They have to adapt to the house rules.

The morning light filtered through the thick velvet curtains, illuminating specks of dust dancing in the still air. Magi woke up first. Her first thought was a physical inventory: her head heavy from wine and exhaustion, her mouth dry and pasty. Then, the sensation of the cold and strangely rough silk against her bare skin. It wasn't the feeling of the lace bodysuit, nor the tightness of latex. It was a simple and total nakedness, but in the context of Lilith’s house, it carried an indecipherable message.

Beside her, Celia stirred, a soft whimper escaping her lips. She was also waking up to the same reality. Her eyes opened, met Magi’s, and immediately filled with a silent, shame-filled panic. She instinctively covered herself with the duvet, pulling it up to her chin.

"Where are my clothes?" she whispered, her voice hoarse from sleep and a hangover.

Magi was already scanning the room. There were no chairs where they could have left their clothes. There were no visible wardrobes. Only the imposing bed, some minimalist nightstands, and a crystal lamp. Their dresses, which she remembered dropping to the floor the night before, had vanished.

"They're gone," Magi said, her voice flat. She sat up in bed, not bothering to cover herself. Magi had accepted her nakedness a long time ago; for her, exposed skin had ceased to be a taboo. What made her blood boil in that guest room wasn't the thought of being seen, but the **** vulnerability. The lack of choice.

"We have to find them. I can't… I can't go out like this," Celia said, her voice breaking with anxiety.

Magi closed her eyes for a moment, sorting through the blurry memories of the night before. Fragments of a conversation with Lilith emerged through the haze of ****.

"'In my house, clothes are a distraction,'" Magi muttered, quoting Lilith’s words with sudden clarity. "'The body must breathe, free itself from the prejudices of fabric.' She said it was part of her… philosophy."

Celia looked at her in horror. "Are you saying that… that she took them on purpose? That there are no clothes?"

"It seems so," Magi confirmed, getting out of bed. She walked to the door and turned the doorknob. It was unlocked. They hadn't been locked in. They had been stripped. It was a message as clear as it was cruel: in this space, their will over their own decisions was irrelevant.

"What do we do?" Celia asked, hugging the duvet like a shield.

Magi looked at the open door. The hallway seemed silent and empty. She knew that staying in the room, waiting for who knows what, was the true defeat.

"We go out," she declared.

"Like this?" Celia’s voice was a stifled shriek.

"Like this," Magi affirmed with cold determination. If the rules of the house dictated a lack of clothes, she wasn't going to play at hiding. Covering herself in terror would be giving Lilith the satisfaction of having broken them. No; if she was going to walk through that house, she would do it with her head held high. "We look for a bathroom. Or for Lilith. Or something to cover ourselves with. But we are not staying here hiding."

Magi ripped the thin top sheet off the bed, folded it into a long rectangle, and offered it to Celia.

"So you don't feel the air directly," she said, with a pragmatism meant to calm her companion. "But don't wrap yourself up. That's what she wants to see: that you're hiding."

Celia took the sheet with trembling hands. She didn't wrap it around herself like a toga, but held it in front of her body, a symbolic and precarious barrier.

Magi, firm in her own bodily acceptance and in an act of pure defiance, took nothing for herself. She opened the door completely and stepped out into the hallway. The thick carpet was soft beneath her bare feet. The air conditioning hummed softly, caressing her skin with a coldness that gave her goosebumps. For Celia, every step was an agony of self-consciousness. For Magi, the nakedness wasn't the problem, but the constant reminder of the intimacy violated by Lilith.

They walked in silence. Lilith’s house, with its opulent silence, had become the most sophisticated cage.