Golgari Charm

On the great city-plane of Ravnica, the worst was over. Though the guildpact, the ancient magical bond that had stopped the plane's ten factions from slaughtering one another in the streets, had broken, the flood of anarchy that had overwhelmed the city was finally ended. The miles of buildings crushed as the demon Rakdos, summoned by his guild, battled with the Simic guild's rampaging superweapon Kraj, were being raised anew, and the fallen Azorius guildhall of Prahv had already been rebuilt as the imaginatively-titled New Prahv. Even the guildpact itself was being replaced by a series of non-magical promises and allegiances, to keep the worst of the ten guilds' schemes and power plays under control.

But for all that, scavengers still ruled the streets. The Boros army couldn't be everywhere at once, and the guildless civilian masses invented new crimes faster than the Azorius could legislate against them. Gruul barbarians threw up savage chiefdoms in the fallen areas of the city, the shattered remains of the Dimir and Simic guilds eked out what petty territories they could, and always, the Golgari swarm reached out from the undercity to claim the choicest prizes from the rubble.

They tried, at least.

Anatta Nowak look on forlornly as her satchel was turned out onto the streets. Golden chains, coins stamped with the Orzhov sigil, and a pair of silver and ebony goblets clattered out onto the cobbles, bouncing and rolling until they came to rest at the feet of the Boros officer who had caught her fleeing the crime scene. Still, she dared hold on to a shred of hope until one of the men reached into the bag with a small knife.

"Hey! Okay, you caught me, fair and square, but don't ruin my stuff!" She cried as the man went to work, methodically cutting through the leather folds until he found what he was looking for. There was a loud rip as the secret pouch she had sewn into the bag came apart, and a sheath of papers slipped out, drifting silently down to join the bounty of gold on the street. One of the Boros soldiers stooped down to pick them up, showing them to his two companions.

"Debtors records." The officer announced. "Girl, do you know how much danger you put yourself in trying to steal these? The Orzhov guild doesn't look kindly on this sort of information getting out."

A crowd was starting to gather now - mostly guildless merchants, but a gaggle of Rakdos acrobats in their absurd red and black costumes were looking on with glee. She gave them a pleading look, silently begging them to distract her captors with their unique brand of anarchic madness. One of them grinned at her and made a sardonic throat-cutting gesture. She sighed and shrugged her narrow shoulders. No help there.

"And it wouldn't have gotten out if you hadn't caught me. We're not Dimir, it's not like we sell this information to anyone who comes asking." She said, before adding "Besides, it wasn't anything I couldn't handle."

"Or anything those rot-farmers you call masters said you couldn't handle." He muttered under his breath. Anatta bit back a barbed reply. She was in enough trouble as it was. The officer was an older minotaur, his sandy coat flecked with grey, and he drummed his thick fingers irritably on the hilt of his maul. The other two were human like her, though she could barely tell them apart beneath their heavy legionary armour. "I'm not going to lie, you're in deep for this. Losing these -" he kicked one of the goblets at his feet - "well, that's just a matter of pride for the Orzhov. But people trying to meddle with their debtors accounts?"

He clucked his thick tongue and glared down at her. "You're lucky we caught you first, or whichever Orzhova you stole from might have ended up with a pretty new thrull. Maybe a stint in an Azorius cell will teach you to rethink your future loyalties."

"Oh, get stuffed. I'll be out in a week, just you wait." Anatta spat. One of the legionaries pulled her arms behind her back and manacled her wrists together while his companion sent off a carrier bird to summon a prison carriage. Her large, round eyes flicked back and forth between the three figures as she was forced to sit between the three men. Any one of them could overpower her with ease - she was barely past her nineteeth year, and a life spent scrounging food had left her skinny and on the verge of malnourishment - but if two of them would leave, if she could just make a break for the buildings and lose them in the crowds...

It wasn't to be, and she chided herself for her stupidity. The Golgari guild had taken in hundreds of children like her that had been left orphaned in the chaos following the guildpact breaking. They had been trained as petty thieves and unleashed back into the city, used to dig up their rivals' secrets and line the guild's pockets. It was a point of pride, Anatta thought, that the Golgari worked to help the lowest of society. The items she stole were sold on the black market, and the money put towards feeding and housing the poor. The Boros and Azorius, with their shiny armour and polished swords, looked down on the ragged, patchwork Golgari and their eternal skirting of the law, but Anatta knew she did more to help Ravnica than the other guilds ever would.

Which was why trying to rob her target during mid-day had been so terrifyingly stupid. The guild encouraged competition by allowing its members to keep part of their haul, and the thieves were pitched against one another to see who could steal the most valuables or complete the most daring heist. But stealing from the Orzhov in the middle of the day, in full sunlight? Anatta groaned and rolled her head back, wincing as the sun stung her light-starved eyes. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

One of the soldiers gave her a suspicious look. She stuck her tongue at him. She was frighteningly pale, her skin tinged with the faintest trace of green, and her dark hair hung around her face in lank tendrils. Like all of her guild she dressed in scraps and castoffs, mixing a mangled old leather cuirass with plates of chitin taken from dead grazer-beetles, living moss and iron-hard tree bark. It left her looking perpetually damp and slimy, even on the warmest, driest days. The crowd began to disperse, its various parts slowly realising that the show as over for now. Anatta gave the acrobats another urgent look, motioning towards the pile of riches with one of her boots. Their leader paused, one hand on his chin and his brow furrowing in an exaggeration of thought, before giving her a malicious look of mock despair and leading his troupe off with the others.

Anatta's one relief was that when the cart trundled up, it came bearing the mark of the Wojek League. The Wojeks were Boros' police force, not their thuggish military. They were okay in Anatta's book. Some of them could be bribed, or persuaded to look the other way, and tended to be more sympathetic towards the extra-legal needs of the people. She gritted her teeth and allowed the minotaur to manhandle her back onto her feet and into the back of the sturdy wooden holding cell, aiming a halfhearted kick at his nose as she was pushed inside.

"And I'm gonna want my bag back, assholes!" She shot after them. There was a chuckle and the ruined sack of leather was tossed in afterwards. It flopped miserably on the seat next to her as the doors closed and locked. "Assholes." Anatta repeated to herself, staring daggers at them through the little slatted window.

"Well, that's the Legion for you." Another voice caught her attention. Anatta spun around in her seat, her eyes widening in surprise as she saw the figure sat at the far end of the cell.

"Selk!" She cried out in delight. "Oh, thank Matka. You must have came especially, right? And you're gonna get me out of this?"

The Wojek officer gave her a lopsided half-smile. He was a tall man, broad shouldered and bronzed from long days on patrol, with an old scar bisecting the left side of his rugged. He had always reminded her of the statues that lined the road to Agyrem; strong, handsome, as noble as the finest storybook hero. His armour was battered and well-used, and glinted dully in what little light trickled through the window.

"We'll see when we get down to the station." He ran a hand over his bald head. "How are you doing, kid?"

Anatta sagged with relief. Selk had been one of the patrolmen assigned to the district she had lived in before joining the Golgari. They had run into one another a number of times since those days. Living in the gutters gave her a view of the city Selk lacked, and in return for passing on information, he made sure her crimes were overlooked, forgotten about, or simply let off with warnings. The man was a decade older than her at least, but his age hadn't yet reached his eyes, which watched her with clear amusement. She grinned and flushed sheepishly. She had spent more than one night wondering how the stylised musculature sculpted into his armour matched the real thing.

"Well, other than the chains, y'know." She rolled her shoulders and rattled the manacles around her wrists for emphasis as the cart began to roll through the streets. "Can't complain. I had a nice haul there before your buddies ruined my day."

"Buddies, yeah." He snorted. "Bloody angel-kissing legion. I wish I could tack 'good for nothing' on there, but we're so short of manpower, we need them to make up the numbers. Things might be calming down, but we still need to beat the Gruul and Rakdos back into line, and for all we know the Dimir might have something else in store for us."

Anatta opened her mouth to speak, but Selk cut her off. "And, young lady, the Golgari aren't exactly innocent here either. Your new Guildmaster, what's-his-name-"

"Jarad."

"Jarad, sorry, isn't helping things by sending you lot out to pick through the debris. The more time we spend chasing away scavengers, the less time we have to crack down on real time."

"I guess." Anatta admitted, accepting the gentle rebuke with a small nod. "But I just do what I'm told."

Selk reached over and patted her knee. It was a small thing, nothing more than the sort of brief, reassuring contact he'd used to earn her trust all those years ago, but now it sent her heart fluttering. She lifted her head and saw the concern etched into the stern lines of his face, but couldn't bring herself to meet his steady eyes.

"I know, An." He said. "I know you trust your guild, and that they've done a lot for you. But you need to be sure these are the sorts of people you want to give your loyalty."

He gave her knee another squeeze and leaned backwards. "How are Zek and Kelto doing?" He asked.

Anatta took a breath, trying to steady herself. The memory of that calm, reassuring touch and the steely strength behind it refused to slip from her mind. "K-Kelto's fine." She stammered. "He was gonna be meeting me by the Concord plaza gate to take my winnings back to the undercity. And Zek..."

She trailed off. Zek had been her closest friend since she was a little girl. He had been older than her and Kelto by a few years, and had taken the pair of them under his wing after they joined the guild. As she aged, they had become more than just friends. "Zek had a run-in with the Legion a few months ago. I didn't hear what happened. Just that...he never came home afterwards." She chewed her lip, turning away and looking out at the thin slice of sky. "I hope he's okay, but..."

Selk grimaced. Such stories were far from uncommon. With the Azorius courts preoccupied with the legal ramifications of the new, mundane guildpact, some of the more zealous Legionaries had taken to handing out on the spot "justice" to members of rival guilds they caught breaking the law. It was an ugly business, but an easy one to justify.

"I'm sorry, An. He was a good kid." He said. "Look, I'll tell you want. Next time I get a chance, I'll put a word out through the guild. See if anyone's heard anything, or will admit to having heard anything. Even if it's bad news, it'll put your mind at rest."

Annata smiled sadly and nodded. Zek's disappearance still pained her. She had been so used to his calm, steady confidence that his absence had only recently begun to feel real. Before that, she had been convinced it was a game or a ploy, or that he had been moved into new guild duties, or anything else she could think of to postpone accepting the likely truth. The idea that he might be dead, or rotting away in some prison cell felt like a wound in her heart.

She shook her head, pushing the awful thought away. "Are you still seeing that Azorius girl?" She asked, eager to change the subject. "What was her name? Bethanne?"

Selk grunted out a short laugh. "Nah. What with all the extra shifts she's taking at the courts, we just didn't have the time. It's a shame" he sighed. "That was months ago. Kos' ghost, it's been a while. The things that woman could do with her-"

He stopped abruptly and coughed. "Well, that's not the sort of thing I should talk to you about."

"No, no, go on." Annata gave him a sly grin. She felt herself flushing again, hot prickles spreading across her skin. "What, you don't think I'm still an innocent little girl, do you?"

"If you were innocent, you wouldn't be sitting here with me." Selk mumbled. "Besides, you're what, nineteen?"

"Old enough." Her voice was light, playful. And it was just a joke anyway, Anatta told herself. Something to pass the time. But she couldn't help noticing the way Selk was looking at her out the corner of his eye. Never meeting her gaze, but unable to look away either. A line had been crossed, she realised. He had gone from seeing her as a girl to a young woman. She flicked her lank, greasy hair and batted her eyelashes, a tight, pleasant feeling spreading through her core.

Selk flapped his mouth at her, then shook his head in disbelief. "Alright, alright, that's enough of that. Any more and I'll have you up on attempted bribery."

She clucked her tongue. "Spoilsport."

The cart rolled on, working its way through the press of traffic. Lumbering beasts of burden fought for space with clanking Izzet contraptions, while veiled Orzhov litters and the rabble of guildless merchant-carts and message runners wove through what few gaps they could find. She saw one creature, a slab-sided lizard bartered from one of the more civilised Gruul clans, ram its armoured shoulder into a gangly, six-legged machine that vented shrill blasts of steam with every step. It buckled and collapsed as if it were made out of rotten wood, spilling furious goblins and boxes of cargo everywhere. The corner of her mouth quirked up in a smile at the sight.

"Thanks for saying you'll look into what happend to Zek." She said. "You've done a lot for me already, Selk, but it'd be good to know, one way or the other."

"And here's to hope, right?"

"Yeah, here's to hoping you can get me out of these." Anatta rattled her manacles again.

Selk and Anatta's heads snapped around as something swooped overhead, the deep whoosh rocking the prison cart on its wheels. The wojek officer hurried to the other side of the cart and pushed his face up against the window slit. Anatta cried out and twisted in her seat, bobbing back and forth as she tried to crane past the man's head.

"What is it?" She said. "What's happening?"

"Angels." Selk muttered. "There's a whole flight of them going out. Whatever they're doing, its serious."

"They don't tell you?"

He shrugged and laughed humourlessly. "Nope. The Legion ranks above the League. They don't tell us a damn thing other than where to go and who to arrest."

"Well, you know, there's a little act of rebellion sitting right here." Anatta gave him a devious look. "C'mon, Selk, my arms are going numb."

Selk pulled away from the window and trotted back to his head. "It won't be long now. We're not far from the station, I'll see what I can do for you there."

Anatta huffed and squirmed on the wooden seat, trying and failing to find a comfortable spot as the cart trundled along the last leg of the journey. As the cart approached the station, the controlled anarchy of Ravnica's streets began to disappear. Milling crowds were replaced by drilling soldiers, street venders became blacksmiths and armourers, and the thousands of different colours and banners faded into the endless red and white panoply of the Boros guild. Before long there was a heavy thud, and two sharp raps on the roof from the driver.

"That's our stop. C'mon, kid. Let's go." Selk opened the door and took hold of Anatta's shoulders, guiding her out into the wojek station yard despite her half-hearted bleat of protest. The station itself was typical Boros fare - a blocky, spartan two-story structure designed to withstand a riot, surrounded by a yard of hard-packed earth large enough for military marching drills. Annata found her eyes roaming across the building, searching for blind spots and vulnerable entry points. There were none that she could see. The roof opened up onto a flat landing platform for the guild's angels and airborn knights. One of the griffons standing sentry glared down, its amber eyes gleaming with feral intelligence as she was led inside.

The station was almost completely silent. A lone Viashino perched at the front reception desk peered at them through a pair of eyeglasses as she and Selk entered, and the muted sounds of two women conversing upstairs drifted faintly down from the ceiling. Anatta glanced sideways at Selk, her eyebrows raised in surprise. The last few times she'd been marched into a Boros facility, the sound of marching boots, clanking armour and bawling prisoners had been overwhelming.

"Like I said," Selk muttered "We're working short-staffed right now. We're shuffling people off to the Azorius prisons as fast as we can, but there just isn't enough of us to guard the streets and manage our own cells."

"More than enough to watch thissss little one." The Viashino hissed, peering down its blunt, scaly snout at the Golgari. "Sssstealing from the dead, I asssume?"

"From the Orzhov, actually." Anatta snapped back. The Viashino shrugged and flicked its tail.

"Ssssame difference." It turned to Selk. "Sssearh her and throw her in the third cell on the left. We'll hold her for sssentencing when her cassse comes through."

Anatta rolled her eyes as she was taken around the corner and into the cell block. Like the rest of the building it was starkly unadorned, built from pale brick with a row of heavy metal doors along one wall. She felt a trickle of unease at the sight. If Selk couldn't get her off the hook, then even if she could get a message out to her guild, and even if they did decide to spring her, nothing short of a dreg mangler would be enough to batter into the cell.

The door swung open with a heavy groan. Selk placed his hands on her shoulders and walked her in. It was as barren as she might have expected, just the pale stone, a bucket in the corner and a flat board attached to the wall for a bunk. An iron ring hung from the low ceiling, while light filtered in from a narrow slit at the top of the opposite wall.

"Don't think about it." Selk chuckled. "It's too small, even for you."

"Maybe if I dislocated an arm?" She asked without much hope. Selk turned her around, and with a satisfying click, the manacles came away. Anatta let out a long groan of relief and shook her arms, wincing as blood began to flow back through her cramped muscles. Selk gave her a moment to stretch, then motioned for her to raise her arms. The chains were run through the hoop and clipped tightly back into place, leaving her defenseless before the wojek watchman.

Her heart leapt. She knew what was going to happen now. She was going to have to be disarmed and searched. Despite her predicament, Anatta felt a familiar warmth building inside her as she thought about Selk's strong hands working their way over her body. She squirmed in place, her skinny body twisting this way and that as she tested her bonds. Why, Anatta thought, he could do just about anything to her in this state.

By the way Selk was awkwardly pacing around her, evidently he'd had the same thought. As he reached for the clasps of her cuirass, one of his hands inadvertently wandered to her hip. It was a small thing, intended to stop her swinging around as he undid her armour, but it was enough to send a violent thrill of excitement through Anatta's body and draw a short gasp from between her lips. He cursed and pulled back.

"Sorry - I didn't mean to hurt you."

Anatta let out a short, sharp breath. "Believe me, you didn't."

She felt tight, tense with nerves and anticipation, eager for his touch. Selk was an unseen presence that loomed behind her, something she could feel but not see, experience but not influence. Her armour, partially undone as it was, still felt uncomfortable and confining. She wanted it off. She wanted him to see her hanging there in her damp tunic, perfectly vulnerable and exposed to his eyes and hands.

It was a stupid fantasy. He was older than her, a professional, he had better things to do than fool around with her. But for all that it was one Anatta couldn't push from her mind. It dug its hooks in deeper as Selk's hands returned to her hip, then her shoulders, and as the patchwork cuirass came away, briefly along her ribs. Each touch stoked the fires slowly burning inside her. When the wojek knelt to remove her boots, he glanced up, briefly meeting her eyes over the length of her body. She felt tightness in her belly, an aching heat in her loins that stole away her rational thought.

Finally, Selk stood, depositing the small collection of hidden picks and probes he'd removed from her patchwork armour on the bed. The man's face was bright red, and she could see sweat beading on his scalp. He turned and plucked at her tunic. Like her armour, it still let off the occasional drip of grimy undercity water.

"How in all of Rav do you get so wet?" He wondered aloud.

Anatta let out a small groan and twisted in her shackles, feeling the dampness in her undergarments, little flecks of pleasure shooting through her as the material peeled away from the tender flesh beneath. "You tell me" She muttered.

Selk coughed. "Yes. Well. I'll go get things sorted out with our friend at the front desk, and you can be on your way."

"Great." Anatta watched the door creaking closed. "I'll just, you know..." she rattled the chains. "Hang around until then."

She listened to his footsteps as he walked away. Hanging in the dim light, trying to ignore her body's insistent demands Anatta strained to hear what was going on between the two men. There were snatches of muffled conversation, the odd word - "informant" and "useful" being two that gave her particular hope - until a third voice joined in. This one she didn't recognise, but it sounded different. Arrogant. Something about it set her teeth on edge, momentarily driving the heat from her body. When Selk returned, his face was grave.

"This isn't good, is it?" She asked.

"The Orzhova you burgled." Selk said. "The street patrol which picked you up got in contact and sent him here. He's got a lot of pull. You know what the Orzhov guild is like...fingers in every pie." He waved his hands helplessly.

A tendril of dread crawled through Anatta's gut. "So...I'm not getting away with it this time?"

"I don't know. Probably not. You'll be sent to an Azorius court and tried there."

"Okay. Okay, so. We stage an escape." She twisted left and right, suddenly wishing she had enough space to move around, to help her think. "You can slip me a set of lockpicks. When we're in the wagon, I...I can let myself out of the chains, kick the door open, and make a break for it. Easy. Easy, right?"

Selk grimaced. "I don't know. Look, An, maybe this is for the best." He stepped forwards, cupping her narrow face in one hand. "We've got laws for a reason. You do a short sentence, then when you get out, maybe do some volunteer work with the Selesnyian conclave...it might get you back on the straight and narrow."

"Back on the - Selk, I don't want to go back on the straight and narrow!" Anatta cried. "Look, come on. You know we can do this." She leaned forwards in her chains, her lips hovering a hair's breadth away from Selk's mouth.

"We're a team. Right? We've helped each other a lot over the years." The rich scent of sweat and armour polish surrounded her. She could feel his breath against her cheek. "Haven't we?"

He swallowed hard. She could see the doubt in his eyes. Concern. Confusion. Arousal. "Yeah."

Anatta rested her forehead against Cenk's, their noses brushing together. She felt him press up against her, the solid wall of his body rubbing against her delicate frame, and leaned to whisper in his ear. "I know you want this." She hissed, the words low and breathless. "You don't have to be there. You don't have to put yourself at risk. Just make sure I get off with this, and..."

Her knee slipped between the Boros constable's legs, rubbing along his inner thigh. "We'll be getting each other off. You can't say fairer than that, right?"

Selk groaned and pulled back. "Girl, you're a damn piece of work and no mistake."

"Is that a yes?"

He turned, glancing towards the door. "We'll have to be quick. And quiet."

Anatta grinned exuberantly, joy and relief both exploding through her. She still didn't know if it would be possible to make a clean getaway, but she had more chance now than she'd had five minutes ago. And, she thought as Selk began to pull his own armour off, if the condemned were entitled to a last meal, then hers was going to be more than satisfying. Selk's figure was easily as sculpted as his. Muscles formed from years of brawling and street fights flowed and rolled beneath his tanned skin. She lifted a dainty leg and dragged her toes along his rows of tight abdominals, letting out a low whistle of admiration. Her foot slipped further south, ghosting across something burning hot and hard. Anatta was hardly the most experienced of women, but it felt big. Impressively big.

"You know, I think there's books about this sort of thing." She whispered as Selk gently unbuckled her belt and slid her leggings and underwear off. The touch of cool air on her burning, aching nethers drew a sharp breath from the girl. "The big, strong lawman taking advantage of the helpless, tied-up thief?"

Then his hands were at her hips, rough, calloused palms sliding across her smooth skin, fingers kneading her backside. Bound and helpless, there was little Anatta could do but strain in her chains, grinding back against Selk's exploration of her body. She wanted more - fear had strangled her arousal, but Selk's complicity in her plan had stoked it back into sudden life.

"You, madam, are far from helpless." He laughed softly. "And I'm pretty sure I'm the one being taken advantage of here."

Anatta groaned, feeling her breasts growing tight and sensitive under her damp tunic. Every inch of her burned, like static crawling under her skin, screaming out for his touch. Her legs parted invitingly, her lips glistening salmon-pink between her pale thighs. But for all her neediness, Selk made no move to take her. He stood there, cradling her hindquarters in his palms, that lopsided smile spread across his face.

"Selk? Selk, you, uh, said we had to be quick?" Anatta urged. Her heart fluttered madly against her ribs. "C'mon, don't keep me hanging here."

"Oh, I don't know. I quite like seeing you tied up like this." He pulled her closer, and she let out a sudden squeak as his tip brushed over her entrance. "I'm the one who's supposed to be in charge here, but it really doesn't feel like that to me."

"What? You want me to ask for it?" Anatta struggled to keep her voice down. She ached for him, her need desperate and all-consuming. When no answer was forthcoming, she groaned and rolled her head back. "Please? Please, Selk, let's just...look, once I'm out, we'll hook up and you can do whatever you like then, but can we please just - "

Selk thrust into her in one movement, smothering her cry with one hand. He pushed on and on, sinking deeper between her silken lips, sinking into her body until his torso sat flat against her. Anatta quivered and shook in her restraints. She bucked against him, feeling every burning inch of his shaft inside her, stretching her narrow passage as it slid home. The cell was silent other than the soft, rapid sounds of her breathing, and the occasional drip of fluid that slipped free from between their bodies. After several seconds, Selk pressed his other hand against his lips, making a shushing gesture. Head spinning, body seething with pleasure, Anatta still managed to nod, and Selk moved his hand away from her mouth.

"Oh!" She whispered "Oh, fuck!"

"Language, young lady."

"Sorry, its just..." words failed her as she sagged in her chains, her whole body weight falling on Selk's prick, driving it deeper inside her. He wasn't large enough to cause her pain, but the sheer ecstasy of their union was almost enough rob her of her wits. When he started properly going at her...she blinked, shaking the thought away. "By Svogthos, you're sure that isn't your truncheon, right?"

"Coming from you, I'll take that as a big compliment." Selk said.

"Not as big as the one I'm taking." Anatta muttered, and they both snorted with laughter. He rolled her top up, pushing the cloying black tunic over her small breasts and running a thumb over one of her small, pert nipples. She shook her lank hair out of her face and leaned into him, pushing her chest out, baring herself to his hands. This time there was no armour to interfere with her fantasies. Selk shifted inside her, one of his arms wrapping around her torso for support, the other roaming across her skinny chest as he began to thrust. He was slow, measured, giving her time to get used to him. She panted in time with him, his movements swinging her back and forward in the chains, driving her down onto his root and sending a spike of pleasure through her helpless body whenever they came together.

Anatta's mind spun. As a young girl some of her first sexual thoughts, though she hadn't recognised them as such, had been about this man. And while she'd had a little experience with other lovers since blossoming into a young woman, that those strange, half-formed fantasies would come true barely seemed real. Her body arched and pressed against his, her helpless fingers twitching as he took her, fucked her, overwhelming her with his strength and maturity. And all the while her arousal built towards its peak, each thrust of Selk's length stoking the heat that burned inside her.

There came a sudden knock at the door. Selk froze in mid-thrust, a thrill of fear passing through them both. Anatta could feel herself trembling, on the verge of climax. Sweat clung to them both.

"I am hearing sssstrange noisesss." The Viashino hissed. "Isss everything okay?"

"I'm fine." Selk's voice was remarkably composed, given the circumstances. Anatta bit down on the inside of her cheek, trying not to giggle. "The, uh, prisoner was mouthing off about her transfer. Needed to put her back in her place."

There was a moment of silence, then "I ssssee. The wagon will be here sssoon though." And the click-click of claws departing down the corridor.

Anatta and Selk looked at each other, breathing a mutual sigh of relief. "Too close." He whispered, to which Anatta nodded.

"Speaking of which?" She craned up and planted a quick kiss on his cheek.

He found his rhythm again quickly. This time, alert for any sign they were about to be interrupted again, Anatta's mind didn't wander so easily. She lost herself in the visceral, the physical pleasures of Selk's body; the way his muscles bunched under his bronze skin, the play of light over his scarred face, the twitch and throb of his length buried inside her heat. Part of her wished her hands were free to roam and explore, just as his wound their way down her sides to caress her thighs, pulling her deeper onto him as he thrust insistently into her body. But there would be time, she thought, even as she felt her climax approaching. Time enough once she had fled back into the undercity and sought refuge with the rest of her guild.

And approach it did, building and swelling as she rocked in the chains, an expanding knot of light and tension that seethed inside her, desperate for release. "Selk, I'm - I'm gonna - " she hissed, her legs trembling as they curled around the man's hips, dragging him in closer. He nodded wordlessly and slipped a thumb into her mouth. She sucked on it, rolling her tongue around the invading digit as her body grew hot and tight. Selk was hissing through his teeth, his body glistening beautifully before her. He gave one last thrust, burying his prick as deeply as he could. Anatta's legs clenched, locking him in place as he came into her, the sudden flood of heat tipping her over the edge. Biting down on Selk's thumb to quench her scream, Anatta's back arched sharply as the pressure building within found its release, her heart racing as her nerves ignited in a song of pleasure.

They hung there for a moment in silence before the reality of the situation came back to them. Even as her orgasm faded, Anatta jittered with nervous excitement, grinning from ear to ear as Selk unlocked her manacles. For his part, the Boros constable spoke little, and found it hard to meet the girl's eye as they cleaned themselves up and redressed as best they could. Selk passed her a set of picks strong enough to break through her restraints, but brushed her away when she leaned in to kiss him.

"You're sure this is for the best, An?" He said. "You're sure - really sure - this is what you want to do with your life?"

"Come on, you're having second thoughts now?" A despairing look passed over her face.

"No. Well...I'm not going back on our agreement. I just think..." Selk trailed off, then shook his head. "It'll probably be best if I steer clear for a while, just to make sure no-one can prove I arranged your escape. So try and keep out of trouble, okay? Or at least don't get caught."

Anatta gave him another smile, though this one was less pleased with itself. "Okay. Stay by the rot-farms, tend the fungi, don't break into anything until after dark. Got it."

"You're impossible." The manacles were clicked back into place. They took a moment to make sure she could reach the lock, then Selk swung the cell door open and led her to the training ground outside. Another wagon sat there, this time guarded by the blue-and-white warriors of the Azorius guild and led by an armoured Lawmage. Next to them stood the grossly obese Orzhov pontiff she had stolen from, his piggy eyes glaring at her from between clusters of misshapen facial tumours.

"This is her?" One of the Lawmages asked. Selk nodded. "Aye. Passed now into your care."

"Good. Get her in the cart. Come on girl, let's be having you." The doors were swung open. Flicking her greasy hair defiantly over her shoulder, Anatta stepped into the back, her lockpicks already in hand. She caught the pontiffs eye and gave him a cocky grin.

"Come on assholes, let's get this over with." She said. "Like I told your buddies, I'll be out in a week. Tops."

She had just enough time to throw a quick wink of farewell at Selk before the doors slammed closed.