The bounty posting directed us to a small shop near the northern gate. A Mage's Guild symbol was emblazoned on a wooden placard outside, and the long-bearded, unkempt-robe-wearing owner fit the stereotype of the doddering old wizard so perfectly it almost made me suspicious. I was concerned he would pepper us with questions before giving us the details of the bounty, but thankfully he wasn't much of a talker. He split his time evenly between gawking at Kaseya's cleavage and leering at her long legs.
Thankfully, the bounty itself was rather straightforward. Apparently a guild caravan had been scheduled to arrive two days ago, but the Duskwatch Rangers found the carriage burned and upended on the road yesterday. The guild's ongoing assumption was that bandits had stolen the cargo in order to trade it with Vorsalosian relic smugglers, a group of people I had far too much experience dealing with.
"Five thousand coins for the return of the supplies," Kaseya said once we'd left the shop. "Is that a generous offer?"
"It's not quite enough for any big-time mercenaries to pursue, but it will make huge difference to us," I told her. "We could live here comfortably for a year or two with that kind of coin."
"Then we should depart at once, yes? Unless we travel through the night, it will take us at least two days to make this trip on foot."
"Yeah, we just need to pick up some basic supplies first," I said, running a hand back through my short hair. Something about this didn't feel right, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Perhaps it was just the strange coincidence that the first decent job offer I'd found involved both magic and smugglers from Vorsalos. Was it too convenient, or was I just being paranoid like usual?
Either way, I couldn't really say no to this much gold. Not when my coin purse was so light a stiff wind would have blown it away. And of course, there was also another, less reputable option here...
"If that guardsman was right and the Black Mistress deals in illegal enchanted goods, we could potentially use this cargo to buy our way into her favor," I said. "We'd lose out on the coin, but having a powerful ally is a better bargain in the long run."
Kaseya frowned. "But you promised that old man you would recover his belongings."
"I know, but..." I glanced away and sighed. Considering how obsessed she was with following her own pledge, I should have known she wouldn't respond well to the idea of backing out on an agreement. "Look, you're just going to have to trust me, all right?"
"Whether I trust you or not, I am bound to obey your commands," she said. "Lead on."
I bit down on my lip. I really wasn't comfortable with the idea of making her do something she didn't want to do. As I kept telling her—and myself—she was
not
my slave. Sooner or later we were going to have to work that out.
For now, however, she was right that we needed to keep moving. After purchasing some basic supplies for the trip, we departed the city through the northern gate along with half a dozen caravans headed towards the mining villages in the mountains. I was actually surprised when the guards didn't harass us; living in Vorsalos had apparently jaded me even more than I realized. Highwind was legendary for its adventurer guilds and mercenary bands, so I should have known that Kaseya and I wouldn't look out of place.
A few hours into the trip, I really started to regret the fact I couldn't afford a horse, and an hour after that I became convinced that my legs were about to fall off. Unsurprisingly, Kaseya didn't seem fazed in the slightest. She navigated with the map we'd purchased in town, diverting us off the road and into the forest whenever we could shave time off our trip. We encountered a few Duskwatch patrols as well, enough to make me feel reasonably safe about our detours through otherwise untracked terrain. I was far more worried about collapsing from exhaustion than being eaten by a bear.
I distracted myself from the pain and fatigue by imagining how good it was going to feel when I bent her over a rock and fucked her beneath the stars tonight. Assuming I had any strength left by that point.
Gods, you really are pathetic. All that power, all that potential, and you've stooped to taking advantage of a brainwashed girl from a backwards culture.
As the hours ticked by, Valuri's scolding voice became a permanent fixture inside my head. She wouldn't have approved of anything I'd done since leaving Vorsalos, and she would have been downright horrified about Kaseya. The two women had plenty of things in common—determination, grit, self-reliance, perfect tits—but in terms of personality they were essentially polar opposites. No one in their right mind would have ever described Valuri as submissive or obedient, and despite the fact I had fucked her hundreds of times and spilled in her mouth a few hundred more, she had always projected an aura of mystery I found irresistible.
Kaseya sensed my ruminations, but thankfully she eventually stopped asking what was bothering me. I could tell that my elusiveness was starting to bother her, however, and I spent the last few hours before nightfall building up the courage to tell her the whole story.
We reached a cozy-looking copse just before the sun vanished beneath the horizon, and I decided it was probably the best place for us to set up camp for the evening. Kaseya immediately set to work acquiring wood for a fire while I circled the perimeter and checked for any signs of trouble. I inscribed a few wards at the edges of our camp just in case someone tried to sneak up on us, fully aware that they wouldn't do a damn thing against a Senosi Huntress. They would work on bandits just fine, though, not to mention the random hungry bear or troll.
Once Kaseya had assembled enough wood, I ignited the pile with a burst of magical flame and sat down next to her on the bedroll. "Before we eat, there's something I've wanted to tell you," I said. "Something you deserve to know."
"You are not required to part with your secrets," she reminded me.
"Maybe not, but I want to," I said. "You've been so open with me...it only seems fair."
Her cheek twitched ever so slightly, enough that I suddenly wondered if she
hadn't
actually been that open to me. But I decided to press on regardless.
"Back in town, I mentioned that I used to occasionally work for a Senosi Huntress," I said. "That's true, but it's only part of the story. I didn't just work for her. The two of us were close. Too close sometimes, honestly."
"She was the first woman you ever copulated with," Kaseya said.
"Uh...yeah, there's also that," I murmured. "Her name was Valuri Sovaal, and without her I never would have survived this long. She shielded me from the wrath of the Inquisitrix, but it was more than that. She taught me things...things I don't think I could have learned from anyone else."
"Did you love her?"
I bit down on my lip. "I'm not sure I'd call it love, exactly. But let's just say that we were an incredibly effective team. I had never met anyone like her before. I still haven't." I paused and pursed my lips. "We worked together for a little over a year before the Inquisitrix learned about our relationship. Everything we'd built, everything we had worked to accomplish...it all crumbled overnight. I saw the other Huntresses drag her away, and I was powerless to stop them."
Kaseya's eyes narrowed in thought. No matter how much I struggled to control my mood, I had no doubt that plenty of my feelings were slipping through into her collar. "You feel guilty that you could not help her."
"Calling it 'guilt' doesn't begin to cover it," I said. "She took an enormous risk sparing me, and I owe her a debt I can never repay. But when those Huntresses took her...I've never felt so helpless in my life. My magic is virtually worthless against them, and I didn't exactly have a lot of allies waiting around to risk their lives for a renegade sorcerer and his Senosi lover. There was nothing I could do."
I grunted and crossed my arms. "That was almost three months ago. By now she's almost certainly dead, but not before the Inquisitrix tortured her. Just thinking about it makes me..."
I closed my eyes and balled my hands into fists. I didn't even hear Kaseya move, but a moment later her hands were gently squeezing my shoulders and her lips were barely an inch from mine. She didn't say anything; she just held onto me and remained close.
"At the very least, Valuri deserves justice," I whispered as I reopened my eyes. "I promised myself that one day I would return to Vorsalos and avenge her, but it was just a lie to dull the pain. I don't think I can ever go back. All I can do is start over."
"I do not know much about the world beyond Nol Krovos," Kaseya said, "but even my people fear the growing reach of this Inquisitrix. Hestiah and I were sent to Vorsalos to investigate the situation. We didn't learn much before we were forced to flee."
"Well, you can bet that the Inquisitrix wouldn't approve of your sorcerers or your culture in general," I said. "She wants to purge the world of magic, but in the meantime she's content to recruit and train women as channelers."
"Only women?"
"Yeah. Ostensibly, she believes they are the only ones who can properly resist the 'darkest temptations' of the Aether."
Kaseya pursed her lips in thought. "I suppose that perception is not entirely dissimilar from that of our matriarchs. They believe that the
moshalim
are inherently deadly and unstable. We bond with them so that we can sate their desires and temper the darkest of their impulses."
