At a rocky shore of a massive ocean, mortals rushed about their chores. Though, the area they rushed about in was rather limited and seemed to almost form a perfect circle. Within this perfect circle, there existed a large building that seemed to have nothing but several rooms with a simple corridor connecting them. Rather, calling them rooms would be an injustice for they were cells, meant to keep their occupants from escaping.

Some of these cells contained woman that were in different states of distress or rest. One thing remained constant, however; all these women, without any exception, were naked as the day they were born. Or perhaps, not akin to the day they were born. Despite being naked, there now remained little similarities to the day they were born. For they had been birthed as men, not women.

A woman laid inside the cell, his limbs spread apart, as if he didn't care what happened to them while the strands of his long, black hair were sprawled on the floor as if they were spiderwebs.

An echo of footsteps resounded down the corridor until it came to stop just outside the chambermaid’s cell.

“Tch. Tch. Tch.” The woman clucked his tongue but didn't even bother to look at his visitor as his lips twitched in derision and his feminine voice eluded to unhidden smiles. “To embrace your shame such, you and I are not so different.”

“Shame? You talk of shame!? You?!” The new arrival grabbed the bars of the cell as if willing to break them open with his hands. “A whore would feel ashamed before you.”

“True.” The woman easily agreed. “A whore would be a woman in the end. She would have the shame of a woman.” That he was not a woman, that he did not have such shame, was agreed upon but not said.

The new arrivals grip on the bar tightened and his face twisted into a snarl. “How did you do it? Tell me! How did you do it?!” The woman laughed. His voice resounded across the cell and the newcomer’s face contorted into an ugly one.

“Tell me! You BITCH! Tell me!!”

The woman’s laughter died down eventually and he slowly raised his hand that was lying on the side, to touch his body before cupping his breast. “I? I did nothing. It was you. It was all you.” His hands caressed the soft flesh as they travelled down his body before arriving at his clit. “Or maybe it was this.” He rubbed his crotch before digging his fingers in his own vagina. “It is quite possible, now that I think about it.”

The long-haired man’s eyes glazed over and his pupils tracked the woman’s fingers as they ran down the soft flesh, caressed the skin before entering the one area that he wanted to explore the most. At that moment, as if a spell had been cast, the man’s breath hitched, his pupils shrank and his crotch reacted to the woman’s movements.

But then the woman laughed and the spell was broken. The woman sat up, his dark hair lingering on the ground as his body rose, and he tilted his head to the side. The mocking smile on the woman’s lips and the contempt within his eyes made the visitor's blood boil as his face turned red and his ears burned. “You dare!”

The woman softly picked at the ends of his hair and stared at the man that stood across from him.

The man’s hair was black and so long that it almost touched the ground. Yet, it was untied and uncombed as it flew everywhere and stuck out at odd angles. Same was the case with this beard, which was so long and thick it almost seemed to his swallow the man’s lips.

The woman’s eyes lingered on the newcomer’s clothes and his lips twitched at the change. The man had ditched the white robes that had been his only clothing for most of his life. Instead, he had now donned the black robes of the fallen.

“This,” the woman matched the man’s gaze with his own, “quite suits you. The robes of the fallen.”

The man ignored the woman’s jibe as his eyes were still fixed at the woman’s crotch and his nails began to dig into his flesh within his clenched fists. “Yes. Yes, it was you. I knew it. I kNEW iT!!” The man rushed at the woman but slammed into the bars that held them apart. He hit the bars with his naked fists while the woman began to laugh.

“YoU!!” The man’s eyes were wide and crazed. “I Will kILl yOu!!”

The woman continued to laugh and the man roared. The man’s throat trembled as he continued to shout while the woman’s frame shook as the woman continued to laugh.

“You can’t.” The woman slowly caressed his own face with his long fingers. “You are not allowed to.”

The man slammed his palms against the bars and glared at the woman but the man’s eyes seem to clear and he smiled. “For how long can these bars keep me away from you? Sooner or later, you will be mine once again.”

“Not long. Yet, I will not be yours even then.” The woman let his body fall and his flesh slapped the cold ground, hard. “I am not your now. I was not yours on the ship. And will not be yours when you walk in again.”

“Did you think that when I was deep within you?” The man’s smile stretched and his white teeth made an appearance. “When your mouth overflowed with my seed, did you think that then? When my body was covered in your blood, did you think that then?”

“Yes. I thought the same then and I think the same now.” The woman closed his eyes and his fingers played with his hair. “You are just another of the faceless men that make use of me.”

The man snarled and slammed his fists against the bars.

“These bars and this space that keep you there,” the woman smiled, though the twitch of his lips was more cruel than mirthful, “speak more of your limits. You are nothing but a fallen ascetic.”

“Just what do you think you are?!” The man gritted his teeth. “I will show you just what you are. I will break you! I will make you mine.”

“Me? I am the possession of the royals.” The woman kept his eyes closed. “Can you take me away from them?”

-X-

Within a desolate desert, inside a dilapidated shop, on a simple chair, a youth seemingly slept.

-X-