Daughter of the Sun Ch. 02

IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS:

Since days, the nightly sleep of Queen Hailey of Syfall have become infested with hellish visions of armies of savage naked women roaming and devastating the land, led by an inhumane creature. Having consulted with Praja, her court's sorceress, the two women have agreed how such nightmares are actually messages being sent to the Queen by the Sun Goddess herself, to warn her about the threat represented by the Night Lord, an evil entity whose plan is to enslave the whole continent of Mur.

As Hailey and Praja return to Syfall in order to prepare the defenses, the Queen sends her sister Eluan and the commander of her guards and lover Darya to seek for reinforcements, respectively to the Duchess Sung of Hadun and to the Duchess Dasha of Vinevris.

In the north, the Night Lord had actually manifested Himself, taking the mental control of a huge horde of savage women, using the energy of their orgasms to charge Himself with magical power. Still in the impossibility to attempt to enslave Hailey directly, the Night Lord another potential victim He can easily claim...

https://literotica.com/s/daughter-of-the-sun-ch-01

***

But Hailey, Daughter of the Sun, had not been the only woman being haunted by strange visions during that night. Far to the north, laying in her bedchamber inside the silence of her Royal Palace, Queen Artemis of Troygrove was immersed in an agitated sleep, her mind wrapped in the depths of a vivid erotic dream.

In her sleep, she found herself being lost in the depths of a lush, verdant forest, the warm rays of the sun filtering through the thick canopy of leaves, enveloping the woods into a golden and enchanting aura. The forest floor was carpeted with soft moss and an array of colorful wildflowers, their vibrant hues standing out against the emerald green backdrop. Birds were chirping merrily in the distance, and the gentle rustle of leaves accompanied every step taken by her bare feet.

She was nude as the day in which she has come to the world. Breathing in deeply, she allowed her lungs to be filled with the delicious earthy scent of the forest, feeling entirely at ease and at home in those natural surroundings. Beneath the weight of her naked form, the soft ground crunched satisfyingly as she walked, the coolness of the soil contrasting pleasantly with the warmth of her skin. The Queen's long, flowing blond hair cascaded down her back, unbound by any sort of adornment, swaying freely in the breeze.

The entire forest exuded a sort of unexplainable, mesmerizing charm, which seemed to call Artemis to lose herself completely into its green embrace, inviting her to delve deeper and deeper among the luxuriant trees, to explore further and ever more. An invite and a call to which Artemis found herself unable, unwilling to oppose.

Pushing aside some branches with her hand, as she opened her way through the dense foliage, she found herself facing a wonderful and enchanting vision. A small lake in the middle of a clearing, whose clear, limpid waters shone like thousands of tiny precious diamonds in the sun's rays, captivating her eyes immediately with their splendor.

Feeling full of joy and enthusiasm for such a discovery, she hurriedly ran to the banks of the pond, kneeling naked on the tender grass, among the myriads of fragrant flowers that dotted the lawn. Her hands cupped, she dipped her arms almost to the elbow in these welcoming waters, filling her palms with that cool, crystalline liquid.

The water tasted so wonderfully refreshing and pure. Artemis happily drank in greedy gulps, full of pure enjoyment, letting a few cold rivulets to freely run from the sides of her mouth, over her neck, falling onto her bare breasts, making her nipples to swell at the delicious contact with such freshness.

Satiated her thirst, feeling completely at peace in this small corner of paradise, she lay down on her stomach, letting her slender feet to dangle gently in the scented air of the forest, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her exposed skin, drawing absentmindedly circles in the water with her fingertip, humming and contemplating her own reflection in the clear waters.

She took long moments to admire her own features: at thirty-seven, she was in the prime of her feminine splendor and attractiveness, the soft mass of golden hair, framing a face whose hard and decise features, perfect reflection of her strong-willed personality, were made even more seducing by her eyes, wide and blue as the sky.

Artemis had always immensely loved her own image. Actually, it was the only thing in the world capable to awake arousal and desire in her. No other human being, either man or woman, was capable of arousing the slightest form of attraction in the icy Queen of Troygrove; even the few slave girls who occasionally shared her bed had been chosen due to their physical resemblance to her. The Queen of Troygrove had always loved and adored only herself.

To better indulge in her lonely passion, she had installed in her private apartments a gigantic mirror, which completely covered an entire wall from the floor to the ceiling. The mirror was her favorite plaything, her only true and most passionate lover. In front of it she could spend countless hours, gazing and admiring herself, totally naked, in a variety of erotic and sensual poses, arousing her own desire with the sight of her own body.

And when the plain mirror wasn't enough, the Queen had also her own secret place. An hidden octagonal room adjacent to her bedchamber, accessible only through a secret door whose existence was known only to her. Artemis was used to call it "the Ethereal Chamber of Pleasure"; every single wall of it was covered with the most polished silver plates, each of them providing a perfectly reflecting surface. Even the floor and the ceiling were covered by the same polished, mirroring material; the Queen could thus admire herself from every possible angle, contemplating every part, every curve, every detail of her body, while pleasing herself.

It was her most intimate place, a secret temple dedicated to the sacred cult of her own divine beauty, to the most shameless self-admiration, to the most unbridled autoeroticism. In the center, a large round bed, covered with silk sheets and soft pillows, surrounded by hundreds of scented candles, was the actual altar of such inner-sanctum, the place of her wildest and mind-blowing orgasms; locked in her secret room, the Queen felt free to scream her pleasure at the top of her lungs, knowing that no one would be able to hear her.

Yes, her own desire for herself was something she couldn't keep under control. And now, admiring herself in the reverberating pool of water such desire was ignited once again.

Suddenly, with a loud splash that caused Artemis's heart to jump, a beautiful woman emerged from the surface of the lake. For a few moments she remained perfectly immobile, submerged up to her waist, the water dripping from her long, golden wet hair onto her naked shoulders and breasts. Her large blue eyes stared at the Queen with an expression that was of total love and unconditional desire.

It took a moment for the Queen to realize that the beautiful woman in front of her was actually her own reflection turned alive, the very object of her most intimate erotic dreams.

As her astonishing counterpart slowly emerged from the water, approaching her one step at a time, Artemis found herself moaning louder and louder, as the excitement and an uncontrollable sense of pleasure started to spread through her body, getting stronger and more intense with every passing moment.

As if paralyzed by the mounting arousal, Artemis could only watch as her other self approached her. With a soft kiss, her reflection gently made her to lay down, her back against the soft grass of the lawn. Their eye-contact didn't break for a single moment, as the woman of the lake made the Queen to spread her legs, her hand slowly caressing and teasing her inner thighs. And then, finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, she lay languidly on top of her...

***

The intensity of her orgasm caused her to wake up with a loud scream. Throwing away the sheets, abundantly wet and soaked with sweat and feminine juices, she abruptly sat on the bed. Holding her temples between her hands, she tried with difficulty to calm down and regain control over herself, her breathing made difficult by the intensity of that involuntary discharge of pleasure she just experienced.

That dream. Again.

It wasn't the first time she had that dream. Actually, it was a fairly recurring one for her. The location often varied; sometimes it was forest like that night, other times a beach along the sea, or her own bedroom. But the theme never changed: her making love to a perfect replica of herself. But never like that night the dream had been so alive, so realistic, so intense to cause her to experience an actual, physical, hand-free orgasm.

She looked around, still feeling stunned by the sleep and by the pleasure. The night was still deep, dark and silent; in her mind, Artemis estimated that midnight should have passed by no more than two hours ago. The soft, silvery glow of the moon faintly illuminated the room, penetrating from the large glass door on the left. On that warm summer night, that door which led to her private terrace was left open, allowing the light blow of the sea breeze to flow into the chamber, making the long velvet curtains to sway slightly in the darkness.

She was still feeling extremely aroused. She knew how she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep until she'd brought herself to orgasm at least once more, maybe two, or even three times. For a few moments she was tempted to have three of her favorite bed slaves being awakened in the middle of the night and summoned to her room, so that she could vent her ardent needs on them.

No, she thought a moment later, there was no time for that. Her urges were too compelling, too pressing ever to think to wait for more than a minute. She desperately needed relief, and she needed it now.

Her mind returned to that fabulous erotic dream she had interrupted, so abruptly but so wonderfully at the same time. Artemis decided that she would have continued her dream using her fantasy and imagination. Closing her eyes, the Queen returned to imagining her reflection, now laying on top of her, their hands running over each other's naked bodies, her lips softly whispering her name between the kisses.

"Artemis..."

The soft, whispering, sweet voice of a woman seemed to actually call to her into the night, as the Queen indulged in her self-pleasuring, the mind lost in her own fantasy.

"Artemis..." the voice called again, a little more insistently this time. "Artemis Dana..."

Artemis opened her eyes, blinking, the hand between her legs ceasing abruptly every movement. Sleepy, confused, she gazed around. For a moment she had had the impression that the voice she had heard was not just the fruit of her over-excited imagination, but that it actually came from an indefinite point inside the room.

"Artemis..." the voiced called again for the third time.

And this time Artemis knew for sure that this was NOT occurring just in her mind.

"Who is there?" she gasped loudly, a mixture of fear and anger in her voice while, with the speed of a poisonous snake, her hand ran to grab the short, sharpened, sword she was used to keep below her pillow as a measure of safety. Artemis was a warrior, used to fight since her youth. That wouldn't have been the first time in her life in which she would have defended herself with a weapon wielded by her own hand. The sense of confused sleepiness had now completely faded from her mind, as her eyes scanned into the darkness of the bedchamber, suddenly fully alerted and vigilant.

Nobody answered to her. In all her nude beauty, the splendid Queen of Troygrove cautiously climbed down to her bed, ready to defend herself from the mysterious intruder who dared so boldly to sneak into her chambers.

Moving away from the large bed, one slow step at time, she headed towards the glass door open in the night. It seemed logical to her to think that the intruder, whoever she was, could only have entered through the open door of the terrace.

"Could she be an assassin?" was her first thought; the Sisters of the Scorpion were a notorious sect of female assassins, known for their lethality and ability to infiltrate the seemingly most inaccessible places. Perhaps one of them had managed to evade the surveillance of the Palace guards and sneak into his private apartments, sent by someone wanting her dead? But what assassin would have bothered to call her, when he could have easily ended her days by sticking a dagger in her chest or slitting her throat while she slept? No, there was something more sadistic and disturbing about the whole matter.

"Artemis...I'm here" this time the voice came from an undefined point in the darkness, to her right.

"Show yourself!" the Queen of Troygrove shouted in rage, turning quickly over herself, the short sword pointed out, ready to strike. "Whoever you are!"

"You are so beautiful, Artemis" the mysterious voice murmured softly in response, her tone overflowing with sincere admiration. "Your body is similar to the finest sculpted marble, a statue to which the Goddesses themselves have granted breath and life. Every single part of you is perfect and utterly desirable to the eyes. No wonder how your graces have awakened the powerful lust of a God, making Him burning with passionate, incontrollable desire for you."

"I will call the guards now" Artemis threatened, her face flushing for the anger and the audacity of those brazen words. "Whoever you are, sneaking into the Palace and the Queen's chamber is an act that cannot remain unpunished. I swear, I'm going to have you whipped until I get every inch of skin out of your body for this, before putting you to death."

"Your guards won't come" the intruder in the darkness replied, clearly unimpressed by the Queen's threat, the tone of amusement perfectly audible in her silky voice. "They are all sleeping deeply. Everybody in the Palace is laying deeply asleep in this moment, with no possibility to wake up until the Master will allow them to do so."

"Guards!!" Artemis yelled at this point with all the force of her lungs. "Alarm! Intruders in the Palace!"

Her scream remained unheard, an empty call in the void. As the sound of her voice slowly faded, echoing weaker and weaker in the black silence of the hallways of the dark Palace, Artemis felt a shiver of fear and despair crossing down to her spine. The intruder was telling the truth then, and she was really alone, facing this undefined and possibly unnatural entity with the only aid of an insignificant short blade. She felt completely lost, yet she tried to summon the last remnants of her courage to not succumb.

"I told you, Artemis. Nobody will ever hear you screaming tonight...for any reason" there was a clear, malicious undertone in the words of the intruder. "You and I are the only two living being currently awake in the whole Palace. There's only the two of us..."

"Who are you?" the Queen asked once more, feeling exasperated. "Show yourself, once for all!"

"In the mirror, Artemis" was the soft answer. "Look into the mirror..."

Cautiously, the steel blade ready in her trembling hand, the Queen took some steps in the direction of the great mirror which covered the wall opposite to the terrace. In the tenuous light of the moon, Artemis could see her full reflection as she advanced, with hesitant steps, the same familiar reflection which aroused her lust so countless times. There was nobody else other than herself. But, a moment later, she spotted some inexplicable differences in her own image; her reflection in the mirror was not holding any weapon in her hands...and while the expression of Artemis was tensed and focused, the Artemis in front of her was smiling broadly, almost provocatively, full of self confidence.

Then, the lips of the figure in the mirror moved, as she began to speak.

"It's me, Artemis. I'm you."

Artemis couldn't believe to what her eyes were seeing.

"What kind of dark sorcery is this?" she asked with trembling voice, after a moment of complete shock. "This just cannot be true" she thought within herself. "This must be for sure a damned nightmare, or I must have turned totally mad."

"You must not be afraid, Artemis. It's our Master who has sent me to you" her reflection in the mirror said, and Artemis couldn't help but noticing the particular emphasis that she had purposely put on the word "our". "He has contemplated you from afar and He has chosen you to become His beloved mate and Queen, to reign with Him and rule His dominion by His side. It's an enormous privilege, Artemis, and we must be extremely grateful and proud for having been the chosen one by Him among all the women."

"I don't understand what the hell you are or who this damned Master you are talking about is." Racing wildly, trying to find a way out from this impossible, absurd situation, her thoughts went to her young court sorceress. Perhaps she had been immune to the spell that seemed to have invaded the Palace. Maybe she would have been able to hear her sovereign's scream, to wake up and run to her aid. Her rooms were not so distant from the apartments of the Queen after all. "Alanor. I must call for Alanor" she thought.

The figure in the mirror laughed again, an amused and crystalline sound.

"I know what you are thinking of, Artemis. Your mind is completely open to me, like a book I can easily read within. No, neither your pretty sorceress can come to you. Our Master thought about her as well. In this moment she's deeply lost in her own dreams, like everybody else under this roof...she won't hear you."

Artemis felt her resistance to crumble, her bare shoulders curved in an unconscious admission of defeat.

"As I told you, Artemis, we are alone here" the figure in the mirror murmured, triumphantly. "And this gives us all the time and intimacy we both want and need so desperately right now."

In a mixture of fascination and horror, Artemis stared with wide eyes as the figure began to step outside from the mirror. First, an elongated leg emerged from the glass surface as if it was made by the same clear water as the lake of her dream, posing the bare sole of the foot on the cold marble of the floor. Another, slow step immediately followed and, a moment later, the mysterious entity was standing in front of the Queen, in all of her naked splendor.

As her gaze ran along the soft curves of the hips, Artemis couldn't help but starting to feel intensely aroused, incredibly attracted by the beauty of the woman in front of her.

"She's the very personification of my erotic dreams" she realized, trembling.

"Stay away from me!" Artemis shouted, taking instinctively an half step back, her movements made difficult by the tremors of fear and by the mounting arousal which were rapidly taking control over her whole body. She felt weak, completely helpless against that creature that seemed to have emerged from the most enchanting of the dreams and the darkest of the nightmares at the same time. "Do not dare to take any single step further!"

"I'm not here to hurt you, Artemis" with a seducing smile, her living reflection started to advance in her direction, charging deliberately every step with seducing, overwhelming sensuality. "Actually, it is quite the opposite. I only desire to bring you the biggest of all joys, the greatest of all pleasures."

As she walked, her hands ran languidly over her naked body, gently caressing her soft hips, her perfect breasts, her fingers teasing the nipples in slow circles, making them springing to life. Fighting to hold the moans, almost panicking, Artemis could feel soft, invisible fingers moving on her exposed skin, touching and teasing in the same points in which her reflection was touching herself, like if the two of them were sharing exactly the same body and the same mind.