Cum Kitten walked the halls of the manor, unsure what to do. She her orders. Half an hour after her master had left his bedroom he had barged back in, commanding every slave present to, "Find that witch cunt, the one with the purple dress, and have her meet me in the dungeon." Cum Kitten had left with all the rest of them, filing out in an obedient line, but there was a problem. A problem she had noticed the day before. When her master gave her an order, the irresistible desire to follow it was gone. His brand was still on her, but its power was broken.
She had no doubts about how it had happened. The 'witch cunt' -- Josephine (though she doubted anyone but herself even knew her name) -- had shattered it with a touch. Casually, just to watch her kitten cum, she had broken something Cum Kitten had known for most of her life.
She still, vividly, remembered when she first felt its effect. It was when she was still on the farm, before the manor, before she ever met her master. Farm slaves came out of the flesh vats eighteen in body and mind, but the world she was in was still a new, and painful, thing. Obedience was drilled into them from every second of every hour. Food was earned, sleep was earned, punishment was the norm and any reprieve a blessing. Any slave who dared step out of line would quickly wish she had never been created. And at the end of it all was the promise that, if they were obedient enough, if they suffered enough, they would earn their brand.
She still shuddered at the memory. Her life with Master Mevenmein was heaven compared to those days. The first time she saw him, the first time she felt his command, the skin over her pussy was still raw from the fire and magic that had marked her with the crest of a man she had never met. She stood in a row with all the other recently graduated slaves -- maybe a little over a hundred in all. They stood shoulder to shoulder, back and legs straight as boards. Heads and eyes down, always down. The air was filled with the overwhelming scent of flesh and all the other stinks of too many bodies pressed together, though at the time she hadn't noticed. That was just the way the air always smelled.
They stood in the mud. Mud and dirt were her constant companions in those days. It covered her body, matted her hair, and caked her like a second skin. There was no grass on the slave farm. The ground was too beaten down by naked feet, naked knees, and heavy boots. There were boards placed along the mud to walk on, but they were not for slaves. The women crawled or trudged through the dirty ground. The only bath was an enchanted torch held close to the skin and waved quickly over them. The magics on it killed any diseases and kept their skin soft, but it didn't clean, and was the opposite of soothing. If they wanted to be free of the mud, they used sweat, tears, or blood.
Like all the others, Cum Kitten had only worn a heavy collar, whip marks, and a scared face. Of course, she wasn't Cum Kitten then. She was just 53. A number that had been placed on her the day she came out of the flesh vats, still sticky with its amniotic juices. Sometimes, when she didn't think she was pleasing her master, she still thought of herself as 53. After being given the number, her head was shaved bald. "If you're not ready to graduate by the time it grows back," they had told her, "You never will."
But she had. She had survived, and that day was her graduation. She remembered the crack of a whip, and the order to bow. She remembered dropping to her knees, and pressing her face into the mud. Then another order to stand again, legs apart this time. She stood, and she saw him -- standing on a platform above them all, so different from every man she had ever seen before. The men at the farm wore metal masks with snarling, grotesque faces. She had never understood why. Too torment them? So they couldn't empathize with them? As she walked down the hall, she suddenly realized she did know why. It was so that the first male face they saw was his -- Master Mevenmein's.
What was his expression? Contempt, love, boredom? His face was so unique, so alien, she had nothing to compare it to but the faces of the women around her, but her training was complete by then. She knew that comparison was forbidden.
She would have stared and stared, if she had been allowed. But then, he spoke. He commanded them to stand still, and she felt it. She didn't just stop, she couldn't not. The very idea of moving was anathema. It wasn't like a force holding her still. She simply couldn't fathom ever moving, and knew she would do everything in her power to stay perfectly still.
They lit candles -- thick, hot ones made to light up a room by themselves. The men with their horrible masks took them, and walked along the rows. One by one, they tested the brand. They held the candles between a slave's legs, the flame just licking at the lips of her cunt. And the slaves stood still, letting the fire lap at them until the man before them was satisfied.
The man that stood before her wore a mask that seemed made of multiple, grinning mouths. The teeth were large, jagged, and crooked. He placed the candled between her thighs, and she instantly knew her brand was working. The air between her legs shimmered with heat and she felt's its touch on her most sensitive part. She wanted to scream, to jump, to howl in pain, but she would not.
And then the flame was gone, and the man with the smiling mask was moving onto the next slave in line. Later, after over an hour of not being able to move, they were taken to a room she had never been in before, and cleaned -- with water and soap. Their hair was brushed, their lips painted, and powder dabbed on their cheeks. Then, they were lined up again, and Cum Kitten was amazed to learn how different their skins looked without the mud and dirt. Mevenmein walked among them, studying them, judging them. With a word he decided their fates. "This one goes to my fields," he would say, and the slave in question was whisked away. 'This one can be a gift to so and so,' 'such and such needs more hands, send this one there.' 'To the mines with this one,' and the unfortunate soul would be taken away, and every girl would pray they got something better.
And then he went before her. He lifted her breast in one hand. Felt the curl of her hair. She wanted to straighten herself, to look better before his gaze, but she couldn't. Her form was already perfect. "This one's not bad. Send her to the manor."
If it had been allowed, she would have wept tears of joy. Not just because the manor would no doubt be an easier life than the fields or mines, but because she would be near him. Her master. The man who had plucked her from the farms, and given her a place in his home. She had soft pillows and warm baths, and sometimes he would run his hand through her hair and tell her what a good cunt she was. She would do anything,
anything
, to please him. Not that she had ever had to test that. His word was her command.
Except not anymore.
It shouldn't have been possible. She knew from church the magic behind the brand was created by The King himself. No witch should have able to remove it. But then again, what did she know about magic? She had never heard of a witch being able to heat the air like fire. And hadn't Josephine said something about a crater? What could she really do?
And now her master wanted her to find that same witch. But, Josephine was the one person she never,
ever
, wanted to see again. But, she could only disobey his order to find the witch, because of the witch. It was all too much.
Cum Kitten walked the halls aimlessly, her mind running in circles, her high heels clicking. The duel was today, and master had ordered her to wear something nice. She had picked a frilly, purple dress - completely open at the front, covering only her shoulders and back. It joined at her waist, before opening again with a skirt that covered her behind, but was light and short enough that every movement and gust of wind showed what was underneath. At the time she had thought it was cute, and would fit the season while also slightly standing out. Now, she realized the shade of purple was almost exactly the same as the one the witch had worn the day before.
She had taken the bell off the ring that went through her clit. She hated it, but she knew her master usually liked it. However, she also remembered the way he had looked last night when she led Eve into the hall. She didn't want to do anything to remind him of that.