21

Chapter 19

I couldn't recall why I was so incredibly sore the next morning, until hazy memories began slowly filtering back to me. Myta wasn't beside me, and so I reached for her in a panic, only to sense that she was already headed toward me with food. Lunch, as it was apparently far past morning after all.

Her physical state seemed fine, so I hadn't managed to hurt her in my frenzy last night. But her mood was pensive, and that worried me.

She sensed my concern as easily as I sensed hers, shooting me an uncertain smile as she moved into the large tent. She was carrying a large bowl of stew, and a cup of tea, and the sweet spiced smells of each caused my belly to growl. I shot her an abashed look, causing her to chuckle, and the tension was eased if not broken.

"I am sorry, for my loss of control last night. I'm glad that you don't seem to be suffering any ill effects from it." I said. But Myta shook her head.

"It wasn't unpleasant, master. Far from it." She smiled. "And it wasn't you fault." I felt the genuine nature of her words and smiled, but then the latter statement hit me. I might not remember everything, but Sati had been present, and had used her sorcery on me. My eyes narrowed, and a pulse of anger ran through me.

"I asked her! To help me relax you! It wasn't her decision." Myta's worry had spiked. At least I knew where her discomfort was coming from.

"Did you know her sorcery would affect me that way?" My flame shook her head mutely. "I'm in no position to cast aspersions about experimentation, especially in the bedroom. But if she knew what would happen, then she should have told us. If she didn't know, then she probably could use a friendly face right about now. I'll look for her after I've eaten."

She left me to it, going to attend to matters in the camp. It was clear we wouldn't be traveling today.

I finished my meal, and then exited the tent to a bustling scene. Myta had taken the opportunity to hold extra drills and training, while foraging to replenish our supplies. It didn't take me long to locate Sati, her nervous energy flared like a beacon in my mind. It led me to a small clearing, and I passed Guta as he headed back toward camp.

When I entered the clearing, the former princess was standing. Fidgeting in place as she waited for me. She had dressed in the most luxurious of her remaining clothes. A fine silk robe and sheer veil. Her nerves were alive with an uncertain anticipation. I couldn't tell if she was longing for this encounter, or dreading it.

"Are you alright?" Sati started at my question. Clearly that was not what she had expected me to say. "Last night was unexpected, and I was not in my right mind, so I wished to ensure first that you were well."

"I am," she replied. "I've seen such scenes before."

"Did you know that would happen?"

"The influence of the apsaras is unpredictable." She murmured the words quietly, fidgeting in place. Her demeanor was nervous, but I couldn't read her mood. "All the daughters of Ramana inspire desire, in different ways, and to different extents."

Her gaze was soft, and expression vulnerable. And yet...

"The children of gods often have unpredictable powers." Her face turned down and away from me as I stepped closer, but I caught a flicker from our bond. A faint hint of disappointment? "However, you didn't answer my question."

Sati froze for the barest moment. "Sir?"

"I'll ask again. Did you know what would happen, when you used your sorcery on me last night?"

"I told you that..." her voice raised in outage, and her eyes lifted to meet mine. Gone was the soft, demure mask. Her expression sparked with imperious anger, but her excitement spiked. Had she wanted me to cut through her diversion? I cut her off abruptly.

"You asked me for training, and you have imposed on our goodwill. Myta asked for your help, and you took that opportunity to betray her trust." That seemed to cut the apsara to the quick. She flinched as though struck, and her eyes welled with tears of hurt and anger. "Tell me the truth now. Did you know?"

"I... suspected." She glared at me defiantly. "It's not a lie to say that the effect is unpredictable. Father's worshipers see us all as icons of beauty and lust. Your mind was weak last night, your guard was down. So I suspected."

"The gods know I'm not the easiest person to get along with. Much less to be tied to. But I cannot have you with us, if you do not operate in good faith."

"So you'll what? Leave me by the side of the road?" She scoffed.

"Yes," I said without ire. "If I need to then yes, that is exactly what I will do. This isn't the first time we've had this conversation, but now you can feel that I mean it for yourself."

She locked eyes with me for a long moment, but I was completely serious. And the bond between us was strong enough to convey my resolve. Losing Ramana's support, possibly earning the king's ire, those were the lesser evils to having Sati as an unreliable agent. She broke eye contact, and this time her averted gaze wasn't feigned.

"I'm sorry." She muttered. "No harm came of it, and I did what I needed to, in order to ease your condition."

"That's something." I let out a heavy breath. "I do not want to throw you to the wolves. Myta is terribly fond of you. But words are easy. If you are truly sorry, then you need to show me."

That sparked something in her. I wasn't sure why, but my words struck a chord. The former princess looked at me for the first time with something akin to respect in her eyes.

"When Myta failed you, she was disciplined."

"Is that your suggestion?"

"It is." She nodded with resolve. "The same punishment she served."

"Myta suffered a great deal at the hands of the Pure. Her punishment was proportionate to her endurance. Are you sure?" I didn't want to argue with her, just give a prod to her resolve. I let some skepticism leak into my voice, and her eyes narrowed.

"Yes, sir." She stated it flatly, almost angrily. But I just nodded.

"Tomorrow morning then. Myta wore her lashes for one day."

"Do it now," she refuted me. "Heal them tomorrow evening."

I raised my brow at her, but then nodded, gesturing her toward the camp. We walked in silence, until I called all the available members of the company together. Many were out foraging, but with Sati's seeming eagerness I wasn't about to wait for them. I didn't make a show of it, although the former princess did. She stood tall, loudly apologizing to Myta and myself, before stripping away her upper wrap.

Even the way she threw herself to the ground in front of me was a performance, graceful and eye catching. My flame rolled her eyes at the display, but I could tell that she was worried about her fellow vas.

"Ten strokes, and then you will display the marks for all to see, until tomorrow evening." I stated.

"Yes sir!" She shouted the words to the ground, braced on her hands and knees.

Like Myta, Sati's body was far too sturdy to feel a simple switching. But I'd already confirmed once that I could push sensations to her as I could to my flame. I raised a thin, whippy branch up high, before bringing it down across her shoulders. And again I sent a memory of a lashing from my own past.

Unlike Myta, Sati had never experienced anything like this before. She cried out and twisted wildly, reflexively trying to escape the burning sting. Her shoulders shook, and she beat the ground with her fists, but she didn't try to stand. After a few growling breaths, she resumed her previous position. Her emotions were coming to me clearly now. Determination, and a sense of giddy triumph.

I struck again, and her cry was louder. Again her hands beat the dirt, and this time her feet kicked as well. But she twisted far less, her back bowing to press her towards the ground. The angry red welt from the first strike showed brilliantly, even against her darker skin. For a moment I was struck dumb by the contrast. That crimson break in the flawless perfection of her graceful back. It raised in me that visceral, almost angry, sense of possession.

I sook the feeling off, trying to shield it from the bond as well as I could. I didn't want Sati to feel that I was using this opportunity for my own gratification, or making any assumptions. Instead I focused on the task at hand, but when I delivered the seventh strike, the apsara pleaded for me to wait. I obliged, confused, as I could still feel that her resolve was undimmed.

With shaking arms she pushed herself up on her knees, fumbling at her wrap. I simply looked on in confusion, distracted by the way her skin shed the dirt and litter she'd been lying in. As though her body simply refused the concealment the detritus might have offered. Myta though, seemed to understand. She stepped forward, and helped the former princess the rest of the way out of her wrap.

When Sati threw herself back on the ground, lying completely flat this time, the implication was clear.

"You understand you are to display all your marks for the appointed time?" I was both bemused and impressed by her dedication. She nodded, not speaking, but hiccuping with her suppressed sobs. It was plain to see that she had never endured anything like this before. But with her face now turned toward me, cheek to the ground, she did her best to meet my eyes.

"Three more." I tried to make my voice encouraging, but I wasn't sure if I succeeded. She just closed her eyes and nodded.

Sati had an hourglass figure. Generous bust, slim waist, and wide hips. Her backside was similarly generous, and gracefully curved. My first strike across it caused her shoulders to come off the ground, her pelvis grinding in the dirt. I delivered the final two lashes in quick succession, not giving her time to recover. Another on her rump, and the last across the back of her thighs.

Robbed of all her control, the former princess screamed, flopping on the ground like a landed fish. I grabbed her by the shoulders, careful to avoid the welts, making soothing noises in her ear as she shuddered. Myta joined on the ground, while the rest of the company dispersed.

"You did so well." Myta whispered encouragingly, while Sati deliberately pressed her back to me. I suppose the soft cloth of my garb was soothing for her welts. My flame gave me a pointed look, and I smiled wryly.

"You did," I confirmed. I hesitated for a moment, not wanting to come across as condescending, but I couldn't shake the feeling of rightness in the words. "I'm proud of you, little flower."

Sati burst into a new round of sobs, twisting so that she could press her face into my chest. She hit me in the shoulder, but it was entirely playful, with no force behind it.

"You just wanted to hurt me." She accused me. But I could feel her flush of pride and accomplishment.

"I didn't." I cupped her jaw, tilting her face up to look at me, smiling softly. "But I cannot deny, you are very pretty when you cry."

Chapter 20

Sati spent the rest of the day clad only in a thin veil. One so sheer that it left nothing to the imagination. While nudity wasn't as great a taboo in Ramana as it was in some other places, it was still considered crass, especially for those of higher social station. Any time the apsara caught someone admiring her mostly naked form, she flushed with both embarrassment and excitement.

The fact that I could tell that so easily was a testament to our deepening connection. I hadn't felt any great rush of poisoned mana from her, but the dribs and drabs of her sickness slowly receding continued. And although I couldn't feel the drain, my own mana was clearly filtering back to her.

That evening Sati removed the curtain that separated her section of the tent, glancing at me nervously as she did so. I, in turn, shot Myta a questioning glance. At my flame's sky smile I just shrugged. If the former princess wanted to get closer to us, I wasn't going to complain.

That night Sati openly watched as Myta and I lay together. She pleasured herself while watching us, and even threw her welted back against her bedroll when she came. Her emotions were a confusing swirl of lust, pride, and comfort. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but Myta was the focus of my attention anyway and she seemed both sated, and deeply content.

When I fell asleep, still tangled together with my love, I immediately fell into a dream. I was fully aware that it was a dream, and not any dream of mine. I sat on a regal throne, and Sati stood before me and to my left, her hands clasped in front of her. She stood several steps below me, such that I looked down on her, even when seated.

"You have disrespected your teachers once again." I spoke in King Ramana's deep, mellifluous voice. The princess fidgeted, and I glared at her lack of decorum.

"Father. This man is useless for teaching. He only lusts after me."

"That is unavoidable, little flower." I sighed, or Ramana sighed, wearily. "He is a weaker sorcerer, barely more than a mortal. It is your obligation to harness his desires.

"Yes daddy." My heart broke a little at the resignation in the apsara's voice.

"Bring forth the girl."

Another woman was thrown into the hard stone floor, and a whip was presented to a man who had not been there before. The teacher Sati had apparently disrespected. The woman was was a mirror image of the princess, and the tutor eagerly accepted the whip. The expression on his face made me sick. It was desire, lustful and twisted with malice. He raised the whip in the air, ready to bring it down on rhe woman in front of him, but never taking his eyes from Sati's face.

"Enough!" I growled out. I broke the momentum of the dream with my frustration. Turning, I saw that Sati was smiling at me, while everything else had frozen. The props and characters of her dream were beginning to fray all around us, dissolving into mist.

"What are you doing here?" She seemed perfectly lucid as she asked, though I would have sworn she was fully immersed in the dream only seconds before.

"You didn't draw me here?" I asked. She shook her head in reply.

"I must have received enough of your mana to begin using your aspect. Although I am not proficient with it, something must have drawn me to your dream." I looked to the hazy remnants of her tutor, rapidly dispersing into mist. "You have nightmares like this often?"

"It's not a nightmare," she shook her head. "It's just a memory, not even a specific one. That figment could have been any of the masters daddy hired to teach me."

Perhaps she wasn't quite lucid. Her speech seemed less formal, her mood less guarded than normal. I decided to press her a little, if I could.

"Did this sort of... vicarious punishment happen often?"

"All the time." She nodded. "Daddy always said that no mortal, or petty sorcerer was to lay a finger to one of his family. We were above them, so most people fell over backwards to appease us. When he decided we needed a lesson, someone else would take it for us."

"Do you know," she asked me, "how hard it is to learn, when no one will correct your mistakes? Or when they assume you already know what they have to say?"

It took me a moment to realize that it wasn't a rhetorical question. "No. But I can imagine it."

"It's difficult." She nodded. "Difficult, and very lonely. Before you, only daddy really treated me like a person. I think that's why you show up like this." She gestured to me, and I realized that I was still wearing Ramana's visage.

"I should go." I said, suddenly self conscious. "But I want you to know something, Sati. You are not a demigod here. With us you are just who you choose to be."

"I know." Her smile was brilliant, fading away as I withdrew to my inner world.

Myta was waiting there for me, and I caught her up on my visit with Sati. I couldn't help but notice that my flame was pleased, but unsurprised.

"You knew about her upbringing?" I asked. Myta nodded.

"We're alike, in surprising ways." She laughed at my expression. "Don't dismiss it, master. I may have been a slave, and she a princess, but we were both isolated and alone. I was taught that everyone else was better than me, and she was taught the opposite. But in some ways the effect was the same."

"I suppose I can see that." I accepted her statement. "Will the company treat her differently, after that display earlier?"

"Of course. But probably for the better. Few in the company know who she is, or about her involvement in the attack on Bani. They've seen her as useless baggage at worst, an expensive courtesan at best. Now, they at least know you're watching her, they might even gain some respect for her."

"That... wasn't the response I expected. I was more concerned with lonely fighters pressing her for her company." I noted.

"She shares our tent." Myta replied simply. "They might look, but no one will press her too hard. Especially not after Futa"

Her mood started to go somber at that, and I touched her cheek to distract her.

"Regrets?"

"No," she shook her head firmly cupping my hand with her own. "If I had killed him out of rage, I might feel differently. But you kept me from that. I did what needed to be done, to protect the company, and send the message that such assaults wouldn't be tolerated."

"But sometimes it hurts to have done it," I said softly. She nodded, and I pulled her into a hug. I tangled my fingers in her hair as she lay her head on my shoulder.

"Sometimes even our best choices are painful. Even when we don't regret them." Myta nodded again, and I stuck my face in her hair, breathing in her scent. She was especially smoky today, probably an indicator of stress.

"Hopefully," I chuckled, "we'll get at least one good night's sleep."

And we did.

The next morning I awoke early, slipping out of the tent before dawn. I drifted around the camp to where the rangers slept, locating Guta. He was already awake, and helping the servants to prepare breakfast, when I pulled him aside.

"Sati has been working with you on your aspect," at his nod I continued. "I want you to keep an eye on her today as we're moving. As I won't easily be able to."

"Denu told me." He bobbed his head, and I concealed my mild surprise. Apparently someone was far ahead of me. I wasn't sure who had taken that initiative, but I was pleased.

I turned around, only to yelp as I found myself face to face with the apsara herself. Sati's expression was reproving, but her emotions were a mix of warmth and amusement.

"I didn't hear you come up." I said, collecting myself. "I thought you were still asleep in the tent."

"Few people have ears sensitive enough to hear the mist," she gave me a half-smile and I realized what ahe was telling me.

"Incredible," I muttered, my mind spinning with the possibilities. At her quizzical glance I elaborated. "No one can touch or harm the mist, no one can catch it. It clouds the senses and misleads the unwary."

"Perhaps," she allowed. "But no one ever died because they touched an earthbound cloud. No one fears the fog."

"If you think that, then you've never spoken to travelers about the weather." I laughed. "More than heat, or cold, or violent men, people fear the danger they cannot see."

I lowered my voice and leaned close to her. "With an aspect like that, I can make you a terrifying fighter. If that's what you want. Or I could teach you how to become truly dangerous."

I moved out of her personal space, though she had not seemed distressed by my proximity. "Think about it. And think about this. An aspect like that might serve Guta as well, if he can come to terms with it.

"I thought transferring aspects between people was dangerous. Nearly impossible." The apsara narrowed her eyes at me, but she looked deeply intrigued. The expression looked good on her, far better than her normal cold distance. It was at that moment that I became acutely aware of her state of dress, or undress.