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Story Codes: Fantasy, Magic, Violence

For a list of all The Rogue’s Harem, other World of Erasthay stories, maps, and glossaryclick here

Comments are very welcome. I would like all criticism, positive and negative, so long as it’s
constructive, and feedback is very appreciated.

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Click here for Chapter 44.

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Note: Thanks to WRC 264 for beta reading this!

Sven Falk

I sighed as I watched Aingeal swooping down at me. I brushed off the clod of dirt from my shoulder, noting the purple outline around me. I wouldn’t escape. This would be so much easier if my women weren’t so Las-damned skilled.

Umbral shadows melted off of me, revealing my form. I turned to face Aingeal only to see Zanyia streaking at me at a full run. I only had a moment to set myself before she slammed into me. I grunted, her weight crashing into my body, her arms and legs hugging tight about me, clinging to me in that desperate, passionate way only my lamia slave could. My armor’s strength kept me upright from the force.

“Zanyia!” I groaned, voice tight from the impact.

“I’m not letting you go, Master!” Zanyia said. “You own me. You don’t get to leave me behind.”

Aingeal landed a moment before I could answer, her hands on her hips, her large, naked breasts bouncing. “What is going on, husband?” she demanded, anger rippling across her face. “Why are you running!”

In the background, horses galloped towards us. My other women had followed my example. They would be here soon. Maybe I could convince Aingeal and Zanyia to let me go. Without their abilities, I would slip away from the other women.

The pain swelled in my heart as I said, “I have to leave Kora.”

“What?” Aingeal asked.

“You’re not going anywhere, Master,” Zanyia said, crushing me with her lithe limbs.

“What do you mean, you have to leave Kora?” demanded Aingeal, a look of such confusion on her face.

Hooves slowed. “Leave me?” Kora asked as she reigned up, her pink robes hugging her body. She looked so tiny atop the tall warhorse. “Why would you have to leave me, brother mine?”

I groaned, the pain in her blue eyes stabbing into my heart. I wanted to avoid this. It would be an easier wound, a clean slice instead of a ragged cut, if I had slipped away without having to say these words, but…

I owed it to them to explain. I could see it in their faces as the others reined up. They dismounted, rushing around me. Kora looking stunned, the others assaulting me with questions, demanding answers. I was a coward to slip off without telling them.

I had to be a man and explain why I was breaking their hearts..

“Please, brother mine,” Kora said, her eyes liquid, “why are you doing this?”

I wrenched my gaze from her and settled on Ava. She clutched herself, the wind rustling her strawberry-blonde locks. “Ava… I know you want me to settle down and rule but… what if I can’t? What if I need to have adventures?”

“And?” she asked.

“Even if I don’t, even if I can do that, even if I can stick around and help, I would be working to putting your princedom to right. That would require a lot of moving around.”

Ava nodded her head. “It will be. I can’t possibly hold all the territory my father conquered. We’ll have to negotiate with the other princes, release land. The negotiations will probably last years. You’re shrewd. I need you.”

“And that means travel, travel, travel.” I glanced back at my sister. “But you need stability to practice your art. Rithi… She…” I took a deep breath. “I’m leaving you, Kora.” I gripped my fists. My words sounded so foolish. I hated myself for every word I said. But I had to make sure it stuck. I had to make sure Kora understood. “We’re siblings. What we have isn’t right. We can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t be around you at all. I never should have taken your virginity. I never should have surrendered to the weakness in my heart.”

Instead of pain, anger exploded across my sister’s face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kora Falk

“Not right!” I shrieked. “A mistake?”

I marched at my brother, his face twisted with an expression I had never seen on him. It was almost like contempt, or even disgust, but it wasn’t directed at me. It was directed at himself. His eyes grew dull. He shifted, Zanyia turning her head to stare up at him. “You don’t believe that one whit. I know you, Sven Falk! You don’t hold back. You had no reservations when you took my virginity. You never regretted once what we shared. You reveled in it!”

He shifted but held his gaze. His expression hardened like clay drying beneath the withering heat of the kiln.

“So why are you saying this…?” My words trailed off. “You made a deal with Rithi and… She…” I shook my head. After returning from Faerie, Ealaín talked to me about leaving my brother, hinting that it wasn’t right for me to be with him, that my art suffered. Now Sven said that same thing. He wanted to drive me away with these lies.

“Ealaín wanted me to leave you. She kept nudging me in that direction for a while. I just thought she didn’t understand you. When she finally surrendered to your passion after we killed the naga, I thought she understood that you were necessary for me, but… You had already bargained with Rithi. During the miracle! Didn’t you, brother mine?”

“If I don’t let you go,” Sven said, his voice sounding dead, bereft of any hope. What little light remained in his blue eyes died. A purr rose from Zanyia. She nuzzled against him like she was trying to show him differently. “If I don’t leave you, Kora, then you all die. You, Zanyia, Aingeal, and Nathalie. Rithi will take back her miracle.” His shoulders bowed, crushed by an unseen force.

Gasps echoed from the other women. Zanyia’s purring stopped. She trembled, holding him so tight. “Master…” she whispered. “Oh, Master, that’s horrible.”

“And she’ll let me live knowing my selfishness got you killed so…” Sven took a deep breath. That hardened expression returned. The self-loathing twisted his features. He spat out, “We’re done!”

His words slapped me.

He whirled around in place, Zanyia still clinging to him. He marched away, not bothering to hide, his back straight. The lamia stared at me over his shoulder, her golden eyes wide, her face pale. Even her triangular ears had fallen. Nathalie sobbed nearby.

“Sven,” groaned Ava, her voice thick with pain.

My heart wanted to break. This was terrible. Monstrous. He was destroying himself to save me. Us. He loved us that much that he would rip out his heart. I clutched at my breasts, my own heart screaming in pain.

“No!” I shouted, such anger surging through me, swallowing my agony. “Rithi!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ealaín – The Adamant Palace, The Astral Realm

The walls of The Adamant Palace quivered with Kora’s rage. Her words echoed through the halls. I lifted my head from the comfort of my mother’s embrace. She soothed me in my death. My soul had returned to my home. Rithi stiffened, lifting her head from me.

Kora was a Radiant, a priestess of my mother. She could commune to the Goddess. Every time a priestess prayed, or used divine magic, it echoed through the walls, whispering to my mother. Normally, it didn’t shake the foundations.

Kora’s righteous anger assaulted The Adamant Palace.

“Fool girl,” Rithi said. Her face tightened. She had the same midnight-hue to her flesh as me and my aoi si sisters.

“It was a mistake,” I told her. “I was wrong about Kora.”

“Quiet, daughter,” Rithi said. “We will not discuss this again.”

When Rithi healed Sven after I died, I told her she needed to release him from his oath, that it was a mistake to pry him from Kora. She bade me to be silence, just like she did now. But I couldn’t. I loved them. They were my spouses. I wanted Sven’s happiness as much as Kora’s. I grew to love the man. He’d won me over.

“I was a fool, Mother.” I looked Rithi in the eyes. “She loves him. He is her inspiration. He is more her muse than I ever was. You can’t part them.”

“He seduced you, daughter,” Rithi said. She pulled away from me, leaving me sitting on her bed alone. She rose, staring at the walls. Then she shuddered and gasped as Kora’s words resounded with power.

“Rithi, inhabit my art and speak with me!”

Rithi shivered as her priestess invoked her image. My mother closed her eyes and sent a piece of her power to answer Kora’s prayer. I trembled, hating myself. How could I not have seen it right away? At first, I thought Sven a distraction. No true artist should devote herself to one passion. Not if she wanted to create a myriad of art that spoke about beauty, love, emotion, hatred, anger, suffering, joy.

How could she be an inspiration to others if she reveled in only one experience? But for Kora, that one experience—that one man—would take her to new things. Would expose her to new ideas and wonders from which she would create new art for the world to enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kora Falk

I faced my Goddess as she inhabited the illusion I painted. She appeared with skin of purest black, her hair a white so pristine it almost glowed. It fell around her majestic form. Reality wraped around her, bleeding into rainbow hues, colors I had never seen at all in my entire life, not even while we were in Faerie. She looked so much like Ealaín. I could see it in the shape of her face, of her ears, in the way she stood with all that confidence.

Majesty.

My Goddess manifested before me.

“I won’t give up my brother,” I said to Rithi, my chin raised. I wouldn’t back down. I wouldn’t let her destroy my family. I would fight to the very end. I had my family. I had wed him with Luben’s blessing. “I will not be parted from my husband, my Goddess.”

Her head cocked to the side. “Then you will die.”

“I’ll die without him,” I snarled. “I’ll leave the priesthood. I won’t make any more art. I will never dance again. Never paint. Never make love. I won’t enrich this world any more, only poison it with my bitter grief. I promise you, that I will be done with it. He is the man I love. He will be the father of my child!

“You will not part us!”

My words resounded. I felt Sven watching me. He had turned from his flight, walking the only path he could. Fleeing was the only way he could save us. But there had to be a better way. Something I I could do. His presence, the presence of my family gave me strength.

“All mortals die,” Rithi said. “I expanded my power to save you. If you will not enrich the world, then it was a waste of my effort. I will return that energy to me and your original destiny will resume, my radiant.”

“Then kill me!” I snarled. My entire body shook as the fury roared through me. “Strike me down with your unjust deal!”

Rithi arched a narrow, snowy eyebrow. “Unjust?”

“You made a deal with my brother that affects whether I live or die, and you don’t include me? Then you try to control what inspires me by strong-arming the man I love into abandoning me! Into hurting me!” I folded my arms before me, fixing my Goddess with the hardest stare ever. “What type of artist does that to another, Rithi?”

A muscle twitched my Goddess’s cheek. An inhuman rage bled off of her and washed around me. The air bent and warped more, reality distorting beneath her presence. I didn’t care. I faced her down.

“I will not let any critic dilute my art!” I hissed. “I won’t let your opinion, your will, sully it. I don’t care what you do.” I whirled around. “You do not get to dictate my art to me, Rithi! My soul is my own! No one owns it!”

I marched to my brother. He stood there, Zanyia clinging to him. His back straightened. He nodded his head. The respect in his face, in the set of his jaw, touched me. A strange joy rippled through me despite the righteous fury whipping me onward. His arms opened wide.

Engulfed me.

I hugged him and Zanyia, my face resting on his other shoulder. Zanyia’s fierce eyes met mine. A defiant purr rose in her throat. My arms slipped around the both of them. Zanyia brought my brother and me together. I was glad she was here for this.

“Kill us,” Aingeal said as she fluttered down and hugged me from behind.

“Master! Mistress!” Nathalie darted in, throwing herself into Zanyia’s back. The young girl buried her face into the lamia’s tawny mane.

I looked at Rithi over my shoulder. “Will you keep me from my inspiration? I lost one muse today, I’m not losing another.”

The distortion around my Goddess dwindled. Her stance shifted, shoulders bowing ever so slightly. Her eyes flicked away from me. “Ealaín says she was wrong. She… realized her mistake too late. She is sorry, Kora. You’re right. I can’t dictate your art. I am not Krab demanding my worshipers follow my plans. I won’t keep one artist from her inspiration.

“My apologizes, my Radiant.” Rithi caught my gaze. “I can see that you will create such works of beauty. It will spill out from here. It will change the world in such profound ways. Your love will be expressed. And your grief.”

“Thank you, my Goddess,” I said, my voice cracking. My body shook as the emotion swelled within me

With a nod of her head, her form melted away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sven Falk

Ava, Greta, and Carsina surged in as the Goddess vanished, reality restoring to normal. They flung themselves into the group hug. Faces shining with tears, twisted with the outflow of emotions, stared up at me. All my women cried out their joy as they held me.

I wanted to join them. Emotions stung the corners of my eyes. My throat tightened. I didn’t have to leave them. I didn’t have to abandon them. Hurt them. Kora was brilliant. She convinced a Goddess to change her mind. It was so overwhelming. I squeezed my sister so tight to my chest. I smiled at them, blinking my eyes against the tears. How did I get so lucky to have these women? To share my life with them? To be united with them?

I didn’t know, but I wouldn’t fuck this up. I wouldn’t vanish to find my own adventure. I had to be their husband, their Master. Some carried my children. I would be a father. My children needed to have someone to be an example to them.

Like my own father had been.

I cleared my throat and, instead of surrendering to the emotions rippling through me, I said as cockily as possible, “So, we have a princedom to rule.”

I grinned. They laughed.

To be continued…

Click here for Chapter 46.

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I have released a part 43 of the revamped Devil’s Pact on Smashwords. Read this post for more information if you’re interested!