compulsion. The only pathway to your power now lies through me.
Silence. Perhaps he slept again. She—she composed herself, thoughts and energies furled close, and set herself to reviewing how best to enforce her dominion.
vi.
THE BIOLOGY TUTOR had taught that, though one would serve, several couplings following download would more rapidly strengthen the biological bonds between submissive and dominant.The philosophy tutor had suggested that simultaneous partaking of pleasure was itself a bond that would strengthen the dramliza unit in non-quantifiable, but subtly important, ways.
It was rare enough to find the two most influential tutors in agreement. And truly, she thought, it was her responsibility as dominant to insure that the dramliza unit was closely tied and functional.
Slowly, she allowed herself to emerge from the study-state, and opened her eyes. Rool Tiazan slumbered yet within the embrace of his restraints. She had formed his vessel in such a way that pleased her—and it pleased her greatly now, stretched taut against the tiles, the gold-colored dermis yet faintly glowing with the energies trapped within. Though it had been foretold by the biology tutor, she had found the birth coupling unexpectedly pleasurable, and gazing upon that which had been the instrument of such pleasure she experienced a shortness of breath, a tightening of the belly, a tingling....
She considered these conditions—biologic all, and found in them an irrefutable logic. The tumzaliat by entering the vessel prepared for it became a biologic entity. It was therefore reasonable and symmetrical that the stronger of the many ties which would bind it to its dominant would also be biologic. That it was pleasurable to forge those ties served to ensure that the work would be done.
Her envelope was clamoring now, as biologic memory fueled anticipation. The sensations were notable for their strength, and she thought to dominate them—then thought again.
She had downloaded not a mere tumzaliat , but a zaliata . Well to strengthen all those things that tied Rool Tiazan to her.
It occurred to her as she cast her robe aside that the Iloheen might well wish her not to bind a zaliata quite so closely to her will, but she barely heeded the thought over the clamor of biologic desire.
Envelope shivering under the continued onslaught, she reached forth her thought, stroked Rool Tiazan awake and ready, swung herself over his hips and—
Wait.
His thought—the cool and cooling ripple of greens, the edges showing the faintest shimmer of silvery fear.
It was his fear that pierced her, so that she withdrew somewhat from her rutting envelope and considered him.
Much has occurred , she told him, and you may not recall that you have experienced this act and found it gave pleasure.
I recall the act . His thought rippled more quickly, not... quite so cool now. Not the pleasure.
Allow me to remind you . She breathed upon the appropriate systems—and saw his coolness shrivel in heat as the vessel strained against its bonds, hips yearning upward.
Withdrawing into her own envelope she opened herself and met him.
NO!
His thought was tumultuous, a hot chaos of fear, pleasure, loss, and desire. Smiling, she took it into herself, felt something new weave from their mingled essences, and recalled one crystalline moment—the zaliata dancing, mixing their energies—and then her pleasure spiked, sealing all thought away.
* * *
Why?
The thought was green and sharp, edged with some base emotion which eluded her naming. She raised herself onto an elbow and considered Rool Tiazan on every level accessible to her.
Physically, he lay yet within his restraints, his hair dark with sweat, his golden skin slick and damp. The dermis glowed, but palely, palely. Soon, it would cease to do so entirely, and the biologics would have won.
Upon the second plane, he was beautiful to behold, a subtle and coherent power, restrained by the chains of