Zenith's Greatest Hero

While Qilue was still taking in her new surroundings, the skeleton still had one more glyph to apply to Valda, and it did so with relish, slapping it on her breasts.

The tunnel led out to a large room filled with crystalline cages and sneering guards of the largest races from the most brutal cultures. Valda saw cages filled with people she recognised from her adventures, those who had stood up to Lord Killshade and then disappeared, enemies whose own rise to power threatened her former enemy's dominance, even people who had sheltered and help her during her quest. Huge numbers of people significant to Valda's life seemed to be in this prison, as well as a whole bunch of others that had found themselves captured by Zenith's most evil villain. She hoped that nobody would notice her, or maybe just the ones in the closest cells. But then a thorny vine whipped itself over Valda's exposed breast, causing her to scream out in pain with a scream amplified six times louder by the Thaumaturgy spell.

Suddenly every single eye in the prison was on her as her breasts were mercilessly whipped by thorns. Their initial shock giving way to a roar of cheers each time they heard the sound of a cracking whip followed by Valda's screams of degraded pain. The skeleton took Valda and Qilue past a row of catcalling prisoners to a desk with a giant grinning Cyclops watching his new prisoners squirm.

"I could have sworn the western castle fell to Valda and her friends, yet now it seems it was Valda that fell." The cyclops leered. "With the one who vanquished him under my command, hopefully the resurrection of our dark lord won't face any more roadblocks. Hell he will probably give me untold riches ensuring you are at his mercy when he returns." Qilue keenly listened because she knew Valda couldn't. "Who sent you?"

The skeletons remained impassive, they did not have the ability to speak so they had nothing to do but wait for the warden to tell them what to do with their prisoner.

"Alright, the cloak and dagger stuff gets annoying when we're all on the same team but that's fine. Walk this humiliated former hero and her friend around the prison, make sure anyone who thinks their salvation is coming sees the legend of Zenith, captured naked and covered in cum. Then lock them in cell 66." The cyclops ordered, watching with joy as the skeletons obeyed his demand and led away the humiliated prisoners.

Qilue felt like Valda may actually be lucky to be deafened at this moment as the yells of the prisoners would have cut through her hard.

"I see Zenith's mightiest hero is now its dirtiest whore. I hope Killshade takes you down a peg before he comes from me." A large man with huge scars yelled, Qilue got the impression that those scars were a gift from Valda.

"Tell me it isn't so. Our hero has been captured and desecrated, who will save us now." An elderly priest yelled.

A tall thin man in a cloak pushed himself at the edge of his cell, Qilue didn't understand why until she saw his cock in his hand and a spurt of cum landing on Valda's calf. "That's for thwarting my glorious designs at Daggerpoint." He spat.

Qilue felt terrible, it would have been bad enough to be in this situation alone, or even the centre of attention, but seeing Valda taking the brunt of humiliation for her mistake was somehow even worse. She was her therapist and now Valda was facing the ultimate destruction of her reputation and reverence because of her.

After a lap of all the cells, Valda's feet and calves were covered in semen from the prisoners with a grudge and a hand on their cock. One impressive half-orc prisoner managed to cum on her thigh but in general she was too far away from the cells. The skeleton's led her away from the main area of cells and to a dark tunnel, they unlocked the metal barred door and threw Valda and Qilue inside, only releasing them from their manacles through the bars once the cell was locked.

The cell was clearly designed to hold the strongest prisoners, it seemed like it had been hewn right into the rocks below the ground, the only surface not made of rock was the thick barred door they came in through, now with two skeletal guards standing outside to make extra certain their prisoners don't escape.

Valda and Qilue sat in silence, stewing in their situation, desperately trying to think of how they were going to escape this, and if they did escape how they were going to explain what had happened.

Eventually, Qilue saw the magical glyphs fade from Valda's skin, now was the time to start working things out.

"Valda, you have your strength back now." Qilue informed, Valda jumped at the sudden sensation of sound but didn't mind as she tested her strength against the bars. She strained and grunted but they were not moving an inch even with her full herculean force at work.

"They aren't budging." Valda sighed. "We'll just have to be patient and wait for an opportunity.

"Bullshit." Qilue replied. "The longer we are here, the more of your enemies see you like this. Not to mention we are captive by people trying to bring back Lord Killshade. What if we're being patient and then one day you see his face leering down at you."

"Demiplane portals need high level magical maintenance every so often, that means there's some powerful wizards behind this who will be on their way the moment they get word I'm in here, maybe one will get sloppy and I can take them hostage."

"Or maybe they'll drain your strength without glyphs. Maybe you'll end up a living fuck-statue in their throne room for the rest of your life." Qilue ranted.

"Yes Qilue, I'm scared too." Valda interrupted. "Giving into that fear isn't going to get us anywhere. Fucking hell, you're a therapist, what do you tell people who are this scared?"

Qilue ran through her guide to panic attacks, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth while thinking of 10 things she will do when the situation is over. Her heartbeat slowed and she was able to calm herself enough to think straight.

"Those skeletons can lock and unlock cells, if only they were still under our command." Qilue lamented before her face lit up with an idea. "They technically are still under our command, they just aren't accepting new orders."

"You say that like it changes our situation."

"It does. If you were to throw that manicle hard and accurately enough to break the skeleton's finger. They would have to apply a glyph to you."

"Qilue you genius. They'd have to unlock the cage to come get me and I could smash them to smithereens." Valda cheered, leaping to her feet to pick up the manacles previously on her wrists.

Qilue had a knot in her stomach, she prayed that Valda could hit a skeleton's hand from the cell, she had no idea that with Valda's strength and practice, she was deadlier and more accurate throwing things than most archers were with the best bows and arrows available. She flung the manacles and smiled as it basically obliterated the skeleton's hand. As predicted the helper skeleton opened the cage and began to approach Valda with a glyph, when Valda moved with lightning speed and wrenched the skeleton apart by the ribcage.

"Alright! Now we just need to get out of here." Qilue celebrated.

"You need to get out of here. I need to stay and do what I do best, be a hero." Valda grinned.

"Valda, we can come back..."

"No we can't, you heard me earlier, the most powerful of this organisation are probably on their way here. If we leave they'll close off the portal and we won't be able to stop them. But if I stay and fight, they'll probably want to take me down in my weakened state, no allies, no armour, no weapons." Valda resolutely explained as she punched the other skeleton to dust.

"You think you could take them on in your state?"

"No, but I think I can stall them. I'll be the distraction as you go back to Fountainwood, on the kitchen counter is a strange rock with a bunch of glyphs on it. Run your finger down the centre and say 'code black.' It will instantly get Infernazarr's attention and he will portal the rest of the gang together. Then the phrase you're going to need to use is 'I'll explain on the way.' as you bring them here." Valda planned as she grabbed the bag of healing glyphs and slapped a few onto her.

"So you're going to let your old adventuring party see you in this state?"

"If we are successful I can claim the whole imprisonment thing was a ruse to get the skeletons to bring us here and to get the bad guys to let their guard down." Valda explained as she handed Qilue the other bag of glyphs. "These aren't strong attacks, use them to distract and flee. Save the blindness one for the most dire situation."

Qilue saw Valda at her strongest and bravest, and tried to mirror that energy for the task ahead, after all Valda was risking her freedom, dignity and future on this plan. Everything was riding on Qilue getting back to Zenith and getting Valdas friends together in time. Qilue had more questions but Valda had already charged down the hall with a howl of rage.

...

Valda spat a mouthful of blood onto the ice cold metal floor as three hooded figures moved their hordes of monsters to surround her.

"Valda Stormaxe, Zenith's mightiest hero, alone, naked, and defeated at our hands.' One of the wizards drooled, letting arcs of electricity play around his hands. "Maybe if you surrender now, we won't finish you off."

"Yeah, seeing as you're already dressed for it, maybe you could convince me to keep you alive as my sex slave." Another hooded figure added, Valda considered his offer, and how funny it would be to crush his cock with her pussy, but instead opted for a more direct expression of her feelings.

"I will never submit to the likes of you, if you want me, you're going to have to fuck my corpse." She sneered, unsteadily pulling herself upright, her naked body shivering in the cold.

"If that's the way you want to be. I guess we'll kill you and see if you're more compliant when we bring you back as a mindless undead servant." A hooded wizard chuckled, collecting a deep dark ball of necrotic energy in his hands. Just as he was about to fling it at Valda, his hands seemed to become sticky, interfering with his complex hand movements. "Who dares counterspell me?"

Valda's determined gritted teeth turned to a relaxed grin, her hunched posture straightened up to become strong and resolute, she slapped a couple more healing glyphs on herself and turned to see her adventuring friends, in their fearsome fighting pose, sizing up the room of monsters, cultists, and villainy ahead of them.

"Thank God you guys finally came, you know had badly I had to look like I was losing to keep those ringleaders here, I was ten minutes away from fucking them." Valda leapt across the room, slamming herself into the Cyclops and snatching the masterctafted battle hammer he had been inexpertly wielding. "I've had my eyes on this hammer for so long. Now let's see how well it works."

The hoards took one step back as Valda surged with rage and power, more than prepared for the bloodbath that was about to commence.

...

"Given recent events, I figured it only appropriate to schedule your supervision for the whole afternoon." Gelmar Springleaf explained as Qilue sat up straight on his sofa. "I must also inform you that other directors of the guild of therapists have asked me to feed back to them on concerns we all have."

"Concerns?" Qilue innocently asked.

"This is not a disciplinary interview. We are not using accusations as discussion points. How about you explain the events of the last few weeks from your perspective?" The supervisor stroked his beard before pulling out his notepad.

Qilue went over the story she had agreed with Valda. The same story they had told to all the press, that they went on to give in speeches at events thanking them for stopping the ritual that would have brought back an immortal Lord Killshade. That Qilue had told the crowd just before the city council announced the new marble statue of 'Qilue, the sixth saviour of Zenith' to be placed on the road of heroes next to Valda and her adventuring party.

Qilue told Gelmar of Valda's hunch that taking down a single castle of cultists may not have finished off the plot to revive Lord Killshade, and that doubt plagued her mind. Then, thanks to Qilue's fantastic therapy, she realised she needed to have confidence in her mind as well as her body, so she came up with a plan to get herself captured to confirm her theory. As she felt like it was something she had to do for herself, she didn't ask her friends for help, but couldn't think of anyone she could trust more than Qilue to be there to make sure everything went alright.

Then everything went wrong and Qilue got captured as well, but when they were locked up together, Qilue thought of a plan to escape, then snuck through the hordes of Killshade's forces, at one point even coming face to face with an ogre and dodging his swings long enough to blind him with a glyph. Once free she got word to Valda's friends and gave them such detailed intel that Infernazarr gave her command of the castle's skeletons to help in the battle.

The battle was tough, and partway through the cultists began the ritual out of desperation. This was why Lord Killshade's shadow-minions reappeared all across Zenith, ravaging the area in the short period of time it took the heroes to reach the ritual site and shut it down. Now the cult is scattered, their leaders dead and prisoners freed, and not only is Qilue a household name, but getting therapy is no longer a niche and frowned upon activity.

"That is a fascinating story, very enjoyable. Tell me about being captured and stripped naked." Gelmar enquired.

"It was embarrassing, why do you want to focus on that?"

"Because it seems like something worth drilling down into. I have Valda's therapy notes here, you have told me about her enjoyment of displays of sexual vulnerability, and then a story hits the papers about her, and you, being seen chained up and naked at the hands of skeletons you admit she had command over. Considering we cannot see any therapeutic reason for you to be part of Valda's plan, we are worried about your professional boundaries. Even the most innocent read of the situation has you putting yourself at an unacceptable risk by being there, and we have troubling speculations about the nature of your participation in Valda's plan."

"You think the final defeat of Killshade's forces started out as a sexual game of Valda's, one that I was participating in?"

"You understand that with the newfound focus on therapy as a discipline, we would have to be extra conscious of lapses in professional standards from someone given the role of spokesperson through providence." Gelmar explained. Qilue struggled to hold back a scowl at the pomposity that had just been instilled in her supervisor from jumped up office politics. Clearly he was looking to get in good with the guild, capitalising on his supervisee's success.

"So the directors want to make this political, do they?" Qilue mused. "Fine, since this is no longer a forum for my professional and mental well-being, let's play the political game. My association with Valda has followed an unconventional path, a path that I will not be detailing to you or anyone else. A path that has led to half the city either seeking therapy or training to be a therapist because of the story I am a part of. For now the story is that I am a legend because I am a therapist, what do you think would happen if you opened disciplinaries against me that clearly signalled that I am a legend despite being a therapist?"

"The directors are eager not to have our association with you blow up in our faces."

"Then you best leave this alone. I will make sure it blows up in your face if you try and butt in, hell I wonder if they have considered the consequences of me starting a rival guild. However it only might blow up in your face if you tolerate my school of therapy, and crucially you and your directors will have time to build a formidable guild before facing those challenges."

"You never used to be the sort of person who would be so cavalier with their future and extortive with your guild."

"What can I say, I am now one of Zenith's greatest heroes, and I get paid well, by a client I actually like, to..." Qilue trailed off and shot her supervisor a cheeky grin. "Well I guess that doesn't concern you any more."

...

Epilogue

Qilue couldn't believe the life she now had, the life Valda had been living for some time when she first knocked on Qilue's door asking for help with her general malaise. As she walked down the street people cheered for her, if her walk slowed too much she would soon find herself having to navigate a crowd of well-wishers, stores and merchants climbed over one another to give her free stuff. She had requests from the wealthiest and most influential people to be their therapist, but she had to put that on hold as her office was so swamped with well-wishers she couldn't guarantee anyone privacy. Infernazarr said he would get her a demi-plane of her own in exchange for his first few therapy sessions being on the house, but he said it would take a week to put together

In the meantime, Qilue relished the quiet as she ducked down an alleyway and into the familiar Fountainwood apartment of Valda. From there she made her way to the second closet and down into the castle, giggling at the echoing sounds of her footsteps in the empty halls, retracing her steps through the fake magic wall, down the ominous tunnel, and into the ice prison where Valda was waiting for her.

"I really love the quiet these days, I never realised what a precious commodity it was until the world wanted to loudly congratulate me." Qilue mused.

"Yeah, now you know what it's like to be famous, no more stripping at the Thrusting Rapier without a disguise for you."

"Oh, do you think the people I stripped for will remember me? Do you think one day one of them will be walking down the road of heroes and think 'hang on, that statue there, I swear I've seen her pussy and ass inches from my face while she exposed herself for tips.'"

"You see what I mean about wanting a statue of me wearing less than my loincloth?"

"At least they can see your body, I'm in my professional suit, looking proper and decent. The statues should be of the two of us, naked and being pulled along by the skeleton."

"Well that's a thought, though I am glad you now have as much to lose as me if you get exposed, it means we're playing for the same stakes." Valda opined as she began laying out some bags and boxes on the floor in front of them. "So, are you looking forward to your week off?"

"Depends what you have planned." Qilue replied, uneasily looking around the demi-plane dungeon that was almost her ruin.

"Well it's simple, I'm going to be your naked prisoner. You can lock me up in any cell, put me through any torture you see fit, you will even have a unit of skeletal guards to carry out any command you give them. You have a sack of strength draining glyphs here, but also another sack of far more interesting glyphs. I finally found out where in the castle skeletons were getting all those additional glyphs from the first adventure that went wrong, there's a whole library/armoury of them in a hidden room, believe me I chose some good ones for you to have at your fingertips." Qilue idly rummaged through the glyph bag, catching sight of a variety of malicious and uncomfortable spells.

"Now to make it fun I have made a game of this. Inside this box is a leash and chain, but it is locked, the only way to unlock it is with a codeword that I currently know. Your mission is to get that codeword out of me. The only rule is you can't use any of those command glyphs to force me to tell you, you'll have to humiliate it out of me. If you get me to give you the codeword, my punishment is to put on that leash and give it to a skeleton with the command 'take this prisoner to the most humiliating place.' However, if you cannot get the codeword out of me before the strength draining glyphs run out, by my calculation in three days time, you will become my prisoner for the remainder of the week."