[b]The Girlfriend’s Plight[/b]

“W-wait,” Rose tries to squeak, realizing too little too late that she still hasn’t gotten to the “new wardrobe” part of her makeover. But she can’t! The words aren’t there for her! As the Countess (beautiful, terrible, confusing, amazing??) gazes victoriously at the squirming girl being pulled back to the gleaming, ornate manacles (with padded cuffs), just a little too high for her to be able to lower her hands, all Rose can say is: “Chen will save me! You’ll see! She’s the [i]best[/i] at swords, annnnmmmph—!!!”

And that is how Rose ends up on display: slender wrists locked above her head, and her dainty ankles spread; her lovely face swallowed up by blindingly white cloth from the bridge of her nose, just beneath her striking eyes, to just tucked beneath her dainty jaw; her mouth well-packed with frills and lace and perfume. Helpless, without modesty, letting out useless little huffs and grunts as she rattles the chains, twisting this way and that as she agonizes over Keron’s accusation, which must be true, and without her Chen to rescue her...

But not alone. [i]Never[/i] alone. And not ignored, but not mocked, either. After all, she’s here to watch and learn— and how can she do that without an example to learn from?

***

[b]The Dancer’s Lesson[/b]

“My body belongs to my Mistress.

“For her sake, I make it limber, ready to be moved, and for her sake I train it to remember the steps. Without her to drive me, I would say to myself: Thara, this thing, it is too difficult! Perhaps you should go and eat the iced cream today, or luxuriate in sunbeams, or dangle your feet off above the clouds! Anything but mastering your body, making of it a beautiful thing!

“But our Mistress, she knows that my desire to excel is not strong enough to rule my heart. So she takes my desire for her, and she lashes me to it, so that I can follow her to where I want to be, so that I can move for her and she can move me as she pleases. For her sake, I dance; for my sake, she commands me to dance. For her sake, I am alluring; for my sake, she invites me to allure.

“Little sister, I do not bring you a special magic. You can be me, but you will have to want like I want. You have to want to move for our Mistress, and you must want this badly enough to train your body, clumsy thing that it is, to remember the orders you have given it, over and over, until it remembers, until it obeys without thought.

“Good girl. Follow me. My body is your body; my steps are your steps. Even a clumsy girl can learn someone else’s steps to follow. Listen, and I will tell you the secrets of the dance.

“The first is that you must make those who see you wish to touch you. Make of your body a whirlpool, a siren song, a living motion. Draw your witnesses in, remind them what it is to touch and be touched, to move and be moved, to love and be loved. Make your stomach a wave, your hips a wall, and your hands mist.

“The second is that you must not let yourself be held. You must punish an impudent touch and sway away from it, or check it, or invite it to try again, but when you are held, the dance is over. Then you may be of other use; but your honor as a dancer depends on making your Mistress struggle for mastery of you when you move for her.

“The third is that you do not need to speak. Let your body speak for you. Let it say: desire me! Let it say: take me! Let it say: I am yours! Let it say: you must win me! With your beautiful eyes, little sister; with the shine of your navel; with the elegance of your ankles and wrists; and with the bounce of your chest, you lucky thing! To dance is to supersede words, and it is all the better for you to learn like this, unable to give in to the temptation.

“If you practice, my little sister, you may become as graceful as I am. If you make yourself beautiful in your movement, you will not be useless. You will be adored, treasured, and free to submit.

“Good girl. Now, let’s get you dressed properly. The Countess had some very [i]specific[/i] instructions for you, my dear~”

***

[b]The Pirate’s Tale[/b]

“I was a pirate queen, once upon a time.

“I had a fleet of ancient ships, older than the burrows. They were like the Sky Castle, but unlike; they were dangerous little shrikes. With them I controlled the skies from elevator to elevator. Nothing bigger than a bird could challenge me and my Empire of Winds.

“Jessic defeated me. And Jessic saved me. I tumbled, my line cut by a treacherous first mate. I wanted nothing as badly as I wanted not to hit the ground; and Jessic dived, despite the shell and the cannon all around her, to catch me. After the battle, which went on longer under that sky rat, I begged Jessic to enter her service, to be her slave, because I had lost everything I thought I had wanted, and all I had left was hers. And so she asked the Countess, and now the Countess lets my Mistress have me. I am hers; I prepare her tack and I shine her scales. And I have never had to hurt someone ever again, because Jessic keeps me safe, and I can trust her with my life.

“I don’t know why a little thing like you needed to hear this story, but whatever you may have done, you dainty little thing: I’m living proof that the Sky Castle will keep you safe, no matter what happened in your past.

“Now, let’s get to work. Keron tells me you have dainty, useless little hands, but personally? I think these hands are perfect for the sort of things you’ll need to do. I’m a little jealous, even! We’re going to start with folding laundry, which is perfect for a pretty little maid like you. Just remember: strength isn’t in here, it’s in [i]here—[/i] gosh, that jingles a lot, doesn’t it?

“Do you like— haha! Oh, stars above and sea below, you’re [i]precious.[/i] I prefer leather, myself, but you do look very nice in that veil, little sister.”

***

[b]The Artist’s Story[/b]

“When I was younger, I was given a very useless present indeed, and this one caused me to be given another. The first was a gender, and the second was a future.

“When I was young, you see, I stumbled across a broken machine, and I lucked upon the key to restoring it to its old use. It ran for a few months, flickering tape connected to our projector, before its account ran dry. When the collector came to discuss payment plans some time after, the exorcist who defeated it took me in as her apprentice. And I took to it because that was my future: a repairer and, more importantly, understander of machines.

“But the thing was? The machine had been colorcoded inside of its guts: not like to like, but complement to complement. Each component found its home in its partner. Against normal circuitry and code I was helpless; the colors were all wrong. And so I spent my life thinking that I would amount to little more than a second-rate exorcist.

“Indeed, I was so hapless that I was incorporated into a package deal, as my mistress found her match in haggling in the person of the Countess. As the new exorcist of the Sky Castle, entrusted to maintain wards and routers, I was, as you might expect, not particularly talented; the Countess soon realized that she had made an error in that deal. So she gave me a command: a full year and a day on the Sky Castle to discover who I was and who I wanted to be, and if I could not come up with an answer by then, she would send me on my way. And if she saw me wasting a minute of it, she’d put the fear of a sun into me.

“It was the sky, ironically enough, and all its colors. Not just the elevators and the Sunshards but the space in between them. That’s what taught me that I can be the empty space full of colors, too. I can be what defines other things by not being them. And soon enough I’d figured out how to save that on canvas, and in other forms, and when the Countess asked me what my calling was, I said that I was an Artist of Emptinesses.

“And, like most of the girls I meet here, I just want to tell you: don’t let the Countess scare you into being something you’re not. Let her scare you into what [i]you[/i] want to be, like Thara does. You have emptiness inside you, but you also have a [i]fullness[/i] inside you. Find your fullness, like I found mine, and don’t let anyone scare you away from it.

“...fine, I’ve been around enough of you girls to know what those puppy-dog eyes mean. You did a wonderful job of pouring my tea and you sat very attentively to listen, and you are in fact very pretty and demure. If this is who you want to be, Rose, you’re very good at it. But remember that, as scary as the Countess is, she just wants you to have the courage to know what [i]you[/i] truly want. How else can she give it to you?”