“…and you should now remember everything that I sealed under codeword Tangerine.”

You nod and say, “Yes, Mistress. My memories under Tangerine end with us following the majordomo to our suite.”

“How are you feeling, Theta?”

“Like I should have caught that book,” you say, surprising yourself with how sharply it comes out. It feels like you’d just failed to catch it, even though this would have been a few days ago.

“It wasn’t your place, at the time. You didn’t have to. But please believe me,” she says, taking both of your hands in hers, her ophidian emerald eyes on yours, “if I’d known, if I’d realized…”

“Mistress?” you ask, not entirely sure what she means.

She bites her lower lip, a much more obvious tell on a snake demon with inch-long fangs. “Theta, I partitioned your memory for a reason. It’s going to get worse before it gets better; there are some events where I know, now, that I failed you.”

“You could never fail me, Mistress.”

“I could, and I did. I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry, and the fact that it worked out doesn’t make it right.”

“I am yours to do with as you please, Mistress.” This isn’t usual talk for Cora. At your current level of awareness, you’re capable of worry. And you’re worrying just a little.

“Do you need anything before we continue?” she asks, a check-in that she does occasionally.

“This thrall requests use of the bathroom,” you say, reverting to a more formal mode of referring to yourself. It reminds you of your place.

In the bathroom, once you’ve done what you came to do, you check yourself in the mirror. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with you, no injuries, no scars. The large green tourmaline serpent’s eye pendant that she chooses to decorate you with is still there on its gold chain. Real tourmaline, now, but remembering its predecessor, you smile.

When you return to the kitchen, she asks you if you would like an iced coffee. The Vietnamese style, and the way Cora makes them, tantamount to coffee-flavored condensed milk. You love them.

Usually.

“This thrall would be better able to enter trance without the caffeine, Mistress.”

“Yes. Good point. Then we’ll continue. Theta, when we left off with Tangerine, we were on the way to our suite. Let your mind’s eye return its focus to the majordomo’s desk. You should be able to let your memory spool out from here, and I’m going to give you a codeword to let it go even further: recall codeword Marigold.”