The Triskele Collar Ch. 02

I awoke to find that Gyn had left earlier than usual, so early that she'd decided not to wake me. We were returning to the Demon Realm that evening, so I spent the morning cleaning the apartment, dusting and polishing, taking care of the laundry, the usual domestic tasks that my beloved was too busy for at that time. That afternoon, having transferred whatever items we required from the apartment to our Demon Realm dwelling, I decided that Gyn would appreciate a nice hot bath on her return, so I decided that I'd be waiting for her there when she stepped through from the Human Realm. Having filled the huge tiled bath with the beautiful pink water of the Demon Realm, I shut off the outlet. While waiting for the lava flowing through the channels beneath the bath to heat the water, I stepped back through the portal into our human world apartment to get a bottle of champagne. When I returned, Saur'ex was in our bedroom! The incantations that Gyn had invoked to place the house on lockdown had failed!

"What the hell are you doing, Saur'ex, coming into our home uninvited?" I yelled at him. "And while I'm on that subject, how did you actually get in?"

"I came to make a social call. Receiving no answer, I became concerned for the safety of my good friend Lady Gyn'estar. I entered the house to find her hu-woman pet uncollared and Lady Gyn'estar absent. It is my duty to take the uncollared pet into custody until the matter can be investigated." he answered, grinning in a way only a snake can.

"Did someone write that down for you?" I asked scornfully. "And you've seen me without my collar lots of times, you've even taken it off for me once or twice," I continued "and you know full well that I fucking HATE being called a hu-woman pet!" I said as I threw the bottle I'd been holding at his head. He caught it, laughing, then popped it into the satchel he had belted around the area where his waist would be, if he hadn't had a long python-like tail instead of legs.

"Linzi, your body has given me great pleasure and I am enormously fond of you, so please believe me when I tell you that I mean you no harm. But I require that you come with me." the serpent demon hissed.

"Sorry, Saur'ex, but human females have a very long history of being betrayed by talking snakes!" I hissed back at him.

At this he laughed aloud. "Well put, girl. But I'm afraid I must insist!" he said as he moved his great tail in strong flexion and extension to move closer to me.

I knocked over some furniture in front of him to slow him down, then ran for the mirror, which was directly behind me. But, anticipating my intention to attempt an escape through the portal, he picked up a stool and lobbed it directly over my head to hit the shimmering reflective surface dead centre. As the portal was merely a mirror to the wooden item of furniture, it smashed into thousands of shards of useless glass fragments. I turned and screamed at him in rage and terror:

"You've trapped Gyn in the Human Realm, you asshole! I shouted.

"I have merely inconvenienced her, Linzi. There are many emergency portals in the Hu-man Realm." he replied. "It is YOU whom I have trapped."

I dodged his swiping, grasping tail for a while but he was between me and the door; soon he changed tactics and rolled another stool under my feet, tripping me so I fell to the floor. His tail wrapped round my ankles and lifted me into the air, hanging inverted before him. He ripped my clothing away, then I felt a thick leathery tendril creep down my body; I looked upwards to see the opening near the end of his tail extruding the scaly rope-like appendage that was normally one of my favourite things about him, but now it wound itself slowly round my ribcage and upper arms, pinioning them to my body. It wrapped around my forearms, twisting them slowly behind my back and restraining them. It then literally snaked up my back and looped twice around my neck. Saur'ex then gently lowered me to the floor. I struggled to stand, then began to pull and twist against my living bonds, hoping that if I could hurt him by struggling hard enough, he might release me. Almost immediately, the leather tendril tightened hard, squeezing the air from my lungs and constricting my throat; I dropped to the floor, struggling to breathe, mouth open as I was choked. The snake-demon leaned down, and spoke to me concernedly:

"Please stop trying to escape, Linzi. I do NOT wish to harm you, but I require you to come with me, and I will NOT accept any refusal."

The bindings relaxed. Saurex helped me to my feet.

"Now, we are leaving. Follow me." he said.

Since I was now bound and leashed to him by part of his own body, I had no choice but to obey. He led me to the bathroom, where the surface of the water in the bath was shimmering with the same swirling patterns as a mirror portal does when in use. I had inadvertently provided Saur'ex with the entrance to our otherwise incantation sealed home myself!

"Deep breath, girl," he said as his tail wrapped round my torso and upper arms, pulling me tight to his side, before he slid over the edge of the bath with me, dropping us both into the portal.

It turned out that Saur'ex had been joking; while the portal in the bath had been horizontal, the mirror we stepped through on the other side was vertical. We were in a huge vaulted chamber with carved marble chairs lining the walls; a large throne occupied the wall at the far end. Saur'ex led me to the throne where a tall, dark, handsome man sat. He looked at me with contempt as Saur'ex forced me to my knees in front of him.

"I am the slave of Lady Gyn'estar." I began to protest, but he nodded to Saur'ex, who tightened the tendrils round my neck until I stopped talking and started to gasp for breath instead.

"You will speak when spoken to in my home, hu-woman pet!" he commanded. I nodded my understanding and the tendrils relaxed again. He then ignored me and spoke to Saur'ex:

"Uncollared and unattended, I take it?" he said. Saur'ex simply nodded. I didn't like where this was going!

"Then our civic duty is clear," he continued "this hu-woman pet must be taken into the custody of a responsible citizen!"

Despite his instruction to shut up, I shouted angrily "This is a set-up! Who do you think you are, asshole?"

The tendrils tightened again. As I gasped for breath, he crouched in front of me. He regarded me for a long moment before he spoke again:

"I am Tel'estar. And you are an unattended little animal who must be impounded in the interests of public safety." he said, before crossing the room and opening a large wooden chest. He returned with a heavy black metal collar, from which a small medallion, the Triskele symbol embossed upon it, dangled.

I began to struggle, but to no avail. Saur'ex released the tendrils from round my neck, but the freedom was momentary, as the collar snapped shut round my neck in their place. I looked up at Tel'estar angrily.

"The Lady Gyn'estar will never stand for my being treated like this!" I shouted "Let me go...please!"

Saur'ex released me from the grip of his scaly living bindings. I immediately jumped up and ran for the still shimmering mirror.

"Stop!" Tel'estar commanded. I froze in midstep. I was wearing an obedience collar! "Come back here and kneel before your new Master, hu-woman pet." I did as commanded, performing the submission kiss, the collar already exerting its control over my actions. "That's better, little animal." he continued. I ground my teeth in anger and frustration, my lips barely touching the toe of Tel'estar's boot.

"Can I at least be allowed to get back up?" I asked.

"You will address your Master properly, hu-woman pet," he replied "if you wish for anything you say to be listened to!"

The stupid collar making me treat that as a command, I then rephrased my request:

"May I please be allowed to resume the kneeling position, Master?" I asked.

"You may, hu-woman pet. But I do not care for animals who refer to themselves in the first person. Bear that in mind." he replied.

As the collar interpreted that as an instruction as well, I said "The pet thanks her Master." as I straightened back up into the basic uncuffed pose that I had not used in well over six months.

Several hours later, as I knelt beside Tel'estar's throne, the mirror at the far end of the room began to shimmer, the iridescence turning into dark swirls like black lightning clouds as the entire room began to shake. Gyn'estar then stepped through into the room.

"HOW DARE YOU STEAL MY SLAVE FROM ME!" she shouted in what I can only describe as a truly demonic voice.

"Lady Gyn'estar, welcome to my home." my new Master said, as if she was an arriving dinner guest.

Gyn was putting on a brave face, but I could tell she was almost out of her mind with concern for me. "My slave is not safe here, Tel," she said "give her back to me, now!"

"My hu-woman pet is safer here than she is with you, Gyn." he responded. "You left her unattended, and uncollared, while you went to the Hu-man Realm, no doubt to interfere in my business, as usual. This animal has been impounded by me in the interests of public safety."

"Don't you DARE call my Linzi an animal!" Gyn shouted. "Linzi, come with me, we are leaving!"

"I'm sorry, Lady Gyn'estar, but my Master has forbidden me to go with you." I answered, tears in my eyes.

"Don't pay him any attention!" she shouted, a little frantically, before she finally realised the significance of the thick metal band locked round my neck. Her mouth fell open.

"You put an obedience collar on my be..., I mean my slave?" she said. "How dare you treat her like this?"

"How dare I treat a stray animal as the law requires?" Tel'estar replied.

"Stop calling her an animal, Tel, I'm warning you!" Gyn shouted. "By the Profane Incantations, I'll make you pay for this!"

"You have not complied with the slave laws, Lady Gyn'estar, in leaving this animal unattended and uncollared." Tel'estar said, in a bored tone. He then looked over to me and commanded me to look up at the ceiling. My neck immediately craned backwards as the collar forced my compliance. "Now you are demanding that I return it to your neglectful handling. In which case, I see only one alternative. I must be merciful to the creature and end its suffering forthwith." Without apparently moving, as I had seen Gyn do all those months earlier in the hospital lift, he was standing behind me, the razor sharp blade of a very long dagger pressing lightly against my exposed throat. I was so terrified, I couldn't even scream as he whispered to me sharply:

"Do not move so much as a hair's breadth until I tell you otherwise, hu-woman pet!"

"NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Gyn screamed with anguish and terror. "Tel, please, I am begging you, PLEASE DON'T HURT HER!"

"You seem a little too attached to this animal for your own good, Lady Gyn'estar." Tel'estar replied

All I could see was the ceiling, all I could feel the razor edge of the dagger against my throat. The collar ensured that I obeyed my Master's command; I remained completely motionless as a tear ran down my left cheek.

"Please don't hurt her, Tel, I'm begging you." Gyn replied quietly, sobbing.

"I am prepared to let this creature live, as a personal favour to you, my Lady Gyn'estar," Tel'estar replied "provided you undertake to cease and desist from interference in my activities in the Hu-man realm."

"Agreed." Gyn answered.

Tel'estar was instantly sitting in his seat again, the dagger back in the sheath attached to his right boot.

"You may move, my hu-woman pet." he said, releasing me from the control of the collar that had held me motionless and staring at the ceiling throughout what had just transpired. I ran to where Gyn knelt in the centre of the room and hugged her tightly. Her arms wrapped around me as we kissed.

"Are you OK, my beloved?" Gyn whispered to me.

"Only my dignity, what little of it there is left, has been injured, my darling." I replied. "I'm sorry for getting us into this mess!"

Gyn kept her arms around me, squeezing my naked body tight to her leather corset, as if trying to protect me. Then she looked up at Tel'estar.

"May we go, now, Tel?" she asked. "You have what you wanted."

"You are free to leave at any time, my Lady," my Master replied. "The animal will of course be remaining with me, where it will be cared for properly."