The Courier
Copyright 2008 by EC
EC's Erotic Fiction - /~caligula97030/

(warnings: erotic discipline, sex between adults, medical fetish, public nudity)


Chapter 23 – Homecoming

Cecilia Sanchez and Maria Elena Rodriguez-Torres quietly stared out through 
the van’s windows as the line of lights in the distance marking the edge of 
Danúbikt Móskt grew brighter. Within a few minutes individual buildings 
came into view; then suddenly the vehicle passed the first houses lining the 
city’s edge. The van turned onto a street of nicer residences and passed a 
yellow sign that marked the edge of the Danúbikt Móskt collar-zone. A few 
meters beyond was the house where Vladim Dukov had lived before he was 
Prime Minister, and where his son Vladik now lived with his wife and two 
sons.

The van turned from the side street onto a tree-lined boulevard leading 
towards the city center, but then veered to the northeast to go towards the 
University District. Soon the part of the city most familiar to Cecilia and 
Maria Elena came into view, a section of houses built around 1910 that were 
almost completely hidden by large trees. A short distance beyond lay the 
university, but the van’s driver was not taking them that far.

During the entire trip neither Maria Elena nor Cecilia felt inclined to talk. 
Now that she had some rest, Cecilia was awake enough to feel the painful 
sores covering her feet and to fret about what would happen when Victor and 
her nephew Pedro saw her naked and collared. As for Maria Elena, the 
momentary happiness she felt upon leaving the Royal Residence had faded 
back into emotional numbness and a fatigue that was deeper than anything she 
had ever experienced. She was dead tired from not having slept, but also she 
was still in shock from the events that had torn at her over the past week.

Finally the van pulled to a stop in front of Merchant Victor Dukov’s house. 
Victor stepped outside, with Jason and Pedro shyly following. The side door 
of the van opened and the two women got out. The moment had come for 
Maria Elena to return to her lover’s arms and for Cecilia to begin her radically 
changed life. For a moment the two women stood quietly, simply staring at 
their loved ones but unable to speak. Everyone was uncomfortable, not just 
because of the experiences that Maria Elena and Cecilia had just endured, but 
also because no one was used to seeing Victor and Cecilia naked and wearing 
Temple collars. Pedro, especially, seemed not to know what to make of seeing 
his authoritative aunt wearing nothing but a collar and a subdued expression.

It was Jason who broke the silence. He stepped forward to take Cecilia in his 
arms. Victor followed suit and embraced Maria Elena. At first she couldn’t 
react. She wanted to feel joy at being back in Victor’s arms, but couldn’t feel 
anything at all. She hated herself for her lack of emotion, but then the 
numbness lifted and she started crying. She hugged Victor hard as her old 
personality asserted itself through the trauma of the past week. She realized it 
would take time, but eventually she would indeed recover.

The cops in the van drove off and everyone went inside. Jason had a practical 
issue to deal with, the condition of Cecilia’s feet. He helped her upstairs, 
unwrapped her bandages, and put more disinfectant on her sores. He told her 
that if she stayed off her feet she would be much better the next day, and that 
calluses that would protect her would start forming within a few days. His 
own feet were covered with thick calluses, from spending four years living 
without footwear whenever weather permitted.

Cecilia summarized what had happened at the Royal Residence, focusing on 
that awful moment the Royal Guard pulled open the cellar door and she saw 
Maria Elena as she was being beaten and raped. Then she related the day’s 
other events, right up to the moment she and Maria Elena passed the corpses 
of the two treasonous Lords and headed out to the van.

There was a lot missing from Cecilia’s narrative, because she had no 
information concerning what had become of Grand Duchess Anyia. She had 
overheard one of the servants mentioning that she had been beaten by her 
mother, but had not seen the punishment herself and did not know if it was 
true. She had no clue what had happened to the Grand Duke. To that Jason 
responded:

“Well, you’ll be in court tomorrow and I’d imagine Kim will fill you in.”

Jason ran Cecilia a bath and carried her to the tub so she wouldn’t have to get 
on her feet. Being carried made Cecilia feel like an invalid, but Jason was 
insistent. She had to stay off her feet until the next morning so they could heal.

A few minutes later Jason lifted Cecilia out of the bathtub and set her on a 
towel on her bed. As he carried her, Cecilia’s feelings about him changed. She 
now was helpless and dependent upon him. Not only was she feeling weak in 
his strong arms, but also she realized that during her time she was collared he 
would be in charge of what was going on in her life. He knew what she 
needed to do about her feet, just like he knew how she would have to make 
the transition to properly performing Public Penance. It was the collar that 
would make her dependent upon him. Anytime in the past, she would not have 
found submitting to his direction acceptable, but at that moment she realized 
that she didn’t mind.

----------

Victor had his own set of psychological issues to contend with as he held his 
traumatized lover in his arms. He felt horribly guilty that she had suffered so 
much at the hands of his own niece, the daughter of his brother. Of course the 
reason why that had happened was because of a unique set of legal 
circumstances that had just been terminated, but at the moment that was not 
any consolation. The fact that he had spent the week totally helpless, fretting 
about her situation but unable to do anything to assist her, wore on his 
conscience. He was ashamed of his own helplessness.

Finally Maria Elena calmed down enough that Victor was able to take her 
inside. In the living room he saw the full extent to which she had been abused. 
Her body was covered with bruises. Her bottom had taken the brunt of the 
abuse and was covered with painful welts. Beyond her backside the welts 
thinned out somewhat, but no part of her body: not her legs, nor her back, nor 
her arms, nor her breasts, had been spared from the continuous whippings 
from Lord Vidmarkt. Victor was enraged by what had happened, but for him 
there would be no revenge, because the Lord who had abused her was dead.

As soon as Jason had taken Cecilia out of the bathroom, Victor ran a bath for 
Maria Elena. She was exhausted, but grateful for the opportunity to get 
cleaned up and simply relax. For a long time she had no desire to get out of 
the tub; she just wanted the hot water to relax her sore body and clean away 
the psychological filth of her time at the Royal Residence. She was 
desperately hungry, which Victor sensed. He brought her a snack of bread and 
fruit, which she devoured while still sitting in the tub. 

Once she finished eating Victor contemplated Maria Elena’s dirty hair, which 
was still dishonorably loose. Looking at his lover’s loose hair was a bizarre 
experience for him, because it had been many years since had he seen the 
unbraided hair of a woman he loved. When he was still in high school his 
future wife had her hair unbraided, but the day she graduated and formally 
became a woman her hair was properly done up, as was the hair of every other 
woman in the graduating class. He thought back to the moment he saw her at 
the graduation ceremony, no longer a high school girl but an adult… a woman 
who had made the transition to honorable citizen… and the woman he knew 
he was destined to marry. Since that ceremony he had never seen her hair 
loosened, because his wife was a proper Danubian who strongly believed in 
protocol.

Throughout his life, Victor’s prejudices about braided hair had been typical 
for any Danubian man. The only women he had seen with unbraided hair were 
foreigners, who had all kinds of weird customs not practiced in the Duchy. A 
lot had changed since he graduated from high school, especially the influx of 
huge numbers of foreign tourists walking around Danúbikt Móskt with their 
hair flowing loose in the wind. Loose hair now was a common sight, but still 
it set tourists apart from everyone else. Dishonorable… totally dishonorable… 
those foreigners.

And yet… seeing Maria Elena’s thick black hair loose around her wet 
shoulders gave Victor a strange idea. He was tempted to touch it… something 
he would not have dreamt of doing with his deceased wife. Maria Elena was a 
foreigner herself, so she really did not understand what a huge taboo it was in 
Danubian culture for a man to see a woman’s loose hair, let alone touch it. He 
cautiously reached out and felt a loose strand.

Maria Elena did not understand what Victor wanted. She remembered that she 
had not yet shampooed her hair and assumed that was what her lover wanted 
to do, help her clean her hair. She handed him a shampoo bottle. Victor took a 
deep breath and complied, putting some shampoo into his hands and working 
it into her hair. It was at totally surreal experience for him, something that 
probably no other Danubian man had ever done, certainly not one without a 
foreign partner.

By the time Maria Elena got out she had spent nearly 40 minutes sitting in hot 
water, which helped to soften her welts. Victor helped her out of the tub and 
assisted her as she dried off. He led her to his bed, hoping to continue the 
moment of intimacy, but as soon as she lay down she was asleep. He looked at 
her bare body, but remained fascinated at the thought of her loose hair. He 
took a strand in his hand, knowing that as soon as she got up the next morning 
Cecilia would restore her braids and that would be the end of the strange 
intimacy he had shared with her. She would go to court, come back later in the 
day, and then life would return to normal. But for him the memory would 
remain… the memory of doing something forbidden with his lover that 
probably no other man he knew had ever done or even thought about doing.

----------

The next morning it was Pedro who woke up everyone in the house. He had to 
go to school, which meant that either Cecilia or Victor had to get up to serve 
him breakfast. Victor went downstairs to cook for the boy, because Cecilia 
needed to braid Maria Elena’s hair and Maria Elena needed to bandage 
Cecilia’s feet. As soon as those two tasks were accomplished Officer Vladik 
Dukov passed by in a police van to take the two women downtown to the 
Central Courthouse. Before Criminal # 101025 could return to her normal life, 
her collar from the Royal Residence would have to be removed and replaced 
with one from the Ministry of Justice. 

Victor stayed behind with Pedro. Although it no longer was a secret that he 
and Maria Elena were lovers, he saw no point in sharing that detail with the 
world by showing up wearing a Church collar in what was likely to be a 
public hearing. Instead he would finish sending Pedro off to school and 
simply go to his office. As much as he wanted to be present to see Maria 
Elena officially returned to the Ministry of Justice, he knew that the public 
scandal would be bad enough as it was and for the Prime Minister’s brother to 
be seen at the Courthouse wearing a collar was not something the public or the 
government needed. 

----------

A few minutes later Vladik delivered his passengers to the Central Courthouse. 
The steps were crowded with people: most of whom were family members, 
friends, and former co-workers of the 30 servants who were to be transferred 
back to the Ministry of Justice that morning. The criminals had not been in 
contact with their families since their internment in the Royal Residence, so 
the relatives were desperate to find out what had happened to them. The 
crowd completely filled the steps and part of the street below, with only a 
narrow passage down the middle to allow police officials and criminals to 
pass.

Maria Elena was not surprised to see her classmate Carmen and several other 
norteamericanos standing among the crowd, their bare bodies standing out 
among the mostly clothed throng of bystanders on the steps. 

Just as Vladik drove up to the Central Courthouse, five Spokespersons led 30 
naked criminals out of the Central Police Station and across the Plaza. The 
Spokespersons walked in single file, each leading his or her respective clients. 
Spokeswoman Lee-Dolkivna was the fourth in the group, because the 
Spokespersons had organized their walk according to seniority. 

The Priestess who had organized the previous day’s seizure of the servants 
followed the Spokespersons, accompanied by several other Clergy members. 
As she walked in her long black dress, she looked more severe than ever: the 
no-nonsense woman who had taken on the Royal Family and won.

Kim signaled to Maria Elena and Cecilia that they needed to fall in behind her 
and march with the other criminals into the Courthouse. They joined the line 
of naked clients and followed her up the steps and through the main door. The 
criminals and their Spokespersons passed through another set of doors that led 
into the main trial chamber. The Spokespersons then stood off to one side, 
while the criminals knelt in formation in front of the judges who made up the 
nation’s Supreme Judicial Tribunal. The audience filed in next, quickly filling 
the seats off to the side of the chamber. Parents and employers were given 
priority for seating, but a few seats in the back remained open for friends and 
co-workers. Maria Elena and Cecilia noticed that Carmen and one other 
classmate had managed to get seats near the wall. The majority of the crowd 
would have to remain outside, but the police had rigged up some speakers to 
keep the people waiting on the steps abreast of what was going on inside the 
courtroom.

“DOC-DOC DANUBE!”

The spectators, Spokespersons, and police officers immediately stood at 
attention and saluted, while the criminals and people performing Public 
Penance knelt forward and placed their heads on the ground. The Supreme 
Court Justices entered the room and took their seats at the bench. Cecilia, 
kneeling naked with a group of criminals, felt awkward as she placed her head 
on the floor. According to protocol, her knees were slightly spread and she 
arched her back, completely exposing her bottom and vulva to everyone 
standing behind her. The position had forced open her labia. A slight breeze 
blowing through the courtroom felt cold as it touched the wetness of her 
vagina, making her aware just how exposed she really was. A part of her that 
was reserved only for Jason now was on display to hundreds of spectators. 
She tried to force her mind off her embarrassment, telling herself that she was 
only one of 20 naked women kneeling in the same position, but that did not 
help her at the moment.

Cecilia and Maria Elena had expected a lengthy legal procedure, perhaps a 
reading of names or some other form of official protocol. However, as soon as 
the room was silent the Chief Justice called out:

“Minister of Justice Hóshtukt! Are you present in this courtroom?”

“Yes Chief Justice, I am present!”

“Grand Duke Mídchatk XXIX! Are you present in this courtroom?”

“Yes Chief Justice, I am present!”

“Very well. Please step forward!”

The Chief Justice addressed the kneeling criminals next:

“You will kneel upright for the remainder of this hearing. Remember your 
Paths in Life as criminals and do not speak unless spoken to, and do not move 
until directed.”

Silently the group of criminals knelt upright.

Maria Elena was curious to see the Grand Duke. He was wearing “simple” 
Royal Attire: an embroidered suit styled from the late 1700’s and a tri-corner 
hat that had been popular in Europe before the French Revolution. He did not 
have his cape and crown, which would have constituted full Royal Attire. He 
appeared subdued, in spite of the fact that, unlike his wife, he was not being 
forced to perform Public Penance.

The Grand Duke did something that at the moment did not mean anything to 
Maria Elena and Cecilia, but was significant in the eyes of the Danubian 
people. When he approached the Chief Justice, he took off his hat. 
Throughout Danubia’s history, no King or Grand Duke had ever taken off his 
hat before a civilian official. The Danubian sovereign was aware of the break 
in protocol and nervously held the hat in his hands as he stood before the 
bench. The Chief Justice did not display any reaction, because he had been 
forewarned by the Prime Minister of the upcoming change in the role of the 
nation’s Royal Family. However, the audience stared at their sovereign’s bare 
head with wide eyes.

In a barely audible whisper Cecilia translated the remainder of the hearing into 
Maria Elena’s ear… 

“Grand Duke. This Court is honored by your presence. Our understanding is 
that you wish to address a matter of concern to your household and to the 
Ministry of Justice. Is that true, Grand Duke?”

“Yes Chief Justice. What you have said is true. I have come before you to 
address the issue of the criminals currently serving in my personal residence 
as Royal Servants.”

“Yes, Grand Duke? How do you wish to address the issue of your servants?”

“Chief Justice, the Royal Family wishes to release control of all criminals 
currently assigned to serve in the Royal Residence. We request that this Court 
reassign formal custody of all the criminals kneeling before you, specifically 
that they be returned to the custody of the Ministry of Justice and cared for as 
stipulated by the National Constitution of the Republic of Danubia and the 
National Code of Criminal Justice. The Royal Family wishes to formally 
declare that these criminals have no further obligation to myself or to any 
other member of the Royal Family.”

“May I ask why you are requesting the reassignment of your servants, Grand 
Duke?”

The Grand Duke took a deep breath.

“There is legislation pending in the National Parliament that will revise the 
role of the Royal Family and assure that our status meets the needs of modern 
society. One of those changes will be that everyone working in the Royal 
Residence will be a salaried public employee instead of a criminal servant. I 
have agreed that the change is appropriate for both the needs of the Royal 
Family and the needs of the Danubian Republic. The position of criminal 
servant will be abolished, and therefore it is inappropriate to retain such 
servants on any property being utilized by the Royal Family.”

“Very well, Grand Duke. To make sure this Court and the nation understands 
exactly what you wish to do, I shall repeat my understanding of your desire 
for the Royal Servants. Your wish is for them to be reassigned to the Ministry 
of Justice and for them to permanently leave your service. Is that correct, 
Grand Duke?”

“That is correct, Chief Justice. The Royal Family is requesting they 
permanently be reassigned.”

“Minister of Justice Hóshtukt! Does your Ministry agree to accept custody of 
the criminals currently assigned as servants to the Royal Family?”

“Yes, Chief Justice. The Ministry of Justice accepts reassignment of the Royal 
Servants and will assume custody of them as ordinary criminals.”

“What will be the condition of their reassignment, Minister of Justice?”

“Each criminal’s original sentence will be reinstated. Each criminal will return 
to service for the Ministry under the direction of their former Spokesperson. 
The Grand Duke and I reached that agreement last night. However, I will 
request one change in the status of these criminals from this Court.” 

“Yes, Minister of Justice? What is that change?”

“I have determined that the criminals have proven themselves trustworthy 
enough to be assigned collars with brass rings. I wish to make that request to 
this Court.”

“This Court grants your request, Minister of Justice. If you believe these 
criminals have earned the privilege of wearing the brass ring, then this Court 
will comply with your desire.”

“Thank you, Chief Justice.”

The Chief Justice then turned his attention to the Grand Duke.

“Grand Duke, this Court has granted your request and the former servants of 
the Royal Residence are reassigned as of this moment. This Court again 
thanks you for your presence and your service to the nation. If you wish to 
depart from this courtroom, you are free to do so.”

The Grand Duke then did something else totally unheard of from a Danubian 
sovereign, he saluted the Chief Justice, who stood and saluted back. Again the 
crowd looked at him with bewildered expressions, because he had just shown 
himself as a subordinate to a civilian official. Ignoring the stares of his 
audience, he calmly put on his hat, did a sharp about-face, and walked to the 
back of the room. 

Not many people in the courtroom had yet noticed, but waiting for the Grand 
Duke was his father-in-law, the nation’s Prime Minister. The two men left the 
courtroom and walked down the steps of the Central Courthouse, stepping 
through the waiting crowd and descending to the Central Plaza. From there 
they walked to the National Parliament Building. The Grand Duke was 
thoroughly depressed and what little fight he had in him was gone. The events 
over the past 24 hours had left him totally demoralized, something that 
Vladim Dukov planned to exploit as much as possible. Within two hours the 
Sovereign would address Parliament, speaking on behalf of passing reforms 
that would formally strip him of his remaining power. 

----------

Once the Grand Duke departed, the only part of the reassignment hearing 
remaining was to re-collar the 30 former Royal Servants with Ministry of 
Justice collars. The fancy collars of the Royal Family needed to be taken off 
each criminal’s neck, to be replaced with the drab collars used by the Ministry 
of Justice. Maria Elena noticed a definite change of mood among her fellow 
servants now that the collar technician had come out with the collar extractor 
and a cart carrying 30 new collars with brass rings. Already the criminals had 
been formally transferred but, there was an old Danubian saying that went:

“Dreams are what’s in your head; reality is what’s around your neck.”

The Chief Justice felt no need to delay. Even as the collar technician was still 
getting set up, the judge ordered the first Spokesman to step forward with the 
four criminals assigned to him. The criminals immediately stood up, moved 
forward with their custodian, and resumed kneeling. A moment later the 
technician ordered the first of the criminals to come forward and kneel at a 
sturdy metal post with handles that was about a meter high. The criminal 
grabbed the handles and remained still as the technician lowered a scary-
looking device that looked like a huge pair of pliers over her head. The 
official mounted the collar extractor on a loop at the top of the post and with 
several clamps attached it around the Royal House collar. A moment later 
there was a sharp metallic clank and the distinct sound of breaking metal. The 
latch of the Royal House collar was snapped and a second later it was off the 
criminal’s neck. The technician repeated the extraction with the other three 
criminals of the first group. Then he set the extractor aside and ordered the 
first criminal to resume her position at the post. He lowered a second device 
over her head, the implement that would replace her broken Royal House 
collar with one from the Ministry of Justice. 

The young woman was still a criminal, but she was happy about the change. 
Maybe she was not completely free, but she certainly would have a lot more 
liberty than she had experienced any time over the past year. She would walk 
out on the street, go to work, eat when she wanted, and sleep in her own bed. 
More important than anything else, she would have the freedom to talk. For a 
person who had just endured what she had to face under Grand Duchess 
Anyia… that was enough for the time being.

Once the first group of criminals was re-collared, their Spokesman took them 
out of the courtroom. Unlike the hearing that formally ended a criminal’s 
sentence, there would be no formal ceremony because the sentences were not 
ending or being reduced. The former Royal Servants may have felt elated that 
they would be returning to their families and their normal lives, but from the 
point of view of the court a reassignment was not the same thing as a release, 
and thus nothing to celebrate.

Because she lacked seniority, Spokeswoman Lee-Dolkivna’s group was the 
fourth out of five to be re-collared. Like her companions, Maria Elena was 
hugely relieved once the collar of the Royal Family was off her neck. Once 
the Ministry of Justice collar had replaced it, she knew that she was wearing 
the proof that Grand Duchess Anyia had no further claim on her. 

As soon as the last of her group was re-collared, Kim immediately led her 
seven foreign clients and Cecilia out of the courtroom and down the steps 
outside. There were joyous reunions between the criminals and their various 
friends, host families, and co-workers. Maria Elena was cheerfully greeted by 
Carmen and the other classmates, who whisked her off to the university to 
celebrate her return. The six other clients disappeared as well, leaving Kim 
and Cecilia standing alone on the stairs. 

----------

Spokeswoman Lee-Dolkivna invited Cecilia to have lunch at a café near the 
Central Police Station before returning to work in her office. As they returned 
to the police headquarters, the two women noticed that the building was 
extremely quiet. They walked past the building’s cafeteria and saw that it was 
completely packed with police officers and civilian employees, all crowded 
around a large television set. The normal programming had been canceled, 
replaced with live coverage of the nation’s Parliament. Across the bottom of 
the screen were the words:

Válkt Dukókt Régis trebét dék Legítkci eta Deréchekti Korónkti 

Translated into English the words meant: Royal Grand Duke renounces the 
Rights and Powers of the Crown. 

Kim and Cecilia could tell the Danubians were mystified at the event 
unfolding on television. Why would the Grand Duke go to Parliament and 
surrender all his formal powers? It didn’t make any sense, but obviously it 
was what the Sovereign wanted, because he was the one who had introduced 
the legislation. Grand Dukes up until that moment had the right to introduce 
legislation, but that was a power they rarely had exercised. There was huge 
irony that the Grand Duke had formally introduced a bill that, if passed, would 
be the last legislation ever submitted by a member of the Royal Family.

Parts of the Grand Duke’s speech were replayed as the two women watched 
with the crowd of Danubians. The Grand Duke had a stricken look on his face 
as he rambled on about the need for the Danubian Royal family to change its 
role to adapt to the needs of modern society. Kim remembered that had been 
the same line he had spoken when he was in court returning the Royal 
Servants to the Ministry of Justice. She guessed those words must have come 
from the Duke’s father-in-law, a statement that would spare the Royal Family 
from having to admit the real reason they were being forced to surrender their 
powers. 

“The needs of modern society”… what total bullshit, thought Kim to herself. 
It was because of Anyia that the Grand Duke was forced to give up all of his 
privileges. Kim felt sorry for him at that moment, because he was being 
forced to surrender not only his Constitutional authority, but that of all the 
future Grand Dukes who would come after him. The Spokeswoman 
sympathized with him because he really had not done anything. His only 
crime was not to make a stronger effort to control his wife’s excesses, but 
Vladim Dukov was convinced that failure constituted dereliction of duty. Kim 
understood the Grand Duke’s appearance in front of Parliament was to be his 
punishment for that failure. It turned out the punishment would be severe 
indeed, much more severe than it sounded when Dukov first mentioned it. The 
Sovereign had been forced to stand before the Legislature and ask to be 
permanently stripped of everything that had been passed down to him by his 
forbearers. 

The Danubians were not so naďve to think that the Grand Duke would 
surrender all of his privileges if something unknown to the public had not 
forced him to do so. The fact that Vladim Dukov was standing right behind 
him, as though to prod him forward, offered a clue that the surrender of Royal 
Privileges was coerced. The Duke’s forlorn expression offered another clue, 
as did the expression of the Prime Minister. Vladim Dukov seemed different 
from what the public was used to: he appeared cold, hardened, and ruthlessly 
determined as he waited for his son-in-law to finish his speech. 

There was no question the legislation would pass, because the Grand Duke 
was the one who had introduced it. However, among the deputies there was 
endless chatter why the Grand Duke had requested such a radical reduction in 
his status. Some of the deputies took him at his word; that the change was 
needed to meet the needs of modern society. Most of the deputies knew better. 
They realized that there must have been a hidden scandal that had caused the 
Grand Duke to relinquish his privileges. The deputies also realized that 
Vladim Dukov must have known what the scandal was. The more perceptive 
deputies also understood that whatever had caused the Duke to present the 
legislation, it probably was something better left as a secret.

Kim and Cecilia could tell that most of the cops and Ministry employees 
surrounding them in the cafeteria were deeply troubled by what the Grand 
Duke was doing, because he remained a popular figure in Danubian society. 
Certainly no one wished him any harm or embarrassment, nor did anyone 
really want the Royal Family to lose any more of its influence. The room was 
full of discussion why the Grand Duke had made such a grave decision.

As they listened to the arguments and speculation about what had happened to 
the Grand Duke, Kim and Cecilia felt guilty. They did not have to speculate, 
because they knew the awful truth. As much as they wanted to jump into the 
conversation and correct all the mistaken guesses circulating around the room, 
they didn’t dare do so.

Many of the women in the cafeteria expressed concern over Grand Duchess 
Anyia. She had not been seen with the Grand Duke, which was unusual for a 
public appearance. She was so pretty and poised, such a wonderful partner for 
the nation’s Sovereign. Wherever he went, she was at his side, always 
displaying a new outfit. Already the women missed her fashionable clothes… 

Suddenly Kim realized something important from what she overheard. Grand 
Duchess Anyia was starting to have an impact on Danubian society with her 
constant display of new and expensive clothing. That was behavior the 
Danubian public had not seen before and it was a change that many of the 
nation’s women, especially the younger ones, found fascinating. Danubia 
always had been one country where people did not waste a large portion of 
their personal incomes on fashion, which the Danubian Church condemned as 
“the evil worship of cloth”. Was it possible that, if left unchecked, Anyia 
Dukov might have transformed that part of Danubian culture?

----------

Maria Elena’s returned to Victor’s house with the norteamericanos who wore 
collars in protest of her sentencing, plus a few others who had not participated 
in the Public Penance but still wanted to celebrate her reassignment. They 
accompanied her to the house, hugged her goodbye, and departed back in the 
direction of the university. Victor and Maria Elena hugged each other as they 
were reunited. The previous night she had been too exhausted to really care 
what was going on, but now, with the Ministry of Justice collar on her neck 
and after having spent an afternoon with her classmates, she truly felt that she 
was home.

Victor and Cecilia talked to Maria Elena about what had gone on that day; 
namely that the Grand Duke had surrendered most of his Royal Powers and 
requested that all Royal Property be transferred to the Interior Ministry. Victor 
then told the two women that he wanted to pray and give thanks to the 
Ancients that Maria Elena had safely returned. They went out into the back 
yard and under the stars they prayed, with Victor leading the prayers. 

----------

Later Maria Elena and Victor returned to his bedroom. For a long time she lay 
quiet while he studied the fading welts and bruises that still covered her body. 
He touched her tenderly. She had expected that, after the rough treatment at 
the hands of Anyia’s assistant, she would be afraid of being touched. However, 
her love for Victor far overwhelmed the trauma she had just endured, and she 
longed to feel his hands on her body again. Gradually she took control and got 
him to lie on his stomach. She massaged him, rolled him over, and worked 
him into an erection. When he tried to sit up and take her, she pressed her 
hand on his chest to silently command him to lie back down. She continued to 
work him into an erotic frenzy with her touches, but let him know that she was 
the one who would control their love-making that night. Finally she straddled 
him and lowered herself over his hard penis. She gently rocked back and forth 
as he pumped semen into her. He climaxed and slowly went limp as she 
continued to straddle him.

Maria Elena took longer to climax, but finally she did have an orgasm. It was 
extremely important to her… because she felt that until she had made love 
with Victor, she would not truly have escaped the torment she had endured in 
the Royal Residence. The orgasm that night might not have been one of her 
best, but at least she had it.

The couple fell asleep in each other’s arms. As she drifted off to sleep, Maria 
Elena finally felt that she truly had returned home… returned to the place 
where she belonged.