Slave Unbound Ch. 17

There was a brutal, cynical, logic to what the Mistress was saying, however, born from the same brutal logic that Trippard had used. If this girl wasn't any sort of fighter, she would likely be doomed to remain a lot until someone did just kill her. And kill her without any kind sympathy to make it quick. She remembered the threats of being ravished right in the middle of the arena, bleeding out and in terrible pain. She'd had it confirmed that such things did happen and no one ever made an effort to stop it.

It was considered crass and degrading to the gladiator as much as the lot, but such acts were considered permissible, if one could do so. While they didn't happen often, it was usually lots that it happened to. If killing this poor girl saved her from such a fate later, then it would be a mercy; from a cynical point of view.

"I will make it as quick and merciful as I can, Mistress." She exhaled, resolving herself to the dark truth of the moment. Despite her acceptance of the fact, she felt a tear for this poor wretch roll down a cheek. "May the Gods show her better mercy than we do."

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Quickly ascending the stairs out of the holding areas, heading back to her private box to watch this little gambit play out, Sabrina smiled to herself at her own cruel cleverness. This girl was proving to be a harder nut to crack than she'd ever expected, but she appeared to have finally found the weak place in her emotional armor.

Leita's sense of honor as a warrior.

It almost surprised her how long it had taken her to realize what the girl really was. Even with all her victories and proven skill in the training pitch, even Sabrina had constantly thought of her as just some unfortunate houseslave, in over her head. Finally realizing that Leita had always been a warrior at heart, that it seemed the winds of fortune had brought her to where she needed to be, had changed her whole strategy.

Cookie's attempts at humiliating Leita had proven completely useless, something even Cookie had noticed. She was utterly unphased by being forced to remain naked, which hadn't been a surprise, but the rest of the House refusing to take advantage of Cookie's command to service anyone who dared to take her had been far more of a surprise. Short of commanding someone to the task, it seemed she would have remained untouched had the girl not obviously recruited someone herself, just to pacify Cookie.

And ironically, even in that she'd seemed to enjoy herself. She'd managed to catch one of the little tableaus herself and there was little question that Leita had reveled in it. Of course, Myrinus was someone she'd drawn into her own chambers more than once, being both quite adept at lovemaking and quite attractive. She'd found herself more than a little worked up herself by the sight.

Cookie had blamed not being allowed to really employ horrors that might have had much greater effect for any failure to make things a punishment for Leita. Even Sabrina had begun to wonder if she should just let the demented woman run loose with whatever she might need to do. To make matters more complicated, despite failing to break Leita, Cookie's efforts had still actually managed to succeed at what was supposed to be the end goal.

Her little interlude with Verdant Crahka proved she'd managed to develop a talent for seduction and her lovemaking about the House with her beautiful blue seafarer had shown a rather impressive talent for that as well. Sabrina had even found herself considering taking advantage of Cookie's little decree, simply to take a taste of the girl before she was destroyed.

When she'd managed to get under Verdant's skin, something even Sabrina often failed to do, Cookie had pointed out her ultimate success in the grander intent, not knowing that it had merely been an excuse to hurt the girl. By her own manipulation, if Sabrina were to punish her for failing at only the assumed secondary goal, it would have only managed to alienate her most devoted lackey. For all Cookie's occasional irritations, she was far too useful to throw away recklessly.

However, the concubine had redeemed herself quite well by managing to pinpoint the truth about Leita from her own observations and with dropping a perfect way to exploit them right into her lap. She'd learned about Verdant's intent to approach Sabrina in regards to Maria Stedmark before his arrival, suggesting the idea of using it as a way of humbling Leita.

Overhearing the little discussion between Verdant and Leita while she was doing her seduction had only further proven Cookie's observations. Leita's heart was in the arena and that was where she would need to take her attempts to break it. Also overhearing her with one of the other gladiators among the cages had further given her what she needed to make sure that Leita felt that first sting deeply.

Making her murder some defenseless slave as part of the thing she took the most pride in opened up a world of ways for Sabrina to finally dig into Leita's soul, breaking her down into something more easily tortured. She had all kinds of ways to 'unknowingly' twist the knife emotionally, making Leita hate herself for this one act. It would be wonderfully delicious.

Stepping into her private box, flanked by her bodyguards, she took a seat beside Cookie, who seemed less interested in the combat going on below than she was of admiring the handsome servant who was keeping her wineglass attended. It wouldn't be a surprise if she wound up mounting the man in one of the rear seats before the afternoon was over.

Settling herself into the chair, she gathered the servant's attention to herself. "Fill me a glass as well, Edwan." She commanded him. "And remove your tunic. I believe Cookie would like a better look at you." She gave Cookie a little smile, which was gratefully returned. Despite her initial failure, her lovely little consort had earned some rewards.

However, another servant leaned down to whisper into her ear the next moment. "Mistress, Master Venge requests to join you in your box?"

"Cornelius is here?" She asked, surprised. Cookie's expression perked up with a note of interest. Likely she wanted to ensure the man that Leita had been personally trained for his next visit.

"Tell him that he has a sincere invitation to join me." Sabrina told the servant, before looking to Cookie curiously. "This can't be just a social visit. He has to be up to something." She whispered.

Cookie's expression dropped to one of mutual suspicion. "Yes, most definitely, Mistress. Probably best to be wary."

They both stood and turned, putting cordially polite expressions on their faces as Cornelius Venge entered the box with his entourage, which included one of his pleasure slaves. Sabrina politely gestured for him to take the seat beside her. "Good morning, Cornelius. How nice of you to come watch with me. It is always enjoyable to have company to discuss things with."

"I couldn't agree more, Sabrina." He said in his most congenial and charming voice, coming over and taking her offered hand to kiss formally. "I know that the last time we spoke, things were a bit terse and I wanted to make amends. Thank you for allowing me to join you."

"There is nothing to amend, darling." Sabrina said politely as Cornelius directed his pleasure slave to take the seat on the other side of him from Sabrina and they all sat back down. "The fault was all that of my slave's. I assure you that she has been quite thoroughly punished for any embarrassment she may have caused."

Cornelius fixed her with an exaggeratedly confused look. "Who said that she'd embarrassed me, Sabrina? I had simply found her off-putting, remember?"

Sabrina inwardly winced, forgetting that the little face-saving fabrication they had woven to cover the matter. "I meant the embarrassment of having to put up with such a poorly heeled slave for your pleasure, of course." She replied smoothly.

"Ah, yes." Cornelius said silkily. "I suppose that makes sense. I do hope your punishments were not so severe as to impede her ability to fight today."

"They have been less physical than mental, in truth." Sabrina gestured to Cookie. "My concubine here has been personally making sure that the next time you visit, Leita will be far better trained to know how to treat a HouseMaster's desires of her."

"Oh, I see." Cornelius said airily. "Personally, I had expected you to make use of your whips on the girl. A pity. Though, I suppose that will make things more interesting."

Sabrina's next words caught in her throat at the sound of his last ones. That certainty that he had something up his sleeve with this visit returned in force. "How so, darling?" She asked, genuinely curious now.

For a brief moment, Cornelius merely looked at her, a venomous smile slowly growing across his lips. Then, unexpectedly, he turned to look at his pleasure slave. "I forgot to introduce you to the HouseMistress, my pet." He looked back at Sabrina. "This is Mistress Marlowe."

"Greetings Mistress." The meek-looking slave said demurely, dipping her head.

Cornelius's sly smile deepened. "Don't forget to introduce yourself in return." He admonished, though he kept his eyes on Sabrina.

"I am Maria, Mistress." The girl quickly added.

Sabrina blinked. "Maria?" She blinked again, glancing out towards the arena floor, where the next fight was about to begin, Leita's fight. "Maria...Stedmark?" She asked uncertainly, looking suddenly back to Cornelius. "I thought she was--"

"Down there?" Cornelius asked in mock surprise. "Why, Sabrina, what would give you that impression? I suppose, I might could see the confusion. I did enter a lot under the name 'Maria' the other day. I suppose it is possible that someone might have gotten muddled information that made them believe that it was this Maria."

The full weight of what was happening hit Sabrina suddenly, leaving her shocked. She realized that, in everything, she had forgotten how wily and vindictive Cornelius could be. "You...planned this?"

"Planned what...'darling'?" He asked in a simpering tone. "Do you mean a little bit of petty revenge?" He fixed her with a charming smile. "It wasn't hard, really. A small 'donation' to make sure that the lot was assigned to your House, a servant spreading a couple rumors directed at the right ears. I knew Verdant's bleeding heart morality would seal things." He looked out towards the arena floor, where a dark-haired girl was already coming out to retrieve the spear left for her. "All the more delicious when I heard that you'd assigned it to Leita, of all people. I can get payback on the both of you at once."

"Who is my gladiator fighting?" Sabrina asked slowly, her attention drifting to the sands below as well.

"Oh, let's just say that your gladiator isn't going to be facing the easy fight that she thinks." He said. "In fact, I do believe she might just find that she's about to suffer quite a lot."

Sabrina opened her mouth, speechless for what to say for a moment. A ringer. A trap that would lure Leita into the belief that she was about to fight a near defenseless girl, only to end up brutalized by a professional assassin. Possibly killed before it was over.

She couldn't have planned it better herself, really. And with it having been set up by another HouseMaster, without her honest knowledge, kept her hands clean, should Leita survive the beating. "Well, it seems I owe you one, dear." She whispered under her breath, leaning back into her seat to watch the show.