"You have failed your family," he tells me with gentleness I know he's incapable of feeling. "You have dishonored us. You know what to do." And I know that the honorable thing is to fall on my sword like a good girl, so I take it out and push it through his chest and show him exactly what I think of his precious honor. I will never have to apologize again.

I'm naked and I'm walking the white-painted halls at military academy, and it's okay because everyone gets hazed like this and I'm in better shape than all of them so I'm not ashamed, except this means they can see the scars twining from my back and down to my knees like snakes, and what starts as laughter and catcalls turns into confused whispering and sounds of pity as they realize how recently I was a slave, and I want to kill them slowly just like I did the man who gave me the scars, but I just walk on, seeing only red.