Black water, at least the colour of treacle and only half as thick, swilled into the bucket. Kzuki rinsed the riding coat again, wringing it furiously, taking out a decade of frustration on it. Where the hell had the Master been to mucky it up so much!?<br/>What, did he think she LIKED hard work!?<br/>The young servant groped around the floor for a more bristled brush from the small army of cleaning utensils lined up besides her, grit her teeth and launched an entirely new assault on the heavy, velvet lined thing. Once, back in the early days, when he’d caught her eyeing up the jewellery,<span style="font-style: italic"> he’d leaned over her, his horrid hair and it’s musty spicy smell tumbling intrusively over her shoulder, breath playing with the fine hairs on her neck, fingers brushing across her waist in the same way a lover might do as a morning greeting  and whispered;<br/>‘I know what you were wondering, little Kzuki.’</span><br/><br/>She froze where she knelt, much like she had done that day. Even through a memory blood still froze in her veins. The ache in her knees from the cold tile floor suddenly very, very numb.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">At the time she’d stuttered, panicked. At the time she’d been thinking of wearing some of those gorgeous things. Just… just for a moment… Once upon a time she had been a beautiful girl, a ministers daughter who donned nothing but the most exquisite finery that money could buy, she was loved, she was envied, she was immortal... but then after her father was forcefully removed from his post and his head forcibly removed from his shoulders and she had been trusted to the company of the dark mage Neathaniel who seemed to take every opportunity to punish her for her fathers crimes. <br/><br/>It wasn’t fair! It wasn’t her fault!<br/><br/>Just once she’d wanted to remember what it was to be… to be happy again… <br/><br/>Looking both ways gingery, she’d slipped a hairpiece free from its box (it couldn’t have been the Masters, this was the jewellery of a beautiful woman, but she hadn’t wondered who it could have belonged to…) and wove it into her red hair. The feeling was so familiar…. Her eyes had just started to well up.<br/>If she escaped with just a FEW of these precious items… if she could just manage to sell them maybe she could live in comfort again. A free and beautiful woman… <br/>That’s when Kzuki had been caught.<br/><br/>‘I know what you were wondering, little Kzuki…’</span><br/><br/>Gods she could still hear that wicked voice! The way every syllable curled into the next like smoke, that animal softness like brush of fur against naked flesh… even Nea—the Masters voice was wrought thick with magic, twisted and changed under it’s dark influence into something tauntingly … desirable…<br/><br/>She HATED him.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"> ‘I know what you were wondering, little Kzuki… and surely these pretty baubles aren’t worth being stranded in the spirit realm over?’ he’d purred  and ran his fingers through her hair, carefully working the hairpiece free. <br/>It had sent chills down the she-demons spine, she’d heard the stories of the spirit realm… it was  a fluid and unreal place, like the flickering reels of a picture show, it constantly changed and reacted to whoever it preyed upon, only it COULD get to you. Nightmares happened whenever one’s mind touched upon it, any more than one evening under its influence and it was enough to send a man mad… <br/>But being sent there… where it gained a physical, tangible form, a very real form that could hurt and bite and damage… </span><br/><br/>She shuddered at the thought now as she did then, wondering if all of that wretched black gunk was the blood of monsters from the spirit realm. Rumour had it that, although he seldom visited it, he was a wanderer of those twisted plains, a bard between two worlds…<br/><br/>One last rinse and she folded the coat asides, going through the pile of washing systematically with well learned speed—then she yelped.<br/>As the water cleared, the reflection looking back at her was wrong! For a moment she could scarcely recognise the face. It was worn, HAGGARD (although she didn’t look a day past thirty now, she had spent most of her life in the body of a fifteen year old) rough.<br/>Whatever she held was dropped. The she-demons eyes shot wide, hands shooting up to cover her shame.<br/>What had he done!?<br/>That… that… Oh gods she’d kill him! She’dkillhimshe’dkillhimshe’dkillhimshe’d…<br/>Tears started, sobs built up in her throat like stuttered hiccups. He’d STOLEN her youth! Her beauty! How could he!?<br/>“HOW COULD HE?!”<br/><br/>“Oh shut up,” someone spat from the back of the room.<br/><br/>Kzuki leapt out of her skin, glancing over her shoulder across the length of the utility room, her fellow servant met her gaze half way, heels clicking against the tiles as she strode. It was Veronika.<br/><br/>Veronika was a sour faced creature, but staggeringly gorgeous, the Master took something from all of his pets, but he hadn’t taken Veronika’s immortality. Ronnie had been there longer than any of the others and she regarded with Kzuki was a condescending, disapproving eye. “Spoilt rat,” she growled and strutted straight past, heading over to one of the piles of dried clothes and slinging them over one arm, “Those were supposed to be done at LEAST ten minutes ago! Are you crying AGAIN?!”<br/><br/>Kzuki shook her head gingerly, eyes glued to her lap, tasting that horrible emotional cocktail of shame, humiliation and fury and it paralyzed her…<br/><br/>“Well, whatever!” Ronnie shook her head and adjusted her skirt, “The Master left early this morning, wants us to teach his new plaything how to work,”<br/><br/>“Don’t call her that!” Kzuki growled, eyes burning and glistening with tears, fists clenched so tightly that all the colour fled from her knuckles, “No woman is a … a… ‘plaything’! How dare you treat someone so disrespectfully!”<br/><br/>“I’ll have respect for the little bitch when she gives me reason to…” she sniffed and Kzuki pursed her lips and dropped her gaze again, recognizing her place as she was shot straight back down into it.  Veronika started to leave… but sneakily took the dirty wash bucket as she left.<br/>What a perfect wake up call for his new bitch! Today that girl would learn the meaning of hard work!<br/><br/><br/>((OOC: Imma give you this space here to let her settle and to break her down. Make up stuff about the servants and house if you want, get creative, I don't mind! You can have a LOT of time pass if you want, I can make Neath vanish on a longer trip if needed, whatever you feel will suit Amora best! I'll delete this after we've decided! xxx))