A Masquerade of Power

I looked at the mask in my hand and sighed. I had already been here for over an hour, and still no sign of the woman I was supposed to meet. Well, less a woman, more of a girl. She said she was nineteen years old, but I knew that was a lie. The only other person who knew her true age would have been her father, and he had been dead for many years.

I put on the mask and tried to forget about it as I watched the dancers on the floor. Nothing but children trying to play at adults, most of them anyway. Some of them seemed to be having fun; a few even looked like they were having more fun than their parents. But the rest? It's not like they needed this party anyway. No one has needed those parties since before any of these kids were born.

Some of them probably didn't even know why they were there, though if I were honest with myself some of that was probably my own fault. After all, when you're a submissive masquerading as a dom, you never really get to go to society parties anymore. Especially not when you've spent most of your life trying to get out of situations like this. Like most things though, it wasn't entirely my fault either. They'd left me no choice in the matter after all.

"Oh thank goodness you're here."

I turned around and saw an older woman looking at me with tears in her eyes, though no one else seemed to notice anything unusual about it "I need your help."

"Excuse me?"

"You're Millicent Steel aren't you?" she asked "My nephew said you helped him out of a rather embarrassing situation last year."

"I'm flattered that he thought so highly of my services," I said dryly "But I don't remember being involved in any situation with him."

"Well yes," she continued hastily "but he insisted that you did help him out of a rather embarrassing situation last year!"

"If he said so," I shrugged "But if it's something embarrassing then why are you asking me?"

She looked up at me curiously before giving me an exasperated look "You're Millicent Steel! You're supposed to be good at this sort of thing!"

"Is this some kind of joke?" I asked with genuine curiosity now "What kind of embarrassing situation could someone possibly need help with at your age?"

Now she looked annoyed "For one thing I'm not as young as everyone thinks," she snapped back "and for another thing this is none of your business!"

The look on her face made me realize that she was telling the truth, and then suddenly it all clicked into place for me "Oh, oh gods," I muttered in horror as realization dawned on me "You can't mean..."

She gave me an annoyed look and started to walk away from me "Wasn't that what you were expecting? A young girl looking for her first man? Maybe she wants to experience all sorts of new things?"

That got through my shell pretty quickly and while part of me wanted nothing more than to just turn around and leave right now, there was another part that couldn't let something like this slide without doing something about it. At least if I had been expected to be approached by some young girl with delusions about experiencing life's pleasures for the first time through some strange middleman though then I could have just waved her off politely and sent her on her way without making too much fuss about it or hurting anyone's feelings too badly. But no matter how hard I tried to convince myself otherwise, this wasn't going to end well for anyone here tonight unless someone did something about it immediately. And unfortunately that someone had to be me.

By now we'd both started moving towards the dance floor where couples were still swaying lazily as they kept time with the music playing around us. We began walking alongside one another without saying anything until we reached a spot where we could talk without being overheard by anyone around us. She led the way towards a small fountain in one corner where two benches sat opposite each other with their backs facing towards each other so they both faced the water flowing between them. There wasn't anyone else around us, though that didn't stop her from taking off her mask and putting it down beside herself before turning around and looking at me expectantly as she waited for whatever lecture she thought I was going to give her sooner or later.

I made sure everything was quiet before speaking up calmly so no one else could hear us "I don't understand..."

She laughed nervously before looking down at herself self-consciously "What do you mean?"

As if she hadn't noticed yet...or maybe she was hoping someone else would point it out for her? Either way there wasn't much point in waiting any longer so instead I just pointed wordlessly at her stomach which caused her entire