As she pushed herself off the last rung, she saw she was facing another wall. Realising she had reached the end she gladly propelled herself to where she hoped the surface would be.

Breaking the surface of the new pool, she pulled herself out of it, gasping for breath.

"Finally!" Came an angry voice. "Thank you for deigning to join us. Now take the cap and goggles off and get over here."

Complying, Zahra found herself facing an X-frame made of a metallic substance, covered in straps, next to which was a particularly evil looking female elf, wearing all white, with a white scarf covering her head. Knowing what was expected she stood, facing the frame, spreading her legs to line up with the lower parts arms of the frame, and raised her arms to align with the top.

"There's a good pet." Mocked the woman.

The woman then strapped Zahra to the frame, with three straps on each limb, but none on her body. Of course, there was a torture helmet for Zahra to wear as well, which the elf fitted on her head.

Unlike in the other cells, this time there was no long wait for the pain to start.

This time a knife was used to make a long deliberate cut along the outside of her back. Once the cut was complete, and Zahra had finished screaming, she paused for breath, hoping this was over.

Of course it was not over. After a pause, Zahra felt the corner of her flesh being lifted and something being inserted between her skin and flesh. This continued for what seemed like forever, as her skin slowly being peeled from her back, in one complete piece.

Praying for death or even unconsciousness, anything to block the pain, Zahra screamed continuously for the whole time. Struggling continuously against the bonds holding her, they dug in further and further into her flesh tearing through her skin and ripping through her muscles.

Eventually Zahra realised that the abuse was over and the overwhelming agony she could feel was static. Until she felt a needle being jabbed into her neck, and a numbness spread throughout her body.

Her bands were changed to just around her wrists and ankles, with the three bloodied straps removed from each limb, and the helmet removed. Though removing her teeth from strap in her mouth took a while.

Without any further comment the elf left the room, taking the skin from Zahra's back with her.

The usual healing spray followed then, though, to Zahra's addled mind, it seemed to last a lot longer than usual. Once it stopped, she felt no pain or discomfort in any part of her body. Rolling her shoulders, she could feel the muscles in her back moving comfortably.

"Wasn't that fun?" Asked the elf, returning through to the room. "Anytime you want to play again we will be here to entertain you."

With that, she released Zahra and pointed to the door she had just come in through.

"Through there, turn right and walk until you are met by a guard who will deal with you. "

Zahra headed through the door and followed the instructions finding herself back in the giant courtyard where she had last seen the rest of her people. Though this time alone and totally naked. Looking around there were no open exits, other than the one she had entered through. This left her with the choice of standing here doing nothing or going back the way she came.

"You're late!" Came a voice from behind her. "And why are you naked?"

Turning, Zahra saw an elf coming out through the door she had just exited. He was pretty much the same as all the others she had seen. The only difference was he wasn't wearing the uniform of the prison guards. Instead, he wore all black, with silver trim on his jacket and a red crown above his left breast. Strangely, he also wore a monocle on a chain around his neck and in his left hand was a swagger stick, which was pointed at her.

"Where are your clothes?"

"Master, I apologise for my appearance but I was ordered to strip and leave my clothes in an anti-room, before undergoing a procedure. I was never given the opportunity to recover them."

"You creatures are facking useless. Show me which room you were in when you lost your clothes!"

Hoping she could remember which door it was she led the unhappy elf back down the corridor. She quickly found the door she had re-entered the corridor, and guessing the distance of the tunnel she had swum through, stopped at the door to the room she had last seen her clothes. She hoped.

"This one, Master." She said, trying to sound positive.

Pushing past her the elf opened the door and walked through, with Zahra following. Her calculations had been correct and she found herself in the room she had disrobed in, complete with her neatly stacked uniform. Joe's wasn't there, and Zahra could only hope that was because he had already retrieved his.

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Without waiting for direction Zahra walked into the room and got dressed, without so much as a glance at the pools and the horror that lay beyond them. Once attired she took time to make sure her uniform was as presentable as possible, knowing it would irk the obviously impatient elf. In the madness of her new life, it was the little victories that helped keep her going.

When she was ready, she turned and faced her new tormentor, who was sitting on the stool, fiddling with his comms device with a scowl that spoke volumes about his irritation. Sensing he was in a hurry she politely waited for him to notice that she was ready.

."How long have you just been standing there, like an ugly statue?" He finally asked

"A little over five minutes, Master." She replied, keeping her voice deliberately neutral

"Why didn't you inform me you were done?"

"You looked busy, Master, and it is not a slaves place to disturb a person, without specific instructions." Not that she had been told that, but it seemed a reasonable deduction, and appeared to both mollify and further aggravate the elf.

"Bah! I don't know why we both with your kind, the tens make much better servants. You should be left to rot in there." Thumbing towards the centre of the complex. "And sevens are much more enjoyable!"

Not sure what he meant by that Zahra kept quiet.

"Well. Don't just stand there. Follow me." He added leaving the room and heading back outside.

Staying just behind his right shoulder, she followed him back down the corridor, through the, still empty, courtyard and to a locked gate.

"Open!" He commanded, and a less ornately dressed elf obliged. As they passed through Zahra that although the gate opened into the courtyard, there was no handle on this side, and the bars were star shaped and wickedly sharp. This was still part of the defences against any slave revolt: Soldiers, from the outside could shoot in, but scaling it or breaching it would be difficult.

Outside the gate was a short, walled, walkway leading to another gate. A surreptitious glance showed the wall to be about three metres high with three strands of what looked like electric fencing jutting out, with razor wire behind it. Passing through the gate Zahra noted that it was the same design as the first. A break out this way would be suicidal.

Finally, outside the compound she found herself on a straight, wide, street with what looked like civilians going about their business. She was not sure if it was due to the proximity of the prison but the people were hurrying along with none of the signs of socialising she would have expected.

Walking over to an air car the elf opened a windowless door and gestured for her to get in. Expecting it to be cramped Zahra was surprised to see that the space was quite roomy, though with a hard seat and no windows. There was no light either, once the door was closed on her. Feeling around she was not surprised to be unable to find any door or window controls.

After a pause, the vehicle lifted up and moved off. Zahra tried to work out the direction but for some reason the vehicle seemed to be moving randomly in all six directions. Either the driver was particularly drunk or there was a device in her compartment designed to disorientate her.

After a few minutes Zahra was glad she hadn't eaten since her purging as the apparently random changes in direction made her travel sick, and by the time she was released she was so nauseous she could barely stand.

Looking past her, into the compartment, the elf seemed surprised.

"Usually cleaning this would be your first job, but somehow you've managed to keep it clean.

"Keep up!"

Setting off at a fast walk he headed towards a grand building. Struggling to walk in a straight line Zahra followed behind, as best she could. Thankfully, the elf reached the doorway he was after, before Zahra lost sight of him, and by the time he had opened it she had caught up.

Leading her through a maze of corridors - her distress eliminating her ability to memorise the way - he brought her to a large, ornate, hallway. A truly beautiful area about thirty metres by fifteen, with columns of pillars down both sides about two metres in.

Opening a hidden door in the wall he showed her a small, barely lit room, with a rough bed along one wall, bathroom facilities in a corner and shelves along the rest of the wall.

"Your job is to keep this hallway clean. Spotlessly clean. When it is, you may rest in here. When it's not you will clean it.

"Food will be provided if it passes inspection, beatings if it doesn't

"If any nobles pass through here they had better not see you.

"You may not engage anyone in conversation, but will answer any person who deigns to speak to you.

"Cleaning materials are on the shelves, and I had better not hear any complaints about you."

With that, he strode off, leaving her alone.

Checking the state of the hallway, she could see that it was less than pristine, and in desperate need of a clean. Removing her jacket, and placing it on her bed, she went to the shelves to make an inventory of what she had and what it would clean.

Finding what would work as a duster she made her way out of her room - ensuring she could open it the door again - and started sweeping the dust and junk out of the corners of the ceiling.

With that done it was dusting the ornamental armour and weapons, checking to see if any could be of use to her, and then the columns and walls. At this point, she found an issue. Which got her thinking and realising she had more than one problem.

The only way to clean the carpets and rugs seemed to hand held brushes, and the only way to clean the rest of the floor was also only able to cleaned by hand. But this were minor issues compared to the others.

She had no idea when the checks would be made, so would have to keep this area spotless continuously.

The other issue was that she didn't know how to identify a noble from any other elf and, even if she did, by the time she had identified a noble that noble would have seen her. That meant she would have to be constantly on the lookout for elves and be ready to hide at the first sign of them. Especially as in such a large space, it would take her far too long to reach her bolthole, if she was in the wrong place.

After her first near miss Zahra decided to search the area to see if there were any other hidey holes she could take advantage of. Closing the door to her sanctuary, she studied the opening button to see if there were any clues as to what to look for to find others. Sadly the only real clue was the worn paint on the wall where it had been depressed so many times.