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The reaction seemed to concern them and Christof passed a gentle hand down my arm on the other side in reassurance. I flinched at the contact.
“Tell us what you learned,” Evan said after looking over at Christof.
My voice shook slightly, but they understood me. The rule was firmly ingrained in my mind. If I wanted to talk about the women or the world, I should talk to them. Speaking to other slaves about my strange life circumstance was not acceptable.
The men seemed pleased and smiled down at me. They believed their punishment had taught me well.
Damien stood at the end of the bed and started to pull the blanket from me. I grabbed frantically at the cover. Laying nude and vulnerable in front of them seemed unwise. Damien’s eyebrows lifted and he stopped tugging at my cover.
“I am going to heal you. Do you fear me?” he asked quietly.
My reaction had been inappropriate. I pushed the blanket down over my breasts and stomach and tried to smile.
“Do you?” he asked again, not moving.
“No, I just was…” the sentence drifted off and I stared up at them.
“Don’t lie,” Evan instructed softly from my side.
The anger came and I tried to tamp it down, but I couldn’t.
“You hurt me,” I said harshly pulling the blanket back to my neck. “You didn’t have to hurt me. I am your slave again and you will do whatever you want with me!”
They looked shocked, which even in my fear and anger, I found strange.
“You are not a slave, little Sister,” Bane pleaded coming to stand beside Damien. “We were teaching you. It was very important you remember the lesson. You can’t forget this instruction.”
I was livid and couldn’t control my temper. “You made me call you Master! I am a slave! You would never do that to each other!”
Christof sat cross legged beside me and I heard him sigh before he spoke.
“You called us Master and we never told you to. We were teaching you. We thought it would reinforce the lesson,” he said.
My hands gripped the blanket firmly and I looked up into his confused eyes, but did not say anything.
“Let me heal you,” Damien said tugging at my cover. “You will feel better once I heal you, but you will remember this lesson well.”
“You hurt me!” I shouted. “You all said you would protect me. How could you do this?”
Kein’s eyes were questioning as he looked at me. “We are protecting you,” he said. “You are family and you have to learn. We are afraid they will take you away for this.”
They didn’t understand my perspective at all. This was instruction. It was harsh because the rule was important. The way I felt about it wasn’t even considered. That there might be another way to teach me wasn’t even entertained.
It took concentration, but I allowed my cover to be moved. I didn’t need to look to see the bruising and marks on my legs. Instead, I stared at the ceiling and tried to calm down.
Damien nudged my legs apart and began the slow process of healing them. Just like last time, no one else helped him.
“I learn when you talk to me,” I said suddenly and to no one in particular. “Humans don’t have to be beaten to learn.”
Slowly and deliberately each mark was coated and healed. It took time before Damien answered.
“They would take you away,” Damien said quietly. “If the men were upset by you, we fear the women would take you away from us. You must not make this mistake again. Pain will reinforce the lesson. We did this for you.”
I looked down and saw him working slowly and carefully to remove the markings. He worked with utter concentration, intent on taking every bit of the hurt away. Still, there was pain in his features. I recognized guilt.
Evan brushed a strand of hair off my cheek and I jerked as though he’d hit me. I looked up into his face and saw something strange in his blue eyes, uncertainty.
“You are not a slave,” Christof said softly. “You are family. We cannot separate from you…”
Evan looked saddened, as did everyone else. We were all suffering at the moment.
We were at an impasse for the moment. They honestly believed I needed the pain to learn, probably from a life of being trained that way. Part of what drove them on was a righteous fear. Still, I felt beaten and scared, but I found the strength to speak up.
“I do not like to be hurt and when you do that I fear you,” I said quietly and licked my dry lips. “Let us come to an agreement, you will not beat me as a lesson and I will make better decisions. When I make mistakes we can talk about it and decide on a punishment together.”
This moment spoke volumes for me. If they agreed to this I wasn’t a slave. If they couldn’t agree my position was no better than it had been. I waited anxiously for the answer.All rights © NôvelDrama.Org.
“Pain reinforces the instruction,” Kein said watching me carefully.
“I was never, never taught like that,” I told him sincerely. “I would not make the same mistake again, because I understand the damage I caused. Humans can learn by talking to one another. Slaves are beaten to teach a lesson, family is not.”
They were silent and considering for a long time before Damien spoke.
“I have had to teach my Brothers with pain in the past,” he said simply.