"No, magic doesn't work that way."
Parya looked across the small campfire towards Chavid, seated cross-legged on the ground. The exasperation in his voice was slight, but noticeable. She looked down towards where her bound hands were tied to the stake. Chavid considered what she asked.
"A lot of it is simply very hard work. Learning and remembering how things go together takes a very human skill." He gestured towards the fire with the stick he was holding. "At night, for example, it is often easier to build a fire the normal way."
Parya's look showed he hadn't really answered her what she thought she asked. He wasn't surprised. He'd spent weeks tracking down the little minx, following the human wreckage made as she flaunted her almost unbelievable beauty and sexual prowess in a string of cons. They were all much the same; married merchants struggling with a growing businesses and she would help them 'relax' until they were hiding their mistress from their family. Then she would either extort money out of them, or just steal a heap and leave. The woman clearly had little shame, he thought, admiring with some detachment her lithe frame. Her long skirt and tight shift only enhanced her full breasts and curvy hips, topped off by ash-blonde hair and grey eyes, although she was currently under a travelling cloak against the cool of the dusk. However, all was not as it seems. Parya was considerably older than her looks. Chavid knew she was old enough that she would have probably had a hard life and numerous children in most circumstances. That she looked 18 to most eyes was really her best asset. Chavid pushed that problem to the back of his mind.
But currently, Parya was sitting on the ground with her legs folded under her. Her wrists were bound together with rope and then to a stake, but her ankles were only hobbled. Chavid always tied his captives that way. It meant they were not unduly uncomfortable sitting on the ground, and also that they could be put on a horse. Parya had struggled against the knots a little at first, but to no avail. She saw much quicker than any of his previous captives ever had that they weren't going to give and the ends of the rope had been left out of reach of her fingers. She liked being tied, anyway, and rarely hid it. Perhaps he knew this. Chavid did notice that she appeared to settle into her bonds very quickly and naturally.
"So you didn't use magic to just... you know, sniff me out?" she asked again, disrupting his musings. Like most people, she didn't know anything about magic, just that it existed. Unlike most people, though, she was not frightened of it. Chavid sighed.
"A lot of people have the potential of weilding magic. But it takes time and effort to bring it out. Neither of these is cheap. That's the first problem. Secondly, once you do learn enough to be able to live off magical effort -- look, it's really hard to explain. Just accept it that most people who use magic have to earn a living doing other things. That's why I'm a bounty hunter."
Parya thought he looked like he was sick of explaining it. Of course, it didn't help that he hadn't really explained anything. Or at least, not to her. It was frustrating on the one hand, yet it was the kind of game she always played. She couldn't help it. Talking to a man always made her itch to be satisfied by him and she'd found out long ago that the release was so much better if she let it build a bit. It helped they usually liked talking to her because they usually liked looking at her. It didn't always work, of course. Some men could not be co-erced. And some would only look, and nothing more. But many would go all the way. And for a surprisingly large percentage, a kink would come out, too. She had seen several different kinks and fetishes, although she had her own favourites, and had taught her marks some as well. Parya wondered what turned Chavid on. Yet again, she eyed his young yet old face with only a ghost of facial hair, and the clean, if untidy, mop of almost black hair all surrounding dark green eyes. The loose tunic hid more than it showed, but she could see by his broad shoulders and lack of an obvious stomach he was probably pretty fit. It was hard to undress a guy with your eyes when there's even less than the usual amount of clues. And she hadn't tried her game on a bounty hunter before.
Chavid used the lull in conversation to drop a few twigs on the ground in front of him, in apparantly idle randomness. What he knew of her cons and the manner of her interest had given him an idea to try, and as he thought about it, he'd discovered genuine curiosity. Parya was certainly unlike any of his previous jobs. He could nearly smell her state from here and he knew he was doing nothing to encourage her. Perhaps that was her problem. Carefully careless, he built the sticks into a ring, with a gap towards him.
"So if you didn't use magic to find me, how did you catch me?" Chavid smiled gently at the attempt to keep him talking, but didn't respond. He casually broke some smaller twigs in pieces and made a doorway in his little corral, just big enough to fit his hand through.
"I'm not sure I could see you enjoying that place," she continued. "It's not really the place you drop into for an ale."
Parya was not watching Chavid's hands, only his face and that she was watching closely, trying to gauge his reaction. But he wasn't looking at her. That bothered her. No, actually, it intrigued her. For the first time in a long time, here was someone who was easily resisting her advances. That and the fact that he'd tied her up, lightly but very very expertly, and she was very very interested. She was kinda thankful the cool, dark night meant she had on more than just her shift and skirt. That and the darkness made it impossible for him to see her hardening nipples. Oddly, she wasn't sure she wanted him to see that.
Chavid found a wood fragment that looked a bit like a door and propped it in his gateway. He scratched a few symbols in the ground before the opening as he put it there, then he opened it as if it was on hinges, and thought sharply and suddenly of Parya, looking up into her grey eyes. Parya could see Chavid's green eyes had gone very wide and she felt a bolt of emotion - fear, perhaps? - lance through her at his sudden action. Maybe he *was* interested after all!
Chavid gave a funny half-smile at that point. "I could've enjoyed that place, but that wasn't what I was there for. The ale was just an opportunity." Without looking, he put his hand gently through his makeshift minature gate, all the while looking firmly at Parya's face. Door and Window magic was fairly elementary. That sort of magic usually meant people could look on distant places, send items afar like a message, or even travel that way. What Chavid was trying was whether he could use the same trick to touch something across a distance. He'd used it once before to investigate the contents of a closed box not in his posession.
Parya felt the back of a hand very gently caress her left cheek. The shock of the ghostly feeling made her jump back and she would've fallen over if her hands weren't tied down. She could feel the adrenal shock and the sexual arousal sang in sympathy. Chavid not only still had that odd little half-smile, but had fixed on her the most penetrating gaze she'd yet seen out of him. His eyes seemed even more green than before. Chavid turned his hand over and this time felt Parya's cheek with his fingers. He was impressed his improvised magic was working and he could see the look of surprise on her face. He could tell Parya *knew* there was something new happening here and it shoudn't take her long to figure out it was him. But the level of her reaction seemed a bit high.
Parya suddenly spotted Chavid's right hand and decided that somehow Chavid had touched her from 5 feet away, and with a dying campfire between them. Despite Chavid's fairly candid admission much earlier that he practised magic, this was the first time she'd seen him do any. The apparant ease and obvious skill was something she'd never seen before. It was so far above what she had encountered and it somehow just made her arousal stronger than ever in a way she did not understand, but certainly didn't waste time worrying about. Parya had never not been in control in a sexual encounter before and the anticipation was a heady new experience. She shifted slightly and felt the dampness leaking from her.
"A lot of magic relies on the caster already knowing something about what he's trying to do." Trying not to be obvious about it, Chavid lowered his gaze to Parya's breasts. He knew she was well-endowed from carrying her over to the campfire earlier. He sought out the magic a little differently, put his hand through his makeshift gateway again and felt Parya's left breast. Parya's response was immediate at the magical touch.
"Well, now, that's interesting." Parya knew Chavid's hand had discovered her nipple standing proud, but she didn't know that that wasn't what he meant. The magical touch on it sent paroxyms down her spine and she arched back in anticipation far enough to reach the limit of her bound hands. Wondering at her overt reaction, Chavid held his hand still and Parya subsided noticeably - even from that ghostly touch. It was not enough to make her orgasm, but she wished it was. Her breathing slowed and she opened her eyes again to look at Chavid's reaction. She had never felt such an amazing sensation, but the thought uppermost in her sexual haze was that it stopped when it shouldn't have.
"Now why should you deserve that?" Chavid said in a voice that sounded like someone merely trying to solve a puzzle. Parya found herself looking at his hand, wanting him to 'touch' her again. But he wouldn't. He just sat there, looking at her. She felt so frustrated and not a little mad at herself. She tried to marshall her thoughts and calm down. All of a sudden, the idea of being taken advantage of by this bounty hunter was the last thing she wanted. She had wrangled her way into a fairly exclusive little club of wealthy merchants that few knew about. The town of Reutash was famous for being a cross-roads of trade and a lot of money changed hands daily. Parya had had some routine conquests on the northern edge where she got a feel for what was possible in such a large town, and then worked her way south over a few weeks to the more properous residents. It wasn't the first time she'd attended The Hidden Pea, but it was the first time she'd arranged to be there not on anyone's shoulder. That was a feat she was proud of and one she'd never achieved before: normally, only rich male merchants were permitted in there unescorted, but Parya had arranged for three of them to think she was being escorted by one of the other two. She had been reveling in the ambiguous attention when she noticed - too late - Chavid in the room. He hadn't fit and she berated herself later that she hadn't noticed him. But he hadn't fit in a way that still fit. Then he'd somehow bewitched her and the next thing she knew, she was before this campfire, tied to a stake in the ground. Remembering all this rather dampened her arousal.
Chavid watched Parya's eyes go flinty. He wasn't particularly surprised. He'd captured enough con-artists over the years to recognise the look. He reached for the magic again and gently put his hand through his improvised gate, gently caressing Parya's right breast, this time. The effect was electrifying - Parya easily responded, although she tried not to. Chavid could see her struggling with the desire to stay angry at him warring with her unusually strong desire for sexual satisfaction. He touched her nipple and she cried out in desire. Conveniently, moving about did nothing to change the feeling of Chavid's hand on her.
He gently massaged her breast for a few minutes through his little magic gateway, watching her writhe gently in pleasure within the limits of her bonds. When he stopped again, she cried out, keenly feeling the denial. Then she realized anew what was going on and the second shout of frustration was quite heartfelt.
"Why are you doing that to me!?" she said. The arousal had made her face acquire a light sheen of sweat and she also felt dampness in places other than her crotch. The cloak was getting a little too warm, too. Irritation and arousal competed for attention. For the first time, Parya began to worry quite what Chavid had in mind for her. Up until this point, she'd been mildly annoyed at him interrupting her plans. But now she just wanted the sexual release. It could be at his hands, or not, but that was the strongest craving. However, there was something a bit different about Chavid, she was coming to realize. For one thing, he wasn't reacting to her advances, impaired though they were, in any way like she was used to. It was almost though he was immune to them. The irritation started to turn into fear. She began to realize she couldn't second-guess him.
"What are you going to do to me?" Parya asked in a somewhat quieter voice.
Chavid paused a few moments before answering. His eyes grew hard as he contemplated how much to tell her.
"I've been following you for quite a while, Parya. I've seen you wreck lives and marriages of many faithful men, some to death. I've seen businesses come crashing down, destroying a town's livelihood after you've gone. I don't think you have any idea how much human suffering you've caused by your little games. Yes, your little games of sexual power. It always comes back to the sex, doesn't it?" Chavid kept his voice low and controlled, the long-held rage in check. He'd seen people like Parya before, though not like the way she played it and not for a long long time. Even he felt ambiguous at how he was using her arousal against her, after seeing un-principled sex destroy his own parent's family many years before.
He put his hand into the makeshift doorway again and gently traced his finger around first one nipple and then the other. Parya half-moaned in delight and her eyes defocused. Again he stopped and again Parya felt the sexual frustration. The air was again filled with her anguished cry and she was breathing heavily.
"You've been at this for some years, haven't you?" he asked with some apserity. Parya dropped her head to try to focus her thoughts.
"It's been many years," she eventually answered somewhat hoarsely. "I don't remember how many." There was a pause. "It's what I do best. I don't know how else to live." It wasn't a plea, or a statement of defiance. It was just a fact.
Chavid waited a minute or so, then got up and walked around to her and lifted her chin to look closer into her face. She had trouble focussing on him for a moment, then he saw the resignation coalesce.
"Tomorrow morning," he quietly told her with almost deadly calm, "we will begin our journey to Leucon." Leucon was a city, much like Redrish in size, but quite different, especially in how it handled crime. Parya did not recognize the name and it showed. "It's about a week's journey and there is a magistrate waiting for you." The fear in Parya's face changed and she found some strength to pull her chin out of Chavid's hands. Chavid sat back on his hanches, with that half-smile again.
"Am I a piece of meat to be traded, am I?"
Her quiet voice sounded bitter. She put her head up to look at Chavid with a kind of defiance. At that point, Chavid noticed the diamond pendant at her neck and how it shimmered unnaturally. As he saw this, out of the corner of his eye, the runes he had scrawled on the ground in front of his makeshift door also glowed slightly. A dreadful suspicion arose in his mind as to why Parya was the way she was. He waved his hand to create a small breeze and said a few words; the dirt brushed over his runes, breaking the magic. And Parya cried out in pain.
Chavid reached for the diamond, his suspicions about Parya's sexual proclivities all but confirmed. The instant he touched it, she suddenly went frantic and tried to get away from him, crying out "No!" repeatedly. He let it slip out of his fingertips. She calmed, but the sex-kitten was gone and in it's place was a frightened animal.
"Where did you get that?", he demanded in a low, harsh voice. Praya just cowered slightly, fear and confusion battling with sexual desire on her face.
Chavid tried to snatch at the diamond again, but Parya ducked and he missed. Again he moved back and again she subsided. A third time he reached past her and this time got a firm hold of it. The leather strap around her neck snapped free as he quickly pulled it away and moved out of her reach.
"That's mine -- give it back!" she wailed strenuously. But Praya couldn't take it back whilst she was tied to Chavid's stake in the ground. He quickly moved right away from her and looked at the warm and tingling jewel in his hand. As soon as he looked at it, he felt a fey yearning to put it around his own neck. His magical training took over sharply at that point and he dropped it where he stood. The gemstone sat glowing on the ground.
"I'll ask again," Chavid asked more calmly, "where did you get that diamond?" He glanced up at Parya. The gem was still glowing somewhat.
Parya glared at him briefly before turning to look hungrily at the gem. A new, strong emotion had replaced all others: desire. It's removal made her feel like she'd had an arm removed. Everything took second place to the need to have it again. She could feel exactly where it was.
"I don't remember", she replied in a vague, uncertain voice. "I've had it a long time. Please give it back..." Parya was beginning to feel not just an odd sense of loss, but a new sense of awareness. She was not at all aroused now; in fact, her damp underskirt was actually uncomfortable. Yet she remembered what her arousal had been like - she could almost feel it physically over in the gem lying in the ground at Chavid's feet. She started to remember with a growing sickening horror what the apparantly insatiable desire for sexual satisfaction had led her to do. All those people she'd taken advantage of, all that money she'd stolen. She had no idea how she could have taken so much and not just once, but again and again and again. Parya began to cry.
Chavid looked at the gem lying on the ground with a mix of awe and terror. He'd heard about these sort of things; few with magical training had not. This was, however, the first time he'd ever actually seen one. It was a little unnerving, truth be told. Somehow imbued with magic in a way long since forgotten, they gave the wearer a specific desire that, over time, they would shape their lives over. This one appeared to engender a desire for illicit sex and Parya had developed that into precisely what Chavid had caught her for.
Parya was whimpering as the full import of what she had done started coming home to her. Chavid struggled to feel compassion for her plight. He knew she was likely to be in prison for a long time and magical influence would unlikely to be a valid defense. But it did rather depend on where she got the gem from, and that he didn't know. He decided it was useless to speculate further. In the morning, they would begin the week's journey to where he would collect his bounty on her. Without that highly dangerous magical gem.
story continues in The Bounty Hunter: Leather and Steel
o0o