The Shadow Doctor Ch. 03

Yelena swallowed nervously. "Um, after that you were stalking towards me looking like you were about to murder me, so I switched to saying things like 'Please, stop, what are you doing, let go of me you bastard', stuff like that. Do you want me to try and repeat all that, Master?"

"No, that's good enough. I suppose you would still prefer the Tong's methods to mine?"

"Yes and no, Master. In the sense that I wouldn't be your puppet, and had free will, yes, I would obviously prefer that. As far as how I'm being treated, no, I don't want their methods anymore. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've learned I'm weak. I can't fight back forever against being beaten and raped, I don't think I could endure too many more nights like last night or being 'trained' the way Lu described."

"I'd rather bend before the storm and try to find the path that hurts me the least. I wish I was strong enough to keep fighting at every opportunity, but I'm not and even if I was it would be useless since you can make me submit with a thought. I can't pretend I'm stronger than I am; if I'm going to survive, I can't afford to lie to myself. And so I hate myself for saying this, but I prefer the way you've been most of the time, the conversations and the orgasms, over the beatings and brutal rapes from the Tong or you when you're angry." Yelena raised her eyes back to meet his as she finished.

She might say she was weak, but Tam thought Yelena had revealed a core of inner strength. She had abandoned her attempts to preserve dignity and honor, and focused on survival. He respected that ruthless practicality.

Tam closed his eyes and considered the rage again. It was still there, but it was dying down. He should explain the anger to Yelena. But first, he had one more question. He didn't want to ask it, but he had to know the truth.

"Yelena, compare me and Lu in your mind as men and as lovers. How do you feel about us? Do you have a preference?"

Yelena could tell this was a dangerous question, but she was compelled to answer. "I have a slight preference for you, but it's complicated. You're both horrible people. You've both beaten me and brutally raped me. I can't compare you as lovers, since neither of you love me, you just fuck me. As far as the fucking goes, it's better with you, since you usually like to make me feel good while you do it, not just hurt me."

She wrung her hands in her lap as she continued to answer. "As far as how I see you as men, it's complicated. I hate you more than I hate Lu, because you didn't just rape my body; you raped my mind with your spell. But there's more to it than just how much I hate you. I think Lu only sees me as a whore, like he said, just a place to store cum that he likes hurting. I think you see me as Yelena. You think of me as property and a toy you can fuck, but you also think I'm valuable and you talk to me like I'm a person and listen to what I say. Sometimes when we're talking I can almost forget that you're a monster until you say something that reminds me. So, I guess I prefer you, since the spell forces me to answer. Please, if you're going to punish me for hating you, remember that I had no choice except to answer with the truth, and don't hurt me too badly."

Tam waited a moment to make sure she wasn't compelled to answer further, then leaned forward, trying to keep his emotions out of his voice.

"Yelena, I'm not angry that you hate me; that's a perfectly reasonable attitude considering what I've done to you. I was angry with you because I'm jealous. I heard you say that it was better with Lu, and I was so angry that I didn't pay attention to the rest of what you said. You are right, I do value you: you are my prized possession, my beautiful slave, the only mind in the world I control. Simply thinking that you might prefer another's man touch to mine fills me with so much anger that I have difficulty controlling myself."

Yelena's eyes widened. She dropped back to the floor and began to cover Tam's slippers with frantic kisses. "Please, Master, do not be angry. Your slave understands why Master was angry now. She was a foolish slave and did not communicate clearly to Master. She did not understand that Master valued her enough to be jealous of her. Your slave feels very pleased when Master says she is beautiful. Your slave does not wish to be fucked by Lu, Master, not ever again. Please, Master, do not be jealous, your slave belongs only to you. You do not need to be angry with her or hurt her. You should fill your slave's hot little holes with Master's cock, paint her skin with Master's cum again. Make it so no one can forget that she belongs to you, and only to you."

Tam reached down and patted Yelena on the head. She quieted, but continued to shower frantic kisses on his slippers. He noticed that 'I' had disappeared from her vocabulary again. She'd had success influencing him earlier by slipping into the persona of 'Master's slave', offering up her total submission and her willing body to seduce him, and she was trying it again to calm his anger.

Tam chuckled; even if he could recognize the tactic, he had to admit it was quite effective. His anger was fading, and he was filled with the urge to pet the girl until she calmed, then bend her over his desk and do exactly as she had just suggested. A pretty young woman begging to have her nubile body used was a powerful inducement to go along with whatever else she was suggesting.

"Get up, Yelena, come kneel beside me. Here, rest your head against my knee. It's alright; I'm not angry right now." He lifted the wig off and stroked her head gently.

"Fucking you isn't a cure for jealousy; if it was, I'd already be cured. Besides, your Master is still a mortal man. I've come in and on you four times since I woke up, I don't have any more to paint you with yet."

"Master didn't sleep after the stable?"

"No, I cleaned you up and treated you, and then was studying while you slept."

"Is there anything this slave can do so that Master will not be jealous? She hoped pleasing Master with her body would help, but if Master says that will not help, she doesn't know what else she has to offer. She is frightened of Master when he is angry, she does not want Master to be angry with her when he feels jealous, but what can she do?"

"I'm not sure, Yelena. I'll think about it, I promise. For now, just sit there quietly. I'm going to write a note to one of my friends."

Now that he had the means and permission to take Yelena out in public, Tam intended to get her properly outfitted as his bed slave. Wong Gao was one of his patients and had become a social acquaintance, and was also a slave dealer who specialized in pleasure slaves. Tam wrote him a note explaining what he needed and asking when he could come by. After he'd sealed and addressed the message, he rang the bell for a servant. When Tan Jiao answered, he gave her the message and told to deliver it quickly and wait for a reply.

After the maid left, Tam returned his attention to Yelena. She knelt next his desk where he'd left her, her head lowered. Tam sat down on the couch and put his feet up, making himself comfortable.

"You know, it's a relief that I had to reveal my control to you. I did want to do more tests to see how long I could conceal the truth from you, but I find it liberating to be able to finally discuss what I've done with another person. I've spent years working on this spell, and today is the first time I've actually been able to talk about it."

Yelena looked up with a big, exaggerated smile. "I'm so happy for you! The loss of my free will is a small sacrifice to make in order to be able to provide you with a conversation partner!"

"See, I told you that you'd find happiness in slavery. I'm very proud that you're adapting so quickly." Tam returned her smile with one that was just as obviously fake.

"Now, try it again, but make the sarcasm subtle. I want to see how close to lying you can get with the rule blocking you. Try as hard as you can to use sarcasm to convincingly lie." He made it a command, to ensure that she put forth her best effort.

Yelena lowered her head then looked up coyly. "Oh Master. That must have been so hard on you. I'm so ha . . ."

Yelena groaned and grabbed her head. "Oh god, that hurts. Master, I'm very . . . aaagh!"

She fell sideways, grimacing in pain, but gasped for breath and pressed forward. "Master, I'm . . ."

"Stop, Yelena, stop it! You can stop trying to deceive me."

Yelena lay on the floor panting, her eyes squeezed shut. Tam moved to kneel beside her and sharpened his vision, checking her pulse with his fingers while he scanned her chi with his sight. The anchor points where his chop was woven into her network were pulsing faintly, the brightest pulse coming from the one in her brain.

"What just happened, Yelena?"

"I tried to break the rule about lying, like you told me to. Then my head started to hurt, like there was a dagger stabbed into my brain. But I had to keep trying, because you ordered me to, and that made it hurt worse."

"Does it still hurt?"

"Not as badly. As soon as you let me stop trying, the stabbing stopped. But it still hurts, like an after-effect."

"Interesting. While I was trying to test your ability to bypass the truth rule, apparently instead we tested what happens when a command contradicts one of the deeper rules I've given you. The symptoms you describe are similar to a migraine headache. Have you ever suffered one of those before?"

"No Master. It hurts very badly; please don't ever do that again."

"I will be more careful in the future. Let's try something else out. Stop having a headache."

Yelena relaxed, the tension going out of her muscles. After a moment she opened her eyes, which watered slightly as they took in daylight. She tentatively sat up, pushing herself up with her bound hands.

"It just stopped hurting."

"So the spell can cut off pain sensations, interesting. Feel your body's natural sensations again."

Yelena groaned and snapped her eyes closed, her hands going to her temples. "Ow. Headache's back. Not quite as bad."

"Very interesting; it's not healthy for the body to ignore pain - pain is a useful tool that warns of danger. Do you think you can bear the current level of pain?"

"I can bear it. It's not as bad as long as I don't open my eyes or move very much. It's not pleasant, but it is fading, slowly. I would prefer it if you made the pain go away though." Yelena gingerly massaged her temples.

"I'm not sure if shutting off that portion of your mind would be healthy for you in the long term. As long as it's bearable, I'd prefer to avoid risking anything. The brain is a sensitive organ."

"I would also prefer to avoid anything that would risk brain damage. Still sucks being in pain." Yelena grimaced.

"Let us attempt treating it with conventional remedies for a headache. Lie down on the couch, make yourself comfortable; don't leave the couch until I return."

Tam left long enough to get a cloth soaked in hot water and some shredded willow bark, then brought them back. He had Yelena chew the bark while he spread the cloth over her forehead. She sighed in relief at the feel of the warm cloth.

Tam stood back and studied her thoughtfully. "I was thinking I might start some of my tests on you while I wait for the reply from my friend, but it occurs to me that you are probably already under severe stress at the moment. You have been responding well since I told you the truth, but you are dealing with multiple lingering physical maladies in addition to the migraine, and I suspect your current stable emotional state is a degree of low level shock. Does this sound accurate?"

"Yes. I'm trying very hard to avoid thinking too much about the spell, so that I can hold myself together. I'm worried that you'll punish me if I break down."

"As I suspected. You are more useful to me if you are not on the edge of a breakdown. I think it would be best if I gave you some time to yourself, to process your emotions. Does that sound like it would help?"

"I don't know. I'm afraid that if I let myself really feel what's happened, I won't be able to recover."

"I suspect you are stronger than you think; you will recover. I am going to free your wrists then lock you in this room. You are not allowed to touch my desk or any of the shelves or scrolls, but you may make yourself at home otherwise. There is a chamber pot if you require it. I will return to fetch you sometime before dinner, but you can count on at least two hours to yourself. Do you need anything before I leave?"

"I can't think of anything. Um . . . thank you."

Tam nodded and left. He had the cook prepare some tea and took it out to a garden bench. There he spent some time meditating and focusing on his chi as it moved through his body. Tam's level of chi control was advanced enough that he could sip his tea and enjoy the view of his garden even while part of his mind was in a trance state. The exercise was a basic one to increase control and build chi capacity. Tam hadn't bothered with it in months, as the gains were only fractional at his level, but he wanted to experience it as a baseline. He planned to do this exercise again the next time he fucked Yelena, to see if he could process the qing she gave him more efficiently.

Chi and qing was a cycle as old as time. The male partner spent chi during orgasm. The life energy went out with the sperm, no matter if it was copulation or masturbation. For those not attuned to their chi, it simply registered as the slight feeling of tiredness after orgasm and the refractory period before the male could engage in sex again. The female partner could not absorb the chi; it only found a new home if conception occurred. Several centuries ago, early Taoist chi users had discovered a new form of energy that women produced during orgasm, which they termed qing. They discovered that if the male partner was in contact with the woman while she orgasmed, the qing transferred to the male, replenishing a portion of his spent chi.

The general theory was that this was nature's way of encouraging both man and woman to feel pleasure during the act of procreation, and allow the male to couple more frequently with a female that was pleased with him, increasing the chance of conception. The Taoists being the enterprising types that they were, they had begun experimenting to see how much a male chi user could exceed his normal capacity for chi use by inducing repeated orgasms in a female partner while refraining from ejaculating himself.

Tam was familiar with the basics of the concept; the man never exceeded his maximum capacity for chi storage, but the Taoist techniques allowed for faster replenishment of chi than the body's natural regeneration. He had never had the opportunity to really test the technique for himself, his occasional visits to whores too infrequent, but he planned to incorporate it now that Yelena was at his disposal.

Tan Jiao arrived with the reply to Tam's message while he was meditating. He broke off his trance long enough to read the reply; Wong Gao was delighted to hear that Tam had finally bought a girl, even if Tam hadn't bought from him, and would be happy to receive him after dinner. Tam told the maid to pass along his request to have dinner served slightly earlier than normal and returned to his meditation.

Once he was satisfied that he was intimately familiar with his current chi capacity and regeneration rates, Tam left the garden. He knocked on the study door and informed Yelena that he would be summoning her for dinner in half an hour, then found Lin Song and sat down to review the budget for the month and determine exactly how much he could reasonably afford to spend at Wong Gao's. When he retrieved Yelena, her eyes were red from crying, but she had cleaned herself up and seemed stable. Her magically induced migraine had also passed, much more quickly than a natural one.

After dinner, which Yelena spent kneeling at Tam's feet and eating from his hand, Tam had her don the veil and wig. Securing her wrists behind her back with the enchanted green silk and attaching a leash to her collar, he led her to the front gate of his manor.

"You may remember that I told you that you are not allowed to leave my manor. Go ahead and try to leave, test it out."

Yelena rolled her eyes at him but looked at the gate hopefully. She walked over, turning around to open the latch with her bound hands, and then tried to step out. She simply stopped walking as she reached the open gate. She frowned and stepped back, heading for the gate with a running start, planning to throw herself through it, but slowed down and simply hopped to the edge of the manor. She turned back to Tam. "It seems I can't simply trick myself into breaking the rule."

"So it does. Are you satisfied you can't escape?"

"Yes Master."

"Good. I'm removing the rule that prohibits you from leaving the manor. You have a new rule: you cannot be more than ten feet away from me. Let's test it out here in the garden before we leave."

He ordered her to walk away from him in a straight line, but didn't make it a command, not wanting to inflict another migraine on her. As soon as she was ten feet away, the muscles in her legs locked and she was unable to walk. When Tam took a step back, she instantly moved to stay within the allowed radius despite facing away from him.

Curious about the effect, Tam had her stand still next to him, eyes closed, then backed away from her. As soon as he crossed the invisible line of ten feet, Yelena stepped backward, drawn towards him like iron filings to a magnet.

He reset their positions, this time untying her wrists and commanding her to cover her ears and keep her eyes tightly shut. He backed away as quietly as he could, at an angle this time. Again, as soon as he crossed ten feet, she stepped directly towards him, staying inside the imaginary circle. He walked back to her and let her relax.

"Yelena, how did you know which direction I was in? Did you hear me?"

"No. I could feel which direction you were, like a light in the back of my head. I knew that I was too far away and my body just moved automatically to fix it."

"Interesting; I know I can point exactly in your direction at any time with my eyes closed if I concentrate on it, but I had no idea that sense worked from your side as well. Can you feel my presence now?"

Yelena frowned and shut her eyes, clearly concentrating. She sighed in defeat. "No, I can't summon it up at will. As soon as I was in danger of breaking the rule, it lit right up, but nothing happens now."

"Fascinating. Alright, I think we're ready to leave."

Tam bound her wrists again and took the loose end of her leash, tugging her out into the streets.

He led Yelena through the streets until they reached the flesh market. This was a large square, built around a central platform on which the slave auctions were held, naked slaves displayed above the crowd while the auctioneer took bids. The square was lined with the shops and pens of the dealers.

Tam led Yelena through the clamoring crowd and a short distance down a side street, stopping and ringing the bell at a plain shopfront with a blue door and a small, discrete sign. The door was opened by a slave girl who led them into a small foyer. The walls were draped with red silk hangings, and the only furnishings were a small lectern with a ledger and a full size gilt statue of a nude pair of figures coupling, the woman on her hands and knees with the man taking her from behind. The air was scented with perfume. The slave girl took up a position behind the lectern and smiled at Tam.

"Welcome to Master Wong's House. How may we assist you today?"

"My name is Hsien Tam. Wong invited me to stop by this evening."