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Emily, Naked in Thessolan

While enjoying a relaxing bubble bath, Emily is transported to another world.

Portal Fantasy meets ENF. AI illustrated.

Emily and the Statues

There was little Emily liked better after a long and exhausting week than a luxurious scented bubble bath and a good book. The hot water seemed to soak all of her worldly stresses away, as she escaped into the work of her favorite romance author. Sure, it wasn't high literature, but sometimes a girl needs to disappear into the life of an 18th-century heiress aboard a ship being attacked by pirates.



Just as the heroine was exchanging her first words with the roguishly handsome pirate captain, Emily was plunged into darkness. A jolt of fear shot up her spine and she sat upright in the bathtub. What was going on? All was dark and silent, save for the splashes made by her limbs and the occasional pop of a bubble.

The electricity had tripped, that was all. It wasn't the first time. Emily's building wasn't the newest or best maintained in this part of the city, though the landlord was forever promising to fix the wiring. Still, it was strange for the power to trip now of all times, when Emily wasn't using any appliances and her roommate was out of town.

If she'd gone with her original plan of lighting some candles around her bath and reading in the flickering half-light, Emily may not even have noticed. Unfortunately, she was out of candles and had been unable to bear the thought of leaving the house again to buy more. Because of that, she would now have to interrupt her bubble bath and go fiddle with the switchboard if she ever wanted to learn the details of the heiress's first meeting with the pirate captain.

Sighing deeply, Emily deposited her book on the shelf behind the bathtub and lifted her body from the water. Bubbles clung to her skin as she stepped out of the bath and onto the rough-hewn stone floor.

Rough-hewn stone? That wasn't right. Where was her fluffy bathroom mat? Where were the tiles? In the pitch darkness of the power outage, she could see nothing, but the sensation of cool and uneven stone beneath her soles was unmistakable.

Panic set in. "This is impossible," she whispered to herself, hoping to hear the comforting sound of her own voice. But the way it echoed in that vast place frightened her even more. Although she could see nothing of her surroundings, the absolute silence around her and a strange new chill in the air told her that this wasn't her bathroom anymore.

Emily stepped forward, groping blindly and in vain for the towel rail, or the basin, or any other familiar feature of her bathroom, but her hands grasped only empty air. She stumbled forward, eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness.

After she had traversed many times the length of her bathroom, her outstretched hands made contact with a rough stone wall, of similar texture to the floor. She let her hands travel across it, taking in every crack and bump, feeling the coldness of it.

Once her eyes had grown accustomed to the dark, she turned away from the wall to survey this strange place. The room was vast, with walls, floor and ceiling made of the same rough gray stone. The great height of the ceiling made her feel even smaller than her slightly below average stature.

In the center of the room, where she had walked from, sat a stone slab about the same size and shape as her bathtub, hollow and filled with water. Aside from these details, it looked nothing like her bathtub. There was no sign of the great white mounds of bubble bath she had used half a bottle to make, or of the book she'd laid down mere moments ago. She was going to have to wait to find out what the pirate captain said to the heiress.

Emily's chestnut-brown hair clung to her skin, down to her mid-back. A few loose tendrils fell about her heart-shaped face, sticking to her lightly freckled cheeks and nose. There was a slight chill in the air, and she looked down at herself, hazel eyes wide.

Her pale skin seemed almost to glow in the darkness, spotted by droplets of water and a few slowly shrinking clumps of rose-scented bubble bath. Trickles of water slid down the small of her back and onto the curve of her bottom. They slid from the nape of her neck, through the valley between her breasts, down to the short, matted hair between her legs. The sensations were too strong for this to be a dream.

She was no longer in her bathroom, her apartment, or anywhere she'd ever been before, and the only thing she had on her entire body was a black elastic hair tie that was a permanent fixture on her wrist while her hair was down.

The only exit to the room was a simple archway a few feet away from her, which disappeared into a dark hallway. Gathering up her courage, Emily walked towards the archway, her fingers trailing against the stone wall. As she peered down the hallway beyond, she could make out a faint source of light in the distance.

It was a torch, flickering and casting dim, dancing shadows on the stone walls. Emily hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should remain in the room and wait for someone—or something—to find her. Better to be proactive, she decided. If nothing else, it would be better to stand in the light and heat than this dark and cold. Clutching her wrist and nervously toying with the elastic hair tie, she took a deep breath and approached the light.

The corridor was long and winding, but the torchlight grew brighter with each step. Emily's footsteps echoed in the silence, every sound magnified in the stillness of the place. As her surroundings brightened, she began to notice details too: abstract carvings on the walls and a procession of torches along each side of the hallway. She could also hear faint whispers, what sounded like murmured conversation.

As she continued forward, Emily could now discern the source of the whispering. It came from a larger chamber up ahead, bathed in a soft glow. Her heartbeat quickened as she approached it, and the whispers grew louder and more distinct. There were definitely people up ahead!

The thought made her footsteps slow as she considered the potential danger ahead. She was in a unfamiliar place, like nowhere she'd ever been before. Would these people be friendly? Would she be able to understand them? Their voices were still too soft and intermittent for her to make out what language they spoke. What would they make of her sudden and unexpected appearance?

Even if they were friendly, she was about to encounter them without a stitch of clothing, still dripping wet from her bath. Her cheeks burned, and she wished for something, anything, to cover herself. But the stone hallway was bare of all but the torches set into the walls.

Having no better option, Emily wrapped her arms around herself to preserve what scraps of modesty she could. She would just have to deal with her embarrassment and enter the chamber like this. If the castle's inhabitants were decent people, they would give her something to wear. And if they weren't... Emily shuddered, forcing the thought of being thrown naked into a dungeon from her mind.

After much trepidation, Emily stepped into the chamber at the end of the hallway. It was a grand room, better lit than the dim hallway, by an enormous chandelier of glowing crystals that hung from the center of its domed ceiling.

But what truly caught Emily's attention were the statues. The chamber was lined on either side by rows of statues, each carved from different types of stone and metals. They depicted humanoid figures, ranging from ordinary men and women to figures with animal heads, to hulking beasts that stood on two legs. She recognized some as fauns, satyrs and gargoyles, while others were entirely alien. While most stood at attention, there were a few seated figures, as well as some captured in dancing poses. Curiously, many of the statues were turned to face each other, as if in conversation.

The whispering Emily had heard in the hallway, previously so constant, had ceased. Had this chamber really been its source? There was no one here but the statues, their immobile stone faces peering down at Emily with dead eyes. She shivered and drew her arms tighter over her body.

Maybe the whispering people had left the room just as she'd entered. Could they be afraid of her? What a thought! They had nothing to fear from a poor, lost, naked girl. Emily strained her ears to hear if the whispers had started up again somewhere else, but heard nothing. All was still and silent in the chamber.

Emily allowed her arms to relax at her sides, as no one was around to see her. Had she imagined the whispers? No, they had been far too distinct and continuous, and they'd only stopped the instant she entered the chamber.



"Hello?" she called out tentatively, her voice cracking slightly and echoing across the chamber. "I-is anybody out there?"

"It's been a long time since we've seen someone new," said a soft and lilting voice from behind Emily's back. Startled, she spun around, eyes searching for the source of the voice, arms firmly rewrapping around her naked body.

But no one had snuck up on her—the chamber was just as empty as before. "W-who's there?" Emily asked.

"Only us statues," the voice continued. It was coming from a point to Emily's left.

Emily's widening eyes settled on a tall statue of a woman carved from white marble. She had strong features and an intricate hairdo and was dressed in a flowing toga. But what caught Emily's eyes was the statue's lips, which moved with the soft voice. Their movement was jerky, like a low-frame animation, but that they moved was unmistakable. Moreover, the statue's eyes moved to meet Emily's.

"You're alive?!" Emily stammered.

The statue chuckled, making a sound like the tinkling of wind chimes, her shoulders moving mechanically up and down. "Not quite as you are, but in our own way. Long ago, we were as you are. But ancient magic trapped us in stone and forever bound us to Castle Elid."

There was a terrible sorrow in the statue's voice, a deep and long-held sense of loss that Emily couldn't help but feel affected by. She fidgeted uncomfortably with the hair tie on her wrist as she asked, "Why were you trapped? And by whom?"

A deeper voice began to speak, resonating from the bronze belly of a statue of a bearded man on the other side of the hall. This statue had a stout form, with muscular arms, giant shoulders, and a slightly bloated gut. While his upper body was bare, he wore a weathered pair of trousers and large, sturdy work boots. "Stories differ," he said. "Some of us were employed in this castle, others members of its royal families. Others still, merely passing through, the unlucky sods. But every last one displeased a castle mage, and this were the punishment."

"Castle mages?!" Emily repeated, glancing nervously at the entrance to the chamber as if one was just about to enter and turn her to stone.

"Don't worry, friend," said the marble lady. "They are all long dead. Yours is the only flesh to enter this castle in centuries."

"And what flesh it is!" roared the bronze man, reminding Emily that she had left her bottom uncovered and directly in his line of sight. She squirmed and twisted her arms ineffectually, trying to hide everything at once. The twinkle in the statue's eyes and the grin beneath his bronze beard caused her to blush a deep crimson and wish she could melt into the floor.

"Don't be crass, Bromberht, you're making our guest uncomfortable," said the marble lady curtly. Then, turning to Emily, she said, "Please excuse him. What is your name, dear?"

"E-Emily."

"What a beautiful name! I am called Aria." The statue drew herself up into a regal pose. It seemed to Emily that her name and appearance seemed quite commonplace and dumpy in comparison to this refined lady.

"Ya can call me Brom fer short, Miss Emily," said the bronze man, his voice small and contrite. "I'm sorry fer my outburst, but please take it as a compliment."

Emily's blush deepened. These people—statues—were being very nice, but there was little that words could do to ease the discomfort of her current situation. Although none of the other statues had yet spoken, she could see them moving out of the corners of her vision, and she knew that all eyes were on her pale, damp little body.

"Th-thank you," Emily finally sputtered out. "Please, do you have anything for me to wear?"

Aria looked down and shook her head. While the gesture was intended as one of sorrow, the stiff and mechanical nature of her movements made it appear somewhat ridiculous. "I am sorry, Emily, but the only clothes we statues own are those we wear as part of our bodies. Would that I could give you my gown, but I can no sooner part with it than with my head."

For just a moment, Emily felt quite jealous of the statues, having their clothing permanently attached to their bodies. "Is there nothing in this whole castle?" she asked. "I'm not fussy, I'll happily take a tablecloth or bedsheet."

"Nah, lass, no living man or woman has occupied these halls for nigh on three hundred years!" said Brom. "Any rags what were left behind have long ago provided food for the moths."

Emily's shoulders slumped. "Well... okay. Can you help me get home?"

"Where is your home, dear?" asked Aria. "Do you live in one of the neighboring villages?"

Emily shook her head violently. "No, no, I live in a city."

Aria's eyes widened in wonder. "Ah, a citizen of Lirethel! You are indeed far from home, Emily."

Emily quirked an eyebrow. "Lirithel? No, I live in Greenville."

"Never 'eard of it," boomed Brom. "Though it has been many a year since I last saw the green plains of Thessolan."

It might have been Emily's imagination, but she could almost swear she saw a tear form under Brom's left eye. "What's Thessolan?"

Both statues threw their heads back at this question, their bodies making loud creaking and grinding sounds as they jerked with laughter. But the laughter quickly died when they noted the continued bewilderment in Emily's eyes.

"You do not know of Thessolan?" asked Aria. "Perhaps there is a different name for it now. In our time, Thessolan was the name for the known world, all the land across the seven kingdoms, from the endless sea in the west to the great desert in the east."

At the statue's words, spoken in a matter-of-fact tone despite their fantastical content, Emily finally admitted to herself how truly far she had come from the bathtub in her Greenville apartment. Perhaps the talking statues should have been her first clue. "I think... my home is in another world."

"Another world?" asked Aria, intrigued at once. "I have heard of such places, but seldom of visitors from them. Pray tell how you made the journey."

Emily shrugged. "Well, I was in the bath, reading a book, and suddenly everything went dark. At first I thought the electricity had gone off—my landlord keeps promising to fix it but never does—but when I got out of the tub to go check, I found myself in this castle."

"Well, that certainly explains your lack of attire," Aria replied. "But I have not heard of this 'electricity' you speak of. Is it a form of magic your people use to travel between worlds?"

"No it's... well, it's not important, really, but it's not that. I had no intention of coming here, it just happened. Believe me, if I'd wanted to go to another world, I would have put some clothes on first."

"Very curious. I sense the workings of great and powerful magic. You were brought to our world for a reason, Emily."

Emily pouted. "It would have been nice to have some advance warning."

"Aye, I felt the same when that mage turned me te bronze," Brom interjected. "Would have worn me good trousers if I'd known."

"At least you're wearing trousers!" Emily cried, pushing her legs together.

"We are all victims of magic, in our own ways," Aria continued. "But I do not think the magic that brought you here was born of malice, Emily. Your aura is not poisoned by it, as ours are. No, I believe you were brought here for a good and noble reason—to free us from our bondage!"

Emily staggered back at Aria's words, her back brushing up against Brom's bronze arms. "Whoa whoa whoa, what?"

Aria smiled. "Forgive me for placing such a burden on you, our guest. But there is something you can do that we cannot, a simple task that will break the curse upon us and restore us to life."

A third statue, who had been standing frozen at Aria's side, now came to life. It was a jester, carved of the same gray stone as the castle itself. The jester was short and hunchbacked, his nose rising barely above Aria's waist. One eye was comically larger than the other, and he spoke in a shrill voice, "Lady Aria speaks of the Labyrinthine Pool! Deep in the heart of Elid Castle, there is a maze of submerged chambers, twisting and turning, with hidden currents and secret alcoves. Some say that its paths shift, ever-changing from day to day. Others speak of strange chambers, which present obstacles and challenges to those who would traverse them."

Emily shivered at the jester's description, her mind filling with thoughts of sea monsters and drowning in the dark.

The jester cackled at her. "At the center of the Labyrinth lies a talisman—the Stoneshell, a silver necklace imbued with the power to break the curse on the Statues of Elid Castle and free them from their bondage to the castle. A cruel trick, for we cannot navigate the pool! Many have tried, merely to sink like the stones they are!"

Aria's face snapped into a grimace. "Thank you, Jivaro, that was... illuminating." Then she turned to Emily. "The Labyrinthine Pool is a place of great terror for us statues, as, being made of stone and metal, we cannot swim or float. But for a being of flesh, it is not so bad. The water is warm, and there are many places to catch one's breath. That is part of the cruelty of our curse, you see, that any one of us might retrieve the necklace were we not made of stone."

Aria's sad expression made Emily hesitate about what to say next. Jivaro's description of the pool had been horrifying, and she'd made up her mind that whatever her most sensible course of action was, it couldn't possibly involve drowning in an underwater maze. While Aria had made it sound slightly better, it was very much in her interest to do so. Was Emily really the first person to enter the castle in three hundred years? Or had these statues asked others to enter the pool for them before, only to drown?

Brom spoke again. "Our fate is in yer hands, Miss Emily. Only you can retrieve the talisman. Milady Aria speaks truth, but do not think that retrieving the Stoneshell will be an easy task. The Labyrinthine Pool is filled with challenges and tests, riddles and mysteries. Sorry, milady, but we must be upfront with her."

"You are right, Brom, of course," Lady Aria said, her tone carefully neutral. "Dearest Emily, we cannot force you to take this risk. But it would be remiss not to mention the direness of any alternative. This castle is inescapable, sealed to keep the objects of the mages' wrath forever trapped. Should you refuse to enter the Pool, as is your right, we will be unable to offer you any alternative course."

Emily gasped as the full implications of Aria's words dawned on her. "So I'm trapped? Is that what you're saying?"

"Yes," replied Aria. "We can offer you company, but this castle is a dead and empty place. There is nothing here to sustain life."

Emily shivered. She'd eaten shortly before her bath, so she wasn't feeling hungry just then, but that would change. Even so, she didn't appreciate Aria's calculating tone. It was some nerve, asking a lost, shivering naked girl to embark on a dangerous quest just after meeting her.

"I don't know, this is a lot," she said to Aria. "I'm lost and I'm cold and I just want to go home."

"We understand, Emily," said Aria, whose arms now jerked into a wide, embracing gesture. "Take as much time as you need to decide."

Though the gesture looked like an attempt to comfort Emily, it did nothing of the sort. She faced an awful choice: to venture into a watery maze filled with unknown dangers or to remain in this cold, desolate castle with no way out.

There was a harsh, grating noise of metal on metal as Brom cleared his throat. "I understand yer hesitation, Miss Emily. Were I in your shoes, I’d be wary too. Jivaro's tales of the Labyrinth can be a bit... exaggerated."

Jivaro the jester hopped forward, nearly toppling off his plinth, but somehow stablizing himself. His stony eyes glared at Brom. "Oi! I speak only the truth, bronze behemoth!"

Brom simply chuckled as the tiny jester shook his fists.

"Regardless of Jivaro's flair for the dramatic," Aria said, "the danger is real. The choice is Emily’s alone."

The weight of countless eyes bearing down on her vulnerable form made Emily's decision all the more difficult. She thought of her home, her roommate, her mom and dad. How long would it be before they knew she was missing? What would they think? She had to get back to them, but she had no idea how. "I need to think," she finally whispered.

"Of course," said Aria, her voice gentle. "Please, wander about the castle, and take all the time you need."

Emily nodded and turned to shuffle out of the hall of statues, shifting her arms to obscure her butt from stone and metal eyes.

"One more thing!" Aria cried out, just as Emily reached the doorway.

"Yes?" Emily asked, looking over her shoulder.

Aria paused briefly and then said, "If I am restored to flesh, my gown shall be yours!"

"Now we're talkin'!" shouted Brom.

"Shush!"

Emily smiled to herself as she turned back into the hallway. Now that she had spent more time here, and become acquainted with the place's inhabitants, the strange and foreboding atmosphere of the place seemed to have softened. Castle Elid remained an eerie place, but it now appeared more lonely and sad than frightening.

As her bare feet stepped soundlessly down the corridors of Elid Castle, Emily relaxed and allowed her arms to fall to her sides. She would be ready to cover up at the sound of another voice emanating from an object that appeared inanimate, but for now she was truly alone.

The rooms she came across were largely empty, their furnishings long removed or rotted away. In some rooms, she found old bedframes, ancient tables and chairs, but never a sheet or curtain or blanket to cover her nudity or provide warmth from the castle's many drafts.

If she used her imagination, she could picture some of the rooms as they might once have been. Some must have been banquet halls, others ballrooms. But little remained as a reminder of those times, beyond the strangely long-lasting torches on the walls.

The most interesting room she stumbled upon was an old library, full of leather-bound books stacked upon wooden shelves. Pulling one book out, she found to her shock that she could read it. The book contained tales of the land of Thessolan, of knights, mages, and fierce dragons. Of princes, princesses, kings and queens. Each page appeared to have been painstakingly hand-written, with beautiful illustrations and elaborate border details.

When she'd first entered the library, the thought of tearing pages out of books to construct a makeshift outfit had crossed her mind, but their beauty and craftmanship were such that the idea now filled her with an even greater shame than her nudity. Emily had always loved books, and in this world, they were clearly rare and difficult to produce. To defile such beautiful objects... it was better to remain naked, as difficult as that was.

The library also contained the first mirror she'd come across in her journey. Through a layer of dust, she looked upon her naked body between the shelves, a leather-bound book open in her hands. A moment of vanity told her this would make for a creative and quite saucy photo opportunity if only she had her phone. She could think of a few guys who would be quite keen on seeing such photos. Laughing to herself, she struck a few tasteful poses. Though not having anything to wear once she was done soured the experience somewhat.

Her hair and body were dry by now, and she took a moment to put her hair up in a bun, getting it out of her eyes. This only made her feel more exposed, so she took it down again, slipping the hair tie back onto her wrist. With her hair back down, she attempted to arrange some of it so that it covered her breasts, Lady Godiva-style. This worked well enough and would stay in place as long as she walked carefully.

She had a choice, but really it was no choice at all. The statues had been correct when they told her that there was no way out of this castle—if she ventured too far down one corridor, she'd just end up back where she started. Magic was probably involved somehow. Unless she wanted to while away her time reading books in this library, there was only one thing to do.

After checking her hair one last time in the mirror, she returned to the hall of statues. All eyes turned to her as she entered the doorway, her right hand plastered over her crotch.

"Alright," Emily began, looking directly at Aria. "I'll do it. I'll enter the Labyrinthine Pool and retrieve the Stoneshell."

Brom smiled warmly at her. "We knew ya had the heart of a hero, Miss Emily."

Aria, her face etched with gratitude, said, "Thank you, thank you! At last, we shall all be free!"

Jivaro rubbed his small stone hands together, moving them so fast that bits flaked off. "Excellent! A new challenger approaches the Labyrinthine Pool! Best of luck to you, Lady Emily of Greenville, our beautiful and bare benefactor!"

Blushing, Emily asked, "How do I get to this Labyrinthine Pool?"

Aria gestured towards a doorway that Emily had previously not noticed. "It lies at the very heart of the castle. Bromberht and I shall guide you there."

A loud crack sounded from the plinth below Aria as she lifted a sandal-clad foot and brought it forward. Dust and fragments of marble sprinkled the ground beneath her as her legs separated, clearly for the first time in many years.

Emily winced at the noise. "Does that hurt?"

"N-no," Aria replied, grimacing as she staggered forward, almost losing her balance. "It just... takes a bit of effort." With jerky, uneven steps, she advanced towards where Emily stood, causing the latter to spring back, lest Aria lose her balance and fall. "Forgive me, I have not had any cause to leave my station for over a century."

Emily could feel the immense weight of Brom's bronze form moving behind her, from the tremors made by each of his footfalls. Up close, his surface was visibly tarnished, in contrast to Aria's immaculate complexion. He moved swiftly and with greater ease and confidence than Aria but with the same mechanical rigidity. "Aren't I always telling ye to move about more, Lady Aria?" he said playfully.

"Yes, yes, you're quite correct, Brom," Aria replied dismissively. "I just need a moment to return the feeling to my limbs."

Emily watched with fascination as Lady Aria's marble form jerked through a series of stretches, the stone of her limbs grinding against each other and producing a copious amount of dust and debris. She had never seen anything quite like it and had to pinch her thigh, for about the tenth time, to convince herself that she wasn't dreaming.

"There we are. I feel much better now. Follow us, Emily, the Labyrinthine Pool isn't too far." Aria walked over to Brom, moving much more surely now, and the two statues beckoned Emily to follow them to the doorway Aria had indicated.

"All honor and gratitude to Lady Emily, Savior of the Statues!" cried Jivaro's shrill voice. "I shall compose a song to tell of her bravery, her epic deeds, and the alluring curve of her backside!"

Realising that her hands had fallen at her sides while watching Aria, Emily blushed and scurried towards the moving statues, who led her into a mercifully dim hallway.

"Pay Jivaro no mind, Miss Emily," said Brom. "He's harmless, really."

Emily sighed and turned her gaze to Aria, who had taken the lead. She wondered what the marble gown she'd been promised would look and feel like after she retrieved the pendant and broke the curse. She felt a tinge of guilt about Aria's offer, which would leave her without anything to wear. But then, it had been an offer freely given, and surely the least of the statues could do in exchange for Emily's undertaking of such a dangerous quest.

Besides, the gown looked quite loose and flowy. Perhaps, with some careful alterations, it could provide outfits for both of them.

As they walked, Aria pointed out rooms in the castle and explained what they had been for during her time as a royal occupant. She pointed out bedrooms, servant's quarters and mage's chambers and told brief, light stories of the people who had lived there. For his part, Brom indicated the stones on the wall that would give way to reveal hidden passages and stories of his time as one of the castle's defenders. During some of these stories, especially those concerning mages, the statues would trail off and quickly change the subject, clearly unwilling to relive the events that had led to their petrification.

Finally, Emily and her statue guides turned a final corner and came upon a large, cavernous room with a warm dampness in the air. The walls, floor and ceiling of the room were of the same color as the rest of the castle, but here were unbroken natural rock rather than carved stone slabs. It was as though the castle had been built around a natural cavern, which they had now entered.

In the middle of the cavern was a still pool, its waters shimmering by the light of a single torch on an adjacent wall.

"Here it is," said Brom. "The Labyrinthine Pool."

Emily glanced down at the water. In the dim light, it was entirely opaque, like a portal to the unknown. "How will I know where to go?" she asked.

"A light will guide you," said Aria. "That is what the legends say. All who enter the Labyrinthine Pool know where they must go. It is the going, not the finding, that presents the difficulty."

Emily shivered and felt the chill of cool metal rest gently on her shoulder. It was Brom's enormous hand. "Ye were sent here for a reason, Miss Emily," he said, staring resolutely ahead. "You've courage and wits enough to best whatever this Pool throws at ye."

"I don't feel very brave," Emily muttered.

"Real heroes seldom do," said Aria. "But they don't let that stop them." She placed her own marble hand on Emily's other shoulder.

Emily's gaze fixed on the surface of the pool. Aria had a point, she thought. Despite everything, she had come this far. A less courageous person in her situation would probably still be sitting in the stone bath room, curled into a fetal position, willing herself to wake up. Despite the insanity of her situation, being transported to a strange world with magic and talking statues, and having to navigate it totally naked, she had stepped into the role of a hero. Reluctantly, perhaps, but indisputably.

"Let's get this over with," she said. The statues squeezed her shoulders appreciatively. "Ow!"

"Sorry!" said Brom and Aria in unison, immediately withdrawing their hands.

"It's fine," Emily replied, rubbing both shoulders as she advanced towards the pool. She dipped an experimental toe in and found that the water was warm, just as Aria had said. It felt just like her bath.

Her mind filled with thoughts of the comforts of home, she slowly lowered her body into the water. The water surrounded her in a comforting embrace. Emily paddled out, noting that the pool quickly became too deep for her feet to touch the surface. It also wasn't very big, being merely the entrance to a large labyrinth.

"Time to go under, I guess," she said, turning back to smile at Aria and Brom.

"Good luck, Emily," Aria said. "We will see you again soon."

Emily sucked in a deep breath and dove down, plunging into the depths. For a moment, all was in darkness, but soon small spots of light appeared in the corner of her vision. As she watched, a school of luminescent fish swam by, the light of their scales illuminating the vast underwater space she now found herself in. They swam rapidly forward and down, and Emily kicked against the water in pursuit.

Odd rock formations were scattered across the cavern floor, and it took Emily a moment to recognize them as statues. She recalled Jivaro's description of the Labyrinthine Pool, and of the statues that had unsuccessfully tried to navigate it. A pang of sadness grasped her heart, and she had to avert her eyes.

The fish led her down to a gap between a decaying castle wall and the natural rock of the cavern floor. It was just large enough for her to squeeze through, where she found herself in a narrow tunnel. After a few perilous seconds of swimming through the tunnel, it widened at the top, and Emily caught sight of a surface. Lungs burning, she sprang upward and breached the surface of the water, immediately opening her mouth and gulping in fresh air.

After catching her breath, Emily looked up at the cavern ceiling, in which glowing runes had been carved. She had no idea what they said, if anything at all, but they provided an eerie blue light for the tunnel, which split off into a fork not far ahead. She had truly entered the maze now. At least the water was warm.

Taking another deep breath, Emily dove back down and followed the tunnel to the right. After a couple of tight turns, the tunnel slanted steeply upwards, and Emily broke the surface of the water in the middle of a tubular chamber that appeared to be made entirely of gleaming white marble. Along the sides of the chamber were a series of alcoves, occurring at regular intervals. Each one glowed brightly in a different color, from teal to aqua.

As she passed close to the alcoves, they seemed to whisper to her in different voices. Some were deep and low, others high-pitched. At first, they spoke in a jumble of words from different languages she couldn't understand—she recognized French, German, Japanese—but as she progressed through the chamber they gradually became intelligible.

"Go back, go back!" the voices urged her. "Leave us!"

Always a stubborn girl, Emily set her face in a hard expression and pressed on. The voices became more detailed in their pleas, warning her of great dangers if she should press on. They told her she was weak, unprepared, and would never survive the trials ahead.

"Return!"

"Leave now before it is too late!"

"One such as you is no match for the Labyrinthine Pool!"

A shrill lady's voice echoed from one alcove when she had almost reached the end. "Where is your bathing suit, young strumpet? A shameful display!"

A hot blush overcame Emily, and she submerged her head in the water, so she didn't have to listen to the voices anymore. Thankfully, she had almost reached the end of the chamber, where marble once again became stone. She pushed on passed the final alcoves and entered another tunnel.

The next tunnel was longer and more circuitous, and Emily worried that she wouldn't reach the end in time. The words of warning from the glowing alcoves echoed in her mind, even as her lungs screamed for air. But there was nothing to do but to press on. She swam desperately, and soon enough the end of the tunnel came into sight.

When she burst up for air, she found herself in another large chamber. This time, it was made not of marble, but of mirrors. The walls, ceiling and even the floor beneath the water were all covered in massive, shimmering mirrors, each of which distorted Emily's appearance in some way.

In one, Emily's hair floated around her head in a fiery halo, and her eyes flashed with lightning. In another, she appeared with long, thin arms and her legs were transformed into a fishy tail—the effect was more siren than mermaid. Another mirror enlarged her breasts and butt, and the next one made her appear flat as a board.

There was a mirror that put a crown on her head and turned her hair tie into a golden bracelet, and a mirror that showed her body entangled in kelp. Every last one reminded her of her absolute nudity.

The reflections were disorienting, her every movement amplified and mimicked in a dozen different ways. As she swam, ripples distorted the mirror images to wobble and distort even more, creating an almost hallucinogenic effect. The further she swam, the more her mirror images appeared to separate from her actions, to stare and make menacing gestures at her.

Emily closed her eyes and relied on her other senses to navigate. The cool touch of the water against her skin and the sound of the current guided her forward. Only when she sensed darkness through her closed eyelids did she open her eyes again, to find the mirrors mercifully gone.

Emily's hands brushed against a stone wall, and she knew she was at the end of the chamber. A faint glow beneath her signaled that it was time to dive once again. Taking another deep breath, she submerged herself in the water and swam down towards the glow.

The source of the glow was a dense, underwater forest of tall, waving kelp, bioluminescent, casting shades of soft colored light. Each strand seemed to be a different color—there were vivid purples, deep blues, and golden yellows, painting the underwater scene with a kaleidoscope of hues.



Before she knew it, Emily was surrounded by the waving strands of kelp. As she moved through them, the strands reached out, brushing against her skin with a velvety touch. They wound around her, caressing her with gentle curiosity. Their touch was soothing, though it tickled slightly, but fear rose in Emily's heart as she felt the kelp across more and more of her body.

With a couple of violent kicks, she moved down, aiming for the rocky ground, among the roots of the kelp. This seemed to work, as more strands of kelp released her the lower she went, until there were only a couple left, winding gently around her legs.

Emily passed through the kelp forest in this way, keeping low, and soon she was in clear water again. A few strong kicks took her back to the surface, where she gulped in much-needed air. She gave herself a moment to float there, panting, and glanced back in the direction she'd come. The kelp made the water glow with ever-changing colors.

"It's very beautiful," Emily said to herself.

The next challenge the Pool had for her was a series of twisting paths. Some led to dead ends, while others had strong undercurrents that threatened to pull her under. Through patient and careful trial and error, and with a lot of backtracking and coming up for air, she found the right path, which led her to a larger chamber than any she had been in before, so vast that she could not see the walls or ceiling. If not for a glow that seemed to come from the water itself, she would have been in total darkness.

The waters around her swirled in churned, for some way ahead there spun a massive whirlpool. The vortex's pull was so strong that even from a distance, Emily could feel its drag, trying to suck her into its swirling depths.

In the very center of the whirlpool, Emily spied a stone platform, wide enough for her to stand and walk about on. In the middle of the platform, she saw a pedestal. Something on top of the pedestal glinted in the dim light, and Emily's heart leaped.

Despite its vastness, the whirlpool chamber appeared empty, but for the stone platform in its very center. Emily swam away from the whirlpool, searching for the wall of the chamber, but soon gave up. This place was impossibly big, and it would be a terrible waste of what remained of her energy to attempt a thorough search of it. Emily was a strong swimmer, and she'd taken numerous breaks during her passage through the Labyrinthine Pool, but she could feel a deep weariness in her limbs. She would enough for one final push.

Emily let herself float in the water, far enough away from the whirlpool that it was still and she could rest. She allowed herself to luxuriate in its warmth and recover some of her strength. Then, once she felt ready, she set out for the center of the whirlpool.

The water splashed around Emily as she propelled herself forward, fighting the whirlpool's pull even as it grew stronger. She focused her eyes on the stone platform and moved towards it with single-minded determination. But the current was powerful, and she felt herself slowly losing to it. Panic and fear energised her and moved her onward.

At last, skin touched stone. Emily felt a surge of energy course through her body as one hand brushed against the stone of the platform, and she reached out to grip it. The stone was smooth and slippery, so she had to fight for a handhold, grabbing with one and then both hands and eventually pulling herself up.

But just as Emily was half out of the water, ready to collapse onto the stone platform in total exhaustion, she felt a tremor from deep below, which threatened to send her back into the grip of the whirlpool. Scrambling, panicked, her hands grabbed at the smooth stone, failing to find purchase.

And then the platform began to sink.

Emily managed to suck in a deep breath of air just before the platform fell below the water, taking her with it. Now she was down below, caught in the whirlpool, chasing a sinking stone, her eyes on the pedestal and—the Stoneshell!

As Emily watched, a silver necklace lifted from the now fully submerged pedestal and started to swirl around with the whirlpool. It was so close now, she could almost touch it. And the swirling waters were bringing it to her!

Emily slackened completely, no longer interested in fighting the current. The waters pulled her down, down, with the necklace following. Now it was just above her! She reached out an outstretched hand, felt the necklace's smooth chain between her fingers, and shut her hand tight. The Stoneshell was hers!

At the very instant that Emily's fingers closed around the necklace, the whirlpool ceased. The current vanished as if it had never been, and Emily used the very last of her strength to propel herself to the surface, with the Stoneshell firmly in her grasp.

Breaking the surface of the water with a weary triumph, she opened her mouth and took in another breath.

"Emily! You're back!" came the sound of a familiar female voice. For Emily had emerged in the same cavern the statues had first guided her to. Aria and Brom stood patiently on the shore, their carved faces pictures of anticipation.

Smiling weakly at her friends, Emily slowly waded to the shallow end of the pool, her right hand still gripping the Stoneshell. After hours in the water, she finally crawled back onto land, where she collapsed in an exhausted sprawl on the damp rock floor, her closed right hand reaching towards the statues.

"I got it," she wheezed, opening her hand to show Aria and Brom the necklace.

With a cacophony of creaking and grinding, the statues bent down to examine the silver necklace. "Yes, this is indeed the Stoneshell," Aria said. "Well done, Emily!"

"Aye, it matchs that jester's description perfectly!" added Brom. "Good work, lass!"

Once Emily had regained enough of her energy to pull her head up and take a proper look at the necklace, she noted that it was a simple silver chain with a seashell pendant on it, which, appropriately enough, was made of stone. "What now?" she asked.

"To lift the curse, the Stoneshell must be worn by its rightful owner," said Aria, gazing wistfully at the necklace.

Emily stretched her fingers a bit wider. "Please, Aria, take it."

But Aria shook her head. "No, Emily, the Stoneshell's rightful owner is she who proved herself worthy of it in the Labyrinthine Pool. You must wear it."

Brom nodded in agreement. "The legend is clear."

"It won't do anything weird to me, will it?" asked Emily.

Aria shook her marble head. "The Stoneshell is imbued only with good magic, to counteract the evil curse upon the statues of Castle Elid."

Emily bit her lip and glanced from Brom to Aria, and then to Aria again. "Are you sure? I don't want to become a statue!"

Brom threw back his head and laughed, causing echoes across the cavern. "Though ye'd make a fine bronze, ye've nothing of the sort te worry about, Miss Emily! The Stoneshell shall not harm ye, it will protect ye."

"Protect..." Emily repeated, holding the necklace up in front of her face. She imagined putting the necklace on, and immediately having a suit of armor appear to cover her body. "That sounds good."

Emily lifted the necklace over her head and brought the chain to rest against her neck. She angled her body away from Brom's gaze to lift her hair up and out of the necklace's way so that the chain rested against her skin.

The Stoneshell came to rest just above Emily's breasts. Which, like the rest of her, remained naked. But even while she remained unchanged, the air around her seemed to shift, as if the castle itself was exhaling a long-held breath. There was a sudden lightness to the air, an infectious joy that had Emily pulling herself to her feet and almost jumping for joy. She felt deliciously, irrationally happy.

"Yippee!" she cried, jumping up and twirling around to face the statues.

Aria and Brom were still statues, made of marble and bronze respectively, but both were grinning just as wide as she was.

Emily's grin fell and she gripped the pendant, turning the small stone in her fingers. "I thought the curse was broken. Why are you still statues?"

The sadness that Emily had long noted in Aria's voice was now apparent in Aria's eyes, and her whole face seemed more expressive. "Magic is a fickle thing. With the Stoneshell worn by one worthy of it, the castle has been opened to the world, and we, its inhabitants are free to go. I can feel it. But we have been statues so long, that perhaps that is all we can now be."

"Ah, 'tis not so bad," Brom added. "My limbs are more limber now than they have been in many a year, perhaps even more than when they were flesh." As if to demonstrate, he moved his arms up and down with a smoothness that was almost human.

"Stone and metal do not age as the flesh does," said Aria. "Perhaps it is a blessing, the gift of immortality."

At these words, Emily had a ghastly vision of Aria and Brom turning to flesh and becoming skeletons before her eyes, like in an old movie that had given her nightmares as a child. Maybe this was for the best, even if it meant that she would not be getting her hands on Aria's gown.

"Oh!" Aria exclaimed, noting the direction of Emily's wistful gaze. "I had forgotten that I promised you my gown, did I not? Well, I am afraid I must renege. Though my movements feel smoother, freer and easier, I still cannot remove it."

"A pity," said Brom, with a sly wink.

"Okay then," said Emily. "We can leave this castle now. That's an achievement. That's a start. Next thing, I need to find some clothes. And then a way home."

"In Lirethel, there are many skilled mages and scholars," Aria suggested. "If anyone knows how to send you home, we will find them there."

"We?" asked Brom, raising a bronze eyebrow.

Aria blushed, the white marble of her cheeks turning pink. Even though the Stoneshell hadn't turned either statue human, it had made them both far more lifelike and animated. "Y-yes. Emily needs a guide, someone who knows this land and its customs."

Brom chuckled. "Begging your pardon, milady, but your knowledge is a wee bit out of date."

"Be that as it may, I also have my own reasons for traveling to Lirethel," Aria said sharply, in a tone that implied her mind was made up and she wouldn't be taking any questions. "Could I have the honor of being your guide, Emily?"

"Of course," Emily said. She was becoming quite fond of Aria and would need a companion in this strange world.

"Marvelous!" Aria said, clasping her hands together. "Perhaps you would like to accompany us as well, Brom?"

Brom shook his head. "A thousand pardons, milady, but I have my own quest. Under any other circumstance, I would be honor-bound to protect two traveling ladies, but with the Stoneshell around yer neck, no harm can come to ye."

Aria nodded. "Should we be accosted by bandits, I will fall upon them and crush them under my weight."

Emily turned the shell over in her fingers. She didn't feel very well protected, standing naked and dripping wet in the middle of a cave, but the change in the atmosphere that the necklace had brought about as soon as it touched her skin was undeniable. Even as an outsider to this world, she could sense the potency of its magic.

The statues guided Emily back to their hall, which was now drowned in cacophonous noise. All the rest of their fellows were whooping and hollering, running around, jumping and dancing, relishing in their newfound freedom. As Emily entered the hall, they all stopped what they were doing and surrounded her, oohing and awwing at the Stoneshell. The statues showered her in praise and compliments, shook her hands, and some even insisted on giving her bone-crunching hugs. All throughout, Emily blushed furiously, wishing the room's center of attention wasn't hanging just above her still very bare breasts.

"All hail Lady Emily of Greenville, the Stoneshell Bearer!" screamed Jivaro. "She's baring many other things as well, mind! Gaze upon the Stoneshell, framed by her lovely bosoms!"

At Emily's command, Brom gave Jivaro a solid kick that sent him flying into a wall. "Ow!" Jivaro cried, as he scraped against the wall and thudded onto the floor.

"He's faking, we statues can't feel any pain," Brom whispered to Emily.

"Too bad," Emily muttered.

After some time, Emily and Aria were able to extricate themselves from the adoring crowd. Having said final farewells to Brom, the two women turned into the corridor where Emily had first emerged.

The eerie torchlight was now replaced by the natural light of the sun, streaming in from windows that Emily was certain had not been there before. It gave the castle a mundane feeling, like one of the ruins Emily had visited on her last trip to Scotland. As Emily ambled across the uneven stone floor, the dreamlike feeling that had pervaded the place seemed to dissipate. If Emily looked away from the moving marble statue beside her, she could almost imagine she was back in her world, touring a castle ruin. In the nude, for some reason.

Emily felt sick, like she would come across a tour guide or large group of ordinary tourists just around the next corner, who would point and stare at her exposed body. She turned her head back to Aria, the lady walking beside her who was unmistakeably made of marble, as if to assure herself that this wouldn't happen. No, the only people who would be pointing and staring at Emily's naked body were inhabitants of this strange magical world.

This was hardly a comfort, but Emily didn't have much time to dwell on it before they reached the castle's entrance hall. Two massive wooden doors opened out onto a verdant field, with rolling green hills in the distance.

"It is good to see the plains of Thessolan again," said Aria. "I had given up hope that I would ever lay my eyes upon them again. Thank you, Emily."

Emily smiled, her eyes darting around the hall, searching for something she might be able to wear. The idea of going out into the world as she was terrified her. But the entrance hall, like the rest of the castle, was quite bare of any kind of fabric.

"It is a long journey to Thessolan," Aria said. "I am sure we will be able to acquire some clothes for you along the way."

"The sooner the better," Emily muttered.

"Don't worry, the Stoneshell shall bring us good luck—hark, what are those?"

Emily followed Aria's gesture with her eyes, which soon came to rest on something small and brown lying behind one of the open castle doors. It was a pair of boots. She approached them and picked one up, finding a gray sock inside it. They were soft and slightly worn, and looked to be about her size.

"Ah, it is already working!" cried Aria in delight. "These are sturdy walking boots, and they will serve you well on the journey ahead."

"Boots," said Emily, nonplussed. "A necklace and boots." Though she had to admit that her feet were getting quite sore from the uneven stone.

"We will buy a dress and a traveling cloak for you from the first traveling merchant we encounter," said Aria. "Those should complete the ensemble nicely."

Emily sat down on the stone floor and put on the socks, and then the boots, lacing them up comfortably. They fit perfectly, as if they had been made for her, and the socks' softness provided welcome relief for her feet. But they also served to highlight her lack of other attire.



"I think I feel even more naked now," Emily said, standing up and walking around experimentally. "Shoes and socks make it feel intentional. Like I'm a streaker or a nudist or something."

"Worry not, dear Emily, you'll have that dress before you know it!"

"I sure hope so. Lead the way, Aria."

With a gracious smile, the marble lady led the girl from another world, clad only in boots and a magical necklace, out of Castle Elid. The road to Lirethel beckoned.

I'm not sure if this is a one off short story or the first entry in an ongoing saga (definitely hoping for the latter) but either way it was incredibly well written and highly enjoyable. The descriptiveness was particularly good. As a fan of fantasy, I think it's a great read even without the ENF elements; they're just the icing on the cake.

Thank you for the kind words, jimmythehand. I can confirm that this is part one of an ongoing story.

As a fan of fantasy, I think it's a great read even without the ENF elements; they're just the icing on the cake.

Very glad to hear this, it's exactly what I'm going for.

Emily on the Road

The weather outside Castle Elid was sunny and warm, the sky marked by a scattering of fluffy clouds. The heat felt somehow soft, unlike what Emily was accustomed to in her own world—the prickling scorch of Earth's sun was strangely absent. Whether this was down to the nature of this world or the protection of the Stoneshell, Emily had a feeling that she would not need to worry about sunburn. Some consolation for a naked girl on a long journey.

Once the initial shock of stepping out into the open wore off, Emily walked calmly, arms swinging at her sides, boots crunching on the dirt path. The feeling of sun against almost every inch of her skin was a new but not wholly unwelcome sensation. It was a very surreal, dreamlike experience, overall, though a knot of tension remained in Emily's throat and would spike every time there was a bend in the road, lest another traveler appear behind it.

After some miles, Emily realized she hadn't eaten anything since arriving in this world. Her stomach growled fiercely, and she placed a hand on it, feeling weak and light-headed. "I'm starved."

"Ah yes," said Aria. "Flesh requires food. Let me see... over there, a Starvine bush!"

Emily's eyes followed Aria's gesture to a small bush by the side of the road, its branches heavy with clusters of big, gleaming purple berries. She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Are you sure they're not poisonous?"

"Certainly not!" Aria scoffed. "Don't you have Starvine berries in your world?"

Emily shook her head.

"Then you're in for a treat, my dear Emily! They were one of my favourite things to eat, back when I had need of food."

"I don't know," replied Emily, "I've never eaten anything that glowed like that before..."

"The glow is what gives them their divine sweetness!"

Emily's stomach growled again, and that decided the matter. She plucked a berry from the bush and rolled it between her fingers. It was smooth to the touch, and once plucked, its steady glow became a pulse.

"Oh how I envy you!" cried Aria, staring intently at the berry between Emily's fingers. "What I would give to taste a Starvine berry again..."

Emily took a cautious bite. Sweetness burst onto her tongue, followed by a tart, spicy quality with an earthy undertone. "This is delicious!" she said, before finishing off the berry in a second bite. She could feel energy spreading to every part of her body.

Purple berry juices dripped down Emily's chin and stained her fingers as she wolfed down another three berries. As she was reaching for a fourth, Aria stopped her. "Too many Starvine berries can make you sick."

"I'll take some for the road, then," Emily replied, plucking another berry. "Just... oh, I guess I don't have anywhere to put them."

"I'll carry them for you," Aria said, taking the berry from Emily and dropping it down the front of her gown.

"I miss being able to do that," Emily replied, glancing down at her bare breasts.

With Emily's hunger sated, the two travelers continued their journey. In the late afternoon, the wind started to pick up. At first, the sudden coolness of the light breeze was refreshing, but as the wind continued to strengthen, it whipped Emily's hair into a wild inferno. She found herself constantly blinking and spitting, swiping away the long strands every few steps.

After one such futile swipe, she caught sight of the hairband still encircling her wrist. Swiftly, she gathered up her chestnut-brown locks and twisted them into a hasty bun, snapped into place with the tie. Finally, her vision was clear and her face free of constant tickling. But with all her hair piled up on top of her skull, the sensations of the wind against the skin of her shoulders and neck were a fresh reminder of her nudity.

"What a marvellous device!" Aria said, and it took Emily a moment to realize that she was referring to the hair tie. "How it grows and shrinks in your fingers!"

Emily chuckled. "It's great for windy days like this, but it does make me feel a tad more... exposed."

Aria's soft laughter blended with the howl of the wind.

Some time later, when the wind had relented and the pair's shadows were growing longer in the approaching dusk, Aria pointed out a dark shape on the horizon. "Someone approaches!"

Emily squinted at the distant shape, which was slowly growing larger. It appeared to be a horse-drawn caravan. If she looked really closely, she could just about make out the shadow of a man sitting at its front.

"That looks like the traveling merchant we've been awaiting," said Aria. "What luck! Emily?"

In a flash of pale skin, Emily had darted backwards and was now crouching behind Aria's marble form. "I can't let him see me like this!" she squealed.

"Oh, yes, of course," said Aria. "I will stay rooted to this spot and you may hide yourself behind me." Aria spread her arms out at her sides, causing her marble gown to drape. "We'll explain the situation and have you in a dress and cloak in no time!"

"Thanks Aria," said Emily, blushing as the caravan came ever closer, its wheels and the clip-clop of horse's hooves now audible.

Before long, it was possible to make out the details of the traveling merchant's face. He was an older man, though still quite handsome, with a head of gray hair and a neat gray beard which framed strong brown eyes set into a lined face. A curious air came over his complexion as he approached what to him must have appeared to be a marble statue curiously placed in the middle of the road.

A shiver ran down Emily's spine. She'd been embarrassed once she'd learned that the statues in the castle were alive, but that had been tempered somewhat by the strangeness of the situation and their relative inhumanity. Now that a flesh-and-blood human being was almost in spitting distance, this embarrassment was renewed and magnified tenfold. Here she was, completely naked in the middle of a country road, about to ask a strange older man for a dress she could wear. But first, she would need to get his attention.

"Hi there!" Emily squeaked, standing on tip-toes to poke her head over the much taller Aria's arm. She waved her arms over her head, and this seemed to catch the man's attention. "Please! Don't come any closer!"

The man made eye contact with Emily, and it was all she could do to keep herself from ducking back behind Aria and curling into a fetal position. Even though only her head was visible to the merchant, she could feel every inch of her exposed skin as he held her gaze.

"G'd afternoon, ma'am," the man said, speaking in a slow drawl. "How may I be of service?"

"Hail and well met!" said Aria. "Might you be a traveling merchant?"

At this, the merchant almost leaped off his seat. "A talking statue! What in the world?!"

Emily smiled at his shock. Clearly talking statues weren't all that much more common in this world than in her own.

"My name is Lady Aria of Castle Elid," said Aria. "Many years ago, I was cursed by a mage to inhabit this body of stone for all eternity. I wish you no harm."

The man scratched the back of his head and sat in contemplation for a while. Then his face broke out in a grin. "Those mages, right bastards the lot of 'em. I met one in the last town who wasn't happy with the price I gave him for his home-grown cabbages. Enchanted my coin purse over it! I had pieces of silver jumping around like grasshoppers! Lucky it only lasted a day..."

Aria contemplated the dirt. "Yes, it is a profession often undertaken by those of a capricious nature."

"You can say that again!"

A moment of silence passed as the man silently observed the sad, contemplative talking statue and the human girl hiding behind her. It could hardly have escaped his notice that both were quite beautiful. "It's a pleasure to make the acquaintance of two lovely ladies," he said. "The name's Brevin. I'm a traveling merchant."

"Excellent!" cried Aria, the melancholy disappearing instantly from her marble features. "Might you have some ladies' garments among your fine wares? My companion Emily is in need of a new wardrobe."

Brevin stroked his bearded chin. "I have a fine selection of outfits to dazzle the eye and delight the skin. If Miss Emily would be so good as to step this way, we can pick something out."

Emily blushed. "Well, uh, actually... the thing is..."

Brevin dismounted the front of his cart and stood a few feet from Aria, cocking a curious eyebrow.

"My companion is in desperate need of clothing because she does not currently have any," said Aria.

Emily smiled weakly, blushing again. She rose up slightly more on her toes, just enough to expose a single bare shoulder.

"Oh!" exclaimed Brevin, eyes widening. "Begging your pardon then. I'll go fetch some things from the back and hand them over."

"Thank you!" Emily squealed.

"It's a pleasure doing business," said Brevin. "Heh, you ladies sure are lucky I came along. Just bought this stock too."

"An act of Providence," said Aria.

Brevin disappeared around the side of the caravan, his footsteps muffled on the soft ground. Aria turned her gaze towards Emily, a sweet smile carved into her marble face. "What wondrous luck!"

Emily sighed, the tension in her body releasing slightly as she leaned against Aria's cool stone form. "Keep yourself between us. He seems kind, but I don't want to flash him."

"Of course." Aria puffed out her chest and spread her arms wider than before. "You won't have to worry about your modesty for too much longer."

Sounds of clattering and ruffling echoed from the other side of the caravan, interspersed with Brevin's low muttering. These were followed by footfalls, and Brevin re-emerged with a large pile of fabrics. It was all Emily could do to stop herself from salivating at the sight. He placed the bundle on the ground and took a few steps back before turning around. "I've brought a few options for you to choose from. At least one should be both your size and to your liking. I'll not look while you fetch the garments, ma'am."

Emily peeked out from behind Aria, her eyes darting between the pile of clothing and Brevin's back. "Thank you, she whispered, before scampering out from behind her statue friend, snatching up the bundle, which was almost too big for her to get her arms around, and backtracking in a half-crouch. Brevin did not budge.

"Let me know when you're decent," Brevin said. "Take all the time you need."

The feeling of soft fabric against her skin was immensely comforting after Emily's hours of nudity. It was with some reluctance that she released the bundle of clothing and laid it out before her.

Brevin had brought her a selection of shifts, corsets, petticoats, dresses and cloaks of different colors. After contemplating her options for a moment, Emily decided to keep things simple and picked out a white shift and a dress of deep burgundy.

Slipping the shift over her head, Emily felt an immediate sense of relaxation. Though she was still in a strange land, far away from home, the sensation of fabric against her skin brought some sense of normality.

The shift was fitted, but not overly tight. The hemline came just past her knees and its long sleeves almost covered her hands. Back in her own world, she had regularly worn full outfits that showed more skin than this, and it was a mere undergarment.

Apart from its rich color, the burgundy dress was simple and plain, with a hemline that almost trailed on the ground, coming to rest against the tops of Emily's boots. Feeling slightly overdressed, but giddy at the prospect of further covering her poor, overexposed flesh, she picked out a matching cloak to complete the outfit. She would leave the hood down for now.



Step one, get some clothing. Check. Now she could focus on step two, finding her way home. Thoughts of the adventure ahead of her, with her mysterious and elegant friend Aria by her side, stirred something in her blood. Now that she was properly attired, she would face the world of Thessolan head-on.

Emily stepped out from behind Aria and did a small twirl to show off her outfit. "What do you think?" she asked.

"Beautiful," said Aria. "Your outfit makes me long for the days when I too wore colorful clothing."

"You can look now, Mr Brevin!" called Emily, a beaming grin overtaking her face.

Brevin slowly turned and smiled as he saw Emily properly for the first time. "A perfect fit. You're a vision, Miss Emily."

"All thanks to you!"

"Just doing business." Brevin walked past Emily, still enraptured with her new outfit, and gathered up the clothing she hadn't chosen, his careful merchant's eye noting what was missing. "Now, that will be two silver for the dress, one for the shift and one silver eight copper for the cloak. Four-eight is your total."

Emily's face fell. A small voice in the back of her mind had been nagging her about the problem of money, but she'd done her best to ignore it in her desperation to get clothes. She darted over to Aria and looked her pleadingly in the eyes, but was met with an embarrassed and apologetic grin.

"I... have not had much occasion to deal with money," Aria said softly. "My sister always handled those matters for both of us."

"But you have some, right?" Emily whispered sharply.

Aria shook her head sadly.

"You said we would buy a dress and cloak from a traveling merchant!"

"Ah, yes, I did say that, didn't I?" Aria adopted a thoughtful posture, with a hand on her chin.

"How did you expect to get money?! Surely you could see that I didn't have any! I'm not even from this world!" Emily was red in the face, gesticulating wildly, and the tall statue seemed to shrink at her anger.

"Well... uh... I suppose I didn't think it all the way through. I'm sorry, Emily."

Emily took a deep breath and gripped the bridge of her nose between her fingers, which usually helped to calm her down. "It's fine. We'll figure something out. Brevin seems kind. I'm sure... I'm sure he wouldn't just take the clothes back."

Emily turned around and approached Brevin, who had been waiting by his caravan, staring into the distance. He was clearly trying to give the impression of not having heard the ladies' discussion.

"Mr Brevin," Emily began, her heart pounding in her chest. "First off, I would like to make it clear how much I love these clothes. They are a perfect fit, well-made and clearly of high-quality material. I am certain they will last me a long time. And they must, for they are the only clothes that I have."

Brevin nodded but remained silent, a curious squint appearing on his face.

"Unfortunately, neither I nor my companion have any money. We have just emerged from Castle Elid, perhaps you've heard of it. My companion, Lady Aria, was cursed to roam its halls for centuries, and it is only through the recovery of—hey!"

A forceful stone elbow nudged Emily, almost knocking her over. Emily looked angrily at Aria, who had suddenly appeared by her side but was struck into silence by the severe look on the statue's face. Where moments before there had been a sheepish grin, there was now only a stony scowl of resolution.

Cold marble brushed against Emily's ear. "Say nothing of the Stoneshell," Aria rasped, in a tone that sent shivers down Emily's spine.

Dumbfounded and quivering, Emily shut her mouth tight. Brevin raised a curious eyebrow.

"Mr Brevin," Aria began. "As my companion has related, we have no money. Indeed, before we made your fortunate acquaintance, the only possession we had between us was an old pair of boots, found abandoned. We are two ladies in distress, in dire need of charity. Without your gift of clothing, poor Emily would be force to wander the land of Thessolan entirely naked, at the mercy of nature."

"She has boots," retorted Brevin, eyes pointed down. "And not a bad pair."

"Please, good Brevin, see it in your heart to do an act of kindness to a lady in great need. Only your charity can defend her honor. The gods will surely smile upon such a selfless act."

There was a long pause, during which Brevin attempted to hide the beginnings of a knowing grin. Emily felt she might be sick.

"Listen," said Brevin. "I've got a wife back home and twelve hungry children to feed. Maybe you don't understand that so well, statue, but we of flesh and blood need to eat. I can't part with nearly five silver of goods out of charity!"

Emily blushed and looked down at her burgundy dress, cursing herself for choosing such a beautiful and probably expensive color. "I can take something cheaper!"

Brevin eyed her. "That lot's near the bottom of the barrel already. And you've messed on it!"

Emily followed Brevin's accusatory stare to a purple mark on her dress and blushed furiously. The Starvine berries!

"I'm sorry!" she cried.

"It's fine, just return them," Brevin replied. "Out of the goodness of my heart, I won't change you for cleaning."

"That's very kind of you," Emily said, trying her best to sound sincere. "Listen, what if I give back the cloak and dress and just take the shift?" She had grown quite enamoured with the dress and cloak and would be sad to lose them, but the shift alone would be a more than adequate covering.

"You're still asking for me to give you one silver! Half my children will go without their supper!"

"You can't just send me away naked!" At this, Emily fell to her knees, begging and pleading, her eyes wide and desperate. "Please, I need something to wear! There must be some way..."

"I won't be taken in by your wiles, if that's what you mean," Brevin snorted. "My Dolores is the only one for me. Stand up, woman, you're dirtying my wares!"

Emily gasped at the implication, which took a moment to sink in. "What? No! I wasn't suggesting that! I'm not that kind of girl!"

"Running around the countryside with no clothes on, people might think otherwise."

"Does it look like I want to be naked?!" Emily was on the verge of tears.

"Well.. I s'pose not." There was a softening in Brevin's tone.

Emily continued to haggle with him, racking her brains for some way she and Aria could pay for the dress. She offered to travel with Brevin and work for him, feeding the horses and running errands, but he was quite uninterested. "That statue'll weigh down the cart."

Eventually, Emily ran out of ideas and could only plead again for Brevin's charity, for him to part with at least the shift.

"I can't do it," he said with an air of finality. "But I won't make you go naked. I have something in the back, I've just remembered. A piece of clothing left in my caravan by a stowaway I chased out just yesterday. That item didn't cost me anything, and I won't be able to sell it. I can give you that, and we both walk away happy."

Emily wiped a tear from her eye. "That sounds wonderful. Thank you, Mr Brevin."

Twenty minutes later, as the caravan was disappearing into the distance, Emily cringed at the memory of those words. In his vagueness, Brevin had neglected to mention that the stowaway had been a gnome and the item of clothing a pair of threadbare gnome britches. "Quite a fat gnome," Brevin had said, but that wasn't much of a consolation. Changing into the new "outfit" had been a slow and mournful process.

Emily now stood on the road with her arms folded across her bare chest and the britches stretched over her hips. The gnome had been squat, so the legs barely made it down to her mid-thigh and the waist was very low-rise. Though the britches were quite large for a gnome, Emily could not force their top button closed, and curls of hair poked out indecently.

Aria gave her a sympathetic look. "At least we shan't be the cause of his children's hunger."

Emily pouted, dearly missing her long burgundy dress. Wearing that, she had felt like a plucky medieval maiden out on an epic adventure. In her current outfit, she just felt like a slut. Too-tight shorts were better than complete nudity, but not by a lot.

As Aria and Emily trudged down the dirt road, the trees that dotted the plains became more and more frequent, until they found themselves in a dense wood. The waning sun painted the horizon in shades of lavender and gold. Birds cawed and rustled in the distance, preparing for evening, and an icy gust raised goosebumps on Emily's exposed skin. The faint sound of running water indicated that they were approaching a river.

The britches offered little protection from the cold, and Emily wrapped her arms tightly around herself, shivering at every gust of wind.

"We should find a place to camp for the night," Aria said. "Though I cannot feel this cold, I see it is having a strong effect on you."

"Really missing that cloak right now," Emily replied, her teeth chattering.

"Let us walk a little farther," said Aria, pointing ahead at a dark silhouette. "Look, we're coming to a bridge. On the other side, we'll find a clearing and make a fire."

Emily was about to ask how, exactly, Aria intended them to make a fire, and to remind her marble companion that, where she was from, the ability to make a fire in the woods had not been considered an essential life skill. But before she could figure out exactly how to articulate it, she was stopped in her tracks by an extraordinary sight.

Towering ahead of Aria and Emily stood an enormous, hulking humanoid figure, taller even than Aria and made even more menacing by the fading light. The creature had lumpy blue skin and wore a brown loincloth. Its right hand rested on what looked like an uprooted tree trunk. Its massive yellow incisors glistened, and it focused a pair of beady black eyes on the two travelers.

A scream died in Emily's throat, and she could feel her heart thundering against her chest. Her eyes darted to Aria, desperate for an explanation.

But Aria's expression was more annoyed than frightened. "It's a troll," she whispered. Then, projecting her voice forward, she shouted, "Greetings, Forest Troll! We are humble travelers, who desire only to pass through these lands. We wish you no ill will."

The troll's voice was deep and sonorous, booming as though it came from the depths of the earth. "I am the guardian of this bridge. Those who would cross must pay the toll."

The annoyance in Aria's countenance intensified. "Typical troll," she whispered to Emily. "They all do this—find a bridge, or a gate, or a chokepoint, and harass travelers for tolls. Terribly bothersome."

"It's more than bothersome, Aria!" Emily hissed back. "In case you've forgotten, we don't have any money!" She wiggled her scantily clad hips as a reminder.

"Oh, they're not usually after money," Aria said dryly. Then, addressing the troll, "What is your toll, Forest Troll?"

"Your most treasured belonging."

Emily's pulse quickened. What did she have that this troll could possibly want? All she had was her scanty outfit.

Aria leaned in close and whispered, "Remember, Emily, do not part with the Stoneshell."

Emily felt, or imagined she felt, a warm spot on her chest, where the pendant rested, as though it were agreeing with Aria. She nodded solemnly.

"I have no possessions," Aria said to the troll.

The troll regarded her for a moment, before saying, "Then you are free to go."

"Oh," Aria replied, clearly taken aback. "Th—thank you."

The troll stepped to one side, and Aria passed him and stepped onto the bridge. But when Emily attempted to follow, the troll stepped back, blocking her path. "The toll, please." He was so close now that she could smell his foul breath.

"I don't have any possessions either!" said Emily. "No, money, nothing, not even a shirt!"

The troll's beady eyes leered down at Emily and she pulled her arms tighter across her chest. "You lie. Pay the toll."

Aria turned around, a panicked look on her face, and peered around the troll's bulk to look Emily in the eyes.

Emily mouthed the words "I know", annoyed that Aria seemed to believe she would give away the Stoneshell so freely. Its power and importance had been deeply impressed on her. If she gave it up, the Castle Elid curse would return, and then what would happen to her friend Aria? Emily couldn't face this world alone.

Maybe the Stoneshell was her most treasured belonging. She couldn't let the troll know that. He wanted something from her, but it didn't have to be the necklace. There were far less important things she could part with instead.

"Will my socks pay the toll?" Emily asked, pushing onto her toes with one foot to display the gray fabric. "They, uh, belonged to my late grandmother."

The troll shook his head.

"What about my boots?" she asked, already crouching down, her hands on the laces of her left boot.

Again, the troll shook his head.

"Really?" Emily asked. "These boots are very precious to me, they were a gift from my father. And they're essential for this journey, that's for sure. My feet are going to be really sore without my trusty boots!"

"That is not the toll."

Emily's adjusted her arms to better hide the Stoneshell pendant from view. "Are you sure?" she asked the troll, shooting a worried glance at Aria. If the troll wanted the necklace, they may be in for a fight.

"Your most treasured belonging," began the troll, speaking slowly, "is that."

An outstretched troll finger brushed against the fabric on Emily's hip. Aria sighed with relief, but it was all Emily could do to repress a scream. He was completely right, of course. Though far from an ideal covering, the britches had upgraded her from naked girl to half-naked girl. "I—what? Really? That?!" Emily stammered. "But—but—I need it! It's... it's all I've got to wear..."

The troll's blue tongue flicked across his incisors. "That is why it is the toll."

Tears pricked at Emily's eyes, and she bit her lip to keep them in. It had been a bad enough letdown, going from her dress and cloak to these wholly inadequate shorts, and now she was going to lose even that? She couldn't bare her nethers to the world again, not so soon after finally giving them some privacy.

The world seemed to stand still as Emily contemplated her fate. The troll appeared to have endless patience, and Aria had had plenty of practice standing motionless for a long time. But Emily was getting cold, especially standing still like this.

Slowly, she brought one arm away from her chest and reached down to her hip. Her hand was shaking as she brought a thumb between the britches and her skin. But before she completed the movement, before she stripped, a crazy idea occurred to her.

The troll blocked her path, but he was standing with his legs wide apart. He was larger than Aria, but not double her size. Emily recalled something Aria had said to Brom in the castle, about falling on anyone who tried to attack the two of them on the road. A desperate plan to preserve her modesty was coming together in her mind. She would need to act quickly and decisively, keeping the element of surprise on her side.

Slowly, carefully, Emily pulled her other arm away from her chest and placed her other thumb beneath the waistband of her britches. She stood in a slight crouch, unsupported breasts hanging forward, drawing the troll's eyes. Blushing, she slowly began wiggling her hips, pushing the britches down very, very slowly. This would buy her time.

"Aria," she said, still wiggling, and keeping her voice very calm. "Be careful when crossing the bridge. I wouldn't want you to FALL." This last word was punctuated with a knowing stare, and after a moment of confusion, Aria appeared to understand.

"It wouldn't do to FALL in. Not right NOW!"

As she spat the final word, Emily yanked her britches back up and sprung forward, arms pumping at her side. She dove between the troll's legs, headed straight for the bridge. A crash and a roar sounded behind her, followed by a surprisingly fierce battle-cry from Aria and the sound of stone slamming against skin.

Emily kept running. Her boots pounded against the wooden bridge, one after the other, and the sound of rushing water filled her ears.



Then there was a sickening crack, and the floor gave way beneath her. Emily screamed as she fell.

The water was cold, shockingly cold, and it was dark under the bridge. Emily thrashed in the water, fighting her way up to the surface. As her head breached the water, she inhaled a sharp, cold breath. The current had carried her out from underneath the bridge, but the river bank was not far.

In the last light of the setting sun, Emily hauled herself to shore, grabbing fistfuls of grass and pulling herself out of the cold water. She lay on the shore for a moment, breathing heavily, before the light was blotted out by an enormous shadow behind her.

Too tired, cold and shocked to run anymore, Emily twisted her body to look up at the troll. His massive hand held something aloft—the gnome's britches, flapping the breeze.

"The river takes its toll if I do not," said the troll.

The cool breeze that whipped across Emily's backside was further confirmation that her plan had failed.

"Let me help you up," said Aria's voice, her marble face appearing in Emily's vision. "I'm sorry, Emily, he was too strong for me."

Emily reached out, grasped a cold marble arm, and pulled herself up. Then, looking around, she asked between chattering teeth, "W—where did he g—go?" For the troll had disappeared back into the night, along with Emily's gnome britches.

"His job was done," said Aria, eyes flicking down involuntarily and causing Emily to blush. "Let's see about that fire."

Cold, wet and wearing only a waterlogged pair of boots, Emily nodded vigorously. "I'm f—freezing!"

A pleasant clearing came into sight a few yards from the river, and Aria made quick work of finding and piling up firewood. Emily removed her waterlogged boots and socks and placed them in front of the pile, shivering, rubbing her hands on her upper arms and jumping up and down to keep warm. "H—how do we s—start a fire?" she asked Aria.

"Use the Stoneshell," Aria said.

Emily grasped the Stoneshell pendant and looked at it quizzically. "W-what? How?"

"Just hold it out and think of fire," Aria said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Emily was still skeptical, but more than that, she was cold. "Ok—kay then," she said, holding the pendant over the pile of firewood. "Uh, one... f—fire... please?"

There was a sudden whoosh, followed by a thunderclap, and Emily jumped back as the pile of firewood burst into flame. "Holy—"

Aria clapped her hands in glee. "Aha! The power of the Stoneshell is truly a sight to behold!"

"You can s—say that again," said Emily, spreading her frozen body out in front of the crackling flames. "This is amazing."

"The Stoneshell is a magical source of heat, light and fire. It can summon any of these at the bearer's will, while also protecting the bearer from their effects," said Aria.

Emily's eyes widened. "After we left the castle, I had this inexplicable feeling that the Stoneshell was protecting me from getting sunburned," Emily replied, inspecting the still-pale skin of her arms.

"The bearer has a special bond with the Stoneshell. It was communicating with you on an intuitive level."

"Neat." Emily lowered herself onto a moss-covered log a safe distance from the fire. "Does that have something to do with the curse?"

"That is its second and more recent power. The spell that entrapped me and the other statues bound us to the Stoneshell. In its weakened state, without a bearer, we too were weakened. As goes the Stoneshell, so go the stone statues."

"The statues!" Emily exclaimed, feeling a sudden pang of guilt. "I remember seeing statues trapped at the bottom of the Labyrinthine Pool. Now that the curse is lifted, what will become of them? With all the excitement and attention back at the castle, I totally forgot to ask!"

Aria smiled sweetly. "Do not worry, you have done your part by becoming the new bearer and lifting the curse. It is Brom's quest to rescue those poor souls. I daresay he and Jivaro are already hard at work designing a complex system of ropes and pulleys."

"That's good to hear."

A long moment of silence passed. The fire crackled and Emily turned the Stoneshell pendant around in her fingers, while Aria stared off into the trees.

"I would never give it up, you know," said Emily. "The Stoneshell, I mean." She gripped it tightly as she said this, feeling every bump and curve.

Aria said nothing.

"You were very insistent about that, both with Brevin and the troll," Emily continued. "I suppose you were afraid that I would want to trade the necklace for those clothes or give it to the troll so I wouldn't have to give up something I was wearing."

As Emily spoke, she could see Aria slowly angling herself away, intensifying her gaze into the forest.

"The sunburn thing isn't all that the Stoneshell communicated to me," Emily said, reclining on her arms. "I understood, from the moment I put it on, that it bound me to you and the other statues, and that if I were to give it up, the curse would return, perhaps even worse than before."

At this, a sob escaped Aria's marble throat, her shoulders shaking. Emily stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn her head.

Droplets appeared newly carved below Aria's eyes, merging to form rivers and flowing down her face. "I—I was afraid," she stammered.

"Aria," Emily said, puffing herself up and blushing a little as she did so. "Look at me." She took a step back, while keeping a fingertip on Aria's shoulder.

Emily gestured at her bare body, side-lit by the fire's flickering flames, adorned only by the stone seashell that rested just above her breasts. "I'm wearing this necklace. And I'm going to keep wearing it, even if this world never gives me anything else. Not because of its awesome fire powers, but because you're my friend, Aria."



Aria sniffed, smiling weakly. Emily, blushing ever more as she stood before Aria's gaze, opened her arms and wrapped them around the statue in a very tight, but quite cold and uncomfortable hug. "I do hope this world does decide to give me something more to wear though," she added. "The sooner the better."

As Emily separated herself from Aria, she was hit by a wave of fatigue. The nervous energy that had sustained her since she first arrived in Castle Elid and began her naked adventure was finally waning, and she felt a weariness in her bones unlike any she had previously experienced. Since the last time she'd slept, Emily had experienced two full days—one normal, slightly frustrating day at her job, and a second, incredible, bizarre one among talking statues in the magical land of Thessolan.

Eyelids heavy with sleep, Emily stumbled towards the softest-looking patch of grass she could find near the fire and collapsed.

"Rest well, Emily," came the sound of Aria's voice. "I will keep the fire going and watch over you."

It was well after dawn when Emily stirred again, stretching and groaning herself into wakefulness. She recalled having a long and vivid dream, about statues and castles and trolls and—

"Good morning, Emily," said the stone face hovering above her own. "Did you sleep well?"

Emily blinked a few times and took in her surroundings. She was outdoors, with trees overhead, looking up at a smiling face made of marble. The sensations of grass tickling her back and a slight breeze across the skin of her front reminded her that she was naked. There was nothing dreamlike about that.

As memories of the previous day rushed into her head, Emily pulled herself up to a seated position. The clearing made for a beautiful scene in the early morning, accentuated by a chorus of birdsong. A wispy plume of smoke rose from the charred remains of the fire.

"I gathered some breakfast for you," said Aria, presenting Emily with a multicolored array of berries.

Surprised by the ravenous of her hunger, Emily wolfed down the berries without a second though. None was quite so good as the Starvine she'd had the previous day, but all were pleasant in their own ways and left her well sated—and a little sticky.

Aria accompanied her back to the river, where the troll was thankfully nowhere to be seen. Emily waded in, immersing herself completely in the water. It washed away the berry juice and bits of grass and dirt that had stuck to her as she slept. She dove down, submerging herself completely, and broke the surface again, joyfully flicking her hair back with a shower of droplets.

Rejuvenated by the water, she returned to the bank and walked back to the clearing, wringing her hair out and enjoying the sun's soft rays on her skin, which was soon dry.

"I'd better get dressed," she said wryly to Aria, eyeing the boots next to the remains of the fire.

"Yes, then we shall resume our journey." Aria didn't appear to catch the joke.

Emily pulled on her socks and boots and nodded to Aria. "Let's go."

It was a strange sensation, soft fabric encasing her feet while the rest of her body remained stark naked. The vulnerability of it caused her to take a moment to arrange her hair over her chest while wishing it was also long enough to cover her butt. Hopefully, she would find a permanent outfit before that happened.

The travelers left the clearing and continued along the winding path through the forest, leather and stone crunching leaves beneath them. The trees and other foliage grew denser around them. Birds sang above and the occasional squirrel darted in front of them, briefly eyeing them with its beady black eyes.

"How far away is Lirethel?" asked Emily, after they'd been walking in silence for some time.

"A month's journey by foot, along this path" Aria replied. "But it has been many centuries since I last undertook the journey, and the path may have changed. I do not recall this wood."

"A month!" Emily exclaimed. "If only there was a flight we could catch."

"A... flight?" Aria asked.

Emily was in the middle of explaining air travel to Aria when she suddenly felt a queasy sensation in her stomach. It was her intuition telling her that they weren't alone. She glanced around anxiously at the forest and drew her arms around her body protectively.

"Is something wrong, Emily?"

Before she could voice her unease, a loud cracking noise jolted her. At once, she felt something press around the ankle of her left boot.

She looked down to see a rough-hewn rope encircling her boot, the end of which disappeared into the trees. "What—"

A forceful tug at her ankle cut off Emily's words. Her stomach flip-flopped and the world turned upside down as she was jerked into the air. "Ahhh!"

"Emily!" Aria exclaimed, looking up in horror.

Several grizzly and dishevelled figures stepped out from behind the trees, each one brandishing a dagger or club alongside a nasty expression. Their eyes flicked between the living statue and the naked girl hanging upside-down from their trap, paying extra attention to the latter. Emily could feel their eyes moving up and down her suspended body.



"Well, what do we have here?" a tall, lanky man sneered, twirling his rusty dagger. His ratty hair and stained clothes matched his filthy expression. "A moving statue and... a little snack. How lovely."

Emily winced as one of the bandits reached for her, grabbing onto the chain of the Stoneshell necklace, while making sure to brush the outside of his rough hand across Emily's clavicle. She could smell his foul breath. "Look at this! A little treasure."

Aria's eyes flared. "Release her," she commanded, her voice deepening.

The bandits hesitated for a moment, glancing at each other. Their leader, however, seemed unpeturbed. "And if we don't? What can a statue do?"

The statement barely left his lips when Aria lunged at the bandit examining the Stoneshell. Her hands curled into hard stone claws, which she dug into his face. The bandit cried out and fell, his dagger skidding into the underbrush.

A second bandit slammed his club into Aria's marble back, and two more rushed to his aid. Their leader screamed orders mixed with obscenities and the whole scene descended into chaos.

"Use the Stoneshell, Emily!" Aria cried, clawing through bandit after bandit.

Aria's timely reminder of the necklace's fire powers snapped Emily out of her shock. "O-one fire, please! A big one this time!" she stammered, waving her arms in the direction of the bandits.

An enormous ball of flame erupted from the Stoneshell pendant, causing the bandits to cry out in pain and surprise. They fell away from Aria as the flame struck her before dissipating, leaving her marble form unharmed. "More!" Aria cried.

"Fire!" Emily commanded, and a second fireball exploded from the Stoneshell, this one aimed directly at the bandit leader.

All the blood vanished from the leader's dirty face as he watched the fire approach, managing to cower out of its way just in time for it to pass over his head, but not without singing his hair.

The bandits scrambled as Emily summoned two more fireballs, and soon their leader was shouting for them to retreat.

"I'm hit! I'm hit!" screamed one bandit, his tunic ablaze. One of his fellows roughly pulled the tunic from him and tossed it aside before both disappeared into the forest. Screaming and cursing, the rest followed suite, and the forest was soon quiet and peaceful once more.

Emily used one final blast of fire to burn through rope that held her up by the ankle. She landed on grass with a thud, winded but unharmed.

"Emily! Are you alright?" asked Aria.

"F—fine," Emily replied, breathing heavily, blood slowly moving down from her head and back to the rest of her body. "Th—that was... that was insane! What about you, Aria? Are you okay?"

"Rusty daggers and flimsy wooden clubs are quite inadequate to mark my marble exterior."

Emily lay still for a moment, looking up at the singed end of the rope slowly swinging above her. She had just fought off a large group of armed bandits with a magic necklace that summoned fire! What a rush!

"Here, Emily, one of the bandits left this behind," Aria said.

Emily sat up and saw Aria holding a green tunic out to her, smoke still rising from it. "Yes!" she exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air.

The tunic was made of a coarse, rough fabric and lacked sleeves. It had been quite badly burned at the bottom, and must not have belonged to a very tall bandit, for when Emily slipped it over her head she found that its singed hem didn't even reach her bellybutton. She grimaced and tugged at it ineffectually.

"This garment conceals the Stoneshell nicely," said Aria.

"There are a couple of other things I wish it would conceal," Emily replied. "If only I still had those britches!"

"I'm sure we will find you some more, dear Emily."

Emily sighed, looking down at the hair between her legs. "I wish I shared your optimism." She had found herself in a world where fighting off hordes of bandits was apparently an easier task than finding an outfit which covered all of the essential parts.

Sometime past noon, the forest started to thin out, and a wooden sign appeared at the side of the path, indicating the presence of an inn nearby. "The Wheel and Wand," Aria read. "Perhaps we can enquire there about some britches for you, Emily."

"Unless another gnome has left their property lying around, I don't think we'll get anywhere without money," Emily replied. The idea of walking into a crowded inn in her current state filled her with dread.

"Oh come now, Emily, not everyone is so heartless as that traveling merchant. I'm certain this inn will be full of kind and giving people who will be only too happy to aid a beautiful maiden in distress."

Emily blushed.

"The land of Thessolan is not all bandits, trolls and stingy merchants, I assure you."

A growl sounded from Emily's stomach. "Hopefully their kindness will extend to some lunch."

The Wheel and Wand inn was nestled between two mighty oaks at the side of the path. Its sign, an ornate wooden wheel intertwined with a shimmering wand, creaked softly in the wind. As Emily and Aria approached the entrance, the sound of boisterous laughter and music wafted out, along with the warm scent of roasted meats and freshly baked bread.

Emily took a deep whiff and sighed pleasurably, her hunger growing more acute in the presence of such delicious aromas. But the sound of laughter and music made her shy, reminding her of her bottomless state. She had half a mind to turn away from the inn and continue down the path.

Aria sensed her hesitation. "Stay close to me, Emily. And remember, you bear the Stoneshell."

Though the memory of her fiery victory was still fresh, Emily didn't feel terribly powerful just then. With one hand on her crotch and another over her bottom, she bade Aria to lead the way into the Wheel and Wand.

Aria pushed open the wooden door, and the two travelers entered the inn, keeping close. The place was dimly lit, with long wooden tables filled with patrons singing, eating, and playing games. Tankards clinked, dice rattled, and the atmosphere was one of merry chaos. A few eyes glanced at the two women as they entered, without immediately noticing anything odd about them.

As they slunk towards the bar, Emily could feel more eyes turning towards her. She tried to walk calmly, standing close enough to Aria to hide herself from the crowds, but couldn't stop her heart from pounding in her chest. She briefly caught the eyes of a woman at one table, who quickly looked away from her to exchange scandalized whispers with the rest of her table. At another table, a young man with a lute strummed a playful note and winked at her. Emily clung tighter to Aria while attempting to shrink from the prying eyes.

Behind the bar stood a fresh-faced young man, portly and around Emily's own age, who looked at the two travelers with a perplexed expression. "We've a policy, ma'am," he said to Emily, pointing at a sign behind the bar, which read:

NO SHIRT
NO SHOES
NO SERVICE

Emily blushed deeply and pressed herself against Aria.

"My good man," said Aria, locking her stone eyes on the young man's watery ones, "I think you'll find that my companion to be entirely compliant with your policy. She is wearing both shoes and a shirt."

The man's perplexity deepened as he glanced between Emily and the sign. "Hmm. I s'pose, technically, that is correct. However, I cannot have young ladies airing their nethers, however lovely, in this establishment."

Emily looked down at the bar, her face burning. "I... I... don't want to either!"

"That would seem to contradict your actions," the bartender replied.

Aria scowled at him. "My companion and I were accosted by bandits earlier. We managed to escape physically unharmed, but had to leave most of our possessions behind, including Emily's skirt, which was torn from her as we fled."

Emily nodded fiercely. "D—do you have something for me to cover up with?"

The bartender made an expression of sympathy. "Begging your pardon, madame, that is quite awful. No wonder your face is white as marble! And please forgive me, Miss Emily, for casting aspersions on your propriety. I will see what I can find."

The bartender hastily vanished into the back, and Aria winked at Emily. "Told you."



While Emily and Aria had been engaged with the bartender, the chatter behind them had been slowly growing in volume. A large, burly man with a thick beard and an eyepatch now walked towards them, sloshing tankard in hand and quite unsteady on his feet. Other, smaller figures hung behind him in the shadows.

Emily looked resolutely forward, towards the bar, but soon the burly man stood beside her. He thumped his tankard down on the bar and turned his gaze towards her, letting out a low whistle. "Looks like the wind has blown in a delightful nymph from the forest," he growled, slurring every second word.

Emily pointedly ignored him, reaching out to grab Aria's upper arm. The man grunted and muttered something, and then Emily felt her heart jump into her throat as a rough palm came to rest directly on her bare butt.

The burly man squeezed and leaned in to Emily, and she could smell the booze on his breath. "How's about a little kiss, nymph?"

Anger and fear surging through her, Emily violently bucked her hips to shake off the horrible man's hand and staggered away from him, hands clenched into fists. She felt a warm spot against her chest, and before she quite realized what she was doing, a pillar of flame erupted from the Stoneshell.

The man screamed and jumped backwards, tripping over a barstool and landing heavily in a tangle of limbs on the floor. The bricks behind him were blackened, and a banner hanging from the ceiling had caught alight. The inn erupted into chaos, with patrons jumping up and down and dousing small fires with their tankards of ale.

Emily glanced around desperately, her eyes eventually settling on those of the bartender, whose normally pleasant face had twisted into a scowl. He was carrying a broomstick, with which he firmly batted at the flaming banner above their heads, extinguishing it before the fire could spread.

"OUT!" he screamed, locking eyes with Emily. "Poorly dressed ladies I can excuse, but not when they set my patrons on fire! Get out! Now!"

Chased by the broomstick-wielding bartender, Emily barely noticed as Aria guided her by the hand out of the inn, the heavy wooden door slamming shut behind them.

Once they were a safe distance away from the inn, Aria and Emily took shelter under the boughs of an old oak tree, its gnarled branches offering them a semblance of privacy. Emily's breaths came in ragged spurts, her face ashen with shock.

Aria's eyes were full of concern. "Are you alright, Emily?"

Emily looked herself over. Though it had been unleashed in close quarters, the Stoneshell's fire had not burned her. The same could not be said of her tunic, which had been reduced to a couple of charred scraps of fabric hanging loosely about her shoulders. The Stoneshell pendant now hung free from her short-lived torso covering. "I didn't mean to do that," she said. "I just—that man—I felt really threatened—and violated!" Emily shuddered at the memory of the unwanted touch.

Aria placed a hand on Emily's shoulder. "I understand, Emily. It was a natural reaction to vile behavior."

"But the fire! I didn't want to hurt him! Well, not seriously, anyway. And I definitely didn't want to burn the inn down!"

"The Stoneshell is closely connected to your emotions, Emily, and fiercely protective of you. It is a powerful artifact, capable of immense destruction. You must learn to control it."

Emily frowned, eyes locked on the Stoneshell. "How do I control something so powerful?"

"With time, you will better understand the interplay between your emotions and the fire. I will help you to the best of my ability." There was a distant look in Aria's eyes.

"I don't want to hurt anyone, Aria," said Emily. "Not unless they really deserve it. And even then..."

"The Stoneshell chose you for a reason, Emily. You are strong enough to bear it... and to bare it, for that matter." Aria gave a brief, musical laugh.

"Hilarious," Emily said flatly, wrapping her arms around herself as the last scraps of burned fabric fell from her shoulders.

"Thank you, I was rather pleased with that little wordplay." Aria smiled with self-satisfaction, completely missing Emily's sarcasm. "And don't worry, we'll—"

"Find me something to wear, yes. Well, I'd like to find something that covers me properly and lasts more than an hour."

"Someone's coming!" Aria hissed.

Emily crouched down into a covering fetal position as heavy footfalls approached. It was the bartender, huffing and puffing and wearing a less angry expression than they'd last seen on his face. A length of brown fabric was slung over his shoulder. "Miss Emily!" he said, coming to a stop ahead of the tree and taking a moment to catch his breath. "Beggin' your pardon for earlier, I had the wrong end of the stick."

Emily exchanged confused glances with Aria.

"One of my customers, Mrs Gadley, took me to task for my harsh treatment of you. She explained that old Gregg One-eye had been inappropriate with you and that your outburst was in self-defense. While I'd still prefer to keep any new fires out of my inn, I couldn't live with myself sending you off in the altogether like that. So please, have this cloak."

Scarcely believing her luck, Emily released an arm from her fetal clutch and took the cloak offered to her. It was made of rough, thick fabric and quite large.

"Please accept this lunch as well, ma'am," the bartender said to Aria, handing her a picnic basket. "Say, are you... why, you're made of marble!"

"The doing of mages," Aria replied. "I was flesh once and I hope to be so again."

"Aye, that is your quest," said the bartender, before turning to leave. "I wish ye both well."

"Thank you," said Emily, drawing the cloak to herself. The fabric was coarse beneath her fingertips, but this was not unpleasant—the cloak felt real and solid. Once the bartender had departed, she drew it around her shoulders, luxuriating in its warmth. It smelt faintly of hay and wood smoke.

The ends of the sleeves draped past her hands and the hem trailed on the ground. The cloak did not have a clasp, so Emily had to hold it closed at the front, but this was a small price to pay for full body concealment. The cloak had a hood she could lower over her face, to hide completely from the world, which she promptly did. "Let's go, Aria," she said. "It's a long way to Lirethel."

"It's a long way to Lirethel." It's a long way to Tipperary...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_ ... _Tipperary

Emily and the Lady of the Manor

In a forest clearing, covered by a canopy of tall, ancient trees and cut across by a babbling brook, Emily stood with her eyes closed. She focused on the Stoneshell around her neck, concentrating on the weight of the pendant against her chest, and listened for Aria's instructions.

"Have you cleared your mind?" Aria asked.

Emily nodded.

"Good. Now, feel the earth beneath your feet," Aria continued, sounding like a yoga instructor. "Draw from its stability and anchor yourself to its strength. Plant yourself."

Emily wiggled her toes, feeling the softness of the grass and the firmness of the soil beneath it. Her hair was tied back, so as not to disturb her concentration. She felt the wind's caress against her skin and hardened her stance, digging her feet in. She was unyielding, immovable, in complete control. And she was naked, as she had been for most of this adventure so far.

Her cloak and boots lay a few yards away, surrounded by a protective rock formation. Emily had no desire to lose any more clothes to the Stoneshell's unpredictable flames, especially not during practise.

"Now," Aria's voice continued, smooth as silk, "imagine the Stoneshell's power as a small ember within you, glowing but controlled."

Emily held the picture in her mind's eye and felt a corresponding warmth against her chest.

"Open your eyes," said Aria. "Now, direct the Stoneshell's power to the palm of your hand."

Emily held out a hand in front of her and stared at her outstretched palm. Maintaining her focus on the small, glowing ember in her mind's eye, she pushed it forward, from her chest and into her arm, down her arm and into the palm of her hand. A flame appeared in the air just above her palm. It flickered slightly in the soft breeze. Its warmth was soft and pleasant, and Emily knew it would not burn her. At its base, Emily could see the faint outline of a shell.



"Good," Aria said, a smile cracking her stone countenance. "Now extinguish it."

Emily took a deep breath, picturing the flame being enveloped by a cool breeze. It vanished instantly.

"Well done, Emily!" Aria said.

"Yes!" Emily cried, pumping a fist in the air. As she did so, small flames exploded upwards from between her fingers. "Woah! I didn't—"

"Emotions, Emily! Be careful with your emotions!"

Emily blushed, recalling the scene at the inn. "S—sorry."

Aria's expression was stern, with a hint of worry in her eye. "It is a simple matter to conjure small, controled flames in a peaceful and secluded setting such as this, with time to empty your mind and calm your nerves. But circumstances may not always be so favorable."

"Sh—should I try to remain calm and emotionless all the time?" asked Emily, eyeing the tendrils of smoke rising from her outstretched hand.

"No, that will not be possible," said Aria. "You must merely learn to be conscious of the Stoneshell and to separate your emotions from it. Know when it is engaged and be mindful. This is a good lesson in that regard."

Emily bit her lip.

Aria paced the clearing. "Every action, every emotion is a spark, Emily. The Stoneshell amplifies these sparks. Controlled, they can be a warm campfire, a guiding lantern in the dark or a powerful weapon against danger. Uncontrolled, they're a wildfire."

Emily took a moment to absorb this, looking at the pendant. It was still warm against her skin. "But there were times I felt strong emotions and yet nothing happened." She thought of Brevin the traveling merchant and of the troll at the river.

Aria pointed towards the pendant. "The Stoneshell has its own will but is especially responsive to immediate threats or extreme distress. Once engaged in the manner we just practised, it will remain active."

Emily gazed at her fingertips. A small flame appeared hovering just above each one. She shook her hand to extinguish them. "This is a lot to take in."

"With time and patience, you will come to wield the Stoneshell with complete intentionality," said Aria. "Of that I have no doubt. Now, reclaim your calm, and disengage the Stoneshell. Imagine a sudden downpour, which extinguishes all flames."

Emily closed her eyes and imagined rain. As she focused on the falling droplets, the Stoneshell began to cool. She did not reopen her eyes until it returned to an inert stone. "I've disengaged," she said.

Aria nodded. "Good. Let us rest a while and eat."

The picnic basket which had been given to Aria by the bartender was nestled among the rocks, with Emily's clothes. Emily took the cloak and spread it out on the grass like a picnic blanket, on which she sat cross-legged and enjoyed a lunch of smoked meats and freshly baked bread, washed down with a flask of apple cider. Aria stood watch at her side. Though quite capable of sitting down, she found it more comfortable to stand.

When she was finished eating, Emily shook out her cloak and pulled it around herself, retiring to a seated position against one of the rocks. It was good to have something to wear again, even if it was a bit scratchy. "We should try to make some money at the next village we come to," she said to Aria. "I'm sure we'll be able to assist a baker, or a seamstress, or just run errands for someone. Then I can buy a proper dress and some underthings."

Aria furrowed her brow. "In my previous life, I never worried for money, so I must admit that I have little experience with it. But I am sure you are right. Perhaps we could even buy a horse!"

Emily grimaced. Though Aria was her ancient and wise guide in this unfamiliar world, knowledgeable in many areas, it would fall to Emily to navigate the economy for the both of them. She didn't want to think how many years of baking bread or darning socks would be needed to afford something as extravagant as a horse.

"Let us continue your training," said Aria, deeming Emily sufficiently rested.

Emily nodded and shrugged off her cloak, mentally preparing to access the Stoneshell's fire once more as she strode towards the center of the clearing.

Over the next few days, Emily and Aria journeyed through an ever-changing landscape. Dense, shadowy woods gave way to sprawling meadows awash with the colors of wildflowers. Then the meadows transitioned into open plains, where tall grasses swayed with the wind like waves in an emerald sea. Emily was grateful for her cloak, but grew tired of holding it closed while nobody was around and would allow it to hang at her sides. What she would give for a few safety pins!



Once the contents of the picnic basket were finished, Emily subsisted on a diet of berries and other fruits. The land was bountiful and always seemed to provide more than she needed any time she became hungry. She slept under the stars, wrapped up in her cloak, with Aria standing watch.

They passed the odd fence or stone ruin, but seldom saw any other sign of civilization. On a good day, they might spy a farmhouse in the far distance. Castle Elid, Aria mentioned, was nestled in the most remote and sparsely populated area of Thessolan. This is what had allowed it to be forgotten for so many centuries.

On the sixth evening since their departure from the castle, as they crested a grassy knoll, Aria slowed her pace and pointed out a distant structure.

"Do you see that, Emily? Beyond the grove of trees?"

Emily squinted against the bright morning sun. A stately manor house came into view, surrounded by neatly trimmed hedges, which were themselves flanked by groves of regularly planted trees.

"That is Odonata Manor," Aria said. "Before I was turned to stone, I was great friends with the lady of that house. It is remarkable how little it has changed. Although I have no doubt that Isolde is long dead."

"I'm sorry, Aria," Emily said, opening her cloak to rest a hand on Aria's shoulder.

"Thank you, my dear, but I have had many centuries to grieve those I once knew," Aria replied. "I carry the sadness still, but it does not affect me as it once did. I only point it out to ask if you would like to visit. I am certain that Lady Isolde's descendants will be warm and hospitable."

The thought of a proper bed and a hot meal was enticing, but Emily was skeptical. "Do you think they still live there?" Emily asked. "And if they do, would anyone recognize your name?"

"I believe they would," replied Aria. "Lady Isolde was greatly in my debt, and it was a debt she never repaid. She promised me the eternal loyalty and friendship of the Odonata line."

Emily looked wistfully at the manor, imagining the luxuries inside. "I hope they remember that promise." She held the sides of her cloak together tightly from the inside.

Twenty minutes of walking took the duo through the neat orchard and in sight of the manor's grand entrance. Tall hedge rows flanked the path up to a pair of enormous wooden doors set into a stone archway. A large crest had been carved into the door, dominated by a dragonfly with its wings outstreched.

"The Odonata family crest," Aria remarked, taking the metal knocker in her stone fingers and tapping it against the door.

Emily heard the sound of shuffling footsteps from behind the doors. They opened a crack, in which the round rosy-cheeked face of a short, stout woman appeared. She turned her eyes from Aria to Emily, causing the latter to pull her cloak closer to herself. "Can I help you?" the lady asked.

"Good day," said Aria. "I am Lady Aria of Castle Elid. Centuries ago, I was a close friend and confidante of Lady Isolde of this great house of Odonata. She gave me her word and the word of her family that I would always be welcome here. I am traveling with a single companion."

The door immediately slammed shut and Aria's eyes widened in surprise. Emily's heart sank as she bitterly resigned herself to sleeping under the stars once more. Aria shouldn't have gotten her hopes up like that.

But before either woman said anything to the other, they found themselves jumping backwards as the manor's grand doors were flung open to reveal a grand foyer. Lush carpets blanketed the floor, ornate multicoloured tapestries hung from the walls and large chandeliers hung from the ceiling. A large staircase dominated the room, at the top of which was an enormous painting set into a golden frame, depicting two life-size women.

One had raven-black hair, intricately braided, and piercing forest green eyes. She wore a gown of shimmering blue and green fabric. Among her jewelery, a dragonfly pendant stood out most prominently. Beside her stood a more plainly dressed lady, tall and elegant with wavy blonde hair and cheerful blue eyes. This second lady wore a white gown and rested a hand on the other's shoulder.

"Lady Isolde," Aria said, speaking scarcely louder than a whisper.

Emily gasped as she realized that in this painting, she was seeing Aria as she had been before. "And you!" she blurted out.



"Yes," Aria said sadly. "Just as I was."

Emily and Aria had been so focused on the painting that they hadn't noticed the woman in front of them until she cleared her throat. She was older than the woman they'd met before, and wore a gown in the same colors as Lady Isolde, though it was of a different cut. Her hair was the same raven black as the painting but streaked with gray and worn up, and her eyes were a striking golden color.

"Lady Aria," she said, "it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Lady Elara, a direct descendant of Lady Isolde, the greatest of our line. House Odonata has not forgotten your service to her, though many years have passed. It will be my honor to host you and your companion. Please, enter."

Emily and Aria slowly walked into the foyer, looking around at its opulence with wide eyes. A hot meal, a hot bath and a comfortable bed awaited Emily for the first time since she had arrived in this world. Perhaps the Odonata family's hospitality might even extend to providing her with a dress, once she explained her need of one. She fancied that she would look quite fetching in a shimmering green and blue gown, though even a simple servant's dress would satisfy her.

"Please," said Lady Elara, "make yourselves at home." As she said this, she produced a small golden bell from the folds of her dress and rang it. A small, clear tinkle sounded across the foyer, and immediately there was a sound of shuffling feet. "Let the servants take your cloak."

Emily's face reddened at the suggestion. "Oh no, that won't be—" But before she could even finish protesting, she felt gentle hands against her back, followed by the rough sensation of thick fabric sliding away from her skin. "—necessary!"

Emily glanced over her shoulder in a panic, but the servant had already disappeared, along with her cloak. She hurriedly drew an arm over her breasts and placed a hand before her crotch, blushing and squirming in the presence of the regal Lady Elara.

"You are much changed, Lady Aria," said Elara, appearing not to notice Emily's plight. "I detect the work of a mage."

"Yes, I and the whole of Castle Elid was placed under a curse which turned us to stone and trapped us for hundreds of years. It is thanks to the brave efforts of my companion, Emily, who comes from another world, that the curse has lifted enough for me to leave the castle halls."

Elara nodded and glanced at Emily. "And in this other world, do the people go about without clothing?"

"N—no!" Emily stammered, withering under Elara's gaze. "D—definitely not."

"Ah, then you are an eccentric," said Elara.

"Not really! Just unlucky! Can I have my cloak back?"

"Emily was transported to this world unawares, while she was taking a bath," Aria interjected. "Castle Elid had nothing to clothe her, and, having no money, we have been unable to find much else since our departure. Please do not take her state of undress as a sign of disrespect, Lady Elara."

"I see," said Elara. "I will have the servants prepare an outfit for you. But first, let us eat!" Elara spun around on her heels and beckoned her guests to follow her.

Aria took a tentative step forward before looking at Emily, who stood firmly rooted to the spot, the blush spreading from her face down through her shoulders. Halfway across the enormous room, Elara stopped and looked behind her, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"S—sorry, ma'am, b—but I'd really like my cloak back now," Emily said, almost more embarrassed to be asking such a question than to be standing naked in the middle of the room.

A peal of laughter issued from Elara. "That ratty old thing? The servants will already have started washing it by now."

Emily's mouth hung open in disbelief. She hadn't even seen the servant who disrobed her, so swift and silent had they been.

"Don't worry, you'll have it in your quarters by morning, along with some proper clothes. For now, let us eat, drink and be merry!"

"B—by morning?" Emily stammered.

"These things take time, even with magic," Elara said, winking slyly. "Now come along, dear, the food will be getting cold. We're all girls here, you haven't got anything we've not seen before."

Emily looked to Aria for assistance, but the latter merely shrugged. A timely growl from Emily's stomach made the thought of a hot dinner quite appealing, even if she would prefer not to eat it naked.

Sighing inwardly, Emily tentatively stepped forward, keeping her arms around herself for cover. After a few days of having the cloak for cover, nudity had lost its familiarity, and the piercing gaze of Lady Elara's golden eyes didn't make her feel any better. It was one thing to be naked in the forest, with only Aria to see her, and quite another to be naked in a stately home before its opulently dressed owner. In these surroundings, Emily would have felt underdressed in a T-shirt and shorts—in just her skin, she felt barely human.

"Please leave those boots in the hall if you would," said Lady Elara, glancing back again. "They're in even more need of cleaning than the cloak."

Emily looked down and realized to her great horror that she had been leaving muddy bootprints on the foyer carpet. "S—sorry!" she squealed, scrambling to untie her boots.

"Do not fret, the servants will be along to clean any mess," Elara added.

The carpet was soft and luxurious against Emily's bare feet, which made no sound as she followed Elara and Aria through an archway into a large dining room. The room was dominated by an enormous banquet table, easily large enough to seat twenty. Three plates were laid out at one end.

Elara took her place at the head of the table, and Emily and Aria sat at the chairs on either side of her. There was a scraping noise as Aria sat down—this was not something she was accustomed to doing.

The seat cushion was soft and comfortable under Emily's bare bottom, and the meal in front of her looked and smelled delicious. Once Elara had bade her to begin eating, she tentatively reached for the knife and fork on either side of her plate, releasing her breasts from the tight grip of her arms.

"I am afraid this food is wasted on me, Lady Elara, for I have not eaten since I was turned to stone," Aria said, looking mournfully down at her plate.

"A pity," replied Elara, taking up her own knife and fork. "But were you not stone, I may never have had the pleasure of your acquaintance. We can take solace in that, as you tell me of Lady Isolde."

Emily devoured her meal as politely as she could, savoring the taste of cooked meat and vegetables. By focusing on her food, she could ignore the awkwardness of the situation and gain some enjoyment from it.

But when she looked up again, in mid-bite, Elara was staring at her chest. She froze, mortified but too polite to cover up. The stare made her feel every inch of her exposed skin.



"That's a beautiful necklace, Emily," said Elara, for she had really been staring at the Stoneshell. "Does it come from your world?"

"No," Aria interjected. "That is the Stoneshell. It is the magical artifact Emily recovered that freed the statues of Castle Elid from bondage. She braved great dangers to retrieve it from the Labyrinthine Pool."

"The Stoneshell..." Elara repeated, eyes narrowing on the pendant. "Does it do anything else?"

As if in answer to Elara's question, a plume of flame erupted from the pendant, shooting straight up to the ceiling. Elara, who had been leaning forward, shot back into her chair, eyes wide.

"Eeep!" Emily cried, blushing furiously.

Lady Elara quickly got over her initial shock. "Marvelous! Instant fire, without burning the wearer. But please, warn me next time."

"Emily is still learning to control the Stoneshell's power," Aria said. "I have been training her."

"Such powerful magic, wielded by one so young and untutored," Elara mused, giving Emily a stern glance. "It is no wonder you have trouble staying clothed, with fires exploding from your chest."

Emily demurrly placed a forearm in front of her breasts. "I—it's one reason, yes."

"She has been training in the nude," Aria added. "Directing the flame away from clothing will require immense control. But it will come. The Stoneshell chose Emily, after all."

Elara raised an eyebrow. "Yes, magic is a mysterious thing."

Once the meal was finished, Emily let out a large yawn, which immediately garnered a look of sympathy from Elara. "You must be tired, dear," she said. "I will have a servant direct you to your quarters. Bessie!"

Soft, quick footsteps proceeded the reappearance of the servant who had greeted them at the door. She stood at Emily's side, awaiting orders. Her expression was neutral, but quite forcedly so, and she kept stealing glances at the naked girl.

"Bessie, please show Miss Emily to her quarters. She is quite worn out and in need of a good night's sleep. Don't mind her dress just now, but do make certain to set something nice out for her to wear on the morrow. Goodnight Emily!"

Emily hesitated for a moment, looking at Aria, who smiled at her. "I have no need of sleep," she said to Elara.

"Wonderful, then we shall both stay up and discuss my storied ancestor Isolde!" Elara said. "You would be bored to tears by the natter of two old ladies, Emily dear, and I wouldn't want to keep you up. There's a nice warm bed upstairs, and you'll have the perfect dress in the morning, Bessie knows the one I mean. Goodnight!"

The thought of wrapping herself in a warm blanket was enough to persuade Emily to say goodnight to Elara and Aria and stand up from the table. "Thank you for the wonderful dinner, Lady Elara," she said, keeping her voice steady as she prepared for another naked walk.

Emily followed the servant, Bessie, through the empty halls of the manor. "The other servants 'ave gone to bed early, Mistress's orders," Bessie remarked. "I see why now. You'd cause something of a commotion, Miss Emily, 'specially among the menfolk. Nearly fainted myself when I took your cloak and saw nothing underneath!"

"That was... kind of her," Emily said. Returning her cloak would have been a lot simpler, but this was the best she could hope for in lieu of that.

Emily was led to a room on the west wing of the manor. It was an expansive chamber, walls adorned with floral wallpaper. Deep mahogany woodwork framed the room, lending a rich contrast to the lighter walls. Tall, arched windows draped in soft, diaphanous curtains dominated one side of the room. Their design incorporated stained glass inlays depicting dragonflies.

In one corner stood an ornate wooden wardrobe, its doors carved with more dragonflies and vines. Opposite the wardrobe, a vanity table with an ornate mirror provided a space for personal grooming. The table was dotted with porcelain dishes filled with brushes, combs, and assorted vials of scented oils. Soft, braided rugs cushioned the stone floor. A stone fireplace was built into one wall, its mantel adorned with trinkets and keepsakes.

But what caught Emily's eye most of all was the four-poster bed in the center of the room. Its frame was carved from the same dark wood as the trim. The mattress was covered in crisp white linen and a fluffy duvet. The pillows, following the overall theme, were embroidered with dragonfly patterns.

Emily confirmed by feel that the duvet was stuffed with down feathers as she pulled it off the bed and wrapped it around herself, holding it tight against her bare skin.

"Goodnight ma'am," Bessie said. "Sleep well."

"Goodnight Bessie," Emily said, collapsing onto the mattress the instant Bessie closed the door. With the duvet wrapped around her, she was warm, comfortable, safe and hidden from the eyes of the world.

Emily awoke to soft rays of sunlight spilling through the diaphanous curtains of her room. She was still wrapped in the duvet, which was a far more agreeable thing to sleep in than her scratchy cloak. Slowly, she pulled herself up to a sitting position, yawning and blinking the sleep out of her eyes. The duvet slipped to her waist as she surveyed the room.

While she was sleeping, the servants had brought in a claw-footed bathtub, which sat beside the fireplace. Inviting curls of steam rose off the water. Soaps, scrubbing brushes and various cleansing oils had also been provided.

The servants had also brought Emily's promised outfit. On a chair near the door hung an assortment of garments—Emily saw petticoats, a corset and a light blue dress, complete with a bonnet, as well as a pair of stockings and buckled shoes. There was more clothing in this one outfit than she had worn at any time since arriving in Thessolan. Getting dressed may actually take some time, for a change.

Giddy at the prospect of proper clothes, Emily climbed out of bed and into the tub, where she vigorously scrubbed herself clean so that she would be fresh for the new outfit. Once done, she toweled herself off and sat down at the vanity table to brush her hair and apply makeup. How nice it would be to have makeup again!

Watching herself in the mirror made Emily self-conscious of her body. She'd been walking around just as she was now, for days, outside! Of course, she'd had the cloak recently, but she'd still stripped off regularly for Stoneshell practise. And before then... so many people had seen her most intimate form, many more than she'd ever expected.

But that was over now. She had an outfit. As long as she was careful with the Stoneshell's power, there was no reason it wouldn't last. Maybe Lady Elara would even be generous enough to give her a spare set of clothes as well.

Emily missed her friends and family, and her own world, but the land of Thessolan excited her. The more time she spent here, the more she longed for adventure. But thoughts of adventure, of magic, of finding a way to return home, or helping Aria with whatever her mysterious quest was, all those thoughts had been sidelined by the discomfort of her strangely prolonged nudity. Now that that was behind her, the real adventure could finally begin.

As Emily stood up from the vanity table, she took one last pointed look in the mirror. "So long, flesh!"

Getting dressed was an involved process. Emily savored the feeling of fabric against her skin, of leather encasing her. Shift, petticoats, stockings, corset, dress, shoes, bonnet, she piled on the fabric until only her hands and face still showed. Then, smiling, she reached her hands behind her neck and pulled off the Stoneshell necklace.



No! A jolt of fear shot through Emily's spine. This wasn't right. She shouldn't be removing the Stoneshell. There was an important reason to keep it on at all times. A very important reason, but one she couldn't quite recall.

Emily wrapped the necklace around her fingers and walked out of her room, closing the door softly behind her. There was something more important than keeping the Stoneshell around her neck, and that was giving it to her mistress. She had just remembered that now, and would have to hurry so as not to disappoint her.

No... that wasn't right. Emily's head throbbed beneath her new bonnet. Her legs moved forward down the hall, carrying her along as if they had a mind of their own.

Emily's legs transported her to the dining room, where a smiling Lady Elara was ready to receive her, hands outstretched. "Good morning, Emily, I hope you slept well."

"I slept wonderfully, Mistress!" Emily replied, her enthusiasm startling her. "I'm well rested and ready to serve! Here, you should have this."

Emily's hands shook as she held out the Stoneshell, but she held it out nonetheless. Grinning cruelly, Lady Elara snatched it from her palms, devouring it with her greedy eyes. "Thank you, my dear," she said. "Now, Bessie will be wanting to see you in the scullery. Don't keep her waiting!"

"Yes ma'am!" Emily replied, all but saluting Lady Elara.

As Emily left the dining room, a battle raged in her head. Something was terribly, horribly wrong, but she didn't know what. She had just done something terrible, possibly unforgivable. But how could her mistress's orders be either of those things? It was all very confusing. If only her mind wasn't so full of cobwebs!

Emily's mind spun in violent circles as she walked towards the scullery, her feet moving mechanically. She knew that she wasn't in control of herself, but it seemed like a wall rose up in her mind every time she dwelled on that thought. Lady Elara was her mistress, good, kind and wise. She was a servant of the House of Odonata, which took good care of her. These were safe thoughts, thoughts that comforted her briefly, but they had no depth. She had no memories of serving Lady Elara, and did not even know where her feet were leading her in this enormous manor, which seemed to grow more sinister by the moment.

Tapestries and elegant paintings took on the appearance of cruel, mocking faces, while the eyes of the ancestral portraits following her every move. Emily forced her eyes forward and hurried her movements. Finally she came to the scullery, where Bessie was waiting for her.

The person of Bessie caused more confusion in Emily. She had met this person only yesterday, but was now being addressed in familiar terms and given orders by her.

"I see Sleeping Beauty has finally deigned to grace us with her presence," Bessie said contemptuously. "You're to sweep the kitchen and then dust the library. After that, mop the ballroom floor until you can see your reflection in it!"

"Yes ma'am!" Emily said at once, darting to the broom cupboard. Her movements were automatic, instinctual. She felt like a mere observer, watching her body move from the prison of her mind. But even her mind was not her own—her memories were inaccessible and her thoughts booby-trapped.

Mentally exhausted, Emily slipped into a stupor, passively watching herself carry out Bessie's orders. Her body moved on its own, but she still felt the strain of uncomfortable positions and repetitive movements as she swept, dusted and mopped.

"I suppose that will be good enough," Bessie said sometime later, kneeling to examine the ballroom floor.

Emily breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, you're not finished yet," Bessie added. "Mistress's dresses need ironing."

And so Emily dragged her tired body to the ironing room, a small, cloistered chamber with a roaring fireplace. It was near noon on a hot day, and the pile of dresses in need of ironing came up to Emily's waist.

"Get cracking then!" Bessie said, scurrying out of the uncomfortably hot room.

After spreading the first dress across the ironing board, Emily pulled on a pair of thick leather gloves and picked the iron up from the fire. The heat was sweltering, and she could feel sweat pour down her face. Wiping it from her forehead with the back of her hand, she caught a gloved finger on her bonnet and pushed it slightly askew. Then she picked up the iron, which was much heavier than the plastic, electric irons she had always used.

Plastic. Electric. Those words... they were not of this world. Emily was not of this world. She came from somewhere else. Somewhere where she was a free woman, not a slave of Lady Elara Odonata. What's more, she was the rightful bearer of the Stoneshell, which she had found in...

A surge of pain shot through Emily's temples and coils of black smoke rose to her nose. While she had been having these realizations, her body had been moving through the motions of ironing Lady Elara's dresses, totally disconnected. But that had been disrupted, and now she was on the verge of starting a fire!

Wide-eyed, Emily wrenched the iron back from the board. The dress was ruined, but she had done no further damage. After setting the iron back down by the fire, she took a few deep breaths to steady herself. By this point, her bonnet had dislodged itself completely from her head and was hanging behind her by the strap around her neck. Memories, thoughts and feelings flooded back to her.

Emily's mind was clear. But she did not regain control of her body. Moving with no instruction from her mind, her hands swept the ruined dress from the ironing board and placed another in its position, before resuming the task of ironing, as though nothing had happened. Try as she might, she could not so much as waggle a pinky finger.

It was the clothes. Envious of the Stoneshell, Lady Elara had exploited Emily's trust and desire for clothing by giving her an enchanted outfit that had made her a slave. Elara was clearly a very powerful witch. Or was it a mage? She would have to ask Aria.

Aria! Where was Aria? Had Elara done something to her?

No, Aria was all but indestructible. Except, with the Stoneshell separated from its bearer, the full force of her curse would return. But what did that mean? Emily needed to find Aria as soon as possible. But before she could do that, she would need to regain control of her body.

"Emily!" cried Bess's voice, startling her. "Leave what you're doing and come help with the cooking. Mary's down with a fever and we need someone else to fill in!"

After carefully setting the iron down away from the fire, Emily hurried out of the sweltering ironing room and followed Bessie to the kitchen, where several servants were running about stirring pots, chopping vegetables and lighting stoves. As her body automatically inserted itself into the process, her mind was spinning with schemes to escape her current predicament. She was careful to keep her face blank of emotion.

"Aye Emily," said a freckled maid of a similar age to her own, "you're bonnet's come off. Here, let me help you."

Emily's blood ran cold. "Oh, no, that's quite alright—really—don't—"

But it was too late. The smiling maid picked up the bonnet and set it back tightly on Emily's head, shutting her out of her own mind. All thoughts of Aria, the Stoneshell and her homeworld ceased at once, and an impenetrable fog descended. Emily picked up a knife and started chopping carrots, a stupid smile on her face.

That evening, after thoroughly cleaning the kitchen all on her own, Emily dragged her tired body into the servants' quarters, where she had been given a bunk among a group of young female servants. She would have just enough energy to peel off her outer garments. When she removed her bonnet, her mind cleared once more, but her body, still encased by a shift, remained out of her control. All she could do was collapse into bed and fall to fitful sleeping. Her roommates huddled together and whispered to each other, casting fearful glances in her direction.

The next morning, Emily was awoken by soft whispers.

"So we have to put this back on her head right as she wakes up?"

"Yes, Bessie says it's very important. Says she'll fly into a blind rage without it."

"But why?"

"She's a madwoman. Mary says she spied her wandering the halls without any clothes on the night she came here."

"Why do we have to share a room with a madwoman?!"

"It's her cure, I'm told. The bonnet keeps her 'ead together and hard work rebalances her 'umors, or some such. She's a relative of the Mistress, but that's very hush-hush. Anyway, I won't complain, not when Bessie's giving her all the worst jobs."

"I'd rather muck out the stables every day and sleep knowing I won't be murdered in my bed!"

"Hush now, she's harmless. And she's waking up!"

As Emily's eyes fluttered open, rough hands slammed the bonnet back onto her head. Two curious faces hovered above her own.

"Who—who's that you were talking about?" Emily asked, quivering. "The madwoman! She sounds awful!"

The two women glanced at each other awkwardly. "Oh, don't mind that," said the one who'd done most of the talking, a heavily freckled blonde. "I was just telling Gladys here a story I 'eard about the place my cousin works." She elbowed her companion roughly, a skinny dark-haired girl who was resolutely avoiding eye contact with Emily's.

"Y—yes," said the dark-haired girl, Gladys. "Ethel was just trying to frighten me with a story."

"You made it sound like the madwoman was in the room with us!" Emily replied, sitting up in bed. The tightness of her bonnet made it difficult to think.

"Oh, well, Gladys gets into these things a bit much sometimes," Ethel said unconvincingly. "Come along then, Bessie'll be waiting for us."

Emily climbed out of bed and put on her outer garments, pervaded the entire time by the sense that she was forgetting something very important. She had the sense that she had dreamed of many things during the night, but could not recall any of them.

That day, Emily's chores took her into the manor's grounds. She tended to flowerbeds and trimmed hedges, which took her among many stone and marble statues. One in particular caught her eye. It was a life-size statue of a tall, elegant woman in a flowing robe. Unlike the other statues in the garden, which all had stoic expressions, this one wore an expression of dreadful sadness and pain. Looking at the statue's sad, frozen expression, Emily felt tears welling up in her eyes.



What a silly thing, to cry over a statue! Especially when there was so much work still to do. Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, Emily continued trimming the hedges.

Each morning, Emily received instructions from Bessie on the day's tasks, and each night she dragged her exhausted body to bed, under the careful watch of her roommates.

Between her bonnet coming off and her mind succumbing to sleep, she was lucid. But the rush of hopelessness was almost too much to bear. The Stoneshell was gone, Aria was frozen and she was a powerless slave to Lady Elara Odonata. Perhaps it was a mercy that she could only think these thoughts for a few minutes every evening.

The Odonata estate employed a large number of servants. Far too many, Emily thought, for the needs of a single old woman. Most of the servants were women, but there were a few men as well. Most were older even than the lady of the house, save for a fresh-faced young assistant gardener named Stuart, whom Emily met on her second day of garden duty when he helped her dig a flowerbed.

"Be careful of that boy," Ethel said to Emily that evening. "He comes off as a real charmer, but he likes nothing more than a good prank on an unsuspecting lass. And he's taken a real interest in you, dear."

Emily thanked her for the advice. She was probably jealous, for Stuart had a certain impish charm, with his curly brown hair and sparkling green eyes. Emily wasn't particularly taken with him but could sense his interest in her without Ethel's help.

Some days later, while Emily was sweeping leaves from the path leading up to the front of the manor, Stuart suddenly appeared in front of her with a winning smile. "Miss Emily! Fancy meeting you here!"

"Hello, Stuart." Emily continued her sweeping.

"I've been wanting to ask you something, Emily," Stuart continued, his eyes darting around and focusing everywhere but her face.

Here it came. "Well?" Emily asked.

"Would you care to take a picnic with me, out on the grounds?" Stuart asked, finally looking her in the eyes. "I know a beautiful and secluded spot."

Emily hesitated before replying, considering the ideal way to let him down gently.

"Please, Miss Emily!" Stuart pleaded, grasping his hands together in front of his face. "Tomorrow is a holiday, and I can think of no better way to spend it than in your delightful company."

"That's very flattering, but..."

"Tell you what," Stuart interrupted. "I'll make you a deal. They're always giving you the toughest jobs around here. I, on the other hand, have only one last thing to finish off today, and then I'm done. How about we swap, and you can have the afternoon off? All I ask in exchange is that you accept my invitation."

Emily pondered. She still had to wash a mountain of sheets and clean the manor's enormous kitchen and had been particularly dreading the latter, as Lady Elara had hosted an enormous banquet the previous evening. "Good to see our ladyship enjoying herself for a change," Gladys had said, while she and Emily waited the table. "She's been holed up in that tower for days, fiddling with some magic necklace." Recalling the words sent a jolt of pain through Emily's skull.

"What job do I have to finish?" Emily asked, shrugging off the pain.

"Oh, it's my favorite," Stuart replied. "Stomping bellgrapes for Odonata wine! And they're mostly stomped already."

Stomping some grapes and having a picnic with Stuart in exchange for not having to do the rest of her chores. That actually seemed like a pretty good deal. "Okay, Stuart, lead me to the bellgrapes."

"Hooray!" Stuart cried, jumping up and clicking his heels together. "Right this way, Miss Emily!"

Stuart led Emily back into the manor and then along a corridor she hadn't previously been down. At the end of the corridor was a large, airy room with a large bucket in the middle and some paintings on the walls. Splotches of purple liquid marked the floor beneath it, and Emily could smell a fruity aroma.

"All you have to do is stand in the bucket and stomp on the bellgrapes until they stop ringing," Stuart said. "It's quite a lot of fun, really!"

"Isn't it a bit messy?" Emily asked, glancing at her shoes.

"Oh yes, you'll have to take off your shoes first," said Stuart. "And the juices really do go everywhere, so it's best to take everything else off as well."

"Beg your pardon?"

"It's okay, there's a special suit you wear for this, and it's right... over... oh dear."

Stuart looked around the room frantically, darting to and fro and inspecting every corner. "Where has it gone now? How strange, I was certain I left it right here."

"Perhaps it's been taken to the laundry," said Emily, thinking of the sheets she would now have to wash.

"Perhaps..." Stuart echoed. "A pity. But, you know, it's not essential to have the suit."

"I can't get my dress full of bellgrape juice!"

"Definitely not! I wasn't suggesting that."

"Then what were you suggesting?"

A sly grin stretched across Stuart's countenance. "Well, I've heard that some of the best bellwine makers like to do the stomping with nothing on."

Emily gasped, a blush spreading over her face. "Stuart! I am not undressing in front of you!"

"Oh Emily, you wound me!" Stuart cried, looking quite hurt. "I would never suggest such a thing to an upstanding lady like yourself. Rest assured, should you embark on this course, I will depart at once and you can lock the door behind me."

Emily glanced around the room. The windows were all quite high up and the only door into the room was the one they'd entered through. There was a large, heavy-looking key in the door's lock and a bolt beside it. The bellgrapes in the bucket, as Stuart had said, were mostly squashed already.

"I'll do it," Emily said. "Thank you, Stuart."

"It is my pleasure," Stuart replied, bowing low. "Now I bid you adieu, as I make haste for the laundry room and my dear Emily's chores!"

Once Emily had locked and bolted the door behind Stuart, and once his footsteps had receded into the distance, her thoughts turned to disrobing. She was terribly shy and habitually slept in her shift to avoid having to take it off in front of her roommates. The thought of being naked on the job made her queasy. But it did seem the only sensible course of action, so Emily sighed and sat down to remove her shoes.

Shoes, stockings, dress, corset, petticoats, all came off and were folded up neatly and placed in a corner, far from the bucket. Emily stood in her thin shift and hesitated. It surely wouldn't be so bad to get a bit of bellgrape juice on this undergarment, would it? Emily climbed into the bucket, the bellgrapes making small tinkling sounds beneath her soles.

She stood for a moment, motionless. This was the only shift she owned, so it really would be best to keep it clean. And the door was locked and bolted, after all. Mouth set in determination, Emily pulled the shift over her head.

As soon as the shift came off, her hand jerked violently up to her head and, as if controled by a demonic force, tore the bonnet from her head and threw it against the wall. "Aargh!" Emily screamed, jumping on the grapes in frustration. "I—aargh!"

Emily stomped up and down on the grapes angrily, pouring out all of the anger, frustration and hopelessness that had welled up inside her for days. Finally, she was free of the shift, free of the bonnet, free of Lady Elara's control. And, for whatever reason, that meant being naked again. Truly naked, without even the Stoneshell around her neck, though she'd managed to hang onto her trusty hair tie.

Out of the corner of one eye, Emily noticed a small movement on one of the paintings. She immediately turned her head towards it. It was a portrait of a man in a jester's outfit, with an inappropriately long, pale and humorless face. The man's eyes were dark holes, though Emily seemed to remember them being... green.



Ethel's words of warning immediately sprung to mind. A gasping and blushing Emily immediately brought her arms around her chest and angled herself away from the painting. Then, realizing she was now giving Stuart a prime view of her butt, quickly moved her hands behind it.

The lecherous bastard! If Stuart hadn't inadvertently freed her from Lady Elara's spell, Emily would have been quite a lot angrier with him. As it stood, perhaps he could be of some use to her.

"Stuart!" she cried. "Stuart, I know you're there! Come back here at once, I want to talk to you!"

Loud and disorderly sounds of scuffling and banging sounded from behind the painting, and the pale-faced jester's eyes went dark for the last time. Emily wondered for a moment if Stuart had just run away, but soon enough she heard footsteps returning down the hall. "M—miss Emily?" Stuart asked, voice shaking.

"Just a moment!" Emily darted from the bucket, unlocked and unbolted the door, and then darted back into the bucket. Seeing no alternative, she collapsed her legs and let her body sink into the mass of squashed bellgrapes in a cacophany of tinkling. If she hunched a little, only the tops of her breasts were visible above the purple mass.

"You can come in now," Emily said.

The door opened and Stuart's green eyes locked onto Emily's own, growing wide as saucers as he realized she was still naked.

"I—uh—um..." For once, the famous charmer was at a loss for words.

"Save it," Emily said, trying to sound more tough than she felt. "I know what you were after, and you got your peek. Now you owe me a favor."

"Yes, anything!" Stuart said, unable to take his eyes off her.

"Is Lady Elara in the tower right now?"

"She's barely left it for the last week."

"I need you to make her leave it. Create a distraction, or cause some disturbance that gets her out of that tower. I don't care what. Just do it, and come back here once it's done. Then do everything you can to keep her occupied for as long as possible, okay?"

Stuart nodded violently. "I'll do it. But why?"

The question blindsided Emily. For a moment, she felt like she was losing the upper hand in the situation. Desperate times call for desperate measures. After taking a deep breath in and out, Emily stood up. "Because I asked nicely."

Stuart's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head, pupils dilating at the sight of Emily's uncovered body, slick and dripping with bellgrape juices. For her part, Emily blushed furiously and fought every instinct to cover up. "Come here," she said, trying to sound sultry.

Stuart staggered over to the bucket, eyes still glued to Emily's body. Emily leaned forward and pecked his cheek. "Thanks for helping me, Stuart."

Now it was Stuart's turn to blush and squirm. Emily reached out a hand, touched his cheek gently, then pulled back and slapped him.

"Ow!"

"That's for being a pervert! Now go! Remember your orders!"

Stuart nodded again and rushed off, but not without numerous glances over his shoulder until he was out of sight. Mortified and more than a little ashamed, Emily dropped back down into the bucket and tried to submerge herself as deeply as possible into the tinkling grapes. She'd always prided herself on being a smart, resourceful girl, not needing to sink to emotional or sexual manipulation like other women. Hopefully, Stuart wouldn't be expecting anything further for his trouble.

She had played the cards she was dealt, and if she could get the Stoneshell back and escape with Aria, it would all be worth it. Even the streak she was about to take across the manor.

Could she ask Stuart for any of his clothes, once he returned? No, he would need to continue distracting Lady Elara, and it would be too suspicious if he appeared without his tunic, or wearing something different. And how could Emily trust any of the clothes in this place, after what she had just been through? As far as she knew, none of the other servants were magical slaves, as she had been—she had seen the other girls wash, and Stuart seemed only too keen to break rules and cause mischief. They all seemed to have been fed the same story about Emily being a madwoman.

She would have to streak to the tower, then. That was how her luck seemed to go these days.

Rapid footfalls sounded from down the hallway and Stuart burst through the door, panting for breath, a stack of books under one arm. "Mistress away from the tower—magic accident—fetching her books—aren't you going to get dressed?"

Emily bit her lip. "Not for an audience! Thank you, Stuart, please keep Lady Elara away from the tower as long as you can."

"Yes ma'am!" Stuart saluted before turning tail and running off.

Stepping out of the bellgrape bucket and dripping on the floor, Emily noted the similarities between her current situation and her arrival in Castle Elid. The main difference was her sense of urgency. However good Stuart's distraction, Elara could only be occupied so long. The manor was crawling with servants, who would certainly not tolerate her streaking through the halls, let alone entering their mistress's private tower.

Emily reminded herself of this as she stepped across the doorframe of the bellgrape threshing room and into the long hallway, leaving her enchanted clothes far behind. There was no time to dwell on the danger of her mission, or on her exposure. But that didn't mean she could stop herself from doing either.

Clinging to a wall on one side of the hallway, Emily walked cautiously forward, ears primed for the sound of movement or voices. Her arms were pressed against her body, though that offered limited coverage. If she encountered anyone, she would have to duck into one of the rooms. But what if the door she tried was locked? Emily shook off the thought and quickened her pace.

The hallway eventually snaked out into the manor's grand foyer, a disgustingly cavernous space for a naked girl. Worse still, she could hear voices! Emily sprinted for a large tapestry hanging from the ceiling to the floor and hid behind it.

Just as she settled into her hiding place, a male and female servant entered the foyer.

"That Stuart boy's really gone and done it now," said the male servant.

"I 'eard the commotion, but what were it about?" the female servant asked.

"Bloody fool left a gryphon cage open," the male servant continued. "Shouldn't be messing with those things. They've had to summon the Mistress herself to catch it. She's none too pleased."

"Never did like gryphons."

"Me either, but our Lady has her fancies."

Once the servants' voices had disappeared down a corridor, Emily peeked out from behind the tapestry. The foyer was empty. She felt a pang of guilt at having been the cause of Stuart getting into such trouble. It did seem to be an effective distraction though, but it would be all for naught if she didn't hurry to the tower.

Up the stairs, to the right, down the corridor, taking the first left. Emily had done enough different jobs in the manor to have a pretty good sense of its layout. Though she hadn't been able to think properly about much with that infernal bonnet squeezing her head, it hadn't stopped her from mentally mapping out the manor. The tower wasn't far now.

Emily turned the next corner and heard a shocked gasp that made her blood run cold. Standing just in front of her was Gladys, her dark-haired roommate. Gladys's eyes were large and round, and the duster she'd been holding had fallen to the floor. "E—Emily!" she cried.

Standing frozen, Emily's eyes locked with Gladys's. Her mind spun out, panicking. She was caught! It was over!

No! Emily told herself to calm down. She'd been seen by one person, and she was so close to the tower. Recalling how she'd reacted to Ethel's madwoman story, Emily knew just how to deal with Gladys.

Throwing her head back, Emily let out a strange cry, "Wahahahaha!" Then she pulled her arms from her body and shook them around, jumping erratically from side to side. Not believing what she was doing, she loped towards Gladys, flailing her arms in a manner that she hoped was sufficiently crazy and menacing.

It worked. "M—madwoman!" Gladys shrieked, her face turning white as a sheet. Then she fainted.

Emily rushed forward and managed to catch Gladys's head before it hit anything hard or sharp. She was out cold, completely unresponsive. Emily gently laid her head down on the carpet. Briefly, she considered taking Gladys's clothes but decided that she'd tormented the poor girl enough. It would take too long to get them off her anyway.

Soon after leaving Gladys, Emily reached a non-descript wooden door at the end of the corridor that opened up to the base of a very narrow spiral staircase. She had reached the tower.

Emily stepped through the door and began ascending the staircase, grateful for the narrow space and relative darkness. After numerous turns, the staircase finally opened up to a circular stone chamber—Lady Elara's private magical workroom.

Heavy mahogany bookshelves lined the walls of the chamber, stuffed with books on all kinds of magic. Surveying the titles, Emily noted "Alchemy of Stardust", "Zephyrs of the Eastern Winds", "Possession Charms for Beginners" and "Investigations into the Essence of Life". Gnarled, ancient tomes were set next to fresh, manuscripts, and rolls of parchment peered out from every nook and cranny.

On a grand desk positioned at the center of the chamber lay a chaos of papers filled with cryptic symbols, and vials of multi-hued liquids. A large space had been cleared in the middle of the desk.

Beside the desk, an open book entitled "Magical Artifacts of Western Thessolan" rested on a stand. It was open to a page containing an illustration of the Stoneshell, surrounded by beautiful calligraphic script.

"The Stoneshell is believed to have been carved by Thurseus Irontail, the first Emperor of Mer," Emily read. "Made from rock originating from the deepest part of the Trench of Trule, it was intended as a betrothal gift to a human woman, Evangeline, whom Thurseus had fallen madly in love with. Evangeline was delighted with the gift and gleefully accepted Thurseus's proposal."

On the opposite page, a smaller illustration depicted a handsome, muscular merman half-submerged in water offering the Stoneshell to a woman standing on the shore.

Emily read on. "Once the Stoneshell left the water, Evangeline discovered that it allowed her to summon fire, which warmed but did not burn her. With this power, she became a formidable sorceress. Some sources ascribe other powers to the Stoneshell—healing, flight, powerful sight and hearing, even clairvoyance—but fire is the only one generally accepted by magical scholars."

Emily let out a low whistle. What if those other powers really did exist?

"As scholars of history will know, Thurseus Irontail was assassinated the day before he was to marry Evangeline, and his empire splintered shortly afterwards. Sources differ on the fate of Evangeline. The Stoneshell was thought to be lost for centuries, before coming into the possession of Raja, a founding member of the Order of Mages. He began a tradition of adding additional small enchantments to the artifact, which is detailed in the next section."

So the Stoneshell was not just a betrothal gift, but a betrothal gift from a man who died before he could marry his love. Emily looked at the illustration of Thurseus and Evangeline again and could feel tears coming to her eyes. Sniffing, she turned the page.

"The Stoneshell is a borne artifact, which chooses its bearer. Its power cannot be wielded by any but its bearer. In the hands of a non-bearer, it increases in weight and may appear in different locations than where it was set down."

Emily glanced at the large empty space on the desk. Presumably, the Stoneshell had been sitting there until quite recently. But where was it now?

"Looking for this?" A calm, syrupy voice spoke from behind Emily, making her nearly jump out of her skin. She turned around to face Lady Aria, who wore a cruel smirk as she dangled the Stoneshell from her fingers.

Emily chided herself for getting so absorbed in reading that she had allowed Elara to sneak up on her.

"You didn't really think I'd just leave this lying around for anyone to find, did you?" Elara said. "I keep it with me at all times. As you may have read, it has a habit of disappearing."

Emily scowled. Here was the woman who had enslaved her and stolen her most important possession, taunting her. And she was defenseless—literally naked.

Elara cast a disdainful eye up and down Emily's body. "Didn't you like the outfit I picked out for you? I thought it rather suited you. You certainly looked more comfortable."

"Y—you enslaved me!" Emily screamed, balling her hands into fists. "You're a thief and an evil, evil woman!"

Elara regarded the Stoneshell dangling from her fingers. "An artifact as powerful as this does not belong in the hands of a silly young girl who can't even keep her clothes on for five minutes! You don't know the first thing about magic! You haven't studied, or sacrificed like I have!"

The venom in Elara's words caused Emily to shrink back, cowering against the desk and covering herself with her hair and hands. In Elara's hand, the Stoneshell moved slightly, as if pulled by an invisible force.

"Yes, cower like the dog you are," Elara spat. "Bessie is on her way with a new outfit for you. The design is greatly improved and imbued with much more powerful magic. It's just a necklace this time, as that's the only thing you seem to want to wear. You won't be cavorting with any servant boys in this one, but I'm sure they'll appreciate the view."

"Bitch!" Emily screamed. The Stoneshell moved again. Emily focused her eyes on it, willing it to come to her.

Elara raised a palm, as if ready to strike Emily. "Stupid, worthless little whore!"

At this, the Stoneshell jumped free of Elara's grasp. She gasped as the necklace sailed through the air, spun around neatly, and hovered above Emily's head for a moment dropping onto her shoulders.

"W—what?! How?!" Elara shrieked.

"I have no idea," snarled Emily, rising up from her crouch. "After all, I'm just a stupid girl who can't keep her clothes on!"

Savoring the fear in Elara's eyes, Emily thrust her right hand forward. Instantly, without her even giving the mental command, a massive ball of flame erupted from her palm. It shot outwards and upwards, blasting through an open window a few feet above Elara's head.



Elara stumbled backwards, tripping over a rug and stumbling backwards into a bookcase. Another fireball appeared in Emily's palm, and she thrust it out between them as she dove for the exit. She was out, down the spiral staircase two steps at a time, almost tripping, blackening the stone wall with the fire in her palm.

Bursting out of the door to the tower, Emily saw Bessie coming up the corridor towards her, a dragonfly necklace on a heavy chain held out in front of her. But Bessie's face turned white as a sheet when she saw Emily, angry, naked and carrying flame in her right hand. The necklace fell from her hands, and she immediately turned around and ran as fast as her stubby legs could carry her.

Emily raced down the corridor, through the foyer and around to the back of the manor. The flame in her palm grew bigger, and she could feel the adrenaline in every limb.

Aria stood in the doorway to the garden, stopping midstride and crying out in joy as her eyes met Emily's. The reunited companions ran towards each other and embraced, Emily holding the flame out behind Aria's back, tears in both their eyes.

"I was free the instant I saw a fireball shoot out from the top of the tower," Aria said. "That was your doing, I trust."

"I'm so sorry, Aria," Emily replied, barely hearing her. "She—she made me give up the Stoneshell."

"It is I who should be sorry, Emily." Aria rubbed a soothing but cold hand across Emily's upper back. "I was too quick to place my trust in Lady Elara, merely because she resembled an ancient friend. I should have known there was something not right about her when she refused to return your cloak and made you sit for dinner in the nude."

Emily missed her cloak. "Let's just go."

The two companions separated from their hug and turned back towards the foyer. The main doors were wide open, but in between them stood Lady Elara, panting from exertion. Her countenance was twisted in fury her eyes were ablaze with a cold fire. In her right hand, she wielded a long wand which appeared to be made of ice. Intricate designs were etched into its surface and a crystal of pure frost capped its end.

"Leaving so soon?" Elara asked, her voice half sweetness and half pure menace. "Please, do not insult the hospitality of House Odonata."

She pointed her wand directly at Emily, and a bolt of ice blasted from its tip. The icy missile hurtled towards Emily and Aria. Operating on pure reflex, Emily thrust both hands out in front of her and imagined a wall of flame. The Stoneshell felt hot against her chest as a barrier of fire erupted before them, clashing with the surge of ice. Steam hissed into the air, clouds of vapor shrouding the foyer.

Icy water splashed against Emily with a force that almost winded her. The Stoneshell's magic was potent, but Elara was an experienced magic user, now equipped with her own powerful artifact.

Aria grasped Emily's arm, whispering urgently. "We cannot win this fight, not now. We must leave!"

"How? She's blocking the entrance!"

Aria thought for a moment, her marble hand still tightly clasping Emily's arm. "I'm sorry, Emily," she whispered, so softly that Emily had to strain to hear her.

Before Emily could reply, Aria pulled her close and she felt cool marble against her bare butt. Aria held her arm firmly behind her back, so that her exposed front faced Elara, and then began marching her forward. "Ow!" Emily cried. "Aria!"

"I have her under control, milady!" Aria shouted, as she grabbed Emily's other arm and pulled it behind her back as well, snuffing the flame in her palm. Emily squirmed in confusion and embarrassment as she was marched towards Elara.

"Well, well, well, this is an interesting development," said Elara, lowering her ice wand. "Why the change of heart, Aria?"

"Only a powerful mage can fully reverse the curse on Castle Elid and help me become flesh again!" Aria spat. "The Stoneshell is useless in the hands of a neophyte!"

Tears welled up in Emily's eyes. She thrashed against Aria's vice grip, and small, sporadic flames erupted from her palms and the Stoneshell itself, but neither action had any effect on Aria.

"A rational conclusion," Elara replied.

But as she walked from the doorway towards Aria and the struggling Emily, Emily felt Aria's grip loosen. Another whisper, barely audible, reached Emily's ear. "Run."

The moment Aria released her, Emily took off sprinting, awkwardly sidestepping Elara, who cried out in shock. She felt four long nails rake against her arm as she raced for the door.

Momentarily glancing behind her as she exited the manor, Emily saw Aria barrel straight into Elara, knocking her flat with the force of her dense marble exterior. Elara's wand fell from her hand and skittered across the floor.

Emily ran faster than she ever had before and Aria was right behind her. They heard a strangled cry of anger and frustration behind them, which only quickened their pace through the orchard in front of the manor.

"Head for the wood!" Aria shouted.

The two companions ran from the neat orchard into the dense and tangled natural woods beyond. The uneven ground hurt Emily's feet, but she ignored the pain and pressed on. Deeper, further, away from the manor, away from Elara, into the cold and wild night.

Finally, Emily could run no longer, and she slowed to a walking pace, ribcage rising and falling as she panted for breath. Aria gained the distance between them and, with a quick and elegant motion, scooped Emily up into her arms. "Rest awhile," she said gently.



The night was silent but for Aria's stone footfalls. The cool air nipped at Emily's skin, and she felt a dull ache in the soles of her feet. She focused her thoughts on the Stoneshell lying against her chest, and slowly its warmth spread through her body.

"You really had me going there, Aria," Emily said, once she'd caught her breath. "I thought you'd betrayed me."

Aria gazed ahead at the dark forest. "That's why it worked. Elara saw the genuine shock and hurt you experienced, and she believed it too. It was the only way I could think of to get her out of the doorway."

Emily thought back to how powerless she had felt in Aria's hold. How the Stoneshell's fire could do nothing against an adversary made of stone. "So you didn't really mean those things you said. About me being unfit to wield the Stoneshell... and to help you turn back."

Aria looked Emily in the eyes and smiled sadly. "Of course I did not. The Stoneshell chose you, never forget that. I have full confidence that as we practise and you learn to master its powers, you will find a way to turn me back to what I once was."

Emily looked away, wishing that she shared Aria's confidence. The confrontation with Elara, brief as it was, had highlighted how much she still had to learn. The Stoneshell had made her powerful against two-bit bandits and lecherous men in taverns, but she was still no match for a real mage. And she had not the slightest idea how she would even begin to try turning Aria back into a human. Then she remembered something.

"There was a book in Elara's study. About magical artifacts. It had a whole section on the Stoneshell, but I didn't have time to read all of it. If only I'd thought to grab the book!"

Emily shared what she had read with Aria, who nodded sagely. "It would seem that our stay in the manor was not a total loss, then."

"Except in terms of clothing," Emily added, wiggling her toes.

"The seashore is not far from here," Aria said. "Now that we know the Stoneshell's origins, we should seek out the merpeople. They may be able to tell us more about it."

"I haven't been to the beach in ages," Emily replied. "Hopefully it's a nude beach."

Aria looked perplexed. "A what?"

"Never mind."

I love this story so much! Really feels like an engaging fantasy world, where every choice matters, and how a wrong one can very easily lead to the bad ending of the story.
I feel the thrill right along with your characters.
Thank you for the wonderful update!

Emily and the Merfolk

Emily awoke the next morning in a peaceful forest glade. She stretched and sat up, yawning and brushing blades of grass from the skin of her back. Her cloak and boots were long gone, but she still felt the reassuring weight of the Stoneshell around her neck. She glanced around and soon caught the stone gaze of Aria, standing to one side, ever watchful.

"Good morning," Aria said. "The ocean is not far from here."

A salty tinge in the air confirmed Aria's words. Emily took a deep breath in and out and rose to her bare feet. Her stomach growled.

"There is a goldapple tree right here," Aria said, pointing out the slender tree with green and yellow leaves she was standing next to. She elbowed the tree and three large, golden fruits fell to the ground.

Emily picked up one of the fruits, which was almost too big for her hand, and took a bite. Then she took another bite. "Sho ghood," she said between mouthfuls, goldapple juice dripping down her chin. The fruit had a rich, wholesome taste that made her feel warm inside.

"Be careful of the sap," Aria warned, pointing to a large patch where it spilled out of the tree's trunk. "It's extremely sticky."

"Is it now?" Emily asked, taking a break from her meal to glance up at the tree's leaves and then down at her body. "That gives me an idea."

After five minutes of fiddling with sticky sap and different-sized leaves, Emily presented herself to Aria. "What do you think of my new beach outfit?" Goldapple leaves were now firmly affixed to her breasts and crotch with sap, affording her the slightest amount of modesty.



"The wood elves dress entirely in leaves, and make the most elaborate outfits with them," Aria said. "I'm not sure your design would be up quite up to their standards, but you look lovely, Emily."

"Thank you," Emily said, blushing slightly. "But I've never worn such a skimpy swimsuit to the beach before. I ran out of sap before I could do the back." Emily glanced nervously over her shoulder. "Though with some of the fashions these days..." Back on Earth, she had never been comfortable with bikini bottoms that exposed a lot of cheek.

Following a brief digression on Earth swimsuit fashions, Emily asked Aria a question she'd been pondering since the previous night. "Do you really think I can turn you back, Aria?"

"I do," Aria said firmly. "The bearer of the Stoneshell is master over all its enchantments, and the curse on Castle Elid is merely one such enchantment. Merely by accepting your place as the Stoneshell's bearer, you all but destroyed the curse. As your power grows, you will be able to lift it fully."

Emily bit her lip. "If I manged to lift the curse, will you be okay? After all, you're hundreds of years old. If I turn you back to flesh, will—will you die?"

Aria was silent as she gazed off into the distance, and she stood still as an ordinary statue. Then she said, "I may. Or I may not. I have lived, as you say, many centuries, but it was a half-life, bound in stone and trapped in an abandoned castle. I was still young when I was transformed, and I feel that the rest of my natural life is owing to me. Lifting the curse shall restore me to what I was."

Emily thought of the painting in House Odonata. "Then I will do my best to lift your curse, Aria."

"I know you will, Emily. Come, if you have finished your breakfast, let us go to the sea."

Emily took a final, delicious bite of goldapple and wiped the juices from her mouth. She looked down at her very daring leaf bikini—after everything, it made her feel quite well covered. "I'm beach ready," she said, following Aria out of the glade.

The forest gave way to grassy plain, which itself gave way to sand, and the blue, blue ocean expanded before them. Emily bounded down a sandy slope that led to a small beach, eyes taking in the rolling waves, lungs filled with the fresh sea air. The sand was warm against her bare soles. Aria followed behind her, appreciating the ocean's majesty but unable to experience the sensations of touch or smell in her marble body.

The wind whipped up Emily's chestnut hair as she gazed out to sea and she felt it across her skin, covered only in a few spots by goldapple leaves. She found herself wondering what had happened to Stuart, back at House Odonata. He had gotten into a lot of trouble to create a distraction for her. She hoped he hadn't suffered too much on her account. Perhaps they should have found him and brought him with, had there been time. He might have given Emily his tunic.

Since stepping out of her bathtub and into Castle Elid, she had wanted little more than to find a dress, or trousers and a tunic, or even one of those chainmail bikinis so often featured in fantasy art. This had proven surprisingly elusive, and her journey through Thessolan had so far been marked by near-constant nudity. She had read plenty of books about people who were transported to fantasy worlds, and none of them seemed to have this problem. If only the magic hadn't caught her bathing!

But she had been given a full outfit by Lady Elara, complete with undergarments and a bonnet. Of course, it turned out to be imbued with a powerful enchantment that enslaved her mind and body, forcing her to give up the Stoneshell and serve at Elara's pleasure. The constricting, controlling fabric of the dress had moved her arms and legs and the tightness of the bonnet had suppressed her thoughts. Compared to that, there was a certain freedom in her current, unencumbered state. The leaves didn't leave much to the imagination, and Emily still felt the need to dive behind Aria at the slightest unexpected sound, but it was better than losing her free will.



Perhaps if she found another tree, she could get some more leaves for her butt. Or if she encountered the wood elves Aria had spoken of, perhaps they could help her to create a dress from the leaves. That could look quite good, she thought, glancing down at the vibrant green-yellow of her coverings.

Emily strode across the sand, towards the sea. The tide lapped at her feet, a refreshing feeling after hours of walking barefoot. She continued forward, enjoying the sea's cool touch. When the water was knee-deep, Emily stopped at the sight of a yellow flash on the horizon. "Did you see that?" she asked Aria. "What was it?"

"I believe we shall know shortly." Aria remained some distance behind Emily, eyes focused on the ocean.

There was a disturbance in the calm sea some way ahead of them, and then, with a massive splash, the torso of a man emerged from the water, whipping back a mane of long blond hair. He smiled winningly at Emily and Aria and said in a booming voice, "Hello there!"

Emily blushed and fidgetted with her fingers. Facing the man, she was covered in the essential places, but there was still a whole lot of skin on display. He didn't seem to react, though, maintaining an easy smile and holding steady eye contact with an icy blue gaze. His torso was bare and quite muscular, and the lower half of his face was covered by a well-trimmed blond beard. Wet hair hung down to his shoulders.

"Hail, fair damsels, I am Caelum," he continued, edging slightly closer to where Emily stood. "May I have the pleasure of your acquaintance?"

"My name's Emily," said Emily, and then, gesturing behind herself, "and she's Aria."

"Beautiful names, fitting for beautiful women," said Caelum, reaching out a hand. He had now come close enough for Emily to smell the saltwater on him. "Well-met, Lady Emily and Lady Aria."

"Just Emily is fine." Almost automatically, Emily gave him her own hand, which he took and kissed. The water was now up to her mid-thigh, but she still had to look down to make eye contact with Caelum. Was he really so short?

"Hail and well-met, Caelum Merman," Aria called from the shore, her voice loud and resonant. "As the land greets the sea, so we greet you." Here she curtsied.

A merman! Of course! Emily glanced down at where Caelum's torso met the water, and caught a glimpse of shimmering blue just beneath his chiseled abs, before quickly bringing her eyes back up. Several questions occured to her.

"Well-met, Lady Aria," Caelum replied. Then, to Emily, he asked, "Why does she remain behind?"

The statues at the bottom of the the Labyrinthian Pool flashed through Emily's mind. "Aria is too heavy to swim. A curse turned her to stone. So she keeps a safe distance from bodies of water."

"Ah," said Caelum, with a sad nod. "I did think she appeared unnaturally pallid."

"We're trying to lift the curse, actually," Emily continued. "It's related to the... Stoneshell."

Even before the words left her lips, Caelum's eyes had caught sight of the stone seashell pendant hanging from Emily's neck and were staring fixedly at it. Emily blushed and bit her lip in the renewed consciousness of her outfit's inadequacy.

"Th-the Stoneshell?" Caelum repeated, unable to take his eyes off Emily's chest. "Do you mean the Stoneshell which belonged to Evangeline? Carved by King Irontail's own hand? Is this... is this it?"

"Yes," said Emily, glancing down at the necklace.

Caelum let out a low whistle. "It is an inestimable honor to meet the bearer of the Stoneshell, the heir of Evangeline, the Queen Who Never Was. After all these years! My people have not set eyes on the King Irontail's greatest work for generations!"

"Thank you," said Emily, though she certainly didn't feel like the heir of a legendary queen, or any other such highly esteemed personage. She was just a lost girl from another world with severe wardrobe challenges.

"Please do not be insulted by my fixation on the Stoneshell," said Caelum, finally redirecting his gaze to Emily's eyes. "It is a legendary artifact for my people. I still can scarcely believe my luck in meeting its bearer by chance upon this remote shore!"

"That's okay," said Emily.

"Do not think that I do not also notice and appreciate the gentle hills which hide the Stoneshell in their valley. You have beautiful breasts, Emily."

Emily's eyes widened and she blushed furiously, at a loss for words. The merman was quite handsome, but she did not expect to be complimented on an intimate part of her body by a man she'd just met.

Aria, clearly having witnessed the scene, spoke up at once "There are many differences between our people, physical and cultural, but I hope that the Stoneshell may inform our common purpose."

Cultural differences. Perhaps merpeople complimented each others' bodies the way humans compliment each others' faces. Once Emily recovered her composure, she recalled the mission. "Aria and I were hoping to meet a merperson who could help us learn more about the Stoneshell. We're trying to lift her curse."

Caelum brows furoughed in thought. "The scholars of Aquius could help you. I will take you to them. The city is not far from here." He gestured out to sea with an index finger.

"Underwater?" asked Emily.

"But of course!"

"I can't hold my breath that long!"

Caelum tossed his head back and laughed. "Yes, that would present a difficulty for any ordinary human, but you are an heir of Evangeline. The Stoneshell's magic will allow you to breath the water, just as we do. It was intended, after all, to bind a merman and a human woman in lifelong companionship."

Emily glanced back at Aria, who nodded, and then down at the Stoneshell. "So I just... follow you?"

Caelum reached out a hand. "If you would do me the honor."

Emily looked down at the expanse of water below her, feeling giddy with fear and excitement. Was she really about to do this? Dive down into the ocean and visit a magical undersea kingdom with a handsome merman? This was even better than being an heiress who took the fancy of a roguish pirate captain!

The only trouble was that Aria would not be able to accompany her. She glanced back at the shore and caught her friend's sad gaze. "Wait," she said to Caelum. "I must talk to my companion first."

"Take as long as you need."

Emily smiled at Caelum and turned around to walk back to shore. Only belatedly did she realize that she was giving him a full view of her exposed backside. She blushed and hurried her pace towards Aria, but then found herself uncertain about what mermen thought about legs and butts anyway.

"You must go," Aria said to her. "If I am to have any hope of becoming flesh again, we must know all we can about the Stoneshell. And perhaps such knowledge will also shed light on the reasons you were plucked from your world, and the method for your return. I will wait for you here, as I waited before."

Emily smiled and wrapped her arms around Aria's smooth marble form. "I'll miss you, Aria." To be separated again so soon after House Odonata was heartbreaking.

"And I, you," Aria said, gently touching the skin of Emily's back with her marble arms. "We will be reunited soon. Remember, the Stoneshell binds us to each other."

"And I'll lift the curse," said Emily, resolute. "After all, you still owe me a turn in that gown."

Aria chuckled. "I have not forgotten. It will be nice to feel the sun on my skin again."

"I'm glad you think so."

After saying their goodbyes, Emily parted from Aria and returned to the ocean, wading until the water reached her waist. Caelum awaited her, his hand still outstretched. "Ready?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be," Emily replied, taking his hand.

Caelum squeezed her hand, smiled again, and immediately vanished underwater.

Emily barely had time to hold her breath before her whole body was submerged and shooting down and forward through the water. Years of swimming practise kicked in and she propelled herself through the water with her legs, keeping pace with the merman just ahead of her. She marveled at sight of the strong, cobalt blue tail, which met his torso just below the belly.

"Emily," he said, glancing back at her. "Try to breathe." Bubbles escaped from Caelum's mouth as he spoke, but he was just as audible down here as he had been above the waves.

The pressure on Emily's lungs was becoming quite intense, as she hadn't taken a very deep breath before diving down. Panic surged at the thought of opening her mouth so far underwater, but a warmth against her chest reassured her. And so she released her breath with a deep sigh. Then she breathed in.

The sensation was almost indescribable. Emily could feel water filling her mouth, but it seemed gentle, almost imperceptible. Breathing felt natural, no different from how it had moments before. She took a few more experimental breaths in and out, and felt just fine. "This is incredible," she said, watching the bubbles rise from her mouth. "Oh wow!"

"Welcome to my world, Emily," Caelum said, looking her intently in the eyes. "There's just one thing. Your leaves appear to have dislodged in the dive. You may want to recall them."

"My... oh!" Looking down, Emily noticed that she was no longer adorned with goldapple leaves. She glanced around frantically, seeing nothing but empty ocean. "W-where did they..."

"I'll wait for you to recall them," Caelum said, turning his back to her.

But the leaves where truly gone, leaving only a swiftly dissolving residue on Emily's nipples and crotch. Realistically, there had been little chance the sap would stay sticky underwater. "Th-they're gone," Emily stammered.

"What do you mean? Just recall them."

Emily frowned. The way Caelum kept repeating the word "recall" was very confusing to her. "I–I don't know what you mean. They're just leaves, and they're gone now."

Caelum was silent for a moment. "Are you saying that those leaves were not your alkayi?"

Emily made a face. "What's an alkayi?"

Caelum gasped. "Do human women not have alkayi?"

"This is the first I've heard of it," said Emily. "Although I'm, well, not really from around here."

Caelum took a moment to gather his thoughts. Then he said, "When a mermaid comes of age, she takes a three-day journey into the kelp forests. While there, she experiences many visions and revelations. She also discovers, and is discovered by, her alkayi. The nature of the alkayi is different for every mermaid—some wear seashells, some starfish, some intricately woven strands of kelp, patterned coral or living sand. But each mermaid finds and bonds with an alkayi which will accompany and clothe her all the rest of her life. She can summon this alkayi at will, and it will always protect her."

Emily drew her arms across her breasts. "Sounds nice. Wish I had something like that, but I don't."



"I see," said Caelum. "And those leaves were all you had?"

"Y-yes."

Caelum slowly turned to face Emily, unsure where to let his eyes settle. "It is highly unusual for a grown woman to have no alkayi, but it is not unheard of. Hopefully my people will be understanding."

"Maybe I can borrow something," Emily said hopefully.

Caelum's eyes widened in shock. "Borrow an alkayi! Do not say such things, Emily! Using another's alkayi is a grave insult, an unpardonable offense. No, each woman's alkayi must choose her."

Emily bit her lip. "Sheesh, I really didn't think mermaids would be hung up about clothes. Surely someone can give me something to wear in this Aquius place. It doesn't have to be one of these alkayi things. Or even real clothes. I'll settle for a bedsheet!"

Caelum fidgetted and avoided Emily's eyes. It looked like he was about to say something, but then thought better of it. Finally, he reached his hand out once more. "Come, let us continue. Aquius is not far."

Emily tentatively took Caelum's hand, angling her crotch away from him and keeping her other arm across her breasts. His story about alkayi had been thoroughly depressing. After meeting this bare-chested merman, Emily had hoped that nudity would be common and unremarkable among the merpeople, but now that appeared not to be the case. Even in this magical undersea kingdom, she would be thoroughly underdressed.

"I suppose mermen don't have anything like an alkayi," said Emily, casting her eyes down Caelum's bare back and tail. Technically, he was just as naked as she was, but it didn't feel like it. Emily decided it would be impolite to ask the question about merman anatomy that had just jumped to the front of her mind.

"No, it is not part of our initiation. We are called to fight and kill a beast when we come of age. That is the source of the scar across my right shoulder." The scar in question was a large, white slash, mostly visible from the back.

As they swam, Emily tried to put thoughts of her discomfort out of mind by enjoying her surroundings. They were going quite deep, but could still see where shafts of the sunlight pierced the deep blue water to illuminate a cross-section of the ocean floor. Emily marveled at the multi-colored coral reefs around them and giggled as fish swam around her, sometimes lightly tickling her skin. The Labyrinthian Pool had had some wonders, but it had also felt dark and artificial, and at times very menacing. The open ocean, by contrast, gave her a deep sense of freedom.

"Not long now," said Caelum, indicating the crest of a coral cliff up ahead.

As they crested the cliff, Emily gasped, releasing a watery breath. The city of Aquius lay nestled in a large valley, protected on all sides by high coral cliffs, and it was like nothing she'd ever seen or imagined.

It was a true city, with tall and densely packed buildings carved from luminescent coral and mother-of-pearl. Rather than boxy modern skyscrapers, the buildings were smooth towers that tapered towards their tops, some of them bending in shapes that looked almost organic. Below the buildings, the streets of Aquius were alive with the hustle and bustle of merfolk. The people of Aquius transformed from colorful specks into real half-human, half-fish people as Caelum led Emily by the hand, down from the cliffs, down from the tops of the buildings, into the heart of the city.

Streets and pathways were lined with flowering sea plants swaying rhythmically in the current, and the ambient glow from bioluminescent algae painted the city in hues of blues, greens, and purples. Schools of fish darted between the buildings and people. Emily could see a few dolphins and manta rays with mermen and mermaid mounted atop them, moving smoothly and purposefully through the city streets.

Emily's feet touched the cobbled stone floor of what appeared to be a large plaze in the center of the city. Her eyes were drawn to an enormous structure, larger, grander and more intricate than the buildings around it, which dominated the plaza. From a wide base, it spiraled upwards, and was crowned by a dome of translucent sea-green glass. The whole building shimmered, with different parts pulsing through the whole spectrum of colors as Emily watched.

"That's the Coral Palace," said Caelum. "The one-time residence of Thurseus Irontail. Welcome, Emily Stoneshell-bearer, to Aquius."

While Emily had been standing looking up at the Coral Palace, a crowd of interested merfolk had started to form around her, and were whispering to each other animatedly. The mermen, like Caelum, had bare torsos, and the mermaids were bedecked by a variety of what Emily took to be alkayi. These ranged from a couple of seashells clinging to one woman's breasts to an intricate wrapping of kelp that had the appearance and coverage of a poloneck sweater. Emily could see another woman wearing two thick pieces of coral on each of her sides, which left an expanse of skin from the neck to the navel. All were dressed quite differently, but all were dressed, with nipples covered. All except Emily.

"A human! Can it be?"

"Ah, so that's what legs look like..."

"Where's her alkayi? Do humans not have those?"

"She's a little old to parading around like that, I think."

"Is that necklace? No, surely not..."

Blushing and squirming to cover herself with her arms, Emily cast a desperate glance at Caelum. As frequently as she'd been naked since arriving in Thessolan, she'd managed to mostly avoid these kinds of extremely public scenes, and so it was a new and unwelcome experience to have her unclothed body at the center of so much attention.

Caelum acknowledged her glance with a curt nod and cast a foul look at the crowd surrounding them. Then, almost before Emily knew what was happening, he hoisted her into his arms and swam upwards with a powerful thrust, leaving the cacophanous crowd to choke on his trail of bubbles.

"Sorry about that, Emily," he said, looking her in the eyes. "I should have taken you straight to the palace to begin with. As the first human visitor to our city in generations, and the current bearer of the Stoneshell, you must have an audience with King Trilato as soon as possible."

Emily was grateful to have been rescued from the crowd, but the notion of appearing naked before the King of the Merfolk didn't seem a whole lot better. "Please find me something to wear first. I'll settle for a few strands of kelp!"

Caelum looked embarrassed again, and avoided eye contact. "I have told you of the grave crime of taking another's alkayi, have I not?"

Emily nodded.

"A less severe, but still grave crime, is the use of a false alkayi. Appearing before the king in such a manner would be a grave insult."

Emily was stunned. "What are you trying to tell me, Caelum? That I'm not allowed to wear clothes?"

"Well, when you put it like that... yes. Anything from Aquius that clothes would be considered a false alkayi. This... is not usually a problem. Most visitors to our realm arrive with their own clothing."

Emily curse the goldapple tree. If only its sap had been stickier!

"We're here," Caelum said, swimming over the railing of a balcony set into a high part of the Coral Palace's spires and gently releasing Emily from his cradling hold. "I will seek the king at once."

Emily's feet touched the smooth floor, and her eyes took in the opulent palace interior, walls carved with intricate scenes featuring merfolk and fish. Caelum waved to her and then vanished through an archway with a single flick of his tail.

Alone now, Emily turned to look at the city beyond the balcony. At times, she would almost forget she was underwater, but the stillness of this current moment brought her focus to the way the water enveloped her and carressed her skin. Every inch of exposed skin, which would seemingly need to remain so for the duration of her stay. She allowed her arms to fall at her sides, and tried to accept it.



Emily's eyes scanned across the spires of the city and came to rest on a kelp forest at its borders. That must be the place where young mermaids found their alkayis. What if she were to go there? Would she find a perfect, magical outfit, which would fit and suit her better than any other? Something indestructible, that could be called to cover her whenever she was parted from it. Emily imagined a shimmering dress made of turquious fish scales, enveloping her in a silky embrace from neck to mid-thigh, producing an effect not unlike a mermaid's tail. She sighed at the mental image, passing a hand down her bare hip.

"Emily!" cried Caelum, making her turn her head to the archway in surprise. "My gravest apologies, I had forgotten that today is the day of the Coral Gala, and that our king and all his noble subjects are deeply esconced in preparations. There will be no opportunity for your audience before then."

Emily let out a relieved sigh. She hadn't precisely been looking forward to meeting royalty in her birthday suit.

"We shall have to seek an audience during the Gala. I have informed the palace officials of your attendance and received their assurance that you shall be an honored guest." Here, Caelum looked a little unsure of himself, but only for a moment. "Please, grant me the honor of accompanying you." Caelum closed his eyes and bowed his head following this request.

Emily blushed. "A gala! But I don't have anything to wear! Literally!"

Reopening his eyes, Caelum waved a hand nonchalantly. "Do not worry, that shall all be taken care of. The palace servants will be only too happy to attend to your toilette."

Did that mean... clothes? Could there be a loophole in the alkayi rules after all? Emily's heart jumped into her throat. "Yes!" she shouted, surprising herself with her own enthusiasm. "I'll go with you to the gala, Caelum!"

Caelum's face lit up, beaming, as he held eye contact with Emily. "Then I shall call the servants at once! Coraline! Pearla! Nerissa!"

Caelum swam back into the depths of the palace, calling out the three names, and Emily felt her whole body relax. She was about to be dolled up for a gala in a magical palace, attended to by servants like an honest-to-goodness princess. Perhaps that shimmering gown would become a reality.

In a few moments, three mermaids appeared from the archway Caelum had disappeared behind. Their eyes widened initially at Emily's appearance, but each one quickly calibrated her expression to a professional pleasantness as they introduced themselves. Emily smiled back at them sheepishly, hovering her arms in front of her body.

Nerissa was the tallest one, with a turquoise tail and long hair done up in a thick braid of blue and purple. She wore a couple of large white seashells across her breasts. "Nerissa, hairdresser, at your service."

Next was Pearla, with a silver white tail and pale blonde hair to match. She wore a cleavage-enhancing corset that appeared to be made of red and pink living coral, ending just above her navel. "Pearla, jeweler, at your service."

Finally, Coraline's tail was red and gold, and her head was topped with a mass of curly red hair. Her torso was loosely wrapped with green seaweed, exposing her milky, pink-tipped left breast. "Coraline, perfumer, at your service."

The servants led Emily to a dressing room not far from the balcony and sat her down on a plush stool in front of a coral-framed mother-of-pearl mirror. All around her hung jewelery pieces, ornate bottles containing multi-colored liquids and a wide variety of brushes and combs. The servants set to work at once, chattering pleasantly.

Nerissa took Emily's chestnut hair in her hands and began to comb it out. Pearla glanced between Emily and the various jewelery pieces on the walls, picking up and putting down different ones. Coraline began fussing with perfume bottles, picking different ones and spraying them in front of Emily's nose, asking her which she would prefer. She chose one in a green-blue that smelled of ocean blooms.

Emily's hair was long and tangled in places, and Nerissa had to brush it quite vigorously to straighten it all out, using her whole body. As she fought with a particularly knotty tangle, her breasts bounced so violently that one of the seashells adorning them popped off and started to float away, leaving a brown nipple exposed. Nerissa cursed and her companions giggled.

"We match now," quipped Coraline.

"Yes, yes," said Nerissa, staring intently at the floating white shell. As she stared, it came to a stop and then reversed course, returning to her. Emily watched in amazement as the white shell drifted back to Nerissa and pressed itself firmly over her breast. "Sorry ma'am," she said, returning to her brushing.

Nerissa combed and coaxed Emily's hair into a sophiscated updo, adorned with strands of jewels and capped with a small tiara. Pearla chose a set of bracelets, armbands and necklaces and rings to adorn Emily with. The mermaids expressed a keen curiousity over Emily's legs and feet, asking her to move her toes and giggling to each other manically. Pearla placed some of the rings on Emily's toes and repurposed a few braclets as anklets. There were obviously no shoes to be found in the merfolk kingdom.

Makeup was a collaborative affair, though Coraline took charge. Emily's lips were reddened, her eyelids coated with a purple eyeshadow and dark mascara used to enhance her lashes. After much fussing, the mermaids declared themselves finished and asked Emily to survey the results.

"Wow," said Emily, staring at an almost unrecognizably flawless face in the mirror. "I—thank you, this is really good. I can't wait to see the dress you have for me!"

The mermaids exchanged glances of confusion. "Begging your pardon ma'am," said Nerissa, "but we're finished now. Is there anything we should change? Do you not like your hair?"

"I can give you different bracelets!" Pearla exclaimed, frantically grabbing for more jewelery.

"Maybe another fragrance?" asked Coraline, folding her arms across her chest, nonplussed.

Emily bit her lip. "No, no, please, this is all wonderful. I love everything you've done so far, really I do. And I understand that you don't have shoes for me, that makes sense, but surely I must have a dress, a ballgown, or something, to wear for this very formal and prestigious Coral Gala and to meet the king!"

The three mermaids frowned and stared hard at Emily. "If you summon your alkayi, we can help you to polish, press or decorate it," Coraline said.

Emily's heart sank. "I... don't have one of those," she said meekly.

A shocked gasp escaped from Pearla's lips, before she swiftly clapped both hands in front of her mouth. Coraline exchanged wide-eyed glances with the other mermaids, and all three retreated slightly. "A nokal at the Coral Gala..." whispered Nerissa.

"Nokal?" Emily ask, feeling the heat under her cheeks.

"But she's human!" said Coraline to Nerissa. "Maybe humans don't have alkayis."

"Evangeline did," Pearla chimed in. "At least... in the portraits..."

Coraline turned to Emily. "Do humans have alkayis? Or do you go about naked like children all your lives?"

Emily bit her lip. "Well... no. We don't have alkayis, but we also don't generally walk around naked. We wear clothes, made out of fabric. There's nothing special or magical about them, you don't have to find them in a magic forest, you just buy them."

"And where are your clothes?" asked Nerissa.

Emily let out a deep, frustrated sigh. "I've been asking myself that same question for weeks now. It just... uh, it's complicated. Suffice to say, I kinda don't have any right now. They're not things we can just summon like your alkayis." She looked around the room nervously. "Can't I have some more jewelery at least? A few more necklaces, something for my waist... I can't just go the the Gala naked!"

Pearla and Nerissa exchanged shocked whispers, and Coraline's frown deepened. "Begging your pardon, ma'am, but please try to understand and respect our traditions. We cannot be accused of giving you a false alkayi, and there is nothing we could provide that would allay that suspicion." Here Coraline gestured to her left side. "My kelp does not deign to cover this breast, and so I display it proudly. You must do the same with both of yours."

Emily looked at herself in the mirror. The picture was breathtaking, but to be seen in public like this, as the honored guest at a royal ball... it was shameless. The necklaces augmenting the Stoneshell only called attention to her bare breasts. And below that, her only adornments were the light jewelery on her arms, hands and feet. Emily pressed her thighs together and nervously glanced down at the strands of chestnut hair protruding between them.



"When a mermaid does not discover an alkayi during her time in the forest, we call her a nokal," Coraline said. "We do not shun nokals, but most prefer to isolate themselves and live quiet lives away from our cities. They are usually too ashamed to be seen."

"I, uh, totally get why," said Emily, hugging herself. "Thank you, ladies, for all your help. I love it all, I really do."

"Sir Caelum will hardly believe his eyes," said Pearla slyly. "One look and he will fall even deeper in love with you."

Emily gasped. A red flush appeared across her pale skin. "Oh no, he's just being hospitable..."

"There is much more than that in the way he looks at you," Nerissa added, with a knowing smile. "Of course, it would make sense for him to..."

"Hush!" snapped Coraline. "We must not subject our guest to idle gossip. Emily, the gala shall begin soon. Caelum will meet you at the balcony shortly. Let us proceed there at once."

Emily stood up, slightly unsteady, and took a last glance over her shoulder at the mirror. An expanse of pale skin, from her neck to her thighs, stared back at her. She had dreamed, in childhood, of attending royal balls, but never like this. And though she had already wandered naked for many days, the makeup and jewelery and the prospect of being an honored guest at a royal gala made it all new again. There would be no ballgown for her.

Accompanied by her retinue of mermaid attendants, Emily returned to the balcony where Caelum had first left her. He was waiting there for her. As their eyes met, she could see his expanding, taking in all of her. She couldn't help but blush and squirm, but refrained from covering herself. There would be no point, really. This was to be her outfit for the Coral Gala, where she would be the center of attention, as both a human among merfolk and the bearer of the Stoneshell.

"You look radiant, Emily," said Caelum, taking her hand in his and softly pressing his lips to it.

Oohs, aahs and fitful giggling erupted from the mermaid retinue and Emily bit her lower lip. A small voice in her head told her that Caelum would not have been quite so enthralled by her in a ballgown.

The next half-hour passed in a haze, and before she knew it Emily was standing beside Caelum before the grand doors to the palace's ballroom. The doors swung open, revealing the enormous and splendid interior bathed in the soft, iridescent glow of bioluminescent corals. Like many other public areas of the palace, it was partially open to the ocean, allowing fish and other sea creatures to swim in and out as they pleased.

Caelum's beard and hair had been combed, and he wore as his only clothing a thin purple sash from one shoulder to base of his tail. He offered his arm to Emily, and she took it gratefully.

"Announcing Emily Stoneshell Bearer of the surface world, heiress to the legacy of Evangeline, and Sir Caelum, Vanquisher of the Leviathan."

As they entered the hall, a hush fell over the crowd. All eyes turned to gaze upon the pair and whispers rippled through the gathering. A few of the younger merfolk appeared to pay close attention to the movement of Emily's legs, pointing and nudging each other. The older merfolk appeared more interested in the Stoneshell, which they gestured and squinted at. Emily began to shake under the weight of so many curious gazes taking in her naked form.

Sensing Emily's unease, Caelum pulled her closer, pressing her against his side, and increased the speed of his swimming. He pulled up, lifting Emily's feet from the marble floor, and swept her to the back of the hall. "The King has not yet arrived," he whispered in her ear. "But there's someone else I'd like you to meet first."

Caelum carried Emily past the chattering crowds towards a table in a corner of the hall, which was set apart from the others. A single mermaid sat at this table. Her hair was completely white and her face lined with age, but she was fit and strong as all merfolk were. She had a green tail and smiled as Emily and Caelum approached her. Unlike the rest of the mermaids and merman, she had not put much effort into her appearance for the gala.

But the first thing Emily had noticed about the mermaid, who took her hand and introduced herself as Zephyr, was that she was just as naked as Emily was. It was slightly surreal, seeing a pair of bare breasts that weren't her own reflected back in a mirror.



"Please, sit," said Zephyr, gesturing at a seat next to her. "It is an honor to meet the heiress of Evangline. I can only hope I am as much help to you as Sir Caelum believes I can be."

"Don't undersell yourself," Caelum said to Zephyr. Then, to Emily, "With your leave, I must make my rounds. I will return shortly to your side."

Emily waved to Caelum and then sat down as instructed, grateful for the opportunity to hide herself slightly from the crowd. "A—are you a nokal?" she asked, before wondering if that was a rude thing to say and blushing in embarrassment.

But rather than taking offense, Zephyr let out a musical laugh. "Ah, how much you have learned about our culture in such a short time," she said. "Yes, I am what is commonly called a nokal, a mermaid who was not gifted with an alkayi, one who was passed over for the symbiotic pairing with a true covering. But I like to think it keeps these firm." At this, she cupped her right breast and winked at Emily.

"W—why are you seated so far away from everyone else?" Emily thought back to what the mermaids had told her about nokals. "Are they scared of you?"

"Oh no, nothing of the sort," replied Zephyr. "People feel sorry for me, sometimes, but I am quite welcome here in Aquius. I spend most of my time in the city library, researching, and nobody gives me any trouble."

Emily nodded. The presence of another naked woman, and one who seemed considerably more at ease than she was, made her feel a little better.

"Of course it was quite embarrassing at first," mused Zephyr. "They blamed me for quite a few dolphin collisions, but really it was the mermen's fault for not keeping their eyes in front of them. And when all your friends get alkayis and you know you'll never have one, well... that does hurt. I adjusted after a few years though."

"A few... years..." Emily repeated. Here was a woman, a mermaid, who had endured for years—no, decades—what Emily had lived with for only a few weeks. And all without any hope of having clothes... ever! A wave of pity mixed with admiration washed over her, and she put her hand on Zephyr's. "I know exactly how you must have felt."

Zephyr's brows crinkled with confusion. "But how could you? You have the rarest and most powerful alkayi of them all."

"What?" Emily asked, mouth hanging agape. "I— do you mean—"

"The Stoneshell," said Zephyr. "Forged in lava by Thurseus Irontail as a betrothal gift for Evangeline, the Queen-Who-Wasn't, to join her, a surface dweller, to the merfolk. A powerful magic talisman and the only alkayi ever deliberately forged by merfolk hands."

Emily glanced down at the Stoneshell, hanging from its chain between her other necklaces. She noticed that Zephyr's eyes were also fixed on it and had been staring at it the whole time they'd been sitting together.

"You can understand why I'd be interested in such a thing, I suppose," Zephyr said, still staring at the Stoneshell. "I never had an alkayi of my own, and I supposed that's part of what drives my fascination with them. I've pored over every book about the subject multiple times, and books about the Stoneshell even more often than that. When I was younger, I even tried to emulate King Irontail's methods to craft my own alkayi. Unsuccessfully, of course." Here, she made a face and gestured at her bare torso. "But in the process, I became Aquius's foremost scholar on ocean magic."

Emily glanced down at the Stoneshell and then back at Zephyr. "But aren't alkayis supposed to... uh... cover a bit more?" A horrible sensation churned in the base of her stomach as she recalled Coraline's words about what her alkayi did not deign to cover. Had the Stoneshell condemned her to constant nudity? It made a certain amount of sense.

"Not always," said Zephyr. "There are plenty of mermaids whose alkayis never cover their stomachs or their backs, and some that leave one breast exposed. I once heard of a mermaid whose alkayi was a single tiny shell worn over her left nipple. Certainly, such small alkayis are unusual, but the Stoneshell was made for a human, and humans have their own clothing customs. Or at least, they did in Evangeline's time."

Emily folded her arms across her breasts. "They—we still do. I don't, uh, normally walk around like this. Well, at least, I didn't used to."

Zephyr gasped. "I thought you looked uncomfortable! Oh Emily... you didn't need to follow our alkayi rules so closely! Evangeline always wore a dress from the surface." Here she gestured to an abstract mural on a nearby wall, which depicted a merman with a gray tail and a crown holding hands with a woman in long black dress. A gray shell hung suspended from her neck.

Emily stared at the mural for some time, reassuring herself that constant nudity was not, after all, a condition for being the Stoneshell bearer, but merely a result of her absolutely rotten luck.

"I am sure, though, that the king will appreciate this deference to our traditions," Zephyr mused. "Oh, look, here he is now."

A hush came over the ballroom and the all eyes turned towards the closed entrance doors. Emily spotted Caelum hastily swimming towards their table, where he took his place at her side. Two lines of mermen and mermaids assembled on either side of the ballroom entrance, holding large spiraling conches ready to blow. For a moment, all was silent, frozen in anticipation.

The doors swung open and the conches began to play a triumphant, slightly pompous melody. A small, bald merman standing among the conch-blowers proclaimed in a high, clear voice, "Presenting His Majesty, Trilato, King of the Western Mer!"

A powerfully built man with flowing white hair appeared in the frame of the doorway. His tail was shimmering green, and in his right hand he held an enormous white trident. He was adorned by ornate jewelery and a crown of coral and pearl. His expression was hard, and there was a suspicious look in his eyes, as though he was entering a battlefield rather than a ballroom.

King Trilato glided to the other side of the ballroom, where a stone throne had been set up for him. Upon reaching it, he turned and sat down. His narrowed eyes scanned the ballroom, briefly locking on Emily's. If he was surprised to see a human in his palace, his expression did not betray it.

"The king is in ill temper tonight," Caelum whispered to Emily. "Choose your words to him carefully."

Emily shuddered. Meeting a king in her birthday suit would be difficult enough without that additional complication.

After surveying the room a few more times, King Trilato raised his right hand, a signal for the bald herald to make a further announcement. "By order of King Trilato, let this Coral Gala, the thirteenth of his reign, commence!"

A cheer went up from the crowd, and music began to play, dissipating the tense atmosphere at once. "Eat, drink and be merry!" the herald continued, shouting to be heard over the music.

Caelum and Zephyr both smiled at Emily, and she had almost begun to relax when the bald herald suddenly materialized in front of her. "King Trilato gives you leave to approach the throne, Emily Stoneshell Bearer," the herald said, speaking at a normal volume that somehow retained all the pomp of his louder pronouncements, and staring fixedly at the Stoneshell.

"Oh-okay, I'll be right there," Emily replied. She was finding it difficult to tell exactly how much of the herald's attention was being held by the Stoneshell versus her breasts.

"Don't keep him waiting," said Zephyr. "It was wonderful to meet you, Emily."

"And you! I have so much more to ask you about the Stoneshell."

"And I look forward to telling you all I know."

Caelum held out an arm for Emily and led her swiftly through the throng of merfolk towards the throne. "You'll have to present yourself to King Trilato on your own, I can't stay by your side for that, but I'll be right behind you in the crowd."

Emily gulped nervously.

"Don't worry, this is just a formality. Be polite, convey the surface's warm greetings, and thank the king for his hospitality. He won't be in the mood for long conversations tonight." Caelum gave Emily's hand a reassuring squeeze.

A wide berth had been cleared in front of the king's throne. At Caelum's prompting, Emily walked from the crowd to the middle of the open space, legs shaking. She stood before the king in all her naked glory, wearing naught but borrowed jewelery. After a beat, she remembered to curtsy.

King Trilato sat in a slump on his throne, cradling his chin in one hand. A curious expression came over his face as his eyes flicked over Emily's form.

"So it is true, then," he said. "Human women move across the ground on legs, just as human men do. None of the paintings of Evangeline show this—her legs were always covered by her false alkayi."

"Y—yes, your majesty," Emily stammered, feeling the muscles in her butt clench. It seemed as though everyone she talked to had a different idea about what kind of attire was appropriate for a visitor to Aquius.

"Move them for me, would you?" asked the king. "I have not seen a human before, and it would give me great pleasure to watch you... 'walk'."

Caelum had told her in no uncertain terms to do anything the king asked of her. She obeyed him at once, taking a few shaky steps forward.

The king's eyes sparkled as he watched her. Once she had walked ten steps forward, he had her turn her side to him, so he could watch her walk in profile for another ten steps, and then he had her walk away from him, so he could watch the movement of her legs from behind. "Very interesting," he mused.

It would have been kind of weird to do this if she was clothed. Doing it naked was so much worse. Emily winced at the motion of her hips and tried to walk as stiffly as possible. She felt like a piece of meat. In asking her to parade before him, King Trilato was surely motivated by more than a scientific interest in human anatomy.

Once Emily had returned to her original spot, she curtsied again and smiled as winningly as she was able, hoping the king would not ask her to do anything else.

"Fascinating," said King Trilato. "Though quite lacking in grace. King Irontail was a strange man."



An expression of annoyance flashed across Emily's countenance, but she quickly suppressed it.

"I have been told you bear the Stoneshell," King Trilato said. He gestured towards Emily's chest. "Is that it?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Emily replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Approach, let me see it."

With trembling legs, Emily stepped closer to the throne, the mosaic of shells and corals under her feet glimmering faintly. King Trilato beckoned her nearer until she stood within an arm's length, the weight of his gaze heavy upon her.

He extended a hand, and Emily fought the urge to recoil as his fingers grazed her skin, finally closing around the Stoneshell. His eyes narrowed in scrutiny, making Emily's heart throb painfully in her chest.

"It was Sir Caelum who brought you to us, is that correct?"

"Yes, your majesty."

The king rubbed the Stoneshell absently between his thumb and forefinger. "Sir Caelum is one of my finest knights. He fought and defeated a leviathan when he was little more than a boy. A tale he must have shared with you."

An image of the white scar on Caelum's back flashed through Emily's mind.

"Sir Caelum is also a great admirer of Thurseus Irontail," the king continued. "Irontail united the squabbling merfolk tribes into a single kingdom, a feat that has not been repeated since his death. He was a great king, but had some strange proclivities." As he spoke, Trilato's fingers moved from the Stoneshell to Emily's chin, tilting her face up to meet his eyes. "A beautiful woman often leads even the strongest of men to folly."

Emily held Trilato's cold gaze, willing her face to display no emotion.

Suddenly, the king released her chin and gripped the Stoneshell again. In a swift, violent motion, he yanked the necklace, sending Emily staggering forward. A gasp escaped her lips as she felt the Stoneshell slip from her neck.

A cruel shout of triumph erupted from Trilato's lips and he seized the trident which had been resting at the side of the throne. Eyes blazing, he raised the weapon high and, with a mighty roar, brought down it on Stoneshell.

Emily turned to watch the trident strike. A brilliant flash of white light filled her vision and she felt a momentary constriction in her chest. The water around them rippled violently, dislodging strands of her hair from Nerissa's intricate styling.

But the Stoneshell was unharmed. The king's laughter died in his throat as he stared at the shell sitting on the armrest of his throne, looking entirely undisturbed. Emily followed his gaze to the middle spike of his trident, which had been bent by the impact.

Emily's mind was still reeling from the shock of seeing her most cherished possession nearly destroyed. She focused on the Stoneshell and called it back to herself, just as she had done in Elara's study. The Stoneshell leaped at once from its resting place and shot through the water. Once again, Emily felt its comforting weight and warmth against her chest.

"What?!" King Trilato bellowed, eyes narrowing on Emily. "Guards! Seize her!"

The music and chatter in the ballroom had ceased, and all the mermaids and mermen had turned to watch the scene unfold between their king and the human woman. Mermen and mermaids with hard faces and sharp swords advanced on them from all sides. "Spy! Traitor! Enemy! Usurper!" shouted the king.

Emily glared defiantly at the king, her hand outstretched. Drawing upon the Stoneshell's power, she attempted to conjure a massive fireball. The shell glowed with a fierce orange light, heat building within her. When she could contain it no longer, she unleashed the energy with a primal scream.

But instead of a fireball, only a puff of black smoke appeared. King Trilato's laughter echoed mockingly around the room. "Foolish girl! You cannot light a fire at the bottom of the ocean!"

Emily's cheeks glowed with embarrassment and her heart sank. How could she have been so stupid? Of course the Stoneshell's fire power was useless underwater! She had expended her strength for nothing.

Trilato lifted his damaged trident once more and advanced toward Emily at a frightful speed. The king and his guards were closing in on her. Emily's legs trembled as she stared at the powerful tails of the merfolk advancing on her. No matter how strong a swimmer she might be, she would be no match for these beings in their native habitat.

Just then, a familiarly scarred back atop a familiar blue tail appeared in front of her. "Please do not do this, your majesty," said Caelum, a slight waver in his voice as he addressed his king.

"It is as I suspected," Trilato said, his voice tired and heavy. "The star knight seeks to follow the path of Irontail—to usurp his king and unite the Mer, side-by-side with the heiress of Evangeline."

Shocked gasps rippled across the ballroom. "Grab hold of me," Caelum whispered to Emily. "We may need to make a swift exit."

Doing as she was told, Emily slipped her arms around Caelum's waist and pressed up against his back.

"Fool!" Trilato bellowed. "Do you truly believe that sharing Irontail's unnatural predilections gives you the right to rule?"

Emily furrowed her brows.

Caelum took a moment to gather his thoughts before saying, "No, I do not, your majesty. But tell me, do you believe that the right to rule is due to he who shies from battle as his brothers are murders? Or to he who poisons his sisters and cousins? Or him who imprisons or executes his knights and nobles at the merest whiff of challenge?"

The ballroom was alive with murmurs, and the king was becoming angry. His face had turned completely red and veins were bulging from his forehead.

"The truth is, your majesty," Caelum continued, "I would have happily served you and your house all the days of my life, had I not reason to fear your paranoia. As soon as I arrived in Aquius with the Stoneshell Bearer, I was advised that you would take it as a challenge to your authority. I took such advisories as slander against my king, but I would have been wiser to heed them. Such is the way of King Trilato Thinskin, as he will be known to the history books."

Another shocked gasp rippled through the ballroom. Trilato sputtered incoherently and gestured wildly with his trident. The palace guards resumed their advance on Emily and Caelum.

"Time to go," Caelum whispered. "Hold tight." With a powerful flick of his tail, Caelum rocketed up to the ceiling of the ballroom and shot through one of the numerous open skylights. Emily clung to him desperately, her arms locked around his midsection.

The rush of the ocean currents hit Emily as they left the confines of the palace, entering the vast open sea. Her hair billowed out below them, free from the last of Nerissa's ministrations.

The open sea was too exposed, and the king's guards approached from all sides. Caelum made at once for the outskirts of Aquius and a particularly dense section of kelp forest. But their pursuers were relentless; the king's guards, skilled and swift in the water, followed close behind. Emily could hear the muffled sounds of their shouts and the rush of water as they gained on them.

"Caelum, they're catching up!" Emily cried out, her voice laced with panic.

"I know a place where we can hide," Caelum replied.

In a swift, evasive maneuver, Caelum led them into a narrow, winding canyon lined with sea anemones and sponges. The canyon split into multiple forking paths, which Caelum took at random, pulling Emily deeper into the labyrinth. The sound of the kings' guards grew fainter as they descended further into the canyon's depths.

In a dark, hidden alcove, Caelum stopped to rest, setting Emily down on the sandy ocean floor. Then he turned to her and she saw that he held a small book in his right hand. "Zephyr wanted you to have this," he said, handing it to Emily. "It contains her notes about the Stoneshell. When it became clear to us that Trilato would try to destroy it and capture you, she entrusted it to me."

Emily took the book from Caelum and flicked through it. The cover was made of a substance very similar to leather, but smoother and slicker. The pages were faintly green, as though made from algae. The ink, she imagined, came from a squid. "Thank you, Caelum," she said, hugging the book to her chest.

"Zephyr only regrets that she will not be able to tell you these things personally."

Once he had regained his breath, Caelum took Emily in his arms and swam out of the alcove. There was no sign of the kings' guards, and they had left the city of Aquius far behind them. For a time, they swam in silence. The water around them grew lighter as they approached the surface.

"I'm sorry to have caused you so much trouble," said Emily. The chaotic events at the ball had sunk in and she was beginning to realize the magnitude of what Caelum had sacrificed for her. "What will you do now?"

"King Trilato is an unpopular ruler," Caelum said flatly. "Everything I accused him of is true. He has made many enemies through his paranoia and insecurity. The moment I met you on that beach and discovered you were the Stoneshell Bearer, I knew that to bring you to Aquius would enrage him."

Emily frowned. "Wait, so you knowingly put me in danger?"

Caelum locked his eyes on Emily's, his face a solemn mask. "It was a danger you willingly accepted the moment you donned the Stoneshell, Emily. To wield such a powerful and ancient artifact is to choose an auspicious destiny."

"Well, you could have at least warned me," Emily said morosely. She glanced down at where the Stoneshell lay, nestled between her bare breasts. It was the source of a lot of conflicted feelings lately and she couldn't help but wonder how things might have gone if she asked a few more questions before putting it on back in Castle Elid. The fire powers were awesome, of course, but it seemed to entangle her in a lot of dangerous quests, while making it very difficult to keep a proper outfit intact.

"I had hoped I was wrong about Trilato," Caelum replied. "One always tries to think well of one's ruler. But in the back of my mind, I suppose I always knew I was destined to defy him. Meeting you just confirmed it."

"What are you saying, Caelum?"

Caelum's voice seemed caught in his throat as he gazed into Emily's eyes. "I must go into hiding for a time. But I have many friends and supporters in Aquius and the surrounding Mer dominions. I will gather my armies and meet King Trilato on the field of battle, just as Thurseus Irontail defeated Amegnon Graybeard. It is my destiny. Will you accompany me, Emily Stoneshell Bearer?"

Before Emily could think of a reply, the water around them jolted violently as something from the surface plunged into its depths. Thick ropes descended around them, and Emily felt herself being pulled away from Caelum's grasp.

A fishing net, cast by a surface vessel, had ensnared her, dragging her upwards towards the light of the sun. The more she writhed and attempted to break free, the more tangled she became in the net's criss-crossing ropes.

"Caelum!" Emily screamed, reaching out towards him.



"Emily!" Caelum cried out, his face a mask of horror and desperation. He tried to follow, but the net pulled her away too quickly.

"Caelum!" Emily shouted until she was hoarse, but the net was moving too fast.

Caelum made a valiant effort to catch up to her, but his progress was impeded by the sudden reappearance of the king's guards, along with a host of animal mounts and companions. Two strong mermen grabbed hold of Caelum's arms and he struggled against them in vain.

Emily could only watch helplessly as she was pulled higher and higher, the pressure of the water changing rapidly around her. She clutched Zephyr's book tight against her chest. Its contents could hardly make Caelum's sacrifice worthwhile, but this was all she had.

The net breached the surface of the water, and Emily was breathing air again. Her lungs took it in in great, shocked gasps. While the Stoneshell had allowed her to breath underwater, it was nothing like the sensation of breathing fresh air.

The great net was soon hoisted up to the ship that cast it, spilling its contents out across the wooden deck. Emily tumbled out, surrounded by writhing fish and algae, Zephyr's book still firmly wrapped in her arms. Laying on her front, Emily took a series of deep breaths, still adjusting to her sudden return to the surface.

A low whistle met her ears. "Well, aren't you a pretty little thing," said a grizzled voice.

"That's good fishing!" said another voice.

Emily raised her head to the source of the voices. Various men stood around her, all a slightly different flavor of rough, hairy and disheveled, and all wide-eyed and gawping at the naked woman their fishing net had just brought in. Eye-patches, peg-legs and hook-hands were in plentiful supply.

It appeared that, much like the heiress in that book she had never gotten to finish, Emily had been captured by pirates.