The Masters
Wulfbane Commission
The ancient temple glittered. The walls were inlaid in pure gold and wreathed in silver. Dazzling gems sparkled in the torchlight. A single torch was enough to illuminate greater wealth than the wolf had ever seen. She couldn't imagine the vast power and influence of the Masters who built this temple thousands of years previous.
The rogue stepped forward slowly, testing each brilliant golden brick beneath her foot for stability before allowing her full weight to descend. She knew enough about temples to be careful of traps. Despite all the time it had remained empty, the temple was shiny and new, as though built yesterday, not generations ago.
The rogue peered at the walls, searching the ancient murals for signs of traps - holes for arrows and blades, magically activated spells, anything at all that could hinder her progress. She was a thief, yes, but a damn good one. She was as smart as she was careful, and fully understood how much greed could shorten one's life.
Her torch flared suddenly and she jumped backwards. No trap had sprung, but she was rapidly losing a grip on her nerves. As the wolf looked around the glittering temple's hallway, she felt the presence of the ages press in around her, a choking mixture of awe and fear that had survived it's original occupants. The shine of precious gems and the strands of ancient tapestries did little to disguise the fear once felt in this shrine. The walls were three times her height. The ceiling, stuffed with diamonds shining like starlight, felt claustrophobic.
The gray wolf moved on, bare paws softly stepping across the bricks. She kept her black cloak wrapped loosely around her midsection, dagger hilted but at the ready. The layout of the temple was a mystery; there were no surviving maps. Seers and mystics had been useless at providing any idea of the layout. Most considered her mad for accepting the human king's mission, but here she could choose death on her own terms.
No one had ever emerged from the temple upon entering. She intended to be the first, if only to spite the king who had taken her and her friends hostage several days earlier. The rogue's lip curled into a sneer as she thought of the fat human, sitting on his oak throne. What he would say if he knew of a quarter of the riches she had seen in this place in a single antechamber! How paltry his kingdom, she thought, that he resorted to blackmailing her with the lives of her compatriots.
She was the first to enter. She had volunteered, in order to spare her friends a few more days. Also, she was the most skilled tomb raider of the group, and was efficient at leaving clues along the hallway as she went, marking a trail for them to follow should she not return in a week's time. The fat king made it clear he would send another, and another, and another into the dead temple until his dreams of gold and silver were quenched.
The wolf paused. The main hallway ran in a circle, with various rooms branching to the left. So far she had not reached any entrance to the inner section of the temple. To the left, gleaming piles of gold coins, silver and rubies stacked taller than her head in a large, spruce-paneled room. The panels were inlaid with huge pearls. Just one of those pearls would be worth a small fortune. It was the seventh such room she had encountered.
She turned away, refusing to succumb to temptation. Greed meant death in this place. The treasure she sought was unknown to her now, but once she understood the temple and unlocked its secrets, she would know what to do. Easy treasure meant an easy death. Even a fool knew that, and she was not a fool.
The wolf shivered, feeling suddenly cold in the nearly antiseptic hallway, and looked to the right.
The opulence of the temple ended suddenly. The bricks of gold stopped abruptly, the paved way becoming a rough-hewn stone floor. The walls turned from gems to coal; the ceiling from perfect diamonds to stalactites.
She slowly approached the entrance. Her torch seemed weaker, unable to produce as much light as it had before in the gold halls, despite still burning at full strength.
At the threshold, she paused. A chamber opened before her, massive and intimidatingly dark. Her eyes looked upwards, and up and up, until they settled on a sphere of perfect blue at the apex of the domed ceiling. It took her several moments to realize what she was looking at: the sky.
But... how? She had not seen any kind of hole in the ground on her way into the temple, or on any maps. The magic that concealed this temple was responsible, she decided.
Her eyes adjusted quickly to the gloom, and it appeared more daylight was coming in through the roof by the moment. She took several faltering steps into the giant cavern, barely able to discern the curvature of the roof above her head. She would have to be careful in this place - it would not be hard to get lost in the gloom, stumble over a crack in the floor, and cause herself injury.
She moved carefully, ears tuned to the silence. But all she could hear was her heartbeat, louder and louder and louder, until her ears were ringing with the quiet. She felt scared, more frightened than she had ever been in her life, despite not having seen a single trap, not a single other living thing.
Living things didn't frighten the rogue.
A shape loomed in the darkness, near the middle of the room. As the wolf drew closer, inch by painful inch, fighting every instinct to flee, she saw an obsidian altar.
It was beautiful. And dangerous. It sucked what little light surrounded it, casting a black shadow all around it's huge base. Four obsidian pillars, each at least as big as she was, held the massive slab of stone off the ground several feet. It was at least three times longer than she was tall - a perfect rectangle. The corners of the alter were sharp.
There were no inscriptions here. No decorations, no gilding. Only the alter, as dark and ominous as the massive cavern around her.
She approached it, swallowing her fear to examine the rock. Her torchlight caused it to shimmer and her eyes unfocused. It was hypnotic, like a pool of black liquid.
The wolf reached out, close now. She could see the waist-high top of the slab was perfectly smooth, devoid of any imperfection. Her fingers brushed against the long, smooth side, and she shuddered at the feel. It was unlike anything else. Perfectly smooth with no hint of friction. It was also cold, like ice in the middle of a brutal winter. She yanked her fingers back and gasped.
But the chill didn't go away. It extended down her fingers and into her wrist. She groaned and staggered as acute pain flared in her nerves. The shock nearly knocked her unconscious and she fell forward.
Her arm burned with the cold. She screamed as she held herself at the shoulder, desperation eliminating rational thought. Dark whispers - whether real or imagined, she couldn't tell - forced into her ears as the cold climbed higher, up her elbow, her bicep.
They wanted her. They promised her the world. They promised her freedom. They promised her everything, those dark whispers. Just let them in... let them in... let them in... They promised her relief. An end to her suffering. Vast riches, vaster power. Just let them in...
She cried out in agony. The cold was so intense, so burning, so damaging, she knew she was going to die. The wolf had never before felt an agony like this. She fell to the ground, writhing, with the whispers gathering around her body like smoke.
Let them in...
The cold reached her shoulder. Her pain-wracked body jerked. Her head cracked backwards, neck snapping with wince-inducing violence.
Let them in...
She agreed, and she was theirs.
When the wolf woke, she was still alone. She was in the temple, in the huge domed chamber, near the obsidian altar. Nothing had changed, but her arm was no longer burning. It felt fine, and she wiggled her fingers to check. No damage.
She sat up slowly and looked towards the alter. It was... pulsing. Almost glowing... but black. It was at once churning with energy and solid as the stone floor beneath her. Looking at it for more than a few seconds made her stomach churn.
The wolf rolled onto her belly, on her hands and knees, and vomited.
Collapsing to her side when she had finished, it took her several long minutes to recover.
It was easier to look at the altar now. She felt drawn to it. The wolf stood unsteadily.
As her eyes came level with the top of the altar, they widened. There, in the very center of the huge slab, was a treasure.
The gem was as big as her head. A diamond, perfectly cut and as black as the obsidian tablet upon which it rested. It called to her by name, whispering its promises, demanding its payment.
The rogue stepped forward, unable to resist its call. Her paws grasped the corner of the altar. The burning ice returned, but this time she relished the feeling. It felt good, not painful, and she easily hauled herself up the slick obsidian, somehow able to grasp the friction-less material with surprising ease.
The ice consumed her body quickly this time. By the time she pulled herself fully onto the slab, her entire being was encased with the black, swirling cold. Her fur stood on end and her eyes glowed as she crawled across the altar, eyes black and empty, focused on nothing but her prize.
Both paws clasped the perfect gem from where it floated just above the surface of the altar. She clutched it to her breast, moaning as tendrils of black energy writhed their way out of the diamond and surrounded her, caressing her with their cold embrace.
They whispered, and she listened.
The wolf's body rose into the air slowly. She twisted around, until she floated on her backside, long gray tail hanging down below her. The ice burned off her clothes, leaving no trace of them upon her supple body. The black flames clung to every strand of fur.
The fire ate away at her flesh slowly. She moaned and twisted against the blackness, shuddering with delight. Her paws stroked the diamond as she held it against her naked body. She pressed it slowly against her belly, and was not surprised to find it sinking into her flesh. Her belly was not an open wound; the diamond simply moved into her, as though she weren't there at all.
The wolf moaned and ran her paws back up her flickering, burning body, over her breasts and shoulders, up her neck, over her muzzle and hair. Her toes curled, but they were unrecognizable now - the fire had not only consumed them, but replaced them with something wholly different.
They were larger - much, much larger - and scaled. Black onyx plating covered three giant toes, each capped with a fearsome claw, somehow even blacker than the scale surrounding it. Each scale was tiny. The overall effect was that her skin was not composed of scale at all, but simply black skin. The tightly-knit scales rippled and moved easily, but were strong enough to provide protection against most mortal weapons.
The wolf's feet were similarly changed, turning to scale, interlocking and fluid. Her heel had a fore claw, like a bird of prey, but her legs thickened, larger and longer, the legs of a beast much larger than any bird.
The fire consumed and displaced her ears, replacing them with spiraling horns. Black fire trickled down from the tips of those curved ornaments, dripping onto the altar below and sizzling with energy.
Her new ears were attached to the side of hir head, pointed and and half-turned over; facing outwards, they were sensitive and twitched as the fire moved on. Her head grew larger, more brutish, but strangely beautiful. Dark black eyes, high-set above a large snout, blinked and gazed around, able to discern the darkness of the cavern much more easily. She retained her large, wet black nose, oddly at peace with the significant changes in her facial features. She still retained some features of her canine heritage.
Massive, sharp teeth formed in the wolf's mouth. Her tongue grew longer and more pointed, though not split like a serpent's. Her head was much larger than before; like her legs, more befitting of a beast so much larger than the wolf's still-burning body.
Lustrous, long lengths of jet-black hair grew from the newly transformed dragon's head. It rolled down the back of her long neck. Soon more fur sprouted between the scales coating her body. Her scales, so close as to appear as skin, was soon covered in a glossy, luxurious pelt. It ran down her shoulders and arms, over her hips and rump, down her legs to her feet. Hir skin had taken on the form of both dragon and wolf.
Her chest and belly remained bare; the fur thinned out significantly until vanishing completely near the gentle curve of her solid belly and swells of her breasts.
The fire claimed more and more. Everywhere it touched, the wolf changed. Scale replaced fur down her grown body. New fur grew in. Her neck elongated, melding into broad and supple shoulders. Black scale coated her breasts, surrounding onyx nipples. The fire changing her met at her waist, halfway up and halfway down her body.
Below, her tail was twitching madly. Fur sizzled and disappeared, and she was left with a long, scaled appendage, more prehensile than before, and more powerful to boot. The tip was diamond-studded, almost shiny against the black scales. More black fur sprouted along the prehensile length, shaggy and thick.
Her chest heaved as she breathed in deeply, finding the air pleasant instead of oppressive. Her over-large breasts swelled majestically as the flames continued to flicker across her form. Each was growing larger and larger, majestic and firm, hanging from her chest with supple easiness. They looked slightly disproportionate even on her newly enlarged body. She doubted a normal-sized person would be able to reach from one end to the other of a single breast.
She shuddered with dark pleasure as she felt more important changes yet, as she became shi. Between hir thighs, a thick maleness grew. Shi didn't question, only accepted. Shi had let them in, after all, and now could not ignore or turn down their gifts any more than shi could turn back time.
The bulge was held in a canine-style sheath. It wrapped tightly around the thick shaft pulsing inside, and it took little for hir fingers to coax the length free. It grew thick and long, throbbing with desire, curving upwards until the head slid over hir belly. A fat knot formed at the base, quickly pushing free from hir sheath, forcing the stretched out skin further down.
Shi smoothed hir clawed fingers and surprisingly soft palms down hir breasts and belly and thighs, delightedly exploring hir form, including the copious maleness buried, for the moment, inside a black sheath. Still suspended in the air above the altar, body still burning and growing, shi spread hir legs, giving into the pleasure the black flames afforded hir, both male and female at once.
Hir arms fall to the sides as the flames both inside and out caused even more pleasure. Sizzling flames continually dripped from hir body, ice cold but burning, and onto the altar below.
Shi grew erect rapidly as the fire caressed hir, stroking hir. Shi shuddered, moaning as it entered hir between hir legs as well. Shi could feel the diamond inside hir body, burning constantly and feeding hir its dark will. The Masters' voice, shi knew, and one shi would obey. After all... shi was a Master too.
Huge ebony wings erupted from between hir shoulder blades. Hir wingspan was terrific, stretching more than four body lengths. Considering hir new body was at least twenty feet tall, compared to a diminutive five-foot-something before, shi was grateful for the openness of the cavern, and that it had been designed for expressly this purpose eons ago.
Shi flapped hir wings experimentally, enjoying the sensation but knowing it was not the first time shi had experienced it. The diamond in hir belly told hir stories of the past, when the Masters ruled over not just the ground, but the skies...
The fire licked at hir erectness, delved inside hir lips, burned so dark shi had to close hir eyes to the intensity. The pleasure swamped hir, converting hir incontrovertibly, and shi erupted in an orgy of pleasure that made hir moan and shudder. Thick, hot juice burned as it spit out hir maleness and dripped from between hir legs, sizzling against hir scaled body and the altar below.
Hir huge new arms reached down and began to stroke and tease hir spurting shaft, teasing it to greater pleasure. Hir feminine sex ached, but shi had no way to satiate that desire - yet. Already plans were forming in hir head, but first things first...
Shi shuddered and stroked, gasping with arousal and pleasure. Shi stretched hir wings as far as shi could, palms open, legs spread. The power was both hers to control and in control of hir, especially at the moment.
The fire was receding, but hir pleasure did not. Hir body was enormous now, huge and scaled, but also perversely furry. Shi licked hir thick lips slowly and smiled as shi flapped hir gigantic wings. Shi was now held aloft by hir own power.
Hir heavy breasts swayed in midair and shi caressed them happily, a deep moan of pure lust escaping hir muzzle as shi squeezed each thick nipple. Power and sex... what else was there? Shi returned both hands quickly to hir throbbing erection, gasping as thick white seed flowed from the tip. The musky scent it generated made hir head spin. As shi pumped herself, faster and faster, shi felt the presence in hir mind grow more powerful as well, feeding hir knowledge, information, strategies...
The former wolf, now a glorious hybrid of both dragon and canine, let out a howl of delight as shi came. Thick ropes of cum splattered against hir breast, coating each enormous orb with copious amounts of thick cum.
hir heavy wings flapped harder, lifting hir up. Hir juices flowed down hir legs, dripping onto the massive altar below hir. Shi looked up, still moaning and cumming, as shi headed for the opening at the top of the domed cavern.
As shi flew, the voices whispered to hir, not only of the riches, the power, and the sexual prowess that was hir birthright, but of revenge.
Shi licked hir lips slowly, letting hir tongue caress the tiny scales and thin fur rimming hir muzzle. The Old Ways would return. Shi would resurrect more of hir race using the wolves and felines and other animals of the world, freeing them from their shackles of servitude to the disgusting humans. They would take their revenge upon those smooth-skinned demi-apes who had imprisoned them those centuries ago. They would no longer be a faded myth, lost to time and darkness.
Shi burst through the opening of the domed ceiling and crashed through bushes and trees. Ascending quickly, shi broke the cover of the trees and arched hir back, bellowing with power as the last few spurts of cum shot from hir oversized cock.
Shi hovered there, gazing at the land surrounding hir. In the distance, shi could see the pitiful kingdom from which shi'd been sent to the temple. Shi licked hir lips once more and smiled as hir heavy cock settled majestically across hir hanging legs.
The dragon-wolf would have to reward the king for what he'd given hir, shi decided. He would make a tasty snack. Then there was the matter of hir former adventuring friends. Shi smiled broadly.
Shi was Atra, the Black Flame, and hir people would be the Masters once again.
Back in the kingdom, the cleric sat on the rough dirt floor of his cell. He was deep in the castle's belly, far away from the light of the outside world. He wasn't sure whether it was day or night. Not because of the light, but because he had been in a focused meditation for so long.
The feline was not exactly handsome. "Sturdy" was not a word bandied about his person. But he was lithe and surprisingly strong, especially when it came to the mental arts. His body was pristine and his robes pure white, even in the dank of the dungeon cell. His bright orange and brown fur was well-groomed, but the feline was not vain, merely fastidious.
The robe split around his waist, so that one panel covered his front and another his back. Beneath, he wore loose, light purple leggings. A simple rope cord was tied around his waist. He used to hang several bags of herbs and medicine and incense from the cord, but all his possessions had been taken. Even his staff, alternately used as both a weapon, a means of casting a spell, or simply as a prayer stick.
The guards had left him his headgear, convinced it was a fake. Nobody would have jewels simply embedded in a diadem they wore all the time. In this the cleric as lucky; his ruby and silver diadem was designed as a meditation aid by his past master. It was a gift the day he'd left the old man.
Now, he was here. Stuck in a cell. He sighed and stood, stretching his cramped leg muscles. His long tail twitched behind him.
He cocked his head and perked his ears. Something was... different. He sniffed the air. It smelled... acrid.
A sudden ripping, cracking noise echoed through the dungeon. Mortar and dust rained down around him as suddenly he heard the shouts and screams from above.
The entire roof of the dungeon was suddenly ripped away, blinding him with the sunlight from outside. He blinked his eyes and held a hand in front of his face, but a rapidly descending darkness blocked out the light. He cried out in fear. As it wrapped around his frightened form, he passed out.
When he woke, he was lying on his back in a dark chamber. That thought barely registered in his mind before his back arched. He flopped against the smooth onyx alter as flames surrounded him. His body was on fire and he could do nothing but scream in pain.
A voice whispered in his ear.
Let them in, let them in...
Confused, frightened, in desperate pain, he acquiesced quickly. Immediately the pain faded, and he collapsed on top of the obsidian altar.
When he woke, he was unsure how much time had passed.
Blinking, confused, he sat up slowly. He felt the smooth stone beneath his palms and smiled. The fire was cooling and pleasurable now. He felt strange, and sniffed the air. Some kind of scent was there, tantalizingly close. The cleric looked around quickly, eyes straining to see in the near dark. Once or twice, he thought he caught a glimpse of something, but he couldn't be sure.
His attention was soon drawn to the only other object on the large table. There, in front of him, was a massive white diamond. It was huge, bigger than his head, and glowed sharply in the darkness. He looked around, still dazed. He was in some kind of chamber. Above, a hole in the dome showed a darkening night sky.
He sniffed the air. That acrid, sharp smell was even stronger now than before. But before he could think further, his eyes returned to the diamond.
The feline was not greedy. As a cleric, he took his religious duties more strongly than others. He donated most of his earnings in the company of his band of adventurers to charity. But this diamond... it filled him with a lust he'd never felt before, and before he understood why, he'd reached out and lifted it from the altar.
As he lifted the gem, examining it more closely, a white fire began to run over his fingers, then up his wrists and arms.
Soon his body burned with flame - white, instead of black - and his old form was burned away, replaced with brilliant white scale. Luxuriously soft white fur sprouted, filling in between the scales. The thick pelt was deeper and softer than his old coat.
His clothes had burned off into ash, leaving him naked. He grew in height and strength, leaving his old body behind as draconic features intermingled with his feline figure. His snout opened and shut a few times, wordlessly expressing his pleasure as he pressed the diamond into his belly, knowing it was what he should do.
It sunk into his stomach easily, soon hidden from view deep inside him. The whispers in his ears grew louder and louder as he continued to change. His brilliant white body glowed in the darkness as he unfurled a massive new pair of wings.
His chest swelled and he was soon shi. Between hir legs, the newly-transformed dragon felt a feminine sex. Hir whole body rippled with desire and lust. As the whispers grew in strength, dominating hir thoughts and corrupting hir, changing hir into one of the Masters, hir breasts grew larger and larger. The fire dived into hir newly formed feminine sex, splitting the folds and causing hir to cry out in delight.
Hir cock, already present, shifted and enlarged along with the rest of hir body. Smooth barbs lined the tips of the shaft, a testament to hir previous heritage. Hir muzzle was squat, almost blunt, and hir nose was pink. Hir ears were pointed and hir tail was rounder at the end, entirely coated in lush white fur and, beneath, smooth diamond scale.
As hir massive erection grew, thick and full, to bob against hir breasts, hir enhanced nose twitched, and shi spread her magnificent diamond wings fully. Powering hir body upwards, shi flew straight up. It was a majestic sight - the massive, twenty-foot-tall pure white dragon, wings pushing hir oversized body along, huge cock dripping against hir aching breasts.
Shi let out a roar and claimed hir name. Shi was Niveus, the White Flame. And shi would not only have hir revenge, but shi would have... well, it was headed hir way.
Heading towards hir at the same steep angle was a black streak. They collided roughly, grappling and kissing, fingers scratching along scales as the black and white dragons groped each other madly, driven by the lust of a thousand year sleep.
Atra slid behind Niveus. The black dragon had been milking hir cock for hours, waiting for the cleric to transform. Shi roughly pulled the other dragon's tail up, using hir wings to keep them both aloft, and shoved hir hips forward.
They rolled over in the air madly, plummeting a distance before Atra stabilized. Shi gasped and moaned as hir immense maleness spread the other dragon's pussy.
Niveus gasped and arched against the other dragon. Hir furry backside pushed against the black dragon's heavy breasts; shi held hir wings up, out of the way, curling them forward. Shi ground backwards against the other dragon, hir feline-dragon body aching to be taken.
Heavy wings beating strongly and quickly, Atra's hands curled around the white dragon's hips. Gravity helped hir impale Niveus even more quickly, and soon shi was pumping hir body almost as heavily as shi had to beat hir massive wings. Hir fully grown knot squeezed against Niveus's feminine sex, threatening to pop in with every deep thrust. It didn't help they had no feet on the ground - gravity more than anything else was keeping them pressed tightly together.
Atra adjusted hir pace, slowing hir beating wings until they drifted down, back to the floor of the cavern. As their feet touched the black onyx altar, Atra pushed Niveus onto all fours. Shi surged forward, causing the dragon beneath hir to cry out in pleasure. Niveus's thick shaft, longer and fuller than Atra's, throbbed and drooled white seed onto the sizzling altar.
Atra leaned forward, inhaling Niveus's scent, letting it fill hir nostrils. Shi groaned, pumping hir hips heavily, gasping as shi went deep, deep, deeper, until the thick ball of hir knot was stretching the outer lips of the white dragon's sex, nearly inside the other creature.
Niveus cried out, fingers scrabbling for purchase on the smooth altar. Shi pushed back eagerly, feeling the massive length, which was as thick around as hir own thigh, wriggle deep inside hir belly. Hir heavy breasts sloshed back and forth, tits scraping against the altar below.
Atra reared back before powerfully spearing hir cock forward. Hir huge canine knot sunk into Niveus's body with a deep wet noise, and the dragon bellowed as shi collapsed onto hir belly, pulling Atra down as well, and causing hir to grind in even more deeply.
The white dragon's thick maleness pushed between hir heavy breasts, cumming hard as shi climaxed completely. Hir aching wetness clenched tight around Atra's thick knot and shaft as hir cock spat thick jets of seed across the length of the large altar.
Atra followed suit, quickly reaching hir own climax after a few more short, frantic thrusts. The lust and desire in each dragon was hardly abated, but it was temporary relief.
Niveus's long tail wrapped around the black dragon's heavy testicles, squeezing powerfully, eliciting a deep rumbling moan of appreciation.
They didn't speak as they collected themselves for many long minutes. Thick globs of draconic seed were burbling from the shining white scales of the bottom dragon. The white dragon wriggled and moaned, luxuriating in the length and strength of that long, thick cock.
Soon, however, shi leaned forward, pulling on that still inflated knot. It had shrunk somewhat, enough that when Atra pulled backwards, it popped out wetly. A few streams of built-up seed splattered along Niveus's back and round ass.
Niveus stood and turned quickly on the black dragon, huge cock still hard and at the ready. Shi approached the other dragon from the front. Gripping Atra's thighs from the sides, shi easily lifted the black dragon against hir, and firmly lowered hir down over hir impressively large cock.
Inch after inch of the nearly six foot length sunk haltingly into the black dragon's pussy. Niveus was larger and longer than the other dragon, though hir breasts were noticeably smaller. Another reference to their pasts, though neither was much interested in anatomy at the moment.
Niveus groaned and leaned hir had forward, kissing the other dragon heavily. Their tongues met as the feline-dragon's barbed shaft achingly shoved deeper and deeper. Thick cum continued to drop from both their erections, and down the insides of the white dragon's legs.
As they kissed, groping and hugging each other, breasts flattening into their bodies, the whispers around them quieted. Even the old ones enjoyed a good show, apparently.
It wouldn't be until many, many hours later that the two dragons would satiate themselves enough to seek out the rest of their former adventuring friends. More gems waited silent and impatient in the altar, eager for a new life after so many thousands of years. Niveus and Atra would be more than happy to secure their friends into the service of the Masters.