Snippet #1295943

"Imagine there is someone pulling a string from the top of your head upward," Sensibility ordered, negating the need for imagination completely by grabbing a handful of her daughters' hair and yanking upward.
"Oww," Cal complained, her back instantly becoming a good deal straighter.
"Yes, now shoulders up... and back, Up, girl, and back," the woman continued, ignoring her daughters wince of pain.
"Good, hold it.. HOLD it, yes. Now go get dressed."
Cal relaxed, only for a moment, and recieved a hard thwack across the shoulders.
"I didn't say slouch, and get dressed. For chrissakes, girl. Carry yourself!"
"Yes, mother," Cal replied in a monotone, reluctantly crossing the room where two fae maidservants, fairy women by the looks of it, waited to dress her.
"Good morning," she said politely, if very quietly, as they drew the dress, light violet 'to match those ungodly eyes,' as her mother would say, laced with a dark purple, over her head. They didn't respond to her greeting. The couldn't, as her mother had any servant capable of creating spoken magic muted. Yes, she cut out their tongues. Lovely.
Cal winced as the strings, crossing corset style over her stomach were pulled far too tight.
"Mm. I wasn't planning on breathing today, anyway."
"Oh, quiet, child. You look lovely."
Cal snorted, thinking she'd prefer to be able to breath, but she must look the part, her mother insisted on it.
"One day you will take my place as Grand Sensibility, and you must be prepared for it!"

Except Cal didn't want to be Grand anything, much less Grandly cruel and horrible leader of Serroc, as her mother wanted, though she would call it 'stern' or 'strong.'

She excused herself, and the servants left the room, her mother following shortly after, saying she would expect her at sundown for dinner.
As soon as they'd left, Cal loosened the ties on her dress, taking a deep breath of relief. She'd been planning this for a while now, and her heart was already racing as she crossed the room, opening the door a crack and peering out to make sure noone stood beyond it.
She struggled to control her pace as she walked down through the halls toward the front gate, knowing that going to fast would give her away.
As she left the tower and approached the bridge, her spirits lifted. Almost there!

The orderly posted on her side of the bridge stepped forward to bar her way, demanding gruffly to know where she thought she was going.
Cal stood up straight, adorning the steely gaze she'd learned from her mother.
"You think to question me? Do you think I would be out here without mothers' permission? Stand aside, you fool, lest you suffer for your disobedience!"
She didn't let her face drop the haughty expression till she was past him on the bridge, then a wide grin spread across her face.
She was almost there, and she resumed the cold expression till some time later, when she finally reached the business district. She went into a narrow lane, concealed from the street, and pulled a pair of plain, somewhat ragged breeches from the small pack she carried, slipping them on beneath her dress and then pulling off the horrible thing, leaving only the light violet undershirt.
She ruffled a hand through her hair, messing the intricate braids and stuffed the dress into the pack, sliding her dagger higher up her leg so it was once more concealed by her pants.
She had done it! Her face was flushed with excitement, as she made her way back out into the street and amongst the crowds. For the first time, she was in the real world, free, if only for a little while from her mothers controlling gaze.