Sisterhood - Temptation Ch. 47

"Katja!" it was Lia who noticed her first. Lia bounded forward and threw her arms open for an embrace, but then staggered aside as she knocked into another girl.

Lia was just as Katharina remembered her from earlier. Completely naked apart from the tall black high-heeled shoes that clattered loudly against the stone as she stumbled. Her very slim, subtly curved figure was completely bare. Even as she righted herself and tossed her hair from her eyes, giggling, there was a simple, unselfconscious grace to her movements, the poise of someone who wears nakedness completely naturally and without thought.

"Lia. Hi," Katharina held out her hand to steady Lia as she moved in for an embrace.

"Katja!" Lia repeated excitedly. She held her arms tight around Katharina's shoulders and hopped on her feet, hugging her tight.

Katharina felt a stiff prang against her hip and reached between their bodies to nudge Lia's half-hard dick carefully aside, then returned the embrace, "Good to see you."

"Katja," Ivy called out. She approached quickly and ushered Katharina and Lia aside and out of the path of the file of girls making for the stairs, "Where were you? We were looking for you."

Katharina felt a flush of relief. Ivy looked concerned, seemed perhaps even a little irritated at Katharina's absence. Katharina shook her head, frowning, "Yeah. Sorry, I-"

"You should have sat with us!" Lia exclaimed, bouncing on her feet, "Oh my fuck that was awesome, did you see it?"

"See...?" Katharina hesitated. She realized that she would have to decide whether to confess that she had only just arrived, or to commit to dissembling. Hoping to postpone the decision until she could gather her thoughts, she glanced to check Ivy's face and then ventured, "You mean Lena?"

"Yeah that absolute fucking bitch oh wow did she get it!" Lia squealed.

"Bitch?" Katharina frowned again, puzzled, "I mean, I suppose she is Miss Vera's opponent, sort of, but that's a bit harsh Lia. Or was there something...?"

"Oh wait," Lia halted, "You said Lena."

Katharina looked to Ivy, her confusion deepening. Ivy was shaking her head, tutting, "Not Lena. Fucking hell Lia. Did you even get that part? It was the most important bit."

Katharina winced again at the thought of everything she had missed, her carelessness, "What part?"

"Lena was nominated to coven council," Ivy tilted her head at the stage, but she kept her gaze on Katharina, eyes narrowing. Then she spoke carefully as if in considered afterthought, "Or whatever they call it."

"Nominomni...?" Lia stuttered, giggling, "Okay, or whatever. But Katja that wasn't the best part. Not Lena. You saw the punishment, right? Please tell me you saw that."

In her hesitation, Katharina knew that the moment had come at which she would be no longer be able to conceal by omission the fact that she had not witnessed the events of the coven gathering. And she saw that Ivy saw it too. "No. I missed it," she replied, "I got here a bit late. Was detained."

Katharina saw the puzzled look on Lia's face and regretted her quaint choice of phrase. "Detained like, sex detained, you mean?" Lia grinned.

Katharina laughed, but it was a chuckle of rueful amusement, felt like an acknowledgment of her failure. Her irritation at herself deepened the more she considered it. It ought not to matter to her as much as she was discovering it did. Attendance at coven meetings was only tacitly mandatory, and nobody actually checked. Other girls often missed meetings. But not her. And certainly not now that she had found a fresh resolve to discover her place in the Sisterhood. And perhaps, she still hoped, to discover it together with Ivy. She felt as if she had missed an opportunity to share a special experience with Ivy, the experience of coven gathering at the climax of the ball. She had missed it and it was gone.

What concerned Katharina most immediately was the question of Lena's presence on the stage, and what it implied for Vera. She wondered with a sudden dreadful bewilderment whether the punishment that Lia had mentioned was a punishment that had for whatever reason been visited on Vera, in retribution for some subterfuge or rule-bending that Katharina had been unaware of.

"Punishment?" Katharina asked Lia, "I guess I missed that part at least."

Lia's eyes turned to the stage, "Bitch face. Or whatever pet name Ivy has for her. She got, you know, sex magicked. In front of everybody. Totally lost it. Like, immediately. She wanted it so bad it was fucking delicious Katja you should have seen her groaning ohh yeah!"

Katharina watched at first Lia's dick twitch and rise in time with the excitement in her voice, then she followed Lia's gaze to the center of the stage. There, in front of where some of the Seven Sisters were now gathered with their dmurrhisi offerings beside them, was a broad block of stone that jutted up through the wooden boards of the stage floor, part of the ruins of the Roman structure around which the later fittings had been constructed. And laid out naked on her back atop the stone, with her hands bound above her head to a metal ring, was Yvonne.

"Oh," Katharina laughed quietly, relieved, "Her."

Standing now some distance above and away from the stage, Katharina could not make out clearly the expression on Yvonne's face. But she saw the sweat-clumped hair strewn across Yvonne's cheeks and shoulders, and the twitching motion of Yvonne's hips and her shoulders, the erratic writhing of a body in distress but too exhausted to move with any consistency or purpose.

"Yeah. Bitch. Huh," Ivy grunted, "Some punishment."

"Hehe," Lia leaned onto Ivy's shoulder and thrust her grin at Ivy's face, "Yeah I bet you wish that was you Ivy, huh? Tied down and fucked and made to moan and groan and beg in front of everyone. That's like your recurring wet dream, isn't it?"

"No Lia," Ivy shrugged Lia off and shoved her gently aside, "I meant what's happening to her now."

Katharina had noticed the other figure approaching Yvonne. She looked back and saw again Leah, now standing at Yvonne's side, leaning over to speak to her. Leah's hand was on Yvonne's dick, slowly stroking her. Leah's long voluminous hair hung about her face and obscured all but the outline of her lips and her jaw, yet even from a distance Katharina could tell that Leah was happy. Her lips were pursed in the same attractive brooding pout that Katharina recalled, but smiling subtly. And her stance, the way she held herself poised over Yvonne's body, her thick legs planted apart, communicated a quiet confidence.

"What?" Lia's indignant exclamation punctured Katharina's thoughts, "Oh what? What the fuck? So that's it? Tied down and punished but then ohh poor thing how would you like to be stroked off by best girl pussy goddess here, how's that?"

"Hah Lia you weighing up whether that's a deal you might go for?" Ivy snorted, "I can see the gears turning."

Katharina couldn't stop herself from giggling when she saw the frown on Lia's face deepen, then turn to a stare of earnest fascination. Katharina looked back to the stage and saw Yvonne's body now bucking and her mouth open crying out as Leah stroked her faster, until a sudden long fountain of cum was flung out and over her body, falling across her face.

Then something resurfaced in Katharina's thoughts, a phrase that Lia had just spoken. "Best girl?" Katharina turned back to look at Lia, then Ivy, "Leah was best girl then?"

"You missed that part too, huh? Yeah. She was chosen first," Ivy nodded, then smiled triumphantly, "And Lia and I fucked her. And you did too, Katja. Or nearly. She swallowed your dick at least."

Katharina laughed. Though there was a tentative sense of reassurance at hearing Ivy joke, at being with her two friends again and sharing an intimate memory with them, the laughter felt as if it also served to conceal her embarrassment, or to somehow hedge her reaction to Ivy's jibe. Katharina could not tell whether it was the same playful teasing she was used to, or whether there was perhaps some new earnestness to the way Ivy was looking at her.

Despite her unease, Katharina found that Ivy looked very attractive. Her moist, pink lips were pursed in a haughty pout, endearing in its incongruity with her slight figure and the shapeless t-shirt slouching off her bony shoulders. Beneath the hem of the t-shirt her pale thighs stood out against the black. Katharina felt her body slowly swept by a warm swell of desire, a need to take Ivy in her arms, push her legs open and rub against her, kiss her.

"Katja?" Lia's voice sounded at her shoulder.

"Um, yeah, okay," Katharina shook herself and looked around. She watched the last few girls file past and head onward down the stairs, "So, we head back to dorms or what?"

"You know when she said 'midday', right?" Lia began.

"Who?" said Ivy.

"Marianne, when she said that cleanup begins at midday. So like, what day?"

"What day?" Ivy scowled.

"Yeah so midday tomorrow, right? But then, wait... because there hasn't been a night, not really," Lia looked up towards the far skylights in the roof of the chamber, "I mean, it's already tomorrow. So what is tomorrow now?"

"I think she meant that cleanup is at the next midday that happens," Katharina explained, "Which is midday today, which I suppose yes sort of is what was recently going to be tomorrow."

"So it's in, like, six or seven hours," Ivy added.

"Ugh," Lia's shoulders sagged, "That's fucked up."

"Well let's worry about it later and just go get some rest," Katharina held out her arm to indicate the stairs back down into the pit.

Lia, standing closest to the top of the stairs, turned and began walking down, twisting her hips to walk sideways on her high heels, picking her way slowly and mumbling to herself. Katharina waited for a moment, examined Ivy's face, then held out her hand.

Ivy seemed to hesitate, then snatched at Katharina's hand as if in a hurry and held it tight. Her grip loosened as they took the first few steps down, awkwardly at first, halting until they had coordinated their steps. Katharina felt the warmth of Ivy's grip sink into her hand and up along her arm. The core of her body shook with a little tremor of fragile excitement.

They walked without speaking, the dying bustle of other girls' conversations echoing around them as the chamber gradually emptied. Katharina's thoughts turned to what she had glimpsed on the stage, Lena in the green robes of the Seven and her girl Leah chosen, presumably by Julie, about what that meant for Vera. Vera had not secured the vacant seat on coven council. Though this itself was a disappointment, one that Katharina felt acutely in her gut as a personal setback, what troubled her more was the surprise. Without realizing it, she had treated Vera's success as secure, felt sure that Vera had seen it so too. Perhaps it was simply her mentor's peculiar immaculate confidence, her mysterious cheer, that had misled Katharina. Or had something unexpected occurred? Though she could articulate no specific mechanism by which it might be the case, Katharina could not shake the notion that she herself was somehow at fault, for arriving late. She had not been there to witness the crucial moments. She supposed that had she arrived on time she might have chosen to sit with Vera, to offer her support or even some new insight that lurked beneath her still hazy understanding of Sisterhood politics, something concerning Lena perhaps, that might yet have been of use.

"Did you see Miss Vera?" Katharina whispered finally, breaking the increasingly burdensome silence between her and Ivy.

Ivy shook her head, "Not sure. Maybe she was sitting down front with some of the others."

"Hmm," from where they stood at the top of the amphitheater, Katharina looked down over the rows of seats beneath them. She watched the heads of the girls filing out of each row in a buckled line, and searched again for Vera, for her dark brown hair or her energetic smile. Katharina watched some of the girls turn their heads, wondered where Vera's attention would be focused now if she were still here. On the stage, perhaps.

"But she didn't win it, or whatever. Doesn't matter," Ivy huffed, "Would have probably made more work for us anyway."

Katharina frowned, "Or we might have learned more."

"Like what?"

Katharina looked out across the pit at the stage. She saw Lena now with Leah at the block, leading her away from where Yvonne lay slumped, her body completely slack. Behind them, further back, the other dmurrhisi girls were gathering. They were being herded together by one of the green robed figures, only a wisp of her black hair and the pale skin of her jaw visible at the edges of the low hood of her robe. The remaining four of the Seven stood in a close huddle to one side, their faces completely obscured. The first of the dmurrhisi, recognizable from the energetic bound of her slender legs as Josephine, was led to the very back of the stage and under a small arch where there began a flight of shallow stone stairs. Katharina knew the archway, had seen it before, but had never passed under it. Its iron gate was open.

She nodded towards the stage, "The rite, for example. You haven't wondered?"

"They offer them to the Goddess, I don't know. Katja?"

A particular shift in Ivy's tone drew Katharina's attention away from the stage, "What?"

"I'm not going to stay," Ivy seemed to glance hesitantly at Katharina before turning away and continuing, "Don't tell Lia. I mean, I will tell her, but just not yet. It's not you, or her. I'm just going. For me."

"You mean leaving this place?" Katharina felt in her chest the certainty of what Ivy was saying, but to ask for clarification was all that it occurred to her to do as the shock sank into her awareness.

"Mm-hm," Ivy nodded, not looking back at her.

Katharina felt the churn of a second surprise disappointment as a knot rising in her throat. More so than Vera's apparent failure to gain admission to the coven, Ivy's announcement punctured her notion of herself, her future, and her happiness, because it was unexpected, was not something she had thought to envision. Though even as this occurred to her, Katharina recalled Ivy having mentioned leaving once before, when they had sat together in the baths.

At the center of her confusion one thought solidified and held still, firmer than it had before. Katharina knew with clarity that she did not want to leave the Sisterhood, was not ready to go. She wanted Ivy, but if she did then it had to be here, where Katharina felt she had only just discovered that she belonged. She had thought she belonged, before, had said it to herself, but now it was different. She knew it, because she had found a new part of herself here, only just begun to find it. And there was Vera, everything that there remained to learn with her, even if Vera would not be a part of the coven as she had hoped.

"You don't want to stay, with me? With me and Lia." Katharina spoke quietly and as briefly as she could, before the waver in her voice became obvious.

"I'm not good for you, Katja," Ivy's lips scrunched tight and she looked away, "And... This place isn't good for me."

Self-recrimination set in before Katharina could hold it back. She told herself to believe Ivy's assertion that the problem was herself, not Katharina. But it was an empty admonition. Katharina's imagination rushed to seek out all the moments and all the ways in which she might have made a better effort to understand Ivy's apparent unhappiness, or to show her how much fun and how much fulfillment was still to be discovered here as part of the Sisterhood.

They had almost reached the foot of the stairs and Lia ahead of them was alighting, lowering her leg over the final tallest step where the earth of the pit had been worn low into a perilous depression. Katharina's limbs shot cool with the impulse of readiness. Without knowing what exactly she envisioned as the outcome, she pulled back the hood of her dressing gown and reached out quickly to take hold of Ivy's face and turn it towards hers. There was the hint of resistance against her first gentle push, but not enough to feel like a decisive shying away, and then Ivy leaned and nuzzled her cheek into Katharina's palm. It felt as if her posture slowly melted and fell against Katharina's body as they embraced. Hearing the breath huff from her nostrils, Katharina pursed her lips and scrabbled to find Ivy's mouth. She felt it open to meet her and she pressed their faces tight.

Katharina clutched to Ivy's shoulder, steadying herself as they stumbled together down the last few steps, kissing and gasping. Katharina held her eyes closed, savoring the warmth of unexpected giddy happiness that washed through her body. When she judged they were near the final step, she flicked her eyes open and glanced aside to find her footing.

"Oh," Lia's voice was hushed beneath the rushing of Katharina's own heartbeat in her ears, "You two. Okay. Am I, like, in on this? Totally cool if not, just, you know..."

Katharina's lips blew open with a sudden giggle. But before she could plunge over the step, she felt herself being pushed away. Resisting at first, hoping to guide Ivy down in her arms, she felt the push become a shove and let go.

"Katja," Ivy staggered back and then leaped from the step, "No. Sorry."

"It's... I'm sorry," was the first thing it occurred to Katharina to say in return. She prepared herself to continue, got as far as opening her mouth before Ivy suddenly turned away, the hem of her baggy t-shirt tossed up by the swift motion of her hips.

Ivy ran, swiftly, across the edge of the pit. She moved without slowing or looking back, hurrying across the front of the now empty theater, her bare feet throwing back little puffs of ocher dust that spread out and faded in the air. She headed for the opposite tunnel, at the other end of the semicircular tier of stone seats, and had almost achieved it by the time Katharina found she could react.

She turned first to Lia. "Sorry. Lia," she panted, out of breath even before she had begun moving, "One moment."

Katharina caught a glimpse of Lia's puzzled smile and saw her shrug and nod before she turned away. Katharina followed Ivy's path through the dirt of the pit, at first striding swiftly but with composure, then breaking into a trotting run as she lost sight of Ivy's pale legs round the corner of the far tunnel.

The thin dressing gown was of little use as a covering once the pace of her run began to whip it back away from her body, and Katharina found herself effectively running naked, her soft but swollen dick flapping awkwardly against her thighs. She clutched at her chest to hold her breasts in place and pull the wings of the dressing gown over them, and as she did so the momentary distraction took her attention from her footsteps and she felt her shin strike something very hard. An overpowering wincing pain shot up her leg and she stumbled and rolled into the dust, huffing and clutching at the site of her injury.

As the pain diminished to a spreading hot sting, she quickly gathered herself and stood. She patted at her thighs and her backside where she had made contact with the ground, swiping away the dust, then looked at the object that had struck her. In the torchlight of the chamber she saw one of the low wooden benches that were arranged at the very foot of the amphitheater, on which some girls had been seated. The benches were in a jumble, each slightly shifted from the original arrangement, but this one in particular had been dragged round so that one corner protruded, against which she had struck her shin at full pace.

Katharina shoved the bench back into place with her raised foot, but then finding that it was heavier than she had anticipated, and realizing that the act was serving only as a futile vent for her frustration, she abandoned and ran onward, carefully and limping, until she entered the narrow space of the far tunnel.