An Apocalypse Rising Ch. 07

Her tone turned haughty and her posture defiant. "So where are they, mage? Why aren't they the ones risking their lives? Can't they just appear, wipe her out all by themselves, and go home?" She stuck her finger to Maylin's chest, "Why are we the ones out here and fighting and dying for a people who don't care about us and can't be bothered to fight for themselves?"

"That's enough," Neral snapped. It wasn't a raised voice, but it snapped them all to attention even if they didn't stand. "If there is someone to blame in this, it's me. I asked you to follow me. I led you. The decisions that led to what happened to those of us that were lost were mine and they will continue to be." She moved to stand before Kestral, her voice that of a person carrying weight rather than a commander. "Blame me."

Maylin's features remained tightened as she put her hand on Neral's shoulder before coming to face the angry soldier. "It's all right. Do you know why I did not attempt to go home to get help? Because I would tell them all I knew and the debate would begin. They would debate if she were a problem." Her voice started to sound like a frustrated sing-song. "Then they would debate how much of a problem she was. Does she threaten few or many? In what ways? Should we send someone to investigate? How do we intervene in a way that minimizes our contact with them?"

Her tone turned sad and her shoulders sagged ever so slightly. "The outlanders killed us and drove us out. Since she is no threat to us should we even do anything at all? While we are where we are now, They would debate to the point of impotence. In the meantime, more people are killed and poisoned, and the closer she is to victory."

The edge returned to her voice even if the sadness and frustration did not leave. Would it make you feel better if I were ashamed of my people? Then feel better because I am. Will it make you feel better to know that I mourn your comrades as you do? Then feel better. You have no reason at all to help me, but here you are. You had no reason to sacrifice for a people who have no interest in you, but here you are. Thank you, Kestral." She looked to each in turn. ''Thank you all." Looking back to the lieutenant who now seemed spent. "Is there anything else you wish to say to me?"

She shook her head quickly and headed off to collect her gear. The others followed as Neral moved to follow before Maylin touched her. "Daughter, your soldiers and their discipline are your affair in the end, but I ask that you don't chastise her for her words to me. I'm sure many think the same and I can't fault them. It needed to be said, as did my thanks to them."

Maylin groped for words as she tried to find the environment interesting, "It is... difficult to admit that your people would let others fight their battles for them. It is difficult to admit that such a powerful people can render themselves powerless so easily. She is right and it would feel like you were punishing her for telling the truth, so I ask that you don't."

Neral chose to let it be.

They rode uneventfully, though they did skirt several packs of beasts and more wagon loads of people being drawn to their fate. It gave time to Neral to think of what was ahead and to engage Pel. She didn't want to speak much at first, but Neral had to draw her out, if for no other reason, than to determine if she would be capable of fighting or determine if she were an enemy.

She seemed to open a bit as the miles passed, with her friends engaging her as well. She couldn't say that it calmed her anxiety because there were too many sources of it, but it was a good thing in a journey that hadn't had too many good things attached to it. She kept Deres close to her because of him, and partly because it made her look behind her less and remind herself of all the faces gone.

***

"The choice that is no choice, Delles noted, touching the scar at her cheek as she sometimes did as a nervous tic, her eyes focused on the horizon, "Valley or not."

Neral wanted to laugh at the absurdity and it was a pleasant feeling to want to chuckle at all given the circumstances. "I give you leave to go knock on her front door if you wish and ask her to kindly surrender."

"If you think it will work, sir..."

Anna looked outward."Look at them all. "Far enough from them, the creatures that congregated they looked like insects swarming or liquid congealing and flowing.

"Thousands," Anna said in some awe.

"By tens," Elan corrected, the soft breeze making her white hair flutter..

"She's ready for us either way," Deres said. "She could have unleashed everything against us and killed us outright, but she didn't."

Dion looked to him and Maylin. "Still no idea why?"

He shrugged. "She needs us and we're coming to her anyway? Just to play with us? Once we're closer I'll risk scouting ahead. They seem to be congregating at or near a single point. I suspect that's our answer.

Neral looked at her troops, focusing for a moment on Abren, "You just want this to be over."

As she scowled, the lines of age and battle deepened. "Live or die, point me to them."

"Soon enough," she promised.

Dalen's naturally curly dark locks were windblown. With her bright eyes she still conveyed youth and exuberance. "Ready, sir."

"Pel?"

Her voice was strong even if her stance was slightly less sure. "Ready to follow any order you give, sir."

"Well...my order is certainly that we're not going to go into that valley and give them numbers and the high ground. We'll skirt it and find ways in from there.. In the meantime we'll find a place near that river leading away where the mountains split."

With plan enough they veered to meet the river, Neral knew the wards helped hide their presence, but none of them could shake the feeling they were being watched, even if it was just the sense that they were doing what she wanted no matter what they did.

There were a couple of hours of good daylight left after camp was set, the wind dying somewhat as the sun made its way to the horizon, puffy clouds wandering across the sky. The party decided that it would likely be their last opportunity for a true bath before they reached the witch's lair and, with that knowledge, Pel knew what she had to do.

She knew what Mistress commanded, not through words, but through images that bubbled up from the center of her mind to her consciousness that could not be ignored. To her, the thoughts originated with her. That which her mind could not rationalize, it simply discarded or twisted to be something it could.

What she rationalized was an urge to blunt the anxiety and sense of dirty she felt with a few moments of pleasure by finding a quiet place after her assigned tasks were performed. She excited at the idea of a bath in the river because it meant she could shed her armor the layers beneath and touch her body unencumbered. Aching for that, she stood on her knees with them sinking into the black earth beneath and her toes digging furrows into it as she clawed her smallish, round breasts.

She liked nails against her skin now like never before. She liked rough. She liked feeling taken in a way she wasn't sure she ever did before so she gave herself that feeling by worrying her nipples between forefinger and thumb as her other hand palmed her cunt before two fingers from that hand went to flicking her clit left and right in a near blur, sending goosebumps in waves over her flesh like an invading army.

As Pel molested herself, she took in great droughts of air to fuel her heat, imagining that she was with Ahren, so mad in his need that he simply. took. Love and affection were for after. For now, in her mind, all she was was a perfect set of fuckholes for his use. As she played now with one hand, what her mind could not rationalize and therefore did not see, was the hand once at her breast picking up the waterskin she had pilfered from the group and taken with her.

Even looking down with her own two eyes on the sight, she did not see a clear fluid run from herself and past the mouth of the skin. All she saw was being taken by him in pounding thrusts that made the bed threaten to splinter, her orgasm so intense that beyond a single, quick, near impossibly high-pitched squeak, she made no sound at all. All the energy of her body was consumed with tearing through her. When it was finally over, she caught her breath, licked her fingers clean, redressed in her linen and returned with her armor, placing what she thought was hers back with the rest and waited her turn to bathe.

Minutes later she thought nothing of the sight of Kestral drinking from her waterskin. She was, after all, happy to share.

***

Deciding to pair off to bathe with the safety of an extra set of eyes near left the Pel that was fully herself again in an awkward position and she knew it. Her comrades and friends were trying, but they were obviously leery of her and she couldn't blame them. Even if she wasn't sullied in spirit, her honor was. She ran. She ran rather than stay to try to help a fellow soldier she might have been able to save. I'd shun me. She'd stripped her linen and headed from the sparse trees to the shore.

"Hey."

Pel turned abruptly at the sharpness of the tone to find Pel standing there nude, body tight and smooth, only a couple of fine lines from a claw in the recent skirmish marking her from the nape of her neck to touch her shoulder. She held only a slight curve to her to her chest, but she was still undeniably feminine. "No one's allowed to go out alone."

"I was fairly sure no one was coming with me, so..."

"Somebody has to and it may as well be me, huh?"

She wasn't sure how to respond just then beyond, "I suppose so."

Kestral paid it no real mind. "Hm, don't sound so thrilled that there's someone who's not afraid you're possessed. Come on, let's wash off the miles."

They slipped into the water that was slightly warmer than expected and began to soap their bodies and their hair. It was nice for Kestral as she had been feeling a little flushed. She took a moment to let herself feel the sensation as Pel spoke to her. "Thank you for not treating me like I'm completely ruined.."

Kestral ran her soapy fingers through her hair, almost a light brown now that it was wet. "Can I be honest with you?"

When Pel nodded, she continued. "I can't imagine leaving anyone behind, I just can't. But...I wasn't there. I don't know what it was like. I can't imagine seeing all of them fall apart like you said they did either."

"I suppose, when it comes down to it, I don't know what I would have done in your place, so it would be wrong to condemn you for it." It angered her simply because it seemed so unfair a fight. "Fucking mages tearing people up from the inside like that. Draw a sword and let's have at it. None of this waving hands and putting you under a spell business. How the fuck are you supposed to fight that?"

"They're not all bad though," Pel offered as she soaped her chest. "Deres is good. Bryana's good. Maylin's just trying to fix everything."

"Yes, Deres is all right, but here we all are just trying to fix the acts of a single mage. Bryana's gone, and probably the witch's slave too by now. Maylin? Yes, Maylin is trying to fix it, but her own people wouldn't get off their asses and help her and she knew they wouldn't before she even started." Kestral was slightly disgusted. "We're better off having driven them out."

Time passed and Pell let her head go under the water, Bringing it up and wiping her face she watched Kestral float placidly on her back, eyes closed, a slight blush to her cheeks. Words formed in the center of her mind and they wormed their way to the surface. "Can I tell you something?"

The thought took a little extra time to form. "Sure."

"Promise not to tell anyone?"

Kestral floated peacefully, hot, yet cool and comfortable all at once. "Okay."

"It was fucking hot seeing Hennis stand there in front of everyone naked. She looked...caught. She liked being caught."

Kestral absorbed it; imagined it behind closed eyes.

"It was fucking hot watching Kress push her to the ground. I remember how she squirmed on her back, legs bent at the knees while Kress licked all her desire for men away. They all liked being caught."

Inner contempt at what she had just felt at the description of her comrades falling gave her strength, to quash it. She looked at Pel not knowing what she was expecting to find in the expression she saw...perhaps some bit of contrition, or even indifference. Instead, she saw a mix of pride and lust and that only served to help Kestral find the strength to leave.

"If you leave now," she called out in a way that seemed to caress Kestral's ear and tickle the base of her brain, "you'll miss out on another secret. It's a really good one, too."

Her body above the water should have been chilled in the soft breeze, but the heat on her skin, it seemed, could not be quenched or in the burning in her brain stopped. She turned back to see those wild eyes and that dirty smile. She didn't want to hear Pel's words even though she somehow knew what they would be.

"You'll be caught, too, Kes." She gave the other woman a look of sympathy. "It was in the water you drank. The witch caught me well before the woods. She owns me and it feels so good. By the Goddess, it feels good She's deep inside; she's so deep no one can see or sense her in me unless She wills it."

Kestral had never felt as she did at that moment. She was full of rage, yet powerless to express it and part of her wasn't sure she wanted to and it was the latter that frightened her. Fucking mages. Should have fucking chased them across the wastes and killed them all. She had a joyous vision of running the last of them through with her blade. Kes tried to move closer to shore; tried to call out, but it was no use, and that aroused her even as she tried to run the feeling through with the blade of her will.

Fucking mage caught me. The witch wants into my mind. Not just into it...she wants the whole thing. I feel her clawing at the doorway to it and Goddess, I want to let her in. Sick, twisted bitch wants to turn me into her thing. Her thing that's willing to kill, die, fuck, or prostrate herself at the mage's feet like Pel. I'll betray my friends. I'll do anything. I'll give them to her. I'll...lick their minds away. She was no longer sure if the thoughts in her head were fears of what she would be made to do or declarations of what she would.

Kes took two steps closer, her body rising slightly from the water. "The essence of Her in the water has only opened your mind to the truth of Her. Come to me so that She can claim you."

Her pussy drooled, only to have the evidence of her ache swept away by the current even as she approached Pel and drove herself with her own words as her movement created its own currents in the water. "Vile bitch mage owns me. I'll end up doing her bidding."

"You are doing her bidding even now, Kes."

The words aroused in a way that felt like a, sweet agony that she wanted to flee from even as she wanted to die in it. She stood before Pel, so little space between them now that their hard nipples could touch. She waited, watching Pel's soft brows contort in pleasure as she grazed her lower lip with her teeth. Kestral stood, waiting with equal parts loathing and desire for whatever would happen. Soon she felt something hard bedevil her outer lips subtly demanding entry. She felt nubs touch her inner flesh as Pel sighed over and over again. "Take what She offers and let it take you. You know it is what you want...even through your fear and hatred you know it."

Kestral's left hand moved to touch it as her eyes darted nervously. No one can see the bitch take me. No one can see her own me.

"There's no one but us, Kes." The first words were sweet. The last was not. "Obey."

As much as she wanted to resist she was in such a heat and her mind so dizzy with the promise of how it would all feel now and forever that she embraced the magic she hated, now in the form of that hot thing under the water and placed it just inside her slit.

The thing between her legs came to greater life once it knew it had found its quarry. The nubs seemed to swirl in circles and dimple the insides of her feminine flesh, each one having a will of it's own, touching her in ways that she never dreamed possible. Kes was silent, body shifting and twitching, sometimes with subtlety, sometimes as though she had been shocked.

Pel completely closed the distance between them, now no space between them before lifting Kestral's leg by the thigh and brought it out of the water to the knee as she slowly began to thrust, loving the sensations and power that came with the thrusting and of infecting another for Her. The drives became a smooth rhythm with Her vessel pushing into the prey, hardness and width spreading Kes so that all that was left was to endure, the nubs like tiny fingers probing and claiming.

When Pel's tongue found hers, Kes took her cheeks in both hands and helped their tongues intertwine, The kiss finally broke and first sounds from Kes that finally sounded like words were breathy. "Deeper. More. Harder." Without waiting for any sort of response, she used her hatred to hoist herself on the thing, locking her ankles around Pel's waist as her nails drilled into the other's neck while Kes hissed into her ear. "Fucking bitch mage is making me do this, isn't she?"

"You know She is. You know She wants you. Her gift has to go deep inside you. To claim you."

She threw her head back as Pel's strong hands supported her, bouncing her on the shaft to drill it more deeply into Kestral with each thrust until it was battering against her cervix, the shock of each drive bringing only pleasure. "Deeper inside you... Deeper."

"Oooooo"

"Why does it have to get deeper, Kes? Tell me"

"So she can..,,take me." Her pussy clenched and she shuddered.

"Deeper into your body."

"Yes."

"Deeper into your mind."

"Yesssssssss. So deep into my fucking mind."

"Yes, Kes," she whispered. "So deeply that no one will see. No one will know. Not the mages," she grunted as the gift made its way to Kestral to be absorbed, "not even you."

Kestral's face twisted into a mask of submissive heat at the thought and the first orgasm set her to biting Pel's neck with ferocity. "Then I'll do anything...anything she wants me to." Her jaw dropped as she felt something make its way inside her. She didn't know if it was an actual sensation so much as her own imagination, but it felt thick, dark and seductive.

"She will be part of you. You will be her machine. You will obey."

"Kestral?"

"Mmmm?"

She put her lips to Kes' delicate ear once she knew the moment was at hand. "You're caught now."

The words threw her over the edge and the feel of her gift squirming it's way into her womb kept her there as Pel held her as she seized violently in a fit of unrelenting pleasure. She had had her eyes closed through it so tightly that, when she reopened them, they burned from the touch of light and she wobbled on her feet for a time before she found herself. "Welcome, Sister," Pel said.

Kes gave her another kiss as she felt Her gift ooze through her veins to her brain. "Thank you, Sister."

"Know that what will happen is only what must. We both serve Her in our own ways."

She nodded, and, by the time Kestral's feet touched the grass once again, all she remembered was that the bath was uneventful and she didn't still entirely trust the other.

The night was quiet around the fire. Each had their own reasons to be so, but the result was that those not on watch went to their bedrolls early. Neral was in the midst of her own rituals slightly away to calm her mind and prepare for bed, not relishing the first night in a long time without two choices to hold. "May I speak with you, General?"