Transference of Powers

The party at the Autumn Breeze geisha house had been going for over a day and showed no signs of ending. A private party composed of a wide variety of people, all drinking, eating and relaxing with the prospect of making merry and sampling the delights on the house. Brutors rubbed shoulders with Khanid, Sebiestors with Civire, pirates drank with law enforcement, priests talked in quiet corners with heretics.

Carmilla Deritan walked softly around the facility, flanked by two Geisha carrying trays of drinks and food. All around the sounds of loud music and raucous laughter were loud, songs being sung and the sounds of more passionate endevours.
"....And then we pulled a high G turn and fired as they overshot...."
"....We dumped the whole lot onto the Rens market and cleaned up in the course of three hours....."
"....Serpentis assault force was staring right at me... well what could I do...."
"... more wine! Hurry woman, ere I thirst...."
Carmilla smiled as she checked each room, spending a few moments with each group to make sure they were well taken care of, dispatching more girls where needed.

Eventually she stopped in one of the chill out rooms and poured herself a large goblet of wine. Rubbing her eyes and yawning she sipped her wine and looked out over the pool a level below, watching several couple.
"What's up, little snake?"
She flinched before she could stop herself and turned around and looked into a devilishly attractice face, a strange face she hadn't seen before.
"I'm sorry, can I help you?"
"Aaah, so soon do you forget your old Master. It must be the face. I keep forgetting it's new."
"Gallicia," she hissed.
"The very same. I take it you were not expecting me?"
He held his arms open, palm up and looked at her, the body he was in was of someone younger and definately not the Khanid monster she remembered. She watched as he sat down on one of the long comfortable chairs and gestured to his empty glass.
"Not doing a very good job are you?"
Pride took over and she selected a bottle, from memory she cursed, one he liked and poured him a glass, then pouring herself one.

"What are you doing here?"
"I was invited to the party."
"I didn't notice."
He smiled and savoured his wine, making himself more relaxed and pointed to a nearby chair. She sat.
"Would you have changed anything if you had seen?"
"No. I no longer fear you."
"I know, you have your own Mistress. You are quite the good little slave girl now aren't you?"
Draining her glass she refilled it then placed it on the table.
"Did you come here to laugh at me? At least as her slave I'm not brutalised. The way you treated yours was nothing more than barbaric."
"And yet.... you survived. All those years as my slave. The horror.... the brutality.... the humiliation...."
"I beat you Gallicia. I escaped you, I made myself free."
He laughed freely and took the bottle, refilling his glass then hers.
"You always did know how to make me laugh, little snake."
"You laughed when you had your butchers take me. Or when they beat me. A thousand punishments and a thousand laughs from you."
She turned her face away and looked at the doorway, willing Ithiria to arrive, or Victor... or anyone.
"And what did you do with your freedom? You gave yourself to a slaver, a holder.... let her collar you."
"You wouldn't understand."

"Oh I understand. You were born a slave, and you will die a slave. You don't know how to be anything else. Look at you, you were freed, given wealth, opportunity and you wasted it all. You could have become so much more, a real power dedicated to doing.... whatever you wanted."
"I am dedicated, I am free."
"Yes I saw how free when you were slaving away in the fields. Lashed for not working hard enough pretty much every day. I remember when you could go days without being punished when you worked hard."
Turning with a poison glare she looked at him and slammed her goblet down on the table.

"That's because you punished my friends, the other slaves when you couldn't break me."
Again, he laughed.
"Carmilla... Carmilla.... I broke you so hard you never recovered from it. That is why you kneel to her.... you'd kneel to any Khanid. You know your place, slave. On your knees serving us."
She paled and stood up and walked to the window looking out.
"Shut up, just shut up. Shut up. I do what I do for love and loyalty."
"Just like when you were my slave?"
"NO! I did that to stay alive, to survive."
He walked up behind her, humming a song, a song she remembered. Tears flowed from her eyes as she let out a sob, the song digging into her, it's notes dragging over her memory.
"You remember our song, no one else has perfected it since you. Sing for me, my little snake. Sing for me....."
"Gallicia, leave now. Just because I don't fear you anymore doesn't mean I won't try....."
Grabbing her waist in one hand and her throat with another he pulled her close to him. She felt his body pressing into hers, smelt his scent and felt the man in him. It was.... intoxicating to her.
His face moved close to her neck and he breathed in her scent, the delicate scents and perfumes. Beneath his touch she shook softly. He whispered in her ear, his breath hot.
"Is that fear... or is it desire... I should enslave you again. Then no one would laugh behind your back. Call you whore or doubt your loyalty. You put up with more being her slave than you did being mine. Why don't you just crawl into your pod and fly away. You could find some hidden place where no one knows you...."
"My Mistress needs me. She has never faltered once in looking after my needs, and I have always been loyal to her, even when....."
He blow air over her neck and felt her body reacting, heard the wine as it poured onto the floor and marvelled at what she had become. Her body was lithe and powerful, more so than before when she was his. His mind whirled at the possibilities of what he could do to her.
"I think....."
"Yes... " she whispered, visibly shaking now.
"I think that you torture yourself more than I ever could. Leaving you where you are is probably the most evil thing I could do to you."

He kissed her neck and let her go, watching her slump to the floor and turned and walked to table, drinking the rest of the wine and turning to the door. He stopped. Ithiria stood there, watching him, her sword in one hand, the sheath in the other.
"I didn't expect you here. Though I did see your name on the guest list."
He held his arms open, palms up.
"I am not here for you Ithiria, not even for your slave anymore."
"Really? What if I said she was up for sale? Property is after all... just property. Can lease her to you."
A glint appeared in Gallicia's eye.
"You want her back in my possession? You know what would happen. I'd show her the true meaning of fear again. When you got her back she'd be more docile, more obedient"
"I don't think Carm can be any more obedient to me."
"You don't know my ways. I heard she went through the rededication ceremony. She must love you a lot."
"More than you realise."
"And yet you've done to her, what you've done. Does she know?"
"She's been told. Hence the offer."
The two Khanid spoke to themselves quietly for a few minutes while Carmilla lay on the floor, curled up into a ball sobbing, wondering what it was she had done this time to anger her Mistress so.