Lighting the Way Down

Deep under the water, Jacinta swam gracefully with her shimmering blue tail following behind her long, gorgeously flowing green hair. Many fascinating things lived in the wet, slick depths of the ocean, but few were as lovely as the mermaid Jacinta.

Even among mermaids, Jacinta’s soft features, the shimmer of her scales, the luster of her hair, and the luminance of her skin was considered amongst the most gorgeous.

Through her days Jacinta encountered all manner of sea creatures. Around her were a host of other mermaids, giggling as they chatted about this and that. “Dolphins can be a little pushy, but they’re incredibly playful and fun!”

“I think a mermaid that can keep up with a dolphin either says a lot about the mermaid…” A woman with black hair wiggled her brows, her red-scaled tail swishing in the air. “Or the dolphin. I’m a good swimmer, but the slowest, laziest dolphin I ever met could swim circles around me… Though at least they are less smug than your typical octopus.”

Jacinta giggled, shaking her head at her friends with a quiet sigh. “Octopi can be incredibly sweet! You’re just upset that the last three octopi you met are better at finding places to be comfortable than you are. If your body could squish nearly flat and shape like that, I’m sure that you would be just as smug about it, Hicine.”

The black-haired Hicine rolled her eyes, and their violet haired friend Lisse giggled again. “It’s true, it’s true! Nn…” She stretched her arms up above her head, wiggling her tail as she stretched her whole body vertically. “It’s starting to feel a little late, though… I think I’ll head back to the reef with the rest of the gossip. What about you, Hicine?”

Hicine looked between her friends, and raised an eyebrow. “Well, I’d hate to be too jealous of an octopus, Lisse, so I suppose I should probably start heading back to. I imagine you’ll be off… exploring some new eddy, Jacinta? You know every time you disappear for more than a day I’m always sure that we’ll never see you again… and I’d really hate for anything to happen to you. I need someone around to keep Lisse honest.”

The violet-haired mermaid huffed, crossing her arms over her chest as Jacinta quietly laughed. She made a display of being upset, but the emotion never reached her shimmering green eyes.

“No, not quite yet… I’ll probably be back before the light goes out completely, but…” Jacinta shrugged, her bright smile seeming like it could be enough to make the deepest crevasse of the ocean floor well-lit. “Don’t wait up? I just have this… urge to explore sometimes… there’s more that I want to see… more I want to explore… I’m sure you understand…!”

“Not at all!” Hicine laughed as she swam backwards away from Jacinta. “Not one bit. You, Lisse?”

Lisse shook her head, violet hair splaying beautifully in the water. “Nope! I’m pretty happy sticking closer to the reef… but you both know that! I’ll race you, Hicine!” Before the black-haired mermaid could respond Lisse was already jetting away as fast as she possibly could.

Hicine huffed, quickly turning around as she swam with her body wriggling, undulating up and down as she followed close behind. “Cheating! You’re always cheating!”

Jacinta laughed quietly at the antics of her friends, shaking her head with a happy, good-natured sigh. Am I really gone for that long usually…? I try to not go too far, to always know how to find my way back, but… There’s just so much to see! Jacinta quietly whined, as though pleading understanding from the no one that was still near enough to hear her. How can I know what’s out here if I don’t explore for myself? Even if I don’t find anything… I need to find something, something special that I’m looking for… I just don’t know what it is…

With a wave towards her already far from view friends, Jacinta dove deeper into the water, settling in for a nice pleasant evening of further exploration. Even though she’d seen so much, there really did always seem to be more to see, more places to go, more things to examine, and that was a thing that kept Jacinta very happy.

Down was always a more dangerous place to go. Where it was darker, where the ocean was deeper, there were always the risk of things and situations Jacinta wasn’t expecting. Sharks could be dangerous in the higher waters above, and were certainly always a risk that any mermaid needed to do her best to avoid. Down below could be powerful currents drawing one down into deep dark abysses from which no mermaid was strong enough to escape, and creatures who hid in such places to find their meals.

The last thing that Jacinta would want was to end up as dinner for a long-starved creature who hadn’t even seen a mermaid longer than Jacinta had even been alive.

Much of the time her explorations yielded little more than seeing a bit more of the ocean she already knew as her home. She very rarely discovered anything new, and when she did it was usually rather mundane. She might find a small bit of a wrecked ship with nothing more interesting inside than silverware. She might find a cave with little more inside than the same creatures she’d met before.

Rarely did she encounter danger, or anything that might have encouraged her to move more cautiously. She was a mermaid, and a quite capable one. Moving through the ocean to her was like a bird flying through the sky, only the water was more than happy to hold her wherever she stopped while a bird would fall to the ocean below if their wings failed to carry them.

Today was going to be an interesting day, because before very long at all of swimming down towards the depths of the ocean floor in this new area, Jacinta could see something she hadn’t seen every day, or even before that she could possibly remember.

From within one of those wide, open cervices, one of the maws where the earth seemed to open up as though stuck in a perpetual yawn, there was a bright, beautiful light.

“What… what could that possibly be…?” Jacinta wondered aloud, her deep, dark blue eyes widening in amazement. “It must be something new… this is down too deep to be lit by the sun up above… I need to get a closer look…!” She began to move deeper down, towards that open crevasse, when she heard a voice, low, seductive, and feminine ripple through the water.

“Come down to me, little mermaid… Come closer, and get a better look at my pretty light… You’ll find it’s even more beautiful up close, and you’re so very welcome down here…” It was such a deep, low voice, commandingly firm, but lyrically smooth.

Listening to it made Jacinta quiver, her hips wiggling for reasons that she couldn’t understand. The voice was so slow, so sensuous, and it lit the fires of a yearning that felt as though it had always been there while somehow being wholly ignored for Jacinta’s entire life. It was a confusing sensation, but one that pulled Jacinta along as though there were a collar around her neck and the light, with the help of that voice, were firmly tugging at her leash.

She wanted to get a better look at the light, and it wasn’t only her ever-present curiosity. It was at first, but that voice changed everything.

She wants me closer… Jacinta shook as she moved closer and closer to the light. She wants me to see what she is, or what she has, and I… and I want to see it, too, but… knowing she wants me to see it, I…

That makes me want to see it more…

Descending hardly took any time at all, but every moment felt so drawn out, so languishingly slow. While it tormented Jacinta to be so far away from where she wanted to be, from the thing she wanted to explore, there was one very loud positive.

It gave the voice more time to whisper to her.

“That’s it, little mermaid. Come closer. You can see how pretty my light is, you can feel it… and you want to feel it more. You want to see it more, to see more of what I have to offer you…” Even though she was still far away from the light, Jacinta could hear that voice as though it were being whispered directly into her ear. She could feel the warmth of another woman, of another creature, as though its arms were wrapped around her, and its chest were arched against her bare, smooth back. “You enjoy my summons… and you want to be summoned further, to be drawn deeper…

“So why not come to me, why not… come so much closer… and let me show you all that I have…?” A low, amused chuckle echoed through the water, and Jacinta’s eyes fluttered as a quiet, weak whine mingled with the erotic laughter. “It’s all here, and waiting for you. I’m here, and waiting for you…

“And I’ll be so happy when you arrive…”

Jacinta whimpered, her tail clenching and twitching as she continued her descent.

Around her the ocean grew darker, but it was so much easier to concentrate on how the bright light was getting closer and closer. The light didn’t spread far. It didn’t illuminate the walls of the deep crevasse. What it did as Jacinta watched it so closely, so carefully in her efforts to understand it, was pulse.

Each throb of the light cycled through colors, yellows, oranges, blues, greens, purples… each color seeming to come at the perfect time to ripple through Jacinta and make her eyes feel heavier, her thoughts slower. Her every breath felt heavy and slow, and though her desire to near the light hardly wavered the energy she used to move closer felt more distant, as though she were growing more weary and tired with such a simple swim.

Light shined into her eyes even as they hooded, and Jacinta yawned even as she sunk deeper and deeper into oppressive darkness. From above, Jacinta’s body blocked all sight of the light deep down below.

No one would have even been able to see her descend, much less be capable of following her.

“That’s right, my pretty little mermaid. You heard my call, and now you cannot resist the urge to make your way to me, to forget everything else, to yield yourself to the sweet, simple surrender of sinking your way down…” The closer Jacinta came to that light, the more the voice echoed deep through her body. It trembled along her curves, making the muscles in her tail clench tighter and her eyes feel hazier, less focused. “Sinking down, and staring at my pretty little light.

“You’d only make your way down here if you wanted to be seduced down into my dark little cave. Before I ever showed you my light…?” The voice sighed, and Jacinta whimpered. She could feel the truth, the confidence, and the certainty in the woman’s low, soothing voice. “You wanted a woman like me to find you. To catch you. Now I have, and you can’t escape.”

Jacinta whimpered, but she didn’t suddenly rise up and pull away.

Can’t… escape…? She shook her head, but the haze didn’t clear from her eyes, or her mind. She didn’t pull her gaze away from the light or the strobing colors that moved along its bright, perfect surface. Why would I… want… but if she said I can’t… then I should… shouldn’t I…? Being caught is bad…! Who would want to be caught, to be trapped, to… I… no one would want that…

Her mental monologue trembled in uncertainty. Doubts weren’t enough to slow Jacinta’s forward motion, nor were they enough to make her close her eyes.

If anything, they opened wider while looking glassier. The colors that pulsed over her eyes seemed to almost linger, her mouth twitching and widening as new colors came to replace the old. Jacinta’s shoulders slackened, and she drifted through the water like a sleep swimmer caught in a current and deciding it was a smarter choice to surrender and allow it to pull her in.

“That’s right, my sweet, pretty little mermaid… You wanted to come to me all along, and now that you’re nearly here… You don’t even want to think for yourself…”

Jacinta whimpered.

Not thinking for myself… She could feel her nipples stiffening, and her breath catching in her throat. That’s… That’s definitely bad to want… to not have… isn’t it…? But the light is so pretty, and I don’t want to look away… The light feels so good… and I just want to feel it shining inside of me… feel the colors… feel her voice… inside of me… feel…

Mmm…

“That’s a good girl…” Jacinta whimpered, her body trembling at the sound of the woman’s voice. “Don’t worry, dear. Your mind is feeling so slow. You’re feeling so slow. Now that you’re here… Finally here…”

Fingers brushed Jacinta’s cheeks, and she gasped in shock. She hadn’t even realized that the light was finally hanging just between her eyes, colors pulsing and throbbing as it swayed faintly in the natural flow of the water. She hadn’t realized she was close enough to anything to be grasped, but it didn’t pull Jacinta out of the heavy, heady, sleepy feeling that had her feeling so weak.

It only made her feel more aware of just how powerless she was with those hands squeezing her face.

“And now, my little mermaid… you’re mine, because you needed to be mine all along. All I needed to do was give you a sign, an opportunity to give yourself over to me… and now you’ll be mine forever…” The woman sighed, and Jacinta shook under the slow, smooth feelings of her thumbs rubbing at Jacinta’s cheeks. “You wanted to be mine before you ever knew I existed, because something deep inside of you was longing to be prey, longing to be captured, possessed… and now…”

The hands around Jacinta’s cheeks grasped tight. It didn’t hurt, but it was tight enough that Jacinta could no longer even pretend to herself that if she wanted there was some chance she might possibly look away from the bright light in her face. It was holding her rapt in attention, and the hands holding her were too strong.

She’s too… firm… and I’m too… weak… I… wanted this…? Jacinta quietly whined, but it was barely audible. Did I… want… it’s so hard to question anything she’s saying… easier to just listen… easier to just… drift…

“Now…” The woman sighed. “You’re mine… forever… and I’ll never let you go, because I know that being a helpless little pet is exactly what a woman like you desires…”

Jacinta groaned, nodding helplessly as the woman holding her face slowly pulled it down, and back up, and down, and back up. Her body’s movements themselves were out of her control, and being made to agree sent tremors of something that felt like pleasure and lust burning through Jacinta’s body.

She didn’t understand it, but she didn’t need to understand it to feel it. She didn’t need to understand it for those feelings to render her warmer, needier, and ever more pitiful.

Every moment she basked in the light of the woman’s glow she was falling deeper into her grasp. She said it would be forever… I should struggle, but… her holding me… her… light… it makes me feel… so… Jacinta groaned. So… good…

“Pet…”

The word felt shamefully hot on Jacinta’s tongue. Being a pet wasn’t something mermaids usually did. That was for fish. That was for crustaceans. For a mermaid to be a pet instead, for her mind and body to be so thoroughly claimed by someone else was so wrong in a way that made Jacinta breathlessly whimper. It made her chest burn, and her fin hang slack beneath her just like her arms from her shoulders.

“That’s right, my little mermaid… You’re my pet now…” Jacinta groaned, and the woman quietly laughed as her thumbs continued to caress. “You wanted it, and now that you’re here… It’s what you are. It’s who you are.

“You’re a pet. Say it.”

Jacinta quietly whined, her head nodding again as the hands holding her face made it move. She knew that she wasn’t choosing to nod, that it was the actions of the other woman, but that didn’t change how it felt.

“I’m… a… pet…”

“Good girl!”

“Ohhhh…!” Jacinta’s body thrashed in the water, only held relatively in place by how weak her struggles were, and the grasp on her face. The light kept her eyes trained, and the woman’s hands kept her from being able to stray far away even if she could have wanted to. “G-good… girl…”

“You are a good girl now, my little mermaid. And good girls don’t need to be like other mermaids… in fact… pets like you…?” The woman sighed, squeezing her face again. “You have a whole new set of rules to follow, so it’s important that I teach you.

“You want to learn how to be a good pet, so you can feel better and better, don’t you…?”

Jacinta groaned. Her mouth hung open, her eyes so empty and vacant of anything but the colors the light shone over them. Her thoughts were so quiet, even the yearning for more of what the woman had to offer. It was hard to think, and when it felt so good to let go that became a default response.

In such a short time, Jacinta had learned that it was better to let go and allow this woman to control her. She’d always wanted it, always been submissive, even if she’d never known the words. She’d always wanted to be claimed, to be controlled, to be a pet.

Now, it was coming true, and Jacinta couldn’t be happier. That happiness was subdued, lethargic, and quiet but it was no less genuine. Coerced, but not false.

Jacinta felt so good with her face in the other woman’s hands, her mind open, her thoughts so quiet and distant. She felt so good hanging on the other woman’s every word, and feeling the light shine so deeply inside of her mind.

“You want me to train you, so you can be a good pet, and win lots of praise, lots of my rewards, don’t you…?”

“Y-yesss…”

“Then allow me to teach you your first lesson…” The light grew brighter, illuminating the woman holding Jacinta’s face. “From now on, my little mermaid…? You will only have one name for me, the woman who owns you, the woman who has claimed you.

“Mistress.”

Jacinta groaned, her eyes so hooded as she took in the sight of her Mistress. The woman’s long, dark, curly brown hair and its long ringlets hung in the air around her face. Jacinta couldn’t see the tendril deep in Mistress’s hair that connected her with the light. She couldn’t see her Mistress’s purple fin that spread out with a lighter violet between elegant webbing.

Her eyes were the same shade of brown, but they seemed to reflect the light hanging from her head in ways that made Jacinta feel even more powerless.

“Say it. Acknowledge it. You’re mine now, mermaid… and you need to show that you can understand that.” Her Mistress’s voice was so supportive, so warm, and her thumbs continued to stroke at Jacinta’s cheeks. “Say that word, because you want to obey. Say that word, because you must obey. Say that word, because deep inside of your weak little mermaid mind, you were always wanting to have a Mistress like me.”

“Y-yessss, Mistress…!” Jacinta whined, arching her back out. She trembled, her arms and her tail weakly twitching and clenching. “W-wanted… always…. M-must obey… must obey my Mistress…!”

Her Mistress grinned. Her teeth were different from Jacinta’s, longer, curved, not smoothly fitting together with enchanting gaps between them.

“That’s right. Because you’re a pet, mermaid.” Jacinta whimpered, mouthing the word ‘pet’ as her Mistress’s powerful voice thrust it into the deepest parts of her mind. “You’re going to be the perfect little piece of fin candy for me… less than a person… less than a woman… existing not for yourself, but to please me, to fulfil me, to serve me…” Her Mistress stroked down from Jacinta’s face, squeezing her shoulders tight enough to make Jacinta whine. “You’re my possession, my pet, my doll…

“And that means if I want you to cling to my arm and grind against me for hours like a horny dolphin…?” Her Mistress’s eyes hooded lower, the colors inside seeming somehow brighter. Jacinta groaned. “Then you will. If I want you to simply lounge back in my dwelling, to look sexy without a thought in your head…?

“Then you will.

“Isn’t that right, pet?”

“Y-y-yesssss Mistress…!” Jacinta all but screamed. If she could still muster the volume she would have, but instead her voice squeaked out trembling and small. Her voice quivered with arousal, one of only two things that Jacinta was still capable of expressing with any strength at all.

Arousal, and submission.

“Good girl…!”

Again, Jacinta shuddered.

She’d never had such a powerful need to please, but now her Mistress was her whole world. Jacinta didn’t know the woman’s name, what manner of creature she was to possess such a brilliant light from the top of her head, or so many other things that should have been important to her, but she know that she was a pet.

She was lesser than her owner.

She was a doll, a piece of fin candy, a pet to serve at her owner’s pleasure.

What, therefore, was more fulfilling of her purpose, more perfectly thrilling, than feeling her Mistress’s satisfaction? It was giving her more of what she’d always wanted, more of what she always needed, while acknowledging that she was good at it.

Jacinta wanted to be good at being a pet.

Being anything else sounded like such a miserable disappointment—even thinking for herself. Swimming away to rejoin the pod in the reef was no longer a feeling of safety, but a nightmare of horrors. Losing her mistress, being pulled back to her friends to have benign, meaningless conversations when she could be serving, surrendering, sinking into her Mistress’s control?

It was the worst thing that could possibly happen.

“Your thoughts don’t matter anymore. Your mind doesn’t matter anymore. Your self doesn’t matter anymore…” Her Mistress sighed as she stroked along Jacinta’s hips, before her hands reached lower to grasp tight at the swell of her tail Jacinta whimpered again, her eyes fluttering and falling nearly shut as her hoarse panting sharpened. “You exist for me. You exist to please me.

“More and more of your mind that used to think about the rest of the world, or about anything it wasn’t told to think…?” She chuckled, and the light on her head faintly swayed. Jacinta’s head moved to follow every little sway, her lips shaking from the effort and the bliss of the colors still filling her deepest places. “All of those parts of you… are growing softer. Weaker.

“I don’t need a smart little mermaid toy… I just want a dumb, happy, simple little pet who is always so eager, happy to please. You don’t need to be anything more than that… not anymore. Just giggle… smile… and agree…”

“Oooohhh…” Jacinta nodded hazily, before taking a deep breath. Testing her new lessons, she let out a low, quiet giggle. Arousal burned along her fin, and pulsed hot in her chest. Her eyes fluttered, but never left her Mistress’s light. “Like… yess, Mistress…! I don’t need to be smart… don’t need… anything… just want to be dumb… happy for you… simple…want to please… want to serve… want to obeeey…!”

Jacinta had been expressionless before, her mind too vacant to truly hold one, but now she was wearing a wide, guileless smile. It stretched her lips, and showed just how little was going on inside of her head.

The only things inside of her head still working were focused on her owner, focused on obedience, focused on losing more of herself in a sea of giggles and smiles.

She wanted to be dumb for her Mistress.

She wanted to be a pet for her Mistress.

Fog filled her head, fog that flashed so many pretty colors. A heavy weight made any thoughts that her mind tried to offer too difficult for Jacinta to hold for very long without Mistress lifting them for her.

The mermaid couldn’t stop herself from giggling as her smile grew wider, and the spark of intelligence in her eyes continued to extinguish.

It felt good to be simple and dumb, to be sexy and vacant. It felt good to just smile and be touched. Her Mistress was stroking her tail, and the light was pulsing such pleasant lights through Jacinta’s mind.

What more could she ask for?

“Good girl…!”

“Oo-oooooh… Y-yesss, Mistress…!” Jacinta giggled louder, her eyes nearly crossing as more of her intellect was choked out by the bright lights obscuring Jacinta’s ability to access any deeper part of her own mind than the very surface.

Memories, dreams, friends, all of those things were fading further and further away as the heat tingling its way through Jacinta grew hotter and hotter. It was a bright, warm heat, and it left little room for anything but Jacinta’s Mistress to dominate. She barely seemed to need to do anything at all, simply allow her body to glow as her hands wandered along her new pet’s body.

Her voice whispered truths, and Jacinta’s mind was shuddering with the chance to accept them deeper. The new truths that her Mistress offered were so much sexier, so much sweeter than the truths Jacinta had known before.

They satisfied longings and cravings that Jacinta had never known she had while making her mind so sweetly simple.

Everything felt so much better through the empty minded haze her Mistress was wrapping around Jacinta. Being touched was warm and hot, but it was more the way that sensation made her mind open wider, as though she were feeling how much nicer it was to be so simple that she couldn’t provide conversation but she could offer her body.

“Good girl…” Jacinta whimpered again, and her Mistress sighed. “Your mind belongs to me, your body belongs to me, and the longer you stay with me, down here in my dark depths, the more you’ll lose everything else. You’ll have only ever existed here with me as my sexy thrall. You’ll slowly be reshaped until your every behavior is the most pleasing to me that it could possibly be…

“And when all that exists in your mind is the many ways I crave for you to obey my whims? You’ll be perfect.”

“P-perfect…!”

Jacinta whimpered, her whole body clenching tight.

Being perfect for her Mistress felt good in a way that nothing ever had before. Want to be perfect now… want to obey her in every way she wants me to obey… want to be her perfect simple little mermaid pet… need it… always needed it… she’s already the only thing that matters to me… can’t remember anything else…!

She pressed her body against her powerful Mistress, pleading with wordless moans and whimpers. She didn’t even know what it was she needed or wanted, but she knew that she needed to be made perfect. She knew that she needed to learn all of the ways she could obey and all of the ways to lose everything else.

The idea that Jacinta had once been something else still existed in her mind, but only as an echo, a memory of something that was rapidly becoming more and more irrelevant.

“But you’re such a simple, dumb little pet already…!” Her Mistress laughed, and the musical sound made Jacinta wither. “You’re making such astounding progress in such a short period of time. You really did always want to be a pet from the very beginning, so long before we ever met. Girls like you…

“A woman like me can always tell when a woman exists to serve, and to please. You?” Her Mistress paused, and the light that dangled in front of her face drew back, hidden away inside of her billowing, curly hair. “You have the scent of a woman who was born to be another woman’s property. A woman like me. A woman who can make you into what you need to be.” Her lips mashed into Jacinta’s, and the water rippled with mingled moans and giggles.

Their lips smacked and rubbed together, parting for tongues to dance.

Jacinta’s eyes were as empty now as they were when the light atop her Mistress’s head was shining into her mind. Now that the colors were gone there was so little to see in those blank blue eyes besides obedience and lust.

When the kiss ended, Jacinta immediately began to giggle even as she gasped for breath.

“I aaaalways wanted this…!” Jacinta giggled, her eyes fluttering shut as she rubbed her cheeks against her owner’s. “Like… you’re the best, Mistress, and I’ll totally serve you forever…! Anything you want… you just need to ask, and like.. I’ll do whatever you want, be whatever you want… like… anything…!”

“Anything…?”

“Uuuuh-huh…!” Jacinta mewled, before again falling into vapid giggling. “I like… wanna make you happy…! Since my mind doesn’t work so good… Uhm… Uhh… I’ll need you to tell me what you want right now, but… maybe I’ll be a quick learner…! I’m really hoping I can make you really happy…!”

Her Mistress grinned. “I think you’ll do just fine. Why don’t I show you where you’ll be staying…?”

“Oooh… yeah…!” Jacinta wiggled her hips. “Please, Mistress…? I like… I feel really tired… but I could stay awake as long as you want, if that’s what you want! I wanna be a like… totally good pet…!”

“Right, right… of course, dear.” Her Mistress gave Jacinta a patronizing pet on the head, and then grasped her hand. “Then… right this way, my little pet. I know it’s too dark for you to see down here, but just… stay close, okay? I’d never let anything happen to my silly little pet. You’re far too valuable to me for that.”

“Okay, Mistress…!” Jacinta giggled madly as she followed close behind her owner. She held her hand tight, barely able to see an inch in front of her own face. “I won’t let go…!”

Her Mistress smirked as she led the way down, down, so deep down that it felt like they’d never stop, before she made her way into a nearby cave. Inside of it was lit with bright, bioluminescent plants draped over rocky outcroppings.

Lounging on anemone were any number of other mermaids, their hair splayed out, their eyes hooding, quiet, sexy giggles dribbling from their lips.

At one point in her life, Jacinta would have been horrified by the sight.

Now, as she clung to her Mistress’s arms, Jacinta’s heart soared.

“These women are your new sisters, pet…” Her Mistress crooned, slowly stroking Jacinta’s lovely green hair. “You’re going to be so close with them, playing with them for my amusement, learning how to please me, how to be emptier, from their example… I’m sure you’ll all get along famously.”

“I’m sure we will…!” Jacinta mewled, giggling in time with so many other mermaids.

There was no room in Jacinta’s mind to doubt her owner. She was sure all of these other women would be her friends, and why not? If Mistress wanted it, then she was sure they would obey, too.

I’m sure all of them needed to be owned just as much as I did…!

Her Mistress grinned, her light coming forward to the sounds of dreamy mewls. “Mistress is home, girls… and it’s time for all of you to obey.”