NOTE: So, since I had a few people commenting that they were confused about the main character - here's a tl;dr
Lin'qa was born fully male/masculine, however, she identifies as female. She is basically transgender except she's never been on hormones due to the restrictions of her upbringing. Rakshasa in this setting just happen to be really androgynous and Fem, so, to other races she looks sort of passable. The narration strictly refers to her as "she" because the story is written from her perspective and that's how she sees herself.
Also when I re-read Chapter 1 I realized that I wrote that Lin'qa was basically virgin and I'm not how that got written as that was never the intention. Sexually repressed? yes. Virgin? no. So, that's being retconned.
***
"So you... work here?" Lin'qa asked Nissa after she rinsed her mouth out with the small cup of tepid water she'd been provided with. She spat the water that probably tasted like Rugana's piss down the little drain that probably connected to the Fortress' plumbing.
"I do. Chief doesn't do her own laundry or clean her own rooms. Or clean up her slaves, I guess, but I don't mind that part as long as you don't make a fuss about it."
"I S'pose... She's like nobility here, huh?" Lin'qa asked, avoiding calling her Momma on purpose. The last thing she wanted was to normalize something so weird.
Nissa snorted. "She's the Chief. She fought for and earned her position. She's not some priss who was born into leadership and never worked a day in her life." Nissa wrung out a washcloth somewhat angrily.
Lin'qa bristled a little as Nissa basically described her in a way she wasn't especially fond of. It took her a moment to realize that Nissa probably hadn't realized that she was the oldest child of one of the wealthiest and most influential Rakshasa families in the U.R.F. Her ear twitched in agitation. A day ago she would have given this woman a piece of her mind. Now, she didn't know how to begin. How do you demand respect with a face full of cum and the taste of orc piss still on your tongue, possibly never to go away.
Speaking of which, Nissa came over to her and started wiping her face, and Lin'qa murred with discomfort as the woman scrubbed roughly.
"Yeesh, Chief really got you good. Not sure why she wants you put to work if she's gonna make you a concubine or something." Nissa muttered as she scrubbed.
"Put me to work? What?" Lin'qa pouted a little. She, as Nissa had aptly described, had never worked a day in her life. Well, not physical labor, anyway, she had many many long hard hours of study and magic practice, but all that was going to be pretty useless here. It made her feel at that moment like her entire life had been pointless. She was extremely apt at conjuring elaborate illusions, and deftly evocating and controlling simple kinetic shapes - which she could easily use to eviscerate someone as surely as Rugana could with one of her big axes. What good were five celestial cycles of practice at magic when she couldn't cast any? The iron shackles held a simple yet potent enchantment that rendered all those years wasted, useless. Fuck, her limited practice sucking cock, which was the practice her parents had most disapproved of, had been the most useful skill she'd been able to apply since she'd gotten here.
"Yep, you're scrubbing the floors with me today, Kitty. It's tough work, so it'll be nice to have some help," Nissa replied cheerfully, gently using the washcloth to clean one of Lin'qa's ears between thumb and forefinger, making the girl shiver at the overwhelming sensation.
"But... I've never done anything like that before..." Lin'qa mumbled indignantly.
"Never? Who hasn't scrubbed a floor before? You a merchant's daughter or something?" Nissa laughed, like the idea of her never having done this before was ridiculous.
"Umm... first daughter of House Talla... my formal education was mostly economics, trade, conjuration, mathematics, history..." Lin'qa looked away and blushed, not sure why she was spilling her guts about her education instead of just lying to Nissa. It certainly would be less awkward to do that.
"Oh. You're ransom? Weird. Well, Chief wants you scrubbing floors today so just do your best, I guess. I'll have to rap your knuckles until you do it right if she wants you to do this for real but for today just do your best and work hard, okay? I'll clear it up with her tomorrow."
Nissa finished up and hung the washcloth to dry, and Lin'qa sighed in defeat. Well, maybe some physical activity would make her feel better, take her mind off of the situation. Nissa went about grabbing some buckets and brushes, filling them up with water and adding soap. After she finished the first, she handed it to Lin'qa. When she took it, she squeaked in surprise at how heavy it was, almost dropping it.
"Wow, you weren't kidding, huh?" Nissa snickered as she grabbed her own bucket. "Don't make me yank the leash while I'm holding this, come along, Kitty." She attached her end of the leash onto one of her apron strings and started to lead the way. Lin'qa hurried after her, spilling a bit of water as she did, but Nissa didn't seem to notice. Lin'qa held the bucket in front of her crotch as she awkwardly waddled behind the older... well... younger woman, actually. Humans didn't live very long.
They got just as many stares and looks as the previous night, and Lin'qa didn't recognize anybody as they followed the familiar path through the corridors to the big dining hall. She spent more time looking around, and she paid attention as they passed through a large metallic archway decorated to look like it was covered in dragon scales. The roof changed from wood to carved stone as they passed through the threshhold. It wasn't perfectly smooth or level, but it was clearly chiseled and carved out of the mountain, signifying that they were going into an underground portion of the fortress. There were a few other servants puttering around the dining hall, mostly orcs wearing work clothes similar to Nissa's, but there were a few humans and even one older looking dwarf who seemed to be co-ordinating the efforts to organize the table. There was no food there yet but clearly they got ready well in advance, as they would have in Lin'qa's house.
"You start on that side. Need me to show you how to do it?" Nissa pointed to the side of the room where Rugana's large elaborate chair stood.
"Scrub the floor... I think I got it..." Lin'qa muttered bitterly as Nissa unclipped her leash and she carried her bucket of water over to the corner.
In spite of her protest, after less than an hour of trying to scrub the floors, Lin'qa groaned and sat back on her butt, panting softly. Trying to be modest as the orcs who flitted in and out of the hall leered and made comments at her was difficult, and trying to do that while working was rapidly exhausting her energy. At this point, she was pretty much beyond caring about the Orcs seeing her naked.
"No slacking!" Nissa called at her after she spent several minutes resting, and with a groan, she got back to it.
The rest of the afternoon was hell. Total hell. Lin'qa's back ached, her hands were soapy and gross, her knees were sore, she'd chipped her nails, and she was getting dust and grime all over her face. Her sweaty and gross hair clung to her face in long strands, no longer its normal snowy white but a dirty dark grey. Her black and white striped tail had gotten soaked, the fur matted and now looking more like a solid grey with dark spots on it. It hung limply, since the last few times she'd allowed it to twitch and swish, it had flicked dirty water over her clean section of floor, and she'd had to go back and wipe it up. She eventually met back up with Nissa, their cleaned sections of floor joining up.
"You weren't kidding when you said you've never done this before, huh Kitty?" Nissa snickered at her as she stood up, wiping her hands on her apron. Lin'qa looked, and saw that Nissa's section of the floor must have been at least three quarters of the hall, and even now she was moving to clean up sections of Lin'qa's floor that didn't look as nice as hers. There was something deeply frustrating about that. She'd worked herself ragged and Nissa had gotten three times as much done as she did. Not only that, Nissa looked just fine.
The two of them finished up, going over Lin'qa's section a little, Nissa pointing out the spots she'd missed or done improperly. She then took the leash back, leading Lin'qa back to the little servant quarters, carrying their respective buckets of dirty water and dumping them down the drain.
"Ugh. I need to lie down..." Lin'qa muttered, too tired to be properly upset. Instead she was just, sad and annoyed.
"Wash yourself up before you lie down in the Chief's room. Normally you'd have an apron so you don't get so filthy but Chief wants you naked. I'll run you a bath but you'll have to do it yourself, I've got more to do. Maybe I can talk Chief into letting you wear an apron tomorrow." Nissa led her over to the washbasin and turned the water on, clipping Lin'qa's leash to one of the pipes. Lin'qa actually inspected the leash for the first time. The clip seemed to be unlocked, it just worked on a simple thumb lever. She reached over and tried to depress the lever to unclip the leash. As her thumb came into contact with the little metal nub, a stinging pain shot through her arm, making her scream and recoil in shock.
"Gah! W-What did..." She wheezed, squeezing her hand with her other, the pain had stopped as soon as she removed her hand, but it left a lasting impression upon her.
"Oh, maybe I should have mentioned. Don't touch your own leash, Collar's enchanted. It both causes pain and resists manipulation, so spare yourself the pain and don't think you can fight through it just long enough to get it loose. I'll tell the Chief that you're in here, she should be back soon." Nissa sounded halfway between apologetic and amused at her little blunder. She turned the warm water off and left Lin'qa alone in the basin to wash the dirt off of herself. Her stomach growled at her, she hadn't eaten since the food Rugana had fed her last night.
"Relaxation time over, Kitty," Rugana walked into the quarters, making a beeline for the washbasin and unclipping the leash from the pipe, giving it a tug to drag her out and back towards her room.
"Ummm. Chief, can I--" Lin'qa spoke up, wanting to ask about some food. As she spoke, Rugana gave the leash a vicious yank, dragging her forward, sending her sprawling onto her face.
"Sorry Kitty, I think I misheard what you just called me." Rugana spoke flatly, not sounding terribly amused.
"Momma... I wanted to talk about... my family..." She mumbled as she rose to her feet.
