MARBLE & SALT (Lesbian)

Chapter 22 (Part 1) TAKING AN OATH

Nota bene: the chapter features some adult language!

Two days before the crucial Ivan Kupala Night passed as if a coachman from old tsarist times whipped those damned days urging them to run. Sometimes, I miss those days, and, sometimes, I just want to close my eyes and forget about everything to find my simple self on the very day when I watched the swifts that were dashing above the roofs, and Dasha who was preening before the jazz club outing.

"Get up," Mika says wearily. She has already managed to wash her stupid face in the stream: her bangs are wet as a retriever's tail after the rain.

"I hate you," I frown, looking at her, but reluctantly agree. My head hurts, and my own body seems to hate me.

"You shouldn't have overdosed magic. One impulse would be enough." There is a light touch of sympathy in her voice, but I'm sure it's all feigned.

"Stop chatting, I'm not your friend. Take me to this bloody Baba*." My weaves are wrathfully wriggling on my skin like pale-gray vipers.

It's damn cold out here!

***

~Three days ago~

***

Mika was the one who brought me the dress to Hebe's room. My Princess thanked her heartily; it seemed that she did not remember or did not consider it necessary to remember that Mika had burst into, let's say, my and Hebe's hot scene on the table in the morning room, although, I suspected that it was not the first time when similar 'embarrassments' took place. The apprentice puffed out her cheeks, but on her two outstretched hands she held out to me a white dress embroidered with pearls and some other cloudy-white gems resembling moonstones.

"I should wear this dress for Ivan Kupala Night too," I said thoughtfully. Even though I made a promise to myself never to wear a dress again, I was ready to break it for the sake of such an exquisite fabric. "I will look like a bride in it. Do you like it?" I asked Hebe and immediately regretted it. At home, I would not have been able to officially marry a woman, and if I could, none of my friends would have come to congratulate me and my wife-to-be. It was hard to imagine my mother who would seriously help me with lesbian wedding chores, or my father who would wipe away a single happy tear at a ceremony, or my university mates who would secretly discuss which of two brides were more beautiful, or Dasha who would comb my hair for the last time before helping to put on a veil: it all looked like a beautiful fairytale. As for Hebe, before my eyes began to appear the image of a man with whom she must have a sexual relationship. It was even more difficult to imagine that I could officially become the wife of the future witch queen: a concubine, a toy, yes, but not a wife.

I didn't even understand what Hebe answered to me, or rather, she muttered something under her breath. Mika did not like what her Mistress replied, but no one asked her opinion.

"Get dressed and let your hair down; we'll be heading to the oath ceremony soon. Don't tremble like an aspen leaf in the wind. It won't take more than an hour: most of the time will be spent on the road," Hebe tried to cheer me up, seeing how I began to shake either from the cold or from fear.

In my previous life of a simple human, I would have consulted with my parents before making a difficult decision; I would have complained about the difficult choice and discussed all the details with Danya, but now there was literally no choice; either taking an oath, or soon witches would start hunting me down.

We met with Hebe in the hallway of the residence. I was embarrassed looking at her: she was also wearing a white dress, only simpler, almost like a nightgown of a girl from the Victorian era, only the night cap with ribbons was missing on her head, but she looked amazing. Unlike me, she looked amazing in everything.