Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 TITLE: A Shared Soul
AUTHOR: Big Al
KEYWORDS: MFFFF 1st F1st piv impreg cons rom size ScFi fant
UNIVERSE: Nexus Empire
SUMMARY: A well-hung noble must choose a suitable girl to marry, and
finds love not once but four times!  Heavy action sequence, then sex at the
end.  A gift, written for my wife!  Set in the Nexus Empire, an original
space fantasy setting of my own devising.

   **********



   Light sprinkled soothing colors onto the crowd, as three diffferent
singers arrayed across the room crooned three separate soft melodies that
still somehow blended harmoniously.  The low music did not cover the hubbub
of quiet conversation, nor the tinkling of the two wine fountains.  The
crowd was composed almost entirely of attractive young women, the only
exceptions being waiters of various species who were serving delicacies and
wine.

   "Have you ever seen the new Sectat?" one young woman said.  She was an
orc, with a healthy green complexion and the large bust typical of her
species.  "I heard he was 7 feet tall, and hung like an alicorn!"

   "He's a human," another young woman, of some alien species with four
arms and burnt orange eyes, waved her hand dismissively.  "How attractive
can he possibly be?  He's no doubt ugly as a devil's backside."

   A third woman snorted as she sampled a delicacy from the tray proferred
in her direction by a tall young man in a white tuxedo.  "This is the Nexus
Empire.  They have magic and technology sufficient to make him look anyway
he pleases."

   "You'd have to change his species to make a human attractive," the
four-armed girl retorted.  "I care not, either way.  His wealth and power
are sufficient for me, and I could always take a secret lover."

   The other two girls giggled scandalously.  "You can't talk like that,"
the third girl said in a shocked murmur.

   "I wonder if this same magic and technology you speak of could... 
enhance me," the orc girl said, looking down to regard her ample bosom with
interest.

   The third girl rolled her eyes.  "As if you don't have enough boob
already."

   "Orcs," the four-armed girl sneered.  "Bigger tits imply better
fertility," she remarked to the third girl, "and orc girls often judge
themselves by the size and number of the litters they produce.  At any
rate, you'd best not use such magitech on yourself if you were to win the
Sectat's hand.  These Nexites value unaltered assets - since any of them
could use magitech to make themselves of outstanding physique, such prowess
or beauty is considered meaningless unless it is natural."

   She plucked a delicacy from the same tray as the orc girl launched into
a defense of her desire for enhanced boobs, and the waiter in the white
tuxedo moved on.

   Elsewhere, a girl downed her wine flute in one gulp, and looked around,
her skin flickering through multiple shades of pink - evidence of her
nerves.  "Where is he?  What is he waiting for?"

   Her drinking companion - a duke's daughter - merely sipped at her own
wineglass and shrugged.  "Taking care of whatever business a Sectat has, I
suppose.  He's too good to give us first class attention anyway.  Eligible
bachelorettes from outside the Nexus Empire, after all."

   The pink-hued girl held up her wine flute - which was obligingly
refilled by the young man in white - and questioned, "Then what do they
want with the likes of us, anyway?  Why not marry one of his own nobility?"

   "The Nexus Empire is predicated upon the garnering and spending of
political and social influence," the duke's daughter said carelessly. 
"They need no resources, with their infinite supplies due to replication
magitech, but the added influence and political weight that an outside
dominion can bring to bear upon their colonial affairs - that is something
they consider invaluable."

   "I always knew I was just a tool in the game of politics," the pink girl
reflected sadly, "even if I was never educated on the intricacies of the
game.  Still, I'd always hoped I could escape it, and marry my sweetheart
back home."

   "Marry for love?  What a naive fool you are," the duke's daughter said
fondly.  "Is he nobility?"

   "Minor nobility, but yes," the pink girl nodded excitedly.

   "Perhaps your father will let you marry this minor noble sweetheart of
yours if Lord Alexandre's favor doesn't grace you," the duke's daughter
reflected, and raised her own wineglass to be refilled by the waiter in the
white tux.

   "Sectat!  My lord Sectat!" Every eye in the room turned to the portly,
well-dressed alien man huffing for breath as he burst through a side door
of the grand reception room.  "My lord Sectat, there is an urgent
communique from the Taltari Commune!"

   Every eye then followed this portly alien's gaze to see the tall young
waiter in the white tuxedo, who was bearing a wineglass and tray.  He
sighed with annoyance, then stood up straighter.  He left the bottle and
and tray floating in midair, as his demeanor turned from that of a
stiffbacked servant into the bold presence of a man who commands everything
he sees.  He walked towards the portly man, who stood aside for him to go
through the side door, and as he did, his white tuxedo shimmered away into
the rich garments of the hereditary imperial governor of an entire star
cluster.

   A great clamor arose behind him from the eligible young girls, as they
realized that the Lord Sectat Alexandre had been among them this whole
time, listening to them!  The din died away as the door closed behind them,
and Alexandre strode through the corridor in long brisk strides as the
short alien huffed to keep up.

   "You couldn't alert me more subtly than that?" Alexandre scowled. 
"There's a reason I was incognito."

   His portly chamberlain bobbed his head apologetically.  "I'm sorry, my
lord Sectat, but the matter is quite urgent.  The war room awaits you."
Alexandre quirked his brow at the use of 'war room', but adjusted his
course to arrive there shortly.

   His top generals and advisors were there, waiting for him.  "It's the
Taltari Commune, my lord Sectat," one general told him, as the
holoprojector displayed a mnemograph of a stelllar conjunction far removed
from the nine galaxies of the Nexus Empire (in which Alexandre's
gubernatorial domain was situated).  "The flotilla bearing their princess
has been ambushed by pirates of some sort, and they have sent a plea for
help."

   "Begging help from the man whose favor they wish to court," one advisor
murmured scathingly.  Alexandre understood his sentiment, but he had a duty
to see that all of his potential brides made it to his palace, just as he
had a duty to marry one of them.  Even if all the ones he had listened in
on were silly, cynical, or otherwise wildly inappropriate.

   "You didn't foresee this with your augurs?" he directed a blunt gaze to
Monaghin, his court witchlord.  The old crone - powerful enough in magicks
to live for 300 years and counting, if not potent enough to extend her
youth - lifted her face enough that her beady yellow eyes peered at him
from under her black and silver hood.

   "I did, my lord Sectat," she said, somehow seeming irreverent despite
her use of his proper title.  Alexandre couldn't really blame her for her
irreverence.  She had seen him, and his father, and his father's father, as
nursing babes.

   "But?" Alexandre's nostrils flared.

   "It had to happen," Monaghin said cryptically.  "Your flagship is
prepped.  My apprentice and I shall accompany you."

   "You certainly shall," Alexandre nodded.  Monaghin's wording made it
sound as though she were deciding to come along, rather than the actuality
that she was bound to follow him into battle.

   "You're going yourself, my lord Sectat?" one general raised an eyebrow
dubiously.  His tone of doubt was mild, however, for Alexandre's reputation
as a hands-on warrior was well known.  Alexandre just looked at him, and
the general relented.  "Right.  Of course, my lord Sectat."

   "If you're ready," Monaghin said curtly.  He nodded, and she muttered
some words as she waved about her right arm.  That wrinkled forearm was
covered with a golden bracer set with an oval ruby and etched with several
runes; it was her witchlord's amulet, the symbol of office for every
imperially titled witchlord and an object of great power.  Now, it glowed
as the old crone channeled her spell through it, and witchlord and Sectat
misted away in a tesserport sequence.

   They reappeared on the bridge of his flagship, the Zalrion-class
capital-ship supercruiser 'Khulviin Pride', a ten-mile-long vessel that was
one of the mightiest classes of vessel the Nexus Empire fielded.  "My lord
Sectat," the commandant saluted him, "we are ready to launch on your mark.
Witchlord Monaghin has informed us that no fleet escort is required?"

   He phrased it as a question, because while old Monaghin was certainly
authorized to make such an order (although Alexandre could certainly
override it), she was known to make such orders based on divinatory
assumptions, rather than actually getting approval from the Sectat - an
issue on which Alexandre's father had often butted heads with her. 
Alexandre merely nodded, and said, "Launch.  Prepare for battle.  Cloaked
entrance with expedited full sensor sweep."

   An orange alert sounded through the massive vessel, as 'Khulviin Pride'
rose from its orbit over Alexandre's throneworld - from which he governed
his star cluster as part of the Nexus Empire - and hurled into warpspeed.
It caught a tendril of one of the enormous imperial hypertesseracts, and
was flung an impossibly long distance away, putting hundreds of galaxies
inbetween the Nexus Empire and themselves.

   The vessel exited warpspeed under full cloak, its surface, interior, and
emissions all virtually undetectable.  Such a cloak took incredible power
to sustain, much less to have activated while the warp drive was still in
progress (so that they would already be cloaked when exiting warpspeed),
but the infinitely replicated (or repped) resources of the Nexus Empire's
Foundries made such power drains trivial.

   The 'Khulviin Pride's well-equipped sensor arrays mapped the system
nearly instantaneously, automagical auguries working in tandem with
technology wave-compressors.  Monaghin's capable skill with temporal magic
encased the bridge in a time bubble, where a minute of time was encased
into a single second, giving Alexandre enough time to formulate a strategy.

   "Ion pulse cannon will be inefficacious," he decided.  That massive gun
would scramble the systems of and disable every ship in a wide arc through
the whole area - including the Taltari vessels they sought to rescue. 
"Delay fighter and drone launches," he ordered instead, assessing the
situation.  "Prepare my Shrike.  Move to ambush position.  I'll draw them
in."

   "My lord Sectat!" the commandant protested after hearing his plan,
astonished.  "That's incredibly dangerous!"

   He smiled lopsidedly.  "On the offchance that I die, Monaghin is more
than capable of reconstructing my constituent atoms and resurrecting me."

   "My apprentice will accompany you," was the old crone's only reply. 
Alexandre arched an eyebrow, but did not argue.  He had never met
Monaghin's apprentice, and was curious what sort the elderly witchlord
would train.  With a wave of her hands, Monaghin tesserported the Sectat to
the royal hangar, where a young slip of a girl was waiting for him beside
his Shrike.  She was hooded and cloaked all in plain black, the hood pulled
low so that her face could not be seen at all.  A faint scent of cinnamon
and cloves drifted to his nostrils, and his skin tingled with it.

   The girl bowed low.  "I am Brighid, my lord Sectat.  Mistress Monaghin
has commanded me to accompany you."

   "Indeed," was all Alexandre could reply.  Her voice was sweet and
sensuous, and he found himself longing to see the face and mouth that had
spoken it.  But he would not invade her privacy; if she wished to keep her
face hidden, so be it.  "Armor, on." His set of omega-reactor armor
appeared on his frame, a gleaming silver suit that, among other things,
enhanced his already considerable strength, reflexes, and senses.  "If I
may?" He reached out his hand, and the girl took it a bit shyly.  He took a
moment to marvel how soft and hot her hand was, with lithe fingers and long
white nails, then pulled her into his body to cradle-carry her.

   Brighid gasped as he did so, and he leapt into the cockpit of his
Shrike-class fighter-bomber, setting her down in the gunner's chair behind
his own pilot's chair.  Her breathing seemed to be coming short, and he
hoped he hadn't startled her too badly - or perhaps his closeness was
stirring her sexuality?  He sometimes had that effect on women.

   "I don't know how any of these controls work," the girl said dubiously,
eying the array of weapons controls before her.

   "You don't need to," Alexandre assured her as the cockpit closed and he
fired up the engine, lifting the Shrike off the hangar deck.  "I fly this
custom Shrike solo.  You're a mage, so...  cast spells."

   "The focus of my talents lie in alchemy and ritual," the girl said.  "I
don't know why Monaghin is sending me into the field.  I..." She paused,
then confessed, as the Shrike hurtled into space free of the 'Khulviin
Pride, "I've never been in battle before.  I'm only 18."

   "I killed my first foe when I was ten," Alexandre said.  "And I didn't
have a man with supercommando training to watch over me."

   "You have supercommando training?" Brighid gasped.

   He nodded, then flicked the comm broadcasting switch.  "Attention,
vessels.  I am Lord Sectat Alexandre of the Nexus Empire.  I have become
separated from my flotilla, and require escort.  You will be well
compensated for your time."

   The space ahead of them was filled with ships.  Two frigates bearing the
insignia of the Taltari Commune were burning slag, while a two-mile-long
vessel of Taltari design was pockmarked with boarding pods, and surrounded
by a predatory raider fleet.

   Alexandre's ruse worked.  Seeing a lone vulnerable ship bearing a noble
far more valuable as a hostage than any Taltari princess, most of the
raider ships peeled off to come his way.  "Please respond," he said again,
doing a credible job of injecting growing panic into his tone.  He waited
till just before the raider ships came within firing range, then turned and
fed power to the engines.  The Shrike hurled off, but Alexandre
deliberately kept his speed slow enough that the raiders could still
follow.

   Laser bolts began flashing through the void around them, with the Sectat
jinking and juking to avoid them.  "Godqueen's tits, we don't have any
shields?" Brighid suddenly realized.

   "Wouldn't be very good bait if they knew they couldn't shoot through my
shields," Alexandre said tersely, concentrating on his piloting.  Shrikes
had expansive tesseract storage, containing tons of munitions and an omega
reactor that could produce capital-ship-strength shields and laser blasts.
Alexandre had his Shrike's shields deactivated at the moment, however, and
Brighid forced herself to breathe as she worked her hands into complex
motions, attempting a spell to assist.

   Ideally, the girl thought, she'd be able to affect the raiders or their
ships themselves.  As it was, given her limited field experience and
apprentice-level skill, she could only affect the Shrike.  She summon a
thin haze to surround the fighter-bomber, obscuring its sight somewhat so
that it would be harder to target.

   "Excellent procedure," Alexandre complimented her as he nose-dived to
switch directions.  The mystic mist stayed with them, and by now nearly all
of the raider ships were pursuing them.  The Shrike burned through space,
with the hungry raiders close behind-

   Then the 'Khulviin Pride' decloaked in front of them, its weapons
opening up at point-blank range.  Alexandre activated the shields and
turned around, moving to engage the raider fleet as squadrons of Shrikes
and masses of unmanned drone fighters emerged from the Zalrion-class
dreadnought's hangar bays.  Half the raider fleet was obliterated in
moments, and the rest was in disarray.

   Alexandre snapped off a few deadly, high-powered shots that
disintegrated his targets, but hurtled through the raiders without pause.
He loosed a multi-proximity seeker missile, whose detonation destroyed a
full flight of raider bombers, and then he was through, zooming towards the
besieged Taltari flagship.  His scanners showed no anti-tesserportation
shielding around the Taltari vessel; either it had been disabled, or else
the Taltari didn't possess such technology.

   "We're boarding, Brighid," he said.  "Are you prepared?"

   There was a touch of nervousness in her reply, but her voice was steady.
"Yes, my lord Sectat." He ran his fingers over the keys of the Shrike's
control panels, and then there was a displacement of air as lord and mage
appeared inside one of the Taltari flagship's corridors.  Brighid snapped
her head around this way and that, constantly searching for enemies.  Her
hands were raised, ready to cast wards at a moment's notice.

   Alexandre's visual scans were more measured, his neural feed keeping him
aware of everything in 360-degree arcs.  The corridors were too narrow for
him to use his assault cannon, so he kept that stored in the expansive
tesseract compartment whose exterior was only a small node on the back of
his silver supercommando armor.  He kept his wrist cocked, ready to fire
the high-powered laser needler on his forearm at any moment.

   And that moment came none too soon, as man and girl rounded a corner to
see a gaggle of alien raiders.  "Get behind me!" Alexandre said gruffly,
moving to put himself between Brighid and the oncoming laser fire.  An
entire omega reactor was stored in his armor's tesseract compartment, and
could sustain his armor's molecular integrity field with ease against small
arms fire.

   He raised both his wrists and popped off laser blasts from his
wrist-mounted needler guns in deadly accurate shots that burned through
armor and flesh.  An alert sounded through the ship - a new one, activated
by the conquering raiders rather than the overwhelmed Taltari - and raiders
rushed to counter the new threat.

   Brighid was inexperienced, as she had said, but she rose to the
challenge, her hands blurring through the air as she conjured elements and
constructs to hamper and disable the alien raiders.  In one brief respite,
as they kept moving through the ship to the royal chambers, Alexandre idly
asked her, "Why do you hide your face, Brighid?" He peered around a corner
before signaling the all-clear and moving ahead.

   The girl glided silently behind him.  "It is Mistress Monaghin's command
for this mission," she said quietly.  "She said I was to reveal my face and
body to no one for the duration.  I know not why."

   "Nor I," Alexandre frowned at the odd order.  He outranked Monaghin of
course, and could countermand that order, but he hesitated to do so without
knowing his court witchlord's purpose.  Despite her cryptic and sometimes
infuriating ways, she did have the best interests of the Sectat and his
dominion at heart.

   They heard enormous crashing and clanking as they neared the royal
audience chamber of the Taltari flagship, and Alexandre picked up his pace.
Laser fire and shouts indicated a battle was still going on - the Taltari
were still resisting their boarders!

   They emerged into the expansive audience chamber, and both drew up short
in surprise at the vista.  A girl was inside a force-bubble cockpit
suspended in a gigantic mech exoskeleton.  Secure within that shielded
bubble, she stamped her feet and whirled her arms through the air.  In
response, the massive limbs of the mech mimicked her, sending the raiders
flying through the air.  Several Taltari courtiers huddled behind her as
the girl defended them.

   Alexandre and the girl caught sight of each other at the same moment,
and in that moment, time stood still.  His dark brown eyes were caught and
held by her hazel pools.  She had long dark curls that matched his own
hair's shade, and wore a striking red dress that accentuated her young
teenage curves.  Her expression was fierce, in the midst of combat, set
with determination and nobility.

   And in that moment, Lord Sectat Alexandre fell in love with the 18 year
old Taltari Princess Elisabeta.  He barely registered Brighid's shocked
gasp beside him, as reality crashed back down on them both.  He opened
fire, mowing down the raiders who still stood against the princess, and
after scanning the nearby corridors, let down his guard to approach the
Taltari.

   Princess Elisabeta dropped nimbly from her force bubble to the deck, her
face flush with new love of her own as she beheld this handsome,
silver-armored stranger.  "I know not who you are, but I thank you for your
timely rescue," she said, her eyes never leaving his.  Her voice was soft,
melodious, yet infused with the sort of gentle strength that could
withstand any onslaught.

   "I am the Lord Sectat Alexandre of the Nexus Empire's Fifteenth Star
Cluster," he said in a breathless baritone.  "It is my pleasure to meet
you, princess." Her eyes widened as he said his name, and he took her hand,
pressing it briefly to his lips in a gallant display.  "We picked up your
distress signal," he explained, reluctant to let go of that soft hot hand;
fortunately, she seemed just as reluctant.

   "Internal sensors pick up no more hostiles," one of the princess's
courtiers said, scanning a console.  "The raiders have been repulsed. 
Their fleet is in ruins.  A cruiser-- You destroyed the entire raider fleet
with one ship?!" he exclaimed.

   "The 'Khulviin Pride' is no ordinary ship," Alexandre smiled.  "No
imperial vessel is.  My lady, if you would permit it, I would grant you and
your coterie passage on my ship to my domain."

   "I would be honored, my lord Sectat," she smiled at him, placing her
hand on his arm.

   "Please," he said, "call me Alexandre."

   "I will," she answered, "if you will call me Elisabeta."

   They were interrupted by an eruption of red smoke before them, and from
it appeared a demonic form - a succubus!  She floated on black-feathered
wings, had canines more defined than a human's, and sprouted two small
horns from her temples.

   Even more shocking than the unexpected appearance of a demon, was that,
aside from the demonic aspects, she looked exactly like Princess Elisabeta!
Long dark locks spilled about her shoulders, hazel eyes glinted, and the
same 18 year old curves entranced the eye.  Everyone looked in shock from
the succubus to the princess and back again.  Before anyone could frame a
coherent question, Brighid put herself between Alexandre and the newly
arrived demon.

   "Who are you?" she demanded.  "What is your purpose here?"

   The succubus spoke in a sultry and sensuous tone that was nevertheless
similar to Elisabeta's voice.  "I am Meridienne.  I am bound to a mistress
who has commanded me to capture a certain noble soul, the same mistress who
paid these raiders to attack the Taltari princess, as a lure to draw him
in." She brandished a wand in her hand, which was tipped with a dark green
orb.  Swirls of light misted ominously within it.

   "She seeks your soul, Alexandre!" Elisabeta said in fear.  She moved to
put herself between her new love and her own doppelganger, but Alexandre
had none of that, not letting her put herself in harm's way.

   "Get back!" Brighid yelled as Meridienne began chanting and waving the
wand.  Alexandre fired a high-powered shot at the wand - loathe to fire
upon such a lovely creature - but his laser impacted harmlessly against a
bubble of force surrounding the succubus.  Brighid cast off her black
cloak, treating them all to yet another shock.

   The apprentice mage, now shed of her cloak, was stark naked.  She had a
curvaceous figure and large round boobs that begged to be fondled and
sucked.  But the true surprise was that she also looked exactly like
Princess Elisabeta!  Brighid began dancing and chanting, and Alexandre
realized this was a defensive ritual she was enacting; after all, the girl
had told him that that was where her talents lay.  He hadn't realized that
she had meant tantric dance rituals.

   Green light shot from the orb tipping Meridienne's wand, but it
refracted into green mist before dispersing.  Sweat poured down Brighid's
form as she danced and chanted, deflecting the wand's power to defend her
lord.  Alexandre was momentarily hypnotized by her naked sweaty loveliness,
before gaining the presence of mind to yell through his comm, "Monaghin! 
Get here, stat!" Only static answered him however, and with a sinking
feeling he realized that the succubus had jammed communications somehow.

   Meridienne began sweating as well, as she poured more of her energy into
the wand's blasts.  Alexandre couldn't help but pop a massive boner,
thankfully hidden by his armor, as he watched two lovely, identical, 18
year old girls face off in a mystic duel, one totally naked, the other
nearly so in her skimpy garb.

   Brighid obviously began tiring however; she was merely mortal, whereas
Meridienne had demonic stamina.  The succubus grinned triumphantly,
charging up the wand with green light-

   "BEGONE!" A gigantic flare of golden light momentarily blinded everyone.
When Alexandre's vision recovered, he saw that Meridienne had been thrown
to the floor.  The orb-tipped wand had fallen to the floor and cracked in
half.

   And the source of that voice and light was none other than an angel.  A
teenage girl gleaming with a radiant halo, white-feathered wings beating as
she hovered in mid-air.  As though enough shocks hadn't been delivered
already, this angel was also identical to Elisabeta, Brighid, and
Meridienne!

   Meridienne sneered at the angel, but her expression faltered as she
glanced at Alexandre.  In that brief glance he saw, not malevolence, but
desire and regret.  She quickly recovered her sneer however, and said, "My
mistress will not let herself be so easily thwarted." Then she vanished, in
another puff of red smoke.

   The angel, who wore a dress made completely of light, descended to the
deck as Alexandre helped Brighid up and put her cloak around her again. 
Brighid sagged gratefully into his side, utterly wearied by her mystic
duel, and the angel bowed her head at Alexandre.  "I am Aimee," she said,
her voice musical.  "I..." She paused, biting her lip cutely.  "I am your
guardian angel."

   Alexandre blinked.  Legend had it that every Sectat in his lineage had
had his or her very own guardian angel, but no proof had ever been given.
He himself had assumed it a myth, for his father had never spoken of one.

   "I am...honored, Aimee," he said, bowing his head in return.  "And I
cannot thank you enough for your timely rescue."

   "Only a temporary respite," Brighid said.  "She delivered that last
threat after all."

   "I don't know," Elisabeta said.  "Was she threatening us...  or warning
us?" She too had apparently seen the expression on the succubus's face.

   "Warning, of that there is no doubt." The ancient witchlord Monaghin
announced herself with a pop of displaced air as she tesserported onto the
Taltari vessel.  "It was not her choice to capture your soul, my lord
Sectat.  She is unwillingly bound by her dark mistress, and was mystically
compelled to confront you.  But she, like Brighid, Elisabeta, and Aimee,
fell in love with you the moment she saw you."

   "You knew this would happen," Alexandre said.  It was not a question,
and his elderly court witchlord did not deny it.

   "How...?" Elisabeta asked, her gesturing arm encompassing herself and
her two lookalikes.

   "You share a soul," Monaghin said.  "Four bodies, four minds, four
personalities...but one soul.  A quirk of fate.  And your soul and his are
mates."

   "A quirk indeed," Alexandre considered.  He felt indeed fortunate to be
able to marry a noble girl whom he actually loved now, but-- "What about
Meridienne?" he said softly.  He had fallen in love with Elisabeta at first
sight, but so too now with Brighid, Aimee, and the succubus.

   "We have to rescue her," Aimee said.  "But I know not who her mistress
is, nor where she has gone."

   They looked expectantly at Monaghin.  "I have tried," the old woman
said. "I foresaw this years ago, and have attempted to divine these secrets
many times, but they lay beyond my reach.  Brighid, however, can do it."

   The young girl looked at her mentor, surprised.  "I can?  But I'm just
an apprentice!"

   "An apprentice who will one day surpass me," Monaghin clarified.  "But
even today, you share a soul with the succubus.  Use that link in your
divinations, and you will find her..."

   An hour later, Alexandre returned to his palatial citadel in the Nexus
Empire, with three of his four new loves in tow.  They refreshed
themselves, and Brighid shed her cloak in a private scrying chamber to
conduct a divinatory ritual.  Her soul mates wanted to stay with her, and
she clearly wished that too, but insisted that she had to do it alone.

   The Sectat, his princess, and his guardian angel sipped wine in the
private dining room, conversing while they waited, and exploring their new
love for each other as they learned of themselves.  Brighid came to them
shortly under an hour later, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

   "The Othermurk," she told them.  "It's a dark dimension only loosely
connection to the nonagalactic junction.  A chthonic duchess commands
Meridienne, and holds her as unwilling servant in her home in that plane."

   "How can there be a succubus who is not subservient to Azael?" Aimee
wondered, referring to the Grand Incubus Lord of hell.

   "It seems that Meridienne's egg was laid long before Azael's rise to
power," Brighid explained what her divinations had told her, "but never
hatched.  The chthonic duchess found it and hatched it 18 years ago,
placing a geas on the poor girl from the moment of her birth."

   "How do we get there?" Elisabeta asked.

   "I've spoken with Mistress Monaghin about this," Brighid said.  "The
best way would be to follow our spiritual link to her.  It will be
dangerous, but less dangerous than if Monaghin were to open a portal."

   "What opposition do we face?" Alexandre queried.

   "The poisonous nature of the Othermurk, and the chthonic duchess
herself," Brighid said.  "She has many servants, but they are all bound by
geas, and do nothing unless she specifically commands it."

   "We can face her, and free Meridienne, together," Aimee said
determinedly, flapping her wings.  The others agreed, and equipped
themselves for battle.  Aimee was already as prepared as could be, being a
powerful angel.  Brighid brought many potions with her and girded herself
with several talismans.  Elisabeta equipped herself with a magitech belt
that would sheath her in impervious force-shielding armor, and took up two
ray pistols.  Alexandre prepped his assault cannon, which at full force
should be enough to break through any barrier they encountered.

   Monaghin cast many spells and charms over them, granting them numerous
protections and blessings, and then Brighid began her ritual dance. 
Alexandre, Elisabeta, and Aimee chanted the words that they'd been told,
and they felt their spirits opening, expanding, and questing for their
mate. Doors of light opened in the floor beneath them, and they fell in-

   The air around them, if it could be called air, was choked with noxious
smoke.  Visibility was low, but they could make out enormous shadows in the
distance slithering through the poisonous fumes.  "The leviathans won't
notice us," Brighid assured them.  "And Monaghin's charms will keep us
breathing." Alexandre nodded; although he could still smell the horrific
stench of the ever-present smoke, he was breathing just fine.

   They moved together along the spongy ground.  No one had to tell them
where to go...they just knew.  Their spirits reached out to the captive
succubus, who guided them like a compass.  Time was meaningless here, so
they couldn't tell if it had been hours or merely minutes, before a massive
edifice suddenly appeared before them out of the murk.

   "The chthonic duchess's castle," Aimee stated what they all knew.  There
was some mishappen monstrosity standing guard at the door, but it blinked
bleary eyes at them and made no move to bar their way.

   "They do nothing unless explicitly commanded," Brighid reminded them as
they moved through the dark corridors.  Hissing and bubbling sounds could
heard in the castle around them.

   "And I get the feeling they're commanded to keep people in, rather than
out," Elisabeta guessed.

   They came to a great obsidian door with jagged edges.  Its surface was
gouged in many places, as though by massive claws bigger than Alexandre,
but it stood fast.  "Through here," Brighid gestured.  Alexandre nodded,
and raised his assault cannon.

   "No!  No, you must not!  You must flee!"

   Everyone brightened at the familiar voice as Meridienne appeared out of
the gloom, whispering frantically, urging them away.

   "Meridienne," Alexandre said warmly, and watched the succubus quiver
with pleasure at hearing his voice.

   "I'm so sorry," she said sadly.  "I didn't want your soul.  But the
duchess does.  And she will kill you all if she finds you - you must leave.
Now!"

   "Not without freeing you," Aimee insisted.

   "Are you already free?" Elisabeta dared to hope.  "No one else in this
castle has been able to do anything unless ordered by the duchess."

   "No, I'm not," Meridienne shook her head.  "Not completely.  Only my...
love for you, enabled me to gather enough strength to make my own
decisions, to run to you to warn you."

   "Then decide to come with us," Alexandre urged her, clasping her
trembling hand.

   "I wish I could," Meridienne frowned in despair.  "But even now I feel
her geas clawing in my mind, telling me to return to my chamber and await
her orders.  I cannot resist it much longer."

   "Tell us how to free you," Brighid said.  "How do we remove the geas?"

   "By killing the duchess who placed it," Aimee guessed determinedly. 
Meridienne's eyes fluttered wildly, but she neither nodded nor shook her
head.

   "The geas won't let you tell us if that's true, will it?" Alexandre
asked.  Meridienne's eyes glimmered sadly at him.  He leaned into her, and
she turned up her adorable head, her dark hair spilling behind her as her
hazel eyes looked hopefully up at him.  Their lips brushed, and he said, "I
will kill the duchess.  We will free you."

   The succubus smiled sadly and said nothing more, turning away and
slinking back through the gloom as the geas claimed her once more.

   "Let's destroy this bitch," Brighid whispered fiercely, her eyes hard
and furious.

   Alexandre couldn't agree more.  He raised his assault cannon again and
turned it to its highest setting.  A blossom of explosive light surged from
the barrel to disintegrate the obsidian door in a single shot.  The remains
glittered in the air as heated dust, giving some sparkling light to what
lay beyond.

   Crooked statues stood at odd angles in the chthonic chambers.  Vats
bubbled ominously, and the hissing was louder than ever.  But they saw
nothing.  Then Elisabeta suddenly realised the truth.

   "The hissing-- that's her BREATHING--!"

   A shadowy bulk hurled itself towards them, and they scattered out of its
way, as hissing inhuman laughter derided them.  Magical charms, angelic
bolts, ray shots, and high-powered laser bursts peppered and gouged her
hide, but the monstrous duchess seemed impervious to pain, shrieking madly
with insane laughter as her many limbs flailed at them.

   One limb finally caught Alexandre before he could dodge, knocking his
assault cannon away and pinning him against the wall.  He began slicing
through the limb with his wrist-mounted laser cutter, but the flesh was
thick and strong, and it was a slow process.  Then the duchess threw him at
Elisabeta and Brighid.  Aimee swooped to catch him, her angelic strength
sufficient to carry his weight, but then the duchess screeched a banshee
wail.

   The cry was not only sonic, but spiritual, and they clutched their
heads, falling to their knees as they sought in vain to shut it out. 
Brighid's chants came in choked gasps as she sought to cast a protective
spell.

   Then a familiar voice boomed through the gloom.  "Order me again,
monster!" The duchess's banshee wail mercifully stopped, and they staggered
to their feet as Meridienne soared through the murky air directly towards
the chthonic duchess.  In her hand she gripped an orb-tipped wand identical
to the one she had wielded on the Taltari flagship, and she punched it hard
into the monster's hide.

   The duchess screamed in fear, then slumped over, silent and lifeless. 
The orb tipping the wand glimmered with malevolent radiance, and Meridienne
alit on the ground, breathing heavily, but smiling happily.

   "That thing had a SOUL?" Brighid sputtered in disbelief.

   "Something close enough to it that a soul entrapment talisman worked,"
Aimee said, and enfolded the succubus in a fierce hug, who began crying
with joy.

   All around them, the castle stirred to life, and misshapen creatures
surged into the room.  Alexandre raised his hands, prepared to defend
themselves with his wrist-mounted lasers, but the creatures were singing
with joy - they too had been prisoners of the chthonic duchess.

   "We'll take you away from here," Elisabeta promised them.  "We'll find
your homes and return you to them." She had no resources capable of doing
that, but a Sectat of the Nexus Empire certainly did, and he nodded
affirmatively at her words.

   Meridienne flung the wand to the ground and stomped on the orb with all
her might.  It shattered into a million pieces, and a last shriek could be
heard before the chthonic essence within it was totally extinguished...

   Scant days later, Alexandre stood before the altar in the grand chapel
of his Sectatorial palace.  Effigies to the Godqueen and the rest of the
imperial pantheon rose towards the ceiling behind the altar, and a
priestess stood beside him.  The joyful march played, and the crowd in the
pews quieted as four identical looking young girls stepped into the chapel.

   Elisabeta, Brighid, Aimee, and Meridienne were clad all in white
dresses, covered with frills and ribbons of all sorts that he couldn't
begin to name.  He thought they were all the most gorgeous sight he had
ever laid eyes on, and their hazel orbs shone as they walked towards him,
side by side, clutching bouquets of white roses.

   Then they were there, standing in front of him before the altar, as the
priestess spoke the invocation.  He vowed to honor and cherish them all
their days, and they vowed the same, and the priestess pronounced them
husband and wives.  He kissed them all joyfully, and the rest of the day
melted into a haze of happiness as they ate and danced together.

   When the reception was finally over, they withdrew to the master
bedchamber, where an extra-large bed had recently been installed.  Groping
and fondling and kissing each other in a fiveway love circle, they shed
their rich clothing and fell nude onto the bed, writhing together.

   Alexandre kissed and suckled their puffy nipples, which stemmed their
huge globular boobs, and made love to their moist teenage pussies with his
mouth, as they moaned delightedly.  The girls kissed and groped each other
as he dove back and forth into each one's muff, fingering other girls while
he ate one out.

   They were enthralled by his massive cock, which was over a foot and a
half long and as thick as their arms, and after he ate them out to
incredible orgams, Elisabeta could wait no longer.  "Fuck me, husband," she
said, her hazel eyes glazed over with desire as her fingers grazed his
shaft lightly.

   Brighid giggled and suckled his knob briefly, wresting a deep groan of
pleasure from him as her saliva dripped down his pole.  Then she withdrew
as Elisabeta lay back and spread her legs, baring her plump virginity to
his gaze.  He lay his weight atop her and slid his enormous turgescence
slowly inside her slick satin tunnel.

   Her pussy gripped him hotly, needily, as she pressed fervent kisses to
his muscular chest.  Aimee, Meridienne, and Brighid kissed and fondled each
other as they watched their shared soul-sister make sweet love to their
shared soul-mate.  Alexandre and Elisabeta's sensual joining accelerated
into a frantic rut as their passions exploded, and their hips smacked
together in lewd wet wanton slaps of flesh on flesh.

   The princess screamed out in ecstasy beneath him, her pussy clutching
spastically on his massive cock as he pistoned in and out of her slippery
pulsating twat.  Her cunt gushed her sweet fuckhoney over and over as she
creamed, biting hard on her husband's chest.  He groaned bestially, and
anchored himself in her a final time as his obese nuts clenched.  Jizz
surged up through his bulging fucktool and erupted inside Elisabeta's womb,
a geyser of cum flooding her womb with hot babymaking cum and siring the
first of many children she would have by her husband.

   It was several minutes of sweaty groaning bliss before he stopped
unloading inside his ravished, blissed out, teenage bride, and his other
horny wives demanded their turn.  One by one, he fucked and impregnated
their virgin cunts, bringing them all to countless shrieking orgasms...

   **********

   COMMENTS: Like many authors, I love hearing positive feedback and
suggestions!  If you like, email me: big DOT al DOT author AT gmail DOT com
   NOTE: All characters are 18+