Lady Arianda paced the smooth black floor of the Tea Room. Her soft leather slippers made little noise as she walked the length of it, tapping her favorite riding crop lightly against her thigh. She was dressed as she preferred for such events, in a long velvet dress, sleeves pegged to her wrists and skirt sweeping about her feet as she walked. There was a long slit in the skirt from her right hip to the floor, giving a tantalizing view of her long pale legs with each step. The neck of the dress was wide as to reveal her pale shoulders. Today her copper tresses fell loosely down her back. The long delicate fingers of one pale hand were wrapped around the hard leather grip of the crop.

"Ari, do sit. Won't you?" Lady Terin was relaxed and actually grinning as she watched her moon sister pace. She sipped her tea as she sat in one of the two ornate chairs placed before the Box. The waning sunlight pushed its patterns from the window across the floor as they waited. "Maxwell will bring her to us as soon as she arrives. What point is there in stewing over it til then?"

"Yes, I know." Arianda took a deep breath and her seat again then picked up her own cup for a sip of tea. "Why don't you review this one? I love to watch you work." She grinned aside to Terin.

"And of course I feel the same, so this one is yours. Besides, you have known Master Trace longer than I. It would seem your place."

"I suppose." As Arianda took another sip, Maxwell stepped through the sliding doors and bowed. "Ladies. Your parcel has arrived." He smirked, his gaze lingering on Terin a bit before he stepped aside and gestured to the parcel just outside the doors.

As the girl stepped tentatively into the rather forbidding black, red and gold room, Maxwell lifted her hand up with his own and led her to the Box. "Step up, please." He said politely and she did.

Maxwell again bowed to the two Ladies and smiled then stepped aside to a small table covered in velvet. Upon it was the prepared Initiation Box.

Sarah stood with her bare feet together in the center of the Box. Her gaze was straight ahead. Her shivering was visible in the smooth satin shift. The thin straps across her shoulders came down into a low rounded neck of the sleeveless dress. Her nipples made small shadows in the fabric. Her other curves made softer ones. The tail of the dress reached her thighs, barely covering any secrets she thought she had. With her hands at her sides, her fingers toyed with the hem of the shift, no matter how much she tried to stand stock still.

Lady Arianda rose from her chair and walked slowly around the Box, eyeing the parcel from head to foot. The Mistress is fairly tall so the girl on the stand was hardly a head higher, despite her perch on the box. Arianda abruptly ran her hand up beneath the satin shift and felt across the girl's tummy then around to her cheeks, just to see that she was properly without undergarments for the Review. Sarah swallowed audibly but maintained her even gaze straight ahead.

"Sarah, is it?"

"Yes, Mistress."

"Master Trace has explained to you the conditions and length of term for our agreement?"

"Yes... Mistress." She has understood the seven years that were owed to Master Trace would now be served to Ladies Arianda and Terin at Double Moon. She hoped they had been told about her need to sculpt, but didn't dare mention it at this time.

"Master Trace had no time for your training before his departure. Is this so?"

"Yes, Mistress."

"Very well. We shall begin... as soon as you are approved and marked, of course."

Sarah had no idea what was meant by either for she had assumed that the approval from Master Trace would carry here. Apparently this was not the case? Finally, she responded. "Of course, Mistress."

"Good." Arianda said, ignoring for the moment that the girl had been a bit slow to acknowledge. Walking around to face the girl squarely, she lifted the tail of the shift with the tip of the riding crop, exposing the vee of soft blonde hair at the top of the girl's thighs. "Disrobe... and unbind your hair."

Sarah's hair was long and a soft reddish blonde, reminiscent of sunset perhaps. It was currently bound up on her head. Lady Arianda wanted to see the length of it. The girl gathered up the hem of her shift and drew it off over her head. She draped it over her arm then reached up and untied the binding on her hair, letting it fall and bounce into place around her shoulders and down her back. She neatly folded the satin shift then and placed the tie upon it. She held them out in both hands before her. Maxwell stepped in and took the cloth, freeing her hands to drop back to her sides.

"Thank you, Maxwell." Ari nodded to him with a grin. He bowed, "Certainly, M'Lady Arianda." and returned to wait at the table, laying the dress off to the side there.

Arianda walked slowly around the girl again then from behind she slipped the end of the riding crop between sarah's ankles and tapped one. "Feet on the corners. Hands clasped at the small of your back. This is how you present yourself when standing."

Sarah looked down as she carefully placed one foot at the corner of the box and then the other foot on an opposite corner. Her legs were now parted, though not terribly open. She drew her hands around to her back and clasped them together as instructed. This made her breasts rise more prominently.

Standing close in front of the girl, Arianda was about eye level with the soft full breasts and soft pink of her nipples. She grinned over her shoulder at Terin. "Looks much like someone I know." She referred to her own pale breasts of course. Both Ladies laughed then Arianda gestured to Maxwell. He knew she was asking for her gloves and with a bow he delivered a short pair of black velvet gloves from the Initiation Box. He accepted the riding crop from her and put it away.

Out of the corner of her eye, sarah saw something gleaming when Maxwell opened that box, but she dared not let her eyes veer to see what it was.

After slipping her long fingers into the black velvet, Arianda let her hands slide up sarah's thighs. It was warm and soft. Sarah shivered at the touch. The gloved hands rested a moment at her hips and a thumb stretched inward to lightly brush her pubic hair and the outer edge of her lips. As the velvet hands progressed up, sarah took a deep breath. Releasing it relaxed her breasts into Arianda's gloved hands where again the thumbs wandered and pressed across her nipples, hardening both instantly.

"Master Trace knows fine work when he sees it." The comment was tossed over her shoulder to Terin. Arianda then moved herself and the gloved hands around sarah's side and smoothed over her buttocks and the backs of her thighs, still assessing the girl's general physical qualities. Sarah had the urge to thank the Mistress for the compliment, but opened her mouth and closed it again. She knew very little here and feared what she may find out on her first mistake.

Arianda ran her velvet fingers up sarah's spine, making her shiver again, then splayed her fingers apart and pushed at her back, prompting her to bend over. "Present, so I may see your wares, girl." Sarah was confused and unbalanced by the pressure then understood and worked hard to stay atop the Box while bending over. Her hands slid down the front of her legs and grabbed her own ankles. She locked her arms for support. Her hair tossed over her head, nearly long enough to brush the top of the Box.

"Nice hair." Terin commented and sipped her tea. She usually remained quiet during Arianda's Reviews, so enjoying watching her slow measured style in such things.

Sarah took in a sharp breath as a velvet thumb slipped along her now exposed and slightly swollen lips. Arianda grinned to Terin around the girl's rounded ass. She knows Terin always enjoys the little surprises that Arianda likes to work into the Review.

The other velvet hand slid around to brace sarah's thigh as a finger slid between her lips and moved about inside her.

Sarah did not breathe.

"Hmmm..." Arianda pushed a bit further and sarah made a little cry, her thighs shaking. "Pray tell me, sarah... Master Trace did not have opportunity to try you?"

Sarah could not think what she meant or how to answer with the long velvet finger buried in her. Arianda was bemused. She had no idea they had been given a virgin, but she was almost certain she felt the girl was still intact. She slipped her gloved finger from the glistening softness and patted sarah's cheek. "You may straighten again."

Sarah swallowed and stood up. She worked to maintain her balance as she equalized again. Now she wasn't sure if she was supposed to answer a question or not.

"Mistress, I... I had only been with Master Trace for a few days before he left. I don't..." She swallowed hard again. "I don't know what is meant."

Lady Terin arched a brow and Arianda wandered over to take up her cup of tea. With the cup close to her lips she said to Terin quietly. "A treasure he has left us. I should have thanked him... longer." She grinned into a sip. Terin chuckled as Lady Arianda set her cup down again and stripped off the velvet gloves. "Maxwell, if you please, time for marking, hm?"

"Yes, M'Lady Arianda." He smiled and walked to the Box. He extended his hand to help sarah down then walked her to the long low table in the Tea Room. He quietly bid sarah to lay on her back on the table. His voice was soft and kind, too much so perhaps. She didn't know what the marking meant but his kind treatment seemed foreboding.

Maxwell saw to it that sarah was positioned with her head all the way to one end of the low table. When she lay back, her legs extended from the other end and feet rested on the floor. She folded her hands across her waist and lay still, naked, upon the low wooden table, staring at the ceiling as Maxwell left her side.

Lady Arianda sat back in her chair near Terin. They could see the low table and sarah lying upon it very well from this vantage point. They murmured quietly as Maxwell retrieved the Initiation Box and moved it to another velvet covered table near sarah.

He was very ceremonial about lifting a soft leather cuff from the box and slipping it onto sarah's wrist, tightening the strap and buckling it. All the while the fear in her stirred, even as something else stirred within Terin and Arianda. Terin offered, "No matter how many times... I still find the marking exciting."

Arianda smiled at her. "I'm sure you will not be surprised to know that I feel the same." They shared a grin then turned their attention back to Maxwell and sarah. Maxwell was kneeling at sarah's feet now and applying the last cuff to her ankle.

Before Maxwell rose to stand, he secured sarah's ankle cuffs to the legs of the table. Upon rising, he smiled down to sarah. "Please raise your hands over your head, sarah." His face was so handsome, smile so warm, it almost made sarah forget her nervousness, at least until he clasped her wrists to the table and now had secured her to it.

Maxwell turned to the Initiation Box again. Sarah's eyes widened as he turned back around with some sort of metal device in his hands, yet his face was still softly smiling.

Sarah opened her mouth to protest or ask questions or anything but Maxwell shook his head, letting his eyes meet hers. "Sssshhh. Done quickly. I promise." He knelt beside her. He held the metal device to the side so she could no longer see it. His other hand gently rubbed over her stomach and down across her navel then his fingertips circled the shallow dip there. Sarah found it a soothing touch but his eyes, something in his eyes.

Maxwell let his fingertip dip into her navel and pinched up a small bit of flesh there against his thumb. His eyes drew away from sarah's. She watched his head turn, the device appeared again and before she could guess what was happening she cried out. Her wrists and ankles pulled at her bindings uselessly. Her lip quivered and a tear slid down the side of her face as Maxwell crimped the marker into the newly pierced hole at her navel, all with the same tool.

Lady Arianda mmmm'd as something warm rose up through her. In response, Lady Terin hissed a breathless "Yesss." Both were always moved by the marking and Maxwell's style in executing it.

Maxwell set the tool aside and took a handkerchief from inside his suit coat. He gently dabbed at the droplets of blood on sarah's navel, then, to her surprise and causing her a deep warm shiver, he leaned over her belly and applied a soft kiss to the wound he had just created. His fingers gingerly checked the small ring that now pierced through her skin and the two linked rings that marked her as Double Moon property.

He whispered to her, caressing her face with his eyes, "Sarah... Welcome to Double Moon. In a few days, you'll hardly know the marker is there." Reaching over her, he began to unbind her wrists and added. "This is a fortunate place to be."

Lady Terin and Lady Arianda rose and left the Tea Room. Ari sighed, "Well, he shall see to getting her settled and then the training begins. I cannot believe Trace left this one behind."

Terin chuckled, "Ah, but perhaps it was the only way he could get you to accept such a gift?"

Ari flashed her eyes at Terin and began to ask what she knew and when, as they proceeded on to lunch being served in the Great Hall.

Empress Tea Room

Furnishings

Initiating sarah
Dancing Smile
Queen's Gambit