Kaida (Kai)
Her 'home' had never been the same since that...girl was brought here.
Kaida's position of honor, of prestige, had been ripped out from under her without any warning with the red haired woman's arrival. Overnight, Kaida had found herself suddenly and unequivocally...second best. The pedestal that had once belonged to her and her alone now housed the Masters new favorite. She said her name was Ali, and that was all she said. She didnt speak unless it was an insult, didnt move unless it was to do something destructive, didnt behave or follow their Masters orders. And still she was granted the best of everything in the house.
Kaida couldn't understand it.
Not only could she not understand why the girl - Ali - was rewarded for her disobedience, but why was she even disobeying in the first place?
She was so ungrateful!
Couldnt the little fool see that Master had rescued her, rescued both of them, from the Hell Hole? He'd given them a home, a new life, and how did she thank him? By continuously throwing everything he gave her back in his face.
She'd even struck him last week. Struck him! Their Master!
Kaida made a soft, disapproving noise under her breath at the thought and continued to walk down a hallway of the large house she lived in. Lesser servants and slaves scurried to get out of her way, recognizing her dark mood and unwilling to put themselves in her path. True, Kaida was nice. She did her best to care for the new arrivals and the younger ones of the house, protecting them from most hazing and abuse from the other 'workers'. But the young woman had a blind spot of rage when she was in a mood like this - she would strike at anyone that gave her the excuse, no matter how small that excuse was.
Every day that Ali stayed in this house, Kaida's temper grew worse.
Their Master did nothing to assuage her anger and hurt either. After all, why would he?
He had registered the girls instant dislike for each other, and ever since he'd brought Ali home, he'd fueled that fire for his own amusement. He was certain that Ali's spirit would break soon, then the fire would go out and neither of them would be interesting any longer. When that happened, he would throw them both away, and get a new pet.
But, until that day...
Kaida turned another corner in the lavish hallway and arrived at a simple white door, which she opened, revealing the room she shared with Ali. The red head sat in the bay window, staring out not at the lush garden below their window, but at the desert beyond it. Her dark eyes were locked on that distant horizon, obscured by the gentle, rising waves of heat and the glare of the sun off the flat, broken ground.
Kaida frowned at her, closing the door behind her as she entered, the sound startling Ali and making her whip around to look at Kaida.
The two women stared at each other for a moment, eyes narrowed with distrust, dislike, and confusion.
It was beyond either of them to understand the other, and that made them enemies on instinct.
After a moment, Kaida spoke.
"Master says you're to be bathed and dressed properly, then join him in his room."
Ali sneered and turned back to the window.
"Not likely."
Kaida paused and glared at the other woman, her next words obviously coming with a great deal of difficulty.
"He also says that..." she paused and took a deep breath. "He also says that for every minute you are tardy, I am to be given 5 lashes with the whip."
Ali turned back to meet Kaida's eyes and all was silent for a heartbeat.
Finally, the red head stood and, still not speaking, turned away and headed to their adjacent bathroom to bath and dress herself.
Kaida released a relieved breath she hadnt known she'd been holding and sat down on the bed.
It was an ingenious system their Master had implemented. Ali had a remarkable tolerance for pain, and it was only after a month of beatings and whippings, trying to get the girl to obey his orders that Master decided to change things up.
She may have had a high pain tolerance, but she also had an unwavering moral conscious - she couldnt allow anyone else to be harmed on her behalf.
So what better way to both ensure the girls obedience, and continue her and Kaida's ongoing feud than to turn Kaida herself into a whipping girl?
For every wrong that Ali did, for every disobedient gesture and disrespectful word, Kaida was denied food, water. She was put to the lash, beaten, and other more despicable things. Kaida still wouldnt speak of what had happened to her the night Ali had struck their Master, but half the House had seen her walk of shame out of the back wing where the male workers slept. Her dress had been torn, and blood stained her legs as she limped at the end of a rope, led back to her room by one of the men. She'd been forced to wear the same stained, torn dress for three days as a constant visual reminder to both her and Ali - no one disobeyed their Master for long.
Ali had been toying the line since then, but it would only last for so long before she was back to her old ways, Kaida was certain. God only knew what punishments would await the girl then.
Kaida waited, lost in her own morbid contemplations for a long time. She was still sitting on the edge of the bed when Ali returned from the bathroom, freshly bathed and dressed in a clean dress.
Kaida snapped out of her reverie and stood, face blank and cool.
"Master says I'm to take you up to his room when you're dressed."
she informed Ali, turning away from her and heading to the door.
"How can you justify it?" the other woman asked, not moving from her spot.
Kaida turned to look at her, confused.
"How can you justify what he does to you? He's your jailer, the one who orders your beatings, your whippings. Its him that hurts you, not me. How can you see what he does to you, what he lets others do to you, and still justify the fact that you love him?"
Ali didnt look mad, just confused.
Kaida frowned back at her.
"He doesnt want to do those things. You force him to do them. Everything was fine until you got here." She gritted her teeth together, hands clenching. "He saved me - its you're fault everything has gone wrong. I hope he kills you."
Kaida turned away from her and threw the door open, leading the way to their Masters room.
Ali followed, shaking her head.
Neither of them would ever be able to understand the other.
