A Flame in the Shadow
At second glance, it is a warning.
Indira lifts it carefully and steps toward me. “Arms.” The silk is cool when it slides over my skin, too cool. Like water before drowning. She laces the corset slowly, tight, then tighter. My lungs adjust; I’ve learned how to breathe inside cages. The fabric molds to me with unsettling precision. The weight of the skirt pools at my feet like spilled ink. I face the mirror. A bride, a queen, a sacrifice.
Indira moves behind me and lowers her voice to something barely above breath. “It will tear cleanly from the left hip,” she whispers, fingers pressing into a seam I would never have noticed. “Tension thread. One pull. No resistance.”
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