Consorts for Ladies Ch. 04

"You depend on being noticed, don't you?" asked Olivia, returning to the stroking of Daisy's chest, only the middle, nowhere more sensitive than that. "Obviously, you depend on it now. If I were to forget you here, all chained up like this, you could honestly die. But even when you seem to be walking around free, with ready access to food and water and all the dull necessities of life, you feel just the same, don't you? It feels as if your next breath hangs on someone else's distractible, unreliable gaze. As if, at any moment, you could slip out of the thoughts of all other living beings, and then out of existence altogether. You can't seem to fend off the threat of indifference, no matter how good you are."

Claustrophobic tension pressed down on Daisy's chest... something the bindings alone had not been able to prompt.

"You're safe here," Olivia told her with absolute authority. "I find your goodness captivating."

Warmth replaced the pressure.

"Tighter," Daisy dared to ask. "Please?"

"Because you asked so nicely..." Olivia gave the crank another slow turn.

The next few thunks lifted Daisy off of the frame and suspended her between the taught chains. As measured as Olivia's adjustment was, the machine's rough, easy motion made Daisy feel like flower petal tied to two carriages. Her body was insubstantial, not even a minor consideration to the capacities of the gears.

"Those candles are heating up nicely," Olivia informed her, craning her neck to see. "They'll be getting as wet as either of us quite soon. Are you looking forward to that?"

"Yes," said Daisy, watching the lights flicker against the ceiling with nervous anticipation.

Olivia reached up and put her hand on the upper rack that held the candles. She rested her weight on that hand, upsetting the candle rack's balance exactly as it had been built to be upset. With just a few degrees of incline, the candles sputtered noticeably, and within a matter of seconds, the first drop fell and hit the sensitive skin of Daisy's rib cage.

The burn was harsh enough that she could feel her body trying to jerk away and shield itself. Within moments, however, the scorching heat faded to a comfortable warmth, and the wax hardened into a protective shell over nearly but not quite burnt skin.

Another, larger drop hit her upper thigh and seared its way along the inside edge, touching the opposite thigh while it was still hot and runny.

The lesson repeated itself, drop by drop: her urges of self-protection were unnecessary. She was in safe hands that would grant her only as much pain as was good for her. All she needed to do was take it.

"Is this the sort of blameless rough handling you've been missing?" Olivia asked her.

"Yes!" Daisy moaned, lost in the torturously slow cooling of an especially long drip, which had landed on her left breast, sending wax tendrils down the edges like a spider's web.

"Pity," said Olivia, brushing dust off her armor with her free hand. "The machine does almost all the work. Hardly anything for me to do at all."

Daisy lifted her head, one of the only parts of her that could still move, to drink in Olivia's presence. Even if the machine had been able to do everything by itself, it wouldn't have been the same without this handsome knight here, seeing to it that Daisy was feeling how she was intended to feel.

Daisy bit her lip and found herself coming over rather bold. "You could do something to me, regardless," she suggested. "That is, if you wanted to."

"Hmm," Olivia hummed thoughtfully, letting go of the rack to walk the nearest aisle of implements.

The candles leveled out, the steady rain of wax slowing to a sprinkle.

"Best not to use anything too rough on that skin of yours at the moment," Olivia thought aloud. "Ah."

She returned to the rack with a long, soft leather strap.

With firm hands, she removed the iron grate that Daisy was currently suspended over, the one she had started out lying on. That done, Olivia rotated the framework of the rack, so that Daisy was hanging with her face to the floor instead of the ceiling. Her back sagged slightly in the middle, but Olivia soon corrected that with another slight turn of the crank.

Daisy's shoulders popped with the tighter stretch, and she held her breath, waiting for the first stinging fall of that strap.

The metal above her shifted, and another rain of wax fell over her instead. Thin channels of scorching heat gathered between her shoulder blades and ran down the curves of her ass, sticking to the chains of her chastity belt.

With another shift of metal, the rain died out, and cool breath blew over her, all the way down her back and legs. She shivered, from the brush of the air on her skin, and from the thought that the same air had just been inside Olivia's chest.

Something soft — the strap — brushed over one of the patches of fresh wax on Daisy's ass.

She clenched, ready.

The strap rose and fell with a snap, shattering the cooled wax and inflicting a new kind of sting on the recovering flesh beneath. The soft texture of the leather left no splits in Daisy's skin, but the impacts had a blistering feel to them nonetheless.

Olivia worked her way down Daisy's legs, then up again to her back. Every inch of skin she coated systematically with blows. Daisy savored the magnificent evidence of how much she could endure, so much more than her skittish reflexes gave her credit for.

When the lashing ended at her shoulders, Daisy's whole back side felt as if it were vibrating with energy. She felt half sure that if Olivia were to touch her now, with her bare hands, they would both be stunned by the spell hovering over her skin.

Olivia crouched in front of her, looking up into her hanging face.

"If you could make one more wish right now, what would it be?" she asked.

This moment was already so much more special than anything Daisy had expected to happen today. She thought of wishing for some assurance that it would happen again, but that seemed a greedy distraction from the moment itself.

"I wish I could see proof that this was more than a fantasy plucked from my head and parroted back to me. I wish I knew how it felt to you."

"Oh." Olivia's face melted into a pure grin. "Is that all?"

She rotated the rack again so that Daisy was hanging fully upside down, her face level with Olivia's hips.

Methodically, the knight began untying the plates of armor that hung around her waist, and opened the front of her leggings.

"Is this the kind of proof you were hoping for?" Olivia asked, slowly stroking the lips of her cunt.

Daisy took in a hungry breath, savoring the tangy sweetness on the air, and nodded.

"This is from looking at you, touching you, watching you feel, thinking about how sweet you are. Do you believe me?" Olivia asked.

Daisy nodded again, loving how true it was. The part of her that always assumed she was being humored was gloriously silent.

"Would you like a more complete demonstration?" Olivia asked, still stroking herself, slowly, with glistening fingers.

Daisy nodded yet again. "Yes, please."

Olivia braced herself against the shelf behind her and began to stroke herself more vigorously, occasionally dipping her fingers inside before bringing them up to rub back and forth over her clit.

Hanging upside down, with stray bits of wax dripping in sizzling splotches up her legs, Daisy watched in awe.

Cunts and how they functioned were an essential part of the curriculum at the Heartgarden. Every aspirant needed to be prepared to please their future lady with minimal additional training.

They were not, however, allowed any unnecessary familiarity with their own bodies. Daisy's fellow aspirants were not permitted to see or touch their cocks until they had been formally introduced to them by their ladies. They might see someone else's cock at one ceremony or another, but then only at a distance.

For Daisy, watching Olivia's technique in full, close-up detail, while being able to feel the same sort of anatomy existing under her chastity belt, felt like wicked, forbidden knowledge. But it wasn't. That made it all the better. It was a free, adventurous thrill without any real rule-breaking.

Daisy's own cunt burned differently but almost as hot as the wax on her skin, desperately curious how it would feel to be touched that same way. The idea called to her like the smell of coffee before she had ever tasted it, promising an experience she could only comprehend the edges of, until she had lived it for herself.

Olivia leaned harder against the shelf, breathing hard, and lurched downward several inches as her knees lost their strength. For an instant, her position looked almost as helpless as Daisy's own, gripped by a vast, mysterious force. The sound she made, the wave of awed contentment that passed over her face, made it look like something that could only be magical.

All the most indulgent things Daisy could think of — a fresh, sticky honey cake, a full orchestra playing her favorite symphony, a warm rosewater bath — all seemed inadequate points of reference. Much as she loved them, any one of them would need to be refined to an impossible purity to match the ecstasy playing out in front of her.

Little by little, Sir Olivia returned to herself and stumbled forward to the frame of the rack. She rotated it to turn Daisy's body more or less upright, with a forward slant that made it easier for them to look into each other's eyes.

The rush of blood down from Daisy's head only added to the pounding heat between her legs.

"Are you ready to rejoin the festivities upstairs?" Olivia asked.

Daisy's hips would have been writhing if they'd had any give to move at all. "Please, one more round of lashes," she begged.

It was the only thing she knew of that might quiet her craving for the impossible.

Though the droop of Olivia's body said she was craving a comfortable spot to sit or even lie down for a nap, she picked up the strap and brushed Daisy's cheek with infinite patience.

"As many as you like."

##

Phaedia stepped back in front of Gabriel and looked exasperatedly down at his soft, exposed cock.

"What kind of greeting is that for your princess?" she asked him.

Gabriel bit the inside of his cheek, trying to gauge whether this was a rhetorical question, and what respectful, truthful answer he could possibly give if it wasn't.

Phaedia reached down and grabbed his cock forcefully in her bare hand.

Gabriel's stomach turned over at the abrupt, unceremonious intimacy he had apparently been saving himself for all these years.

The first woman to touch him, skin-to-skin: Princess Phaedia. So it was and would always have been.

"Show me how excited you are to be let out," she demanded.

Gabriel tried to give her the reaction she obviously wanted, but only managed a feeble twitch.

"Explain yourself!"

That was direct enough to count as permission, and obligation, to speak.

"I apologize, your highness," said Gabriel. "My parts are still sore from the seed extraction. You were quite... thorough, with me."

It was true, his ass and cock felt faintly bruised all over from the improvised claiming ceremony.

He couldn't mention that he'd also had his testicles drained and then flogged a few hours earlier, at Elizabeth's hand. Hopefully, any extra tenderness could pass for a particularly fragile, masculine constitution on his part.

Phaedia's lips squeezed petulantly together.

Headmistress Jane herself had warned that performing a seed extraction as part of the ceremony would reduce Gabriel's physical desires for a while, and could potentially disrupt the bonding process between them.

It seemed as if Phaedia found nothing so annoying other people's tactfully offered advice turning out to have merit.

Jane might be in for some form of retribution for that later, but for now, Gabriel was the target within easiest reach.

"No matter," said Phaedia, with a hard smile that said it definitely did matter. "There's nothing that can't be solved with adequate discipline. Bend over the bed."

Gabriel awkwardly did as he was told. The bed was a too high for his knees to touch the ground, and too low for a stable stance with straight legs.

Before he'd quite settled into a position, the crop snapped against his ass, making him yelp.

"This is for making me feel unwelcome." She snapped it against the other side. "From this point forward, when I remove your belt, you will be ready for use, or you will be punished. Your body will learn over time which it prefers."

Gabriel pressed his face into the satin duvet while she flogged his ass, wondering if she was right.

After what felt like an eternity, Phaedia grabbed his shoulder and turned him onto his back.

Spankings usually got Gabriel's blood flowing, but he hadn't felt any change to his cock, nor thought about trying to force any. All his attention had been on enduring the pain.

"Do you think I'm ugly?" Phaedia asked, with a threatening squeeze.

"Of course not," Gabriel answered automatically.

This wasn't dishonesty. If he scrubbed everything Princess Phaedia had ever said or done from his mind, she was a pleasing figure of a woman. She had a powerful frame, even under the doublet that was, of course, tailored to make her look even more imposing.

Her rosy skin, her golden hair, her unusually even teeth, all were clean and perfect in a way that most men aspired to, and only the wealthiest of women bothered with.

Gabriel perused her body with his eyes and tried to snap himself out of his resistance.

There was so much about this situation that should have aroused him. As he'd confessed to Elizabeth on their first night together, he did want to be owned, even if he didn't always want to want it. This strong, powerful, handsome woman had taken over his life, held his key in her hand, and was willing to see to his discipline when he couldn't manage it himself.

Now she wanted to use his cock in the way he'd been waiting all his life to have it used. His pleasure was not only allowed but encouraged. She would consider it a compliment.

Reciting these details to himself allowed him to present her with a serviceable bit of hardness.

"That's better," said Phaedia, her voice all exasperation and no approval.

She slipped her legs out of their hose and climbed onto the bed, straddling Gabriel's thighs. She took his cock in her hand again and pumped it vigorously up and down.

Gabriel tried to enjoy it, to let it shore him up, but it had the opposite effect, beating his flesh back into softness like kneaded dough.

Phaedia shifted her hips forward to grind against him, but quickly found that she had no traction there.

"What is wrong with you?" she shouted.

Before Gabriel could form an appropriate reply, he felt Phaedia's weight leave him, followed by her gaze.

The princess stormed out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind her, leaving him with no instructions.

Gabriel couldn't call after her without breaking the code. He couldn't leave this room. He wasn't even sure if he could put his dress back on.

He curled his knees up to his chest, trying to ignore the strange feeling of his unprotected cock, pressed between his bare legs and stomach.

Time stretched out, unmeasured. Uncertainty drowned out any relief Phaedia's absence might have given him.

#

Daisy and Olivia ambled back up to the gardens, arm in arm, dressed and de-waxed and looking far more respectable and ordinary than the thrill running through Daisy's veins should have allowed.

Though she'd had time to calm herself since the peak of her passion, her skin still had a wonderful charge to it. The world seemed a kind and hopeful place.

It wasn't until she glanced over at the veranda and saw Elizabeth sitting alone, leaning over a tankard of ale, that she remembered how cruel that world had been of late, to some.

Elizabeth looked up as she saw Daisy approach, eyes round, bloodshot, and entreating, though she made no direct request.

Daisy looked to Olivia, who appraised the situation with quiet efficiency.

"Your friend?" she asked simply.

"I believe she is," Daisy answered.

Olivia swept her arm out from under Daisy's and kissed her graciously on the hand. "Then I will leave you to your evening. Thank you for a wonderful time."

Daisy hurried to return her thanks, before Olivia disappeared toward the wing of the castle where the royal apartments lay.

Alone in the moonlight with Elizabeth, Daisy walked over to the veranda and stood, unpresumptuous and silent, until Elizabeth could no longer resist saying, "Sit down."

Daisy sank down onto the stone step next to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth held out the tankard sideways toward her. Daisy politely waved it away.

"I'd stopped thinking of protecting him as a favor I had to do for someone in need," Elizabeth said hoarsely, swaying back and forth. "I was ready for it to be the most sacred work of the rest of my life. And I failed at it, as completely as anyone could fail at anything. She took him, and I did nothing. I helped her. I stood there with her, through the whole ceremony. I used things he trusted me with, to make it work for her."

Elizabeth took a long draft from the tankard.

"Say something," she said. "Please."

Daisy checked carefully over each shoulder, though there had been no time for anyone to creep up on them in the vacant courtyard.

"There is a way," she whispered.

Elizabeth raised an incredulous eyebrow at her.

"Not tonight," said Daisy. "It's something you'll need all your wits about you for, and it will take time, but if you're committed, there is a protocol that might allow you to reclaim him."

"Why didn't you say...?" Elizabeth set her tankard down and sprang to her feet, or tried to. She never quite got them all the way under her before tumbling forward into a flowerbed.

Calmly, Daisy lifted up her skirts, knelt down in the flower bed beside her, and patted her soothingly on the back.

"Tomorrow," she promised.

***

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As promised, a plot-only summary of the Phadia/Gabriel scene:

Phaedia brings Gabriel to her royal suite. He reflects unenthusiastically on whether he would rather be her consort or go back to a common life. He realizes that if he and Elizabeth were both to leave the Heartgarden, they could never be together without getting in trouble for circumventing the Heartgarden's rules, whereas if they stay, there's a chance Phaedia will get bored with him and give him up, making him available to Elizabeth again. He wonders whether Elizabeth feels as strongly about him as he does about her and whether she'd see him differently if he were no longer a virgin. Ultimately, he decides to try to comply with Phaedia, but can't meet her demands. She ends up storming out in frustration over his inability to maintain an erection.