Morgan Reynolds: The Story of Shae (The Pagen's Hold Chronicles)

Chapter 4B

I was given a month to essentially sort out my life outside of the sanctuary. I was able to get a leave of absence from work for the full six months. Dilan, my boss was less than enthused with the idea I might be gone for so long and he hoped my return to work would be quick. I told him I was going to be away for some schooling. Needless to say I definitely didn’t tell him what kind it was.

As for the rest of things, my landlords were happy to keep an eye on my suite since they live in the house right above me. They aren’t going to charge me for any utilities either since I won’t be home to use them. I managed to reduce my car insurance to the bare minimum since it would be parked for a while, my phone was set to be put on hold and just like that my regular day to day life was essentially paused.

Family was a difficult one. My parents call me every single week to catch up and hear what’s new and exciting. I decided I wasn’t going to tell them what I was doing unless things panned out so I asked James for some help on this front while I was at the coffee shop one evening.

“Tye, I am at a loss as to what to tell my parents. Does your family know what you do here?”

He leaned back in his chair and laughed. “My parents have been told what I do here but they have no f*****g clue what I do here. They know I am a slave, they have met Master Pagen, they know I live at the sanctuary but it just doesn’t compute for them. In the end I gave up on them and instead of trying to help them understand I just stopped caring.” He had a sarcastic and mildly upset tone about him.

“Hmm. That doesn’t really offer much guidance.”

“Some of the other slaves have elaborate stories they have told to cover things up. One’s been on an ‘expedition’ up in the north for years. Margret, she works in the adult store, we often utilize her if we need a good cover story. She does improv comedy on the side – it’s her hobby, and she can come up with the stupidest plausible stuff on the spot. She’s incredible. The last time she called someone’s emergency contact because we needed some information. She made it out that she was a lady from a call center in Texas. I laughed so hard over the conversation I was literally laying on the floor. I got a cramp in my stomach and could hardly breathe. She’s absolutely priceless when it comes to that kind of thing.

I am not encouraging you to straight up lie to your family but if you need help or if you just need others to make the magic come real, we are all here for you. It’s something that goes with the territory I guess.”

“Mind if I change the subject for a minute? I have something I have been meaning to ask.” I explained.

“Sure.” Tye said in a flat tone.

“I am curious about the whole double name thing here. Is there a reason you guys have slave names in addition to real names?”

Tye smirked and was quiet for a minute. “You will find that we all go by a few names here. There are a variety of reasons we use different names but the most obvious one is to protect ourselves and our families. Imagine you are doing a public demonstration and it hits the papers or the event gets publicized in some way. You are strapped naked to a piece of furniture in the middle of a scene. Your name may be credited in the picture. Now imagine if that was your real name and your parents or neighbor or someone close to your family saw that picture. That might raise many questions which wouldn’t necessarily be directed to you but instead brought forth to your family. Some families are open but in most cases that simply wouldn’t go over very well. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, that’s valid.” I nodded my head. “So, you are Tye and James, Cheryl is Angela, Simon- I don’t believe he told me his name.”

“Simon is Thomas at the sanctuary. Derrick is Anthony and Cynthia is Natalie.”

I shook my head. “God this is going to get confusing real fast. What about Jonathan, Elizabeth and Charlie?”

“They are not members of the sanctuary. They are full time employees for the coffee shop just like Margret, Clarissa and Larry in the online adult store. They all make regular wages and go home every night and live regular lives outside of here.”

I leaned my head to the side as the idea flashed into my head. “Wait a minute; where do you call home?”

“The sanctuary of course.”

“But I thought that was a bed and breakfast?”

“It is. The lower two floors are slave quarters and additional facilities. You’ll get the full tour when you get there, it’s probably bigger than you realize. We also all have our own quarters in the basement here too. With the sheer distance between the sanctuary and here, plus the early morning deliveries and meetings we usually have at least a slave or two here at all times. The only exception is for special events at the sanctuary.”

“Hmm.” I nodded my head. I can sense there is going to be quite the learning curve when my training officially begins. “You’re just a fountain of information today.”

James grinned took a final sip of his coffee. “Sorry I am not much help with your family; we’re all here if you need something but it’s probably easier just to sugar coat it a bit and let the details come out in time.”

I nodded my head. “That’s probably the best option.” I agreed.

I waited until the regular Tuesday night call to approach the subject with my parents. I had worked up countless stories and explanations but in the end I just took the high road and I told them the majority of the truth as Tye suggested; I am going to work at a bed and breakfast that's in the mountains. They were surprised to say the least and had lots of questions I had to stumble my way through. The rest of our conversation went well and ended on a good note. I feel like I was lying to my parents but I know at least this is something they will be able to accept and understand easily; the sanctuary will undoubtedly be a much larger shock to them and there’s no point to address that unless I know I am staying.

The only other person I needed to tell was Lucy and I flat out lied to her. I told her I was going to my parents for a while and I just needed to step back from life. I didn’t say what was actually wrong, but I made it seem like there was something upsetting going on. I wanted to tell her the truth but I didn’t feel right about it; she’s the one into this stuff. She’s the one that introduced me to the sanctuary and she’s the one that flat out said she would submit to Master Pagen in a heartbeat. I can’t help but feel like she’d be upset and jealous if I told her I was going there for consideration. Realistically it’s possible I won’t make it through or I may not like it so honestly, what’s the harm? I’ll just have to face the music and break it to her gently if things pan out. Otherwise she’ll be none the wiser and things will just go back to normal like nothing ever happened. Won’t they?

The following three weeks flew by. I had two meetings with Master Pagen so we could review the agreements and get them all filled out and signed. I kept a bag on my kitchen counter so I could fill it with items to take along. The odd part however was just how little I needed to take along; I took a picture of my parents, some underwear and a few knickknacks to make my quarters a little more like home. I also had a binder of information so I had records of anything I might need in case of an emergency; things like insurance documents, my lease agreement, paperwork for my car and all of my identification papers like my license, passport, health information and birth certificate. Other than some last minute shoes my bag seemed far too big for what I needed.

Monday morning came and I stood outside my place. It was dark and the air was cool. A dusty black car pulled up about 4:10 as expected. Master Pagen stepped out and met me at the back of her car.

"Are you ready Miss Reynolds?"

I nodded my head yes.

"Very well." She opened the trunk. "Put your bag in here and get in the front seat."

We got back into the car and drove to the coffee shop. "This morning you will be helping to receive the food truck and the Canada Post delivery. After one more errand we'll be off to the sanctuary where your real training will begin."

"That sounds fun." I tried to sound cheery and optimistic despite the early hour of the morning.

"From here on out, an appropriate response to confirm your understanding is either ‘Yes Master Pagen’ or ‘Understood Master Pagen’. Really, ending most of your responses with Master Pagen would be appropriate."

"Understood Master Pagen."

"Very good Miss Reynolds, I have high expectations for you and I hope you don't let me down."

"Thank you Master Pagen." I was silent as she drove and my mind wandered to a question I had been curious about. “Master Pagen?” I started.

“Yes Miss Reynolds?”

“If I may, I have a question about the terms you use?”

“Okay. What is it?”

I collected my words and began to explain. “In the books and in the agreements and stuff, there are a bunch of words and terms in there that don’t seem to be used anywhere else on the internet or in any other books. Where do they come from?”

“Hmm.” Master Pagen sighed. “Which words and terms are you asking about? Can you recall any?”

“Yeah- things like Ortranoh for the hand gestures, Triassau for the slave positions; all of those moves and gestures have their own names and things too. I also noticed there is a host of other names for objects and devices too. Where did all of that come from?”

“Ah! All of those terms.” Master Pagen glanced over at me and grinned. “Believe it or not, those are all one hundred percent made up.”

“What?!” I blurted out in surprise.

“Yes and it’s for good reason too. As far as the Ortranoh hand gestures, Triassau slave positions and Cresan leash protocols go, they are all my own homemade systems. I had a need for them and a slave to train and develop them with. There are other systems of slave position; Gorean slave positions or Gor positions as they are sometimes called are a very popular choice. The reason I don’t like them is mainly because they don’t offer enough substance to match my daily needs. They’re good in a dungeon situation or one on one but I don’t find them practical enough for real life daily use.

Looking at things on a larger scale, there are different terms we are going to try ushering in as things progress. Language is odd because it’s constantly in a state of evolution. Ten years from now there are going to be terms in everyday use that are not in existence today. Other words will change in meaning and they’ll be perceived differently. Consider the term gay. It used to mean happiness or joy. Then it turned into meaning homosexual, and now it’s generally more accepted to mean male homosexuality. There is nothing wrong with that until you start looking at laws and begin considering how to write them.

Terms I use for implements for example are different for other people. A devils tongue may be classed as a whip, or as a strap, maybe quirt or even as a flogger in more broad terms and definitions. To me it is a devil’s tongue in its own right; that’s just what it was introduced to me as and that’s something I have continued on with. It’s neither right nor wrong, it’s just different.” Master Pagen paused and relaxed her tone again.

“The intention of using made-up words is to make them exact from the beginning and having them stay that way. I often speak at length about eliminating the grey zone in agreements and contracts. The term flogger is not exact. The term lashing is not exact. Yet these and many others are items and actions that are mentioned in most written agreements. It’s not my intention to make a difficult or confusing language of b**m; it obviously is going to be hard to understand at first, but if I’m successful this will make everything clear and ready to become legal. It’s all part of the sanctuary’s evolution.”

The car fell silent and I am in awe that it makes so much sense. I had never considered any of that before.

“Thank you Master Pagen.” I finally answered.

“Does that answer your question? I got on a bit of a rant there.”

“Uh- yes I think that explains it.”

“Good.” Master Pagen paused. “For the future, once you are collared; whether for consideration or permanently, I expect you will erase the idea of you thinking from your vocabulary. You are a slave that is here to serve me, not to think for me. You can believe, consider, guess, ponder, wonder; anything other than think.”

“I understand Master Pagen.” I thought about that. “I have a feeling that is one of those quirks about James at the coffee shop that I could never put my finger on. He never says ‘I think’ does he?”

“He better not.” Master Pagen’s voice sounded stern.

“I will do my best to break myself of that Master Pagen.”

“Good.”

We arrived at the coffee shop a few minutes later and I got to see the back of the building for the first time. It's much larger than it appears from the front. I followed Master Pagen into the receiving area and James was already busy preparing totes. “Miss Reynolds, I will leave you to shadow James for now.”

“Understood Master Pagen.” I said.

She left the receiving area and headed inside.

“Good morning Miss Reynolds!” James greeted me. He was very energetic and awake given the early morning. “Excited?”

I grinned at him. “I can’t wait.”

“Good. Start lining these totes up in stacks of ten, then slide them up against the pantry doors over there. Sysco should be here in about five minutes or so.”

Simon, Megan and Anthony emerged from the basement. The Sysco truck showed up right on time as James had figured and he parked at one of the bay doors. Once the truck was open it was a well rehearsed production. One person pulled the skids of product off the truck then each person set to work comparing the shipping manifest with what was actually on the skids. One skid was frozen, one refrigerated and one was pantry goods; otherwise known as ambient or room temperature goods. It didn’t take long and we had everything separated into the totes which then got stored into the walk in cooler and freezer appropriately. The order checked out and the driver was off. We tidied up the skids while we waited for the Canada Post delivery to arrive. With a knock on the door we were off to the races again. This time we unloaded a few packages and a letter bag. In exchange we sent out nearly forty boxes of product, mostly from the adult store, and a replacement letter bag full of the outgoing mail. The carrier was only parked for little more than five minutes and all of this had transpired. Anthony brought in the van while James filled me in on what was going to happen next.

Breakfast was going to be served at five and James made it clear that we still had lots to do before then. Fresh laundry and bedding had to be moved from the van and brought downstairs to the linen closet. Dirty laundry had to be loaded back into the van and the mail had to make its way upstairs to the mail room. Finally the van needed to be plugged in so the freezer and cooler units could be brought to temperature while we ate breakfast. We were in the café by 5:04. We drank coffee and I had a toasted bagel and egg sandwich. After breakfast I helped James sort the mail upstairs while the others loaded the van with totes. Mail sorting was difficult to do because there are so many different names for each person. Master Pagen has no less than eight names on her box and I am sure I saw James put even more in there. Each slave has a real name, a street name, a slave name, a book name and in some cases a maiden name or a nickname. Mistress Meadows has a few extra names too. James whipped through the letter mail bag like a machine while I took the same amount of time to do just ten envelopes, two of which I couldn’t find.

“Why do you guys list the character names in the books here?”

“We get fan mail every once in a while and it always comes in the name of the characters.”

“Seriously?” I sounded more shocked than surprised. “What kind of things do they send?”

“Yeah-” James confirmed. “They send anything and everything; could be pictures, stories, letters, questions- you name it.”

“That is so weird.”

“We do respond to some of them. There tends to be a good influx of fanmail following release cycles, then it goes quiet until the next one. I saw one piece today - for Simon I believe – but sometimes it can be closer to twenty or thirty in a day.” James explained.

“It never occurred to me that sort of thing would ever happen.”

“You would be surprised what we get sometimes. Master has a file drawer with a bunch of the good ones saved. I recommend asking her to let you have a look, she may entertain the request.”

We finished in the mail room and headed back to the warehouse. We loaded the totes destined for the sanctuary into the van. James and Anthony were on the road to the sanctuary by 6:20.

I stayed with Master Pagen at the café until 7:20, and then we left for the doctor’s office where I had an appointment for a full physical. The doctor was very pleasant and she gave me a complete workup. This was the first time I had ever done this and truth be told I was surprised by how thorough she was. She explained that some of the tests she was conducting were not necessarily for my age category but that Master Pagen had specifically requested everything get checked. When my exam was done I headed across the clinic to the lab to do blood and urine samples. Finally at 8:45 we were back in the car and on our way to the sanctuary.

The drive seemed shorter this time in the morning sun. Master Pagen quizzed me about my past experiences and what my interests were. It was a great conversation and allowed me the opportunity to just be one on one with her in a casual setting. Obviously there is a power dynamic between us but it felt almost as if it was just a conversation between equals, friends even. We arrived at the sanctuary grounds shortly after 10:00. It’s my first time back since the party. Now I get to see the bed and breakfast in broad day light and all of its magnificent glory. Much to my surprise I noticed a small building off to the right and the foundation of another building beyond that.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“That is the start of our onsite medical clinic and rest house. Currently it is overkill, but in another year or two we will fully develop the outdoor dungeon behind there and the indoor dungeon beside that. This way whether someone is playing in the bed and breakfast, or in either of the dungeon spaces, they will not be far in the event there’s a serious injury. The medical clinic will be also be outfitted to do our own testing and screening here. Annual physicals, STI screening, assessing and treating minor ailments; we can do that here which will go a long way to making everything easier and safer for everyone.” Master Pagen explained. She parked the car and turned off the engine. She gazed at me and a soft warm smile spread across her lips. “I’ve been waiting to say this for a few weeks now; Miss Reynolds, welcome home.”