The Rest of the Night
8/13 evening
Why. Why couldn’t she stop thinking of him! She barely knew who he was, but the moment she heard his name something clicked. Dena was a scholar, a lady, a strategist, and a highly sought after bachelorette; she was most certainly not a blushing schoolgirl.
So why did her heart flutter when she thought of him? Was she being enchanted? No, she shouldn’t assume something like that, he seemed like a perfect gentleman. So perfect… What was she thinking!? There was a way that courting went, especially for a lady. He approaches her openly and showers her with compliments and gifts, and she acts unimpressed regardless of how she feels while she investigates his background and family. Four men were courting her right now! She liked two of them, and they were far better matches than some no name mercenary captain!
Besides, he was obviously courting Lady Prestor; you don’t go handing women jewelry and getting invited to their chambers unless your courtship is quite far along, actually. If Dena so much as acknowledged these feelings towards a man she didn’t know, who had shown no interest in her, and was in the process of courting someone like Prestor, she’d be a laughingstock.
Kennedy was drunk when Caledra arrived to discuss the plan, which was mortifying in its own way, but the elf simply smiled and told her it was ok. She had hired a mercenary company who would be working with them, providing the muscle, as long as Dena could provide for the logistics. If she wanted to come along, she might get to spend many days working directly with Erich Bismark. She couldn’t wait; he was such a wonderful man.
••••••••••
I was on my way to Lady Prestor’s chambers with a spring in my step when I realized I might want to take advantage of the fact that she was collared. I couldn’t just shift her settings around willy nilly, but she had been broken down to 72 hours the moment she put the collar on. Calendra had taught me a very valuable lesson, but I didn’t actually need to lead Onyxia along like I had my new pet elf. I’ll admit; maybe I was a bit heavy handed, but I wanted to expedite this process.
••••••••••
Katrana smiled as Bismark entered her chambers, pouring a glass of Junglevine Wine for them to share. It was a very strong drink; in her experience most dragons enjoyed sipping drinks that would peel paint, and she wanted him to enjoy the meeting.
He strolled right in and sat at the small table with her, smiling in a predatory way that made her curious. He’d clearly just managed some kind of victory; knowing what could get him to look this happy would tell her much more about this drake. His scent was unfamiliar to her, though clearly of her flight, so he was probably young but ambitious. The kind of young dragon she would be dealing with for centuries to come.
“Glad to see you Ony.” She gave him a look. They were safe here, but not only was he using her true name while she was wearing her visage, he had dared to shorten it. He kept smiling, and she just couldn’t stay mad at him.
“Careful there. It’s best not to slip like that. I trust all of my servants, but the walls have ears.” She sipped her wine, enjoying the burn. “So, what are you doing here? What brings you to Stormwind?”
He was looking over her visage with interest. Ah. He was one of *those*. She had crafted Katrana to inspire desire in men, to allow her to take advantage of human vanity with flattery and promises of intimacy, but she expected better than that from her own kind. Of course, if she wanted to take him to bed she’d probably need to do it in this form anyway. Precious few dragons were big enough to mate with her without coming off as faintly silly these days.
“I’m thinking that by the end of this conversation, you’re going to be seeing a lot of things differently. You see, I have a proposal, and I want you to hear me out.” Ooh, this was getting juicy.
“Go on.”
“You are going to work with me to take over Stormwind, not destroy it.”
She couldn’t help but smile; it was too ridiculous. “After all I’ve invested?”
“Yes. You’re going to take those investments, and with my help you’ll use them to get a far firmer grip on Stormwind, then build the kingdom up and direct it to our own purposes.”
Might as well entertain the idea; it seemed like it would be a fun thought experiment, and he seemed to enjoy the topic. “So how do you intend to do that?” It felt surprisingly good to just go along with his idea.
“Simple. I’ll take control of them, just like I have you.”
That got Katrana’s hackles up. “And what does that mean?”
“It means I’m enslaving you. Don’t worry; when I’m done with you you’ll be better than ever in just about every way.”
How dare he. She stood up and leaned over the table, glaring at him and letting just a trace of her draconic nature bleed through. “Watch your tongue, Bismark. You speak to the Broodmother.”
He kept that infuriatingly smug look; if anything he seemed amused. “Oh? What’ll you do to me?”
She glared, and decided to snort a jet of fire at him. He’d probably be barely affected, but it would damage his clothing and let him know she was serious. The fire didn’t come. It just died in her throat, and she realized that she’d almost hurt him to make a point. She’d done it before to countless people, dragons included, but suddenly it made her feel awful to imagine strongarming him like that.
“You did something to me.” It was obvious, and the raw power on display was amazing. Whatever it was he was doing, he wasn’t even breaking a sweat. He didn’t even seem to be paying attention. He simply commanded the room; it was incredibly attractive, really. She’d underestimated him.
“Yes. Keep up, I told you I was enslaving you. Once you’re mine, I intend to use you to clean up all the messes you’ve been causing around these parts, and to take control of people like Varian, Shaw, Fordragon. All your puppets will become mine. Or shared, I suppose. I’ll leave you in charge, you’ll just be dancing to my tune. I’ve already gotten the Defias under control, and I’m working on Darkshire.”
It was a bold strategy. The only problem was that he clearly wanted to do it all at her expense. Naturally, if he had control over her, then she’d need to bring in others to act on her behalf. “Taretha, Lenneth, come in here.” Her two maids filed in, eyes downcast.
Several moments passed while Katrana tried desperately to tell them to attack the man. She couldn’t bring herself to though; it would be a hideous waste if he were to die here. That must be why the words simply wouldn’t come out. After around fifteen seconds of awkwardly staring at the two maids, Katrana felt a coldness in the air. Disembodied spirits were here.Strangely, fine necklaces simply appeared around the necks of the two girls. Bismark smiled a devilish little grin. “She called you in here to demonstrate something. Your mistress would like for you to tell me that you love me. For the sake of the demonstration.” The two dragonspawn looked at her with a lost look; the process of transformation tended to make dragonkin very reliant on outside instructions to do anything.
She wanted to tell them no, to leave the room. On the other hand though, Erich seemed so excited to show her whatever it was. She just couldn’t bring herself to shut it down. She was curious. “Oh you might as well.” She felt herself smiling. This should be good.
The two of them bowed their heads in tandem and turned to Erich. In almost unison they spoke, “I love you Lord Bismark,” and disappointingly, nothing seemed to happen.
“Again.”
They repeated without turning to Katrana first. That wasn’t right; they were her dragonkin, they should cover everything with her. Oh, it’s no big deal. What was hers could be his as well. He made them repeat themselves several more times, and they seemed to relax and stare at him rapturously. He was a black dragon of course, they were meant to serve all of the black dragonflight even if their first duty should be to Onyxia. Even so, when he approached and patted Taretha on the cheek, she leaned into it like an eager hound.
The naked display of mastery was impressive; Katrana couldn’t help but get excited watching. “Maybe you could do as you say, but you’ll have to explain to me exactly why I’d abort the plan I made with my brother, risking his wrath for your schemes.”
“You’ll need to lie to him at first, of course. But as to why? Because you love me. You love me more than anything else you’ve ever cared about, and before I leave this room you’re going to admit it.” That smug, condescending face made her blood boil, but it was so appealing too. It was so rare that she could lay with someone even close to being her equal; she was almost certainly stronger than him, but something about him made her want to do as he said.
As planned, she took him to bed. Normally she would go on top and guide the whole experience, but she let him take the lead this time. Well. “Let” may be the wrong word. He pushed for things, and whenever she relented and followed his lead it was so much better an experience for them both. He hopefully fertilized a few eggs; she’d need to lay them tonight in her lair or it would all go to waste.
When he demanded that she declare her love for him, she decided to play coy, playfully telling him anything complimentary she could think of, but never the words he seemed to want most. Well, until he pinned her down and demanded it, and she simply couldn’t bring herself to fight back. “Alright, Erich Bismark, you have me. I love you.” It felt so amazing to simply give him what he wanted.
••••••••••
Deliberately attempting to act against Erich Bismark’s interests: full paralysis
Pursuing her own desires over Erich Bismark’s: maximum shame
Acting to facilitate Erich’s stated or inferred goals: moderate euphoria
Praising or expressing positive emotion towards Erich: Validation