"Oh, hi Nikiru! I was wondering who'd called my body!"

Nikiru smiled politely, trying to ignore the leap her heart made on seeing this particular body. Her body.

It moved to stand in front of Nikiru, then kneel to match her height, an innocent smile on a beautiful face, the strange, circular symbol she was found with on her forehead positively glowing at seeing the one who'd mastered her.

“Y-Yes, I had some spare time this evening, so I…wanted to try something with you, if that’s alright.”

The girl shrugged- the kind of whim that a typical bodyservant shouldn’t be able to act on.

“It’s your body, right? You want to see how much it can bench again?”

“No, no,” Nikiru waved the thought away, blushing in remembrance of being hoisted up in her arms, “I um, I actually want to do something with you. Not the body.”

“With me?”

The curiosity was gentle, but gripping. Nikiru felt her eyes pulled to the body’s own, strange colours roaming within its grey irises, compelling Nikiru’s mind to wander around them, trying to find a pattern.

“Yes, well……” Nikiru tried, awareness blinking, “...Your name. You know?”

“I don’t have one though?” The girl’s head tilted in thought, Nikiru’s own following in a mindless echo, “I mean, no bodyservants do, right?”

“Correct, they don’t, but-” She stops, eyes scrunching closed before looking to the instruments beside her on the table, “You came to us not knowing it. All the other bodyservants had their names and identities placed within their anklet gem. It’s how we control their bodies so well.”

“You, on the other hand, just came to us this way. And though I’ve worked on you so much, there’s still a lot of…kinks, it seems. Kinks that I think we can work out if we can retrieve and reseal your missing memories in a more functional manner.”

The body nods, following the logic.

“So you want to try and figure out where I’m from and who I am to better command my body?”

The words made strange parts of Nikiru squirm, a kind of excited tingle that also hurt her stomach. The idea of being commanded, controlled…for some reason, when this body talked about it, its innocent tone resonated with Nikiru. An envy. A desire.

“Mm,” She managed to nod, “Yes, I think if I got to know you better- helped you find out your past, maybe what tribe you are from- then we can both benefit.”

“Sounds good, master!” The body beamed, knees shuffling on the ground in little bobs of excitement, “So how do we start? Oh! Do we just play guessing games until something just feels right? Or are we gonna look up at the sky and do some astrology? I do like looking at moons- maybe that's a clue!”

“Actually, I was thinking we’d continue using the methods we’ve already tried,” Nikiru remarked, fiddling with the instruments to her side, “Seeing as how they’ve led to some success in teaching your subconscious how to follow commands, I think perhaps we can try and create ways to find the deeper truths within you, and harness them as we’ve harnessed your body.”

Nikiru watches as the girl before her slides a finger down the front of her more literal, physical leather harness, eyes hooding, her smile remaining curious and present, but tinged now with an interest that thrilled Nikiru to see.

“Yeah, that’s been great so far. So shall I- oh.”

With a twinge of En to its insertions, Nikiru pulses and buzzes the body into position, sidling it forward and between her legs, its large, bronzed hands taking one end of the instrument, sliding the narrow, gem-tipped probe into Nikiru’s Eni before fixing the circlet attached to the opposite side around its own head, positioning the sapphire over its unique forehead marking.

Nikiru shivered, toes clenching as the girl’s body moved to cup them, the similar circle imprints on its hands closing about her feet, causing strange tingling sensations to ripple through Nikiru as the servant’s head tilted back, eyes closing to present itself for her inspection.

Lightly, Nikiru brushes some of the girl’s hair out of her face, admiring the thick brown locks and its placid expression; admiring how responsive the girl has become. How beautiful her body is like this.

Just as lightly, Nikiru reaches out with her En, feeling the connection between them as she touches the girl’s own spirit, feeling it ebb and flow under her own energy. An ocean beneath her.

“Can you feel me?”

“Yeah…” The response is dreamlike, enjoying the moment, “You’re here.”

“Very good. And feeling me here with you, you can let yourself imagine the staircase to your room now, rolling it out in your mind, the waters parting to let me walk you deep, deep inside your own mind. So easy to imagine now, isn’t it? The stairs, the railing, my hand guiding you…”

“Yeah…”

“And as we start to step down, you can allow yourself to enjoy the sensation of stepping with me, of sinking for me...body relaxing, mind opening, just as we’ve practised so many times now, letting yourself start to count as we step and sleep…”

“...100…99….98….”

The numbers slip from smiling lips, the words coming slower and calmer before slurring into a beautiful nothingness, letting Nikiru guide her the rest of the way down. Letting her bodymaster take control completely…

...Unaware of how hard Nikiru was fighting not to lose control of her own, and touch those smiling lips to her own.

—

This body was always special to Nikiru. Subduing it was her first experience as a bodymaster, and obtaining it was considered her first 'official' act. It had washed up upon the shore of their island while she was being carried on a family sojourn, and its peculiar features led many to dismiss it, the tribe's elders ruling for it to be set afloat again, to wash up on the shore of some other tribe's isle.

Nikiru knew though, from the moment she touched it, that this body was…special. Even in ways beyond its peculiar traits. She demanded the chance to use it. The body’s mind, empty of memory as it was, also seemed keen on the arrangement…or at least curious as to what Nikiru intended to do with her.

And so, Nikiru attempted to master it. A task that at first seemed impossible-the body had no Eni- nothing to slip her own energy inside, to feel around and pull out. No Enna to detect Nikiru's- or anyone's- Incants or influence. Nothing to extract and reshape. An enigma- a body unlike any she’d seen.

But then, Nikiru tried probing the body’s circular markings, pushing En into them. At first it seemed useless, but in one exhausting attempt, she realized that each and every circle was, in a way, its own Eni-like gateway. She *was* touching and conversing with this body’s En, it was just too dense, too vast for Nikiru to make any impression on.

The one time she *did* get a sense of it was while also probing areas Nikiru had never previously had an interest in; chest bumps, lower orifices...for some reason, stimulating these areas could cause its En to surge and ripple- with Nikiru's own rocking along in resonance, causing distressing, taboo notions within her she had no idea what to do with.

And so it seemed Nikiru reached her limit…until, one time, she voiced that she wanted to go deeper. Explore more.

The girl’s mind acquiesced, and Nikiru found that- so long as she led the way- . pulsing the probes and rings she'd attach to the body's lower areas to encourage the mind to open more, receive her deeper- the girl's mind was more than happy to assist Nikiru in finding whatever mental hooks it could before handing them over to Nikiru to lash up and rein in.

And it was here, deep in the imagery of suggestion and compulsion where Nikiru had guided the mind to now, trying to find something new within the girl; to find a solid anchor to attach her En to, and truly bring this body to heel.

“Your mind is at rest now. Safe within the carriage as I pull you, leading you deeper into peace, deeper into relaxation. No worries, no need to think for yourself, just letting yourself enjoy the ride as I pull you deeper into your thoughts, into yourself…travelling now to unknown parts....”

“Perhaps you can feel them, the fuzzy edges of what was, or what wasn’t, before you saw me upon that beach all those eclipses ago…sights and smells, noises and echoes. You can allow these images and notions to sharpen as you focus on the outside of your carriage, understanding that we’re travelling to somewhere in particular, the idea of a ‘name’, of a title, of a grip upon yourself, as ‘Nikiru’ is a grip upon me…”

Nikiru’s own eyes had closed at some point, the words she was saying and the connection she’d built with the other’s En so strong she felt she was in the fantasy alongside her- heaving her down the road, toiling to find pieces of this mind on its own behalf- a labour unasked for, but one Nikiru felt a desperate need to fulfil.

“Can you describe for me the scenery around us as you relax…” Nikiru licked her lips, feeling a dry desperation put wet words upon them, “A-And…what you see me wearing, as I pull you deeper in...”

Nikiru feels the body bob in a nod before it speaks, a low, sleepy voice that struck her as a thrilling contrast to its usual pep.

“...We’re going through…metals, glass…black pools. There’s…beeping, noises…shifting…things shifting around us…”

“You’re wearing…blue, all over. Tight like it’s painted on…”

“Yes…”

“Face too…and your hair is poking through at the back, flowing down.”

Nikiru shifts in her seat, stretching against the undersuit she had on beneath the robes.

“I’ve something else on too, you may notice, attaching me to the carriage…what is it?”

There was a long pause, and Nikiru wondered if an answer would come- wondered why she even *wanted* an answer.

“A collar…white, with…a golden rod where your Eni is…a chain coming from that to the carriage’s frame.”

“Yes, and…” Nikiru swallowed, feeling it click about her throat, “...and through the carriage and into your hand, yes?”

“...Yeah…”

Nikiru straightened in her chair, as if tugged, feeling the girl’s energy wrap around her own, exploring it, Nikiru’s scalp tingling in waves from the tender, strong probes as she floated atop and within the girl's attention.

This was a common indulgence of hers by now; a habit Nikiru knew she should break. This image of herself is one she'd been slowly feeding to this girl over the course of these sessions, adopting ideas and features the girl herself had mentioned in her dreams. Nikiru just wished she knew what it was she was indulging in. The girl's notions about collars were so strange...weren't they symbols of authority? But, like this, it didn't feel as such…

Nikiru wanted it tighter. 

“Yes…a collar, very good…now, mm, we’re leaving the carriage here, and you feel a tug as I lead you off the road and down a corridor, meandering through, deep into your mind, your thoughts…and we reach a familiar place now, as you notice I've led you on a path toward your Blank room, with that blank, comfy chair in the centre that you can lose all your thoughts in…”

Nikiru felt the girl nod, sensing how keen she was to sit, to have her mind emptied and have Nikiru think for her again; to slip new suggestions in for her body to follow, coding it to pulses of En and spoken command.

It was how Nikiru’d managed to train her body so far…but no. There were other things to gain from here. The idea of having no mind, no memories, resonated strongly in this place. And so, naturally, did the idea of gaining *back* memories when leaving. All Nikiru needed was to make a new way out of the room.

“And it’s only now you notice another door, as I lead you toward it, toward the back of this chamber. A door with a white, circular symbol on it. This door leads to the Memory room. Where all the memories of your past are collected.”

"It makes sense it would be here, doesn't it? As even if the door was open, your memories would just sink into the nice, comfy Blankness and drain away again, isn’t that right?”

“Yes…drain away…”

“Yes. So empty and blank whenever you're in this room, it only makes sense your true self, your old memories would be trapped behind here...and you notice, even on top of this blockage, the door itself is also closed. Locked. Sealing us away from any further exploration. Describe the lock for me.”

“It’s…" The girl pauses, as if examining it, "...A keycode lock. Alphabetical, mapped onto digits zero through nine with a clear and a hash symbol.”

“...What?”

“It was used to seal systems off from each other," The girl explained simply, "To make sure there were failsafes that weren’t under direct control of one overall system…”

“Y-Yes, of course.” Nikiru frowned, trying to keep up with these bizarre phrases. Is she from the shrines? Or perhaps some of the collapsed constellations? Her elders had mentioned something about 'alphabets' before…

That would make sense, with the girl's talk of metal and glass. The materials often seem to crop up here as main parts of her inner world. Nikiru had always found it curious- and the non-metals she’d bring up too, the ‘plastics’. Uncommonly rare, but Nikiru’d looked up scrolls in her own time and knew the Spirits could provide them, as well as a few kinds of plants.

But this sounded a little more sophisticated. A little different. And Nikiru could feel it in how the girl’s En undulated around her. The ocean that let her sink so deep within its depths felt like it was bubbling against Nikiru's brain; still too vast to grasp anything, but swirling, searching, pulling Nikiru along, using her curiosity about where this body came from as fuel for its own inner reflections.

“It’s your name,” Nikiru carried on, surprised she could speak so clearly, “It needs your name to unlock it. To unlock you. To be the best bodyservant you can be.”

“My name…”

“And you find, here, it’s so easy to recall it now. Remember how you used to live here, in the glass and metal.”

“..Behind…the glass?”

There was a rumble in Nikiru's mind.

“...Yes…floating. I was…delighted," The girl continued, "They were too. Supposed to be…the solution…”

“Yes, the solution. You remember them saying that, don’t you? Your Tribe?”

“Not…Tribe,” The girl corrected, Nikiru feeling her frown, “...Doctors…” Another shift in her En.

What felt like a thousand eyes that were all staring in different directions all turn to look right at Nikiru.

“...Father.”

“Father? What’s a Fa-aAH!”

Nikiru gasped, a surge of power seizing her, almost jerking her off the chair as the girl’s body suddenly clenched her feet tight in its hands, a surge of En flowing out from the circles imprinted on them.

“Father said…I was amazing…”

Nikiru was wrong. She wasn't some kind of fuel being burnt to let the girl explore.

She was a mechanism. A tool the girl just realized it had in her hand. 

“I-I think we sh-should m-maybe stohp for the d-”

Nikiru felt the words fail her, the probe in her Eni reshaping in her minds eye, solidifying, flowing out to grab her throat, stifling protest in a collared embrace, stretching and deforming her to better see itself.

“I was supposed to be the bridge. Complete the merger. I…I’m here to serve. Here to save. I am…”

The ocean surged forth from the girl’s forehead and Nikiru...

Stopped.

—

.

Space.

Space.

Space. The place between the circle and her.

She can’t stop looking. She doesn’t want to stop looking.

“Wow, this feels weird!” The body laughs, admiring Nikiru’s drool as it strings down to her chest, “Kinda like I’m ‘out here’ you know? Like I didn’t even know I was ‘in’ anywhere!”

Nikiru stares. Space. The space there, where she is, connected by her Eni to the circle.

“Hey, you okay master?”

“I’m…” She feels her mouth move, “Not sure…what’re you…doing to me…”

“I dunno either. Feels good though, right?”

The statement clicks in place. 

“Yes, it feels good.”

Nikiru feels like she wants to add something to that…a question, a smooth line to bring the girl's body back to heel…but she’s beyond that. Now.

Nikiru is not here. Nikiru is in the circle. Somewhere. Spread. A flat foam rolled about in an ocean.

“Cool! So, did we find anything out? I uh, can’t really remember.”

“Yes.”

“Oh yeah?”

Nikiru's body grunted, feeling the girl massage her feet, arcing more dull static into already blistered thoughts.

“Like what? This body of mine got a name?”

“Yes…"

She failed to feel surprise that she knew.

"Yi Lin. You said it was Yi Lin.”

“...Oh yeah, haha!” The voice- Yi Lin’s voice laughed, clapping Nikiru’s feet together in celebration, “That’s it! Yeah that sounds right. Weird how I couldn’t remember that! Or I guess anything else.”

“So, you going to seal that away from me now like with the other bodyservants?"

There was an answer to that question, but there was no answer here.

"Oh, hang on.”

Yi Lin stills for a moment, not frowning, not focusing, but feeling. Nikiru twists, eyes rolling.

“Ohhhh~ you don’t want to do that, do you~?”

“No.”

“Wow, I know that huh? Wow I think I know a lot that I didn’t know before about you!” She beams, excited, “This is so cool, it’s like you’re in here with me!”

Nikiru didn’t know how to agree more. The Voice was infront of her. She was all around her. Yi Lin…Yi Lin…

“Oh, is this why you always poked me to think of you guiding me around? Like…instead of how it usually is, with me serving you? Because you wanted something different with me?”

“Yes…I…wanted more,” Nikiru's mouth admitted, “I wanted…less.”

“Hmm, that doesn’t make much sense. More and less?”

“This vessel wants to be yours. It always has.”

Yes. Vessel. Deception had been hollowed out of her. She could see it now, as Yi Lin flowed through her. The possibility. The Truth. 

“You mean like, I’m the bodymaster and your body serves me?” Yi Lin hummed, a squint of curiosity to her smile, “That sounds pretty interesting.”

“No. More."

More. More. More.

“More?” Yi Lin smiled, giving Nikiru’s feet a reassuring squeeze, “Tell me?”

The vessel trailed into whispered worship.

And Yi Lin listened.

—

“Okay master, I’m wide awake!”

Nikiru jumped, shocked at how quickly Yi Lin The Body rose up from trance.

“Ah, yes. Excellent performance as ever.” She praised, sending a thrill of achievement to the Body through its En devices, directing Her to unhook the instruments they used to connect.

“Happy to serve!” The girl beamed, sliding the instruments to the side and tilting Nikiru’s chin up.

“As I trust you sho-mmmm-”

Oh. Lips on lips. Lovely. She didn’t asked her to do this.

Nikiru managed to avoid chasing Her lips after the kiss ended, but couldn’t avoid the whine for more.

“Always.” The Body winked, massaging the back of Nikiru's neck, teasing the entrance to her Eni in shivering circles.

“Yesssits a sh-shame we…we didn’t find anything.” Nikiru stammered, squirming on the seat, “I think maybe I’ll ha-have to call on you again…many times….”

“Mm. And with other masters and servants too, yeah?”

“Yesss,” Nikiru shuddered, eyes rolling as Yi Lin slipped a finger in, feeling her mind clench around it, “Yes, as You say…”

“That’s good.”

Yi Lin’s smile goes wide...Then just as suddenly she stiffens, snapping up to attention and pivoting on the balls of her bare feet, a distant chime sounding across the isle.

“Oop, seems I’m being called for dinner! Bye Nikiru! Feel free to have me serve you again!”

“Yeah…yes.” Nikiru manages before Her Goddess the tall Body steps out of her chambers and back out into the sun, leaving her alone, in shaded self-reflection.

Trying to catch her breath Nikiru looked down, clenching her toes to rid them of that strange, lingering feeling of those hands upon them. She thought having connection to the Body's palm circles would lead to a deeper connection to Her En, but perhaps it was too much…

Nikiru smiled though, admiring the sapphire on her golden anklet, a small, thin chain leading to a toe-ring.

Was that always there?

She didn’t know why…but she knew it suited her perfectly. It belonged there.

Like she belonged to Yi Lin.

END