Loces and Chains

"Okay, you can open them now!"

Ezzo stopped covering his eyes with his hands. It wasn't particularly hard to guess what Clara was about to show him.

Not a day has gone by without her mentioning the flower, I think.

Still, he shot her a grateful smile as his eyes landed on the pressed moth orchid, positioned on the bed between them both.

"It's lovely, Lady Clara," Ezzo said with sincerity.

"I can press more of them for you," his mistress spoke excitedly. "It gives me an excuse to pick new flowers, even if I already glued them to my notebook."

"And on the bright side, it's also a lovely gesture towards me, right?" he joked with a chuckle.

"As a secondary concern, I guess." Clara grinned at him cheekily.

Things

had

become better between them. Despite her shyness, Clara had quickly grown more comfortable with Ezzo's general sarcasm. And while his opinions on the institution of slavery and the Bbrasian Empire were mostly off-limits, he genuinely felt like he could be close enough to himself with someone for the first time in a long while.

"If you really must make me work for my excuses to pick flowers," Clara began with a smile, "I guess I

could

pick them as reminders of things we do together. Like picking a lavender flower when I do take you to Ornecilla. Or a poppy when we finish a book together."

"That's quite intricate for something you're just whipping up as an excuse, my lady," he retorted with a bemused expression.

"I'm the daughter of Vera Locke." Clara rolled her eyes with a chuckle. "Everything I have done has required an excuse so far."

Ezzo had to wonder how often said excuses were believed, but he'd rather not voice his doubts then. He already knew well enough that Clara's naivety compared to her relatives was a bit of a sore spot for her. Just as he prepared to speak again, a knock on the door interrupted him.

"Come in," Clara called out, nodding at the guard lingering by the wall to open up.

The soldier moved swiftly, her boots stepping gently aside as she pulled the door open. With tentative, dainty steps, and her hands clasped demurely behind her back, Sura Locke entered the room.

The middle Locke daughter looked no less dainty or proper than usual that day. Her long, brown hair had its usual sheen that hinted at obsessive levels of brushing. Her posture was immaculate, as if she were a doll that had been given life. She was too petite for the racier clothes her mother and aunt were so fond of. Not that her modest sundress failed to do her justice. Though she was the furthest Locke from curvy, Sura still had shapely legs, perfect skin, and that impressive posture, all of which were adequately displayed thanks to the cyan dress she'd chosen that day.

"Hi, Clara," she greeted her sister sweetly. Her brown eyes swiveled to Ezzo's, before she waved at him in her usual girly fashion. "And hi there, Ezzo."

Great. What does she want now?

Ezzo narrowed his eyes. Sura had paid previous visits to her younger sister's bedroom. But Ezzo knew, by now, that too many cutesy demure gestures were a bad sign when coming from the middle Locke daughter in particular.

"Good afternoon, Lady Sura." He lowered his head tersely.

"Hey, Sura," Clara smiled openly at her visitor. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm very good. Just finished my journal entry for today."

She grabbed the pressed orchid and placed it on Clara's lap. Then, she sat daintily between Ezzo and his mistress, in the space the flower had been occupying.

I already don't like this,

he thought.

"I'll be honest with you, Clara," Sura said as she grabbed her sister's hands. "I'm a bit curious about Ezzo. A real Scombian in our estate." She glanced over her shoulder at him. "It must be wonderful to be his owner."

"He is wonderful company," Clara sounded a lot less tense around Sura than her other relatives, even if this conversation topic was still giving her a slight blush.

"I can imagine!" Sura giggled.

A giggle with no innocence,

Ezzo noticed. "Anyway, I was wondering if you could let me borrow him for a bit."

Ezzo's frown deepened as he heard those words.

I knew it.

"Oh." Clara's blush became more intense once she worked out the implications of what Sura was asking for. "I don't know, Sura. It's... well... it's not really proper to ask for this, right?"

It most certainly is not,

Ezzo added mentally.

Now just repeat that with a shred of conviction and she might leave us be.

"Aw, come on, Clara," Sura said as she scooted closer to her, leaning her head on her sister's. "It's just borrowing a slave! Remember when you forgot to hitch your mare while you were out picking flowers?

I

let you borrow my slaves to bring her back to the stable before Mother found out."

"Yeah... I remember that." Clara had a grateful, if sheepish smile on her by then.

"You know we can count on each other," Sura kept speaking mellifluously, as if she was coaxing a very timid rabbit out of its hole. "I'm not going to steal Ezzo from you. I'd just... like to know what all the fuss is about."

The fuss is about a whole country clinging to some fantasy of exotic sexual prowess that is not real,

Ezzo sulked mentally.

"Well..." Clara pursed her lips. "I'll let you borrow him. But only if Ezzo agrees with it too. It should be his choice."

Suddenly, they were both staring expectantly at him. Sura had a bemused look in her eyes, as if the concept of giving a slave a choice was the quaintest thing she'd seen in a long while. Meanwhile, Clara had an almost pleading expression on her face.

You've got to be kidding me,

Ezzo grumbled within the confines of his skull.

She seriously expects me to say yes? Just because of something nice her sister did for her who knows how long ago?

It was not a fair situation to be in, and Ezzo had to wonder how much Clara would apologize afterwards for prioritizing a clear conscience over Ezzo's own dignity.

That is,

a disloyal inner voice said,

if I say yes.

He

could

say no, right? Clara had given him the choice. He could wipe that smug look on Sura's face with one short word. And yet, as he opened his mouth, his reply was much longer than that:

"I accept, Lady Sura."

What is wrong with me?!

he screamed internally.

Why did I say that?!

"Aww, you're the best, Clara!"

Sura hugged her sister tightly, pressing her head against hers a little harder too.

At least

she

knows who really made the decision here

. Once the hug was done, she hopped off the bed and looked at Ezzo expectantly.

"I'll return him in a bit," she bit her lip in a way that only made Ezzo's reluctance grow.

"You're not going to... hurt him, right?" Clara still asked.

Now she asks,

Ezzo thought as a frown threatened to take over.

Sura looked playfully offended by her younger sister's question.

"I'm not

Ira

, Clara. I'm just... curious, that's all."

For some reason, those words got Clara to look a bit less worried. They did not have the same effect on Ezzo. Still, he found himself reluctantly rising from the bed too. As Sura cheerfully pulled him away from the one place in the Locke manor he liked, he still noticed Clara waving at him a little awkwardly. She looked grateful, and Ezzo had learned to appreciate how her eyes got a little sweeter when that happened, and how her perfect lips pursed a little awkwardly whenever she smiled with gratitude. But at that moment, even the cute physical quirks of his mistress were hollow comforts given what was coming.

What

is

coming?

He had to wonder. Sura was a bit of a mystery to him. Ira and Vera were two different shades of cruelty incarnate, and he knew what to expect from them. But Sura felt like an oddity. Even if Ezzo would readily imagine her to be a third form of cruelty incarnate, the fact was there was little more to cruelty than the physical and the psychological.

Or maybe I am just not creative enough to imagine such a thing. I'm not a Locke, after all.

Soon, he was all alone with the petite noblewoman in her sickeningly pink bedroom. She was still biting her lip, now a lot harder than she'd done it in Clara's bedroom. Out of habit, Ezzo half-expected a guard to be there to close the door once they'd entered. Instead, Sura had to do it herself.

"So, Ezzo," she said, grinning at him, "we're all alone at last."

His brown eyes swiveled around that pink wasteland. There seemed to be no whips in sight. No chains.

And certainly no demonic boxes with ropes dangling from them.

The only items in sight were pillows in various shades of pink, the wooden desk painted in that same color, and the aforementioned journal, shut perfectly at its center.

Those observations, or lack thereof, were slightly calming. Ezzo only snapped out of his inspection when Sura strutted in front of him and sat on her pink mattress, parting her legs slightly and looking at him with an expectant smirk.

"What?" he asked.

"We're

alone

," Sura repeated, this time waggling her thin eyebrows. "No guards. No chains. No one to stop you from doing whatever you want..."

Like leaving?

"...to

me

," she said as she allowed her smirk to widen.

"I beg your pardon, Lady Sura?"

"I can only imagine how rough it must be. To have all those...

urges

..." She spread her legs a little further apart, glancing at him coyly from the corner of her eye. The skirt on her dress was already riding up a little from her pose. "And never being given an outlet. Does Clara even help you out, Ezzo?"

"I'm afraid I still don't understand what you're saying, my lady." Ezzo narrowed his eyes.

"It's okay, Ezzo. You don't have to feign restraint for me." Sura bit her lip again, spreading her legs fully for him now. "I know what Scombians need. I want to see you unleashed. I want to see you take what you need. As roughly as you want."

"You... what we

need

?"

Ezzo felt a creeping sensation of offense overtaking him.

This is more of that stupid stereotype, isn't it?

"We both know what I'm talking about," sang Sura. Her legs shifted sideways very slightly, opening and closing eagerly as she tilted her head sideways.

"Scombians don't

need

anything more than other people, Lady Sura." Ezzo tried his hardest not to let his voice show how annoyed he was.

"Well, I know you won't

die

if you can't have sex," she said as she rolled her eyes. "But you definitely struggle more with chastity than other races."

"We do not!" his voice came out a little too whiny for his taste, but he was too upset to control it.

"I said you don't have to

lie

, Ezzo. I'm not as sensitive as I might seem."

Her delicate hands moved to the buttons of her blouse, undoing the top one. The way Sura looked at him as she did it suggested she was expecting him to pounce on her at any moment.

"You have been lied to, Lady Sura," Ezzo said, before taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "Scombians are not any more or less sexual than anyone else. It's just a stupid... stereotype. Perpetrated by Bbrasian soldiers and Scombian freemen who want to oversell their experiences to anyone who'll listen!"

Sura looked puzzled for a very long moment.

I'm getting executed, aren't I?

"Oh. So you're...

not

going to claim me forcefully and make me yours?"

"Sorry to disappoint you," Ezzo said with a frown. It was clear he didn't mean it.

"But... you're a Scombian," she still said.

Ezzo screamed internally in frustration. Actually, he screamed externally too.

"And you're a Bbrasian! Does that mean you're like

every

Bbrasian in the world?!"

Sura bit her lip as Ezzo raised her voice. She leaned backwards on the bed, her legs still spread open invitingly.

"I'm not ravishing you just because I'm angry!" he still clarified.

"Ugh!" Sura scoffed, finally letting herself fall back on her mattress. "I

thought

you'd be more fun than this."

Ezzo stared at the sprawling noblewoman dispassionately.

It's not like I can do what she wants in any case. Not unless I'm feeling suicidal.

"Fine," Sura sighed, hopping off the bed and looking a little less disappointed. "We can do something a little more... Clara-like, if you're going to be like that. How about you help me pick a perfume for today? I'm curious to see if your tastes align with my family's."

They won't,

Ezzo guessed.

"Sure thing, Lady Sura," he tried to steady his voice again, to restore that meekness that had eroded away with his outrage.

"Great!"

She grinned as she opened a drawer on her bedside table. It had been dyed the exact same color as every other piece of furniture there. Ezzo could see the glint of a few bottles in there, clinking together as Sura slid the container shut. The noblewoman sat on the bed again, patting the space next to her.

Uneasily, Ezzo took his seat. Sura didn't feel any more predictable now, even if she was giving him a task that seemed easy. Lockes had a knack for making a nightmare out of an ordinary situation very quickly, after all.

Let's not forget I was strung up by a demon on an ordinary morning not so long ago.

The sleek, elegant bottle in her hands was no less pink than the rest of her room.

"This one's new. I've never tried it," she said with a sweet smile.

The cork was pulled from the bottle. Sura's nostrils flared softly as the scent of the bottle on her lap reached her. Her smile widened.

"Mmm... Here. Try it."

The bottle was brought to Ezzo's nose. He did not recall ever giving it a whiff.

***

When Ezzo awakened, the pink of Sura's ceiling somehow felt even more nauseating than usual. His body felt sluggish, heavy, and limp, as if holding his eyes open was too much effort by itself.

"Ezzo, are you awake yet?" came Sura's voice. It did not sound like this was the first time she was asking.

He tried to turn towards her voice, only to realize his hands were restrained. A quick glance over his head, and he saw the cuffs tying him to Sura's bedframe. They were unlike anything he'd ever seen. Fuzzy, bright pink, like an executioner had looked at the usual restraints and just figured they weren't cartoonishly girly enough. This embarrassing sight was enough to make him squirm, which prompted a chuckle from Clara's sister.

"Oh, you're

definitely

awake now."

His tired eyes tried to look in the direction of her voice. Ezzo found Sura lying next to him on that bed. She was entirely nude, her pale skin exposed as she lay sideways facing him. Not a hair on her petite body. Her slender legs and her delicate flower had been perfectly shaven, perhaps more thoroughly than Ezzo whenever he had to undergo his periodic upkeep in the bathhouse. She was biting her lip again, looking at him as if he was a particularly delicious piece of dessert.

"Lady Sura...!" he croaked, but he didn't know what to say yet.

Seeing her lack of clothes made Ezzo painfully aware of his own nudity. Sura had stripped him bare, his clothes happily discarded on a chair near her desk.

"Did you sleep well, Ezzo?"

She put one of her dainty hands on his chest, letting her fingers strut along his flesh. Immediately, Ezzo felt hints of goosebumps on his light olive skin.

"What are you going to do to me?" he managed to ask, the worry finally outgrowing the haze of whatever drug she'd made him inhale.

"I'm gonna have a little fun!" Sura giggled as her hand crawled dangerously close to Ezzo's nipple. "Remember when I pinched you?" she asked huskily. "Mother was such a buzzkill."

Ezzo winced as her two fingers slid onto opposite ends of his sensitive spot.

"You... you promised Lady Clara you wouldn't hurt me," he hurried to say.

Sura hummed softly, her hand going limp. Ezzo allowed himself to breathe very quietly thanks to that small relief. He felt her head nuzzling his temple, as well as her warm breath on his ear.

"Actually Ezzo," she whispered, "I only told Clara that I'm not Ira."

His eyes darted towards her. Sura had a wicked smirk on her face, and she allowed Ezzo to behold it for a full second before pinching him.

"Agh!" he gasped.

His body immediately squirmed with the minor pain. The pink, fuzzy cuffs might have looked ridiculous, but they held him in place no less efficiently than any other rope or chain in that estate had so far.

"And I think I'm being true to my word, right?" Sura's voice, in Ezzo's ear, was enough for him to tell she was smiling. "I mean, Ira doesn't use fuzzy cuffs. She just uses normal chains. Or ropes. Do you like how they feel? I made them myself."

"This is

not

Clara-like!" protested Ezzo, still struggling to withstand that continuous pinch.

"Hmm... I guess not," Sura said with a chuckle. Her fingers were still insistently squeezing his nipple. "But with

you

, luckily, I can lie."

"Agh!

Please

!"

The chains of his cuffs rattled against the bedframe, his hands desperate to put a stop to her pinching. Once she seemed satisfied with his pain, Sura shot him a little smile as her fingers let go. Ezzo let out a soft breath as the pain left him, just as suddenly as it had arrived.

This moment of relief did not last. As the blood rushed back to his nipple, there was a second round of intense agony. He let out another groan, shriveling in vain as his body inflicted the new punishment upon him.

"Gah!"

"You're fun, Ezzo," she teased with a grin. "Even if you didn't ravish me."

Sura then slid a leg over his hips, rolling on top of him. Her petite body was light enough for it not to feel overwhelming. Sura's warmth was also a small relief, now that she was covering his body. Those dark, curious eyes looked down on him with mischievous intrigue, as if this whole thing could be seen as a scientific experiment of some kind.

"What are you going to do to me...?" he asked softly.

"I'm glad you ask!"

He had to suck in some air as Sura suddenly lowered her head onto his neck. The nibbling started right away. His shoulders tilted in every direction as he tried to pull away from her. It was no use. With one hand pulling his hair, she could maintain her access to his flesh, all while her knees tightened around his waist. Sura was clearly not going to be stopped. Apart from his own gasps, her muffled moans were all that he could hear.

The nibbles didn't last long before turning into a bite. Ezzo's entire body convulsed as he reacted to the sudden presence of teeth on his tender skin. That seemed to amuse Sura to no end; he felt the air leaving her nostrils as she chuckled.

Her bite eventually softened, until it reverted back to half-painful nibbles along his neck. Before Ezzo could even think of relaxing, he felt a harsh, sucking pressure against his now-sensitive skin.

"Agh!"

His eyes twitched as they stared desperately at the ceiling, the only direction Sura allowed him to look in while pulling his hair like that. All he could see was pink, and it was starting to act as a reminder of his predicament.

The painful suction lasted for what felt like a full minute. A full minute which, needless to say, Ezzo spent thrashing and squirming futilely under the noblewoman. She let go of his neck with a loud pop and a breathless chuckle.

"I expected Scombians to taste like herbs, given your scent."

"Well," he said between pants, "I am

so

sorry for-"

Ezzo could not finish his sarcastic retort. Sura gleefully brought her teeth to his neck again, this time on a slightly different but no less sensitive spot. She let out muffled, girly giggles as her nibbles and occasional harsher bites got more and more reactions out of the Scombian.