<strong>Sophie</strong><br/><br/>The tears such as he would have collected and drunk in other times, better times, times that would come again, flowed freely from the maid's eyes as her modesty was taken from her by sure hands she could not fight, shame at her nudity, desperation as her slavery was completed by the addition of cuffs and collar.  The salt of them was on her lips as Balthazar took a kiss from her, which she neither fought against nor returned, simply closed her eyes too, praying to the Sun and Moon that the legends she had heard about the King were false, that he was not as cruel as whispers held.<br/><br/>Her luscious, full body trembled; the hair above her virgin sex as black and fine as that atop her head, the nipples crowning her breasts dark brown, stiff from the terror alight in her veins and the cool air of the subterranean dungeons.  Her whisper was jagged like broken glass.  "I live to serve, Majesty."<br/><br/>--==--<br/><br/><strong>Aurora</strong><br/><br/>The mantle above the disused fireplace was heaped with objects, books and glass replicas of ancestral relics; knickknacks and baubles that, while having a story behind them of their noble family, failed to interest the princess at this time.  She was taking them down by the armful, and laying them carelessly across Father's desk; where she had briefly lingered to take the Royal Seal and tuck it into her waist-sash.<br/><br/>By the time Darius joined her, the princess' fingers were at the bricks, looking to see if there was a loose member of the wall that could be removed or pressed to open a passageway in the empty fireplace itself.  She smiled to see how prepared he was.  "I shan't ask how you happened to know where we might find these tools so handily, merely thank the Moon that you did.  Do you see anything resembling a button or a latch here, because I cannot."