Brutin looked up from the latest manifest as Philodus walked through the open door to his office, a girl in front of him. He said nothing so Brutin looked the girl over, she was young, near twenty, her hair was black and straight, her eyes were a green so bright they shone like jewels in their sockets, her face was creamy smooth without blemish. Her body however was completely covered from neck to toes in folds of cloth and leather.

Brutin frowned and then looked up at the girl's eyes which were aflame from his scrutiny of her. "How dare you look at me like that! I will have your head in a basket if you don't let me go right this minute!" She demanded and Brutin blinked.

"And you are?" Brutin asked her. She brought her up to her full height to which he guessed was five foot five, perhaps six. Her lips were full and pouty, the kind of lips a man stares at until he can kiss them, an obsession that could all to frequently lead to bloodshed. Brutin looked over at Philodus who in turn nodded. He had made the discovery as well.

"I am Suriah Anna Woltrance of Woltrance and Speers." She said proudly and Brutin smiled. "My father is the most successful businessman in the Nexus and owns half of the transport fleets going to the Verbia Cluster. If you don't let me go I can guarantee you that you will be dead before the end of the month." She said smartly and looked over her shoulder at Philodus so that he could be included in the threat as well.

"Do you know who I am?" He asked her calmly and she turned her attention back to him.

"Some petty criminal?" She shot out there and he only smiled in response. "A dead man looking for a way out?" She added, warming up to her game of insults. Brutin was not a fan of insults.

"I am Brutin." The simple statement fell on the girl and she blinked. Brutin owned a considerable fleet of merchants himself.

"The Slaver?" She asked and he just regarded her for a second before looking back down at the manifest in his hands.

"It says here you were on board the Star Rise Gypsy." He said and looked up at her. She nodded. "Three hours ago that ship fell into my hands and all on board were enslaved." He informed her and waited patiently as she processed the information.

"But I was on that ship, that is why I came here to complain to you. I demand to be returned to my Father at once!" Her voice rose with the strain of her new found knowledge. Brutin simply shook his head. "He will pay a ransom for my return." She added and again Brutin shook his head.

"Please forgive me, but I do not put my stock in ransoms." He said calmly and her face paled.

"So I am suddenly your slave? Just like that?" She asked in disbelieve, as if the process would somehow be somewhat more epic in scale. He nodded for her benefit. "You can't do that."

"I have." The statement was simple and calm. He remained quiet for some few minutes as she battled within herself as she processed this new information.

"Please let me go. I don't want to be a slave." She finally said, calmly, her demanding, high pitched voice was gone. Progress.

"You beg well. Almost like a slave should." He said and her face lost all blood and he wondered if she was going to pass out. He watched her and waited but while she swayed slowly, she maintained her feet. "You are now a nameless slave that I own." He added and she gasped but did not fall down.

"Don't say that!" She suddenly shouted, her panic rising.

"I see in you great potential, your attitude and your beauty. You will make an excellent pleasure slave." He said and she put her hand to her mouth as if biting the knuckles.

"Stop it!" She demanded but he continued calmly.

"There are some things you need before we proceed. The most important one is that I own you." He said and her eyes blazed in fury. He continued to watch her and then continued. "Secondly I do not repeat myself, if I do repeat myself you will not like the results." He told her and she did her best to stifle the shiver that ran down her spine. "Number three, as a slave you own nothing." He said and glanced down her body. She followed his eyes by looking down and then put her hands on her voluminous dress.

"This was given to me by my father!" She exclaimed but Brutin made no reaction at all. He just sat and considered her and then smiled.

"Strip." One word, a command and the girl's face fell as if the floor had been dumped out from under her. She turned to look at Philodus but he kept his mouth shut and just watched her without expression. She turned to look at Brutin again, her hands clutching at the material of her dress. In the end she just continued to stand there, hoping that this was a bad dream perhaps or that if she made herself perfectly still she would disappear from view and the two men would forget her and go about some other business.

She was his business. He was not going away. Brutin got out of his chair and came around to her side of it with slowly confident steps. After all, he had done this countless times in the past. She looked up at him as he approached, her worried expression clearly indicated she was lost, she didn't know what to do. Or how to do it. She was in a panic. He looked down at her, there was no expression on his face, he just looked into her eyes and saw the understanding there that he was standing before her.

The slap across her face caught her completely off guard, even as her head was flung back she cried out and stumbled back, she had probably never been struck in her entire life. Her dress, oh so pretty and expensive, only got in her way as she tripped over it and down she went, falling on her butt, her hands behind her to prop herself up. Her cheek was red and she reached up to touch it, her hand falling away from it quickly at the pain the touch produced. "You hit me." She said numbly as she shifted her weight so she could explore her cheek. She would no longer meet his eyes.

He stood there watching for a time, quiet, his hand at his side as she probed with her fingers and then her hand dropped away and she looked up at him. She had come to terms with the slap. A minute passed and Brutin stepped forward again and slapped her hard enough to cause her to fall back, her head hitting the floor. She screamed again and then curled up into a ball.

He stood there for a few minutes and let her sob, that last slap was just as powerful as the first but the shock of never having been slapped was not there to dull the nerves, she had felt it's full effects. "I gave you a command." He said calmly, almost softly but her reply was to kick out at him with both feet. He could tell by the way her hips moved under the folds of her dress but her feet never peeked out from her dress and she did not manage to strike him.

In reply he simply stepped forward and bent over at the waist, slapping her face where it lay on the carpet of the floor. Her head jerked, not having expected him to come to her and her eyes lost their focus from the blow. He stepped back to let the pain and humiliation subside. Training was a work of patience.

She finally looked up at him, her eyes welled up and overflowing with tears, her lip fat from being struck. It was trembling. He looked down to the front of her bodice and she moaned and turned her face away, understanding him completely. Her left hand clutched the buttons in the front of her dress but she did not start to strip herself naked.

Brutin finally stepped forward and grabbed her dress dead center of her chest and hoist her up off the floor, her head bobbed in surprise, her eyes wide in fear. Her hands struggled to free her of his grasp, never realizing that if he let go, she would fall back to the floor in a heap.

"When I speak, I expect to be obeyed, immediately." He said as she tried to pry his fingers apart. He slapped her again, her head falling to the side and her arms dropping down to the floor numbly. She was limp only for a few seconds and then her head bobbed back up and her hands clutched his own. "A slave may never strike a free person." He said and slapped her again. Her head lolled back and her arms fell to the floor again, this time she stayed down longer.

He held her insignificant weight as she slowly recovered, she looked up at him bleary eyed, a faint trickle of blood coming from the side of her mouth from the slapping. Her hands latched on to his hand but they no longer tried to pry his fingers free. He reached behind him back and pulled out a small knife, the blade shone in the light of the office and her eyes went wide. "Please don't kill me." She whined but he said nothing, laying her down on the floor but keeping a hold of the dress.

He placed the blade against the fabric and started cutting buttons off the front of her dress. Her eyes widened when she realized he was done waiting for her but she couldn't get her hand close to that naked blade. She whimpered as more material parted as the buttons skipped to the floor.

She froze like stone as he thrust the blade into the folds of the dress where the buttons parted fabric and then with a quick motion he sliced the dress in half so that from neck to hem, a long straight line could be seen. Threw through the fabric aside to expose her undergarments and then went to work on the rest until finally she was completely naked, her hands desperately attempting to cover herself which he allowed as he put his knife away.

Brutin stood up to his full height and looked down on her, she had a fantastic body that would blossom under his care. He stepped back to his desk and sat back down. "Stand up." He told her calmly as if he had not just slapped her into near unconsciousness and then stripped her naked.

Now came the hard part.

Brutin got up from his desk and walked around to sit on the edge facing her and she nearly recoiled despite the five feet or so separating them. "I know your head is full of information and you are still shocked by your sudden change of status, I can only tell you that it will get better. Eventually. These first few weeks are so hard as you absorb the basics." He said and she just watched him, keeping her mouth shut.

"The next lesson for you to grasp is the most serious one and is not easy to teach or receive." He admitted. She looked up at him sensing the moment. "As a slave you are an object and not a person. This is to say that you no longer fall under the laws concerning human behavior. Yes, this does mean that you cannot be guilty of a crime, you may neither kill or rob, steal or assault. These concepts are in place to keep citizens in check and you are no longer a citizen of anything. And while on one hand liberating, the counterbalance is even scarier. Since you are no longer a person you cannot be murdered. I could take the knife I used to strip you naked and draw it across your throat in front of witnesses and never see the inside of a jail or courtroom. You would be dead but I would not be a murderer." He said and her eyes widened.

"Please don't kill me." She breathed and he smiled to her.

"Do not fear little one. This is not a threat but merely an explanation of the rules." He assured her. "You may be destroyed at any time for any reason, however, only your owner has that right. Should you fall under the law, such as for a witness to a crime or your testimony becomes needed, that testimony is extracted under torture." Her eyes widened in terror. "A slave may never lie but the weight of her words are less than a free persons, therefore we obtain it under duress and this gives it more weight." He said and she trembled in terror. She was from a culture that did not allow torture, he waited while she processed that information and then he leaned forward to continue.

"A slave may be punished by any free person for any reason or for none. They may not kill or maim the slave, nothing to devalue the slave without just compensation." He said and shifted his weight. "The method of punishment can be anything, typically punishment takes the form of cuffing. This is to say a slap across the face. It can be very creative however and devolves down to the most common harsh punishment, the whipping." Her head jerked back up for that one. He unhooked the whip from his belt.

"This is the five bladed Gorean Slave Whip. You will notice that it looks deceptively like a Cat of Nine Tails. They are the same thing actually, however the one you will be subjected to has the five blades instead of nine. Do not shake so, the blades I refer to are flat thick leather, this helps spread the area of impact so lessen pointed damage, this whip can be flayed against your skin fairly hard and never break it. Breaking the skin of course could leave scars and therefore devalue you. It is just not under unless the most dire of circumstances has been reached.

"When being whipped you kneel on the floor and lean forward, placing your arms under your chest, your hair flipped forward over head, as the blades can easy cut your hair even though they are just leather. And of course this will cause your back to bow, giving access to the area to be punished. Any place on your body may be whipped of course, however to keep efficiency in mind it is better to strike the back and allow the continuation of your full services to go unabated. This position I have described for you is called the Whipping Position. When you are ordered to this position you strip naked. Since you are already naked I failed to mention this point. You usually go to the spot marked out by the punisher or if no spot it chosen, you seek out a fairly open spot yourself." He said and could see the tears start to well up in her eyes. Ths was clearly something she would never have thought herself subject to in her life.

"When whipped you will receive between one and ten strokes of the whip typically. A final stroke may be delivered in the end called the Master's Kiss which denotes his affection for you, the harsher the whip falls the more he cares for you. This may sound reversed but remember that discipline is a necessary evil in our relationship. You will understand why later on, but suffice it to say that when you reach your full potential the threat of that whip will be the only controlling factor used against you." He said and leaned back up straight.

"You are not permitted to fight back little one, striking a free person is a serious crime that can result in severe punishments beyond a simple whipping. You may not touch a weapon, not even to defend yourself. You are at the complete mercy of a free person. I know this must scare you but think of it this way, for someone to take out a grudge upon a simple and defenseless slave, they must have no self esteem or confidence. It is the same as beating up on a younger smaller child, except that you go into this fight knowing she may not do a thing to you in return. You will not deal with this very often." He said and she nodded, indicating that she was listening to him. Excellent.

"When you are about to be whipped and the free person does not have their whip upon them then it is common place for the slave to fetch one. This is not unlike being sent outside by your father to cut your own birch branch. When this happens a slave does not touch the whip with her hands, she does so only with her teeth and commonly will crawl on the floor back to the punisher with it. This is done in a show of submission and is meant to earn sympathy or mercy. You certainly do not have to do this unless ordered to. It would however behoove you to do this to lessen whomever's anger towards you." He said and again she nodded.

"Good, you have learned well. The last thing to teach you is the punishment itself, for all slaves are whipped as they enter a house and as they leave, reminding them of their status." Her head jerked up to look at him in fear. "You may not understand the why right now but you will as your power increases." He said and her eyes fell on the whip at his side. "No little one, not this one, the one on the wall. Bring me a whip." He said and she turned to look at the wall on her right. The chains and whips suddenly came into focus.

"No, they are not there for decoration. They are there for the reminder of our status, whether slave or free." He said and she got to her feet and walked over to the wall and the whip. "Notice that it is placed in holding arms, easily removed and replaced." He said but she did not reply, instead she leaned forward and grasped the twisted leather of the handle and picked it up. She turned and dropped to her hands and knees, crawling across the floor to him and he reached his hand out and she dropped the whip in his hand.

"Whipping position." He said and she turned and crawled to the middle of the office away from the chairs in front of his desk and then brushed her hair over her head, folding her arms underneath her. He could see her trembling. He waited a few seconds and then stood up, walking over to her. She was shaking so uncontrollably now that he could have seen her from the doorway.

He laid the leather across her back quite suddenly, it was a light stroke as strokes go but this was her first ever time to be whipped and even inside the bedroom this would be considered slightly harsh. She yelped in surprise and jumped, her whole body reacting to the assault and he waited patiently for her to recover. She tried to fight off the surprise but burst into a sob which also stunned her, this however was common. Shock was just as dangerous as the blow itself. The second stroke was of medium strength and he watched as her back roiled like a wave as she tried desperately to deal with the pain. She struggled with her tears and managed admirably.

He waited for her to subside and then delivered the hard blow, that blow to which he put his full power and so harsh was it that she collapsed on herself, immediately bursting into a wail of both fear and pain. This was the aspect of her new life that no one ever got used to. He stood there silently for several seconds and then bent down to grasp her upper arm and draw her up, her tears coming in streams mixed with the fear of his presence.

He walked her over to his chair and he sat down, pulling her into his lap, at first she didn't understand him but her resistance was low, fearing a return to the whipping position so she relented and curled up in his lap. Careful of her fresh welts he held her and cooed to her, saying sweet nothings to her meant to soothe as she tried to deal with her pain, her position and the juxtaposition of a man who had just beat her with a whip suddenly being so nice.

Discipline was hard, sometimes even harsh, but never cruel.

Suriah entered the room and Brutin looked up at her, she was still nude, she still wore the white collar denoting her status but this time he noticed that as she came to a halt and knelt she placed her body just right, giving it the greatest effect. Hours in front of a mirror did that to slaves. He watched her for several moments until she finally looked up at him to catch his reaction to her.

He smiled. "Do not look up at me to check and see if I like what I have seen. Know that I will like it. Remember that we are in your world now, this is your power, we stand on your home ground. It is with your body that you control men, this is innate, all women understand it, but where you are from you have been convinced this is wrong, that to use your body to effect you are some slut." He said and she put her head down, confirming to him that his words rang true. "Here we call our slaves sluts and they giggle and preen themselves for it." She looked up quickly at him. "For they know now the truth. It is akin to calling a man tough, strong or macho. Never ever be sorry your body can control, use it." He told her and the words finally started to seep in, she had her results of the mirror training.

She was starting to believe.

"Your next task is more simple and all the more harder to accomplish." He stood up and her eyes followed him. "We are now going to go for a walk, more correctly, you are going to for a walk and I am going to follow you. How you walk, how you carry yourself, how you come across to others is essential. You will catch the attention of men and hold it until you pass. You will see the other girls do this naturally. You will train until it becomes natural to you." He said and she watched him unblinkingly. "I want the men of this compound to watch you until you are out of sight or they break their necks trying to follow your course. Do not allow another girl to draw their attention away from you, slaves compete with each other constantly. If they challenge you, beat them by holding that attention." He said already knowing she was at a disadvantage, she could not follow through with promises.

He motioned towards the door and out they went, Brutin stepping lightly, enjoying the tour as they passed down the hall and then outside into the wider world of the Association. She was naked but this was not unusual and many girls were this way, many girls also had white collars on but none of them were being trained directly by Brutin. As they passed the front doors they passed the two guards at the door and Suriah could not help but look back over her shoulder to see if the guards were watching her. Brutin stopped between the two guards.

"Tell me, did she hold your attention?" He asked and then two Goreans straightened up slightly, showing pride at their posts. Suriah stopped and turned to look at them before remembering her training and dropping to her knees to wait patiently.

"She held my attention because there were no other girls passing by." The guard on the left mentioned offhandedly and Brutin nodded.

"She is a sweet morsel but she does not try." The guard on the right said and Brutin just looked at her. She looked from one guard to the other, then to Brutin and then finally put her head down.

"Why do you hesitate?" Brutin asked her and she kept her head down as she answered.

"Because I have never been with a man, I don't want to lead them on." She said fearfully.

"Why not?" He replied simply. She looked up at him in confusion.

"Because I don't want them to force themselves on me." She said and blushed. It was hard to be aware of this while kneeling naked in public.

"They cannot." Brutin replied and the girl looked up at him. "You are marked as a virgin, therefore no man will touch you without earning my ire and having to pay the damages, a goodly amount of money." He informed her and she looked at each of the men as if just the sight of them not charging her confirmed her safety.

"I wish it were true." The guard on the right said, his eyes filled with hunger. The guard on the left laughed loudly and even Brutin smiled at that. Delicate, innocent, energetic, vibrant to the core. Suriah was a destroyer.

"You may start again." Brutin said and turned walking back into the building, the way they had come again, he stepped twenty paces down the hall and stopped, turning around to face out again and Suriah who had followed him turned as well. "As you walk remember one thing." He said to her. "No mercy." He said and she looked at him over her shoulder wondering what he was babbling about.

They started out once again and this time he noted that she stepped out with a swish of the hips, her legs taking longer steps, the feet pointed, her hair flying in the light breeze, her arms moving fluidly, a small grace to her and Brutin came to a halt between the guards. Suriah stopped and stayed still, afraid to turn to face her judgment. "I was very interested." The left guard said and Brutin nodded.

"I was interested before, I shall be watching for her in the future." The guard on the right said and Suriah seemed to bring herself up a little taller, her shoulders a little more squared. Brutin smiled.

"Excellent." He said and stepped off, Suriah hearing and following suit in front of him. There were no further interruptions for opinions, as they passed me, free and slave, guard and worker, passerby and merchant, she sailed past them and invariably, more so as time passed, they would turn to watch her pass by. As the hours passed and yet another circuit of the compound was made the men would finally stop what they were doing to watch her pass.

By dinner time she was flirting with the men, a wink here, a small wave there, a slight turn of the body or she would speed up to bounce her chest or slow down and prolong a man's glance, whatever fit her fancy. Brutin stayed behind her watching calmly, subject to her rigorous training regime the same as she, both silent to the travails, only intent on the results.

As they passed back inside and down the hall to his office he watched her trying to perfect a glide that would accentuate as well as enhance her features. For a first day it was an excellent start. She stopped in the middle of the office and knelt, coming to a rest without complaint. He crossed over and poured himself a brandy, taking a light sip.

Just twenty nine more days to go.