15
I woke up to find that my situation changed.
Drastically.
Before I even opened my eyes I knew something was wrong because I was on my back. I don't sleep on my back. I sleep on my side. Waking up flat on my back only happened once that I could recall, and that marked the beginning of the end.
Knowing I couldn't hide that I was awake, I opened my eyes for situational awareness. My arms and legs were secured. So was my neck. I couldn't move my head, but my eyes were enough to tell me that Palashai and Yimshe had decided to take my nap as an opportunity to begin my training.
Palashai was standing next to the bed, watching me. Yimshe was by the door, which was closed.
I focused on Palashai. Her eyes were golden and bright in the general gloom of my room. The lights were off in my bedroom, but on in the bathroom. It cast a dim glow, more than enough to see by.
I said, "We had a deal."
"We secured you at the two hour mark, not before."
Since I had no proof of that one way or another, I said nothing.
"Relax," she said, and I let the word flow through me. I had little choice. I knew better than to test my bonds. My trainers knew my stats. Whatever they'd done would be strong enough to hold me.
Instead, I asked, "Is there a point to this?"
"Helplessness is an illusion," Palashai said, looking intently down on me.
Her eyes met mine, held my gaze, and she slid onto the bed, straddling me. It was ridiculous. She was so much larger that even had I not been bound it would have felt like I was completely in her power.
"Seems real to me," I said.
"It's supposed to," she said, leaning down to set her hands on either side of my head. I watched her do it with fascination. As her fingers parted, the extra thumb made the whole hand look alien. It was, but there were a lot of things about Palashai that very clearly weren't human, from her two-tone skin to her muzzle. Nevertheless, the most bizarre thing about her to me were those six-digit hands. Two thumbs. Claws.
They weren't human hands. They weren't even close.
"Events and encounters during the season are very seldom foregone conclusions by design. If they were inevitable, they wouldn't be good entertainment. So when you find yourself in a position like this the first thing to do isn't to figure out how to escape, but how to turn it to your advantage."
"Okay. I'm bound and you're on top of me in underwear. Tell me, Pala, exactly how I turn this to my advantage?"
"Satisfy me."
I raised an eyebrow and said, "Satisfying you is to my advantage? I haven't been told that doing so will get me loose. There are no conditions here."
"There are always baseline conditions. The first thing to remember is that succubi have a maxim: When in doubt, fuck it."
"What does that have to do with me?" I asked.
"Seeing the world through their eyes will reveal what they want from you."
"And how does that help me now? I have no influence over what happens next."
"Sure you do, but we'll get to that in a moment. First, if our positions were reversed, what would you do?"
"I'd untie you."
"That's boring. It won't score you any points."
"Points aren't my measure."
"They are now. Whatever you believe is wrong. Change your way of thinking. Our positions are reversed, what do you do?"
"Look, Palashai. I'm not stupid. I know what you want me to say and not only will I not say it, I'd never do it either."
She stared down at me, and I had no idea what was going on behind those golden eyes. After a long few seconds of silence, she said, "There are two things the succubi forbid, Taz. The first is male on male sexual behavior. The second is explicitly non-consensual sex."
"I think your idea of consent and mine are vastly different."
"Then your idea is wrong. Right now, in this moment, I don't care where you're from or what you learned there. Here, sex is presumed to be consensual unless one of two conditions are met. The first is the use of the sentence, 'I refuse your advance.' The second is an inability to speak those words. If you are too inebriated, unconscious, or in some other way unable to speak, no one can legally fuck you. To do so is deviant behavior, and deviants are put down whenever they are caught."
"What about conflicting accounts?" I asked.
Palashai shook her head and tapped a claw next to her ear as she said, "Everything that any livestock experiences is recorded. What you say, what you do, what you see and hear. The records can't be altered. There are, therefore, never conflicting accounts to consider."
"I assume succubi can ignore these rules?" I asked.
She shook her head, then said, "A succubus who cannot gain consent for her meals is considered beneath contempt. They are subject to the same label and punishment. It's one of very few points of law on which they have no advantage. Even personal livestock purchased for the purpose can refuse consent ... though to do so would involve serious consequences."
"Such as?"
"Livestock bought for the purpose that don't produce are worthless, Taz. Succubi do not keep worthless things or people around. They can't take your sex, but they can take your life."
"Why wasn't I told about this before now?" I asked.
"I don't work for Division Four and don't feel free to speculate, so I won't," she said, and I nodded slowly. What she had just told me amounted to the only evidence I had that Palashai didn't trust her overseers. She thought if she said, out loud, that Division Four hadn't given me the consent information so as to preclude my noncompliance, it could mean trouble for her.
How that trouble might manifest was unclear, but if literally complete records of everything ever done by any 'livestock' were in fact on file, they could be used at any time in the future to substantiate claims against her.
And anything I say, or said, could be used the same way. Maybe being silent really is the way to go on this fucked up world, I thought.
Aloud, I asked, "What is Division Four?"
"Focus on the present," she said, ignoring my question. "Now that you know consensual rules, if you're me, what do you do?"
"I untie you," I said. When she frowned, I added, "I don't care about points, Palashai. If I found you like this I'd un-fucking-tie you, and that's that. If I did it to begin with, I sure as shit didn't do it so I could fuck you."
"The only thing you can't do in this game is not play," she said, setting a hand on my chest and leaning over it. She wasn't light, and the mattress under me sank.
"Actually, given what you've told me this is literally the only game I have the option of not playing," I said quietly, then very deliberately added, "I refuse your advance."
She growled at me, then leaned up and got off to stand next to the bed, hands on hips as she glared.
"You were actually serious?" I said, honestly surprised.
"It doesn't serve me or my employer to lie to you, and now that you've precluded consent all I can do is make sure you really understand what you just did. I can't fuck you now, at all. That doesn't just mean now. That means ever."
"That's a lie."
"No, it's a setup: me teaching you. Ask the obvious question."
"How do I undo what I just did?"
"You have to explicitly, directly ask me to have sex with you. No flirting, no hinting, no assumptions. It cannot be spontaneous, and it can't be on the same day."
"I hope you weren't looking forward to this then," I said, grinning idly as I waggled my hands to show her I was still in restraints.
She shook her head in annoyance as she growled, "You stupid fuck. You think this is a game?"
"Isn't it?"
"No!" she barked, surging down to within an inch of my face. Her teeth were bared and I felt the hot wash of her breath on my cheeks. "No it fucking is not. My daughter and I have staked our lives and futures on you. We said we'd get results. You said you'd PROVIDE results. And now here you are making fun of me? Like it's all a big JOKE?! You don't know what happens to us if you don't perform, well let me tell you: we die."
"I thought you said you had a good boss."
"We do! Director Chosen is the most reasonable boss I've ever worked for. What does that tell you?" she snarled. "Think!"
I did think. I spent almost a full minute on it, in fact. While I did that, Palashai gradually calmed down and sat next to me on the bed. She did not free me.
Eventually, I said, "You came out of retirement to help train me. If I fail, you lose not only your retirement but your daughter."
"Everything," she said, putting it all in one simple word. "It wouldn't normally be like that, but we fought to convince the director to take you on. She made us directly responsible."
"You shouldn't have done it."
"I don't believe that. Not yet. But you are testing my patience and we do not have that kind of time," she said. "You are an asset and I believe with the proper mindset and the proper training you can be a champion, but rule number one is to play the game. You're good at playing games. That much is obvious because you're here, but you need to direct that energy toward the season opener and beyond, not at Liminal Science, not at Division Four, not at Yimshe and certainly not at me! Are we clear?"
"So clear that, if it were allowed, I would consent to sex with you immediately," I said.
While my tone was brisk, it was also without humor, and Palashai took several long moments, apparently to decide if I was still trying to be funny or not.
Eventually, she rolled her pointer at me and said, "I told you that there was always a way to turn a situation to your advantage. You refused my advance; fine. But I didn't get where I am by giving up."
"What will sex with me even prove?" I asked as she stood and turned toward the door.
She paused at my question, then turned and said, "We're on your team, Taz. Compatibility is important. There are other reasons but first and foremost, we need to get along, and I don't know how they do it where you're from but here? Compatibility starts in bed."
"You said that like you actually believe it."
"I do."
"That scares the hell out of me."
"Wherever you came from must have been a boring place."
"You're about to throw your own daughter at me, aren't you, Palashai. Don't do it."
Palashai hesitated, then showed her teeth in a rather feral expression I took for a smile as she said, "You didn't leave me a choice. This is important, Taz. This is a role you will be called upon to play from time to time. If you think being bound means there's nothing for you to do, it just shows you aren't using that big brain of yours. Yimshe is a natural bottom. If you can make her feel good as a top, you can do anything."
"I wasn't joking, you know?" I said, and she hesitated, the tan spots above her eyes drawing down.
She asked, "About what?"
"Where I come from, sex isn't just another way to say hello. That you know your daughter's kinks actually really bothers me."
"When the people who run everything have sex three times daily to eat it becomes very difficult to take anyone who holds the act sacred seriously, Taz. You have a cock. It's going to spend a lot of time buried in pussy from now on. Whatever problems you have with that, I suggest you get over them quickly."
"Do you love her?" I asked.
"She's my whole world. Don't make an enemy of me, Taz. Treat her well. You may not believe it, but she's worked hard to get where she is. Build her up. Do a good job, and she will love you for it."
"I beat her."
Palashai nodded and said, "I know. And she'll be a long time getting over it. But there's a difference between that and this. We're about to find out if you can be whatever's necessary. I'm a natural domme. It would have been easy with me because I like the top spot. Now? Well, Taz, you chose the hard road. Good luck."