Yes! Marianne is coming!

Yes! Marianne was coming later today. I really needed more milk. But regretfully, Osgood couldn’t make it today on such short notice. Oh how terrible. I smiled.

“I also have a report,” Helina said. She brought the letter announcing to expect Marianne later. “Samantha wishes to see you.”

I smiled. “I shall go alone then,” I said as I opened a drawer and pulled out a ring.

“Wow, that is interesting! It is a magic item?” Helina asked.

I nodded. “It makes one appear as a noble, or that is how it was crafted. Essentially it adds a layer of intimidation. As I am already a noble.”

She knelt in response. “I don’t know what came over me. I just, yeah, your presence is so strong sister.”

I smiled and pat her head. “You are such a natural little submissive. This is perhaps the most risky part of my plan. So wish me luck.”

“I have no reason to fear,” she said.

She needed to stay back for this. Well, to be honest, her risk was rather low, but it was not in my nature to risk my sister without it being required. And here it only made my situation worse to risk her.

I knocked on Samantha’s door. She opened it with a extra smug face. “Ready for cards? You wanted a chance to win your other item in the package right? Must be something good right?”

I nodded. It must have been so jarring for her. I should look more threatening, but I was trying to temper the effects with extra timid body language. Samantha was such a failure. Not to be mean to her. She just didn’t have what she thought she did. She referenced the item as if it was something she didn’t know. As if I would believe that.

More over, I could see the chain of it around her neck. I suppose she thought I wouldn’t notice if I had never seen it. It was time to play. “It is quite good, and it I have big plans for it.”

“I bet you do,” she said. She began shuffling the deck. Same game as before. We each took five cards. Taking turns playing one card a piece until we made twenty one or went over.

“Wait, the bet?” I asked.

“You don’t need to be anything. I will be nice,” she said.

Oh so confident dear sister. Well, the bigger they are after all. “How unlike you,” I said as I placed a five on the table.

She placed a seven. “I am not worried. I can read you like a book!”

Oh! There it is. The pressure. I recognized it instantly, she had activated the magical item. Good, the card game didn’t matter, it was just a cover for our actual game. I didn’t have a nice, but what cards might my sister have. Hmm.

I placed a three. So fifteen.

She instantly played a five. And I didn’t have a one. So I lost the first round.

I sighed outloud but inside I was clenching my stomach, the weight of magic is strong indeed. It reminded me of Master, it made me want to kneel, but to kneel to Samanth? The idea disgusted me.

Samanth went first after I shuffled and dealt us a new hand. She placed a two. Hmm. “Then, seven for me,” I said.

With nine being the count, I was advertising I had some low cards. Which was a bluff, I only had a three. She played a a four. And a eight! “I won!” I giggled a bit.

“Laugh while you can,” she said dealing to me.

“Oh, I can do worse than this,” I said. I revealed all my cards. Ten, five, three and one.

I placed the ten on the board.

“What are you doing?” she asked. Clearly confused.

“I don’t need to hide my cards to beat you sister. The truth is, I can read you so easily, that even with my cards out, it only makes the game even.”

“Thats nonsense!” she shouted.

I just grinned. “Well, it shouldn’t be hard to beat me if you are right.”

She was fidgeting as she looked at her cards. If my sister was able to play perfectly, the odds of me winning were low, but she wasn’t a human calculator, so in reality this was a game of luck as it had always been. But I pressed my advantage wwe it mattered and sharpened my aura.

She flinched but eventually played a four. Three for me. She paused fiddling with her cards. Obviously she didn’t have the four she needed. She placed down a two, and I placed my one. The count was twenty.

She put down an eight and showed the ten as her other card. “How!” she shouted as she shoved the cards to the side on the floor. She was amplifying the pressure of the magic item. “No matter, you are probably out of gas anyhow, aren’t you?”

I stood up. “Whatever do you mean dear sister? I feel fine!”

She smirked. “Fine, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

I smiled. “That has always been your problem dear sister,” I said as I spiked my own aura, taking full effect of the ring’s benefit. “You always believed Mother’s hype. That you were amazing, after all, you are a noble. Lydia was too passive to get your drive. And yet you lost to her? Even Katherine is better than you.”

“What are you talking about! That is nonsense! Katherine has accomplished nothing!” she said.

“I know, but how many times has she screwed up? Made errors that were obvious to all? Let me guess, maybe once or twice? You do it nearly weekly, if she could beat such a rate, I would be impressed,” I said.

“That… isn’t true and you know it!” she barked.

“It is. You think I am your rival, that against me you can be truly tested,” I said. “But I was a sex **** for twelve years. And in all that time, what have you accomplished? You leaned on me, I was your excuse, you either couldn’t beat me, or you had no reason to try because I was not here. Isn’t that right.”

“Enough! On your knees!” She ordered.

“Not a chance!” I shouted back.

“Huh?” she asked, her face shocked.

“Isn’t this what you wanted sister? A fight, against Celeste. The the little sister that you thought you lost. Well, come now. Or don’t you have the nerve?”

She looked me dead in the eyes and I returned the stare. Our wills were battling eachother like everything depended on it. Because it literally did.