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A bolt of light zapped the rock beside him, nearly taking off a finger. Teryx barely noticed; it was only the latest shot in the paladins' barrage, and he had bigger concerns than that, like where he was going to run next.

It wasn't like the water dragon could blend in around here; the gray rocks and deadened shrubbery of the mountainside didn't exactly match his two-toned blue scales, nor the yellow-orange mane running down his back. His robes might have hid him, if he had the time to work his magic, but -

Hsssst!

A searing blast of light lanced down from above, and he barely stopped himself in time. The divine power still pierced his robe, leaving a hole through the side of it that was big enough for a finger to slip through. If it had gone through him...He shivered at the thought.

"Hold, Mage! Surrender, and we'll have some mercy on you."

"Unlikely..."

Teryx glanced over his shoulder. More than ten paladins kept up the chase behind him, half of them mounted on horseback, the others on foot. Above, on the higher slopes, two more chased after him, their hands locked to their precious medallions. The dragon knew that they wouldn't be letting go anytime soon; their power rested on it too much. Just like his power rested in thought and silence.

He needed a moment, just a moment, and he would at least stand a fighting chance, but they were determined to deny him that. The way forward was blocked by gravel and assorted debris, and there was no way that he could cast a flight spell. They'd poke a hundred holes in his wings and bring him down, and probably leave him bleeding out after that. That was if he even got off the ground in the first place.

Teryx glared at the paladins as they closed in, backing up further and further until he felt his back touch the rock. The church soldiers moved in slowly, the mounted men slipping off of their horses and joining their fellows. Each one had one of those blasted magic-damping sigils in their armor, too; even if he had the concentration for a spell, it wouldn't make a dent.

Their leader, dressed in golden armor rather than silver, stepped up and held a sword to the dragon's throat. The fox smiled.

"You'll never terrorize the faithful again."

"I never did it to start with! You and your church started this war."

"If we hadn't, the faithful would have been subsumed by your devilish ways. Magic is not for the world to behold; it is a thing given to us by those that would tempt us. And now, you will -"

"AHHHH!"

A short scream interrupted by a sudden thump brought the fox's speech to a halt, and half the paladins turned to look up the slope. A crumpled-up body - one of their members from the upper slopes - lay on the gravel barely a few feet away. A second later, his brother paladin slammed down on top of him. Both were obviously dead, their throats cut.

Immediately, the fox lunged closer, his blade almost cutting through the scales of Teryx's throat. The dragon grunted, pushed flat against the rock as the fox shouted.

"Sellswords, rogues, whatever you are! We have your employer here. You will throw down your arms, or we kill him right now."

"They're not...not mine..."

Though I wish I could afford them. These days, the only friends a mage had were those he could afford. The only other men of magic that he'd seen lately had been ones that traveled with bodyguards, and well-paid ones at that.

But if they weren't his...

He glanced up towards the higher slopes of the mountain. There was no sign of movement, but then again, he didn't expect there to be. The paladins would have seen anything obvious. Someone was doing something sneaky.

The other paladins glanced this way and that, several pulling bows off of the horses and nocking arrows. As they scanned the cliffs above, the fox growled.

"Tell them to stand down...and we'll let you live long enough to be executed in the capital, instead of out here."

"They're not - ugh!"

The sword pressed harder to his throat. He knew his scales wouldn't be good enough protection from this; the blessings on the blade made damn sure of that. Teryx normally would have damned the hypocrisy, that they would accept the power of the gods but damn the magic that was all that most people would ever know, but the pressure on his throat made that a little difficult.

"I'm telling you, call them off...I will not lose another -"

"Sir! I think I saw someone down the mountain."

"Civilians?"

"No, just...just one. Some sort of cat."

"Well, tell them to leave us be. This is official business."

"Sir, she's...she's marked."

"...As what?"

"As a member of the Black's Order."

He felt the tremor that went through the blade, and he couldn't entirely blame them. The Order of the Black Foot - sometimes known as the Black's Order, considering its founder - was a powerful group in its own right. He remembered when the heralds first mentioned it, after the church had destroyed the Guild of Magical Studies; they called it nothing more than a terrorist group, something that would destroy the world if it would accomplish their own ends.

I wonder how much of that was the truth...

At any rate, the paladins were distracted, enough that he could try something. His fingers started twitching in a spell of shapeshifting, even as the fox called out orders.

"Get the bowmen on her! I want her destroyed!"

"But she...she's just -"

The reluctant horse was overruled, the bow-wielding members of the patrol rushing to take aim. Teryx turned to follow them, and he finally got a good look at this feline.

She was...completely naked, something that left him a little shocked, as did her height. She had to be at least six feet tall, and her arms and legs were lean and muscled beyond what he was used to seeing in female travelers. Her breasts bounced and shook as she jogged up the slope, but the most shocking thing was the mark she bore.

Between her breasts was a black footprint, standing out like a beacon in her fur. The toes laid right against her neck, and the heel halfway down towards her stomach. Whatever had marked her had huge feet, it seemed, and she bore it without the slightest bit of modesty.

As the bowmen started taking aim, she smiled, stopping.

"I wouldn't do that, paladins."

Even her voice sounded cocky, confident when she had no right. What was going on? His captor pulled him around, holding him from behind like a hostage as he marched towards the edge of the slope. The fox shouted.

"And by what power do you give us orders, heathen? You have signed your soul away to the devil."

"Ah, not the devil. And I wouldn't call him that, if I were you. My master does not take kindly to such titles."

"Well, I don't see your master here. And if he was -"

"Oh, you don't? Well, I guess you haven't been looking hard enough."

The gasps that went through the patrol were loud enough to have a slight echo, but Teryx barely noticed it. His attention was focused on the sudden build-up of power behind them, on the slopes above. Where the soldiers had been, now that he thought of it. And considering where it was focused...

There was no time to be subtle. The dragon made the last finger-sign his spell needed, and collapsed into a slurry of water. He ran down the slopes, barely feeling the vibrations of the fox's shouts behind him. He felt his body break apart and join together again and again as he ran over the rocks, desperate to get away from what was coming.

Even as water flowing down the mountainside, he felt the heat that burst through the ground. The shouts and screams were nothing more than vibrations, but he could guess what was happening. His body strained to burst into steam, and only his own willpower held it together. He flowed further and further away, and he pushed himself to keep on going. There was no way that he could stay there; if he did, he'd evaporate, and then he would be as good as dead.

The vibrations lasted for perhaps a minute before it came to a halt, and by that point, he'd found a little crater in the slope, where he poured his body and waited out the heat and the magical energy he felt. Teryx shuddered, hardly able to believe the extent of power that he'd just felt. Even with the cluster of magic-dampening sigils all around, someone had managed to create a localized eruption, burning through the paladins. At least, that was what he assumed the spell had been; he might have read it wrong.

Either way, it was a terrifying amount of power. Whoever the mage was, he didn't want to -

Another tingle, this time closer. Teryx started to shift, but stopped as something stepped through his watery body. A foot, and a big one, too. As water, he wasn't pinned, but the tingles...the magic...they were strong enough to convince him not to move.

He felt light pushing through his body, and as the foot withdrew, he realized that his watery form was taking on more solidity.

They know...

It wasn't worth fighting it; he would lose what energy he had if he did, and what little dignity was left. As long as this new mage wasn't a church sympathizer, he should be fine. Should. Letting go of the spell, Teryx transformed back into his natural state, the water flowing upwards until his draconian body was restored. A last-minute incantation saved him the embarrassment of being naked, and he finally opened his eyes.

"Oh...dear...gods..."

"I don't believe in the gods. Not when they want us exterminated."

No, but that's because you could probably wage war on the minor ones, Teryx thought. The black dragon in front of him was one of the most infamous mages across the former Empire, someone that the Guilds had attempted to contact for a long time before the rise of the churches. Whereas most mages were sentenced to imprisonment on sight with execution as an option, this dragon was sentenced to execution on sight.

Teryx bowed out of instinct, his life as a hermit having not quite eroded his basic courtesies to a more powerful mage. He stood up again, shaking his head.

"I...You're..."

"Draconicon, yes."

"I was...going to say naked..."

Which wasn't quite true. The dragon's lower regions were still covered, though by what material he couldn't say. It was black and shimmery, and reflected the light in a way similar to water. It looked wet, but tight, and collected all-too-well around the black dragon's...package. The other mage chuckled.

"A robe is fine for normal days. In times such as this, it is a target on your back. And besides, it's not like this flutters around when you're sneaking about."

"Then...you killed those soldiers?"

Draconicon lifted a hand, and Teryx saw the blood on his claws. He shivered as the other dragon shook it off.

"I...I should thank you...again..."

"You were about to die for being a mage. That's worth stopping."

Before he could say anything else, Draconicon glanced down. Remembering the cat, Teryx turned around and yelped as he saw her standing right in front of him.

"How did..."

"Well, it's easy to move fast when you don't have bows pointed at you. And I am a cat; climbing is easy."

"I...Who are you?"

"Hanna. An officer for the Order of the Black Foot. And servant to my master..."

She smiled as she said that word, her eyes slightly dreamy. It wasn't entirely disconcerting, but there was still a part of him that felt a bit ill at ease with the way that she loved it so much.

"Well...I...Thank you for saving me, but I must be going. There's...things I should attend to, and -"

A black-scaled hand slapped down on his shoulder, and he gulped.

"On the other hand, if you two want to talk for a little while, I do owe you a debt."

Hanna smiled.

"Splendid. We have a campsite not too far away. Master, can we teleport?"

Teleport? But that requires at least four -

Apparently, Draconicon was someone that worked on a different level of power than most, because the world disappeared, shifting away from them, only to slide back into place a second later. A campfire burned in front of him...and past that another...and another...

He slowly turned around in a circle, the water dragon's jaw dropping the more he saw. This wasn't just a campsite. This was an army camp. Dozens if not hundreds of tents ran off into the distance, taking up a sizeable chunk of the plains they were on, and men and women of all species walked about, barely dressed save for the strange attire that the black dragon wore.

"What...what is this?"

"The southern campsite. Fifty miles from the mountain."

"How...I can't..."

Draconicon chuckled, and pointed to a tent slightly larger than those around it.

"That's my place. Come. We'll talk, about magic, and about your future."

Teryx wasn't sure that he liked the sound of that.

I had no idea that the Order was this widespread...

He glanced over the map, shaking his head at the campsites that were spread out just on the borders of the old Empire. This one, the southern camp, was near the edge of it, but two others - the central and northern ones - were actually inside its borders, and looked even bigger than this one. That wasn't even counting the other markers that were near the smaller cities within the...

"Why is the Theocracy called 'God's Bastards?'"

"Our mapmaker has a sense of humor."

The lynx chuckled to herself, even though Teryx couldn't help but shake his head. As much as the church had replaced the Empire with its own rules and its own name, it was a bit...

Ah, who was he kidding? It was deserved, even if he wanted to be a better person. The water dragon smiled to himself as he traced the lines of the map, mentally adding up what he could guess from its details.

The Theocracy spanned a wide swathe of land, perhaps three thousand miles from one side to the other, and another thousand north to south. Over that span, perhaps four hundred cities existed, though only fifty were large enough to be marked and named on the table-sized map before him. The church certainly didn't push itself to expand past them, and before the explosion of religious fervor, the paladins and their orders had stayed to the biggest cities.

In the last ten years, however, since the overthrow of the Emperor and the instatement of the Grand Hierarch, the paladins had been sent out to every city, every village, and clerics had come after. These days, it was rare to find a place without a church, or at least an abbey, and each one had their own detachment of paladins.

Before that expansion, passing through Innuire - the little village where he'd been spotted - would have been a simple matter. Cause a little rain, raise a little well for the locals, and get paid in supplies for the next few months; simple matter. But not with the paladins, and not when they had horses to chase after him.

And they didn't even send all of them, he thought as he looked at the garrison information. The village - perhaps two miles from the mountain, fifty-two from their camp - was staffed with more than thirty paladins, more than a farming village really needed. Maybe someone higher up in the church had a better idea of what threat the place faced than the local clerics.

Teryx finally pulled back from the map, turning to his host. Draconicon lounged in a large chair, sipping at a goblet of water one of the footprint-marked men had brought in, and hadn't stopped looking at him since they'd arrived.

Considering the dragon's milky-white eyes, it was more than a little disconcerting, particularly as the dragon wasn't as covered as most people that Teryx had met. It was strange enough seeing someone walking around barechested all the time, but with so much of his legs exposed, not wearing any footwear, and that strange, shimmering cloth over his groin, it left him rather...confused.

Clearing his throat, Teryx forced a smile.

"You said...you wanted to talk about my future. What did you have in mind?"

"Something simple enough. I want you in my Order."

"Um...I...Well, as much as I am sympathetic to your order -"

"As you should be."

"I don't want to surrender my freedom. I like my solitude, living out in the wilderness. It's more...comfortable than this."

"That comfort isn't going to last long, if the church has anything to say about it. The Grand Hierarch knows people like you are out there."

"On the outskirts, living our own lives."

"He's already expanded the paladin order by five times its original size. He's treating it like an army, and using it like one. Do you think that he's not going to hunt you down when he's done subduing the villages and the other Guilds?"

Teryx shrugged, and the black dragon growled.

"Look at you. You saw what almost happened today."

"And I'm grateful. But I don't want to join your order."

"Why? We're fighting to keep magic alive. We're fighting to keep each other alive, here; what's to worry about?"

"I've...heard things."

He turned, looking over at Hanna. The lynx hadn't stopped smiling since she'd rejoined her master, and it still bothered him. The overly happy look on her face wasn't natural. Love, he'd seen. This was devotion beyond all normal means.

"I've heard that your mark isn't simply a symbol."

"You're right. It's not."

"...Well, I'm glad I'm right, but I didn't think you'd say that."

Draconicon nodded, getting to his feet. He walked towards the table, and picked up one of the markers, laid down by one of the villages near the northern border. It was different from the others, blackened and twisted, almost like it had been burnt.

"Do you have a guess as to what this is?"

"I...I wouldn't say that it is a campsite."

"No. It's a memorial. And a reminder of what happens when traitors join the Order."

He put it back, shaking his head.

"We used to accept anyone into the Order. Then the Hierarch started sending his men as spies, ostensibly working with us while at the same time sending information back. He torched over fifty mages and five hundred ordinary people there, and the spies were rewarded with a noble title and church land.

"Since then, I've made sure that everyone in the Order is as committed to our cause and our survival as I am. The mark ensures that there isn't a liar in our midst, and more, it connects us. It reminds us -"

"Of their place under your heel?"

That was, perhaps, the water dragon's biggest fear. While Draconicon's goals were good, the idea of having his loyalty forced, enforced, even created through the mark was something that left him fearful of the future. What if the dragon won the war, and then decided to take over on his own? What if he decided to extend the Order of the Black Foot throughout all the lands that used to be owned by the Empire? He'd become a whole new monster.

He heard Hanna take a step forward, but the black dragon waved her off. Instead, he took a few steps forward, putting a hand on the water dragon's shoulder, and smiled.

"You think far ahead. It's a skill that most here don't have."

Teryx started to nod, only to grunt as Draconicon's fingers suddenly tightened, squeezing hard.

"I can use that."

As hard as he struggled, there was no way to avoid getting shoved down to his knees. Draconicon's strength was too strong, and even though Teryx was far from a weakling, he could feel a strange tingle in the air. Magic, but different from anything that he knew. It seemed to channel to the dragon, making him stronger and stronger, pushing him down until he couldn't get up.

"What...what are you...doing?"

"I need any mage that I can get. Too many people have already died for the cause; I can't let you leave."

"But...I don't want -"

"What you want doesn't matter."

Suddenly shoved back, he hit the ground hard. Before he could get up, a big black foot slammed down on his chest, keeping him pinned in place. He squirmed, but there was no way up, the slight scent of musk rising from the bigger dragon's toes catching his attention for a moment. The heel ground into his scales, weight and power keeping him pinned.

"What matters, my friend, is that we survive. For that, I need people like you. Congratulations; you've been conscripted."

Before he could say anything else, he felt the same tingle he'd felt in the water, but this time, much, much stronger. He whipped his head down to the black foot on his chest, and his eyes almost bulged out of his head.

Draconicon's foot, from the toes to the heel, was absolutely glowing with magic. It shimmered with it, thrummed with power with such intensity that it actually felt like it was vibrating against his chest. He groaned as it pushed down on him, a feeling of pressure beyond simple weight shoving down on his ribs.

What...how...

The power of the other dragon's magic wrapped around his heart, but that wasn't all. He could feel it sinking through his scales, pushing through his body. It wriggled like worms through his blood, spreading the tingling sensation through him. He could feel it rushing down through his stomach towards his groin, and up through his neck towards his head.

The latter hit him first, and he groaned as Draconicon curled his toes. The sensation felt like they were wrapping around his brain, squeezing it, damping it down. Words and phrases pushed into his head, repeating with gong-like volume.

Service to magic... Magic must survive... Submit to service... Serve the Black Foot... Save magic... Serve the Black Foot...

It came faster and faster, repeating until the words droned together in his mind, becoming a cacophonous chaos that he could barely make heads or tails of. The tingling magic pressed around his head, occasionally 'curling' like Draconicon's toes around his mind. It ran through him, leaving him gasping, panting, shivering.

Soon, the tingling reached his crotch, and the water dragon arched his back at the sudden feeling of stiffness down there. He groaned, turning his head to glance around that heavy, black foot on his chest, and he blushed as his cock started rising.

"N-no..."

Service is good... Service to the Black Foot is good... Service feels good... Service to magic is right... Service to the Black Foot feels good...

"Feels good..."

He couldn't stop himself from saying it, even as the tingling, squirming feeling inside of him forced his cock further and further up. It rose high and mighty, so stiff and hard that it didn't even bend as Draconicon's tail stroked along its side.

As that tail teased him, he felt the foot on his chest suddenly heat up. The water dragon arched his back, unwillingly pressing himself harder against it as Draconicon's sole seemed to warm up, getting hotter and hotter with each passing second. It never reached the point of pain, only the feeling of an incredibly hot shower.

And then...

Then, the tingling began to fade. Draconicon lifted his foot, and a gooey black substance remained behind, strings of it running from his sole to Teryx's chest. The water dragon panted heavily, staring as it flowed downwards, dripping onto the footprint left on him. It ran from the heel at his sternum all the way up to his neck, the toes pressed at the softest point.

Draconicon pulled his foot further and further away, and the gooey strings kept lengthening and lengthening. He felt the tingles run through them, into his chest, and through his body. They spread further and further, like ripples that were getting bigger, stronger the longer that it went on. And...

And he felt a connection, a powerful bond with the black dragon above him. It was like...he didn't know. Like he wanted to serve...like he needed to serve.

Teryx shivered at the idea, but the words kept gonging away in his mind, drowning out his protests. It felt good. It felt right. It felt necessary to serve, to protect magic, to work with the Order of the Black Foot...

Then the strings snapped, the goo whipping back into the footprint. Teryx flopped back to the ground, gasping for breath as the connection faded to a tiny little thing in the back of his mind, still there, but dormant.

He was barely conscious as Draconicon smiled, sitting down again. As the mage ran a finger along the bottom of his foot, the connection opened again, and Teryx felt the black dragon's presence in his mind.

"You will learn to enjoy this...It will take a while for you to adjust, but you will enjoy your new purpose..."

"Yes...Master..."

Two weeks later...

Teryx adjusted the shimmering garment around his groin. He still wasn't completely used to it, but it was more comfortable than the robe he'd worn, by far. It left him with more freedom to move, and ever since he got over the strange shame he'd felt at having his member hanging free, he'd found it to be far more comfortable as well.

Something still felt strange about it, admittedly - after all, the material seemed to caress, squeeze, and reveal his shaft without actually exposing it - but he put it out of his mind. It was just part of his new life, like being barefoot all the time, working with the soldiers, and putting his magic to a better use.

The Order of the Black Foot was necessary. He understood that now. He still felt a bit worried about giving Draconicon his full loyalties, but what choice did they have? Nobody else was fighting back against the church, and nobody else had the strength to stand up to the armies of the paladins.

"Sir."

He turned. The horse soldier - he knew he was a soldier, as they were marked with a footprint over their crotch rather than their chest, like the officers and mages - saluted, then gestured outside.

"The dam is ready; we've collected enough water to flood out the barracks in the village below."

"Good. I'll be there in a second."

The horse nodded, and Teryx smiled at the way that the garment was different for the soldiers. For the mages and generals, they could choose whether they went fully nude - like Hanna - or did more of a 'paint' job like his own garment. The soldiers were bare in the front, save for their mark, and in the back wore something like a slender black string between their ass cheeks. It was quite...lovely.

Shaking his head, he pulled himself back to the task at hand. He pressed his fingers to the mark on his chest, and closed his eyes.

The mark was more than a symbol of loyalty. It was also a shared source of power. Every marked mage could draw upon it with the Master's permission, and it gave them the ability to use more raw energy than any of them could have drawn upon alone. As Draconicon gave him silent permission, he drew on the energies of several mages at the southern camp, and smiled as he felt it fill him.

This won't be just a flood...this will be a herd of water horses running through their precious abbey...

He felt a bit strange at the anger he felt. He hadn't always hated them like this...had he? He wasn't sure...but it didn't matter. This was the only way to survive. It had to be done.

It had to be.