Rage

I kept my eyes on the ground until I was in the middle of the field, then I knelt in the sand. I didn't speak and the silence in the arena was loud. The black flames which had carried evil even the other humans had been feeling relaxed a bit very slowly. "Raise, Mir. I am not angry with you. Thank you for bringing me two out of the five people who thought to act against my wishes." The voice that spoke sounded like it had been ill used for years. The words weren't quite right, but I could understand.

I stood but did not look up. "I am sorry my lord. I am afraid my emotions might interfere with a reasonable response."

The flames danced around then stopped. "That is part of why you are so likable, Mir. You are honest to a fault. Have you been studying the collars?"

The flames were still like they expected me to fall into a trap. "Yes, they are complicated and I find them endlessly entertaining."

The flames flickered then paused again, "Good, did you find the master note?"

"I don't understand it. The slaves obey any one with the commands and not in a collar themselves." I wasn't in the mood to talk about the collars right now, but I wasn't foolish enough to ask our lord what this is about.

"Can you fill that spot in the spell if I make everything else?"

"I believe so, my lord." That was the easiest part of the spell. I certainly could not make a collar myself, not even a bad imitation, but I could fill the part of the spell our lord was talking about.

"Well, let's test it on the male." Our lord raised his hand and I knew he was working slowly to give me time, but it was still much faster and more complicated then any spell I had ever tried. I found the hole he was leaving and added the spell that I had learned from studying the collar.

The collar appeared in place. The man did not try to move. Even the people outside the house of Estro had learned all they could about the collars. He knew once it settled it would only be a matter of time before he was unable to control his own actions. "Good. Now did you notice the law and the memories I edited for you don't include any information on if a woman is collared?"

"I am sure you are aware, my lord, that I mentioned it to my wives a couple of times."

"Yes, I am." He started the spell to put a collar on the women. I added the spell to the part he was leaving out. "Now you will get to see first hand why I had hoped you wouldn't need to know about the extras my collars offer to women. I had also not considered that a house would act so openly against my wishes. Go ahead and release them, Mir." I could feel the red eyes watching the people in the arena, not just me.

I bowed, "Yes, my lord." I released them and let them fall into the sand. It wasn't a far fall but it wasn't a nice drop either.

The woman fell on her bottom in the sand. The man landed much smoother. He launched at me, I was expecting it but I didn't move or shield. His fist came to a halt just after he started moving it forward. It was still behind him but it clearly wouldn't respond to him. I saw the black flame from the collar wrapped around his arm. It was responding to the proximity of my power. I could see the green smaller flame within the collar that had triggered the black flames. So that was what it did.

He pulled back away from me and turned to come at me from behind since I had not moved. Surprise hadn't worked so he was going to see if it mattered if I could watch him. The collar hadn't mapped him yet so it wasn't offering punishment yet. I could feel our lord watching me as the man's fist stopped the same distance from me again.

The woman had knelt next to me facing our lord. Women weren't arena players, they were too valuable. Murder was only murder if a woman was killed, but she had been willing to risk it. Did the houses really feel desperate to stop these changes that they were willing to take that risk?

The man fell backwards into the sand. He had tired himself enough that the push back from the collar had tossed him slightly. I shook my head at the ground in front of me. That still didn't explain what, our lord had kept to himself about the women.

"You know men are limited to how they can move, and the orders directly relate to that. Well, to a small extent you can order a collared slave to feel a certain way about an event. This works best in people who notice and respond to how they feel. So it can work on men but for the most part it works much better on women. Sadly it won't work until the collar is set, and while I like to watch how humans come up with ways to make me wait. You have always seemed more pressed for time, Mir. So my first question is what is her house?"

The woman bit her lip. She was looking down at the sand. "Really, I didn't think you would protect them. Mir, you are free to do as you wish within the arena. As long as you get the answers I want."

I bowed, "Yes, my lord." I turned and looked at the woman. The man had sat back up; he was rubbing his shoulder from where he had put too much force on it. I leaned over next to the woman. I knew our lord could hear me but no human but her would be able to, "I have found that the collar remembers orders even if it cannot carry them out yet. At the moment I have no mercy for the people who killed my daughter. So do you want to start getting my personal attention? Or are you going to give me a better target?"

I put one hand on her shoulder as she shook her head ever so slightly. Her shoulder was bare before my hand landed, my power burning the treads while protecting the skin below. I felt her eyes widen, I couldn't see them from where I stood behind her. I moved my hand forward to cup her breast. I had felt her jerk and try to move away but just as the man hadn't been able to hit me this woman was not able to move away without my letting her. She had looked down to see the threads of her clothes pulling away to let my hand move unimpeded against her skin. She looked back up at the darkened box, "Harken, my lord, please for-" she gave a cry of pain, and tried to flinch away, but it stopped her begging.

I paused, and she breathed a sigh as my hand stopped just short of freeing her right breast from the dress. She was a lady of one of the houses, she had to be almost 30, yet even after having almost 7 kids she was still shy about her body. As a lady of a house she would have been able to pick her partners and I was sure none had threatened her so. I waited, I wanted a better target for my anger then this girl who was considered disposable by too many people for her own good. "See, the house system is good for what I made for but it doesn't inspire loyalty. So who asked you to find Mir's wives today?"

She bit her lip again and her eyes were moving back and forth, she cried out when I moved my arm to rest against her left shoulder and leaned to move my mouth closer to her right ear, "Please, I am trying to think of how you would know them!"

"I haven't moved yet, focus, and don't yell at me again." I felt her stiffen and close her eyes. "Answer." She was trying my patience with her stalling.

She started naming each person and their house as well as how she knew they were involved. Most of it meant nothing to me. The male's eyes got wide as she started and he moved to try and silence her, but she was too close to me and the collar wasn't set to the point it could tell the difference yet. I looked up at him, "91 you will not intentionally, maim, hurt, or kill 92." The man didn't stop, but I put him out of my mind for now, If he kept it up his collar will set in record time and then the order will stop him still. I was listening to the names but none of them meant anything to me. Some people had tried to run when she named them but the black fire held them.

Then she said a name I did recognize. I knew she had saved it for last and she didn't seem to think she needed to explain why she included it. I looked up at the mother of Estro. My brothers stood on the ledge below her and all were kneeling facing our lord. I could read the confusion in the matriarch's aura but she didn't flinch away. I sighed, "I am sorry, my lord. I think that last one is just what she thinks must be true."

"More then just the last one was a guess on her part. Quite a few are people she wanted to implicate even if they were not involved. Unless she is dumb enough to truly believe that two of the farmers you made your deal with wanted you hurt. Now, what did you stand to gain from doing this?"

She bit her lip and shook her head again. I felt annoyance from the black flames but it was gone almost as soon as it had flashed into existence. "Wrong, answer, 92. When your collar sets you will regret that choice. 92 will feel like she is dirty when she is touched by me, she won't feel clean until she has washed and scrubbed with soap. The only touches 92 will like less then mine will be those of another slave. Those touches will border on painful. 92 will enjoy the touch of Isa and Bella." She was listening to me and not paying attention to how my hand had started moving again. She gasped as I pinched her nipple, and she looked down again, "Of course that will be after you set your collar. For now." My right hand touched her right hip, a perfect hole forming in the shirt.

I hadn't moved that hand yet and she was trying to pull away from me, to stand. I could feel her muscles playing under where my hands made contact but she couldn't move. She started talking again as my left hand started to pull up on her breast. My right still hadn't moved. I waited again as she talked. I didn't care what she had to say and I wasn't listening.

I looked back in the direction that our lord was watching from. "Have you told me everyone you know was involved in this operation?"

"Yes." She answered quickly and clearly. I felt the flicker in her aura and reacted, I had felt the other black flames start to move, but I was closer.

The flames paused as my right hand jumped from where I had been playing with her to her throat. "When you lie to, my lord, it annoys me, 92." I stretched her head up kneeling down with her right leg between my legs. She couldn't stand and her breathing became labored. The top of her dress folded down exposing both of her breasts to the crowd. The skirt vanished were my left knee was resting on it. She was crying, she was trying to say something. I let my hand fall back to where it had been playing with her, I was even less genital. She grunted, she wasn't able to put her head back down with me this close and her collar still not activated. She was like a talking pose-able kid's doll.

She started to try and explain her answer. I twisted and her words cut off, "Not what was asked, 92."

She took a breath as I let up on the pressure. I didn't stop playing this time as she answered. The male seemed at a loss, he was shaking from how much effort he had been putting into ending this line of questioning.

I moved to her neglected left breast as our lord continued his questions. I was watching the male while I played. I saw the moment the collar went from white to red. "91, hold these for me." I move my right hand to lift each breast once.

The man tried not to obey and his feet did move slowly through the sand but I just waited. His hands lifted the woman's breast up to where I had indicated when I had given him the order. He had one in each hand but he was leaning as far back as his arms would let him. I was still amusing myself watching her shutter as I went from one exposed nipple to the other. I wasn't mean unless she hesitated or her arua started to flicker like she was considering a lie. My right hand only got to her belly button. When my finger had found that hole she had jerked back and leaned against my midsection. That had sped her answer as the back of her dress vanished. I let her move forward so I could examine how much that had exposed her. The top of her butt was showing but it was still covered. She didn't jerk away again after that and she seemed to have given up on keeping anything from our lord.

Which was a little sad, I had been thinking about how she would do on display for everyone who was here. Not that I would be on display, I would have the slave be her partner. Oh well, maybe she would like to give the show to the other slaves.

"Good, that is all I wanted from you." Our lord shifted his attention to me, "It will take even me a while to manage this situation. Hose will bring you to me when I have worked out what I want to do. Until then, the debt of the men of Estro and the boys on the farms are paid in full and up to date. The priest will correct the records to reflect this. Mir will also have, 300 added to his surplus." Everyone's eyes got bigger around the arena, that was 25 years of life for a male. "I cannot undo what happened and for a man like you nothing in this world will equal what you lost. The birth of your other child in a few months will only reinforce that fact. I cannot even give justice because one life is not the equal of another. I will think about what I can give you. You may do as you wish, Mir."

The black flames turned their focus onto the other matters. I whispered in 92's ear, "It doesn't look like I was given a better target." She whimpered and shook, her fear was sweet and what I wanted to see. "But not here, everyone here is busy." My left hand raised to her throat but didn't go around it this time. "Too bad your's is still white. I am not planning on going home myself just yet."

"91, you will take 92 here and carry her to the branch house. You will take her inside and up to the fourth floor. Then you will count the doors on your right until you get to seven. You will enter that room and set her down on the floor. The only people allowed to give you permission to leave that room are me, Isa or Bella. 91 and 92, once you enter the house you will not leave it without me."

92 had talked over me for a moment when I started but I hadn't paid her any head. My hand that had touched her collar stroked its way up her neck and I grabbed her chin. "Because, while the collar cannot currently hold you to any orders, I can make it so that you are in too much pain to try and run. 92 Rainbow Slut." I released her as she curled into a ball in the sand.

"92, when you get to the room the pain will stop. You are not to leave the room. If your collar activates and you are not in that room, you will return to that room, lay down with your belly on one of the foot stools and hold your ass cheeks as far apart as you can. Any movement beyond that will still be available to you." I looked at the man who was trying not to lean down and pick up 92.

"91, since you are still here you must want more orders. Once you are in the room you will expose your dick but leave all your other clothes on. You will not touch 92 with it or let her touch it. You will play with it until I tell you to stop. If you get any of your fluid on anything that was in the room before you entered you will lick it up." 91 only just figured out what I was doing and he rushed to pick up 92 and hurry to the house. His legs were wobbly as he was tired already.

I didn't follow the two to the house. I knew my brothers wouldn't bother the two new slaves. I walked back to the market instead. I didn't know why I wanted to go back there but I couldn't stop myself. I found what I hadn't realized I was looking for very quickly.

I felt awful that I had just left her there. I wrapped her in magic and the ground took her from this world that had never had her in the first place.