of the pile of clothing and climbed into his palm, trying in vain to shield her nakedness. She wrapped her arms around his thumb as he lifted her up off the floor. It was like being raised into the heavens and her stomach swooped at the dizzying sensation. He set her on the table and stood back to admire her.
‘Put your hands at your sides,’ he said. ‘Don’t try to cover yourself.’
A hot blush burned her face and she averted her eyes. But she did as she was told, forcing her trembling arms down by her sides. She felt her nipples stiffen in the cool air, as though tightening under his scrutiny. It was all she could do to stand there, tiny and helpless and exposed, as he peered down at her as he might a captured butterfly.
He picked up a magnifying glass and held it above her. It was the size of a cartwheel. She cowered for a moment before he sharply told her to be still. Then, in a cool and dispassionate tone, he instructed her to turn this way and that, to raise her arms and lower them again, to arch her back and bend in different postures. She was exactly the same as she had been before, only much, much smaller. And utterly helpless.
Valtiori laid the glass aside and made some notation in his journal. She watched, mesmerised, as the feathery tail of the quill waved in the air high above her, like a tree in the breeze. He caught her fascinated gaze and a cryptic smile spread across his features. Then he lowered the feather to her and brushed it across her naked skin.
Auren gasped at the silken caress, blushing as she felt her sex grow wetter. Her new size made everything different and wildly exciting. Boldly, she jumped up, grabbed the shaft of the quill and held on to it tightly as he lifted it – and her – up off the table. A bead of black ink welled at the tip of the quill and splashed on the table far below her. Auren hung suspended in the air for a moment before letting go and dropping back down. She stumbled and landed on her side, crying out in dismay at the cold shock of ink.
‘Oh, dear,’ Valtiori said, making no attempt to disguise his amusement. His eyes gleamed like twin moons. ‘Look what you’ve done to yourself.’
She scrambled to her feet, brushing impotently at the ink and succeeding only in making herself dirtier.
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ she mumbled, wondering if he could even hear her mouse-like squeak.
‘It’s quite all right, my girl,’ he said, ‘but we can’t have you looking like that, now can we? Unfortunately, you’re rather too small for the bathtub …’
He looked around for a moment and then took a small bowl from one of the shelves. He poured in a little water and then crumbled some herbs over it, stirring the mixture with his finger until the dust had dissolved. ‘This should do.’
Auren squirmed with embarrassment as her master picked her up and deposited her in the bowl. With his finger Valtiori gently rubbed at the ink on her skin. It came away easily and the water turned cloudy as it dissolved. He admonished her when she wouldn’t hold still and she did her best to obey. Then his finger slid up between her legs and he gently rubbed her sex. She gasped at the intense stimulation and lay back in the bowl, clutching the sides for support. He stroked her slowly and deliberately, sending shock waves of pleasure through her body.
‘So many wonders to explore,’ Valtiori mused. ‘I do wonder if the alteration in size has affected you in other ways?’
Auren felt light-headed as she gazed up at him. His eyes danced with a playful light she had only seen once before. In her dream. And then she knew it hadn’t been a dream at all.
Valtiori flattened his palm and she climbed into it. With a scrap of cloth he dried her roughly, then examined her closely under the magnifying glass to be sure he hadn’t missed any ink. Auren’s sex throbbed insistently as he teased her legs wide apart and prodded her gently with his finger. She couldn’t help the sudden image of what his cock would look like to her tiny self. Could she wrap her arms and legs around it and squeeze it tightly? Could she tease the head with her tiny hands and feel it twitch and harden beneath her? The thought made her even wetter and she was sure that he could see it through the glass.
His brow furrowed slightly then, as it did when he was deep in thought, yet his lips continued to smile. There was something wicked in his expression, something darkly sensual. He took an article from a shelf and set it on the table. Then he placed her on top of it. She blinked in confusion for a moment. It was a wax tray, the kind used for dissection.
‘You’re such a rare specimen,’ he said. ‘Now lie on your back for me.’
Auren was grateful not to have to stand up any longer. She obeyed, a delicious shudder coursing from head to foot as she lay back in the soft wax and waited for the exposure she knew was coming. She had admired her master’s collection of butterflies and marvelled at his skill in pinning them, splaying their colourful wings to show their exquisite beauty.
Now he took up a length of silken thread and twisted it into a double loop. He arranged her arms so they were spread like wings and with his most delicate pair of miniature tongs he laid the thread across Auren’s left wrist and carefully drove a pin through each end of the loop, securing her arm in place. Then he did the same with her other wrist.
Auren tested the bonds and found she was held fast. The sense of powerlessness and display made her writhe with desire and she squeezed her legs together tightly, craving and dreading what she knew would come next.
‘Legs apart,’ he said.
Slowly she spread her legs for him, blushing and squirming at the wetness that would be shamefully obvious to her master. Her heartbeat threatened to deafen her. Valtiori pinned her ankles in place with two more loops of thread and stepped back to admire his work.
‘Now what shall we do with you?’ he wondered aloud, clearly relishing the unique power he had over his tiny apprentice.
Auren felt dizzy with lust and exposure, her legs splayed wide for her master. She felt the memory of his cock inside her, the feeling stronger now that she knew it had been real. He couldn’t fuck her now but she imagined there were plenty of other creative things he could do to her instead.
He teased her again with the quill, brushing the excruciating softness of the feather across her breasts, tickling her nipples into painful stiffness. Then he dipped the nib into the candle, coating it with a droplet of melted wax. As he brought it near her sex she sighed at the warmth she could feel emanating from it. He placed it between her splayed thighs, pressing the warm soft waxy bulb against her sex and moving it in tiny circles.
She moaned and shuddered at its touch, gasping occasionally when the pressure became too intense. When the wax began to cool he withdrew the quill and Auren whimpered softly, a submissive entreaty for him not to stop. He smiled down at her, seeming pleased by her behaviour.
‘I wonder …’ he mused. Then he picked up another pin like the ones securing her to the wax tray. ‘Now hold perfectly still.’
Auren’s eyes widened in terror as he slowly lowered the pin between her legs. She bit back a scream as it came nearer and nearer but she held still as she’d been ordered to and the point sank into the wax tray without touching her. Valtiori angled it upwards slightly so that it pressed firmly against her sex. The stimulation was immediate and intense, no doubt heightened by her momentary fear.
But Valtiori wasn’t finished. He had looped something through the end of the pin, some kind of flexible thread. No, she realised. It was the string of a musical instrument. She watched, fascinated, as he pulled it taut and placed his finger against it. And when he strummed it, the vibration
