Eubexa wandered through a series of strange dreams. In each one, her foot was injured: a stab of a dagger, a horse stepping on it, a rock falling and crushing it, or falling into a fire. And, of course, memories of how it actually happened. Of all the dreams, the one where her foot was getting eaten by a wolf was the worst. When she woke up, she only knew that it wasn't simply another dream because the pain kept getting worse.

She tried to roll over onto her side, and discovered that was a bad idea. She turned her head, and by the dim glow of a nearly extinguished rock light, saw the old elf sitting on a stool, leaning back against the wall. What was his name again? Orwen? No, Orvan. That was it.

Eubexa flexed her fingers, her arms, her neck, testing. Everything was marginally better than that morning. She meditated for a couple of minutes with the familiarity of long practice. It is only pain. Pain is life. I am alive. I am more than just pain. I have work to do.

That last thought felt different, now. Her new work was translating. All she had to do was listen and talk. Her ears were not what they once were, but most days her voice was still good, at least. She thought back to Master's instructions. Your first duty is to take care of your health, he'd said. And later, I invested in you, and I don't want to lose my investment.

She mentally shook her head. Investment. He wasted how many gold on me? Eighty silver for the foot, a gold for general healing, more for the bandages and medicines, at least two gold to buy me, possibly three. She sighed. So much wasted effort.

Well, I'll have to do my best to be useful. If he gets angry at wasting so much on me, he might take it out on the others, and… Eubexa stopped, annoyed with herself. She had automatically started thinking about protecting her fellow slaves. They're not Belva. You don't owe them anything, she reminded herself.

“Awake, I see.”

Orvan was regarding her through narrowed eyes. He was a hard one to read. He seemed to have that “accepting and sad” approach to life. She'd heard that he'd had a fairly happy life for a long time, and three months ago his beloved wife had been killed in front of him and he was taken off and made a slave. In some ways he was naive, but Eubexa knew better than to knock the experience of elderly elves. You never knew what else was going on in one of those souls.

She cleared her throat. “Hello. Has the sun set?”

“No, there's an hour yet. The others should be back soon, and we'll probably go to dinner at the Floating Duck again.” Eubexa felt a pang of regret that she wouldn't be able to go. It would be nice to be around people…if I were not so deformed and diseased. She cut off that thought. Where is that coming from? I haven't been out and about for years, why is it bothering me now?

Her soul suspected that she knew the answer, but Eubexa buried it deep. Hope was too painful to contemplate. It weakened a person. She couldn't afford any more weakness than she already had. She did her best to not even have those thoughts.

A moment later, both of them caught the sounds of Elvish, muffled by halls and stairs. “Speaking of, here they come,” Orvan added.

Time to sit up, she thought with alarm. She wasn't in her old bed, so she didn't have the handholds she needed. She gathered herself. This is going to hurt.

A sudden thud just above her made her flinch. There's a wooden pole there? Eubexa's eyes raced back and forth until she had taken it in. Orvan had thrust the butt of a spear against the wall a short distance above her and was holding it in place. “Get a grip on it, and I'll lift you.”

How could he possibly know? Eubexa stared at him.

“This chance is riding past,” he chided her.

Is this a trick? Will he drop me once I lean on him? Eubexa's soul raced. If so, better to find out quickly. She reached up and carefully grasped the shaft of the spear with both hands.

“Three, two, one, up.” Orvan lifted smoothly, pulling Eubexa until she was sitting upright on the bed. “Do you need more?”

Eubexa let go of the spear. “No, I'm…thank you.” The worst was over; from here she could get out of bed without too much trouble. She hated sounding so awkward, but it was very strange to have people being nice to her; she hadn't had cause to thank anyone for much in a very long time. It would probably take her a while to relearn some proper manners. After all, less than a day ago, I was still at Madam Louisa's.

“Be careful to clean that,” she cautioned the old elf.

“I know, I know.”

The sounds of the others returning had reached their floor. Eubexa could hear Varga calling. “Oh, hey, Kervan, you're awake. Ready for your second night as a courtesan?”

“We'll see.”

Eubexa stiffened. Kervan is becoming a courtesan? I should warn him. Eubexa actually had yet to meet Kervan. He hadn't been around during the times she was awake.

I have some interesting conversations to translate.

∘ ⛥ ⛯ ⛥ ∘

Master was first, of course. He asked to be alone with her, and the other elves agreed. Eubexa wondered whether the human understood just how good elven hearing was, and that they did not have anything like privacy from her fellow slaves. She decided not to tell him until she could see some advantage in doing so.

They conversed in Western, which felt just as natural to Eubexa as Elvish, at this point:

“Eubexa, I have news.”

“Yes, Master?”

“I—we—have obtained a powerful magic item.”

Behind her veil, Eubexa frowned. “What kind?”

“It is a slave collar.”

Eubexa felt a chill.

“It is an evil thing, but I have possibly a good use for it.”

Here is where he shows his true soul, isn't it? What rationalization is he coming up with for what he's going to do? And who…? Eubexa closed her eyes.

Demon shit on a spit.

She forced her voice to sound normal. “What is it?”

Master took a deep breath. “It is an extremely powerful mind-control device. It allows the owner to command the slave to obey, on one setting.”

I can work around that, I expect. It's not as if there's much he could order me to do anyway, that I wouldn't already prefer to death. But I'm sure it gets worse.

“On one setting?”

“Yes. There are three more settings.”

Three?

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“The second setting is the one I am interested in. It allows the owner to control the physical sensations of the slave. I'm sure it originally was meant for torture, but…I could use it to turn off your pain.”

Eubexa's soul involuntarily flashed back to those moments before she went under the drugs for surgery. To be free of pain… The temptation was almost overwhelming.

It's too good to be true. It has to be. “And the other settings?”

Master grimaced. “If the seller isn't lying, the third setting commands belief. I could tell you something is true and you would believe it.”

“Anything?”

Master shrugged. “Supposedly.”

What in the world and sky does the fourth one do, then!? “And the last?”

“It's suppose to command your soul.”

“What does that mean?”

“The guy said I could make you fall in love with me, or hate your best friend, or truly want whatever I tell you to want.”

Eubexa started to relax. “Master, that's…I'm afraid that you may have been taken in by a con man.”

“He said it was crafted by Kwelkorm the Mad.”

Well, it would make sense that a story would have to include one of the few beings in history who might have been able to craft such a thing. Eubexa was surer than ever that it was a fake. Now she started to worry about Master's reaction when he figured out he had been tricked.

“Master, the man would say something like that.”

“It's partly made of mithril, and it is incredibly elaborate.”

Mithril? Oh, no, this is bad. He must have lost an absolute fortune. “Master, how much did you spend—?”

“Never mind the price. If it is a con, I will get my revenge on the man, don't worry about that. I'm not a complete fool. The point is that we have the item now. If it does nothing, so be it. But if it works…if even just the first two settings work…I could order you to feel no pain, for as long as you want.”

Eubexa frowned again. “Why tell me the rest, then? I wouldn't have known.”

Master sighed. “It would be wrong to trick you into wearing it. You deserve to know the full risk you would be taking.”

Eubexa was stunned. This is either an elaborate sadistic torture, or he actually means what he says. Eubexa felt betrayed by her own soul, as she realized that she was leaning towards believing Master actually meant what he said.

He's just a boy. He really could be this naive. Gods and spirits know the rest of this crew are.

Her soul turned that over for a moment.

The rest of this crew are this naive because Master…because Tom Walker has been so nice to all of them. Consistently. More than necessary. He asked about courtship…if the human thinks he is in love with Diavla, that is an incredible opportunity. If he thinks of us as people…if he actually wants to get us to freedom and this isn't just some elaborate scheme…

She eyed the boy from behind her veil. He seemed to realize that she needed time to think. He wasn't asking her for a response, he was settling down, waiting patiently until she spoke. How can he be this insightful and this naive at the same time? What do humans use for souls?

The collar has to be a fake. This is “change the world” power he's talking about. Even if he spent over a hundred gold on it, there's no way he could afford it, if it were real.

If it were real…

No, it can't be.

Sure of that now, Eubexa thought about the next step. If I volunteer to wear it, and it does nothing…then what? Should I pretend that it works? No, it would be too hard to pretend not to be in pain all the time. There's only so much I can hide with the veil. But, if it doesn't work and I tell him, he's going to be angry, and it would only be natural if that anger spilled over onto me. Spirits, I hope he didn't go out and buy this thing specifically for me. The money he wasted on me might have just gotten multiplied a lot. If he's this bad with money, we're in real trouble.

Eubexa's soul was starting to spin. Too many possibilities, I can't hold them all. Should I ask him to try it out on someone else, first? Then if it doesn't work, it won't be me that he gets mad at, at least initially.

“Master,” she began, tentatively, “do you want to test it out on someone first, before you make it unclean putting it on me?”

Master stirred. “Would it make you feel better? I suppose that's fair. This is a really big request.” Master mused, “It wouldn't be fair to have you try it if no one else was willing. I'll talk to people and see if someone would volunteer. I don't blame you for being nervous about it. I…don't know if I could put it on, myself. But I'm not in constant pain, either.”

Master seemed to mull it over a few more moments. “All right. If I go retrieve the collar, bring it back here, try it out on someone, and it works, would you be willing to put it on?”

“Master, would you give me your word that you would never use any but the second setting on me?” His word might not mean anything to him, but it was something to test.

“The second setting includes the first, you understand, but given that, yes. I give you my word.”

Eubexa did her best to sense any deceit in him, and came up empty. Either he's a magnificent actor, or he really means it. She shook her head. He needs an answer.

“Yes, Master. Given all that, I will wear it.”

Eubexa knew it would never come to that, of course. The collar had to be a fake. It probably wasn't even real mithril. But this way, she managed to deflect at least some of his eventual anger elsewhere. Agreeing was her best option, in this insane hypothetical situation.

“All right. I'll ask the others for a volunteer, and if I get one, I'll go fetch it. Meanwhile, you can have those conversations with the other elves. How are you holding up?”

“The pain is getting worse, but I should be able to fulfill my duties before I need to rest again. I know you've been waiting.”

“Just do your best, and if that's not enough, I can wait.” Master sighed. “Thank you, Eubexa.”

“Of course, Master.”

∘ ⛥ ⛯ ⛥ ∘

Eubexa tended to her body for a few minutes, then overheard Master bidding farewell to the others and his heavy footsteps going down the stairs. He actually found a volunteer already, so he's leaving now to retrieve it? Well, it's not my problem…until it is.

Soon after, Diavla knocked, and Eubexa let her mind relax back into Elvish, and told her she could come in. The black-haired beauty closed the door behind her, and spoke softly enough that the other elves would have trouble hearing her.

“How are you holding up?”

Eubexa matched her volume. “The foot hurts a lot, but everything else hurts a little less than before. What can I do for you?”

Diavla chewed her lip a moment and fidgeted, then sighed. “I need to know a bit of Western. I may have screwed up while talking to Tom earlier.”

Eubexa nodded. “He told me you said, ‘I love you’. First of all, what did you actually mean to say?”

“Well, I thought I was telling him that I really, really, really like him, but he acted as if I said something very different.”

“Where did you get the idea that love means ‘really, really, really like’?”

“From Tom! I told him that I really, really, really liked beet cookies, and he told me that I love beet cookies.”

Eubexa sighed heavily. At moments like this, she really missed the ability to press a palm to her forehead.

“It's not your fault,” she said after a moment. “Western is…a defective language in some ways. The same words get used to mean very different things.”

“So, what did I actually say?”

“Well, it depends a lot on context. Were you flirting with him at the time?”

“Yes.”

“Romantically or sexually, primarily?”

“Well…primarily romantically, but sexy flirting was definitely part of it, or I meant it to be.”

“In that case, he thought you were declaring you were tolanor to him.”

“What!?” Diavla's hands flew to her mouth, as if she could prevent the words she had said hours earlier from getting out.

“Western doesn't have different words for kanashim, erotalsh, and tolanor, or even fellithi. All of them get translated as ‘love’.”

“That's insane,” Diavla breathed, eyes wide.

Eubexa snorted a little. “Just wait until I tell you how many different things friend can mean. One version means ‘friend’, but there are lots of others. Six years I've been in Baria, and I'm pretty sure I still don't know them all.”

“How do humans talk about relationships, then?”

“Badly,” Eubexa answered shortly. “Really badly. Though to be fair, they've got something like a dozen different languages on this continent, and not all of them are as bad as Western on this topic.”

“How do I talk with Tom, then?”

“Through me. Or, if I'm not available, make sure you use lots and lots of Western words and describe what you mean in detail.”

Diavla seemed taken aback. “I think we'll want some of these conversations to be private.”

Eubexa tilted her head a bit, since shrugging was painful at the moment. “Diavla, remember that I've been a sex slave for nine years, six of them in a brothel. I've seen and heard everything. You two cannot possibly surprise me or shock me, no matter how kinky you get.”

“What is ‘kinky’?”

“Mmm…call it ‘creative or unusual with erotalsh’, kind of like zadakim, but not quite. Human culture has more of an emphasis on not varying the details of sex much, so the ‘unusual’ part is more relevant.”

“Still…”

“I think you two might want me around when you want to flirt privately. I can sit in the corner and only speak up when you need help.”

“Well…if you keep our privacy, I suppose.”

“I expect it will be much harder to convince Master,” Eubexa commented wryly.

“Why?”

“It's a Baria thing…a lot of secrecy around sex is the norm for humans, here. They're not usually interested in witnesses…or at least, they're not supposed to be.”

Diavla furrowed her brow. “This sounds complicated.”

Eubexa nodded. “And you thought just learning the language was the hard part. The culture of humans, particularly these humans, is a whole other challenge.”

Diavla seemed to be realizing the enormity of what she was facing. “In that case, I will be grateful for your help.”

“Of course. This is exactly what I am suited for.” And just about the only thing I am suited for, at this point, Eubexa thought, bitterly. But I'm grateful that I might find ways to be useful to this group. Maybe Master won't end up considering me a huge waste of gold, after all.