"The Maid of Fire."

"The Iron King names the Maid of Fire," Talaitha intones. "May the spirits reveal the destiny which awaits him!"

Talaitha steps close to you, her eyes locked on yours, and her hands begin to touch your body. It is a strange sensation... her touches are pleasurable by their very nature, but it is obvious that they are not truly intended as such. Rather than seek out sensitive and intimate places, her fingertips brush over your temples, then press gently into your neck to feel your pulse through the strong blood vessels there... then her breasts press into your chest, but it seems that she does this only to breathe in the same time as you do; so that she inhales as you breathe out, and then again in the opposite manner. It may be your imagination, but it seems to you that she even somehow manages to match the rhythm of her heartbeat with your own. It is a strange intimacy, unlike that of a lover, more as if she seeks to become one with you than to share her body.

Her eyes close, and beneath the lids you can see them dart rapidly back and forth, as if she were suddenly asleep and dreaming. Her hands find your own, palm to palm, not lacing the fingers but aligning them with yours. Her lips are so close now that it is all you can do not to lean in just a hair's breadth further and kiss them... but you remember that Talaitha warned you to take no action without her instruction. Even if she has no true power or connection with the spirits, it feels unwise to disturb her trance again.

"The Maid of Fire," she breathes, almost too quietly to be heard even so close. "Speak the name with me." With those words, Talaitha moves that tiniest bit closer so that your lips just barely touch, like a fresh dewdrop upon a blade of grass.

"The Maid of Fire," you whisper, and her lips move in perfect unison with yours. Then she pulls away, and her brow furrows just slightly, concentrating hard, listening to whatever voices she alone can hear. Then she shivers, just slightly... and it may be your imagination, but it almost seems as thought the slight breeze which wafts around you forms the subtlest of sounds, which if you could only hear them a tiny bit more clearly, might be strange words in a tongue you have never heard before...

"Yes," Talaitha says, in a soft, melodious tone that drowns out the mysterious almost-sound. "Yes, I see her before me now. The Maid of Fire is a Queen of Fire, the light and the heat of the flame made flesh and blood. She burns with a righteous fury, a power that only she has the strength to contain. The Queen of Fire controls the flame, it is driven by her will and her passion, a flame of vengeance but also of justice, the fire may destroy but also shines its light in the darkness. She rides at the vanguard, armored by courage alone, a Warrior Queen in truth..."

Your suspicions are confirmed with these words; Talaitha speaks of Queen Alayna, it must be so. You have never come face-to-face with the Warrior Queen, but even so you find a vision forming in your mind... though it is not as you have usually imagined her, astride a great war-horse with her infamous flame-red hair flowing like a cape behind her. Instead, you see the penetrating gaze from a single glowing eye, so close and so vivid that for the briefest moment it almost feels as though you stand with Alayna herself embracing you rather than Talaitha.

Talaitha's hands begin to roam over your body, up your arms and down your back, pressing both firmly and lightly as she goes. A memory comes into your head, a time when you spoke to Elyssia's most learned healer of his arts; one Master Sanjay Bhandari... he showed you his charts of what he called the Energy Streams, and described a **** called the Chi which moved through all people. His charts indicated the places at which this energy could be redirected and controlled. It is hard to recall exactly, especially under the circumstances, but it seems to you that Talaitha's fingertips press those same points as her hands come to them.

"Show me the future," she sings, "what will come to pass..."

Suddenly, you feel moist lips against your fully-hardened manhood, and you realize that Talaitha is spreading her legs around you to take you inside her. It is all you can do not to respond and thrust forward, take her in your arms, kiss the lips which remain so close - but through an iron effort of will, you remain still and allow her to continue. Ever so slowly, she slides down upon you, her warm and wet passage opening and allowing you to penetrate. An involuntary shiver runs through you, but otherwise you are able to remain still. Talaitha rolls her head back, her eyes closed and still flickering with the signs of dreaming.

"Yes, the Queen of Fire seeks the King of Iron, she comes with a purpose to the Castle in the Sky... the task to which she has pledged herself draws near to its climax, a last great clash of the Warrior Queen and the one who earned her wrath, a King of Ashes who seeks to quench her flame. The Fire Queen means to embrace the Iron King with her flame, to make him burn with her own heat, to forge a sword of unstoppable power, a sword which will scatter the Ashes before it and bring triumph to the Flame!"

Talaitha's brow furrows in concentration, and she unexpectedly leans forward to kiss you upon the lips... but it is no lover's kiss, it is more as though she is forming a closer connection to you, trying to listen through your ears as well as her own. Slowly, she pulls you downward to the blanket upon the ground, for which you are most grateful; it was becoming difficult to stand! Somehow, she is able to gracefully lower both herself and you together such that you remain tightly embraced as a man to a woman, your shaft thrust deeply into her.

"A word of caution... a warning... the fire may bring to the iron a glowing heat, but as the iron embraces the flame it may be forever altered, its purpose twisted and its shine scarred with blackness. The sword must be quenched, the fire contained, and even so the one who wields the sword will feel the searing burn of the flame within. Only one with the strength to withstand the heat may embrace the Queen of Fire... only one who may endure the scars shall win her blazing heart."

Her eyes open, and for a moment they seem glazed, but then they find you again. She blinks several times, as if trying to recall a distant memory, and then whispers one more word.

"Alayna."

"Yes," you say, also whispering - partly because it seems wrong to disturb the quiet stillness of mist, and partly because your manhood is still thrust deep inside her, and it is already difficult enough to maintain control. A quiver in your voice might betray the effort you must put into just holding back, and you would prefer to betray no weakness.

"Normally, I do not offer the true name of one who I see in a vision," Talaitha says. "I am rarely so certain of who I see... but in this case, there can be no doubt. I have known the Warrior Queen, she came to me seven years past. It is rare enough that a woman seeks my guidance, but the Queen of Fire would have been unforgettable even if she were one among a thousand other women. I have never encountered a woman of such power, such searing heat. The spirits spoke her name to me the moment I touched her."

The picture in your mind of Talaitha touching and kissing the Warrior Queen makes it suddenly about ten times harder to keep from releasing your essence inside of her! With a fierce effort of will, you manage to keep control of yourself, but the strain must have shown on your face.

"Oh! Forgive me, King Xavier," she says, and withdraws from the embrace. Perhaps it is only your imagination, but it seems that she pulls away with some **** - you can't help but wonder if she might have enjoyed the feeling of you more than she expected, and did not truly wish to end it prematurely. "The spirits are silent. They have spoken and I have given you their words. Heed them as you will."

It takes a moment for you to gather your composure, so that you can speak without the hoarseness of lust in your voice. Her actions have left you aching for release, but that is something you must put aside. A few deep breaths help to clear your head, and this time you can tell that Talaitha is impressed with your strength of will; you have no doubt that if this is a performace she has done for others, she likely finds that not every man is able to steady himself so quickly, or hold back from trying to relieve his needs with her.

"I would ask another question," you say at last. "Two questions, if I may."

"The spirits have given all the answers they will give, for now; but of course, King Xavier, you may ask of Talaitha what you will."

"First, I wonder if you could tell me more of your impressions of Queen Alayna? I ask not what the spirits tell you, but what your own eyes beheld, and your own thoughts of who she is."

Talaitha looks uncomfortable for a moment. "Please understand, King Xavier... I ought not to have said that she came to me at all. I do not, as a rule, reveal the names of those I have served with my power; you understand that those who come to me expect me to keep their confidence, if only because of my methods. I would not have spoken of Alayna by her true name, had I not been still emerging from trance and not yet entirely in possession of my mind. That having been said, I can tell you what I know of the Queen of Fire, aside from her quest to commune with the spirits.

"A few days before her personal audience with me, Queen Alayna waged a great battle against one of her foes, in a field near where my caravan was encamped," Talaitha says. "She rode past our camp with her entourage... most of my people stood well back from her, as we Romanii have good reason to be wary of armed soldiers who come to our camps. I did not sense hostility, however, and so I dared to approach closer than the others. My face was veiled, so the Queen and her people took no particular notice of me. One of her men, no doubt a man of high standing in her army, pointed out that if their foe could be flanked and **** to retreat through our camp, they would be slowed in their progress and easily defeated by a small party lying in wait. Our camp was large, and I knew we could not hope to be away before the battle would be joined; and because not one of our number would leave before all were ready, many of our people were sure to perish. Then the Queen spoke, and I remember her exact words to this day: 'The innocent must not suffer and die for the sake of our victory. We will cross the river and engage the enemy on the far side, so that these people may be spared.' In the battle that followed, Queen Alayna emerged triumphant, and our caravan was left untouched. I have heard others describe the Warrior Queen as ruthless and pitiless, a she-demon who leaves scorched earth and trampled fields in her wake. The Romani know better."

"And now I know what the Romani know," you tell her. "Thank you for sharing this truth with me, Talaitha."

She bows her head. "I am pleased to have done so. You had another question, King Xavier?"

"Yes. The Iron King... is that the name by which the spirits know me?"

"It is," she says. "They have spoken to me of you before, when I have meditated. Of course I know of your past, it is well-known in these parts that you were a worker of iron at the forge, but the name means more than that. Iron is the strongest of metals, and yet it also yields to become what it must be. It will bend to fire, but when it is quenched it becomes stronger still. It is the metal of the common people, in the form of a hammer or plow; it is also the metal of a knight's armor and shield, and the sword of a King like the one you carry at your side. The King of Iron is a king of all the people, both noble and common, a king who wields his power in service and not in domination. The spirits know you well, King Xavier."

"I thank you for your service, Talaitha," you say to her, as you both stand up and you begin to put your clothes back on. It feels somewhat awkward; normally, after you have made love to a woman, you would offer kisses and tender caresses and hold her in your arms, but it's hard to know exactly what you should do in this case.

"There is one other thing," she says as you prepare to take your leave. "Now that you have been connected to the Spirits, you may find that they visit you at some future time. Since you do not have my power, they will appear to you in the only way they can - in your dreams. The dreams will be vivid and potent in nature, but do not fear; these dreams can no more do you harm than any other dream. If the spirits speak to you in this manner, remember that they cannot always be trusted, and it is always best to use your own judgement rather than follow them blindly." She smiles slightly. "Consider them as you would your advisors; wise and helpful, but not always right."