Chapter 36: Mae Day

With Sophia off at work, and Claire out with her best friend and then hopefully off to class, Mae wasn’t left with a lot of reason to sit around at home. A massage therapist like herself, with a reputation for fixing problems that resisted acupuncture, medication, and many other cures meant whenever she was free there were always clients.

Making money rubbing away strangers’ worries wasn’t quite as much fun as teaching her daughter how to weave, but she wasn’t in a mood to complain. Her clients were lovely, and her family was closer together than ever.

Everything was going well.

Working from home never suited Mae, so she instead utilized a shared office space with a sound-proofed room. She’d only accepted a few clients, and was done with the last on her list when the door opened. She was busy wiping down the table, and didn’t even turn to look.

“Sorry, but unless you have a massage-based emergency…?” Mae grinned, her hips dramatically moving back and forth with the wiping motions of her hand. “I’m probably leaving soon. If you do somehow have a massage-based emergency I might just help you out of curiosity because I can’t even imagine what that would be…!”

The door of her office closed.

Mae didn’t bother to look, letting out a quiet sigh as she rubbed at a stubborn sweat stain.

“Massage-based Emergency…” Smirking, Mae shook her head. “I think that would make for a good mixed tape…” She laughed and then dropped the towel with a little sigh. “What would go on a tape like that…”

“You know…” A woman spoke, and Mae’s whole body tensed. “I never got to see any of your supposed mixed tapes. I’m convinced that you never actually owned a cassette player.”

Slowly, carefully, she lifted the towel back up from the bed. A heel clicked down against the floor. Mae shivered. “I don’t remember you being the biggest fan of music, Dana. If anything…” She slowly turned, hands wringing the towel between them. “I think you didn’t appreciate the way it would distract women from you.”

Red eyes hooded, and a few strands of dyed red hair fell across a woman’s pale face as she stepped forward. Her voluptuous curves were only barely restrained by a black dress with a high slit up along either leg that reached nearly to her hips, and instead of simply being a halter, fabric rose to cover each breast individually. She wore a string of deep, brownish-red gems around her neck like pearls, and a pair cut to resemble diamonds hanging from her ears.

“It’s not very nice of you to lie like that, Mae. It’s not as though I said I didn’t think you were performing massage therapy, so much as weaving your clients… That would be a bad thing for you to try, you know.” Red lips pursed, and Dana slowly shook her head. “I didn’t want our reunion to encourage us to be so cruel to each other, Mae. It’s been what… Twenty years…?”

“Oh don’t you even pretend you don’t remember.” Mae scowled, clutching the towel tighter. “I wish it was twenty years. Claire was only seven—”

Dana rose a hand, and Mae fell silent.

There was no wave of energy, no menacing expression—only a simple gesture. Mae loosened her grasp on the towel, and her scowl softened. Instead of a look of anger, she took one of pain.

“I regret how that happened. You can’t blame me. I never thought you would never let me see her after what I helped you do.” Dana sniffed, and lowered her hand. “But that’s all water under the bridge for me. Believe it or not… No one’s sending me after you. You might be a renegade… but while you fall under our purview, and if you misbehaved it would be my responsibility to end your mischief…” Dana smiled. “No one sends me anywhere, anymore.”

Mae looked to the door. Dana was still placed directly between her and the only exit to the room. The walls were too sound proofed—there would be no screaming for help. No one would know what happened.

It wasn’t as if the door had a window.

“Keeping up with news hasn’t really been easy when I’m supposed to be on the run, so… sure. Let’s catch up… yeah…” Mae shifted, hopping up onto the massage table before patting beside herself. “What do they call you these days…? I can’t imagine you kept Dana after a promotion like that… Let me guess…

“Ruby?”

Dana laughed, stepping closer one heel click at a time. Her shoes were a pair of stilettos. The same deep, brown red formed the slope under her feet, and small stones joined together like pearls wrapped around her ankles before fanning out to wrap around her feet with another band of gems just before her bare toes. “Don’t be silly… Ruby? It has a lovely ring to it, but the historical significance—”

“—Dana.”

Mae raised a strawberry blonde eyebrow.

“It’s me. I’m not going to be silly and ask you to drop your flare for the dramatic, because you can’t but… If you want to talk?” Mae patted beside herself again. “Don’t act like I can’t tell you’re full of shit.”

Dana shrugged, and pushed herself up atop the massage bed.

Their bodies were so close to almost touching, yet never came close at the same time.

“Mae?”

Dana raised a raven-black eyebrow, her hand falling nonchalantly over Mae’s knee.

“It’s me. I’m not going to be silly because I’ve been quite serious with you since you tried to flee from a lifetime commitment—twice.” Dana squeezed Mae’s knee, all of her fingers just narrowly missing sensitive threads. “You asked quite the favor of me, and then repaid my kindness with malice. I could have had Harmonia hunting you down—but I didn’t.”

“You could never stand to be mad at me for long, D.” Mae squeezed at Dana’s hand, leaning in closer, close enough that their noses were almost touching. “Besides—you got what you wanted from it, too. The Weavers got what they wanted. Everyone won.”

For several long moments the two women shared a close, intimate silence.

Lips were so close to lips, and red eyes peered into brown. One hand stroked a knee, and the other stroked a hand. Tension filled the air, in enough varieties to choke even if half of them were a fair deal less dense. Neither woman seemed ready to back down.

Mae was tense.

Dana was amused.

“You know that isn’t true. I let you have Sophia and your happy little family, but…” Dana’s other hand reached out, teasing the very edge of Mae’s face. “I wanted you, too.”

Mae cleared her throat.

“There is no place for grief in a house which serves the muse.”

Dana laughed, leaning in closer—close enough that her lips teased Mae’s as she spoke. There was a crackle of energy between them, of desire, of lust, possibly even long forgotten love. “Although only breath, words which I command are immortal.”

Mae’s voice sounded almost fearful, shaking as she responded in an uncertain voice. “You… you burn me…”

“Once again, love drives me on…” Dana’s grin widened, and she reached out a single fingertip to feel down along Mae’s neck. It rested on a thread, simply stroking along it with a pressure that made the blonde quiver. It was a slow, lingering touch, and the only thing that Mae could do was groan as Dana’s finger pressed so tight.

Her leg moved closer, the dark dress falling away to reveal the entirety of her leg as it pressed against Mae. Her skin was warm and soft. The gesture was inviting. “That loosener of limbs…”

“Bittersweet creature...” Mae responded, her eyes hooding, her breath catching as she leaned in closer to graze Dana’s lips with her own. Dana purred, her fingers squeezing tighter at Mae’s knee, her nails teasing just at the edge of a thread. “Against which… nothing…”

“Can…” Dana sighed, her tongue flicking at Mae’s lips. “Be….”

Mae quietly laughed.

“Done.”

Dana’s eyes closed, but instead of a kiss a towel landed over her face and she found herself pushed over the table. It was an odd way to be pushed, and a disorienting way to tumble, but she was in no rush to rise.

Though Mae ran at the door, throwing it open, no sooner did she enter the hallway than a pair of arms connected with her shoulders and redirected her own momentum, shoving her back into the room and then down onto the floor. A pair of identical women with white hair and red contacts stepped into the room, pulling it shut behind them.

“Very few are ever allowed to refer to Carnelian as Dana… you should be honored!” One of the Mins giggled. “You won’t be… but you should be…!”

“You also should have been smart enough to run lower! You should feel stupid!” The other Min giggled. “You will be anyway… but you should be!”

The two identical women, looking matched right down to the way their individual stands of hair fell out of place, knelt down to pin Mae’s arms down to the floor under their legs. Dana sighed, and some small casual air drifted away, leaving Carnelian standing over them instead, locking her lips.

“And you were an infiltratrix…?” Carnelian snorted. “You seem more like you’re fit to be a bed pet. Maybe Harmonia needs someone to train the courtesans how to use their tongues. For the record, I really am sorry for what happened thirteen years ago, but you drove me to it.”

Mae squirmed, trying to rise only to feel a pair of identical hands fall to her thighs. They danced and pressed just around vulnerable threads, making Mae’s breath hitch. Her expression held greater and greater panic as she looked up to Carnelian’s eyes. “I was trying… trying to prevent something like this… I’m not worth this, Dana… You know that.”

“I’m not Dana anymore, Mae. Unlike you, I grew past such things.” Carnelian crouched down, tracing a single fingernail down the very center of Mae’s forehead, down between her eyes, and down to the tip of her nose. “You and I made our choices. We paid our prices, at least… I paid my prices…” Carnelian sighed, her nail tracing lower still, moving across Mae’s lips, seemingly at random moving her nail from the top to the bottom, and then from the bottom to the top. “You have tried your best to avoid anything but the fun.”

Whimpering, Mae tried to twist herself free, to yank at her arms, or to push up against the floor with her feet, but every time she moved herself one of the Min’s nails hooked a thread, and then the other grasped at the mirrored thread on the other thigh.

After the third such attempt, the closer Min to the arching Mae plucked, and twisted the thread around her nail. Mae’s eyes widened, and then she screamed as the other Min repeated the same touch on her other thigh. Mae whined, and both women moved their nails higher, threatening to draw a pair of knots closer and closer to the most vulnerable threads between her legs.

Mae looked between the Mins and Carnelian. Her body shook, her eyes open so wide as pitiful mewls fought to escape her mouth.

“Please… I know I can’t… can’t escape you now, but…”

Carnelian held up a hand, and both of the Mins held the threads just so around their fingers, fingers still against Mae’s thighs.

“But…?”

After struggling to catch her breath, Mae nodded with a groan. “Don’t… Leave Claire alone. Please. Her nightmares were bad enough after last time, and she’s a grown woman now, but… she’s still my little girl and if all I can do is protect her…”

Carnelian chuckled, stroking her finger down along one of Mae’s cheeks in a slow, teasing caress that ended in her fingers pinching a knot and drawing out a sharp scream of pleasure and agony. “Don’t worry. The Weavers aren’t interested in her, and I’ve already made a deal with someone else that protects her from being the target of my direct predations.”

Mae quivered, each breath shaky and uncertain. “A deal with… with… who…?”

“Your little loose end, Mae.” Carnelian flicked the tip of Mae’s nose, sending out ripples across the many threads that it intersected. The trapped woman groaned, her thighs uselessly trying to clench only to find that the threads plucked between them made it impossible to draw her thighs together. “Though it’s unfair of me to call her that when she has a name… I wonder, do you remember it?

“Alexis?”

“Please! Don’t d—nnnaaaaaaah…!” Both of the Mins twisted their fingers at once, knots twisted into the threads so close to her clothed pussy. Her crotch darkened, stained deeper and deeper as the sisters twisted their fingers, humming a cutesy little song only they knew.

Carnelian watched silently as Mae’s body failed to even arch and twist in all of the ways it longed for to find some modicum of comfort. Her lips twitched, and her fingers tried to reach for something, anything. Her eyes fluttered, and her mouth contorted. Trapped under the identical twins, Mae was as helpless as a doll.

“She was the one who made her move, Mae.” Carnelian sighed, stepping around to push the pointed end of her shoe at the very center divide between Mae’s legs. The Mins continued to twist their fingers, and combined with that Mae was screaming until she couldn’t, and even then her mouth moved as though she were silently howling.

Both of the Mins giggled.

“Her threads seem primed for this, Carnelian!” One of the Mins purred, tugging tighter, firmer in a way that made Mae’s moans turn into quick, desperate panting. “Someone’s already been playing with her!”

“Mm-hm! Someone’s been playing with her a lot!” The other Min grinned, wiggling her hips until her sister mimicked the motion. “She’s been having a lot of fun, the dirty girl! Should we make her dirtier, Carnelian?”

“Hmmm…” The raven-haired woman pressed her shoe harder.

Mae looked ready to faint, her chest rising and falling in desperate attempts to breathe. Carnelian gestured, and the Mins twisted their fingers tighter in perfect unison. Every small part of Mae’s body trembled, twitched, shuddered, and shook.

“Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables, Mae.” Carnelian whispered it so quietly that even the Mins struggled to hear all of the words. “When she left, she wept a great deal… She said to me, ‘this parting must be endured, Sappho. I go willingly.’ Willingly you go… but now? Weaved to my desires…?

“You’ll return.”

Limply Mae struggled to shake her head, but the motions were too impossible. Her mouth couldn’t maintain a simple shape. Her entire body was electrified with pleasure, unrelentingly stimulated to the point of agony.

Drool sparkled at the corner of her lips.

Her brown eyes were glazed and unfocused.

Her hands twisted, struggling to grasp even at the smooth, unhelpful surface of the floor.

Carnelian snapped her fingers, and both of the Mins moved together. The knots between Mae’s thighs unraveled, and a pair of fingers pressed to the space between her eyes—one from each of the Mins.

All of the gathered threads moved like loose wires, binding around their fingers as though they were magnetic.

They spoke with one voice, low and seductive. Though it were only a few words, each one shook through all of Mae’s threads at once, smooth and inescapable. All of the tenseness she’d grasped for slid away, and the sound of their voice trembled deeply through Mae’s entire being. “You may blame Aphrodite”

Mae screamed with a quiet, tired voice, and then fell flat against the floor as their fingers withdrew.

Carnelian snapped her fingers again, and her attendants bowed their heads. Fingers reached out to stroke through the hair of both Mins, and Carnelian’s lips twisted into a deeper grin. “Good work, girls. It seems that our home is going to have yet another lovely visitor, though I suppose I should say Guest, mm?”

The two white haired girls giggled, and the black haired woman grinned as she withdrew her foot. Mae lay limp, her legs kicking at nothing, her eyes distant and staring at the ceiling, her mouth hanging open even as saliva teased free of her lips.

Her nipples were hard at her chest, and her crotch was soaked through.

“As a renegade, you exist as property, Mae. Your personhood is officially suspended.” Carnelian sighed, ruffling at both of the Min’s hair before she stepped back. “Now then, girls, bring the car around, have Miss Guest loaded in to the back… Make sure you don’t miss her phone… As tempting as it would be to use the lathe… I think this one deserves a personal touch.”

Both of the Mins spoke as one, but there was nothing dominant or powerful in them at all. Their mature, curvaceous forms quivered, arched and jutted out for Carnelian’s pleasure. Their eyes were vacant. Their voices soft.

“As you wish, Carnelian! We exist to obey you!”

Carnelian grinned, nodding as she slowly licked her lips. “And oh how well you do that. Is there a woman alive who can resist your wiles, my lovely sculpted pets…? Renegades, misbehaving Sapphists who think they don’t need to respect the Weavers’ territory… and now old lovers. If it were an easy thing I would be tempted to give you a third sister… Hmm…”

Carefully, Carnelian adjusted Mae’s head with her shoe.

“How would you look with white hair?”

Mae couldn’t answer. All she could do was groan, limp and spent as her body lay in the precise position Carnelian left it in.

“Maybe we’ll find out… But let’s find out at home, mm?”

“Anything for you, Carnelian!”

The two white haired women grasped Mae from under her arms, slowly pulling the woman up to her feet as Carnelian leaned back against the massage table. She smoothed out her dress, fixing every slight imperfection caused by her former lover’s rude shove.

When the four left they locked the office behind them, and left no useful evidence of what transpired.