Aerial Cinder raced down a corridor leaving a streak of orange energy in her wake. She took a left, a right then dove down a stairwell and through a doorway. She raced towards the end of a T-junction and slammed… into nothing.

She sat up to find herself on a beach. “What the…?” Everything hurt and her internal alarm alerted her to injuries. She flew up and slammed into nothing again. She fell to the ground, but now it looked like she was in the sky. Tiny buildings were far below in a wide open plain. Her mecromail’s sensors and communications were not responding.

“WHOEVER IS DOING THIS, I AM SERIOUSLY NOT IN THE MOOD!”

“Cin. I order you to stop.” Jade’s voice came from everywhere. She was calm, firm, and demanding obedience.

“I don’t take orders from you child! All my orders have to go through that pale bastard!”

“You follow my orders today. Your arcane is sealed up tight.”

Another internal alarm confirmed the claim, “Drop this illusion and let me go now!”

A half dozen illusionary shadowcats appeared in a circle facing her. They all leaned in with their large, sharp teeth on display. They spoke in unison in Jade’s voice. “I will eat you if you resist.”

“Eat me?”

“Yes. One chomp. Swallow. You should come out in a few days. Your mecromail will keep you alive.”

“And no amount of soap would ever get me clean.” She shuddered and her stomach churned, “Did Karimere put you up to this?”

“Rimmer is tied up at the moment. So I came to take care of you.” A thick black leather collar fell from nowhere. Infernal sized. “Put that on.”

“Tell Karimere, I am not going to play her stupid collar games.”

“I told you she is tied up at the moment.” The illusion changed to a video of Karimere’s Susneran form folded and tied into an extremely uncomfortable looking position, while hanging from a ceiling. She gyrated and twisted in her restraints, wearing only a thick purple collar. Jade’s voice boomed. “Put on the collar or I will eat you. Ten. Nine. Eig…”

Jade has Karimere tied up?! When did THAT happen?! Cinder morphed into her infernal form and put the collar on.

“Good Job. Welcome to your new life as my plaything.” Jade said.

“Are you going to tie me up too?”

“I should. I should do a lot worse to you. I should make you truly suffer for this.”

“How did you let Karimere do this to you? You have changed Jade. You were never cruel.”

Jade’s words were venom, “I have not changed. I hated you long before I went to Rimmer’s room. I hated the way Zaggy talked to you. I hated whenever you had his attention. Why would the stupid little Bug-Girl annoy me when she had his attention? Because she was lying. She was an infernal. Not just any infernal. She was the Queen of Fucking Hearts. A goddess of war and a man who survived by killing, how could a little lost mortal girl ever compete?”

“Stupid whining child! Do you dare to challenge me?! You play at things you do not understand! Release me and I might be merciful!” Another internal alarm went off and Cinder’s mecromail locked up, solid as stone, only leaving her head and wings free.

“Yea, that is just childish whining. That old hatred is the past. Today is a new day. Let’s talk about what you did today.” The illusions vanished, or at least changed. Cinder now appeared to be back in the hallway again. One of the blast shields was lowered and had an aerial sized dent pushed deep into it. The thick metal door was cracked and warped. Jade walked from behind a corner, without a care in the world.

In that moment, Cinder knew she had lost. Her rattled brain could not fit the pieces together but she had played this game far, far, too many times. Whatever Jade had on her was absolute. “What are you doing?”

Jade spoke confidently. “I have another, more interesting, question. How did I know exactly where to find you?”

In her rage at being stopped Cinder had forgot about what she had been doing. Oh, no… I was interfering with a mission. I broke the First Rule. “I…”

“You got angry and were rushing to the teleporter room. Please tell me, why did you get so angry? Why were you rushing to the teleporter room?”

“I…I…”

“Did the thought of Zagreus making a baby with someone offend you, or was it just the sex?”

“I… I… I…”

“So what if he screws someone else? You are too much of a coward to admit how you feel. Why should you expect him to wait for you?”

“I… I…I…I…”

“You love him.” Jade said.

“No… I…”

“It hurts because you care. You were racing to the teleporter. You wanted to go hurt him because he hurt you.”

Every single word burned into her like acid, opening up long sealed feelings.

She shook her head, “I don’t want to hurt him. That’s impossible.”

“You are impossible.” Jade punched her hard in the stomach. Then again. After a third hit Jade grimaced and turned away. She took a few deep breathes. “I will NOT let you hurt him. Do this again and I won’t even try to stop myself next time.”

It can’t be true. I would never want to hurt him. She shook her head, “This is between me and that mortal.”

“Are you really going to kill the contact you installed in power and ruin the mission? Why… because you are jealous? Have you really fallen so far Queen of Hearts?”

Cinder could not accept that she would jeopardize the mission so foolishly. “You need to learn to mind your business child!”

“I’ve done more adult things in the past hour than you ever have. ‘Child’ doesn’t have much weight coming from a four thousand year old virgin.”

This was more than a game, Jade was out for blood and Cinder was losing it by the bucketful. “SHE TOLD YOU?!”

“Rimmer loves pillow talk…and torture.” Jade shrugged. “Rimmer really loves torture. Isn’t that right Rimmer?”

“Ooooh yeees Mistress, make me taaaalk.” Rimmer’s disembodied voice had a high pitched mechanical vibration to it.

Cinder snarled. “Degenerates! I will bury you both!” She swung her wing and hit with the claw, it sliced through Jade completely. There was as shimmer of particles as her illusion vanished.

Jade reappeared, now leaning against the wall and sighed. “Poor, lonely, Cin. You got all hot and bothered but you never had a reason to do it. You were just playing with yourself.”

“What?”

“It’s going to be a science baby. No sexy time.”

“But… He… I…” She lost all will to fight. The hold on her mecromail released and Cinder fell to her knees and wrapped her leathery wings around herself.

“I did not give you permission to pout. Stand up straight and say ‘Yes Mistress’.”

Cinder hesitated. Her anger had dissipated with her target list. Now she felt lost and confused and hurt. She just wanted to go hide in a hole. The collar sent sharp pains down her spine. Cinder jumped to her feet without thinking.

“You forgot to say the magic words.” Jade stomped over grabbed the woman by the horn and forced her to her knees. “And thank me when I do something to you.”

Cinder swallowed. “Yes Mistress. Thank you Mistress.” Why am I doing this? I don’t want Jade giving me orders. I want…

Jade ordered, “Strip.”

“Yes Mistress.” So many orders, over so many years. Following orders was easy. Following orders was comforting. It brought stability to a crazy world. And right now it was especially crazy. With a little tingle of normalcy, Cinder pulled her clothes into her mecromail’s internal storage.

“Good job Cin. I would torment you more but I do not trust myself with you. I really want to hurt you right now.”

“Thank you Mistress.”

“Don’t thank me yet Cin. We are all tired of this bullshit. You are going to end it.”

“End what?”

“You are going to go tell him how you feel. Today.”

“But I can’t.” She pleaded. “I need some time.”

“Four millennia was not enough?”

“After the first century or so you kind of get comfortable being alone. It’s hard to let anyone in after that.”

“You are going to Geothae with Zagreus. If he dies because you can’t keep your shit together, I will hunt you and I will find you. Then I will eat you and shit you out, again and again for the rest of my life. Maybe I will let you write a story about it. ‘Thousand Years a Turd’.

Cinder shuddered but she still knew her strength. She would not be caught like this outside of the lab, and away from Karimere’s safety measures. “I’m not afraid of you.”

“I might not be as strong as you, but you have to admit I have been one sneaky pussy since the day we met. My skills are improving quickly. Will you be afraid, when you can never trust if anything you see, feel, or hear is real?”

That was no boast. Jade was now a stealth based predator that could warp a decent area of perception with a though. You wouldn’t even be able to trust the readings when scanning for illusions. Jade was fightable. She was beatable. But if she decided to torment someone she could drive them quite mad. “Understood. Mistress.”

“You will admit to him how you feel.”

“Lilithana has a claim. I can’t mess with that.”

“He is a Mecromancer. We all know those rules don’t apply to Mecromancers.”

“He has never shown any interest in me.”

“He has had orders to seduce you since he got his mecromail. He has tried. Remember when you threatened to kill him if he touched you? It’s hard to show interest in an rage machine.”

“But those are just orders. That doesn’t mean he cares.”

Jade snatched Cinder to her feet by her horn. Her eyes were burning with fury. Her voice was even and lethal. “You have a chance at something that I wanted and you are wasting it with excuses. I lost out to this? How can you be so pathetic?”

“I don’t know.”

“But he knows. He knows all of it. He knows your heart races when you see him. He knows how you feel even if he won’t admit it to himself. He knows how you play with yourself while moaning his name.”

“Is he using my room cameras?!”

“No Cin. That sweet story was all your doing.”

My doing? But how? When? “You don’t mean…” This was the secret everyone was hiding. This was the death blow. Cinder’s whole body felt hot. Shame, lust, rage, it was a competition to see which one could take control. He knows. I can’t believe I was so careless. He knows, everything I want him to do to me. He knows. How could he listen in and never tell me? That pale bastard!

Jade grinned. “That’s right. You were sloppy with your thoughts from the moment you met. You have been broadcasting whenever you focus on him. Free unlimited Cinder-porn feeding directly into his brain. You have been teasing the man for a decade. I think it only fair he gets to do the same to you.”

“The same?”

“I order you to be his pain slut. You will address him as Master and beg him to use you in the most degrading ways possible.”

Cinder tried to pull away but there was no fight left in her, “No. No. No. No. No. Please. Don’t make me do this.”

Jade shoved the woman away, groaned to herself and took a step back. “You are new to this. I am pissed. And, I guess, I am being a bit hard on you.” She thought for a minute. “I will give you three options. One. You will go to Zagreus and be honest with him. Tell him how you feel and what you want. Pour your goddess heart out to him. See what happens. Two. You wait in his room, naked, with the collar, and a note that says ‘Put this collar on me and I will obey your every command. I am here to serve you Master.’”

When Jade did not continue, Cinder asked, “What is option three?”

“Option three is what happens if you fail to choose. I will take you up to Rimmer’s room and you will become her pain slut until I can trust myself with your care.”

“You are really that upset with me?”

“You, him, the whole damned universe. But I have some distractions, so I will manage, I guess.” Jade sighed.

Cinder nodded.

“Option two is easier for you. You don’t have to really think or do anything. Letting someone else takeover is freeing, in its own way, as long as you trust them.”

“It sounds…interesting.”

“I will admit it took me forever to get up the courage approach him directly. I can’t imagine how tough I will be for you with four millennia of sexual repression. But you must choose.”

“I don’t know.”

“He will be a kind master. Much kinder than me.”

“But what if he runs me out of the room?”

Jade face palmed, “Just fucking try. If he rejects you too, I will let you cry on my shoulder. Then we can drink, smoke, and bitch about how much men suck.”

Cinder still felt odd taking orders and advice from such a young woman. But she was right. This needed to be resolved. “Jade I...”

“It’s Mistress.” Jade thumped her hard on the tit.

Damn that stings. “Sorry, Mistress.”

“Cin, You may speak.”

Jade really is into this stuff. I should try and play along. Cinder bowed respectfully. “Can I please have more time to make my choice, Mistress?”

“We have gone over this.”

“This has been a lot to take in. I accept your orders. Just give me a little time to think it over and make my choice. Give me a six-day. Please.”

Jade pondered a bit. “I will agree, if you accept a punishment. You will absolutely hate this punishment.”

Cinder understood the kind of deal she was making. But she needed the time to think. Her head still pounded from making nice with the blast shield. “I accept Mistress.”

Jade gave a smile that made the room feel colder. “Ok. No delays. No excuses. No more insane outbursts. Six days, exactly. Fail any of those rules, and you are my plaything.”

“Yes Mistress.”

“You will wear that collar and I will give your orders for this six-day. I will even give you some more personal orders to let you experience being collared. Though with your history of taking orders from Rimmer and Zag, I think you know what you like already.”

“Personal?” Cinder asked tentatively.

“Nothing sexual. I will only violate your precious virginity if you fail.”

“Thank you Mistress.”

“Are you calm now? Can I safely let you back into the wild?”

“Yes. I am sorry. What do I do now Mistress?”

“Get dressed and see to your injuries, then get back to your normal schedule for today. I will have you orders in the morning.

“Yes Mistress.”

Jade shook her head. “You damn near tore a blast door out of its frame. Seriously. I’m not sure what’s more disturbing, the damage, or the fact that you are standing there like it didn’t happen.”

Cinder bowed, “Thank you for stopping me.”

Jade leaned in close. “One more thing. Don’t tell him you are a virgin.”

“Why?”

“Remnant traditions. I don’t remember exactly. I was really young and didn’t understand. But now that it’s been brought it up, it feels important somehow.” She shrugged. “Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it’s what doomed me.”

“Thank you. I’m glad we had this chance to talk.”

“Yea. Whatever. I have to go untie Rimmer before she loses a limb.” Jade turned and walked away, then yelled over her shoulder. “To be perfectly honest, I hope you fail. I have a six-day to come up with interesting ways to break you in. I really like this Mistress thing.”