Esther:

The master had told Esther and Evereena to wait for his next orders, so they did.

Esther had managed to put her arms around her daughter. That was about the limit of what either one of them could will themselves to do. They lay there and waited to die.

She had plenty of time to think.

Flashback time for Esther:

At age thirteen, her warm, comfortable life as the much-loved daughter of her parents was smashed to pieces, and the pieces ground into the dust. She had watched as her parents died trying to defend her. They were killed at the hands of people with grey collars, people with totally blank faces who fought savagely, with no rest and no mercy. Even when wounded, they kept on fighting until their bodies collapsed. After the fighters had passed on, leaving her parents amongst the dead bodies scattered across the ground, other slavers came. They wore different coloured collars - reds, blues, and even green ones. And one of the red-collared slaves put a collar on her, plus the others that were still alive. Then, a blue-collared slave walked along the line of new slaves and touched each collar with his hand.

As the collar clicked closed around her neck, a mass of cold, clammy blackness took hold, filling her mind and draining all light, colour, and good feelings. Then it poured into her status, blackness advancing over each of her abilities, cloaking and smothering everything in its path. She felt she was going to suffocate and drown in its advance.

She didn't. Instead, the blackness retreated—sort of. Her abilities, the little she had, were still there, but everything felt dirty, corrupted, and tainted. She regained consciousness and realised she must have fallen. However, she didn't seem able to do anything.

So she just lay there, crying at the memory of her parents falling as they tried to protect her.

Eventually, another slaver with a coloured collar came by.

"Shut up and stop that crying," he said.

She stopped. She had no choice. Something from the back of her mind reached out and overrode her feelings, shoving aside her feelings with total contempt for what she might want.

"Get up and follow that group,” he said before moving on to the next new slave.

She followed that group. Later that day, she stood with a hundred or so others. The slave master, a green-collar one, read out a series of orders:

"These are absolute orders - a slave will never do anything to endanger or abolish the slaver institution."

"A slave will never leave behind a functional unused slave collar, nor destroy a collar."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He followed with many other absolute orders, then continued with standing orders. She listened attentively and automatically memorised them perfectly. She had no choice in this matter, either.

With some water and almost no food, they were forced to march back to wherever the slavers came from. One in five died on the way, but there was no protest from the new slaves. No complaints, no attempts to escape or stop and rest. They were given their orders, and that's what they did.

She ended up at a slave auction and was sold to a man with a blue collar.

Of course, the first thing he did when he took her home was to rape her.

She was screaming inside, but he didn't allow her to show any negative emotions on the outside.

Within a few years, she had a baby.

Her master told her that she was lucky. He wasn't going to work her to exhaustion. No, he would look after her and ensure she had sufficient food, rest, and the same for her baby. He even allowed her to relax and play with her baby without intrusive commands.

"After all," he had said, "The better I look after you, the more return I will get on my investment when I eventually sell you and your daughter."

Esther observed how he treated his other slaves, and she was glad she had a reprieve, at least for a while.

Esther:

She spent most of her time remembering as much of her time with Evereena as possible.

Nursing her, cuddling her.

Feeding her her first solid food.

Watching her as a cute little baby taking her first steps.

The first few years were the best. The slave master had other slaves for his various 'interests'.

At age three, Evereena got her collar.

Fortunately, she didn't get much in the way of any orders, and the master refrained from taking much notice of them for quite a few years.

Of course, this had to end at some stage.

Esther clenched her fists as much as she was able to when she remembered the first night that the slave master had decided to 'try out' her daughter.

The girl had cried for a week after that, but all Esther could do was hug her.

Esther, currently lying on the ground hugging her daughter and watching the dead body of her master, could only try her best and not remember any more of the bad times.

Just think of the good times, no matter how few they may have been.

At least she had some.

She was getting thirsty. And hungry. And they had both soiled themselves.

They were going to die here.

But at least the slave master got what he deserved.

A slow and painful death.

Something happened on the fifth afternoon as she struggled to remain conscious.

Two people walked up to them. Two teenagers.

And they didn't have slave collars on.

And they started to look after them.

What does this mean?

And then, another older man appeared and knelt before them.

Esther tried to shrink back but wasn't able to.

Those teenagers look nice, maybe, but this man? Is he going to rape us?

Ding! Aragon has made a vow, strength 100%: I will look after you and your daughter until you no longer need my help.

What does this mean?

Ding! It means Aragon will look after you, and the Voice of the World will strongly compel him to fulfil his vow.

The Voice of the World is answering my question.

She had never heard of such a thing.

And this Aragon will look after us? But he doesn't have a slave collar? Why should he do that?

The Voice of the World gave no further explanation.

They were looked after. Esther didn't know where they were and had never heard of Manifestoria. But, for some reason, Aragon and the teenagers were making great efforts to take her and her daughter back there. She couldn't wrap her head around their strange actions.

How can they possibly get any return on their investment in looking after us?

Six days after the master had died, they all arrived at the Manifestorian stairwell.