Paladin Ch. 07: The Angry Knight

The library at the far end of the keep appears just as abandoned as everywhere else, but Simon makes sure of it by checking every corner. Light fades as the hour grows late, and without Zeff's magic keeping torches burning in the sconces all around the keep, lengthy shadows are everywhere.

Simon places his pack and the books he's been studying onto the large oak table, and begins searching the shelves for a particular tome while Raya settles into one of Zeff's reading chairs. The temporal projections are still about, but Simon has warded the library so Zeff can only conjure them out in the hallways, and the heavy door and thick wood paneling of the library mercifully muffles the sounds.

Simon finds the book he's looking for, and flips through the pages quickly, nodding emphatically as he does so. A few minutes drag by, and Simon puts the book down, drumming his fingers on the library table and looking thoughtful.

"My lord?" Raya asks.

Simon sighs. "It seems if this magic is to work, I'll need a gemstone to act as a conduit. I saw one that will suffice in Zeff's lab. I'm debating if I should leave you here now to get it, or if we should resign ourselves to spending the night in the keep."

Neither of those prospects sounds at all appealing to Raya. "My lord, maybe I could go with you to the lab?"

Simon shakes his head. "This room is already warded. I don't have enough energy left to keep you safe on the move. I can only protect myself."

Raya nods in understanding. She doesn't want to be left alone, but the sooner the collar can come off and she can leave the keep, the better. She gives her consent for Simon to go retrieve the gem, and Simon takes a few minutes to gather up the weapons and supplies he thinks he may need, and leaves on his mission.

Left alone, Raya's eyes flutter from shadow to shadow, as if Zeff might be lurking in any one of them. She's being ridiculous, she knows. Simon would not have left her if there was any real danger. The wards are up. She's safe.

Safe, and more importantly - she's alone. She's been at Simon's side, stewing in her own juices for hours and hours since her aborted orgasm attempt from the vibrating pipe, clit throbbing from the lingering effects of the rousal, pussy pulsing from the humiliation of having to sit naked by the handsome paladin's side while watching the pornographic projections of her past self.

And now - a few blessed moments of privacy.

Egged on by the sound of one of her projections cumming loudly just outside the library door, Raya spreads her legs and slips a hand down to her sopping wet crotch, and throws back her head and moans lustfully at her own touch. Almost immediately she feels the orgasm starting to build. She rubs her thumb over her clit, and just like that she's nearing the edge.

The human body just isn't meant to take this much arousal without any satisfaction, Raya decides. It simply isn't right. She's been operating in a fog of lust all day, unable to function properly, unable to think of anything but her slutty wanting pussy. Finally, finally - the torture is ending. She's still in the keep, the collar is still around her neck, Zeff is still alive, but at the moment those are lesser problems beside the all-consuming need to cum. Everything will be ok once she gets her orgasm, and oh god, she's so close now.

But the collar... why is it so tight? Tight, and getting tighter by the second, cutting off Raya's air supply. Desperately she claws at the leather band, frantically trying to slip a finger between it and her skin. She can't breathe, but just as she's starting to feel faint, the collar loosens slightly, and Raya chokes in a strangled breath.

What the hell? The collar only acts like that when she's disobeyed some command. But she hasn't; there's nobody around. Is Zeff doing something to her?

The collar is back to normal now; still snug as it always is, but no longer painfully so, no longer interfering with her breathing. Raya shrugs it off. A mystery for later, when she can think clearly again. And speaking of which...

Raya closes her eyes and leans back with a moan, as her hand returns to her pussy, stroking and playful. Even getting almost strangled hasn't made her pending orgasm fade by much, and it takes very little for Raya to get the fires stoked again, to get herself built right back to that edge...

This time the collar's tightening is more sudden, and even more powerful. Her neck is being squeezed so violently it feels like her head might pop off. Raya collapses onto the floor, scratching desperately at the unyielding collar, until finally it loosens just as Raya is sure she's going to pass out, leaving her gasping for breath on the cold stone floor where she's fallen. The fucking collar! Why won't it let her orgasm in peace?!

And suddenly Raya knows. The words echo back to her, from what seems an eternity ago, but had only been this morning. Simon waking from his rest and catching Raya in the act, trying to jill herself off after her sex-charged dream.

"Please can you try to refrain from this... getting yourself off?"

The words resound through her memory like a death sentence. She hadn't consciously registered it at the time, but it had been a command - or at least, enough of one that her cursed collar seems to be enforcing it.

Raya feels tears suddenly well up, still lying there on the floor, still catching her breath, her pussy still pounding with need, dripping onto the stone. That damn paladin. It isn't enough that he's not willing to properly fuck her like any decent hero would, he has to deny her masturbation too? It's all too much.

There's a loophole; there just has to be. How long has Simon been gone? Not more than a couple of minutes. Raya still has time. She looks frantically around the library for some inspiration. And then she sees it, tucked into a corner. The device that's the answer to the dilemma.

Raya has no real idea how the clockwork fucking machine works. It's a puzzle box of intricate dwarvish engineering; cogs and springs and levers and wheels. Raya also has no idea if the device has been repurposed from some unknown original intended use, or if it had always been intended to be a fucking machine. The mental image of doughty bearded dwarves having sex lives is mildly repulsive, though Raya supposes baby dwarves must come from somewhere. All Raya really knows is that Zeff has somehow acquired it, and good lord does it work.

But will it get around her collar-imposed restriction? Raya is sure it will. The collar hadn't caused her any problems earlier after all, when she'd been mounted on the vibrating steampipe set-up. Simon's order had been that she shouldn't get herself off; having a machine do it for her seemed to be exactly the loophole she needed. And if she's wrong, well, she knows the collar won't actually kill. Just strangle her until she passes out. She's willing to risk it.

Before she can second guess herself, knowing that Simon might even now be on his way back, Raya mounts the device and checks the setting of the lever that controls speed. Zeff had often enjoyed spending evenings relaxing with arcane tomes in the library, which meant Raya had often enjoyed spending evenings locked tightly in the fucking machine as entertainment, and she's intimately familiar with the device's settings. Depending on Zeff's whims, she might be in for a maddeningly slow fucking that would have her whimpering with need for more, or an inhumanly fast pistoning that would wring orgasm out of orgasm out of her, and all usually under the threat of severe punishment if Raya made so much as a peep to disturb Zeff's reading.

Raya flicks the lever up to max speed, and locks her ankles and wrists into the restraints that will bind her in place.

As soon as the metal clicks shut, she realizes her mistake. Why did she lock it? She hadn't been thinking clearly, and in her cloud of horniness she's acted on auto-pilot. Every time Zeff had ordered her onto the machine she'd had to lock herself in, so she's locked herself in this time too. There is no escape for her - this is how Simon will find her.

But maybe that's for the best. Maybe Simon will just assume it was Zeff's doing, like he had when he found her on the steam pipe vibrator. Maybe her collar even requires her to be locked in, or it would count as "getting herself off".

It's too late to worry about though - it's done. And as the the wheels of the clockwork begin to turn, and the rubber-coated rod nudges against her opening, then slips smoothly into her lubricated pussy, deeper and deeper until it fills her utterly, painfully but wonderfully - then withdraws, then pushes in again, and withdraws again, slowly at first but picking up speed as the contraption begins to hum with the released energy of hidden springs and mechanical wonders, Raya finds a comfort in that. It's done. She can't change it now. She has no more choices to make, and ironically, there is a freedom to her lack of freedom. She can do nothing but lie there, get fucked, and finally finally get her orgasm.

Only it isn't that simple. It always takes the machine a while to really get going, and as nice as it is simply to feel so full of cock, even mechanical cock - in Raya's state what she really needs is a pounding. And it is beyond frustrating that thanks to the high angle her slit is being entered at, and with her hands secured uselessly out of reach, Raya can't get any stimulation to her throbbing clit. Cumming from penetration alone is something that, before her stay at Flintborn Keep, Raya would have sworn she couldn't do. She now knows better, but still - even in her overheated state, the orgasm needs time to build.

Raya throws back her head and moans lustily as the speed picks up. Raya easily slips into a fantasy that the cock sliding in and out of her is Simon's; he's taking her from behind and she in turn thrusts back into him, welcoming and encouraging him. "Oh my god, Simon," she whispers, egging on her imaginary lover. "That's so good. Faster, please. I'm going to cum so hard for you..."

The machine is still going slower than Raya wants, but with all the build-up of the day, Raya feels her climax looming. But then, faintly, but growing louder - footsteps. Simon must have found what he needs, and is almost back.

Frantically Raya strains against her bonds, desperately working her hips to try to generate more friction with the mechanical dildo. It's working, the orgasm is so close that Raya can all but taste it - but it's not working quickly enough. With the clockwork fucking machine still not ramped up to full speed, and the lack of clit stimulation, Raya just can't quite push herself over the edge.

The library door swings open, and there stands her mighty paladin. For a brief moment, the two lock eyes, and Simon stands frozen processing what he's seeing. In that moment, Raya imagines the tableau they make. Her, naked, hair a sweaty mess, sex juices dripping down her thighs, tears of frustration in her eyes, tightly bound, unsupported tits swaying back and forth beneath her as the mechanized dildo rams in and out of her - and him, holy paladin, clean white armor, steely gray eyes, clean-shaven jaw, holy symbol clenched piously in hand. It's quite a couple they make.

And then the moment is over. With a cry of rage, Simon hoists his mace high, casts a quick spell and then another, and begins scanning the room for threats, eager to find a target for his wrath. There is no enemy to find of course, but Simon doesn't know that, and all the while the fucking machine continues its relentless job. Raya is past the point of caring that she has an audience. The orgasm is just seconds away. A few more thrusts is all that she needs, and with Simon still hunting for Zeff, she's going to make it.

"Please," Raya whimpers, her eyes now closed, not even aware she's begging out loud. "Please, please, oh please..."

It's the exact wrong thing to say. It galvanizes Simon on, who utterly misinterprets what she's pleading for. "I'm so sorry Raya, of course! I had to make sure Zeff wasn't still here, but I shouldn't have..." And with a mighty kick of his steel boot, the fucking machine shudders and whines and grinds to a stop, and the mechanized cock falls still. By sheer bad luck the device stops with the dildo completely withdrawn, leaving Raya's hungry pussy clenching around nothing and achingly empty. Raya can't quite hold back a wail of frustration at having her orgasm denied at the very brink yet again.

Simon drops the gear he's carrying on the floor, and quickly sets about trying to figure out how to release Raya from her bindings. "My lady, a hundred apologies," Simon murmurs as he works. "It was a mistake to leave you here alone. I was too confident in my spells. I will atone for this, I promise you - I'll ask my pastor for a penance. Did you see Zeff? Tell me what happened."

Raya squeezes her eyes shut in despair. This was it - the part of her plan to get off that she'd deliberately avoided thinking about. She'd been lucky after the vibrating steampipe episode that Simon hadn't asked her any direct questions, but it was too much to hope for such luck twice. "Tell me what happened," Simon had said, and the collar of command demanded an answer.

"Um, no," Raya hesitates. "I didn't see Zeff. He wasn't here. I, um, did this to myself."

Simon's hands, busily working at the bondage straps, freeze in mid-air. "You did this to yourself?" he repeats, certain he's misheard.

"Um, yes," Raya answers, lowering her head, unwilling to meet Simon's cool gaze. "I, uh. I really wanted an orgasm. And earlier you told me not to - not to masturbate." The damn collar. But she couldn't lie. "So I thought maybe if I locked myself in the fucking machine, well, it wouldn't count as masturbation, and when you found me I hoped you'd just think it was Zeff that did it."

For a long moment Simon says nothing, though Raya can feel his gaze boring into her. "And earlier today," he asks slowly. "When I found you in that other room, with the pipe. That time was it Zeff's doing, or just you?"

"Just me," Raya admits.

"And you weren't acting under any orders or compulsion from Zeff, or something the collar made you do? You just... that's what you wanted for yourself?"

"I, um." Raya hesitates. It isn't quite how she would phrase it, but it's true. She lowers her voice and hangs her head even lower. "Yes. I just wanted to cum."

"And this is why you were so eager to get the chastity belt off? I thought it would protect you from unwanted sex, but for you - well, all you actually wanted was sex, right?"

"Right," Raya answers miserably.

"I see," Simon says slowly, as he stands up. "I see. Or well, perhaps I don't, not really. But I see some things, at least. I see, for one, that I have been quite a fool."

"No, my lord! It's not like -"

"Don't lie to me!" There is anger in Simon's voice now like Raya has not heard before, and even without the collar Raya would have obeyed instantly. She shrinks back in sudden fear, at least as much as her bondage allows her.

When Simon speaks again his voice is calmer, but Raya can still sense an underlying rage, controlled but present. "I think, perhaps, that it's time for me to leave this place. I... don't entirely understand what is happening between you and Zeff, Raya. But it seems to me that you don't truly want to leave. I've risked my life for you time and again this past day, bent my every effort on freeing you from this keep, but the moment my back is turned you're running off to debase yourself on Zeff's machines again. Well I may be a fool to take so long to catch on, but even I get there eventually, Raya. Zeff represents all that is unholy and perverse in this world, and time and time again, you've turned from me and chosen him. I don't respect your choice, but I accept it. I am leaving this keep, and may you and Zeff enjoy each other's company for years to come."

"No! No, Simon, please!" Raya can no longer hold back the tears. Freedom from Zeff's clutches is so close, but somehow she's messed up so bad that her would-be savior now believes she actually liked being a captive. And all this, just because of horny she is. God, she really is the world's biggest slut, isn't she? Maybe she does deserve to be Zeff's sex slave.

Raya's tears and pleas fall on deaf ears. Simon doesn't say a word to her as he gathers up his belongings, and slings his pack over his back. He simply gives her one final look with eyes of cold steel as Raya struggles, still tied to the fucking machine.

"I will pray," Simon says, sadness in his voice. "For your soul."

Then he turns, and marches out of the keep and out of Raya's life.

For long minutes the keep is still except for the sound of Raya's continued sobs. Eventually she gets her emotions under control, and the keep falls silent. But Raya knows that won't last.

And it doesn't. A shadow appears at the doorway to the library, and a moment later a tall figure in black glides soundlessly into the room. Raya does her best to stifle the tears that threaten to reemerge.

"Zeff," she mumbles.

He throws back the cowl of his cloak, and his wicked smile is triumphant. "Well, well," he says. "Raya, Raya. Just what are we going to do with you?"

It's a rhetorical question, so Raya isn't compelled to answer.

"I have been through hell these past twenty-four hours," Zeff says. His voice is low and calm, almost conversational, and yet somehow infinitely dangerous. "Through hell. Do you know that, Raya? It's not an expression. I've been through literal pillars-of-flame demons-everywhere screams-of-the-damned hell. Because of you. I have been assaulted, battered, beaten, and very nearly killed. It will take me months to recover from having a paladin in here. And I am determined Raya - absolutely determined, with all my will and power and strength and magic, determined - to make sure your punishment is so utterly awful that by the end of those months you will curse the name of Sir Simon even more than I do. How does that sound to you? Hmm?"

Raya whimpers, and tugs pathetically at her bonds again, as if getting free would even do her any good at this point.

"Oh, quit your squirming," Zeff says in disgust. But then he takes a closer look at the fucking machine Raya is still bound to, and smiles. "Oh, I see. You're upset that Simon broke your little toy. God, you really are a slut, aren't you? Well don't worry, it's an easy matter to fix."

Zeff leans over Raya and mutters a quick spell under his breath, and Raya hears the clanking of machine parts against each other. Moments later the dormant machine hums back to life, the clockwork reengages, and the rod of the fucking machine slides slowly into her still-hungry snatch. Raya can't resist a moan, and Zeff snickers.

"It's quite a thing, isn't it?" Zeff says musingly. "I've always known you were a desperate little fucktoy, but - you surprised even me today, Raya. A man of god can't even spend one day in your company before he has to go running off to the nearest church to pray for your soul. I'm proud of you, Raya. Truly. Not proud enough to earn you any mercy, but proud."

Raya can only moan again, as the pace of the fucking machine picks up.

"What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" Zeff taunts. "Well, maybe it's best that you're giving your mouth a bit of rest anyway. Because I have a far better idea of what use you can put that pretty mouth too, as you try to figure out how to apologize for all you've put me through."

The thought of going back to being Zeff's on-demand blowjob slave after how close she was to escaping with Sir Simon is almost more than Raya can take. But meanwhile the fucking machine has continued ramping up and is now going as fast as ever, and her long-denied orgasm is coming fast. She fights it though. She doesn't want to cum for this monster; she wanted to cum for Simon!