Olea Munroe
“Good, you brought it.” Said Reginald as he surveyed my chained form in the doorway. “Though you were late.”
Tal spoke up then with Hal giving him a wary glance, “She gave us some trouble in her cell milord. Used magic too.”
Reginald raised one eyebrow at the statement and began inspecting my wrist, where the tightened chains were beginning to dig into my flesh. It really did hurt quite a bit now that he had made me aware of it. I may have a sprain from one of the many induced falls, fantastic.
“Were there any other problems, any at all?” queried the man in red. He had moved into menacing mode, his voice dropping an octave.
Hal seemed to catch on quicker than Tal but could not share his fear with Tal whilst remaining quiet, which lead to the second man speaking.
“No sir, we showed her what happens to the uncooperative sorts right there.” He smiled to himself as he said this, probably congratulating himself before adding, “Had to make sure she understood who was in charge.”
“I see.” was Reginald’s response as he turned and headed further into the room beckoning us to follow.
I stepped forward only to be jerked back by Tal as he grabbed the collar of my tattered shirt and whispered into my ear, “Play nice or you will not like what happens later.”
I shuddered thinking about his threat, even though I knew that any punishment would need to be light to escape the wrath of Reginald. I was not quite sure why, but I had a feeling my buyer would be very unhappy to see me damaged.
That did not mean I was not a little scared about what would happen to me before someone potentially got fired. Sure, there would be some form of vengeance, but would I not have already been damaged?
Nope, not a fan of that line of thought.
Hal stepped forward, probably to get us moving before anyone noticed as much to cover for Tal. He could read the room, good show.
We entered the sparsely furnished room, small tables sitting next to simple and elegant wooden chairs in each corner with a large table set back from the center of the room to allow more space on the entrance side. It was almost as if they had set it up to make it seem like the person on the other side of the table usually entertained a larger number of guests and had made accommodation for them all to enter, and stand.
The man was dressed in a simple black uniform with a crest on one shoulder that bore some strange symbol I could not make out in the lantern light. I could only discern the blue and yellow swirls around a red central icon.
His hair was black, his eyes brown. He really looked like a non-interesting butler stereotype; except that this one had knives tucked into his coat. I could tell because the hilts were plainly visible when he moved to pick up his tea.
Off to one side sat a woman with similarly decorated clothing, although she was wearing a knee length skirt and blouse. If she had a knife, it was most likely strapped to her inner thigh, as her legs were not being kept in the proper ladylike arrangement. She held a small hand-fan and was speaking behind its thin paper in a whisper to the man.
He made a gesture with his hand and said, “This is the elf?”
Reginald spoke to him with a calmer voice than he had used moments ago, all businesslike. “She is, this one from South Jaga.”
“What of the one from Eldor?”
“Sadly, she died. I believe the chancellor would know more about that than we. She was killed by one of the king’s shades.” Supplied Reginald; you could hear the regret in his voice. He must have hated to disappoint his betters.
“Really now? I was not informed of that; I am sure my master will be informed if unsatisfied by the time I arrive back Tamirtell.” He took another slow sip of tea, his eyes now on me. “She appears to be harmed; can we unchain her?”
Reginald made a motion with his hands at the request and Hal quickly moved to comply, unlocking my chains, and removing them. I felt the quickly spreading tingle of pain and pleasure shoot through my hands as blood flow resumed and rubbed at them in as non-threatening a way as I could manage.
Reginald grabbed my wrist and inspected it again, seeing the circular bruising near the bone of my thin arms. The magical food never seemed to help me put on weight, muscle or otherwise. I almost got distracted thinking about why that was when I was brought back from my musings.
“Explain.”
Hal remained quiet again as Tal spoke, “She resisted when we entered the cell, we had to force the cuffs on ourselves.”
“He cuffed her, I held the door.” Hal said in his defense, getting a confused look from Tal.
Reginald shot a dangerous look to Hal, “One person answering is enough, thank you very much.”
Hal nodded, afraid to speak again. I could clearly see him trying to swallow something that would not quite seem to go down as his Adams apple bounced up and down. I would have felt pity or some sympathy for him has I not remembered that he had helped his friend subdue me earlier in the day for the now-dead arse to teach me a lesson.
The man behind the table made a small noise as he set down his teacup even as his lady-friend tapped her fan shut against the table.
“Is she likewise marked anywhere else, anywhere that we fail to see?” came the oily voice of the woman.
Reginald looked to the duo behind me even as Tal quickly said, “No sir, we only had the small incident with the cuffs. We would not dare harm her more than we needed to get her here, right Hal?”
He looked at his friend who almost nodded before shaking his head and sighing. He remembered the bit about only one person being able to speak to Reginald, it must suck to have Tal as your ambassador.
“I do not believe them, Reggie. We need proof.” The woman said, her voice taking on a bit of a whine at the end, as if feigning worry to a lover. It was quite bizarre.
The man next to her nodded before he spoke to Reginald, “Let us see the proof. We will need to heal her wounds if she has any before we can make the payment as agreed,”
Reginald turned to the two guards, and my heart dropped at his words, “Remove her garments.”
I barely had time to crouch, to attempt a defense as a pair of hands grabbed me roughly from behind, while another pair of hands attempted to remove my pants. I felt my foot contact something soft and crunchy before I felt a tug and heard the fabric tear. I guess cutting and tearing my worn clothes was easier than trying to earn my cooperation. I saw Hal hesitating as his form appeared in front of me, maybe rethinking the removal of my shirt while Tal’s arms were holding me still.
I also think we both knew that Tal did not need to hold me in the manner that he was.
A knife flashed from Hal’s right and cut a straight line up my shirt, stopping near my sternum, not enough to remove the shirt but it made it quite easy for Hal to finish removing with some well applied strength.
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So, I was now suspended above the ground with Tal holding me tight about the chest with my arms squeezed to my sides, helpless and only clothed in rough sleeves, the only piece of clothing still on me as they could not remove that last bit without Tal first releasing me.
“Put her down.” Came a voice like cold steel. A quick shift from the woman’s earlier words.
“Now.” Came the one word from Reginald, apparently Tal was taking too long in his holding of the property.
I nearly fell to the ground, had it not been for my passive from Wind Walk I was sure to have felt some serious pain from the landing. I was also fairly sure it was the only reason Tal was able to hold me so easily. I would need to keep that in mind with some of my magical effects later, though I could not quite bring myself to make a mental note of it quite yet.
I felt the softer hands of the woman bringing my right arm up from my curled position to inspect it. She turned my wrist over and back again before extending my fingers one by one and bending my elbow even as I attempted to struggle against the action.
She picked up my chin to stare my in the eyes before uttering the word, “Submit.”
That one word, just a word had me almost giving in. I could almost feel my body’s desire to allow her to do what she wished for a small amount of time. What were a few seconds of cooperation in the face of one such as her.
It was only for the briefest moment though as my mind recognized what had happened. She had not said submit, no she had said Command I knew that spell and somehow, I had managed to resist her. I had wondered what it was like being on the other side of the magic and now I knew, Derek would be getting some very handsome payback for his tolerance of my testing, if we survived. Maybe a sharp knife to kill future kidnappers.
I stopped allowing her to move my arm around, causing her to tense.
“Is something the matter?” came the man’s voice again, from the other side of his table.
“She resisted my spell.” came the confused answer.
“Try again.”
Again, she looked me in the eye; though much less playful now.
I heard the word and felt the magic stirring in me to counter her influence as she mouthed, “Command.”
I felt the briefest tingle of desire for her command to be met before it faded to nothing. Was this what it felt like to cast a saving throw versus magic? It really made me happy to have bumped up my rank before this meeting, if indeed that was the case.
“Again, she resists.” Complained the woman, nearly in a hiss.
The man came around the table then, his curiosity piqued perhaps.
“Let me see.” He said as he took my arm from hers and lifted me without a care for the pain shooting through my wrist. It was almost secondary to the realization that I was now fully exposed to the room. I felt my cheeks flush as tears of anger and shame threatened to spill from my eyes for a moment. He removed the sleeves from my left arm as I was held bodily upright against my will. All attempts I made to rely on my body to help me drop failed before I realized I held some sway over my weight via my passive ability. I lowered the spell’s influence on my body weight as much as I could and saw the man frown.
“What’s this.” He lifted me again, slightly higher now to bring me to the tips of my toes, “She seems to have gotten heavier.”
He did not look like he was struggling overly much as he held my weight with one arm, but I knew he was right. He then pointed to Tal with his free hand, still showing no signs of tiring, “You said she used magic, what spell was it?”
“I do not know milord; she would not answer me. I think she was speaking Elfish.”
“It’s Elven, you idiot.” His eyes turned back to me as he raked his gaze up and down my body, I confess that his lack of hesitation as his eyes passed over my more private bits and bobs had me feeling a little less shameful and slightly angrier now that I was sure he did not intend to misuse me physically.
I will not deny having issues.
The woman asked me from beside the man, her voice now calmer than before. “What spell did you use when they brought you in, I must confess that the only spell that comes to mind is something I do not believe you could possess.”
It was the mans turn to use a spell, though he spoke so quickly that I could not make out the words. It sounded almost Latin.
“It would seem that she is not so much the novice we had been told to expect.” He said, “Reginald, I had thought she was not yet of the second rank?”
“We were informed by the guild that she was when we acquired her, though I presume she could have gained a level or two in the month she had been away from their oversight.”
It angered me that someone in the guild had sold information, though I could understand it would not necessarily be hard knowledge to obtain. Also, did the man just use an identification spell on me, I would need to find out how to get that someday.
“Yes, that would make sense. Though finding a spells teacher without guild oversight for someone who does not know the ways and means of our continent should be difficult for one so young, even if she is an elf. Now, girlie,” he said after turning to me again “which spell did you use, which spell is currently controlling your weight?”
“Wind Walk.” I muttered to the man; he looked confused as he turned to the woman who nodded to herself.
“She used Wind Walk, sir.” was her answer in a hesitant voice.
I was not sure why but when she mentioned the Spell it seemed wrong somehow, as if lacking some inflection, I could not place the cause of my own confusion.
“Curious, curious indeed.” The man said before turning to Reginald, “Also, we need to discuss the cost of healing, do you see these?”
His free hand pointed to my chest and before I could take umbrage at some misconceived insult, he poked a large group of bruised muscles near my shoulder before again poking my very tender stomach.
I will again admit that I was becoming a bit angrier as the show continued.
Reginald moved slightly to the right to see over the indicated places on my abused body while I resisted the urge to squirm under the gaze of so many strangers.
“Who caused these injuries girl?”
I rolled my eyes to the left and then the right in reply as my breath was being hindered by the unnatural pull of my body weight. The constricted feeling reminded me that many people who would be hung by their arms would suffocate when their bodies failed to hold them upright any longer while imprisoned in some medieval torture rooms. I had never been sure if that was true, but it felt to be at the moment.
I heard the two behind me begin to deny the allegations, and even though I knew Hal was almost innocent I did not care for them at all.
Reginald blurred for a moment, sidestepping us, and disappearing from my view. I had only seen his arms move by the barest amount while he stepped forward, but I heard two distinctive sounds like a pumpkin being cut into with a dull knife for Halloween carving and then two thuds as I was sure Hal and Tal’s bodies hit the ground.
It would seem that my estimation of them being fired was not as accurate as I had thought. While it made sense that these people cut their losses with people who would not perform adequately, I failed to believe for some reason that they would simply kill the flunkies outright. It was a mistake I could live with, though Hal and Tal would not.
I shuddered a bit as I felt the pools of blood that were so obviously forming underfoot began to encroach on my spot of the floor, I could feel the warm wet substance even as the coppery smell hit my nose.
The man seemed to notice and smiled before speaking, “My lord will very much appreciate you for years to come, I believe he may find great delight, indeed.”
The shadows cast by the lantern light near the door let me see Reginald’s form bent low to remove his weapons from the fallen bodies and wipe them with some cloth that he then let fall. I did not see where the blades went as he stood up, but I now knew he had many more large knives than I had seen during our first meet and greet.
“I will have this place cleaned after we finish our business here.” Said Reginald behind me.
“There is no need, we will be leaving for the evening.” Said the man as he motioned to the woman while indicating the purple, blue, and yellow flesh of my body.
The woman placed her hands upon my chest, almost cupping me while a smile played across her features before the man slapped her with his free hand.
“None of that, Sonia. Not today.” Growled the man.
“Sorry, sir.” She muttered before her mouth moved again, uttering a word that escaped my understanding.
My body was suffused with warmth and the tingling sensation of magic for a long-drawn-out moment before the small amount of light I had not noticed before faded away like mist at dawn.
Once the light had fled, I received one more look from the man before he finally released me to fall to the floor. I had a moment to react and decreased my weight to avoid some of the pain, though I still landed in the blood.
“Take her back to where you were keeping her, we shall confer with the madame before leaving.”
I sat up adjusting myself on the floor and almost moved to brush a bit of hair behind my pointed ear out of habit or a need for comforting normalcy before I realized my hands were covered in the wet coppery blood of my past tormentors.
I felt Reginald’s hands as he lifted me from the floor with his arms under my shoulder as he straightened me up before leading me from the room.
The weight of that small trauma was beginning to sink through the attempt at flippancy or apathy I had wanted to show, it ended up being mostly the shock and a lack of ability to fully process.
What was wrong with these people? Also, if this man was anything to go by, I was loathe to meet his employer.
Reginald had me back in my cell before long, I barely remembered the walk back. What I did remember after the door had been securely locked was that I was still wearing the blood of Tal and Hal but nothing else.
“I will have clothes and water brought to you in the morning, be sure to clean yourself up. You leave in the evening.” That was all Reginald had to say before he turned and left.
It seemed that the end of this day had finally arrived as I fell into a fitful sleep, too drained to care about the blood or my lack of clothing as I curled up on the cold stone floor. My fear of the future was not quite able to drown out the anger I felt at having to deal with all this again.
A new world with some of the same problematic types of people, I was too angry, tired, frightened, and cold to care about right now.
It was in the fuzzy world of dreamland when my subconscious mind repeated the words Reginald had spoken before he left.
“You leave in the evening.”