(Conclusion to Chapter 2)
Victoria was as usual totally exhausted. She had so much work to do, she always had so much work to do. In particular she had been given a particular task and been told to complete it within an hour; failure would mean a severe beating. Unfortunately, Maria - her former lady's maid - had heard.
"Come here slave." Maria of course was also a slave, but not a slave just like Victoria. Victoria was a work slave; large letters burnt along her outer thigh proclaimed her such. Maria was a pleasure slave. Her owner seemed to truly love her and was happy to pamper her. Her slave brand was a delicate sequence of dancing letters caressing her thigh, not that anyone except her owner ever got to view it anymore. For Maria was always adorned in rich gowns and robes, delicate slippers; her slave collar a magnificent necklace of jewels. Hardly anyone anymore could recall that she was a slave.
Not so for Victoria. Always naked, always in chains, bound hand and foot; her collar a large metal presence oppressing her neck; her flesh always dirty, sweaty, striped with grime and lash marks.
"Come here slave."
Victoria clenched inside. Failure to please her overseers would result in beatings. Failure to please Maria... that was never an option. Pleasing Maria was a matter of life and death to Victoria, a matter of life and worse than death.
She crawled to her former maid and kissed the ground in front of her slippers, not daring to touch those slippers until told to. She knew from many past experiences that no matter what she now did, she would be facing weeks of increased punishments and depravations. Her only hope was that Maria might quickly be distracted to something else.
Victory had learnt much during her past year of miserable slavery. And she recognized her former pampered self in Maria. Fate plus her own stupidity had caused herself and Maria to switch roles, and her own indifferent unaware casual cruelty before the switch had created this Maria version of her former self, every ready to crush and oppress her current slave self.
She didn't dare to look up. Her lips just continued to passionately kiss the ground in front of those slippers. And she truly felt an almost religious devotion, her own personal goddess with god like powers over her was at this very moment towering over her with full attention focused entirely on herself.
"Look up slave."
Her head jerked up. Maria was smiling wickedly down at her.
"I'm considering having you sent to the mines." A death sentence. "But before that, I think I will have you cleaned up and see how you do as my lady's maid; I seem to recall we once were connected in just that way. As long as you please me perfectly each day, I see no reason not to let you continue on to the next day. The mines will always be available, no need to hurry in sending you there. After all, we were once... friends."
Victoria's life changed again at that moment. Maria was exactly faithful to what she promised: Victoria was cleaned up, perfumed, gowned; no longer subject to punishments, she was supported by various under-maids as she was given exactly the same duties and responsibilities that Maria once had.
A complete switch of roles had occurred.
And at each moment, day or night, Victoria felt the hovering presence of death everywhere around her.
Back in time, when Maria was the maid, Victoria used to take pleasure in petty complaints used to berate her. Maria now seemed to remember each one, would take every opportunity to remind her new maid of them. And that new maid Victoria understood that one single slip on her part meant a slow agonizing death in the mines.
Victoria, highly motivated, turned out to be a much more efficient and effective maid than Maria had ever been; by an almost superhuman effort she managed to survive the first week. But she was completely hollowed out inside from the constant strain.
Finally, alone in the bedchamber with Maria, she simply collapsed.
"Send me to the mines. I deserve it. You know I deserve it. I am so so sorry Maria, so so stupid, so so callous, so so everything. Send me, please, send me, just send me, please my goddess, please, please,..."
Maria had not known it until it happened, but this was exactly what she had been deeply longing to hear.
For the third time, Victoria's life was instantly transformed.
*****
Maria was outside sunning herself. She nowadays took every opportunity to appear nude in public, proud to exhibit the delicate slave brand on her thigh. And proud of the worshipping acolyte who constantly attended it.
