Empire Of Pleasures Ch 01

Chapter One: The Apprentice

Uhrla eagerly drew her moistened lips up and down, thrilling at the throbbing shaft vibrating along her tongue. The prisoner above her moaned and writhed, quietly clinking the chains that held his hands fast above his head. Her hands kneaded his testicles, massaging the seed they held. How she longed to taste his salty cream, the ultimate proof of his love...

She doubled her tempo at the thought, the prisoner crying out softly. Her other hand working furiously beneath her skirts, the base of her thumb vibrating on the nub of her womanhood. Copious droplets of moisture raced each other down her thighs as she moaned sensuously around his shaft.

She had never imagined sucking a man could be so exquisite! She had done it before, and it had been pleasant enough to hear her partners groan and writhe at every flick of her tongue. But she had never imagined it could bring such incredible sensations as these! Every time he thrust into her mouth she felt an electric shock of pleasure echo in the depths between her legs. Oh, Seasons, she wanted to keep him deep in her throat forever...

Unfortunately, she still had to breathe. Very reluctantly she disengaged from his satiny hardness, coughing for breath. She looked up at the handsome young man, pumping him slickly with her hand. He could not have been more than a few turns of the Seasons past twenty Autumns, with a long shock of auburn hair and smoothly chiseled features. His chest heaved. He looked so intensely male, so...perfect.

“C-come for me,” Uhrla pleaded. “Sow your seed in me! Gods, there is nothing I ever wanted more in my life.” She meant that, every word of it. She arced her back, sliding his member along one of her engorged nipples through the fabric of her dress. “Please!”

The young man’s voice was breathless but steady. “You must do something for me in return.”

“Anything!”

“Free me.”

“Of course. Of course!” She clamped her lips back over his engorged head, licking wildly. He shivered and groaned. He must be so close! Oh, Seasons, of course she would free him! It would be easy enough to seduce that oafish, over-muscled guard and sneak his keys away. Then she would steal this perfect male out of the castle and into the heart of the night.

Once he was out of those chains and safely away from his tormentors he could finally take her as a man should. She imagined him throwing her onto a bed of soft sand deep in a secluded oasis she knew of, rough hands ripping open her dress and clutching madly at her breasts. Powerful hips nudge her thighs apart, his molten shaft plunging deep between her legs, sliding into quivering folds already drenched in anticipation...

The thought made her groan loudly around him even as she took his manhood as far into her throat as she could, sucking hard. That sent him over the edge. Crying out, almost laughing in ecstasy, his hips shook then went rigid as his orgasm crashed down upon him, releasing his first jet of seed. Her moaning transformed into muffled screams as she peaked, experiencing the most incredible sensations in all her life. Her inner walls contracted hard around her fingers as she lovingly swallowed his gift.

Powerful hands grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her abruptly away, her lips disengaging from her lover with a loud pop. “No!” she screamed as successive spurts from the young man landed on the hem of dress and then on the cold stone floor. “No, wait!”

His seed was supposed to be hers! Hers!

She thrashed wildly against the arms holding her, sobbing uncontrollably.

A tall, impossibly handsome man strode into the cell, frowning at her. He turned toward the prisoner, one snowy brow cocked high, his tone mocking. “I thought the Order forbade its followers from using our magicks like that.”

The prisoner glowered at him. “I would not have done it, Entos, if not absolutely necessary.”

Entos nodded, walking up to Uhrla. “Hmf. You have spoken more than once of how important it is to warn the Eleven Worlds of my awful threat, Tully. Of going back to your Tholena and the Father Trees on Ximenes. No doubt you thought that doing so was important enough to ignore the most strictly-enforced rule of the Order: You must not use Ecstasy magic to Seduce someone into loving you.”

The prisoner winced at Entos’ words, making the older man laugh. “Your conscience no doubt tortures you for what you did to her, but I find it, well, encouraging.”

Uhrla shuddered, the longing in her still unquenched. She knew they were talking about her, but somehow it did not matter. All she could understand was the pounding of blood in her temples and the rush of heat to her loins whenever she looked upon the young man. Tully, the tall man had called him. His name hadn’t really seemed important, before. “Please...” she whispered.

The Lord of the castle looked down upon her, a bemused smile forming. “Do you love him, servant?”

She nodded desperately. “Yes. Seasons, yes. I would do anything for him! Anything...”

Tully seemed to shrink into himself. Entos laughed at the prisoner. “Don’t tell me that kind of power over another person doesn’t give you even a small thrill, my young apprentice?”

“Of—of course not,” Tully said.

“Odd, that you stutter those words when you are usually so eloquent.” The tall man walked up and stroked Tully’s cheek sensuously. “You do find it exciting, buried somewhere deep in your false morality, don’t you? Like everyone, you find the forbidden arousing. And forbidden Power can be quite an aphrodisiac, even for people such as us. After all, sex is about power...”

“No. Sex is about love, about pleasure...”

“Oh, spare me the Order propaganda. Sex is survival, about your blood being carried on to the next generation. Sex is a vicious conflict carried out by our most basic instincts, a quiet battle most of us fight all our lives without ever knowing its true nature. Every partner is a conquest or a weapon to be used. Sex is a war, Tully, simple and pure.

“The vast majority of people in the Worlds are slaves to their sexual instincts, and often obey their baser impulses without thinking. We Ecstasy Mages, with our training and magicks, rise above this and place those instincts at our beck and command. That is what makes us the better of the mundanes. Even better than the other Sorcerous Orders.”

One of the guards grumbled. They were both tall and thick, steel taut muscles flowing smoothly beneath perfect skin. Their hauberks bore the sword-on-axe crest of the Order of the Body, a guild of mages dedicated to using their magicks to push their physical selves to perfection and beyond.

Tully knew their very presence here was insane. Body Mages and Ecstasy Mages had been mortal enemies since the fall of the Empire of Pleasures three hundred years before. Why would they be working for Entos?

Entos dipped his head momentarily in the guards’ direction. “The Body Mages have also risen above their baser instincts, in their own, if limited, way.” The guard scowled at the semi-insult, but said nothing. Entos continued. “Sex is not a higher calling, Tully. Your mistress has been blinded by generations of Order propaganda. Sex is war, and seduction a weapon. Every woman who has heard a suitor plead for her charms knows this. Every prostitute who has ever blackmailed a customer knows this. Every courtesan who used his or her wiles to bed themselves into high positions knows his.

“The Pleasure Emperors knew it too, except their powers allowed them to do far more than just bat an eyelash or swing a hip. They used their magic to turn the sexual drives of those around them into weapons of conquest, to turn seduction into a world-capturing campaign. Within a generation they had Seduced kings, wizards and generals into handing them the reigns of power on all Nine Worlds then known. It only made sense. For what mundane could ever resist the power of the greatest sex they would ever have, repeated over and over and over? An addiction far greater than any drug.”

Tully shook his head. “The Empire of Pleasures didn’t last. Entos, you have to see that trying to recreate it is insane. The Pleasure Emperors barely lasted three generations before the mundanes tore them down.”

Entos sighed. “Yes, that is unfortunate. I admit they were short-sighted in many ways. They believed that ruling from behind the scenes would be enough, that taking potential enemies to bed was always an unfailing strategy. They did not act to overtly wipe out powers that could still challenge them, like the minor wizard guilds they failed to seduce into compliance."

“Like the Order of the Body,” the grumbling guard interjected. The Body Mages had been instrumental in breaking the Order’s grip on civilization, and later in driving it underground and hunting the remaining Ecstasy Mages to near-extinction.

“Indeed,” Entos said to the guard. “That is why I have worked so long to secure this alliance between our guilds. The original Pleasure Emperors did not realize until too late how resistant your kind is to ecstasy magicks. Seasons, some of your guild Masters might as well be undead given how easily you can shrug off sex spells.”

The guard stood straighter at this, obviously in pride. Never mind he was being compared to wraiths and liches.

“But I will not make the same mistakes,” he continued. “This time, the Body Mages are on our side. With them acting as our agents, we will be able to crush any force myself or my followers aren’t able to Seduce.” He smiled broadly at his prisoner. “And I want you to be part of it, Tully.”

“I thought I was just bait to lure Tholena here.”

“You are, and until I saw you Seduce this stupid girl that’s pretty much all I thought of you as. But maybe I can get through to you after all.”

Tully pulled his lips into a grim line. “And maybe if you accidentally kill Tholena before you get her secrets out of her you’ll at least have MY knowledge of the Father Trees.”

Entos laughed. “You are bright. I can see why your mistress is so taken with you. But think about it. There’s no reason why you have to end up on the losing side when all this is over.”

Tully did his best to look defiant. Entos regarded him, then turned to Uhrla, looking her over from head to toe. “Ah yes. But we can’t have you trying to escape again, can we, Tully? If you had any other teacher I would consider you a non-threat. But as a student of Tholena’s its possible you might even seduce one of our guards into helping you.”

“Hey!” the Body Mages shouted as one.

“You two are only tenth-circle adepts. Little more than pumped-up soldiers. That’s why you’ve drawn such a low duty as guarding the prisoner tower. I imagine Tully would have to work at it, but its not impossible he could have you eagerly sucking him as he did this servant girl.”

“I--I do not do that with men,” one of the guards stammered.

“You’d be surprised how very little your preferences would matter once you were caught up in an ecstasy spell. Still, I’m going to have to give our prisoner here added incentive to remain compliant.”

Tully’s gut suddenly felt watery. He knew—he hoped—his training would allow him to endure any torture Entos could inflict on him. The path of Ecstasy Magic required a great deal of physical and mental discipline, after all. Still, it was not something to look forward to. He barely kept his voice steady as he asked, “What are you going to do?”

“Watch.” Entos waved his hand at Uhrla. Tully felt magic flow in the room around them, focusing on the servant girl. “The morality you so desperately cling to, Tully, can be a more effective chain than anything made of metal.”

Uhrla cried out as sensations she never believed possible suddenly poured through her. Her inner folds blazed with an inferno of desire, lubrication streaming freely down her thighs. The center of her womanhood sparked lightning-like flashes of pleasure through her entire body with every heartbeat. Her nipples crinkled harder than stones, the feeling of the fabric of her day dress brushing across them indescribable.

The entirety of her skin flushed hot and moist. The universe outside of her body shrunk to nothing. All of existence became nothing more than the waves of hot, wet ecstasy undulating through her with each shuddering breath she drew.

Her hands shot to her cleft, desperate for relief, her fingers instantly drenched by her own fluids. She screamed in disbelief as she felt nothing, not even the slightest pressure, no matter how hard she rubbed.

“That will do you no good,” Entos said to her. “Nor will jamming anything into your folds. What you feel is entirely in my control.”

Another storm of unearthly sensations smashed through her. She spasmed and sprawled desperately onto the floor and hunched her hips skyward, as if in a desperate plea to the gods to relieve her. Her hands clutched uselessly at the cold stone of the walls trying to find purchase that was not there, her nails snapping themselves jagged.

Tully shook his head at his captor, horrified. “What are you...?”

Entos ignored him and squatted beside Uhrla. “Do you want to climax, young lady?” he asked, as if he were offering her a stale biscuit at morning meal.

“Gods!” she barely managed to squeak. “Y-yes! I—Aaahh!—I can’t stand this! Yes, please—Aaaaaahh! Gods! AAAAAAAHHHH!” Her words devolved into pitiful mewling screams as her hands squeezed hard enough on her folds to draw blood, trying futilely to reach the orgasm her body screamed for.

Entos slid a dagger from his belt and lay it on the straw-strewn floor beside her. “Take the knife and plunge it into your heart, girl, and you will find the release you so desperately long for. There will be no pain, just the most incredible pleasure you will ever experience.”

“What!” Tully strained against his chains, finally realizing his captor’s game. “Uhrla, no!”

Entos straightened. “An interesting contest, don’t you think?” he said to his prisoner. “Which do you think will win out, her sexual needs heightened beyond human endurance by my ecstasy spell, or her instinct for self preservation?”

Uhrla heard the words and realized all their implications, but they did not seem to matter. The nub of her womanhood burned hotter than the sun, crying for release like a damned soul. It was torture beyond any whip or needle.

She couldn’t stand it anymore. Seasons help her, she just couldn’t!

Tears flowing freely down her cheeks, she tremblingly reached for the blade.

“Don’t!” Tully cried. “Gods and Seasons, fight it!” Tully began summoning his own sorcerous power to help her.

Only to have his spell blocked easily by Entos with a simple gesture. There was little doubt who was master and who was apprentice here.

Another wave of hurricane-force sensations shuddered through her and all conscious thought was lost. She became nothing more than a grunting animal, ruled by only instinct and overwhelming, irresistible need. Clutching the weapon tightly, she hesitated only for a single, trembling breath.

In one smooth motion she slid the cold metal into her flesh until it pierced her heart.

Entos had lied; there was pain, a lot of it, but it wasn’t important. The world exploded into universes of white-hot ecstasy even as blood spurted high before her vision. Impossibly, exquisitely, her entire body spasmed violently in orgasm, as if every inch of her skin was as the center of her womanhood. Her most intimate folds clenched with impossible orgasmic strength, and Uhrla was vaguely aware of blood gushing from between her legs as well as her chest.

Uhrla crashed limply onto the floor, the ecstasy draining freely along with her life’s blood onto the cold stones. She heard Entos laughing, far away. Her last sight before the darkness was of Tully. As her vision blurred into nothingness, she thought of how handsome he looked, even with cheeks awash with tears.