The Curse of Heart’s Longing (Velociraptor & Fruit)

[Fruit]

The fire crackled beneath the pot. Its cinders rose with the smoke as the flames cast all sorts of dancing shadows around the cabin. Azariah Gilroar stirred her stew one more. Bubbles ascended from the base of the cauldron and popped at the surface between bell peppers and carrots. The elf thought back about her prey. The human warrior had fought to his last breath, but even his prowess proved feeble against the fay's tricks. There is enough of his flesh to last the whole winter, she realized, with a smile, as she watched the flames engulf the corpse, crisping the skin off and searing the flesh into a shade of vantablack. This was the fourth Caledorian to wander into her lair in Vinkanaus River Valley that month alone, and all his ilk fell victim to her arrows. Azariah had buried the other Caledorians behind her cabin. Like trophies on a shelf, gravestones formed a line behind her hut marking all the lives she'd collected through the summer. As winter approached, the Ananki elf found more use in burning the corpses for her cauldrons to sit on. That is the one thing humans were made for. On the other side of the flames sat a small kettle that wouldn't stop whistling as it fumed and shook violently, its content churning in a fierce, unnatural tremor.​

​

It pleased Azariah that the empire was determined to find her den. She'd cut down one Caledorian after the other since the turn of summer, and the men and women dispatched by the empire grew in numbers and strength. It signified that the empire was growing restless at the idea of a rogue Ananki ambushing their soldiers in the valley. She'd survived one foray after the other, and before long she found herself struggling to fit more gravestones around her home. She had decided that it was in her best interest to relocate her base of operation to another site around the Vinkanaus. It seemed probable to the elf that the human's had scouted her location, and she feared a raid during her hours of sleep. She'd long sworn she'd never die in her bed.​

​

Azariah pulled the pot further from the flame and the liquid stopped boiling. Perfect. Nothing would warm her insides in a cold November night better than a hot bowl of vegetable stew. She'd under-cooked the onions, preserving their acidity and crunchiness, while the carrots and bell peppers were cooked down to a softer texture that melted on her tongue. Salt, pepper, juice squeezed from a lemon, and crushed tomatoes all accentuated the tastes mixing around her mouth. The smaller kettle whistled alone amidst the flames, and Azariah could see blood trickling down its walls before dripping on the fires in a hiss of smoke. She'd decided it was enough torment for the little kettle and placed it away from the fire. It's grown heavier.​

​

She smiled with pride. She was ready.​

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

The Caledorian Empire had been interested in wargaming out a potential military campaign of the vast and sprawling Vinkanaus River, in order to gain control of the fertile plain in western Ananka, for years. Then the Final War started on June 13th, 1893 with the surprise attack on the Caledorian capital of Radiant City by the Ananki Confederation’s legions of elves and dragons and their merfolk allies in the Olsea Kingdom. That had kicked off a secret operation by the highly trained agents of the Imperial Eye to send scouts to probe the enemy’s defenses in the region.

But even their superior intelligence never expected her.

They tried to cover up their failures as they realized Azariah Gilroar was becoming more powerful with each dead scout, but Supreme Commander Alice Guthrie found out and took over Operation Kill Roar (which she had to admit was a clever name). Then in early November, she assigned her best operative, Paige “Hammer” Atkins, to the task. The rest of Meteor Company, which Paige had led, was sent to support the main Vinkanaus offensive, part of a massive push by the Empire to correct their decisive defeat at the nearby Battle of Orelkortop Valley on October 26th before winter halted their invasion.

The noise of the battle would provide Paige the cover she needed to singlehandedly eliminate the witchy thorn in their side once and for all. But Alice had heard disturbing reports of Ms. Gilroar’s deadly accuracy with arrows, and let Paige go in with her trusty Goliath. The colossal war machine, which she had killed seven dragons with (thereby becoming an ace pilot whose legend had spread fear in the enemy ranks), would need all the sonic cover it could get.

The early afternoon of November 19th, 1893 looked- and sounded- like any other. The verdant nature of the old growth forest that had been here for thousands of years hummed along as always, the river outside the Gilroar hut babbling contentedly as it irrigated the graveyard. Meanwhile, Paige slowly and carefully piloted her green camouflaged Goliath around enemy formations, between trees and without making too much noise, no easy feat with the size of this machine, and without a copilot to boot. But she’d asserted that she could do the job alone, so here she was; head down, moving forward, like always.

Yet, the disciplined pilot allowed herself a moment to reflect as she looked at the luminograph of Kate Gordon-Hawkins, her beautiful girlfriend who she’d been with for nearly six months. She wished Kate was here in the copilot’s seat. Kate was one of the few humans Paige knew who could wield magic without resorting to the Darkness, and she’d worked hard to learn it at the Elthurscaldy University of Magical Studies back in Caledoria, before all this. So if anyone was qualified to help her fight a witch, it would be Kate, who’d taken on the ghost of the Count of Elthurscaldy and won.

Instead, Kate, who’d also learned how to pilot an airplane and acted as the healer of the group, had been assigned to Javelin Squadron to seek out Kate’s ex-girlfriend and former fellow student, Princess Nyx Kyron, and kidnap her from her nearby castle. Kate and Paige had been separated for nearly a month while both drilling for their respective roles in this battle, and Paige wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of Kate seeing her ex again while she was away. In fact, she'd been with Nyx intimately and then lost her to Kate before they fell into each other's arms around the start of the Final War. But that was the kind of thinking that had led her to panic and dump her first girlfriend, Viktoriyanda “Riya” Thompson, when she had been assigned to guard EUMS, and Paige was trying to be better. More trusting.

A tough thing for an orphan raised in the foster system of the Caledorian Church of Solstice and sent repeatedly to juvenile detention to do, but Paige really had worked hard, and Kate was her longest relationship as a result. In any case, she refocused on her task as the whistles and horns of the other Goliaths, the yelling of the aeroplanes, and the roars of the enemy dragons commenced the Battle of Vinkanaus. Even the very earth grumbled as a result of the Empire’s Verdekrangers (and unbeknownst to Paige, Riya was aboard one, and would be caught up in her own advneture soon enough) burrowing beneath it to reach old tunnels that had been left behind when the dwarves went extinct almost 12,000 years prior.

All the noise, as well as the smoke of bombs, Goliath exhaust, and forest-consuming fires that blotted out the twin suns of Emada, might have alerted that hag about the war’s arrival at her doorstep. But as Paige moved her Goliath into full gear, covering the distance to the hut in seconds, the earth shook beneath her colossal metal feet, the sound of each stomp was as loud as a thunderclap, the black, oily steam rose high into the clouds, and a dozen trees collapsed before the Empire’s mightiest artificial monster.

All of this spelled the witch’s doom at the hands of human engineering and one of its best pilots.

Or so Paige hoped.

Twin chainguns and cannons on either side of the cockpit opened fire and turned the hut into splinters in seconds. There was so much smoke generated by the explosions that Paige couldn’t see for sure out of her two viewports, but there was no way anyone could have survived that, immortal witch or no.

 

[Fruit]

The ground underneath her shook in a series of rapid and ferocious judders. Clouds of dust fell down from the quivering ceiling misting the room and then mixing with the smoke from the fire forming a thick, suffocating fog. Azariah's eyes widened as more volcanic noises erupted around her shaking her shed to its very core. The witch clasped the charm hanging around her neck, its protective enchantment was sure to protect her from whatever perils fate had hidden up its sleeve. The talisman vibrated between her bosoms and twinkled with a mystifying glow before a white aura enveloped her. A protective barrier manifested around her and repelled the falling debris away from the Ananki witch, leaving her to emerge unscathed from the rubble.​

​

Her hut was evened to the ground in a matter of seconds, but it took far longer than that for the dust to settle. The smog lingered in the air for much longer and obscured her vision. That had to be a Goliath! The notion that the dastardly humans had sent their behemoth war machine after her filled her with a wicked, intoxicating sense of pride. If I destroy this tin junk I'm one step closer. The Empire would have to send her! She let the prospect moll in her head as she calmly walked, under the veil of the flying sands, towards her ominous little kettle. The sandy particles were gradually landing on the ground, and the haze in the sky was eventually cleared. Azariah's eyes locked on the cockpit of the metal war-mammoth looming above her, and through the view-ports she peaked a glimpse under fate's sleeve. The witch saw her destiny.​

​

She's here!​

​

There was no mistake in that. The legendary war hero Paige Atkins was the woman commandeering the massive weapon. Azariah had worked her hardest to bait The Empire into sending Hammer Atkins towards her base, and they sent her just in time. Each human soul she'd claimed through all summer was nothing more than a breadcrumb in a trail laid out to lure the infamous warrior towards the witch's lair. Long had she dreamed of this encounter. Long had she yearned for the chance to claim Atkins and shackle her to her side like an obedient bitch. Too many elven lives were lost at the hands of this war veteran. It was time for the Ananki Confederacy to twist Paige's gun and bend it towards her human brethren. This was Azariah's destiny, and I'm not failing it!​

​

Azariah twisted the cap off the teapot and a foul steam escaped. Dozens of putrid, decaying human fingers floated in pool of rotten blood. The liquid had been boiled to reduce and thicken many times over, devolving into a sort of dark-crimson, viscous slime. She dipped her hand in the wretched clag and retrieved another charm. This one was soaked with the ghastly slag. Azariah placed it firmly in her magical gauntlet, and then pulled an arrow from the quiver resting on her back and dipped it in the murky fluid. "You are mine, Atkins. Your crimes against The Confederacy have long gone unpunished. You will wither with every step you take away from me. You will wane every time you stand against me. Your body will tremble in agony and your soul will be bound to endless misery".​

​

She nocked her arrow to the bowstring and fired her shot. Her gauntlet glowed auspiciously and subsequently emitted a dark-purple beam that trailed the arrow's fletching towards the towering weapon of destruction.​

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

The arrow flew, proud and true...and then bounced off the glass viewport harmlessly.

“Hah! Stupid witch. It is you who will face the judgment of the Empire tonight,” Paige laughed confidently as the rest of the battle raged on behind her. Meanwhile, Kate and the rest of Javelin Squadron were silently prowling the darkened skies in search of Nyx. Thanks to all these rearguard actions and superior firepower, the battle was going in the Empire’s favor, and so would the war, Paige hoped.

But as soon as she placed her hands on the controls for the weapons. the slime leaked out from the dashboard, then climbed up her hands and arms. By the time it reached her chest, Paige could only just barely press the emergency self destruct button in order to deprive the Confederates of a working Goliath to reverse engineer, per Imperial protocol.

“Fine then! I’ll take you down with me, bitch!” Paige proclaimed. She was saddened that Kate was going to lose her. But her life for the Empire. That was the trade she made when she signed up, and Riya and Kate had both known this and signed away their lives themselves.

Her defiant proclamation was gagged by slime that tasted like human blood slipping down her throat. It made her want to vomit, but she wasn’t allowed. Instead, the slime pulled the window open and lifted her through it just before the Goliath gave a death groan as it fell down and exploded.

 

[Fruit]

Although she couldn't tell what Paige was saying behind the glass and across such long distance, Azariah smirked in blind confidence as she watched Paige's laughter go through its entire lifespan in mere seconds. The Goliath sunk to its knees, succumbing to its demise with an earth-shattering explosion that sprawled its fires across the forest. Azariah was well aware of the Imperial Protocols governing a Goliath's destruction and the measures that the pilots were sworn to take to keep the technology from falling into elven hands. It can burn. I have no use for this metal-junk. Azariah thought to herself as she made enchanted signs with her fingers. You, however, are essential to me, Paige Atkins. You'll be bound to my side, you bitch. ​

​

A white orb appeared between Azariah's dancing hands. It twinkled and grew as Azariah hastily shaped it with her hands before shooting it towards the cockpit. The fires traveled laterally upwards, ascending rapidly from the base of the burning wreckage to the cockpit near its apex. The orb levitated gradually, rising as it traveled through the fires towards the cockpit, hovering over smoke and cinder until it got to Paige's unconscious body. Once near, the orb dissolved into white specks that swam over and around Paige's body encasing her completely in a protective magical barrier. The casing moved, carrying Paige's body safely to Azariah's side.​

​

The spell worked! Azariah pondered on her triumph with pride as she examined Paige's bewitched body. Dark, crimson circles formed around Paige's eyes and her face became pale as a ghost. Even with her being unconscious, Paige's body was slightly twitching. Her battle garment was reduced to ragged, burnt patches that barely served to cover her modesty. Except for the facial discoloration Paige looked moderately healthy, for now.​

​

A channel cleared up in the sea of flames that was encroaching towards them, and Azariah crossed to safety with Paige's body flying behind her.​

---

One hour later..​

Azariah found the cave exactly the way she had left it before summer. Preparing this dungeon had been the first task in her campaign. She needed an emergency hideout in case her plans fell to ruins or she was forced to evacuate her lodge. This cave was on the other side of the thick forest hidden behind a great waterfall. Imperial spies would be hard pressed to locate this obscure spot, and the sound of the great waterfall would be more than enough to dampen out any noise coming out from inside the great cavern. It was truly the perfect location for what Azariah had in mind for her hostage.​

​

Once inside the cave, the magical barrier around Paige faded into thin air releasing her free. Her eyes fluttered open as she woke up in the new space, unarmed and unchained.​

​

"Paige "Hammer" Atkins! we meet at last, my love. How long have I awaited your arrival!" Azariah said to the woman in front of her. "We are destined to be together! You are to be mine and I yours. I've seen it in the fires day after day. I've killed one man after another, waiting for the empire to send you to me, my love. And the wretched fools fell into my trap! But now, we are together at long last. And together we are invincible!"​

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

Although she was the Supreme Commander of Imperial Forces, Alice Guthrie stood out on the bridge of the Continental-class airship Sun Cutter. Not only because she refused to wear a military uniform and instead was decked out in her famous private detective clothing, complete with instantly recognizable newsboy cap. Not only because she was five months pregnant with twins (and, given that her fiancé Jareth Williams was a merman, she was due in one month’s time). But also because, while her war council was talking cold, hard tactics, she was seeing every soldier individually, even from up here, because she had been one herself back in the Surabamba Rebellion in 1884-1886, from 16-18 years old.

“Commander,” said one of the air admirals, who was clearly not happy to be bowing to one so young but did so for the sake of the Emperor. “I’ll be the first to admit we were wrong. Your strategy of keeping the Goliaths in the rear for artillery support, splitting our left and right flanks off to hit their ground forces from the side, and saving the air attack until their dragons were spread thin was brilliant. It’ll be a few hours before the enemy knows it, but the main thrust of Operation Quiver is sewn up. The…people” (not just humans, he remembered now) “who died at Orelkortop have been avenged, and the Vinkanaus River Valley will be ours to hold well before winter.”

“It is good news that we have turned the main battle in our favor despite their initially superior numbers, but I wouldn’t celebrate just yet. Have you heard the status of Arrows A-D?”

“Arrow A, the underground tunneling effort in the old dwarven tunnels led by Quade, discovered the Drider Queen’s army as expected. We have decimated their forces and prevented them from reaching the surface in numbers despite heavy casualties. Commendably, even some of the enemy supported us in this effort once they realized the shared danger.”

“Orcs have always been honorable like that, in my experience. Perhaps more so than a lot of humans. Continue.”

“Arrow B, Javelin Squadron’s air raid on Castle Kyron, was an unequivocal success. They have convinced Princess Nyx to join them with minimal casualties, and soon she will inspire large numbers of civilians to throw off the Council’s yoke.

“Arrow C, accessing the river to scry the location of the Nightmare Spire, was also a success. Unfortunately, it’s at Fort Anankan, and many more Darkness users and philtervirus victims have been fed to it to power it up, but although it will be difficult to take the capital at this time, they won’t be able to penetrate the Void before we bomb their so-called superweapon into oblivion.”

“So must we hope. And magic may be disappearing, but it seems it still has its uses.”

“And finally, Arrow D...we haven’t seen any signal flare from Agent Spear.”

“Paige...no. She can’t have failed,” Alice gasped, steadying herself on the table. “She’s been my best agent. I couldn’t spare the rest of Meteor Company. She said she could pull this off. She had to, dammit!” she exclaimed, then tossed papers off her table. “There’s no way that her Goliath could have been defeated by a single witch.”

“It’s a regrettable setback, but there’s no need for hysteria here!” the admiral admonished his superior officer.

“You want to try that again, asshole?” Alice growled, her skin blackening in spots as she lifted him up and threw him against the wall at the use of that horribly misogynist stereotype.

“All I mean, Commander, ma’am,” the admiral trembled, “is that one witch can’t possibly pose much of a threat.”

“She’s not just any witch, admiral,” Alice said, containing her Darkness for now. “She’s an ageless being with a blood feud against Caledoria going back to the time of Henry the Liberator and the original Empress Elizabeth 1,893 years ago!”

“She’s that old?”

“Older. And she turned a sweet, lonely widow into ELIZABETH FUCKING JERSEY! You know, the Dollmaker who murdered dozens of innocent women before I caught her, created the novel philtervirus from mer blood that has infected millions, sent the people who killed our late Empress Emily Caldwell, and is in cahoots with the Elder Dragons to destroy the world?! You can’t possibly know how much worse Ms. Gilroar is than that. If Azariah gets powerful enough, drinks enough blood...then the war is lost. Humanity itself might be in peril. But Paige is shrewd, the best soldier I’ve ever seen. I’ll report the danger to the Emperor and send scouts to find her, but I trust her to handle this.

“And if she doesn’t...

“Then I will!”

*****

“Ahhh, my love, my mistress...” came a voice from behind Paige’s slowly awakening ears as Elizabeth kissed Azariah’s cheek and popped her foot with a giggle. “I see you’ve grabbed your little mouse. She’s so cute”- said while grabbing Paige’s face- “and hopefully she will bring my darling Alice to us to join us this time. I can’t stay long, but I’ll tell the Elders of your success,” she added before vanishing.

“No,” Paige flatly refused. “You cannot force me to be with you. And if you try, what’s to stop me from killing you and me both?” She would do this via one last contigency- a pressurized false tooth containing Sterilisa gas that, once broken by enough force, would release the chemical compound across the room and burn both their lungs from the inside out.

 

[Fruit]

"I have you cursed, Paige. You will wither and die a painful death if you choose to forsake me, and even those closest to you will be damned. You can't kill the curse, if I die you will die with me, but the curse will live on, and everyone you know will perish." Azariah had studied her plan a thousand times. She had let it moll and age like fine wine for centuries. Every possible scenario was considered and analyzed, every thorn in her side was accounted for with a plethora of emergency plans and safety measures. Eons were spent honing her scheme like a fine blade until it was flawless. The empire was going to face its most seasoned and celebrated warrior, and there was nothing they could do to stop that.​

​

“Kate...no,” Paige whispered to herself as she thought of her girlfriend dying in agony. Then she continued, “Fine, you wench. It appears you’ve got me- for now. I have no idea how you heard of me, or what you want with me, or what your obsession is, but so there. Now what will you do?” Azariah smirked. She could sense the shakiness in Paige's voice, the overwhelming sense of despair peaked through her captive's words. Azariah approached her and planted a kiss on her neck. "You are the greatest fighter in the land, Paige. I know all about your heroics and feats in battle. I've been waiting for this moment for so long. We're destined to be together, my love" She started sucking on her neck, "Just accept fate. I've seen it. Forget about that Kate bitch..", she started whispering her next words "I'll let you do things she never would", she kissed again. She wrapped her arms around Paige's barely-covered body, their bosoms glued to each other as her fingers pressed against Paige's back, her nails digging through the flesh.​

​

The sky roared outside the cavern and rain fell from the heavens. The two women could hear the blasts even inside, but even when the pitter-patter evolved into pouring, it remained masked by the waterfall. It was rainy too, that one night, Azariah reminisced about a night from many centuries past. She looks just like her. The resemblance was uncanny. They had truly loved one another; they'd kissed under the rain time and time again, the downpour making their bodies glisten with an alluring sheen as they rubbed against each other.​

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

Every nerve within Paige urged her to yield. To plead with the witch to fuck her senseless. Yet the pilot resisted with all her rigorous training.

“No...stop. I’ll never give up on Kate. And I know she’d never give up on me. Even if you force me to do this, I’ll never love you! Who could ever love a monster like you?!” Paige roared.

"You continue to defy destiny, Paige. Can't you see? You will never be rid of me. Accept it. Accept me." Azariah explained calmly, with enough confidence to sound condescending, before she pressed her lips against Paige's in a tender kiss.

Azariah tucked the human's hair behind her ears while she embraced her as a lover. She whispered into her ear with heated, loving breath. "We can be enemies or lovers. We can suffer, or we can rule".

A far off thought echoed in Paige’s head. We can suffer, or we can rule. It seemed as if this phrase was a...memory? It was weird. And almost whispered by an- entity.

“Fine,” Paige closed her eyes and sighed. “I...I surrender. You may do as you will with my body.”

Paige tried to sound reluctant, even defiant. But she couldn’t deny her own arousal, and soon she was shuffling off her clothes while lying back against a laboratory table, as commanded. Anticipating what was to come while also fearing what it might do to her mind.

 

[Fruit]

Paige's words of acquiescence brought a coquettish smile to Azariah's face. Yes, be mine, Paige. She thought proudly revering in her victory. The witch continued pressing her body against her prisoner, gently and slowly pushing her until she had her laid on her back on a table. She reached to hold Paige's hand and then guided it to the elf's right breast, "My body is yours, my mighty warrior" she uttered playfully before she laid on top of Paige and started kissing her neck. The fay's lips planted kisses down her neck in a continuous trail while her hands busied themselves taking off Paige's clothes. She started with underneath her ears, traveling down to her collarbone, and then further down until she got to her mounds. She traversed on, kissing and licking all over Paige's bare tits, spreading kittenish nibbles around Paige's nipples teasingly before sucking on them.​

​

"I will take care of you, my love" she murmured before her lips closed around Paige's hardening nipples. Azariah proceeded to suck on the nipples tighter, clenching her lips together around one nipple before moving on to the other, alternating kissing and sucking until both of Paige's tits were glimmering off the light of the fire with her saliva. Her hands tugged at the edge of Paige's pants, then meekishly pulled them down completely exposing her legs. She grinned at the sight of the naked women beneath her with her legs spread on the table. Ah, this brings memories.. She dove in, pushing her face into Paige's cleavage once more, before descending down on Paige, resuming the trail of kisses onto Paige's navel and further down, until she got to the boundaries of her womanhood. Azariah looked up at her captive and smiled, then took a deep breath, before kissing the inside of Paige's right thigh, heading towards Paige's groin until she was a finger away, before repeating the same pilgrimage on the other thigh.​

​

Once she was done marking her territory, Azariah proceeded to inch closer to Paige's vagina. She got close enough for Paige to feel the witch's warm breath down her nether-parts. Elizabeth.. She reminisced, before she shoved her face in, and her lips locked on to Paige's.​

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

Paige screwed her eyes shut as her hand was forcibly placed on Azariah’s breast. For such a vile woman who had killed so many of her fellow soldiers, Ms. Gilroar did have beauty on her side, at least.

No! Don’t think of her like that, Paige. She will win that way, thought the disciplined pilot.

It became harder to resist as she was disrobed on that cold table, her pink, hardening nipples sucked on so tenderly and expertly while Azariah called out her honeyed words of love, and finally her hairless pussy lips being bathed in kisses and licks against her wishes.

But Azariah could never dominate her mind. Of that she was certain! So she started imagining that it was her darling, sweet Kate going down on her instead. The fantasy made her clit more erect, her vagina slicker with desire, and her breathing shallower. She hoped, thereby, to make the sex go faster and seem more enthusiastic so that she could lull the witch into a false sense of security.

 

[Fruit]

Azariah continued to bless Paige's pussy with ravishing kisses. Their lips moved together and melted in each other in perfect harmony. Like a mistress and her slave, wherever Azariah kissed, Paige oozed in obedience, and whenever she sucked, Paige moaned in ecstasy. The witch's eyes were looking up, she locked her gaze on Paige's through the valley of her breasts, "I love you Elizabeth" she muttered barely audibly muffled by Paige's mound. She buried her face deeper between her captive's legs. Arching her back so her ass rose, her chin pressed tightly against the base of Paige's cunt, her nose grazing against wet clit and rubbing against it. Her tongue pressed closely against her entrance, and then slid inside her gently, slowly penetrating her body and wiggling around right and left curiously. She tasted Paige. She smelled Paige. She loved Elizabeth.​

​

The human's juices trickled down Azariah's throat the more her tongue roamed and wandered inside Paige's pussy. She licked every angle, poked against every wall inside her, while her lips kept sucking and kissing on Paige's. Soon, her index found the clit, and she started rubbing her enticingly, eliciting as many loud and shameless moans as she could out of her hostage. Her finger pushed and turned and twisted around and around in circle while her tongue pieced and her lips sucked. "How does that feel, my love?" She cooed when she broke for air. Her face was warm and wet from sweat and Paige's arousal giving her an attractive glister in the dimly lit cavern. She knelt back between Paige's legs before she'd receive an answer. Her lips dropped more kisses on Paige's moist lips before she started sucking and tugging on her labia. Playful, gentle nibbles on the soft flesh, teasing and tempting Paige to leak more into Azariah's throat to quench her thirst, but the more she drunk the heady essence, the more parched she grew. "You're beautiful" she complimented before placing another kiss on Paige's pussy, then flicking her tongue against the hardening clit. She closed her lips around the erect clit tautly as she proceeded to suck harder while another finger entered Paige uninvited. Her lips formed a narrow ring that shrunk around the human's clit with every passing second.​

​

"I have waited for this for too long.."​

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

As Paige’s pussy was penetrated by Azariah’s relentless tongue, the very fabric of her sanity was also penetrated as the still young Elizabeth Jersey’s consciousness had been when she’d fallen into Azariah’s web of deceit after losing Alice in 1884. Psychic visions of a dark and stormy night nearly 1900 years ago when a young Azariah had taken the virginity of Elizabeth, the young human princess of the mighty city-state of Cardenath, making forbidden love on a beach just outside of her castle walls in the southest of Caledoria flooded Paige’s mind. She didn’t know if these were induced by the witch Gilroar to make her think she was Elizabeth, or if she actually was a descendant or reincarnation of Elizabeth the Liberator, Secret Empress of Darkness.

Soon, the curse, the compliments and the overwhelming pleasure made Paige violently writhe as if in a seizure and love pervaded her psychic being. She no longer could see Kate, only imagining Azariah’s face, both in the past from the perspective of every woman that Azariah had lain with in hopes of restoring her Elizabeth, and in the present as the elvish witch devoured the warrior’s conquered pussy. Any thoughts that she was being raped were replaced with calls of molten, animal love from her diaphragm.

“Oh, gods help me...I have been a coward for too long. No longer. I love you, Azariah! I don’t care what anyone says. You are my life’s desire, and I shall be yours forever,” Paige cried in Old Caledorian, a language that was nearly extinct and had not been spoken regularly among Caledorians due to language drift for hundreds of years. It was a declaration simultaneously borne deep within her own heart but devised by another, as if Paige’s own soul was just an echo chamber, her body a shell whose only purpose was looking like a long deceased woman.

“And now I shall give you my maidenhood this day! I AM IN ECSTASY!” Paige yelled, again in the alien tongue and without basis in fact for Paige’s life since she had long since lost her virginity. It mattered not right now. She gently threaded her fingers through the pale hair and long, sensitive ears of her captor and her convulsing vagina squirted her love all over Azariah’s face, while it would feel and taste to the elf as Elizabeth’s sweet, unspoiled juices did so long ago. Like an addict, it would give her a high, until she crashed.

Paige, meanwhile, heard echoes of an old conversation as she came down from love’s summit.

“You never really loved me! You just used me and are tossing me aside like so much trash.”

“I do love you, Azariah. Some part of me always will. But we must defend ourselves against the Elder Dragons soon, and I must marry Henry of Radiant. It is the only way that Caledoria can stand united. That we can be an Empire powerful enough to forever destroy monsters like them.”

“You still have a choice, Elizabeth! You always have a choice! Forget this suicidal war and run away with me. We can be happy in these woods, away from the judgmental eyes of the world.”

“I cannot.”

“Can't you see? You will never be rid of me. Accept it. Accept me.”

“My destiny lies elsewhere.”

“If you walk away this night, all of your descendants will die unnatural deaths, and however many centuries it takes, I will curse your Empire to burn in agony, and make you my slave for eternity!”

Paige now realized that part had come true during the Raid on Radiant. And now she heard the screams of a hundred thousand people crying out in anguish before their lives were extinguished.

Then Paige walked away slowly as she repeated what Elizabeth’s final words to Azariah had been.

“If you are set on this path, my love, then from Darkness and Dreams, my people will bring upon this Earth a Destroyer to herald the Coda. She will walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. Her thirst for retribution will never quench, the blood on her sword never dry, and we will never need you again.

“I hope you will reconsider. I hope our two peoples can heal their differences. I hope we can be together someday, Azariah. I love you. Farewell.”

Elizabeth had melted into the shadows with her Darkness powers, leaving Azariah to stew in her anger in the rain. Knowing she could never hurt Elizabeth as long as she lived, but plotting revenge for nearly two millennia from the margins of history once Elizabeth and Henry passed on.

In the meantime, after Paige said those same words, she ran away into the sheeting rain outside the cave, panicking and feeling disgusted at her betrayal of Kate.

 

[Fruit]

Azariah flushed as she felt Paige's body spasm beneath her. The Caledorian's legs quivered as she exploded in climactic bliss that drove her to exclaim in a tongue foreign to Azariah. Her sweet nectar gushed gown the elf's throat, filled it, and overflowed, dripping down her chin. "Oh Elizabeth.. just as the days of old" she purred in contentment before her breaths grew longer and slower, drowsiness tickled her eyelids, and she drifted into peaceful sleep. She found herself dreaming of her previous lover from centuries old. She too spoke the old Caledorian tongue, Azariah reminisced fondly. They had truly loved one another. The two were inseparable; often found holding hands, waists, or kissing each other, all before they were ripped apart. She also dreamed of her childhood, a time of relative peace between the races, and then later she dreamed of darker times, when the fighting and tumult were intense, and Azariah had to make matters into her own hand and plot the demise of empress Caldwell. It was a mountainous task that she felt compelled to undertake for the betterment of her race but its been the apex of her life accomplishments, until I wielded the hammer.​

​

---

​

​

She woke up a few hours later in an otherwise empty cave that still reeked of sex. Her precious warrior had fled the scene during her period of rest. A state of incredible rage overtook the witch elf upon the realization. Fuck! she cursed as she paced around. You will wither, Paige Atkins. You will wither and perish! She solemnly promised. Not a shroud of doubt was on her mind that Paige would find herself in the face of a tsunami of torment, the waves of such would grow the further the two of them were apart. She will crawl back to me like the pathetic weakling that she is, she seethed.​

​

Azariah tarried in the cave for weeks awaiting Paige's return. Day by day, the human's scent dwindled in the cave until it dissolved to nothing. Wistfulness filled Azariah's lungs with every sigh she blew in anticipation of Paige's return as her anger converted to longing with each passing day. I miss her, she confessed to her disappointed ego. She had considered Paige a tool to be utilized for to achieve her goals, a prize to be conquered and used for the annihilation of the Caledorian empire, but it ached her to admit that she developed feelings for the human bitch. She ought to return soon unless she means to die, she consoled herself, and I may have a mind to forgive her for forsaking me..​

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

Elizabeth Jersey showed up in the cave from time to time to give her mentor updates on the progress of the war as the Empire and Confederation traded victories and defeats. She also used this time to relieve both their aching pussies with each other, during which Azariah laid down and took her pupil’s assaults while staring up at the ceiling blankly. She never moved to stimulate Elizabeth without her arm being manipulated to do so, or Elizabeth humping her leg. She even orgasmed without making any sound. For Elizabeth it was purely practical too; scratching an itch with the woman who’d bent her into her tool, while she waited to rip Alice’s babies out of her womb and then do the same to her broken soul, so that Alice would have no choice but to love her forever.

*****

The first days after escaping the cave had been complete torture. As if Paige had been tied down with dampfsteel cables and wherever she moved they were pulling back against her. Her heart beat so fast she thought it would explode. She began wasting away into a barely human form as she wandered the woods into the cold winter weeks. Not eating or drinking, frostbitten on all her extremities from the snow.

But she was kept alive by a few things. Her fear that Kate had left her to be with Nyx again. Her fiery Caledorian blood burning with hatred of the witch. Whatever power the witch was giving her that her made wonder daily whether she was Elizabeth or Paige. And the tasty cum of any sleeping soldiers on either side that she came across. Male or female, it didn’t matter. For she vaguely remembered from perusing Kate’s spellbook artifact that there were three types of vital fluids in this world that transmuted into each other. Blood, water, and love fluids.

What remained of her conscience didn’t want to kill anyone, so she used her mouth and fingers on the sexual organs of her sleeping victims to drain them of their cum, unknowingly enacted a weaker version of the curse. Whenever this happened, the affected person became dangerously thin (although they usually recovered in hospitals, the only lingering side effects being hypersexuality and excessive masturbation) while she returned to a normal, maybe even plumper figure.

ElizabethPaige knew, however, deep down that even if she could comb thousands of miles of war torn woods to find Kate, she would recoil with horror at the monster Paigelizabeth had become. If, that is, Kate wasn’t forgetting her in Nyx’s bed. Perhaps Elizabeth/Paige had only ever been a bed warmer to Kate, and she was never truly loved.

Except by two people: Alice, her commanding officer who she looked at like a mother and like her own mother had abandoned her, and her mortal enemy Azariah who had stolen her heart.

“HAAAAAALOOOOOOOVVVVTTTTEEE YOOOOOUUUU!” the creature roared on Saturday, December 9th, somewhere in the woods, as she gave in to desire.

Once she started running back at superhuman speeds towards the witch, thankfully, Paige began to regain her former vitality and appearance. The cables eased as her heart’s leash slackened. She began to actually look forward to seeing the witch. One of the Empire’s greatest warriors would soon be the witch’s greatest familiar.

Once Paige entered the cave on the 10th, she ran into Azariah’s arms, jumped to wrap her legs around the witch, pinning her to the table where this whole sordid affair began, and groaned, “My name is Elizabeth...Paige...Elizapaige...I don’t give a shit any more. Whatever I am, with all that I am left, I love you, and I will never leave you again, Azariah Gilroar.”

Then she began to softly sing while kissing her a thousand times over:

“I'm yours forever
There is no end in sight for us
Nothing could measure
The kind of strength inside our hearts
It's all connected
We're all together in this life
Don't you forget it
We're all connected in this life
We're all connected in this life
We're all connected in this, love...”

And then the beast that the witch had created reared up, lunged to bite at her throat, chest, and nipples, leaving several bruises, almost to the point of breaking the skin, before yelling:

“AND I WILL FUCKING WRECK YOU!”

With that, Paige ripped Azariah’s clothes off and violated her by way of two fingers jammed repeatedly inside her cunt.

 

[Fruit]

Azariah sensed her beloved's proximity long before her arrival to the cave. She had seen in the flames that Paige was making her way back to the cave, and the vision painted a smile on her face. Finally.. she hissed to herself, and with each passing minute, she sensed Paige growing closer to her until the woman warrior lunged through the waterfall and into the cavern out of nowhere. "Elizabeth, you're ba-" she joyfully exclaimed at the sight, but her words were instantly muffled by Paige's lips crossing hers. Yes, my love. Submit to desire.. Her thoughts were probably heard by her lover, encouraging her to inflame the barrage of kisses on Azariah's tender lips.​

The witch met the kisses gracefully. Her lips echoed her lover's movements in a perfectly synced dance. And then she pushed her tongue between Paige's lips and into her mouth, then she let the thing loose. Her elven tongue explored Paige's mouth, flicking against the insides of the human's cheeks, grazing against the top of her mouth, and swirling over and around her tongue. She moved her hands around Paige's head and held her close, her fingers gently pressing and rubbing under her ears. When Paige broke the kiss and starting nibbling at her flesh, Azariah bit onto her sealed lips in an attempt to suppress her moans only to make them emerge as soft whimpers. "I am all yours, my love" she rallied softly, and Paige left more bruises behind her trail of destruction on the witch's neck and bare breasts.​

The witch jerked instinctively when Paige's fingers plunged into her pussy and her mouth gaped releasing the shameless moans that echoed unapologetically through the cave. Azariah arched her back and threw her neck backwards as she stared into the ceiling onto which shadows and lights from the rising cinders dueled and painted a tumultuous canvas. She reached for a fistful of Paige's hair and tugged on it nervously. Her pussy shimmered with entrancing dew that carried her scent. "Fuck me, Elizabeth! Claim me! Make me yours!" she coyly cooed at the lecherous beast that was ravaging her body, before her hands tightened around the sides of Paige's neck, gently damming her blood vessels but leaving her able to breathe comfortably. "Fuck me just like the old days" she added gazing down at her, their eyes locking together almost without a blink, "Fuck me or I will kill you!".​

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

“You are in no position to make demands of me any more, you evil slut!” Paige snarled as she slammed three fingers inside of Azariah’s sloppy, wet, hungry snatch. Then she squeezed a little on Azariah’s throat with a hand while biting down hard on her ear. “You will feel the pain of everything and everyone you’ve ever destroyed while I pound you; and then I will prey on your pussy until you can no longer resist falling asleep, you life ruining bitch. If you’re going to chain me, if you want me to fuck you that desperately, then I will destroy your old cunt until your mind melts, and then keep going.”

With that, Paige kissed down to Azariah’s undying sex and, after a few hard bites on her legs that nearly drew blood, sucked on her clit, and violated her with four fingers without mercy. Azariah was soon pummeled by vision after vision of how she murdered the Empress by (after hypnotizing her) smothering her with her sex as Azariah drank well of her dying arousal; of the Raid on Radiant, with thousands screaming and perishing in horrible pain at the hands of forces she worked with; of the death rattles of the soldiers she killed over the summer. She hoped it would break Azariah’s sanity and thereby allow her to leave.

 

[Fruit]

Azariah lost hold over Paige's throat when the woman started stabbing her pussy with more fingers. Her body puckered around Paige's in subservience, and the reins were exchanged as Paige tightened her own grip around the witch's neck. "Eli-za.." she murmured softly, unable to vocalize her lover's name with Paige's fingers curling around her neck, cutting bloodstream and airflow both. The words ringed in her ears as it was being bitten, and Azariah sobbed in response. She felt Paige's lips toying with her clit while fingers continued ramming into her continuously. Azariah instinctively wrapped her legs around Paige's body, like a spider smothering its victim, pulling her into her snare and accepting her punishment endearingly. Pain mixed with pleasure for Azariah, and her sense of guilt fueled the fusion into blissful ecstasy. She heard fighting and groaning, explosives and canon fire, clash of steel and cries of bullets, and even smelled ashes and fires as Paige forced herself on her, and she welcomed all of it. Tears trickled down the fay's silky body as Paige branded it with one scar after the other.​

​

"..beth"​

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

Everything within Paige wanted to strangle the witch to death as the pilot fucked her pussy. She remembered reading over Kate’s shoulder once, when she was struggling with school, that binding curses (which...maybe this was one of them? She wasn’t sure; it had, after all, only been a glance) could only be broken by killing the curse caster without spilling their blood. Plenty of blood could be spilled without killing someone, though, and Paige took the opportunity to scratch her flawless ivory skin until blood bloomed from each cut.

So why didn’t Paige kill her?

Paigebeth was still asking herself that while waking up next to Azariah, with what little of her free will after being thoroughly turned, through many, many hours of sexual conditioning and training to harness the blood of Darkness users they injected into her. She had forgotten all about Kate, and become Azariah’s lovesick puppy at her beck and call (and sometimes Elizabeth’s, when she was in the mood, because after a long day of plotting to destroy the world, the pussies of her two favorite girls often cheered her up). She’d also grown more skilled at licking and touching that wretched, hateful, beautiful, adorable witch’s body to climax. At keeping up the lie that she loved Azariah, truly and passionately.

Or was it a lie? There were some days she fooled even herself as she fell asleep, tenderly spooned by her captor, that she felt love with her whole heart. That the only thing that mattered in the world was finding some good- even in someone like Azariah.

Either way, ElizaPaige had a job to do, because whatever Azariah’s qualities, she owed something to this woman who broke her and put her back together. Gave her purpose beyond what Alice ever could have.

That grand destiny arrived the next day, December 18th, in the wake of an Imperial airship armada finding their cave. Thousands of dragons defended the cave valiantly as elvish soldiers were fired upon on the ground relentlessly, beside Elizabeth’s brainwashed minions, by a seemingly endless line of Goliaths. But one enemy managed to sneak in. The deadliest of all Imperial soldiers.

Alice Guthrie.

“Azariah Gilroar! Tonight, you will face your death in the name of Empress Emily Caldwell! In the name of my brother Edward and my father Josiah!”

“You will never take my beloved from me!” echoed in the cave as ElizaPaige emerged from the shadows, wielding Darkness and Dreamscape magic equal to Azariah’s own. “She will drink your blood, and lay your remaining family and your country low, and I will be her hand, smiting you. Face your death, Alice!”

The battle between these two titans was on as Imperial soldiers and Azariah’s allies alike flooded the cave and were annihilated like so many insects. Alice obliterated her foes with powerful weapons, dark shielding on top of her military armor, and nearly superhuman speed. Meanwhile PaigeBeth cast awe and terror inspiring spells that sent shockwaves through the entire cave as draconic fire and Imperial bombs and cannons threatened to bring thousands of tons of rocks down on top of them. During the whole duel, the two women circled in the air like harpies, mentor and apprentice only able to land pot shots on each other.

Then Alice’s body betrayed her when she went into labor. As a result, Azariah, Elizabeth J., and Eliza (as Elizabeth Jersey liked to call Paige to knock her down a peg), captured her, knocked down rocks behind them, and dragged the screaming mother to be down deeper into the cave system, far away from any help. Even her furious husband could only smash and lift so many rocks with his stronger armor as he called out for her.

Alice would awaken naked and tied to a bed with whalebone cuffs that neutralized her power. Meanwhile, all three of the women that intended to break one of the most brilliant minds in the Empire were also nude. Before this assemblage, Azariah leaned over to her captive as she struggled with labor and said:

“Alice Guthrie. We meet at last, my love. How long have I awaited your arrival! We are destined to be together! You are to be mine and I yours. I've seen it in the fires day after day. I've killed one man after another, waiting for the empire to send you to me, my love. And the wretched fools fell into my trap! But now, we are together at long last. And together we are invincible!"

Those were, apart from her name, the words Paige had been told by Azariah. As Elizabeth Jersey said, “I’m not allowed to touch you until you push out those little brats and Azariah makes love to you better than anyone- least of all that merman husband of yours- ever could. But when I get my turn...ohhhh, I'm going to sexually torture you so hard you’ll plead for death, wish you’d never been born! And then you'll give up the Darkness to me to make sure you live, because every hero has their limit.”

All that Paige could think about as the crazed, dolled-up woman rambled on was how she’d been played. How she’d just been bait to find Alice. Did she even mean anything to Azariah? Did their love mean anything either, or would she be discarded and her blood drunk when she no longer proved useful, when Alice had been fucked into subservience.

This one last humiliation caused the Paige in her to threaten to dissipate, as Empress Elizabeth took over from here.

“Azariah, it’s me, Elizabeth. Let us talk, if you please.”

The song of her old lover, sounding exactly like her, lured Azariah into a dark corner.

“I...am so sorry. I should never have left you and made the Empire with someone else. It could have been our Empire, our great destiny to destroy the Elder Dragons with a power that Henry could only have imagined. To hold up our love as an example for millions of men and women like us who lived in fear. To promote peace between human and elf,” Elizabeth explained as she held her lover tightly. “But hate me for that. Punish me. Why are you killing so many of my people, when they have never wronged you? When, because of this war you wrought, lovers just as innocent as we once were already have been and will continue to be ripped from each other, and families destroyed?

Elizabeth, formally renouncing Paige, kissed her darling Azariah desperately, bringing her to the bed with sincerity and sweetness as she cooed, “We cannot change the past, my one and only. But we can choose to change ourselves. I know the beautiful, lovely, sweet Azariah I fell for still yearns to be free. I beg of you, only promise without evasion in your heart to leave with me and leave your destructive ways behind, and I will bed you with a passion you have not had in a long time tonight and every day for the rest of time. If, however, you decide to continue your part in this war, then our last joining will be the best the world has ever known, but you and I will both die.”

“Choose,” Elizabeth said as dark tendrils wrapped tightly against the witch’s body, trapping her on the bed that could be her tomb if she so willed.

 

[Fruit]

A devious smile marked Azariah's face as she regarded her newest captive. Alice Guthrie was finally hers. The Empire's most celebrated war veteran fell right into her snare and was now laying bound and naked, helpless and hopeless, within her grasp. Reveling in her feat, Azariah watched her captive struggle and curse at her bounds, and simply smiled and approached her. “Alice Guthrie. We meet at last, my love. How long have I awaited your arrival! We are destined to be together! You are to be mine and I yours. I've seen it in the fires day after day. I've killed one man after another, waiting for the empire to send you to me, my love. And the wretched fools fell into my trap! But now, we are together at long last. And together we are invincible!" The witch issued her usual threats as if she was reading them out of a scroll. Nothing was on her vision other than Alice. Everyone else faded into the background and mattered so little they might as well have ceased to exist. It was just her and Alice. A spider and her victim.​

​

However, when Elizabeth's voice rose above the voices in the elf's head, she materialized into existence. Azariah turned around from her prize, and eyed her Elizabeth. For days, Paige had dissolved into a void and the love of her life, Elizabeth, had taken the reins. Azariah had needed time to adjust to the change of events, and as soon as she'd accepted that her old lover is back in Paige's body, she stopped treating her as an enchanted hostage and started regarding her as her lifetime companion. However, that came with its own apprehension. Elizabeth had chosen a man over her eons ago, and the witch's wound still gaped upon that rancid betrayal.​

​

The witch listened intently to her lover's words. They've rekindled a sense of longing within her heart. Her lips shivered and tears started racing down her cheeks. "I.." she muttered before she dropped her bow from her hands and then succumbed to her knees. The quiver hanging around her back fell off the side of her right shoulder. "I am so sorry, Elizabeth". Her voice broke as she uttered her apology. "I've caused the deaths of countless innocent souls" she started sobbing, struggling to manage her breaths against the confessions that escaped her lips. "No more.. I will be an instrument of death no longer.." her hands found her face. Tears ran down her face and hands as the witch struggled to contain herself. "I've missed you, my dearest Elizabeth.. Longing was a curse that reduced me from a lover to a heartless husk of a warmonger!"​

​

There in the cave the elf started wailing. Her cries jumped off one wall into another, and made her bellows amplify and echo through the cavern for everyone, even some fighting soldiers, to hear. Contrition overtook the fay upon reconnecting with the love of her life, and after mere seconds of hesitation, she sighed and released Alice's cuffs.​

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

Although Alice wanted to bolt for the door as soon as she was inexplicably freed, she was unable to move much on her own due to the ongoing, painful labor her unborn mermaid children were putting her through that could take up to the next three days (which was one of many reasons that most half-mer children were usually sired by terrestrial fathers and mermaids.) This left her vulnerable to an attack by Elizabeth Jersey, and in response, Paige's consciousness leapt out of the Void by sheer force of will back into the mind she was determined to force the ancient ghost of Elizabeth the Liberator to share whether she liked it or not, and screamed, "Behind you, Commander!"

With that, she threw all the Darkness magic she had been injected with behind telekinetically sending Alice's armor back to her, knowing that she was nearly as critical as her husband Jareth or his son by the late Emily Caldwell, Emperor Henry Caldwell, to the war effort. Unfortunately, she didn't know her own power, and instead tore a Void Portal through the fabric between dimensions that had been weakened by all the death the war had wrought, the first hole in it since the Cataclysm War 12,000 years ago, and subconsciously sent the armies of both nations hurtling from this battlefield towards a beautiful place that Alice had told her about once- the sleepy Stormaway Village that housed the beach of her childhood. Unbeknownst to her, the Elder Dragons, angry at Azariah for the doubts slowly growing in her heart and wanting to destroy Alice once and for all, had just arrived, and were now caught up in the portal as well.

This meant that all were hurtling towards an epic, final confrontation that would come to be called the Battle of Stormaway Downs. It would not end the Final War by itself, and yet would decide the fate of civilization. Meanwhile, the walls of the shattered cave closed in, entombing the two of them. It would be trivial to find a way out once they had their strength back, but for now, they were dead to the world.

However, she was able to tell Alice telepathically in a fleeting moment before the other woman went out of range, I'm still in here, and you don't have to worry about me, or Azariah, hurting anyone ever again. If you find Kate, tell her I'll always care for her, that I'm happy for her to be with Nyx, and that I'll see her again someday, as friends. Thus, Elizabeth Paige was able to seal away that pain lingering in one half of her heart, and hope that Kate would find peace herself.

But tranquility for both these powerful, tortured women would take time, time that thankfully they now had plenty of.

"I am glad that you are willing to make amends," Elizabeth Paige said. "But let's not kid ourselves. One moment of contrition does not wash away a lifetime of evil. So you will need to spend years, decades, maybe even centuries working to stop this war before it consumes all life, healing Emada herself, and helping shape history for the better this time by giving succor to heroes on both sides, punishing malcontents wherever they may rise from, and protecting innocents to balance out those you have taken."

She then sat down on a rock and sighed, "I also must own up to my own mistakes. There are some you already know about, of course, but I have recently tried to destroy the Paige side of me when all she ever did, now that I have understood all my memories from both sides of me, was fight for what's right. The Elizabeth you knew will never be wholly returned to this world, nor will Paige be quite herself again, as that would violate the mysteries of the Ballad of Creation. So I need to work on forging the two together until they become one, unique whole that you can love truly and without the delusion of erasing history. This is made easier by the fact that...both Elizabeth me and Paige me love you, deep in their hearts, despite your flaws, your abuses against them, and your evil acts. Our heart. My heart goes out to you. All of you. What I'm trying to say is...I would not have spared you if I hadn't felt your genuine desire to be the kind of person worthy of love from two people who see the good in you. I want us to grow together, and declare myself to be Elizabeth Paige Gilroar, your eternal and devoted wife to that end."

"However, there has to be some punishment..." the new consciousness inhabiting a stolen body grinned. "As you can be quite petulant, and in both our minds, there's been a desire to exact some kind of justice. So get over here, young lady, and expose your bare bottom."

Wails of pain from dozens and dozens of hard spankings from both of Elizabeth Paige's hands would cause Azariah to weep for joy, in ecstatic agony, in catharsis. And when it was over and her bottom and the sit spots on her thighs were a deep shade of red, with even some bruises on the delicate cheeks, Elizabeth Paige kissed her new bride, held her close, and consummated their love exactly the way they both wanted it...

Fucking roughly like animals. Pulling on each other's hair. Fingering and devouring each other's holes until neither of them could walk. Scratching each other's backs until they both drew just a little bit of blood.

It was a wonderful way to start an eternity together.

As for what those centuries of their relationship entailed? That is, perhaps, a story for another time.

THE END​