Mature for violence and sexual assault about halfway through, I'll bracket it with ~~~ on the top and bottom so you won't miss any of the plot.

I rise before the sun as usual, though my mind is more blurred, and my cheek is glued against something cool and firm.

Cool and firm?

I blink in confusion as I peel my head back, neck cracking as I move.

Once I've sat up, I freeze, eyes locked on the surface I was just laying on.

I slept on Master Naga's chest.

I slept on Master Naga's chest.

I slip out of bed silently, tightening my robes around me as I make my way out the door.

The cool air is sharp against the skin of my face and feet, helping to snap me back to reality, recounting the steps I need to take to succeed in my mission.

Go to Master Theodore, question him about the apothecary, then report back to Master Naga.

It doesn't take long before I reach the large red doors, lifting a fist to knock loudly. It creaks open after a moment, just long enough for a guard to glare down at me, sneering before slamming the door in my face.

I stare, utterly dumbfounded at the childish antics.

The hard way it is.

I turn on my heel, building a large charge as I wander around the high fence surrounding his mansion until I get close to his quarters, locating the large nails at the joints of different boards.

Carefully, I clamber up the beam, the heavy charge localized in my hands and feet holding me on the nails. Perching on top of the fence for a moment, I send a pulse through the air, as I search for Master Theo.

I spot his signature easily, an erratic and dim flare still lying in bed.

I hop down, slim form cutting through the air silently before I land with a muffled thud.

Jumping quietly onto the large air hollow ventilating the room, I crawl in and slide down the column. Master Theodore is still asleep, sprawled carelessly across the bed with a bloody slave boy sprawled across the ground, dead.

He still doesn't allow a guard in the room to hide his filthy tastes.

Well, that suits my purposes anyway.

I crawl over him slowly, straddling his chest as I press my fingertips to his temples.

He groans, raising a pale hand to bat at my own weakly before cracking his eyes open.

When he sees me he doesn't feel the fear he should, instead smiling like a child who just stole a toy.

"You missed getting your ass torn up that bad, 1802?" He sneers, gripping my hips.

I stare silently for a moment before I begin my interrogation.

"Who is the apothecary, Master Theodore?"

His pale eyes widen in alarm.

"W-what are you talking about, 1802?"

"Tell me who the apothecary is, Master Theodore."

I send a large jolt of electricity through his temples, thighs clenching around his seizing body.

Burlap cloak, something red

"What does the apothecary's face look like, Master Theodore?"

Another jolt.

Bright green eyes, a smattering of freckles, thin lips

"What is the apothecary's name, Master Theodore?"

He makes a choked sound, trying to scream in pain as his throat spasms.

Merin

"How long have you been poisoning the mountains, Master Theodore?"

I keep the electricity running. He's been primed now, so his responses will be more descriptive than they were at the beginning of my questioning.

Four months, problem beasts, just wanted to kill them, killed too many, no visitors, no money, Dad's disappointed, gotta fix it, Merin came back, bought the furs, bought the beasts, gave me more poison. Dad's proud, so much money. Need more money. Need more beasts. Gotta kill more beasts.

I grit my teeth as I remove my hands, rising to my feet and fleeing before his consciousness returns.

Disgusting.

I scale the wall and run through the forest, sticks, and rocks nicking my feet and legs and pulling at my robes before I reach the inn. I quickly drag an electricity-charged finger over the cuts to cauterize them before I slip in through the inn's window. It would be shameful to bleed on my master.

Master Naga is awake, sitting atop the blankets as he studies me.

"Are you alright, Shiori? You don't look well."

I bow deeply in greetings.

"I have conducted my questioning on Master Theodore. The apothecary has been exploiting this town's large monster and Sacred Beast population to buy up all of the corpses. Without visitors to fuel their economy, selling the corpses is their only source of income."

I rise at Master Naga's signal, allowing him to grip my wrist and pull me to stand between his spread legs.

He raises a pale hand to my neck, thumbing a scratch that runs down the column of my throat.

"Where else are you hurt?" He asks, sliding his fingers down my sleeve-covered arm, pressing and watching me for a sign of pain that will never come.

"I'm fine, Master Naga. It's only a few scrapes. I apologize for showing you such an unseemly appearance, but I took care to stop the bleeding before I came, so you needn't worry about me dirtying your robes."

He groans, tipping his head forward to thump against my shoulder.

I stand stiffly, utterly unsure of what I'm supposed to do with my hands.

"I'm a lot more worried about you than my robes, idiot." He murmurs, letting his head rest against my chest for a long moment before he sits back up and starts undoing both sets of my robes, pushing them down my shoulders and onto the ground in a bunch.

He hisses when he sees the scrapes on my forearms, ankles, and feet, fingers brushing gently over the bruises on my arms.

"How'd you get so hurt? Was it Theodore?" His voice darkens, but his touch remains gentle as he heals the scratches one by one.

I shake my head. "No, Master Naga, he couldn't hurt me if he wanted to. This is merely the result of going through the woods. I deemed speed a priority so I didn't take the road as I did on my way there."

Master Naga doesn't release me even after my cuts have been healed, long fingers stroking the old scars that litter my body thoughtfully.

I stand still to allow the investigation, the gentle touch of his fingers lulling me out of caution the longer it continues. I have to catch myself as my head dips and my body leans towards his palms.

I'm unsettled by this reaction, the ease at which Master Naga sets my body. He chuckles and presses his palm against my ribs.

"Do you want to go back to sleep for a bit, Shiori?" He hums, a doting smile on his lips as he watches me.

Talking about wanting again, Master?

"I will follow your decision."

He sighs, just a hair off of disappointed as he lifts his legs back onto the bed, pulling me down onto the thin mattress and tucking us both under the blankets.

It's cold here, though less so than the island, where snow has already dusted the ground, so the blankets are thick and soft over our bodies. He tucks me gently against his chest where I lay stiffly.

"Master Naga," I begin hesitantly, "I am unsure how to serve you when you do things like this."

He pauses for a moment and I worry that I've upset him until he speaks, tone unhurried and calm as ever.

"When I was young, my brother and sister slept with me when it got cold."

I nod in understanding. I have never had that experience, but my first master also enjoyed company when he slept.

"Are you sufficiently warm, Master Naga, or should I raise my body temperature?" I've talked to the island spirits to learn how I can better serve him and discovered that Master Naga is a serpent deity. While I can't be certain that serpent deities have the same thermal regulation issues that regular serpents do, I feel it best to edge on the side of caution.

He pulls his head back to stare at me in surprise. "You can do that?"

I nod seriously, ready to begin heating us when he shakes his head and shifts toward me once more.

"No, you're warm enough as is." He hums lowly, tucking my head under his chin and pulling my body flush against him.

He said his siblings used to sleep beside him, but somehow I doubt that he held them close like this. He's turned me down before, and just now he didn't tell me to use my body to serve him. Is it really okay to lay beside him without doing anything?

"Just sleep, Shiori, I can hear your brain working."

I nod obediently, closing my eyes.

Unfortunately, even as I succumb to sleep, my mind insists on recalling the past.

~~~

Bright blue eyes glow in the shadowed room,

I kneel.

Even as I bleed and shake and burn, I kneel.

Master Theodore laughs. Speaks. I don’t know what he says. Not an order, at least.

No, I have to focus.

Cauterizing wounds hurts almost as bad as getting them in the first place. The almost-similar manner of sealing wounds that I do with my electricity is no different, though it doesn’t leave the nerves deadened.

Sometimes, I wish it did. Then, at least, next time wouldn’t hurt. And there is always a next time.

“You never get scared,” he sneers.

I don’t remember how.

“Don’t you feel anything, you freak?”

I feel pain. It hurts.

“Gods, I don’t even know why Dad is so fond of you. Your ass isn’t that good.”

I blink slowly. The burning ache in the pit of my stomach has settled. Not faded, but now that it’s not life-threatening, I can press it to the back of my mind.

Perhaps I grew spoiled under my first master. This one doesn’t even understand how the Orphanage’s conditioning works.

“Slaves are trained to put their master’s needs before their own, even above pain,” I say.

It still hurts.

“Causing me pain satisfies you, so I wouldn’t dare reject it.”

He is placated, pacified like a child receiving the candy they’d been denied, but even in his satisfaction, he is cruel.

Master Theodore orders me up with a jerk of his chin.

It hurts. I only just closed the wounds.

A slave lives to put their master’s needs before their own, even above pain.

Master Theodore seems intent to find out how deep that conditioning runs.

My throat seizes, back arching as my jaw locks.

It hurts.

I shake and shake and shake, body fighting with itself, instinct telling me to flee, training telling me that the pain ym master inflicts should never be avoided.

~~~

"Shiori!"

I'm really shaking, eyes snapping open to see Master Naga's face above my eyes,  pale irises swimming with concern as disheveled white locks spills around my head.

"What can I do for you, Master Naga?" My voice is hoarse as I speak, throat tight and sore, and I feel a sheen of cold sweat coating my body. The fine inner robes Master  Naga gifted me cling uncomfortably to my skin, pinching and twisting around my elbows and thighs.

His brows twitch as he watches me shift upright.

"You looked like you were having a nightmare. Are you okay?"

I shift carefully into a seated position, bowing formally. "My apologies, I did not intend to wake you."

He lifts my chin the way he did when we first met, delicate fingers grazing my throat, a deadly chill in his words. "That's not what I asked."

I let my eyes fall closed since I can't lower my head. "My apologies Master Naga, please punish me as you see fit."

He huffs a breath as he leans back, brushing icy strands away from his face.

"Are you going to tell me or disobey?"

My mind catches on the word disobey.

"It was only a dream. I am unharmed." My words are quiet, reluctantly pulled from my throat. To trouble my master over a bad dream. If I spoke ill of Master Theodore, would he be angry? Can I tell him if he asks?

"What did you dream about?"

Ah. There's an edge in his form, in the way he's curled over me, somewhere between protective and ready to snap. His words wrap around me like a heavy blanket, the comfort of an unquestionable command sinking into my bones.

I feel my shaking subside as I bask in the order.

"My time with my second master."

When I glance up, there are practically question marks floating above Master Naga's head.

It would appear he only read the abilities segment of my ownership papers.

"Master Theodore was my second master," I add helpfully. "The names and titles of my previous owners are in my ownership papers."

He frowns, but the confusion fades as his icy eyes slide over to the window.

"And...did he treat you poorly?"

He sounds almost hesitant to hear my answer, but the pressure of an order is still laced through the words.

"Master Naga," I begin patiently, "I believe we have established that my poorly and your poorly are quite different. Please be more specific so I may answer you properly."

I can't help but wonder what he will do when he finds out.

Master nods, conceding the point without much hesitation before thinking on his words a moment longer to rephrase.

I startle when I hear the words, "did he beat you?" fall from his lips because of course, he did.

I nod slowly. "I appreciate your clarification, I would not have answered you correctly otherwise." I curve my lips upward before he grimaces.

"When I made a mistake he did punish me. And during his personal service. Oh, but that was not a punishment, it was something he enjoyed."

Master Naga closes his eyes for a long moment, a heavy breath pulled in and released, anger vibrating the water in the air around us, making the breath on my tongue heavy and humid.

"So he didn't just assault you, he got off on it?"

I tilt my head. "It is my duty to serve my master, Master Naga. Whether they choose to keep me as a bodyguard, bedmate, or laborer doesn't matter. What matters is that it was an order from my master and I can't refuse that."

I peer up at him, the protective cage he holds me in, arms strong around my frame and face gentle as hair hangs around the both of us, curtaining us off from the world.

"No," Master Naga cuts off the question before I can ask. "I don't want you to serve me right now."

He drops his head into the crook of my neck, sighing deeply, back curving to let our stomachs graze against each other as we breathe.

"I just..." He trails off, rolling over so he rests beside me, sliding an arm beneath the small of my back, "I hate that humans are so cruel to each other, to the land, to the animals. It's so tiring."

I frown, unsure as to what he needs from me.

"I'm sorry humans are so cruel to the things you are responsible for protecting, Master."

He chuckles at that, a sad softness flashing through his eyes. "And I suppose you don't think of yourself as one of the things I protect, do you, Shiori?"

I frown. "Of course I am, Master Naga," I reply matter-of-factly.

His eyes widen in shock before I continue.

"I am your property, and damaged property is of no use."

He stares off toward the corner of the room, something like exasperation settling over his sharp features.

"Of course," Master Naga mutters, as though to himself. “Property. Right."

Ah. He seems displeased.

My master remains silent as he keeps one arm below my back and one resting over my hip beneath the blankets, not pushing me away even with irritation clear on his face.

He hums a quiet tune, deep voice softening the jagged edges in my mind.

"Sleep well, Shiori." I think I hear before I feel myself curl toward the warmth beside me.

I'll ponder on Master Naga's displeasure later. For now, I'll sleep.