Alea is taken to a whorehouse. Like every whorehouse she has seen, it's filthy and the pungent smell mixed with spices and cheap perfume roll her stomach.
She is handed over to a woman who is instructed to dress her up and fix her. The woman uses magix, something that was supposed to be rare in the kingdom they're in.
"What's your name girl?" The woman asks. Alea is too numb to respond.
"I've seen that look before. Hopelessness. You want to die, you want to give up. You've been through so much and you think this place is hell..."
She brings her face close to Alea's.
"This place is worse than hell. Men come here from various places they have pretended to be angels or proper human beings only to show us that the human heart is ugly.
They use us for their own, dump us and society preaches we're the worst. We're outcasts, we're the dredge in their perfect society.
But the truth, little girl, is that they need us. The disposables. They need us for their sick amusement. That's why we still exist.
You can either hate the life, hate your life, scorn it, or embrace the life. Ten years in this and I still hate the life but I've adapted. You should too, little girl"
"My name is Alea"
"Feri. You're beautiful Alea"
"I don't care"
"You don't have too. Beauty is a curse. Here, take this" Feri says, slipping her a potion.
"This will make you numb throughout the process. Stay strong Alea. Survive"
Alea nods and downs the potion. It's bitter but the effects kick in immediately. She could barely feel her feet as she was led to her new master's room. She couldn't feel anything as she was tossed on the bed. And when he was thrusting into her like a dying goat, she felt nothing.
The next morning, she dragged herself to Feri's room and sprawled on the floor.
"It hurts hun? Come here" Feri says, dragging her off the floor unto the bed. She feeds Alea another potion and the pain disappeared.
"Let's get you out of that sorry excuse for a dress and clean you up, shall we?"
"Okay"
There's a mirror in the bathroom. Alea stands nude in front of the mirror and traces the marks on her skin. The marks he left. The mark that showed she was tainted, robbed of her innocence.
"Hey, don't look at that. Come, get into the bath" she does as she's instructed and cleans herself. Feri goes out to get something and Alea takes the sponge.
She scrubs and scrubs and scrubs. She's trying to clean out the filth that had seeped into her skin. She scrubs until the bathwater goes from clear to red. She scrubs until her skin peels off.
"ALEA!" Feri screams as soon as she sees her, scrubbing mechanically at her skin. She snatches the sponge and gingerly hugs the girl. Alea chokes back a sob.
"Hey, it's okay. You can cry. You don't always have to hold back you know. You don't always have to be strong" that was the prompt for the floodgates to open.
Alea cried, cursed, and cried all over again. She lamented over her miserable life and how she just wanted to vanish.
"We all wish that too but you're here now. You can't be saved for the meantime so just survive. Come on, I'll take you to your room"
Alea nods and follows Feri. The room she was given was bare save for a bed, wardrobe, and a loveseat. Feri leaves Alea to get accustomed to the room while she returns back to her room.
Alea chokes back the tears that arise and calms herself. She survived walking through the desert, what's the worse that can happen?