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Chapter Seventeen
I awake to the silence of the dark and my own labored breathing. From all around me floats the scent of putrefaction. My tongue's a little swollen, and a transparent tube has been inserted into my mouth. It's dispensing a tasteless paste that slides coolly down my throat. My wounds no longer hurt, and I'm once again a guest of Dr. Talisac.
I see the shuffling, pregnant form of the grotesque physician making his way around the laboratory devoted to studying flesh. He gibbers gleefully to himself while examining any number of containers holding things both foul and strange. From this angle, the candlelight reflects off the pale white hairs protruding from his huge nose; the skin on his arms looks languid and sickly and oddly absent of any kind of follicle.
I'm able to glance down at myself and see that any wounds I had are now closed and healing nicely. Fine stitches are his handiwork: despite what I may think of him, Talisac is a master at his craft.
But I'm not his patient. I'm his prisoner.
My wrists and legs are bound to the table; thick leather restraints around my chest and waist immobilize me. I'm also completely nude. Next to me on a wooden table that's replete with acid burns rests a sphere of smoky crystal. Inside is an animated image of Talen capering about in his beautiful emerald and black killsuit. My boyfriend is making his way through a tunnel with roughly hewn walls; he heads toward a glowing chamber with many doors. I can see he's doing so delicately. He takes a leap across a hissing pool of bubbling lava, lands safely, and bounds his way up a narrow way lined with cracked skulls and strewn in pebbles.
Dr. Talisac appears to my left, holding a glass canister with a foot-long needle protruding from the end. A strange amber fluid is contained within. "He's quite athletic," Talisac says. "But I doubt he'll survive. There are many horrors that await him in the demesnes of the Mind Wight, and they hunger for such sweet flesh."
I try to say something but my mouth is muzzled. He steps forward and slides the nutrient tube further down my esophagus. "Watching you deep throating this is as close as I'll get to the real thing."
That thought makes me squirm.
"I've given you a drug," he confesses. "It's to keep you from gagging, although I wish I could see it put to better use than with this crude feeding device. You've been in my care for a few hours, and I wanted to repair this...b-beautiful body as quickly as possible." Talisac slides his finger over my naked sweaty skin and gently caresses my penis, sliding the fingers over the veins. "Do you like the taste of the protein goop you've been eating in the mines? It was I that had it switched...a special concoction designed just for you. It's how I've reduced your body fat to a delicious 1%. No man alive possesses a body as defined...as cut...as you. It has my semen in it too...just like this healing draught. I thought you'd like to know."
I stare at him in horror. He leans over my chest and gently suckles from one of my cherry red nipples. The veins under my creamy skin stand out like worms. "So tasty..."
I struggle and he stands up, holding forth the needle. "Behave yourself, or I won't tell you why your Talen is making his way to the demesnes of the Mind Wight. You want to know, don't you?"
I try to swallow; my Adam's apple bobs up and down. He's right though. I do want to know, and what's done is done. It's revolting to think that I'm swallowing his spunk, but there's nothing I can do about it now.
"Good," he says, placing one hand on my hairless chest. After a moment, he reaches up and removes the tube. Some of the paste splashes across the table; a gob strikes me on the cheek. He wipes that off with his thumb. "Don't scream and I'll tell you. Master Kierak wouldn't take kindly to my molestations."
"I won't scream," I manage to say, still muzzled.
He removes it with a flick of finger and thumb; then tosses it on the table to sit with the magical sphere.
"The Mind Wight is a monster," Talisac says. "The Elder Brain created it to guard their many treasures. I assume you and your lover have been plotting to escape. I thought for a moment about what you would be searching for, and then it occurred to me that I've never before seen the likes of your armor. It's miraculous stuff. Once I got you out of it, I studied it. It appears to have many weapons, but none of them are useable without your helmets, are they? He's gone to fetch them." Talisac grips my face with his long fingers. "Don't lie to me my boy, or I'll jab this needle into your young swollen cock, and I promise you'll beg me with tears in your eyes to remove it. You've not seen true horror until blood is squirting from your juicy prick. Is that what you want?"
I shake my head in fear. The visual image he's provided is horrific. "You're right, sir. He's gone after our helmets."
He lets me go. "I thought as much. I haven't told Master Kierak so your secret's safe with me. I alone have the all-seeing eye of Chagidiel. It's how I watch boys like you when I cannot touch. But tell me...what do you plan to do once you get power back to these suits that both you and your lover wear. They weren't enough to save you from the mind lords' powerful psionic blast now were they? How else did you get captured? Do you expect to just be able to walk out of here unscathed?"
"What's a psionic blast?" I ask.
"You know what it is," Talisac says with a snicker. He's clearly not amused at my attempt to dodge the question. Yet, he can't keep his hands off of me. He thrums his fingers on my muscular abdomen and slurps the drool that forms on his lips. As he watches, three droplets of sweat roll together in the tan dimple where my belly button rests and it almost drives him insane. "That scratch across your mind, the thing that he does when he takes control of your body and turns you into a puppet...it's a gift of the Elder Brain. And it reduces the strongest of men into slaves. No one can withstand it without a ring of shielding. They're very rare, you know. Only five were forged in a time when these mountains still smoldered in fire."
"Why would the Elder Brain do such a thing?" I ask, testing the bonds quietly. They are too strong even for me to break.
"Why indeed?" Talisac asks. He lowers himself between my legs and sniffs. "Such wondrous aroma." Then he licks me long and slow up and down the entire shaft of my hardening erection. It feels good, but I turn my head to one side, because I don't want to encourage him. I curse the fact that I'm so easily aroused. All it seems to take is mentioning Talen's name coupled with a gentle breeze to get me as hard as a rock. He'd probably be insulted to know I think of him like this.
"Stop it," I plead.
"You like it," he replies. "Your flesh betrays you."
"Please," I say. "P-please don't do that."
Talisac rises to his full height. "Is he worth such loyalty? Does his pussy feel that good?"
"It's more than that. And yes," I say to him. "You wouldn't know anything about love because you don't care for anyone. But I do, and I keep my body looking like this because I know he likes it. I know he wants me to be beautiful for him."
"Everyone likes it," Talisac says. "You should hear the challenges he's had to endure while you toiled in the mines. Ten different men want to rape you every hour. Another twenty want to worship at your feet and lick your dirty boots as if you were a god. Comments range from amusing to pathetic and even unto terrifying. They all have one thing in common: everyone thinks Talen doesn't deserve you, but without hesitation, you choose him night after night. And he drives them crazy by describing what it's like to for your dick to be inside him, to taste your sweat, and drink your buckets of cum. There are those who plot to kill him just to force you to choose another. One day, they'll have the courage to do just that."
"If anyone harms him, they'll answer to me."
"I think that's what they're counting on," Talisac says, grinning evilly. "There are a hundred uke just jostling to be on the receiving end of your 'punishment.' You're the most brutal seme that this crop of uke have ever seen. They even call you, 'the punisher', because many of them believe they'd have trouble walking the night following a breed. They're probably right."
"You're sick," I say, glaring at him.
"You've no idea." Chuckling, he makes a quick swipe at the head of my penis to taste some precum that's formed on the end, glistening white and viscous with the royal jelly produced in my fat balls.
The excretions are so difficult to get used to. Soon my cock will be slippery wet with them. They occur automatically now, triggered anytime I'm aroused. Dr. Talisac playfully grips the base of my dick and watches it grow and expand, forcing his fingers apart. His hideous face bears an expression similar to a child staring at ice cream. More of the fluid pours out the opening of my urethra and just drools its way down my smooth, unblemished dick skin.
I shutter my eyes. "Please...stop," I beg.
Surprisingly, he lets go and takes a step back, feverishly gripping the needle. "The Elder Brain created five rings of miraculous design and gave them to five kingdoms under the earth. The mind lords approached the rulers of eternal night with these rings and told them that they'd make their people immune to their psionic blasts. But it was a lie. Only those who wore the rings were ever immune. The mind lords enslaved thousands with this deception. Only the races of night elves, the gray dwarves, and the unseelie remained smart enough to flee into the infinite realm of the under deep."
I turn my eyes to the glass globe. Inside its surface, I see Talen scurry to a pillar while a large shadow detaches itself from the wall in a room close to him. The thing looks huge, has vast sweeping horns upon its head, and moves about on appendages that look like the legs of some cephalopod. Its gait is crablike, heavy, and shadows of its pincers reflect upon the wall. Gods they look huge.
"Talen!" I scream his name to try and warn him.
"He can't hear you," Talisac states. "When he's dead, will you give yourself to me?"
I shake my head. "I'll never give myself to you or anyone else."
Talisac laughs. "Perhaps when he's dead, the master will make you my slave. Breaking you will be my greatest triumph."
"Talen won't die. You'll see." I swallow, conviction filling my soul. But inside this shell of confidence, I fill with doubt and worry. "He'll find our helmets, and when he does, Tethyr help you. I'll kill you myself, slow and steady."
"You're a fool," Talisac states flatly, "a beautiful boy but a fool nonetheless. Watch then, child, for the Mind Wight can decapitate with a single pinch of its pincers. Shall we watch as it kills your lover? Or do you want to turn away?" He brushes his hand across the glass almost as if caressing a lover.
My eyes remain frozen on the image of Talen's face, seen in close-up, beautiful and frightened. He blinks his eyes and turns toward the shadow. It closes in on him, drowning his lovely features, and my heart skips a beat waiting for it to attack him. But then it moves on, clicking past him with a jagged wavering gait. After a minute, Talen stands alone, still holding his breath. He exhales and continues into the room toward a door where the gleam of gold calls from beyond.
The Mind Wight doesn't see Talen.
"Impossible!" Talisac says, leaning in to stare through the glass. It magnifies his ugly eye so that I can see the iris ringed in angry vessels. "How did it not see him?" Talisac clenches his fist, stares over his shoulder back at me, and then waves his hand over the glass to magnify Talen's hand.
I see he's wearing the gold ring: the one Angelaria found back in the room of the keep.
"By all the whores in hell, how did he come across this treasure?"
I smile and lay my head back on the table to ruminate over my thoughts. He found Angelaria, that's how. She got the ring to him and it saved his life. "When he finds our helmets, he's going to come for me," I say. "You've seen what I can do in the arena. Talen's just as skilled. If you let me go, I won't kill you. But you've got only this one chance to accept my offer."
Talisac considers this for a moment. "You're the most fearsome warrior I've ever seen in the arena. Chagidiel knows that...in my heart...I've wanted to rape you a hundred times over. I've even wanted to eat you alive. I've wanted to sever the cock you're so proud of and roast it in butter and garlic for a fine meal with wine. But I've held back from this for two reasons. The first is a fear of Master Kierak, but the second is because I know who you are."
I stare at him, silently daring him to say my name.
"You're Death's messenger. I'd be a fool to NOT recognize that, and I'm no one's fool. But I'm also not gullible either. Tell me why I should believe you? If I let you go, as you say, then what proof have I that you won't just kill me when you have the opportunity?"
I swallow. "I can give you my word."
"They say the word of Hunter is worth a mountain of gold and that you've killed a ten men who didn't believe it. So I ask, you'd do this willingly?"
"Tethyr knows I've reason to kill you," I say, "but I also know that what you did to me helped Talen to stretch the night I popped his cherry. Without that, there'd have been a lot more tearing...a lot more blood. So I give you my word. Release me right now, give me my armor, and when Talen comes for me, you shall live as my prisoner until we get to the surface. Then I'll let you go."
Talisac considers this only a moment before he sets the needle down on a table. Then he scurries to loosen the straps holding me down, fingers tugging on the buckles until I'm able to slide my limbs out. I leap off the table and put my hand around his neck.
"Where's my armor?" I ask.
Gasping, he points to one corner of the room, past several bubbling beakers and bowls of rotting flesh. "I put it in a chest near the door there. Remember your oath."
"I didn't promise I wouldn't hurt you," I say. I tighten my grip and his eyes bulge just a little.
"What did you do with the semen and jelly you harvested from me?"
Talisac shakes his head. "No...please...that's mine. I need it--"
"For what?" I ask.
"I wish to take it back to Asanibis...to the kingdom of Chagidiel. It can be used to create another you."
I shake my head. "Absolutely not. Where is it?"
"I won't tell you," he gasps.
I shake him. I'm so strong from working in the mines that I lift him clear of the ground with only one hand. I hardly feel his weight at all. "I'm not going to ask again."
"It's on that shelf," he sobs. "In a glass jar."
I let go of him, tossing him back so that he falls against the table with the smoky sphere. It almost jostles loose from its base, but he clutches it with both hands to stabilize it. I walk over to the shelf and find the box I recognized from the day of the procedure. It's covered in a thin film of ice. I pop open the lid and remove the jar within; it's freezing cold and almost burns my fingers. Inside lays my frozen white sperm coating the bottom like icy milk.
I walk over to the fireplace, where heat spills out over the floor and into the room. Under my naked feet, I crush things both crunchy and squishy and I refuse to look to see what it is that I'm walking upon. This place is filthy, and I'm sure that whatever I'm walking on is both revolting and worse than what I can imagine by a long shot.
Once I'm in front of the fire, I toss the jar inside, shattering it.
Talisac staggers forward, hand grasping at the air. "No!" he shouts. "What we did wouldn't have harmed you!"
"I don't care," I say. "I'm not letting you create another me for whatever sexual fantasies you and your god and those that follow him may have. I'm Atlantean; no part of me belongs in Asanibis. I and I alone will control who makes copies of me. I'll determine if I ever have kids."
"The church of Chagidiel would have paid you a fortune for what you just threw in that fire," he states with bitterness. "But have it your way, Assassin of the Silver Rose."
This makes me hesitate. "How do you--"
"Know what that is? Your tattoo gives it away as does the one that decorates your lover's skin. At first, I didn't know what it is that I'd found, but word travels fast. You two are wanted men...refugees from Soulwarden. A witch named Kahket wants you dead. I'd imagine that wouldn't be unusual except for the fact that she's the disciple of Zandine. This alone is enough to scare me to death." Talisac straightens at the table and smooths his white lab coat out with one hand, "But they say the two men that escaped the destruction of Thorn are a new breed of holy warrior, and that they're destined to become the most blood-thirsty men on Wynwrayth. If this is true, I want to make sure that I'm not on the wrong side of history."
I walk over to the chest where Talisac says my belongings are held. I open it quickly and begin to don my armor, wiping my feet off on a rag near the door. Once I'm dressed (which only takes a minute) I don my cloak and motion for him to step forward so that I can tie his hands with rope.
"You don't trust me?" he asks.
"Not one bit," I answer.
"You wound me," he says.
By the time I finish knotting the rope, the door opens and a cowled figure strides in. When I raise my hand ready for a fight, the lone person stops. Angelaria reveals herself by dropping her hood.
"Kian?" she says.
"Yes," I reply. I've to admit, I wasn't expecting her snd she's as beautiful as ever. Angelaria ignores me for a second and turns her gaze to Talisac. "He's my prisoner," I quickly explain.
"This man is evil," she states. "He deserves to die for what he's done to countless men and women."
From behind the door, I hear shouting followed by the clang of blades.
"What's going on?" I ask.
"An uprising led by a ranger named Riaken. The mind lords have control of all but one of the tunnels that lead to the surface. Talen's meeting us with your helmet near the Rainbow Falls a mile or so along an ancient passage I intend to show you. Until then, you'll be vulnerable to psionic attack unless you stay close to me."
"How is it that you're immune?" I ask. "I saw in the crystal sphere that you gave your ring to Talen."
She smiles. "I've been busy in the five months we've been imprisoned here. I've figured out a way to defeat their ability to latch onto one's mind."
"W-wait?" I ask. "We've been here five months?"
"Yes," she says. "The missing time is a sign you've probably been dominated daily. People have lost entire lifetimes enslaved to the mind lords." She steps forward until she's only a foot from me. "You're lucky I like you so much. I escaped our prison here a few months ago and found my way to the surface where I was rescued by Riaken. You'll meet him soon. He's not as handsome as you, but there are few men who are. It's through him that I found out about the cache of treasures guarded over by the mind wight guardian in a place they call Castle Perilous. It's the remnants of a keep built by the night dwarves that used to rule this area, and those in the southern tunnels deep underneath the Icewall Mountains. I found out where they kept our belongings and told Talen how he could retrieve them."
I swallow hard.
"Touch me," she says.
I reach out, but my hand passes through her. "W-wait...you're not here?"
"I'm projecting myself. It's how I'm immune to the mind lord's power. I'm waiting for you in a tent by the Rainbow Falls, and I'll take you there soon. But I must warn you, there'll be times when I have to knock you unconscious with a spell. It's the only way to save you once you've been dominated."
"And it'll happen often," Talisac says. "Master Kierak is loathe to lose his prized bull. You are the pride of all his thralls and every mind lord wants you in their stable."
She frowns and stares at the wretched doctor. "Riaken will not be pleased with this prisoner. But there's not much I can do about that, is there?"
"I gave him my word," I say.
"All right, Kian," she says. "If you're ready, just follow me into the tunnels."
She turns, and I grab a hold of Talisac's bonds. Then I pull him behind me, chasing after the swooshing cloak that hangs from Angelaria's shoulders. In the distance, the sound of fighting grows louder, and I feel the sweep of my master's mind.
Soon Kierak will find me; I can't wait until he's dead.
I shall post Chapter 18 next week. Are you liking the story so far?