Faerie's Champion

by M. H. Johnson

  Jess blinked and gave her familiar a considering nod. “That’s actually a good point, Twilight. Everyone looked like they were blissfully happy, yet all the schoolgirls seemed utterly unaware of everyone else that we had all known in our, I guess you could call it, previous lives. Quite odd, really.”

  Abruptly, she slid off the bed and stood up, shaking her head in soft refusal of the bed's sensual invitation to stay and let herself slide into blissful sleep for a few more luxurious hours before awakening to the fiery sweet touch of her passionate lover once more. The very thought made her throb with the sweetest of longings, and Jess found herself shuddering, though with desire or trepidation she could not say for sure.

  For a moment she felt lightheaded and dizzy, and began to swoon.

  “Jezabelle!” Twilight called abruptly, snapping Jess fully awake.

  “I’m okay, Twilight,” Jess assured, taking deep breaths, still hunched over as the room slowly stopped spinning before her eyes.

  But her familiar was no so easily reassured. Cautiously he gazed over her, sapphire eyes steeped in lore beyond anything Jess could fathom, a secret she had always known, deep in her soul.

  "Odd", a less alarmed Twilight muttered, after sniffing her quite thoroughly. "I smell no enchantments upon you, abyssal or mundane. Yet at the same time, I cannot discount the fact that you are allowing yourself to be so completely swayed by your most hedonistic desires, with so little thought given to your original goals. This is actually quite out of character for you, my queen, for all that I value your happiness most of all."

  Twilight sighed. "You have already been burdened with enough trials and hardships during this turning of the wheel that I chose not to object when you sought to lose yourself in a much-deserved break from life's hardships. Yet now I wonder if perhaps I was remiss in my lack of counsel."

  Jess gave her familiar a loving pat, scratching his favorite spots as she held him in her lap, stroking him gently. "Don't trouble yourself over it, my Twilight. I am glad to have had a chance to immerse myself in such a beautiful dream as this." She shuddered then. "Yet now I fear I may be losing myself too deeply. Even now the anxiety of but moments ago fades, and I have to struggle to remember that we are both worried about the rather odd disposition of those missing schoolgirls. For all that they appear to be embracing the bliss of sweet and utter surrender to their men, I fear they might be even more lost to this wondrous dream than I am."

  Jess shook her head abruptly. “Come, Twilight, let us take a walk by ourselves, away from the enticing delights of these all too familiar rooms, so that I may clear my head. Perhaps I should have a talk with Talvi, on more serious matters than simply the dreams of our hearts. Perhaps there is a danger to s taking human lovers. Perhaps we are losing ourselves too deeply.”

  Twilight gave a solemn nod. “A wise plan, my queen. Come, let us embrace it before steely determination gives way once more to the seductive susurrations of slumber emanating from the bed you gaze at, even now.”

  Jess's determined expression became one of painful anxiety. "I don't want to lose Talvi! He is my heart! But I fear I am losing myself. I fear I will soon be lost within this dream of endless bliss completely if I don't do something, and for the first time that I recall, that thought troubles me, somehow."

  Twilight gave her cheek a reassuring lick, settling in his accustomed place upon her shoulder once more. "Come, my Jess. Summon your armaments from the layer of Dream that so closely resonates with this one. Properly girded in mithril, you will feel more yourself. We shall walk a bit upon the gardens, and have a moment for self-reflection."

  “Of course.” Jess nodded her head in agreement. “But we mustn’t stay out too late, for my love will expect me to be by his side to serve him for dinner. Oh gods, already I miss his sweet smile.”

  Jess sighed, gazing dreamily at the exquisitely carved doorway leading to the great hall and the wonderful banquet no doubt being prepared even now. She gave a sleepy smile, imagining her lover awakening her with such sybaritic delights after her indulgent nap, determined to make her beg for sweetest release as they pleasured each other with delicious abandon before they bathed and he dressed her tightly and teasingly even as she pleasured him still, savoring the taste of his winter rose even as he gently lectured her on how she was to serve his every whim at the grand feast awaiting them, until at last he shuddered with relief, the flavor of sweet winter wine tingling through her as she swallowed his most precious secrets.

  Her reward after the banquet would be, as ever, Talvi sating her every desire, but only after compelling her to endure the endless exquisite torments she so desperately craved, bringing her to a shuddering rapture that seemed without end as the gentle moon gazed down upon them through the wee hours of the night, their fierce hunger for each other a hot flame consuming them both until they swooned with delicious exhaustion, and never did she feel so content as when her faerie prince held her close, sleeping so sweetly, sharing her breath, inside her still.

  With the sweetest of smiles, Jess felt her eyes grow heavy, enjoying the soft feel of her downy pillows against her cheek, already awaiting her lover’s touch as she gently drifted away.

  Before feeling her familiar’s sharp and unforgiving claws scratching her rump.

  “Twilight!”

  “Get up, Jezabelle!” A voice suddenly terrible and potent clamored through her soul. “You are sinking again into your dreamlike stupor, and now I fear it truly is a faerie enchantment, one neither of us can sense, alien to both our natures.”

  Jess shuddered, snapping her eyes open, finding herself struggling to even lift herself from the bed, so heavy and weary her limbs had become. “But I sensed no malice!” Jess gasped, shuddering, as she fought to stand, physically struggling to resist the compulsion to slip back into indulgent repose upon the enticingly sweet bed once more. “No cruelty from Talvi at all! How can this be happening?” Her voice had become almost plaintive.

  "Don't say his name, Jess. For all we know, his kind follow precepts much like our own. To say his name might be to summon him, or at least to alert him to our state." Her familiar gently nudged her stumbling form to the door. "Come, Jess. It is time for us to go. Do not worry about your pretties or your clothing. You can summon your armor when your head is clearer. What is most important is that we spirit ourselves away from here, so that your head is clearer and your thoughts your own."

  Jess nodded, taking a deep breath. “Well said, my Twilight. Now, as to the best way out of here. Hmm… wait. First things first. Where is Rulia? Normally we’re sort of nestled in each other’s arms when we wake up, while our men are out doing whatever it is noble lords in this realm do.” Jess sighed forlornly at that, shaking herself firmly when her eyes searched longingly for her soothing bed of sweet delights. “Evil bed,” she grumbled. “Okay, first things first. We need to find Rulia, then we are out of here.”

  Twilight tilted his head, gazing at her strangely. “Jess, don’t you remember?”

  Jess blinked. “Remember what?”

  "Rulia. She left two days ago with her golden-haired fellow. You two cried in each other's arms for a bit, made love, agreed you were both ecstatically happy, and that you two would see each other when next your masters met up for feasting and hunting once more."

  Jess blinked. “I called him master?”

  Twilight gave a nonchalant shrug. Quite easy for a cat. "You have been, quite frequently of late. I did think you were taking the submissive role a tad too far. But who am I to judge? Perhaps you are into that sort of thing, this time around."

  Jess shivered. “Odd. So very odd. But if I think on it, I do adore him. Even now, I miss him.” Jess sighed. “Why does he have to be gone from my arms for so long?”

  “Because he has you under his spell. And I don’t just mean love,” her cat quipped archly. “And best we leave his demesne, so you may reflect on your feelings with a clear head, free of any undue influence.”

  "Right!" Looking around al
most frantically, beginning to feel like a small animal only just now realizing that her beautiful sanctuary was, in fact, nothing more than a gilded cage, her eyes immediately fastened on the grand balcony facing their bedroom. The fine glass paneled doors made of golden oak put up no resistance when Jess gently opened them, Jess almost timidly stepping onto the terrace overlooking the majestic sweep of woodlands and planes that lay beyond, like a magnificent panorama of pristine glory celebrating the eternal beauty of spring.

  Jess sighed, imagining Talvi gently wrapping his arms around her, whispering his adoration and promising her such exquisite torments and decadent delights as to send her shuddering with sweet anticipation even as he gently led her back to their magnificent bed, promising to love her forever, to fill her with such bliss that she would never experience a single moment of regret or doubt, ever again. Jess shivered, for so compelling was the fantasy that did she but gaze unmoving at the wondrous view from their open balcony, the gentlest of breezes caressing her crimson locks for the briefest span of time, then that would be exactly what would happen. Talvi would wrap her in his powerful arms, whispering such sweet delights to her ears, and she would be lost forever in this beautiful dream of perfection. Forever lost to the wonders of spring.

  When she spoke, she was shamed to hear the tremble in her voice. “Twilight? I don’t suppose you could grab some of the bed sheets, and I’ll make a rope of sorts? I don’t quite trust myself to stay true to my plan, should I set foot near that bed.”

  “Of course, my mistress. But wait right there,” soothed her familiar, his calm voice all the comfort she needed, really, as she took deep, trembling breaths, trying desperately to focus herself. Within moments, her familiar had dragged what appeared to be the bedding in its entirety, Jess blinking with surprise at how strong her kitty truly was.

  Quickly, doing her best to keep focus and not lose herself again to daydreams and sweetest fantasy, Jess forced trembling hands to tie together all the bed sheets, checking each knot as she went, forming them into a long sturdy rope that would hopefully support her as she climbed down.

  "What do you think, my Twilight?" She asked upon completion, Twilight giving it a careful inspection as well as a sniff or two.

  “It looks sturdy, Jess, though in truth I’m surprised you didn’t think to just jump off the ledge entirely.

  Jess shook her head ruefully. “And that is something I would normally do, isn't it? I don’t know, Twilight, perhaps I’ve just gotten so used to seeing myself as my lover’s sweetly subservient peach, too helpless and weak to do anything requiring a fierce temperament.” Jess let out a shuddering laugh. “To be honest, my kitty, I feel exhausted even with this degree of effort, and yet somehow I know I should be much stronger than this. Truly, the struggle against the sweet temptations of this place is taking more out of me than I realized.”

  “Perhaps,” Twilight allowed, “or perhaps there is more to it than that. Come, Jess, enough dallying. Let us make use of your rope, and leave this sweetly gilded cage with all due haste.”

  Nodding grimly, Jess paused only long enough to make absolutely sure the knot tied to the balustrade would hold, before slowly lowering her rope, looping a coil about her leg and arm so as to allow friction to hold her weight and thus facilitate a safer climb down the face of castle even now sparkling in all its pristine glory under the midday sun.

  41

  "By the gods, Twilight, that was exhausting!" Jess found herself panting, plagued by a weariness unlike anything she had experienced since her first days as a Squire of War, having come at last to the end of her rope, dropping the last few paces to the ground, actually feeling a painful jolt through her ankles even as she rolled with the momentum of the drop. "I should not be this weak!" She gazed at her trembling limbs in disbelief, feeling for all the world no stronger than any other girl who had just rappelled a hundred feet to flee her lover.

  "It will be all right, my queen," Twilight soothed. "You just need to get out from under the spell of your beau's rather insidious charms."

  “I won’t say insidious,” Jess rebuffed, softly. “I know he loves me, just as I adore him. I’m just coming to the conclusion that perhaps, maybe, being so consumed by his adoration, by his passions, allowing myself to become so immersed in this dream of being his pliant and adoring lover isn’t completely good for me.”

  Twilight cocked an eyebrow. “You think?”

  Jess felt herself blush under her familiar's gaze.

  “Come, Jess. Let us be off. The sooner the better, and preferably with some distance between us and the grand road that cuts so perfectly through this realm. And while we’re at it, let’s take off all that frilly attire. If Faerie magic is anything like the magic of mundus or the Abyssal Realms, his items upon your flesh will serve as an arcane connection that will lead him unerringly to you.”

  “Bloody hells,” Jess grumbled while doing exactly that, now striding completely naked some hundred yards from the road and, though her heart already pined for her adoring lover, her head now felt the slightest bit clearer, though her feelings on the matter were, at best, bittersweet.

  "How do you feel, Jess?" Twilight asked quietly as Jess strode on at a fast clip, lost in her own thoughts, having decided that, whatever else, her next step was to head back to the fork in the path she had come across when first entering this strange realm straight out of a faerie tale.

  Her determined expression turned thoughtful. “Better. I won’t talk about how my heart is feeling. I’m most specifically not going to think about how much I miss a certain prince's smile, or the way his eyes would gaze at me so tenderly, or about how much I hate this stupid walk and wish that idiot wouldn’t be casting any stupid magics, but could just love me for me so I could love him back, and not have to run away buck naked because I don’t want to be lost forever in his faerie dream!” Jess paused then, struggling mightily to hold back a hot flood of tears as she pinched her aching nose shut, refusing to sob.

  “I see.” Twilight gently leaped to her shoulder, comforting her with his presence, his movements so graceful that, for all that he had the speed and power to disembowel a wild boar charging her siblings as she had once witnessed with her own eyes as a young child, she hardly felt the weight of his paws upon her naked flesh. “Well, I am glad you are feeling more clearheaded, at least. Take a deep breath, my Jess. Relationships can be difficult things, particularly when they involve Powers from disparate realms. The important thing is that we keep moving.”

  Jess nodded. "You are right, my Twilight. Well, I do feel a bit more myself, at least. Not quite so weak and delicate as I imagine a prince's perfect faerie lover would be, in this realm."

  Twilight chuckled. “I have never seen you as the weak or delicate sort, my dear Jess.”

  “Perhaps that was the problem,” Jess noted wryly. “Perhaps I wanted so badly to please him that I imagined myself to be who he wanted me to be, and somehow, I even fooled myself.”

  Her familiar’s shrug was enigmatic. “Perhaps.”

  “Twilight, look! The great forest we crossed through upon entering this land. And that means, yes! Up ahead, the fork in the road.”

  Twilight nodded. “The fulcrum of a choice that never occurred. The odd bit dissonance that has bothered you from the beginning. Well over a good day's travel, when we rode in your former lover's entourage, upon stallions of exquisite breeding. Interesting how quickly we have arrived by foot”

  Jess nodded even as she found herself captivated by that odd surge of dissonance once more, her feet once again upon the fork of the road, recalling a far different version of herself who had stood at this very spot, fully armed and armored, mithril mail shimmering in the noonday sun with dear Rulia by her side. It felt like it had been just yesterday, yet Jess knew it had been months ago. They had been thrilled with the possibility and adventure of it all, for all that they were here on a quest to discover the whereabouts of missing students, before being swallowed up in the sweetest of fant
asies themselves.

  Slowly, heart racing, Jess turned around, facing the fork once again, blinking as a sudden wave of dizziness washed over her, gone in mere moments. Her loyal familiar hissed his discontent. He had felt it too.

  "Twilight?" She whispered softly, but he was quiet. And it mattered not, for on some level she already knew what had occurred. Whatever laws of magic were adhered to by this realm, Choice was the fulcrum upon which all other things turned. In some ephemeral way that defied mundane logic, Jess knew intuitively that she was once again at a turning point. A decision that had irreversible consequences had somehow been reset. Perhaps because a fundamental rule of this realm had been violated, and she had had, until now, no choice at all.

  She didn't know anything for certain, save what was in front of her.

  To her left a fine road of polished stone lay invitingly before her, beckoning her to make the choice that had led her to such sweet memories of adoration and passion, winsome indulgence and unbridled ecstasy. Somehow she knew that if she strode down that path her feet would not tire, and all doubt and worry would be lifted from her heart. She could dance the night away in the tender arms of her faerie lover, forever.

  Jess blinked, surprised at how strong the impulse was to immediately race down the road before her. She shuddered, squeezing her eyes tightly, forcing her gaze firmly upon the rightmost fork in the road before she gave into that seductive, all too enticing impulse.

  No finely polished road of perfectly fitted slabs greeted her eyes as she gazed down the alternate path. Rather, it was a plain looking road, narrowing in the distance to a dirt track, heading subtly away from the eternally perfect spring days that had greeted her every morning she luxuriated upon her lover's bed, smiling to the music of birdsong and the fresh scents of Talvi's pristinely beautiful garden, filled as it had been with ever blooming rosebushes, hyacinths, tulips, and azaleas, all gently rocking in the peaceful morning breeze.