Prefon's POV
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My back was hurting painfully, not just my back, but every part of my body.

For some reason, the work today was so much harder than yesterday's. On top of that, I was starving, and I had to wait forty-seven more minutes to eat.

The hard ground made it all worse as I lay down, feeling way too exhausted to keep standing.

I turned my body in the direction of the male sleeping beside me.

Humans weren't allowed to talk to each other in the sleeping rooms, and I groaned internally because I really wanted to ask him how his own day went, even though I knew the answer. But there were ears and eyes everywhere. Even as we took in oxygen, we were watched. I didn't want to risk getting a punishment, and worse, making him get one as well.

I looked away from him. He had obviously given up on tonight's dinner.

The truth was, I wasn't supposed to be working this hard. All my life, I had never worked as physically hard as the other humans bred by Mistress Elena. I was special, like she said. I didn't deserve hard labor, she claimed.

Mistress Elena had left for some undisclosed place three days ago and didn't say when she would be back.

The fairy workers who despised me had put me to work because, according to them, there was an illness wave in one of the buildings, which meant a lot of human workers were incapable of working, so I had to do their jobs.

Which, of course, was a huge lie. They kicked me out of the room I shared with Mistress Elena, and well, that's it.

Now I'm here, lying on a mat, with aching muscles and an empty stomach, waiting for the trash they serve as food.

According to Mistress Elena, my mother, who was named Elsa, worked as one of the whores in her empire, Ryauche. Which meant power in the fae language, if you're wondering. It was really a massive place, comprising large acres of land that sometimes seemed to have no end.

There was the pregnancy building, where expecting or pregnant female humans were kept, and basically, she had sections for each stage of life. But as soon as the humans turned fifteen, she put them to work.

Don't get me wrong, humans all started manually working at the age of five... excluding me. I've stated this before, in Mistress Elena's words, my body wasn't created for labor. When I say work, I mean their bodies.

Fairies were very sexual beings. In Ryauche, human females were turned into full-time whores. No other work, and if you were lucky or unlucky, depending on your experience, then you get sold as pets, and that thought really made me shiver.

Human males were not sought after for sex by female fairies; I've been told their vaginas were too wide for any human penis to satisfy. So human males were mostly sold as pets or slaves to female fairies and used as a workforce in Ryauche.

Failure to adhere to the rules, you die. Try to escape, you die. Make one silly mistake, you die. It's simple. Now back to my mother's story, which morphed mine.

Mistress Elena told me that my mother was one of the best whores she had ever bred in Ryauch. For a human, she was exceptionally beautiful, smart, well-spoken, and a lot of the fairies desired her. She said my mother was so sought after, there was barely time for breaks.

Those words slithered through me when she uttered them. And I imagined my body being used that much.

Then one day, a higher official - the former prime minister of the kingdom - came to visit, and he saw my mother. My mother intrigued and charmed him, and he became a regular visitor.

He would only ever request my mother, and sometimes would pay extra and in advance for her. He wanted to buy her as a pet, but Mistress Elena declined. My mother was bringing way too much money from a lot of other higher officials to the empire to be sold. She was priceless.

Instead, Mistress Elena kept my mother exclusively for him six hours each day at an enormous price, of course. This went on for years, until it was my mother's time to breed.

Every female human had their breeding time. It was when they were no longer in high demand by the fairies, and there was someone younger and more beautiful that the fairies craved. That was when a female human was required to create another life that would suffer the same way they do.

It is a never-ending, inevitable cycle.

Mistress Elena said the prime minister blessed the child my mother would bear, as gratitude for the years she had satisfied him. I still wonder why he hadn't taken her out of this place, and each time I'm reminded that fairies and humans aren't designed to be that way.

That child turned out to be me. My mother died during delivery, but the prime minister's blessing manifested.

I was beautiful. Too beautiful to be human, as Mistress Elena says. I was also very gifted in singing and exceptionally good at playing instruments.

To be honest, I was good at everything I chose to do. It scared me sometimes, and it always pleased Mistress Elena. I was her most precious possession.

She wouldn't let any male touch me. At the age of nineteen, as a human in and outside of Ryauche, it was shocking to still be a virgin, but I was.

For the higher officials with tons of money to offer, she had me perform for them. I would sing, dance, and play melodic tones for them, and they would load the empire with money. Something about watching me seemed enjoyable to them.

Mistress Elena treated me like a princess. I slept in her room, we ate together, she took care of my body like I didn't know how to.

When I was younger, she taught me herself, while the other humans were taught by the fairy employees in Ryauch. From when I was little, she taught me how to please any man, she taught me how to talk, how to laugh, how to eat, how to walk, she taught me everything.

And I was perfect, I never messed up. I did as she asked, and that delighted her.

She taught me how to cook, how to dress sensually, how to use special oils, she taught me about herbs. Whenever a male fairy walked into Ryauche, she would ask what his dream woman was like, and any quality they told her that I didn't have, she would find a way to make sure I learned it.

She wanted me to be their fantasy in reality. A fantasy they could only admire but never have. It thrilled her.

I often think Mistress Elena was saving me for something.

For someone.

And I knew it wasn't the royals because if it was, she would have sold me already. She had actually taken me along with her a couple of times to the palace, and she would show me off with pride to the three princes and the king. And every time, they all gave me looks that made me feel naked.

I knew they wanted me, all they had to do was say it. They were the royals, anything they said was the law, but that never happened.

Which made my point even clearer.

From year to year, I itched to know her plan for me.

I let out a breath of exhaustion and stared blankly at the dark ceiling that matched the energy in the room.

Before I knew it, I was fast asleep.

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