Catching Up With Consequences

(News Note: Chapter 15 has been edited and altered to include a sex scene with other content removed.)

As demi-mortal beings that were magical by nature and more attuned to the currents of mana than any human, elves did not need enchantments or magitech devices to draw power from the attention of the gods above and below placed upon Beauty and Emotion. Elves, dragons, and other entities that were more magic than matter could taste the emotions of other beings, bask in the psychic energies that radiated from feeling, thinking, creatures. Some of the more cynical and bigoted members of the human and gnome communities thought of elves as parasitic creatures that consumed the souls of the races they deemed lesser than themselves, which was to say, everyone who was not an elf or a dragon. This was ridiculous of course, elves no more drained people and monsters than plants drained the sun when growing under its light. The elves reminded these critics that they merely do naturally what humans and gnomes have to imitate with enchanted items or works of technosorcery.

Titania had never enjoyed a feast of feelings quite like her experience with the twin human slaves Chloe and Zoe of Stoneford. The two blonde haired blue eyed girls had been making endsmeat working as street performers. The pair had been trained as contortionists and acrobats and been **** to show off their skills to travelling merchant caravans for their loose change. When Titania had commanded the duo to "show me what you got." the elf ranger was not expecting the pair to both drop into a full split, twist their legs around, and pull themselves onto their feet without the use of their hands in unison. "Oh wow." said Titania as she had to grab onto the girls to steady herself by the surprising quantity of divine energies these two were generating.

Titania had expected that as slaves, the twins would generate more prayer power than a typical human of their level, she was not expecting just how much power their prayers would generate. Everyone knew that a being bound by The **** Codes produces double and double again the power as that same being produces freed, but to Titania's reckoning, the power coming from the human slaves was doubled that, then doubled another time. "You are..." Titania started to say before she licked Zoe's ear. "...amazing." Titania said into Chloe's ear before licking it. Chloe felt the elf ranger's tongue toying with her earlobe before she was asked. "I never imagined that people could actually become slaves. What is it like, being a ****? Do you find it fulfilling?"

"Not really, good mistress." answered Chloe, relieved to finally have the opportunity to be honest. "It is different for us than it is for monsters. It has its bright sides, but no, it is not fulfilling."
"What is it like?" Titania's voice was saturated with curiosity.
"It is like, there is someone else living inside of your head, they watch and listen to everything you do, say, and think. They tell you what to do, and if you do not do it, they take over your body and do it for you while they punish you with your own feelings.
"The thing is though, if you just stop thinking and let yourself do whatever your internal overseer says, you feel really good. Like, you just turn yourself off and let your mind float away on a cloud of pure joy if you can ignore what the thing living inside you is doing with your body." said Chloe.

"But." said Titania, trying to choose her words carefully. "There is Salvation, right? You don't have to worry about the fate of your immortal soul. 'No one who serves a life in bondage shall know damnation.' and 'All slaves shall be free to know The Heavens' bounty.' You can go through life knowing that paradise awaits you with the only thing you have to worry about is following orders."

"Yeah, the voice keeps reminding us about that." said Zoe. "And if you are a monster that does not have its own soul or conscience, the bindings probably feel more natural. But we were not bad people. Neither of us was perfect, but I never worried about my soul being in jeopardy. So afterlife-wise, we wind up in the same place, only now we get there without having the opportunity at a life."

Titania bit her lip to stop it from quivering. As powerful and nourishing as these girls' feelings were to feed upon, Titania could not help but feel pity for these girls. "At least you have a decent owner. Herr Seamus seems like an honorable fellow who would treat you well." The twins did not hear a question, and even if they had, The **** Codes bound them against speaking poorly of their owner.

Titania let the conversation die down and focused on the feed. The elf ranger basked in the feelings of joy, desire, angst, fear, muscle strain, endorphin release, and all the other mental wavelengths coming off of the people and bound monsters **** to watch and assist them.

"Did you feel that?" Asked Chloe to her sister.
"Yeah. I think that fat bastard just lost us in a hand of cards." said Zoe. "See!?! That sick perverted fuck! He does not own us anymore!"
"Then, who does?" asked Chloe.
Titania closed her eyes and 'listened' and 'felt' for the mana harmonics of the enchanted bindings that held the two humans in thrall, then followed them back to their source. To no surprise, Zoe and Chloe now belonged to Jerry. "I would not worry about it." said the elf ranger.
Titania felt her own more ephemeral but natural connection to the strange young man who had chosen to become her companion, and with whom she in turn found herself falling in love. It must be easier for humans, Titania thought. They could ignore their feelings, suppress their emotions and avoid confronting the reality of their heart's truth. For the demi-mortals, pretending like you are not in love is like pretending you do not know the color of the grass. The question Titania faced was what was she going to do about these feelings?

Titania sensed that she was being watched by a massive convergence of energies. The elf woman opened her eyes to see at the blonde woman grinding between a salamander boy and a sylph girl smiling in her direction. It had been a long time since Titania had been able to bask in someone with so many souls bound to them.

She was nothing special on her own accounts. A pretty face but on a body bit on the pudgy side. Her skill level was what one could call mediocre if one wanted to be polite. Yet, this young woman fresh in her nubility had dozens, maybe hundreds, of creatures bound to her soul by The **** Codes.
Dinarya Valwaaroo saw the ginger elf gir and the daughter of the grandest grandee in Marchland County, one of the wealthiest men in the entire Kingdom of Shefegard, if not the whole Commonwealth of Kingdoms, was instantly interested. "We do not get many elf travelers these days. Are you partaking in your adventure?" Dina asked.

Before the demon Khan had brought war and ruination upon their kingdoms, the elves had a long tradition of sending their youth out into the world as solo travelers to explore the mortal nations and learn about life among other races. Women and men would leave their homes soon after their hundred and eleventh birthday with the expectation that they would return for their one hundred and forty forth birthday with treasure and tales of their adventures. These elves, and their companions became known in the common language as adventurers. "Yes. I am on my adventure." lied Titania.

"Splendid. An elf on her adventure. Oh Daddy would be thrilled, you really must come visit him at Verdehead. He loves to talk about the five years he spent as the companion of this paladin from Cheldanaguo, puts on a feast whenever a genuine adventurer party is traveling through our lands." said Dina. "Allow me to introduce myself. Dinarya Valwaaroo, charmed and delighted."
"Titania of Ulthwendaguo." said Titania. "Ranger."

"It is a true pleasure." said Dina as she took the elf girl's hand and kissed it. "Tell me." Dina draped the elf's arm around her shoulder. "Is it true, what they say, about, about elf girls?" asked Dina.
Titania could smell the **** on the human's breath. "Depends on what they say about us." the elf answered.
"Well." Dina smirked mischievously, "That you can lactate different flavors of milk at will, that your pussies taste like blue raspberry candy, and that you are all taller and stronger than the elf men which is why in elf kingdoms the warriors are all women."
Titania was at a loss, she could not believe that someone could ask questions like that. "Well. The last one is certainly true." said Titania as she put herself back on balance after such an unexpected inquiry. "As a general rule, elf women tend toward careers requiring physical labor while elf men gravitate towards more academic pursuits and the careers in spell crafting.
"As for the others, I have no idea what my milk or pussy tastes like." said Titania in the hope that that would satisfy the girl's curiosity.
Instead, Dina leaned in and whispered into the elf ranger's ear. "I will tell you once I find out." before the human girl ran her tongue along the elf girl's long, pointed ears.

Titania pushed Dina off of her and into a group of slaves who dutifully caught the **** human girl who broke into laughter. "Let me buy you a drink. They make this..." Dina's words were cut off by the sound of what at first sounded like the war cry of a feral weasel before the CRASH of a card table being flipped followed by a THUMP sound of someone hitting the floor.

"My word. It does look like someone has been getting rowdy." said Dina. "Wait. Is that? Of for the sake of all the gods, Ike! Excuse me my dear. My brother has gotten himself into foolishness." The human woman handed Titania her glass and stormed off.

"Using your own name. That was quite careless of you, your radiant highness." Titania looked around for the source of the voice that was all too familiar to her, a voice Titania had hoped to never hear again.
"Jadonna." said Titania, looking around for the speaker. "Please. Just let me go."
"Let you go? Do you have any idea how selfish you sound? Let you go, why? So you can go off and play house with the humans? What was the plan exactly? Get to Stoneford and get a job as a bar wench in the big city while your people face the Khan's wrath? Do you have any idea what will happen if you are not at the altar with the other princesses on the night of the next conjunction? Thousands will die. Thousands more will be enslaved. Our libraries burned, our temples profaned!"

"I am sorry." said Titania. "But it's not my fault. I did not ask the Khan's procurer to choose me." Just thinking about how she had been **** to strip and be inspected by that demon, how the vile thing had stuck its snout between her legs before telling her parents, the king and queen of Ulthwendaguo, that Titania was to get her affairs in order and prepare herself to join the other tribute brides.

"But it did choose you. Every nine years, nine brides of royal blood no more than ninety nine years of age. Those are the terms to which the Altara agreed." said the disembodied voice of Jadonna. "You have a responsibility to your people. You must sacrifice so that others can live."

"No. I will not let myself be used like that. I would rather die than become a mother of deevils. We should never have surrendered." said Titania. "I will not be sacrificed because others refuse to fight for their lives."
"I do not see you fighting anyone." said Jadonna.
"Aren't I?" said Titania, her hands ready to draw her swords from their place in her inventory's pocket dimension.

"Oh my sweet Titania. I truly am sorry. But you are not going to be late for your wedding. Now, we can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way." said Jadonna. "The choice is yours."

Titania tried to run. Her feet got three steps before she found her body petrified. Her muscles refused to move no matter how much she screamed at herself to get to Jerry before it was too late.

Then Titania heard the CLICK as something began to tighten itself snugly around her neck. The elf ranger heard an alien, mechanical voice say in the back of her head. < Codes integrated, bindings optimal. You are a ****. You will obey. You exist to serve. You will be pleasing to your owner in all things at all times. >
"Alright, your radiance, nice and easy. No drawing attention to yourself. Casually walk towards the exit and out to where our flying coach is ready to take you back to your family. They have been worried sick about you." Jadonna tugged gently but firmly on the enchanted leash connecting her to the enchanted bauble around Titania's neck.

< You will be a good **** and obey. Bad slaves are bad people. Bad people should feel bad. You are a ****. Be a good ****. It is good to be a good ****. Being good feels good. Be good. Be a good ****. Obey... >
The voice buzzed inside of Titania's mind, it filled her head and drowned out everything else until she could not think. All she could do was what the voice demanded of her and hope that the feelings of hopelessness and dread would go away.

Titania did as she had been commanded and walked towards the door. As she moved helplessly towards her fate, Titania remembered seeing the demon Khan's brides when she was in her seventies. She remembered how they Scary because of their weird skin, fearsome eyes, and dangerous looking talons and fangs, but also sad for some reason. At first Titania had thought that they were monsters, then her mother had explained to her they used to be normal elf princesses just like her. "But the demon Khan changed them you see." her mother said.

"Why?" Titania had asked. "Does he think they look more beautiful like that?"
"Maybe." her mother had said. "But that is not the reason. The demon Khan's children are not people or monsters. He changes his brides so that they might sire progeny with the power of the Evil Ones in their veins. So he must remake his wives into creatures more suitable for that role."

Titania wanted to scream, wanted to shout. Titania tried to run, tried to fall down and just not move, she even just tried pissing herself in hopes that that would draw someone's attention. But the elf ranger just smiled calmly and walked towards the dance hall's exit like she had been told. She tried to think of something, anything that she could do to get this collar off her neck, but the only thought that entered her mind was the alien one telling her that < Resistance is futile, ****. >

(Leave your thoughts in the comments. Is Titania wrong for abandoning her people or is the elvish government wrong for sacrificing their princesses? Let me know what you think.)