[i]Proof of my capture?[/i]

I hadn't asked Wolfe exactly what his task had been--I had assumed he'd been sent to kill me. But if capture had been the intent, I could only imagine what might have happened to me once delivered to his mistress. It would have been more convenient if she'd sent him to kill me--he could have pretended my body had been snatched by some predator. Instead, if Wolfe was to continue pasing for a faithful servant of the Empire, she needed to be convinced Wolfe was still doing what she expected of him.

I nodded thoughtfully as he continued to talk.

"For our plan to succeed, we have to convince her you're mine. If she thinks otherwise, she will call me back right away," he said.

I folded my hands thoughtfully in my lap. Wolfe made an interesting point. If his Mistress thought he already had me under his control, there would be no rush in bringing me back quickly. Especially not if some other more urgent task came up.

"I've been on Cholganna almost a year... It's not the most civilized planet. Not an easy place to survive," I said. "A person could become quite emotionally vulnerable, forced to wait in such a place for so long. One could lose hope, become demoralized... And yet the will to survive remains. We cling to a reason to keep going no matter how unlikely it seems," I said, a bit sadly. It was the truth, of course. A slave's life was without meaning, or joy. Yet even when they had nothing to live for they struggled on. Lived on. Not that it was much of a life.

"You could say you found me clinging to the belief my Master would return for me, that ultimately he would save me..." The words hit a bit closer to home then I had intended, but I kept it off my face and continued: "and that you overpowered me then offered to spare my life in exchange for my submission... given that I was not terribly treated during my time as a slave... it would not be a stretch to pretend I'd prefered returning to that life over have none at all," I said truthfully. "Some say once a slave, always a slave," I added. Some I wouldn't have minded punching in the nose, of course... but still a useful mentality to use to our advantage.

"Would that be enough? How 'yours' will I need to be for your Mistress to approve?"