The room door opened once more. The lights and temprature returned to normal. His shadow seemeed to envelop the girl as she sat kneeling before him. She was a mess of welts, dried blood and sweat. He circled her for several minutes, the dark auburn eyes drilling into her flesh. Yes, she was damaged - broken.

Time in the medical wing will take care of her physical wounds.

He would mend her mental ones.

She would be his.

He stopped circling her, standing before her, his arms folded behind him. A moment later, chilled words left his throat. "Reveal your neck." The girl had little hesitation left in her, as her hands went to her hair to clear it from her neck. His hands unfolded from behind, one hand going to a thigh pocket, pulling free a silver band.

It snapped open like some trap before chilled fingers guided it around her neck carefully. It was loose, as to be expected as he closed it around her neck. But the loose didn't last long before it clicked closed and began to hiss as he stepped back. It was shrinking to fit her neck, the lock melting, becoming one with the entire band. It stopped, leaving just a little bit of space.

A dark, thin red line began to glow around the center axis of the band.

"You are mine - Mind, body and soul. You obey because I command it; you live because I allow it."

He watched her for only a moment longer before he turned, saying "Follow me." He didn't wait for her, but simply went. If she was indeed broken, she would follow him as best she could back out onto the platform that had been her first place of breaking. She was unaware that two weeks had passed since her change had begun.

Two weeks she would never realize were gone, as was any chance to escape at this point.

He moved along the path leading to the lift that brought them here, waiting for her to arrive that the lift would return them to ground level.

There was no grass, no living matter in the clearing surrounding the towers that now loomed over both of them as they stepped out of the lift. The immediate trees surrounding the edge of the clearing were twisted and dead or dying. They were no longer things of nature, but things of darkness. The primary tower was a short walk along the unforgiving ground. The doors opening without command revealing a large hall of marble and elegance.

Two banners dangled from the second story with his mark. Several rooms lead from the main hall. His boots echoed along the ground as he stepped through, stopping in the center of the great hall.

He called out, "lani...." His voice carried easily enough through the tower, but it was the chill that seemed to dominate the room as it played with the new girl's exposed flesh.

Lani was as ever quick to respond to her Lord's call. This time she was carrying a box from the shop supplying the shoes to go with the new uniforms.

"Yes Lord?" Her eyes never moved higher than his shoulder, flashing a quicksilver curious look over the new girl. "How may I serve you?"

With head held low into a bow, she listened to his every word. Never gazing at the other girl, only letting her ears twitch lightly to the voice. When he turned away and spoke she dipped her body into a further bow. Her voice was soft, the same broken tone in it," No, Master, all is understood." She did not rise from her bow. Those amber eyes had closed and her ears had fell back respectfully. Anything she did, she had tried to do her best in hopes that this would please her Master.

The fox girl was given a slow once over. "Well.. a bath to start with. Then uniforms and a bed. You are in luck we just got the new uniforms in today."

Turning on her heel Lani headed back the way she came, expecting the girl to follow, and explaining her new duties as she walked.

"To begin with you will scrub the floors in the kitchens, once at dawn before breakfast preparations, then again once the meal has been served, Before lunch, and again after, and the same before and after supper. Between breakfast and lunch you will be receiving lessons in proper manners and deportment, After lunch you will alternate days doing mending, and working with sarah in the gardens. Your time after supper belongs to the Lord, if he wishes your presence he will summon you. If he does not, your time is your own until the sleeping hour."