The Redemption of Sarina Deschanel

The Redemption of Sarina Deschanel Part 1.

Death.

"Ninety-seven, Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred," Sarina Deschanel counted before sighing and putting her hairbrush in her vanity's drawer. One hundred brush strokes every morning and evening for forty-one years. Well, less, Sarina thought. She wasn't sure how old she was when her nanny began brushing her hair. Five, maybe? Six? Call it thirty-five years. Thirty-five times three hundred and sixty-five times two hundred equalled... a lot, Sarina thought defeatedly, giving up the math.

She stood and glided sedately to her bathroom. "A lady never rushes, Sarina," her mother's haughty voice told her. "Plebes and serfs rush because they have to be somewhere. A lady only has to be where she is, and she never gets there rushed."

Picking up her silver handled toothbrush, Sarina placed a bead of toothpaste across its centre, pulled her long, straight, glossy black hair off one side of her face and readied herself to brush her teeth. Selena Deschanel, Sarina's mother, would be horrified by this blatant protocol breach.

'The last thing a lady does every night before she takes her rest is brush her hair," Lady Selena, who wasn't an aristocrat but liked to refer to herself as such, instructed her only child airily.

But Sarina had business in that bathroom and didn't want to complete her preparations and then return to her bedroom to brush her hair because she knew that, as she had on so many other nights, she would lose courage and not complete her goal. Having finally completed stage one of her tasks, Sarina couldn't stand the thought of not completing the final stage. Sarina spat, rinsed, and spat again. Then, she retouched her lipstick and put some eyedrops in to ensure her corneas were crystal clear.

"One shall never be seen with red eyes no matter how much one has drunk or how hard she has wept," her mother's haughty voice rang in her ears. "One is a lady and shall remain in control at all times."

Stepping back, Sarina examined her figure. Long, lean, and elegant. B-cup breasts deliciously but modestly displayed by her clinging, cross-over ballgown. Her elegant stole over her shoulders and across her bosoms, hiding their firm, full glory.

"One needs to tease but never reveal, Sarina," her mother's voice gratingly droned in her ears. "Cheap, classless women reveal, Sarina. You do not wish to be categorised with them, do you, my dear?"

"Shut up," Sarina whispered. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Sarina twitched her gown's long side-split aside. Long, lean, shapely legs deliciously encased in sheer black silk stockings. Suspenders above those. Black silk bikini briefs, beneath the suspenders, of course.

"Unless you're a cheap hussy, Sarina, and plan on letting a man have his wicked way with you, why do you need to be able to remove your undergarments quickly?"

Sarina grimaced. She knew from long experience that her mother's voice would drone on, lecturing her no matter what she did. She muttered, "Shut up," again, anyway.

Lastly, Sarina checked her shoes. Black with low stiletto heels, of course. They, too, were perfect.

Sarina stepped into the bath and lowered herself into the hot water. She closed her wide, round, wet-looking brown eyes and sighed as the water seeped through her clothes and warmed her skin.

"One must always be elegant, well-dressed, and in control," Lady Selena's voice chastised. "Other than your husband in the brief moments you allow him to rut on you, a lady shall never be seen naked." Husband? Hah! If it weren't so sad, it would be laughable.

Sarina opened her eyes and picked up her grandfather's Vietnam War army knife, honed to razor-sharpness by the mansion's handyman. She examined it fascinatedly for a moment, her skin crawling at the sight of the blood drying on the hilt, before pushing it into her left wrist just above her hand and slicing a deep cut six inches vertically up that arm's vein. Knowing her courage had failed, Sarina quickly swapped the knife to her left hand and repeated the cut on her right arm.

Sarina looked around, glad that none of her blood had spurted over the bath's rim onto the floor. Such a mess could not be tolerated. She took her last moments to wash the blood off the tub's sides and to rinse the stains on her gown above the water line. One should never be seen in disarray. Sarina had time to wonder if she shouldn't have done her makeup, too. But it would have run in the bath's steam, leaving her inelegant. No, clean-faced was best.

Sarina's head sunk onto the tub's edge, her mother's voice finally, blessedly, silent.

Sarina Celeste Deschanel: Forty-one years old. Stunningly beautiful. A body the world's top models would kill for. Sole inheritor of her grandfather's four-billion-dollar empire and his last living descendant. Virgin. Never kissed. Never loved.

Dead.

What?

"You'll be dead if you don't remove your clothing immediately," an impossibly deep, sonorous voice told her.

'Dead?' Sarina wondered. 'Isn't that why I cut my wrists? Am I not already dead? I distinctly remember the blood pouring copiously from my wrists.' She opened her eyes and saw the impossibly tall, handsome, muscular man who went with that impossible voice. He was naked and chained to a stone wall by an iron collar around his neck. "I beg your pardon?" She asked, averting her eyes from the man's massive cock. Surely that was impossible, too? Not that Sarina had anything to compare to.

"I said, 'If you don't remove your clothing immediately, you'll be dead,'" the impossible man said.

"Why?" Sarina asked confusedly.

"Slaves aren't allowed clothing," the man explained as if that made sense.

Unconsciously falling into her mother's haughty demeanour, Sarina looked down her nose and said, "I am the heiress to a four-billion-dollar empire, not a slave."

"Yeah, most of those sounded like words," the impossible man said. "But I have no idea what they mean. But if you have a collar and chain like this," he hefted his, "and you're chained to the wall, then you're a slave. If you don't already have one, the overseer will brand your ass when he gets here."

What?

Huh?

I'm experiencing some kind of delirium my mind's creating as it dies, Sarina decided, lying back down and closing her eyes. She'd be dead soon, and this, whatever this is, wouldn't matter.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," the impossible man said resignedly.

"Who, or should I say, what is this?" a loud, grating voice above Sarina asked.

Even in her addled state, Sarina knew the voice's owner expected instant obedience to his every command. She left her eyes closed, ignoring everything. Sarina was well-skilled in doing that. It was the simplest way to survive her mother.

A massive hand grabbed her iron collar and unceremoniously dragged her to her feet. "Why is it clothed?" The grating voice asked.

"New girl, recently harvested from those dying on Earth," the man holding Sarina's collar stated. "The harvesters must have forgotten to remove her clothing when they took her."

'This was too much,' Sarina thought, on her tiptoes but hanging limply from the gripped collar, her weight only minimally supported by her calves so she wouldn't choke to death. Another trick she'd learned as a child when her mother had lost the plot and was shaking her like a rag doll--be that rag doll. Do not react lest you be hit. 'Harvested? Harvesters? Taken from Earth? If this was dying, it sucked as badly as living.'

"Strip it and then flog it. It needs to learn the rules."

'Flogged? What? No possible way!' Opening her eyes, Sarina said as haughtily as she knew her mother could, "I am The Lady Sarina Celeste Deschanel. Unless you want me to have you arrested, I suggest you release me immediately."

"Double the amount," the grating voice demanded.

"This one's destined for The Masters' Mansion," the man holding Sarina's collar warned. "Sending it whipped and bleeding might not be the smartest move."

"Let me see," the man whose voice grated said. There was a delay, and then the paper rustled before the grating man muttered, "Age: 18. Weight: 55kg. Height 178 cm: Measurements: 34C-22-34. Beauty Index: 9.5. Sexual experience: Virgin for vagina. Mouth and anus, unknown. Yeah. It's definitely headed to The Masters' Mansion. Strip it, brand its right butt cheek with an M, and put it in the cage for delivery to Kingsholme."

"The paperwork says to send it naked but unmarked," the man holding her collar said, fearing the grating voiced man's response.

"Huh?" The grating voiced man said. "All slaves need to be branded so we know who owns them. Fuck! Whatever!"

Sarina heard his voice fading as he stormed off, raging about finding and punishing whoever fucked up his paperwork.

Where?

The man gripping Sarina's iron collar had been holding her on her tiptoes for an incredible length of time. Sarina's calves had cramped from supporting herself so she didn't strangle on the collar, and only years of remaining limp while her mother abused her allowed Sarina to maintain her stance and endure silently. She hadn't dared keep her eyes open because to do so would have enraged Selena. "Do not challenge me with your defiant eyes, Sarina," her mother would say icily. Even when Selena was enraged, her voice was calm and serene, even if her actions weren't.

Sarina heard more than felt the razor-sharp knife slicing her ballgown's back. Swift slices along her arms, and the $3,500 gown was peeled off her body. Even though she kept her eyes tightly closed, Sarina blushed at being so exposed. Not since she'd turned thirteen when her mother had dispensed with her nanny had Sarina been before others other than entirely and appropriately dressed.

She whimpered when she felt her bra straps being cut, and despite fearing what her mother would do, she cried out when her suspenders, stockings and panties were sliced off her body. Naked! Naked before others! Sarina was never to be naked other than when bathing, getting dressed, or changing for bed.

"Sluts and tramps enjoy being naked, Sarina," Selena haughtily stated after her she had found Sarina naked on her bed and exploring her youthful body. "And only sluts and tramps enjoy the sins of the flesh. Are you a slut or tramp, Sarina? Is that why you're naked and touching yourself so disgustingly?"

"Why does it have hair?" A voice asked. "It's disgusting and makes me want to throw up.

Sarina's mind couldn't keep up. She'd noticed that the man who'd spoken to her first was bald, but she'd assumed it was an affectation like some house servants' had worn. They had typical male-pattern baldness, so they shaved all their hair off rather than have that often ridiculous hair ring.

"The paperwork that goes with this one says it's allowed to keep her head hair but to remove the rest."

"Don't touch me," Sarina demanded, keeping her eyes closed so she didn't have to see the men ogling her body, but not wanting to be touched to remove her pussy hair as the man had intimated.

"Hairy, and it talks too much," the voice who observed she had hair said disgustedly. "Why don't you gag it, brand it, and toss it in the pen with the others to be sold? Save The Masters the trouble of trying to train it."

"A gag, for sure," the man holding her said. "Bring that rubber ball one, and do the honours, would ya?"

The man who had expressed disgust at Sarina's hair loomed before her, holding a traditional rubber ball gag. Not that Sarina knew what it was, but its purpose was evident in its construction. She tried to turn her head aside and keep her mouth closed, but she might as well have been the mouse between the cat's jaws. The man holding her wasn't affected by Sarina trying to turn, and the disgusted man gripped where her upper and lower jaws met. He squeezed hard, and the pain popped Sarina's mouth open like a triggered Jack-in-the-Box. The ball gag was tied in place seconds later.

"Great tits on this one," the disgusted man observed. "Must be a full C-cup." He casually groped Sarina's never-before touched breasts, and her nipples responded as they were supposed to when stroked. "Likes being touched, too," the man chuckled, running his thumbs over the swollen nubs. "Do you think The Masters will mind if we have a bit of fun with it before we send it up?"

"It's a virgin, Petrus," the man holding her said. "I'd say that if you don't want your balls and hands cut off, and your eyes gouged out, you release it immediately."

"Jaysus, Paolo!" Petrus said. "A virgin? You know, it's no wonder they send the harvesters to Earth so often. Where else do you get so many legal-aged virgins?"

"Yeah," Paolo agreed. "Ever since The Bishops banned progression treatment to mature those young enough to be virgins to the appropriate age for sex, Earth's become their favourite garden to harvest. There are apparently more virgins over the age of eighteen there than anywhere else they take from."

"They used regression treatments on this one?" Petrus queried.

Paolo checked his notes. "Yeah. It was forty-one when it committed suicide. They increased its breast size to a C-cup and regressed it to eighteen. Otherwise, it's unchanged." Paolo checked his notes again and musingly added, "There was a sixty-year-old human female in the place they got it from, but she was too damaged and had been dead for too long when the harvesters got there, and they couldn't pluck her."

"Where was that?" Petrus asked as he took out a spray bottle from his kit.

"It says Manly West, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Earth."

"Where?"

The Deschanel Mansion, Manly West, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

"That wraps it up," Detective Mike Brodie said after taking one last look around. "Definitive murder/suicide. The younger woman enters the elder's bathroom and stabs her eighteen times as she lies in the bath. Next, the younger woman cleans up, undresses and places her bloody clothes in the hamper before washing the blood off in the shower in the same bathroom. Then, she comes down the stairs to her room and dresses in a ballgown, etc. Finally, she gets in the bath down here and cuts her wrists. Fucking nut bag. The coroner will have to confirm, but my guess is the suicide knife is also the murder one."

"There's been a lot of death in this house," Mike's partner, Detective Stan Alves, observed. "We're sure the son killed old man Deschanel but can't prove it. We're certain The Lady Selena killed the son, her husband, but we can't prove that either. Now, the granddaughter of the old man has killed her mother and herself. At least we can prove that!"

"Even in death, the granddaughter's a fine piece," Brodie stated. "It's a waste, really."

"Yeah, don't let Captain Tucker hear you say shit like that," Alves chided. "Or she'll send you back to suck up to those hags in HR again."

"Yeah," Brodie agreed before chuckling. "Better not let those hags hear you either." Brodie called to the constable guarding the door, "You can send the ambos in to pick up the bodies."

Transported.

Unbelievably, Sarina remained held on her tiptoes by Paolo as Petrus knelt before her and sprayed liquid over her nether regions. Petrus even parted her pussy lips and butt cheeks to ensure her got the liquid wherever there was hair. Sarina thought that if she weren't already dead, she would have died on the spot from embarrassment. Her shame was compounded when Petrus' thumb brushed her clitoris, and it engorged. When Petrus stood and moved away, Sarina was ecstatic because she was terrified that he'd realise she was wet.

Petrus returned with a hose and a brush with rubber nodules. He poured another type of liquid on the brush then sprayed the warm water on Sarina's pussy. The brush followed, scrubbing her hair away. Petrus repeated these actions on Sarina's perineum, ass, rosebud, and her armpits. Further inspection revealed that Sarina's arms were covered with light hairs and her legs by shaved ones. More hair removal liquid was sprayed across her entire body and then removed, eliminating all traces of body hair.

"Shall I fetch the brand?" Petrus asked?

"No," Paolo said regretfully. "It says to leave her unmarked."

"It'll serve The Masters right if one or more of the transporters decide to use it on its way to The Mansion," Petrus shrugged, washing his hands of the situation.

An unbranded slave, like an unmarked steer, was free to be claimed by any who came across it and wanted it. If the unbranded slave was not in a travel cage or it was outside and not collared and accompanied by its owner, anyone who desired it could place their mark on it and claim rights over it.

Petrus thought such sweet meat as Sarina wouldn't make the one-hundred-kilometre trip unbranded and not be claimed by someone along the way. Then, all the claimer had to do was say it was outside the cage and, therefore, fair game. They'd have to leave no witnesses, though, like those pesky transport drivers and guards.

Paolo finally let Sarina sink onto her heels. Still holding the collar around her neck, he picked up wrist and ankle shackles and told Sarina to put them on. The strength of her captor prevented Sarina from protesting, and she reluctantly complied. Paolo then undid the chain holding Sarina to the stone wall, and he connected a shorter chain to her collar, hand and ankle shackles. Although the thick chain ran between Sarina's breasts, emphasising their lush fullness, it also ran between her legs, and partially obscured her freshly denuded pussy, which Sarina was grateful for.

Paolo dragged Sarina to the cell's front and opened the locked bars. Relocking them behind him, Paolo forced Sarina up the stairs and out onto the street. Sarina blinked at the bright light and looked around. If she'd been asked where she was, she would have guessed at Mexico or perhaps one of the South American countries she'd only seen in movies or on TV. The adobe-style buildings of whitewashed brick looked familiar and soothing. However, the twin suns above her head standing at six and four p. m. on a clock told her this wasn't Mexico, or even Earth for that matter.

The town (City? Settlement? Village?) was a strange mixture of Earth's past and a possible future. Animals resembling horses and bullocks were interspersed with hovercrafts that seemed electrically driven. Aircraft that more resembled sci-fi spaceships than Earth planes dotted the sky, but most of the men walking past wore simple white clothing made from cotton or linen. Crude sandals covered most walkers' feet, and wide sombrero-type hats hid them from the sun.

Cowboys, looking like their film counterparts, complete with leather chaps and pistols in holsters, tied by leather thongs to their thighs, strutted down boardwalks or the dusty street looking for a fight or gun battle. Their pistols weren't classic six-shooters. Instead, if Sarina had to guess, they were laser pistols. She doubted they were the safe ones used in laser game parlours on Earth.

Saloons and honky-tonks with self-closing wooden batwing doors dotted every street corner. Piano music issued from within. Sarina could easily imagine she'd somehow been sucked into a Sergio Leone movie. Hmm, except for the hovercraft. Star Wars, then?

It was hot! And she was naked. But the many men walking by carefully avoided looking at her directly. An accompanied, collared and chained woman in public could only mean trouble for any man who studied her obtrusively, especially in a world where breeders were so few.

The sights were so foreign to the sheltered, city-raised Sarina that she stared around, momentarily forgetting she was naked, outside, and in public. A hover vehicle pulling up before her returned Sarina's attention to the here and now. She blushed embarrassedly when two men got out and stared at her. "This is the virgin human from Earth?"

'Where else did humans come from?' Sarina wondered, but then looked around at the men in the street. They certainly looked human, if far better put-together examples than those she knew from Earth.

"This is it," Paolo confirmed.

"You have its papers?" The man asked, holding out his hand.

Paolo sighed regretfully because he knew this trip would not end well for one or more of them, and he feared the 'one' would be him. He handed over his papers, saying, "I have my orders. I go with to ensure she makes it to The Masters' Mansion alive and unmolested."

"That's highly irregular," the hover driver stated, taking Paolo's papers and reading them.

"Too many slaves have somehow gone missing or been taken on their way to The Mansion," Paolo said evenly. "I cast no aspersions, but your transport service has been unreliable recently."

"We're the largest transport division in these parts," the driver bristled. "We lose no more by percentage than the other services do."

"Still," Paolo insisted. "I have my orders, and so do you. Unless you wish to challenge an order from a Master?"

"Not likely," the driver swiftly denied. "I do need to check in with base first, though."

"Be my guest," Paolo said negligently. "I ain't got nothing but time."

The driver slid into the hover's cabin and picked up a cylindrical item Sarina assumed was a communications device similar to Earth's CB Radio or perhaps cellular network. He exited the vehicle before saying, "Base confirms your orders. "But you ride in the cage with the slave."

"Where I'm helpless if the raiders strike."

"It is what it is," The driver said, chuckling evilly. "You don't have to ride. We can always say we left without you."

"I'm riding," Paolo said definitively. He reached back inside the doorway and brought out what Sarina's mind interpreted as a laser shotgun. It had a thick energy canister like she'd seen in sci-fi movies instead of a magazine. Paolo lifted Sarina into the cage and climbed in after her. His eyes glittering maliciously, the driver shut and locked the cage door. "You die first when the shit hits the fan," Paolo said flatly.

The driver chuckled, patting the hover's cabin. "This can take a direct hit from a ship's laser. Your popgun will only bounce off it."

"Even so," Paolo grated as the driver got in. Seconds later, they were off.

Sarina hadn't been inside an electric car yet--limousines weren't typically fitted with electric engines. But the hover was as she had read and imagined an electric car would be. She could hear little more than a faint whine as the vehicle lifted off the ground and moved forward. It made a harsh U-turn that would have thrown Sarina into the cage bars if Paolo hadn't caught her before heading back the way it came.

The heiress wondered how far away The Mansion was. It sounded like it had to be some distance out of town if Paolo was concerned about being ambushed. Sarina also wondered how dangerous the trip was. Paolo certainly seemed to think it was. Sarina believed Paolo suspected the driver and his offsider were in on the raids on the delivery service's vehicles, which worried her. Sarina definitely did not trust Paolo. But her admittedly atrophied instincts warned her that the driver was even less worthy of trust because he was the only man in the street who had openly ogled her.

'Was she desirable?" Sarina wondered. Her mother certainly had never indicated she was. Instead, Selena took every opportunity to criticise Sarina's skinny body, which could never attract a man. Proof? Sarina was unmarried and unkissed. Selena stated she'd been unable to find a single man who would even consider entering into a marriage with her. However, the man called Petrus had admired her, and now the driver had ogled her blatantly. So?

"When the shooting starts, flatten yourself on the hover's floor," Paolo said tersely. "It'll take over an hour to get to The Masters' Mansion, and it'll be dark by then. I guess the raiders will hit us on dusk."

Sarina, whose sheltered life hadn't prepared her for any of this, squeaked and immediately spread herself on the floor as best she could, given she was shackled.

Paolo looked at her and shook his head. It was gorgeous. That was true. But it was a mouse, and Paolo liked his lovers to be passionate and aggressive. He thought fucking the human would be similar to humping his pillow like he was occasionally forced to do when he was on tour with his squad guarding the kingdom's borders. He sighed again. How the fuck had he been unlucky enough to pull this gig? If Meester Dawid, the Master who had requisitioned Sarina, thought there would be trouble, why hadn't he allowed him to bring his entire squad?

The journey continued uninterrupted, and eventually, Sarina felt ridiculous and sat on the bench seat opposite Paolo. But then she felt awkward under his gaze, even though he barely looked at her and kept his eyes on their surroundings. Sarina changed sides but sat as far from her captor as possible. But now that she was closer to him, Sarina could smell his man smell, which wasn't something she was even remotely accustomed to.

Her father died when she was less than five years old, and she could barely remember what he looked like. Her Grandfather died not long after she'd been born. Sarina had been home-schooled by her nanny, who was also a qualified school teacher, until she was thirteen. She then attended a prestigious girls-only school in Suffolk, England, until she graduated at age eighteen. So, she had virtually no contact with men except when she dutifully accompanied her mother to the many charity events Selena patroned. Those men didn't smell of musk and fresh sweat; that was for sure!

Lifting her wrists, Sarina examined the iron bands on them. They were another example of this world's dichotomy, she thought. Surely, a society capable of building electric hover vehicles would have discovered steel, if not stainless steel? A prison with stonewalls and iron chains but illuminated by electric lights? Horses and bullocks for transportation, but battery-powered laser pistols and rifles? Muslin cloths covering glassless windows, but electronic touch door opening on their vehicles? Sarina decided this must be some kind of post-life/pre-death dream that would end when her body finally gave up the struggle to live.

She frowned, examining her wrists again. 'No scar. WTF?' Wait! What had the overseer said? Age: 18. Measurements: 34C-22-35. But she was forty-one and only a B-cup. She knew that because her measurements remained unchanged from her last year at Ipswich High School twenty-three years ago. Her shackles prevented Sarina from cupping her breasts to estimate their size. Not that she would have with Paolo watching. But still. A mirror would have been nice, too.

The Mansion.

Paolo unceremoniously slamming her face first onto the hover's cage floor, woke Sarina up. Even her jaw aching from being held open by the gag hadn't prevented Sarina's overwrought mind from shutting down and casting her into a troubled sleep. In her dreams, she stabbed her mother over and over again. She'd meant to slip up behind her and cut her throat, but the woman looking up at her with her accusatory eyes enraged Sarina. Her mind turned to white-hot heat and snapped. All the years of physical, mental and emotional abuse raged through her, and Sarina shifted her grandfather's army knife to an overhand grip, her thumb on the hilt's top as she'd been shown, and stabbed it into Selena's chest.

Sarina continued stabbing until her mother stopped screaming, and then she stabbed several more times to make sure she'd never condemn Sarina with her words or eyes ever again. Sarina stood, looking around, disgusted, although not by her mother's stab wound-riddled body. Instead, Sarina was appalled by the mess she and the bathroom were in. Her body working autonomically, Sarina collected a bucket, rags and a mop from the hallway cupboard and cleaned her mother's blood from the walls and floor around the bath.

When she was satisfied that her mother couldn't find fault in the bathroom's cleanliness, Sarina undressed, carefully placed her blood-soaked clothes in the hamper, and entered the shower. Sarina, carefully ensuring her mind remained blank and unaware of her mother's dead body, washed herself until she was certain all traces of gore had gone down the drain. Then, daringly, because she'd only ever done it once before, Sarina wrapped a towel around her sublime body and glided down the stairs to her bedroom.

Her face smacking into the cage floor snapped Sarina out of the dream. "Stay there!" Paolo snarled, peering over the low solid side. Like the hover's cabin, the sidewalls of the cage could take a direct hit by a ship-to-surface laser canon and survive, although the entire vehicle would be tossed dozens of feet through the air. "Fuckers!" Paolo shouted after the fleeing driver and his offsider. He wasted a shot at them before flattening himself beside Sarina to escape the returning fire from the raiders surrounding the hover.

Paolo was fucked; that he knew for sure. However, he would take as many of these fuckers with him as he could. The raiders might be able to keep him pinned down in the hover's tray, but if they wanted the prize of the young woman he was escorting, they'd eventually have to come close enough to open the cage.

An unmarked, beautiful, virgin woman would sell for many credits at the slave markets, so the risk of enraging the Masters was worth the price. However, Paolo doubted Sarina would make it to the markets a virgin. More than likely, the raiders would use and pass her amongst themselves until she was a dried-up husk. Then, they'd cut her throat and leave her body to be devoured by the many carrion eaters infesting these parts.

Paolo listened as the raiders crept up on the vehicle. He was surprised by their caution but guessed someone must have informed them that he led one of the Masters' elite cadres and was more than capable of ruining their night. Paolo briefly considered leaping from the cage and taking the fight to them before remembering he was locked in with the slave. Paolo felt the vehicle shake and knew he was done because it meant the raiders were against the hover. Any moment now, they'd stand and begin firing. Paolo maybe had a second to get a shot off as the men ensured they were aiming at him, not their kidnap target. After that? Well, fish in a barrel came to mind.

Suddenly, all around him, shots rang out. The unmistakable sounds and feelings of men and the hover being shot rattled all around him. 'WTF?' Paolo wondered. He willed himself to take a peek when the shots ceased, but before he could raise himself above the sides, a voice called, "Paolo? You all right? Is the slave?"

Paolo warily raised his head enough to see. "Petrus, you fucker! What are you doing here?"

"Saving your bony ass, obviously," Petrus growled. "Meester Dawid tasked us to follow discreetly and ensure the cargo arrived unharmed. You got the short straw, my friend. It could just as easily have been me in the cage. Meester Dawid thought it was fifty-fifty that the transporters killed you as soon as they were out of town. I'm coming in," Petrus added. "Don't shoot me in the face, okay? I was just following orders." Then Petrus chuckled evilly. "If you want to shoot someone in the face, I have the transport driver and his assistant."

Petrus stepped close enough for Paolo to confirm he was indeed Petrus. He relaxed his grip on his rifle and pointed it at the sky. However, a trained soldier could see that Paolo was ready to drop the rifle and fire in mere moments.

"Turn aside," Petrus said before shooting the padlock holding the cage door closed. "Bring the slave," Petrus said before walking away.

Paolo helped Sarina to her feet and to the tray's edge. Then, he leapt off, landing lightly, and lifted the young woman to the ground. Paolo removed Sarina's ball gag and then held Sarina's elbow, supporting her as they shuffled towards where Petrus and the rest of his men stood, surrounding the hover driver and his offsider.

"What's the plan?" Paolo grated, stopping before Petrus.

Petrus callously responded, "Knock these two fuckers out. Put them back in the hover, crash it and set it on fire, with them still inside. Let it be known the raiders got away with another slave. That will ensure it's safe."

"Can I shoot this fucker in the nuts first?" Paolo asked.

"Sure," Petrus shrugged. "A laser burn should be indistinguishable from a hydrogen one."

"That should work," Paolo mused. "A hover's hydrogen canister for its back-up internal combustion engine blowing up wouldn't be unusual in a fire fight." He levelled his rifle and fired a laser blast directly into the driver's balls. "Try to kill me? Fucker!" He screamed before blasting the assistant's balls, too.

Petrus' men grabbed the transporters as they fell and quickly buckled them into the hover's cabin. The hover was then connected to Petrus' troop carrier, and when they got it up to speed, the carrier turned sharply, causing the hover to roll over spectacularly. Petrus' troops fired on the hover many times to simulate it being in a firefight before Petrus moved close enough to puncture the hydrogen canister.

Warning his men to get well back, Petrus took cover behind a convenient rock and fired at where the hydrogen hissed from the canister. The hover blew up in a blaze of light and sound, tossing Sarina to the ground. With her hands shackled to her ankles, she couldn't get her hands up to protect herself, and unluckily, her head struck a rock, pitching her back into the blackness of her tainted soul.

Sarina heard Petrus saying despairingly, "We're in enough trouble when we deliver it with a head injury. If we deliver it dead, we may as well shoot ourselves and save the Masters the bother. We're better off throwing it in with the transporters and saying it died when the raiders attacked the hover."

She turned her face out of the sand and muttered, "I'm okay. But may I have a glass of water, please?"

Paolo leapt over to Sarina and helped her sit up. He held a water bottle to her lips and let her drink thirstily. "You had no pulse, and you weren't breathing," Paolo said evenly, studying the lack of a mark on Sarina's forehead and hiding his unease behind his mild words.

"The dead don't breathe or have a heartbeat," Sarina said resignedly. "I committed suicide, and I have no idea where I am or what's going on."

"You had one at the slave pens in Bernal," Paolo said evenly.

"I must have finally died then," Sarina said, relieved but wondering why this alternate reality her mind had created continued.

"The Masters will be disappointed," Paolo said drily. He helped Sarina to stand and shuffle across to Petrus' troop carrier, where he lifted her into the back. "Stay," he ordered before joining the others to stage the dead raiders to match the burning hover.

An investigation by the town's police would show the raiders had interdicted the hover, accidentally overturning it and causing it to explode and kill the driver and his guard. The raiders were then intercepted by Petrus' men, who killed them all in a fire fight around the burning hover. The slave's absence would be studiously ignored because it would be assumed Petrus or his men had kept it for their own use. The slave was unbranded and, therefore, free for anyone to claim. So, according to the law, no crime had been committed by whoever had taken it.

Eight men other than Paolo climbed into the troop carrier. Sarina, embarrassed by her nakedness, tried to meld with the carrier's sides. She was surprised again that none of the men, except for Paolo, so much as looked in her direction. Paolo tried to smile encouragingly, but his wolfish grin chilled Sarina's blood. Paolo's callous shots into the transporters' groins and the casualness with which he'd done so terrified her because she could easily see him disposing of her the same way.

The carrier turned and continued in the direction the hover had been. Forty minutes later, Sarina, who had grown confident enough to look around, spotted a blaze of lights in the distance. It was how she expected a homestead on one of Australia's sprawling cattle stations to appear--a lone bastion of light in otherwise inky blackness.

"What's that?" She asked Paolo while pointing in the light's direction.

"Kingsholme, the Masters' Mansion," Paolo almost reverently replied. "The last bastion of The Defenders. May they live to protect us forever."

Meester Dawid.

The carrier didn't slow down despite barrelling towards an enormous iron gate at what Sarina thought was an insane speed. Instead, it almost seemed to accelerate. "Friendly vehicles know to approach at more than eighty klicks per haneur," Paolo muttered to quieten Sarina's fearful whimpering. "Less than that sets off the land mines under the road. Of course, our enemies would assume that a fast-approaching convoy would be seen as hostile, so they'll approach sedately and get blown to smithereens."

"We'll never stop before the gate!" Sarina gasped.

"No, we won't," Paolo chucklingly agreed. "Just watch."

Watching over the carrier's cab's roof, Sarina closed her eyes and squealed, thinking the truck had to smash into the gates because there was no way it could stop before them. Seconds later, she felt the truck slewing to the side and braking heavily. She would have catapulted into the back of the cabin or the carrier's sides if not for Paolo's steady arm supporting her. Sarina opened her eyes and looked back disbelievingly. The gate slowly lowered back into place, and she realised it must have leapt skyward before the carrier ran into it.

"Pretty neat, huh?" Paolo chuckled. "Of course, if an invaders' vehicle is crossing the mine field fast enough not to trigger the mines but their vehicle isn't transmitting the correct codes, the gates won't open, which I'd imagine will be quite disastrous for them."

Sarina nodded agreeingly. She thought 'quite disastrous' was massively understating the devastation one or more vehicles hitting that concrete and iron 2.5-metre thick, 10-metre-high gate at full speed would cause.

The hover turned in a slow arc before stopping before a set of wide stone steps that led up to a pair of dark wooden doors. The doors stood open, with bright yellow light flooding from inside. Two women, equally as beautiful, chained and naked as Sarina, flanked the doorway. They stood demurely with their eyes lowered, but there was almost arrogance in their stances, too. The women's eyes were down with their hands clasped together, obscuring their pussies, but their bald heads were held high and their shoulders were proudly held back. Their spread feet almost demanded that you look at what their hands hid.

When Paolo helped Sarina to the ground, they smiled and, despite their shackles, glided down the stairs to face her. Ignoring Sarina's protector, the women took her elbows and encouraged her up the stairs and inside. Sarina spared a glance back at Paolo, who bit his bottom lip and looked pensive. Sarina could tell he wanted to say something but did not dare to. The doors closed behind Sarina before she could wave goodbye or say anything. She felt she should have done something to acknowledge her saviour.

The chained women led Sarina up another set of marble stairs inside the mansion to a bathroom with an enormous sunken bath. Hot water poured from a cherub statue's gaping bottom into the tub. The cherub's massive cock and balls were shown in vivid detail below the pouring water. Around the tub were many other statues cast in lewd poses. A Satyr had a faun bent over and appeared to be rogering it vigorously. Human-like statue figures were spread through the room, engaged in every sexual act two humans could indulge in. The women's breasts and hips were exaggerated to the point of caricature, as were the mens' cocks and balls.

Paintings of beautiful women copulating with mythical beasts of every description adorned the walls, and several chained and naked men, their cocks held erect by cock rings and straps dotted the floor beside walls.

Ignoring the men, the two women led Sarina into the bath, encouraging her to sit in the soapy water. The water came to just below Sarina's nipples, leaving her feeling self-conscious with the men in the room. Those men paid her no heed, though. They kept their eyes raised and on the wall opposite.

One of the women sat on Sarina's lap as the other scooted up behind her. Sarina was intensely aware of the woman before her breasts and even more so of the woman's pussy pushed against her ass cheeks. Never before had Sarina been this intimately close with another. Her mother certainly never hugged her when either of them was naked. In fact, the only time her mother showed her affection was when Selena was 'entertaining' a guest from one of her charity events.

The woman sitting in Sarina's lap took a loofah and a bar of soap. She wet the loofah before caking it with soap. Then, she began casually washing Sarina's front, avoiding her breasts and nipples. Sarina, deeply embarrassed, didn't know if she was happy or sad her breasts were left unmolested, so she closed her eyes and imagined being anywhere other than where she was.

Soapy hands forced themselves under her armpits and blasted Sarina's eyes open in shock. Those hands unconcernedly cupped Sarina's newly-improved C-cup breasts and deftly strummed her nipples. Warm lips descended onto Sarina's neck and shoulder, and teeth nibbled where the lips kissed. The biter turned her head and blew into Sarina's ear gently. "I'm Ella," the biter murmured seductively. "Elsa is sitting on your lap. She wants to kiss you. Would you like her to?"

Sarina's heart lurched and unfamiliar heat blazed in her pussy. At that moment, Sarina could not think of anything she wanted more, but unfortunately, too many years of repression crushed that desire. "I'd appreciate it if you stop molesting me," Sarina said disdainfully. "I am The Lady Sarina Celeste Deschanel, and I demand you remove your hands from my body before I have you arrested for assault."

Unfortunately for Sarina, the women pressed against her ignored her demands. Instead, they laughed. Then, one of the hands on Sarina's nipples slid across her taut stomach and onto her button. It fingered that delightful nubbin, and a confused Sarina climaxed--her first orgasm given by someone else and not naughtily stolen under her quilt covers in the dead of the night by her own fingers.

Sarina panted, gazing at the woman in her lap wonderingly. The woman, Elsa, chuckled throatily before tipping her head down and kissing Sarina's quiescent lips softly. Sarina moaned and arched her hips against the knowing fingers still circling her clitoris. Clumsily and awkwardly, Sarina tried to kiss Elsa back. Elsa's hand possessed the breast that Ella had released to search out Sarina's clitoris, and she strummed that nipple with her thumb as she allowed their kiss to deepen.

Sarina's confused, overwhelmed, and inexperienced mind couldn't cope with the twin assaults on her breasts and clitoris, and she orgasmed again. The finger on her clitoris moved lower and briefly touched Sarina's hymen-protected entrance, but feeling the barrier, it immediately reversed direction and returned to her nub. Sarina felt Ella's teeth nibbling on her ear as Ella returned to stimulating Sarina's button. The women elicited another climax from Sarina before they returned to washing her as if they'd done nothing.

Ella pushed Sarina's bottom forwards, encouraging her to lie back against the other woman's breasts. A clay jug was produced, and Ella and Elsa swiftly washed Sarina's hair. Sarina's legs, arms, back, and stomach weren't spared either. Sarina gritted her teeth and accepted Elsa's probing fingers stroking her anus and cleaning there, too.

The two women finished cleaning Sarina and stepped out of the tub. Sarina watched them longingly, not knowing what she was supposed to do next. To her shock, Ella and Elsa summoned four men surrounding the bath. Ella instructed the first man to lie on his back, and when he had, she mounted him, guiding what to Sarina's disbelieving eyes more closely resembled a police truncheon than a cock into her pussy.

After some terse words from Ella, the second man poured something from a jug on the floor into his palm and then rubbed it into his cock. Next, he pushed Ella forward and knelt behind her. Sarina gasped when the man pushed his cock, which was equally as large as the other man's, down and forced it into Ella's back passage.

Simultaneously, Elsa lay on her back beside Ella and welcomed a man between her spread thighs. The man entered her and held still. The final man knelt, straddling Elsa's lower legs. Similarly to the man behind Ella, this man pushed his cock down and lined it up with ass of the man on top of Elsa and brutally penetrated him.

Sarina, embarrassed to the point that she thought her face had to burst into flame, turned away. But she couldn't help looking over her shoulder at the crudely salacious events occurring behind her. Apart from quick glances she refused to acknowledge even to herself, Sarina remained staring away from the copulating figures. Two more women in collars and chains entered the bath. They took Sarina's hands and helped her out of the tub and across to a stool in the room's centre. Sarina tried to sit facing away from the couples making love on the floor, but the women gigglingly made her face towards them.

"I'm Andie. Eloise is helping me," the woman on Sarina's left said. Andie picked up a brush and began combing Sarina's long, lustrous black locks. Then, pouring some rose-scented hair oil from another clay jug, Andie worked it into Sarina's hair and combed it through it.

Simultaneously, Eloise, who stood behind Sarina, rubbed sandalwood-scented oil into every part of Sarina's divine body. Similarly to Elsa and Ella, the women were not shy about intimately touching Sarina. Fingers toyed with Sarina's breasts and nipples as others circled her clitoris or slid along her slit. As Elsa had done, Eloise's finger briefly touched Sarina's hymen before withdrawing. Neither woman probed her entrance again.

Unlike Elsa and Ella, who brought Sarina to several quick orgasms, Andie and Eloise delighted in keeping Sarina on the edge. She was always on the cusp of a climax but never able to jump over the cliff into one. Before Sarina could scream in frustration, Andie knelt and pressed her head between Sarina's unaware thighs. Confused by what was happening and believing acquiescence was the best path forward, Sarina instinctively opened her thighs to allow Andie access. She gasped when she felt Andie's tongue slide along her slit and gasped again when Andie surrounded her clitoris and sucked.

Sarina's mouth opened wide, and she screamed her release as Andie's knowing tongue battered her button and unerringly drove Sarina off her climax's peak. Sarina's torture didn't end there. Eloise moved to her front so she could lower her luscious lips onto Sarina's engorged nipples. Then, twisting and pulling one nipple viciously, Eloise battered the other breast nub with her tongue. The weird combination of pleasure and pain bucked Sarina into another screamed orgasm.

After Sarina came down, Andie and Eloise summoned four more men from the room's walls. Both women got onto their hands and knees and took a cock in either end as two more beautiful chained and collared women guided Sarina from the room. Sarina, who was still unused to walking in her shackles, stumbled often as the new women helped her up another set of marble stairs to the third level. She was embarrassed by her lack of grace compared to the six women who guided her effortlessly from place to place.

Sarina was helped into an enormous room where a roaring log fire burned in a fireplace on the right wall. They brought her to a low stool and encouraged her to sit. Then, holding hands, the women glided from the room through a door opposite the one they had entered through.

Confused, overwrought and frightened near to death, Sarina sat on the stool and wondered what on Earth was happening. She guiltily remembered killing her mother in an icy rage, something she'd fantasised about doing for more years than she would admit. Sarina also recalled her careful preparations for her suicide. Despite the absence of cuts or even scars, Sarina vividly felt her grandfather's Vietnam War army knife slicing her pale wrists open and the blood welling from the wounds.

Sarina longed for a mirror so she could see herself. Her captors insisted she'd been 'regressed to age eighteen'. But what the heck did that mean? Was her body really returned to her teenage years? How? Surely, that was impossible. Wasn't it?

"The Lady Sarina Celeste Deschanel," a deep, dark voice spoke amusedly. "Not an aristocrat but a title self-bestowed by Selena Celeste Deschanel, your mother. I would have thought the animus between you and your mother would have prevented you from using that affectation."

Sarina's head snapped around to face the newcomer. She saw another impossibly well-built man, his skin so black as to be almost purple in appearance. Tall, close to seven feet, Sarina estimated. Bald-headed, but Sarina believed it was shaven and not from hair loss. Handsome to the point of taking her breath away and enough to wet her pussy just looking at him. The gigantic black man wore a black, blue-pinstriped, three-piece suit. An open-necked snow-white collared shirt sat under the suit's waistcoat. Gold-tooled black cowboy boots adorned the man's feet. A laser pistol sat in a holster on his hip. Sarina did not think it was for show.

Sarina's mouth gaped, opening and closing like a goldfish's as her befuddled mind tried to formulate a response. One never came. Instead, the man chuckled and continued. "I am Meester Dawid--Master of Kingsholme and Defender of the Realm. One of only eighteen Knights of the Light remaining, and the oldest."

Explanations.

Sarina began to stand so she could curtsy to acknowledge Dawid's name and title courtesy. But as she did, Sarina remembered she was naked, collared, and manacled. She immediately sat back down and covered up as best she could.

"Now, now," Meester Dawid chided. "None of that. Stand tall and display yourself proudly. You have assets that are close to divine, Lady Sarina. Have pride in them and allow others to bask in your inestimable beauty."

Sarina timidly stood before sighing and forcing herself to lift her head and square her shoulders. She met Dawid's eyes and saw amusement quirk his lips. Dawid's eyes never left hers, despite her 'divine assets' now being displayed.

"Doesn't that feel better than hiding away?" Dawid asked amusedly.

It did, Sarina admitted to herself. It was almost freeing to be naked before a fully-clothed stranger, especially one as handsome and masculine as Dawid was. Despite her fear and embarrassment, Sarina was wet, and her nipples had hardened with her arousal.

Dawid chuckled and circled Sarina, walking sedately but examining her carefully. "Murder and suicide. Two of the mortal sins, correct? Meaning your soul is damned for all of eternity?"

Tears fell as Sarina nodded, acknowledging her damnation. She wasn't overly religious, but the fear of damning her soul to the flames of hell had for many years, prevented her from acting on her desire to kill her mother and then herself.

"No redemption?" Dawid queried. "No way to atone for that sin? No forgiveness for you despite the abuse your mother heaped on you from the moment you were born? I'm not sure that's a God I'd wish to worship if that were the case." Dawid circled Sarina again. "You were given assets that would make the angels weep to see them, Sarina," Dawid stated. "A body that ninety-nine out of every one hundred women would be tempted to sacrifice their first-born children for, yet you've hidden it away from human eyes for over forty-one years. That's the true sin here, Sarina--not sharing your divine assets with others."

Dawid chuckled as he completed a third sweep around the weeping woman. "Forty-one, untouched, unloved, and as pure as driven snow. Tell me, Lady Sarina. What was the point of your life? Of being born? You made nothing, contributed nothing. You made straight 'As' at one of the most prestigious public schools in the world. What did you do with that intellect, Lady Sarina? Did you use it to alleviate child hunger? To look for a cure for cancer?

"Your inheritance. Who gets your grandfather's estate now that you and your mother are dead? Some obscure relative who you've never met? Who will fritter it away in pursuit of the hedonistic? The government? They're a good choice because, of course, they're so good at spending their citizens' wealth wisely." The sarcasm dripped from Dawid's voice as he stated the last.

"What do you want from me?" Sarina wailed as she collapsed onto the floor and huddled into a ball, hiding her breasts and pussy under her curled body.

"Your redemption," Dawid said fiercely. "We're dying here, Sarina. The Marshal's forces outnumber us five to one, and as we get weaker, he gets stronger as more and more see which way the war is headed and join his army so they're on the winning side. There hasn't been a new Defender birthed in three generations. The spark that made them has somehow been lost. That spark burns in you, Sarina. You carry in you the rebirth of The Defenders of the Realm."

"You want me to become a defender?" Sarina disbelievingly asked.

Dawid chuckled. "If only it were that easy. No, Lady Sarina, I need you to birth the next Defenders. There are eighteen of us left. That's eighteen pregnancies, Sarina. Eighteen boy children to eighteen Defenders; the rebirth of The Knights of the Light. Eighteen births, one for every stab wound into your mother's heartless body"

"Oh, is that all?" Sarina muttered before surrendering to her fears and passing out.

The Following Morning.

Everything in this world is impossible, Sarina decided as she opened her eyes and looked around. Ceilings simply shouldn't be that high, nor do beds need to be this big, and mattresses, sheets and bedding can never possibly be this soft. Neither was it possible that a forty-one-year-old spinster who had never been intimately kissed would awaken pressed between the naked bodies of two bald women of such impossible beauty. Women whose hands were intimately exploring Sarina's lean, deliciously shapely body.

Lips descended onto Sarina's as others kissed and nibbled where her neck met her shoulder. Knowing fingers traced circles around her stiffened nipples as hard nipples poked lewdly into her back. A hot, wet, hairless pussy was pressed against Sarina's and she felt hers responding to that touch.

'No! It's impossible!' Sarina insisted, trying to wriggle free. In her rare erotic fantasies, it was always a man intimately touching her erogenous areas, not a woman. Her body should not respond so avidly to a woman's touch! She wasn't a deviate, after all. She wasn't a lesbian. Oh, okay, dammit! Just this once. Sarina surrendered and kissed back, her body melting into the woman before her as she arched her back, encouraging the woman behind her's explorations.

With the gap provided by Sarina's arch, one of the hands on her breasts slid lower and eased between the two mushed together pussies, finding Sarina's pleasure nub. The kisses on her shoulders turned to insistent bites and nibbles, and suddenly, the pussy mashed to hers withdrew. Lips kissed her collarbones before sliding across to her nipples. Fingers circled Sarina's clitoris as others slipped along her slit and touched her hymen. They applied slight pressure there as if testing her hymen's resistance before sliding back along her slit.

Sarina shuddered and softly squealed as her climax hit. Lips returned to hers briefly, and before she could protest, the women slid from the bed, and Sarina was alone in the room.

Sarina lay wonderingly, unaware of what she should do next. Typically, she would get out of bed and dress before heading to her bathroom to take care of the morning necessities. Those done, Sarina would brush her teeth, comb her lustrous black locks and join her mother in the dining room where servants would already have breakfast prepared and ready to serve. She'd endure her mother's scathing commentary as she ate, then return to her room where she'd brush her teeth again and read until it was time for lunch.

Lunch would be with members of or donors to one of her mother's many charities, where she was expected to be witty and charming so as to drain every possible cent from the donors. Sarina was expected to flirt and allow these rich pigs to believe they had a chance to bed her. Inevitably, her mother would invite one of the patrons to join her, and Sarina would have to endure them pawing Selena on the limo ride home. Luckily for Sarina, her mother didn't want her to use her body to elicit donations. Instead, the men were more to rub Sarina's face in her unattractiveness to men than any need to prostitute herself for donations.

Sarina had almost decided to get out of bed, only her nakedness and the unavailability of clothing options had stopped her, when the... well, there was that word again... when the impossibly-enormous door opened. A bald, nude, unbelievably handsome, muscular man, bearing a tray carrying covered dishes, walked in. He smiled at Sarina and gestured she should sit up. When she had, the man popped some table legs out from the tray and set it on the bed over her thighs.

Sarina tried to keep her breasts covered as she sat, but the weight of the covers overwhelmed her meagre strength, and she couldn't do it. Blushing embarrassedly, Sarina stopped trying and allowed the man to set the table on the bed. The man chuffed amusedly at Sarina's discomfort, revealing that his tongue had been removed. Sarina's eyes widened, and they instinctively dropped to his groin. Sarina blinked disbelievingly twice. Although the man wore the same cock ring as the ones she'd seen the previous night, he had no balls. Lacking them hadn't seemed to affect his raging, impossibly lengthy erection, though. The man chuffed amusedly again as he bowed and exited the room.

The smells emanating from the bowls on the tray ignited Sarina's hunger, and she lifted the lids to see what they held. One plate had buttered toast, another fried bacon, and a third scrambled eggs. Further bowls held peeled and sliced fruit. A mug of hot coffee sat beside a jug of fresh cream, and a final petite bowl had a handle with a carved wooden ball dipped into honey. Sweetener for the coffee, Sarina assumed.

Sarina took the plate with the buttered toast and added the eggs and bacon. Then, she dipped the ball into the honey twice before adding it to the coffee along with a thick dollop of cream. She tasted the coffee first--divine. Just the right amount of caffeine bite but covered enough by the honey not to be bitter. The bacon and eggs were similarly perfect, with the hickory smoke taste of the bacon contrasting beautifully with the eggs' softness. The white bread toast was possibly a little soft and sweet for Sarina's taste, but who would complain? Who was there to complain to? Sarina wondered bitterly.

Surprised by her hunger, Sarina ate all the toast, bacon, and eggs before diving into the peeled fruit. Most pieces were clearly the same as their Earth counterparts, but there were several pinkish-yellow pieces that Sarina had no idea what they were--kind of somewhere between a banana and a kiwi fruit. Tasty, though, and filling. She burped loudly after devouring the last piece and giggled embarrassedly.

The impossible, tongueless man returned and removed the tray. He grinned at Sarina when she refused to cover herself this time. If she were a slave, as Paolo and Petrus had indicated, and if slaves were collared and chained but otherwise naked, as she was, then she'd face that challenge with the same stoicism she'd faced all of her life.

When her tray had been removed, Sarina stepped out of bed and asked, "Bathroom?"

The man chuffed and pointed at a rope that hung beside the bed. He mimed pulling it and left the room hurriedly. Shrugging, Sarina pulled the rope. Not hearing anything, she pulled it again more firmly. "Patience, Lady Sarina," Andie giggled as she and Eloise glided into the room.

Flustered, Sarina gushed, "I'm sorry, but I didn't hear anything, and I didn't know if it had worked. I didn't mean to seem impatient." She almost pleaded, 'Please don't beat me.' But managed to stop. These two weren't her mother.

"This way, Lady Sarina," Andie smiled, taking her left elbow as Eloise took her right.

The women led Sarina through a leather-curtained doorway into a bathroom. They encouraged her to a commode where she could do her business as they prepared a bath. It was embarrassing to use the commode when there were people in the room, but Sarina's body completed its voiding despite her shame. She looked around for tissue paper to wipe with but saw none.

"We'll clean you in the bath," Andie said warmly, gesturing for Sarina to get in.

Sarina hesitatingly did so. She wasn't at all comfortable with someone cleaning her dirty bottom or pissy pussy lips, but what choice was there? However, Andie's gifted fingers exploring her breasts as Eloise kissed and nibbled her neck from behind quickly drove all extraneous thoughts from Sarina's mind. She was going to orgasm again, Sarina realised. She couldn't believe how quickly and easily these mansion women elicited climaxes from her typically recalcitrant body. In just a day, she'd gone from having barely one hastily achieved orgasm in the dead of the night once a week to more than she could easily count.

"You didn't service Meester Dawid last night, you poor thing," Andie stated sympathetically as she deftly drove Sarina towards her peak. "Your body must ache with need. Let Eloise and I fix some of that for you, although your body will continue to ache until Meester Dawid has been satisfied."

The strangeness of Andie's words didn't strike Sarina until much later. Why would her body yearn to serve anyone? That wasn't normal, was it? You met someone, felt an attraction, and then your body reacted by desiring to have sex with them, didn't it? Meester Dawid terrified Sarina, although there was a base, animalistic attraction beneath that fear. But for her body to crave him? Really? Why would that be? She didn't know him well enough to have formed an opinion about his attractiveness.

"Oh!" Sarina gasped. While she was musing, her body had responded to the women's adroit stimulation of her erogenous zones, and Sarina unawarely launched into a mind-melting, body-shaking orgasm.

While Sarina shook, her mind out to lunch somewhere, Eloise quickly cleaned her bottom and pussy, sparing the new slave the humiliation of feeling it being done. They helped Sarina onto her shaky legs and led her to a stool where they dried her. They repeated the efforts from last night--rose scented oil combed into her hair, and sandalwood scented body lotion lavished into every pore.

Satisfied their charge was as ready as she would be, Andie and Eloise helped her back to her feet and led her back to the sitting room with the large, roaring fire she'd been in the previous night when meeting Dawid. Sarina sat on the low padded stool and waited as Eloise and Andie left.

Sarina's First Redemption.

Time passed, and a door opened, allowing another naked male slave to enter. The man bowed and offered Sarina a steaming mug of black coffee. Then, he removed a bowl of cream and another of honey from a shelf on the wall by the door and offered them to Sarina. Trying not to be embarrassed in the slave's company, Sarina added two dips of honey and some cream to her mug before smiling and thanking him.

"Meester Dawid sends his apologies for the delay, Lady Sarina," the slave stated, which surprised Sarina. She'd mistakenly assumed that because the first male slave to engage with her directly had had his tongue removed, all the male slaves would be the same. Her eyes unwittingly dropped to this man's groin. His balls stood proudly under his cock ringed erection.

The man continued, "Meester Dawid was called to the northern defences last night to defend an attack from a pack of verskriklike wolwe (dire wolves). It's unusual that they have attacked this early in the winter. Typically, they only strike towards the end of winter when food is scarce. The Masters usually kill a couple of beasts for them at that time, which prevents most attacks. We have received word that they successfully drove the wolves away and are on their way back."

The slave placed his tray on a low table under the shelf and stood politely, leaning against the wall, waiting for Sarina to finish. He took her cup and returned it to his tray when she had. Then, he smiled, bowed, and left the room, standing aside to allow Meester Dawid entry when they met at the doorway.

Dawid acknowledged the slave's courtesy with a brief nod but continued to rant over his shoulder at his companions. "I want the imbecile who left that part of the northern wall unattended in chains in the forecourt by noon. If he survives his flogging, perhaps he'll remember his duties. If he doesn't, let his fate warn those following him."

Dawid shut the door and turned to Sarina. "Morning, Lady Sarina. I trust you slept well and have woken feeling recovered from yesterday?"

Shaken by Meester Dawid's earlier savagery, Sarina was shocked by his suave and civil question to her. She examined Dawid carefully, noticing the barely constrained barbarity beneath his urbane exterior for the first time. A quote from her favourite podcaster, Jordan Peterson, came to mind. "A good man is a very, very dangerous man who has it under voluntary control." She feared how well Meester Dawid had his temper under control.

However, Dawid's question demanded an answer. "I believe that I slept well, Meester Dawid," she said. "I didn't awaken until two of your slaves molested me this morning."

"Males?" Dawid asked gruffly.

"Women," Sarina quickly stated. She didn't want anyone to be in trouble for what was, in fact, a pleasurable interlude.

"Your guides and servants. Did you object to their advances?" Dawid amusedly queried.

"Well, no," Sarian embarrassedly admitted.

"You can," Dawid chuckled. "They serve you, after all."

"I thought we were all slaves?" Sarina confusedly stated.

"You are," Dawid assured her, nodding. "But then there are slaves and then there are slaves." He indicated several positions on an imaginary vertical scale. "You are here, of course," he waved the higher hand. "The others are lower. Some by not much, others by a wide margin."

"You mean I'm higher than all the other slaves?" Sarina gasped.

"For now," Meester Dawid shrugged. "However, if you are unable to redeem your sins, your fall may be precipitous."

"What must I do?" Sarina asked.

"Birth me a male child first, and then seventeen others to the remaining Masters."

"Have sex with you?" Sarina said evenly. Her palpitating heart and dampening pussy informed her she wasn't averse to the idea, but she had her dignity to maintain.

"I hope that you can come to love me so that it will not just be sex, Sarina," Dawid said softly. "But at its core, yes. We do not have the technology to impregnate you any other way."

"Electric hover vehicles, laser guns, spaceships in near planet orbit, and you can't artificially inseminate someone?" Sarina asked disbelievingly.

"Much was lost when The Defenders fell," Dawid said sadly. "No one left knows how to make any of those things, and few remain who can keep what we have working. If you cannot redeem your sins and give birth to the next generation of Defenders, then I fear all will be darkness when we lose. It's not for no reason they call Kingsholme 'the last bastion of the light'."

Sarina wanted... she wanted, sigh... wanted... something, anything, but she was too repressed... she couldn't find a way to express her needs. She felt Dawid's ache, his frustration that his world was ending and he was powerless to prevent it. Sarina could feel Dawid's raw power, but it was fettered, directionless, and had nowhere it could be directed to or at. She felt... something... there was an inkling in her mind that informed her she knew how to focus the Master's direction and set it at something. Something that seemed indefatigable, but could be beaten if only the remaining Masters could direct their vast power at the correct target or in the correct manner.

Weeping, Sarina slid off the stool onto her knees at Dawid's feet. Her hands caressed Dawid's trouser front, feeling the enormous shaft throbbing there. She gasped, knowing instinctively it was even longer than the police truncheon-like cocks she'd seen the male slaves wielding. Sarina feared trying to take it in any of her love holes, but she knew she had to try.

She unzipped him and pulled his pants down. Dawid's throbbing, 14-inch cock bounced into her view. With trembling hands, Sarina cradled Dawid's golf ball-sized testes and kissed the base of his shaft. She didn't know what she was doing despite the illicit stories she'd read under the covers late at night on her favourite erotic story sites. Those stories seemed fanciful, the women impossibly beautiful and the men unbelievably handsome and well-endowed.

Yet here she was, starring in her own lurid story with those very characters. Impossible was a word that seemed to describe this world and everything and everyone in it aptly. She suspended her disbelief and lifted herself higher so she could take Dawid's cock's head in her mouth.

Dawid hissed as the head of his cock slid between Sarina's lips. He knew that he smelled. Fighting dire wolves for most of the night wasn't without fierce physical effort, but the young woman kneeling at his feet didn't seem to mind, so he watched avidly as she attempted to give her first blowjob.

Sarina's innocence was refreshing, Dawid thought. Over the last fifty years, the women harvested from Earth had become sluttier--less demure and more sexually brazen. Often, even those found with intact hymens were not oral or anal virgins. That Sarina was a virgin in all three of her love holes excited Dawid more than he thought it should. That he was about to devirginise her first love hole excited him even more.

The first three inches of his cock slid inside Sarina's mouth. She hesitated there, and Dawid knew it was because she expected his cock to have reached her gag reflex. She'd be surprised because the standard improvements the harvesters made when they plucked women were to remove her gag reflex, open her cervical canal so she could accept cocks inside her to her womb, and to stretch the anus sphincter so it could take cocks as long and broad as Dawid's.

Not feeling any need to retch, Sarina hesitantly allowed more of the Master's cock into her mouth. She managed about half of Dawid's tremendous length before, impatient, the Master grabbed her head and forced the rest of his cock down her throat. Her airways blocked, Sarina coughed and tried to back away, but Dawid held her firmly, with his pelvis pressed against her nose, until her coughing fit passed. Then, he pulled out enough to let Sarina breathe before forcing himself back in.

Working patiently, Dawid slowly increased the speed and vigour of his thrusts until he was literally face fucking Sarina. He held the young woman's ears tightly as he ravaged her throat, his sense of decorum completely eradicated by his lust.

Sarina had no idea how she endured. Perhaps it was surviving her mother's continuous abuse that enabled Sarina to accept her ravishment, but Sarina sucked when she could, licked when possible, and hummed when she could breathe. The gluck, gluck, gluck sounds Dawid's cock made as it ravaged her throat excited Sarina, and her hand unknowingly delved between her shapely thighs and found her nubbin.

"Don't spill a drop," Meester Dawid gasped as he thrust into Sarina's throat one last time and held still, shuddering as he released a torrent of cum directly into her stomach.

Sarina gulped as Dawid's cum filled her. She didn't need to worry about spilling any because he was ejaculating directly into her belly. Sarina felt bloated when Dawid finally eased out of her mouth, and his deflating cock slid down her chin. She took the wilting shaft in her petite hands and gently kissed its tip, worshipping the first cock she'd ever touched.

Sarina's simple actions excited the Master, and blood immediately flowed back into his shaft. "Oh!" Sarina exclaimed as Dawid's cock heated and expanded in her grip. Her fingers were forced apart, and she could not put her thumb and fingers together when it was wholly erect. Sarina kissed the tip and tasted the semen pooled in Dawid's cock's eye. Eying Dawid's stupendous shaft, Sarina wondered how it ever fit down her throat. She shuddered when she imagined trying to take it inside herself, but her needs rose to meet the longing in the Master's eyes, and she lay back, pulling Dawid by his cock after her.

Sarina moaned as she positioned Dawid's enormous penis at her virgin entrance. She'd read many lurid descriptions about how painful being deflowered was, but she wanted to experience this more than she could have believed. Dawid settled onto his elbows above Sarina, and when she looked into his eyes and nodded, he pushed his hips forward, breaking through the thin membrane protecting Sarina's innocence and spearing into her wet depths.

'Barely hurt at all,' Sarina disjointedly thought as her body predictably reacted to having a cock inside it. Her back arched as she moaned, and her hips tentatively pushed up at Dawid, encouraging him to fuck her.

As he had with her throat, Dawid eased his cock into and out of Sarina gently, waiting for her body to signal she was ready for more. It took even less time than earlier before Sarina pulled Dawid into her with her legs as she thrust her hips up to meet his downward plunge.

Dawid chuckled and increased the strength and speed of his thrusts. Shortly, every powerful thrust into the young woman forced the pair to slide along the rug and gave Sarina carpet burns on her tailbone.

Sarina hit her peak and squealed as her pussy spasmed around Dawid's enormous cock. Her spasms clenched her G-spot against the Master's shaft, which drove Sarina's peak even higher. She screamed continuously as orgasm after orgasm blasted her body and shattered her mind. She was almost comatose when Dawid grunted protestingly and rammed himself to his cock's fullest depth inside her. The entire head of Dawid's cock was inside Sarina's womb, and when it squirted its load, he coated Sarina's uterus with baby batter.

The harvesters had completed their duties after they'd plucked Sarina's dying soul from Earth, and she was fertile, with an egg waiting in her fallopian tube, waiting to descend into her womb and be fertilised. Sarina's body, feeling her womb filled with sperm, released the egg. By the time the rutting couple finished, Sarina was already pregnant, though it would be some weeks before she knew it.

Dawid's cock coating her womb's walls shattered Sarina into another hefty climax, and she squealed delightedly until her air ran out, and she collapsed unconscious. Dawid started easing out of the young woman, but despite being passed out, Sarina frowned, and her legs gripped his hips, holding him in place. Dawid chuckled, and because the tightness of Sarina's pussy still inflamed him and kept his cock mostly rigid, he began stroking into the girl again.

"Good," Sarina muttered. "That feels so good. More. No, wait. I have one more hole to surrender. Please, do me in my bottom?"

Meester Dawid undoubtedly was not averse to completing all of Sarina's love hole deflorations in one sitting, but his innate chivalry demanded that he offered some token resistance. "Are you sure, Lady Sarina?" He asked concernedly. "It won't be too much for you?"

"It will be," Sarina assured him. "But do it anyway."

Dawid pulled out of Sarina long enough for her to roll over. He winced when he saw the carpet burns on her lower back but didn't mention them. The healing gels in her bath water would remove all traces when she washed next. Taking a small clay bowl from the low table beside them, Dawid coated his lengthy cock with oil before pouring some on Sarina's ass.

The Master knew the harvesters would have prepared his young lover's sphincter, but he slid a finger into Sarina's ass to ensure they had anyway. It slid in without any protest from Sarina, and so did a second and third digit. Satisfied she was ready, Dawid lined his thickly girthed cock with Sarina's rosebud and gently but relentlessly forced it into her until his pelvis rested against her heart-shaped bottom.

"Gaaaaawwwwwwwdddd," Sarina groaned. "That's intense."

'Yes, it was,' Dawid silently agreed. But he waited for the squirming woman beneath him to push her ass back before he started to thrust. It wasn't long before Sarina's whimpers changed to pants, and she tentatively thrust her bottom up at her Master's hips. Dawid chuckled before pulling back and pushing forward again.

"Intense," Sarina protested despite slamming her divinely-shaped ass up at Dawid's descending cock. "Different and oh so intense. I like it, though. Fuck me, Meester Dawid. Fuck me hard."

Dawid grinned happily although he denied Sarina's wish. Her sphincter hadn't released yet and it still gripped his cock almost painfully. The Master pulled back before reinserting himself. Sarina's ass fluttered around his entering penis before relaxing and welcoming him home. Moving his hand to the young woman's hip, Dawid balanced there as he used the leverage to lift himself off her. Then, he dug his fingers into her skin and pulled her back. Simultaneously, the Master slammed his hips downward, filling Sarina's rear fuck hole to the maximum.

"Do me!" Sarina demanded, her breath ragged and out of control. "Do me, Meester Dawid. Do me like I'm a slut!" Sarina had no idea where her words came from. She supposed that her addled mind had dredged them from a story she'd read, but she liked how the sounded in her mouth, so she yelled, "Fuck me, Dawid! Fuck your whore like the dirty fucking slut she is!" More undefined words that Sarina only unawarely knew.

The words had the required effect on the Master, though. He grunted with surprise and thrashed his hips into the writhing young woman under him. Four more times, he pulled all but the tip of his lengthy dick out of his devirginised lover before ramming it home with an audible thump. After the fourth brutal penetration, Sarina squealed as another gigantic climax blasted her bones to splinters.

Feeling his lover cum and hearing her squeals launched Dawid into his orgasm, and he grunted vociferously as his thick seed splashed into Sarina's colon. He continued pumping until his cock had wilted and folded, plopping out of Sarina's ravished bottom. The Master staggered to his feet and stumbled to a rope pull.

Ella and Elsa entered immediately, gathered Sarina from the floor, and whisked her away to the bathroom. They helped her into the sunken tub and massaged her muscles, releasing their pent-up tension. Knowing hands rubbed the healing gel-infused water into the carpet burn on Sarina's tailbone while skilful hands distracted her from the pain by stimulating her nipples and clitoris. Sarina's overwrought mind crashed her into another orgasm as the two slaves serviced her needs, and her eyes fluttered as she fell asleep.

The second sun streaming through her room's wooden blinds woke Sarina from a peaceful sleep. Mercifully, she was alone. Mercifully, because Sarina didn't think she would cope with further sexual stimulation when her warped mind was still struggling to come to terms with her recent activities. Somehow, after her suicide, Sarina had gone from a virgin who had never been kissed sexually to having sex with six separate women and having surrendered all three virginities to a handsome black man.

Not that Sarina was even remotely racist. It was just that her mother's small circle of friends, who were also Sarina's only acquaintances, didn't include anyone of colour. Therefore, Sarina's fantasies centred on the men she found attractive within that small circle.

Sarina observed the massive... what on Earth... off Earth, Sarina giggled... was it called? It appeared to be a broad carpet suspended between two wooden booms. As Sarina watched, the right-hand boom closed until it was against the left-hand one. Then, it opened, stirring the air beneath it. Even given the afternoon's heat, the boom fan (?) kept Sarina's room surprisingly cool. Not seeing any pressing need to rise, Sarina closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep.

John Tong Centre, Mortuary, QE II Hospital, Coopers Plains, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Spencer Carlisle, Brisbane's chief coroner, looked disbelievingly at Selena Deschanel's body. He rechecked his notes before referring to the official report again. Both informed Spencer that Selena had eighteen stab wounds, but now he could count only seventeen, which was clearly impossible. Dead people's wounds didn't heal, let alone disappear! Checking the photos, Spencer re-examined where the wound had been before sighing and picking up a scalpel.

"Incising a cut through Selena Deschanel's left upper chest above the wound labelled eighteen on my report, to check for interior damage," Spencer informed his recorder. He was not surprised when his incision found no subcutaneous wound either. "Although it is impossible," Spencer continued. "It appears that the wound labelled number eighteen on Selena Celeste Deschanel's initial autopsy has disappeared. I have checked the photographs and re-read my preliminary report. The wound was photographed and recorded, but it is no longer evident. The meaning is unsure at this time."

Nine Months Later.

"Push!" Andie demanded as Sarina panted and groaned. "Stop being a damned pussy and push!" Andie shouted.

"ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!" Sarina screamed as she bore down and forced the crowning baby from her vagina. The boy child exited Saina's body with a slippery rush and was deftly caught by the midwife. She immediately showed the child to Meester Dawid before placing it on Sarina's stomach. She tied off and cut the umbilical cord before picking the baby up by its ankles and swatting its bottom.

The baby objected with a loud, healthy squall, and the midwife chuckled happily. "A healthy baby boy, Meester Dawid. I'll take him to clean him up and weigh and measure him shortly, but I'm guessing ten to twelve pounds and more than twenty inches.

The midwife massaged Sarina's abdomen until, with another slippery squelch, she delivered the placenta. The midwife cut a small portion off and offered it to Dawid. Dawid took a small bite before handing the piece to Sarina. Sarina had been warned this ritual was important to The Defenders, so she suppressed her revulsion and took a similarly tiny bite, chewed and swallowed. The remainder was handed to Dawid's second-in-command, Meester Guān, who took a bite and passed it to the other Masters. The last tiny piece was returned to Dawid, who chewed it and swallowed, completing the ritual.

Dawid dipped his thumb into the placenta's blood and drew a star on the baby's forehead. "Welcome home, Meester Thaddeus, firstborn of the new Defenders," he intoned. "Welcome to Kingsholme, ancestral bastion of the Knights of the Light."

"Welcome home, Meester Thaddeus," the seventeen other Knights repeated. "Welcome to Kingsholme."

Laughing, joking, and in high spirits, the Defenders marched from the room and walked to the banquet hall to celebrate, eat, drink, get drunk, and forget the encroaching darkness for a time.

The midwife rolled her eyes, amused by their actions. She took the squalling baby from the room to bathe, weigh, and measure it before returning it and placing it against Sarina's breast. The baby's cries had already brought Sarina's colostrum down, and the child latched onto her nipple unerringly and began feeding.

"He's beautiful," Sarina gushed, looking at her two handmaidens, who were also her closest friends and the best lovers she'd ever had. Although the last designation didn't amount to much, given that Sarina's lovers amounted to Dawid and her six fellow female slaves.

"He sure is," Andie and Eloise gushed simultaneously. The two women were native to this planet, Aetheria, and like most of its female inhabitants, they were sterile. Helping Sarina to raise Thaddeus would be as close as they got to being mothers, and they both itched to snatch the baby from Sarina's arms and coddle him.

There was a sadness in the three women, though. They had the child, Thaddeus, for less than a year. Male children on this planet grew swiftly, and within a year, the child would walk, talk, and be on solid food. At that point, The Guardians would take Thaddeus and begin training him to become a Defender of the Realm, and eventually, a Knight of the Light, but only if The Guardians deemed him worthy.

Similarly, Sarina's relationship with Dawid would change. Already, she felt differently towards the eldest of the defenders, their nominal leader. However, the Defenders were primarily independent entities who shared a common goal and enemy but weren't answerable to anything or anyone but their service to The Light. Dawid was her first real love and the father to her first child, but he wasn't to be hers 'til death do us part'. Instead, he was part of her journey to redemption.

A part of Sarina's awareness already knew the next step on her path. Her pulse had jumped, and her face warmed when Dawid passed the placenta piece to his second-in-command, Meester Guān. Guān would be hers next, although her place in the mansion would remain unchanged.

However, that was the future, and Sarina had every intention of enjoying every moment with her newborn child and the time she still had as Dawid's alpha slave. The sex they had together since their first night had seamlessly merged into making love, just as Dawid had predicted.

No matter the future, Dawid was Sarina's first, and she would love him forever. When her body told her the time was right, her love for Dawid would morph into a platonic love that spouses who had parted amicably felt for their exes, mostly so they could retain a stable front for their children. Meester Guān would then become the object of her 'eros love'--the object of her physical desire.

Andie had carefully explained that the change was inevitable, so although she'd be sad to an extent, Sarina would roll with the punches and accept the change stoically. The very ability that had allowed her to survive forty-one years of her mother's abuse before she snapped would enable her to survive this, too.

Six Months Post Birth.

The months passed in their typically stately manner, and the child grew to be a joy to everyone in the Mansion. Thaddeus, the first child born in the manor for nearly thirty years, was a loud, gregarious, rambunctious child who laughed readily and generally caused mayhem wherever he went. By six months, Thaddeus was crawling and getting into trouble. Sarina would capture him and roll him onto his back to remove his soiled nappy. But the moment she turned her eyes away to dispose of the nappy, Thaddeus would roll onto his hands and be off, laughing his head off as he scooted away from his mother as quickly as possible.

Andie and Eloise were Sarina's constant companions during this time, although Dawid had brought his aged mother to the Mansion to help. None of the women born on Aetheria in the last thirty years had birthed children, so none there had experience raising a child. Dawid's mother, Andrea, had given birth to Dawid only weeks after The Marshal's first attack, so she was one of the few women left who had experienced raising children. Andrea's steady presence and advice were invaluable to the new mother and her attendants.

Aetheria's population numbers were crashing because only the women harvested from the various worlds and their children were fertile. Whatever weapon The Marshal had used to attack the Defenders and bring down their bastions had rendered all women on Aetheria infertile whilst leaving the men's potency unchanged. Although the situation was dire, because Aetherians lived so long, it wasn't catastrophic yet. However, if The Marshal followed through on his latest threat and unleashed his weapon again and rendered even the harvested women infertile, the situation would become untenable.

Sarina, a keen student of Earth's history and her many wars during her years at Ipswich High School, had the inkling of an idea about how to take the war to The Marshal. Unfortunately, the reticence ingrained in her since birth by her overbearing mother prevented her from presenting her ideas to Dawid. She thought the Defenders were too passive and needed to take the war to The Marshal's base.

She'd listened as Meester Dawid raged while he poured over the maps of the region he commanded about The Marshal being a ghost, impossible to follow or predict where he'd strike next. But Sarina, who had learned a thing or two about supply lines, thought if the numbers he allegedly attacked with were accurate, then he needed supplies constantly ferried along those lines to his troops because the villages weren't large enough to supply them.

Sarina believed she saw a pattern in the attacks; the towns and villages The Marshal attacked appeared to be no more than a three-day wagon ride from the previous. That knowledge should make the next target apparent; it would be a village within a three-day wagon journey of one of the towns The Marshal had already conquered.

Nine Months Post Birth.

When Thaddeus was around nine months old, he found his feet, and the frustrating crawling-away races became chasing a laughing toddler who had almost more speed than his mother. One beautifully sunny day, Sarina chased Thaddeus as he ran off, carrying the shirt he so hated wearing. He stumbled into the Master's war room where Dawid, Guān and the others were frustratedly discussing strategy. The Marshal had raided three more villages, two successfully, with only the late intervention by Paolo's troops saving the third, although that village was left almost entirely in ruins.

Dawid absently picked up his son and sat him on his hip, where Thaddeus gurgled happily. Sarina moved to stand beside Dawid's other hip, where she smiled apologetically. "Where is the bad man going to strike next?" Dawid asked the child.

"Bad man!" Thaddeus said, frowning and waving his hands. "Bad man don't like light. Only attack when dark."

The Masters gaped, realising the child was right and wondering how they'd missed that. They turned their attention to the map, but even armed with the new information, they still argued where The Marshal would attack next. Guān pointed out that The Marshal was slowly encircling Kingsholme, so he believed his next target would be the lakeside village of Yelapa, about a five-day ride south of Kingsholme and around six days from Cuetzalan, the town he'd failed to take the previous week.

Sarina unobtrusively studied the map and the cities highlighted with a red flag that indicated they were in The Marshal's control versus the green-flagged ones that were either neutral or guarded by the Defenders. Sarina closed her eyes and let her theories play out in her mind. Her hand stretched across the map and touched a green flag. "Here," she stated confidently. "He'll strike here next."

Guān chuckled, "So says the Earth woman who rarely ventured from her house."

"Why Mazunte?" Dawid asked politely.

"It fits the pattern," Sarina said defensively, wishing she'd remained silent. "Yelapa is too far from The Marshal's supply lines. It may have been next if his raid on Cuetzalan had succeeded, although I still think it's too far away even then. Mazunte is the only village less than a three-day wagon journey from his last victory, Playa Zipolite. That ensures his supply line is safe and he can restock with supplies from his established storage areas."

"Explain," Dawid asked as he studied the map using the information Sarina had suggested.

"I studied the many wars Earth had through its history," Sarina explained as her face burned with embarrassment. "The biggest problem for any defending army is ensuring food and water supplies during a siege. Kingsholme has three separate springs, each independent of the others, and therefore, almost impossible to poison. We have years of dried and cured meat as well as acres of frozen beef. Fruit, grains, and vegetables are all grown inside Kingsholme's walls. Therefore, its food and water supplies are guaranteed for years. Logically, it will be the last bastion The Marshal will attack; consequently, he's not trying to cut off your supplies because you don't need them."

"What other reason would he have?" Guān queried.

"First would be to ensure no supporters can make it through to you, nor any refugees, making them entirely dependent on The Marshal's largesse to survive. Second would be to guarantee his supplies can't be easily interdicted."

"Supporters?" Guān asked.

"Were their garrisons in the towns and villages The Marshal raided?" Sarina queried. Dawid nodded. "Were they all killed or captured?"

"No," Guān admitted, grudgingly realising that Sarina might know what she was talking about.

"Those supporters," Sarina stated.

"Why would The Marshal only attack villages less than three days away from his previous conquest?" Dawid asked.

"Similar to a defender's main problem is the attacking army's--adequate supplies. An army marches on its stomach, and the quickest way to destroy morale and have your soldiers melt away during the night is to let them go hungry and/or thirsty. The swiftest method to ensuring your soldiers disobey orders and start raiding villagers' homes is to leave them poorly fed and lacking basic supplies. The fastest way to stall your advance is to not provide your men with adequate ammunition, armaments, and replacement personnel for the men they've lost."

"Explain?" Dawid repeated as his fingers followed The Marshal's path. He immediately saw Sarina's point. Every new raid was less than a three-day wagon journey from one of the others.

"I believe The Marshal raids a village but leaves most of the villagers' crops and stored food untouched. My guess is that he pays top rates for the excess food above what the villagers need to survive because that instantly gains the villagers' respect and trust. The Marshal will build a garrison within the town and defences around it.

"Next, The Marshal's men will institute a strict law-and-order program. Petty crime will become almost non-existent and major crime like rape, murder and aggravated assault will be dealt with by summary justice, i. e., the perpetrator will be shot or hung immediately their guilt is established. The Marshal's soldiers will be held to an even higher standard than the townspeople. Any indiscretion would be punished publicly and immediately to show his men aren't above justice.

"Then, he turns the village into a garrison and a supply depot and brings his supplies and soldiers by wagon train from back where they're grown and trained. Each town only has to return three days to pick up their supplies, and once he has his latest conquest fully stocked and manned, he looks for a new target--one which is a maximum of a three-day wagon ride from a village or town he already controls."

"How do we stop him?" Dawid asked, curious if Sarina had an answer for that vexing problem, too.

"Disrupt his supply lines," Sarina immediately responded. "Isolate his furthest men and force them to consume the villagers' crops and livestock." Sarina grinned ferally before adding, "Throughout history, starving plebes and serfs have been known to rise up violently and overthrow their masters."

"Collapsing The Marshal's gains back in on himself and making him retake each freed village," Dawid mused. His hands moved further back. "If we can destroy some of these villages further back, it will delay how quickly The Marshal can reinforce his outposts, giving us the chance to free even more townships."

Shocked, Guān protested, "That would mean killing the villagers in them. We cannot do that!"

"What happens when Kingsholme falls, as seems inevitable now?" Meester Andreas, one of the Masters Sarina only knew by name, asked. "What of those villagers when the darkness takes all? Will The Marshal's largesse extend even then?"

The Masters stared at each other meaningfully. Although refugees from the Marshal's home city of San Sebastián were rare, the stories they told of the perpetual darkness and the monsters that roamed within that city were enough to terrify even seasoned soldiers like the Masters' men.

"If it must be done, then it will be done," Meester Guān muttered. "We do not have to like it, and I pray to The Light that it does not turn away from us when we do this deed."

Thaddeus, who decided sitting on his father's hip was boring, decided to make himself known. He wailed and reached across Dawid for Sarina. Although he was mostly weaned, Thaddeus still occasionally demanded to be breastfed. Sarina took the child from Dawid and hurried from the room.

The Masters were uncomfortable if she breastfed Thaddeus in their company, so Sarina headed for the sitting room with the enormous log fire. Despite the twin suns overhead, Aetheria was surprisingly cold at night. Winter was drawing to a close, but the overnight temperatures were still below freezing even though the daytime ones were in the high thirties Celsius (90s F).

Eloise and Andie were waiting for Sarina, and they scooped Thaddeus from her arms and quickly changed him before placing him in her lap and making a light repast for their Mistress to eat.

After mother and son had eaten, Andie gathered Thaddeus and took him away for his afternoon nap. She and Eloise held hands as they left. They passed Elsa and Ella in the doorway, who helped Sarina to her feet and took her to the communal bath on the lower floor. Following their typical procedure, the two beautiful bald women washed Sarina and brought her to several orgasms using their gifted fingers and tongues.

Satisfied she was clean, Elsa and Ella guided Sarina to a low stool where they carefully dried her. Elsa brushed Sarina's luscious black hair before infusing it with vanilla hair oil. Simultaneously, Ella rubbed cinnamon-scented moisturiser into Sarina's skin. Sarina was confused by the change to her usual scents, but she allowed Ella and Elsa to complete their tasks.

Elsa and Ella smiled at Sarina before exiting the sunken pool and summoning four male slaves. As with the first night when Sarina joined the Mansion, Ella soon had cocks resembling police batons in both her nether love holes while Elsa's man was viciously buggered by another man as he fucked her.

The two other slaves Sarina was intimate with took her hands next. After more than a year, her third paired lovers still hadn't introduced themselves or even talked to her. The only times Sarina saw them was after she left the communal pool and when they joined her in bed overnight.

Sarina was led back to the sitting room, where she was encouraged to sit on the low stool. The pair had no sooner left the room when Guān entered through another door. He strode over to Sarina and took her hand. Bowing over it, Guān kissed its back before stepping away.

As she had on her first night in the Mansion, Sarina felt her sexual desire rise and warm her pussy. She'd believed she was Dawid's until the Guardians took Thaddeus away, but that didn't seem to be the case.

"It's too soon for us to be together, Lady Sarina," Guān said in his smooth, cultured way. "I won't come for you until Thaddeus leaves with the Guardians." This confirmed Sarina's belief, but she wondered why she was here and scented as she was if she wasn't to be Guān's now. He continued, "I wanted to take an afternoon to meet and get to know you. Unlike the Eldest, I am not at all familiar with conversing with and relating to a woman." Guān blushed but gamely continued, "I'm not a virgin, and I believe I will be able to service you adequately, but I wanted you not to be disappointed on our joining day."

"I won't be," Sarina said warmly, holding out her hand. "I do not know the rules, Meester Guān. What are we allowed to do together today?" she asked while surreptitiously examining the handsome oriental-looking man. Sarina surmised Guān would be Chinese or perhaps Korean if he'd been born on Earth. The twin suns on Aetheria had burned his skin darker than his Earth counterparts were, but otherwise, Guān would merge into either of those societies seamlessly if he desired.

Blushing even more fetchingly, in Sarina's eyes at least, Guān replied, "Chaste kisses only, Lady Sarina. Thaddeus is growing much faster than is typical, but it will likely still be some time before he no longer needs his mother, and he releases his hold on you and Dawid. When the Guardians claim him, Dawid will release his hold on you, and I hope your heart will turn my way."

"I have a choice?" Sarina asked, surprised.

"Of course," Guān stated, equally surprised that Sarina didn't know she did. "If you find me unsuitable as a father for your child, you may choose any of the other Masters or decide to refuse us all. Of course, your redemption lies only through providing eighteen lives to match the eighteen stab wounds you inflicted upon your mother. If you refuse us all, you become just another slave, similar to your friends Ella, Elsa, Eloise, and Andie and your privileged position as the Mansion's alpha slave is lost."

"Will I be cast out?" Sarina asked fearfully.

"Only if you refuse to mate with anyone," Guān explained. "If you choose not to have children, you will be taken back to Bernal and sold in the slave markets."

"Guān, I-I..." Sarina stalled, unable to express what her body still, to her mind, shamefully felt. She desired the man standing before her. Guān was almost as tall as Dawid, but he was whippet-thin compared to her current Master's staunchness. Sarina's nipples throbbed, and her clitoris ached. She wanted the Master to take her much as Dawid had after she'd given him a blowjob. She tried again, "Guān, I believe you will be a fantastic father to our baby."

Guān smiled happily before kneeling beside Sarina. He touched her face longingly, and Sarina matched his smile and tilted her head slightly. Guān took her hint and pressed his lips softly against hers. Guān's hands, as their kiss deepened, instinctively cupped Sarina's lushly full breasts, his thumbs sure on her extended nipples. Sarina moaned and placed her hand on Guān's trouser front. She estimated his length equalled Dawid's, but he was likely less thickly girthed than the Eldest.

Guān's hips jerked under Sarina's touch, but he groaned and reluctantly broke their kiss. "You are mine the next time we meet, sweet Sarina," Guān growled before hurriedly exiting the room.

Ella and Elsa rejoined Sarina. Elsa giggled before saying, "Andie's about to receive a vigorous workout." They took Sarina to her bathroom, where they washed the vanilla oil from her hair and the cinnamon smell from her skin before returning her to Dawid's preferred rose and sandalwood scent.

"I take it that Andie is Guān's favourite?" Sarina asked, slightly miffed that her friend and lover would get what she longed for.

"Yes," Elsa confirmed. "Guān rarely fucks anyone else, although Andie confessed that he often yells your name when he cums."

"That has to hurt," Sarina stated, though she was secretly pleased and proud.

"Not really," Ella shrugged. "Andie prefers women, so she really couldn't care what Guān does."

The women returned to the sitting room and sat before the fire. They played a game her friends called stones, but Sarina knew it as Chinese checkers. As they typically did, Sarina's strategies quickly overwhelmed her friends, but she was happy to read and wait to see who finished second.

A male slave brought dinner after the second sun had set. The friends ate as they started another game, which Sarina also won easily. A third game between Elsa and Ella only was played as Sarina explained strategy. Ella adapted to Sarina's advice better, which allowed her to win the third game, reversing the previous two results.

Sarina was about to suggest they retire when the door opened, and Dawid strode in. He acknowledged Ella and Elsa, picked Sarina up and threw her over his shoulder, smacked her shapely rear, and carried her to her bed. Dawid was typically loving when he took Sarina, but tonight, he was like an animal. He fucked her throat mercilessly, her pussy powerfully, and her ass viciously. Sarina didn't mind and surrendered herself to her Master's ravishment.

She peaked when Dawid squeezed her nipples and came down her throat, climaxed many times as he ravaged her vagina, and several times as he pounded her ass. By the time the Master rolled off her, Sarina leaked semen from every hole, and she was barely more than a limp, soaking pile of woman flesh lying on the bed. Dawid picked Sarina up and lay her on his enormous chest, and the slow thump of his powerful heart followed her into an exhausted sleep.

Her Master's enormous cock throbbing against her perineum awoke Sarina the following morning. Dawid appeared to be still asleep, so Sarina lifted herself and positioned Dawid's throbbing cock at her entrance. Then, biting her bottom lip to prevent crying out, Sarina lowered herself until she'd engulfed her Master's cock. She could feel Dawid's penis bulging her stomach as she writhed in his lap, squeezing the broad shaft with her pussy muscles.

Dawid's black eyes opened, and he smiled lovingly at the mother of his child--the first new Defender born in nearly a century. He gripped Sarina's hips and rolled on top of her, kissing her tenderly and stroking her hair. They made slow, passionate love as the dawn rose around them. Although their shared climax was soft, the loving pair felt it profoundly in their souls. It was an end, and although they'd continue to be friends and love each other deeply, they'd never make love again.

"The Guardians took Thaddeus last night," Dawid said softly. "They say he's ready for training, and forcing him to wait will only stunt his development. Guardian Markus believes he will be a Knight to match Lancelot. I will travel with the Guardians and our son to the training compound to ensure their safety. Tonight, Meester Guān will claim you. You are and will always be my first and only love, Sarina. If the harvesters find another woman with the spark in them to create Defenders and possibly Knights, I will do my duty and claim her, but she will not be you."

"It ends, just like that?" Sarina asked sadly as tears fell from her eyes. "They take our son, and you hand me to another? Just like that?"

"Yes," Meester Dawid replied. "So it was, so it is, so it will always be. The line of the Defenders must not fail, lest all else be lost."

"Duty," Sarina wept.

"Duty," Dawid confirmed.

"Leave me," Sarina commanded, relaxing her legs and letting Dawid get up.

Dawid stood, dressed, and faced Sarina. "My Lady Sarina," he stated before nodding and striding from the room.

End of Part 1.