Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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Obsession

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I might have overeaten again. The dense pit in my stomach is saying that anyway. It might also have to do with the ever-present Chaor looming over me, but dinner was definitely a factor. I don't know what kind of meat it was, and I'm not in a hurry to find out.

"You feel it in your gut, right?" Chaor chuckles. "I have never seen a creature of your size eat as much as you did."

I give my stomach a pat. "It beats scavenging by a long shot."

I glance at Chaor walking beside me. My comment seems to be having the intended effect. He's looking slightly past me, a slight strain to his grin. "Right, well, you can rest assured that your days of scavenging are in the past."

Well, if my plans go as I hope, I just might be right back to scavenging. Far from UnderWorld City, at least. I just need to get my hands on that diamond of vlaric, and that means making sure I don't give Chaor a reason to think twice about giving it to me.

"You seem to be less on edge," Chaor notes after a moment of silence.

I set my jaw to the left a little, tilt my head a bit to the right, and push my eyebrows a bit together. I turn to look at Chaor and mutter, "Well, I guess it's just starting to sink in how well it's going this time around."

Chaor doesn't look at me, but I see the upward twitch of the corner of his mouth. He turns at an intersection in the hall, and I follow him. It looks like we're heading to the baths again.

I make my eyes dart around the hall as we approach the doors to the baths. "Wait, here? Isn't it a little early to be washing up?"

Chaor pauses by the door and turns to face me. He folds his arms across his chest and leans against the wall. "What time do you think it is, Michael?"

I raise an eyebrow. "It's kind of impossible to tell in the UnderWorld, really. No sky." I tilt my head down and raise a hand to my chin. "Um, a little past noon?"

Chaor bursts out laughing, deep and rumbling. "Were you to see the sky, you would have seen that the sun had set hours ago!"

Yup, as I thought. I raise my eyebrows, widen my eyes, and part my lips to show closed teeth. "Holy crap. How long was I asleep for?"

"Long enough," Chaor smirks as he opens the door and steps through.

The tub is not yet halfway full, and there's a sound of water splashing as it continues to fill. One of the palace's servants is in here, a rat-woman about my height, dressed in a simple robe. She's carrying a torch, sticking it into the shelves along the wall to light the fireplaces there.

Chaor starts undoing the straps of his bracers. I crouch down and start undoing my shoelaces, and I ask, "Still, two days in a row? I know how expensive it is to run this thing."

"You are aware that I can afford to indulge in my luxuries, correct?" Chaor lets his bracers fall to the ground and begins working on his belt. "Besides, you are drenched in sweat and dust. You must be looking forward to washing that all off."

He's got that right. I ended up demonstrating my proficiency with that diamond until its power had completely faded. "You sure you're not just looking for an excuse to show your body off again?" I tease as I kick off my shoes.

Chaor chuckles and lets his belt clatter to the ground. "You are definitely less afraid now," he states. "You have that expression back on your face. Confident. Analytical." He's got that hungry look in his eyes again. "Dare I say, controlling?"

"Controlling?" I ask while I look down and feign difficulty with my own belt. "What do you mean?"

I hear a soft thump as Chaor's loincloth hits the ground, followed by a clatter of metal as he unclasps his boots. "That first day, in my throne room, despite all the scent of your fear, your face did not betray a hint of it." A clang as one boot comes off. "Ulmar's early experiments, as well, the ones he called your 'baseline'. When creatures acted as they normally would, that confidence remained, and your words flowed like nectar, flattering and manipulative." The clang of the other boot.

"Hmm," I grunt, still working on my belt. I'm no longer feigning difficulty, I'm actually having a bit of trouble with it. "Should have loosened this during dinner," I grumble.

A pair of large red hands push my own hands away, then start to work on my belt with deceptive dexterity. Chaor is crouched in front of me, his face smug as hell. "Immediately after I say how in control you looked, too," he needles.

I want to slap his hands, to shove him away. He's way too close for comfort, especially where his hands are. You need that diamond, Michael. Don't antagonize him. Play along.

Instead, I reach up, grab Chaor's horns, and push them up slightly, turning his head up so we're face to face. I stretch my mouth out into a wide grin, baring my teeth, and narrow my eyes slightly. "Don't mistake 'slightly inconvenienced' for 'helpless', Chaor."

The hint of surprise on Chaor's face fades quickly back into that smug grin. "Strange, how much this feels like speaking to a mirror, now," he muses as he tosses my belt aside. "You command attention, demand respect..." He looks back down and fiddles with the fly of my jeans. "It's... intoxicating."

On the outside, I'm smirking right back at Chaor. On the inside? My gut is twisting upon itself, and there's all-too-familiar ice-water in my veins. I release his horn with a forced chuckle and start pulling my shirt off, using the moment where my face is hidden to drop my forced expression and grit my teeth a moment.

I don't dare say it out loud, but Chaor has struck right at the heart of his strange obsession with me. Not just me, but of practically every other target of his obsessions. Many other creatures have those same qualities. Maxxor, an enemy of his, far outside of his control, he regards with hatred and fear. Van Bloot, allegedly an ally and undeniably a threat, he views with suspicion. Maria, an opposing force he thinks he can control, he sees as a rival. And then there's me, apparently completely under Chaor's control...

Chaor's voice snaps me out of my thoughts. "Shall we delay having our clothes taken to be cleaned?" he asks as he finishes the job of stripping me down. He looks over at the servant, who pauses in gathering our clothing up. "You have gone many days without the touch of a woman, ever since arriving in my world at the minimum."

The servant glances between me and Chaor, surprised, then drop what she had gathered up already and opens up her robes. "I-if it would please you, s-sir," she stammers as she displays her bare breasts.

Ah, nope. Even if I were interested, she clearly feels pressured. Would she be in danger if she had refused? Most likely. I can relate... "Thank you for the offer, but it won't be necessary," I say as calmly I can.

The corners of Chaor's mouth twitch upward again. "As you were, then," he says to the servant, who quickly gathers the clothing up and races for the door. Chaor stands back up and heads for the tub, and I follow.

We both sit on the seat of the tub. The water's surface doesn't reach that high up yet, only reaching Chaor's ankles and not even reaching the soles of my feet. Chaor kicks at the pool a little, stirring it with his hooves, then speaks, his voice loud behind me and overpowering the splash of the water. "I wish I had known sooner, what you were capable of. We could make great use of your power."

I don't reply. This close to the roaring water, I wouldn't be able to make myself heard anyway. I need time, anyway. Time to rehearse and prepare. Time to think.

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I'm sitting on a rock that used to be over the fires. It's just high enough that I can sit down and keep my head above the roiling water. Earlier, somebody brought in a pitcher of wine, two goblets, one small and one large, and a small wooden box. I'm pretty certain I know what's in the box.

Chaor drains his first glass and clicks his tongue. "Ah, nothing better, yes?" He stretches his right arm behind me and sets the goblet down with a clink, then dips his hand into the water near my shoulder.

I take another small sip from my own goblet and lean slightly to put my weight against the side of Chaor's chest. "Yeah, a nice jacuzzi soak is really the best way to end an exhausting day."

Chaor looks down at me, looking a little befuddled. "A nice what?"

I lift my right hand out of the water and wave it around a little. "Jacuzzi, spa, whatever. Human thing, where the brand name for something ends up being used as its common name, or something like that."

"Right," Chaor sighs. I think he just rolled his eyes a little. "No, I mean, nothing better than living a life of luxury."

"That too," I nod before taking another sip. I'm not really tasting the stuff, just putting on a show.

Chaor's ride hand slides closer and presses against me a little. "I envy you, Michael. You can have more than just one lifetime of all of this." He gives me a gentle squeeze between his arm and his pectoral. "And endless life, wanting for nothing, having everything..."

There's the lead-in. The bait. The best thing for me to do right now, though, is take a firm bite of that bait and cast one out myself. "Minus the whole, you know, you trying to kill me at the start of each one," I grumble. "I'm not sure I could handle having to prove myself to you with all Ulmar's experiments every time I start over."

Chaor chews on my words for a while. "Yes, we need to address that."

Chaor told Khybon about his plans for me as a spy. Time to use that for the reel-in. After a moment's pause, I say in a thoughtful tone, "Kiru City gets attacked by a Mipedian Conjuror three days after Humans arrive in Perim."

Chaor looks down at me. "...Yes, I heard about that. Too late to take advantage of it, of course."

I widen my eyes and turn my body to face Chaor. "That's just it. Three days is too short a warning for you to profit off of the attack, yes, but it's soon enough for you to verify!"

Chaor's brow rises. "So, you lead off with that on your first day..."

"And I both prove my power and earn your trust when the attack actually happens!" I finish. Then I force a cringe. "A-assuming I actually have earned your trust, that is?"

Chaor pauses, then lifts his arm and pats the floor a distance behind me. "Sit here," he orders.

I quickly scramble out of the water and sit cross-legged on the ground while Chaor turns around in the water. He grabs a hold on the wooden box and slides it between us.

"I had this whole speech prepared, where I would try to convince you that you could trust me," Chaor says slowly, fiddling with the box between his claws. "I had it set in my mind that you were the one who needed convincing, and now I see that you were thinking the same about me."

I think it worked. "Oh." I chuckle a little. "A little bit like A Tale of Two Fools, then." An UnderWorld comedy, a story of two warlords trying to figure out how to surrender to each other. Told to UnderWorld children as a lesson not to give up too quickly.

Chaor ponders my words for a bit. "I guess I can see the comparison." He turns his attention to the box. "I was going to... well, I guess I was going to bribe you with this." He lifts the box's contents out carefully. "Now, it is in answer to your question."

It's a diamond of vlaric, red instead of the usual green or blue, cut into a rounded triangle. A thin golden cage surrounds the gem, and a short, delicate golden chain dangles off the top. A sharp point of light emanates from the gem, pulsating like a heartbeat.

I'm legitimately speechless for a moment. Its powers aside, this piece is worth a small fortune. "I-I'm sorry, is that a vlaric heart?" For the first time in a while, I don't need to act. "And you're just giving me it?"

Chaor beckons me closer with one hand, and I oblige. He loops the necklace around my neck and clasps it, then adjusts the gem so it sits neatly between my collarbones. "What if my precious little Human used up an ordinary diamond, hmm? You know how it works, yes?"

I decide not to comment on Chaor's word choice. "Bathe the gem in flames until the sun rises," I quote. I touch the gemstone around my neck when a thought occurs. "The frame is gold, though."

Chaor laughs. "It comes out. One as smart you should be able to figure out how."

I might actually feel a little bad for betraying Chaor tonight. Just a little, though. "Thank you. You don't know how much-"

As I look back up at Chaor's face, one of his hands grabs the back of my head and pulls me forward. My yelp of surprise is cut short as Chaor's tongue darts into my open mouth, filling it with the taste of flesh and ash.

My mind is already focused on the diamond at my throat, sensing the rocks around me quiver, waiting for me to command them. I could do it right now, lash out at Chaor and make my escape. ...No, even with this gem, I'm not a match for the king of the UnderWorld. I release my focus, and the stones fall still.

Chaor draws back, his eyes darting around at the brief vibrations I'd caused. "Did I startle you?"

My chest is heaving as I catch my breath. I need to think fast. "All of a sudden the only thing I could see was the inside of your mouth! I thought you were going to bite my head off!" Then hand over my heart is genuine. The shaking of my body, not so much.

"My apologies," Chaor says, with an expression that doesn't really match how contrite he's claiming to be. He grins and continues, "I will be sure to treat you more gently." Then he closes his eyes and leans forward again, mouth open slightly.

You'll be out of here soon, Michael. Just play along.

I dated a girl back on Earth some years back. A classmate in college. She smoked, and it made kissing a little... unpleasant. We parted ways before the semester ended, and I haven't heard from her since. The only reason I'm remembering her now is that the taste of Chaor's tongue is the same, though he seems eager to try driving his into my stomach.

I gasp for breath as Chaor pulls away, and he pushes me onto my back. He grins down at me, water dripping from his body, a predator's glow to his eyes. "You need not worry about me eating you," he jokes, "but do know that you are... delicious."

"Glad to hear it," I mutter weakly, plastering a grin on my face. It feels fake and no doubt looks like it, too.

Chaor is no longer looking in my eyes, though. "I wonder how the rest of your body tastes," he hums.

Chaor lowers his head back down, out of my view, and my breath catches in my throat as he closes his mouth on me.

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Chaor lies on his side next to me, grinning at my trembling body. "Enjoyed that, did you?" he drawls, his tongue dancing out to clean my product off his muzzle. "Your first time being serviced by a royal tongue?"

Not even close, asshole. I keep that thought to myself, though, opting to take slow, deep breaths instead.

Chaor laughs and rolls back into the water. "It will be my turn tonight," he says while he leans back with arms spread out across the rim of the tub. "I will have you crying out my name in ecstasy soon, Human, while my seed marks you as mine..."

Chaor disappears under the surface, and I cover my face with my hands and grit my teeth. This is nothing, I tell myself. You've been through hell before, and this doesn't hold a candle to it. By the time morning comes around, you'll be long gone, all this an unpleasant but distant memory.

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Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.