*Cass*

Once again, Cass was listening to her targets speak. They had locked themselves in this room from fear, and she had walked in with them invisible. It amused her to terrify them, it made the revenge all the sweeter.

“Shit!” One of them swore, “I cannot believe they will not do anything- after all they spent on us, and all the work we did!”

“Even Lady Bitch herself isn’t doing shit. That bastard must hav- urk!”

She had been following them long enough to know who ‘bastard’ was referring to, and she was done letting the insult pass. Cass grabbed him by the neck, not quite strangling him, but simply letting him struggle for a moment before she snapped his neck and tossed him aside. The other man fell back in fear, tripping over his own feet. Even with his glyphs, a street rat was still a dreg. The street left its mark on people, and while some of the subjects had grown beyond that, most were like this one. Craven.

She left the room, feeling slightly bad for the maids that would have to clean up the mess she left. Cass herself needed a bath, she had to wonder if she shouldn’t learn to use a blade, it would be much cleaner for her. Those two had been the last, Cass had stalked them as they begged the various nobles and commanders to protect them and were refused. Her Master’s conflict with Lady Clare’s had intensified, an internal family matter that no other lord or military officer was interested in getting involved with.

Three weeks had passed in this power struggle, and on some level, Cass found it fascinating. In theory, Lord Hall owned both Cass and the former test subjects- in practice, what they could do was heavily influenced by the connections of whomever gave them orders. Again, theoretically, Sarius was in charge of his wife, but he had spent years distancing himself from politics and Clare had spent years being immersed in it by her family.

The easiest way this could be shown was in moving through the halls. Guards would impede anyone obeying Hall instead of Clare because of the strings she pulled behind the scene. Both slaves and servants would only follow the letter of Hall’s orders, but they would follow the spirit of Clare’s because she used her families connections to offer rewards of all kinds. But Cass had tipped the balance, simply by showing that this disobedience would have consequences- and that Clare could not protect them from it.

Of course, in order to fulfill her Master’s wishes Cass also had to be wary of Clare. Clare could not countermand Hall, but the way the collars worked was far more complex than Cass had initially assumed. In fact, as magic items they were far more advanced than what could normally be created and yet had strange loopholes that could not be closed. In short, if Clare gave Cass an order she would not be able to disobey it unless it was directly against her Master or her Master’s orders.

Of course, the other issue was that Cass was simply terrified of Clare. She could not say that she would rather die than go through ‘that’ again, but it was a near thing. Thankfully, Clare was visiting her family today, so after Cass’s bath she was free to walk normally through the hallways.

But this also left her free to worry…

“Ah, Master…” She breathed out, thinking about the pressure Sarius seemed to be under. There was something going on behind the scenes, though it is only to be expected a slave would not know the details of the family- but her Master always returned pale faced after meeting with his father. Considering that, the rumors and stories Cass had heard about Viscount Hall seemed to be under exaggerated.

She arrived at her Master’s chambers- the ones he used for work, that is- had a guard at the door announce her and was told to go inside. However, Lord Hall was not alone there.

There were three other men inside, two of which Cass vaguely recognized. The two she recognized were dressed in ceremonial Imperial armor, one of which wore a rather ornate red cape. When the young man without the cape smiled at her Master, Cass remembered- he was Lord Vincent, a friend of Hall’s who had been present when the army was testing her. Which meant the other man that seemed familiar was probably the Lord Secretariat, though Cass remembered absolutely nothing about him other than that- maybe his name was Caim? The third man was dressed as a noble, a rather distinguished, older gentlemen who stood ramrod straight and had a slightly intimidating presence.

“I beg your pardon, my Lords.” Cass curtsied deeply as she entered the room, “I was ordered to appear before my Lord Master and inform him when my job was completed- I hope you can forgive the intrusion.”

For a slave to interrupt her betters was generally a death sentence- but orders were orders. The balance between those two was held through language and proper etiquette. A couple of the people she had stalked were killed before she even touched them for upsetting that balance, but Cass had a far better grasp of the manners required of her.

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“Worry not, Lady Cass,” Vincent laughed. “A beautiful flower such as yourself does not need to apologize for appearing before us! How ungrateful would we be to see a sunrise and toss it away?”

“Vincent…” Sarius growled, as Vincent laughed at the stunned and flustered Cass.

“Haha, teasing the two of you is far too easy,” Vincent was smiling widely. “Really Sarius, you need to learn to lighten up a bit, or every joke will throw you for a loop!”

“Perhaps it was because the joke was in particularly bad taste, considering the topic.” The Secretariat Caim said mildly, “Though all of us have to admit that it is good to have the subject before us.”

Wait? Were they talking about me? Cass wondered to herself. Surely she was not important enough to warrant much of a discussion in the grand scheme of things- perhaps it was about her glyphs? Or… Nat and the others were sent away to stay with Vincent’s part of the army to protect themselves from the infighting, Cass desperately prayed that nothing had happened to Natalie. Vincent’s appearance here worried her, but Cass could not exactly ask him. She did not have the right to speak and ask questions in this company.

“Cass,” her Master Hall spoke. “I need you to answer some questions for Lord Tenbronous.” Hall indicated the older, unarmored, man who had not spoken.

“He is a mage who works in the archives… And although I know that I do not need to go this far, for his peace of mind I order you to answer all of his questions truthfully while in this room today.”

Her Master had gone so far as to qualify a place and time- meaning that he did not necessarily trust this man. The magic of the collars was complex, but not all orders that unspecified limits applied for the slaves entire life. Some orders faded while some did not, and no one was sure why. Still, it was good practice to take precautions as her Master did.

Having the attention of all four men turned on her made Cass even more nervous, but she curtsied again and acknowledged her Master’s orders.

“Then I will simply get right to it,” Tenbronous spoke, his voice was dignified as he befit this proper, grey haired man. He was old, but gave off no signs of weakness in his steel colored eyes, and even though his voice was soft, it was still authoritative. This was an important man comfortable and natural in his exercise of power.

“First, I must ask you, do you know your father’s name or what he looks like?”

“No my Lord,” Cass answered truthfully. “I do not know either, my Mother died not very long after my birth and I am told that she refused to speak about my father.”

“I see…” Tenbronous muttered, “I am aware you were in one of the Church’s orphanages- where did you go once you left?”

Cass was made to tell her life story to the men listening, though she had no idea why they would be interested. Well, that is untrue, there was only one reason this could possibly interest them.

“As unlikely as it seems,” Caim spoke after listening to Cass speak for over an hour on various parts of her past. “The timing fits with our employment records, as best as we are able to tell anyway and with these questions we know that she has not and is not being groomed for anything subversive.”

Subversive? Ha… When Cass had been asked a question about her loyalty she had answered honestly, “I am absolutely loyal to my Master, Lord Hall. Above even my life.”

Of course, when asked specifically about her loyalty to Haj they had learned that Cass essentially was loyal to the extent her Master was. Or rather, she valued what he valued and was loyal to what he was loyal. To be honest, answering these questions made her wonder if she was nothing more than a dog, but she dismissed the thought quickly- the answer was obvious.

Currently, she was a dog. She had been a feral dog, sick and starving, eating scraps in an alley. She was caught, collared and trained and was becoming useful, but then was let off the leash and went wild without it. With that leash back on, she was still a dog, but now less a mongrel than a hunting dog for her Master. With the growth he encouraged in her, one day she might be able to stand without this collar as a powerful person in her own right, Cass felt. Of course, she also knew that she simply enjoyed having Hall holding her leash, and would probably not want it removed even in that far off future.

However, she was pulled from her thoughts by the direction the conversation was heading- a way that scarred her only slightly less than Clare did!

“Given this, the Imperial Family will be taking ownership of her- you will be compen-” Lord Tenbronous was speaking, but Sarius Hall interrupted him.

“Unfortunately, that will not be happening.”

“You would defy the Empire for a slave?” Tenbronous seemed shocked, as was everyone else in the room aside from Hall. But before that shock could be expressed, Cass’s Master continued.

“Not intentionally,” Hall said smoothly. “Lady Cass is my Hand, even though she is a slave her station is such that not even you can simply take her.”

“So you prepared an answer beforehand, knowing I was coming…” Tenbronous’s tone turned dangerous, “This will not be forgotten, Lord Hall.”

With that, he stalked out of the room past the shell shocked Cass- she had been appointed to be her Master’s Hand?