Chapter 2026: New Orders

A couple minutes prior.

Outside the cavern, Morgana drove her staff toward the last knot of greenskins fleeing through the trees.

"[Voltaic Tempest]!"

Lightning filled the ravine. It struck the first creature between the shoulders, split through the four running beside it, and kept spreading until white veins covered the entire slope. Bodies tumbled through the brush beneath the fading thunder.

Morgana lowered her smoking staff with immense satisfaction.

The others could crawl through tunnels and rescue stolen children. She had been placed where an Elemental Sovereign belonged, far from the cramped fighting, with enough room to erase anything attempting to escape.

<Terrible mother whose name Blossom refuses to remember!!>

Blossom’s voice burst through [Master’s Link] with the same enthusiasm she brought to almost everything.

<Blossom needs you to stop fighting and go into the cave! There’s a concealment pendant hanging inside the entrance. Put your staff away, wear the pendant, take the left passage at the first fork, and don’t cast or attack anything inside until Blossom says you can!>

The lingering lightning vanished from Morgana’s palm, and her fingers closed around empty air as the staff disappeared into her ring.

<Why?>

The thought went nowhere. Morgana searched for Blossom, then Felicity, then the bastard who owned the spell, but the entire household had vanished from [Master’s Link].

"What is going on...?"

Her left eye twitched.

Every one of Master’s women had been placed above Morgana in his twisted hierarchy. Even that empty-headed mutt could pull upon the leash whenever she pleased.

Obedience took Morgana into the cavern, where a black pendant hung from a leather cord around a spur of rock. She tore it free and dragged the cord over her head.

The artifact cooled against her chest, its concealment magic blurring the edges of her robes. She remained visible, but passing greenskins glanced toward her and continued without recognition.

The rescue party was still outside, fighting the greenskin horde. Women crowded the locked cages built into the first chamber, shrinking from every greenskin that passed them. Some had torn shifts gathered around their bodies. Others pressed their faces between the bars, staring toward the entrance as the sounds of fighting outside grew closer.

A goblin sprinted across the chamber with both arms raised.

"Invaded! Invaded!!"

Three more charged after it. One carried a spear backward, nearly skewering the creature behind him whenever he looked over his shoulder.

"Many gobbo!" the second shrieked. "Where from?!"

"Kill gobbo!"

"Which gobbo?!"

None of them knew. At another thunderclap from outside, the two leading creatures turned and crashed into the rest of their pack.

At the first fork, Morgana let the fleeing greenskins take the wider passage. Her orders led left, beneath a low shelf of rock.

"If this is another one of his games..."

Outside Iskaris, she had one permitted address for the man who owned her. Master. The word felt no less revolting after weeks of use.

Morgana ducked beneath the rock and continued downward, following the braziers into the stink of wet stone, blood, and greenskin filth. The prisoners’ cries faded behind her.

Something moved behind her, and Morgana turned toward the bend she had just rounded. She reached for her staff, only for the command to stop her hand against the ring.

Do not cast or attack anything inside.

Morgana forced her hand away from the ring. If the dogkin wanted a surviving greenskin questioned, she could have said so. What possible use was a mage forbidden to cast?

A guttural chuckle rolled through the tunnel.

The nearest brazier cast just enough light around the bend to catch green skin.

A short, hunched goblin stepped into the passage with a hooked blade hanging from one hand and a filthy scrap of hide covering its hips. Its yellow eyes moved down Morgana’s body before its tongue slipped over broken teeth.

The goblin’s grin widened.

"Woman... Pretty woman..."

More shapes filled the darkness behind it. A second goblin squeezed around the bend, followed by a broad hobgoblin and an orc with one tusk broken near the lip. Last came a war troll whose shoulders nearly spanned the tunnel, crowding the others ahead as it ducked beneath the ceiling.

Five greenskins blocked her way back to the entrance.

Morgana could have killed all of them before the first body struck the ground, but her mana refused to answer.

The first goblin dragged the flat of its blade over the wall as it approached. Stone squealed beneath the rusted iron, and the hobgoblin behind it rubbed both hands together while openly staring at Morgana’s breasts.

"Go run while you still can, retarded creatures." Her voice came cold and flat despite the restraint crushing every violent instinct beneath it. "I’ll let you live if you do."

"Woman, breed!"

Seizing its crotch, the orc rolled its thick tongue out between its tusks. The second goblin copied the gesture with both hands, rocking its hips while a thread of drool stretched from its lower lip.

When Morgana tried to pass, the war troll lowered one massive arm across the remaining gap. She had to retreat to keep clear of the smaller creatures creeping forward beneath it.

She reached for [Master’s Link] again, forcing all her will toward the connection that should have joined her to the household.

’Master. Release the order.’

Nothing left her mind.

’Felicity, tell these bastards to release my restrictions!’

Someone had arranged this.

The realization drove the first point of fear through her anger.

Master had given Blossom command over her and closed the link afterward. He knew she couldn’t defend herself.

Morgana’s heel slid over damp stone as she backed away.

The hobgoblin gave an eager grunt. "Fear... Tasty!" It licked its palm, then ran the wet hand down its stomach and beneath the hide around its waist.

"Stay back."

Her spoken warning made them laugh.

Their laughter followed Morgana as she hurried deeper into the branch. The creatures kept close enough to catch her robes, forcing her farther from the entrance with every step.

That bastard had finally done it.

He had tried to bribe Alexios with two keeps and a granary to take her away. Now he had delivered her to the same filth that had filled these caves with violated women.

"No..."

The word escaped before Morgana could stop it.

She had never wanted a crown, a husband, or any of the duties lesser minds had piled around her research. For five centuries, magic had been the one part of her existence that belonged entirely to her.

Her master owned even that now.

Without it, the greatest human mage of Iskaris could only retreat while a goblin stroked itself through a filthy loincloth.

Her robe struck cold stone where the branch ended in a shallow pocket slick with moisture and old filth. Her hurried retreat pressed both shoulders into it hard enough to loosen the pins holding her hair. Purple strands fell across her face while the war troll filled the opening ahead and the five creatures slowed.

One goblin drifted to her left and the other to her right. The orc crouched between them, grinning around its tusks, while the hobgoblin unfastened the hide at its waist.

"Master!"

Her scream tore through the tunnel.

No answer came.

The first goblin stepped within reach. Its breath washed over her face, hot and rotten, and Morgana turned her head aside before its tongue could come any closer.

"I will obey!" she shouted. "Do you hear me?! I will obey every order!"

The goblin crooked its head.

"I’ll stop insulting you! I’ll stop scowling!"

It lifted one clawed hand toward her cheek.

Morgana pressed herself harder against the filthy wall. Moisture soaked through the back of her robes. One loosened strand caught against the stone and pulled painfully at her scalp, but there was nowhere left to move.

"I’ll stop being a bitch!"

Her voice broke over the final word.

Heat gathered behind Morgana’s eyes. She hated it, hated the weakness more than the creatures in front of her, but one tear escaped and cut through the dirt on her cheek.

"I promise I’ll be good! Master, please! Just don’t do this to me!"

The goblin’s claw stopped a finger’s width from her face.

Its tongue remained draped over its teeth as its voice answered, no longer lurching as if it struggled to form basic words.

"Okay, deal~"

Morgana’s breath stopped as the goblin withdrew its tongue, hunched its shoulders, and curled the claw beside her face into a coy little wave.

"It’s over, Morgana Ravenshade." A much deeper voice came from the passage, gentle enough that she scarcely recognized it. "You may fight again."

Her master stepped into the brazier light with Blossom’s hand held sweetly in his own.

Blossom’s orders released their hold as Quinlan overrode them. Morgana dragged her staff from its ring and held it against her chest, too shaken to point it at the creatures.

Both goblins lowered their eyes as the war troll pressed its knees together. The orc released its crotch and clasped its hands behind its back, suddenly rocking on its heels, while the hobgoblin pulled its loincloth closed with a dainty little huff.

Morgana stared at them.

The lecherous monsters had vanished without moving an inch. Five hideous greenskins now stood around like maidens caught sneaking sweets from a kitchen.

"What...?"

Four bodies dissolved.

The war troll came apart first, followed by the orc, hobgoblin, and second goblin. White wisps rushed through the passage and vanished into the final creature, leaving only the little male who had nearly touched her.

It turned toward the evil man.

"Quinnie~!"

The goblin ran at him with both arms spread.