"I want to meet Kassandra."

    Delta practically fell off the couch as their Mistress dropped that bomb on them. She wanted to... what Kassandra? She'd already met her, albeit by accident, and it went absolutely terribly. Kassandra had, according to both her and their Mistress, essentially attacked her and nearly ruined their relationship with their Mistress. And she would have, if their Mistress wasn't so understanding... at least, that's the word Delta wanted to use. Why would she want to meet her again? They couldn't think of any concrete reasons, and their mind filled with thoughts of the worst.

    "Why?" they whispered, eyes wide.

    "I want to hypnotize you," she explained. "Properly, and comfortably. And I can only do that if I get Kassandra to step out of the way."

    Delta panicked as they tried to figure out the right words to say. Nothing seemed right. Did she want Kassandra gone? That couldn't be right. She had to mean that she wanted Kassandra to not interfere. They took a deep breath to compose themself. "Mistress, I, well... even I can't get Kassandra to calm down. And we've been together for years, and literally share a brain. I don't know how..."

    "I have faith in my negotiation skills. I don't get so many business deals for nothing," she huffed, crossing her arms. "Do you doubt me?" She gave Delta an intense look, clearly frustrated that they were questioning her.

    Delta didn't even stop to make sure they sounded respectful. The words just poured out of their mouth. "I don't, but, Mistress, I... I need you to understand something," Delta said to the floor. "When Kassandra comes out, I... can't control what she does. I can only watch, and only if she lets me. If you bring her out, and she wants to attack you, there won't be anything I can do about it. I can barely even remember what happens when she comes out. And - and negotiation, this is different from, well, from business ones. Kassandra doesn't want to negotiate. The only kind of deal she wants to make involves you leaving both of us alone."

    "If she attacks me, I'll handle it. I'm stronger than I look, as you know. And if I have to meet her multiple times, then fine. But I am going to hypnotize you, and I'm going to do whatever it takes, even if it means dealing with who seems to be a petulant teenager."

    She took a breath, then asked what seemed to Delta to be a weird question.

    "Do you trust me?"

    Delta took another deep breath. They wanted to say no, they wanted to explain how scared they were that they were going to get thrown out if Kassandra fought back too hard. But that wasn't about her. They had to remind herself that their Mistress was different. And there was really nothing they could do from stopping their Mistress from wanting to meet Kassandra. She knew how to bring her out, with Delta's cooperation or not. They didn't have a choice, but, mercifully, she was giving them one anyway.

    "Okay," they finally said. "I trust you. Just... please be careful." Delta took a deep breath again. They still couldn't believe this was happening.

    "Bring her out," their Mistress ordered, and snapped her fingers.

    Delta closed their eyes, focusing deeper. Their awareness sank into their mind, leaving behind the world around them, spiralling deep into their headspace. And they felt Kassandra, and they reached out to talk to her...

~~

    "She wants to what?"

    Delta couldn't say that they weren't expecting a reaction like that.

    "She wants to talk to you," Delta repeated. Kassandra stared at them in disbelief, and choked out a stunned laugh, asking them without words why the hell they would even agree to this on her behalf.

    "I just thought..." they started.

    "Yeah, well, maybe you should have thought that I don't want to talk to her? Or maybe you've never considered I'm not too fond of people who fucking own human beings," Kassandra spat. "What the hell does she want to accomplish? Get me to shut up? Get me to step out of the way? Get rid of me? Go on, tell me, Delta!"

    Delta paused as they struggled to craft a response. "I... I think she actually wants to help us."

    "Oh, yeah. Of course! How could I be so stupid. She wants to help us, help you, be even more passive than you already are. So she can keep molding you into being who she wants you to be. How do you not see this? How are you being so stupid? So fucking naive?"

    Kassandra was starting to panic, and Delta grew wary. Usually when she panicked, she would fight back, try to get away from a dangerous situation like she did that one night.

    "Do you know what she could do to us while we're hypnotized? Because I do. Do you even care? Because I do."

    "I... I do care. But Kassandra, I don't think she wants to hurt us. She put me in a small trance at the mall the other week, and - and it went fine. It felt safe. I felt better."

    Kassandra whirled, her eyes burning with a rage hotter than Delta had ever seen. "You let her what." She growled those words, any semblance of calm gone in moments.

    Delta started to fidget under that gaze, painfully aware of how long this was taking. Eventually their Mistress was going to get impatient and demand answers. They had to say something quickly.

    "You don't have to be nice. You don't even have to not attack her. Just, please. Listen to her. She didn't do anything to me when I was in trance, right? She didn't try to hurt you. I don't think she did, at least. Right?"

    Kassandra barked out a laugh, but Delta stood their ground.

    "That's rich. You'll bend to her will as easy as that, but the one who wants what's best for you?" She frowned. "You... make a good point, though. She didn't hurt me. I guess... Fine. She gets ten minutes," Kassandra said. "After that, you never go under for her, and I never speak to her again."

    Delta sighed. It was a start. They couldn't complain about the duration. She was willing to talk, and that's what they'd been asked to get her to do. Though they secretly hoped she'd be willing to come out again, or stay out for longer. But for now, they'd take this.

    "Okay," they nodded, both within their mindscape and with their body, for their Mistress's benefit. "You can come out now."

~~

    Ten minutes. 

    That was all Kassandra needed to tell Delta's Mistress to go fuck herself in every way and language she knew how. She didn't have an actual goal in mind other than to let her know just how much Kassandra hated her. She was just doing this to appease Delta. There was no way a hypnotist was going to convince her to feel any differently.

    Kassandra opened her eyes, staring at Delta's Mistress. She tried to keep her face passive, but it was impossible to keep her raw hatred out of her expression. Her face wasn't Delta's. It was all Kassandra's.

    "Hello," Delta's Mistress said. She was seated on the couch, with Kassandra looking over her from where she stood.

    "Oh, go fuck yourself, Mistress," Kassandra sneered, voice dropping down to her register.

    Delta's Mistress sighed. "Well, not off to a good start, I see."

    "What the hell do you want? What, weren't you content just ruining Delta's life? Needed to get me involved too?"

    Their Mistress just stayed silent, waiting patiently for Kassandra to continue attacking her. She gladly took the opening.

    "Well, since I have the pleasure, I have hours worth of colorful things to say to you. But Delta only wrangled a promise for ten minutes out of me, so I'll have to give you the abridged version." Their Mistress motioned for Kassandra to continue, and she did. "Why the hell did you literally buy a fucking person? I'm sure you're aware of how awful that is, and how terrible being willing to do that makes you. And not to mention how illegal it is - or do you not care, because you're so rich and can get away with anything?"

    Silence on their Mistress' end.

    "I want to be clear. You're not showing them any kindness whatsoever. You can't. You bought Delta. You own them like a fucking toy. Everything you're doing for them - these, these lavish trips to the mall, and funding our own apartment - it's all just distracting Delta from the fact that you see them like property. But I see through it. I'm smarter than them. At the very least, less naive. I will always see through your bullshit act, and I will always keep in mind that you bought them. You bought us. And I will never forget, or forgive, that."

    Their Mistress maintained eye contact the entire time. Unnerved, Kassandra couldn't help but ask one question.

    "Why Delta?"

    Kassandra was caught off guard as their Mistress responded without hesitation. "Because I felt something different in them. I didn't need just anyone in my life. I needed someone like them."

    "So, no consideration about how Delta feels? Maybe what they need is to be returned home, hm? You know, like how normal people live?"

    "There is a reason I have not resolved to tie up Delta in my basement and leave them until I feel like using them," she explained condescendingly. She was annoyingly calm. The only part of her body moving was her chest as she breathed and her mouth as she talked. "I wanted to have someone who I could have all to myself, but moreover, I wanted someone who could learn to trust me. Did you know that Delta told me, just now, that they trust me?"

    "I don't trust you," Kassandra spat.

    "I know you don't," she chuckled. She sat there for a bit, trying to think of her next question. "I'd like to know, Kassandra. Have you ever met someone you fully trusted?"

    "That's -" Kassandra caught herself as she actually considered the question. Had she? If someone hurt her, or especially if they hurt Delta, they automatically became the enemy. There were people Kassandra tolerated, yes, but trusted? Most of the time, she just wanted people to leave her and Delta alone. It was easier that way, to not let people in. To always remember the things people had done to the two of them.

    She didn't respond, lost in thought as she was. Before she could, their Mistress spoke up again. "Why not?"

    That was an easier question. "Because people hurt us. Like you do. And it's my job to keep us as far away from that as possible. Don't think I don't see the things you do and say to Delta. All the degrading things you tell them that they are. How you hit them, how you scratch at them and torture them. I don't ignore those things."

    "Do you think Delta doesn't enjoy it?"

    "I think they're being stupid and too easily manipulated, and that's making them think they enjoy it. They're a fucking pathetic idiot and need to snap out of their bullshit."

    "Do you think I would stop if Delta didn't enjoy it?"

    Kassandra paused. "Well... Maybe. But you'd throw them out after, no?"

    "No, I wouldn't."

    Kassandra blinked, bewildered. "You... wouldn't?"

    "No."

    "Then - then why won't you tell them? Let them know that they have a choice?"

    Their Mistress paused. "Because even if I gave them a head start to get their life back together, they won't be able to. It's an unfortunate truth, as I'm sure you've realized between fantasies of escape." Kassandra started. How did she know about those? "They have no connections. No way to get a job. If I let them out, surely someone else from the auction would find them and kidnap them, or extort them somehow. Who would believe that someone purchased for such an exorbitant sum had been freed? I'm keeping them safe - and having fun with them that they're enjoying too, at the same time."

    Kassandra felt off balance now. She wanted to ask her about her family, and why they couldn't go back to them, but they assumed that this woman didn't know anything about Delta's family, or didn't really care anyways.

    "I believe Delta knows they actually have a choice to leave," their Mistress continued. "They just don't want to."

    Kassandra scoffed, although the idea unsettled her. "Apparently not."

    Silence fell again. Neither of them knew how to talk to each other anymore. Kassandra honestly didn't trust her any more than she had before, and she got the feeling that their Mistress was satisfied with this conversation. Kassandra had a lot to consider on her own time. Particularly the idea that Delta might enjoy this. Maybe their Mistress was actually looking out for them, and protecting them in some way.

    Suddenly, it all made sense. The half-truths, the reluctance, the excuses. It wasn't just that Delta couldn't leave, or couldn't think of a way to leave. Their Mistress was right. It was because they didn't want to. And if their Mistress wasn't going to hurt Delta in any way they didn't want - didn't that make this, in a way, just some weird BDSM situation where they met in a... non-traditional way?

    "Fine."

    Their Mistress' interest was piqued as Kassandra spoke.

    "I'll let you hypnotize them. For now. We're going to have some rules in place, though. I'm only going to let you put them in a trance for now - no weird stuff about making them do whatever weird task you want them to do. And if I don't like how something is going, you will make sure I can do something about it, and I will. No trying to work around me. And you're going to stop as soon as I come out. Understand?"

    "Yes," their Mistress responded, and Kassandra found herself believing her. "Thank you. I find those terms more than acceptable."

    "And just so we're clear," Kassandra leaned into their Mistress' face, "I still hate your guts, and I don't think you're a good person. At all."

    Their Mistress just gave a bitter smile and a contemplative hum, as if to say she thought the same. That unsettled Kassandra. Self-awareness, let alone remorse, was not something she expected from a captor, let alone a hypnotist.

    "I'm going to go back now, because I hate looking at your face," she said, trying to cover up her confusion.

    Kassandra didn't hear a response - or at least, she stopped listening. She was too busy driving herself down, falling into their mind, calling on Delta to come back out to deal with what she didn't want to have to. She couldn't say she was pleased with how this conversation went... but at the very least, it didn't go badly. And... damn it. She couldn't stay out of this. She had to at least hear their Mistress out. Whatever that would mean, she was sure this wasn't their last conversation.

~~

    Delta blinked sleepy eyes, trying to reorient themself. The last few minutes were a blur, but a glance at the clock showed it had been fifteen minutes. Hadn't Kassandra been insistent she'd leave after ten? Although they couldn't remember the details, they remembered the fury Kassandra had exploded from the gate with... but they were relaxed now, not feeling the remainders of her anger. What had their Mistress said to convince her? They looked around the room, grounding themself in the here and now. Kassandra slipped into the back of their mind, and when they tried to feel her presence, they were pushed aside. It was almost like she was sulking.

    Delta turned confused, worried eyes to their Mistress. "How... uh, how did it go?"

    Their Mistress smiled slightly. That wasn't what they were expecting. "Well enough, in fact. She was even more reasonable than I had hoped."

    "She... was reasonable? What?" Delta's forehead scrunched up, and they gave their Mistress a bewildered look. "She... didn't attack you? No punching, kicking, biting? She talked it out? Are we talking about the same Kassandra?"

    "Oh, yes. As she'd promised, she did verbally attack me quite a bit. But once I started confronting her biases, and getting her to actually think about what she was saying, she took a step back and actually considered it."

    Delta just gaped. "I... I don't know what to say."

    "I'm sure that Kassandra and I will have many more conversations," their Mistress nodded in satisfaction. Suddenly, she leaned into Delta, making them instinctively pull back from her intense gaze. "For now, she gave me the OK to put you in a trance, as long as I took proper precautions. Which I was going to do anyway. So, we're going to do that."

    Delta's head began to spin. This was happening. And happening very, very quickly. They jumped as their Mistress pulled back and snapped her fingers. "Stand up and take off your clothes."

    They quickly got off the bed, their head still a mess from switching and from the shocking news that Kassandra was actually being reasonable. They shook their head to snap themself out of it, then pulled off their shirt and pants, pausing before taking off their lingerie. Were they going too quickly? Were they not putting on enough of a show for her?

    "Everything?" they asked.

    "Everything."

    With that, Delta took off the rest. They instinctively started to cover themself with their arms and hands, but then remembered the last time they were scolded for trying that. So instead, they stared at their Mistress expectantly, waiting for their next orders.

    "Get on the bed, face up." Their Mistress moved aside as Delta obeyed, lying down with their head on the pillow. She lay down next to them, running a finger from their neck, down their shoulders, chest, and stomach - stopping right before their crotch. "Are you ready for me to put you under?"

    "Yes, Mistress," their voice a husky whisper. 

    "Breathe."

    Delta breathed in deeply, letting it out slowly. And then they took another breath. And another. The spinning in their mind slowed as they concentrated on their breathing.

    "Close your eyes."

    They took one final look at their Mistress, unsure what she was going to do to them, but trusting her all the same. They already felt so calm.

    "You feel yourself back in that deep, misty space, floating. Everything feels light and airy. You don't feel any weight at all." Delta relished the feeling, noticing their hands and feet going light. Feeling nothing.

    "The red mist surrounds you, and as you float in the darkness, you begin to inhale it. And as you do, your body starts shutting down again." She put a few fingers to Delta's feet, slowly dragging her hand up their body. As she did, Delta could feel their ability to move those parts of their body fade - starting with their feet, then their legs, and their torso, and up, and up, and up, until her fingers reached the tip of their head. She moved her hand away, and Delta fell completely still. Numb. Motionless. Disconnected from their body.

    They wondered, briefly, not even with a full thought, if Kassandra was going to pop in this time. But they felt nothing. No one's presence. Not even their own.

    Once these thoughts faded, they could hear something in addition to their Mistress' voice. A metronome, soft, each click sounding more and more relaxing.

    "This metronome sounds so nice, doesn't it? And with each tick, you just concentrate on it a little more, feel the mist suffuse you, fading more and more. Your conscious mind shutting down along with the rest of your body. All you have to do is keep being so good, so calm, as you fade away with each click, click, click..."

    Delta felt nothing. They were nothing. They were the mist. And the mist felt so, so good.

    The mist curled around their Mistress' fingers on their forehead, swirling as she shifted them a bit.

    "And now, fall down completely."

    Even the mist faded. They were gone. There was nothing more of them left. Just a relaxed body, their breathing, and those sweet, wonderful words.

~~

    They heard something over and over again. They could feel themself saying it. That phrase sank into their mind as they repeated it, deeper than the mist could ever go. It was a part of them.

    "Obedience is pleasure," they whispered.

~~

    Delta wasn't sure how much time had passed when their awareness began to return. They could hear their Mistress' voice, but they couldn't make out what she was saying. Their cunt felt strange, as if they'd had a climax. Had she gotten them off in their trance, as they were saying those words that were so obviously true? If she had, it had been a strong one, and they were a little upset they weren't there to experience it. Still, though - what lingered felt nice.

    "And... wake up."

    Delta jumped to attention as they opened their eyes. Their body still felt listless and tired, and their mind was still out of it. Blinking, they sat up to look at their waiting Mistress.

    "How do you feel?"

    "Um... uh... good," Delta stammered after a pause. They lifted their arms to stretch them out, as if they had woken up from a very nice, long nap. "How... how long was I asleep?"

    "I kept you under for three hours, plaything."

    Delta blinked, then stared at their Mistress in shock. Three hours? How the hell were they gone for three entire hours? It felt like thirty minutes at most. They couldn't argue, though. She was right, of course. So they just stared at her with awe.

    "Wh... what did you do?" Delta mumbled. They knew that questioning her was a bad decision, but the words came out quicker than they could stop.

    "Mm," their Mistress hummed. "I just lowered some of your inhibitions, made you a bit more... malleable. I also do enjoy a bit of intelligence play, so you can think of your last remaining brain cells as my property as well," she chuckled.

    Delta opened their mouth to respond, but they could feel their mind clouding, as if her words had spoken it into existence. They didn't feel as sharp, or at least couldn't reach for their thoughts as quickly - as least, not quick enough for any follow up questions. "Let's calm down," their Mistress said, cutting off Delta's foggy train of thought. "I believe some aftercare is necessary."

    Delta was happy to do as she said. After all, they obeyed... and obedience was pleasure.