The Paladin's Choice

The sex in this is... different. I warn you in advance you will either love it or hate it. Please read it with an open mind.

-----

It had been fifteen days. She knew this because once a day, a guard came in and splashed her with a bucket of freezing water. Later on, another guard would come in with some water and stale bread. This had happened fifteen times.

After three days, she stopped trying to pull her chains from the wall. After seven days, she stopped trying to kick the guard who brought the bread. After twelve days she stopped eating the bread.

She could feel her muscles wasting beneath the manacles. Now she no longer felt hunger or rage, just a passive acceptance that she would no longer lift a sword. She prayed, slept, and waited to die.

They would come to taunt her. The guards shouted obscenities through the bars but did not yet touch her. Sometimes, there would be a red-haired woman with a refined voice.

"We could do with your abilities on our side. Renounce the Light, paladin, and your punishment will be lenient."

But she stayed silent.

Sometimes the woman would add, "The last Sister of Light we picked up is tied naked to a post in the barracks. I think the men are getting bored with her. If you can't make yourself useful to us, I'll make you useful to them."

Silence. They all went away, sooner or later—the guards, the red-haired woman, the freezing water, the stale bread. She tried not to think about the paladin tied up in the barracks. Still, it became easier to resist the bread. The weaker you were, the shorter you lasted.

On the fifteenth day she started to think about renouncing.

First the guard came in with the freezing water. The cold made her feel as if her bones were knives. Then the other guard came in with water and bread. She stared at it for a long time until the red-haired woman came.

"Ready to join us?" she said. "I think your friend in the barracks is almost house-trained. She's started accepting food from their hands. It's really quite sweet."

The paladin cleared her throat. "I'm thinking about it," she said quietly. "Leave me alone."

"Whatever you say," replied the woman, before she left.

Night never fell here, because it was always near dark, but the paladin curled on her side to try and sleep. This time she did not pray.

Then the Light came.

The first she saw of him were his flawless bare feet. She thought He was one of them until she realised the sudden glow in the room came from him. He came in the form of a white-robed cleric, but young, with a forgiving face. He knelt down beside her and she was afraid.

"Forgive me," she sobbed. "I've betrayed you."

Not yet, He said.

"Are you here to rescue me?" she asked him.

No, He replied, but I can bring you strength.

He knelt beside her, placed his hand on her cheek. His touch was warm; she felt shivers pass over the length of her body, longing for more. He was beautiful beyond all imagining. He leant down to kiss her.

The vows of a Paladin of the Light were strict. She had never so much as touched a man before. She could not tell whether this was some evil trick or some hunger-induced hallucination, but her heart told her she was in the Presence and her body awoke to worship.

He pressed her down on the cold hard floor of her cell and warmed her body with his arms. Hands caressed her breasts and thighs; lips caressed her neck. She felt stirrings within herself she had known before but never dared acknowledge. Heat gathered deep within her and she pressed her hips against his.

Her hands were limited by the manacles. He helped her shed him of the robes; they came away as lightly as feathers. His gaze met hers, steady yet impassioned, and she knew his were the eyes of no mortal man. She felt suddenly ashamed by his composure and wished she could have had more dignity in the Presence, but suddenly He was moving inside her and her body felt as if it were filled with light.

Even if none of this was real, the pleasure was; his slow and gentle thrusts were bringing her to the edge of some precipice within her soul. She arched her back, urging him deeper within her, offering her body to the pure and intoxicating desire of this angel who had come to her in the depths of her despair.

She gripped His firm, strong arms, writhing beneath Him as His breaths quickened against her neck, for whatever body He had assumed seemed to feel desire as much as she did.

Ecstasy tore through her; Rapture took hold of her heart. Her body erupted into white-hot desire and as she came down from the heights she felt his warmth burst forth within her. She realised she had bitten him hard on the neck as she came, and felt ashamed, but He only smiled and kissed her long on the lips as her breathing slowed.

For the first time in fifteen days she felt herself drifting into an untroubled sleep. She could not resist, even though she knew it meant leaving him. As her tiredness overcame her she heard him speak one last time:

Rest now, my servant. You must be strong for what is to come.

But she did not even have time to think before the darkness overtook her.

She woke to the freezing water splashing over her. Sixteen.

The paladin looked around in the darkness. Nothing had changed... except her.

The guard came with food. She ignored it.

At last, the red-haired woman arrived. She crouched down before the naked, chained paladin, an indulgent smile on her lips.

"So. You were saying yesterday?" she began.

The paladin looked up at her calmly. A new strength was within her; she knew what she had to do.

"I'm ready to work for you," she said. "I'm ready to turn."

[to be continued]

Dedicated to BWL, my very own angel.