We waited. Some spectators grew bored and left. I waited. Hama-Tula would never leave his watery grave, but we had to wait. Soon there was only me, Nanna, Brendan, the magistrate, and the smith. After a pregnant pause, the official of justice spoke.

"The gods have delivered their judgment. Hama-Tula was found guilty. I now declare miss Sandra as the rightful owner of all of his possessions. Come, girl. Get yourself dressed and let's go to the courthouse for the paperwork."

I nodded. The men gave me some privacy by turning their backs to me. Nanna helped me put on my clothes and sword back. I checked the lump of sodium. Brandon and the smith turned to face me.

"That is one of my swords," the smith pointed at the blade hung on my side. "I heard from Nanna. You took it from Balthazar the caravan master. Nasty and gruesome way to die. Rage-Apes," He clicked his tongue. So that's what they call the Kongs. "Name's Albert Samus. My parents are not from this nation. We came from far away, as refugees."

It was the second time they mentioned great refugee migrations. But his name sounded European enough. What other civilizations were around?

"Let me ask you one thing, Sandra," Brandon spoke. Maybe he didn't meet his quota or it had a cooldown of less than a day. "Why is it bad to let that white thing get wet?"

"This is sodium, a metal," I showed him the white, oxidized dough-like metal. "And he likes water so much it makes the water burn."

I didn't tell a lie. I just tried to portray it in a way he could understand.

"Here, cut off a small piece and toss it in the river. Make sure your hand is dry."

"Let me," Samus took a knife from his pocket and cut a piece of the sodium chunk. We could see the metallic silver of the unoxidized metal on the cut. "Can I toss this pellet in the river?"

"Yes. Far from us, please."

He did. The sodium touched the water and boiled it immediately. Then a plume of vapor rose, followed by a tongue of fire where the hydrogen released burned. And as expected, it exploded. The pellet flew and landed on another section of the river, where it did the same thing again at a lesser scale. After the second explosion, it landed in the vegetation.

"That's...." Samus gasped, "I felt no magic. What is that?"

"This, master Samus, is no magic. Just chemistry. If you'd believe me, this lump of metal was salt when I left the inn."

He smiled. "Maybe it was worth postponing my trip to the mines. Miss Sandra, would you be willing to share me more of this chemistry-not-magic of yours?"

I laughed. "It would be my pleasure, master Samus. If you would share your smithing expertise to craft some metal articles for me as well."

He extended his hand and I took it without blinking my eyes. It was rugged and full of calluses. That hand told a story of hard work and passion for the forge.

"Nanna, when you told me of the girl you found, I didn't believe you. I was wrong," Samus bowed to the witch.

"Bah!" She scoffed. "Have you seen the girl's aura? Tarhun really played a joke on us this time. I had no idea where he found her. But let's get out of here. This water is making me all wrinkled," the witch cackled.

"You ARE wrinkled, old hag," The blacksmith chortled. "But let's go. The magistrate and the guard captain are not patient men."

I didn't pay attention to the town as I walked to the courtyard on the other side, in the northeastern ward. There the magistrate wrote some papers. I paid taxes with the coin purse Hama-Tula had on him. I got a bundle of scrolls detailing what I now owned and even a complimentary messenger bag to carry them. I got all of Hama-Tula possessions and none of his debts. His family would have to shoulder them.

Outside the courthouse, Samus, Nanna, and Brendan were waiting. The master smith clapped the guard's back.

"Sandra, I convinced my friend Brendan here to train you. Nanna told me you came from a peaceful land and our place here is anything but peaceful. Brendan will train you to wield a sword and fight. You must learn. You are a very special person and soon there will be people after you. People more capable and more powerful than Hama-Tula."

I bowed. "I'll trust master Samus' wisdom. If Brandon would have me as a pupil, I'll eagerly train under him."

I'd be willing to do other things under him as well. I kept my mouth shut though. My stomach, on the other hand, protested. Between going to the river, dealing with the judicial ordeal, returning and drafting the paperwork, we were between one and two in the afternoon.

"A request from master Aran," Brandon spoke, "Is an order to me. I don't hope to repay the debts I owe him in a lifetime. I'll warn you, girl. My training is harsh. I won't blame you if you give up."

I nodded. "I'll be in your care. What should I call you? Master? Teacher? Instructor?"

"Just call me by my name."

Samus stretched. "Since I missed the convoy to the mines, I'll go to Abil-Kisu's celebration. Why don't you invite the lady to go with you, Brendan?"

My ears perked up. I could feel them twitching. A party? A party date with Brendan? I held my breath for his answer. Nanna chuckled.

Brendan nodded, "Miss Sandra, would you--"

"Yes!" I didn't even let him finish. The answer came as easily as Lúcia Moniz to Colin Firth. "Easy question."

"Then I pick you up... where are you staying?"

I don't know. "Nanna, what's the name of the inn again?"

The old witch snorted. "You own Hama-Tula's former estate girl. You have a home. The captain knows where it is."

"Yes, that," I tapped the bundle of scrolls in a messenger bag slung over my shoulder. "So, can I buy you guys food? I'm paying."

We ate and parted ways. Brendan had his guard duties, Samus had a smithy full of apprentices to look after. Nanna and I went to Hama-Tula's former estate.

"I have a date, Nanna!" I twirled around, causing my skirt to balloon a for a while. "Tehe!"

The witch cackled. "Oh, to be young and foolish. How stupid a maiden in love can be."

Her comment threw a bucket of cold water in the furnace of my burning passion. "What? Is the captain married?"

"No. The captain has yet to buy his first wife. From what I know, he seldom visits the brothels. But I don't understand you, girl. You could have a prince and now wants to get hooked with the guard captain? That's how it goes in your land? The slave chooses the master?"

That gave me pause. Either there was something I didn't understand or the witch was pulling my leg. "Not a master. A partner. Partners in crime and equals for life."

She just shook her head. "Delusional woman, that's not how it works here. A wife is her husband's property. And in this whole land, you won't find the biggest bastion of the old ways than the guard captain."

That was the problem with reality checks. They melt your waxwings, they cut your string, sever your ankle. I'd been denied even that sweet deliver of dreamy and unrealistic infatuation because of the no-nonsense witch. I knew that tonight I'd need the solace that only Theresa's gift could bring me.

The bag of junk food, were you thinking of something else?

And then, ironically enough, I was on the other side of a gate, shouting the same thing. "Open the gate!"

A woman on the other side shouted, "Don't open that cursed gate! Don't let that murderer in!"

That hurt. I wasn't the one that provoked the whole situation and I did not know that the judicial trial would be to the death although I should've known better.

"That's the master of this estate," I heard Aristunn the bodyguard saying. "Open the gate!"

The wood creaked and the doors opened. I saw two dozen slaves groveling across the path before me. Twenty-one males and three females. On either side of the slaves, two guards, armed and armored with maille hauberks. While I was fighting to accept the reality that I had slaves, two women in their thirties and some children also came out from the main house. I could see they took their time to dress up but it was a rush job. Behind them came two other guards, each one keeping a wary eye on one of the women.

You see, that is a problem when you get someone killed without researching their whole life before doing the deed. You never know how many orphans you'll make. I could rationalize it as 'he did it to himself', 'i only defended myself', and a ton of other excuses that boiled down to 'not my fault'.

Stolen novel; please report.

Nanna pushed me forward and I crossed the gate threshold into what now was my own property. The thugs that fell unconscious or dead were no longer there and the place had been cleaned. I remembered there's a pellet of sodium hidden somewhere in the lawn. Damn. That's the problem with tossing dangerous chemicals in someone else's lawn. You never know when the soiled lawn will be yours.

This was a nation where fathers could whore their daughters to pay off gambling debts. Worse yet, they'd come back after three years, if childless, to be whored again.

I pointed at the women, "Are you the widows of Hama-Tula?" They nodded. I could feel they wanted to speak but were very afraid.

"Cast them away," Nanna counseled me. "They will be only trouble. The wives have their dowries, that should be enough. You owe them nothing."

Some get a talking cricket. Others a tingling fairy. I got a grumpy no-nonsense witch. But it was impossible to just throw these women and children out to fend for themselves. I couldn't. I met Nanna's eyes and frowned.

"Let's sit and talk, okay? Then I will decide. Maybe let them spend the night here and leave in the morrow?"

She snorted. "Suit yourself. They'll try to murder you."

Murder me, not murder us. That was Nanna's tough love for you. Trust Nanna because Nanna's knows best. I still couldn't kick them out. The day was about to end.

"I'm not kicking anyone out until dawn. It's late. I'll enact changes but a weary mind is bound to commit mistakes," I told them and some of the guards nodded. "Guards, lead the slaves to their resting places. Do not hurt them. I abhor violence. Any punishment underway is canceled. Tomorrow morning gather all of them at sunrise so I can talk to them. Fear not, everyone. I promise you to be a kind and generous mistress."

And Tarhun knew I couldn't afford to commit more mistakes. The family stayed while the slaves moved to the back of the estate led by two of the four guards. Aristunn and the other bodyguard stood by me and Nanna.

"Let us move inside and talk more comfortably."

We went into the house and one wife led us to a sitting area after we removed our shoes to step on the expensive Persian-styled rugs. The wives made my seat on the center where the master should be and each sat on my side with the children at each one's side in order of seniority for the boys and the girls at the end. Nanna took a cushion on a separate circle and stood there, watchful and silent.

Brooding maybe. I guess she knew what was coming.

"Bring wine!" The first wife clapped her hands. A girl came from, I suppose, the kitchen. She was young and freckled. Younger than Arwia at the inn. "Bring the wine with the green band around the cork for the lady of the house!"

The servant went and they introduced themselves. I noticed the two bodyguards were standing at attention on either side of the carpet but without stepping on it. The servant came with a small ceramic jug of wine and after opening it, poured on a pewter goblet.

"Give it to the lady." The first wife ordered.

I accepted the wine and sipped it. Sweet with a tongue-numbing feeling that made me salivate like there was no tomorrow. I reached out and placed the goblet on the table moments before my arm went limp. It was hard to breathe. I choked and focused my mind on the wine I swallowed. I felt something not-wine on it and put my mind on Decomposing it. Feeling I was running short of time, I just stripped the carbon out of it. I couldn't get all of it, the trace amounts that weren't together too faint to be individually targetted. My vision went black.

There was no better surefire way to destroy most poisons than removing the carbon from them. I couldn't get all the poison before it mixed with my body fluids and wasn't considered non-living for Decomposition though.

Only the inorganic ones like cyanide would remain. Fortunately, it wasn't the case. My body was paralyzed and I couldn't pull in air. I Decomposed the water in my saliva to flood my throat with oxygen. The gas would spread into my lungs and promote the exchange even if I was not pulling in the fresh air. After training at the river ordeal, it was easier.

My senses returned after a while. I could see but it was blurred, I could hear as if I was underwater. Minutes later my sight focused and I could taste blood on my mouth. I blinked and my arm jerked. One more minute and I was moving again.

"Good try," With a groan, I told the first wife as I met her horrified gaze. "Guards!"

She tried to run but Aristunn held her. I still couldn't hear well yet but I glanced around. The children and the second wife was frozen with fear and awe. Nanna had a raised eyebrow. The scene froze as I gasped for air. My body burned as it fought the strong poison, my cells dying and my regeneration boon restoring themselves.

"Please, no! She is a witch, a demon! Nobody should survive that poison!" The first wife struggled.

Nanna broke her silence. "Take her to the magistrate. Let her suffer the consequences of her actions together with that girl that obviously doesn't know better," She pointed at the girl from the kitchen.

I just couldn't condemn the girl. The wife I was halfway there, but not that girl. She was barely old enough to have boobs. Thar freckled and innocent face didn't deserve death. I bet she didn't even know it had poison. The wife probably kept that one for when Hama-Tula went out of control.

I took the goblet and poked my finger inside. I could feel the poison, that was vicious enough to act on contact attack my skin and I immediately started to Decompose it by viciously pushing the carbon away from me. I swirled my finger inside to mix it and make sure no poison was left in the wine. I stood up, picked up the bottle, and moved to where the wife was being held by Aristunn.

"Drink. If you die, you die. If you survive, you and the other wife will take your dowries, personal items, and your children and go. Live on your dowries, return to your fathers, I don't care. But if you do die from the poison, I'll raise your children as my own. That I vow under Tarhun's watchful eyes."

Then I took my finger out of the wine and sucked it. The wife gave me a venomous glare and yanked the goblet from me. She downed the wine in one go like a pro. She coughed and sputtered, probably a reflex as she really thought she was poisoned or...

Did I make a mistake and some trace amounts of poison were left in the wine? Oh, dammit.

Nanna cackled behind me and pulled a ceramic vial no bigger than a test tube. She pulled the stopper and forced the woman to drink it.

"Idiots, the lot of you," She said staring between me and the wife. Then she slapped the woman's cheek hard. She only didn't fall to the ground because Aristunn was still holding her. Then Nanna turned to me. "She took another poison once you promised to take care of her children. I won't have these brats around, spawn of Hama-Tula."

It didn't escape me the fact that Nanna already invited herself to live here. I didn't fail to notice the fact that the children didn't cry when her mother was about to die from poison. I went back to the table and took the bottle of poisoned wine. I put my hand over the mouth and turned it upside down, Decompose working full time to neutralize everything, wine, and poison. I could feel the pressure building up from the gases that were forming. My hand couldn't form a watertight seal under so much pressure and some water started to seep down and over my hand. It was just water as the carbon couldn't get anywhere near my hand without having its covalent bonds forcibly disconnected and pushed back.

The water pooled on the ground and I kept my concentration. Soon there was no more liquid. I turned the bottle back and heard a clink as the chunk of graphite that formed hit the ceramic. I returned the now empty bottle to the table.

"It is late. Prepare one of the guest rooms for me and another for Nanna. Keep guard over the family all night. Bring the girl from the kitchen to my room."

The guards and bodyguards did exactly as told. Soon I was in a guest room sitting on the bed with the girl groveling on the ground, her forehead pressed to the wooden floorboards. The room was better than the one at the inn, the bedding felt softer and the windows were larger. She was strong and did her best to not cry but I knew she was afraid of me.

"Girl, what is your name?"

"Belle-Sunu, mistress. I didn't... Please punish this servant any way you want."

She had a change of heart halfway through. Maybe she considered that the best strategy to avoid my ire. I wasn't sure.

"Belle-Sunu, what is your age?"

"I turned fourteen five months ago, mistress."

Fourteen. An age she should be worried about tests and boys, not poison and death. I wanted to ask about the poison but I had to make sure she wouldn't lie.

"Tell me your story, Belle-Sunu. How did you come to be in Hama-Tula's employ?"

She broke into tears. I still couldn't see her eyes because she didn't stand up. "Employ? Hama-Tula bought me and used me when his wives couldn't. I bore him no child in these three years and was discarded in the kitchen. I'm a slave, mistress. Born a slave and doomed to die a slave."

She showed me her forearm, a tattoo I've seen before in some people. So that was a slave's brand. I felt my own forearm burn. Was that what they had in store for me?

"Do you hate me, Belle? Can I call you just Belle?"

"The mistress can call me anything. I'm your property."

"Then I'll call you just 'Belle' but your name remains what you want. Do you know what Belle means in the language of my home? Stand up, girl."

She lifted her head and sat seiza. I finally met her eyes, bloodshot from crying. I wanted to hug her. She was lovely and those freckles just begged to be poked.

"I dare not guess, mistress."

"Belle in my world means beautiful. It is the name of a princess from a fairy tale. Stand up, Belle. Wear your name proudly."

She clutched her hands over her chest and cried again. I couldn't resist. I left the bed and dove to hug her.

"Mistress?"

I caressed her head and held her against my chest. I felt as if she was a sister to me.

"Hush, my Belle. If you are mine, I can hug you if I want, can't I?"

She sniffled. "Mistress. If you want my night services..."

And it took a weird turn. I wasn't going to do anything to her though.

"No. I promise you nobody will ever demand night services from you, my sweet Belle. Now answer me truthfully. Did you know the wine was poisoned?"

I pushed her so I could take a good look at her face. I wiped her tears and mine.

"I can't lie to you, mistress. While nobody told me there was poison in that wine, I knew it. Banunu told me to hide it behind other bottles and never bring it out unless she ordered explicitly for that one."

I assumed Banunu was the first wife. Belle trembled as she spoke the woman's name. It was the same as a kid remembering their bullies. That pang of sheer terror as one's brain recalls all the suffering.

"It is over now. Promise me you'll be loyal to me and me alone. Hey, look at me, in my eyes." She did. I smiled. She sobbed, her body still in crying mode even though the sky was clearing. I held her by the back of her neck and pulled her in to kiss her forehead. "You are forgiven, Belle. Go and rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day."

I went to the door and opened it. Aristunn was outside.

"Mistress. What are your orders?"

"Belle-Sunu is not to be disturbed or harmed. Let her free to do her chores. Are you going to stay there all night?"

He nodded. "It is this eunuch's job to guard the mistress. I'll stand to watch all night. Don't worry, I'm used to it. And with Banunu still inside the house, I can't falter."

Eunuch? As in those guards that had their genitals forcefully removed so they could work around the household women without raising suspicion? But Aristunn had a nice baritone voice. Didn't eunuchs have sharp voices? I froze for a moment as my brain refused to take in that reality pill. Were the other guards also eunuchs? The temporal standstill ended when Belle held my hand.

"He's right, mistress. I'll be forever grateful for your kindness. Let Aristunn guard you. I trust him with my life. Sleep now. You must be tired after surviving Hama-Tula, the river, and now the poison."

She was right. I had escaped death twice thanks to my divine boons. She let go of me and walked back to the kitchen.

"Goodnight, Aristunn."

He nodded. "Have a good night, mistress."

I shut the door and went to the vanity. It had a polished iron mirror, not a glass and silver one. I summoned my laptop and a memory card fell down on top of it. It had a human head logo that resembled some big memory manufacturer from Earth but it had a braided beard and curly hair. Tarhun.

I turned on the laptop and booted Ubuntu. Then I plugged the card in the slot. It had tens of thousands of pictures of the land. The computer struggled to generate the thumbnails. I checked the metadata and truly enough it had coordinated. I really hoped they were accurate. It would take ages to process everything. I didn't even know if my computer had enough memory and processors to do the job in a reasonable time.

Or power.

I looked at the battery meter and it was sitting at forty-something. I ejected the memory card and tried to store it. Away it went. I wrote my journal, changed into fresh pajamas and went to sleep.