Re-condition her

“Brim,” Tally said out loud, “Mi is right. We just can’t afford the risk she poses. We have to get her under control.”

“Oh come on, it won’t be a problem,” Brim insisted.

“Brim, please,” Tally said.

Mi was watching Tally argue with thin air, trying to gauge the tide of the conversation. “Brim?” Mi said into empty space. “If you’re there, Brim, listen to Tally. I don’t want responsibility over Ance. It would be so much easier if you just made her obey Tally, like the rest of us.” There was a pause, and then Tally shook his head sadly. “She still doesn’t want to,” he said. Mi groaned.

“Tally, do you trust me?” she asked, after a short pause. Tally looked at her warily.

“...Why do you ask?”

“I think I know what will get Brim to come round,” Mi said. “Just… wait here for a second, okay?”

Tally watched Mi walk away from him, towards the campfire where Ance was standing. She leaned over to Ance and whispered something in her ear. Ance’s face took on a malicious grin. “With pleasure, Mistress,” Ance mumbled.

“What’s she up to…?” Brim’s voice drifted through Tally’s mind. Then, alarmingly, Ance turned the malicious grin onto Tally and started to advance towards him. As she crossed in front of the fire, she became a menacing silhouette, reaching behind her back to draw out her axe.

Nearby, Prennel and Zori looked up from cleaning up Zori’s personal effects into a backpack, concerned with what Ance was doing. “Ance…?” Prennel called out, “Why is the axe out?”

Ance backed Tally up against a tree trunk, axe raised above her head. Tally was starting to panic now, but he was paralyzed with incomprehension. Why would Mi do this?! He stared stupidly up at Ance, as she prepared to strike. Tally noticed she was taking a weirdly long time to go through an overly-dramatic windup for the swing.

“Tally, don’t just sit there, grab her!” Brim screamed in his head. Shaken from his stupor, Tally reached up and put his fist around Ance’s hand on the handle of the Axe. He felt the telltale tingling feeling of Brim’s magic spreading into her: Ance gasped in surprise, dropped the axe so that it landed inches from Tally’s foot, and started massaging her hand.

“Did that do it?” Mi asked hopefully, prancing over. “Did that get Brim to cooperate?” She looked quite pleased with herself.

Tally panted where he stood, trying to bring his heartrate down. Ance kept massaging her hand, looking confused. “You sent her to cut my head off, banking on the assumption that Brim would defend me?” Tally burst out, “do you realize how unreliable she is?! You could have killed me!”

“Relax,” Mi grinned. “I ordered her to scare you. I explicitly forbid her from following through. I just needed something that would put Brim on the spot.”

"It’s very good that you can’t hear what Brim is saying right now,” Tally informed her. Prennel and Zori both hovered at the sidelines, uncertain what to do. “So… there’s nothing to worry about?” Zori asked tentatively.

“Nothing at all,” Mi said, “go back to your packing.” They both looked to Tally to confirm, and Tally nodded his head. Zori and Prennel looked at each other, then hesitantly went back to what they were doing.

“Mistress…” Ance stammered, “you tricked me?”

“Relax, Ance,” Mi put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s nothing to be afraid of, you’ve been through this before, remember. Just let it wash over you, and accept Tally as your new Master.”

“But I don’t want to love Tally, I want to keep loving you…” Ance whined.

“You will,” Mi said, “you’ll still love me, you'll just love him more… I think. That is how this works, isn’t it Tally?”

“Brim says yes,” Tally said. “Says her brainwashing can’t be undone, just amended. She says not to worry, Ance, you’ll still be obsessed with Mi.”

“That’s good,” Ance sighed with relief.

“Want to finish the job?” Mi offered. “Hold out your hand for Tally, Ance- that’s an order.”

Ance did as she was told, and Tally clasped his hand around hers. The brainwashing process completed almost immediately, and Ance’s moan caused some birds to fly out of some trees up above.

“I’m ready to obey, Tally,” Ance declared happily, basking in the afterglow of the magically-induced orgasm. Her legs had given out, leaving her conveniently kneeling in front of her new master. “You’re number one in my life now. No offense, Mistress, you still come in second place.”

“None taken,” Mi held out a hand to help Ance back to her feet. “I think I like you better this way already.”

Ance gazed down at Tally, her eyes filled with reverence. Behind her, Tally spotted Zori creeping up.

“Hope I’m not interrupting… whatever this is,” Zori said, “but is everything alright over here, guys? You’re all acting really strange.”

Ance smiled at Zori, overcome with calm. “Everything’s fine,” she smiled. “Never better. Don’t worry about us… everything’s amazing…”

“If you say so…” Zori drew back, weirded out by Ance’s sudden change in demeanor. “Tally, I wanted to tell you that I’m all packed up and ready now. We can leave whenever you like.”

“We should stay here until morning,” Ance suggested, “it’s much easier to get lost at night.”

“Good idea, Ance,” Tally said, causing her to practically melt from his approval.

Tally looked around, and began to feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he registered the situation. Now, with Ance finally fully under his control, there was no one left who would judge him. No one who would be dishonest with him, or selfish, or in any way unkind. To Mi, Prennel, and now Ance and Zori too, the definition of ‘good’ had been redefined to ‘what Tally wants’. There was not a single thing Tally could do or say that would stop anyone here with him now from remaining vehemently loyal. Except for Brim of course, who was not visible to him at the moment, but whose presence he could feel sulking in the back of his mind, embarrassed to have fallen for Mi’s trick.

It was the same excitement one gets when they realize no one is watching. He felt alone, only with company. Tally looked once again at each of them in turn: Mi, happy to relinquish control of Ance over to him, Ance, drunk on the pleasure she now received from obedience, Zori, abandoning her whole life without a second thought on the off-chance she might be useful to him, and in the back, Prennel, who was absentmindedly stacking rocks on top of each other.

“Hello…?” Zori waved a hand experimentally. Tally had been wordlessly staring at them for many moments now, and they were starting to wonder if he was planning on saying something anytime soon.

“Sorry, I just…” Tally’s normal inhibitions told him not to say aloud any of what he was thinking, but some part of him said, ‘what the hell? it’s not like they’ll mind, right?'

“I was just thinking, about how you’re all mine now,” Tally said candidly. There were a few nods of agreement. “And proud to be so,” Ance replied. They all knew it was true; it was just a fact of life to them.

The next morning, Brim was still nowhere to be seen, but Tally didn’t let that hamper his good mood. Brim threw little tantrums like this from time to time, she would be back. At his command, Tally’s harem gathered up all their supplies, newly bolstered with Zori’s belongings, and split it between the four of them so Tally wouldn’t have to carry anything.

“All ready to leave, sir,” Zori reported. “Which reminds me, I meant to ask… where exactly are we going?”