I become aware of pain. A stab of pain in my head, and a burn that spreads through my chest. They quickly bring me back to consciousness, hands clutching for the ache in my chest until they're suddenly stopped with a loud, clashing of metal.

I flail against the binds and the pain, but I can't move.

I'm bound in place.

Wrists in chains.

Ankles pinned.

It's dark.

I'm all alone.

I'm trapped.

Trapped.

Trapped.

Trapped. Trapped.

Trapped.

Master!

Master help!

I'm screaming.

Flailing.

Crying.

In pain.

Trapped.

Helpless.

Using Party windows to call Master for help.

Where is she?

Why isn't she helping me?

Why am I all alone?

I'm scared!

At some point, there's a sound that breaks through the flailing rattle of chains and my agonized, silent terror, my voice long since lost to my shrieks. The figure that appears in the dark is tall but indistinct through my tears and countless Party windows from my panicked, futile attempts to call for help.

Then the figure speaks, Veshic's voice. “SSS rating,” he scoffs. “I've never heard such impudence from a slave before. Liina's spoiled you far too much, what you need is a good whipping.”

I want to scream. Cry. Curse him. Kill him.

But I'm still bound, chained to a dark, dank stone wall.

Trapped.

The darkness closing in on me.

Terrified.

Veshic is coming closer, through the cell door to grab me with those horrible, clawed fingers.

I cringe, drawing back, but I'm trapped.

So trapped.

So trapped and helpless and weak and hopeless.

Pinned, crushed under his heel.

But I hate him.

Hate him so much.

He ruined me.

Like my parents.

Evil.

My magic won't form.

I spit in his face.

It's all I can do. He reels back.

Then slaps me across the face.

So hard, his claws gouge my cheek, and I feel the warm blood running down my face, down my neck.

“Looks like one whipping wasn't enough to set you straight. Punish Slave: twelve hours.”

The pain surges again. It's so sudden and hot and horrible, that I realize I hadn't noticed it stopped. I let out another silent scream as he turns and leaves.

Then I'm all alone again, writhing in the dark and the pain and the terror.

All alone.

It feels like it lasts an eternity.

Again, a sound comes, I barely hear it over my thrashing. I'm long past the point of collapse, the only thing keeping me going is the pain and terror and adrenaline and the walls crushing in all around me, threatening the end if I so much as blink.

“Feeling more cooperative now?” Veshic's voice comes again, his dark form outside the bars.

No! You're everything I ever feared about slavery!

The moment you had power over me, you turned into fucking monster!

Just like my fucking parents!

Fuck you!

Die!

Die!

DIE!

My words come silent.

I have no voice left to curse him.

All I can do is flail my chained, useless, exhausted arms.

Then he clutches my face again, claws digging painfully into my cheeks.

And the fear comes back.

He's going to crush me.

My resistance gives out.

Because I'm so weak.

And Master is gone.

I'm all alone...

“That's more like it,” he huffs. “Slaves need to be obedient. You'd never be so badly behaved if you'd just come with me when I commanded.” He shakes his head, like he's disappointed. “Release.” The clasps holding me suddenly snap open, and I fall to the floor.

A big, hard hand clutches around my wrist, and starts to drag me, unable to stand, out of the cell.

My arms and legs crash against stairs as we rise, higher and higher up a stairway, until we reach the top, through a door, and blinding light breaks over my vision. I cry out silently, and by the time my eyes adjust, I realize I'm being dragged across a grassy courtyard.

“Yumi!”

“Liina, your slave's punishment is finished,” he reports flatly, rolling me across the ground.

“Veshic!” she snarls back at him. Her hands come down, grasping at me, but I flinch away. They're hard and feel like his. “You broke Yumi! Look at her! Show Slave Status!”

Lying in her arms, listlessly staring off, my own Status appears in my view.

Yumi Slave Rank: 3 Race: Human Age: 23 Job: Offensive Magic Class: Synergist Style Finesse Focus: Area Control Health: 78/98 Stamina: 3/115 Mana: 445/445 Status Strength: 46 Vitality: 65 Stamina: 95 Agility: 44 Mind: 396 Magic: 81 Remaining Potential: 140 Skills Speech: 92 Reading: 84 Math: 58 Logic: 67 Serving: 16 Cleaning: 22 Magic Casting: 18 Magic Weaving: 23 Mana Regen: 17 Mana Absorption: 9 Rapid Casting: 15 Multi Casting: 15 Magic Control: 9 Mana Cleansing: 1 Mana Channeling: 7 Cooking: 18 Massage: 6 Sex: 4 Appraisal: 12 Diplomacy: 4 Maintenance: 4 Grooming: 9 Traits Work Ethic: 77 Self-Esteem: 4 Loyalty: 35 Devotion: 44 Adaptability: 30 Integrity: 5 Obedience: 54 Restraint: 33 Sincerity: 25 Respect: 14 Charm: 21 Pride: 4 Trust: 8 Anxiety: 88 Hope: 12 Fear: 95 Dependency: 41 Servitude: 31 Resentment: 77 Hatred: 64 Vengeance: 48 Depression: 61 Misc Slave Rating: Q Warning: Panic Disorder Warning: Anxiety Disorder Warning: Stress Disorder Warning: Violent Outbursts Warning: Severe Depression Warning: Extreme Grudge

“What the hell?” he gasps. “All I did was punish her! It wasn't even that bad!”

“You bastard! You don't know anything about Yumi! She's a fragile girl! You fucking broke her!”

“Why didn't you say something soone-”

“I DID!”

They keep arguing.

I don't care.

Fuck both of them.

I'm tired.

I wake up. I stare up at the ceiling.

Can't work up the will to anything.

Hands lift me.

I'm being carried.

I'm being fed.

I'm being bathed.

I'm being put to bed.

This pattern continues for some time.

Mixed in, there are times that someone holds me. Warm, strong arms closing around me.

They feel like a vice. Chaining me, trapping me.

Choking me to death.

I try to pull away, but at first, they won't let go.

They make me panic, trying to scream and cry, though I have no voice.

That makes them release me.

But they keep coming back.

They keep enclosing me over and over.

Every time I have to fight and flee from them before the warmth suffocates me.

I have no idea how long this all lasts.

I just want it to end.

Then, when I try to scream, I find that I have a voice again.

The clutching arms stop.

But they don't release me.

They hover. Not crushing, but not releasing.

I pull at them, but it's no good.

I try and try, until I'm too tired to try anymore.

I fall into those arms, unable to fight it anymore.

They stay, warm and enclosing and terrifying.

When I finally regain the strength to continue my struggles, the arms don't waver at all. They just hold me until I stop fighting again.

My entire life turns into a desperate, futile struggle against an unstoppable force, punctuated by periods where I can do nothing by rest my exhausted spirit, nuzzling into the warmth of that same force.

The entire time, meaningless sounds surround me. Words that won't form meaning in my useless brain.

Until they do. It's the same word, over and over.

“Yumi.”

“Yumi.”

“Yumi.”

My name. Whispered in my ear endlessly.

After an endless, meaningless struggle against the warmth and the words and this horrible world, I give in and let them take me.

I don't care anymore.

But... it doesn't strangle or suffocate me.

It envelops me gently, holding me until the fear and hurt turns to comfort.

At long last, I open my eyes to the world again. The first thing I see is a coat of soft red fur. Dirty and matted. With a somewhat unpleasant odor.

I stare at it for a long, long time, before it moves.

“Yumi.” The voice is in my ear again.

Then eyes meet mine.

“Yumi!” It's my name again, but there is no reaction.

“Yumi, thank the heavens, I thought I'd lost you.”

There's a pause.

“Oh no. Please, please no. Yumi. Please tell me you're still in there. Yumi?”

The warm arms close tighter around me, the voice coming quiet in my ear. “Please, say something. Let me know it's still you. My good girl. My beautiful, wonderful, brilliant girl...”

The whispers keep coming. Keep pleading.

They remind me.

Make me remember things.

I think they were good memories.

But now they just hurt.

Memories of Master. Of Liina.

This red fox.

She.

All the things She did for me.

The promises She made me.

When She hurt me.

Always for my own good.

Teaching me.

Training me.

All to protect me.

But-

“Liar.”

The arms freeze. The voice doesn't come anymore.

“Traitor.”

I called.

I cried for help.

When I really needed her, She didn't come.

She betrayed me.

She broke her promise.

“I trusted you...”

After my words, She keeps holding me.

Apologizing and apologizing.

Over and over again.

Until I fall asleep.

When I wake again, She's still whispering apologies.

I lie there, in her arms. But her words...

“Shut up.”

“Huh?” She finally stops.

“Shut up. Liar.”

“Yumi...”

Then we lie in silence.

A long, long time passes, just lying there, comfortable and angry.

Eventually, She pulls me up.

She finally releases me, but when I try to turn away, She grabs my hand. She pulls me from the room, down a hall. I don't want to go with her, I want her to leave me alone, but I don't have the will to resist.

She sits me down and feeds me. Pulls me on and washes me.

Why?

Why is she doing this?

I stop.

She stops, giving me a light tug, but I won't move.

“Yumi, come on,” She urges.

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Yumi, please?”

“No!”

“You need your sleep.”

“No!”

“Yumi...”

“NO!”

So we stand there, in some courtyard.

Then She speaks again. “Yumi, what's wrong? Please, talk to me.”

“You're a liar!” I scream, and She flinches back. “You promised!”

I fall to my knees. I can't take this. “You promised to protect me. I called you. I needed you. I was scared and, and trapped! Alone! And you never came!” I'm curling up in a ball on the ground. I can't take any of this.

I just want it all to end...

“You never came...”

Eventually, her arms close around me again. Warm and soft and strong. I hate it. She lifts me from the ground.

“I'm sorry, Yumi. There's no way I can ever make it up to you. I'm an awful master. I'm so sorry...”

I don't know why, her apology makes me angry. “Shut up! I hate you!”

Then I start to hit her. I swing my fists down at her head, and she recoils, but doesn't flinch under my blows. I can't even hurt her.

“Set Slave Punishment: harming master, none.” She mumbles. Then She sets me down and spreads her arms wide. I keep trying to hit her, angry tears streaming down my face when it doesn't work.

So I start throwing spells at her.

I'm so weak and useless, they just bounce off.

I scream and throw more, hundreds, thousands of spells flinging around until I can't cast anymore. She stands there, looking down at me. Don't look at me with that pity on your face!

I drink in the surrounding mana, and keep firing everything I can at her, as hopeless as it all is.

“Yumi, don't.” She grabs my shoulders, ignoring my useless magic. “You're hurting yourself.”

“I don't care! Leave me alone!” I keep hitting her, even when She draws me into a tight hug. “No!” I throw the spells down all over us. They hurt where they hit me, burning and cutting into me bit by bit.

“Yumi! Yumi, stop!”

“No!” I don't care, I already hurt! What difference does this make?!

“Yumi! Disable Slave Magic!”

My spells stop working.

I flail in her grasp, but nothing is working.

“Yumi, you're hurt! You can't do that!”

“It doesn't matter! I don't care!” I scream.

“But I do. I can't watch you hurt yourself like that.”

“Shut up! Leave me alone!”

“I won't.” She squeezes me tighter.

“No! I hate you! I hate you! Just leave me alone!” I keep trying to pull away, keep hitting her.

“No, not when you're hurting like this.”

“Liar! You don't care! LIAR!” I shriek.

“I do care, I do,” She insists.

“No you don't! You left me! You were just using me! You're just like them!”

“Yumi...”

“Go away!” I grab at her face, fingers scrabbling around her snout, her nose, her teeth, but nothing is working.

“No, I won't leave you!” She promises.

“You already did, liar! You left me and now I'm broken and you're going to throw me out! Because I never mattered to you!”

“That's not true! I care about you, Yumi!”

“Liar!”

“I'm not lying. I'm not. I want to save you from this.”

“No you don't! You're going to throw me out!”

“I won't. Never. I'll keep trying.”

“For how long?” I demand. “You'll just leave me again!”

“As long as it takes.”

“Liar!”

“I'll keep fighting for you,” She promises.

“No! You're lying!”

“I'm not. No matter how long it takes.”

“I don't believe you!”

“I'll make you believe me,” She vows.

No matter how much I deny and yell and scream and insult her, She just keeps assuring me She'll help me. She ends up picking me up, kicking and screaming, and carrying me back to her room.

She lays me down in the huge bed and holds me tight, no matter how much I struggle, until my effort gives out.

Time passes. Days maybe, I can't tell. She keeps me close, holding me, assuring me over and over, no matter how much I scream and curse and deny her. All my terrified effort falls on deaf ears.

Eventually, my resistance wanes. No matter how much I try to push her away, she refuses. She just keeps promising, even though I can't believe her. She breaks her promises.

Then I ask, “How long are you going to keep this up? Why won't you just give up?”

“I still have time left,” She assures me. “Still have a few years left to live.”

“Years?!” She's lying. There's no way She'd waste that much time on me before giving up and selling me. “Bullshit! You're lying!”

“No, I'm not. You were catatonic for two months, and it's been a month since then.”

“No. No, I don't believe you! You're lying!” We've been here for three months? Impossible!

“I'm not. Show Slave Status.”

The window appears, and my eyes move to one line.

It says I'm twenty four now.

I haven't had a close eye on time, but I shouldn't be anywhere close to twenty four.

She's been trying for over half a year already?

The thought makes it hard to breathe. Makes it feel like She isn't lying.

But She has to be! She's a liar! I can't believe her!

“I'm going to keep trying until it kills me. I failed you. Failed in my duties as your master. If my life is enough to set things right, I'll give it. Gladly.”

I sit in shock. I have no idea how to respond. No idea if I can trust her claim. What am I supposed to think? What am I supposed to believe?

I'm so lost...