Space Prisoner

My Mentor

     "A-a-a-ali-alice?" I stammered.

     "It is Mistress Alice to you, Aria, but yes. It is me. If you think that this is going to make your sentence any easier then you are very, very much wrong. I am highly disappointed in your behavior. I know I've shown you better, and don't even think about getting me started on your escape attempt!" I opened my mouth to defend myself, but a quick glance from her silenced me. "Not only was it foolish and removed any chance of early release, but you nearly got your sentence extended. In fact, if it weren't for the state that you were in when you were returned to the prison, you would have had at least a year added to your sentence. In the time I have known you, you have never acted this way. Any more rebelliousness, rudeness, stupidity, or anything else like this, and you will regret it even more than you are going to regret your behavior thus far. Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Her nostrils flared. Boy, was she ever angry with me.

     I felt my cheeks redden as a wave of shame overcame me. Looking at her, I cast my eyes lower so as not to look her in the eyes, and my head lowered. One can only hang one's head so low when someone else is holding their hair. "Nothing that I can say will make up for my actions, but. . . ", tears welled up in my eyes, and although my voice was steady, it was low and raspy as I continued. "I swear to you, Mistress Alice, that I did not intentionally attempt to escape the prison. However, my falling asleep and not knowing that the cupboard was moved into a ship was also a lie. I  woke up when they moved it, but. . .", here I paused and struggled to put the next sentence together. "I-I-I I was more afraid of facing Mistress Silver for my punishment from the morning, and for attempting to hide from it than I was afraid of accidentally escaping. I know that doesn't excuse it, but hopefully you can at least see why I acted as I did."

     She regarded me for a few minutes in silence. Then she released my hair and stood over me for a minute longer. Slowly, she took a few steps around me, neatened herself and then sat next to me. Placing one arm around me, she pulled me close to her. I leaned into her enjoying her familiar comfort. "Aria, I know that this isn't going to be an easy time for you. You're going to have to get used to a lot of changes in how you do things and especially how you address people around you. Mistress Silver would never go too far with your punishment. Even though this is a prison, the general rules of safety that I used to explain to you still apply here. I will help you transition as much as possible, but don't think for a second that this means that I will not correct or assist in correcting you as needed. You are going to go see Mistress Silver in a little bit, apologize properly, and submit yourself for the correction that you earned previously. Not because Silver said so, but because you need to learn to accept the consequences of your actions, even if you're afraid of them."

     "But Ali. . .", I caught myself and corrected my address. "I mean, Mistress Alice, doesn't any good relationship of this type begin with being able to trust the Dominant? The truth is I don't trust her. Nothing about my experiences here makes me want to trust any of them!" My voice sounded more whiny than I had intended, but my indignation was clear.

     "Yes, out in the world, trust is a prerequisite for these relationships. However, here these relationships build trust through reliability after their beginning. I can understand why you don't want to trust them, but do you honestly believe that they would still be here and that their program would work if they did it without any respect for the bottom's limits?" She looked at me poignantly, yet my doubt was clear on my face. "The people who work here are trained Dominants, not the abusive, bossy asshats that often present themselves in the world as Dominant. The Dom staff here will cease activity if you exercise use of your safe-word. The difference here is the punishments may be postponed and continued later, as opposed to a one-off scene being ended by a safe-word, depending on the reason that the safe-word was called. Does that make sense?"

     Taking a deep breath, looked up at her, still not wanting to trust the other Dominants, but trusting her words. I exhaled as I spoke, "It does make sense. But I'm still not sure that I want to trust them. May I make a request?" I looked up at her.

     Alice nodded. "Yes, you may."

     "If I must go to Mistress Silver, I will, but could you please come with me and stay with me?"

     Her gaze softened as did her tone, "This time and this one time only, I will, but in the future, you will have to face these situations alone. Understood?" 

     I nodded, and a smile started as the relief washed over me. I trusted Alice implicitly. 

     "Good", she said, rising. She put out her hand to help me up from the seat, "Lets get going."