The world came into focus slowly. My whole body felt heavy. I propped myself up on my elbows to see that I was in my room. Seriously, was there no nursing area or something? 

“Finally, you’re awake,” a voice said. 

I looked over and spotted Hanina leaning back in a chair next to my bed.

“Seriously. You’re cute and all, but I feel like you get fucked out of your mind way too often. At least you weren’t out too long this time. Less than a day.”

My face went red and I let myself fall back onto my bed, hands covering my face. The worst part was that she actually had a point.

The chair creaked as Hanina stood up and her bare feet padded over to my bed. Her hand patted my shoulder, distracting me from my misery. I glanced at Hanina’s pitying face through my fingers.

“Hey. Don’t let it get to you. You’re strong, I know it. You’ll get out of her one day,” she offered with a smile. I gave a smile back, but it didn’t feel real. There was a thought that was prickling at the back of my brain. I had initiated that little event with Amaya. I had intentionally used my skill to arouse her. Was that… did I want her to do that to me?

“How’s the lower body feel? Can’t be okay after what happened,” Hanina asked.

I flipped back the blanket to see me bare legs. After everything I had already done with Hanina and… other people, it probably shouldn’t have been a big deal to reveal my naked legs to her. Didn’t stop the slight embarrassment and arousal that quickly flowed up my body.

While it wasn’t exactly a pretty sight down there, it could definitely be worse. Some bruises mottled the flesh of my inner thighs, but I was fine otherwise. On the outside, at least. I was sure my innards had fared much worse.

“All right, you’re fine. Let’s get some clothes on you now. Can you stand on your own?” 

“Yeah. I think so.” 

I could not, in fact, stand on my own. 

Swinging my legs over the side had been difficult enough. Moving hurt. Forget standing up. The moment, I left the bed, my legs crumpled under me. 

Hanina managed to catch me just before I hit the floor. 

“What would you do without me?” She chuckled.

“My hero,” I mumbled.

“Let’s do something practical, okay? I have to get you somewhere,” she said as she carried me over to a wardrobe. 

What followed was Hanina hilariously trying to find practical clothes for me to wear. Whatever ‘practical’ meant.

In the end, she managed to settle on a pair of form fitting white trousers with a split just above the groin and a sheer yellow camisole. As I slipped them on, Hanina made a show of ogling my body, but made no moves.

Clothing situation out of the way, we began the trip to… wherever Hanina was taking us when I stopped in my tracks.

Hanina gave me a curious look. 

“What’s wrong?”

 “I was supposed to meet Layla,” I said. I turned around, but realized that I actually had no idea where I was. Stupid castle with its stupid architecture.

“Who’s Layla?” Hanina asked.

"Oh, she's a friend."

"Oh really? What kind of friend?" Hanina teased.

“A good friend,” I said, but it came out more flustered than I would have liked.

Hanina hummed. “Unfortunately, this is rather time-sensitive. In any case, if this ‘Layla’ is such a good friend, then surely she can stand to wait a little longer, right?” She asked.

I bit my lip. Layla or Hanina? On the one hand, I had already missed my rendezvous with Layla. Hopefully she already knew the reason I didn’t show up and wasn’t too mad. On the other hand, whatever Hanina wanted to show me was both time-sensitive and important. 

Hesitantly, I nodded to Hanina. She immediately brightened. 

“Great! Don’t worry, we’re almost there,” Hanina said.

She wasn’t lying about that. About five minutes later, Hanina opened the door to a… bathroom?

She ignored my questioning gaze and instead led me inside to the giant basin that operated as the communal sink. Her hands went flat against the bottom and soapy water began filling the bowl. Instead of scrubbing her hand when the water reached them, she kept her hands planted until the water reached the very edge. 

“Tulare ostaren,” Hanina whispered. 

I jumped at the sound of stone scraping against stone. Upon following the sound, my eyes widened to see a section of the far wall folding in on itself until a door-shaped hole had been left in the wall.

“Neat, huh?” Hanina piped up beside me, now drying her hands against a warming stone as the sink drained itself.

Once she had led me through the threshold, Hanina pressed against an indentation in the wall and the entryway closed itself.

“Elynis took over the manor when she found it abandoned, but the previous owner was apparently super paranoid,” Hanina explained. “There are a lot of secret rooms scattered around, most of which she’s already found. Fortunately, this one has remained hidden. She never comes through this room.”

At the end of the hallway was an actual door, this one made of wood and reinforced with metal. Hanina knocked on it twice in quick succession, then three times a second later. The door opened, and I was shocked to realize that I actually recognized the person on the other side.

"What is she doing here?" the blue haired girl snarled. 

Hanina stepped forward defiantly and said, "Cali didn't choose to be in here any more than you or I did. We shouldn't count her out just because she's Elinys's personal slave." 

The other girl scoffed. "And what's stopping her from ratting us out? You know as well as I that she can't lie. And based on what I've seen, she doesn't have the spine to keep a secret like this for long." 

What was this? I looked at Hanina, hoping for some clues, but her gaze was fixed on the girl with the wispy blue hair and pitch black skin. 

"She needs to learn, Ishka. Just trust me on this," Hanina pleaded. 

The girl now identified as Ishka chewed her lip. I fidgeted with the hem of my camisole. She cast another dark look at me, then let out a defeated sigh. 

"Fine," she bit out. "But if we get caught, it'll be on your head, Hanina." 

And with that, she led is fully into the secret room. 

Whatever I had been expected, this definitely wasn't it. The room was shaped like a simple rectangle, with the door we were passing through situated at the top of a set of stairs in one of the corners. On the floor were four mats, all of which had a pair of girls. But what was surprising was what the girls were doing. Hands and legs flew at each other in a desperate bid to gain an advantage against their opponent. Most of the fights were fairly matched, but the closest pad was noticeably slower, more akin to a teaching exercise than an actual fight. 

As we stepped down the stone stairs, the fights slowed as all eyes turned toward us. Most stared at me with some sort of expression between shock and anger. The attention was stifling and made me want to curl in on myself.

“Good, we’ve already got your attention,” Hanina said as we reached the floor, then gestured to me. “I’m sure you’re all aware, but this is Cali, Elinys’s personal slave.”

"Yeah, so why would you bring her here?" asked a voice in the crowd. 

"For the same reason all of us are here. We need to be able to stand up for ourselves. To do something other than just serve. To make a choice for ourselves. When the time comes for escape, we need to be ready. Cali deserves just as much of a chance as any of you."

So that's what this was. I had had my suspicions, but Hanina just confirmed them. They were preparing for a jailbreak of sorts. It was good news. I didn't want to speed the rest of my life under Mistress's foot or between her legs. I wanted to go out and see the world I had been reborn in!

And yet... and yet there was a part of me than almost felt guilty. A part of me that wanted to run to Mistress and tell about the secret I had unwittingly discovered and be rewarded for being such a good girl. Oh, how she would so gracefully caress my face, muttering praises into my ear. Her tail would- 

Something gripped my shoulder. I looked over, startled, to see Hanina's hand wrapped resting on my shoulder with a vice grip as she replied to whatever Ishka had just said. 

"-want to destroy her? Cali's just a beginner. I doubt she's even gotten in a physical fight her entire life." 

I surveyed the room. Most of the girls had slipped back to their fights while I was zoned out, but a few still watched the interaction with interest.

"She's a hero. They're made to be able to take a beating normal people wouldn't get to walk away from. Not to mention the fact that you'd probably just go easy on her," Ishka shot back, unimpressed.

"Then you fight her." 

My head whipped back to Hanina. Ishka gaped like a fish. I tried to figure out what it was I had missed while fantasizing about Mistress. My eyes slipped to the mat that had been used for training, which was now conspicuously empty. I looked back at Ishka. She looked at me. Was I going to be training against her? There was a sinking feeling in the bottom of my stomach. This wasn't going to go well. I could only hope she didn't go to hard on me.

It turned out the Ishka had apparently never heard of the word 'mercy'. She moved like a serpent, always moving around with fluid movements and then striking out wherever an opening presented itself. I at least knew enough to keep my forearms in front of my face. Too bad that didn't work for the rest of me. The result was a myriad of quickly healing bruises scattered across my body. Even my face hadn't been spared. 

"It was fun, right?" Hanina questioned with a teasing grin as we entered the bathroom. 

"Won't Cinila or Amaya be suspicious when they see the bruises?" I asked instead of answering.

"For a normal slave, it wouldn't be anything to worry about. It isn't uncommon for a slave to get hurt will resisting someone's advances or just hashing out some issue that they don't want to solve with words," she explained as she peeked out the door before giving me the all-clear. "You won't have anything thing to worry about, since they'll be healed up in a minute or so. I'll just have to go visit someone. In the meantime, you can go do whatever it was you needed to do with that Layla girl."

Right. Layla. Hopefully she wasn't too mad.