“Maurice…” Cass sighed in exasperation, “Light help me, but I didn’t think this would be so hard.”

Cass had agreed to another request from Odal for dinner, thinking that this would be a good time to try and help Odal understand a little more of the complexity of the world around him. That had been a mistake, and his flirting was irritating her to near the point of violence.

The dinner had been… Fine. Cass had wanted to slit Odal’s throat, but she had kept him from noticing that, so at least she hadn’t lost ground. But if she heard one more comment…

“Fools…” Odal was looking at two drunk Stone caste men stumbling around the road. They were quickly removed by the Warriors who kept this area safe for late dinners such as the one he and Cass had just enjoyed. “That is the proof of the Castes, people are born where they belong. They do not even try to improve themselves.”

As they stepped into the carriage Cass replied, “What good would self-improvement do? No matter what they do, they and their descendants will always be Stone, there is no real way for them to improve.”

“Nonsense,” Odal countered firmly, a surprising move from him. “A Warrior can train and one day become a leader or a Warden, a Merchant can gain a larger business or even become an advisor to the Voni, and the Strioi always strive to improve themselves and their knowledge. Anyone can improve, the Stone merely choose not to.”

Cass felt her eye twitching, but tried to keep her temper. “And please tell me, what can a servant in the Stone aspire to?”

“To serve a higher Caste of course,” Odal was quite confident in his answer. “To serve the Voni is an honor.”

“How does honor taste?” Cass asked sarcastically.

“Wh- what?” Odal was completely thrown by the question. “I have no idea…”

“I know you don’t Odal,” Cass interjected and asked another question. “How large is honor’s roof?”

“Lady Cass,” Odal scratched his head, confusion in his eyes. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

Cass sighed again… She had been sighing a lot these past four days that she had tried to reason with Odal, her patience was at its end, she snapped. The next thing Odal knew, Cass had him pinned down against the carriage seat with her hand around his throat.

Cass immediately rejected losing control of her temper, not the least because she was more or less on Odal’s lap and that close proximity disgusted her, but mostly because she was unsure how Odal would react to seeing a shred of her true personality. Still, it was just a shred and the little tirade she was about to go one would feel so good.

“Honor is a lovely concept Odal,” Cass’s voice trembled with anger, Odal tried to push her away but found that he was not strong enough to do so. Cass had learned from her fight with Odev, despite her strength, she was light and any soldier could lift her easily, which was why he other hand was holding on to the carriage itself, preventing her from simply being lifted away. “But people in the Stone are not too far away from the Sand, and down at that level, honor has no value. You cannot feed your family with honor, you cannot keep them warm and out of the rain with honor, neither can you clothe them with it, nor protect them with it. Your pretty ideals, your confidence in the Castes, none of that matters to someone who looks at their life and decides that nothing matters.”

The last four days had been hell. She had tried to point out his hypocrisies and inconsistencies, tried to explain and even show him some of the issues that were piled up on the backs of the lower Castes, and he remained the same. Cass would not have minded so much if he would just say something like, “they are the lower class, who cares?” Because that would at least show that he understood reality!

The problems of the lower Castes were problems, but they could not be fixed if the top remained blind and lived in their own dreamland. Yet even someone like Odal apparently needed to be made to see it.

“La- Lady… You are too… Too close…” Odal stuttered, still trying in vain to gently move Cass, but even if he used his full strength it wouldn't have mattered.

Cass nearly broke Odal’s neck right there when she felt him grow hard underneath her.

“Pay attention!” Enough, of this! Cass removed her hand from his throat just to slap him across the face. She was just barely able to hold back enough to prevent breaking Odal’s jaw. Just barely. “You are worse than even someone like Odev, because you cannot even see what is in front of you. At least he did not live as a blind hypocrite!”

“Ca- Cass I…” Cass did not let him finish, slapping Odal again. Though admittedly she had hit him there simply because she had felt like it. He was so weak… All it would take to throw her off was to break her grip on the carriage and lift her up… For that matter, he wasn’t even using his full strength, she had made it quite clear that she was not made of glass. If he wouldn’t respect her strength, or use his mind enough to break her grip regardless, he didn’t really deserve to talk…

She hit him again for good measure before letting him say another word. Cass also noticed that Odal’s hands were getting close to dangerous positions- for him. Perhaps he was more cunning than Cass had realized at first, but that just pissed Cass off more.

“Odal…” Her voice was low with warning and he got the message and moved his hands… But the way he moved them, sliding them away from where they were but still along her body. “Really Odal, feeling me up in this situation? I don’t think you quite understand just how… Unstable, your position is on this precipice.”

A simple system on her nail and lightly running it across his exposed collarbone cut through his skin with ease. A slight shift of Cass’s hand and Odal’s neck would be slit right here in this carriage, and Cass was seriously considering doing it. It was a testament to how dense he was that she was so close to killing such a valuable resource, or perhaps to her own naivety to think that she could do anything about him.

Despite that, Odal smiled. “How can I help myself with such a strong and beautiful woman? Even your anger is hypnotizing…”

Maybe if she cut his balls off he would stop thinking about sex and actually listen to what she was saying? The only issue was that she didn’t want to touch him… Her current position was nearly enough to make her vomit if she was not so angry.

“But… I think I understand what you mean.” Odal looked at her seriously this time, unwittingly saving himself because Cass had been close to castrating him there and then. “There are things I overlook because I thought them small, but if they mean this much to you…”

Cass could tell Odal was not lying, but it was not the whole truth either. He would try harder, but not because he had come to an epiphany but because of his own lust. That would… Work. If barely.

“That will do for now Odal,” but before Cass got up, she dug her nail into his shoulder causing him to grunt in pain. “But if we have to have this conversation again, it will be far worse for you.”

“Well to be honest,” Odal spread his hands as Cass returned to her seat, and gave her a slight grin. “I did not mind that much.”

“I can tell,” Cass shot a glare at Odal’s pants. “But that is as close as you are ever going to get.”

It wasn’t like Cass did not understand being attracted to those more powerful than you, but it was up to you to make yourself worth it for them. Cass was worth her Master punishing her, worth her Master rewarding her, worth her Master doing both at the same time to the point they mixed together and she forgot which was which. But… She had not been worth enough to gain that kind of attention from Master Hall. No matter how much she wanted him, the nature of submission to someone stronger than you was to admit that the burden was on you to deserve attention.

Of course, there were responsibilities on her Master as well. He had to mete out rewards and punishments according to her performance, and give her those opportunities to perform. He was a guide who steered someone to be better than they ever thought they could be. If they were worth doing so for.

Odal was not worth even her attention, much less her Master’s- But he was what she had to work with…

“Hopefully I will change your mind someday.”

“Change your own way of thinking first,” Cass retorted, then chuckled as she thought of what Odal was going up against. “If you truly wanted me Odal, you have to be strong enough to take me from my Master, break me and rebuild me. My love is a twisted thing, I have watched people I cared about tortured to protect me, I have starved and stolen, and I found love in a person who saw me as more than a dreg off the street, but as material for something more. As my Master decided I was worth having, he treated me better and punished me harder. That cycle continued, worth, reward and punishment, until not just my body, but my very soul belonged to my Master.”

Odal watched Cass in silence for a while, his contemplative expression a rare occurence on his face. “If you know your love is twisted, why do you defend it?”

The carriage stopped in front of the mansion, and Cass stood up. She was tired of this conversation and still incredibly angry, but she did deign to answer that last question.

“Because the world is twisted Odal,” Cass said softly. “And my Master is giving me the tools I need to fix it. He may not be the most perfect man, but he is the most perfect Master.”