Several trays of food arrived soon after. It was a better quality than Vi expected. Obviously, they were not looking to starve their slaves.

Vi ate for a bit in quiet, leaning against the wall behind her. She was trying to think it through. The place seemed like a fortress, but there had to be weaknesses.

While she glanced around, frustrated, she caught sight of a green girl with a tail in her peripheral vision. No way. Not that there couldn’t be other alien species with green skin and a tail, but still, she had to speak to her.

She sidled over to the girl, trying to look nonchalant. “Are you Mahdfel… uh… wait, no, that’s not right. Uhm. What the hell was his planet? V something?”

The slave stared at her. “Do you mean Vargys?”

“Yes, that’s the one. My, uh, Master, he looks like you. I think his people are from the Vargys planet.”

“So, your Master was Mahdfel-Vargys?”

“I think so. It’s all very confusing.”

The woman tilted her head. “It just means he’s a hybrid: father was Mahdfel; mother was from Vargys. You mix them together and you get green Mahdfel with tails. But always boys. Mahdfel can’t have girls.”

“Yes, that’s what it was.” Vi smiled. “So, you are from Vargys, too, then?”

The girl nodded. “Yes, that’s me.” She held her tail in her hand, picking at her skin in a mindless way.

Vi glanced closer and realized the girl had many scabbed places on her tail, as though the girl did it often to keep her hands busy.

“Did he actually sell you to the Boss, or were you pilfered?” The woman shook her head, tossing her tail away. It knocked against the wall hard, in a strong staccato sound. “I gotta say, it’s so strange to think of a Vargys or Mahdfel taking slaves.” Her tail rapped against the wall again, loudly. Tap. Tap. “It makes no sense,” she grumbled. “The Mahdfel, well, they’re cursed, and the Vargys don’t think about sex that way. It’s—” Her tail tapped again, restless and angry.

She gave Vi a hard look and shook her head.

“Nope.” She shook her head, no, even harder. “That’s not right. No way. I don’t believe it.” Her head went back and forth, rapidly. “Nope, nope, nope.” She stood up. “You’re a liar. I know you are. Nope, nope, nope.”

“Twelve!” called another slave, leaning back in exasperation and rolling her eyes. “Want to keep it down over there, or what?”

Vi reached up. “Hey, it’s okay. Hey, Twelve, come sit with me for awhile?”

The girl glanced down at her, mistrustfully, but then she settled down. Her tail didn’t move quite so restlessly now, and she took it back in her hand and started picking at it.

Vi rested her hand over Twelve’s. “You’re right, you know. My master was so nice to me,” she said softly. “He was a good guy. Very kind. It’s like you say, he could never be mean to a slave.”

The girl nodded her head, and a tear rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away with an angry swipe of her hand. “That’s what I thought.” She shook her head. “There’s no way. Just like I said.” She glanced at the other slave who had yelled at her and stuck a tongue out at her back.

The girl snuck a look around, but the slaves were gathered in social groups, eating. “Do you think your Master will come to buy you back?” She shrugged her shoulders. “I mean, he wouldn’t leave you here, right?”

Vi smiled. “He’ll be back, and he’ll definitely want to take you too. I’m sure he’ll even take you back to Vargys.”

The girl laughed at that. “No, we don’t go there. No one goes there. Master told me, the one before this one. It’s all just disease and death now.”

“What are you talking about? Haze never said anything…”

She grumbled. “A Master told me.” She put her hand to her face in thought. “It was the Master before this one. He liked to tell me things.”

The girl let out a long sigh. She began picking at some loose paint on the wall behind her.

“My last partner wasn’t sold. She tried to leave on a food cart. She had some arrangement with a guard, didn’t even bother to tell me. They killed her and the guard in front of us. Still, at least she got out.

“I wish I’d never left home, but I wanted an adventure before I went through the change and joined my own verlok. I was headed to an abandoned Vargys colony on Ballanger. I always wanted to see The Ruins of Ballanger.” She banged her hand against the wall. “My ship was intercepted by pirates en route to the planet. They only left the women alive; airlocked the rest.

“At first, I was so sad that my brother was dead, killed by them. Eventually, I ended up here, wishing I’d been airlocked too. I’ve had maybe three or four Masters …each one more fun than the last.”

Vi felt horror lance through her.

“You adapt though,” the girl continued. “This place actually isn’t so bad as the others I’ve been with, as long as you do what’s asked of you. That’s my big piece of advice. No matter what you’re thinking. Just do what they say. Get it over with. Right?”

Vi’s mouth formed a hard line. “I don’t think I can.”

The girl nodded her head. “Yes, I think we all think that at first.”