Chapter 16

Roquan uttered a snort of disgust as he picked up yet another Farviewing pearl from the hearth and dropped it back onto the velvet.

Three clients now! Three! Three that he almost lost and had to convince not to terminate their existing contracts with him. Damn Lord K'garon! Thanks to his insufferable arrogance of sending Tanyee back to the Manor, other clients who had already heard rumors of obedience troubles with Roquan's slaves had taken that as a signal to reconsider their business with him as well!

Roquan had come up with the idea of contacting his clients one by one to check on how satisfied they were with his slaves and to feel out possible expanded business with them, only to find all this discontent having been sown, turning negotiations into damage control. While he had managed to stop all of them from terminating their contracts, he wondered now just how many of the ones he had yet to contact were waiting for the opportunity to sever their ties to Roquan as well.

At that moment, Roquan was not sure with whom he was angrier, Rennis for instigating the sabotage, or Emperor Z'haas for precipitating the crisis in the first place.

In either case, he was in no mood for interruptions, so it was with a very curt voice that he turned and snapped, "Enter!" when the knock came at his door just as he had picked up the next pearl.

Very cautiously and quietly, Sirinna entered the room.

Some of Roquan's anger dissipated, but not very much. "Sirinna," he said in a more civil but edgy tone of voice. "Can this wait? I am quite in the middle of something rather important."

Sirinna considered for a moment, and came close to nodding in submission and turning away. Instead, she stood where she was and said, "It is very important that I speak with you, master. I humbly apologize for my interruption."

Roquan sighed through his nose and dropped the pearl back onto the velvet. "And what is this about, Sirinna?" he asked, his eyes hard.

Sirinna took another few seconds to work up the last of her courage. "The other night, master, you told me to report to you anything I might find important with regards to the disobedience problem. To help catch the culprit, I believe you had said."

Roquan folded his arms. "Aren't you a little late, Sirinna?"

"I only came upon this information today, master."

Roquan's eyes narrowed. "Do you remember what we spoke about earlier today, Sirinna?"

"Yes, master."

"About your loyalties? About your feelings for Master Rennis?'

Sirinna swallowed nervously. "Yes, master. This... is not the same."

There was silence for a long moment, as Roquan studied his slave. "So then what you have to tell me has absolutely nothing to do with Rennis?"

"Not... directly."

"And you are sure of that?"

"Yes, master."

"You best be sure of that," Roquan said sharply, stepping up to her. "You best be very sure of that, Sirinna. I will not tolerate any willful disobedience or disloyalty from any of my slaves. That includes you."

Sirinna's heart was pounding, but she returned Roquan's cool and steel-like gaze with her own even one. "I understand."

"Then if this does not have to do with Rennis, who does it have to do with?"

"Amanda."

Roquan raised an eyebrow. "Amanda?"

"Yes, master."

Roquan paused, then nodded once for her to continue.

"Amanda told me something a short while ago she did not earlier. She had taken a bath with Tanyee, and somehow Disalla got into their bath."

Roquan took a deep breath and let it go, his anger rising. "What did you just tell me about this not being about Rennis?"

"It is not about Rennis, master. It is about Amanda. She did not know it was Disalla until she described the effects to me, and then I knew it could not be anything else. It appears that she got it into her bath because she stepped in some in the Healer's office."

"In the Healer's office," he said tonelessly.

Sirinna's heart was racing. "Y-yes, master," she said in a quavering voice. "When she was walking out after her Kaylaxxa treatment. There was Disalla on the floor, right at that moment, master, right as she was leaving."

Roquan turned from his slave and walked a few paces away, taking a few deep breaths. When he was sufficiently calm, he said in low but clipped tones, "Duly noted, Sirinna. You may go."

Sirinna stared at Roquan's back with a stricken look on her face, and she did not move.

Roquan turned. "I said, you may go."

Sirinna took a breath, started to turn away, and stopped. "Master, if I may ask..."

"No, you..."

"... what should we do about this?"

Roquan's eyes burned. It was all Sirinna could do not to cringe. "Why should 'we' do anything?" he asked in an icy voice.

"B-because, master, you... you don't approve of Disalla. It might be important to find out how it got in the Manor."

"We have no Disalla in the Manor, Sirinna."

"Yes, master, not now, but when Amanda..."

"And we did not have it then, either."

Sirinna blinked. "But Amanda said..."

"Amanda is lying to you, Sirinna."

Sirinna looked aghast. "Amanda would never... !"

"Must I explain everything to you?" Roquan declared, his voice rising. "You are far more intelligent than this, Sirinna. You have already told me that Amanda fancies you. If she has indeed taken such a great liking to you, she may very well be willing to lie in order to make you happy. And what better way to make you happy than to tell you something that makes Rennis look innocent of wrongdoing?"

Normally, whenever Roquan explained something to her in this manner, Sirinna simply accepted it. On the very few occasions she harbored a contrary opinion, she kept it to herself. But this time she could not hold her tongue, for now Roquan was of the wrong impression of not one but two people very close to her heart. "Master, I-I don't think Amanda is lying, I think..."

"What you think does not matter. What matters is what I think."

Sirinna was near tears. "But..."

"And what I think I have made clear to you. Amanda is lying. Rennis is guilty. It is as simple..."

"Master Rennis can't be guilty! He can't! He would never do such a horrible thing! He... !"

"SIRINNA!"

Sirinna quieted, fighting to hold back her tears and failing. They trickled slowly down her cheeks as she struggled to hold her gaze even with her master.

Roquan stared at her. She had just flagrantly disobeyed him. She had been disrespectful and disobedient. She failed to show proper deference to him. She had done everything that a good slave is not. She had just earned herself a demotion to Trainee.

Yet he hesitated, and ultimately, he knew he could not do that to her. He had been right. He had grown just as comfortable with her as she had with him. That had to change, and it had to change now.

"Position," Roquan said tersely.

Sirinna did not hesitate. Still sobbing softly, she dropped to her knees, legs apart, hands palm-up on her thighs, her head bowed. Tears dripped silently into the furs in front of her.

Roquan walked up to her. She started trembling. "You are a slave, Sirinna. And what is the first thing that a slave learns?"

"A s-slave is loyal," Sirinna said in a choked voice. "A slave is sensual. And..."

"And?"

"A slave... is... s-submissive."

"Submissive," Roquan declared. "Loyal and sensual, yes, those are important. But ultimately, it all comes down to the last one. Submissive. And it is in that last one, Sirinna, that you have failed most miserably."

Sirinna squeezed her eyes closed tightly.

"I would give you to Hiatha, Sirinna," Roquan began, eliciting a loud, despairing sob from Sirinna, "but she will have her hands quite full with Yanna, so I will not do that."

Sirinna sighed with immense relief. "Th-thank you, master."

"Thus the task will fall to me to teach you. Strokes with the paddle will not do, that is plainly apparent, as it impressed nothing upon you earlier this morning. So I will attempt another approach. Ultimately, the lesson you will learn, Sirinna, is the proper show of submissiveness without an expectation of reward. Therefore, this is your punishment."

Sirinna sniffled once, but then fell silent, her breathing ragged.

"Until I say otherwise, you will refuse no request from any slave in my Manor for sexual pleasure. You will administer pleasure whenever demanded and whatever is demanded without question and without complaint."

"Yes, master," Sirinna said softly.

"That is the first part. The second part of your punishment is this: Every day, you will be treated with Hiroxxa."

Sirinna gasped, blinking away renewed tears, but she struggled to retain what little composure she still had.

"Enough to prevent orgasm until the next treatment. You will not refuse if another slave wishes to attempt to pleasure you. That will serve to remind you of the privilege you have just lost."

"P-please, master..." Sirinna cried, her eyes still downcast.

"Do not speak any further, Sirinna. Do not plea. Do not beg. You will make your punishment worse."

Sirinna bit her lip. She had so little time left with Amanda, and now she would not be able to enjoy any intimate time with her. Roquan had little idea how truly cruel his punishment was, and it was all Sirinna could do not to completely break down before her master. She could not let Roquan know what Amanda meant to her. She would have to accept this punishment, and hope that Roquan was merciful and lifted it soon.

However, Roquan did indeed suspect something. He knew Sirinna well enough to know that she could not simply turn off her feelings for another. That was the cause of the problem in the first place. But how to punish her for that? And what good would it do? No, he had to confine himself to punishing for behavior and not feelings. He was not so much a fool that he believed he could punish someone's feelings away.

"Understand this, Sirinna," Roquan said, feeling oddly compelled to share some of his thoughts with his slave. "Your feelings for Rennis are noted. However, you must not let that change the fact that you need to know and respect your place. And it is not your place to openly question my decisions."

"Yes, master," Sirinna said in a small voice.

"For that path will take you to disloyalty, and I am sure you do not wish to go there."

"N-no, master."

Roquan looked down at her, a very small sigh issuing from his mouth. He was not at all hopeful that this punishment would do anything to change her, but he had nothing else he could do.

He parted from her briefly, just long enough to retrieve a small glass vial from his bedchamber.

"Stand."

Sirinna rose to her feet, keeping her head bowed.

"Legs apart."

She drew her breath in and let it go, slowly spreading her feet apart.

Sirinna held her breath as Roquan generously slathered his remaining supply of the Hiroxxa salve over her mound, working it in with firm strokes of his fingers that cruelly made her rise towards an orgasm she knew would not come. She barely suppressed a moan as he thrust his fingers into her cunt, spreading the concoction as far inside her as possible, driving her further but never over.

By the time he withdrew his fingers, she was panting, and her pussy already ached for release that it had been denied. Tears threatened to well up in her eyes again, but she held them back successfully.

Roquan noticed this, and lifted her head by the chin. "Better. Just because it has been a long time since you were disciplined, Sirinna, does not mean you're excused from facing it like a slave should."

"Yes, master," Sirinna said in a forlorn voice.

Roquan fetched a towel from the sanitary to wipe his hands. "Your punishment starts immediately. When you leave her, you are to go directly to the Circle, and solicit the other slaves to aid in your discipline."

Sirinna's eye widened, but she did not protest, though for the first time in years her cheeks burned brightly. To have a slave ask others to assist in her own punishment was the penultimate humiliation. Only a demotion to Trainee was worse.

"Have I made everything clear to you, Sirinna? Do you finally understand?"

Sirinna swallowed and sighed. "Yes, master."

"Then you may go."

Sirinna did not raise her eyes until she had turned away from her master, and she left the room walking with a slow and dispirited gait.

In Sirinna's immediate absence, Amanda had strolled around the gardens for a little while longer, until the threatening storm that had been brewing on the horizon much the morning began to move towards shore. Billowing and darkening, the storm rolled in behind the swelling surf, which crashed and sprayed against the shore as if in warning. Thunder rumbled low and increasingly insistent, and the air smelled of fresh moisture.

Amanda decided to return to Sirinna's quarters and await her there as the breeze began to rise. For once she was grateful to be in the tropics, as she understood that hail was rare in that part of the world. Still, this storm looked nothing like what she had experienced her last day on Earth. It was just a summer storm, nothing more and nothing less.

Amanda brooded as she watched the storm come in from her window, growing more anxious as time passed. What was taking Sirinna so long? Surely Roquan would see how obviously wrong he had been about Rennis. Even he could not be so stubborn, or so hung-up on his own importance as an Overlord. He trusted Sirinna, did he not?

As the skies continued to darken, she felt a shiver up her spine as she was reminded of how she had sat by her window back home, waiting for her father to come home, and the hell that had followed.

At this thought, Amanda shuddered and bolted from her bed. She grabbed her gown and slipped it over her head as she headed out the door. No, she was not going to just sit around and wait this time. She had done that before and look where it had gotten her. At least here, there were a limited number of places that Sirinna could be.

It was probably something simple. She stopped to talk to a friend. Maybe she wanted to see what Hiatha was doing with Yanna. Or she wanted to talk to Yanna. Or she just wanted to help out with slave training.

Yes, that's it. The Circle. If Sirinna was anywhere, that's where she would be.

Amanda heard a peal of thunder as she walked quickly down the path. The sun had disappeared now behind the coming storm, though it had not quite reached land, the dark shaft of rain under the bottom of the thunderhead still some distance out. The breeze had picked up, and it grabbed at her gown. She ignored it after the first few futile attempts to hold it down to protect what little of her modesty she had left in this place.

As Amanda rounded the last curve in the path up to the Circle, she steeled herself for what she would see, expecting to find all manner of intimate trysts happening all at once. She stopped short anyway at the initial shock of the scene, still not used to seeing such open display of sexual abandon. She recovered quickly, however, her eyes darting over the clearing, hoping to find her before anyone really noticed she was there.

Amanda did not see Sirinna at first, and this was because her eyes were trying to avoid looking directly at the most rabidly bawdy scene in the Circle. Then when her eyes were finally drawn to it, more out of curiosity than anything else, she still did not see her, for Sirinna's face was not visible. It was only when she saw the fall of long, light hair spilled on the grass beside her that she understood at once who it was.

Amanda's eyes widened. "S-sirinna?" she said in a tiny voice.

There was no way Sirinna could hear her.

Sirinna lay on her back, pointing away from Amanda. At Sirinna's head, Hiatha knelt in the grass, her knees spread apart, also facing away from Amanda. All that was visible of Sirinna's face was her chin, for the rest of it was buried in Hiatha's mound, her head wedged between Hiatha's thighs. From the frantic movements that Sirinna made, and the way Hiatha's thighs shook, it was clear that Sirinna was licking Hiatha's pussy in a frenzy. Hiatha rocked her hips back and forth quickly, stroking her cunt against Sirinna's cheeks and lips. She had her head turned back, a sly smile on her face.

At the same time, two more slaves were both tending to Sirinna's pussy. One stroked her clitoris while the other thrusted two fingers in and out of her. Under this sensual assault, Sirinna writhed, her muscles clenching as if she wanted to flee from the others, but the two slaves at her cunt had draped themselves over her legs, preventing any escape.

Amanda swallowed, her heart racing, but not with desire or even embarrassment. There was something wrong. Something terribly wrong.

Sirinna's moans were strident, desperate, and worst of all, pained. Her body's movement was not the slow, sensuous ascension into increasing pleasure and lust, but the anxious, frustrated quivering of someone being denied relief. One of the slaves began stroking her so vigorously that Amanda could not believe anyone would not rocket upwards immediately into orgasm at such a rate. Instead, Sirinna uttered a muffled, shrill cry, her hips rising into the slave's touch. The slave delivered, stroking even harder, making Sirinna cry out all the more despairingly.

But the worst of it were the taunts.

"Poor little cunny, won't play nice and cum," said the one stroking Sirinna.

"And it so wants to, doesn't it?" said the one with her fingers inside Sirinna's pussy. "It's even nice and wet and everything."

"Ooo, that's it, Sirinna," Hiatha said in a breathy voice as she panted. "Make me cum again... another one you can't have..."

"Amanda?"

Amanda was so startled she jumped, her heart feeling as though it would burst out of her chest. "T-tanyee," she finally said in a shaky voice. "I d-didn't see you there, I..."

Amanda trailed off at the sad look on Tanyee's face. "I'm so sorry, Amanda," she said softly.

"Sorry? About what? Tanyee, what..."

Tanyee sighed. "I'm sorry about Sirinna. And here after I just got out of training from her."

"What are you talking about?" Amanda demanded. She paused a moment when she was distracted by a flash of lightning. "What's going on here?"

"You don't know?"

"No!"

"Sirinna's being punished, of course."

"What??"

Sirinna uttered a cry that made Amanda's heart ache and made Tanyee turn her head. When the former Trainee returned her gaze to Amanda, her eyes were subdued. When she spoke again, her voice was shaky and despondent. "Roquan must be really angry with her. Hiatha tried to get me to help but I refused. I can't do that to her, not after how kind she was to me."

"She sounds like she's in pain!"

"No, no, not pain. She just can't cum."

Amanda stared at her in total incomprehension and mounting panic.

"It's Hiroxxa, I think," Tanyee explained in a small voice. "Makes it so you can't have an orgasm. And then she has to do whatever anyone tells her."

Amanda turned and looked at the scene again, her initial panic waning. As Sirinna's cries grew even more desperate, and Hiatha pressed herself down on Sirinna's face even more, Amanda turned away. Tanyee caught her gaze and flinched.

"Roquan did this?" Amanda demanded, her eyes burning, her body trembling with fury. "He punished her?"

Tanyee, stricken, just nodded silently.

Amanda took a deep breath to try to calm herself. It did not work. She turned and stomped off, even as the first raindrops began to splatter on the ground.

Roquan looked thoughtful for a moment as he sat at his desk, looking over the parchment before him, his fingers playing with the quill that the held. His eyes scanned down the marks of black ink he had just scratched onto the page, notes next to the names of his current clients.

After sending Sirinna away, he had felt in a better mood, and his thoughts were more conducive to new ideas. Punishing Sirinna, as distasteful as it had been, had lifted a burden from his shoulders. Ultimately, he felt it was what both of them had needed, and he was sure Sirinna would come to understand this in time. In the meantime, it had allowed him to clear his mind and conceive of some new ideas to pitch to his clients and convince them to part with more of their platinum.

He dipped the pen into the inkwell and made another note. Lord K'sarus was most enamored of his current slave, one with most generous breasts. The two other slaves he had had in the past were similar. Perhaps he would accommodate a second slave. Roquan knew of one that was most proficient at pleasing another woman's breasts, and she was fairly ample herself. Roquan mused that he could sell his Lordship on the idea of watching the twosome frolic with one another.

So intense was his thought into this matter that he was quite startled when, upon turning in his seat, he saw someone in a white gown stepping into the room.

"What did you do to Sirinna?!"

Roquan was so utterly stunned that anyone would come into his presence unannounced and make a loud demand of him that he failed to respond at first, taking a few moments to recognize the identity of the person that had just rudely interrupted him.

Unfortunately, his pause only encouraged the intruder to speak again.

"Why did you do that?" Amanda demanded. "Why did you have to punish her like that?"

Roquan rose to his feet and stood over Amanda, glaring. Amanda's anger had yet to wane, however, and it temporarily gave her the courage to remain where she was and not cringe, though a tremor did pass through her body. "Do I even need to answer your first question?" Roquan said icily. "For you would not be here if you did not already know the answer to that."

"All right, I know what happened to her. What you did to her," Amanda said bitterly.

"And you expect me to respond with apologies and remorse simply because you bring this to my attention?"

Roquan's words were only making Amanda more furious. "Stop playing games! No, I don't expect that! I just want to know why you did it!"

"And when do you believe I started rationalizing decisions about my slaves to outworlders?" Roquan shook his head and sighed, turning away from Amanda. "Leave. Now. I have no patience for you today."

"No."

Roquan paused and turned. His eyes burned. "I beg your pardon?"

Amanda clenched her hands into fists. She had to keep the anger up. It was the only thing that stopped her from being intimidated by this man. "I said no! I'm not your slave and I don't have to do what you tell me to!"

Roquan turned away. He strolled very casually up to the wall to the left of the hearth, and without hesitation, picked up a Trainee collar and chain.

Amanda's mouth dropped open, and panic briefly engulfed her. She tensed and quivered, but she held her ground. Roquan walked slowly back to her, swinging the chain idly from one hand, and playing with the collar in the fingers of the other. Her heart pounded, her eyes darting from the collar to Roquan's eyes, trying to determine what his true intent was and failing. He came closer to her, tapping the little padlock on the collar with a finger, until he was within arm's reach of her. She still she remained where she was, returning Roquan's even gaze with her own.

"I could settle this quite easily now, Amanda," Roquan said darkly. "I could place this around your neck, and you would be my slave."

Amanda did not respond, her breath short.

"I am quite, quite tempted to do that now, if for no other reason than I can tell you to be quiet, and would be within my rights to punish you if you disobey."

Amanda swallowed again, looking at the collar once more, then back up at Roquan, eyes shimmering.

"Do you know, Amanda, that Trainees are forbidden from speaking with the Overlord unless first spoken to? I would quite relish the thought of you unable to speak to me. I would quite enjoy the silence."

Amanda finally spoke, heart hammering in her chest. "So do it," she said, her voice quavering yet still defiant. "But don't expect me to just stand here and let you do it."

There was a long pause, then Roquan's hands dropped.

Amanda was shaking with relief. She had made a huge gamble and won. She guessed that Roquan could not force her, that he could not hold her down and collar her. There had to be some willingness on the part of the collared. Sirinna had hinted that Captives were treated with kindness and patience when they first arrived, and Amanda had taken that to a logical conclusion, that they were collared when they were calm enough to accept it without struggle or resistance.

And where tradition and custom were very important to Roquan, she again guessed correctly that he would not break with this even with Amanda.

"Didn't Sirinna tell you what I had told her about the Disalla?" Amanda asked in a calmer tone of voice.

Roquan did not want to answer the girl's questions. By all rights, he should not have to. He was an Overlord. He did not have to justify his decisions to anyone, but there were no protocols for dealing with an outworlder who was not a slave, or not destined to become one.

"Yes, Amanda, she told me," Roquan said curtly.

"And for that you punished her?"

"No," Roquan said firmly. "I do not punish a slave merely for telling me something she believes to be true."

"Believes to be... You mean you don't believe me? You think I'm lying about this?"

"Yes, I do."

Amanda was a little stunned. She was not used to talking to someone who states such things so baldly. "Why would I make it up?"

"That should be obvious, Amanda, especially to you."

Amanda paused a moment. "You think I made it up because I like her. Is that it?"

"You deny this?"

"Of course I deny it! I wasn't the only one that it happened to! Tanyee was in the same bath with me when the Disalla..."

"Enough!"

Anger flared in Roquan's eyes to the extent that it made Amanda flinch, and for a brief moment she thought she might have pushed him too far, that he was about to strike her. Instead, he turned away, taking several deep breaths.

"Whether or not you made this up is not the issue where Sirinna's punishment is concerned," Roquan said angrily, turning back around to face Amanda. "Sirinna told me, I noted it, I dismissed her. She disobeyed me by continuing to talk about it. That is why I punished her."

"Only because you disregarded what you told her! You just ignored it!"

"That is my prerogative. I am under no obligation to pay attention to anything a slave tells me."

"Why? Because you might have to admit you were wrong?"

"I am the one that determines what is right and what is wrong in this Manor!" Roquan thundered. "Not you or any of my slaves!"

"Then you're not doing a very good job of it if even and outworlder girl like me can figure out that you're wrong!"

It happened so fast that by the time Amanda got over her initial shock, it was too late to pull away. Her words had barely finished leaving her mouth when he had her wrist in a tight grip, at the same time reaching down and flipping the chair of his desk around. So stunned at this was she that by the time she tried to pull away from him, he had dropped into his seat, pulling her off her feet with one yank on her arm. She fell squarely across his knees, knocking the wind out of her. Her shout of protest was cut short when Roquan's hand cracked sharply against her backside.

The sharp sting of pain silenced her momentarily, her whole body rigid. She broke out of this only when he brought his hand down again and again, spanking her like a little child. She struggled between loud yelps of pain, her face cheeks blushing with humiliation as her ass cheeks blushed with punishment. By the time he reached the tenth stroke, she broke down in tears.

As quickly as it began, it was over. Roquan let go of her and pushed her to her feet. Amanda scrambled back from him, rubbing her now red backside, giving Roquan a horrified look, sobbing softly.

"You are not a slave," Roquan said in a flat, calmer tone of voice. "But there are limits to my patience."

Despite the pain, both physical and emotional, Amanda was no less defiant than she had been. "So that's your answer to everything," she said in a choked voice. "More punishment."

Roquan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Amanda, please leave. Do not make me do anything more we both may regret."

Amanda wiped at her eyes in annoyance, tired of looking like a baby in front of him. "Just let me ask you one more thing, Roquan."

Roquan did not wish to grant this, but had little choice. He nodded once.

"What will it take to convince you? What will it take for you to believe a slave's words to you? Or an outworlder's?"