Time and Chance

When we returned to Rondo's home, he placed me in the care of Darius. That made me feel loads better. I delighted in the bath and massage the handsome slave gave me. I made not the least bit protest when he ate me out later or when his talented cock entered my anus. Why was I not disgusted by Darius's behavior? Why did I respond to him with even more enthusiasm then I had shown Rondo in the theater? Was it because he was a slave, my "equal" or was I a particular kind of slut? This time with Spotswood's was raising heck with my psyche. Had it all been bad? Of course not. I knew my old moral foundation had to be cast out, at least for the present. Could I replace them entirely with those of the Empire? If I did, how could I put it all behind me when I was returned to my old world and my life with Mark. I refused to conceive of any other future. THAT was the faith I had to maintain and nurse. No matter what befell me in this universe I had to maintain the belief that it was only temporary. I'd found my footing at last! Serve here as fully as you can. When you and Mark are restored to your old world, transfer to Mark all that you learn here. It was a plan! I took it as a divine one.

The rest of the time with the Argents was quite nice. Larta and Mara took me aside for another lesbian triple tryst. Each one tasted different. I decided that while I was not a lesbian, being with women had some decided plusses. They were a lot more fun to embrace in bed and the kissing was incredible. After our encounter we three commandeered the steam room and talked about sex. I told them all about Mark. They said he sounded like a good guy. They got me to confess that I found both of them quite attractive and we talked at length about the sexual capabilities of Rondo, Tiberius, Darius, and the sky captains. It was a really fun hen party. Dinner included a chocolate mousse to die for! The subsequent days passed in a haze of incredible sex, sunshine, and relaxation.

Almost before I was aware of it, Larta, Tiberius, and myself were on board an express train for the capital. Back in the throne room, the boss greeted me with a smile and a tiny gossamer outfit. The emperor summoned me that first evening.

"The Spotswood's' report that you have taken well to training, fair one."

I nodded and curtsied.

"I shall be the judge of that," was his following comment.

It was nowhere near as bad as I imagined. Pretending that the obese potentate was Darius, or my beloved Mark helped tremendously. He made me do everything a creepy all-powerful despot would do to a willing woman if given the opportunity, I serviced him orally, anally, intimately, but I immediately blocked it out. I was grateful for my time with the Argents and Spotswood's. Had the emperor used me immediately, I would have withdrawn into myself and become embittered and recalcitrant. That would have made future reunion with Mark an impossibility. All I remember is that the emperor's stubby cock bends to the right and that he has a wine stain birthmark on his right butt cheek. Also, despite living in a palace and bathing regularly, he has substantial BO!

In any event, the day I had long for arrived, my promised meeting with Mark!

"Some ground rules, fair one," cautioned the emperor, "both you and the male barbarian will be strip-searched both before and after your meeting to ensure there is no clandestine communication passing between you. You will have three hours. Both you and the male will be locked in chastity devices. You are MINE. He is not to sully you without my permission. You have liberty of conversation and physical contact. You are being carefully observed, barbarian Laurel. If you do well and obey your limits, your monthly visits with the male barbarian you were captured with will continue with the strictures gradually reduced. He has been briefed on these rules as well. If I receive a bad report..."

He allowed the threat to trail off. I would have agreed to ANY conditions to see Mark again including setting myself on fire!

After I was clothed in an especially dowdy and shapeless outfit, the boss led me to a row of cells. Two titanic bruisers had preceded me. They were all smiles as they ordered me to strip. They were incredibly exacting as they minutely examined my clothes. Then, they started on me. It was awful. They ran their fingers through my hair, each probed my anus, my pussy and my mouth. They examined me with a magnifying glass from head to toe and made sure I was completely humiliated before they compounded my discomfort by locking me in a leather and metal chastity belt. Over my boobs, hiding my nipples and areolas and locking around my back they applied a thin strip of metal. All my erogenous zones were protected from fondling by my husband. Then they allowed me to get dressed. I was blindfolded and led to another cell. It closed behind me. There was sudden brightness as mt blindfold fell away. Then the brightness faded revealing my beloved Mark!

"Oh, honey!" I cried as I leaped into his arms. The kisses we shared were the most wonderful of our marriage. Mark's touch felt so wonderful, I cried tears of joy.

"Listen, Mel!" he said forcefully and repeatedly. I got ahold of myself.

"I've discovered a way out, honey!""Really?"

"Yes. I deciphered part of what the professor Hallman shared with me. Somethings he said only made sense if he was trying to convey information for retracing our steps. He was cagey with the information. He sent us on the path to this reality. I have no doubt that he can and does enter this universe whenever he wants to. He has a very low opinion of Christians and Christianity, sending us here was his little joke. Now I understand what his coded phrases meant. He did not send us off to the unknown without a way back. Do you think you can get permission to take an unsupervised walk with me, honey?"

"Maybe. But it will take time. A lot more meetings like this for example."

"If you can bear the strip searches and all that involves, so can I, honey. Maybe after a few months, perhaps a year, they will trust us enough. I know where the portal to our world is. I am too closely watched to escape on my own even if I wanted to."

"What are these awful people making you do?" I asked.

"I'm hauling munitions at the garrison. It's hot dangerous work. So long as I don't do anything stupid, I won't be responsible for any fatal explosions."

"Oh, my, God!"

"It's better than what they are making you do!" returned Mark meaningfully.

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry. They make me..."

"Spare me. I DON'T want to know any of the details! Do whatever they tell you. Be a model slave so that you can spend some unsupervised time together and we can walk right out of this world and back to our own. When we are home, nothing we have done here will have any meaning nor can it interfere with our love."

"Oh, honey!" I cried as I fell into his arms again.

We stripped down to our chastity devices. We could not make love, of course, Mark could not even nibble my nipples, but man did it feel good, his bare skin against mine! I noted that Mark had new and alluring muscles. He said it came from shifting huge weights all day. He noted that my "keepers" were doing wonders for my physique as well.

"I can't wait to make love to you again, darling!" he enthused.

"That goes double for me." I looked at his chastity device. "Do they keep you in that thing all the time?"

"No. It would interfere with the work they have me do. In answer to your next question, slave girl, once every two weeks me and my crew get blowjobs from toothless female prisoners, most of whom are old and ugly, still..."

I suddenly felt very embarrassed and flushed scarlet.

"I know better than to ask, Mel. At least the emperor is no Brad Pitt."

That caused both of us to laugh. A chime rang indicating we had just five more minutes left. I dressed Mark. He dressed me. A gaggle of guards turned up. I was blindfolded and led away.

In the cell I started out in I was compelled to strip once more. I was felt up by the guards as my chastity devices came off. A piece of paper fluttered to the floor. One of the guards picked it up and smiled malevolently. "A note! We will have to report this to our superiors!"

"You planted that!" I wailed.

"Really? We are imperial guards, men of honor and integrity, while you are a mere slave. Why should anyone believe your protestations?"

His leer widened, mirroring that of his foul confederate. I understood their meaning. Fully.

"What's must I do for you kind and noble gentlemen to forget the presence of this note?"

"Now you are talking sense, angel face!" returned the first guard.

One took me from behind while I sucked off the other one. I had to swallow every drop and pretend that I came ecstatically; that these two stooges were the greatest lovers in the universe. When I finished this odious task, the first guard burned my "note" and said, "Wonderful doing business with ya darlin'" Then, he winked. I saw with crystal clarity that every time I was permitted to visit Mark, I would have to whore myself out afterwards. It was ALMOST enough to ruin my euphoria at having been allowed a moment with my beloved. God, why can't you make this easier!

The emperor, after receiving a good report, was overjoyed. Then reality set in, he exacted revenge for my time with Mark. He was quite piggish and selfish in how he used me. My needs meant nothing all that mattered was what he wanted. The emperor was the worst kind of creepy boyfriend, taking what he wanted hungrily and disgustingly. Still, I bore it rather well, especially when the emperor said that because of my good behavior I'd get to see Mark again in another month or so. My debasement was totally worth it! I ran and re-ran Mark's words in my head about being the best slave girl I could possibly be. On the one hand he had no idea of the nature of adventures I'd already had, nor did he know what would be expected of me in the future. That he did not want to know the details meant that his mind was already full of images.

He knew about the emperor and realized that there was no way I would enjoy sex with him. If he learned about the Spotswood's, Paris, the Argents, and everybody else, I knew it would color his opinion of me. Even while he knew I was doing what I had to do, strange cocks were in his mind. In Mark's psyche those strange cocks were fucking me. I had no idea how deeply he was troubled by these images, but I suspected greatly. When we were returned to our own world, I would have to make love to Mark so intensely it would set the sheets on fire if I was to banish phantoms from our bedroom. I KNEW I could do that! I began to think of ways to broach the subject with the emperor. Despite everything, that night, I had fantastic dreams and my lips buzzed from the memory of Mark's kisses for days.

As soon as I was able, I began to work on the emperor like a gold-digger assaying a sugar daddy. I vamped, called him gorgeous, handsome, a walking dream, and an endless number of other endearments. I never thought myself capable of such convincing if disgusting acting! My entreaties seemed to be softening him up. He publicly proclaimed me his "favorite" and I started receiving jewelry and other tokens of appreciation. I got down and dirty with the fat loser. He got anal, he got oral, I agreed to be tied down, tickled all over and then fucked either by him or one of his designates. I endured dildoes and nipple clamps. I relished in his spankings when I was "naughty" and his embraces when I was "heavenly." I tapped into lesbian rendezvous with other girls in the harem while he jerked himself off or tag-teamed us. After a while, I actually found myself enjoying it. But at what cost?

About three weeks after my visit with Mark I noted that Larta Spotswood was in the throne room petitioning the emperor on some matter of great importance to her.

"Why should I send a slave that I treasure above all others, to this artist, Larta?"

"Sire, I greatly desire the painting he promised me. He only wants the girl to sit for him for a month."

"That is neither here nor there. You knew the girl was only on loan to you. You should not have promised her in any way."

"I'm willing to prostrate myself upon our friendship, sire!"

"Larta, just because we are friends..."

"Any price, sire!"

The emperor took a moment and stroked his chins. His countenance donned a perverse leer.

"Very well, Larta, you shall take Laurel's place in my harem for the duration of her absence."

Larta gasped but nodded. The gallery began buzzing loudly.

The emperor made a gesture and the huge guard, Rog, the very one who had stripped me on my first day, moved towards Larta carrying a collar. She visibly blanched.

The emperor looked at me and said, "There is no reason for you to witness this, Laurel." (Actually, I very much wanted to see this!) He clapped his hands to summon the boss and said to her, "Prepare the slave called Laurel for travel."

I was led from the throne room just as Larta's toga was about to hit the floor. "I miss all the good stuff!" I mused.

I wondered what this would do to my promised second meeting with Mark. I figured it was no more than a week or so away. I could only hope that it would only be delayed for a month. I felt positive that the emperor would not deny me access to Mark. I clung to that hope at any rate.

The boss threw some clothing into a small satchel and then had me dress in a full-length and quite concealing toga.

"The shepherd will take you to your destination. Slaves cannot travel unaccompanied," she said.

"Shepherd?"

"Imperial eunuch. This one had his balls shot off in the war. Better not tell him you are a barbarian; he might take it personally. In any event he will keep you safe and will fetch you at the end of the month. Curt's not a bad guy once you get through his prickly exterior. Obey him at all times. The commute should take the better part of the day. It will be evening when you arrive at Alphonse Dressen's villa."

"I take it I have no say in the matter?"

"You are better than that kind of stupidity, Laurel. If you were not leaving right now, I'd have you flogged!"

"Sorry, boss!" I hastily replied.

"Need I remind you that you represent the emperor and the Empire. The Empire has eyes everywhere, so you should be on your best behavior at all times, girl!"

"I understand, boss. Can you at least tell me what to expect?"

"Your being shipped to an artist, I assume you should only focus on looking pretty. That should be easy for you."

I let her insult slide over me. "I mean besides that, boss."

"Be obedient, courteous, and smiling."

The boss either dispenses useful information or useless information. It is best to accept all of it.

A short time later, the shepherd, Curt turned up. He was a mountain of a man with a livid scar running the length of the left side of his face. He wore an expression that said not only did his not suffer fools gladly, he liked nothing more than snapping their necks like toothpicks! He produced a chain and affixed it to my collar.

"Is that necessary?" I ventured.

"Yes, it is slave, you stayed tethered the entire length of the journey, even when you are taking a dump or a piss."

At least I knew what I'd be dealing with!

The boss handed Curt an imperial travel voucher. It granted the holder passage on any conveyance of the Empire gratis and guaranteed a seat. I'd heard other girls in the harem talk about them, but never did I think I would be issued one. I thought about Larta having to fulfill my duties for the month and smiled. Then I contemplated Alphonse Dressen's incredible green eyes and smiled even wider! With an insistent tug from Curt, I was off.

We exited the palace and made our way to the tube station right across the street. The last time I was in a subway was on vacation with Mark during the second year of our marriage. This one was a hell of a lot nicer and almost as bright inside as the noonday sun. Naturally, it was sparkling clean without a hint of grime or graffiti. To be honest, the earth I knew could really learn a few things from this reality, but only SOME things.

Curt led me to a small compartment near the front of the train. He told me that most trains had a room set aside for imperial business. It was otherwise unoccupied, so he led me in. The seats reclined fully and were quite swanky. After I was seated and settled. Curt looped my chain over an overhead bar and locked it in place with a padlock.

"Now, you can't go wandering off. I can read the sports paper with both hands. If you have to "go" just yell."

And just like that he was buried in a four-color glossy newspaper. I looked around. I had been permitted to bring my journal and pen with me. I decided to try and draw a few pictures. I'm a mediocre artist but I settled in to draw Curt's profile. The jagged scar was facing me. It looked like a lightning strike as it forked and expanded over his face. I wondered how he had earned that memento of battle. Was it related to the loss of his manhood? I knew better than to ask. An hour or so into the journey I did have to answer nature's call. I got Curt's attention and he freed my chain from the bar before grasping it and leading me to the tiny restroom across the way. The potty was designed to accommodate one. Even though it would have been impossible for me to escape, Curt insisted on cramming his massive bulk into the toilet with me. I could barely move and was majorly embarrassed to go with an audience watching especially as I had to do number two as well. Curt seemed completely uninterested in my bodily functions. He was just monomaniacally focused upon his duty. Later, I tried to engage him in conversation. I got maybe two dozen words out of him.

Because of travel delays, it was near dawn when we arrived at Alphonse Dressen's villa. "Art must pay very well!" I thought. Instead of a servant or a slave answering the door, Alphonse greeted us himself. He eyed me head to toe, he seemed to recognize me. Alphonse then read Curt's imperial missive.

"Fascinating! Yes, shepherd, I will take charge of the slave. I understand that she is to be returned in an undamaged and unpregnant state when you come to claim her in thirty days' time." He then signed a receipt of me and took my chain from Curt. For the next thirty days, this man would be, for all intents and purposes, my "owner." It felt very strange being property and I knew that I would never get used to it.

Curt turned and left. Alphonse stated, "I remember you from the airship. I see that that Spotswood parasite exploited her relationship with the emperor. I suppose I will have to part with that sketch now, but it won't matter as I will have so many more of you in a short time."

When I told him that the emperor had obligated Larta to take my place in the harem, he positively beamed.

"As much as I hate politics and politicians, that obese despot is the slyest emperor we've ever had!"

A moment later he added. "I'll send a portrait of you to him as well. Sucking up to the bastard can only help my career."

We entered the main room of his villa. He removed the chain from my collar and struck a gong. Four very beautiful and quite naked women entered the room.

"Girls," said Alphonse, "This is Laurel, make her feel welcome."

The women embraced and kissed me in turn. I was led to an adjoining room where in no time at all they stripped me to my birthday suit.

"I'm Holly," said the redhead.

"I'm Honey," said the blonde.

"I'm Rose," said the woman with purple hair.

"I'm Audrey," stated the statuesque black woman.

"I hope you like girls!" said Holly avidly.

"It doesn't matter if you don't," interjected Audrey, "We LIKE you!"

I was steered towards a large bed. All four of them proceeded to take me at once. I was kissed and stroked. They rotated in an order I could not guess and dined upon my pussy. Each one took turns sitting on my face. I had no choice but to cooperate. If you had told me a year ago that I would be the victim of a lesbian gang bang, I would have politely asked you what you were smoking. After a while, it stopped being shocking and became something else. I know I'm not wired to sleep with girls under normal circumstances but... My experiences with the girls in the harem at the emperor's behest had softened the hard-moral stance I had been taught as a Christian against girl on girl love. I wondered, for a long moment, if I'd ever fit in any church again. Then, I forced that thought away and accepted, even reveled in their attentions. These girls were all spectacularly beautiful and they seemed as desirous of giving pleasure as receiving it. After a very short time, it seemed like these four lesbians or bisexuals or whatever they were could make me come at will. They loved my soft, kittenish sighs. Their lips, their teeth, their skin felt very good indeed. After prolonged hours of pleasure, my utterly spent body shut down and I slept like the dead.