The Assassin and the Sorceress Ch. 03

"Two-hundred... that sounds about right." Neither of them seemed to have a foreign accent, Adrielle noted, however she figured that two hundred years away from their birth place could erase a person's accent easily enough.

"We were fleeing from our fellow townsfolk, who had accused us of witchcraft and devil worship. Completely untrue, of course, but a nosy tax collector did happen to catch us exploring one of our, well, interests at the time."

Guarin paused, and his eyes met Cateline's with a shy grin.

"Guarin, dear, don't be modest on my account," added Cateline. "I'm not ashamed of a thing we've done together. Um, we were carving designs into each other's flesh. It was my idea, actually. We thought it might be fun to make beautiful art on each other's bodies, to feel the contrast of sweet romance and sharp pain. We haven't done that in a while, but we enjoyed it much. It was intimate."

They smiled at each other again. Guarin continued.

"But, yes, the tax collector must have thought we were trying to hide from him when he came knocking, so he made his own way in. He must have taken what he saw for some satanic ritual. There had been a crop failure that year, and I suppose they wanted someone to blame it on. The next thing we knew, we were accused of witchcraft and hiding from an angry mob. I imagine they wanted to burn us alive. Hang us if we were lucky."

"I remember when I found them," Morgana reminisced. "Yes, I had been traveling in France when I caught wind of this witch hunt. I've seen how these things turn out, so I made sure to find them first."

"And we'll never forget it, Mistress," Cateline thanked her.

"You'll find that's a common thread with the outside world," Morgana continued. "When bad things happen, people want someone to blame. A mob will demand justice for any great misfortune, even where no fault exists. A blight, and earthquake... It's as if they think burning someone alive will somehow make up for everyone else's loss.

"And of course, it's always the odd one out they pick: the one who's different from the rest. So I do what I can to rescue these poor victims of society when I see them. Most of these souls have similar stories of how they were betrayed and cast out by their own kin for the crime of being different, for wanting to live as their true selves.

"Hassan, our newest besides Gwendolyn and yourself was to be beheaded for homosexuality. Sasha was to be stoned to death after her wedding when her husband found she was not a virgin. In fact, nearly half of the women here, in fact, were cast out for wanting sexual freedom. Gunter was exiled for broadening his horizons beyond the human species. That was one of Amalia's many charges, now that I think about it."

"Ask her about the bacon grease," Gwendolyn interjected, with a humorous grin.

"Victimless crimes, all of these," Morgana continued. "Society labeled them as perverts, as deviants, sinners, what have you, and sought to persecute them for failing to conform to their way of life."

"So, tell me, Adrielle," asked Cateline, "do you have a story like that? I guess you came here seeking your friend, Gwendolyn, but our mistress did take you in. Clearly, she saw something good in you."

"No, nothing quite like that," Adrielle responded, simply.

What should she say? She was no fugitive needing protection, no pariah seeking a home. She had a few secrets of her own. None of them were remotely as bad as bestiality, but even so, she was thankful to keep them as secrets.

In a sense, this made her the odd one: the only normal one in a house of misfits. In fact she was a prisoner here, not a guest. She had a loving home to return to, but had been forbidden by this oh-so-merciful sorceress. Of course she couldn't say that without risking sounding insolent, and then it might be right back to that wall. But then again, Morgana already knew the truth, so telling a lie was also out of the question. She would have to choose her words carefully.

It was that moment that Gwendolyn chose to interject and save Adrielle from having to make a story, though whether Gwendolyn's bluntness made things better or worse, Adrielle couldn't say.

"Adrielle, I've been thinking. You were kind of an odd choice for a rescue mission. You were Father's favorite assassin, after all. Your craft is ending lives, not sweet-talking runaway daughters into returning home. Father knew we were friends, but I have to ask..."

"Gwendolyn, please..." she begged quietly through clenched teeth.

"No, it's all right, Adrielle," Morgana said matter-of-factly. "I hadn't mentioned that part so as not to embarrass you, but I suppose it would have to come out sooner or later. We might as well get it out of the way now. Yes, Gwendolyn, she had been sent here to kill me.

"This is just more of what I was talking about earlier. Men need someone to blame for their misfortunes, someone to punish. In this case, Gwendolyn's father blamed me for her disappearance when in truth he had only himself to blame. And I may well be the oddest-one-out there has ever been, so vilifying me should have come easily for such as him. Whether he truly believes I took her against her will, I cannot say, but it was nonetheless the justification he gave Adrielle when he sent her to kill me.

"And if you must know, I don't blame you for believing that falsity. There are too many lies and half-truths about me to count, so how could you have known what I am really like? You are far from the first to attempt to slay me or my servants. However, you have distinguished yourself from them by letting go of these lies when offered the truth. Most of my other would-be assassins... they were not so fortunate as you. They hadn't been blessed with minds as open as your own."

"Thank you, Mistress." What had befallen these others, Adrielle wondered? She hoped their deaths had been swift.

Once again, it was Gwendolyn who asked the very question Adrielle least wanted to be asked. Was she doing that on purpose? No, of course not. She was just curious.

"So why have you decided to stay with us? You were well-respected back in Lindis. You are no outcast, nor are you running from selfish, tyrannical parents. But Morgana makes it sound like you are one of us for good now! Is this true?"

Gwendolyn seemed to have an inconvenient tendency to point out the vague spots and inconsistencies in her story, accidental or not. Adrielle was relying on Morgana's delusions to have any chance of escaping: chiefly the delusion that Adrielle loved and respected her. The last thing she needed was for Morgana to be reminded that she might feel anything but grateful to be held here.

There was no sense in dancing around the truth at this point. "I'm... not exactly free to leave," she said under her breath, but making no attempt to prevent Morgana from hearing.

"It's not so simple as that, Gwendolyn," Morgana explained to her. "She has seen the inside of our world. She knows we are here. I go to every effort to hide our existence, but eventually they always find out. Don't mistake me, Adrielle; I'm glad to have you among us, but the fact that you were able to find my castle from rumors alone means the outside world knows more about us than I would like. If someone who has seen us with her own eyes were to relay that story to the outside world, there's no telling what could happen."

"I see," Gwendolyn replied. "So if... Wait!" Gwendolyn's eyes widened with sudden realization! "What about me? Does that mean I can never leave, either?"

"What? No, no, my sweet, beautiful thing! I would trust you with my life!" Morgana proclaimed, defensively. "I know you wouldn't betray me. But surely you wouldn't want to leave, would you? Not back to your greedy father? Not after all the things I have given you!"

"Of course not, Morgana," she replied, sweetly. "Not forever. But someday I may wish to visit my old home, though perhaps only to make them envious of all the wonderful things you have given me!"

Adrielle was getting frustrated with the course this conversation had taken, despite her better efforts to keep it to small talk. Therefore, she was much relieved when Cateline broke the uncomfortable pause with a simpler question.

"Adrielle, aren't you hungry? Everyone else is gorging themselves, and you've barely even touched your food! Morgana can conjure as much as we could ever desire, so there's no need to eat sparingly."

So far Adrielle had taken one small slice of roast onto her plate. She had cut one single forkful, though she still hadn't eaten it. She had been feeling hungry, though she wasn't in much of a mood to eat. She forced herself to place it in her mouth.

As the juices trickled over her tongue, she realized that perhaps she did have an appetite after all. She quickly finished the slice on her plate, and reached for a second helping. As she did so, she finally thought of something to say.

"So, I thought Sasha over there cooked all this stuff, but you're saying that our Mistress conjures it with her magic."

"They are both true, actually," Morgana explained. "My magic can easily recreate anything I have seen before, though I find if much more difficult creating new things. And when you have lived for hundreds of years, exact copies of the same food can start to bore you. Sasha really enjoys cooking! She loves to experiment and try different techniques, so I conjure whatever raw ingredients she asks for and leave her and her cooks to do as they will. They have yet to disappoint me."

"And this conjured food, it is the same as real food? Or, I mean, food that grew naturally on a farm and such?"

"It is identical in every way! There were ancient Greek philosophers that postulated that material cannot be created or destroyed, and I suppose that might hold true for the natural world. But magic can accomplish things that would otherwise be impossible. To create something from nothing is its most amazing trick, beyond a doubt!"

Adrielle's face brightened with a sudden idea. "Morgana! Mistress! You could feed a kingdom with these powers! You could end starvation! Surely they wouldn't fear you after that!"

"Really, you would share all of this?" Gwendolyn said with a scoff.

"I've actually tried that. But it is the nature of mankind to fear what is not like them, and to envy what is not theirs to control. You'll find this nature is so strong, so ingrained, that it will even outweigh their need for food and drink. Do you recall what they did to the goose that laid the golden eggs?"

"But that was just a fairy tale..."

"Yes, but even fairy tales have some truth to them. Oh, and what about in the Bible you believe so strongly in? Didn't your lord Jesus use his divine power to feed the hungry? Look what they did to him in return for it. Believe me; I have no desire to share his fate."

"Share his fate?" Gwendolyn piped up, incredulously. "Adrielle is as deadly as a viper! If you survived her blade, then you simply can't be killed!"

To demonstrate, Gwendolyn arose, gripping her knife in both hands, and brought it down violently against Morgana's stomach. Morgana shrieked, more from surprise than from fright. The soft flesh of Morgana's belly caved inward under the point of the knife, though it never broke her skin. The blade snapped in two without leaving so much as a mark on Morgana's skin.

"Gwendolyn!" Morgana protested, clearly offended. She picked up the halves of Gwendolyn's knife and held them together, then placed the once again whole knife back on her plate for her.

"What? I was just proving a point. You can't be harmed by any weapon! None of us can!"

Meanwhile, the rest of the table had grown silent. Adrielle looked and saw the shocked expressions on the other servant's faces. It didn't take magic for Adrielle to understand what was going through their minds. They knew if they had tried a stunt like what Gwendolyn just had, Morgana would have punished them horribly!

"Don't mistake me; I'm not trying to advocate we give this wealth away to every peasant who claims poverty," Gwendolyn continued. "I'm just saying we needn't isolate ourselves out of fear. So what if they want to kill us? We can't be killed! We could be ruling them! You could be the Queen of the World! And I would be your crown princess!"

Guarin stood up and tried to coax Gwendolyn back into her seat. "Gwendolyn, we aren't as invincible as you might think. It's not easy to harm somebody under our Mistress's enchantments, but it's not..."

"Oh, be quiet, Guarin!" Gwendolyn retorted, rudely. "Morgana can do anything she wants!"

Gwendolyn knelt on the floor next to Morgana's seat, put her arms around her legs, and rested her chin on her knee like a begging puppy.

"Gwendolyn," Morgana spoke softly, stroking her hair. "It's not just about whether we will be safe from harm. I know the world is terrible out there, but I won't be making it any better by becoming its tyrant. I don't want to start a war, and it's not just fear of my own death that..."

"Tyrant? You'll be their god! They'll worship you!"

"I am NOT anybody's god!" Morgana scolded her, suddenly infuriated. Gwendolyn seemed to be taken aback. Morgana must not raise her voice to her precious crown princess very often.

"And there are limits to my power," she added, more softly.

"I'm sorry, Mistress," Gwendolyn pleaded, batting her eyelashes. "You can be whatever you want to be to them. Maybe just start with one village and see how it goes. Or if you don't want to, give me some of your powers and let me do it! I can make them love me; I'll show you how! Pleeeeease?"

Gwendolyn began kissing Morgana's skin, starting with the knee she had been resting her chin on, worked her way up the thigh, then up her belly and finally to her breasts. She suckled on Morgana's nipples for a few seconds. Morgana sighed pleasurably. Adrielle felt an odd pang of jealousy as she watched this.

Gwendolyn stared up at Morgana with begging eyes. Morgana sighed a second time, though this time it was out of annoyance.

"Love, I've been there again and again. It has never ended well. It will be the same for you. They will fear us and they will resent us. They won't love us."

"But people do love me! Everyone in Lindis adores me for my beauty, and you have made me even more beautiful with your magic! Adrielle, dear, what do you think? Wouldn't I make a wonderful princess?"

"I think you should listen to experience, Gwendolyn."

Gwendolyn shot Adrielle a hurt look. Adrielle responded by glaring back sternly. Gwendolyn looked to Morgana again, but found the same stern look there, as well. She harrumphed and returned to her seat with a pout.

"Gwendolyn, why don't you tell Adrielle about some of the things we do for fun around here?" Morgana suggested. Adrielle had to hand it to Morgana for distracting her so easily, because Gwendolyn's pout became a grin almost instantly.

"Well," she began, "most of our entertainment involves Morgana's magic. She's sort of the master of ceremonies in that regard. In the short two weeks since I've been here, I've experienced things I might not have dreamed of before! She can change your body around! Did you notice my breasts? She made them bigger for me!

"Oh, and she gave me a cock! Now I know what it's like to have a cock and plunge it deep into a woman! No, I don't have it now, I mean. She gave me my pussy back, but it only takes her a few minutes to do the transformation. It feels really weird to have your body changing like that, but it's well worth it!"

Her eyes suddenly lit up!

"Adrielle! She could give you a cock after supper, and you could fuck me with it! I'd let you do that."

"Um, I'm not sure how I feel about having a... a penis."

"That's all right, then. She could give me one and I could fuck you with it. Or we could have sex as we are. You can still have fun with a pair of cunts! You know what, you pick! What would you like to do?"

"Gwendolyn, I don't know..."

"Don't worry, it doesn't have to be that, either. Look, if you can think of it, Morgana can probably do it. And if she can, I promise to at least give it a try. The truth is, everyone has a strange little kink, and every new person that's joined us has brought something new to try. I doubt you could suggest anything that will offend anyone here. They've done it all, and I can't wait to try even half the things!

"You can fuck while floating in the air. Maybe you'd like me to be twice your height, or have three breasts! And because we're invulnerable, we can do things that would kill a normal person! Or if you like pain, she can disenchant your flesh, and you can hurt yourself as much as you like. As long as you're still breathing, she can heal you completely right after. I've heard one of them wanted both her arms chopped off one time, just to know what it felt like! She ended up passing out, but when she woke up she was as good as new! I mean, I don't want to do that one, but all I'm saying is you can do almost anything you can think of! She can make you piss wine! How would you like to drink wine from a man's cock? Isn't that crazy?"

That last description made Adrielle snort with laughter.

"Wait, seriously? She can make wine come out of a man's penis?"

"Yes, dead serious!" she responded, grinning ear to ear and nodding enthusiastically. "I hear it stings a little, though, being the provider."

"It's easy to do," Morgana explained, suddenly joining the conversation. "I told you I can create things like food and wine out of nothing. I just conjur it inside of somebody's bladder instead of in a bottle. After removing any urine, of course. I've been asked to do stranger things for them."

"See? She can do almost anything you can think of! What do you think? Do you want to fuck after supper? Or just play around? Just spit out any crazy idea, and watch the impossible happen!"

"I'm sure she can do some amazing things. But, no, that's not it. It's just that I don't know how I feel about... having sex with you, Gwendolyn. We've only met a few times before. I mean, I think we're friends, but I haven't ever had sex with somebody I was just friends with."

Adrielle, almost involuntarily, glanced over at Morgana. Adrielle thought Morgana's face showed a hint of flattery. No, it was something more than that. Suddenly, she felt a pang of guilt as she remembered what they had done earlier that day, but tried not to let it show.

"Oh, come on," Gwendolyn pleaded. "You can drop your prudish morals already, or haven't you noticed our relaxed dress? Don't tell me you actually believed that self-righteous garbage the preachers in Lindis fed us! Live a little; have some fun!"

"Gwendolyn! Consent!" Cateline cut in, "If she doesn't want to, leave her alone. We don't judge people here for the things they enjoy, and we also don't judge them for things they don't want to do. Guarin and I are the only monogamous couple in the castle, but nobody gives us any hassle for it. There are plenty of things to do here that don't involve sex. You could show Adrielle the library, or the Roman bath, the sculpture gallery..."

"I'm sorry, Adrielle," Gwendolyn apologized with a friendly smile. "That was unbecoming of me. I'd be happy to show you anything in the castle after dinner, or we could just catch up."

Gwendolyn said this with such warmth, though Adrielle could have sworn she saw her shoot Cateline a dirty look.

***

The rest of the meal was uneventful. Adrielle made small talk with Gwendolyn, Cateline, and Guarin, and a few of the other servants introduced themselves to her, though Morgana remained mostly silent.

As soon as she had eaten her fill, Adrielle excused herself. She was the first to leave, though she didn't care. She still wasn't fully rested from her latest punishment, but that wasn't the problem. The idea of Gwendolyn showing her around the castle didn't interest her a bit this moment. She just wanted to be alone.