“So then I told him, ‘Oh my god, I’ve never felt anything like that before! What are you doing to me!?’” Benedette cried, slamming the table with her hands and moaning, tossing her hair as she re-enacted her night over with the merchant’s son.

Susie chortled, nearly spilling her drink all over the dinner table. Kyle had his head in his hands, while James smirked, leaning back in his chair.

The rest of the Denton children were either mollified or confused.

“He said,” Benedette lowered her voice and furrowed her brow. “You like that baby?”

“Yes, Yes!” she shouted slamming the table, before the expression drained from her face, her jaw hanging slack as she stared at the ceiling.

“And next week we got the contract.” She said, looking back down at her audience.

“That’s awesome!” Alicia said, starry eyed at her elder sister’s exploits.

“That’s a good example of one little trick for wrapping men around your finger,” Maggie said, smiling.

“May I be excused?” Kyle asked, “seeing as I don’t plan on fucking a dude anytime soon.”

“You may not.” Aunt Maggie said, directing a cold gaze at him. “You benefit just as much from knowing when people are manipulating you.”

Maggie turned back to the table, and in that moment, her eyes landed on Alicia, and she knew Maggie was talking to her specifically.

“Pride is a terribly seductive thing. If a man feels like he’s uncovered some hidden side of your sexuality, his pride will render him blindly enamored with you.”

Alicia lay in bed, staring at the wall, reminiscing over the past, before things became quite as ugly as they were now.

It’s not bad advice, she thought to herself. Maybe she could use this as the jumping off point to exert a bit more control over Edward.

Then the memory continued unbidden.

“Next week, I’ll be attending a charity ball.”

“Ooh, ooh,” The younger Alicia shouted, raising her hand, “Can I come?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Yess,” Alicia fist-pumped. Now she could finally take a step into the world of intrigue she’d only heard about.

“You’ll have to reign in that enthusiasm, though,” Maggie said with a wry grin.

“Gah,” Alicia’s eyes snapped open as she gave a soft cry, throwing the silk sheets off as she sat up. She took a deep breath and glanced at Caitlyn, who breathed deeply in the bed on the other side of the room.

Alicia shuddered at the memory. Ugh, not that, not now,

She took a deep breath and the shaking of her fingers gradually slowed. She glanced at the door, where the golden light of the hallway spilled into their room, keeping it just barely bright enough to navigate by.

If he actually had uncovered a hidden side of her that even she hadn’t known about – which he didn’t – wasn’t that an even better cover than faking it like Benedette? Her limbs started trembling at the thought.

Alicia didn’t know if it was fear or anticipation.

She took a deep breath and stood, padding silently towards the door.

Okay, let’s do this.

***Garth***

“So, what kind of training are you talking about?” Garth asked, his chest throbbing furiously. The two of them were in his bedroom, Alicia standing in front of him wearing little more than a t-shirt and a pair of undies. The sight was good for his heart.

“I’m…not sure.” She said, fidgeting. “It’s just, earlier, when you pulled those splinters out of me, it started...to feel good? I was hoping you could help me get a handle on it.”

“Well, pleasure and pain follow virtually identical pathways in the brain.” Garth started yammering, his heart beating so madly he started seeing stars. “It’s fairly common for the two to get mixed up, actually.”

“Really?” she asked. “Could you…could you show me?”

Garth felt like climbing Mount Everest, beating his chest and shouting into the winds, ‘Look what I have created!’

Can’t let myself get carried away, Garth struggled to bring himself down off that mountain and get his head out of the clouds. I’m her teacher, and it would be totally immoral to –

Alicia took off her nightie, revealing her perfectly rounded, modest breasts. The cherry colored nipples stood proudly in the air for a moment before she covered them, giving him a shy look.

A Fatal exception 8008S has occurred at 02:17 in 848YM4K1NG V5. R3450N. The current application will be terminated.

Rebooting……

Rebooting……….

“I guess I could show you a thing or two,” Garth blurted.

Damnit!

“What do I do?” she asked.

“Get comfortable.” Garth said, motioning to the bed. He held out his hand and floated the riding crop over to himself.

“Now, Garth said, pacing back and forth riding crop in hand. “I’ll admit I don’t have a lot of practical experience on the subject, but I did study it. And no, I’m not just talking about porn.”

Al looked confused.

“Yesterday was a fluke. You can’t just start hurting a masochist and assume they’re gonna get off on it. You’ve gotta get them in the mood. Since the pathways in the brain are so similar, if you get them a little aroused first, the pump is primed. Then you can start hurting them. In moderation.”

Garth realized he was producing less-than-sexy word salad, but his mouth seemed to be running on autopilot.

“Anyway, common Masochist stuff usually includes a little light bondage as foreplay to get them in the mood. For a lot of them feeling helpless really cranks up the voltage. There’s also–”

“Yes, let’s do that.” Alicia said hastily, causing Garth to frown.

That was quicker than I thought.

That one little slip on Alicia’s part got Garth thinking again. If she never knew she was a masochist, why would she jump into being tied up by a stranger? Wouldn’t she want to experiment a little bit at a time with someone she trusts? I obviously shouldn’t fall into that category.

Jesus, what the hell am I doing? Garth glanced down at the riding crop in his hand, then really looked at the half naked teenager on his bed. She was pale behind a concealing layer of rouge painted onto her cheeks, he could see the whites all the way around her eyes, and her fingertips were trembling.

She was terrified.

Holy crap, she almost got me.

She had been trying to make him sex-stupid! And it had worked! She had to be punished, but at the same time she was already terrified.

How do you go about punishing a teenage masochist who is already scared in a meaningful way? Tricky.

In Garth’s study of behavior control, the punishment had to be unpleasant for the receiver, but not to the point that it espoused fear or vengeful feelings. Impartial. Physical punishments were right out, seeing as she might enjoy it, and he couldn’t really use the clicker, since she was already in a heightened state of anxiety. Didn’t wanna cause a meltdown or heart attack.

I think I got it.

One of the most important things in training an animal to behave was proving that your will was stronger than theirs.

“Very well,” Garth said. With a motion, smooth wooden shackles sprang out of the bed and bound her hands and feet before pulling with inhuman force, spreading her arms and legs apart, revealing her entire young body to him and rendering her helpless.

The trembling spread.

“Masochists also like to have gags, so they can’t scream really loud and wake up their roommates.” Garth said with a learned air.

“Okay,” Alicia said, nodding, obviously forcing herself to go with whatever he suggested.

Garth manifested a bit gag made of smooth wood and pressed it against the girl’s soft lips, until she hesitantly opened her mouth and allowed it to settle between her teeth.

Garth strapped it tight before he took a step back and studied the topless young girl strapped down to his bed, her breathing coming fast and hard as the act hit her too close to home. She was scared out of her mind.

More than the situation warrants, I’d say.

Garth put his thumb under his chin and tapped his cheek.

“Maybe tilt you up a bit.”

At his mental command, the dungeon adjusted the bed and the manacles so she was in a more comfortable half-seated position.

“Comfy?”

She nodded.

Try to manipulate me, huh? I’ll show you what happens.

“The biggest defining feature of a masochist is they find pleasure in suffering.” Garth said, standing over the bed, wielding the riding crop menacingly.

“Sometimes guilt can be a factor, especially when aforementioned masochist is trying to manipulate the other person. You wouldn’t happen to feel guilty anything, would you?” Garth asked.

Alicia’s eyes widened further and she began bucking in the bed, trying to escape. Alas, the bonds were magically reinforced, and her concentration was far too poor to strike back at him with magic.

“That’s what I thought,” Garth said solemnly, tracing her sides with the riding crop.

“You can forget about enjoying this, because I’m about to punish you, and it’s not gonna be fun.” Garth said with an evil grin.

“I’m going to inflict on you, the most terrible, most awful, most insufferable suffering I’ve ever been forced to endure:

Garth swung the riding crop backwards, forcing her to flinch. When he pulled his hand forward again, it instead held the illusion of a large blue tome.

“A.P. Lit.” he said with a deep, foreboding tone.

Alicia’s brows furrowed in confusion as Garth opened the book, created a rocking chair and threw his feet up beside her.

He began using his perfect memory to recite it word for word.

“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse and nothing in particular to interest me on shore…”

****

Caitlyn silently backed away from the cracked open doorway, her blood so loud in her ears that she honestly couldn’t tell if she was really being quiet or not.

“Munasei, that was hot,” she muttered, slinking back to her room.

****

The first stage was denial. Alicia tried to shut him out, closing her eyes and humming, doing everything she could to stop him from reading. Unfortunately she was bound and gagged, and his voice made its way into her ears no matter what she did.

The second stage was anger: Struggling against her bonds with inhuman strength and trying to scream at him through the gag.

The third stage was bargaining, looking up at him sweetly with tear-filled eyes that begged him to stop reading.

The fourth stage was depression, with Alicia numbly staring at the ceiling while Garth continued reading from the epic yarn.

The fifth stage was acceptance, but unfortunately, the break of dawn and Mrs. Banyan’s call for breakfast interrupted their six-hour moment together before she could really start to enjoy the description of the Pequod’s belowdecks.

Garth freed Alicia, the raven-haired girl stumbling expressionlessly over to her nightgown, throwing it over her head, and wandering toward the exit.

Garth glanced down at the marks on her arms and legs and felt a pang of guilt. I’m responsible for that, I should fix it.

Seemed like a good opportunity to test the rod.

“Hold on a sec,” he said, grabbing the black riding crop and delivering a solid smack against the girl’s rounded booty. With an audible crack, the slowly manifesting bruises on her wrists disappeared like they’d never been.

Yep, it works.

“NNggg.” she groaned in pleasure, twitching and leaning on the wall as her legs gave out, sinking her to her knees and panting. Alicia gave him a passionate, teary eyed glance over her shoulder before continuing her shuffle out of his room.

“Buh byee…” Garth waved.

***Alicia***

After Edward had given them their new material for the day and personally instructed them, he’d left them to their own devices, claiming he needed to take care of some business in town.

Alicia sat across from Caitlyn in the early morning sun, passing a ball of mana back and forth, altering it between each pass to make it more difficult for the opposite party to regain control of it. It was an exercise to practice spell combat against an opponent, and fine-tune one’s mana control in the process.

Quickly letting go and reacquiring control of mana was a very basic skill that was the foundation of being an excellent spellslinger.

Unfortunately, Alicia kept dropping it, missing the ball of mana entirely and allowing it to dissipate against her chest, forcing them to start the process over and over again.

She was so tired, but at the same time, more relaxed than she’d ever been in her life, like some kind of burden had been dredged out of her very heart. It made it almost impossible to keep her eyes open.

Just when she’d thought everything was over, her heart singing in relief, that last unexpected burst of pain combined with the cooling sensation replacing the pain in her limbs had started some kind of chain reaction that sent her shuddering to her knees.

I was toyed with, Alicia thought, the notion causing conflicting indignation and desire. That man toyed with me. She wasn’t sure anymore whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Rough night?” Caitlyn asked, causing Alicia to start, her eyes shooting open.

Alicia nodded.

“Didn’t get much sleep?”

Alicia nodded.

“Edward keep you busy?”

Alicia nodded off.

…

“Thought so,” Caitlyn said, doing self-study as she thought back to what she’d seen the night before. It was pretty intense right up until he started reading from that book. Caitlyn hadn’t gotten much sleep either.