Chapter 4

The Lake and the Lady - by Hypnohypno

Chapter 5

As Asiara strode through the wilderness, she found herself suffering from multiple levels of frustration. First, she was furious that her army had been depleted so much by what should have been a routine battle. But that would be something that she would work out with Partheon later.

Even more bothersome was that she felt that her victory was incomplete. The auburn haired woman who had captured her, then brought her to orgasm, thus allowing Dathaka to enter her body, had escaped. She was no longer a threat – the Sirsiphi had been so completely routed that she would struggle to put together a prayer circle, never mind a fighting force worth even mentioning. But still, Asiara wasn't accustomed to a woman, or anyone for that matter, getting the best of her, even temporarily. That woman had almost defeated Asiara, and Asiara wanted revenge.

Still, the battle against the Sirsiphi hadn't been a total disaster. Though she had lost more than ten times the number of soldiers that she had anticipated – many by her own blade – as well as all of her own personal body guards, she had gained something quite valuable: the residual powers of the goddess, Dathaka. With every move she made, Asiara could feel the strength, speed, and agility that she now possessed. Perhaps her new skills wouldn't be enough to replace the soldiers that she had lost, but they would come close. And at least for the short term, her enemies wouldn't know about these powers, so she could scheme battle plans that would take them by surprise. Her campaign into the Maurial Kingdom could still happen.

But Asiara's troops weren't her only concern. Even her new powers couldn't begin to replace the advantage that powerful magi gave to an army. And she had slaughtered two of the best while Dathaka possessed her. This loss, though, wasn't one that bothered her too much. After all, the ease with which they fell made her wonder just how effective they really were. No, the greater loss was Calean. His injury, though completely necessary and deserved, would limit his usefulness in any immediate battles. His spell casting would still be what it had always been, but his lack of mobility would make it difficult for him to move to different parts of the battlefield where he might be needed. He would have to rely on teleportation spells, and those could be draining.

Even this dilemma, though, didn't completely discourage Asiara from continuing her assault on the Southern Lands. She still had the help of several lesser magi, and while their individual skills might not be all that useful, she could use them to teleport Calean to different points on the battle field. Asiara's agile military mind had already begun to imagine a new approach to war – one centered less on a vast army and several powerful magi, but instead one in which a single warrior, touched with divinity, and a powerful magi being teleported quickly around the battlefield would produce strategies that her opponents had never seen – and wouldn't know how to defeat.

But even with the reassurance that all was not lost, Asiara still couldn't overcome her greatest frustration: the pulsing sexual need that burned throughout her entire body. Calean's spell had been so strong that she had to break it when she had the chance, and that had meant that she had not achieved the release that she craved. She had thought of masturbating, but that somehow just didn't seem like it would satisfy her. Her lust, like her battle skills, had been touched by the divine, and satisfaction would require far more drastic measures than simply playing with herself.

So, in an attempt to calm herself down and clear her mind, she walked through the wilderness, letting the bright light of Neda, the green moon, show her the way.

Not that there was much to see. The land of the Sirsiphi was, for the most part, unremarkable. It consisted of just rolling, grassy hills, punctuated with the occasional group of trees – trees that only rarely amounted to what could even be called a small forest.

She was just approaching one of the larger clumps of these trees when she spotted a figure in the distance, just at the top of a nearby hill. Asiara was far enough away that she couldn't make out many details, but judging by the long hair that she saw fluttering in the breeze, she assumed that the figure was female. She also had her back turned to Asiara.

"Good," Asiara thought, "I can approach her carefully and find out more about her before she realizes I'm here."

Asiara crept closer to the woman, keeping a careful eye on her. It would be unusual for someone to be out in the middle of the night like this. There were any number of creatures that could roam in the night that a single person would be loath to face. Even Asiara, if not for her new fighting prowess, would hesitate to walk alone in the wilderness at night. This woman was either confident in her power, or a fool. Asiara didn't intend to take any chances.

She became still more wary as she got closer. As Asiara made her way up the grassy slope, she could see that the woman was unarmed. That could only mean one thing – the woman must be a mage of some sort. It was unthinkable that this woman would be foolish enough to walk through these lands without a weapon unless she could call on magic to protect her. Placing her hands on the hilts of her two blades, Asiara made her way as quietly as she could towards the woman, who still hadn't seemed to notice her.

But then, Asiara saw something that made her stop in her tracks. From a distance, and with only the pale green light of Neda to aid her eyes, it had been difficult to make out the color of the woman's hair. But now, as she came within a few meters of the woman standing stoically on the hilltop, there was no mistaking it – the woman's hair was auburn, just like that of the Sersiphi woman.

At just that moment, the woman turned towards Asiara, immediately confirming her suspicions. It was the same woman! This time, though, Asiara wouldn't underestimate her. Drawing both of her blades, she watched to see what the woman's first move would be – ready to dodge any darts that the woman might have at the ready.

But the woman made no move to attack. Instead, she simply stared at Asiara for a a few moments, and then ran down the hill, to Asiara's right. Asiara immediately realized what she was doing – she was fleeing to the large clump of trees at the bottom of the hill. With Phyxilir and Finisher gleaming in the moonlight, Asiara raced down the hill after the auburn haired woman, intent on catching her before she reached the cover of the trees.

But the woman was fast, and even Asiara's enhanced physical prowess wasn't enough for her to close the entire gap before the woman slipped into the small forest. Cursing, Asiara plunged into the forest in pursuit, knowing that it would be difficult to track her in the forest's dim light. Still, her powerful and lithe body moved quickly and gracefully through the trees, and she could just make out the movement of her prey as she danced through the underbrush.

Then, Asiara heard a strange sound. It wasn't coming from the woman she was chasing, but from some other source – somewhere to her left. She knew that she should continue her pursuit, but something about this sound demanded her attention. It was music, soft and lyrical. Asiara slowed down as the strains of melody made their way to her ears, caressing them, and beckoning for their attention.

But then, she remembered her task. Shaking her head slightly, and doing her best to ignore the music, she squinted in the darkness to try to locate the auburn haired woman. "Damn!" she thought, "I've lost track of her." She slowed her pace to a walk as she scanned the surrounding trees, looking for any sign of the woman she had been chasing. All the while, the gentle hum of sound seemed to dance around her.

Still breathing heavily from running so fast, the pulse in her ears drowned out some of the delicate sound, but still, she could hear it well enough to want to hear more, and to hear more clearly. She tried to focus, but the sound – no, she realized, the singing – was elusive. It was somehow haunting, and yet enticing, but always the strains of the voice changed just as she was starting to realize just what mood it was evoking.

She felt compelled to walk towards the music, but she stopped herself. She was here to find the auburn-haired woman, not to listen to some strange music.

But still, it was so enticing.

She wasn't sure which her prey had gone, so, she figured, going towards the music was as likely a direction as any. Besides, if the auburn-haired woman found the music even half as compelling as Asiara did, she would be headed that way as well. Slowly, Asiara started to move towards it.

The singing had an elegance that called for soft, slow movement. Running towards its source just wouldn't do. Asiara listened intently, and stepped lightly, almost sensuously, on the soft leaves beneath her feet as the sound drew her closer.

And as she drew nearer, the sound was becoming slightly louder. Asiara's breath had already calmed, and she could hear the music more clearly now. But hearing it more clearly didn't make it easier for her to make sense of. In fact, if anything, it had become more elusive as its varied strains and lilting vibrations – which seemed to hover on the edge of discernable words, without ever quite coalescing into recognizable syllables – caressed her ears more forcefully.

But it wasn't just her ears, Asiara realized. She could feel the music vibrating inside of her, dancing in her mind, teasing her thoughts, telling her things that she couldn't quite comprehend. It was soothing to simply let the melodies push her other thoughts aside, to simply let the music enter her, to make her its instrument.

No! Asiara shook her head again. She had just freed herself of the influence of a goddess, she wasn't about to succumb to another assault on her will. Doing her best to ignore the strands of melody floating around her, she took a step backwards, determined to get out of this forest.

After taking another few steps back, Asiara realized how heavily she was breathing. She had recovered from her earlier run already, but still her heart was pounding heavily in her chest. The brief run through the woods had temporarily distracted her, but her arousal was still just as intense as it had been before she had seen the auburn haired woman. Now, she was aware of it again, only it, like her own thoughts, was starting to respond to the ebb and flow of the song that was penetrating her, calming her even as it turned her on. She could feel the vibrations of the sound teasing her sex, causing her thighs to quiver, and her breasts to pulse in time.

In fact, Asiara's whole body seemed to be pulsing in time to the singing – only it wasn't a rhythm that she had ever heard before. She couldn't consciously make sense of it, but she knew that this sound was stimulating her body in ways that she couldn't ignore. The earlier encounter with Calean flitted through her mind – the arousal that she'd felt; her discovery of the new heights of ecstasy she was now capable of; the spell he had tried to cast.

The spell! She had resisted Calean's magic, she had to resist this song as well! Shaking free of the trance that had started to cloud her mind, she found that she had already walked back into the forest far further than her previous retreat had taken her. This sound was pulling her towards it without her even realizing it. Backing away a bit more frantically this time, Asiara sheathed her swords and put her hands over her ears in an attempt to block out the sounds that were having such an effect on her.

But her hands weren't enough. The music was inside of her, teasing her most sensitive areas, coaxing her pleasure into a harmony of desire that she fought to resist. Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on resisting; on holding on to the control that she had only regained from Dathaka earlier that morning.

But closing her eyes proved to be the worst thing she could have done. Without the sense of sight, her other senses became more sensitive – more aware. She still held her hands over her ears, but now it was the sense of touch more than any other that was responding to the music's melodic strands. It's vibrations hummed through her, causing her to shake with arousal. No person's hands, not even Calean's deft touch, could stimulate her breasts and nipples with such maddening, perfect stimulation.

When she opened her eyes again, Asiara found that she had somehow been traveling forward, walking only through the guidance of the song. A long, sensual gasp escaped her lungs as she realized that the sound had finally drawn her to out of the trees to a small glade. Through lidded eyes, she saw that she was in a clearing consisting of a small patch of grass and a large pond, its rippled surface reflecting the pale green light of the moon.

And as her eyes took in this lovely sight, the voice continued to draw her forward, wrapping itself around her, caressing her, thrilling her, controlling her. Fighting to regain control, Asiara focused on one last desperate attempt to flee from this music and regain control of herself. She stepped back into the woods, forcing her legs to move in reverse, even though every fiber of her being wanted to move forward – to let that song give her body the pleasure it craved.