I sat in Voss’ room waiting for his arrival, it had been about half an hour since I entered the room and I was starting to get bored. I opted to start looking around until Voss arrived.

I was only looking around to curb my boredom so I didn’t pay all that much attention to the stuff in the room, until I came across a beautiful ring that demanded all my attention. It was designed in the shape of a dragon eating its own tail, it was simple for the most part but the attention to detail was incredible; upon closer inspection, I could make out each scale across its body, painfully shaped and individually defined. Based on the features on the head and the snake like body I assumed it was modelled after Chinese dragons, each strand of hair was also carefully placed which gave it an incredibly deep feel to the touch. The eye was a tiny, yet blazing, red gem that stood out amongst the silver band despite its size. It was hard to tell, but the hairs seemed slightly lighter than the horns yet I couldn’t find any colour difference when I compared either directly to the silver body. The ring was simply stunning, I couldn’t divert my eyes for several minutes, it almost felt like the ring was calling out to me.

It was strange, even though the draw was crammed full of other piece of jewellery, many of which were more beautiful and dazzling, this was the only piece that truly caught my attention; not the crystalline fox bracelet, not the sparkling white angel wing pendant, only this matte silver ring.

Footsteps snapped me out of my trance, it seems that Voss has arrived at long last. I quickly drop the ring back in the draw and close it, returning to my position sitting on the bed before he reached the door.

Alright Dawn, your turn.

< (‘Kaaaaaaay!) > (Dawn)

I gave Dawn control as my consciousness receded to simply being aware.

How odd… is this how you normally feel?

< (Pretty much, time to wooork!) > (Dawn)

Well, I suppose that’s that. Voss arrived just after the exchange between me and Dawn; throwing the door open and waltzing inside pompously like he owned the place, which I suppose he technically does.

“Mm, very appropriate. That outfit suits you.” Voss said while eyeing me up and down.

I cracked a smile and returned a simple “Thank you” to the pompous man with the most deeply judging look I could make.

Voss hesitated, this wasn’t how I was supposed to react, this tripped him up slightly. Dawn tapped into his mind and started planting suggestions while he began to revaluate me, it was time to take control of the situation and I needed to put myself in a superior position.

“Well? Are we going to get down to business or are you going to keep me waiting?” I said with an irritated voice, giving the impression that I was the one truly in charge here.

Voss’ eyes opened wide and his mouth was flapping open and closed like a fish on dry land, clearly at a loss in the situation. I glared at him for a moment before letting out a disgruntled sigh, standing up and walking towards him confidently. I grabbed him by the tie and started pulling him towards the bed, suddenly my awareness of the surroundings started to fade.

Dawn? What’s happening?

< (I’m doing this for you, don’t ask questions now, I’ll explain everything later… I don’t want you to experience this yet) > (Dawn)

Dawn? Dawn?! Dawn!

My surroundings faded into darkness, I could no longer tell exactly what was happening, but I still understood the gist of it; I was experiencing pleasure, but I was also continuously exerting my dominance, and making sure he understood that I was in charge. Dawn was also continuously planting suggestions in his mind, guiding his conclusions – even mocking him offhandedly and weakening his position further. I could also feel what was in his mind, his ego was slowly shrinking, slowly admitting me as his superior.

Gradually Dawn started making commands; Voss began submitting to those demands more and more easily, and became less and less hesitant to do so.

A few times Voss made demands of his own but Dawn coldly refused and punished him every time, eventually he started begging for what he wanted. Dawn reinforced his dog-like behaviour by rewarding him for obediently following her commands and punishing him for disobedience.

This wild flurry of dominance continued for almost an hour before the world faded back in, with this I came to better understand who and what Dawn was. When the world became clear again I notice Voss kneeling on the ground, licking my feet.

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< (Welcome back) > (Dawn)

Thanks, Dawn.

< [Yea, Welcome back] > (???)

‘The hell are you?!

< [I’m kind of like Dawn, except, for instinct instead of logic.] > (???)

… And I’m supposed to simply accept this?

< [I would believe so] > (???)

Oh, ok… DAWN!

< (Calm down girl, it’s not my fault! It was all… Nova’s idea!) > (Dawn)

… What are you talking about? Also, did you just arbitrarily pick a name for her?

< [Yes, she did] > (???)

< (No fair!) > (Dawn)

You can’t just-

< (I like it) > (???)

… what?

< [The name… I like it.] > (Nova)

< (Then its aaaaaall settled! Yay, my new sister Nova!) > (Dawn)

Hah… ok, whatever, good to meet you, Nova…

< [Indeed, it is good to meet you too, Tiama, Dawn. I look forward to working together in the future.] > (Nova)

< (So formal… would you like some tea?) > (Dawn)

< [No need, we have other business to attend to for the moment.] > (Dawn)

< (I didn’t really-! I’ll get you back for this Nova!) > (Dawn)

< [Good luck with that.] > (Nova)

The two girls finished arguing and I continued the taming of Voss by kicking him away – sending him sprawling on the ground – and strongly saying, “I’m tired, get out of my room”.

He tried to complain, “but this is my-”, but I interrupted by threateningly planting my foot on his crotch and shouting “OUT!” while pointing at the door. He trembled for a moment before scrambling out the door.

As he scrambled out the room I started thinking about the new revelations I had about the relationship between myself and Dawn, and now Nova too. I never handed control over to Dawn, we were never separate entities, the voice called “Dawn” is me, the calculative part of me, the voice is simply a manifestation of the initial influx of information that granted me sentience. During that time I wanted to know why I felt so sluggish, and I pulled newly acquired information about a drug out of my knowledge banks, but the voice was a muffled version of the scientist’s voice, in my confusion I assumed it was an unknown voice inside my head and so it became thus, and once it responded I deemed it to be another person and so it became thus; Dawn and Nova are neither split personalities nor a part of me, they are extensions, based off the same mind, and that’s a two way thing. At the very core, we truly are each other, but as I am the whole, Dawn is the mind, and Nova the body. Dawn and Nova are different points of view, so we all share the same mind and body, yet can still interact and influence each other’s awareness.

It wasn’t a lie that I was tired, I really need some rest right now. After a moment of searching I found a light switch next to the door and turned the lights off before heading back to the bed, the bed which is now my bed. I crawled inside and quickly fell asleep.

My awakening was rather rude; a man stood over me with a gun pointed at my face, it was still dark and thus difficult to make out all the details but he seemed excessively tall and lanky, and was bald yet had a glorious grey beard adorning his wrinkled face.

“Oh look, it’s a wizard. Did you lose your pointy hat Mr Wizard?” I say in a flat voice seasoned with sarcasm.

He cracks a small smile and returns my quip, “indeed, I have lost my hat… now that you bring it up my staff and spell book also seem to have gone missing, would you mind helping me find it Miss Sleeping Beauty?”

“Of course, I’ll help, it wouldn’t do for Mr Wizard to be without his pointy hat! Though, did you truly use a spell book? Such outdated technology… This is the digital age you know?” I reply.

“It’s a family heirloom, passed down from father to son, it was written by my great great grandfather; Merlin” he sarcastically replies.

“Oh my gosh, THE ‘Merlin’?! That book is ALMOST as important as the pointy hat!” I continue, unwilling to lose this competition.

“You speak the truth, I am lost without the hat,” he finishes off.

“… So, who are you?” I ask, the game having ended in a moment of silence.

“I could ask the same, no? Where is Mr Brunner?” he asked demandingly.

“Mr Brunner? Who’s… Ah!” I said with legitimate realization in my voice. “The dogs are fun to play with, but they don’t deserve to spend a night in a lady’s room, Voss should be sleeping outside somewhere… From today, I run the show around here, whether people realise it or not.”

After a moment of silence the man bursts out with laughter, “HAHA, little shit had it coming! I like you miss, lots of potential in this line of work… I’ll meet you later, save your introductions for then. I’ve got some things to clean up, ciao.”

I smiled as I watched the man leave, I liked him too, seems like we’ll be getting along for a while.

I spent the next week disciplining Voss, solidifying my position internally, and doing reforms from the shadows, the staff of the mansion were grateful for the reduced hours and all willingly serve me, I even got some more private time with Annie.

The maids were all permitted to wear longer skirts again – except for Annie, I shortened that one even further. She was embarrassed at first but she got used flaunting it around Kyler – who I forcibly promoted – quite quickly.

Mr Wizard was nice enough to go around getting rid of people who were dissatisfied with my leadership, I learned that his name was Wesley but he seems to have taken a liking to being called Mr Wizard; he even found a pointy hat for himself.

It was unofficial, but I was the new boss of the gang; nobody questioned it when they saw Mr Wizard’s loyalty and Voss’ fear. Kyler was promoted to my second in command, he seems quite satisfied with that, even if he didn’t fully regain his position he was happy to work for me after he saw Voss quivering under my glare.

Now that everything is sorted, I suppose it’s time to announce my position to all the grunts of the organisation and make it official.