905 - Wife for Life
Shock and horror left Lex paralyzed, staring at Mei Li’s smile as he struggled to come to terms with what he had done to her.
That the kumiho had – if what had happened in his dream (or rather, what he’d done while asleep and mistakenly thought was a dream) was any indication – entered into a bond with him willingly counted for nothing. He’d already confirmed that he was not only able to bend mortal minds to his will, but that if he didn’t keep his emotions in check it was possible to do so without meaning to. Which meant that Mei Li’s having been in control of herself when she’d offered herself to him was highly in doubt.
Likewise, the fact that he was registering only positive emotions from her now – a mixture of gratitude, excitement, and awe – was equally meaningless. He had no idea how much time Kara’s “blessing” needed to perform its insidious work, but if he was right that a soul-bond heightened its efficacy, then the kumiho’s joy wasn’t trustworthy either.
The uncertainty of it all left room for plausibly excusing himself; he could have clung to the idea that she’d been a willing participant in what had happened. But as much as Lex wanted to avail himself of those excuses, he couldn’t bring himself to set any stock in them. Harsh truths had to be confronted, regardless of the cost or consequences.
Even if he hadn’t touched her – he knew that much, since her clothes were intact, and she still smelled of desire rather than fulfillment – that didn’t change the fact that he had forced himself on her.
It was a realization that shook him to the core, completely obliterating the rage he’d felt only an hour ago, pushing what had happened with Mihr completely out of his mind.
How could I have done this?!
That he’d slain Adagio – breaking his inviolable rule about killing another pony – was something that Lex could rationalize, if not excuse. The entire reason he’d structured his moral code as a deontological framework was so that, in the event that he found himself in a situation where there was no right course of action, he’d at least be able to make the choice that was less wrong. Killing Adagio had been just such a scenario.
He had no such excuse where Mei Li was concerned.
His foresight announced that Nenet and Solvei were waking up, and although Lex could have sent them back to sleep with a thought, he couldn’t bring himself to do so. The thought of mentally manipulating anyone right now made him want to crawl out of his skin.
Mei Li wasn’t the only one he’d taken advantage of.
“Mm, oh wow,” groaned Solvei as she stretched, yawning blearily. “I just had the best dream-, ah!” She blinked then, jolted awake as she winced slightly, looking between her legs. “M’sore?” she muttered under her breath. “Why...?” She trailed off, sitting up as her nose started twitching.
On his other side, Nenet purred as she looked up at him, a dreamy smile on her face. “Master,” she mewled, rubbing the crown of her head against his side. “I wanna do it again.”
Lowering her face again, Mei Li’s voice took on a reverent tone. “Elder Sister Solvei, Elder Sister Nenet, I thank you for accepting me as our master’s third wife. Let us all cooperate in good will to maintain the peace of his household.”
Solvei stared at her. “’Sister’?”
Nenet cocked her head. “‘Wife’?”
Lex could feel himself dying inside.
The others must have been able to feel it too, because they all immediately looked at him, distressed expressions crossing their faces.
“I’m not mad!” blurted Solvei immediately, her cheeks coloring as she placed a paw on his leg. “I mean, I’m surprised, and I wish you’d woken me up first, but it’s not like I d-didn’t want to...”
“I’m sorry!” Nenet’s happy expression crumpled immediately, flinching as though she expected to be struck. “Was...was I not any good?”
“Neither of you are to blame,” announced Mei Li. “Our Master’s displeasure is my fault.”
The certitude in her voice made Nenet and Solvei both pause, looking at the kumiho as she raised her head, conjuring several small lights that illuminated the interior of the turf hut.
And caused Solvei and Nenet’s eyes to widen as Mei Li fanned her tails out behind her.
While they weren’t the only thing that had changed about her – her skin, which had formerly been pale, was now a fair cream-color with a faint pinkish hue, while her hair had gone from being dark blue to a lustrous black – the sight of them was captivating. And not just for how many there were now; each one was a soft ochre in color, matching the vulpine ears that poked up from the top of her head.
But unlike those, her tails had soft lines and whorls of red, brown, and black against the deep orange background. They moved seamlessly across each tail, as though all nine had been laid side-by-side and used as a canvas. Only the tips were untouched, each being pure white.
“That’s...incredibly beautiful,” murmured Solvei, looking the tail-tableau over. “Are those designs supposed to be mountains?”
“I think they’re rivers,” pouted Nenet – Lex registered jealousy coming from the sphinx then – “and the tips look like clouds overhead.”
Mei Li didn’t reply to either of them, instead bowing to Lex again. “Forgive me for not thanking you for these tails, my master. Had you merely cleansed me of the ice that I was forced to suffuse my being with, I would have been overjoyed. But a bridal gift such as this is a treasure greater than I deserve. I swear to remain your devoted wife forev-”
“Hang on!” Huffing slightly, Solvei stood up...only to yelp again and sit back down, wincing as she curled her tail between her legs. Grimacing, she gave Mei Li a piercing look. “That word you keep using – ‘wife’ – Drafty told me what it means. So why do you keep saying that we’re all...you know...’married’ now?”
Mei Li looked up, confusion glittering in her eyes. “We have each performed a rite, holy in the eyes of our master’s goddess, affirming our life-long commitment to him through a union of souls. Is that not the definition of a marriage?”
Solvei opened her mouth, as if to protest what she’d just been told, only to close it again a moment later, her blush deepening.
Nenet gave Lex a shy look. “Do...do you want us to call you our husband from now on, Master?”
Mei Li frowned slightly, her tails twitching. “Is it not the custom for a wife to refer to her husband as ‘master’?”
“Wait a second.” Solvei shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut as if trying to sort out her thoughts. “If we’re his wives, what does that make Drafty? Or those other Sirens, Sonata and Aria?”
“Ah, yes, I recall you mentioned them before,” nodded Mei Li. “My apologies, I thought it was understood that they’re his concubines.” Lowering her tails, she sent an inquisitive look Lex’s way. “Is that not correct, Master?”
Lex couldn’t answer, stunned into silence at the direction the conversation had taken. What was going on?! He had just violated them all, and their reaction was to talk about whether or not they were his wives?! Had they gone completely mad?! They should be screaming at him, demanding to know what had driven him to do something so utterly depraved and how he planned to take responsibility for it!
But he could at least answer that last part.
Standing abruptly, his clothes returning to him simply because he wished to be clad again, Lex raised his left foreleg toward Mei Li. He’d never forcibly broken a soul-bond before; the one time he’d tried had been right after he’d formed a link between himself and Solvei, and it had been extraordinarily painful for both of them. But he’d been mortal then. Now-
He froze as his trans-temporal sense informed him of what would happen to Mei Li if he tried to separate himself from her. It wasn’t the usual six-second glimpse into the future, instead being more akin to the premonition of disaster that he’d felt at the prospect of bringing Solvei with him to confront Adagio. Except this time, the details of what would happen were much clearer.
A forceful separation was possible. But while he’d eventually recover from it, Mei Li never would. He wouldn’t even be able to heal her afterward, since it was the violent extraction of his own essence from her that would maim her so horrifically.
Slowly, Lex lowered his leg.
Solvei, Nenet, and Mei Li all exchanged concerned looks then, with the wolf approaching him first. “Lex, talk to us,” she pleaded, putting a paw on his side. “What’s wrong?”
“If we did something wrong, we can make it up to you...please?” ventured Nenet, tentatively placing a wing over him.
“You have but to name your desire, whatever it may be, and we will all strive to fulfill it,” added Mei Li, though she didn’t move any closer to him.
Which was a shame, since he suddenly found himself wondering how soft her tails were.
The thought sent a shudder through him. “I...”
He could already feel his libidinous cravings starting to reemerge, his foresight now showing him Mei Li’s reaction – bashful but not unhappy – if he exercised the conjugal rights she seemed insistent on his having. Or Nenet’s unbridled joy if he indulged her request that they couple again. Or Solvei’s embarrassed yet delighted reaction if he showed her the waking version of what had happened in her “dream.”
An hour’s worth of carnal activities hadn’t been enough.
After all the stress he’d accumulated, all the vigor he was now capable of, and all the entitlement that his bestial instincts said was justified after so many life-or-death battles, it wasn’t nearly enough.
“I have work to do.”
A chorus of protests came from the other three, but Lex ignored them, idly unmaking the golems and dismissing the wards he’d raised as he strode toward the exit. He had to leave before he ravished them again. Until he could find a way to deal with his cravings, he had to stay far away from everyone.
It wasn’t safe for anyone to be around him otherwise.
Going back to Equestria would have to wait.
Stay in the village, he ordered all three of them telepathically as he stepped outside and took off, flying into the night at a speed none of them could match. I’ll return soon.
He closed the connection before any of them could ask when “soon” would be.
That wouldn’t prevent them from sensing his position in proximity to their own, but that didn’t matter. With his speed and foresight, he’d be able to stay ahead of them indefinitely. Except, of course, this situation couldn’t be indefinite; he had to resolve this, if for no other reason than – since he couldn’t seem to suppress or negate these urges – it would be only a matter of time and lost control of himself again and despoiled someone else.
It wasn’t even an issue of simply achieving release; the creature within him reveled in dominance, delighting in how it felt to assert itself over another in such a profound way...something that Lex knew had also been true of himself even before their merger. Physical sensation simply wasn’t enough; it had to be part of a demonstration of power in order to be satisfying.
But the only mares – the only females of any race – he felt comfortable subjugating in that manner were either back on Equestria, where he couldn’t reach them, or in stasis. Or simply dead and unable to be resurrected, he amended irritably, remembering how Adagio had looked when she’d propositioned him in the shower.
Taking her up on her offer wouldn’t have been feasible, Lex knew. Even overlooking Nenet’s heartbreak, Kryonex would have emerged long before he’d have been able to finish taming the Siren. Even so, he regretted not having taken Adagio up on her lascivious offer now, if for no other reason than it would have spared Mei Li the loss of her freedom.
And of course, with all of the aristeia she’d had, there would have been no need to be gentle with the Siren either.
Aristeia...
Lex frowned, coming to a halt as something occurred to him.
Adagio had gotten her powers from the various eldritch patrons that she’d cut deals with. Thanks to his deal with Kara – whom he desperately wanted to avoid now, knowing that the manipulative goddess would absolutely use his current situation to her own advantage – he had the names of the Siren’s creditors...and he knew that they were, as Kara had described them, “prominent succubi, sidhe princesses, lamia matriarchs, and a bunch of others.”
While there was no telling what those “others” were, since the names she’d given him had come with no descriptions of the individuals’ races, there were at least three that were female creatures, reputedly of great beauty.
Given Adagio’s concupiscent nature and hyper-fertility, that was likely to be true for the rest of her creditors as well.
And if they’d been willing to trade their own aristeia, then it was hard to imagine them not treating their sexuality as any less of a commodity to be brokered. Besides, he already needed to traffic with them – and in a timely manner – to recover Adagio’s soul anyway, so deals would have to be struck. Why not solve two problems at once?
A dark smile split Lex’s lips as he began preparing his thaumaturgical spells.
He was about to head into another dangerous situation with multiple entities of unknown power.
But this time, he found himself looking forward to it.
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Lex certainly left his mark on Mei Li an despite the seriousness of the situation, I was quite amused and caught myself chuckling at how formal and yet casual about the sister/wives thing. Though I think Aria will be pretty miffed if she's ever referred to as a concubine instead of wife since as far as she knew, Lex had sworn off personal relationships until his goal was accomplished. Granted, the Night Mare is indisposed but no one aside from the pony pantheon knows that so...yeah.
As for Lex's intent to essentially solve two birds with one stone...not sure if it will work out as he intends it since I'm uncertain which 'head' came up with that plan. Guess we'll see.
Lex has got that look on his face where he thinks he can overcome his female eldtritch opponants.
You know what they say though about The best laid plans of mace and mein.
11798831 Aria would definitely be ticked at the implication that some other girls has a closer relationship with Lex than she does. She never minded him bringing someone else to bed, but she got her hackles raised quite a bit by Drafty wanting to have a closer relationship with Aria's guy. Which means that she's likely to raise some hell when she finds out that he has incredibly intimate bonds with three other girls now, regardless of what they call themselves. Of course, I suspect Lex would be happy just to have her back, even if she ranted at him.
Of course, that's presuming he can get back in the first place; for now, he has several other problems to take care of, although he's at least trying to solve two at once. How well that works out is very much a different question altogether.
11799077 Lex is definitely a little too eager to put his new idea into motion. But hey, maybe it'll all work out for the best, right? Surely something has to work out according to plan sometime.