The Possession of Emily Borden

"Blood is stronger than Law. One does not argue with Blood."

-Anzaki Proverb

Note: The Anzaki people were thought to be the first practitioners of

blood magic. Scholars speculate that they were the progenitors to the Maji.

The smells of spring, of pristine woodland and flowers ever in bloom took up residence in Emily's nostrils as she surveyed the the dreamworld that she'd visited only twice before. The feel of this place seemed so much more real, more solid than she remembered. As if a veil had been lifted from her senses, she felt that she was experiencing more than she had previously, that she was more connected to this place. The grass beneath her bare feet, the bite of the spring breezes raising goosebumps on her bare skin, the clearing was alive and she could feel that life as sure as she could feel her own heartbeat. In fact, the place seemed to pulse in time with her heartbeat in truth. This was her place in a way that it was not before, and she was not alone in it.

She stood bare at the foot of a dais facing the Mistress, standing tall under that ancient, frightful gaze. The Mistress, dressed in a plain heavy silk robe, an Empress taking stock of her domain, stood at the top of the dais with a soft expression totally at odds with the fountain of blood behind her. There were women kneeling in a circle at the edge of the small clearing, their diaphanous gowns fluttering. She could not tell if they were the same women as before but realized that in this place it did not matter. Natalie knelt in front of her with back against her knees, the only other nude figure in the clearing. Emily's hands rested on her shoulders, both to comfort and to signify ownership. All was quiet save for the wind wailing through the trees like a soul forever dying, keening in hopelessness. There was danger there; she knew it instinctively. She had to keep Natalie, her best friend, her only friend, safe from those who would devour her.

"Where am I," Natalie whispered into the silence, sounding both drugged and on the edge of panic. "Oh God I hurt."

"It's OK sweetie. I'll protect you. But you gotta be quiet. There's danger here."

"Fuck that," Natalie replied more strongly, gathering the strength to try to lurch away. "Where ever this is I know I don't wanna be here. Let me g...."

Emily silenced her friend with an effort of will alone, though the strain was visible. Natalie was headstrong and was oftentimes oblivious to situations that should terrify her. This dreamscape certainly counted; Emily knew that missteps here had real consequences. A woman could end up worse than dead here. She was no master of this place but she knew more than Natalie, even if she still wasn't sure where her knowledge base had originated. There was safety in silence; a mere neophyte should not speak in a ceremony like this. Then the Mistress' voice filled the space, the power of it seeming to vibrate the air like a guitar string.

"It seems," said the Mistress, sounding slightly annoyed, "that your hold upon your minion is weak. You must strengthen it." Natalie was certainly hating talk of minions. She struggled against Emily's will and her grip, nearly breaking both. She gritted her teeth. The Mistress closed the distance between herself and the two girls struggling for supremacy, gliding down from the dais as though she were the wind itself. "Let me show you." She touched Natalie with an index finger to her forehead. That one touch quieted her mind for an instant before searing pain blossomed from the contact point downward. Natalie tried to scream her agony but her jaws locked in a rictus. Emily's knees weakened from the echo of that pain and she nearly collapsed. She knew her friend felt much worse. But before she could plead on Natalie's behalf it was over. The pain did not fade, it abruptly stopped. "I can make that pain last as long or as short as I wish, young Natalie. Once she absorbs more of my essence your friend will be able to as well. She does not because she is kind and because she loves you. Yet she is my servant, to do with as I will. I can force her to do what she would rather not. I will force her to keep her minions in line with the very pain you've just experienced and more besides. I will not stay my hand, for to defy her is to defy me. And I shall not be defied."

Natalie knelt weeping silently, any trace of defiance leached from her, Emily's hands the only thing holding her up. There were tears in Emily's eyes as well, though she did not shed them. Instead she supported the one she'd somehow brought with her, trying to project a sense that things would be fine. The Mistress looked on with patience but with a gleam in her eyes, searching specifically for willfulness so that she could crush it utterly. She almost seemed disappointed when no resistance was possible for the pair. "Now that we have settled this issue, we will proceed. We must do what is promised." As if following an unseen cue the ladies began to chant, a whisper rising in volume though the words made no sense to Emily's ears. Then she noticed the changes rendered in her friend. They frightened her.

"M-mistress," Emily said hesitantly. "This is different than my metamorphosis. I don't remember this ceremony."

"It was unnecessary for you. Although your changes were more severe you possess the correct bloodlines. In a sense, you have always belonged to me, as the women in your family have always belonged to me. Your father's line as well, although as a man he can never know us as you will. Regardless, I can change you with a touch, though not without pain.

"Pain brings change," said the the women making up the circle in unison before resuming their chanting.

"As for your minion, she must be more closely wedded to us to complete the change. Now, enough questions. Natalie," she turned her attention to the young woman kneeling at Emily's bare feet. "I have seen into the depths of your heart and I know your nature. You are strong yet you lack confidence. You do not feel beautiful. Emily and I have began the process that is your transformation. We will not complete it unless you agree. We will not compel you in this decision. We offer power and pleasure beyond anything you have ever known. We require service." Natalie was weeping with remembered pain. Despite that, Emily could feel Natalie's heart hardening, could feel her gathering the courage to defy the Mistress and throw the offer in her face. Emily knew the mistress felt it too, felt it as Natalie began to form her answer. And she smiled a smile harder than diamond. Just as Natalie was about to speak the Mistress interrupted. "Before you answer, I suggest you take a look into the mirror."

Natalie must have sensed the evil in that smile for she wilted again. Emily loosed her will enough to allow movement so Nat meekly crawled to the Mistress's side where a full length stand mirror appeared. What she saw there made her scream in horror. "Oh my God! What the hell did you do to me?" she asked accusingly, not sure to which of them she directed the question. Maybe she didn't know. Half of her face was perfect. Skin tone smooth, eye bright, hair in perfect micro braids, teeth straight and white. The other half of her face was a wreck. Her skin was riddled with pockmarks as if splattered with acid and dull. Her mouth was crooked and many of her teeth were missing. Her eye on that side was grotesque, lopsided, pale as if blind. Her hair grew out in patches, what there was left of it grey as winter's kiss. Natalie looked down at her naked body and realized the change was not limited to her face. Split down the middle, one half perfect, the other a rotted mess made worse by comparison. Emily felt the sense of betrayal pulse through the bond so strong it nearly crushed her. "Why, Em? Why would you do this to me? I thought we were friends!"

Emily was speechless, tears tracking down her perfect cheeks. She felt her friend's horror at the changes imposed upon her and despaired. Facing these changes was so much worse than her imagination could provide. She wanted to say sorry, to commiserate with Natalie but the words would not come. Her tears fell; Emily knew that they shared the horror of her appearance between them. The Mistress saved her from speaking. "Do not blame your friend, child. She did not know. I told her that she had the power, that such a thing as your change was possible. She had no way to know that your blood would resist the change or the form that resistance would take. I did not tell her that more would be required."

"But you knew," Natalie addressed the mistress. "You did this to me, you evil bitch!" Provided with a target that she could truly hate, anger rolled off of her in waves. Her mismatched eyes were ablaze and she lurched for the Mistress, although what she hoped to accomplish Emily could not guess. She stood frozen as Natalie snarled. She closed in fast with her hand poised to rake the face of her Mistress.

Unconcerned, almost bored, the Mistress moved faster than thought. She grabbed Natalie's neck with one hand and lifted her from her feet, the muscles in her arm harder than a bar of iron. The Mistress snuffed out Natalie's fury as if blowing out a candle. As Natalie's mismatched eyes bulged from applied pressure, the Mistress spoke softly. "I admire strength young one but I will not tolerate disrespect. You are under forbearance for now but you quickly try my patience. I have lived for millennia; time is nothing for me. I can wait millennia more to find a new Vessel or minion if I so choose. Continue to test me at your peril."

Emily watched the confrontation, controlling her fear by a hands breath. Natalie set her will against one of the most powerful beings of creation and although the contest was inevitable for a while she held her own. Emily was both proud of her friend and afraid for her. If Natalie did not back down soon she would be more than crushed, she'd be erased from existence.

Alright girl, you've shown her you're no pushover, now let go, please!

She mentally sent the message to Natalie on the off chance she would receive it. Suddenly, as if in answer, Natalie relented. She stopped fighting against the will of the Mistress and in return the Mistress loosened her grip on Natalie's neck. "That's better child. Now, you may choose to break our bond and live life as you are. I cannot and will not reverse the changes I have made to you so far. If I complete the changes know that your bond to your friend and to me cannot be broken. I say again that I will not compel you. This decision must be of your will alone. Make your choice."

Natalie grudgingly nodded her acquiescence after a bare moment's hesitation. "I agree to be bound. What must I do, m-Mistress," her voice catching on the unfamiliar title.

"You need only lay down child, and be silent. We shall not harm you." As Natalie silently did the Mistress's bidding, Emily sighed in relief. Yet the relief was tinged with despair. The ceremony proceeded apace, with the Mistress producing a long silver knife and breaking her flawless skin with a flick of the tip. She presented her cut wrist to Natalie's lips for her to drink from the fount. Natalie swallowed gulp after gulp and the ruined half of her body began to change, to match her pristine side. Once the transformation was complete Natalie smiled, relieved at the cessation of her pain although her eyes still brimmed with tears. She closed her eyes on the grass and the Mistress's skin closed as if she'd never been cut. "Now Emily," the Mistress beckoned. "To complete the ceremony you must consummate your bond here in the dream as you have already in life. Lay with your minion, give her your blessing in front of witnesses, and take your place as an acolyte of the Maji."

For a brief instant, Emily's despair threatened to overwhelm her. This was way more than she anticipated. All at once she saw the price she would pay for what looked like minor actions to her, saw that it was incredibly high and would only get higher. There was no escape from the Mistress and her designs that she could see, and her actions in this dream clearing were far from benevolent. She watched the women chanting around her and their vacant eyes, the fountain of blood, and knew she was doomed.

All is not lost, my little Emmy,

a new voice in her head whispered almost too low to be heard. She looked up sharply. Across the circle, nearly directly behind the Mistress, the eyes of one of the chanting maidens wasn't quite so vacant as the others. Her gaze was set on Emily.

M-mother??

She asked tentatively and in a voice just as small as the new voice. Instinct told her that was vital somehow.

Your minion is descended from witch hunters. Your minion is key. Find my amulet. Do not forget!

The voice in her head fell silent. No time had passed. Emily kept her face smooth, outwardly the perfect servant. Inside her mind was turmoil. Her mother was dead, wasn't she? She remembered her mother dying, or at least her leaving, or at least being told she left, that she died. Her memories of that time seemed to be behind translucent glass. They could no longer be trusted. In fact, the only thing that stood clear in her mind was the day her mother gave her that amulet, told her to never take it off. She wanted to wail, to weep hysterically, to scream at the voice in her head until it gave up all the answers to all the questions. She knew what she wanted was not relevant. For now, service was all.

Emily watched as the knife suddenly was no longer a knife. It became a dildo, etched with the same unfamiliar symbols as the knife once held. The chanting women grew closer and surrounded Natalie, one pinning each of her arms, two holding her legs wide, two worshiping her breasts. The Mistress pressed up against Emily's back, her hard nipples pressing against her shoulder blades with only a thin layer of silk separating their skin. The mistress fitted the once-knife to Emily's body, the butt end somehow fitted and secured to the opening of her vagina, sending a wave of pleasure straight to her center. Emily dutifully knelt in front of her friend and her wet opening. Using the tool granted her by her Mistress, she plunged her friends wet depths, pushing through her maidenhead as if it were never there. She held once their pelvises touched. There was a flash of heat and then an awareness. The vague feelings she was receiving from Natalie intensified tenfold. She felt the entire cocktail of Natalie's emotions as if they were her own, the fear, bewilderment and confusion, the pain of her broken hymen, and the waves of unexpected, unwelcome pleasure getting rapidly stronger despite her attempts to fight it. Emily felt such love in that moment she could not help it, she kissed Natalie with the intensity of a man dying of thirst finding an oasis.

Then her body began to move. In and out she pushed the device into her friend, her own pleasure heightened by her friend's rising passion. Each thrust seemed to make them meld into each other more and more. The women had at some point let go of Natalie because Emily felt her hands caressing her back, her heels pushing Emily deeper inside. For a long while they were the world to each other, the women looking on as unimportant as flies on a wall. Even the Mistress receded in their awareness as they pleasured each other. They could not stop kissing each other, could not get enough of the feel of perfect silken skin on perfect silken skin. Their desire built, feeding on each other in an infinite loop, their emotions blended as perfectly as DNA strands, they rose higher and higher. Emily's body knew what to do, ceaselessly pumping, pounding, showing no mercy. Yet no matter how much she stroked she felt Natalie's desire for more, more, more. Emily barely spared a thought about how the once-knife stayed in place despite their desperate movements. The desire to ravish Natalie, to make her cum more than she ever had in life was her world. Her cries of pleasure echoed throughout the forest clearing, cries that encouraged Emily's efforts, cries that quickened Emily's blood.

Without slowing her pace at all, she was compelled to provide even more pleasure to the woman writhing beneath her, stroking silken skin and biting nipples until they drew blood. As the taste of Natalie's blood exploded in her mouth, she could feel the rigid, crystalline dildo seemingly become a part of her own body. She felt the object pierce her friend's velvet folds, felt Natalie's vaginal muscles grip and squeeze it. It didn't bother her; in this place where will mattered more than reality it felt right. Soon she joined Natalie in her passionate cries and they drowned out all distractions in their race towards climax. Then the climax arrived, Natalie's body stiffened beneath her. Emily felt every moment of it through her emotional link to her friend and the physical connection of the dildo buried inside Natalie's body. The intensity of Natalie's reactions triggered her own explosion. They froze in position for an indeterminate time, involuntary shivers the only indication that they had not turned to stone. Then Emily collapsed atop her friend. They held each other as if seeking shelter from the storm raging inside them.

"Well done," said the Mistress, intruding on the post-coital bliss. "I release you to rule and to restore my empire upon the Earth. You will not fail, Emily of the Maji." With an indulgent smile and a wave of her hand they were expelled from the dream forest, back to the couch that they left minutes or days ago, back to the realm where time actually mattered.

Or at least that's what was supposed to happen. Emily figured that her friend had reached the couch safely, relaxing as much from the absence of pain as from the sex. She still felt the empathic connection, faint but still recognizable, and knew that at least Natalie was not in immediate danger. As for herself she was not so certain. She stood in the center of a small room, hardly bigger than her room in the waking world. The room was white and featureless. White ceiling, white floor, white walls, no pictures and not a stick of furniture marred the perfect whiteness of the place. And even though she thought she'd never even conceived a room like this could exist and had no earthly idea how she'd arrived there, she felt a growing warmth like familiarity come over her. This strange room felt more like home than any place she had ever been. That is at least until she realized that she wasn't alone in that pristine white room. She looked up and into a pair of violet eyes, remarkably like her own only holding more wisdom and sadness than any one lifetime could account for. The face that held those eyes was smiling yet the strain was plainly visible. It was the same face as the one in the forest glade, urging her to remember the locket she'd lost. It was the face that greeted her on the day she was born.

"Hi Emmy," her mother spoke into the silence only sporadically punctured by the sound of her own breathing. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you again."

There is Power in Pleasure

and Power in Pain.

While Pleasure Bedazzles,

Pain brings Change.

Master both,

and Long may be your Reign.

Powers of the Maji, 7th Lesson, excerpt