The Assassin and the Sorceress Ch. 08

As I waited, I sat on the stone railing of the bridge, leaning against one of the two lampposts on the side away from town, listening to the peaceful sounds of the creek: the water gently bubbling as it washed over the rocks, the wind rustling through the trees, the birds calling to one another. It was calming, and I needed that right about now.

My heart picked up when I finally saw her approaching. She seemed to be right on time. This was very likely to be a confrontation, but I had no plans to back down. Susan had treated me horribly all my life, and I knew I owed her nothing for it. I was going to tell her exactly that. I was nervous, but there was no backing down now.

"Ah, you came after all," she said as soon as she was within range of a speaking voice.

"Did you think I wouldn't?" I asked, more confused than offended.

"I... didn't really know. Thanks, though. Thank you for at least being willing to hear me out."

"Sure. Whatever. So, what was it you wanted to 'lay out' for me?"

Susan leaned against the railing, supporting herself with her left hand, but did not sit.

"So, like I said, Gaius and I are getting serious now. We're an item. I don't know if he plans to ask me to marry him anytime soon, but things are starting to go that way it seems. We're starting to have feelings for each other. I'm not mad that you did things with him before. I'm not kidding myself into thinking a man like Gaius is still a virgin, but whatever you did, I know he doesn't love you any more than a friend."

"I already said as much!"

"I don't care. It needs to stop. Now. Will you do that, please?"

I thought for a moment. I figured she would say something like that. I had already thought of a few things I could say to her, but which one should I start with?

"I'm confused about something." I began.

"Confused? About what?"

"I'm confused about why you are even asking me that."

"Because I want the man I'm starting to love to be faithful to me. What is there to not understand about that?"

"No, not what it is you want. I understand that part. Why are you asking... me?" I asked, placing both hands over my chest. "And not Gaius himself? Shouldn't his faithfulness to you be more his responsibility than mine?"

That seemed to anger Susan slightly. Good, I had said the right thing. I saw just the hint of a snarl on her lips before she replied. "I DID talk to him about it. He knows he's supposed to stay away from you now if he wants my love. It's just that he's... well... very impulsive. And the fact that you keep tempting him isn't helping."

"That's an exaggeration. I'm not 'tempting' him to do anything. I ask him if he wants to fuck, and so far, he's always said yes. All he has to do is say no, and we won't fuck."

"God dammit, Morgana! I..." Susan lost her words. She was clearly getting angry at me, though she was at least trying to stay calm. So far. "The difference is that he doesn't love you. You are a fling. A fancy. A piece of flesh. Something more exciting than his fist and his imagination. That's it. And I know that's all he is to you, too. We have the potential for something more than that, so I would appreciate it if you would try to not stand in the way so our love can blossom."

"You make it sound like I'm some sort of devil, seducing good men and tempting them away from their soulmates. No, he comes to me willingly. I don't think he means to be faithful to you. Are you sure he really loves you the way you think?"

"God dammit, Morgana!" she repeated. "He's taken me to have dinner with his family. He's introduced me to his parents! We've talked about things like our futures, finances... children! We do things that simple paramours don't do."

"Again, why don't you tell him to stay away from me? Him being impulsive doesn't sound like a good excuse. If you are hoping to get married to him, shouldn't both of you trust the other to be faithful?"

"For the second time, we DID have that conversation! I told him what I expect of him, and he IS going to stay away from you now! I made him promise!"

"Then it's done. What's your concern?"

"My concern is I don't even want you trying to tempt him! Do you get that? Yes, faithfulness is his responsibility, but if you know he has a girlfriend and try to lay with him anyway, even if you fail, that's still horrid of you!"

"I don't know, Susan. This biblical rule of no sex outside of wedlock isn't observed by everyone. My friends that meet up here... you've seen us. We take out clothes off freely, we share ourselves freely. Simply asking is no transgression by us. If you can't trust him to say no to me, maybe you should reconsider marrying him. And even if I do promise to stay away from him, which I haven't yet, what about every other pretty girl in Ash? Are you going to have to have the same talk with each of them before you trust your boyfriend?"

It was all Susan could do to keep her anger in at this point. "Morgana! Stop trying to have sex with my boyfriend!" She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down once again. "Please? Can I just ask you that as a favor?"

She was trying to hard to stay reasonable, but she was teetering on the brink. How could I prod her? "Really? A favor? Why should I do you a favor? Indulge me."

Susan's mouth fell open, affronted. She gasped a few times before finding her words. When she did speak, she sounded more hurt than angry. "Why? How about because we were friends growing up? Does that mean nothing to you?"

"Friends? Susan, Susan..." I said in a scolding voice. "The only one of us that thought we were friends was me, and that's because I was a fool. You were no friend to me. Or do you deny that you treated me like a dog the whole time?"

Finally telling her that to her face after all these years was cathartic: to finally speak so plainly about how the had treated me. And the defensive, hurt look on her face meant what I said had hit home.

"I... Okay, I teased you a little. And I'm sorry about that. That doesn't mean I didn't like you."

"'Teased me a little?' Oh, that's not an understatement; that's an outright lie! Susan, you bullied me! You mocked me to my face in front of the other children, just to make yourself more popular! And only when none of your actual friends were looking, you'd pretend to me my friend again. And you'd make me apologize for it! As if you bullying me when your other friends were around was my fault! And I know the only reason you offered to become my friend again was because you liked having me around to torment! You wanted me to like you, only so you could crush my feelings all the harder in front of your horrible friends! And I came back to you only because I had no other friends. God, I was so stupid! I would have been better off with no friends at all than with someone like you! And now... and now you want a favor? From me?"

"That's not true! It wasn't like that! And I don't even tease you anymore. I haven't done that since we were kids."

"Not true?" I had calmed my voice again, almost chilled it. I stared her right in the eye, showing her my backbone for the first time in my life. She had not been prepared to confront this version of me, and it showed on her face. "Susan, you tricked me into licking a frozen lamppost. That was the cruelest thing you've done to me yet, and that was a year and a half ago! A year and a half!

She slouched a little, looking down at the ground.

"You're still mad about that? Okay, I'm sorry! Happy? I'm sorry I tricked you into licking a wrought iron lamp post in the dead of winter. I didn't think you'd actually do it, okay? I thought everyone was smart enough not to put their tongue directly on frozen metal!"

"You left me like that! You and your friends laughed at me, hit me, and then left me! You didn't mean that to happen either? Are you seriously making that claim?"

"I... I don't know. I don't remember. Look, I said I'm sorry! I don't know what else you want from me."

"You left me STUCK TO A POLE! You laughed and didn't even try to help! And now you want me to just stay away from Gaius for you? What, out of the kindness of my heart?"

"I..." Susan was suddenly silent, unable to decide what she was going to say next.

"Or were you hoping to bully me out of it? Were you hoping I would stay away from the boy you like because you tell me to? As if I will follow any command you give me because you're the bigger girl?"

"What? No!"

"Then what, Susan? Then what? Please tell me how you planned to convince me, the girl you've been treating like dirt for the past two decades of our lives, to do you a favor."

"I don't know... just talk it out? Like grown women?"

"Oh, we're grown women, suddenly? You won't fool me into thinking you're one of those. But I'll tell you what. I can stay away from Gaius. Maybe we can work out a deal."

"A deal? Very well. What do you want?" She crossed her arms, looking untrusting but willing to hear me out.

"I don't know why you'd even want a man you can't trust to stay faithful to you on his own, but I suppose 'why' isn't my concern. I can stay away from him for you. Here's my condition: I want you to apologize for how you've treated me. Over the years, but specifically for how you left me in the town square that night."

"That's it? Yes, of course I'm sorry. I understand that it probably hurt you in more ways than one. It was wrong of me to treat you like that, and I'm sorry."

"No, that's not all, because actions speak louder than words. You're going to show me just how sorry you are. You're going to show me by doing to yourself exactly what you tricked me into doing." I gestured to the lamppost next to where I was sitting. "Then... then I will leave Gaius to you. I promise."

Susan looked confused, so I elaborated.

"Go put your tongue on that lamp post right now so I can watch as you go through the very same thing I did. Go on. Give it a lick."

Susan's face was incredulous for a moment as she tried to decide if I was being serious, then she snickered. "Oh my god, Morgana! Are you seriously that stupid? That only works in the winter. It's August!"

"What? Oh. Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm very sure it's August right now. I haven't seen a speck of frost all day, and definitely not on that pole. Nothing is going to stick to it."

"Ah. I see." I tried my best to look disappointed. I let out a breath of air and pretended to consider for a moment. "Oh, whatever. The deal stands. Lick it, and I'll consider it an apology."

Susan still didn't move, only stared at me with that incredulous face again. "Are you having second thoughts about our deal?" I asked her?

"No."

"Then what's stopping you?"

"It's the weirdest term for a deal I've ever heard of! You just want me to lick a pole? Just like that, and you'll agree to stay away from my boyfriend? Forever?"

"I suppose. Yes. That's the offer I've made."

"Why? Why is that your term? You understand nothing bad will happen to me if I do it, right? My tongue won't get stuck to it, if you're hoping for some kind of revenge. It's too warm for that to happen."

"Yes, you've explained it to me. I just can't think of any other deals at the moment. Do it, and we'll call it good."

"Sure, weirdo. If that's what gets you off," Susan scoffed, rolling her eyes. Susan walked over to the pole next to me. She paused, looking at it contemplatively for a moment, possibly wondering why on Earth she was doing this. She took a moment to wipe the surface of it with the fabric of her gown. Perhaps she thought my trick was that I had rubbed something on it, perhaps shit or maybe poison. To her credit, at least she was smart enough to suspect a trick of some sort. But of course, there was no way she could have anticipated the trick I actually had in store for her.

After hesitating for a moment, Susan let out an annoyed sigh, stuck out her tongue, and touched it to the lamppost. Perfect!

I reached my mind out to the Oculus. Though the Oculus was over a mile away in the safety of my room, I made that connection as easily as always. All in the course of a split second, I analyzed her tongue, and saw the weave of her flesh and how each atom was connected to the next. I looked at the atoms of the iron pole and saw how they were bound together. With nothing more than a thought, I created new bonds between the atoms of her tongue with those of the lamppost. This change to her flesh was so delicate she surely would have felt nothing.

Until, of course, she tried to back away.

Susan's eyes suddenly shot open in horror and disbelief! I saw her tongue flexing as she tried unsuccessfully to pull it back into her mouth. She gripped the lamp post with her hands and tried pulling her head back. Her tongue stretched out of her mouth, as she found the tip of her tongue to be stuck fast! Oh, revenge was so sweet!

"Oh, look at that, Susan," I mocked her. "Won't happen in the summer, will it? I guess you don't know everything after all."

"What the fuck did you do to me?" Susan tried to ask. Her words didn't sound so pretty with her tongue immobilized like that, though I'm not going to attempt to recreate her garbled speech. She was intelligible enough for me to understand, at least.

"Do to you? Nothing. You licked a wrought iron lamppost and got your tongue stuck to it."

"That's not even possible! It's not even cold! What did you do to this thing? What did you put on it?" Susan was nearly in tears from fright. She was making a sort of whimpering noise as she tugged and tugged, all to no avail whatsoever.

As a precaution, I continued observing the atoms in her tongue and the forces acting on them. The Oculus told me if she pulled much harder, she could tear the tip of her tongue right off. Deciding I didn't hate her that much, I reinforced her flesh by strengthening the already existing bonds in the structural fibers of her tongue. It was a trick I had learned earlier. Normally, when atoms are pulled far enough apart, they will lose their grip on each other, as two lodestones will stop attracting each other past a certain distance. I simply told those atoms to keep their bonds regardless of how far they were stretched. Her flesh would still move and feel the same, except that it would not tear if stressed beyond its normal limits. I did this all the way back to the very root of her tongue, and even a little past. That way she wasn't at risk of injuring herself.

I had done it just in time, too, because her struggles, by now, were becoming desperate and panicked. Her hands were wrapped around the thick metal pole as far as they could go, as she tried to pull herself away from it as if it were a venomous snake. I was impressed by how far her tongue was stretching out of her mouth. She seemed to have a long tongue! There was something oddly arousing about the sight, I was surprised to find, watching her struggle to pull the stuck tip of her tongue free of the iron it was clinging to. Such a beautiful creature, helpless and at my disposal.

"Well, clearly it is possible, seeing as your tongue does seem to be stuck quite tightly to the pole. And how to you think this was my doing? What could I have possibly done to cause that?"

"I... I don't know..." She had stopped pulling for the time being. Now that her face was still, I could see a tear slowly trickling down her cheek.

"Nor do I. And I think we've learned it's not just the cold that does that. Honestly, I have no idea what is doing that, but the laws of nature will do what they do regardless of whether or not we understand them. I think we can also agree you really deserved this. Didn't you now, Susan? Didn't you deserve this for that horrible thing you did to me?"

"Y... Y..."

"What's that, Susan?"

"Y... Yes. Yes, maybe I deserved this. I'm sorry, okay? I'm so sorry for what I did to you, and I'll never mistreat you again!" Or at least I think that's what she said. Her words were starting to sound less intelligible. "I'm sorry! Now, please... please let me go!"

"Let you go? I suppose I could try. Are you sure you've learned your lesson?"

"YES! YES, I'M SORRY! PLEASE!"

"Very well. All right. Let's see if we can get you unstuck." I pinched her tongue between my thumb and forefinger near the immobilized tip and tried to move it. I tried to work it free for a minute, but of course I had no luck. Strangely, feeling Susan's warm flesh bound irreversibly to the hard, unforgiving iron was starting to excite me for reasons I couldn't fully understand.

"Wow... that thing's really on there. Let's try this..."

I moved behind her and grabbed her shoulders. I pulled her back. She pushed off with her arms, adding her own strength, but of course nothing gave. After a minute of that futile effort, I moved my hands to her head: one across her forehead and one around her jaw. I pulled. Hard.

"Ahh!" she screamed. "Oh my god, be careful," she begged.

"Sure, careful."

I pulled back again with less of a jerk, but still firmly. I pulled harder and harder. I even used the Oculus to augment my strength a little. I took a stance that had my head to one side so I could get somewhat of a good look at the action as her adhered tongue stretched farther than it, by rights, should have been able to!

"STOP! STOP!" Susan screamed after a minute. I let go of her head. "Jesus Christ, you were going to rip my tongue right out of my mouth!"

"Well, damn it. I guess your tongue isn't coming off that pole."

"Get some water!"

"Oh, good idea!" I went to the brook and brought some water up in my cupped hands. I let it run down the lamp post over where her tongue was stuck. I did this a few times, but of course only I knew her problem had nothing to do with water.

"Is that working?"

She flexed her tongue a few times, but found it just as stuck as before. "Uh-uh."

"Any more ideas? What can I try next?"

"I... I don't know. I have no fucking idea! How did you get unstuck?"

"That's something you'd know if you and your friends hadn't left me to freeze."

"I'm sorry! Really, I'm very sorry for that!"

"We used water, but that already didn't work this time."

"Would you try it again, then? Maybe we just need more."

I took a few more trips to the river, but of course none of the water did anything to loosen her tongue.

"Well, it worked for me fairly quickly. I guess that pole has just got you good. Any more ideas?"

"I don't know. You're the smart one."

"I guess we'll just have to try to pull you off again. Susan... it might hurt. Are you okay with that?"

"Whatever. Do it."

I stood behind Susan again and grasped her head. I pulled her back firmly. She let out a quick shriek. I released and pulled again. She was quieter with the second pull. I gave yank after yank, and I was not gentle at all. Her poor tongue stretched and stretched, but stayed stuck fast. I periodically examined her flesh to make sure she wasn't being injured, and so far, my enchantments seemed to be holding. That didn't mean she didn't feel pain as her nerves were stretched beyond what should have been their max. After a half a minute she was groaning with each pull. After a minute, she screamed for me to stop again.

I sat down on the railing to catch my breath. I had really exerted myself, though of course to no effect at all. I knew how strong my enchantment was, and believe me when I say a mule couldn't have pulled Susan off that pole!

"What in the world is doing this?" Susan asked after a minute.

"I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with the dryness of the metal. With the hot sun hitting it all summer, I bet it could be so dry it would pull any water right into the metal, and maybe tiny bits of your tongue along with it. Just a guess. Well? What now? Water from the river didn't work. Pulling hasn't worked so far. What do you want to do? Are you ready to try pulling some more?"