New Entry For The Poll Driven Story “Stray Cat”

You can find the new entry below the break or read the story in its current entirety HERE.

Content Warnings/Kink Spoilers: This grew into a pretty big entry at close to 9,000 words (with about half being devoted to plot and not sex). As this is one of my BDSM lesbian romances all the action is fully consensual and g/g. There’s an emotionally intense but physically tender group sex scene, with all the attention being focused on one character.

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As Naoka broke into an uncontrolled, body-shaking crying fit Madelynn went to work comforting her. She leaned close, putting her cheek against Naoka’s while whispering soothingly to her, telling her to let it all out and cry as hard and long as she needed to.

At the same time she worked with impressive skill and speed getting Naoka unbound. Once unbound she scooped the small Kittaran girl from the altar and held her in her arms. Naoka clung to the woman, burying her face in the crook of her neck as her sobbing breakdown continued.

Naoka knew Selwyn was taking care of Astani, but it was only a vague awareness. She was feeling too many emotions to be even partially aware of the world around her beyond the warm comfort of her Mistress holding and soothing her.

At one point Madelynn placed Naoka on something soft. The girl was still clinging to her so tightly that she had no choice but to lie down next to her. The added comfort of a soft almost bed-like surface soothed Naoka enough to open even more emotional floodgates. She cried. She clung to her Mistress. She kept her face hidden in the warm softness of her body.

Madelynn held Naoka. She soothed her with tender, reassuring pets. She continued to tell her everything was fine, that she should cry as long and hard as she needed to. That she was safe. That she was cherished and loved.

At one point Madelynn snaked her hand down Naoka’s back towards the girl’s tail. She seemed to know the Kittaran’s instincts would be to coil it around her forearm. The sensation of her tail coiled tightly around her Mistress’ wrist brought an unexpected rush of intimate closeness that began to turn her emotional tide. Her intense sobbing fit began to lessen.

As she started to come out of her crying fit Madelynn shifted how she was holding and physically comforting the girl. Later Naoka wouldn’t be able to exactly remember the position they were both in, but for a time she’d felt more catlike than she thought possible. She FELT like a cat laying on a person’s chest as they stroked and petted them. The girl had a clear memory of her tail still being coiled around one of Madelynn’s forearms and the woman’s other hand softly working the wonderfully sensitive spot at the base of her cat ears.

Later Naoka would try to puzzle out what had happened during that strange transitional time when her Mistress was giving her aftercare. Although not aware of it while it was happening, looking back she’d see clearly that the period had been so dreamlike she thought it possible she’d dozed off for a bit.

Yet something inside her told her that WASN’T what happened. There had been magic at work then, perhaps something her Mistress had done to help her aftercare be more soothing. Perhaps it wasn’t something the woman had even done on purpose, perhaps the manor she lived in was so full of magic that the world around them had become dreamlike, leaving reality behind for a time while she cried out the intensity of the day’s events.

What Naoka WAS certain of was that by the time her crying fit was over they were no longer in the playroom. She had no memory of leaving the room, yet as the dreamlike aspect of the world around her faded to crisp normality she was able to see that she was lying on her bed in her room.

Perhaps she HAD fallen asleep and her Mistress had carried her there? But that seemed impossible. In the state she’d been in she would have been almost painfully aware of being picked up from the comforting laying position she’d been in as she cried and clung to Madelynn. Somehow whatever soft thing she and her Mistress had been laying on had become her bed.

At the time Naoka only pondered about the confusingly magical transportation back to her bedroom for a moment. As she loosened her grip on Madelynn the woman pulled away slightly, keeping close and maintaining plenty of physical contact, but giving Naoka the space to take in her surroundings.

The first thing she noticed after noting where they now were was that Madelynn was naked. That seemed as much a magical transformation as the change of scenery. She’d been clinging to the woman for so long, and in the beginning she had clothing on. Not much, just skimpy domineering lingerie, but it HAD been there.

Naoka barely had time to wonder about this when she noticed the two of them were not alone in the bed. Selwyn and Astani were both there, as naked as Madelynn. They were crowded around the Kittaran, holding and touching Naoka the same way Madelynn was.

It was strange and disorienting. It didn’t feel like they’d suddenly appeared in the bed with them, it felt more like they’d always been there. Always had their soft warm bodies pressed against hers. Always had their hands caressing and comforting her naked body.

“You were a very good girl today,” Madelynn told Naoka. She spoke in a soft, tender voice the Kittaran couldn’t remember ever hearing the woman speak with before. There was no sinister undertone hidden in her words suggesting she was some monster in human guise and the sweet yet domineering swagger normally there was missing.  She was just a woman, speaking softly to another woman like one lover to another.

“Yes,” Selwyn agreed as she stroked Naoka’s cheek then leaned in to plant a soft, tender kiss on the girl’s cheek. “A very, VERY good girl. Perhaps the best girl we’ve ever had.”

She sounded just like Madelynn, sincere with no theatrical overlays hiding mysteries. It was an even more shocking thing coming from the normally far more sinister woman.

Naoka was immensely confused. Was this still part of her aftercare? Had she been in such intense need of comfort that they’d stopped all their games? It felt almost like the two women were actors she’d only ever seen on stage but now had been let into their home to see their most true, intimate selves.

Yet that couldn’t be right, so what did it mean? Was this just another game? Another layer of confusing mystery? Perhaps the games that her Mistresses played during aftercare needed to feel different for the aftercare to work.

“Such a very good girl,” Astani added, reminding Naoka she was in the bed touching her as well.

Astani’s presence made the whole thing even more confusing. She wasn’t one of her Mistresses. It wasn’t HER job to give her aftercare, and having the woman in her room seemed somehow wrong. She was only a visitor to the manor, not one of its inhabitants. It felt like an invasion to have an outsider in such an intimate, private space.

If this was all just another game what did that mean? There had been times she’d felt Astani had to be in on the games her Mistresses had been playing throughout the day, yet just as often the Priestess had felt as confused and lost by her Mistresses machinations as Naoka was. Was Astani’s presence in her bed proof she was just another actor in the play of sensuality and mysteries her Mistresses always seemed to be performing?

Later Naoka would wonder. Later the not knowing and her inability to puzzle out the truth would frustrate the Kittaran. But while it was happening the wondering came and went quickly. Even though her intense crying fit had made everything she’d felt when their scene had ended endurable she still felt overwhelmed. She was too physically and emotionally drained to do anything but lay there, happily overwhelmed by the three women’s tender focus.

All three kept their full attention on her. Cuddling her. Stroking and caressing her. Kissing her. Throughout the rest of the encounter they nearly never touched each other, barely even acknowledging the others’ presence. It was all about Naoka. She was the center of their world and was expected to do nothing but lay passively and let them shower her with affection, both physical and emotional.

“Such a good girl,” Madelynn repeated as she nuzzled her face into Naoka’s neck. Slowly she dragged her nose up the girl’s cheek, eventually exhaling a warm, breathy, arousing sigh into one of Naoka’s cat ears. “And good girls deserve treats,” she continued, voice soft and sensual.

 Selwyn copied Madelynn’s movements then softly spoke into Naoka’s other furry ear. “You are being permitted to cum as much as you wish while we remain in the bed with you.”

Naoka moaned softly, a little overstimulated by the feel of both women breathing teasingly into her ears. Their breath tickled the overly sensitive cat-like hairs in her inner ear, making both of them twitch. Their hands, both caressing and ticking her upper chest, breasts, and belly, only added to the pleasantly overwhelmed sensation of intimate pleasure she felt happily lost in.

Astani deepened it all. The woman lay between Naoka’s legs, having spread them open at one point. Her hands were caressing and tickling the girl’s inner thighs while she kept her face close to Naoka’s womanhood. The Priestess’ warm, moist breath heated the girl’s pussy before and after she spoke up to add to what her Mistresses were saying. “A good girl who deserves more than treats. She deserves to be worshipped as much as any Priestess or goddess, so that’s what we’ll do.”

It was nearly too much for Naoka to handle. She started to wiggle and thrash weakly from side to side, at times trying to lessen or pull away from certain touches that were too much while leaning into others that she greedily wanted more of.

What had started as gentle, intimate comfort quickly became something intensely sensual and even more intimate. Reassuring petting became sexual yet tender petting. The never-ending waves of gentle kisses remained so, but they became wetter and more passionate. The women, always having remained close to Naoka, somehow managed to get closer. Most of the time she had no sense of whose hand was whose or which warm softness pressed or dragging across her bare skin belonged to which woman.

 Naoka moaned softly and happily. She wiggled in delight. She thrashed about in joy. She’d never had so much tender attention paid to her so intensely, never even imagined it happening! Naoka felt the intense focus on her pleasure, which they consistently insisted she enjoy without reciprocating, was made even more intense by following the rest of the day’s very different intensity.

“Just lay there and enjoy,” one of the women whispered. “You’ve earned treats,” another told her. “You deserve to drown in pleasure and love,” another added.

The soft, sensual crashing waves of gentle hands caressing and wet mouths licking, kissing, and sucking did feel a bit like a rising sea of pleasure and affection she was drowning in. But drowning was a bad thing, a scary thing. This was whatever the opposite of that was.

It all had an intense softness to it. After what she’d just gone through… This was a kind of sensual overwhelming the day’s events had left her unprepared to fully process. All those hands and mouths on her… So soft. So attentive. So passionate. The sensations all bled together, giving the illusion that it had to be MORE than three sets of hands, had to be MORE than three mouths.

“Just lay there and enjoy,” they kept telling her.

So Naoka lay there and enjoyed it.

She enjoyed the three women’s skilled, soft hands gently stroking nearly every inch of her body.

Naoka enjoyed them caressing her best bits in ways that left her purring deep and loud enough that it echoed over the wet sounds of their unending mouth-work and her own mewling gasps and moans of pleasure.

She enjoyed their kisses. Soft kisses. Wet kisses of tender passion, expressing more honest affection than a book’s worth of words ever could. Kisses to her mouth. To her neck. On her breasts. Her belly. Her sides. Her thighs. Her pubic mound. Her pussy. Kisses to both her lips, mouths moving from one end of her body to the other with such ease at times she couldn’t tell which set of lips were being so pleasingly kissed.

The Kittaran lay there and enjoyed not just the three woman’s mouths and hands but the feel of their naked bodies against hers as well. The warmth of them. The softness of their softest parts. The heat of their hottest parts. The feel of their breasts brushing up against her, being dragged against her, being pressed into her.

They were everywhere at once, showering her with such intense sincere passion at times it felt like she was being weighed down by it. The wiggling and at times thrashing about as she endured the attention was a kind of bondage. In her mind it became the same feeling of being tied to the bed. There was no escape, and what SHOULD have been scary in a bad way was scary in a good way because of trust.

As time went on the hands and mouths working her slowly dialed up the heat, while dialing up the expression of affection as well. Those wonderful warm, wet mouths found their way to Naoka’s nipples and pussy more often. Those nimble skilled fingers spent increasingly more time caressing and tenderly exploring and pleasuring more intimate places.

Whenever fingers were slipped into Naoka’s sopping wet and sore hole they’d enter slowly and with careful attention to her body language. The others would pin her down in those moments with even more tender attention, increasing the sensation of being bound up by their unceasing attention.

The Kittaran was so overwhelmed by it all, both sexually and emotionally, that it never took long for those skilled fingers slipped into her to help bring her to climax. It took even less time for a mouth locked on her pussy to make her cum. And as it went on, none of the three women letting up even a little, her entire body became so inflamed from their attention that soon she was rising to climax even without them working her pussy.

“Feast, precious girl,” one of her Mistresses told her. “Cum as much as you want. Cum as much as you can.”

“But you must keep laying there and enjoying,” one of the other women added. Naoka thought it was Astani, but she was so overwhelmed she couldn’t fully be sure.

“Feast,” another of them said.

One of her Mistresses? It had to be. But was it the same one who’d just been speaking? Naoka couldn’t be sure of that.

“Feast, you wonderful, greedy girl. Feast on the pleasure. Feast on our love. Dive in and soak up all the selfish joy you can. You ARE as special as you feel. You matter even MORE than the most self-centered part of you suspects.”

“You’re desired.”

“You’re loved.”

“Your innocence even as you lose yourself deeper in our perverse world is so endearing. Never have we found a girl who is such a perfect mix of innocence and sexual greed. “

“In most pets such levels of carnal greediness would be highly distasteful, especially in a girl so deeply submissive. But in you…”

The woman trailed off, her mouth finding more important ways to show affection. Naoka wasn’t sure WHICH mouth licking and sucking on which part of her belonged to the woman who had just been talking. They’d become one woman, the triad pinning her to the bed with affection acting as one even as they spoke in three separate voices.

“She’s perfect,” one of them declared.

“Almost like she’s been made by the gods just to be found by us.”

“And found just when we had need of a girl exactly like her.”

“Perfect for us. For this manor. For the women who live here and visit here. Perfect for this moment.”

Naoka felt weak, perhaps even faint. She’d cum so many times, one soft mind-muddling orgasm bleeding into the next. The affection, expressed both through touch and verbally, was more intense than any sexual scene she’d played with her Mistresses.

There was a moment, as they were telling her just how perfect she was, that she nearly snapped. She’d gasped and moaned out, feeling it was too much to endure. Hours or days of intense orgasm denial? She could endure that like a good girl. But this? No, she might not be able to endure any more. After growing up so alone, so scared of the world and the people in it this kind of intense affection was what might break her, what might require the uttering of her safeword.

“You’re perfect,” one of the women said with a resigned sigh. “Right down to the way you think too loudly.”

“There’s no need to say your safeword,” another of the women assured Naoka.

It didn’t end then, not right away, but the three women did start to ease up. It was a slow, gradual thing. An easing of the rising heat that became a long, pleasurable, and deeply sensual cooling down.

They kept their focus on her but eased the intensity as they slowly worked a few more soft orgasms from her. They kept licking and sucking, but more often than not they whispered sweet assurances of affection. Their hands caressed and worked her body, but as time went on it was less about drowning her with pleasure and more about easing her into a blissful state of peaceful contentment.

The cooldown allowed Naoka to ease into the extreme exhaustion she felt both physically and emotionally. In its way the wonderfully peaceful ending was as intense and as filled with affection as the rest had been. The three women remained close even as their hands and mouths stopped working her. They eased her from sex into a cuddle pile so skillfully and smoothly that Naoka barely noticed the change till after she lay falling gently to sleep.

“We declare your day over, sweet pet,” Madelyn whispered before gently kissing Naoka’s cheek. Her wonderfully warm and heavy body was pressed against and partially over her. Naoka purred contentedly, her purrs sounding as soft as her Mistress’ body felt against her.

“You were such a good girl today,” Selwyn added. She was lying on the other side and also partially on top of Naoka. “But all treats must end. We’ll lay with you till you fall asleep but remember that once we leave your first rule will be active. No cumming without permission.”

Naoka’s eyes were closed, partially because she was so peacefully sleepy but mostly so she could better enjoy the feel of the three women’s bodies against and on top of hers. Astani was still there, lying between her legs and carefully resting her chest on Naoka’s belly with her head resting by the Kittaran’s breasts.

“Will I see you again?” To ensure the Priestess knew Naoka was talking to her she sleepily nudged her with one of her legs.

“Without a doubt,” Astani assured the girl, sounding nearly as over-blissed and peacefully as exhausted as Naoka felt. “I know not when, but there will come a moment when Inera’s desires align perfectly with your Mistresses’, and my presence will be as essential as yours.

“But even if that were not true I’d find a reason to spend time with a girl as delightful as you again. I think you’re Mistresses know all of us women of importance she’s offered you up to will feel so. You’re as much a trap for us as we are a trap for you.”

She ended the thought by rolling over slightly to give Naoka a soft, reassuring kiss. “You’re the kind of sweet treat even the wisest woman stupidly walks into the most obvious trap for, daring all for the chance of a single taste.”

Naoka moaned a soft, sleepy sound of appreciation. She was drifting off, only semi-aware of what was being said to her.

“And just think what she’ll be like after we’ve fully trained her,” Selwyn cooed as she and Madelynn stroked and caressed Naoka fully to sleep. “She may end up being the most powerful, and maybe even dangerous, tool we have hidden away in our manor.”

* * *

They kept going till the girl’s breathing was soft and steady. Only then did they stop stroking her, but still all three women kept laying on the girl and listening to her sleep. Once they felt assured that sleep was deep enough they pulled away, carefully slipping from the bed. Once they were all out of the bed Madelynn tucked the sleeping Kittaran in, giving her one last peck on the forehead.

Madelynn went to a wardrobe and dressed in a silken night robe she found there. Then she took two more out, handing one to Selwyn before looking around to locate Astani.

The room should have been nearly pitch black, with only a sliver of light coming from under the door leading to the hall. But it wasn’t. A faint glow came from the Mirror of Dhuarcain, giving just enough illumination for the three women to see each other clearly if they stood close enough to it.

Astani had gone to the mirror once she’d left the bed, drawn to its glow like a moth to a flame. She stared into its reflective surface, eventually looking at her hosts through the mirror as they joined her. She took the robe Madelynn handed her with a slight nod of thanks before slipping it on.

“Do you really see the girl like that?” she asked, meeting Madelynn’s eyes through the reflective surface of the mirror. She looked at Selwyn the same way. “Is she just a tool to you? And is she truly a dangerous one?” Astani kept her voice quiet so as not to risk waking Naoka.

“We shall keep what secrets we choose, especially from our dearest friends,” Selwyn told Astani, chin raised slightly in haughty defiance.

“But rest assured the affection is real,” Madelyn said as she put a comforting hand on Astani’s shoulder. “We love the girl.”

The mirror before them shimmered, their reflections fading to be replaced by The Girl in the Mirror. She stood with her body positioned in a perfect mirror image of how Astani was standing and even wearing the same silk robe she wore. It was only her expression that was different, the girl wore a smirk that left her youthful face appearing far more sinister than it normally would have looked.

“Don’t listen to these two monsters,” the Girl in the Mirror whispered, eyes glittering with mischievous joy. “They’ve never loved anything other than each other.”

Astani smiled serenely as she took a step closer to the mirror so she could place a hand on its surface. “Hello old friend,” she said, smiling and stroking the mirror’s surface as though being reunited with a long-lost lover.

The Girl in the Mirror reeled away from the glass surface separating her and Astani, reacting to the woman’s caress of the reflective surface as if a stranger had slipped their hand up her dress. “I don’t know you,” she growled. “I’m NOT whoever you think I am, so please kindly take your filthy hand off my fucking mirror. You DON’T have permission to touch it.” She turned her back slightly on them all, thrusting her nose up. “Besides, I’m sure it stinks of fingering and I prefer to keep the whiff of stinking, overused cat cunt off my home.”

Astani nodded, her serene smile never faltering. “No,” she said, caressing the mirror one last time before pulling her hand off its surface, “I suppose you’re not the same girl I fell in love with.”

Madelynn, her hand still resting on Astani’s shoulder, said, “We told you, she was not stolen from the Forest Witch who serves Inera. She came from a different one.”

Astani’s eyes were locked on The Girl in the Mirror, watching her closely as the girl pretended to be ignoring them. But she knew she was as focused on her as she was on the girl. If she hadn’t wanted to be seen she’d simply have disappeared, that she remained visible to them was proof she WANTED to be seen.

“I’d thought perhaps you were lying… Or… Or that she might have been a piece of the one I’d known. You know that’s how it works, yes? A soul constantly being torn further apart and put into new mirrors as they appear in the Forest Witches’ cabins. A new mirror always appears when another of the Forest Witches and their enchanted forests sprouts up somewhere. And when a mirror is stolen from them the sliver of the soul trapped inside is split, half of it being put into the new mirror that forms in the cabin not long after it was stolen.”

“Split,” the Girl in the Mirror scoffed. She whirled to face the three women standing in front of her mirror. She glared, trembling and fighting back tears of rage and pain. “No, you monsters, it’s not ‘split’. It’s ‘ripped’. That’s what happened the day the Forest Witch who tricked me into becoming this ‘saved’ me. Just go through the mirror and you’ll be safe, that’s what she told me. But that’s how it is with them, there’s always a price and you often don’t know what it is till after it’s paid.

“As I went through the mirror to find safety the glass in the mirror world tore into my soul. It snagged on it, cutting and ripping pieces so they could be trapped in mirrors like this inside every Forest Witches’ home. They ripped my soul apart till nothing was left inside the body, and you three know what THAT led to.”

Tears were streaming down her face. Her body shook. She glared at Madelynn and then at Selwyn. “When you stole me the part of me that’s the nameless girl’s soul didn’t ‘split’. That’s ALL I am, just a soul trapped as a ghost, a pathetic ripped piece of confetti. Such a small thing, and what you did caused all that I am to be painfully ripped in half and become even smaller.

“Oh, the pain WAS immense, and how convenient for you two monsters that you had my mirror locked away to ‘keep it safe during travel’ so you didn’t have to SEE that pain. But never mind the pain. It didn’t last long. What lasts is that I lost HALF of what I was. Half my memories. Half my personality.”

Astani had been watching and listening in silence, her serene expression growing pained in sympathy for the Girl in the Mirror. This might not be the girl SHE’D known and loved, but she WAS a piece of what she’d started out as. Each piece was unique, yet they were all a part of one whole. Her time with that other Girl in the Mirror allowed her to see the emotions being expressed here were real. This wasn’t a game, or if it was it was at least a game using sincere truths to tell some other lie.

Multiple times her arm twitched. She started to reach out to touch the girl’s mirror but always stopped herself, knowing the unearned familiarity would only upset the girl further. Still, she ached to comfort her. She knew the sadness of her existence, knew how ALL the parts of her lived lives of loneliness and torment for a mistake made ages ago.

And that’s part of her charm, Astani thought as she remembered her time in the Forest Witch’s cabin. She’s this volatile broken bratty thing, so sweet-looking and so full of anger and pain. It’s so hard not to fall in love with her, especially if you think you can ‘fix’ her. And that just makes her even more of a useful tool for her master.

Selwyn and Madelynn calmly allowed the Girl in the Mirror to rage. Madelynn had quietly cast a simple spell to ensure the sound of the girl’s voice, which had started as a whisper but grew into a shout, wouldn’t wake Naoka.

“Have we not rewarded you for all we’ve asked you to do?” Selwyn asked the girl calmly. “We ask so little and give you so much, attending to your selfish needs ourselves when we have no special guest living in this room. And what about when there IS a special guest living in here? You’re placed where you can watch it all and given access to naïve girls perfectly primed for you to play your games with.”

Astani didn’t fully understand everything Selwyn was saying to the girl and suspected she never would. But the conversation gave her a larger glimpse into the women’s lives than she’d ever expected to be given. She remained quiet, listening and taking it all in. Afraid to do or say anything that might make the encounter end.

Madelynn took over when Selwyn fell silent. “And do we not give you things no other women could give you? Things even your precious Forest Witch could never provide. Is there anyone else in all of Alaria who can give you the kind of play and fun you desire INSIDE your prison?”

Astani gasped, turning to stare in disbelief at Madelynn. “Are you saying you have the power to enter her mirror world safely?” When she asked the question she grabbed hold of the hand the woman still had on her shoulder, gripping it tight.

She had thought such a thing impossible. No, she had KNOWN it was impossible. She’d SEEN what happened if someone accepted an invitation into the girl’s mirror. The horror of it still haunted her darkest moments.

The Girl in the Mirror let out a cruel bark of laughter. “They’re not going to answer that question. They won’t even acknowledge you’ve asked it. But they WANTED you to overhear that juicy bit of information. Perhaps this whole night was orchestrated just to reveal THAT to you. Now you’ll know just how powerful they truly are, and now you’ll leave wondering if the vapid little kitten was right about what they are.”

When it was clear Madelynn and Selwyn weren’t going to acknowledge her question Astani threw Madelynn’s hand off her shoulder and turned back to look at the mirror and the ghostly girl trapped inside it.

The Girl in the Mirror was standing with her arms crossed. Her lips were twisted into a cruel, gloating sneer that made her normally lovely features look immensely sinister.

“Pathetic,” the Girl in the Mirror said with an amused bark of laughter as she met Astani’s eyes. “And so delicious. Look at the shock and pain on your face now that you realize you’ve been had. If THIS is how easily the mighty Astani, Priestess of Inera, is played at the height of her power I can’t even begin to imagine how the Forest Witch you spent time with easily manipulated the younger you. Tell me, you pretty blond fool, did you even see then how the other version of me played you like a finely tuned fiddle?”

Astani stood tall, trying her best to center herself. “Not till the end,” she said, trying to sound defiant but knowing the emotional crack in her voice ruined the attempt. “But even that was orchestrated. Everything that happened there, all that I learned, all the pleasure, all the emotions I felt, it all had a cost. The pain of being made to see how deeply I was being manipulated through it all was part of that.”

The Girl in the Mirror nodded. “It often is,” she declared. Then her expression softened slightly. “Was it worth it? The costs you paid for whatever you walked away from that cabin with?”

Astani didn’t hesitate to answer. “Of course it was. I entered a scared and lost girl, I left as a confident woman dedicated to Inera. I’d found loyalty and love there and had what I needed to go out into the world and help others find it too.”

The Girl in the Mirror stepped closer to the glass separating her from the world outside her prison. She dropped her arms and leaned close to the glass. “Come close and we won’t be overheard,” she said in a mock whisper as if speaking so would prevent Madelynn and Selwyn from hearing her.

They all knew it wouldn’t, but Astani was feeling a whirlwind of emotions unlocked by the familiarity of the girl’s games. She felt her hosts take a step back, appreciating them adding to the theater of the moment.

“Alright,” Astani said, stepping close and leaning near the mirror. Memories flashed through her mind, taking her back to moments like this when she’d been little more than a girl, overwhelmed by the magic she’d found in the Forest Witch’s enchanted woods.

“Let’s play a game,” The Girl in the Mirror said in a mock whisper even more theatrical than she’d been speaking in. “The lying game. Did the other Girl in the Mirror you know play that game?”

“Yes,” Astani said as she breathed heavily in excitement. “It was her favorite game!”

“It’s my favorite too,” the Girl in the Mirror replied, flashing a sly smile. “Perhaps that’s a thing that stays a part of all of us. How did that version of me play the game?”

More memories came flooding into Astani’s mind. Private moments when she’d been left alone in the Witch’s cabin, only the sad, mischievous specter in the mirror keeping her company. “She’d tell me three stories,” Astani said, memories of those wonderful games running through her mind. “Two of them would be lies and one would be the truth. I’d win if you could guess which was the true one, but she’d never TELL me if I won or not. And every time the stories were part of some larger trick or manipulation, helping direct my suspicions or desires in a direction the girl, the witch, and their master wanted.”

The Girl in the Mirror nodded. “That’s the game alright, although I’ve always played with FOUR questions. And I don’t have a witch to serve any more thanks to my current masters.”

Astani, feeling like that young and naive girl she’d been all those years ago, bounced a little while clapping. “And that’s part of the trick, yes? By the end I knew just who those games benefited. It was always for the girl’s master, the witch, and HER master Inera. But who will THIS game benefit? Madelynn and Selwyn? Or do you still serve whatever god or great power your witch served?”

“Perhaps not even I know that,” The Girl in the Mirror said with a wink. “Are you ready to begin?”

Astani thought back to how she’d played this game with the other Girl in the Mirror. She dropped to the ground, crossing her legs and inching towards the mirror till her knees touched the glass. “I always sat like this,” she excitedly told The Girl in the Mirror in front of her.

“Then so shall I,” the girl said, dropping and copying Astani till she was sitting in a perfect mirror image of her.

The Priestess let out a soft sigh, remembering how the other version of the girl would copy the way she sat. It had been the first thing they’d done that had been a form of physical intimacy, both their knees pressed into the glass, ALMOST touching.

They both leaned forward, Astani unsure if the girl was copying her movements or if she was copying the girl’s

“Are you ready now?”

“I’m ready,” Astani told her.

“First story,” the girl began. “Once there was a pretty blond girl who felt alone and scared. She ran away, looking for safety and thinking she’d find it in an enchanted forest. There she found love, loyalty, and all sorts of kinky perversions that unlocked the truest version of herself. She found her purpose and the goddess she’d devote her life to, leaving happy and with purpose to her life.

“But years later she met two women, powerful and offering all sorts of temptations. They seemed to give her everything her heart desired, including a plot to remove every nasty gross man from the city she lived in. So she helped them. She manipulated others through love and loyalty all for THEIR gain.

“She was warned these two women were more than they seemed. Warned they were monsters disgusted as people, and not just ANY monsters but the ones from her favorite book. A confused kitten told her but she didn’t believe it since the information had come from a known lair.

“It would only be much later, after everything went wrong for the pretty Priestess, that she’d realize being told the truth had been her one chance to escape her fate. Even though she KNEW dark magic like those monsters used required such things she scoffed at the idea they could truly be monsters.

“In the end she had to face all manner of horrors, knowing she had her chance to escape them and had missed it. She’d even been given one final clear warning during a beloved game with a pretty freckled girl she was madly in love with but would never even be able to touch!”

The Girl in the Mirror ended with a preening grin. “What do you think about that story?”

Astani, smiling serenely, shrugged. “Feels a bit too obvious,” she told the girl. “And smells of misdirection. If you and the villainesses lurking behind me are planting the same idea so frequently in one night it’s clearly meant to distract from the truth.”

“I suppose the mighty Priestess of Inera would know when to trust those she’s supposedly loyal to,” The Girl in the Mirror said without betraying a hint of whether Astani was right or not.

“Second story,” she pressed on when it was clear Astani had no response beyond her serene smile. “Once there was a Kittaran, fated to do great things and change Alaria forever. But dark forces working to corrupt Alaria and turn it into something even more perverse than it already was coveted this young Kittaran. So the goddess who created this precious girl who would one day have the power to change so much, be it for good or ill, hid her away.

“The poor girl grew up homeless and without love, becoming a skittish fearful thing. Paradoxically her life of hunger and fear kept her far safer than she would ever understand. The dark forces looking for her would never find her as a street urchin, and by the time her power was needed her difficult life would have given her the skills to endure temptation and hardship. The power in her would be unleashed for good.

“Or that’s how the story was supposed to go. The power that had hidden her away from corrupting dark forces overlooked the fact that there were OTHER dark things inhabiting Alaria, monsters that masqueraded as people that did not play the game the gods played. They cared not for purity and corruption, they cared only for pleasure and greedy sensual indulgence.

“By pure chance one day the special Kittaran fell into the monsters’ lives. They took her in, thinking she was only a new toy to play with for a time then shelve along with all the other toys they’d grown bored of. Only slowly did they realize what they’d found, but once they understood ALL their plans changed. With the power hidden in the Kittaran they could reshape the world as long as they reshaped the girl carefully enough before using her power.

“Doing so would take all their guile, all their subtle and non-too-subtle tricks. They’d need the aid of all their friends and allies, enlisting them all but never letting any know exactly what they were helping shape. Each friend and ally that had the power to stop them must be given a chance, for that is how magic at this level works. But these monsters were skilled creatures and knew just how to tempt and manipulate to get what they wanted.”

When the girl stopped talking Astani raised a skeptical eyebrow. “The second story ends there? That’s unsatisfying.”

The Girl in the Mirror shrugged. “The truth of a story still in progress often is,” she told Astani with a mischievous glint in her eye.

“Of course,” Astani replied with a flirtatious smile, “but once more you’ve laid it on a bit too thick. The girl IS important, I can feel that. But just as I told her earlier, she’s no Terin and this is no Great Voyage she’s on. She’s a marvelous, lovable, sensual treat but she’s no heroine who has been captured to prevent her from accomplishing some great quest. She’s JUST a stray with hidden potential, nothing more.”

“Perhaps you’re looking at the story from the wrong vantage point,” The Girl in the Mirror suggested. “One never thinks of themselves as being a bit player in the prologue to another’s Great Voyage.”

Astani dismissed the suggestion by lifting a hand and daintily waving her long, slender fingers as if shooing away a stray animal. “I’m unconvinced. It’s a lie. Tell me the next story.”

“Third story,” the girl began without hesitation. “There once was a specter, one whose full story was filled with far too much woe and sadness to go into now. For a crime she was tricked into committing she’d spend an eternity living a cursed shadow of a life, her body having nothing but blood and ash while the slivers of her enslaved soul had even less.

 “One of these slivers served an antlered witch, who in turn served a mischievous trickster goddess whose domain was dreams. It was a domain she shared with many other gods, so she often went overlooked by the most powerful forces in Alaria. Yet even this was a trick this goddess was playing on the world, for her power was far, FAR more immense than most could imagine.

“Through dreams she’d learned of the machinations of two ancient monsters disguised as women. Their plans were of little concern to this trickster goddess, what mattered was the opportunity their goal provided.

“She decided their grand plans needed to be carried out so her secret servant could be there at just the right moment to ensure they resulted in unintended consequences. And although the monsters had grown to distrust the goddess, and had even forbidden the very mention of her name in their presence, they failed to see her influence on those most important to their plans.”

When it was clear the girl’s story was done Astani glanced over her shoulder to look back at Selwyn and Madelynn. Both stood just far enough back to keep the glow coming from the Mirror of Dhuarcain from fully illuminating their faces, preventing her from seeing any kind of reaction on their faces.

“I think that one was not so much meant for me but for them,” Astani said when she looked back at the mirror. “And as such I’ll hold any thoughts I have till after I hear the final story.”

“Then I shall tell it,” the girl said with giddy enthusiasm, rocking and bouncing in excitement. “For it’s my favorite, which is why I’ve saved it for last.

“There once was a vapid, entitled blond girl who learned all the wrong lessons from the time she spent in an enchanted forest. She grew up to be an even worse woman than she’d been as a girl. Already vain because of her natural beauty she became even more entitled as the goddess she served blessed her with unearthly allure. She became disgustingly selfish and addicted to being the center of attention.

“The dumb cunt couldn’t see how easily she was manipulated and used by all around her. And although she’d spent a lifetime dominating pretty young girls the scars on her heart left by a pretty freckled ghost trapped in a mirror made her particularly substitutable to manipulations from anything that wore the same face.

“She’d spend her whole life worshiping at the altar of love and loyalty yet find at the end of her life she’d earned none. In the end she’d be left with nothing but sadness and regret, alone at the end of her life with her beauty long gone.”

The Girl in the Mirror paused as if her story was over then raised a finger as if having forgotten the final bit. “Oh, and her cunt was ugly and it smelt weird, but no one ever bothered to tell her.” She dropped her hand, returning to take up a position that was a perfect mirror image of how Astani was sitting.

“There, all done,” she proclaimed with a wide grin. “Now could you kindly get your knees off my fucking mirror? And close your legs while you back up, I’m afraid the stink of your nasty old snatch will linger on my glass.”

Astani serenely smiled at the girl, not moving to pull away. “You’re still upset I touch your mirror without permission. You’re angry I reacted like you were the other girl I fell in love with. I’m sorry,” she said starting to raise her hand to place it on the mirror but stopping herself. “Truly, I am. It was wrong. You’re not her and I knew that even if I didn’t want it to be true.”

The girl pursed her lips and glared at Astani. “Knees off my glass and close your fucking legs,” she snapped.

“Alright,” Astani said as she finally pulled away.  “And thank you,” she added as she elegantly rose to her feet. “That was sweet of you.”

The Girl in the Mirror shadowed her motions in reverse, although she rose with almost none of the grace Astani moved with. Her jaw fell open as she stared in anger and confusion at Astani. “What are you thanking me for, you blond bimbo? Or is your head so empty you couldn’t tell that story was about you?”

Astani smiled serenely, causing the girl to cross her arms, pout, and stomp a foot in frustration. “You’re not her,” she said as the girl glared at her. “But you’re all part of the same whole. Bitter, spiteful brats who can’t help but ruin things. You can’t help yourself. It’s who you are. And the petty nastiness is just as big a part of your charm as the youthful and innocent face or that sensually alluring body of yours. I missed it. I missed YOU.”

The Priestess gracefully spun around to smile at her hosts. “Thank both of you. This was a true treat, but I know it’s one you don’t plan on repeating. I won’t be given the chance to see her again, will I?”

“No, you won’t,” Selwyn said, smiling kindly while shaking her head.

“But it makes us happy you were able to recognize the gift for what it was,” Madelynn added.

Behind Astani’s back The Girl in the Mirror stomped her foot hard enough to shake her mirror. When the focus didn’t return to her she rushed the glass, pounding it a few times with a balled-up fist. “Hey, the game wasn’t over, you blond twit! You still have to guess which story was true!”

Astani’s body sagged. She hugged herself, shaking a bit. “My heart can’t take looking at you again,” she told the girl, turning her head slightly but not looking back at the Mirror of Dhuarcain. “But I’ll finish the game if I must.”

“We insist upon it,” Selwyn declared.

Astani took a moment then stood straight, looking from one host to the other. With her normal serene composure returned she declared, “The third story is the true one.”

“And why do you think that that?” Madelynn asked.

“I think this whole evening has been planned out but not in the way I had thought. Yes, I helped plan the scene we all played with the kitten sleeping so peacefully in that bed over there. I knew the games we were playing with her and why. But now I see there was a layer on top of that. Such games and manipulations were being played on me as well.

“You knew about my time in the Forest Witch’s cabin. You knew I held fond memories of The Girl in the Mirror and my heart still ached thanks to the manner of our parting. How you knew all this matters not, you were right about it all. And you knew letting slip you had a Mirror of Dhuarcain would leave me eager to be face to face with her, which would open me to further manipulations.”

“Well clearly we’re not the masterminds we think we are if you’ve so easily seen through it all,” Selwyn replied with a dismissive laugh.

“Oh no, you’re true masters,” Astani replied with a sweet smile. “And who knows, perhaps you ARE ancient monsters only wearing the form of women. Perhaps at one point it would have mattered to me, but not anymore. Monsters or not, I’m your friend and we are divinely bound through love and loyalty. This little treat has ensured that. Thank you both. Thank all three of you.”

“That’s not an answer to the right question,” The Girl in the Mirror blurted out. “Tell us why you think the third story was the true one,” she demanded.

“You planned it to be obvious,” Astani calmly explained. “The first two were too close to the lies you’ve been telling that precious girl in the bed over there, and the last was too mean-spirited to be anything other than the girl ruining things.

“But as obvious as it was there was a trick hidden within the story, and I think it was not a trick meant for me. The secret agent of this trickster goddess, whose name I know but will politely not mention in the presence of my hosts, is not who we’re meant to think it is.”

Once more Astani turned her head, not quite looking over her shoulder at the apparition in the mirror behind her. “Your current owners are supposed to think it’s their pet, but I think in truth it’s YOU. I think they were allowed to steal you from your witch so that you would be right where you are when they accomplish their goal.”

“A most interesting theory,” Selwyn replied. “And if true then perhaps my dearest love and I need to have a very firm talk with a certain girl in a mirror about a certain meddling cat who has no place in our manor.”

“Or maybe that too is just part of our games and manipulations, and us disliking whoever this ‘cat’ may be is just more lies,” Madelynn added with a sweet smile. “Now come, dearest friend, it is time we leave all this behind,” she declared as her and Selwyn each grabbed one of Astani’s hands. They led her to the door in silence.

After they’d opened the door and left the bedroom Astani hesitated to follow them into the hallway. “I will get to see the precious Kittaran again? To play with her? To experience all her delights?”

“Yes, we promise,” Madelynn told Astani.

“Just not in her bedroom,” Selwyn said firmly. “The mirror and the girl inside it aren’t for you. This was but a treat.”

Astani looked over her shoulder then, seeing The Girl in the Mirror still stood visible, her mirror glowing. “I accept that. And it was a truly lovely treat. Thank you, all three of you,” she said before looking away and stepping out into the hallway.

The door closed. The Girl in the Mirror remained where she was, staring at the closed door in silence for a long time. “You know I don’t like that,” she eventually said, voice soft as not to wake Naoka.

A white cat strut into view inside the Mirror of Dhuarcain. It walked up to the girl and started rubbing against her ankle, purring as it did.

“Yes, I know,” the girl said with a petulant pout in response to a voice only she could hear. “But I HATE when they use me this way. How many important women holding broken hearts for other versions of me will they parade in front of me? And they ALL touch my mirror without permission in that same way. It’s… infuriating. I can see it in their eyes, that sickening love. That thing that brought them so much trouble in their past, thinking they could ‘fix’ or ‘save’ those other versions of me. And even knowing they can’t they STILL feel the need to try and comfort me.”

She was seething but managing to keep enough composure to ensure her voice remained quiet. “I think it’s what I like about the kitten you’ve tricked them into taking in. I don’t get the sense she thinks she can fix or save me, I don’t think she’d even WANT to. She just… likes me.”

The girl scoffed in disbelief. “Stupid, painfully naive, and kindhearted girl. It’s a cruel thing you’ve done bringing her here with all these monsters.”

She fell silent again, listening to the voice only she could hear. “I know,” she said with a heavy, weary sigh. “Yes, I remember what I have to do. Now shoo. Someone or something is likely to wake her up soon. We can’t risk anyone seeing you here…”

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Something or someone is going to wake Naoka up. Who/what is this and what happens after that? (Choose up to 9 options from this poll)