The Assassin and the Sorceress Ch. 03

Adrielle drifted into that twilight of half-wakefulness that so often follows a restless sleep. She had just been dreaming, but her dream was already fading away. Whatever pivotal task she had been struggling with mere moments earlier was now so distant in her memory she could barely remember what it was. With her dream retreating, reality was trickling begrudgingly back to her. Where was she? What time was it? Had she slept in?

This wasn't her bedroom, in fact she was lying in a bed much more comfortable than her own. She could see daylight coming through a narrow slit window. It was long past morning. As soon as she moved, she became aware of the warm body in front of her, held dearly in her arms.

Morgana! All at once, that slow trickle became a breaking wave as reality finally came crashing back to her. No, she was not home at all, and she didn't know if she would ever return home again! The powerful sorceress in front of her was holding her captive within this castle, and what had Adrielle done about it? She had befriended her captor and committed abominations with her!

"Ah, you're awake now!" Morgana whispered, warmly. "Do you feel rested?"

Adrielle only groaned groggily. She made to get up, but found her right hand was pinned somewhere on the other side of Morgana's body. Morgana briefly raised one knee, long enough to free Adrielle's hand. That last memory returned to her, almost as a final insult, reminding her of the extent of her sin. She had fallen asleep with her hand cupping that impressive mound of Morgana's as tenderly as she might have held a lover's hand. Morgana had accepted the touch gratefully, but it had been Adrielle who had offered it in the first place. Had she seriously spent all night with her hand against another woman's private parts?

"What time is it?" she muttered, sleepily.

"Well into the evening, I believe. The servants should have supper ready soon, if you're hungry. Or you can stay here and sleep longer if you like. You've only been asleep for four or five hours. I wouldn't blame you if you needed more than that... especially after your ordeal with the wall."

Adrielle recalled it had been early afternoon when Morgana had caught her in her second escape attempt. Her punishment had been to stand with her bare breasts magically affixed to a wall for a full twenty-four hours. It had been a full day of standing in one position, unable to move, sit, or sleep. That would have made it early afternoon of the following day, when she was finally released and allowed to sleep. But before she had gone to sleep...

"Did we commit a sin?"

Adrielle rolled to the edge of the bed. She meant to stand up, but was suddenly reminded of her nakedness as soon as she brushed the sheets aside. But as badly as she wanted to cover herself, she wanted to get some distance between her and the sorceress even more, so she stayed at the edge of the bed away from her. She sat hunched over in order to keep her front side somewhat concealed, not that there was anyone in front of her to see. She squinted, trying to keep her sleep-heavy eyes open. Even sitting, the room seemed to wobble around her.

"What?" Morgana replied with an amused laugh, almost as one might respond to a child that had said something adorably nonsensical. "Of course we didn't, love. At least you certainly didn't."

Adrielle felt the bed shift as Morgana got up. She heard her sigh as she stretched. Adrielle only stared at the floor in front of her feet.

"You think so? I mean, the Bible says it is an abomination for a man to lay with a man. It doesn't say the same about two women, but I always thought it was supposed to apply to us, too."

"Adrielle, love, it's not a sin for men to fuck each other, either. That book has ruined so many people's lives. I've studied it, too, but you shouldn't take its words literally. Forget what that old book says. What does your heart tell you? Mine tells me what we did was natural and beautiful!"

Morgana's last few words had sounded sincere enough, but Adrielle still felt hurt. She wanted to believe that they had done nothing wrong, in fact she almost did believe it. 'Natural and beautiful...' That was certainly how it had felt to Adrielle at the time. She didn't want to believe she had committed a grievous sin by simply following her heart.

Yet the core of her faith told her that she had sinned. Ruined lives? Perhaps, but she had also seen so many lives made better through its teachings. Her whole life had been devoted to this faith, and it hurt her deeply to hear it denounced so dismissively.

But had she really devoted her whole life to Christ? What she had just done may have been her worst sin, but it was far from her first. Though she had never taken a husband, she was no virgin. Even discounting the villains she had lain with in order to kill, she had already taken two lovers in her life quite voluntarily. She couldn't pass those flights of passion off as necessary acts of war like she could her contract kills. And even then, did she really have to have sex with them first? The unattractive ones she usually just killed as soon as she could. It was only with the handsome ones she would wait till after the deed had been done. One way or another, she had some things to repent for. Repent or face damnation, the good book told her.

Adrielle forced her mind to stop wandering. She looked around to Morgana, who was waiting in the doorway of her chamber, still stark naked. One elbow was propped against the doorframe.

"Will you come to dinner, love? My other servants are eager to meet you."

Adrielle groaned, rubbing her eyes. She hoped she could pass off her sudden bout of shame and self-doubt as simple grogginess.

"Or you could sleep more, if it pleases you."

"I'll meet them," she said, and stood up. Her hands wanted to grab for her clothes as she normally did when she woke up after sleeping nude. But this time there were no clothes for her. The ones she had worn sneaking into the castle had been ripped to shreds by one of Morgana's spells, and she wasn't certain there were any other clothes in this entire castle except for that cloak that Morgana sometimes wore.

Well, she had gotten used to nakedness yesterday, and she could certainly get used to it again if she tried. At long as everyone else was naked, it wasn't like she would stand out. She resisted the urge to take the sheets with her. Morgana probably wouldn't have let her anyway. She made the decision to be proud of how she looked and followed Morgana.

***

Morgana led her down to what Adrielle figured to be the second floor. As she entered the corridor, she could already just make out the sound of laughter and revelry. After turning a few corners, they passed a gigantic set of double doors and entered a great dining hall. Despite her best efforts, she became quite conscious of her nakedness all over again. Morgana had forbidden her from covering herself, but she absent-mindedly crossed her arms tightly just underneath her breasts. Even though she was still fully exposed, the stance seemed to comfort her somehow.

The instant Adrielle stepped through the doorway, her mouth fell open in shock and amazement! Fires roared in four hearths spaced around the perimeter of the room, with tall flames dancing higher than a man's height. The fading sunlight of a cool summer evening poured through large windows on three of the four walls. She hadn't noticed any windows of this size on the lower floors of the castle when she had first snuck inside. Those windows must, therefore, overlook the courtyard.

Ornate tapestries hung over the walls, each depicting vibrantly colored scenes of long-forgotten heroes, kings, and gods. The styles were so varied they might have come from all corners of the world, and from every age of human history! One depicted a scene she recognized from the ancient Greek myth of Arachne, who was turned into a spider as punishment for insulting the gods. Another appeared to be of a French design, and seemed to depict the Battle of Roncevaux from the Song of Roland. As to the rest of them, she could barely guess after their origin or meaning with her meager peasant's education.

There was a great table laid out with the most decadent feast Adrielle had ever set her eyes upon! There were giant slabs of glistening meat, roasted birds, pies of all sorts, and more varieties of fruits and vegetables than Adrielle knew existed. There were entire casks of wine, ale, and mead. Adrielle recalled the few feasts that Count Bastian had invited her to, and even these feasts were modest compared to what she saw before her.

But all of these sights, as awe-inspiring as they were, only occupied Adrielle's thoughts for a mere moment, for nothing in that great hall was as peculiar as the attendants of this feast themselves. There were perhaps two dozen men and women around the table, and each of them as naked as a newborn baby! She had already suspected Morgana's courtiers walked around in the buff, but actually seeing it was a different matter altogether. She had to stifle a laugh, this scene was so absurd to her! She uncrossed her arms and covered her mouth with one hand.

She counted only six, no, seven men in total. The rest of them were women. Each of these men and women were beauty incarnate! They were youthful to the last; none of them appeared to be outside of their twenties or thirties. They had clean, gorgeous hair, flawless complexions, and the bodies of athletes. They were like the statues of Greek gods come to life! Was this more of the sorceress' magic that made them so perfect in appearance?

Even their lack of attire aside, their table manners would have made any of Bastian's prim and proper courtiers die of shock! They were engaged in an orgy of debauchery like animals! At the near end of the table, two of them were engaged in intercourse so violent that the woman of the couple was hitting her head against the chair back with some of her partner's thrusts, though she seemed not to notice or care. A few onlookers cheered them on with raucous enthusiasm.

At least one of the onlookers was masturbating, stroking himself almost as vigorously as the lovers in front of him were fucking. One woman seemed just as intrigued by this solo act as by the duet that had everyone else's attention.

In another chair nearer to the center of the table, a woman laid back and cooed pleasurably while another woman suckled at her breasts like a hungry infant, back and forth between the right and left teat.

But almost odder than even this abhorrent display was the sheer nonchalance some of the other attendants had to it. The ones seated at the far end of the table were engaged in casual conversation, seemingly unaware of the wild sex orgy occurring not twenty feet from them. This was normal to them! Wanton fornication was as common a way to entertain themselves as singing tavern songs was for the folks back in Lindis!

As Morgana entered the dining hall, several of her servants regarded her with a 'Good evening, Mistress,' but little else. The pair in the throes of passion and several of their onlookers didn't even look up.

"I tell them to address me when I enter the dining hall," Morgana whispered into her ear, "though I suppose some of them are busy and I do hate to interrupt. I try to maintain some formality here, but why stress it too hard?"

"Uh... yeah..." was all Adrielle could say in response. She was just too overwhelmed by too many things to respond with much more. This lewd display, her nakedness in front of so many strangers, the idea that she would be joining these barbaric folks for supper...

"You can sit at the head of the table with me tonight for your introduction if you like," she continued. "Don't be nervous, I'm sure they'll love you as you are. They'll treat you as family if you so much as attempt to treat them likewise."

Morgana directed Adrielle to sit at the chair to her left, then sat herself down in the large-backed chair at the head of the table. "We'll wait until Sasha and Michael are finished, though," Morgana said with an amused grin, gesturing toward the pair at the other end of the table. "This delectable feast you see before you is mostly Sasha's work, so I think she's earned a minute or two."

No sooner than Adrielle had taken her seat, her eyes met the gaze of bright blue eyes directly across the table from her, which instantly widened in recognition. She wished those eyes hadn't recognized her, because she wasn't sure she was quite ready for this meeting, not as awkward as she was right now.

"Adrielle Tanner!" Gwendolyn exclaimed with an excited grin. "Then it was you! I'd heard we'd gained a new guest by the name of Adrielle, but I dared not even hope it was actually you! What are the chances?"

Despite Gwendolyn's nakedness, she appeared more stunning than Adrielle had ever seen her before! She sat with perfect posture, her breasts unabashedly displayed above the table. Her famous golden locks hung past her cheeks in perfect curls. Her skin was fair and without blemish, her cheeks blushed with a healthy pink, and her lips shone ruby red as was typical of a noblewoman's makeup. However, these colors had more of a natural look than she ever remembered seeing before, as if Gwendolyn's skin just grew that way.

She wore lavish jewelry that neither Morgana nor any of her other servants wore. Hung about her neck and covering her collarbones was an ornately webbed silver necklace, studded in diamonds that sparkled like the sea as she moved. Around her arms she wore bracelets and armlets of a sylvan motif, looking like silver vines and leaves wrapped around her arms, studded with crystal dew drops. Above her forehead she wore a silver tiara, embedded with pearls, sapphires, and jet, and so intricate she could scarcely imagine an empress wearing its like. Gwendolyn appeared so regal it was like she wasn't even naked.

"Ah, Gwendolyn!" Adrielle answered, as cheerfully as she could manage. What should she say now? That she had come to wrest her from Morgana's clutches at her father's behest? Best not, not with Morgana right between them to hear their every word. She decided she would only continue making small talk as if she were just another new resident here.

But when she tried to continue, she only paused. No words came to her. The loud sounds of lovemaking were only part of the problem.

"It's okay, Adrielle, dear! Are you a bit overwhelmed? I was too when I arrived here and witnessed this for the first time. Oh, I must have stared with my jaw agape! Isn't this amazing? To think all we've been missing out on growing up in such a dull place as Lindis..."

Adrielle forced herself to say something, anything. "Yes, this is quite..."

Unspeakable? Abominable? Ungodly?

"Quite new to me," she finished.

"And you've barely even seen a thing, yet!" Gwendolyn added. "There are so many naughty things I can't wait to show you!"

Suddenly, Gwendolyn noticed something that caught her interest. "Oh, watch! I think he's about to spew!" She said this with her perfect, courtly smile she always seemed to wear.

Gwendolyn pointed to the man who had been masturbating near the other end of the table. Adrielle tried not to look, but found herself powerless not to. He was grimacing in a way that even she couldn't have mistaken.

"Cuthbert, don't make a mess all over the nice tablecloth," came a deep, powerful voice with an exotic accent. "Here, let me help you with that!"

Another man, with tawny skin, chiseled muscles, and a trim beard knelt down in front of the masturbator. He opened his mouth just in time to lick the seed from the end of his penis as it came pouring out. He swallowed, then arose and gave Cuthbert a deep kiss on the lips. Cuthbert licked his own semen off the other man's lips as if it was a delicacy. Adrielle's stomach turned, yet she still couldn't look away. It was absolutely disgusting! Yet at the same time...

"Oh, I could look at that all day long," Gwendolyn whispered to her.

Adrielle finally managed to return her eyes to her acquaintance across the table. Gwendolyn was gazing at the pair of men with a wide grin, biting one corner of her lower lip. Adrielle was rather relieved to see both of Gwendolyn's hands still on the table in plain sight.

Adrielle was speechless. She tried to think of how to respond to what she had just witnessed, but couldn't think of a single thing. She couldn't even make eye contact with Gwendolyn for more than a moment. Her mouth hung open as she stared past Gwendolyn at a nondescript spot on the far wall.

"No, not your thing?" Gwendolyn observed. "It's all right; whatever you're into, Morgana can make it happen! We don't judge here. We love each other for our individuality! Nothing but open minds here."

Adrielle still couldn't find any words. Open minds? How had the Lord not rained fire and brimstone down upon this castle and its inhabitants? She had never even heard of such unbridled sin!

At that point, Michael and Sasha sounded like they were finishing up with their deed, too. As soon as they were good and finished, Morgana stood up and spoke.

"Servants, thank you for waiting on me. I know I was a bit late, but I was seeing to the newest member of our household." Then, she whispered more quietly to Adrielle. "Would you please stand up so your new family can see you?"

Her new family? She wanted her old family! Even so, she did as she was bade and stood up. Suddenly, she felt even more naked than before as all of Morgana's court eyed her up and down. Nothing was hidden from them. She forced her arms to stay at her side and tried so hard not to be bothered by it. She reminded herself of the fact that she had nothing they didn't see every day. It helped a little.

"This beautiful creature is Adrielle! I understand she is a friend of Gwendolyn's from their past life. In fact, she tells me she came here to 'rescue' this poor girl from me, thinking I had kidnapped her."

This produced a few snickers from the audience.

"But do not hold that against her! This only because she had grown up to the same lies the outside world tells about me and our kind. Adrielle is compassionate and wise, and once she had met me herself, she saw those lies for what they were. Now, she's one of us!"

Adrielle forced herself to smile at her 'new family.' She lifted up an imaginary skirt and curtsied. She felt so silly doing it, but she had no idea what else to do. She didn't dare open her mouth to speak, lest her voice betray how terrified she really felt. Her introduction seemed to be finished, so she graciously sat back down. That had been mercifully short, thank the Lord!

"Well, it seems the girl is shy, and I can't really blame her. But no matter! We shall have the rest of eternity to get to know her, besides! So, shall we eat?"

"Thank you, Mistress!" they all cried with some degree of unison.

They immediately began to stuff their mouths with the feast laid out in front of them. She had thought her fellow militia trainees had bad table manners but Morgana's servants had worse. Regardless, their laughter and merriment would have put any of the taverns in Lindis to shame! Barbarians they may have seemed, but they loved each other! She suddenly found it harder to hate these strange folk.

The woman in the chair next to her turned and offered her hand. "Adrielle, it's a pleasure to meet you! My name is Cateline, and this is Guarin." She gestured across the table to the man next to Gwendolyn. Guarin removed an invisible hat from his head and bowed.

"We were childhood friends who grew up in France, Cateline and I," Guarin began. "Mistress Morgana found us about two hundred years ago. Is that right, dear?"