You decide a softer touch might be better, for the moment.

You know it would be easy to **** the fairy to simply listen to your words as she is now bound to you, but that somehow feels wrong to you. Tarnished though your soul may be by the dark Artifact that is now part of you, you still consider yourself human. And it is your humanity that has you taking a deep breath and nodding to yourself before, slowly, you uncurl your gauntleted fist from around the fairy's small, slender form.

She is surprised by suddenly being released, but is quick to recover, letting her wings flap to keep her afloat before she can hit the ground after being suddenly released. She looks at you with that surprise obvious in her large eyes as she studies you closely. You can tell she is on the verge of deciding to make her exit, but your unexpected action has her pausing before doing so. You take the opportunity afforded you by her hesitation to speak to her, trying to convince her you mean her no harm.

"Listen, little one. I have no desire to harvest you in any way or bring any sort of harm to you. In truth, I did not even wish to fight you, but you left me little choice. As for what happened after that...well, I cannot deny having some part in that, but I was also influenced by this Artifact that is now attached to me.", you tell her, lifting your gauntleted hand so she can see it more clearly, "This object, unfortunately, has enough power to spark my more primal urges and I succumbed to them due to my fatigue and injuries. I apologize for that, but, right now, I am myself and have no desire to further subject you to pain or degradation."

The fairy listened to most of what you said, but, as you referred to your gauntlet, her focus turned to the Artifact and her eyes had widened even more as she flew closer to the obsidian steel upon your arm. "That...that is an Artifact! I have never seen one up close before. No wonder you were able to fend off my attacks and were able to work magic upon me.", she says, looking almost mesmerized by the shining black surface of the gauntlet, "If you possess this., then...then you are something more than the usual human wizards and soldiers of fortune who seek to harvest my kind for profit and power."

You give a relieved smile as she seems to have become less suspicious of you, even if it is because of the dark Artifact that has come to possess your right hand. "That is the case, little one. I am no mage nor am I a mercenary seeking fortune. I am a knight on a quest...or, I suppose, that is what I once was. Now, I am no longer a knight, but I still have a quest: to get **** and escape this island. For that, I need strength and, in meeting you, I have gained more strength.", you say as you now lift your left hand, which still had the coating of stone skin upon it.

"My power? You have absorbed my power? Without slaying me?", she utters in awe, putting a small hand to the rocky layer covering your left hand, "That is...different from what I had heard of the Artifacts."

"Different? Different how? Please, if you know anything, I would be grateful to learn it.", you request of her, knowing that any knowledge you get would be good. Knowledge was a weapon in itself and, in this place, you needed all the weapons you could get.

"I had heard that those who possess Artifacts gained power through slaying enemies and absorbing their very souls. But you have gained power without doing so. Or, if you have absorbed my soul, it is only a portion of it rather than the whole thing.", the fairy explains, rubbing at her throat where the brand you left upon her is located, "That is probably why I feel somehow...connected to you."

"I see.", you say in response, feeling a bit uneasy about the idea of your having absorbed even a part of another living being's soul but knowing that gaining strength was something you needed to do. And, besides, it was not as though you had killed the naiad or fairy to drain their very essence from them. Though you had come close, due to the urging of the gauntlet. Now, at least, you knew WHY it was always so full of bloodlust. The wielders of the Artifacts grew more powerful when they killed so it made sense that the portion of the Entity within the gauntlet wanted you to do so. But you still gained power without killing them, didn't you? Was that not enough? Perhaps gaining power as you had was more difficult or resulted in less power overall? You didn't know, but you had a feeling you would probably eventually find out if you continued down the path you had chosen to walk to gain your ****.

At that point, the fairy has come to fly right in front of your eyes, surprising you out of your reverie. She is studying you closely, her beautiful elfin features taut in concentration. You feel a bit uncomfortable under her scrutiny and clear your throat before asking, "Er, is something wrong?"

"You are strong and you don't want to harvest me. And we are bound together because you took some of my power for yourself.", she said, going over the information she now had out loud as though she needed to do so in order to make a decision...which was exactly the case as she said, with a nod, "Fine then. I have decided. I will serve you and follow you as my master. That way you can protect me from the other mortals who want to use me as ingredients!"

She said this with bright cheerfulness, but you frown and shake your head, "Wait, I don't think that's a good idea. The path I have chosen is a dangerous one. And, besides, I do not think I can afford to protect another when I have to protect myself as well."

She pouts slightly and flies around you before landing on your shoulder, hugging the side of your head and letting her mouth come up to your ear. You feel the small swells of her breasts against your cheek as she comes in close and her breath is warm upon your skin as she says, "Please, Master. Do not abandon me. I need you. And I swear, if you let me come with you, I will be of use to you."

As she says that, you feel a small kiss at the lobe of your ear and you cannot deny that the contact, strange as it is to feel it at such a minimized level, sends a tingle of arousal through you that has your member, still slick with mud and your own semen, twitching.

You know it is a bad idea to make a decision that is influenced by lust, but you also cannot deny that lust has become a very strong emotion within you recently. Besides, you do not know that the fairy will not be of use to you in ways beyond the carnal. Then again, she could just be a burden, in the long run. Which she will be you cannot know, though, until you make a decision in the first place.