Khaos turned back to the two women. The atmosphere in the void layer grew heavy. Gravity seemed to increase tenfold, pressing them down onto their knees.

  "We gave you a chance to speak," Khaos said. "You used it to try and seduce that boy over there. The negotiation phase is over. Prepare for death."

  "Please!" Bai Ruo cried while prostrating herself. "We apologize! She’s stupid! She’s arrogant! She’s a noble who always got her way. She doesn't know how to beg! But I do! I’m begging! Don't eat us!"

  "We won't eat you," Khaos said. "I already know that weak boy’s thoughts on the matter. You have hands. You can work instead."

  He looked at Li Yu. "Give me your hand."

  Li Yu extended his hand. "I was thinking of a Mutual Soul Contract," Li Yu said. "One where they retain their free will but cannot harm me and I cannot make them do anything below their bottom line. It builds loyalty and is what most of my followers have with me."

  Si Luo and Bai Ruo looked up, hope sparking in their eyes. A Mutual Contract was the best one could ask for after having been defeated by the enemy. It allowed them many forms of freedom and they didn’t have to listen to anything that went against their bottom line. Such as killing their family or betraying their lineage or clans.

  "Mutual?" Khaos laughed at Li Yu. It was a cruel, sharp sound. "You want to be partners with a thief who just tried to brainwash you? No. You are still too naive boy. When will you grow up and learn?"

  Khaos began to draw a sigil in the air. It wasn't the golden light of a standard contract. It was a dark, twisting rune of ancient domination.

  "This is the Void-Shackle Contract. Something of my own lineage. Fitting for creatures of the void. A slave seal of absolute obedience.." Khaos announced.

  Si Luo’s eyes widened in horror as if she had heard the name before. "No... You can't!"

  He didn’t listen to her or even slow down in his movements. He flicked his wrist. The dark rune split into two and shot forward.

  "NO!" Si Luo screamed while trying to scramble backward into the mist. However, she was once again locked up in Khaos’s void prison.

  "Mercy!" Bai Ruo wept.

  The runes ignored their pleas. They slammed into the foreheads of the two women.

  SSSZZZT.

  There was a sound like searing meat. Both women screamed while clutching their heads, arching their backs as the black ink sank into their skin, burning itself directly onto their souls. It lasted only a second but it felt like an eternity.

  When it was over, Si Luo and Bai Ruo collapsed on the floor. They were panting with sweat dripping from their faces.

  On their foreheads a small intricate black tattoo pulsed once and then faded beneath the skin.

  They looked up at Li Yu. Their eyes were filled with despair. They could feel it—the absolute, crushing weight of the connection. Their lives were no longer their own. If Li Yu ordered them to stop breathing they would. If he died, they died. They had no rights, no bottom line, no refusal.

  "Slaves," Si Luo whispered as tears streaked her purple cheeks. "A Matriarch of the Violet-Weave... reduced to a slave."

  Bai Ruo just curled into a ball with silent sobs shaking her shoulders. Li Yu looked at his hand and felt the new connection. It felt heavy. Cold. He looked at Khaos.

  "Was that necessary?" Li Yu asked. "Absolute slavery breeds resentment."

  "Resentment is better than betrayal," Khaos said with his arms still crossed. "They are untrustworthy. She has mind-control abilities. You do not give a leash to a tiger; you put it in a cage. Now, the cage is in your mind."

  Khaos then faded away as he went back to the Koi Sanctuary. Li Yu was upset at the outcome but he understood where Khaos was coming from. If he himself had been stronger, had been better, had been smarter. He could have dealt with these two from start to finish. Khaos had to step in twice to help him already.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Handle them, Little Crab. They are yours now. Make them useful. Or break them. I do not care." Khaos’s voice rang in his mind.

  “Thank you, Khaos. For your help once again.” Li Yu replied back to him.

  The silence in the First Void Layer was thick. Li Yu sighed now that everything was done. He knelt down.

  Si Luo flinched violently, scrambling back. "Please... don't... I won't use the charm again. I swear."

  Li Yu stopped. He saw the terror in her eyes. It wasn't the fear of a beast facing a predator anymore; it was the fear of a person who had lost their autonomy.

  "I am not Khaos," Li Yu said gently to her.

  He sat down on the floor with them and brought himself to their eye level.

  "I didn't ask for a Slave Seal," Li Yu said. "And I don't like using them. I believe that loyalty earned is stronger than loyalty forced. However, I also understand why my friend there did it."

  Bai Ruo looked up and was wiping her eyes. "But... you have it. You own us."

  "I hold the leash," Li Yu agreed. "But I choose how tight to pull it."

  He looked at Si Luo. "I will make you a promise. A verbal contract, since the spiritual one is already set."

  They both looked at him. They were now technically his belongings if he so wished it. The only thing they could hope for now is that he was a good person.

  "I will never order you to do something that violates your bottomline," Li Yu vowed, his voice steady and sincere. "It will be like we have a mutual contract. I will never send you to die as fodder. And I will never treat you as objects."

  He extended a hand to both of them.

  "To me, this is still a partnership. You work for me, you help me and in return you can get resources and growth as well. We can grow stronger together and perhaps we will eventually find a way to return both of you home. I would also like to visit your realm if we can figure out a way to travel between realms safely."

  Si Luo stared at his hand and then at his face. She looked for the lie. She looked for the deception. But Li Yu’s eyes were clear. Possibly the clearest and most sincere eyes she had ever seen outside of her own parents. His eyes still couldn’t help themselves and kept looking down every now and again but they were the calm and honest gaze of a person who was speaking truthfully.

  "You... you would help us go home?" Si Luo whispered. "Even though we belong to you?"

  "I don't want slaves," Li Yu said. "I want crewmates. If we find a way to your home and you want to leave, I will find a way to dissolve the seal. That is my word as a cultivator."

  She hesitated but then slowly reached out her trembling hand. Her pale purple fingers brushed his.

  "I..." Si Luo swallowed hard. "This servant... Si Luo... greet master."

  Bai Ruo scrambled over slowly as well and grabbed Li Yu’s other hand with both of hers. "And Bai Ruo! Bai Ruo greets the Master too! I will organize everything!"

  Li Yu smiled as he was helping them both to their feet.

  "First rule," Li Yu said while dusting off his robes. "Don't call me Master. Call me Li Yu."

  "As you wish... Li Yu," Si Luo tested the name. It felt strange and would take getting used to.

  “Since it might attract too much attention you both should revert to your beast forms most of the time as well.” Li Yu said. He pulled out a thin leather cord from his storage ring. Intending to use it as a necklace.

  "Revert to your beast forms. But make them small. Ornament size. You both can stay on me as a necklace." Li Yu continued.

  Si Luo and Bai Ruo exchanged a glance. They nodded. However Si Luo tossed the leather cord and created a necklace using her silk threads.

  Poof.

  With a swirl of purple and white energy, the two women vanished. In their place, floating in the air, were two tiny creatures, each no bigger than a thumb.

  Si Luo had become a tiny, exquisite spider that looked like it was made of black crystal with purple accents. Bai Ruo had become a small, curled white pendant that looked like a smooth pearl.

  They floated over to Li Yu. Si Luo grabbed on to the silk thread necklace she made with her legs and Bai Ruo curled around it.

  Li Yu tied the necklace around his neck. The two "ornaments" settled against his chest, humming with faint void energy.

  "Comfortable?" Li Yu asked while slightly tapping the tiny spider.

  'Surprisingly so,' Si Luo’s voice projected into his mind. It was clear thanks to the seal. 'Your aura... it is like the deep ocean. It is calming.'

  "Good," Li Yu said.

  He closed his eyes and pushed against the veil of the First Void Layer. With a step, he transitioned back to the material world.

  He reappeared in the alleyway in Glint-Edge. The heat came back instantly and Li Yu was happy to be back. Tekton had been waiting outside and he introduced the two to Tekton. They were surprised that Li Yu had a Divine Transformation beast as a bracelet but then thought back to the old man that had caught them.

  Now that the danger was over and the immediate future settled for now. Li Yu looked up at the sky. He had recovered his stolen goods, gained two new companions and learned a valuable lesson.

  "Time to move on.” Li Yu said to himself as he made his way out of town. He stopped by the guard station in the town to tell them that he had caught and killed the thieves. There shouldn’t be anymore thieves in the town anymore.