Surprised and shocked

"Wait Rem's instance number is 247?" I ask Reginald in shock. "Yeah, why are you so surprised?" I look from him to Rem and have to swallow.

"Um Rem, I don't know how to say this... so my Ram is also from 247." Rem's face doesn't change for a few seconds. "A-so your Ram is...?" I nod. "She's from the same world as you. She's your real sister."

Rem drops to her knees. "She's fine. Ram is fine." She looks up at me. Rem has tears in her eyes. "Thank you... thank you," she says, jumping up and hugging me. Her breasts, which are large compared to Ram's, are pressed against my face.

Rem doesn't let go of me for almost a minute and looks at me, beaming. "I never thought I'd see my Ram again. And then she has a great master... thank you."

"This really comes as a surprise," Reginald says, standing up. "Rem, if you want, you're welcome to take the rest of the day off and think about it."

Rem turns to Reginald and bows. "Thank you Master. If it's not an inconvenience I'd like to accept the offer. It's a bit much right now." Reginald nods and Rem leaves the room.

"Interesting," I hear Sylvanas say. I turn to her and she smiles at me. "That's a big coincidence" she says. "Oh it is indeed" Reginald admits. "Rey, Ai, please keep cleaning this place up. James, Sylvanas and I will retire and discuss something. We will be in the lounge in case there is anything important." "Yes sir" they both reply and bow. "Come, let us go" Reginald says and leads me out.

We walk through the house and Reginald shows me some of the paintings and furniture. "This one is a real Picasso from Prime World" he tells me as we stand in front of a well secured painting. "Interesting" I say and look at the painting. I've never done much with art, I think to myself before we go on.

On the first floor, we walk together into a cosy-looking room. It is quite small by Reginald's standards. There are several sofas, armchairs and smaller tables in the room. "Have a seat" he says to me and points to one of the sofas. I sit down and Reginald and Sylvanas sit down opposite me.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" I begin immediately. Reginald looks at Sylvanas. "Well, there are actually two things I want to talk to you about. I'll start with the first. You haven't been a character owner for long have you?"

I shake my head. "Only recently have I come into money so I can afford characters. Why do you ask?" "Well, you mentioned to Sylvanas during the auction that you had a character that was giving you trouble?" "Yes exactly Hermione...I have tried many things but she will not integrate. The others have tried too, but she just won't."

"Exactly. So Sylvanas had offered to help you, if I remember correctly." I nod. "If you like I can show you what I meant" Sylvanas speaks up.

"Cersei still refuses to serve me" Reginald retorts when he sees my confused look. "So we thought that Sylvanas could show you what to do when you have unruly characters."

I look at the two of them. "Now?" I ask them. They both grin. They stand up and I do the same. "Come with me then."

We go back down the stairs to the ground floor. There, however, we go down again to the basement. "What you're about to see, I don't like to do" Reginald says. "It's important that the characters know who the boss is. If they respect one, then they have nothing to fear."

Sylvanas leads us into a small room. On the opposite side is another door. The furnishing of the room is very sparse. Only a table with 2 chairs stands in front of a black window.

"What kind of room is this?" I ask. The answer is revealed to me when Sylvanas presses a switch and the glass pane lights up. On the other side of the window is another room. There are several shelves on the walls with various objects on them. On the opposite side of the room is a large St Andrew's cross from which a person is hanging.

The person has long blond hair and is blindfolded. She has a ball gag in her mouth so that she cannot communicate. That's when I suddenly realise who it is.

"Is that Cersei?" I ask Reginald. "That's right," Sylvanas replies. "This is our punishment room, in case someone has done something wrong. I'm in charge of punishing the characters, among other things."

I look from Reginald to Sylvanas and back. "I thought you'd like to watch Sylvanas punish someone," Reginald says. "You are welcome to go in."

I nod and Sylvanas opens the door. Reginald stays behind in the surveillance room and watches from behind the window.