Magic, Ancient and New and Lilly’s new role

I spent the rest of the afternoon working in the shop, making preparations for that evening. In two hours I managed to construct a crude, raised rack complete with restraints. I spent the last remaining hour or so testing the limits of my newfound power and making small, experimental changes to a few ancient magics from the war, adapting them to fit a more covert type of warefare.

I tried to ignore the comments that Fenrir had made. Last son. Was I truly the last werewolf? Or was I simply the last original, gifted with magic and immortality. Probably the latter, there were too many great hunts, as the red riding hoods liked to call them, werewolf purges, that I’d heard of for my kind to be extinguished completely. But I would not be surprised if I was the last original, the last primogenitor. It was fitting then that I should be the one to bring about the ultimate ruin of Rose and her Holy Ordos.

I pushed the thoughts aside as I smelled Lilly at the door.

“Come in!” I called before she even knocked.

“Was I that noisy?” she frowned, “I was trying to be stealthy.”

“Oh,” I said with a shrug, “sorry, I heard you on the path.” Right, oops, don’t give yourself away idiot, focus! “I’ve constructed a rack for you,” I pointed to it. “Crude, but I based it on the description from Charity’s journal, I think it will suffice to carry out the Goddesses justice.”

Lilly inspected it and looked uncertain. She was wavering I knew, all of this seemed so **** to her.

“Look,” I said solemnly, “she must be punished, lest the Goddess’ wrath come down on the whole city, right?”

Lilly nodded.

“But if you turn her in to the Sisters, she could be thrown out, or worse.”

Another nod.

“And as far as you’ve told me, you think she’s really a devoted servant of the Goddess, so we wouldn’t want her to get thrown out. She just needs someone to show her the right path, to put her back on it, where she belongs.” I raised Lilly’s eyes to my own. “She needs someone more devout, more Holy, more committed to the Goddess,” my eyes flashed with dangerous yellow light, “she needs you, to save her. This,” I motioned to the rack, the clamps, the artifact, the wooden spoon, the leather straps, the manacles, “is how you do that.”

For a moment I wasn’t sure it would work. Lilly’s mind wasn’t nearly as malleable as I’d first thought. She was strong willed, independent, self sufficient. Why she hadn’t been chosen as a Red Riding Hood already was clear, of course, she had no self confidence. But the raw potential was there.

Also, my magic wasn’t mind control. I could do that, of course, especially with my newfound power levels. But that wouldn’t accomplish the goal. The magic I’d just used, exerting the power of my will through my voice, could only convince someone of something they already believed. Lilly truly believed she was helping Charity.

“Right, I know,” Lilly answered with a firm expression, “I’m just not sure I can do this… can’t you—”

“No.” I said, firmly. “I’m not a member of the order, and I can’t be with her every time she sins, you can, you must, you will.”

Lilly opened her mouth but I interrupted.

“Just like it was with you, it won’t just be this once. But you’ve mastered your body now, the burning, it’s gone isn’t it?” She nodded, of course it was, the poison had run out and I hadn’t dosed her again. I would never need to either, now the poison was her own mind, her own memory of how good it felt, of the relief, would drive her to masturbate again and again, not out of compulsion, but out of choice. “That was your doing, the power of your devotion and faith. Charity tried that and failed, she’s not as strong willed as you are, clearly. As the stronger sister it is your duty to carry out her punishments, over and over, as often as you have to, until she’s learned to control herself as a poper Red Riding Hood must.”

Lilly nodded slowly.

“And there may be others,” I suggested, planting the final, necessary seed, “Charity must have learned from someone, perhaps other young initiates struggle with this as well, they too may need your guidance. And with Charity to help you, once you’ve helped her, I’m sure you’ll be able to guide them all back to the light.”