Chapter 33

When the question of what to do while waiting for Camilla to come back came up, I’d been heavily tempted to just find a book and corner to read in. It would be simple and relaxing, and the truth was that I could really do with some ‘simple and relaxing’ time at the moment. But then a tantalizing idea had wormed its way into my mind, one I couldn’t resist the chance to propose.

We, of course, ate first, though it didn’t completely satisfy the hunger within me. It was at that point I realized it was the sort of hunger that food wasn’t going to fully resolve. Was the curse becoming stronger and more frequent? It was a discussion I really needed to have with Camilla, now that she knew about it. But I could deal with that later.

“I can’t believe I’ve let the two of you bully me into this,” Lena muttered as she fastened more padding onto her arms.

I couldn’t help the silly smiling grin that was spread across my face. Getting Rosetta to join in pestering Lena into agreeing had cost me, specifically in a promise of two dress-up sessions with me as the unfortunate model. That was something I could deal with later though. What mattered was the results. Rosetta made the compelling argument that Lena owed me for being such a terrible friend and that a few beginner sword-wielding lessons were the least that she could do to begin rekindling our friendship.

The redheaded girl had buckled almost immediately. I’d wished that Rosetta would have stayed to join in with us, but the maid had claimed she had too much work to get done. It would have been more fun with the three of us, I felt.

“Alright,” she said. “As I mentioned already, I barely know enough to use this thing myself. So don’t expect anything but the absolute beginner stuff, and even that I probably won’t be able to teach well.”

I nodded my head vigorously, completely unable to hold in my excitement. Sword lessons! I was getting sword lessons!

With a shake of her head and a sigh, Lena shifted her feet apart, bringing her sword forward in what I assumed was some kind of stance.

“I’ve been learning the basics of how to use a dagger for most of my time with Demetrios. He seemed to think it would be much more useful to me. So my shortsword knowledge is much more rudimentary. Your first lesson is how to properly stand and where to have your feet for the atol guard. As you can see, my legs are bent, my right foot forward and holding much of my weight, and my left is behind me and turned outward.”

I nodded along, staring down at her legs with a face full of intense concentration before trying it out myself. She hadn’t allowed me to hold a sword just yet, even though we were only using wooden ones, so I wasn’t sure what to do with my hands and awkwardly held them off to my sides. Lena walked over to me, adjusting the bend of my legs and the direction my feet were pointed, along with several other subtle movements.

It was only then, that she handed me the wooden sword in her hands. From behind, her body pressed slightly against my own, and she brought up my right hand around the sword’s grip. Several more adjustments later, most of which she did pressed up against my side for some reason, and she seemed to finally be satisfied.

“Good.” She smiled down at me. “And now you’re going to practice going into this stance.”

I nodded and did as she asked, going back into the stance a few times until she seemed satisfied that I knew essentially where everything should be. After that, she showed me how to move in several directions.

Unfortunately, I missed the gleam in her eye, if there was one. Over and over again for what felt like hours, but which was probably just a few minutes, I moved in whatever direction she requested. Each time she would correct my posture, telling me what I was doing wrong, moving my arms and feet or back ever so slightly, and sometimes even showing me herself. After doing it over and over again, the practice quickly moved from being somewhat fun to becoming rather tedious. Just how many times did I need to do this?

When I managed to finally get my movements right several times in a row, I couldn’t help but whine out, “When are we going to start actually learning to fight?”

“You are learning to fight, Pearl. Without a proper stance, you can’t defend yourself. And if you can’t defend yourself, you’re going to go down after the first thrust or cut that comes your way. Now, do five more without messing them up and I’ll move on to the next part.”

I didn’t manage to do all five perfectly, but thankfully Lena allowed it to slide. When she told me that she was going to show me how to block a thrust, I got significantly more excited. What she didn’t mention was that most of the practice involved me moving my blade into five different positions, not actually blocking. She only ever actually thrust or swung the wooden weapon my way a couple of times in order to show the purported effect. The rest was her adjusting my stance and reaction speed such that I wouldn’t end up stabbed in the arm or somewhere else whenever we got to the actual stabbing.

It was all very simple and basic. Though I supposed that was what she had promised me, the fundamentals. And even though we never truly swung a sword at each other, I had to admit it was still rather fun despite the continued repetition. It hadn’t been exactly what I’d expected, but I was learning and spending quality time with Lena for the first time in what felt like forever… if I didn’t consider what we’d done the day before, which I supposed I did.

To my surprise, after over an hour of practice, I was actually quite tired. We sat on a bench off to the side, padded armor and wooden weapons all packed away, and just taking a moment to relax and stare off into the sky.

“Thanks,” I said, as I leaned up against her shoulder. “This was really nice.”

Lena didn’t seem to really know what to say, eventually muttering out, “Of course.” She reached over and grabbed my hand, and I glanced her way. Still staring out toward the sky above, she said, “I don’t think there’s a lot more I can really teach you, at least that I’d be comfortable with. You would probably be better off learning from Demetrios, or perhaps Camilla if she’s willing.” Now that was an idea. Would Camilla be willing to teach me? Would she have the time?

“That's okay. I’m just glad we got to do it together.” I gave her fingers a gentle squeeze and she finally faced me, her bright blue eyes shining in the sunlight. A smile slid across her face.

“Yeah, me too,” she said finally.

I felt a flutter of warmth inside me, and the smile that was on my face became shy as I looked away.

“What should we do now?”

She hummed. “I expect Camilla won’t be around till much later, based on how busy you said she was yesterday. I’m not sure what the Praevus has got her doing.”

I shrugged, having no clue either. What were any of them doing? Clearly something, but beyond the outpost being built, I wasn’t sure.

“Camilla mentioned something about smugglers.”

Lena nodded. “I’ve heard something similar.”

The whole thing made so little sense to me. Who here in this town would ever want or need to smuggle things? And what would there even be to smuggle out here? As I pondered it, another random thought came to mind.

“You know, you never showed me your wedding dress like you promised." I turned to face her once more. “And since we’re actually eluding your wedding now,”

“Theoretically,” Lena interrupted, “if things end up working out that way.”

Ignoring her, I continued, “You should show it to me.”

“I suppose I did say I would,” she muttered. “And it really is quite beautiful. Well, if I’m ignoring my work today anyway, I might as well slip into it so you can see. Especially since you and my pesky maid seem so determined for me to not get married.” Shooting me a cheeky look, she stood up, and a thoughtful gleam entered her eyes. As she glanced back down at me with a measured look, my own eyes narrowed. Just what was she planning?

My mind unhelpfully wandered to an enticing scenario: Lena standing tall in her wedding dress, me down on my knees beneath both her and her dress’s long folds, and my head up between her legs…

Almost half an hour later it was instead I that stood, back straightened upward like a stiff board in Lena’s room, tied up and almost unable to move. My toes curled beneath me as I let out a loud groan.

“How much—“ I gasped as she pulled harder against me, doing the best I could to breathe through it. Though with how tightly I was bound in this deviant contraption, breathing seemed to be considered optional at this point. “— longer is this,” I paused with another wince, “going to take?”

“Just a few more seconds,” she grunted out, clearly struggling a bit herself. Though I had no doubts about how much she was enjoying this.

Annoyingly, she’s said the same the last time I’d asked as well. If my hands weren’t busy, I’d have been tempted to swat at her. Instead, I tried to huff, but it came out as more of a gasp for air, and then another groan, or perhaps a moan. Not that I would admit it. I felt a bit embarrassed for just how turned on this was somehow making me. The curse truly was turning me into some kind of deviant.

“No more,” I moaned out, unsure of how much more I could take before I began to feel faint, and then in a begging tone, said, “Please.”

As though in response, the strings laced up my lower back became just a bit tighter somewhere along the span of the wedding dress’s corset. Any more and I feared my back would be permanently stuck in this position. Or I’d cease to breathe. With one final tug that seemed to do very little, she gave in.

“Alright, I suppose this’ll do.” She circled around me, looking me up and down and admiring her work.

“I still don’t think it was necessary to take it this far,” I grumbled.

She waved a hand my way. “If you can still talk, it’s not that tight.”

I gave her a scowl in response. I’d admittedly been a bit curious when she suggested I try the dress on myself, instead of just seeing it on her. What she hadn't mentioned was that a simple try-on of the wedding dress ‘wasn’t enough,’ in her mind. I needed the ‘full experience.’

I think she just wanted to torture me.

With a nod, she said, “Alright, you can turn around now.”

Tightly bound as I was and with my hands full of cloth to keep the dress off the floor, I carefully turned to the mirror behind me, glad to finally see how I looked. The first thing I noticed was that my cheeks were a rosy red. How much was from wearing the wedding dress versus Lena’s hands and intense gaze, I wasn’t sure. My hair was tied up in a fairly simple but nice bun. Not a style that I’d actually wear for a wedding, but decent for a quick fix. My eyes trailed down to the white band that circled my neck, a newer style that had come from the capital a couple of years ago, according to Lena. The band connected to the dress itself, which curved around a small circle of open skin near the upper bust. For a girl with larger breasts, one might have seen the very beginnings of cleavage. On me, it was just flat skin, though that didn’t stop the tight corset from somewhat painfully pushing up the small amount of growth that I’d started to develop there. Along with a small amount of padding lined inside, I was surprised at how it managed to push it all together and give the impression that I had actual breasts. Still small, but within the realm of what a real girl might have. The thought made my gut sink a bit, knowing that no matter how my body might change, it was still something I would never truly be at heart.

The dress as a whole was beautiful, if unexpectedly showing quite a bit of skin. The upper corset was mostly white, with intricate golden patterns lining the body, which was tight around my waist, giving a very clear hourglass look. The sleeves were very short and frilly, not long enough to even cover my full shoulders. In truth, it was extremely improper. I didn’t know much about wedding dresses, but showing the upper arms, much less the shoulders, was something I’d never seen done before. Even the small open circle above the chest was quite risque, but I was pretty sure I’d seen it at a wedding before. Either on their own would be the talk of the town for weeks, if not months. But both of them together?

“Lena, this is…” I wasn’t entirely sure what to say. “How did you get your parents to agree to this?” I asked as I tugged at one of the sleeves.

From behind me, Lena smirked. “They don’t know. My father could care less to ask about what I’m going to be wearing, and my mother thinks I’ll be in something else. I’m hoping they’ll both have a heart attack when they finally see it. Of course, by then it’ll be too late to get a new one.”

I stopped myself from muttering that there wasn’t going to be a wedding and instead said, “I just don’t understand why you'd want to wear this, exactly. I mean, you don’t even like Silas. Why something so showy?”

“It’s not for that ass. Honestly, the thought of getting something like this first came about when, several months ago, Rosetta mentioned a fantasy of her tearing me out of my future wedding dress.” As the last few words trailed into a mumble, her cheeks notably reddened. “And then I thought about how much my mother would hate it. Even then, it was only more of a fanciful idea until she put me in charge of organizing everything. And after thinking about how it was my wedding, my once-in-a-lifetime wedding, and that my parents were making me marry that clown — doing something that would cause a scandal seemed like a great idea.”

She shrugged a bit sheepishly. “It’s not even that bad, really. Plenty of other dresses show off this much.”

I chuckled as well as I could with how constrained my chest was. “Can I take it off now? As pretty as it is, I feel like I’m going to suffocate.”

“Hmmm?” Lena tapped her chin, as though considering how long she could get away with torturing me. I gave her a whine and she finally relented with a high bell-like laugh. “Alright, alright. Though it feels like such a waste with how much effort it was to get you in it.”

I pouted until she finally moved to untie the strings and began to loosen them. It took several long seconds, but finally, I felt like I was able to truly breathe again.

An insistent knock tapped the door, and it cracked open as a familiar face peeked in. “Lena? Lady Camilla has, umm, returned.”

“Already?” she responded. “Well, let her know we would like to speak with her if you haven’t yet. We should be ready to head to her room in about ten or so minutes.”

“The Lady’s, umm, already here waiting.” Rosetta's eye flickered over briefly to her left. Camilla was here? I blinked in confusion. “I may have mentioned us wanting to talk about something to do with Pearl.”

“Ah,” Lena said and stood up straighter. Dropping the strings from my dress she moved up to my left and glanced my way. “Well, then, I suppose we shouldn't keep her waiting.”

I glanced down at the wedding dress, still rather tightly bound around me, though at least loosened enough for me to breathe fairly comfortably. “Alright,” I muttered. I guess we were doing this.