The Soul Engine Ch. 14 (Original Fantasy) (Patreon)

A/N: Thayla means well. Just keep that in mind as she puts her, heh, nefarious plan into action.

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As soon as they get down into the basement, Thayla… begins loosening straps on her armor, causing Mikael to blink in surprise.

“… What are you doing?”

Not looking in his direction, the Knight of the Rose continues to remove pieces of her armor.

“I’m evening the playing field, Sir Mikael. This isn’t to be a duel after all, but merely a spar. So we shall both go armorless, and fight with our blades sheathed… if that’s acceptable to you.”

Oh. Yeah, he supposed that made sense didn’t it? After all, he didn’t have armor of his own, not on the same level as Thayla’s. And he’d left the leather jerkin upstairs anyways. Nor did they have wooden practice weapons, not even sticks, so it made sense they would have to fight with their actual blades but sheathed.

Nodding along with this, even his foreign memories in agreement, Mikael leans back against the wall and is careful not to watch Thayla too closely. She’s not really exposing too much skin or anything like that outside of her arms, but even still, it feels a little weird to just stare at her while she’s effectively stripping.

That said, it’s also his first time seeing Dame Thayla Dawnguard outside of her golden suit of armor. The Knight of the Rose has a beautiful face, but underneath that armor… is an equally beautiful body. Firm and fit in all the right places, but also soft and curvaceous in some very feminine ways as well.

Once she’s stripped down to nothing but a loose top and pants, Thayla turns to him, hesitating for a moment. Mikael pushes off the wall and lifts his sheathed sword… but the female knight doesn’t lift hers in response.

“… We should not fight, Sir Mikael.”

Mikael furrows his brow at that, confused by the sudden one-eighty.

“Wait, what? Wasn’t it your idea to come down here for a spar?”

Thayla flushes and looks to the side, uncertainty in every inch of her finely toned figure.

“… Avina said it herself upstairs, no? By fighting those guards and then refusing to fuel the Soul Engine, you’ve weakened yourself somewhat, have you not?”

Tilting his head to the side, Mikael shrugs.

“I mean… sure, somewhat, but nothing too major. I’m just not as strong as I was before. I’m still stronger than a baseline human.”

The phrase ‘baseline human’ might have been a little too modern, because Thayla’s brow creases for a second as she parses the words for a moment before her eyes light up in understanding. But then she shakes her head.

“Ah, but if we were to spar, you would expend even more energy, wouldn’t you? And then your next mission might not go so well. You should conserve your energy, Sir Mikael. Or better yet… allow me to assist you in what little ways I can…”

He was getting a little annoyed now. Thayla almost seemed to be speaking in code, which was more than a little aggravating truth be told. He was used to Avina being mysterious, but Thayla had seemed like a straight shooter. With a bit gruffer of a tone than he probably intended to have, Mikael growls out his response.

“Speak plainly, Thayla. What exactly are you saying? Why did you bring me down here in the first place if not for a spar?”

At that, Thayla looks stricken.

“I… apologies for the subterfuge… and for not stating myself clearly. I continue to fail to exemplify the Order of the Rose’s values.”

Her eyes finally lift to meet his and Mikael sees unshed tears in them as her hands curl into fists at her sides and her jaw clenches for a moment before she speaks.

“… I feel immense guilt over what I did to you, Sir Mikael. Not just because you are a Summoned Hero, but because you are an innocent man. And in killing you, I turned you into a killer in turn.”

He doesn’t quite know what to say to that. Technically it’s true that his death at Thayla’s hands had in turn led to him having to kill Tak and the other two thugs in Avina’s basement. But if it wasn’t Thayla, someone else would have no doubt killed him. That was the whole point of those damn arenas. That was Zadicus Quinn’s entire scam. He was always going to die. It was just Thayla who was slated to be his executioner.

But before he can tell her that… the white-haired woman reaches up and rather ham-fistedly fiddles with the edge of her loose top, showing off some more of her skin and the creamy expanse of her upper chest.

“There are certain things that I could not do for you, even if you asked them of me. My Knightly Oaths will not allow me to harm an innocent, even as recompense for what I did to you. However… there are o-other things you could ask of me. Things that I would be glad to give you… if you wanted them.”

Mikael stands there, frozen in place. He hears Thayla loud and clear, don’t get him wrong. He’s not an idiot, though he does feel a little dense now that he’s just realizing how far she’s willing to let him go. However, Thayla seems to take his silence as confusion, or perhaps irritation that she’s once again dancing around the issue rather than speaking plainly.

Face bright red, the white-haired knight swallows thickly and just comes out and says it.

“You COULD order me to take off my clothes, Sir Mikael. If t-that is what you wished of me, I would obey such an order. A-And any similar orders besides.”

And there it was. Thayla wanted him to… make use of her. Not just as a skilled warrior and a stalwart knight, but also as… as a woman. Mikael finds himself decidedly split on the offer. On the one hand, Thayla was very beautiful and Mikael was only a man. More than that, he was a man with the memories of a bunch of lustful bastards thrust into his head, because the foreign entities are all urging him to take advantage of Thayla’s… generosity.

But on the other hand, Mikael had some weird thing going on with Avina. Sure, they hadn’t put a name to it… and sure, Mikael still couldn’t quite parse his feelings when he thought about their bath time encounter… but even still, taking Thayla up on her offer with be a betrayal of Avina, would it not?

Before he can answer, however, the cellar hatch is thrown open and the woman he was just thinking of drops down into the basement, startling both him and Thayla something fierce. Avina lands in a crouch, before rising to her feet and patting her dress down as she points an accusatory finger at Thayla and narrows her eyes in the female knight’s direction.

“That’s quite enough, Dame Dawnguard. You don’t just get to pull Mikael down here under false pretenses and then try to manipulate him with your body!”

Thayla sputters at that, eyes wide and face redder than ever before.

“I-I was… I would n-never try to manipulate Sir Mikael! I only thought to-!”

“Save it. You’re both incredibly transparent and supremely obvious. Do you think Mikael didn’t see right through you? Do you think that he was oblivious to your aims?”

Both women turn to Mikael at that, Avina’s gaze expectant and Thayla’s gaze downright imploring. But Mikael… Mikael is looking at Avina curiously, his brow furrowed as he glances between the Soul Mechanic and the cellar hatch she just dropped down through.

“Avina… were you listening through the hatch the entire time?”

The already-pale young woman blanches at that, suddenly looking caught out and a little hunted as she fidgets under his gaze.

“N-No… o-of course not!”

Staring at her, Mikael feels like he’s finally putting some pieces together. What was the saying from his old world? There were a lot of different ways to say it. But the one that came to mind, while not entirely applicable to this specific situation, was… whoever smelt it, dealt it. Or more specifically, Avina was accusing Thayla of something Mikael didn’t think Thayla was really guilty of. However… staring into the freckled, raven-haired woman’s eyes, he thinks his Soul Mechanic might be guilty of her own assertion.

If anyone was manipulating Mikael with their body, it was Avina. She’d seen Thayla’s willingness to jump into bed with him all the way back in the original basement, hadn’t she? And worried that it would pull him away from her, she’d chosen to offer herself up on a silver platter first.

A desperate play to say the least. Staring into Avina’s eyes now, Mikael can’t help but be a little bit amused. He hadn’t been entirely unlucky with women back on Earth, but what little he remembered told him he wasn’t much of a ladies’ man. Maybe a one-night stand here and there. One meaningful relationship that he could barely remember.

And yet here he was, with two women fighting over him. Even still, Avina’s deception needed to be addressed.

“So you’re saying that if I went up that ladder right now and checked on the stew, I’d find it boiling away?”

Instantly, he knows he’s hit the nail right on the head. Avina flushes, looking even more hunted than before. Mikael grins at her, wondering what her next move will be. But even with all of his newfound realizations, she still manages to take him off-guard.

Whirling around to face Thayla, Mikael’s Soul Mechanic scowls at the other woman.

“Fine. I’ll let this happen so long as I’m involved. After all… Mikael and I already shared a tender moment just the other day. One where we were… quite intimate. So you see, I’m being magnanimous by allowing you to join in, Dame Dawnguard.”

Thayla’s eyes widen in disbelief, her gaze darting from Avina to Mikael. In the end, he’s forced to concede that Avina is telling the truth by shrugging and nodding, something that makes Thayla’s shoulders slump. For a moment, he thinks she might back off entirely. That’s almost certainly what Avina is aiming for. But then the Dame surprises his impish Soul Mechanic.

“Very well… I appreciate the invitation, Avina. I will… g-gladly join the two of you in whatever way you’ll have me.”

Avina is currently facing away from him, but Mikael can see the surprise in how her shoulders stiffen. To her credit though, it only lasts a moment.

“… Then come over here. And kneel before the man you so callously murdered.”

As Thayla comes over like a beaten puppy, Mikael lets out a sigh and gives Avina a look when the raven-haired woman turns in his direction.

“Avina.”

His voice carries a warning and he can see from the wince she gives in response that she recognizes she went too far. She dips her head in apology, even as Thayla… willingly kneels down on the basement floor in front of him, looking up at him expectantly… hopefully even.

Was this really happening? Had he seriously somehow wound up in a three-way sexual encounter with the woman who brought him back to life and the woman who killed him?

Stepping up behind Thayla, Avina reaches out and grabs the female knight by her hair, gathering her white locks up into a makeshift ponytail. Thayla’s breath hitches as her head is pulled back, her chin jutting out and her neck exposed as she swallows nervously.

“Expose him.”

Thayla does as Avina says, reaching out and pulling down his pants. Mikael’s cock, which admittedly is already half hard at this point, comes flopping out. Thayla goes cross-eyed just looking at it, her breathing growing more and more uneven as she stares at his member until Avina gives her next order.

“Take it in your hands. Stroke it. Pleasure the Hero.”

“Y-Yes… of course…”

Thayla’s hands come up and wrap around his mast. They’re calloused of course, but then Mikael wasn’t expecting silky smooth palms from a woman like Thayla. And… the calloused nature of her hands has an appeal all its own as she slowly, gently rubs them up and down his shaft.

While part of him resents Avina for taking control of the encounter in this manner, a larger part of him actually appreciates it. Because its quickly becoming apparent that Thayla doesn’t have a clue what to do next… and Mikael isn’t entirely sure he’s in the right head space to give her orders right now. But Avina certainly is. She’s eager to, in fact.

“Take him in your mouth. He’s ready now.”

The Soul Mechanic’s voice is a heated whisper at this point, but still carries a tone of authority with it. Mikael realizes as he watches Avina watch Thayla… that she’s getting off on this. The power she currently has over the Dame… she likes it. She likes it a lot. That said, while she still maintains a hold on Thayla’s makeshift ponytail, she doesn’t physically force the female knight to do anything.

Instead, Thayla is the one that leans in and takes him into her mouth, past her spreading lips. All the while, her icy blue eyes look up at him, her gaze one of absolute devotion. Mikael feels bad, but it’s admittedly hard to look back at her. She’s obsessed with him and he’s just beginning to truly realize what that means.

Avina, on the other hand, is a conniving brat, isn’t she? Looking up into his Soul Mechanic’s eyes instead, he sees a somewhat disturbing amount of glee as the raven-haired woman gazes down at Thayla’s efforts to pleasure him with her mouth. Suddenly, an urge strikes Mikael… and this time he doesn’t fight it. Reaching out, he wraps a hand of his own around the back of Avina’s head, carding his fingers through her hair.

She barely has a chance to widen her eyes in surprise before he’s pulled her into a deep and domineering kiss. Honestly, he just wants to make sure she knows that as much as she might have Thayla right where she wants her, he’s not going to be so easy to put under her thumb. Now that he knows she’s manipulating him, he’s going to be on the look out for more of her shenanigans going forward.

That’s what he intends to convey with the domineering kiss anyways. But he’s not expecting Avina to be quite so into it. His freckled, pale Soul Mechanic leans into the kiss and all but melts under the onslaught of his tongue. She moans into his mouth and Mikael finds himself deepening the kiss into a full blown makeout session, rather than ending it after a moment like he originally intended.

All the while, Thayla is still on her knees, trapped between them. Her mouth is still wrapped around his member, and she’s still bobbing dutifully up and down his shaft. Mikael can’t help but groan into Avina’s mouth from the pleasure. The Knight of the Rose is clearly inexperienced with oral, but what she lacks in knowledge, she more than makes up for with her enthusiasm and eagerness to please.

In the end, between the two of them… Mikael doesn’t last long. And with him and Avina lip locked, he doesn’t even have the time to warn Thayla before he reaches his release and blows his load.

“Hulghk!”

The kneeling knight chokes a little as his seed pours into her mouth and down her throat. Mikael finally disengages from kissing Avina and pulls back, leaving his Soul Mechanic with lidded eyes and a flushed face, her lips parted and her tongue trailing after him as he does so. Meanwhile, down below he pulls back out of Thayla’s mouth to give the female knight room to breathe. His seed dribbles down from her chin as she coughs a little bit but recovers admirably.

For a moment, the basement is quiet save for the sounds of all of them panting from the intimate moment. Then, post-nut clarity hits and Mikael finds himself more than a little embarrassed that he just went along with all of that. Still… judging by the looks on Avina and Thayla’s faces, they both enjoyed themselves.

“… Let’s go get that stew cooking, shall we?”

“R-Right… let’s.”

“As… as Sir Mikael commands…”

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A/N: Avina barges in: "She's manipulating you!"

Mikael looks between legitimately guileless Thayla and the much more cunning Avina: "Hey wait a minute..."

Avina, realizing she's in danger of being called out: "Never mind, let's ALL fuck!"

Lmao. The relationships between our protag and the two girls in his life are heating up~

As always, hope people enjoyed the chapter and please let me know what you thought!