“You useless bastard!” Karmis threw the chair at Dem.

Her ministrations had worked to some extent, but weren’t lasting in their effect.

“Lady, I will keep.. ministering to you if you will let me. Just lay back, and perhaps it will all work out.” His voice trying to sound apologetic, but probably failing.

She seethed, “That isn’t what I need boy. If I wanted that I would simply have bought someone with a more practiced tongue.”

Her eyes narrowed, “You’re a Tamer. Do I need fur to interest you? Is that what this is about? I don’t have claws or tails?” This strangely hurt him in a totally irrational way, causing him to bite back.

“Dice has no fur, and no claws but those blades of hers. I have had no trouble with her. It is just nervousness, you’re too beautiful.” His voice a little hoarse. He tried to bring it around with a compliment.

She shouted angrily at him, “What does she do that you need to get it hard, boy? Do you want to take me in my ass? Was my mouth and cunt not good enough for you?”

“No, no, listen Karmis, this isn’t about you, it's me, it's all me. The night has me scared. Maybe in daylight, it will work out for us.” He knew she wouldn’t be convinced but he had to keep the act going, hoping for her to defuse herself. He also hoped she still needed him enough that she wouldn’t do anything drastic.

“Get out, boy. Go out and check the alarms again, or hunt us something for dinner. Send Dice back.” Her tone final.

“Y-yes, Karmis.” as he spoke, he drew his pants up to his waist, grabbed his shirt, and ran from the tent.

He moved quickly away from the campsite. The darkness had started to recede, the misting evaporating all around him. The light was still low, but he could see just fine as he moved in the direction of Dice. Maybe he could get her to.. and then he could rush back.. and perform? It wasn’t much of a plan. A sense of bitterness welled up inside him. He had never expect his life would hang by the thread of his sexual performance. For Divinity’s sake, he had expect to live his life chaste, unable to merry. He had always imagined dying, older, perhaps much older, fighting some powerful beast. Never did he think a smelly Warrior woman would crush his head at the command of a spurned spell caster. Maybe Karmis would just burn a hole through him. That would be quick at least.

***

The shadows around him were beginning to evaporate. The Wilds were often a fairly shaded place, but the top most foliage was nearly transparent, allowing at least some light to trickle down. As you went further down from the top of the tree, to the bottom, the leaf-cover got more opaque. Once on the ground, the light was so thin, it became hard to see long-distances. Not that you could see very far in the Wilds anyway, thanks to the sheer amount of vegetation.

He could see that Dice was already returning, as he pushed further into the Wilds. He called to her, long before she could see him. His ears and nose finding her quickly. She materialized from the gloom, shadows across her face. He couldn’t see her eyes, they were dark pools on her face, but he could see her mouth and lips.

He spoke quickly, “Karmis requests you back at the campsite. She is… angered at me. I could not.. perform to her expectations.”

As first her face was lit with a grin and she laughed, but eventually, still looking at him, her mouth turned into a frown.

She let out a sigh, and she spoke,“Ah ‘ee, et beh ‘est tuh ‘ease Ka’miss.” Her tone was firm, but sad.

“It would be best to please Karmis? Tell her I will try it again, and I am sure it work out fine. Tell her…” His voice trailed off, he didn’t know what else to say. Dice, without waiting for him to finish, turned her back to him, and left.

After a long moment, he too began moving further away quickly. A short amount of time later he slowed down and stopped. The look of Dice’s mouth, the frown, was something he had never seen from her. She had pouted, yelled, huffed, but never just frowned, in the short time he had known her. He was already worried, but the frown had sent him into a panic. Her statement had been obvious. It was obviously best to please Karmis, that much was clear, but it hadn't meant much more than that to him. The frown though, the seriousness of it, from Dice of all people, that was frightening.

Was it a warning? Dice wasn’t a subtle woman, despite her talent for killing from the shadows. She wasn’t crafty, that was Karmis’ job. Dice was just the knife in the hand of the woman in red. Still, even if it wasn’t an intentional warning, he felt this was probably the end for him. Karmis might send Wersa after him, but it was doubtful she would be able to find him. Karmis hadn't given him anything that could be used to track him but perhaps she had a means of tracking him with a spell? It was more likely they would send Dice to kill him, but if he had Ina, well, he might win. It was possible he would die and Ina would maul Dice. They might even kill each other, but realistically Dice could fill them both full of blades at any sort of distance. Ina would have to ambush the woman, killing her in nearly a single stroke. Dice was so agile though, and very experienced. He would have to be there to help, he couldn’t send Ina in alone. If Ina died, well it would be all for naught, wouldn’t it? He would have little reason to keep going and would likely not make it back to the settlement anyway. In any case, he would likely die. Could he just run?

He couldn’t beat Wersa in speed or endurance. However, she could only realistically use one of her advantages but not both. Her buffs allowed her bursts of speed that would allow her to gain on him in a straight line easily, but would drain her endurance terribly. Without the buffs draining her, she might be able to travel for cycles longer than he could, but her lack of agility and knowledge of the terrain would keep her lagging behind him. If she could locate him, or knew where he was going, she might eventually catch up, but it was unlikely her senses were acute enough to find him if he was well hidden. Karmis might have a spell to locate him, but she would be sick after the first cycle of traveling on Wersa’s back. Karmis would only slow Wersa down. After thinking all this through, it was unlikely they would send Wersa, but what about Dice?

He might be able to out run Dice over a long distance, but her stamina had improved some and Karmis would buff her to the hilt. Dice might even have an apothecary’s or alchemist’s solution that would help her catch up to him in the short-term. Dice’s agility was fantastic, in more ways than one. Dice moved better through the trees than he did after some practice, but she simply wasn’t used to the extended exertion of traveling all cycle. Ina could escape easily. The party had little interaction with Ina, he had kept her away from them. It was doubtful they could track her. They hadn’t noticed her at all when she was above them, or at least they had never mentioned her presence. They had never even asked him about the lack of her presence. He probably had the bias against his Class to thank for their disinterest in Ina. Ina had never set off the outer-alarm spells because he controlled them. Karmis, on the other hand, had her own set of ones located at the camp tuned to some specification he didn’t know.

If he ran, right now, what would they do to him? The contract would punish him potentially if he ran right now. Some allowance might be made if he could be sure they were going to kill him first. The contracted worked on a personal basis shared across the party. It was dependent on specific mental triggers and physical actions he didn’t fully understand. It was a piece of spell-work the Tower employed to enforce cooperation. The Tower’s spell-work was often inscrutable, it came from the central region of the True Human Realm. He knew nothing of the central region.

How else might they punish him? If he ran would they even chase? Did it matter? Karmis was angry, but was she angry enough to bother with him, a mere guide and Tamer? What would they do when they got back to the settlement.. His thoughts stopped dead. His parents were back there and would have no protection from the party he worked for. They weren’t covered under the contract and no one from the settlement would care about what happened to an older couple from the hamlets. Despite the hamlets providing the settlement a lot of cheap labor and basic materials, most in the settlement thought of them as a burden. Their deaths were beneath notice. Karmis could eventually find someone to bribe that would tell her where his parents lived. Everything was for sale in the settlement. The location of some hamlet dwellers was nothing.

Greer might lie for him, or if enough coin were offered, might help Karmis. Greer was protected by being affiliated with the Tower, so she had nothing to fear. If he had to be honest with himself, he couldn’t be sure what Greer would do. They had known each other a long time, but his working for this party had been her idea. She had found him this deathtrap of a job. If he couldn't be sure about her, he couldn’t rely on her to cover for him.

He needed to find out who they were going to send before he made a decision, but if he went back now, Wersa could just kill him a flash. His hearing was good, but not good enough to listen in from a significant distance. Ina’s hearing might be good enough. He would have to check with her. He was about ask Ina for help, but he stopped, realizing her current position through the bond. Ina was still back there, where he asked her to stay. She was still calmly watching the campsite. She had been worried from the start and hadn’t left the source of the threat. He was so used to her following when he left, that it had surprised him that she had stayed. This was dangerous for Ina, but great for him. He could use this situation to his own benefit!

He had trouble understanding Ina’s emotions through the bond, they were just too different from his own, but he had been able to look through her eyes and hear through her ears before. The exchange of senses was far from perfect when she was a greater beast. There were some very big differences between how Ina heard and saw things, and how a human did, but he could get general impressions. Now that Ina was a beastwoman, it should be easier. Their senses would, hopefully, overlap better.

He reached out through the bond, offering himself up to Ina in the hopes she's would offer her senses up to him. The bond worked better if there were a sort of exchange. He tried school his emotions for her, as she was clearly angry about his panic. He tried to convey a sense of calm, of hopefulness, and the warmth of.. love. He hadn’t spent much time with Ina recently, but he had always been in communication with her, promising her quality time after the job was done. She had been patient, and had even been interested in experiencing the night cycles with him.

He hid his body in the nook of tree, and let his vision go dark. A moment later, he could see, though he had no control over the focus. Everything became sharp, the colors somehow different. His hearing bloomed, the heartbeats near him pounding loudly, like drum beats. Ina still controlled what he saw and heard, but he could offered suggestions. He asked her to creep as close as she dared, until she could make out the individual sounds of Karmis and Wersa moving around. Then he waited, to see if they would notice Ina. He felt awful risking Ina, but it was unlikely either of them would ever be able to find Ina unless she let them. By the time Karmis cast a spell, Ina could be long gone. She was many times more agile than Wersa, and had far more endurance than Dice. She would live through all of this, even if he did not, he vowed.

Eventually he relaxed some, the rest of the party were totally oblivious. He had to remind himself these adventurers knew little of the Wilds and thought nothing of a Tamer from such a backwards place. No alarm spells sounded, not even silently, as Karmis’ angry expression didn’t change as Ina crept closer. At this point, it was likely Karmis hadn’t tuned her spells correctly, or Ina was just beyond their range. It was possible she had relied on him totally for outward alarm spells, and her personal ones were only for her tent or the immediate area around the campfire. She was either arrogant or had simply relied too much on him.

Karmis stood, her robe flapping open, pacing back and forth. Wersa still seemed disinterested in whatever was going. Ina, after a moment, could tune her hearing to the point where he could hear Karmis angrily talking about him under her breath.

Karmis muttered, “That limp-dick, backwoods hick. He probably only gets it up for beasts or his cousins.”

He didn’t have any cousins he knew about. His parents had never talked about extended family, and he hadn’t ask. You didn’t talk about the dead in the hamlets. There wasn’t a point to it. He couldn’t agree about the beast crack either, but it hardly mattered. It was clear Karmis was still very angry.

After waiting a short while, Dice showed up. Ina couldn’t see her directly, but she could smell and hear her arrive.

Karmis immediately spoke, as Dice appeared, “I am done with the Tamer. He is useless to me. I requested a man for a guide, to replenish myself with and to fight the boredom, but instead what I got was a beastfucker.”

This confirmed his speculation about her Path. She need him to advance and to continue to empower her spells. Judging by his interaction with her, she needed him to be charmed or fall into some sort of lust for her. His resisting of her spells had maybe even been a challenge to her, something that would be really good for her Path, but when it was clear he preferred the company of Dice, it had hurt her, and perhaps even hurt her Path.

Dice spoke back, in a cautious tone, “Eh f-ook’d meh ‘ust ‘ine.”

He translated for himself, “He fucked me just fine.”

Karmis, paused and sniffed in Dice’s direction, “You’re little better than a beast. Since we don’t need him, we will get rid of him. You will take him far from us, far enough the punishment from the contract, will fall mostly on your shoulders, and you put a blade in him. You will do it. Since he preferred you, you will be his demise. You will do your job.”

He let out a breath, this was what he was expecting, an order for his death. He at least knew who would be coming to get him. Would Dice agree though? She was under his influence, but what that meant exactly was still confusing to him. She had opened up to him, in a lot of ways. Did that mean her loyalty to Karmis would waver? He couldn't guess.

He heard a tremble in Dice’s response, “Ah, ef ah ‘aft tuh, ah ‘ill, buh cahn ah ‘ave ‘em uh ‘ast ‘ime?”

He translated again, his stomach dropping, “If I have to, I will, but can I have him a last time?”

Dice had not even attempted to resist Karmis. Either she cared little for him, or was too afraid of Karmis. In either case, his influence wasn’t enough for overt change in her actions. He was disappointed. He had helped Dice quite a bit in learning the Wilds, and done much for her ‘place’, but it wasn’t enough to sway her from her job.

“I don’t care if you want ride that beastfucker again, but he dies. It will at least save us some gold on this waste of a trip. Kill his beast as well, if you see her. If she has a core it will be worth something. My spell is still tracking him. He is not that far from us. In that direction. Now go!” Karmis, voice was nnow less angry and more just cold.

Dice said no more and he heard her begin to leave.

He heard Karmis call after Dice, telling her one more thing, “Don’t wake us when you return. I want to sleep through the headache that comes with breaking a contract.”

It was true none of them had gotten much sleep during the night cycles, so it made sense after finishing with business with him, she would sleep. He asked Ina to slowly move away and return to him. She would be able to reach him before Dice did.

Now he had to think about what he would do. Karmis was angry, and clearly vengeful. Vengeful enough to recoup some of her costs. He couldn’t trust she wouldn’t try to find other ways of trying to hurt him. She had already ordered Ina’s death as well.

It was unlikely that they could kill Dice without losing himself, or possibly Ina. He had no means of killing the other members of the party at range. He could run, but there would be no protection for his parents. His influence on Dice wasn’t particularly strong, or at least not in a way he understood. She was on her way right now, to first fuck him, and then kill him. His only option was obvious. Its obviousness didn’t make it feel right to do, but he was from the hamlets, he lived in the moment, his overarching goal was always survival. He would be what the grimoire had demanded he become, The Dominator.