Chapter One
Ada’s eyes glittered in the moonlight as she sat crouched below the mansion
of the old man they called Suro. It was a cool evening but the breeze blew
alternately from the south and the east, bringing cool draughts and warm wisps
of air across her skin. Her toned shoulders and arms were bare, her dirty blonde
hair drawn back into a plait coiled at the back of her head. She wore tight
fitting black rubber pants that gleamed softly in the night and atop these,
a deep black leather jerkin laced tightly to her navel. Her flat boots were
made of the softest kid skin which blended with her outfit and the shadows
as she moved.
As she had observed in the many weeks of watching the grand mansion, one window
was left ajar and unlatched. Suro was tight on security, Ada had never so much
as seen the front door open, but he left this one window open, presumably for
the spirits. It was well known local legend that spirits would become trapped
and torment the inhabitants of a home if there was not at least one window
open at night. Ada did not believe in such superstition, but she was glad Suro
did.
Most of the town feared Suro, but Ada did not. He had been the patriarch of
their little hamlet for as long as anyone could remember, certainly Ada remembered
her mother telling her to stay away from his gated mansion when she was just
a small child. She had been drawn to it, the great old house on the hill, so
different from the ramshackle cottages that were dotted about in their town.
She used to wish that she could go up there and see inside, but her mother
had always scolded her away, telling her that it was dangerous, telling her
that at all costs she must not pass the great wrought iron fences.
At first Ada had not understood, but then she grew and discovered what had
happened to her father, how he had been banished from the hamlet, how their
family gold had been confiscated by Suro, how her mother had been left to bear
and raise her only child alone. Wide eyed fascination quickly turned to bitter
hate and Ada vowed revenge on the cruel man who lived beyond the great iron
gates.
Tonight, the twenty first anniversary of her birth, was the night she had
chosen to avenge her father. She would reclaim her family’s gold, at the very
least. Suro was old now, it would not be fair to kill him, but it would be
fitting to take from him that which he had taken from her, with interest.
Slipping in through the window, she found herself in the main hall. It was
wide and large, with a ceiling many times the height of a peasant cottage.
Her slight movements made rustling echoes that reverberated through the great
space. Looking around. Ada saw that the length of the main hall was lined with
shelves. On each glittered priceless treasures. Briefly she wondered at how
Suro could be so careless as to leave passage to these valuable items unguarded,
but she dismissed it as the one of the idiosyncrasies of a proud old man used
to ruling over the obedient peons in the village below, too arrogant to believe
that one of them might one day enact revenge for his cruelties.
Between the great shelves were paintings, paintings of old people long since
departed from the planet. They stared down at her from their canvas prisons,
judging her silently. She ignored them. Breathless with wonder and restrained
glee at how successful she had been, Ada wandered down the hall, looking from
treasure to treasure. There were small statues, gleaming with precious stones,
golden orbs and coins displayed proudly on cushions of velvet and some curious
items she could not place at all.
She had stumbled into a treasure trove, at least, so she supposed. In reality,
she had stumbled into a trap.
Behind her, the window she had slipped in through winked out of existence.
One moment it was there, open to the night air, and in the next it was simply
gone. Ada did not notice this, she was far too busy feasting her eyes on the
treasures she had found.
A deep voice, gravelly and cultured interrupted her.
“Halt.” It wasn’t a shouted command. It was simply a command, plain and simple.
Ada didn’t halt, she simply sauntered along the hall, mentally picking out
treasures. She would have what she wanted and be gone before the old man could
telegraph for help.
“Kneel and yield,” the voice came again from the end of the hall, strong,
sure of itself. Ada smiled to herself and kept walking.
“I told you to halt.” Ada whipped around sharply, this time the voice spoke
from somewhere close to her.
There was no-one behind her.
“It seems you are both foolish and deaf,” the voice came again, close to her
ear.
She whirled around once more, and there he was. Suro. But not as she remembered
him, hobbling the streets of the town, his once proud frame withered and bent
by the years. This was a younger, stronger Suro. He stood a good foot or more
taller than her, his shoulders broad, his violet eyes keen. His face was not
at all haggard, rather it was lined with a few deep lines, the lines of ages
of existence. The rest of his skin was entirely smooth as it covered a sharp,
straight nose and a broad jaw of strength. All that truly testified to his
age were a few streaks of gray through the dark hair which curled to his shoulders.
He was clad in the dress of a noble, wearing fine breeches and a red velvet
brocade jacket. From the sleeves and collar of this fine creation, lace billowed
with a casual flair.
“Wha..how..” she stammered. Suro smiled a cruel refined sneer.
“Oh, the little thief is surprised to find that the old man is not such an
easy mark,” he drawled.
“Not so easy a mark as the villagers? Not so easy a mark as my father?” Ada
countered, recovering from her shock. Old or young, the man was a thief who
had pillaged her birthright. He must pay for what he had done.
A glimmer of recognition sparked to life in Suro’s eye.
“Oh I see, it makes sense now. I wondered that someone had come in through
the window. Few can see it. You must be the child of Aethred. I have been expecting
you for some time,” his tone was chiding, as if she were dreadfully late for
some appointment they'd made together.
“Yes. I…” Ada began, but was cut off as he spoke again.
“It was a mistake to leave you without a father, your mother has been most
remiss in her discipline of you,” he observed, inflaming Ada’s anger. It beat
inside her like a living force, flowing through her veins. His arrogance was
astounding. He knew what he had taken from her and yet he showed no remorse,
in fact, he judged her for the fatherless existence she had been forced to
live because of him.
“You have made many mistakes, old man, and you will pay for them all!” she
declared, taking a step back and putting her hand on the hilt of the blade
she always wore strapped to her waist.
“What did she name you?” Suro asked, ignoring her unspoken threat entirely.
“Ada,” Ada replied with a snarl, unsheathing the dagger.
“An old name, a good name,” Suro replied, stepping to the side neatly as Ada
lunged for him with the blade.
He grasped her easily by the back of her neck and allowed her movement to
continue forwards, dropping as he did to one knee and bending her across it.
She tried to fight free, but he simply bent her dagger wielding arm back across
her lower back and held her there firmly.
“Ada, I will do what your mother should have done and what your father could
not. It is the least I can do for you,” he said smoothly, bringing his palm
down full force across her raised cheeks. The slap burned across her backside
and was quickly followed by another, then another. He spanked hard and fast,
showing no mercy and giving no quarter.
The thin rubber of her pants provided little protection as his palm drummed
across her backside. Her cries echoed off the walls, eliciting no response
from the glittering statues and the people in the paintings.
A pause in the spanking gave her brief hope, but it was dashed again as his
fingers wrenched at the waistband of her pants and peeled them down, exposing
her pink cheeks. With the rubber pants rolled down to her knees, she could
not so much as kick as he once again began to thrash her bottom soundly, his
palm laying sound slaps across her tender cheeks.
The ignominy of this treatment coupled with the frustration of having failed
in her attempts to avenge her family and the pain of the spanking brought tears
rolling down her cheeks and deep sobs erupting from her chest.
“I will kill you. I swear to god I will kill you!” she screamed as her bottom
burned a deep red and Suro’s old, possibly ancient palm seared her cheeks.
“Still threatening me even in this position? You truly do have your father’s
blood in you.” There was a note of respect in Suro’s voice, but his chastisement
of her did not cease in the slightest. He continued to spank her bottom soundly,
every slap forcing her forward over his knee, reddening her bottom and her
thighs, which were not spared his discipline either.
“Let me go! Let me go now and you might just live.” Ada growled, doing her
best to fight free of his grip, which was strong. That paused the spanking
for a moment, but only because Suro threw his head back and laughed heartily.
“You truly think you can kill me?” he asked, trailing his fingers softly across
the red skin of her cheeks. She wriggled resentfully at the light touch, abhorring
his hands on her.
“I will kill you,” she promised, panting heavily as he lightly patted her
cheeks.
“I do not think so, Ada,” Suro replied, now taking the time to enjoy the flaming
red bottom raised to his eyes. Between her reddened cheeks, her pouting slit
was full and puffy, with traces of moisture dewy on her skin.
“I have thrashed many wenches in my time, and I do not know if any were so
needing or deserving of it as you.”
“Oh go fuck yourself,” Ada growled, trying to bite his thigh and failing.
“You came to me for this, Ada, you should have come earlier, it may have saved
you some pain,” he replied, slapping the tender skin on the inside of her thighs.
“What do you mean I came for this?” she yowled. He stayed the spanking for
a moment, resting his palm possessively over her cheeks as he patiently explained
his words with the demeanor of a kindly teacher explaining something simple
to a very slow student.
“This is my town, all who live in it serve me. You know that well enough.
You say you came here to challenge me, to reclaim that which I took from your
father. But you came here because you needed me, Ada. The blood of old flows
in your veins and you are unsatisfied with the weak men in the village. They
are nothing compared to me. You’ve always known you were mine, and now you
have come to be mine.”
“You’re fucking delusional,” Ada spluttered.
“You are a foul mouthed little madam. I shall have my work cut out with you,”
Suro replied, laying a sound slap low across her cheeks, just catching her
nether lips as well, making her mouth open with a gasp of indignation.
“But you will be tamed, and you will be a pretty little prize when you are
tamed,” he continued thoughtfully.
What came out of Ada’s mouth next was a string of curse words so imaginative
and profuse that the likes of such a sentence had never been heard before and
have never been heard since.
“Oh no, Ada, that will not do,” Suro responded mildly once she had ran out of breath abusing him.
With a sound slap that made her howl in pain, he lifted her up into his arms.
Now nestled close to his chest, she could do little but snarl at him resentfully
as he carried her through the hall and up the spiral stairs at the far end.
“Let me go,” she demanded over and over again, throwing herself about in his
arms like a petulant child. He ignored her entirely, walking up to one of the
many doors in the long corridor they now found themselves in, and opening it
with one hand. He let her find her feet in this new room, a demurely furnished
bedroom.
“Make yourself at home in here, Ada. Your education will continue in the morning,”
he said calmly, closing the door as she threw herself at it, pounding at it
with her fists and screaming her rage at him. There was no response, just the
sound of a key turning in the lock.
Furiously rubbing her cheeks, Ada realized that she had just become the prisoner
of her greatest enemy. She screamed and threw the nearest solid object, a little
table lamp, against the window. As the lamp hit the window, the window disappeared
before Ada’s eyes, and the lamp bounced harmlessly onto the floor. It confirmed
what she already knew. This was no ordinary house, and Suro was no ordinary
man.
Part II
The simple townsfolk had often accused Suro of being a warlock, a vampire,
and many other forms of mystical creature from werewolf to daemon. She had
always thought the townsfolk quite daft and even now Ada did not believe in
magic. So Suro's house had windows that reappeared and disappeared at will.
So what. It was probably some cheap wallpapering trick.
When he came for her the next day, she was ready. He may have boasted of having
tamed many women, but Ada was determined that she would not be among them.
From day break she lay in wait for him, her eyes never leaving the door handle,
waiting for the moment it would begin to turn and he would come for her with
his mocking smile and ancient eyes.
Hiding above the door, wedged between a wardrobe and the wall and clinging
to the top of the door frame with her toes, the awkward position she held herself
in made her muscles ache, but she kept it staunchly. She had trained for this
and she was ready, strong as any man. Strong as Suro. He had merely surprised
her last night, today she would best him.
As she had anticipated, eventually the door handle turned and the door opened.
With a shout of glee, Ada dropped from her position and wrapped her legs around
Suro's neck. His hands went up to her thighs to free himself, but she twisted
violently at the hips, knocking him out and riding his unconscious body to
the ground. Simple. For all his strength he was yet a man.
Liberated, she wasted no time in running across the landing, down the stairs
to the front door. She flung it open, and promptly screamed in horror, recoiling
before she fell. Her little village had disappeared and outside the front door
lay nothing but a black abyss. Above and below the darkness stretched out as
far as she could see. It was as if she looked upon the world before the world
was.
Slamming the door shut once more, she clutched at the walls, steadying herself
and looking around for reassurance that she was still in the world of the living.
Inside nothing had changed, she was still inside the fine old manor with dead
people looking at her severely from aged portraits. The windows mocked her,
they still looked out onto the landscape she was familiar with, a rolling hill
leading down to the little town she had lived in all her life. But the front
door, the front door lead only to that horrific abyss. Wherever she was, it
was not where she had come from, that much was obvious.
“Have you decided not to go outside after all?” Suro appeared in the hall
behind her, rubbing his neck and regarding her with eyes saturated in malign
intent.
Her face white with horror, Ada slid down the wall to crouch on the floor,
her head dizzy, her mind unable to comprehend what she had seen. Staring into
a true abyss is too much for the mortal mind which depends on time and space
to make sense of existence.
“What.. where is this place?” she choked out.
Suro smiled unpleasantly. “This? This is wherever I decide it is. And you,
young lady, have misbehaved yourself quite severely for so early in the morning.”
Ada's stomach turned over and she lurched forward and vomited all over the
carpet next to Suro's shoes.
He regarded the mess with a raised eyebrow, his pale fingers fiddling with
the lace of his cravat as he watched her expel the contents of her largely
empty stomach.
“Had you allowed me to prepare you for the inner dimensions, this would have
been a great deal easier on you,” he noted dryly.
“Fuck you,” Ada spat, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth.
“Maybe later,” Suro replied with casual disinterest, “But now there must be
a beating for the little wench who tried to kill me.”
He reached out, grasping her by her plaited hair and pulled her towards an
ornate chaise. There he sat, and drew her over his lap easily. In spite of
her whirling nausea she tried her best to fight him. She kicked, she bit, she
even landed a few blows, but he was as impervious to them as if she had been
a gnat biting at his ear.
“Ada, you must learn that you have brought yourself to me, to the one place
on this earth where you most certainly will not prevail, you cannot win because
you do not truly wish to,” Suro said, holding her in place with one strong
hand as she fought him with all her might, allowing her to realize through
her own struggles that fighting him was useless.
“I will kill you,” Ada vowed, twisting and writhing, pounding her fists against
his legs. He said nothing, but simply held her in place until at last she lay
still over his lap panting, the energy drained from her.
“And now your punishment begins,” he announced smoothly, drawing her pants
and panties down, baring her bottom to his gaze. As the night before, the tight
pants rolled down to her knees and hobbled her effectively, though it would
not have mattered if they didn't, she would have been just as helpless regardless.
He ran his palm over her bare cheeks slowly, patting them gently as she bristled
with pure fury.
“I do hope you will learn from this, Ada,” he said in calm tones. It was his
calmness that aggravated Ada most of all. No matter what she did, he was so
entirely in control. His palm cut the air and impacted heavily on her cheeks,
then did so again. Ada howled as the blows forced her forwards over his lap,
the sting heating her seat deeply. He spanked her methodically, first one cheek,
then the next, then a powerful swat to the middle of her bottom, where her
cheeks met. Left cheek, right cheek, middle, and again, over and over, every
swat building on the last to a crescendo of pain that broke Ada's resolve not
to cry and saw her dissolving in tears over his lap.
He spanked her past the point of tears, punishing her to the brink of begging
for mercy, for lenience.
“Please, please stop, I am sorry, I am sorry,” she cried out, her voice fraught
with sincerity. Hearing her words, Suro stood up and held her steadily before
him as she danced the dance of a sore bottom that hurt terribly whether she
rubbed it or not. His deep purple eyes regarded her sternly, unmoved by her
tears, interested only in her contrition.
“Now my dear Ada, is your urge to rebel satisfied for the moment?”
Ada shook her head, then nodded it, then shook it again, her tears running
thickly down her cheeks.
“Yes sir,” she finally conceded. Suro dabbed her tears gently away with the
corner of a lace trimmed handkerchief and made a tutting sound.
“Do not cry, daughter of Aethred. All is as it should be.”
“What do you keep going on about?” Ada asked, the hint of irritation already
sneaking into her tone in spite of her throbbing bottom a testament to her
hot headed and strong willed nature.
“I told you Ada, you have come to me. You knew it was time, as your father
did before you,” Suro said the words matter of factly and slowly, as if surely
by now she should have grasped the basic concept of her circumstances.
The mention of her father brought her attention sharply to him. “What? Where
is my father?”
“In a world beyond your own, Ada, in the world you have been called to, just
as he was.”
Ada stamped her feet with exasperation.
“None of this makes sense!”
Suro allowed a touch of a smile to play about the corners of his lips. “All you need to know for the moment is that you must mind me. It was not ideal for you to be left without your father and ordinarily we would not have conducted ourselves in this fashion, but it had to be done. He worried about you, but I assured him that when the time came I would prepare you.”
“Prepare me for what?” Ada asked, half thinking that Suro was raving mad. If
she hadn't seen the abyss outside the front door with her own eyes, she would
not have believed him at all.
“Prepare you to be what you will be, your father's daughter,” Suro replied.
“Oh for fuck's sake, can you not answer any question directly?” Ada cursed.
Suro made that tutting sound again, then there was a brief electric crackling
sound ike the sound of a plug half pulled out of its socket and a bar of soap
materialized in his hand.
“You have a very filthy mouth for a lady,” he noted in his refined tones,
taking Ada firmly by the back of the head and inserting the bar into her mouth
as she opened it to argue. She spluttered at the soapy taste and tried to spit
it out, but he held her easily with one hand on the back of her head as the
other massaged the soap inside her mouth.
“You must learn to mind how you speak,” he said, withdrawing the bar of soap
after he was satisfied her mouth was full of the bitter lather, leaving Ada
foaming gently at the mouth both literally and metaphorically.
Ada snarled as bubbles trickled down her chin, “I will...”
She made to threaten him again, but this time Suro cut her off with such a
hard look that she stopped, her mouth open as he interjected.
“Kill me? Listen Ada, I have allowed you leeway thus far out of the fondness
I have for your father, but if you threaten to kill me once more, then dear
girl, you will not sit for a week.”
He loomed over her as he spoke the words, his eyes burning into hers and for
a brief moment, Ada got a sense of the magnitude of his power, a tingling zipping
sense that ran straight down her spine to her toes and back again, setting
the hairs on the back of her neck erect. This was dangerous, he was dangerous
and he was not done with her yet, advancing on her so that she retreated, the
soap still bubbling from her mouth.
“You are a wicked mouthed little brat who believes she has been wronged. You
have not been wronged Ada, you have been given a legacy like no other. But
you cannot claim it until you are mastered. You cannot claim it until you understand
just what you are.”
Confused and now thoroughly scared, Ada merely whimpered, her back against
the wall. “Please, please don't hurt me,” she whispered, tears springing to
her eyes.
He saw her fear and backed away a step, the intensity of his being fading
as he did. “I will not hurt you Ada. Think of yourself as an apprentice, and
behave as one and all will go well for you,” he said.
“An apprentice of what?” Ada asked, curiosity winning out over fear.
Suro's smiled an unholy smile that lit his eyes and made his lily white skin
shine. “Now you are asking the right questions,” he exclaimed with a warm enthusiasm.
“The right questions are most important. My dear, you are to learn the mysteries
that underlay reality. You are to learn the nature of the darkness from which
existence is born. You will learn to bend matter to your will, to spring beyond
the laws of nature, free yourself from the mortal plane and return from realms
yet unknown.”
At Ada's blank look he sighed, 'Magic, my dear Ada, magic.'
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