Katja felt her mind slipping away. She groaned into her gag, fighting a desperate mental battle to keep from losing her mind to the mistress' enchantments. Her position didn't help. Hooded, she couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything save her own, ragged breathing. She'd lost all sense of time hours ago, or had it been years?

A short while after she'd been locked in this cell by one of the maids, the mistress had come in. Katja had heard her speak the words of the spell not with her ears but with her mind, she felt the magic take hold.

Katja had tense, readying her mind to try and resist mind control, when she'd heard the mistress speak. "My spell isn't normal mind control, my pretty slave. I do not seek so merely command a puppet of meat like a necromancer, nor ensnare you in illusions like a sorcerer. My spell doesn't seek to overpower your mind, but the change it, reshape it. When the spell is done, I will not need to force you to do anything. You will do anything I ask. Fight it all you like, you will give in sooner or later and lose your will. Whether it takes an hour or a century, time has no meaning within my home, and you will eventually serve me, and love every second of it with pleasure beyond your wildest passions…"

For hours afterwards, Katja had thrown herself against the walls of her stone cage in fury, struggling futilely against her shackles, screaming into her gag. The spell had waited for her to tire, before beginning its work. Since then, Katja had quieted down, concentrating solely on her mental struggle.

Despite her best efforts, however, the spell made progress. She'd lose her concentration and some of her anger at the mistress would bleed away, replaced by love and admiration for the woman doing this to her. Some of her discomfort would change to a submissive joy in her bondage. Little by little, she was becoming a happy, submissive slave…   


Suddenly, Katja heard the groan of metal on metal as the door to her cell opened. Katja tensed, expecting the worst from her captors. Instead, she heard a soft voice whispering words of power. Slowly, gradually, the pressure of the mistress' spell lifted away. She shook her head, as her mind returned to its old self.  

Katja felt a soft, feminine hand, on her shoulder. Someone pressed close to her, to whisper in her ear. The silk of her dress brushed against Katja's cold, naked skin.

"Don't worry. I'm a friend. I've dispelled the Mistress' spell. I can help you escape, but not right now. In a little while, some of the mistress' servants will come for you. You mustn't let them know the spell did not succeed. You need to pretend to be a happy, obedient slave for the time being. If they discover you still have your will, you'll be taken back here, and lose become a slave forever. I'll contact you soon."

Katja heard the cell door open and shut again as her new, unknown ally left. She hung in her chains for what seemed hours before she heard the door open again. "Don't worry. The mistress won't mind if we have out fun with her, so long as we don't let her escape." The unseen visitor called back to her companions. "Hmm, guess she's not as tough as she looked." Katja heard a maid mutter. "The spells already done and faded away. Oh well, that just makes things easier…"

Katja felt the maid unlock her shackles. She felt someone loosen the laces of her hood, which was pulled off. Katja blinked. Even the dim torchlight of the dungeon was bright after being in darkness for so long.  

Her visitor proved to be the maid that had greeted Katja when she'd first arrived. Several other maids waited outside the cell with sacks and with evil grins on their faces. To Katja's horror, she recognized them as the maids she'd been forced to tie up during her brief escape attempt. "Turn around and cross your wrists behind your back, slave." The head maid ordered.

Katja didn't have much choice, if she wanted to maintain the illusion the mistress' spell had worked. Glumly, she turned around and presented her hands for tying. Without wasting any time, the maid grabbed Katja's wrists and quickly bound them with a length of rough rope.   

She spun Katja around and attached a leather leash to Katja's collar. With a sharp tug, she leg her captive out of the cell into the dungeon proper. Katja looked around. She'd bee hooded when she'd been brought in. She quickly realized she hadn't missed much.

Katja stood in a long hallway, stretching off into the darkness in either direction. On either side of the hallway, doors with large metal locks and barred viewing slits were spread out. Some appeared to be small cells like the one she'd been brought out of, others seemed to open into larger torture chambers. From within, she could hear other girl's gag muffled moans and screams escape. Some appeared to be in pain, others in pleasure, and few; both.

"Here, let's get her friend too." One of the maids said. "I can't wait to teach that haughty elf-bitch some manners." The other maids eagerly agreed. The Head Maid produced from within the folds of her dress a small brass key and unlocked one of the other cells. She disappeared in for a few minutes.

When she reappeared, Katja was lucky her gasp of surprise was muffled by her gag. The maid held a short leash. Attached to the other end was Thrycia! The elf maid had been stripped naked and was bound and gagged the same way as Katja.

She glanced at Katja for a second; a look of fright crossed her face, before her features assumed a blank mask of submissive servility. With a start Katja realized Thrycia had somehow managed to resist the effects of the spell too! Hope rose within Katja. With Thrycia and her, unknown, ally, she might actually stand a chance at escape!

She was interrupted in her thoughts by her captors yanking her leash, nearly pulling her off her feet. "Come on!" one of them said. Katja had no choice but to follow after her current captors.
Behind her, Thrycia was led along as well.

After a short walk they came to a stairwell leading back up to the mansion proper. Bright, early morning sunlight streamed in through the windows, despite the thin mist licking up against the panes. Katja saw a few other maids hurrying through the hallways going about some task or another, but for the most part, the hallways were empty save her, Thrycia, and their captors.

Finally, they stopped at a seemingly random door. The head maid produced her ring of keys again and unlocked the door. As they went inside, closing the door behind them, Katja could smell the musty air and dust. The room was empty, save for some tables and chairs that had been shoved to one wall and covered with dust sheets. Dust and cobwebs were liberally scattered around the room.

"We haven't used this room in, oh, two-three decades." The leader said. "No one will come by and interrupt out fun. Plus, if the mistress does find us, we're not goofing off. We're cleaning." She glanced at the captive woman and elf. "Or rather, some of us our cleaning. Let's help them get set up for their job…"

From the sacks, the maids produced yards and yards of rope, leather straps and a pair of complex gags. A pair of the maids grabbed some rope and advanced on Katja and set about making her bondage less comfortable.

First, her elbows were pinched together and tied. The maids wrapped rope around her chest, pinning her tightly bound arms to her back. The rope ran above and below Katja's naked breasts, squeezing them painfully. More rope was tied around her waist, with several loops running between her legs, pulled tight and knotted securely. Lastly, her knees were bound together and her ankles loosely tied, hobbling her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Katja could see Thrycia getting the same treatment. Their gags were removed and replaced with a different set of ball gags. These gags had a hole in the middle, into which the Maids screwed a pair of feather dusters.

Their bondage complete, Katja and Thrycia were put to work, dusting the room. The maids followed, making sure their slaves didn't miss a spot, and periodically lashing them on their naked breasts of buttocks if the felt the two weren't working hard enough.

With their knees tied and feet hobbled, the two slaves were reduced to a slow, painful crawl. The rope between Katja's legs sawed back and forth with each step, uncomfortably. By the time they were finished, both the woman and elf maid were tired and covered with sweat and grime from their exertions. They were covered with red welts from their whippings. However, their captors weren't done with them yet.

The two were allowed to "rest" a while. They were laid on the dusty floor and tightly hogtied. Their gags were removed and the two were given food and water out of a pair of bowls. Tied up, they were forced to laps it up, degradingly, like dogs.

Next, their arms and legs were untied, though to Katja's disappointment, they made no effort to remove the bindings on her chest or crotch. Her arms were bent in half, so her hands touched her shoulders. They were strapped together with leather straps. The same thing was done to her legs, forcing her to walk around on her knees and elbows.

Their gags were put back on, the dusters replaced by a broom and a small dustpan. The two had to work together, crawling along the floor, cleaning up the dust that had been there or had been dislodged by their earlier dusting. As before, the maids followed their captives, laughing and working over the girl's helplessly exposed behinds with leather straps.

When at last they were finished, Katja slumped down in her bonds, completely exhausted. Thrycia lay beside her, panting through her gag. To their relief, the maids announced that their punishment was almost over, save one last thing.

The leather straps were removed and the two captives were again tightly hogtied with rope. Katja was too tired to even think of resisting, even if she wasn't pretending to be brainwashed. They were gagged with regular ball gags and blindfolded.

"Don't worry." The maids jeered as they left. "If no one finds you, we'll be back to untie you in a couple hours, if we remember, that is!" Katja heard the door open and shut, and all was quiet.
A couple minutes later, she heard the door open and shut again, and heard someone enter. Oh uh. She thought to herself. Was one of their tormenters not satisfied yet? Had she come back to further punish the two helpless captives?

To her surprise, she felt the maid kneel beside her and begin untying her. To her surprise, when her blindfold was removed, Katja found herself looking up at the red-haired maid she'd knocked out and left tied up.

"I'm sorry about this." The girl said. She looked about sixteen, though in the home of a sorceress, Katja knew she could have been serving here for centuries and not age a single day. "This was the easiest way I could think of to get you two out of the dungeons without arousing too much suspicion." She finished untying Katja and moved over to Thrycia.

"Though I notice you didn't say you didn't enjoy that." Katja thought to herself as she rubbed her wrists. For the first time in what felt like months, if not years, she wasn't tied up in some way. She cherished her current freedom. The young woman had a feeling that, somehow, she'd end up tied up again before too long.

      "Thank you." Thrycia said. She turned to Katja. "I'm glad to see you are unchanged by the sorceress' spell, though I suspect our friend here had something to do with that. For my own part, I can only thank luck. I must be the first elf to have ended up here. She didn't realize how different our minds our from you humans and her spell was, if not totally ineffective, at least much less effective then she'd no doubt hoped." She glanced down, her face flushing red. "I'm not completely unaffected; otherwise I don't think I'd have enjoyed that as much as I did."

"The spell should wear off, eventually." The red-headed maid said. "If we can get out of this accursed place, that is."

"First, not that I'm ungrateful for the help you've already given us," Katja said. "But I'd appreciate it if you'd tell us your name and why you want to help us escape."

"Very well, I suppose it's only natural you'd be curious about who I am." The maid said. "My name is Nadia. I am, or rather, was the mistress' apprentice. I was studying under her for some time, before I realized the mistress wasn't interested in teaching me any real magic. She was just interested in a lackey to supervise the slaves and perform mundane tasks the regular servants couldn't be trusted with."

Katja nodded. That at least explained how she was able to dispel the mistress' enchantments. She made a note to keep an eye on her "ally". She'd learned the hard way not to trust sorceresses.

Nadia continued. "I began studying from her secret tomes without her permission. Of course I was caught, and sent to the dungeon to be brainwashed, and turned into just another slave girl. Luckily, I'd become more powerful than my mistress had expected. I wasn't strong enough to resist her, but I was able to save myself by creating a false-mind. An illusion her spell corrupted and controlled, while my real mind was safe, deep within me. Unfortunately, I had no way of ending the spell and was trapped, at least until you came. When you knocked me out, it broke the spell, releasing me from my mistress control."

"So I guess we're even." Katja said, mindful that if it wasn't for Nadia, she'd likely be a brainwashed maid by now, busy sweeping hallways. "So what's the plan?"

"Escape, eventually." Nadia said. "There is, however, one obstacle we must overcome: my mistress' fog. She was careful never to reveal to me how to dispel the fog. If we leave now, we'd only end up back here, after wandering the forests a few days. Only the mistress can pass through the fog."

"Great," Katja said, with a soft groan. "So how do we escape then?"

"I've got a couple ideas." Nadia replied. "If we could capture the sorceress and bring her with us, which should allow us to pass through the fog safely. That, however, wouldn't be easy."

"What? Take down a sorceress with centuries of experience, not to mention her small army of mind controlled slaves? I don't see how that could be anything to worry about?" Katja said sarcastically.    

"The mistress has grown complacent here, protected by her wards and servants. If we can catch her while she's asleep, we might be able to capture her before she can get a spell off. Even the most talented sorceress can't use her magic if she can't speak."

"There's still the slight matter of getting her out of the mansion, not to mention getting enough supplies we don't starve before we reach the nearest town, without the maids jumping us." Thrycia added, rather unhelpfully Katja thought.

"I've got an idea on how we can do that." Katja said, grinning.

"On the other hand," Nadia continued. "If one of you can get into the sorceress' library, you might be able to steal some of her spell books. With luck, I can figure out how she cast the wards, and find some way to protect us. I couldn't. If she saw me enter her library, she'd know right away I'd somehow managed to break her spell."

"We don't have to act right away," Thrycia said. "It might be advantageous to bide our time. Save for your "friends" none of the other maids know we've been let out of the dungeon. If they see us sneaking around, they might realize we're trying to escape. A couple days cleaning hallways should help allay any suspicions they have of us. We can figure out the best course of action, and make plans."

"We can also use the time to gather some supplies for when we make our escape. And we can find some clothes." Katja added, painfully aware of Thrycia and her nudity. "Though I don't fancy the idea of attacking a sorceress or trying to steal a magical tome, I like the idea of doing it in my birthday suit less."

"Alright." Nadia said, nodding. "Here's the plan…"      

Attempt to Abduct the Mistress: Who knows what might happen in a couple days? The mistress might figure out her spells failed. Best to strike now and hope for the best.

Attempt to sneak into the Library: Yes, waiting is a stupid idea, but trying to kidnap a powerful sorceress is an even worse idea. Books can't hurt you, not even magical ones, right?

Find some clothes: No sense in going in blind. If we can convince the maids we're harmless, we've got a much greater chance of success. Besides, it's cold outside…