The door-chime sounded. Mareva looked up from her spec sheet, frowned. It wasn’t playtime yet. Deviants all over Exodar would be getting ready for a busy night’s depravity. Viral had said he would be pursuing two rather promising females of the Deviants, so it couldn’t be him either. She swung her hooves down from the small table, jumped up. Knowing Viral, he’d succeed too. Honey in his voice, magic in his eyes. And, thought Mareva, as she walked to the door, in his fingers too. She touched the dark square on the door, and it slid open. A large man stood before her, dressed in sombre black robes, a staff in his hand.
“Long life, good health. I am Gur’dan of the Huttite Zealots. Are you Engineer Mareva, Deviant of Exodar?”
Mareva blinked. She nodded her horned head.
“I am. How may I help you?”
The large male inclined his head, then looked aside at his companions.
“Bring forth the penitent.”
The large man stepped aside. Two more males stepped forward, their hands on the shoulders of a girl. She looked small. Draenei girls are usually a lot smaller than the males, but this girl seemed to have shrunk even more than normal. She had light brown hair, cute side-swept horns and was dressed in a simple white robe. Her eyes were firmly fixed on the floor just in front of her feet.
“See here this woman,” intoned Gur’dan. “She has committed the transgression of finishing the meat before the fruits, upon the second day, which is an abomination unto Hut.”
“Praise be to Hut,” said the others.
“Praise be,” said Gur’dan. “It has been ordained that she be taken to one of the Deviants, not of her own preference, for her to do with as she pleases, until the sounding of the morning alarm. Thus, through suffering and humiliation, shall her transgression be erased and may she resume her station with the screen wiped clean.”
Gur’dan bowed his large head towards Mareva.
“Will you be the executioner of this woman’s penitence?”
Mareva had to suppress a smile, looking at the young girl. The Zealots were one of the clubs on board Exodar that had sprung up when it became clear that the trip would take no less than a year. There were the scientists, the chess players, the mathematicians. The Zealots invented vengeful deities, and their priests issued commandments by the score. The more trivial, the better, and if the commandments contradicted each other, it became a matter of choosing which commandment to break, and hoping not to be caught.
Mareva had chosen the Deviants. The Deviants prided themselves on not leaving a sexual depravity untried, no pleasure of the flesh untasted. They would meet regularly to enjoy each other’s bodies, and awarded each other points based on performance. Upon learning of this, one of the High Priests had come up with the marvellous idea of throwing offenders to them. Sampling someone outside the Deviants automatically awarded maximum points, with the added chance of style points if you persuaded them to join, so the Deviants had made no protest.
Mareva looked at the girl placed in front of her, then up at the large man. Oh well. She didn’t have any hot prospects this evening, so to have this girl, and three points, dropped into her lap, was an unexpected stroke of luck.
“I accept this responsibility Gur’dan, Zealot of Hut.”
“Praise be to Hut,” spoke the males. The girl remained silent.
The two men holding the girl’s shoulders took away their hands. Mareva took a step back, and pointed her hand inside. The girl swallowed, and stepped into Mareva’s cabin.
“We charge you not to release her before her atonement is complete, and invite you to make use of her in any way your perverted mind can conceive. Release her after morning alarm, and send the report of her penitence to our High Priest. Such is the command of Hut.”
“Praise be to Hut.”
Mareva inclined her head to the Huttites, and they made their way to the Seat of the Naaru. The door closed.
Mareva turned round to the girl, who was standing very still in the middle of her cabin, shoulders sagging, unaware of what tortures awaited her.
“What is your name?”
The girl did not look up. In a very small voice, she whispered.
“Oraya.”
Mareva stepped round the girl, facing her.
“Well then, Oraya. My first command to you.”
She put her hands on Oraya’s shoulders.
“Relax.”
Oraya looked up at Mareva, who was smiling at her. She half opened her mouth to ask a question, then closed it again.
“I will not do anything to you that you do not want me to. We Deviants do not have many rules, but one stands above all others. Consent. We do nothing to anyone, unless they give permission. Even half-way through, you can change your mind. A single word is enough.” Mareva smiled. “It costs you points, of course, but we will not force anyone into acts that they do not wish for.”
Oraya’s eyes widened. “But… I have heard the stories read out. The… humiliation. The unnatural acts! The suffering!”
“Hmm. Yes. I’d better get on with that.” Mareva sat down on her chair, pulled out her writing tools and opened a new leaf. “How serious was your offence?”
“What? You are going to make up a story?”
“Mmm-hmm. How gruesome do you wish it to be?”
“But… Won’t they know?”
Mareva laughed. “Of course they know. As long as I do not make it physically impossible, they will accept anything I write. Our First made this quite clear to the main Zealot.” Mareva chuckled. “I remember one story where they amputated a girl’s tail. They accepted the story without comment, even though the girl reappeared with her tail as beautiful as ever it was. They explained it as a miracle sent by Hut.”
“Praise be to Hut,” said Oraya quickly.
“Hut,” said Mareva, a grin on her face.
Oraya looked at her accusingly. “Praise. Be. To. Hut.”
Mareva laughed, looked at the ceiling for a moment for inspiration, and began to write. Her eyes flashed at Oraya for a moment.
“I feel I must dominate you to some small extent.” She pointed at the corner of the room. “Two scoops. No sugar.”
“Yes, Executioner,” said Oraya.
“And have one yourself as well.”
Oraya filled the kettle from the tap, and scooped dark Draenor coffee into two mugs. She looked round.
“Do you have any milk?”
“Now that is blasphemy,” said Mareva. “Sugar is allowed, for it gives a burst of energy. But allowing the Holy Liquid to be desecrated with the outpourings of Elekks, is simply beyond imagining.”
Oraya looked at Mareva. “I didn’t know that coffee was holy to the Deviants.”
“It is not. When I am not reducing people to little heaps of pleasure, I am an engineer. We take our beverages seriously.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I have just suspended you from the ceiling by your tail, and am forcing you to pleasure me with hands and mouth. Your pretty horns are most convenient in directing your efforts.”
Oraya’s mouth fell open. “By the Light! Can you really do that?”
“Oh yes. Quite possible.” Mareva smiled. “Even cute tails like yours are easily strong enough to carry your weight.”
“How?”
Mareva looked round, and picked up a rope she used as a belt for her red silk dressing gown.
“Give me your arm for a moment. Or your tail. Whichever you prefer.”
Oraya held out her arm, and Mareva proceeded to tie a series of half-hitches round it, encasing Oraya’s arm in loops of dark silk.
“Pull.”
As Oraya pulled, the rope tightened round her arm, without slipping. Mareva returned to her writing as Oraya untied the rope.
“Have you ever done that?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
Mareva shook her head. “No. If you stay up for too long, your tail goes to sleep, but that’s it.” She grinned. “You are supposed to pretend that it is extreme torture. So swinging back and forth shouting ‘Whoopee!’ probably cost me some points. Worth it, though.”
Oraya smiled, then burst out laughing. The girl did have a nice laugh. Mareva deleted a few words and replaced them with a single word.
“Mind you. If you tie up the tail to be bent, even to break, then it is extremely painful, and can even lead to paralysis. Needless to say, no Deviant would do such a thing.”
The kettle came to the boil. Oraya filled both their mugs and stirred. She picked up Mareva’s cup between her hands, stood before her, inclined her head. Then, she took a small sip from Mareva’s cup and placed it on the table in front of her. Mareva raised her eyebrows.
“Why are you drinking my coffee?”
Oraya closed her eyes.
“And it came to be that certain of the Enemy crossed the unending desert, and came upon the tents of the prophet Zamfir, as he played his pipes in the late afternoon. As proscribed by the Laws, he ordered his servants to pour out tea, for even the Enemy may not be denied a drink and a bite to eat, after crossing the desert. And as they drank therefrom, they were struck by great convulsions, and they died, but for the First of the Enemy, who had not drunk yet, as he was speaking words of thanks to the Prophet. He was wroth, and accused the Prophet loudly of poisoning his men. The prophet Zamfir, being innocent of this crime, then took up each of the enemies’ cups, and took a small sip therefrom, and lo! No convulsions came upon him. Yet, as the First of the enemies sipped from his cup, he too was struck by the death that had visited his men, and so the Enemy was defeated, by the will of Great Hut.”
Mareva nodded. “I see.”
Oraya opened her eyes. “If you were a Zealot, I’d have you now. You’re supposed to say ‘Praise be to Hut’.”
Mareva grinned. “Would you throw me to the Deviants?”
“Why? You’d just enjoy it.”
“True. I am certainly enjoying your attentions at this moment.”
Oraya tilted her head slightly, trying to read over Mareva’s shoulder.
“Do you only like girls?”
Mareva’s eyes turned up from her rather steamy report to the girl she had sworn to ravish.
“Actually, I prefer boys, though I would not refuse a girl simply for having a smaller tail. It depends on my mood. Also, there are points to be earned, and I will not be defeated by that bitch Debaar at the helm. You?”
“I’ve never done it with a girl. Never wanted to, either.” She gave Mareva a little smile. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. You should climb into bed only with the people you really desire. Otherwise, neither of you will be pleased.” She looked at Oraya. “You would never have pleased me if I had made you. Your liver has to be in it, or the magic fails.”
“Hold on. Am I not hanging from my tail right now, using my hands and mouth to please you?”
“That is not sex,” said Mareva. “It is domination. Which is an entirely different thing. Depraved we may be, but not cruel. You can refuse anything put to you.”
“Hm. You don’t look like you’d refuse much, if you don’t mind me saying. Anything you won’t do?”
“Pain,” said Mareva. “Pain is for enemies, not for lovers.” She leant back in her chair. “I mean, a slap on the bottom, in the throes of passion, not a problem. But trying to turn my cheeks purple? That will get you thrown out into the corridor. And your clothes mailed to you.”
Oraya laughed. “Oh I like that. I must remember that when I get back to my boyfriend.”
“You have a boyfriend? Does he know you’re here? I can write him a note saying what really happened if you want.”
“You’ve met him. He stuck me here.”
Mareva’s eyebrows raised. “Gur’dan? He threw you to me? I can see lonely nights in his future.”
“Oh rest assured. I will not allow him anywhere near my tail for at least ten days. Still. It was a fair move. I did finish the meat before the fruit. If he had not denounced me, I would have denounced him.”
“Hmm.” Mareva added a few lines to her report. “I have now made you feed me energy bars while completely naked. We must make him feel as guilty as we can.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad.”
“Guess where you were holding the energy bar.”
Oraya stared.
“Ew.”
“Precisely.”
“Do people really do that?”
Mareva laughed. “Silly games. Eating things off your lover. It can be fun, but if you are looking to sample more than one person per night, it takes too long.”
Mareva looked her report over once more, then got up and pointed Oraya at her chair.
“There. See what you think.”
Oraya sat down as Mareva leaned against the cabin wall, sipping coffee, watching the penitent. As she read, her lips parted, her cheeks flushed a very nice purple, and she put her hand in front of her mouth. She looked up at Mareva, her pretty face the colour of skethyl-berries.
“I think you misspelt ‘nipple’ once.” She took a deep breath. “You are really, really sick.”
“Oh come on. This is nothing. There were no males in the room.”
“Each day is a blessing,” said Oraya. “So now what?”
“We have more coffee. Or I can probably find a bottle of Qrovna, if you prefer. Unless that is against the wishes of Hut.”
“Praise be to Hut,” said Oraya automatically. “No, strangely it isn’t. Imagine that.”
“Are some of the Huttites engineers?”
“I think so.”
“That explains it,” said Mareva, looking in a cupboard. “Get between an engineer and his liquid recovery, and there will be serious trouble. Beware the wrath of an engineer, for they can make your life hell by doing nothing.”
“Oh, I’m in your chair. Sorry. Hey. Why do you have only one chair? I’m sure you can get another one if you ask.”
Mareva emerged from her cupboard, a dull shining bottle in one hand, cups in the other. A broad grin was on her face.
“I do not wish my guests to sit down with me. Hold the cups please.”
Oraya held the cups and Mareva filled them with a foul-smelling liquid. She handed one of them to Mareva.
“Skol!”
Together, they tilted back the cups and poured the liquor down their throats, almost managing to miss all of their taste-buds. Mareva blinked at Oraya, who didn’t cough at all.
“You’re not as innocent as you look!”
“Just because I haven’t pushed a girl’s tail before doesn’t mean I’m a virgin.”
“So I see. Another one?”
“Please.”
Another shot of the liquor followed the first. Mareva felt the warm glow spread through her body, and her brain felt like it was carefully, lovingly, wrapped in cotton wool inside her skull. It would put a serious crimp in her stamina for the rest of the evening, but who cares? She wasn’t going to do anything with this girl, and she’d probably earned a quiet evening at some point. Also, she was getting three points for this no matter what. Which was nice.
“You have the chair,” said Oraya, sitting down on the floor, playing with the empty cup in her hand.
“I can do better than that,” said Mareva.
She touched a blue rectangle on the wall. With a low hum, Mareva’s luxurious double bed rolled out of the wall and stopped just in front of Oraya’s hooves.
“Oh my. That’s smooth. You must have so many points!”
“Not doing too badly,” said Mareva, lying down on the bed. “Though I’ll never pass Lorelei, bless her. If she wins, I will not grudge her. She’s lovely.”
“Oh, the Captain’s yeoman? I didn’t know she was a Deviant! She looks so young!”
“She does, doesn’t she? Mutual three points. Was useless the rest of the evening. Everybody she’s sampled loves her.” Mareva lifted her head. “And rightly so.”
“Wouldn’t know what to do with her,” said Oraya. “I’ll take your word for it.”
Mareva looked up at Oraya. “My goodness… It isn’t higher arcane magic, you know? You cuddle up to her and let your fingers go where they will. If she sounds happy, keep doing what you’re doing. If not, find another bit of skin.”
“Oh come on. There’s more to it than that and you know it.”
“Practice. Plenty of practice.”
Mareva closed her eyes. Oraya looked at the clock above the bed.
“Still eight hours to go before morning alarm. Am I not keeping you from important things?”
Mareva smiled, without opening her eyes. “You have just handed me three points, for the effort of writing an inspired piece of smut. If you hadn’t, I would probably have been reduced to prowling the traders’ tier for people who I have not sampled yet.”
“Would you really have done all those things with me?”
“No. You would not have enjoyed it. I like to see happy faces on my lovers. Feeding you coffee and Qrovna worked better.” She sat up. “What are you doing in the Zealots, anyway? It doesn’t sound like all that much fun, having to submit yourself to all kinds of rules and penances.”
Oraya grinned. “Oh, but if you manage to keep out of trouble, eventually, you get to make up your own rules for everybody else. I will actually gain a few ranks from tonight, for enduring my ordeal without complaint.”
“My pleasure,” murmured Mareva.
“I really would have done anything you’d have asked of me, you know? Just for the satisfaction of twisting one of the rules and watching them all squirm trying to keep it.”
“Now, you tell me.”
Oraya leaned back against the cool wall of Mareva’s cabin, looking in the middle distance.
“The best stunt I ever pulled off was when I set up a dinner party with two Huttites and three Gorrites. Gorrites worship Gor.”
“Praise be to Gor,” said Mareva.
“Nono. Gor is a false deity, obviously. For there are no other true gods than Hut, praised be.”
“Of course.”
“I’d found out that they are not allowed to eat food off forks from their right hand, the blasphemous sods. We, who follow the True Path, are not allowed to eat food off forks in our left. Still, The Gorrites are not so misguided that they do not respect the beliefs of others, just like we do.”
“Um, right?”
“So here we were, lovely Emarree in front of us, for which Hut may make us truly grateful. Since we were in their company, we must honour their misguided principles, and hold our forks in the left hand, which is an abomination unto Hut. And they were in a similar pickle.”
“So they could just have got up and left, no?”
“Oh no, no no! Because that would mean that food were left uneaten, which is an abhorrent act before the eyes of both Gor and Hut. I had my denunciations on a hair trigger. Because I was the Guest-giver, none of them were allowed to speak before me. Five in one go would have exulted me to Lesser Priestess.”
“They could have used spoons,” said Mareva.
“Spoons are forks. So speaks Hut, praise be.”
“Or their fingers.”
“No. Forbidden, if you are in the company of heathens.”
Oraya’s eyes flashed at Mareva, her body shaking with laughter.
“But one of the Gorrites got them all out of it, bastard. He picked up his fork, in his right hand, and fed me. We spent all evening feeding each other. So my plan came to nothing, but I’ve never had so much fun.”
“Oh you wild creatures,” said Mareva. “May I invite you to join the Deviants? Even if you sample only men, I think we can improve on even that.”
Oraya smiled. “I think I’ll stick to sampling my Gur’dan. Rotter though he is. I’ll get him for this.”
“When you do, send him to me. I’ll see to his atonement.”
There was a soft knock on the door. Mareva looked up, a grin on her face. Quietly, quietly, so as not to disturb Oraya, she went to the door, and opened it. She wrapped her arms round the man outside and laid her head on his shoulder.
“Viral. Warm wishes. How was your hunt?”
“A partial success. One of them, I managed to persuade successfully. She was appropriately enthusiastic. The other turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.” Viral sneered. “One and two. I think I was even generous to give her that point. Her contribution ended with her taking her clothes off.”
“Was she at least nice to look at?”
“She was, but some motility is desirable.” He looked over Mareva’s shoulder at Oraya’s still form on the bed. “I see you did well. She is beautiful.”
Mareva smiled. “Zealot penitent. Didn’t have to lay a finger on her. Doesn’t like girls. Not even curious. She is a lovely girl, though.”
“I believe you. Well, since you are alreay occupied, I think I will retire. I don’t suppose you could…”
“Sadly, no. I have to release her by morning alarm. I am on late shift though, so I can come over after I do. I want to know what this first girl taught you.”
“Nothing much, but she did allow me to practice some of the things I already know.”
“Can’t wait.”
Mareva took a step back, and admired her handiwork. Magnificent. An impressive male was on her bed, ankles tied to one end, tail attached to a rope leading to the ceiling. This kept him hovering a half yard over the bed, and left his arms free to do whatever was required of him. Not bad, considering she’d never done this before, and only had it done to her.
“Good. Now wait.”
The door chime rang, and the man looked round. Mareva frowned, put her hand on his cheek and pushed his face forward.
“You will look ahead of you unless I command you otherwise. This will be my assistant, who will bring you to proper attention.”
“Assistant?!”
“Have I asked you to speak? No. If it displeases you, then you should not have insulted the Gorrites, and brought shame upon the name of Hut.”
“Praise be to Hut,” said Gur’dan unhappily.
Mareva walked up to the door and opened it, checking over her shoulder if Gur’dan wasn’t looking back.
“Have you told him?”
Mareva silently shook her head, and Oraya grinned with boundless glee.
“The release mechanism is in the left corner,” said Mareva. “Enjoy yourself. I’ll be at Viral’s.”
Copyright: © 2008,2009,2010 Menno Willemse. All rights reserved.
The Redridge Chronicles 