Brave Knight and Fair Lady

"I believe it," Rita said. "You always did love to play with other people's lives."

"I never gave anyone anything they didn't wish for. I think on some level, you two wanted this story, too." Wanted to be something other than brother and sister, he thought.

"The story's not over," Eric said. "You need to know how you died."

– – – –

Too late, Ella rushed to her knight. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I wasn't strong enough."

"Quite right," Terminus said. "And what's more, you maintained this ridiculous loyalty to a man your magic could have crushed as easily as you can blink. You relied on him to protect you, when he couldn't even protect himself. This calls for special training."

She had just enough time to ask "What?" before her doppelgangers popped back into existence.

"This is all my fault," one told her.

"I should have just told him to run away," said another.

"He could never have defeated Terminus. No one could," added a third.

"They can't kill you, but they can hurt you," Terminus said. "Master them, before they master you."

She watched them as they encircled her, stalking closer and closer. Then she looked down to the body at her feet, and she knelt to kiss Brom one last time. Though his soul was gone, his lips were still warm, and for a moment, she forgot her pain . . .

"I'll never love you," one copy told Terminus.

"I'll never obey you," said another.

"I know how to kill you," said a third.

"An impressive success," Terminus said, "but don't get too cocky. I have far more experience than you do." He spread his arms and waited for the copies to advance.

She knew she couldn't take his life. Taking was his power, not hers. But she channeled her power into one copy's claws, and his expression turned to shock as she gave him life back. "What are—" Slash. "You can't—" Slash. "Stop this—" Slash, and now she could see him growing younger. The copies surrounded him, and when they dispersed, they left behind a boy no older than eight winters.

A boy too young to use magic.

"You won," he said, almost amused. "You actually won. I didn't think you could do it. So what now? Are you going to kill me?"

Her brave knight's sword was lighter than it looked, but the blade cut cleanly through the boy's neck.

– – – –

"I heard your voice again, before your body vanished," Eric said. "You told me two last things. One was that I'd never again be yours, and that the other was that I'd never again find true love." He made a sweeping gesture. "Turned out pretty well for you, didn't it? It can't have been chance, to have been reborn like this. I think you somehow influenced it before you forgot everything. The knight whose sword killed you, now under you in bed every night . . . You're just the sort of person who'd consider that payback."

You're insane, Mauricio thought, but he said nothing. What could he have possibly achieved at this point?

"I'm not going to kill you," Eric said. "I've done that once already. I'm just going to show you how badly you've lost." He turned towards Rita. "If you're willing, of course."

"Wait, you mean . . . In front of him?" Rita asked. "I—I don't know if . . ." She trailed off.

With Eric's gaze averted, Mauricio made another attempt to run. This time, there was no pain—he simply fell, his muscles locked in place. Eric caught him before he hit the floor, and dragged his bulk back into the chair.

"Well, I'll need to set things up," Eric said. "To begin with . . ." Turning the chair to the side, he worked Mauricio's pants and boxers down around his legs, and his dick flopped out in the open. "I'm going to torment him a little."

Mauricio tried to ask what that meant, but he still couldn't move his lips. Eric's tongue against his cock made the question moot, anyway.

Mauricio wasn't gay—at least, that's what he'd always told himself—and it presumably followed that he shouldn't get an erection from another man's attentions. But Eric's tongue felt the same as Rita's, and he couldn't help but respond the same way to this gentle, teasing touch. In three long, slow licks, he was firm. In five, he was dribbling. In eight, he would have come.

Eric stopped at seven. "I think that's enough. Are you ready, Brom?"

"I don't know," Rita answered. "But . . . This is your magic, isn't it? Your element? You want to show him he can't control you anymore. For you, I'll try. My lady."

There was no wall between the dining room and the living room, and Mauricio had a clear view as Rita undressed and lay down on the couch. Eric started simply, with a hand on one of her breasts—"I used to have these. It was fun, when they were touched the right way." Stroking and occasional licking brought responses Mauricio knew well, but when Eric pressed down gently and hummed a brief tune, Rita let out a catlike purr he'd never heard before.

In time, Eric's attention drifted lower, past Rita's belly button to a place Mauricio couldn't see as clearly. "Hard to believe this is all that remains of a once majestic cock. Maybe we can do something about that, once I've figured out more about my magic. But for now . . ." Rita looked like she'd been hit in the head with a pickaxe, but from the sounds she made, she didn't seem to mind.

Mauricio realized that he could still blink. If he wanted, he could close his eyes. He didn't have to watch when Eric finally undressed and climbed atop Rita. But he couldn't stop himself from looking, and as another man's hardness drove in and out of his dear wife's wetness, his own hardness betrayed the reason why.

Within the span of fifteen seconds, all three of them came, two in each other's arms, one wrapped only in self-loathing. Mauricio pitched forward, released in more ways than one, landing in his own puddle of semen.

He didn't believe. He couldn't believe. He'd spent far too long not believing in anything. But that meant . . .

How many lives have I ruined? he wondered. I showed them all a lie, and then I sent them on their way. How many times did it turn out like this?

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and a cold, gentle calm ran through his body. "Even you deserve a second chance," Eric said. "I'm sure someday, in some life, you'll be able to make things right."

Mauricio looked up, but he didn't say a word as Eric and Rita quietly dressed and left the house.