When I finally made it back to my room, I wanted nothing more than to collapse onto my bed. That had been too close. So, so close. If Liam hadn’t been there… Well, it didn’t bear thinking about. It didn’t matter that I was only there because Liam had dragged me out. I had made my choice and had nearly suffered the consequences of it.

The experience only reinforced that I was still far too weak. Maybe I was strong compared to my yearmates, but in the real world it didn’t matter what year you were in. It was a drake eat drake world out there, and I refused to lay down and die.

I looked awkwardly down at the limp body of my newest acquisition. I had dumped her onto the floor in the shower, not wanting her soaked clothing to drip on my carpet. I wasn’t sure how to feel about what I’d done there. She’d never done anything to me, hells, I knew basically nothing about her. She’d simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now she was here with me.

Well, whatever the circumstances, she was here now and that was that. I certainly wasn’t going to go back out there to drop her off and Liam had said Avalon would be moving very soon. Despite the odd means by which she’d fallen into my lap, I was sure I would get a lot of work out of her. Perhaps she could serve as a good experience for when I went after those second year girls. It would be good to test the ritual on someone slightly more… disposable.

Still, despite my misgivings, it was important to not grow sloppy. I started off by snapping one of my oldest suppression collars around her neck, feeling as it kicked and sealed away her access to her mana. She felt like a pretty pathetic mage, maybe first circle but I wasn’t certain she could even manage that much. It was always better to be sure though.

The collar was not particularly powerful, it was of a design I’d discarded as being insufficiently powerful to explore further, but that was when I’d been trying to contain an elf. For a nearly manaless human like her it was plenty. I made a mental note to fabricate more collars, I seemed to be using them more and more often these days.

With that taken care of, I peeled her out of her waterlogged clothes, the delicate looking cloth able to hold far more water than I would have expected. Under it, she had only a simple wrap around her hips that came off just as easily as the robe.

The last part of her outfit, the intricate jewelry everyone in the city seemed to wear, was considerably tricker to remove. The studs in her ears and the short chain hanging between her lobe and upper ear were relatively simple, secured in the same manner as the earrings I was used to. Her various bangles and the thin chains that connected her middle toes and ankles were slightly harder, but after a bit of maneuvering I managed it without damaging anything. I wasn’t sure if the precious metals and gems were real, but if they were, the jewelry was probably worth something.

It was only when I tried to remove the two elaborate constructs that the locals wore in their nipples that I decided I was thoroughly stumped. It took several minutes to figure out how to remove them properly and involved carefully rotating them in order to remove the two perpendicular bars that secured them. I was entirely unsurprised when I noticed the weak enchantment that helped negate some of the piercing’s weight, they would have been completely unwearable without it.

With that done, I roughly toweled her off and used a spell to dry the rest of her with gusts of warm, dry air. I noticed with interest that she was completely hairless below the neck and wondered if that was a natural thing or something achieved with razors and magic. I imagined the pale white hair would really stand out against the dark purple skin, so it might just be an aesthetic thing for her.

Leaving her slumped over the side of my chair, I grabbed several of the blocks I kept around for transmutation fodder and got to work. I knew from experience that I couldn’t just use straight metal for most of her bonds. She was a mundane human despite the odd skin color (I’d checked), so something like the restraints I’d used on Mistletoe would chafe and cut into her skin when she struggled.

I formed soft bands of leather around her wrists and ankles, using a spare belt as a model in order to sidestep the complexity of transmuting something so chemically intricate. Over top of that, I shaped bands of tungsten half an inch thick and an inch across, the material shifting smoothly from leather into metal to form one solid piece with no weak points. It was slightly overkill, but the events of the last few days had only reinforced my ‘better safe than sorry’ approach to life.

Finally, I added the last part of the restraints. Thick metal O-rings were carefully fused into the front of each piece. Combined with the one already attached to her collar, it would make securing her in whatever position or place I needed a breeze. For now, I pulled her limbs up behind her back and looped a thick rope through all five rings before tying it off in a rough hogtie. That would hold until I decided what to do with her.

As I worked, I made a silent promise not to get attached to this one. I would speak to her only when necessary and just… try to ignore the circumstances that had brought her to me. There was no use thinking about it. I didn't want another Miranda situation on my hands. Gods above and below, just thinking about the mess I’d caused with my first slave made me want to slam my head against my desk.

After temporarily binding her limbs, I thought about leaving her on my bed before deciding against it. I’d dried her off, but she was still kind of dirty from the dust and detritus that had been in the water. I would give her a thorough washing later, but I didn’t want her getting my clean sheets dirty in the meantime. Instead, I dropped her roughly on the rug and got back to work.

I decided not to make something as restrictive as what I had done with Mistletoe, that would be too overkill even for me. Perhaps as a temporary measure if I was doing something particularly invasive, but if she was kept in that position permanently it would wreak havoc on her body. It would be simpler once she was properly bound with oaths, I could just order her to stay in one place with no restraints needed, but for now I just needed something simple.

To that end, I started with the most basic design I could think of, a simple cage. It was made even easier by the fact I’d already done it before, I’d worked out how to do it back when I was making Mistletoe’s first home.

I started by fabricating a simple rectangular frame roughly four feet long, three feet wide, and two feet tall. Levitating the frame with a spell, I slowly spun it in the air as I wound a long strand of yarn up and around it, leaving about an inch of space between each strand. Then I rotated the frame and did it again two more times, forming a wide mesh on each side.

After that, it was just the matter of casting a relatively simple transmutation to convert the entire thing into one solid piece of tungsten. I’d used steel at first, but Professor Meadows had recently taught us about the much more durable and simpler material and I’d been using it ever since. The thick yarn I’d used was reduced to a much thinner wire by the spell, but a quick test showed that it was plenty durable.

The last step was adding a door. I hadn’t bothered doing so for Mistletoe the first time around, I’d just transmuted the cage around her since I’d had no plans to let her in or out at the time. I spent a few minutes fiddling with hinges and locks before deciding that was far too much effort. It would be a pain to create functional hinges with the transmutation spells I knew and a lock would just create unnecessary weaknesses in the structure.

Instead, I spent half an hour digging through my growing collection of reference books until I finally found the text I was looking for. ‘The Big Book for Beginners’ was one of the first texts we’d all been given back in our first year. It was a compendium of nearly two hundred simple spells, most of them incredibly specialized to the point that there was little reason to memorize them.

Memorizing spells was a hard, time consuming process, even for lower circle spells. There were special techniques and magics developed to help with the process, but even with them the mage had to recreate a highly detailed multi-dimensional structure from memory. Beyond that, even a magically augmented mind had its limits on how many spells you could have memorized at the same time. It was often easier to just have a reference book like this, something to quickly remind you of the structure for a spell you’ve practiced in the past but never bothered to keep at the ready.

I found the two spells I was looking for near the center of the book and took a moment to refamiliarize myself with the specifics of the spell structures. ‘Part metal’ and ‘join metal’ were fundamentally nearly the same spell. Their spell structures overlapped so much that they used the same diagram to save space in the book, with just a short section to show the small differences.

Running my fingers along one edge, the metal parted easily under my spell, cut as though by an incredibly sharp blade. Running it back the other way, it fused back with no sign of damage. Just as I’d hoped, this would work perfectly fine for storage.

I carefully cut away the top of the cage again and deposited her bound body inside before resealing it. It was slightly less convenient than a lock, taking about fifteen seconds to open or close, but it was much simpler and more secure to boot.

Now I just needed something to anchor her too when I needed easy access. Perhaps something on one of the walls? In Armouth, I’d seen prisoners hanging by their wrists from large stone posts, feet just barely brushing the ground. I cast my eyes across the bare stone walls of my room. Yes, something like that would work out nicely…

Naklana woke up slowly, feeling the unmistakable traces of magically induced sleep tickling at the corners of her mind. She noticed the cold immediately, chill air nipping at her bare skin and sinking into her bones. It was an unfamiliar feeling, even during the winter months the air in the city was hot and heavy. It almost felt like she’d fallen asleep in one of the deep cellars where the family she served stored exotic spirits.

No, that couldn’t be it. She tried to cast her mind back to what she’d been doing, but the lingering touch of the magic made it hard to think. Senior Cook had ordered her to… go to the market. She’d been supposed to buy… something? Yes, she was picking up fresh fruits for the party. The party!

Her eyes shot open in panic and she tried to spring to her feet, only to find her limbs unable to obey the orders her mind was sending. She tried to push herself up, but her arms were pulled tightly behind her back, something digging into her wrists and ankles with every movement.

She twisted her head around, but could see nothing but metal and stone. Something tight and cold was fastened around her neck, cutting into her air and clicking gently against the lattice of metal bars around her.

What was happening? Where was she? Heart hammering in her chest and breath coming in short gasps, Naklana closed her eyes, thinking back on the last thing she could remember. The market. She’d gotten to the market, picked up the fruit, and then…

Her eyes shot open again as she remembered. The water, the crashing torrent pouring into the square for all directions, washing away everything in its path. The crack of wood and the screams –she’d dropped the fruit, Senior Cook would be so angry at her– the icy cold water all around her.

An oddly accented voice pulled her from her spiraling memories –water all around her, pulling her downward, crashing her against other warm bodies as down became up and the air was crushed from her lungs– “Ah, I see you’re finally awake.” She tried to look towards where the voice was coming from, but couldn’t turn her neck around far enough in her current position. “I’m glad to see that you seem to be a well collected young woman, I honestly expected much more screaming.”

Screaming? Why would she be… She tried to move her limbs again, but found them pulled tightly behind her back and quickly realized her legs were similarly bound. She felt the cold stone of the ground sapping the warmth from her bare skin, metal digging painfully into her breasts and belly. She wiggled around slightly, but every movement sent her sensitive nipples dragging across solid rock and hard metal. Oh blessed Sea-Mother!

She screamed, pulling hard against her bonds and thrashing around on the ground. Hard metal bit into sensitive skin, but that only made her scream and struggle harder. She faintly heard the same voice curse quietly, muttering something about ‘asking for it’, but she barely registered it past the blinding fear and growing pain.

Something wrapped around her, slamming her mouth shut with a click that barely avoided taking a chunk off of her tongue. Bands of invisible force tightened around her chest, shins, and forearms, lifting her slightly off the ground and stopping her struggles in her tracks. She tried to open her mouth again, but it felt like a vice was squeezing her jaw shut. Something pushed against her throat, making it hard to breathe and stifling her terrified whimpering.

“It seems I spoke too soon. This is much better.” Light footsteps echoed loudly in the silent room as her captor walked slowly around her cage. “I would ask what your name was, but I don’t particularly care.” He hummed thoughtfully for a moment, then added. “I guess blink twice if you happen to be part of some rich family or something? It would be a pain to ransom you back or whatever, but I wouldn’t want to accidently torture a princess to death or something.”

She remained silent, trembling at the casual way he’d suggested what might be in store for her. After a moment, he clicked his tongue, “Seems not, fair enough. Well, I guess I should establish some ground rules.”

He finally stepped into her line of sight, crouching down to look her in the eyes. He was a young, foreign man, with strong features, pale olive skin, and short black hair. He was handsome in a way but the cold look in his eyes crushed any sort of attraction she might have felt. He was looking at her the way Senior Cook looked at prime slabs of meat at the butcher, judging how best to prepare her for the cooking pot.

Her body rotated slightly in the air as he studied her, sending waves of nausea through her body at the unnatural motion. She tried to swallow down the taste of bile, but the pressure on her throat almost made her choke at the attempt. Cold, sharp panic rose in the back of her mind as the enormity of the situation slowly dawned on her.

She was here, naked, in a tiny cage in a dark stone room. She doubted anyone knew where she was, nor would even bother to look for her. That torrent of water might have swept hundreds or even thousands into the sea. No one would question one minor noble’s missing serving girl.

She didn’t know how much time had passed, nor where she even was. Had it been hours? Days? Weeks? Magical sleep could last for days if cast right, and there were potions that could put their victim into a dreamless sleep for years at a time. Was she even still in the city or had some enterprising merchant shipped her across the sea as some sort of exotic slave?

She was so lost in her thoughts that she missed what the man had said, only coming back to the present when a line of red-hot pain lashed across her buttocks. A stifled shriek erupted from her sealed jaw and her eyes widened as she stared at the irritated expression on his face.

“Much better.” He said coldly, flickers of barely visible mana trailing around his outstretched hand. “I guess that should be rule number one. When I speak, you will either listen, or you will suffer. I dislike having to repeat myself.” She nodded her head vigorously, the burning pain in her rear lending painful weight to his words.

“Good. Now, rule number two, though I feel this one doesn’t really need to be said. When I tell you to do something, you will do it or you will suffer.” He paused, looking down at the magic rippling across his open palm. “You know, you seem like a smart girl. Just assume that ‘or you will suffer’ is the alternative to all the rules, ok?”

She rapidly nodded again and he smiled faintly as he looked back up at her. “Very good. It seems like you’re a much faster learner than Miranda was. It took her much longer to understand the rules. That's probably a good thing for you. She is both more useful and more… durable than you are.”

The way he’d said that last part sent a shiver of fear down her spine. The family she served had enforced strict discipline in their servants, but they’d never gone further than verbal reprimands and withholding pay. Senior Cook had sometimes punished her when she made mistakes, but even then it had been limited to smacks from his wooden spoon. She had a feeling her new… owner would not be nearly as restrained with his punishments.

He stood up suddenly and released the invisible bonds that held her up in the air. She landed on her side, the metal of her cage digging painfully into her tender skin, but she thankfully managed to keep her head from slamming against the stone floor. “Well, I think that's the important stuff. We can add more rules when they come up. For now, let's take a look at what I’m working with.”