As Cass silently followed Clare, she took the opportunity to observe the woman. She was beautiful, with long deep black hair and slender legs that Cass could not help but envy… But really, she was not interested in comparing herself to the woman in that way. No, what interested her instead was how she moved and acted.

This was a woman used to authority, and unless Cass’s street instincts had been dulled too much, someone she guessed was used to running people over with that authority. She actually reminded Cass of Sarius, but they were not quite the same. She was not sure how though…

The room that Clare brought her too was empty, even of furnishings, which was rather odd even for this section of the castle. She had Cass stop moving and proceeded to examine her. Cass could hear her scoffing quietly at what she observed, and wondered if it would even be possible to have a good relationship with this woman.

She was owned by Clare’s husband, and it was obvious that Sarius liked Cass over Clare- but it was also obvious Clare disliked Sarius anyway. Cass had heard rumors about the relations of the nobility, but she had no idea how she would fit into it.

“You know,” Clare spoke, and with nothing to absorb the sound, her voice echoed throughout the room. “There are two things Sarius and I share that really matter at the end of the day.”

Cass couldn’t look behind herself to where Clare was lifting Cass’s hair and examining it, but her instincts were screaming at her that she was in danger- Cass was fairly sure how this relationship would go now, and it certainly was not going to be pleasant. Or would it? Her Master had bent her mind to the point she almost sought pain out after all, and with his magic there is no way she could do worse than him, so it really didn’t matter she supposed.

“The first is our hatred for our families,” Clare continued speaking, lifting Cass’s arm to examine the markings on her forearm. “As you are no doubt unaware, given your background, the House of Amal is not very different from the Halls- if anything, we are worse regarded.”

She laughed softly, “But what does it matter if we are worse regarded when we are too powerful to move against? The answer is, it doesn’t- and our power is a bit different from my dear Sarius’s family, as you will soon find out.”

Clare called out and from the next room, Rat and Birdie came in… They were carrying chains. To be honest, Cass did not really care all that much, if anything she considered it a waste. Not that there weren’t merits to chaining someone up, but this room clearly wasn’t made for it- in fact, they were using the hooks that would have held a chandelier. Without a proper holding cell, Cass figured that if Clare wanted to torture her she might as well just use the collar. Cass can not resist her commands after all.

She was a little uncomfortable with Owen Rattan and Birdie shackling her up, but it was not a huge deal. What did worry her was the look of terrified obeisance on the two’s faces, it was not the kind of look that would surface in a person without ‘training’ as Cass well knew.

“The second thing we share is similar… Well, let us say pastimes.” Clare smiled as Cass was hauled into the air by her wrists, until just her toes touched the ground. “Though there are some key differences, and it seems my dear husband has decided to come after me in both ways.”

Clare’s smile twisted, her beautiful face now ugly from the rage and hate- the sheer fury stunned Cass. This woman loathed Cass for some reason…

“You know,” Clare hissed. “I hate Sarius quite a bit, but for him to demean me by sleeping with some dreg slave- and to hear every noble in the castle know of it before me, it seems I underestimated him, but I will wager he overestimates you!”

Clare was tall enough to simply lean over, even with Cass strung up like this, and whisper in her ear. “You know absolutely nothing about pain, slave. I think, perhaps, some education is in order. You may use your voice to whimper, scream, cry and beg- but nothing else, not that you would be able to use it for anything else!”

Cass actually wanted to use her voice to sigh. Clare was not stupid, at least that was not Cass’s evaluation of her so far, but Cass would bet money that she was too short tempered to think things through. Somehow, someone became aware of what was going on with Cass and her Master in that room, and the word spread. This, apparently, Clare saw as an affront. Cass could understand why if Clare cared about her Master, but she clearly hated the man long before Cass returned. Which left the reason being nothing but her feeling humiliated- for something that probably happened quite frequently in the noble circles. Sarius had not committed adultery, because Cass was not legally a person but a possession. For that matter, even if Clare was able to punish Cass in a way that actually made her afraid to go against the woman- which Cass doubted highly- even that would be a waste of time because she could not refuse her Master even if she wanted to. And she didn’t.

“Oh I can already see in your eyes that you have written this off,” Clare laughed. “I guess I will have to teach you a lesson, little girl.”

Owen was ordered to bring over, and hold for Clare, an assortment of knives. Not Sarius’s prefered method, but Cass had experienced it before. Overall, she found it less painful than whips, but often more intimidating. Or they were until she got used to them, and then they were just less painful.

Cass’s cloths were cut away, which was annoying since she had just changed and because Owen was taking too much of a good look at her. Cass would ‘remind’ him to be more careful with where his eyes wandered later- and probably make it a little more painful than necessary because Cass didn’t like the look on his face as he did so. For that matter, Birdie was a little too interested as well. Cass didn’t care about her interest one way or the other, but her looks were even worse than Owen’s!

The way Clare used the knives was different than Sarius, Cass wasn’t cut or sliced- but stabbed. Slowly, and quite carefully, choosing a place for each blade to go before pushing each blade in up to the hilt. Her training with Rowig had given her enough knowledge of anatomy to know that they were not lethal, and for that matter they were not even very painful. Cass was used to so much worse that only this much would hardly be noticable, it was practically relaxing.

Twenty minutes later, Cass was barely able to hold her head up. Not from pain, but from blood loss.

Clare giggled, in another situation she may have caused men to swoon over her with such cute and delicate actions, but with a bloody knife she had just pulled from Cass’s chest the scene was too incongruous.

“Perfect, I just remove one more blade and… there…” Clare pulled another knife from Cass, putting them back on the tray Owen was holding. He was not looking at Cass anymore, which probably meant he was one of the more normal people in the room. Birdie was still watching, but Cass’s thoughts were too foggy to know if she was watching from lust or horror.

“You know,” Clare said idly as she admired the blood running down Cass and pooling on the floor. “My family, unlike the Halls, actually help with the interrogation of the Empire’s enemies. We find that the most important point in that work is the one right before death, that balance is fascinating.”

Clare was smiling beatifically, seemingly fascinated and overjoyed as she looked at Cass. Cass, for her part, knew she was right- Cass was about to die before she had removed those two knives. At this point, her enhanced healing and the blades stuck in her were just about balanced out, she healed roughly about as much as she bled- leaving her on the edge of death.

“The other thing my family knows,” Cass was not completely sure of reality at this point, sometimes she thought she saw grey shadows moving around her. “Is that physical pain fades or is adjusted to, or for freaks like you, becomes enjoyable. But that is only one kind of pain, and there are others- ones that are much harder to endure and get used to.”

Clare adjusted one of the knives, displaying enough skill to reduce the amount of blood loss just enough for the fog in Cass’s head to lift a little- wait, who the hell were all these people? The room was full now, the walls lined with people… These were the other subjects who had been glyphed, what were they doing here?

“Cass,” Clare spoke clearly. “I order you to only obey orders from me in this room that you would prefer to follow over death.”

That actually isn’t how the collar works, but few people would know that. Cass was not actually able to speak right now, and this was probably on purpose to prevent her pointing this out. The collars were designed to prevent a master, much less a family member of a master, from accidentally putting out an order like that which could be exploited with loopholes. Did Clare not know this?

Cass was released from the chains holding her, but the knives were left in her as she fell to her knees in the pool of her own blood. Her weakness was causing her mind to wander occasionally, and looking at the blood she had an odd image of being turned into some kind of fountain…

“I am sure you are all aware that this whore has the favor of Sarius,” Clare was speaking as Cass struggled to keep on her knees and not simply fall down on her side. “She spread her legs a bit and lives in luxury while you all suffer, in fact, she was the one who made them tattoo you in the first place!”

The people looking at Cass had eyes filled with hate now, and Cass doubted that reasoning with them would work anyway. If Cass had not helped with the glyphs they would have been experimented on one by one until they were all dead… From a certain point of view, she saved their lives.”

“She even was able to spend months being treated as royalty in another country, while you were worked to death here.” Clare said, then laughed. “but to save her pathetic life she would kiss my feet!”

Clare gave an order, and Cass had to obey. Crawling over in a show of obeisance, and to those who did not understand the collar, a show of her fear of death.

“And if I order her to act like a dog…” Clare continued, “bark for me puppy.”

The whole room laughed at Cass’s poor attempt, and Cass felt mortified- but when did she have enough pride to feel shame like this? Less than half a year ago, she was a dreg on the street. She would have done all of this without the collar to save her life- why was she so bothered by it now?

“So tell me Cass,” Clare smiled evily. “Did you enjoy being fucked by your dear master?”

“Yes, Lady Hall.” The words were pulled out of Cass’s mouth by the collar, despite her attempts to resist, which triggered the collars pain. But that was good, she was okay with that.

“Well tell us about it,” Clare sneered. “Don’t leave a detail out, tell us your every feeling.”

Cass tried to resist, but she could not- and by halfway through, she did wish to die. Her own shame was near intolerable, having to speak like this in front of these people- with Clare occasionally ordering her to behave like an animal or beg at her command- but worse to Cass, this would bring shame to her Master. Unfortunately, the order before was a ruse- and Cass could not refuse despite her wish to die rather than shame her Master or herself anymore.

Eventually, the knives were removed and they all left- not bothering to leave Cass something to cover herself, that was likely part of the shame they wanted to cause, leaving her in a pool of her own blood with the realization that Clare was right. She would feel shame every time she met them, and the very thought of Rowig learning about this and telling Natalie… Or her Master hearing about this…

Cass had not felt this weak, helpless, and afraid for months...