But when she reached her office, the door to the inner room stood ajar and Rose was not at her desk in the outer office.

"Rose! Rose have you...."

Julie's voice trailed off as she saw the wall-safe stood open and that Rose stood by it, transferring the contents, which included the computer printouts of the grimoires, to a briefcase.

"Rose? What are you doing?"

"Oh, hello, dear. You're back early. Things go well with Victor?"

"No they did not! What are you doing with that stuff?"

"Oh something came up. Look here."

Julie looked at the piece of paper on the desk where Rose was pointing. Then suddenly from behind, Rose was tossing something over her boss's head, a loop of golden chain that lay around her neck.

"What...?"

"Be quiet, Julie. Don't say a word, now."

Julie found herself silenced. Her voice would not answer to the commands of her brain and her hands would not rise from her sides to remove the golden leash from around her neck. Startled, Julie looked up at her secretary. The leash ran to the hand of a woman who both was and was not, Rose. A stunning young beauty who smiled at her and spoke with the same voice as the motherly, fussy, spinster who had been her secretary.

"Now don't be scared, Julie. Everything's going to be fine. Just come and sit here."

Numb, Julie sank down into the chair behind her desk. She wanted to scream and fight. But she could not even feel frightened. The command of her captor prevented it.

"Now Julie, are these the only copies of the computer printout you have. They are? Good. Now I want you to copy this out in your own handwriting and sign it."

What Julie found in front of her was a carefully typed out suicide note. It said that she could no longer stand the pressure of her job, that she was going to jump into the river. As she copied it out and signed it, Julie struggled to feel anything, to do anything. But her body would not respond.

For the first time she began to realise that what her enemy Thergo had on his side was real magic. When she had finished the note she sat back and waited for another command. She heard Rose hang up the phone, where she had been issuing a request to meet them at the main entrance of the building and turn back to her.

"Finished? Good girl."

She took the typewritten original and put it away in her pocket. Leaning forward she tilted Julie's downturned face up to her own.

"Don't worry, darling. You're not going to die. You're going to become one of Us."

A faint smile came over Rose's transformed face and she licked her lips. Suddenly she commanded: "Kiss me!"

Julie found her lips crushed against Rose's and the other woman's tongue plunged into her mouth. Against her will she began to cooperate and kiss back. She found herself becoming involuntarily aroused as her captor reached down and cupped one breast, tickling the nipple into erection.

Finally Rose broke the clinch and stood up looking mussed and happy. "Yes. One of Us. Very soon. Come along, Julie."

As obedient as a lap dog on its leash, Julie followed the other woman to the lift. The only emotion that came through the clamp that the magic had placed on them was the terrible involuntary lust that Rose had aroused in her. Her mind raced through plans of escape and at the same time she accused herself of stupidity and pride and underestimating her opponent. Why did nobody see what was happening to her? Why did nobody approach them?

A stupid question, she saw in an instant; the answer was magic! Then they were out of the building and getting into a large limo parked just around the corner. The huge black chauffeur in front turned to question Rose.

"Have you got the printouts and stuff?"

"Yes, sir. Right here." She held up the briefcase.

"Good. Knock her out. It'll make things easier at the other end."

Rose turned to Julie. "Sleep now, sweetheart. It will soon be over." Julie found herself closing her eyes, snuggling down into the deep leather seat and drifting away into darkness.

When Julie came round it was too a humming sound in her ears and a horrible dryness in her mouth. She blinked to clear her eyes and make sense of the scene before her. She saw a marble lined room, like something out of a thirties horror movie or a bad imitation of a Roman villa. Two women were kneeling before her, their backs to her. They were dressed in silk tunics that concealed very little. Their heads were bowed and revealed that around their necks they wore steel bands.

Torches were burning in braziers on the walls but most of the light seemed to be coming from above her head. She looked up and saw that her arms were fixed to two pillars either side of her by what seemed to be shackles made out of nothing but light. She tried to pull at them but could not move at all. She looked down to see that she was naked, spread-eagled between the two pillars. Identical glowing shackles, humming with the magic that created them, fixed her legs there. As the full impact of her situation struck her, Julie moaned.

At that the women turned and looked up at her. It was Rose.

"Ah good, you're awake. I'll fetch the Master. You, give her some water." The other woman, a blonde, nodded and went to where a bucket stood by one wall and brought the bound woman a dipper of water. Julie drank thirstily and it wasn't until she had finished that she recognised the other.

"Beverly!"

The other woman smiled, kindly.

"Hello," she said,"I'm Candy. They tell me you're my sister."

"Candy? Beverly, it's me Julie. Don't you remember me?" "Oh no, that's not permitted. When one is enslaved the old person is wiped away and a new person is created. A better happier person. Beverly no longer exists. Candy is who I am now. The Slave Candy. See?"

And she proudly showed Julie the words on her collar.

"Soon, you'll have your collar and a Master. You'll be happy too!"

"Beverly! Oh, God!"

Seeing a stranger looking at her out of her sister's face was more than Julie could bear. The threat to herself didn't matter as much as the fact that her sister was gone, perhaps never to return. She felt tears start in her eyes as Candy turned at a sound from the door.

"It is the Master! You are greatly honoured!"

She knelt and bowed her head. Sweeping through the door came a procession. In the lead, dressed in a black silk robe and smiling broadly was Thergo. Behind him in similar garb were the chauffeur she had seen in the limo and Victor! Victor, looking sheepish as ever, although he seemed to have acquired the physique of Arnold Shwarzenegger from somewhere. Rose tagged along behind Thergo and knelt opposite Candy.

"Ahh, Ms Wellbeloved, we meet at last! Do you know where you are?"

Julie resolved to show as much defiance as she could. As long as she could. "Well, Mr Thergo," she drawled, "I guess I'm in the lair of the Mad Magician! You know the Wicked Wizard of the South?"

Thergo flushed at the defiance but soon recovered his smoothness.

"Not mad, my dear, but certainly justifiably annoyed. You have been a considerable inconvenience to me."

"I'm only sorry I couldn't do more."

"Oh you will be sorry, my dear. When I enslave you, binding your mind forever to submission, I will allow you to remember just how nasty you were to me. That will ensure that you feel waves of guilt and mental pain even as you struggle to cater to my every whim!"

Thergo grinned and cupped her pussy. His fingers tickled his clit and dipped inside her. Julie struggled but the glowing bonds held her fast.

"You pig! Where did you learn how to do these monstrous things? And what have you done to Victor?"

"A reporter to the last! Always wanting to know What How, Who, Why and Where. I've done nothing to Victor. He simply decided to join the winning side."

Victor shrank under Julie's glare and turned away.

"As to How and Where: I'm what you might call a displaced person. I fled from a place, a world, where Magic is Civilisation's highest achievement. One day, when I have built up my strength and following I will return there. And my enemies will rue the day! Any further questions?"

"Just one: You've got the power to work miracles. Why do you do this with it?"

"Ah, then this is the moment at which I am to deliver the sermon!"

"Sermon, what bloody sermon?"

"When I first came here I read a lot of what you would call 'porn'. I was trying to understand the reason why the men of this world do not keep their women as slaves. And I came across these books that celebrated what you would call 'S-and-M'. And in each of these books there comes a moment when the dominant delivers a sermon. Either he would say that Dominance and submission was the natural order of things and the woman he was enslaving would be of the same opinion when he had finished training her. Or he would say that it was just a taste he had and as harmless as a liking for dill pickles."

"And which one are you going to deliver?"

"No sermon at all, my dear. I enslave women because I can and because I enjoy it. And you will soon be perfectly happy as a slave but that will be because of my magics. Your opinion won't matter at all."

"Tell me, do the women wizards on your world do the same to the men?"

"Oh my dear Ms Wellbeloved, haven't you guessed? There are no women wizards. Since the dawn of time, the Gift has only ever been given to men. For which I am profoundly grateful!"

"I'll bet."

"I will leave you now. Until dawn, Ms Wellbeloved." He swept out and his entourage of slaves, and apprentices followed. Victor gave her an apologetic shrug which she ignored. Rose remained behind for a moment.

"Don't worry Julie. You'll be happy soon. You'll see."

"Rose, please!"

"It won't be long."

Again she leant forward and kissed the bound woman on the lips, pressing her body against Julie's and allowing her hand to cup the exposed pussy.

"Soon, now," she whispered as she broke the embrace. And then she was gone. Julie let down her head and wept. For a while despair overwhelmed her soul. Soon she would be as obedient and submissive as the other women in the wizard's harem! Was there nothing she could do? With an effort of will she forced herself to think.

The room was sealed by magic and the chains that held her to the pillar were locked with magic. And no woman could use magic.... Who said? There were plenty of legends about women magicians on this world at least! Morgan le Fey, Nimue, the witches of the medieval period. She had heard all her life from men who knew 'for certain' that women couldn't do this that or the other.

Maybe Thergo believed all that chauvinist stuff he had been spouting. And maybe he was wrong. Julie forced herself to think about the techniques in the "Introductory Grimoire". She had only read it once. But she had an advantage over her competitors in journalism. Julie had a photographic memory! Once she had seen something it stayed with her forever. She had never been a wizz at math but when you're going to be branded and enslaved forever at dawn it concentrates the mind wonderfully. She thought back....

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