Empire of Shenendril: The Blue Chronicles 0: Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Oh, how Lucas loved the feel of silk sheets. It was a decadent indulgence he fully embraced at the brothel. From the sinfully plump feather bed to his slippery cool sheets. But when did Casey get silk sheets?

That realization was what snapped Lucas out of his hazy dream state to fully awake. He sat bolt upright in the huge canopy bed he found himself in and looked around. A massive fireplace with a mantle of black marble dominated one wall. A fire roared but none of the heat seemed to reach the bed. The canopy bed was adorned all in black, from the fine silk sheets to the drapes which hung from the upper posts. A single black candle burned at his bedside but the flame seemed to be having a difficult time in the oppressive darkness of the room.

The youth looked at himself as he realized the borrowed shirt from Casey was gone. He was nude, but he had also been bathed, his hair brushed, and the lingering bruises from the other day were gone. There was only one person who could spirit him away from his friend’s bed and do all that while he was asleep without awakening him. He looks around the room again as he called out softly, “Mistress?”

“Yes my precious boy?” Her sultry purr emanated from a nearby shadow. Even as the boy turned to look in that direction his Mistress stepped out of the shadow from which she had watched him. As he gazed upon his Mistress, Lucas felt his stomach twist in knots of desire and fear. She was a radiant beauty of pale skin and long graceful limbs. Her hair was midnight turned into long silken strands which brushed the back of her legs as she moved. To Lucas’s eyes she was beauty and danger personified, as he both loved her and feared her.

“Mistress! I… I don’t understand.” He started to try and get out of the bed but she lifted a hand to stop him. He obeyed as she walked over to sit upon the bed beside him.

“You called to me my precious boy.” She crooned as she ran her fingers through his golden locks. “The anguish you felt. The fear. Your delicious agony drew my attention like no other can. How could I ignore such a plea from my beloved boy?”

Lucas felt tears sting his eyes, his lower lip trembled. With a wail he threw himself forward as he wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in his Mistress's lap, “Please Mistress. Please don’t destroy this man. He is a good man. A decent man. Let me try again. Let me find another you can use. Let me find someone whose heart isn’t as good.”

The Mistress did not seem upset by his outburst. She continued to stroke his hair and back, “Shhh, fear not my sweet child. It is not my intent to destroy this man who has touched your heart. He need only do as I command, as you do so well, and he may very well prosper.”

“But Mistress! He won’t. He won’t compromise his honor. I can feel it. I have seen in his mind, in his heart.” The boy clung tighter, it was as if he clung to silk covered steel. Despite the beauty of her curves there was no softness to his Mistress unless she willed it.

“All men find compromise with their honor my precious one. One who does not know how to bend in the storms of life would not live as long as this man you care for.” She spoke so gently to him as she toyed with his hair.

“And if he does not? What then Mistress?” He dared to look up at her, to meet her mesmerizing gaze. Few were allowed the privilege of the Mistress unveiled, Lucas was one of the few.

“There are always options my sweet. Do not worry your pretty head about it any longer. You have played your part. You have retrieved very valuable information. I am very proud of you.” The touch of her nails at his cheek was like the touch of daggers against his flesh.

“Why did it have to be him Mistress? Why did he have to be a good man with such darkness in his past?”

“You would not have been drawn to him if he were an evil man my precious one. The moment your mind touched his you knew the goodness of his heart and it was that which drew you to him like a moth to the flame. You would not have been as successful with an evil man.” She smiled and kissed his troubled brow.

Her kiss was like a balm to his soul. A touch of electricity that traveled up and down his spine as it ignited his every nerve. He would do anything for his Mistress. “I don’t understand Mistress.”

“Of course you do not child. While you possess great potential you are still a neophyte and have much to learn.” She shifted on the bed to lay back against the pillows and invited him to lay in her arms. He did so gladly, it was not often that his Mistress gifted him with her time and touch like this. “You have a purity within you precious. A purity that gives you strength and guides your actions.

“Mistress... I am not pure... I am a whore... As you’ve trained me to be,” he protested softly.

Her laughter was musical, "Silly boy. The purity of your soul has nothing to do with what you do with your body. Pay no attention to what perverted old wizards claim of physical virginity and other such matters. You my sweet child have committed no evil act, thus your soul is still pure.”

“But the man I killed? Wasn’t that an evil act?” He was confused.

“Do you remember how you felt when you slew that man? The anger you felt at his misdeeds? The man you killed was evil. He had committed great crimes against innocents long before he sought to hurt you. You righted a wrong in the world. To remove evil from the world is not evil, or else all of the world’s holy warriors and clerics would lose their divine gifts,” she explained gently.

He sat up a little to look up at his Mistress, “So killing someone because they are evil... is not evil?”

“You did not kill for personal gain, nor did you kill for greed or any other sin.” She tilted her head, “Do you understand my sweet?”

“But what about lies? I lie all the time. Wouldn’t that be a sin?” He tried to understand.

“The lies you tell are not evil child. You tell people what they want to hear, and that may not always be the truth, but it is not evil.” She ran her fingers slowly up his spine until he groaned and lay his head upon her shoulder once more.

Lucas was silent for a few moments before he asked, “What about the lies I told Sergeant Walker? He thought he was helping a poor boy but I lied to him. I seduced him.”

“When you lay with this man, did you wish him ill? Or did you lay with him in honest joy?” She whispered.

“....I...I... I’m confused.” He shook his head.

“I can see into your heart as well Lucas. When you lay with your Sergeant you meant no ill will towards him. You shared with him honest joy and pleasure. You gave of your true self when you were making love to him, not the lies you told to get him there.” She moved until Lucas lay on his back and she hovered over him, her midnight hair fell down to surround them both like a veil.

“And the other things I do? The spying?” He gasped suddenly as her hand slipped under the sheets to toy with him.

His Mistress smiled, “It is all in your intent child. You do the things I command of you because you love me, and I love you. Never have I had a servant as loyal as you.” She leaned in to kiss him. Her lips were like fire against his, warm and inviting but if he was not careful she could burn him to ash.

“Mistress!” He writhed beneath her. All of his training, all of his skill, he was nothing compared to his Mistress. She could play him like an instrument and he would always sing for her. "Mistress, please... I am yours.”

“You have always been mine precious boy, and you always will be, for no one can ever know you the way I do.” She threw back the blankets as she straddled him. She took him into her body as if he were made to fit together with her. “Open yourself to me my sweet. Let there be no walls between us.”

“Yes My Mistress!” He gasped as he lowered his mental defenses, his mind, his very soul laid bare before her majesty. He could feel her slip into his mind with the delicacy of the shadow that was her namesake. She was both fire and ice. The heat of her body, the coldness of her intellect swiftly overwhelmed him. Lucas had no defenses against her. Even if he had tried to fight her he would have lost for she was the one who had found him and forged him into the weapon he was.

She walked through his mind as if she walked through her favorite garden. She paused to admire some of her favorite sights in his memories before she moved on to the newer delights. As her body rode his, as she pushed him towards heights of pleasure he could find with no one else, she soon found the memories of his time with Sergeant Walker. She plucked them from his mind one by one, drawing them out like she spun thread from wool. The last memory she drew from the boy’s mind was the most beautiful, the joy he’d shared with the older man.

Lucas could feel her draw the thoughts from him, he watched as they spun past his inner eye. He felt a strange sadness when the last memory was plucked from his mind, but he no longer knew why. All that mattered was the heat of his Mistress. The joy that she gave him. There were courtesans in the House of Sighing Shadows who never received the gift she gave him. Her favor gave him such joy.

When the youth could hold back no longer he pleaded with his Mistress to allow him to finish. Her permission was all that he needed as he cried out, his body tightened like a bow beneath her. When his body could give no more he collapsed beneath her light headed and weak. He felt her kiss upon his brow and her whispered words, “You have done well my pet. Sleep now. Rest. You shall be rewarded.” Lucas could only smile as he drifted off to sleep. He was so very lucky to be loved so well by his Mistress.

When next Lucas opened his eyes, the sun shone in through the windows of his room at the brothel. The sun never shined so bright as it did after a good hard rain. He stretched in his bed, he felt a delicious ache all over. He didn’t mind at all when his Mistress used him for pleasure, that was one of the benefits of being young, he had a near endless supply of vitality. The door opened when he climbed from his bed as one of the servants brought in his breakfast tray, “Over by the windows dove... I want to look out over the gardens as I eat.”

The girl complied while Lucas visited the water closet to relieve his bladder and wash his face. When he emerged once more he put on a robe and he gave the servant a playful kiss on the cheek as he sat for his morning meal. She departed filled with giggles at his flirtation and left him to enjoy his meal. A note sat upon the tray but he ignored it for now as he nibbled on his food. Only after the fruit and pastries were gone did he take up the note. He leaned back in his chair as he sipped his morning coffee while he read. The Procurer’s neat handwriting was lovely, too bad he was such a sour old man. Lucas read where a sizable amount of money would be deposited into his accounts, upon the Mistresses request, for a job well done. She also gave him the next two days free from clients as an added rewarded for his loyalty.

“I should fuck the boss more often,” he joked as he tossed the note back onto the tray. He leaned forward as he rested his elbows on the table. His room had an excellent view of the elaborate gardens of the brothel. He could just make out two of the girls as they cavorted in the fountain while behind a nearby bush the Voyeur self-abused in a frenzy. He smiled, just another day at the House of Sighing Shadows.

“Hmm... two whole days of no clients. Whatever shall I do with myself?” He asked out loud as he leaned back in his chair once more, “Well I definitely won’t be going to the Red Mermaid... that place is a dump and has lousy wine. I know. I’ll go shopping. I could almost buy a whole new wardrobe with the coin I just received... But no shops in the Gulch, not even the Guild owned ones near the Gold Gate. I heard they’ve gone downhill.” He nodded to himself at his decision. Too bad about the shops closer to gate though. There were always soldiers nearby which gave him plenty of opportunity to flirt with men in uniform. The Imperials had such ugly uniforms though. He would just avoid them to save himself the awkwardness. With his day planned Lucas hopped to his feet and rushed off to get ready, completely unaware of how his Mistress had manipulated his memories. It was perhaps for the best that he was spared the heartache of the memory of Sergeant Gordon Walker. A good whore did not have time for such trivialities as love, and Lucas was an excellent whore.