“How would you deal with Sun-Domia?”

In hindsight, it was probably the worst question she could have asked me because my first answer was that I wanted to run away, perhaps hide in the wilderness somewhere, like in a secluded valley, and hope that the war would reach its inevitable conclusion without me. In this fantasy, Mona came with me, and we built a small cabin by a lake. But I had a strong feeling Mona wasn’t going to like that answer. And I wanted her to teach me magic.

“Come on, ‘Master.’ Tell me,” she said, her face beaming, as if she was sure she’d caught me in a trap, and I was about to be humbled.  “How would you defeat the wretched Goddess of Light, Oh Dark Lord?”

I may have been entirely out of my depth and half-terrified, but I still had some measure of pride.  And the fact was, I desperately wanted to impress her.  Seeing her look at me like that, like I was a fool and always would be, made me want to prove her wrong.

“I wouldn’t,” I said at last. “Defeat her, I mean.”

She raised an eyebrow. Her smirk faltered for a moment. “Explain yourself.”

“If there’s one thing I learned from the Demon Bible—”

“Well, first of all, Greg, it’s called the Book of Grievances.” She wagged a finger at me. I probably should have felt chastised, but I couldn’t. She’d already stabbed me with little success, and frankly there wasn’t much else Mona could do to me without dooming herself in the process.

For a moment, it made me realize I had all the leverage here—if I wanted her to teach me magic, I could refuse to play along with her plans until she agreed to show me. It probably wouldn’t be a good strategy for our long-term survival, but it was still an option.

“Okay,” I said, “in the Book of Grievances… speaking of which, Mona, I’m pretty sure I won’t want to read the section you end up writing about me.”

She rolled her eyes. “I highly doubt you’ll get a section, Master, and I doubt even more that I’ll be the one writing it. If we manage to survive another day I’ll be impressed. But you keep dodging my question. Such an insubordinate student must be punished.”

“Punished?”

“Yes.” A fiendish smile played across her lips as she crawled towards me, past the now forgotten Book. She gently grabbed my wrists, leaned close to my ear, and whispered, “You said you wanted to learn magic?  It’s time for your first lesson.”  She lifted her leg and straddled me, pressing her weight against my chest.

My heart pounded, and I felt myself relax underneath her, gazing up at her expectantly.  I had no idea what was happening, but I was eager to learn her intentions. She reached out and placed a finger on my lips. “Be quiet,” she said, “and listen.”

Mona spoke a stream of words—words I somehow recognized though I’d never heard them, what must have been the Old Tongue.  It had an entirely different cadence than common Demonic. It sounded more primordial, closer to the deep vibrations of the Void itself. “From fire, bondage,” she said, and it wasn’t just her words that were different. It was the way she spoke, as if every sound was a matter of life and death, her voice resonant as if she had summoned a chorus of voices, and they were all chanting alongside her.

I was so distracted by her words and her presence that I was stunned when she finished speaking, jumped off me, then returned to her side of the bed.  She laughed, looking as pleased as I had ever seen her.

I tried to move my hands, but realized I couldn’t. I looked up and saw my wrists were encircled in what appeared to be a chain of fire. But I didn’t feel any pain or even heat. I pulled at the chain, realizing the fire held me fast to the bedpost. I rose to my knees and pulled harder, yanking at the binding, but I couldn’t get farther than a foot away.

“Mona, this isn’t funny,” I said. “What if Ilmatar or someone walks in while I’m like this?”

She glanced towards the window as if judging the amount of light in the sky. “We still have some time,” she said. “I know your schedule well, Master. It is time for your first lesson in magic.”

“Well, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind, Mona. I thought you were going to teach me a spell, not cast one on me.”

She shrugged. “Well, that was very unclear to me, Master. I do apologize, but you see, I’m just a silly High Priestess who doesn’t know what’s best for you.  You’ll have to give me more detailed instructions next time, so that I may understand how to properly serve your Lordship.”

I worried that if I pulled any harder, I would bend the bedpost, because I could feel the metal starting to creak from my effort.  Even if I succeeded in destroying the bed itself, part of me wondered if the magical chain of fire, in defiance of the laws of physics, would still hold me tight.

“This is very funny, Mona, but you can serve me by letting me out of—”

“Let you out, Master?” Mona slowly got up from the bed and began to pace around its perimeter. Her robes swayed as she walked. She grabbed one of the other bed posts as she passed and used it to twirl on the tips of her feet.  “But surely Greg-Theryx, the Great One, the Dread of the Void, my Lord and Master, would know how to dispel a simple flame binding.  Wouldn’t he?”

She continued around the bed until she was close to me. She reached out and touched my cheek with her fingers, allowing her long nails—or perhaps they more accurately described as claws—to gently scratch me. I felt my heart pound and my cock twitch. Damn her, I thought, she really knew how to get under my skin. She smiled, then shook her head sadly. “It’s a shame,” she said, “that such a magnificent body is inhabited by such a foolish man. I want to embrace you and slap your stupid face, Master. Both at the same time, somehow.”

“Right now the feeling is mutual, Mona.”

“I wouldn’t mind either way, you know. But I think you’re a little tied up at the moment.”  She smiled, then took a step backward, out of reach.

I tugged on the binding again, knowing that I would give her further satisfaction in doing so.  The chain of fire shifted subtly on the bedpost, and I noticed that where it wrapped around, there were scorch marks.  So the chain was hot enough to scorch metal, but couldn’t even singe me. It felt weird, even unsettling, to learn that—but interesting. No wonder Mona hadn’t tried to burn me alive yesterday. I hadn’t thought about it until now, but it hadn’t made much sense for a pyromancer to reach for a knife.

“As much fun as this is,” Mona said, “you never answered my earlier question.  Maybe you need further motivation.”  She made a gesture and whispered something too soft for me to hear.  The chain suddenly tightened, yanking my arms until my hands were right next to the bedpost. I flailed for a moment until I managed to kneel alongside the bedpost, a pillow under my knees.

“Okay, fine,” I said. My earlier thought that I could do whatever I wanted now seemed hilariously naive.  It was time to play ball.  I cleared my throat before beginning.  “In the Book of Grievances, I couldn’t help but notice that it’s been a very long time and this whole Dark Crusade business hasn’t worked out very well so far.  Every couple hundred years you face another apocalyptic holy war, the world almost gets destroyed, and for what?  The worst part is our side has become less effective over time.  So, how would I deal with Sun-Domia?  I’d offer her a truce.  Why even fight her at all?”

Mona rolled her eyes. “How sad. For a moment, I thought you might have an intelligent answer to this question.”

“I’m just saying, I don’t see how to win, and what would we even do if we did?  What if they, for once, had actually sieged the heavens?  What comes after?  Your Book wasn’t too clear on that part, you know.  Banish the gods, sure.  But isn’t he a god, too?”

“Well, you may have a point,” she said. She closed the distance between us, then sat near me on the same side of the bed.  She looked at me in interest.  “Keep going.”

“If you agree with all that, what part of what I said earlier was wrong?”

“‘I’d offer a truce.’”  Her imitation of my voice, so much deeper than her own, was equal parts insulting and adorable.  “I would love to see that. I’m sure Sun-Domia would forgive thirteen hundred years of enmity and discord if you asked her nicely.  She definitely wouldn’t take the opportunity to send you right back whence you came.”

“Fair enough.  What, then?”

“To offer peace, you have to win first.  You have to beat her.  Without strength, peace is just surrender.”

I sighed. “I see your point.”

“Then you’re less stupid than I expected,” she said.

From a succubus, I wondered if this passed for a compliment. “Well, what’s the right answer, Mona? What would you do?”

“Ah,” she said. “That’s part of why I became High Priestess.  So that when the time came, I would become the perfect instrument of war, an unrivaled weapon.  If I was useful enough, I thought perhaps I could speak my piece on these matters without being executed for blasphemy.”

“Well, I already promised not to execute you,” I offered.  I would have put a hand over my heart if I’d had one free.

She smirked, then glanced towards the chain of fire that still bound me to my bed—or was it our bed now?  We had already begun to share it, even if our nights together were likely numbered and celibate besides.

“I’m not too worried about you doing anything to me right now,” she said.  “Earlier, I thought you were close to my answer. But you were still a little naive, which I guess I should have expected. My plan was this—instead of focusing on trying to invade the divine realms, to focus on defending our own lands, send diplomatic envoys to the former Pact Kingdoms and re-unite them, then defend at the Fulcrum—that is, the point halfway between the Void and the Aether. That would involve us taking back the city of Lycanta, capital of the beastfolk.”

“That sounds reasonable,” I said. I tried to match what she was saying to what I’d read in the Book. “Easier to defend than conquer.”

“Yes,” she said. “But even then, there is no way to stop Sun-Domia forever other than sieging the heavens, as you put it.  I do not pretend to understand how Greg-Theryx intended to do what he claimed.  To destroy the gateway between the world of the gods and our own.  I’m afraid such sorcery, if it exists, is well beyond your ken.  But there’s another option—if Sun-Domia’s army was defeated, Greg-Theryx could voluntarily exile himself to the Void, swearing to return if the sanctity of the Pact was ever violated.”

I smiled. “I can’t imagine Greg-Theryx going along with that part, unless I skipped over more of the Book of Grievances than I remember.”

“Yes, but would you?” she asked.  “Go along with it.  I’ve studied the magic of summoning extensively.  If you were to return of your own free will, you could be brought back whenever we needed.  We only have to wait for such specific conditions because of the unfortunate method by which Greg-Theryx has, in the past, been returned.”

I shook my head.  To return to that dark place, death, of my own free will?  “I don’t know.  I think there are a lot of missing steps between here and there.  I’m in no hurry to cease existing again.”

“Fair enough.  All this discussion will be moot when they discover us, anyway.”  Mona shrugged.  “Well, that was my idea.  I never said it was perfect.”

“If that’s your plan, what’s the Generals’?”

She rolled her eyes.  “I expect you’ll hear about that later. The High Priestess isn’t invited to meetings on military affairs.  If I had to guess, probably something stupid—a dreadsteed cavalry charge into the Valley of the Dead, with blood hot in our veins and the thrill of battle in the air.  Or something.”

“I take it I’ll be expected to lead that charge?”

“It would certainly be better for morale if you did,” she said wryly. “At least until the exact moment your lack of combat experience becomes known. At that point, I fear our legions would rout.”

I looked out the window as the red sun continued to rise over the still shadowed mountains. I had lost track of time, and now wondered when my wake-up call would be arriving. If they found me in such a state… I tugged at my wrists again. “So, uh, how about you let me go now? I answered your question, Mona.”

She widened her eyes and put a hand over her mouth coquettishly as if feigning innocence. “But, Master, you said you wished to learn magic. You may consider this your first lesson. You heard my incantation, and you saw me cast the spell.  So, how would you go about freeing yourself?”

In truth I had been somewhat distracted by her proximity to me at the time, her warm breath in my ear, and the softness of her thighs as she’d straddled me.  All of this I’m sure she knew.  She must have noticed my eyes widen and my body tense beneath her. It had all gone according to her plan so far.  And yet, I couldn’t give up.  I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to remember her incantation.

“From fire, bondage,” I said in the Old Tongue, trying to match the rhythm of her words. While I spoke, I focused on the chain of fire that bound me, willing it to loosen around my wrists.

Absolutely nothing happened. I looked to Mona expectantly. She smirked, saying nothing. But she did not seem surprised.

“From fire, bondage!” I said again, louder this time, with equal results. Or perhaps the incantation to release the spell differed from the one to conjure it?  “Fire, please let me go!  Fire, uh, extinguish!”

Well, it was worth a try.

At this point, Mona chuckled. “Do you need a hint?”

“A hint?” I asked. “I didn’t realize that was an option. I mean, you haven’t taught me anything yet, Mona. You just tied me to our bed and expected me to figure it out. So, yes, I would love a hint.”

She sat next to me on the bed again, then placed her hand on my thigh and looked at me. “Our bed, Master? How generous you are with your words.”

I sighed, not even realizing what I’d said. She managed to pick up on everything, didn’t she?  “You’re infuriating, you know that?”

“Oh, are you upset that a demoness is toying with you?” She rolled her eyes. “In truth, Master, I’m only trying to help you. If you can’t handle my ever so gentle challenge, how are you supposed to act imposing enough to convince the Generals, or even Ilmatar, for fuck’s sake, that you are the real thing? In truth, I’ve been trying to push you to the edge all morning. I wanted to see what fight was within you.”

“And?” I looked at her and tugged helplessly at my wrists one more time, for good measure.

“Despite your whining, you’re strangely relaxed about this.  I tied you up and you’re only mildly exasperated with me.”

“Why should I be anything more than that? If you do anything to me you’ll be dead too, Mona. And I suppose…” I thought about it for a moment. Certainly, in my old life, if a woman had tied me to the bed without asking, I would’ve been pissed. I would have broken that bedpost to get free if I needed to.

But considering the strange circumstances I’d found myself in, it was hard to believe any of this was real.  Part of me felt I was still dreaming, that perhaps I was in the afterlife.  “I suppose it’s hard for me to worry.  If I die, well, I’ve already been dead once.  All I remember is a cold darkness, and I’m not saying I enjoyed it, but if it happens again, I’ve already been there before.  So I suppose I’m resigned to it.  Have you ever been dead, Mona?”

“No, and I hope I won’t be for a long while.” She sighed, then looked at me. Her expression changed for a moment.  Her mirth faded, replaced with what I supposed might be genuine concern.

When she next spoke, it was once more in the Old Tongue, and her voice had a bit of a lilt.  Her words sounded less like magic and more like poetry. “Let my Will ignite,” she chanted. “An ember in my spirit; show me light, that I may see by it; grant me heat, that I might take it into myself; my soul shall be fuel; my Will in service to this flame; from fire, bondage; from fire, deliverance!” As she finished the incantation her voice rang out and a rope of fire emerged from her hands, which she lengthened before wrapping it around one hand and twirling it with the other.

“I may have been a bit of a cunt,” she said after a moment, the fire still burning in her hands. She kept twirling the end in a lazy circle, perhaps just showing off. “I could say only a small fraction of the incantation because, once you know a spell by heart, that is all that’s required. As long as you have the feel of the spell within you, as long as your Will understands the pattern of it, it’s feeling and rhythms, you don’t need to say the words at all. You need only recall the feeling of them.”

“But for me…”

“It would never have worked.”  She smiled.  “I told you what you should learn, I told you to read the Book, and you half-assed it. I suppose I was trying to teach you a lesson.”

I sighed. “Point taken. I just… if I’m going to die, it would be fun to be able to conjure a flame just once.”

She looked at me for a long moment, and something passed across her face as if she was seeing me again for the first time. “I felt the same way when I cast my first spell.”

“That must have been amazing.”

“I wanted it more than anything. It was my way out of the hovel and into the Academy. So I understand the appeal, Greg.  I swear I do.  It’s just…  I’m really sorry, but we don’t have enough time for you to get any good at this.”

“I still want to learn, Mona,” I said. “I’ll read every damn page of that Book, and every other book you put in front of me. But I also want you to teach me magic.  Really teach me, not just use it on me and expect me to figure it out.”

A moment passed, and I thought she would tell me to fuck off. “Fine,” she said, with a breathy sigh to let me know she wasn’t happy about it. “It’s a deal.” She glanced at the windows again. “They’ll be here soon. Give it another try. If you can’t get it, I’ll release you.”

“Okay,” I said, and turned my focus to my wrists. I went over the incantation—it did sound just like a poem, I thought—in my mind.

“Let my Will ignite,” I began, trying to feel the words, as if I were speaking them to a woman I loved, or once had. “An ember of my spirit…” As I spoke, I felt something different this time. A faint energy within me, a vibration, almost, within my chest, as if the words themselves were resonating. My voice had changed, too, sounding foreign to me, as if a chorus had joined me, not just one but many voices, all chanting in unison. In my excitement, I started to speak faster, the words flowing out of me as a strange energy grew within me, until at last I shouted, “From fire, deliverance!”

But even as I said the final words, I realized it wouldn’t work.  In the last few seconds, I had gone too fast and lost the vibration, the resonance, so that when I delivered the end of the incantation, there was no longer a chorus of voices, only my own. The fire still bound me as tightly as ever.

“Well, I guess—”

And then my heart stopped because I heard the door beginning to open, and from beyond it, the last voice I wanted to hear.

“Good morning, my Lord!” Ilmatar shouted.  At first, I only saw his giant horns poking around the edge of the door.  My heart pounded as I frantically pulled at my wrists.  He came into view, and his eyes widened.  I couldn’t blame him.  The sight of me tied to my own bed was probably—wait, no, he wasn’t looking at me, he was looking…

As I turned my head, I saw Mona lying in bed, her robes spread to reveal a black set of lingerie which, until this moment, I’d had no idea she’d even been wearing. Her hands were above her head, now bound by ropes of fire to opposite bedposts.  She turned to face me, away from the door, and gave me a wink.

I dropped my wrists, realizing they were free.  So while no doubt I had looked strange having my arms up in the air like that, probably Ilmatar had thought nothing of it. He’d most likely been more distracted by the sight of High Priestess Desdemona Fell tied to the bed, apparently at my mercy.

You’re really something, I thought, looking at Mona. I straddled her, then reached to the fire wrapped around her wrists. “From fire, deliverance,” I whispered, and the flames disappeared. Then, even quieter, I leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Well played.” 

“You didn’t think I’d let us get caught so soon, did you?”  She arched an eyebrow at me playfully, then tugged at the front of my robe for a moment. “By the way, I forgot to mention, don’t go to the library. Good luck, Master. See you later.”

“You shall.”  I wanted to ask her why the library, of all places, but I could hear Ilmatar’s footsteps getting closer.  There was no more time for private conversation.

As I pulled away from her, I realized she had released the spell on herself wordlessly because I hadn’t felt a thing when saying the last verse of the incantation. Not to mention that she’d released me and bound herself all in the second it had taken the door to open. Perhaps when she’d talked of her skill at pyromancy, she hadn’t been boasting at all, only stating the facts.

I lazily climbed out of bed and walked towards Ilmatar.

“Majordomo,” I said, nodding at him. “It’s time to get ready. We have a war to discuss.”

“Of course, Master,” he said smoothly, then clapped his hands.  A string of attendants began to file into the room, carrying clothing and other effects.  I stretched out my arms, and they began to wordlessly strip off my robe and prepare me for the day.  This time it barely registered that all of these demons were about to see me naked.

Desdemona, meanwhile, slipped out of bed and into her leather boots, tying her robe around her body. She walked past us gracefully, bowing to me as she did so. I doubted anyone else saw it, but she gave a little flourish when she bowed that I had not seen from anyone else, and I couldn’t help but think she was doing it to fuck with me. “May you have a wonderfully accursed day, Master.”

I supposed that in Dreadthorn this was considered a good thing, but in light of our mutual secret, I couldn’t see it as anything but in jest. We hadn’t spent all that long together, but I already felt I was starting to get more of an idea of who she was.  She may have been a pain, but I couldn’t help liking her.

After she’d left, closing the bedroom door behind her, it was Ilmatar’s turn to smile knowingly. To his credit, I could tell he was trying to suppress it, and a moment later, his face grew severe again. I couldn’t help but grin a little myself. Let him think he had caught us unawares and embarrassed.

You have no idea, I thought, and I hope you never will.