Sellia and Valken stand on opposite ends of the dueling chamber. Valken is calm, relaxed. His hand rests on the pommel of his sword. Sellia stands up straight and keeps her hands free.
She's wearing a weapon, a side-sword with a white pearl handle, but Valken knows it's entirely ornamental. The matching dagger that sits next to it sees more use, but both are just toys in comparison to her spellcraft. She's trying to keep her face neutral, but Valken can see through the mask. Sellia has the easiest tell in the world, her long ears wiggle when she's happy. Right now they're vibrating nonstop.
"Same rules as always?" Sellia asks.
"We fight to a yield," Valken says.
"I'm going to win this time."
"I'm sure you'll try." He says, and that's all the conversation they need.
Sellia strikes first. Power radiates from her and suddenly the entire room warps, like it's being dragged into another dimension. Valken's already moving, Octave in his hand without being drawn. Sellia says a word, and discs of light appear in the air, firing beams at Valken. He can feel the beams more than he can see them, blocks one with his sword, and twirls through another four.
Valken slashes once in the general direction of the discs, and they all simultaneously collapse. He hasn't even stopped moving. He's closing on Sellia, though it's taking him longer than it should to get to her. Pieces of the floor fall away. Valken's not sure whether it's real or an illusion. Either way, he dodges around the empty spaces. Sellia summons more discs, but Valken destroys them before they can fire.
"Is that all?" He shouts. He knows it isn't.
Sellia smiles and snaps her fingers and suddenly the whole room is on fire. Not enough room to dance around it so Valken goes for brute force. He brings his hand up and slams power down around him, collapsing the flames in an instant. Shards of ice erupt from the extinguished flames, almost stabbing through Valken, but he's already moving, dodging, and diving around the spikes as they appear.
A few almost get through. One of them grazes against his cheek and he can feel it go numb. He just keeps moving through advancing towards his target. Stopping now would just get him speared.
A wall of ice erupts in front of Valken and he just bashes through it, and then he's right in front of Sellia. She's got an orb of golden force around her, protecting her. Valken slashes at her shield once, and a long clear note rings out in the room. That one strike becomes five becomes fifty becomes five hundred simultaneous attacks on a single point.
Sellia pours power into her shield, It glows white with the sheer amount of energy behind it. It's not enough. The shield shatters. The backlash sends Sellia flying into the wall. Valken doesn't let up. He dashes towards Sellia's prone form, makes it there before she can stand, but she just launches herself into an uppercut, her fist glowing with power. Valken takes a step backward to dodge, shoving Sellia's arm upward as he does so. The power in her fist discharges into the ceiling with a bang, cracks it. Sellia swings at Valken again, but he's already got control of her. He slaps the fist away, redirects the force of it to spin Sellia around, and then he's got her arm against her throat and he's slamming her into the wall.
"Yield." He says. Sellia's feet are off the floor, kicking in the air. He's got pressure on her neck, but he knows she should still be able to talk.
Sellia's hand drops to the dagger at her waist. Valken doesn't bother stopping her.
His eyes glow with power and then there's electricity flowing through his hands and into her body. Sellia lets out a scream. The dagger falls out of her hand.
"Yield." Valken snarls. His face is an inch from hers. His eyes are hard. Hers are wild.
"I yield." Sellia chokes the words out. Valken immediately eases his pressure.
"You're mine?" He asks.
"I'm yours." She says. And then she pushes her head forward and kisses him.
This is the game they play. They fight and then the loser is the winner's plaything, theirs to do with as they please for an hour, a day, sometimes longer. That's not how it all started. Originally their wagers had been much smaller, just a simple way to spice up routine training. At first, it was small things. Loser buys drinks. Loser has to do something mildly embarrassing of the winner's choosing. It had grown over time until eventually, Sellia had suggested that the loser serve the winner and, after Valken had just made her do chores, made her innuendo explicit. They talked after that and came to an agreement, and the very next day Valken had won and he'd kissed Sellia for the very first time. Now he's fondling her tits as they make out.
Valken pulls back from Sellia. He can't help but smile at the needy look on her face as he does.
"I've got such plans for you." He says.
"I can't wait," Sellia says
A funny thing happened after Sellia and Valken made their agreement. Sellia started losing. Not for the first time, not more often. Always. Eventually, Valken realized Sellia wanted to lose. She'd deny it, would get all huffy when he asked her, and try a little harder the next time they fought. Then she'd still lose.
Valken knows Sellia isn't that weak. He's seen her reduce an entire company of soldiers to ash with a single swipe of her hand. But he's accepted at this point that what she really wants is to be dominated, and Valken is perfectly fine with that because if he's being honest, that's what Valken wants to do.
Valken lets his arm drop from Sellia's throat, letting her drop to the ground. He doesn't allow her to regain her balance, just drags her by her neck, and half tosses her into the center of the room.
"Stand here," He growls. "Close your eyes."
"Okay," Sellia says. In an instant, Valken's hand is on Sellia's throat. He squeezes lightly, enough that she can feel it, but nothing more.
"That is not," he says "How you speak to me right now."
"Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir"
"Good girl." Valken says "Now open your mouth. "
Sellia immediately obeys him.
"Wait here," Valken says. Valken walks over to his bag and starts rifling through it. His fingers brush against a small glass jar. Just what he was looking for. He pulls it out and turns back towards Sellia.
Valken still remembers the first time the pair tried Vistrian honey. Sellia had found some in a marketplace while they were traveling through Vistria, and she had insisted they experiment. He'd ended up buying twelve jars. Now, on the other side of the continent, it isn't so easy to acquire. It's been years since he's even had a taste of the stuff. Valken's a wealthy man, but even still the price of this small jar was enough to give his steward nightmares. Worth it. Valken tries to remember what they were even doing in Vistria back then. He honestly can't remember.
It had been easy back then when they were just nobodies wandering the land. Well, the fighting hadn't been easy, the running, the politics, the long stretches of poverty, but fun? Finding fun had never been an issue. It had been so easy to sneak off and play their game, to keep things fresh and exciting. He can't help but remember this one tavern in Algunsal where Valken got Sellia to strip down and dance for coins. He'd ended up taking her right there on a table in front of a whole crowd of people and neither of them had ever felt more alive. He still dreams of that night, now a distant memory.
Valken's world is more complex now, but stable. He still has problems, but Valken doesn't have to worry about not having enough food, not having enough money, about whether his next day will be his last. There are no more nights hiding in the darkness, unable to even light a fire for fear of the trouble it will bring. Well, at least those nights are no longer frequent.
But both Valken and Sellia are important people now. They have responsibilities. They can't just sneak off into the night or walk unnoticed along the city streets. They have to plan things out now, and even then, it feels like the time between these wagers of theirs keeps increasing. Valken would rather take another sword to the gut than admit it, but it feels more and more like one day one of these wagers will be their last.
Not something he wants to consider now. Not while Sellia stands in front of him, eyes closed, mouth open, waiting. The sight alone is enough to make his cock twitch in anticipation. It really has been far too long. Valken opens the jar of honey, dips his thumb into it, and walks towards Sellia.
Valken is close enough now to smell her. Gods, Sellia smells amazing, she always does. It's this intoxicating mix of honey and jasmine and nightshade that floats through Valken's nostrils and threatens to drive away all his reason. He leans in close, so he's right next to her ear. It's hard to resist the urge to nibble on it.
"Do you remember this?" Valken whispers as he puts his thumb in Sellia's mouth. Her lips wrap around it automatically, her tongue swirling around his finger as she sucks the honey off of it.
Sellia lets out this cute little moan as the honey instantly starts to take effect. Blood rushes to her face and her nipples harden under her clothes. Valken lets his hand fall from her mouth
"Valken, you didn't," Sellia says. There's this dreamy smile on her face, one he hasn't seen in a long time.
"I did," Valken says. His hand moves down to Sellia's breast, slowly traces its way along her skin, down to her nipple. He tugs on it lightly, earning him another happy gasp from her.
"Where did you even find it?" She asks.
