With no way of telling the time, Zahra had no concept of how long she slept. What she did know, however, was that she felt a lot better afterwards. Eating the rest of the solid food she washed herself as best she could and got ready for her day of cleaning. Organising her cleaning equipment she put her knee pads back on and listened at the door.

With no sound in the hall she carefully cracked open the door to visually check. While not all elves were as evil as the Principae she couldn't be sure that there wouldn't be some hiding, to ambush her. Once she was sure the hall was clear she exited her room and started her work.

Her days blurred into a haze: Cleaning and hiding, but mostly trying to keep her mind active. The last thing she needed was to fall into a rut where she wasn't paying attention as an elf approached. Every so often she felt like she was being watched and hoped that it was her guardian angel making sure that her tormentor was behaving.

As it was she found a routine where she would clean the heavily traversed areas at the start, move on to the rest and then do the dirtiest areas again, at the end. This seemed to work well enough as she was never denied her rations. Even better she rarely saw her supervisor.

Eventually her time in the hall was up. Called out of her bolt hole, by the principae, she saw he was with one of the prison guards.

"Your service here was adequate. I would not be adverse to having you back on your next rotation. Assuming you survive."

This earned him a look of surprise from the guard. Apparently such a glowing compliment was unheard of from the man.

"Get your stuff, and follow me"" Was all the guard actually said.

Running back to her sanctuary she grabbed what was left of her underwear, where it had been drying out after a wash, stuffed it in her pocket and rejoined the two elves.

"Ready, Master." She told her new boss.

Without a comment the elf turned and walked out of the hall. As was the norm with elven guards there was no small talk. It was as if talking to the slaves was somehow demeaning to them. This suited Zahra. She didn't want to converse with them either.

The route, unsurprisingly, took her back to the same cell as she had been in with before her time cleaning the hall. The guard opened the door and Zahra went straight in.

In the room was the majority of the human prisoners taken with her. Some looking decidedly worse for wear. Most notably those who had avoided being assigned to one of the platoons and had escaped their turn in the torture rooms.

Looking around she saw her platoon and went over to check in with Sergeant Mantle. She was pleased to see that they didn't seem to have been abused the same way the senior officers had been.

One of the men nodded in her direction and Kevin Mantle turned round, a beaming smile when her recognised who it was approaching.

"Ma'am. It's bloody good to see you again. We were worried when they took you and Lieutenant Andrews off."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Apparently they considered the damage to my back to be some sort of work of art and wanted to remove it from me ready to display."

"How did they remove it Ma'am?" Asked Private Winter.

"It's called flaying and involves a very sharp knife, Private. Definitely not an experience I'd recommend.

"Anyway, how are we looking Sergeant. Most of the platoon seem to be here. Do you know where the rest are?"

"Only Privates Smith, Willow and Tarrent are missing now, Ma'am. The rest are here, and not in too bad a shape. It seems that was almost an R&R period. Though that doesn't make sense."

"From bits of conversation I overheard. The elves place a lot of value on their lives, but our value depends on what role they play in society. Those that have to risk their lives to capture more of us value us higher than those who don’t

"I heard a Squad Second telling the Principae in charge of me that as raids risk casualties he should look after us as the quicker we die the more often they have to raid to replace us, and the more casualties they take in doing so.

"As a civilian he saw us as a disposable resource. Fun to use up and easy to replace."

"Nice guy."

"Delightful. The soldier promised him that should I die, she would make sure that he would be the one replacing me here, rather than having to go on a raid. That, somehow, mellowed his attitude somewhat."

At that point the door opened again and another batch of humans was let in. Sixteen this time. At first Zahra thought they must be from the other Company as she didn't recognise any of them. Then she realised their clothes were mismatched and worn. And although there was some military uniform left the majority of their attire seemed to be badly made form blankets. There was also the case of the one armed man. Zahra did not remember any of their people having lost an arm. However, that could have happened during the break.

"DEAN!" Came a screech from somewhere to Zahra's right and Private Sarah Watkins from seven platoon ran up to the newcomers and launched herself at one of the men. Startled the man barely had time to drop the hand of the woman next to him and brace himself for the attack.

Catching Watkins he held her at arms length and let out a cry of horror

"Sarah? What on Earth are you doing here? "

"We were betrayed, Dean. One of our officers is working for the elves and told them when we would be most vulnerable.

"We were having a parade for the formal opening of Fort Wellson when they struck. Almost all of us were unarmed, but we killed a few of the bastards before they captured us."

"Let me guess. Major Wellson. Bastard could not wait to kiss their arses. Promised to work for them and sell us all out if they let him live."

"It's Colonel Wellson now, and yes he did sell us out. Over seven hundred people were at the ceremony when the attack came. Those that survived were made to march past him in revue as we were led away. Just so we knew what he'd done.

"He even sold out his own daughter. The lieutenant over there." Pointing at Zahra. Then seeing the hate in his eyes she added.

"Though don't hold her relationship to the bastard against her. She is one of the best platoon commanders here."

Seeing the look of disbelief on Dean and his companions' faces, she continued.

"Lieutenants Wellson and Andrews platoons are the only two of the twenty here where the officers have tried to take all the torture themselves. You should see the state of their backs."

She then said something to him under her breath before leading him and his companions over to her own platoon. However, his hand was back in that of the blonde-haired woman next to him before they started moving.

After that it was a case of waiting for the rest of their people to return, though not all of them did. Three more were lost during their break, including Peterson and Xi. Secretly Zahra hoped they had been taken as personal pets by semi-decent elves and would live a much better existence than those here.

One of the last to arrive was Joe Andrews, and Zahra was shocked to realise just how much she had missed him during their time apart.