, But She Is Making Progress.

Trigger Warning: This chapter involves brief descriptions of ****.

Fae frowns as she starts to rub a scar on her chest between her breasts. Looking at the scar you can see it is faded more than most of the other scars are.

"This scar was the first time my master cut me" she says still rubbing it. Your jaw drops as you realize that all of these scars are permanent reminders of what she endured. The thought is utterly horrific to you. Visual representations of pain and ****, and each time she sees them or feels them she'd remember what she had suffered.

"Sometimes he would loan me to one of his friends, or relatives, or someone he was doing business with. When I returned he would make me drink a healing potion, so that only the scars he gave me would be visible. They are all on my torso so only people using me could see them" she says looking up at you with a slight smile. You tilt your head confused by her smile.

"I have been afraid of men. All of them. Guests he entertained, family who came to visit, his servants...even his other slaves. All of them wanted only one thing from me. To use and hurt me. Women were the only ones who seemed to show me any empathy at all. Not that some of them weren't cruel as well, but they had other reasons for their cruelty. Reasons I could mostly avoid if I tried. There was a time where just hearing a man's voice would make me shake in fear, but...showing my fear only seemed to make it worse. So I learned to hide my fear. You are curious how I could have a smile on my face remembering such things, are you not" she asks you.

"That is all truly horrific Fae, and I'm so sorry you have endured that, but that is why your smile confuses me yes" you tell her.

"The sudden halt of the caravan as loud noises rang out. Yelling, screaming, the sound of combat, and ****. I didn't know what was happening. Someone attacking the caravan to free slaves was not something I could have even imagined was even a thing that existed. I thought a new master had just shown up to take us for themselves...but instead you entered the wagon I was in...and you freed me. You were so gentle. The first man I didn't immediately fear. I still don't know why, but you weren't causing me fear then or now. I followed you around. Trying to figure out why and if it was all just an elaborate trick, but you never showed anything other than compassion and empathy...for all of us. Even now there is part of me that feels that this is still a trick, but my instincts tell me I can trust you instead of fear you" she replies, but you are still confused.

"I'm experiencing feelings I thought I'd never feel for a man. Like lust. Like desire. They make me curious to know more" she explains holding your hand a little tighter "I am smiling because even after I've endured what I've endured...all I can think about when I noticed my scars just now...is that the one man making me feel this way, and who feels the same for me I believe...doesn't seem bothered by them, and now all I can think about when I run my finger over a scar...is you" she says smiling sweetly at you. Her smile fades as you both stare into each other's eyes. You realize you are both slowly leaning closer to each other. You can see her start to look down at your lips when you get closer.

You look down at her lips for a moment. They are slightly parted showing she is ready to kiss. You think about pulling away right now not to rush things with her, but you remember what Yvette told you about Fae. Pulling away could seriously harm her new found confidence, but all thoughts leave your mind as your lips touch. The kiss is gentle and slow. Your tongues search for each other at the same time, and it starts to become sensual as Fae's hands start to rub up and down your back. You return the gesture and rub her back. You can feel her scars with your fingers. Gently you start to run your fingers along her scars. Fae hums her approval as she starts to get more aggressive with her kiss. In the back of your mind you start to hear giggles...laughing...moans. It confuses you, but your main focus remains on the kiss.

As the kiss becomes more intense the familiar noise becomes louder and louder until it is all you can hear, and you both pull away from each other. You can vaguely hear Fae saying something, but the noise is too loud to hear what it was. Your vision is clouded by a bright golden light obscuring everything. You can feel Fae holding your hand tightly, and the golden light fades enough for you to see Fae again. Her eyes appear to be glowing a bright gold light. Instinctively you reach your other hand forward, and you place your hand against her chest. Fae tenses up for a moment, but the glow in her eyes fades slight, and you see that she can see you again. She smiles as she closes her eyes, and she gently places her hand over your hand. Your vision is obscured again by the bright golden light.

"Our Love...our Champion...We have watched you with great interest" you hear a familiar voice tell you. The voice was a mixture of the same combination of giggles, laughing, and moans you had heard when you helped Nadine.

"We wish to grant a boon for helping us reach your lover, and for the love you create where ever you go, and even in those we thought incapable of love. We wish to do more, but our ability to manipulate your world is limited. We don't know when or where, but we wish to meet you. For now, however, we shall help another of your lovers" the voice tells you. It suddenly feels like you just fell into your seat as you can see normally again, and you look at Fae. She is encased in a slight golden glow of light. She has her eyes closed, and a pleased smile on her face. Both of her hands hold your hand to her chest. Your eyes go wide in shock as you see her scars individually start to glow bright gold. One after the other lights up brightly making her torso almost fully bathed in a bright golden light, and as the light fades from each one you see that the scars are gone. Fae slowly opens her eyes as the glow surrounding her fades away. She grins as she looks down at her body to see all of her scars are gone, and then she looks up into your eyes again. You don't have to have any help from anyone to tell you what her look means. She let's your hand go, and you both immediately hug each other. You are still surprised, but the hug feels too nice to not focus on hugging her back. She snuggles against you, and you squeeze her tighter. You could honestly enjoy this hug for the rest of the night, but Fae pushes away from you smiling coyly at you.

"They spoke to me. It was so beautiful, but they made me promise not to tell you what they told me yet. They called me your lover" she says smirking at you. Your eyebrows raise up and your mouth opens slightly.

"You could hear that" you ask her.

"I could, though I don't know who it was" she replies giggling.

"Um yah...they did call you my lover, and it isn't so much a who as it is a what" you explain "I think at least. I definitely don't understand it fully, but it was...um...Love. Love is alive...or somehow sentient at least, and this isn't the first time Love has helped me...or I should say helped me help someone I love" you add.

"And Love called me your lover" she says again smiling brightly.

"Yah...I know...they did. I guess they feel two people sharing love with each other is what they consider lovers maybe, or they can tell what's going to happen" you reply shyly, and you can feel a little blush.

"That means you...you love me" she asks. You close your eyes to examine the bond between you and Fae, and though it should be surprising, you aren't really surprised to see a faint connection flowing both ways between the two of you, and you can already see it growing. You open your eyes and smile gently at her.

"I do love you. Yes. I wasn't expecting to love you so quickly, but...I do tend to fall in love quickly. There is a bond of love between us. It is growing even now. Do you want to feel it" you ask her. She nods her head excitedly making you smile.

"Alright. Close your eyes" you tell her as you take her hands in yours, and she quickly closes her eyes "focus on thinking about me, and see me in your mind as I am right now. Sitting in front of you. Holding your hands. Loving you. Feel the love you have for me. Feel how soothing and exciting it is. Imagine a string between the two of us. Connecting us. Imagine the love for me traveling down that string into me. Next imagine I have the same love for you, and that my love is flowing into you through that string. The string is a bond between us. A real bond that you can feel the flow of our love for each other. Try to focus on that bond between us" you tell her. You can see her closed eyes darting around, and her eyebrows furrow for a moment until they slowly raise up, and her mouth drops open.

"Can you feel it" you ask her "It isn't very big yet, but it is there" you tell her.

"I...I can feel it...I can see it flowing between us...I can see the bonds you have with the others flowing off towards them" she says smiling brightly. Now it was your turn to be surprised. Being able to see the bonds meant she did indeed have magical abilities. "It's amazing...it feels so amazing" she says softly.

"Open your eyes now. Don't stare for too long. You can lose yourself looking at love" you warn her, and her eyes open immediately to stare into your eyes. Tears streak down her cheeks as you smile back at her, and the two of you just stare into each others eyes for a long time.

"I...I never thought...I didn't think I'd ever" she finally says breaking the silence.

"Find someone you could love, and be loved in return by that person" you say to finish her thought. She nods her head.

"Yah" she simply replies with a sniff of her nose.

"Love, in my experience, is almost unstoppable. Maybe it is unstoppable entirely. It can overcome obstacles it shouldn't be capable of doing, though sometimes it does need some help" you explain as you remember how you were a conduit for love for Dawn and Nadine "it is separate from magic, but feels almost the same. If you are capable of using magic, which I'm quite sure you are at this point, I will explain the differences between them, and the similarities, at another time. At least as much as I know about them, which admittedly is not a lot. For now though, just accept it. Let it grow. Bask in the happiness it gives to you, and enjoy the idea that it is doing the exact same thing for me. These feelings are exactly why I want to free all slaves. Everyone deserves the chance to find love, and slavery, while abhorrent for many reasons, is cutting people off from finding what we just found together. I have to try to remove slavery so there will be more love in this world" you continue explaining.

"I understand now. I didn't before. I couldn't imagine why someone like you, with so much to lose if things went badly, would risk it all for other people you didn't even know existed. If you hadn't, and just kept to yourselves, I never would have found love, and now that I have found it...it makes me want to help you so other people, people I don't know exist yet, can also find it. I make my vow to you, my love, that I will help you succeed in this mission. However I can I will help you accomplish eliminating slavery" she tells you sounding more confident then you've heard her be so far. She lifts your hands up, and she gently kisses each of your hands before she pulls you into a hug. You wrap your arms around her, and you stare into each other's eyes briefly before she raises up to press her lips to yours. The kiss is soothing and gentle, something only lovers can experience, and like the rest of the women you love you could spend the rest of your life kissing her like this. Fae suddenly pulls away from you, and you can see her breathing heavier then before.

"You should go to your women now. I am sure they are very eager for you to join them. I could see through the bond that they are all in one room together already. I do have a question for you though" she tells you, and you wait for her to ask her question.

"When I come to you, and I am ready to make love to you, will you be ready to make love to me" she asks sounding worried about what you might say, but you both look down to see your hard cock twitching and flexing in your pants. Fae giggles as you nervously chuckle, and she looks back up to hear what you will say.

"I will be ready, and we will make our first time together something we both remember fondly. I will promise you that" you tell her as you reach up and cup her cheek in your hand. She smiles warmly at your answer, and quickly leans forward to give you a peck on the lips.

"Now you should go I think. I have a lot to think about, and a lot to prepare for, and you have a lot of women waiting for you to make love to them" she says smiling cutely at you. You can see she is blushing, but she also seems excited. You nod your head and stand up from the bed. You hold onto one of her hands, and you lift it up and lean down to gently kiss the back of her hand.

"Until we meet again then Fae. You will most definitely be in my thoughts until then" you tell her as you let her hand go.

"Will I be naked in your thoughts too" she asks smirking at you.

"If you weren't already, then you will be now" you reply chuckling "oh, and on the topic of when we first make love. Do you know the spell of pleasure on your collar" you ask her. She nods her head shyly. "I know how to cast that on anyone I want to. Collar or no collar" you tell her, and you send just a tinge of magic through the spell into Fae. Her eyes go wide, and she let's out a quiet moan as her hand travels down between her legs. She looks up at you trying to figure out if you just used the spell, so you wink at her with a grin.

"It can get a lot more powerful than that. See you soon Fae. You can count on that" you tell her as you walk towards her door.

"Y-Yah...we definitely will be seeing each other soon" she tells you as you get to the door. You reach forward to open the door, and before you touch the wall the door slides open for you. You shake your head as you chuckle to yourself knowing that Dawn had indeed been in control of the door. Both before and right now. You walk out into the hallway, and you turn to look at Fae one last time. She smiles out at you and waves, and then the door shuts blocking your view of her.

"You know...one of these days I'm going to figure out how to repay you for all these traps you set for me" you say still staring at the door.

"Whatever do you mean" you hear Dawn reply behind you. You turn to smirk at her, and she is smirking right back at you. "Do you mean the door not opening? That was just me updating the system a little bit. Surely I mentioned it to you and you just forgot" she says smiling almost wickedly.

"That must be it then. How forgetful of me" you reply playing along with her.

"It is ok, we all forget things from time to time, but we do not have time to discuss your forgetfulness. The others are requesting your presence immediately" she tells you gesturing for you to follow her "I would hold your hand as we walk together, but my physical form is...mmm...indisposed at the moment" she purrs at you making you chuckle, but you quickly start to follow her. You remember something you wanted to ask her though, and you stop walking. Dawn turns around to look at you confused as to why you have stopped.

"I have an important question to ask you. Hopefully I can word it properly. It is about Fae. She told me that she figured out how to use magic to" you start to tell her.

"To light a candle with her finger. I was listening" she interrupts you "You are wondering if that makes her intuitive like you" Dawn asks. You smirk and nod your head.

"From the history of magic use in my library and databases, there have only been three magic users who had to learn spells from books or other magic users teaching it to them, by that I mean they were not intuitive, and they were able to innately figure out how to cast a very minor spell. It is incredibly rare for it to happen, but it has been recorded to have happened. However, most, or maybe all, of the intuitive magic users, like yourself, have figured out some sort of magic spell on their own. Usually because they needed something, so in Fae's case, she needed light. It is not certain yet, but I would definitely lean more towards her being intuitive than not. We will just have to wait and see once you remove her collar so that she can use and learn magic again. Then we can see if you can teach her to intuitively learn a spell, perhaps from a rune would be easiest, or if Nadine or myself will be required to teach her spells" Dawn tells you. You scratch the back of your head as you think about it.

"Tomorrow then my priority will be to remove her collar. First thing after breakfast I should think. If she is intuitive, she could possibly be an incredibly important ally for us. I suppose regardless of whether she is intuitive or not she can still be a powerful ally for us, and I just want to figure out how to remove those collars for anyone who wishes it" you state, and you smirk "and since I am suddenly so forgetful please remind me tomorrow" you tell Dawn. She giggles and nods her head, and the two of you head to Annabel's room. Dawn phases away when you are in front of the door. You take a deep breath and release it slowly, and you press the wall to open the door. The door slides open quickly, and your eyes go wide as a smile slowly spreads across your face.