Lex reluctantly opened her eyes, groaning at the effort. Why did I go to sleep so late, again? she thought with a grumble. She’d been unable to get her thoughts to stop racing all night, but it took her a moment to bring them back through the fog of missed sleep.

Ah. That’s why.

Ariella had been most unlike herself last night. She hadn’t slept easily either, and she’d been making soft murmurs and protesting noises since her eyes closed. Something had rattled her. Something she told Cindy about… and something she was afraid to tell Lex.

She stared at her tormentor, whose sleeping face still was full of worry. So many questions, and so little chance she’d be allowed to remember if she asked them. She grunted, sitting up. She’d lost long enough to fitful sleep, and she needed to get up and start the day. She strained to reach over to grab her phone, since she couldn’t dare risk getting out of bed. Stupid intrusive thoughts.

9:34. Well, at least I don’t need to wait for Ariella to get up. Although she’d never admit it, she had a certain amount of traitorous gratitude for Ariella giving her a way to get out of bed without permission. It would certainly make this morning - all mornings, really - less humiliating. So, she stretched, moving just over to the side of the bed, which she couldn’t dare risk leaving.

Wait, what? She still couldn’t leave? Ariella had told her she could get out of bed if it was after nine, hadn’t she? Had her body not gotten the memo? She would have tried again, but leaving the bed wasn’t even a consideration. Had that command just not taken? It was possible Ariella had forgotten to push the command into place, Lex supposed. She was rarely that careless, but then again, she had been acting strangely yesterday.

Should she tell Ariella that the command didn’t work, so Lex could ensure she kept that bit of freedom? It seemed tempting…

No, she decided. If something’s going on, I can’t play my hand. I have to be patient.

Thankfully, it seemed she wouldn’t have to wait long. Ariella stirred beside her, apparently disturbed by Lex’s attempts at movement.

“Good morning, Mistress,” Lex said carefully.

“Nngh. Good morning, slave,” Ariella mumbled.

She hadn’t commented on Lex still being in bed. At that, Lex let out a mental sigh of relief. I might be in the clear, for now. She still wasn’t sure quite what the situation meant, but there had to be a way she could use it to her advantage, right? At the very least, she could probably work it into some guilt-tripping to earn a few more freedoms, like she’d managed yesterday.

Someone’s in a rush, Lex noted dryly as Ariella practically threw herself out of bed after checking the time. Her Mistress put on her clothes without a care for wrinkles or aesthetic, barely spending a moment at her bathroom mirror to apply makeup. Normally, she’d spare no effort to ensure her appearance was flawless, her attire imposingly composed. Unfortunately, that didn’t tell Lex much more than she already knew.

Lex’s mind raced as she followed Ariella out into the living room. Ariella was always so fearless and composed, since she could effortlessly get anyone to do what she wanted. Today, though, something was clearly bothering her. What about that command that didn’t take hold? If the command to leave the bed after nine didn’t take, what could that mean for her?

Something else was still missing. The rules were still in place. Her earlier inability to get out of bed proved that. Why, then, was Ariella so determined to get away from her? If Lex was still compelled not to escape, why was her Miss- her captor worried? Why had she taken Lex to bed last night, if she was so afraid? She could have just locked her out… Unless she had to let her in, just like Lex had to come to bed.

Lex looked up, fear and hope tightening her chest, and spotted Ariella headed directly for the apartment door. If she was wrong, she was in for an unimaginable world of pain. She closed her eyes to brace herself, and took a deep breath in..

“Wait.”

Ariella waited. Her body locked up, becoming unresponsive.

She had been so close. Just a few more steps, and she would’ve made it out the door. But now she had to wait. Ariella struggled to move, urging herself to take another step forward. But she had to wait.

“Turn around,” Lex said breathily from behind.

Ariella turned, facing Lex. Her slave’s wide eyes told her everything. Lex had figured it out. Ariella trembled as she remembered the countless promises of revenge Lex had sworn over the years, all of which suddenly seemed a lot more of an immediate worry.

“Tell me the truth. What is going on with you?” Lex asked shakily, grinning.

Oh no. Bad question. I need to fight it, I need to…tell her the truth. No! I need to resist. Ariella focused all her willpower on fighting off that single command. Nothing else mattered. She couldn’t tell Lex. If she managed to pull off a lie here, Lex would have to believe it to be the absolute truth. She strained against the overwhelming weight of the suggestion, scrambling for purchase within her mind. Tensing, she opened her mouth, throwing everything she had into a single concerted effort of will.

“My hypnotic power has stopped working and now I have to do whatever people tell me to do,” Ariella whispered.

Cindy peeked in from the kitchen, just in time to hear Ariella confess. The loyal slave’s face went bone-white.

Ariella seethed at her failure, taking some small comfort in the crushing weight having ebbed with her obedience. She was at Lex’s mercy now. Frantically, she tried to think of something, anything that she could use to help her escape. She knows I’m hers with a word. Any second now she’ll start giving more orders. Come on, think!

She only had one resource. Someone who had never managed to come out on top of a battle of wills with Lex. A slave so submissive that she barely needed programming. She grimaced, seeing the odds arrayed against her. All of her hope lay in someone who couldn’t save her. All of her hope lay in Cindy.

“Cindy, run!” Ariella shouted with such force that Lex instinctively took a step back.

Ariella locked eyes with Cindy. She saw hesitation there, unwilling to leave her Mistress at Lex’s mercy.

“No! Stay! You’re just as much a part of this as she is. Ariella, order her to stay,” Lex growled, collecting herself.

“Cindy, stay here,” Ariella pleaded, her spent mind unable to gather any resistance.

Cindy bolted for the door.

“Wha- Ariella, stop her!” Lex shouted.

Ariella’s traitorous body leapt into motion. She knew what she had to do, even if it was the last thing in the world she wanted to. She frantically reached out, catching Cindy’s collar just before she crossed the threshold out of the room.

“Ariella, let me go and stop Lex,” Cindy hissed.

Her mind once more taking the passenger seat, her body whipped around by puppet strings to crash into Lex, tackling her to the ground as Cindy ran, slamming the door behind her.

“Let me go! Get off!” Lex yelled, struggling to get out from under Ariella’s grip. Ariella’s body complied, slumping to her knees, but she barely noticed. Her mind whirled, frantically trying to center itself on a reality that felt uncomfortably far away at the moment. Lex was looking through the front door, trying to see where Cindy had gone. Ariella breathed a sigh of relief at seeing her frustration. At least Cindy’s safe.

There was little comfort in that. She had no idea if Cindy would come back, let alone confront Lex. And even if she did, in the meantime, her mind was completely at Lex’s mercy.

“You bitch! You’re going to regret that,” Lex growled, storming back into the room. Ariella looked down, a sudden surge of guilt crushing her will to resist.

Lex stopped, then smiled wickedly. “You know what? No. There will be plenty of time to have my fun. I think right now, I need answers. Answer every question I ask of you honestly, bitch.”

“Yes…” Ariella whispered.

“Good. Now, what exactly happened to you, and how?”

“I wish I knew that myself,” she said softly.

Lex gaped at her, genuinely taken aback. “You don’t know? They’re your* magic-or-whatever powers, and you don’t even know?”

Ariella hung her head, the shame she felt completely her own. “I had meant to search for answers today. When I got home last night, Cindy was the one who figured it out. I have to obey any command given to me.”

“Hmm… do you think you’ll get your power back?” Lex asked, her gaze once again hostile.

“I don’t even know how I got it in the first place. I certainly wish I could use it right now to put you back where you belong.” Ariella winced. She hadn’t meant to add that last part.

“I bet you do. But that’s not going to happen, is it now? Let me tell you, I have been waiting for this day for so fucking long. Every single day I was trapped by your stupid power, I dreamed of finally giving you a taste of the hell you put me through,” Lex said, shuddering with a strange reverence as she recalled her fantasies.

Ariella locked eyes with her grinning captor. She might have to obey, but she wasn’t going to surrender. She never surrendered. She was the one who dominated the minds of others. This situation was temporary. Eventually she would work her way free, and then she would make Lex regret ever being born.

Her words rang hollow in front of Lex’s smile.

“Nothing to say to that, huh? Fine by me. I see you already knew your place on your knees, bitch.”

She knew some sort of fucked up punishment was coming. It was going to be sexual, of that she was sure. Lex’s manic grin left her no room for doubt. She tried to take solace in knowing that her mind was her own. No matter what torture Lex dreamed up, Ariella would keep her spirit intact. Nobody could ever take that away from her. She repeated the words with a grimace, cursing her broken powers for not even giving her the mercy of convincing herself.

“Hmm, I’ve got an idea. Look into my eyes,” Lex mused.

Ariella looked, her gaze dull. At this point, what else could she do?

“This will be fun… Now, Ariella, this is an order. When you look into my eyes, you’ll feel the same hypnotic pull that you’ve, thankfully, lost. Your mind will go blank, obeying my orders like a good bitch, just like what you did to me.”

Ariella’s eyes snapped wide open in panic as she summoned the last of her willpower, putting everything she had to try breaking the eye contact before the order took hold. But she was so tired. And those eyes were so… alluring. As if there was a pressure from them, a depth to the green irises that pushed on her mind from all sides, demanding attention, driving her deeper into the pull of those eyes. So, so deep in her eyes. No matter how far she looked, that depth stretched, and she had to keep looking. She faintly recalled being afraid of something, but the eyes were so big, so deep, they seemed to fill her entire world, leaving no room for anything else.

Someone was speaking, but that didn’t matter. She just needed to keep staring, keep looking deeper. She didn’t know what the voice was saying, she only needed to know that it was the truth.

All she knew was that the voice was the truth.