Chapter 3 - Jaxus's Seven (Part Two)

Honus's strings thrummed in the dark amphitheater. It looked like one of the operating halls 'doctors' used to demonstrate their new 'techniques'; freaky bastards. Instead, table had been placed in the center of a beam of light. On it, padlocks of various shapes, sizes, materials, and makes were arranged on a sheet of black velvet.

Jaxus stood, naked but for the the bands that held his hidden tools and the slip of cloth that held his manhood out of the way, just outside the light.

"You are Chosen to my Niece, and it is her desire that she receive the key to the lock that binds her." The Duchess Magistrate sits on a chair that resembles, with some audacity, the imperial throne. "In the spirit of that, I'd like to test your skill at opening locks without their appropriate keys."

There was also an array of lockpicks and other devices arranged for him around the edge of the table. "I don't doubt you 'came equipped' for some dubious purpose if I should refuse her request outright," Jaxus let himself tense obviously and the Duchess looked smug in response, "But all the same, in good faith, I've provided a sets in full of various materials for your use."

Jaxus nodded at the challenge, even if he was addressed directly, did not verbally reply.

"You may begin." She commanded, and as Honus's music changed in tempo, a loud clock began to tick, then tock, then tick again as they do.

"Motherfucker." Jaxus whispered in less than a breath. He took a step forward, looking pressured but embracing the drive and rush the 'adrenaline', Ursula had called it. He picked up a set of basic iron lock picks. As he walked around the table and eyed up the locks he pinched the metal with his fingers and tapped it with his fingernails. 

The cores were hollow, he'd picked a a horrible set right from the start. Perfect. He saw a lock he recognize in style and reached over to pick it up. There were mutters and whispers from the Amazons around him, and he could feel the Countess's apprehension as the Duchess whispered something into her ear. She been given a 'seat of honor' beside her Aunt for the event.

Everyone held their breath with the lock cradled on the fingers of his left hand, he used his right hand to hold two thin metal pieces and slide them in at the same time. The lock came free in two seconds, and he tossed it to the ground with disdain. The lockmaker of that model overdesigned her pieces and generally overlooked loopholes in her designs. 

Within a minute he'd plucked and unlocked four more locks of similar make, but with the fifth the locks finally broke in the lock. Undaunted, he flicked his thumb hard to the underside of the metal and the pieces fell out, clearing the lock as he picked up another set of lock picks, these ones more solid, but of a softer metal, maybe tin was mixed into them? 

They got that lock cleared, and the last two of what Jaxus's was sure were easy locks. He snapped them in half after casting down the last of those easy locks and tossed the picks on the ground.

It was a passing insult to the Duchess's 'favor' in lending him the picks, but also a made it clear wasn't dim. He knew the picks she'd presented were crap, so far.

And they continued to be as some poorly polished and roughly cut metal grated and bit at his fingertips with the next set. He didn't put them down, he figured she'd bust out some rule of once he started he had to finish it, and he wanted to save that cue for later.

They had to run out the clock, and as he turned his back on the Duchess to pick up a heavy lock that had given him troubles in the past, he counted the beats on Honus's chorus. It was there, but a subtle hum gave him the cue that they were still waiting.

----

"FUCK!" The Guard growled as she squeezed her legs hard around the back of the slave who was fucking her against the wall. She'd been stuck on double shifts since the party had begun, and while she didn't doubt her Duchess, she wondered why the hell she was being given so much work.  As the second slave man slid into her ass and kissed her flesh, wordlessly worshiping her with his lips and tongue; she felt herself rewarded.

A man with scars around his neck that didn't match the collar he wore had the key in his hand, he spun it once as he handed it to thin air, and it disappeared. 

---

Almost all the locks were open on the floor, as Jaxus slid a flat pick under the face of a lock to reveal a catch and expose its bare workings. He looked into the tumblers with a critical eye and found them wanting. With a twist the lock came free and the metal fell against the bare ground, clattering with the others.

Honus's music was getting quicker, the clock was ticking just as heavily, and that hidden note was still there. There were only four locks left and as he picked up a gold one, an icy chill ran up his hand. He tossed it up into the air and caught it, the chill returning with each contact of his skin.

"Problem, Thief?" The Duchess looked down at him with a smile.

He shook his head, and the next time he tossed the lock up, stripped off the cloth around his manhood and caught the lock it in it. There were a few soft gasps, one or two spoiled laughs, but even a fair whistle of appreciation from somewhere behind him that Jaxus's couldn't see. He smiled as he twisted the enchanted lock apart and left it bent open and broken upon the ground.

He turned his ass to the Duchess and picked up another of the golden, enchanted, locks. Only the last lock appeared to be something other than gold, and it was a familiar looking material, the kind that could shift or grow and move if enchanted properly.

This lock was harder, the gold was just the face, underneath it was solid work and the craftwoman responsible put function before form, and draped the gilding only on as an after thought; a well made afterthought, he swore as his locks broke and with more difficulty than the last time he slid them out.

He sighed and from his bands he started to pull his own personal tools and he rested his ass against the table as he worked, focused and after a few more seconds the lock flicked open, but before it could leave his hands, Jaxus clamped his other hand down hard over it, keeping the pressure on.

The lock was trapped. He felt his finger shift into it and something was starting to tug on his flesh. He flashed a look up at the Duchess and her face was split with a grin of satisfaction and triumph. 

Jaxus sighed and with his teeth pulled a strip of line from one of the bands, and after a few short flicks had the lock tied securely to his hand. Three of his fingers were barely useful.  The Thief picked up the last gold lock with his limited fingers and with his best steel picks used his lips and good hand to test and work at it. 

All of a sudden, there was a bang, and the Countess screamed in shared pain.

---

"Don't Panic." The words weren't spoken, they were drawn with a fingertip across the Shade's back. The Shadow who had fucked Jaxus was watching with her from where she stood. "Dont'. Panic." The Shade's eyes flicked down from where Jaxus's rolled on the floor, to where the blood pooled on the lock pick that landed just beside her invisible feet.

---

There was a hole in his cheek, that was great. Jaxus's thought, but he'd managed to slip his finger off the trapped lock in the commotion, and it was still attached. Good. He asses as he pulled a wad of clean cloth from another band and stuffed it into his mouth to soak up the blood.

Concern and relief flooded from his left arm as he stood up. His glare at the Duchess would have gotten him slain if he hadn't just taken a live round to the face. If he had been handling that lock normally, his pick would have speared him through the chest, and possibly into his heart or something nearly as vital.

He squeezed the trapped lock and saw that the explosive lock was still sealed, and from the look of the red dots in the design, had plenty more charges left in it. His pick had sailed clear through his face, he saw it laying near some blood. There was a shimmer, and he squeezed his eyes shut and nodded his head.

Show time. 

He pulled a set of golden lock picks from the table, As soon as he picked them up he was certain were there for a reason. He held them in his hand and coughed, reaching up with his good hand he pulled a fresh bit of cloth from his band and switched out the thick wad of bloody cloth for a fresh one, stumbling on some metal on the ground as he did so. He dropped the bloody cloth and it fell thickly in the shadow of the table. 

He held a set of gold locks in his hand, and with the lock on the table, and his fingers covered in blood, he tried again.

There was a bang.

-----

"Quickly. We've little, if any time." The metal of the picks on the parchment matched the metal of the key, the former slave noted, and the blood was probably Jaxus's. He pressed his hands on the ink sigils drawn onto the parchment and felt the enchantment shift to the picks. 

----

"Such a shame, so close." The Duchess looked at Jaxus as he nursed a hand with blood on it, and a heavy cloth over his finger. "Even with the last open, you've no chance of opening the last. Those picks you used were enchanted, and attuned. Their metal can open the locks of this enchantment surely, but without proper tuning, they will trigger far worse results. Those picks were tuned to the final lock." She gestured at the twisted, burnt, metal.

"Sadly. They were also attuned to key to my sweet Niece's punishment. I'd have let you keep them if you hadn't ruined them. But now you've failed my test and have nothing to skulk away with. Such a shame." 

She gestured for the table to be taken away, and the slaves swept up the locks and mopped up the blood, and picked up the bloody mouth rag Jaxus's had first spat out.

"You've failed, Thief. begone.

----

The spell patching his mouth together tasted like copper, not like blood but actually biting on a copper coin, perpetually. It made his teeth rattle. 

"Stop fidgeting." Dona placed a hand on his cheek as Ursula looked at the enchanted picks in her lap. They were the ones Jaxus's had picked up from the table, looking entirely like a pair of 'enhanced' gold picks, meant to tell a thief if he was picking an enchanted lock. This close to her chastity belt, she could SEE the enchantments align.

The vehicle they were in was like a stagecoach, but with a far smoother ride than any Jaxus' had ridden on. It had an interior large enough for Jaxus and all those in Ursula's party, save those posing as slaves who were escaping by other means.

"Why didn't you just steal the key?" Dona asked. 

"It'd be missed," Honus, and the visible Shade, said at the same time. They locked gazes and there was a brief exchanged.

"Pride." Jaxus corrected them. "I'm the one who got her into that thing, I am gonna be the one to get her out." He growled and flexed his hand as he spun the sprung trap lock in the palm of his hand. It was an new model, and one that the guildmaster would want studied. 


"You're a mad fool." Ursula sighed as she rested her head on Jaxus's shoulder. 'But you're MY mad fool." Jaxus's smiled as he laced his raw fingers in between hers and squeezed gently.

-----

"They're away, Dearie." A maternal voice came window. A woman of incredible years and marvelous physique stood in a traveller's outfit. "That was a mean trick, with the bear lock, never mind that bit with the bomb.

"It was designed not to go off unless it wouldn't kill him, outright. If he dies with that band on, so does my Niece. Kind of a bad idea to kill one of Empress's Daughters." 

"And you'd have offered to heal him?"

"Dona would have gotten to him, first."

"Hm."

"I didn't expect them to leave the key. Those former slaves were a nice touch, I think."

"I imagine some of your rougher guests are going to be missing their slaves, once the party's over."

"I'll conduct an investigation, but if I find any rogue men on my property, they're mine." She spoke solidly, a grin on her face. "They're still too busy enjoying my men to realize theirs are missing, so it's their own fault." The Duchess stretched. "So, you staying for Linner, grandma? We're having chicken and waffles."

-----

The lock came free from the rest of the belt. The belt came free from skin cleaned and oiled earlier in the evening. Steady hands slipped the whole thing off legs shivering with excitement, anticipation, and genuine relief. For a moment the The Chosen just looked at His Amazon and then he closed the distance. 

He held her in his arms as she wept. Decades trapped, frustrated, mocked, isolated, the fears and feelings flooded through his heart not just from the band on his arm, but from his ears as she sobbed into his shoulder and he held her. His arms were not mightier than hers; she could bear far more in armor and arms than he ever had. 

All her physical strength paled in comparison to what Jaxus's realized was a mind honed for resolve. She had been scorned for most of her adult life and denied many of the luxuries and indulgences her station would have granted her. Denied a position in Amazon hierarchy, by consequence of the punishment, those seeking to ride on the skirt trains of others to the top ignored her outright, and those at her side were those faithful to her, not her rank.

He was brought out of his revelation as soft lips pressed against his, they tasted of raspberries and as the Countess drew back, her Thief saw the subtle gloss, wet from her tongue and now further from his. She nodded at him as she wiped tears from red eyes and he gently eased her back down on the bed.

Her body was smooth, as was the case with Amazons, but not without a small patch of soft curls. Still all that would be later. He laid his hands on her shoulders and gently ran his fingertips downward. Ursula looked confused, then she gasped. Gently, he stroked over her skin; soft, long, brushes of his skin on hers.  He avoided areas that were blatantly erogenous, instead stroking her on the tender skin just inside her arm, and on her wrists. 

He held her hands and looked up at her, her face was flushed and red. He brought her hands up to his lips and kissed them, one after the other. She shifted her hands out of his grasp and put her hands on the sides of his head.

"Jaxus, my Chosen. While I truly appreciate your concern with my... sensitivity. Please. Quick faffing about and FUCK ME."

So so they did.

Jaxus put his hands on her waist and drew her closer to him, and she slide slightly so she was on her back. His manhood was standing tall and ready as he pressed the head against her tender lips. He shivered as he felt her hands go to his cock, holding it as she kept him on the mark. They stayed there, just the edges of their most intimate selves touching, kissing, for several heartbeats.

It was more than Ursula's first real time. It was more than their first time together. It was the band. It shared Ursula feeling Jaxus with Jaxus while at the same time sharing Jaxus feeling Ursuala with herself; and it was turning into a loop.

They shuddered and Jaxus growled as he pushed forward. She was tight, he'd been with virgins enough times; he wasn't surprised. That lack of surprise was noted, though, and he felt a wire thin chill in the middle of all the pleasure and tightness he was feeling from his cock, and the gem bracelet. He opened his eyes and saw that through the bliss she was starting to feel, Ursula was still very much an Amazon. 

"This is fucking ridiculous..." Jaxus breathed into Ursula's ear, as he thrust into her and she rocked her hips back. "This feeling, all the time. It's not stopping." 

"Mmm it hasn't happened yet," She answered simply. Jaxus didn't understand until he thrust deeper, and she shivered again; then he did. His half thrusts were all he could handle, any more any deeper and he'd go mad.

"So hot, no..." Jaxus growled, "Searing, so good, but not enough, damnit why?" Jaxus whined and Ursula put her hands on his head again.

"Cause, you're holding back." She wrapped her legs around his back and pulled him the final stretch, base deep, into her. She moaned, he cried out, and they both came, then came again as they felt the other coming, which left them shaking for yet another moment. "So much," Ursula cooed and felt the warmth fill her deepest self. "After so long."

Jaxus felt like he'd run a mile, or been fucked by Brana again. Stop, a part of his brain commanded, Don't think about someone else whil-

"Who were you just thinking about?"

SHIT. 

"Brana?" He shrugged, too out of breath to lie. "She's the last person to just.... wow.... I mean...." He started but was struggling to see. They'd only just gotten back from the trip and properly healing Jaxus. Ursula cocked her head to the side. "You made me cum harder than a troll did," He tried to put a spin on it.

"Well, now I'm angry." Her eyes had a fire of mischief in them as they drew him in, and drew him deeper.

FUCK.

And so, as they say; it isn't important if the lived Happily Ever After. It is better to say, simply, that they lived.

THE END.....