Ita ena a’Serenity,
Your merchandise has arrived at Sallet’s Storage. Maintenance fees are paid for the next four days; please claim your merchandise within that time period or provide additional funds.
Ita hopped with joy at the short message. She hadn’t expected her plan to actually work. There were still some complications to get through, but the most uncertain part was handled.
Two hours after she received the message, Ita and eight of Legion’s bodies stepped through the portal to T’cherna. The portal was located near a market; all of the portal locations Serenity had selected were. Admittedly, markets did tend to appear near portal nodes, so that wasn’t exactly a surprise.
What was a surprise was the presence of Sterath in the crowds. Ita hadn’t seen that in her previous trips to T’cherna and she didn’t trust it. Not with the “merchandise” she was on her way to gather. There were a number of reasons that they might be there but the most likely was that someone didn’t want her plan to succeed.
Ita almost turned around and sent someone else, but the moment she paused in place she knew that was the wrong action. It wasn’t what Serenity would do. She was his Shameless, his High Priestess. She needed to do as he would do, however Shameful it might be.
Her entire trip here was Shameful, yet she knew it was something he would do in her position. She was confident he’d have helped her if she’d asked; that was why she hadn’t asked. She was supposed to help him, not the other way around. That was what being a Shameless meant.
They were more than halfway to Sallet’s Storage when a Sterath stopped in front of them. He tried to move closer to Ita, but Legion blocked his way. Ita couldn’t read his chestplate with Legion in the way, so she had no idea who he was.
“What do you want?” Legion sounded gruff. He was one of the many who’d kept the name Legion for their bodies and preferred to have nothing to do with whoever he’d been before he was Legion. All of the bodies with her for this trip were like that.
“I’m looking for Ita ena a’Serenity. I … she’s supposed to keep company with humans. Is that her?” The Sterath sounded far younger than Ita expected to ever hear outside a Clan. He sounded like he wasn’t even fully adult yet. Why was he here? For that matter, how was he here?
“I was outcast for my weakness. Only the Shameful would want one like me, so I sought out the Shameless. They did not want me either, but one of Tranquil Conviction’s Shameless told me to seek out Serenity. When I heard the ena a’Serenity was here, I had to try.” The Sterath was clearly trying not to sound desperate even though his words said that he should be.
Ita wasn’t Clanless until her Clan was destroyed. That was completely different from being outcast; in some ways it was worse, but at least her Clan’s conquerors fed her. That wasn’t something the outcast would get.
Once again, it was easy to know what Serenity would do here. Ita nodded at Legion; it still wasn’t a particularly natural gesture, but it was easier than trying to teach all humans to read Sterath body language. Her time with her Shameful One spoiled her; he always knew what she was trying to say even before she said it. Other humans didn’t.
Of course, he wasn’t human, even if he chose to look like one, any more than a more normal Shameful One was truly Sterath. He was Shameful; that was all that mattered.
“Why would Tranquil Conviction’s Shameless send you to me?” Ita waved Legion to step aside so that she could see the boy. As she’d more than half expected, his carapace was blank. He had no achievements or Clan markings.
The young Sterath prostrated himself in front of Ita. It wasn’t a natural position for a Sterath; it was difficult to rise from. Ita was convinced that that was why it was the deepest gesture of respect one Sterath could give another. “I would serve. I would do anything to belong, to not be alone.”
Sterath were not meant to be alone. It bothered Ita sometimes, though the people Serenity gathered around himself and her link to him kept her from truly being alone. It was still better than her time as a slave to the Kaelitha.
Ita had never really thought about what it meant for those who were outcast. Why should she? She’d never even seen them.
That was not where Serenity would stop. Serenity would find a way to deal with the situation. He’d probably find a way to make someone else deal with it, wouldn’t he?
Ita knew just the right person, too: he lay on the ground in front of her. He’d expect a test to prove that he wasn’t actually useless. This would be a good test, just like he’d expect. It would also address the problem the way Serenity would. Living up to her Shameful One’s example was hard! “There are a lot of other Sterath here. Are they also looking for a place?”
“Most of them are,” the boy agreed. “Some belong to Clans. I don’t know why they’re here.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Ita tilted her head in amusement. This really was perfect. She’d have the boy figure it out, then send the ones who wanted to join Earth’s Sterath to Azav. He probably wouldn’t like it, but he hadn’t liked a lot of things since he surrendered what was left of the Sterath invaders to Serenity. Maybe she’d even get him to recognize Serenity; while he treated Serenity as a Lord, he didn’t treat him as Shameful. Ita wanted to fix that.
“Find out. Gather the ones who want to follow Serenity and find out what the others want. People who wish to leave a Clan are acceptable, those who have split loyalties are not. Send me a message when you are done; the Voice knows who Ita ena a’Serenity is and you will be able to reach me.” The fact that she’d just declared that would serve as the permission the Voice needed to allow the contact.
Ita leaned down and set five Etherium next to the boy. It was an incredible sum for a Tier Zero but barely even pocket change to Serenity’s Shameless. “You are permitted to message me if you are uncertain of your task or are not certain if someone would be allowed or not, but do not abuse the privilege.”
When the boy didn’t move, Ita huffed impatiently. She’d forgotten the protocol in her time with the highly informal Serenity, hadn’t she? “You may rise and act.”
The boy pulled himself to his feet faster than Ita could have managed. He seemed shocked when he saw the Etherium and quickly pulled it into his Status. He didn’t say anything as he respectfully hopped backwards and left; Ita thought that was part of the protocol, but she wasn’t certain anymore.
She’d been a respected daughter of the Clan then a disrespectful slave. Maybe she hadn’t had as far to go to forget the protocols, after all. It might not be Serenity’s fault.
It wasn’t worth the thought. Serenity wasn’t one for ceremony, which meant she shouldn’t be either. Whatever the procedure was, she could rightfully ignore it.
Sometimes she loved being Shameless.
There were no more interruptions on the way to Sallet’s Storage. Ita was grateful for that; the last thing she wanted to do was deal with someone else like that boy. She didn’t know what she’d set a second one to do as his task.
Sallet’s Storage was an old worn-down wooden building. It was clearly whitewashed periodically but not often enough; the coating had peeled away to reveal the weather-darkened wood below it in a number of places. Ita couldn’t afford to care; there were only so many places that dealt in the “merchandise” she was buying.
Slaves.
Oh, they called them animals. That didn’t help, not when they considered her people animals simply because they were Sterath. There was more than one reason she’d brought eight of Legion’s bodies; yes, they’d deal with her because she had the Etherium to pay them, but showing that she was important enough to be properly guarded and having the guards look more or less human would help a lot.
Ita impatiently made her way through the process to get at her merchandise. The receptionist at Sallet’s didn’t even seem to bat an eye at the fact that she wasn’t human; it was amazing what having money meant. She clearly wanted the Etherium more than she cared about anything else.
When the receptionist led Ita to the area her “merchandise” was “stored,” Ita wanted to cry or scream. She saw dozens of people she recognized. Many of them were people she’d long assumed to be dead, either in the Kaelitha attack or the long years of slavery afterwards.
None of them, not even the former Unkaa Matriarch, gave Ita any trouble as she ordered them to gather up so that she could lead them to Earth. She hadn’t even told them where they were going. It was enough to make her want to scream; none of them had even looked up at her!
They all acted like they’d been beaten into being good slaves. She knew not everyone could get away with the misbehavior she’d used; not everyone had as valuable a skill as the ability to make portals. That still didn’t mean they shouldn’t have anything left!
What had happened to their markings was almost as sad as their behavior. A few still showed achievement-marks, but most had blank carapaces other than the mark that showed they were enslaved. They clearly didn’t consider themselves part of the Unkaa Clan anymore; none of them had that marking.
It made Ita wonder just how well her instructions to buy as many former Unkaa as possible had worked; she could only hope that they’d done poorly. The Unkaa once owned a good fraction of a planet. While most of the people would barely have been part of the Clan and were probably moved into the Kaelitha Clan with little more than a ripple, that still meant that there should be far more than the eighty-four Sterath who arrived on T’cherna.
They had just left Sallet’s Storage when one of the Sterath she thought she half-recognized hopped up to her. “Mistress, may I ask what your purpose is?”
Ita stopped and looked at the young man. He was polite, but not polite enough for a slave. Of course, there wasn’t such a thing as polite enough for a slave to ask a question if the owner didn’t want to be questioned. She didn’t mind, but many would
Admittedly, she had no intention of keeping her people as slaves, either. She’d hoped to establish an enclave with Aki’s assistance, but if her people were as beaten down as they seemed, she’d be better off handing them off to Azav. At the same time, this young man showed that perhaps they weren’t as beaten as they seemed, simply nervous about the changing circumstances. She could work with that.
Ita took a long look at him. He really did seem familiar. “Tsoz tza’Unkaa?”
A shiver passed over Tsoz. The more she saw of him, the more she was convinced that was his name. He was only a year younger than she was, but that was a very long time for Sterath. “The Unkaa are dead.”
Ita noticed that he didn’t deny being Tsoz. “True. Yet the people are not.”
Tsoz didn’t seem to know how to react to that.
Ita inclined her head at him. “I was Ita tza’Unkaa. Now I am Ita ena a’Serenity, and I have the power to do something. So I am. You will come with me and we will figure out what to do next together.”
“Shameless.” Tsoz sounded shocked but not upset. He was correct; her action was definitely Shameless, just like she was. Once someone was enslaved, that was it. She’d just told him that she saw a future where he had a choice.
She hoped that could be a future for all of them.