Innocent by Aishling Morgan

want to break her. Just let me have them for the night, and I’ll send over three of my little nut coloured Vendjomois bitches to keep you amused.’
    â€˜They are yours,’ Assivetes answered casually, gesturing to Cianna. ‘I ask only that they are sent back with their skin intact.’
    â€˜Oh I shan’t hurt them, dearest,’ Lai-Kasae went on. ‘No more than a little, anyway. I don’t suppose their bottoms are even healed yet, after all.’
    â€˜Not entirely,’ Assivetes admitted, reaching down to smack at Cianna’s thigh.
    Cianna moved, showing her bottom, and the back of her thighs, which were still welted, with fading bruising covering much of her skin.
    â€˜It does show up on such pale flesh,’ Lai-Kasae remarked. ‘No matter, she can take a little more I dare say, and her breasts are quite fresh.’
    Babalyn came back, to pour wine, which Lai-Kasae swallowed at a gulp, holding out her goblet for more.
    â€˜You’re coming home with me,’ Lai-Kasae announced. ‘Your savage friend too. Aren’t you lucky little things?’
    â€˜Yes, Elite Mistress,’ Babalyn answered, failing to hide the tremor in her voice.
    â€˜She is already scared,’ Lai-Kasae laughed. ‘How wonderful! Does anyone train a slave girl quite like me, Assivetes dearest?’
    â€˜You have a knack, certainly,’ Assivetes admitted.
    â€˜I do,’ Lai-Kasae admitted, then gestured to her male slave. ‘Now, this big ox here will help me home, and come back with my girls. He can fuck them for you too. I know you like that, don’t you, dearest?’
    Assivetes nodded as Lai-Kasae made to rise, leaning heavily on her slave. Cianna exchanged a look with Babalyn, who seemed to be on the verge of tears, but followed obediently as the woman they had been given to for the night lurched from the room.
    Walking behind Lai-Kasae, they left the house, making their way through the warm, sticky Makean night, to a door in a wall, much like the one which led into the garden of Assivetes. Inside was a small courtyard, with twin cressets throwing black shadow and red light from trees and bushes. Cianna took Babalyn’s hand, finding it trembling and wet with sweat.
    Three of the small brown skinned Vendjomois girls sat on the grass beneath the cresset. At the approach of their mistress they put their faces to the ground, to be dismissed at a word, following the Makean from the courtyard. Cianna and Babalyn followed Lai-Kasae into the house, which was oddly silent. They climbed the stairs, into a wide chamber illuminated by a dozen candles, with the arches that normally gave onto the outside hidden behind drapes.
    â€˜We are alone,’ Lai-Kasae stated, ‘and we shall remain alone until the morning. Pour wine.’
    Babalyn moved to where a tray stood on a table, with a jug and three goblets. Pouring one, she brought it to Lai-Kasae.
    â€˜You also,’ Lai-Kasae said. ‘Both of you.’
    Babalyn obeyed, pouring a second goblet with a shaking hand, then a third. Cianna took hers, sipping at the rich red wine.
    â€˜Have you tasted such wine before?’ Lai-Kasae asked.
    Cianna shook her head.
    â€˜Yes, Elite Lady,’ Babalyn answered quietly.
    â€˜When you were free, I suspect you often drank vintages as fine,’ Lai-Kasae went on.
    Babalyn nodded.
    â€˜You were as high, perhaps, as I,’ Lai-Kasae said. ‘How does it feel, to have been made a slave?’
    Babalyn cast Cianna a worried look, mumbling something incoherent.
    â€˜You need not be afraid, little one,’ Lai-Kasae went on. ‘Answer me.’
    â€˜Terrible,’ Babalyn answered quietly.
    â€˜Still unbroken then,’ Lai-Kasae said thoughtfully. ‘My little Vendjomois girls welcome their role. They understand that it is their nature. Some of us are free, little Babalyn, some slave. You, I think, are truly slave. You, Cianna, I am less