The Paradise Gate

Ch.3 A Better Fate Than Wisdom

Just when Dalli thought she'd rather die than take one more second of this torture, the electric force shoving itself between her lips abruptly disappeared.

Lycinder released her jaw, and as Dalli's eyes popped open, she shoved both hands hard against his chest, flinging herself backward where she stumbled and landed in a heap on the stone floor.

Reeling and furious, she screamed at him, "By the Nine, what did you just do to me?" It wasn't a real question, and they both knew it.

"Terribly sorry, mistress, but it had to be done, and warning you would only have made it more difficult."

"For whom?" Dalli screeched.

"Me, of course," said Lycinder, looking puzzled, and as though this should have been obvious. "If it helps, the deal is done. Care to test it?"

Dalli, still reeling and not at all sure she hadn't made a terrible mistake, was nevertheless sufficiently distracted by this to be curious. She eyed him warily as she disentangled her limbs and rose from the tower floor, tossing her hair back, smoothing her skirts, and shooting her cuffs.

"You mean to say that now I can just issue commands and you'll follow them?"

"Try it and find out," Lycinder returned.

"Gouge your own eyeballs out, you vicious bastard!" Dalli hissed, leaning forward, hands in fists of rage at her sides, grey eyes flashing.

Lycinder, who felt absolutely nothing in response to this demand, broke out into a glorious smile and threw his head back to laugh with unrestrained glee at the picture she made before him.

This continued for some fifteen seconds or so before Dalli crossed her arms, tapped her foot, and said loudly to be heard above his mirth, "If you're quite finished, does this mean it didn't work?"

She refused to let it show, but she'd be devastated if this was the case.

Still chortling, Lycinder managed to recover enough to reply. "Oh," he sighed, "that was marvelous. Thank you, mistress, I needed that."

Dalli scowled.

"No, it worked, I can promise you that. However, you have to order me to carry out your wishes, not demand it. And before you rephrase your last request, might I persuade you to mercy by telling you that there was no alternative method to forge this bond? And that I am now yours to command in perfect faith?" As he finished this last, he swept down onto one knee, hand over heart and head bowed like a knight of the old world before his queen.

Finding that this posture dramatically improved him, Dalli did feel some part of her rage dissipating; he might be an insufferable beast, but if what he said was true, he was now her insufferable beast.

She thought for a moment.

"Lycinder, I order you to get up and come here. Now."

A curious thing happened when she said these words; the sensation of it was like the far lesser and more bearable cousin of the searing electric flashes she'd just experienced when Lycinder imparted to her a piece of his own soul. It wasn't a pleasure, but it didn't hurt, either, and rather than tapering off evenly after it radiated from her center, it seemed to pool at the middle of her brow for a moment before it disappeared.

Lycinder's eyes snapped up to hers, bleeding to black again. For a moment, she was afraid this meant he was angry and not in any way under her control, but his expression simply said he was searching her face for something.

He must have found it, because a self-satisfied smile stole across his lips. Just as promised, he immediately arose and approached her, his eyes fading back to their normal vespertine hue.

Pleased, but not entirely trusting, Dalli had another idea. "Lycinder, rub your stomach and pat your head. That's an order," she finished, rediscovering her own self-satisfied smirk.

A flash of humming warmth ran through her, and sure enough...

"Mistress, is this really necessary?" Lycinder sighed, doing exactly as ordered after another brief flash of black eyes, his face a mask of disaffected ennui.

"Yes," Dalli laughed, "It was. You can stop now," she said.

Her breath caught as Lycinder somehow managed to make the act of rearranging his limbs, once again under his own power, more graceful than the movement of any swan. How did he do that?

She knew she would have to be very careful not to be lulled into complacency by his outer graces; she'd seen what kind of monster he really was underneath them in the moment he'd turned their promised kiss into a perverse pasquinade.

"Well, mistress, you have your blade. Show me the way and drive it home," he said, gesturing toward the door.

"Not just yet," said Dalli, her briefly jocular tone overtaken by a gravity and coldness that hardly seemed to belong to the same girl. "You had your stipulations. Now I'll have mine."

Lycinder regarded her carefully, but said nothing.

"First of all, I order you to serve me and no other until our contract is fulfilled. I want your absolute loyalty."

His eyes flashed that violet-to-black she was coming to expect.

"As you say, mistress," he replied, bowing his head.

Encouraged by how simple that was, Dalli continued: "Also, you will never lie to me. That, too, is an order."

"Yes, my lady," Lycinder intoned, staying in his submissive posture as though expecting a litany of further commands. Receiving none, he looked up in question.

"That's it," said Dalli, the remote severity gone from her demeanor as quickly as it had arrived as she bent to clean up the mess that had been made of her preparations.

Lycinder, surprised that his churlish, obstinate new mistress didn't wish to spend a few more moments or hours coming up with methods of retaliation for the way he'd sealed their bargain—he hadn't actually tried to be gentle— watched her, unsure what to make just yet of one who blew from a storm of rage to matter-of-fact poise in the space of a few breaths.

"Mistress," he offered, taking in the blood that had been sprayed about the tower chamber and gotten soaked into the stones, "might I suggest you let me handle the washing up?"

Surprised that he would volunteer to be helpful, Dalli, turned her head to look up at him from where she was gathering her things back into their basket. "Can I ask why?"

Dalli followed Lycinder's gaze as he nodded to indicate the bloodstains. They disappeared right before her eyes. Even the white linen altar cloth was snowy and perfect again, and her instruments as well.

Seeing his lady stilled by wide-eyed, open-mouthed shock, he offered explanation: "It's not wise to go leaving bits of oneself lying about in the world. You never know what might lap them up," he finished darkly.

Dalli was reminded by the ease of this display of power that mankind really didn't know what lurked in the shadows of this world, let alone any other. Not to mention, she had just consumed a "bit" of Lycinder, herself, and having witnessed the rather dramatic effects of that consumption, she shivered at the idea that some as-yet-unknown thing might have come upon her careless leavings and made a meal of them. Creator only knew what might happen.

"I appreciate your concern. Thank you for letting me know," said Dalli, compulsively well-mannered when she wasn't infuriated.

"No need to thank me; my concern wasn't for you. You now have control over me, and you do not truly understand what that means yet, but suffice it to say that it would not be good if you were to fall under anyone else's thrall," Lycinder warned.

"Oh," was all that Dalli could think to reply.