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I'm headed straight for the castle
A princess is enslaved by conquering neighbours and survives
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It was the third day since Lelia Radofin Arconesta Crown princess of Ventalar has been taken from the castle by human soldiers and taken to their palace. She had been fed nothing in that time, the cell was bare stone except for some straw to sleep on and a bucket to relieve herself in.

This was not an acceptable way to treat a royal captive! Didn't these barbarians have a wing in the palace for political prisoners? She would be sure to tell her family the barbarity of these humans when they ransomed her back...though there had been a lot of soldiers storming the castle...maybe they had not gotten away. She would just have to hope she either got ransomed back to her family or a horde of Valk warriors who had taken the wolf shifting potion would storm the palace to rescue her.

The tiny newly established neighbouring human nation had attacked without provocation. These aggressive humans, that looked just like her own people but with strange round furless ears and no tails, just showed up out of nowhere and set up a kingdom next door. She hadn't even bothered to learn the name of their little country thinking it unimportant and that father would deal with them, and in no time at all they were at the gates using powerful magic to batter it down and storming the castle taking prisoners and looting everything.

She had tried yelling down the hall through the bars to get someones attention and that she shouldn't be in this cell but anyone who passed by just ignored her or gave her a scornful look.

She was dirty, and tired, and hungry, and just wanted a bath so as to be able to wash her dark hair and furry ears and fluffy tail. Miserably sitting in her cell hoping they didn't just intend to starve her out.

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That is totally not what they're planning to do at all!

She is going to get her wish though. Kind of.

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The idea of a wing (or something like it) had actually been suggested to her! By the Seneschal even. Not the kind the (ex-)princess is thinking of, obviously. Getting political is for countries she's not invading. Just something a bit more put together with its intent in mind, rather than the rather all purpose dungeon space.

But the Queen had made her decisions, and her decisions were that a) she does want to be the first one to introduce the (ex-)princess to her new - situation (she's only going to get to do this so many times, isn't she?), and b) she's busy what with the whole conquering a country thing. So generic waiting it is.

The Seneschal hadn't argued with her, obviously. No one who might be tempted to argue with her had been invited on her excursion up north. An excursion that's been going very well, if she does say so herself. The elves had folded without even a fight, and there was the land she needed and the workers for it (and a few extra compensations, of course). And if appearing to live somewhat quietly in what might look like a corner of the so-considered 'elf lands' had given some other neighboring nations a not exactly correct idea of what the humans were capable of, well. She can't say that's not according to plan, can she.

And now the first real fight was over before it really even begun. After all the warnings her new elf vassals tried to (oh so politely) give her about the fearsome Valk, their kingdom fell as easily as their gate. (If any of the elf vassals had recently been doubting their decisions about surrender, she suspects they might be reconsidering that doubt.)

And now she's spent three days on all the sorts of work that conquering a country did end up producing (not that she minds. If she didn't like it, she probably wouldn't have set off north, would she). And thinks it's about time for a different kind of reward.

 

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This time the soldiers who pass Lelia's cell don't ignore her. Instead they open the cell, drag her out into a courtyard, and shove her in the direction of a few buckets of water.

"Clean yourself up. And be quick about it."

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She squirms as they drag her, they can't treat her like this! she can walk herself! Yelling "Let me go let me go!" until they shove her towards the buckets. She just stares at them incredulously.

"Out here? In front of you? With just some buckets and my hand? Are you people savages? I demand to be drawn a bath and have some servants to attend to me! Political prisoners have rights you know." She stomps her foot and tries to act strong and commanding as her brother taught her, despite how weak she felt from lack of food and comfortable bedding to sleep well in.


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They seem to find this pretty funny. 

"Well oh Princess Rights," one of them says. "You can do it with your hand - and the soap, us savages do like to remember that. Or we can hold you down and do it with our hands."

(And that sentence is practically begging for a few certain jokes after it, but the soldier will tell them to her companions later. Everyone knows what happens to people who try to take what belongs to the Queen, in any way.)

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"Y-you wouldn't dare! The only person who is allowed to touch someone like that is their mate!" She exclaims in naive shock. Not even some of father's worst enemies would treat a royal heir like this. Threats of being...handled by these human soldiers, that was unthinkable.

"I can't bathe myself in front of you even if you do threaten me...I-It'd be shameful. If you insist on making me wash with this at least leave the room..." This was getting kind of frightening to Lelia now. If the humans didn't respect her rights and wanted to make her debase herself like this who knows what they could do.

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They seem to find this even funnier, but kind of restrain themselves this time. 

They exchange glances. 

"Better not try anything while we're not here," says one of them. "Your new clothes are right there; better be ready and wearing them ten minutes from now." And they disappear beyond a courtyard archway. 

(Where they can laugh without worrying the Queen will consider them stealing her 'introduction' after all.)

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Well...at least they were considerate enough to leave the room. If this keeps her modesty intact she will do as they want and bathe as quick as she can scrubbing herself down with the cold cold water as thoroughly as she can. 

These clothes...were not to a royal standard at all, plain and threadbare. But she couldn't put her dirty clothes back on that would be gross. So she put them on.

The skirt was not designed at all for her tail so the tail kept lifting the back of the skirt up and she couldn't figure out how to get it to stop doing that so her underclothes were not exposed to anyone behind her before the guards came back.

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If they'd heard her thinking about keeping her modestly intact they would have started laughing again.

Instead they come back in the promised ten minutes. Take a moment to make sure their directions have been followed, then take out some chains they fasten around her wrists and start taking her through the castle again. A rather longer way this time. She may notice it getting fancier as they go along.

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She scowls at the soldiers as they bind her with chains. But doesn't say anything because she has already written them off as barbarians who seem to insist on treating her like a common criminal. She shuffles along obediently for now.

She hopes the person in charge is more honourable otherwise she will have to think of escaping. Her brother always told her in case of capture just sit tight and await ransom because escape can be dangerous but if the person in charge was just as disrespectful of her status as these guards she might have to risk it for her safety.

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Finally they lead her into a throne room.

It's pretty full, nobles in the front behind a clear area, some commoners vying for space behind.

The person in charge is sitting on a throne at the height of the room. (The person in charge does not in fact consider herself particularly dishonorable. She didn't promise anyone not to do this, did she? Nor disrespectful, that being a concept that obviously enough does not apply to her. She is the Empress; respect is due to her. Whatever she wishes to bestow on everyone else is for her to decide.)

People shout as the soldiers lead Lelia through to the clear space in front of the throne. They stop at what is clearly an appointed place. Bow as the room falls silent. 

The Queen sits up.

"Why if it isn't our guest of honor. Welcome! What was it - Lelia! Lelia, Crown princess of the Valk of Ventalar. So exciting to finally see you in person. What do you think of my castle?"

 

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(On the same side of the clear area as the queen, near the walls to the left and right, two more nobles watch these proceedings.

To the left is a man with long black hair held back under his circlet and mostly inscrutable eyes that move from the 'guest of honor' to the crowd to his twin on the other side.)

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(His twin watches with amusement on her impish features. She shares the long black hair with her brother but it is loose around her face and her eyes are playful.

Having an idea of what her mother will do next she is eyeing up the young Ventalaran princess with a... hungry look. She turns and gives her brother a knowing smile as he glances at her before going back to look at the princess.)

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Lelia gives the woman on the throne, obviously a queen, a withering look and jangles the chains binding her hands. "The treatment of 'guests' in this castle leaves a little to be desired. Your royal majesty." She says, saying the queen's title stiffly to show she is disapproving but still technically following the rules of courtesy and showing the queen respect by using her title.

But she does not bow with the others, they are both royalty, she is an equal. She may not be in royal garb but she will hold herself like the princess she is.

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(He's also watching. Not in the throne room. He has been permitted in the throne room for one reason, and it's - not his turn. From one of the hidden galleries above it, unseen behind its grate. Kalei's gallery, His Highness's own chain locked to a loop near the window. 

He'd know, somewhat, what was happening - news filters to him, much time as he does spent among the denizens of the castle. But it was Kalei who'd told him the details. Pressed him into his coverlet and came inside him, turned him around.

"Would you like to watch?"

"Yes, Your Highness." He can tell the answer is a surprise, but Kalei, as he does, readjusts quickly.

"Beg." He does. He's - gotten fairly good at it, by now.

His Highness - indulges him, or possibly thinks he was lying about wanting to. Perhaps that's what the chain is for.

He wasn't lying. Or was, in that he does not, of course want to watch. But - there isn't anything else he can do, not yet. (Not much he can do, yet or otherwise). At least he can watch. At least he can know what happens.

 

He remembers his own first time in the throne room (vividly, still, even with so many other memories now). He flinches.)

 

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She smiles.

"Oh, it's Imperial Majesty, now. I have this recent new acquisition. You may have heard of it. Cold mountains, nice iron mines. Wolves running around."

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More glaring from Lelia. "Is that why I'm here? For you to gloat? Is that why you have disregarded all common decency and put me in these chains!" She snaps, this was oh so stupid to do in front of the queen but she had had enough. Having her peoples kingdom and their right to rule it mocked right in front of her.

"My people will not take oppression from barbarians like you lightly. They will rise up and force you out of our ancestral lands. Count the days you hold our territory 'your imperial majesty' " Sneering the queen's title sarcastically. Fangs bared at the crowd and her hackles raised, digging her sharp nails into her palms wishing she was out of these shackles so she could show this barbarian queen what 'wolves' could really do.

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 (He flinches considerably harder. And now he rather very much does not want to watch.

He keeps watching.)

 

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"Actually the chains are mostly practical. Can't have you trying to put holes in my nice silks here. Or my subjects." And then shifts again, position and voice.

"Your people lost, oh my darling guest of honor. They 'rose up', and they took up their weapons and they drank those potions you're so fond of, and they gave it their best, and they lost. They called us barbarians from an upstart kingdom, and they barely gave us a thought, and they lost. 

That's why you're here. Because you lost.

And because I think some of your people haven't quite realized it yet, that you lost. The corpses of their friends, their walls knocked down to rubble - it's not enough for some people. 

The last ones who were stubborn, they died. That's how it goes, in battle. These ones, maybe they'll die too. Or maybe they'll understand.

I think I can help them understand.

They're my subjects now, aren't they. It's good to help them."

She leans forward in her throne, smiles. "Now, if I tell you to come kneel between my legs and service me with your mongrel mouth, are you going to be an obedient little ex-princess, or do I need to have my soldiers gag you first?"

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Her eyes go wide as the queen says some of the most horrid things she has ever heard in her entire life, practically shaking with rage when the queen suggests 'servicing' her and calling her a mongrel! A mongrel!

"I will never touch your disgusting cesspit you uncivilised brute! Unlike your people I still have honour! I am still a princess it is in my blood! and you cannot honestly expect me to go anywhere near you and your degenerate ways." She knows she will likely pay for that, but there is no way she is going to meekly get between the queen's legs and do that.

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The Queen doesn't seem especially upset by this outburst either.

"Option b it is!

Do the honors, will you?" she says to the soldiers.

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They have a gag, the kind that keeps one's mouth open (and accessible). They use it.

(If she tries to fight she'll notice that the chains prevent that even more than their form might suggest.)

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They wouldn't! Not in front of all these people! With this...humiliating muzzle keeping her mouth open and making her drool down her chin. Struggling futilely against the chains and looking around panicked around the throne room. Wishing that a miracle would happen and someone anyone would save her from this.

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(The female noble twin, that sat on the same raised area as the queen but not on a throne, was rubbing her thighs together at watching this Valk girl get chained up and her mouth gagged. She was enjoying the show immensely.) 

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The castle has been proofed against inconvenient miracles.

The Queen gestures a command to the soldiers, who drag Lelia forward and force her to her knees. Moving up her skirts, the Queen takes her by the hair and pulls her into place.

"Now, I'm going to be doing this till I'm satisfied. You want that to happen faster, I think you know what to do." 

Lelia's face, half under the Queen's skirts, is now pressed into the Queen's warm folds. Languidly, the Queen grinds into her, tugging on her hair and thrusting slightly with her hips.

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Lelia can barely even process what is happening to her, the sight and feel and scent of the queen's folds in her face and against her mouth and nose. Being grabbed by the hair and forced between her legs in front of everyone in the court even the crowd of commoners. Being too weak from not having eaten to really give up a decent fight. She had never even seen another person's genitals up close before and now her face was being pressed into them.

There is no way in hell she would willingly lick the queen, but she is being forced into letting her mouth be used like a toy. "mghhnnhh!" Trying to protest but the gag makes speaking impossible.

 

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(The female twin has her hand down her skirt and is just shamelessly touching herself to this scene. The perk of power is this act being a power move and not something to be ashamed of.)

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His mother has a flair for the dramatic.

He's also touching himself, over his clothes for now.

For a moment seems to look somewhere higher on the wall of the throne room, among intricate decorations.

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He knows what Kalei is looking at. (His Highness can't actually see him, he knows that too. The window grate doesn't work like that. But that isn't the point.)

The chain hangs between him and the wall. He wants to curl on the ground under the window with his hands over his ears. (He wants to somehow put himself through the window, plead with the Queen.) He doesn't move.

There is nothing he can do.

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The Queen rather likes that noise. For two reasons even!

If Lelia doesn't want to help, this is going to take rather a while. Not that the Queen minds this in the least.

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She can't do anything about this, she is being used in front of all these people and nobody was coming to save her. Her pretty blue eyes are tearing up as she looks up at the queen with a look of anguish and hopelessness.

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Aster cannot wait until it is her turn instead of her mothers. She wants to make that pretty young wolf make that face at her instead. To look up at her with tears in those eyes, to beg for mercy with just an expression.

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She sure can't and she sure is!

The Queen appreciates the look, then yanks her back down.

 

Finally the Queen finishes. Raises Lelia's head back away. Smiles at the crowd.

"To victory." The crowd cheers and shouts once more. ("To victory! To her Majesty!"). Her Majesty gives Lelia back into the grip of the soldiers. Smiles again.

"Now, my son Prince Kalei has played rather an important role in our new conquest. Logistics would be bereft without him. He should be rewarded."

A gesture, and the soldiers begin to drag Lelia to the side.

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Leila's face is left wet from the queen's fluids and her own tears and drool, slumped as the soldiers hold her. Looking away from the crowd in shame.

As soon as the queen decides the prince should be 'rewarded' and the soldiers start dragging her off to the side the start struggling again against the chains. She thought it had gotten as bad as it could but now she was going to be mated! She was engaged she couldn't let some human take her first time! But there was nothing she could do about it.

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Struggling against the chains continues to not help at all.

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He steps forward, farther from the wall. 

The soldiers push Lelia to her knees again. 

Reaching for his pants again, he takes out his cock and shoves it down her throat.

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Her eyes go wide as the head of his cock pushes down into her throat, she chokes around it gagging at the invader the muscles constricting hard. Looking panicked and trying to pull her head away so she could breathe. Oh gods it was like her existence was nothing but the feel of it filling her head. The pain as it stretched her throat and her choking around it and even the taste against her tongue was all too much.

But in some small corner of her mind she is relieved they were still just using her mouth.

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He groans slightly, thrusting in and out of her mouth. (Keeps his hand in her hair - trying to pull away will not be succesful.)

Frankly he could be satisfied just continuing like this, her mouth and throat warm and tight around him, her hair an easy handle.

But politics, and needs must.

He gestures to another set of soldiers, who bring up something between a bench and a couch. Pulls out of her mouth and tosses her face first onto it.

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She is too busy gasping for breath to scream as she is thrown onto the couch. She can guess what will happen next and she can barely cope just imagining what will happen much less it actually happening to her.

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Aster has grabbed a servant and shoved him under her skirts to service her while she watches her brother prepare to take the ex-princess. If she were raised normally she might feel strange about getting off to a scene with her twin in it, but with a mother like the empress and her public displays that doesn't seem like very much of an issue to her.

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Oh good, someone remembered to put an Allowed servant near his sister this time. Or maybe that's one of her personal ones? He can't remember. But it's a shame when she has to be frustrated in the middle of the fun; much better this way.

(Other Availables are probably waiting in the wings somewhere. But no one else will start just yet, not while he is. Privileges of rank.)

He lifts Lelia's skirt, gets her underclothes out of the way. A tail, that's new. He'll see if gripping it can get a whimper out of her.

On that note, what genital arrangement does this one have? His fingers probe.

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Gripping her tail can most definitely get a scared whimper through the ring gag. She tries to buck away from his hand when she feels the cool air against her nethers. She always expected the first person to see her like this would be her betrothed not some human beast of a man.

She has a mostly human-looking vagina. The Valk do not have genital transformation magic like the humans have so what she was born with is what she has. But the area around her lips is slightly redder than the pale skin around it and it is within human norms but it seems puffy, maybe a species difference.

She tenses up when his fingers probe against her lower lips, having someone else touch her there was jarring and terrifying in a whole new way than having her mouth used was.

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Aster is biting her hand to stop from moaning too loudly. This valk girl made such hot pained noises and faces as her brother played with the girl. She could not wait until her turn.

She grabs her servant by the hair to push his tongue in deeper while the servant laps away eagerly. He knew he would get a nice tip out of this because princess Aster enjoyed his pretty face.

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(He does recognize the servant. In some corner of his mind is glad that at least she has someone willing right now.

Most of his mind is busy.)

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Bucking away will not be succesful.

He likes her reactions; plays with her with his fingers a few moments more (doesn't insert them inside - why spoil the surprise).

Spreads her legs further. Lets the tip of his cock slip just inside her entrance. (Could be called teasing, in another setting).

Then thrusts in all at once.

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It HURTS going inside. She hasn't been aroused at all beforehand and she was not at all wet to ease the entrance. She had never had something inside there bigger than her finger before and his cock pushed in all the way at once, stretching her out and making her feel like he was tearing into her body. A sharp ache all the way up her core.

She sobs and whimpers through the gag after the thrust inside. Every gaze in the audience another sharp blow to her pride and model of herself as a proud princess.

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He fucks her thoroughly, sometimes harder, sometimes almost langorously. Enjoys her cries. (This is very enjoyable; he's pleased now to have proceeded.) She'll feel him everywhere by the time he pulls out.

Well. Not everywhere quite yet.

A little magic will make sure her remaining orifice is ready for entry. This time he goes slightly slower.

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She's a bit too out of it from the ache in her loins to properly register that he was pushing into her ass and the full shame that would normally have caused. But she was still there enough to weakly groan and uselessly protest into the gag about how that was dirty and not for sex at all.

Objectively it wasn't nearly as bad as having her vaginal virginity defiled violently like that. Hurt much less, sometimes barely at all. But it did make her feel very strange inside and it just added to the sensory overload.

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Aster has given up the pretence of decorum and is just openly moaning. Pulling the servant boys face into her crotch by his hair roughly as she finishes on his face. He stays there gently licking up the mess around her thighs as she recovers. Aster had trained him well.

Watching her brother take that girl like that had been Incredibly hot to watch for her. It wasn't often they had a chance to break in slaves that had never been touched before. The looks on that girls face, those expressions she made when the pain got too much were beautiful to her.

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He can make it hurt more, if that seems to be missing.

He comes inside her. 

Steps back, tucking himself away.

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Cheering and shouting.

Soldiers pick up Lelia again.

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"My daughter Princess Aster was also of great contribution. A great leader for our soldiers. She should be rewarded."

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Soldiers drag Lelia over.

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Lelia Is slumped onto her knees. everything aches and she can feel the heat of his seed leaking out of her ass. Just too overwhelmed to even bother struggling anymore. And she really can't see what else they could do to her. At least a woman can't penetrate her like that.

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A woman with the help of some innovative human magic, in fact, can penetrate her! Aster does that sort of thing all the time, she enjoys using magic to give herself a penis.

But that is not what Aster has planned for today. Her brother already took care of the public fucking and she had already had her fun while watching. What Aster had planned would degrade the princess even further, truly mark her as nothing but something they own.

She smiles and comes up to Lelia and almost tenderly holds her by the chin.

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Lelia does not like the look of that smile one bit.

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Aster hikes up her skirts and positions her crotch over Lelias face. "I am going to mark you like the bitch you are. You better drink up or I will have to punish you later~."

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Lelia is rapidly learning that it can always get worse with these humans. She clenches her mouth and tries to struggle but the soldiers holding her there do not give her an inch.

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Piss starts trickling out from Aster, landing on Lelia's face and hair and streaming down her body, her dress going wet and see-through from the piss so the crowd could see even more of the Valk girl.

Aster raises her voice to the crowd. "I am marking her in a way these dogs will understand. so when this event gets back to them they will finally learn our message. Your princess is our bitch. We own her. She is our toy to do as we please with now and so are all of you."

Seeing Lelia flinch while hot liquid splashes onto her face was very thrilling. Aster felt so powerful like this breaking in a new pet and watching her realise her place underneath Aster.

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She is very pleased with her children.

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(He flinches and - he shouldn't cry, this isn't about him-

(He'd - tried, to swallow, when told to. Not that it had worked very well, then.

She has the gag, she couldn't even if she wanted to-.))

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He's not feeling quite in the mood for the magic that would let him resume fully if he wished, but he touches himself absently. 

Certainly enjoys the message.

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Eventually, Aster is done and slaps the mess of a girl across the face hard. "Told you to drink up. All you wolf bitches are good for is breeding and pleasing us~."

She likes the way the ex-princesses skin turns red under where she slapped, expecting her cheek to bruise nicely later.

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It does look good.

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Soldiers dump the mess that is Lelia back in front of the Queen. The Queen looks down at her.

"Your father is dead. Your mother is in a dungeon, nice and far from any of those potions of yours some people tell me she's so known for. Your brother is my vassal in chains.

Wasn't sure what to do with all those cousins, but turns out some of my new neighbors will pay me quite handsomely for them! I'll just keep a few in reserve, in case I need them. To replace your brother, maybe, if he can't behave. Or maybe if I need him to replace you.

You're ours, and everything you ever had is ours.

And if anyone forgets that, they can think of you.

 

Take her away."

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Shouts and cheers and whooping.

The soldiers drag her away, out through the halls again. 

People stare. Laugh, shout suggestions and insults.

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She is too out of it to really process anything at the moment. She ached all over and her face stang and she could still taste the human princesses...release and still feel seed dripping out of her ass. As well as the sensory overwhelming she had just been told her father had died. Her mind retreated to protect itself for now, letting herself be dragged away.

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They take her to a different cell this time. Nicer, actually. Has a pallet and what looks like a sort of bathing area, a drain and more buckets and soap already present.

They take the gag out before throwing her inside and shutting the door.

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Lelia is just sort of being nonresponsive for a good while. The last hour running over her mind over and over and over. sitting there in wet clothes for at least an hour shivering with shock. Eventually, she regains enough composure to actually start thinking clearly through what happened and starts to cry big heaving sobs. Nobody would ever want her now...ruined like this. Her father would never hold her and tell her everything was going to be all right again. Her brother was at the mercy of monsters like these as well. Nothing would ever be okay again.

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He needs to think what to do.

Can't do much yet - is still chained to the wall, not that he would leave if he wasn't. (He'd do it and bring on punishment, just now, if only it might not be taken out on someone who wasn't him.) And then it depends if his Highness wants him.

His Highness, it seems, does not want him just now. A servant comes to unchain him. "Get out." He bows and gets out.

He thinks he can find her - knows where they probably put her, and he can listen in the halls to be more sure. He walks, quiet and unassuming and trying not to look too different from other times he's walked through the halls.

The halls do yield talking he can listen to. This means they also yield humans, excited and aroused by the show or by word of it. Someone beckons him aside, someone grabs his hair, someone pushes him into a wall, into an alcove, to his knees.

They finish. They'll mostly let him swallow if he begs nicely, so he doesn't need to take more time to clean himself up again. 

He keeps walking.

There are guards today, but they - let him through.

He knocks on her door (it isn't locked. If she tries to leave - that's what the guards are for.)

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She doesn't respond. She's gone quiet after crying herself out. If its one of the royals here to torment her they certainly do not need her permission to come inside the room.

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"I'm Alesa, son of Galetha and Ethien. I'm the tribute from the elflands. May I come in?" He says it in his home language; she could recognize it from diplomatic interactions.

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She doesn't really care right now if someone who isn't one the royals comes in. Or care enough to wonder why an elf was here. "Do as you wish..."

 

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...He'll try coming in. If it looks like she'd rather be alone, he'll leave.

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She sort of looks up at him then back down to the ground. She really should get out of those cold wet clothes and get clean but obviously doesn't have the motivation to take care of herself right now. Too wrapped up in her own head focusing on what happened reliving it over and over burning it into her mind. The satisfied face of the empress as she watched her be defiled prominent in her mind.

These people were monsters. Worse than any in any childhood story. And every commoner watching on in the audience cheering and jeering was no better.

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Also itchy and maybe hurting her skin; there was the urine. 

(Looking at him, she'll see an elf, dressed in a short robe similarly made to what she'd been wearing. (Same kind of trim, also, but she wouldn't know what that means, now). Hair down his back, braided and then disheveled (he hadn't stopped to redo it). He has bruises here and there. If you know what to look for there's some suggestions of what he spends his time doing (and had just been doing), but she has no reason to.)

 

He's not sure what to do.

"I'm sorry," he says, which is - inadequate, and more than.

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"Oh well that's helpful, you're sorry for what your masters have done. That does me so much good." Biting sarcasm from the princess. "Th-they...they deserve to burn. To have their whole kingdom and every scrap of power they have be burned away. Leave them with nothing but ashes and pain." She almost snarls that last part out.

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He doesn't flinch.

"I'm sorry.

If there's - something I could do that would be helpful -"

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She flinches at having to ask someone, especially a servant of the humans now she was herself just a slave, how to do something. "If you could show me how to work the pipes to run a bath... I've never had to do it myself..."

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That at least he is very familiar with. 

He shows her.

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"Are you here to act as my servant? I wouldn't expect that courtesy from these monsters." The more she lets the rage build-up, the less the shame and pain makes her feel weak. So she is leaning into it pretty heavily right now.

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"I'm the tribute from the elflands." He - doesn't know how to say it. Doesn't - doesn't have call to say it often.

"We - surrendered, but they still - wanted someone. I think." He isn't sure if that was enough to - to be understood.

"I'm glad to act as your servant if you wish, while I can be here."

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"Of course the humans wanted a hostage." She practically spits the word humans. She just takes an offer for him to act as her servant as a matter of course rather than the gesture of kindness it was. She really still has all the instincts of princess-hood just expecting good treatment even after that humiliation. "Well, could you draw me a bath then?" 

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"That too, maybe." He doesn't mind. He nods, then goes to do that. (It isn't a very nice bathing area, as they go. But enough of the humans didn't want to deal with each other's fluids, or the like. So. It was there.) 

"Should I turn away?" he asks when he's done.

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"I'm usually bathed by my servants?" She says without thinking. She is not thinking about how she is going to be dealing with the obvious evidence of...what just happened under her clothes...and being touched by another person. Right now she is just trying to be normal and not think about any of that.

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"Oh. Yes, I'm sorry. Of course." He's - never actually been a servant, of itself, but he's been called on to attend at a bath before, here. And by some who only wanted him there, or to look at him, or for him to be - separately entertaining while they savored the water. Or after. Enough experience to put together how he might do this.

He goes to help her move to the bathing area and undress, if she wants that.

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She starts to let him undress her but as he peels away the wet dress. The bruises left on her skin, the lack of her usual care obvious in the little scrapes on her skin from being thrown around, the..fluids, all the little after-effects of what happened are visible to her. She freezes up for maybe a full ten seconds before gritting her teeth and trying to act as if nothing was wrong. Even though her heart felt like it would explode out of her chest it was beating so fast.

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He pauses when she freezes, but starts again after. He can feel her heartrate, and guess what she froze at, but unless she pushes him away or tells him to stop - this is what she told him to do, and he doesn't have a guess for how to do better

He does know how to care for scrapes, and how to - most efficiently, least unpleasantly - wash off fluids. 

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She just lets him wash her, trying not to flinch or jerk away as his hands and the washcloth go near the...sore areas. She wanted to die inside every time he washed one of her violated parts but she did not want to let them win. She was going to have a bath normally if it killed her. Hissing through her teeth as the bruise Aster had given her twinges every so often as well. But she remains stoic and lets the elf wash her down.

This would seem almost intimate if not for the context. Being bathed by another and cleaned of the..taint... of what happened, by one who wasn't one of the servants she had grown up with. But she Isn't thinking about that right now.

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He's very careful, tries to readjust if she flinches. But not much more he can do for her bruises than for his own. (There's one around his wrist from the chain, he notices. He must have pulled too hard.)

"Do you want - to do that yourself, or should I?" he asks, when it gets to - what would be be considered more intimate parts.

(He isn't thinking about it either, though maybe in a different way.)

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She grimaces. "I-I can handle it. I'm not broken, go ahead." They were not going to win and break her, she would not let them make having someone give her a bath be something she couldn't do anymore.

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Whether she can handle it is not what he'd wanted to know, but he doesn't think she'd appreciate it if he questioned her, even tried a 'you don't have to handle it'. This is what she wants him to do, so he does. 

After, he draws water into the buckets so she can wash off the dirtied bathwater, brings the ragged cloth they have as a towel.

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She tries to dry off with the tattered cloth. She does feel..cleaner after all that. Less of a used object and more like her regular self.

Did the humans leave her any clothes to change into?

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Yes. Same kind of thing, same trim again. He brings them over. 

He'd looked around already to see if the room has the same chute-like place to put the old clothing. It does. He can show it to her while he moves the clothes there. 

"His Highness has sentenced me to do my own laundry a few times, but I think he just liked to do that, usually the servants will do it and bring new clothes. If it's the same for you as for me." He thinks this is probably for effectiveness and efficiency reasons, but that there isn't a reason to say.

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These slave clothes were scratchy compared to the usual clothes she was used to. Seems like even the downtime between abuses wasn't going to be comfortable. "Well...thank you...I Didn't even ask your name or introduce myself that is terribly rude of me. I am Crown Princess Lelia Radofin Arconesta and my name is usually accompanied by many other assorted meaningless titles now these barbarians occupy my kingdom." She does a polite little curtsey.


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They're not that bad - the humans do touch them. But certainly not near her old clothes, and her senses are probably heightened now. Not that he would say this out loud, had she said hers out loud.

He'd said his name before, but probably she didn't hear it, or take it in.

He does the elf style, something between a bow and a curtsey. "I'm Alesa, son of Galetha and Ethien. It would have been Alesa-sien - my mother is Crown Princess.

They call us a vassal kingdom now." 

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"Oh! and I had you play servant to me. I apologize." It was one thing for just some stranger to offer to act as a servant for her. She was a princess after all. But it was quite another thing for a noble to do it. Suddenly she feels very self-conscious. "Oh, gods I had you...do all that..." 

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He... hadn't realized she hadn't realized. "I don't mind. I'd just - like to help, if I can.

 

We paid tribute to the Valk kingdoms before," he adds, in case that helps her thinking about it. "I - wouldn't mind anyway. But we did.

 

I - remember when it was my first time, in the throne room. There wasn't anyone else here like this then, except their own servants and sentenced, and they wouldn't have gone near me. It - was very lonely, I remember. And there's - enough without that.

I just want to help. If I can."

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Oh....OH. She notices the marks around his wrists, the bruises new and faded all over his skin, His situation was the same as hers but he had clearly had much more done to him over longer. She flinches at talk of his 'first time in the throne room' flashing back to her own experience. "Oh old gods of the mountain I'm sorry...I didn't realise...well...thank you." She didn't think she could have stomached helping someone like that after that had been done to them without constantly thinking of what happened to herself. Maybe one got used to it but she doubts it.

"I'm going to kill them for what they've done. I swear it on my blood." She snarls. Anger was a much more productive emotion.

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"You don't have anything to be sorry for. You're - very welcome.

I'm sorry, I was - trying to say earlier. But. I didn't know how to say it." He looks down, flushing slightly. 

(It is not as though he hadn't been thinking about it (though it is worse to think of what happened to her). But was - a reason he wished to help, not its opposite.)

He doesn't know what to say to that. (His mother would agree, likely. That, he won't say. He doesn't think anyone is listening, now, but.)

"Is there anything else?" he says instead, after a pause. "I can answer questions, or try to tell you something more. 

Or - sing, or talk about something pleasanter, if you don't want to think more of it now."

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She looks uncomfortable asking because it would probably hurt to think about, but she had to know. "Do they?....what is the worst that?... Am I going to have to worry about anything permanent? L-like scarring or burning or anything...or being starved for too long..."

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"...May I sit?" he asks, before answering, and if she indicates approval does so (winces slightly), leans back against a wall. Closes his eyes, opens them again.

"If it's the same as for me - nothing much more than cosmetic. And not often, that. And usually healed. They - like us to look at, I think. 

Never starvation. If you try to stop eating they'll make you, and use their magic meanwhile. 

I've had a few bones broken, but very rarely, and healed almost right away. ...And that might just be me, I think it was the elf magic they wanted, mostly.

I've been whipped, badly, a few times, as punishment, but I brought it on, I knew I was doing it. Nothing you could do by accident. Still healed soon. Never aside from that. Usually they - don't even break skin, much. Not even for punishment. 

You hear about human dungeons sometimes, how horrible they are, but no one's ever taken me to one. I don't think they're allowed.

..If I - stole state secrets, somehow, or tried to assassinate someone. Something for which they'd do it to anyone. Probably then. But they don't otherwise, they haven't ever.

Maybe want to save it for that, so no one thinks it's all the same.

 

 

...If there's anything you - realize would be really bad, for you. I can try to take those. I don't think it'll work all the time. But I can try."

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She goes quiet and just sits there trying to take that in. She thought she was mentally prepared to hear what they would and would not do... but all that still sounded like way too much to deal with without breaking at least a little. If...If she is going to get them back for what they've done she might need to break a little in the way they want her to... She wants to die to deny them the pleasure of breaking her but then nobody would be able to avenge her father and everything else she lost. She needed to keep that core of anger or she would lose herself completely in this place she knew.

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And she comes up with a plan.

"H-how...do you keep them happy? make them think me harmless... how do you... keep your head in a space that keeps you alive and mostly sane?" She needed to survive this. She needed to be alive and herself enough to enact her plan no matter how long it took and what they did to her.

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He can see the way she goes quiet but - he doesn't know what to say. Doesn't know if there's anything to say. (She hadn't asked anything about - the obvious thing, and he doesn't know how to say 'yes they keep on with that' in any way, or if he should say it. Maybe it is, in fact, obvious enough.)

 

This he can try to answer.

"I'm," he blushes again. "I'm - very well behaved.

Mostly." He can be more specific than that. He's never thought of it in terms of 'think me harmless', but it makes sense that she would, and, well, he doesn't think anyone doesn't think him harmless, really, so it applies. He's definitely thought a lot in terms of 'make them happy'.

"I wasn't very good at it before though," he says, in the middle. "I - spent days crying a lot, just curled up on the floor. Even though I was trying not to do that. Please - please don't think you're failing somehow. If-" (If she was like some of the elves he'd known, he'd add, you don't have to, there's nothing wrong with fighting instead, if you prefer it, if you can bear it. But again, this seems to be what she wants. And she seems like his mother, and others, that way. Fighting would be her first thought. If she's asking how to - cooperate - then it's because she's decided something. Would not like it, probably, if he seemed to be telling her what was obvious to her.)

He can try to answer the second part too, though he doesn't know how much it might be the same for her as for him.

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She listens and tries not to freak out. Some of the details he described made her waver in her determination to see her plans through but she needed to be stronger than that. She listens, and learns, and tries to get in a headspace that would let her survive what they would do to her. She knows certain parts of her are going to break before this is all done, but as long as there was enough left of her to get revenge then that was what had to happen.

"I know I won't be able to make them think me declawed immediately... I don't... think I am strong enough to just take it all right now."

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"I - don't think I would be strong enough not to," he says, which is true. "Or - strong isn't what I would say. It - isn't what comes easily to me. Or - perhaps 'obviously' and not 'easily'." He's failing at expressing anything again, he thinks, both what he's saying and what he's trying to say.

"I - " this he isn't even sure he should try to express. "If they wanted - someone like me - again, immediately, I don't think they would have taken you." 

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"If... they think me broken. Then they will not try to break me further. And... I can gain some small piece of leverage." She is dreading how she has to achieve this state though. "But... I don't think I will be able to stop myself from fighting at first..."

 

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He closes his eyes for a moment again.

"...if you want leverage, you can find ones who like the fighting. Not like breaking - someone - down so they can't fight anymore, that's a different thing. Like something else about it. I can show you those I know, if you want. I'm - not very good at it myself. Even with practice. But I know - who I'm practicing for.

If you want - less punishment." He tries to think.

"Some people care about specific things, I can try to tell you those. And don't care, or it depends on their mood. You - might have noticed, in the throne room - Her Majesty didn't care that you insulted her, she thinks it's funny. That's a mood for her, but there's other people like that."

He doesn't know what to say about the ones who do like breaking someone. Doesn't really want to think about it, but not thinking about it definitely won't help at all. He can try to give more psychological advice, and absolutely not break down in any way because this is her suffering and not his and he is here to help.

(He can intend to try to distract them himself, and offer it. But there is only so far that goes, and - somewhat by definition of the category, they will not want him instead.)

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"I want... people to think of me as safe and harmless and desirable... If it's because they want me and not because of a humiliating my people thing I think I can get a tiny smidge of control. If they want me... and want me to want them..." Be the favoured concubine of important people and work from there. That was step one. Don't think about what you have to pretend to want to get that until you have to. She thinks.

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He can talk about safe and harmless and desirable (he'd never thought about the first two, really, but they're there). ...He can talk about - trying to work with a humiliating-my-people thing, if she wants. Or offer again to try to point those ones out, though they may not be the same ones for her as for him. He can talk about the forms of control, if one calls it that, one can get.

...safe and harmless do not have to be mutually exclusive with fighting, necessarily. 

He doesn't know anything about people wanting her to want them. He doesn't think anyone here thinks he wants them

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In the middle of this the door will slam open and a soldier will stride into the room. Mostly ignore Lelia, looking at Alesa.

"So this is where you've gotten to!"

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He can get to his knees very, very quickly.

Glances with obvious apology at Lelia as he lowers his head.

"I'm sorry, ma'am."

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She grabs his hair and starts to drag him from the room. In the middle of this actually takes notice of Lelia.

"Got cleaned up? Good. 
No one wants a dirty mutt." She yanks harder on Alesa's hair, more as counterpoint than because it looks like she thinks he's relevant to this.

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He whimpers. He is very draggable.

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She slams the door again behind them.

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She is frozen in panic when the guard comes in, does nothing as she drags Alesa away and flinches when she was called a mutt. After the door slams closed, she seems to recover herself and slams her fist into the stone floor in shame. She shouldn't have frozen up. Even if she knows there is nothing she could have done she shouldn't just have let them do that right in front of her without doing something.

At least the pain in her fist was a sharp ache that was easier to focus on than shame or panic that a guard will come in for her as well.

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If he was there he would say that there is definitely nothing wrong with having done nothing, and he would in no way want for her to have done otherwise, not for his sake.

But, obviously enough, he isn't.

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No one comes for her quite yet. After a little while someone pushes some food into the cell.

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She eats mechanically. To keep her strength up, she doesn't bother thinking about the foods taste as she shovels it in. Eventually, she has finished eating and is alone and nothing is stopping her from thinking about what happened in the throne room again. Not reliving it is difficult so she tries to focus on every vengeance she will inflict upon that awful awful family. It helps a little bit.