@DallasNotAustin @TripleZero @crow3467 @charliesmith @VoidEmperor224 @Simo @Pleasurechip95 @harveygasson @Syko Sith @Roboticrobin20 Thanks for commenting enjoy part twenty seven!
Chapter 27
Lothair could not help but agree with Mira when she told him to leave through the window because someone was looking for him downstairs. Even though in the end what Mira wanted to do with him was pretty much the same the woman below wanted, or at least Lothair thought so, he somehow felt safer with Mira.
So with the aid of a rope they descended down the window and once below they walked away from the inn and towards the woods as fast as they could, leaving behind a dress whose origin will remain a mystery for most.
Upon reaching the cover of the forest the two calmed down, not expecting whoever that woman was to chase down Mira there because of a mere suspicion.
Only then did Lothair realize that Mira had, for the first time since she captured him, allowed him to remain untied. But apparently she took notice of the same thing at the exact same time, and soon she was taking out loops of rope from her bag.
“You didn’t think I would forget did you?” Mira asked as she looked at Lothair, pretending not to have forgotten about it.
Lothair quickly resigned to his fate and allowed Mira to do what she had bene doing for the last few days, she tied his hands in front of him and looped a rope between his wrists to lead him around like if it was a leash.
What Mira did forget about was to gag Lothair, but as it turned out, that didn’t change much. Things became uncomfortable, well, more uncomfortable between them after what they did on that Inn, so neither of them was feeling in the mood for a conversation, and considering where they were going and what they were to do there, it made even more sense.
Their destination appeared in the horizon at dusk, showing itself as a mere collection of lights which dimly revealed the silhouette of a city. It was the town known as Swampcross, named after the crossing of two rivers and of course, a swamp.
It is said that the place was not always like that, that in the time it was built the place was far nicer, the crossing of two rivers of crystalline waters in the middle of a forest. But time and human action had turned that once pristine place into a less than hospitable place.
A constantly wet swamp dominated by the noise of buzzing insects, in the middle of which stood the once large city today known as Swampcross, a town of dilapidated stone buildings slowly sinking into the soft ground atop which precarious buildings of wood and hay had been erected.
Before leaving the safety of the forest and walk towards the city Mira made a stop and turned back to address Lothair.
“Well, now we have to get in there and you’ll have to play the part of my prisoner, so I guess this is the time for goodbyes” Mira spoke “I know you probably don’t think highly of me, you’ve your reasons, but I must stay that meeting you was strangely nice”
Lothair stayed silent for a few seconds as he thought of a response, he could not believe this moment had finally arrived, and he quickly began to miss even the days when he was Mira’s captive, because he so desperately wanted to remain out of that dark abyss they all Blacktomb.
“It was nice meeting you too” Lothair replied lowly, not daring to look at Mira.
Mira sighed, she felt bad for the prince yet she was far past the point of regretting anything, she laid a hand on his shoulder without thinking much, since when she did she quickly realized she was in no position to comfort him.
“I’ll have to gag you now” She said as she showed Lothair the same with cloth he had become so used to.
Again Lothair sighed and resigned to his fate, allowing Mira to gag him once again.
“I’m sorry…” Mira said as she stroked Lothair’s hair.
With fear Mira stepped out of the woods and on the road, what she was doing was now plain to see and if anyone saw her she would have to explain what she had done, she already had a story about how she was a bounty hunter how caught the prince after he escaped, but she would rather not find herself on a situation where she had to tell it.
Lothair was more ashamed than afraid, being lead around tied up and gagged by Mira was already humiliating enough, but that happening on the road where everyone could see him was much worse, even if there was nobody around to see them.
Eventually Mira had to explain herself when she was halted by the guards at the entrance of swampcross. She told them the story she had device, and ended it with a humble request to deliver the duchess of Swampcross herself.
The guards were glad to do so and escorted her and her captive into the city, walking down the main muddy road where many curious onlookers had their attention caught by the unusual sight.
Quickly people began to murmur on the deep about the identity of the bound man and it wasn’t long before someone recognized him as the face they had become used to see on coins, and once word of it spread around the booing began.
The guards managed to cut short the many attempts of people to throw something at the prince, and thankfully those who managed missed him. This situation got Mira and her escorts to speed up their pace towards the castle in the middle of the town, to which they arrived shortly after.
Once inside the guards were the ones to explain the situation to the people of the castle, whose annoyance with the interruption soon turned intrigue and curiosity when it was revealed to them that the outlaw prince had been captured and taken before them
The guards would’ve taken Lothair directly to the duchess herself, but Mira insisted on being present when she delivered him, the guards were clearly annoyed, but not wanting to cause a scene there in the castle they agreed to Mira’s demands and went looking for the duchess.
Mira and Lothair were made to wait in a hall in the sole company of the guards there, and a few castle servants who only dared to look at them briefly between their tasks. The room felt far bigger than it was in that solitude and silence, even Lothair, who had grown accustomed to the monumentality of the royal castle, felt as if he was in a space far to large for him.
Mira looked at Lothair only once, and the sadness she saw on his face was enough to convince her not to look again, lest her emotions would get the best of her and make her do something stupid.
Eventually the duchess appeared, making a grandiose appearance out of a large door at the end of the room where she came out flanked by two guards on each side.
It was not the same woman Mira had seen years ago, but she still invoked the same visceral hate her predecessor did. She was younger than the woman Mira remembered, only appearing to be slightly older than Mira and Lothair. Much like Mira had presumed, she was the daughter of the woman who had taken her sister, and it showed in her features.
The new duchess shared with her mother her long red hair, pale skin and blue eyes, the sharp features of her face also resembled very much those of her mother. And Mira could swear that she had once seen that red and white dress on the duchess who had taken her sister away from her.
But Mira was not surprised by the sight of this young woman in place of the duchess. Because as much as she would have liked to take her sister away from the woman who had stolen her, she knew that such thing was something she would never manage to do, so she had to wait until that hag was replaced. And she felt like the opportunity couldn’t have presented itself on a better moment.
“Oh my, it seems like my guards were speaking the truth, I would recognize that pretty face wherever I saw it” She spoke as she walked towards the pair “Prince Lothair, the murderer prince, delivered right into my castle, to whom do I owe such an honor”
“I am a mere bounty hunter who got lucky, that’s all” Mira replied “Just thought you’d be interested in him”
Mira tugged the rope holding Lothair’s wrists and pulled him closer to the duchess, who subtly licked her lips in a gesture Lothair didn’t not manage to see, since his gaze was buried on the floor.
“I suspect that as a bounty hunter you expect a reward” The duchess spoke “How much do you want for him?”
“There is already a set amount for him, but I’m not really interested in money” Mira replied “I would like to propose you a different deal duchess”
Mira received suspicious looks not only from the duchess but also from her guards, who seemed ready to unsheathe their weapons, but the duchess ended up ordering to stand aside.
“I suspected so, after all, if you were interested in the reward you would’ve taken him back to Blacktomb wouldn’t you?” The duchess spoke with a grin on her face, as she already had suspicions about Mira’s intentions “What is it then, that I have that cannot be compared with the reward offered for our prince”
“I want one of your servants” Mira spoke “Her name is Melusine, I think she was taken here years ago”
The duchess scratched her chin as she thought for a few seconds, the air reeked of tension, Mira did not know what she would do if the duchess refused, and despite how much she wanted to see her dead, she hoped she would not have to draw her sword.
“Melusine?” Interesting, may I ask why do you want her?” The duchess replied.
“I know someone who wants to marry her, but he cannot do so while she is your servant, so he paid me to do this task” Mira lied.
As Lothair heard Mira’s story, which was nothing alike what he had been told, he began to fear he had been duped by Mira’s more sympathetic story about rescuing her sister, was it possible that she had lied to him to make him more compliant? Even though he wanted to believe the story she had told him, at that moment he really began to wonder if Mira had lied to him, if she had really been able to make such a lie.
“I see…” The duchess replied “Even though I can’t see who would like to do such thing, I can see why would someone take money for releasing Melusine, I accept your deal”
Mira breathed a sigh of relief after she heard those words, she had briefly feared that she had done everything for nothing.
“Men, take the prince to the stockade, show him off to the people, but make sure he stays unharmed, I want him in pristine condition” The duchess spoke.
“Mpghg!” Lothair complained as he was taken by the guards.
Mira looked down as regret ate away her heart, as someone who had already been on the duchess’ less favored side she knew what most likely was in store for him.
The duchess excused herself and left the room after the guards, leaving Mira alone with the silent company of some guards and castle servants, among which she desperately tried to find her sister.
The place known as the stockade was a relatively low balcony overlooking the main plaza, intended for the ruler of the castle to address Swapcross’ population. However, it had been long since the duchess felt the need to give public speeches, which left the balcony to become the place which they now called the stockade.
Stocks intended to display prisoners now laid around the balcony, they appeared to be terribly uncomfortable, and the unfortunate souls which had been placed on them knew that they were.
But Lothair was not brought to one of them.
Under the smug look of the duchess, Lothair was brought to a wooden post resembling a pyre, with his only guarantees of not being burned alive were the facts that he was wanted alive and that there was not enough wood below him to be burned.
But as he looked before him Lothair quickly realized why his new captress had decided that the pyre was a better place for him, from there he could overlook the whole plaza, and more importantly, the people there could look at him.
As the guards tied Lothair’s hands above his head behind the post, a crowd began to form in the plaza, and again they were quick to recognize the murderous prince as the man being tied to the pyre.
“People of swampcross, my loyal subjects” The duchess addressed the crowd “This night, I am pleased to inform you that I, your duchess, has captured the outlaw murderous prince, and that I will be the one to take him back to justice”
The crowd seemed to erupt after they heard the duchess’ words. This broke Lothair’s heart, it seemed like people really believed that he was a murderer, and that made him wonder if he had been a fool for even having hopes about the contrary being true.
“Feel free to gawk at his exposed body as I display him here, but do not harm him” The duchess ordered “The kingdom and I want him unharmed, so anyone found trying to hurt him will soon take his place”
With that threat to her people the duchess left and reentered the castle, leaving Lothair bound and exposed before a crowd of people and flanked by two rough looking guards.
For all that Mira hated the duchess, she was relied to see her return. While she was alone in the hall, she had been unable to stop thinking about Lothair and what was being done to them, and the relief of finally being able to reunite with her sister did little to harm her, as she still hadn’t see her.
So when the duchess came back it meant that she could at least be partly distracted by what she had to do, and think a bit less about what she had already done.
“Would you like to stay the night young lady?” The duchess asked “Night will soon be upon us, and after what you did for me you have my hospitality”
“I would prefer to leave now” Mira replied.
“I insist” The duchess said in response “Melusine must also be tired, you wouldn’t want to travel by night with her like that wouldn’t you”
Mira remained silent, she desperately wanted to get away from that woman but she could not risk antagonizing her, for she already knew where that could get her.
“I can stay then, but I must leave tomorrow in the morning” Mira replied “The man who hired me is impatient”
“Welcome to my castle then” The duchess said affably “Come with me, dinner should be ready in a few moments and you have earned a place with me there”
After a whole life of living as an urchin Mira could not help but feel out of place in the lavish banquet that was prepared for the duchess and her court. And while she would have liked to indulge in all the pleasures that had been kept away from her during her whole life, that sensation of feeling out of place did not allow her to, and every time she tried she was quickly reminded of two people, her sister, whom she had yet to see, and Lothair, of whom she desperate wanted not to think about.
Unbeknownst to Mira, the duchess had absented herself from the dinner to look for one of her servants. Melusine was working in the kitchen that day, and when the duchess showed herself there and instructed her to follow her outside she felt her body become rigid in fear. The duchess talking to her servants in such a direct manner rarely lead to something good.
Once outside, the duchess and Melusine stepped beside a window and there the duchess instructed her servant to look inside the room, and to look at someone in particular.
“Do you recognize that woman?” The duchess asked.
“Mira…” Melsuine murmured without realizing she was speaking out loud.
“Do you?” The duchess asked imperatively.
Melusine fell silent, she knew very well who she was looking at but she quickly began to wonder whether or not she should be truthful in her answer.
“Do you want another visit to the dungeons Melusine, after being so well behaved?” The duchess asked “It has been so long since you’ve been there, do you really want to go back there?”
Melusine felt her body begin to tremble as the duchess’ threats reached her ears, she knew that none of those threats were something the duchess was not capable of.
“Do you want to lose all the privileges you’ve earned? To go back to cleaning bathrooms and floors?” The duchess asked as she dragged Melusine away from the window and towards her “If you don’t just tell me, who is that woman”
“She is my sister, Mira” The maid cracked under the duchess threats.
The duchess let go of her maid and looked inside again, she had heard of Melusine’s sister before, she never expected to see her in person after hearing that she had fled Swampcross, but she couldn’t help but smile when she ended up doing so.
“Consider your privileges safe” The duchess said as she walked away “Now be a good maid and get back to work”
When the duchess returned she invited her guests with a serving of a finely aged wine, a generosity which surprised most but that she excused by saying that it was a celebration for the prince’s capture, which felt like a dagger in her heart for Mira, who was immediately reminded of what she had done to Lothair.
The pain brought by guilt of remembering what she did to someone she was beginning to care for, and of whom she had grown to realize his innocence, was so distracting that Mira did not suspect anything about the wine when her cup was brought to her, and who knows what would have happed if she had.
A few moments after drinking the wine Mira began to feel tired, she tried to appear undisturbed at first, but she slowly realized that the tiredness she was feeling was not normal. It was then when she made the connection with the wine she had drank, but it was too late.
Mira looked at the duchess, who smiled smugly at her, clearly seeing the tiredness on her face.
“Our guest seems tired, guards, why don’t you take her to a room?” The duchess said as she signaled to the two armored men on the entrance.
Mira would have liked to resist, to at least say something, but before she could gather the strength to do so her body failed her and she fell asleep before the guards could even lay hands on her.
Mira woke up to the feeling of cold, hard stone below her, uncomfortable even for her standards. She quickly sat up as to not rest her face on the cold stone beneath her, and the sound of rattling chains as she moved confirmed her fears.
She had been chained, her hands shackled behind her back and her ankles shackled together, with the later restraint being chained to the wall behind her. The dark room she was in was undeniably a dungeon, herself being on a dark barred cell barely illuminated by the dim light of a dying torch outside.
She struggled more out of frustration than out of a will to escape, because even though she wanted to be anywhere but there, she knew that she had no hopes of escaping chains, let alone iron bars.
Mira ceased her struggles when the sound of a door being opened outside her cell, followed by the sound of heels against the stone floor, alerted her of someone’s presence, and she didn’t have to guess who it was.
The duchess showed herself at the edge of light outside Mira’s cell, resting her hands on her hips and with a smug smile on her face, she was gloating over the chained woman.
Mira stood up to look to be at the duchess’ level and glared at her.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out who you are?” The duchess asked “Mira…”
“How do you know?” Mira answered trying to salvage whatever was left of her credibility.
“I had it from a good source” The duchess replied “It seems your sister still remembers your face”
“My sister?” Mira tried to fake ignorance.
“Yes, your sister Melusine” The duchess quickly replied “I know who you are, so stop trying to deceive me or there will be consequences, for you, and maybe for your sister too”
“Don’t you dare to touch her…” Mira said, ceasing all attempts at deceiving that woman and letting her emotions speak as she walked as close to the bars as her chains allowed her.
The duchess laughed at Mira’s impotence, which made her prisoner rattle in her chains to no avail in frustration, which the duchess continued to find amusing.
“I must say though, your plan to get your sister back was very original” The duchess chuckled “It won’t be enough for me to forgive what you did to my mother, but it may get you to keep your life, as my servant of course”
“I’d rather die than serve you!” Mira replied angrily.
“Shall I turn you in with the prince then?” The duchess mocked “Perhaps the kingdom’s authorities would gladly grant your wish of death”
Mira silently glared at the duchess, she was filled with rage yet impotent to do anything, held back by the cold metal of her chains. She could still speak, but she felt as if her words would not do any justice to the anger in her heart.
“Perhaps you don’t desire death as much as you think” The duchess said “I’ll leave you to think about it, on the meantime I think I will entertain myself with the gift you were so kind to bring me”
Lothair felt his body on the brink of collapse, he had been precariously leaning against the rough pyre, with his hands tied over his head and his torso and ankles tightly tied to the post that he began to miss even the floor of his cell in Blacktomb.
But the pain was not limited to his body, the words he heard from the crowd harmed him in a deeper way, seeing what people thought of him, the low image they had of someone who was once supposed to be their king, it was heartbreaking for Lothair, who was even starting to wonder what good it would be if he escaped, after all his people had already condemned him.
The only thing that eased the pain in his heart was hearing a group of people scream ‘we know you are innocent prince!’. Which brought him so much joy that for a brief moment his body gained the energy to struggle against the ropes and try to see who were the people who had dared to say such thing.
But the hope brought to him by this event was short lived, for the people who had been brave enough to speak such thing were quickly chased away by guards, and Lothair could only hope that they were not caught.
Eventually the guards received the order to take the prince back inside, by that time Lothair was only kept away by his restraints forcing him on that uncomfortable posture and little else. He nearly fell down when he was untied from the pyre and the guards pretty much had to drag him inside.
Lothair lived the walk through the insides of the castle as a fever dream. Barely awake he could only make out the rough outlines of the shapes he saw while the words he heard sounded like gibberish to him.
This seeming trace only ended when Lothair was taken inside a warm steamy room, which brought energy to his freezing body. Once inside the ropes tying his hands were removed and the guards let go of his body, letting him to nearly fall on the floor, narrowly stopping his fall with his hands.
After the guards left the room Lothair looked around to see where he was. It was a bath, a room of white stone and dark wood, and the steam was coming from a large tub in the middle, seemingly filled with hot water.
“The duchess wants you to bathe prince” Lothair heard a feminine voice echoing from across the room.
The voice reminded him of Mira and for good reason, the woman speaking to him was Melusine, but when he turned and saw not Mira, but an eerily similar woman in a maid uniform in one of the corners of the room he was slightly disappointed.
“I’ve been tasked with helping you bathe; do you need assistance undressing?” Melusine asked.
Lothair began to undress himself as an answer, feeling reluctant to talk but eager to shower. After all it had been days since he had known the feeling of soap and warm water, because it blacktomb water was always cold and soap was scarce even for the guards.
The prince found that due to the tiredness he felt much less shame about undressing in front of someone, because he knew that had he not been so tired he would have never agreed to undress before a woman he did not know.
Once undressed Lothair stepped inside the tub and welcomed the feeling of hot water. Being able to forget all that was happening for a few seconds due to the pleasure brought to him.
Lothair’s calm trance was brought to an end when Melusine began to rub soap against his back, with her sole touch being enough to cause the prince to twitch.
“Calm down, I am not going to hurt you” Melusine said after the prince had moved away from her “All I have to do is clean you”
Again with no words spoken, Lothair calmed down and allowed the maid to do her job. She also gave him a soap for himself so he could clean the rest of his body, which he was thankful about.
“Can I ask you a question?” Lothair broke the silence.
“Sure…” Melusine replied with surprise as she stopped rubbing the prince’s back “What is it?”
“Do you really think I am a murderer?” Lothair asked.
Melusine resumed rubbing the prince’s back as she thought of an answer.
“I don’t know” Melusine replied “You certainly not seem like one, but I know that appearances can be deceitful, but I also know that not all laws are fair and that no procedure is fool proof, so again, I don’t know”
Lothair fell silent, it wasn’t as condemning as hearing he was a murderer, but neither it was as calm as hearing he was innocent. But he would have much rather have the kingdom think like Melusine than have them deceived as they were now.
“Mira brought you here didn’t she?” Melusine asked.
“Do you know her?” Lothair asked as he looked at the woman over his shoulder.
“I am her sister, Melusine”
Lothair was relieved to know that at least Mira had not lied to her, and after breathing a sigh of relief he answered affirmatively.
“She told me you’d be freed if she gave me over to the duchess…” Lothair explained.
“That girl… Always to bold for her own good…” Melusine replied.
“Despite all I think she was justified…” Lothair spoke “I have no siblings, but I like to think that I’d do the same for them if something like what happened to you happened to them”
“Yet here I remain…” Melusine sighed.
Lothair looked over his shoulder again, only then did he realize such an obvious fact.
“Mira doesn’t have the best history with this duchess’ family, and I’m sorry to say that it ended up ruining her plan” Melusine said as she continued to clean the prince.
Lothair felt himself on the brink of tears, had he suffered for nothing? Not even Mira would have something to celebrate?
“What do you mean?” Lothair asked, as if any response could ease his pain.
“Years ago Mira killed the duchess’ mother in an attempt to rescue me” Melusine explained with melancholy “But before she could reach me she was chased away and almost caught, she fled the city afterwards and I hadn’t seen her since then until today”
“I didn’t know…”
“She came back because she knew that the new duchess wouldn’t recognize her face, but she made me speak…” Mira shed a tear “I’m sorry…”
Loud bangs on the room door brought both Melusine and Lothair out of their conversation, from outside guards demanded the prince to hurry, because the duchess was impatient.
Melsuine instructed the prince to finish quickly, which he did. He dried himself up as fast as he could and began looking for clothes, only to receive a rather small piece of silky white cloth that Melusine said was all that the duchess wanted him to wear.
With all the shame the situation called for having returned to the prince Lothair shamfully tied the piece of cloth around his hips, leaving it to narrowly cover his privates and little else.
“I’m sorry but I was instructed to tie your hands” Melusine spoke as she showed the prince a narrow piece of cloth, similar to the one he had used to dress himself.
Already used to it, the prince turned his back to Melusine and allowed her to tie his hands behind his back, securing his wrists crossed together and tightly bound by the silky material.
“I’m sorry…” Melusine repeated as she walked the prince towards the door.
There, the prince was handed over to a single guard which walked him to the duchess’ room. Lothair was thankful about the room being so close and that no people were around to see him aside from the guard, which already made him ashamed despite him not laying eyes directly on him a single time.
After walking on the cold walkway Lothair was glad to see that the insides of the duchess’ room were warm, heated up by a lively fireplace. The duchess herself was sitting on a couch at the end of her large bed, her dress gone and now only dressed on a loose red nightgown, with a cup of equally red wine on one hand.
The guard left the room closed the door behind him, leaving Lothair in the sole company of his new captress who began to lustfully eye him after taking one last sip of her wine.
“Hello my prince, why don’t you come closer” The duchess spoke with a slight hint of drunkenness in her voice.
Against his best interest, Lothair walked towards the duchess. Once he stood before her, with her ordering to stop once he was close enough to her.
While Lothair was too ashamed of being seen in his almost naked state by that woman, the duchess felt no shame in eyeing the prince’s body, lusting over the soft yet firm and defined features of his bare chest and abdomen.
“On your knees Lothair” The woman ordered him.
Again Lothair obeyed, kneeling in front of the duchess whom he still didn’t dare to look at.
“Look at me” She ordered Lothair as she grabbed him by the jaw and forced his gaze up, giving him no chance of disobeying her “You don’t remember me don’t you?”
Like it was usual in circumstances like this, Lothair found himself to overwhelmed with shame to utter any verbal response and after a few seconds of silence managed to shake his head despite the duchess’ firm grip on his face.
“I see, I can’t say I’m surprised but I’m still disappointed” The duchess spoke “We met a few years ago, during your birthday, I see you forgot me like most of the girls you met that day, but don’t worry, I’ll leave an impression now”
“Athela…” Lothair mubled.
“So you do remember me!” The duchess said happily “So then, doesn’t this bring back memories?”
Lothair gulped as he was forced to remember the last time he had been tied up by Athela. He was scared at the time, but his innocent fear of what Athela was going to do to him in their game of capture the flag could not compare to the fear she instilled on him now.
“I remember that Jean stopped me right before I could spend some time with you” Athela said as she caressed the prince’s hair “But it seems we got some time together after all…”
“What are you going to do to me?” Lothair asked with fear in his voice.
“Something I wanted to do since I saw you that day…” The duchess said as she grabbed something which laid on the couch beside her.
To Lothair, the item seemed like a strap of black leather which in the middle held an iron ring of good size, which for the most part had also been covered in black leather.
“Open your mouth prince, I’m going to need it” the duchess said as she grabbed both ends of the leather strap and put it right in front Lothair’s face.
Fearful of what complying might entail, but more afraid of where not doing so could get him, Lothair slowly opened his mouth and awaited whatever the duchess had planned for him.
Without waiting for Lothair’s mouth to be fully opened, the duchess forced the ring inside the prince’s mouth and buckled both ends of the leather strap which held the gag together tightly behind his head.
Lothair looked down to try to get a glimpse of what that gag was doing to his face, of course he did not see it, but he could feel it. It was strenuous on his jaw and it quickly began to make him drool profusely, and with no easy way to swallow his saliva soon began to fall out of his mouth.
Meanwhile the duchess leaned back on the couch and as she looked at the prince squirm in his restrains with an expression of utter shame on his face, she began to open her legs.
The movement made Lothair look before him, and as the duchess continued to open her legs he saw before him her privates in full display. Lothair’s face turned red and he tried to look away, but he was caught by the duchess by his hair.
“Don’t be a coward my prince, you know what you have to do don’t you?”
“Hghghg” Lothair groaned as he shook his head with difficulty.
“Oh… they don’t teach you to pleasure women in the castle?” The duchess asked teasingly “Then have it be the last thing you learn before you get thrown back in jail”
With an abrupt movement the duchess forced the prince’s head between her legs, and when he instinctively tried to pull away from her crotch he found out that the duchess had wrapped her legs around his head, putting him in thigh lock which he could not escape from.
“Start licking my prince” The duchess ordered “Do it well and I may reconsider turning you in”
Mira had surrendered to just sulking in her cell, she had already tried everything, kicking the door, pulling the chain that bound her to the wall, nothing worked, she was truly stuck.
She sat down and looked with impotence at her chains, the irony of how she had broken Lothair out of jail to turn him back in and how that ended up with her also on either the way to jail or to submission towards her captress did not help.
The dark silent monotony of her imprisonment was broken when after what seemed like hours of meeting with the duchess she heard someone enter the room, at first she expected it to be the duchess again, so she was already glaring at the barred entrance of her cell, but as the steps got closer she began to suspect, or to hope, that perhaps her visitor was someone else.
It sounded different from the characteristic noise of high heels against the stone floor, slightly quieter, and something about the pace of the sound, and therefore of the person walking, just felt different from what she had heard when the duchess came into the dungeons.
When Melusine showed herself at the edge of light where the duchess once stood Mira did not know how to react. Should she be happy about seeing her sister? Or maybe ashamed about being seen in that state? Her confusion rendered her silent, and her sister was the one to take the initiative.
“Hi Mira” She spoke “Its good to see you despite the circumstances”
“I’m sorry you have to see me like this” Mira said regretfully “I was supposed to save you, and yet here I am”
“Don’t feel bad, I appreciate what you tried to do for me regardless of your success” Melusine replied “And you didn’t kill anyone this time”
“Oh you know she deserved to die!” Mira complained.
“This is not the time for arguing, I’m sorry about bringing that up” Melusine replied as she began to rummage her pockets.
Mira looked at her with confusion and was overcome with a pleasant surprise when she saw her retrieve a set of keys from her pocket.
“I am risking all of the privileges I’ve earned by doing this, but I wont let that woman have you” Melusine said after throwing the keys inside her sister’s cell “I left what I could salvage of your equipment beside the dungeon exit”
“Melusine…” Mira muttered with disbelief.
“I will only ask you for one thing” Melusine interrupted her sister “Take the prince with you, I don’t care what you do with him but don’t let the duchess have him”
“What? I should take you with me!” Mira replied, again unable to believe the words her sister was speaking.
“I will acquire my freedom on my own, I was close to do so until you showed up and forced me to rescue you” Melusine replied with a slight hint of anger in her voice, her role as the older sister more than showing “I don’t know if the prince is innocent, all I know is that much like you he doesn’t deserve to suffer whatever the duchess wants to do to him”
“Melsuine, I swear I will make this up to you” Mira said “I will return and save you…”
“Please don’t, I can acquire freedom on my own, and your help hasn’t done much for me” Melusine replied sternly “Now be so kind as to wait for a while after I leave, and then go fix the mess you started”
With no more words spoken Melusine left her sister alone in the dungeons again, where she quickly began to work on releasing herself from the chains.
After what to Lothair felt like more than enough time licking the duchess finally let out a deep long moan and released Lothair’ from her legs, allowing him to pull back and breath in some fresh air, although with considerable difficulty due to his gag.
“At last, took you long enough” The duchess said as she slouched on the couch “But it really seems like you were not taught to do this in the castle, so I think I’ll have to go for a different approach.
“Mghgg?” Lothair tried to ask as he looked up at the duchess, wasn’t this already over? What did she want to do now?
“On the bed, now” The duchess ordered.
With difficulty, Lothair stood up and with a slow pace obeyed the duchess orders. He tried to sit gracefully at the edge of the bed, but his clumsiness brought by tiredness made him fall face down on the bed. Unbeknownst to him, exactly how the duchess wanted him.
The duchess went to the bed after Lothair, of which he took notice once he felt her weight on his back, she was straddling him.
“I am going to remove this for a few seconds, so let me remind you of something” The duchess said as she grabbed Lothair’s bound hands and moved to whisper to his ear “Outside that door there are two armed guards, they will not kill you since you are wanted alive, but they can do a lot of things to you while keeping you alive”
Even though Lothair did not have plans to try anything, already feeling it to be pointless, the duchess’ threat still seeded fear into his mind, enough for him to be yet even more compliant.
Like she said she’d do, the duchess untied Lothair’s hands, only to tie them in front of him shortly after to then tie them above his head to the bed’s headboard. Still straddling him, the duchess then faced away from him and sat atop his thighs.
“I’ll need your legs still for this” She said before tying Lothair’s ankles together and to the bottom of the bed with the same silky material that was used on his hands.
Once Lothair found himself outstretched in the middle of the bed the duchess straddled him sitting atop his abdomen, and with her bottom she slightly rubbed the prince’s cock, but she made sure he noticed it.
“It seems I won’t have to do much work” The duchess said as she saw Lothair’s face get even more red than before “What are pervert you are my prince”
Lothair’s shame and fear began to mix with guilt? Why was he like this? Why did her body derive such enjoyment from such demeaning, humiliating situations, why did he enjoy being at the mercy of women who saw him as a mere prisoner? All questions that went through the prince’s head as he tried to distract himself from the sensation of the duchess pulling down his pants.
Once his erection was fully exposed, the duchess grabbed it and rose slightly above the mattress to finally get things started Lothair began to wish that he was with Mira instead, someone to whom he could simply say no and get her to stop. Because despite what his body showed, Lothair did not want things to keep going at all.
But life if his thoughts summoned her, Lothair heard Mira’s voice, and what he at first thought to be a delusion soon proved itself to be a reality.
“Get away from him!” Mira shouted from the door.
She was standing above the unconscious bodies of the two guards and had a hand crossbow pointed directly at the duchess. Neither Lothair nor the duchess could believe what they were seeing.
“How did you…”
Mira sharply gestured to the duchess to get away from Lothair with her crossbow, to which the duchess, who was far angrier than she was scared, raised her hands above her head and obeyed, moving to stand beside the bed.
“Hands behind your back now” Mira said as she grabbed some rope her sister had salvaged from her equipment.
“I don’t know how you escaped, but you won’t get far” The duchess threatened as Mira began to tie her hands behind her back “I have guards everywhere, and don’t forget I have your sister too”
Those words made Mira take a dagger from her belt and place directly against the duchess’ neck, were she to slide the blade even slightly, the duchess’ life would have bled out of her seconds.
“I know you do, so remember this” Mira said as she pressed the dagger against the duchess neck as much as she could without hurting her “The only reason your blood has not been spilled on the ground yet is because of her, so be thankful and leave her alone”
The duchess was able to breathe again once Mira took the dagger away from her neck and went back to tying her, this time running rope below her breasts to pin her arms to her back. She tried to hide it, but she was more afraid than she had ever been.
“I’m borrowing this…” Mira said as she removed the gag from Lothair’s mouth.
The prince was immensely relieved to be ungagged, but his relief was also because the duchess had been stopped before she could do anything with him on the bed, and also because he was more glad to see Mira again than he wanted to admit.
After tying the duchess legs together at the ankles and knees, and with difficulty applying the gag she had used on Lothair in her mouth, Mira pushed the duchess onto the floor and again pointed a dagger against her face.
“As much as I’d love to make a piece of art out of that face of yours I’m going to leave unscathed” Mira spoke, knowing very well that she was instilling fear in the duchess “And if I ever get notice of you laying a finger on my sister, I will come back and if that happens you’d have to pray for me to show you this kindness again”
Leaving the duchess with the sole fear of her threat as her company, Mira quickly moved to the bed to cut Lothair free, and the prince quickly began to shower Mira with thanks.
“No need to thank me, we can just say that we’re even now” Mira cut off Lothair “Let’s leave this place now, together”
The Fallen Prince (F/M) (Fantasy) (Part 31 added)
Wasn't expecting that!!! I knew Mira was sweet on Lothair but I never expected her to rescue him. I'm still waiting for him and Jean to be reunited. No pressure 
Hogtied and loving it
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Roboticrobin20
- Centennial Club
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- Joined: 5 years ago
- Location: Belgium
I really wonder what happens if Jean and Lothair reunite. Mira and Jean will probably have a bit of a clash for sure. It's gonna be very interesting to read and imagine 
Thanks for the amazing chapter
Thanks for the amazing chapter
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harveygasson
- Millennial Club
- Posts: 1371
- Joined: 6 years ago
Wow got tense there but glad to see them both free and I wonder what comes next
Surprised the prince was released so soon really and by Mira no less. It would be interesting to see a love triangle here 
anyways great read thanks for keeping up.
anyways great read thanks for keeping up.Apologies for my prolonged absence, I wasn't able to access the site for a good amount of days.
@DallasNotAustin @TripleZero @crow3467 @charliesmith @VoidEmperor224 @Simo @Pleasurechip95 @harveygasson @Syko Sith @Roboticrobin20 Thanks for commenting enjoy part twenty seven!
Chapter 28
After giving Lothair some clothes which she didn’t specify where she got from Mira left the castle and then the city with the prince behind her tracks. Her sister had undeniably done something for her, it was easy to tell due to the relatively minor presence of guards, but still they remained stealthy until they were outside the city.
Only then, and only after they reached the relative safety of trees and bushes did they stop to give explanations. Mira was the one to speak first, she apologized to Lothair, sincerely but without insistence, and told him about what happened to her sister, of which Lothair was quick to ask about.
Then came the question of what to do now, even though they had escaped, now a whole city knew where the prince was and they’d soon be looking out for him and for Mira too. As much as both would have liked to take time to rest they ended up deciding that they were not at the time to rest nor to plan, it was time to flee.
“We are not far from the border…” Mira mused out loud “I know you were prince of this land and all, but this kingdom isn’t safe for you”
“I know, I was thinking the same” Lothair replied, much to Mira’s surprise who expected him to be reluctant to leave his motherland “There we can stop to think about what to do, but now all we can do is get going”
“I’m as thrilled about walking during the night as you, but it seems you understand the position we’re in” Mira said as she jumped to her feet “Let’s get going”
Lothair stood up with ease and looked at Mira, waiting for her to lead the way. Even though a part of him wanted to be angry at her, her felt anything but anger towards her, because despite what she had done to him the memory that lived on his mind was that she saved him, twice.
“No ropes this time” Mira said playfully as she winked at Lothair.
Even though Lothair felt his energy revitalized when they made their escape, as they kept walking through the swampy fields in hopes of eventually reaching the border his energy began to drain really fast, because even though adrenaline had briefly managed to make him forget that he was tired, that had not changed.
Mira was not fairing much better, she had also endured a great deal of time in chains and her escape had not been exactly easy on her body, and those moments she stayed unconscious did not make her rest at all.
“Tell me something Lothair” Mira spoke, hoping that conversation would help her stay awake “I want to know your side of the story”
“What?” Lothair asked, at first too tired to understand the question.
“I want to know what you have to say about what happened to you, are you really a murderer?” Mira asked “I won’t judge you no matter what you reply, I believe we’re past that point”
Lothair looked away, trying to remember his past that now seemed so distant, hoping that he would see glimpses of those better times reflected on the moonlit water.
“I believe I’m being framed” Lothair replied, using the word ‘believed’, since lately he was starting to doubt himself.
“Interesting, by who?” Mira asked, more to keep the conversation going than out of genuine interest.
“Tanis, she’s the palace’s sorceress” He explained “Even though she always appeared to be friendly with us, it seems she had us fooled…”
Mira’s silence was a signal for Lothair to continue, but there were details Lothair would rather not disclose with Mira, especially those which related to Jean. What would she think if she knew of her? Lothair wondered despite not wanting to know the answer.
“She poisoned someone close to me, she wanted to frame someone else, but I discovered her poison” Lothair explained with ambiguity “The rest is history”
Mira stayed silent, she found it hard to gather the energy to reply while still walking, like if it was impossible for her to do both tasks.
“Do you believe?”
The question seemed to give her the energy she needed to utter words, but before any sound could leave her mouth the neigh of a horse boomed across the fields, loud enough for both escapees to know that it was near.
“Run!” Mira shouted as she knew that the sound of a horse there meant that a rider was there too.
The same adrenaline which filled their bodies during their escape returned and again made them forget how tired they were, they felt like they were running faster than a horse could even hope to do so, but either tiredness or fear had warped their perception of speed, as they were clearly mistaken.
They heard the sound of the horse again, this time clearly from behind them, they both looked over their shoulders and saw a large black horse, its steamy breath visible in the cold of night as it galloped in their direction.
Riding it they saw a large figure in heavy armor, with a pelt which waved in the wind as its steed speeded towards its quarry. Mira felt blood leave her face as she recognized the figure, it was Januth!
While looking over his shoulder Lothair managed to see the armored figure atop the horse reading some bolases, fluttering them on its hand. Lothair looked in front of him again and tried to speed up, like if he had any hopes of outrunning the horse, but before he could make out what stood in front of him he felt the leather straps of the hunting implement wrap around his body and throwing him to the floor.
Lothair fell with anything but grace, he tried to recover but his arms were pinned to his sides and his legs had been wrapped together down to his knees, all he could do was squirm, and when he managed to roll over he was able to see the horse stop beside him.
The armored figure jumped to the floor and looked down at the bound, exhausted prince. The figure crouched to look closer at Lothair, who was struggling to catch his breath.
“Interesting…” They said as they inspected the prince with its eyes concealed in the darkness of its helmet.
The voice was deep, but it was unquestionably feminine, Lothair had no idea of who she was, but it was clear that she did not have good intentions with him.
Januth reached down to grab Lothair by his restraints, but before she could lay her armor clad hand on him she was jumped on from behind. Mira clung onto Januth’s back, grabbing her around the head.
Januth fought to have Mira taken off her, but before being dropped to the floor with violence Mira managed to drive her dagger through one of the small openings on Januth’s helmet.
“I’ll make you regret that!” Januth said as she took of her helmet, revealing a deep cut which run from below her eye down to her jaw.
Before Mira could stood up Januth stepped on her, resting half of her weight, and that of her armor, on Mira’s body, which she felt was about to be crushed at any moment.
“Stay still and I’ll make this quick” Januth said as she took her sword out from its scabbard on her back.
No matter how much she struggled Mira had no way of breaking free from the heavy weight of Januth, and no matter how much she tried to stab her with her dagger her armor was unyielding and she could not find a single opening to stab her through.
“Wait!” Lothair pleaded from his disadvantageous position on the floor “You can take me, but please don’t hurt her!”
“How do you know I don’t want to kill you too?” Januth asked with sadistic playfulness as she looked down at the prince.
“You didn’t use your sword on me, so I assume you are after the reward that’s on my live body” Lothair replied “And you already have me, you don’t need to hurt her!”
“Lothair don’t” Mira tried to argue, but she was quickly silenced by Januth’s force over her chest.
Even though to Lothair and Mira it seemed like the woman had clearly decided to kill Mira, and even Lothair too as she seemed rather unamused by his words, she actually considered her next move, impressed by both Lothair’s selflessness and Mira’s willing to sacrifice herself, even if it was for a futile cause.
“Consider yourself lucky, you have managed to sway me” Januth said as she removed her foot from Mira’s chest, allowing her to breathe with ease again “But I still want my revenge for what you did to me”
Before Mira could recover Januth grabbed her arms and dragged her against a tree, Mira’s complaints did not phase Januth, who grabbed both of Mira’s hands and manacled them behind the tree.
“It will either be the guards or the wolves” Januth said after leaving Mira safely secured to the tree “And as for you little prince, you are coming with me”
While Mira struggled against the tree Januth removed the leather string from around Lothair and began to restrain him with rope, tying his hands together behind his back and his feet also together, then attaching both restraints in a loose hogtie.
“Let her go!” Lothair said as Januth tightened his restraints.
“Silence!” Januth replied as she smacked Lothair’s butt with force “My job is to take you to Tanis, not to stand your words, so talk again and you’ll be gagged”
“Tanis?” Lothair asked.
The question also resonated in Mira’s mind, if she had heard correctly, that was the same name Lothair had given to the supposed sorceress who framed him for murderer, and if that was the case, that meant that the story to which she had not paid much attention was far more believable than she initially gave it credit for.
“Oops, spoke too much” Januth said with the same sadistic playfulness with which she had talked before.
Lothair was then gagged with a knotted piece of black cloth which Januth forcible put behind his teeth and between his lips.
Effortlessly, Januth grabbed Lothair and laid him on her saddle, perpendicular to the horse. She then jumped atop her steed again, leaving little space for Lothair on the saddle, who’s complaints could be heard through the gag.
“Fuck you!” Mira managed to curse as she saw Januth ride away with Lothair.
@DallasNotAustin @TripleZero @crow3467 @charliesmith @VoidEmperor224 @Simo @Pleasurechip95 @harveygasson @Syko Sith @Roboticrobin20 Thanks for commenting enjoy part twenty seven!
Chapter 28
After giving Lothair some clothes which she didn’t specify where she got from Mira left the castle and then the city with the prince behind her tracks. Her sister had undeniably done something for her, it was easy to tell due to the relatively minor presence of guards, but still they remained stealthy until they were outside the city.
Only then, and only after they reached the relative safety of trees and bushes did they stop to give explanations. Mira was the one to speak first, she apologized to Lothair, sincerely but without insistence, and told him about what happened to her sister, of which Lothair was quick to ask about.
Then came the question of what to do now, even though they had escaped, now a whole city knew where the prince was and they’d soon be looking out for him and for Mira too. As much as both would have liked to take time to rest they ended up deciding that they were not at the time to rest nor to plan, it was time to flee.
“We are not far from the border…” Mira mused out loud “I know you were prince of this land and all, but this kingdom isn’t safe for you”
“I know, I was thinking the same” Lothair replied, much to Mira’s surprise who expected him to be reluctant to leave his motherland “There we can stop to think about what to do, but now all we can do is get going”
“I’m as thrilled about walking during the night as you, but it seems you understand the position we’re in” Mira said as she jumped to her feet “Let’s get going”
Lothair stood up with ease and looked at Mira, waiting for her to lead the way. Even though a part of him wanted to be angry at her, her felt anything but anger towards her, because despite what she had done to him the memory that lived on his mind was that she saved him, twice.
“No ropes this time” Mira said playfully as she winked at Lothair.
Even though Lothair felt his energy revitalized when they made their escape, as they kept walking through the swampy fields in hopes of eventually reaching the border his energy began to drain really fast, because even though adrenaline had briefly managed to make him forget that he was tired, that had not changed.
Mira was not fairing much better, she had also endured a great deal of time in chains and her escape had not been exactly easy on her body, and those moments she stayed unconscious did not make her rest at all.
“Tell me something Lothair” Mira spoke, hoping that conversation would help her stay awake “I want to know your side of the story”
“What?” Lothair asked, at first too tired to understand the question.
“I want to know what you have to say about what happened to you, are you really a murderer?” Mira asked “I won’t judge you no matter what you reply, I believe we’re past that point”
Lothair looked away, trying to remember his past that now seemed so distant, hoping that he would see glimpses of those better times reflected on the moonlit water.
“I believe I’m being framed” Lothair replied, using the word ‘believed’, since lately he was starting to doubt himself.
“Interesting, by who?” Mira asked, more to keep the conversation going than out of genuine interest.
“Tanis, she’s the palace’s sorceress” He explained “Even though she always appeared to be friendly with us, it seems she had us fooled…”
Mira’s silence was a signal for Lothair to continue, but there were details Lothair would rather not disclose with Mira, especially those which related to Jean. What would she think if she knew of her? Lothair wondered despite not wanting to know the answer.
“She poisoned someone close to me, she wanted to frame someone else, but I discovered her poison” Lothair explained with ambiguity “The rest is history”
Mira stayed silent, she found it hard to gather the energy to reply while still walking, like if it was impossible for her to do both tasks.
“Do you believe?”
The question seemed to give her the energy she needed to utter words, but before any sound could leave her mouth the neigh of a horse boomed across the fields, loud enough for both escapees to know that it was near.
“Run!” Mira shouted as she knew that the sound of a horse there meant that a rider was there too.
The same adrenaline which filled their bodies during their escape returned and again made them forget how tired they were, they felt like they were running faster than a horse could even hope to do so, but either tiredness or fear had warped their perception of speed, as they were clearly mistaken.
They heard the sound of the horse again, this time clearly from behind them, they both looked over their shoulders and saw a large black horse, its steamy breath visible in the cold of night as it galloped in their direction.
Riding it they saw a large figure in heavy armor, with a pelt which waved in the wind as its steed speeded towards its quarry. Mira felt blood leave her face as she recognized the figure, it was Januth!
While looking over his shoulder Lothair managed to see the armored figure atop the horse reading some bolases, fluttering them on its hand. Lothair looked in front of him again and tried to speed up, like if he had any hopes of outrunning the horse, but before he could make out what stood in front of him he felt the leather straps of the hunting implement wrap around his body and throwing him to the floor.
Lothair fell with anything but grace, he tried to recover but his arms were pinned to his sides and his legs had been wrapped together down to his knees, all he could do was squirm, and when he managed to roll over he was able to see the horse stop beside him.
The armored figure jumped to the floor and looked down at the bound, exhausted prince. The figure crouched to look closer at Lothair, who was struggling to catch his breath.
“Interesting…” They said as they inspected the prince with its eyes concealed in the darkness of its helmet.
The voice was deep, but it was unquestionably feminine, Lothair had no idea of who she was, but it was clear that she did not have good intentions with him.
Januth reached down to grab Lothair by his restraints, but before she could lay her armor clad hand on him she was jumped on from behind. Mira clung onto Januth’s back, grabbing her around the head.
Januth fought to have Mira taken off her, but before being dropped to the floor with violence Mira managed to drive her dagger through one of the small openings on Januth’s helmet.
“I’ll make you regret that!” Januth said as she took of her helmet, revealing a deep cut which run from below her eye down to her jaw.
Before Mira could stood up Januth stepped on her, resting half of her weight, and that of her armor, on Mira’s body, which she felt was about to be crushed at any moment.
“Stay still and I’ll make this quick” Januth said as she took her sword out from its scabbard on her back.
No matter how much she struggled Mira had no way of breaking free from the heavy weight of Januth, and no matter how much she tried to stab her with her dagger her armor was unyielding and she could not find a single opening to stab her through.
“Wait!” Lothair pleaded from his disadvantageous position on the floor “You can take me, but please don’t hurt her!”
“How do you know I don’t want to kill you too?” Januth asked with sadistic playfulness as she looked down at the prince.
“You didn’t use your sword on me, so I assume you are after the reward that’s on my live body” Lothair replied “And you already have me, you don’t need to hurt her!”
“Lothair don’t” Mira tried to argue, but she was quickly silenced by Januth’s force over her chest.
Even though to Lothair and Mira it seemed like the woman had clearly decided to kill Mira, and even Lothair too as she seemed rather unamused by his words, she actually considered her next move, impressed by both Lothair’s selflessness and Mira’s willing to sacrifice herself, even if it was for a futile cause.
“Consider yourself lucky, you have managed to sway me” Januth said as she removed her foot from Mira’s chest, allowing her to breathe with ease again “But I still want my revenge for what you did to me”
Before Mira could recover Januth grabbed her arms and dragged her against a tree, Mira’s complaints did not phase Januth, who grabbed both of Mira’s hands and manacled them behind the tree.
“It will either be the guards or the wolves” Januth said after leaving Mira safely secured to the tree “And as for you little prince, you are coming with me”
While Mira struggled against the tree Januth removed the leather string from around Lothair and began to restrain him with rope, tying his hands together behind his back and his feet also together, then attaching both restraints in a loose hogtie.
“Let her go!” Lothair said as Januth tightened his restraints.
“Silence!” Januth replied as she smacked Lothair’s butt with force “My job is to take you to Tanis, not to stand your words, so talk again and you’ll be gagged”
“Tanis?” Lothair asked.
The question also resonated in Mira’s mind, if she had heard correctly, that was the same name Lothair had given to the supposed sorceress who framed him for murderer, and if that was the case, that meant that the story to which she had not paid much attention was far more believable than she initially gave it credit for.
“Oops, spoke too much” Januth said with the same sadistic playfulness with which she had talked before.
Lothair was then gagged with a knotted piece of black cloth which Januth forcible put behind his teeth and between his lips.
Effortlessly, Januth grabbed Lothair and laid him on her saddle, perpendicular to the horse. She then jumped atop her steed again, leaving little space for Lothair on the saddle, who’s complaints could be heard through the gag.
“Fuck you!” Mira managed to curse as she saw Januth ride away with Lothair.
I was beginning to wonder where you were. Nice to see another installment. Now, WHERE IS JEAN. Sorry got excited
Continue when you can
Continue when you can
Hogtied and loving it
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harveygasson
- Millennial Club
- Posts: 1371
- Joined: 6 years ago
Great to see you back and more of this excellent story!
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Roboticrobin20
- Centennial Club
- Posts: 189
- Joined: 5 years ago
- Location: Belgium
I'm really happy to be able to read another chapter 
I enjoyed it, it seems like Lothair is cursed to end up in ropes all the time xD
I enjoyed it, it seems like Lothair is cursed to end up in ropes all the time xD
@DallasNotAustin @TripleZero @crow3467 @charliesmith @VoidEmperor224 @Simo @Pleasurechip95 @harveygasson @Syko Sith @Roboticrobin20 Thanks for commenting enjoy part twenty nine!
Chapter 29
Upon reaching the edges of the forest Jean, Emelia and their fey companion made a stop to rest. Ever since Alcinne had joined travel had become trivial, as she could teleport around the forest gateways with ease and create shelter out of the sole nature around them.
While at first Emelia and Jean feared that the dryad would not think kindly of them hunting, they were surprised to know that she did not mind, as she regarded it as part of the nature that she embodied. So even though she uttered a low prayer in an unknown language every time necessity forced them to slay something to eat, she never stopped the two girls from doing so.
This stop was like all others before, Alcinne made shelter out of a tree while Emelia ignited some logs and branches Jean brought to their camp, over which they cooked what they could find.
“Do you think Lothair has moved since your vision?” Jean asked as she sat beside Alcinne and Emelia.
“Most likely, but I don’t believe he strayed too far from here” Alcinne replied “And even still, I have the means to track him”
“May I ask about those means?” Emelia asked.
Alcinne held a hand up and on her arm landed three small birds. Alcinne spoke to them in the same language she used for the prayers the two girls never understood and soon after the birds flew away.
“They will look for him” Alcinne replied “They are much better at it than us, so they should return here shortly”
“Awesome…” Emelia said surprised by Alcinne ease with magic.
“I just hope he’s okay…” Jean mused out loud as she waited for her food to cool down.
Before they were done eating one of the birds returned, it stood on Alcinne’s shoulder and chirped on her ear. Soon after the dryad relayed the words of the bird to Emelia and Jean: Lothair had been found.
Jean began to eat quicker after she heard those news and despite Emelia taking more time with hers soon after the two were ready to follow wherever the bird lead them.
The sun had already settled firmly above the horizon, dimly shining light over the dew riddled grass of the fields of northern Drael, when Januth finally pulled the rains of her horse to make it stop.
After a long and rough ride on Januth’s huge steed Lothair was unceremoniously dropped to the floor near a small rock formation, perfect for hiding from those who passed by the road, which was at a good distance from their spot.
Januth jumped to the floor afterwards and forced the prince to stand up after quickly untying the rope holding his hogtie together. She roughly grabbed him by his restrained hands and telling him to lay against a tree, there was only one tree near them, but with his legs bound Lothair thought it to be well out of his reach.
“Come on, hop” Januth ordered as she pushed Lothair.
The situation forced Lothair to obey as he hopped his way to the tree to avoid falling. He reached it with far more exhaustion than he expected to get from such a task.
Once he was sitting against the tree like Januth had instructed him, the giantess walked over to him and wound rope around him, tying him to the tree.
“Just to be sure…” Januth said as she tightened the knots holding him to the tree far more than what Lothair considered necessary.
Once the prince was securely bound to the dying plant Januth took a small bag from the horse’s saddlebags and then sat on a rack in front of Lothair. From within the bag she took a piece of a hardly distinguishable food.
Januth took a bite and was forced to pull the food with her jaw away from her hand as it seemed hard to tear. It was a piece of dried, salted meat, which despite its less than inviting appearance made Lothair’s stomach roar.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get your turn soon enough” Januth replied as she chewed down her food “Tanis want you alive after all”
Again Januth reminded him of Tanis, and how apparently she was doing this for her, and not necessary for the huge reward placed on his capture. Although that told him something, it was far too little, and it left him many more questions than answers.
Like she said she would do, Januth fed Lothair who had a much harder time eating than Januth, who seemed to find the prince struggle to tear and chew the dried meat amusing, and audibly taunted him when it seemed like he was unable to do so.
Much to his disappointment, Lothair was only fed one piece of food, which Januth excused by saying that she needed to keep him alive the whole travel. After giving him some water Januth was ready to gag the prince once again but there were questions he wanted to ask.
“Wait!” Lothair said as he moved his head away from Januth’s hand “Just tell me what is happening”
Surprisingly, Januth sat back and desisted from gagging the prince. She chuckled at his questions.
“What’s happening?” She chuckled “Well, I’m taking you to Tanis, isn’t that clear?”
“It is, but why?” Lothair asked “You say you are taking me to Tanis, not the authorities, are you even after the reward?”
“Well, you got me there” Januth said affably “I couldn’t care less for gold no matter how many of it”
“Why are you doing this then? What did Tanis do to me?” Lothair asked, hoping that somehow he could at least begin to persuade his captress.
“Did to me? She made me into what I am!” Januth replied “Powerful and invincible, a goddess amongst humans!”
Januth hit her chest plate with pride, clearly pleased to know that she truly was what she was describing, but her proud face soon showed a grimace of anger, maybe even of sadness.
“But I didn’t pay the price, so I ended up in debt to her… and let me tell you, being in debt with someone like her is not nice…” Januth explained “But thanks to you little prince, I will pay my debt with ease”
“Is that what she offered you?” Lothair asked “I can make you free too, you just need to..”
“Don’t even try it” Januth cut off the prince “In your position you are in no condition to offer me anything anyway”
Lothair could not think of a counterargument, so he fell silent, which prompted Januth to grin.
“Good boy” Januth said as she saw Lothair’s docility “Open up now, the gag is going back on”
Januth then grabbed a blanket which her horse carried and threw it over Lothair, roughly managing to cover his whole body. Meanwhile she rested against a rock and without even removing her armor, she laid her head back as if trying to sleep.
“We’ll travel by night, so try to get some rest now” Januth said as she looked at the prince, who was struggling to make himself comfortable on the blanket while tied up “Well, if you can…”
Lothair’s only way to keep track of time was the sun, which to him seemed to move slower than usual, which he blamed on the warped sense of time he knew being tied up caused. Of course he took inspection of the knots keeping him restrained, but like it was expected he found no weakness he could target on them. They were either too tight or well out of the reach of his bound hands.
Throughout the day he returned to his attempts at escaping, like if he was expecting for the knots to have changed while he was not paying attention to them, but most likely as a way to keep himself entertained, as the day was beyond boring.
While his attention was often caught by passing animals, hares and small birds which got confidently close to him and Januth after making sure they either did not take notice of their presence or couldn’t do anything about it, his gaze was eventually caught by something far different than those small creatures, and which made him feel something he was being forced to forget, hope.
Three people were coming right to him, and while one of them remained unknown to him due to being covered by a long cloak which hid its face and billowing in the wind. He first recognized Emelia, at first he was unable to believe that he was seeing her there, but as she got closer it became clearer for Lothair that it could be nobody but her, but as they got closer and closer the figure beside Emelia and in the middle of the three took all of Lothair’s attention for herself.
Lothair could have recognized those features no matter where he was. Her long blonde hair tied in a ponytail billowing in the wind, her athletic body tightly hugged by a blue gambeson, she was Jean.
The prince was so distracted by the presence of his rescuers that for a moment he forgot that something more than ropes stood between him and his rescuers, and it was far more threatening. Lothair looked up to see his captress, and much to his dismay he saw that Januth was awake.
“See something’ interesting?” Januth asked as she smirked.
Gagged and scared as he was the prince could not give any response, he hoped that Januth had only coincidentally waken up and hadn’t seen Jean, Emelia and their mysterious companion.
Januth grabbed her sword which she had nailed on the ground and immediately looked at the direction from which Lothair had seen the three women come, Lothair turned to look there too, but much to his surprise he saw nobody there.
Januth seemed as confused as him, which already told Lothair that she knew that something was happening, she took a step towards the prince, probably to ask him something, but before she could get any closer she was attacked from behind, which she narrowly managed to dodge.
It was Jean, she was holding a sword which albeit shorter than Januth had nothing to envy from it in craftsmanship. She was on a battle stance, of the type that Lothair had seen during her fencing practices with her.
Januth smelled the air and confirmed something she already suspected since a familiar scent woke her up. This was the woman Tanis had sent her after.
“Great, now I can take you two to Tanis together” Januth said as she flourished her sword “Show me a good time and I may turn you over in one piece!”
Steel clashed against steel as the two women engaged in combat sparks flashing as the swords clashed. While Jean was a formidable fighter her lack of actual experience in combat soon began to show, as she found herself much slower to react than she expected, avoiding all devastating blows but earning more than a scratch from Januth’s sword, of which Januth took full advantage of its length to push Jean back.
Lothair wished he was able to do something, he resumed his struggles which were as futile as always and began to bite down his gag as he moaned in frustration, Jean was being pushed back right in front of him and he couldn’t do a thing but watch!
For obvious reasons Jean’s saving did not come from Lothair but from Emelia, who finally reached the campsite and made her presence known by attacking Januth with a spell, a ray of freezing energy which encased one of Januth’s legs, immobilizing her for enough time for Jean to strike back against her before she could break out of the ice.
“Little slut…” Januth said as she shattered the ice holding her leg with relative ease.
Januth jumped at the frightened Emelia, who seemed to haven’t considered the possibility of her spell not working, thankfully for her Jean stood between her and Januth, and managed to parry a slash which would have otherwise cleanly cut through her body.
But it was of no use, Jean was quickly pushed to the defensive again, slowly but surely stepping back against Januth, who didn’t even seem to be making a big effort to end the fight.
Emelia fell to the floor as she tried to run away, and Jean was too focused on her fight to even ask for help.
‘Alcinne where the hell are you!?’ Jean asked to her insides as she felt her guard become weaker with every strike that she parried.
Like if the dryad was capable of reading minds, she quickly intervened, but her intervention took a few seconds to become obvious. Januth only noticed what was happening when she tried to step forward and found out that she couldn’t move, she looked down to see her legs wrapped by roots which emerged from the ground. She tried to fight them, and with her strength the roots had to pull down against her because otherwise she would have broken free.
Instead of landing a killing blow, Jean took the opportunity to step away and breath, as now Januth didn’t seem like much of a threat. From a good distance she was able to see how roots kept creeping up her body, crawling up her abdomen and chest until they eventually reached Januth’s arms, catching them by the wrists and elbows and putting her on her knees.
“What the hell is this!” Januth cursed as she kept trying to fight her restraints.
Before she could swear any further even more roots wrapped themselves around her head, covering her mouth and effectively gagging her as she furiously struggled to get free.
“Thanks…” Jean sighed as she saw Alcinne appear from behind her rival.
“I told you she was no regular foe” Alcinne explained “You shouldn’t have tried to take on her alone”
“Mpghghghg!” Januth complained as she kept pulling against the roots.
Jean took the chance not to respond to Alcinne reprimand and immediately rushed to rescue the prince, of whom they almost forgot in the midst of the fight. Jean freed the prince with ease, instantly cutting the ropes with her sword and pulling down the gag even before he could do it on his own.
“Lothair…” Jean said as she hugged the prince with a force which would have been harmful had she not been so loving.
The prince hugged her back, although in her weakened state he could not muster many force in his embrace.
As the hug eased in force the two stood away just a bit, enough to see each other in the eyes but with their arms still wrapped around each other. Januth was about to kiss Lothair, but as the prince saw Jean’s lips he was quickly reminded of what had happened between him and Mira, and he wondered if he should kiss Jean despite wanting it so deeply.
But before he could settle for anything, the sound of Januth’s restraints snapping made both Lothair and Jean spring back into action. Alcinne and Emelia, who had also been entranced by the reuninon between Jean and the prince, failed to notice it until it was too late.
Quickly starting to curse herself for not having killed Januth when she had the chance, Jean drew her sword and readied for combat. But all Januth did after grabbing her sword was jump on her horse and gallop away.
“Damn it!” Jean said “I should have killed her right then and there!”
“It wouldn’t have gotten you far” Alcinne said as she stepped beside Jean “Like I said, she is no regular foe”
Jean bit her lip in anger as she sheathed back her sword.
“We should get going now, she will most likely speak to Tanis about this and when that happens we need to be as far from here as possible” Alcinne said as she began to walk away.
Lothair still had many unanswered questions, most of them he was willing to seek answers for while fleeing the scene but there was something he felt he needed to ask in that exact moment.
“I know we should hurry, but have you seen Mira?” He asked before proving a brief description of the girl to the confused looks of his rescuers.
Jean indeed knew of something who matched her description, although she had never seen her, at least not in person, and so did Alcinne and Emelia. What those two would have answered to the prince’s questions we can’t know, but Jean’s answered gave them a clear message about what she wanted to be done about what they saw on those springs that night.
“Never seen her” Jean replied dryly before starting to walk away.
Januth did something she was rarely forced to and that she above all hated doing. She fled, she retreated like a coward, like someone weak instead of what she was supposed to be, the mightiest human alive.
In her rage and frustration, she found it hard to think any excuse that could remotely please Tanis, only enough to convince her not to send her back to the dimensional prison where she had been kept for how long she did not remember, bound in unbreakable chains and trapped in a false space, where she couldn’t even succumb to time itself.
The harsh truth that Januth tried desperately to ignore was that Tanis wouldn’t be pleased with any excuse she could give, she had only freed her to fulfill what should have been a simple task and now that she had failed she wasn’t likely to get a second chance, especially since she knew that despite being Tanis’ first option for such jobs she was far from the only one.
‘You didn’t told me that a dryad was with them!’, ‘If I knew that she was with them this wouldn’t have happened’, ‘That damn dryad!’, all excuses that Januth could provide had to do with ‘that damn dryad’, and while she wanted to hope that Tanis would understand that she was the reason for her failing, she had huge doubts about it.
But as her horse rushed through the swampy grounds near swampcross she caught a glimpse of a sole dying willow in the distance, a familiar sight. She stopped her horse and instructed it to move there.
Just like she expected, there she found an either asleep or passed out Mira, still chained to the tree like she had left her. Januth breathed as sigh of relief, she was not Lothair, but maybe, just maybe, she would be enough to earn her a second chance from Tanis.
Chapter 29
Upon reaching the edges of the forest Jean, Emelia and their fey companion made a stop to rest. Ever since Alcinne had joined travel had become trivial, as she could teleport around the forest gateways with ease and create shelter out of the sole nature around them.
While at first Emelia and Jean feared that the dryad would not think kindly of them hunting, they were surprised to know that she did not mind, as she regarded it as part of the nature that she embodied. So even though she uttered a low prayer in an unknown language every time necessity forced them to slay something to eat, she never stopped the two girls from doing so.
This stop was like all others before, Alcinne made shelter out of a tree while Emelia ignited some logs and branches Jean brought to their camp, over which they cooked what they could find.
“Do you think Lothair has moved since your vision?” Jean asked as she sat beside Alcinne and Emelia.
“Most likely, but I don’t believe he strayed too far from here” Alcinne replied “And even still, I have the means to track him”
“May I ask about those means?” Emelia asked.
Alcinne held a hand up and on her arm landed three small birds. Alcinne spoke to them in the same language she used for the prayers the two girls never understood and soon after the birds flew away.
“They will look for him” Alcinne replied “They are much better at it than us, so they should return here shortly”
“Awesome…” Emelia said surprised by Alcinne ease with magic.
“I just hope he’s okay…” Jean mused out loud as she waited for her food to cool down.
Before they were done eating one of the birds returned, it stood on Alcinne’s shoulder and chirped on her ear. Soon after the dryad relayed the words of the bird to Emelia and Jean: Lothair had been found.
Jean began to eat quicker after she heard those news and despite Emelia taking more time with hers soon after the two were ready to follow wherever the bird lead them.
The sun had already settled firmly above the horizon, dimly shining light over the dew riddled grass of the fields of northern Drael, when Januth finally pulled the rains of her horse to make it stop.
After a long and rough ride on Januth’s huge steed Lothair was unceremoniously dropped to the floor near a small rock formation, perfect for hiding from those who passed by the road, which was at a good distance from their spot.
Januth jumped to the floor afterwards and forced the prince to stand up after quickly untying the rope holding his hogtie together. She roughly grabbed him by his restrained hands and telling him to lay against a tree, there was only one tree near them, but with his legs bound Lothair thought it to be well out of his reach.
“Come on, hop” Januth ordered as she pushed Lothair.
The situation forced Lothair to obey as he hopped his way to the tree to avoid falling. He reached it with far more exhaustion than he expected to get from such a task.
Once he was sitting against the tree like Januth had instructed him, the giantess walked over to him and wound rope around him, tying him to the tree.
“Just to be sure…” Januth said as she tightened the knots holding him to the tree far more than what Lothair considered necessary.
Once the prince was securely bound to the dying plant Januth took a small bag from the horse’s saddlebags and then sat on a rack in front of Lothair. From within the bag she took a piece of a hardly distinguishable food.
Januth took a bite and was forced to pull the food with her jaw away from her hand as it seemed hard to tear. It was a piece of dried, salted meat, which despite its less than inviting appearance made Lothair’s stomach roar.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get your turn soon enough” Januth replied as she chewed down her food “Tanis want you alive after all”
Again Januth reminded him of Tanis, and how apparently she was doing this for her, and not necessary for the huge reward placed on his capture. Although that told him something, it was far too little, and it left him many more questions than answers.
Like she said she would do, Januth fed Lothair who had a much harder time eating than Januth, who seemed to find the prince struggle to tear and chew the dried meat amusing, and audibly taunted him when it seemed like he was unable to do so.
Much to his disappointment, Lothair was only fed one piece of food, which Januth excused by saying that she needed to keep him alive the whole travel. After giving him some water Januth was ready to gag the prince once again but there were questions he wanted to ask.
“Wait!” Lothair said as he moved his head away from Januth’s hand “Just tell me what is happening”
Surprisingly, Januth sat back and desisted from gagging the prince. She chuckled at his questions.
“What’s happening?” She chuckled “Well, I’m taking you to Tanis, isn’t that clear?”
“It is, but why?” Lothair asked “You say you are taking me to Tanis, not the authorities, are you even after the reward?”
“Well, you got me there” Januth said affably “I couldn’t care less for gold no matter how many of it”
“Why are you doing this then? What did Tanis do to me?” Lothair asked, hoping that somehow he could at least begin to persuade his captress.
“Did to me? She made me into what I am!” Januth replied “Powerful and invincible, a goddess amongst humans!”
Januth hit her chest plate with pride, clearly pleased to know that she truly was what she was describing, but her proud face soon showed a grimace of anger, maybe even of sadness.
“But I didn’t pay the price, so I ended up in debt to her… and let me tell you, being in debt with someone like her is not nice…” Januth explained “But thanks to you little prince, I will pay my debt with ease”
“Is that what she offered you?” Lothair asked “I can make you free too, you just need to..”
“Don’t even try it” Januth cut off the prince “In your position you are in no condition to offer me anything anyway”
Lothair could not think of a counterargument, so he fell silent, which prompted Januth to grin.
“Good boy” Januth said as she saw Lothair’s docility “Open up now, the gag is going back on”
Januth then grabbed a blanket which her horse carried and threw it over Lothair, roughly managing to cover his whole body. Meanwhile she rested against a rock and without even removing her armor, she laid her head back as if trying to sleep.
“We’ll travel by night, so try to get some rest now” Januth said as she looked at the prince, who was struggling to make himself comfortable on the blanket while tied up “Well, if you can…”
Lothair’s only way to keep track of time was the sun, which to him seemed to move slower than usual, which he blamed on the warped sense of time he knew being tied up caused. Of course he took inspection of the knots keeping him restrained, but like it was expected he found no weakness he could target on them. They were either too tight or well out of the reach of his bound hands.
Throughout the day he returned to his attempts at escaping, like if he was expecting for the knots to have changed while he was not paying attention to them, but most likely as a way to keep himself entertained, as the day was beyond boring.
While his attention was often caught by passing animals, hares and small birds which got confidently close to him and Januth after making sure they either did not take notice of their presence or couldn’t do anything about it, his gaze was eventually caught by something far different than those small creatures, and which made him feel something he was being forced to forget, hope.
Three people were coming right to him, and while one of them remained unknown to him due to being covered by a long cloak which hid its face and billowing in the wind. He first recognized Emelia, at first he was unable to believe that he was seeing her there, but as she got closer it became clearer for Lothair that it could be nobody but her, but as they got closer and closer the figure beside Emelia and in the middle of the three took all of Lothair’s attention for herself.
Lothair could have recognized those features no matter where he was. Her long blonde hair tied in a ponytail billowing in the wind, her athletic body tightly hugged by a blue gambeson, she was Jean.
The prince was so distracted by the presence of his rescuers that for a moment he forgot that something more than ropes stood between him and his rescuers, and it was far more threatening. Lothair looked up to see his captress, and much to his dismay he saw that Januth was awake.
“See something’ interesting?” Januth asked as she smirked.
Gagged and scared as he was the prince could not give any response, he hoped that Januth had only coincidentally waken up and hadn’t seen Jean, Emelia and their mysterious companion.
Januth grabbed her sword which she had nailed on the ground and immediately looked at the direction from which Lothair had seen the three women come, Lothair turned to look there too, but much to his surprise he saw nobody there.
Januth seemed as confused as him, which already told Lothair that she knew that something was happening, she took a step towards the prince, probably to ask him something, but before she could get any closer she was attacked from behind, which she narrowly managed to dodge.
It was Jean, she was holding a sword which albeit shorter than Januth had nothing to envy from it in craftsmanship. She was on a battle stance, of the type that Lothair had seen during her fencing practices with her.
Januth smelled the air and confirmed something she already suspected since a familiar scent woke her up. This was the woman Tanis had sent her after.
“Great, now I can take you two to Tanis together” Januth said as she flourished her sword “Show me a good time and I may turn you over in one piece!”
Steel clashed against steel as the two women engaged in combat sparks flashing as the swords clashed. While Jean was a formidable fighter her lack of actual experience in combat soon began to show, as she found herself much slower to react than she expected, avoiding all devastating blows but earning more than a scratch from Januth’s sword, of which Januth took full advantage of its length to push Jean back.
Lothair wished he was able to do something, he resumed his struggles which were as futile as always and began to bite down his gag as he moaned in frustration, Jean was being pushed back right in front of him and he couldn’t do a thing but watch!
For obvious reasons Jean’s saving did not come from Lothair but from Emelia, who finally reached the campsite and made her presence known by attacking Januth with a spell, a ray of freezing energy which encased one of Januth’s legs, immobilizing her for enough time for Jean to strike back against her before she could break out of the ice.
“Little slut…” Januth said as she shattered the ice holding her leg with relative ease.
Januth jumped at the frightened Emelia, who seemed to haven’t considered the possibility of her spell not working, thankfully for her Jean stood between her and Januth, and managed to parry a slash which would have otherwise cleanly cut through her body.
But it was of no use, Jean was quickly pushed to the defensive again, slowly but surely stepping back against Januth, who didn’t even seem to be making a big effort to end the fight.
Emelia fell to the floor as she tried to run away, and Jean was too focused on her fight to even ask for help.
‘Alcinne where the hell are you!?’ Jean asked to her insides as she felt her guard become weaker with every strike that she parried.
Like if the dryad was capable of reading minds, she quickly intervened, but her intervention took a few seconds to become obvious. Januth only noticed what was happening when she tried to step forward and found out that she couldn’t move, she looked down to see her legs wrapped by roots which emerged from the ground. She tried to fight them, and with her strength the roots had to pull down against her because otherwise she would have broken free.
Instead of landing a killing blow, Jean took the opportunity to step away and breath, as now Januth didn’t seem like much of a threat. From a good distance she was able to see how roots kept creeping up her body, crawling up her abdomen and chest until they eventually reached Januth’s arms, catching them by the wrists and elbows and putting her on her knees.
“What the hell is this!” Januth cursed as she kept trying to fight her restraints.
Before she could swear any further even more roots wrapped themselves around her head, covering her mouth and effectively gagging her as she furiously struggled to get free.
“Thanks…” Jean sighed as she saw Alcinne appear from behind her rival.
“I told you she was no regular foe” Alcinne explained “You shouldn’t have tried to take on her alone”
“Mpghghghg!” Januth complained as she kept pulling against the roots.
Jean took the chance not to respond to Alcinne reprimand and immediately rushed to rescue the prince, of whom they almost forgot in the midst of the fight. Jean freed the prince with ease, instantly cutting the ropes with her sword and pulling down the gag even before he could do it on his own.
“Lothair…” Jean said as she hugged the prince with a force which would have been harmful had she not been so loving.
The prince hugged her back, although in her weakened state he could not muster many force in his embrace.
As the hug eased in force the two stood away just a bit, enough to see each other in the eyes but with their arms still wrapped around each other. Januth was about to kiss Lothair, but as the prince saw Jean’s lips he was quickly reminded of what had happened between him and Mira, and he wondered if he should kiss Jean despite wanting it so deeply.
But before he could settle for anything, the sound of Januth’s restraints snapping made both Lothair and Jean spring back into action. Alcinne and Emelia, who had also been entranced by the reuninon between Jean and the prince, failed to notice it until it was too late.
Quickly starting to curse herself for not having killed Januth when she had the chance, Jean drew her sword and readied for combat. But all Januth did after grabbing her sword was jump on her horse and gallop away.
“Damn it!” Jean said “I should have killed her right then and there!”
“It wouldn’t have gotten you far” Alcinne said as she stepped beside Jean “Like I said, she is no regular foe”
Jean bit her lip in anger as she sheathed back her sword.
“We should get going now, she will most likely speak to Tanis about this and when that happens we need to be as far from here as possible” Alcinne said as she began to walk away.
Lothair still had many unanswered questions, most of them he was willing to seek answers for while fleeing the scene but there was something he felt he needed to ask in that exact moment.
“I know we should hurry, but have you seen Mira?” He asked before proving a brief description of the girl to the confused looks of his rescuers.
Jean indeed knew of something who matched her description, although she had never seen her, at least not in person, and so did Alcinne and Emelia. What those two would have answered to the prince’s questions we can’t know, but Jean’s answered gave them a clear message about what she wanted to be done about what they saw on those springs that night.
“Never seen her” Jean replied dryly before starting to walk away.
Januth did something she was rarely forced to and that she above all hated doing. She fled, she retreated like a coward, like someone weak instead of what she was supposed to be, the mightiest human alive.
In her rage and frustration, she found it hard to think any excuse that could remotely please Tanis, only enough to convince her not to send her back to the dimensional prison where she had been kept for how long she did not remember, bound in unbreakable chains and trapped in a false space, where she couldn’t even succumb to time itself.
The harsh truth that Januth tried desperately to ignore was that Tanis wouldn’t be pleased with any excuse she could give, she had only freed her to fulfill what should have been a simple task and now that she had failed she wasn’t likely to get a second chance, especially since she knew that despite being Tanis’ first option for such jobs she was far from the only one.
‘You didn’t told me that a dryad was with them!’, ‘If I knew that she was with them this wouldn’t have happened’, ‘That damn dryad!’, all excuses that Januth could provide had to do with ‘that damn dryad’, and while she wanted to hope that Tanis would understand that she was the reason for her failing, she had huge doubts about it.
But as her horse rushed through the swampy grounds near swampcross she caught a glimpse of a sole dying willow in the distance, a familiar sight. She stopped her horse and instructed it to move there.
Just like she expected, there she found an either asleep or passed out Mira, still chained to the tree like she had left her. Januth breathed as sigh of relief, she was not Lothair, but maybe, just maybe, she would be enough to earn her a second chance from Tanis.
YAY!!!!!
The couple finally reunites! Now they need to finish the fight. I'm falling in love with this story all over again. Continue when you can.
The couple finally reunites! Now they need to finish the fight. I'm falling in love with this story all over again. Continue when you can.
Hogtied and loving it
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harveygasson
- Millennial Club
- Posts: 1371
- Joined: 6 years ago
And so the party's reunite but poor Mira remains in the clutches of evil. Really great work and looking forward to reading more.
Finally reunited again!
@DallasNotAustin @TripleZero @crow3467 @charliesmith @VoidEmperor224 @Simo @Pleasurechip95 @harveygasson @Syko Sith @Roboticrobin20 Thanks for commenting enjoy part thirty!
Chapter 30
When Tanis received notice from Januth she was immensely pleased, finally Lothair could be back on her hands and she could finally get to what she really wanted to do, but when Januth spoke that feeling was immediately replaced by rage.
Tanis used her magic circle to teleport to the outskirts of Swampcross, the disgusting city where Januth told her to meet.
Not wanting to spoil her polished boots with the mud which seemed to be the sole ground on which the city was built Tanis used a spell to levitate a few inches above the ground until she reached a ‘clean’ path, which was only clean by the standards of the dirty city of swampcross.
Januth was waiting for Tanis at the end of a dark alleyway where Tanis quickly found her. When she saw Tanis enter the alleyway Januth immediately straightened out her posture and assumed a martial stance as she knew what was coming.
“I made you the mightiest human on this world and you can’t capture a measly prince!?” Tanis scolded Januth.
“I apologize Tanis, I…”
“I don’t want your apologies” Tanis interjected “Just give me a reason not to put you back in chains”
“I captured the prince accomplice” Januth replied “The one who helped him escape”
Tanis face showed that her anger had calmed at least a bit, but it was too early for Januth to calm down as she felt like she was still very close to being send back to her prison.
“I didn’t ask you to bring her, why do you think she’ll be enough to please me after such a failure?” Tanis asked.
“She spent a really long time with the prince, it is likely that she knows something about him and his whereabouts that can help you” Januth argued, doing her best to hide her fear.
“I will see to it…” Tanis said “Where is she?”
“She has been taken to the castle dungeons, they offered a reward for her” Januth replied.
“You can keep your reward” Tanis said as she walked away “It may very well be the last money you enjoy for a while”
Januth gulped as she saw Tanis walk away, even though she wasn’t back in her chains she still very much felt like she was living in borrowed time.
Mira sat against a stone wall with her arms above her head, manacled and hanging from chains to the wall and the knotted cleave gag Januth had placed in her mouth last night still bound around her head and clasped behind her teeth. Despite having slept she was exhausted, her mouth dry and her stomach empty, but one emotion numbed down all of those emotions, and it was fear.
While in her exhaustion it was hard to tell that Mira was afraid, she very much was. When she was woken up by Januth forcefully placing her on her horse to be taken back to Swampcross she struggled with all the strength she had left, which was not much, because she knew what would happen if she ended up back there.
And much to her dismay that was exactly what happened, the guards gave Januth a sizable reward once she turned her over to them, and with no more strength left to fight the guards were able to take her to the cell where she was chained in.
Mira was dreadfully awaiting the moment the duchess would show up in her cell, or perhaps order her to be taken right to her, and then have her revenge for what Mira had done last night, which she knew had been very damaging for her and her massive ego.
But surprisingly the duchess hadn’t showed up, but that didn’t calm Mira one bit, instead it only made her waiting much more agonizing.
When guards barged into the cell to disturb the silence Mira felt like she was ready to be taken to the duchess and be subjected to the most gruesome punishment he sick mind was able to concoct, but she probably wasn’t.
The guards brought in a sturdy albeit old looking wooden chair which they placed in the middle of the room. Then she was unchained from the wall and forcibly sat on the chair, with not having the will to collaborate but neither the strength to resist.
Once on the chair her arms were draped over the backrest and her wrists tied crossed together, rope was wound around her waist to pin her body to the back of the chair while her ankles were tied to the front legs of the chair. And with their job done the two guards left.
Since the guards had used rope on her, Mira was quickly able to find the knots holding the restraints in place, and she wasn’t surprised when she realized they weren’t the most secure. It was not the first time she found herself restrained by guards, and nearly every time she had been able to escape on her own due to the poor ropework of her captors.
Despite knowing that undoing the knot wouldn’t get her very far, as she was still locked inside the cell, and even if she somehow managed to open the door she would still find herself exhausted and against at least two guards, Mira began to work on the knot. Slowly because of her tiredness but also because she knew that she had no reasons to hurry, escaping sooner wouldn’t make things easier, she just wanted out of the ropes to give her strained muscles some rest.
Mira felt like she could already hear the heels of the duchess’ boots clacking against the stone floor as she walked towards her cell to gloat over her bound and tired body, she imagined the sound so vividly that she was barely able to tell when she began to actually hear it.
But to the surprise of Mira’s tired eyes the woman who showed up before her was not the duchess.
She was taller, her skin darker and her hair shorter, black instead of red. As the woman stepped into the dim light that filtered through the barred window of the cell Mira became able to tell that she was wearing a long yet tight robe of black color, and as she raised her gaze to look at her in the eyes she was met by the sight of purple irises.
This woman, Tanis, stepped forward and removed the gag from Mira’s mouth, she left it hanging around her neck but a few moments went by before Mira uttered a word,
“You are not the duchess…” Mira sighed tiredly as she looked down.
“Would you prefer if I was” Tanis replied as she walked around the prisoner “Because I can assure that I can be far worse”
Mira did not reply, her tired mind could not come up with any answers, not even with the will to ask about this woman’s identity.
“From what I’ve heard you are the woman who helped out murderous prince escape.” Tanis said as she ran a finger over Mira’s shoulders.
Shivers ran down Mira’s spine as she heard those words. She had been captured because of what she had done to the duchess, from what she knew nobody yet knew what she had done to get her hands on the prince, but if this woman knew…
“Who are you?” Mira was prompted to ask by the woman’s knowledge.
“Oh, so Lothair didn’t spoke to you about me?” Tanis said as she made pantomime of sadness “I am Tanis, the queen’s sorceress, and also the woman in charge of the prince’s recapture”
Mira chuckled, it was better than crying, she could not believe her luck.
As Tanis paced around the chairtied Mira she made a stop behind her. ‘shit’ Mira cursed to herself as she heard Tanis’ steps stop right where she could not see her.
“Those guards seem to have gone too easy on you” Tanis said as she bowed down and thereby spoke closer to Mira’s ear “Or perhaps I have a little escape artist on my hands”
Mira felt the ropes around her wrists getting tighter and she quickly lost grasp of the knot as the restraints were tightened and upgraded by the sorceress. Mira sighed, ashamed of being caught mid act even when she only wanted to untie herself for comfort, not for an escape which still seemed impossible.
“Perhaps I should inspect your other restraints too” Tanis said as she moved inspect the ropes around Mira’s waist “The duchess wouldn’t want you to escape from below her nose again”
Just like the restraints around her wrists, all of Mira’s other restraints were tightened by Tanis, who made sure of securing Mira to a point that almost seemed to be unnecessary, considering she was already locked up.
“So, Mira right” Tanis said as she stood before the prisoner, making sure she got her name right as she saw her approval “Do you know about me”
Not wanting to waste energy with words Mira limited herself to nodding, she had heard of Tanis from Lothair, whom she remembered very well what he had to say about her.
“So you might know why I want to talk with you”
“I don’t know anything” Mira was quick to reply “I lost the prince after that goon of yours took him, I don’t know where he is now”
If Tanis hadn’t been disappointed with Januth’s performance before she would have bene when she heard that, but at that point she wasn’t expecting anything from her servant.
“That is unfortunate, but I think there are still a few things of use you can tell me” Tanis said as she crossed her arms “So tell me, will you speak, or will I have to make you do so?”
Mira’s usual bravado had died down, slain by her tiredness, hunger and thirst, so even though otherwise her response would have been negative, defiant and maybe snarky, she could only muster a few words in response to the sorceress.
“What do you want?” She asked.
“That’s a good girl” Tanis said as she stroked Mira’s dirty hair “Let’s get started”
As if Tanis hadn’t gotten enough disappointments that day, Mira only seemed to be able to provide vague answers to her very specific questions. She had no idea of where Lothair had gone after his escape, and according to her the prince was quiet most of the time she was with her, so none of his plans had been revealed.
And while Tanis would have liked to see if a bit of pain could make the woman reveal at least a bit more information, she felt like any punishment she could subject her to would destroy her measly looking body, so she didn’t even lay a finger on her.
“Tell me one last thing Mira” Tanis said “What was exactly your relationship with the prince?”
“He was my prisoner, that’s all” Mira replied, her tiredness hiding how surprised she actually was by the question, which seemed out of tone when compared to the others she had been asked.
“Nothing more, nothing less?” Tanis pressed on.
The insistence of this supposedly powerful woman about a seemingly petty subject made Mira chuckle, she couldn’t believe the queen’s sorceress was there inquiring a lowlife like her about her relationship with the prince she once held captive.
“Why do you want to know?” Mira asked with a chuckle, her usual character slightly showing.
“Just tell me” Tanis said threateningly as she forcefully laid one hand over Mira’s shoulder.
“What would you say if I told you we slept together?” Mira asked sardonically.
Tanis pressed her lips as she felt Mira’s words and tone anger her. She would never admit it but she felt jealously, she like a predator being forced to watch as her prey was being taken by another animal, an animal who was miles below her.
Tanis pulled Mira’s gag back up and tightened it around her head, making it impossible for Mira to remove it on her own, she then stepped away from Mira and only made a brief stop before leaving the cell.
“As much as your attitude is deserving of punishment, I am sure the duchess already has enough planned for you” Tanis said “And I wouldn’t want to ruin you before she got her hands on you”
Chapter 30
When Tanis received notice from Januth she was immensely pleased, finally Lothair could be back on her hands and she could finally get to what she really wanted to do, but when Januth spoke that feeling was immediately replaced by rage.
Tanis used her magic circle to teleport to the outskirts of Swampcross, the disgusting city where Januth told her to meet.
Not wanting to spoil her polished boots with the mud which seemed to be the sole ground on which the city was built Tanis used a spell to levitate a few inches above the ground until she reached a ‘clean’ path, which was only clean by the standards of the dirty city of swampcross.
Januth was waiting for Tanis at the end of a dark alleyway where Tanis quickly found her. When she saw Tanis enter the alleyway Januth immediately straightened out her posture and assumed a martial stance as she knew what was coming.
“I made you the mightiest human on this world and you can’t capture a measly prince!?” Tanis scolded Januth.
“I apologize Tanis, I…”
“I don’t want your apologies” Tanis interjected “Just give me a reason not to put you back in chains”
“I captured the prince accomplice” Januth replied “The one who helped him escape”
Tanis face showed that her anger had calmed at least a bit, but it was too early for Januth to calm down as she felt like she was still very close to being send back to her prison.
“I didn’t ask you to bring her, why do you think she’ll be enough to please me after such a failure?” Tanis asked.
“She spent a really long time with the prince, it is likely that she knows something about him and his whereabouts that can help you” Januth argued, doing her best to hide her fear.
“I will see to it…” Tanis said “Where is she?”
“She has been taken to the castle dungeons, they offered a reward for her” Januth replied.
“You can keep your reward” Tanis said as she walked away “It may very well be the last money you enjoy for a while”
Januth gulped as she saw Tanis walk away, even though she wasn’t back in her chains she still very much felt like she was living in borrowed time.
Mira sat against a stone wall with her arms above her head, manacled and hanging from chains to the wall and the knotted cleave gag Januth had placed in her mouth last night still bound around her head and clasped behind her teeth. Despite having slept she was exhausted, her mouth dry and her stomach empty, but one emotion numbed down all of those emotions, and it was fear.
While in her exhaustion it was hard to tell that Mira was afraid, she very much was. When she was woken up by Januth forcefully placing her on her horse to be taken back to Swampcross she struggled with all the strength she had left, which was not much, because she knew what would happen if she ended up back there.
And much to her dismay that was exactly what happened, the guards gave Januth a sizable reward once she turned her over to them, and with no more strength left to fight the guards were able to take her to the cell where she was chained in.
Mira was dreadfully awaiting the moment the duchess would show up in her cell, or perhaps order her to be taken right to her, and then have her revenge for what Mira had done last night, which she knew had been very damaging for her and her massive ego.
But surprisingly the duchess hadn’t showed up, but that didn’t calm Mira one bit, instead it only made her waiting much more agonizing.
When guards barged into the cell to disturb the silence Mira felt like she was ready to be taken to the duchess and be subjected to the most gruesome punishment he sick mind was able to concoct, but she probably wasn’t.
The guards brought in a sturdy albeit old looking wooden chair which they placed in the middle of the room. Then she was unchained from the wall and forcibly sat on the chair, with not having the will to collaborate but neither the strength to resist.
Once on the chair her arms were draped over the backrest and her wrists tied crossed together, rope was wound around her waist to pin her body to the back of the chair while her ankles were tied to the front legs of the chair. And with their job done the two guards left.
Since the guards had used rope on her, Mira was quickly able to find the knots holding the restraints in place, and she wasn’t surprised when she realized they weren’t the most secure. It was not the first time she found herself restrained by guards, and nearly every time she had been able to escape on her own due to the poor ropework of her captors.
Despite knowing that undoing the knot wouldn’t get her very far, as she was still locked inside the cell, and even if she somehow managed to open the door she would still find herself exhausted and against at least two guards, Mira began to work on the knot. Slowly because of her tiredness but also because she knew that she had no reasons to hurry, escaping sooner wouldn’t make things easier, she just wanted out of the ropes to give her strained muscles some rest.
Mira felt like she could already hear the heels of the duchess’ boots clacking against the stone floor as she walked towards her cell to gloat over her bound and tired body, she imagined the sound so vividly that she was barely able to tell when she began to actually hear it.
But to the surprise of Mira’s tired eyes the woman who showed up before her was not the duchess.
She was taller, her skin darker and her hair shorter, black instead of red. As the woman stepped into the dim light that filtered through the barred window of the cell Mira became able to tell that she was wearing a long yet tight robe of black color, and as she raised her gaze to look at her in the eyes she was met by the sight of purple irises.
This woman, Tanis, stepped forward and removed the gag from Mira’s mouth, she left it hanging around her neck but a few moments went by before Mira uttered a word,
“You are not the duchess…” Mira sighed tiredly as she looked down.
“Would you prefer if I was” Tanis replied as she walked around the prisoner “Because I can assure that I can be far worse”
Mira did not reply, her tired mind could not come up with any answers, not even with the will to ask about this woman’s identity.
“From what I’ve heard you are the woman who helped out murderous prince escape.” Tanis said as she ran a finger over Mira’s shoulders.
Shivers ran down Mira’s spine as she heard those words. She had been captured because of what she had done to the duchess, from what she knew nobody yet knew what she had done to get her hands on the prince, but if this woman knew…
“Who are you?” Mira was prompted to ask by the woman’s knowledge.
“Oh, so Lothair didn’t spoke to you about me?” Tanis said as she made pantomime of sadness “I am Tanis, the queen’s sorceress, and also the woman in charge of the prince’s recapture”
Mira chuckled, it was better than crying, she could not believe her luck.
As Tanis paced around the chairtied Mira she made a stop behind her. ‘shit’ Mira cursed to herself as she heard Tanis’ steps stop right where she could not see her.
“Those guards seem to have gone too easy on you” Tanis said as she bowed down and thereby spoke closer to Mira’s ear “Or perhaps I have a little escape artist on my hands”
Mira felt the ropes around her wrists getting tighter and she quickly lost grasp of the knot as the restraints were tightened and upgraded by the sorceress. Mira sighed, ashamed of being caught mid act even when she only wanted to untie herself for comfort, not for an escape which still seemed impossible.
“Perhaps I should inspect your other restraints too” Tanis said as she moved inspect the ropes around Mira’s waist “The duchess wouldn’t want you to escape from below her nose again”
Just like the restraints around her wrists, all of Mira’s other restraints were tightened by Tanis, who made sure of securing Mira to a point that almost seemed to be unnecessary, considering she was already locked up.
“So, Mira right” Tanis said as she stood before the prisoner, making sure she got her name right as she saw her approval “Do you know about me”
Not wanting to waste energy with words Mira limited herself to nodding, she had heard of Tanis from Lothair, whom she remembered very well what he had to say about her.
“So you might know why I want to talk with you”
“I don’t know anything” Mira was quick to reply “I lost the prince after that goon of yours took him, I don’t know where he is now”
If Tanis hadn’t been disappointed with Januth’s performance before she would have bene when she heard that, but at that point she wasn’t expecting anything from her servant.
“That is unfortunate, but I think there are still a few things of use you can tell me” Tanis said as she crossed her arms “So tell me, will you speak, or will I have to make you do so?”
Mira’s usual bravado had died down, slain by her tiredness, hunger and thirst, so even though otherwise her response would have been negative, defiant and maybe snarky, she could only muster a few words in response to the sorceress.
“What do you want?” She asked.
“That’s a good girl” Tanis said as she stroked Mira’s dirty hair “Let’s get started”
As if Tanis hadn’t gotten enough disappointments that day, Mira only seemed to be able to provide vague answers to her very specific questions. She had no idea of where Lothair had gone after his escape, and according to her the prince was quiet most of the time she was with her, so none of his plans had been revealed.
And while Tanis would have liked to see if a bit of pain could make the woman reveal at least a bit more information, she felt like any punishment she could subject her to would destroy her measly looking body, so she didn’t even lay a finger on her.
“Tell me one last thing Mira” Tanis said “What was exactly your relationship with the prince?”
“He was my prisoner, that’s all” Mira replied, her tiredness hiding how surprised she actually was by the question, which seemed out of tone when compared to the others she had been asked.
“Nothing more, nothing less?” Tanis pressed on.
The insistence of this supposedly powerful woman about a seemingly petty subject made Mira chuckle, she couldn’t believe the queen’s sorceress was there inquiring a lowlife like her about her relationship with the prince she once held captive.
“Why do you want to know?” Mira asked with a chuckle, her usual character slightly showing.
“Just tell me” Tanis said threateningly as she forcefully laid one hand over Mira’s shoulder.
“What would you say if I told you we slept together?” Mira asked sardonically.
Tanis pressed her lips as she felt Mira’s words and tone anger her. She would never admit it but she felt jealously, she like a predator being forced to watch as her prey was being taken by another animal, an animal who was miles below her.
Tanis pulled Mira’s gag back up and tightened it around her head, making it impossible for Mira to remove it on her own, she then stepped away from Mira and only made a brief stop before leaving the cell.
“As much as your attitude is deserving of punishment, I am sure the duchess already has enough planned for you” Tanis said “And I wouldn’t want to ruin you before she got her hands on you”
Poor Mira. The group needs to save her now. I only hope they can afford the detour.
Keep it going when you can.
Keep it going when you can.
Hogtied and loving it
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Roboticrobin20
- Centennial Club
- Posts: 189
- Joined: 5 years ago
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Man this story is just so awesome in every aspect, it's incredibly good! Can't wait to see what will happen next
@DallasNotAustin @TripleZero @crow3467 @charliesmith @VoidEmperor224 @Simo @Pleasurechip95 @harveygasson @Syko Sith @Roboticrobin20 Thanks for commenting enjoy part thirty one!
Chapter 31
After forcing Januth to retreat Jean, Emelia, Alcinne and Lothair quickly escaped the scene, heading back to the forest where they could safely hide, not only of onlookers but also from Tanis’ magic, which according to Alcinne could not reach them within the confines of the forest.
Once there and before Lothair could finish thanking his rescuers Alcinne ordered them to stop, now they had to get to the important matters she said.
For Lothair, all the information which was revealed to him at that moment was hard to process, because while Emelia and Jean had weeks to process it all, Lothair had to swallow it all together in one sitting. Tanis being revealed to be immortal, Alcinne being an ancient forest spirit created to protect this land, Jean being prophesied to save the kingdom.
And like if that wasn’t enough, Alcinne claimed that they had to begin their journey east as soon as possible, and that by tomorrow they were going to start walking their way towards the ruins of the ancient capital city to find and destroy Tanis’ phylactery.
While Jean and Emelia had already accepted, even if reluctantly, that such thing was something that they had to do, Lothair was much less eager to see what Alcinne was saying with good eyes. He had just been rescued after spending days on end as a prisoner, first in Blacktomb, then by Mira, and then briefly by Januth and the duchess Athela, wasn’t he deserving of some rest.
But everything felt much more important than his concerns, so Lothair thought it would be better to make the best of the sole night of comfortable rest Alcinne had promised them before embarking on their journey to destroy Tanis’ phylactery.
The four slept inside a large hollow trunk which had fallen off a long time ago, and while its outsides were covered by foliage its insides were cozy and a small opening on its top provided room to safely make a fire.
After the three humans ate dinner (Alcinne seemed to be above such needs) Jean asked Lothair to leave the confines of the trunk with her for some time together. The prince was more than willing to do that and he quickly walked out of the trunk behind Jean.
Once they had put a not negligible distance between them and the trunk they stopped behind a tree. Lothair was nervous, the last time he had seen Jean had been when he talked to her in the castle dungeons, and from there all had been downhill for them. Now they were alone in the sole company of each other, and Lothair’s was more than excited about what could come out of this meeting.
“Tell me Lothair, who is this Mira?” Jean asked as she crossed her arms below her breasts.
Lothair’s heart sunk, out of the things he had expected her to do asking for Mira, of whom he thought she would know nothing about, was not one of them. He wondered what to respond, but most importantly he wondered how much Jean knew about him and Mira.
“She was the woman who rescued me from Blacktomb…” Lothair murmured.
“I see” Jean replied “And did anything else happened afterwards?”
The heart of the prince sunk even deeper, did that mean what he thought it meant? It couldn’t be, or so he repeated to himself as he tried to come up with a satisfying response.
“How did she treat you Lothair?” Jean pressed on with her questions “Was she nice to you? Did she hurt you?”
“She didn’t do anything to me…” Lothair managed to say.
“Then I must assume that what she did to you on the bed was because you wanted it” Jean said with passive aggressiveness.
“What?” Lothair asked, completely baffled by what he had heard.
“I saw it Lothair” Jean replied “We made a promise remember? Because it seems you don’t”
“Jean I…” Lothair attempted to talk.
“I don’t want to hear your excuses Lothair” Jean said as her voice cracked, her eyes had began to tear “You’ve said enough”
“Jean…”
“I said shut up!” Jean shouted.
Jean’s scream attracted Alcinne and Emelia, who looked at the two, who both seemed to be crying or on the verge of tears, with complete confusion. Jean left after that, going to sleep inside the trunk.
“What happened my prince?” Emelia asked as she walked up to Lothair “Why were you two crying?”
“I’d rather not talk about that now” Lothair replied.
He also went back to the trunk, but he laid as far as he could from Jean, not even attempting to talk to her. Emelia looked at Alcinne over her shoulder, like if she was expecting her to have the answer to what had transpired between Jean and the prince.
“Don’t worry, I’ll handle this” The dryad said.
Alcinne walked back to the tree trunk and ordered Jean and Lothair to stand up, saying that she had to take them somewhere. Both were reluctant to obey, physically and mentally tired, following Alcinne away from their encampment did not sound like a good idea. But they ended up obeying before the dryad had to resort to other methods to get them to comply.
The walk was silent and awkward, Alcinne never replied to the questions of where they were going and needless to say Lothair and Jean never crossed a word, so their walk through the forest was made in the sole company of the sound made by wind blowing through the leaves that remained on the trees.
Once they reached a point of especially thick foliage Jean wanted to ask yet again just where the hell they were going in the dead of night and without Emelia, but animated vines grabbing her by her ankles and wrists were quick to turn her would be word into an angered grunt.
Jean was held up by the vines, which held her arms apart from each other and above her head while her ankles received a similar treatment, also being bound by the vines and held apart from each other as she was raised above the ground. As Jean looked around she was able to see that Lothair had received a similar treatment, and the vines were also holding him in a similar spread eagle position midair.
“What the hell are you doing Alcinne!?” Jean asked as she struggled against the vines, which gave her less and less leverage the more she struggled.
Alcinne answered with silence, so she didn’t really answer, and turned back to look at the trussed up couple which were struggling against the living restraints she had conjured.
Jean was going to ask again, probably with less flattering words, but the vines prevented her from doing so by wrapping around her head and silencing her, working as a rather efficient gag which Lothair soon received too as Alcinne didn’t wanted to hear his voice either.
“To answer your question Jean, I brought you two here to tell you something important” Alcinne said as she stepped closer to the couple “I don’t care for your fight, so I am not going to intervene in it”
Alcinne looked at both captives to make sure they were paying close attention to her words.
“But we are on an important mission now, the whole land and everything living on it is at stake, so I don’t want your petty squabbles to get in the way of saving this land” Alcinne explained “Understood?”
“Mphghg…” Jean grunted, trying to find an excuse for Alcinne to ungag her despite knowing that she could answer even with her gag on.
“Understood!?” Alcinne asked again, this time imperatively demanding an answer with her tone.
“Mpghg…” Jean sighed as she nodded.
Alcinne turned to look at Lothair.
“Mphh…” He moaned lowly as he nodded too.
“Good” Alcinne replied as he walked past the two and released them with a snap of her fingers “Try to get some rest, tomorrow will be a long day”
The next day in the capital city of Lionstrand, Tanis had her two accomplices, supreme judge Heribrand and Duke Adelard, explain what essentially was her plan of governance to the queen, but which the two were presented as their own. Of course neither of the three had the will to enact half of the policies they proposed, some of which even went against their core beliefs, but the queen didn’t need to know, and by the time that she realize she had been lied to, it would be too late for her.
While the two explained what was supposed to be the plan for a prosperous new reign under Adelard’s rule as prince and Heribrand as prime minister, Tanis decided to advance on her other, more important goal, recapturing the prince.
If Januth had been truthful to her, Lothair was traveling the escaped Alcinne, which was far more pleasing for Tanis than one would expect. Since Alcinne was such a powerful being, Tanis could more easily track her once she left the safe confines of her forest, and when she did, she would also find Lothair.
So she uncovered her crystal sphere and imperatively asked it to show her the dryad Alcinne. The sphere began to glow and on its insides an image began to make itself distinguishable amidst the milky white light that emanated from the insides of the crystal.
The image did not show anything of interest, it merely was a seemingly endless slideshow of Alcinne walking while someone whose identity Tanis assumed to be Jean, which Januth also said was with the prince, despite not being able to see her face. But as she remained concentrated on the image on the sphere Tanis closed her eyes and began to utter a spell.
The eyes of the sorceress completely rolled over as she searched for an answer to what she was asking and soon enough she received it. She opened her eyes and the sphere now showed a much larger image, Alcinne was walking with three people behind her in the middle of vast fields of grass and farmland, a place Tanis easily recognized after casting her location spell. They had left the forest and were waking eastwards, and since Alcinne was with them Tanis knew exactly where they were going.
With a smile on her face Tanis stood up from her desk and walked up the stairs of her tower, she kept walking past the many floors until she reached a special room, the one where she kept her most prized devices for restraining and torturing prisoners, the room hidden behind an illusory wall below her bedroom on the highest floor.
After walking past the illusory wall Tanis found herself in the middle of a stone room illuminated by dying candles and the insignificant light which filtered through the tiny windows, which barely allowed for any of the morning sunlight to come in.
The sorceress walked past all sort of devious contraptions born out of even more devious minds until she stopped before what seemed to be a large iron coffin. It laid straight against the wall and stood quite a few inches taller and thicker than most humans, Tanis included. It had been locked and surrounded by chains on top of it, hours ago it was shaking, but not it was still, the only hint of the prisoner within being the sound of heavy breathing filtering through the small opening high up on its door.
With a spell Tanis undid the many locks with which she had secured the coffin, and upon opening it she was met by Januth inside. The Amazonian giantess stood naked and covered with sweat, her black made disheveled and her eyes tired. She had been bound with chains, her arms pinned to her sides as chains wrapped above and below her breasts, around her waist and around her legs at the ankles, above and below the knees and the thighs. It was hard to turn the mightiest woman alive into a helpless prisoner, but Tanis knew just how to.
“I’ve decided to give you another chance” Tanis spoke as she looked up to see Januth’s tired look.
The prisoner did not respond, since on top of her already strenuous bondage Tanis had also placed a rather big black leather panel gag on her, which filled up her mouth and covered almost all of her face below the nose.
“For your own sake I hope you don’t disappoint me again” Tanis said as she undid all of Januth’s bondage with a snap of her fingers.
Januth fell to the floor on her knees as she coughed out the gag, despite the hours she had spent inside that coffin, in deep dark silence and without any room to even dream of moving, she was thankful to know that Tanis had given her a second, chance even after that punishment that she had subjected her to.
“I am thankful Tanis…” Januth said once she regained control of her breathing “But the dryad is still with them, how am I supposed to…”
“Oh, yes, Alcinne” Tanis interrupted Januth “She will be your objective now”
Januth looked at Tanis with a mixture of anger and confusion, was this a joke? Had Tanis only released her to see her fail again in the exact same way?
“Come with me, I’ll show you a way to deal with her” Tanis said as she handed Januth a cloak to cover herself with.
Januth followed the sorceress to the floor which she used as an armory, because even though Tanis was not adept with weapons, feeling that they were redundant for someone of her power, she could always appreciate the good craftsmanship of a good instrument of killing.
“Take a look at this” Tanis said as she stopped before a large double- bit axe which hung from a wall not far from where she had Januth’s sword and armor.
“It’s an axe, what is special about it?” Januth asked.
“It harnesses an ancient curse” Tanis explained “It wasn’t made to harm humans, although it certainly can do it, but instead made to harm the realm of the fey”
Januth grabbed the axe to inspect it, it was completely made of metal, its handle, its pummel, its blade… everything was cold and pristine metal. The giantess could see her clear reflection in the incredible sharp black blade of the axe, accursed or not she knew that she had a good weapon in her hands.
“You should find some plants to try it on as you make your way to Alcinne” Tanis said as she walked past Januth to return downstairs “Dress and put on your armor, I’ll tell you the details and by tonight I want you tracking them”
Chapter 31
After forcing Januth to retreat Jean, Emelia, Alcinne and Lothair quickly escaped the scene, heading back to the forest where they could safely hide, not only of onlookers but also from Tanis’ magic, which according to Alcinne could not reach them within the confines of the forest.
Once there and before Lothair could finish thanking his rescuers Alcinne ordered them to stop, now they had to get to the important matters she said.
For Lothair, all the information which was revealed to him at that moment was hard to process, because while Emelia and Jean had weeks to process it all, Lothair had to swallow it all together in one sitting. Tanis being revealed to be immortal, Alcinne being an ancient forest spirit created to protect this land, Jean being prophesied to save the kingdom.
And like if that wasn’t enough, Alcinne claimed that they had to begin their journey east as soon as possible, and that by tomorrow they were going to start walking their way towards the ruins of the ancient capital city to find and destroy Tanis’ phylactery.
While Jean and Emelia had already accepted, even if reluctantly, that such thing was something that they had to do, Lothair was much less eager to see what Alcinne was saying with good eyes. He had just been rescued after spending days on end as a prisoner, first in Blacktomb, then by Mira, and then briefly by Januth and the duchess Athela, wasn’t he deserving of some rest.
But everything felt much more important than his concerns, so Lothair thought it would be better to make the best of the sole night of comfortable rest Alcinne had promised them before embarking on their journey to destroy Tanis’ phylactery.
The four slept inside a large hollow trunk which had fallen off a long time ago, and while its outsides were covered by foliage its insides were cozy and a small opening on its top provided room to safely make a fire.
After the three humans ate dinner (Alcinne seemed to be above such needs) Jean asked Lothair to leave the confines of the trunk with her for some time together. The prince was more than willing to do that and he quickly walked out of the trunk behind Jean.
Once they had put a not negligible distance between them and the trunk they stopped behind a tree. Lothair was nervous, the last time he had seen Jean had been when he talked to her in the castle dungeons, and from there all had been downhill for them. Now they were alone in the sole company of each other, and Lothair’s was more than excited about what could come out of this meeting.
“Tell me Lothair, who is this Mira?” Jean asked as she crossed her arms below her breasts.
Lothair’s heart sunk, out of the things he had expected her to do asking for Mira, of whom he thought she would know nothing about, was not one of them. He wondered what to respond, but most importantly he wondered how much Jean knew about him and Mira.
“She was the woman who rescued me from Blacktomb…” Lothair murmured.
“I see” Jean replied “And did anything else happened afterwards?”
The heart of the prince sunk even deeper, did that mean what he thought it meant? It couldn’t be, or so he repeated to himself as he tried to come up with a satisfying response.
“How did she treat you Lothair?” Jean pressed on with her questions “Was she nice to you? Did she hurt you?”
“She didn’t do anything to me…” Lothair managed to say.
“Then I must assume that what she did to you on the bed was because you wanted it” Jean said with passive aggressiveness.
“What?” Lothair asked, completely baffled by what he had heard.
“I saw it Lothair” Jean replied “We made a promise remember? Because it seems you don’t”
“Jean I…” Lothair attempted to talk.
“I don’t want to hear your excuses Lothair” Jean said as her voice cracked, her eyes had began to tear “You’ve said enough”
“Jean…”
“I said shut up!” Jean shouted.
Jean’s scream attracted Alcinne and Emelia, who looked at the two, who both seemed to be crying or on the verge of tears, with complete confusion. Jean left after that, going to sleep inside the trunk.
“What happened my prince?” Emelia asked as she walked up to Lothair “Why were you two crying?”
“I’d rather not talk about that now” Lothair replied.
He also went back to the trunk, but he laid as far as he could from Jean, not even attempting to talk to her. Emelia looked at Alcinne over her shoulder, like if she was expecting her to have the answer to what had transpired between Jean and the prince.
“Don’t worry, I’ll handle this” The dryad said.
Alcinne walked back to the tree trunk and ordered Jean and Lothair to stand up, saying that she had to take them somewhere. Both were reluctant to obey, physically and mentally tired, following Alcinne away from their encampment did not sound like a good idea. But they ended up obeying before the dryad had to resort to other methods to get them to comply.
The walk was silent and awkward, Alcinne never replied to the questions of where they were going and needless to say Lothair and Jean never crossed a word, so their walk through the forest was made in the sole company of the sound made by wind blowing through the leaves that remained on the trees.
Once they reached a point of especially thick foliage Jean wanted to ask yet again just where the hell they were going in the dead of night and without Emelia, but animated vines grabbing her by her ankles and wrists were quick to turn her would be word into an angered grunt.
Jean was held up by the vines, which held her arms apart from each other and above her head while her ankles received a similar treatment, also being bound by the vines and held apart from each other as she was raised above the ground. As Jean looked around she was able to see that Lothair had received a similar treatment, and the vines were also holding him in a similar spread eagle position midair.
“What the hell are you doing Alcinne!?” Jean asked as she struggled against the vines, which gave her less and less leverage the more she struggled.
Alcinne answered with silence, so she didn’t really answer, and turned back to look at the trussed up couple which were struggling against the living restraints she had conjured.
Jean was going to ask again, probably with less flattering words, but the vines prevented her from doing so by wrapping around her head and silencing her, working as a rather efficient gag which Lothair soon received too as Alcinne didn’t wanted to hear his voice either.
“To answer your question Jean, I brought you two here to tell you something important” Alcinne said as she stepped closer to the couple “I don’t care for your fight, so I am not going to intervene in it”
Alcinne looked at both captives to make sure they were paying close attention to her words.
“But we are on an important mission now, the whole land and everything living on it is at stake, so I don’t want your petty squabbles to get in the way of saving this land” Alcinne explained “Understood?”
“Mphghg…” Jean grunted, trying to find an excuse for Alcinne to ungag her despite knowing that she could answer even with her gag on.
“Understood!?” Alcinne asked again, this time imperatively demanding an answer with her tone.
“Mpghg…” Jean sighed as she nodded.
Alcinne turned to look at Lothair.
“Mphh…” He moaned lowly as he nodded too.
“Good” Alcinne replied as he walked past the two and released them with a snap of her fingers “Try to get some rest, tomorrow will be a long day”
---
The next day in the capital city of Lionstrand, Tanis had her two accomplices, supreme judge Heribrand and Duke Adelard, explain what essentially was her plan of governance to the queen, but which the two were presented as their own. Of course neither of the three had the will to enact half of the policies they proposed, some of which even went against their core beliefs, but the queen didn’t need to know, and by the time that she realize she had been lied to, it would be too late for her.
While the two explained what was supposed to be the plan for a prosperous new reign under Adelard’s rule as prince and Heribrand as prime minister, Tanis decided to advance on her other, more important goal, recapturing the prince.
If Januth had been truthful to her, Lothair was traveling the escaped Alcinne, which was far more pleasing for Tanis than one would expect. Since Alcinne was such a powerful being, Tanis could more easily track her once she left the safe confines of her forest, and when she did, she would also find Lothair.
So she uncovered her crystal sphere and imperatively asked it to show her the dryad Alcinne. The sphere began to glow and on its insides an image began to make itself distinguishable amidst the milky white light that emanated from the insides of the crystal.
The image did not show anything of interest, it merely was a seemingly endless slideshow of Alcinne walking while someone whose identity Tanis assumed to be Jean, which Januth also said was with the prince, despite not being able to see her face. But as she remained concentrated on the image on the sphere Tanis closed her eyes and began to utter a spell.
The eyes of the sorceress completely rolled over as she searched for an answer to what she was asking and soon enough she received it. She opened her eyes and the sphere now showed a much larger image, Alcinne was walking with three people behind her in the middle of vast fields of grass and farmland, a place Tanis easily recognized after casting her location spell. They had left the forest and were waking eastwards, and since Alcinne was with them Tanis knew exactly where they were going.
With a smile on her face Tanis stood up from her desk and walked up the stairs of her tower, she kept walking past the many floors until she reached a special room, the one where she kept her most prized devices for restraining and torturing prisoners, the room hidden behind an illusory wall below her bedroom on the highest floor.
After walking past the illusory wall Tanis found herself in the middle of a stone room illuminated by dying candles and the insignificant light which filtered through the tiny windows, which barely allowed for any of the morning sunlight to come in.
The sorceress walked past all sort of devious contraptions born out of even more devious minds until she stopped before what seemed to be a large iron coffin. It laid straight against the wall and stood quite a few inches taller and thicker than most humans, Tanis included. It had been locked and surrounded by chains on top of it, hours ago it was shaking, but not it was still, the only hint of the prisoner within being the sound of heavy breathing filtering through the small opening high up on its door.
With a spell Tanis undid the many locks with which she had secured the coffin, and upon opening it she was met by Januth inside. The Amazonian giantess stood naked and covered with sweat, her black made disheveled and her eyes tired. She had been bound with chains, her arms pinned to her sides as chains wrapped above and below her breasts, around her waist and around her legs at the ankles, above and below the knees and the thighs. It was hard to turn the mightiest woman alive into a helpless prisoner, but Tanis knew just how to.
“I’ve decided to give you another chance” Tanis spoke as she looked up to see Januth’s tired look.
The prisoner did not respond, since on top of her already strenuous bondage Tanis had also placed a rather big black leather panel gag on her, which filled up her mouth and covered almost all of her face below the nose.
“For your own sake I hope you don’t disappoint me again” Tanis said as she undid all of Januth’s bondage with a snap of her fingers.
Januth fell to the floor on her knees as she coughed out the gag, despite the hours she had spent inside that coffin, in deep dark silence and without any room to even dream of moving, she was thankful to know that Tanis had given her a second, chance even after that punishment that she had subjected her to.
“I am thankful Tanis…” Januth said once she regained control of her breathing “But the dryad is still with them, how am I supposed to…”
“Oh, yes, Alcinne” Tanis interrupted Januth “She will be your objective now”
Januth looked at Tanis with a mixture of anger and confusion, was this a joke? Had Tanis only released her to see her fail again in the exact same way?
“Come with me, I’ll show you a way to deal with her” Tanis said as she handed Januth a cloak to cover herself with.
Januth followed the sorceress to the floor which she used as an armory, because even though Tanis was not adept with weapons, feeling that they were redundant for someone of her power, she could always appreciate the good craftsmanship of a good instrument of killing.
“Take a look at this” Tanis said as she stopped before a large double- bit axe which hung from a wall not far from where she had Januth’s sword and armor.
“It’s an axe, what is special about it?” Januth asked.
“It harnesses an ancient curse” Tanis explained “It wasn’t made to harm humans, although it certainly can do it, but instead made to harm the realm of the fey”
Januth grabbed the axe to inspect it, it was completely made of metal, its handle, its pummel, its blade… everything was cold and pristine metal. The giantess could see her clear reflection in the incredible sharp black blade of the axe, accursed or not she knew that she had a good weapon in her hands.
“You should find some plants to try it on as you make your way to Alcinne” Tanis said as she walked past Januth to return downstairs “Dress and put on your armor, I’ll tell you the details and by tonight I want you tracking them”
Uh-Oh. Tanis knows where they are. Even worse, she knows where they are going. This story has more twists than a dance contest
I'm genuinely interested as to where you plan to take it. Continue when your ready.
I'm genuinely interested as to where you plan to take it. Continue when your ready.
Hogtied and loving it
You always impress me with your stories. Eagerly waiting for an update