I think I may have finally reached my limit. Not only did I have to carry all the clothes Elizabetha bought for me, but also the seven wine bottles she never drank, and Elizabetha herself. Elizabetha was on my back, but everything else was in a bag that was ready to give out any second now. In short, I’m fucked. It was the middle of the night, and as such, thieves got out of their dens to steal things from clueless adventurers expecting Earth’s thieves to be like the ones of other dimensions. Y’know, muggers who make themselves known, thinking that their numbers will help them win in a head to head battle.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Said a man before coughing. “You’re lucky I found you before the other freak. He’d probably turn you into mince meat after seeing her. But I’m generous. Gimme the woman and everything you’re carrying and you’re free.” Didn’t he have water or something? His voice sounded dry. You could hear the sound bouncing against every crevice in his throat, reverberating at different volumes even after he cleared his throat.

“Really? Thanks.” His eyebrow raised itself before I continued. “I’m her slave, dumbass. I got the rose mark on my throat, so I have to go wherever she–”

“Ok, pal, I normally don’t do this, but if you gimme one of those bottles in that bag, I’ll give you some life saving advice.” I tossed one over to him right after he said that. I’d take any excuse to give some relief to my arms. “Alright, hide your mark from the guy named Alex, or Alexandru if you’re fancy like that. He looks thin, really thin. He'll kill you if he finds out it’s a rose mark. Now, let’s get you two home.” Okay, he knew what the mark meant, and by the look of his dishevelled robe with plenty of marks of past tape that kept items on his robe, he likes collecting stuff. I followed quickly behind him.

“How much for information about the mark?” He stopped, and I barely managed to not bump into his back.

“You’re one clueless cunt, aren’t you? Two bottles, or one of them fancy robes. Whichever one gets you in less trouble.” I can just tell Elizabetha that he asked for three bottles to tell me to hide my mark from Alex. I moved the bag towards him.

“Take two bottles.”

“With pleasure, pal.” He stopped talking for a second, making sure the bottles were secure on his robe after he taped them on it. “Now, what were you asking about? Oh! That mark, yea.” He started walking off, and I followed him. “That’s the arranged marriage mark. Usually, one party in an arranged marriage orchestrated by big clans or lineages doesn’t wanna comply, so they put the mark on them. Her putting the mark on you means she either wants to control you, but can’t right now, and is trying to make you like her before she can manipulate you like she does Alex, or it means that the witch is not a bitch because she’s finally found herself a man to fix her.” …Okay, it makes sense now. Alex is probably a guy that’s madly in love with her, and does anything she wants him to. I was strong enough to seem like a good tool to her, so she’s trying to make me fall in love with her too. “I mean, it ain’t exactly unlikely that she’d finally want someone. There’s probably something special about you that she can see.” Is he still entertaining the second option?

“How do you know so much about them?” The man coughed again before responding.

“I…” He coughed. “I’m part of her fancy little cult because Liz likes my wares. You know how many things I can get her to buy just with a little wordplay? She likes anything she thinks is fancy.” The man abruptly stopped in front of a wall inside an alley. He stared at it for a good ten seconds before it yielded and teleported us inside another room. “Welcome pal. The three other people in this thing are sleeping, and Alex is gonna be out looking for Liz, so just wait in this room until I get him. Or not. You can sleep with Liz if you wanna risk Alex slicing you to bits.” The man teleported out by staring at another wall again, and I could finally put all my luggage down. I placed Elizabetha on a nearby chair and walked around this… compound? Yea, that sounds accurate.

It had windows, it was just that the place outside of them was entirely fake. It was some pretty strong illusion magic, so this was probably a pocket dimension. I opened the door leading outside, and felt the fresh air on my face. Yep, this is not real. I can’t believe places like this used to exist. Who thought wind could feel pleasant? Maybe Ian’s gonna force those companies to finally fix Earth with all their magic. It’s the least they could do after colonising us.

After one last breeze, I went back inside. The interior of this building consisted of no more than three non-repeating rooms. The first was the living room and kitchen combined into one, the second was Liz’s office and room, and the third was an infinite corridor filled with copies of the same room, five of which had a name above their door, signifying who occupied them. Two doors were open, one was the room of Alex, and the other was the room of ‘Franciszek’, which was a Polish name. That must’ve been the old man’s name. Oh, and there was a bathroom ten entire rooms away from the entrance of the corridor.

“Who dares have a mark from her majesty upon them?!” Oh, there he came. I walked back to the living room, only to see a red faced skinny boy near the old man. He was certainly young, probably in his early twenties. Poor guy had to suffer for two good years of his youth because of this apocalypse.

“Me, obviously. Take it up with her, I did my best not to get marked.” When I showed up, Alex marched right up to my face, and I looked up at him. Yep, that’s the struggle of someone who’s barely one hundred and eighty centimetres tall.

“What the fuck does she see in YOU? You fucking manlet, pathethic little–” The old man put his hand on the shoulder of Alex.

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“You’re gonna wake up the Brits.” The… Brits? How the fuck are there British people here? “And we both don’t want the wife to scream in our ear again, right?” Alex nodded, and sat down. Britain nuked itself during the apocalypse because of their hot headed prime minister, so seeing a British person was… something I didn’t expect to be doing for a long time.

“Are you gonna answer my question or what?” Oh, right.

“I don’t know what she sees in me. I think it’s because–”

“Well, show the mark on your neck and I’ll tell you what.” He calmed down slightly, but would probably go back to raging if I showed him the mark.

“Can that be postponed for a second?” Said the old man before walking over to the corridor, and knocking on the door labelled ‘Samoylo’. This was a pretty diverse team. A russian, two brits, one reincarnator, one spiritual junkie, and a Romania. Oh, and whatever the old man was. A man, presumably Samoylo, walked out of the room.

“Wha–” He looked at me. “Oh, Ohhhhh. Hide your thing pal.” I raised my shirt, and Alex looked at Samoylo with his eyebrow raised. Samoylo was about my height, and not muscular in the slightest, so he must’ve been a mage. He walked right up to Elizabetha and shook her awake. “Hey, Liz, Alex is being… Alex. Sort him out while I get something done to fix you.” Was the old man too afraid to wake Elizabetha up?

“Huh? But my head hurts, and I’m still–”

“That’s why I’ll make you something to flush the histamine out of your system. Just tell Alex to back off.” I could see Alex get red from anger again. It wasn’t like he was extra angry. He was pale as a ghost, and as such, his blood was way more visible than anyone else's. Elizabetha barely managed to get herself together and look at Alex.

“Go to your room.” She stared at him with no emotion. I usually could pick up what someone was thinking, even if they tried to put a poker face on, but I picked up nothing from her.

“But–”

“No buts.” Her iris went red. If that wasn’t a sign of anger, I didn’t know what was. Alex sighed before responding.

“Fine, but this guy still owes me a look of that mark on his neck.” He stormed off, and the coast was finally clear.

“I think I’ll take my leave now. Take care and good night.” The old man walked off to his room too. Now it was just me, Elizabetha, and Samoylo. He was brewing something, so my judgement might’ve been off. He might be an alchemist. When I looked back at Elizabetha, I noticed her smiling at me, and still red from the wine.

“So… care to explain why you enslaved him, Liz? You’re not the type of person that likes people.” Samoylo said. “And don’t lie to me about this one being an exception. There’s nothing that gets you going about anyone, If there was, Alex would’ve moulded himself to be that thing.” The more Samoylo spoke, the more Elizabetha leaned back in her chair.

“Is that what you think of me? How heartless of you.” She finished her performance by putting the back of her hand on her forehead.

“What do you think, new guy? If you were her, why would you kidnap you.” Samoylo briefly turned to me, then to Elizabetha to stare her down and make sure she didn't speak for me.

“I wouldn’t. Simple as. I know the world is fucked up, but I’m not giving into it.” Samoylo’s eyes widened a little bit before he nodded. Elizabetha on the other hand…

“Stubborn bastard, I’ll have you giving in soon enough. Just wait you–” Samoylo finally finished his brew, and quickly shoved it in Elizabetha’s mouth.

“Liz is like this when drunk. We’ll probably have to deal with it for a while since… the bottles you let her buy.” Does he think I had a choice? I can’t stop her from ordering ten bottles to show off. I don’t know why she wanted to show off, but still.

“Oh… Samoylo, did I allow you to ruin my fun? I don’t have any excuses now that I’m sober.” Samoylo just rolled his eyes and walked back to his room without responding. And now it was just me and Elizabetha.

“Well… I can have any room right?” She took a deep breath, before looking at me with that damn smile again.

“Hmm… No. Didn’t I tell you before? You’re sleeping in my room, with me, since you’re my slave. You’re too interesting for me to keep my eyes off of.” Well, this is exactly what I feared, but it’s not a problem anymore since I know what the mark means. What I don’t know now is WHY she put it on me. Maybe I’m overthinking it. I’ve met people with incoherent ideologies before, but she’s far too self assured in her own thoughts to– “Hello? Earth to Mariel?” Oh, right, let’s just go along with it.

“Sure.” I was about to move to the room myself, but she just teleported the both of us in it. I guess any amount of freedom was too much for me.