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The Beastmaker's Promise

Sayn groaned in frustration as she leaned over her desk, staring at the papers scattered across it. Bad news, all of it, and all about the same thing: What she had come to refer to as 'The Centaur Problem'. She had the power and resources of a continent at her disposal, and yet she couldn't seem to fulfill a simple promise - one that had helped her GET where she was. She'd needed the Centaurs - their martial skill and tactical cunning, as well as their fearsome reputation - and they'd given it to her. In return, she'd promised to save their entire species from extinction. For some reason she had, at the time, thought that it couldn't be all THAT hard. She could not remember why.

On the surface, though, the problem had already been solved. Extinction wasn't hovering over the head of the equine nomads any longer, thanks to the social shifts her rule had created. Before, the Centaur's low birth-rate due to a severe gender imbalance had put them on the path of a slow decline, due to the losses they suffered in raids on human settlements and caravans. Now, though, there was peace. Numerous women - and not just humans - flocked to the centaur clans as 'volunteers', for short periods or long terms, providing the centaur stallions with the 'release' they couldn't get from the far-too-small number of centaur mares available.

But such a shallow glance failed to reveal the underlying problems. Sure, the Centaur had raided settlement in order to use the women to satisfy their desires, and they didn't need to anymore - so even with their low birth-rate, their numbers would start to climb again. But behind that simple math-problem laid the fact that the Centaur were WARRIORS, born and bred. They had been created that way, by the literal God of War - it was in their blood. The peace they currently enjoyed couldn't possibly last. Already, some of the tribal chiefs who had joined the impromptu 'Centaur Alliance' under Chief Parakemnon were getting restless.

The second part of the original plan was designed to address this - by exporting the entire species (or at least MOST of it) to the Southern Continent, where they could flourish and practice their martial skills on the vast population of monsters that inhabited it. But before she could put THOSE particular wheels in motion - and boy, would it take some muscles to get them moving - she had to clear the first hurdle: Correcting the birth-rate. Otherwise, the trip south would be a death-sentence for the Centaur. And fixing that was proving to be extraordinarily difficult.

Magic that altered a being on such a basic level that the change carried over to its children was part of the 'Forbidden' realm - magic reserved only for the Gods, and not allowable for mere mortals. Many called it 'Black Magic', and in a sense, she could understand why. Certainly, there was a vast potential for disastrous misuse in the power she was now searching for - the fact that she was planning to use it BENEVOLENTLY didn't change that. And unfortunately, that meant that very few beings had any kind of skill in the area...

The Kirin could not access the Forbidden spells at all - it went against their nature to do so, and magic was too intrinsically bound to their very beings for them to violate such restrictions. The Elves had tried, hoping to correct their OWN birth-rate problem - only to discover that any elf who overstepped the invisible boundaries of Black Magic immediately lost whatever spark of divinity that granted them their immortality... and subsequently aged, died and turned to dust within a handful of seconds. Humans, meanwhile, simply didn't live long enough to attain any real mastery in such a complex art, which was probably why THEIR creators hadn't bothered to institute such a radical restriction. There WERE human wizards in the world who explored and exploited the forbidden realm of Black Magic, but their skills were rudimentary at best, and none were anywhere near the level she needed to safely aid the Centaurs.

She'd queried the other races too, just for completeness sake, but without much hope. Both Beastkin and Merfolk DID use magic, but only on a primitive, shamanistic level. Elemental manipulation and simple healing. Worlds away from the level of sophistication needed to even START exploring Forbidden Magics. Same thing applied to the Centaurs themselves, needless to say. The Griffin, meanwhile, were apparently the only sentient race on the continent to have no aptitude for magic whatsoever. All of which amounted to a big, fat stack of "Sorry, can't help you" letters on her desk.

Of course, there was still one option left... a rather obvious, but also rather problematic one. She controlled the continent and all of its races by now - save for one. A single species had remained aloft of the whole thing, apparently considering the formation of the most powerful and coherent empire in history to be beneath their notice. And perhaps it was - after all, however enormous their egos were, their powers could keep up. Yes - the Dragons were arrogant, greedy, impulsive and self-absorbed, but they were also terrifyingly powerful.

She'd seen it for herself - the way a dragon could wield powerful, complex spells as easily as breathing. Years earlier, she had spent several days with a particularly amorous specimen, and the memories of that time still made her shiver. No lover, before or since, had seized her body with such skill and vigor. Only Korlin had surpassed him - by touching her heart and soul as deftly as her flesh. After she had come into power, she had attempted to contact that dragon again, to invite him to join her Harem as a representative of his kind... but with no success. None of the letters she had sent had been answered, and several messengers had disappeared outright.

However pleasant it might have been to have a draconic lover about, though, the main issue was that they were the only ones left who might be able to help her - or, rather, help the Centaurs. Being powerful magic-wielders who could grow to incredible age (though they were not QUITE immortal, unlike the unfortunate Elves), they certainly had the potential - assuming there wasn't some restriction built into them by their creator, as with the Kirin and Elves. There was only one way to find out, though - asking them. And since the only dragon she knew personally wasn't answering her mail, it was increasingly apparent that she'd have to go see him in person.

It wasn't unthinkable, after all. She DID know roughly where his den was, having been able to determine as much based on the vast amounts of intelligence available to her now. Leaning back in her comfortable leather-backed chair, she absently chewed on her lower lip as she turned the problem over in her head. If the Dragons had no way to help the Centaurs either, she was screwed. Well, probably. It'd be bad, anyway. IF the dragons had that power, though, she MIGHT be able to work something out. It might be expensive, but she had quite a budget at her disposal these days. In the end, there wasn't really much to debate - she had to open a dialogue with the Dragons and find out for sure, even if it meant going in person.

The sharp nails of her golden riding-beast dug into the rock-face with a sound that made her teeth ache. Combined with growing lightheadedness from the altitude, the ride was decidedly uncomfortable, and she had to restrain the urge to look wistfully downwards. Her 'base camp' was down there, in the foothills. The various hangers-on and servants that had attached themselves to her the moment she walked out the front gate of her palace waited there, along with a small force of Beasts she'd brought along as bodyguards. She wasn't about to bring any of them up the mountain with her, though - it could only provoke the dragon.

The peak she was climbing was both steep and isolated, with its pointy tip covered in eternal snow. Dragons tended to favor such mountains over those that were part of larger mountain-ranges - they were largely solitary creatures, after all, so they left the tightly-grouped peaks to the more sociable Griffons. This particular mountain was, based on the observations of nearby farmers, the home of the large, green dragon who had once visited her camp as an applicant for the position of 'First Consort'.

She had no particular trouble finding the entrance to his den... it was a huge, gaping hole in the side of the mountain, after all, plenty large enough to let him fly right in without needing to shrink to a more compact size. The floor was smooth, rasped clean of any imperfections by centuries of wear and tear. Three slight indentations could be seen, however - like the wheel-ruts of a wagon, but far broader and with an extra one added - going from the entrance and into the dark depths of the cave. In a flash of insight, she realized that those ruts had been worn by the cave's draconic denizen, walking the exact same path in and out, thousands of times, until his feet and tail wore away at the stone.

The little hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she ventured deeper into the cave. Dragons usually erected magical barriers at the entrance of their lairs, to deter anyone fool enough to think of stealing from their hoard. She couldn't SEE anything, but that just made it worse... even though logic told her not to be too worried. Some dragons supposedly used magical defenses with lethal force, but most were willing to at least talk to anyone who took the trouble to come before them with honest intentions - if only because of the potential for profitable business-dealings. And considering that this particular dragon had deliberately sought HER out only a few years before, he couldn't possibly hate humans enough to want to kill them just for setting foot in his cave.

A light, tingling sensation swept over her body between one step and the next, making her shiver. The feeling was fairly similar to when she walked through the magical wards of her own palace, so she'd probably just hit the first layer of his defenses - and she hadn't been forcibly ejected from the cave yet, which was a good sign. No hurricane of magical destruction descended from the ceiling as she continued to advance, nor did any deadly traps spring up. The tunnel simply stretched onward, past a couple of sharp twists and turns, and then emerged into a large, high-roofed chamber that most likely hadn't formed naturally.

Her breath caught in her throat as soon as she entered, and she could almost feel her eyes widen at the sight. She'd heard many, many tales about the grand hoards of dragons, but the stories were no match for the truth. Literal mountains of gold and gemstones, ranging from rough lumps torn fresh from the stone to elaborate jewelry, were piled together in a huge mound, covering an area larger than the courtyard of her Seraglio. Coins, rings and ceremonial weapons with gem-encrusted hilts spilled from the edge and scattered like a gleaming rug to the chamber's walls. In fact, if she took another two steps inside, she'd be walking on it.

It was enough wealth as to make the very concept meaningless. Very likely, there simply wasn't enough stuff in the world to spend it all on. And if one tried, it wouldn't work - this much gold, released into the economy, would render the material mostly worthless. Gold was valuable because it was rare, and a large part of the reason WHY it was so rare was that dragons had been hoarding it since the dawn of time. Same thing applied to the colorful specks that represented gemstones, most of them large enough that they could proudly have been displayed at the peak of a king's crown. Of course, dragons NEVER spent any of their treasure on ANYTHING. Nobody even really knew why they collected gold and gems... there were even some sages who claimed that mankind had first started to use gold as a currency because it could potentially be used to bargain with dragons for their aid, suggesting that the materials ONLY had their value_because_ dragons desired them.

Speaking of dragons, there was one resting on top of the pile. His body just about encircled the entire pile, making him larger than most houses. Bigger than he'd been when he landed in the middle of her camp, years ago - and yes, it WAS him, clad in the same dark-green scales she remembered - indeed, he was TOO big to fit through the tunnel she'd just arrived from. This suggested that he'd used the same size-changing magic he'd so delightfully applied to shrinking during their first meeting, in the opposite direction this time... which, by itself, suggested that he was deliberately trying to impress and/or intimidate her.

His eyes - each of them larger than her head at this scale - were half-closed as they focused on her in an exaggerated display of casual interest. He huffed, sending little trails of smoke rising from his nostrils, before he spoke. "So... The Beastmaker. You don't give up, do you? Well, I suppose you don't conquer the world by being a quitter..." She shrugged, and doubled down on his casual demeanor by sliding off her riding-beast's broad, comforting back, and walking towards him across the gold-strewn floor at an easy pace. "Not generally, no. Of course, I wouldn't have complained if you'd saved me the trip by just replying to my messages."

He harrumphed, turning his head away in apparent disinterest - though still keeping one eye trained on her. "I have no interest in corresponding with you. You may play with your little empire if you like, and pretend that all beings are as one beneath your benevolent rule, but the Dragons have no interest in becoming part of your little menagerie - and that's not just me talking. That is a unanimous agreement amongst our kind." Sayn winced at the note of finality in his tone, and pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to ward off the headache she could already feel rising in the back of her skull.

"Why such hostility... old friend? We had some good times together, and I thought we parted on fine terms." The 'for old times sake' card was mostly the only one she had to play, unless she wanted to pour most of the imperial budget into BUYING his time. She'd hoped to save it for later, but she had to keep him talking. Unfortunately, he hadn't missed the slight hesitation in the first sentence, and turned his head to glare at her again. "Hah. Old friend indeed. You were simply wallowing in sexual pleasure... and never even asked my name. Which is Praxinus, as it happens. How do you do, Sayn Running-Through-Grass?" The sarcasm was biting, but not as much as the depth of knowledge he demonstrated by citing her old name - one she hadn't used in years.

She sighed, rubbing her neck. "I can't deny that... I think I was deliberately avoiding learning anyone's names back then. Didn't want to grow too attached to someone I wouldn't get to... 'keep', for lack of better words. But that hardly means that you didn't leave a powerful impression on me. Also... you're avoiding the question." He snorted in bemusement at the pointed tone of the last part, obviously unused to hearing anyone talk to him like that. Nor was it easy for her. Her muscles were tense with the effort of maintaining the stance of exaggerated casual-ness... and she feared that her calm tone of voice would break at any moment.

Standing so near him... it reminded her of a lot of things. She could feel his mighty will and power on top of her, like a heavy duvet. His magnificent body was stretched out around her like a landscape, and judging from the scale, his tool would be the size of her entire body at this time. She knew how to handle things of that size... it'd be just like with the Leviathan. And a large part of her wanted to do just that - to dispense will all the political and diplomatic bullshit, and just throw herself down before him, begging for his cock. No other creature radiated such an aura of complete and utter confidence, or projected such a firm belief in their own paramount importance - and to someone like her, who found power and strength irresistibly erotic, that was like an aphrodisiac.

But she remained standing, a casual smile on her face, one hand resting lightly on her hip as she looked up at him - Praxinus, the Green Dragon - with a lifted eyebrow. She hadn't come all this way for a quick fuck - she'd come to fulfill a very important promise. Sensual though she might be, she knew well when it was time to separate business from pleasure. So she bore up under his bemused eyes, until he finally shrugged his mighty shoulders and grumbled. "It's not complicated. I stepped aside gracefully, because I felt the approach of the Kirin. I knew it would be better suited to be your Consort than I. We... respect the Kirin. They are about the only beings we can say that of. So to let a Kirin take my place was an honorable thing to do."

His long, reptilian face twisted into an expression of anger that made her want to take a few steps back... or better yet, run for the hills and duck behind something fireproof. "However, you did not stop there, did you? You took more Consorts, amongst the lesser races. Including those thrice-damned Griffons!" The anger leeched out of his face only slowly, and he turned it away again to huff another couple of smoke-rings towards the ceiling. "I should not be wroth at you. You acted out of ignorance, not malice. But you have nonetheless insulted me, and all of Dragonkind by extension."

Her mind raced as she attempted to follow the line of logic. Apparently, it was somehow unacceptable for her to have sex with 'lesser beings' after sampling a dragon? Well, the hows and whys didn't really matter - for now, she just had to roll with the blow and try to accomplish her main goal in spite of it. Fortunately, now that he'd gotten going, Praxinus seemed inclined to keep talking, so the conversation was in no danger of coming to a sudden end. "I suppose the same ignorance applies to those empty-headed 'worshipers' of yours, who have been showing up both here and at the cave of every other dragon without the good sense to keep his location a secret. All begging to sample our sexual skills, while still carrying the stench of Centaurs, Beastkin, and even Griffons on their bodies."

Sensing an inroad, she grinned winsomely up at him. "Well, you could've said the same for me when we first met - didn't seem to stop you. Well, except the centaur-bit." He rumbled a halfhearted agreement and shrugged again, setting off a small, tinkling landslide of gold in the process. "I suppose. And it is not as if receiving such visitors doesn't... have certain perks. I believe some of my brethren have even taken to keeping a few around as pets, a practice that otherwise went out of fashion several centuries ago. All despite the fact that those who do not elect to stay, obviously have no intention of remaining true to the revelation we provide - no doubt, they just go right back to letting centaurs or worse satisfy their raging desires."

Sayn nodded casually, but felt a brief burst of elation at that offhand mention of dragons keeping 'pets'. She'd seen several reports of her church's adherents going missing while on pilgrimages to dragon-lands, and while SOME of them no doubt had fallen victim to rock-slides, bandits, or even ill-tempered dragons, it was good to know that at least some of those 'missing' names had actually just taken up a new career... one she knew from experience could be VERY rewarding. The thought brought fresh flutters to the pit of her stomach, and she once again had to fight back her urges by taking a deep breath.

"Very well, then. I very much wish that you would give up your lofty position, and join in the peaceful - and profitable - empire I've tried to create, and I believe that I could solve this issue between you and the Griffons if you gave me a chance. But I have no intention of trying to force the issue - if you wish to be left alone, then by all means, I shall leave you alone." She said it all in a flat, even voice, but Praxinus nonetheless leveled a suspicious stare at her. "Hmm. That sounds like you giving up. Very unlikely. If you're giving up on the alliance... that just means that what you're ACTUALLY after is something else." She let him figure it out himself, just to give his already-enormous ego a bit of an extra boost, and looked away as if she hadn't let him pick up on that little deception deliberately.

"Well, since you put it that way... even if I can't obtain a general alliance with Dragonkind, that doesn't mean that an INDIVIDUAL dragon can't help me, for suitable recompense, no?" She grinned up at him with a slightly-embarrassed shrug of her shoulders, and he replied by rolling his eyes and huffing more smoke out of his nostrils. "I knew that was where it was heading... ugh. Fine. Out with it. I make no promises, but I'll at least hear you out... for 'old times sake', as you so succinctly put it." She had to restrain herself from grinning broadly with glee. Whatever the explanation for his anger really was, she'd apparently managed to cajole her way past it.

"Magic is what I need..." she said quickly, and started to pace back and forth across the gold-strewn ground. "I've been looking for a special kind of magical capacity for a while, now, and none of the... 'lesser races' have been able to help me. Nor can the Kirin. Apparently, such magics are... closed to them." This got his attention, and his eyes were now narrowing in speculation rather than in assumed boredom. "I need the ability to alter a being at a very basic level. To affect a change that will be passed down through generations. The power to change the fate of an entire people, basically. If anyone in this world can do so... it would be the Dragons, most ancient and powerful of those who wield magic."

Praxinus winced slightly - a strange expression on such a huge, powerful being - and laid his head down on his crossed forelegs. "Ah, yes... the Forbidden Power. Black Magic. The Domain of the Gods. Certainly, neither Elf nor Kirin could hope to explore it, for their creators forbid it. And the short-lived races could never even hope to enter it." He sighed, and seemed to contemplate the emerald-colored scales of his forelegs for several seconds, before apparently making up his mind. "Fine. If it'll get you to leave me alone... yes, there are dragons who have explored that realm of magic. They become marked by it - their scales gradually darken, and eventually fade to a deep, light-absorbing black. This was a mark to tell our creator, our God, that they had trespassed on forbidden ground, so that he might punish them... but, heh, he's not exactly around anymore, is he?"

She nodded, not really thinking about whether she should've shaken her head instead, and continued to listen with rapt attention as he started talking again. "One of them could probably help you with your problem. What price they might charge... I do not know. However, I DO know where you can find ONE of them... an old friend, back before he became obsessed with magical knowledge. Which is fortunate indeed for you, since those who dabble in black magic tend to isolate themselves, even by draconic standards." He lifted his head and a clawed hand along with it, and started to draw some complex designs in the air. A glowing image appeared before him, coalescing into what she recognized as an impossibly-detailed map of the continent.

His claw drew a glowing, red X over a remote corner in the northeast. "Here you will find him - Aterxeus. His lair is in an active volcano... his little way of discouraging visitors. But I'm sure YOU won't give up so easily." He smirked at the last bit, and dismissed the image with a wave of his claws. She scrunched up her face, trying to imprint the afterimage on her mind. Well, she could remember the general area, at least, and how many active volcanoes could there be around there? Meanwhile, Praxinus lowered his head back down to the gold-pile that served as his bed with a chuckle. "Feel free to mention my name to him, if you're so inclined. I do not know how much good that might do, though - we haven't spoken in centuries."

Recognizing the tone of his voice as a polite fare-thee-well, she quickly nodded, and then gave him a little bow for good measure. "Thank you for your help, Praxinus. Rest assured, I will not forget your name... but I will not bother you again, either. If you change your mind, however, or find yourself with any kind of problem I could help you solve... well, you know where to find me." With this, she returned to her golden riding-beast - which blended into the general decor remarkably well - climbed aboard, and sent it walking calmly back out of the dragon's den as Praxinus huffed dismissively behind her.

Another day, another mountain to climb, she thought cynically as her riding-beast's claws dug into the basalt, hauling her up the slope at speed. Compared to Praxinus' mountain, this one was neither as tall, nor as steep. On the other hand, Praxinus' mountain hadn't been on fire when she climbed it. He hadn't been exaggerating about the volcano being active - the crater high above her head burped a constant stream of charcoal-black clouds, and thin streams of magma oozed out of holes in the mountainside. The air was thick with the smell of rotten eggs, and choked with ash. The very expensive scarf she had wrapped around most of her face was the only reason she could breathe at all.

Getting there hadn't been easy, either. The volcano stood as a black pillar in the midst of the icy wastes of the continent's extreme northeast. Technically, it was on an island, but the ice connecting it to the mainland only melted during a couple of short months at the height of summer... and when the volcano erupted, of course. The closest human habitation was literally miles away - a tiny, snow-choked village of ice-fishers eking out a harsh living on the shores of the cold and stormy Northern Sea. She'd left most of her retinue behind there, after discovering to her amusement that the isolated village was completely unaware that they had gone to war with her, been defeated, had most of their leaders replaced, and finally had joined a great and glorious empire under her dominion. As far as THEY were concerned, the only authority that mattered was the sea, which fed them or crushed them as its whim took it.

She'd brought only a handful of beasts with her for the last leg of the journey, and finally left them at the foot of the volcano with orders to alert her if it looked about to erupt. She honestly didn't think that it would make much difference, but heck, it made her feel a little better. And besides, like before, she did not consider it prudent to ride into somebody's living-room at the head of an army (even a small one), especially when she came to ask a favor. Of course, the IMPORTANT part of her tiny force was the twin 'birds' currently floating on the powerful updrafts the volcano provided - they were the ones who had spotted the dark cave-mouth, so well-concealed against the almost-as-dark basalt cliffs.

She reached the cave a few minutes later, after leading her riding-beast on a final detour around a lava-stream - she couldn't even come CLOSE to the stuff without the wooden parts of the beast beginning to smolder. It was just as big as Praxinus' front door had been, but the floor was rougher and lacked any visible ruts. Clearly, Aterxeus didn't get out much. Or maybe he just hadn't been living there all that long. Or the constant tectonic activity of the volcanic rock kept roughing up his floor. Really, she didn't have nearly enough information to start forming any judgments. All she COULD do was advance cautiously and try to convince herself that, if Aterxeus had any magical defenses set to 'stir-fry', Praxinus would've warned her about it.

The cave, however, ended rather suddenly, in a blank, very solid-looking wall of basalt. Consternation and annoyance chased the nervousness from her mind. Had she overlooked another cave-entrance somewhere else on the mountain? Had Praxinus sent her to this godforsaken corner of the world on a wild goose chase? But as her riding-beast continued plodding towards the wall, lacking any new orders from her, a familiar, tingling sensation passed over her, causing her thoughts to immediately freeze up. Moments later, with a dull, grinding noise, the wall in front of her slid down into the floor, revealing a passage beyond. It looked smoother, neater, than the mostly-natural cave she'd gone through to get there.

Cautiously, she guided her riding-beast inside. Almost as soon as it stepped onto the smooth floor within, she could feel a difference. Outside, the ground constantly trembled with small vibrations, occasionally escalating into an audible rumble, as the volcano shifted and boiled beneath her. Within... all was still. The air, too, was clean - neither the ever-present ash nor the thick stench of sulfur could penetrate whatever invisible barrier she'd just walked through. Feeling increasingly tense, she pushed her beast onward at a trot, feeling the oppressive heat of the volcano fade with every step.

The passage emerged into, of all things, a library. A perfectly-square room, with every wall lined by bookshelves from floor to ceiling - interspersed occasionally by glowing, blue crystals that spread both a subdued light and a pleasant chill throughout the room. Shimmering fields covered the front of every shelf, however - like a disturbance in the air, they were only visible when she moved her head. A stealthy hint that stealing from the dragon's library would not go over well... fortunately, she had no intention of doing so in the first place. She'd come for magical knowledge, sure, but if the spells she needed could be taught by or learned from books, her human allies would've already mastered them.

A square opening was visible in each wall, in the exact center - same as the one she'd just emerged from. To the left and right, however, the passages beyond were barred by a painfully obvious magical barrier, powerful enough that sparks occasionally flew across the semi-visible surface. The passage in front of her, meanwhile, was invitingly open. Clearly, she was being shepherded somewhere, but considering that she was kinda-sorta intruding in someone's private domain, it really was only courteous to follow along anyway. With a slight shiver, she sent her riding-beast stomping forwards across the perfectly-smooth basalt floor towards the exit on the opposite side.

Another short corridor led her into a large, domed chamber that seemed in some ways familiar. A pile of gold and gems dominated the center of the room, and atop it laid a dragon, his scales gleaming jet-black in the light of a glowing, red-orange crystal suspended from the ceiling. The color of the scales, however, was far from the only difference between this tableau and what she'd seen when she visited Praxinus. The hoard was far smaller, for starters, and she could see a lot more silver mixed in with the gold. On the other hand, there were also more odds and ends mixed in - bits of jewelry, weapons that seemed to glow with their own light, gem-studded books bound with golden hinges...

The most notable feature, however, was the huge, sky-blue orb that hung in front of the dragon's face, hovering placidly above an outstretched claw. Shadows and images seemed to flicker across its surface, and the great, black dragon was staring intently into it. He was also, she suddenly noticed, not so 'great' that he couldn't have passed through every passage that had led her there. In fact, he seemed a bit smaller - by maybe a foot in total - than Praxinus had been when she'd first met him. That suggested that this was his 'natural' size... meaning that he hadn't bothered to scale himself up to impress her, like some other dragon she could've mentioned.

She slipped off her riding-beast's back, and cautiously stepped forwards while the dragon continued to studiously ignore her. Clearing her throat, she broke the silence. "Mighty Aterxeus - I am Sayn, called The Beastmaker, and I have come seeking aid. Praxinus told me that your unparalleled knowledge of magical mysteries might be able to provide me with the help I need..." The black dragon ignored her for another few seconds, then turned his gaze from the floating orb and grinned down at her in a way that made her shiver - and not entirely out of fear. She could feel his will weighing down upon her, as she had with Praxinus, but... it was stronger. Heavier. And somehow... more active. Being near Praxinus had felt like someone was stacking sacks of flour on top of her in an attempt to drive her to her knees. Being near Aterxeus, meanwhile, felt more like a giant hand pushing down on the back of her neck, making it clear that she should be groveling before him, not looking him in the eye like an equal.

"Ah, yes... Sayn. I have been expecting you. It was amusing to see that dear old Praxinus hadn't forgotten about our old friendship yet. So please, pray tell, to what do I owe the honor of a visit from the Empress of The World? The Returned Goddess? She who has brought unity and prosperity to all of the people of this continent?" His words were more playful than sarcastic, and as he talked, he lowered his hand towards her - making the hovering orb follow along. As it drew closer, the images flickering across it became clearer, and she suddenly saw herself standing before a great, emerald-green dragon, in a faraway cave.

Despite flinching slightly at the sight, she quickly steeled herself and tried her best to return the grin. "I would not expect a scholar such as yourself to ask questions he already knows the answer to..." Aterxeus laughed, heartily and out loud, whether at her impertinence or at her perceptiveness. "True, true! I am merely trying to... make polite conversation. Something I fear I'm rather out of practice with. But yes, indeed, I know well why you're here, as I know who and what you are. I have been watching you since your rise to power first began. You're the most interesting thing to have happened on this continent in centuries, after all, so I could... hardly miss the show."

The idea of a draconic wizard - a practitioner of dark and forbidden magics - having watched over her every step for the past several YEARS sent ice-cold shivers down her spine. Paradoxically, however, it also made her feel a bit hot under the collar. If he'd watched her that much, he'd probably seen how she spent most of her spare time, too. And ever since Aishee had joined her harem, she'd acquired a certain... taste for being watched. Preferably by someone she knew and trusted, but still - combined with the nearly irresistible attraction she felt towards the enormous concentration of raw power the dragon represented, it was enough to make her nipples harden and her pussy begin to itch.

With some difficulty, she pushed her desires down and tried to focus. The pertinent fact here was that he already knew exactly what she needed, which saved her some explaining. She looked up and met his eyes - huge, ruby-red and with vertically-slitted pupils - again. "Well, that's convenient, then. You already know that I have a promise to fulfill - to save the Centaurs from the foolishness of their creator. No other being I have talked to has the power to do so - but do you?" Aterxeus shrugged and, with a wave of his claws, sent the sky-blue orb hovering across the room towards a three-legged brass stand where it settled down without a sound. "Certainly. It would be a complex spell, but well within my power."

Her heart skipped a beat, and she could not entirely stop a triumphant grin from flashing across her face. "As I expected - truly, there is nothing beyond the power of the dragons!" It couldn't hurt to stroke his ego a bit more. He rolled his eyes at her in reply. "You sure are eager to stroke my ego, aren't you?" Whoops. Maybe she'd been a bit too obvious, but backing down at this point would just make it worse. Quickly licking her suddenly-dry lips, she pushed onwards. "I speak only the truth. You wield a power that is beyond Kirin, beyond Elves. Only a dragon could ever hope to possess such secrets." A slight smile creased his scaly lips, indicating that the flattery was, at least, having some sort of impact, despite him throwing an additional eye-roll at her.

"Yes, yes, I'm quite magnificent, and thank you for reminding me. But do keep in mind, just because I CAN do something, doesn't mean I WILL... and even if I COULD be convinced to do so, there remains the question of what I might ask in return. You certainly can't flatter me into doing it for free, no matter how charmingly you smile..." The dragon's voice carried a definite edge, and she quickly dialed down the bright smile to assume a businesslike demeanor instead. "Very well - by all means, let us negotiate. I have significant resources at my disposal - whether you seek wealth or knowledge, I am certain I can help you."

Aterxeus, however, replied with a snort and shook his head. "Oh, I sincerely doubt that. I DO value my library - it's a nice collection, and pleasant to browse when I'm bored. But that's ALL it is - I long-since surpassed the realms of written-down knowledge. I expand my power only through my own research, with which you can provide little help. As for wealth... pah. I have enough for a comfortable bed, and unlike my short-sighted brethren, I have no desire to stack up gold and gems purely for the sake of showing off." His words filled her with consternation... but just as quickly, it drained away. He'd opened the door to let her in, already knowing what she wanted and what she could give him. Why would he have done that, if she truly had nothing to offer?

And sure enough, his face began to shift into a strangely-familiar smile. Even without the flickering, forked tongue licking across his lips, wetting them, she could've identified it - a smile of desire. "However... there IS something you could give me in return for my aid..." She felt her breath quickening as he lowered his head further, looking directly at her while his nostrils twitched - no doubt picking up her scent. "You are the most powerful non-dragon on the continent these days, no? Your power and reach is enormous. All bow to you... even the Kirin, who consider your enlightened rule to be the very ideal they have striven towards for so long."

His smile only grew wider as he continued to talk - and her own excitement grew with it, as she sensed where his long-winded proposal would end. "So, to bolster my ego - which you seem so eager to stroke in the first place - I propose you this... become my slave for a week. Obey my every whim, serve my every desire, as you debase yourself before me. In return, I will help you fulfill your promise, and save the Centaurs from the folly of old Thenares. What say you, then, o mighty Empress?"

What COULD she say? She needed his help, desperately, and he knew it. Of course, the very idea of providing the 'payment' he requested also made little bolts of desire shoot up her spine. Her pussy had gone straight from itching to drooling hungrily. A whole week... last time, she'd had but three days, and she'd just about lost herself to the pleasure. And that had been on her own 'turf', rather than in the dragon's own den... and Praxinus hadn't possessed quite the same level of dominating willpower as this black beast did.

Usually, when she surrendered herself to her submissive impulses, it was fairly short-term. An evening of sinful pleasure, perhaps a whole day at most. To simply give herself over to the dragon's will for so long... the mere thought made her heart jump and her breath catch in her throat. She'd left Cybra and Korlin to hold down the fort back in the palace, and they could surely manage for another week. Compared to the time she'd spent traveling just to reach Aterxeus' volcano, it really wasn't that long, even.

With logic backing up her darkest desires, it was all she could do to stop herself from just dropping to her knees on the spot. Instead, she put on a strained smile, and answered him like it was no big deal. "Sounds workable. Just let me send a message to my retinue first, so they don't worry about my absence." He nodded, the broad grin never leaving his muzzle, and shrugged offhandedly. "Oh, certainly, go ahead. I have some quick preparations to make myself, anyway." The last bit was equal parts suspicious and intriguing, and she kept an eye on him even as she walked back to her riding-beast and started rummaging around in its saddlebags.

As she watched, Aterxeus scooped up a hefty clawful of gold and silver from his hoard - coins, bars, nuggets and pieces of simple jewelry. Then he breathed a gout of fire into his hand, heating the metal to white-hot temperatures in less than a handful of seconds, and started to chant under his breath. In his hand, the glowing metal began to spin, even as little sparks of electricity flew from his claws to be absorbed by it. Magical power seemed to hum in the very air.

She shook her head, forcing herself to focus on the task at hand for just a little while longer. She pulled paper and pen from her saddlebags, along with a compact little package of lightweight wood and sailcloth. Using the unmoving flank of the riding-beast as a table, she jotted down some quick orders on the paper, telling her retinue that she'd be staying with the dragon for a week 'to discuss diplomatic matters', and instructing them to head back to the last reasonably-sized city they'd passed on the way and wait for her there. No point in them camping out in the middle of nowhere while she had her fun inside the nice-and-warm volcano, after all. Then she prodded the sailcloth-wrapped package - prompting it to unfold itself into a birdlike shape - handed the letter to it, and sent it flying off down the corridor she'd arrived through.

Finally, she sent the riding-beast lumbering away too, to wait for her in the natural basalt cave outside the den proper. Having it standing around as a reminder of her powers would just be... distracting. With all that handled, she turned to look up at the jet-black mass of her master-for-the-week, Aterxeus, and found that he'd finished HIS 'preparations' too. Lying in his hand were five rings of pale-yellow electrum, with one of them being noticeably larger than the other four. As she stepped towards him, he lowered them towards her with a warning. "Once you touch these, our deal will be sealed - and there will be no backing out. You will be mine for a week, and any failure to obey my orders will be... harshly punished."

She hesitated for only a second, before reaching out to lay a hand on the still-warm metal. The moment she did, the rings began to vibrate, and one of them immediately snapped forwards and wrapped itself around her wrist. The other rings levitated into the air as well, and then rushed towards her other wrist as well as her ankles, encircling them in a metallic grip. The big one, meanwhile, flew forwards to clamp itself around her neck - it was tight enough to feel constricting, but not so much as to choke her. She ran a finger over the metallic circle. There were no locks or joints, and thus no apparent way to remove it. She had no idea how the ring had gotten ON in the first place - it had just happened, too fast to see.

At the front of the ring now wrapped around her neck, she noticed another, smaller ring attached to it. The kind of place where a leash or chain could easily be snapped on. It was, in fact, a slave-collar, albeit a really ritzy one, and the realization brought heat to her cheeks. She'd never worn a collar before, despite the various submission-games she'd played. Above her, Aterxeus chuckled. "Ahh... they look good on you. But perhaps I had better test that they're working as intended." He made a sudden, sharp movement with one claw, and suddenly her arms were wrenched behind her back. The rings on her wrists slammed together with a metallic chink, and remained stuck that way as surely as if they'd been forged as one. He made another gesture, and she found herself struggling to keep her balance. Her legs were sliding apart, and as she looked down, she saw that a glowing rod had appeared between the ankle-rings, pushing them apart.

Just as she was about to topple forwards, unable to regain her balance with her arms constrained, a chain of glowing energy emerged from her collar to wrap itself around one of Aterxeus' claws. With a sharp, painful tug on it, he pulled her back upright by the neck, leaving her momentarily out of breath and dizzy. With those rings in place, her body was not her own to control, and he could clearly activate them with little more than a thought. As he waved his claws through the air again, however, she found her hands freed and the spreader-bar between her ankles gone. A moment later, he twitched a claw and made the glowing chain attached to her collar disappear as well.

She took a moment to catch her balance AND her breath while above her, Aterxeus weaved another spell - this one far more complicated. Before she could ask him what it was about, he released it, and she felt a wave of tingling, magical energy wash over her. Instinctively looking down, she saw a strange glow that seemed to come from within her body - a large concentration between her legs, rising from there in two broad lines, one behind the other. The one in the back made some turns and twists, and then disappeared, while the one in the front terminated in a large, glowing blob with two smaller protrusions on the side. With a start, she realized that she was looking at her own birth-canal and colon, somehow glowing straight through her body. Before she could decide whether it was fascinating or just really, really creepy, however, the glow faded, and Aterxeus nodded above her with a satisfied smile. "Everything looks like it's working... heh. Well, I DO rarely make mistakes."

What had that last part been about? It nagged at her, but she had no time to contemplate it. Aterxeus obviously wasn't the kind to waste time - he was already giving out orders. "Now, then... remove those rags you're wearing. All of them." She looked down herself - she wasn't exactly dressed like an empress, but the sturdy traveling-clothes she wore were carefully tailored - hardly rags. Nonetheless, she quickly obeyed, pulling off jacket, tunic and pants one after the other, and hesitated only momentarily at that point. Then she added her underwear - frilly things of white cotton - to the growing pile, and was thus left standing naked but for the manacles and collar.

Aterxeus scooped up the discarded clothes in one claw and, with a disdainful glance, blew a burst of his fiery breath at them. The sturdy leather and cloth turned to fine ashes in a split second, making her feel vulnerable - strange, really, considering that she had little problem going naked back home. However, her expectation that she might be left in the nude for the duration of her stay was quickly quenched, as the dragon grabbed a silver-bound oak chest from his hoard and thumped it down in front of her. "Worry not, my dear... like I said when you arrived, I HAVE been expecting you. So I made sure to acquire some... suitable garments for you ahead of time. Come, get dressed..." A gesture from one of his claws made the chest spring open, and she curiously leaned over it to see what it contained.

Even folded up, the combination of black and white cloth immediately told her what her new outfit was: The nigh-universal uniform of a maid, used for female servants in palaces and mansions throughout the southern and western parts of the continent. Designed to be pretty more than practical, they effectively turned servants that would otherwise have been effectively invisible into part of the decor. As she started to pull the uniform on, however, it quickly became clear that THIS particular set had been... rather heavily modified. The white cotton stockings were standard, but the frilly, bottomless garter-belt they attached to wasn't - it did, however, remind her heavily of Thielwen's delightfully erotic 'wedding night' outfit. The normal slippers that went over said stockings (to ensure that the maids didn't scuff the marble floors or whatnot) had been replaced with laced-up black leather boots that reached nearly to her knees, outfitted with heels high enough that she'd be effectively walking around on her tippy-toes while wearing them.

The arms had gotten a similar treatment - the long sleeves had been shortened into puffy things around her shoulder, and the simple white cotton gloves (designed to prevent maids from leaving greasy fingerprints on the things they were cleaning) had been lengthened to reach her elbows. From there on up, it just got worse... or better, depending on one's perspective. The normally ankle-length skirt had been shortened to the point where it barely reached to mid-thigh, and the neckline had been pulled down... WAY down. Specifically, her breasts were entirely exposed, resting on a pair of frilly white pads at the top of the corset that was built into the dress. She was not surprised when the corset tied itself tight of its own accord - not quite tight enough to make it too hard to breathe, but certainly enough to make her already-noticeable tits pop out even more.

The outfit was completed with a 'crown' of frilly white cotton, making her completed transformation from empress-slash-goddess to sexed-up maid. Aterxeus looked her over with desirous eyes, nodding in approval as she struggled to her feet, trying to keep her balance in the ridiculous boots. She felt extremely exposed, what with the short skirt and the lack of anything underneath it, not to mention her boobs being literally on display - somehow, it seemed even more embarrassing than just plain being naked. The outfit hid little and drew attention to a lot.

Including, she belatedly noticed, the fact that the golden rings around her ankles were outside the boots now. She'd pulled the stockings on OVER them without a thought, but now they were... huh. The wrist-rings were on top of the gloves as well, somehow. More dragon-magic. She'd best get used to that, apparently. Enough said, between the slave-collar, the manacles and the outfit, she could hardly look more submissive if she tried - and Aterxeus was obviously enjoying the sight. With a chuckle, he rolled over on his golden bed, showing her his belly... and the rod now rising above it, as it emerged from his scaly sheath. "Now, then, my little maid - come up here. Your first duty awaits."

Quickly, she dashed towards him... or tried to, anyway. Within a couple of steps, it was all she could do to remain standing. She wasn't terribly experienced at wearing high heels to begin with - prior to her 'ascension' to empresshood, she'd never even tried such footwear, preferring something more practical... in particular, something that allowed for rapid fleeing in the event that somebody tried to kill her, which wasn't all that rare after all. Since then, she'd found it necessary to wear high heels on a number of official occasions, and she'd learned to manage - as long as she moved at a slow, stately pace. Even then, though, she couldn't manage the enviable grace with which Thielwen moved when SHE was wearing heels. Either way, these tall stiletto boots were way outside her experience, putting her at constant risk of losing her balance even IF she moved carefully. The fact that the floor was littered with coins, nuggets and stray gemstones did NOT help matters.

Aterxeus cocked a scaly eyelid as her pace faltered, sighing with exaggerated patience. "Hmph... slacking off already? Your employment is off to a rocky start, it would seem. DO hurry it up, won't you? If you persist in testing my patience, I shall have to... punish you." She shivered slightly - in excitement more than fear - at the timbre he put into the word 'punish'. Nonetheless, she quickened her pace as much as she dared, swaying like a stilt-walker (which was pretty much what she FELT like, on top of those ludicrous heels) as she made her way up to the pile. She didn't even try to climb it - or him... in her current footwear, that would've been a fool's errand. Instead, she dropped to her knees and began to crawl and climb up the metallic mountain.

It was surprisingly unpleasant. Dragons seemingly enjoyed sleeping on such mounds, but then again, they had nigh-impenetrable scales. She didn't. All too many of the lumps of metal and jewelry she was crawling across had sharp edges, and they bit ruthlessly into her hands and knees, with the thin, white fabric of her gloves and stockings offering scant protection. Still, considering the dragon's obvious impatience, she did not dare crawl more carefully. Besides, it wasn't that far before she reached his hind-legs, and could pull herself from a surface of mixed treasure, to his steel-hard scales... which were positively merciful by comparison.

She found a stable position, sitting across the base of his tail with her impractical boots dug into the surrounding treasure and her hands resting against his hind-legs. This put his scrotum conveniently in front of her, and she quickly leaned forwards to get a better look. The powerful, musky scent of concentrated maleness teased her nostrils, and the sight made her eyes sparkle. Aterxeus hadn't bothered to shrink for her sake - which meant that the column rising in front of her was somewhat larger than her whole arm, and at least as thick. Covered in a thin layer of sheath-lubricant, it shone in the vague light, a beacon of color in the sea of black that was his scales.

It was just as she remembered from when Praxinus had first introduced her to draconic love - human in shape, but for the ridges of bone around the lower edge of the crown, and down the middle of the shaft from there. It was bright pink near the top, but gradually faded to darker shades of purple near the base. Finally, and most importantly, it was muscular - no mere blood-filled balloon, but fully prehensile - and the fibers twisting beneath the silk-smooth surface created a sensation she hadn't found the like of anywhere else.

As she leaned forwards and started running her tongue up and down the imposing tool, the taste - strong and salty - brought the memories back into full clarity. She'd tasted it several times over the course of those three days, years ago, where Praxinus had dominated her with nothing but his overwhelming will and strength. The thought of what she'd get to experience now that she had literally signed herself into slavery for a week made her pussy - which rested, naked underneath her short skirt, against the smooth scales of Aterxeus' tail - drool hungrily.

She left a wet trail of pussy-juices on those scales as she worked her way further up his body, her tongue eagerly exploring every square inch of smooth, hard cock it could reach. Soon, she was leaning bodily against it, her generous breasts halfway encircling the thick shaft even as she licked and caressed the bony ridges of the bright-pink cockhead. Under this loving treatment, it hardened further - she could feel the powerful muscles straining against the smooth skin, hard as steel. Its already significant girth also grew even further, making her thank the stars for Dragonkind's ability to magically change sizes at will.

Even as she peppered the smooth cockhead with kisses, however, Aterxeus shifted beneath her and grumbled. "That's quite enough foreplay, I think... let us move on to the main event. I want to feel your body wrapped tightly around my shaft..." She looked up, shivering at the eagerness in his voice, and licked her lips. The musky residue on her tongue made them tingle. "Of course... Master. If you'll just shrink to a more convenient size for a bit..." The dragon laughed loudly, making his body tremble beneath her. "You expect me to change my size for your convenience? What an arrogant servant you are... GET UP!"

A glowing chain suddenly appeared in front of her eyes, attached to her collar, and a powerful tug on it sent her scrambling for height, her hands gripping the cold electrum wrapped around her neck to avoid getting choked. The impractical boots she was wearing suddenly came into their own - the sharp stiletto heels easily caught on the microscopic edges of the dragon's otherwise-smooth scales, giving her some degree of purchase. After a few hectic seconds, she found herself standing on top of his broad groin-area, legs spread wide in an effort to keep her balance.

Something brushed across her labia, and she instinctively looked down. Between her legs, the impossibly-large cock stood, vertical and carefully aimed at her pussy. It was nearly as thick as her thighs, and while not quite as long as her legs, it would have reached above her knees even if she's been standing up straight. Desire and willingness really didn't figure into it - her body could not accommodate an intrusion of that size, it was as simple as that. She needed to explain that to Aterxeus...

She didn't get the chance. Simultaneously, the glowing chain holding up her neck disappeared, and her hands - previously holding on to the collar for dear life - were wrenched behind her by the magical manacles. The sudden shift left her struggling to keep her balance, her already treacherous footing quickly giving way. Then a heavy, black claw landed on her shoulder and pushed her down with tremendous force, and her high-heeled boots simply skidded sideways and down while her body plunged towards the impaling member beneath.

Despite her last-second attempt to swing her body out of the way, the prehensile shaft kept up easily - and as she fell, the blunt cockhead hit exactly where it was supposed to: Dead center in her generously-lubricated but entirely too small pussy. She felt the labia part quickly under the force of her own descending body, and braced herself for the pain. It never came... or, at least not in the quantities she'd expected. The sensation of her pussy being violently stretched open and filled was familiar, and what little pain it caused was swiftly drowned in the pleasurable sensation of the veiny, ridged shaft rubbing across her inner surface as it pushed deep inside of her.

The sudden influx of pleasure, combined with the mixture of relief and confusion that her fears had been rendered moot, left her disoriented and dizzy as her fall continued - and it was only the sudden, sharp shock of reaching the bottom that jolted her out of it. This, at least, was somewhat painful - her groin hit the scaly bulge of Aterxeus' sheath with significant force, sending a rather unpleasant shockwave rippling up through her body - most notably her painfully-exposed clit. The short stab of pain DID, however, do a wonderful job of clearing her head, and she quickly took advantage of it to try and catch up with what had happened.

Looking down, she could easily answer that, from a purely physical angle. There was a slight, but noticeable bulge in the middle of her abdomen, going all the way from her groin to her ribcage. Entirely consistent with the fact that her labia were resting against cold, hard scales. She'd taken Aterxeus' impossibly large cock right to the root, in one swift movement, and was now thoroughly impaled. But that was, of course, impossible - as she'd calculated before. She knew the limits of her own body, having tested them before. Praxinus had carefully sized himself to prod them. Parekemnon had smashed up against them without a second thought. In depth and girth alike, she seemingly had somewhat greater tolerance than a normal woman would... but not to any significant degree. And Aterxeus' tool was so far past those limits it was barely even funny. His girth should've twisted her hip-bone apart. His length should've torn straight through her uterus and beyond.

But none of that had happened. Instead, she merely felt... pleasantly full of cock. In fact, she could just about feel his cockhead resting against her cervix - not painfully so, but just enough to clearly mark its territory right to the bottom of her pussy. Which indicated that her womb currently occupied a space somewhere in her upper chest region... a ludicrous notion. She wasn't even having a hard time breathing. The whole thing could've induced a headache even if she was otherwise unoccupied, and with half her mind instead busy trying to convince her to just give up and enjoy all the tasty pleasure it was soaking up, it was enough to make her feel faint.

Aterxeus' chuckling head rose before her, swaying sinuously at the end of his long, snake-like neck. "Why so concerned, my little servant? I may not feel inclined to adapt myself to your needs... but I certainly would not neglect adapting YOU to MINE." The pieces began to fall into place in her confused mind. The rings... manacles, whatever. They had more magic than just the restraints. The way part of her lower physiology had suddenly started glowing straight through her body. He'd even checked that the spell was active and working before he put it to the ultimate test.

"But... how?" she mumbled, still trying to get it all to add up, not really directing it at anyone. Aterxeus answered anyway, lifting a scaly eyebrow. "Oh, come now. You came here because I wield magic like few other beings in this world, no? Well, to be honest, I DID have to give up on performing this little... change through purely biological modifications. It would have just become far too... complicated. So I settled for some clever spatial manipulation. In layman's terms, my dear, you're now bigger on the inside than on the outside. So by all means... indulge yourself, and do not worry about something as mundane as your body's limitations." As he talked, she felt the magic binding her wrists disappear, leaving her free to move again.

She didn't need to be told twice. The sensation of having so much cock inside her - more than ever before - without any kind of pain... it was intoxicating. She wanted to feel it moving inside of her too - but Aterxeus obviously wasn't inclined to do the work himself. Grunting, she pulled her legs up in front of her, lifting her knees to her chest as she searched for a decent footing, the thin heels once again helping her to find purchase on the slick scales. She then leaned forwards, planting her hands on the dragon's jet-black abdomen, right between her spread-open legs. There was no way for her to hold on there, especially not with those smooth white gloves she was wearing, but then she didn't need to, anyway. She just needed a place to shift her weight to as she leaned further forwards.

With her legs solidly planted, she was able to use her knees as a fulcrum, tipping forwards, lifting her rear in the process. Inch after inch of the bulging, sinewy shaft slipped out of her, gleaming thickly beneath her, wet with a slippery mix of saliva and pussy-juice. It easily followed her movements, tipping forwards at an angle, flexing slightly within her as the muscles lining the shaft worked. Her grunts of effort turned into moans of pleasure as the well-textured surface slid past her impossibly-stretched labia, and she no longer cared that such an expansion should've realistically devastated her body.

Her body was nearly horizontal when she reversed direction, pushing back against her partner's abdomen to shove herself back down. With gravity once again lending its assistance, the thick cock thundered home inside her with almost as much force as last time - and with no confusion or worry to get in the way this time, she could fully appreciate the sensation. Moving like a human see-saw, she began to tip herself back and forth over the immense tool as quickly as she dared, vaguely worried about losing her somewhat-precarious footing. Somewhere ahead, Aterxeus groaned in apparent satisfaction, indicating that she wasn't the only one ascending rapidly towards an orgasm.

He got there first. Presumably, he was a lot more... 'backed up' than she was. She wasn't far behind, though - the feeling of his cock throbbing and spurting inside her, spraying her womb with thick, creamy cum at pressures high enough to be almost painful, quickly pushed her over the edge. As he body shuddered in pleasure, her mind losing control of the rapidly-jerking muscles, she once again lost her footing and dropped down to full penetration - legs spread wide against his broad abdomen while his impossibly-large tool vibrated within her. She could only sit like that, shuddering and trying to catch her breath, as her climax escalated.

The driving force behind the growing intensity of her orgasm was, of course, the tremendous quantity of hot sperm being pumped into her womb. The volume matched with his size, with gallon after gallon of the thick slime spurting from the tip of his oversized tool, filling her to capacity and beyond. Obviously, Aterxeus' spatial wizardry extended to her uterus too - otherwise, she would've popped like a particularly gross balloon before he was halfway done. Instead, she could look down and see a small bulge at her stomach - clearly visible, and impressive in its own way. Indeed, she could feel the skin of her abdomen stretching from it, a familiar, borderline-painful sensation. But at the same time, she could ALSO feel several gallons of cum bubbling and shifting inside her, matching her every movement with a slight delay. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine what it SHOULD look like, based on that sensation alone - her stomach and abdomen, hugely distorted and stretched away from her body, beyond the measurements of even an end-of-term pregnancy.

Aterxeus' voice, slightly out-of-breath, snapped her out of her reverie even as the cum-flow stopped. "Not... bad. For a first time. Though a bit more vigor would not have gone astray. Perhaps I'll show you how it's done..." She nodded absently, one hand rubbing across her bulging belly as the powerful orgasm that had roared through her began to wind down. She wasn't really listening, though - too caught up in her own pleasure. She could not, however, ignore the large, sharp-clawed hand that now rose to encircle her waist entirely, lifting her up as easily as a child's toy.

She moaned as she felt the textured surface of the two-foot-and-change shaft rub across her labia and inner walls once more, leaving the warm embrace of her body. Her swollen uterus was still supplying her with a pleasant feeling of warmth and fullness, even as the thick meat left her, and the friction piled on top of that served to add a new peak to her diminishing climax. She was still reeling from that, her boot-clad feet skidding across smooth scales in little jerks as she was held in the air, when the tip of the dragon's oversized cock slipped out from between the strained folds of her pussy. With this cork removed, thick cum instantly began to dribble from the gaping hole, adding a creamy layer of extra lubrication to the tip of the colossal tool.

The dragon's hand moved her a little bit forwards, and the prehensile cock shifted a little bit backwards - then she was pushed downwards again. Her fleshy buttocks were forcibly parted, slathered in juicy cum as the cockhead searched out her tiny, puckered sphincter with the precision of a sniper's arrow. Her past experiences taken into consideration, it would be hard to describe the diminutive orifice as 'tight', normally, but compared to the size of the intruder, that was exactly what it was - and despite whatever magic Aterxeus had woven into her body, accommodating such bulk strained its limits.

But accommodate it she did, inch after inch of the thick shaft disappearing between her ass-cheeks as he lowered her down over it. The pain was mild, and easily faded into the aftershocks of the hefty orgasm she'd just been enjoying. As that deafening sensation of ecstasy wore off, however, she was able to once again fully appreciate the thoroughly strange sensation brought on by her situation. Soon, she was sitting on smooth scales again, her buttocks flattened against his hips as he enjoyed the full penetration - and she could feel every inch of it, over two feet of throbbing cock-meat buried deep in her ass. As before, it was something she knew was impossible - and if she'd tried to do so anyway, the failure would've been agonizing. Yet, here she was, feeling barely a twinge of pain as the great, hot mass throbbed within her.

She was momentarily reminded of Parakemnon, the Centaur Chieftain. Once, driven by an overwhelming urge to feed her submissive tendencies, she'd given him free reign on her ass. In terms of length, he was actually not too far from this dragon - though the girth was another matter. He'd pushed her ass to the limit and then some, delivering a pounding that had rendered her incapable of comfortably sitting down for days afterwards. Despite the fact that he hadn't really managed to perform a full penetration, the experience had been decidedly painful - though it hadn't felt that way at the time, due to her descent into sexual submissiveness and borderline masochism. One thing that had been perfectly clear to her afterwards - when her head cleared - was that his stallion-sized cock represented her upper limits. The fact that she could handle him at all was arguably superhuman, but if she went any further... she knew it wouldn't end well. She'd kept that in mind since then.

Now, though... in terms of sheer mass, Aterxeus' draconic tool was easily twice that of Parakemnon's. And by virtue of some strange magic, she was able to experience it safely and comfortably. The feeling left her somewhat dazed, and she had little chance to recover before the dragon took the next step. His grip shifted, and her body was suddenly twisted, spinning around the fulcrum of his cock. Despite the ample lubrication that coated the entire shaft, the friction was enormous - and as before, she could feel every inch of it. Her legs twitched numbly as they were dragged across his slick scales, and her hands rose to grab at the huge talons that held her waist with a gentle, yet firm grip. She couldn't even really decide whether to struggle, however - her mind was too busy trying to decide whether to interpret the massive anal stimulation as the first step towards a fresh orgasm, or some kind of torture.

It was only a half-rotation, though... and as soon as he'd stopped spinning her, now sitting facing away from him, the world was upended again, much to her confusion. Stabilized by the huge hand wrapped around her waist, and the huge cock lodged up her ass, she felt herself swinging through the air for a second while a tingling, cascading, metallic noise could be heard. Then she was face-down on a coin-strewn stone floor, surrounded by shadows, and instinctively struggled to get her hands and knees under her. This was made easy by the fact that her rear end was somehow hovering a few feet above the ground.

It took her a few seconds to orient herself and figure out what had happened. Aterxeus had rolled over - and off of his pile of gold - and was now on top of her, supporting himself on three legs while waiting for her to get her bearings. She was still impaled on his cock, and its sheer size prevented her from slipping off easily. That, of course, also explained why her knees wouldn't reach the ground. Dimly, she remembered a position she'd often seen Thielwen use when her handsome centaur consort Achidias mounted her in the garden, and tried to replicate it. Legs straight and widely spread, maintaining her ass at the right height. Hands pushing against the ground beside her head for leverage. The elf - whose body was significantly tougher than any old human's - made it look easy, but Sayn had always found such a pose entirely too exhausting to maintain, preferring to drape herself over something suitably elevated when she craved Achidias' attention. This time, though, it didn't seem like she'd be given that option. Nothing for it but to tough it out!

As soon as she finished taking up the position, the jet-black claw gripping her waist disappeared, landing in front of her instead, where it stood with its twin like a pair of obsidian pillars. The view between them - with the dark-scaled chest arching out of sight - really drove home the sheer size of her lover - but at the moment, she was mainly concerned with the pillar lodged up her ass, which was now starting to shift inside her. The scaly ceiling above her moved in its entirety as Aterxeus swung his whole body back, pulling the majority of his shaft out of her in a long, smooth movement that left her feeling slightly dizzy - the friction made her ass feel hot, and the sensation of so much textured cock sliding across her sensitive sphincter was as arousing as it was impossible.

Enough said, the black dragon seemed quite determined to show her how a PROPER fucking was done, turning the odd foot of movement she'd been able to manage while mounting him into a joke. The impossibly-long thrusts hammered into her, with what felt like a significant percentage of his massive weight behind them. Even though her magically-altered body absorbed the thrusts, the impact was another matter - the hard scales of his groin collided with her buttocks on every insertion, sounding off with a loud, fleshy *smack* even as it tried to push her forwards. Within a handful of thrusts, her arms started aching from the sheer exertion of holding herself back against this force. Her ass-cheeks, meanwhile, were rapidly reddening - a far more familiar and pleasant sort of pain, though she had never had it delivered in quite such a way.

The impact-force didn't all land on her ass, though - more of it was deposited in some undefinable place deep inside her, as his cockhead thundered home. She could feel the force radiate through her body like a wave... rather literally, since her womb was nearby, and still filled with an impossible quantity of cum. It wobbled under the impacts, sending odd feelings of pleasure scuttling up her spine, even as the drip-drop of white jizz leaking from her well-used pussy turned into sharp spurts emitted at the end of every thrust.

Thanks to Aterxeus' magic, her body was bearing up under the assault with ease. Her ass was stretched, and noticeably so, but it could only barely be described as 'painful'. The modifications he'd wrought were working flawlessly, protecting her fragile body from the effects of this violent lovemaking. Her mind, however, was another matter. She'd always relished the sensation of having a big, powerful, dominating body hovering above her, fueling her submissive tendencies. The one currently covering her in shade, pounding her with bone-shaking force, was far bigger, stronger, and more self-assured than any she had sampled before. Even as a potent orgasm - chiefly anal in origin, but aided by the shockwaves spreading down through her still-tingling pussy - began to build somewhere in her altered abdomen, her mind was quaking, retreating deeper inside her submissive mindset with each shuddering thrust.

Fortunately, having just busted a nut in her pussy, Aterxeus had extra staying-power on his side. He wasn't about to finish first. The climax, escorted by wordless groans of primal pleasure, came and went... and a new one began to build. By the time he finally came, it was far enough along that the sensation of hot, slimy cum being forcefully blasted into the depths of her intestines, filling, flooding and stretching them, pushed her over the edge. The high-pitched moans it brought with it, along with the glazed look of her eyes, signified that Sayn the Beastmaker, Empress of the World, had left the building - and only Sayn the Pleasure-Slave, Willing Submissive, remained.

Shortly afterwards, the pressure of the cum-blasts hitting her insides conspired with her shaky legs - strained to begin with, then weakened by two orgasms - to make her collapse. Her knees buckled, and she fell forwards to hit the floor, leaving Aterxeus' shaft to slide out of her well-worn ass with a slimy, sucking sound. A half-hearted spurt of cum - the straggler of the load - emerged from his still rock-hard cock after she'd tumbled to the ground, applying a slimy coat to her buttocks and upper thighs. Some of it hit her neat, black maid-dress too - but the fabric, magically treated, was apparently impossible to stain, and the otherwise sticky substance slid right off.

Breathing hard, she struggled up to her hands and knees, and looked over her shoulder. The impossibly-huge shaft still dangled behind her, glistening in wet shades of pink and purple. Pooled beneath it, between her legs, was at least a gallon worth of cum - white and goopy, mixed with traces of pussy-juice. Most of it had, after all, leaked out of her slit - one spurt at a time - during the long ass-fucking she'd endured. Here and there, a glint of metal marked a coin from the dragons' hoard that had been caught up in the deluge.

The shadow that covered her lifted, as Aterxeus pushed himself up, sitting on his hind-legs and looking down at her with an expression of disapproval on his broad, reptilian face "I was just about to compliment you on a fine job... but what is this mess? You have been leaking all over my treasure! And my scepter is stained besides... you're supposed to be my maid, so GET CLEANING!" The last part was not a shout - considering the size of his lungs, that would just have been excessive. Rather, it was said with a firm, carefully-emphasized and very authoritarian tone of voice - one that spoke directly to her current, submissive state of mind. Despite her tired, aching limbs, she scrambled to her feet, looking desperately around for cleaning-implements - and hoping that she wasn't expected to do it all with her tongue. That would be... a lot of work.

Fortunately, that did not seem to be the case. Right next to where they'd ended up as they rolled down the mountain of wealth, the silver-bound chest that her new uniform had been delivered in stood open. She was fairly certain it had been empty, once she'd taken out all the clothes - but it certainly wasn't now. Instead, it was filled with all the implements a maid might need - mop, broom, sponge, feather-duster, polishing-rag, bars of soap, and an inexplicable bucket of warm water. Struggling to keep her balance, atop shaking legs and impractically-high heels, she staggered over to it and grabbed what she needed. The Master's command could not be ignored... she needed to clean his cock, mop the floor, polish the stained coins... so much to do, before He became impatient!

To say that she settled into a routine would be somewhat inaccurate. For starters, there was no real sense of time in the cave - no rising or sinking of the sun, and thus no daily routine. She simply rested when the Master allowed it, and ate when he took pity on her and supplied her with a meal. Otherwise, she worked - in one way or another. She washed the cave's floor, and dusted every nook and cranny. She polished the golden treasures, and the Master's gleaming scales. She cooked meals, using a fire-pit dug in one corner of the cave - for the Master, though he usually granted her a few scraps of it, unless she'd been bad. And, yes, she was punished, for her frequent clumsiness, in many inventive ways. The high-heeled boots tied to her feet, the uneven floor scattered with coins and gemstones, and her frequent fatigue conspired to send her stumbling and falling quite often... sometimes scuffing or dirtying parts of the Master's treasure, or even dropping things she was carrying. This did not please the Master.

The most basic punishment was a firm spanking - her wrists and ankles were pulled together by the magical manacles, and a long, glowing rod grew between them, pushing her legs apart as she crumbled to the floor, the weight of her upper body resting on her face and breasts even as a delicate pair of claws grabbed her short skirt and lifted it out of the way. Whiplike slaps from the tip of the Master's long, slender tail then pounded her fully-exposed buttocks and thighs, painfully reddening them. The number of strokes, as well as their intensity, varied depending on how annoyed the Master was - but she knew very well that he never used anything approaching his full strength, for if he had, her body would not have endured even a single swing.

He often mounted her immediately afterwards, claiming that her bright-red ass was 'very inviting'. But then, he mounted her quite often regardless. At any time, whether she was resting or working, he might interrupt her - with a calmly-spoken command, or a firm claw at the back of her head pushing her into position - and call on her to serve in a different way. Sometimes, like the first time, he ordered her to climb on top of him and ride him under her own power - an act that she soon acquired greater familiarity with, eschewing the awkward position she'd used back then in favor of squatting on his cock with her legs widely-spread and her hands on her knees - lifting herself bodily before plunging back down on the long shaft. It was an exhausting, full-body workout, and only possible due to her growing skill at maintaining her footing on slick scales while wearing high heels, but more importantly, it pleased the Master.

She always thanked him afterwards, regardless of which one of them had been on top. He never failed to give her at least two or three orgasms for every ride, and the pleasure that thus rolled over her soothed her aching muscles and tired body. It was payment for her hard work, and the only thing she really needed. And besides, her politeness pleased the Master. Sometimes, afterwards, he'd pull rings and similar jewelry from his hoard, and declare that he'd give her a 'decoration' as an added reward. They moved through the air by his magic, attaching themselves to her body with a short, sharp jab of pain each time - a pain that was well worth it to have such tangible proof of the Master's favor.

The first time, he attached twin golden rings to each of her earlobes. The tiny, golden needles pierced the thin flaps of flesh with ease, sending a twinge of pain running through her - though, noticeably, two of them went through easier. Dimly, she recalled - she'd worn earrings once, for a while. Then thrown them away. The holes had closed since, but apparently, the cartilage had still been weaker in those spots. That half-remembered recall made her chest twinge in a strange way, and she quickly chased it away, burying her mind in obedience. The rings, while simple, were quite fetching, and they were reminders that she had pleased the Master - that was all that mattered.

The next time, however, was more painful. Held in an arcane grip, two large, heavy rings of gold, each crowned by a gleaming ruby nearly the size of a man's eyeball, hovered towards her chest. She had to suppress a sudden urge to pull back as the rings opened, embracing her exposed nipples - each of them showing a razor-sharp tip that looked far too hard to be mere gold. Nonetheless, she stood her ground - chest proudly puffed out - and only gnashed her teeth a bit as the rings snapped shut. The sensitive tissue parted before the metallic points, and the rings were closed once again - the crimson gleam of the rubies providing a colorful contrast to the black-and-white theme of her outfit. The thick rings provided a constant sense of pressure inside her nipples, leaving them somewhere between sore and sensitive, and making her constantly aware of the heavy rings as she went about her daily business.

Remembering the pain of those piercings, she quailed a bit when - a while later - the Master pulled eight small, thin golden rings from his hoard, and instructed her to lift her skirt and spread her legs. But she obeyed, far beyond resisting at that point. The rings opened, showing gleaming spikes like the previous sets, and floated down to her most sensitive bits. She felt their cold grip around the fleshy folds of her outer labia, pushing up against her body, and shivered slightly. She could feel the protective layer of still-sensitive flesh being bunched together, almost folded up, as the rings pushed higher - four on each side - and flinched as they snapped shut. The eight penetrations were simultaneous, blending into a single jolt of pain - but it was not as bad as she had feared. Worse than the ears, perhaps, but actually less painful than when her nipples had been decorated. Later, she realized that with her outer labia thus sealed tight, the inner parts of her pussy were left exposed to the air - rendering the tissue even more sensitive than normal, and ensuring that she received even more orgasms whenever the Master decided to use that hole. A fine gift, she decided as she writhed in pleasure, the discomfort of her constrained labia disappearing amid the ecstasy.

Finally, some time later, she was once again ordered to expose herself before the Master, and watched him retrieve from his hoard a single, thin, golden ring topped by the gleaming star of a brilliant-cut diamond the size of a fingernail. There was no hesitation in her movements as she obeyed, nor any fear of pain in her mind. Disobeying was literally unthinkable, and refusing a gift from the Master was - if possible - even more so. She did not even speculate on where that ring's destination might be - why worry about such matters? Her body belonged to the Master, and there was no point in her wasting time worrying about what he intended to do with it. Not a finger, nor an eye moved as she felt the cool metal rest against the tip of the tiny, fleshy nub above her already-pierced pussy - her clitoris, the most sensitive, nerve-filled part of her body. Then, it moved a tiny bit further up, and closed. The jab of pain that went through her failed to even make her bat an eyelid - had she still worried about such matters, she would've determined that it wasn't really any worse than when her labia had been pierced. The ring had been seated, now, in her clitoral hood - just above the actual, sensitive organ. Its location not only made it a gleaming centerpiece of her decorated genitals - it also ensured that whenever her clit emerged into the air - propelled by her frequent arousal - the heavy, cool stone would be resting against it. When her body swayed beneath or on top of the Master, the ring would swing with it, sending shocks of intense sensation through up her spine whenever it impacted her exposed clit.

However, despite the variety - and the occasional addition of some new body-jewelry - it all flowed together in her mind after a while. Cleaning, sex, cleaning, sex, food, sleep, and start over again. Only the really unusual events stood out in her memory afterwards - whether they had been pleasurable, painful or something else entirely. Like the time where she tripped over a coin while bringing the Master his dinner, sending well-roast cuts of meat spilling out across the floor. The floor was - as always - freshly cleaned, and once various stray bits of gold and gemstone had been picked out, the meat was perfectly edible... but the Master was nonetheless incensed, and declared that since she had such poor respect for food, she could eat something else instead. Then he activated the chain attached to her slave-collar and pulled her forwards as he raised his tail high, guiding her towards the small hole beneath it...

As she tumbled facefirst towards her Master's tail-hole, she hesitated for maybe a quarter of a second. She knew what he expected of her, and she dimly remembered having done it before... but only to females. And only humanoid ones, at that. Doing it to a male dragon... that was a whole new sort of depravity. But... she'd been bad. And this was the Master's orders. The hesitation evaporated, and she planted her hands against his haunches for stability as she obeyed the insistent tugging of her collar and dove in. Tiny, perfectly-smooth scales gave way to night-black, leathery skin around the puckered little orifice, and soon it gleamed jet-black as her saliva coated it. Eager to redeem herself, she dug in with furious determination, pushing her tongue into the tight hole, nostrils vibrating as she breathed in the bitter, smoky scent. It was probably the most submissive, humiliating thing she'd ever done... but along with the male musk mixed into the smell, and the sense of the Master's immense body looming before her, it only served to push her even deeper into the mindset of a slave.

She continued her task until he was satisfied... long enough for him to finish his dinner, and a bit after that. He turned around, then, showing that his cock had fully emerged from its sheath, and was throbbing-hard. "I suppose you DO need to eat SOMETHING, hmm? Well, you may draw your supper from my loins, then..." She wasted no time in taking him up on that - in fact, she smiled ecstatically as she dove forwards, reaching for the purplish-pink scepter. He'd never asked her for oral pleasures before, so if he did so now, it meant that she'd been forgiven for her earlier stumble. She was also eager to sample the taste of him. Not that there was much to taste at first, as she began to trace the muscular texture of his shaft with her tongue - a hint of salty sweat, a trace of bitter sheath-lubricant, that was about it. Of course, she HAD been quite careful with cleaning his cock off after every time he'd used it on her...

That changed, however, when pre-cum began to seep from the small, teardrop-shaped hole at the tip of his cockhead. She eagerly lapped it up, and then glued her lips to the gap while wrapping her body around the rest of the shaft - rubbing her flat belly and bulbous breasts against it, while running her hands up and down the backside. She swooned at the bitter, nut-like flavor of the thin liquid, and - eager for more - pushed her tongue down into his urethra, drawing a groan from above. Apparently, her earlier efforts at his tailhole had pushed him pretty close to the peak of pleasure, and it did not take long for her intimate oral treatment of his scepter to draw the desired reaction.

Her tongue was pushed back by the sheer pressure as the first spurt of cum entered her mouth. It was hot - not body-heat hot, but hot like a bowl of soup fresh from the cooking-fire. It was also thick, and slimy, and savory, and an odd mix of bitter and salty. It filled her mouth completely, coating her tastebuds even as she hungrily swallowed it. It was only the first, half-hearted spurt, though... the next was bigger, and filled her mouth beyond capacity. Her cheeks bulged out like an overly-greedy squirrel, and as the creamy fluid hit the back of her throat, she couldn't swallow fast enough. More of it rose into her nasal cavity to run out of her nostrils, forcing her to tear her head away from the spurting cockhead, swallowing, coughing and sneezing all at the same time in an effort to clear her airways.

Before her, the draconic cock continued as it were, unconcerned by her head's absence - sending spurts of white cum fountaining into the air, cutting a sharp contrast with the black belly-scales behind it. Wincing at the sight, she quickly blew her nose, swallowed a dollop of cum that had gotten stuck underneath her tongue, and dove in again. She was able to partially capture the next couple of spurts - letting the surge fill her mouth, then pulling her head aside before it overflowed - and as the orgasm wore down, the last bit of the load - like the first - was within her capacity to swallow wholly.

But she knew already that the Master wouldn't be pleased, and sure enough, he looked down at her with a disappointed headshake. "I suppose I should have known you weren't ready for that... nonetheless, I could not have foreseen that you'd make such a mess of... well, everything, yourself included!" He gestured with a jet-black claw, and a large mirror in a shiny, golden frame lifted itself from his hoard and flew over to hover in front of her - sure enough, she was a mess. The enchanted uniform that he had gifted her was about the only thing that WASN'T coated in sperm - her hair was utterly soaked in it, and her face was just about glazed. Quite a lot had pooled in her cleavage, too. Worse, some had splattered across the Master's belly and chest, staining his scales.

She received her punishment as soon as she'd finished cleaning off the Master AND herself - two dozen tail-slaps, hard enough to leave the pattern of his scales engraved on her buttocks for a long time afterwards, and making sitting entirely out of the question. It was, she was fairly certain, the most severe spanking he had given her. Nonetheless, she accepted it without complaint. She could still feel the warmth of his cum in her otherwise empty belly, nourishing her - and the thick, bitter, overwhelmingly male smell of it lingered in her nose for days afterwards, filling her with desire.

There was also that time where, after she had spilled cum on his treasure one too many times, the Master decided to do something about her... tendency towards leakage, once and for all. With his magic, he quickly crafted two simple 'plugs' from electrum, similar to the manacles and collar that marked her service to him. She spread her legs for them eagerly when he ordered her to do so, and shivered with pleasure as the cool, smooth metal pushed into her. The size was nothing she didn't handle every day. One plug - a simple cone-shape which narrowed before a broader base - was pushed into her asshole, while another entered her pussy. That one was longer, narrower and more curved, fitting the shapes of her insides - but it, too, thickened towards the end, then narrowed before reaching the broad base.

As soon as they were inside, however, she could feel them sticking to her skin - as if they'd been glued into place, they created a perfect, water-tight seal. She couldn't have removed them if she tried. The bases now stuck between her legs made it awkward to stand and move, but needless to say, the Master wasn't going to be sympathetic about that - so she continued her work, walking bow-legged as the two plugs moved against each other inside her, sparking a steady stream of mini-orgasms. That sensation, however, shifted as the day wore on. The Master still made use of her body whenever he saw fit - and more often that day than usual, it seemed. With a gesture of his claws, one of the plugs would fly out of its designated orifice, vacating it for his use - and once he was done, the plug would squeeze its way back inside, sealing her tight once more.

The massive quantities of cum he pumped into her, thus... stayed. Looking down, she could see her belly bulging out underneath her maid-uniform, with the enchanted corset blessedly loosening itself to fit. It looked like she'd packed on several pounds - and had a tremendous meal on top of that. Her belly-skin was painfully stretched. Still, it was within the realm of the possible, and no more than her body could handle. Meanwhile, whenever she moved, she could feel it all moving inside of her - gallons upon gallons upon gallons of cum, contained within her magically-altered insides. Her womb and intestines alike were straining under the enormous quantities that filled her.

Constantly, the weight and pressure of the cum-sea she contained pushed against her insides - her ass, her pussy, and her womb - creating a strangely arousing feeling, even when she wasn't moving. Of course, she was, more often than not - albeit barely. She had, by then, become comfortable with the high-heeled boots the Master had given her, and rarely tripped up - but between the base of the plugs pushing against her thighs, and the sensation of an immense, fluid weight shifting inside her with every step, she was barely managing to stagger along. She fell a couple of times, as a result - and soon found herself bent-over as usual, to receive the customary punishment on her buttocks. The tail-slaps sent shockwaves through her entire body, now - shaking the gooey mass inside her. She came, twice, during the spanking.

The Master did not fail to notice this - and, apparently aroused by her moans of pleasure, mounted her immediately afterwards... using each of her holes in turn, and firing a fresh load of cum into her already overstuffed insides. Every thrust into her cum-packed orifices produced a lewd, slimy noise, and sent waves up through the goo, intensifying the experience. By the time he was done, she'd climaxed half a dozen times - and now had 4 full cum-loads filling her ass, with 6 of the same stretching out her womb. She was fairly convinced that by then, the mass of the cum inside her actually outweighed her entire body. The pressure was beyond intense, and pushing rapidly into painful. Whatever magic the Master had used to alter her insides, it apparently had its limits.

Nonetheless, she had to carry on - doing her work, even though she could barely stand. Every other step she took seemed to induce a small orgasm, which always rapidly faded into pain as her ass attempted to squeeze down on the huge mass of liquid filling it - and failed. She was a shuddering, staggering wreck by the time the Master finally took pity on her and declared that she had, presumably, learned her lesson about dripping on his treasure. He then activated her manacles - locking her wrists together above her head, and pushing her ankles apart with a glowing bar of energy, before slipping a single talon underneath the point where the wrist-manacles joined and lifting her over the toilet-hole. It was a gaping pit that disappeared into darkness below and - judging by the sulfuric smell and vague heat rising from it - probably terminated somewhere inside the volcano's molten heart. Then, with a word and a gesture, he recalled both of the plugs, finally giving her release.

The deluge of gooey white cum that emerged, showering into the pit to disappear from sight, was beyond belief. Once it left her orifices, it escaped from whatever magic had previously compressed it... or however it worked. But it still needed to get out, first - thus giving her the unique sensation of having both of her holes stretched to the limit by a column of liquid, propelled by internal pressure and gravity alike. It was a strange and pleasurable feeling... but unfortunately, she was too busy enjoying the simple relief of the removed pressure, after so many hours of feeling it build inside her, to notice. It took several minutes, too, before the off-white waterfall finally dribbled out, and the Master pulled her back over solid ground. She still needed to wash off her inner thighs, though, before she could go to her rest - they were positively coated in an inch-thick layer of cum. And, needless to say, she was more careful about leaking from then on.

Still, it was not the last time she was punished - nor the worst punishment she ever had to endure. That came not long after - when a particularly vigorous fucking from the Master left her in a temporary, orgasmic daze, and she stumbled at the wrong moment. A carelessly-placed foot kicked over a bucket of dirty water, leaving it to wash across a small fortune worth of now-stained treasure. She rapidly cleaned and dried the affected bits of the hoard, but she felt the Master's eyes on her the whole time, and knew that a severe punishment would be waiting for her as soon as she was done. She could not, however, have predicted its NATURE.

"Normally, I would redden your rear severely for such a mistake..." he rumbled, shaking his broad head. "But I have noticed that you seem to be... enjoying such treatment a bit too much. Which makes it ineffective as a form of punishment." So instead of bending her over with her ass in the air, he guided her over to a golden throne that he'd apparently pulled out of his hoard. The crimson velvet pillow that had once been part of the actual seat, though, was gone - and the surface was instead the pale white-ish gold of electrum.

Once she'd seated herself on it, as he instructed, he mumbled a few words - and the manacles around her wrists and ankles immediately moved, sticking to the arm-rests and legs of the throne, respectively. Thoroughly restrained, she could not have moved if she tried, even as the cold, metal seat beneath her began to shift. Hard, metallic protrusions rose from the flat surface, pushing against her pussy and sphincter alike, easily opening the well-used holes and rising higher and higher. The living metal rose and twisted, making her shudder at the cold touch - but also at the pleasurable sensation. Rising and growing, the twin towers of hard metal soon equaled the Master's cock in terms of size, filling her to capacity, even as it began to absorb her body-heat and lose the uncomfortably cold touch. So far, she couldn't see how such a delightful chair could be a punishment.

Then, a huge, crystallic orb hovered down in front of her - it was the one that the Master used to look at far-away things with. As it floated a foot off the ground, taking up most of her field of vision, the Master moved his claw about it and whispered a few words. The sphere lit up, and a confusing series of images flashed across its surface, as if the view was moving through the world at a sickening speed. Then, it stopped, at a strangely familiar sight. An unfinished palace with alabaster-white walls. An island of green and blue in the middle - a park with a small lake, surrounded by buildings. As the view descended, details became clear - there were people there. No humans, though. A centaur, a griffon, a kirin, and others... people she knew and loved. And they were vigorously fucking each other.

In the lake, a mermaid floated with her pussy just above the surface of the water, while a starkly beautiful woman with hair as blue as the spring sky bent over her, licking it. They were barely visible, however, what with the virile young centaur covering most of the view as he mounted the woman from behind, delivering powerful thrusts that sent little circle-waves out from his submerged legs. Near them, at the edge of the pond, limbs covered in light-brown fur could barely be seen sticking out from underneath a griffon, splayed legs jerking with every thrust of the golden-furred lion-hips. Behind them all, a beautiful elf-maid, wearing a thoroughly sexy outfit of pure white, had her face buried underneath his tufty lion-tail, moving her upper body back and forth in time with his thrusts - a feat that would've been all but impossible with the coordination and timing of a mere human. Suspicions about what she was doing soon turned to certainty as the view continued to move, zooming further in and tilting to get better detail - sure enough, the elf was hungrily licking and kissing the griffon's puckered asshole, pushing her tongue into the tight ring of muscles as far as it would go...

Sayn moaned in desire, shifting on the golden throne as she watched. The huge, magically-created metallic cocks inside her shifted too, sending pleasure flashing up her spine - and soon, they did one better, as they started to vibrate with slowly ascending intensity. She was already far past caring about how this was supposed to qualify as a form of punishment, when she heard the Master chuckling above her. "Well, this all seems to be working well enough... enjoy the show. I'll come back for you in, oh, four or five hours." Then he left - she could hear him stomping out through the main entrance, though she couldn't tear herself away from the erotic view long enough to see it.

About a minute later, the 'punishment' part finally became clear. As she ascended towards her first orgasm, the vibrating, metallic shafts inside her suddenly stopped vibrating. When she tried to move her hips as much as she could, bouncing up and down on the twin electrum-cocks by a few inches, metallic bands shot up from the seat and encircled her upper thighs - binding her down with enough force to prevent any kind of movement. The feeling of the cold metal pressing hard against her flesh brought her down from the orgasmic approach somewhat... and immediately, the vibrations started up, filling her with pleasure all over again.

Meanwhile, in the orb before her, the orgy continued to unfold. The griffon was mounting the elf, now, but she was tall enough that her head stuck out in front of him. The otter-girl who'd previously been underneath him was now sitting with her legs spread there, letting the elf lick up the bounty of cum flowing from her freshly-fucked pussy. In the pond, a similar scenario was playing out - the mermaid was still in the same place, but the centaur was on top of her now, creating even more waves as he vigorously pounded her. Meanwhile, the beautiful, blue-haired woman was sitting on the mermaid's face, filling the hungry, sharp-toothed mouth beneath with generous dollops of fresh horse-cum.

The view continuously shifted and moved to ensure that she always had a prime view of the goings-on. She could hear them, too - their moans and groans, and the wet, slimy sound of interlocking genitals. Every now and then, a deep groan or high-pitched scream signified that one of them had reached an orgasm. Meanwhile, the chair she was locked into artfully prevented her from following suit - not only did the vibrations fade as soon as she approached her climax, the twin towers of metal lodged deep inside her would even begin to retract if she got too close to the peak.

The orgy before her continued, and gradually wound down. The beautiful, blue-haired woman was the first to leave, giving the others a casual wave as she trotted towards her chambers. The mermaid, seemingly a bit sore, retired from active participation, content to just float at the pond's surface and watch for a while. The otter eventually joined her, ducking beneath the water to wash sweat and cum out of her fur. This left the slender and seemingly insatiable elf as the center of attention for the two males, who seemed to be running some kind of virility-contest against one another. They took turns pounding her, each apparently unwilling to be the one to call quits - and meanwhile, she just laid there, eyes flickering as she drooled on the ground. Her legs, however shaky, were somehow managing to keep her rear end at whatever elevation her current lover required - kneeling when the griffon was up, and standing straight-yet-spread when it was the centaur's turn.

In the end, it was the griffon who failed to maintain his erection, walking away from the pond grumbling even as the broadly-grinning centaur trotted after him. The elf was left behind, still kneeling with her head on the ground and her ass in the air - her pussy and ass alike gaping wide-open and leaking large gulps of cum at regular intervals. Clearly, it would take some time for her to recover from the torrent of orgasms she'd just enjoyed. The crystal orb, however, did not linger on her kneeling form for long - instead, it followed the mermaid and the otter, who had retreated to the mermaid's chambers in the meantime.

In the deep pools there, the two danced and caroused together, fingers and tongues seeking, prodding, caressing and thrusting. The otter rarely needed to come up for breath - the mermaid, not at all. Under the water, the two muscular bodies twisted sinuously together, moving freely in three dimensions, pulling each other into positions that would have been impossible on dry land. Orgasmic moans rose to the surface like bubbles. Meanwhile, in the dragon's cave a continent away, a wholly different sound could be heard - the piercing mewl of a trapped animal. Sayn's whole body hurt, her muscles overworked by her constant, futile, unconscious attempt to tear herself loose from the metallic bonds that restrained her. Far worse, however, was the aching sensation in her abdomen, chest and head, which had no physical cause - it was simply the NEED to climax, so intense as to be painful. It felt like a cord, tightly-wound inside her, yet unable to break...

It felt like she'd been stuck like that for an eternity - unable to move, unable to look away, unable to reach the climax she needed so desperately. Finally, however, she felt a looming presence behind her, and looked up to see that the Master had returned, and was now looking down at her with one scaly eyebrow delicately arched. "I trust you've learned your lesson by now, hmm?" he asked as he grinned broadly. She tried to answer him - to assure him that she had, indeed, been suitably chastised, and wouldn't he please let her cum now? But the words emerged from her mouth as nothing but a hoarse, groaning cry of desperate need.

Still, he seemed to understand the gist of it and nodded, the broad smile still plastered across his midnight-black reptilian face. Then he made a couple of quick gestures with his claws, and mumbled some arcane words under his breath. The crystal orb went dark and began to float back to its three-legged stand, and at the same time, the pleasure-inducing pillars of moving metal she had been impaled on for so long, withdrew entirely - melting back into the hard electrum seat she'd been sitting on. She mewled and squirmed at their removal, but a moment later, the metallic bonds that had held her thighs pulled back as well - followed swiftly by her wrists and ankles being released from the magic that had stuck them to the throne.

Instantly, her hands darted down towards her groin, even as her legs spread wide. But before they could reach their goal, the Master spoke another, more familiar word - and her arms were instantly wrenched back, her wrists-manacles smashing together behind her and locking in place. A fresh mewl of pure despair rose from her throat even as she gyrated on the throne, seeking something, anything, to rub her aching pussy against. Again, the Master chuckled above her. "Well, what are you waiting for, my dear little maid? Bend over for me... and tell me what you want." She flew out of the chair despite being unable to use her arms and staggered forwards for a step, before pausing and casting a measuring look over her shoulder. The armrests... they were just about the right height. And with her hands locked behind her back, she couldn't assume her usual position.

In three quick steps, she was next to the throne, bending over one filigreed arm-rest as she spread her legs. It dug unpleasantly into her abdomen, and once her face was resting on the throne's seat, she'd have a devil of a time getting back up again without the use of her hands. But none of that mattered. What mattered was that she finally managed to put a few audible words together. "Your... cock... please... give me your cock... I need to cum... please, Master..." His chuckle turned into an outright laugh, and she heard his massive bulk shifting behind her. "Oh, how beautifully you beg... very well, I shall give you your heart's desire..."

One massive claw thumped down on the throne's high back. The other landed heavily on her neck and upper back, holding her down. Something thick and hot and heavy rested on her buttocks, making her entire lower body throb with desire. He shifted, and she felt his slick cockhead prod against her sphincter. It was already gaping, what with having been stretched around a thick, metallic intrusion for hours, and as he pushed, it opened easily before him. Normally, he always visited her pussy first, in order to obtain a solid coat of her own lubricating juices before he tried her ass - but not this time. All that eased his way was a thin coating of sheath-lubricant, and what felt like a fair load of pre-cum.

In her present state of mind, however, none of that mattered. She was desperately starved for stimulation. Fierce friction lit her ass on fire as he pushed deep into the stretched-open hole, but rather than writhe in pain, she shuddered in pleasure. Normally, it took a while for her to reach an orgasm on the basis of anal sex alone - indeed, it was often the force of potent thrusts spreading down through her pussy and clit that helped set her off. This time, though? He hadn't even bottomed out in her ass before the mother of all orgasms rolled through her like a tidal-wave. A scream of mind-bending pleasure made its way up her throat, only to hiss through tightly-clenched teeth as her jaw - along with seemingly every other muscle in her body - contracted forcefully.

Afterwards, she quickly lost track of the orgasms, as her pleasure-starved body scrambled to make up for lost time. The Master was pounding her ass mercilessly and exclusively, but after he shot his first load there, lubrication stopped being an issue - and as his powerful thrusts pushed her forwards, she found her pussy and diamond-adorned clit rubbing delightfully against the armrest she was draped over. Such a lengthy, violent ass-fucking might normally have been a strenuous chore to get through - but as it were, she floated through it on a never-ending wave of climactic joy. Granted, the aftermath was less pleasant - her sphincter gaped for hours afterwards, no doubt exhausted from its long and harsh duty, making it difficult to avoid leaking wherever she went. It also took quite a while before she could sit comfortably again. Still, all in all... well worth it.

Before she had fully recovered from that particular ordeal, however, something strange happened. In the middle of her usual work, her collar and manacles clanked open and fell to the ground, their usual magical glow fading entirely. She stared at them for a bit, unable to comprehend it. They had been her constant companions, tangible reminders that she belonged to the Master. Now, they lay amid the gold and silver of the hoard, nothing more than another piece of treasure. The Master walked over, sighing sadly. "Time's up, it seems... that week just flew by, huh? Ah well, I certainly had fun along the way."

She looked up at him, brow wrinkling as she tried to comprehend what he was saying. It didn't sound like an order. What did he want her to do? Now he was cocking his head, looking strangely bemused. Her hands gripped the mop she was holding with greater intensity, seeking some kind of comfort in the familiar feeling of the smooth wood. The Master lowered his great, black-scaled head to her level, an inquisitive gleam in his eyes - then, he breathed, releasing a cloud of hot air mixed with strange, gleaming motes of gem-dust into her face. She blinked and stumbled back, drawing in several of the motes with a surprised intake of breath, then sneezing coughing in response. The motes burned in her lungs like a strong spice!

Gradually, her head began to clear. It was as if a fog was lifting - or like she'd just had a cup of EXTRAORDINARILY strong coffee. Shaking her head - which was now starting to pound painfully, she stood up straight and looked Aterxeus in the eye, trying to project some kind of confidence even as her mind rushed to process the memories lingering from the last week. The black dragon rolled his eyes, seemingly seeing through her current state of mind with ease. "I do hope that you are very, very careful about who you let find out about your submissive streak..." he grumbled, shaking his head. "It seems like you can easily get... 'caught up' in it, hmm? A less scrupulous individual than I might try to take advantage. Certainly, had I wanted to, I could have kept you here a lot longer than we had agreed..."

He was right, dammit. Fortunately, she HAD been somewhat careful... even the members of her harem didn't really know how easily she could submit to the right prompting. Well, Korlin did, obviously, but her Kirin paramour was the one person she trusted beyond any shadow of doubt. She cared for the rest of them - deeply, even - but she could imagine situations where they would be compelled to betray her. Being forced to choose between her interests and those of their people, for starters. But that was a side-track - her mind was racing, seemingly trying to make up for all the thinking she HADN'T been doing for the past week, and running down every random tangent that came to mind as a result.

Aterxeus chuckled - a familiar sound, by now - and grinned at her. "Quite the pick-me-up, no? My own personal mix. Gem-dust loaded with enchantments of energy and clarity. Gets absorbed into the body within seconds. I originally devised it as a... study-aid for myself, but this weakened version should be safe for humans, too. And you clearly needed SOMETHING to snap you out of your daze." She nodded, trying to collar her darting mind, whipping it back into some semblance of focus. "Yes... I guess I did. Thank you for the warning, and for being true to your word. Well, once you've actually fulfilled your side of the bargain, that is."

The dragon grinned and nodded quickly. "Of course, of course... heh. Quite the difference between your submissive side and this imperious personality of yours, no? This no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point character of yours clashes rather amusingly with your... dress, though." She glanced down herself. Of course, she was still wearing the modified, oversexed maid-uniform he had provided, and she grimaced at the memory of what had happened to her original clothes. She had no particular desire to brave the icy temperatures outside the volcanic tunnels wearing THIS particular get-up.

The black dragon, having apparently followed her line of thought, grabbed one of the many silver-bound chests that lined his hoard and pulled it in front of her. She had a sudden flash of memory - polishing the lacquered ashtree wood and silver bands until both gleamed bright enough to serve as a mirror - but quickly pushed it away again as Aterxeus touched the chest's lock with one long, night-black claw, making it spring open. Inside, neatly folded, was what looked like a ball-gown of some sort, cut in a rather old style. "I'll prepare the solution for your centaur-problem right away - but in the meantime, you might want to change. Consider this a bonus - it's very old, but elf-made. A gown designed for use by the daughters and wives of paranoid nobles, every thread woven with spells and enchantments to turn blades, arrows, and even the very elements. It should keep you warm on the way back to your caravan, at least."

Regarding the folded fabric with suddenly-increased respect, she carefully picked it up, unfolding the dress. The colors were bright and vivid, untouched by the passage of millenia - a deep, royal purple, with accents of black and gold. It was less conservative than she'd expected, based on its elven origin - it didn't exactly have a plunging neckline (which would have defeated its purpose as a protective garment anyway), but the fabric was thin and shiny, and the chest-area looked like it was designed to emphasize and flatter those particular attributes. It was also short enough to daringly show off the ankles... which just meant that it wouldn't be dragging TOO much along the floor when SHE wore it. Bloody tall elves. Presumably, it dated back to the Age of the Gods, when elven culture was still hedonistic and filled with debauchery, rather than the conservative, stiffly-formal facade they projected today.

While she'd inspected the dress, Aterxeus had turned his back on her and started digging various things out of his hoard, mumbling under his breath as he did so. "Are you sure I can just... take it? It's gotta be worth a fortune." She asked, raising her voice a bit to make sure he heard her. He looked up from his work, somewhat annoyed, and shrugged his immense shoulder. "That's what I said, wasn't it? I don't care about 'value'. I got it to study the old enchantments woven into the fabric, and I finished getting everything I could out of it several hundred years ago. At this point, it's just taking up space." His head snapped back to the pile of mixed gold, silver and gemstones he'd withdrawn from his hoard almost before he finished talking, and she decided not to bother him with any further questions.

She pulled off the maid-uniform, carefully folding it and stacking it in the chest that the dress had come in. Naked and barefoot, she then hesitated, caressing one earlobe with a pair of fingers. All those rings... she could still feel the 8 little golden ones keeping her labia restrained. She could probably get them removed one way or another, and a bit of simple healing-magic would take care of the holes they left, but... they were obviously enchanted. What if she COULDN'T get them out? Should she risk bothering the obviously-focused Aterxeus again? Experimentally, she tugged on one of the smallish rings attached to her earlobes - and was surprised to find it opening with a click and coming out without trouble. She looked at the ring for a moment, twiddling it between her fingers as she pondered this development.

Then, she resolutely pulled one of the rings off of her other ear as well, before reaching down and plucking off all nine of the rings adorning her pussy, one by one. It turned into a nice little pile of gold, which she placed on top of her discarded uniform. This left her with one ring in each ear, and a somewhat more hefty pair of ruby-crowned rings attached to her nipples. The latter, she just liked for being shiny and colorful - and not a bit erotic. She could hide them under her clothes easily enough, and they offered any number of interesting possibilities for fun and games once she got back to her Seraglio. So she'd keep the rings, if Aterxeus didn't want 'em back... and if he did, well, she could just get some new ones once she got back. Either way, since she'd already suffered through the pain of getting those piercings, there was no reason not to take advantage of it.

The ears, though... that was different. Getting those rings put in had reminded her of something. She'd been too caught up in being a good, submissive maid at the time to really think about it, but now it was all coming back to her. Earrings - dangling things made from multicolored beads - were used by the women of her old tribe to signify adulthood. She'd received a pair during her coming-of-age ceremony, and worn them with pride. Then... well, things had happened. She'd left the tribe behind, wandering the sea of grass with only her beasts for company. Knowing that she was an outcast forevermore, she'd torn off her ear-rings and cast them aside. Well, hurled them away, more likely - as far as she could throw them.

But that was a long time ago... maybe not if measured purely in years, but certainly in events. She'd come to terms with what happened back there, and while the people she had been born to might never forgive her or accept her back with open arms, she had come to accept that too. So perhaps it was time to start wearing ear-rings again. Certainly, none could claim she wasn't an adult... considering how she spent most of her free time.

While reflecting on all that, she'd been pulling the luxurious, just-this-side-of-gaudy dress on, and she could barely even manage a spark of surprise when the fabric started to stretch and contract to conform to her body-shape. She was a lot shorter than any elf - well, any GROWN elf, anyway - and her limbs were also quite a bit thicker and more muscular. But apparently, the dress had been designed to fit a variety of Very Important Elves - including, presumably, young girls... back when there was such a thing as an elvish child - and it somehow managed to conform to her body. It even shortened itself enough to avoid dragging on the floor, though it clearly had its limits - her ankles remained chastely covered.

She was still smoothing the silken fabric with her hands when Aterxeus returned from his labors... carrying an enormous, golden dildo. He grinned at her expression as he deposited the thing in front of her - it was a full-scale model of the kind of tool she was used to seeing on a full-grown centaur stallion, complete with radial ring and a partially-flared head. On closer examination, however, it wasn't actually golden - but rather electrum, a material Aterxeus seemed to have quite a preference for when it came to enchantments.

The dragon looked down at the huge tool with the satisfaction of a craftsman presenting a masterpiece. "Pretty quick, no? Well, granted, I had all the spells prepared in advance - worked them up over the week, so I just needed to put them all together to form the right arcane web, and of course craft the vessel." She nodded, having understood a bit more than half of what he just said. "Yes, it is quite a... vessel. So, how does it work, exactly?" He grinned down at her, stroking his scaly chin with one long claw in the manner of someone preparing to be long-winded.

"Well, there's a reason I shaped it that way... I crafted a spell that will alter the womb of a centaur mare, changing her birth-rate, and passing the alteration on to her children. As you requested, yes? But the spell must be applied DIRECTLY to the womb of each individual mare. Hence, I wove them into this. Several gemstones, each imbued with a portion of the spell, are embedded within the electrum frame. Once it is... put into place, it will automatically activate, and the change will be made. I even placed a gem at the base just for ease of use - it will flash when the spell is activated." He pointed at the tool's base, where - sure enough - a large lump of loosely-carved quartz was attached. It was cracked around the edges, indicating that it had been unceremoniously pushed into the electrum while it was still molten, suffering heat-damage. Obviously an afterthought.

Aterxeus, meanwhile, continued his explanation, with the insufferably self-satisfied expression of a master craftsman who was all too well aware of his exalted status. "Now, I made sure to pour enough energy into the spell that it'll last for at least a couple of thousand activations. The process is not really very energy-intensive, you know - just... finicky. More sophistication than raw power. So it should easily last long enough to alter every centaur-mare currently alive. Oh, and I went a bit above and beyond the request... the spell will push the birth-rate somewhat in the favor of females for the FIRST generation only. A bit of residual energy that won't carry over, you know. Probably a 7-to-3 split - maybe a bit less. Should make things easier for the centaurs, catching up to a one-to-one relationship. From the second generation onward, though, it'll be a straight split."

Sayn nodded, feeling her earlier headache - which had been fading steadily while she got un- and re-dressed - reintensify, as she tried to keep up with the dragon's rapid-fire explanation. The whole 'more females in the first generation' bit certainly sounded like a good idea - Centaurs matured rather rapidly, but aged no faster than humans, so it was entirely likely that some of the current crop of young centaur colts might find themselves matched up with the soon-to-be-born horde of magically-induced mares. The dying race would be looking at quite the population-explosion, and soon. Guess she'd have to start planning their mass migration to the southern continent sooner rather than later...

She pushed those thoughts aside for later, and was just opening her mouth to thank the dragon - who had, after all, provided even more than she bargained for - when he interrupted her. "Oh! I just noticed - you've decided to keep a few of the adornments I gave you? Very nice, very nice... they DO look wonderful on you..." She followed his eyes and realized that he was leering at her chest. The dress, having been made for the relatively reedy elves, had found it difficult to adapt to her generous bosom, and the fabric was thus stretched tautly enough across her breasts to make the thick rings still lodged in her nipples stand out visibly. She made a mental note to make sure she removed them whenever she wore that particular dress in public - which seemed like something she'd likely do frequently, considering the added protection it offered.

For now, though, she just nodded. "Well, yes. The full set was... a bit much, but I thought I'd keep these - as a souvenir. Of course, if you want the rings back..." He quickly shook his head, grinning. "Oh, no, don't worry about that. I rather like the idea of having a bit of my hoard permanently attached to you. A souvenir, for both of us, yes? Although..." His gaze shifted to her ears, as he regarded the simple, golden hoops attached there. "I don't know about THOSE. Not really your style, is it? Now that I think about it, I might have something more... appropriate. Hold that thought..." Before she could protest that he'd already been plenty generous - rather scarily so, in fact, considering that dragons were generally known for the exact OPPOSITE of generosity - he had once again turned his back and was sorting through a handful of small jewelry-boxes.

A minute later, he turned back around with a small, simply-adorned wooden box in his hands. The carvings on the edges stirred vague memories in her. They looked similar to the carvings that her tribe had often made on their wagons and tools, for decoration. A delicate gesture from the dragon's oversized claw made the lid open, revealing several pairs of colorful bead-earrings lying on a beautifully-stitched pillow of red velvet. They were the exact same style as the ones traditionally used by her old people - the nomads of the grass sea - to signify one's status as a grown woman. They were also, however, significantly more well-made and artful than any such earrings she could recall seeing on any of the women of HER tribe - clearly, these had been produced by a supremely skilled craftsman, working within a tribe of significant wealth.

"I got these in a trade quite a few centuries ago... it was part of a larger parcel of goods I bartered for, back when I still traded with lesser beings now and then. Before I moved out here, for some peace and quiet to study in, you understand. Such mundane jewelry is quite useless to me, but the merchant has some intriguing, magical items mixed in amongst the junk he carried - and it was cheaper to buy his entire stock outright, rather than pick what I wanted and tip him off as to what I REALLY wanted. He would've no doubt charged more for those select items than I paid him for everything he carried, had he known they carried such rare enchantments... heh. Well, either way, pick a pair you like, and keep 'em... call it payment for the most entertaining show you've been putting on for me, for the last several years. And no doubt will continue to!"

She was already looking through the colorful decorations, and was sufficiently distracted by the shiny things that the reminder failed to do much more than raise a few hairs on the back of her neck. The idea that he had watched her for years through that fancy crystal ball of his, and would CONTINUE to do so, was both scary and creepy. While it seemed a simple trick, she had learned enough about magic in the last few years to realize that such long-range scrying - and with such clarity and accuracy - was magic beyond mortal ken. It was, in fact, an inferior version of the 'Power of Omniscience' said to be wielded by the Gods themselves. She'd already decided not to try and raise a fuss about his uninvited voyeurism - no doubt, a dragon like him thought no more of watching her, than she might think of watching an ant walking across her desk. Asking him to stop would accomplish nothing, either, since she really had nothing to back such a request up with, and probably wouldn't be able to explain why it made her uncomfortable in the first place, either. Better, she knew, to just try and put it out of her mind as soon as possible.

A pair of earrings whose beads sparkled in all the colors of the rainbow drew her eyes, and helped her along on her quest of out-of-mind-putting. Delicately, she picked them from where they lay, and marveled at the way they sparkled in even the dim light of the glowing orb that illuminated Aterxeus' cave from up under the cave's ceiling. In the light of the sun, she knew, they would sparkle even more beautifully. With a decisive flick of her wrist, she pulled out the simple golden rings she'd been wearing on her lobes for the last week, and instead inserted the rainbow-beaded pieces of artwork. They were heavier than the rings had been, but it was a strangely familiar and comforting sort of weight. She turned her head this way and that, feeling them sway and rattle slightly with the movements, and a faint but genuine smile crested her lips.

After that, there was only the suitably flowery words of gratitude to deliver, along with a standing invitation to come by the palace if he ever needed her help for anything... or just felt like saying hi. He assured her that he was far too busy with his studies to go traipsing around the continent like that, but there was something in his toothy half-smile that made her suspect that he was far more likely to take her up on that invitation than Praxinus, the dragon she had first extended that offer to. Then she summoned her golden riding-beast - who had been tirelessly waiting for her in the nearby basalt caves for the past week, and was now covered in a fine layer of ash - and loaded the electrum dildo (which was almost too heavy for her to lift) onto its back. She'd already come up with a suitably ostentatious name for it, too - the Scepter of Rebirth!

It felt strange, as she rode her beast out of the basalt caverns, to feel the cold winds and the radiant heat of the magma-flows on her skin again. She'd spent a week in the dragon's cave... a whole week? Or JUST a week? It certainly felt like longer. A part of her wanted to go back. To see if maybe Aterxeus could find a place for a PERMANENT maid. It was a much simpler existence than the one she would face on the other side of the ice-floes now stretching out before her. Hard, but simple work. Regular, mind-blowing sex. The occasional creative punishment or reward to break up the monotony...

But no. She'd faced such temptation before, and had turned her back on it. Since then, she'd acquired a lot more responsibilities. She had a dildo to deliver - a dildo that would save an entire species from extinction - and then she had to start planning (and financing) the emigration of said species to another continent, since there really wasn't enough room for them on this one. And hopefully, somewhere along the way, she'd find the time to work out her stress with the other denizens of her Seraglio. Achidias the Centaur, K'teshi the Griffon, Lutra the Otterkin, Aishee the Mermaid, Thielwen the Elf... and of course, Korlin the Kirin.

Sayn licked her lips with eagerness as her riding-beast started to make its way across the ice that separated Aterxeus' volcanic island from the mainland. The bitingly-cold wind that howled around her wasn't reaching her at all - the thin, silken dress she wore seemed to be surrounded in an aura of pleasantly warm air. It would take maybe an hour and change for her to reach the town where she'd left her caravan. Then, the slow plod across the continent would begin - several weeks would pass before she saw the palace again. How much of the construction-work might have been finished in her absence? And more importantly, how much had the members of her harem missed her? She felt confident that they'd show her, vigorously, once she got back. She could hardly wait...

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Any political figure, no matter how beloved, will have enemies. This is an unfortunate reality of life in the public eye. More unfortunate yet is that there are some who will let this enmity escalate to the point of murder. Throughout history, kings and barons, emperors and hierophants, have fallen prey to assassinations. Some were carefully-planned affairs financed by opposition-groups, involving concealed weapons, subverted bodyguards and professional killers. Others were as simple as a single, deranged individual with a crossbow and an entirely unjust portion of luck.

Considering her prominence, it is thus no surprise that - throughout her reign - there were several attempts made on The Beastmaker's life. For an individual of such eminence, she maintained remarkably little security, and stories from within the Grand Palace suggest that she found the mandatory companionship of trained bodyguards to be bothersome, constraining and unnecessary. There may have been a certain justification for that attitude, however - for while several assassination-attempts were foiled by the brave and dedicated members of her security-detail, others were not... and still failed to even draw blood from her.

The most famous such incident is, without a doubt, the Fairport Address - where, while giving a speech at the launching of the Centaur Migration Fleet, an unnamed individual fired at her with a high-powered heavy crossbow from the top of a nearby bell-tower. The bolt, designed to penetrate all but the toughest forms of armor, hit her dead in the chest - but glanced off of the dark-purple dress she was known to wear on most public occasions. She was barely staggered, and continued her speech without missing a beat, even as her Beasts and guards raced to reach the would-be assassin first. Since that the man took his own life before either could reach him, however, his motivations - and allegiance - remains uncertain to this day. The events that would follow some years later, however, give us a reasonable basis for conjecture... though that has not stopped various theorists from attributing the famous attack to their own pet conspiracy.

We will cover both the realistic explanation, and some of the more unlikely-yet-possible theories in the next chapter...

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_ END _