Lanala’s eyes darted back and forth between the training cell and her wife, Artema. This time they both stood outside the barred window and watched two women of the order struggle with escape training.

“Why are we doing this again?” Lanala asked.

“It’s best to practice all scenarios, Lanala. If two of us are captured at the same time we should know how to free each other. You know what they say about two heads,” Artema said.

Lanala still furrowed her brow.

“So what am I doing here?”

“Observing, I hope, instead of just talking,” Artema said.

“But why? You can’t do this alone?”

“Because we’re going in next,” Artema said. “But they need to escape or fail first. After that, you and I will be tied up together in the cell. So watch how they do it. I won’t exactly be able to give you instructions when its our turn.”

“I guess group training sessions make sense,” Lanala said. “We do run into a lot of groups.”

“Team cohesion is by far the most important aspect of what we do, Lanala. Without it we are lost.”

Lanala simply nodded and turned her attention back to the two struggling women. They were on opposite sides of the cell, tied to wooden chairs. The spellcaster first looked to Mirelle, the petite woman in the far corner.

Mirelle was a bit of an anomaly among warriors. She was known as what is called a ‘spellsword.’ She could weave a few powerful spells and knew how to fight hand-to-hand quite well. But, as a result, she was not a master in either field. That, coupled with her small frame, led many people to underestimate her. To make it worse, Mirelle was the most bubbly and happy among their group of seven and most people did not see a fighter in her. But Lanala was perhaps the most wary of Mirelle in sparring matches. Her abilities with both magic and swords proved a deadly combination and she fought with such an unexpected ferocity she could even give Taria or Artema a run for their money.

Lanala always found her eyes drawn to a person’s hair and Mirelle’s, simply put, was stunning. She maintained it well but her shining, wavy locks of light green hair tumbled down her shoulders in an elegant and perfect shape.

Her frame, though short, was quite athletic though she didn’t quite measure up to the muscular tone of Lanala herself, let alone their hulking leader. Mirelle stood almost six inches shorter than Taria and nearly a foot shorter than Lanala. Artema made Mirelle look like a toddler.

Even though she struggled with her bonds at the moment, Lanala noted the bright sparkle in Mirelle’s beautiful red eyes. Though an ominous colour, Mirelle’s eyes shone with a bright, unbreakable spirit. They projected a wondrous heart, big enough to have love for everyone she met.

Lanala also found herself taken with Mirelle’s fashion sense. The petite spellsword adored nature and so wore its colours, brown and green, in her elegant outfit. It was battle ready and protected, of course, but it doubled as an excellent piece of fashion. Her long-sleeved shirt was mostly green, especially the sleeves themselves, though they sported two brown stripes about the elbow. The front of the shirt and her plunging collar were both a crisp, earthy brown. Her long skirt matched it in colour and tassels hung about the entire hem. The skirt also featured a gap near the right leg that stopped right at the top of one of Mirelle’s elegant legs. The flat, green shoes finished off the outfit and Lanala remarked to herself how amazing Mirelle always looked.

Her eyes then drifted to the woman closest to her, another spellcaster like her. This was Luna, though she specialized in ice magic. Luna’s skin was darker than Lanala’s and contrasted with her bright hair, tied back in a single braid, and coloured a cool, icy blue. Luna’s eyes were pale and silvery in colour though she, like Mirelle, had a certain happy spirit about her. The ice caster was perhaps a bit more dour than her green-haired counterpart, but she got along with Mirelle perhaps better than anybody and the spellsword’s bubbly spirit had clearly rubbed off on her.

Luna wore a skin-tight suit that covered her entire slim, athletic body and seemed to be made of some tough yet thin fabric that Lanala could not identify. She asked Luna what it was made of and all she’d said was that it had come from ‘the moon’s tears.’ Lanala suspected she would never know exactly what that meant.

The suit Luna wore was an even paler blue than her hair and was complimented by darker blue, thigh high boots. She wore gloves that matched her boots and this seemed to be protection enough for the ice caster.

They were in similar predicaments at the moment though they had been tied to their chairs differently. Mirelle had her hands crossed behind her back with tough ropes encircling them. More ropes wound their way around her chest and waist, pinning her arms to her sides and keeping her attached to the chair. Her legs were bound at the knees and ankles and a final rope attached her ankles to her hands, pulling both of them tight and keeping her from kicking her feet. A thick cloth had been knotted in the middle and pulled tightly into her mouth by a tough knot at the back that Lanala had tied herself.

Luna, however, had her arms at her side and pinned to the back of the chair individually. Ropes kept her arms attached to the chair at her wrists, elbows, and biceps. Two more ropes wrapped around her chest and kept her back stuck to the chair. Her knees were tied together but each ankle had been attached to the chair’s front legs, spreading them apart. Like Mirelle, Luna had a knotted cleave gag in her mouth and couldn’t spit it out because of the monstrous not that Artema had tied behind her head.

They both squirmed and mewled at each other through their gags in an attempt to move closer together. While both of them had the skills to maybe escape on their own, Artema had given them strict instructions to work together and that was proving difficult when they were tied to chairs at opposite ends of the training cell.

“Mmmph!’ Luna grunted at Mirelle.

She tried to drag her chair forward with her feet but the ropes attaching her ankles to the chair legs made the process agonizingly slow. Mirelle, meanwhile, had managed some progress but the rope attaching her ankles to her wrists made every movement tiring and difficult. She couldn’t kick her legs very far at all and dragging the chair with her feet made it move just as slowly as Luna’s.

Mirelle thrashed her legs and squirmed her body back and forth in an attempt to make some forward progress.

“Mmnngh!’ she grunted, and the chair squeaked forward less than an inch. “Nrrrggh!’ Mirelle growled in frustration behind her gag.

Luna shook her upper body and squirmed against the tight ropes, trying to drag herself forward in some sort of walking motion. The chair hopped forward a few centimetres and stopped.

“Hrrmmmph...” Luna groaned. This was going to take all day at this rate.

“Come on, girls,” Artema called. “You’ve got half your time left and I gave you an hour. That should be plenty of time to get out of this.”

“Mmmph!’ they both bleated in unison.

“Quit complaining,” Artema called. “What are you, schoolgirls? Or are you women of the Order of Ikaatan?”

“Uummph,” Mirelle said.

“Hrm hmmph!” Luna huffed.

“Let’s go!”

“Artema, dear,” Lanala said, softly, keeping her voice low. “Do you really have to be so hard on them?”

“Hard? You haven’t begun to see me be hard on them, Lanala. I’m motivating them, as a leader should. One hand offers compassion and the other gives firm guidance. It is a delicate balance. I can’t just be sweet all the time like you.”

“You could stand to do it a bit more, I think,” Lanala said. “Like when you’re with me at home. I feel like the other girls never get to see that side of you. You’re sweet too, Artema.”

Artema stifled a smile and kept her stern gaze upon the struggling women in the cell.

“I can’t afford to be sweet, Lanala. Compassion is a strength, yes, but a leader has to be strict, command respect, and demand discipline.”

“Oh, Artema,” Lanala said. She resisted the urge to sigh and lay her head on Artema’s broad shoulder. “You’re so stubborn. But I love you.”

Artema closed her eyes and let out a long breath through her nose. She kept her voice at a near whisper.

“I love you too, Lanala.”

When Artema opened her eyes again, Mirelle had moved away from the wall and was now halfway across the room. She’d been paying too much attention to her wife and not enough attention to her pupils.

“That’s it, Mirelle! Use that strength. Help your partner out. Come on, Luna! I know you can do it!”

Artema flashed her wife a smile.

“See? I can be encouraging too, when I need to be,” she said.

...

When the last of the ropes fell away from Luna’s legs, she stood up and stretched. She plucked the cloth from her mouth and let out a breathy laugh. Mirelle giggled and held a hand up to Luna.

“We did it!” she shouted.

“That we did,” Luna said. She high-fived the green-haired spellsword.

Artema unlocked the iron door and entered the cell, ducking under the top of the doorway. She beamed at the two of them and clapped them both on the shoulder.

“That is what we need to do, ladies,” Artema said. “That is how it’s done.”

Lanala entered after her wife and smiled sweetly.

“You were both so good together,” she said. “It was a wonderful display.”

“Aww, thanks,” Luna said, rubbing the back of her head.

“Thanks, Lanala!” Mirelle said. She bounded over to Lanala and wrapped her arms around the spellcaster’s waist. Lanala laughed and returned the embrace.

“What are you so excited about?” Lanala asked.

“Did you forget? I get to tie you up now! Isn’t that exciting?”

Lanala chuckled.

“I suppose it is. You’ll have to take extra care though, I think. Nobody is better at escaping than my partner,” Lanala said.

“I can’t do that, Lanala,” Artema said. “Not on my own, at least. We follow the same rules as these ladies which means I’m not allowed to escape on my own. You have to help me.”

“Oh... right,” Lanala said, her smile suddenly fading. She was feeling less confident now.

“And we have to make it fair,” Artema said. “You’ll have to cover most of the distance across the floor.”

“Um, why?” Lanala asked.

“Because my chair is going to be chained to the wall and Luna will have to add all sorts of extra ropes to my upper body.”

“What?”

“It’s only fair, Lanala. I have far more experience escaping bondage than the rest of you. I need to be tied up tighter. We all must be subject to the same conditions for this to be real training, after all.”

“Oh, I do enjoy this part,” Luna said.

“Don’t enjoy it too much, Luna,” Artema said. “This is, first and foremost, a learning experience.”

“Of course, ma’am,” Luna said.

Mirelle raised her hand and smiled wide.

“Can I make a suggestion?”

“Certainly,” Artema said.

“I think we should gag Artema with a whole lot of bandages. She knows how to get gags off better than anyone! It’s incredible, really. But if we’re being fair then her gag has to be tighter, too.”

Artema nodded.

“You’re right. I hadn’t thought of that. Good suggestion, Mirelle. We’ll do just that.”

“Thank you, ma’am!” Mirelle said, standing straight and saluting Artema with a goofy grin on her face. The sight brought a smile to Artema’s lips.

“All right. Sit down, Lanala. It’s our turn,” Artema said.

“Yeah, sure,” Lanala said, tentatively. “I hope we can escape.”

“Well that will be up to us, won’t it?” Artema said, flashing Lanala another smile.

...

“Twenty minutes left!” Mirelle said, her happy voice echoing off the walls of the cell.

“Mmmrph,” Lanala grumbled. She looked across the room at Artema and couldn’t help but shake her head.

At that moment it looked like Artema was more rope than woman. An incredible and ridiculous amount of rope wound around her torso and arms from the elbows all the way up to just below the shoulders. More ropes attached Artema’s waist to the chair and looped around her wrists, themselves secured with the thickest ropes Lanala had ever seen outside of a shipyard. They sat crossed behind her back and were attached to the crazy amount of ropes that tied Artema’s ankles together and completely shrouded her ankles and half of her powerful calves. Further tough ropes obscured Artema’s thick legs above and below the knees, leaving barely enough room for her to bend her legs. Another long rope was wrapped above those and caused her skirt to ride up, exposing her shapely, muscular thighs. To top it off, three cloths had been stuffed into Artema’s mouth, causing her cheeks to bulge out slightly, and were sealed in with a bandage that had been wrapped around her head twelve times. Her entire face below the nose was covered by the huge gag.

Lanala was amazed when Artema had managed to scoot her chair forward in spite of her incredible bondage. But a short chain wrapped around one of the chairs back legs, only three feet in length, had stopped her progress there. Artema waited patiently for Lanala to get across the room and help free her. The huge warrior woman would occasionally squirm and test her tough bonds but she hardly struggled at all. Lanala, meanwhile, was having a hard time.

She had been tied up like Luna had been, with her arms at her sides and tied to the back and her legs secured to the legs of the chair. A fresh, knotted cleave gag kept her silent and made her groaning and grunting sounds nothing more than muffled squawks.

“Hmmg mmmph,” Artema encouraged, nodding her head, the tremendous gag keeping her quiet as a whisper.

Lanala locked eyes with her wife and became lost in those gorgeous green pools of pure beauty. The bright, surreal shade of green always made her feel safe and comfortable. She could look into those eyes all-

“MMMPH!’

Artema was forced to scream to get her wife’s attention. She barely made a sound but the sharpness of it snapped Lanala back to reality.

The spellcaster struggled hard and shuffled her chair forward tiny bit by tiny bit. She turned her head to look back and noticed the wall still frustratingly close. She had barely made any more progress than her heavily bound wife on the other side of the room. Letting out a few deep breaths, Lanala lurched hard against her bonds.

“Mmmph!”

“Hmm mmmph!” Artema said.

“Nrgghk!” Lanala grunted, dragging the chair a few inches forward.

“Hmmmpgh! Hrrrmph! Ummph!”

Lanala grunted with each lurch, the ropes straining and pulling tighter against her body. But they did not give at all. She took in several more deep breaths and prepared to lurch forward again.

“Hrrmm Hmmmph!” Artema said, doing her best to encourage her wife.

“Hrrghhk! Mmmph! Hmm MMMMMPH!”

With her last, powerful lurch, Lanala suddenly felt a strange sensation like she was falling. It was then she realized that she had bucked too far to the right and that she actually was falling! She and the chair went down to the stone floor with a thud. The chair took the brunt of the fall, thankfully, but Lanala still felt the impact against her shoulder and grunted.

“Uummmph!”

She wriggled around and tested her bonds. Nothing would come loose. Her wife was too far away to reach any of her bonds. Lanala kicked her legs and tried to slide them down off the legs but Mirelle had tied her too tightly. Her legs remained firmly stuck to the chair’s legs. Lanala attempted to shift her entire weight onto the left side of the chair and put it back upright but her bondage put a swift stop to that. She realized then that she was helpless. Her arms were bound way too tight and there was no way to reach any of the knots. Artema was still too far away to help free her. Artema lowered her head and sighed. She knew the rules. Escape training had to be as realistic as possible. That meant no outside help which meant Lanala would be stuck writhing on the floor and Artema herself would be stuck tied to her chair as well. They weren’t getting out this time.

“Mmmph mmmph,” Artema said, attempting to comfort Lanala. It was a good try Lanala heard in her head, picturing Artema’s strong voice.

When time was up, Mirelle and Luna helped get the two of them out of their chairs. They had to re-tie Lanala for the trip to the quiet room but neither woman was large enough to carry Lanala nor Artema down the hall. Instead, both of the larger women hopped down the hallway, each steadied by one of the others to keep them from falling over.

Artema and Lanala sat down in the semi-circle of candles together. They were both tied similarly this time, though Artema was still covered with ropes; far more than Lanala had on her body. Each of them sighed into their gags as they were both blindfolded with thick cloths and everything went black.

Lanala felt the two women haul her onto her stomach and tie her ankles to her wrists. Great she thought. Hogtied again.

“Hmmmmph,” Lanala complained.

“Sorry, Lanala,” Luna said. “Artema told us that you struggle a lot in here so we’re just following protocol.”

“Grrrmmmph,” Lanala growled.

“It’s all right, Lanala,” Mirelle said, cheerily. “You get to spend quality time with your sweetheart! We’ll be back in hour, you two. Have fun!”

“Mmmmph!” Lanala complained.

“Hmm mmmph,” Artema said.

When she heard them shut the door, Lanala bucked and squirmed against the tight hogtie. The ropes held firm and she laid her head on the soft floor.

“Mmmmmph...” she sighed.

“Hmm hmm?” Artema said.

Lanala turned her head in the direction of Artema’s muffled voice.

“Mmmph?”

Her wife didn’t answer her but she felt something against the small of her back.

“Ymmph!” she yelped.

“Hmmmph,” Artema said, calmly.

It took Lanala a moment to realize that Artema was resting her head in the small of her back.

“Hmmmm...” Artema sighed.

She pulled up her bound wrists and felt around until she could feel the smooth skin of Lanala’s strong legs.

“Hmmph?” Lanala asked, as she felt the back of Artema’s hand.

“Mmph mmm,” Artema said, dreamily, as she began stroking Lanala’s legs with the backs of her bound hands.

The sensation was... lovely. Lanala’s loving wife did all she could to keep her calm and it was moments like these were she enjoyed being tied up. It meant she couldn’t move and spoil this tender, beautiful moment.

Artema allowed herself to relax and felt her head rise and fall with each of Lanala’s breaths.

Lanala felt her wife relax all her muscles and decided to do the same. Firmly bound, gagged, and blindfolded, both women relished each other’s company and let out a simultaneous, satisfied sigh.

“Hrrmmmmpphhh....”