A pleasant shiver rolled through Miyoko as she woke in a bed of plush golden straw, sunlight radiating down her legs. Several strands stuck to her fur as she shuffled to the bars, pulling herself up and warming her muscles. It was quiet, peaceful even. Hunger pains raced through her gut, making her groan, which only served to agitate her dry throat. Instinctively, she lifted her head, gasping at the wolf silently watching from outside the bars. “Tsu guide… damn it Khukri! Are you trying to scare me to death?”

The wolf cocked her head. “I’m watching over you while Master is out.”

Memories crept back in, making her stomach twitch and heart race. “Master...Master...what the fuck did he do to me?”

Khukri thumped a pitcher of water and a bowl brimming with fresh fruit onto the ground just outside the cage. “Master rutted you like a wild beast from sundown ‘till sunup. You said he was terrifying, then he came so hard we’re paying to resurface the floor, told you were a good girl, and left you unconscious for three days.”

Miyoko’s quivering limbs curled around her as she shrank back into the straw. “It... it was like he ripped my heart open and told me what to feel...” Even now, shaking with the knowledge of what he’d done, some part of her sought Master’s approval.

“You didn’t deserve that,” Khukri agreed, sitting down outside the cage.

A strange pull of kinship went out to the wolf behind the bars. Khukri was the one who warned her about what would happen if he needed to control them through pain. That delirious, exquisite pain that never ended. Even thinking about it now made her quiver. Tsu guide me, do I like pain now? Miyoko frantically sunk her teeth into her arm, then jerked back. Okay! Good! Pain sucks! Wait... pain sucks. Was this Miyoko’s life now? Chewing her arm off in an open cage hoping she’d hate the result?

A dull scraping sound caught Miyoko’s attention as Khukri, still staring, pushed the bowl of fruit to the cage door.

Miyoko crawled out, then greedily drained the pitcher of water. Gasping, she set it down. “Thank you.” As deluded as Khukri was, there weren’t many who understood what Miyoko had gone through. “Does he do this to us a lot?”

A warning growl rolled from Khukri’s throat as she stood. “You’re treading on very dangerous ground, little bunny. You might want to get back in your cage.”

One of Master’s ‘secrets,’ then, information protected by Master’s Whip. It couldn’t be a drug, he had too much control for that. He just... saw right through me. He saw defiance and crushed it. “I understand.”

The growl grew in intensity as Khukri stalked to the cabin door. “I’m going to go find Master and let him know you’re alright. Expect us to be home late. He’ll probably want to make you something special, again, since you didn’t eat it last time.”

Miyoko’s teeth sunk into the first apple as she sat in self-imposed darkness. One bite after another, she stripped it down to its core. During the second, she savored each bite and collected her thoughts.

In her years under Fleur’s thumb, the lynx hadn’t used sex to control her, just wealth, status, and apparently an intelligence network. That’s how State officials operated. The Alpine Monks, on the other hand, were a weird sex cult.

* * *

Miyoko crouched in a green cloak, hiding at the base of one guard tower while throwing uneasy glances at the rest. They were simple wooden boxes on stilts, with a staircase wrapping around the inside to a hatch on top. Sometimes deer-girls with warbows kept watch, but today? Empty. Likely, that meant she’d find nothing, but what would looking cost? She withdrew a bolt from her bag, set it in her crossbow, then darted across the patch of open ground to the front door. A probing push proved the door was unlocked, allowing Miyoko to slip in.

When she hadn’t seen any windows, Miyoko assumed the interior would be dark, or at least lamp-lit, but she was wrong. The first room took up the width of the building, with the wall behind her covered in canvas tapestries depicting forests from different parts of the world. The wall ahead, however, was filled with doors, each flanked by a set of opaque, sanded windows that cast muted sunlight onto the backdrop.

Curious, Miyoko crept up to a door and cracked it open. Inside was a room with a bench and a few wicker baskets, along with a glass door to a grassy courtyard that served as its light source. That was it? A courtyard? Unconvinced, Miyoko entered, found the baskets empty, and the courtyard to be a simple patch of grass surrounded by a tall wooden fence. Following her examination, Miyoko moved to the next door, finding yet another empty room and courtyard. On her third, however, a deer sat in the courtyard with his back to her, surrounded by at least a hundred sparrows, his clothes folded in a basket at his side.

From behind the glass, she watched the man’s naked back as little brown birds paced within arm’s reach and perched on his shoulders. Occasionally, they’d flutter about or vanish into tall grass, but none seemed worried. Well, if she wanted answers, now was her chance. Miyoko stretched a cloth from beneath her cloak over her face, then pushed the door open, sending a brown cloud of feathers racing into the sky. “Don’t move,” Miyoko ordered, training her crossbow on the dark green symbol on the man’s back.

Against her advice, he turned his head, revealing one scarred, blind eye. There were a couple monks that ran things around here, and she recognized this one as the one who accepted their payments. If this man, Conall, handled their money, then he was the man to ask. “Turn around!” Miyoko ordered, to which Conall swiftly complied, raising his hands and lowering his head. She took a few cautious steps closer, narrowing her eyes. “Eyes closed, hands up. You’re Conall, right? One of the monks here?”

He took a slow, shaky breath, then nodded. “Yes… did Brooke send you?”

What a surprise. The ‘innocent’ monk had enemies. “Shut up!” Miyoko ordered. “I have the crossbow, so I ask questions, you answer them. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Miyoko dropped a cloth bag over his head and retreated to a safe distance. “First, you’re going to tell me about these ‘magic lights’ you’re always studying.”

There was a pause, as though the man expected more, but at Miyoko’s angry sigh, he answered. “Oh! Wait, you want me to tell you about my religion?”

“This isn’t hard!” Miyoko shouted. “If your sentence ends with a question mark, don’t say it!”

“I understand!” Conall said, his voice only slightly trembling. “P... please, I’ll cooperate, just tell me what you want.”

“Oh yeah? Well I’m sure...” Words failed Miyoko as she circled the monk. On his left, flesh melded with fur in a grotesque mass. The twisted, blackened marks of long-healed burns spread down his body, engulfing his groin and legs to just below the knees. “Holy shit... Was it… was it hellfire? Er.. a magnesium charge?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Vodka bottle,” he said, hands still shaking.

“I’ll put the knife away. Don’t move the bag.” Miyoko retreated and returned the blade to her belt. “Now talk. The light.”

“Lights, there’s two,” Conall corrected. “The lights are forces of nature that grow inside living things. When those of us with a connection to Deianira draw them to our eyes, we see them as lights.”

“And to the rest of us, they’re invisible?” Miyoko checked.

“...If you doubt they exist, I’m strong enough to let you feel it.”

Miyoko pulled up her crossbow, locking the man in her sights. “You’re about two seconds away from catching a crossbow bolt to the face and that’s your best pickup line?”

“What? No! I practice the light of plants, see?” Conall tapped his back. “Green. That’s why I’m meditating in the sunlight, it’s the ritual for outer light.”

“Oh? And the ritual for inner light is...” Miyoko hesitated, remembering the red flowers running down Fleur’s back. “Never mind. Get back to the magic.”

“Ah… yes, sorry.” Conall shifted uncomfortably. “Almost every living thing is infused with light from their parents, which grows over time. It defines them. The light of plants makes them set down roots to spend their lives growing, while the light of beasts makes them travel and consume.”

“And the light of animals?” Miyoko asked.

“That’s what makes us special, we have both. The combination creates something greater than the sum of its parts. The light of beasts calls us to find others like ourselves and control our territory, while the light of plants calls us to build and make our lives better. We can reason.”

“Focus on the inner light, the beast one.” Miyoko demanded, dread creeping in her gut. “The ritual. It... what? Bonds them somehow?”

Conall sighed, but thought better of antagonising his captor. “Animals have a replenishing reserve to create children. The animals involved tap into some else’s reserve and consume it to strengthen themselves. They heal from sickness, age slower. That sort of thing. You’d need to talk to one of them to understand more.”

No, Miyoko didn’t need to understand, she’d experienced it. It explained why she worshipped him that night, why remembering the pain made her shiver in anticipation, even now. Whoever this ‘Ashling’ was, he’d found some way to weaponize this light, manipulating a wolf into his pet killer, and planned to do the same to her. Unfortunately for him, he’d decided to mess with a ghost.

Bastard twisted me to his whims. Miyoko’s shoulders rose into a shrug, a frown creasing her mouth as the desire to be held and protected lingered in the back of her mind. If he thinks he can fuck me loyal, I’ll give him loyal. Once he thinks I’m broken in, he won’t need to do it again.

Miyoko picked up her crossbow. “If you leave this room before I’m gone, I’ll kill you. So I suggest you stay a while…”

“Uh… okay?” Conall slowly returned to the ground. “But, you haven’t asked about anything secret yet. Why didn’t you just schedule a meeting?”

“What did I say about questions!” Miyoko snapped, angrily backing out of the room.

* * *

An evening breeze blew through the cabin as Master entered, a wicker basket of fresh vegetables in his arms. It wound through Miyoko’s fur where she sat on the bed, eyes closed and teeth clenched as she prepared to see Master for the first time since he’d hurt her. Unfamiliar ripples coursed through her, nudging her to submit to his will, to trust and protect him, despite knowing it was a lie.

“Miyoko...” Ash hurried away from Khukri to join Miyoko, setting the huge basket on the bed before sitting. “Hey, I’m glad to see you’re up. How’re you feeling?”

Master can’t protect me if I’m dishonest. “My muscles ache, and there’s some bruising, but I’ll live.” Miyoko’s ears fell and she folded her legs, stunned at the words coming out of her mouth.

He grimaced, inspecting the results of his work. “Yeah. I think that night was enough for a while... was it good at least?”

Miyoko shivered and a throb between her legs was followed by a dull ache. “It... It was the most amazing thing I’d ever felt.”

A triumphant grin slipped onto Master’s face. Whatever he’d done to make her say that, it seemed that answer passed inspection.

“What about you, Master?” Miyoko insisted, trembling fingers curled into fists. “I’ve been asleep this whole time, what’ve you been up to since you got back?”

“Actually, there was something I was hoping you could look at while we eat.” Master slung his bag around, removing a leather folder. “I’ve been jotting down some ideas I had since I got back. There’s a lot I don’t know, so some of this might seem a bit crazy. Would you mind taking a look and telling me how possible it is?”

Anything! As long as you stop asking questions! “Sounds great!” Miyoko grabbed the folder, absently leafing through it as she tried to understand the limits of his control. Then, a stalk of celery poked her nose.

“Tonight’s not one of Khukri’s eating nights,” Master said, the leafy vegetable waving in his hand. “So, I’m just going to eat these raw. You want some? Or do you want me to grab some of those oat bars?”

“I want celery.” Miyoko nipped the stalk with her teeth and yanked it out of his hand, letting it fall into her lap. “The oat bars are bland.”

A low growl rolled across the room, but Master stopped it with a look. “Relax, Khukri. She’s looking great, and she handled the fruit this morning just fine.”

Khukri stopped, then climbed the ladder into the loft and laid down, head peeking over the edge to watch. “I’ve already told Master what I think about his plans, but he’d like your input. So, what do you think?”

“Right so, I think...” Miyoko looked down at whatever page she’d stopped on. “Uh… Master? How many letters does the alphabet have?”

“What? Um… twenty-five, why?”

“This is written in the ancient wolven alphabet.” The papers fell below her eyeline so she could stare at him. “Most sex slaves can’t read. I know two alphabets, and as wild as this might seem, neither of them are ancient wolven.”

“Oh…” Master said, sheepishly grinning as he took the papers back. “Sorry about that, here, let’s flip to the first page and I’ll walk you through it.”

Over the next hour, with the assistance of lists and crudely drawn pictures, Master proceeded to lay his idiotic plan to steal books from the West Origin Royal Library, going so far as to casually mention that the High-Librarian himself was their inside man. His insane ramblings finally finished, Master set the folder back in his bag. “Okay,” He said, watching her hopefully. “What do you think?”

Finally able to speak, Miyoko leaned back against the wall. “No. I’m with Khukri on this one. That’s a terrible idea.”

A bark of laughter rang out from above. “Told you.”

“Okay! Okay! I get it, it’s a terrible idea, But I’d like you to walk me through why.”

Miyoko took a deep breath to calm herself, removing her weight from the table. “This isn’t some boat at a governess’s dock, it’s thousands of books in a vault beneath Tythic’s capital,” she insisted. “You’re talking construction, mercenaries, ships, equipment… you’d need millions to pull something this insane off.”

Master held up his hands, speaking in a calm, steady voice. “All right... uh, how do we get millions then?”

“There’s a chest of emeralds in a hidden cache on Inisheer!” Miyoko said brightly. Her eyes slowly widened as a soft, horrified squeak rolled from between her lips.

“I see…” Master looked her over thoughtfully. “What’s stopping us from taking it?”

“Nothing! We can just go pick it up!” The moisture drained from Miyoko’s mouth and her teeth ground together as he casually ripped her darkest secrets out and used her to further his plans.

“Oh!” Master smiled, resolutely rising to his feet. “Well… great! We’ll head out first thing tomorrow and go get them.”

“Master?” Khukri nervously eased half her body off the loft, hanging down . “You’re getting distracted again…”

“I know… but this is important, and it’s just for a week. We’ll train whenever we have time, okay?”

Khukri let out a low whine. “Are you sure you want to pick a fight with the Crown?”

“I thought about that,” Master admitted, cracking open the door. “But, you know what? They don’t want my book. I need it. Fuck the Crown.”