“Did he take you again? Did he- Oh!”

Gabrielle nodded. “He …made me climax... b-by using his mouth on me. …H-here.” Subconsciously, the bard skimmed one of her hands over her breasts while the other cupped between her legs in a protective gesture, still not noticing her nakedness or that her unoccupied orifice stretched with the use of its neighbor.

“Ohhh! We’ll do that too!” Aiden moaned as he finally reached his end. Once he could catch his breath, he asked, “At least that felt good, right?”

“It made me sicker than anything, l-like now,” Gabrielle mumbled, only vaguely registering the upset in her stomach, less so, her teacher. “Something- Mm!” Her nails dug into the skin of her crossed arms and gouged it as she trembled.

“So, he was the father?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes, I still think so.”

The man pressed her. “Surely, it wasn’t another cult member?”

“No, but everyone else thinks it was Dahak. …After Xena finally deigned to return to me—” bitterness reappeared at the mention of her friend— “she and Khrafstar fought. But something about what they were doing woke Dahak up. He snatched me up and pulled me into himself. ...Held me in his flames.” Gabrielle felt a dim echo of them on her flesh and tried to rub the feeling away.

“He took you too?”

She stared with empty eyes into the past, nodding once more. “He did. He hurt me worse than all the others combined. He purged Khrafstar from me inside and out, devouring the- priest’s fluids… from my skin and boiling his seed within me until it evaporated. I guess when I felt that deep stab is when he placed his child within me…”

“Lit-”

“He tricked me too. I thought he- He told me that Khrafstar had acted without his blessing, led his followers astray. He- he told me that he’d brought me into himself to protect me.”

Aiden rubbed her shoulder and back in consolation, but Gabrielle did not respond.

“Dahak- he- said he would purify me. He licked Meridian’s-” Then she was screeching and thrashing at the sight of her bloodstained hands.

“Gabrielle, Gabrielle. You’ve only hurt yourself! This isn’t the past! You’re okay!” Against her frenzied struggles, Aiden held her until she went limp from exhaustion. “Little lamb, the past has no place in the present. Take back your power. Do not be a lamb any longer! Show yourself to be the lion I know you can be!”

“I- I don’t know how,” Gabrielle sobbed.

“I do!” the man told her in his most inspiring voice.

“How?”

“You must relive it on your own terms! Take the experience and bring it under your control. I can- will help you! Go through the same motions, but change their tenor. Invite someone in and mean it! Direct every minute of the encounter! Enjoy it! Do those things because you want to! …I know. I know it sounds crazy. But so does achieving inner stillness to move the Earth. And yet I’ve done it! I know I can help you do it too, if you’ll let me.”

Green-blue eyes stared into dark ones for several minutes, disbelieving and yet longing. “I- I couldn’t …”

“You can! You just need to commit wholeheartedly. Will your fantasy into existence. Take back your power!” Aiden pulled the woman up into a sitting position to embrace her. “I so want to see you succeed, Gabrielle. I will do everything I can to help you. You’re so close. You are so close! All you have to do is face and release your pain,” he urged at the same time he let go of her. “Use your breath! Use me! I will only do as you desire. I will follow every command you give me.

“I’ve never done this for anyone else before, but, Gabrielle, I can see it! You are the one who will heal the world. Use me to clear the path to your inner stillness, and the rest will fall into place. I will give myself to you if only you will use me to find your freedom. I know we can do it!” Falling to his knees, his prayerful hands taking on new meaning, the guru beseeched his student. “Please let me do this for you. Let yourself do it!” A grin broke across his face, for when he rose and held out his hand to her, she took it.

#

Aiden paused halfway into his prey in the late afternoon. “You’re doing great, Gabrielle,” he encouraged her. “Now, I’m going to bend your legs.”

The blonde’s breathing became slightly labored as the man pushed her feet toward her impaled behind.

“Yes, that hurts even more, doesn’t it? But you’re not going to be ruled by your pain any longer. You’re going to breathe through it. Breathe! Good girl. …Now, a little more.” Carefully, her teacher sunk himself deeper inside of her. “Don’t tense up!” A hint of threat darkened his voice when he added, “Or else we’ll have to start all over again.”

Gabrielle’s stomach, pressed so against the marble flooring, churned only dully. She had not spoken or made a sound for hours.

Still, Aiden could read her very well and would not deem a sex act conquered until she could bear its entirety without showing overt signs of unease, anticipation, pleasure, or discomfort. He wanted serenity to shine through, her face to be like a mask, her body, a statue.

Thus, she hardly moved without his physical manipulation or verbal direction. Her mind descended deeper into the earth as bidden.

“Now. Give me your hands. Arch; arch!” Aiden hooked Gabrielle’s fingers around her ankles to put her into bow pose. “Now, hold. Scarcely breath,” he murmured before he began thrusting in and out of her at a punishing pace. 

Achieving climax a quarter-hour later, he found that the woman had finally submitted to him completely, for she was starting to turn blue like all the others. He pulled out of her for the last time. Then he fixed the slit he had opened in the back of her pants. Xena was coming; Aiden lifted the wards he had placed around his garden to allow her entrance, smirking as he waited atop his new trophy.