This file is a part of Elf Sternberg's Collected Works on ASSTR.  The
complete archive of Elf's work can be found on his website at:

http://www.drizzle.com/~elf

The author can be contacted at:

mailto:elf@drizzle.com

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Aimee', Chapter 8

The bitter cold whipped against Aimee's face. "My cloak, sir. Please!"

"It is of no matter, Aimee'," Teltirray hissed, impatiently. He
disliked waiting, especially when a stupid girl like Aimee' slowed him
down. Although even he had to admit that she was less stupid than
most. Her beauty, like flawless amber, attracted him to her, and he
had known so many months ago that he had to possess her. He had
arranged with the idiot at the orphanage to "tutor" her, so long as
all record of her existence disappeared off their books. If she died,
there would be no investigation. He knew that. He had paid good money
for that little "feature."

He smiled. "Feature." The convenience of sloughing off one of these
simple creatures was something he would easily pay for, just to be
done with it. Especially in these later years, now that he had found a
route to power that once he had only dreamed of. For that route,
though, Aimee' was almost entirely used up. Her body could not
withstand the pleasures he sought for much longer, although he had to
admit that both Bethsany and Darynn had trained her very well, for
although his need for violence had increased a great deal, so had her
survivability, just by her strength. He would call on their services
again to train the next one.

Aimee' was sobbing silently as he hauled her through the snowbound
streets. "Silence, girl!" he snarled at her. That insufferable noise
would drive him mad after too long, and he could not bear to hear it.
"You will have plenty of tears when we get home."

"Sir, please. I cannot!"

"Oh, you certainly can, Aimee'. Because I so will that you can."

"Sir!"

"I said shut up!" He released her long enough to slap her across the
face, then grabbed her by the hair and pushed her in front of him.

They reached his small, round home soon enough, and the doors opened
to let him in. "Good evening, sir," his chamberlain said.

"I will be in the upper chambers tonight, Ricar. See to it that I am
not disturbed."

"Of course, sir." Teltirray watched, pleased, as he bowed and walked
away, his back stiff and strong. Men were like that, he thought,
strong. Even the ones who could not do magic deserved his respect far
more than the soft, pathetic forms of the lesser sex, although the
magic-less always deserved to be the chattel of men like him.

He led her up the flights of stairs and into his bedroom. "Remove your
clothes."

"Sir..."

"Do it!" he growled. "Or I'll flay the skin from your bones."

Aimee' looked away, and Teltirray saw her jaw clenched in anger. He
smiled to himself, knowing that she was helpless to do anything. She
would submit to his whims. She removed her boots, then slowly undid
her pants, picking up one leg at a time and sliding out of them. She
tossed the scarf aside, but as she removed her shirt she hesitated.
Teltirray saw a curious smile cross her face. "You're dawdling!" His
anger grew as she hesitated longer, but finally she threw her tunic
aside with a snarl. Teltirray laughed. "Is my pussy kitty angry?" he
asked, soft and sarcastic. "Get on that bed!"

She hesitated, and he swore. Without a word, he thought his favorite
spell in her direction, simple Pain and she buckled over, agonized.
Her stomach would tie itself into knots fighting the pain he was
feeding her if he didn't let up. Finally he did. "Now, get on the bed,
Aimee'."

"You'll kill me anyway," she gasped, looking up at him.

He backhanded her. Although a mage and not a warrior, he was still a
strong man, and she staggered back, landing on the bed. He reached
down and snatched her right wrist, wrapping a black band around it. "I
could make it more painful, you know," he growled.

"It already hurts!"

"I'll make it worse, you weak bitch!" He turned her over, and although
she fought, his strength made her less than a rag doll, and he affixed
another black band to her left wrist. "Take her," he said to the air,
and the bands pulled her into the air. She whimpered. "That's it," he
smiled at her. "That's it. Try and remember the spells Darynn taught
you. Try and use them. Save yourself as much as possible. It'll just
make my pleasure last longer."

Aimee' concentrated. She tried to find the spells she knew, and in the
back of her mind they were marshalling to her defense. Chants flowed
from her lips, soft and sensuous to her tongue as they healed her
wounds and eased her pain. "Good," Teltirray sniggered. "That's it.
Make it last longer." Her chest heaved as she breathed, gasping the
words to spells that might make her last one more minute. She felt his
hand caress her belly, her thighs. More bands went onto her ankles,
and Teltirray spread her legs apart. His magic glued her to the wall
over his bed like some obscene statue. She had spent more than one
night like that, over his head, forced to sleep that way for his
amusement. His hands touched her almost gently. "Say goodbye, Aimee'."

She looked down at him, holding her voice for a moment. All she said
was, "Goodbye."

Teltirray grimaced, taking up a heavy, knotted scourge in his hands.
"Now," he said, "Scream for me." The wall behind Aimee' grew warm, and
she felt the flow of magic through it. She didn't know what the magic
was, but she could feel it coursing into her, as if seeking something
within her. It wasn't just magic... it was alive. It was looking for
something within her, but she could almost feel it's frustration and
she knew it didn't know how to find what it was looking for.

Teltirray was smiling at her, his eyes alight with madness. "It's a
demon," he said. "A friend. It... supplies me with the knowledge I
need. The cost, of course, is you. Not that I mind." His smile twisted
into an ugly snarl. "It needs your pain, Aimee', but eventually even
that won't do. Then, it wants your life. But it doesn't know how to
find it." He looked down at the whip. "Pain is also his map. And
this... this will show him the way."

He shouted as he brought the whip down against her body. The blades of
black leather crashed against her belly and she grunted in sharp pain.
The whip fell again, the tails landing hard against her thighs. She
squirmed, holding her tongue in, trying not to scream. The presence
within her turned, seeking. The whip came again, against her chest.
Ugly red streaks grew from her skin.

As Teltirray struck her, harder and harder, he began cursing her. "I
let Darynn teach you too well how to handle pain." His efforts grew
harder as he slammed the whip into her skin, torturing her, giving her
all the pain and suffering he could inflict. The presence within her
lived on the pain, enjoying it as much as it seemed ready to enjoy her
death. She could not afford to give in.

The whip was too persuasive. She bled from a dozen tortured slashes,
the crimson fluid coursing down her body. Darynn had told her, once,
about how precious blood was, and Bethsany had talked about the magic
of menstrual blood, and she herself knew what it meant to drop it to
the soil. The whip fell again, and finally she screamed.

"Yes!" Teltirray shouted as he whipped her. "Scream, Aimee', scream!"
She did. She twisted and tore at her impenetrable bonds. Teltirray's
face was covered in sweat, his muscles bunched, the whip flying over
his head to strike at her body again and again in long, angry slashes.
Aimee' cried and screamed as the tears dripped off her chin and the
blood streamed down her body and dripped from her toes onto
Teltirray's pillow.

As she screamed, her body fighting without her control, her mind came
oddly to peace. The demon was coming for her soul, now, and she found
she could live with that. She opened her eyes.

In the background, she heard the sounds of the whip and the screams of
her mouth, but in her eyes she saw only a door. A curious, oaken door,
encarved with runes, and at the center it read, simply, Aimee' She
knew where she stood, and she knew there was no reason to fight. She
threw the door open and waited for the demon to come for her.

It came. A green, ugly thing, shaped like a man with the head of a cow
and the muscles of some corrupt machine, it charged for her, its face
lewd and grinning.

But as it lunged for the door, she felt a coolness about her throat,
and then something... someone blocked her view. A sword of icy blue
flickered in her vision, and a squeal of indignant pain echoed out in
the corridors of her mind. Then the body in her way was gone, running
after the demon it... she had struck with the sword. She was dressed
in leathers of the same cold blue of the sword. Aimee' looked out,
wondering what she was staring at. The sky was a light grey color, and
before her spread a cold, flat, sheet of dark grey ice. In the
distance, two figures fought, the woman with the sword, and the green
and hateful demon.

The demon sprang for the woman, and the woman blocked the airborne
monster with an easy swipe of the sword. The demon thudded across the
ice. "Girl!" she shouted at Aimee'. "You must kill Teltirray! I will
not be able to hold this creature forever!"

"I don't know how!"

"Yes, you do! Now go!" The woman gestured, and a blue bolt flew at
Aimee', striking her body.

She looked out into the world. Her vision was blurred, and Teltirray
was panting, holding the whip in one hand, but he was not hitting her
anymore. "Why don't you die?" he screamed at her. "Die, you stupid
bitch! Die!"

He looked at her, his eyes fixed at her. "I'll make you hurt so much
the demon will be sure to find your soul. To the Dark with whips." He
reached forward, his hand on her belly, and began chanting. Aimee'
recognized the spell, The Pain That Will Kill and accepted it into her
body. Her nerves began to burn. Teltirray had used this spell on her
before, and she had learned, if not to enjoy it, to at least
understand it. And as the pain reached into her soul, she heard the
clash of claws and steel within. She grinned at Teltirray.

"Die, damn you!" Teltirray's eyes narrowed as the sweat poured from
his balding head. "Die!"

Aimee' refused to die. She refused to let him win. As she accepted The
Pain That Will Kill she recognized the sensation. She knew that spell.
She had seen it in a mirror once, as The Pleasure That Sings She had
seen it a long time ago. In a book. Darynn's book. She knew how to use
The Pleasure That Sings. And in knowing, she saw the differences
between the two spells. With an almost casual, contemptuous thought,
she turned Pain inside out and claimed it as her own.

The look in Teltirray's face turned from hatred to shock as he felt
his hand burn. Flames erupted in his imagination. Surely he had to be
on fire! He backed away from her, feeling The Pain That Will Kill for
the first time directed at his own flesh. He screamed as the pain
became instantly more than he could bear.

Aimee' had no trouble maintaining the spell. It didn't matter anymore
if the power she needed to kill him killed her as well. His demon was
busy, his power expended, his concentration ruined. She had him. She
stepped away from the wall and fell to the bed, crumpling to her
knees. In her soul, sword and claws clashed. And she knew who wielded
the sword. It could only be. Myr.

"That necklace!" Teltirray shouted. "Bethsany! That bitch! I'll kill
her when I'm finished with you!" He leapt for, his hands upon her,
grabbing for her throat.

Aimee' panicked, and in her instinctual reaction her knee came up
solidly between his legs. Pain redoubled pain in Teltirray's belly,
and he doubled over, grabbing at his crotch, his eyes closed with
suffering. "And, now, Master Teltirray, it's over." Seizing a heavy
candlestick holder from the bedside, she smashed it down on his head.
He grunted in surprise, but seemed unable to summon any more than that
to his defense. She struck him again. Over and over until his skull
staved in and his heart stopped beating. Then, in her own blinding
pain from the suffering he had inflicted with the whip, she collapsed,
falling off the bed and onto the floor.

She crawled, slowly, to her cloak, pulling it over her. The magic had
stopped, and with it her strength had fled. She had only one thought
now, one thing to sustain her. Sobbing softly, she opened the door and
limped down the stairs. She escaped through the service door in the
kitchen.

The snow bit bitterly into her feet, making her wince as she walked,
but she never slowed down. The cold ate at her through the rough,
thick wool. It didn't matter. Her tears grew stronger, yet in the dead
of winter even the hardiest thief dared not go out, and she walked
across the city, block after frozen block, unmolested and alone.
Finally, her pain reaching blinding proportions again, she found the
door she sought. She collapsed in front of it, moaning softly in pain
as she scabbed her knee on the icy stone, and pounded on the heavy
oaken door with the flesh of her palm.

A rustle within, a questioning inquiry through the door, a familiar
tickle of magic. Then, the sudden rush of bolts being thrown and wards
being broken. The door threw open. "Aimee'!"

Darynn reached down and picked her up, carrying her inside. The door
closed behind him. "You must be frozen!"

She suddenly realized that he was holding her. With a whimper, she
threw her arms around him and held onto him for her life, realizing
that she was safe, finally. Tears broke out of her again, and his arms
surrounded her while she cried her final cry, letting out the last
year of pain and suffering, giving it to Darynn, and then to the past.
"He's dead," she gasped at one point. "He's dead."

"Are you sure?"

Aimee' nodded. "I... I crushed his skull." A snarl crossed her pretty
mouth as her eyes searched Darynn's face, looking for confirmation. "I
dropped him to the floor with Pain and then I took the candlestick and
hit him again and again and again until his blood and his brains ran
over the bedsheets! He's dead, Darynn, he's dead!"

"Certainly sounds like it." He gave her a gentle squeeze. "You're
bloody all over, Aimee'."

"Hurts," she agreed softly. "I... I need to get clean. And my boots. I
forgot to take the laces out of them. I need to get back..."

Darynn recognized that kind of logic as belonging to someone in a
great deal of shock and confusion. "No, Aimee', you don't. You need to
come with me."

"But... Teltirray..."

"Is dead, remember?" He smiled gently, a smile that hid his fear
within. "Come. Come with me."

"If... you're sure it's safe?"

"Very," Darynn replied. "Come."

She finally agreed and followed him. He led her into the bedroom, then
through to the bath. "Sit," he said, indicating the large wooden tub.
She complied. He drew warm water for her, and did his best to clean
the wounds that crossed her belly, breasts, and thighs. The dried
blood softened with the water and slowly he exposed the beautiful girl
who lay hidden underneath all that running redness. With a few gentle
spells he closed the worst of her wounds, the ones that still wept
blood and serum.

He found himself wondering what she would look like in the throes of
passion, or even the pain of whips when the whips were lovingly
administered. It was the first time in decades he had considered a
woman as a companion, and the first time ever that the idea actually
appealed to him. Yet, it wasn't Aimee's femininity that appealed to
him so much as it was her raw, inner strength. She had killed
Teltirray, to hear her say it. And within, he believed her. He was as
sure as she that Teltirray had come to earn what he deserved.

And, curiously, her shape appealed to him as well. The effect was
indescribable. Something new, he realized, and he did not reject the
thought. It did not bother him that he found someone beautiful just
because he was unfamiliar with her kind of beauty. "Sir?" he heard her
ask.

Looking down, he realized that he had cupped her breast in his hand
and was fondling her gently. "My apologies, Aimee'. I was...
distracted." Yet, he could not imagine what he would do with her.
Actually, he knew full well. He just could not imagine a balance to
it, the kind of balance he found among men, where each could fulfill
both roles, as taker and giver, with a woman, even though he knew full
well that most people lived lives of such imbalance every day. "There
will be an investigation, you know."

She nodded, her eyes barely open. "I know. I wonder what will happen?"

"I do not know." He stroked her wet and glistening skin, so red and
dark, and found himself wishing he could touch more of her. What more
did he want?

Then, he remembered. And he smiled. He wanted her to undress in his
presence and say that she wanted him. To be as forward, as forceful,
as gleefully hungry to bed him as any boy or man Darynn had ever had.
For that, he could wait.

He helped her out of the tub and dried her off. She stumbled a little
as she walked, but she finally and successfully navigated her way to a
bedroom he showed her, and finally he pulled the blankets over her and
she was asleep.
  _________________________________________________________________

Original document is available from:
http://www.drizzle.com/~elf/aimee

Aimee
is Copyright (c) 1989-2000 Elf Mathieu Sternberg. Distribution limited
to electronic media not-for-profit use only. All other rights are reserved
to the author.
