Chapter 8: A Warm Welcome to Dreams

"Why?" I asked, starting to get worried.

She flipped open the schedule that I had sitting on the desk across from her. She reached over and dragged it a little closer, flipping over to tomorrow. "Tomorrow morning is Five's turn. She is not someone you want to be caught by."

I nodded. All right. That seems reasonable. "Oh, why is Nine afraid of you? One."

One looked at me and shook her head. "What?"

When I mentioned to Nine that I'd see her after lunch. "Why did she seem terrified about taking her spot?"

One frowned. "She hides it well. But she might be more herself than I thought. I knew she was always slightly independent. Her noticing that you were off and letting me know was interesting."

"What, you think she was afraid of me and didn't want to be around me anymore?"

One shook her head. "No, no, she's just as brainwashed in that way as everyone else is," she said, and she grabbed my hand and squeezed it. Suddenly, I got the impression she was telling me that she also might not have been fully free of whatever this was, either. But I held my tongue.

"No, I think. She wanted me to see you. Either that or she actually is afraid of me, which would be hilarious. She is the newest of us all, so it would make sense. I've cultivated a certain reputation, and a lot of the newer Numbered aren't really aware of who I am."

I just nodded, ready to move on. "Okay, so what do I need to know?"

"First of all." She said, "Every one of your Numbered will call you Master, and you will refer to yourself as their Master. That is something that you always did. And if you keep doing that, it should be fine. You only ever refer to us as the number. Presumably, you would know our actual names, but you never use them, and we have all long forgotten them."

I nodded. It wasn't something I would have chosen for myself, but I'd go along with it if it meant keeping myself safe. "Okay. What else?"

***

By the time I slunk into bed, my head was ringing with the set of endless instructions that One and I had talked about. My two meetings never did show up, so when I asked One about it, she said that Nine had, in fact, canceled them. Which is great because there were a lot of things I didn't know.

Luckily, One was willing to help me decode all my ciphers that I needed to know, the ones that at least she was aware of, and she said she was aware of most of what I knew. So, we were able to pour through reports and talk about what was going on. She did give me high-level summaries of most things.

The numerous mannerisms, opinions, and habits that I apparently had were drilled into me. I was planning on dropping many of them. But I had to do so slowly. At least I was always polite to everyone, even if I did so in a very disdainful way. The habit of not acknowledging people I thought beneath me was one that I would probably drop as well. But it was going to get hard to play along with for even a short time.

Okay. I liked being polite. I also liked being intimidating. It was much more effective to get people to do what I wanted if they were a little bit scared of me. I wouldn't drop all of the habits. But brainwashing women into becoming my Numbered was one of the first things I had to stop.

Unfortunately, even with me dropping that habit, it still left me with quite a few clearly dependent people. I inherited the responsibility for these women. And that was just how it was. The numbers were all mine in a way that I wasn't sure I fully understood. And I was going to do my best to take care of them.

When One first tried to explain it, it sounded like sex slavery. But by the time she was finished, it sounded more like soul ownership, as if I was some devil that they had sold their whole bodies and minds and hearts to. It was sick and twisted, but she said that the magic binding them had to be entered voluntarily. No matter how much she argued, it couldn't sit right with me.

I had tried to release One right then as soon as I heard about it, but I couldn't feel any magical connection to her. When she asked what I was doing with such a look of concentration on my face, she broke down into tears and begged me not to.

I couldn't understand why, but after a quick half-hour of frantic pleading, she eventually convinced me to at least hold off.

"If you're not Master, I'm happy enough to be where I am now. Maybe you can free me later. But." She just trailed off as if she didn't even want to think about it.

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This was wrong. It felt vaguely slimy, but I embraced it as something I just had to do for now and had gone to bed thoroughly exhausted. Figuring out how to unfuck this situation was going to be at the top of my list tomorrow.

The covers shifted next to me, and I sat bolt upright. When One had snuffed out the lamp, I had assumed that she was leaving. I even heard the door close. But when I felt her warm fingers pressed against my chest, pushing me back down to the bed, I flinched.

She whispered in my ear as I leaned back into the pillows. "Don't worry about it."

Then she snuggled in under my arm and rested her head in the crook of my shoulder. Her hand slowly danced along my lower stomach as she turned her head into my neck. The warm plush of her lips grazed my slight stubble, sending tingles surging.

Out of pure reflex, I reached up across my body to cup her cheek. As I brushed along her satin skin. I couldn't help but be amazed at how nice it felt. I closed my eyes, leaned back into the pillow, and tried to think of all the things I needed to remember.

But One had other ideas. Her hand crept a little bit lower. I swallowed. A quick debate warred in my physique, but one side gave in far too quickly. "Are you sure?"

She nodded her head against my chest. "Please? You don't have to. But. It would be. Nice."

~~~

I felt myself stiffen in her hand as she gently stroked me. I couldn't help but remember her lithe form and fill in the darkness surrounding us with pictures of her face. Reaching across my body until I felt satin flesh, I held my breath. Sliding my touch up her side, I found her naked breast and cupped it gently, squeezing it and rubbing my thumb across her nipple.

She let out a soft moan. As I touched her tenderly, she nuzzled in more. Not quite ready to advance, I kept it to simple touching.

"This is nice," she said in a soft whisper. I reached up a little bit further and cupped her face, and she gently nibbled at the tip of my thumb and sucked it into her mouth, playing with it with her tongue.

When I pulled it out, she reluctantly let it go with a slight pop. As I ran my fingers through her hair and stroked deep into its roots to get to her scalp, she just pressed up into my attention, not able to get enough. Was this what she was about? Did she need tender care?

I rolled over slightly and, with my other hand, cupped her chin, tilted up, and kissed her softly. She met out very excited noises and practically melted into my arms, and I felt her warmth radiating through her and into me.

"Mhm." She nibbled a little bit at my lip, and I bit her back playfully. Reaching down. I stroked all the way down her body till I found her warmth at the center and ran my fingers through her. Feeling all the fun little touches as I explored her folds, I smiled into her lips. She wasn't quite ready, so I played with her a little bit more. I was earning all sorts of gasps of excitement and really was starting to relax.

One squirmed in close and ceased her gentle stroking of me before grabbing my hip and pulling me on top.

"Hmmm." I winced as she guided me to her entrance and tried to thrust up onto me.

The slightly too rough friction of her just felt wrong, and I said, "Wait," trying to get her to slow down and have a bit of patience.

"No. It's so nice. Kiss me more. Kiss me more." She repeated. But I broke away from her lips. To give her a little bit more lubrication, as she clearly was too impatient to let her body prepare itself. She let go of my arm, grabbed both sides of my hips, and pulled them down while pushing up, practically forcing me inside her.

I didn't know why she was so eager and unwilling to wait for her body to be ready. Still, the way she ground against me told me that the little bit of discomfort she must have been feeling was not enough to discourage her. I only got a few inches in before all her pulling made no difference. Slowly, I started to move a little, and within just a few languid thrusts, everything was gliding properly.

One let out a soft cry from underneath me and let go of my hips to grab my hair and pull me close.

"Yes, Master. Love me." She whispered. And I did thoroughly until we were both sweaty and exhausted and passed out next to each other in the bed. I pulled her close to me, her hips nestling into my crotch as she snuggled in.

She reached back and stroked my neck over her head as she pulled me around her more. I laid my arm over, cupping up under her breasts as I held her close and rested my head on top of her hair. My mouth was just behind the hollow of her ear. "Good night. One."

~~~

"Good night, Master." Before long, the bed swallowed me, and I fell away, the shadows rising up to take me to sleep.

***

I didn't forget where I was as I fell into a dream and materialized in a palace made of the same shadowy stuff the maze was. I was somehow aware of myself sleeping next to One at the same time as I was aware of myself in the dream.

Looking down, I found I was dressed in the same dapper suit I always wore. I could feel my weapons strapped to my body underneath it. That comforted me as I looked around, unsure of what was going on. This was not something One had ever told me about. But maybe she didn't know as much as she thought she did.

I licked my lips nervously but calmed quickly as I could still feel her warmth pressed up against me. As I walked through the palace, there was a tugging on my mind. Like, I could hear someone calling my name at a distance. That reminded me that I still didn't know my name. I forgot to ask One about that.

Hesitantly, I followed the tug as I walked through the palace, up a flight of stairs, down a hallway, and across a sky bridge to a different pillar. Time seemed to flow strangely as I moved through the castle.

After I walked across the sky bridge, I found that I was at the far edge of the palace.

In the center, there was a single massive pillar that stood twice as high as the eight towers radiating around it, and the call was coming from high up into that ninth tower. It was a brilliant white that broke through the shadows as if it were the one casting all the light that the shadows came from. As the bridge met the base, the whiteness overcame the shadows, and instead of walking on a pillar made of shadows, I walked on a floor made of white.