Vox Dominus Pt. 05

"But there will still be a scandal," Seb pointed out. "Are you sure that's what you want?"

"By the time that happens, hopefully all I'll want...all I'll care about..." she looked up at him demurely. "Is to please you, Master."

Seb shut his eyes, wincing as though he had been pierced. Despite the Vox's influence on her, that was still definitely Chelsea Jaeger speaking to him. Only she would call him 'Master' while trying so nakedly to influence him. "So you're saying you want me to...like...'officially' date you, all while using the Vox in secret so that when the hammer does come down, you'll be too brainwashed to care?"

Chelsea frowned. "I mean...it sounds a little crude when you put it that way but...yes, I guess."

Seb tried to slow his breathing, even as his heart raced. "How could you volunteer for something like that? You really want to just give up your freedom so easily?"

"'Freedom?'" Chelsea echoed, her eyes narrowing. "Is that what you think I'd be losing?"

"Well, yeah," Seb said, increasingly flustered. "I mean, you're not talking about just, like, a few triggers here or there. You're asking me to completely reshape your brain. With that level of control...you'd basically be letting me think for you. None of your decisions would truly be yours anymore."

"Not necessarily," Chelsea countered. "I mean, let me clear: I'm not asking you to turn me into some kind of mindless drone. The way I'd see it, I'd still have thoughts and desires—they would just revolve around being the best slave possible."

"And you don't still see that as a violation of your free will?" Seb asked. "How could you call them your own desires if I can always change them on a whim?"

Chelsea huffed, then stood, agitated. "Let me ask you something: what are you majoring in?"

"Huh?" Seb thought for a second he misheard, but her determined gaze demanded an answer. "Uh, it's not official yet but I'm, uh, gonna study law."

"And is that what your dream is, to become a lawyer? If you could do anything with your life, is that what you would choose?"

"W-well," Seb's face burned hot. "I mean, i-it's not, like my ideal job, but if I wanna make a living I—"

"But nothing," Chelsea cut him off. "The point is that for all your talk of freedom, the direction of your life is just as much dictated by others as it is yourself. And that's true for all of us," she paused, her voice becoming quiet. "Especially me."

Seb rubbed his temples, trying to untangle his thoughts. "I get that none of us have perfect control over everything. But compromising on your career choice is completely different than signing your body and mind away to someone else."

"Maybe. Maybe not," Chelsea mused sadly. "The way I see it, we're born trapped by systems and people we don't choose. Right now, I have a choice to change that—to give myself freely to somebody who I know will make me happy."

Seb looked away, the Vox practically spilling from between his grit teeth. "How...how could you know that...you won't regret it?"

"I don't!" Chelsea exclaimed, lowering herself beside him. "Nobody can ever know for sure if they'll be happy forever. But this past week, the Vox has made me feel better and more at peace with myself than anything else in my life. How could you ask me to give that up?"

"Y...you..." A thousand fantasies flashed before Seb's eyes, scenes of Slave worshipping him day in and out, her body and mind mere extensions of his will, satisfying his every need and desire.

"I know I'm asking you to take on a lot of responsibility," Chelsea pleaded, leaning so close he could feel her desperate breath. "But I'm willing to give you everything in return. All you have to do is say the word, and I'll be yours. Please, Master. Take me."

Could it be so simple? Could everything he want be his? How could even make such a choice? How could he take a titan of the campus like Chelsea and transform her into his mewling, subservient slut?

How would he ever look at Sophia again?

"I-I can't!" Seb leapt to his feet and fled.

"Wait!" Chelsea called. But Seb couldn't stop. He had to get away. If he stayed any longer, if he even glanced at Chelsea one more time, he wouldn't be able to contain it. He had to escape. Before he did something they would both regret.

Chelsea's protestations rang through the aisles, but Seb could barely hear them over the pounding of his pulse. He just kept running, deeper and deeper into the darkness.

Until at last he was alone.

_____________________________________

Chelsea stared out the window at the darkened campus, her eyes fixed on the stone path Master had just run down as he fled the Grad.

He hadn't even looked back.

She lifted her phone, ready for her mother's message to play. She was already feeling more alone than she ever had, and her tears were already dry against her cheeks: what was one more kick while she was down?

This was how it always ended. This was how her mother always won.

Chelsea stiffened as Elise Jaeger's icy voice crackled against her ear. "I assume you're either buried in your studies or dead. Otherwise I cannot fathom why you would not answer my calls. I've seen your latest marks, and...well, I don't think I need to remind you of my expectations. So instead I will just say this: I have already cleared my schedule for the homecoming visit next month, and it would be too much of a headache to cancel it now. However, if you do not remedy things before then, it will be a very short and unpleasant trip indeed. You are a Jaeger; you can do better than this. No need to call me back."

The message ended, and Chelsea lowered the phone, her breath slow and even. The contents of her mother's tirade weren't surprising; what was unexpected, however, was that they would be a source of inspiration. And a very odd one at that.

Chelsea stared at her reflection in the glass, the remorse inside her hardening into resolve. Elise was wrong about a lot of things. But she was right about one: Chelsea could do better. She was a Jaeger.

And Jaeger's always got what they wanted.