There was no real struggle in this spell for him. There was no mental battle. It didn’t eat away at Wersa’s Will from the inside out. It didn’t rely on his influence much either. It simply went to the core of her being, where her Path started, where her Will dwelled, where everything Wersa was, or ever would be, came from. The spell then gripped the whole of Wersa, and began to squeeze. This was a spell of pain. Of control. Of domination through pain. Not a physical pain, nor a mental pain. Not a pain of longing, or of regret. It was an existential pain. The sort of pain you felt when you were about to die unwillingly and unjustly. When you knew everything you ever wanted was pointless. When you knew that everything you had loved was now dust. This was the pain of absolute despair. The pain felt at the death of hope. It was the torturer’s pain, that caused even the strongest to beg for release. It demanded obedience. Unending and absolute obedience. If you did not obey, you would feel it. Its crushing pressure, on the whole of who you were, and you would yield. Anyone would yield. Everyone would yield.

Wersa yielded, as any person would. Her foot gently touched down on the ground, and he crawled away from her leg, looking up at her. Her raged had abated. The redness to her skin, the spell had brought, faded away. Her eyes were still bloodshot, but only from burst blood vessels. Her arms hung limply at her sides, and he noticed tears streaming down her face. She then knelt on the ground, and began to weep while looking at him. Looking for mercy. She didn’t even dare to reach for him.

He stood up and look down at her, his heart cold as ice, but his mind aflame. He brought back his fist and punched her in the face. Her body barely moved, and he could hear the bones in his hand break, but he ignored it. This woman had killed Dice! Dice was his! Karmis might be dead too! Karmis was his! Cold rage pushed him to bring his hand back from another punch, but Ina wrapped him up with her remaining tails and just held him. He couldn’t break free, though he struggled at first. Her arms came to circle around him as well. Eventually he let the rage go and accepted Ina’s warmth. As the warmth crept inward, Wersa continued to cry softly, still looking at him.

***

He had healed Ina first, and himself second. Then Karmis, and finally Wersa. He been surprised to find Karmis alive, though she was barely among the living. Wersa would have to carry her for a time. He set her bones and he had found a regeneration tonic in her things, to begin the process of knitting her back together. He cast a few of his own spells for good measure, though they would overlap some. He didn’t know if there would be much point in healing her, but he wasn’t sure he could kill her either. Besides, returning without the party leader might look strange. He would at least need her to check in with the tower, to confirm his payment. Then she could leave town, though after that he didn’t know what to do with her.

Wersa had eventually stop crying. Her personality, such as it was, had returned some, but she didn’t dare displease him. She was meek as could be when he made a request. As near as he could tell, she was now loyal to him totally. Not because he controlled her thoughts, or because his will had supplanted her own, but because she feared for her very existence. He could snuff her out with a thought, and should he die, so would she. He could feel her very existence tremble when he drew near to her. The consequence of Dominate Soul wasn’t merely death, death would be a mercy. No, the consequence of Dominate Soul, should its caster be displeased, was that chains wrapped around the soul of the victim would tighten, and continue to tighten, forever. So she was loyal, loyal beyond even the threat of death. Dying would be a release compared to what would happen should she not follow his commands. She knew this down to the very center of her being.

He thought he might have needed to cast another spell on her, to further control her, but he sense no dissension from her. He was now linked to her, as she was linked to him. Karmis, too, despite her damaged mine, was totally loyal to him. The combination of damaging both her mind and her Will, had been enough to make her a mindless slave to him, though he had no use for a castor who couldn’t cast specific spells on demand.

Ina, was still Ina. Her tails had started to grow back, though he teased her about the hairless nubs. Beasts were naturally good at regenerating, and many-tailed were particularly good at growing back their secondary tails. Right away, as soon as she had let him go, he had cast every healing spell he had on Ina, rested, and then cast more. She would be fine.

Ina was the only thing that seemed to bring him out of the feelings his Path brought him as he used his Class spells. She was his only shelter in the storm his life had become. Dice had died for him.. He corrected himself. What was left of Dice’s mind, after he destroyed it, had died for him. His life now consisted of murder, of destroying minds, enslaving Wills, and.. gripping the very souls of his foes. He didn’t know what to make of it all. He blamed the grimoire, of course, but on some level he had to thank it for, everything else he had. He would likely be dead several times over without it. He would have died once in the wilds, and certainly on this trip, without it. The dilemma tore at him, but only until Ina moved closer to him, rubbing herself against his arm. He let his feelings for Ina banish his previous thoughts for a while.

***

He had questions! Lots of questions! For Karmis and for Wersa. For better or worse, they were his now.

“Wersa, Karmis is your mother? How old is she? Why does she look as though you’re both the same age?” His voice sounded deeper, more hollow than he remembered it.

Wersa began to shake at his question, “Lord-d, W-we are both older than we look. I-I don’t know for sure, but she is at least two hundred sequences old. I am-m a little over ninety sequences in age.”

Two hundred sequences? That was one thousand rotations!? He was only a hundred and forty-five rotations old. Most people his age didn’t use sequences as age counters until they hit two hundred rotations. In sequences, he would be twenty-nine, barely into adulthood. His father and mother were only sixty or so sequences old, younger than Wersa.

“How do you look so young? Oh, and don’t call me Lord. Don’t stutter either. When speaking to me, especially if there are other people around, you must do so calmly.”

Taking a moment to collect herself, “Master, Karmis used a combination of illusion spells and body transformation spells. I just dye my hair, Master. Classed Warriors tend to maintain a youthful body until they reach the end of their life and then they quickly age over the course of a few sequences.”

“When other people are around, don’t use anything but my name.” His voice still cold. He had trouble accepting this new Wersa.

He turned toward Karmis, who was sitting on the ground. The drooling wasn’t as bad as had it been, and the babbling had gone away with only a little application his control over her.

Karmis stand up, remove your robe.

She stood and derobed, though he took no pleasure in looking at her.

Karmis, stop maintaining your personal illusion and body transformation.

Karmis scowled slightly, as if in pain, but he tell could she was doing something related to her Path. She looked confused, but was clearly working at something.

A few moments later, he could see her illusion fall. He was astounded at what he saw. Her skin was wrinkled with age, her hair had gone purely white. It grew thinly from her head in patches. Her jowls hung from a skeletal face. When he looked down, at the rest of her, it was much the same, except the shape of her body hadn’t changed. She that same wrinkled skin all over, but her breasts despite being wrinkled, were still surprising large and high. It was a bizarre and incongruous sight, until the body transformation spell too fell away from her.

Her back started to curve, hunching her over. He breasts lost their shape, and fell to her knees like empty sacks. She lost height, and he flesh of her legs and hips seemed to dry up. One of the oldest people he have ever encountered stood before him, though it didn’t look like she could hold herself up much longer. Karmis’ breath began to shorten as well. He looked to Wersa, but she didn’t look surprised in the slightest.

“This is your mother Wersa?”

Wersa spoke, without the stutters this time, “She said she was my mother when she was raising me, but I have always suspected she was my grandmother or great grandmother.”

Karmis, re-apply your body transformation and personal illusion.

Despite the bizarre nature of what he had just seen, this made sense in a lot of ways. Though, it did make a lot his ‘interactions’ with Karmis something he didn’t really want to think about. This woman was old, older than he could really fathom on a personal level. Of course, she had the mental fortitude to fight with him. To live this long, she was must have been one of the most stubborn people alive. Even powerful Class Masters didn’t live much longer than regular people, so far as he knew. What had she done to keep herself alive, and not just alive, but beautiful, was a testament to her abilities. The body transformation spell definitely kept her alive, propping her up, forcing her organs to work, keeping her body the correct shape, but eventually her organs would fail right?

“Wersa, did she use something to keep herself alive? Did she eat something, or use a spell?”

“Karmis used a certain spell every time she fucked a man. It would take a little of his life and make it her own. She told me the spell couldn’t take more than the smallest sliver of life from anyone, but that she could sustain herself with these tiny bits of life. She couldn’t do this forever though, she had grown weaker the last dozen or so sequences. Her spells had grown weaker. Her Path, was slowly dying.” Wersa sounded grim.

He wondered how many men had a piece of their life stolen to afford Karmis such a long life.

“That is explain why she needed me. For my life, and to advance her Path.” He spoke, mostly to himself. Karmis appeared to be concentrating on her Path again, but nothing was happening. He decided to change the subject away from the elderly life stealer.

“Wersa, what was the party looking for out here?”

“Karmis brought us out to the Wilds on a rumor a powerful beast had passed through here.”

“What sort of beast?”

He was more than a little curious. What sort of beast would have brought these city adventurers this far away from the rest of humanity?

“A dragon.”