Chapter 13 - Rita

Of course Aurora knew who Rita is, well ... not exactly, but she at least has a general idea concerning the fact that she is of low status, has some magical talent and that she is fated to became a servant at her service. So when Rita disrespected her by trying to touch her while Aurora was configuring the AI after boot, she didn't feel a strong emotion like rage or hate, but the mild annoyance one feels from a recently bought puppy urinating where it shouldn't.

For an instant Aurora contemplated the possibility to kill Rita and use her body to host the soul of the dog she still own in her own world, it would be more convenient to bring an already educated pet to this world instead of having to train this one from scratch. However this was not possible at the moment for the simple reason that, leaving aside the logistic part that has to be sorted with Aaron, she doesn't have enough money to buy a client license of the reincarnation server to implant in the servant for a soul delivery from her world. Moreover, it may raise suspicious when the servant girl slowly lose her higher cognitive abilities as a pseudo-human being.

So given no better options Aurora decided to take the challenge to educate this pet from zero. With that in mind she directs the AI to invade Rita's brainstem and cerebellum with a terminal of itself as a medium for control and punishment. At the same time Aurora scans Rita from head to toe to create a precise map of her new toy, there is no reason to be gentle.

Not even 5 seconds had elapsed since the instant Rita touched Aurora's small hand, but for Rita each second feels like an hour. She can't move, she can't breathe, she can't scream. Every cell in her body feels like it's being poked with an electric current, and the fact that every single nerve is being stimulated in a slightly different manner and frequency is rapidly driving her toward madness.

While praying to the spirit of light to let her pass-out before her mind is completely broken Rita hears the voice of a woman of indeterminable age in her head, beautiful, mechanical and impassive: "Nerve mapping complete. Brain mapping start".

Gladys has waited for about 10 seconds in her closet wondering why the servant girl hasn't followed to help her change "Rita! What's taking you so lo...?". "*TAP!*, *BAM!*, *CRACK*", But before Gladys could finish this sentence a series of loud noises reminiscent of a box full of potatoes falling through the stairs resounded through the room. Gladys ran out the closet only to see a terrifying image in front of her.

Rita was violently lashing out and convulsing on the floor in the middle of her room, harming herself with every turn while leaving a trail of smeared blood like a dying cockroach moving randomly from one place to other. Her movements seemed even more grotesque if she noticed that they were partially caused by the fact that her extremities were being forcefully put in place or repaired by Aurora whenever a bone dislocation or fracture occurred, causing a nauseating "*pop*" sound to occur. Looking at her face and body language Aurora saw Rita go almost instantly though a series of emotions and feelings: screaming in terror, howling in anger, sobbing inconsolable, laughing maniacally, convulsing in sexual pleasure, retching in disgust, crying from joy, and going almost limp with a haunted gaze. And because Rita's vocal cords were paralyzed everything happened with almost no sound coming from her mouth, but a heavy breathing noise.

Glady's mind was racing thinking of the possible outcomes from this incident: pondering one moment how she will dispose Rita's corpse, what she will tell her husband and how much money he will have to spend to shut up the servants, specially Bertha; after witnessing Aurora healing Rita repeatedly to not let her die she relaxed a little and wondered if it was not her duty as a mother to teach her daughter to not torture the servants. But she had just had a near death experience at the hands of her daughter and she has never been better since, so maybe somehow this was for Rita's own good.

After 5 minutes, Rita's trashing receded in intensity, 5 minutes later she was only lightly banging her head against the floor while convulsing and finally after 5 more minutes she stopped moving completely.

Rita suddenly opens her eyes, stands up and bows her head towards Gladys. "I'm sorry for that unseemly display madam." Gladys opens her mouth stupefied for the surrealism of the situation, with the intervention of her daughter's magic everything that happens seems like a lie: the blood smeared on the floor disappeared, Rita's clothes are not dirty or even wrinkled, the only thing out of place was that the servant's skin seems chaffed and dry, oh, and she is not using her glasses any longer. "...That's fine Rita, tell me what happened." finally says Gladys after a long silence.

Right now Rita's terror is being forcefully suppressed, and a sense of duty and peacefulness washes over her while the mechanical voice of the AI, for which she feels absolute deference and submission, directs her actions. "The little miss has claimed me for herself, according to what was originally planned I expect the madam to have no inconvenience if I start my duties as her personal maid starting immediately." Gladys turns her head to see her small daughter still resting on her bed. She can feel through their connection that what Rita had said is true. "That's fine. Now help me change from this clothes so I and Aurora can finally leave this room." says Gladys with a tinge of impatience in her voice.

Rita stays in place for a second and after receiving a silent command she says "Of course madam, my apologies."

While the duchess is being dressed, Aurora asks the AI: "What percentage of memory is currently on use?", "72%" responds the mechanical but feminine voice. "That will do, send all current data to Aaron, attach a request for a catalog of useful stuff I could buy with the credits earned."