Intrepid Pawns

Note: This is the start of a new series, following a team of agents seeking to end a terrible war with strange bee-like faerie women. It is set within the same world as my other stories, but its continuity is largely distinct—don't expect much intersection.

Because this series has a definite ending, you can guess that it's not necessarily going to end happily for every character. Well, that depends on how you look at it, but I'm sure you can guess from the tags the direction an "unhappy ending" is likely to take. You've been warned!

~~~~~~~~

"Give it back!"

"Hee! Fuck off, magic man! Mine now!"

"I'm going to

incinerate

you as soon as I get that back!"

"Excuse me. If you two don't break it up, I'm going to cut off your arms and stuff them into your flapping mouths."

"Everybody shut up! I can't even hear needles crunch with all this racket!"

Okino held his head in his hands, trying to tune out the noise. He bonked his head against the tree trunk behind him.

I've made a terrible mistake.

~~~~

"Are you sure, Okino?" Cap Rhoelt—for some reason, nobody ever called them 'captain', and this was how they seemed to like it—peered over the desk through large, foggy spectacles. Rhoelt's totally hairless face and shapeless white robes made determining a gender next to impossible, and as far as Okino knew, that was also how they liked it.

"If we don't get to the ruins, the whole city will be brought down, Cap." Okino resisted the urge to rub his sweating brow. Rhoelt's gaze had driven lesser men to tears, but Okino was not lesser men. He could show no weakness. Still, those purple eyes were...unnerving. "These fey creatures, these...meadbrewers. We can't beat them like this, slashing at swarms like a panicked child."

"You propose we take a swung at the hornets' nest directly." Rhoelt raised an eyebrow. "Did you ever try

that

as a child?"

"Yes." Okino pursed his lips. He didn't bother asking how Cap knew. Cap always knew.

"And how did it go?"

"Badly. But Cap, someone's already swung at it a couple times. The hornets are already as angry as they can get. If we want to stop them, we're just going to have to swing at it even harder." Okino started to bang on the desk for emphasis, but a prickling sensation on the back of his neck slowed it to a light tap. Rhoelt did not look like the type to appreciate emphasis.

"With a bigger stick."

"Yes, sir." Okino resisted the urge to bite his lip. As a lieutenant, he had some authority, but all paled to that of the City Watch's captain. If Rhoelt didn't like the idea, that was that. Not even the governor-mayor would dare object.

Rhoelt sighed. "Well, obviously, you're right."

Okino blinked.

"That's not what I was really asking about," Cap Rhoelt went on. They tapped a sheet of paper on their desk, scowling. "I was merely expressing doubt as to your choices. Is this

really

the team you want?"

Okino felt almost giddy, but he had to keep his wits about him now more than ever. "The team needs to be small and competent." He knew he was right about this. He just had to make Rhoelt see that. "These four are the best in their fields."

"Yathi? She's not our best scout. Surely that honor goes to Amnia. I'm given to understand that Yathi has a bad habit of fidgeting when she aught to be quiet. Some sort of hyperactivity, or the like." The Cap waved a hand vaguely. "Yathi's decent enough, but hardly the best."

This time Okino did bite his lip. He'd been hoping Rhoelt wouldn't notice that. Okino's reasons for wanting Yathi along weren't wholly on-the-level, he knew. But he'd come prepared. "Yathi has amazing senses and a brilliant knack for stealth. Plus, I've heard Amnia has a mead problem."

Rhoelt's brow furrowed.

It was a dirty trick, Okino knew, but those rumors

did

exist. Admittedly, Amnia had been sober for the last few months. Still, it was possible Rhoelt hadn't heard that yet. Amnia was one of the few guards able to keep some secrets from the Cap.

"Well, perhaps," Rhoelt murmured. "Yathi does have good senses. What of Trys? She's been captured by the Thriae before. Her mind is vulnerable."

"She's the best fighter we have," Okino said honestly. "Her savagery is a marvel to behold. And if we get captured, we're all lost no matter what."

"Then you have Brist and Ia. Brist is a klutz. Ia is insane."

"Brist is a genius mage and Ia...well, whatever it is she does, she has a perfect performance record. And Ia was young enough to be inoculated against the Thriae's mead. With the exception of Yathi, everyone on this team is at the very top of the rankings."

"Ah. 'Rankings'. You're building a team piecemeal, boy." Rhoelt wagged a finger. "Rookie mistake. This team has nothing in common, and everyone in it is completely incompatible. They'll kill each other before they get anywhere near the ruins."

"They just need a good leader," Okino said confidently. "Don't worry, Cap. I'll have them working shipshape before you can say 'honeypot'."

~~~~

"I said,

give it back!

"

Brist lunged and plucked the crystal out of Ia's grip. He pulled back and clutched it to his chest with both hands, glaring bitterly at the would-be thief.

The would-be thief

tsk

ed. "Aw, man." Ia slumped back against a redwood trunk. She reached up and brushed wild black hair from her wild black eyes, clearly trying to force it once again into something resembling a topknot. "Almost had it, too. I bet I'd've been a champion magician. Why you gotta kill all my dreams, Brist?"

"You wouldn't even know what to do with it," Brist snapped. He carefully placed the gray crystal in a pouch at his side. "This takes an

insane

level of concentration to channel through."

"You mean like the kind I need to find a path that won't

kill

us?" growled a voice from below. Brist and Ia both looked down at the speaker.

Yathi glanced up at them, yellow eyes flashing as she crouched on the forest floor. "You think we're safe here? You've got not half a brain between the two of you, for all your high marks." She waved her little crossbow wildly. This was the same crossbow nobody ever saw Yathi draw but that she always seemed to have in her hand whenever she had need of a strange, terrifying argument prop. She poked Brist's leg with it, causing him to recoil. "The meadbrewers are

everywhere

these days, butterbutts. If you don't wanna be stuck thrusting in treacle for the rest of your days, you'll let me

focus

."

"But she—"

"Guys, let her do her thing," Trys snapped. Brist jumped—he'd thought she was asleep, and judging by the startled looks of his comrades, they'd assumed the same. The blonde warrior sat cross-legged against a nearby tree, her hands clasped and eyes shut in some silent prayer. "Don't waste time. Sucks enough we gotta do this—do you want to be stuck sucking honeycombs on top of that?"

"But she was—" Trys's eyes opened. Brist went silent.

Ia stuck her tongue out at him.

Brist crossed his arms and fumed in silence. Unbelievable. The woman was not a day over nineteen—close to two years beneath him!—and here she was, being treated like just as important a member of the team as the most accomplished student of the entire Onyx Academy.

It wasn't fair. Just because crystal magic wasn't inborn, everybody acted like it was "lesser" magic. Brist

knew

things would be different if he was some sort of fancy princeling ice mage or enchanter. Instead...

He grit his teeth. Instead he was stuck serving under Okino. The most arrogant, insufferable man in the entire Watch. He stole a look at the lieutenant, carefully concealing his annoyance.

Okino was his opposite in almost every way. Where Brist was short and scrawny, Okino was tall and muscular. Where Brist was humble and sensible, Okino was proud and impulsive. Even their hair and skin colors diverged—Okino's hair was short and dark, his skin as pale as a white peach. Brist, meanwhile, had dark skin, and his long curly hair had been completely bleached in an unfortunate magical incident he didn't want to think about right now that

was not

his fault.

Anyways, Okino really was—

"Got it!" Yathi chirped. She sprang to her feet, grinning. "

Ooee.

The forest is a deathtrap."

Silence greeted her words. Trys's eyes opened and stared up at Yathi, showing a rare emotion: Alarm. "Er...is it?"

"Yup." Yathi smirked, rapping a rolled-up scroll against the top of Trys's head. "Map's obsolete. The beetle husks here," she held up something dark and crumbly in her other hand, "tell me that we've got a bee problem. The forest is claimed."

"But this is..." Brist swallows. "This is right next to the city."

"Eeyup." Yathi tossed her dark hair, not that there was much to toss. "Yeah, this city'll be down in a matter of moons at most if we don't hurry. We'll have to take a detour. The Crags should do."

Brist adjusted his collar beneath his robe. "Isn't that that horrible misty desert of death and despair?"

"Technically, mist is water vapor. The Crags have Faerie Fog. That's condensed poison vapor."

Brist swallowed again.

"Yathi." Okino cleared his throat, placing a hand on Yathi's arm. "Sweetheart, not that I don't trust your judgment, but are you sure that's a good route to take?"

Yathi pulled away and gave Okino an annoyed look. "I can get us through it,

sir

. The Fog only settles around you if you piss them off. These are different fey from the Thriae. We're talking oreads, quenchers, that kind of thing. Just don't kick any piles of stones or wear shoes and you'll be fine."

"No shoes?" Ia bent over. "I've been training for this moment my whole life. Always hated these things."

"No, you haven't. Private,

please

do not throw your shoes away. You'll need them after the desert."

"I was

gonna

stuff them in the magic man's little crystal pouch, but whatever. Hey, on a side note, does anybody have any idea what's wrong with this toe? It's all yellow and it stinks."

Brist jerked away as Ia thrust the foot in his face. "That's infected. When's the last time you bought new shoes?"

Ia blinked. She cocked her head. "Is...is that one of those things rich people do? Like getting bidets installed, and eating more than three times a week?"

"

Well

..." Trys got to her feet, grimacing. "I'll take a stone nymph over the meadbrewers any day. Let's get moving before we're caught in here. If the Thriae catch us...well, today's too fair a day to spoil with that sort of ugliness, right?"

Not for the first time, Brist caught himself wondering if the rumors about Trys were true. It was said that nobody captured by the meadbrewers ever returned—or that when they did, it was always unwilling. Extended exposure to the mead was said to be capable of completely breaking the toughest spirit. He hadn't gotten any "broken" vibes off of Trys so far, though.

"Sir," he said to Okino as they started walking, "you've fought the Thriae before, haven't you?"

"Scores of battles." Okino nodded.

"Do you have any advice for when we run into them? My magic tends to burn everyone equally, but..."

"If we run into the meadbrewers, I have one piece of advice." Okino patted Brist on the shoulder. "Give it everything you've got."

"Are they tough, then?"

Okino looked troubled.

Ia spoke up. "No, they go down as quickly as anything else." She sounded uncharacteristically uneasy. "But there's a difference between 'down' and 'out'."

Brist rolled his eyes, getting impatient. "Meaning?"

This had better not be a buildup to another one of her stupid jokes. 'Go down'...oh, gods, she's going to do a blowjob joke, isn't she? Walked right into that one.

But Ia fixed him with a dark look. "I've, uh...I've seen a whole regiment go under the spell of one who had both arms and legs nailed to a tree trunk. Thoroughly. By me. I thought that would be enough." She stared right into his eyes, but Brist felt like she was seeing something else altogether. Her next words were quiet. "They heard one word...and they were hers. Ready to die for her. Kill for her. They heard one word, and they were caught like flies in honey."

Brist's mouth was dry. He forced it to work. "And you?"

Ia took a moment to respond. Then she waved her sword in the air, her manic grin returning. "I ain't a great listener."

~~~~

"

Listen closely,"

Ytheri cooed.

Kuolema lay on the bed, her back arched sharply. The white-haired beauty's eyes were fluttering as she struggled to speak. "listen...closely..."

"Good girl!" Ytheri said delightedly. She allowed her finger to brush along the pale young woman's clit, enjoying the pathetic little whines that followed. The sorceress leaned close, staring deep into those black, bottomless pools, inhaling the sagey smell of her slave's arousal. She smirked. "You're such a good girl, aren't you, so happy and slutty for Mistress. I smell how good you feel. You feel so good thanks to me, don't you?"

"oh...

yes

..."

"Now,

listen

," Ytheri said firmly, pressing against the clit again. "Look. What do you see?"

"i see...no..." Kuolema whimpered. "i shouldn't be...shouldn't be..."

She gasped as Ytheri leaned closer. Ytheri extended her lower lip in a luscious green pout and allowed it to quiver. "What's the matter? Don't you

love

me? Don't you want to be a good girl for me?"

"but...mm...please..."

Ytheri began trailing kisses on Kuolema's flushed face, never releasing her from her relentless stare. "I know you want to make me happy. I know you want to be a good, hot slave. So listen, look, feel. Tell me what you see."

With each kiss, she could feel the tension, the internal struggle, fading from her slave's mind. She grinned wickedly, stroking Kuolema's outer lips below to make the struggle just a little bit more futile, and listening hungrily to Kuolema's increasingly desperate cries. She might as well have some fun. After all, she had to go through this rigmarole every time she asked Kuolema to do this for her.

Honestly, the mental protections on psychopomps were

insane

.

But at last, the battle was over. Kuolema had only lasted ninety seconds this time. She was getting more and more susceptible, Ytheri knew—more and more complacent as a slave. The birch-skinned woman took a deep breath, then shivered as Ytheri ran a cool finger down the small of her back. "i...i see...i hear...feel..."

Ytheri waited until Kuolema's body had begun to glow, then carefully took one of her beautiful slave's hands and lowered it into a wide basin beside them.

The moment the fingers touched the water, an image began to form.

Ytheri observed the image calmly, but she couldn't stop a small grin from creeping across her face. Five delectable new treats were coming her way, and unless she was very much mistaken, at least one of them would soon be coming to her very doorstep.

"Ooh, Kuolema," she breathed in the slave's ear, "you've done

very

well."

Kuolema was still shivering. "m-mistress...oh, mistress..."

"Come now," Ytheri crooned, wrapping her arms around her pet's slim, nubile body, "don't shiver so. We must get you warm for new, exciting guests." She smiled triumphantly as she felt Kuolema shaking from nothing more than her Mistress's touch. She leaned close to kiss Kuolema, to silence those delicious cries of delight as Kuolema came. "You'll soon have a playmate, my pet. We must show them how wonderful being mine can

feel

." Then she thrust two fingers into Kuolema's cunt and began to fuck her pet's brains out.

~~~~~~~~~

Silence reigned supreme as the party of five made its way through the strange desert, and that was just how Trys liked it. As far as she knew.

Trys was told she'd once been quite talkative. Indeed, according to those who'd known her before the capture, she'd had a habit of clanging her scimitars together before entering a fray.

Then she'd been captured.

She watched appreciatively as Yathi slunk around the craggy boulders that filled the well-named Crags. The scout had chosen a dark brown-and-green catsuit for this particular mission, and practical as it was, it also had a

very

high aesthetic appeal.

Having to notice things like that was another thing that had changed since her capture. Trys watched openly—she had long ago given up the battle to feign prudishness, thanks to her exposure to the mead—and followed at a distance behind the rest of the team. Always put the best fighter at the rear when facing enemies that think they're clever.

Yathi scrabbled up onto a rock, and Trys took a moment to admire the scout's perfect ass before surveying the surroundings once again. Still nothing but gray sand, sharp rocks, and that blueish mist ten feet above. The mist hovered over them like the Tyrant King's Sword, ready to plummet and ruin them all should some fey up above decide to snip the thread.

Still, to be captured by a nymph would be infinitely preferable to the Thriae. Trys rubbed her legs together slightly—beneath her suit of mail, nobody would be able to tell, nor would they be likely to smell.

Infinitely

preferable. Nymphs were said to be...generous.

She stopped rubbing herlegs. But she wasn't ready to give in, not yet, not even to a benevolent force. The war still raged on. People were counting on her. They needed this mission to succeed.

Trys sighed. At least Yathi was as good as her word. The fey of the Crags had so far been entirely—

"Hey! What's this?"

Trys froze, as did Brist just ahead of her, and they exchanged a look. Those were

never

words one wanted to hear come out of Ia's mouth.

The beaming young knight crouched over a small pile of white stones, her spiky topknot bouncing and coming free from a perpetually inadequate knot. "Looks like one of those shrines you been telling us about, Yathi! Mind if I kick it? Just for luck, y'know?"

Yathi spun back, looked down, and immediately took the bait. "

No!

" She leaped off her rock, grabbing Ia by the hair and yanking her away.

Trys watched as Yathi was in seconds gripped in a double underhook by a suddenly very close Ia. The insane woman giggled as she solidified her hold, one arm tucked under each of Yathi's arms, holding the scout completely helpless. "Bad move, Yaths. Unless you

fancied

a tangle today."

"

Ia

." Okino's head was in his hands. "Let Yathi go. Yathi, I'm sorry about this."

I bet you are,

Trys thought observing Okino's flushed appearance. Not that she could blame him. Ia wasn't as good-looking as Yathi, mostly due to being a total mess in every sense of the word, but she certainly was not...unattractive.

Ia had to lean in even closer to extract herself, and she was laughing her ass off all the while. She flashed Trys a wink, and Trys gave a grudging nod back.

She didn't know Ia too well. But Trys had been in the guard long enough to know what the inoculation

really

did to its subjects—and why it could only be applied while the subjects were in their teens. She and Ia had some points in common. Frankly, she respected Ia's impressive self-control.

"I didn't mean nothing by it, sir," she said, flashing Okino a sharp salute. "Just a bit of friendly wrassling, know how it is?"

"It looked like a lot more than that," Brist snapped.

"Oh, and I bet

you

looked

closely

."

"We—we don't have time for this nonsense!"

"Touch me again and I'll literally kill you, Ia."

Trys exhaled slowly through her teeth. She was considering saying something when something caught her attention. She frowned. "Does anyone else hear that?"

"D'aww, c'mon, Yathi, have a little fun!"

"Just because all your superiors puts up with your insanity because they want to

bone

you—"

"You uptight little—that's incidental!"