Disclaimer: Sorry, not mine. I don't own any of this stuff but the idea for the particular story. So don't sue. You won't get squat out of it. You can have my soda. Also, sorry, no smut this chapter cos I'm still building it up. Unless you consider an all-girls bath scene smut. Then cool.

Chapter 1

Ugh… where was she? Maria came to in a room too dark and hazy to clearly make out her surroundings. It was weird. She couldn't remember having been hit. Could the old man have drugged her somehow? Raising a hand to her neck, she discovered that she had been tucked quite neatly into a bed. She couldn't feel an injection site. Hadn't she read that traffickers sometimes used sodium pentothal in injectable form to encourage compliance? Squirming around, she came to the conclusion that she had not been restrained. Also… wherever they had taken her, this bed was really comfortable!

Turning her head, she still couldn't get a decent idea of the room around her. The faint smell of incense found her nose, but she couldn't place the scent – only the… could she call it texture? She could feel the smoke in her nostrils. It wasn't like cigarette smoke or even wood smoke. It felt softer somehow. Could it be drugged? Or hallucinogenic? Was that how they controlled the girls here?

Traffickers. It had to be human traffickers. She couldn't see any other reason for that loony old man to kidnap her from her bath of all things. Letting out a heavy sigh, she started to think of a way out. But how? She had no way of knowing how long she had been unconscious. Or where they had taken her. Hell, she could be in a different country and that lady from 911 thought it was a prank!

But she didn't have time to feel sorry for herself. At that moment, the door opened. Maria steeled herself for whatever might come next. If she had to fight or hit back or however she had to defend herself, she had to get ready… She heard fabric rustling. There were at least three people. But they sounded much smaller than the man who had taken her. She decided, for the moment, to pretend to be asleep and listen. The three talked in not-very-low whispers and they had untraceable accents.

"… I believe Mistress is asleep," Maria distinctly heard – it was a woman's voice. Okay, she'd read about this too, using already-brainwashed girls to indoctrinate new arrivals. "Ladies, shall we wake her? It's bound to be a bit of a shock, coming here so suddenly…"

Maria made her decision. She sat up ramrod-straight.

"No need – I'm awake," she told them, folding her arms over her chest. "And I want to know what the hell's going on."

The three young women, Maria's age give or take, gave each other puzzled looks.

"Where shall we start, Mistress?" the one who had suggested waking her asked. The other two looked rather afraid to speak. "I don't doubt this is surprising at least!"

"Ya think?" Maria couldn't help snapping back. Stress did that to her sometimes. But then she looked at the one who had spoken – she cringed as if struck. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. For starters, where am I?"

The three looked at each other again. It was vaguely unsettling to Maria, as if they could somehow communicate telepathically and she couldn't. The two in the back still looked afraid to speak, but the first girl looked ready to answer. She gestured rather grandly around the room.

"Mistress is bidden welcome to Asgard!" she announced proudly, in a voice that sounded too much like a Renaissance faire performer. Her diction was too careful and her speech too perfect. "We hope that your chamber is of comfort to you!"

Maria stared.

"Okay, does that mean we're somewhere in Europe?" she asked bluntly. "I don't have a lot of patience for head games. I'm an American citizen and if you've taken me out of the country, you're in big fucking trouble!"

The girls all looked rather upset.

"We do not understand Mistress?" the first girl asked more than said. "I fear we do not recognize these places…"

It took all her self-control for Maria not to just roll her eyes. These three had to be brainwashed but good. Okay, it wouldn't do any good to give them a hard time. So she sighed and decided to see what they did know. She pinched the bridge of her nose between two fingers.

"Okay, pretending for a second that one, I haven't been kidnapped, and two, this isn't totally batshit…" she mumbled, before looking up at them. "Asgard, huh? So how did you three end up here? Where are you from?"

The three exchanged looks again.

"Mistress, we are honored to serve in the halls of Asgard," the first girl told her. "It is the heroes of battle who drink and fight all day in Valhalla."

Ugh! Every word that came out of them sounded all flowery and scripted.

"Mistress seems puzzled still…" The second girl finally spoke. Her voice was light and low, like notes from a clarinet. "Indeed, it is not always warriors who do die in the battles of Midgard. And being the just and fair All-Father, the god Odin does allow us to stay and serve in his palace."

Maria blinked. This all made sense somehow. A bizarre, twisted sort of sense – it had to be a cult based on Norse mythology. So she decided to play along a bit more. She appealed to the one in the back, who still had not spoken.

"And what about you?" she asked. "Have you got something to tell me too? Like why the three of you are here?"

The girl in the back, slightly shorter than the other two and carrying a wicker basket, smiled proudly at being addressed.

"Mistress does me a great honor!" she gushed. "In faith, each lady unto the god Thor's harem is granted three handmaidens as a favor of generosity! We have come to bathe our Mistress and prepare her to meet the god tonight!"

Maria brought her jaws together twice like some sort of air-starved goldfish, causing her teeth to clack together loudly. The girls blinked owlishly back at her. She studied them carefully – the wicker basket borne by the third girl must contain some sort of bath supplies. Better she go along with it, considering heaven only knew how long it would be before she got a bath again.

"All right… Let me get this straight," she said slowly, looking back and forth at all three faces. They were a bit thicker-boned than herself, but not fat by any means – very strong and lean. All three had their hair up in a complicated arrangement of braids. And their clothes seemed to be of plain linen, almost like a Greek peplos. "I'm in Asgard because I've been chosen as some kind of… concubine for a Norse god. Assuming I'm not hideously drunk right now, this looks like it could shape out to be kind of fun. Okay, I'll go along with this."

The girls looked concerned, as though they thought Maria might be talking to herself and possibly disturbed.

"We should be glad to accompany Mistress to the bathing chamber and assist her in her bath tonight!" the first girl piped up.

"Okay, fine. Great. I'm totally game," Maria gave in. "But first, I need your names. I mean… I have to have some information to give the cops when they show up…"

The first girl curtsied prettily.

"If it pleases Mistress, you might call me Astrid!" she said brightly before moving aside.

The second girl stepped forward and dropped into a curtsy as well.

"In life, I am called Eira," she spoke mostly to Maria's bed covers, which were far nicer than her own college apartment, all silks and linens, with a large bear pelt on top.

The third girl inched forward and dipped into the lowest curtsy.

"And Mistress may call me Iduna," she said in a low voice with very harp-like tones. "If you please, we will show you to the bathing-chamber!"

Maria pinched herself under her blankets, winced, and heaved herself ungracefully out of the bed. She hadn't taken three steps forward before an ornately-framed full-length mirror caught her eye. The view that sprang back at her caused her to open wide her eyes and mouth with a sound enunciation…

"DAMN!" she half-yelled, half-whispered. "I look GOOD in that!"

The filmy, diaphanous dress hung off her frame like a flapper dress, fell to the floor, and was almost totally see-through. It was lavender – her favorite color, and embroidered across the chest and round the hem with swirling patterns. The simple shape set off every aspect of her body perfectly. It fit as though it had been designed specifically with her in mind…

"It's so pretty…" she said softly, touching the shirred fabric at her shoulders.

The three handmaidens sighed and giggled, watching her mirror admiration in seeming awe.

"The god Thor will be most pleased to hear that you enjoy his gift!" Astrid told her, studying the gown's hem.

"But surely I'm not meant to go out in public like this?" Maria asked. Then her voice turned to a yelp. "I mean, I can't meet a god like this! It's pretty but hell! It's see-through!"

Eira giggled lightly and tossed her braids over her shoulder.

"But of course, Mistress!" she said in a voice bright as a bell. "The god Thor must be able to see his maiden's form!"

Maria blushed to the roots of her hair.

"Okay, about that bath…"

The handmaidens bustled her down a dazzling hall, past one room after another, each tightly shut behind its own wooden door. At the very end of the hall, she could see steam seeping out around the doorframe. She nodded as they indicated to her that they approached the bathing chamber. Some of the doors had things going on behind them. She could hear giggling and rustling, even some thumps and bumps. Did this… castle have its own red-light district?

"If you will please step in here, Mistress, and raise your arms?" Iduna directed her behind a carved wooden screen.

Maria, who could guess what had to happen next, raised her arms quietly and let the three women carefully remove her dress. She continued turning several shades of red as they made admiring comments about her figure. Astrid wished for her suntanned skin. Eira found the few well-placed freckles on her body adorable. Most personally, Iduna remarked that the god Thor would love a lady who kept her secrets smooth for him. They wrapped her in a fluffy cream-colored towel and led her to small tub.

Through the next part, Maria kept both her eyes and her mouth shut. Every part of her got a thorough cleaning. Eira took charge of her hair, scrubbing it first with a bar that smelled wonderfully like fresh milk and something baked. After rinsing out the creamy lather, she smoothed on something thick. The heavy scent of roses flooded Maria's senses and she wondered a moment if it got her high. The rinse that followed felt like heaven, pure warm rose water. Then Eira settled in to comb her hair free of tangles. Astrid and Iduna washed the rest of her with charcoal soap, scented with vanilla, and boar-bristle brushes.

Feeling scrubbed and a bit too clean, Maria allowed herself to be led over to a deep-looking wood-sided pool in the center of the room. The water itself had been scented with jasmine and lavender. Surely such things had come from far away, if indeed they were in Asgard. Somehow, the whole 'being in a strange place against her will' thing had left Maria's mind during her bath. Then she startled as the girls stripped down to linen tubes of cloth and got in too.

They didn't ask her if she'd ever had a three-way deep tissue massage while barely supporting her own body weight in lusciously warm water. They didn't need to. Maria swore out loud that if she had the larynx for it, she would purr at what they were doing. Iduna asked her what a larynx was and she couldn't even find the words to explain.

Maria almost cried when the three handmaidens escorted her out of the water, wrapped her in another fluffy towel, and took her behind the screen again. She couldn't remember ever having been that relaxed in her natural life. They dressed her again in that light, filmy lavender dress. Then Iduna sat her down on a low stool covered in sheepskin and began to carefully dry her hair. With all the water squeezed out, Eira stepped in to comb it out agan. When the three saw that Maria's hair fell to her hips, they decided not to braid it up.

"If it is not too bold to say, Mistress has such beauteous hair as to compare with the goddess Freya!" exclaimed Astrid, helping Eira. "It should flow free this night, in faith. Perhaps with her unique looks and your streak of mortal charm, Mistress might win the favors of the god Thor!"

Maria swallowed hard. So far, she had ruled out being drunk, being high, hallucinating, dreaming, and head injuries. She had really been kidnapped and, tonight, some moron who thought he was Thor was going to do wrong with her. There wasn't thing one she could do about it… Biting hard into her lip, she tried hard not to cry…

Thankfully, the handmaidens chalked her watering eyes up to Eira's perhaps-too-hard combing. They smoothed perfumed oil through the last three inches so her hair would fall evenly. Maria thought it smelled, if that was even possible, of moonlight itself. Sort of like honeysuckle and a night in the South. She closed her eyes and tried not to think anymore. Then Iduna's voice broke into her reverie.

"The god Thor has sent this gift with his compliments," she said, fastening a necklace of delicate pink pearls around Maria's neck. The handmaidens cooed in admiration. "They set off Mistress's exotic features to perfection!"

Maria thanked Astrid, Eira, and Iduna for all of their help. She truly did get that they were trying to be nice. Each girl blushed, a deeper shade of crimson than the last. Murmuring in appreciation for receiving their Mistress's gratitude, they led her back to the chamber she had awakened in. Her hazel-green eyes scanned the room again.

Truly, she was in a beautiful place. She barely noticed as the handmaidens bid her good night and wished her good luck with the god Thor. All around her were gorgeous things. The hardwood floor had been coated in Persian rugs, sheepskins, bear pelts, and heavy woolen carpets. More rugs and complicated tapestries decorated the walls. There didn't seem to be a hard edge in the whole room. It was as if someone had decorated this room for a princess in the days of old, not just some whore in an unknown lunatic's harem.

Maria walked over and climbed up on the bed, higher up than she remembered, took one look around the room and began to cry in earnest.