The Idol

You'll notice throughout my journeys that about a third of my stories end with me passing out. The upside to that is that I'm no longer shocked or too out of it when I awaken in a strange place. I observed that I must be in the infirmary, as I was in a hospital-style bed and there were other beds, some with patients in them.

Okay, maybe I wasn't as together as I thought I was. I sat up and a wave of dizziness hit me. Sariela really had gone much further than was safe with me. I wondered if she'd accidentally killed any prisoners. Or perhaps my changing her magic back to its normal state was actually more dangerous, since too much pleasure, rather than too much pain, is what leads to critical ecstasy. I worried that I could be unintentionally responsible for the death of a prisoner if that was the case. Although given the level of pain she had started to inflict on me, I wondered if death wasn't a mercy. At least that prisoner would go out happy.

I waited a decent interval before trying to get out of bed. I looked around the infirmary. It was clean, although not sterile, but I guess in a world of magic healing, absolute sterility wasn't a priority. If someone gets infected, just cast a spell. Quite convenient, actually. Even I'd been able to purge a few minor infections from time to time, although only in other people, never myself. My healing didn't seem to work on myself unless I was desperate, at which point all sorts of insane magic seemed possible for me.

I crawled out of bed, thankful that I wasn't wearing a hospital gown. Sariela had apparently just made my prison uniform reappear on my body and I was dumped into the infirmary with it on. When I decided that my feet were steady enough, I decided to check out the patients, since it was my job and all. The first was asleep and didn't have any obvious injuries. I decided to let him sleep. The second bed contained the catatonic Vance. At least he'd stopped convulsing. I left him alone as well, since what was wrong with him was beyond my abilities. He would come back to reality when he was capable. The third bed contained an older man who was awake and reading. He noticed me standing there and looked up.

"Oh, hey, um…. Miller. Are you new?" he asked. I looked at his nametag. Taguchi. Yamatai region by the looks of him.

"Yes," I said. "Please state the nature of your medical emergency."

The humor was completely lost on him, of course. No Star Trek on Angel World.

"Oh, no emergency," he said genially. "I just fucked up my leg again. Bones are getting brittle. They already healed me, I just gotta wait a few days before I can put weight on it again. You know how it is, they can heal it but it stays fragile for a bit."

Yes, I was very familiar with that. But apparently I had nothing to do. I looked outside. The sun was beginning to set. Assuming I hadn't been out more than a day, that meant Sariela had knocked me out for about eight hours.

"You're a long way from home, Taguchi," I said. "Yamatai's about the furthest point from Grangold."

"Not like I had a choice!" he said bitterly. "You know what they say, do the crime…"

"Do the time," I finished.

"They don't say that, dumbass!" he retorted. "It's 'do the crime, angels come and lock you up!'. What's time got to do with it? There's no time here! None of us are ever getting out!"

"They say I will," I replied.

"Every once in awhile someone does," he shrugged. "I've been here fifty years."

"Fifty?!" I exclaimed. Taguchi was an older man, not an elderly man. I would have pegged him at fifty-five, sixty tops. Although he looked like he was in his mid-forties.

"Yeah, fifty! I was eight years old when they arrested me!"

"Why would the angels arrest a little kid?" I asked.

"Yamatai never accepted Ilias. We always worshipped spirits and monsters. Most of us kept to our traditional faiths. We thought since we didn't cause trouble, that they'd let us be. They'd tolerated us for centuries, as long as we kept our paganism indoors and didn't try to spread it elsewhere. We had to make a lot of compromises. We took down the shrines. It's not as if there were any monsters left to reside in them anyway. We cancelled all the festivals. We even built a grand Ilias church. The only time anyone got arrested was for public displays of worship of gods other than Ilias."

"Is that what you did?"

"No, I always obeyed their stupid rules!" Taguchi exclaimed. "My father even took me to the church every week, because it's not like any of us deny the reality of the goddess. We just don't agree with her dogma. We loved the monsters! The monsters treated us well! But we wanted to appease Ilias, so many of us went to church. In our homes, of course, we worshipped the water spirit."

"Undine," I said.

"Shhhh…." He urged, looking around furtively. "Don't invoke the names of other gods! You don't want to get beaten! Or worse!"

"The nerve!" Undine exclaimed inside me.

"So if you were obeying the rules, how did you get arrested?" I asked.

"It wasn't just me," Taguchi answered. "One morning, a whole fuckin' army of angels invaded the city, led by a Seraph.I think her name was Zion. Really freaky looking, although of course very beautiful,as all angels are. Zion announced that the village was being raized, and that all of us were being relocated. She said that the worship of false gods had become too much for Ilias to tolerate."

"What happened then?" I asked, fearing that I was about to hear about another Slaughter of Remina, but to a village that I'd grown to adore more than any other, even my own Ilias Village.

"We surrendered peacefully," he replied. "We had a lot of pride in our warrior culture, but we weren't going to take on an army of angels. The people of Yamatai don't engage in futile battles. We value life. Even here, I enjoy life. As best I can, anyway."

"So the people of Yamatai were relocated like everyone else in this world, just later," I said. "But how does an innocent boy end up here, instead of somewhere like Safina?"

"I wouldn't renounce my faith in Undine," he replied. "I still won't. Even though I know she's never coming for me, I have my reasons. I just can't say them here."

"So you're spending life in prison because you worshipped Undine?!" I exclaimed.

"Not just me. There are hundreds of us here. A few that repented have been released over the years, but most of us are still here."

"Luka, we have to do something!" Undine pleaded. "These are my people!"

"You're right, Undine," I said. "I wish I knew what could be done. Even I can't take on an army. I'm not even sure I could beat Sariela."

"You okay, Miller?" Taguchi asked, unable to hear my internal dialog with the water spirit.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I was just contemplating what a self-centered bitch Ilias is!" I exclaimed. "To take childen and imprison them for life, simply for not worshipping her!? That's not a just goddess! That's a megalomaniacal, psychotic…."

"Miller! Are you fuckin' crazy!" Taguchi exclaimed. "The angels, they got super hearing! You can't blaspheme like that!"

The response was instantaneous. Angel guards swarmed into the room, grabbing me arms and legs and taking me away.

"Where are you taking me?!" I asked angrily.

"To Sariela!" one of the angels answered. "Apparently you don't learn very quickly!"

I found myself gripped tightly in the couch again by Sariela's spell as she appraised me coolly.

"You left my office just eight hours ago and you're already back here?" she asked. "First off, how did you get on your feet that quickly, and how is it that the pain I inflicted on you didn't change your behavior?"

"I'm here for a different crime," I answered. "I spoke truth about your boss."

"My 'boss' is your goddess, and you will show her proper respect if you ever want to leave this place!"

"She's no goddess of mine! I won't follow a god that condemns children for life!"

"He can change anytime he wants, and he'd have the same chance to get out of here as you do," Sariela said. "But he's stubborn. As are you. It looks like you need another lesson."

I inspected her sexual magical aura. It was still normal. While my magical effects were temporary, since I'd simply restored her magic to its normal state, it would stay that way until she noticed that I'd altered it.

"Let's begin," Sariela said, removing my clothes with a spell again. "This time I'll make sure the lesson is drilled into you!"

I woke up in my cell. Boy, she had been thorough. I had bruises to show for it. Given how much pain she thought she was causing me, I wasn't exactly clear on what she hoped to accomplish by beating me as well. It must have just satisfied her need for aggression. I had some aggression of my own that I needed to work out. I hadn't realized just how much I resented Ilias for everything she had done to me. You, the loyal reader, probably think I'm too forgiving, and maybe I am. But that doesn't mean I don't FEEL rage inside when I've been wronged, or I've seen wrong done. You've even read about that rage resulting in extreme violence.

I didn't actually know I still had so much resentment in my heart for the goddess. I'd worked hard to cultivate a decent relationship with Ilias on my world in order to change her, and I'd largely succeeded. The Ilias I'd encountered on the Paradox world, I'd had a relationship with from the beginning, and it was even more positive, although very weird and inappropriate at times. Seeing the reality of an Ilias drunk on power, with no checks whatsoever, brought that old anger back. Was it bad that I was grateful to have an outlet?

"Are you angry, Luka?" I heard a voice say, as the small cell filled with holy light. Ilias? No, the voice was wrong. I never understood why Ilias, a goddess who could choose any form she wanted, would have such a scratchy, irritating voice. This voice was more appealing, almost silky.

As the light faded, I saw the lovely form of Raphaela. "I didn't call you," I said. "I hope this doesn't count as my one phone call."

"I don't understand the humor, if that's what you intended," Raphaela said. "If you call me, I will come. I only said 'once', because I assumed that you would only call me to rescue you. At that point, you would no longer be a prisoner."

"Oh, I can rescue myself, that's not the issue."

"You can?" Raphaela asked. "I'm not familiar with your capabilities, only your potential. I would have expected you to save yourself when Sariela was punishing you."

"Oh, that?" I chuckled. "I just made a simple alteration to her natural magic. You didn't see it?"

"I did not. I thought that you must have an incredibly high pain tolerance. It is rude to read others' sexual magic. It is equivalent to trying to look at their panties."

"Given that she was holding me down and forcing herself on me, I think I can be forgiven."

"Sariela can be… harsh," Raphaela said uncomfortably. "She has a hardness to her that I lack. I watch over only the good of this world. I have rarely had to discipline anyone, and since intentional sin is rare, my discipline is gentle. Someone has to sweep floors, wash windows, fix plumbing. The minor sins even the pious commit provide ample opportunity for correction in positive ways."

"Sariela seems to prefer outright torture," I replied. "Let me tell you, Raphaela, I've lived a long time. I've experienced some unbelievably painful situations. I won't say Sariela was the worst. The worst ever was when a powerful slime tried to dissolve me. Second worst was getting cut to ribbons by my best friend. Sariela was right below that, although I didn't give her a chance to show just how bad she could make it hurt. Other prisoners have felt that. It's sadistic and wrong."

"Admittedly, if I managed this prison it would not be my approach. But I was not chosen for that task. I do as Ilias commands."

"Your goddess is a bitch of the highest order," I stated flatly.

"Luka!" Raphaela exclaimed. "Be glad that I am not allowing anyone to see or hear anything in this cell! I want our conversation to be confidential! Are you trying to get taken to Sariela again?"

"I'm sure I'll end up in her office again, yes," I said defiantly. "She's starting to piss me off!"

"That would be the answer to my question," Raphaela sighed. "Ilias sent me to see you. She sees your heart, and noticed that it was troubled."

"Troubled? I'm 'troubled' by the destruction of Yamatai village? 'Troubled' that people are spending their lives in prison, subject to threats of the most extreme violation and torture, just for insulting Ilias?!"

"Tell her, Luka!" Undine cheered.

"Blasphemy is a grave crime!" Raphaela argued defensively.

"I don't see it that way," I retorted. "Those people are no threat to you or Ilias. Except to her ego. Is she so fragile that she can't handle it when someone worships another? Yamatai is remote! She tolerated it for centuries! What changed?"

"I do not know. I do not question her. She wanted the pagan practices there to end. Even though the people saw that Ilias was the goddess with their own eyes, they continued to worship spirits. Or even worse, monsters! She must have simply run out of patience. Ilias is merciful, but even a goddess has her limits."

"So why did she send you here? Is she worried I might not join her team?"

"I wouldn't put it so uncharitably, but… yes. She is also concerned about what you might do."

"When I decide what to do, I promise you, she'll be the first to know!" I exclaimed.

"Of course she will," Raphaela said blandly. "She sees all."

"And understands nothing. Where's Fumi?"

"Fumi is safe," Raphaela answered. "Ilias does not wish to further provoke you, and in any case, I have made a promise. It is sufficient that you in turn have promised to remove the monster from this world. Whether she is removed by death or teleportation is of no concern to Ilias."

"Thank you, Raphaela," I said gratefully. "I'm not mad at you. You're not the first angel I've encountered who was better than the goddess she worshipped. I hope you learn that the way the others did."

"I am sorry that you do not see things as we do," Raphaela said regretfully. "We still want your friendship, not your enmity. If you allied with us, perhaps Ilias could be persuaded to be milder in her retribution. She is already nothing like the goddess who once ravaged whole regions in her wrath."

"I'll keep thinking about it," I promised. "For you, not for her."

"I will accept that if I must," Raphaela said, and vanished.

I looked outside. It was getting dark. Sariela had indeed been more thorough. I'd been asleep for a full twenty-four hours. I was still tired, so I decided to go back to sleep for the night. Since I hadn't eaten during that period, and breakfast was still hours away, I'd only be miserable with hunger if I stayed up. I curled up in my blanket and put my head back on the pillow.

"Luka!" a deep, yet feminine voice called from within my cell. There was no dramatic infusion of holy light inside my cell this time. Who…?

I turned around and saw Saja. How in the world?"

"Saja? How the hell did you get here?" I asked.

"I am not actually here," Saja replied. "I am a projection, as I was last time. Were you not listening?"

"I listened very carefully, I just didn't understand what it means. So I can't touch you?"

I reached out a hand and grasped a naked breast. It sure felt real.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Saja asked mildly.

"Sorry! You said you were a projection!"

"And that was how you decided to test it? Really, Luka, with a perverted mind like yours I find it hard to believe that you would ever side with these… angels."

"The angels are pretty perverted themselves," I pointed out. "I don't know how much you've seen, but a particular archangel has been making a point of 'punishing' me with her body."

"I have not seen," Saja admitted. "I can only see when I project my image into this world. But nothing they do surprises me. Hypocrites, all of them. Surely they cannot do for you what we can. Nothing is better than monster sex, and no monster sex is better than Ancestor sex."

"I can vouch for that. But I'm not accepting bribes. I've come to both your worlds to see if either of you are worth siding with."

"Have you come to a decision yet?" Saja asked.

"No. To be honest, I'm finding it hard to justify siding with either of you."

"Yet you must choose."

"We'll see about that," I said.

"I take it you can break out of this prison whenever you wish?"

"I can. You don't need to mount a rescue operation or anything."

"We would not be capable of such an endeavour," Saja said. "Thus my concern. You can only escape if you are conscious. Sariela is more than capable of keeping you insensate. Depending on their plans for you, they may not need you conscious."

"You know their plans?"

"I… I do not," Saja stammered. Something in her tone told me that she felt she had said too much. What did Saja know?

"Thanks for the warning, Saja," I said. "I've been so confident that I can escape at any time that I keep forgetting that they could knock me out or even kill me to stop me from escaping. So many ways to do it, especially in a prison."

"They need you as much as we do, World Breaker. They will not kill you unless they believe you will come over to our side."

Saja made to leave, but I stopped her. "Saja?" I asked.

"Yes ,Luka?"

"Did you know there are still some surviving monsters here?"

"I did not know, but I suspected," she replied. "Eradicating an entire race is not easy, even for a goddess."

"Knowing that there are survivors here, how would you want them to be treated?"

Saja hesitated, staring at me, as if she'd never pondered the question before. "I think… I think that I would wish them to be treated with mercy. The godess is merciless, though. It is a vain wish."

"Maybe, but don't you think the remaining angels on your world should be treated with mercy? Is your goddess capable of mercy?"

"I only do as she commands," Saja said.

"I'm hearing a lot of that. For all your differences, your two peoples have so much in common. As a human, why would I side with either of you as you are now? Man has long worshipped angels, and lusted after monsters. There's no reason we can't all get along, as trite as that sounds. We're all facing the same threat, yet both want me to pick a side. Why can't we all just fight this threat together?"

"Because the prophecies say it does not work that way!" Saja said fiercely.

"Prophecies are often misinterpreted."

"Not by our goddess!"

"Can you recite the prophecies?"

"I will recite the prophecy most pertinent to our current situation: in the days of Chaos, the World Breaker shall save or damn Makai. As you can see, there is no middle ground. You will save us, or you will damn us."

"There's a LOT of vagueness there, Saja. I know you're smarter than that."

"It is how the Dark God interprets the prophecy. She saw it in her dreams. She saw you, Luka, in one dream, destroying the Angel World, and in another, wiping out all life on Makai. The Dark God does not dream idly."

"You're forgetting one thing. I'm not the Luka who was supposed to be here. Maybe I'm outside of prophecy."

"I only hope that you make the right choice, Luka," Saja said sadly. "For all our sakes."

With that, Saja vanished. I rolled over again and closed my eyes. Should I put any stock in prophecy? What about the things White Rabbit showed me? Why did Luka always fail? Was I perhaps brought here to do something completely different, something no other Luka would ever have thought of? Or was it all about my strange power? Perhaps it was strong enough where the other Lukas' holy powers were insufficient? Thinking about complicated subjects usually made me tired. I began to drift into dreamland.

"Luka!" a shrill voice yelled suddenly, causing me to panic and fall right out of bed.

I looked up, into the face of an angel I hadn't met before. But there was recognition, somewhere deep in my subconscious. Where had I seen this angel before? Was she the grown version of Lucfina?

"Mom," Luka breathed, surfacing again.

"Not quite," Lucifina replied. "Maybe in another world, I have no idea."

"Oh wow," I said. "I didn't know I'd said that out loud. Luka, please don't take over like that!"

"Sorry," Luka said. "I was just so excited. I know she's not really my mother. My mother is dead. But she looks just like her."

"Are you okay?" Lucifina asked. "You seem to be having a conversation with yourself. Has Sariela been torturing you?"

"She has, but that's not it. You see, I've merged with another Luka, but not completely. He's been staying buried deep in my subconscious. I can't say I blame him. It's not that I'm trying to keep him submerged, it's just that we're in a prison and this is the worst possible place for him to be driving."

"I understood about half of that," Lucifina said. "Look, whatever issues you're having integrating your other selves, that's not my business. What I'm here to talk about is those two lapdogs trying to talk you into joining this or that side."

"Are you here to try to get me to join Ilias?"

"Ilias?! Are you crazy?! She's a certifiable loon, and believe me, I invented loony! I've mellowed a lot in the last few centuries, of course. Apparently in some worlds I settled down and had a kid."

"What are you doing in this world?" I asked.

"Oh, this and that… knitting, cooking, volleyball, reading, running a rebellion… How have you been?"

"Just trying to save all the worlds."

"Worlds are dying as we speak," she countered. "There's no way to save them all. But that doesn't mean you have to accept Ilias or Alipheese's bullshit."

"I'm beginning to like you, Lucifina. Of course, given the huge amount of love welling up in me from the other Luka in my subconscious, I'm not sure I can avoid liking you."

"So you're thinking of joining neither side?"

"It's always been an option."

"Take my advice. Tell them both to shove it. Ilias will simply collect all the 'worthy' souls and send the rest off to the afterlife. Alipheese will bring them all over, but as livestock. She talks a good game on freedom, but what she really means is freedom for monsters to suck men dry."

"You're not telling me anything I haven't already figured out," I said. "So do you have anything to tell me that I don't already know?"

"Boy, you're pushy for a guy meeting his mom," Lucifina retorted.

"You're not my mom, you're his… or maybe mine too? I'm confused. Lucifina, it's a pleasure to meet you. You're the second Lucifina I've met. And now I'm rambling."

"Just keep your mind right," the fallen Seraph instructed. "Ilias has been trying to convince you that this is a just world. The monsters were probably trying to convince you that theirs was a free world. Both are twisted perversions of both justice and freedom."

"Okay, thank you. I… mostly figured that out already."

"Luka," Lucifina said. "I'll leave you to your sleep. But if you need me, just call me."

With that, she vanished, leaving me alone again. I rolled back over and tried to sleep, but thanks to all the surprise visits, my brain wouldn't let me sleep. I must have laid in bed for hours before finally drifting off.

Wake up call came at the usual time, although I say that as if I'd been there awhile. It was only the second wake up call I'd been present for. I wasn't sure how long I'd been in the prison. Three days? Four days? It was getting to around the point where my companions would begin to worry. I would have to end my little inspection of Grangold prison soon. I thought I'd seen enough, but after hearing about Yamatai I wanted more information. Just how many Yamatai villagers were in the prison? For the first time I looked around as I stood outside my cell. From my vantage point I could see dozens of prisoners. A lot of them had the distinctive Asian features of people from the Yamatai region. Were they all here for the crime of paganism? And what would I do if they were? Break them out? Where would they go? Bring them all back to the Paradox world? Perhaps if the only ones here were the ones I could see, I could pull it off. But if there were a lot more….

"Shake down!" the angel in charge called. "No one goes back into their cells unless they want a beating!"

"Shake down?" my cell neighbor Barrington asked, bewildered. "I've been here six years and there's never been a shake down. The angels are tight when it comes to preventing contraband from getting in here. Do you think someone managed to sneak in something to smoke?"

"Oh no, Luka!" Undine exclaimed inside my heart. "They know!"

"Know what, Undine?" I asked, being sure to only speak with my mind.

"I felt so bad for Taguchi!" she answered. "I went to him when they returned him to his cell last night! I gave him a small gift! A piece of my slime!"

"I was wondering where you got off to!" Salamander exclaimed. "Are you nuts?! What's he going to do with a piece of your slime?! Unless…"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, hothead!" Undine retorted. "I simply wanted him to know that it wasn't a dream!"

"Will they really flip out over some unexplained goop in his cell?" I asked.

"It's not goop. I hardened it and formed it into a slime carving of me."

"He has an idol in there?!" I exclaimed. "Oh my God, they're going to kill him for that!"

"We have to do something, Luka!" Undine pleaded. "Pat's a good man! He put his faith in me! He could have refused my gift, but he accepted it happily."

"Or he just didn't want to insult his god," I said grimly. "Yeah, assuming they find it, I'm going to do something, but you four are to do NOTHING. Once I summon you or you go off half cocked on your own, it's over. And then there won't be anything I can do for these people."

"Do I sense the mission changing?" Salamander asked.

"I haven't figured that out yet, but maybe."

"Luka, please don't face danger without us!" Sylph pleaded. "Don't be like Heinrich!"

"Don't worry, Sylph, this is nothing like Heinrich," I assured her. "Undine, where is Taguchi's cell?"

"On our level, to your left."

I looked to the left just as two angels entered Taguchi's cell and began tearing it apart. Taguchi stood proudly and impassively in front of his cell, no sign of fear in his eyes. Nothing in that expression changed when the angels came out with the idol.

"What is this?!" one of the angels asked him, holding up the idol of Undine in her hand.

"It's a representation of my god," Taguchi replied defiantly.

"Did she come and see you last night?" the higher ranking angel asked.

"How could a god that is false come and see me?" Taguchi asked rhetorically.

"You think you're cute, huh? Don't think that just because you're getting a little on in years that we won't beat you to within an inch of your life!"

"Don't I get bonus points for being a model prisoner for the last fifty years?" Taguchi asked with a smile.

The angels didn't even wait to take him outside. They began striking him with their batons, enraged at his insouciant attitude.

"Luka!" Undine cried.

"I'm going, I'm going!" I said aloud, and ran to Taguchi's aid.

Several angels shouted warnings, too late to alert the two angels beating Taguchi. I pushed one of the angels over the railing. The other stopped beating poor old Taguchi and struck at me with her baton. I dodged her clumsy strike, hooked my arm with hers, and swung her around to shove her over the railing as well. We were on the second floor, and they could fly, so that would probably only piss them off, even assuming they hit the ground.

The whole wing of the prison was going nuts over the altercation, cheering me on. Some angels began shoving inmates back into their cells. Inmates who put up the slightest resistance were beaten or whipped. Other angels took to the air and swarmed towards me. Without my sword, if I didn't use my power or the spirits I was completely outmatched. I caught the first angel that reached me and tossed her light body into a cell and shut it. To my satisfaction, it clicked closed automatically, locking her in. The cheering in the wing now seemed as loud as anything I'd ever heard while fighting in the coliseum. It was my last small victory. Two angels slammed into me from the air, bringing me down. Several more arrived. They began to beat and whip me. At least they'd stopped beating Taguchi.

"Ohhh… .Oh… Ah! Oh my God! That's really intense," I moaned.

"It's meant to be intense!" Sariela yelled into my face, thrusting hard and fast, forcing my penis as far into her as she could get it. "You are a very…." Hard thrust of her hips. "Slow…." Harder thrust….. "Learner!"

"Ahhhhhh….. Oh my goodness," I panted. "Mercy…. It's too much!"

In case you're worried about her magic being painful, she still hadn't noticed that I'd changed it. Getting pleasured so skillfully and vigorously by an archangel was just what the doctor ordered for my pain after the extended beating and whipping I'd received. The angels had beaten me by Taguchi's cell, beaten me on the way out to the courtyard, then beaten me some more out there. Then they'd taken me to Sariela for good measure.

"There will be no mercy for you!" Sariela raged, her perky breasts bouncing. "No one has ever defied me three times! You've spent more time in this office than in your cell! I will think up new ways to torture you before this day is done!"

"Just please…." I gasped. "Please don't do the thing where you rotate your hips. Anything but that!"

"I will rotate my hips," Sariela said, doing just that. It was my favorite technique of hers. "And I will keep rotating….. And shaking…" she shook her hips violently. "Until I've broken you! And I will break you!"

"AHHHHHHH!!!!!!" I screamed as I came deep inside her. Orgasms inside Sariela were on another level, which made me all the more angry at her, given how much it must hurt when she did that to others with her black magic working properly.

"Oh, did that hurt?!" she yelled. "We are nowhere near done! And don't think passing out will save you! When you awaken there will be more! I will see to it that you will never defy me again! Do you hear me!"

"YES!!!!!" I exclaimed as her merciless rotation and shaking made me orgasm again.

"Dude, are you some kind of sadist?" Barrington asked as I ate my breakfast two mornings later in the dining hall.

"Some guys like it when it hurts," Williams shrugged.

Williams, Farber, and Vance were sitting at the same table as me. The guy who stole my donut, Carson, was also at my table. I had asked for a second donut but been refused. Carson gave me his, to make up for the one he'd taken from me earlier. He explained that requests for extra food were only honored for well behaved prisoners. I was no longer regarded as well behaved.

"Not when it hurts like that," Vance said quietly, missing his mouth with his eggs and getting them all over his chin. He still wasn't quite right.

"I just can't stand by and let a good guy like Taguchi get beaten," I said. "Where is Taguchi, anyway?"

"He's back in the infirmary," Farber replied. "Sariela really went to town on him. Same day she did you for the third time."

At least they'd stopped beating him. I'd have to find out if he was all right. Without her pain magic working, the experience would have been an unexpected pleasure for him, although a lot to take given his advanced age and his probable lack of experience with angels. But it was better than what could have happened to him.

"Man, I just love the way you punked out those angels!" Carson whispered. "You don't know how many of us have wanted to do that! It's too bad you're only human."

"Yeah, they're too strong and they don't feel pain," I said. "It's not really a fair fight."

"You got them off your boy, though," Williams pointed out. "Between that and how you took care of these jokers," he said, pointing around at the rest of the table. "you're practically a king here now."

The next few days I actually started to get into a routine. The angels began looking at me very suspiciously, annoyed and surprised at how quickly I kept recovering from Sariela's torture. I would always be put out for a day, but I'd always bounce back the next morning. I stayed out of trouble, however, and just did my job in the infirmary. Taguchi, thank goodness, was fine. He hadn't been able to so much as get up for three days, but he'd spent those three days with a smile on his face.

"That was my first time," he confided, whispering in my ear to prevent the angels outside from hearing. "Man, I never expected to lose my virginity, like… ever! I always assumed I'd never get out of here. And then a fuckin' archangel calls me into her office and fucks me on the couch?! And oh man, the way she sucks…. She has a magic mouth, man."

"You do know that wasn't what she intended, right?" I said. "Please don't get yourself sent there again. As good as it was, that's how painful it was supposed to be, and will be, if you get sent there again."

"Bro, if I never get laid again, I'll always have that one time when I fucked the warden! What do you know about that, anyway? Did you do something to her?"

I put my finger to my lips. Taguchi smiled and shook his finger at me.

"Miller!" an angel yelled, entering the infirmary. "Sariela wants to see you!"

"What did I do?" I asked. I was pretty sure I'd been behaving myself.

"Well right now you're failing to obey!" the angel guard yelled. "Move!"

"Okay, okay, I'm not looking for more trouble," I assured her as I left the infirmary with her.

I knew the way to Sariela's office all too well. A sudden spike of fear crawled up my back. What if she discovered that her sexual magic had been altered? She'd known I cast a spell, she'd just discounted it as insignificant. Could holy power alter sexual magic? I wasn't a magic expert, but I was pretty sure it couldn't. And how would she know that her spell hadn't simply faded? It was experimental, after all. Hadn't she invented it herself?

I was shoved into the office and invited to sit down by the archangel. "So, I hear you've been a good boy for a few days. Ilias' miracles never cease."

"You're punishment had a profound effect on me," I lied.

Sariela was holding the Undine idol in her hands, staring at it and rolling it around, inspecting its detail.

"What do you know about this?" Sariela asked.

"Nothing," I said unconvincingly.

"Taguchi admitted that he carved it himself out of candle wax while I was punishing him. It's a semi-plausible story. He does work in the candle shop and we have very high grade waxes there. And no one has ever told me anything but the truth under my exquisite torture."

I knew the angels didn't buy that. They probably knew exactly how he got it but had decided to keep what they knew close to the vest in hopes of luring out the true culprit, or better yet, Undine herself. I wondered if the Undine of this world was still around. I'd assumed that the spirits couldn't safely be destroyed due to them being fundamental forces of nature. But so were Ilias and Alipheese, yet on two different worlds, one of them had been destroyed, apparently permanently. Either the physical laws were different here or they'd found a way around the problems caused by eliminating spirits.

"He worships Undine," I shrugged. "He's been here for fifty years. He was probably just lonely. Needed some comfort."

"The problem with his explanation is that this isn't made of wax. This is slime. A very high grade slime from a very powerful slime. Slimes do still exist on this world, mainly in the Noah region. And if a slime wanted to get into his cell in the middle of the night, she would certainly be capable of it. This prison isn't designed to keep slimes out. Do you know why?"

"It's mainly for keeping humans in?"

"Because there isn't a slime within five hundred miles of here!" Sariela shouted, slamming the idol down. The idol didn't so much as chip or crack. Despite being made of slime, it might as well have been made of diamond.

"Well I couldn't have had anything to do with it," I said. "The night a slime would have gotten into his cell, I was out cold."

"Yes, thanks to me," Sariela chuckled. "I know that you can't possibly have had anything to do with this. And yet…. Something bothers me about you. You're not like any prisoner I've ever had here."

"Well, a priesthood candidate getting sent here because he fed a monster can't be all that common," I said, laughing uncomfortably.

"We've had a few. Men fall into temptation easily. It's the rarity of monsters in that region that keeps them pure, not their own morals. Tell me, Wentwork Miller…"

"It's Wentworth," I corrected her.

"Of course," Sariela said. "Tell me, Wentworth Miller, why have you never been seen praying?"

"I… uh…. I guess I've fallen away," I answered.

"Just like that? Surely you believe in Ilias."

"I do!" I said honestly. "I know Ilias exists! I know how powerful she is!"

"And how just she is?" Sariela prompted.

I couldn't acknowledge her justness with a straight face. Sariela caught my hesitation immediately.

"I did a little checking on you," Sariela said. "I teleported over to the San Ilia seminary. Do you know what I found out?"

"That I was a very bad math student?" I asked hopefully.

"I found out that there is no record of a Wentworth Miller ever attending seminary," Sariela said. "Do you know what's unusual about that?"

"They have terrible record keeping?"

"What's unusual about that is that I never need to check on a prisoner's identity. Ilias knows the name and history of every single prisoner. That information is relayed to angels whose job it is to create the file on every prisoner."

Sariela reached into her desk and produced a file marked "Wentworth Miller."

"Do you know what's in your file, Mr. Miller?" Sariela asked.

"I have never seen my file."

"The answer is nothing!" Sariela exclaimed slamming her hand down on the folder. "Either you don't exist or Ilias doesn't know about you, or for reasons known only to her, she has chosen not to give me your file. It would appear that you not only have an archangel interested in you, but perhaps the Goddess herself."

"Or maybe she just hasn't had time? I haven't been here long. You know how bureaucracies are, even in Heaven."

"And what would you know about that?" Sariela asked, eyebrow raised.

The fact is, I knew quite a bit about it. It was a frequent subject of complaining from the Ilias of my old world. But I couldn't explain that to Sariela.

"There's a small chance you're right," Sariela said. "It is not abnormal for me to receive files late, or for the files to be incomplete at first. A completely empty file is unusual. As is a prisoner lying about who he is. There is a great deal that is abnormal about you, Wentworth Miller. Three times in my office, four if you count now, lying about your identity, an archangel personally bringing you here and asking for leniency… And most importantly, strange goings on such as idols mysteriously appearing in someone's cell. There is a mystery going on, and I will solve it. You are dismissed, Miller."

"I can… go?" I asked uncertainly. "I thought no one entered your office without being punished?"

"I am no longer confident that I can get the truth from you using the usual methods. Another mystery to solve. Pray that the worst thing I find out about you is that you lied about your identity. Oh wait, you don't pray. Now go!"

I left, unsettled. I realized what must be going on. Raphaela wouldn't rat me out, but she was not going to lie for me, only… evade the truth. Ilias almost certainly was aware of what I was doing and could have created a complete cover for me if she chose, but apparently she'd decided to simply not interfere. A blank file though, that was weird. Was it a warning from the goddess to quit making waves? Or was it a game for her, to see if Sariela could figure it out?

No matter what was going on, the gig would be up very soon. And I still hadn't decided what to do about Taguchi and others unjustly imprisoned.