The Trial of Sir Merton Penniless

Morgan was already getting dressed by the time she woke up.

'Father expects you at his manse, today,' she said, nonchalantly, as she put up her hair, that had fallen into a wonderful mess during their lovemaking, 'he's planned a dinner in your honour.'

'I don't eat.'

'Oh, ha, ha,' she replied, rolling her eyes, 'dinner is not about food, it's about politics.'

'Why should that concern me?' Callisto asked, lazily, as she got up and crossed the room for a kiss.

Morgan returned her affection but only in the form of a peck, their lips meeting for barely a second, 'it concerns me, and I think I earned at least a little of your good grace last night.'

'You did,' the angel admitted, grabbing onto her lover's waist.

The mayor's daughter brushed her aside, and went to leave, 'I have a lot to prepare for. Remember what I said. Be there, by one o'clock at the latest.'

Callisto tried not to let it bother her, as another one of her bed partners left abruptly. She chided herself, 'ugh, I should've used my God's Eye.' She then armoured herself, left the inn and flew up into the sky. Surveying the town, she detected the goblin cave, apparently teeming once again. That would be the dungeon core, she reasoned. With Silverton having taken in the population of every surrounding village, however, she knew that they weren't likely to have captured any human women so she felt free to leave it be for now. There were no orc raiding parties as far as she could tell but she now knew how swiftly they could arrive.

She decided to investigate the only other thing of note, a dark presence to the east, heading towards orc country. She tested a theory once she was within walking distance and lowered herself to the ground before bending the light around her. It made her invisible and would've made her blind except for her God's Eye. As stealthily as she could manage, she then crept up on what she soon discovered was a party of humans in hooded purple robes, flanked by skeletons carrying crude swords and shields. They were necromancers, none of them particularly strong, despite being barely out of their teens, each of them was a murderer at least, and much worse in some cases.

They were travelling to Agronak Xagreth, after having heard about Callisto's defeat of his advanced guard, knowing that he would be looking for recruits. They were also each hoping to ask a boon from him, specifically they each had a different girl, living in one Westerasen town or another, that they hoped to spare from the coming slaughter and be allowed to keep as a sex ****. That was more than enough for Callisto and she dispelled her invisibility, added a layer of hard light to her armour and confronted them. 'End of the line, boys, go home and confess your crimes to your lords or die by my hands, here and now.'

They were all startled by her, some more than others, but stood their ground. The leader, the eldest, though that wasn't saying much, spoke for them, 'you have littered these woods with corpses, my lady. I really think you've underestimated our power.'

'You mean you'll resurrect some of the people I slaughtered single-handed, many with missing limbs?'

That questions seemed to give some of them pause but simply made the leader angry. He barked, 'men,' to his skeletal soldiers, 'kill her!'

Before they could so much as ready their weapons, however, each of the nine skeletons was smashed to pieces. One of the necromancers began hastily attempting to reassemble and raise them, and the others began to cast spells in an eastward direction, likely calling upon goblin corpses to rise. Within moments, however, every necromancer had lost his head and Callisto had darted off to confront and defeat any undead goblins they had managed to call, which turned out to be all of three pitiful creatures. She struck them down and burned them on a pyre that she set alight with a wave of her hand, returning to do the same to the necromancers.

She whiled away the hours exploring the woods but there was very little to see. The only other human there was the woman who'd remained in the goblin cave, and she didn't particularly want to meet her for a second time, though she idly wondered whether the horrid little creatures would reward her for her loyalty or simply put her back to work in the breeding chamber. She did not linger too long on such thoughts, however, for the good of her mental health. There were other Light creatures in the woods, she knew, such as elves and gnomes, but they had gone into hiding and she did not want to disturb them.

The only half-way pleasant interaction she had was with a wandering satyr who bragged about having seduced half a hundred young men and women from Silverton over the course of his life but who was otherwise amiable. 'Are you not worried about orc raiders or goblins?' she'd asked, genuinely curious.

He'd been wiry but not without muscle and his gnarly black horns looked hard and battle worn. 'I am much stronger than a goblin and much faster than an orc,' he'd said with a smirk.

'Well, I will leave you to your business, then.'

'Not much business since Silverton swallowed up all peasants and closed its gates, to be honest.'

'Wouldn't they let you in?'

'They certainly would, they just wouldn't let me leave. I'm a wanted man on account of bumming the mayor's second son. Entirely consensual, I'll have you know, but his father prefers to think that I bewitched him. I suspect he blames himself, really, for taking the boy hunting when he obviously didn't want to go. You know the type, sensitive and soft, ran away in tears at the sight of a dying animal and right into my arms. Well, actually, he barrelled right into me, and we had a lovely tussle and tumble.'

Callisto had politely ended that story there but they had still parted as friends, or at least friendly acquaintances.

She returned to the town in good time and learned from the guards that, much to her amusement, Ariel's temple had been vandalised with 'pro-angel graffiti.' Navigating to the mayor's mansion was easy, on account of her time in the sky having given her a good notion of the layout of the town and she strode along at a leisurely pace. Having seen her laying on of hands, some passers by had taken to beseeching her to use her powers, often on children and pets, and she enjoyed the attention. Others asked to touch her feathers or even just her arms and she enjoyed that even more, strong evidence in her mind that she was the holy creature she dearly wished to be.

The mayor's mansion, which she learned was not public property but his own personal abode from before he'd even become mayor, was quite fancy and was decorated everywhere by the arms of his house, a golden man with out turned pockets on a field of purple. His guards, two ceremonial halberdiers, wore purple cloth and painted gold breastplates, and purple and gold bunting lined the garden. A number of servants collected her and took her straight to dinner.

She found it strange, that there were so few people at the dining table, just herself and the mayor's family, when there were so many guests in the garden, the ballroom and wandering the halls. The mayor, sitting at the head of the table, had explained, 'the kitchens will be serving food all through the night, so I'd prefer my guests had empty stomachs. Likely as not, all the men shall be bullied into eating very little by their twigs of wives, and half of it will go to the dogs, anyway.'

Callisto enjoyed being seated next to Morgan, who encouraged her smiles and brief touches here and there, but did not enjoy her food, feeling full despite having eaten nothing but one half of an apple the entire time she'd been in this world. She could feel her meals, first ham with lashings of bacon and a hearty portion of chips which she'd have loved in her past life, then a lemon meringue pie, being burned into nothingness in her stomach. She politely said, 'I do not need to eat, as an angel, but the food was excellently cooked.'

The mayor did not seem to mind, if he even understood what she'd said, and spent the afternoon buttering her up with compliments and thanks, encouraging his wife, his brother, his brother's wife, and his children to do the same. She basked in the praise but kept her face even and used the opportunity to activate her God's Eye on the second son. Whilst she'd rather not have experienced his cries of ecstasy from being taken up the arse by a goat man, she was thankful for the confirmation that her friend had been telling the truth. After that, they were led to the ballroom, where the vast majority of the guests had gathered, the great and good of the city, mostly merchants and aristocrats but with a few out-of-place seeming soldiers, in badly tailored suits, alongside their overeager wives.

The ballroom was very large, with perfectly square proportions and a mural on one of the walls, depicting a man at different stages of his life; a wealthy playboy, a beggar, a soldier, and wealthy man once again but this time surrounded by his family rather than by topless women. It was the story, supposedly, of the founder of the mayor's house a few centuries ago. Morgan told her so before wandering off to find someone she wanted her to meet. She brought back with her a well-dressed young man, with icy blue eyes, black hair and moustache, broad shoulders and a strong jawline.

Her heart sank. 'Callisto, I'd like you to meet my fiancé,' Morgan said, with a devilish smile.

She was stunned but instinctively shook the man's hand when it was offered.

'Sir James Alexander, pleased to meet you,' he offered, with a genuine smile, presumably unaware of his wife's infidelity or accepting of it. Her God's Eye told her it was the latter.

'Nice to meet you,' she replied, struggling to maintain an even tone. Angels don't cry, she told herself.

'Love, isn't that Percy Clever, over there? You should use this opportunity catch up with him,' Morgan suggested, but really ordered, to her husband with feigned urgency, before turning back to Callisto. 'I hope that wasn't too much of a shock for you. I couldn't really hold that off for the whole night.'

Callisto knew, with her God's Eye, that she expected Callisto to be upset and embarrassed but to remain outwardly calm, as an angel would. She'd trapped her, likely more than she even knew. 'I hadn't known you were engaged. I might not have,' she struggled to find the right words and to keep her composure, 'been with you, if I'd known.'

'Come on,' Morgan teased, 'we both know you were mad for me the second you laid eyes on me.' That much was true.

'Then why not tell me?'

'I needed you to have an incentive to come to dinner.'

'You only needed to ask.'

Morgan crossed her arms at that, 'really now? You're an angel with much more important things to do and a habit of disappearing for hours on end. My father wanted you here, and I got you here, by the only means available to me,' she then brought her voice down to a whisper, 'I have done it quite a lot, it's all business, no feeling, you see that woman?' she gestured to a gangly woman with yellow hair across the room who frantically waved upon noticing the attention, 'I ate her out one time and now she does whatever I tell her to.'

'That's cruel.'

'It's a cruel world, you should know that, given that time you came back from the woods with a herd of traumatised naked women, I do what I have to do to protect my father and his wealth, in turn, my own life and my own wealth. Today, that means getting you here to hear the favour he's going to ask of you.'

'You didn't want to wait until after he'd asked to break my heart?' Callisto was proud of herself for admitting her feelings without crumbling.

Morgan feigned heartache at that, 'don't be so dramatic, you're not some love drunk girl, you're an angel, which is exactly why you won't hold this against my father. Your noble nature will get the better of you.'

That was another trap, she realised. 'Will he expect you to please me if I accept?'

The redhead's eyes went wide at that, the first time Callisto had managed to say something she actually didn't expect. 'Well, of course, but I've had quite enough muff for a good long while, please and thank you. That trick with the dildo was fun, I'll grant you, but I'd prefer a cock that could actually give me babies.'

Callisto's lip flared at that, involuntarily, but she regained her composure quickly enough. 'Perhaps I should ask your father for a different kind of payment.'

'Oh, yeah?' Morgan returned back to looking cold and cocky.

'There's a satyr I met in the woods. It seems he was falsely accused of a crime and needs the charges dropped.'

'Don't you dare!' the redhead screeched, losing her cool however briefly and attracting attention she didn't want. She brought her voice back down to a whisper, 'the scandal's embarrassing enough as it is, without people knowing that Will's a pillow biter.'

'It does seem to be the noble thing, though, to clear the name of an innocent man, or half man as the case may be,' she offered, with a devilish smile of her own.

Morgan's bottom lip shook with anger but she gave in, 'fine, I'll give you another round, but I expect a good hard fuck, no stupid lesbian foreplay.'

'That's fine by me,' she replied, happy to have emerged from the awful encounter with the upper hand, though she realised she had obliged herself to do this favour, whatever it was, for the mayor.

The mural served as a backdrop for the mayor as he began his awkward halting speech, praising Callisto and encouraging his guests to clap for her. He was too far away for her God's Eye to tell her anything other than his sex and species, so she waited in anticipation for him to fumble his way to towards asking her for this boon. Eventually, he arrived at the point, 'as many of you know, the Archduke intends to put me on trial for corruption, thanks to salacious rumours he has heard from jealous men who shall go unnamed,' she remembered, then, how frivolous he seemed to be with money, 'but when he arrives, he will be in for quite a shock,' he smiled crudely, as if he had just told a joke, 'because I have requested a wager of battle, and I shall name as my champion the saviour of our great town, Callisto the Sunlight Angel!'

A roar went up from the crowd and she decided that she quite liked the epithet.

'That is, of course, if the lady agrees,' he continued, turning to her, along with the guests and the rest of his family, awkwardly standing around him.

Callisto fixed her gaze to Morgan, 'I will gladly fight for you, your worship. I believe very strongly in defending those who have been falsely accused.'

The mayor smiled at that, and another cheer went up from the crowd, but his daughter glared daggers at her. After that, the party began in earnest and she even accepted a few dances, unfortunately only being asked by men, though she assumed their were taboos against lesbianism, even if not so strong as those against man love. That tavern was presumably an exception, on the basis of its supreme seediness.

It made her a little nervous to learn that the duel was set for later that night and that she would not be permitted to use magic but she was buoyed by the mayor's unveiling of a finely crafted sword and set of armour for her, made in the likeness of her hard light construction, except with silver of steel and underlying strips of dark brown leather rather than the gleaming yellow of hardened sunlight. The sword did have a gorgeous amber on either side of the guard, however. Another sign of the mayor's indulgent spending habits.

She had few attendants and sunset was soon upon them. She was taken to the garden, where the tables and chairs had been cleared away, and got to see her opponent just moments before the duel began. Behind him were a large group of men she hadn't seen at the ball, likely the Archduke and whoever he'd brought with him. Her God's Eye told her that her opponent was a forty year old man, a knight who'd spent his youth as an adventurer, even once slaying a great monster with his lance. He was humourless, with a keen sense of justice. He truly believed that the mayor was guilty of the crimes he was accused of and she had to admit that he was probably right.

She decided not to use her God's Eye during the actual duel, out of respect, though she assumed that no one would be able to tell. She knew that she had a strength and speed advantage, even without her powers, owing to her angelic form, but that he had far more experience, especially in actual sword-to-sword duels. He also wore a helmet, which drew her attention to the fact that she hadn't been given one. The mayor must really have believed in her abilities, or believed that she would cheat.

One of the Archduke's attendants announced the bout, 'on the charge of corruption, a trial by battle shall be held. Sir Godwin of the Red Rose stands for the accuser, Archduke Dietrich VI Tür of Westerasen. Callisto the Sunlight Angel stands for the accused, Sir Merton Penniless of Silverton. They shall fight without the use of magic. The accuser and the accused and each of their respective champions may yield at any time, ending the duel. Otherwise, the duel shall be fought to the ****.'

From the little trip she'd taken inside his mind, Callisto knew that Godwin would not yield, and she steeled herself. Soon after, a few more words were said and the fight was on. Godwin came at her with a mighty overhead swing and she batted his sword away, giving him just the smallest taste of her strength. He did not overcommit, however, and backed away safely. Having devised a new strategy, he fought more defensively from then on, hoping her eagerness and strength would make her cocky. In reality, she was probably much more nervous than he was and spent the next few minutes keeping herself mobile and testing his defences.

She had tuned out the crowd and suspected he had as well, so their shouting and hollering formed little more than a background hum. She knew exactly how she would win but she didn't know how precisely to manoeuvre herself into position. The continuous clashing of steel rang around for many more minutes as they each parried one another with ease, keeping their guards short. She eventually realised that she would need to give him an opening and made a few of her blocks feel weak. Then, without knowing whether he'd fallen for it, she came in too close.

He took the bait and hammered her with a headbutt. It hurt like hell but she stood her ground, exploiting the closeness to get her free arm around his neck. With one almighty throw, she took him over her hip and down to the ground, keeping her sword as flush against his as she could. The impact of his back hitting the ground knocked the wind out him and she pinned his sword arm with her knee, before slipping the tip of her sword beneath his helmet. 'Yield!'

Her command was directed much more at the Archduke, but neither man said a word. After just a moment's hesitation, she plunged her weapon through his neck. The noise from the crowd grew louder and she got herself to her feet. She did not wait around to be congratulated, too disgusted with herself, and just strode up to Morgan.

The redhead tried to look proud and said, 'let's get this over with, shall we?'

The comment would aggrieve her later on but, for now, Callisto paid it no mind and simply gripped her arm tightly, letting her claws dig in. She dragged the woman, who tried to save face by laughing, up to her bedroom. Not bothering to remove her armour, or even have much of a look around, Callisto threw her to bed and conjured the dildo she'd loved so much. 'You want it hard, yeah?'

'Wait!' she screeched, still giggling, but, soon enough, her dress had been torn away and the construct was six inches deep in her cunt. She squealed and squirmed and cursed but Callisto simply grabbed a firm hold of her hips and railed her. It took a while but Morgan's protests eventually gave way to more erotic moans as the hard light slid against her walls with greater ease. 'Fuck! Oh, fuck, don't stop,' she groaned with greedy lust, 'don't stop, don't stop.'

It lasted a long while and after her third orgasm, Callisto relented, pulling herself away and vanishing the toy between her legs. She sat on the edge of the bed for a while, as her sweaty mess of a sex partner continued to quiver and groan, masturbating with lazy delight. 'That was wrong of me,' she finally managed to say.

'No, no, no,' Morgan replied, causing her to look down at the girl and notice the dramatic change in her demeanour, 'you only took what you were owed. I feel like such a bitch for playing with your feelings.'

The angel began to cry, intuiting what had happened. Her monster core had caused Morgan to fall in love with her. It didn't happen after their first night together because that hadn't counted as a defeat. Whatever had happened over the past hour, however, apparently did count.

'Hey,' the beautiful red haired woman said, scrambling up to comfort her, draping an arm around shoulders, 'don't cry, baby. It's my fault for confusing you. I promise I won't do it again. If you want to be with me, I'll call off my engagement.'

That only made it hurt worse. She could ruin this woman's life if she wanted to, she realised with horror. 'Tell me, truthfully, what would happen to you if you called off your engagement.'

'Well, I,' Morgan seemed to struggle with what she realised she had to say, 'obviously, my father would take me out his will. I'd be a social pariah, though the commoners quite like you, so maybe they'd extend me some grace. I'd lose James, of course, and that would be hard, but you're worth that pain.'

'I'm not.'

'Babe.'

'Don't leave your fiancé for me. Don't forsake your inheritance. I,' Callisto said, shaking, 'God, I don't want to cause anyone that much pain.' But she had, she realised. All she could do was cause pain.

'But I love you.'

Fuck. 'You shouldn't. Focus on your love for James, and your love for your father. Let your feelings for me fade.' Before Morgan could protest, she left, only stopping to be awkwardly glad-handed by the mayor before fleeing the mansion and heading to her domain, to try to get some sleep. It did not come easily to her, however, so she decided to exhaust herself, using the key and venturing to another prison. Using her hard light only to affix the key to her armour, Callisto focused on the physical challenge of slaying demons without using her powers. It was hard-going and by the end of it she was covered in cuts and bruises but between her ability to fly, her skill as a knight and her superior psychical form, she managed to clear the place out.

Mercifully tired, she transported herself back to her domain, only to be greeted Melanoche. The goddess was lingering by her bed, pretending to admire the covers.

'Good evening.'

The Dark Sister turned to her, feigning shock, 'oh, hey, look who finally got bored of showering in demon blood.'

'I had a lot of stress to work out.'

'You know you didn't actually **** that girl, right?'

'She didn't want to have sex, and I **** her to.'

'No, she agreed to have sex and you gave her exactly the kind of good hard fuck she asked for.'

Callisto rolled her eyes at that, 'she fell in love with me because I defeated her. That means I **** her.'

'And Tandy fell in love with you because you made her horny during a wrestling match. Defeat is a pretty nebulous category. Nebulous and ill-defined powers are our bread and butter.'

'It's wrong either way, forcing someone to love you.'

'It's just chemicals in a monkey's brain, it really isn't that deep. But, hey, by all means, drive yourself crazy over this. You've got a beast inside you and he's coming out one way or another. You can give yourself an aneurysm trying to suppress it, or you can let yourself have the slightest bit of fun.'

'If it's going to happen either way,' Callisto started, realising that she believed herself, 'then why do you care?'

'My sister and I put a lot of work into you, and just saw today what you can do even when you aren't using your powers. You're an investment and the sooner we start to see a return, the better. If you wallow in self-pity and try to close yourself off, you could be wandering around for years before you finally snapped. On the other hand, you could do what we both want.'

'Both? You and her, or you and me?'

'Me and you. You should try to be the best person you can be. Use your powers for good, pet the dogs, save all the little babies, and eat all the enthusiastic consent safe sex true love pussy you want. If you do that, maybe you'll prove me wrong. If I'm right, though, and I really am right, the world will spit on you. You'll do all these amazing things and the Light side will fuck you over like you wouldn't believe. You know that Ariel's already been blabbing about you to anyone who'll listen?'

Callisto exhaled, shakily, at that, 'I thought he was on my side.'

'The only person on your side is me. He knows you're a monster and now his heroes know it too. Once you've slayed the Demon King, and honestly I doubt it will be hard for you, they'll hunt you down and try to kill you. Then, you'll let him out, and I'll have the Dark Champion I've always wanted.'

At that Carnachias popped into existence and Callisto couldn't help but notice her large barely covered breasts jiggle with the sudden motion.

'And then she'll have to suck your dick!'

Melanoche glared at her sister, who left as abruptly as she'd arrived. Callisto decided to press her, 'are you not concerned about that? If I defeat the heroes, you'll have to marry me.'

She rolled her eyes at that, 'okay, first of all, I know you're trying to repress your memories but the deal actually was that I'd be your ****. I'm not going to be the cutesy girlfriend swapping spit with you that I know you've dreamed about. Second, it's not happening because unlike the mortals, whether or not I consent actually does matter. Anyway, this is getting aggravating, so I'm going to leave. Think about what I said, it'll happen to you. It's happening right now to someone else, there's a guy just like you who's done everything right, suppressed all his dark urges, and I've a hell of a rude awakening in store for him. Very soon, he'll be **** and killing like there's no tomorrow.'

Before she could respond, Callisto's unwelcome guest had vanished, leaving her to stew. Some of what she'd said had made sense. She was really angry that Ariel had been poisoning people against her but she couldn't shake the feeling that she deserved it. It was unlikely that the goddess was being entirely truthful, however. She could certainly feel the beast grow in strength alongside her. A decision had to be made, and the sooner the better. Either she should use her powers and let her angelic form evolve, and risk the beast getting stronger and stronger, or she should let herself waste away and starve the beast out.

An idea struck her, then, and she left her domain, after dropping off her equipment. In the dead of night, she tore into the sky and flew. She flew and flew and flew ever higher. Cloaking herself in hard light, she breached the atmosphere. Then, after taking one look back to observe the brilliant blue and green orb she'd emerged from, that she realised was a hell of a lot bigger than she'd assumed, its continents and the ugly purple scar that pulsed with dark energy near the equator, she directed herself to the sun. Shielding her eyes by blending light she blinked forward, crossing hundreds of miles in seconds.

Feeling her mana reserves begin to drain, she activated her final form. She didn't get to see it with her eyes but she knew that it was beautiful, four winged with shimmering golden skin. In that form, encased in hardened light, she was able to plunge herself into the sun. She raged against the overwhelming pressure and the beast roared with her, breaking its shackles through agonised thrashing. For as long as she could, likely only a few seconds that merely felt like an eternity, she held on. She centred herself, blocking out the pain as much as possible and calling on her angelic protection for emergency reserves of mana but it wasn't enough.

Her armour shattered, right over above her heart, and she was vaporised.