she falls over. I have never encountered an obedient human before. I didn’t know they made them this submissive. Of course, it remains to be seen if she is truly submissive, or if it is just the mind games played on her by Galactor. I thought I would take pleasure in her obedience, but there’s no real pleasure to be taken in this almost mechanical submission.
“I’m not your master yet,” I tell her.
Her eyes widen and her lower lip quivers. “You’re not?”
“A master is someone you owe obedience to.”
“Yes, master. I know.”
“You will have the chance to prove your obedience today.”
“Anything!” She clasps her hands together, desperate to please.
We will see if she means that. I point at Silver, still refusing to look at the woman.
“Apologize to your mother.”
“WHAT!?”
I raise a brow as she raises her voice to me. I like that. Gives me something to punish her for, naughty little pet.
I point at Silver, still without looking at her. “That is your mother, and you will respect her.”
Eleven looks at me with uncharacteristic resentment.
“What? I know you hate her. She killed your sister. They told me everything that happened. You can’t want me to apologize to her. You must want to kill her.”
“She may have killed your sister, but you must respect your matriarch. She fought for decades for you. She killed creatures many times her size and strength.”
“Including your sister.”
“Yes. Including my sister. You do not have to like her, but you should respect her brutality and vicious…” I trail off as Warden reaches out a hand with a motion which indicates I should stop talking. I’m not sure how I am supposed to make Silver sound like a good person. The only redeeming qualities she has are the worst ones she possesses.
“She’s your mother,” I finish.
“So?”
The question seems valid to me. I turn to Warden. “So?”
He scowls, reminding me that we have a deal. I crouch down and beckon Eleven closer. She approaches cautiously, still blushing. I love the way she reacts to me.
“So if you’re not nice to her, I get put back in prison, and you have to put up with these two.”
Eleven takes a second to digest that information, before turning around with a big, fake smile. “MOMMY!”
I have never heard such exuberant sarcasm emerging from such a sweet thing.
“Not like that,” Warden growls. “Properly.”
“I did what you asked,” Eleven says. Apparently her submissiveness is limited to me. I like that. I like that a very great deal. It makes it feel much more real.
“She did what you asked,” I agree, backing her up. “You can’t make her feel something she doesn’t feel. Maybe the mother should earn her place in her life, rather than expecting an immediate emotional connection with a child she hasn’t seen in over a decade.”
Warden tilts his head and narrows that green gaze of his. “Maybe you want to go back to that cell.”
“No! He’s my master!” Eleven is surprisingly defensive of me. Again, I feel my attachment grow. It is not only a matter of chemical programming, or authoritarian conditioning. We like each other. We might even understand one another.
“She’s right,” Silver says. “I don’t have the right to demand anything from you, El…” she almost uses the name Eleven hates, but corrects herself. “Eleven. I just want to know you are happy, and safe.”
“Then let me be with my master,” Eleven says. “And stop talking to him like you own him.”
Warden gives me a dark stare. “If you want to keep that human pet, you are going to have to teach her to be much more polite.”
“I don't know about that. I like her this way,” I reply smoothly, flickering a wink at my pet.
Silver
Ella thinks she is proving a point. She is, but not the one she thinks. In her rebellion and refusal to accept what she is being told, in her ongoing fight to reject all attempts to control her, she is showing that she is of my blood.
I would like for her to come to me as my daughter, but Warden is right. Just having her is enough. I am blessed to know that she is safe, and healthy. Beyond that, I also know that she is carrying my grandchild, and that I will get to see that little life grow. All of these things are more than I could ever have wished for, and possibly even more than I deserve.
I lean against Warden and put my hand on his arm, silently telling him to stand down. We are not going to be able to dominate or bully either of these two into submission. We are going to have to earn their respect, and trust that the bonds of family truly do mean something, even when there is so much pain and distance to overcome.
This is not how I predicted things would be, but nothing in my life has been predictable, from losing Ella, to finding Eleven, to being a violent criminal, to a prisoner, to a much loved and indulged pet. Warden is scowling at Eleven with an expression that to me seems rather paternal. He does not care for her attitude, I am sure. But that attitude is Scizzor’s problem.
I no longer mind that Ella has taken to the scythkin who wanted nothing more than my death. At first I was horrified at her choice of mate, hardly regarding it as a choice at all - but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. I took his sister from him, and in some way, I gave him his mate. Maybe there is some greater equilibrium in the universe, some kind of karmic force which makes all that is wrong, right again. Maybe it is right that I return the love he lost in this indirect way.
What I do know for sure, is that there are no easy happy ever afters - but there are days of opportunity, where we get the chance to work on our happiness and the happiness of those we love, and I am grateful to have those chances all over again. With Warden by my side, loving me through every trial and tribulation, I am certain that every day from this day forth will be better than the one which came before it. And if it isn’t, then we will make it better the day after that. That’s what love is, at the core of it all, it is hope. And it is trust in the ones we care for, and courage to face the future, no matter how uncertain it may be.
The End
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