Day 1

You awaken the next morning slightly, the sound of movement in the room stirs you, when you roll over to peer at the source of the noise your eyes widen and you remember all of what happened yesterday.

The carriage that stupid plan, the castle, all of it, the panic and adrenaline waking you up in full as you sit up in your bunk bed.

Gilda who had been getting ready for the day rushes over to you, resting a hand on your thigh.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok, you’re ok… I won’t let anything happen to you, I swear it” she say, giving you a small warm smile.

You feel the sick feeling in your stomach settle and you nod, slowing your breath until you’ve cleared your panic attack.

“Alright, let’s get going we got work to do” she says locking her arm with yours and leading you out the door, your kinda glad you didn’t have to change out of your uniform from last night.

Your plan for getting through all this was a simple one, you’d simply keep your head down, don’t perform your duties too well or two poorly, try not to speak to anyone you don’t have to and for the love of god not say anything to draw attention.

Halfway through your walk to the opera room you suddenly hear something, a thumping noise consistent and uniform, footsteps.

Gilda happy go lucky front resolves and she tugs you to the side of the corridor, bowing her head low and locking her hands in front of her.

She gestures for you to do the same as the footsteps grow ever nearer like an omen of what’s to come.

You follow her advice and mimic her as you hear the telltale sound of hinges creaking as a nearby door swings open.

Your curiosity gnaws through your core and you glance up as subtly as you can manage but upon spotting the source of this noise you freeze.

It’s her, the lady of the castle, you had seen the portrait of hers hanging near the maid’s quarters but you had figured it some kind of exaggeration or artistic representation of her power.

She’s a monolith of a woman, standing head and shoulders taller then both you and Gilda standing on each others shoulders.

Her skin appears to be a grayish white wrapped in a luxurious white dress and black sun hat that holds a tight coif of black hair

As she passes she notices you staring, mouth agape in awe much unlike Gilda who currently seems to be trying to sink into the floor.

“Hasn’t your mother taught you not to stare..?” Her tone betraying both mirth and danger in equal measure as the corners of her mouth tilts up in a grin and her predatory yellow eyes lock onto you.

“Y.. yes ma’m… sorry ma’m…” you say quickly leveling your gaze to the floor but it’s far too late, she has you now.

“Tell me little mouse, what do you think of what you see…~?” She says, gently cuping your chin in her hand raising your gaze back up to her face which now wears a wider grin.

“You scramble for the right thing to say, obviously you can’t say anything negative, but you can’t very well flirt with your boss, especially not THIS one.”

So you try to say the nicest but platonic thing you could think of “Y… you look very… regal…?” Holy shit did you actually just say that….?!?!

She blinks a couple of times seemingly absorbing your words before releasing your chin and letting loose a booming laugh.

You’re slightly startled by this and Gilda actually looks up to be sure what she’s hearing is right.

After a moment she composes herself before looking back down at you with a pleased smile on her face.

“Ahh, it’s been too long sense I’ve laughed like that, I’ll be keeping an eye on you little mouse” she says before walking off, chuckling to herself.

Once her footsteps have faded Gilda looks at you like you’re a wizard. “You made her laugh…. Like… ACTUALLY laugh! I didn’t think she could do that!”

“And all it cost me was my blood pressure…” you say leaning back against the wall, your legs weak after your near **** experience.

You arrive at the opera room pushing open the doors and shocked to find all the instruments, more instruments in one room than you had ever seen over the course of your life all of which looking unused!

It kinda hurts to see all these instruments and no one to play them, left to gather dust and rust.

The lone instrument that appears have been used was the piano that sits near the center of the room with the top open and the large sturdy looking bench askew slightly.

“Alright, I’ll take the second floor… you good to deal with the instruments?” Gilda asks as she approaches the stairs leading up to the balcony.

You give her a thumbs up, setting to work cleaning the intricately built works of art.

It takes hours, going through them all before setting them back into their cases or leaving them where you had found them.

You have to imagine Gilda duped you into doing the heavy lifting but being around all this stuff is kind of a dream come true.

“So what do we do when we’re done with the cleaning..?” You call out to Gilda who responds saying.

“That’s the best part, after your done you just hang around, but don’t let the others know that, they’ll just send you to another room or something”

After many long hours of waiting you step over to one of the many cases of guitars and pull one out that vaguely resembles your lute from the village. You take a seat at the bench and pluck at one of the strings testing its sound.

It takes a minute but you eventually tune it to sound kind of like your lute though it’s a louder by a good deal due to its size.

You try your new song, the one you had been workshopping the lyrics were what’s always escaped you, for so long you had no idea what to say, or maybe you just didn’t want to.

But finally the dam break and you start to sing along with your melancholic tune.

“I’d rather strooong, I’d rather be wise, I’d rather be happyyy but that’s besides, I’d rather feel saaafe inside my own mind, but pullled into the drain, I feeear I’m **** to change, into something that I can’t define”

“I’d rather be strong, I’d rather be wise, I’d rather be something that’s not despised, I’d wish that I could say I’m just fine but going against the grain, has proven to be a pain, a pain that I can’t live without…”

You’re suddenly pulled out of your trance by the sounds of applause, slow and powerful.

Swiveling your head you see the lady, your heart sinks in your stomach as you jump to your feet hoping to explain all this and beg for mercy.

“You play well little mouse, especially for someone so… unrefined…” she says the backhanded compliment hurting a bit.

“Tell me, who is it that taught you? Your seamstress mother? Your woodchopper father…?” She had researched you.

“I… I’m self trained… ma’m…” you say with a small bit of pride in the work your able to without training.

“Hmm… interesting… very well, you will be coming with me then” she says before turning on her heels and pushing on the door she had previously entered through.

You look back at Gilda who looks like she’s staring at a ghost, and that’s how you feel, a deadman walking.

On shaky legs you follow behind her, each of her footsteps send small shaking vibrations into the floor around you as you follow behind.

You try your best to also not stare at her ass which is about at eye level with you and pushes against the material of her dress.

Suddenly she stops, it’s so sudden in fact you nearly run right into her, a crash you would likely not survive if she had anything to say about it.

The door flies open and she ducks inside, it’s kind of strange that the woman needs to duck under the doors of her own castle, like, couldn’t she just have the doorways raise up a bit?

These are the thoughts that thankfully distract you from your fate which you have no doubt will be bloody and excruciating.

You follow her inside and look around, it’s her bedroom, it must be with how truly massive the bed at the far wall is, it’s could fit every member of the maid staff and then some.

“Wh… what are we doing here….?” You ask as you hear the door lock behind you, most likely the final nail in your coffin.

“We’re just talking, for now” you don’t like the finality in the way she said that last part.

“O…ok…” you say shyly stepping towards the center of the room, hoping to get a little distance between the two of you, not that you think it will help, You ARE locked in here with her.

“For starts I’m wondering why a man-thing is wandering around MY castle dressed as a maid…?” Considering how she knew who your parents were, you saw no use in lying.

“Your tax person was going to take my sister… I had to do something so… I took her place…”

“And how, in all of creation did you think this would work..?”

“I… I didn’t… I just… you took my mother and she never returned… never wrote… I figured… if you took my sister… she’d disappear too…”

Something about your story seemed to strike a cord with the imperious lady of the castle, she narrowed her eyes at you, slowly examining you before she gives an order you hadn’t expected.

“Disrobe for me, darling” for a moment you think you must have misheard her but the look on your face told you otherwise.

With great hesitation you do as she says sliding your uniform off over your shoulders exposing your nude form.

And to be honest, it hurt a little when she laughed at the size of your package, sure it’s wasn’t particularly impressed but to a lady of her size surely nothing is.

“Hmhm… I must say darling no one person has made me laugh this much in many years….” She says before recomposing herself.

She circles you like a shark eyes roaming your admittedly feminine body. “Hm… as you no doubt know, men are forbidden from entering this place but… well.. maybe you don’t have to be a man…?” She says musingly.

You don’t really know what she has in mind but if it might spare your life your not going to refuse her.