Savage Breast

"Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak." ~ William Congreve ~

Between medleys there had been a sudden shout that heavily pierced the pristine silence. Loud enough to have cautioned me; wakened me from my own spell. Papillion came bursting from the darkness in a blur of rent and soft fabric, only to fall flat with a dull thump against the upper landing. And where my medley had ended, Domitian's was about to commence.

"Damos.. come up here. I need some help." Papillion's shoulder was bleeding. "She fell," he said. And though the wound upon her shoulder more resembled the jagged roundness of a bite than anything incurred by a fall, I wanted to believe Domitian. I watched. And this time with only a flutter of queasiness I sometimes feel when I see blood, I watched as Domitian blotted away the sanguinous trickle and fussed over her soiled nightgown. He motioned to me with his fingers that I ought to turn around. And when I did, he undressed Papillion and wrapped his own towel around her nakedness.

Domitian left us for a few brief moments to go and rinse the towel with which he had used to mop up the blood, and Papillion and I whispered to one another in the brief interim. "Damos! Look at me. Why are you here?" I turned round again to face her.

"I longed to see you and Domitian again, Papillion. You promised.. we would be together forever." All the while she had been dancing her fingers along my sleeve, plucking here and there as she loosened one of my buttons and coiled a lock of my hair around her finger. Tugged closer, Papillion bit my mouth when I settled down right beside her.. though none too hard.

][ More to Come ][

Return to Chateau du Cachot

"You may come and go as you please, Damos." He had offered me a refuge without so many words.

The chateau is as dark on the outside as it is on the inside. Even in the daylight there is a certain recondite eeriness about it which unsettles me. Had it not been for the fact that Papillion and Domitian currently reside there behind Chateau du Cachot's slightly decaying patina, I would have never possessed the courage to trespass beyond her gates.

Yet that night, far past the witching ahn.. I went there unexpectedly. And I let myself right into the house, for the door was unlocked.. much like it is at my own Master's house. Inside it was somber. The silence near deafening. Yet I crouched to the floor there in the immediate great room and removed by Beloved from her velvet-lined case. And then I played her like a lover, until the fading gloom released its chilly grip of fear upon me.

My serenade.. to any with a desire hear it: Come and make love to me.

Etude in Fear

Domitian sat upon his bench before me, facing the opposite direction as he leaned against the ivory keys and pointed to a series of marks above each staff on the parchment. The same marks that had corresponded to the particular way in which a small section of music is to be played.. rather than the mere notes below them. I listened intently while leaning down over his shoulder from behind to better see. For I believe if I learn to read and write the music that I play, it will please him in no uncertain terms. I want to be the man's disciple.

"I want something more, Damos... complete possession." He played the notes just as they were written, forcing me to yield in ways which I have yearned to do for ever so long.

"I want you to need me as much as she needs me." This he whispered to me as he held me close and captive for those fleeting moments. "That is what pleases me."

Truth or Dare

"What will you give me in return?" Charity, the mere goodness of one's own heart.. these are not the things that anyone demands, nor even expects. From the loftiest to the lowest of low, it is expected that in order to attain something, one must be prepared to give something in return.. of equal, or even greater value.

I could not go back to sleep that night. Not one wink favored either of my eyes. And so I threw on a mere house robe to cover my nakedness and crept right back down the stairs. I found Kari down in the atrium, also of the same lack of sleep persuasion.

"Would you like me to show you what is down in the wine cellar?" I had been hiding a bottle of pilfered wine behind my back the whole while, and yet I could not help but grin at her as yet another game formed itself in my mind. I shared the wine with Kari.. we drank it straight from the bottle, even. And then, Papillion came down the stairwell upon tiptoes.. for it seemed she too, had been blessed with insomnia that night.

By the look on Kari's face, it was evident she had imagined all sorts of gangly things down there in the dark.. perhaps even a Quasimodo all bound in shackles and chains. Well.. she was only half correct in her guesses.

I led the way, holding a small oil-burning lamp aloft in my hand, with Papillion clinging to the back of my robe.. and Kari clinging to Papillion's other hand. Down the rickety wooden steps that always feel as if they will snap into a million splinters beneath even the slightest weight.

Once we reached the stone floor of the wine cellar, Papillion yanked my robe clean from me and ran across the darkened room.. only to trip and fall over the slave who had been bound down there. Skewer.

I pulled reluctant Kari by the hand and we crept close to her monster, so that she could see the new slave for herself while Papillion untangled her arms and legs from Skewer's where she had fallen upon him.

He did not seem at all pleased to see us three. But instead demanded charity from us in the guise of water. Perhaps we would unlock him and let him go free, too.. as he unleashed a small laundry list of complaints. The last of which was that he would prefer to be struck by lightning than given dry shelter.

It was Papillion who initiated the Game of Truth or Dare, for she asked Skewer quite simply, "What will you do for me in return for a cup of water?" Truth or Dare?

Truth: "I will try not to vomit on you," Skewer replied. He isn't very good at this game.

"No good," Papillion said to him before her attention fell upon me in a slow crawl of her gaze. For she had stolen my robe right off me and left me entirely naked. "What will you do for me, Damos.. if I give you back your robe?"

Dare: Lowering further to my hands and knees, I crawled to her in the manner of a lascivious paramour. "I will.. kiss you, Papillion." Anywhere you want me to kiss you.. as I rose up high upon my knees and pressed my lips right into the space between her legs. It made her filmy little night gown stick there in her own wetness for just a moment.. before the three of us raced back up out of the cellar. And once again, Skewer was left to his own self-pity.. adding the loss of a game to his heap of misfortunes.

Ignoble Like Me

"Were you.. only being.. a slave then, Damos?"

I did not know how to answer that. Even when her voice had softened considerably into more soothing tones than it had been only moments ago. And still I kept my eyes shut tight.

"Please, Papillion.. Lady. I did not mean to make you mad. I did not know."

"Get up Damos.. I'm.. I'm not going to... hit you." I felt her hand lay down softly upon my shoulder then. "Get up.." She shook my shoulder gently, "Come on."

But I could not make myself rise. Instead I turned around upon my knees and threw my arms around her waist, burying my face against her bare belly. And unable to stop the tears that finally came, "Why didn't you kiss me, Papillion? Why didn't you kiss me?" She had said she loved me.. and yet I did not begin to understand her rejection. It had hurt me.

"B-because.. I didn't want D-Domitian to hurt you Damos.. he was going to hurt you if I k-kissed you in front of him. H-h-he was so angry about us." Her own voice broke into shorter stammerings as my distress completed it's revolutionary conduit right through her and back again.

"But.. you said you loved me."

When I failed to rise, Papillion sunk down to her knees and joined me on the floor. Her kisses were soft and reassuring; full of a woman's tears and tender forgiveness. And I swallowed them down as if I'd not been kissed in so many years.

Before she left.. for she must return before Domitian awoke and discovered her missing from their bed.. she took my hand in hers and pushed it down into the shadowy recess between her legs, where she was still moist from her earlier late-night, somnambulant need. And then she whispered to me...

"La kajira."

Waking From.. Wet Dreams

She made me dream of a hundred different images juxtaposing themselves into confusing dreamscapes.. some pleasant.. some not so pleasant. And grapes. Sticky wet.. grapes.

Papillion walks in her sleep.

I awoke from my dreams with a jolt, my fingers wet, and face to face with Papillion. And for a moment we simply stared at one another.. before I had the sudden urge to grasp my blanket right up to my chin and hide behind it.

For a mere ihn, she too, seemed as startled as I was to find herself there upon the floor by my bed. Yet all too soon she seemed to remember with a frown marring her pretty face as she relit all of her little fuses, "I am.. I am mad at you!"

"Yes, Lady.. you're mad at me," I whispered, agreeing with her as I made attempt to further hide myself under my blanket. I could not take my eyes from her though. Nor could I understand why she had been so enraged with me. Not when I love her so.

"That is not good enough Damos.. I want an answer! I want to know what was going through your mind when you tried to take my place!"

"Take your place.." I never thought I had reason to be afraid of Papillion. Yet she continued to raise her voice, bitterly accusing me of.. something. "Where? Where is your place, Papillion?" I was so confused. For who would have ever thought a lady's place was.. on her knees?

"It's.. YOU tried to replace me!"

"I don't know what happened. Papillion.. I don't know what happened!"

"What! Do you like being on your knees? What kind of man does that, Damos? Huh?"

When she lept to her feet quite suddenly.. I did too. And I think for one brief moment she thought I meant to run away from her. Yet to whom shall I go with such a grieving heart? Without leaving my room at all, I rushed to the opposite side and knelt before the wall with my back to her. For I fully suspected that this lady meant to whip me for having angered her so. And so I waited. With my eyes shut tight.

I waited.

Mephistopheles

Domitian and his Companion, Papillion had decided to stay the night at Batavian House, for the night had proved too exhausting and fraught with emotion for them to have returned back home. When I returned from the wine cellar bearing a small tray and an empty cup, I found that everyone had since retired for the night. Everyone that is, except for Domitian.

Between the time I had returned the items to their proper places and had been about to head up the stairwell for my own bed, he called to me in the darkness. "Sit with me awhile, Damos."

He was slouched a bit, and somewhat weary I could tell, when I approached and he fell beneath the telltale light of the moons. And he was holding his own hand as if he had injured it somehow.

I did not speak any reply, but simply curled myself up right beside him on the divan. For I sensed that he needed no more than a body to cling to in that very ihn. A body who did not make any further attempt to lull him from his own silent and brooding thoughts.

Some moments after I had slid my arm around his waist and laid my head to his shoulder damp with sweat, Domitian kissed me. Long kisses that spanned a good length of time, until he decided he needed no more.

"Goodnight, Damos," he whispered to me, before he too, made his ascent up the stairs to join Papillion in sleep.

Little Messes

Aside from a cup of water that had been knocked over and a tray of untouched food, there was a slave shackle-bound down there in the wine cellar. The same one that Asia had purchased right off of a ship that had docked in Jad's harbor.

Before leaving with the cup and tray, I did offer morsels to him with my own fingertips.. all of which he refused. Only to claim that the lady Slaver's sole intent for having left him food and water in the first place, was merely to taunt him. Should he eat and drink, he was sure he would be whipped for it.

"You will be whipped anyway," I told him rather matter of factly, for I know my Master, and I know Asia as well. "Is it not better to be sated and then whipped.. than to be whipped while still hungry and thirsty?"

Skewer.. that was his name, I believe.. merely challenged me with his eyes, still refusing what had been given him. Yet I shall not twist his arm, nor force upon him the most basic and fundamental needs. Instead I gathered the empty cup and the untouched tray of food.. and I left him to enjoy his own company down there in the darkness of my Master's wine cellar.

Searching For Papillion

Domitian's mood changed very suddenly again. Rage. And then he seemed almost.. afraid. He made me afraid too.

We searched every place he could think of, and at last it seemed quite possible that she must be at.. Batavian House. For Papillion's crates were still there, right where she had left them, unopened and filled with pretty things. Girl things.

Domitian ran up the walkway ahead of me to the porch and began pounding his fists to the door.. yelling at the top of his lungs for Marius. By the time I caught up, I.. opened the door for him. It wasn't locked. It never is.

Marius was there on the other side with a glass of wine. He looked much the same as he always looks.. with his stoicism and his non-plussed manner. It is why I lean upon him as I do. Marius is my rock of Gibraltar. Even when Domitian yelled again, demanding to know where Papillion was.. my Master merely pointed up the stairwell with a slight shrug. I don't think he was so particularly engrossed in what must've seemed a lovers' spat.

Domitian suddenly pulled from the door and continued his frantic search for Papillion around the back side of Batavian House. But my own search.. ended right there. For Marius sent me down into the wine cellar. This time, merely to clean up whatever mess had been left down there by the lady Asia.

Butterfly's Flight

She ran from her Companion. The same exact way in which I have run from Marius a time or two.. she ran from Domitian. She is jealous of me and I know why. For it is the same exact jealous pang that I feel when anyone threatens to get to close to Marius and I am not in a sharing mood. Tonight, Papillion was not in a sharing mood either.

"Where are you, Damos?" Domitian called to me in the darkness, luring me out from my hiding place.

"I am here, Sir," came my whispered reply as I crawled out from beneath the bed and rose to my bared feet.

Domitian reached for me, placing both of his hands about my face in a frame as he drew close and searched me over in the scant moonlight for traces of where Papillion had lashed out at me with her hands.

"I must appologize for that, Damos. Emotional beast that she is. Are you alright?"

I was fine. Physically, I was fine.. though perhaps a bit shaken up over the whole affair that evening. We talked for a little while, and then it was my scattered emotions Domitian sought to soothe.. until at last he decided it was time to check on Papillion again.

Together we went. And to my astonishment.. I think his, too.. the Butterfly had flown.

When I Needed Her The Most

I could not stop myself. Not even after the look on Papillion's face. I could not stop myself, and I don't know why that is.

She was suddenly there in the hallway when Domitian rose from his piano bench and took me with him by the hand. This time he kissed me right in front of her, deliberately stealing my soul, and leaving me breathless and wanting.

This time it was I who sunk to my knees fraught with need and desire at the feet of Domitian. And this time it was I who kissed him.. though not upon his lips.

Before I knew what had even transpired, Papillion was screaming. At me! Screaming and calling me a liar as she slapped her hands across my face. It was Domitian who wrangled her from me and dragged her away.. perhaps to soothe her anger. For when he returned again, he was alone.

Once again I am stung by her, though I love her so. And who was there to console me, but her guardian? When I needed Papillion the most.. it was Domitian who had been there for me and heard my confession...

I love you, Domitian.. Sir.

Heartbreak

Sooner than later, he collected on his recompence when Domitian left the bistro and took me home with him.

He did not set me to any laborious task as I had worried he might. Such as painting his entire house or digging out the mass of dead brambles that have long overgrown the crumbling façade of Chateau du Cachot's exterior. Instead, Domitian filled me with wine until the inside of me glowed warm and fuzzy. More wine than I've had in a very long while, in fact. And he told me to kiss Papillion, who was there when we arrived.

But she would not let me kiss her.. even though I begged after the third time asking her. Finally she ran off up the stairs hid herself away, leaving me to my devastation in her rejection. What had I done to make her no longer love me? What?

And then he took me upstairs to his room.. past his room even, where his piano stands inside a small conservatory. Domitian gave me even more wine while he played music for me, inviting me to sit on the lacquered bench right beside him.

"Papillion does not love you, Damos. She is incapable of loving you," he told me between little musical interludes. It made my eyes well up.

Sometimes.. I cannot stop staring at the man's mouth. It was at one point he caught me staring, that he stopped playing his music abruptly. Domitian curled his hand around the back of my neck and pulled me close to kiss me. And I liked it, never wanting him to stop.

I liked it.

Savior

Scarely had we delved into a mere corner of all the food laid before like a Ubar's feast when the bill arrived. And I proudly handed the entire handful of coins to Minerva. She counted them and with a wink (because she is fond of me), Minerva held out her hand for three more coins. Three more than the sum total of all Bijou had given me.

I think for a few ehn I forgot to breathe. I could not go begging Marius. Not without further rousing his ire that day. I had already angered him once so far. Nor could I go to Bijou.. for she was already gone back to the house, I suspect.

And just when I had begun to panic without recourse, Domitian came strolling down the walkway. With a cane. Although.. he does not limp at all when he walks. He seated himself right beside me shortly after dismissing Papillion and sending her home, and rolled a few coins in between his fingers.

"What will you do for me if I help you, Damos?"

Anything, I fear. I would do anything for him.. in exchange for this salvation.

Everything

We were caught. I knew the sound of Bijou's gasp even before Marius' terse words that the theatre's rehearsal hall was not the proper place for indiscretions such as those. I never knew if either of them had seen that it was Papillion on her knees between me and the wall, either. But when Marius and Bijou went back outside, Papillion grasped her skirts in her hands and fled the opposite direction.. leaving me to pull my trousers back up and face the music.

Later.. after the second audition of Papillion and Argiope for the respective roles of Viola and Will.. Bijou met us by the door and dropped a handful of shiny coins into my hand. She said she would have loved to have joined us for lunch.. but she must beg off this time around.

I saw her in a whole new light that day. A whole new light. And maybe I have been wrong about her. For she seems genuninely pleased that Papillion and I have taken such a shine to one another.

Hand in hand, Papillion and I hurried across the street to the little bistro owned by Minerva. When she brought us menus, I found it hard to make up my mind. But Papillion is good at making decisions.

"I'll have everything," she smiled up at Minerva.

And I, likewise, folded my menu and agreed. "We'll both have everything!"

Within several ehn.. Minerva carried out several trays to our small table, and loaded it down with everything! I have never seen so much food in all my life!

A Drink Of Me

Papillion was there waiting in the dark at the theatre right when I arrived. We went inside together and when I laid my instrument case to one of the benches, I found myself suddenly in her arms, falling prey to whatever her hands had decided to do. They tugged my pants loose at my waist, and they touched me inside.

Papillion sunk to her knees there on the platform stage with her back to the wall. She meant to steal a piece of me when no one was looking. And I cannot say no to her.

I can only look down upon her when she does this and watch.. with rapt fascination, I watch. Until I can watch no more, and I am forced to close my eyes and cling to her hair with my fingers.. resisting with all my heart and soul not to pull too tightly.

Just one drink and she sets me aflame.