“Good. Now listen well… Because I’ll only say this once”, he had them at his discretion.
“You can escape if you truly wish, I won’t stop you, but out there? You won't make it long, even if you stand united. You’ll never escape those marks on your necks, they’ll keep you binded all your life, keeping you from starting a family, from making friends, or participating in activities you enjoy. Hell, any common whore would probably sell you out in an instant, let alone a beggar keeping an ear out for coin. So what say you listen to me, serve me. And slowly pay yourselves off to me. Years of service are guaranteed, but if you last that long, and earn enough. I’ll be willing to let you go, as free men”, he nodded at the beast woman, “a free woman”.
“And I mean, at least it serves better than rotting in some cell. What say the?”
“Aye, laddie. Least I can do for ye help”, the dwarf spoke first with his gruff voice.
“Seems like manual labor that I’m not cut out for, but… You make a point. If I can spend my time off work with the lass over there, I don’t mind”, the human consented in his silvery voice, nodding along at the beast female.
“Grow some muscle before you come prowling to me”, she retorted, before giving her full attention to Silas.
“But if ya can best me in a challenge, I’ll swear my loyalties to you”, she spoke with an orotund voice, and grinned confidently.
Silas rolled his eyes, thinking to deal with her later. His attention fell on the only one that had yet spoken, his eye making direct contact with the elfs.
“...”
“Feel free to reject the offer. But don’t say I didn’t warn you”, ‘it would be best for you to confess now, so I can nip you in the bud for later’
“No, I… I’ll do it”, he broke contact with Silas’s penetrating gaze, speaking soft spokenly.
“Good”, Silas proceeded with his indoctrination, “then I’m giving you a job, a taste of life when you’re not serving me. You’ll have to make your own coin, but the first week will be tax free. After? You’ll be paying in installments for your freedom. Any one of you misses the deadline, I’m extending your time of service. All of you. So hide the money you make all you like, spend it as frivolously as possible. Just make sure to make ends meet. I’m giving you this opportunity, but I can take it just as easily away”
Suddenly, a jab hit in his direction. Silas seemed to notice it in time, but couldn’t move his body out of the way, due to a lacking agility that he was unused to. It hit his shoulder, but of no harm to him. On the other end of the claw was the beast female.
“Mister”, she leaned over and whispered, “didn’t I say earlier? I’ll do all that stuff, I’ll even swear myself to ya. But ya gotta prove yourself fir-”
“Stop breathing”
“Uuck… huck?”, she gurgled, as her lungs stopped working for her.
Her eyes darted wide, taking a second to register what was happening to her. She looked at the others, who all stared back at her, seemingly sharing a collection of varied levels of horrified or confused expressions.
Silas also looked over everyone, while they were too invested to pay attention to him. He seemed to share a different viewpoint, analyzing their faces and figuring how the elf and dwarf seemed to be less terrified by the event, and more so surprised.
‘Well with age comes experience’, he surmised.
“Gluck… Guck”, she squirmed, clutching at her neck, scratching and leaving marks, trying to stop the air from leaving her body.
“Forgive me”, Silas sighed, standing up and leaning on the table to gather everyone's attention.
Yet the action proved pointless as all but the choking woman turned their attention merely at his words.
“I forgot to set some ground rules in advance. I’m not your employer, I’m your owner. You will address me as such. And you will respect me as much”, Silas kept a calm and collected expression slowly making eye contact with all that sat with him, ensuring his point was made. To all but the beast woman, as if already dead to him.
Kr-Bam
She leaned towards Silas, her hand stretched out as if to ask him to stop, to forgive her. But she fell to the floor, continuing to squirm on the ground. A strong ammonia odor seemed to waft through the air.
The eyes of other tables seemed to peer towards their commotion, but none dared intervene. It wasn’t out of fear for the boy, rather because they only acted on self interest, so they knew best this was a matter unconcerning to them. Still, the commotion triggered their curiosity, even amusing some, others dividing their attention as they witnessed the beast woman spoil her trousers.
But she didn’t seem to care, squirming her way over to the boy that sat calmly next to her, ignoring her struggles like she meant nothing to him. Her hand reached out, clutching at his trousers, giving a weak tug but it went limp and fell to the ground with a thud.
She didn’t have much air to last with. She was caught off guard in the middle of a sentence after all. Was this to be her demise? Spoilt trousers, spoilt dignity. Not a valiant death on the battlefield, nor from protecting a worthy master. Rather from being choked by a boy, by somehow acting disrespectful?
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Of course she hadn’t the time to think any of that. Her pupils had already rolled to the back of her eyelids.
“You can breathe now”
“HUHHHHH, HOHHH, Huuuuuuuhh, hooooooh”, she heaved for big gasps of air, filling her empty lungs with something to work with. She got on her knees as if the higher altitude would give her a fresher supply. She clasped on her throat, as if helping to funnel more in.
“Do you understand now?”
Despite her lacking oxygen, the only thought in her mind was to obey.
“Yes master”, she bowed, taking no time to do so, as she was already in the perfect position to commit to the pose. She held it, daring not to give up lest she incur his wrath again.
Seeing everything resolved, the onlookers grew bored, getting back to their conversations. But at the table responsible, no one dared believe it was over. A tense silence followed, as the boy they had all taken for a pushover, slowly cocked his head to the side. No one knew what he was thinking.
The dwarf was the first to break this tense atmosphere as he whispered, “errr… Sir. May I ask how much we’d need to pay yer back?”
“Hmm”, Silas replied in quiet contemplation, ‘I had suspected the human to enquire about money first. Considering the dwarf was the first to lose interest when I counted it. Did I shake him that much?’
“You all cost me 6k points total”, Silas decided to be mostly honest with his calculations, “converted to outside currency, that may go at best to a rate of 2 gold per k. That would be about 12 gold, but I plan to make a profit, not just your worth back. Add an extra 3 for the moment”
“15 gold huh”, the dwarf mumbled, “10 would take our entire lifetime to make doing odd jobs, even at the cost of depriving ourselves of frivolous activities… I dun have that long”
“You won’t wait that long”, the elf suddenly spoke up, making it the first time he actively engaged in a conversation.
“Look at where we are, this is what he’ll have us do”, he spoke while facing the wall.
“Ay, but even then… Trust me, we’d first be swallowed by a Gorma, before we make that much”
“Doesn’t bother me, as long as I can count on you guys”, the human pointed at both of them. Keeping his intentions intentionally vague. He tried to keep an eye out for the beast women, but she was still groveling on the ground at the other side of the table.
‘It was best I didn’t tell them I’d hold them til 50 gold, lest they get demoralized’, Silas kept to himself as the others argued. ‘I told them there’d be a few years of service guaranteed. I didn’t mention the interest I’d applied, which I’ve estimated for the 5 years of service minimum. They either die first or make me a small fortune’.
Silas turned to the beast lady who kept her head burrowed, bowing to him as if in worship. He decided it was time to finish dealing with her, ‘she’s lucky I need 4 people’, “you, take off your lower garments, It reeks”.
“Yes, master”, she groveled. Her pride as a warrior didn’t wish to expose herself in public, but her desire to keep her life compelled her.
As she took off her garments, the human got up from his seat, and took off his own trousers, leaving him in his underwear. He handed over his trousers, saying it’s no big deal.
“T-thanks”, the beast woman leaned over to grab it but hesitated, looking over at Silas.
He only sighed in response, and nodded his head. He didn’t care about humiliating her further, only to get rid of the stench. Besides, he liked the act of camaraderie, even if he was just trying to get in her pants.
‘Or is that the other way round in this case’, Silas shook off his irrelevant thoughts.
By the time he did, the beast woman had already put the human’s pants on, and taken her panties off from underneath, throwing it and the soiled pants off to the side for someone else to deal with. And there were a few that wanted to deal with it, from the gazes a couple of people displayed.
As the beast woman sat back on her chair, Silas brought up a new topic.
“Since we’ll all be working together, why not share our names? I. Am Silas. But you’ll all have to work, before I decide you can call me that”, he cast his gaze on the one that feared him most.
“Who are you?”
“I-I’m Ferlein, as you’ll know, I’m a therian wolf. My… Kind has a tradition, we do our best to respect. To display our strength, and place our loyalties in our betters”
Silas was the first to nod, but contrasted with his words, “I didn't ask for a history lesson”.
“I-I’m sorry master”
‘I only meant I was surprised the order took it that far’, but he didn’t feel the need to explain himself.
“You’re forgiven”
Ferlein immediately felt a flush of relief engulf her heart.
“Next, the elf”, but the elf in question was looking down at the table.
“I, um. My name’s Dromund”
Silas didn’t say anything as he stared at the next seat, clockwise in rotation.
The human stood up with a graceful smile, staring confidently into Silas’s eyes, “you can call me Thaite”, but he switched over to Ferlein, locking eyes with her.
“But for you madam, I am Thait special person. A whisper in the wind, a melody in the night—a connoisseur of desires and a maestro of heavy lifting”, he leaned over and revealed his hand to her, much to her confusion but she placed her own atop his.
Swiftly he tugged her up, jumping from his chair, jolting her up in response.
“To lift you in your darkest moments”, he put on airs to lighten the mood.
“Admittedly, I probably should have done so before while you were on the ground”, he spoke while letting go of her, and rubbed the back of his head.
Silas shook his head a little at the gesture, cringing a bit. But he kept his poker face, trying not to be influenced by him.
Ferlein however, was not as strong. Having been put in a vulnerable state since earlier, and having been saved by him just before. She was easily tempted by the attention he placed on her, finding her cheeks blushing involuntarily, but hid it under her claws.
“You’re too weak to lift me up”, she still managed to whisper.
Her words went unnoticed to him however. The mere sight of her cute reaction was enough for Thaite to nod himself at a job well done, sitting back into his seat with a sigh and relaxed.
All eyes were then on the dwarf.
“Ah…”, he wondered if he was also supposed to make such an over the top introduction.
“Ay there, the name’s Galgael. But you lot feel free to call me Gal”
Silence enshrouded the table as the pleasantries progressed out of the way. Silas proceeded to hold his hand up. In no time, a waitress walked over, placing a menu before them, with a scroll of paper and a quill in hand to take their orders.
"So", Silas spoke, eyeing their weakened and scrawny muscles.
“How nutritious shall your meals be?”