Chapter 15: The Decision
“We’re very sorry! Please forgive us!”
This right here… this was a man’s dream, I had to admit. Even Thalmor me was pleased with the depth of my human self’s perversity. But then of course this would appeal to the Mer half of my psyche something fierce. Having all of these inferior women prostrating themselves before me?
The position that the initial Bandit Spokeswoman, a Redguard of distinct beauty, and her four female bandit friends were currently all taking was that of dogeza. With their foreheads planted on the rough stone of Valtheim Towers and their hands palm down on either side of their heads as they kneel in submission before us.
But not just dogeza, no. To complete their humiliation, I’d had them all go a step further and made it NAKED dogeza. As such, their bandit gear was all folded up and set to their sides as they knelt there in supplication, forced to maintain the pose lest they draw my or my traveling companion’s wrath.
Breaking the bandits’ spirit had been easy enough. Before the first bandit, a gorgeous dark-skinned woman, had even been able to react, I’d bull rushed her and knocked her on her back. Then, once she had nowhere to go, I’d cast a mild fear spell on her and used every bit of my auras and my Speech Perks to intimidate her into surrendering.
Her four equally scantily clad and sexy friends had taken a bit more convincing, but not much. Especially not when Svanna, upon seeing the one male member of their little group, had FUS’d him right off of the tower, sending his body pinwheeling off into the darkness below. With that, Valtheim Towers was TECHNIALLY taken without a drop of blood shed. So long as one didn’t count the male bandit who had likely had his brains dashed across the rocks.
Now though, there was the plain and simple matter of deciding what to do with the five naked ladies in front of me. Honestly… I’d probably already be fucking them if not for one Housecarl-shaped issue.
“My Thane… I am not sure this is… appropriate.”
Lydia sounded more conflicted than ever, and as I look to her, the stalwart Nord is very nearly squirming. On the one hand, her hatred for bandits and criminals is quite strong. On the other hand, my abuse of power over these women after they surrendered, forcing them to take up this unnatural pose from another world after demanding they strip naked, was clearly offending her something fierce. And on the other, OTHER hand… she was still my Housecarl, and I was still her Thane. In fact…
“Lydia, are you questioning me?”
My Housecarl stiffens, remembering our earlier conversation before the Giants Encampment. Before she can decide whether to stand her ground or ask for forgiveness, I beckon her to me.
“Come here.”
Walking over, Lydia stands tall before me… until I slap her across the face. Just once, one smack across her pretty cheek. Her eyes widen as her head is turned with the force of the blow. I’m sure if that was ALL I was doing, she would almost certainly have attacked me right then and there. But no, in that single moment where I slap Lydia, I’m also casting Illusion Magic on her, a small thing, sort of like what I did with Aela.
A combination of calm and charm, I’m twisting Lydia’s perception just an inch. I’d done so with Aela by making her slowly fall in love with head pats, pushing a bit of magic into her scalp every time I gave her so much as a scratch atop her head. Now, I’m doing the same with Lydia, reinforcing loyalty to me above all else, while also laying the foundations for my darling dark-haired Housecarl to start discovering she had a fetish for receiving discipline.
By the time I was done with her, I would make her into my horny, ‘willing’ pain slut.
For now, though, for just this first slap, charming her and strengthening her loyalty to me is much more important. I watch in silence as she slowly straightens up, bringing a hand to her cheek. How she reacts next will tell me if I need to go fast and heavy with the mind control right away. But… no. Lydia doesn’t even reach for her blade as she gives me a positively wounded like.
“M-My Thane…”
“It is not your place to question me, Lydia. Yours is to serve me, to guard me and my property, is it not? If you wish to dishonor yourself by abandoning your oath and leaving my service, then you can go. I will not stop you.”
Obviously, being the quintessential Nord Warrior that she is, Lydia can’t even fathom doing that. Truly, Jarl Balgruuf had unthinkingly done something unthinkable, by assigning her to me as my Housecarl. Making Lydia beholden to me, making her sworn to my service… in that moment, the Jarl had doomed her, and I see at least a partial realization of this in her eyes as she opens her mouth… and then closes it before lowering her head in submission.
“No, my Thane. My place… is at your side.”
I smile thinly at that and wave dismissively.
“Then go secure the perimeter. I do not want to see a single hair of you until the morning. Is that understood, Housecarl?”
“… Yes, my Thane.”
And so, Lydia leaves the tower for a long, sleepless night. I can only hope that she’ll spend an awful lot of time thinking about that slap and why it felt ever so slightly good. Turning her into a huge fucking masochist sounded hot as hell to me.
That said, with her gone I look to Svanna and we both grin before looking down at the trembling bandits, who under pain of death, have still not left dogeza. With the Lydia-shaped wet blanket out of the way, we could finally do as we pleased.
Needless to say, I immediately move to the Redguard Bandit. As her friends sneak glances, I grab the dark-skinned brigand by her shapely hips, yank her ass into the air, and impale her moist cunt on my golden cock. As she cries out, Svanna watches all of this, fingering herself and standing there in front of the fivesome, reminding them all that she could quite literally Shout them to death with but a word.
Not that Svanna was my trump card against them, I could easily slaughter them all myself if needed. But they’d seen Svanna’s skills firsthand, all of them had, and only the dark-skinned beauty I’m fucking in and out of right now had seen what I was capable of. Regardless, with no need for sleep, I settle in for the long haul. These gorgeous ladies… I was going to fuck each and every one of them hard and fast all night long.
Reaching forward, I grab the Redguard Bandit by her hair and yank her head back. Amusing, that I ended up fucking a Redguard woman anyways, even after passing up on the chance to do Saadia’s quest back in Whiterun. With my other hand, I rear back and strike my palm across her ass, enjoying the way she squeals, the other four bandits flinch, and her buttocks shakes from the impact.
Chuckling, I settle in for what promises to be a very nice night.
-x-X-x-
“You have your orders. Get to it.”
“Hehe, yes sir!”
As the five female bandits, once more clad in their armor all clumsily salute before beginning to stagger away, the night’s activities forcing them to lean on each other as they do so, I watch them go with a satisfied smirk that’s matched only by the wicked little grin on Svanna’s face. We’d both had our fun throughout the night… and would have even more fun in the future, if my little ploy panned out.
Lydia walks up to us just as the bandits are leaving, and seeing them walking away with their things, the Housecarl’s nostrils flare.
“My Thane… you’re letting them go?”
Rather than respond verbally, I take two quick steps to close the distance between us before slapping Lydia across the face AGAIN.
SMACK!
The Nord woman gasps, and not just from the pain. No, there’s a note of pleasure in her voice this time around, as I once again push some of my charm magic into making her a masochistic pig who will eventually BEG me to hurt her, while also reinforcing her loyalty to me so she won’t even be able to THINK of dishonoring herself by leaving our abusive relationship behind.
“I don’t recall asking, Housecarl. Now please, be quiet unless spoken to.”
“… Yes, my Thane.”
With the day ahead of us, we continue down the road a bit before I have us cross the river in order to clear out the troll cave of Darkshade. Then, the Giant Encampment of Cradlecrush Rock. After that, it’s back on the road until we finally reach Hillgrund’s Tomb, which I once again have us detour to clear out. The Draugr make for excellent fodder after all, and there’s even a Necromancer in this place, one that we get a quest to vanquish from a Nord man named Golldir.
Such a shame that he doesn’t survive the quest itself, but alas, protecting him was optional, and like all foolish Nords, he wasn’t all that intelligent about entering combat. Meaning, he kept charging ahead and spouting off lines about how the necromancer would pay for defiling his ancestors. The Nord didn’t even survive to see us kill the Necromancer… though that was probably for the best, if only because we looted the place down to the fucking ground, defiling it in our own way in truth.
Lydia, of course, couldn’t keep quiet all the time. She spoke up a handful of times more, prompting me to slap her around some more. I enjoyed it quite a bit, because every smack resulted in just a bit more pupil dilation. Every palm across her face made her breathe a little harder. Poor woman didn’t understand what was happening to her, and it wasn’t like I was about to tell her. She was becoming a degenerate right before my eyes.
Well, mine and Svanna’s eyes. The lithe Dragonborn easily picked up that I was doing something to Lydia. That I had plans for her. And whatever they were, it was clear that the red-haired Nord was firmly on board. I could always count on Svanna. And maybe… maybe it was time I truly put that into actions, rather than just thoughts and feelings.
After how long Hillgrund’s Tomb takes us, the sun is already growing lower in the sky by the time we reach the crossroads, and more specifically Fort Amol. By this point, Lydia doesn’t hesitate to follow my orders and help clear out the Fort of the Conjurers that infest it. We kill every single one, clearing out the courtyard and then the inside of the Fort as well, just to be sure. There are some women among the Conjurers, but I can’t start sparing every single female in Skyrim who wants to kill me or mine.
And certainly, I’m a lot more leery about letting a spellcaster live than a bandit. A bandit can be disarmed. A caster cannot. Regardless, when Fort Amol finally registers as ‘cleared’ on my Map, we find a good spot and prepare to bed down for the night. This time, I magnanimously let Lydia sleep in the same room as Svanna as me… mostly so that I can actually make sure she won’t eavesdrop. After all, it’s not like Svanna or I NEED sleep. And so, once Lydia’s breathing has evened out, I cast a powerful Pacify Spell on her, so that nothing short of a fire ball to her face or a sword to her gut will wake her up.
Then, I turn to Svanna and lick my lips.
“Svanna… we need to talk about what we’re doing next.”
Blinking, the Dragonborn cocks her head to the side.
“… Yes. You don’t want me to go talk to the Greybeards. Why?”
Letting out a soft chuckle, I shake my head.
“I don’t want you to go talk to them yet. Maybe in the future… but honestly, we don’t need them. I know everything they would tell you. Even everything they would try to teach you. Technically, we need to pass them to talk to the Dragon they serve who sits up at the Throat of the World, but that can wait…”
Svanna’s eyes widen slightly at that admission, and I grin in response.
“Paarthurnax isn’t half-bad, in all honesty. You’ll probably like him, for all that he’s a Dragon. Though, if you want to consume his soul, I’ll help of course.”
Slowly nodding, Svanna frowns for a moment before reaching out and taking my hand.
“You know so much…”
She doesn’t ask. She leaves it completely open for me to say whatever I want, or nothing at all. But I feel like I should give her something, especially given what I intend to talk to her about here in a second. And so, I spend a moment putting my thoughts into order and deciding how I, the Thalmor Agent Vayral and the Smut Writer Cambrian, want to phrase this to the lithe Dragonborn sat beside me.
“I feel… I feel as if I’ve lived these events before. More than once, even. Its like I’ve played them out again and again. But… you’ve never been there, Svanna. This, what we have between us, is brand new. And that’s so very exciting, even if it does change things somewhat. What I know about your destiny and the end of the world is this… we can take our time. There’s no rush. And that means we can focus on what you and I want first. We can afford to be selfish.”
Svanna watches me, and slowly nods at what I’m saying. Fuck, I don’t deserve this girl. She’s just… perfect. And that makes me feel like a fool for not just talking to her about this before.
“You’re right, we’re not going to High Hrothgar or even to Ivarstead. I’ve been preparing Lydia for that fact, but now we’ve reached the crossroads, so it’s time to make a choice. And I’ve been conflicted about what choice I want to make, forgetting that I should have been asking for your opinion all this time.”
Silent for a moment, the Dragonborn eventually leans over and bumps her shoulder into mine.
“… Want to go wherever you want to go.”
I chuckle, smiling affectionately down at her, having half-expected that response.
“Ah, but what if I don’t know where I want to go? Let me outline our options for you, alright?”
“… Kay.”
“I’ve been trying to decide whether we should go to Winterhold or Riften first. We’re obviously going to go to both places, eventually. Winterhold, because the magic there is something I covet greatly, and I believe I can take control of the entire College of Winterhold with your help. And Riften, for obvious reasons, so that you can take your revenge, and we can try to find your ruby.”
I pause for a moment before sighing.
“I just don’t know where to start. Winterhold will give us a base of operations to operate out of, technically. It is isolated though, to be fair. Meanwhile, Riften… what do you want out of Riften, Svanna?”
“… I want my ruby.”
“Yes, of course. But what else do you want? What do you want from the Thieves’ Guild?”
“… I want the ones who caught me and marched me across the border to suffer. I want to kill them. I want… I want payback.”
I nod, though I’m a little surprised at how measured her desires actually are, now that I’m getting the quiet Dragonborn to say them out loud. She doesn’t want to burn Riften OR the Thieves’ Guild to the ground? She wants payback only on those who wronged her directly? That was very interesting. Reaching out, I take Svanna’s hand in my own, intertwining our fingers together.
“You know, if we played our cards right, if we did things in a certain way… you could be the Guildmistress of the Thieves’ Guild, by the time we were done.”
That idea startles her, causing her to blink at me as if she hadn’t thought of it.
“Imagine it, Svanna. Excise those who wronged you, take everything they owned in the same way they took your hoard… and then take over. There’s something I should have told you already, but truth be told, the time just never felt right.”
And I tell her. I tell her what I know about Mercer Frey, the current leader of the Thieves’ Guild in Skyrim. I tell her about how he broke covenant with the Daedra Nocturnal and betrayed the Nightingale Pact by stealing the Skeleton Key. I tell her of how this had in turn led to the entirety of the Thieves’ Guild being effectively cursed with misfortune and bad luck. How the Thieves’ Guild that she’d run into was like a cornered, starving mutt who was just as likely to bite as it was to whimper.
She listens raptly as I explain, and I give her a smile and a shrug as I finish up.
“… So, you see, the Riften Thieves’ Guild is already in its death throes. We can save it, if we want. Get you your revenge, slaughter Mercer Frey, and turn things around. You could become their leader, their Mistress. They would bow to you, as the greatest thief ever known.”
Svanna licks her lips and leans in closer, her tone breathy.
“And you… their Master?”
I laugh at that and nod my head.
“Well, there are a few beauties among their ranks. So long as those lovely gems weren’t directly involved in your exile, we can certainly… have some fun with them before turning them into proper tools.”
Svanna takes my hand and slides it into her lap, right up to her cunt. As I cup her slit, I find her to be incredibly wet, this entire conversation apparently really doing it for her. We kiss then, as I slip two fingers into her, pistoning my digits in and out of her cunt. However, when we pull apart, she surprises me.
“… Winterhold first.”
I blink, given how we’d just talked about Riften in depth, and give her a curious look.
“Not Riften?”
Flushing, Svanna shakes her head and answers honestly.
“… I’m not ready.”
Well, fuck me. That was the exact same reason that I’d been putting off going to Winterhold. Because I was afraid I wasn’t ready. Except, unlike me, my little Dragonborn was more than willing to admit it to me, willing to admit she was afraid. Winterhold WOULD allow us to prepare for Riften, to conquer that fear and descend upon Mercer and his Thieves’ Guild with overwhelming might. But even still… no, I’d made my bed. Now it was time to lie in it.
“I appreciate your contribution, sweetheart. Winterhold it is.”
We don’t fuck that night. We just cuddle, holding each other in one another’s arms. Tomorrow, we’ll head North. To Winterhold and all that awaits me there.
-x-X-x-
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