Lily turned the book over in her hands and examined its smooth, faux leather surface as she sat on the ground of her room. It creaked as it opened, revealing a convincing replica of true paper, the kind that the aristocrats would have on an Accord world. The words within were exactly how she remembered them, the feelings they conjured were just as gut-wrenching as when she first read them as a child.

The book wasn't purposeful, it was the first book she thought of, but that didn't mean it wasn't meaningful to her. It was the first book that opened her eyes back in her childhood. Before, perhaps she thought that the Terran Accord was something that could be respected, perhaps it was a justified hierarchy, perhaps it was necessary. After all, human lives without governance were nasty, brutish, and short. Fitts, however, argued differently. It filled her with ideas that, while not popular with the authorities in her life, gave her a new sense of purpose. The fight for liberty was a meaningful one, one that could fill her life with conviction.

She had a vain hope, one that she knew would never amount to anything. She hoped that perhaps if Zena read it, the Affini would see the same thing she did as a child. She would recognize that their slaving ways were morally repugnant and help her escape. She turned toward the door to her room, beyond which Zena was cooking, and discarded the notion as the meaningless wishes of a child. Zena was too entrenched, too submerged within the system to understand the need for its abolition. She would have to do this alone.

Zena had showed her to her room and encouraged her to make herself comfortable as she went to make food. The very mention of a hot meal set her stomach to rumbling, and Zena took that as her acquiescing to accepting food. Now that she had left, Lily considered the room. It was spacious, luxurious, filled with amenities. The bed was large and rounded, seemingly completely made of actual bedding rather than having a frame. If one was strong enough, it was even conceivably movable. It was an odd bed to give to a human, granted, but they were Affini, what knowledge did they have of humans?

Zena mentioned she could make whatever furniture she desired for her room, but she didn't take her up on the offer. Accepting such luxury ran counter to an unspoken internal code. Suspicion prevented her from using any of it. Grunting as she stood, she began moving the furniture.

By the time Zena returned to summon Lily for her meal, she was stunned by the state of the room. Lily was nowhere to be found, and the furniture was stacked against itself to make a sort of quadrant of a circle surrounding one of the corners. Seeing no other place her precious flower could have gone, she began carefully stepping through the stack, trying her very best not to disrupt anything.

Looking down at the corner, she found her little flower curled up in a fetal position, eyes closed as she moved fitfully. Moments before she was about to speak, she realized that Lily was asleep -- although it was absolutely clear that her sleep was not peaceful at all. Every few moments she would toss and turn, eyes moving beneath eyelids fretfully, face scrunched in concentration. It all struck deeply into Zena's heart, she simply couldn't stand to see her dear flower like that.

As gently as she could, she wrapped Lily in vines and gingerly picked her up. It took minutes before they were out of Lily's room, with Zena taking every precaution to make sure that her already broken sleep wouldn't be disturbed anymore. Before long, she laid Lily down on her giant bed and slid in beside her. Her mind was nothing but serene bliss as she wrapped herself around her sleeping floret and held her close.

Her natural biorhythms slowly brought Lily in sync with her until they were breathing in unison. Lily began to relax, sleep more deeply. Her breathing, no longer shallow, conveyed a sense of total peace. Zena could not be more pleased by the feeling of a floret cuddled up against her. This is what they meant when they said there was no better feeling than owning a floret. This is what we were meant to do. With a gentle smile plastered on her face, Zena lied there, content to comfort Lily for as long as she wished to sleep.

Lily awoke from the most restful sleep she had had since she could remember. The floor felt strangely comfortable, the furniture that she placed around herself seemed to breathe with her, everything was at peace. A winsome smile crept across her face, and as she opened her eyes, for the briefest of moments she didn't understand what was wrong.

Staring into the mass of vines and wood and leaves in front of her, it didn't register in her mind for a moment that this was her captor. Realization soon dawned, her eyes widening as she realized she was not in her room. Suddenly, Lily pushed away from Zena in a vain attempt to disentangle herself from the vines that surrounded her. Her face, a contrast to the serene peace of before, was now all panic and bestial instinct to flee.

Zena, caught completely off-guard by the rapid change in her floret's mood, released her vines and quickly inquired, "Lily? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Her question was met with a face not capable of comprehension, not capable of reasoning. As the innate, feral fear died down and Lily's breathing returned to normal, she finally understood the questions being asked of her. "Why did you move me from my room? What gives you the right?" her tone was all daggers and bleeding wounds.

The Affini stared in a mirror of her own hurt, replied back weakly, "You were not sleeping well, my delicate flower; you needed me. I helped you. It is my right as your owner to take care of you." Zena tried to reach out her hand again to find Lily's face, but the girl pulled back, sliding off the bed and beginning to pace.

"I needed you? My owner? Zena, you're a slaver. You took me from my home and put a proverbial collar on me. The only thing I could get from you is my freedom, nothing else." The words were full of venom that sank directly to Zena's heart. It tore her apart inside to hear her floret say such terrible things about her. Lily's behavior is nothing like the stories, the Affini thought to herself.

"I was just trying to do something nice..." Zena pleaded, her voice close to breaking, "I just wanted to make you happy." The Affini tried to meet the girl's eyes, tried to convey her honest feelings. She didn't know how humans worked, not truly, not as well as she understood Affini. Why would the girl not believe her? What had she done that was so heinous?

"You want to do something nice? Let me go. That's what would make me happy," Lily spat, refusing to meet Zena's gaze. How could the Affini not understand that enslaving someone wasn't moral just because one was a benevolent master? How could one strip the fundamental right of choice, of freedom, from another conscious being and think that one is doing the right thing? It frustrated her, filled her with an anger that threatened to overflow her reasoning.

"You know that I won't do that. It is for your own good that you stay here with me. You will be happier here, once you learn your place." That edge crept its way back into her voice. The human's behavior was starting to question the very core of their society, and there was nothing that enflamed tensions quite like that -- well, that and threatening a floret. Zena stood, towering over the human by at least a few feet.

"Because my place is licking your boots, obviously. Instead of letting me live my life and make my own decisions, you abduct me? How could you ever possibly justify that?" Zena standing was a power-play, it was meant to make her stop talking, but the anger inside her was bubbling too ferociously. Within the blink of an eye, Zena was on her, her vines like steel as they pinned her to a wall and surrounded her neck. She was still able to breathe, but she could feel the blood flow constricting slightly. Zena's eyes glowed red, impossible not to stare into from this distance.

Her voice came out low, all of the enthusiasm ripped out and replaced with a smug malevolence, "Because we know better than you, human. And the sooner you accept that your place is kneeling in front of me, the better off you'll be." Zena removed her vines all at once, leaving Lily to slump to the ground, coughing from the sudden removal of pressure from her neck. Zena merely stood over her for a few more moments before the color in her eyes shifted again. Her voice came out rushed and apologetic, "By the Everbloom, Lily, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I'm sorry." She wrapped herself around Lily in a hug while muttering her apologies. Lily, dazed, didn't move, didn't say a word.