I’m still sitting in front of the Aquatic School, brooding, no closer to a free point. I can’t exploit poor Indel. She needs to be… well, a little less like she is, but after I met her family I can’t bring myself to hate her.
“My love!” Indel cries, face appearing above me. “I have delivered myself to you. Let us score a mighty victory in this initial skirmish.”
I sit up, blinking. “What?”
“I think she was pretty clear.” Mae stands behind her, hand on her cocked hip. “Let’s go.”
“W-what?”
“Like I said, Hattie, I’m rooting for you.”
I’ll do anything for Mae, so I’m on my feet in a second, kind of stunned but knowing deep down that if I stop and consider this I’ll lose my nerve and blink.
“When the peasant told me of your predicament — well, I wondered why the light of my life must engage in such a puerile, jejune game — but then I resolved to see you through to victory!”
“I figured,” Mae adds, “Alyx is like, definitely gonna do it, so this way we can even the score.”
“And perhaps you will finally come to understand my devotion, sweet Hattie. It is my dearest hope.”
Don’t think about it. Just don’t think about it. It’s an easy win that leaves me plenty of time for signups — no, this is a sure thing, so I should hit the signups first.
“Let’s swing by the lists on the way to our room.”
“Oh, no.” Mae shakes her head. “I took this plan to the Princess with one very specific condition: I get to see her room in person.” I feel a little guiltier about sharing my visions with Mae.
The Gauntlet signup, a huge purple crystal covered in glowing writing, is in the centre of one of the cobblestone event areas, ringed by giant willows with white, asperous bark — when I approach, one of the flat sides of the crystal breaks away into a tablet and levitates before me, a glowing pink pen floating just beside it.
A quick review of the dense, ever-shifting writing along the shiny purple surface of the signup tablet reveals Alyx as the clear favourite — and erases any doubt that I have to fuck Indel to have a chance.
There’s a Conjuration Exhibition, which is probably not swinging her way (Fifth Year Conjurers are the most intimidating women on campus, always travelling around with demons or elementals on leashes)… but she can bind spirits, and might be hiding her full potential, just like she did before she was assigned her Discipline. It’s the Conjuration Duels that worry me more. If her opponents underestimate her, she could land an early knockout.
Most of the events where I have a shot are ones that aren’t down to magical ability at all: Escalation, Holdout, Fulcrum. Alyx has just as much of a shot as I do in all three. And I avoid the poetry, elocution, theatre, prose, essay, and similar performance events out of preemptive embarrassment — but it’s not like she’s gonna win those.
With signups done, I find myself in Indel’s gorgeous apartments. Tension’s brewing before we’re halfway through the door.
“Now, then, my-” Indel begins, only to be cut off by Mae.
“Princess. We’re allies here, not friends. You took Hattie away at the Banquet, so I’m going to be directing things here. It’s happening how I want it.”
“And how do you want it?” It’s humiliating how fast the words fly out of my mouth.
“Hattie, over here.” And I follow, of course, as she sits herself in one of Indel’s velvet armchairs — the back is ludicrously large for her, so the chair seems more a throne. “Lift it up and put me beside the bed.” There’s a gasp and a giggle when I wrench the chair into the air, her inside, and walk it over. “Princess, on the bed.”
I can see she wants to argue, but it’s a promising enough command that she complies. “Join her, Hattie,” Mae adds, and I can think of nothing else. “Now, get her blouse off.”
“Yes, my love, yes-”
“No. You don’t talk. Neither of you talk until I tell you to talk.”
Silently, obediently, I unbutton the fuming Princess’s blouse until her slender form is exposed. Her methodical killing of her own sentries flashes in my mind, and it becomes harder to wait for Mae’s next instructions. I want to hold her against me and smell the blood on her feathers. Mae really stretches it out, too, so my body is quivering with desire, supporting myself above Indel who seems even more overwhelmed with anticipation and frustration than I am.
“Hattie, down to your underwear. Princess, on your stomach,” says Mae finally. Indel rolls over immediately and arches her back, pushing backward into me, skirt hiked up. My brain threatens to explode as I tear my own clothes off. A mote of Indel’s magic hits me and suddenly something big is straining against my underwear.
Mae giggles. “Not what I said, but I’ll allow it. Hattie, you can touch her.” My arms move on their own, slamming her hips against me, yanking her head up to kiss her and pulling my cock from my panties. She moans as I line myself up. “Slow down, now,” comes Mae’s perfect voice, and it’s all I can do not to plunge into Indel immediately. The Princess pushes her wetness maddeningly against me. “I said you could touch her, not fuck her. Let go.”
I moan with uncontrollable desire, but somehow, for Mae, I manage to do it, pushing myself painfully away from Indel, unable to tear my eyes away from her perfect ass. The princess whimpers wildly, trying to press herself up against me again as I pull back. Indel cries out. “Don’t listen to her, love. Take me, now, please! She should consider herself lucky to watch!” Her voice is loud, desperate. In contrast, Mae’s is utterly calm.
“Hattie, look at me.”
My eyes tear themselves from Indel’s hips and find Mae’s perfect eyes, round and dark and beautiful behind her glasses. She smiles. “You can put one hand on her, but keep looking at me, ok?”
I nod mutely, cock throbbing, hand quivering with need as I reach out and cup Indel’s ass. Mae throws a quick, triumphant look at the Princess, and then returns her attention to me.
“The Princess needs to warm up before you put that monster in her. Touch her. Slowly. But eyes still on me.”
I trail down to between her thighs. Indel moans as my thumb finds her, but Mae tuts. “Too fast. Slow down.” The moans turn to whimpers bordering on sobs.
“My love! Please! How can you bear this?”
“That’s enough, Princess. I told you both, no talking.”
Mae’s so gorgeous when she commands. I don’t know if it’s the titanic, draconic authority of her Familiar, or if that’s how she’s always been. Staring at her beautiful face only makes my need more uncontrollable, but I can’t do anything except what she tells me.
“Love, how can I convince you that you need not listen to this peasant!?”
My eyes just stay on Mae, mouth shut. She didn’t give me permission to speak.
“Hattie, hold her mouth shut.” I do. Mae smiles as she continues. “Get your cock out, put it inside her. Don’t move.” I do. Indel whimpers. Mae’s voice is lighthearted when she says, “Who do you like more, me or the Princess?”
I balk. I mean, the answer’s obvious, but it’s a little… much, when I’m inside her, isn’t it?
“You can fuck her — slowly, Hattie — but only if you answer.”
I moan but it’s impossible to protest. I need the relief, and I physically can’t say no to the beautiful Restorationist. “You,” I whisper, thrusting slowly, fighting every instinct in my body that wants to ravish Indel right now, slam her hips against mine.
“No,” says Mae. “My name. Louder this time.”
“You — Mae.”
She responds to my (shamefully loud) declaration with a sly smile — then her face goes blank. Mine does too, I imagine, with the orb of blinding white light between us. Damn it. I was too focused on Mae. (Not like she gave you any choice!)
“That is enough,” Indel says, strangely composed with me inside her. “Hattie, take me.” She’s got full control of my body, but the sensation remains all mine, and there’s an immediate wave of relief as my hips move on their own, finally allowed to fuck this gorgeous royal. “Peasant, to me.”
Mae slides off the chair and takes a step before Indel clucks her to a stop. “No. Crawl.” I want to cry out for Mae as her body takes itself, on hands and knees, to the bedside, but Indel seems happy to have nothing but the sound of her voice and the steady beat of my thrusts. “This won’t do. My love, lift me into your lap and sit us on the bed, facing her.”
Mae, on her knees, head craned up like a puppy, stares at Indel’s sneering face swaying above her as my hands grind her against me; my mind’s ready to cum, but my body won’t until it’s received the command, so I’m stuck with a feeling like mana dancing over my brain, leaving prickles where its feet land.
“You must learn your lesson, peasant. My beloved might have some bizarre fixation with you, but it matters not. I am niece to the Empress Endaria. I am Lady of Sapphire Thicket. One day, as befits a Queen’s muse, dearest Hattie will rule the entire Skyward Archipelago in my name.” I’ll what?! “You, however, come from pigshit and dirt. You will not rise above that station. Now put your dirty peasant mouth right here,” she taps her mound with an elegant claw, “and service my royal clit with your dirty peasant tongue.”
And she does. She can do nothing else. Indel lets out a regal moan, appropriate for a Princess on her throne. “Oh… my beloved… perhaps I begin to see why you are so captivated by her.”
This isn’t right! Indel’s the first to have Mae’s tongue against her? It’s meant to be me!
You know, this is exactly how Nym felt, watching Syrene steal Indel from her. I remember the feeling.
Gods, Mae pushed her too far…
In the end my thoughts amputate because one crowds them all out: I need to cum. The Princess is warm and tight and clenching around me as she finishes, moans ringing across the room like wedding bells.
“W-well, peasant,” she says, needing a moment to compose herself and smooth out her feathers. “Your lesson is done. You remain there and watch. Hattie, turn me to you.”
I hate how base I feel in that moment, utterly transfixed by the sight of her tits bouncing as she does, not a spare thought in my brain for poor Mae, forced to watch my cock disappear into Indel again and again.
The Princess sighs into my neck. “Truly, I do hate disciplining you, my dear. You just have a way of forcing my hand. I fear you think my love for you eclipses my sense. It is not unfounded — often it does.” I cannot believe how composed she is, how she isn’t gasping for air. But mostly I can’t believe she’s not letting me cum! “But I am still a Princess. You would do well to remember that.” She hooks her talons together behind my head, arms resting on my shoulders. “Very well, you may finish now.”
I worry I’m going to pass out from the force of it, the sudden release of what feels like days worth of energy. It’s like going from a boiling spa to a cold lake.
As my body shudders through the orgasm, Indel climbs off and smiles. “Peasant, gather up my clothes and help me dress. Beloved, enjoy a moment of rest, then dress ahead.”
It bothers me to no end the way Mae’s eyes stay trained obediently on the ground while she dresses Indel. Her body is nothing but a blank slate for the Princess to command, all her fire and personality sunk deep inside, smothered.
Finally, the white orb disappears, and Mae stumbles, holding a hand to her head.
“Peasant, you may leave.”
“Mae!” I’m already up, stumbling toward her. She’s composed herself by the time I reach her, and she flashes me a smile.
“You’re right, Princess. Let’s go, Hattie.” She grabs my hand and I can’t help but flush as she leads me out, managing to throw a half wave to a disappointed Indel before the door closes behind us. Mae’s back is to me as the chariot descends.
“Mae, are you okay?”
When she turns her face is bright pink. “Hattie, oh-my-Gods, that was so fun!” I stare, dumbstruck, and she continues. “She really put us in our place, huh?” All I do is blink. I follow wordlessly as we step off the chariot and into the empty hallway back to our dorm — everyone’s off at signups, or sniffing around the Princesses. “Now that’s a woman who knows how to take charge.”
That’s like, definitely a hint. That’s gotta be a hint. And Indel’s little addition is still twitching in my underwear, so I grab Mae’s waist and bundle her through the closest door. A classroom, and empty, but I don’t process more than that. I just slam her over a desk and hike her skirt.
“Hattie, there’s a competition,” she scolds, but I clasp a hand over her mouth.
“Fuck the competition. Mae, I need you so bad I could die.” I get her panties to the side and line myself up before I have time to regret, to second guess. Mae’s here, she’s bent over, she’s moaning, grinding her hips — it’s time.
I enter her and bliss shoots through me. She feels as perfect as I’ve always imagined, like her body was made for me. Like it was meant to be, destined in the stars, and Godsdamn she’s tight. But the joy only lasts a second before the cock disappears and my hands fall away from her in dejected surprise.
Mae giggles beautifully. “Better luck next time, Hattie.” She smooths down her skirt and straightens herself out.
“Ssplendid sshow, girlss.” The sibilant voice belongs to a suddenly visible, eight foot snake by the blackboard, which reads Illusions and Warfare, Ellvaria to Endaria. “But classs beginss ssoon.”
My cheeks burning, we leave, back to the rooms. Along the way I try and will myself to Alyx, but meet only a wall of frustration and exhaustion that suggests I’m going to end today 1-0.