Movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention. Both eunuchs had slipped out of their robes and hung them on pegs on the wall I hadn’t noticed. Both were relatively slight. Their bodies were virtually hairless, their chests flat. I couldn’t keep my eyes from drifting to their groins. The one on the righthad been cut some time ago: their hairless body was smooth, their body looking, externally at least, more like a female. I could make out an old scar where their genitals should have been. The scar on the eunuch on the left looked newer, the skin still an angry red, indicating he hadn’t been a eunuch for very long.
The one on the left caught me looking and ducked their head, embarrassed. They stepped into the water and moved toward me. “I’m Kyris,” they said.
“Shut up, Kyris,” the other eunuch (Jozel apparently) snapped. “You’re not here to make friends.”
Kyris pressed their lips together but didn’t say anything else, his eyes narrowing with just a hint of anger.
“Step over here,” Jozel ordered.
I moved through the water as ordered. The hot spring was deep enough to require swimming at the deepest point. I spied a grate at the bottom that seemed placed to prevent someone from accidentally falling into the deepest part of the hot spring.
I stood in front of Jozel and theytskeddisapprovingly. Reaching into a basket placed next to the pool they pulled out a cake of soap and some unlabeled bottles. From one of the bottles Jozel poured what looked like a dark wine into a cup and handed it to me.
“Drink,” they ordered.
I sniffed the wine suspiciously. Why would they give me wine?
“Drink,” they ordered again, this time a touch of Suppression rose behind the order.
I drank. What else could I do?
Under Jozel’s direction Kyris bathed me, washed my hair, then shaved me. Several times. The first time the razor slipped over my balls I shuddered, but Kyris just smiled at me reassuringly, his eyes wrinkling slightly at the corners. Apparently, they were taking Hestus’ order to heart.
I could see the whip marks on their body, along with signs of other wounds. Kyris had obviously been to war, whoever he had been before this.
I didn’t have much facial hair but being completely hairless everywhere else on my body felt strange. As they finished with the razor, my head began to feel suspiciously light while my limbs began to feel heavy. A vague roiling began twisting in my guts.
“You…drugged me,” I gasped as my stomach cramped.
“Of course,” Jozel answered, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Maybe for them, it was.
I began to feel dizzy, my mind wandering, catching on facts like a leaf in a stream, spinning in circles. I realized distantly that the water in the pool was flowing past us, disappearing into a hole in the wall. The soap and hairs that floated on the surface had moved past us and down the drain.
They continued their preparations. I had no idea how long it went on, but by the time I started to feel even remotely steady again, the water ran clear, and I felt like all my strength had left me. They washed me a final time then helped me out of the water to sit on a bench while they combed through my hair. They rubbed something into it that smelled like sandalwood and seemed to make it less tangled, then rubbed some kind of lotion all over my body.
“It helps prevent the hair from growing back,” Kyris whispered when Jozel’s back was turned. “At least for a while.” They gestured at their own bald head.
I nodded stupidly. The lightheadedness remained with me as they worked, and I found it strangely difficult to be concerned about much of anything.
After what could have been minutes or hours they helped me into a robe, donned their own robes, then escorted me to the door, one on each side.
I noticed Jozel pull a keyring from their pocket and unlock the door, then we left the bathing chamber.
The rest of the trip was a blur. Whatever had been in the wine kept me foggy and unable to see clearly. Voices sounded like they were coming from very far away, and I had a hard time just keeping my feet moving, even stumbling a few times. Finally, we stopped in front of a wooden door. Jozel pulled out another key and slid it into the lock. I saw Kyris’ mouth set into a tight line as she glanced from me to the room.
The door opened into a large room. A king-size bed covered by a dark blue comforter was against one wall. Blue seemed to be the theme for this room. Which made sense. Hadn’t Master Hestus called it “The Indigo Room”? The floor was covered by a carpet, so dark blue it was almost black. A few lamps scattered around the room revealed benches, padded bars, and an assortment of items I didn’t recognize. A table on the far side held a selection of whips and chains, tables with knives, riding crops, pincers and more. Part of my brain tried to panic at the sight, but I was unable to respond.
One wall was filled with mirrors from floor to ceiling. There was a fireplace with a large armchair in front of it. On the floor next to it was a small, padded pillow. The eunuchs led me there and after Kyris gently unwrapped the robe from my body Jozel ordered me to kneel.
My knees buckled as I almost fell to the floor. It felt like my body wasn’t my own anymore, just an empty vessel waiting for direction. I tried to fight through the fog of the drug, but everything was just too distant for me to care.
I was facing the fireplace, the warmth of the flames caressing my skin. I heard the eunuchs leave the room and the click of the lock behind them. Then the only sound in the room was the crackling of the flames.
Now was the time, I told myself. I could try and find a way out, but where would I go? I was a Mageia. There was no place I could run from the Elusians. My father certainly wouldn’t help me, my mother and brother were long dead. Despair clouded my mind as much as the drugged wine. I was Mageia. There was no hope.
I stared into the flames, lost in a drugged haze. I didn’t know how long it was before I heard the lock click and the door to the room opened. Hestus walked in, his eyes like pieces of flint.
“Stand,” he ordered sharply.
