I woke up earlier than usual, before the crack of dawn, the small window inside my current room allowing only a little light through. I liked it being dimmer than wholly bright, it made everything look more enchanting and unusual than normal. I felt fatigued, as if I had not slept much, or rather at all. I tried to remember what led to my current disposition, and my mind worked up an answer.

I had missed Phil, and I practically chased him off last night. 'Granted, he reeked,' I tried to reassure myself, but a tinge of regret and guilt remained still.

I threw away the covers and got up to open the small window cover ajar and let fresher air inside. The morning brisk air flared my nose and removed any tiredness that remained from sleep. I contemplated my options.

Mistress would not require any of my services until later when she wakes up, and I had little to do in the meantime. This left more time to think about Phil, to my chagrin, as the guilt and need I was going through mounted up as minutes passed. I considered making it up for him somehow but lacked a specific idea, so I racked my mind. And then a specific conversation we had a while ago came to mind.

Disgust passed through me and I had to shudder at the thought of doing what I had planned, but I steeled myself in doing so or at least trying.

I got out of my humble abode next to Mistress' vast chambers. I had been spending most of my nights here, which was mostly without much point considering the entire decision of me being here rested on the fact Mistress would be spending her time in her own chambers, which was far from the situation at hand. I looked towards Lord Cerolus' room, noticing that Phil was missing, which lead to my plan allowing to go as intended.

I waved the standing guards, receiving the usual nod in return, and went the other way. The hallways at this time of day, or night as it may very well be, were eerie, as the sounds of my footsteps were the only thing that could be heard echoing against the walls. Every slow step allowed me ample time to figure out how to proceed and steel myself on continuing with my intentions, as wrong as they seemed once. They were still wrong in my mind, but weighing it against any others left me with a good sense of progress. 'I'll do this now, and maybe I won't get to do it again.'

Small doors stood before me, and I knew who to expect if I were to open them and let myself in. 'If there was a moment to rethink all of this, it would be this one.'

I didn't knock, which would have ruined any chance of this going as intended, opening the doors softly and carefully to not disturb the small room's only occupant instead. The room was devoid of much light, but the sounds in it were more than distinguishable. Phil was not a particularly heavy sleeper, but he did snore and today was no exception to that.

I brightened up the room a bit, allowing myself to see properly, or somewhat better in the least. He was sprawled across the bed, soft breaths interrupted by a bout of snoring. The lack of obvious stench made me smile. My plan was based on the assumption he would actually clean himself properly, so I was relieved to learn he had actually done so. He was stubborn at times.

There was not much room left on the small bed, considering his body took most of the available space, so I had to content myself with sitting on an edge. Watching him sleep peacefully made me chuckle. He was an idiot at times, but I didn't hold that against him. I lifted the flimsy cover he used and brushed a finger across his naked abdomen, slowly going over the elegant musculature that showed. I had been caught looking at him at times, and he would just grin innocently, leaving me to doubt myself.

My strokes had little effect on his sleeping but he did make a pleasured sigh. That only helped elevate my mood and bolstered my resolve in acting on what I intended.

I lifted his cover fully, leaving him bare in the room with only shorts on his groin. I slowly undid the rope that held them affixed to his hips, and gently lowered them down towards his knees. I tried to not look while I was doing that, somehow afraid of what I would see. I knew fully well that it was irrational and that I would have to look eventually, but that didn't stop me from keeping my eyes closed until the last moment.

Finishing up the task, I opened my eyes, staring directly at Phil's crotch. His member lay there, lazily hanging next to his left thigh. There was no going back now, what was done was done, and I could just go forwards.

I took it in one hand, gently, as if frightened it would pounce on me at any time. It rested in my palm and I gave it a brief squeeze. The few visible veins running along it were pulsing, Phil's member slowly straightening up. I ran my hand along its length, tightening my grip, albeit barely, in fear of him waking up or me squeezing too hard for comfort.

My thoughts kept running between calling myself an idiot, calling Nerephil an idiot, and consistently insulting both of us for what I was doing. In the meantime, I had started stroking his member with more vigour, something I was surprised by. When everything was considered, it wasn't as distasteful or gross as I thought, but I knew this was the easier part of my machination. The harder one was about to take place soon. I chuckled as I realised the meaning of my words.

Phil let out a slow, stifled moan, and I backed off, my hands almost throwing his rod away. I watched his face for a while to see if he had awoken, but I couldn't discern whether he was sleeping or just pretending to sleep. Soon enough, his head turned away and another short snore followed through, so I sighed in relief.

'Why am I afraid of him waking up?' I considered this line of thought briefly, and the only answer I could come up with was shame. I thought I would be ashamed if he were to see this. Which was impractical since I was actually doing that to him at right that moment. So feeling ashamed in that regard was a fruitless endeavour I could, and should, shrug off completely.

Looking down again towards his engorged crotch, I poked the large head that faced me, and the entire thing swivelled shortly, which was amusing. Stopping myself from prodding uselessly, I steeled myself to go back to the task at hand, now with more resolve to get it over with quicker. My contemplations were taking too much time as they were, and nothing had actually happened of note. So I had to cast off any worries I had and get right into it.

I stroked it for a bit more, eliciting another short grunt from Phil, which somehow made me prouder than I should have been. I stared at his member for a brief time then, and couldn't help but lick my lips slowly, whether in preparation or actual consideration that I might somehow enjoy this demeaning course of action.

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I leant down, slowly sticking my tongue out. I licked the top of his member. I retreated immediately, then something, some instinct I probably should not possess, made me try and spread the taste around my mouth. It was salty, but not really anything else. This surprised me, but I didn't know why. 'Did I actually have any expectations?'

Phil's erected member stared at me, and I stared back. Then I decided that whatever I decided to do beforehand, I might as well follow through with, if for nothing but trying it out for the first time. Somehow in all that, the feeling of shame and dread got replaced by an uncanny amount of thrill and elation. I couldn't believe that I was actually looking forward to doing this.

I dismissed all of those idle thoughts and leant in again, slowly but surely putting his member in my mouth. I couldn't say I didn't enjoy the prospect somewhat, even if that enjoyment was buried beneath various other emotions. I stroked the part I couldn't engulf and slowly manoeuvred what I did have in my mouth. I was somewhat lost on what exactly to do, realising that I haven't laid the plan out as much as I thought.

Phil, on the other hand, was apparently obliviously asleep. It was still uncertain whether I would have preferred him awake, but silently hoped I would manage to wake him up by doing what I was doing. 'He better be grateful.'

Up until now, everything had been going more or less according to what I had imagined, so I continued with my plan, trying to pleasure the sleeping man I was leaning over.

At an instant, I could hear the doors behind creaked and I could feel the gust of wind from it being shoved open. So I closed my mouth.

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I was startled by a sudden outcry somewhere nearby, snatched away from my dreams. I looked around. Sophia had her back turned to me, and I could hear her soft breaths as she slept, seemingly unfazed by the aberration of sound that had just happened. Briefly considering the situation, I stayed in my bed.

This castle was in the middle of nowhere when everything was considered. If we were under attack, someone would know. Rikkir didn't make a single mental nudge towards me this whole time, even though he was already well awake. I was almost certain that whatever happened, I had no need to worry about it, so I tried to get back to sleep.

I reached over and hugged Sophia's small frame, savouring the smell of her hair and her warm body against mine. The comfort of the bed did its work and in moments I was well on my way back to a dream.

Frantic knocking on the door made any further efforts futile. The knocking turned into what sounded like slamming an entire fist against the doors, so I got up, already annoyed. I hadn't managed to get to the doors before they burst open. Hiratun came through, grabbing my hand, then pulling me away with him.

Any drowsiness I had was lifted when I had realised I was being pulled by someone. I snatched my hand away. "What do you think you're doing?"

I looked into his face. Hiratun I knew was usually silent and calm. But he was terrible under pressure. Right now, he was somewhere between shock and crying, mumbling incoherently.

"Nerephil... he's... Tiana has... Nerephil... please... help..."

I shook him to try and make him regain his senses, but it did little to stop him from shivering, so I gave up. "Hiratun, calm down. What's wrong, tell me," the last sentence came out more as a demand than a question as I had intended.

Hiratun mumbled again, "Lord... please help... Nerephil is... follow..."

I dismissed attempts to make sense of all of this, "alright, just go."

Hiratun sprung into a sprint and I followed. We passed no one along the way, and I had noticed that it was barely dawn.

We stopped in front of a small room that guards used to sleep in at times, a group of people blocking my way. I just shoved them away and let myself pass through.

I made a single step inside the room which was now already illuminated by torches held up by whoever was near. Nerephil was on the bed, screaming as much as he could clawing at his stomach, while Tiana was holding a cloth to his crotch. She looked straight at me in shock, "I tried to... but the doors opened..."

"Tiana, what did you exactly do?" I shouted, and the murmur around me managed to die out.

She slowly lifted the heavy cloth from Nerephil's crotch, and I had to look away briefly, and instinctively caught my own groin in some irrational moment of empathy and dread.

"I... I bit it..."

I gaped at the sight, Nerephil's cock covered in red blood with a large gash along the middle that kept spewing out blood vigorously. I shuddered again.

"You know Light magic... you were near... I told Hiratun... can you help?" Tiana seemed to be in more panic than Nerephil was.

I gulped, then cleared everyone around me away. I leant over Nerephil, shoving him back down into the bed.

"Calm down. Easy," I tried to stay calm myself and those words had little effect.

I grabbed the nearest bedsheet, wrung it, then pushed it into Nerephil's mouth. "Shut up."

He tried to protest but his screams were muffled.

"Calm down. Bite on it. Hard," I said, then spread my palm across his bleeding crotch, "This will hurt."

I pushed as much light magic as I could muster, trying to remember any advice I came across when I learnt to heal. Blasts of light irradiated the fresh wound. Then I forced the wound to close.

Nerephil screamed, and Tiana regained some of her senses enough to grab hold of his outstretched hand. She was mumbling "sorry" repeatedly as I tried to focus on helping him out.

Coursing what magical energy I could mix, I let it loose and seared the wound to stop the remaining bleeding, trying to stabilise the newly remade flesh. Nerephil cried out again. I wished no one to go through what he was going, and thanked the Gods this can be remedied.

I stopped blasting the wound with magic, moving my palm away from my handiwork. Everyone present focused on Nerephil's crotch.

It was bruised, burnt, and somewhat disfigured. Most of the top had lost colour, but I had high hopes. I tried to put on a smile and speak clearly towards the still shocked guard on the bed. He was still trying to scream, but his breaths became ragged and he lost air, now just managing to heave heavily in vain.

"Calm down," I told him softly, removing the soaked sheets from his mouth, then pointed towards his crotch, "it is going to be fine."

Nerephil looked at me in shock, then towards his legs, then back to me in awe, and finally teared up. He bawled for a while, then hugged me, mumbling a "thank you" in my chest. I patted him on the head, and just let him cry it out. I didn't know what else to do at that moment.

To someone else, it might be weird to hug a naked man while I was only in my pants myself, but I paid it no mind.

Nerephil calmed down over time and let go of me, then shied away from me upon realising what he had done, which made me laugh. I got up, cleaned my hands from the blood, then looked towards Tiana, who was standing nearby deathly silent. "Take him to the physician. You're excused for the morning."

I turned back towards Nerephil who figured it was high time to cover his newly remade crotch from people's eyes. "And you, you're excused until I hear otherwise. Good luck," I added, then left for my room.

I dispersed the crowd again, this time making sure they left, then went back to my room. I washed my hands then slipped back into the bed.

Sophia woke up slightly. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing," I responded, then kissed her on the cheek, "go back to sleep."

I tried my best to forget everything that went on just now, and just return to some semblance of normalcy, where my guards didn't have their dicks bitten.