Diavla smiled at Tom until he closed the door behind him as he left, then turned to Eubexa.

“How much of that did you understand?” Eubexa asked.

“A lot, but not all of it. You asked him how he felt about me, in detail, yes?”

“Yes. The human concept of love just doesn't correspond well to anything in Elvish. In terms of relationships, their culture is still very primitive in some ways.”

“And…?”

“He wants to be kanashim with you, he desires you, and in a matter of days or weeks, I'm pretty sure he will be completely tolanor for you.”

Diavla's breath caught. “So soon?”

Eubexa nodded. “It's actually impressive self-restraint for a human male of his age. Master tries to think about what he feels. If I asked detailed questions about kanashim, erotalsh, and tolanor of most human men, they would have no idea what they felt, even if they were willing to answer honestly.”

Diavla felt herself smile a little. “Tom is a very impressive human, after all.”

“There's more to him than the meat,” Eubexa agreed. “He's smart. Tread carefully, Diavla. If you break his heart, remember that all our lives are at his mercy. He's still young, and young people are impulsive.”

The reminder sobered Diavla. “I know. Varga keeps pushing me to seduce Tom, and doesn't really seem to grasp how dangerous it is. Tom understands. He's very wary, and very responsible.”

“Well, sexual frustration can also lead to impulsive behavior, so it might end up a good idea for you to seduce him. I don't know yet, though. I need a lot more time around him to get to know his soul. It might be better to have someone else satisfy his body's needs. Varga, possibly, or we could find him a human woman.”

Diavla pursed her lips, then admitted, “I feel jealous.”

“Jealousy? Really? Of others bedding Tom?”

Diavla scowled. “I know. It's incredibly immature of me. What am I, twenty? I'm sure I'll adapt, it's just that our situation is so strange…”

“He's your hero.”

“He is. He really is. For all of us, but…I feel strongly about him.”

“Erotalsh?”

“Definitely,” Diavla almost moaned. “I've rarely had any interest in sex before, but Tom truly lights my fire.”

“He's a big one,” Eubexa agreed. “Fit, a fighter, very strong…”

“Those blue eyes…” Diavla murmured. “Sometimes I can read him like a book. Other times, when he decides to act, to pretend, to lie, he's good at it.”

“Hm. Something to watch out for.” Eubexa put a hand to the mind-control necklace as it hung down over her flat chest. Diavla noticed. She's so thin and frail. I need to remember that she doesn't have long to live, and to be very gentle with her. Even the weight of that necklace might be a burden in her current state.

“So, does Tom understand now what I meant earlier?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Good.” Diavla paused. “How are you feeling?”

“Terrified!” Eubexa answered instantly. Then she took a breath. “Terrified,” she continued in a much lower tone, “but I'll get used to it.”

“Is the lower pain a good trade?”

“Spirits, I hope so. I really do. A large part of my soul is screaming that putting this collar on was the stupidest choice I've ever made in my entire life. And I'm scared that it was also the last choice I'll ever really make.”

“Only time will help that, I suppose.”

“Or prove me right.”

“Eubexa, I promise you, I won't let that happen.”

“Don't make promises you can't keep.”

“I will do my best. I would not have put my own coin towards buying it if I thought Tom would abuse the power.”

“Why did you? Master, I can just about believe is naive and noble and did it out of the goodness of his young, foolish heart. Why did you help him?”

Diavla hesitated. Eubexa gave a little grunt of understanding. “I see.” Diavla flushed, and Eubexa nodded. “You are plotting to use this on Master at some point.” Diavla felt her eyes open wide.

“What!? No!”

“It's a bold move.”

“No! I'm not—Tom—saa, no!”

“I'm grateful for the relief from pain, and happy to have provided you with an excuse for the purchase.”

“Well, I…am grateful for the excuse, and happy that you are getting pain relief. But I'm not planning to betray Tom.”

“Of course not.”

Diavla growled in frustration. “Please do not mention this theory of yours to anyone else.”

“Of course. I am completely at your mercy, Head Slave. I will comply with your instructions.”

Diavla put her head in her hands.

∘ ⛥ ⛯ ⛥ ∘

After a few more attempts at clarifying the situation, Diavla gave up and left Eubexa reading the Library book. That poor woman has been forced to become devious. Who knows, though? Maybe she was always this way.

Everyone else followed Tom to the Floating Duck for dinner. Sevennight was apparently very busy and loud there. They claimed one of the last tables, fortunately located against one wall near the kitchen.

A dark-haired, older barmaid named Sally came over to them and took their drink orders. Diavla considered sticking to water, but after that conversation with Eubexa she wanted wine. Orvan excused himself to the kitchen after a brief discussion with the humans. Tom ordered five dinners, to be served once Orvan was done helping.

It wasn't long before Edge showed up at their table. Tom had a lively conversation with him as usual, and bought him two drinks while they talked. Diavla picked up bits and pieces but overall the conversation was moving too quickly and the room was too loud for her to understand much. It's too bad Eubexa's not healthy enough to join us here. She could probably make sense of this.

She was surprised to see Tom remove the ruby ring from his little finger, and hand it to Edge. Edge passed Tom three gold coins in exchange. I'm not sure, but I think that's a fairly generous price. I wonder what prompted that trade? Edge clearly looked as if he thought he had gotten the better end of the deal, and proudly slipped the ring onto his own finger.

Then the men switched topics. Tom listened to Edge for a couple of minutes, then held up a hand to ask Edge to wait. “Kervan,” Tom called in Elvish. “You want, again? Go, get…eight tens silver?”

Kervan looked torn, and paused for several moments, then shook his head. Tom relayed that to Edge, and a moment later Tom continued, “You want go, get one gold?”

Several moments passed. Finally, Kervan sighed. “All right, yes. Yes, Tom, I do.”

“It is a princely sum,” Diavla conceded, when Varga started teasing Kervan again.

“Someone has to be good with money,” Kervan muttered. He had not been happy when he learned about the purchase of the slave collar. Tom, Edge, and Kervan discussed logistics, then Edge summoned Lily Rose again to escort Kervan to his new customer.

Tom looked evasive and embarrassed when Lily Rose showed up, Diavla noted. She was pretty sure Lily Rose was flirting with Tom, but the woman didn't push and just looked disappointed when she left with Kervan in tow. Varga whispered an explanation to her, detailing how Tom had kissed Lily on Sixnight, but was really bad at it and got embarrassed.

He wasn't a bad kisser when we kissed, Diavla thought with some satisfaction. Although…I'd bet that Tom would improve quickly, if he wanted to. And while she felt a pang of childish jealousy that Tom had kissed Lily, she was glad that he wasn't pursuing the human woman to try again. Why am I such a fool when it comes to Tom? I'm almost acting like a human.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The Floating Duck was busy enough that Tom decided to get their drinks from the bar when it was time for a refill. While Varga defended their table, Diavla came with him to help carry drinks. As she passed people seated, she had to dodge a few wandering hands trying to grope her, but that wasn't very hard. A glance back showed surprise on one man's face. She raised her eyebrows at him and kept moving, with Tom none the wiser.

They always underestimate my agility, she thought with amusement.

The crowd was very loud at the bar, but Minerva took their order almost as soon as she spotted Tom. As she was filling the mugs, a lot of people let up a roar of excitement, as if they were watching a sports game. Tom peered over that way.

Miranda asked him a question Diavla didn't catch. Tom opened his mouth but didn't answer. He watched something off to the left, and Diavla thought he looked…tempted.

Tom has been working hard for us and taking care of all of us from the moment we set foot in Rivermarch, she realized. I don't think I've ever seen him doing something just for fun, aside from that time we got him to sing on the road. He has certainly been enjoying himself at times, but he's always been working, too. I don't even know what he normally does for fun.

“Tom? You want go?” Diavla pointed in the direction of the noisy people.

Tom wavered, then shook his head. “No, thank you, Diavla. I am good,” he answered in Elvish.

Miranda said something that sounded encouraging. Diavla grinned and added her voice. “Varga here, Varga say you go.”

“See?” Miranda pointed at Diavla while looking at Tom, seemingly grateful for her support.

Tom snorted, and commented in Elvish, “Varga see, Varga… give coin, maybe get coin.”

Diavla was intrigued. A bar bet? Varga will be sorry to miss out on this.

Tom paid Miranda, passed Diavla her wine and Varga's, then took the two ales himself. They headed back to their table, and Diavla had to twirl at one point to dodge the aggressive hands. This time Tom noticed. He stepped right up to the seated man, then leaned forward, looming over the fellow.

“Is there a problem with my elf?” Tom made his voice deeper than usual. Diavla found her blood heating as she watched.

“Uh…no…no problem,” the man half-squeaked.

Tom paused for a beat or two. Then he smiled and said, “Good.” He put an impressive amount of polite menace into his tone. Then he straightened up slowly, and resumed walking back to the table. Diavla gave a satisfied little shiver without spilling the drinks.

At their table, Varga looked amused as she fended off another human male—without words, and without using force, either. The man took two looks at Tom, and cleared out.

“Varga,” Diavla reported, “there's some kind of gambling going on over there to the left of the bar. Tom wants to play. I thought you might choose to go along.” Varga's eyes lit up.

Just then, Orvan arrived with Sally and their dinners. Again, Kervan wasn't around to get his, but that was scarcely a hardship for the rest of them. This time, it was a soup, and a different kind of bread that came in swirls of two colors. Diavla wasn't particularly fond of the flavor, though it did pair well with the meat in the soup.

When Tom ordered seconds, he spent a while talking with Sally about something Diavla couldn't follow. It got clearer soon after. When the food came out, it included a small bucket with a lid and a couple of spoons. Orvan volunteered to take the soup back to Eubexa while the others finished eating. Tom saw him to the door, and Diavla noticed that the big human stayed there for a minute or two before rejoining them. He was making sure no one harassed Orvan on the way home.

I feel very safe with Tom.

Once they finished eating, Diavla and Varga teamed up to convince Tom to go see the excitement in the corner of the room. It turned out that there were games and gambling available. One game involved throwing darts at a ringed target. There were card games at two tables, and dice at another. And two men were arm-wrestling, while others bet on the result.

“Dee, you learned how to read their numbers, right?” Varga asked, eagerly.

“You don't know the rules. The cards probably aren't even the same.”

“How hard can it be?”

Diavla smiled. “All right. But first, let's watch Tom.” Sure enough, Tom spoke to a couple of men, then nodded and stepped back, grinning, to wait his turn. They watched the current match, between one man with yellow hair and another one with black. The blond was losing, but put up a good fight. When he finally lost, there was a roar—some people celebrating and others bemoaning their losses. Coin changed hands rapidly.

A skinny woman with brown curly hair began shouting to the crowd. Diavla couldn't made out many of the words, and Varga pestering her for translations didn't help. But it was clear that she was introducing Tom. Diavla did catch the word elves, as it was pretty obvious when most people turned to stare at her and Varga. The woman issued a challenge to the crowd. It didn't take long for a brawny man with reddish skin to step forward. They sat down on opposite sides of a small table.

People started making bets. Diavla made eye contact with Tom, who smiled and nodded. Varga pulled out a couple of silver coins, so Diavla did as well. More than a day's wages for a basic laborer, but it's not as if Tom's going to have a dozen of these contests. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She held up her coins and called, “I have two silver! I say my Master Tom do good!”

A number of people stared, but a man with a patch over one eye, called something out to her. She glanced at Tom, who asked the man a question. The man answered, “Three to two.” Tom nodded with a grin.

“Me, too!” Varga called in Elvish. She made her meaning clear by waving two silver coins at the man. This time, the man asked Tom a question. He answered something with a grin, and a lot of the crowd laughed.

Tom turned to Varga. “I do good, you get three silver. I no do good, you give two silver. Yes?”

“Yes! Thanks, Tom!” Hearing that, Diavla elbowed her friend quickly. “What?” Varga demanded.

“Don't say his name, even in Elvish,” Diavla hissed.

“Oh. Right. Thanks, Master!” Varga concluded loudly. Diavla met Tom's gaze, and he rolled his eyes with a small grin, just for a moment. Diavla liked the connection she felt at their shared feelings.

“All right, all right, let's get started,” the man with reddish skin grumbled. It was a sentence Diavla recognized, since she had heard it from Tom a few times now.

Quickly, she bent over to whisper in Tom's ear. “You do good, I very like…” she teased, taking a deep breath and watching Tom's gaze predictably slip downward. Her human swallowed hard, then tried to glare at her. He wasn't able to make it convincing, though. Feeling smug, Diavla straightened up and backed away.

The men gripped hands. The curly-haired woman placed her hand on top of theirs and counted up, human style. “One…two…three…GO!” She pulled her hand off and the men began to struggle.

Diavla enjoyed the show very much. Tom's muscles bulged, but he made no sound. It wasn't a very long match, though; Tom won fairly easily, wearing a small smile. The men nodded to each other respectfully, and the reddish man got up.

The risk-man with the eye patch approached Varga and asked something. Still seated, Tom explained, “He ask, you want coin now, or you do again?” There was a murmur in the crowd when they heard Tom speaking Elvish.

“You do again, Tom?” Varga asked.

“Maybe,” Tom hedged, looking off to one side. A huge, heavy man with a big gut and bright yellow hair and beard plodded over and landed on the barrel opposite Tom, making it creak. That's a dwarf and a half, Diavla couldn't help but think.

“I'll do it again,” Varga said.

“Diavla?” Tom checked.

“I take coin, please. Varga do again.” She felt a little bad for not showing full confidence in Tom, but she was trusting his judgment, especially seeing Tom's new opponent.

The risk-man handed Diavla three silver coins. “Thank you very much,” she told him. The man said something complicated to her, and she shook her head. “I am sorry, I do not speak Western well yet,” she recited.

“Ten silver on Tom!” A familiar voice called out from the crowd. Edge grinned at Tom and held out his fist with his thumb pointing up. It looked like a rude gesture to Diavla, but apparently it meant something different to humans.

“Three silver on Tom!” A woman called out. Diavla had to squint to pick Lily Rose out of the crowd.

Diavla fidgeted, then gave in. “One silver on Tom!”

“Oh, you cuddle-cat, you,” Varga teased.

“Shut up.”

More bets were called, the curly-haired woman counted up, and the match began.

Tom immediately lost a little ground. He was clearly struggling against the blond giant. Varga cheered enthusiastically. No one in the room needed to understand the Elvish to know exactly how Varga was feeling.

Diavla could see the moment the huge man got serious. He started turning redder and redder, and forced Tom's hand back another finger width or two. Then someone in the back of the crowd called out something that sounded like an insult, and had the word elf in it.

Tom's expression changed, and Diavla shivered. Abruptly, she was reminded that the night they met, Tom had hunted and killed four men while mortally wounded. He looked angry, but he was focusing that anger. Diavla never wanted to be on the wrong side of that anger, but it stirred something in her to see it flare up on her behalf. Her own heart pounded, and she felt warm.

Tom made his move, and slowly started pushing the blond giant's hand up and back. The big man's face was so red now that Diavla hoped there was a Healer in the room. Both men started snorting air through their noses, breathing hard. Tom drove the other man's hand closer and closer to the tabletop while the crowd got louder and louder. Finally, the giant's knuckles touched the wood, and he called out something in surrender.

There was some clapping and a lot of cheering. Many people looked disappointed in the outcome, and those who had bet on Tom were grinning hugely. Tom's eyes searched the crowd for a couple of moments, then he returned his attention to his defeated opponent and smiled with an effort. He chatted with the giant for a minute, then they both stood and clasped left hands in a friendly gesture. The giant was managing a grin despite being disappointed.

It wasn't until Tom turned away from the big man that his expression grew cold again, briefly, as he scanned the crowd. He gave up searching after a few moments, and visibly forced himself to let it go for now.

Diavla was handed three silver coins, and Varga received fifteen, a point she was happy to gloat over. The redhead immediately handed twelve of them to Tom for safekeeping, which showed more wisdom than Diavla expected of her friend. Then Varga dashed off into the crowd, returning a few moments later with Lily Rose in tow.

Varga called, “Dee, I need a translator. Can you ask Lily Rose to keep me company and protect me tonight? I want to play cards.”

“Hey, Tom.”

“Uh, hi.”

Diavla turned to the woman and did her best. “Varga ask, you stay, watch Varga, Varga do…” and Diavla waved her hand vaguely at the gaming tables.

Lily Rose grinned. “What's in it for me?” she asked. That was an odd arrangement of words but Diavla believed that she got the gist.

“She's asking what you will give her.”

Varga looked at the woman, grinned, and made a very loud kiss in the air. Lily Rose's eyebrows went up, and she snorted a laugh.

“Why not?” The human said, looking at Tom. “I like kissing. Is Tom staying?”

“Um, no,” Tom answered, awkwardly. He asked Lily Rose something about Varga that Diavla couldn't follow. Lily Rose agreed.

Then she said a bit more, and handed Tom something. Diavla saw a brief glint of gold before Tom's hand closed on it, and he thanked the woman. Ah. Kervan's payment, Diavla remembered. I hope he's all right.

“We go,” Tom told Diavla, and they headed for the door. As Diavla took a last look around, she saw Edge grinning and talking to a man, handing him some coin. The man glanced nervously at Diavla and Tom. Edge said something reassuring, it looked like, but the man retreated.

Diavla's eyes narrowed. Did he pay a man to shout an insult to elves, to get Tom worked up? She made eye contact with Edge and he winked at her, one finger to his lips.

Well aimed, Mr. Edge. You're a dangerously clever man.

Diavla followed Tom home.