“What sort of things do you wish to discuss,” Myanna asked, trying to put the tingling that began to run up her arm out of her mind. “I don’t wish to be rude, but I still have a lot of work ahead of me.”

The first cleric nodded briefly, gesturing to the comfortable-looking furniture with a sweep of her arm. “Then I shall endeavor to be as quick as possible. Please have a seat.”

Myanna crossed the room to the couch while Voss sat down in the high-backed armchair across from it. The cuirizu flexed her hand a few times to rid it of the distracting tingling. The couch was soft and welcoming, broken in from years of use but well cared for. Though it looked plain with its black upholstery, Myanna became fond of it after mere seconds. Something like it in her room would have to be sought after in the near future.

“I’d like to know who you are, Myanna,” Voss commented, crossing one leg over the other in a way that drew the cuirizu’s attention away from the bothersome tingling.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Myanna admitted. “I was under the impression that everyone in the inner circle had been provided my background before my initiation.”

Voss nodded in agreement. “That’s correct, but it doesn’t tell me much about who you are. As first cleric, I sit at the head of the faith. Though I typically pride myself on getting to know those rising through the ranks of the faith, you have managed to elude me due to the preferential treatment Olcaru has shown you.”

“Preferential?” Myanna scoffed. “Giving me so little time to undo the damage that was no fault of my own hardly seems to be preferential.”

“You’re alive, aren’t you?” Voss countered calmly, her entirely black eyes holding a strange serenity to them like a vast empty night. “How many others do you think would have been granted the opportunity?”

“Perhaps,” Myanna conceded. “But that didn’t make it any less a difficult task. For others, it would have been impossible.”

“But you’re not others are you?” Voss mused. “No, you have previous history with Olcaru that many of the faith do not. She knows you in ways that you don’t even know yourself. Isn’t it fair to say she gave you a task that, though challenging, was well within your capability?”

Myanna offered the first cleric a dismissive shrug, but her words had struck a chord with her. She had felt as though she had been struggling to meet the deadline given to her, but in the end, she had returned with much more than had been asked of her. “I see your point, but I wouldn’t be here without the guidance the goddess provided me at the Wickes Estate.”

“True,” Voss agreed once more, holding up a finger. “This brings me to my next point. Olcaru interceded directly on your behalf, something that seldom happens for any of us. Because of my mark, I sensed it the moment it happened. I saw everything that you saw as you forced your way through the pandemonium of Tobias’s last stand to put an end to him.”

Myanna’s head tilted slightly to one side as she lifted her brow. “You did?”

Voss stared at her quietly, her pale, elegant hands clasped neatly in her lap while the rest of her body remained completely still. Myanna leaned back into the couch slowly. “What does that mean, then?”

“It means the moment you’ve been waiting for is fast approaching,” the first cleric explained. “Olcaru’s mark will soon be yours.”

The cuirizu’s heart quickened despite her calm demeanor. “You know this for a fact?”

“I do,” Voss confirmed. “Since feeling that moment of intervention, I’ve known it. But there are still questions that remain unanswered. For instance, I am unsure of what your role will be.”

Myanna held a hand up defensively. “I’ve no interest in getting in your way, first cleric. I desire very little else than to earn Olcaru’s, continue my alchemy, and---.”

“Indulge in your baser instincts?” Voss mused, uncrossing her legs to put the thin slit of her sex on display for the cuirizu. She rested her chin on the back of her hand, a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Myanna considered the options before her for answers before settling on a simple nod. “Yes, first cleric.”

“So respectful and formal, all of a sudden,” Voss teased, though the look on her face told Myanna that she approved. It felt like a test had been put in front of her somehow and that she had passed. “I think we may have a clue as to what your role will be. What do you know of the marks?”

Myanna shook her head. “Only that they are carried only by the members of the inner circle. That they connect you to the goddess in some way. I seek it only as a badge of approval that I have paid my dues and ascended to my proper place at her side.”

“You’re unaware of their power?” Voss asked, genuinely surprised by this revelation. “That’s almost endearing.”

“Do they confer some special boon from Olcaru?” Myanna pressed, feeling a little patronized by the first cleric’s response.

“Each mark has its own particular set of abilities, yes,” Voss acquiesced. “Mine, for instance, is that of the Desecrator. It places me at the top of the faith with the means to directly oppose and undo consecration and resist the powers of other faiths’ attempts to bring order to chaos.”

“What of Belias?” Myanna countered acerbically, a fitting response for the patronization from before. “Isn’t he the head of the faith now?”

The first cleric laughed, sincerely amused with the response and Myanna’s miscalculation. “My dear, he believes he is the head of the faith because I will it so! As the Deliverer, Belias is useful for bringing the resources of the Abyss to us. Someday, he will even be able to reach Olcaru’s world and bring more of her faithful here to join us. But his faith is not enough to accomplish such a task. He’s too motivated by self-interest.”

“So you gave up your seat of power in the hopes he would continue to provide you with what you need?” Myanna speculated.

“Precisely so,” Voss agreed. “So long as everyone believes him to be the man in charge, groveling at his feet, he continues to do my bidding with his showboating, blissfully unaware of the fact.”

Myanna felt a smile tug at the corner of her mouth. “So the conflict between you and him, the rivalry, is all a lie?”

“For the most part,” Voss answered. “He requires course correcting on occasion that can be accomplished by presenting him with phantoms to chase, conspiracies to wring his hands over. He’s a rather paranoid man. It’s hard to say which would win out if pitted against one another, his ego or paranoia.”

“I imagine you’ve been careful to avoid such situations,” Myanna mused. “To avoid the uncertain outcome it would present.”

Voss smiled, leaning back in her chair slowly. A hungry look of approval flashed in her eyes. “Precisely.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Myanna asked curiously as she slowly leaned forward. “Even your closest subordinate believes this conflict between you two to be real.”

Voss spread her hands. “I was too quick to dismiss you upon arrival, too harsh in the face of Olcaru’s favoritism toward you. I think you and I are meant to work closely with one another. The power I felt when you eliminated Tobias has served as effective instruction on this. It’s a lesson that, I think, others of the inner circle have neglected to learn.”

Though she could not take her eyes off the sensual curves of the first cleric, Myanna’s mind was still as sharp as ever. “For all I know, this could be more of your clever manipulations. You could be playing me just as much as you claim to be playing Belias. How do I know that this isn’t the case?”

Voss lifted her marked hand elegantly. “You are not Belias. The same methods would not work for you. And if I were to want something from you, I could simply take it.”

Myanna’s brows furrowed as Voss closed her hand, the tingling becoming an agonizing pain within seconds. With a gesture from the first cleric’s finger, the cuirizu’s hand rose and moved from side to side, pain screaming up her arm the entire time. Myanna’s hand jerked forward, bringing her to her knees in front of the first cleric as the woman stood calmly.

“Though not fully manifested, the mark you’re to receive provides me a degree of dominion over you,” Voss said, moving her hand back slowly to pull Myanna on her knees closer to her. “I could make you grovel before me if that’s all I wanted. I could make you my bitch, to use as I see fit the way I would a fleshsworn.”

Myanna took hold of her left arm with her right and struggled to pull it back. The hand suddenly went to her throat and began to squeeze. A brow rose on Voss’s face as she smiled wickedly down at the cuirizu. “I could wring the life out of you with your own hand if it pleased me.”

The first cleric gently bent at the hip to caress Myanna’s cheek before slowly running her fingers through the cuirizu’s hair. Her nails scratched against Myanna’s scalp as they traveled to the back of her skull before gripping tightly to wrench her head back. Voss pressed the side of her face against Myanna’s forehead, breathing deeply as she took in the cuirizu’s scent. “But that’s not what I want from you. And it’s not the way to get it. For you, other methods are required. You are direct and wish others to be the same. You dominate others and respect those with the means to dominate you.”

The grip around Myanna’s throat grew lax enough that she was no longer concerned for her safety. She stared up at Voss, enjoying having Myanna in such a vulnerable position. The cuirizu had to admit, she was rather impressed by how much the situation aroused her. “So what now, first cleric? Do you expect me to become obedient after you’ve face-fucked me?”

“No,” Voss chuckled against Myanna’s lips. There was a deep well of sexuality in the woman that she had kept hidden for as long as she’d known her. Now that Myanna was this close, it was easy to see, and she wanted to drink deeply of its waters. “I expect you to struggle against me. To seek if I am worthy of being your mistress. Loyalty earned is much stronger than that which is simply demanded.”

Myanna’s gaze held a potent mix of anticipation, fury, and desire. She didn’t know if she wanted to rip the arms off the woman or spread her legs open. She supposed it was possible to do both, given the time. It was too soon for Myanna to tell if the woman would make for good breeding, but she didn’t care. She wanted to pin her down to her bed and ravage her until there was nothing left of the first cleric’s mind, only her willing body offering itself to be used at her leisure.

“There it is,” Voss whispered. “The Defiler.”

The words echoed through Myanna. The title felt like it belonged to her as if it had always been hers. Her hand burned, but somehow it no longer hurt. The smile on the first cleric’s face continued to grow. “I am going to release you. When I do, you must come at me with everything you have. Give yourself to your impulses. Let them guide your actions so that you may ascend.”

A moment of tension passed between them as the first cleric stepped back, and a glimmer of excitement shone in her eyes. Then, she relaxed her hand, and her hold over Myanna was instantly relinquished. The cuirizu wasted no time, hurling herself at the first cleric from her position on the floor. Grabbing hold of the woman’s face, Myanna lifted her off her feet and slammed her skull down into the floor. To her surprise, she felt the first cleric’s feet pressed against her torso before she was sent toppling over the chair behind her with a shove of incredible strength.

As Myanna scrambled to her feet, Voss was already on hers with an expertly executed kip-up. Going on the attack, the first cleric drew her marked hand back as it began to glow. “You’ll need to give me more than that if you’re to become worthy!”

Voss drove her hand forward, an unknown spell held in her palm. Leaning slightly to one side, Myanna caught the woman’s strike by the wrist and pulled as she brought up the elbow of her other arm, forcing Voss’s face to collide with it. The deft maneuver caught the first cleric by surprise, causing her concentration on the spell to waver just long enough for it to dissipate and be lost. Myanna’s hand tingled as it held the woman’s wrist tightly, this time feeling more like excitement than pain.

“Yes,” Voss hissed, her gaze leveling with Myanna again. “Don’t let go of that feeling. Embrace it!”

Myanna spun with Voss, slamming her into the nearest wall and holding her there. The need to ravage the first cleric rose within her intensely. It was all she could think about. She wanted to pull her apart in all the ways such a concept could be manifested. Her lips captured Voss’s before she knew it, tasting the subtle sweetness of her as the woman moaned into the kiss. Myanna could sense the lust radiating from her like a hot, wet heat. As her grip on the first cleric’s wrist relaxed enough to slide up to her hand, the woman bit down on Myanna’s lip.

“No mercy,” Voss scolded her. “Or I shall repay you with death. Do you understand?”

Myanna hissed angrily as she pulled her mouth from Voss’s. The desire burning within her for the woman only grew.

“I am not the first cleric,” Voss instructed impatiently. “I am prey. I am a conquest waiting to happen, a receptacle for your filthy cuirizu seed. If I am not, then I become the predator, and you, my prey.”

“Silence,” Myanna demanded as she bashed the woman’s skull off the wall behind her, stunning her briefly as she forced her legs apart. The first cleric attempted to struggle against her but could not coordinate her efforts. Pulling the leather thong to one side, Myanna revealed the cock of her dual aspect before driving it forcefully into the woman. Lifting her off her feet, the cuirizu pushed Voss against the wall, nailing her there like a trophy kill as she carved out her insides brutishly.

Voss let out a cry of pained pleasure, her legs opening of their own volition to allow Myanna greater access to her. The cuirizu only managed a few thrusts before the first cleric manifested a blade of magical energy in one hand. Myanna caught her wrist again before she could drive the weapon into her, earning her a fierce kiss from the first cleric. They had become beasts, torn between the desire to rut and kill. Myanna pressed her thumb down into the tendon in Voss’s wrist until she released the blade. Rather than clatter to the floor at their feet, it dissolved back into threads of magic mid-fall.

Myanna hardly noticed as the first cleric’s legs closed around her, heels digging into her back as she offered her breasts up to her. The cuirizu’s mouth captured one of the erect, pink buds in her mouth as her hips continued their deep, punishing violation of the highest-ranking member of the faith.

“That cock of yours,” Voss said, licking her lips as Myanna switched from one of her breasts to the other. “It’s absolutely incredible.”

Myanna stepped back as she gripped the woman’s hips tightly, moving her up and down on the mighty oak of her cuirizu cock like she was little more than a sex toy to relieve herself in. Despite the first cleric’s protests, there was no mistaking the excited way the snug heat of her pussy embraced her. Even as Voss slapped at her in an effort to get free, Myanna could feel her cunt gripping tightly at her in an attempt to draw her in further. Digging her heels into the back of Myanna’s thighs as she shoved at her shoulders, Voss was able to knock the cuirizu off balance to the floor.

The two tumbled over one another, rolling across the floor as they kicked at anything around them to get their footing. Proving once more to be the more nimble of the two, Voss was the first to get to her feet as she dashed toward a dagger on a display shelf. Myanna took hold of the sectional rug beneath the woman and ripped it out from under her with a single powerful motion, sending Voss sprawling forward onto the floor.

As the taller woman closed the distance between them, the first cleric rolled over, slapping both hands down on the ground as she barked in a vaguely familiar language to Myanna. It sounded like Abyssal, but for some reason, the words made no sense to the cuirizu despite knowing the language. Suddenly, the floor pulled away from Myanna as she went tumbling into the air toward the ceiling. Voss also fell upward but knew what to expect as the spell's caster.

Myanna hit the ceiling heavily, shoulder-first. A moment later, she was assailed by every object in the room that hadn’t been nailed down. Struggling to get her bearings as she stood, Myanna briefly spotted Voss casting another spell before everything that had just fallen began to hurl itself at her, and the room started to spin. Myanna was slightly more prepared than the first time, leaping to the oncoming wall as it became the floor with the rolling of the room. Voss remained fixed in her position, unaffected by the new subjective gravity as the room twisted in space. The cuirizu snatched up the broken leg of a fallen end table and hurled it at the woman, forcing her to abandon her position to avoid being struck in the head.

With just a few strides, Myanna crossed the room, tackling the first cleric at the waist and slamming her back down to the floor as the subjective gravity released. Both of them hit the floor heavily, but as soon as they did, Voss spoke another word in her quasi-Abyssal language, and the whole room reset to its original configuration catching Myanna off-guard with a wave of nausea. Pushing through the unsettling feeling, Myanna brought her fist down on the first cleric, realizing too late the mistake she had made.

Before the blow with her left hand could land, Voss arrested its motion with a gesture of her finger. The tingling in her hand flared to life like an electric current, causing her to lose focus entirely as the sensation clouded her senses. With another gesture, Myanna was struck as if by the unseen hand of a giant and hurled off of the woman. Tumbling through the air, the cuirizu hit the bed awkwardly, nearly bouncing off the other side. A moment later, she felt a blade at her throat as Voss came into view.

“You’re dead,” Voss announced as the blade’s edge bit into her skin. The magic Myanna could feel imbuing it would have had no trouble cutting clean through her like fruit. “You were too slow, too merciful, and you have failed.”

Myanna’s chest heaved from the exertion, but she had little fear. On the contrary, she felt exhilarated. Voss smiled her shark-like grin as she crawled onto Myanna slowly, the blade never moving from her throat. “Fortunately for you, you’ve made an impression on me, and I like what I’ve seen.”

“You went easy on me, didn’t you?” Myanna asked, realizing that many of the spells and magical abilities the woman had used had been with minimal effort. For many of them, she had not even used words to cast, only minimalist gestures. But even now, all Myanna could think of was being inside her again as the slick sex of the first cleric rested along the underside of her still-erect shaft.

“Why would I do that?” Voss scoffed as she shifted her weight, positioning herself on Myanna to impale herself on her cock. Myanna’s breath hitched slightly as the first cleric sank down to the base and began slowly grinding against her. “I am not known for my mercy, but you have made an impression on me regardless of your failure to fully realize your power as the Defiler.”

“Have I?” Myanna asked as Voss pulled the leather corset down to expose the cuirizu’s pierced breasts with her free hand. The blade at her neck remained remarkably level. “Does that earn me a stay of execution?”

The first cleric’s breath grew a bit heavier as she moved her hips in long powerful, grinding strokes, her eyes never leaving Myanna’s. “It just might, but your life remains in my possession until you can properly best me.”

Myanna’s eyes fluttered as the slick heat devouring her she-cock contracted and squeezed around her. The control that Voss possessed extended even to her pussy, which milked at Myanna’s entire length with astonishing proficiency. As the first cleric hunched over, the angle and rhythm of her hips changed. Instead of merely grinding, she was bouncing on her now, impaling herself on the cuirizu with increasing fervor. “Can you be loyal to me until then?”

The cuirizu nodded, but the blade at her throat bit a little deeper, drawing a thin line of blood. “I want to hear you say it, bitch. Swear yourself to me.”

“I do,” Myanna gasped, torn between the pleasure of her cock, the pain in her neck, and the growing buzzing sensation that ran up her arm and echoed in the back of her mind. “I swear to you, I shall remain your humble servant.”

“For the glory of Olcaru,” the first cleric breathed, pausing for Myanna to repeat it back to her. “Now present to me your offering so that I shall name you officially as Myanna the Defiler.”

Myanna’s hips bucked and spasmed as the intense orgasm rocked her to her core, spewing the cuirizu seed the first cleric had demanded of her. Each spurt came hot and thick like viscous lava erupting from deep within her. Her back arched, lifting Voss an inch or two higher. She let out a cry of ecstasy as the woman’s insides clamped down around her, wringing her out of every drop that she had to offer. As she came crashing back down to herself, the edge of the vicious blade was removed from her throat.

Voss smiled wickedly, dropping the weapon onto the bed beside them. The tingling in Myanna’s hand had ebbed, leaving a network of black Abyssal tattoos that reached up to her shoulder in its place. Leaning over to kiss the cuirizu’s lips, the first cleric spoke in a hushed whisper to Myanna. “Your offering is accepted.”