Chapter 2-48

We had almost passed into Clan Ket’s territory when there was a sudden disruption to our plans. With Myta and Sati’s help I had managed to reforge both my core and throat nodes, stemming the worst of the damage to my spirit, and allowing me to work minor sorcery without strain. The progress wasn’t as fast as I’d hoped, but I was still in a fantastic mood, which made the sudden wave of fear that I experienced that much more jarring.

I scanned the area with both my eyes and my spiritual sight, looking for the source of my sudden discomfiture. Myta was already having our scouts spread out further to sweep the area, and bringing the company to high alert. I myself couldn’t pin down the source of my unease, however. The only thing that seemed out of place was a sort of shadow at the fringes of my spiritual perception. A ripple in the ambient mana, even more subtle than what would be caused by a ward.

“What is out in that direction?” I asked Riona, who had interrupted her instruction at my sudden look of alarm. “Perhaps a few miles away? I’m not entirely sure.”

“Nothing, as far as I’m aware.” She answered with a concerned expression on her face. “We haven’t quite entered Ket’s territory yet, so my knowledge isn’t complete, but there are at least no settlements there, or any of the more well-known landmarks.”

“A ruin.” Oistin Math, our guest from Clan Math spoke up. “Not large or famous, but exactly where you said.”

“Is this Clan Math lands then?”

Oistin nodded in answer to my question. His thick neck and shoulders giving the impression of a mountain peak tipping over.

“We need to investigate it,” I stated firmly, but then I paused, unsure. “I’m not sure where that certainty comes from, but I have a great feeling of danger. It’s possible that I just sensed the ruin and it set my teeth on edge.”

“No,” I knew Oistin was a smith, and he seemed to **** out words with the same forceful deliberation he might use when forging a complex weapon. “We’ve passed by four ruins, and the others were closer.”

“So it’s something about this particular ruin that set you off.” Riona shot Oistin an annoyed glance, to which he just shrugged in response. Apparently he’d felt that conclusion was so obvious it didn’t need to be stated. “We can investigate, as long as we’re respectful of Math’s territory. It’s what the clans welcomed you here for, after all.”

“Should we send a message to UnMath?” I looked around at my companions, but Oistin waved away my question like an annoying fly, and Riona just looked confused. It was Siobhan, approaching alongside Myta, who gave me a real answer.

“Clan territories aren’t like the political borders you’re used to.” Apparently my flame had already appraised the clan chief of our situation and conversation. “As long as we don’t overstep far enough to hurt their settlements there’s no issue. But we still want to send a message, in case something goes wrong.”

“Math knows,” it was my turn to give Oistin an annoyed look. I well knew that the druids could easily share information between them, and I guessed that they did so through the clan’s elder, but he could have already mentioned it. I wasn’t sure if he meant that the spirit knew, or Clan Math already knew, but it didn’t matter. For all intents and purposes we had approval to investigate.

“We’ll continue on,” Myta said. “I wish now that I hadn’t put the scouts on alert, but if there are Pure operating from those ruins, then we don’t want to give ourselves away. We’ll set up camp at a normal time this evening, and have the scouts check it out in stealth.”

I nodded in assent, and them looked to Oistin once again. “What does this ruin look like?”

“A big stone box,” the druid replied. “Gray, with no openings.”

“It’s as invulnerable as any of the other ancient ruins, but scarred on the outside? Like someone took a sword to a tree trunk?” I felt a sinking in my gut, hoping he would contradict me. “Nearly as tall as the redwoods around it, but none grow too close?”

“Aye. You know it?”

I found myself short of breath, and I slowly flexed my fingers to ease them as I drew in a deep sigh. “Maybe,” I coughed. “It would be extremely foolish, but that matches the place they used before. If it is the same ruin, we won’t be able to get inside here. Not unless they open it from within.”

“More tunnels?” Myta asked, and I nodded reluctantly.

***

We did as Myta had said, traveling until evening, though at a relaxed pace, and then making camp. The aching in my hands had faded, though I couldn’t help focusing my mana around them, looking for flaws in the bones. It was an old habit, one I thought I’d shed, but here it was floating to the surface of my mind like a dead fish in a lake.

As soon as camp was set, Myta and Sati grabbed me and pulled me inside. I wasn’t sure when they had coordinated it, but Myta occupied me with a sudden, passionate kiss, while Sati worked to get me undressed.

“Don’t you need to get the company organized?” My protest was halfhearted. The truth was I craved the contact right now, to muffle my memories.

“I took care of that already,” my flame dismissed my concern. “The scouts have their orders, and Hati is handling the camp. I told them we were not to be disturbed unless the sky was falling.”

She nipped my collarbone, trying to get a rise out of me, to get my blood up and chase away the dark cobwebs of my past. But that wasn’t what I needed, and I pulled her tight against me, straining my arms just to squeeze her closer. I sighed, breathing in her scent as I consciously relaxed my tense neck and shoulders.

Myta smiled a sly smile, like she knew a secret she wanted to share. “We could try that experiment now, master. I know you’ve been thinking about it. Would that take your mind off of things?”

We hadn’t expressly talked about it, but our thoughts were so closely entwined at this point that I’d be shocked if she hadn’t picked up on my little daydream. Even so, Sati was not as closely linked to us.

“Little flower, I want to use your influence, and see if I can turn it on Myta in our domain. Would you be alright with that? It’s an experiment, so there might be unintended consequences, but I’m confident that it can be controlled.”

“Controlled?!” Sati jerked as though I’d slapped her. With as painful an issue as it was for her I wasn’t surprised.

“Yes, I think in our domain I can control your aura of lust. If I’m right then you can also learn to do so. If I’m wrong, then we go in knowing the consequences, as we talked about.”

Not for the first time, I felt the apsara soak in her mixture of anxiety and desire. I knew she was **** to get a handle on that aspect of her power despite, or more accurately because of, how she feared it. After a short internal truggle she nodded.

“I trust you, daddy.” Her voice was breathy and small. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

“Just relax sweetheart, and let me guide you.” I smiled as I called our domain, across a larger area than we’d been using. This time I covered the entire tent, a larger space than I’d attempted since my spirit had been damaged. It came easily, as though our souls were eager to join.

Myta was impatient and needy, but she sighed in visceral satisfaction as our presences merged. She was concerned for me, to be sure, but our desires had been pushed aside by the practical needs of healing my spirit and our travel. She wanted this release as much for herself as for me. I grabbed her wrists, pinning them behind her back, tying them with a cord that I summoned to hand.

“Please, master.” She panted a little as I bound her, wanting me to be rougher, more forceful. But I wanted to indulge myself with her more softly and carefully, so she fell gently as I pushed her over onto the tent’s floor.

Being inside the domain gave me nearly as much control as I had in my own inner world. But withIn the domain I controlled physical reality, consuming mana to enact my will. If another awakened being were to oppose me here, the effort would be much greater, but my will was my vas’ will. With only them here, the world was my playground.

So it was that Myta had a cushioned landing, even as she found herself held helplessly on the ground. The rope that held her wrists kept her pinned to the cloth floor of the tent, and she squirmed, trying to climb to her knees.

I turned to Sati, pretending to ignore my flame for the moment. I could still perceive her every motion, but the illusion of disregard enhanced her feelings of helplessness. Instead of actively restraining her, I gave my focus to the apsara.

“The lust you produce,” I said to the former princess, “is caused by the belief of others. It infects your mana and sorcery, and the closer you are to the Radiant Sea the stronger the effect will be. You can’t ever entirely stop it, not without ending the rumors and myths about the apsaras, or cutting yourself off from the sea.

“Calm down, little flower.” I made my voice firm, to cut off the fear I saw rising in Sati’s eyes. “I said it can’t be stopped, but it can be controlled and directed, blunted or enhanced. Just trying to cut it off will backfire for you, instead you must harness it.”

“Tell me how, daddy.” Her eyes were clear and focused, and I nodded in approval.

“Good girl,” I drew on her mana, drinking it in and ‘tasting’ it, for want of a better word. All sorcerers learned the basics of this skill, but Riona had pushed my understanding to a new level in the pursuit of understanding runes.

Sati’s aspect of dreams was complex, some of it inherited from her father, and some of it expanded and developed on her own. I could spend years trying to understand it, but I had no real need for such a deep insight. Dreams were a gateway to the deep and hidden desires of the heart, and lust was one such desire. I narrowed my search, and easily found the place where her aspect resonated with a greater concept in the Radiant Sea.

This, I had realized, was the power of a god. When enough people believed a thing, the sea moved to their combined will, working to make that thing a reality. It empowered, but it also shaped and restricted. I could feel the hazy concepts of lust that wormed their into Sati’s mana, a slurry of half formed and often contradictory preconceptions that made me smile. The legends of the apsaras apparently weren’t terribly consistent, and so they should be easy to manipulate.

I spun out a thread of Sati’s mana, feeding it into Myta with my firm intention. As icons of lust, the apsara were known to inspire it in all those around them, and also to reveal the deepest desires of the heart. With a low groan, Myta arched her whole body as her body flushed, straining at her bonds.

“Myta enjoys being made helpless. You can feel that now, can’t you?” I ignored the writhing of my warrior, acting as though she were part of the scenery as I held the gaze of my darker-skinned vas. “She loves having the responsibility of having choices, making decisions, stripped away. I know that she also enjoys taking charge of you, so you may not have seen this side of her before.”

“I… I can feel it, daddy.” Sati stammered. “And no, I haven’t seen her like this.”

“I’ll ramp her up slowly. See how high her desires can climb. She won’t get an ounce of satisfaction until I’m finished with her.”

I finally turned back to Myta, dropping to my knees beside her. Gently I stroked her pale gray skin, tracing lines in the sweat that already beaded on her neck and chest. She pressed her face to my hand, kissing my palm, and I smiled at her eager affection.

“It’s going to be a long evening.” I muttered, almost to myself. I could already taste cinnamon in the air from my first vas’ rising desire. “You’ve asked to be my toy, my love. So I’m going to play.”