Guest Post: Slavery and the Daeva by Lor Rose ( Serve Me Anthology)

~Once again I have the lovely Lor Rose stopping by with a fun post. Its always a pleasure to have her GP and I look forward to reading Serve Me.~

Imagine it, having your freedom taken. One infraction could land you in a life of servitude. You have no rights; your life's only value is what your Master paid for you. Come to find, your value was much less than you ever thought.

There will never be an end to your servitude. Your Master is your world. Every wish is your command and no wish can you refuse. Your Master controls when you eat, what you eat, when you sleep, where you sleep, your clothing (if any), when you go to bathroom, and whom you have sex with, whether you want it or not.

Your very blood is the sustenance your Master needs to survive. Master takes whatever Master needs with or without your cooperation. To disobey would mean retribution any way your Master sees fit because you are only a slave. And slaves had no rights.

Imagine if someone else held your life in their hands. This day could be your last, and yet you wouldn't even know it.

This was the world Aidan and Aaron lived with every day. They never knew what would happen. Their Master, Jax, was a cruel Daeva more commonly known as a "vampire". Though, to call one a vampire almost ensured certain pain but never death. The Daeva caught on that it was ploy from slaves to end their suffering. They're smart like that, you see. Which was most unfortunate for the majority of the slave population. Notice, if you please, only a majority, not all.

Most Daevas abused their rights as Masters and should, in fact, have been the slave themselves. There were a few Daeva who treated their slaves fairly, showed their slaves some respect, and a few took their slaves a life mates.

These Daeva Masters were of legend in the slave community. It was a fantasy to most, something unattainable. A legend Aidan hardly listened to because he knew the truth:

All Daeva were monsters.

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The above note was what I wrote when I read the anthology call on Storm Moon Press' website for their Serve Me anthology. Literally. I read the call and out came the pen. The basic premise of my note made it into my short story, "Life is Unforgiving", and some of the details were kept for the series world that "Life is Unforgiving" takes place in.

I have a habit of writing anthology calls in a series world I already have in place. Giving my readers a taste of what's to come is something I love to do. My habit has also been called "rude", "annoying", and "unfair" by one or two of my partners, since the books aren't available yet, but I don't listen to them.

Writing these anthologies allows me room to explore my world without the pressure, if you will, of having to produce a full length story of 35,000 to 40,000 words. Every time I've done so, something I didn't know about my series pops up.

For instance, before I wrote "Life is Unforgiving", I had no idea Daeva in this world hated the term vampire. It was news to me. I made sure to go back in my world-building notes and jot down this little fact. I also didn't intend for Aidan's old master, Jax, to ever pop up again, but I lost that battle. ;)

When I was writing "Life is Unforgiving", I didn't want the story to end. I wanted more. I prayed Ryce and Aidan would keep talking to me and turn this anthology piece into a book. I would've settled on breaking up the book into multiple anthology runs (which I've sort of done already, but I'm not talking about that today). However, that wasn't the case. Ryce and Aidan kept quiet near the end.

I set the manuscript aside for about a week in the hope they would continue their story. It's been awhile since I wrote "Life is Unforgiving", and I won't say if they've spoken up since, but I will say you guys will see them again in some capacity. I'll just leave you to stew over what "capacity" means.

Serve Me marked my fourth anthology release this year with Storm Moon Press and I'm not even done yet. There's a book somewhere down the line, too. I am a busy, busy author but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Lor Rose is a snarky, over the top, genderfluid, polyamorous demipansexual with dark hair and pink highlights (although sometimes the color varies). Lor started reading very questionable M/M fanfiction at a very young age in the closet. Literally. Though, that didn't stop her from getting caught once or twice. This early love of things M/M sparked her writing career. She has written for several anthologies at Storm Moon Press, and her most recent short can be found in their Serve Me anthology, now on sale in both ebook and print formats!