Everything had fallen to pieces.

Selene lay on the floor, her skin charred and peeling. Artem’s red aura flickered like a dying neon lamp, while Mia easily sidestepped his blows. El’s explosions were more like those novelty bang snaps they sell at dollar stores.

All the while, glittering particles drifted through from the outside, collecting into a golden flowerbud that floated in front of Mia’s waist. “Sorry for the wait,” she said, dancing around another punch from Artem. “I promise it’ll be worth it. Ah, there!”

With a brilliant white flare, the flower bloomed, unfurling giant sail-like petals of light. One feathery petal wrapped itself around me, and despite my struggle I found myself being drawn into another place.

Selene’s vision had been murky and dream-like, but Mia’s felt almost real. Smooth golden walls around us sloped up to the rim of an enormous bowl—no, a chalice. That seemed like the right word for the metallic crater in which we found ourselves, with intricate designs sweeping around the circumference in three great circles. A sloshing sea of sweet-smelling nectar came up to our knees. El surfaced from it, coughing and sputtering, and I put her on my shoulders. Selene floated in the sticky sap, seemingly unconscious, and Artem and I stood across from Mia at the center of the cup.

Three rings of elaborate carvings decorated the walls of the chalice, far above us. The outermost and highest depicted finely dressed men, very obese, at a great banquet. They feasted on animals and plants that were entirely alien to me, and poured decanters of drink directly into their mouths. Some seemed to be emptying their bowels at the tables as they continued to eat.

The middle ring was a knot of limbs, men and women entangled so that it was hard to tell where one body ended and the next began, like a human ouroboros. All the faces were in bliss, and looking closer, I realized that they were in the midst of some kind of orgiastic festival.

The inner ring was the most disturbing to me. It showed every kind of torment I had ever heard of, and some that I hadn’t. Stabbings, flayings, boilings, crushings were among the tamer ones. The bronze bull, the iron maiden, the rack and wheel and thousand other instruments that we use to inflict pain on one another. I looked at the images and knew them all somehow, even though some had never been practiced in the history of Earth, as far as I was aware. The Eversion Minor, which invariably killed. And its cousin, the Eversion Major, which did not, and in fact left the victim unable to die.

“Welcome in.” Mia smiled demurely. “I hope you like it. I worked really hard on the aesthetics.”

“How…” Artem started, and I fumbled in my inventory for a health bar.

Mia laughed, a pleasant sound. “Eramai magic is pretty close to this. To be honest, I was much more confused by Strive’s system. All the strange technomagical gobbledygook. Contact lenses. Sign language.” She held up an azure kada bracelet—Yao’s—and grimaced. “It’s more of a shackle than anything. Your First Sender must be an interesting guy, to design a system like that.”

I tried to feed Selene a part of the restorative, but the health bar crumbled apart in my hand.

“Anyway,” Mia continued, “can you guess what the theme of my little pocket world is?”

“Fuck if I know,” said El. “I’m starting to think it has something to do with trapping us here so you can keep talking at us.”

Mia covered her mouth and giggled. “I do enjoy the pleasure of your company, but no.” A stray popping explosion from El landed on her skin, and she brushed at the spot absent-mindedly. “And the most that’s going to do is tickle. I hate to be cliched, but your powers are useless here.”

“Desire,” said Artem in a voice like grinding rocks. “Your domain is that of desire and seduction. Perhaps you even employed it on your former victims.”

“Ding!” she clapped her hands. “Double ding! You guys love that, right? That’s exactly correct. Although, it was very weak when I was hanging out by that city of yours. Strive has thick walls, so I had to rely mostly on my natural charms.” She batted her eyelashes coquettishly. “I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve never been lacking in that department.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“So now what?” said Artem. “You’ve got us where you want us. Kill us then.”

“Hey, speak for yourself.” I raised my head from where I was still trying to get the health bars to work their magic on Selene. “I’m trying to stay living.”

“Ah, don’t worry,” Mia said. “I’m not going to kill any of you here. That’d be no fun. But I’ve been just dying to get a chance to try out my new powers on someone. And here you all are.”

There was a feeling of immense pressure, and then a new light bloomed from Mia’s chest before suddenly she was all I could think of.

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She had always been attractive. Cat-like eyes in an innocent face, at once both predator and prey. A long single braid that she now undid to let her hair fall naturally. The sheerness of her garments that hinted more than they revealed. A slim, athletic form, and a way of moving that suggested dance or something more.

But now she was desire made flesh. She rose up from the crimson sea, Venus-in-the-Red, beckoning with an outstretched finger. Even that gesture was shapely, suggestive. My heart felt like it was in my throat. “Come,” she said, and I nearly did.

I will shower you with affection, her eyes told me. I will smother you with softnesses, anoint your head with kisses.

I took a step forward, and a searing pain in my leg made me tear my eyes away. El had bitten me, hard. Looking up, I saw that Artem was still fully fascinated by her spell, wading toward her unsteadily. I cried his name, but he made no response, not even turning to glance at me. She beamed in delight, hung her arms around his neck, and whispered something in his ear before turning to me.

“Come,” she repeated.

“Xavier,” came Selene’s voice, “if you take another step forward, I swear I’ll castrate you myself.”

I looked down to see that she was pushing herself up, one hand gripping my ankle tightly. I hadn’t even noticed before, enchanted as I was. Some crumbs of the health bar were on her chin, and some of her skin was still peeling from the burns.

I felt a dull relief before pulling Purgator and enabling the Purge ability. Purple motes of light entered the plunger cup, and I fired it at Artem in a last ditch effort. To my surprise, the plunger stuck.

Emotionlessly, Artem removed the plunger from himself as Mia gave me a beautiful, teasing smile. “What did I say about Strive magic? Those things are toys—keep them indoors where they belong. I’ll give you one last chance. Come.”

I felt an almost physical pulling force from how much I ached for her, and tried to think of anything else. The parabolic shape of the chalice around us. A simple parabola is defined by the equation f(x)=x^2, meaning its second derivative f’’(x) equals 2 everywhere. Positive concavity. Which means all points on the curve slope towards Mia at the center, and once again I was thinking of her curves—

No, no, no.

I dove inside myself, trying to find refuge in a memory or a feeling, and at every turn, I was met with her seductive smile, until at last I stumbled on a decrepit door hidden deep in my subconscious. In my desperation, I opened it.

It was a living room, set up for a house party, but there was no one there. In a normal person, I thought, this would be where their cherished relationships would live in their minds. But for me, nothing.

Nothing but cobwebs on the walls. Slices of cake that rotted on their plates. Champagne that had long since turned to vinegar. An empty fishbowl. And no one there but me.

No family that I talked to. No friends. No acquaintances—even my neighbors avoided me when they saw me in the street. Was I lonely? No. This was what I wanted. Closeness always led to pain.

You couldn’t reject me if I rejected you first. And I rejected it all.

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When I opened my eyes, she was still looking at me with the open invitation in her eyes, the exhortation to come to her, live all my desires with her, die in pleasure with her.

I opened my mouth and found enough power in me to utter a single word in response.

“No.”