Thomas used his magic to quickly repair the temple. It wasn’t perfect, after all he had no real knowledge about architecture, but he had piled the stones to form walls and had somewhat put the altar back together. It was just enough to protect the artifact from the wind.

  Once he was done, he got out to find Simon with an uncomfortable look on his face, standing next to the blonde familiar with a huge smile. When he saw the Shaman, the boy ran to him with a delighted expression.

  “My love, my destiny, finally we meet !”

  Thomas furrowed his brows and looked at the commander who shook his head. Fantastic, the new familiar was a crazy one ! He sighed and ignored the boy.

  “Let’s quickly repair the artifact and move.”

  The boy, far from being offended, got even closer.

  “My name is Alexei, I am your devoted servant !”

  “If you take even one step closer, I’ll blow your head off.”

  The Shaman’s eyes were serious and menacing, but the boy ughed it off.

  “You are so funny ! Okay, I’ll wait for you. You are probably busy with something important. I’ll go back to the vilge to take my stuff and I’ll meet you here afterwards !”

  With that, he ran off without waiting for an answer. Simon walked towards the artifact.

  “Let’s get it done before he comes back, he makes me uncomfortable.”

  “Me too.”

  Thomas followed after him. They were quite exposed, with no doors or roof, and the air was freezing, so the knight hesitated. Seeing him stop, and his hands shaking, the Shaman silently raised a barrier, and the temperature immediately went up. It was also like a cocoon, very opaque, and the outside scenery of the piling snow was repced by a comforting pink light. Simon turned to look at him.

  “You act like you don’t care but you’re pretty nice !”

  “Shut up.”

  The commander smiled and walked towards the altar while Thomas was turning around.

  “You need help ?”

  “Are you talking about the thing you did st time ? The ‘sex toy’ ? I would be grateful but ask Bael first.”

  Simon knew very well that nobody was here except them, but Thomas seemed to have hallucinations since he had changed the cigarettes. He saw Bael next to him at all times, and the knight didn’t know if it was right to comfort him in his delusions, but if it helped Thomas to cope he was ready to talk to an imaginary being.

  While taking his armor off and lowering his pants, he heard mumbling behind him.

  “I know… No, I told you, he’s nice. Are you jealous ? Of course…. Well, if you say so. Okay.”

  The commander felt his heart sink. The stronger drugs seemed to do Thomas some good, as he seemed less gloomy and didn’t hurt himself as much, but it was only on the surface. It was quite subtle, but the Shaman’s movements were slower, more sluggish, and there were hallucinations. It felt dangerous. Anyway, he couldn’t do anything about it except be as quick as possible, so he leaned against the altar and put a hand between his thighs. Before he could move, however, he felt some warmth behind him.

  “Bael says it’s okay and I should learn. Tell me how you do it.”

  Simon turned his head vividly, surprised by the situation, and stopped breathing. Thomas had already started to change into a beast, his face was deformed, however they hadn’t started the circution yet, it made no sense. More than that, his usually bck pupils were lighting up with a pinkish hue. He wasn’t totally himself. Then Simon remembered the strange paper he had seen in Thomas’ bedroom : ‘Repairing artifacts makes me stronger. I am becoming the Shaman.’ Was that why he was right behind the knight, looking at his naked butthocks when normally he would have been disgusted by this sight ?

  “No, you shouldn’t..”

  But he couldn’t finish his sentence because Thomas had put his hand on the inside of Simon’s thigh, slowly caressing his way up. The knight bit his lip, trying to control the shaking. The fingers were cold, gcial, but the touch felt like fire, burning him from the inside. It was probably his familiar nature that was reacting, but it felt overpowering, dangerous.

  “Thomas, please, don’t…”

  The commander was trying to push the hand away, but the Shaman was stronger, using a finger to caress the inside of his buttcrack. Simon tried to swallow a moan, but eventually his legs were shaking so much that he had to use both hands to hold onto the altar, his stomach ying on it. It made his rear end stick out even more, and Thomas didn’t miss the occasion. He slipped a finger inside Simon’s anus and started pying with it.

  “Ah… No… Thomas… You’ll regret this ter, stop !”

  But he didn’t seem to hear him anymore. He slipped another finger inside, even farther, and pushed on the walls of the knight’s intestine, whose penis was throbbing. Simon was trying to hold on but it was no use, the touch felt like nothing he had ever experienced before and despite all his will, he was unable to push Thomas away. Soon, his brain was foggy and he was unable to form a coherent thought, only screaming in pleasure as his back arched at each movement of the fingers inside him. He came once, twice, until he didn't know anymore, the pleasure was turning into pain and he was drooling on the stone altar, his face in a mess. Then Thomas took out his finger and he felt something else against his anus, something bigger. That’s when suddenly he had a spark of lucidity. In front of him, the artifact was shining bright, completely repaired. And a voice was resounding in his head. ‘I trust you.’

  Simon kicked Thomas’ legs with as much force as he could, in a desperate attempt, and the Shaman was sent flying back in a cloud of pale blue light. The knight stood, disheveled, confused, holding onto the altar with his pants lowered, mumbling with bated breath :

  “I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop you… I tried… Don’t hate me… I’m sorry…”

  He slowly started to regain his sanity and assessed the situation. He used a piece of cloth to clean himself up and used snow to make the sticky stains disappear from the altar. Then he made sure to put his armor back on and to look decent before walking back to Thomas. The Shaman wasn’t hurt at all, but for some reason he was still ying on the floor, motionless. He was more or less back to normal, his face was one of a normal human being, and his open eyes showed no signs of pink light.

  Simon took the time to clean Thomas’ hand and put his pants back on when he heard a whisper.

  “I almost did it… I almost jumped you on my own will… What the fuck…”

  The knight shrugged.

  “It’s not your fault. It can happen. But I pushed you back, so everything is alright. Don’t worry about it.”

  Thomas slowly sat up, looking at the bulge between his thighs.

  “It got up for the first time. It feels terrible.”

  “It’s not the most comfortable feeling, but it’s not something bad. You shouldn’t worry too much about it.”

  Simon was trying to appear calm and detached, but his heart was still racing. During a moment, when he was losing his mind to the multiple orgasms, he had wished for Thomas to really pound him, to come inside him, even if he was to regret it and hate himself afterwards. It was such a selfish and shameful thought that Simon felt disgusted in himself. If Thomas didn’t want it but was forced to by some invisible force, it was still rape. It wasn’t right. And he had wished that upon the Shaman. It was wrong on so many levels that he couldn’t even start to forgive himself. He was a terrible person.

  Thomas shook his head, as if to put his thoughts back in pce.

  “Thankfully you stopped me. I would have wanted to disappear if it really happened.”

  Simon’s eyebrow twitched, but he responded with a calm smile.

  “Of course, you trust me so I must do my best !”

  They both stood up, and even if Thomas was acting like everything was fine, Simon couldn’t help but notice that his whole body was shaking. Even his shoulders seemed to vibrate, and he had the pale and sweaty face of a sick patient. But the knight couldn’t say anything. They had started all of this knowing how dangerous and damaging it was going to be, they couldn’t back up now, or the consequences would be even worse. Instead, he walked out of the temple first and held out his hand with a serious expression.

  “Where are we going now ?”

  Thomas clenched his jaw, as if to keep his head straight.

  “The exact opposite, the next stop is a desert.”

  “I should probably put on some lighter clothes, right ?”

  The Shaman shook his head.

  “I’ll take care of it. Let’s not waste a single second, I need this to be done quickly.”

  He took Simon’s hand and they flew away.