The sun had gone in about half an hour ago, and the last embers of the sunset were clinging to the sky. Iximaz had watched, and wanted to keep watching, but one look from Kaitlyn - nothing more than a glance, nothing more than what was needed - had told her not to. She came inside, three paces behind the elf, back straight, head high, a pose that no longer required a posture bar.

It had been a year. How had it been a year? A year since she'd been taken into the arms of Kaitlyn, her mentor and Permission Giver and so much more besides. Her mind dwelled on this as her Mistress's instructions washed over her. She stripped, held her arms up, presented herself, but all the time wondered what might be on the horizon.

"Something special," said Kaitlyn, and the uncanny nature of her remark jolted Iximaz from her reverie. "Something special for tonight."

"For-" Iximaz hesitated, her eyes wide. "For a good girl?"

"For my good girl," her Mistress replied, turning away from a steamer trunk to face her. "I'll dress you now, I think. I want you to be looking your best, my beautiful, beautiful girl."

Kaitlyn approached with long ropes of silk so red they were almost black, and a lump formed in Iximaz's throat. As Kaitlyn's body pressed against her, the heat rushing through her veins and short-circuiting important bits of her brain, she did as she was told and the ropes began to be tied. First, the chest harness was completed, then Kaitlyn's gloved fingers trailed down the length of Iximaz's arm, the signal for them to drop.

"You don't need to hold your arms in place for this, sweetheart," whispered the Mistress into Iximaz's ear, her body heat and gentle touches sending lightning bolts through her brain. "Let me guide my girl."

"Yes, Mistress."

What else could have been said?

The long, red ropes began to twist and tighten around Iximaz's slender chest, the strength of the bindings squeezing the breath from her lungs in delicate gasps. She kept her eyes looking straight ahead, when her Mistress's electric touch didn't make them flutter shut as she sighed with pleasure. She didn't look down. She couldn't have even if she wanted to.

She hadn't heard the laughter of others in her head for months now, gentle love and sensual play drawing her out of the darkness of her anxiety and into that last summer, where the grass grew long and was soft as down beneath dancing human and elvish feet. She was loved, and in love, and her Mistress's murmured words in her ear as the ropes pulled tauter and tauter made her relax into the warmth of it all. So relaxed was she that she almost didn't notice when her Mistress stepped away, and she only began to wake up when Kaitlyn took her hand and led her to the mirror.

"I..." She looked beautiful, the red silk forming a tight underbust corset, her breathing slow and steady, but not restricted. Mixed in with the dark rope - and Iximaz didn't even know how her Mistress had done it at all, let alone without her noticing - were delicate white flower shining like stars on a midsummer's night. The young girl knew without thinking that they were simbelmynë, and meant forever. Her long, dark hair had been braided into the top of the harness as well, but it did not bite or pull at her, and the flowers had risen up to crown her. "Mistress, I-"

"Come," she said, and held out her hand for Iximaz to take. "There is one more thing that needs to be done, now that you are perfect."

Iximaz followed her, pride swelling in her chest and making her smile ever wider. Upon opening the door she saw the couple's friends and flashed a grin back at them - a year ago, she would have bolted. The group had gathered around a little cushion of white and gold, and at her Mistress's direction she knelt.

"You have come so far, my girl. You have only been mine for a year and it feels like twenty more. If you will bind yourself to me, if you will love me and let me love you... then kneel."

Suddenly aware that all her friends were watching, heart beating fast with excitement, Iximaz knelt.

And Kaitlyn's simple gold collar wrapped around her neck, and shut with a click.