<div class="floatright">(http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww152/vita_ethriel/th_Erzibeth.jpg?t=1339431352) (http://s715.photobucket.com/albums/ww152/vita_ethriel/?action=view&amp;current=Erzibeth.jpg)</div>Erzibeth was walking the short distance from her room to her mistress’s when a wave a magical energy washed through the hallway.  Had Erzibeth been able to see the wave itself, she would have seen that it parted around her and come back together on the other side rather than wash through her as if Erzibeth was a large rock jutting above an incoming tide.  However, not being a wizard herself, she would have been completely insensitive to it had in not been for the wide, gold bracelet around her right wrist which twitched ever so slightly.  Erzibeth stopped and looked down at the bracelet in surprise.  She had known from her mother, the bracelet’s previous owner, that it was capable of protecting her from, and alerting her to, the presence of magical energies, but this was the first time it had ever done so.<br/><br/>At any other time she would have been curious to know the source of the magic, but today of all days, she knew exactly from whence it had come.  The wizard was here already!  He was over an hour early and Erzibeth knew that Kailani was not at all ready.  She practically dashed the remaining steps to Kailani’s bedchambers, only to find that she had beaten her mistress there.  Erzibeth took advantage of whatever time she might have to begin laying out clothes, a silk shift and stockings, several layers of petticoats, a corset and then a gorgeous emerald green gown embroidered with gold thread and a pair of shoes to match.  Then she grabbed a silver hair brush and a series of elaborate emerald tipped hair pins.<br/><br/>Thus it was that Erzibeth was all prepared when Kailani stomped into the room in a high state.  Erzibeth was used to reading Kailani’s moods, having been one of Kailani’s maids for seven years, the last three of which she had served as her personal maid.  During that time, they had developed a relationship that was highly unusual for a lady and her maid.  It had started a year after Erzibeth became one of Kailani’s maids.  The two girls had been thirteen and seventeen when Kailani’s younger brother, Garen, who was only a year older than Erzibeth, had come in to the magical power that was a legacy of the D'alessio family.  Unfortunately, the family, once known for a succession of powerful wizards, had not sired one in over two hundred years and no one recognized the signs until it was too late.<br/><br/>The onset of magical ability was usually highly traumatic, coming as it did with during puberty which was harrowing enough without adding magic to the mix.  With no one to guide him through the emergence of his power, Garen’s mind had cracked under the strain and he burnt down the ancient D’alessio home with intense magical fire that was hot enough to crack many of the stones the house had been built from.  The home was rebuilt, but the people lost in the fire, including both of Erzibeth’s parents, had been a high price to pay.  Garen survived the fire he had caused, but the law dictated that wizards who lost control of their powers, even once, must be executed for the good of everyone.  Even Lord Ivard had been unable to make an exception for his own son, no matter how much it pained him or adversely affected his relationship with Kailani.<br/><br/>But it had been the shared grief over the loss of their loved ones as well as the social stigma surrounding the event that had brought Erzibeth and Kailani together, first as friends and confidantes, and then eventually as something more (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=142885.msg6427808#msg6427808).  Kailani’s list of suitors<em>and</em>friends had dried up almost completely after Garen’s death.  People were too afraid of the potential Kailani represented, the possibility of breeding another insane wizard.  But as terrible as the loss of parents and a brother was, Erzibeth had grown to enjoy her relationship with Kailani.  For the last three years, the two women had been secret lovers.  Both of them were past the point at which girls typically married, Kailani by circumstance, and Erzibeth by choice.  Their relationship allowed them to find an outlet for those passions that they would normally have explored with their husbands but without Kailani, at least, losing the proof of her virginity so prized in a noble bride.<br/><br/>“My lady,” Erzibeth began in a tone that was somehow both deferential and commanding, “we must get you ready at once.  There is not a single moment to lose.”  Erzibeth took charge of her mistress in a way only a very experienced servant could, deftly deflecting Kailani’s sullenness and temper.  As she stripped Kailani out of her day dress, she touched her mistress in ways that might seem casual but were specifically designed to sooth and comfort, without being obvious. Erzibeth then guided her into her private bath, removed the last of Kailani’s underthings and assisted her into the huge copper tub.  The tub was actually big enough for the both of them, but much as they might like to, there was no time for that sort of frolicking now.  Erzibeth remembered with delight the first time they had shared the bath together.  Earlier she had taken the initiative to place water on the fire and now she filled the tub with a mixture of hot water from the fire and tepid water to keep the temperature just right.<br/><br/>Erzibeth efficiently scrubbed and rinsed Kailani’s body, marveling again at the pale beauty of Kailani’s hair and skin.  Erzibeth’s skin, by contrast, was more than several shades darker than her mistress’s and her hair was such a dark brown that it was nearly black.  When Kailani was thoroughly rinsed and dried with a warm, fluffy towel, Erzibeth began the process of dressing her again, now in the emerald green gown.  Then it was time to style her hair and pin it up with the emerald hair pins and then finally to do her makeup.   First Erzibeth applied a powder base that came from her mother’s desert homeland and served to even out Kailani’s freckles a bit as well as give it a bit of sparkle.  The powder was actually one of the mainstays of the D’alessio family’s trade in recent years, having been discovered by Kailani’s grandfather on a trade mission to the desert city of Istahar, where he had met and become friends with Erzibeth’s grandfather.  After the base came a hint of rouge made of crushed flower petals on her cheeks and then a dusting of iridescent bluish-green powder on her eyelashes that evoked both the blue-gray color of Kailani’s eyes and the green of her dress.<br/><br/>“There, my lady,” Erzibeth said, stepping back to appraise her work, “you are certain to be the most beautiful woman this wizard has ever seen.”  The whole process had taken nearly an hour, and Erzibeth was at a lost as to why they hadn’t been called down to meet the wizard some time since, but it was hardly her place to question the ways of lords and wizards.<br/><br/>“Oh dear!  I’ve forgotten your stockings.”  She retrieved the stockings from the bed and knelt in front of Kailani.  “Don’t move, my lady.”  Erzibeth said as she pulled up the front of the gown and then the petticoats and shift and slipped beneath them.  “Now lift your left leg.”  She slid the first stocking into place with a great deal more stroking of Kailani’s leg than was strictly necessary then affixed it to the stays hanging from the corset.  She repeated the process with the right leg.  Before she quit her very intimate position, Erzibeth licked a long stroke along Kailani’s pussy that made her mistress jump in surprise.  Then she withdrew and helped Kailani with her shoes.<br/><br/>“Now, my lady Kali,” she finished, using the nickname that only Kailani’s family and, on very rare occasions, Erzibeth herself used, “go and be nice to the wizard and I promise you more of that later.”  Erzibeth’s violet eyes sparkled with mischief.  “And of course afterwards, you’ll have to punish me for being such a naughty maid.”