Chapter Five: Beadrieth
"They called it a Thal'kaleen, an unwavering devotion, a sacrifice. And I didn't know it at the time, but they truly wanted me to succeed."
-An excerpt from the tattered logs, Illiana Worms of Whalhuun.
Mistress Koren agreed to the plan, thanks to Mai and the Old Hag, and they let me go.
She gave me a crystal to wear around my neck. It allowed the Old Hag to watch me through the eyes of crows, which made Mistress feel better about it since she wouldn't be there to protect me if I needed help.
She gave me a riding dress, an old cloak, and leather riding boots to wear on my journey.
I loosened the lace around the bodice so that I could breathe. It had been quite some time since I had worn clothes. I hated it. It felt repulsing to me now. It felt more natural wearing nothing but a leather collar. I had to be naked. The dress was so cumbersome I wanted to strip and waltz into town in my natural form ... Worm slave Liana.
But I kept to my plan...
I combed my long whitening hair over to my right, covering the runes and my earrings. It felt odd dressing my hair to the right. I felt wrong.
My nipple rings rubbed against the corset. Goddess, could I be any more uncomfortable?
And I didn't miss the sights and smells of my home town, Roengraf. Mankind had ruined all things pleasant. As I sauntered about the tall stone buildings with steam and smoke billowing from their chimneys, I lamented over every aspect of humanity.
It was as if everything and everyone around me was grey, lacking of color and life. I hated these people.
Regular people went shopping at the market, bought bread and potatoes from vendors, took their family to church, raked some leaves, swept some dirt, or got a drink at the pub.
No ... Fuck that.
Choke me, tie me up, fuck me until I pass out, feed me my own cum, leave me in a pool of my own piss and lube, ruin me, wreck me, chain me, flog me.
Mistress, take me back, I thought. Doubt flooded into my heart and I wanted to go home, to the warm dominating green arms of my Mistress.
The streets hustled and bustled like a choking artery. I made my way through town with my hood over my head, unnoticed like a squirrel in the trees, to a little bar called, "The Blade and Turtle."
Beadrieth was a standard patron of the establishment. My ex-fiancΓ©, Governor Rikard Hollenbrooke, was a standard patron of the establishment more so than her. He took me there after his boring council meetings.
Ah, yes. I smiled with such glee. I wanted to tell my Mistress how well the plan was working, for there was Bead all by her lonesome. Well, she wasn't alone. She had her little crowd of cronies to tell her how pretty she was and what dress to buy and whatnot.
I hated all of them.
She had just stepped out of her carriage when I walked up to her and her friends. Their laughter stopped the moment they noticed me.
I smiled and removed my hood, allowing them to see my hair.
Bead smiled and tilted her head, fraught with confusion. "Is that you Liana?"
I shrugged, no it wasn't me twat, it was someone else.
"Hello, Bead," I said.
She threw her arms out and embraced me with all of her positive energy and a great smile, as if she had to try to pretend she didn't have me abducted so that she could replace me and be super rich.
She broke the hug and held my shoulders. "St. Evelyn's grace, it's been so long what have you been up too? By the Goddess, it's been like almost half a cycle. How have you been!"
I smiled. My hate smiled. "Well, I'm a baker over in Sherriville. Well," I blushed, "More like, I'm an apprentice baker. My misβ master wouldn't call me a baker yet. But I'm doing fine I s'pose."
At the corner of my attention span, I saw her friends roll their eyes at me. Politicians wives, all of them. Cunts, too, with their fancy afternoon dresses and little umbrellas.
"A baker? Heren said something about that, but I didn't think youβ"
"It's fine, Bead."
"And your hair? What has happened?"
I kept my smile. My hate kept its smile. I replied with a smile. "It sort of just started happening. I guess it runs in my family line. I don't know."
She blinked a few times, I guess, or maybe she shuttered at my hair. I didn't know. She was just bewildered that I was standing before her.
"Shall we talk," I said.
Bead took a moment to embrace my existence, but yes, we walked around the pub while her little party went inside.
"Oh Liana, I'm glad to see you," she lied.
I sort of laughed beneath my breath.
"Please, button this back up. It's not really ladylike of you to dress like a whore," she said, tightening my bodice back up to my neck, after glaring at the blood crystal pendant for a moment.
Coming from a little sissy pretty boy with the breasts of a child, her comment made me ball my fists at her to prevent my palm from unwillingly slapping her face to oblivion. Oh yes, it wasn't ladylike to show my cleavage to the world. If only she knew what sort of life she was going to haveβ
"Why thank you," I replied, "I forget sometimes, I just journeyed in today from sherriville. It was quite the walk."
"You walked!" She gasped.
I nodded. "I guess that would sound foreign to you."
"Well, yeah." She laughed. With her lovely little sissy voice, she laughed.
"So how is life for you?" I asked.
She put her hands on her hips with a smile. "Well ... We are to marry within this quarter of the cycle, in the lovely winds of the spring like how I always wanted. I am to escort him to his council and someday I'll have a seat. Isn't that grand?"
My heart retained its hateful bolster.
"Oh?" I questioned.
"Yes, indeed. Tomorrow he's taking me to the great Terrlan Orchards to find the proper wine for our event. It'll be the most exquisite wedding. You should come."
My chest burned with anger, causing my nipple rings to press harder into the corset and angering me further. How dare she invite me to a wedding that was meant for me ... How fucking dare she ... And how could she be like that? Was she genuinely not shaken about rattling the chains of my past? What the fuck?