Gold To Rule, Silver To Serve

Her maid dressed her slowly, set before a mirror vast and tall. Stockings of pale silver. A chemise of pearly silk. Over that, a gown of deep burgundy, almost black in the faint candlelight. Along the right hand, she set a long glove. The left was laid bare. It was the night – this dress had been chosen by her father for its beauty, by her mother for its sensual sweep.

Tonight, the girl would be claimed. And yet, though the mirror revealed such splendorous velvet and a dozen necklaces of fine golden chain, she could not see herself. The veil was first, woven into her scarlet tresses and as black as the night. She could see perfectly.

Everything except for the pain and indecision her face. Her body had long since learned to hide such things.

The mirror shone in two panels. The panel to her left showed her eager, impatient – her stance was tense, her legs tight enough to leap at a thought. The panel to her right revealed the weakness in her arms – she hugged her waist, uneasy and ill of heart.

Before her on a nightstand was a ring box. The gift she had been given shone there. It was a perfect golden band, shaped to her hand like a second skin. Chains hung from it, meant to weave about her hand and arm in adornment. Possession, she thought bitterly. She would look so delicate in chains.

“Is something wrong, milady?” Her maid watched her, head bowed. Her own ankle was chained, had been chained for years. Its pale silver path extended to the western wall, where her own chambers lay, small and cold.

“...Tell me. What is it like, to be owned by someone you're expected to obey? Someone you're supposed to honor and live for? I make you pretty so that you might please my eye. I make you sleep beside me, so that I am not cold...is it difficult? If you lie, I'll know.” The threat needn't be said.

Her maid, for all her grace, merely took to her knees. “I was never beautiful to anyone until you bought me. I am yours eternally.”

The girl smiled. She may be a lady tonight...but not yet. She knelt before her maid, unlocking her manacle with a whispered word. Then, without a thought, she cast it over her bare arm. “Then show me how to survive it.”

Her maid smiled, wide and soft. “As you wish, my servant.”