The Judgement Moon Pt. 01

"What I'm saying is that even if you didn't have me or your stepmother, this sort of fault-line is commonplace in the territories. There is a reasonable chance you would find yourself afflicted the same as your mother."

"And you can prevent that!?" Jasni hated the way these Sattvans talked. Their utter arrogance!

"I believe that your mother thinks sending you abroad for a time will help. I happen to see her method as correct."

Jasni folded her arms more tightly and glared at her shoes. She was the SAME AGE as this bitch! She shuffled her feet.

"I'm declaring you to be under punishment," the governess said with the sound of finality.

"Which means?" Jasni growled.

To this, the girl hunted in her carrying bag and took out a thin booklet.

A Handbook For The Tamed Brat.

"Really?" Jasni demanded.

"Really," Emily confirmed. She held out the book.

Jasni took it and while the light in the carriage was bad, she opened it. To her surprise, Emily had a portable water-light, and she mixed it so that it glowed in the carriage. She carefully drew the curtains.

"That explains your predicament to some degree," Emily said. "I suggest you study it."

Jasni was inclined to do no such thing--but she was, despite herself, intensely curious, so she opened the book started to read.

The book was leather bound and press-set with a typeface that resembled a fine feminine hand. The pages were heavy stock parchment and had gilded edges so when closed, the sides other than the spine gleamed gold. Jasni didn't exactly know books--but she knew this was an expensive one.

The frontis piece was an illustration a contrite girl wearing an apron and nothing else, the shading on her bottom indicating she had been disciplined there. She was kneeling by a cozy-looking hearth and knitting as a woman--her mother? Sat in a proper chair, looking smugly satisfied.

THIS text is meant to find you as a bratling on the way to being reformed. This will be an unpleasant journey, but one that will find you much improved by the end of it. The Handbook has an extensive glossary and index such that you may find relevant lessons quickly and efficiently. The governess board of excellence welcomes you on your journey to maturity and to the wider world afforded to and enjoyed by the properly behaved!

MAY your tears bring appropriate contrition and may your humiliations bring you profitable humility.

--The Governess Board.

It contained an artistic flourish. The next few pages were crammed with tiny text in two columns but with offsets and marginalia. She flipped through it, stopping at a detailed drawing of a vulva. Ugh.

She looked in the back and, indeed, there were extensive sets of definitions and indexed page numbers and even a grid of some sort she couldn't quite make out.

Under Punishment. Chapter 3. She shifted uncomfortably and flipped through the book. She risked a very careful look to see if Emily was staring at her. The girl wasn't. She was engrossed in whatever she was reading.

Jasni found the chapter.

On Bearing Punishment Bravely.

Oh, great, she thought. This whole thing was going to be completely insufferable, wasn't it.

PART of being a Tamed Brat means not only accepting that we shall be disciplined, but also that we ought to be. To this end, we will recognize that our disciplinarians do us a great service and well will not only thank them for said service, but will actively work with our punishers to make the experience as memorable and educational as possible!

Oh, fuck no, Jasni thought darkly.

COOPERATION alone is not sufficient for the properly Tamed Brat. Coordination is required so that if the Tameling is aware of a condition that she thinks would be suitable and more corrective, she will humbly recommend it to her discipliner. She will always seek to be as open and vulnerable as possible with her discipliner and will always work to ensure that she is intimately available and emotionally honest in all ways.

Ughhhh... She checked the index. There, a definition two pages in.

BEING UNDER PUNISHMENT is the condition where the bratling has acquired multiple demerits and is working them off over a period. A bratling Under Punishment is not being chastised firmly at all times, but should expect her disciplinarian to impose minor punishments consistently to ensure that the bratling both knows she is being disciplined and has many small discomforts or humiliations to endure throughout the time. A bratling Under Punishment will find herself more firmly and formally disciplined when conditions are properly available to her overseer.

There were a number of examples, from being made to wear embarrassing clothes--with a section on color-coded hair ribbons which would proclaim to viewers if she had been spanked, scolded to tears, or if she was on her period!

Another example was the addition of a "shoe accessory" which, on example, proved to be a small pebble made for the purpose of going in a shoe and immersating the poor girl who had to be on her feet all day!

Other suggestions (there was a whole chapter of them!) were panties treated with an irritant or restrictions on using a toilet of various kinds.

The chapter seemed to imply that rather than these horrors being specifically applied for a time period, a girl Under Punishment should expect different mixes of these. She might be ordered to explain her miss-deeds to a friend of her governess. She might be required to kneel quietly by her governess, saying nothing, but maintain a sunny smile to appear pleasant to all onlookers.

Apparently, being "Under Punishment" was an invitation to whatever tortures suited her governess whenever they came to mind. She closed the book, with a louder sound than she'd intended.

Emily's eyes flickered up to her's.

"It sounds abysmal!" Jasni said darkly.

"It's punishment, Jasni," said Emily. "It's intended to be trying."

"You're going to do that to me?" Jasni asked.

"Yes," said Emily. "I shan't be horrid to you from the start. I don't think you'd bear it--but I do intend to make sure you are aware that you have been badly behaved for a very long time and have a lot of making up to do!"

Jasni warred internally with herself. She had been mobilized and then spanked by this girl--almost effortlessly. But could she do that without the aid of surprise? Jasni didn't know--but she was now further from home than she had ever been and this girl was her only means of support!

The carriage rolled through the night.

THE WESTERN WOODS, NEAR THE THIRD RIDING - MISS EMILY CANDLEWICK

Travel was a hardship all by itself, and while I couldn't ignore the brat's behavior, I didn't want to add unendurable misery to a situation that was already near her capacity to handle. To that effect, I was careful with her while we were underway.

She was certainly not used to "using the bathroom" out of doors and needed some coaxing to that effect. A spoonful of oil made her desperate and miserable and allowed her to finally submit to the humiliation of emptying her bowels behind the wagon with me watching. Such was her misery at this that I had to be gentle with her as we entered the Western Woods.

I knew the woods by reputation and by a few transits in my official position. I did not like them. They were old and tangled and where some trees grew proper and upright, others twisted and bowed like stooping old men or even bent entirely, growing up but then curving off to the side with great hollows in them that looked like mouths.

I pointed out a Baobad Tree to Jasni-brat, who had never seen one nor even read about them. I signaled the driver to stop and took her out. She was certainly out of her element in the woods, but the Baobad tree is impressive enough that, with one close enough to the road, I felt inclined to show it to her.

They are massive trees! They do not stand higher than ordinary, but they are of impressive girth such that our carriage with its horses could fit well within the circumference of its trunk! At the top they sprout a dense tangle of branches and leaves which cast everything under its radius, possibly as much as thirty measures in diameter, in twilight.

You would think no trees grow under its shadow, and this would be the correct interpretation from an academic botanist. However, as I showed her, some did grow. A few small but healthy trees.

"Do they not need sun?" asked Jasni-brat. Her father was, in fact, an academic and thus she had been tutored in all manner of things but knew very little about what she might encounter!

"They do, but the Baobad lends them some of its life and they must show it complete obedience," I told her.

"From a tree? What? Do they need permission to drop their leaves??" she was incredulous and found me possibly naïve or perhaps fanciful.

"They interact over decades or centuries," I told her. "Their conversations happen between their root systems. Trees can show obedience and submission just as people can. Only not in the same ways. Also, sometimes, nature spirits live in Baobad trees. If you are traveling at night and see small round windows and half-sized doors in the bark, that means you are seeing a spirit's home. Don't approach unless you've been invited, though."

"My father says there aren't any more nature spirits," Jasni-brat informed me. "And he says maybe there never were."

I knew the academic perspectives had given us water-lights and the medicines we used, and mechanics and mechanical artefacts--but I also knew that the kind of monastic academics that she had dealt with were cloistered in their libraries and their lecture halls and had a different view of the world than those who lived out in it.

"You believe in unclean, don't you?" I asked her, getting her back into our carriage..

"Well, yes. In Vanderberg we had Rat Queens," she told me.

"And those were?" I asked.

"They looked like giant fat rats--bulging out like they had been inflated. They could 'deflate' to get through small holes and things--but at full sized they were as large as a pony!"

"And what did they do?" I asked her.

"They attacked anyone who was not a virgin and not married," she said. "They were monsters. There are still attacks in the village," Jasni-brat informed me.

"I see--and where did you conclude they came from?" I asked.

"The sewers," she told me. "Vandeberg has proper sewers under it but there are pockets of foulness and there the Rat Queens breed."

I nodded. "Is a nature spirit less possible than an elastic Rat Queen?"

I could see the thought made her uncomfortable. In fact, I knew of these beasts as her stepmother had informed me about them. She, like I, was of the mind that the plague of these things was due to the lax attitudes and poor vigilance on the part of the townsfolk and their leaders.

Centuries of Hermanic ideas had not been fixed by making the town a territory and as such, prostitution (and I do not mean proper licensed houses where it is practiced as the order requires) and Mrs. Mendower believed that Vanderberg had a bigger Rat Queen problem than anyone was aware of.

Jasni-brat could be moderately agreeable when she put her mind to it--but I could tell that just sitting across from me, she resented the very concept that I might be able to dictate what she did. Also, her atrocious behavior towards her stepmother needed redress and the on-the-spot I'd given her hadn't begun to set it even.

I was pondering what I would do with her when we reached the Riding Square and I had to make arrangements to get us to her aunt's farm when something happened to the carriage. I was aware of a subtle shift in speed and direction and then a faint jolt.

"Get down, Jasni," I ordered her. She had been engrossed in the Handbook, which some would have taken as a good sign, but I knew as fascination combined with a belief that the text did not actually apply to her. She was slow to move, and I reached out and bodily dragged her off the seat to the floor. When I didn't join her there, she popped right back up. I hissed at her that she'd be unable to walk if she didn't get down immediately, and she did.

We were already unexpectedly brought to a halt, and I knew that meant trouble. I could hear commands being given to our carriage master--likely to dismount and allow himself to be tied or some such and I heard a woman's voice from outside call out:

"Governess and Ward, please come out so we can see your lovely faces--but come out slowly, girls."

Sattva! Bandits. I unlatched and opened the door, making my intent to exit peaceably plain with extended arms and open hands. "Come with me, Jasni," I ordered. "And say NOTHING," I hissed.

I trust she knew my threat was still in effect, as I stepped down and turned to help her.

"My father will have you punished for this," declared Jasni-brat from the carriage side board. Sweet Sattva!

The bandit woman, a tall and surprisingly young and fair girl, was mounted on a horse and she wore a forest colored cloak and hood that had fox-ears styled into it. She looked cute in it--but I'd have found her even cuter with tears in those eyes!

"Will he now?" asked the bandit girl, amused. "And who is this man who will have me punished?"

"GET DOWN," I hissed and made to pull her from the carriage. "Have you heard of the Mendower family?" Jasni-idiot asked the bandit.

Looking legitimately confounded, she answered, "No... should I have?"

By this time I had pulled her down so that the two scruffy, skinny boys she'd tasked with going into the cabin could get in.

"He owns a silver mine in the territories!" said Jasni-idiot.

"Oh," grinned the fox-girl, "then you should fetch a pretty ransom!"

I thanked Sattva that, from the way she said it and her satisfaction at seeing the look of terror on Jasni-Idiot's face, it was clear she didn't intend to take us hostage.

"He'll have you flogged!" screamed Jasni-idiot, and I turned, intending to give her a good firm slap before her tongue got us in actual trouble.

Her outburst had aggrieved one of the boys, however, who made to grab her and, likely, haul her to his mistress for a well-earned lesson. She'd deserve it--but I wasn't inclined to let that happen to my ward, idiot or no. I interposed myself and, predictably; he decided to vent his outrage on me.

He made to grab me and I threw him Tab-T'Halla, moving my wrist when he made for it and then turning into his over extension and launching him over my hip. He went sprawling. This had the benefit of also shutting up Jasni-brat.

When the boy scrambled to his feet--he was fortunate, the ground was soft. If we'd been on flagstones, he might've needed to be carried--the girl with the fox-eared hood stopped him with her staff.

"She's properly trained, Kalb. I need you able to walk. Stand put."

Apparently her boy was also properly trained as well, for he did as she ordered him, although he looked like he sorely wanted another go at us.

The other boy investigating our carriage produced the Handbook Jasni-brat had left on the seat and I winced internally as it was quite expensive and I was still expected to return it to the Libris. Their leader, however, laughed.

"You've yet to train your bratling governess," she addressed me. This bandit was well educated!

"She is going to get a STERN training when we reach the Riding Square," I said, putting my exasperation into my voice. Jasni-brat did, fortunately, look scared now. If not for her safety, perhaps for my wrath.

The group--perhaps twelve of them--were searching through the carriage, and had even examined some of the trunks. They hadn't taken anything, however.

We didn't have much coin, but Jasni-idiot had some fine clothing I expected they might take. They didn't. They were looking, perhaps, for hidden jewels?

The bandit leader returned my book to me. "Set them going," she told her group. "They haven't anything they're not entitled to."

I found that interesting and, even more so when she stopped me once I'd herded Jasni-brat into the coach.

"Your destination is the Riding Square?" She asked.

"Aye," I said.

"Make haste and stay in doors there," she told me. "There comes a bad moon."

THE RIDING SQUARE, THIRD RIDING - JASNI

They arrived after sundown at the small collection of buildings that weren't quite a town but more of a way-station with an inn and tavern, grain storage buildings, a missives office for letters and post, and an order splinter enclave.

Emily had thoroughly spanked Jasni for her behavior with the bandits and was not surprised with her lubrication over Emily's lap. She was pleased to see that the humiliation of the spanking did a good job of drawing tears. The girl was going to get spanked a great deal, and if she was easily embarrassed, that would make the ordeals a bit less physically intense.

Still, she intended to put her ward through her paces.

"The Jailed Rooster?" Jasni asked, a hand back on the seat of her skirt, looking up at the sign above the tavern with the attached inn they were staying at.

"The Caged Cock," Emily told her dryly and laughed at her sudden blush! They took seats inside, Jasni sitting tenderly, and looked at the serving girl who'd been mounted on a display X-rack for some error or other. The girl was fully dressed, which made Emily suspect there was some other additional discomfort going on under the dress. Probably irritant soaked panties. The girl looked mournful and sorry for herself--and she squirmed as little as she could, which was still quite a lot.

Jasni wanted ale, but Emily forbade it. "Tomorrow you are getting your first purity session," she informed her ward. "The splinter enclave should hold them tomorrow morning and I will be arranging travel across the moorlands."

"You spanked me!" said Jasni in a soft gasp.

"Should I spank you again right now?" Emily asked, archly. "I promise you it's not the first time a girl has been punished bare bottom in here!"

Jasni quieted down and Emily explained the serving-girl dynamics to her.

"There's an order from top-girl to bottom-girl. I suspect the unfortunate up on display is the bottom."

"How would you tell?"

"A bunch of ways, from haircut to hemline--the fancier the apron, usually the lower order the girl is. The girl on the rack is wearing a decorated bright pink apron, see?"

"It's pretty," said Jasni, fascinated despite her attempt to be sullen and sulky.

"It's cute," corrected Emily. "See how the other girls are all giving her words of encouragement and such as they go by?"

Jasni nodded. "She's cute when she's punished--and she's the lowest order girl so she's under all of them--"

"Does she get paid less?" Asked Jasni.

"No, probably not. But if a customer pays to have his cock sucked, she's probably the one sucking."

"Oh!" Jasni was scandalized.

"It's not expected to be enjoyed, but if a high order man... or woman wants a lower order one, it's usually provided."

"Would you... fuck someone who told you to?" Jasni asked.

"In my training as an order governess, I was fucked fairly often," she said. "Anything but exemplary performance could result in a punishment taking." She shrugged. "It was unpleasant, but it wasn't the worst punishment we got." Emily saw Jasni's eyes light up at that!

"What was? The worst, I mean? Can you tell me or is that--" Jasni asked.

"It's perfectly acceptable to ask," Emily said. "The girl on yonder display is probably under orders to detail her punishment and what it's for if anyone shows any interest."

"Ugh," muttered Jasni.

"The worst punishment was a Nixie Detention," Emily told her ward.

"A what??"

"Do you know what a Nixie is?" Emily asked.

The girl considered. "An... Unclean?"

"Yes," Emily said. "They have them around here, but they're thankfully rare outside the forest. They look like slim women about two hands high with butterfly wings and hairless rat's tails from the base of their spines."