Arnemagne's Revival

This is the revised version of this story, and I am hoping to produce more chapters sooner or later. Also, please vote, and send feedback. I appreciate feedbacks a great deal, since they are how we get "paid" here at Lit. Thanks!

* * * *

Arnemagne the Mage felt a shiver of joy flow down through his aged body as he came to fully realize what it was that he held in his hands. This was what he had spent the better part of his seventy-seven years looking for. His old heart beat quicker in excitement.

"I must remain calm," he told himself. "I knew it would be found, I knew it was only a matter of time. I cannot allow myself to die of excitement after all these years of searching, with eternal life so close to my grasp." With closed eyes, he willed his body to relax. His aged heart slowed again.

Again opening his eyes after regaining control, he finished carefully unrolling the faded, yellowed scroll. He verified that it was intact, glanced over the ancient letterings, and then carefully rolled it up and replaced it within the cunningly crafted thigh bone that had hidden it for the last few centuries.

* * * *

Upon returning to his stone tower on the edge of the Pearlbriar Forest, Arnemagne gazed proudly at it once again. This tower was a work of magical artistry. For one thing, it had no entrance. No door for would be thieves, or apprentices or ignorant fools to come knocking on. No windows through which a shape-changed spy or rival mage could fly, or assassin in gaseous form could float. No slits through which a well placed arrow could kill him. It was simply a solid stone tower. Arnemagne smiled. He was proud of this.

For him, the tower was open. For him and him alone, the stone allowed access and egress. For him, the solid rock passed through flesh without making contact. He casually strode right through the tower wall.

The inside was lit by everlights, placed here and there. It was small, this tower. Small by most other mage's standards; perhaps sixty feet in height and half that in diameter at the base. But it served his purposes. Arnemagne strode past the table and ignored the bottles of wine he usually sampled upon returning home. Instead, he stood in the circle of white stone that was located in the center of the otherwise stone-gray floor, and willed himself up.

The tower only had three floors. The first was his library and relaxation room. The second was his bedroom; and the third was his laboratory. The upper two were accessible only to the holder of special key items: each required a specially enchanted gem. The second floor required a special reddish-purple star ruby which had been cut into a six rayed star shape, and the third floor required a rare black emerald, so named because it was rich dark green, almost black. Arnemagne naturally had both of those in his possession, and so rose through both stone floors without effort as he wished.

Upon arriving in his laboratory, the smells of his experiments greeted his nose. Nothing pleasant, but certainly not horrible, either. There was a stone table off to one side, a summoning pentagram opposite a thaumaturgic triangle off to another side, and a heavy golden cage across the room from the stone desk.

In that cage, there was a beautiful young woman. She was barely eighteen years of age, although she certainly looked younger - some thought as young as sixteen. She had long, wavy pale golden locks that flowed freely down her back, and she was dressed in a royal purple velvet dress, as he had clothed her. The color did not look particularly good on her, but it was a dress that Arnemagne liked, and he also liked how this girl looked. In his mind, the combination was a good one.

The girl sat there within her cage looking hopeless, frightened, hungry and sad all at once. You could have said 'bedraggled', had she not been so perfectly clean and dressed in such rich garb. Arnemagne looked at her and smiled with the pleasure that only an old man who knows he is about to fulfill years of desire can.

Decade upon decade of life and exposure to the substances he experimented with had rendered him unable to eject fluids upon orgasm; erections were difficult to achieve, but not impossible; and he had not had an orgasm worth talking about in a good many years. But as his mind burned on within his failing shell, so burned his desires, even if the flesh was unable to follow the orders those desires issued.

"Tonight, my lovely, you will be set free of that cage." said Arnemagne.

Almost instantly, her face and entire demeanor changed. It was as the difference between a dark, stuffy dungeon, and a sunlit square at noon.

"Do you speak the truth, old wizard? Or do you jest?" she asked, hope and fear mingling thick in her speech.

"I am not a wizard, girl, I'm a mage. How many times must I say that?" he sighed in exasperation. "But no, I do not jest. You will make a trade with me, and those feet shall walk the High Road tonight."

Arnemagne's tower was many miles from any form of civilization. He did not wish to be disturbed by anyone, least of all angry mobs of uninformed idiots waving pitchforks and torches. There were no roads directly to the tower, but there was one - the High Road - that passed it by several miles out. It was regularly patrolled by the King's High Road Guard, who kept it free of nuisances such as bandits and robbers and highwaymen.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" she cried out in her beautiful silken voice.

"You must pay for your freedom however." he continued with a sly smile. "You must grant me the fulfillment of my wicked desires. That is the trade I mentioned earlier."

The girl gasped. "But... I can't do that! I am a virgin, and I am promised to the Prince of Manguria in marriage! If I am not pure when he takes me, he will become enraged and cut off my head!"

"The prince will do no such thing, fool girl. Do you really think I would allow someone to harm that beautiful body? Not even King Elbert and all his armies, assassins, torturers and spies could harm a hair on you if I wished otherwise. You will be safe granting my demands. Besides; if you choose not to share your flesh with me voluntarily, I have no qualms about making the experience a forced one. I will pierce your depths this night, girl. You can either give me what I wish voluntarily, or I can make it happen against your will. It is your choice, although I would certainly prefer that you shared yourself voluntarily." said Arnemagne with amusement in his old voice.

"The Prince will know I am missing by now, and he will have his forces out looking for me!" she said, showing slight defiance. "You will be caught and killed for your treachery!"

"And the prince, in his infinite stupidity, will already be thinking you are trying to escape him. Do not consider him your rescuer. I am better suited to that title myself."

She realized with horror that he was right. The Prince of Manguria was well known for his cruelty.

"Surely he will beat me, then, and worse! Perhaps even torture me! You must help me, please!" she cried.

"It is a simple matter of trade. You give me what I want, and I will promise you that the Prince of Manguria shall never be able to harm you. Do we have an agreement, then?" Arnemagne said. The grin on his face spoke volumes.

"I... I... I suppose I have no choice," said the girl. "Please, be gentle with me..."

Arnemagne laughed cruelly, knowing he would do no such thing. From his robe, he produced the potent mixture of magical herbs and rare extracts that would allow him to fulfill the first part of his desires. Uncorking the small glass vessel, he quaffed it all in a single gulp.

* * * *

Arnemagne and the girl lay in a sweaty heap on a polar bear fur inside the summoning pentagram. She was sore almost everywhere, and especially between her legs. But she had given the mage what he had demanded, and in return she had earned his end of the bargain.

She felt thoroughly awful. He had used her for his every whim without thought to how she felt, or if it hurt. This, however, was not too surprising, since it was fairly common in that time and place to treat women - even noble women- in such a manner. Gwendolyn, however, had never been treated even remotely so badly. She was of noble birth and came from a doting family. Remembering this, and knowing how her own family would respond when she returned, she began to cry for the third time, realizing that being protected from the Prince and King would not protect her from her father's anger.

Arnemagne got off her, giving her sore but perfect breasts one last cruel squeeze.

"Do not wail so, wench! I have no need for your tears. They irritate me," he said. She tried to stop her tears, and only succeeded in replacing the sounds with involuntary snuffling. Arnemagne laughed at the ridiculousness of how it sounded.

"Get up, wench, and shut your trap! Here is a glass of wine. I will conjure a bath for you." he said.

Gwendolyn was confused. His actions alternated between apparent kindness and exceptional thoughtless cruelty. First he had kidnapped her, then he had promised her release in exchange for sex; next he had sexually abused her in almost every way possible, only to finally offer her a bath and a glass of wine!

She drank the wine, reveling in the wonderful contrast from the taste of what had been in her mouth not long before. As she set the empty glass down, she saw him make a peculiar motion while speaking a language that confused her ears. There before her appeared a crystalline tub filled with soapy water. When she approached it, she was amazed to discover that it was quite deliciously warm, as well! In her haste to hide herself in the bubbles, she slipped and fell in, hitting the back of her head as she did so. Pain burned through her skull for a moment, and she cried out.

"Get clean, whore. I wish you to be clean and sweet smelling before I finish my end of the bargain. And have a care with your body! I'll not have it damaged before I even get to enjoy it," said Arnemagne as he donned his robes. Then he sat down at the stone table and pulled out the leg bone scroll case, slipped it apart, and unrolled the scroll onto the table, enjoying the first afterglow he'd had in almost twenty years. While Gwendolyn bathed and nursed her sore head, he was busy copying the scroll into a book.

* * * *

When Gwendolyn had finished bathing, she was reluctant to reveal herself again to this man who had so humiliated her. She soaked there, wishing she could dress before she left the bubbles, crying softly to herself, and watched him write for a while. When he finished writing, he put the feather pen down and began mumbling to himself and tracing words in his book with a wrinkled old finger. This went on for a long time. Then he closed the book, slipped his right hand into a pocket of his robes, and grasped something in a bony fist before pulling it out. Distraught as she was, his behavior fascinated her, and she became very curious as to what was in his hand.

"I have something for you, my dear," he said with a strange sort of smile on his face. "Something very special. Very rare and expensive, too. You will likely never see the likes of such a wonder again." He opened his hand and out onto the book's leathern cover fell the biggest cut and polished white diamond she had ever seen. It was about twice the size of a robin's egg! She was transfixed as the jewel seemed to sparkle and shine with light that looked as if it came from within the stone itself.

What was this man doing?! Abduction, rape, now a bath and a huge diamond?

"Get out of the bath, child." he said irritably. She slunk down into it further, resisting his command. Arnemagne waved his hand irritably at her, and suddenly Gwendolyn found herself sitting on the cold stone floor again. The warm soapy water was gone, and the difference in the temperature made her shiver uncontrollably. No longer did she have suds to hide behind. She tried to cover herself as best she could.

"I have taken you in almost every manner possible, fool girl, and yet you seek to hide your nakedness from me still?"

With a curt nod of his wrinkly head, her arms flew away from her chest and down to her sides as if someone had possessed them. When she attempted to bring them back up, she found that they would not respond.

"Come over here. Take this diamond. It will fulfill my end of our... bargain," he said with a sly smile. Suddenly she felt herself back in control of her arms, but she did not bring them up to cover herself.

"It will protect me from the Prince?" she asked, momentarily forgetting her shame.

"It will indeed. He will never be able to find you while you are in the protection of this diamond. He shall never be able to harm you. Take it. Take the diamond, girl."

His manner gave away too much of his evil intentions. She hesitated.

"Take it!" he screamed suddenly, frightening her terribly. She responded with acquiescence before thinking, and reached forward to grab the diamond. As her hand closed around it, the world began to flow and ripple and fade in strange ways, and her sight seemed to slide and lengthen sideways until it was merely awareness of light for a moment. When the odd effect stopped, she found herself floating inside that perfect diamond, looking out on the world through its many facets. She watched as her own hand slid away from the gem, and her body fell limply to the floor.

Arnemagne leaned forward to peer into the stone. His smile was devious and wicked and he seemed thrilled with this development.

"It makes the perfect prison, don't you think? And the Prince will have no way to find you there. You are safe, exactly as I promised, little girl. I have fulfilled my end of the bargain. And now, let me show you the fruition of my scheme," he said laughing as evilly as ant demon could. He stood up, and she watched as he chanted some strange thing and motioned in odd ways again. Then he placed a huge cut and polished emerald on the desk next to her diamond prison, and spoke a single word. She saw a pale mist flow from his body into the emerald, even as his aging body began to sway deleriously. She watched horrified as it aged rapidly, turning to dust and bones in a few moments, falling to the floor. The emerald shone, and she could see a bright light in the shape of a young man within it.

Then the light reached out from the emerald as a sparkling mist and flowed down over the other side of the desk, until the emerald was empty and dark again. A moment later, Gwendolyn saw her body arise, unsteadily, from the floor.

"I have done it!" her body cried out in joy. "I have done it! Ha ha ha! Thank you, wench. I will be sure to use this body well before I take another. I am certain it will be useful for its charms. And you, well, you can just remain safe and sound, right here on my shelf until I have further use for you." The body she knew as herself picked up the diamond in which she resided and placed it on a nearby shelf.

"Ah, to be young again," said Gwendolyn's body, with a mixture of wistfulness and pleasure. "Only this time, youth shall not be wasted on the young!"