The Courier
Copyright 2008 by EC
EC's Erotic Art & Fiction - http://www.ecgraphicarts.com/

(warnings: erotic discipline, sex between adults, medical fetish, 
forced public nudity, rape, harsh police interrogation)


Chapter 23 - Homecoming

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

----------

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

----------

The next morning it was Pedro who woke up everyone in the house. 
He had to go to school, which meant that either Cecilia or Victor 
had to get up to serve him breakfast. Victor went downstairs to 
cook for the boy, because Cecilia needed to braid Maria Elena’s 
hair and Maria Elena needed to bandage Cecilia’s feet. No sooner 
were those two tasks accomplished than did Officer Vladik Dukov 
pass by in a police van to take the two women downtown to the 
Central Courthouse. Before Criminal # 101025 could return to her 
normal life, her collar from the Royal Residence would have to be 
removed and replaced with one from the Ministry of Justice. 

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

----------

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

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

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

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

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

“DOC-DOC DANUBE!”

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

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

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

“Yes Chief Justice, I am present!”

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

“Yes Chief Justice, I am present!”

“Very well. Please step forward!”

The Chief Justice addressed the kneeling criminals next:

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

Silently the group of criminals knelt upright. Cecilia whispered 
the translation to Maria Elena, who followed the others.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Grand Duke took a deep breath.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Thank you, Chief Justice.”

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

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

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

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

----------

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

----------

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

Valkt Dukokt Regis trebet dek Legitkci eta Derechekti Koronkti 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

----------

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

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

----------

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

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

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