Even though it interuppted her mid-sentence, Anya accepted the wad of cloth into her mouth with neither protest nor struggle. She had been gagged like this several times before, either by her old masters or their customers, so it was hardly a new experience for the little girl. It was, however, a rather old experience. Master Marculius had never seen a reason to treat her like that, only her old masters had, like master Sedillias or master Dontos. Although back then, being bound and gagged had usually involved a lot of other things as well. But with this newest master of hers, Anya was not so sure as to why she had been gagged. What role was she expected to play out? Was she meant to be a frightened little mouse or an angry little kitten? Different people wanted different things from Anya and they often became angry when she couldn't figure out what it was. And an angry customer was bad, really bad. In fact, only bad girls made customers angry.

The hot water and the scrubbing only made things stranger. The master held Anya while the woman poured water all over her and scrubbed, scrubbed and scrubbed. It felt slightly stingy - not geniumly painful but still noticable. Like the slap of a slightly annoyed master Dontos or the prick of master Marculius' needle. Unlike those, though, this sting lasted for several minutes and weren't followed by an annoyed snarl from master Dontos or the singing voice of master Marculius. Meanwhile, the new master merely held on to Anya's arms as he watched and watched. Anya could only speculate on the cause of these events, but she figured that all this would be part of the master's punishment. She had been a bad girl, after all, so it was only natural that he wanted to punish her somehow. Still, this stinging sensation was much too painless to be proper punishment, so maybe it wasn't part of the punishment after all. This lack of knowing somewhat unnerved Anya. The woman that scrubbed also worried Anya: what was her role? She was not pretty enough to be a doll, but not vicious enough to be a hound, so... what was she? Anya did not know and it worried her. After all, how was Anya supposed to act if she did not know who the others were? Surely, the new master would become very angry if she failed to meet his expectations. Yes, very angry indeed...

Luckily, the whole incident passed without as much as an angry comment from the master. In fact, he even looked somewhat pleased with her as the woman stopped her scrubbing. Seeing this, Anya couldn't help but smile under her gag. She had pleased the master, so she was a good girl! Yes, a good girl indeed! The master didn't really care too much, though, but instead continued to talk with the woman even as Anya was being dressed again. Not that Anya listened in on the conversation or even tried to pay attention. Good girls didn't eavesdrop, after all. And Anya was a good girl. Yes, indeed! Even so, it seemed that the master wasn't entirely pleased with Anya. He leaned closer to her and gave her another command. Judging by his voice, he was slightly irritated at her.

"Listen to me. You may not cut yourself. You may not punish yourself. That is my job. And I have my ways of doing so. Do you hear me? If you try and punish yourself once more, I shall be very displeased. Nor do I want you to offer yourself. I am the one you will listen to. Only myself. Until I tell you who else you may listen to. And my first order is for you to stop this talk. It grates on my ears. If you can do this, I will take the cloth from your mouth."

The order was a little puzzling, but still quite simple. It was one Anya could easily understand and follow and most of them made sense, anyway. It was the master's role to punish her, true enough, and it was her role to stay quiet if he wanted her to stay quiet. Yes, Anya would certainly follow these orders and showed it by with a slow, understanding nod.