We were all on the bed-- Zince half-curled around Wren's unconscious body, and I lying on my back staring up at the ceiling. I was starting to feel a little more comfortable with the lamia. Despite her role in pushing for Wren's execution -- well, after we kind of tossed Wren on her -- she didn't seem to have much in the way of expectations towards me, despite me kind of blowing her off for the skull and murder stuff, despite having my own murderous girlfriend/owner/co-slave/whatever the fuck Eve was at this point.

Wren stirred a little, yawned, and then fell back asleep, and Zince tensed slightly. I looked over to her, and she was looking at Wren's face.

"I put her to sleep, since I'm not allowed to stay here long." Eve was standing there, having used her body's fast movement to join an awkward situation rather than escape one for once, and her eyes were on me. "Zince, would you mind leaving the room for a moment?"

"...I haven't heard anything about this from our Princess," responded Zince, tensing further and coiling a little as she interposed herself between Eve and Wren.

Eve shrugged, her eyes not moving to look at Zince. "You can ask her about it if you want, but I'm focused on Sasha right now. I didn't expect you to be here, but I got permission to say goodbye to Sasha and tell Wren to be obedient to Sasha as kind of a stopgap measure for more problems."

Zince nodded slowly, and got out of the way, her long serpentine body relaxing back against the bed. "...that does make some measure of sense, so I'll believe you. Just ignore me, I'm only here to make sure Wren is okay when she wakes up and I didn't dose her with too much."

Eve looked over to Zince with a slight smile. She came over and kneeled next to the bed and took my hand, and I kind of awkwardly sat up as she kissed the back of it and looked up at me intently. "Sasha, are you going to hate me for following Princess's orders?" Her voice was soft and submissive.

I furrowed my brow. "...she's got you murdering people again, doesn't she? Dangerousness aside, you aren't even comfortable with that, right?"

Eve looked down and away. "Someone has to do it. I have almost guaranteed success, and I'm used to doing horrible things to people." ...this conversation would would have been a lot easier without Zince there listening to us.

"...yeah, but... you've seemed like you're breaking apart ever since last time. Does she know you find it hard?"

"...No. I'm her slave, what do my personal feelings matter about it? Besides, if I'm not sent to kill them, someone else will be... I just have to learn how to deal with it."

I took her hand in both of mine. "I don't think that's good for you, and I'm sure Princess Asperia doesn't want your mind breaking apart because you're too rough on yourself, either-- she's not the sort of person to use up her tools, and uh, no offense Eve? But you're not exactly stable. Promise you're going to go tell her you find it hard."

She lowered her head. "...yes, Mistress." I blinked at the "Mistress", but she continued, "I promise. Thank you."

I squeezed her hand softly. "We'll talk things out more thoroughly once we can talk about things again, okay?"

"So... you still love me?"

I sighed, and leaned down to kiss her brow. "Yes, I still love you."

She took hold of my cheek and kissed me on the lips passionately, and stared up at me with longing. "I love you too. I'll miss you. I miss you already. I'll do better, I won't torture other girls or otherwise make a mistake like with Wren again... you're the only one for me, I need you." Her longing had turned into desperation.

I squeezed her hand again and smiled a little down at her. Now I was tearing up again. "I know. I'll be here for you when you come back."

She nodded, took a deep breath, and smoothed her face over, squeezing my hands a little before releasing them as she stood up and walked over to Wren.

Wren's eyes fluttered open, and shifted nervously between me and Eve a few times, my brow furrowing a little at her response. Finally, she fixated on Eve. "Mistress! You didn't abandon me!"

"No." Eve stroked her cheek softly, and looked down at her with an utterly domineering and possessive expression... jealousy at that, seriously? "You and Sasha are both very important to me. However, I have some important things I need to do. Obey Sasha in everything first and foremost, and if she's not around, obey Princess Asperia, if neither, Zince. Don't attack or kill anyone, don't break out of bindings they've given you, even if you easily can, and don't leave Princess Asperia's harem. Sasha understands everything I wish, and I trust her entirely. Understood?"

Wren's eyes widened at Eve's words, but they still shined with fanatical devotion, and without hesitation she said "Yes, Mistress!"

Eve leaned down and kissed Wren's brow. "Good girl. You can relax. This is the real world."

A little shudder of pleasure went through the fox-girl's body at Eve's kiss and words, and her tail began thumping wildly on the bed, but she stayed quiet, looking up at Eve devotedly as if there was nothing else in the universe. Eve had effortlessly seemed to care so much about her, even though I suspected she didn't care about her in the slightest.

Why did I have to pick up a girl who was such a mixture of a perfect Mistress who I wanted to obey, and an utter sociopath who I was afraid of?

Eve stroked Wren's brow affectionately, and then turned back to me and pulled me up for a hug, and stared into my eyes as if no one else existed. "I'll miss you, Sasha." Her hand stroked against my breast, against my beating heart, and she closed her eyes and rested her forehead against mine. "I don't care what else you do while I'm gone too much, as long as you keep me first in your heart."

"I know. Thank you..." I hesitated. I wanted to call her Eve, and confirm our bond, but Wren was right there and it was a little too soon to raise all the questions of our complicated relationship. "Thank you, Mistress Eve."

Eve took my hand and kissed it one more time, then turned and walked to the door, glancing back at me with a shy little smile before she left.

It made my heart flutter, as I stared at the door she had just left through. Of course, she could probably fake shyness too, but still.

Wren slowly sat up, and bowed her head to the lamia who was still half-curled around her. "Sorry for running away, Zince."

Zince stroked her head. "You really gave us a scare. I thought you needed to be executed, but Princess Asperia and Eve knew better."

Wren seemed entirely unshaken by Zince's words.

I walked over and sat on Wren's other side, joining in scritching behind her ear. "I'm sorry. Eve... Mistress Eve... that is, it was my fault. I really should have told you what was going on."

She shook her head a little. "I'm just... glad that Mistress Eve told me who to obey, and that this is real. I can wait as long as I need to for my Goddess's return." She smiled radiantly.

I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her close. "I'm... sorry I didn't protect you from Eve, Wren. We were friends, but... I didn't protect you."

Wren blinked. "You're her slave, and she's a goddess... of course you can't stand up to her. I mean, I appreciate the sentiment, but... if Mistress Eve told me to kill you, I totally would, and I assume the sentiment is mutual." Disturbing. "And I like you, Sasha. I like you a lot. You were always cute and friendly, and did your best-- even if you weren't smart, you were trying your best-- no one can stand up to Mistress Eve's power, it's not surprising she manipulated you into casting down my family like that." ...wait. Could that actually be what happened? No... probably not, but it was hard to tell for sure... that had been the instigation for me wanting to switch with her... she wouldn't have tricked me into throwing an entire family away just for that, right?

...I recalled telling Princess Asperia that she didn't think of nobility as people. But was this just me trying to absolve myself of a sin? I didn't know which was worse.

Zince, probably entirely unaware of my inner turmoil, took hold Wren's cheek. "Look at me for a moment."

Wren looked at her obediently.

Zince looked into Wren's eyes, put her fingers along her neck, I assume to feel her pulse, then nodded. "I poisoned you just a little, but in that dose it should've just been a soporific. Does anything feel off?"

Wren put a finger to her cheek and pondered for a moment, then shook her head with a big smile. "No, I just feel super good and happy. I got to see my Mistress. She wants me alive, despite my mistake. She told her favorite person to look after me."

"...favorite person?" Who constantly gaslit and manipulated me... but she was getting better, over the past few days. probably.

Wren blinked, and looked over at me. "I mean, she talked about you a lot. You're important to her. And you saw the way she looked at you... she loves you more than anyone else, or so it seems to me. Am I wrong?"

I had to trust Eve. She was doing all of this recent bit for me, so she was at least trying to take care of her fuck-ups... if only because I cared, not because of any innate sense of morality. I had to trust her. "No, you're probably right, I just... expected you to be upset about it, I guess?"

"If she discarded me, I might have been shaken... but no. Even if I'm low on the list of people Mistress Eve cares about, she still cares about me."

Zince clapped her hands together. "As cute as this all was, I need to go update our Princess on the situation. Sasha, if you need me for anything at all, you know where to find me." A slight, awkward pause, and she drew back from me and Wren, looking away with the sort of careful dignity I'd expect from a cat that just did something stupid. "That wasn't meant as flirtation." She slithered over to the door, and left.

I stared at the door. "Well. This has certainly been. A day." I hugged Wren closer. "You can relax now that you know your place in relationship to Mistress Eve?"

She nodded. "I... think so? I tend to panic when I'm not by her side, but I'm not so far... maybe because she told me to obey you, and I'm by you? ...or maybe calming after-effects of the venom."

"Well, we'll find a way to keep you from freaking out if we need to." I scratched behind her ears with both hands, and she moaned, pressing her body up against mine.

"Why does that feel so good...? Mistress Sasha, will you teach me what Mistress Eve likes?"

"Ah, you don't need to call me Mistress... and, um, sure, I guess? Well, I'm not sure I could pull it off, she has... such an aura to her...."

"Oh, she really does. Isn't she beautiful these days? I thought she was cute even when she was in this dog-girl body of yours, but she's grown so much more confident... whereas you seem to have grown more timid... hmm."

"Well, um, she got... very aggressive about claiming me as her own for a bit, I guess? She's calmed down about it some, and I'm able to like, ask for things and stuff now."

"Oh wow... she really must adore you... can you fuck me, Sasha?" She rubbed against me more. "We're both Eve's playthings, so I don't think there's anything wrong with it... you can fuck me however you want... you can hurt me however you want if you're mad at me or just want to hear me scream... while Eve's gone, I belong to you... right...?" She looked into my eyes submissively, tail wagging eagerly even though her ears were slightly slumped in submission.

Oh dear. A little part of me was getting very aroused by this, while a much larger part of me was getting deeply deeply uncomfortable with this. She probably really wanted and needed someone to confirm her place as Eve's slave because that was all she had in the world, but also Eve had twisted her into this from the self-confident young woman I had known and sort of crushed on, and that made this feel really really wrong.