Chapter Text
jingle jingle
There it was again. That noise. The bangles on Emmrich’s wrists clinking together each time he lifted his arms to cast. Rhythmically jingling with each graceful movement of his slender hands. The hands that Allegra so loved when they were ghosting promises over her skin as the older man whispered the most vivid filth draped in fanciful vocabulary in her ear, breath teasing the soft, sensitive skin of her neck. “Such a good girl…” he would purr in his musical timbre. “Going by the heightened cardiac frequency and dilation of your pupils, I certainly need not guess the state of your nether regions, my dear…” jingle jingle The bangles would clink as he moved one hand to her neck and one between her legs. “Fascinating. It seems constricting your carotid artery has a direct effect on the muscles down… here .” And he’d plunge his fingers deep, bangles clinking and jingling while he teased her mercilessly, pressed up against the wall in his laboratory.
___________________________________________________________
They had been pla ying this game for weeks. Weeks of secret encounters stolen just before dinner or before everyone set to their tasks each day.
At first, Emmrich would casually follow her, stalk her in the corridors of the lighthouse, coming close only when there was no one else watching. His unnaturally fresh scent of mint and the alcohol he used as disinfectant almost numbed Allegra’s senses until Emmrich was close enough to touch, his deceptively tall and lithe body looming over her.
It started with simple touches.
A long, elegant finger stroking along her jawline, landing on her lip, pulling it down slightly. Not to hold it open for a kiss – just to rest there, until she opened her mouth as if on reflex. Then, he’d chuckle very quietly and pull his hand away. Jingle jingle
Other times it was a touch to the hand. Emmrich’s own fingers stroking along her wrist, down to her palm – until she opened her hand willingly, automatically. And again, he’d pull away with a jingle jingle and chuckle softly.
Sometimes he just directed her gaze upwards and downwards by having her follow his fingers as he moved them, jingle jingle , up and down, left and right, in front of her face. If he was satisfied with the way she complied, he’d pat her cheek before leaving, a content hum on his elegantly curved lips.
Allegra was confused about this behavior but – having had her eye on the older man since the first week he’d lived with them – did nothing to stop him. He was peculiar – a mage, a Mortalitasi. Maybe this was how Nevarrans courted? He generally did not speak much unless asked, and even then only in words that sounded more like scientific treatises than conversation. Maybe he was shy and uncertain whether his affections would be reciprocated?
Only… After a few days, Allegra found it incredibly hard to concentrate on anything when Emmrich was around. She pushed the feelings aside and forced herself to center her thoughts. She probably just had a crush – how silly. It wasn’t until a darkspawn crossbow bolt nearly hit her square in the chest – a hit she should have been able to dodge as if child’s play – that she began to worry. Instead of watching for the enemies’ flanking attempts, a certain jingling sound had absolutely and completely captivated her senses…
///
Emmrich Volkarin had two great loves: the pursuit of magic – and the medical, scientific analysis of the human body. And he had immediately noticed the fascinating way Allegra seemed to react to his presence from the very first time they met and shook hands. He was almost upset that he had worn his leather gloves that day and was thus unable to directly feel her pulse and the heat of her skin on his own. He had noticed the flitting eyes, the timid blush, the pulsing of her carotid under her long, pointed ear, the voice – forced into a lower register, possibly to seem more mature and trustworthy?
Allegra was not what he had expected before she took off her mask and helmet, shaking out her shoulder-length, black hair. In the fight before, she had been an intimidating presence, a ghost tearing through enemies with lethal precision and two daggers. But shaking his hand, avoiding his gaze, was someone not used to the spotlight, someone probably more practiced at following than leading, and uncertain of their new role and responsibility.
In the days that followed, Emmrich felt himself drawn to that contrast, that timid demeanor masking as seemingly absolute authority. He wondered, if anyone else was able to see it. Was he maybe imagining it? He caught her gaze lingering on him during meetings, felt her shrink from his presence when he leaned in close to explain this document or that diagram, could almost hear the thumping of her heart when they were out in the field and she was paired with him to scout ahead through narrow tunnels. And that delicious blush across her cheeks and the tips of her ears… How would it feel to make her forget herself?
Emmrich began doing what he did best and loved most: he studied Allegra.
He started slow, to ensure his advances were not unwelcome. He tested her responsiveness to touch, her willingness to comply, the ease with which he could hold her attention, the way her heart rate sped up and her pupils dilated when she caught his scent. It was so easy to direct her attention, open her mouth, open her hands,… make her open up to him.
Then, one day when they were routing a darkspawn nest, he was casting a Waking Nightmare spell on a group of enemies, when Allegra was almost hit by a crossbow bolt, narrowly blocked by Davrin’s shield. But Allegra did not react, only staring, entirely fixated, at him . Blush in her cheeks, pupils blown wide, arms limp at her sides,… and that delicious mouth… open. Just slightly. Tantalizingly so. The moment passed in the blink of an eye, of course. Allegra shook her head as if to rid herself of an unbidden daydream, gripped her daggers tightly once again, and threw herself back into the fray with a grateful shout towards Davrin.
But Emmrich had noticed. He noticed everything about Allegra. He also noticed how she started avoiding him after that brief moment, no longer letting herself be alone in the winding corridors of the lighthouse, always locking her bedroom door, never being early to meetings or to dinner or breakfast. It was clear she had come to the same conclusion he had – but either by virtue of chastity or insecurity reacted with fear and avoidance instead of the fascinated interest Emmrich felt.
He was, of course, aware that all manner of animals could be trained to react to certain stimuli. Even to such an effect that they reacted to the stimulus without the promise of reward. He had just never considered that people might react in very much the same way. Or, maybe, only certain people did? He began spending more time in the lighthouse’s library, pulling all sorts of Tevinter works on slave training – the only situation he was certain that training people like animals had actually found application – and cross-referencing them with Fereldan writings on dog breeding and training. To interesting insights, on which he took extensive notes. He chuckled to himself when he felt Allegra’s invisible heartbeat nearby, somewhere behind him. Much as she would like, it seemed she was unable to avoid him entirely – and now he had a good idea why. And how exactly he might proceed.
Since becoming aware of Allegra’s predicament with the sound of his jewelry, he had stopped wearing it when she was around. It seemed to put her more at ease, she was less skittish and more reliable in the field – and, of course, he did not want to risk serious danger to her life. Now, however, with the backing of a couple of weeks of research, he began wearing his bangles again.
He jingled them during dinner to watch Allegra blush and forget her meal.
He jingled them as he was walking behind her towards the meeting room to make her stumble into the door.
He jingled them when everyone was sitting together talking, just to see her lose her train of thought, her eyes taking on a glassy sheen.
And, a few times, he jingled them outside her bedroom door at night – just to hear a frustrated sigh and a muttered “Now I’m fucking hearing things… ” moments later.
///
It was like her thoughts stopped whenever Emmrich was around her.
Every time he moved, she thought of that tender press to her lower lip, ghosting touches over her pulse points, the soft caress of her cheek that she wanted to lean into so badly.
Something about the older man was captivating in a way that made her body heat and her mind go numb. She had never experienced something like this before. Sure, she had crushes as a girl, took a few lovers – and targets – as a Crow. But she was, overall, rather indifferent towards it all. She was able to find completion with time and practice, she fancied a pretty man here or there, but there was no great romance, no great fire, like it was described in the Orlesian novels the other Crow recruits her age passed around.
With Emmrich, it had been different from the start. Something like a lightning bolt had struck her the first time she saw him confidently stride towards her, all experienced and self-secure certainty . She had known confident men, over confident men, but Emmrich had a quiet confidence in his every movement – graceful, dancer-like – and his speech, that was impossible to act but had to be felt .
She felt herself react to him, his presence, in a way that was almost foreign – it overcame her like a spell of weakness, and she wanted nothing more than to just surrender to it, feeling, somewhere deep within the source of her basest impulses, that she should .
After about two weeks of relative calm – just a few stolen glances, her watching him research something in the library – it started again.
Jingle jingle
No matter the situation, appropriate or not, she was entirely unable to focus her thoughts on anything except that damned sound. It made her heart race and her palms sweat. She felt her mouth drop open ever so slightly, wetness pooling, as if on command, between her legs, as deliciously painful spasms coiled inside her. A comfortable fuzziness overcame her mind every time, making her stop what she was doing – whatever she was doing – even if just for a moment, in expectation of… something. Something that never came. She noticed herself getting frustrated. She lashed out at the others a couple of times, went to blow off steam with Lucanis more often, and finally sought solace in her own touch at night, shamelessly grinding against her pillow, her mattress, her own hands – anything to satiate this strange urge when she thought of Emmrich’s finger on her lower lip.
She wanted to ask him, talk to him about it, if it was some form of magic, if he was feeling something similar. Maybe it was just the effects of this strange in-between world they were using as their base? But each time she tried to approach him and he turned around to greet her – jingle, jingle – she was left breathing heavily, pulse fluttering, and Emmrich walking away, humming contentedly.
Was this some kind of… Mortalitasi… mind control?
///
He got Allegra to his laboratory with a simple ruse. Careful as she was to not be alone with him, she still would not object to an urgent request for consultation with both resident Crows – in his note he made it seem like Lucanis was also going to be there. Allegra trusted Lucanis implicitly as her sparring partner and senior in the organization. That feeling would overwrite potential suspicion.
He waited in a shadowed corner until Allegra had entered and was checking around the room, then glided smoothly towards the door and closed it with a careful but audible click. Allegra, as expected, whirled around, her face rapidly cycling through panic, discomfort, anger, and embarrassment as she realized the situation.
Emmrich smiled softly and lifted his arm to lock the door – jingle, jingle.
When he turned back around, she still looked embarrassed – but more softly, more… pliably so.
He walked towards her, slowly, intent not to spook her, bangles jingling with every step.
“Rook… Allegra…” He spoke softly, quietly, words to caress her, in a timbre he knew, from observation, she enjoyed. His reward was immediate as he noticed the flush of her skin and her blown pupils that made her eyes seem almost entirely black. “Do you know what this is? Why this is happening?” And he stroked a finger, languidly, along her jaw, tipping her chin slightly upward, watching her almost disappointed wince when he did not direct his touch towards her lips as she expected.
For a moment, confusion flickered in Allegra’s wide eyes. They had never spoken before. Not in these situations. This was new. But he was confident of the hold of his conditioning. And of the fact that she enjoyed it. After all, she had continued seeking him out, never denied him, not even in the beginning when she would have still been able to do so.
She breathed deeply through her open mouth, wetting her pink lips with her tongue, her hands rising and then uselessly falling to her sides again. “I… don’t know… it’s as if… did you do something? To my head, I mean?” A brief shadow of doubt flickered across her face but was easily chased away by a kiss, gentle, barely even there, to the tip of her ear. It made her shiver all over, Emmrich noticed, registering his own hardness at the delectable display before him.
“No, my dear. Well – not anything magical. I trained you. You are – apparently – extraordinarily suggestible – were you at all aware of that fact?” He smiled at her, taking one of her hands in his own, stroking along the inside of her wrist, watching each and every minute twitch, from the tiny gasp that gusted a hot breath towards his face, to the brief stutter of her pulse before her heartbeat picked up a more rapid pace. He already knew the answer to his own question.
///
It was as if she were watching herself from the outside, entirely transfixed and unable to resist the delicious pull the older man’s touches exerted on her mind and body. Each tiny, tender caress of his fingers, although nowhere near the intensity she was used to from previous romantic encounters, sent burning ice through her veins. With each movement of his hands, each jingle jingle of his jewelry, she seemed to sink deeper, until rationally directed thought was only a distant memory. Allegra felt light, flexible, electricity arcing between the older man’s and her own skin. The touch of his lips to the tip of her ear was like a stone falling into a quiet pond, and the rippling waves were soon felt everywhere in her body.
With her remaining bits of conscious thought, she noticed that Emmrich was still talking to her as he gently, carefully, precisely, directed her body, each movement still punctuated by a soft jingle jingle.
“Yes, that’s it, my dear…”
“So soft and open for me…”
He opened her palms and placed them on her head so they rested on her hair.
He opened her stance so her legs were about a foot apart, granting easy access for the older man to oh so very gently drag his fingers in between them, making her gasp and chase the feeling with her hips, at which he chuckled and stilled her movement firmly.
“I know, I know, darling… you’re feeling very good right now, hmm?”
“You don’t even know what’s happening, you couldn’t stop me if you wanted to – isn’t that right?”
Then, he came around to stand in front of her again. She tried to look him in the eyes, say something, ask… something…? But the movement of his fingers drew her gaze downward so she was unable to catch a direct look. Emmrich patted her cheek appreciatively, like one would a dog or a horse, she thought. Gods, why did that make the coiling sensation in her belly more painful? She leaned into the touch automatically, as if it was natural law that she did.
“Such a good girl…” his melodious voice crooned in her ear.
“Maybe you’d like a taste…?”
His finger, just one, moved from her cheek and jaw to her lips. Finally.
She flicked her tongue across them without even thinking, opening her mouth up to him without even needing his finger to exert any pressure. The tip of her tongue collided with his fingertip – was that sharp intake of breath hers of his? The quiet moan – hers… or his? She stroked the finger with her tongue as the older man slowly moved it in and out of her mouth , letting herself feel every ridge and wrinkle, tasting peppermint and salt, closing her eyes. All of a sudden, she wasn’t thinking about a finger at all anymore, and an almost uncomfortable heat rolled through her body, her mind went entirely numb.
///
Emmrich inhaled sharply as Allegra’s soft, wet heat enveloped his index finger like plush velvet, her tongue stroking the digit hungrily, sucking him deeper with every lazy thrust of his hand and every soft jingle jingle of his bangles.
He could feel her rapid heartbeat as if it were his own, the scent of the slickness between her thighs making his erection strain almost painfully against the bonds of his breeches. Her eyes were closed, her face flushed all the way down her neck and up into her beautiful, elongated ears.
And he was utterly fascinated, wanted to push further, test the hold and depth of his control.
The physical sensations were, of course, their own draw. Allegra was beautiful, all soft, milky skin, raven hair, and flexible limbs – but more than that, it was the reactions he could coax out of that body, as if playing a complex instrument, that really excited him, set his blood boiling and his mind racing. A pull here, a push there, and he was able to control just about anything about her, from her heart rate to her very thoughts, it seemed.
He carefully but firmly pulled his finger out of Allegra’s mouth and watched with rapt attention as her eyes – entirely devoid of thought now – snapped open, as her pink tongue lolled out of her mouth and tried to catch her treat with fervent laps and a disappointed whining that sent bolts of electricity straight to his cock.
“Kneel for me, darling.” And he pointed the finger she had been lavishing with attention down towards the floor, his tone and timbre just the way she liked it, because she had been primed and trained on it.
She went down easily and smoothly, tongue no longer extended but that sinful, pink, wet mouth still parted ever so slightly. Emmrich was pleased to note that Allegra kept her hands fixed to her head, just as he had directed her earlier.
“Now, dear,…” He stepped towards her, parted her legs with his foot, and jingled his jewelry next to her ear. “Everything about your body tells me that you want this. If you could see yourself, Allegra… The way your mind seems entirely empty. I am willing to bet that you would bark like a dog for me if I ordered you… why don’t we try…?” He gripped underneath her chin and firmly directed her gaze upwards so her neck was straining and he was the only thing keeping her balanced on her parted knees.
“Bark for me.”
There was the briefest flicker of doubt in Allegra’s eyes, instantly overtaken by lust, as her hips rolled, seeking sensation and finding none, and her almost inhuman sounding barking echoed in the deathly quiet laboratory.
“Good girl, Allegra.” Emmrich purred, leaning down to place another kiss to the tip of her entirely flushed ear. She shivered at the sensation and rolled her hips again, finding no satisfaction due to her parted legs. Her breath turned to open-mouthed panting punctuated by desperate little mewls and whimpers.
He abandoned her there, on the floor, and just regarded her for a few moments.
The way her arms were still raised with hands folded atop her head.
The way everything about her was so utterly open, from her legs to her lips, swollen and tinted more red than usual with arousal, to her entirely empty eyes following his every move, desperate for direction.
This was no longer a game or an interesting experiment.
Emmrich felt a dark tide of desire rising in his chest, threatening to overtake his rational thinking.
He could no longer tell himself that this was pure scientific interest.
He wanted her. He wanted her like this.
Open and pliable and suggestible.
A willing puppet to control.
Was this the logical conclusion of his professional pursuits? Death magic, necromancy, sanguimancy – all aimed at controlling life and unlife. His studies of the human body, its processes and reactions, its curious architecture – useful to decide over healing or death. Or was his professional interest simply the result of his deep-seated, inherent desire for this form of control?
It didn’t matter.
His cock ached with a need he had not felt in many years.
The blood singing in his ears was a definitive sign that he needed this. Now.
He slowly undid the front laces of his pants, felt the cool air hit the head of his erection, already slick with his own wetness. Stepping closer towards Allegra again, he jerked himself once, twice, briefly closed his eyes, imagining the hot dampness of her lips, groaning through his teeth. He brought his other hand up and directed her empty eyes towards his cock with a soft jingle jingle.
“Would you like a treat, darling?” And he watched his purr ripple through her body like a small lighting storm as her tongue immediately unfurled from her mouth again, eagerly straining towards the object of her apparent desire.
He gently grabbed her face with both hands, taking care to stroke his thumbs along the silken ridges of her ears, and brought the tip of his cock to her lips. Her immediate, desperate laps, the way she was trying to bend her head forward to catch him with in her mouth, shot molten steel through his limbs.
“So… eager…” He managed to exhale, a single strand of graying hair falling in his face, immediately slicking with sweat. He felt his lips curl in a bewildered smile – he never sweat. “Now, Allegra,…” He was barely holding his composure as her slick tongue continued to lavish soft attention on his head, hot breath gusting so heavily he felt it in his curls. “ Be a good girl and suck my cock.”
///
jingle jingle
With every thrust in her throat, the sound reverberated in her mind, her entire being.
Jingle jingle
She was faintly aware that Emmrich’s hands were grabbing her head – one from the side, one fisted in her hair, gently pulling, directing her, causing just enough to pain to show her how to move, and how fast.
Jingle jingle
The hardness of his cock was gentle at first – but soon, he was hitting the back of her throat and going even deeper. She had no thought – no choice – of stopping him. It felt so good to not think. The feeling of him sliding in and out of her swollen mouth, spit and his precum drooling down her lips and onto her chest, made her desperate for another kind of stimulation. Her lower belly was a coiling, writhing mass, her clit pulsing rhythmically with every one of Emmrich’s thrusts.
Jingle jingle
“Ah… hah… They way… your eyes roll back… Allegra…”
He exhaled on every word and thrust deeply into her throat, h olding her there, struggling for breath, whimpering around his cock, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. “You’re enjoying this.”
jingle jingle
“Do you want to enjoy it more?”
He pulled his aching length from her mouth, drool spilling onto the floor from slack lips , and gave her a brief moment to nod.
He knew she would nod.
When she did, the satisfaction rolled through him in heated waves.
Jingle jingle
There was pressure between her legs.
Merciful, divine pressure. Sensation. The answer to her pulsing need.
Allegra felt the wetness of her smallclothes against the burning folds of her cunt – but instead of recoiling in shame, she relished the sensation, rolled her hips into it, again and again and again.
Jingle jingle
Emmrich watched, mesmerized, as Allegra rubbed herself on his leather boot.
The very picture of open, shameless devotion.
And it was his work, his research , his attention to detail that had gotten her here, to this moment, where she was willing to so utterly degrade herself before a man she barely even called friend.
With a deep groan, he sank himself back into her greedy mouth, thrusting inside to the hilt, pressing her nose into his curls, enjoying her frantic attempts at gasping for air and the resulting desperate whimpers and suffocated cries.
Jingle jingle
The lack of oxygen was a roaring need in her ears as she desperately tried to draw breath through her nose but never gaining enough, suffocating, being entirely enveloped in his scent. He gave her barely a few seconds of respite before plunging back into her throat again, each thrust seeming deeper than the one before, each hold seeming to grow longer. He r consciousness started to fray at the edges, the remains of her vision blurring in tears and blackness.
Come… I need… to come…
He r body continued spasming against Emmrich’s boot, even when conscious thought entirely eluded her.
Jingle jingle
He was unable to contain himself any longer.
The searing hot wetness of her throat, the caress of her tongue, the vibrations of her mewling and groaning was too much to bear. Holding her head steady, he let the wave of his desire build to its absolute breaking point, the image of Allegra on her knees before him still burning behind his closed eyelids. With a bright, silken moan, he shot thick waves down her throat, making her gag and cough with it, eyes wide, streaming with tears.
Not two heartbeats later, Allegra unraveled as well, falling forward onto his leg, hugging it with both arms, riding the waves of her desire against his boot to its inevitable conclusion. When her body stopped convulsing, he gently grabbed her and laid her on her side on the floor, a gentle smile curling his lips.
He removed all of his jewelry first, then tucked himself neatly back into his breeches.
Allegra stared up at him from glassy eyes, slowly regaining some semblance of awareness.
As he lifted her onto one of his research tables and went to fetch water and moist towels, his mind was singing with ecstasy.
But what had to follow – he was intensely conscious of that fact – was a long, serious conversation.
Emmrich softly brushed a strand of coal-black hair from Allegra’s forehead while gently drawing circles on her back, and hoped – prayed – that his assessments of her over the past weeks had been correct.