You drift back up from the depths of your recall trance. It’s evening now, the city lights beginning to flare in orange and amber outside Cora’s apartment’s window.

As you watch them flick on, it begins to hit you.

Minutes later, you’re still trembling, your body reeling with emotional aftershock. You’re sitting together on the couch, your head in her lap. She’s brushing her fingers through your long, dark hair.

“I need to say it again,” you say. “I love you, Mistress.”

And those incredible emerald eyes gaze down into you. “As many times as you need, my love. My Theta. I love you, too.”

You don’t think you can ever hear that enough. You could be here with her, feeling her fingers run through your hair, slowly relaxing, forever, forever content.

Eventually, you remember that you asked something, hours ago.

“Mistress,” you say, half in a trance again already, “you said we got it done. How? What happened, in the end?”

She smiles as she tells you, “Recall codeword Violet.”