The Alchemist's Apprentice Pt. 02

The Hierophant nodded.

"And, are there alchemical ways to seek such materials?"

Ahhhh...

She bowed her head, she was blushing hard enough that she felt like her face was a search light. She could feel the awful slick of her oil down her thighs.

"The principles of like-seeks-like and strong-conquers-weak could both be used to try to locate these materials. Of course, the more we knew about the specific ones, the better, Senior Hierophant."

He nodded.

"If we composed all we know about these bound objects, might we alchemically create a dowsing rod or a chemical compass?"

"Those things are possible, sir. It would help greatly if we knew anything about the nature of the spirits in--"

There was a noise at the door. The servants who tended the chamber were in a quiet uproar, trying to bar the way of a form, trying to force her way in. Ms. Kleini gasped when she saw it was Tessa!

The girl's horns made her silhouette easily identifiable, and she saw several of the men looking furiously at the disruption. If this wasn't highly, highly justified, the girl was going to be unbelievably sorry!

"Sirs--Concordia," she called out. "We have a significant emergency!"

KELLAM SQUARE -- NAMI

It had been a long week. Nami, the apprentice Alchemist who had been sent from the Indexium Girl's College to attend the distinguished Alpothecary Dr. Emmas. Over the past week, some of her service (assigned for being late to too many classes) had involved fetching chemicals, helping in mixing reactants, and washing glass-ware. However, the worst of it had been the commonality of providing Orgone Energy via the theft of a triggered orgasm, which became a punishing sensation like that of an interrupted sneeze--but of a terrible sexual nature--called a 'norgasm.'

These left her drained and miserable, sometimes even to tears from both the sense of frustration and emotional turmoil. She had slept at the Alpothecary's home above Kellam Square in the company of an enchanted stool with a bound spirit that was designated for misbehaving visitors to sit on, facing the corner as their punishment.

It could talk and never missed a chance to scold her or add insult to indignity.

Now, she sat on the stool, relocated out into the middle of a seated crowd in Kellam Square, next to Dr. Emmas. The Alpothecary had taken her out, from where she'd been resting, to finally watch the pretty young barristerett's humiliation performance in the square. Thankfully, she was allowed to appear to be fully dressed--but the stool had insisted she draw down her panties and adjust her skirts to sit bare on it, so that it could assess her level of arousal.

Nami knew better than to refuse the stool, which would likely bring the question to Dr. Emmas--and she had no confidence that Dr. Emmas would choose her over the spirit.

"She looks so terribly cute," the stool said, of the young lawyer, now mutated to have small horse's ears from the top of her head and a horse's tail sprouting from just above her buttocks. The girl was obviously struggling terribly to perform her assigned service in front of the crowd. Blushing, blinking back tears, and squirming, it was almost impossible for her--but the professional actors were gentle with her, and Nami had heard the script was laid out in the papers on her lawyer's desk.

When she was to excoriate the prosecutor, she managed to put real feeling into it--and when she had to issue a groveling apology to the actress playing the prosecutor, she also managed to put deep emotion into it. The crowd loved her!

"It is cute," Nami agreed. "She's lucky she didn't get lashed to the point where she couldn't walk for weeks!"

"She's truly learned her lesson!" enthused the stool. "You ought to learn from her."

"Thanks, Naughty," Nami sighed.

"You'd do well some punishment modifications," reasoned the stool.

"Ugh!" Nami hissed.

"Something subtle? Mistress can generate very sensitive hemorrhoids that work like an anal clitoris," suggested the stool. "Makes the subject keen for anal sex--also, they're wonderfully uncomfortable when she doesn't get it!"

"Naughty!!" Nami screeched, drawing looks.

"You're wetting just thinking about it," the stool pointed out.

"Shut UP!!"

KELLAM SQUARE -- EVA

Kellam Square didn't have its water-lamps lit at FELLS but as the sun went down, some of the square's tenders had pulled out barrels with wire cylinders rising from the top to about 14 hands in height. Alchemical reactions in the wooden barrels caused the metal to heat and then radiate the heat, making the square warm, even when the weather was becoming chill.

Eva had been allowed to wear a long robe that mostly hid her tail and a head-scarf that thankfully concealed her ears. She had managed the transit on a cart without collapsing into Jathan's arms, sobbing--but she knew that being able to walk around in public, however she was dressed, was going to take some practice.

When he had woke up in bed next to her, he'd been surprised to see her there--and she had given him a panicky, stumbling explanation about Maci putting her there. Thankfully, he didn't seem to mind and checked her over, looking at the modifications.

This left her nervously laying motionless in bed as he visually examined her tail, brushed aside her hair to look over the newly added cat ears, and checked her eyes for any cloudiness or change in color.

Deciding she was fit, he got her to the bathroom and drew a warm bath to wash her. He was careful with her tail, more letting it soak than scrubbing it down. He did insist on washing her sex, which, being under punishment, she wasn't allowed to touch and had developed a fine 'crust' that he had been told was a side effect of the treatment.

She whimpered in embarrassment but he carefully did nothing to add to or 'spice' her discomfort. She had to admit to herself that, were their roles reversed, she would have done all sorts of things to increase the misery of one of her subjects!

After she was dressed in her loose fitting dress and allowed to wear a cloak to cover her tail, she was, for the morning, put to work at the washing of soiled laundry. Jathan came to check on her periodically, made sure she drank water, took her to the bathrooms, and again, visually inspected her tail. It was embarrassing--but the break from the stinking, dirty work was welcome--and she didn't want to admit she actually enjoyed his attention.

By mid-day, though, she had another fear: what if Task told him about her confessed fantasy!? Surely the Unclean wouldn't do that!? Maci had described it as "reasonable" or even "decent."

She worried, though. More than once in her experience as a disciplinarian, she had referred mortifying findings to the caretakers of her subjects and found the humiliation of the unfortunates pleasant!

She did her best to keep to her assigned work. The acolytes certainly seemed thrilled to bring her horribly soiled garment after garment and made no secret of being entranced by tales of her (mostly covered) ears and tail.

She managed to bear this attention without breaking down--but she fretted as she worked, fearing at any moment she would hear from Jathan a description of her confessed fantasy. It was when the bells tolled TRES that Jathan appeared and told her to put away her cleaning and come up to dress for travel.

He'd helped her prepare to go--she found it unlikely that he didn't recognize she was subdued and trouble by something--but he seemed content to let her bring it up if she wished. She'd hugged herself as he led her out to the carriage where Maci and Vivian, and her dominant wife Karistine were waiting.

During the brief journey (where Eva felt every person they passed on foot was looking at her) Vivian and Maci talked animatedly about shopping in Kellam and the performance. Eva was terrified that Maci would bring up the past night (at which point she envisioned throwing herself from the wagon to escape)--but she didn't.

Eva felt certain Maci wouldn't, anyway: it'd be Task. When they'd reached the square she had felt both relieved to be on to the next stage of the event and wrung out by her constant stress of worrying that Task would reveal what it'd learned.

There were benches for the observers and a raised platform set out like a trial-room for the play. Maci sat next to Eva, leaving room on the other side for Jathan. He went off to fetch something from a vendor and she sagged when he was away.

"Task will curate your experience, Eva," Maci said--not in quite a whisper--but not to arouse others to listen in. "He assures me you will not be made to die of embarrassment--he finds you quite sufficiently punished for it as is."

"Good," Eva said, hugging her midsection. "What does he mean by 'curate?'"

Maci paused, perhaps getting the explanation, then: "He says that he intends you to be softened by the experience--not terrorized by it. He recommends that, given time, you confess your fantasy to your Mistress--"

"Task!!!" Eva was horrified--

Maci paused, but then considered in a reasonable tone, and with a faint accent she now recognized as 'Task's voice:' "Your emotions are not going to be foreign to your Mistress and likewise she is aware you are not in command of them any more than you can command your channel to be dry when you are in distress. She knows that a girl of your age is going to have little control over herself and I expect she knows better than you do, where your attractions lay."

Eva gave Maci--meaning Task--the most baleful look she could summon.

"So I should confess a horrid fantasy because I'm too immature to have a better one!?"

"Yes," Maci said--and blushed furiously as she said it.

"In fact, as you mention it," she said in Task's intonation, "The best would be for you to confess it directly--but I do not think you would be able."

"Hush yourself," Eva hissed, irritably.

Maci suppressed a giggle.

"I'm going to see the Alchemist's Apprentice," Eva declared, standing. She saw the girl who helped Dr. Emmas out in the crowd. The girl sat on a blueish wooden stool and Eva could see her panties were down and knew her skirt was adjusted so she sat on the wood bare.

"Eva--how are you coping?" Nami asked, looking up.

"Modestly," Eva said, taking a seat on the bench. Dr. Brees was with a group of other ladies clustered around a miserable, furious looking girl in a pram.

"It won't be so bad once it settles," Nami said, gently. "I'm sure our star actress has had it far worse."

"I can't imagine going up there like this," Eva confessed.

"She didn't have much choice," Nami said. "Still, I understand she's gotten good support. The troupe is dedicated to keeping her spirits up--and her prosecutor has worked with the gendarme to prevent anyone from interfering with her in the Low Quarter performances, which aren't so well behaved."

Eva nodded. Now the ladies had the girl laying down in the pram so she wasn't visible but her feet stuck up to either side. Eva could only guess what the girl was going through as the older women peered down at her!

"Has your--uh--Master--been decent with you?" Nami asked, nodding back to where Jathan was standing in the crowd.

Eva huffed. "Yes. I actually wish I could berate him more. I'm unable to take any of my punishments and I have to confess he's been kinder than I would be to myself."

Nami nodded.

"Well, I have to say," Nami said, "He's a handsome sort--I wouldn't mind going 'cross his lap--" She stopped, surprised, at the look of outrage and horror on Eva's face.

Back, and seated, the calls went out for the performance to begin. Eva sat next to Jathan, who had given her a paper cone filled with flavored popped corn. They watched the play and Eva had to admit she was impressed with the young layer's performance.

The actress playing the prosecutor (who was in the crowd, sitting with the other woman who had the girl in her push-pram) had great energy for mocking and taunting the lawyer, who, at the end of the second act, had to behave as she had in the courtroom, and lose her head and berate the prosecutor as a fossilized harridan who was, apparently, single-handedly responsible for all the ills besetting woman-kind.

The actor playing the magistrate didn't have to stretch his repertoire to look with amused amazement at the younger woman's ill-considered tirade.

In Act 3 there would come the temporary imprisonment, the learning the error of her ways, and then the groveling apology the young barresterett was made to reply on stage twice each day until the 10th performance at the end of the week.

Eva could tell the girl was suffering elegantly on the stage. Her performance forcibly rubbed her nose in her poor decisions and self-control. Having to act out her mistake over and over again was terribly embarrassing and the added ears and tail--which her outfit had been modified to accommodate, caused her to feel a kind of nakedness before the crowd that Eva could powerfully relate to.

"She's impressive," Jathan said, as the act was coming to a close and the intermission was almost beginning.

"She's intent on seeing her punishment through," Eva said.

"As are you," Jathan said, approvingly. She blushed.

"I trust you'll tell Mistress Kalva that," she said.

"I have--she requests daily updates on the status of her apprentice," Jathan said.

Eva blushed hard, and studied her hands. It was at this point that a horn sounded from one of the entrances to the plaza.

Heads turned to see a wagon drawing a cart that bore an ancient stone plinth atop it.

On one of its sides was an engraving showing a comely young woman wearing only a bolt of cloth that swept down to partially cover her, wielding a cane on the stripped buttocks of a thicker, stronger, heavier woman who was face down on the ground before the younger girl pictured, her knees drawn in to rais her bottom for her chastisement. The standing girl held a leash trailing to a collar on the kneeling girl's neck. The standing girl's foot rested atop that neck presenting a picture of complete domination of the standing girl over the kneeling one.

"Gentlemen and ladies of the crowd," said a crier, loudly, stepping up onto a wagon wheel of the stopped cart. "We have a special entertainment prepared for you today! Dr. Rinebach has obtained permission of the Historical Societe to address you during this intermission! He wishes to show his most recent and valuable find in his ongoing inquest into the nature of the ancient world! Permit me to introduce him."

There was some scattered applause and murmurs as a richly attired man stepped from his seat on the carriage to stand next to the 16-hands high stone pillar.

Behind the cart were four young women dressed in penitent robes--dirty white gowns from neck to ankle. Their hands were bound before them, the ropes leading to the back of the cart. They had removed their shoes on entering the plaza so they stood barefoot, heads bowed.

"Esteemed patrons of Learning and Knowledge in the Key City of DunnisUrom," the man said, "I have requested a moment of your time to display this artefact of antiquity--and to explain to you the results of the expedition that was generously funded by your own great Indexium University!"

"They may have opened a girl's college," he said, "but I can assure you that even so, they are committed to the higher reaches of learning and the sciences!"

There was laughter at that. Eva scowled.

"Now--some of you may know the story of the goddesses of mythology Acadia and Dike--Injustice, sprawled on the ground before the lady of Justice and righteous retribution, using her cane as many of us would, on the seat of her misbehaving sister!"

He stepped carefully around the plinth.

"We do not have the statue that once adorned this stone. My assistants have recovered mere fragments, which I believe to be the aspect of Dike or Prudentia--a secondary representation of the goddess!"

"Now--I will encourage you to come closer when you may, and examine the words, in the dead tongue of Nysees. We cannot know all of what it says--but I have decoded some of it--and thus, I read to you what the ancients would have gleaned from the stone!"

"I have brought four misbehaved girls from my expedition, scribes and students, chosen for their illicit dalliances--some," he said, pausing a beat, "with each other!" This drew laughter from the crowd and a deeper scowl from Eva. He took from a case a whip--it was rubbery and smooth on its lash and its handle was black leather, perhaps 4 hands long. Eva identified as a terribly painful, if not overly damaging, instrument.

He held it so that it bowed at the beginning of the lash and he gripped it in the center of the haft.

"The section which I decoded--" he gestured with the whip as if it were a pointer, "pertained to the punishment of females--who I think we can all agree require a firm hand more often!"

Laughter again. "I have my own four girls here for the demonstration--but, if you have any young women, you would like additionally chastised I can add them to my display!" He strutted back and forth--the girls were placing small square black rocks on the ground, stone tiles an inch high and about three hands on a side, and standing atop them.

To Eva's eye, though, the four penitents, who must have known this was coming, did not look how Eva would've expected them to if they were about to be whipped before a crowd.

Then to her horror, she realized the crowd in general was engaged in deciding which of their numbers should be sent up to the exhibition. Being under punishment certainly counted her in that number!

"Eva," Jathan said from her side.

"Master, please--no!" she gasped.

He placed a hand on her thigh. "No--I'm not sending you up--I mislike this, although I've no objection to a whipping when warranted--Stay here--and stay quiet. Neither Vivian nor Maci are to go, at least until I return."

He stood. Around her, she could see various dramas playing out. Dominant Karistine was teasing Vivian that she was going to send Vivian to the stones. To be fair, Vivian was punished daily--both as a standing reminder of her place, and, because for the time Eva had been in the splinter enclave, the submissive had constantly needled her dominant wife who was stationed there. As Artisan Karistine was the senior enclave magician for the Low Quarter Splinter Enclave, Vivian was always under some exotic punishment or other! It was clear from the way Artisan Karistine was laughing, though; she wasn't going to do it.

Eva sourly reflected that in the reverse position, she'd have sent herself up to the demonstration, the better to make a point that just having a delicate and humiliating punishment modification was no excuse for avoiding an offered punishment when one was "under punishment," when she was.

She wasn't sure if she was angry at herself or Jathan for not sending her to the unbearable lashing! She blushed and stewed and seethed.

Across the way, she could see Nami arguing passionately with her Naughty stool--although as she understood it, the spirit of the stool couldn't command her. The stately woman had used the threat of it to drive her little in the pram into tearful, dignity-less begging. From the senior woman's expression, she was certain the girl in the pram wasn't going either,but the girl surely thought she was, and was groveling and pleading her case in what Eva thought was an intensely satisfying manner.

Not everyone was so lucky, however. A sour, sullen looking girl in a servant's uniform was marched up by a finely dressed young lady of the same or even lower age. A young wealthy socialite punishing her servant, careless of how mortifying--not to mention painful--this was likely to be.

A young wife, clearly of means, had been sent by her husband, who waited, smirking in the crowd.