Unsure how to deal with these new feelings, I told Valentine I should probably get started on studying magic-- it was one of my standing orders, after all, and I hadn't even learned the basic spells. She leaned down to kiss me in front of everyone as her tail curled around me, ruffled my hair, and told me she'd be guarding the baths some more if I needed anything.

...that was guarding? Well, I guess Valentine could probably take out most intruders naked and half-drunk, if she had to. I wondered what kind of drunk she was, then realized she'd be around lots of naked girls there and everyone thought she was hot, and pulled away and hurried off, face burning. She liked me a lot, maybe even second best out of women in the world, but I wasn't really special to her.

Of course, it's not like my life had been particularly monogamous recently, so it wasn't reasonable to suddenly have a ton of jealousy towards her, but I was... maybe because she had already betrayed me, so how could I trust anything she said?

Why did I keep on being betrayed by women who I trusted? Or rather, why did I keep putting myself in situations where that was possible? I couldn't really rely on myself or my own power, so I had to study magic. I went to the library -- which, given people's relatively clothed nature and lack of anyone even making out or even food or drink, probably had even more strict rules than the kitchen -- and took the books on the list that they had to the desk, where after asking around a bit, I was directed to the the librarian, a catgirl with red ears, hair, and tail, who was lying on of the couches. She stirred herself and lazily wrote down on a list the books I told her I was taking. She was the only nude girl I saw in the library, but others weren't questioning it, so neither did I.

I took my haul back to my room and flopped down on my bed. Mistress had been the one to teach me magic beyond Wind and Fire, and it was easy to put my mind back to her... maybe I could learn Channel and Wall before she came back, and prove to her that I was at least a little useful. If not, you know, sexually loyal. I swallowed, wondering how long she might put me in solitary, or worse.

But I'd have to climb that execution platform when I got to it, as I had heard one of Princess's girls say, so I took out A Child's Introduction To Magic. A little insulting, really, but at least it properly spelled out concepts that were usually glossed over.

It also included bits on the history of magic, like that it originally developed from Null, a prayer learned in dream by the First Sorcerer, and casting it repeatedly as devotion to Aelspa, Goddess of Dreams, eventually gave her intuitive understanding of another spell... Fire! Hey! That was the first spell I learned!

Other people learned Fire and Null for her, and it began as a sort of religious devotional order thing. A few others developed spells, which was seen as a sign of favor from the gods and rose their ranks in Aelspa's church. Now, most spells couldn't be taught... but a few could, and so magic knowledge developed and grew. There was a little tangent noting that repeatedly casting null was not considered wildly useful in modern times-- if you developed a new spell, there was no guarantee

However, even after Aelspa's death -- they just skipped over that whole part apparently, but I guess it was a book for kids -- magical knowledge continued to develop, and people started to understand the principles that were the basis of magic as a whole. Or rather, people developed hybrids of existing spells by understanding where they laid on the plane of reality and developing midpoints between them... whatever that was supposed to mean? Another tangent that developing hybrid spells without thorough theoretical knowledge was not safe... which was good, because I had been kind of thinking about combining Wind and Heal to get a long-range heal spell that could also reach internal wounds more easily.

There were pages where the pieces of spells were put, but it was like little pieces of a wire framework puzzle you had to put together in your head, because making an actual representation of a spell could actually cast it all too easily, and the imperfections would quickly destroy a fragile medium like paper-- or an echo of the spell, really, because most spells were actually three dimensional, Null being a prominent exception.

There was another tangent on how most stable magic was actually several spells woven together, and how this was so much more complicated than casting with mana. From what little I was reading, it seemed like magic item creation was the equivalent of calculus or trigonometry in this world, and I quickly decided to pay no more attention to it, at least for now, given I didn't even have the basics down.

I tried to figure out where Fire and Wind and Heal and Null were in relation to each other, but realized that Null's two-dimensionalness made it impossible to relate to the other three, which all existed in a three-dimensional space... at least with my limited understanding of magic.

This all was kind of giving me a headache, so I flipped through the book looking for a spell I wanted to learn, and found Wall-- with much the same caveats my master had told me about it. It is equally as difficult for you to destroy it quickly as anyone else, and make sure you don't block off all your air with a box.

...which made it a slow and cruel offensive spell too, I suppose.

Wall was also two-dimensional, for whatever reason, which made it much easier to learn. Maybe they were both drawing from a more basic framework of the universe? After a few hours, I had it down, and had made a bunch of immobile little walls floating in the air next to the bed. They were transparent, if not invisible.

...even if they're immobile, you should be able to create them as a slicing blade that cuts through anything, right? I folded a piece of paper into a rather terribly made origami crane, and started trying to slice it with Wall, only to discover this did not work. But why not? Null could clearly be interjected into things, as Princess Asperia had so helpfully demonstrated, and it was another two-dimensional spell. And it's not like there was nothing in supposedly 'empty' space... clearly we breathed oxygen if it was possible for wall to stop us from breathing if it blocked off all sources.

I suppose if it could cut things people would probably call it Blade, though? I wondered if there was another two-dimensional spell called Blade, and flipped through other books for a while, before I finally got tired of studying and laid back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

With Wall, I could theoretically try to escape, but my chances were not good, and I had given my word to Princess I wouldn't try to, basically... it was under duress, but I don't think that'd increase the mercy she'd give me if I tried to run. It's not like she really needed me specifically, persay... she could throw a null spell in my head, capture Mistress, and count my body as a loss, if she really wanted to. I could come back and save her... but would I?

Maybe I should go ask her to do just that... but there probably was a reason that she hadn't already. Was she just that reluctant to give up any slave she liked? She did seem terribly possessive, although not jealous... at least, not jealous of things that happened between her various playthings.

It's not like thinking about it actually got me anywhere, so I decided to go see what Valentine was up to. Or I could drop by Ava's room... but, willingly being trained as a sex slave right now stung a little too much. Maybe tomorrow, it's not like I could entirely ignore Princess's wishes... wait, was my tail wagging? Was some part of me looking forwards to being trained as Princess's slave... well. It was maybe the best life you could have in this world, it was increasingly seeming like. Some kinda bespoke sex cult commune where the owner was already so wealthy they could just supply everything with wealth they got from the outside world.

...ah. That was probably the point, wasn't it? It was a way to raise up loyal minions. People were allowed to leave and be 'free'... but they remained the Princess's servants in some capacity and other. They came back to the commune sometimes to reaffirm their ties.

Nothing I could do about it, though. The fates of slaves I had seen outside were usually worse... some were treated more like family members or beloved pets, but a lot of them were treated in ways that made it clear their owners thought they were ultimately expendable.

Right, Valentine. I hopped out of bed, looked in the mirror and brushed my hair until I looked good in my cute little adventuring outfit again, and walked outside with a bit of a spring in my step, until I remember Valentine was probably fooling around with someone by now.

However, when I arrived, she was leaning against the wall looking bored, her eyes not on the steam drifting off the nearby pools and partially obscuring the ladies, but not enough to really hide much. I tore my eyes away too, after a moment, and looked up at her, tilting my head to one side as I walked closer.

She blinked as she realized I was in front of her, then smiled and ruffled my hair I had put so much work into. I growled a little and tried to smooth it back, and she laughed, moving my hands aside and petting my hair as she apparently tried to get it back into order.

"Sorry, sorry. How's your studying going?"

"Pretty good! Picked up a new spell."

"Ooh, yeah? Which one?"

"Wall."

"Oh, yeah, that's a good one! Makes good cover from projectiles, or a nice bridge."

"Do you know it?"

Valentine laughed. "No one's ever thought giving me access to spells was a good idea, for some reason."

"Why don't runaway slaves just remove their collars? Their must be methods, it's just metal, right?" Valentine blinked a few times.

"Because your collar is what's keeping you alive. Didn't you know that?" I stared at her, aghast. She smiled and hugged me close.

"...you didn't know that? Okay, um... how does it go...."

"...does Princess Asperia removing my collar mean...."

"You'll die? No idea, although you're absolutely coming back if so, which I don't think is usually possible. But yeah, if I remember correctly, there's like... a dimensional slice through your soul, basically, and the collar plugs it up." For a moment I was terrified, but then...

"...shouldn't mind swap spells kill you, in that case?"

"Oh yeah! That can't be right, then." She shrugged. "I don't tend to pay too much attention to the details once I know how something works. But the basic idea... it is some kind of life support device, essentially. Like, pretty sure on that?"

"...yeah, I don't want to think about it either. How much longer are you guarding for?"

"Oh, I can just tap my bracelet like this..." she tapped a gem on her bracelet "...and it'll let the others know I'm off duty. We have enough active guards right now."

"Probably useful for if some sort of alarm is raised, too?" She nodded, beaming.

"Yeah! It's really smart design, I think. Princess Asperia absolutely has access to an artificer... ah, that's not a secret, basically everyone knows that." She leaned in closer, gently pressing my shoulder against the wall.

"Why do you ask? Do you want me to pay back the favor you gave me earlier today?" I stared up at her and tried to do words but they just weren't coming, but she waited patiently, smiling down at me with easy dominance.

"I don't like pain."

"Okay, I'll just make you feel really good and obedient, okay?" Thwap thwap thwap. My tail was giving away I was excited if my expression wasn't already.

"...sounds nice." My voice was soft. She started to strip off my cloak, and I stiffened.

"Um, maybe we could go back to my room for this? Doing it out in public seems a little...." She laughed and swept me up into her arms. "I always forget how shy you are."

She carried me to my room, seeming quite eager despite being the one who was going to top this time, maybe she was some sort of switch... she set me down in front of the door, and kissed me as I opened it, pressing me slowly back into the room as she stripped off my cloak, and suddenly came to a complete stop.

"I'm not mad. Close the door behind you, won't you Valentine?"

A woman was sitting on my bed in a costume that consisted of little more than veils that could very generously be called white, but were mostly transparent, obscuring absolutely nothing of her curves. Her skin was so pale you could see traces of her veins underneath, her hair was white, her eyes red.

A sword laid across her lap, unsheathed, her hand gently playing with the hilt, stroking it almost suggestively, as if it were a toy instead of a weapon.

But even with all the transmutation she had done, I recognized that body. And that voice. Both once mine, but transformed into something entirely of her own making.

It was Mistress.