Veyra tossed the sorceress off her shoulders and onto the old bed in her cavern. She felt a little unsure about the durability of her furnishings, what was about to happen in that small cave and on that small bed likely spelled the end of its usability. She hesitated for a moment as she pondered her current plans, and then she tossed the sorceress on the floor and lashed her ankles and wrists to the ground so that her prisoner was on her hands and knees. She wasn't taking any chances, and she lashed the bindings deep in the stone. She was fairly confident the sorceress was nearly out of mana, but Veyra had decided to be much more careful about things like this, and this woman was likely the most powerful sorceress she had encountered outside of the college.

 The woman looked up, confused and uncomfortable, straining against the bindings. "We're postponing our little romp", Veyra said. "You're going to answer some questions. Why were you attacking the Verona Estate?" The woman's proud expression implied she was going to protest but she looked down at the rough estimate of power hanging between Veyra's legs and gulped. She resigned herself to her fate and shrunk to the floor, almost groveling. "We...were sent. One of Verona's spawn was involved in the slaughter of a traveling merchant party. My band of mercenaries was contracted to break down the main gate and create a diversion while another attack force snuck in from behind. Our specialty is breaking defenses, and the attack was justified". 

 Veyra stared at the woman coldly. She could be trying to play down her involvement or knowledge to gain sympathy. Veyra tried to think of a strategy to trick the sorceress into revealing her motivations. Veyra knew a lot about what had happened that night in the merchant camp. She decided to try. "Who was leading the merchant camp?" The woman looked up, "A merchant named Minea". Veyra nodded but already ran out of questions to ask. She realized it would be difficult to get answers to questions that would catch the woman in a lie without revealing much information about herself and what she knew. What exactly was she trying to accomplish here? She couldn't trust anything this woman would say without verification anyway.

 Veyra turned to leave, she wanted to get back to the estate and confirm everything was still under control. "You're not just leaving me here, are you? I invoked the code!" Veyra yelled over her shoulder as she disappeared, "I don't give a fuck about the code. Fuck yourself." She silently sped out of the cave and traveled quickly back to the estate. She didn't think she would have to worry about the sorceress, there was a massive amount of mana in those bindings, and they wouldn't begin to dissipate for days. 

  She changed back into a naked Hela in the woods and managed to get back inside the walls and find her stashed clothing without anyone detecting her. She raced to the secret room to check on Edi and found her still sleeping contentedly. She had only been gone a few minutes, but she was still relieved. She carried her out and put her back on her bed. Then she began slowly exploring the perimeter around her room, checking for threats. She eventually found herself in the courtyard near Maelle. Her mother was sitting on one of the magical devices, watching all around for any more intrusions. 

  "Is it over?", Hela asked. "I'm not sure, we seem to have held them off. I don't understand their strategy here. I was expecting another attack, this frontal assault seemed far to brazen, like it was a poorly hidden diversion." Just then, a sorceress commander jogged into the courtyard. "Mistress, I took a guard contingent to the rear gate. Apparently, there was another attack force". Maelle stood quickly, raising her arms to engage the estate defenses again. "What do you mean? Why have you returned?" The guard stopped and held her hands up. "They're all dead, mistress. Rather violently dead. It looked like an animal ripped them apart. We got lucky somehow. Maybe they had a falling out amongst themselves". Hela nodded along, hoping these explanations would be accepted. Maelle lowered her arms and started walking quickly to the rear gate. "Come with me. Hela, please go back inside. This still might not be over. You'll be safe inside the manor walls, there are more defenses there." 

  Hela watched them go for a moment and then headed back to her room. She wondered what other defenses there were exactly, she would have to ask for a more detailed explanation later. It was so strange to be herself right now. She lived here her whole life, and she was only realizing now how much had been going on at the Estate and in the world. She had never needed to think or worry about anything. She felt grateful and offended at the same time. It made sense to treat a weak and mentally frail dud this way. She stopped dead in her tracks. Maybe she had been included and trained in everything and simply forgot about it. She had forgotten Edi. Her condition and memory loss meant she could not assume anything about her prior treatment. She only just recovered the memories of her longtime friend and lover. Maybe the memories of the defenses around the Estate would reemerge as well and then she would feel pretty silly about getting angry for being left out or trivialized. Maybe she even knew how to use them herself. Maelle was not a sorceress and was competently handling the defense of the entire estate. 

  She made it back to her room and tried to wake Edi again. She eventually resorted to slapping Edi lightly in the face until she stirred and rolled over onto her side. Her new position was quite intoxicating to look at. Her hip curvature was exaggerated, and her breasts were piled on top of each other and pressed together by her arm. Hela snuck around behind her and pressed the head of her cock to Edi's asshole. Edi's eyes shot open. Her last conscious thought was of herself being fucked into unconsciousness, and her body relived the recent moments of pleasure. She shuddered like she had another orgasm and gasped, looking around with a confused expression while she tried to keep her eyes from rolling back in her head. 

 Hela moved back to lay beside her and snuggled in close. She made and effort to squeeze her cock between Edi's thighs and press their nipples together, and then just held her there. Hela kissed Edi with a short peck, and said "Good afternoon, my love. You missed the whole war." Edi was still shuddering and confused. She finally managed to speak groggily, "You fucked me off the world, but I wouldn't call it a war." Edi giggled and playfully slapped her ass. "Stop, you're just saying that. No, I mean the war. The estate was attacked while you were sleeping. It's already over." Edi put a monumental effort into raising her eyelids and eyebrows. Hela could see she was trying to be as shocked as possible in her half-awake state, but she still didn't quite make it out of her stupor.

  Hela jumped off the bed, "Well. I'm going to let you rest. Feels odd for me to be saying that to you." Hela closed up the room and shut the door behind her. She had a pang of worry, she didn't want to leave Edi alone, but she was starting to feel a deep sense of panic. She was going in too many directions. She had a prisoner now. She had a guild. She had a host of women. She had a sister. She had contracts. She had enemies. She had memories. She had an Empress for a suitor. All of those important facets of her new life were vying for her attention and pulling at her in different directions. 

  She needed to come up with a way to disappear more easily. Hiding in cupboards wasn't going to work very well. She wandered into the library, bypassed her usual section of storybooks and history, and went into a much muskier wing filled with far older tomes. Liza had a wonderful library. It wasn't quite on par with the library at the college, but there were likely some even rarer books in here somewhere. Liza was a tinkerer and a seeker, always searching for a new avenue to approach a problem or an idea, and her eclectic collection of books reflected that mentality. Hela spotted what she was looking for. A book titled "A Compendium of Known Spells". She had perused the book many times, flipping through the pages to look at the fading diagrams and images of wonderful spells and casting runes. Now she was intently studying each page, looking for ideas and taking far more of an interest in the descriptions than she had before.

  There was a spell for levitating objects, but that didn't seem particularly useful. She needed something like a cloaking spell, or a teleportation spell. She wasn't even sure if such magic existed. She had never seen or heard of someone traveling by magic. The Empress's palace was the closest example, but it was slow and didn't teleport. She flipped pages until she came to section called "passive defenses". There were a host of different ways to create barriers or wards, and Hela had watched Maelle use tools that turned barriers into offensive magic. That was the kind of thing she needed, a clever way to use standard spells in an unusual way. Like the ring. She sat up and quickly flipped through to a small section labeled "dimensional magicks". This was closer to what she needed. There were spells for storage and transportation. Somehow it was possible to attach a small dimensional space to a specific location. The ring allowed a portal to be freely moved through space, opening to another dimension that must be infinite. Was there a way to harness it for travel?

  The pages only had small examples, like bags or pockets. You cast a spell over an opening, and it allows you to put in coins or other small items. Nothing large though. The book didn't seem to describe a limit to the portal size, Hela thought that perhaps the size was dependent on the mana spent. Maybe a coin purse was the largest thing anyone could manage to make. The diagrams called for crystalized essence. Hela wasn't quite sure what that was, but it seemed like it was used as a catalyst or a power source. Runes were used to configure the spell, and then the item was placed in a little dome of crystal essence and mana poured into it. There was no mention of the powers the ring possessed, Liza must have used a vastly more complicated arrangement to create the ring.

  Hela used the ring to create a portal and then made it as large as possible. It was only about the size of her palm. She could feel the ring vibrating ever so slightly, straining to hold the biggest portal open with whatever small amount of ambient mana it was absorbing. Hela tried something she had not had the capacity to do when she was first experimenting with the ring. She fed it the tiniest stream of mana. It crackled and started getting hot on her finger. The portal grew a little in size. The stone in the ring was almost vibrating out of its setting. She quickly canceled the mana flow, fearing the ring might explode or melt and be destroyed. That was a wonderful clue though. It was possible to feed the opening with mana to make it larger. The portal was back to its original size, and Hela pressed a finger to its swirling surface. It felt like glass.

  Hela heard a soft noise of flowing robes and quickly closed the portal. She pretended to be engrossed in her book and waited. The swishing noises grew closer, and a tall, lovely woman strode around a bookshelf, her facing turning to each nook and alcove, her gaze eventually finding Hela sitting and reading in her favorite spot. A look of suspicion and confusion darkened the woman's tired eyes. The dark look was quickly replaced by a surprised expression and followed immediately by warm tears streaming down her now beaming face. She stretched out her arms and Hela rushed into them, books spilling onto the floor. "Mother!" Hela was suddenly overwhelmed as emotions washed over her. She hadn't quite realized how her recovering memories had reconnected to lost feelings, but the joy and happiness from a dozen years of obscured and cherished moments rushed into her being and collided with her new vitality at the sight of her mother. She sobbed and laughed, creating a very embarrassing kind of noise as she tightly embraced Liza. Her mother pushed her away and took her face in her hands, gazing at her healthy features. Liza shook her head in amazement, tears sprinkling from her cheeks. She grabbed Hela's arms and squeezed and then embraced her again. 

  "How is this possible?! You're almost a different person! You look wonderful!" Liza pushed her away again, her eyes darting energetically to take in every detail. She suddenly looked like a researcher studying a sample, trying to determine its characteristics. She turned Hela around a few times and then embraced her again. "Oh, this is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful! I had given up hope. Maelle told me to brace myself, but I never expected this. Oh, my dearest little Hela". They embraced for a long time. Liza finally released her and turned as they heard quiet sniffling. Maelle was peeking around a bookshelf, tears streaming down her face. "Come here, woman. That was a mean ruse." Liza grabbed Maelle's arm and pulled her from around the bookshelf. She bent her over slightly and playfully spanked her bottom. "I thought Hela must be getting worse the way you played your nasty little trick. Look at her. Is that really our little one?" Maelle nodded and hugged Liza's waist as they both gazed at an awkwardly shifting Hela.

  Maelle squeezed Liza tighter, "She remembers too". Liza went wide-eyed and turned to look at Maelle in astonishment.  They met each other's gaze and Maelle gave a slight nodding smile of confirmation. Liza broke and sank to the floor, weeping profusely, and buried her face in Maelle's midriff. Hela rushed to her shoulder and held one of her hands tightly in her own. Liza looked up at Maelle and cried, "No, it can't be true?" Then she looked at Hela. Hela shrugged sheepishly, "I remember a lot, but not everything yet". Liza released Maelle and captured Hela in an embrace, a fresh outburst of weeping pouring over her. "I thought I broke you forever", Liza groaned. "I'm so sorry". They wept together on the floor for some time. Liza finally quieted down and pulled away, grabbing Hela by the shoulders and locking eyes with her. "Do you remember Edi?" Hela nodded, "She's sleeping in my bed". Liza exclaimed some sort of joyful noise to the ceiling and embraced Hela again. "Oh, thank the gods. She was so angry with me. I didn't blame her. She tried to stop me so many times, but I had to try". 

 Hela helped Liza stand, and they embraced again. Liza looked down at her glowing healthy daughter and smiled as she wiped the tears from her face. "I'm sorry dear, but now that we've greeted each other, I must take care of the defenses on the Estate. I rushed home when I felt the alarm. Luckily there were few casualties from our household. It could have been much worse if that second group had managed to attack. I have many questions for you, but I need to make sure everything is safe". Hela nodded and squeezed Liza's hands, "I'm so happy to see you mother, I have so much to tell you". Liza began to walk away, but Maelle grabbed her arm and said, "There's one more thing, dear", and she whispered something in Liza's ear, then stepped away grinning like a future grandmother. Liza whipped around and starred at Hela with her mouth gaping and incredulously bellowed "ESSENCE?!"

Hello!

For those of you enjoying the story so far, please do me a favor and leave a rating, comment, and/or review when you have a chance. The story is nearing a close, and I'll be using the levels of engagement and success of this first book as a way to determine if I should still be using my time to write more. Don't worry, even though this is supposed to be book one of a three book series(or more), I won't leave you hanging if I decide not to continue. It will be a completed standalone story on its own, and brought to a satisfying close, but I have a lot of plans to continue the series if the desire is there. I have already extended the length of this book by roughly 5 chapters, with more to come! Please share if you're brave enough!

Thanks!!

© PunishingOne 2026. All Rights Reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.