this is how a heart breaks

Now it was her turn to blush and glance away shyly when Siren deigned her as "the best". She'd never considered herself the best of anything, simply doing as she was taught and as she was told. It was easy to do what was expected of you; living for yourself was where life got difficult. That was why this newfound freedom felt so alien to her. All she had ever known were cages and prisons. They made life simple. Deciding things for herself, having wants and desires, they were foreign concepts and worlds she never dared dream of for herself.

Aliana knew of the young woman's reluctance to be around her initially. She had known she wanted to distance herself, though Ali could not have predicted why. She had felt guilty for dealing with the slavers? That was understandable, and the slow nod she gave Siren echoed her thoughts. But the Klein princess had no reason to feel guilty. She had done a wonderful thing for Aliana, and now she wanted her to know it. "I had been with the slavers all my life. They took pride in telling me how my parents had abandoned me and my siblings in exchange for a sack of gems and never looked back. I never knew them..." she began to tell to Siren, her eyes shifting between looking at her paws on the sand and looking out over the dark indigo waves. "I was raised to be perfect by their standards. Quiet, obedient, subservient, well groomed and well mannered. I thought they were going to try and sell me like I saw them sell so many of the others. But... that wasn't their plans..."

The monochrome fae took a slow breath, looking away almost in shame. "Their leader wanted me for his own personal use... As soon as I turned one, he had me. He was drunk and he wanted to hurt me, so he did. He continued to do so whenever the urge struck, and I did what was expected of me. But as time went on, he had... other intentions." Ali felt the bile rising in her throat as she fought to keep her stomach from churning. "He wanted to use me to breed more slaves he could sell. 'Pretty things' he would call them. He wanted me as his own personal breeding bitch, and then sell my children for profit." A quivering sigh slipped past the young lady's lips as she told herself over and over that this was her life now, and that nightmare would never come to pass. She turned her gaze back toward Siren, still unable to look the princess in the eye from shame. "That was to be my future, and that was what you saved me from. So, from the bottom of my heart, Lady Siren... thank you. Any guilt you felt or still feel, you should let go of. You've given me a far greater gift by giving me to Chimera than you could possibly know."

"Aliana"