Thank you so much for the nice reviews on the previous chapter! I know it was a special one so I decided to update early (thanks to my Muse who worked overtime) so that the story could move forward.
Thank you so much emma . ray, I'll never say it enough. You allow the readers to be more comfortable without the misspelling, the literals and the grammar and allow me to perfect my English. Also thank you for the encouragement and for suffering through my doubts.
(By the way if I make mistakes in the note it's because Emma never gets to read it before chapter is online muahaha.)

Where am I ?
Why am I so cold ?
Why can't I feel my arm ?

It took me a few minutes to realise where I was. The place seemed to be a cellar and I was chained to a brick wall, my arm stretched up and numb as my body was lying on the cold hard ground. A few bits of straw were scattered here and there but there wasn't enough to keep me warm. I was still wearing the small tunic the merchant gave me, leaving my upper body uncovered. I had no idea what time it was as there were no windows there, and I couldn't hear anything. Good. It will give me time to assess what had happened.

I tried to gather some straw as I sat, massaging my numb arm with my right hand. I knew a bit about the human body, having received a very good education from my Greek father. Blood had stopped flowing, due to the awkward position I had spent the night in. I then rubbed my free hand on my face, trying to swipe away the strange dream I had where I was the involuntary spectator of a women's gladiator slaughter. The strange metallic smell that was reigning in here had probably influenced Morpheus into giving me that strange dream.

I was coming to my senses, memories were starting to come back to me and the pain that came with them was unbearable. Who was she? Who was the young girl I saw at the market? Who was that divine apparition that had stayed as still as marble while my new domina was purchasing me?

I slowly moved my fingertips to my shoulder, tracing the souvenir of the oh-so-brief second I had skimmed her. Remembering the touch of hers, letting my mind wander from her shoulder to her eyes, keeping the fleeting memory alive. But my fate was sealed at the moment.

I had arrived at the DiLaurentis' house the day before, and the odds were not in my favor. Alison, my new domina, had led the way from the market to her house with her three followers as I was walking behind, chained, with Lorenzo the Moorish slave. She didn't even look at me once during the whole journey, as if I was just a bag of wheat, but once we arrived at her place, she turned towards Lorenzo and ordered him to get rid of my chains.

Her domus was magnificent. Everywhere was ornamented with the most exquisite taste. Everything was in its right place, relics, vases, fabrics. Slaves.

A woman that I supposed to be her mother was lying on a chaise longue, vented by a young slave, and didn't even raise an eyebrow as Alison entered the atrium.

"Another one?" she said, jaded.

"I don't mind your business, don't mind mine," Alison answered. "Girls, you can go now."

I was still standing behind, so I was able to see the three girls turn heels as fast as Alison had ordered them to go. If this was how she treated her friends, I feared what being a slave in that house would turn out to be.

"Lorenzo, bring her to my private quarters," she said firmly.

She opened the way, as it seemed to be her way of showing the world she wasn't afraid of anything and that she owned everything from the ground below her feet to whatever she would set her eyes upon.

We arrived in a gigantic pink room, exactly how I had pictured it from the few moments I had watched her. Every single object was a show of power and wealth, every drape was gold woven, every vase was decorated with precious gems.

"Leave us alone," barked the girl.

It was the closest I had been to her since her inspection of me. My head was lowered as a submissive gesture, as slaves should always do. The wrong look, something that could be misinterpreted or even a misplaced wrath from a master and a slave's life could be ended as easily as a bug crushed on the floor. I was still able to look at her, trying to be as careful as possible.

The girl was beautiful and there was something mesmerising about her. As fast as Lorenzo had closed the door and therefore hid Alison and I from the rest of the world, her attitude had changed right away. She was looking at me intensely, as if she was trying to see through me, to know all of my secrets. I felt naked, more than I already was, as her piercing blue eyes were scrutinising me from head to toe. She lay down on a chaise longue, keeping her eyes on me.

"Do you know why you are here?" she asked, breaking the heavy silence.

I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't expecting anything to be honest, but her question fell like a rock on me.

"It's okay, speak freely," she said, her tone half reassuring, half irritated.

"I don't know, domina," I answered. And it was true. I had no idea how to answer, what to answer.

"I bought you because I wanted you. The moment I saw you I felt something, and I wanted you to myself. I couldn't bear to see you as a slave." She paused. "You are the most beautiful person I have ever seen and I-… Come sit by my side."

I was breathless. She seemed so…defenceless, unlike who I thought she was. I was still unsure of what to say, but I had to go closer to her for fear of reprisals.

I moved slowly towards the chaise longue, looking for a place to sit as she was still lying all over it.

"Come here," she said, softly.

She moved a little bit, making me some space to sit next to her hip. I felt really uncomfortable. What did she want? Did she want me to be her bed companion? It wasn't the worst thing that could happen to me. I was sensitive to a woman's touch, having to please some dominus by engaging in sexual entertainment for his guests with a female slave many times before, and it wasn't worse than being passed from man to man as I had been. I had accepted the fact that as a slave, I would never be able to do as I please. To please who I would want to please. I was resigned to do my best to gain Alison's favor to avoid the whip or worse, be sentenced to death before I could settle my eyes upon my Goddess at least one more time.

I sat close to her, putting my hand on her thigh in an attempt to finally understand what she was expecting of me, in a demonstration that she could expect anything from me. That I was docile. At her mercy.

She took my hand and put it slowly on the chaise longue. Her moves were slow, soft, as if I were a fragile animal that she didn't want to scare.

"I want you to tell me you love me," she said, her tone sweet as honey, her hand softly lifting my chin so that our eyes could meet.

It felt like a dagger plunged into my heart. Nobody, no master, no-one from my pre-slave past had ever asked that of me. I was a slave. My body was a slave. And my love which had been free all my life had been a slave too since my eyes settled on my goddess the day before. Of all the men and women I had been passed on to, not one would have broken that sacred feeling and expected my love. The purest feeling, that even the Gods are not able to tame.

"I-…" I whispered.

"Well then, tell me you love me," she said, her tone now hard and invective.

"I can't domina."

Nothing. Nothing but silence. I could see a world of feelings passing in her eyes. Sadness, anger, emptiness, outrage that I had dared not execute her command. And then a glow. A cold glow, like her eyes had changed colour, like the very pits of Tartarus were reflecting in her eyes.

"LORENZO!" she yelled.

The Moorish slave came right away, as if he was standing outside the whole time.

"Throw her in the Room."

"Yes domina."

I looked at her, helpless, trying to defend myself as I was taken away by Lorenzo.

"You will say it. One day you will say it. And you will mean it," she said, her gaze as cold as ice.

Lorenzo led me to a small staircase below ground outside the domus and it's the last thing that I remembered.

I slipped my fingers through my hair and winced. Some strands were stuck together, glued by what was probably blood. I felt a bump. He must have thrown me down the staircase as I was fighting back…

I was trying to analyse what happened. Who was Alison exactly? If that girl had to be a mythical creature she would have been a mermaid - those evil creatures trying to lure poor sailors into their lair by their charms and then eat them alive. It fitted her nicely. She was honey and vinegar. Soft before she announced what she wanted, and bitter and aggressive when I didn't comply. What she asked of me was just too strong, too real. I couldn't, not now that I knew what love was.

I was taken from my reverie by the light that was finally entering the cellar from the hole above, in the corner of the room. It took me quite a while to get used to this soft light, and what I saw froze me instantly.

Blood. Blood everywhere. On the floor. On the walls. On the ceiling even. A huge table was sitting in the middle of the room, adorned by many tools, each one more vicious than the other. My mind shut off. I didn't want to know what the purpose of most of them was. I had suffered the whip and the knife, but I had never laid eyes on such crafted machinery.

Lorenzo appeared on the staircase, walked towards me and unchained me from the wall. My arm fell like dead weight.

"Come with me," he said.

There was nothing in his voice that could have indicated how he felt or what was to come for me.

I followed him slowly, careful not to step in the pools of stagnant blood that were covering the ground. Was it animal blood or…I didn't want to imagine the worst but the purpose of those tools as I passed by them was clearer than what I had started to figure out in the dark - this was a torture chamber.

I was lost. Why didn't she force me to stay here? Wouldn't Alison want to insure that I would obey her? Wouldn't she want to torture me until I break and tell her I loved her? Or did she think that me seeing this would change my mind and make me more co-operative? There was no time to think anymore. We arrived at the domus and Alison's mother was standing in the atrium, talking to a slave. She was a very beautiful woman, very dignified.

"Alison left," she said. You'll obey me during her absence. And be grateful or you would have rotted in that room for days if it was up to her. She wants to be there during your marking so we'll do that when she comes back."

"Yes domina. Thank you domina," I answered, relieved. The mother couldn't be worse than the daughter...

"You're going to start by washing up and then you'll go with Lorenzo and Mindy to the market. I thought the sight of a familiar place would make you feel better as you were there yesterday," she said in a cruel smile.

"Yes domina."

…or could she?

Mindy showed me the way to a big bucket of water outside and gave me a towel and a modest toga. People could judge others' wealth on how their slaves were showing, and I guess this outfit was to show the DiLaurentis family treated their slaves as pig's manure but were still wary about their appearance.

Once I had cleaned, we went on our way towards the market. I hadn't eaten in days and was starving. The smell of fresh fruits and meat roasting on the fire was pure torture and I was starting to feel dizzy. We had to go to several places to pick up a lot of groceries. Mindy told me in confidence that the DiLaurentis' were using Alison's absence to host a feast to find her a suitable husband. She had the reputation of being quite a problem child and they didn't want her to cause a scene.

At the fourth shop, I noticed a slave that we had already crossed several times now. In the street and in two other shops. She was an old woman, around her fifties, and I caught her staring at me a few times. What did she want with me? Hadn't the Fates already been cruel enough? I looked at Lorenzo and Mindy who were talking with a merchant's slave. This was my shot. I walked towards the woman who tried to scuttle away but I managed to catch her arm.

"What do you want with me?" I asked her. I was probably a bit too aggressive as the woman looked at me with fear in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare. My name is Ella. I'm here on behalf of my domina, Paige McCullers," she said.

"I am not for sale anymore. I belong to the DiLaurentis family," I answered. Saying this name scorched my mouth. I belonged to them. I belonged to Alison.

"She knows," answered the woman. "She saw you yesterday at the market before Alison bought you."

Could it be possible? Could she be the Goddess I saw? Could she be…

"She wanted to see you. To see if you were alright. But she was afraid Alison would do you harm if she tried."

Her. It was her. I remembered everything as it had been playing in my mind since the moment was over. The look in her eyes as Alison whispered something to her.

"I…I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. What does she want with me?" I asked her.

"She wants to meet."

It took my breath away. She wanted to meet. But I couldn't, I couldn't risk her being seen with me. A patrician with another patrician's slave without their permission would assure her a blame or worse. I was someone's property, Alison could accuse her of stealing me.

Ella saw right through me. Her motherly face wasn't an easy one to fool. She saw that I wanted to see her. She probably didn't know why or how badly.

"That's impossible," I said, heartbroken. "Not with Alison, her mother, Lorenzo watching me…"

"Fear not child. We will find a way," her tone was reassuring, motherly. I have to go now before they see me."

I was looking at her desperately. She was actually saying that my Goddess wanted to see me. That she wanted to meet. Nothing else mattered.

I leant in to her ear.

"Tell her. Please tell her." I paused to catch my breath so that the fog that was taking over my whole body could dissipate.

"Emily. My name is Emily."