Cass panicked, scratching at the metal collar on her neck, trying to work her fingers between it and her neck. She could not see it, it encircled her neck right below her chin, and it seemed to be very thin, but she could not make it budge or bend.

The servant Maurice grabbed her hands and pulled them away from the collar, Cass tried to struggle in a panic but the older and better fed Maurice was much stronger than her.

“Don’t do that!” Maurice said in a slightly panicked voice, “It might activate!”

“A-Activate?” Cass stuttered, her mind reeling.

“That slave collar is special. I don’t know much about it but the guards said it was used to hold captured mages. If you try to remove it they say it will hurt you.”

A slave collar. For a second Cass had dared to hope that things might be a little better, she did not have the willpower for her cynical and skeptical side to make a difference when someone promised two meals a day. Especially when the meal this person brought was so good. But even as a homeless dreg in the slums, she had at least been a freeperson. Now, she had been dropped down to merchandise, an object and that was only what happened to people with normal collars. If Cass believe what Maurice said about her collar…

The door pushed open again and this time it was the white haired mage who entered, Maurice quickly stood up and bowed. “My apologies, Lord Evans.”

This old mage, Lord Evans, gestured towards the door and Maurice scurried out. His gaze was even worse than the other mage, Cass thought. Lord Hall had been cold, but Evans seemed… Empty, as empty as Cass felt sometimes

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Cass quickly broke his gaze and bowed her head.

“It seems I have a lot to teach you before you are of use to me.” Evans spoke quietly, but powerfully. To some extent, Cass felt his words rather than heard them. The mage noticed Cass tremble slightly, “You are probably experiencing an effect of the enchanted slave collar, it has been attuned to me after all. You do not have the right to use my name, I am your master and you are an object. Remember that.”

“Y-yes, Master.”

Evans did not seem to care if she responded or not, continuing on. “People like you were basically things to begin with anyways. No one cares if you are taken off the streets, no one cares how you are used and that is how it should be. We nobles are a higher existence than the scum that flows down the gutters, but you should be happy, because you have use to me.”

“I do not know how you survived the glyph when you have your own magic, but I intend to find out and I will turn you into a weapon for the glory of the kingdom. Be thankful that you are of use.”

“Tomorrow at dawn, we begin.” And with that, he strode out of the room, the door shut and locked behind him. Cass finished the food out of habit, barely able to taste it anymore with her head reeling. She laid back down, oddly tired despite not knowing how long she had slept after that day…

Cass was no longer a person, but a thing. But Cass did not care about pride or freedom all that much, you could not eat or take shelter in either. She was unsure if her life would be better or worse, but she was afraid to be found useless and be unable to eat such a delicious meal again. They were probably not good people, perhaps the rumors were right and they wanted to eat her soul, but Cass would work her hardest.

Tears came back to her eyes as she considered that if they had offered that meal to her on the street she would have put the collar on and jumped on that table of her own will. That was the fate of the weak.

With that thought Cass curled up and fell back to sleep.