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“Stand up and put this on.” She sounded more stern this time, so I found myself obeying. She unclipped my leash from the wall and led me out the door. We walked through a silent corridor, punctuated by a door every so often. We climbed stairs and walked down still hallways. Marquise opened a door to a new chamber.
“Your new room! Isn’t it pretty?”
It was. It was grand and large and decorated entirely in shades of gray. My eyes didn’t know where to rest. It overwhelmed me and I found myself clinging to Marquise.
“There, there.” She held me close, chill fingers brushing over my naked scalp. “Don’t be afraid. You’re growing up now. Bathe. Eat. Sleep. Tomorrow I’ll fetch you for class and you’ll be a good pupil, won’t you? You’ll make me so proud.”
She unclipped my leash from the collar and hung it by the door, blew me a kiss and left me in that grand and terrible room.
If she hadn’t instructed me to bathe and eat, I likely would have crawled into a corner and stayed there. Instead, I did as she bade me, washing in the warm water left for me, my scalp stinging from the soap and water. A distant part of me observed that not much time must have passed since the shaving.
Time enough.
The food was bland but lacked the tang of the drug. After I ate, I hung up my new dress and slid under the covers, watching the sunset light fade to true night, thinking about nothing at all.
In the morning, I sat nervously on the side of the bed and waited for Marquise, wearing my new dress. She swept in with smiles and a bouquet of flowers for my breakfast table. She watched me eat, praising me all the while, then, when she said it was time to go, attached the leash to my collar and clucked at me to hurry.
She led me to a chamber that looked much like my old cell, except this one gleamed with a metallic sheen. Scourge stood, a black sentinel next to a silver chair positioned in front of a simple table of the same metal. He held the long whip coiled in his dark fist. I couldn’t meet his eyes, terrified to be standing up and walking. Marquise went to stand on the other side of the chair.
“Lady Gwynn, welcome.” Scourge’s gravelly voice rolled across my nerves and I cringed. The silky dress irritated my healing wounds slightly, the whiplashes still raw on my skin. I nodded at him to show my mute obedience and he gave me an approving smile, black teeth gleaming. “We begin with baby steps. We will remove the silver and you will think of nothing. Understood?”
I nodded again.
“Then sit.”
They crouched and removed the cuffs from my ankles, then my wrists, the skin blackened and ulcerated beneath them. Marquise smoothed an affectionate hand over my bristly scalp and kissed me while she unlocked the collar. She and he both wore ornate silver jewelry that stood out against their monochromatic selves.
“Nothing,” she reminded me.
I did this easily.
After all, I had no thoughts to think. I sank into the space I usually occupied, that place without hope or fear. Simply existing until directed otherwise. It came naturally to me now.
“I want something from you, Lady Gwynn.” Scourge’s voice didn’t startle me. I waited for him to tell me what it was. Anything he wanted. He set a white crystal on the table in front of me. “I want this to be black. Make it black for me.”
I looked at it without curiosity, uncertain what they wanted.
“Do you want to please me?” Marquise stroked my scalp, ivory nails light on the tender skin, and I nodded. I did. Oh, I wanted to please them both.
“Take that wanting. Visualize the crystal as black. Connect the two.”
I did. And the crystal turned black.
She sighed approval, petting me. He set the whip aside. I squirmed with joy, then disappointment when they clicked the silver restraints back on me. But Marquise soothed me. This was enough for today. Back in my grand chambers, silent servants brought me food and more flowers, lavish rewards for my small success.
From there the lessons progressed into longer sessions. For days I only turned the crystal from white to black and back to white. Once, I grew a little bored with the exercise and turned the crystal pink instead. Before my horrified eyes even took in what I’d done, Scourge had bodily lifted me and draped me over his lap while he took my place in the silver chair.
Blood rushed to my head and an iron hand held me down. He yanked up my dress and spanked my bare bottom. I wept helplessly, the pain nothing like the whip and yet all the worse for being a child’s punishment. And worse because my body roused to the touch, quickening with a rush of shameful desire. When he finally let me up, I stood before him, hands clasped together, desperately wishing for a voice to apologize.
Marquise stood beside him, one arm languidly draped over the back of the chair, her eyes glowing with arousal.
“Do we even need to discuss your error?” Scourge asked. I shook my head and he stood. “Then sit.”
They kept me there even longer that day, while I fidgeted on my bruised and throbbing rear end. I didn’t deviate again.
I graduated to changing the crystal into different shapes. Different materials.
With each triumph, I received more freedoms. I could wander the castle and even go outside to a walled garden, where I could see the sun and touch living things. They began to invite me to join them for dinner, where I sat at the table while they discussed me.
