glimmering sword, cutting right through the tough armour made from the back-pelt of triops, splitting it and the cloth beneath which she used to bind down her breasts for battle, straight down to leave a burning slice in her chest. No ordinary weapon should have pierced her armour like that; this was obviously a sword of Amayulan make. She bared her teeth and swept the Nyr off their feet with a sweeping kick, before raising her sword and bringing it down on the exposed neck with all her strength. The head rolled away in the dead grass.

She felt someone grab her arm and whirled around. One of her brood-parents, Salbret, didn't flinch as Hekua came within inches of decapitating him. Hekua stifled a cry of pain and leaned against Salbret as he dragged her away to a temporary shelter.

"General," Salbret said, wiping away blood which dribbled from a nasty gash in his forehead. The blood was shockingly bright against his dark skin. "We are losing."

"I am aware of that," Hekua said, and coughed heavily. She turned her head and spat out bitter gall. Carrion-birds screamed over dead bodies nearby.

"The Imperial Binary seems very intent on bringing the last free tribe to heel," Salbret said, almost casually. He raised his massive bow and let fly a whistling arrow. Something large exploded, and Salbret grinned. "Especially since the great Hekua has managed to beat them back time and again."

"And this is the last," Hekua said, heavily. "Sheer numbers, Salbret. That and those damned weapons of theirs."

Salbret notched another arrow in his bow. "Yes, General. Where you lead, we follow."

Hekua reached out, and placed her hand on the bow. She pushed down, shaking her head. Salbret's brown eyes watched her carefully.

"If we continue like this, they will destoy all of Byluka," she said. No more songs in the night, speaking of Suley and Imoran's legendary and tragic love; no more small Bylukan children shrieking as they descended the spiral stairs which wound around massive trees. When Hekua had been seen fourteen years of age, she had singlehandedly doused a fire which threatened five of these precious trees, which had housed no less than thirty families each. Her adult name had been conferred to her with great pride right after that incident.

"The Imperial Binary said that they would accept your surrender as capitulation," Salbret said. Hekua nodded, and then stared at the tattered huts which marked the camp of the Byluka army. She raised her left hand and clenched it, the corners of her mouth turned down. A slender figure emerged from one of the huts with a length of white material.

Hekua, the famed leader of the stubborn Byluka, was surrendering.

"Not for long, Hekua," Salbret promised.

"No," Hekua agreed, watching the herald streak towards them with the signal of surrender. "Not for long."

+

Umtra-Hekua walked serenely down the halls of Taral, the main castle of the Imperial Binary. Silken robes shimmered against her brown skin, and her hair cascaded down her back in gleaming dark curls. She could sense royal guards shadowing her every step, and she rolled her eyes. Without the slender golden bracelets on her wrists, she would have been able to dispatch with them quite easily, but the bracelets had been placed on her by the Imperial Binary itself, a symbol of the considerable weight of its magical persuasion on her will. The Imperial Binary called it psychic influence, but Hekua knew magic when she felt it. In the past year since she had been imprisoned in Taral, all her attempts at escape had resulted in a searing pain in her head and the uncontrollable urge to return to her room.

She came to the end of the corridor she traversed; there were three well-decorated silvery doors: one at the end, and two on either side.

"One moment, Umtra."

Umtra was an Amayulan term, meaning 'honoured guest'; Hekua thought the use of it in reference to herself was simply one example of Amayulan dry humour. She turned, raising an eyebrow at the guard who had approached her.

"The Imperial Binary summoned me," she informed him. "I am allowed to be here."

"I know, Umtra-Hekua." The guard appeared greatly discomfited. "It was...only Umitere-Arez who had requested your presence."

Hekua felt both eyebrows creep up in amazement. Umitere was another word Hekua had picked up: Great One. It was a word that referred to only two people in the entire Empire of Amayul.

Actually, two who were one individual: the Imperial Binary.

It was a hard concept for Hekua to grasp. When she had been first made to kneel before the Double Throne, she had lifted her head to gaze upon two people who were differentiated only by the location of the simple bracelets on slender ankles: Arez wore the golden circlet on their right leg and Zaer wrote it on their left . For ease of thought, Hekua thought of Arez as she, since she was female-bodied, and Zaer was he, possessing the male organs of the Amayul. However, despite the duality of the physical form, the Imperial Binary, Umitere was one being.

"Hekua of Five Burning Trees," Umitere had greeted her in two low voices as she knelt. "Welcome to your new home."

Umitere did everything as a unit. They Imperial Binary fucked Hekua that first week, intensely curious about the Byluka anatomy. On this large planet (called Lim by the Byluka and the Warinee, Evert by the Nyr-Nyr and Nove Terra by the Amayul Empire), the Byluka were an anomaly. The duality of gender experienced by other races was not apparent in the Byluka. For example, Salbret was regarded as male by other tribes...and yet he had been the one to bear and give birth to Hekua; and Hekua herself possessed both male and female reproductive organs. Hekua thought about the six small children she had sired, and who now lived in safety in the Bylukan tree-cities. She was grateful to the spirits that the Amayul Empire honoured their agreements.

Now, Hekua looked away from the guard and gazed at the door on the right. Shrugging, she stepped towards it and pushed open the door. Four silent guards stood in a silent inner corridor. If Hekua could take on the outer guards with ease, this set would give her some pause. She strode past them, onwards past a wide arch and pushed away heavy curtains.

On the sleeping-dais, Arez lay sprawled on a pile of blue pillows, the same shade that Zaer possessed in his space. Hekua had been surprised to find out recently that there were separate rooms for each half of the Imperial Binary.

"Kua,"Arez said, stretching languorously and then sat up, reaching out. Hekua hated that pet-name, but nodded in greeting. She approached the dais and took the hand Arez offered to her. Hekua was of average height for Bylukan, but Umitere was tall, a good head and a half more than Hekua. Tall and slender, with straight dark hair and golden skin. Arez had long, thick eyelashes, just like Zaer. They were as alike as twins, but there was now one more thing that now differentiated Arez from Zaer.

Arez was pregnant, belly rounded in mid-parturiency. The robes she wore were translucent, revealing small breasts with large, dark nipples, a dark line that ran right down the middle of her stomach, and barely, the dark triangle of her sex.

"How nice it is to see you," Arez said with a genuine smile, and pressed Hekua's hands to her lips. She then slid Hekua's hands down her own chest to pressed against her belly. "Our child grows well."

"Do you mean 'our' as in mine and yours?" Hekua asked, pulling away her hands. "Or the heir of the Imperial Binary?"

Arez's smile froze on her face for a long moment and Hekua felt a flash of pity. In terms of war, the Imperial Binary were a force to be reckoned with. Umitere planned tactical manoeuvres with an infuriating and eerie speed, but did not seem able to use that same cunning off the battlefield. Hekua thought that failing could work to her advantage.

"I don't know," Arez said, worrying her full lower lip and then said, very haltingly, "I...it is hard to think...by. Myself." Her honey-gold gaze fixed on Hekua. "I...me, Arez, that is, I have always thought with Zaer. I have always been Umitere."

"I know," Hekua said and settled on her side on the lush bedding beside Arez, her head leaning against one propped-up hand. "That's the same thing Zaer told me yesterday."

Arez looked at her with mingled surprise, unhappiness and a flash of something that could be jealousy. Hekua carefully buried any gloating emotion. Umitere's magic could not read her mind, only insinuate restrictions, but Hekua wasn't completely positive about that.

"Is that what Zaer said when you were summoned to...him, yesterday?" Arez demanded. Hekua gave her a look that was innocence itself. Arez reached out and seized her by the jaw, fingers tight against skin. "He should not have called you without me."

Hekua made a soft, pained sound, trying to pull away, even as she smiled internally at Arez's use of a separate pronoun for her counterpart. Yesterday, Zaer had appeared just as heedless, especially when Hekua had casually mentioned Arez's pregnancy.

"It must be so hard for you now," Hekua had said as Zaer licked slowly at the lips of her cunt. "Arez is pregnant, and while you know that, you won't ever really have the experience of it, like her. She's different from you now." She put one hand over her mouth, stifling the squeals as Zaer pushed her thighs even wider and really got into her, tongue dipping roughly.

"She is?" Zaer had said in a rough tone as he rose up over her, holding his thick, long cock in his hand and rubbing the bulbous head of it against her spit-slick flesh. He even rubbed it up over the underside of Hekua's own prick, which was half-erect. Hekua groaned with pleasure.

"She is," Hekua confirmed as Zaer finally sank deep into her and pistoned out again, filling her with over and over again. He pinned down her hands beside her head, driving into her as Hekua writhed underneath him, bucking and crying out her pleasure. Zaer watched her face with a small smile.

"Won't Arez know that you've called me on your own?" Hekua asked between her quick panting. Zaer felt good between her legs; he paused at her question.

"There's a way to...separate myself, Kua. Me, Zaer, myself." He bent and pressed his mouth to Hekua's, moaning softly when she opened her mouth and curled her tongue against his.

"But you've always been Umitere," Hekua said as their kiss broke and his hips snapped against hers. His long black hair fell in a curtain around his face. "How can you be separate now?"

His eyes, the same shape and shade as Arez's, seemed to flare with unsuppressed emotion. Zaer released one hand and reached between then as they fucked, grasping Hekua's cock and stroking it clumsily. Hekua trembled and gasped, her legs wrapped around Zaer's waist. Her cock throbbed and spat release, streams of warm cum over the planes of her belly as Zaer's seed flooded inside her. Despite their numerous tumbles, Hekua had not allowed conception, another facet of the particular make-up of a Bylukan.

Zaer's hand had flashed out and he'd grabbed her chin even as he'd softened inside her, looking at her intently as Azer was doing now. Hekua licked her lips and rest a hand on Azer's closest thigh. Azer let her legs fall open some more and Hekua trailed her fingers up warm skin and stroked the sweat-damp pubic hair.

Azer moaned, "Mmm, Kua," and moved her hips in an eager motion, trying to get Hekua's fingers in her.

"Zaer said there was a way to separate Umitere." Hekua moved even closer and turned her hand around, resting the heel of her hand just atop the location of Azer's clit. In this position, she could use her longer fingers to gently stroke Azer's hairy cunt-lips. Azer made a high, faint sound, and Hekua braced her hand against Azer's pubic mound, still teasing her clit. Azer got wet so quickly, and Hekua felt her cock fill out.

"There is," Azer confirmed, eyes closed, moving restlessly as Hekua fingered her. "I'm doing it right now. Me--ah! Yes, me, Azer, myself."

Hekua pulled away her hand, ignoring Azer's clutching hands. With gentle movements, she helped Azer turn onto her side, pulling up the diaphanous robes and quickly pulling hers out of the way. Helpfully, Azer drew up one leg and Hekua crowded up against the curve of her bare bottom, pushing into her as Azer whimpered.

Hekua stroked her breasts, fondling the nipples as Azer's hungry cunt gobbled her prick greedily, a soft wet grasping sensation. Hekua licked Azer's earlobe and kissed her on the shoulder as she splayed one hand over the rounded shape of Azer's belly.

Azer bucked wildly against on Hekua's cock, the long black strands of her hair tickling Hekua's face. Her pregnancy made her more responsive than ever, and Hekua was just starting to feel the low coiling deep in her stomach, a prelude to shooting her load deep inside Azer, when the pregnant woman tensed and cried out hoarsely. Her pussy clenched rhythmically around Hekua's cock.

Hekua heard, just as she came, Azer say, "Kua, you are mine."

It was the same thing Zaer had said, yesterday, when he'd held her by the chin.

+

A single mind cannot split itself for too long without damage. Hekua waited, and watched.

+

Umitere sat in a low, wide chair, watching the frenzied scene with interest. Nurses went back and forth, the hems of their long blue shifts flipping up with every quick turn. Between the flickering shapes of their bodies, Umitere could see the bodies strapped down to the bed.

Both were furiously screaming and thrashing; only one was giving birth.

"Here!" The head nurse said as a tiny body covered in blood emerged and a sharp cry pierced the air. Despite the emergence of the baby, the two individuals on the bed continued to flail in perfect synchronization.

The nurse cleaned and washed the baby before swaddling it in royal red cloth. He turned towards the Great One and held out the newborn.

"Umitere-Hekua," he said, a slight note of fear in his voice. After all, if the trapped consort of the former Imperial Binary could reduce them to madness, then what else was she capable of?

Hekua took the babe in her arms, brushing at the dark strands. The baby fussed and kicked. This one was Byluka, she thought proudly.

The indulgent smile on her face faded when she looked up at the previous Umitere on the double-bed. Zaer and Azer twitched and shook, making every move in perfect imitation of each other. One mind, split between two bodies, and going insane. Azer did not seem to realize that she had just given birth.

Hekua felt a pang of regret and then pressed her lips together, fighting it away. This Imperial Binary had nearly destroyed her people.

She handed over the child to the nurse with the frightened face, and smiled.

"Hail, Umitere," the nurse whispered, and turned away.

fin.