MageCrafter - 12. Chapter 12

Kotik was not a happy cat boy later that night. Though he had quite enjoyed himself in the fog of debauchery that was his punishment, he had not really understood why they had made him quite so dirty until Lord Baldric had devilishly informed the Lynxian that he would need a bath.

“As much as I would enjoy seeing you waltz around my father’s estate covered head to toe in my pleasure boys seed, I do believe he would take issue with that.” Baldric had said with a smirk as he led Kotik to a side room with his wrists chained to the base of his tail and his ankles bound together as well so he could not move about much. Instead he was floated along beside Lord Baldric with his feet pointed up in the air and his body parallel with the ground. Kotik understood why he was so restrained when the door opened in that side room and revealed a small bath awaiting him.

It didn’t help matters at all that since this bath was part of Kotik’s punishment, The young Lord had chosen to make the water quite cold, though not cold enough to cause any real issues. Just enough to be unpleasant for the first few minutes of being inside of it.

He saw his Lynxians irises contracted into slits upon seeing that, which he quickly learned being around his sweet little Kotik was a telltale sign that his temper was flaring up.

“Kotik.” Baldric said sternly in a warning tone. The Cat boy winced as his restraints grew suddenly colder, and only heated back up to their original temperature when Kotik’s eyes had reverted back to their original state.

“Sorry, I just really don’t like being around that much water.” He pouted at his master. Baldric bent down and gave his Lynxian a kiss on his mouth, enjoying the taste of seed on him before he pulled back. “I know my sweet, and while I’ll hold to my word normally, I will not allow you to be a stinky cat boy on my property at the same time. Like water or not, you will be bathed and well groomed my little lynxian.”

“I bathe…” Kotik said in a sullen tone as he was passively positioned in the air and lowered into the bath slowly. “I just use a bucket and a washcloth like a reasonable person! What in the blazes do you need all this water for anyway! It’s a crime against nature itself that there is so much of that cursed substance on this planet.”

Baldric laughed at his Kotik’s tirade. “My sweet, you do understand that most living things require water to live right? A human would die within three days if they did not have something in the way of water.”

“I blame the gods for that!” Kotik ranted with his head flailing about as he was slowly lowered, squirming in his restraints, “They could have made this world any way they wanted and they chose to make this vile substance so infuriatingly important! A curse on all of it! Ah! So cold!”

Those last few high pitched exclamations were when his tush and feet were lowered into the bath and caused his matted down tail and hair to frizz out from the chilled sensation. If he had the ability he would have leaped straight up to the ceiling and dug his fingers into the MageCrafted stone to keep himself up there and away from the evil water he was being sunk into.

The young Lord had to cover his mouth and wipe tears out of his eyes from the silent mirth he was having at his young Lynxian’s irrational hatred of water. He had been told he was afraid of water, but it was actually even more hilarious than that. He somehow detested it like the substance was his mortal enemy. That was too adorable for words!

He let his Kotik stew for a bit as he tenderly washed the boy’s body of the copious amounts of cum that clung to his body and hair. His harem had done an absolute number on the boy, leaving not a speck of flesh without their markings. It had been an absolute delight to watch them and his friend Count Raudh make his Catboy so completely messy within his Harem’s chambers, even more than he had originally thought it would be.

Once the cat boy had settled down and his ears were not quite so flat as they were, Lord Baldric took this tender moment to speak to Kotik about something quite important that he needed to understand.

“It’s not your fault by the way.” He said softly to Kotik.

“What is?” The Lynxian said with some confusion in his tone.

“Your first memory. What you had to do to defend yourself when you were so young. That isn’t your fault.” Lord Baldric said in that same soft tone. Kotik did not know what to say to that at all. He drew his knees up against his torso and looked down, growing very still and quiet.

“You were quite young at the time Kotik. At three, you barely have a concept of a sense of self, much less be able to understand something as grave as killing someone. Most three year olds do not have the physical strength to throttle a full grown and from the sounds of it, quite an overweight man either. The only true concept you might have been able to have was that you wanted him to stop hurting you, that was all.”

Kotik’s eyes were watering now. Lord Baldric kept washing him tenderly, letting his Lynxian just listen to him talk.

“Even what you did later in life wasn’t your fault. I did research on The Silbel Strangler after you informed me you were him Kotik, and you did not seem to kill on a consistent basis. Your kills were quite sporadic, no consistent dates, no consistent locations. You didn’t kill them right away right?”

Kotik had tears flowing out of his eyes as he stayed silent and let Lord baldric continue to wash him.

“You were not some vile serial killer this kingdom wants to make you out to be. You were a child who had a whole lot of strength and learned a defense mechanism at a dreadfully early age that told you that threats need to be killed to make them stop hurting you. I cannot even begin to imagine the kind of trauma that would have wrought on your mind. It only makes me more infuriated at this country that they would have forced someone as sweet and adorable as you to do such a thing without even understanding what it even means to kill at the time.”

Lord Baldric turned Kotik’s face by the chin and had him look at Lord Baldric. “You understand now however. Not only do you understand now, you have been granted great power and authority by the Pantheon of Wood as well.” He made his tone equal parts serious and comforting.

“You cannot allow your past to control you like this any longer, which is why I want you to learn how to control your anger with my friend. He is a teacher of a way of life that specifically deals with harnessing and controlling emotions like rage into more productive uses. You and I do not have the luxury of allowing mistakes of childhood to dictate our actions like a normal person.”

He drew Kotik’s attention in front of him and made an illusion form above the water while he cleaned the boy. It was an illusion of a strange figure in a white suit and a featureless white face. In its hands was a walking cane and a silver rapier. What was especially striking was how small the figure was, smaller than even Kotik was now.

“What you are looking at right there Kotik,” He spoke softly as he began to wash the boys hair and lynxian ears, “Is one of the biggest blunders I’ve made in my life.”

“I didn’t think you could make mistakes Lord Baldric. I was beginning to assume you were some flawless being.”

“Are you joking my sweet Kotik,” Lord Baldric quipped, “My shaft alone has caused me more problems than I care to admit. I may be smart, but that thing between my legs still manages to get me in quite a lot of trouble from time to time.”

Kotik giggled even as he calmed down from his wave of emotions. He kept staring at the illusion of the strange white figure and cocked his head.

“What is this person? Is that you? Why are you wearing a mask?”

“I thought it looked cool.” Lord Baldric said simply, with a hint of sadness in his voice. “You see Kotik. Unlike you, who had no real concept or fault with what you were doing growing up, I was much more cognizant of myself and the consequences of my actions when I was younger. I do not think it will come as a surprise to you that I was considered something of a genius in my youth.”

He had the illusion flourish out its rapier and do some sweeping motions through the air, showing off its whip like abilities as it mowed through enemy forces that faded in and out of existence in the bathing room.

“At the time, before I was a MageCrafter, I wanted to take on all the evil of the world head on. I thought I knew better because I was a child prodigy like everyone kept telling me I was. With the help of Shahnaz I, in my childish way of thinking, thought if I just killed all the bad guys it would fix everything. I was so smart, and so capable, but yet so completely and utterly naive at the same time.”

The world around the bath shifted. While the confines of the bath remained, the world around it became a series of daring missions performed by this lone white figure who took down one criminal base after another.

“You look so cool in these!” Kotik exclaimed as he watched how his master dispatched his enemies even as a young child. Lord Baldric smiled sadly.

“I felt that way too. I thought I was doing a lot of good at the time. I killed a lot of bad people in that time of my life, a lot more than you killed as the Silbel Strangler my sweet Kotik.”

Lord Baldric sighed. “But it was as my actions as the Faceless Wight that I learned the dreadful ramifications of not looking at the bigger picture and only attacking surface level problems. It was this part of my life that I now only look on with much embarrassment where I learned in part why acting without considering the consequences of what I am doing can lead to devastating outcomes.”

Kotik looked at Lord Baldric in confusion. “But you killed bad people right? Why would getting rid of bad people have bad consequences?”

“I would have said the same thing at the time.” Lord Baldric said solemnly, “But I had to learn this very harsh lesson through experience, whereas you can learn it through me.”

The scene around the bath shifted to an expansive view of the world from high in the sky. It gave Kotik mild vertigo with how disorienting it was looking down at the world while being seated as he was. His brain was telling him he should be falling even when he wasn’t.

“As the Faceless Wight, I waged a guerrilla war against criminal organizations throughout the world, using the Bavaram Circus as my mode of travel as I went from country to country and sniffed out the local bad elements there.” As he spoke, he highlighted several spots with red dots on the world where he had attacked. Kotik was amazed with just how many dots Baldric made, hinting at how active he had been at the time.

“I would find a target of my liking that would be sufficiently bad enough for me to mark it for our next mission, and then Shahnaz and I would plan our attack strategy accordingly. For the first few months, I felt like a hero of old performing a service to the world under the cover of a secret identity. Shahnaz wasn’t thrilled with what we were doing, but she liked making my gear and found joy in telling me what each one of our new trinkets did. It was like a big game to us.”

Sadness and a small dash of bitterness crept into Baldric’s tone as he kept talking. “It was when we came back to those various countries in the Bavaram circus that I was truly starting to understand what mistakes I was making however.” He let out a deep sigh. “You see Kotik, one cannot simply wipe out some bad guys and then leave, and expect the situation to end happily ever after.”

He looked his Lynxian in the eyes with genuine sadness and some shame in his own face. “I created power vacuums wherever I struck Kotik. While I got rid of one big bad guy in a given country, the smaller fish that were around that centralized evil began to wage a bloody war for power to replace them. What I found when I came back to the countries I thought I was helping was criminal civil wars that ended up hurting so many more innocent people than were ever being harmed before I had stepped in in the first place.”

New dots formed on the map, a lot more dots than the red ones he had originally made to represent his original missions.

“Then, I tried desperately to fix that mistake, fight even more battles, killed even more bad people, and it wasn’t long before I realized I was not only running on a hamster wheel and getting positively nowhere fast, I was actively making the problem worse.”

He spoke gravely to Kotik as he continued to wash him, “The people who replaced the evils I killed were smarter, they learned how to adjust to something like me threatening their interests. I was creating an arms race where none existed before. All because I wanted to play a childish game and act impulsively as what I thought was being a hero.”

He stared off into the distance as he held Kotik, “I will admit I cried quite a lot when I realized I couldn’t fix what I had broken so badly. I felt so lost. All that intelligence, all that bravado, all that training, and yet I couldn’t fix the messes I had made. I was only too eager to return from the Bavaram circus to flee back home from my shame.”

He zoomed the representation of the world down to Silbel, and brought the bath they were in level with a child version of Lord Baldric who was crying miserably and lost inside of a white fog. It was probably the thickest white fog that Kotik had ever seen outside of Baldric’s Lair.

“Then I became a MageCrafter. I thought, maybe, Maybe now I could fix it. Now that I had more power as a True Dominion MageCrafter of Water that I could learn the powers and really fix what I broke.”

He looked down at Kotik and smiled at him, “It was during my time trying to figure out how my powers even work, stumbling into abilities like being able to breathe in water, move through water at extremely fast speeds, and similar feats, that I got possibly the worst verbal thrashing in my entire life. I don’t think a living being has scolded me quite so thoroughly as HE did.”

Kotik looked absolutely shocked as well as somewhat amused. “Wait what? Someone scolded you? But nobody scolds you! I don’t even think your dad scolds you! Who would even try?!”

Baldric laughed at that and hugged Kotik. “Honestly I probably could use more of it, cause I make some pretty dumb mistakes sometimes for being a supposed genius. However you are correct, I am usually not one to get scolded. It is a privilege of my station in life. I also do not usually let on that I make mistakes with my training in the Bavaram Circus. You need to command your audience's attention and respect, and you cannot do that if they think you are fallible and aren’t every bit the showman you want them to think you are.”

He smirked at Kotik, who was now much cleaner. “Now I do warn you Kotik, the person I am going to show you is probably not someone you are going to like. For you see,” He leaned in to Kotik and touched his nose with his Sweet's own as his eyes glinted with mirth, “The person who gave me that verbal thrashing was King Morcant, The King of the Undersea Kingdom of Triton.”

Kotik let out a Lynxian hiss and turned away from Baldric. “You’re going to make an Undersea illusion!? Truly you have the powers of the demons themselves!”

Baldric laughed and petted his aggravated Lynxian, scratching him behind the ears as he settled him back down.

“That’s why I have you restrained my sweet. I don’t want you thrashing about with that strength of yours. I am not quite as durable as my friend Raudh after all.” He quipped teasingly. “Plus you quite enjoy being chained up. Don’t think I don’t notice how you don’t really fight those shackles when I put them on you. If you really wanted too I’m sure you could break them.”

Kotik flushed and squirmed in the water, looking around sheepishly at the observation and only confirming the assertion more.

With a flourish of his hand, Lord Baldric created Kotik’s worst nightmare.

Deep beneath the ocean floated a nude child Baldric who was exploring an undersea kingdom while zipping about at great speeds in the water. The citizens, blue people with strange tentacle like lower bodies, seemed to take great interest in the human lad who seemed to be able to zip around the oceans depths like he had been down there his whole life. After some verbal exchanges with the blue people, which Kotik realized were quite huge, each one roughly twelve feet in height on average, they elected to lead the Child Baldric to a palace far into the distance made to look like Coral reefs made of the finest of gold.

The scene shifted into a dark throne room, where an enormous tentacled beast with an equally enormous beard sat upon an expansive throne that seemed to fade into blackness beneath them. This being made Babica Preja look tiny in comparison. He was so much larger in comparison Kotik had to wonder if he could casually pick up the Hag Giant in one hand. Everything about this imposing figure from it’s enormous muscled upper body to the tentacles of his lower body that seemed to extend out for leagues would have made the poor Lynxian wet himself had Baldric not have prevented that discreetly beforehand.

It’s face was one of the most intimidating things Kotik had ever witnessed. It was so powerfully masculine with a strong nose and thick cheekbones, and his beard seemed to billow out from his face and extend down his impressively muscled torso into eternity in the blackness beneath this behemoth of a figure and the oh so tiny child Baldric floating in front of him. The Giant’s eyes were glowing orbs of white, piercing the deep shadows of his face as he stared down at the young human child before him from upon his throne.

“Vicar of the Pantheon of Water, It is good that you should come before me this day, for we have much to discuss.” Kotik could not press himself any further into Lord Baldric and make himself any smaller if he tried as he stared wide eyed at this unfathomably huge creature before him.

“I do not understand what you mean? I am just a MageCrafter.” The child Baldric said, and to Kotik’s surprise and slight appreciation he sounded actually nervous and trembling himself.

“Yes,” the creature intoned, “ that is the word you surface dwellers use now for being a representative of the Gods isn’t it. We of the Undersea Nations do not agree with such titles however, for it obfuscates the true nature and responsibility of what such an appointment means.”

“Are...are you a god?” The child Baldric asked, his body shaking in the presence of such a creature. The enormous figure shook its massive head, never taking its glowing white eyes off of the boy as it leaned forward on its throne.

“No boy. I am The Vicar of the Goddess of this Sea, Muirenn. Or what you surface dwellers would call a MageCrafter of Water derived from this particular sea. I represent my goddess as the King of Triton, and I dole out my Regalia to her Subjects accordingly.” He lifted up his massive and immensely muscular blue arm and called forth a Triton made of concentrated water that seemed to glow with just as much white energy as his eyes.

“You boy, as baffling as this may seem to your minuscule life experience and ill informed education of this realm, are currently of a higher status than me. For you are not the Vicar of one god or goddess, but the entire Pantheon of Water Deities. They entrusted you with that title when they saw the potential within you.”

A tone of anger crept into the massive figure as his massive black tentacles surrounded the boy and his face grew closer. Each tentacle was so large and thick that they put most any tree Kotik had ever seen to shame. If this figure ever came to the surface world, every surface dweller would swear they were facing the end of the world itself upon seeing him. The fact that something so massive hid beneath the depths of the ocean only made it that much more horrifying to behold.

As those Tentacles rose around child Baldric like bars in an underwater cage, the Giant King continued.

“This means you need to treat your station accordingly." The Blue behemoths tone grew quite deadly serious, "I have heard tales through our scrying efforts of what you have been doing while simply being a mere Subject of one of the Goddesses of Illusion. I will be frank with you boy,” He growled, making the ocean tremble as he spoke his next menacing words, “I am not impressed.”

“W-What do you mean?” Squeaked child Baldric, shrinking away from the tentacled Giant.

“If you haven’t already done so, cease this foolishness you have been doing as what some of the scummier surface dwellers called ‘The Faceless Wight.’ Whatever you were before boy, that is below your station now. I will not have the Emperor of the Seas masquerading as an undead for his own childish amusement. Do we have an understanding boy?” The way the king said boy hinted that he would like nothing more than to smite the child before him where he floated.

“H-how do you kn-know about that? No one has figured out who I was before!”

“Boy,” The King of Triton growled contemptuously at the child Baldric before him, “you were a pitifully sized fish splashing about in an even tinier pond,” The massive figure snarled through his flowing beard as he added his next words with utter disdain lacing every syllable, “splashing that you couldn’t even manage properly I might add.”

Child Baldric visibly flinched at that, his failures as the vigilante still raw on his emotions.

“Do not think so highly of yourself that someone with actual power and authority could not do something as trivial as glean through that paltry disguise of yours.” The blue figure seethed out as he continued, glaring the boy down as the ocean trembled at his next words, “You will immediately cease that foolishness if you are to be The Emperor of the Seas. Is that understood, BOY?”

The way he said boy with such forcefulness made Kotik actually flinch and push into Lord Baldric further as he watched the illusion with wide eyes. He had no idea there were such terrifying creatures hidden in the depths of the ocean. It made him even more alarmed at the Oceans taking up so much of the planet than he already was.

“B-but, What do you mean Emperor of the Seas? Why would I get a title like that?” asked the confused and quaking child, who clearly was concerned he was going to get killed by this imposing creature at any moment. That fear seemed quite justified cause it did not seem this King would have let Baldric live if he had anything to say on the matter. His respect for his goddess was possibly the only thing staying his hand from ending the boy utterly right where he floated.

The King of Triton laughed dryly at the boy's fright tinged question. “I asked myself the same question boy, cause My Goddess Muirenn above knows I wouldn’t have given it to some surface dweller brat. Especially not some short lived human one.”

A massive hand that wasn’t holding the glowing white trident of water moved from the throne and pointed at Child Baldric. Even the tip of his Blue finger was bigger than the boy.

“However, it is not my place to question My goddess Muirenn or her fellow Water Deities. It is my place to represent her as her Vicar. Just as it is your place to represent them all.” The massive King leaned back and his tone actually softened a bit.

“In truth I do not envy you the position at all. To be a representative of all the deities of a lesser pantheon is to bear the responsibility of acting on their will in this world. What makes that even more imposing is you cannot speak directly to the deities to even find out what that will be. You have to figure that out through meditation inside of a Lair of your own creation. A Lair you will need to make fairly quickly if you ever plan on doing your job as Vicar of the Water Pantheon properly.”

“Wh-what if I don’t do it properly?” Child Baldric squeaked out, clearly dreading the implications of their being such massive strings attached to his new powers.

A menacing grin came on the Bearded King’s massive and deeply shadowed face. “Boy, trust that what is given can be taken away.” he sounded like he would like nothing better than to see that happen, “If you fail so miserably that the Pantheon rescind your title as their Vicar, trust that there will be no place safe on the surface or under the sea for you.”

The King’s voice grew louder now, booming his next declaration. “I will not tolerate someone dishonoring my Goddess or her fellow deities! You have privileges and leeway you can enjoy of course, Being a ruler will always bring such perks, and No God or Goddess would expect you to abstain from the pleasures of life.” His hand shot out and pointed at the boy again, disturbing the waters of the sea as he did so, “However, when it comes to the duties of Emperor of the Seas and Vicar of the Water Pantheon. Well... “

The massive face flew forward at a blinding speed till he was right up in the face of the tiny Baldric who let out a shriek, glaring him down with his glowing white eyes. The anger in the Giant blue face made Kotik terrified even when he knew it was not really happening.

“Lets just say I expect a better performance out of my Emperor than this nonsense you were doing before you gained this title. I expect you to take your new station in life very seriously boy, or I will personally make it my life's mission to make you regret it should you fail our pantheon. Is that understood boy?”

The quaking child Baldric nodded fiercely, unable to speak.

The Behemoth of a king leaned back and settled his black tentacles down. “You will not be without aid however. I will not have our Emperor be educated in the ways of the wayward surface world. You shall have proper training and education in the ways of a Ruler. If you are even half of what my Goddess must think you are, you should take to the lessons quite quickly. Trust however, that I will be monitoring your progress and even teaching some of your lessons personally.” The King of Triton let his voice grow very imposing and dark, “You had best impress me boy.”

As the illusion faded, Lord Baldric comforted the shaking Lynxian in his arms with a smile on his face. “And that, My sweet Kotik, is part of the reason why I don’t find Babica Preja quite so scary. My teacher is a hell of a lot scarier than she is.”

“You do realize you’ve made me hate water even more now right?” Kotik squeaked out, which only made Lord Baldric let out a booming laugh as he finished cleaning his Lynxian off.

“I do believe this should also answer your question you had in our first magic lesson.” Kotik looked at Baldric in some confusion before Lord Baldric jogged his memory. “You had posited that it was bad that The Kingdom of Silbel has been collaring every magic user if they are appointed by the gods. You would be very correct in your assertion, which is part of why you do not have a standard Silbel collar on your throat.”

He could see that Kotik was still reeling from what he had witnessed, so settled on kissing his now quite squeaky clean Lynxian on the top of his head between his cat ears. “While we will go over exactly what ramifications the actions of Silbel really have on the bigger picture, know that I take my role very seriously, even if it seems like I am joking a lot of the time. As The King of Triton said, I am allowed to enjoy the pleasures in life, but I cannot allow those pleasures to hamper my ability to perform my duties.”

Kotik had a dawning realization as he looked at Lord Baldric. “Wait, you said I’m a True Dominion MageCrafter, or this Vicar thing as well right? Doesn’t that mean I also have all those responsibilities as well?!” Kotik sounded quite alarmed at that realization.

Lord Baldric smiled. “Oh almost definitely. I’ve been waiting for a True Dominion to awaken to assist me for a reason after all. Like I told you, Kotik, not only were you approved by the Pantheon of Wood, you were approved unanimously and quite forcefully at that very moment your MageCrafting activated in that cart. The Pantheon of Wood must have some big plans for you. We are to act in opposition of the Silbel government and do so properly. The fact that we are so perfect for each other only strengthens my belief on that front.”

Kotik blushed at that declaration that they are perfect together. He liked hearing that from Lord Baldric quite a lot and it made him lean back against the older teen with a warmth in his chest.

“For now, I do not want you to worry about responsibilities like that just yet. You need to learn the lessons of Magic from me, and I believe the Way of the Barbarian from my friend Raudh. Oh and if my friend should make you agitated,” he leaned into Kotik and cooed his next word in his ear, “the best way to deal with him is to simply flirt with him or suck him off in some nearly public place. He’ll get flustered real quick.”

Kotik flushed and squirmed at that suggestion, briefly imagining doing something so daring as that in public. “An-and you’re okay if I do that?”

“My sweet,” Lord Baldric cooed, “Not only am I okay with that, I expect you to give me the oh so juicy details after the fact. I said this would be an open relationship, I would be the shining example of a hypocrite if I were to bar you from enjoying the perks of such a relationship while indulging in them myself. Also, if there was a pleasure boy you were particularly entertained with from my harem earlier, feel free to summon them for your enjoyment going forward. I’m sure any one of them would be happy to play with you again.”

Kotik’s face was beet red as he nodded rapidly at that idea. He might just take his master up on that offer!