Minding Her Manor Ch. 01

Her frown melted into a wicked grin. It sounded like moaning.

"Oh, La-La," she murmured, "you sly little kitten."

As gently and quietly as she could, she turned the rusty old doorknob and slid the door open. It didn't even creak.

To her slight surprise, this room wasn't totally empty. It was filled with old furniture, mostly covered in sheets and probably quite moldy underneath. The white sheets billowing everywhere in the wind gave the whole room a ghostly element. Well, here was that kindling Lapis had wanted, anyways.

The moaning was coming from behind tattered old curtains. Soft, feminine gasps and cries, muffled as if made through a hand... or between someone's legs. Olivine's smile widened as she heard lewd wet sounds echoing through the room. Oh, she was going to enjoy this. Someone was getting fucked stupid, and that would make them easy prey for some well-deserved and no doubt begged for teasing.

She stalked towards the curtains, shivering slightly in the wind and rain blowing in. The windows weren't shattered, she noticed with some surprise. They'd been opened.

She could just make out shapes behind the curtains now--two feminine forms, one on her knees in the dormer, one leaning against the wall, legs spread to allow the kneeling figure to lean in close.

"Enjoying yourselves?" Olivine purred, and swept the curtains aside in one swift motion.

A gust of wind and rain met her head-on, and she reeled back.

There was no one in the dormer.

She stared blankly, shading her eyes with a hand and blinking slowly. The dormer remained empty.

"What the fuck?" she muttered.

A pair of hands lunged from behind and grabbed her hips. She shrieked, as much from the cold as the fright.

"Got you, dizzy dreamer~" a familiar voice chirped in her ear.

She froze. A slow smile replaced her fright as she let herself be spun around. Laleli grinned at her. "You think you're very cute, don't you?"

"Oh, I'm adorable." Laleli tossed her hair back, her shimmering burnt-bronze hair splashing Olivine with flecks of rainwater.

But Olivine felt mischief bubbling in her chest. She knew brat behavior when she saw it.

"I'll say." She leaned in close and slowly, daintily traced a fingertip under Laleli's chin. "Such an adorable little thing."

Laleli's smile turned a bit nervous. She laughed, but her voice kept catching on the high notes. "Oh, yeah, I'm--I'm--so, uh, what brings you up here?"

"Maybe I'm here for you," Olivine purred. She leaned in closer, and her fingers played along the waistband of Laleli's skirt. "Would you like that, sweetie? To have me all to yourself?"

She relished the sensation of Laleli shivering under her touch. "Y-You're just gonna be like this today, huh?" Laleli managed.

"Oh, did you miss it?" Olivine's fingers tickled lightly over Laleli's side, slow, steady strokes. "Did you miss knowing I could do this at any time?"

"I--it's not gonna work, though," Laleli squeaked.

"I'm not hearing a 'no'," Olivine cooed, and her hand slipped under Laleli's skirt.

The bard-in-training moaned and squirmed as Olivine reached between her legs. Laleli's legs seemed to want to buckle, so thoughtfully, Olivine decided to shove her up against the wall. Laleli let out a gasp that was almost a squeak. "We... we should probably get back." She was looking anywhere but at Olivine, biting her lip. "I mean, I think--"

"You think?" Olivine smirked. "Oh, we can't have that!"

Her fingers stroked delicately between Laleli's thighs and through the sheer material of Laleli's underwear.

"Oh, my," she exclaimed. "What's this? Are we already wet, sweetie?"

Laleli squirmed weakly, still trying to look away. Olivine helpfully took her chin and 'helped' her to meet Olivine's gaze.

A finger slid under Laleli's panties, and Olivine's voice lowered to a husky growl. "Answer me, slut~"

She felt Laleli going limp.

"Y-Yes," Laleli managed.

"And why is that?" Olivine's smile turned pure and chaste. "Why could that be?" She stroked along Laleli's lower lips, holding Laleli captive in her piercing gaze.

"I--I don't--"

"Could it be," Olivine murmured, "because you're a slut?"

Laleli whimpered. Olivine had no pity, though. She slowly began to insert a finger...

"Yes, Miss," Laleli moaned.

Olivine smirked. "Good girl!"

She gave Laleli a peck on the cheek and pulled back. "Now, we should get back to the others. Lapis has the fire lit."

"O-Oh." Oh, the look of Laleli trying not to seem disappointed was just delicious. She gave a little nod. "Right. That's... that's good."

She looked around them. "What were you doing in here, anyway?"

It took a moment for Olivine to switch gears. She looked around. "Oh, I was..." She shrugged. "Following the wind, I guess."

"Huh. Okay, cryptic." Laleli started to pull away.

But when Olivine didn't let go of her chin, her cheeks went bright red.

Olivine leaned in and held up her fingers, practically dripping with Laleli's arousal, with an evil grin. "Aren't you going to help Miss clean up?" she cooed.

Laleli whimpered.

~ ~ ~ ~

The sun had just about set when the girls were all reassembled in the sitting room. Laleli leaned against the doorframe, while Minni and Olivine cuddled in one of the bow windows. Lapis sat in the other alcove, and Button sat by the fire.

"I love your candles, Button," Laleli remarked. She breathed in the aroma of the lit candle Button had handed her, smelling the sweet scent of... "This is honeysuckle, right?"

"Right." Button smiled. Her face was oddly red for some reason. "I made one for each of us!"

"They do light the place up," Lapis said with a reserved smile.

Behind them, the fireplace crackled. The scents of the five candles mingled--honeysuckle for Laleli, juniper for Lapis, honey for Minni, and Laleli wasn't sure what Button's and Olivine's were yet.

"So, La-La," Olivine said, leaning forward, "just how has it been on the road?"

Laleli chewed her lip. She wasn't sure how to answer that.

"It's been long," she said at last. "And... educational."

"Oh? Your bardic training's been educating you?" Olivine laughed. "I never could have guessed."

"Be nice, Olivine," Minni scolded.

"So why here?" Lapis asked. She sat at stiff attention, back arched, the pitch black night framing her form. "Why the Glimmering?"

Laleli grinned. "Oh, come on. It's the only interesting thing around here. Plus, it's nice and out of the way." She pushed off from the wall and walked over to sit next to Lapis, leaning just close enough to steal some of Lapis's warmth. "Gives us lots of space to get up to trouble!"

"We aren't here to get up to trouble," Lapis said primly. "I am here to welcome my friend back home."

"Oh, come on, Lapis." Minni got to her feet and bounced over to take Lapis's hands in hers. "It won't kill you to live a little!" She giggled as a thought seemed to strike her. "In fact, living is, like, the opposite of getting killed, if you think about it!"

Lapis rolled her eyes and pulled away.

"Well, anyways." Laleli leaned down to rest her chin on Lapis's shoulder, the smaller woman stiffening at the contact. "I have a game you, my sweet Lapis, are just going to love."

"Is it backgammon?"

"No."

"Is it bridge?"

"Ew, no." Laleli beamed, springing to her feet and pulling out an old wooden box. "It's ghost speaking!"

Lapis stared at the dark box, eyes narrowed. "How is that a game I would love?"

Oh, Laleli was so glad she'd asked. She leaned in close, smirking. "Because it's not trade-a-whisper," she said sweetly, just quiet enough that Olivine wouldn't hear. "I heard you had some fun last summer under the bridge?"

Lapis's cheeks reddened. "Ghost speaking it is."

~ ~ ~ ~

The world had gone dark. Rain hammered against the crumbling roof of the manner, creating an eerie chorus of tiny drumbeats as Laleli got the veil set up--no easy task, as Minni seemed determined to pipe up with unhelpful suggestions and Olivine to give snide commentary. Lapis gazed out the window, watching as the darkness spread.

"It's a black rainfall," she remarked.

Most of the girls didn't notice her, but Button looked up. "Really?" Nerves crawled along the borders of her voice.

Lapis shrugged, nodding towards the window. Outside, the glowpebbles were slowly being swallowed up in the mud, and the moons were already totally blocked behind the dense cloud cover. The Glowpebble Path was going dark. "Nothing to worry about, Button. It's only a bad storm."

"Yeah, but..." Button glanced back at Laleli and the others, and her voice dropped to a whisper. "Doesn't that seem like a bad sign?"

Lapis couldn't hold in a groan. "For the last time, Button, there is no haunting in the Glimmering Manor. And even if there was--"

"All ready!" Laleli called.

Lapis and Button turned to see that Laleli had finished putting together the veil.

Ghost speaking was a parlor game, a silly superstition turned into a silly exercise in chicanery using cheap artifacts from the Lost Days. Laleli had procured the veil, a large unwieldy-looking headset crafted long ago, by trading away a bushel of corn and a handjob to a pretty goblin peddler three years ago. Lapis couldn't believe she still had it.

Though it appeared to have a glass visor, the veil's visor was not made of glass at all. It was crafted from ancient material, too dark to see through.

Ancient material itself was said to have been forged of dragon's blood in long-forgotten techniques. It could be transparent and solid as glass or springy and dense as leather, and its essence was anathema to the magic of druidcraft. No one had ever succeeded in reforging any, but its relics were everywhere. The veils were totally useless for anything practical, but stories of mystical communions had given them value to peddlers as curiosities and trinkets.

It was just superstition, though. Not everything from the Lost Days could be corrupted. People just wanted it to be. It made a better story. Lapis knew the veil itself was totally harmless.

There was one component of this game she did not approve of, however.

"So, who's going to go first?" Minni asked, as Laleli retrieved four glowpebbles from her satchel. She knelt on her ankles with her hands on her knees, excitedly bobbing backward and forward. "Is that thing cold? I bet it is."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll think of ways to warm you up," Olivine teased. "Not that it's possible for the cold to slow down that brain of yours any more.

Minni blushed. "H-Hey!"

Lapis rolled her eyes. Aside from the recklessness of using glowpebbles for such a trivial game, wearing a piece of headgear that rendered you blind and just about totally deaf often led to exactly the sort of... shenanigans she was trying to avoid them getting caught up in tonight.

And there was only one way she could think of, little as she liked it, to be sure she could keep that to a minimum.

Suppressing a deep reluctance, Lapis cleared her throat.

"I'll go first."

To Be Continued...

~ ~ ~ ~

Lorelei's Note: Thanks for reading! This series is gonna be fairly open-ended, though rest assured the ghosts are on their way. If you have any particular requests for creatures or characters, do let me know! Feedback is always welcome!