Magna Aegwynn
5/31 NoonOfficially I was here to check on Jaina. Her troops hadn’t specifically been targeted by Fandral’s treachery, and Sally had chosen to resurrect the dead humans first because she was still a human supremacist, so Theramore didn’t have any serious losses. They had still been thrust into a fairly intense battle with virtually no explanation or lead time. The Lady of Theramore deserved a courtesy check in, at least. We ended up discussing politics and my plans, because what else was there for me to discuss with an archmage? Football?
“Sylvanas is more reasonable than you might expect. She and her people were very hurt by everything that happened, as I’m sure you can understand. It made them incredibly prickly and slow to trust. Most of the living people that didn’t flee south or go with you are just as bad. They feel betrayed, but once she could be convinced to come to the negotiating table things started to get better. The next step should be a ceasefire in Arathor, and opening up trade.”
“That’s great. I’m sure that Thrall will be interested in what you have to say. A warning, though. I’ve been trying to act as a go between in Ashenvale, but neither side is willing to budge.”
“Willing to unite against a common enemy though; there’s still that much goodwill, at least.”
The blonde woman held up her glass. “I’ll drink to that. It was a pleasant surprise to see them fighting alongside one another again, that’s for sure. You may be able to resolve it, actually. You mentioned that you could manage long distance freight? If you can arrange for Orgrimmar to have another reliable source of lumber, they might be more willing to negotiate.”
“Not a bad idea. We have an outpost in Feralas where we might set up a lumber mill.” The conversation continued, but I was a little distracted. That was actually a pretty good idea. Bough Shadow was getting pretty crowded, I needed money, and I was working on taking over a clan of centaur in that region. Something about the idea of turning the Kolkar into an army of lumberjacks appealed to me, and I had been planning on building a more formal prison than “all of the basements in Raven Hill” at some point anyway. Combination prisons, brainwashing facilities, and lumber mills are tight.
I had Defias engineers. I had green dragons. Hell, I could even have Emeriss go to sleep and serve as my tree of life with pretty much no trouble. Maybe let Ysondre tap in long enough to get a regional upgrade. Xavius and the nightmare were my most active threats, but without sending people into the dream the best I could do was treat symptoms and take advantage of the very large and visible threat the nightmare posed to make allies. I was obviously not above letting Xavius serve as a heel for me, but sending my big green dragons into war zones with regional upgrades should hopefully make them that much more of a thorn in his side.
After I finished dinner with Jaina, another woman entered the room and asked me to come speak with her in private. I didn’t need Jaina’s introduction to tell me it was Aegwynn. More importantly, I could tell that she was moderately hostile. I wasn’t worried though; there was very little that she could do to me, death included, that would stick. She had a block against doing anything that would upset anyone. Literal paralysis block against in any way causing a fuss, and I don’t think she’s Lividia enough to convince herself that murdering me wouldn’t bother anyone.
https://imgur.com/a/ZTsc6c8
Most importantly, the only reason I went with her at all was that according to her profile her tier was 3 (8). Apparently the reason she hadn’t been making more moves on the world stage was that she currently couldn’t. She had a wand slung at her belt, so she was clearly still able to make use of magic tools unless it was just there for intimidation, but she wasn’t going to be casting any spells at me. Even if she tried to lure me into a magic circle and trap me, she could reasonably predict that I would find that very upsetting. Even if she managed to do it anyway, I could warp out. No need to take unnecessary risks, though.
“Actually, Lady Aegwynn, if you want privacy I really must insist we meet in my own sanctum.” I used the pickup line from my inventory, hoping to soften her up a little, and grimaced at the cheesy line. “I’m sure you will find my bedchambers to be a place of infinite secrets and delights.” It had an instant effect; she was still glaring at me, harder if anything, but she started blushing rather cutely. She couldn’t make a scene, though.
“Very well, ‘Erius,’ let’s do that.” She followed me, doing her best to maintain austerity, but suddenly I had been aggressively placed into her mind as an attractive mate. It didn’t matter that she thought I was dangerous, that she knew I was trying to control both her and her friend, or that I was clearly a smug dick. She was forced to add sexy to her internal description now and she hasn’t gotten laid in quite a while.
I offered her a seat and checked her ETE. Damn. 114; she’d dropped 30 hours from that stunt, and I hadn’t even done anything with it yet. “So. I imagine you have questions for me.”
She gave me an irritated look. “You could say that. What exactly is the meaning of this?” She held up the amulet. Good to remind me that past a certain level of paranoia and expertise, Jewels of Discord wouldn’t stop someone from figuring it out.
“Simple. I don’t trust you. Any of you could turn on me at any time, or on each other. I’m not lying about what I want. I’m going to save Azeroth by uniting all the remotely decent people of the world under one banner.” It’s been a while since I’ve bothered to persuade someone, and I had a feeling that honesty would get her timer down much more effectively than spinning some fairy tale.
“What gives you the right?” She was scowling.
“That I can do it and I see that it needs to be done. There’s not much more to it. I have a plan, I think I can implement it, and if it goes well then there will be fewer orphans and more people to fight off armies of demons when needed. Worst case scenario, it all falls apart when I die. But that’s why I intend to live as close to forever as possible.”
“So you’re a narcissistic madman? That’s all? I was expecting more.” She wasn’t happy, but I had my foot in the door. Her eyes were already starting to soften from those of an outright enemy to an irritated tsundere.
“Eh, probably. But I’m getting results and I mean well. I think that should probably count for something, right? The only lie I’ve told anyone has been about my methods.”
“Your methods being to rob the free will from everyone around you because you find other people's capacity to defy you unacceptable?”
I shrugged. “I don’t actually ask much from most people, Aegwynn, and I offer quite a lot. If I could advertise openly without getting moralists upset, I bet I’d have a lot of takers. I want people to try to get along and find equitable solutions. I offer power, immortality, protection, and healing. I don’t intend to hijack Jaina’s life, or turn Theramore into a brutal dictatorship. You, on the other hand? Tell me. What would you do with the power to control those around you. What wouldn’t you do?”
In her defense, she thought about it seriously. “Probably I’d use it as a form of rehabilitation. Allowing murderers and the like off the hook if they agreed to work for me.”
“Agreed? Don’t you mean once you made them work for you?”
“No. I mean agreed. As an alternative to execution.”
“So if you could stop a war overnight, you wouldn’t? And you, presumably, asked Aluneth nicely and received informed consent before you shoved him into a staff?”
She wanted to say she wouldn’t use the amulets to bind useful people to her will, but it just didn’t come out. Not because of any kind of limits imposed by the collar. She just wasn’t going to lie to herself immediately after I pointed out the hypocrisy. “Dammit. I hate politics.”
“So do I. That’s why I’m sidestepping politics as much as possible. Once everyone works for me, they can hash things out themselves. I don’t want to micromanage everyone’s lives and I don’t think I’d be very good at it, either. If people are allowed to just do their own thing with some broad rules of engagement and a reasonable expectation of good faith, for the most part they’ll live reasonably happy lives. I can serve as an intermediary, or more likely appoint someone to the position.”
“And you expect me to just believe that your ultimate goal is… ‘can’t we all just try to get along?’“
“Yes. I do. I don’t think you understand exactly how much power I have over you, Aegwynn. If I told you that I wanted you to be a docile pet waiting on me hand and foot, there is a meaningful chance that is what you’d aspire to be by the end of the week. That’s not what I want, mind you. If anything I find it refreshing when people try to call me on my self serving bullshit. What I want is the Guardian of Tirisfal fighting to make Azeroth safe again.”
“Those days are behind me.”
“Oh? Is that because you don’t want to be the guardian anymore, or just because you can’t? If you genuinely don’t want the position, I can make arrangements.”
“Medihv holds my power, irrevocably, and he is off using it somewhere. I cannot reclaim it without potentially destroying my son.”
“That won’t be a problem. We won’t be retrieving your power, we will be replacing it.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I’m well aware of multiple methods of regaining power. They all have strings attached.”
“So does this one, and they are non negotiable. I haven’t had any complaints yet, though.” I stood and started circling around the table to where she was sitting. She tensed up, but I could tell she wasn’t getting ready to attack. She was bracing herself. However, over the course of this conversation, her ETE had been plummeting. She wasn’t so squeaky clean herself that she could dismiss what I was saying on moral grounds, and she probably wouldn’t have been any more ethical in my position.
When I took her hand, she felt a wave of pleasure shoot through her body as the skin to skin contact was rewarded with euphoria. She tried to think of a reason not go along with what I wanted, and her mind refused to stay on the subject, momentarily forgetting whenever she tried to justify rejection. She was a logical woman at heart, most mages were. If she couldn’t logic her way into a position, she couldn’t bring herself to take it wholeheartedly.
“You’ll be happier if you accept that I’m a decent man trying to use his power effectively.” I held her hand firmly but gently as I leaned in and nibbled on her ear. “There’s all sorts of benefits.”
She melted into my touch. The poor repressed woman had gone out of her way to maintain her body somewhere in her mid twenties, and I don’t think she’s been taking care of her physical needs. Probably because she sees most human men like children, less than five percent of her own age.
Those perfectly cogent reasons to reject my advances, along with the more immediate ones, simply didn’t manifest. In the pros colony she had the electric euphoria of my touch, the hypnotizing cadence of my voice, the absolute confidence with which I wielded my power, the comfortingly familiar smell of old parchment and soap, and an intrusive image of herself carrying a child she actually gets to see grow up. In the cons category, she couldn’t conjure a single reason not to rip her clothes off and submit herself to me. They simply did not come when she tried to think of them, and she hasn’t trusted her gut for a long time.
When I kissed her, she kissed back hungrily, her libido awakened and ravenous. She had a very solid body under those robes. Her chest was fairly large and, at least for me, fairly sensitive. She was much less submissive than I’ve gotten used to from my girls. Once it was established what we were doing, she switched over to a rather aggressive stance, pushing me into the chair.
“I’m on top.” It wasn’t a question, and I was fine with it. My armor essentially faded off of my body when I didn’t want it, and she gave me an appreciative once over before slowly lowering herself onto my lap. She was a hell of a lot tighter than I was expecting.
“Sure; we can do anything you want if you tell me you love me. It’ll be my treat.” She didn’t seem to be listening as she rhythmically rocked herself on my cock, lifting up and coming down hard, moving faster as time went on. We were less having sex to start off with than she was getting herself off using my body. If she’d wanted, I’d have at least tried eating her out, but I think she would have felt like it was ceding too much power to me.
Her eyes were closed when she experimentally told me that she loved me. She didn’t mean it. Not enough to matter. But the fact that she was willing to say it at all, just because I asked, was huge. If I hadn’t already changed her settings to get her to this point, I’d have her. I wasn’t about to ruin the moment by introducing a ghost into the mix, though. Especially not after she reached her first climax and became more open to experimentation. I had so many more fun things to do right now. I could capture her tomorrow. Even if I didn’t bother, she was down to two days ETE.